Eric’s entire body was coated in the acidic sludge, and he no longer had health transfers active from the DOTs. The acid ate away at his scale-covered, armored body, and he churned through his mana reservoir to activate Blacksteel Mending on himself over and over again. The acid kept melting, and he kept healing, and his mind, for a moment, went back to that time when he had been full-body-dipped in acid as a means of attempted execution.
Eric jumped back out of the lingering puddle, and shut his eyes while gritting his teeth, focusing everything into outhealing the damaging acid. He couldn’t think about anything else—shoving all thoughts of his allies out of his mind. His life was on the line, and it was the most important thing at the moment.
Finally, after a good six seconds, the acid had fully dissipated, and Eric looked up. Shannon and Naomi had come out unscathed, and dragged a heavily injured Peter out of the lingering acid pool. Eric still had mana left in his mana skin and sword, so he quickly channeled Blacksteel Mending onto Peter—but nothing took.
“Core-cracked,” Eric muttered as he moved over to the Paladin and slipped a claw-retracted finger into the top of the chestplate to feel for a pulse. He didn’t feel one, and immediately burned four Sigils—bringing him down to four remaining—to use Nothing’s Certain.
The world shifted, becoming a barebones grid-like structure of the building blocks underlining reality and providing an invisible support. He could see the black void once more, far overhead, with its tendrils wrapped around Peter—a pale, white, ghostly version of him. Eric’s white-dominant, flaming claw surged out, gripped the Paladin, and shoved the soul back into the body.
The overlay of the world faded and Eric drained all of the mana in his sword to use Blacksteel Mending and get Peter healed as much as he could. Peter shot upright, sucking in breaths, and let out a curse.
Shannon caught Eric’s gaze, and her eyes were wide. “The fuck was that?” she asked.
“I brought him back,” Eric replied as he looked at her, then back to Peter. “How are you feeling?”
Peter ripped his helmet off and he looked enraged. The same emotion came through his voice as he sat up and shouted, “Son of a bitch!”
Eric stood up, and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank the Ley Lines.” His bracer began vibrating, but he ignored it, and looked at Naomi, who had yet to say or do anything. In fact, she was just staring at Eric with a calm, curious look. “What?” Eric asked.
“You changed,” Naomi said. “When you used the Skill to bring Peter back. That is what Shannon was referencing.”
Eric looked at Shannon. “What did it look like?”
Shannon said, “You were here, then turned into a . . . I mean, it was obviously you, but like your whole body was covered in Blackflame.”
Peter stood up and let out a groan of frustration. “Fucking took all the damage and got one-shot before I could use a full-heal Skill.” He spit to his side, then leaned down and grabbed his helmet. Shoving it back onto his head, he said, “I thought we had that boss down.”
“Just a monster,” Naomi calmly replied as she came over to stand next to him. “I did mention that as its health dropped, the pustules popped.” She then looked at Eric. “Video-game like mechanics, right?”
Eric nodded. “Sometimes. Invasion dungeons are different, we know that for sure. But wild and mega-dungeons? They follow rules.” He gestured to the acidic swamp. “There were rules to this fight. A constant, slow, dps-burn is what we needed: not nuking.”
Peter walked over to the now-gone acid spot where his shield and weapon had been dropped. Both, thankfully, were at least Tier five or higher, as they survived the torrential downpour of acid. He then walked back over to Naomi. “Mind grabbing some steel?”
Naomi tapped her bracer, reached to her left side, her hand vanished, and she came back holding a bar of steel. Eric watched with fascination as Peter touched the bar to his armor, and the plate mail seemed to suck down the steel bar to fix itself. “Thanks,” Peter said as he handed the sliver of metal back to Naomi.
Shannon walked over and tapped Peter on the shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re alive, you kept Naomi and I safe.” She winced, then added, “Mostly.”
“Give me a second to fill up on mana while you all do your bracers,” Eric said. He used Mana Channel and after filling his reservoir, Mana Skin, and sword to full capacity, he used Blacksteel Mending to ensure all of his allies were fully topped up. “And done,” he said as he finished and re-used Mana Channel to fill up once more.
“Beastly out of combat healing, bro,” Peter said as he was looking down at his bracer.
“Thanks for the compliment,” Eric replied. He looked down at his bracer to see what milestones had accrued.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have 5 level-ups to process.]
[Blackflame Evoker 181, 182, 183, 184, 185.]
[Choose a Skill and Trait to increase. Then repeat this four times.]
Still at eighteen Sigils, but I gained another Loadout Slot, Eric thought as he contemplated his options. I’ve got two Embers, but I need to save one for when that healer from Flescion arrives—whenever that’ll happen.
Indedroma spoke in his mind.
[I’ll tell her to visit with the delegation. I agree, keep one in reserve at all times.]
I want to use an Ember on Polymerizing Reservoir Empowerment and Reservoir Reinforcement, since they’re both at Rank one, and basically just function as two sides of the same coin—offense and defense based upon mana. But, if I recall correctly, the resulting Polymerized version will be flavored with Blackflame, and be part of the Blackflame Evoker Class, rather than Conduit, yes?
[That’s all correct.]
Then proceed.
[Confirmed. Polymerization of Skills initiated.]
[Parameter check: both Traits are of the same Rank? Yes.]
[Parameter check: both Traits are of the same Enhancement? Yes.]
[Applying . . .]
-----
Trait:
Primal Reservoir 1 - The user’s mana reservoir adds to their efficacy in combat. Amplify all damage dealt by an amount equal to 1% of the user’s mana reservoir. Reduce all incoming damage by an amount equal to 1% of the user’s mana reservoir. This includes any external mana storage, such as Body Enhancements and Gear.
-----
Well, that is really good with my current setup.
[Indeed. Your new blade from the Queen, plus the Mana Skin, and your already vast reservoir is quite substantial.]
Okay, time for the Skill and Trait increases. I’ve got five, so let’s put all five into Mana Conversion because I want that Sigil refresh. Then for the Trait, let’s keep cranking Ranks into Blackflame Blaze.
[Confirmed.]
-----
Skills:
Mana Conversion 9 - This Skill costs no Sigils, but may only be used five times per every 6 hours. Requires a full mana reservoir. The user expends all of their mana, and restores a single Sigil.
-----
[Dire] Embersoul Blackflame Blaze is at Rank Mythic 10. Maximum Rank achieved. Sovereignizing and resetting.]
-----
Traits:
[Dire] Embersoul Blackflame Blaze S3 - Increase the DOT damage. [135%] of the total direct damage over 2.5 seconds. [When an ally strikes an afflicted target, they cause the existing DOTs to flare up, dealing 3% of their total burn damage instantly.].
-----
Eric immediately used his Mana Skin, his full reservoir, and then used Mana Channel to refill both so that he could use the final new-charge of Mana Conversion. It restored three Sigils, bringing him up to seven remaining before he’d need to spend six hours of downtime to recover them. He heard a high-pitched whirring noise, and saw Naomi’s drone out of the corner of his eye, grabbing the ashes from the slain monster, and returning them to his ally.
“Alright,” Naomi said as she turned to face the bridges of fallen logs. “Seems easy enough. Get across these to get to the other side.” The acid had seemingly welled back up from hidden cracks in the ground, and the swamp was once more hazardous.
Eric joined her, looking at their next challenge. “Honestly? Should be pretty easy. And the acid doesn’t hurt that badly. I can heal us through it if someone slips. Just don’t do a full-body dunk.”
“You’ve had experience?” Naomi asked.
Eric nodded. “Can’t recommend.” He glanced back and heard the last bits of muttered conversation of something that had transpired between Peter and Shannon while he was engrossed with his leveling up. The duo walked up to join them, and Eric said, “Shannon, you’re miss gymnastics. Want to take the lead here?”
“I don’t mind,” Shannon replied, voice a bit quieter and more subdued than before.
“Everything okay?” Naomi asked.
Peter shook his head. “Just . . . stress about dying.” He patted Eric on the shoulder. “We’ve got an insurance policy against that.”
“How are you holding up?” Eric asked as Shannon began across the first log.
Peter’s voice betrayed his discomfort, as the strong facade of bravado slipped without needing to keep it up as Shannon was moving away. “Honestly? I should fucking talk to someone. You mentioned Therapists, yeah?”
Eric nodded. “I know a few in Tenebria. The best one would be the lady who helped the Princess, but she’s gone back to Bhlast in all likelihood. Still, there’s plenty of good ones. I’ll hook you up when we’re out of here and have some downtime.” He looked at Naomi, then began to follow Shannon. But, he said backward to Naomi, “You should talk to one, also.”
Naomi seemed to bristle at the comment. “I’m good—”
“No you’re not,” Eric replied as he turned in place on the log, making eye contact with her through her visor. “You go into reclusive inventor mode when you’re at the estate, and only really act yourself away from your workshop. Primal forces are taking a toll on personalities, and you should speak to someone about yours, because it is impacting you more harshly at home than anyone else.”
“He’s got a point,” Peter said as he began following Eric, and the Blackflame Evoker turned and kept walking. “If it helps, we can do a group session—”
“I’m fine!” Naomi said, cutting Peter off. “I’ll . . . I’ll talk to someone Eric recommends, okay? Now get off my back.”
Eric nodded and resumed following Shannon, and as they passed over more of the bridge-trunks across the acid lakes, silence asserted itself as conversation ceased. Shannon up front, maybe, had been listening in, but Eric wasn’t sure and he didn’t honestly think that she needed any external support at the moment. Peter with his multiple deaths now? Sure. Naomi? Absolutely. But Shannon seemed in control and was adjusting to the changes wrought by her primal force.
They reached the end of the safety bubble and the trail on the far end of the swamp. Once more, ice shards and hailstones slammed down into the purple barrier that surrounded the chamber they were in. On either side of the trail ahead were pits of red lava that would keep someone going on the same straight path; it was a path that led right to a massive, white-stone circular platform that was raised a good three feet higher than them.
Shannon glanced at Eric, then said, “Last chamber?”
“Probably,” Eric replied. He pointed at the steps that led from the far end of the stone circle and spiraled up to a platform overhead. “If everything I saw from the start lines up, that’s where the Dungeon Core is, and then the floor end.” He brought his gaze back down to the stone platform. “But that’s a boss chamber setup if I’ve ever seen one.”
Naomi and Peter joined the duo a few moments later, and Naomi let out a sigh. “Seems like a boss arena.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Eric replied. He pointed at the wedge shapes extending from the center. “Seems like there might be some type of either puzzle, or movement mechanic to deal with. But, I have no clue what this boss is actually going to be about. I don’t see a statue or anything that might animate.”
Peter’s eyes flickered silver and he shook his head. “Nothing I can tell with my vision Trait. What about yours?”
Eric toggled on his Reaper’s Flamesight and didn’t see any outlines of heat signatures. “Nothing giving off thermals,” Eric replied as he kept the Trait active. “Well, use Skills and get ready. We have to cross, then deal with the chamber.” He used a Sigil—going down to six—and activated Bristling Bastion. The armored carapace covered his body, and the billowing cloud of incendiary smoke surged around him.
Willing the ten floating weapons to manifest, raw Blackflame surged into the form of greatswords, and Eric willed them all to hover just above and behind him. Once they cleared the trail and got to the chamber across from them, the wind would fade, and the cloud with its weapons would re-manifest without Eric needing to do a thing.
Peter let out a sigh. “Low on Sigils. I’ve got three left. No barrier while we run across. But, I’ll get my redirect online.” His hand flashed silver, and the group were surrounded with a film of the same hue.
“Then it’s a sprint to reduce damage taken,” Shannon said. “Just like before.” She took in a deep breath and then dashed out of the purple protective dome.
Eric was a step behind her. He cleared the purple film, and the roaring wind tore away his incendiary cloud. Thanks to his Tarrasque Nervous System, he was able to easily react to and dodge every incoming projectile that was worth dodging. The smaller bits of hail and shards of ice, he allowed to hit, since dodging those was going to be practically impossible. He cleared the gap and got next to Shannon, just at the lip of the stone platform, and inside another purple bubble.
Eric looked back and used Blacksteel Mending on Peter, as the man had suffered redirected injuries. The remaining two got over to Shannon and Eric, and Peter let out a sigh of relief. “Okay,” the Paladin said, “done.”
Naomi was looking at the stone platform with a critical gaze. She pointed and said, “There’s ten quadrants. There’s carvings in the stone, but I don’t know what they mean.”
Eric looked at the closest one and let out a little laugh, which caught everyone’s attention. He quickly explained, “It’s an old children’s game. Think of it like four square, where you have the ball and have to bounce it in other people’s spaces?”
“Oh yeah,” Peter said. “I remember that way back in elementary school.”
“This is like that,” Eric said. “Except the difference is that a person is randomly assigned quadrants depending on how many players there are, and your goal is the same. I would bet that this chamber is going to assign us each a section of quadrants, and we’ll have to stay in that area, while . . . maybe bouncing an objective to one another?”
Shannon sounded irritated as she said, “But it’s a competition, isn’t it? Between us?”
Eric shook his head. “There’s a variant of the game where the goal is to keep as long of a rally as possible going.” He took in a breath. “Okay, nothing for it but giving it a go. Peter? On you.”
The Paladin had to use a hand to leverage himself up onto the slab, and Eric followed a moment later. Thankfully, his incendiary cloud surged out once more and crackled with its simmering fury as his manifested weapons re-summoned in the shroud. The other two Summoned leveraged themselves up onto the platform, and then the world shook.
The entire platform was vibrating, and Eric crouched to keep his stability. The different sections, the slices of the platform, began to glow, and two of them split in half before the rest shifted to match in size. Eric saw a message from The Paths force its way into his vision, bypassing his bracer.
[Assigned quadrants: 4, 5, 6.]
[Prevent the sphere from leaving the defined area of the chamber.]
[Failure results in injury to the responsible person, and the sphere will re-spawn in the center.]
[Holder of primal force detected.]
[Additional challenge activated.]
[Full restore - granted.]
[Gain 10x primal force resource by encounter end, losing 1x for each sphere-redirect failure.]
The three sections Eric was assigned to flared with a silvery-blue light, and he quickly ran over to that area. The moment he fully passed through, barrier walls of the same color shot up, enclosing him in his wedge. The billowing smoke of his Skill was confined to that space, and the only spot that was open was the semi-circular wedge in front of him, at the center of the platform.
“Get to your sections!” Naomi shouted as she ran to Eric’s right.
He didn’t see any type of glow, over there, and assumed that the Chamber would only highlight a person’s specific segment. Peter and Shannon split to their sections, and then the ground moved. Eric’s sections began to split from one another, rising to different levels of elevation, requiring him to take a few steps to stay on the middle-most wedge. Each of the segments was offset by three feet—not a huge leap, but it would definitely impact mobility.
And then, the spherical center piece of the platform expanded as space and reality warped. A spectral pillar rose from the center, and then the sides fell away, revealing a towering, fifteen-foot-tall statue. It had four weapons held in different arms—spear, morningstar, sword, and axe—and had no legs: just a rotating midsection. At the top, where the head would be, the outline of a sphere appeared. It shimmered blue-purple like the mana of the Ley Lines, and then solidified.
The weapons began to swing, and Eric’s manifested weapons intercepted the blow from the axe aimed at him. To his surprise, the axe shattered his manifested blades, and Eric had to jump back to dodge the cleave that slammed into the stone platform under his feet. He pulled his grimoire to his hand and fired off Blackflame Evocation, igniting the floor’s dungeon boss with his DOT and beginning to ramp up his stacks. Annoyingly enough, the invisible-to-others barrier kept his incendiary cloud from reaching the monster, and applying more stacks.
But, Eric’s mana reduction was active thanks to the cinder-laden smoke’s presence. As the next axe swing came down at him, he dodged, and used Blackflame Breath, sending a torrent onto the monster and stacking up ten stacks of his DOT within a second.
Then, the sphere shot down. Eric was able to glimpse it flash toward the area that Shannon was located, opposite him, though he couldn’t see her thanks to the blocking-off vision of the raised and lowered platforms. But, he saw the ball shoot back up to the top of the statue, and her voice came through the bracer. She said, “I hit it back! The thing goes fast!”
Eric saw what she meant a second later as he stopped channeling his Rote. The sphere slammed down into the ground before him, and, thanks to his reaction speed, was able to hit the very quickly-moving ball with his hand, sending it back at the statue with another bounce. It impacted the statue, then vanished, reappeared at the top, and then shot toward Naomi.
“Shit!” she shouted, which was quickly followed by Peter letting out a curse.
She missed, Eric thought.
The sphere re-manifested above the statue, and shot toward Naomi’s section once more. This time, she must have hit it back, because there wasn’t a curse accompanying the sphere appearing once more.
Peter shouted, “My taunt isn’t working! Eric, can you tether me?”
“I need line of sight,” Eric replied as he moved as close to the statue as he could. Another axe swing came flying in at him, and he was able to duck under it, getting the edge of vision on Peter—the man was profusely bleeding out from under his armor as he fended off a blinding fast series of spear jabs. Eric used Death’s Best Friend and tethered himself to Peter, and felt the pain that the man had been suffering. It was a tearing, ripping hurt like having a recent surgical wound opened that was mending, but still had to touch gauze.
Eric jumped back to dodge another axe swing, and shouted, “Big hit incoming!” as he activated Conduit’s Wrath, spending all of the stored up excess mana from his Mana Burn Trait, and added his full, current-body reservoir to the Skill. A beam of bright, blue-purple energy manifested right over his shoulder and shot out, blasting a massive hole through the statue and igniting a massive Blackflame Blaze on their foe. His Mana Skin drained to refill his primary reservoir, and the burns kept siphoning mana while also increasing his maximum regeneration.
“Good hit!” Shannon shouted. “Do more of that!”
Eric had to focus fully on movement as the sphere that manifested shot down toward him. It bounced off the ground, and he had to kip off of the raised platform to his right—on the farthest section of his assigned area—and was barely able to get his fingertips onto the sphere to redirect it.
Mid-air, he had no way to dodge, and the axe swing that came into his chest sent him slamming down into the ground. He felt a deep, sore pain spread across his whole body and pushed himself to hands and knees. The retaliatory strikes of his defensive Skill blasted out and hit the boss monster, afflicting more burns. With the damage redirection to Peter, Eric was able to get up before the next axe swing came in at him, and he was able to dodge it.
“Damnit! Missed one!” Peter shouted. “Eric, mind doing some healing down the chain?”
Eric used Blacksteel Mending on himself, focusing on sending it along his tether to restore his ally. “I’ve got you,” Eric replied.
Then, the world shifted once more. The platforms all fell to the same height, and Eric could once more see his allies—but the arena extended outward, and Eric was no longer in a small series of ten-foot-ish slices. Instead, he was now seemingly responsible for a hundred-foot-wide sector.
“Oh, that’s not fair!” Naomi shouted.
Eric watched as the next sphere that manifested shot down to Naomi’s quadrant, and she sprinted to try and get in the way to hit it back, but was unable to reach it. The sphere reached the edge of where her barrier would be, vanished, and then a massive spike of raw mana slammed down into her from above. But, all of the damage transferred to Peter, and Eric split that in half with the man. It felt like he had been hit by a sledge or maul, right on the shoulder, and the impact sent him to his knees.
The sphere manifested and came sailing down at him, and Eric had to use a Flashstep to get across the distance to redirect it.
This ends when the boss dies, he thought.
Then, he shouted, “Everyone! Back up! Fifty feet!” His allies began to move back, and he saw as Shannon did a remarkable bicycle kick to intercept the sphere that shot into her quadrant. Once everyone was far enough back—which didn’t seem to bother the statue, as the arms and weapons grew in size to reach the Summoned—he activated Combustion Trigger.
Crack! Boom!
The DOTs which had been stacking and refreshing, flaring up with each impact of his allies hits, all of the damage exploded for five-times its remaining amounts. The statue was shattered to bits and pieces from the titanic explosion that shook the entire platform and even fractured the stone beneath the statue’s location.
Yet the mana-based sphere re-formed above where the dungeon boss lay slain, and fired off toward Peter. The former athlete threw his shield, which he was able to get right into the path of the sphere. The objective shot back to the center, and flashed toward Eric, bouncing before him, and then far up into the sky. He had to use another Flashstep—dropping down to five Sigils—and intercept twenty feet up in the air, before using the remaining movement and single turn the Skill afford him to return to the ground.
The orb shot to Naomi’s section, and she tried to get to it, but couldn’t as it was just too fast and too far away from her. The sphere vanished, and then another huge spike slammed into her. Peter let out a grunt, and a split-second later, Eric felt that hammering pain again. He used Blacksteel Mending and cured himself and Peter, but drained all of his baseline mana reservoir to do so. Once more, messages from The Paths filled his vision without his say-so, overriding his bracer.
[Additional Challenge - Cleared!]
[4 failed bounces, x6 Ember Acquired.]
The platforms all shrank down and re-merged, bringing the Summoned back closer together. “Did we win?” Shannon asked.
“No,” Eric replied. “We haven’t beaten the Floor Boss yet. Keep your eyes open.”
Peter moved over to Naomi, toward the stairs that would lead up to the Dungeon Core and the exit. “Are we sure this was the last chamber?” Peter asked.
“No,” Eric muttered as he walked over to join his ally. He glanced down at his bracer. “No milestones though?”
Naomi’s voice sounded hollow as she said, “I think this was like part one of a chamber, maybe?” She sighed. “Sorry for dropping the ball. Literally.”
Shannon came over and patted her on the back. “Hey, it’s all good. At least we got a good amount of Droplets—erm, primal force resources.”
Speaking of, Eric thought to Indedroma, why are these messages overriding my setup?
[Primal force messages have a higher threshold of importance.]
Peter said, “So I bet that we have a boss fight somewhere up those stairs. Is everyone feeling okay?”
“I’m good,” Shannon replied as she couched her crossbow against her hip. “Been using mana bolts, since I doubt that regular ones would be useful against statues.”
Peter nodded and began ascending the stairs that spiraled up and around the structure that led skyward. “Come on then. We’ve got Eric’s damage redirect split thing active for a little longer.”
“Thanks for remembering the timer,” Eric replied. “And yeah, about two minutes left. Let’s move and hopefully find the floor boss.”
Naomi fell in step behind Eric, and her voice was smaller as she said, “Are mega dungeon floors ever not final boss oriented?”
Eric nodded. “We had that on the floor with the lidless watcher, remember? The last challenge was an invisible platform thing.”
The group got up the spiraling staircase and made it to the top, where the dungeon core sat on its pedestal. A white circle was on the ground next to it, and then to the right of the white circle was a glowstone-lined tunnel that dropped straight down. “Well,” Peter said, “That answers that.”
Eric’s bracer vibrated and he checked it.
[Dungeon Floor - cleared.]
[Ember Acquired.]
“But no milestones for that last encounter,” Eric muttered as he looked away. “Seems kind of shitty.”
“Maybe because it was a game?” Naomi asked.
“I got milestones,” Shannon replied as she tapped her bracer. “But they popped up just now.”
Eric shared a look with his two other allies and then shook his head. “Well, maybe your acrobatic moves are what gave you the milestone. Style points?”
Shannon snickered. “Yeah, that’d be awesome.” She lowered her bracer. “So, we should drop our Rotes and Skills before we leave, yeah? Don’t want to scare folks, right?”
“We don’t have to hide our power anymore,” Naomi said as her voice lightened a bit. “In fact, it might be worthwhile to keep our draconic-themed Rotes active. Never doubt the power of brand identification. Remember, we’re the Dragon Divers now.”
Eric nodded. “No more hiding our progress, since we don’t have people we want to hide our power from. In fact, we should show off our power as best we can. The more of a reputation we can build for ourselves, the more leverage we’ll have across the kingdom, and abroad. Never doubt the power of a well-established reputation.” He tapped his bracer. “If you could talk to him right now, you could ask Darius about his former name he used to do heroic world-traveling wild dungeon clearing under. It is a household name. He could drop that name anywhere in the world and be given a lot of deference.”
Peter walked to the pedestal and grabbed his dungeon core, which split off a copy so he was holding it. “Whoa, Tier five.”
Eric walked up and grabbed one himself, watching as the phantasmal version of the swirling, purple sphere remained behind. “Oh, this reminds me,” he put the core away into his Storage Dimension. “The Baxter family has access to Scrolls from Warden Classes. I think it would be wise for each of us to get one. I’ll talk to my father-in-law about it the next time I see him. You know, each of us having a heal would be smart.”
Naomi walked up and grabbed her dungeon core. “Sounds good. Mind if I game plan?”
“Go ahead,” Eric replied.
Naomi looked at Shannon and Peter. “Eric was right about the Therapy thing, I think. Us three should probably talk to someone. That should be our priority once we’re home and rested up.” She looked at Eric out of the corner of her eye. “You good?”
“Fine,” Eric replied. “I can re-live my sessions from last timeline. I’m good.”
Naomi nodded, then said, “We should plan for a few days of downtime. Back in on the seventy-third. That gives us the rest of today, and two more days. I’ll do any crafting you need today when we get back home. Any complaints about that plan?”
“Not from me,” Shannon replied. She walked over to the white portal and vanished.