“I’m just saying,” Calisco said, as she accompanied Sage and Det across the ruins of the town of Ironsalt. Why she had joined them, Det didn’t have an answer for, so all he could do was wait for the next statement to come. “Since all three of us can kernelize now, I don’t see why Det was the one who got to choose his bunk. The corner one—with two windows—was totes the best one.”

  “That’s what you followed us to complain about?” Det asked, angling toward the familiar, singular wall. The Pack had vanished the night before, when their magic had naturally expired, and hadn’t reappeared on the wall immediately. Giving it the night—and since they had a few minutes after breakfast, but before Beauty wanted them at the dungeon—Det was going to check one more time. If they reappeared once, they could reappear again, right?

  “I’m not complaining,” Calisco said, emphasizing that last word. “Just saying. And waiting for an answer why you both think it’s fair. Sage, you can’t think it’s fair, can you? You got stuck beside that chainsaw-snoring-bear of a man. I swear, I felt my bunk vibrating all night from his snoring. That or it was an earthquake.

  “Uh, does Elestar have earthquakes?” Calisco suddenly said, latching on to her own statement with gusto. “That would suck. Would it tip the whole pillar over to fall into the mist?”

  “There are earthquakes on Elestar,” Sage said. “Not many, thankfully. And, one of the common theories is they’re connected to dungeons that haven’t turned into emergences yet, so they’re very thoroughly investigated.”

  “Any proven connections yet?” Det said while ignoring the daggers Calisco’s looks were occasionally throwing his way.

  “Nothing that couldn’t be written off as coincidences,” Sage said.

  “That’s kind of reassuring,” Calisco said. “Haven’t figured out how to explode an earthquake yet.”

  “Pretty sure that would just make it worse,” Det pointed out.

  “That’s my point!” Calisco said. “Back to my first question. Sage, why didn’t one of us get to draw straws or something for the best bunk?”

  “Because, I think,” Sage said. “While each of us has two kernels—one in each hand—Det has one in each node. He’s still miles ahead of us.”

  “I’m going to catch up,” Calisco said, trying to cross her arms and once again fumbling it because of the quarterstaff she’d brought with her. “Stupid stick!” she cursed at the item in her hands.

  “And when you do,” Det said. “You can get first pick at bunks.”

  “You bet I will,” Calisco said. “The coveted corner will be mine. Mine!”

  “Yes, yes,” Det said, rounding the corner of the wall to find The Pack once again illustrated across its length. “They’re back.”

  “Oh?” Sage said, peeking around the side of the wall to look, before Calisco gave him a shove from behind.

  “Keep it moving, slowpoke,” she said, and came around to join the pair. “Huh. These puppies don’t know when to quit.”

  “They don’t,” Det agreed. “And I have no idea why.”

  “Are you going to summon them again?” Sage said. “If they were strong enough to help you clear the dungeon by yourself last time, it would be good to have them with us today. An extra safety net.”

  That last sentence made Det pause. He had been considering summoning them to bring them with him into the dungeon. They’d been a terror to the ants, until they’d been overwhelmed. Having the nine wolves, along with the rest of the party would give them a tremendous advantage.

  One that probably wouldn’t help them in the long run. Beauty was sending them in to the dungeon for two reasons. One was, of course, for Sage and Eriba to have a chance to flex their magic muscles and do some work catching up what the rest of the group had practiced the day before. Luckily, the pair had only lost one day of progress. Er, well, maybe they’ve missed twenty years of it—since they couldn’t use their magic at all, from when they were born—but only one day of formal education. Or something.

  The second reason, though, was because the roommates really needed to become teammates. They’d lived together over a week now, and still hardly knew anything about each other. Shared suffering had brought them closer, but hadn’t given them much of a chance to talk. Det hardly knew anything about anybody other than Calisco.

  He didn’t even know most of their drives. As hand-wavey as the concept sounded, it was a thing. An important one, in that understanding it would help him understand why the others fought. What they fought for. Motivations that could rear their heads in the middle of a life-or-death situation were important. Working together in the dungeon, counting on one another, would help all of that.

  If they brought the wolves in, especially if they weren’t pushing deeper into the dungeon, would leave them leaning on the wolves’ strength, instead of their own. The safety net would make them too safe.

  Det didn’t want to see anybody die—or even get seriously injured—but there needed to be the risk. He wasn’t going to get stronger if he didn’t push himself.

  “I don’t think I’ll bring them in with us,” Det finally said out loud.

  “Good,” Calisco said, surprisingly. “We don’t need them. And we don’t want to learn to rely on them.”

  Det couldn’t help but look at the woman in wonder. She’d… had the same line of thought as he did? Why did that suddenly make him feel disappointed in himself?

  “I agree, actually,” Sage said. “If we are going to continue as a party, we need to learn to work together before we start bringing in too many additional factors. Yes, having the extra muscle sounds good on paper while we’re trying to learn the ropes, but, sometimes pain is the best teacher.”

  “On the other hand,” Det said, eyes on the mural. “I think I am going to bring the alpha with us. I wanted to activate this painting again, anyway, to see if they keep returning here over and over. And, really, if we’re going to be running dungeons—as part of planned activities—there is no way I’m going into one without at least one rendition to help guard me.

  “Sure, I’ve got my scrolls,” he said, pointing to the new ones he’d been able to ink on the mistship and the night before. “But, why waste them by not planning ahead? I can paint on the ground to summon something, so we might as well bring the alpha while we’re here. He’s strong enough to help us, without being so overpowered we don’t have to do anything.”

  “Is he cute?” Calisco ask, like the entire decision hinged on that question.

  “He looks exactly like he does in the painting,” Det pointed out. “Like he did yesterday.”

  “Eh, he’s not a kitten,” Calisco said. “But, I guess he’ll do.”

  “Thank you for your permission,” Det said flatly.

  “Welcome!” Calisco replied with a bubbly voice.

  “Solid reasoning,” Sage said. “What are you going to do with the other wolves?”

  “Send them to scout out the rest of the pillar,” Det said. “I’m sure the ReSouled have already done it, but it’s not bad practice.”

  “Scout for what?” Calisco said.

  “Any additional emergences,” Det said. “There’s already been two. Could be more.”

  “Unlikely any somebody like Gazer would miss,” Sage said. “But, it can’t hurt. Just make sure you inform the Mistguard so they aren’t surprised by the large, inky wolves.

  “Smart,” Det said. “We’ll do that when we go meet up with Beauty… which we really should be doing soon.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “You were the one who was talking the whole time,” Calisco said.

  Since arguing with the woman never resulted in anybody winning—just everybody losing—Det didn’t even bother replying, instead putting his hands on the mural. There was actually a third reason he wanted to summon the wolves again, and that involved two of his kernels exiting his fingers to infuse the mural.

  As soon as he did, his gut told him he could choose to infuse one of the wolves present—such as the alpha—more fully, or the entire Pack equally.

  Little of column A, little of column B…

  From this left hand, the kernel there joined with his intent to extend the duration of the rendition’s summons. His right hand, the kernel there, he focused on just the alpha, and improving its durability. The biggest weakness of his renditions had so far been how flimsy they were. As soon as the ants had gotten their hands—er, mandibles—on his wolves, that was it. Done.

  Det didn’t want his wolf to suffer getting mandibled, but it would sure be great if it could take a couple of hits before it was destroyed.

  With those two points as his intent for this summoning of The Pack, Det kept a careful eye on how and where the energy moved. As expected, the kernel from his right hand moved directly to the alpha, settling in around the center of its back. If he had focused on the power of its jaws, that was where the kernel would’ve gone, so the back must be something more general. Either way, he got the feeling it had worked.

  As for the left kernel, the one for the overall pack duration—including the alpha—it didn’t seem to settle inside any of the wolves at all. Oddly, it fused into a small slash of ink across the bottom of the mural that represented the land they were dashing over. From there, infinitesimal roots spread, one each just barely touching the nine wolves before they leapt free from the wall.

  That infusion had been a little shakier, but it’d held on at the end. There wasn’t a way to tell how much longer the wolves would last, so Det would just need to keep an eye on it manually.

  “You’re coming with me,” Det said to the alpha. “Can you send the rest of the pack around to look for any more emergences?”

  A soft growl from the alpha was all the instruction the rest of the wolves needing, each of them dashing off in one of eight directions.

  “You don’t need to explain what an emergence is for them?” Calisco said, peeking around from behind Det to look at the alpha.

  “I already had the intent when I was calling them out of the mural,” Det said. “They knew what their job was going to be. Me saying it just formalized it. Anyway, let’s get back to the dungeon entrance. I’m sure Beauty will be waiting for us, and like you suggested, we should tell the other Mistguard about the wolves.”

  Sage held a hand up above his eyes to shield them from the sun as he looked toward the center of town. “I think some of them already know. Not like giant wolves that look like ink paintings running across bare ground are inconspicuous.”

  “Whoops,” Det said, then started jogging in the direction of the camp. The sooner he explained things, the better.

  Turned out, after getting back, the wolves weren’t a huge surprise to anyway. Most of the Mistguard had seen the wolves the evening before, when Det had summoned the renditions the first time. They also didn’t have any objections to another set of eyes—or eight sets—giving the pillar another look. None of them expected to find another emergence. Then again, they hadn’t expected to find any on Ironsalt, let alone two.

  Another minute there, then Det and the others headed to the outer wall surrounding the dungeon dome. There, they found Beauty standing with Eriba, Tena, and Weiss.

  “A wise choice not to bring the whole pack with you,” Beauty said. “Come, each of the doors to the next section of wall is on the opposite side of the one we enter. It will take us a few moments to get to the dome.

  “If you would?” he said to the non-ReSouled Mistguard standing guard.

  Nodding at Beauty, the man turned and put his palm flat against a shiny stone—almost looked like it was wet—before the simple door into the wall began to swing inward. At which point, it showed just how not simple it really was. The door—and the wall—had to be almost eighteen inches thick, with the door itself looking a lot like a vault door.

  “Follow me,” Beauty said, stepping in as soon as there was space for him to pass through.

  “Tanks first,” Sage said with a polite bow and a gesture to Tena.

  She barely gave him a huff and a roll of her eyes before she entered, the rest of the group following. Det went second last, with the alpha at his side, and he turned back to find Weiss just standing there looking at the door.

  “Weiss? You coming, man?” Det called. Even the guard was looking at Weiss like he wasn’t sure what was going on.

  “Ah, yes, sorry,” Weiss said. “The construction of the door and wall caught my attention.”

  “Mine too,” Det said, ignoring the blatant lie. There was something going on with Weiss and dungeons, but it didn’t seem like the place to call him on that in front of the guard they didn’t know. Maybe once they got inside and set up—with less prying ears around—Det could ask him about it. “Reminds me of the banks back on Earth.”

  “Hrm?” Weiss said, following Det in, with the big door beginning to slide closed behind them. “Right, the banks. Yes. Exactly that.”

  Not a lot of room for continuing the conversation with that, Det turned back to where the others had moved. Between the walls, the space was only about five feet wide, with the tall, heavy walls towering on either side. If Det had been claustrophobic, he’d probably be sweating a little right then. About ten feet ahead of him, already walking around the natural curve of the inner wall, Eriba glanced back at him, then waved him to hurry up.

  Not something he had an objection to, so he and his wolf jogged to catch up. Luckily, Weiss kept up this time, and the group moved around to the far side of the wall.

  If the three walls were clocks, the group would’ve originally entered from the six-o’clock position in the outer wall. For the next inner wall—the middle one—the entrance deeper was at the twelve-o’clock position. After passing through that one, they again circled around, back to the six, to cross the third and final threshold. Of course, the entrance to the dome was back at twelve, but when they got there—and the guard opened the door by pushing it in, then sliding it to the side—they were finally in front of the dungeon entrance.

  Well, more specifically, a tunnel leading down into the ground, where the actual dungeon entrance would be, according to Beauty.

  Still, all around that tunnel entrance were even more barricades, spikes, and a dozen Mistguard soldiers in actual armor of some kind. It reminded Det of something like heavy riot armor, with solid plates placed strategically across their bodies. They weren’t playing around about keeping the Wordless down in that tunnel. Then again, from everything Beauty had said, it didn’t really matter how many walls, guards, or traps they had if nobody went in to kill the Boss. The Wordless would just keep coming, no matter the casualties, until they broke through.

  “I will be escorting the group of cadets down to the dungeon entrance,” Beauty told one of the Mistguard who came over to meet them. Since they were clearly expected, the statement didn’t get anything more than a nod.

  A quick, barked order got the gateway in the barricade open, and Beauty led Det and the others down the tunnel. Already it was different than what Det had experienced. For one, he didn’t need his tentacle rendition to lower him down—there was a ramp—and none of the metallic kind of virus he’d spotted was anywhere to be seen.

  If anything, it looked like what Det would expect an ant’s tunnel to look like. One big enough for all of them to stand upright with plenty of room to spare. So, a tunnel for big, big ants. Not something he wanted to meet.

  “That is the dungeon entrance,” Beauty said, pointing to an archway of metal ahead in the tunnel.

  Finally, this looked like the same metal Det had seen down there before, complete with the red lights glowing softly along it. Oddly, though, he couldn’t see past the arch. Even though it was empty in the middle, everything was super blurry beyond it.

  “That is a kind of portal,” Beauty explained. “It will take you into the dungeon, which is—as I said before—partially inside this pillar, and partially not. Once you pass through, it would be very ill-advised for me to follow, and I won’t be able to hear or see anything going on inside.

  “If you need my assistance, think very careful before asking,” he continued. “There are repercussions to getting it. However, if a life-or-death situation should occur, one of you must come get me immediately. It’s the only one I’ll know to enter.”

  “If any of my renditions exit the dungeon,” Det said. “That’s the signal we need you.”

  “An excellent plan,” Beauty said. “Now, then. Is everybody ready?”

  Weiss raised a hand.

  “Yes, cadet?” Beauty said.

  “Uh,” Weiss licked his lips before he spoke. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of armor or something? These ants broke Det’s leg, didn’t they?”

  “While the Mistguard does indeed have E-Rank armor you could potentially wear,” Beauty said. “We have decided against that for the time being. It would offer slightly more protection than what your uniforms have—and is similar to what you saw the Mistguard above wearing—it is also a drain on your energy and channels. For the purpose and exercise of entering the dungeon now, it would be counterproductive. Especially since you will be staying near the entrance and can retreat if need be.

  “Should it be determined, as the week progresses, that you have advanced enough to proceed to challenging the dungeon’s Boss, or simply going deeper, armor will be provided.”

  “Is that smart?” Weiss said, then winced as Beauty’s one good eyebrow went up at the question. “Sorry, I just mean, we could get attacked by more than one group. That’s what you said before. The real danger. Having the armor would help us if that happened. I think we should go get some, and…”

  “As the group’s Medic,” Beauty interrupted. “It is admirable for you to so deeply consider the wellbeing of your party. However, this has already been debated among your superior officers, and decided upon. Armor shall not be provided for this activity.”

  The blunt statement had Weiss standing there until he finally nodded several seconds later. Beauty clearly wasn’t going to budge on this stance.

  For Det, as much as getting his leg broken had sucked, it had sure taught him to be more aware of his surroundings. Not to mention how to ignore the injury to a certain extent. His body had been able to fight on after that, despite the injury. It was a good lesson. Hopefully one none of the others would have to learn, but if they did, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

  “Any other questions?” Beauty said. “Or, are you prepared to enter the dungeon and take advantage of the opportunity before you?”

  Det looked at each of the five others, the whole group giving nods of their readiness. Even Weiss, though his looked more forced than the others.

  “Good,” Beauty said. “Return in four hours. Until then, make the most of your opportunity without leaving the vicinity of the entrance.

  “Pushing too far on your first attempt at a new dungeon can only lead to one outcome. Your deaths.”