Unsurprisingly the Universities representatives reported no rewards for their inaction during the fight. However the other members transcribed the skills they gained.

Micke spoke first revealing the skill he gave himself.

‘I got a skill called “Axes”

{Hack Away! You’re not crazy, just enthusiastic. Bonus to using axes in and out of combat.}

By its description it should be useful for things other than fighting. Shame I'm not a lumberjack. Oh. But maybe I’ll try out in the Ekka’s woodchopping contest. What did you get Brown?’

Agent Brown paused.

‘Well first of all, the thing wasn’t displayed visually, so make note of that. Instead it was read out to me in my own voice. I got “Kicking”

{Kick faster, harder and more accurately.}

Which seems appropriate.’

The party looked to the next member to touch the pillar, Officer Strathpine.

Strathpine fidgeted sheepishly.

‘I got the firearms skill. The tooltip is a bit uh… Sarcastic though.

{Be it battlefield or bedroom you require mechanical assistance. Improve aim and reduce recoil for firearms.}

‘I got a construction skill for some reason.

“

{Building builders build buildings. Be it a table or an apartment you know how to construct it. Improves general building and construction abilities}”

That’s a little odd, but I guess you could look at my energy projection as an instant building of some sort.’

Mickey nodded at that.

‘That’s about right, remember even the smartest metaregions are still places, and think more like a machine learning program for geological surveys then an actual person. So it’ll interpret things through that filter. A building is more familiar than your projections so it probably went with what it knows.’

Professor Panchal spoke up.

‘I am still skeptical of this theory that metaregions are capable of intelligent thought, Mr Cargo.’

Mickey shrugged.

‘Time will prove me right, I expect. And hey if ‘m correct, and you don’t do anything to piss this region off, You’ll be the first non-dimensional meta to really study a developing Genius Loci. I imagine that would make for an impressive research paper to publish.’

Panchal paused.

‘Yes. That would be quite the academic achievement… If your theory is correct, how long would it be before the region starts showing signs of intelligence?’

‘ ‘Bout six months at a minimum. Right now it looks to be running mostly of it’s conceptual origin, rather than any independent thought. I’ll go over it in more detail once we’re outside.’ Mickey replied, stressing the word ‘outside’.

Thankfully Panchal took the hint and lapsed into silence.

Mickey continued.

‘ The next thing we have to decide is whether we press on or turn back. On one hand I get the sense we’re pretty close to the end. On the other hand we have wounded, and if this follows the video game pattern there might be a boss fight we’re ill prepared for.’

The Professor objected.

’Surely Laminae can handle a simple boss monster. She has dealt with the other monsters with hardly a problem at all.’

Cargo looked at the academic.

‘Yup. Definitely turning back now.’

‘What?’

‘You jinxed it. You kicked a black cat under a ladder while saying “What could possibly go wrong?” I guarantee the next room is going to be completely horrible and will likely kill us all. We are not getting in a big fight with a blind man and three non combatants. Especially when the NC’s have done the worst possible thing. You’re letting your guard down and when your guard is down that’s when the metaregion kills you. ’

‘That is mere superstitious drivel.’

‘It’s drivel that will keep us alive. People die from overconfidence, not over-caution. Now. Out we go. Laminae help Agent Brown out please.’

Cargo started ushering the scientists out of the dungeon while making sweeping gestures with his hands and saying ‘Swipsh’ anytime one of them tried to protest. In short order the party emerged from the portal back into the full light of day.

As soon as the party convened in the operations tent, Professor Panchal turned on Mickey.

‘How exactly are we supposed to make any progress if we turn away from every opportunity? We didn’t even get to set up any of our equipment!’

She demanded.

‘She has a point. We need more data to determine how dangerous or valuable this region is.’

Mikey was unfazed

‘So. There are a few things to unpack here. FIrst off, Professor, Your scanning equipment probably wasn’t going to work. I noticed right away it’s all wires and no batteries. There's no overlap in this region so you’ll need something with onboard memory and batteries. You’ll also need to check the regularly since regions take control over anything left in them too long. So it’ll absorb them if they’re left alone too long. I recommend hiring a bodyguard when you check on them or just having contractors retrieve and replace the batteries and memory cards.

Secondly, Agent Brown. My expert assessment of the danger and value is Low risk and low value which will increase with age. Threat-wise it appears to increase in danger the deeper you go in, conforming to the dungeon concept and also a common feature in many metaregions. The deeper you go the stronger they get and the harder they fight back. In terms of value, I expect that there will be “magical” loot in further levels.

Additionally from what I could sense while in there the skills are attached to the crest we got in the first room. The crest looks like a power reservoir like a battery that powers skills while we’re outside of the dungeon. I don’t need to explain the value of having a reliable source of low level pseudo-metahumans available to the country do I? Not to mention the tourism opportunities.’

Mickey paused.

The third thing is that as dimensional meta not only am I powered up by being in a metaregion a metaregion is powered up by having me in it. That region was beginning to get attached, which would have been more trouble than it’s worth. Metaregions are great and all but I like being able to leave.’

Agent Brown sighed.

‘So then if it’s not dangerous enough to warrant destruction, what are we going to do with it? Should it be managed by the university, the state government or should it be privatised?’

Panchal opened her mouth instantly.

‘Clearly it should not be handled by the state, the military wou-’

Mikey spoke over her.

‘Now you don’t have to worry about that. It already functionally belongs to me.’

The Agent, the Cop and the Professor were all stunned.

‘Excuse me?’

‘What?’

‘Hrrm?’

‘Well, Yeah. See Like how florakinetics claim areas of woodland as theirs to protect dimensional meta’s do the same thing with metaregions. Since I’m the first one in this region it belongs to me by default. No other dimensional meta will go against me regarding this region and if you try to take advantage of it or me it’ll piss off everyone.’

‘I wasn’t aware the dimensionals had unionised.’

Agent Brown said, flabbergasted.

‘We stole the idea after flowers kicked all the loggers out of the amazon.’