Chapter 5

Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 12, 2019
18:56 PDT (15:56 EDT)

There was now quite a crowd watching in amusement as Jonathan and his friends walked in circles without realizing it. They were now on the fifth floor of the dungeon, which seems to employ a minor disorienting aura, affecting the mind. Around the room, bets were being made on how long it would take before one of them realized what was happening, and who it would be. The room was divided. Many of them thought their King would be the one to figure it out, while others thought it would be one of the twins.

Looking at the clock, Alexandra noted that Jonathan and his team were coming up on forty-five minutes on the fifth floor. It had taken them almost ninety minutes to clear the fourth floor, after which they decided to take a break to eat the food that she prepared for them. She too, had a bet on how long it would take them to finally figure out what was going on with this floor.

She remembered back to when she first started delving into dungeons with her own friends. They wandered around the same floor for an hour before her best friend, Illia, had realized what was happening. Luckily they came prepared, and used chalk to mark which passages they had already been through. If they came up to an intersection and saw one of their chalk marks, they would take a different passage. It still took them another hour to finally leave the floor, since it was a maze.

One of the screens showed the layout of the Gatineau Park dungeon, and it looked pretty similar to the one she and her friends had gotten stuck on for a while. There was a slight difference, however, between this floor and the one she had experienced. At the end of the floor Jonathan and his team were in, was their first dungeon boss, as well as a few surprises, should they find them.

Her phone vibrated, signaling a text, so she took it out and read it.

[I’ll be back down in a little while. It seems the Stewarts made good time and are here early. I need to go up and meet them, ] she sent to Gabriel through Mindspeak, already turning to go back through the portal they arrived from.

[Okay. I’ll let you know whether or not you won the bet when you come back down.]

Walking back through the portal, she nodded to Yuki and Omar and stepped into the elevator to take her back to the surface. It took just as long to ascend as it did to descend, so they arrived at the surface a few minutes later. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, she went to the back of the building where she and Gabriel had parked hours earlier. While the Stewarts had access to the employee parking, they did not yet have access to the elevator. She arrived just in time for a black SUV to pull up and park near the door. The man that was sitting in the front passenger seat got out, scanned the area, and then opened one of the back doors. A man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties exited the vehicle, followed by a young woman and then an older woman. The bodyguard pointed towards the door that Alexandra was holding open, and they walked over.

“It’s good to see you again, Alexandra,” the man greeted, offering his hand.

“You as well, Thomas. You’re earlier than expected,” she said, accepting his handshake.

“There was less traffic than we thought there would be. You’ve met my wife, Claire, and my daughter, Tessa,” he said, gesturing to each.

Alexandra nodded. “It’s good to see you both again. If you all would come inside, we’ll get your identification set up, so you can enter whenever you like.”

The Stewarts, as well as their bodyguard and driver all entered the building. Alexandra was about to close the door when she felt something familiar. She looked up in the air where the feeling was coming from. Not seeing anything, she shifted her eyes to that of an eagle to greatly improve her vision, and scanned the air. She saw the glint of a small object moving quickly through the air towards the building. As the object got closer, she recognized what it was and grinned, waiting for her.

She didn’t take long to arrive. At the speed she was going at, you would think that she wouldn’t have any time to slow down before impacting the ground. You would be wrong. She went from a very high speed to a full stop almost instantly.

[Hello, Abi. I thought you weren’t going to be here until later tonight?] she asked the small white crystal.

[Greetings, Alexandra. I wanted to get here earlier, so I pushed a bit harder.]

[Well, come on in. You’ll have to wait for Jonathan, though. He’s not here yet, though he should be in about four hours.]

[That is fine, I’m very experienced with being patient. I do have some news for you. A Scythe II class ship named The Fang of Khigil has been dispatched to Earth. It will arrive in approximately 5 months, 29 days, 4 hours, 41 minutes and 22 seconds, barring any delays. If it stays on schedule, it will be here by February 10, 2020 at 20:34:44.]

[Well, that is some fairly good news. That should be enough time for you, right?]

[Yes, assuming Jonathan follows my instructions. That is not all the news I bring, however. I intercepted another signal as I was on my way here. Kaldrus Dhir has also dispatched Xorin Nydror to Earth. He will be here in 6 months, 2 days, 19 hours, 13 minutes and 51 seconds, which is February 15, 2020 at 11:23:30.]

Alexandra sighed when she heard Xorin’s name. [Is he still doing everything Kaldrus says to try to get his family back?]

[Yes. Things are different this time, though. Kaldrus has released his wife to him, but is holding his daughter until he completes his objective.]

[Really? That is interesting. Either way, we’ll be ready for him. Let’s go inside, the Stewarts are waiting to get their ID sorted.]

Alexandra led Abi inside, where the Stewarts were waiting. They were shocked to see Abi floating behind me. They knew who she was, but had never met. [Abi, this is Thomas, Claire and Tessa. Everyone, this is Abi.]

Alexandra waited until they finished greeting each other and then spoke to the Stewarts, “If you will follow me, we’ll get you added to the system.”

She led them through a door marked ‘Employees Only.’ The inside of the room they entered was pretty bare. It consisted of a computer terminal on the left-hand side of the room, and a keypad and retinal scanner on the right-hand side of the room.

After seeing everyone was in the room, Alexandra walked over to the computer terminal and started typing. When she was done, she looked up. “Alright, Thomas, you’ll be going first. Stand in the center of the room, please. Everyone else, come stand by me.

When Thomas did as she asked, and his wife and daughter were standing beside her, she pressed a button to start a scan. Thomas was bathed in light from multiple directions, each gathering exact measurements of his body from all angles, as well as scanning his DNA. The scan only took 30 seconds, and then they continued on.

“Okay, Thomas, go over to the retinal scanner. You will need to scan your Scyftan eyes, human eyes, and then the eyes of three different animals. When you are ready, just look at the scanner and hit the Scan button. When you are done with each scan, hit the Save button.”

It took him two minutes to do all five scans. When they all showed up, she spoke again, “Next, you’ll need to input a twenty character alphanumeric password. Input your password and then hit the Save button.”

This took him a lot less time. Alexandra confirmed it was saved, and then there was only one step left. “Last step, Thomas. Send a pulse of mana at the machine, and that will complete the process.”

After he sent a pulse of mana at the machine, Alexandra confirmed everything and then saved all of the gathered data to his profile. “Now that you’re in the system, if you want to go somewhere restricted in this building or others, you will be asked for varying amounts of information. Some could just ask for a pulse of mana, while others will want all of the scans and passwords that I just had you input. Any questions?”

“No, thank you,” he replied.

“Okay, Claire. You’re next.”

It only took roughly fifteen minutes to complete Claire’s and Tessa’s registrations as well. When they were done, Alexandra led them to the elevator. When the doors closed, she turned to Tessa. “Tessa, would you like to do the honors? Send a pulse of your mana at the panel there, and then you will be asked for three retinal scans and your password,” she said, gesturing at the panel.

“Sure!”

Tessa got it on her first try and the elevator started descending. Alexandra introduced Yuki and Omar to the Stewarts and then continued on through the portal to the base. The first thing Alexandra did when she walked through the portal was look at the monitors to see how The Wolves were doing. She was happy to see that they were no longer walking in circles, and they were now in the room containing one of the surprises.

In the middle of the room, there was a large wooden chest. It was closed, and didn’t appear to be locked. Mason went to go investigate it, but as he was halfway there, an arrow whizzed past him and struck the chest. Nothing happened, however, and everyone turned back to stare at Sonja.

“What!?! I thought it might be a Mimic! You don’t go trying to open a chest in the middle of a room without at least checking that!”

Everyone laughed at that, both in the dungeon and in the base. Alexandra turned to the Stewarts. “Before I introduce you to Jonathan’s sisters, would you like anything to eat or drink? We have a 24/7 kitchen here.”

They conferred before asking for two coffees and a tea. [Michelle, can you please bring three coffees and one tea, please?]

[Sure thing! It’ll be out in a couple of minutes.]

[Perfect, thank you.]

[Gabe, who won the bet?] Alexandra asked.

[Lexi did. She guessed correctly on who would figure it out, and was closest to the amount of time it took. She guessed it would be Ben, and it would take them 75 minutes. It was Ben, but it took 73 minutes.]

[Damn. Thanks anyways.]

[No problem.]

“Your drinks will be out in a couple of minutes, follow me,” she said, leading them over to the triplets.

[Lena, Lucy, Lexi. Guests have arrived, if you can pull yourselves from the monitors for a few minutes.]

The three of them turned and saw Alexandra leading three people they had never met before. They got up from the couch they were sitting on and met them halfway.

“Girls, meet Thomas, Claire and Tessa Stewart,” she said, gesturing to each one in turn. Thomas, Claire, Tessa, meet Aleena, Lucille and Alexis. Or as they like to be called, Lena, Lucy and Lexi.” she continued, gesturing to each one as she said their names. Being identical triplets, it was almost impossible to tell them apart with the eye. Luckily each of their minds felt different, so any Scyftan would be able to tell them apart.

“Nice to meet you!” the triplets chorused, earning a chuckle from Alexandra.

Everyone took a few minutes to greet each other and then Michelle showed up with the drinks. The girls dragged Tessa away, and Alexandra led Thomas and Claire over to meet Gabriel.

Unnoticed in all of this, was Abi. When they had entered the base via the portal, she stopped moving and hovered in place, just watching Jonathan. As she laid her figurative eyes on him for the first time in over fourteen hundred years, she vowed she would not fail him, as she failed his father.

Earth
Gatineau Park Dungeon
August 12, 2019
16:39 EDT

We laughed about Sonja shooting at the chest, and then Mason walked up to it and opened it. We gathered around it and peered inside. In the bottom, were two lone Skill Gems.

“That’s it? This huge chest for two Skill Gems?”

Anja laughed, “What do you expect, Mace? This is a low level dungeon. It’s not going to be filled to the brim with gold or something else.”

“I dunno, but only two Skill Gems?” He picked them both up and turned them so he could read the number and tier of each. “Hey Ben, what are gems 859E and 685E?”

“Lemme check,” he replied as he took his phone out of his storage. Opening up the Adventurer’s Guild app, he tapped on Skill Gems, When the page loaded, typed 685E in the search bar. It popped up right away. “685E. Scorch: Deals a small percentage spell damage as Fire. 1.5 second cast time, costs 3% mana.”

“Looks like this one is yours, then. Congrats,” he said, handing it to Ben. “What about the other one?”

“Thank you! One second.” He tapped back and then typed in 859E, proceeding to read it off when it loaded. “859E. Multistrike(Minor): You have a 4% chance whenever you attack to strike an enemy with a blade or bolt of wind, dealing 150% weapon damage.”

Mason looked to the girls, “Looks like this one is up to you two to decide. You’ll both get a bigger benefit than Jonathan or I will.”

“Let Sonja have it. She attacks more often than I will, and it will probably activate off her Triple Shot.”

“Are you sure, Anja?” her twin asked. “It may benefit you more in the long run if you start using your butterfly swords or stilettos.”

“I’m sure. It will benefit us a lot more in the short term for you to have it now. There is a dungeon boss at the end of this level, right? You’ll do more damage than I will. Besides, we might get a higher tier version later on. If we do, I call dibs!”

Sonja laughed. “Alright, I’ll take it.”

Ben and Sonja closed their fists around the Skill Gems they received and channeled mana into them. After a couple of seconds, the Skill Gems were gone, and they learned their skills.”

“Hey, Ben. How about trying out Scorch on the wall over there?” I said, gesturing at wall to the left of the door we came in from.

“Sure.”

He turned to the wall and made a short motion with the hand not holding his bo staff. As he made the motion, a small ball of fire appeared in his hand. When it was fully formed, he pushed his hand towards the wall and the ball of fire shot forwards, colliding with the wall. It didn’t do much, since the walls of dungeons were nigh indestructible, but it was cool to see.