Zoi was slow to rise and pack up her part of the camp each morning. In normal circumstances, I was the same—as were Val and Lore—but right now, time was of the essence; every moment that we wasted potentially meant more citizens of Tradum corrupted by the malae. We did our best to hurry her, but still this didn’t do much to deter the anxiety churning in my stomach.

  I could, however, focus on my ability selection, and a distraction was better than nothing. There were as many as four—yes, four!—options this time around.

  Ability selection unlocked

  Select an ability from the list below:

  Option 1: Saved Portal III (Worldbending) — Upgrade to Saved Portal II. Select up to 2 locations to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

  Even as I read this option, I knew this ability selection screen was going to be one of the best I’d ever seen. With the Sisyphus Artifact having boosted my experience gain so much—not to mention how many fights I’d been in since meeting Val; some might describe the amount as “too many”—my skill levels were higher than ever before.

  Before I’d died that first time—and that felt like so long ago, by this point—I’d been a successful thief that relied upon my abilities to do my work. But back then, my highest skill tree level had been a measly 56, so far short of the level 80 I now had in Worldbending. So it was no wonder that my ability selection choices were more compelling than ever before.

  In the case of Saved Portal III, the benefit of the upgrade was obvious. Now, I could call upon two locations to open my portals, from anywhere in the world. I could maybe saved a location underwater to tip a sea onto an enemy. I could maybe find an active volcano somewhere in the world and do the same with flaming lava. I could maybe even open one in the poisonous waste that people rumoured were in the Badlands.

  Of course, I’d need to actually go to those places first, in order to save those locations. And then I’d need to go back there whenever I overwrote my existing saved locations. When this occurred to me, I became slightly less enthused, but still happy enough with this option. I moved on to the next.

  Option 2: Kinetic Rebound (Worldbending) — Absorb 50% of the impact of an attack with a portal. The next portal you open will release the same energy.

  I liked this one. I liked this one a lot. The idea of sending the impact of someone’s attack back at them really appealed to the child within me. It was like something out of a theatrical production for kids, karma in the form of slapstick comedy.

  But there was a problem with it, wasn’t there? The ability absorbed only half of the impact. Which meant that the other half would hit me as normal. I wasn’t built like Lore or Arzak; I couldn’t withstand huge amounts of damage. And this ability meant I had to take at least some damage just to be able to use it. It was a great ability choice, and a fun one for someone who’d taken a different progression path, but not one for me. Oh well, I thought, at least I have three other options this time around.

  My fate changed with the third option.

  Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.

  Option 3: Peerless Portals (Worldbending) [Requires: ‘Enhanced Portals’ ability] — Replaces ‘Enhanced Portals’. Create a portal to another location. Support up to ten pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

  This was another upgrade to my most fundamental ability, evolving Enhanced Portals—which had once been only Local Portals—even further. This evolution of the ability went further than a standard upgrade, with the two changes having profound implications.

  Firstly, this evolution of the ability completely removed the distance requirement. Whereas before, I could only open portals either in current range of sight or, more accurately, within a thirty-yard radius, now I could open portals… anywhere. My immediate feeling was that this made me all-powerful, able to take down monsters and gods with the flick of a wrist. But, of course, the system didn’t work that way.

  I knew already, from experience, that my aim at a distance was… iffy, at best. Some—Val and Corminar included—would go so far as to describe it as “bad”. I could open a portal in the distance on a flat plain, aiming to drop up out straight onto the land, and accidentally open it twenty feet in the air. If I opened a portal anywhere beyond line of sight, my portal-aiming ability would be so bad as to invite even more chaos into our lives. We could try and portal into a tavern and end up in a dungeon. I could aim to portal us into the enemy’s lair and throw us into a lake of laval. I could aim to take us to the enemy for a final showdown and accidentally interrupt a book club instead. So, yes, this part of the ability’s evolution had its application, but I couldn’t rely on it.

  The second part of the evolution, however, was all positive. I would now be able to open as many as ten pairs of portals, which was a huge upgrade from my current limit of two. I could move people all around the battlefield with the flick of my wrist, the only limiting factor being that my attention would be split ten ways instead of two. But I’d come to get my head around controlling two pairs of portals at once, so maybe I’d be able to handle ten in time as well.

  I kept this ability evolution in mind as the frontrunner as I opened up the fourth and final ability selection choice.

  Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.

  Option 4: Otherworldly Prison (Worldbending) [Requires: any ‘Pocket World’ ability] — Replaces ‘Pocket Worlds’. Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator. Store sentient beings in pocket worlds for up to 15 seconds.

  My immediate reaction, which was to exclaim, ‘What the hells?’ was enough to make Val and Zoi turn to me with raised eyebrows, distracting them from whatever hushed discussion they’d been having. But it was also probably an apt descriptor; how else could I describe these pocket dimensions other than as hells? The pocket worlds were a void, a space beyond our reality, and I had a sneaking suspicion that being in a world beyond your comprehension wouldn’t be great for the old mental health.

  The idea of removing someone from a battle was appealing, particularly in situations where we were fighting multiple enemies at once—that seemed to happen a lot lately. But how much of an advantage did fifteen seconds really afford us? It wouldn’t be enough time for Val to heal anyone. It wouldn’t be enough time to really turn the tide of a battle in our favour. No, I decided, in its current state, this peculiar and strangely cruel ability was not the one for me.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I knew exactly which one to pick, in fact.

  Ability unlocked — Peerless Portals

  Peerless Portals (Worldbending) — Create a portal to another location. Support up to ten pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

  My instinct was to test this huge ability evolution out straight away, but I resisted. Zoi had finally finished packing up, and it was time to go. Inevitably, I’d get to try Peerless Portals out in the heat of battle anyway, and these days, battle was never all that far away.

  Arzak helped Zoi up onto their shared horse, much to the—admittedly giant, a behemoth of a beast—horse’s chagrin, and the tiefling smiled at the warrior. Arzak didn’t return the smile, and had in fact been acting pretty off with Zoi since not longer after she’d joined the party. I had my sneaking suspicions that the orc was reminded of Tokas, and that was not a subject she broached lightly. I kept quiet on the subject.

  ‘Good to go?’ Val asked.

  Before I could even reply, she spurred the horse into motion, and we rode on for Tradum.

  * * *

  When we made camp that night, Val and Zoi continued their increasingly impassioned conversation. I couldn’t help but smile; it was nice to see my wife making a new friend. Would I have preferred her to make friends with someone who wasn’t a fire sorcerer being hunted by the most prestigious institution of magickal studies in the world? Absolutely. But that wasn’t Val’s style, and that was what I loved about her.

  ‘What’re you two talking about over there?’ I called out across the camp.

  ‘Oh, you know, magick studies,’ Val replied.

  ‘I study magicks.’

  ‘No, you train magicks; we studied them.’

  I shrugged. ‘Fair enough.’

  Under her breath, Val added to Zoi, ‘I should’ve just told him we were talking about girl stuff,’ which got a smirk from the tiefling.

  I left them to it, turning to Arzak, who was sitting around the fire at my side. Only the gods knew where Corminar and Lore had got to; something about all this had them training harder than ever, which often resulted in the barbarian coming back to camp with arrows sticking out of him. He would explain that those were the ones he failed to block, and then Val would have to heal him as I pulled the arrows out. So I had that to look forward to later.

  ‘I thought we swear off mercenaries,’ Arzak grumbled, quiet enough that Val and, more importantly, Zoi could not hear. ‘After whole Trio incident.’

  The orc wasn’t wrong. Our last encounter with soldiers for hire had ended… poorly. I’d been too distracted by Raelas’s rather flattering attention to see them for what they really were: people who would look for gold no matter the cost. It had got Ama and Carle killed, and Raelas left alone in the world.

  ‘She’s not a mercenary though really, is she?’ I replied, nodding to Zoi.

  ‘No, she fraud.’

  ‘What, you’re worried about the insurance companies’ profit lines?’

  ‘I worry if she lie to them, she lie to us.’

  I followed Arzak’s line of sight, seeing that her stare was bearing into Zoi, with only the occasional glance spared for Val. Even I could quickly see what was going on there. ‘You’re worried Val’s making friends with her.’

  ‘Val my best friend, not hers.’ These words sounded a little strange coming out of the orc’s mouth, considering she was far, far too old to be sounding like a child. But stressful times do strange things to us, so I gave her sympathy over judgement.

  ‘They’ve just got something in common, that’s all. Doesn’t mean she’s gonna replace you.’

  Try as I did after that, I wasn’t sure my reasoning really convinced Arzak, and still the orc’s glaring at Zoi didn’t stop. So I left them to it. It was none of my business really anyway.

  Little enough happened on that last night before we arrived back at Tradum—Lore didn’t even end up looking like a pincushion—but none of us felt rested for it. We travelled more quietly than ever, barely a word spoken between any combination of us that wasn’t Val and Zoi. But even they were speechless when we finally arrived in sight of the city, and for one very good reason.

  The road was littered with bodies.