Chapter 21

Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 14, 2019
20:50 PDT (23:50 EDT)

After Jonathan teleported away, Tessa was left with Jonathan’s parents. When Alexandra looked at her face, she was easily able to read the look she saw there.

[Head on to bed, I’ll be there in a few minutes, ] she told her husband.

Gabriel yawned. [Alright. Don’t take too long, tomorrow is going to be a busy day and we’ll need our sleep.]

[A few minutes. Go, ] she sent, leaning over for a kiss.

When their kiss ended, Gabriel started walking away, and Alexandra took a seat.

“I recognize that look on your face, Tessa.”

“What look?” she replied, somewhat defensively.

“The look of a jealous woman. There is no reason for you to be jealous of Vixa.”

“I’m not jeal ... alright, maybe I’m a little jealous. Who is she?”

“To answer that, I’ll need to tell you a story. Jonathan loved playing on the palace grounds, and did so at every opportunity. One day, around six months before the death of his parents, he found a very young Phenidae with a snowy-white colored coat of fur. He brought it to his mother who took care of it until it was old enough to eat solid food. After that, it became Jonathan’s companion and followed him everywhere. He named her Vixa and until very recently, she was in stasis. She was taken out of stasis the same night he met you, and has to spend at least seventy-two hours in quarantine before being released. Every morning, and every night, he goes down to visit and spends some time with her. You’ll probably see her following him around quite a bit after your date on Friday, as she will be let out of quarantine earlier in the day.”

Tessa broke into soft laughter, “I can’t believe I was jealous of a Phenidae. People call them Scyftan foxes here, right?”

Alexandra nodded. “They look similar to Fennec foxes found in the Sahara Desert, big ears and all.”

“I have seen pictures of them, but have never seen one in person. Do they really make it easier for people to learn how to scan other animals?”

“Mhmm. With Vixa, Jonathan learned how to scan animals in only a few minutes of trying. Scyftan foxes tend to draw in the person’s mind, making it much easier.”

“I wish I had one when I was growing up,” Tessa sighed. “It took me days of trying to finally be able to do it.”

“I can sympathize. I didn’t have a Scyftan fox of my own until I was a few hundred years old, so I had to learn the hard way, just as you did. At least being able to do it once means you can do it whenever you like afterwards.”

“That is very true,” Tessa said with a big yawn, before standing up. “I should be getting to bed. Thank you for telling me about Vixa.”

Alexandra stood as well, “No problem, my dear. Make sure to find me in the morning and I’ll introduce you to Selalea and her son Ilnod.”

“I will. Goodnight, Alexandra.”

Alexandra watched her go, and then teleported outside of the room she shared with her husband.

A loud alarm is what woke me up this morning. I had spent a little bit of time after visiting Vixa to look through the small book beside my bed, which details all the functions my room had. I was only interested in the alarm, so after navigating to the appropriate page, I vocally activated the alarm, setting it to wake me up a 06:30.

“Alarm off!” I called out. I threw the covers off of me and swung my legs over the side of the bed while stretching. I was tempted to go back to sleep, but the alarm would continue to go off every minute until my weight was no longer detected on the bed.

I got up and entered the closet, grabbing my armor and anything else I would need while we were in the dungeon today. Making sure I had everything, I exited the closet and deposited everything on my bed before continuing on to the bathroom. I wanted to get going as soon as possible, so I quickly did my business and then took a shower. After drying off, I quickly put on my armor and attached two sword sheaths and two holsters for my spears. I also attached one of my shields to my left arm, but put the other way in storage until we got in the dungeon and I could switch forms.

After equipping myself, I realized that I still had the armguards from the dungeon boss we had killed. I had never actually put them on, and I wasn’t even sure if I should, since I didn’t know if they would work with me shapeshifting or not. If they didn’t, then I would just have to give them to Mason. I decided to ask someone as soon as I got a chance.

I left my room and teleported just outside of the cafeteria. Walking inside, I could already see Ben and the twins, though Mason was nowhere to be seen. If he didn’t show up by the time I finished eating, I’d just have to teleport to his house and drag him out of bed. I also saw Tessa sitting with my mom, dad, Selalea and Ilnod, but I elected to sit with my friends after grabbing some food and coffee.

“Morning, Jonathan,” Ben greeted.

“Good morning, Ben, ladies,” I said as I sat down. “Have any of you seen Mason this morning?”

Ben had a mouthful of food, but nodded. He finished chewing and swallowed before elaborating, “I stopped by his house this morning to make sure he would be here this morning. His mom told me he was in the shower, so I teleported here. He should arrive any minute, if he isn’t here already.”

“Perfect. I want to leave as soon as we’re finished eating. Have you checked what the dungeon is at?”

“12%,” he replied when his mouth wasn’t full. “It seems like the amount of people entering the dungeon increased quite a bit since we were in there. We might only get a few hours before it boots us out.”

“That is a lot lower than we were expecting. Have you found another dungeon we can delve into?”

“Two options, actually, depending on what level we hit before we’re booted out. If we hit level eleven, we can go to the Algonquin Park dungeon. It has a rank of 25-II and is at 89%. If we don’t reach level eleven, then Glen Isle is our best bet. It’s a 22-I at 38%.

“Glen Isle?” Anja asked. “Where is that?”

“Right near Carleton Place,” I answered. “Shit ... that is an hour long drive, if we don’t hit traffic, and the drive to Algonquin Park is even longer.”

“That’s the best I could come up with on short notice.” Ben said.

“It’s too bad you guys can’t camouflage like I can,” I said, briefly activating and deactivating my ability. “Then I could get a saddle made and fly us to either of those. I’ll come up with something, whether we need to drive or have someone make a portal.”

“What about Abi?” Sonja asked.

I shook my head. “You guys haven’t seen her lately, but she is a hell of a lot bigger now than she was when we went on our little jaunt in space. Later tonight, she’ll be almost nine hundred meters long. There would be nowhere for her to land. I ... wait a minute, I might have a solution. Give me a few minutes.”

[Good morning, Abi, ] I sent, while digging into my breakfast.

[Hello, Jonathan, can I help you with something.]

[Yes. My friends and I are going to do some dungeons today, but they are quite far away. It would waste too much time driving to them, and we can’t teleport to them since we haven’t been to them before. The cargo bay we’re storing the eggs in is only taking up a small part of the ship, right? Do you think you could make a small landing bay as well as some sort of five-person shuttlecraft we can use to get around quickly?]

[Certainly. It takes a bit of time to create another ship. Do you need it right away?]

[No, you have a few hours, I would think. We’re going to the Gatineau Park dungeon, but it is at 12% and will probably kick us out after a few hours there. Depending on how long that takes, we’ll probably come back to base and eat lunch before continuing.]

[I can absolutely do that, then. Do you have a design in mind?]

I thought about it for a minute and something popped into my brain. Ben would probably get a kick out of it.

[Can you do something like this?] I said as I sent an image of a small shuttlecraft from a Sci-Fi show I like.

[That won’t be a problem. The landing bay will only take a few seconds, but the ship itself will take around two hours or so. You’ll need to come up to me when it is done. At that time, I will download everything you will need to know about it to your mind, as well as modify the Beacon I gave you so you will be able to remotely call it to your location.]

[Awesome! I wouldn’t want to leave it alone, even when shrouded. I was hoping you could remotely pilot it between the moon and my location when I need it, but this is fine too.]

[Alright, I’m starting on it now. It should be done in just under two hours.]

[Thanks, Abi!]

[You’re welcome, Jonathan. Good luck in the dungeons.]

“Alright, I’ve got a solution,” I said.

“Solution to what?” I heard from behind me.

“About time you got here, Mace. The Gatineau Park dungeon is at 12%, so we’re guaranteed to get kicked out of there today. I was securing transportation to one of our other options.”

I looked over when he sat down beside me and saw he was in his full armor, which explained what took him so long.

“Ah, that’s what took you so long. Did you get a new weapon, too?”

“Yup,” he said before taking a drink of coffee. “I’ve actually got an assortment of weapons. There was a perfect copy of my halberd, but I also found a bunch of other two-handed weapons in there. A greatsword, poleaxe, spears, and even a giant hammer.”

“I might have something else for you, as well. We’ll see, I’ll let you know in a minute.”

[Morning, mom. When we killed the boss in the dungeon, I got a pair of bracers. How does that work with this armor and me shapeshifting?]

[Good morning, Jonathan. I had forgotten all about those bracers or I would have explained it. You know the dimensional storages built into the suit? If you put a piece of equipment into one of those dimensional storages, you will gain the effect that piece of equipment provides. Keep in mind that putting a piece of equipment into the dimensional storage of a suit will soulbind it to you. You can also only gain the benefit from one type of item at once, usually the higher level one. If you get another pair of bracers, you will have to choose which one you would like to gain the benefits from.]

[Can Sonja do the same thing with her ring, or is it different for her?]

[It works for any species. Rings work differently than other items, though, in that you can have as many rings as you have fingers. The catch is that the amount of rings you can have is based off of how many fingers you have in your natural form. That is a total of eight for Scyftans, so your friends will have a slight advantage in that regard.]

[I see, thanks mom. The Gatineau Park dungeon is at 12%, so we’re going to head to either Algonquin Park or Glen Isle when we get booted out. I’ve got Abi making me a small shuttle so we can quickly get around.]

[Alright, be careful, and make sure to keep your speed below twelve hundred kilometers per hour, please. We don’t need you creating sonic booms wherever you go. That would cause people to start asking questions.]

[I hadn’t even thought about sonic booms. I’ll make sure to stay below that speed.]

“Nevermind, Mace. I was going to give these bracers to you,” I said, taking them out of my dimensional storage and putting them in my suit’s dimensional storage. “We can’t wear other armor while wearing these suits, but thankfully there is a solution built in. Sonja, you’re going to want to take off your ring and put it into one of the dimensional storages in your armor when you get suited up. That way, you’ll keep the bonus of the ring.”

“I was wondering how that would work,” Ben said. “What happens if you have duplicates though? I can’t imagine you’ll be able to get the bonuses from two similar items.”

“You’re right about that, I just talked to my mom about it. You can only get the bonus from one type of item, and usually the higher level one. The only difference is rings, where the four of you actually have an advantage over me. Each of you can gain the effects of ten different rings, whereas I can only gain the effects of eight different rings.”

“Why is that?” Anja asked. “You’ve got the same amount of fingers we do, and that’s not even counting toes.”

“Not in his natural form, he doesn’t. Remember when we saw Alexandra and Gabriel in their natural forms, as well as that hologram? A Scyftan only has four fingers on each hand,” Ben explained. “That still doesn’t explain the toes thing.”

“I don’t know, but I can ask my mom about that if you like?”

“Ask her, I’m really interested about why toes can’t be utilized to equip more rings,” Sonja chimed in.

“Alright, one moment,” I said. [Mom, my friends have a question for you. You said that we can have as many rings as we have fingers which puts Scyftans at a disadvantage over species like Humans. Why can’t toes be used?]

I heard her laugh through Mindspeak. [I asked a similar question when I first saw this type of armor. There are toe rings, but you still can’t get past the limit based on how many fingers you have. It’s one of those weird rules of the universe. You can put more than eight rings in your suit’s dimensional storage, and your friends more than ten, but all of you will only be able to get stats from eight and ten rings, respectively.]

[That seems pretty unfair, especially since I’m betting there are species out there with three fingers on each hand, or even less than that.]

[You’d be right about that, but people can still get plenty strong, if they want to.]

[Anyways, thanks for the answer, we’re about to head over to the dungeon.

[No problem. Good luck today.]

[Thanks, mom, ] I sent, looking back up to my friends. “So she said that toe rings can be used, but it won’t allow people to exceed the limit based on how many fingers they have. Some sort of weird rule of the universe.”

“That is pretty weird,” Anja said.

“Yup. Oh, one more thing. If you’re wearing a suit of armor and you put an item into the dimensional storage of that suit, it will cause the item to become soulbound to you. Keep that in mind so you don’t soulbind an item by mistake.”

“That would definitely suck. Thanks for the heads up.”

We finished eating breakfast and then Ben and the twins went to go put their suits on while Mason and I went to the lobby. We would be leaving as soon as they got back which meant that I wouldn’t be able to visit Vixa until later in the day. I couldn’t wait until she could leave the quarantine ward, which would actually be after midnight tonight. I would definitely be staying awake to bring her up to my room.

I sat down on one of the couches and took out my phone to look at the time. I was about to take a look at all the skills the twins got when there was a popping sound. Looking up, I saw Ben was finished suiting up. Turning my attention back to my phone, I navigated to our team profile and tapped on Anja’s name so I could look at her skills.