Captain Braxton had certainly come through, at least I hoped. He had produced a half dozen sets of something called ‘riot armor’ that was supposedly resistant to many forms of attack. It was sort of heavy, and not very comfortable, and I wished everyone could wear it, but apparently, it was restricted by certain classes.

Jessica had a defensive ability that armor heavier than a thick set of clothing and leather coat would interfere with, and Selena claimed that her special abilities required her to wear armor and use weapons that were made of only natural materials, although the cosplay leather armor she showed up wearing didn’t look all that natural to me. It also didn’t look particularly protective, but she insisted that the exposed flesh would be protected once she activated her abilities.

While I was still getting used to human nudity taboos, I understood them well enough to get that the outfit was designed to evoke sexual interest in males. She had to adjust the outfit slightly since apparently awakening to the Game of War had put her in ‘much better shape’ than when she had last worn the outfit, but I resolved to keep an eye on her, in case she should require aural strengthening.

Humans were weird. We were going to a dungeon, where the creatures were likely to be more enticed by the exposed flesh to take a bite rather than be sexually interested, and the only other males were her brother Max, whom she could not breed with due to the possibility of reinforced recessives, Jim, who was clearly only breeding with Jessica, and Cody, whom she had apparently had a relationship with but had chosen not to pursue anymore.

Unless she was trying to attract my sexual interest? Objectively, she was very healthy and symmetrical, and the F’lok’nyran females obviously created families together for emotional and goal-oriented support, but there was nothing sexual about it. A particularly well-proportioned female might be considered more highly if her other attributes were similarly valued and she provided the right sort of emotional bond with the others since that could pass on to the offspring, but were human females motivated by appearances towards other females?

She asked me if I found her outfit attractive, and I truthfully answered her that it was stunning but that I was slightly concerned for her safety, but I found Cody and Jim vastly more entertaining to look at. Not because of sheer attractiveness, but simply because my responses were more entertaining. Jim, especially, provoked an interesting sensation when I looked at him, but I still had no interest in joining his family or becoming an active breeder currently, since Jessica was a bit of a mystery.

I tried on the armor myself, he had managed to find a smaller piece that should fit me but discovered that while I could utilize the chest piece and boots, the other pieces would actively interfere with my aural shields. As terrified as I was of personally entering violence, I would rather trust my aural strengthening and my ability to flee than the heavy armor.

Max noticed that the males seemed to be geared up in heavy protection, while the females were in various states of lesser protection, and murmured, “I am sensing a theme here.”

Cody lifted the faceplate of his helmet and grinned at Max, “What, the big strong men are all armored up and ready to protect the scantily clad females?” he asked, and then nodded to Selena, “Makes perfect sense to me. We are bigger, and except for Jesse, we have higher Durability. Call it sexist if you like, but would you rather be hiding behind the girls or protecting them? My inner caveman is perfectly fine with it. Hell, it’s possible that our classes were chosen with that purpose in mind. Besides, we might not even need the armor, with the terminator over there to soak up attention.” he gestured towards my newly-created golem.

I had heavily emphasized maneuverability when I created it, using some of Max’s suggestions for rotating joints as well as lots of articulation. Yes, joints were more vulnerable than solid steel, but I felt being able to get as much movement as possible was absolutely as useful as durability.

The figure was humanoid, looking somewhat like a steel skeleton until Jim had dressed it up in riot armor with a partially-windowed shield. With the number of joints it possessed, it should be able to move nearly as fast as a human when under my control, but unless I locked the joints, it was unable to even be upright unless I was actively controlling it.

It was close to the edge of my sorcery’s energy drain, locking down nearly 8 of my essence to keep it animated and requiring a good deal of attention, but I still had enough left to keep at least 3 aural strengthening or points of attraction going. The fact that it was so stressful, however, implied strongly that I should be able to exercise and improve my essence while using it.

Jim was in an unusual position. While we had a variety of sticks and clubs, he insisted on using two oversize firearms. I doubted that the higher-tech weapons would work, but he insisted that his class allowed him to shoot them even if the ammunition itself couldn’t activate.

The six of us were standing around the node, and I was working on linking each of them with what Max referred to as the ‘party bond’. Since no one else had soul merge, I was technically in charge of our party, even though I had no idea what to do. Jim confidently assured me that tactically, most of the people here had done this before and would default to his leadership in an emergency.

“We can leave if we need to, right?” Cody asked.

I nodded, “I think so. There might be encounters that are locked until they are complete, but once a link is open it’s usually two-way so that the resources can be removed. Also, if we choose to destroy the core, it should remain available until the last sentient vacates, at least that’s been my experience. Max might know better, though, since he said that the ones I know of were all low-powered breaches. This one is ranked from one to five, which means it’s ten to fifty times as powerful as anything I have ever heard of before.”

Jim nodded, “In that case, I suggest we treat it like we are a bunch of level 1’s going into a level 5 dungeon. That means staying tight, controlling aggro, resting and recuperating frequently, and responding with overwhelming force to anything we encounter. Tracy, make sure that the terminator is always in the lead, and that those of us that are still level 1 stay very well protected. Max, you and Tracy are technically the toughest members of our party, so until we catch up you need to keep your focus.”

He frowned, “This is where things get a little weird, Max, you and Tracy are both over level 1 but neither of you has any direct combat abilities. If we are looking at a party wipe, if Terminator goes down, you might have to sacrifice yourselves since you are the only ones that can respawn. Max is the first to fall. Sorry man, but with her aural strengthening and point of attraction, Tracy can distract attention better than you if it all goes to shit. Tracy, you are next. I know it’s scary, but if you get killed in there you will come back, and I promise to get Cody to give you a supervised massage when we are done.”

He smiled a little, “This is just being overprepared. Each of us has a pack with 3 days of food and water, a medical kit, several blankets plus a foil blanket, we all have what armor we can wear plus a leather coat and gloves in the pack. Max, as the super nerd that knows security systems, I threw in your old lockpicks. We have hurricane lanterns, mess kits, fuel, and whatever other dungeon-type stuff you guys threw in, and yes, we each have a hundred feet of climbing rope. I have a grappler and pitons, we all have a ton of carabiners and jerry clips.”

“Tracy?” he asked, and I nodded, “Those two pouches attached to your vest. The one on the left contains caltrops. If you toss them in front of you they should make walking miserable for an enemy. The one on your right contains throwing stars since you said you can throw them. Just take them between your thumb and forefinger, and if you have time, don’t be afraid to throw them as hard as possible. All of it’s made of stainless steel, so your technopathy should work on them if it works in the dungeon. If you can create a whirlwind of metal, you have a dangerous attack.”

I nodded, and just shook a little in fear. This was way beyond anything I had ever done before, and I was glad I had relieved my bladder earlier. It was necessary, but I hated the idea of being in direct conflict.

“Above all, remember folks. This is a fact-finding expedition. It is a little expensive, but if we need to retreat do not hesitate to drop everything and run. Losing a level would suck, not to mention I have no idea what dying would feel like, and for us level 1’s, it is permanent. Are we ready?”

Jessica was bouncing a little excitedly and said “Yep!” giving Jim a big hug. “let’s go kick some goblin ass!”

Max said, “We don’t know what’s in there. Might not be goblins, might be zombies, might be something that looks like ancient Incan warriors, or something totally alien, like HP Lovecraft uglies. We need to get in, fight, and then decide if we need to go. No heroics, no showing off.” He grinned at Jessica, “That includes you, sweety, I remember that dance last night, let’s keep the acrobatics to necessity.”

Jessica snorted, “That wasn’t acrobatics, that was ballet. And I was just glad that for once you could keep up without whining about how it made your back hurt.”

I whispered to Cody, “They are dancers?”

He shook his head, “Jessica dances, but they are talking euphemistically about having sex and taking advantage of their new system attributes, and grinding our faces into it.” he said in a very loud, and extremely obvious whisper.

I was very confused. “They were breeding? Is Jessica infertile and has the system repaired that function? I have heard it has that capability. Offspring have to accept the system individually when they obtain maturity, however.”

For some reason, there was a lot of coughing going on around the room. Were they concealing humor? I still didn’t understand. Cody cleared his throat and Jessica shook her head and said, “Don’t. Jim said he gave her the basic rundown but apparently, he avoided the complicated parts. I know you, you’d be tempted to explain in demonstrations, I will give her the talk when we get back.”

“The talk?” I asked.

Jessica nodded to me. “Yes, according to what you have said, Your old species had a very simple and straightforward bonding and reproduction method. Human methods are… while simpler in some ways biologically, much more complicated in practice. It has to do with both our flexible minds and sexual dimorphism, and I will give you the whole straight talk when you can take the time to think about it, since like I said, the social structures involved can potentially be very complicated.”

Cody shook his head, “Jesse, you are going to fill her head with a bunch of old-school stuff about emotional bonding and semi-religious stuff.”

Jessica nodded, “And you are going to try and fill her head with stuff that was barely in style in the 70s. How has that whole free love thing worked out anyway? Has it kept families together, lowered divorce rates, prevented plagues, or improved…”

Jim coughed, “Hey folks, old arguments. Umm… tell you what, why don’t we let Selena do it? She’s the closest thing we have to a neutral party, and if she wants to know other viewpoints, she can ask about them.”

Jessica shrugged, “Not really neutral, and Cody’s one of my gamers, but he’s still a dog.”

The Captain nodded, “Yeah, but while I agree with you, of course, it’s not really our decision to make. We don’t know enough about Tracy to know how she will respond, so it’s probably best to just put it out and try not to put any spin on it.”

Jessica grumbled but nodded, “Fine.”

I whispered to Max, hoping that he would not do the same thing Cody did, “I am so far beyond confused that I don’t even know where to start.”

He shrugged, “It’s politics. Mostly we keep them out of the game, but Jesse and Cody go at it sometimes.” he spoke up more loudly, “I move that we call it session rules. If the two of you start fighting about it, you get to wait outside the dungeon, or go home.”

Cody grumbled and then shrugged, and Jessica nodded, “Fair enough.”

After a few moments, Max nodded at me, and I placed my hand on the orb. The human node was still just a tier 1, but the three dungeons were clearly marked. Max donated the funds to travel costs, and we were suddenly standing in the middle of a jungle, a large rocky entrance, covered with vines, in front of us, with my hand on a thick brown stone pillar.

There was a slight incline to the hill we were on, and I hadn’t felt any sensation of movement, one second we were in the building, and the next we were surrounded by heavy foliage.