Marri had no issue with Siya sleeping close by, provided she was happy to give us our alone time before bed..And Siya herself was so thrilled she politely and sincerely requested if she could hug Marri, bless her. Marri was smitten by this act of innocence and obliged, before kindly excusing us, for some alone time with me.

The night was full of emotions and passion, not just from me and Marri, but it seemed that in a strange tribalistic way, nearly everyone had some intimate steam they needed to blow off, and, the cocktail of celebrating new faces, friends, alcohol and surviving an extreme brush with death appeared to trigger the core directives of many people. The three Fs..or was it four..Fighting, feeding, frollicking?..I think.

In any case, the community grew closer in more ways than some that night.

After our own excitement had died down, Siya came in and settled down happily near the entrance where she’d placed her own pile of duvets, amusingly telling us about what a fun but strange time she'd had with so many affectionate humans, including all the boys and girls that made drunk advances on her. To be honest, she herself sounded tispy, and barely 5 minutes had passed before she was lightly snoring like a flute. Marri had also passed out after getting settled down to co-sleep with Lone, leaving me to settle myself down nearby. The comforting sounds of their resting breaths was like a warm, cosy white noise for me, sounds that told my core that they were at peace, safe and close; a single tear of happiness rolled down my cheek as I felt so grateful to be so blessed with this life right now, especially after everything that happened.

…

And then I slipped into blissful rest myself.

..

.

Waking up, I looked over and saw Seren lying on her side next me to with a big fat grin on her face, waggling her eyebrows.

OoooOOooooo-my! That was some HOT SPICY action! ‘Netflix and chill?’ More like ‘Wreck shit and drill!’ Goodness me, today has been a hyper-coaster of emotions! Wake up, have breakfast, start an all out war with a pyschotic necrowanker, have lunch, find our beloved, have dinner, stop war, move home, save some nerds and then a spot of tea before BONING like it’s the stoneage! And some of the moves WOW! I tried hard not to peak, but then you were all ‘Oh Marri, ohhhh Marri, OhhhHHhHHHh!’ and she was all like ‘Hm! Ah! Yess! Yess!! YEssss!’

She made climatic moans, making me put my hands on my face from embarassment as I laughed.

Yeah, yeah, sorry I should have let you out or something..my bad.

Are you kidding!? Hell no! I was enjoying myself in here! I’m just fiercely jealous I couldn't join in..Oh by the way, be careful of the sheets, they might be a little, uhh, moist.

Nice. Classy.

She grinned and then pointed behind me.

You’ll be pleased to know that the woofer didn’t even twitch an eyelid during your heated passion, just to ease your dirty little mind..Oh and look, I took the liberty of making her a comfy space, hope you also don’t mind..Pffft! What am I saying, of course you don’t mind! You’ve just had the best night of your life!

Across the room was Immo, sleeping inside a cave that was surrounded by a small grove and a flickering campfire crackling away in the middle. The cave space was half conjured like it was a glitchy projection with the ghostly trees and outer edges of the stone fading into nothing, but it looked very cosy.

Ha amazing, looks really cool and cosy, nicely done, thank you, Seren.

She was checking her nails smugly as I turned around and grabbed her into a long hug.

Heh oh well you knowOAH!-

Really. Thank you for everything.

She squeezed me tightly back.

Oh you, don’t….You’re welcome…Gosh, you really are insatiable aren’t you..Well, I don’t mind stepping in for Marri if you want to go a few more rounds here..B-be gentle with me kudasai, it’s my first time..

She put on a high pitch girly voice which forced me to bark out a laugh as I got up.

Come on, let’s go check out what the score is. Hmm, didn’t you say you had some surprises for me last time?

She clicked her tongue. Humf. No fun for me then-Oh, yes! Now that you mention it, I’ll need to check if it’s ready. Have a peruse darling and I’ll come back to you.

I moved over to the maelstrom, glancing at the log monolith and reading the latest few lines.

Marri used [Climatic Scratch] and dealt 0 damage.

Hooo-yes she certainly did. With a very smug chuckle I tapped the maelstrom.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.82.234

HP 1620 / 1665

MP 1887 / 1919

EP 6%

DS 45%

SWRD 100

SHLD 101

FTHR 118

GLYP 134

1 Attribute Points Available.

6 Skill Points Available.

2 Syphoned SHLD points- allocating.

2 Syphoned FTHR points - allocating.

Hmph. Paltry growth compared to how much fighting I’ve done..Damn you husks. Pretty unfair that they give zero EXP.. But I’ll definitely take the 4 siphoned points! Must have been from the Meatstitched Titans. Bonus!

I punched in another point into FTHR. Speed is definitely nice…Onto my skills.

Skills

-> VI Null Surge

REQ: ENT Tier.

-> VI SMDS - Majiglyp

REQ: ENT Tier.

-> VI Slipfold

REQ: ENT Tier.

-> V OMDC [10] 5 + 5

Adds Casimir effect to all physical attacks which extends range. Successfull hits will recover a small amount ofHP/EP/MP.

-> IV Group Up [4]

EXP can be shared equally in the group.

-> IV NEC [5]

Alerts user of corrupted proximity and tracks their location in real-time.

-> III ANALYSE [50]

Vastly Expands data retrievable.

-> III Phase Dash [3]

Phase dash now negates all physical damage during use.

-> III Null Claw Arma [3]

Null Claw Armament attacks now penetrates passive defence. Does not bypass active defense skills.

-> III Shade Glide [3]

Gain the ability to halt your movements and suspend in mid air.

-> III Shed Wound [3]

Gain resistance to fire, ice and decay damage.

-> II EXP Well [3]

You can now deploy [2] units.

-> II Mind Firewall [2]

Immunity increased to +10 current MAGN. You can share this skill.

-> II TEFv [2]

Improves vision range and colouring.

-> II Blood Wrath [2]

Shares stat increase with allied group members within 2m.

New Gobble [1]

Eating a live or recently defeated entity absorbs an additional 20% bonus EXP.

New Minimap [0]

Enhances biological mechanosensors to allow mapping of surroundings as well as track entities within 10 metres. Data is expressed through NVD cues and memory projections. Note: this skill is not shareable any further.

Unique! Mnemonic [Unlocked]

The state of an atom speaks volumes. Gain access to relevant object records.

Nothing immediately stood out to me as critical must-haves, and historically I’d had great success in saving up points..

But actually, phase dash negates physical damage whilst in use AND, if I recall correctly, the phase effect would apply to anything I’m holding when activated, specifically people!

Definitely add that.

And I added minimap due to it sounding possibly useful if I was to be blinded or something, and it’s freeee, but skipped over Gobble, not really going to ever want to eat a Slenderman or Organ locust, blergh, and then finally I upgraded [Blood Wrath]

III Phase Dash [3]

II Blood Wrath [2]

New Minimap [0]

Once I was finished, a minor torrent of information flooded my mind and I went through the usual actions of phase dashing, but this time my insides lurched and went weightless during the process and from the newly acquired knowledge, I understood that during this phase state, every single spec of matter in my body was coated in Majik, primed to separate and find the tiny gaps of solid objects to pass through without impact. Crazy shit. Then, I felt the hairs on my skin stand on end and a new sensation emerged where I had a clear mental image of my surroundings, including a strong awareness of Immo and Seren’s location.

So not quite a minimap..more like a mindmap.

Update! [I Minimap] renamed to [I Mindmap].

Thanks Seren.

You are most welcome darling..Oh by the way, your surprise is ready, but it does look like I’ll need to borrow that last point, trust me though, it will be sooo worth it!

Take whatever you need, I completely trust your judgement.

Seren blinked out of existence, reappeared next to me, gave me a peck on the check and then placed both hands on my head.

Exactly what a girl wants to hear! Ooookay…Here goes, hold..still..

CAUTION! WARNING! LIMITER RECONFIGURATION IS NOT R-...Proceeding.

Uhh, Seren?

Aheh, don’t worry about thaaaat…

But I did worry ‘bout that. A sickly sense of unease ballooned in my stomach, like I was a kid again and I was about to shoplift from the pic’n’mix for the very first time-

New skill created successfully!

Unique! Innerplane [Unlocked]

Enables instantaneous access to the innerplane.

Enables realtime communication to [the most beautiful and sexiest, bangable-yet-utmostrespectworthy Seren] and [the dog].

Enables instant MAGN increments; limited to +[1] integraion per execution.

Enables instant attribute increments; limited to +[1] allocation per execution.

Enables instant skill increments; limited to +[1] expenditure per execution.

Oh, wow that’s..alot! Thanks!

I braced myself for some kind of reaction or pain..But nothing came.

Hmm. Okay, wait. Let me process this and see if I can figure it out.

Seren blinked back over to the bed and sat down, resting her chin on her hands with a satisfied smile.

Okay, I’ll wait.

Soo, innerplane is...my soulspace?

Correct!

That was a much better name, I wondered if Seren knew it all this t-

Remember, all the data fragments we collect is from the EXP we absorb. This particular info was from Richards..I think?

Hm okay. So access means I can come here whenever I like right?

Bingo!

Incredible..So judging by the limitations mentioned, I can essentially level up at will, but only one at a time?

I love it when you just get it. Yes darling, once EXP absorption hits .999%, you can immediately come here and increase your MAGN level, a single attribute, and, a single skill. You’ll need to wait for long periods of REM rest to do heavy duty upgrades though, otherwise you’ll end up convulsing and risk blacking out when you go back to the real world, which is not really helpful midfight..And then lastly, my personal favourite, me and the pup can now directly communicate with you! But don’t worry, we’ll only do it for important stuff..I’m sure.

Heh, okay I was going to say-

I suddenly started to feel extremely tired and stumbled.

Oh goodness, you alpha’s are going beserk again, come on mister, time for you to get some well earned rest!

She took me underarm and helped me retreat to the galaxy bed. I flopped down, falling into deep sleep within seconds.

…

..

.

The next morning I was awoken to a soft purple light as Marri used a skill to light her way into my bed with a devilish look in her eye. There would be no lie in for me as we absolutely used the time whilst Lone slept in to innocently snuggle, but eventually he woke up and I then spent some wonderful quality time interacting with him. He would crawl over to me, lay on his tummy and look up at me with a marvel filled smile, then he would roll onto his back and I would put my hand over him and he would reach up to grab my fingers and then squeal with victory when he was successful, but his favourite thing was when I lay back and bench lifted him up into the air and zoomed him around like a aeroplane. Siya woke up from squealing noises and waved sleepily, groaning as she went off to find something to drink and eat, comically stumbling over as she exited the stage.

She slept like a log, ha.

We spent a treasured family day together, cherishing each others company and Marri teaching me all the fun traits and interesting rituals Lone had developed. Apparently he was pretty advanced for his age of ~9 months, he was already trying to pull himself up and stand, but his true advancements were with his intellect in that he was able to draw with crayons without eating them and he would listen with complete focus when reading books, pointing at things and making specific noises for certain objects. Marri had an ability, shared from Sylvie, that let her monitor people’s health status in greater detail than my analyze, but the truly interesting outcome from that was Lone had not been inflicted with a single virus, sickness, cold or even just a snotty nose; nothing for us to seemingly worry about but still an interesting phenomena and something her and Sylvie were keeping track of, since Sylvie was a veteran midwife, Marri had the best friend to have whilst raising a baby. Going back to help Sylvie turned out to be one of the best decisions..Both morally and a bit selfishly, for our own sakes.

There were plenty of visitors popping in and out as the day went by, some to say hello or thanks to me but quite a few came just to see if Marri could use another one of her abilities which was originally a simple enhancement that would give a defense protective layer to a person, but it also had an interesting effect on plants and Majik based items. For plants it would increase growth rate significantly, for Majik items it would repair damage and also increase the durability, meaning on armour it would add to the defensive capability, but the most popular side effect was it would clean the muck and dirt off of you and your clothes as if you were having a instant shower.

That night, me Steve and Tanner had a reunion of our evening meetups that we used to do and after having an emotional moment we spent some time sharing and talking about the things we had experienced and learnt. Tanner’s first learned item he expressed was ‘move faster out of the way when a pretty blonde girl is running at you with a knife’ and his second was ‘if you ever want to reignite things with the missus in the bedroom, just go into mortal hibernation for a few months’. Valuable knowledge shared.

Steve talked about how he had a mini army of golems running up and down the country feeding him information, although they were tiny and kept getting munched or crunched, they painted the same grim picture I had seen, but there were small outposts and safe zones popping up and surviving. The information he got was like fuzzy memories and images, but his little geological minions could communicate simple decriptions and he was casually talking about how they weren’t particularly smart as some had apparently found a large plain cube on their way to London, but he lost contact with it and figured it must have been looking at a unfinished building. Obviously that had got my attention, and I gave them the story about the cube and arena; they were mortified at some of the stuff I told them, but we agreed that it was important to clarify if this was either a similar thing, or, even the same one. Which should be impossible, but who bloody knows, and so Steve conjured a marble golem there on the spot, explaining it would unravel into a bipedal once it got to its destination or if it needed to hide; he was at a level where he could maintain control over a few tons of material at a time after maxing out his [Golemic] ability, but he was currently unable to progress any further, stuck behind the ‘ENT Tier’ requirement to level it up further.

Finally, Steve updated us on the overall plan for the area that was going to kick into full gear starting tomorrow. Half the plan had already been done during the day and that involved getting the construction engineers, scientists and anyone with a building skill together to draw out a plan for long term settlement and defense, and the other half of the plan was to break ground to start building ASAP, whilst teams defended against anything looking for trouble, EXP or a human flavoured meal.

The next morning, Lyra and Sylvie turned up, as apparently Lyra had been begging her mum to see if she could play with Lone but Sylvie didn’t want to intrude; proud and grateful of Lyra for being such a kind angel since she was most likely the reason Lone was progressing so well, I happily agreed since I had updated Marri on helping defend the building crews the night before; I got a slap on the bum on my way out and a reminder to come back on my ‘lunch break’. As I walked out into the corridor, I bumped into a grinning Tanner with Kelly and their boys.

“Girl date today.” Kelly smiled at me. “You boys be careful out there yeah?”

“Of course! Have fun love!” He ruffled the boys hair and grabbed them for a big hug, then stood up and leant in for a kiss with Kelly, causing his boys to both screw their faces and ‘ewww’ in unison. He then turned to me and puckered his lips “Morning sweetheart did you sleep well?” Kelly barked a laugh out as she ushered the boys inside. I patted him on the back and smiled politely. “Yes mate, but not that well..Well, actually..Ha, if you’re not getting enough physical attention from Kelly I can see if Marri will let her know.” I grinned.

His eyes went wide. “Oh bloody hell don’t! It’s only been a couple of days and the woman has been sucking me dry-uhh not literally, but mate, it’s like her new main quest is to pump a baby out of me! My poor pelvis can’t cope!”

We walked on, heading towards the entrance chatting and joking like silly teenagers.

Our first day out on the plains went without trouble. We were split into teams of two or three and stood around 300 metres away from the worksite and told to alert the designated team leader if we spotted anything, but nothing came near for the whole day. The building teams made great progress on the foundations, with Steve doing the bulk of the work with his unintended usage of his skills allowing him to reshape the blocks of strong Majik material, that normally went towards building the caravans, into pillars that melded effortlessly into the ground without any need to dig. The first phase was going to be a heavily fortified, bunker-castle type over the underground stuff we already had, and then the next phases were going to be walls. Lots of wall.

Poor Steve.

The first week passed quickly. There had been a grace period of two days before a group of monsters were spotted trudging menacingly along the plains, and, rather than wait for them to come to us, we had sent out a murder party to take them down which consisted of Catara and her army guys; they bulldozed them without issue..But last night, the guardwatch had raised the monster alarm, resulting in Siya being called to action with her superior capabilities in the dark and she had taken a minor wound from a surprise mole-creature appearing out of the ground but fortunately it was just a scratch. The implication however was taken very seriously, as the construction teams focused solely on protecting the underground sleeping spaces with proper reinforced walls, just so we wouldn’t lose anyone whilst we slept.

I had contemplated going back to the base to check out what Sigura had mentioned, but then I realised I couldn’t lie about it to Marri to just sneak off, and, when I thought about it more, I couldn’t justify the risk. What if she didn’t stop that Preterghast thing? What if the shield activates and I get trapped in there? So I decided I would need to go back once I felt ready and I would go cautiously. That shit was way out of my league. Due to this I had decided to bring back new habits and start training both in the real world and in my 'innerplane'. There was one concerning issue about it all however, which was neither Seren nor Immo had mentioned a word about Sigura, as if they didn’t see or hear a single thing that happened in that white room, and I had nearly broached the subject with them but after some very careful contemplation, I wondered if they did know but were playing along with Sigura’s commandment to not speak of their existence. After all, Seren can see and hear my thoughts, so she MUST know, but is not talking about it for a very valid reason..So if ignorance is required in order to protect Lone, then ignorant I shall be.

Speaking of the lovely wolf, I’d initially started to let Immo out at night at her own request, so she could prowl and help the night guards and after being introduced and showing her effectiveness in the dark, but now she was so happy to be roaming around and there wasn’t a single person not grateful for her comforting company, so she was pottering about freely as a full time protector now. I’m glad she’s on our side, she’s such a kind soul. She really enjoyed the attention and companionship of humans, always telling me about how much free food she got.

The first month mark was hit before we knew it, and the weather had grown colder as autumn fully settled in. It also marked the completion of our incredible fortress that had a double layered outer shell with hexagonal bricks and cone structured defensive spikes sticking out from the wall, all made from the ultra strong Majik material with the idea that if something tried to ram the wall, it would seriously damage itself in the process. The next stage was to build the first defensive perimeter wall of many, with the expectation that we could build one to circle the central fortress every 200 metres as we expanded outwards if we needed more space, like layers of an onion.

We’d had a few people turn up seeking shelter and as per the standard protocol they were checked for any signs of bad acting either via their Karma or through people like Catara who had abilities that could check a person's combat logs, mostly the security teams, and then once cleared they would be allowed to join. Steve had mentioned about a couple of bad apples trying to get into the estate a while back, they were religious fanatics, convinced they were chosen by god and that everyone who didn’t follow their religion was a heretic infidel that needed to be slaughtered or enslaved; they were disposed of themselves very quickly after they refused to leave..

My training had been going quite well, with focus being placed on practising fine tune control over my slipfold field, or rather my slipfield, which meant I could pull it right down to my skin without harming anything around me, as well as being able to expand it a bit further than my usual reach, and there had been a rather pleasant bonus to the practice in that I was able to place slipfold anchors in smaller gaps, no more 'failed anchor placement' bullshit I hope.

There was a new term that I learned, called Majikware, a term the scientists used to essentially describe any device created or powered by Majik. The scientists themselves were heavy Majikware aligned, having numerous abilities that would build Majikware or utilise them in various ways. For instance, they could build the auto turrets I had seen on the wall, as well as the smaller flying Xno-esque drones, the same drones that Rant mentioned he saw, and then finally to my utmost excitement, I uncovered the revelation that they were also the ones who could manufacture the railguns. The only soul crushing downside was that unless you had a compatible weapon ability, rather than having a time based cooldown, it would leech your MP at an astronomical rate, and in my case when I finally got to try and shoot one, it was 90% MP per shot! My disappointment is unmeasurable..Melee fighters like myself apparently had next to zero chance to obtain such a skill, which was based purely on my own observations, but at the very least it meant that the ranged peeps could get tooled up if they were so lucky to be blessed with such a coveted skill..Still, I can’t complain can I..Boohoo me..

Six weeks continued to sail by, AND OF COURSE Triya unlocked a dual wielding skill..Granted it didn’t actually require the scientists weapons to unlock, but it was still insanely cool. It essentially was Xno splitting down into two uzi-like weapons that were also autonomous mini turrets that could traverse over her body, swivelling and crawling around to cover her back, sides or front. She had commissioned a pair of decay based handguns from one of the crafter's, and the only price she had to pay was collecting the materials, 1kg of meat stitched titan remains, 2kg of metal and 200 MP…Dirt cheap.

Anyone given a weapon had to go through a mandatory railgun safety course.

Our first defensive wall had been completed and the crafting teams were churning out turrets faster now thanks to a group effort to haul back a few tons of metals to help speed up the process. The crafter's could use pretty much any matter, and had been using wood, dirt and stone thus far, but it was extremely MP intensive since it was less dense; lead was a big favourite with the crafter's since it could mean cutting costs by tenfold.

I'd started having discussions with Siya, Steve, Sylvie, Marri, Catara and Tanner about their thoughts on my friends that were back in Italy with the cube, and the general consensus was to wait until we were more established before we started thinking about sending expeditions out to other places. I felt bad thinking they might be trapped or in trouble, but realistically i had to be careful about opening up any gateways, especially since the average MAGN level here was 50-60 but over there they had been touching 100..and that was weeks ago..

My own MAGN level hadn’t changed although that was mostly due to the fact that significantly lower leveled creatures gave next to nothing in EXP.

Three months had passed since we first arrived on the plains, but life had only gotten better ever since. Lone’s first birthday was coming up and he was doing fantastic, thriving and enjoying all the attention and fun that came with being the only baby-soon-to-be-toddler in the safe zone; a phenomena that had a tragic backstory t it, which was there had been zero pregnancies since the fall, or the disintegration or fright night..people were very imaginative when it came to naming things..and speaking of people, we had grown in number significantly and were currently in the thousands. The growth had been explosive after we finished the second wall, but now we only got a handful of people each week if that.

Our small settlement had been truly designed and built from the ground up, thanks to the group effort combination of Steve, the scientists and the construction crew, and the central, heavily reinforced bunker building that sat on top of our reinforced underground cave system became our central hub for most things whilst, in the outer rings, we had our logistics sheds, facility buildings, living spaces and a beautiful tavern-of course, proudly ran by Rant and a few other jolly individuals. The perimeter ring walls were built to the same standards as the fortress, with the core strategy being that we would always defend the outermost wall, but we could fall back to the next one if needed. We established space for growing food and for defensive structures like emergency bunkers and barracks, and for those that wished to live a bit closer to the defensive lines, we would build small cabin bunkers that would be comfortable but also have safe sleeping spaces underground.

We needed to have guards taking shift for the walls to be effective and we also had a need for cooks, scavengers, healers, fighters and handymen, basically everything, but we also needed a way to reward or encourage people to do these tasks, so we ended up fulfilling Steve’s dream and creating a ‘guild’.

And it was called the Safe Zone Trading Co.

Insofar that Steve calls it a guild, everyone else refers to it as a company.

The name had become symbolic in that people felt comfortable and somewhat professional when they would announce that they were a member of the 'SZ-TC', something they were proud of, and Steve had been elected as the genuine guildmaster, complete with the official title; he was absolutely chuffed to bits and he genuinely shed a tear when his name was announced after the vote, a well deserved victory for someone who’s knowledge and support was pretty much the only reason most of us were still alive..although I think it was between him and an old world councillor who results only recieved 5% of the votes. Pretty unanimous. There were even a few shops starting to open up that bought crafted armour, weapons, healing tonics etc and then sold them. Previously, we had just made sure everyone that went out would get a healing tonic, but with such large numbers of people, it was difficult to keep the supply up with demand. Although realistically if someone shouted that they needed to go out and didn’t have a tonic, they’d have a dozen people happy to donate one. It seems to work for now, but only whilst people are honest..ah well, that’s Steve's problem not mine.

We had repelled a concerning increase in attacks as of late, a possible correlation as our numbers increased, and I had taken an official job as one of the defenders, not only to help keep the place safe, but also so I could earn tokens with which we could buy baby supplies and other amenities from the stores, since my old world job of ‘IT engineer’ was pretty redundant at this point and job opportunities were scarce these days so..

In general, a defenders job was ‘simple’: be ready to heed the call and defend the wall or other strategic objective that required protecting. Sometimes it would be an escort task, either for people going out for supplies, or to help bring people back in that were stuck out in the wilds; a role that me and Siya excelled at, but that was not to say life had become completely danger-free, clumps of roaming monsters would attack the walls or our expedition groups as we ventured the ruins of our old civilization, and the closer we go to the towns or more populated areas, the higher chances of finding corrupted there were. Nearly all the people we lost were to the corrupted; even with the weapons and armour made from the husk remains.

Gross, yes..But imperative to our continued existence. The decay stuff really wrecks them...If they don’t get you first.

It was still very sketchy to fight them and there had been a few times where they had penetrated or jumped over the walls, but fortunately the fortress was made cleverly and of seriously strong stuff, it could actually take a beating from them and still stand strong. Nearly every single time they were sighted and a fight couldn’t be avoided, me, Steve and Siya were needed to ensure the best chances of survival, simply due to Steve’s incredible golems that he could install husk bone cores into, Siya’s flying speed being able to catch them off guard and obliterate them, and, my own ability to dance around and keep them busy whilst they got hammered with precision ranged attacks from other defenders. Not to mention the significant increase in control over my slipfold has strengthened its severing ability. If a corrupted wasn’t paying attention or was too slow with its hands, I could decapitate them without a fight. But if they are smarter or faster..well, that’s when they don’t see Siya coming in with her massive meatstiched titan bone greatsword to ruin their day.

Siya had integrated so well with everyone, not that I was worried...well..I wasn’t too worried..Her and Marri had grown very close, no doubt a byproduct of Siya’s vehement dedication to our protection, but also because Siya was just a wonderful creature to be friends with in the first place. Her literal newborn naivety was at a baseline, adorable, although somewhat solemnly she was gradually losing it, becoming more human-like every day as she soaked up knowledge of society's common nuances and unique quirks, those moth-girls really do grow up so fast... But she bled for us in our battles, she cried for us when one of us would perish, and she laughed and smiled when we celebrated.

I say ‘we’ but it’s just semantics..Who could possibly be called human anymore.

And that mindset was even more amplified as more and more people gained abilities that changed them physically in drastic ways. There was a guy who was terrified of feeling pain so he had put all his resources into shield/defense and he had unlocked a passive ability that meant his skin had been mutated into a strange non-newtonian like material that would become like steel when hit. There was a woman that was able to breath a blue fire like a dragon, a literal human flamethrower, and Dragon was the keyword here, since her eyes had changed into lizard-like slits and her body had grown scales. Another woman had horns growing out of her head that helped her rapidly absorb ambient Majik in the air to regenerate her own resources. And there was even a guy that could no longer absorb EXP but he could still increase his MAGN level after drinking or eating monsters. Just like vamp. And yup. Pale skin, red eyes, black hair this time instead of white. Just like Vamp. Fucking irritating stereotypical appearance changes..Illogically irritating.

Overall the signs that things were changing forever were clear as day.

My own growth had slowed to a crawl, even taking into account the corrupted giving me decent EXP, but, due to the amount of people attacking each one, it was significantly less going to me. I didn’t mind too much though since it meant on average everyone was growing steadily. I’d rather not solo them just for the sake of more EXP, besides, we’re as strong as our weakest link..or something?..

…

Actually, not even sure if that kind of logic applies anymore..Maybe I should just horde it all.

There was a growing, dull sadness from being unable to contact Vyolyn, Grave, Mya and the others..I had not managed to summon the courage to Slipfold back to the continent due to the paralyzing fear of getting stuck back there, and although I had my tether point still waiting to be connected, I had been extremely worried about opening it in case I unleashed the corrupted, or maybe one of those fucking huge colossals are just there, smiling in the clouds whilst it waits for a way past the white mist we saw..Me, Siya and Steve had been on a few trips to the coast so that I could show him exactly that, and also to check for signs for if the colossals had ever come onland; fortunately no giant house sized footprints could be found, but unfortunately the white fog most certainly housed colossals and their epic fights with each other could still be seen as shadows clashing in the stratospheric reaching mist and heard as distant thunderous explosions muffled in the same, strange white anomaly..There was no rhyme or reason why they hadn’t crossed through and stomped over our island, but I'm sure as shit thankful…I just wished I knew the others were doing alright..

Well, in a few days we’ll be finding out one way or another..

We had agreed with Siya that she was going to bravely go back through and find out.

At first I protested but was quickly shut down after Siya pointed out that if anything was to go wrong, she could fly around and find another way around the mist in less than a day, but if I got stuck there then my only choices would be to swim, or find a row boat. It was frustrating not knowing, especially due to the fact I could still reach all my slipfold points I'd left behind so all evidence suggested it would be fine..but Siya is right. She is 'vastly superior when it comes to mobility compared to my flakey cheat-fold'..

The expedition was going to occur after Lones first birthday, Marri was determined to make him a cake, even to the point she had asked if I could go searching for ingredients which naturally I did, carefully, but with vehement determination, and it was actually pretty straightforward since flour, sugar, cake mix and powdered milk was still edible and in the end the request drove me to stumble upon a warehouse stocked full of all sorts, the unloading of which became my day job as I brought literal tons of preserved and long lasting foods into our stores. This also triggered an interest into Majik based refrigeration with the scientists as a random comment about how we had ingredients to make ice-cream but no freezer, spurred them into a race that was won in less than a few hours when a guy who worked with the ice cold beer saint crafted a cylinder that could be filled with the mixture in one compartment and ice in another, then spun with a handle as it cooled down to successfully create ice cream.

His birthday arrived and it was a fantastic success. It also ended up sharing a day of celebration and remembrance for people lost, since it marked exactly one year since all this began, but the pile of presents he received was overwhelming and I wasn't sure we would have space in our little cave dwelling, we had up just staying in there all this time out of convenience, but another big gift awaited us as Steve officially granted Lone, but also us, a specially kitted out large 3 bedroom apartment, so Siya and Lone each had their own bedroom. They had even gone to the trouble of building proper kids furniture and a genuine clean mattress for him.

The day also became used as an excuse to celebrate everyone’s missd birthdays as well as a catch up for all the old world holidays. There weren’t many fans of religion these days, mostly because it was hard to argue that any deity was looking out for us, although people cherished ‘whatever’ was sending out the tasks, but I don’t..think Sigura is a celestial..surely?, because with the tasks came actual, life saving rewards and EXP. Some suggested the tasks were created by collective and individual instincts, much like how our brain reward system would deliver ‘feel-good’ chemicals, the introduction of Majik allowed this system concept to be more macro world impacting and complex. Before it was ‘do this productive and beneficial thing and be rewarded with the good feels’ and now it’s ‘do this productive and beneficial thing and be rewarded with reality Majik and exp. And good feels’.

The day arrived and me, Steve, Catara and Siya made our way over to Stonehenge-Steve’s decision-as this was the place chosen where we should place the gateway point that would link up with the one I’d left outside the cube in Italy. Stonehenge was a pretty famous prehistoric monument that consisted of free-standing stones that weighed 20+ tons each, arranged in a circle 2-3000 years ago, and it was famous because of the sheer weight of the stones as well as the unknown reason for it’s creation; there were plenty of mysterious things such as its alignment with the summer solstice rising sun and about the culture that produced it leaving absolutely no written records, and today we could well be adding the most absurd mystery to it, who knows how long these gateways last for..would be funny if in a few thousand years people look back and think the stones created the portals.

He hadn’t told anyone else but me about his plan and I could see Catara frowning as we walked up to them and stopped.

“Ta-da! Here we are!” Steve held his arms out.

Catara sighed. “You’re kidding. Why we’re doing this here?”

Steve grinned. “Because Cata, these stones are incredibly durable! Think a billion years old! They’ll be useful if I need to quickly seal up the gateway point.” Steve turned around and then muttered under his breath. “And also it’s such a legendary spot. So cool..”

But he wasn’t quiet enough. “Hmph. Yeah that’s what I thought. Alright Godu, let’s not dick around. Crack on.”

Fair enough. I nodded and looked at Siya who gave me a smile and thumbs up. Zero fear or anxiety in her..lucky. Personally I was bricking it. There was a real fear of being sent back and my stomach did backflips anytime I thought about the arena and the cages and all that shit..

Clearing my throat, I moved forward inside the circle of giant stones.

“Hooookay. Here goes. Everyone ready?” I released an exhale to steady my nerves and received nods as they all shifted their stances, Steve placed his hands on a huge monolith, Catara put her helmet on and a trail of Majik snaked down her arm as she materialised her long blade-the one she stole from me-and then Siya snapped her cloak wings out and nodded satisfactorily with their performance. Out of relex I checked my own stats to make sure all was tip top.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.85.06

HP 1751 / 1751

MP 2032 / 2032

EP 100%

DS 100%

SWRD 103

SHLD 106

FTHR 125

GLYP 139

Yup. Can’t complain...Well, here goes nothing…

I reached out and immediately received acknowledgement from the tether point, primed, waiting, ready to be paired and fulfill its purpose.

The connection clicked, established and the watery orb swirled as it settled.

“Okay it’s done. The connection is-”

Abruptly, it filled with ink and a noise that froze my blood.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“Oh SH-”