Serenity had underestimated how long it would take to close the last portal: it took closer to two weeks than one. The problem with the last few portals wasn’t closing them; the armies and other obvious problems had already been dealt with. No, the problem was finding them. Serenity and his team had a map, and they knew which ones they’d closed, but they didn’t know which ones other people had closed. Serenity regretted closing the rockfin portal, since it meant he could no longer look up which remained.

One day, a map mysteriously appeared online in a number of outlets. It purported to list all of the known portals and gave closure dates for many of them. It was almost but not completely identical to Serenity’s map, but that didn’t help Serenity figure out who leaked it.

Comments poured in from all over the globe and most of the remaining portals were marked as closed. Many of them were marked after someone traveled to the location and took a location-stamped picture that didn’t show the portal where it should have been if it still existed.

Closing the last dozen portals was a group effort; Serenity (or more accurately Janice) coordinated with several of the other portal-closing groups to check out the portal locations no one had reported as closed, then the questionable ones.

When the last portal was closed, Serenity was on a flight back to the US; it was far more efficient to send people who were close to check on portals. If he was needed, he’d come - in fact, that was the reason he was on his way home. One of the exploration groups had come across a tenacious group of invading telekinetic boars in Patagonia and called for help because that particular group depended on normal weapons and the boars had somehow developed a method to deflect bullets. It took a day for his group to get there, but once they did it was a relatively easy cleanup and portal closure.

The last portal was on a tiny piece of rock near Fiji; the “island” wasn’t even above water during an especially high tide. Like so many other portals, it was an “abandoned” portal and its location and the lack of any known threat from it meant that it was overlooked until the end. It was actually reported as closed, but a closer examination of the evidence showed that it was misidentified; the evidence was actually for one of the New Zealand portals.

It was one of six possible “last portals” that still needed to be checked, and a portal-closure group based out of Australia was on their way there when Helios closed the portal.

[Global Quest: Permanently deal with all Invasion Portals and remove the threat of the invaders]

[Quest Completed]

[Global Reward: Access to mediated trade through Settlement Crystals]

[Global Reward: Limited Access to Interstellar Portals]

[Individual Reward: Increased reward for Path Quest Stage 3]

[Path Quest Stage 3]

[Goal: Repel the invasions threatening your friends and family. Aid from others is permitted]

[Reward: Varies depending on number of invasions expelled and contribution]

[Optional Goal: Repel all invasions threatening Earth. Aid from others is permitted]

[Optional Reward: Choose the location for Earth’s World Core Interface Crystal]

[Penalty for Failure: None]

[Penalty for Abandoning Quest: Discontinuation of Path Quest, Change in Path]

[Quest Completed]

[Primary Reward: Serenity has been selected as the Planetary-level authority for Earth]

[Optional Reward: Choose the location for Earth’s World Core Interface Crystal]

[Note: The World Core Interface Crystal allows communication with the World Core]

[Bonus Reward: Additional World Core Feature Unlocked: Portal Management (Planetary)]

[Bonus Reward: Additional World Core Feature Unlocked: Dungeon Taxation (Planetary)]

The rewards were obviously primarily from the Global Quest; they’d simply been assigned to his Path Quest since they were so strongly linked and they were individual rewards. The Voice liked doing that; much of the time, the reward from a Quest, especially a Path Quest, was what you found along the way.

Choosing a location was easy. Serenity had the World Interface Crystal set up in Aki’s dungeon; the Voice allowed him to let Aki place it. The only places he considered were Aki’s dungeon and Serenity Settlement, and Serenity was already confident that Aki’s dungeon was going to be his home for a long time to come.

Serenity Settlement was a nice place to visit, but it wasn’t home.

He didn’t question why he felt that the World Interface Crystal needed to be within his control; he was probably the only person who could use it to its full extent anyway. That had to be what “Planetary-level authority” meant.

[Path Quest Stage 4: Path Quest Choice]

[This is a choice of your next goal; selecting any option does not remove others from the future list of possibilities unless it is mutually exclusive or a Path branch. A reward will not be granted for any Path Quest until the selected one is completed or failed]

[Dying Earth: You have seen a vision of the death of Earth in approximately ten years’ time. Prevent it. This is your trunk Path at this time]

[Optional Goal: Gain allies]

[Tutorial Trouble: There is a problem in the Tutorial. Students are being directed to incorrect locations at the end of the first Phase. Assist the Voice’s investigations, find the responsible parties, and arrange for appropriate punishment]

[Optional Goal: Put measures in place that will prevent the same scheme from working in the future]

[Optional Goal: Recover the lost Earthlings and return them to Earth (if desired)]

[Home Defense: Something released a trapped demon; whoever or whatever it is has more. Track down the threat and eliminate it]

[Buyer of Antiquities: Someone suddenly started paying exorbitant amounts of money for magical artifacts at about the time the Tutorial started. Find out who and why and whether or not it’s a problem]

[Planetary Sovereign: You have been acknowledged as a Planetary-level authority, but you are not acknowledged as a ruler on the planet. Take control of Earth]

[Optional Goal: Take control of Tzintkra]

[Dungeon Lord: You have collected a significant number of subsidiary dungeons under your control and have gained a reputation for your ability to deal with them. This choice is a Path branch. Initial Quest: Converge two nearby dungeons under your control into a Dungeon Complex]

[Runemaster: You have the knowledge but not the power of a runemaster. Regain your title]

[Optional Goal: Gain an equivalent title with Guild leadership authority]

[Optional Goal: Gain an equivalent title in the Enchanters’ Guild]

[Dhampir: You bear an unusual heritage for a dhampir, and know little of what it truly means. This choice is a Path branch. Initial Quest: Learn why a pack is important to the dhampir]

[Time’s Heir: You know the basics of being a Child of Time, but you remain on the edge. Dive into the depths of Time. This choice is a Path branch. Initial Quest: Reach the Timesteam]

[A Dragon’s Life: At the root of it all, you are a dragon, yet your knowledge is that of a mere Hatchling. Seek out other dragons to learn who you are]

[Which Path is yours?]

The first thing that Serenity noticed about the new list was that ‘settle down with Rissa, have a happy life, and raise a new generation of dragonlings’ was not on the list. He wasn’t surprised; being content with what you have was not something the Voice pushed. It always wanted people to better themselves - and bettering themselves had the very specific meaning of advancing down a Path, up through the various Tiers.

It didn’t matter what the Path was.

Serenity was easily able to discard most of the options. Anything that would take him away from the goal of defending Earth in the future was out, which probably meant he shouldn’t do any of the three racials, even though the Dragon one didn’t seem to be a Path branch. He was surprised to see that Dungeon Lord was, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t have chosen that one anyway.

Runemaster would take too long.

He was completely uninterested in being a Planetary Sovereign. He could see how it might be very useful in preventing a planet-wide catastrophe, but when he thought about what the position would entail, he absolutely rejected it.

It was not necessary to choose Dying Earth; the fact that it was noted as the trunk Path meant that anything not listed as a branch would probably not interfere. Of course, he still needed to use his brain about that; that was why he’d removed the Dragon path from consideration. It would be available again after he completed a shorter Path. Sometimes the shorter Path would help, too.

That left Tutorial Trouble, Home Defense, Buyer of Antiquities, or coming up with his own goal. Serenity knew that Home Defense and Buyer of Antiquities would mostly mean waiting around while Russ investigated and acting as muscle as needed; neither one really needed him. Serenity didn’t really want to wait around feeling helpless, especially when he knew he was the only person who could do something about what was happening in the Tutorial.

So he knew which one he wanted to pick; that was a good start. Was there any reason not to pick it?

[Tutorial Trouble: There is a problem in the Tutorial. Students are being directed to incorrect locations at the end of the first Phase. Assist the Voice’s investigations, find the responsible parties, and arrange for appropriate punishment]

[Optional Goal: Put measures in place that will prevent the same scheme from working in the future]

[Optional Goal: Recover the lost Earthlings and return them to Earth (if desired)]

The last optional Goal made the problem with it obvious: It would take him off of Earth. Was that really a problem? He’d already been thinking that he needed to go off Earth and spend some time practicing magic.

Come to think of it, learning more about his magic wasn’t on the list. That was probably the real alternative, then: he could either set out to some other planet with no goal other than improving his magic or he could try to figure out what was going on in the Tutorial and fix it, ending up on some other planet. From there, he could work on his magic while trying to find the lost Earthlings.

If he were to simply choose a planet, he would probably head to Stallet Academy on Asihanya. That would serve the additional goal of finding out what happened after Raz left, and Stallet was the closest Academy to Earth. He could almost certainly find some interesting material there.

On the other hand, the Voice had specifically asked for his help in the Tutorial and no one else could look into it.

Serenity knew which would win if it was up to only him, but it wasn’t. “Rissa?”

Wait, there was one quest he hadn’t seen a completion notice for. He hadn’t seen anything on the bet with Helios. Serenity turned to Rissa. “Are you still having sun issues?”

Rissa headed over to a window, opened it, and stuck her hand in the light before immediately jerking away. “Yes, I am. I thought it would be fixed as soon as the Global Quest completed, why isn’t it?”

Serenity thought for a moment. Quests that were essentially bets were a little unusual, but he thought he knew what was happening. “The Voice can’t tell us it’s completed until Helios breaks the curse; Quest rewards are always delivered with the notice, so for something like this we won’t get the notice until the curse is broken. It does mean we won; otherwise, I’d have gotten a notice that I lost and the items I put up would have been taken already.”

Rissa nodded; she was clearly reassured by that. Serenity wasn’t; Helios should have been able to break the curse remotely if he intended to. Still, there was nothing he could do about it until the Voice decided that Helios wasn’t living up to his forfeit. Now was a good time to ask about the future. “I told you about Path Quests, right?”

Rissa nodded. “I have one; do you mean you have a new one?”

“It’s a choice.” Serenity debated how much to say and decided that there was time. They’d be in the air for several more hours, after all. He could explain the options in depth and see if she had any objections or suggestions.

He was definitely looking forward to figuring out the new portal system! The closest he’d ever come to managing one was on Tzintkra, and he suspected Earth’s would be different. Everything else about Earth was different, after all.