“God damn it, Carl,” Jacob’s voice exclaimed from the hallway outside my door.

I opened the door to my room and looked at Jacob, a septuagenarian with a sour disposition and even worse body odor. He was leaning on his walker as he glared at me challenging.

“I know you were the one who stole my pudding,” Carl accused, pointing his bony finger in my face. “You know that butterscotch is the only flavor I like.“

“Why would I steal your pudding?” I responded with a roll of my eyes. “I don’t even like butterscotch.“

Jacob blinked at that. “Because… Because you’re jealous of my hair.“

That made me burst out laughing, though I had to resist reaching up to touch my hair, or lack thereof. Most of my hair had fled more than two decades ago, leaving me with a silver Caesar ring around the sides. I’d long since stopped caring much about such a minor thing

“Oh yes, I’m jealous of your hair,” I responded with a chuckle. “Now, I think you’d better go get yourself checked out because your dementia is getting worse.”

Jacob glared at me even harder. “You… You…” He took a deep breath before hissing, “You’ll pay for this. Once I have enough evidence for the lawsuit…”

I just remained where I was, not bothering to say anything at first. As unfortunate as it was, Jacob actually did have a bit of dementia. Once upon a time, at least according to him, he’d been a pretty sharp lawyer. These days, his only legal skills seemed to be in threatening to sue anyone who annoyed him.

“Can we hurry this up?” I asked Jacob patiently. “I have a big date to get to, and I don’t want to be late.“

“Just you wait,” Jacob told me before he turned and shuffled off down the hallway of the nursing home.

Once Jacob was gone, I stepped out into the hallway myself, using my cane to keep my balance. The nurses kept telling me that I needed a walker, but I wasn’t that bad yet. Needing a cane was bad enough.

I slowly made my way down the hallway to the cafeteria, silently cursing just how long it took me to travel such a short distance. Getting old really sucked, but it was still better than the alternative. But eventually, I arrived at my destination, the corner table that I’d reserved for the occasion. My date was already at our usual table, waiting in her wheelchair.

Margaret was a white-haired octogenarian, who must have been quite a beauty back in her younger days, because she still managed to hold onto a great deal of charm. She was a widow with three kids, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. None of whom ever bothered to come visit her.

My lovely date and I were both bored and lonely, having very little to do in this place. That was why we’d begun doing our weekly date nights. They were less about romance and more about companionship and giving us something to look forward to.

“Maggie,” I greeted her with a pleasant smile.

“Don’t Maggie me,” Margaret responded with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. “You know I prefer my full name.”

“I’m sorry,” I lied as I took my seat. “I forgot.”. Then I joked, “They say that memory is the first thing to go.”

“And what is the second?” she asked.

I gave her a deadpan look as I answered, “I forget.”

Margaret was dressed up for our date, as usual. She loved the excuse to put on her good clothes and jewelry, and I was more than happy to provide it. Tonight, she’d even gone all out and was wearing one of the gaudiest pieces of jewelry that I’d ever seen. It was a large gold amulet with a golf ball sized red gem right in the center.

I gave Margaret’s necklace a quick look, though I made sure not to look too closely. Most people would assume that thing was a piece of costume jewelry, but I knew better. I considered saying something about the item, then decided that it would probably be better to just not bring any attention to it.

“You’re looking lovely as usual,” I told my date.

“Oh, you charmer,” Margaret responded with a wink, clearly enjoying the attention.

It was around this time that someone brought food over to our table for us. The nurses and other staff seemed to find our date nights amusing, so they played along and made things a bit nicer.

About halfway through the meal, Margaret asked, “So, Carl, what did you do before you retired?”

“Oh, nothing too exciting,” I told her with a chuckle. “I was with animal control. You know, rounding up stray animals that make a nuisance of themselves and the like.”

“That does sound interesting,” Margaret responded with an interesting look and a faint smirk. “But I seem to remember you telling me once that you used to be an accountant.”

“Being an accountant was boring,” I explained, “so I changed careers.”

“I see,” my date responded pleasantly. “And I just happened to remember that you once said you were a garbage man…”

“Sanitation engineer,” I corrected her pleasantly. “I quit that one to become an accountant. I thought it would be less smelly.”

“Smelly, hmmm?” Margaret mused, watching me with sharp eyes that reminded me of a predator about to strike. “I think that I might be smelling a little something myself. I think it might be BS.”

“I’ve gone through a few careers,” I said with a wink and a smile. There was clearly nothing wrong with Margaret’s memory, because she was still just as sharp as anyone I’d ever met. “And were you, by any chance, a reporter?”

“Oh, heavens no,” Margaret responded with a pleasant laugh. “Just a mother whose children loved to take liberties with the facts.”

“Well, maybe you should have been,” I told her. “You just might have missed your calling.”

We both laughed at that and continued with our dinner. Once we were done eating, I announced, “Now, I think it’s time for dessert…” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pudding cup and set it on the table in front of her. “I got you your favorite. Butterscotch.”

Margaret accepted the dessert and laughed again as she reached for her spoon. “You really are a charmer.”

Just then, a loud scream suddenly filled the air. I snapped around and looked at the door to the cafeteria, realizing that the scream had come from the other side. Before I could even take three breaths, four figures burst into the room.

The figure in front was a slender woman, one of the employees of the nursing home. From the look of terror on her face and the blood that was splattered across her front, I immediately suspected that she was the source of the scream.

Three men stepped into the room behind her, with one of them having a hand on her shoulder from where he was pushing her forward. He was tall and muscular, with well-tanned skin and dark red hair that was brushed back. His clothes immediately stood out as he wore a pair of black leather pants and a top that seemed to be scale armor. A large, double-bladed axe hung from his other hand.

The second man was lean and wiry, with light brown skin and dark hair. His clothing choices were just as unusual as the first man, comprising of leather armor over most of his body, with at least half a dozen knives and daggers strapped to him in various places.

And then there was the third man, who was wide and stocky, wearing a black leather biker’s jacket with lots of buckles and studs. Of the three, he looked the most normal, except for the fact that he held a golden scepter with red gem set into the head.

None of these men belonged in the home, and I seriously doubted that they were there as visitors. My eyes went from the blood on the woman’s clothing to the matching blood that dripped from the axe the first man held.

“Where is she?” the large man demanded of the scared employee. When the woman didn’t answer fast enough, he raised the axe and held it in front of her. “I won’t ask again.”

Before the terrified woman could answer, the wiry man abruptly exclaimed, “There…” He was pointing right at me and Margaret. “She’s right there…”

“What the hell?” the stocky man blurted out. “She’s wearing the damn thing. Right out in the open.”

“Makes it easier on us,” the large muscular one said.

My eyes widened and I looked at Margaret, specifically, at the amulet she was wearing. Now I regretted not saying something about it earlier.

“What’s going on?” Margaret asked with a look of worry.

“Players,” I answered grimy, looking back to the three approaching men. They’d casually tossed the terrified employee to the side. “Rogue players.”

I stood up, grabbing my cane as I did so. I could feel the power radiating off the three men, power which clearly marked them as being more than normal humans. Most players radiated this power to some degree or another, whether they wanted to or not.

“Go,” I told Margaret, even though I knew it would do no good. It was already too late to escape these men. On second thought, I said, “Give them your necklace… That’s what they want.”

“But George gave this to me,” Margaret complained. “Before he passed…”

One of the male employees ran across the cafeteria, yelling, “GET OUT OF HERE. WE’VE ALREADY CALLED THE POLICE.”

Stocky man raised his scepter and suddenly fired a ball of energy out of the end. It flew across the room and hit the employee, who immediately collapsed to the ground with a gaping hole in his chest.

“Stupid NPCs,” the stocky man said with a dismissive sneer.

“Just grab it,” the large man ordered, gesturing towards Margaret.

The lean man ran towards our table, his eyes firmly locked on Margaret, who was frantically trying to roll her wheelchair away. I grimaced and swung my cane, keeping it low and using the handle to hook the player’s ankle. He lost his balance and flew face first into the ground.

“Smooth one,” the stocky man exclaimed with a laugh. “You just got taken down by an old man.”

“SHUT UP,” the wiry one snarled as he got back to his feet.

The wiry man reached for one of his daggers, only to wince as a dinner plate suddenly smacked into his face. Margaret was already grabbing a second plate from the table so she could throw that one too.

“You leave him alone,” Margaret commanded.

“SHUT UP,” the wiry man spat out, throwing a dagger and hitting Margaret in the chest. She flopped backwards with blood gushing out.

“MAGGIE!” I croaked in horror.

“Just grab the damn amulet,” the large man with the axe ordered.

A cold rage formed in my chest as Margaret died in front of me. She was…harmless. She hadn’t been any threat at all to these men, and they’d killed her simply for being inconvenient.

I swung my cane at the wiry man, though he casually tore it out of my hand and tossed it aside. I grabbed hold of the edge of the table to keep from falling over.

“Hey, Mike,” the wiry man called out to the stocky one. “Lend me your rod. I want to make an example of this one.”

The stocky man, Mike, casually tossed his scepter to the wiry one, who caught it with a malicious grin. He held the scepter out and fired a ball of energy out at the wall, apparently just trying it out to make sure it worked. Then he pointed it right at me.

“You’ve got guts, old man,” the wiry man admitted with a sneer. “You aren’t even flinching.”

I just glared at the man, saying, “It’s not the first time I’ve had a scepter pointed at my face.”

“Well, it’s going to be the last,” he responded before squeezing the shaft, clearly intending to fire the weapon. However, nothing happened, much to his obvious surprise…but not mine. “Why…?”

But unlike this player, I was expecting this and immediately took advantage of the opportunity. While he was distracted, I reached out and snatched the scepter from his hand. Normally, there was no way I should have been able to do that to a player, but he was overconfident and not paying enough attention.

“Let’s see how you like it,” I said as I pointed the scepter right at his face.

“You’ve got to be shitting,” he started to say as he reached out to take the scepter back.

I squeezed the shafter and concentrated on the weapon, which warmed in my hand and fired a pulse of energy at him. A moment later, the wiry man collapsed to the ground without a head.

“ZEKE!” Mike exclaimed.

“A scepter from an Obsidian Temple guard,” I commented casually, having recognized the design of that particular weapon. The red gem on the head and the specific filigree decorations were unmistakable. “Powerful but slow since it has a seventeen second cooldown between uses, and you have to take it back to the temple to recharge after every nine shots.”

There was a vague sense of satisfaction at having killed the man who’d murdered Margaret, but I was definitely not satisfied. One of the men responsible was gone, but two more remained. I glanced around the cafeteria and saw that everyone else had already run away, leaving me alone with the two remaining players.

“Useful in the labyrinth where firearms won’t work,” I continued talking about the scepter, mostly to buy enough time so that I could use it again. “But out in the real world…” I paused at that for emphasis. “It’s only really good for showing off.”

With that, I finished counting seventeen seconds and fired a second blast at the player with the axe. He stepped aside and avoided the attack with ease, then he rushed at me, crossing the room in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, his hand was around my neck as he lifted me off the ground.

“You have some fight in you, old man,” the man said with a snarl.

I gurgled in response, unable to speak or even breathe. He was choking me with ease, and my life was literally within his hand. I knew my life was about to end and there was nothing I could do to save it. Not that I really wanted to. I didn’t have anything left to live for anyway, but that didn’t mean I was just going to roll and die over without fighting back. If there was any chance of taking this bastard with me, then that was damn well what I was going to do.

I’d dropped the scepter when the man had grabbed me, but I’d noticed a dagger on his belt. Without hesitating, I grabbed his snatched and drove it into his eye.

There was a loud CRACK sound and a sharp pain in my neck. An instant later, I lost all feeling and everything faded to darkness. It was finally over.

I was in a void. No body. No light. No sound. Nothing existed except for my consciousness, and even that was quickly fading away.

But then, glowing letters appeared in front of me. These were not visible letters as I no longer had physical eyes to see with, but I could still see them nonetheless. It was as though the message was being projected directly into my mind.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RESPAWN?

Interlude:

Simon Harris scowled as his SUV came to a stop in front of the nursing home. He quickly looked over the notes on his cell phone, wanting to refresh himself on what he already knew about the situation. There wasn’t much.

The dark-skinned man adjusted his uniform and then glanced into the rearview mirror to make sure he was presentable. His hair and beard were mostly grey, retaining little of their former black coloring, but it gave him an air of dignity and professionalism. Simon nodded in satisfaction since that was exactly the impression he wanted to give.

Seconds later, Simon stepped out of the SUV while his companions did the same and moved into position behind him. He didn’t spare a glance at them, looking instead at the nursing home and the local police who were gathered nearby.

One of the local officer’s told another, “Looks like the Men in Grey are here.”

Simon pretended that he hadn’t heard the familiar nickname for his organization. A lot of people called them the Men in Grey because of their grey uniforms, and while some of his fellow Wardens enjoyed the air of mystery that this nickname implied, he wasn’t one of them.

A plain clothed detective walked towards them with a grim expression. “I’m detective Reese. Thank you for arriving so quickly.”

“Agent Harris of the Wardens,” Simon introduced himself. “Tell me what you know.”

Reese gestured to the building in front of them. “Simple version is that three players went into the facility, looking for one of the residents. They killed two people in route, killed their target and one other resident, then departed well before we arrived.” He shook his head at that. “Now we have five bodies to deal with.”

“Five?” one of Simon’s companions asked. “I thought you said they killed four people.”

Simon glanced at Maya Ramirez, who had been his junior partner and trainee for nearly a year. She adjusted her glasses though never took her eyes off of Reese.

Reese looked at her and nodded. “They did. The extra body belongs to one of the players.”

That statement made Simon pause in surprise. That was…unexpected. He glanced at his associates, first Maya, then at his new trainee, Lewis McNichols. They both looked startled by that as well.

“Then perhaps,” Simon told the detective, “you should take us through so we can see for ourselves.”

“Of course,” Reese responded with a scowl. “This way.”

They went inside the nursing home and were immediately met with the sight of a bloody corpse. One look was enough to tell Simon that this man had been an employee rather than a resident, and that he’d been killed with either a sword or axe. He would need to look a bit closer to know for sure, but that would come later. For now, he wanted to focus on getting an overall picture of what had happened before digging into the details.

Reese briefly spoke about the first body, and how the man had been killed by the players as soon as they’d entered the building. When they moved down the hall, they found the second body, a resident who had simply gotten in their way. However, it wasn’t until they got to the cafeteria that things became especially interesting.

“Margaret Sullivan,” Reese announced as he pointed to the body of an old woman which was slumped over in a wheelchair. “She’s the one they were looking for.”

“I see,” Simon said, though his eyes were locked on the headless body that had obviously been the player.

“This one was Carl Upton,” Reese continued, pointing to the body of an old man whose neck was bent at an unnatural angle. “He was eating dinner with Sullivan when the players arrived.”

“But what happened to the player?” Maya asked as she bent over to examine the body. “It looks like some kind of magic attack.” She looked up to Reese and asked, “Did one of the other players kill him?”

“That would make sense,” Lewis commented. “But why?”

“No,” Reese corrected with a shake of his head and a wry smile. “It was him…” He pointed to the body of the old man. “Security footage shows Upton getting into a confrontation with the player, and somehow, he was able to get the player’s scepter away from him. Upton blasted the guy with his own weapon.”

“The old guy did this?” Lewis blurted out in surprise.

“That sounds hard to believe,” Maya added skeptically.

Simon remained silent at that, and instead, he moved over to examine the old man’s body. The man looked…familiar.

“Cameras caught the whole thing,” Reese explained, gesturing to security cameras on the ceiling. “It would have been entertaining to watch, if it hadn’t ended so tragically.” He shook his head sadly. “Of course, one of the other players killed him right afterward, but Upton went down fighting. He made sure his killer felt it.”

“Carl Upton,” Simon said slowly with a cold chill running down his spine. He knew that name.

“That name sounds familiar,” Maya commented with a thoughtful expression.

Simon stared at Upton’s face, then he hunched down beside the body and moved the sleeve back to reveal the arm. There, on the now exposed forearm was a tattoo, one that looked nearly identical to a tattoo that he himself had on his shoulder.

“Damn it, Carl,” Simon exclaimed angrily, momentarily forgetting about looking professional.

Maya was suddenly beside him, asking, “What is it?” Then she saw the tattoo and gasped. “He has a Warden tattoo…” She looked at Simon in surprise. “He was one of us?”

“Yeah,” Simon responded as he stood back up. “Carl was one of us. He was one of the old guard…one of the twelve founding Wardens. He was also the one who trained me back when I was a rookie.”

Lewis and Maya shared a look while Reese just watched with interest. None of them said a word, for which Simon was grateful.

“Show me the footage,” Simon told Reese, his voice cold and hard. “I want to see who killed my old mentor.”

I awoke to the feeling that I was floating, that I was gently bobbing along on the surface of a pool. It reminded me of the old waterbed I used to have back in the day, before I discovered how prone the damn thing had been to leaking, and what a pain it had been to clean up.

When I opened my eyes, I found that I was floating in a pool, which was about fifteen feet across and two feet deep. Instead of water, the pool seemed to be filled with liquid mercury, a thick silvery liquid which ran off me in rivulets as I stood up, leaving nothing behind. I stepped out of the pool, already completely dry.

The pool was in the middle of a room that was only three times wider than the pool itself. The walls are rough stone with crystal veins running all through it. The crystal veins glow with a soft light, enough to illuminate the entire room

I took my time examining my surroundings, though I was careful to avoid looking too closely at my own body. At the moment, this room was what I was interested in. I had never seen anything like this place before. And even though I had absolutely no idea of where I was at, I still knew about this place, or at least, about places like this.

“A respawn pool,” I said in a whisper.

I took a moment to close my eyes and collect my thoughts. I remembered the players. I remembered Margaret’s death and then my own. Then, I remembered the message that followed, the words that had appeared directly into my consciousness. ‘WOULD YOU LIKE TO RESPAWN?’. Of course, I had answered yes, even if only in my mind. That seemed to have been enough.

This was not the first time that I’d heard of someone dying and then coming back. Of being respawned and given another chance at life. In fact, this was how players came to be. Well, not all players, I mentally corrected myself. All respawned were players, but not all players were respawned.

“And I am definitely respawned,” I thought aloud. “I died and everything.”

I paused at that, suddenly remembering Margaret and her final moments. I felt a surge of mixed rage and grief, both struggling to dominate my shaken emotional state. Margaret been a great woman and hadn’t deserved to end like that. She should have gone out in bed, surrounded by her kids, her grandkids, and even her great grandkids. She should have gone out with a cat curled up beside her, purring loudly into her ear, just like how she’d once told me she wanted to go.

“But that isn’t going to happen now,” I whispered. Not unless Margaret had respawned the way I had, and had also been given another chance at life. However, respawning was rare, so I knew that the odds were extremely unlikely. “All because those assholes wanted her necklace.”

Margaret’s necklace had been an artifact, a magical item that had been created by the Labyrinth, just like that scepter had been. I’d recognized her jewelry for what it was the moment I’d seen it, though I still had no idea of what kind of magic it might have contained nor of where her husband could have possibly found it. In the end, I suppose it didn’t really matter anymore. Margaret was gone and so was the necklace.

I spent another minute thinking about Margaret and grieving her loss. We hadn’t been anything more than friends, just two lonely people trying to keep each other company, but I was still going to miss her. But for now, I knew that I couldn’t afford to dwell on the past. Instead, I had to focus on my current situation.

With that, I finally looked down at my body. It was not my body, or at least, not my old body. For one thing, it was far too young, and for another, it was female. I’d been reborn as chick.

Then I noticed the pool that I’d come out of, the respawn pool. The silvery liquid had settled down and stabilized, without having so much as a single ripple. The entire surface now resembled a giant mirror, one that I could see my own reflection in. I moved closer to the pool for a better look.

I stood there for several minutes, silently staring down at my reflection and taking it all in. I was not only younger, I was a LOT younger. It looked like I’d lost over fifty years since the girl in the mirror appeared to be in her early twenties. I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I was.

People who were respawned almost always came back looking like they were in their late teens or early twenties. There were exceptions, of course, but I didn’t seem to be one of them. I appeared to be about the expected age.

The rest of my appearance was also quite different from before, in nearly every way possible. I should have expected that too. It was well known that people who were respawned always came back looking like different people entirely. Being respawned was less like coming back from the dead and more like being instantly reincarnated. Or as we used to say back in the Wardens, it was like rolling a new character at random in some game. You never quite knew what you were going to get or who you were going to become.

In my case, I was now a woman of around twenty or so, with long legs and the lithe and athletic build of a dancer. My new breasts were probably around C cups, large enough to be noticeable but not enough to immediately draw attention, for which I was thankful. I couldn’t imagine how annoying it would be to have everyone constantly staring at my boobs.

While I looked myself over in the mirror pool, I slowly ran my hands over my body, feeling my soft and smooth skin, which was quite different from what I was used to. Feeling myself like this made it feel more real and less like some kind of fever dream. And as I did this, I couldn’t help but notice that I had a deep natural tan over my entire body.

My hair was dark, nearly black though not quite, with little hints of auburn running through it. This hair, which went down just a little past my shoulders, framed a face which was pretty, possibly even beautiful in a girl-next-door type of way, but which would never be considered model material. The nose was just a little too large for that.

And then, there were my eyes. I had to crouch down to get a better look at them in the mirror pool. My eyes were a brilliant green with specks of gold that were just a bit too bright to be natural. These eyes were definitely my most notable and standout feature.

All in all, I thought that I was on the pretty side of plain, with a few exotic features to make me look more interesting. I couldn’t quite determine which nationality or ethnicity would best describe my new appearance, but that was common among the respawned.

“I am one of the respawned now,” I said with the reality of that was still sinking in. “I am a player.”

I’d spent a large part of my life studying players. Researching them. Fighting them and coming up with contingency plans for how to deal with them when they went rogue. And, I had worked with players on many occasions. However, I had never seriously thought that I might actually become one of them myself.

If I really was a player now, then there was something else I had to examine, something even more important than my new body. With that, I took a deep breath and said, “Status,” while trying to flip a mental switch that I’d heard about numerous times but had never experienced myself. At least, not until that moment.

Suddenly, words and numbers appeared in the air in front of me, as though I was looking directly at a computer monitor. However, I could somehow feel that this information was being projected directly into my mind, bypassing my eyes entirely…just like with the message I’d seen after my death.

CLASS: INVOKER
LEVEL: 1
FREE STAT POINTS: 3

FOCUS: 8
PERCEPTION: 7
PRESENCE: 5
STRENGTH: 6
VITALITY: 7
DEXTERITY: 6
AGILITY: 7

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-PRIMAL MAGIC

ABILITIES:

I carefully looked over my status screen, taking in every detail. I’d heard about status screens before, on countless occasions, but I’d never actually seen one, nor had I ever expected to. Only players had access to these status screens, which showed their statistics and abilities as though they were characters in some game. In fact, that was where the term ‘player’ had initially come from.

My starting stats all looked decent, with nothing below a five. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the absolute peak of human ability, that meant everything I had was average or above.

However, there was one detail that immediately caught my eye. The class I’d been given was Invoker. I was an invoker.

“Well, crap.”

If I’d been allowed to choose my own class, then out of all the classes I knew about, invoker probably would have been at the bottom of the list. Most players considered it to be a broken class, and not in a good way.

I reached out to touch my status screen, but my hand went right through the letters. This was a reminder that I was really only seeing this in my mind. So, I tried again, this time without moving. Instead, I focused on my status screen and mentally touched my class name of ‘INVOKER’. Suddenly, a smaller window popped up in front of me.

INVOKER – A CLASS WITH THE INNANTE ABILITY TO SENSE AND CHANNEL THE POWER OF THE PRIMALS

That was it. No more information. No details. I mentally closed out the popup.

I’d talked to an invoker once, a drunk man who’d spent the entire time complaining about his class and how useless it was compared to every other class. That conversation was where I’d gained most of my knowledge about invokers, along with my low opinion of the class.

Players could grow stronger and more powerful over time, gaining new magics and abilities. However, invokers were a little different. They didn’t gain new powers of their own. Instead, they channeled…or invoked…the magic of more powerful beings, beings called primals. While other classes grew more powerful on their own, invokers had to beg, borrow, or steal their power.

Back when I’d been with the Wardens, we hadn’t known much about the primals, other than that they existed inside the Labyrinth…and wherever it had come from. Primals were beings of pure magic, more spirit than physical. Being an invoker meant that I would have to find some of these beings and then make deals with them. That wouldn’t be easy because negotiation had never been my strong suit.

“I should have been a stalker,” I grumbled bitterly. Sneaking around, stealing things, and attacking from the shadows. That kind of thing had always been more my style. “Well, as Mom used to say, there’s no point crying over spilled milk.”

With that, I turned my attention back to my status screen and the statistics that were displayed there. Most importantly, I was focused on the three free stat points that I had. I could add those to any of my existing stats to become stronger, faster, or more resilient. The question then, was where should I put them? What would work best for an invoker, and what would work best for me if I couldn’t actually rely on invoker magic?

Most players didn’t like to talk about their stats and abilities, but they tended to be a bit more open about how things worked in general. Because of that, I had a pretty good idea of how each of the stats actually worked.

From what we could tell, the numbers shown on the status screen were just a general overview, a simplified display that was easy for players to understand. But behind that, I’d always suspected there were hidden statistics, sub-stats that made up the ones we did see, and a bunch of background calculations that most players didn’t really need to know.

What I could see were various statistics and the number of points that were currently assigned to them. A score between four and six was considered average, while seven through nine were the ratings between fit and professional athletes. Once you reached a score of ten, you were in the area of absolute peak ability, the Olympic gold medalist level.

What I didn’t know was if these ratings were objective, or if they were based off the individual. Did a ten represent the absolute peak of human ability, or just the absolute peak of that specific individual’s potential? Was a petite woman with a score of nine in strength really as strong as a large man with the same number of stat points? There had been a lot of debate on that and I didn’t know if anyone had ever gotten a definitive answer.

I currently had three points available to assign, each one representing somewhere around a ten percent increase in ability. That meant, I had a couple stats I could currently push into Olympic gold medalist range, and one that I could move beyond that and into the superhuman levels that players were known for.

Focus seemed to be a combined rating for intelligence, willpower, and other mental attributes, such as the ability to concentrate or multitask. This was the stat that influenced how well a player could actually control their magic, which made it one of the most valuable stats for spellcaster types.

Perception covered senses and awareness of the environment. Presence was for how well you could project your will, which seemed the least useful to me until I remembered that this one might actually be valuable for someone who needed to negotiate with primals

“I’ll mark presence as a maybe,” I muttered reluctantly, noting that it was currently my lowest stat.

The rest of my stats were mostly physical in nature and were self-explanatory. All of those would be useful, though I suspected that vitality would be the most important for an invoker. Channeling magic put stress on the body, so the more vitality I had, the more energy I’d be able to use at once.

I considered my options for a few minutes before deciding to hold off for now. I wanted a little more information on my class and how it worked before I invested my limited points.

Then, just as I was about to close out of my status screen, I noticed a faint blinking in the top corner, almost as if there was an alarm indicator going off. I cautiously clicked on it, not sure what was going to happen. A new message popped up in front of me.

YOU HAVE BEEN WITNESSED BY AVEXIS, GODDESS OF SPITE AND PETTY REVENGE. AVEXIS APPROVES OF YOUR ACTIONS AND GRANTS YOU A BOON OF HER POWER.

NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: INVOCATION OF SPITE

I stared at the message in surprise and confusion, reading it again several times to make sure that I wasn’t missing something. I was still a bit confused.

I’d been under the impression that most invokers had a hard time finding patrons, and that they usually had to invest a bit of time and effort before they gained their first ability. I didn’t think that I’d ever heard of an invoker getting an ability right off the bat.

“And what actions?” I asked aloud. I’d only just respawned and hadn’t had time to do anything. “What could earn the approval of a goddess of spite and petty revenge?”

About the only things I could think of, at least, from recently, was that I’d killed the man who murdered Margaret, and then I’d stabbed that other player in the eye just as he was about to kill me. Those actions had been spiteful, but they’d happened before my death…and before I’d been respawned as an invoker. And as far as I knew, there were no primals on Earth, and no way one of them could have been watching.

“Maybe it was for petty revenge,” I mused with a shake of my head. “For messing with Jacob.”

I closed the message popup and immediately noticed that my status page had changed. It looked like it had updated with my new ability.

CLASS: INVOKER
LEVEL: 1
FREE STAT POINTS: 3

FOCUS: 8
PERCEPTION: 7
PRESENCE: 5
STRENGTH: 6
VITALITY: 7
DEXTERITY: 6
AGILITY: 7

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-PRIMAL MAGIC
--DIVINE TYPE

ABILITIES:
- INVOCATION OF SPITE

I tried clicking on my new ability ‘Invocation of Spite’, but unlike with my class, there was no popup with additional information. I tried checking the talents and affinities but got the same lack of results.

“So, I have an ability but no idea of what it is or how to use it,” I mused aloud while closing out my status page.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. I realized that I did know what it did and how to use it, though I couldn’t quite say exactly how I knew that. It was as though the information and been plugged directly into my mind, the same way that the status page and messages were.

Now that I’d checked out my new body, at least enough to know what I now looked like, and I had looked over my stats and abilities, it was time to get out of this place. Of course, that would be easier said than done.

I stood at the doorway to the respawn room, the only passage in or out. There was no door, just a simple arch lined with crystal to indicate where I needed to go, almost like some kind of ‘exit’ sign.

Right beside the doorway, there was a hook with a simple brown robe hanging from it. This was not one of those comfortable bathrobes, but probably something closer to what medieval monks might have worn. And on the other side of the doorway was a table with four weapons spread out on it.

At the moment, I was buck-ass-naked, so I immediately grabbed the robe and put it on. It fit me surprisingly well. There were a pair of sandals on the floor beneath the robe so put those on as well. They were the perfect size for my feet.

Once I was dressed, I went to the table and looked at the available weapons. My choices were a dagger, a sword, a mace, and an axe. These were all basic one-handed weapons, simple with no frills or decorations, but they were all that I had to work with.

I was familiar with all of these weapons but not in expert in any. Of the ones available, the dagger appealed to me the most, though I wasn’t sure why. I carefully picked it up and examined the blade. It was a bit rough, but it would do. Then, since a dagger didn’t have much as much reach as the other weapons, I picked up the sword…or tried to. It remained stuck on the table as though welded to the spot. A quick check confirmed that the other weapons were the same way, completely unmovable.

“Let’s see if I’m right,” I mused, placing the dagger back where I’d found it before picking up the mace. The mace came up with no problem, though now the dagger remained fixed to the table. “Okay, so it looks like I can only take one.”

Now that I was both armed and dressed, it was time to leave. I clenched the mace firmly in my hand, then stepped through the doorway.

I emerged into a large cavern with walls and ceiling made of the same grey stone as the previous room. Veins of crystal ran through the walls and ceiling, continuing to provide enough light to see with, though it was a little darker.

“Where the hell am I?” I asked.

It was a rhetorical question, and not just because I was talking to myself. It was rhetorical because I also knew the answer, or at least, had a vague understanding. Every player that I’d asked, had told me that they’d respawned from a pool like the one I had, and that they were located inside of the Labyrinth, on a shallow level somewhere near an exit.

Of course, it was possible that some people respawned in deeper and more dangerous areas, but that none of them had ever made it out to talk about it. I was trying not to think about that possibility.

“Now I just need to find the exit and get out,” I said as I looked around.

There were creatures skittering along the cavern floor and coming right at me. I couldn’t tell what they were at first, not until a couple of them got close. Rats. Giant rats. They were about three feet long and had bony spikes jutting out of their backs.

This suddenly seemed like a good time to try out my new ability, ‘Invocation of Spite.’ I activated the ability by flipping a mental switch, then almost immediately screamed in pain. A surge of intense agony shot through my body, making me feel almost as though I had acid in my veins. It only lasted for a couple seconds though before all that pain flowed right back out of my body and into the palm of my hand. In my palm, I held a ball swirling red and black energy.

“EAT PAIN,” I snarled, mentally pushing the ball of energy away from me.

The little ball of pain shot out of my hand and flew a short distance until it hit the nearest rat. The monster dropped to the ground and spasmed, letting out a horrific shriek before abruptly going silent and motionless.

I stood there for several seconds, shaking a bit from what I’d just gone through. I’d expected some pain, but not like that. Not nearly like that.

‘Invocation of Spite’ was a dangerous ability, and not just for my enemies. I could fire a ball of primal energy that caused intense pain and damage to my target, but there was a price. An appropriate price, considering the ability’s name and who had given it. I had to channel that energy through my body, which meant that I felt a portion of it as well. If I wanted to use this power, I had to be willing to pay the price.

I was so distracted that I almost missed the second rat until it was right on me. I swung my mace at the last second, catching the monster in the side and knocking it away. However, the next rat lunged at me and bit my leg. I yelped at the sharp pain before slamming my mace down onto its head and crushing it.

More rats were coming at me so I couldn’t afford to be distracted. I ignored the pain in my leg where I’d been bitten and braced myself with the mace. At that moment, I wasn’t ready to use that ability again…not that I was able to. I could somehow sense that it had a cooldown, partly because of the amount of power that Avexis had allocated for me, and partly because my body simply wasn’t able to physically handle it again.

I swung my mace, hitting one rat and then another. I could feel their soft flesh smashing in and could even feel bones breaking. But unfortunately, there were more rats than I could easily deal with and more of them got through. I received two more bites and a few scratches before the current group of rats were finally dealt with.

When there was only one rat monster remaining, I braced myself to deal with the thing. It was about to charge at me, so all I had to do was manage one more good swing of my mace. Maybe two. However, I was already tired of these furry little bastards and wanted to dish out some real pain.

I took a deep breath to brace myself, then activated ‘Invocation of Spite’ again. Once again, the burning pain tore through my body before forming into a ball of energy in my hand. A moment later, that blast hit the monster, which let out a loud shriek before dying.

“No pain,” I whispered with a gasp. “No gain.”

Once again, my whole body was shaking from what I’d just put it through. I was already hurting from the bites and scratches, so I didn’t need that extra bit of punishment. But in spite of that, I still felt a strange sense of satisfaction…even exhilaration.

It had been years… No, it had been decades since I’d been healthy enough to move around like this. Hell, it felt amazing to just be able to walk without pain. I hadn’t been able to do that in several decades, not since a player had shattered my leg.

“Damn,” I exclaimed with a grin. “It feels good to be young and healthy.”

Being young and healthy again felt great, in spite of the aches and tiredness. I shook one of my arms, then switched the mace to that one and shook the other. Swinging that thing had gotten a bit rough towards the end, and now both of my arms hurt, in spite of having switched my mace between them in the middle of the fight.

“Strength,” I muttered. “I need more points in strength if I want to swing a mace around.”

I considered that for a moment, then opened my status screen and assigned my three free points. However, in spite of what I’d just said, I didn’t put any of them into strength. Instead, I assigned all three into vitality. Not only would vitality help with the aches and tiredness, but it would also toughen me up a bit so that I’d be able to handle ‘Invocation of Spite’ a little more easily.

As soon as I slotted those points, I immediately felt better. My vitality was now ten, my highest stat, and making me healthier and more energic than I’d ever been before in my life. I immediately caught my breath and was able to shake off some of rubber feeling in my arms, which convinced me that this had been the right choice.

“I’m a player now,” I reminded myself with a smirk. “I’ll be able to earn more points later on. This is only the beginning.”

---------

I stepped into a new cavern and looked around, immediately spotting several rodents of unusual size. Those giant rat monsters seemed to be everywhere, though at least, they were relatively easy to kill. I was able to one-shot most of them with a single ‘Invocation of Spite’ or a solid mace hit.

Before the rats could notice me, I stepped back into the tunnel that I’d just come out of and looked for something I could use. There wasn’t much there except rocks, which just happened to be what I needed. With a faint smile, I picked up a rock, gently tossed it up into the air a couple times to get a feel for its weight, then I threw it as hard as I could towards the nearest rat. My throw was lacking and the rock only made it halfway to my target, but it still managed to get the rat’s attention.

“Come to papa,” I said with an evil grin as I backed up further into the tunnel. “Or mama, I guess.”

The rat came charging at me, along with two more that had seen it running off. An ‘Invocation of Spite’ killed the first rat while my mace crushed the second one’s head. When the third came at me, I kicked it in the head, knocking it backward. When it lunged again, I was in a better position to hit it with my mace.

“Three down, a hundred to go,” I said with a nod of satisfaction.

Luring in a couple monsters at a time was a lot easier than having a dozen of them all swarm me at once. It was a strategy I would have to keep using.

I’d been wandering around for nearly two hours, but all I’d seen had been caverns and tunnels. And rats. Lots of rats. Fighting them had demonstrated the wisdom of placing extra points into vitality, since I suspected that without those extra points, I would have been too exhausted to continue. I’d also noticed a slight improvement in my ability to handle ‘Invocation of Spite’. I still felt the excruciating pain, but it didn’t seem to physically wipe me out quite as much afterwards.

Once I was ready, I attempted to lure in another group of rats, but I couldn’t throw a rock far enough to get their attention unless I went further into the cavern. I was hesitant to do that if I didn’t have to since I’d be out in the open and easier to swarm. I briefly considered trying to hit a rat with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, but I’d already learned that my accuracy with those attacks dropped significantly the further away I tried to hit. I’d already missed one target earlier, and there was almost nothing worse than paying the price in pain only to have it all go to waste.

I hadn’t had ‘Invocation of Spite’ for very long, but I’d already developed a passionate love/hate relationship with it. It seemed pretty powerful and had probably saved my life a couple times already, but the price… I shuddered at the very memory of how painful it was to use. Whoever had created that magic was a masochist. Or a sadist. Probably both.

That made me think of Avexis, the source of that particular ability. With her title as the goddess of spite and petty revenge, I realized that it would probably be a VERY bad idea to get on her bad side.

“Avexis,” I said aloud, not sure if she was somehow watching me or could hear me through the strange link we shared courtesy of that invocation. “Thank you for lending me your power.” I figured it couldn’t hurt to be polite, just in case.

After this, I turned my attention back to the giant rats. I moved further into the cavern and threw another rock. This time, it landed close enough to a rat to get its attention. It came at me, bringing more of its friends. But to my surprise, one of the charging rats was much larger than the others, nearly three times their size. The bony spikes on this monster’s back actually shimmered and glowed a little, resembling crystal from the cavern walls more than actual bones.

“Ah, crap,” I muttered with a grimace.

I hit the first rat in the head, feeling it die with a sickening crunch. I kicked the second rat in the side in order to get some more space, and then I backed up, swinging my mace in front of me. The plus-sized rat took its time coming at me, almost as though it didn’t think I was worth the effort of hurrying for.

“I’ve been saving a little something for you, big guy,” I announced as charged an ‘Invocation of Spite’.

The pain tore through my body and was quickly fired at the monster. I hit it dead on, causing the thing to freeze in place and shriek in pain. However, it didn’t drop dead as all the previous rats had. Instead, it snarled in rage and charged at me with a new aggression.

I hit the rat with my mace, feeling the impact run up my already aching arms, though that didn’t stop the monster. It bit into my shoulder, causing me to yelp in pain, though I was careful not to drop my mace. I couldn’t afford to be unarmed against this thing. I responded by kicking it, trying to do as much damage as I could while I fought loose.

“LET,” I commanded as I hit the rat alongside the head with my mace. “ME,” I kicked at it again. “GO!”

At this point, the monster let me go but it began circling me, looking to pounce again. It opened its mouth and revealed its bloody incisors, which it was clearly eager to bit me with again.

“I’ve killed bigger and nastier things than you,” I told the rat, not knowing or caring if it could actually understand me. I didn’t mention that I’d achieved that by using modern weapons, the kind I no longer had, and which wouldn’t even work inside the Labyrinth even if I did have them. “I’ll kill you too.”

When the rat came at me again, I stepped to the side to avoid its charge while swinging my mace as hard as I could. My mace smashed into the monster’s head, and this time, I felt something break. Half the rat’s head was sunken in and oozing, but it wasn’t down yet. I hit it two more times, turning what was left of its head into pulp. Then it finally stopped moving.

“About damn time,” I said, spitting onto the corpse.

Just then, I felt a pleasant warmth spread through my body. It only lasted for a second, but it had done something to me. I wasn’t quite sure what, but I somehow felt just a little stronger and more energized. Before I could really question this, another popup message appeared in front of me

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 2

I blinked at that then opened my status screen. It looked almost the same as the last time I’d looked at it, except that it now said I was level 2 and that I had another free stat point. I immediately slotted that one into vitality since that stat had already been working so well for me. That, and because that one point also happened to push my vitality past the normal human range and into the beginning stages of what could be considered superhuman.

“That feels good,” I announced as my aches faded and my energy level increased again. “Better than a cup of coffee.”

I was about to turn my attention back to hunting rats when I suddenly heard some noise coming from the far side of the cavern. It sounded like movement, but not the skittering about of the rats. Instead, it sounded more like shuffling, clanging, and…talking.

My attention was now firmly locked onto the source of this sound, and I stared across the cavern, trying to see it. Then, I finally saw it. I finally saw them, a group of people emerging from another tunnel and stepping into the cavern.

I wasn’t alone.

Four players stepped into the cavern on the far side, each of them armed and armored. A group of rats immediately attacked them, so the players were too focused on that to notice me.

The player in front was broad-shouldered and stocky, with chainmail armor and what appeared to be a plate chest piece. He held a large metal shield and was swinging a sword at the rats. I guessed that he had a warrior class, or maybe a more specialized version like stalwart or bulwark.

Off to the side was a second man in chainmail, though it looked like he was wearing some kind of sports jersey over the top of it. He was too far away for me to get a good look at it, not that it would do much good if I couldn’t. I’d never been a sports guy and wouldn’t recognize which team it belonged to.

Jersey guy was holding a pair of scepters, one in each hand. I couldn’t make out any details of those weapons from that distance, but he fired one at a rat, waited several seconds, then fired the other. He alternated back and forth, showing that those scepters were weaker than the one I’d used so recently, but they were ready for reuse much faster.

To the other side of the shield guy was a dark-skinned woman who was completely bald. The woman was tall and slender, wearing leather armor and holding a wooden staff. She held out her hand and fired blast of blue energy, revealing herself to probably be an arcanist.

The last of the four was a blonde girl who stood in the back, behind the others. She appeared to be in her mid-teens, making her younger than most players, but appearances could be deceiving, especially when respawns are involved. To match her apparent youth, the wore a flowing green and gold dress, with a matching witch style hat.

At first, the witch girl didn’t seem to be doing anything besides hiding behind the others, but then she held out her hands which began to glow. A few seconds later, three figures appeared on the ground in front of her. Three rabbits with horns on their heads.

“A summoner,” I said in realization.

The four players had already drawn the attention of every rat in the cavern, and they were quickly being swarmed. However, they were holding their old. The guy with the shield stood in front, trying to get the monsters attention while jersey guy and magic lady just cut loose at the rats. And then, not to be outdone, the summoner girl unleashed her three horned rabbits, which charged in and began attacking the rats.

I stood back and watched the fight, though I held my mace ready in case any of the rats came at me. None did. I briefly considered joining the fight, but I didn’t know them and they didn’t seem to need my help anyway.

Once the fight was over and all the rat monsters were dead, the four players finally noticed me. The summoner girl actually pointed at me while saying something that I couldn’t hear. After a few seconds, they began walking in my direction, looking wary but not outright hostile.

“Hey,” Jersey guy called out.

“Look at those robes,” the woman with the staff told her associates. “She’s a new respawn…”

“You’re right,” the shield guy responded.

The group all stopped and quickly talked among themselves, keeping their voices low. Then the summoner girl stepped forward and continued towards me. Three horned rabbits trailed behind her.

“Hi,” the summoner said in a friendly tone. “I’m Bunny.”

“Bunny?” I asked, glancing towards her cute rabbit monsters.

Bunny shrugged at that and gave me a friendly smile. “I needed a new name after I respawned, and it seemed appropriate.”

“I can see that,” I commented.

Before I could say anything more, she explained, “I don’t know if you know this yet, but respawned are legally different people than who they were before.”

“I am aware of that,” I told her. “Though, I haven’t really considered what that means since I woke up in that pool.”

I remembered when players first appeared, emerging from Labyrinth entrances and claiming to be people who’d died, regardless of the fact that they didn’t look anything like those people. It had created a lot of controversy, especially once they were able to start proving their claims.

Nobody had wanted to deal with Uncle Bob returning and trying to reclaim the inheritance that he’d left behind, or a dead wife coming back as a man and expecting to continue her marriage as though nothing had changed. There had been lawsuits. Lots of lawsuits.

Eventually, it had been decided that the respawned were legally separate individuals from whom they’d been before. They had no claim to their previous identities nor any of the wealth or relationships that they might have left behind. On the other hand, they were also free from old debts and obligations.

“I am…,” I started to say, only to pause and consider what name I should use. I couldn’t be Carl anymore. Carl was dead and gone. I was someone new, and that meant, I needed a new name. “Maggie,” I finally told Bunny. “You can call me Maggie.”

“Nice to meet you, Maggie,” Bunny said with a friendly smile. “My friends and I were just in the Labyrinth training…”

“And trying to find something to sell,” the guy with the Jersey offered from where he still stood back.

“That is Ace,” Bunny introduced the man in the jersey. “He won’t tell us what his class is.”

“Everyone needs an ace up their sleeve,” Ace said with a grin.

“The guy with the shield is Turtle,” Bunny introduced him to me. “He’s our bulwark.

“Nice to meet you,” Turtle said as he slowly came closer.

“Nice to meet you too,” I responded politely.

“I am Olivia,” the dark-skinned woman said, introducing herself as she came over to join us. She had a serious expression on her face and was giving me a wary look. “I am an arcanist. That means, I manipulate arcane energies.”

“And I am a summoner,” Bunny offered, gesturing to her three horned rabbits. “I can’t really summon anything besides these guys yet.”

All four of them were giving me expectant looks, and I knew exactly what they wanted to know. I briefly considered following Ace’s example and keeping my class to myself before deciding against it. If nothing else, being somewhat open with them might earn me a bit of trust.

“Invoker,” I told them. “I’m an invoker.”

“Damn, that’s rough,” Ace said with a wince while Bunny nodded agreement.

“Sorry to hear that,” Turtle told me sympathetically. “Invokers usually have it pretty rough to start with.”

“I’m doing all right,” I assured them with a faint smile. “I was just wondering, how the hell do I get out of this place? I’ve been wandering around down here for a couple hours.”

Ace gave me a look of surprise. “You’ve been down here for a couple hours? As an invoker?”

“We are pretty far in,” Bunny pointed out. “I mean, when I respawned, I was only a couple hundred meters from the entrance.”

“Same here,” Turtle said.

Ace smirked and suggested, “Maybe you got turned around and accidentally went further in.”

“Possible,” I said, though I didn’t really agree. After I’d left the room with the respawn pool, I hadn’t seen any options to head the other direction.

“It appears that you might be an outlier,” Olivia commented thoughtfully. “You’re lucky that you survived on your own long enough for us to find you.”

“You can come with us,” Bunny told me with a grin. “We were just heading out of here ourselves.”

I considered that for a moment before nodding. “Thank you. I’d appreciate the help getting out.”

With that, I shifted my mace to the other hand and shook out my arm again. I wished that I had a way to carry my mace that didn’t involve me actually carrying it in my hands, but such was life.

While I was doing that, I looked around at the dead rat monsters that were scattered around the cavern. The ones that I’d killed first had already begun melting away into a thick black goo. Most monsters did that when they died. In spite of what they might have looked like, they weren’t real animals. Instead, they were some sort of artificial beings that were created by the Labyrinth, sort of like living artifacts.

“This way to the nearest entrance,” Olivia said, using her staff to point to a side tunnel that I hadn’t really noticed.

“The second closest one is a three-day trip,” Ace told me as he drew his scepters again.

After this, the group began moving again. Turtle took the lead, marching forward with his shield at the ready. Ace and Olivia went second while Sunny and I followed up in the rear. Since they were letting me march at their backs, I assumed that they either trusted me for some inexplicable reason, or more likely, they assumed that a new invoker couldn’t possibly be a threat.

We ran into a couple more rats while walking through the tunnel, though they were killed off well before I had a chance. Between Ace’s scepters and Olivia’s magical blasts, the little monsters were quickly killed.

The tunnel opened up into another cavern, though one that was a little different from the ones I’d seen before. The walls, ceiling, and floor all appeared to be made of some bluish crystal, and there were crystal spikes jutting out from the ceiling and floor like stalactites and stalagmites.

“I hate this room,” Bunny complained, almost looking like she was pouting.

“Keep your eyes up,” Olivia warned.

I looked around the cavern but didn’t see any of the rats that I’d become so familiar with, so I looked up to see what Olivia was warning of. It took a moment, but then I spotted it. There was movement up near the ceiling.

A moment later, something dove down from the ceiling and came right for us, nearly crashing into Olivia before it abruptly changed direction and flew away. In that moment, I got a look at the monster. I was a large bat with small pieces of crystal along the struts of its wings.

“My pets can’t ever reach them,” Bunny complained. The horned rabbits hopped around near her feet as though trying to demonstrate how high they could leap and how lacking that height was.

“I don’t have that problem though,” Ace exclaimed with an eager grin.

Ace made a show of spinning his scepters, one in each hand, and then firing off both at once. Two pulses of energy shot out and hit the bat as it was turning to dive again. The monster crashed into the ground a short distance away, the impact finishing it off if the blasts hadn’t.

The bat’s death acted like a trigger, because a moment later, a dozen more bats swooped down from the ceiling. Several of them flung crystal shards as they dove, making me leap to the side to avoid being hit. Turtle flung his shield over his head and backed up, blocking another shard from hitting Olivia.

Olivia stepped out of cover and fired a blast of blue energy, missing any of the bats. She quickly stepped under the cover of Turtle’s shell again, remaining there for about ten seconds before stepping out and firing another blast.

One of the bats swooped down close to me and I swung my mace, but it was just out of range. I grimaced and tried again, only to miss a second time. I could see why Bunny hated those bats because I was starting to hate them too.

A shard of crystal dropped on me from above, grazing my shoulder and tearing yet another hole in my robe. I silently cursed, then decided that I was done with holding back.

“GET DOWN HERE, YOU WINGED RATS,” I yelled, right before flinging an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at a bat that had been in the process of swooping down towards Bunny.

The blast hit the monster and knocked it out of the sky with a loud shriek of agony. It smashed into the ground and was still twitching, at least until a horned rabbit impaled it.

Several pairs of eyes turned to stare at me in surprise, but before anyone could voice a question, the bats drew their attention back. I took several deep breaths, trying to ignore the residual effect of my ability. Instead, I focused on the bats that were still coming. One of them got close enough that I was able to hit it with my mace, breaking its wing and bringing it to the ground. A couple more hits was enough to finish it off.

I managed to fire off one more ‘Invocation of Spite’ before the fight ended. The last of the bats hit the ground and was immediately torn into by the only horned rabbit that remained. I just slumped over, resting my arms and catching my breath. Damn, I loved how much easier the extra vitality made recovery after a fight.

“I’m guessing you stumbled into a primal while you were wandering around,” Ace said, giving me a curious look.

“Something like that,” I agreed, deciding that they didn’t need the details. “Now, I don’t see an exit sign, so where do we go from here?”

“Where are we?” I asked.

I looked around and saw a small town, one that almost looked more like it belonged in the old west than in the modern world. The fact that some of the walls were made of concrete disproved that, though my initial impression still remained. Most of the buildings had wood facades and were two stories or less, though one of them was the exception, reaching the lofty heights of four stories.

My eyes settled on a nearby streetlight. This was not a modern electric streetlight, but an old-fashioned gas light that would have fit right into Victorian England. This light and other details like it were what had given me my initial impression.

After taking a few seconds to examine the down, I looked behind me, at the glowing portal that I’d just stepped out of. This was a literal tear in the fabric of reality itself, as well as the local entrance to the Labyrinth. The whole thing was about nine feet wide and fifteen feet tall. It was a respectably sized opening.

“Gideon Heights,” Ace said in answer to my question. “We’re in Gideon Heights.”

“South Dakota,” I mused aloud.

Bunny gave me a curious look. “You’ve heard of it?”

I hesitated a moment before answering, “I’ve been here before.”

What I didn’t say was that the last time I’d been there had been a few decades ago, right after this opening to the Labyrinth first appeared. It had been well before the town had been built around it.

The others all gave me questioning looks at that, so I simply said, “It’s been a long time.”

“Okay,” Ace joked with a grin. “Maggie is a woman of mystery.”

“Look who’s talking,” Bunny teased Ace. “Mister…I can’t tell you what my class is.”

“Touche,” Ace responded cheerfully.

“We led you out of the Labyrinth as promised,” Olivia told me.

I gave her a polite nod. “Thank you. All of you.” I shook my head. “I have no idea how I would have found the way out on my own.”

“You were in there pretty far,” Bunny agreed. “Now for the fun part.”

Bunny gestured towards two people who were approaching us. One was a middle-aged woman and the other was a younger man, both wearing professional looking grey uniforms. The uniforms were different from what I used to wear, yet similar enough to give me a sense of nostalgia.

“The Men in Grey,” Turtle announced in a grim tone, shuddering as he did so. “And paperwork.”

I glanced down at myself and the torn and bloody robe that I was wearing. That robe clearly marked me as being newly respawned. Then with a sigh, I straightened up and stepped forward meet the pair of Wardens.

“Hello,” I greeted the Wardens politely. “Do you want to do this here, or would it be easier to do in your office?”

The two Wardens paused then shared a glance before the woman answered. “I was going to suggest our office.”

“We’ll see you later, Maggie,” Bunny said as the four of them went off on their own, leaving me with the Wardens.

I followed the Wardens to a nearby building which was labeled as being their office. Once we were inside, the woman sat down behind a nice wooden desk while the younger man opened the drawer of a filing cabinet and pulled out some paperwork. He set the small stack of papers on the desk by the woman, then left the room.

While they were getting ready, I sat down at the seat across from the woman, placing my mace on the ground beside me. It felt good to lose that weight. Then I slowly looked around the room, taking in all the details. There was the large filing cabinet that occupied most of one wall, with a liquid fuel lantern like what I used to use for camping sitting on top. Beside the desk there was a sword and crossbow, both clearly cared for and ready for use. What I didn’t see was any sign of a computer or light switch. That was to be expected.

I smiled faintly, definitely feeling the nostalgia. I’d spent countless hours in offices like this, ones that were too close to a Labyrinth entrance to rely on any modern technology. The Labyrinth had a strange effect on things like electronics and certain chemical reactions, such as the ones that firearms used, and that effect even extended beyond the Labyrinth to the area around any of its entrances. If you wanted to work anywhere near the Labyrinth, you had to get used to doing things the old-school way.

The woman across the desk had a name on her uniform. Davis. Agent Davis had a pen in her hand and a notebook open in front of her. She quickly wrote down a few things, giving me quick glances as she did so.

I didn’t recognize Davis from my time in the Wardens, though it probably would have been more of a surprise if I had. After all, that had been a long time ago and the organization had grown even larger since then.

I remembered the early days, when there had only been twelve of us. We’d been an ad-hoc group of military, intelligence, and law enforcement individuals, thrown together on short notice for the task of dealing with players, who’d recently begun to appear. The idea, at the time, had been that we would contain the problem until the important people decided what the official policy was going to be.

Back in those days, the Labyrinth was new and monsters kept emerging from the openings. When people began appearing as well…and ones who claimed to be dead people… Well, there were a lot of questions and even more suspicions.

A large part of our duties involved detaining players for investigation, resulting in them and many others referring to us as the wardens of their prison. At the same time, some of us thought of ourselves as being more like game wardens, overseeing the strange new ecosystem that was the Labyrinth, and the ‘wildlife’ that emerged from it. The name stuck and we became the Wardens.

“Now then,” Agent Davis said, breaking me out of my reminiscence. “I assume that you are newly respawned.”

“That is correct,” I agreed.

Davis stared at me with a thoughtful expression before saying, “You seem to be well prepared for this…” When I didn’t respond to that, she continued, “So, you may already be aware of what I am about to tell you, but I am still required to do so.”

“I understand,” I told her.

The Warden on the other side of the desk nodded, then began to give ‘the lecture.’ It was the same lecture that I myself had given dozens of times before, though some of the details had changed since then. For the most part, Davis just explained my situation as a respawned player, which would be useful to most newly respawned, but which was merely an unnecessary refresher for me.

“We will begin creating new identification forms for you,” Davis told me as she wrote more down onto one of the forms. “Now, what name will you be using from now on?”

“Maggie,” I answered. “I’m going by Maggie now.”

I didn’t give a last name since most respawned didn’t bother using one. Or if they did, they simply used the name of the place where they’d first respawned, which would make me Maggie Gideon, since I was in the town of Gideon Heights.

Agent Davis asked me a few questions about my class, but I wasn’t legally required to provide that so I didn’t. Then she measured my height, which was five-foot-seven, and wrote down a physical description of me. A short time later, she handed me my new legal identification card.

I glanced over the card, smiling faintly at how little information was present. The only name on it was ‘Maggie’. Instead of a ‘date of birth’, I had a ‘date of respawn’ listed, with the current date. I was a little surprised to note that the current date was nearly a month from the last date I remembered.

“And no DMV picture,” I joked, knowing full well that the reason Davis hadn’t taken my picture, was because cameras wouldn’t work.

“Only if you get a drivers license,” Davis told me with a faint smile. “Which is kind of pointless at the moment since you have to get good a mile or two away from here before any car will even start.”

“That isn’t real high on my priority list,” I told Davis. “But thanks anyway.”

“Now then,” Davis said, giving me a knowing look. “I suspect that the real reason you were so eager to fill out the paperwork was so that you had access to the amenities we offer new players.”

I gave her a friendly smile and a nod of acknowledgement. “You suspect correctly.”

Davis chuckled at that and then moved to closet door. After rummaging around for a minute, she pulled out a small pile of clothing and handed it to me. She followed that up by giving me a key.

“Room C on the second floor,” Davis told me. “We only provide room and board to new players for one month. After that, I’m afraid that you’re on your own.”

“Thank you,” I told her with a nod of appreciation.

“No,” Davis told me with a smile. “Thank you for making this easy. Do you know how many new players insist that we contact their spouses…or demand that we get them access to their old bank accounts?”

I nodded sympathetically at that, knowing exactly what she meant. I’d had my share of those encounters and still remembered players crying…and even threatening me over things that I had no control over.

“Their…our situation isn’t your fault,” I told Davis. “You’re just trying to do your job.”

Davis nodded at that, looking pleased that I understood. Then, just as I was about to leave, she cautiously said, “You don’t have to answer, but… What did you do…before?”

I hesitated at that, not inclined to answer. However, I had a feeling that Davis suspected something, and it would probably be smart to remain on good terms with the local Wardens.

“Why,” I finally answered, giving her a grin, “I used to sit behind a desk, just like that one.” I enjoyed the look of surprise on her face, right before I stepped out the door and left.

----------

My new room was small and cramped, reminding me of the college dorm room from oh so long ago. It was about half the size of my old room back at the home, having space for a bed, a small desk, and little else.

I took one look around the room and then dropped my mace to the floor beside the door. It hit with a heavy thump that would probably annoy whomever was beneath me.

But as small as the room was, it was a room with a bed, and at the moment, that was really what I needed. And as a bonus, there was a connected bathroom, even though I had to share it with whomever was in the next room. For the moment though, I had it to myself.

“Thank God that indoor plumbing still works fine,” I exclaimed upon seeing the toilet.

Bunny had given me some water earlier, and it had finally run through my system. I dropped my ragged robe into the garbage bin, then eyed the shower. A nice hot shower would be great, but first…

With a sigh, I sat down on the toilet, being thankful that I hadn’t had to go in the Labyrinth. Pissing in my new body didn’t feel nearly as strange as I would have imagined. It was the same basic sensation and feeling of relief, just with a few details being off.

Once I was done, I stepped into the shower, eager to get cleaned off. A nice hot shower was just what I needed. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that while this place had running water, it wasn’t hot. Because of that, I took a cold shower, cleaning myself as quickly as I could.

“Well, that was disappointing,” I said when I stepped out of the shower.

I used a towel to dry myself off, taking extra care with my hair since it was a lot longer and thicker than I was used to. It was strange to have a full head of hair again, but also pretty nice. In fact, I was even starting to feel an odd sense of pride in my new hair.

“Enough of that,” I grumbled, feeling self-conscious about the fact that I enjoyed having hair again. I’d always thought myself above such petty vanity.

Instead, I turned my attention to the rest of my body. I’d been in this body for nearly a full day now, and I was starting to get a feel for what it could do. Of course, it was the wrong make and model, but I had to admit that it was still pretty nice.

“It’s not like I can trade it in,” I told myself with a sigh. “This is what you’ve got now, so you’d better get used to it.” I snorted at that. “Easier said than done.”

I slowly ran my hands over my body, taking in the smooth skin and strange new curves. Then I paused with one hand rested between my legs. There was an unfamiliar absence there, one that reminded me of what else I’d lost.

For several minutes, I just stood like that, silently mourning the loss of my oldest and dearest friend. He’d only been average sized and almost completely useless in recent years, but I was still going to miss him anyway.

At this point, I finally left the bathroom, locking the door behind me as I did so. I didn’t want to risk my new neighbor inviting themselves into my room. A minute later, I collapsed onto the bed, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

The Broken Yardarm was a nautical themed diner, which didn’t make any sense to me since we were in South Dakota, well away from any ocean. In fact, we were about as far away from the ocean as you could possibly get inside the continental United States. Still, the food was good, especially the bacon, which I happily ate while reading the local newspaper.

My attention was on the wanted ads, specifically, the job listings. Several local businesses were advertising for positions they needed filled, though none of them really appealed to me. I really didn’t want to shovel out barn stalls or work as a waitress.

I looked at my new ID, which I’d gotten yesterday and which sat on the table in front of me. The damn thing was nearly useless. Sure, it would work as identification for the Wardens and among players, but beyond that… I shook my head and ate another piece of bacon.

Unfortunately, I no longer had a birth certificate or social security number, no records of education or job history. In short, I was in a legal grey area and most companies wouldn’t even consider hiring me. I’d always suspected that this kind of thing might have been intentional, that the powers that be were purposely nudging players towards the kind of work that only players could really do, the dirty and dangerous kind that most people wouldn’t even consider if they had better options.

“Hey, Maggie,” a familiar voice exclaimed.

I looked up and saw Bunny waving to me as she stepped into the diner with her friends. Olivia moved towards a booth, but Bunny and Turtle marched right up to me. Ace was left behind for several seconds before he shrugged and came towards me as well. Only then did Olivia change direction and join them.

“What are you up to?” Bunny asked, sitting down at my table without even asking. Her friends immediately joined her.

“Job hunting,” I answered wryly as I closed the paper and set it down. “Not a lot of options.”

“True,” Turtle said as he began looking over the menu. “But it could be worse.” He looked up and explained, “Gideon Heights is a player town, so a lot of people around here are players.”

“Property is cheap,” Ace added. “No technology means that nobody else wants to live here.”

“They could have built the town a couple miles away,” Turtle continued. “Then we would have had technology, but also more people and higher prices. At least this way, players have a cheap place to live.”

“Perfect for off grid living,” I commented with a chuckle.

Back when I’d been a Warden, there had always been homesteaders who wanted to live an old-fashioned lifestyle, and they’d appreciated the cheap land near the Labyrinth openings. Sure, there was no technology and they had to deal with the occasional monsters who slipped through, but a lot of people thought that was worth it.

“I only have one month of help,” I said, referring to the room and food vouchers that Agent Davis had given me. “I figured, the sooner I can line something else up, the better.”

“Good idea,” Olivia offered.

“A lot of new players procrastinate,” Bunny told me. “At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

“We all have a lot to adjust to,” Turtle said with a shake of his head. “New bodies. New identities. New powers. It can get a bit overwhelming, so I don’t blame people for wanting to take their time.”

I nodded at that, then told him, “I just figure that it’s better to hit the ground running.”

“Good policy,” Olivia said, apparently starting to warm up to me a bit. “Keeping busy makes it easier to not think about everything I lost.”

The others nodded at that, especially Ace and Turtle. Bunny, however, didn’t look bothered at all.

I didn’t ask them about their previous lives since that was considered extremely rude among respawned players. Of course, if someone offered that information on their own, that was entirely different.

“I didn’t really have much to lose,” I admitted with a shrug. “For me, this is mostly upside.”

“Me too,” Bunny agreed.

I stared at the blonde girl, reminding myself that in spite of her apparent youth, she wasn’t really a teenager. In fact, for all I knew, she could even be older than me. I found that possibility to be kind of amusing.

“So,” I said to change the subject, or at least, to get it back on the original track. “What do you all to do to pay the bills?”

“We collect some bounties,” Ace answered. “The Men in Grey put bounties on any monsters that leave the Labyrinth.”

Turtle chuckled at that. “Yeah, but none of the ones around here are very high. This Labyrinth entrance only lets out small fry like those rats, and once they wander far enough away, other locals can just shoot them.”

“Delving the Labyrinth can be a lot more profitable,” Bunny agreed cheerfully.

Olivia scowled at that. “But also a lot more dangerous. Especially the further in you go.”

“That’s also how you get stronger,” Ace pointed out. “I mean, we can’t level unless we kill monsters and stuff. And face it, it might be safer to stay behind here in town, but you’d never get any stronger if you do.”

“And leveling is a little addictive,” Bunny told me with a broad grin. “There’s nothing like it.”

I considered that for a moment and how great it had felt to slot more points into my vitality. I found myself nodding agreement, understanding exactly how that kind of thing could be addictive.

“I think,” I mused aloud, “that I’ll probably go the delve route as well. Money and leveling.”

“It’s been working for us, so far,” Turtle offered.

“Why don’t you come with us on your run tomorrow?” Bunny suggested eagerly. “We’re only going back to the shallow area, but that’s because we want to train and get stronger before going deeper.”

Turtle nodded at that and glanced to Olivia. “We can consider it a trial run.”

I considered the offer for a moment before nodding agreement. “Sounds good to me.”

----------

It was early evening when I stepped into the bar. In spite of my apparent youth, nobody stopped me for an ID check. This was a place that was used to catering to the respawned.

I’d spend most of the day exploring the town and seeing what it had to offer. The answer was, not much. Sure, there were a few stores that had just about everything I needed for my new life, but those were pretty useless to someone who didn’t have a single penny to their name.

“Let’s see,” I mused as I looked around the bar, pausing when I spotted the person I was looking for.

There was a man sitting at a table in the corner, appearing to be in his mid to late thirties. He had dark hair and long bushy sideburns that looked like they were trying to form a beard but couldn’t quite manage it.

A few seconds later, I stood beside the man’s table and asked, “Are you Wolf?”

Wolf gave me a suspicious look before asking, “Who are you and why do you want to know?”

“I was told that you’re the only successful invoker in town,” I answered casually as I sat down in the seat across from him, not bothering to wait for an invite. “And as a new invoker myself, I wanted to get some advice on the class from someone who actually knows what the hell they’re doing.”

“You’ve got balls, girl,” Wolf said with a chuckle.

“Not anymore,” I responded pleasantly. “I go by Maggie.” I gestured to the beer in front of him and said, “I’d offer to buy you a drink in exchange for talking to me, but I’m dead broke.”

Wolf stared at me for a moment, almost seeming amused. “I bet you’re wishing you’d set up a carry-over account.”

I nodded at that, regretting the fact that I hadn’t. Over the last decade or two, a lot of people had been creating ‘carry-over’ accounts, savings accounts that could be accessed by anyone with the right passwords. This was considered a form of insurance for the unlikely event that they happened to respawn after death.

“Never thought I’d need it,” I admitted with a shrug. “Too late to worry about it now.”

“You’ve got that right,” Wolf agreed, pausing to take a long drink from his beer. Once he set it back down, he said, “You can owe me the drink.”

“Sure,” I agreed.

“As I’m sure you’ve already discovered,” Wolf told me after a few seconds, “Invokers don’t start off with any abilities, like every other class does. That means we’ve got to fight through the Labyrinth without until we find a primal willing to share their power, and a lot of invokers are so desperate by then, that they’ll accept any contract, no matter how bad.” He gave me a flat look. “Be careful, become some deals could be a LOT worse than not having an ability.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, taking a mental note of that warning.

“There are different kinds of invokers too,” Wolf continued, immediately grabbing full attention. “Priests. Druids. Warlocks. Shaman…which is what I am.” He shrugged at that. “Basically, this just refers to the type of primals that we specialize in dealing with.”

“Types?” I asked since this was new information to me.

Back when I was still with the Wardens, we hadn’t actually known much about primals. Sure, the Wardens might have learned a lot more since the, but I’ve been completely out of the loop for awhile.

“Yeah,” Wolk told me with a nod. “You’ve got different types. Think of them as like, different types of animals, or different flavors of magic. Each type has certain traits and tendencies that they usually follow. If you know how they work, you can usually get an idea of what kind of ability they might give you…and what kind of price they might ask.”

“You’ve got celestial and infernal,” Wolf continued. “Celestials are all about rules and order. They like sticking their invokers with strict contracts that make you follow a bunch of rules. Infernals are almost the exact opposite, being all about chaos. Those two types tend to hate each other, so if you have a contract with one of them, the other type will usually dislike you on principle.”

“Celestials and infernals,” I mused to myself, wishing I had something to write this down on.

“Faerie are all about being entertained,” Wolf said, pausing to scratch his chin. “They might give you power if they think you’re interesting, but they might also screw you over for a laugh too. They’re some of the worst for bad deals.”

“So far, none of those types sounds particularly pleasant,” I told Wolf.

The other invoker chuckled at that. “They aren’t. That’s why I tend to stick to naturals…primals who identify with plants and animals.” He gave me an almost predatory grin. “Basically, nature spirits. I’ve got a contract with a bear primal that gives me the strength of a bear.”

“That sounds pretty good,” I responded thoughtfully. “But what would a bear spirit ask for?”

“Food,” Wolf answered simply. “I have to give it a lot of food.”

“That…makes sense,” I said.

“Natural primals are pretty simple,” Wolf told me with a chuckle. “That makes them easier to deal with.”

“What about the divine type?” I asked, thinking about my own ability.

Wolf snorted at that and gave me a curious look, probably wondering how I knew about the divine type of primal when I hadn’t even known about there being types.

“They’re the biggest mixed bag,” Wolf finally answered. “They’re usually focused on some concept or idea, which can be anything from generosity to genocide, and they’ll want you to support it too. Mostly, they’ll either want that, or attention and worship.”

I nodded thoughtfully at that, then cautiously asked, “And have you ever heard of one of them giving an ability to someone without some kind of deal?”

“What do you mean?” Wolf asked curiously.

I hesitated for a moment, then explained, “I respawned with an ability from some goddess. I’d never even heard of her before, much less made any kind of agreement with.”

Wolf leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin again. “I… I have heard of that kind of thing happening,” he said slowly.” He gave me a curious look. “Not often, but it does happen. No idea how or why though.”

“I see,” I said with a sigh.

“Whoever this goddess is,” Wolf told me, “I can only assume that you either did something to get her attention…and…”

“And?” I encouraged him to continue.

Wolf leaned forward. “I’m thinking that this might be like a dime bag… You know, a free sample so you get a taste for her power.”

My eyes widened in understanding. “So I might go to her for a real deal.” Wolf nodded at that and I just leaned back and muttered, “Well, crap.”

“Well, you get a free ability for now,” Wolf told me cheerfully. “If nothing else, that is a huge head start for an invoker.”

Wolf and I continued talking for nearly an hour before he said that he had to go. It had been an educational conversation, and I was more than happy with the fact that the only thing this information had cost me, was an IOU for a drink.

My arms ached from swinging my mace, and that was starting to feel almost normal. It had only been two days since I’d left the Labyrinth, and there I was, right back inside of it for training. I was beginning to regret not having taken another day or two to rest first.

I was currently walking through a wide tunnel which kept branching off in other directions. The crystal veins around me glowed with an almost eerie green light. It let me see my surroundings, but everything felt just a little off-color and spooky.

“You know,” I commented wryly. “I think I’m starting to get to the point where I can identify one tunnel from another by the shade of the rock and the color of the crystal glow.”

“Really?” Ace asked. “They all still look the same to me.”

“This tunnel[ is sort of green,” Bunny pointed out. “That last one was more blue.”

“And the one before that was almost violet,” Olivia commented almost absently.

We all paused while Olivia pulled out a notebook and wrote something down, probably the very thing we were talking about. Olivia was the group’s navigator, mapping our path so that we could find our way back when we were done. Then, as if to emphasize this, she bent down and used a piece of chalk to draw an arrow in the direction that we’d been walking.

“I still can’t believe we’re actually on another planet,” Ace said with a shake of his head.

“Another dimension,” I corrected.

Nobody was quite sure of what the Labyrinth was or where it was located, but because the very laws of physics were off…and not always stable…most researchers agreed that it was in some other dimension. Technically, they used terms like sub-space and pocket dimension, but the details didn’t really matter. What mattered was that the Labyrinth existed outside of our world, and that passages between the two would sometimes open without any rhyme or reason. The first recorded entrance had been discovered in the Australian outback nearly sixty years ago, and more than a hundred more had appeared across the world since then.

“I wonder where this place really came from,” Turtle said as he looked around. “This place is so strange… It clearly isn’t natural.”

“Personally,” Ace offered, “I think the Labyrinth is just a glorified holodeck that went all Skynet.”

“What?” Bunny asked, staring at Ace as though he was an idiot.

“Look, it makes total sense,” Ace insisted.

“Please don’t,” Olivia complained with a roll of her eyes.

“Please do,” I told Ace, trying to get a better idea of what he really meant.

“Please don’t encourage him,” Olivia told me with another roll of his eyes.

Ace just grinned. “Please do.” Then he stepped back and gestured around us. “This place… It creates new environments all the time and changes them without warning Tunnels. Cities. Forests. All sorts of places. It makes all these monsters that try to kill us…and then it makes all sorts of artifacts that we can use to fight back.”

“The Labyrinth is a contradiction,” Bunny agreed a little uncertainly. “I mean, we do have monsters all over the place, but we also have safe zones where the monsters won’t go…and where food sometimes just shows up.”

“Exactly,” Ace triumphantly exclaimed. “I figure, some alien race probably build the Labyrinth a long time ago. Maybe it was for training…or just entertainment…like some kind of giant game.” He shrugged at that. “I figure, it probably grew too big or went out of control, and now it just keeps spreading. Like kudzu.”

Olivia gave Ace a flat look. “So, now you’re saying that the Labyrinth is an invasive weed.”

“I’ve heard worse theories,” I admitted. In fact, I’d heard variations of that same one before too.

“Like that one where the Labyrinth is actually Hell,” Bunny offered cheerfully. “And players are all damned souls who escaped.”

“Or that we’re all demons who are pretending to be the damned souls,” Turtle added.

“I do like that one,” Ace said with a chuckle.

Just then, I noticed the skittering sound coming from down the tunnel. “Heads up,” I called out as I turned to face the approaching rats.

Several dozen giant rats came rushing down the tunnel at once in some kind of rodent stampede. A couple of them were even the extra large variety that were much harder to kill. However, we’d already dealt with enough of these monsters that we knew what to do.

Turtle moved forward to intercept the main flow the rats, using his shield to block as many as he could while he also swung his sword to catch any that tried skirting around him. Just as it looked like he was about to be overrun with sheer numbers, his entire body began to glow, indicating that he’d just activated his ability, one that made him a LOT tougher and harder to hurt for a short period of time.

While Turtle was doing this, Ace and Olivia both unleashed their own attacks, killing as many rats as they could from a distance. Ace held out both of his scepters, alternating between them as he fired his attacks. Most scepters would have been long since drained of power, which suggested that he was using some kind of ability with them. I didn’t know if he channeling his own power through the artifacts, or if he had an ability that let him recharge them on his own. In the end, how it worked was less important than the fact that it did.

Olivia stood there with her wooden staff clutched firmly in hand while she held out her other hand and fired blasts of blue arcane energy. Her attacks were more powerful than Ace’s, but also a lot slower. She was only able to launch one attack for every four or five of his, but each of hers took out several rats.

Bunny stood back and called orders to her horned rabbits, sending them after any stragglers that slipped away from the main group of monsters. Her pets were fast and vicious, charging the rats and impaling them on their small horns before tearing at them with their claws. But unfortunately, the rabbits were fragile and were easily taken out themselves.

My own job was to deal with any monsters who made it past the rabbits. I stayed close to Bunny, Ace, and Olivia, watching our backs and sides to make sure there were no surprise attacks.

Just as I was starting to feel useless in the fight, one of the extra large rats burst through the wall of rabbits, killing the last two. Bunny leapt back and cursed since all of her pets were gone and I knew it would take awhile before she could use the summon ability again.

“I’ve got this one,” I said, gritting my teeth against the searing pain that shot through my body and then out my hands.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ hit the rat dead on, causing it to collapse to the ground in pain. I ignored its loud shrieks and the instinct to feel sorry for it. It wasn’t dead yet and assuming it was, would be a good way to get killed again. And as I expected, it quickly got back to its feet and charged right at me, now completely pissed off.

“I thought you had that one,” Ace said, firing two blasts at the rat, one after the other. It barely seemed to notice the attacks.

I stepped forward to meet the giant rat, slamming my mace down on its head as hard as I could. There was a sickening crunch as its head caved in. I kicked the monster back, then leapt on it for another swing, smashing what was left of its head.

“I do,” I told him with a grin.

“And that should do it,” Turtle announced as he straightened up and shook himself loose from the pile of rats.

Turtle’s shield and armor were pretty scratched up, but he himself didn’t look like he’d been hurt at all. Considering how many rats had been attacking him, I considered that a minor miracle, or at least, a pretty powerful ability. It was just a shame that he wouldn’t be able to use it again for at least half an hour.

Once I looked around to make sure that there were no rats remaining, not even a straggler off to the side, I was able to turn my message to the popup message that had appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3

I’d already felt the change, the increase in power level. It was subtle, something that went on in the background, behind any of the stats I could see. But I could still feel it.

When I looked at my stat page, I saw exactly what I’d expected to see. It looked the same as the last time I’d seen it, with one exception. I had one free stat point to assign.

My first thought was to assign it to vitality again since that had become my favorite stat, but I quickly decided against it. Sure, it would be nice to become even healthier, but as an invoker, there were other stats I would need to rely on as well. It was about time I started working on those too.

With that, I assigned my free stat into focus, bringing it up to nine. That would be a damn good number for anyone who wasn’t a player. As it was, being a player just meant that I’d have opportunities to increase it even more.

I turned my attention to the others, who were already starting to move down the tunnel again. I shrugged, shifted my mace to the other hand, then followed behind.

----------

I stepped into the new cavern and then paused to look around in surprise and even a little wonder. It was smaller than many of the caverns that I’d recently been inside, but much brighter. Instead of having veins of glowing crystal, half the wall and ceiling space was covered with it. There were even large crystal stalactites hanging from the ceiling, acting almost like chandeliers.

But as impressive as the walls and ceiling were, I was even more interested in the pond that occupied the middle of the cavern. It was only about fifty yards across, but the water literally glowed from beneath. There had to be crystals on the bottom, and probably a lot of them. It was strangely beautiful.

“I don’t see any monsters,” Bunny said.

That brought my attention back to something that I never should have lost track of. I silently chastised myself and then did my own visual sweep of the room. I paid special attention to the ceiling, half-expecting to see monster bats waiting up there. There weren’t any.

Once I was confident that no monsters were going to immediately attack, I looked around again. There was a strange feeling to the air, almost like static.

“Do you feel that?” I asked as I looked for what might be causing it.

“Feel what?” Bunny asked blankly.

Turtle shook his head after a few seconds. “I don’t feel anything.”

“It looks like you’re imagining things,” Ace told me with a shrug.

I frowned at that, focusing more on what I was feeling and trying to get a sense for what it was. “No, I’m definitely feeling something…”

Olivia gave me a thoughtful look, then asked, “Could it be because you’re an invoker?”

I paused in realization. “I think you might be right.”

This thing I was feeling, the static in the air, it was…familiar. It took me a few more seconds to realize why it was familiar. It was sort of like the energy I felt when I used ‘Invocation of Spite,’ though it was completely different at the same time.

“Primal energy,” I whisper in understanding. “Just a different type.”

“What was that?” Bunny asked.

I cautiously moved around, paying close attention to that static sensation and trying to determine where it felt strongest. The others all stood back and watched me with bemused expressions. Eventually, I stopped in front of the pond.

“I think,” I said slowly, staring into the glowing water. That was definitely where the static was coming from. “I think there’s a primal in the water.”

Just then, a ripple suddenly moves across the pond, starting in the middle and then moving off to one side. I stare intently, realizing that it isn’t just a ripple. The water itself is shaped like some kind of a snake, at least for a moment, before the ripple settles back down and vanishes.

“An elemental,” I whisper in realization.

When Wolf and I had been talking about the different types of primals, he’d mentioned the elemental type. He’d said that elementals were similar to naturals, but where naturals were aligned with plants and animals, elementals were more aligned with the environment itself. He said that they usually represented the elements, and not just the classic elements like earth, air, and fire, but also ones like lightning, ice, or copper. What I was seeing now could only be an elemental.

“A water elemental,” I stated with a grin of anticipation. “I think it’s time to see if I can make a deal.”

“Good luck,” Bunny told me cheerfully.

I crouched down and put my hand in the water, sure that this would get the elemental’s attention. After all, I was an invoker and it was a primal. We were a match made in the Labyrinth. Nothing happened.

“Elemental,” I called out, trying to get its attention. “I would like to make a deal with you.”

There was no answer. No response. I tried a couple more times but nothing changed. A short time later, the elemental rippled across the surface of the water again, but this didn’t seem to be in response to me. It just seemed to be stretching out and changing position.

“Here, primal primal primal,” Bunny called out with a giggle. I gave her a flat look which only made her giggle again.

The others all sat down and took a break while I continued trying to get the primal’s attention. However, nothing I did worked. I asked to talk to it, offered it a deal, and even repeated Bunny’s call of ‘here, primal primal primal’. It just continued to ignore me, if it even noticed me enough to bother doing that. Eventually, I realized how futile this was and that I’d been wasting everyone’s time.

“Sorry,” I told the others with a sigh of resignation. “I’m ready to continue on now.”

“Sorry it didn’t work out,” Turtle told me sympathetically.

“Water magic could have been cool,” Bunny said with a sigh of her own disappointment.

Just before leaving the cavern, I turned back to take one last look at the pond and the missed opportunity within. For the first time, I truly understood exactly why presence was an important stat for invokers.

I leaned back against the stone wall, thankful for the support, as hard and uncomfortable as it was. We’d been walking through the Labyrinth for hours, just like we had for the last couple days, and I was just glad for the change of scenery.

The Labyrinth no longer looked like a bunch of natural caves and caverns. Instead, this section of it looked more like some kind of underground dungeon or lost city. There were tunnels and rooms following a similar type of structure, but everything was now made of large limestone blocks. It reminded me a bit of all the old structures in Egypt, though I didn’t see a single hieroglyph, sphinx, or pyramid anywhere.

“What even is the difference between talent and affinity?” Ace asked.

For the last half hour, while we’d been resting, the topic of conversation had been on status screens and what all the aspects of it all really meant. I listened curiously, having heard most of this before. Hell, I’d even read official reports with this information before.

There were a couple of shrugs, but no answers. Since it seemed that nobody else was going to answer Ace, I decided to do so.

“Talents are for skills,” I explained. “Things like acrobatics, juggling, or swordsmanship. Affinities refers to the type of magic you can use.”

Everyone was staring at me in surprise. When nobody said anything, I continued, mostly to fill the silence. It had been a long time since I used to teach rookie Wardens, but it was still easy to slip back into lecture mode.

“From what I understand,” I continued, “talents and affinities start off as background information, the kind of thing that never actually shows up on your status screen until you either get an ability related to it…or actively use it.” I shrug at that. “Take swimming for example. You might have a talent for it…which basically just means that you’re able learn that skill a LOT easier than normal, but you’d never know unless you tried swimming first.”

“So, I might have a talent I don’t even know about?” Ace asked with a look of surprise.

“There is a good chance,” I agreed, curious about what talents I myself might have. It might be worth trying to figure out.

“And what about affinities?” Olivia asked, giving me a curious look.

“Similar to talents, but with types of magic,” I explained, even though she had probably already figured that out on her own some time ago. All of them probably had, but that didn’t make them any less curious about what I had to say on the subject. “Affinities just refers to the type of magic you can work with…or that you have some advantage with.”

“I guess the terms talents and affinities are kind of self-explanatory,” Turtle said.

“Yeah,” Ace agreed, looking a little self-conscious.

“Every player should start off with an affinity for whatever kind of magic their class uses,” I continued, keeping my attention mostly focused on Olivia since she seemed the most interested in this particular topic. “You probably respawned with an affinity for arcane magic.”

“I did,” Olivia agreed.

“I’ve got one for creation magic,” Bunny offered.

I nodded at that, making a mental note since I hadn’t known what summoner magic was called. Creation magic seemed pretty appropriate considering what summoners actually did.

“Primal magic for me,” I offered.

“Not saying,” Ace insisted, sitting there with his arms crossed, a smug look on his face.

“Anyway,” I continued. “You can also get affinities for your different subtypes or specializations.” My eyes set on Olivia again. “I know that arcanists can use different kinds of energy, so you might get an affinity for heat, light, force, or whatever.” I paused for a moment before adding, “That will just make you more powerful when using whatever you’re specialized in.”

Bunny burst out laughing. When I looked at her, she flashed a grin and explained, “I have a rabbit specialization.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Turtle asked with a look of amusement.

I leaned back into the stone wall, thinking about my own affinities. Primal magic with a specialization in the divine type. It was embarrassing to realize that I’d already known that most magics had subtypes and specializations, but I hadn’t even considered what that meant for my own class until Wolf had pointed it all out to me.

“I just won’t mention that little oversight,” I quietly mused to myself before slowly getting back to my feet. I picked up my mace and said, “We should probably get going again.”

“You’re right,” Bunny agreed cheerfully as she practically bounced to her feet.

Olivia picked up her staff from where it leaned against the wall next to where she’d been sitting. She gave me curious look before pointing out, “You are a recent respawn. Very recent. So…”

“How the hell do you know so much about that stuff?” Ace asked. “I mean, I’ve been a player for six months now, and nobody has explained that stuff to me like that.”

I shrugged before admitting, “I knew a few players. Back in my old life.”

Then I paused, thinking about one of those players in particular. I could remember his face as clear as day, especially how it looked the last time I’d seen it…with blood gushing out of his eye socket.

“You know,” I commented a few seconds later as a cold smile formed on my lips. “Now that I’ve joined the club myself, I think that I just might have to go look them up.”

“That would be interesting,” Turtle told me, apparently not noticing my expression. “And if anyone could understand you coming back, it would be another player.”

Turtle began walking down the stone hallway again, taking his place at the front of our group. Everyone else quickly stepped into position behind him as we continued on our way.

We hadn’t gone far when Ace said, “You know, an old buddy and I… Well, we had a password we could use to prove our identity to each other, just in case THIS happened to either of us.” He shook his head. “I still haven’t gotten in contact with him.”

“Talking with someone in your old life isn’t easy,” Olivia said with a pained expression. “They don’t always react well. You’re probably better off forgetting about your old life.”

Bunny nodded at that. “I’m just glad I don’t have anyone I want to go back to.”

“Me either,” I added quietly, thinking about how lonely I’d been in my final years. If it hadn’t been for Margaret, I probably would have gone insane. Then again, she used to sometimes accuse me of that anyway.

“I wish I could say that,” Turtle muttered, not looking back at the rest of us. Then he just paused and stood there for several seconds, staring at the ground.

“What is it?” Ace asked, moving forward so that he could get a better look. “Is there a trap?”

A moment later, Bunny cautiously asked Turtle, “Are you okay?”

Turtle slowly shook his head. “No. But I will be. Eventually.”

Olivia nodded at that. “I think this topic is getting a little too personal.”

“Yeah,” Turtle agreed, though he straightened up. He forced a smile and looked like he was about to continue with our march forward, when instead he said, “I left behind… I left behind my husband and kids.”

“Husband?” I asked in surprise.

“You aren’t the only one who switched sides,” Bunny told me.

I blinked at that, then asked, “How did you know?” I wasn’t bothered by the fact that they’d figured it out, just curious as to how.

“Body language,” Bunny told me cheerfully. “You sit like a guy.”

“You do,” Olivia added with a smirk.

“Okay,” I replied with a shrug. “I guess I’ll have to pay more attention.”

Turtle just laughed, then gave me a sympathetic look. “You’ll get used to it,” he assured me. “I have. For the most part.”

Olivia put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s the people we left behind that are the hardest to deal with.”

“Yeah,” Turtle agreed emphatically. “It is.”

With that, Turtle took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders, then turned and continued marching forward. I simply followed behind, feeling sorry for Turtle and thankful that I wasn’t in a similar situation. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to know that I had loved ones out there and that I couldn’t be part of their lives.

----------

The large monster slowly rose up from where it had been crouched down in the middle of the room, pretending to be a rock. It’s skin…carapace…was dull and beige, almost the same shade and texture as the rough limestone bricks that the walls were made of. Even now that it was standing up, looking like some kind of vaguely humanoid beetle, it still tended to blend in.

“Holy shit,” Ace exclaimed. “Is that a walking statue?”

We all stared at the monster, trying to make sense of what it was. We hadn’t seen many monsters in the area, and certainly nothing like this. None of us was quite sure what to expect of our new enemy.

“It isn’t an elemental,” I said, still a bit salty over my failure with the water elemental. It had been a couple days, but I still hadn’t forgotten how completely that thing had ignored me. “Not a primal at all.”

“Well, it’s good to know that you won’t try to tame this one,” Bunny teased me.

The monster stood back on two thick legs. Its body was rounded, especially its backside, much like a beetle shell. Its head was that of a giant insect, with bulging faceted eyes and a pair of thick pinchers at the mouth. Two arms emerged from its shoulders, each of them ending with a long curved blade, similar to a praying mantis.

With a loud shriek, the monster abruptly leapt forward, swinging its bladed arm at Olivia. Turtle immediately jumped between them, using his shield to block the strike at the last second. And while Olivia scrambled backward, Turtle positioned himself directly in front of the monster, making it clear that he was the monster’s primary foe.

“Let Turtle get its attention,” Bunny called out as she backed away as well. Her three horned rabbits all frozen beside her, tensed up to charge forward but waiting for her order. “GO!” The rabbits immediately burst into action.

Ace and Olivia both backed up to get more distance, then launched their own ranged attacks. I took a little longer, looking around to make sure that there weren’t any other monsters sneaking up on us from behind. Only then did I fire off an ‘Invocation of Spite.’

The monster shrieked in agony, even dropping to its knees while it did so. Everyone took that as the signal to hit the monster as hard as they could. Unfortunately, its carapace didn’t just look like stone, it was as hard as stone too. Once the monster shook off the pain, it lunged straight at me, knocking Turtle to the side where he landed on his back.

“Ah, crap,” I spat as I jumped out of the way an instant before a bladed arm came down in the spot where I’d been standing.

“LOOK OUT!” Bunny cried, right before the monster tried to attack me again.

I scrambled back, clutching my mace tightly while I kept my eyes locked on the monster. I was breathing hard with sweat pouring down my face. At that moment, I was thankful that I’d been keeping my hair tied back into a ponytail while in the Labyrinth. The last thing I needed was the distraction of having hair in my face.

“I don’t think so,” Turtle exclaimed, holding his shield up and yelling, “GET OVER HERE!”

Turtle’s shield began to glow and the monster turned and stared at it for several long seconds. Then the monster charged straight at Turtle, who once again used his shield to block the attack.

“I’ve been looking for a chance to test out that new ability,” Turtle said with a grunt. “And now that I’ve got his attention again…will someone kill him?”

“Glad to,” Ace responded as he fired two simultaneous blasts at the monster.

“I’m draining my staff for this one,” Olivia called out with a look of determination. “Every last bit of stored arcane energy for one attack…”

Olivia fired a blast of blue energy at the monster, hitting it in its back and blasting a hole in its shell. Once she did this, she slumped forward and used her staff to keep from falling flat on her face. Bunny was immediately beside her, helping hold her up.

“That takes a lot out of me,” Olivia admitted.

“Aim for the hole,” I told Ace, pointing to where Olivia had damaged the shell.

“Good idea,” Ace agreed as he fired several shots. One of them hit the shell and bounced off without doing any damage, but the other went through the opening. The monster shrieked at that. “That’s the spot.”

I glanced down at my mace, then rushed in towards the monster. But instead of hitting at the break in the shell, I swung my mace a lot lower, hitting the monster in the knee instead. There was another crack in its shell and it tilted lopsided, unable to fully support its own weight anymore.

“That should keep it from running away,” I exclaimed as I backed up, right in time to avoid a blade across my chest.

“And that should make it harder for it to come after one of us again,” Bunny added. She looked down at her own empty hands, which were lacking any weapons. “Maybe I should get a crossbow or something…”

“Or something,” Ace teased her. “I’ve seen your aim, and you’d be more dangerous to us than any monsters.”

“Bite me,” Bunny responded as she flipped Ace off. Then she turned her attention back to her rabbits and grinned. “Attack it’s broken knee…”

The three horned rabbits leapt at the monster’s knee, hitting it one after another. The giant bug monster let out another shrill scream of pain then swung at the rabbits, hitting two of them and killing them with a single blow.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite ready for another ‘Invocation of Spite’, so I ran forward and swung with my mace again. This time, I caught the monster in the elbow, shattering the carapace. The arm hung there almost lifelessly.

Turtle yelped in pain and I noticed that the monster had gotten past his shield with its other arm, nicking his shoulder. It didn’t look bad, certainly not enough to make Turtle drop his shield, but he was wincing in pain.

Aced moved closer, aiming both of his scepters straight at the gaping hole in the shell, and he fired again. Both blasts hit their target and the monster collapsed forward, nearly landing on top of Turtle.

“Good hit,” I told Ace with an almost evil grin. “Now it’s my turn.”

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ was finally ready again, so I braced myself for the pain, bit back the scream that always wanted to come, and then fired a ball of pure spiteful agony right into the monster. It let out another shriek, a horrific sound which faded out into a sick gurgling. It twitched in place for several seconds before going completely motionless.

“I think it’s dead,” Bunny announced cautiously.

Turtle glared down at the monster, then drove the tip of his sword right into the monster’s head. When it didn’t so much as twitch, he nodded. “It’s dead.”

“About time,” Olivia said, still leaning on her staff.

A new popup appeared in front of me, bringing a faint smile to my lips

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 5

I quickly brought up my stat screen and saw that I had another free stat point to use. I hesitated for a moment, then let out a sigh, remembering that I’d already made this decision. With a sigh of regret, I assigned it to presence, just like had my last stat point. That brought my presence up to a respectable seven.

“That should do it for now,” I mused as I looked over my stats, pleased to note that I’d also gotten an extra stat point in strength. Apparently, swinging a heavy mace around was good for building muscles.

CLASS: INVOKER
LEVEL: 5
FREE STAT POINTS: 0

FOCUS: 9
PERCEPTION: 7
PRESENCE: 7
STRENGTH: 7
VITALITY: 11
DEXTERITY: 6
AGILITY: 7

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-PRIMAL MAGIC
--DIVINE TYPE

ABILITIES:
-INVOCATION OF SPITE

“Hey, look here,” Ace exclaimed.

Ace was crouched down next to a small wooden box that was sitting at the back of the room. It wasn’t quite a treasure chest, only being the size of a shoe box, but that was basically what this was.

“I’ve heard of these,” I said with a grin of excitement. “But I’ve never seen one before.”

Boxes like these were one of the MANY strange and contradictory elements of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth created these boxes and scattered them about as prizes…or possibly lures to draw players even further in. Everyone had their own theory for the why, but nobody knew for sure.

Ace opened the box and revealed that it contained two items. One of which was a simple looking dagger, one which was clearly an artifact of some sort or it wouldn’t have been inside the box. The other item was a single lump of faintly glowing metal, no bigger than a golf ball.

“No way,” Bunny gasped, snatching up the metal. “Unobtainium.”

I smiled faintly at the name. Unobtainium. Back in the early days, one of the other Wardens had named the stuff unobtainium as a joke, because it didn’t exist on Earth and could only be found inside the Labyrinth. Somehow, the name had stuck.

“This,” Bunny announced with a broad grin, holding out the nugget of unobtainium, “is what we’ve been looking for.”

“That should be enough to pay our bills for a month,” Olivia said with a gleam in her eyes.

Then as one, Turtle, Bunny, Ace, and Olivia all shouted, “PAYDAY!”

“Not bad,” I mused as I stepped out of the store and onto the sidewalk of Gideon Heights. “Not bad at all.”

I looked down at myself, taking in my new boots and clothes. The boots were comfortable and sturdy, perfect for marching around inside the Labyrinth, as were my new clothes. I was grateful for the clothes that Davis had given me, but most of those had already been ruined by fighting monsters.

It had been a full week since I’d woken up in the respawn pool, and for the first time since then, I actually had money in my pocket. I was finally able to afford all the little things that I needed, such as new clothes…and the female hygiene products that I would soon require. I didn’t need them yet. Yet was the operative word. I was a practical man…woman, and knew that it was only a matter of time. I wanted to be ready for when I did need them.

My eyes went down to the bags I was carrying, and I felt myself blushing just a little bit at the thought of what was in one of them. I’d found a dildo in the back of the store, and had been curious enough to buy it. After all, I had a new body and it only made sense that I check out the new plumbing. I was just disappointed that vibrators wouldn’t work this close to the Labyrinth, or I would have bought one of those as well.

“Ca…Maggie,” I told myself with a sigh. “You are a total pervert.”

At least I could afford small luxuries, all thanks to the unobtainium that we’d found inside the Labyrinth. Unobtainium. For having suck a ridiculous name, the stuff sure was valuable. And as a further irony, a metal which came from a place where technology didn’t work, was actually a necessary material for some of the latest modern technology.

Unobtainium and several other resources like it didn’t exist naturally on Earth. The Labyrinth was the only known place where those things could be found, and players were the only ones who could successfully go in to retrieve them. This was the reason that the people in power considered players to be useful rather than dangerous, and why they subtly encouraged us to work the Labyrinth.

Just then, I saw something from the corner of my eye. I quickly looked and saw it, a shimmering in the air, right in the middle of the street. It looked just like the entrance to the Labyrinth, only a lot smaller. This one was only about seven feet tall.

Of course, this actually was an entrance to the Labyrinth, or at least, an unstable echo of the main one. Every stable Labyrinth entrance had these unstable echoes, much smaller versions that would randomly open and close within a few miles of them. They would appear without warning and could last anywhere from minutes to weeks before vanishing just as abruptly as they’d arrived. These things were why it was impossible to fully control access to the Labyrinth.

A moment later, I saw something in the echo opening, only to watched as a familiar looking rat monster emerged into the middle of the street. A second rat followed right behind.

“Great,” I grumbled, thinking that these echoes were also the reason people kept having monster problems.

I reached for the dagger on my belt, one of the prizes from the treasure box we’d found yesterday. I wasn’t quite sure how, but I’d ended up with the dagger. Nobody else had really wanted it. Once I had my dagger in hand, I fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at the first rat. It went down screaming.

My attention turned to the second rat, which I expected to charge at me since I’d killed the first one. It looked like it was about to do just that, but then it suddenly fell over with a crossbow bolt sticking out of its head. I stared at it for a moment, then sheathed my dagger. It looked like I wasn’t going to need that after all.

“Maggie,” a familiar voice greeted me.

I looked over at the middle-aged woman who was walking towards me with a crossbow held in her hands. It looked like a pretty nice piece of equipment, made with modern materials but still usable in town.

“Agent Davis,” I responded with a nod of acknowledgement.

A short distance behind Eileen Davis was her partner and trainee, Owen Nash. I’d seen Nash around town, but hadn’t spoken to him yet. He seemed a reserved but cautious sort, the kind who might make for a good Warden.

“This thing has been spitting out monsters for a couple hours now,” Davis said as she handed the crossbow to Nash, who immediately began reloading it. “Killing them myself is cheaper than placing a bounty, but…inconvenient.”

“A pain in the ass,” I said, nodding in agreement. Then I gestured to Nash. “But a good training opportunity.”

Davis laughed at that. “My old trainer used to say the same thing whenever he gave me the tasks he didn’t want to do.”

“Why else would you have trainees?” I asked with a chuckle. “Someone has to do the crap work, and seniority does have privileges.”

“He used to say that too,” Davis said as she watched me with a strange expression.

I shrugged and then bent down to pick up the bags I’d dropped during the excitement, hopefully, before Davis or anyone else saw what was inside them. From the look of amusement on Davis’ face, I suspected that I was too late.

“You know,” I said to change the direction. “I bet that if you drop some crates or rocks in front of that echo, you’d be able to keep any more of those furry little bastards from getting out until it closes.”

“That…is a great idea,” Davis said before abruptly turning away and calling out to her partner, “Hey Nash, I have a good training opportunity for you…”

I laughed at that as I continued on my way. Seniority definitely had its perks, but being retired meant that I didn’t have ANY of the responsibilities. Then again, retirement had been boring as hell.

After this, I dropped my bags off in my dorm room, then went to the Broken Yardarm to meet my team for lunch. It was a bit strange, actually thinking of them as being my team, but after we’d found the treasure box, they’d officially invited me to stay as a permanent member.

When I arrived at the diner, everyone else was already seated at a table. I came in just in time to hear Ace and Turtle enthusiastically debating the virtues of their weapons.

“But my sword can slice through monsters,” Turtle told Ace with a serious expression. “One good hit, and I can cut them in two. Or, I can drive it into them and get in deep.”

“Maybe,” Ace argued. “But I can blast the hell out of them with my scepters without having to get close. That makes them the superior weapon.”

“Are they?” I asked as I took a seat between Bunny and Turtle. “Scepters are useful, but they only hold a limited amount of power. That means, you can only use them a limited number of times before they need to be recharged.” I gave him a knowing look. “Unless you happen to have the right ability.”

“The same thing is true about guns,” Ace pointed out. “And nobody complains about needing to reload them.”

I just shrugged at that. “True, but guns are easier to reload. Just slip a new clip in and keep going.”

“You don’t need to worry about that with a sword,” Turtle stated.

“Swords definitely have their uses,” I agreed pleasantly. “But I’ll stick with my mace.”

Ace and Turtle both laughed at that. “That’s basically just hitting people with a club.”

“Oh, maces are definitely less sophisticated,” I agreed with a grin. “But they’re a hell of a lot easier to use if you don’t have a talent for swords. I mean, with a sword, you have to hit at the right angle if you actually want to cut, and they’re prone to chipping and dulling if you aren’t careful.” I paused at that. “A mace… Well, they’re easy to use. You just hit the target, no real skill or talent needed. You don’t need to worry about lining up the strike, and you don’t have to worry about losing the edge.”

“She does have a point,” Bunny said with a laugh. “Maces are probably an easier beginner weapon.”

Turtle hesitated for a moment before nodding agreement. “I can live with that.”

“Personally,” Olivia commented. “I prefer my staff.”

“But a staff is less weapon,” Ace pointed out, “and more like a giant battery.”

“A battery I can smack people with if needed,” Olivia said while giving Ace a pointed look.

“At least you have a weapon,” Bunny commented with a shrug. “I basically just throw rabbits at people.”

“Spicy rabbits,” Ace added with a grin.

“Why don’t you have a weapon?” I asked Bunny, more curious than anything.

Bunny shrugged. “I got a sword after I first respawned, but I ended up losing it.” She shrugged again. “I figured that it’s easier just to stand back and let my rabbits do the work.”

“It might not be a bad idea to get a scepter or something for yourself,” I suggested. “That way you’ll have a backup for when your rabbits are down, or…”

“Or something gets past them,” Olivia finished.

“And you might need to get some armor,” Turtle told me.

I nodded, unable to disagree with that. “One step at a time.”

Suddenly, an angry voice exclaimed, “None of you knows anything about a REAL weapon.”

I looked up and saw a woman standing beside the table. She was about my height but broad-shouldered and stocky, with skin that was a couple shades darker than my own. Her auburn hair was shoulder-length and a tangled mess. The woman was also holding a sledge hammer, one that looked like it had come straight from the hardware store.

“None of you pansies know anything about a real weapon,” the obviously drunk woman snarled, holding her sledge hammer up in front of Ace’s face.

“Leave us alone, Jace,” Turtle told the woman with a deep sigh.

“You think you’re special?” the woman, Jace snarled furiously, spittle flying as she did so. “Just because you got lucky in the Labyrinth.”

“We teamed with her,” Bunny leaned over and told me, her eyes locked on the woman. “Briefly.”

“Very briefly,” Olivia added with a scowl. “Fortunately.”

“I see,” I responded quietly before carefully sliding my chair back.

Turtle slowly stood up. “You’re drunk…”

“FUCK YOU,” Jace yelled before suddenly hitting Turtle.

Turtle flew halfway across the room and smashed into a table which collapsed under his weight. One of the customers who was sitting there was thrown back while food and bits of wood went flying like pieces of shrapnel.

I was immediately on my feet, reaching for the dagger on my belt, though I hesitated just shy of grabbing it. “Let’s take this outside,” I suggested, not taking my eyes off the angry woman.

That had been a powerful blow, revealing that this woman had placed a lot of stat points in strength. That also told me a lot about Jace and how she was likely to fight. Players who slotted all their points into strength tended to be very physical and straightforward in how they dealt with problems.

“SCREW YOU,” Jace snarled, swinging at Ace, who’d already scrambled back and out of her reach.

Jace grabbed the table and flung the whole thing over with casual ease. Then she kicked the closest chair, shattering it under the impact.

At this point, everyone in the diner was standing, with a couple of them reaching for weapons. I’d seen this kind of thing before and knew that the entire diner was likely to be destroyed within a minute. Rogue players were dangerous, and it became even more dangerous with each additional player who became involved.

“Lets take this outside,” I suggested again, hoping that we could save the diner. The food here was good.

Ace pulled out his scepters while Bunny stood back, summoning her rabbits. Olivia backed up, clutching onto her staff and looking as though she was tempted to attack, though she held off, probably for the same reason I was. She could see what was about to happen if things escalated any more.

“Damn it,” Turtle exclaimed as he got to his feet. He was covered in food and clearly pissed. Each step he took forward revealed that he was hurting, though that didn’t slow him down.

Turtle began to glow slightly as he used his ability, then he suddenly charged forward, grabbing Jace and practically carrying her to the door. Before Jace even seemed to realize what was going on, they were outside.

I reached the door a few seconds later and stepped out just in time to see Jace hitting Turtle with her sledge hammer. He was knocked back a good distance, but since he was still glowing, I expected that he wouldn’t be hurt too badly.

“NOW!” Bunny shouted.

Three horned rabbits all ran right at the drunk woman. At the same time, Ace and Olivia launched their own attacks, sending blasts of energy.

Jace dove to the side, avoiding Olivia’s blast as well as one of Ace’s, though she couldn’t avoid the rabbits who immediately changed direction. She kicked one of the rabbits, killing it instantly while her hammer came down on a second. Then, her eyes began to glow and she stomped the ground. A shockwave shot out from her, destroying the last rabbit and knocking Ace onto his ass.

I clutched my dagger firmly in hand, wishing that I’d brought my mace with me. A rogue player was no joke, even though we’d gotten her out of the Broken Yardarm, the situation was still in danger of escalating disastrously.

“Just like old times,” I muttered to myself, knowing what I had to do.

With that, I stepped forward, moving closer to the dangerous player. I couldn’t afford to waste my ability, so I made sure that I was close enough that I couldn’t miss. Only then did I blast her with an ‘Invocation of Spite’.

Jace howled in pain and staggered in place, but she didn’t go down. Instead, she stood there, her legs weak and wobbly as she shook. Blood dropped from her lips as she glared at me, her eyes glowing red. Her expression had become even more enraged than before.

“YOU BITCH,” Jace yelled before charging straight at me, her sledge hammer raised to strike as soon as I was in reach.

“MAGGIE,” Bunny shouted in horror.

I shifted position and waited for her to reach me, holding my dagger high as though I was going to try stabbing her in the face. Her attention was on my weapon, so she wasn’t prepared when I suddenly stepped forward and to the side, using my foot to trip her. As she began tilting forward, I kicked the back of her knee, making her fly forward face first into the ground.

I’d learned a long time ago that when you’re facing someone who is stronger, faster, and tougher than you, you had to rely on skill, leverage, and dirty tricks to win. This particular move was one that I’d used to take down more than one rogue player over the years, so it was kind of nostalgic to be able to use it again after so long.

A moment later, I was beside Jace with my dagger held to her throat. She froze at the feel of cold steel, especially when I drew a little bit of blood. After what she’d just pulled, I wanted her to feel that moment of fear as she realized that her life was a razor’s edge from ending.

“I’ve got her now,” Agent Davis called out as she ran up to us.

Davis had a scepter in her hand, and Nash, who followed right behind, held the crossbow, aimed at Jace. As soon as Davis reached us, she pointed the scepter at Jace and fired. Ther was a flash of green and Jace collapsed.

“Stun wand,” Davis called out, loud enough to reassure everyone nearby that she hadn’t just executed Jace on the spot. “She’ll be out for fifteen minutes.”

I nodded at that and stepped back, away from the now unconscious player, sheathing my dagger as I did so. However, I didn’t take my eyes off Jace, not fully trusting that she was out. I’d seen more than one player shrug off something that should have put them down. You never knew what abilities one of them…one of us might have.

“We’ll need help getting her into a cell before then,” Nash called out, looking around for volunteers.

“I’ll help,” Wolf offered as he stepped forward. He gave me a nod of appreciation, smiling faintly as he did so. “Nice takedown.”

“Yes,” Davis agreed, staring at me with a strange expression. “A very nice takedown.”

“Thanks,” I responded with a shrug.

Wolf picked up Jace and slung her over his shoulder, then marched off behind Nash. Davis remained behind.

“You know,” Davis told me once they were gone, “I’ve seen that move before.”

“Oh?” I replied casually.

Davis stared at me, then nodded. “Back in Warden training. They used to call that move the Upton sweep.”

“Really?” I asked, keeping my tone one of vague interest. “Imagine that.”

Interlude:

Eileen Davis leaned back in her chair and blew out a stream of thick smoke while staring at the lit end of her cigar. Sitting on her desk in front of her was a half-finished glass of bourbon.

“Shouldn’t you wait until you’re off duty for that?” Owen Nash asked as he stepped into her office.

“Shouldn’t you mind your own business?” she responded with a faint smile before pouring him a glass as well.

“I probably should,” Nash agreed as he accepted the glass. “But someone has to keep tabs on you.”

Davis chuckled at that before taking another pull on her cigar. “This Jace situation is a total shitshow. At least she didn’t kill anyone.”

Nash took a sip of his bourbon and nodded. “I’m just glad we didn’t have to put her down.”

“Yeah,” Davis agreed with a nod. She was thankful for that as well.

Dealing with rogue players could be extremely dangerous, and a lot of Wardens had been killed by players who decided that the rules didn’t apply to them. That they had power, so they could do whatever they wanted.

In the old days, before her time, the situation had been even worse. Back then, Wardens had been forced to deal with every rogue player on their own, without any real support. They’d been forced to get vicious, nasty, and creative just to take down the rogue threats. Fortunately, these days things were different. Now, the Wardens often acted more as consultants and advisors while heavily armed SWAT teams and even other players were the ones to get their hands dirty.

“Jace,” Davis said with a sigh of frustration. “I knew she was going to be trouble. Always complaining about her lost dick and her lost money. Spending way too many nights getting drunk and looking for someone to take it out on.” She shook her head and added, “Trust fund babies shouldn’t be respawned.”

“I can’t disagree with that,” Nash responded.

“Did you see that fight?” Davis asked Nash. “The way Maggie took Jace down?”

“I saw it,” Nash responded, giving her a wry look. “I was there with you when it happened.”

Davis drew on her cigar, then blew the smoke out off to the side. “That move she used…”

“I recognized it from training,” Nash said with a thoughtful look. “What was it called again? The Up Town Sweep?”

“Something like that,” Davis responded with a chuckle. “It’s a niche move…highly specialized. It’s meant to take down a charging player by using their own momentum against them. Not many people outside the Wardens use that kind of move, so where the hell did she learn it?”

Nash hesitated a moment before suggesting, “The same place we did?”

Davis set her cigar down into the ashtray and then took a sip of bourbon. She closed her eyes for a moment to feel the burn run down her throat. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“So, what now?” Nash asked.

“Now,” Davis said, gesturing to a cardboard box full of files. “We need to get this to the remote office so they can all be scanned into the computer and saved. We’ll also need to schedule our next propane delivery.”

“And let me guess,” Nash responded with a wry smile. “You want me to take care of that.”

“Consider it a training opportunity,” Davis told him with a chuckle. “And while you take care of that, I have something I need to do.”

Once Nash left the room with the box of files, Davis looked at her notebook. It contained her notes on nearly every player who had come through town. She’d always made a point to record her thoughts and observations about each one, because she never knew when they’d come in handy.

Her eyes settled on the most recent entry, the one she’d written down a couple hours earlier. It was her observations of the fight and her growing suspicions about Maggie.

Finally, Davis opened the drawer to her desk and pulled out a small round mirror that was only a little larger than the palm of her hand. This was not just a mirror, it was an artifact that was magically connected to an identical mirror. She tapped her finger on the surface, signaling the person who held the other mirror that she had a message.

“I think I found a possible candidate,” Davis said to the mirror.

----------

Maya Ramirez stood in the foyer of the Warden headquarters, her eyes locked on a picture that hung on the wall. It was an old picture, one that had been taken during the earliest days of their organization. Twelve people had been posing for the camera, lined up and each looking serious and professional.

“They’re all gone now,” Maya whispered, feeling a vague sadness at that fact. The last of those twelve founders, the old guard as they were often called, had died little more than a month earlier. His passing had marked the end of an era.

She had never met any of those people, as all of the founders had left the Warders well before she’d joined. Maya felt a bit of regret at that, wondering what it would have been like to hear stories from the early days, from people who’d actually been there. The things that they’d dealt with, before anyone even understood what players were and what they could do.

“We’ll get the bastards who killed you,” Maya promised, staring at one of the men in that picture.

A few seconds later, Maya turned and continued into the building. It didn’t take her long to reach her office where she quickly slipped behind her desk so she could read the latest reports.

Maya absently reached for the small mini-fridge which was hidden behind her desk and pulled out a cold soda. She didn’t even look at the Diet Coke as she opened the can and took a sip. Instead, her attention was on the e-mail in front of her.

Before long, there was a knock on her door. She looked up since she’d left the door open, seeing a familiar figure stepping in without waiting for an invitation.

“Simon,” Maya said in greeting to her partner.

Simon Harris nodded. “Maya.”

“Mad Mike and Raze have been spotted,” Maya abruptly began, naming the two players that they’d been investigating for over a month. She knew Simon would want this information as soon as possible since this case was personal to him.

“Where?” Simon asked, leaning forward expectantly.

“The British Columbia entrance,” Maya answered grimly. “Three days ago. The report said that they were trying to recruit a delve team but were interrupted by the local Wardens. Now, we have another dead Warden and they escaped into the Labyrinth.”

“Damn,” Simon said with a deep growl. “Do we know who we lost?”

Maya shook her head. “I haven’t heard a name yet.”

Simon let out a sigh and shook his head. “One more Warden that they’re going to pay for.”

“We’ll get them,” Maya assured him. “Every Warden has been given their descriptions, so if they show up anywhere, we should hear about it.”

“Good,” Simon said. “Very good.” Then he took a deep breath to calm himself before looking her in the eye. “But that isn’t why I came in here.”

Maya shifted mental gears. “What’s going on then?”

“Well,” Simon said, hesitating a moment before he finished, “Your request has been approved.”

“My request?” she asked blankly, until she realized which request he had to be referring to. Her eyes widened. “You mean…?”

“Yeah,” Simon agreed, giving her a faint smile. “You’ve been approved for a run.”

The wide cavern was littered with the bodies of monsters, some of which were already starting to melt into goo. When we’d stepped into the space a short time ago, it had been full of spider monsters, ones that we’d all been more than happy to kill.

I walked over to one of the dead monsters and pulled my dagger out of its body. With a wince of disgust, I wiped the blade clean and then sheathed it on my belt.

“You were pretty accurate with that thing,” Turtle said, nodding towards the dagger. “The way you threw it…”

“That caught me by surprise,” Bunny said.

I shrugged in response. “My ability was down and the spider was about to jump on Ace, so it seemed a good idea.”

“It was a good throw,” Ace agreed, looking self-conscious at having been saved. “Thanks.”

My hand rested on my dagger, then I chuckled. “It was surprisingly easy. After that fight with Jace the other day, I unlocked a talent for knives.”

“Really?” Bunny asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” I responded with a grin. “Now, it almost feels like I’ve been using this thing for years.”

Once my dagger was sheathed, I took a moment to check my gear out. My mace had a few scratches and nicks in the metal but was still in good shape. The leather jerkin that I’d bought as my first piece of armor was dirty with a little monster goo smeared on it, but other than that and a couple small scratches, it was in good shape too.

“I’ve got a new ability,” Bunny suddenly exclaimed. She was staring into the air, or at least that was what it looked like to me. I knew that she was really staring at her status screen. “I can’t wait to try this out.”

“What did you get?” Olivia asked with obvious interest.

Bunny flashed her a grin. “A second summon…”

With that, Bunny held out her hands which began to glow. She stood there like that for over ten seconds before a new rabbit suddenly appeared on the ground in front of her.

“Another rabbit,” Ace said with a snicker. “Why am I not surprised.”

The new rabbit was much larger than the horned rabbits, standing nearly four feet tall, not counting the ears which pushed it up closer to five. It was also a bit more humanoid in build, standing straight up on its hind legs like a person would, while also wearing a red jacket with gold trim. At the rabbit’s waist, there was a belt with a rapier sheathed on it.

“Hello,” Bunny greeted the new rabbit, which actually bowed down to her. “Why, aren’t you the polite one.”

The giant rabbit stepped back and drew its sword, then made a few slashes in the air for demonstration. Once it had done this, it carefully sheathed the weapon again and gave Bunny another bow.

“This is awesome,” Bunny exclaimed. “I can’t wait to see you fight.”

“That should be interesting,” I told her, turning my attention to my own new popup.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 6

The new level was welcome, but I quickly confirmed that I hadn’t gained any new abilities, only another free stat point, which I quickly assigned to focus. I wanted to get that and presence both up to ten before I put anything more into vitality.

“Does anyone see a treasure box?” Turtle asked as he looked around. “Maybe underneath one of these spiders.”

Turtle visibly shuddered at the sight of the monsters, even if they were all dead now. That was still a better reaction than the girly scream he’d made when we first stepped into the cavern and saw all those spiders.

“Nothing,” Ace said with a scowl. “And I’ve been looking.”

Olivia used her staff to point at the only real feature in the cavern, a large opening right in the middle, with glowing stone steps that descended. We all moved closer and stared at the stairway, not of us saying a word as we considered what this was.

“We can go deeper into the Labyrinth,” Bunny announced. “More dangerous. Bigger rewards.”

“More cash,” Ace said with a grin. “I’m all for that.”

Everyone considered that for a moment before Turtle turned to me. “You’re the lowest level here, Maggie. Do you want to risk going deeper?”

I hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

“Okay,” Bunny said, looking to her newest rabbit. “Better get ready, Sir Fluff. We’re going to be counting on you.”

The giant rabbit, Sir Fluff, gave her another bow before he turned and began walking down the steps. Turtle watched him go, then shrugged and did the same. Everyone else quickly followed after.

As we descended, I found myself staring at Turtle’s backside. He had a nice ass. A really nice ass. Then I realized what I was doing and tore my eyes away, hoping that none of the others had noticed.

Recently, I’d begun to appreciate the male body in ways that I never had before. That was obviously part and parcel my new body and hormones, but it was still a bit weird for me.

“Focus on the job,” I quietly told myself. “Focus on the job.”

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, they opened into a new cavern…if I could even call it a cavern. I stepped out of the stairs and stared up above us, not seeing any sign of cavern walls or ceiling. Instead, I saw a thick wall of trees and vines, with what appeared to be the open sky above those.

“We’re in a jungle,” I said before shifting my attention to potential threats. There were always dangers in the Labyrinth, and I imagined that the apparent jungle was probably full of them.

A few seconds later, my suspicions were proven correct as something suddenly lashed out and tried to grab Sir Fluff. The rabbit leapt away at the last second, avoiding the attack.

The source of the attack was a giant frog, one that was nearly five feet tall from the ground to the top of its body. Its skin was a mottled dark green, the perfect coloring to blend into the jungle that surrounded it. Until the moment it lashed out with its ridiculously long tongue, I hadn’t even noticed it.

There was only a moment of pause as the frog drew its long tongue back into its mouth, then it lashed out again. The tongue shot out at Olivia, who squealed and jumped back. Turtle was suddenly there, using his shield to block the tongue. The appendage stuck to the shield and tried pulling it out of Turtle’s hands as the frog tried to pull it back again.

Sir Fluff abruptly leapt at the frog, using its rapier to stab at the monster. And then, not to be left out, its smaller siblings, the horned rabbits, all charged the frog at once.

“Let go,” Turtle exclaimed as he brought his sword down on the tongue, severing it and freeing his shield from the frog’s grasp.

The frog let out a gurgling roar and then leapt up into the air, looking like it was about to land right on top of Bunny. Ace shoved the summoner aside, right before the frog landed right in the middle of our group.

“This reminds me of the old days,” I said, right before I slammed my mace into the frog’s side.

“What the hell did you do back then?” Ace demanded.

I grinned, though it quickly turned into a pained grimace as I unleashed an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at point blank range. The Frog spasmed and staggered back, letting out a gurgling howl.

“Dog catcher,” I answered with a wince.

What I didn’t say, was that the dog I was referring to had been a fire-breathing dog monster, who’d been the size of a Clydesdale. It had taken three Wardens and a lot of firepower, including a couple mortar rounds, to finally take the damn thing down.

Olivia finally let loose with her arcane blast, sending a beam of blue energy right into the frog’s open mouth. There was a burst of blood and guts before it staggered back and dropped to the ground.

“Good hit,” Bunny told Olivia.

“I think I see another one,” I told the group as I pointed up ahead. “It’s already watching us from behind those leaves.”

As soon as the new frog monster realized that we’d seen it, it opened its mouth and spat out a thick glob of green goo, like some kind of enormous loogie. The glob missed and smacked into the side of a tree, where it began steaming and sizzling.

“That doesn’t look good,” Bunny commented.

“Try not to get hit,” I suggested.

The frog leapt towards us, this time lashing out with its tongue. Ace opened fire while the monster was still in the air while Olivia backed up and began readying her ability.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ wasn’t ready for another shot, so I ran forward and smacked the frog with my mace as soon as it landed. It turned to lash out at me, only to have four rabbits attack it at once, followed by Olivia’s arcane blast.

“Back up,” Turtle ordered as he stepped right in front of the frog and slashed at it to get its attention. “Focus on me, not them.”

By this point, the second frog had already taken a lot of damage, but not enough to bring it down. It suddenly snapped around and lashed out with its tongue, snatching up one of the horned rabbits and swallowing it whole a moment later. Sir Fluff seemed to take that personally and charged forward, driving his rapier deep into the monster’s side.

My ability was finally ready to use again, so I took a deep breath to brace for the coming pain, and then fired off another ‘Invocation of Spite’. My little ball of agony hit the frog right in the face, and it shrieked in agony while its skin burned and peeled off to reveal bone beneath. It staggered to the ground and guggled it’s last.

“Two down,” Ace announced with a weak chuckle. “A LOT more to go.”

I looked around and saw that Ace was right. While we’d been fighting, more frogs had shown up, probably drawn by all the noise and activity. There were three more frogs within sight and I could hear more rustling through the brush.

“Maybe if we’re lucky,” I said with a weak chuckle, “we’ll be able to get some more levels from these guys.”

Several frogs came at us at once. There was a flash of motion and Sir Fluff was swallowed whole. A glob of green slime smashed into Turtle’s shield, right before it would have hit me. A large body landed right on top of the two remaining rabbits, crushing them both at the same time.

“GOD DAMN!” Ace shrieked. “That shit burns…”

I saw that a bit of the green slime had struck his arm, making him drop one of his scepters. He fired the other scepter, then quickly picked up the one he’d dropped before backing away.

“There are too many of them,” I said, looking around. “Everyone… Back into the stairs. We can force them to come at us one at a time.”

“And all from the same direction,” Turtle finished for me. “Good idea.”

I smashed one frog with my mace before I backed up, trying to reach the cover of the stairwell. Olivia fired an arcane blast and hit the same frog while she made her own retreat.

It didn’t take long for us to get into the stairwell where we at least had a bit of cover. Turtle remained at the front, between us and the frogs. His shield would be critical for blocking their weaponized phlegm.

Ace and Olivia took turns firing their ranged attack at the lead frog that was trying to follow us up the stairs. I remained back, waiting for my ability to get off cooldown so I could use it again.

“I NEED a weapon,” Bunny complained. “I won’t have the energy to resummon anything for a bit.”

“I’d let you borrow my dagger,” I told her with a chuckle. “But I don’t think you want to get close enough to use it.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “I don’t want to get that close.”

Ace fired off one of his scepters while smirking. “Ranged attacks rule.”

Olivia snorted. “For once, I have to agree with Ace.” Then she fired another of her own arcane blasts.

“Ranged attacks definitely have their advantages,” I agreed before firing off another ‘Invocation of Spite’. But we couldn’t do anything with them if Turtle wasn’t covering our asses.”

The frog in front went down and the next frog in line scrambled over the first one’s body. It lashed out with a long tongue, only to have Turtle slice it off. A moment later, two blasts from Ace hit it right in the face, followed by another blast from Olivia. When this frog died as well, the next one came forward.

Our fight in the stairwell lasted a lot longer than any of us would have liked, and it was a bit close for comfort. But finally, after killing seven more frogs, we were done. We could finally rest and relax, at least for a little while.

Going deeper into the Labyrinth really had been a lot more dangerous. I just hoped that the rewards would be worth it.

I took a sip of my beer and then leaned back in my chair, sighing in relief. Good food and drink were well appreciated after all the work I’d done over the last couple days.

For the last two days, my team and I had been inside the Labyrinth, delving as deep as we were able to handle. It hadn’t really been all that deep comparatively, but it had pushed us all.

Our trip had been productive, and not just in earning a couple more levels. We’d also found two treasure boxes. One of the boxes only had a pair of metal gauntlets, which Turtle had claimed, while the second box had contained a belt and a small gemstone. Bunny took the belt, then sold the gem as soon as we’d returned to town.

I smiled as I considered my new influx of cash. With my share from the gem, I might be able to buy some new equipment. Maybe some more protective pieces to go with my jerkin.

“Just as long as I save enough for room and food,” I quietly reminded myself. I still had a couple weeks to go before I needed to start paying rent somewhere, but I wasn’t going to take that for granted. “Hopefully, I’ll get another payday or two before then.”

Just then, a voice said, “So, you’re the new girl in town.”

I looked up and saw a man standing across from my table, looking down at me expectantly. He was tall and fairly muscular, with a dark blonde beard and matching hair which had a couple braids woven in. I immediately recognized the man, named Dom, though I’d never spoken with him.

From what I’d been told by Bunny, Dom was one of the players who’d emerged from the Labyrinth after being respawned, and never went back in. I didn’t judge him for that, because knowing your limits and avoiding unnecessary danger could be signs of wisdom. However, the fact that he also carried a large barbarian style sword slung over his shoulder, seemed a bit…fake.

Dom moved to sit down across from me, completely uninvited.

“I’d prefer to be left alone,” I told him evenly. “I’m enjoying a bit of time by myself.”

“There’s no need for that,” Dom responded, flashing a grin and completely ignoring my words as he sat down anyway.

I gave Dom a silent glare and he abruptly paused, paling just a little. My glare had gotten a bit more potent as of late, courtesy of the extra points that I’d slotted into my presence. My presence was currently sitting at nine, which meant that I was suddenly a lot more intimidating than I had been before.

From what I understood, everyone had an aura which could influence how people saw and reacted to them. For most people, it might not be noticeable, but for others… Some people just naturally came off as sincere and trustworthy, while others might seem creepy of threatening, even though they didn’t do anything to earn that reaction. Presence affected the strength of this aura and how well you could actually direct it.

At the moment, every bit of my intent was focused on Dom, who slowly stood back up.

“I’ll leave you alone,” Dom said with a forced smile before he walked away, trying to be casual about it.

“Points well spent,” I told myself with a dark chuckle.

Once Dom was gone, I took another sip of my beer, then turned my attention back to my plate. Most of my dinner had already been eaten, but a few bites remained, so I decided to rectify that.

Just then, Dom called out, “It’s the Men in Grey.”

“That’s Woman in Grey,” Agent Davis corrected as walked into the Broken Yardarm. She looked around, then slowly made her way towards my table.

“Here we go again,” I muttered, though at least this interruption would be more welcomed than the last.

“Maggie,” Davis greeted me once she reached my table.

“That is the name on my ID,” I responded with a chuckle.

Davis smiled faintly at that. “Actually, that was what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“My name?” I asked curiously. “Or my ID?”

“The latter,” she told me. “When you get a chance, I’d like you to come to our remote office…” She paused at that. “Well, some of the higher ups think it’s our main office and that THIS one is the remote one…”

I nodded at that, knowing what she meant. “Hard to do your job if you stay too far away from the Labyrinth and the players.”

“Exactly,” Davis agreed. “Anyway, our other office is only five miles away, and I’d like you to stop by sometime so we can take your picture and update your ID with a more permanent version.”

I considered that for a moment, not sure that I wanted to have my picture taken. More accurately, I wasn’t sure that I wanted my official record to have any more information on me than necessary. That was the same reason I hadn’t told Davis that I was an invoker, though admittedly, she might have figured that out on her own. I hadn’t been exactly subtle in my conversation with Wolf.

“Sure,” I answered pleasantly, deciding that there was no need to antagonize her when I could just keep procrastinating instead. “I’ll take care of that when I get some time.”

Davis gave me a single nod at that. “Oh, you should also know that Jace has been released and might hold a grudge.”

I frowned at that. “Released?”

The Warden shrugged at that. “She didn’t really hurt anyone. It was mostly just property damage, so we kept her in the drunk tank for a few days but couldn’t justify much more than that.”

“I understand,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

Davis shook her head and let out a sigh. “When I joined the Wardens, I never thought that I’d be stuck having to play small town sherif.”

That brought a faint smile to my lips as I understood exactly what she meant. I’d always hated the more bureaucratic and paper pushing assignments, the kind I’d been stuck with after my leg was shattered.

“It could be worse,” I assured her with a knowing smile.

“Yeah,” she grumbled in response. “But not by much.”

After this, Davis gave me another nod before she turned and wandered off. I finished my drink, paid my bill, then got up and left, though I didn’t go too far. I only went across the street and a couple doors down, where I ended up at the town bar. Why Gideon Heights had a separate bar and diner, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like there was much need for family-friendly places.

I quickly spotted a couple familiar faces, sitting at a table with drinks in hand. Bunny and Olivia were deep in conversation. But instead of joining them immediately, I made a brief stop at the bar to pick up a drink of my own, and only then continued heading towards them.

“Hey,” I said as I joined the two, taking a seat at the table without waiting for an invitation. I chose to ignore the fact that this was the same thing that Dom had tried doing to me. “I’m surprised they didn’t card you,” I teased Bunny.

Bunny flashed me a sharp grin. “They don’t bother any more.”

“Or any less,” Olivia pointed out with a dismissive gesture.

“Jack will learn, eventually,” Bunny assured her. “He can only get poked by rabbits so many times before he takes the hint.”

“You hope,” Olivia added with a faint smirk.

Bunny glared at the arcanist. “It’s not my fault I came back a third of my old age.”

“I only lost about ten years,” Olivia admitted. “If that.”

“How about you?” Bunny abruptly asked me.

I blinked at that since most players would consider that question to be intrusive and rude. However, we’d been fighting together and had even become friends, which gave her a bit more leeway.

“Let’s put it this way,” I told her wryly. “I remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.”

“Wow,” Bunny exclaimed in mock surprise. “You must have been ancient.”

I shrugged at that. “Old enough. Now, what were you two talking about before I interrupted?”

Bunny and Olivia shared a look before Bunny answered. “We were talking about how both our classes rely on focus as our primary stat.”

“Increasing focus gives me more control over my arcane blasts,” Olivia told me. “I’m slowly gaining the ability to either fire smaller blasts that recharge faster, or to let it build up to be slower but more powerful.”

“Flexibility is good,” I commented while Olivia nodded agreement.

“For me,” Bunny explained, “it lets me channel more of my creation magic. I started off only being able to summon one rabbit, but as my focus increases, I’ve been able to summon more. I’m pretty sure that I’m close to being able to summon four of the smaller ones.”

“That would be useful,” I told her. “Do you think you’ll be able to summon multiple copies of Sir Fluff?”

Bunny considered that for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t think so. Sir Fluff is basically taking all of my energy…what would normally summon all three of my current rabbits, and sort of combines it all into one. I think that I’ll be able to slowly make him bigger and more powerful, but I don’t think I’ll be able to summon multiple copies of him.”

“Either way would be impressive,” I said before taking a long drink of my beer.

Olivia looked at me and asked, “What about you?”

I hesitated a moment, more to consider how I would answer rather than whether or not I should. “Yeah,” I finally said. “I use focus too, but I haven’t really slotted enough into it yet to see any real improvements. I suspect that once I do, it’ll probably be like your arcane blasts.”

“That should be interesting to see then,” Olivia said with a faint nod.

I took a sip of my beer, then slowly looked around the bar. The respawned always came back young and healthy, so there was a decent amount of eye-candy in the bar, both male and female. It was still a bit weird for me to consider that men were now on the menu.

“Now then,” I said, looking at my two teammates and friends. “I’m a bit new to the whole girl’s night out, so what do we do now?”

Bunny and Olivia shared a knowing look and then turned to me as one, both grinning mischievously.

I woke up beside someone else, with their arm draped over me while a soft snore filled my ear. For a good minute, I remained motionless, feeling confused and trying to make sense of where I was at and what had happened. It was my pounding headache which gave me the first clue, and which triggered the cascade of memories.

Last night, I’d been out drinking with Bunny and Olivia when I’d discovered that my high vitality gave me a high tolerance for booze. I’d decided to test that tolerance to see how much I could handle, which had probably been a big mistake, because while drunk, I’d also decided to test something else. My new parts.

I’d found someone…a guy…and had gone home with him to see what sex was like as a woman. It had been decent and definitely different, but also a bit disappointing. It would have been because we were both drunk, or because he was bad in the sack. I wouldn’t know until I tried it again under different circumstances.

With that, I slipped out of bed, being careful not to disturb the man who was still asleep. Once I was free and standing a few feet away, I looked down on him and remembered exactly whom I’d slept with. Owen Nash, one of the local Wardens.

“Just great,” I muttered to myself.

I looked around to find my clothes, which were scattered across the floor. Then I dressed in silence before leaving the room. Since Nash lived in the same building where I had my own room, it was a short distance ‘home’.

Once I was back in my own room, I stripped my clothes right back off and casually tossed them across my own floor before I hopped into the shower. And while I cleaned myself up, I thought about what I’d done and how I felt about it.

I’d had sex with a man, one who I barely knew, and I had then done the walk of shame. But in spite of that, I didn’t feel ashamed. Embarrassed, yes. Ashamed, no.

The idea of sleeping with a man didn’t horrify or disgust me, in spite of the fact that I’d previously been a straight man. Sure, this experience hadn’t been as satisfying as I would have hoped, but I’d still do it again. My new body and hormones obviously played a large part in this change of perspective, but it still seemed a bit soon. I would have expected this particular adjustment to have taken a lot longer.

“I am a woman now,” I said as I looked over my body, smiling wryly as I stared at my tits. “Definitely a woman.”

That fact didn’t bother me at all, and perhaps it should have. Where was my old masculine pride? Why wasn’t I holding onto the past as hard as Jace had been? Maybe my age and experience had given me a different perspective about this new lease on life. What I did know, was that I felt surprisingly comfortable as I now was, and that I was grateful for the second chance.

When I finished my shower, I looked myself over in the mirror, taking in the details as I did every time I saw my new reflection. This time, I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d look like if I had my hair styled nicely, and if I wore makeup and nicer clothes. I imagined that I could be quite a looker if I bothered to make the effort.

“Something to think about another time,” I mused as I pulled my hair back into the ponytail which had become my usual hairstyle. I liked having long hair, but I also liked keeping it out of my face. “For now, I need something to eat.”

By the time I reached the Broken Yardarm, my hangover had faded away almost entirely. It seemed that high vitality not only increased my alcohol tolerance but also sped up my recovery. Vitality was definitely my favorite stat, and I couldn’t wait to add more to it.

Bunny and Olivia were already inside, eating brunch and nursing their own hangovers. Olivia looked especially miserable, in spite of the fact that Bunny was physically younger. I vaguely remembered Bunny keeping her own booze consumption on the lighter side.

“So, how was it?” Bunny asked me as I sat down at the table. “Or more accurately, how was HE?”

I chuckled at that. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”

Olivia snorted while Bunny snickered. “Shows how much you know,” Bunny responded with a broad grin. “Now spill.”

“It was…different,” I admitted.

“Just different?” Bunny asked, looking disappointed.

“Different good, or different bad?” Olivia asked.

“Yes,” I replied while they both gave me flat looks. I finally relented enough to add, “I would be willing to try it again…though preferably, while a bit more sober.”

Bunny looked as though she was about to say something more, but that was when Ace and Turtle arrived. The two men swept into the diner and plopped down at our table with cheerful greetings.

“Not so loud,” Olivia hissed.

Bunny nodded agreement. “It’s a little too early for you two to be so energetic.”

“What’s wrong?” Turtle asked with a worried look.

“Hangover,” I said simply.

Turtle and Ace both nodded in understanding, though Turtle asked, “Aren’t you too young for drinking?”

“Bite me,” Bunny responded with a quick flip of the bird.

“You aren’t as old as you used to be,” Turtle continued.

“Ain’t that the truth,” I added with a chuckle. “You know, youth really is wasted on the young.”

A short time later, we were all sitting there with food in front of us, eating in relative quiet. Bunny and Olivia were still feeling the effects of last night, though they seemed to be improving as the meal went on.

“I will definitely have to slot some vitality,” Olivia commented, giving me a dirty look.

“Extra vitality is great,” Turtle responded with a broad grin. “That and strength are my two main stats.”

Bunny nodded at that. “And I hear that increasing your vitality enough can slow down your aging.”

“That’s true,” Ace added with a serious expression. “I met this guy who was one of the first players in America. The guy respawned decades ago, but he only looks about thirty because he slotted so much vitality.”

“Another reason to slot more,” I commented with a chuckle.

“Every stat has advantages,” Olivia commented. “Including ones you might not realize at first.”

Just then, there was a loud noise from outside and nearly everyone turned to look out the window. I remained where I was, taking another bite of my pancake. Whatever the commotion was, it could wait until I’d finished eating.

“It looks like the stagecoach just arrived,” Turtle said.

I chuckled at the idea of there being an actual stagecoach running in the modern world, but I wasn’t surprised. Gideon Heights and other towns near Labyrinth entrances tended to operate on older methods. Since the horse and cart were the most reliable method of hauling goods, it only made sense that a stagecoach would be used for hauling people.

“They use the stagecoach to bring people to and from the relay station,” Bunny told me. “It’s basically a parking lot where people can switch over between the coach and their cars.”

“It’s right next to the Wardens other office,” Turtle offered.

“Oh shit,” exclaimed a man who was staring out the window. “This can’t be good.”

“What can’t be?” Ace asked.

The man who’d spoken pointed out the window. “You’ll never guess who just arrived in town.”

“Men in Grey,” someone else announced in a worried tone. “More of them just arrived.”

There was a bit of commotion about that in the diner, though I didn’t pay it any mind. Having Wardens arrive shouldn’t have been that big of a deal. After all, Davis and Nash would occasionally need help or even assignment rotations. However, I knew that there could be other reasons for extra Warden presence, reasons that might indicate trouble.

“I wonder what they’re here for,” Ace said, looking a bit nervous.

“With the Wardens,” Turtle added, scowling deeply, “there’s no telling.”

“Someone is in trouble,” Bunny stated, as though this was a simple fact. “I bet it’s Jace.”

“Not unless she got into more damn trouble since the last time we saw her,” I pointed out, barely bothering to look up from my food. “And I think we would have heard about that.”

I finished up my meal, then noticed that everyone else was eager to leave and get a better look at what was going on. I rolled my eyes at that, not bothering to hurry.

“You’re acting like you’ve never seen a Warden before,” I muttered in exasperation.

Once we were all finished, we paid our bill and made our way out of the diner. The stagecoach was parked in the middle of the street, looking almost like it had come right out of the old west. It was a reproduction, one that had probably been made using modern construction techniques, though you couldn’t really tell from one glance.

My attention turned to the people who were standing around in front of the stagecoach, having just unloaded all the baggage. Several suitcases and even a large foot locker were there while the owners were in conversation with Agents Davis and Nash.

Owen Nash saw me and gave me a faint nod, looking as though he was holding back a smile. I nodded back, keeping my own expression from revealing anything.

Then I looked at the newcomers, three Wardens who’d just arrived, each dressed in their familiar grey uniforms. Their stagecoach trip hadn’t been very far, only about five miles, but they seemed happy to have been out of the antiquated conveyance,

The first and youngest of the Wardens was a young man in his early twenties, with blonde hair and an almost eager expression. I immediately marked him as the rookie who was still in training. I’d seen enough of them in my time that his lack of experience was easy to spot.

Standing beside the rookie was a woman in her mid to late twenties. She looked to be Hispanic and had long dark hair that was pulled back into a braid. Her expression was serious, and she had an air of competence about her.

And then there was the last Warden, a middle-aged black man with hair and beard that were mostly grey. He stood ramrod straight, his expression a careful mask of calm professionalism. And for some reason, he seemed familiar to me. Real familiar.

“Oh crap,” I whispered as I suddenly realized where I knew that Warden from.

My first thought was that I should go say ‘hi’, while my second thought was that I should disappear instead. I might have become comfortable with my new body, but having someone who knew me from my old life seeing me like this… That would be awkward as hell.

Before I could make myself scares, Davis suddenly called out, “Hey, Maggie. Come on over here for a moment.”

“Damn,” I muttered before nodding back to her and heading her way.

“This is Maggie,” Davis introduced me to the newly arrived Wardens. “She’s one of the new players in town. Newly respawned.” Then she told me, “These are agents Harris, Ramirez, and McNichols.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said politely, trying to keep the smirk off my face as I looked at my old trainee Simon.

Davis stared at me for a moment before giving Simon a faint nod. I wasn’t sure that I liked that interaction, even though I wasn’t sure what it meant.

“So, what brings all the Warden presence into town?” I asked, mostly to change the subject.

“We’re investigating some rogue players,” the rookie, McNichols answered.

All four of the other Wardens glared at McNichols, who winced a little as he realized that he’d given away more than he probably should. I just kept my expression neutral since I was caught between the urge to laugh and to glare at him myself.

Ramirez cleared her throat and explained, “We’re working with Wardens stationed at each of the U.S. entrances, just in case the rogues are spotted.”

“But they are also here for something else,” Davis said, looking straight at me. “And that is why I wanted to talk with you and your team.” She looked up and gestured to the rest of my team, who’d been standing back and watching the exchange with curious and worried expressions. “If everyone will come to my office, I can explain.”

“Sure,” I agreed, curious about what they wanted.

Davis turned and began heading towards her nearby office, leaving everyone else to follow. However, she paused just beside her office to hang a couple pictures up on the bulletin board, ones which looked like old-school wanted posters.

I paused and looked over the pictures, scowling as I did so. These pictures had been printed out from video footage, so they showed each of the players in accurate detail. I immediately recognized not only those two players, but also the background where they stood in the pictures. That was the cafeteria in the old nursing home where I’d died. Obviously, these pictures had been taken from the security cameras on the ceiling.

For a moment, I just stood frozen, feeling a hard knot of rage rolling around in my gut. That was the man who’d murdered me…the men who were responsible for killing Margaret and who knew how many others in the home. Come hell or high water, they were going to pay for that.

Then, from my connection to Avexis, from where she sent me the primal power for my ‘Invocation of Spite’, I felt something else. I felt a sense of dark satisfaction.

The Warden office was completely crowded. Between five players and another five Wardens, there were ten people inside a room that was meant to comfortably hold about half that. And to make it worse, there were only three chairs, so everyone stood around instead.

“Why are we here?” Bunny asked a little nervously. “We haven’t done anything to get Warden attention.”

“You aren’t in any trouble,” Davis assured her.

“Is this about that Jace thing last week?” Ace asked, glancing to me. “I thought she was out already.”

“She has been released,” Davis responded with look of tightly controlled exasperation. “And no, this isn’t about her.”

Simon and Ramirez both looked like they were starting to get a little impatient, though neither of them said anything. The rookie, McNichols, watched this all with an almost bemused expression.

Ace turned to me. “How the hell did you take Jace down anyway?”

“I am a master of cheat-fu,” I answered evenly, not taking my eyes off the Wardens.

“Is this about those players you’re looking for?” Turtle asked. “I saw you put up the wanted posters.”

Davis took a deep breath. “No, this is not about those players either.” She hesitated a moment. “They’re wanted for murder, and there is a chance that they may emerge from the Labyrinth here in Gideon Heights…but that isn’t why we wanted to talk to you either.”

“We wanted to talk to you about a possible job,” Nash announced, immediately getting the rest of my team to pay attention.

Once everyone had gone silent, Davis gave Nash a nod of thanks, then turned back to us. “As Nash just said, I asked you all in here because we may have a job for you.” Then before anyone could ask, she added, “You would of course be paid.”

“Assuming we accept you,” Simon said, giving us a dubious look before setting his attention back on Davis.

Davis nodded at that and looked us over. “They are all relatively recent players, who have all respawned in the last year.”

“It might be better if we had more experienced players,” Ramirez said, looking just a little worried.

That caught my attention. Why would Ramirez be nervous about our level of experience?

“I recommended this team for several reasons,” Davis told Ramirez and Simon. “The first one is that they’re the only whole team that is currently in town. If you want a different team, you’ll probably have to wait another week or two.”

“And the second reason?” McNichols asked curiously. Davis made a point of ignoring him, other than to glance at me.

“So, what is this about?” Bunny asked, scrunching up her nose a bit as she tried making sense of what they were saying. “Are you looking to send is into the Labyrinth for something specific?”

“That makes sense,” Ace agreed.

Olivia shook her head. “I suspect that this is something else.”

“I’ve been authorized to make a Labyrinth run,” Ramirez blurted out. “And I need an escort.”

“What does that mean?” Ace asked, looking clueless.

Bunny and Olivia shared a look before shrugging.

“An escort?” Turtle asked.

“She wants to go into the Labyrinth,” I explained to my team. “And she needs us to keep her safe when she does.”

There were a couple blank looks at that before Ace asked, “But…why? Normal people don’t go into the Labyrinth.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Turtle immediately added.

“She said she wants to make a Labyrinth run,” I said, staring at Ramirez for a few seconds as I tried to judge what type of person she was and whether or not she even had a chance. “That means, she’s trying to become a player.”

The entire room went silent at that while Simon and Ramirez both stared at me with new interest. Davis just stood there with a smug expression that she was trying to conceal.

“It… It doesn’t work like that,” Bunny started to explain

“Actually, it does,” Simon said, still watching me.

I didn’t like my old friend paying that much attention to me. Then again, if I’d wanted to remain unnoticed, I should have kept my mouth shut. I let out a faint sigh, realizing that Simon wasn’t going to continue. He was waiting for me to do that, to see how much I really knew about the subject. Then with a shrug, I decided that I’d already stepped in it, so I might as well continue.

“Whatever energy it is that we absorb in the Labyrinth,” I explained, looking back and forth between my team members, “the stuff that that lets us level up…” Then I settled my eyes on Ramirez. “Normal people can absorb it too. And if they absorb enough, they unlock a status screen and become players too. No dying and respawning necessary.”

“You’re shitting me,” Ace blurted out.

“That can’t be real,” Turtle protested uncertainly.

“It’s just…dangerous,” I continue with a shrug. “Because they can’t absorb the energy next to an entrance. They need to go deeper in, and that means they need an escort to keep them alive.”

“If that is true,” Bunny said thoughtfully, “then why isn’t that common knowledge?”

Davis answered before I could. “It’s sort of an open secret. Most of those who know about this tend to keep it quiet.”

“This is dangerous knowledge,” Simon said in a firm tone. “Imagine what would happen if this became public…”

“Countless people would rush into the Labyrinth in the hopes of becoming players,” I continued for him. “Most of them would be completely unprepared and would get themselves killed almost immediately.”

“Holy shit,” Bunny gasped, her eyes going wide in realization.

“There’s another catch too,” Ramirez said. She hesitated a moment before explaining, “It doesn’t work for everyone. In fact, it works best for people between the ages of eighteen to twenty-eight…around the same age range as players who respawn. Beyond that… Well, the older you are, the less likely it is to work for you and the more likely you are to die trying to get there.”

“And THAT would probably explain why all Wardens aren’t players,” Olivia commented.

“Precisely,” Davis agreed.

Simon looked at Ramirez with a slightly worried expression which he quickly covered. “We only allow a very limited number of our people to attempt this, and then, only ones who’ve been trained to fight inside the Labyrinth.”

I nodded at that, remembering when I’d first learned that normal people could potentially become players. By the time we’d learned about this, it had already been too late for me. I’d already been far outside the age range.

“I have nothing against any of you,” Ramirez told us. “But you can probably see why I’d be more comfortable with more experienced players.”

“You don’t want a powerful team for escort,” I told her.

“She…Maggie is correct,” Simon said, still watching me carefully. “You don’t want your escorts to be too powerful.”

Ramirez looked a little surprised at that. “Why not?”

“It would reduce your chance of becoming a player,” I explained with a shrug. “You actually have to be part of the fighting yourself, otherwise, you won’t absorb enough energy to turn player. If your escorts are too strong, they’ll take care of everything and you can just stroll on through, but you won’t actually get what you need from it.” I gestured around at my team. “With us, you have a better chance of becoming a player yourself.”

“We haven’t agreed to do anything yet,” Bunny reminded me.

I shrugged. “Just clarifying the situation for all involved.”

“Thank you,” Ramirez told me while glancing to Simon, who silently confirmed that I was right.

“What I would like to know,” Simon said, fixing his eyes on me again. His brows scrunched up in a thoughtful look. “Is how the hell you know all this?”

“Just something I picked up in my old life,” I responded with a dismissive gesture. “You pick up all sorts of random things as a teacher.”

“You were a teacher?” Davis asked a little skeptically.

Bunny snickered, muttering, “This time,” under her breath.

“I thought you were a dog catcher,” Ace told me with a confused expression that made Bunny burst out into outright laughter.

“Should we do it?” Turtle asked the rest of us. “From what I’m hearing, escorting Agent Ramirez won’t really be any different than what we’ve been doing this last week anyway.”

“But we’ll be babysitting too,” Ace grumbled while Olivia silently nodded agreement.

“I can hold my own,” Ramirez insisted. “I might not be a player yet, but I’ve fought plenty of monsters.”

I looked at Simon, who was watching Ramirez with a look of pride that he was trying to hide. I narrowed my eyes at that. Between his presence here and that expression, it was obvious to me that he was the one who’d trained her.

“My vote is yes,” I said. “I know that I’m the newbie here, but I think we should do it.”

“She’s the newbie?” Ramirez asked Davis, looking a bit skeptical about that.

The older Warden just nodded with an amused look on her face. “Hard to believe, right?”

For the next couple minutes, the others discussed whether we should take the job or not while I remained silent. I’d already said my two cents, so there was no point adding more. However, once the topic of money came up and Davis gave us an actual number, the decision was quickly made.

“We’d be happy to escort you through the Labyrinth,” Bunny told Ramirez with a cheerful smile. “It’ll be our pleasure to help the Wardens.”

“And our wallets,” Ace added with a grin.

After a little more discussion, everyone finally began to filter out of the office. That was a relief because the whole place had been getting more than a little stuffy with so many people crowding the small area.

Once I stepped out of the office and back onto the street, I let out a sigh of relief and then took a nice breath of fresh air. Being under Simon’s gaze like that, without letting him know who I was, had been a bit uncomfortable.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be delving with a Warden,” Ace said with a shake of his head.

Bunny pointed out, “Wardens hire players all the time…”

“To fight monsters,” Turtle pointed out. “And sometimes other players.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But this?”

“It happens,” I assured her. “It might not happen all the time, but it’s not exactly rare either.”

Bunny looked like she was going to say something more, but a voice said, “Maggie…”

I turned and saw Nash walking towards me, looking a little nervous. I remembered this morning…and last night, and suddenly felt a bit awkward as well. It dawned on me that this was the first time the two of us had actually spoken to each other while sober.

“You seemed…pretty knowledgeable about the subject,” Nash said, gesturing to the office.

I shrugged at that. “You know how it is. Sometimes, you just pick things up.”

“Of course,” he agreed, perhaps a little too quickly.

“Are you planning to make a Labyrinth run too?” I asked curiously.

Nash hesitated a moment before answering, “Eventually. Right now, I’m still getting a little more experience dealing with monsters, but hopefully, the higher-ups will authorize me to go in before long.”

“Whenever you do get the go ahead,” I told him. “Let me know if you need an escort.”

“I’ll do that,” Nash told me, brightening up.

“I’ll see you later,” I told him as I started to walk away. “I’ve got to get ready for another delve.”

The office was nearly empty, leaving Simon Harris alone with the local Warden in charge, Eileen Davis. Davis leaned back in the chair behind her desk, shaking her head and letting out a sigh.

“Wasn’t that something?” Davis asked with an amused look.

“It was…something,” Simon agreed, thinking over the meeting that had just ended. He shook his head. “So, that Maggie was the new player you called me about.”

“The potential candidate,” Davis agreed. “I’m sure you can see why I suggested her.”

Simon considered that for a moment before admitting, “She was far more knowledgeable than any new player has a right to be, and some of the things she knew…”

“Yeah,” Davis agreed. “It really makes you wonder who she used to be.”

Davis paused at that to shake her head and open the humidor which sat on her desk. She removed a cigar then held the box open for Simon, who hesitated for only a second before accepting a cigar.

“Unfortunately,” Davis said a minute later as she blew out a stream of thick smoke, “background checks are impossible for players. Most of them never talk about who they used to be…”

“For good reason,” Simon added as he drew on his own cigar.

“And Maggie is no different,” Davis told him with a thoughtful look. “She’s let a few things slip, though I’m not sure if that was intentional or not…nor about how honest she’s been with it. Honestly, I have my suspicions about her, but I’m not ready to share them just yet. I wanted to let you and Ramirez make up your own minds first.”

“I’ll have Ramirez keep an eye on her while they’re in the Labyrinth,” Simon said with a faint smile. “That is why we’re here rather than at one of the other entrances.”

“There are plenty of teams out there who are willing to take Wardens on a run,” Davis mused. “A couple of them even make a living off it.”

“We’ll see how well this group does,” Simon said. “And just how trustworthy they are.”

Simon stared down at the lit end of his cigar, hoping that he hadn’t made a mistake by entrusting his partner to a group of strangers. Still, he could trust in Maya’s training and experience. If nothing else, that would see her through the challenge that was to come.

----------

Maya Ramirez couldn’t sleep. She knew that she should, that she would need all the rest she could get, because in the morning she would be heading into the Labyrinth. Unfortunately, she was too tired to sleep, so she crouched down in front of her open footlocker instead.

The footlocker contained all of Maya’s gear, all of the arms and armor that she’d trained with for the last few years. This was the equipment she’d used to hunt monsters that had escaped from the Labyrinth, and it was the same gear that she would carry into the Labyrinth itself.

Piece by piece, everything came out of the footlocker and was placed on the floor around her. Maya carefully inspected every little bit, not that she needed to. She’d already cleaned, sharpened, and inspected everything before she’d packed it. However, going over everything one more time helped to make her feel prepared.

“I can’t believe I’m finally going in,” Maya whispered with a giddy smile.

Maya paused and shook her head, reminding herself that she was going to go into the Labyrinth with a group of strangers, that she’d be trusting her life to people she didn’t know. That was what really made her nervous, not the monsters. Monsters were predictable, people were not.

Then Maya came to her last piece of gear, the one that was most important to her. It was a simple ka-bar style combat knife, one which had seen a lot of use over the years. Simon had given that knife to her as a present, when she’d finished his training. As far as she was concerned, it was far better than any diploma could possibly be, and far more practical.

“For luck,” Simon had told her at the time. “My old trainer gave me this knife when he was satisfied that I was good enough to take care of myself, and now, I give it to you.”

“Maybe one day,” Maya whispered to herself as she stared at the blade, “I’ll be able to pass you down to someone else.”

With that, Maya stood and stepped back, looking over all of her gear one more time. It was all laid out and ready to go. A few seconds later, she nodded in satisfaction, finally feeling ready.

“I’d better hit the sack,” she announced with a yawn. “Morning will come soon enough.”

----------

The large man stood atop a pile of monster bodies, gore dripping from his axe. Raze let out a howl of triumph and then began laughing. This… THIS was what he lived for. Destroying anything and everything in his path. This was the reason he’d chosen Raze as his name.

Of course, his name hadn’t always been Raze. Once, a long time ago, he’d been a very different man. He’d been weak and powerless, with a job he hated, a wife he’d grown to despise, and children who did nothing but whine and complain. Every moment of that life had been one of drawn out misery, and the car accident which ended it, had turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Raze looked around and then lowered his axe. There were no more enemies to slay. He scowled at that while silently cursing how much he had to turn around just to see his surroundings. Unfortunately, his depth perception had been crap ever since that decrepit old bastard had taken his eye.

“Hey, Mike,” Raze called out to his partner.

The player called Mad Mike casually stepped around the monster bodies as he came closer, absently whistling to himself as he did so. He held a scepter in one hand, ready to use it at a moment’s notice, while a familiar amulet dangled from the other hand.

Raze smiled faintly at the sight of that amulet, a small treasure that he’d been hunting for years, ever since he’d first heard about it as a rookie player. One of the older players had told him about the amulet, a player who’d been part of the team that had found it inside the Labyrinth. Unfortunately, some drunk idiot had lost it at a poker table many years earlier.

“But I found it,” Raze whispered, ignoring the fact that it had actually been Mad Mike who’d tracked it down.

Mike stopped and held up the amulet, which glowed from the red gem that was set in it. As Mike moved the amulet around, the glow dimmed and then brightened.

“This way,” Mike announced. “I think we’re almost there.”

“We’d damn well better be,” Raze said as he marched ahead, readying his axe for the next threat.

“I still think we should have gone back for Zeke’s replacement first,” Mike muttered. “I’m surprised we made it this far with just the two of us.”

“Shut it,” Raze responded impatiently.

Mike shrugged at that. “Just saying. I mean, we’ll probably need more people for the next part anyway.”

“I said, shut it,” Raze snarled, glaring at Mike who shrugged again and continued leading the way.

A short distance later, they found themselves facing a featureless stone building that was shaped like a cube. As they stood in front of the sealed doorway, the only opening that they could see in the structure, the amulet glowed ever brighter.

“Both map and key,” Mike said as he held the amulet up to the doorway. Suddenly, the stone doorway slid aside, revealing a new opening. “Looks like that works.”

“Finally,” Raze exclaimed, grinning with a hungry expression as he stepped inside.

“For now,” Mike pointed out. “Remember, this is only the first step.”

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” Raze assured him.

They walked deeper into the building, finding that there were no side passages or turns, merely a straight path into the very center of the building. A short time later, they stepped into a large room, one that immediately reminded Raze of an old funhouse. Every surface was covered with mirrors, including the floor that they walked on.

“This has got to be the place,” Mike said as he grinned excitedly. “I don’t see any other doors, so this HAS to be it…”

“It had better be,” Raze said as he began to look around.

Raze carefully looked over the entire room but didn’t see anything besides the mirrors. There was no sign of what he was looking for, the guide who was supposed to direct them to their real goal. With each passing minute, he grew more frustrated.

“I’m about to smash every fucking mirror,” Raze snarled.

Mike shrugged, then pointed out, “That might make the guide show his face, or it just might piss him off.”

“I’ll take that risk,” Raze snarled as he slammed his axe into the floor, shattering the mirror.

The mirror shattered and spiderweb cracks spread out for several feet in every direction. But a moment later, the cracks all shrank back and vanished, as did the damage where he’d first hit the glass. In mere seconds, the mirror looked exactly the same as it had before Raze had struck it. This infuriated Raze who lashed out and began destroying other mirrors, only to have them repair themselves immediately afterwards.

“I think I’ve figured it out,” Mike said with a deep scowl. “I think I know what we need to get that damn guide to show up.”

“What?” Raze demanded, glaring at Mike with his one remaining eye.

Mike sneered before answering. “I think we need an invoker.”

It was the butt crack of dawn, with the morning sunlight just barely beginning to appear in town. This would normally be too early for my comfort, or at least, would have required a LOT of coffee to get me moving, but I’d found that I didn’t need quite as much sleep as I used to.

My whole team stood in front of the Labyrinth entrance, all geared up and ready to go. However, we weren’t alone. We had company, not only in the form of Maya Ramirez, but also that of the other Wardens who’d wanted to see her off.

Simon and Davis stood off to the side, both looking half-dead in spite of the large mugs of coffee that they each held. I remembered that feeling well, which made me even more grateful for my youthful body and high vitality. Nash and McNichols were also present, both looking a little more awake and energetic than their superiors and seeming slightly smug about that.

After looking everyone else over, my eyes settled on Ramirez. She looked just as geared up and ready to go as the rest of us, which didn’t surprise me since Simon had been the one to train her. He’d always been a firm believer in punctuality, and it seemed that Ramirez had picked that up.

Ramirez wore the typical lightweight armor that Wardens provided for combat situations. On the surface, it resembled grey combat fatigues, but the material was tough and hard to cut through. Lightweight fiberglass plates were woven in at key points, as were some thin layers of impact absorbing material. This was better than the armor that most of us were wearing, making me feel a bit self-conscious about my own.

Of course, Ramirez was fully armed as well. She had a crossbow slung across her shoulder with two quivers of bolts, one on each hip. In addition, she also had a round shield and short spear, both of which she seemed confident with using, along with a combat knife strapped to her thigh.

Once I was done looking over Ramirez’ equipment, I glanced to the small pack she wore, which would be packed with food, water, and a few emergency supplies to help survive inside the Labyrinth. I was familiar with the contents since I was currently wearing a similar pack myself.

“Is everyone ready?” Bunny asked, her eyes settling on Ramirez, who stood there with a serious expression.

“Ready,” the Warden answered immediately.

“Ready,” I said as I held up my mace in demonstration.

Everyone else did likewise, and a few seconds later, Turtle marched forward and stepped through the entrance. The rest of us followed close behind.

Once we were inside the Labyrinth, we all paused to look around. Ramirez was immediately ready for a monster attack, which was a good sign. Olivia just pulled out her notebook and took a few notes.

“It looks like this area has changed,” Olivia commented.

That wasn’t a surprise since the Labyrinth frequently changed on its own, though the changes were usually relatively minor. Sometimes new tunnels could appear while old ones might go in new directions or disappear entirely. And sometimes, the types of monsters that occupied an area might change overnight, so you could go to an area filled with giant spiders one day, and the next day it might have venom spitting snakes instead.

“This area usually has giant rats,” Bunny told Ramirez. “When we get further away from the entrance, we’ll start to see more variety to the monsters.”

“Understood,” Ramirez responded.

“We have a formation we usually use when we go in,” Bunny continued to explain as Turtle started moving ahead. “Our tough guy in the front, while us squishy ranged fighters tend to stay back.”

It didn’t take long before Ramirez got to see us fight. A group of rats came charging at us from a side tunnel and Turtle immediately stepped up and grabbed their attention, while everyone else did their usual thing. Sir Fluff and three smaller rabbits all charged into the rat swarm while Ace and Olivia attacked from range.

“I usually watch for surprise attacks,” I told Ramirez, “and catch any of the strays that get too close.”

For most of the first battle, Ramirez stood back with me, but when a couple rats approached, she finally jumped in. She fought a bit like Turtle, using her shield to protect herself while reaching over her shield to stab at the rats with her spear.

We finished the first group of rats without much trouble, then continued on. When another group of rats attacked us a short time later, Ramirez took a more aggressive role, unloading a couple shots with her crossbow before shifting over to melee.

“There are a lot of these things,” Ramirez said once we were finished. “I’ve fought monsters before, ones who escaped the Labyrinth, but not so many at once.”

“It’s pretty common in here,” Turtle told her. “If you’re not careful, you can get overrun.”

“And it’s why we always go in a team,” Olivia offered.

“Except for this bitch,” Bunny added with a smirk, gesturing to me at she did so. “She survived down here, all on her own, for a couple hours. Pretty damn good for a new respawn.”

Turtle chuckled at that, then asked me, “How many rats did you kill before we found you?”

“I don’t know,” I answered with a shrug. “I lost count after using up all my fingers and toes…” I made a show of counting on my fingers, which got the others to laugh, even Ramirez.

“You do seem to be more prepared than most new players,” Ramirez said, giving me a curious look. I could tell that she was trying to figure out how to get more information out of me.

“Be prepared is the Boy Scout motto,” I told her with a chuckle.

Ramirez asked, “You were a Boy Scout?”

“Nope,” I answered cheerfully. “But they do have a good motto.”

----------

There were only three monsters, but that was more than enough. Each of the monsters was an enormous lizard, about nine feet long from snout to tail. They had dark red scales that were like armor, mouths full of sharp teeth, and little spikes on the ends of their tails.

“LOOK OUT!” Bunny shouted as one of the lizards charged Turtle.

Turtle crouched down and leaned into his shield, taking the hit and being pushed back several feet. However, he didn’t go down. Instead, he shook it off, then slashed at the lizard with his sword.

Ramirez glanced down at her own shield, then at the next lizard, which was quickly approaching. She paled at the thought of trying to repeat Turtle’s feat, though she still braced herself to do just that.

“That won’t work,” I told her as I opened fire with an ‘Invocation of Spite.”

“Yeah,” Bunny agreed almost cheerfully. “At least, not unless you get a class for that kind of thing.”

“And the right stats,” Ace added as he fired two blasts at the oncoming monster.

Sir Fluff rushed onto the lizard and began attacking, doing a quick stab and then moving on before it could retaliate. At the same time, three horned rabbits charged it from the other side.

I noted the fact that Bunny’s horned rabbits were a bit larger and stronger than they used to be. She’d said that increasing her focus let her put more power into her summons, and it looked like that was really paying off.

Olivia stood back, slowly gathering her arcane energy before firing a powerful blast at the monster Turtle was dealing with. Then she stepped back and winced, looking for cover until she was ready for another attack.

My eyes darted between the three monsters, the one that Turtle was fighting, the one that Sir Fluff was keeping occupied, and then the final monster…which hung upside down on the ceiling over thirty feet above. That one was completely out of range for the moment.

Just then, the lizard on the ceiling finally dropped down, crashing into the ground almost right beside Ramirez. It was shaken from the impact, at least enough for the Warden to back away and get some distance.

The third lizard recovered in seconds and then rushed straight at Ramirez, probably attracted to her movement. She threw up her shield in time to block the snap of its jaws, though she was knocked back and lost her spear in the process.

“Mierda,” Ramirez snarled.

I rushed towards Ramirez, raising my mace to strike. Before I reached her, she grabbed her combat knife and drove it right into the lizard’s eye. It hissed and began shaking its head before lashing out with the spiked tail.

“Good one,” I told Ramirez right before I slammed my mace into the lizard’s hip. There was a crunching sound before the lizard pulled away, now limping badly. “Now we need to give it a couple more.”

“Easier said than done,” Ramirez responded as she recovered her dropped spear. She glared at the monster with a look of fierce determination. “It would probably be easier if I had one of those abilities you players all have.”

“We also start out with three extra stat points,” Ace cheerfully pointed out, right before firing a blast from one of his scepters. “And that’s just a level one player, straight out of the respawn pool.”

“Yes, I am aware that I am behind the curve,” Ramirez grumbled. “But that is the whole point of this exercise.”

“She’s doing great for not having any player advantages,” I said as I reached for my dagger. “Clearly, she’s well trained.”

I smiled at that, feeling an odd sense of pride. After all, Ramirez had been trained by Simon, and since I was the one who’d trained Simon, I felt that I had a hand in her training as well.

With that, I threw my own dagger which hit the monster in its remaining eye, blinding it completely. The lizard thrashed around snapping its jaws and whipping its tail at nothing as it desperately tried to fight back against opponents it could no longer see.

“Nice,” I said with a grin.

I never would have been able to throw a knife that accurately if it hadn’t been for my talent with knives. I’d always been fond of knives, but ever since I’d unlocked that talent, they had become even easier to use.

A few seconds later, Ramirez was able to get close enough to drive her spear deep into the lizard’s throat. While she was doing that, I was shifting position and waiting for an opportunity. As soon as I saw her hit, I rushed forward and slammed my mace right onto the monster’s head. It collapsed to the ground, and after a couple more hits, it stopped moving.

One of the three monsters was down, but two still remained. I turned my attention to the other monsters, only to realize that between Bunny and Olivia, the second of the lizards was in the process of dying as well.

Then I looked to the first lizard, the one who’d attacked Turtle. Turtle had been keeping it occupied and had even injured it with his sword, but that one was still fighting. I hit it with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, then watched as Ace blasted it with a couple of his attacks. A couple seconds later, that lizard died as well.

Everyone backed away from the monsters bodies and then began dropping to the ground. Ramirez was on her knees, gasping for breath and wiping the sweat from her brow. I was the only one who remained standing since I wasn’t willing to lower my guard when another monster could show up at any moment.

“I really hope this pays off,” Ramirez finally admitted. “If I go through all this and don’t become a player myself…”

“That would be disappointing,” I said.

I’d seen other Wardens who’d attempted a Labyrinth run, and not all of those who’d survived the experience had even become players. For some people, it just didn’t seem to work, and I hoped that she wasn’t one of them

“Everyone rest up,” Bunny called out. “The stairs going down are just over there.”

“That is when the real challenge starts,” Ace told Ramirez. “That level is rough for us, so it’ll be even worse for you.”

“I know,” Ramirez responded with a look of determination. “I know what I signed up for.”

“Good,” I said, finally going over to recover the dagger I’d thrown at the lizard. I cleaned off the blade and then sheathed it. “I would have been real disappointed in your trainer if he hadn’t prepared you for this, especially after how well you’ve done so far.”

“That thing smells disgusting,” Olivia complained.

Bunny immediately corrected, “Everything about that slug is disgusting.”

We were currently in the middle of a large swamp, using islands and land bridges to get around with minimal difficulty. All around us was a thick green muck, covered with so much scum and algae that you couldn’t really see past the surface except in a few scattered spots. And even there, in the clearest spots, you couldn’t see more than a few inches down.

The ’slug’ that Bunny was referring to was our latest monster, an enormous blob that had to be twenty feet across. It was a slimy mass of green algae, which was so thick that I couldn’t tell what color the thing actually was beneath it, and it had simply risen out of the muck where it had been hiding, completely submerged.

A horrific stench filled the air, one which was even worse than the already nasty smell of the swamp itself. It smelled or rot and decomposition, with a sulfurous edge that made the hairs in my nose want to curl up.

“I can’t get close,” Turtle yelled out. “Not when it’s in the water like that…”

“I sure as hell ain’t swimming to it,” I said, firing an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at the monster. “It looks like we have to kill it at range.”

A slimy black tentacle suddenly burst out of the water and wrapped around my ankle, yanking me off my feet and pulling me towards the muck. Ramirez reacted in an instant, fast enough that I almost would have thought that she’d had a few points slotted into agility. Her spear came down on the tentacle and severed it, which released me from the monster’s grasp.

“Thanks,” I said as I quickly got back to my feet.

“Watch out for hentai shit,” Bunny called out.

“But that’s my favorite genre,” Ace joked.

More tentacles emerged from the water and reached for us, though the monster had already lost the element of surprise. Turtle’s sword came down on one tentacle while Sir Fluff sliced at a second. My own dagger cut through a third right before it could grab Ace.

“The monster,” I reminded everyone. “We still need to kill it.”

“GET THE SLUG!” Bunny ordered.

Her rabbits, including Sir Fluff, stood at the edge of the land, looking down into the muck and then out at the monster. None of them made a move to go into the water, which seemed to frustrate Bunny, though she didn’t order them to continue.

“Focus on the tentacles,” Bunny told her pets, who immediately shifted gears and attacked the new batch of tentacles.

Olivia and Ace both attacked the monster at the same time while I focused on the tentacles until my ability recharged. Between, me, the rabbits, and Turtle, we were doing a good job of keeping the tentacles under control.

Ramirez dropped her spear and shield and switched over to her crossbow. One bolt hit the monster, then another. Black ooze began to leak out wherever it was hit, but not enough to indicate a serious injury. As far as I was concerned, that just meant that we had to hit it even harder.

Our fight took forever, far longer than any other fight that I’d been in. It was a fight of attrition, with us hitting the monster as often as we could at range while fighting off the tentacles. We couldn’t do much damage with any one attack, but over time, we started to bleed it down.

“Death by a thousand cuts,” I muttered as I fired another ‘Invocation of
Spite’ at the monster. That was the tenth one I’d used in this one fight, and it was really taking a toll on me. I was shaking and exhausted, but that didn’t stop me from continuing.

“We’re almost there,” Bunny said.

Olivia grimaced and fired another arcane blast. “My staff is completely drained. I won’t be able to attack as often until I can recharge it.”

The giant blob was deflating like a balloon with a leak. It had dozens of holes punched through its body, each of which was leaking that nasty black goo that seemed to fill the thing. Now, it was about a third of its original size, with its mass sunken in and floppy. Tentacles were still coming at us, but not nearly as many as there had been.

“Damn, that hurts,” Ace cursed.

His arm was covered with blisters where one of the tentacles had grabbed hold of him a minute earlier. Turtle had immediately cut the tentacle free, but the mucus that covered the tentacle had left a nasty reminder.

“This is my last bolt,” Ramirez warned us as she fired a final crossbow bolt at the monster. “I’m out.”

Another small hole appeared in the monster’s body and even more of the black goo leaned out. The monster blob began sinking and rolling over, revealing its bottom side, which was a solid mass of tentacles, making me think that this thing might be like some sort of giant jellyfish.

“I can’t keep doing this much longer,” Ace said with a grimace as he opened fire with two more blasts from his scepters. He winced at that, though from the pain in his arm or from exhaustion, I didn’t know. “I’m about tapped out.”

“We all are,” I said.

The monster twitched and flailed a little more before finally going still. Black ooze poured out of its body and filled the swamp around it, enough so that I could no longer even see the green scum that had covered the surface before. When it finally stopped moving entirely, a popup appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 10

I let out a sigh of relief and immediately brought up my stat screen.

CLASS: INVOKER
LEVEL: 10
FREE STAT POINTS: 1

FOCUS: 10
PERCEPTION: 7
PRESENCE: 10
STRENGTH: 7
VITALITY: 11
DEXTERITY: 6
AGILITY: 7

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-PRIMAL MAGIC
--DIVINE TYPE
-KNIVES

ABILITIES:
-INVOCATION OF SPITE

I quickly scanned my stats before adding the free point into vitality. With the way I was feeling, the extra help would be more than appreciated. I felt the effects almost immediately.

“I have a new ability,” Olivia announced triumphantly. She stared off into space, obviously examining her status screen or one of the popups. “Actually, I have a choice of three new abilities to pick from.”

“That’s awesome,” Bunny said excitedly.

Ramirez dropped to her knees in exhaustion but looked up at Olivia curiously…and with a bit of jealousy. She seemed a bit frustrated, probably due to having not unlocked as a player in spite of what we’d just gone through.

“Three different abilities,” Olivia mused. “Three different energy types.” She began to grin. “For some reason, I have a very good feeling about one of them, so I’m going to pick it and…”

A moment later, Olivia began laughing. “What?” Bunny asked. “What is it?”

“It looks like good news,” Turtle offered.

“Oh, it is,” Olivia agreed, looking rather smug. “I just unlocked a new subtype affinity.” Her grin broadened. “I have a specialization now.”

“Congratulations,” Turtle told her.

“Yeah,” Bunny agreed. “Congrats.”

“Awesome,” Ace agreed.

I nodded my own approval and said, “Good for you.” Then I moved over to a semi-dry spot of land, one that wasn’t covered with tentacles or black monster blood, and I took a seat. “Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.”

We rested for a good half hour before it was time to get up and start moving again. All of us were still sore and tired from that fight, especially Ramirez, who didn’t have any extra stats to help her, but it wasn’t safe to remain where we were.

As we left that location, I noticed that Ramirez had left her crossbow behind. I didn’t blame her for that in the least. All of her ammunition had gone down into the muck when the monster sank, and there was no way she was going to try recovering those bolts. And without crossbow bolts, the crossbow itself was just extra weight to carry around.

“So,” Ace asked Olivia as we walked. “What is your new ability. You didn’t say?”

“I suppose I didn’t,” Olivia responded a little smugly. “If you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.”

Ace chuckled at that. “Touche.”

“Wait,” Bunny called out, suddenly looking serious.

“What is it?” I asked. I looked around but didn’t see any immediate threats.

“There’s something ahead,” Bunny said, tilting her head as if to listen. “I’m hearing a lot of movement…”

Ace looked around, then said, “I don’t hear anything…”

Bunny let out an exasperated sigh. “I’ve been slotting points into perception lately. I figure, if I’m not fighting directly, I should at least improve my ability to spot danger.”

“Good thinking,” I told her with a nod of approval. Bunny flashed me a quick grin before looking back ahead of us.

“Do you know what it is?” Ramirez asked.

The summoner shook her head. “Nope. My perception isn’t that high yet.” Then she chuckled. “But there is a way to find out.”

With that, Bunny gestured, and the three horned rabbits ran off ahead of us. At first, there was no problem, but a minute later, we found the threat. Dozens of small creatures began emerging from the muck around us and climbing onto the dry spots. They were small, no longer than six inches long, resembling piranhas with legs. And they immediately pounced on the horned rabbits, destroying them in seconds.

“Those things look hungry,” Ace said with a grim expression.

“What big teeth you have,” I commented, noticing the oversized head and jaws which seemed to be overstuffed with sharp teeth. “I do NOT want to get bit by those things.”

Just as everyone was preparing to fight, Olivia called out, “Wait. This is the perfect opportunity to test my new ability.”

“Go ahead,” Turtle said, though he stepped up close to her and kept his shield ready. “But do you mind sharing what it is first?”

Olivia held out her hand and then there was a pulse through the air, a wave that spread out in front of her and hit the approaching monsters. It hit the monsters like a shockwave, sending all of them flying back. Half the little monsters were injured if not dead.

“What was that?” Ace asked in surprise.

“My shockwave,” Olivia answered smugly. “I have a new specialization in force…which means that this ability is stronger than it would be otherwise, and so will any of my future force abilities.”

“Very impressive,” I said.

I looked at the remaining monsters, thinking about using an ‘Invocation of Spite’, though I decided against it. Going through that kind of pain and stress wouldn’t be worth it against one of those little guys. And unfortunately, my ability could only hit one target at a time, which was a problems in situations like this.

The rest of the monsters rushed at us all at once, a swarm of slimy little bodies and sharp teeth. Each one was easily killed with a single swipe of a sword or smack of a mace, but there were a lot of them.

“It will be awhile before I can use that one again,” Olivia said with annoyance.

“And what were your other options?” I asked curiously.

Olivia fired an arcane blast and hit a good half dozen of the little monsters, killing all of them. Then she stepped back and swung her staff, hitting another of the monsters that had come within reach.

“One ability was call lightning,” Olivia answered. “I’m not sure exactly how that one would have worked, but I have a feeling it would have been powerful. The other one would have been wall of heat.”

“Both sound interesting,” Bunny said. Her eyes were on Sir Fluff, who was dancing around, using his sword to kill one monster after another. “But it’s always best to go with your specialization, if you have one.”

Olivia nodded at that. “If I hadn’t had such a good feeling about the shockwave, I would have definitely gone for the call lightning.”

“These things are annoying,” Ramirez commented.

Ramirez stood back with her shield up and her spear in hand. Monsters kept leaping at her, only to be blocked by her shield. On the other hand, she wasn’t having much luck with actually hitting any of them with her spear.

“Enough of this,” Ramirez snarled, deciding to change tactics.

Instead of attacking with her spear, she simply swung her shield and focused on smacking the monsters with that instead. It worked. She’d already been killing more monsters with her shield than her spear anyway, so she just leaned into that.

The fight ended a short time later. There’d probably been hundreds of the little monsters, but they’d been small and easy to kill. I was just annoyed that I’d been limited to one at a time, playing whack-a-monster with my mace rather than being able to do more.

“I can’t wait to get out of this swamp,” Bunny abruptly announced, looking down at the mass of dead monsters that now surrounded us. “This place is disgusting.”

The air was filled with an energy that I could feel against my skin like a static charge. It was familiar, yet also completely different from what I was used to.

“I think there’s a primal nearby,” I announced.

As I made this statement, I stopped and looked around me. We were currently in the middle of a forest, one filled with trees that were unlike any I’d ever seen before. Some of the trees looked normal, but others… Some of the trees had leaves that seemed to be made of silver or gold.

Ever since we’d stepped into this forest, I’d been feeling traces of primal energy that seemed to flicker in and out of my awareness. And though I wasn’t sure, I thought that there might be more than one type.

“Maybe a natural,” I said as I looked up into the branches. Animal themed primals would be a natural fit for this location.

Then I saw movement, a bird flying away from one branch only to head to a branch on a different tree. There was a squirrel, shooting up the trunk of yet another tree. I saw animals, but no monsters. That suggested a natural primal even more.

“Look,” Bunny exclaimed,

I looked to where Bunny was pointing and immediately saw what she had. There was a glowing sphere, about the size of a basketball, slowly drifting away between the trees. It made no move to come towards us, yet it didn’t seem to be moving away either.

“We haven’t seen any monsters lately,” Ramirez pointed out.

“Not since that horse sized racoon,” Ace agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we get attacked by a pack of monster wolves soon.”

Bunny nodded at that. “I’ve been looking for any threats, but I haven’t seen any in awhile.”

“This could be the calm before the storm,” Turtle suggested.

“It could be,” I agreed. “We don’t want to get complacent, but we don’t want to get paranoid either. Stay calm but ready.”

A minute later, we stepped out of the trees and into an open glade. The clearing was mostly open, except for three small trees that sprouted up in the middle, right beside a babbling stream which ran right through it.

“Fruit trees,” Turtle said, pointing to the trees in the middle. “Apple, plum, and… Is that an orange tree?”

“I think so,” Olivia responded. “They’re a bit small though, so maybe tangerine…”

We slowly moved around the clearing but found no signs of threats. Once we were confident in our safety for the moment, we turned our attention to the fruit trees and water.

“Food and water,” I mused as I continued looking around. “And there is a treasure box.”

Right between the fruit trees was a treasure box, one that was a bit bigger than the ones I’d seen before. And when Ace opened the box, I saw that it was full of food. Bread and large poultry legs from what looked like a turkey, though I couldn’t be certain.

“This is a safe area,” I announced, relaxing a little.

I’d heard about safe areas in the Labyrinth, spots that monsters avoided and where food and water were sometimes supplied. This was the first time I’d actually seen one for myself.

“Good thing too,” Ace said. “We were getting a bit low on supplies.”

I nodded at that since Ace was right. We’d gone into the Labyrinth with limited supplies because we hadn’t intended to be here for long, only for a few days. We’d already been here for a few days and were at the point where we’d have to go back soon, so the extra food and water would give us another couple days inside.

Ramirez stared at the food and let out a sigh. I could see her frustration over the fact that she hadn’t become a player yet, and worry that she might not. Just because a normal person survived being in the Labyrinth, that didn’t guarantee they’d become a player.

“We aren’t done yet,” I assured Ramirez.

“And even if you don’t become a player while here,” Ace offered. “You might still become one the old-fashioned way.”

Bunny smacked him upside the head while Olivia glared at him and Turtle just shook his head. I snorted.

“Don’t go wishing her to die,” Bunny warned Ace. “I’m sure you remember how bad that was.”

Ace shrugged apologetically, then told Ramirez, “I meant, in the future… A long time from now.”

Ramirez chuckled. “I would prefer to avoid the old-fashioned method, especially since I’m happy being who I am.”

“Becoming someone else can really suck,” Ace agreed while Olivia and Turtle both nodded their agreement.

I took advantage of the opportunity to rest and get something to eat, however, the entire time, I kept feeling the primal magic in the air. The strength kept flickering, going in and out as though the source was moving around. Or sources, as I was sure I was feeling more than one type.

Eventually, I got up and began walking around the clearing, making a circle near the tree line. I paid close attention to the primal energy I felt, noting when it seemed to spike again.

“Hello,” I said as soon as I felt the energy strengthen.

I focused on pushing out my willpower, wanting to be seen and noticed. My presence was currently at ten, which was twice what it had been with the water elemental. I hoped that this time I wouldn’t be ignored.

“Whatever you are,” I said, staring into the trees, “I can feel you.”

There was movement among the trees, though it took me a few seconds more before I could see the source. It was a deer, one with a nice rack of antlers. The deer sauntered towards me, staring at me with strange glowing eyes.

“MORTAL,” the deer said in a deep voice. It stopped at the edge of the tree line, right before entering the clearing.

“Hello,” I said, trying to be as polite as I could. “I was hoping we could talk about a possible deal.”

The primal sniffed the air in front of me and continued staring for several more seconds. Then, it announced, “YOU HAVE NOTHING I NEED.” With that, it turned and began moving back into the trees.

“How about apples,” I called after it, remembering what Wolf had said about natural primals and how they tended to have simple interests. “I have access to apples and other fruit. Wouldn’t you like to try some of those?”

For a moment, the deer seemed to pause and consider it, but only for a moment. A second later, it vanished behind a tree and was gone. I could feel its presence fading away.

“At least this one talked to you,” Ace pointed out.

Ramirez asked, “This has happened before?”

“Yeah,” Bunny agreed. “Maggie tried taming some kind of water elemental, but it completely ignored her.”

“Pretty much,” I agreed with a sigh. “At least I know that increasing my presence worked.”

I started walking back towards the center of the clearing when I felt the primal energy getting stronger again. This was different than what I’d felt from the deer. This was a different type of primal.

“MORTAL,” a new voice said from behind me.

When I turned around, I saw the glowing sphere that I’d spotted earlier. It was right there in front of me, right at the border between the clearing and the trees. This was it.

“I WOULD MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU,” the glowing sphere said.

Then the sphere began to change, growing and spreading out. A few seconds later, it took a humanoid shape, and soon after that, it looked like a ghostly man. He appeared to be an old man, about four feet tall, with pointed ears and a massively oversized nose.

“A BARGAIN,” this glowing man said.

I took a moment to stare at the glowing man, at the primal in front of me. I could feel the primal energy from him, one of the types that I’d been feeling off and on since stepping into the forest. This being had been close to us, perhaps even following us.

“I am happy to hear that,” I responded. “I am an invoker, and I am interested gaining new abilities. New powers. The kind that I can acquire from primals like you.”

“POWERS, YES,” the primal said with a knowing nod. “INDEED. I CAN GIVE YOU A BOON OF MY POWER…FOR A SERVICE.”

“What kind of service do you have in mind?” I asked. “And what kind of ability would you offer?”

The being in front of me didn’t answer at first. Instead, he just stood there, looking thoughtful and ghostly. I suddenly had a suspicion about this particular primal.

“You…are a faerie, aren’t you?” I asked.

The primal nodded at that, smiling faintly. “I AM.”

I remembered Wolf’s warning about faerie type primals. He’d said that they were unpredictable, that they could be quite generous, but that they could also be extremely tricky when they thought that might be more amusing. That meant, I had to be careful about whatever deal I made with this faerie, because if I wasn’t, it could come back to bite me in the ass…and not in the fun way.

“THERE IS AN ENEMY IN THESE WOODS,” the faerie finally said. “A SICK CORRUPTION THAT SPOILS MY HOME. HE IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO DESTROY, BUT HIS SPAWN ARE NOT. DESTROY HIS SPAWN FOR ME, CLEANSE THEM FROM MY HOME, AND I SHALL GRANT YOU A SMALL PORTION OF MY POWER FOR EACH SLAIN.”

“That sounds good,” I responded carefully, not outright agreeing to this quite yet. Instead, I decided to try buttering him up a little. “I can feel that you’re very powerful, but what kind of boon would you be willing to grant me?”

The fairie seemed amused by that and even chuckled. “I AM NO GREAT POWER,” he admitted. “IF I WERE, I WOULD BE ABLE TO CLEANSE THE FILTH MYSELF. MINE IS BUT THE POWER OF HIDING AND MISDIRECTION, OF ILLUSION AND ESCAPE. THE MORE SPAWN YOU SLAY, THE GREATER MY BOON WILL BE.”

Before I could ask anything more, the faerie suddenly shrank back down into the glowing sphere that he had been before. Then, he floated backwards, slowly fading away as he did so, until he was entirely gone.

“What the hell was that?” Ace demanded.

“That,” I answered as I turned back to my team, giving them a self-conscious smile, “was me negotiating for a new ability.”

“You mean,” Bunny teased me, “volunteering the rest of us for extra work while you get the reward.”

“Hey,” I protested. “I wouldn’t phrase it like that.”

“Oh?” Ramirez asked, apparently deciding to get in on the teasing. “And how would you phrase it?”

I hesitated for a moment before shrugging. “I’m not sure. I mean, that might be true, but I definitely would have phrased it differently.”

“Well,” Turtle said. “We’re down here to kill monsters anyway, so it won’t hurt to get a little extra from it in the process.”

“If it is monsters that we’re supposed to hunt,” Olivia pointed out with a grim expression. “For all we know, he was referring to a bunch of players who are camping out somewhere in this forest.”

I blinked at that, then muttered, “Crap.” And here, I thought I was being careful in dealing with that faerie. “I hope you’re wrong about that. I REALLY hope you are.”

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,” Turtle recited as we marched through the forest, just as we’d been doing since leaving the peaceful clearing.

“How far have we come since getting that mission?” Ace asked with an impatient sigh.

Bunny casually answered, “About three kilometers.”

Ace chuckled. “And how far is that in miles?”

“How would I know?” Bunny responded with mock innocence. “We don’t use those barbarian imperial measurements in Canada.”

“You’re Canadian?” Ramirez asked Bunny.

“I was,” Bunny answered with a shrug. “I died in Toronto and woke up in the Labyrinth, at the North Dakota entrance. I haven’t really tried going back since.”

“That’s the way it works,” I mused. “Players always respawn at one of the nearest entrances to where they died, borders be damned.”

“Unless they respawn too far in and nobody ever finds the bodies,” Ace pointed out.

“Unless that,” I agreed, remembering my own respawn and how long I’d been lost in the Labyrinth by myself.

I looked around at my surroundings as we continued to walk. The faerie hadn’t given me any directions for how to find the enemies that he wanted me to kill, but he was still leading me there nonetheless. Every once in awhile, I’d see him in the distance, a glowing ball of light that would appear just long enough for us to see it, then it would vanish among the trees again.

“There he is again,” Turtle announced, pointing up ahead where the glowing ball of light was once again showing us the way. “I think we’re getting close.”

“And I think you’re right,” Bunny agreed.

I nodded at that, agreeing as well. The forest had begun changing around us, and not in a good way. Some of the trees looked black and twisted, almost as though they’d been both charred and bent into unnatural angles. And up ahead, I saw even more trees like that.

“This must be the corruption he was referring to,” I thought aloud.

“I hear something,” Bunny abruptly warned, her expression going grim. She tilted her head to listen more closely. “Yeah… There’s something up ahead… Lots of somethings.”

Once we moved a little further, I heard it too. There was movement up ahead, the sounds of leaves rustling and branches breaking. But even more than that, I heard faint growls and hisses.

“Yeah, there is definitely something here,” Ramirez muttered as she readied her spear and shield. “I don’t have any enhanced senses, and I can hear that.”

In spite of all the noise, it took another minute before we actually saw the source. The branch of one of the blacked trees shook. There were no longer any leaves on it, so I could see the cause of the shaking immediately. There was a creature crouched down on the branch, watching us. It was small, about two feet tall, and it resembled a bald monkey with bright red skin. Its eyes glowed red and it snarled, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.

“Ugly little bastard,” Ace commented.

“Look at that tail…and the little horns on its head,” Olivia pointed out. She held out her hand and began preparing her ability. “I think it’s some kind of imp.”

Laugher rang out from around us, high pitched and malicious sounding. Then more of these little imps began to appear, coming out from where they’d been hiding behind trees. There were more than a dozen of them, each ranging between two and three feet tall, but otherwise being identical to the first.

One of the little devils was brave enough to suddenly run towards us, which signaled all the rest of them to do the same. In an instant, we were under attack by the whole group.

Olivia fired one of her arcane blasts, hitting two of the imps and severely injuring them, though they weren’t down completely. The rest of us quickly took our usual positions and braced for the violence.

The devils were small but fast, each a whirling dervish of claws and fangs that threatened to tear us apart of we allowed them to get close. And even worse, they revealed that they could breathe fire.

One of the imps stopped in front of me and let out a large belch, along with a ball of fire that went straight at me. I dove to the side to avoid being hit while the little bastard giggled manically. It didn’t wait for me to get ready though because it leapt right for my face, only to get punctured by Ramirez’ spear.

“TO ME,” Turtle shouted.

Turtle held up his shield, which began to glow as he activated one of his abilities. A moment later, most of the imps turned their attention to him. Suddenly, the rest of us were being left alone while Turtle was being dogpiled.

“Perfect,” Olivia said with a look of grim satisfaction. “Gather in one spot for me…”

Olivia used her shockwave ability and suddenly hit most of the devils in one attack. This didn’t do enough damage to kill any of the imps, but they all flew back and were now completely off balance and confused. The rest of us took immediate advantage of that.

Bunny’s rabbits, including Sir Fluff, lead the charge right into the mass of devils, each killing one of our opponents in the first second. Ace fired two blasts from his scepters, killing one of the imps while missing entirely with the other. I added my own ‘Invocation of Spite’ to the chaos as well. The fight didn’t last long after this, and a few minutes later, the last of the imps was killed.

I stood by the bodies, feeling the faint tickling along my skin. It was weak enough that I hadn’t noticed it until then, but there was no mistaking what it was. Primal magic. It was a different flavor than the other types I’ve already encountered, but considering the little devils, I had a pretty good idea of just what kind of primals we were dealing with. Infernals.

“I might need to increase my perception,” I mused, thinking about how I hadn’t even sensed these things until it was already too late. It might be a good idea to follow Bunny’s example so that I could get a bit more warning about this kind of situation in the future.

“That was easy,” Ace announced. “We got them all.”

“I doubt that,” Turtle said. He looked further into the woods, where all the trees were black and twisted.

“He’s right,” I added, nodding to Turtle. “I don’t think that faerie would have bothered with the mission if this was all there was.”

“These ones were…a little easier than I would have expected,” Ramirez said, indicating the dead imps. “These were a bit more like those rats than the other things we’ve been facing in this area.”

“It might be another case of quantity over quality,” I told her. “Who knows how many of these things there are down here.”

Ramirez nodded at that, then chuckled. “You know, my Abuelita is convinced that the Labyrinth is really Hell, so if she saw these…” She shook her head and chuckled again. “I’d better not tell her what I’ve seen down here, or I’ll never hear the end of the I told you so’s.”

“That might be for the best,” Bunny said.

“Or it could be hilarious,” Ace added with a smirk.

After taking a few more minutes to rest, we continued pushing on into the twisted forest. It didn’t take long before those black trees were all that surrounded us, with no healthy trees remaining. All the other plants were dead and gone, leaving what looked like the wreckage of a forest fire. More of those imps began to appear, scattered about, though they were starting to notice us as well.

“We need to lure them in,” I said as I looked for possible cover. “If Turtle can gather these ones together like the last time…”

“Then I can hit them with another shockwave,” Olivia said with a thoughtful nod. “A good way to keep them off balance.”

Once we were all in position, I told Ace, “Get their attention.”

Ace nodded and fired a single blast from a scepter. He missed the imp that he’d been aiming at, but still managed to get its attention. Moments later, that imp charged at us along with all of its friends. Dozens of them began to come, more than I’d counted on.

“Crap,” I grumbled.

The little devils began appearing from all around us, not just from the direction that Ace had blasted in. Some of them began scrambling up the ruined trees and then leaping at us from above. Turtle and Ramirez both raised their shields to avoid having imps drop right onto their heads, but that left them open to lower attacks.

“DO YOUR THING,” Bunny yelled at Turtle.

“Got it,” Turtle responded with a grimace. His shield began glowing and most of the devils began looking at him. “That’s it… Come to papa…”

“Yeah, papa,” Ace said with a smirk. “Spank their naughty little asses.”

More than a dozen imps hit Turtle at once, biting, scratching, and even spitting balls of fire at him. He’d already activated his other ability, the one that made him a lot tougher, but even that wouldn’t be enough to protect him for long.

Olivia held out her hand and unleashed a shockwave, this time hitting Turtle along with the imps. Turtle was knocked off his feet, though that was nothing compared to the imps which went flying away. Some of those imps smacked right into other devils who hadn’t been caught in Olivia’s attack, knocking them out as well.

“GO!” I shouted, taking advantage of the chaos to open fire with an ‘Invocation of Spite’. The others followed my lead and began attacking as well.

Unfortunately, this fight wasn’t as easy as the last one. This time, there were a lot more imps and Olivia had only been able to hit a third of them with her shockwave. The rest just freaked out and came at us even more frantically.

I smashed one devil with my mace, kicked another in the face, then scrambled back to give Sir Fluff enough space to move past. One of the horned rabbits went down and then a second. Finally, the third horned rabbit was tornn apart as well, leaving Bunny with only Sir Fluff.

“We’ve got more of them coming,” I warned the others, seeing another dozen imps joining the fight.

“I can’t do another shockwave yet,” Olivia announced, right before firing an arcane blast.

I moved closer to Bunny and smacked one of the devils that was trying to sneak up on her from behind. The damn thing let out a shrill scream, reminding me of a toddler who was throwing a tantrum. I smashed my mace into his head, just to silence the thing faster.

“Well,” I weakly joked. “I never was any good with kids.”

It took awhile, but we finally finished off all of those imps and no more seemed to be coming. None of us thought that this was over yet, not this time. We’d just gotten rid of the local batch, and there was no telling how many more were out there.

After this, we took a break and patched up our wounds, which mostly consisted of a few bites and scratches, though Ace had gotten a burn on his arm. His sports jersey had been completely torn to shreds, which didn’t seem to bother him too much. That was the third jersey I’d seen him lose since I’d met him.

“How many more do you think there are?” Ramirez asked.

The Warden looked exhausted, even more than the rest of us, but she made no complaints. Instead, she leaned up against one of the trees and looked around the side, trying to spot more of the little monsters.

“No idea,” I answered with a sigh. “But the faerie said that these things were just the spawn of its real enemy, and I think I can feel it that way.” I pointed in the direction that we’d been heading. “Primal magic feels a bit stronger that way.”

“We can’t keep going like that,” Bunny said. “Not with so many at once.”

“Yeah,” Turtle said, looking to Ramirez. “We’re only getting more tired with each fight.”

I nodded at that. “You’re right, Bunny. We can’t keep dealing with a shit ton of them every time.” Then I leaned back against a tree and pulled out my canteen for a drink. “We rest up, then move ahead a bit more carefully. We need to try spotting them before they see us, so we can lure in a couple at a time instead of the whole damn army.”

“That sounds like a better idea,” Olivia said. Then she plopped onto the ground and let out a long sigh. “I need more vitality.”

“Me too,” Bunny agreed while Ace and Ramirez both nodded agreement.

“I just hope I get the option for it soon,” Ramirez admitted.

We waited and rested while taking turns keeping watch. None of us wanted to get ambushed by more of those guys when we weren’t ready. Bunny took the role of being on watch especially seriously, even adding another point to her perception to make sure that she didn’t miss anything.

When we were ready to continue, we went a little slower. Bunny sent out one of her horned rabbits, letting it lead the way until it encountered one of the imps, then she had it turn around and run back to us. Imps would chase the little creature right into our awaiting ambush. And since there was no obvious attack until then, we didn’t get the attention of nearly so many enemies at once. This was slow, but it worked.

Over the next few hours, we moved through the forest, sending out Bunny’s summoned monsters and luring in more and more devils. Slowly, their number started to dwindle, forcing us to move in closer to the source to find more.

I could still feel the source of the primal power, the infernal that was at the center of this. Each of the devils contained a tiny spark of this infernal’s magic, making me think that it might be creating them the same way that Bunny created her rabbits. At least, I hoped that was the case, because if we were actually hunting down this infernal’s children… Well, I tried not to think about that possibility.

As we moved closer, we also began to see larger imps, ones that stood over four feet tall. They looked much like their smaller brothers, just bigger, nastier, and with longer horns. We also discovered that the larger imps were about three times as powerful as the smaller ones.

“KILL IT,” Ace shouted as the large devil tore his claws right through Sir Fluff, then turned and spat out a ball of fire straight at Olivia.

“I’m trying,” Turtle responded, swinging his sword at the devil, who leapt out of the way. “Stay still, damn it…”

The giant imp leapt at Ramirez, who threw up her shield in time to block the attack, but not the tail that snapped around and hit her in the side. She let out a loud yelp and staggered back but didn’t go down. Instead, she slammed her spear down into the devil’s shoulder.

I took a deep breath, then fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ into the devil’s back, being careful not to hit Ramirez. It let out a horrific shriek, one which I was afraid might draw other demons to us. As soon as it snapped around to attack me, Ramirez drove her spear into its back.

“That ability you have,” Ramirez growled, still not taking her eye off the devil, even as she rushed forward and slammed her shield into it in order to knock it off balance. “That ability is nasty.”

“You have no idea,” I told her, shuddering at the thought of the pain I had to suffer every single time I used that ability.

I rushed forward and swung my mace, hitting the devil in the arm since it tried to block my attack. There was a crunching sound as the arm broke, though that didn’t stop it from lashing out at me with the other arm. I shifted to the side and then kicked its knee, causing another crunching sound.

“Now,” Ramirez snarled as she drove her spear into the devil’s neck as hard as she could. “DIE!”

The giant imp dropped to its knees and snarled, flames spurting from its mouth but not enough to do any damage. It looked like it was trying to get back to its feet, but I wasn’t about to give it the chance. Instead, I swung my mace and connected with the side of its head. There was yet another crunch before the thing collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.

“Well,” Bunny said, shaking a little. “That one was a bit rough.”

“And ugly,” Olivia commented as she poked the body with her staff.

“No argument there,” Ace said. “And for the good news…”

Ace paused at that and grinned before pointing off to the side. We all turned to look, and there it was, sitting at the base of a twisted black tree. A treasure box.

Turtle was closest to the box, so he was the first one to reach it and open the lid. Inside, there was a bronze scepter with a green stone in the head that could have been an emerald.

“You’re the only one here who uses scepters,” Turtle said as he handed the scepter to Ace.

Ace stared at the scepter for several seconds with a serious expression, before he shook his head. “No. Bunny should take this one.”

“Me?” Bunny asked in surprise. She gave him a suspicious look. “After you keep joking about my accuracy?”

“You can fix your accuracy with some points into dexterity,” Ace responded dismissively. “Besides, I have a good feeling about this scepter. I think it might be just what you need.”

Bunny accepted the weapon a bit hesitantly, still looking suspicious. “I know some artifacts are a pain to recharge.”

“Some,” Ace agreed cheerfully. “Most artifacts recharge on their own just by being in the Labyrinth. Sure, you have some that use more specific energy…like artifacts that are tied to primals and the like, and those can be kind of a pain, but I don’t think this is one of those.” Then he grinned and repeated, “I have a good feeling about this one.”

“Okay,” Bunny responded, still not looking quite sure.

I looked around, only to notice that while the rest of us had been caught up in the treasure box, Ramirez had dropped to the ground. She was sitting there with a glazed expression on her face, as though she might be in shock.

“Ramirez?” I asked, moving to her side and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

While I asked this, I looked her over, trying to see if she had been injured. Her armor looked pretty scratched up and even had a few gouges and burnt patches, but I didn’t see any signs of bleeding. It seemed that her armor was intact and had done its job.

“Maya?” I asked, using her first name when she didn’t respond.

Ramirez finally blinked, coming out of whatever fugue state she’d been in. She blinked several more times, shook her head, and then gasped, “I… I have a status screen.” Then she looked at me and added, “I’m a player now.”

The devil burst through our defenses and rushed straight towards our most vulnerable member.

This was the largest and most powerful devil that I’d seen yet, standing a solid five-feet tall. It was bulging with muscles, had long black claws, and twisted horns that looked like they could impale. This creature was far more threatening than its smaller imp counterparts.

“Crap,” I exclaimed as the devil charged straight for Bunny, its claws raised to strike the moment it was within range.

Bunny scrambled backwards, even while raising her new scepter. There was a flash of light, and suddenly, the devil came to a complete and utter stop. It was frozen in place, in the air, caught in mid-leap. Ghostly chains surrounded the creature, though I knew they wouldn’t last long, just long enough for Bunny to get out of the way.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ was down and I was too far away to hit the bastard with my mace, so I threw my dagger as hard as I could. My aim was perfect, almost as though I had a lot of stats invested into dexterity. That was the benefit of having a talent in knives. A moment later, my dagger went right into the devil’s eye. It didn’t even react.

When the chains faded away and vanished a second later, the devil hit the ground and howled with pain. It tore my dagger from its eye and snarled, spitting flames as it desperately looked around for the source of its wound. It’s one remaining eye locked on me.

“Come to mama,” I said as I shifted position and waited for the beast to arrive.

The devil charged straight at me, running as fast as it could. It was fast, but I was expecting this. I stepped forward and swept one foot out to knock its own foot out from beneath it, then I followed this up with a kick to the back of the knee, making sure that it lost its balance and landed face first into the ground.

Ramirez immediately leapt on the fallen devil, using both hands to drive her spear deep into devil’s back, impaling it completely. I was immediately by the devil, hitting hit as hard as I could with my mace. It took a couple good hits, but the thing finally died.

“I hope we don’t run into any more like this one,” Ace commented with a wince. “That thing was tough.”

“Good thing I have this now,” Bunny said as she held up her new scepter.

“It probably would have killed you,” Olivia agreed.

“I don’t know how long it takes to recharge yet,” Bunny admitted, “so I’m being careful not to waste any uses.” Then she shook her head. “I don’t even know how many uses it has before it needs to recharge.”

“This isn’t a good time to play around with it either,” Turtle added.

Bunny snorted. “We don’t exactly have a safer place for that right now.”

Ramirez nodded at that, though she didn’t really join the conversation. Instead, she leaned on her spear while looking around at our surroundings, as though expecting more of those devils and imps to come charging in at any moment. Their numbers had been seriously thinned down, so that was becoming less likely with every encounter.

We took a few minutes to rest, then we moved on to look for our next group. It didn’t take long to find them since they seemed to have been at least somewhat connected to the beast we’d just killed. Ramirez had probably been wise to be on the lookout for them.

“Same thing as usual?” Bunny asked before sending one of her horned rabbits out to lure in our new targets.

Ramirez grinned in an almost predatory way before shadows seemed to spread up her body until she was hidden within them. She stepped back, getting near one of the black trees and blending in with its shadow so that she became even harder to see. Such was the power of her new class, a stalker.

When the new group of imps arrived, Ramirez leapt out at the largest one and impaled it with her spear, killing it with a single blow before it even realized she was there. She’d moved fast, faster than she had been able to before, and fast enough to indicate that she’d slotted at least two of her starting points into agility. Then she turned her attention to the next creature, no longer hidden since her ability would take awhile before she could use it again.

The fight didn’t last long. By this point, we’d become very good at luring the creatures to us and then ambushing them, and tearing them apart with little threat to ourselves. Of course, this was still dangerous, just not nearly as dangerous for us as being overwhelmed by numbers.

“We’re close,” I announced, closing my eyes and feeling the primal energies in the air. The infernal was close.

The faerie had warned me that I wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill his enemy, but I still had to see the thing for myself. I wasn’t about to take the faerie’s word for this, though the closer we got to the infernal, the more I believed it. That thing felt powerful.

As we moved closer to the source, the twisted black trees began to thin out and then vanish. The whole area became rock and dirt, though the ground seemed just as black and ruined as the trees had been. There were a couple more devils, but not enough to be a serious threat. No, that was just a little further away. That was the infernal itself.

It didn’t take long to reach our destination, a crater in the rocky ground. The was about fifty yards across and about fifteen yards deep. However, it wasn’t the crater that really drew our attention, but the thing in the middle of it.

In the very center of the crater, there was a creature…if it could be called that. It was humanoid in shape, with what appeared to be long claws and impressive horns that curved over its head, being reminiscent of the little devils that we’d been killing, except for much larger. This being was about twenty feet tall and seemed to be made of thick black smoke with glowing red veins.

“The primal,” I whispered. “An infernal.”

“Scary looking,” Bunny commented.

The primal was staring straight at us with a pair of glowing red eyes that sent chills down my spine. However, it made absolutely no effort to move towards us, not that I thought it would actually be able to do so. It was bound with glowing silvery chains which were very reminiscent of the ones created by Bunny’s new scepter.

“I think it’s a prisoner,” Turtle said, echoing my own thoughts.

I hesitated a moment before saying, “I’m going down for a closer look.”

“Bad idea,” Bunny warned me.

“Really bad idea,” Ace echoed.

“Probably,” I agreed. “But I’m going down anyway.”

With that, I quickly made my way down into the crater, being careful of the steep sides which would have been easy to slide down. When I reached the bottom, I looked back up at the others, who all remained back, watching me with worried expressions.

I slowly moved closer to the infernal, stopping when I got close enough to see the glowing silver circle that surrounded it, and which felt like a cage to work with the chains. There were additional symbols on the ground, all around the circle, both inside of it and out. I stopped before the circle, sensing that trying to cross it would be very bad for me.

“More primal magic,” I whispered.

I could feel the magic tickling along my skin, familiar yet different from any of the other primal types that I’d felt before. This power that fueled the circle and chains which imprisoned the infernal, was something new to me. Considering what Wolf had told me about infernals and celestials being at odds, I suspected that this was a celestial type power.

“MORTAL,” the infernal spoke to me, it’s voice deep and rumbling, filled with contempt and malice. I could feel its eyes locked on me, and I cold feel the hostile intent. I had absolutely no doubt that if this thing was able to, it would have torn me to shreds in a heartbeat. “YOU HAVE SLAIN MANY OF MY SPAWN.”

“Yes,” I responded, trying to remain calm and relaxed. I’d learned a long time ago, that you didn’t show weakness in front of predators, at least, not unless you were intentionally trying to get them to underestimate you. “I have.”

“THEY WERE WEAK,” the infernal said dismissively. “ONLY THE SMALLEST ECHOES OF MY POWER.”

“You are powerful,” I stated as a simple fact. “I can’t imagine how much power it would take to hold you here.”

“I HAVE BEEN BOUND HERE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS,” the infernal said. “CENTURIES BEFORE THE LABYRINTH ABSORBED THIS FOREST AND PLACED IT ATOP MY PRISON.”

That statement caught my attention, but I ignored the temptation to ask what it meant by saying the Labyrinth had absorbed the forest. I had the distinct feeling that the infernal wouldn’t answer anyway. It had an agenda of its own, and it was working towards it.

“YOU ARE SMALL AND WEAK,” the infernal told me, the contempt dripping from its voice. “YOU HAVE SLAIN MY SPAWN AND IT WILL TAKE ME DECADES…PERHAPS CENTURIES TO CREATE AS MANY AGAIN, BUT YOU HAVE NO REAL POWER. YOU POSE NO MORE THREAT TO ME THAN A FLEA.”

I scowled at that, annoyed by the insults but not bothering to argue. As much as I disliked to admit it, this infernal was right. Compared to that thing, I was small and weak. The faerie had been right when it said that I didn’t have the power to harm this thing.

“AND YOU HAVE NOT THE POWER TO FREE ME EITHER,” the infernal continued with a sneer. “HOWEVER, YOU DO HAVE THE POWER TO FEED ME.”

“Feed you?” I asked skeptically, not sure that I liked where this was going.

“FEED ME,” the infernal repeated. “SLAY ONE OF YOUR COMPANIONS AS YOU HAVE MY SPAWN, AND I SHALL REWARD YOU WITH A PORTION OF MY POWER. FEED ME AND I SHALL GRAND YOU A POWERFUL ABILITY, ONE THAT CAN DESTROY THOSE WHO STAND AGAINST YOU.”

I slowly turned and looked back at my team, thinking about the infernals offer almost in spite of myself. Bunny had the least defenses and would be easiest go kill, especially if her rabbits were deployed away from her. And Ramirez… I barely knew her.

“Crap,” I growled, feeling ashamed for even thinking that.

“FOR EACH ONE YOU FEED ME,” the infernal added, “I SHALL ADD EVEN MORE TO THE POWER I GRANT…”

I grimaced at the offer. The infernal was offering power…and a LOT of it. That was tempting, far more than I wanted to admit. But the price… The very thought was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach.

“Hell, no,” I growled in response, standing straighter as I did so. I might be a bit of a bastard at times, but I wasn’t about to betray my own companions like that. “No deal.”

I started to turn to walk away, but the infernal continued speaking. “THE LABYRINTH IS ENORMOUS. EVERY WORLD IT INFECTS MAKES IT GROW STRONGER. EVERYTHING IT ABSORBS GIVES IT MORE SIZE AND DEPTH. NEARLY ANYTHING CAN BE FOUND IN THE LABYRINTH IF YOU KNOW BUT WHERE TO LOOK.”

Those words struck to the heard of my curiosity and I was more than a little tempted to stop and listen…to ask questions. This primal seemed to know more about the Labyrinth than anyone on Earth, and this was my to learn more. However, I also realized that this was another temptation, just like that offer of power. I had no doubt that this knowledge would come with additional strings, ones that might not be any less twisted than what he’d already asked or me.

“SOMEWHERE INSIDE THE LABYRINTH IS THE KEY TO MY CHAINS,” the infernal continued speaking to my back as I walked away. “IF YOU FIND THIS KEY… IF YOU FREE ME FROM THESE BINDINGS…I SHALL GRANT YOU ALL THE POWER THAT YOU DESIRE, ENOUGH TO CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES WITH EASE AND TO CONQUESR YOUR WORLD. THIS IS THE BARGAIN I OFFER, YOUNG INVOKER.”

A chill ran down my spine at those words, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t respond. And I didn’t look back. Instead, I took a deep breath, braced myself against the temptation, and continued marking away from that thing.

“What did that thing say?” Bunny asked once I was out of the crater. “I couldn’t make out any of it.”

“It offered me a deal,” I answered grimly. “It offered to give me some powerful ability, but…” I paused at that and shook my head. “The price was way too high.”

“Too bad,” Ace added with a shrug. “But maybe you’ll get something good from that faerie.”

“I hope so,” I responded with a faint smile.

After this, we began moving away from the crater and back the way we’d come. We encountered a couple more groups of infernal spawn, but we were able to take them out pretty easily by this point. Eventually, we reached the spot where the black and twisted trees were left behind and only the healthy trees remained around us.

At this point, the sphere appeared ahead of us once again, coming out from behind a tree and just hovering in the open before moving away and vanishing once again. This time, I had a feeling that it would be the last time we saw it.

Then, a popup suddenly appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE MADE A BARGAIN WITH AN UNIDENTIFIED WISP, WHO HAS GRANTED YOU ONE USE OF HIS POWER FOR EVERY INFERNAL SPAWN THAT YOU HAVE SLAIN

TEMPORARY NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: INVOCATION OF THE WISP (43 USES REMAIN)

I read through the message three times before closing it with a muttered curse.

“What’s wrong?” Bunny asked me.

“I just got the ability from that faerie,” I explained. “And it looks like he ended up tricking me after all.”

“What do you mean?” Ramirez asked.

I let out a sigh. “The deal was that he’d give me a portion of his power for every one of those spawn I killed. Well, he gave me an ability, but it says that I can only use it forty-three times.”

“What?” Ace blurted out. “But we must have killed a few hundred of those things.”

“Yes,” I agreed, glaring into the woods where I’d last seen that faerie floating away. “WE killed a few hundred of them, but it looks like he’s only giving me credit for the ones I killed personally.”

“What?” Ace repeated.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Turtle pointed out, looking offended on my behalf. “Not at all.”

Ramirez shook her head. “So, we kill a couple hundred monsters for him, but he uses a technicality to only pay for a fraction of them.”

“Is there any chance we can shake more power out of him?” Olivia asked, glaring into the trees.

Bunny snorted. “I don’t think we’d even be able to see him again, unless he lets us. And somehow, I doubt he will.”

“He’s probably laughing his ass off,” Ace grumbled.

I nodded at that. “Wolf warned me that faeries liked to be tricky.” I glared into the woods and said, “I will definitely remember that the next time I run into one.”

“Well, it sucks that you got scammed,” Ace said as he grinned at me. “But, what does your new ability actually do?”

“That is the question,” I mused as I considered the ability, ‘Invocation of the Wisp’. There was no explanation for the ability, but as with my other one, I had an instinctive sense for how it worked. “That is the question indeed.”

A massive swarm of rats rushed towards us, the largest gathering that I’d seen attacking at one time. That was no surprise though as we’d gotten the attention of damn near every rat in the entire cavern, all at the same time.

Turtle stood in the front as always, having activated both of his abilities. He was using one ability to draw the attention of on the onrushing flood of rodent monsters, while his other ability was making him tough enough to survive that attention.

Once most of the rats were piled on and around Turtle, Olivia stepped forward and unleashed her most powerful shockwave. I knew that she was even using most of the stored magic in her staff to give the attack as much ‘oomph’ as possible. As soon as the shockwave hit, over a hundred rats were suddenly flung through the air. Half of them were dead by the time their bodies landed again while the remaining ones were left stunned and injured. That was when the rest of us went to work.

We rushed forward and tore into the rats, killing them as fast as possible. It was dirty work, but relatively easy. By this point, we’d all gotten strong enough that the rats were no longer much of a challenge, even in these large numbers.

Ramirez rushed forward with her spear, impaling one rat and then slashing sideways with it in order to hit another two. She was fast and accurate, not wasting a single movement. It was obvious that she’d slotted points into agility, which increased her speed, movement, and balance, as well as into dexterity, which improved hand-eye coordination and accuracy.

Somewhere along the way back, Ramirez had lost her shield. The shield had been great for defense, but it also slowed her down. And as a stalker who relied on speed, stealth, and precision, that shield had become a liability which she’d quickly abandoned.

I watched Ramirez with a hint of envy and the silent question of ‘what if?’ I’d always thought that if I was ever lucky enough to become a player, that I should have been a stalker. That was the kind of fighting style that I’d always liked, and a power that appealed to me.

“No point whining over it now,” I told myself as I turned my full attention back to the fight, just in time to cast an ‘Invocation of Spite’ on a rat, just before it could reach Olivia.

I didn’t bother using my new ability, ‘Invocation of the Wisp,’ because I only had a limited number of uses and there was no point wasting any of those on these measly rats. I’d already tested that ability a couple times, and while it was useful, it was better to save it for when I actually needed it.

Even though it had been a couple days, I was still a bit miffed over the way that faerie had cheated me out of my rewards. However, the more I thought about it, the more I suspected that he hadn’t cheated me just to trick me, though I was sure that was part of it. I suspected that he cheated me, at least partly because he simply couldn’t afford to pay the full amount.

The faerie… The wisp had warned me that it wasn’t powerful, and from what I’d felt of him, he hadn’t been lying. The amount of his power that it would take to use that ability forty-three times was probably everything he could spare. And for what it would cost to power that ability a couple hundred times… That was probably more than the wisp could actually provide.

“Let that be a lesson for me,” I mused. “If I’m going to make deals with primals, make them with primals who are powerful enough to make it worth it.”

Of course, that just made me think of that infernal whom I’d left behind. I shuddered at the memory of that thing, of how powerful it had felt…and how malicious. And what scared me the most was the fact that it was still there, right where I’d left it, and sooner or later another invoker would stumble across it, one who might accept its bargain.

“Not my problem,” I told myself, though I couldn’t help but add the unspoken ‘yet’.

It didn’t take long to end the fight, and a short time later, every rat in the cavern was dead and gone…along with a few bat monsters as well. Bodies were everywhere, spread all over the cavern floor.

“I’m just glad that I’m not the one who has to clean this up,” Ace joked as he looked over the field of monster bodies.

“I agree,” Olivia added with a look of disgust. “But I recommend that we get out of here before they melt, because walking through that much disgusting goo will be just as bad.”

“There isn’t enough air freshener,” Ramirez added with an easy grin.

I’d noticed that ever since Ramirez had been initiated as a player, she’d been a lot more relaxed. It seemed that achieving her goal had the added benefit of taking off her edge, which made it easier for the others to interact with her.

Just then, Ace exclaimed, “Hey, there’s a body.”

“There are a LOT of bodies,” Bunny pointed out in exasperation. “That’s the problem.”

“No,” Ace responded. “A HUMAN body.”

That got everyone’s attention and we all rushed over to the spot he indicated, seeing that he was correct. There was a human body on the ground, one which was now little more than bones and rags. It looked like the rats had torn this person to shreds.

“Look,” Ramirez said, indicating the rags. They were rough brown fabric, remnants of some familiar looking robes. “I think this was a new respawn.”

“Definitely,” Bunny agreed with a scowl. “We’re close enough to the entrance.”

I indicated the sword on the ground, which had obviously belonged to this player. It was a very basic sword, identical to the one that I’d been offered at the respawn pool. The blade was badly nicked, and the tip had broken off. Clear signs of rough use, probably by someone who had no idea of how to actually use a sword.

“You should have gone with the mace,” I said with a sigh.

“Poor bastard,” Ace said sympathetically.

I nodded at that, remembering my own experience in the Labyrinth after my respawn. Being all alone, a rookie player without experience or help… The experience had been a bit terrifying, and I could only imagine how much worse it would be for someone who didn’t know what I did about players and abilities.

“I am so glad I didn’t become a player the way you all did,” Ramirez admitted with as shudder. “I can’t imagine waking up in a place like this all alone.”

“We actually wake up in a safe spot,” Olivia corrected in a quiet voice.

“Yeah,” Turtle agreed. “But one without any food or drinkable water. It’s not like you can stay there for long.”

Ramirez looked around with a curious expression. “Is it possible to find a respawn pool? I’d like to see what one looks like.”

“I’m afraid not,” Olivia told her. “Once you leave the respawn pool, the door kind of vanishes behind you.”

“And I’ve never seen an open entrance to one from this side,” Bunny added.

“Too bad,” Ramirez responded, looking disappointed.

“You seem pretty interested in respawn pools,” Ace said, looking a little surprised.

Ramirez hesitate a moment before admitting, “I’m interested in just about everything related to players. I always have been. That’s why I became a Warden in the first place.”

“I’ve heard of plenty worse reasons,” I assured her with a chuckle.

“So have I,” Ramirez responded with a chuckle. “I’ve always been fascinated by magic…by the idea that people can get real magic power and even come back from the dead. I joined the Wardens so I could see it for myself, so I could become a part of it…even if only second-hand.” She paused at that, looking self-conscious. “And once I learned that I had a chance of becoming a player myself…”

“You jumped on it,” I said as I nodded in understanding.

“Exactly,” Ramirez said with a nod of her own.

“Honestly,” Bunny said, giving Ramirez an odd look, “I’m surprised the Wardens even let you come in here. I mean, you guys are all about policing players, so I didn’t think they’d be all that enthused about one of their own switching sides.”

Ramirez just burst out laughing at that. “We don’t think of it as switching sides,” she finally said, still looking amused. “We think of it as fighting fire with fire. Who better to deal with a rogue player, than another player? We contract players for that kind of work all the time.”

“The bounties,” Turtle commented.

“Yeah,” Ramirez agreed. “Mostly bounties, but we have been trying to recruit some players directly. It isn’t easy though since background checks are completely useless.”

“I’d imagine that part would be challenging,” Olivia said with a thoughtful expression.

Turtle added, “You wouldn’t want to recruit some player, only to find out later that he used to be a serial killer or something.”

“Exactly,” Ramirez agreed. “And we have had that kind of thing happen, more or less. We’re very careful about recruiting players now. Whenever we find a possible candidate, we keep a close eye on them to make sure that they’re someone we really can work with, before we ever actually approach them.” Her eyes locked on me for several seconds before she looked away. “In some ways, it’s easier for us to try turning our own into players.”

“That way, you know what you’re getting,” I said with a nod, having heard some of the initial arguments for and against this when the idea was first brought up. “They’re already trained, know Warden rules and procedures, and have already been vetted.”

“Exactly,” Ramirez repeated.

“But,” I added, scowling as I did so. “It’s also dangerous as hell, and you risk losing some damn good Wardens in the process.”

Ramirez nodded at that, looking almost grim. “We have lost some good people. There’s a reason we have such strict requirements to follow before we’re allowed to attempt a dungeon run.”

“I’m just glad it worked out for you this time,” Turtle added.

“Not as glad as I am,” Ramirez admitted with a self-conscious smile.

“Well, we’re almost done with this mission,” I pointed out, gesturing down one of the tunnels. “Unless I’m reading this wrong, we should be out of here in just a few more minutes.”

“Actually,” Olivia corrected me, pulling out her notebook and looking it over as she did so. She pointed to the next tunnel over from where I’d pointed. “It’s that way… But you’re right that we’re almost out.”

“I can’t wait to get a bath,” Bunny exclaimed. “And to sleep in a real bed again.”

“Food,” Turtle stated with a grin of anticipation. “Real food instead of these rations.”

“That all sounds good to me,” Olivia added with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

“I can second that,” Ramirez said with a broad grin. “Unfortunately, when I get back, I have to fill out a report.”

“Ah, paperwork,” I announced in sympathy. “One of the inescapable miseries of life.”

“Like death and taxes,” Ramirez agreed.

However, the rest of us just chuckled along until Bunny pointed out, “Death can be escaped. At least occasionally.”

A few seconds later, we all began heading towards the exit, each of us eager to get out of the Labyrinth as soon as possible. We were all dirty and tired, and after that conversation, we were even more impatient than before.

I saw one of the small openings off to the side, one of the entrance echoes which could lead to just about anywhere near Gideon Heights. I ignored that one since the main entrance was not only more stable, but it also opened up right into the middle of town, which was exactly where we wanted to go.

“It looks like someone else has already been through here,” Bunny announced.

Bunny gestured to one of the larger tunnels, and I could see that there were a lot of dead monsters scattered about in there. Or at least, I could see what had been monsters since they were melting into that nasty goo that monsters turned into. It wouldn’t be much longer before the goo vanished and new monsters began to appear, replacing those which had been killed.

Then we reached our destination, a wide open cavern with the large and now familiar looking Labyrinth entrance. There were a couple splatters of monster goo scattered about, but no active threats. Whoever had come through here before us had already dealt with them. It was with a sigh of relief that I stepped through the opening.

As soon as I stepped into Gideon Heights, I instantly knew that something was wrong. The air was filled with a thick black smoke which came from two buildings that were on fire. Blood was spread out along the ground in front of me, and I quickly saw two bodies. No, one body in two parts. A cold chill ran down my spine even as a heavy lump formed in my stomach.

“What the fuck?” Ace exclaimed from beside me.

Turtle let out a loud gasp. “What happened?”

My hand tightened around my mace handle and I looked around, ready to activate either of my abilities in an instant. “I don’t know,” I answered grimly. “But I’m damn well going to find out.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Bunny demanded as she looked around with an expression of horror.

“Rogue player,” I answered I moved forward, carefully stepping over a puddle of blood.

I looked down at the body in front of me, or at least, the top half of the body. It had been cut in two at the waist. I recognized the man, though I didn’t know his name. He’d been a player, one of the regular customers at the Broken Yardarm. From the sword that was still clutched in his hand, he had gone down fighting.

“This is what happens when someone has too much power and not enough self-control,” Ramirez said, her expression just as grim as my own. “Or when they decide that they don’t have to play nice anymore.”

“Jace,” Turtle said with a snarl. “I bet Jace had another tantrum.”

“Jace uses a hammer,” I pointed out, indicating the body. “This wasn’t done by a hammer.”

There were a couple more bodies scattered about. The next one over was fully intact, except for a large hole in his chest. I took note of the charred marks and noted that this had either been done by a scepter or an ability.

“Axe and scepter,” Ramirez said after we moved past the other bodies. Her expression had turned hard. “This reminds me of a crime scene I visited recently. I think we might be dealing with the same players.”

I just looked around, taking in the entire scene. It was bad, but I’ve seen worse. Far worse. And in spite of the fire and bodies, there was still activity, but not any active fighting. Several players were busy trying to put out the fires.

“I need to find Agent Davis,” Ramirez stated, now in professional mode.

“I think I found Nash,” Ace announced, looking a bit sick to his stomach.

Owen Nash, or what was left of him, was sprawled out on the ground. His entire torso had been sliced open and much of his insides were now on the outside. The sight was horrific, disgusting, and filled me with a cold rage.

I hadn’t known Nash very well. Sure, we’d slept together once, but that had been about as far as our relationship went. Still, his death felt personal, as though it was an attack on me and mine. I clenched my mace so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

“Someone is going to pay for this,” I whispered.

“This is Warden business,” Ramirez stated, though she didn’t protest when the rest of us followed her towards the local warden office.

Davis was at her office, sitting on the sidewalk in front with her back up against the wall. The entire front of her uniform was soaked with blood, but she was still alive.

“God, damn it,” Davis cursed to the man beside her. “Can’t you work any faster?”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” the man responded with a look of annoyance.

The man was tall and slender, with light-brown skin and hair that was reddish in color. His coloring was pretty common among the respawned, which made him easy to peg as a player. The fact that his hand was glowing with a golden color as he placed it against Davis’ wounded shoulder, proved that fact as well as marked him as a healer. He clearly wasn’t a powerful healer, or he not only would have healed her by now, but he probably wouldn’t have been in Gideon Heights in the first place. Strong healers were valuable in practically any hospital and could practically rake in the money.

“What happened here?” Ramirez asked.

Davis stared up at her with a blank expression for several seconds before blinking. “Ramirez,” she finally said. “You’re back.”

“I’m a player now,” Ramirez told her. “But that’s not important. Who did this?”

“A couple players,” Davis answered with a grimace of pain. She pointed up to the board with the wanted posters. “Those two you were chasing.”

I stared at the wanted posters and the familiar faces that looked out from the pictures. The knot of cold rage burned even more in my chest and it was all I could do remain calm, at least on the surface. Just because I was royally pissed off, that didn’t mean I had to show it.

“Raze and Mad Mike,” Ramirez practically growled.

“Yeah,” Davis responded with a wince. “They came out of the Labyrinth and met up with a friend of theirs who was waiting in town. Someone recognized their pictures and…” She gestured around.

“I assume they’ve already left,” I said, carefully keeping my voice under control.

“Yeah,” Davis said again. “They ran back into the Labyrinth with a couple new friends that they picked up.”

Ramirez gestured back towards the direction we’d just come from. “I saw Nash… Where are Simon and Lewis…? Harris and McNichols?”

“Our remote office,” Davis answered with a forced smile. “They’re off taking care of some paperwork and weren’t here.”

Ramirez looked relieved at that. “How many dead?”

“I don’t know yet,” Davis answered. “At least five, though I haven’t been able to get an accurate count.” She looked at her wounded shoulder meaningfully.

“Please don’t move so much,” the healer warned her. “Not while I’m still working.”

“Then work faster,” Davis snapped at him.

The healer snorted. “You’re damn lucky that you didn’t lose the whole arm, but if you keep moving around, you still might.”

“We need to go after them,” I stated, looking towards the Labyrinth entrance. “They’ve left a trail of monster bodies, so if we’re fast enough, we can follow.”

Ramirez gave me a look of surprise, though she also nodded. “That might work. There isn’t much time though, because bodies have already melted.” Then she paused and shook her head. “But this is Warden business…”

“Screw that,” I snarled as my rage slipped loose. “I didn’t spend over thirty years as a Warden just to walk away now.” Then I looked at the wanted posters and spat, “Especially not when it’s those two bastards…”

Suddenly, everyone was staring at me with looks of stunned disbelief.

“Did you say you were a Warden?” Bunny blurted out.

“Thirty…years?” Ramirez gasped, her eyes going wide.

Ace quickly added, “Is this like when you said you were an accountant…or a dog catcher?”

“A Warden,” Davis exclaimed as she burst out laughing, though it was obviously painful for her. “I knew it. I knew you had to be a Warden… Sooner or later, a Warden was bound to be respawned…”

“Upton,” Ramirez whispered, immediately catching my full attention with that name. She was still staring at me. “You’re… You’re Carl Upton.”

I blinked at that, knowing that it was pointless to deny it. At one time, I’d been good at keeping secrets, but after retirement, I just stopped caring. It was more entertaining to play a few things close to the vest while throwing out vague hints. Back in the nursing home, that had been one of the few things that I had to amuse myself. Now, I realized, I might have been doing that a bit too much.

“I WAS Carl Upton,” I corrected Ramirez. “You know the rules as well as I do. Carl is dead and buried.”

“BULLSHIT,” Ramirez snapped, a new intensity in her eyes. “That kind of experience doesn’t go away just because you have a new body.”

“I’m feeling a bit left out of the loop here,” Bunny said.

“Apparently,” Ace said, a bit uncertainly, “Maggie used to be one of the Men in Grey. Or was that Woman in Grey?”

“Man in Grey, back then,” I said.

“Carl wasn’t just a warden,” Ramirez stated, not taking her eyes off me. “He was THE warden. He was one of our founders…from before we were called Wardens. From before we were even an organization.” Then, she touched the ka-bar knife on her belt and added, “Carl Upton trained the man who trained me.”

“Holy shit,” Ace exclaimed.

Olivia nodded. “That explains a few things.”

“The way you took down Jace,” Bunny mused.

“The Upton sweep,” Davis added with a pained chuckle. “No wonder you knew that move. You’re the one who invented it.”

“Carl was murdered a couple months ago,” Ramirez explained to the others, still watching me. She pointed at the wanted poster. “By them… By the men who did this…” She shook her head and told me, “I saw your body… I saw the video footage of it happening… I was investigating your death.”

“How often can you ask the murder victim to testify?” Ace joked.

I snorted at that. “My testimony would be illegal…” Then I reminded them, “And this isn’t going to court anyway. This is a kill order situation.”

“It is,” Davis agreed. “Rogue players with multiple civilian body counts… Capture if possible…”

“Kill if necessary,” Ramirez finished.

Of course, we all knew that killing could be necessary. Players like these never surrendered. They thought that they were above such things as rules and laws, which was why they got in trouble in the first place. Capturing them would be far too dangerous to even attempt.

“We need to go after them now,” I reminded Ramirez. “Time is on their side.”

“We’re coming too,” Bunny stated. She stared at me and Ramirez with an expression that clearly stated that she’d already made up her mind and wasn’t about to change it.

“You’ve had our back,” Turtle added. “We’ve got yours.”

“Especially if these are the assholes who killed you the first time around,” Ace told me. “It sounds like they’re due a bit of payback, and I want to be there to see it.”

I nodded at that, not bothering to argue or attempt to convince them this was too dangerous. They were players and the Wardens often worked with players in situations like this. Besides, these were players I trusted.

“We need fresh supplies,” I announced, gesturing towards nearest store that wasn’t on fire. “Grab food and water fast. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

Interlude:

Raze howled a battle cry as he swung his axe, cleaving through two monsters at the same time. Gore flew in every direction, and he let out a loud roar of maniacal laugher.

These monsters were weak and easy to kill, and Raze knew that he wouldn’t have any real challenges until they went deeper into the Labyrinth. Still, he enjoyed demonstrating his power, even against such puny opponents.

Once Raze was finished with the monsters, he looked back at his companions who’d mostly been standing back while he did the work. In this situation he didn’t mind that. He didn’t need their help.

Mike was looking at the amulet, using it to chart their course back to the temple. They had only just come from that direction, but the Labyrinth had shifted around and changed since then. There were new paths and tunnels, ones that hadn’t been there just one day earlier, while walls existed where there hadn’t been any before. Without that amulet to guide them, he doubted that they’d be able to find their way back.

Then Raze looked at the other people in his current group, ones who he didn’t know nearly as well as Mike. In fact, he barely knew one of them while the other two were complete strangers. He’d have to watch his back with all three and made a mental note to remind each of them of their place in this group.

The first of the newcomers was Godiva, the woman they’re recruited after Zeke’s death. Godiva was a tall, svelt black woman, with what was probably the darkest skin that he’d ever seen on a human. Her silvery-white hair was pulled back into a long intricate braid that hung down all the way to her calves. How she avoided tripping over her own braid, Raze had no idea.

Godiva was a strange woman, one who liked to slot most of her points into presence, instead of sharing them with the other stats that supported her class. That made her impossible to ignore when she wanted attention, especially when she went about nude, as she usually did when outside the Labyrinth. However, Raze couldn’t deny that she was useful, especially when it came to recruiting other people.

While Godiva had been in Gideon Heights, waiting to meet up with Raze and Mike, she’d done a little recruiting. She’d made friends with a local woman, one who seemed motivated to join their cause. That meant they had one more player to help them fight their way through the Labyrinth.

Jace was the stocky, auburn-haired woman who Godiva had befriended. She had a bad attitude and didn’t seem very bright, neither of which was a problem for Raze, as long as she followed his orders and did her job. If nothing else, she’d make good cannon fodder.

And then there was the last member of their little group, the one who had been least willing to join. This was the invoker they needed, a man named Wolf. From what Godiva had told him, Wolf was the only successful invoker in town. At first, Wolf hadn’t wanted to join them, but after some presence-enhanced convincing from Godiva and a little demonstration with Raze’s axe, he’d changed his mind.

Wolf stood back, scowling deeply, though he quickly schooled his expression to appear unconcerned. Raze chuckled at that. He didn’t care about the fact that Wolf didn’t like him or the situation, as long as he did his job.

“Soon,” Raze announced, grinning hungrily. “Soon, I’ll have everything I always wanted.”

----------

Eileen Davis leaned back in the chair behind her desk, taking a long drink of bourbon. She was drinking from the bottle, not even bothering with a glass. Then she set the bottle aside, ignoring the temptation for another drink. What she wanted was enough to dull the pain a bit but not so much that she’d get drunk. After all, she still had work to do.

The Warden looked down at herself, scowling as she did so. Her currently useless arm was in a sling while her shoulder was heavily bandaged. She had several more bandages on her body, ones over much smaller wounds which had been mostly caused by shrapnel. The only truly serious injury was the one on her shoulder, where she’d been grazed by an oversized axe.

“Damn useless healer,” Davis grumbled, knowing that he’d saved her life and even her arm, but he hadn’t been powerful enough to heal her all the way. It would take time and several more sessions with his power before she was at full strength again, IF she ever would be. She had taken quite the injury, perhaps too much of one to ever heal completely. “Him and his bare bones work…”

Davis chuckled a little at her joke. Most respawned players chose new names to go with their new bodies and new lives, and that healer wasn’t any different. He’d chosen the name of Bones.

“Damn Bones,” Davis said, closing her eyes and thinking about what had just happened. “Damn rogues.”

She couldn’t help but thinking about all the damage to the town…to HER town. She thought about the innocent people who’d died, and mostly, she thought of Owen Nash.

“Poor kid,” Davis whispered, her voice choking.

Owen had been a good Warden, and he’d had a bright future ahead of him. All of that had been brutally ended by a psychopathic monster, a monster that she couldn’t end. The frustration burned in her guts, the knowledge that she’d been damn near powerless against that player.

“If I wasn’t too old, I’d make a dungeon run myself,” Davis muttered.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, a quick rap that was clearly intended to announce the knocker’s presence. Davis looked up to the open doorway and saw Simon Harris stepping into her office with Lewis McNichols following right behind.

“I received your message,” Simon announced with a grim expression. “The courier you sent filled us in on what happened.”

Davis nodded at that, then straightened up in her chair. She cleared her throat and shifted into professional mode as she made a quick report.

“Two players came out of the Labyrinth,” Davis explained, keeping her voice steady and even. “They were the two players you were looking for, Raze and Mad Mike.”

“Those two,” McNichols muttered angrily.

Davis ignored the young Warden and continued. “I’ve been told that they had a friend waiting here in town for them. They reconnected, then began asking around about an invoker. Specifically, they were looking for the strongest invoker in town. It was around this time that someone set Raze off, and he decided to live up to his name.”

“Your message said that they escaped back into the Labyrinth,” Simon said, his own expression carefully controlled though Davis could see the anger burning in his eyes.

“They left behind six bodies,” Davis practically spat out. “Including Owen. I was damn near number seven.”

“Nash was a good man,” Simon said with a deep scowl.

McNichols shook his head, showing a bit more of the anger he felt than his mentor did. “I can’t believe he’s gone…”

Davis nodded at that. “Well, I do have some good news, at least.”

Simon seemed a little skeptical at that. “Let’s hear it.”

“Your partner, Ramirez,” Davis told him. “Shortly after this happened, she came out of the Labyrinth. She’s a player now. A stalker.”

Simon let out a sigh of relief. “That…is good news.”

“A stalker,” McNichols mused. “I can see it.”

“Where is she?” Simon asked, glancing around the office as though he half-expected to see Ramirez there.

“She went right back into the Labyrinth to chase after those bastards,” Davis said, her expression serious.

“WHAT?” Simon demanded, suddenly looking worried. “Alone?”

“No,” Davis answered with a faint smirk. “She took her escort team with her…and another Warden.”

Simon paused at that and calmed his expression. “I didn’t think there were any more Wardens in the area.”

Davis learned back in her chair, looking smug though still pained. “There weren’t. I should have said, a FORMER Warden. And she was right under our damn noses.”

“What are you talking about?” Simon asked, giving Davis an annoyed look.

Davis leaned forward, her smirk even more obvious. “Do you remember that player I recommended as a potential candidate for recruitment?”

“Maggie,” Simon responded slowly. “She’s hard to forget.”

“I’ve had my suspicions about her,” Davis explained, her expression turning serious again. “I thought that she might have been a Warden…and it turns out that I was right. Maggie is the first Warden I know of to be respawned.”

“Are you sure?” Simon asked in surprise.

Davis shook her head. “You know that we can’t be absolutely certain without a lot of questions and answers, but she claims to be, and I’m pretty confident that she’s telling the truth.”

Simon considered that for a moment before nodding. He trusted Davis’ judgement. “Has she said who she was?” Only a couple Wardens died recently enough to be a recent respawn.

Davis hesitated a moment before answering, “Carl Upton.”

That name caused Simon to freeze in place with his breath caught in his throat. A couple seconds later, he took a deep breath and muttered, “The timing is right… And that WOULD explain a few things.”

“Wait,” McNichol’s said, his eyes going wide. “If Carl Upton is back as a player…then he…she just went into the Labyrinth after the same players who killed him.”

Simon reached over for Davis’ bottle of bourbon, then poured himself a good finger. He downed it in one gulp.

“If,” Simon finally said. “If Carl really is back…then I almost feel sorry for those bastards.” A cruel smile formed at the edges of his lips. “Almost.”

“I never met Upton before,” Davis admitted. “I’ve heard the name, but I didn’t know the man.”

“Carl was a good man,” Simon answered carefully. “And a damn good Warden. However, he could be a bit…vindictive.”

“How vindictive?” Davis asked.

Simon let out a short laugh. “Carl once turned down a big promotion so that he could stick around long enough to get payback on someone who’d screwed him over.” Then he shook his head and added, “He’s vindictive enough to come back from the dead, just to go after the bastards who murdered him.”

“Damn,” McNichols said.

“Carl was damn good at taking down rogue players,” Simon continued, looking lost in thought. “In fact, he developed many of our early techniques for stopping them.”

“I wish I could have met him,” McNichols said awkwardly. “I mean, other than the way I did…”

Simon nodded at that. “As a crippled old man, Carl killed one player and took the eye of another. Just imagine what he could do with a healthy young body and player abilities.”

“And THIS is the person we have hunting those rogues?” Davis asked with an almost predatory grin.

“May Heaven have mercy on those rogues,” Simon agreed with a look of dark satisfaction, “because I can guarantee that Carl won’t.”

The chamber was covered with the remains of dead monsters, ones which had already melted down into piles of goo. We hadn’t killed these monsters though. That had been done by the players we were chasing.

When we’d first started following them through the Labyrinth, the trail had been old, to the point that we were close to losing it entirely. Most of the monsters had melted away entirely, leaving no trace that they had ever been there, but enough traces of goo remained that we’d been able to follow the trail. Now, the remains were fresher. All of the puddles of goo remained. Slowly but surely, we were catching up.

I looked over at Olivia, who was rapidly writing notes in her notebook, ones that would help us find our way back once we were finished. Without her notes, we had a much higher chance of getting lost in the Labyrinth and perhaps eventually popping out in Bolivia or Romania.

While we waited on Olivia, I looked around, absently touching the knife on my belt as I did so. That wasn’t the dagger, which was also sheathed on my belt, but the combat knife that I’d taken off Nash before we’d entered the Labyrinth. It was too late for me to do anything for Nash, except for sticking his knife into the man who’d killed him. That much, I could still do.

I noticed that Ramirez was leaning on her spear, watching me with a thoughtful expression. I’d caught her doing that a couple times since she’d figured out who I was, or at least, who I used to be.

“What is it?” I asked Ramirez, deciding to just get this over with.

Ramirez squirmed a little awkardly. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just hard to believe that you’re Carl Upton. I mean, I saw your body. I spent the last month reading up on your career.”

“I’m not that person anymore,” I reminded her with a sigh. “Not really. Dying and having a new body both change things.”

“I get it,” Ramirez responded. “At least a little.” She paused at that and then shook her leg. “You know, I never would have guessed that you used to be a guy.”

“None of us are who we used to be,” Bunny said, giving Ramirez a flat look. “And bringing up a player’s past is considered bad manners.”

“Or just rude,” Ace said.

“Some people prefer not to think about who they used to be,” Turtle added. “Or what they lost.”

“Most of us prefer to just focus on who we are now,” Olivia said. “On our new lives.”

“I’m sorry,” Ramirez apologized again, seeming sincere. “It’s just a bit to wrap my head around.”

“You know,” Turtle said, looking self-conscious. “I used to be a woman.”

“Really?” Ramirez asked in surprise. “I never would have guessed.”

Turtle nodded. “I was completely straight, with husband, kids, and the whole white picket fence thing. But now…” He paused and gave an embarrassed smile. “I’m a guy. A straight guy. I like women and have absolutely no interest in other guys.” Then he paused again before adding, “I’ve become a completely different person, and I’m comfortable with who I am. THIS is who I am now.”

“I was Korean,” Olivia abruptly added as she stared down at her dark hands. She smiled a little self-consciously. “Korean American. None of my family have actually gone back to Korea since my grandparents left in the sixties.”

Ace shrugged, looking almost smug. “I didn’t really change all that much.”

“Unfortunately,” Bunny added with a faint smirk.

“Like I said,” Bunny told Ramirez. “None of us are quite who we used to be.”

I just nodded at that, knowing how true her words were. It was easier to simply not think about my old life, so I could focus on my new one and who I was becoming now. It was easier to accept and even embrace my new self when nobody else had any idea about the person I’d once been, so having my old identity revealed was a bit…uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about it now.

It wasn’t like I could just forget about my old life anyway. The person I had been still defined the one I was now, and as Ramirez had pointed out, that kind of experience didn’t go away just because I had a new body. Besides, I still had unfinished business from that life, business that had intruded right into the middle of my new one.

“Come on,” I announced as I started walking again. “We don’t want to lose any of the progress we made by standing around and chatting.”

----------

I looked over the monster bodies. There were only three of them, but they were each the size of elephants. However, what caught my attention about these bodies the most wasn’t the scales or tentacles, but the fact that they were still intact. They were fresh enough that they had yet to melt into goo.

“They’re taking time to kill every monster in their way,” Ramirez announced in a clinical tone.

“Good for us,” I agreed. “It’s not only leaving a trail for us to follow, but is also slowing them down enough for us to catch up.”

“Yeah,” Bunny said as she poked at one of the bodies with her scepter. She scrunched up a nose. “These ones haven’t been dead very long, so we’re definitely catching up.”

I nodded at that as I looked around. Then my eyes locked on Turtle, who was bent over to retie his boot laces, or more accurately, my eyes locked onto his ass. He had a damn nice ass, and though it was hard to make out with his armor, his muscles were really nice too. My body started to respond to those thoughts so I had to look away.

Turtle had said that he used to be a straight woman, but was now a straight man. I smiled faintly at that, considering the fact that I was clearly now interested in men. But then, my eyes went to Ramirez, and I admired her curve, appreciating them just as easily as I had Turtle’s ass and muscles. Clearly, in spite of my new interest in men, I still liked women as well. And unless that faded away over time, it looked like I was going to have to get used to being bisexual.

“This isn’t the time to think about that kind of thing,” I quietly told myself. Then I shook my head and gave myself a mental cold shower. Imagining the old me naked was enough to do that. The very memory of the last time I’d seen my old self in a mirror was enough to make me shudder. “Time enough for that once we’re out of the Labyrinth.”

Suddenly, Bunny shouted out, “We’ve got company.”

I looked around again and quickly spotted what Bunny was referring to. There were two large monsters heading towards us, each the same size and type as the bodies that our quarry had left behind. Each was the size of an elephant, with round bodies that were covered with sickly purple scales. There were no arms, legs, heads, nor tails, just that single round shape that was covered with a dozen tentacles, which is what they were using to move forward. And then, as if this wasn’t nightmare fuel enough, each monster had three wide mouths that seemed to have been placed on their bodies at random.

“These things are UGLY,” Ace exclaimed.

“And big,” Turtle pointed out. “Definitely big.”

I muttered a few choice profanities as I quickly looked over our surroundings yet again, even though I already knew exactly what I would find. This whole area seemed to be nothing but rock, with lots of canyons and rock pillars. I might have thought that we were inside another of the cavern areas, if it wasn’t for the fact that I could actually see a blue sky up above.

“There,” I shouted, pointing to a cluster of rock pillars. “We can use those for cover.”

“They’re close together,” Ramirez said, echoing my own thoughts. “And they’re too big to go between most of them.”

We all rushed towards the pillars, getting into our usual formation as we did so. We reached cover just in time because the first of the monsters reached them just a couple seconds later. It stopped, unable to pass between the pillar, though I quickly saw the flaw in my plan. The monster might not be able to go between the rock formations, but it’s long purple tentacles could.

Turtle activated both of his abilities, making himself tougher while also drawing the monster’s attention. Severa tentacles reached for him at once, though he was ready to fight them off with sword and shield. Four horned rabbits immediately rushed to his aid, charging past him and at the monster itself. Sir Fluff followed behind his smaller brothers and immediately began to attack the massive monster.

The other monster tried coming in from the other side, though it was blocked by a couple of other rock pillars. It immediately did the same thing as the other one, stretching its tentacles out to try grabbing us. Two of its mouths were wide open, showing lots of sharp teeth and indicating exactly where it intended to place any of us that it could get hold of.

Olivia held up her staff and held out her hand, then fired off one of her shockwaves. The air in front of her rippled outward in a cone. I’d noticed that she could change the focus of the cone, spreading it out wider to catch more enemies, or making it smaller in order concentrate the force into a tighter area. This time, she had it pretty narrow, though that still wasn’t enough power to even budge the monster. However, it was able to knock back all of its tentacles, hopefully causing a bit of whiplash in those limbs.

I took a deep breath and began activating ‘Invocation of Spite,’ taking my time as I did so. This stretched out the agony, making the pain last even longer, though I was able to build up a bit more of a charge as I did so. This was what increasing focus did for me, besides improving my memory and my ability to both concentrate and multitask. I let out the largest and most powerful ‘Invocation of Spite’ that I was able, hitting the monster and making it scream from all three mouths.

“I NEED to increase my vitality,” I gasped, shaking a little as I did so. That attack was more potent than normal, by a good twenty-five percent, but it also put a lot more stress on my body as well. “Crap, that one hurt.”

“Good hit,” Ace called out as he stood back and fired both scepters at the monster.

The monster that I’d hit was currently having a seizure, shaking all of its tentacles. Its mouths were all open, drooling, and letting out gurling cry. My only regret was that I hadn’t been able to hit the other monster at the same time. As it was, Olivia had already bought us a few seconds away from the tentacles, but Turtle and Bunny didn’t have that respite.

Ramirez abruptly leapt out from the top of one of the rock pillars, having climbed it while I was distracted. She landed right on top of the monster that Turtle and Bunny were focusing on, driving her spear deep into the creature. That seemed to piss the monster off. A moment later, she jumped off the monster and joined Sir Fluff in performing quick hit and runs along the creature’s side.

The monster that I was facing had recovered enough to attack again, and this time it was focused on me. It let out a horrific shriek and lashed out at me with no less than four tentacles at once. I saw the attacks coming and immediately responded by activating ‘Invocation of the Wisp’. A moment later, a ghostly image of me appeared, running away from where I was standing. The monster turned its attention to the illusion, ignoring me entirely. That gave me the chance to get away for real.

“That is such a cool trick,” Bunny exclaimed as she watched the monster attack my illusion.

“Yeah,” I agreed, even as the illusion faded away. “Doesn’t last long though.”

The monster seemed confused by my illusion fading away and it didn’t seem to know what to do at first. Then it noticed the real me again and lashed out, this time with a single tentacle, as if testing to see if I was real. When the tentacle reached me, I smashed it as hard as I could with my mace. The tentacle squished against the ground a little like rubber, but it didn’t seem to be damaged.

“Crap,” I snarled.

Three more tentacles came lashing out at me. I dropped my mace since it wouldn’t do much good, and drew my knife and dagger instead. As soon as the first tentacle grabbed at me, I lashed out with my dagger and severed the attacking limb.

“TAKE OUT ITS TENTACLES IF YOU CAN,” I shouted out. “IT ISN’T AS DANGEROUS WITHOUT THEM.”

“Good idea,” Ramirez agreed.

She drew her own knife and immediately sliced off one of the tentacles, close to the monster’s main body. Then she dodged to the side and poked it with her spear as she moved along. Between her spear and knife, she took off three more tentacles in the next few seconds.

“Time to put my money where my mouth is,” I muttered as I moved closer to the monster.

I let the monster see me, then I moved back behind a pillar where it couldn’t see me. I reached for me with one of its tentacles, which left it vulnerable to my knife. It didn’t take long to remove a couple more tentacles, or at least half the tentacles. I wasn’t close enough to the main body to get the whole thing yet, but I was still making it hard for the monster to reach our ranged attackers.

Once I was ready, I hit the monster with another ‘Invocation of Spite’, then I rushed forward and sliced off a couple tentacles while it was spasming in pain. I quickly retreated after doing that, wanting to get out of reach before it could recover enough to retaliate.

A few minutes later, both monsters had either lost their tentacles, or had them cut short enough so that they were practically useless. That left the monsters nearly helpless, making them easy targets. They didn’t last long after that.

Once both monsters were dead, Ace asked, “Does anyone see a treasure box around anywhere?”

“If there was one around here,” Olivia answered with a sigh, “the players we’re following probably found it first.”

“Good point,” I agreed.

With that, I looked at the monster bodies, the ones that we’d first found upon arriving. While we’d been fighting the new monsters, the older bodies had already turned into goo. I scowled at the sight of that, realizing just how much time we’d just wasted.

“So much for catching up to them soon,” Ramirez said as she stared at the same melted bodies.

“And we’re not done yet,” Bunny abruptly announced.

I looked to where the summoner was pointing and let out a loud groan. Another of those monsters was coming towards us from the same side path that the last two monsters had used.

“Crap,” I grumbled. “This is really going to slow us down.”

“By the time we go back,” Olivia whispered as she looked up from her notebook, “these directions will be useless.”

“Maybe,” Turtle agreed. “At the rate the Labyrinth changes…”

“They’ll still get us in the right direction,” Bunny added. “We can work with that.”

I nodded at that and looked around, looking for any sign of a threat…not that I was able to see much of anything through the thick fog that surrounded us. What I could see were the ruins of an old city, composed mostly of crumbling stone buildings, very few of which still had roofs. The whole place looked like it had been abandoned for at least a century, except for the monsters.

These ruins definitely had monsters, and I knew that mostly because of the bodies that I’d seen scattered about. They were small greyish creatures, shaped somewhat like monkeys but with scorpion tails and leathery wings. A few of the bodies were still intact enough to make out what our targets had been fighting, and what was probably surrounding us out in the fog.

Bunny was staring off into the fog as well, though I knew that she could see a little further through it than I could. Her head tilted slightly as she listened for additional clues. I could hear faint skittering and moving about, just out of sight, so she could doubtlessly make out a little more than that.

After a minute, Bunny held her finger up to her lips in the universal gesture for ‘be quiet’, then she gestured off to the side, indicating that she thought that there was something there. We all nodded while Ace even made the gesture of zipping his mouth shut.

None of us spoke as we slowly walked away, making our way through the ruins as quietly as we could. I winced every time our footsteps echoed off the cobblestone street, knowing that this was giving away our presence just as surely as if we were talking.

The skittering continued around us, and several times I saw shadowy figures move through the fog. I couldn’t make out any details, though I suspected that this might be a possible ‘big brother’ to the little gargoyle monsters. Considering the fact that the fog was hiding any such creatures, that made their possible existence even more terrifying.

I could feel the tension rising in the air, the anticipation of violence. The longer we continued, the more certain I became that the monsters were aware of us. They were following us. Stalking us. And before much longer, I was proven right as they finally attacked.

A dozen monsters suddenly appeared at once, emerging from the fog and diving straight at us. This might have caught us off guard if we hadn’t been expecting something like this. Turtle immediately acted to get their attention while Olivia began charging one of her shockwaves. Seconds later, most of the monsters had been knocked out of the air and had fallen to the ground. We didn’t waste any time before finishing them off before they could get back into the air.

“We should probably stay close to the walls,” I whispered, gesturing to the nearby building. “That will keep them from being able to come at us from those directions.”

“That way, we only need to watch one side,” Ramirez said.

Ace snorted. “Unless they drop bricks on us from the top of the walls.”

“Good point,” Turtle said, giving a nervous look upward.

In spite of any concerns for falling bricks, we continued on our way, hugging the walls to limit where the monsters could attack us from. Ramirez began following in the back, using her ability to blend into the shadows so that she became hard to see. When the next group of monsters attacked a few minutes later, they ignored her completely, which gave her the opportunity to kill two of them before they even registered her presence.

Our current type of monster was a bit of a mixed bag. They were small and weak, being easy to kill. This came from them being swarm monsters, the kind who fought in groups and were dangerous because they could overwhelm you with numbers. And that was a problem. They had numbers, and we had absolutely no idea of just how many more there were around us.

The gargoyles were easy to kill, but they were still dangerous, and not just because of their numbers. Between being able to fly, and the way that they hid in the fog, they were almost impossible to see until they were right on us. That made it difficult to deal with them. And then there was the fact that they had those scorpion tails. None of us had been stung yet, but I had no doubt that it would be bad if we were.

I scowled as I smashed one of the gargoyles with my mace, then I threw my dagger at a second and killed that one with one good strike. The last two monsters fell a few seconds later.

Bunny’s rabbits were spread about, looking frustrated. Well, Sir Fluff looked frustrated, and I was sure the horned rabbits would have as well, had they been capable of it. None of the horned rabbits had been able to even touch a single gargoyle, while Sir Fluff had barely been able to do so.

“It looks like you guys aren’t built to handle fliers,” I said sympathetically.

“There’s another one nearby,” Bunny said, staring into the fog with a scowl. “A bigger one. I think he might be sending these little guys after us.”

“So,” Ace asked with a scrunched up face. “He’s their boss?”

“I think so,” Bunny responded. “That’s just the impression I’m getting, but I can’t be sure.”

“I just wish we could see the damn thing,” I said. “I hate fighting shadows.”

Ramirez chuckled, looking a little smug as she responded, “I’m starting to like it… At least, when I’m the shadow.”

“Stalkers,” Olivia commented with a roll of her eyes.

“You’re just jealous,” Ramirez told the arcanist.

“We’ll have to keep an eye out for the big one,” Turtle said as he adjusted his shield. He looked out into the fog and added, “And ready to deal with more of the little ones.”

With that in mind, we continued walking through the ruins, following the trail of monster goo that our enemies had left behind. Every time we started catching up to them, we got another delay. I just hoped that these gargoyles didn’t cost us too much time.

Then I suddenly felt it, the tickling sensation along my skin that warned me of primal magic somewhere nearby. I stopped in the middle of the street and looked around, trying so see where it was coming from. I was pretty sure that it wasn’t from any of the gargoyles that we’d been fighting.

“What is it?” Ramirez asked me.

“A primal,” I answered. “Somewhere nearby.”

“Like that big devil thing?” Ace asked with a worried look.

The others all stopped and looked around. We all remembered that infernal as well as all those imps it had created. However, I also remembered the faerie and the water elemental. Just because there was a primal, that didn’t mean it was a threat to us.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the feeling of primal magic. It took me a couple seconds, but I was able to tell where it was coming from.

“There,” I announced, pointing off to the side, to the ruins of what had once been a nice building.

Most of the walls around us were made of grey stone or red bricks, and they appeared to have all been two or three stories tall. However, the building in front of me stood out, though not because of the height. It was about the same height as the ones around it, though it was made with a white stone that looked like marble. It was also more intricate, with patterns and pictures carved on the surfaces, though they were too worn and dirty to really make out any of the details.

“It’s inside,” I said as I moved to the doorway.

The doorway was side and open, with no sign of an actual door or even hinges. It looked like there had probably never been a door. And once I stepped inside, I understood why this place stood out as different.

“It’s a church,” Bunny blurted out.

I nodded at that. This had been a church, though not quite like any that I’d ever seen before. The whole building looked to be a single large room with a high ceiling. In spite of the building being about three stories tall, I didn’t see any sign of there having been multiple floors, even before the ceiling had rotted away. And instead of a single altar at the far end, like in the the churches I was familiar with, there seemed to be eight of them, spread out along the side walls.

There were four altars along each side, each one being completely different. Every altar appeared to have been made with a different material and in a unique design. About the only things that they had in common were their general size, and of course, the fact that each and every one was perfectly clean. They looked almost as though someone had dusted and polished no more than a couple hours ago.

The altar to the left of me was a rounded grey stone, about four feet long, which was covered in carvings. The carvings were all rounded patterns with flecks of blue and green emerging from inside. The top of the stone was a concave and filled with water, making it look like some kind of back yard water feature.

A popup suddenly appeared in my vision.

ALTAR OF EBBETH, GODDESS OF WAVE AND TIDE

I could feel the primal energy coming from the altar, though not nearly as much as I would have expected to come from a goddess. Then again, I realized that this wasn’t actually the goddess herself. This rock was not Ebbeth, but it was connected to her. Maybe like a phone.

The next altar was bright red, the color of fresh blood, and it was glossy so that it actually looked wet. The very sight of the altar turned something in my stomach. And as with the previous altar, a popup suddenly appeared in front of me.

ALTAR OF GORATH, GOD OF SLAUGHTER

“Do you realize what this place is?” I asked, more thinking aloud than anything else.

“Some kind of church or temple,” Olivia answered. “Though I have no idea which deity it might be for.”

“Deities,” I said, putting emphasis on the indication that this was plural. “It looks like it was a temple to eight different gods. Maybe their entire pantheon.”

“Interesting,” Turtle said. “But kind of a distraction for our mission.”

I nodded at that, knowing that we couldn’t afford to spend much time here. Still, I couldn’t help but pointing out, “This is basically a treasure trove for invokers.”

“Oh shit,” Bunny blurted out. “You’re right. Eight different gods you might get abilities from.”

I nodded again, though I knew that it wouldn’t be quite that simple. Wolf had warned me that a lot of primals had rivalries and alliances, such as the instinctive hatred that celestials and infernals apparently had for each other. He’d warned me that divine type primals, deities, could be particularly sensitive about who else you already had deals with. There was no telling how that kind of thing could play out among these particular deities.

But in spite of the potential complications, I had no doubt that this place was an enormous opportunity for any invoker. Invokers were like salesmen who worked on commission. If you couldn’t make a sale, you walked away with nothing. However, if you were good at sales, you could make a fortune in commissions. Or in invoker terms, you could gain a lot of power and abilities. This temple, with eight separate deities, represented eight potential sales with the associated rewards.

“Now, I just have to get selling,” I mused as I slowly walked around the room, looking at other altars.

SHRINE OF MERSHASS, GODDESS OF HEARTH AND HOME

ALTAR OF KASSAMACH, GOD OF HOPES AND DREAMS

I was beginning to notice that each of these altars had the same kind of primal magic coming from them, what I now recognized as the divine type. This was the type of primal energy that I was most familiar with, the kind that I channeled through my body every time I used ‘Invocation of Spite’.

However, I also noticed that the energy at each altar was slightly different. I would probably need to increase my perception to really tell them apart, but I suspected that this was the specific flavor of each individual god. If I increased my perception and learned to identify that subtle difference, I’d probably be able to recognize which deity…or even which specific primal an ability came from, just by feeling that energy.

Then I came to an altar that was made of red and black stone, with sharp edges and spikes that jutting out in nearly every direction. Even before the popup appeared in front of me, I knew who this altar belonged to. I could feel it.

ALTAR OF AVEXIS, GODDESS OF SPITE AND VENGEANCE

I stood in front of this altar for several seconds, licking my lips nervously. I could feel the connection to Avexis, very similar to what I felt through my ability, but stronger.

“Thank you for granting me the use of your power,” I said to be polite.

The sense of power I felt from Avexis’ altar grew stronger, as though she’d heard me and was responding. My eyes widened a little at that since I hadn’t expected there actually be any response. Fortunately, I’d been polite, so I doubted that she had any reason to smite me.

Just then, I suddenly felt a rise in power from the next altar over. I looked in surprise. That altar was white and smooth, looking rounded and almost soft. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought that it was a mound of cotton rather than a lump of stone.

SHRINE OF ARAELYS, GODDESS OF FORGIVENESS

A moment later, almost as soon as I’d finished reading that popup, a new one appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE DRAWN THE ATTENTION OF ARAELYS, GODDESS OF MERCY AND FORGIVENESS. ARAELYS OFFERS YOU A BARGAIN FOR A PORTION OF HER POWER.

RENOUNCE AVEXIS AND BE GRANTED THE ABILITY ‘INVOCATION OF RESPITE’

DO YOU ACCEPT?

“What the…?” I blurted out in surprise.

I had to reread the popup three times to make sure that I was reading it right. Araelys was offering me a new ability…with a catch. A big catch at that. She wanted me to renounce Avexis, right after I’d just thanked the other goddess. I had no doubt that if I did renounce Avexis, I’d lose her support…and the ability that she’d given me.

“Invocation of Respite,” I whispered.

I didn’t miss the fact that this ability had a very similar name to the one I already had. And when I read the name of this ability, ‘Invocation of Respite,’ I had a vague sense of what the ability actually did. It didn’t really say in the popup, but the understanding was still there.

‘Invocation of Respite’ was almost the exact opposite of ‘Invocation of Spite’. It was an ability which would let me heal other people, and I was pretty confident that the act of channeling that power would also heal me a little in the process. That would be an amazing ability, especially considering how much danger we all faced in the Labyrinth.

“But the cost,” I reminded myself with a wince.

All that Araelys was really offering me, was to trade one ability for another. I would be trading my only offensive ability, one that I’d possessed since crawling out of the respawn pool, and which had saved my life, for an ability that would be useful…but situational. And then of course, there was the fact that she was asking me to betray a goddess of spite and revenge, which sounded like a pretty bad idea to me. If I had to choose between getting a goddess of spite mad at me, or a goddess of forgiveness, I knew which one I’d pick.

Before I could say anything, another popup appeared in front of me.

AVEXIS, GODDESS OF SPITE AND RETALIATION, OFFERS YOU A BARGAIN FOR ANOTHER PORTION OF HER POWER.

REFUTE ARAELYS’ OFFER AND BE GRANTED THE ABILITY ‘BLESSING OF AVEXIS’.

DO YOU ACCEPT?

I had barely finished reading this popup when another one appeared.

ARAELYS, GODDESS OF PEACE AND FORGIVENESS OFFERS YOU A NEW BARGAIN.

RENOUNCE AVEXIS AND BE GRANTED THE ABILITIES ‘INVOCATION OF RESPITE’ AND ‘SHROUD OF MERCY’.

DO YOU ACCEPT?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, hardly able to believe what was happening.

“What’s going on?” Bunny asked.

None of them could see my popups, so I could only imagine what this looked like to them. “Apparently,” I said carefully, glancing back and forth between the two altars, “I’m caught in the middle of a bidding war.”

“A bidding war?” Ace blurted out. “For what?”

“For me,” I answered wryly. “I think I just stepped into the middle of some divine politics…or at least…some kind of rivalry.”

I shook my head at that. Wolf had warned me about divine rivalries, but I hadn’t expected anything like this. And then, just as I half-expected, there was another popup.

AVEXIS, GODDESS OF SPITE AND SPICY FOOD OFFERS YOU A NEW BARGAIN.

ACCEPT AVEXIS AS YOUR SOLE PATRON AND URINATE UPON ARAELYS’ SHRINE, AND YOU WILL BE GRANTED THE ROLE OF ‘PALADIN OF AVEXIS’, WITH ALL ASSOCIATED RIGHTS AND ABILITIES.

DO YOU ACCEPT?

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “This is escalating fast.”

Then I blinked as I noticed something. Spicy food? That was unexpected…and a bit confusing, until I remembered that spicy food was food that hurt you when you ate it. It was food that fought back, which was sort of appropriate for a goddess of spite.

A moment later, I turned my attention to the rest of the offer, scowling as I did so. Avexis wanted me to…urinate on Araelys’ shrine…to piss on it. I knew that Avexis was a goddess of petty revenge, and this just proved it.

“And she’s offering me the chance to become her paladin,” I whispered.

Wolf had told me about such things, and he’d warned me of the risks. If I accepted Avexis as my sole patron, then I would be making a contract so that she granted me even more power and abilities, but I would be unable to channel power from any other primal. I would become completely reliant on her, which was dangerous in multiple ways.

There was something else about this latest offer which tickled the back of my mind. Sole patron? Paladin? I suddenly wondered if this was the big deal that Wolf thought Avexis was leading me towards. It made sense. But if it was, then I had a feeling that she hadn’t intended to make it quite yet. No, I suspected that Araelys’ interference may have led Avexis into making it prematurely.

Avexis… No, both goddesses seemed pretty interested in getting my support. A part of me was proud of that since having goddesses bid over me was good for my ego. However, I had a sneaky suspicion that it was also extremely dangerous. Who knew how far you could actually push a goddess of forgiveness.

“Besides,” I muttered. “This isn’t even about me.”

It was becoming obvious that this was some kind of grudge or rivalry between Avexis and Araelys, and I was just caught between them. I was probably just the latest thing that they were arguing over, a convenient excuse to continue their competition.

I took a deep breath, and before another popup appeared, I announced, “I’ve made my decision.”

The power from both altars seemed to focus on me even more intently. I knew that this was a dangerous moment for me, because regardless of what I said, I would probably offend at least one of these goddesses.

“I must politely decline your offer, Araelys,” I announced, carefully keeping my voice and expression polite and respectful.

I was calling up old skills, ones that I hadn’t used much since retiring from the Wardens. And to be honest, I’d never been much good at this back then either. Still, being able to deal with politicians and higher-ups who had the power to destroy your career, had been a valuable survival skill. I just hoped that I hadn’t gotten too rusty.

“Avexis granted me power when I had none,” I continued, trying to butter up my current patron in order to avoid her wrath. Nobody wanted a goddess of spite and revenge pissed at them. At least, not if they had any common sense at all. “Her power saved my life and will continue to help me on my mission. I am on a mission of vengeance, and I intend no mercy or forgiveness.”

I felt something from Avexis, both from the link I had to her through my ability and from her shrine. It felt like smug satisfaction, which seemed strange to consider for a goddess of spite. I was just relieved since her reaction could have been MUCH worse.

“Avexis,” I said, looking at her altar. “Thank you again for the power you have granted me. I know that it will be invaluable for what I am attempting.”

Then I took a deep breath, knowing that this wasn’t quite an ‘its not you, it’s me’ speech, but she might take it that way. That could be bad.

“I am unable to accept your generous bargain,” I stated, not apologizing or asking for her forgiveness. Considering who her rival was, asking for forgiveness would probably be seen as an insult. “I will not desecrate the shrine of a goddess who has not wronged me.”

I stood there for a moment, holding my breath and waiting to see how Avexis would respond. A moment later, power of her shrine faded away, going back to the same level that it had been when I’d first walked into the temple. Araelys’ power also faded, seeming to indicate that both goddesses had lost interest. Then I let out a sigh of relief, right before a new popup suddenly appeared in front of me.

AVEXIS, GODDESS OF SPITE AND RETRIBUTION HAS GRANTED YOU THE ABILITY ‘BLESSING OF AVEXIS’.

I read the popup and then chuckled. When Avexis had offered the second bargain, the one where she proposed becoming my sole patron, I’d assumed that it replaced the first offer. However, this popup proved that the first offer had still been on the table.

“Come on,” I announced, looking back at my friends, who were all standing back and looking impatient. “We don’t want to get any further behind than we already are.”

“What the hell was that?” Bunny demanded.

“Divine politics,” I answered with a shake of my head. “I’ll tell you later.”

Then I looked around the temple, running my eyes over the eight shrines and altars. There were six more deities that I could contact about a potential bargain, but I had absolutely no intention of doing so. For one thing, we had run out of time and I couldn’t afford to waste another minute with that kind of thing. Second, and more importantly, I did not want to risk getting caught up in even more divine grudges or bullshit.

I started moving towards the door, but Bunny announced, “We have an audience.”

When I saw her pointing upward, I paused and looked up. The ceiling was completely gone from the temple, and it looked like it had been missing for a long time. I could see the open sky above…and I could see a lot of ugly little faces looking down on us.

“Ah, crap,” I muttered.

A couple dozen gargoyles were perched on the ruined walls, and they all seemed to be staring down at us. Not a single one of them made a move to actually attack, nor had they done so while we were distracted. That would have been the best opportunity.

“I wonder if this is a safe zone,” Olivia commented thoughtfully. “That would explain why they haven’t attacked us in here.”

“Could be,” I agreed.

I stared up at one of the gargoyles specifically, one who was much larger than the others. We’d known that this one had been around, though it was the first time that any of us had actually seen it. This was their boss, the gargoyle who seemed to be their leader.

“It looks impatient,” Bunny said. “I think it’s finally going to attack us.”

“Probably as soon as we step out that door,” Turtle offered in agreement. He shrugged, adjusted his shield, and then began moving towards the door. “I’d better get this over with.”

“Wait,” I warned him. “I have an idea.”

I quickly discussed what I had in mind with the others, then I moved to the doorway. I looked out into the fog covered street, unable to even see all the way across to the other side. All I could make out where the vague shapes of walls.

Once I was ready, I activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’, and an illusion that looked just like me abruptly ran out into the street. The illusion only made it halfway across before the giant gargoyle suddenly burst out of the fog and landed right on top of it, hitting it so hard that if I really had been out there, I probably would have died immediately.

I finally got a good look at the monster, even better than I had when it had been hunched over on top of the wall. The other gargoyles were small, resembling bald grey monkeys with wings, but their big brother looked more like a bald grey gorilla with wings. It was bulging with muscle, and even hunched over, it was close to seven feet tall. And where the smaller gargoyles had scorpion like tails emerging from their backs, this one had two such tails.

We’d expected this attack which was why I’d sent the decoy out instead of letting Turtle take the hit. Considering what I’d just seen, I was thankful for that decision.

I immediately fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ while Olivia and Ace joined in with the ranged attacks. The monster dropped to its knees for a moment and then howled in rage and agony. Smaller gargoyles suddenly began to emerge from the fog, joining their leader in the attack.

“My turn,” Turtle announced as he stepped forward and activated both of his abilities. Nearly two dozen gargoyles all began attacking him at once.

I grinned as I considered my new ability, ‘Blessing of Avexis’. I’d only had the ability for a couple minutes, but I instinctively knew how it worked, and I was eager to test it out.

‘Blessing of Avexis’ was a passive ability, something that was always on and which I couldn’t turn off. It was like an invisible aura around my body which retaliated against anyone who attacked me. If someone or something attacked me, they’d take a small amount of damage. This wasn’t really all that useful to me since it wasn’t a lot of damage and my usual goal was to avoid being attacked in the first place, but for someone like Turtle…

“NOW!” I yelled to let Turtle know what I was doing.

My new ability had one other feature, one that made it perfect for this situation. I could share it. A moment later, I pushed ‘Blessing of Avexis’ away from me and onto Turtle. Suddenly, every gargoyle that attacked him began taking damage. That riled them up and they began attacking him even more frantically.

“I can’t do this for long,” I warned Turtle.

I could only give the blessing away for a short time before it returned to me, but the more I increased my presence and focus, the longer that time would become. For now, this would have to be enough.

The boss monster shook off the effects of my ‘Invocation of Spite,’ enough so that it could get to its feet and attack again. It howled in rage, its twin tails raising up from behind it. Drops of green liquid dripped from the spiked tips.

“My turn,” Bunny called out.

Bunny held out her scepter, and a moment later, the giant gargoyle was held by glowing magical chains. It was locked in place, unable to move for several long seconds, seconds that we took full advantage of.

Ramirez was suddenly there, slamming her spear as deep as she could into the monster’s chest. Before she’d even pulled her spear back, Sir Fluff followed that up with his own attack. The four horned rabbits charged in and joined the fight a moment later.

“If you can keep them occupied just a few seconds more,” Olivia said with a grimace

Olivia held out her hand and unleashed a shockwave on all the gargoyles who were surrounding Turtle. Most of them dropped out of the air and died before they even hit the ground. The ones that remained were quickly finished off.

I ignored the swarm of smaller gargoyles since they were already under control. Instead, I focused my attention on their boss, who was just being freed from Bunny’s chains. I ran towards the monster, intending to slam my mace into the side of its head, but it lashed out with its tails which forced me to change dodge instead.

“I was hoping you’d be dead by now,” I growled in annoyance.

The boss gargoyle spread its wings to take off, but I wasn’t about to allow that. We’d lured it down to the ground just so that we could kill it, and I intended to see that through. With that in mind, I swung my mace at one of the wings, shattering the bones es on impact. The whole thing now hung at a bad angle.

“Good idea,” Ace called out, right before he fired two blasts right at the other wing. One of them missed, but the other burned a nice hole right through the leather membrane. “You’re grounded.”

The monster lunged at Ramirez, lashing out with both of its stingers. She dove to the side, just barely avoiding being hit. Turtle was suddenly there, standing between her and the monster, blocking its stinger with his shield. He followed through with his sword, taking off half of that tail.

“I need more agility,” the Warden muttered to herself. “More of everything.”

Bunny laughed. “That’s just about always the case. Players always need more.”

Ace added, “It’s kind of addicting.”

“I’m about to hit him again,” I called out, warning my team right before I fired another ‘Invocation of Spite’.

The howled as it spasmed in pain, while we all rushed in to finish it off. My mace hit the side of its head only a second after Ramirez drove her spear into his side. Sir Fluff hit it two more times in rapid succession. By this point, the monster was no longer moving. Instead, it collapsed to the ground, finally dead.

A couple of the smaller gargoyles were still flying around and being an annoyance, but we weren’t too concerned with them. They were easy enough to kill, and we proved that soon afterwards.

“Well, that was annoying,” Olivia grumbled. “And time consuming.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, looking in the direction that we had been traveling. I no longer saw any monster bodies remaining, only a few small puddles of goo.

“Well, the good news is that we have a treasure box,” Ace announced.

There was a treasure box, one of the bigger ones that I’d seen. It was about four feet across on each side, and was leaning up against the side of a nearby wall.

“Let’s just open it and get going,” I said, my eyes locked on the fading trail ahead of us. “We’ve spent way too much time in this place.”

“And whose fault is that?” Bunny teased me. “Remember who it was who wanted to go to church.”

“Bite me,” I responded, flipping her off.

“Hey,” Ace exclaimed as he held up a large piece of fabric. “It’s a cloak…”

I looked more closely and saw that Ace was holding a cloak, one made of purple fabric. It looked like it was pretty good quality, though a bit too bright for my tastes.

“I think Olivia should have this,” Ace said. He looked towards the arcanist. “You could use a bit more protection, and since this is an artifact, you know it will be sturdy.”

“Not my style,” Turtle said in response.

“That would probably get in the way of me being able to move,” Ramirez added.

I shook my head while Bunny just shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

“Okay,” Olivia said as she accepted the garment. She looked it over and smiled faintly. “It looks nice…”

“And there’s a piece of unobtainium,” Ace added almost casually. “Not a very big piece, but it will definitely be good for our wallets.”

“Good,” I said, not really caring about either the cloak or the unobtainium. “Now that we’re done with this, let’s get going.”

----------

“Who the hell are we even after, anyway?” Bunny asked. “I mean, we’re chasing after these players, so we should probably know a bit more about them before we actually face off.”

“She has a point,” Turtle agreed. “We’ve been so busy chasing them, that we haven’t really had a chance to talk about who they are.”

“Or what they can do,” Olivia added. “That is the important part.”

Everyone glanced back at Ramirez, though nobody stopped walking. We’d been going almost non-stop since leaving that ruined city, trying to make up for all the lost ground. The monster bodies were getting fresher, so we were finally catching up again, and none of us wanted to risk losing that progress.

I looked around, trying to spot any monsters or other threats, though all I saw was sand dunes and desert. Olivia had her new cloak pulled around her as protection against both the sun and sand while the rest of us had to make do.

“This is personal to us,” Bunny told Ramirez. “We didn’t come in with you because there are bounties…”

“Though, that does help,” Ace offered with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“We knew the people they killed,” Olivia stated, her eyes darting to me. “The ones in Gideon Heights. A couple of them were friends.”

“And one owed me money,” Ace joked, though it was a bit forced.

Ramirez was the one with answers, at least about the players we were chasing. After all, she’d told us several times that she’d been investigating them ever since they’d murdered me. She knew more about our enemies than I did, and I was the only one of us who’d actually met them.

“I know a little about Raze and Mad Mike,” Ramirez finally responded. “I don’t know much about the other players who joined them, other than what Davis told me before we left.”

“Anything helps,” I said to encourage her to continue.

Ramirez nodded at that. “Raze is a big guy. A warrior type who prefers fighting with an axe. I strongly suspect that he’s a berserker class, but I haven’t been able to confirm.”

“He’s fast,” I added, remembering how quickly he moved back in the nursing home. “He’s put points in agility.”

“He favors direct physical combat,” Ramirez continued. “And his abilities seem focused around enhancing his own physical abilities. If he can do anything else, I haven’t heard about it.” Then she looked at me and smirked. “Raze is also missing one of his eyes. It seems that one of his victims stabbed him in the eye before dying.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I said with a shrug. “My only regret is that I wasn’t able to push the knife in any deeper.”

“Damn,” Ace exclaimed, giving me a nod of appreciation.

“It gets even better,” Ramirez said.

“How could that get any better?” Ace asked. “Maggie stabbed the guy in the eye…”

“We recovered the knife, at the scene,” Ramirez continued almost cheerfully. “It turns out, the artifact has an interesting, albeit sadistic, ability. It prevents artificial healing.” She chuckled at that before adding, “The most powerful healer in the world couldn’t make that eye grow back.”

“Now THAT is good news,” I said with a grin of my own. “I’d hate for him to be able to fix it after I went through all that trouble.”

“That’s about all I can tell you about Raze,” Ramirez told us. “Well, I could tell you more, but nothing relevant.”

Olivia looked back. “Like what?”

Ramirez gave her a wry look before answering. “Such as the fact that he first respawned at the Connecticut entrance, twelve years ago, which means that he probably died somewhere in the eastern part of the US or Canada.”

“What about the other one?” I asked.

“Mad Mike,” Ramirez stated. “In spite of his name, he’s the more reasonable one of the pair. From what I’ve been told, he’s a bit obsessive about artifacts, and other players joked about him about acting a bit like a mad scientist.”

“Hence the name,” Bunny said.

“Hence the name,” Ramirez agreed. “Either that, or because he got angry over the jokes. I’ve heard claims of both.”

“Artificer?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ramirez agreed. “He was considered to be a semi-respectable appraiser, until a couple years ago when he teamed up with Raze and they began delving together.”

I nodded at that. Artificer was a bit of an odd class, and most players considered it to be the second worst one…after invoker. Unlike most invokers, artificers did start out with abilities, just not ones that were useful for combat. This was why they generally avoided the Labyrinth and stayed in places like Gideon Heights instead, appraising artifacts that other players brought out and identifying what they could do. Artificers were useful, but not well respected.

“From what I’ve been told, Mike tends to hold back and let others fight,” Ramirez continued. “Though, this seems be more from a lack of interest in fighting than an inability. He’s been reported using a variety of one-handed weapons, including a scepter.”

Since Ramirez seemed to be finished, I asked, “What about the others?” I looked at my team, who knew the other players better than I did.

“We worked with Jace a couple times,” Bunny admitted with a scowl and a look of disgust. “It didn’t work well.”

“She’s a standard warrior,” Turtle stated, “though she likes to fight more like a berserker. She also likes hammers.”

“She has a huge chip on her shoulder,” Olivia added. “And her only ability that I know about is something like my shockwave. She can shake the ground and knock people off their feet.”

“Not much of a threat,” I assured Ramirez. “At least, not in a serious fight. She seems to be fairly low-level, and she doesn’t have any real skill.”

“Accurate,” Bunny agreed.

“Wolf is an invoker,” Turtle said. “And he has…HAD a pretty good reputation. He was the strongest invoker in town, and I mean that in both figurative and literal senses.”

“Before we left,” Bunny said, “I talked to Madrid. She said that Wolf looked pretty reluctant about going with them…like he didn’t have a choice.”

“We can ask him when we find them,” I said, hoping that Wolf really had been forced by those bastards. That would be a LOT better than if he’d joined them of his own free will. I hadn’t known Wolf very well, but I’d liked the man and still owed him a drink. I’d hate to have to kill him for going rogue. “Hopefully, he has a good answer.”

“Does anyone know who that last player was?” Bunny asked. “She wasn’t a regular in town.”

“No idea,” Ace responded with a shake of his head. “I saw her a few days earlier though. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I’m pretty sure I would have noticed her if she’d been around more than a few days.”

“That’s the impression I got,” Turtle agreed.

I looked to Ramirez and asked, “A known accomplice?”

“Not one that I know about,” Ramirez responded with a sigh. “Her description doesn’t match any known accomplices, but I bet Simon will have an ID on her by the time we get out of the Labyrinth. If he doesn’t have one already.”

“Doesn’t do us much good in here,” I said. “So far, she’s the big mystery, so we’ll have to be careful.”

“A probable rogue player with unknown class and abilities,” Ramirez announced sarcastically. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I grumbled at that.

Just then, Bunny exclaimed, “SHHHH!”. She held her finger to her lips in the universal gesture to be quiet, then she tilted her head and listened carefully. After a few seconds, her eyes widened and she gasped. “I hear voices…”

“Voices?” Ace asked with a worried look. “Hearing voices is usually a bad sign.”

Bunny just glared at him before announcing, “I think we finally caught up.”

I was surrounded by stone and sand. Everywhere I looked, there were either ridges and rock formations made of a reddish stone, or matching dunes of sand. The whole thing was so monochromatic that I felt almost bored by it.

We walked across one of the stone ridges, keeping our distance from the nearby dunes. As we’d already learned, monsters liked to hide beneath the sand, only to jump out and attack the moment we got too close. We didn’t have time to fight the monsters. Not anymore.

Voices carried on the wind, but not ours. We remained quiet as we slowly approached the source, not wanting to give ourselves away.

Then we came to an area where the ground began to descend into a bit of a low canyon. Up ahead of us, I could see what appeared to be an oasis in this desert, with a large pool of water that was surrounded by bushes and short trees.

Right in the middle of the oasis, beside the pool were our targets. I immediately recognized Raze, the large man who was dressed in barbarian chic, with the fashionable eyepatch. The other man from the nursing home, the stocky one in a leather jacket, crouched down a short distance away from him. Mad Mike.

There were three other people present as well, the ones who’d joined the pair in Gideon Heights. I recognized two of those ones, Jace and Wolf. The last member was a lithe black woman with silvery hair that was pulled back into the longest braid that I’d ever seen.

“What do you want to bet,” Ace quietly asked. “That’s a safe zone.”

“Probably,” Turtle agreed in a whisper. “Those do look like fruit trees.”

“And it looks like the exit from this desert area is just over there,” Olivia pointed out.

I looked further down into the canyon and saw what Olivia meant. There was a large stone arch, and the other side of the arch looked completely different from the desert surroundings. I couldn’t make out any details from the other side, but I didn’t see any of the red stone or sand.

“We’re almost there,” Mad Mike said. “Not much further.”

“Good,” Wolf responded. “I’ve got to take a piss before we go.”

Bunny looked to me and whispered, “That doesn’t sound like they’re forcing him.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed.

Ramirez was watching them all carefully, with the look of a hunter who was waiting for the right moment. Her hand seemed reach towards her hips, to where the crossbow bolts had previously been stored, then she adjusted her grip on her spear instead.

“Finally,” the Warden whispered. “I’ve been after those two since the nursing home.”

“Same,” I agreed grimly. “But this isn’t going to be easy.”

There were six of us and only five of them, which gave us the advantage of numbers, especially when I added Bunny’s rabbits to the count. However, there was also one other detail that changed the calculation. At least a couple of them were higher level and more experienced than us, and that gave them a decided advantage in power.

“There is an opportunity to make things a little easier,” I pointed out.

I indicated Wolf, who’d wandered away from the oasis and his companions so that he could do his business. I wasn’t sure if he’d left the safe zone or not since I didn’t know where the border was, but even if he did run into a monster, he was still close enough that he could call for help.

Ramirez nodded and then smiled faintly. “Good idea.”

This opportunity wouldn’t last long, so we quickly made our way down towards where Wolf had gone. We had to be quick and careful so that the rest of the rogues didn’t see us. A minute later, we caught up to Wolf, right as he was starting to head back.

Wolf suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. He raised his sword and looked around suspiciously, clearly expecting an attack.

I stepped into view and let him see me. “Wolf,” I said, my voice even.

The other invoker took a step back and stared at me for a moment. “Maggie? What the hell are you doing here?”

I was careful to keep my eye on Wolf and to avoid looking back. Most of my team was back around a rock formation, out of sight but close enough to join me if I needed help. Ramirez, however, was much closer. She was using her ability to hide in shadow, ready to strike if Wolf attacked me.

“Looking for you,” I answered. “And your new friends.”

Wolf winced at that as a look of anger passed over his face. “Those assholes didn’t give me much choice. They would have kept killing people if I hadn’t agreed to come with them.”

“They killed six people back in town,” I pointed out. “And a lot more people before then.”

“Damn,” Wolf growled. “I figured. I knew that coming with them would be a bad idea, but like I said, I didn’t have much choice. Raze would have killed me. Hell, between Raze’s axe and Godiva’s words, they were pretty damn convincing.”

“Godiva?” I asked, assuming that he was referring to the woman with the ridiculously long hair.

“She’s a shaper,” Wolf told me. “And she has the highest presence of anyone I’ve ever met. You’ll want a lot of focus if you’re going to be talking with her.”

“Noted,” I said with a nod.

Wolf nodded, then continued, “But Godiva did make some damn good points. I didn’t want to come along, but now that I know what they’re after, I kind of want to see it to the end. I want to know if it’s really there.”

“See what to the end?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and even.

I remembered Margaret’s necklace, which was what they’d been after back in the home. I still had absolutely no idea why they’d wanted that thing, nor had I really cared. I’d been more focused on what they’d done than on why.

“What are they after?” I demanded.

Wolf let out a low chuckle. “You know, there’s an old saying. Just about anything can be found inside the Labyrinth, if you know where to look.”

“Yeah,” I said, encouraging him to get to the point. “I’ve heard the saying.”

“Well,” Wolf continued, “Raze and Mike found a guide, some kind of primal that can tell you exactly where and how to find anything you’re looking for. Wealth. Power. Immortality.” He looked in the direction of the oasis and smirked. “Changing your body. ANYTHING.”

I stared at Wolf for a moment as I absorbed what he’d just told me. “Anything?”

“Anything,” he repeated firmly. “Even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, this guide can apparently lead you to it. It’s like a damn genie, but with extra steps.”

“That’s…” I started to say, only to pause and shake my head. “I can see why people would be interested in something like that. But I don’t think these guys will be looking for anything good.”

“Maybe not,” Wolf agreed. “But I really want to see if this thing is real. Hell, there are a few things that I’d like to find myself.”

I stared at Wolf for several long seconds, trying to decide which way he was going to go. It sounded like he might have thrown in with them and their goals for real. Then again, he had been answering my questions and hadn’t made any move to give me away.

“You know, I can’t let them find whatever they’re after,” I pointed out grimly. “Raze and Mike are rabid dogs, and they need to be stopped.”

Wolf just snorted dismissively. “I don’t know how you found us in here, but you’re wasting your time. I mean, what the hell do you think that you’re gonna do? You’re a rookie. They’d kill you, even if I helped you fight them.”

“Good thing she didn’t come alone,” Bunny said as she stepped into view.

“Yeah,” Turtle agreed as he joined her.

Ace and Olivia joined us as well, though Ramirez remained hidden. In spite of Ace’s name, she was our real ace up the sleeve, at the moment.

“They’ve left a trail of bodies,” Turtle said. “Including people we know.”

“I know,” Wolf agreed with a look of disgust on his face. He scratched at his jaw. “Assuming I help you all, I can still look for this guide afterwards…”

Suddenly, a new voice called out, “I told you he was taking too long for a piss.”

I snapped around, cursing under my breath as I did so. Mad Mike stood there, looking almost exactly the same as when I’d seen him back at the home. He even wore the same black leather biker’s jacket, though it did look like it had been torn and patched in a couple places.

“I just thought you were running away,” Mike continued, his eyes locked on Wolf, “not conspiring against us.”

Raze stepped up behind Mike, looking just as large and imposing as I remembered. He held up his double-sided axe and glared at Wolf with his one remaining eye before looking at the rest of us.

“Kill ‘em,” Raze ordered. “All but our invoker. We still need him.”

Raze leapt at Turtle, who barely threw up his shield in time to save himself. The impact sent Turtle flying backward, his shield now bent out of shape. Before Raze could charge Turtle again, Ramirez jumped out of the shadows and tried to drive her spear into his chest. Raze reacted faster than she expected, backhanding her before she could hit him and sending her flying.

“Crap,” I exclaimed as Raze raised his axe to attack Ramirez.

I blasted Raze with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, making him pause in his tracks as he howled in pain. The sight filled me with a dark satisfaction.

“YOU!” Jace yelled out, pointing at me. “I’ve been looking for a chance to get back at you…”

“You’re welcome to try,” I responded.

Jace came rushing at me, but I didn’t bother trying the same move on her that I had before. She might be expecting me to sweep her legs out from under her, so I did something else instead. I activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ and sent an illusion running off instead. Jace took the bait and chased after that.

Sir Fluff and four horned rabbits all chased after Jace and began attacking her. Since Jace was being occupied, I turned my own attention to Mad Mike, who was raising a scepter to attack Olivia. My ‘Invocation of Spite’ was down, so I rushed at him with my mace.

“Hey,” I called out to get his attention.

Mike saw me coming and grinned, which I immediately recognized as a bad sign. “SHATTER,” he yelled. My mace suddenly shattered and crumbled away, leaving me unarmed.

“Ah, crap,” I exclaimed.

Since I was already in the process of attacking, I just continued, only leading with my fist instead of my mace. I punched Mike, which felt satisfying, except for the fact that it didn’t do much. He returned the favor by punching me and proving in the process that he’d slotted some points into strength.

Wolf suddenly grabbed me and picked me up off the ground, lifting me as though I weighed almost nothing. “We don’t have time for this,” the other invoker told Mike. “We have somewhere to be.”

“What?” Mike asked, obviously surprised at having Wolf help him.

“Sorry about this,” Wolf quietly told me, “but they’re going to kill you. Get out of here. Go back to town.” And with that, Wolf threw me

I flew through the air, only to land right in the middle of a sand dune. The sand softened my impact, but I still hit hard enough to leave some bruises.

“Wolf is really asking for an ass kicking,” I grumbled as I looked back towards the fight. I was surprised by just how far Wolf had thrown me.

The fight was going bad for my side. A giant stone hand had emerged from the ground and was grabbing at Olivia, who was frantically scrambling backwards. She fired an arcane blast at the stone hand and blew a hole in the palm, but that wasn’t enough to stop the stone appendage.

Mike and Ace were both firing scepters at each other, and Ace seemed to have the advantage since he had two scepters to Mike’s single one. However, Jace was fighting through the rabbits and making her way straight towards him.

I only caught a quick look at the fight, because at that moment, something emerged from the sand dune beside me. A monster crawled out of the sand, shaking it free as it did so. It looked like a cross between a dog and a tarantula, about the size of a small pony. But as hideous and terrifying as that was, I was even more disgusted by the fact that a hundred smaller ones fell off its back. Each of these ones was tiny in comparison, only about three inches long, but they made up for their lack of size with sheer numbers.

The large monster attacked me and I tried to dodge, but I was caught up to my knees in sand. I staggered backwards, grabbing hold of the thing and trying to push it away. And while I was struggling with mama, all the babies decided that it was time to attack me.

Tiny red sparks kept popping off around me, courtesy of my ‘Blessing of Avexis’. Every time one of the tiny monsters attacked me, my blessing did a tiny amount of damage to them. Fortunately, they seemed to be dishing tiny amounts of damage as well. In fact, they couldn’t seem to really get past my clothes, though when one of them bit my exposed hand, it hurt like hell.

“Damn it,” I snarled, letting go of the big monster so that I could slap the smaller ones away from my exposed skin. “You jumped the wrong man…woman.”

With that, I quickly drew both of my knives, the dagger and the one I’d taken from Nash. When the large monster lunged for me again, I was ready to fight back. One blade went into its eye while the other one slashed its neck. It kept trying to bite me, so I kept stabbing.

The smaller monsters continued attacking me, but I ignored them as best as I could. Most of them weren’t a real threat and my ‘Blessing of Avexis’ was slowly taking care of them. One by one, the smaller monsters were falling down dead.

I drove my knife down into the monster’s skull and it finally stopped moving. It collapsed to the ground, leaving black blood all over the sand. Then I turned my attention to the remaining swarm and finally began to deal with them directly, slapping and stomping at them. They were quickly finished off as well.

Once my monsters were dealt with, I was finally able to turn my attention back to the main fight. However, by the time I was able to do so, I realized that the fight was over. My friends were scattered about on the ground, except for Turtle who was busy fighting off another one of those monsters.

“Where are they?” I demanded as I rushed to help him. I blasted the monster with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, then looked around for the rogue players. “Where did they go?”

“They went…thataway,” Ace responded with a groan, pointing towards the stone arch. “We chased them off…”

“Hardly,” Bunny responded with a wince. She was on the ground, holding her arm with a grimace of pain. “They were about to kill us, then Wolf yelled something about not wasting time and ran off through the arch…” She looked towards the stone arch that I’d seen earlier. “The others all ran after him.”

“Wolf lured them away,” Olivia said. “He probably saved our lives.”

Olivia was on the ground, her legs completely embedded in stone, as though it had grown up and over them. And considering that stone hand I’d seen going after her earlier, that was probably exactly what had happened.

“Now,” she snarled angrily. “Someone get me out of here.”

“No probable about it,” Turtle added with a groan.

I nodded at that and looked around only to realize that there was something wrong. “Where’s Ramirez?”

I slowly looked around at my surroundings, searching for any signs of danger before my eyes went to the ground in front of us again. So far, I hadn’t seen any threats. That didn’t mean that they weren’t there, just that they hadn’t made themselves known just yet.

We were currently walking through a dark and spooky woods, made even spookier by the fact that it was ‘night’ out and that everything was lit by a bright full moon. A light fog was spread out around us, though it wasn’t nearly as thick as it had been back in those ruins. This fog was much lower to the ground, rising up only about a foot or two.

I hoped that nothing jumped out at us. Not now. None of us was in good shape. Not after that last fight.

Turtle was marching in front of our group, as usual, except that he was now without his shield. One good hit from Raze had cracked the thing and bent it so badly that it had become useless. Fortunately, Turtle still had his ability. I just hoped that it would be enough.

Bunny was limping and leaning on Ace, relying on him for support. She’d sprained her ankle in that fight, and worse, she’d broken her arm. Now her arm was splinted and in a sling.

Olivia had been hit with some flying shrapnel, enough to give her a few cuts that needed bandaging, but her worst injury was to her pride. Godiva, the shaper, had captured Olivia in stone and had her completely helpless. She would have died if Wolf hadn’t lured the shaper away.

And then there was Ace, who was the least injured of all of us. He’d been bruised a bit, but nothing more. But in spite of that, he was being morose and oddly quiet.

My own injuries were spread out and not severe, for which I was thankful. Most of my body was bruised from being thrown into that dune, but I was more annoyed by the monster bites. Wherever one of those tiny monsters had bitten me on my exposed skin, I was swollen and itchy. The swelling and itching were slowly fading, much to my relief, but not fast enough.

What annoyed me the most was the loss of my mace. It had only been a basic weapon, but I’d been using it since I first crawled out of that respawn pool. It felt comfortable in my hand and reliable. Then Mad Mike had destroyed it with some kind of ability.

I absently reached for my knives, comforted by the fact that they were still there. I wasn’t unarmed. I still had weapons to fight with. Then I snorted, knowing that if I was going to rely on my knives, I would have to slot more points into agility and dexterity, and I didn’t want do that for the same reason that I’d never slotted anything into strength. Those stats, while useful, didn’t do anything for my abilities. Those weren’t stats that my class relied on.

A moment later, I opened up my status page so that I could plan on where to assign my next couple points.

CLASS: INVOKER
LEVEL: 13
FREE STAT POINTS: 0

FOCUS: 11
PERCEPTION: 8
PRESENCE: 10
STRENGTH: 8
VITALITY: 13
DEXTERITY: 6
AGILITY: 7

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-PRIMAL MAGIC
--DIVINE TYPE
-KNIVES

ABILITIES:
-INVOCATION OF SPITE
-INVOCATION OF THE WISP (37 USES REMAIN}
-BLESSING OF AVEXIS

I noted that I had gained an extra point in strength from swinging that mace around so much. However, I also knew that even if I still had my mace, that I probably wouldn’t be able to earn more that way. The higher your stats were, the harder it was to earn new points by hard work. If I wanted more free points in strength, I’d probably have to dedicate time to serious weight training.

“Hmmm,” I mused. “Free points…”

I was looking at my agility and dexterity scores, which were now my two lowest. With as much running and dodging as I’d been doing lately, there was a good chance that I’d get a free agility point soon. And if I continued fighting with the knives, I might earn a point or two in dexterity too. I closed my status page, feeling a little better about that plan.

“This place is creepy,” Bunny complained. “I can’t wait until the sun comes up.”

“The sun won’t ever come up here,” Turtle reminded her. “We’re in the Labyrinth. In fact, I think its closer to noon on the outside.”

“How can you tell?” Ace asked, saying something for the first time in an hour. “Its not like clocks work in here…”

“Of course they do,” Olivia told Ace, giving him a look of annoyance. “At least, old-fashioned ones do. Gears, springs, and flywheels work perfectly fine around the Labyrinth. It’s just the digital ones that don’t work.”

“Usually,” Turtle corrected, not bothering to look back at her. He continued marching ahead as he spoke, looking for threats. “I’ve seen watches that do work in the Labyrinth… The old-school kind you wind up. But I know someone who brought in a real fancy one, and it stopped working pretty quickly.”

“The Labyrinth is like that,” I said, adding my own two-cents. “Even if you do something that follows the normal rules, like using springs and gears, once you try getting too clever with it…” I gave a dramatic pause before adding, “Well, the Labyrinth doesn’t seem to like anything once it gets too complicated.”

“So, a basic clock will work fine,” Ace asked with a skeptical look. “But once you bring in a Rolex…”

“Pretty much,” Turtle agreed.

I chuckled at that. “We… The Wardens once set up a train around one of the Labyrinth entrances. We even used an old steam engine. A real antique. It worked perfectly fine at first, but then it started to break down almost constantly. Things didn’t break. They just…stopped working quite right. The boiler just wouldn’t build up enough pressure anymore, no matter how hot it got.” I shrugged at that. “If you get too clever, the Labyrinth changes the rules on you.”

“Something to remember,” Bunny said with a sigh.

A moment later, Turtle came to a halt and the rest of us stopped as well. I stepped forward and took a good look at the intersection in front of us. There were three different roads we could follow, and our enemies hadn’t been considerate enough to leave us a trail of bodies to follow this time. This time, they seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, not even taking the time to stop and slay the roses.

“There,” Bunny announced, using her good hand to point to the marking that had been etched in the middle of the intersection. It was pointing to the road on the left. “It looks like we go left.”

“Looks like it,” I agreed as we all started following the directions.

After our big fight in the desert, we’d found an arrow drawn into the ground and pointing straight at the stone arch, the passage to the next area of the Labyrinth. It didn’t take much to realize that Ramirez had followed our enemies, and that she’d been leaving us a trail of breadcrumbs ever since.

“No telling how far behind we are,” I said with a bit of annoyance.

In some ways, it had been a lot easier to follow a trail of monster bodies. For one, the state of the bodies told us a lot about how far ahead the other players were, and for another, it gave us a warning about the type of monsters that were in the area. Now, we had to follow them without any of that additional information.

I was a bit concerned about the fact that we could no longer tell how far behind we were. The Labyrinth had a tendency to change things, to shake them up without much warning. If we got too far behind, I had no doubt that the Labyrinth would get rid of the markings, leaving us without any breadcrumbs to follow. This was just another example of the Labyrinth changing the rules if we tried getting too clever.

A few minutes later, Turtle stopped again. This time, he pointed off to the side without saying a word. There was a body beside the road, one that looked like it had been dead for a long time.

“It looks almost mummified,” I said, noting the sunken and dried flesh. “Or desiccated.”

I crouched down beside the body while the others backed up, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Baseball hat and combat boots,” I observed. “So, he was a player and not just decoration.”

“His staff is broken,” Turtle offered, indicating the weapon which looked like it had been snapped in half.

“There’s another body over there,” Bunny said, pointing down the road. “It looks to be in the same condition.”

“Maybe members of the same team,” I thought aloud. “If their team got wiped out down here…”

“Then we’d best look for what killed them,” Olivia stated grimly.

“Good point,” Bunny agreed.

Sir Fluff gave Bunny a quick solute and then stepped in front of her while her horned rabbits surrounded her like furry little bodyguards.

I moved closer to the next body and confirmed that it was in the same condition. Dried out and desiccated. This one had a war hammer in hand. Not one of those big mauls that people sometimes called war hammers, but a real one, with a curved metal spike on the back side in the bec de corbin style.

“Sorry about this,” I told the corpse as I picked up the weapon. The hammer had a comfortable weight to it and it felt solid in my hand. This would do just fine for now. “But you don’t need this anymore and I do.”

A low moan suddenly filled the air, coming from the fog and darkness. A chill ran down my spine at the sound. Then it came again. Closer.

“We have company,” Bunny said unnecessarily.

Several seconds later, the monster finally appeared. It was humanoid in shape, about eight feet all, and appeared to be covered in so many white rags that I couldn’t see what was beneath them. However, it was all completely transparent. I could see right through the thing.

“A GHOST!” Ace exclaimed as he backed away.

Three more ghosts appeared, though they didn’t look like the first one. Instead, these ones looked like humans, just transparent and glowing. One of them wore a baseball hat and had on a pair of combat boots. He held a broken staff in his hands. The second one was a man holding a war hammer, a hammer that was identical to the one that I now held. And the last was a large woman who held an axe and shield.

“Ghosts of the people who died,” Bunny gasped, glancing towards the bodies.

As the ghosts moved forward, Turtle stood in their path. He glowed for a moment as he activated both of his abilities, then he swung his sword at the nearest ghost. His sword went through the ghost as though nothing was there.

The ghost swung his hammer at Turtle, and it passed through Turtle just as easily as Turtle’s sword had passed through him. However, Turtle yelped in pain and stepped back.

“My arm,” Turtle gasped. “It’s cold and numb…”

“Don’t let them touch you,” I called out in warning.

I’d heard about ghosts before, and not just from old ghost stories. I’d read reports on them, and I’d heard from players who’d encountered them inside the Labyrinth. I didn’t know if ghosts were real or not in the real world, but in the Labyrinth there were two different kinds.

The first kind were just a different type of monster, one that had been created by the Labyrinth itself, just like it created all the others. The second kind were a bit more complicated. They were real, but they weren’t what people thought. They weren’t the spirits of the dead. Instead, they were primals. A type of primal known as spectrals or wraiths.

Most of what I knew about spectrals had come from my conversation with Wolf, and according to him, spectrals were obsessed with people, memories, and strong emotions. They’d assume the forms of people, even taking on their identities and reliving powerful moments from their lives.

However, I didn’t feel any primal energy from these things, which meant that they were the first type of ghosts. These were Labyrinth made fakes.

“Stay back, Turtle,” I ordered. “These things should be more vulnerable to magic.”

“Good to hear,” Ace responded before opening fire with his scepters.

Ace’s attack hit one of the ghosts, the one with the sword and axe. The ghostly woman staggered and then stood there for several seconds with gaping holes in her chest. Then she slowly started moving forward again.

Olivia and I joined the fight, firing arcane blasts and an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at the ghosts. Her attack created a massive hole right through the middle of the ghost she’d targeted, and for once, my invocation did even more damage. The ghost I hit started to break apart. Cracks appeared through the entire body.

“Okay,” I announced. “That seems to be our best weapon yet. Too bad it takes too damn long to use again.”

Bunny used her scepter on the first ghost we’d seen, wrapping it up with chains of energy. That seemed to hold the ghost for only a couple seconds before it moved through them. All of her rabbits, including Sir Fluff attacked the ghost, but none of them could hurt it at all. It swung its arm, and suddenly, Sir Fluff and two of the horned rabbits all faded away and vanished.

“Maggie,” Ace exclaimed, pausing to fire two more blasts from his scepters. “Use your dagger.”

“My dagger?” I asked blankly. “Physical attacks don’t work on these bastards.”

Ace grimaced at that before saying, “Trust me.”

Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I did as Ace suggested and drew my dagger. With war hammer in one hand and a dagger in the other, I faced the nearest ghost, the one who resembled the former owner of that hammer. It swung for me and I stepped back, feeling a cold dread on my skin where it had barely touched me.

I lunged forward and drove my dagger into the ghosts chest, being careful not to actually touch him with my hand. To my surprise, the blade went right into the ghost just as if he was real. I followed that up with a good swing from my hammer, but that passed right through him without connecting.

“I’ll be damned,” I muttered, looking at my dagger with a new appreciation.

With that, I dropped my hammer and shifted the dagger to my good hand. A moment later, I lunged forward and hit the ghost again, this time slicing right through his arm. The ghost dropped his weapon, which vanished as soon as he let go of it. I followed that up with a knife strike to his throat.

“Did you just cut a ghost’s neck?” Bunny asked in surprise.

“Looks that way,” I responded with a grin.

The ghost that I’d been fighting had already begun fading away and soon vanished entirely. I looked from him to the other ghosts, trying to decide which one I would target next. Both of the remaining small ghosts looked ragged, with multiple holes through them.

Olivia fired an arcane blast and hit one of the smaller ghosts again, removing its head entirely. That seemed to be enough to finally take down the thing, as it began fading away a couple seconds later. Ace followed her example and fired two scepter blasts at the other smaller ghost, hitting it in the head and destroying that one as well.

I turned my attention to the last ghost, the one that seemed to be their boss. It had been stalking towards Turtle, who was staying just out of reach. In spite of his current limitations, he was still working to keep the monster’s attention off us.

Since the ghost monster was distracted, it was easy getting up close and then stabbing it several times in what would have been the kidneys, had it been human. It snapped around and howled in pain, even as it swung its long arms at me. I leapt back, dodging the attack and then slicing at the arm.

“Over here,” Ace called out, right before firing a couple blasts at the ghost. One of them hit it in the head, which seemed to cause some damage but not enough to take it down.

Just as the ghost was about to go after Ace, I activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ and sent off one of my illusions. The ghost immediately pounced on it, or at least tried to. It seemed confused when it grabbed the illusion, but nothing happened.

I took advantage of the distraction to rush in and stab it a couple more times, dodging back out of the way before it could fully recover. It howled and started coming for me, only to get hit by one of Olivia’s arcane blasts.

“This stinks,” Bunny snarled. “I feel useless right now.”

“Maybe your next rabbit will be a magician,” Ace joked.

I braced myself for the pain, then fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’, hitting the ghost right in the chest. It staggered and let out a howl of pain and rage. Cracks spread over its body, much as they had the previous ghost I’d hit. And then, the ghost hunched over, as if trying to curl into a ball.

“Gotcha,” I snarled, rushing forward and then driving my dagger upwards, under the jaw and into the brain. If it had one.

A moment later, the ghost collapsed to the ground like a puppet with the strings cut. Then, it began fading away. I watched it intently, holding my breath until it had vanished entirely. Only then did I let out my breath in a long sigh of relief.

“I hate fighting something I can’t hit,” Turtle grumbled. “And when that thing hit me…” He shuddered. “It was like it was sucking out all my energy.”

“It probably was,” Olivia stated, gesturing towards the dead bodies we’d previously found. “I think that is what got them.”

“I’m just glad they’re gone,” Ace said.

“We can all agree on that,” Turtle said long sigh. “I don’t think I ever want to hear another ghost story for as long as I live.”