I already have quite a long list of differences between Earth and the rest of the known universe. I’m constantly having basic assumptions about life overturned by the unfortunate realities that surround me.

This time it’s the food chain that’s broken.

On earth, there’s a rather clear, if complex relationship between animals. One species eats another, and while the prey might occasionally kill their predator, it doesn’t upset their positions in that food chain.

Out here, that entire concept is bunk.

Take a wolf and a deer. On Earth you can look at the two and instantly recognise that the wolf is more dangerous than the deer. One is predator, the other prey.

Out here, if the deer has dense enough mana it could stand as a literal god at the peak of all creation, while a mana-less wolf from back home would be nothing more than a tasteless snack for whatever takes an interest in it.

There is a reason why I’m currently considering this as I race through the old ruins, thick with stagnant air. I’m watching a person only a head taller than me tearing apart beasts with her bare hands, like a particularly vicious diner tearing apart a cooked chicken.

Apparently enough of the stench has faded from us that a few unlucky beasts have decided to try their luck in challenging us. They don’t even have the chance to regret that choice before Red tears them apart. All I have to do is skip over the corpses and try not to jump in the growing puddles of blood that cover the ground.

I’m not complaining, of course.

I’ve been draining mana from a few of these corpses as I run by, flooding the extra mana into the crystal that I’ve been sucking on like a hard candy. It’s become something of a mana bank for me lately, as even with my new heightened capacity with my armour, I can always do with more mana.

“How much further?” Adler asks, “If we’re getting pursued…”

“Not much further.” Nel calls back, glancing towards the many unconscious ‘beasts’ that Bessy is dragging along behind us. The train is so long that I can’t even see if there’s anything behind us. Korgan and the twins are still covering our rear and haven’t called about any trouble back there, so I’ll have to assume everything is alright.

Thankfully, those we’ve saved are yet to awaken. We simply don’t have enough support devices to share with them all so they’re going to be Skill-less and clueless until we can find some more. I already have a headache building at the thought of the abounding troubles piling up at my back.

This wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if we’d stuck to our list, but we just stopped being so picky halfway through our shopping spree. Now Bessy carries enough people to make the average city bus seem packed beyond its limit.

We don’t even have enough potions around to knock them all out when they start making a fuss.

“Where are we going?” Red asks, brushing some blood off of her already red skin.

“There’s a dungeon below us.” I tell her, running up to her side and plundering the mana dense parts of her most recent kill.

“A dungeon? On an academy world?” Red doesn’t quite seem to believe me.

“We’re hoping no one will follow us there.” I say, “The other option is to go up to the surface and try to steal a ship. We vetoed that idea after you crashed the last one you stole.”

“This is the less shit plan, then” Red admits, “The ships have some decent security measures. Also, I didn’t crash the ship. I had to break a few things to get it to teleport where I needed it to go. The flight enchantments may have received some damage while I was working on that.”

“That excuse doesn’t unflatten anyone,” I say, as Nel points out the new path we have to take. “Anyway, what’s done is done. This time, it’s my shit plan that you have to go along with.”

“Thanks for the rescue.” Red says, a certain measure of seriousness returning to her tone. “It was all… rather unpleasant. I’m never letting myself get caught by their damn collars again.”

“You’re fine.” I say, “Did you miss the part where Nel just spat out her collar? The new support device doesn’t let collars take control. Unless someone makes an improved collar or something, we should all be safe.” I say.

Red looks as impressed as I’ve ever seen her, which doesn’t mean much really, since I’ve only known her for a little while during our early training. It still makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside. It’s like impressing an old, abusive teacher years after you’ve left their class.

“So, are you happy to be my minion now? I do recall mentioning something like that during one of my visits to your cell.” I say.

“You also said that you’d save me, which… I honestly never would have believed from a weak brat like you.” She says, sneering playfully, “I don’t have anywhere else to go at the moment. If you don’t do anything stupid, I can see us working together.”

“Something stupider than breaking into a beast prison on a Unified States world, and pulling the collars out of a bunch of vicious beasts?” I ask, blinking away the sweat that’s rolling into my eyes.

“Shit, you are insane.” She laughs, taking a moment to realize the scale of what we’ve just done. “You know even the rebels don’t fuck around with core worlds like this. We were considered extreme for taking out a transport ship. This? This is something else. What’s the next step in your master plan?”

“Get stronger and get out. Not necessarily in that order.” I say, “Access to teleportation would be brilliant, since there seems to be quite a few things in this universe that can and will destroy us if they catch us.”

“Why do you think we wanted the boat?” Red laughs, “It’s a pain for everyone, except for these assholes.”

As we talk, we pass through the thick mana dense gates. A shiver runs through me at the sight of those claw marks. There are things far more dangerous down here than we’ve yet encountered, and still they haven’t escaped. We have to find out why.

Ahead, the glow of the watery dungeon lights up the walls. Nel calls us to a halt just a little short of it.

“Should we be safe here?” She asks Adler.

“Safe enough, I guess. If they do end up following us this far, we can make a run for the dungeon, and that should stop them.” Adler says, her hair sticking to her face from all the sweat we’ve built up through the fighting and the running.

Red rushes ahead without us, looking to take in the sight of the dungeon while Bessy starts to unload her passengers. Nel is following the fluff ball around, installing the new support devices on those we’ve already deemed worthy. I head over to support her.

“Need any help?” I ask.

“There was something I was considering.” She says, placing a silver glob onto Lui as he lays there motionless, his body just as strangely incorporeal as ever. “We should spare a few of these for the more combat capable beasts. See if any are smart enough to join us. If not, we can have them killed and give the devices to others.”

“A brutal but efficient idea.” I say, “I approve.”

We pause by every potential candidate to have a brief discussion over whether they deserve the chance or not, Vii and Eshya popping by occasionally to give their opinions. It still doesn’t take long before we’ve run out of chips to install.

With the immediate threat gone and my tasks done, I sneak closer to the eldritch ball of endless puff, wondering what I risk by trying to sneak a cuddle out of her. If I form a concentrated mana shield over my fingers, I might even be able to feel how fluffy she is.

She turns to me as I’m still thinking, her massive eyes shining bright, reflecting the glow of the dungeon at my back. Somehow she blinks, twisting around herself in a way that should be impossible.

I have no idea what she’s trying to express, but it’s not a no, so I go in for the pat. She floats away from my grasping fingers, bobbing happily as if seeing this as a game.

A game which I will not lose.

Or at least, that’s how I felt going into it. Minutes later, unable to even brush by a passing tentacle from the fluff ball, I have to pause and catch my breath.

A crystalline chiming, like a poor imitation of Ria’s musical voice, sings out from among the sleepers while I’m leaning against the wall, breathing hard and trying to pretend otherwise. If it weren’t for my armour, I’d be covered in dirt from all the times I’ve fallen trying to catch that adorable flying ball of tentacles.

Livi, the blue crystal-girl, has awoken and is now in the process of shaking herself free of her dreams. Shy leans against her side, still asleep, and the little twisted form of the misshapen plant creature is resting peacefully on her other side.

“What…? I don’t…” She looks around at all the unconscious bodies strewn along the cave hall. “What’s happening?”

“How are you feeling?” I ask, stumbling over just as Shy looks to be waking up.

“I’m… fine? What happened?”

“I pulled out your collar.” I say, “You’ll notice a few things different with your new support device, so take your time getting used to it.”

“Where are we?” Shy asks, standing up and taking in the environment rather quickly.

“Beneath the ruins.” I say, “We had to flee, as you might expect.”

“Here I was thinking you actually had a competent plan.” Shy says, pressing her hand to her forehead as she gathers herself.

“We do, sort of.” I reply, “They shouldn’t follow us down here, but in return life could be a little more challenging.”

“What do you mean?” She asks, “Why wouldn’t they follow us down here, collared beasts escaping is a pretty big deal, no?”

“Are you familiar with dungeons?” I ask, “Life forms that envelop an entire area of space, or some such. There’s one right down the end of that hall, if everything goes as planned, you’ll be living here.”

She raises an eyebrow but doesn’t seem nearly as surprised as I’d expected. I get the feeling that she’s not familiar with what a dungeon is. Either that, or she just doesn’t quite believe me.

“Go take a look, just try not to aggravate anything.” I say waving at the end of the cavern hall. The blue light that shines from the glowing waters still shines bright, powerful enough to replace daylight, which I’m sure is going to get rather annoying after a few days of constant day.

She takes up my suggestion and strolls away to investigate, I’ll trust that Red will keep her from doing anything stupid.

“What do you mean we’ll be living down here?” Livi asks, pulling her legs up as she presses her back against the wall, “How is it any different from living up there, in the cells?”

“You can do what you want, and if do you get eaten it’ll be by wild beasts rather than ‘civilised people’.” I reply with a shrug. “I couldn’t exactly risk having a long conversation with you about the pros and cons of coming with me, so I took a gamble, and here we are.”

“I… sorry.” Livi says, bowing her head, “I’m being rude. You took my collar off, and for that I really am thankful. It’s just… too much, and… when you touched me. It felt like thousands of daggers were stabbing me from everywhere inside all at once.”

She shivers and balls up tighter, I hesitate to approach since it was my touch that inspired her suffering in the first place.

“Don’t think about it too much.” Vii says cheerfully, wrapping a wing around the small form of the crystal girl, “Thinking about the pain just makes it start hurting again. Think about the future instead.

“We’re here working to build a better world than wherever you lived before. Isn’t there something that you wanted to do before that you couldn’t, or something that you were too afraid to do?”

Livi mumbles too quietly for me to hear, as Vii continues to converse in whispers.

Without any warning, a familiar shape splatters against my side.

Slimey.

He falls to the ground beside me with a wet slap, after falling away from his… was that an attack? A show of affection?

“And how are you?” I ask the little creature, knowing that it can’t understand me. We didn’t bother giving him any of our small supply of support devices, for reasons that should be obvious.

The slime trembles at my side before building himself up as if about to spit at me. Recalling my fight with him, I smack him firmly on the head.

The blow is enough to disrupt his form and stumble him so that his attack fails.

“None of that.” I say, “I’d rather not have to kill you too.”

Whether it understands me or not, the little beast thrums with what I assume is frustration before hopping away down towards the dungeons light.

I follow him, cautiously ensuring that he doesn’t attack any of my newest recruits while they’re still sleeping.

“That thing’s still around?” Eshya asks, coming to my side, “I’m surprised you didn’t just leave it behind.”

“He’s my pet.” I say, “At least, he was. Sort of. I feel a little responsible.”

“Then you should kill it before it hurts someone.” Eshya says, “Without a collar we can’t really trust it.”

“It mightn’t be as smart as people, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be trained to behave itself, even without a collar.” I say.

“Do you have the time for that?” She asks.

“I can dream.” I reply, with a long sigh. “What’s it doing?”

The slime hops right out to the edge of the platform where the others have been keeping watch. They give it a little space, Red watching it with particular amusement.

It hops onwards, ignoring everyone here, until there is no more space to hop. It doesn’t stop, however, bouncing itself right off the side of the ramp and splatting into the lake below.

“Well, that deals with that problem.” Eshya says, peeking down at it.

“Maybe he’ll survive.” I say, watching as a few large shadows drift closer to where he impacted the water, “Or maybe not.”

A hubbub rising behind us pulls me away from the depressing sight, and I turn to see the others slowly start to awaken. Thankfully Red and the others are ready to deal with it, even without me needing to tell them. We ended up with more than a few stragglers, and I’m still not entirely sure which of these ‘beasts’ are smart enough to keep their hands to themselves.

Only a few of them have translators installed, either because we already knew them, or because we considered them useful and dangerous. The former quality being largely predicated on the later.

The end result is a gathering of confused strangers trying to speak with each other in as many different forms of gibberish as there are people to speak. Those of us with support devices can understand nearly all of it, but those without are struggling to make sense of the confusing mess of sound.

Watching on, I send out a message to the others to reconfirm our strategy.

“Try to avoid killing anyone.” I send to the group chat, “Knock out those that are violent, and we’ll discuss the issue together to determine which we kill, which we leave behind, and which we bring along.”

Red, Eshya, and the twins take the forefront of this effort, while Bessy roams around smothering a few of the more bothersome beasts.

I take this chance to go check on the humans, one of which will hopefully understand English.

The three are all huddled together as if to protect themselves from all the strange aliens, which in this instance isn’t such a bad idea. A particularly angry, giant beetle almost catches them with his long, insectile legs before Red steps in, throwing him dismissively across the room where he cracks his head on the wall.

He might be dead. He might only be unconscious. I won’t complain.

“Do any of you know English?” I ask, hoping that at least Guy would. I mean, with a name like that, surely he’d knows how to speak English. He was speaking some other language when I met him last time but… well there’s still hope.

“What are you saying?” Guy asks, his actual words sounding as good as gibberish to me, though in this case I actually suspect it’s at least a real language. These translators are damn good, I just wish we had more of them.

“English?” Aalia, the bothersome young Indian girl says, perking up. “She said English, Anne knows English, doesn’t she?”

The two speak over one another, speaking their own languages. It takes a moment before they realize that neither of them can understand the other.

“Idiots.” I mumble, stepping over to Anne, who’s awake, but still rather despondent.

“Hey! I understood that. She called us idiots!” Aalia shouts in offense, and I poke my tongue out at her.

“Anne.” I poke at her forehead, which garners enough attention from her that she looks up at me. “You feeling better now? Want to talk?”

She shakes her head firmly, her lips shut and her eyes still rather puffy.

“We’ll be heading out somewhere incredibly dangerous in a little bit.” I say, “Just try not to get yourself hurt. I’ll try to look after you, but… well that didn’t save your friend either.”

She shudders as I bring up a sore point.

“It’s best if you can get the strength to defend yourself, too.” I say, “Try your best. It’s all any of us can do. I’ve already fucked up more than my fair share of times, all because my best hasn’t been good enough. Please, don’t be another person who dies under my protection because we’re both too weak to make it.”

She doesn’t reply and I don’t push further. Guy and Aalia are still trying to communicate, so I leave them to their efforts. The touch of charades is rather amusing to watch, but I’ve other things to busy myself with.

A loud coughing sound drags my attention over towards a familiar, purple dragon.

She’s taken her time waking up. Most of our other guests have already risen at least once. One particularly difficult bug man has been knocked out for the third time already.

“What in the good grace… what’s going on?” She asks.

“We’re knocking out a few unruly beasts,” Nel says, walking by and throwing a weaker beast into a far corner, “This is the naughty corner. If they start fights there, we kill them. Everyone agree?”

“Agreed.” I call, as the rest reply much the same.

“We’re also catching our breath while trying to figure out what to do from here.” Nel says, her knife up and ready. The beast that was about to run at her backing down and cowering from her. She sheathes it again, carefully watching the creature.

“Trying to figure out?” I scoff, stumbling over and falling beside the dog-sized dragon and laying hand on her back to stroke at her warm scales. She huffs but doesn’t complain about it.

“We’re going into the dungeon.” I say, “We’re going to try and find a dark hole down there where we can stash Red and the rest of these ‘beasts’ then we’re heading up to the surface so that we don’t miss our obligatory off-world combat classes.”

“While that is a fine plan,” Nel says, “A few issues you bring up are far too easily glossed over. ‘Finding a dark hole’ to ‘stash’ the freshly uncollared people that we’ve recovered, is not such an easy task. Especially not in the day and a half that we can spare.”

“It’s necessary.” Adler says, intervening. “If they stay up here where other students can find them, a report of escaped beasts could spread to the wrong ears. It’s not safe.”

“So, it’ll be fine if no-one is alive to be able to report us.” Red says, heading back over to us, “Not saying no to this dungeon idea, either. I quite like the idea of carving out a home down here.”

“As my minion, you’d be carving it out in the name of my great empire, thank you very much.” I say jokingly, “That aside, you have experience leading combat teams, no?”

“Minion? Is this an interview?” She asks, “I said I’d consider working with you, not that I’d be taking orders. Especially not from a twerp who couldn’t possibly beat me in an unarmed brawl.”

“Well, feel free to call them something other than ‘orders’ then.” I say with a smile and a shrug. “We’re in this together, Red. I’ll listen to what you have to say, I’m not some egotistical idiot, but even if you don’t want to work under me, I want you to respect that I’m the one responsible for these people.”

“Rather demanding.” She replies, looking thoughtfully down at me, “You’re planning on living up to the size of that ego?”

“Of course.” I reply, “No one else can melt a collar, can they? No one else can consume mana as fast as I can, no? I’ll be strong, just give me a little time.”

She nods appreciatively, but her expression doesn’t entirely loosen.

“That doesn’t mean that you’ll be a good leader.” She says, “I’ve known plenty of strong people who made for terrible leaders.”

“A good leader…” I say, ruminating on the thought, as my eyes drift between the people I have gathered here. A collection of people with all sorts of characters and strengths. People I know and like, and strangers who I might just despise when I get to know them.

“I’m quick to learn, and I’m able to rely on others when they’re more experienced than I am.” I say, “I might not be a good leader yet, but I will be. I have too many people that I care about, too many people that I need to protect. I can’t do it without getting stronger, and I can’t do it alone.”

“I heard you talking about running away for class,” Red smirks. “What makes you think they’ll still be your people by the end of it? What makes you think I won’t take over?”

I can’t help it.

I laugh in her face.

“Red, I like you. I really do, but your personality is not… you probably do well with the soldiers. We don’t have many of that type around right now.” I say, “I appreciate the spirit, and please do get along with everyone, but I don’t think you’re going to manage to steal their hearts even while I’m gone.”

Her face stiffens for a moment before she lets out a loud laugh.

“If you think I’m bad, you should try talking to a mirror, miss madwoman.” She says with a rising smile. “You want to play at being a leader? I’ll go along with it, it’ll be nice to see you struggling to keep these beasts on their leashes. When they start misbehaving, I’ll be right here ready to take over for you.”

I have been worried about how I’ll get them to work together, and twice as worried as to how it’ll work while I’m gone. The last time I brought together a bunch of renegades, they were attacked by a beast, and scattered when the first of them died.

I can already foresee the same thing happening again. I don’t anticipate that they’ll all be completely thankful to me for removing their collars, but even the ones that are, mightn’t trust me this quickly. Especially since I plan to dump them into a dungeon while I piss off to the surface to eat in fancy restaurants while taking classes in a wonderfully beast-free academy.

They’re likely to scatter just like the last time.

“Hey now.” I say, sneaking in close to her and wrapping my arm around her back. “No need for that attitude now. We’re working together, remember. We’re buddies right? I was hoping that you could keep everything together while I’m gone. Like a second-in-command, you know?”

“How could I ever hope to achieve that without your talent for handling people?” She asks so very sarcastically.

“With violence.” I suggest, “By protecting people from the beasts outside and thumping a few heads when someone misbehaves.”

Red slowly nods before laughing at me.

“You’re even worse at this sort of stuff than I am!” She says, “Fine. It may be that the brainwashing has affected my mind, but it sounds like a workable plan at least.”

“It’s the brainwashing.” Rare grumbles from under my other hand, “You’re both insane, and did I hear you correctly that we’re going to be living in a dungeon from now on.”

“They’re perfectly safe to live in so long as you don’t do anything to anger them. You do not want the dungeon itself angry with you, trust me on that one.” Red says, brushing her hair back and behind her horns.

“You are both insane.” Rare grumbles, but she still doesn’t move away as I continue to pet her. She’s no Fluffy Butt but her soft, warm scales are still quite soothing.

Getting the rest of these idiots through the dungeon is going to be trouble.

It’s going to be like herding cats through a busy factory, while weaving through mechanical arms, hydraulic presses, and random flying buzz saws. Some of these people are going to die down here, that’s just how things are, but at least they won’t end up on the menu at my favourite restaurant when they do die.

The dissection teacher starts to stir and I jump to get ready to deal with her. We spared her a translator, just for the convenience of knowing if we have to kill her or not. It’s easy enough to pass it on if she happens to end up dead. She won’t have any new contacts with the new chip so we can be sure that she can’t call for help.

“What… what is this?” She asks, looking rather confused.

“We’ve dragged you down into the dungeon below the academy alongside a whole bunch of beasts who have recently lost their collars.” I say, meeting her eyes as she flinches away.

She shakes her head briefly before returning my gaze.

“Why? Why am I still alive?”

“I considered just killing you, but I thought we could afford to give you a chance.” I say, watching her closely.

She slowly nods, looking down at her hands.

“Saren?”

“Dead.” I say, “She saw our faces and was too much of a threat. I doubt we’d have survived if we hadn’t killed her.”

“Is that so?” She mumbles, “Fine. I’m not immune to your quiet threats. I’ll play along with whatever stupidity you have going on down here. Anyway my best bet is to wait for someone to come save me when the welfare officers figure out what you’re up to.”

“Good, because I get the feeling that your Skills could be useful down here.” I say, leading her over to the edge of the expanse where we can see the massive dungeon.

Her eyes glow as she takes it all in. Red stands on her other side, ready to cut her life short the moment she makes a misstep. Rare stands by my feet, looking at the scene with far more hesitance.

“It seems we have some exciting battles ahead.” Eshya says, her eyes shining the blue light as she rests a hand on her sword’s hilt.

“I’m want to know what all this really is?” Vii says, bouncing on her talons, “Why is there a dungeon here? Why are the welfare officers ignoring it? How come the beasts don’t break out onto the surface?”

“I’d just like a break from all of this.” Nel says with a long tired sigh.

“That would be nice.” Adler says, joining us a moment later, “There’s been so much violence…”

“How do you like it Red?” I ask waving out over the blue waters and towards the distant city that I hope to make mine.

One of the massive shadows in the lake takes that moment to breach the surface of the water and snap at a swarm of low flying birds, catching a few of them in its massive jaws. It shudders a moment before one of the birds bursts out the side of its mouth, piecing through the flesh easily before returning to the others.

“There seems to be a pest problem.” She replies.

“Yes, but the bones are still good. It’ll take a little work, and some renovations, but I think we can build a nice home down here, don’t you?”

“You’re all crazy.” Rare huffs, shaking her little horned head as she gazes at the distant stone city.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 790 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 5% 28% Muscle 33% 33% Mind 20% 65% Cardiovascular 11% 11% Misc. 10% 10% Efficiency 79% 79%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch