Chapter 1

Max had been expec ng to feel odd once he got back to Earth, or maybe
have some sort of discombobula on. Instead, he’d just experienced a
wave of relief that had been replaced with determina on.

A er borrowing a cell phone, Max had signed into his email and
confirmed that all of his family was alive. Apparently they’d tried to call,
tried to text, and then moved to email. He had dozens of emails from
his mom alone.

They’re alive. He felt like some weight had been li ed from his shoulder.
Especially as he saw the destroyed city around him, he was grateful for
the news. But he knew that he had to leave this world again soon and a
lot could happen between now and when he got back. The best he could
do was get as strong as he could before returning.

So a er reading all the fran c emails from his family, he’d sent a series
of simple replies and put the phone away. He’d been tempted to check
current events, but there were currently more pressing ma ers.

No use adding even more stress on top of what he was already working
with.

His new Path he’d received was s ll se ling, his body, mind, and spirit
absorbing it. He mostly ignored the part of his mind that was ed up
working on that. Instead, his senses probed the Mana Vault he’d go en
from Morrigan. If he concentrated, he could actually feel it sucking in the
ambient mana. The ar fact was most likely his cket to growing in power
as a Blade Sorcerer. For now he was content to let it just keep doing
what it was doing.

Max looked up and began paying a en on to his surroundings again.

The local mili a group his friend Blake was in moved down the street at
a cau ous clip. The destroyed city around them was theore cally clear
of monsters between this point and their des na on, but nobody was
taking chances.

A er Max's display of some of his power earlier, he had been placed in

one of the vehicles that carried more powerful combatants. Luckily, this
group also included Blake. Max rode in the back of a pickup truck at the
front of the convoy with his friend and two others.

Everyone was on edge and Max was pleased, but not en rely surprised,
that the survivors were taking the group's safety seriously. A er all, if
they were oblivious people, they might already be dead by now.
Moreover, they certainly wouldn't have joined a mili a a er a monster
apocalypse to try saving their fellow man.

In fact, as the group con nued down the road, Max reflected that
everyone in this convoy was likely a very brave or civic-minded person.

One of the two other people in the back of the pickup truck with Max
and Blake was the young woman who had spoken to Max before,
Heather. Her crossbow sat on the floor beside her. The last person was
an unfamiliar blonde man who seemed nervous. He kept fidge ng. Being
nervous was understandable, they were going to fight monsters, a er
all. But this man looked even more twitchy than others he could see in
the rest of the convoy. Max found this somewhat odd since the man had
volunteered to being in this mili a in the first place, and was also in the
truck that only super-powered fighters occupied. This should mean he
had advantages that vanilla humans didn’t.

He briefly opened his third eye, examining the man.

Tyler Addison

Challenger

Voracious Spirit Path

Suddenly, the man made a face and looked up, mee ng Max’s gaze.
"What? You want to take a picture?" he asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you're staring at me. I don't know why you're so calm. We're going
to go fight monsters and the others might not know, but we know what
the real deal is," the man said.

"What are you talking about?" Max asked. To one side, Blake watched
silently.

The man chuckled, the sound betraying his nervousness. "There are a
few who graduated from the Quartets. But not many, and I haven't met
any in the U.S. yet. Odds are, you're just like me, somebody who died in
a Quartet dungeon. That means we know how easy it is to die, even with
more power. And I need to kill the fucking monsters to get my power
back. Maybe you do too. Otherwise why would you be here?" He
chuckled.

Max could tell he didn’t like this guy. “What’s your name?”

“Tyler.”

Max sighed. A er all the problems he’d had in the Quartet, he really
wasn’t trying to pick a fight with more Challengers. He did find it
interes ng that the man hadn’t commented on Max’s ou it, which was
directly from his Quartet, not something most people on Earth would
wear. Of course, it’d seen be er days now. He probably looked like a
hobo. Max said, “I think we’ll be fine. In fact, I’ll take point. Don’t worry.”

The man studied Max with an expression betraying a mix of emo ons. “I
s ll need to kill monsters, though.”

“Well, maybe you can do it when it’s a li le safer, then? As I understand

it, there are trapped people we’re going to save. Maybe this isn’t the
best me to push it.”
“Are you actually a Quartet graduate? Why are you so confident?”

“Doesn’t ma er.” Max shook his head ruefully. “If I’m wrong, I’m dead,
right?”

“I guess,” said Tyler. “Whatever.”

Blake got his a en on and mouthed, “Are you okay?” Max nodded in
return and gave a thumb up.

***

The apartments were not just one building as Max had expected.
Instead, it looked like there were at least three buildings, maybe more,
all four stories high. It was an apartment complex. Around it, there were
cops with flashing lights, but they didn’t have sirens on and there were
only three cars. As they got closer, he no ced that some of the cops
were not even wearing full uniforms.

"Blake," Max asked, "why are some officers not in full uniform?"

Blake replied, "Some officers have been killed over the last week. The
police department has been accep ng volunteers on a case-by-case
basis. I guess they have more equipment than they have bodies. But
even so, there just aren't enough of them to go around. And there are
vigilante groups like us, but I think usually the police try to be at the
areas where serious stuff is going down at least to supervise or
something. They’re trying."

Heather chimed in. "Yeah, Max might not know this. At first when
everything happened, when the monsters appeared, cops went in guns
blazing. The problem is, not all monsters can be killed with guns, or at
least not killed fast enough. It's like…a grizzly bear. Sure, guns might kill
the thing, but if it gets close enough to chop him up, that's one more
officer down." Blake soberly nodded in agreement.

The mili a pulled up to the curb and Max got his first glimpse of the
monsters, some of which were looking through a window. He recognized
them. Kobolds, he thought. He could only see their heads, but it was
enough. They were vaguely rep lian, but with a crest of fur running from
their dog-like noses up their snout, over their heads, and down their
backs. Their ears were furry and floppy.

Max used his third eye, bolstered by The Hidden Twilight Eye around his
neck. Over the heads of the monsters, he saw the same thing for each:

Gssrell Kobold, Uplands Tribe

To one side, two police officers were staring at the kobolds. The
monsters stared right back through the glass. Max got the impression
they were lookouts. He’d bet they had some way to alert the other
kobolds if they were being a acked.

Meanwhile, the rest of the kobolds could do whatever they wanted.

Further into the apartment complex, Max could hear screams. At first,
he couldn’t understand why the officers were not using their firearms to
kill the scouts, but then he remembered that shoo ng into apartments
during poten al hostage situa ons was probably not a great idea. In
fact, this en re situa on was pre y much a nightmare for the
emergency personnel. They had no good op ons. Running in to save
people right now could just end up with all the cops dead and the
apartment dwellers without any help at all.

Emergency workers in the city had to be hanging onto civiliza on with

their fingernails.

"Boy, are we glad to see you," said one of the police officers. He was
wearing an equipment belt and cargo pants. Instead of a real police
uniform, he had on a dark shirt. Max no ced that in addi on to the
Glock on his hip, he also had what looked like a short sword tucked
through his equipment belt.

"So who's in charge?" asked one of the mili a members, an older man.
“Oh my god, I can hear people screaming from here!” said Heather. “We
go a help them!”

Blake pointed at Max. “He should be in charge. He’s a Returner.”

Tyler scoffed, "A returner. Right."

Meanwhile, the cop in the dark shirt openly showed surprise and
respect. “Are you a returner?”

"Something like that," said Max. "But I'm not in charge. In fact, the
longer we wait here, the more people are going to get hurt. So I'm just
going in."

"But wait, don't we need a plan or something?" asked a mili a member,

a younger guy with glasses. Max ignored him and ran toward the nearest
building. Lavinia, he thought. His ectoplasm armor sprang up, making his
form glow.

He was heading directly to the top floor, but changed his mind before
reaching the building. Instead, he headed directly for the kobolds in the
window. Some of the people behind him cursed and started yelling. Max
mentally moved more of his armor to cover his face and head before
diving through the front of the window.

There were a total of three. One hadn’t been in the window.

The kobolds were so surprised by the sudden a ack, they didn't even
have me to respond. Max was immediately behind them. His sword
prac cally flew out of its scabbard. He cut le , cut right, stabbed, kicked,
and savagely knocked one of the creatures aside with his forearm. In two
seconds, all three were dead. He mentally asked Lavinia to do a quick
check of the apartment with her spirits, ensuring there were no other
monsters or living people. In only a few seconds, the sad answer came
back. No more monsters, but no surviving humans, either.

Max sked. "I fucking hate monsters.”

A er a second of hesita on, Max climbed out of the window and
bounded back to the mili a group. The cops and even some of the
mili a flinched back from him as he approached. The last vehicles of the
mili a had finally fully stopped and those fighters began to disembark.

Tyler’s eyes were huge.

To Blake and to the police he said, "You guys should all follow up behind
me. I might not get all of them, but I should get most. Either way just be
careful. But what I really need you guys to do is find the survivors and
get them the hell out of here. Or at least the ones that want to go or
need medical a en on." He didn't wait for them to reply. Max turned.
Using a combina on of ectoplasmic rope and the repulsion effect under
his feet that he borrowed from Slick, he easily bound up to the fourth
floor of the apartment complex.

Then, using Lavinia as his Intel manager, he went down the hallway,
going into the apartments he needed to. It was pre y easy to tell which
ones had been ransacked by monsters since the doors were broken in.
But he wasn't taking any chances. Whenever he came to an apartment
that s ll had monsters inside, Max grimly entered and destroyed them
all. It was bloody work that was made exponen ally faster with the help
of his spirits.

Some of the kobolds tried wai ng behind corners or inside of closets for
him, but his spirits weren’t fooled, and neither was Max.

When he was done with the first building, Max bound over to the
second and actually caught some of the kobolds skulking around in the
bushes outside. Like all of their kin, they carried crude weapons made of
badly forged iron. Their tools were basically just a step above what
goblins usually carried. Even so, Max knew from experience that in
numbers kobolds could s ll be very dangerous. Although they were
slightly shorter than the average human woman, they were s ll all
around the same strength as a man.

Max’s first star mana body strength would have been sufficient on its
own, but his Summoner abili es took all of the guesswork out of hun ng
down the kobolds.

He sunk into something like a trance, finding and killing the monsters.
They’d done a lot of damage. He didn’t focus on the dead bodies, and
he ignored when survivors took pictures or videos of him. In fact, he
tuned out pre y much everything but the job at hand: killing monsters.

Like his previous life, the greatest comedy in the universe was the fact
he’d been called “Hero” when his calling had always been destruc on.
The healers were at least as valuable as anything he did, but they’d
never get recogni on for it. The universe was truly unfair.

A er he’d cleared the en re apartment complex and his thoughts

turned to something other than just single-minded killing again, Max
realized that even as a single star mana body Blade Sorcerer, he had to
be much stronger than most of the locals. That was a disturbing
realiza on. Some of the monsters he’d seen before being whisked to the
Quartet had definitely been beyond his ability to deal with back then.

He headed back to the mili a caravan and the cop cars, s ll flashing blue
lights. Max was covered in blood, and as the people in the caravan
rushed past to help the wounded civilians, most recoiled from him.

When he finally made it back to Blake, his friend gave him a concerned
look, searching his eyes. Everyone else gave them a respec ul amount of
space. Blake finally said, “Good job. You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah. Kobolds are basically smaller than humans and have no real
training or skill. Just some cunning. Not much of a problem.”

“I see.” Blake called out to the cops. “You got this, officers?” They
nodded in return.

Now that the mission was done, Max’s energy started to fade and he felt
hollow. The fight really hadn’t been much of a challenge. He focused on
a gourney leaving the apartment complex, surrounded by medics. The
wounded woman had been bi en badly. Makeshi bandages were
already soaked through with blood.
His ac ons had definitely saved people. But Max’s experiences as the
Hero of Albion gave him a different perspec ve. Max had helped some
people in this apartment complex, but the crisis was world-wide. And he
was only going to be on earth for less than two days.

How could he best use his me?

“Hey Blake.”

“Yeah?”

“We haven’t had tons of me to talk yet, but some of the other students
I was teaching also have powers, right?”

“Yes.”

“I need to talk to them. And you. Like, everyone all at once.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Blake. “We’ve actually kind of all

been crashing together, for protec on. Also, that way we can go out and
do what we need to quicker, I guess.” He scratched his head, hiding
embarrassment.

Max nodded. “Can you do me a favor and bring me to everyone?”

“Now?”

“Yeah. Maybe let everyone know I’m coming.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone in this apartment complex is

good to go now. The Gate that the monsters came from is gone. I heard
some of the residents took video of you. They’re calling you a hero.”

“Please don’t say that,” Max mu ered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He sighed. “Anyway, can we go? Time is kind of important.”

“Oh yeah, sure thing. And…” Blake hesitated. “Dude, I’ll be honest. I
want to hear what you have to say. I’m pre y chill and even I have a lot
of ques ons.”

“Yeah. I can figure.”

“Alright, let me clear borrowing a car. Be right back.”

Max sat on the curb, ignoring all the stares. He wasn’t sure what his
homecoming on Earth would be like, but he hadn’t expected to feel so…
depressed. All this misery, all over earth, all over the universe. Why?

He was lost in his thoughts un l he got into a jeep with Blake. His friend
seemed to sense his mood and let him sit in silence for a while.
 Chapter 2

The Jeep’s engine was a welcome hum as Max stayed lost in thought for
a few minutes. He didn’t allow himself to brood too long, though.

In some ways, the me limit he was under was serving as a great

mo vator not to get too lost in thought.

He stared out the window, thinking about the fight with the kobolds. It’d
been easy for him, and he’s saved a lot of people. Part of him felt like he
should be happy about that, but he just felt hollow. The fact he couldn’t
figure out why was bothering him.

There was enough difficult, damn near impossible shit wai ng for him in
the Quartet. Why couldn’t he just enjoy the wins?

Suddenly, his mind, his full processing power, became his own again as
the part that had been ed up with his new Path finished absorbing the
most important details. A torrent of informa on flooded Max’s mind.
Even though he knew most of what he needed to know about being a
Bead Sorcerer now, he would s ll need to meditate on it later and
unravel more secrets.

He looked up and realized he knew where Blake was taking him. This
part of town had been where he’d started to change his life before the
whole world went to hell.

Max was not en rely surprised by the fact that his friends’ base was
most likely the dojo. He recognized the area long before arriving, and
no ced Blake trying to watch him for a reac on. Max stayed stony faced.
He didn’t give his friend the sa sfac on of an exclama on of surprise.
The area had been turned into a field-expedient, post apocalypse
fortress. All the entrances to the parking lot had been blocked off and
there was fencing around the en re lot.

"What's all this?" asked Max. He pointed at the fence and the blocked
access.

"Oh, you know," said Blake. "We put it up on the fourth day a er the
a ack. Some of the smaller monsters just bypassed the area en rely
with it there. Too much trouble, I guess. Even the bigger ones s ll have
to climb over, and that would give us more me to deal with them. But
we haven't had a direct a ack here for a while. Now it's kind of helpful
too because there are human looters and troublemakers around but
this kind of declares that this place is occupied. Tell them it's probably
not a good idea to mess with us." Max nodded in reply.

They approached one of the entrances and Blake honked the horn.
People pushed the car that was blocking the entrance out of the way. As
Blake pulled in, Max observed how two men he was unfamiliar with
were star ng to push the car back, using the parking brake to keep it in
place once it was where they wanted it. He thought, A stop-gap measure,
in this case literally.

He’d half-expected Lavinia to comment on the thought since he hadn’t

shielded it, but she stayed silent.

"Who are those guys?" he asked.

"Ramon and George," said Blake, "They're two guys from the family that
own the Mexican restaurant in the complex. They're friends of ours and
they help us keep this place safe. We actually have a few families living
in some of the stores now." Max nodded. Now that his memory had
been jogged, he recognized them.

The Jeep pulled into the end of the parking lot against the wall where all
the other vehicles were. Max was amazed to see how the area had been
transformed. What was once a strip mall, and a slightly seedy one at
that, now looked something like a cross between a military compound
and an apartment complex. The parking lot had been transformed into
an open-air courtyard of sorts. Ladders leaned against the roof, and
armored defensive emplacements had been erected with the high
ground advantage. To one side there were barbecues lined up, some of
which were currently smoking. On the other side of the compound,
there were a couple of port-a-po es in the corner.

Max pointed at the porta-po es and looked a ques on at Blake. His

friend shrugged., "We stole those." He didn't say anything more. Max
didn't pry further.

He studied the portapo es, wondering why the survivors had gone
through the trouble of ge ng them. All of the shops in the strip mall
had restrooms. But then he answered his own ques on when he
realized his friends probably weren't relying on the water las ng forever.
If they con nued to have running water, everything would be fine. But if
the running water stopped, this li le community would con nue to
func on a li le bit easier than some others might.

Blake parked the Jeep and they both got out. Max was pleased and a
li le excited when he spo ed more of his students coming out of the
dojo to meet them. It took a few seconds for the first to recognize him,
but a er that, it was like a chain reac on of surprised yells, people
calling his name, and folks running up to hug him and pat him on the
back.

Everyone did their best to keep their eyes dry, and everyone mostly
succeeded.

The last to join the li le group was Ethan and Max looked into the
man's world-weary eyes as they shook hands. Ethan had never looked so
old or frayed, which was probably appropriate given the circumstances.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm glad you're back," said Ethan.
"Now then, since you're here and you're alive, would you mind coming
into the dojo? I’d love to just have a mid-apocalypse party, but it has to
wait. We all have some ques ons for you."
Max nodded solemnly and followed the group inside. He wasn't going to
tell them everything, but he did probably owe them some answers and
some further guidance at this point.

***

Max sat on the floor in front of the mirror that ran along one side of the
dojo. All of the sleeping bags and other belongings that his students had
brought, at least the ones that were living there, had been pushed
against one wall to clear the space. All of his old students sat on the
floor facing him.

Max scratched his cheek and said, "I'm not one hundred percent sure
where to start."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" asked Chad. Ethan’s brother
looked as serious as usual, and had obviously lost weight.

Max chuckled, "No, that would take too long, I think. Also…context is
needed."

"Well, how about you just get to the point where you tell us why we're
all superheroes now?" said Chad.

"Oh, that. Yeah. Okay." Max leaned his head back and crossed his arms.
"The mar al art I taught you before is why you have superhuman
abili es now. Which I'm sure you have probably figured out, at least to
some extent.”

"I knew it!" said Toby, one of the other students. He smacked his open
hand with a palm. "I told you it was the mar al arts!"

Max grinned. "And now, to answer the ques on that you haven't asked
me yet. Yes, I am human. And yes, I am from this world." Some of the
students in the room chuckled nervously, but others had serious
expressions, and their eyes didn't flicker. Max no ced that Blake was
actually one of them.
He con nued, "Before I met you, I mastered a mar al art from another
world, a world of mana and magic. How I know this mar al art is not
important, at least not right now. If we survive all of this, I’ll tell you
later. Maybe. What is important is that even with no mana, it was an
effec ve, profound system which I think all of you would agree on.
However, once the monsters a acked, and mana came back to earth,
this mar al art became something else.

“No, I did not know the monsters were going to a ack. It was a complete
surprise to me I was actually at my dayjob when it happened. When I
was ge ng ready to leave work, shit went down. I killed a few small
monsters before trying to get some coworkers out of the worst of it.
Come to think of it, I have no idea where my car is right now.”

Ethan quirked a smile. Everyone around him nodded as they digested

what he’d said.

Max con nued, “So the reason you have all developed powers is
because a er you used your Albion Western Wind Style, a er the earth
was full of mana, you basically began harnessing mana into your body
and infusing it into your bones. This will make you all stronger over me,
even at rest, and when you fight–use your mar al arts, you can pull in
mana around you, use it like a ba ery. All of you will develop your own
techniques over me, too. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

“Now you’ll be stronger, faster, and harness mana while you fight. You
might have heard of this, but in the universe, there are Paths. If you’re
on a Path, you’re considered a Challenger. All of you are currently on the
Mana Swordsman Path.”

“Is that what you are too?” asked Blake.

“No. I’m on a different Path. More than one.”

“Can we learn other paths?” said Chad.

Max grinned without humor. “Master one first. Then we can talk about
it.”
"So you're not going to tell us how you know, or how you knew Albion
Western Wind Style in the first place?" asked Blake.

Max shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. There are some secrets I'm not
willing to share yet. But again, I’ll say again: I am human. I was born on
earth. You are all my friends, my students.” He paused. “However, I need
to ask you all to never teach Albion Western Wind Style to anyone else
without my permission. Actually, it’s not a request. That is a hard and
fast rule. I’m sorry to be a hardass about it, but if I ever find out you did,
we will be enemies."

There was a moment of silence.

"So where have you been?" asked Ethan.

"He’s a returner, I think?" said Blake.

Max pondered how to answer the ques on without spending a few

hours trying to explain how the universe worked…especially when he
himself wasn't en rely sure yet. What he eventually said was, "I was
given a prompt to get stronger, a choice. When I chose Yes, I was sent to
Quartet training. But the truth is that I'm not actually done with my
training in the Quartet. I have a special set of circumstances that
allowed me to return for around two days before I go back. It’s kind of a
unique thing. Just to be safe, all of you please keep this stuff to yourself.
A er I go back to the Quartet from here, I don’t know when I’ll be back
again, actually be a Returner. But next me should be for good."

Silence greeted this un l Blake nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, I haven't
heard of any other returners coming back with weird, dirty clothes
unless they looked like that beforehand. You should have appeared in
your work clothes, right?”

Max nodded. “Yup. And I would probably have my cell phone.” He

pointed at his sword. “Returners can’t come back with items or weapons
unless they pay a shit ton of money for it, too. But to be honest, I’m s ll
not 100% sure how all that works yet.”
"So what's the Quartet like?" asked Ethan. “We have heard a li le bit
about it. News sta ons are going nuts trying to interview the handful of
Quartet graduate Returners. Most of them are in other countries so far,
though.”

"I don't even know how to answer that ques on." Max chuckled. He
shook his head and said, "It's kind of like military training and college
and summer camp all mixed together. But it's not all good.

"How many other returners are there that you know of?" asked Max.

Chad answered, "It seems like most of the people who are back failed in
some way. A lot of them won’t talk about it. And most of them have
powers now, but not tons of it. Like, most of us are stronger than they
are. People are calling people who developed power on Earth Local
Hunters, or just Hunters. Anyway, there are a few people that are real
Returners and graduated from their Quartet schools. They’re strong as
hell. But I don't think there are any around here, at least not yet."

"Yeah," said Ethan. "One thing I have heard consistently is that the
Returners say there's going to be more of them coming back eventually."

"That's true," said Max. "I don't know when though so don't ask me. Just
like I don't know when I'll officially Return either."

"So what powers do you have?" asked Ethan.

To one side, Blake smiled. He said, "You guys have got to see this. Max,
do the armor thing!”

Max grinned. “Alright, but a er that, we need to talk business and about
the near future.”

“What do you mean?”

Max made eye contact with Ethan and Chad. “You guys need to form a
guild while I’m gone.”
 Chapter 3

Max's mouth was dry. A while back he’d held an impromptu mar al arts
class for his students, one more piece of the puzzle that might take them
to the next level. They’d asked if they could ever have power like him,
and Max had needed to explain Paths to them. It’s been necessary to
explain how they had no hope of being a Blade Sorcerer–it was several
orders of magnitude more complex than the Path they were on.

Now he felt like he had been talking nonstop for ages about the Quartet,
what to expect with the apocalypse, and what sort of Paths existed. The
Path informa on was important so everyone had a heads up about
what kind of power Returners might demonstrate once they were back
on Earth. Chad, in par cular, seemed fascinated by the sheer variety of
Paths. Max truly enjoyed talking to his friends.

He received a mild shock when he checked the countdown mer on his

screen. It was good to be back on Earth, but he wasn't okay with just
hanging around. His me could be spent more wisely.

At this point, everybody had already taken a nap or was s ll sleeping. It

was more or less morning, so almost everybody awake and not on guard
was ea ng their breakfast. Max took the opportunity to slip away,
thinking about what he could do in his last few hours on earth–what he
should priori ze.

As he sat on a plas c chair in the parking lot and pondered, Blake found
him. The other man was ea ng a plate full of scrambled eggs. Max had
been amused earlier to discover that not one, but two of his students
actually raised chickens right outside of city limits. As a result, the group
had a regular supply of eggs and went in teams to take care of the
chickens and recover more food every couple days.
There was safety in numbers, so currently everybody was calling the
dojo compound home while trea ng the houses with chickens as
satellite farms.

Blake pulled up another cheap plas c chair without a word and sat
facing Max. He munched on his eggs for a while before asking, "Running
out of me, right? Are you going to go see any of your family?"

Max shook his head. "I don't think so. On top of the danger, I'd have to
basically only choose one of them because there wouldn't be me to see
the others. My mom is probably closest, but she'd also freak out the
most and be the hardest to get away from. And she’d probably be the
most upset if I was s ll there when I disappeared. I doubt that she is
going to be flexible enough to understand things like magic and
teleporta on yet."

"Good point," said Blake. He'd actually met Max's mom before. "Too bad
phones are down, right?" Then he amended, "Well, they're usually
down, but it's kind of not worth the effort to try unless you have a
landline. And almost none of us have that."

Max shrugged. "I don't know. At least I was able to send emails.
Infrastructure should be back in a few months I would imagine, maybe a
few weeks but by then it would be too late for me. But honestly, I also
kind of don't want to spend the next few hours just repea ng myself
over and over to family when I've already explained what's going on to
them in emails. I mean, yeah, it would be nice to give them a hug. My
mom would definitely like to hear my voice in person, but it's enough for
me to know she's s ll alive. Just knowing they’re not dead took a huge
weight off my shoulders. And I got you all to promise–"

Blake cut Max off. "--Of course, we're going to look out for your family
and probably even bring them here once we get a chance."

Max nodded. Blake said, "It’s good your problems are sort of solved, but
ours are s ll looming.”

“What problems?”
“Resource problems. These eggs have been really helpful over the last
week since some of the other survivors out there lost their damn minds,
either bought everything out in grocery stores or started breaking in and
stealing stuff they didn't need. It's crazy out there. At least so many of us
have superpowers. I know for a fact that at least Ethan is bulletproof.”

“Had some problems with humans, huh?"

"Yeah," said Blake. His face fell. "None of us really like to talk about it."

"I can imagine," said Max. He gestured around the perimeter of the
compound. "So I take it that the fence and the show of force isn't only
for the benefit of protec ng everybody from monsters."

"That's right," said Blake. "But like I said, we have other problems too.
Resources. I mean, right now, around the world, a lot of people are kind
of just taking what they need. Some steal, but we’re trying to be ethical.
We always make notes of what we take to se le up with the store later
because that's the right thing to do. But like you said, infrastructure is
going to return. And even though the world will never be the same
again–and who the hell knows, maybe the world will end–I have a hard
me believing that businesses will just disappear in the long run. And
when the day comes that everybody has to pay for things again, we're
going to need money. Lots of money. There are a lot of mouths to feed."

Max nodded slowly and his eyes suddenly lit up. Something had just
clicked and he realized what the most valuable use for his remaining
me on Earth would be. "Hey buddy, can you do me a favor and get
everybody together? I have something I want to say and we all need to
get to work."

“That’s sudden. You serious?”

“Yeah.”

Blake smiled. "I recognize that expression. Alright." He stood up and

retrieved his empty paper plate. "Let me go round everybody up."
"Thanks man," said Max. A er Blake was gone, he grinned. He had a goal
now and a direc on. No specifics yet, but he believed that with his
friends’ help, before he le , he could help ensure that both his family,
and his comrades would be taken care of.
 Chapter 4

"Are you sure that all this junk is going to help you?" asked Blake. He
came into view and showed Max a box full of cra ing supplies that he'd
just brought back to the compound. Blake, Ethan, and Larry, one of
Max's students, had gone on another acquisi on run to one of the local
hobby shops.

Max glanced in the box but didn't have the heart to tell his friends he'd
already go en all the supplies he could handle at this point. Instead, he
said, "Yeah, it'll be a huge help. Just put it on the passenger seat and I'll
get to it."

"Are you almost done?" asked Blake.

"Yes," said Max, "Maybe another half hour. Is everybody else ready to
go?"

"I think so," his friend said, "Let me go check with Chad." Then Blake set
the box on the passenger seat of the car Max was in and le .

The car had been Max’s private workshop to get away from distrac ons.

A plas c bead rested on his palm and he stared at it for a few more
seconds before giving up. Now that he understood bead sorcery, he was
intrigued, but a li le confused as well. It was unlike any other magical
discipline he'd ever heard about before. As a Bead Sorcerer, he was able
to create talismans and tools using beads…or any object that looked like
a bead. Max had even idly wondered if he could enchant a donut, but
that was definitely an experiment for later.

The limita ons of his own lack of skill was clear. He had ideas and
techniques in his mind now from the Bead Sorcerer master memories
he'd go en from the Morrigan. But he could only make the simplest
applica ons work so far. Bead Sorcery was much different from the
blade sorcery he was used to. He was used to channeling mana through
his body, weapon, even the air. It was a process of bending the external
world to his will using internal power. Bead Sorcery used both internal
and external power. It was tricky, almost like tying knots with mana. If it
wasn't for the fine control he developed over the course of his first life,
there was no way he could have made even this much progress in such a
short amount of me.

A er making a face and examining the fruits of his labor, he decided that
he was being too hard on himself…and maybe a li le greedy. A er all,
Earth was full of mana for Max to work with and he had just created a
decent amount of new weapons, basically from scratch. Si ng in a li le
bowl were about twenty beads that he'd shoved energy into and placed
a simple trigger within. Now they would basically func on as de facto
hand grenades.

Max had only done a li le bit of programming in high school, and the
way Bead Sorcery worked definitely reminded him of those old classes.
He'd included an extra trigger in these explosive beads so he hopefully
would not accidentally blow himself up. More complex usage of Bead
Sorcery was definitely possible but would have to wait ll later. Right
now, he was running out of me to stay on Earth and he had to do one
last thing before being yoinked back to the dungeon he came from.

Since Max s ll had a few more minutes of solitude in the car he'd
claimed as his office, he decided to stop cra ing beaded weapons. He
took out the Mana Vault that he'd go en from the Morrigan and
studied the thing as it sat in his palm. As before, he could feel it drawing
in power. He tried to feel the mana as it traveled towards it. With his
eyes closed, he li ed an eyebrow when he could see the metaphysical
pores on the orb with his mind's eye.

If he had to come up with a metaphor for what he was sensing, it was

almost like water falling through the holes of a sieve, but in reverse. The
mana was gathering inside the ar fact, drawn into it.
He got a gut feeling and decided to act on it. Max spread his hands wide
and with an effort of will created a thin membrane of hardened mana
from his own body, extended from his palms. To his senses, it looked
almost like bat wings. Then he tried to gather mana from the
surrounding space and push it towards the Mana Vault.

Nothing happened.

Some part of him ins nc vely felt like it should work, though, like
pushing water into a drain.

For several minutes Max kept moving the ambient mana around himself
and the Mana Vault un l he finally managed to cup a decent amount
around it, holding it there. Then he used a ny bit of his power to push
it down even further. Compress it. Suddenly, all the mana vanished. And
on top of that, it began a chain reac on for several seconds that made
the ambient mana around Max prac cally disappear into the Mana
Vault.

"Now we're talking!" he said. He did actually understood what he'd just
done, at least he thought he did. Max knew that mana did not behave
the same as air or water. In some ways, it could act very unpredictably,
at least seeming unpredictable to those who are not familiar with it.
Mana could almost have a mind of its own.

By encouraging the Mana vault to suck in more mana, a er forcing it in,

this had in turn en ced the mana to move in that direc on more
strongly for a me. Max wasn't sure how much more the ar fact had
been filled by this ac on but he was sure it was a significant amount.

Suddenly, out the corner of his vision he saw a small, glowing image of
an eye. He recognized it. The same symbol was prominent on the
necklace he'd go en from the Morrigan. Next, a symbol of the Mana
Vault flashed.

Ac ng on an educated guess, he observed his mana orb through his

third eye, then smiled. When observing the ar fact, now he saw a
change in its informa on. It read:
[Mana Vault of WD Arand]
Once charged, the mana vault can be triggered to release its stored mana.
Release can be adjusted for flow.

Capable of func oning while magically hidden or even in most storage

arrays. Once its owner is chosen, it will find its way back to its owner as
long as they are alive.

Current owner: Max Cunningham, Champion of The Morrigan

Extra effect 1: Faster mana charging speed with owner effort

Extra effect 2: Hidden

Extra effect 3: Hidden

One hidden effect had been revealed.

"Well, that's going to come in handy," murmured Max out loud. He

con nued to fill the orb as much as he could before it was me to leave
his impromptu office. When he got out of the car, he stuffed a backpack
with handfuls of beads that his friends had go en for him from the
hobby stores in the area. Even though what they'd done was technically
stealing, they'd assured him that they would pay for the beads and any
damages they'd caused a er Max was gone, plus interest.

"Okay, let's do this thing," said Max. He shut the door behind him and
walked to the dojo where his friends were all ki ed up, armed and
armored as best they could manage.

"Okay, everything's ready?" asked Max.

"Yup," said Chad, "The reporters know we're going to do it."

"Okay, good."

There were three vehicles out in the parking lot. But, Max was only
going with Ethan, Chad, Blake, and Sarah, one of his only female
students. The other four looked nervous, but not as bad as Max thought
they could be.

A er all, what they were going to a empt would be risky.

There was one pickup truck, one car, and a jeep in their convoy. Max got
into the car with Ethan. "Max, I need to talk to you about something
else before you do this thing.”

“What's that?" said Max.

"That rule you gave us about not teaching Albion Western Wind Style
mar al arts to others. I don't think…it’s a good idea. The rule."

"Oh," said Max. He hadn't expected the former mar al arts instructor to
say anything like this.

"Yeah," said Ethan. He bit his lip as he thought about what to say. Then
he con nued, "What we're doing right now, this mission, is basically for
the reputa on of our future guild, right?"

"That's right," said Max.

"Not many people have actually closed the portals yet, the stable
portals. Or stabilized them."

“That’s also right.”

When Max had been talking to his friends, planning for the future, it
had definitely helped that they hadn't needed to explain all the changes
on Earth to him. A er all, because of his rela onships in the Quartet
and the reading he'd done, Max was very aware of how monster
incursions worked.

There were three general types of portals. All of them could have ranks
from F to S, with S being the most difficult. The first kind of portal, Type
A, would open up and would disgorge monsters un l they closed. Right
now, people probably didn't have many ways to tell when they would
appear, but in the future, if everybody survived long enough, humanity
would learn where they would spawn and also even be able to predict
when.

Stable, Type B portals were o en called dungeons. They were stable and
would open to a different world or small area that could be repeatedly
challenged as long as the core was never found or taken. These types of
dungeons could be farmed and they were regularly cleared. Type B
dungeons could have bosses. The boss would reappear in a set me
a er it was killed.

Then the third type of portal, a Type C, was much more aggressive.
Similar to the second type of dungeon, if it got too many monsters or
grew in power too much without being purged, there would be a
dungeon break and monsters would flood the world, looking for blood.

However, Type C dungeons were generally more dangerous and always

had a difficult boss inside. There was also usually a guardian outside
that needed to be defeated as well before even entering the portal. If a
Type C dungeon was cleared, it would some mes change to a Type B,
with a weaker copy of the original boss monster at the end.

The dungeon that Max and his friends were heading to was a Type C.
Greg had called the local news agencies and told them about the group's
plan to challenge the portal for the safety of the city.

Max’s plan was quite simple. His group of friends, soon to be an official
guild once the concept of guilds was actually created on Earth, was going
to publicly conquer a dungeon.

He had two advantages.

His first advantage was that he knew how most civilized worlds behaved
a er being beset by monsters. With that knowledge he could help his
friends organize early. This would also help establish a power base ready
for him when he Returned. His Second advantage was that many early
Type B and Type C portals followed certain pa erns across the greater
universe. Max had read a lot about them in the library at the Summoner
academy. He was fairly sure this Type C dungeon was one he was
familiar with.

Hours earlier, a er deciding that his students would be forming a guild

in his absence, they’d brainstormed opportuni es. This had included the
others filling Max in on what was going on in the city, as well as Max
reading news reports.

The external guardian for this Type C dungeon had killed several
adventurers and been featured on the news. As a result, Max knew with
high certainty what kind of dungeon it would be. It was worth the risk.
And it was definitely worth the publicity.

Ethan’s words brought him back to the conversa on. He said, “So this
dungeon we’re going to beat, a er that it’ll become a stable portal, we’ll
have our names on it. Cool. But we will need to grow. And one reason
people will come to us is because…we have power. And because we can
introduce people to a Path.”

Max frowned but didn’t say anything, con nuing the listen.

“I’m just thinking about the future. If the core of our guild are, uh, Mana
Swordsmen, it’s going to cause problems if we don’t have any new
blood. Now, we could just do as you said before, only scout Returners
and Ground Challengers, like us. Groun Challengers, people like us–
people that developed their own powers on Earth. But we have a huge
advantage, right? We can teach some regular people to have a Path.”

“Only if they have talent,” said Max.

“Sure, but it’s possible. You said eventually there will probably be mage
guilds that can do the same thing and it will be a huge deal for them.
Well…why not for us?”

Ethan began to say more, but Max held up a hand. He frowned and
thought about it, realizing that his friend had a point. Max had already
broken numerous taboos by teaching Western Wind Style. But he also
didn’t want it to spread willy-nilly. Without proper instruc on, it could
even actually kill prac oners, hur ng instead of helping. There were
be er ways for the masses to find power of their own.

He also didn’t want any enemies to be using his own art against him.

“Okay,” he said. “Here’s what you can do. If someone joins the guild,
they seem talented, they prove themselves trustworthy, and they sign a
long-term contract, you can teach them, but only if you also get some
sort of magically binding contract that ensures secrecy, and compliance.”

“Compliance with what?”

“They may never teach Western Wind Style to anyone else. All
instruc on comes from you and you only. And the contract must say
that if they break this rule, their life is forfeit.”

“Are you serious?”

“Deadly serious,” said Max, voice flat.

Ethan thought about it before nodding. “I think we can live with that.
When do you think the magical contracts will be a thing? You read about
that too?”

“Probably a few more months, max.”

“Okay, I hope you’re right. Because if you’re right, and we do this thing,
our group’s name is going to get out there for sure.” He paused. “And
you’re sure about the name?”

“Sure am.” Max grinned. “Trifecta.”

“Trifecta,” Ethan repeated. “I guess it sounds kinda cool, but I s ll don’t

get it. Nobody else does, either.”

“Well, nobody else had any be er ideas, so…”

“Yeah, yeah. Trifecta it is.” Ethan glanced around. “We’re almost there.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” said Max. He’d just caught sight of a news van.
“Show me.”
 Chapter 5

"Okay, this is it," said Ethan. He signaled, and their small convoy of cars
came to a stop. Almost immediately, the reporters that had been brave
enough to actually show up hastened over with their guards. Several of
them, with cameras, had strategic vantage points to capture what was
about to take place, the show they'd been promised. Chad had shared
what Max was intending as a way to en ce them to come in the first
place.

Max eyed the approaching reporters and grimaced. "You guys got this,
right?"

"Yeah, I'll go talk to them," said Ethan. "Be careful, okay?"

"Always," said Max. He retrieved his sword and other weapons from the
back of the car and moved towards the distant portal. What had once
been an athle c park at the edge of town was now deserted. When the
monsters had first a acked, an en re Li le League team had been
massacred at this loca on, but Max couldn't see any evidence of it. It
didn't take a rocket scien st to figure out why.

These monsters had a taste for human flesh.

The athle c park had five baseball diamonds and two concession stands.
To one side, there was a small forest, screening a trailer park community.
The en re area had been evacuated. Hopefully.

Behind Max, there were businesses across the street that ran parallel to
the park area, two of which were tall enough for the cameramen of the
news crew to get a decent angle. They all knew what Max was here for.
Max was going to challenge the champion monster outside the gate.
A er the champion monster was down, his team, the newly minted
Trifecta Guild, could enter the portal together and conquer it.

The enemy sentries sent out an alarm when they no ced Max's
presence. He thought it was somewhat ironic how these kobolds had
been a problem for the human survivors for the same reason the fauns
back in the dungeon were a pain in the ass for Max.

He spo ed the issue almost immediately. "Damn shamans," he

mu ered. Monsters with tribal buffs were tricky, especially for lower
powered warriors. With sustained fire, even vanilla humans with guns
should have been able to handle kobolds. But their shamans had an
aura that conferred extra toughness and resilience. Then on top of that,
the champion had an even stronger aura that protected them all as an
addi onal layer.

They were the same type of kobolds that he’d killed back at the
apartment complex.

Max was slowly being surrounded by the enemy. They were definitely
confident in their magical superiority. He rotated one shoulder,
loosening it up. Tension grew, prac cally making the air crackle. Max
stared down the kobold champion, an especially ugly, slightly larger
kobold. It was both a shaman, wearing bone fe shes and a headdress,
but also a warrior with armor and a large spear. The creature seemed to
be smarter than its brethren and showed no ceable wariness.

No wonder they've been massacring everybody, Max thought.

The key to this fight would be to remove the head of the snake, to take
out the champion first, then the shamans, and the rest of the kobolds
last. But there were probably very few fighters yet on the con nent that
could kill this champion on its own, much less buffed by the shamans.
And on top of that, the kobold warriors were not going to just sit s ll if
somebody tried to do so. Even if there was more of a military presence
in this area, Max doubted that any infantry weapon systems would have
been able to penetrate the layers of magical protec on.
Vanilla troops would need heavier firepower. Luckily, Max had mana.
Magical defenses were usually much stronger against mundane weapons
than against other magic. And Max specialized in destroying magical
armor.

Hey, Lavinia, he absently thought.. Are you ready? Is everything okay?

The ghost girl's voice came back immediately in his head, her tone a bit
subdued. I've been with you the en re me you’ve been on your world,
just watching.

Max frowned. He realized that walking into combat was probably not
the best me for a heart-to-heart, but the spirit's tone had caught his
a en on. Is something wrong? he asked.

"Nothing we can't talk about later. Honestly, I've been really happy
watching you spend me with your friends and plan for the future. I
guess it's just sort of a melancholy thing."

Max nodded, knowing that Lavinia could see the gesture. "So, what do
you think of Earth?" He asked.

The ghost laughed. Are you really asking me this ques on right before
you're about to be figh ng for your life?

Max shrugged. Well, I guess I just did.

Lavinia appeared to one side, standing with him. Now that his
summoner senses were ge ng stronger, he could immediately tell that
she was only appearing for him. She rolled her eyes and mentally said,
It's lovely, but I think we can talk more about that later. To answer the
ques on that I know you actually want to ask me, yes, I'm ready and so
are my spirits.

Sounds good, thought Max. Then do me a favor and send a few out to
make sure there aren't any straggler monsters or escapees a er this. I
want to make sure we clear them all up.
Good. I hate these things. Kill them all. Lavinia nodded and disappeared.

Max's ectoplasm armor sprang into existence, startling most of the

approaching kobolds. Their leader, the champion, narrowed its eyes and
snarled something gu ural. A second later, all the monsters were about
to rush him. When he judged the me was right, right before the
kobolds actually engaged, Max moved.

He sprang forward, moving directly at the champion monster. As he

moved, he threw three of his explosive beads. They exploded outward
away from him, exactly as they were designed to do. The kobolds were
protected, but they s ll got rocked by a bit of the force, bowled over as
dirt and other detritus obscured their vision.

The kobold champion reacted quickly, throwing a magic construct net

out, but Max borrowed Slick’s power and jumped straight over it. His
mana-enhanced sword darted out for the leader’s neck. Max hoped that
the creature would be confident enough in its protec on to take the hit,
but the kobold must have sensed the danger at the last second. Its spear
came up, deflec ng the blow as it darted back, but the p of Max’s
sword s ll took out a chunk of its shoulder.

Snarling, the monster darted back and the other kobolds that were s ll
on their feet rushed at Max. The champion raised its spear and a green
glow spread, covering the other kobolds.

The most efficient way to kill this group of monsters with this
composi on was to kill the leader. However, this could be tricky because
if all the shamans buffed their fellows, and the boss buffed them, in
turn making every buff even stronger, even most strong fighters would
likely need to retreat, survive, wait for the magic to wear off, and find an
opening.

But Max was a Blade Sorcerer.

Two of the kobold warriors rushed him from the right side, but Max
wove between them, deflec ng their weapons and threading through
the threat. With two more enemies on on his heels, the rest protec ng
the shamans, Max closed with the champion kobold again.

This me the creature was more confident in its protec on, stabbing at
Max with its evil spear. A er de ly deflec ng the weapon, Max slid
forward impossibly quickly, using such unorthodox movements the
monster didn’t even register the a ack un l it was over. There was a
squelching sound and a wail as the other kobolds realized what had
happened.

Max turned to see the top half of the champion toppling over, a mess of
entrails splashing onto the ground. The creature’s spear dropped from
numb hands at the same me as the green shield dropped from the
remaining monsters.

With a grim visage, Max darted forward, avoiding the kobold warriors to
kill the shamans. Although these creatures had a good system of
overlapping protec on, they were nowhere near as strong as the fauns.
He systema cally slaughtered each of the shamans. The last tried to run
away but didn’t get very far.

A er the last of the dangerous magic-slingers were down, Max gave the
signal for the rest of the Trifecta to join him and begin mopping up the
other kobolds. Almost all of the creatures fought to the bi er end,
guarding their portal un l the light in their eyes faded.

Even though this mission was strategic, u lizing his me to help his new
guild, it felt good to rid the world of vermin like the kobolds.

Max cleaned his sword on some grass before sheathing it, watching with
a cri cal eye as his friends kill the last couple monsters.

They lacked experience, but they definitely had the raw power to be his
backup in the portal and come back alive. There were always surprises in
combat, and nothing was ever sure, but Max had been willing to call off
the en re opera on at the last minute if he’d weighed the odds and had
felt his friends were in an unacceptable amount of danger.
But at this point, they needed the experience and they needed the
power or they might die as the world grew more and more dangerous.

It looked like all the kobolds were killed. If there were any stragglers, the
reporters’ guards should be able to handle them with their guns.

Max gave Ethan the signal to round everyone up for one last mee ng.
 Chapter 6

"Is everybody ready?" Max asked, glancing around at his team. He was
pleased to see that, while most of them looked worried, they were also
determined. Sarah had a few drops of blood on her cheek. She’d killed
two kobolds on her own, chasing one of the monsters down.

Ethan had done a great job of handling the reporters, who were all
currently standing a respec ul distance away. Most of the reporters
seemed to be taking a break, recording them, or talking into a
microphone facing a camera. The reac on to Max's fight against the
champion monster had been excitement and awe, which seemed to
have lingered as the newly formed Trifecta Guild prepared to enter the
portal.

Max knew it was unfortunate for regular people that no powerful

Returners had appeared in this area, but it had definitely created an
opportunity for his group to stand out.

"I think we're good to go," said Blake, giving a thumbs up. Everyone else
nodded.

"Good. I'm not expec ng this to be a long fight, but double check your
gear anyway. Make sure you have extra water," Max instructed. He half
expected at least some of them to argue, but none did. They merely
mechanically checked their gear again. Maybe they were more worried
than they were le ng on, which would make sense since this would
definitely be their first me into a portal. If it weren't for Max leading
them, he was sure this was not something they would have a empted
on their own.

His victory over the champions had emboldened his friends as much as
it’d impressed the reporters.
All the members of his team were using similar gear. They all wore a
high-end katana on their hip, a quality sword they’d all done prac ce
cu ng with before the world went crazy. In addi on to their swords,
Ethan and Chad also carried spears.

For any combat mission, nothing was certain. There would always be a
chance of death. But Max was fairly confident that they should be okay,
especially since he was going to do most of the heavy li ing.

"Ethan, are you ready, buddy? You're going to be second in command,"

Max said, pa ng Ethon on the shoulder of his crude, improvised, but
nonetheless effec ve armor.

Ethan quietly said, "Yeah. So you're going to range ahead, right?"

"That's right," said Max. "Just like how you guys mopped up the last of
the kobolds a li le bit ago, you'll basically be doing the same in the
dungeon." Ethan nodded.

A er each member of the Trifecta Guild met Max's eyes, he turned and
walked toward the portal. The other members followed and followed his
example in ignoring the press.

Flash.

The transi on through the portal was a somewhat familiar feeling. What
felt like less than a second later, Max was striding forward into a large
cave with glowing mushrooms on the floor and walls. The strange
ligh ng dipped all of the area in shadow. For adventurers relying on
their eyes, the en re dungeon would be a death trap.

The moment Max entered the dungeon, Lavinia's spirits had ranged
ahead and now she whispered informa on about the nearest enemies
in his ear.

He wasted no me. The moment the spirits reported back, he sprang

forward toward a ra y, wooden defensive emplacement, tossing one of
his enchanted beads over before ducking and channeling his mana in a
defensive way. A second later the bead exploded and pieces of the two
kobolds that had been on the other side sca ered all over the cavern.
Though the explosion had been loud, it’d been worth it to stop the
creatures from ac va ng their giant security horn. A few moments later,
the rest of the Trifecta Guild entered a er him and gaped at the
immediate destruc on that Max had wrought.

"Okay, stay on your toes," said Max. "Be ready to turn your headlights
on if you need them."

The Trifecta fighters without spears had their swords drawn. Ethan and
Chad took up the rear since they had the reach to help those figh ng up
front. Sa sfied with how his friends were situated, he turned off all of
his own lights and ranged ahead. As he traveled the ominous tunnels,
he felt incredibly grateful for the fact that the dungeon was exactly as
he'd expected.

One side tunnel led down to what looked like a dead end. But he knew
be er.

Max climbed up and wedged himself into a much smaller, hidden tunnel.
It was…not pleasant. He thought about how claustrophobic it was, and
then put it out of mind.

Luckily, he didn't need to see ahead of him to know he was safe.

Lavinia's spirits had already scouted the tunnel ahead. Max shimmied
himself forward, going slow enough not to make too much noise, but
also being highly aware that he had limited me. If he took too long, he
might lose his friends, his guildmates.

His hand explored the pouch ed to his belt that held his exploding,
enchanted beads. He’d used one of them to test earlier, five of them in
the earlier fight with the champion monster, and he'd just used one of
them a er ge ng into the dungeon itself. That meant he'd used a grand
total of seven out of the original 20 beads. He had 13 le . He hoped it’d
be enough..
Max crawled around in his tunnel and breathed a sigh of relief as it
began to open up, expanding wider un l he could eventually barely
move forward in a crouch. But when he saw light up ahead, he got onto
his belly again, crawling forward cau ously. He stopped when he could
see inside the next cavern.

This was definitely the boss room.

Max's tunnel opened up high over the cavern, at least fi een feet up.
The room had at least twenty kobolds inside, including a good number
of shamans. The boss, unlike the champion, showed no evidence of
arcane knowledge. Instead, he was a hulking brute of a kobold in heavy
bronze armor. The creature sat brooding on his throne, listening as a
shaman seemed to be repor ng to him using a series of yips, barks, and
chirps.

This is it! Max grinned. Even though there were so many enemies in a
small place and this would theore cally be a tougher fight on paper
than taking out the kobold champion, he was actually far less worried.
Reaching into his bag, he grabbed every remaining fire-enchanted bead
and without hesita on, threw them all into the cavern. He tried to put
most of them near the boss and the highest concentra on of shamans.

Every bead detonated at the exact same me, rocking the cave and
crea ng a blast that almost pushed Max back down his tunnel. Only
staying low and the other defensive measures he'd taken helped him
withstand it.

Before the smoke even cleared, Max jumped into the large chamber,
clearing his sword from its sheath and taking the head off one of the last
remaining kobolds. Then he followed the noises, whether yells in
surprise, ques ons in an alien language, dispatched every kobold that
hadn’t been blown to pieces.

He found the boss on its back, blood flowing from every facial orifice,
gasping for air and holding a sec on of staff that had penetrated the
creature’s torso through a gap in its armor. The kobold weakly looked up
at Max’s approach. Lips pulled back from bloody teeth showed a freshly
broken canine.

Max’s expression didn’t flicker. The former hero of Albion gave the
monster no chance for any last second show of defiance. His sword came
down with a skilled, savage chop, separa ng the creature's head from its
body.

Then he moved to where he'd seen the large room’s main opening
before, leaving the ruined room. A group of heavily armed kobolds ran
toward the explosion. As they rounded the corner and saw Max, their
obvious surprise was almost comical before he was among them,
cleaving heads and hewing off limbs. The group of four was down before
they could even make a sound.

With smoke billowing out of the cleared boss room and standing in a
pile of guts, Max flicked blood off of his sword and spit. “I hate kobolds,”
he mu ered.

He began moving again, taking the main path and heading back towards
the entry of the dungeon, killing every kobold he could find, easily
loca ng them with the help of his spirits. Every defensive emplacement
was facing the other direc on, making the fights quick and easy. Max
ambushed team a er team of shocked kobolds.

He con nued this way un l he found his guildmates. They had been
figh ng a group of four. Two of the kobolds were down, dead. And as
Max watched, a third died to Ethan's spear. The last kobold tried to run
away, and the last thing it saw was Max's sword descending in a
gli ering arc.

"The boss is down," Max informed. "I le before the smoke cleared, and
I didn’t grab any loot." The four other Trifecta Guild members were
nervous and keyed up on adrenaline, but they s ll smiled in excitement.
A er all, publicity was not the only reason why they were braving this
dungeon. The new guild needed more gear.
Max noted that beside Ethan's katana he now also wore a new short
sword. The kobolds’ standard weapons were trash, but a few of them
had equipment that was far superior, magically, than almost anything
that Max's friends could buy in the near future.

Guilds clearing dungeons always kept the best weapons for themselves.
Magic equipment sold around the world would be inferior to what the
teams clearing new portals used.

"I see you guys were handling yourself. Shall we go check out the boss
room and portal out?" asked Max. As he spoke, Lavinia whispered in his
ear, telling him where her spirits had spo ed the remaining kobolds.

Ethan smiled and padded the new weapon on his belt. "Let's take all
their shit."
 Chapter 7

“So that’s it?”

"Yeah. So that's about it," said Max.

Across from him, si ng in a cheap plas c chair just like he was, Ethan
nodded. "I appreciate the rundown," the former mar al arts instructor
said. His phone beeped and he looked at it before glancing up at Max.
"That's another text message from another news group wan ng an
interview about the Trifecta Guild.”

“Do you think you can handle it?" asked Max.

"Yes, I think so. You've given us a good head start with the publicity and
with the gear." Ethan pointed at his belt where he'd made or found a
simple sheath for his new short sword. "I guess now it's just going to be
up to us since you're leaving us in about an hour, right?"

Max checked the countdown on his screen before dismissing the window
and nodded. "Yep." The two of them were quiet for a while, lost in their
own thoughts.

On the other end of the parking lot, everybody who lived in the li le
post-apocalypse strip mall community were having a celebratory
cookout. The other people who were not part of the Trifecta Guild
seemed to be almost happier than the guild members themselves. Even
from a distance, Max could smell the delicious fajita chicken that one of
the chefs from the Mexican restaurant was cooking on a camp grill. Max
grinned and hoped that he would be back soon. This feeling, this
community…it was nice. He said, "I hope I don't make you guys wait too
long for me, but when I get back from the Quartet, I'm going to be far,
far stronger. So you guys need to keep training too, so you can keep up."
Ethan chuckled. "You bet we will." He shook his head. "Two Paths, huh?
Busy guy, Max. By the me you get back, maybe we won't even recognize
you."

Max looked down sheepishly, but probably not for the reason his friend
thought. Inside he felt a li le guilty. He hadn't been completely honest
with his friends about several things, including the fact that he had
three Paths, not just two. Nobody could leak something they didn’t
know and that was a bit of informa on that he was not ready to share
with the world–at least not this one. There was also the ma er of him
being a Champion for a dark god. He was s ll wrapping his head around
how the Morrigan existed in myths and legends in his world, but
apparently only existed in the other universe.

He looked up and said, "I'm coun ng on you guys to hold it down. With
all this publicity, recrui ng shouldn't be difficult, and maybe you can
even help take the city back before some of the more powerful
Returners arrive. But yeah, because I'm leaving soon, I need to do a few
things on my own before I'm gone.”

“Do you want to say goodbye to everybody?" asked Ethan. He gestured

at the cookout with his head.

"No, I don't think so. I'm not really good with goodbyes and I've kind of
already said what I needed to say to everybody anyway.”

It was true, too. The reporters had wanted to talk to everyone in Trifecta
a er the five that had par cipated le the portal. Instead, Max had
hustled his team away. He was on a me limit a er all. Luckily, on the
way back to the compound, he'd go en an opportunity to use Blake’s
phone to log into his email again.

Thinking of the pages-long email that his mother had sent him s ll made
him crack a grin. Whenever he finally returned to earth for good, she'd
definitely have quite a bit to say to him he was sure. She was definitely
not amused that a er wondering if he was s ll alive or not, he’d only
sent her an email and hadn’t told her he was going to visit. At least he
was sure she’d be taken care of now. The Trifecta guild would help, he
was sure.

“Don’t want to say goodbye? Suit yourself," said Ethan. He got up with a
groan and cracked his neck. "Figh ng monsters for a living is going to be
hard on the back. I can just feel it."

Max laughed. "I think you'll hang in there. Making a living and eventually
making lots of money if the world doesn't end first should be some
pre y good fringe benefits.”

“Hell yeah," said Ethan. Then the man held up an open hand. "Before
you go, I have to ask, even though I'm afraid it's rude…You keep talking
about your spirits and Lavinia in par cular. Is it possible that we can see
her?"

Max mentally thought to Lavinia, Do you want to show yourself?

The former summoner had been strangely quiet for more than a day, so
he wasn't sure what she'd say.

Lavinia's voice came back. It takes some energy, but why the hell not?
Mostly translucent and faintly glowing, Lavinia suddenly stood in the
parking lot. She was dressed exactly how she had been when Max first
met her–before any of the Earth culture or ou it changes she had
adopted since their contract.

All of the revelry on the other side of the parking lot ceased as her aura
se led and the other Challengers felt it. They all stared. Ethan's eyes
were prac cally bugging out of his head and he stu ered, "N-n-n-nice to
meet you!"

Lavinia nodded serenely before turning to Max and giving him a wink
that only he could see. She disappeared. "Well there you go," said Max.
"That's Lavinia."

"She's beau ful," mu ered Ethan.

"I'm sure she'll be happy to hear you say that." Max grinned, waved, and
said, “Adios!” Then he turned and a er a few bounding, running steps,
borrowed power from Slick to hop directly over the compound fence.
Then to stretch and get some distance, he kept running. He wasn't going
to go far, just wanted to see a li le bit more of the city one last me
before leaving. At Max's speed, it took prac cally no me at all to clear
four blocks. He used a combina on of summoner magic and parkour to
reach a three-story roo op. Perfect.

He sat cross-legged on the tar roof, doing a quick inventory. Other than
what he’d already been wearing, he had a couple new short swords from
the kobolds. Max made a face. He wondered again if he should grab
some things from Earth to take back with him. Every me he’d thought
about it before, he’d decided against it..

It was temp ng, but he wasn't sure if it'd be a good idea to take earth
tech or even food back with him. A er everything he'd experienced in
the Quartet, he didn't think it was a good idea to adver se the fact that
he had managed to return to his world already.

Max se led down further, making himself comfortable on the roo op,
and then he used mana to enlarge his hands. Then he began the
laborious process of pushing mana into his mana vault. The process was
slow, but even in the short me he had been prac cing, he'd been able
to speed it up.

The hour passed swi ly and before he knew it, his surroundings
changed. There had been no sense of transi on. One second he was s ll
on earth, si ng on a roo op. And the next, he was si ng on a stone
floor in the ancient abandoned temple. Max stood up and stretched..
"Home sweet home," his voice dripped sarcasm.

He was pensive as he exited the temple. Once outside, he checked his

body and his belongings to see if everything was in order. It was.
However, he was s ll only a one star mana body.

Max sat against the stony wall of the cavern in his own li le out-of-the-
area of the faun caves in the Cradle of Giants dungeon. The mana was
as thin as it had been before. Now that he’d been back on Earth for a
while, it felt even worse. He felt like a fish being forced to figure out a
way to exist on dry land.

“No, that’s not a very good metaphor,” Max murmured.

He retrieved the mana vault ar fact and bounced it on his palm. He

wasn't sure how yet, but he was certain that this device was his cket to
a second star mana body.

Now he just needed to figure out how.

 Chapter 8

Max frowned and his jaw dropped in surprise before he closed his
mouth with a click.

"It's really this easy, huh?" he mu ered. Max stared at the mana vault in
his hand and used his third eye to see its informa on again. Now it
read:

[Mana Vault of WD Arand]

Once charged, the mana vault can be triggered to release its stored mana.
Release can be adjusted for flow.

Capable of func oning while magically hidden or even in most storage

arrays. Once its owner is chosen, it will find its way back to its owner as
long as they are alive.

Current owner: Max Cunningham, Champion of The Morrigan

Extra effect 1: Faster mana charging speed with owner effort

Extra effect 2: Focused mana retrieval

Extra effect 3: Hidden

Now Max could focus on the stone and draw power out of it in the same
way that he had pushed mana into it. Except when the mana vault
released the mana, it went directly into the palm of his hand, making it
much easier to process. Now even less of it would be wasted than what
Max had managed before with his excellent mana control. Maybe a er
he prac ced a bit more, none of it would be wasted.

That was almost mythical levels of efficiency.

Max stared at the ar fact in his hand with shock. For a Blade Sorcerer,
especially a Blade Sorcerer of Max's experience, this ar fact was an
absolute game changer. Unfortunately, he didn't have a way to tell how
much mana was stored in the device. He could only reason that even
a er just a bit less than two full days on mana-rich Earth, it was a
substan al amount.

"There has to be more to it than this. In fact…I have a hunch this is going
to work," he said out loud to one side.

Lavinia and Slick both had appeared a while ago and were squa ng as
they watched him nker. Both of them nodded at his declara on but
neither was giving off vibes of really being convinced.

Max produced several mana units from his money pouch and crushed
one of them. As the mana dissipated, nothing happened. Disappoin ng,
he thought. He stared at where the mana had just been. One mana unit
wasn’t going to make or break him at this point, but all of that power
vanishing, being wasted, was s ll annoying.

Am I missing something? He wondered.

That’s it! He smacked a fist in an open palm a er remembering how he’d

been able to ac vate the first hidden ability of the Mana Vault–
encouraging the ar fact to draw the mana in by manually pushing it into
the device.

Max crushed another mana unit a er genera ng the now-familiar thin,

prosthe c hands from his own limbs. He had less to work with, but tried
using the same process. A few seconds later he grinned. It worked
perfectly.

He stood and did a dance. Slick got up and started dancing with him,
doing rings around his feet. “”Yes!” he hissed.

When he calmed a bit, he sat back down and regarded the mana vault.
What he’d just discovered meant that Max would be able to use his
mana units to improve his mana body much more efficiently than
before. The mana vault was truly a priceless and precious ar fact. But
the fact it was so powerful could actually be an issue. The problem now
was security.

Max rubbed his chin and stared at the ar fact. To one side, Lavinia said,
"You're thinking about how your mana vault can be stolen, right?"

"Yeah. The obvious, huh?”

The ghost nodded sagely. "That was one of the first things I thought of
a er you got it from the goddess."

Max tapped the stony ground he was si ng on with a finger as he

thought about the problem. There actually was a way for students of
the Quartets to keep items safe and even bring them back to their
original world, a technique ed to the soul…but it was expensive and
required an inspec on first. Most students never even made enough
money to make this route possible. Even though Max could afford it, he
wanted to avoid that route. He also didn’t trust anyone in the Quartet
to even see the mana vault, much less inspect it.

So that meant he had to hide it with his own power. He didn’t know
enough about Summoner powers. Maybe a spirit could do it, but the
odds of mee ng one–even if they existed–was slim. Blade Sorcerer
powers didn’t include anything that might help. A er all, Blade Sorcerers
were powerful and arrogant. As a rule, they didn’t do a lot of hiding
much of anything.

That le Bead Sorcerer abili es. Max actually knew of a few different
solu ons that he could pursue as a Bead Sorcerer, but easy
enchantment, or imprint, was extremely mana-intensive. At least he was
pre y sure. Either way, even if he had the mana reserves, each op on
would be too complex for him right now. Skill could be learned, but this
dungeon had no mana.

"Lavinia," he said.
"That's my name, don't wear it out."

"Ha ha," Max said without humor. "So this dungeon will last pre y much
forever, right?”

“As long as you don't die. Please don’t die."

Max ignored the sarcasm as his face was slowly transformed by a smile.
"You know what? I have an idea.”

“Are you going to tell me?" asked Lavinia.

"I think I will.” Max idly scratched the back of his as he thought out loud.
“No amount of me can help me become a stronger Blade Sorcerer in
this dungeon because ul mately I need a stronger mana body…and that
can only be accomplished with more mana and me. Time is not a
problem. But I have a finite amount of mana available. My guess is that
since I could have maybe barely achieved a two-star mana body before
going to earth, and making three stars requires even more resources, I
probably don’t have enough to make three stars in this dungeon. The
amount I collected in the mana vault would have to be a really
staggering amount to make it but I wasn’t there long.

“Another issue is that right now I have items that I really don't want to
lose or have stolen. But I'm different than I used to be too. Now I also
have Bead Sorcerer knowledge. It just so happens that Bead Sorcerers
can hide things or create a pocket dimension using several different
methods. And it also just so happens that I have an absolute crap ton of
beads on me to prac ce with.

“The only thing stopping me from crea ng personal pocket spaces for
myself is the complexity and mana usage required. But maybe I can play
around with that requirement…or maybe I'll have enough le a er
hi ng a two-star mana body. I don't know how long it'll take me but I'd
definitely rather waste two years in here than shu ng myself in a room
for several years in the Quartet."
"It sounds like a plan to me," said Lavinia. "Once you prac ce more, you
can make all sorts of pre y beaded jewelry." She gave him a toothy
smile and said, "Are you ready to accessorize, Max Cunningham?"

Max smiled back and he was amused but under the joke he could s ll
sense an edge of…something. It was obvious at this point that Lavinia
had been affected by their trip to Earth. But Max was going to be stuck
in this dungeon for some me and he was planning to let her tell him
what was on her mind whenever she felt ready.

Max se led in with the Mana Vault on his lap and began working on
achieving a two-star mana body.

Time passed, but Max paid it no mind. The stronger he got, the easier it
was to control his mind, direc ng it away from any discomfort or
thoughts that might disrupt his work. He s ll had me to think, and he
spent most of it going through the vast amounts of knowledge he’d
received on Bead Sorcery.

When he finally reached the next level, it felt like he could breath again,
like he’d been holding his breath for an hour. Maybe he had been.

“Two stars again.” Max stood in amazement and gripped one hand using
his newfound power. Then he checked his screen. Reaching this next
level had taken him about five days. He did some quick math, adding
together his total me reaching his current level. "This has got to be a
record or something," he mu ered.

Lavinia appeared. "You feel different," she said. "Did you do it?"

"Sure did," said Max. He jumped up as far as he could, hands up in case

he’d misjudged, and was pleased to find he could barely touch the
ceiling of the huge cavern he was in now. With Slick’s help, he’d be able
to jump even higher. On the way down, he used his internal mana
control to slow his fall. The more refined mana control a Blade Sorcerer
had, the more they could absolutely stretch their abili es at each level
of mana body. And Max had some of the best control that Albion. So
even as a two-star mana body Blade Sorcerer, Max was exponen ally
more dangerous. Unfortunately, he was s ll vulnerable, though. He
wouldn’t truly achieve the durability that Blade Sorcerers were famous
and feared for un l three stars.

Max began to stretch. He said, "A er using the Mana Vault for so long, I
can definitely sense how much it's got le . Based on what it took me to
get to a two star mana body there's definitely not enough le to make it
three stars.” He sighed. “Too bad. But I think I'm going to stop here and
rest. Then it’s faun fawn hun ng me." He showed his teeth. “I have
been in here, in the dark too long. And even now, those things are
dangerous. I don’t want fauns stabbing me in the ass when I start trying
to kill giants.”

Lavinia nodded and gave him a small, but fragile looking smile.

This must be it. Well, maybe, Max thought. Lavinia’s strange mood had
also been on his mind while he was working on his mana body. Maybe
she was finally going to tell him what had been on her mind.

The spirit began talking twice before she finally got out. "Can I ask you
something?"

"Sure, go ahead," said Max.

She shook her head angrily and said to herself, "No, not ask you
something, just… Damn. Get it together.” She sighed. "When we went to
Earth, I think for the first me in a very, very long me, I was reminded
of what life is really like.

“I was in the Quartet for seven years before I died and got stuck there.
When I first came to the Quartet, I wasn’t exactly old, either. Then I was
suddenly part of... everything, you know? When I was on Earth, even
though your world was under a ack and probably had seen be er days,
it made me feel like–" her voice trailed off. "Like I'd missed out on a lot.
And I'm really glad that I formed a contract with you.

“This has definitely been the most interes ng part of my life, a erlife,
whatever. I guess I feel my priori es changing. When I met you, I wanted
revenge. I wanted some sort of valida on, but now I feel like…maybe I
just want to see new things too. So," she said, then paused,seeming to
search for the words. "Can you promise me something? Actually two
things.”

“Go ahead.”

“I don't–I don't have a right to ask you this officially, but," her voice
trailed off. "We're friends, right?"

"Oh, we're definitely friends," said Max. "You have saved my ass and I
saved you from wandering around haun ng people for another few
hundred years."

Lavinia gave a genuine chuckle in response to that, and con nued,

"Well, both for your sake and mine, promise me that a er all of this
short-term stuff is don–-and of course, if you survive– that you give
yourself some me to relax. Spend me with friends. Don't just be Max
the three Paths Challenger, reincarna on of Chasa di Milo, Hero of
Albion. Spend some me, smell the roses, maybe eat some good food
with loved ones. Because take it from me, I know you've died once
already, but I've spent much more me being dead than I ever was alive.
And seeing your world in the middle of figh ng for its life just…affected
me. Witnessing you spend me with your friends there also affected me
but in a different way.

“I think that you are living at least part of life that I never did. And I like
to see it. And even if I'm not talking to people, and even if I'm a bit shy
to be seen, it makes me…happy. I s ll want closure, but now maybe I
want something more, too."

Suddenly she blushed and made a face. "Listen to me go on and on like

this. Maybe despite my best efforts I'm ge ng a li le bit wiser, huh?"

"Maybe that's part of it," said Max. "I think that like you said, you never
really got to experience a whole lot before you started haun ng
innocent, handsome men in bathrooms. You spent so much me
developing your mind that you might have neglected the social side."
"First, s u about the bathroom. Also, are you saying I was an -social?"
said Lavinia.

"Yes," said Max without hesita on.

"Asshole," said the ghost. She stuck out her tongue.

Max shrugged. "Anyway, you don't have to worry about it. I always plan
to take down me, and you're always going to be along for the ride,
whether I like it or not."

"You bet your three-Path ass I will.” To one side, Slick reacted to the
serious conversa on by doing cartwheels and flips. Lavinia no ced the
an cs and rolled her eyes at the gyra ng spirit.

"Slick's a character, huh?" said Max.

"You don't know the half of it. You just really don't. I’m a spirit too so
there are…levels."

Max laughed. "Alright, well I'm going to take a nap and then I think it's
me to do some serious faun killing."

"Sounds like a plan. I would tell you to be careful, but I know you won’t
listen. Just promise you’ll have a plan. A good one."

"Always," said Max.

 Chapter 9

The sword in Max's hand felt far less solid than it ever had before as he
crouched in the dark. While the weapon had served him well and was
s ll in rela vely good shape–he'd always protected it with mana and
kept up with maintenance–it was lacking now. He needed something
be er as a two-star mana body Blade Sorcerer.

He’d make do.

The darkness pressed in around him, but a er all this me in the caves,
it felt familiar. Max was en rely accustomed to this environment. Now
he waited pa ently for all of Lavinia's spirits to come back with their
reconnaissance report.

His skill at using the spirits to gather informa on had improved by leaps
and bounds. The days of stumbling around blind, like while ini ally
exploring the Cradle of Giants dungeon outside, were over. Hopefully.

He glanced to the le at the chasm that separated this area of the faun
caves from the ledge where he'd basically been living. He had a strange
urge to form a pair of gliding wings with Lavinia's spirits and try
descending to the bo om. He’d resisted the urge.

There were mul ple reasons why that would be a dumb thing to do. Just
because he visited out-of-the-way places didn't mean there would be
anything notable there. And more importantly, he might not be able to
come back. Dungeons, even rank five dungeons like this one, could s ll
be surprising and extremely dangerous for the unwary.

Max crouched behind a rocky outcropping that probably wouldn't have

been a good enough hiding place before all the fauns had moved out of
the open and into the caves. But now, it was fine. The only faun
presence in what used to be one of their large encampments was a
roving band of guards that Max observed as they watched the
surrounding darkness with obvious nervousness.

They were searching for Max. Wai ng for his inevitable return.

Finally, Lavinia popped into existence before him, showing herself to his
eyes only, and Max received a concentrated blast of informa on. His
communica on with Lavinia had been ge ng much be er lately,
probably because he was capable of receiving and understanding
informa on much quicker. Having a two star mana body helped
everything move faster, including his mind.

A er this new update, now Max knew everything that Lavinia's spirits
had discovered. She nodded at him once in acknowledgement and Max
nodded back before she disappeared again.

The spirits had been thorough, not only scou ng the surrounding
tunnels but trying to get a good understanding of the larger layout of
the caves. At this point, escape was no longer Max's greatest priority.
With his new level of power, merely escaping would not be that difficult.
Instead, Max planned complete eradica on of the fauns. He needed the
mana unit resources, and they were far too dangerous to leave alive.

On both arms now, he had several bracelets he'd made that all sported
at least a dozen beads each. Some of the bracelets had beads that were
all of one type and others were mixed. Now that Max had worked a bit
more on his Bead Sorcerer abili es, he could tell at a glance or even by
feel which was which. He had at least a hundred new types of spell
beads and had also learned new triggers. His favorite was one that
required inten onally channeling a bit of mana into the enchanted bead
before it would be armed.

The amount of mana that he could push into a bead had increased and
his overall control had also go en be er. But the greatest improvement
he'd made was with general Bead Sorcerer theory–understanding the
basics. His surface understanding earlier had been correct. Now Max
be er understood the limits of just skill. In the absence of Ambient
mana, like in this dungeon, all of the power for his beads would have to
come from within. When Max was stronger, using his own mana would
not be too big of a deal, actually. The way he cycled his mana made it
infinitely regenerate.

He’d confirmed it.

And it did make sense, because even if he ran out of power in the past,
he could always just rest or wait for it to come back. Max had always
intui vely known that some of this ability was internal, but this was the
first me he'd really had to explore the basis behind it. A er all, on
Albion, mana was plen ful.

Unfortunately, some Bead Sorcerer constructs, imprints, really did

require a lot more mana than Max currently had. In fact, some of them
were even rela vely simple enough for him to make right now, but just
needed too much power. That was frustra ng, especially since he was
trying to arm himself for mul ple fights.

At a minimum, he had to deal with the fauns, then the giants, and then
whatever was wai ng for him back in the Quartet. With the informa on
fresh in his mind, Max reviewed his new intel and planned how he was
going to subjugate the fauns. He reasoned that they didn't probably
leave their cave system to go out in the giant-infested forest, at least not
very far or very o en.

Even so, once Max started this fight, he didn’t want any fauns running
away. He was planning to use this cave system as his base of opera ons
and didn’t want any of the monsters coming back for revenge later.

It also meant if he had the ability, he didn't want to damage the caves
too much.

He waited for the next patrol of fauns to pass, watching them as they
moved around, their torches burning as they checked the handful of
standing torches around the cavern, all crea ng their own li le pools of
light. The guard shi s maintained them.
Max watched un l they eventually le . He knew from careful
observa on that the next round of guards would be by in another one
to ten minutes. It was me to act.

As he ghosted up to one of the seemingly dark and empty tunnels

leading deeper into the cave system, Max felt grateful for Lavinia's
amazing intelligence reports. Having invisible incorporeal spies that
could go prac cally anywhere was a tac cal advantage that he would
never want to do without again. Because of the spirits, Max knew that
the tunnel he was currently facing only looked dark because of a turn
and leathers being hung from the ceiling.

In actuality, this was one of the rooms that the guards bunked in and
was this close to the cavern so they could more easily run patrols…or be
ready to fight Max if he a acked again. It was also designed to catch him
unawares if he tried to sneak in. But even if Max hadn't ini ally been
surprised by a faun trap before, Lavinia had already told him about the
couple deadly traps in this short stretch of hallway.

Max easily avoided the traps, made easy since he already knew where
they were, and crept up to the covering blocking the tunnel. Then he
took hold of one of the beads on his wrist and with a slight bit of effort,
a bit of focus, he pulled the enchanted bead right off the string. This was
one of the stranger abili es a Bead Sorcerer could awaken and one that
Max was incredibly grateful for–allowing him to much more easily
prepare his weapons and use them quickly.

He tossed the bead in his mouth and swallowed. Seconds later, he felt
the effects were taking hold. Then, he removed two more beads from his
bracelet. He moved the thick leather covering ahead in the tunnel aside
and tossed both beads into the room. Wish it was stronger, he thought.
Poison gas would have been be er, but powerful effects like that would
have to wait un l he was a bit more advanced as a Bead Sourcer.

What he’d just used would work, though. The stench that he just
created would definitely not be pleasant for the fauns inside. He could
smell the niest bit it around the edge of his bead-granted protec on,
un l it took full effect.
The sound of retching, coughing, and sudden panic came from behind
the curtain. Time to go. Max pushed the hanging leather aside and
sprang into the room, his sword delivering flashing death.

He was on a me crunch. Eventually, a faun was going to sound the

alarm, and Max wanted to do as much damage as possible before
star ng a deadly game of cat and mouse. He slaughtered his way
through the handful of awake, but mostly s ll half-asleep faun soldiers.

Suddenly, the alarm sounded. Max tsked. One of them must have go en
away.

He paused, quickly processing the new burst of informa on that Lavinia

sent him and ran through an opening on the far side of the room, taking
a right through the hallway. There were an awful lot of fauns charging in
his direc on, but now that Max had some limited ranged a ack abili es,
and a much faster, easier way of ge ng intel, the monsters were going
to have a very, very hard me even finding him, much less stopping him.

In some ways, the fact the creatures had moved deeper into the tunnels,
although dangerous to Max with a one-star mana body, were
advantageous to him now with a two star mana body. He felt a thrill run
up his spine, equal parts fear and excitement. This was do-or-die at this
point. Max assumed that if he ran away and went back over the chasm
again, the fauns might just cut their losses and trigger cave-ins for every
tunnel leading to where he was living.

Retreat was probably not a good op on unless he found another handy

area of the cave system that only he could reach…and that was highly
unlikely. No, this was going to be a long fight.

Max was prepared for it.

 Chapter 10

Max stood quietly in a corner, making no sound at all. Even so, he knew
that the feral fauns probably would have been able to find him by now
without his magical advantages. In addi on to his network of spirit
informants, he’d used one of his few stealth beads, ac va ng it and
dropping it at his feet. They had limited u lity, but should be enough to
help hide his scent for another few minutes.

The real MVP of his con nued success was definitely Lavinia’s spirits
relaying informa on, though. He’d be incredibly impressed if not for the
memories of his past life. Back on Albion, his strength had been so
potent, he’d been able to send thousands of mana pings out like radar.
It’d been like a second sight.

Figh ng in close confines, engaging in guerilla warfare was ring. He'd

been doing well so far, but he definitely needed to either catch the
fauns in a good ambush spot or manipulate them into giving him the
upper hand before striking. Even with Max's superhuman levels of
endurance, he was already star ng to feel the strain.

At least with this new strategy and his new abili es, killing the damned
shamans had been possible, and that's exactly what he'd been doing.
He’d been whi ling them down. Unfortunately, the monsters had caught
on to his inten ons and were not only hiding the shamans be er now
but also giving them guards and the rest of them were hun ng him in
earnest. If Max hadn't been a new Bead Sorcerer, he figured that he
probably would have needed to retreat by now. There was no way he
would have been able to clear out all these monsters in one go without
his new abili es.
When his network of spiritual informants let him know that this newest
group of fauns didn’t have any other groups close enough to quickly
help them, he skulked out of the hallway and followed. There was one
shaman in this group bea ng a drum and otherwise making it
impossible for the group to move quietly. The shaman was flanked by
two warriors that kept close. It wouldn’t be a problem for Max, not if he
struck fast.

He waited un l the group ahead rounded a corner before speeding up

so he could launch a surprise a ack the moment he caught up.

Max threw a bead far ahead to the front of the enemy column that
burst into heavy gray smoke, bringing visibility to almost zero. However,
he s ll remembered where all of the fauns were and managed to find
the shaman within seconds. Blinded as he was, his a acks were not as
clean as he would have liked. S ll effec ve, though.

A quick cut followed by a heavy diagonal slash ended the squawking of

the shaman. He used Lavinia's summons to help him get an idea of
where the remaining monsters were. Their informa on was not perfect,
but was powerful nonetheless. This ability was fairly new and Max was
s ll not good at using it, but within ten or fi een feet it helped a lot–
especially in a situa on like this one where his enemy couldn’t see.

Max methodically moved forward and managed to kill off the en re

group before the smoke began to clear. Once it was over, he thought he
could hear approaching monsters down the tunnels and a moment later
the spirits confirmed it for him. Time to go.

He ran away towards the main cavern, ready to add some fuel to the fire
of his new plan. So far, it seemed like it was working. He made sure his
footsteps were plenty loud before burs ng out of a tunnel into the
largest cavern of the cave system.

This was the area he'd spo ed when he first entered the caves before
falling down the trap. And what he'd seen before had only been a small
part of it. This cavern was actually where the majority of the fauns were
living right now. The non-warriors shied away and meowed as Max ran
through the area at a dead sprint. But he wasn't fooled. On one of his
earlier dashed through this area, an ancient Fawn had suddenly cast a
fireball at him and right a erwards two adolescents had rushed him
with spears.

Some mes, even with all the experience Max had, he forgot that
monsters could not be judged by the same standards as other sen ent
beings. While dealing with certain types of monsters, it would always be
a fight for survival. And if the roles were reversed, the monsters would
have no problem at all killing every human man, woman, and child.

Max dodged several arrows and a rock hurled from a sling, and
completely avoided a group of thirty fighters that tried to intercept him.
The groups of feral fauns could only move as fast as their shamans but it
s ll wouldn't have ma ered even if they weren't being held back. With
his two star mana body, now Max was just too fast to be caught. On top
of his natural speed, he also used hops of Slick's power to completely
clear any obstacles in his way.

He entered a side tunnel and tossed a rock growth bead behind him.
The moment the bead struck the ground, a three-foot wide column of
solid stone erupted from the floor un l it impacted the ceiling. His aim
had been perfect. Now there was barely enough room to the side of the
blockage for Max to squeeze back through if he needed to, but none of
the full-grown fauns could follow. He’d been careful not to demonstrate
this fact to any of them, though. In fact, he was fairly certain they’d
bought his misdirec on that the pillars stopped him as well.

His plan was to lure all of the creatures into the large cavern and
bombard them with his explosion beads. A er all, this strategy had
worked extremely well with the kobolds back on earth. He just needed
to keep staying ahead of the damn things.

And that's exactly what he did for the next hour. The fauns were never
able to catch up with him. He was always a step ahead, and when he
wasn’t, he faked it with his magically-enhanced hiding.
Finally, when he judged the me was right, instead of entering the
cavern from the last remaining unobstructed tunnel, he ghosted to one
of the tunnels he'd already been down and closed off with a pillar of
stone. Then he peeked into the cavern and confirmed with his own eyes
what the spirits had been telling him.

The vast majority of the monsters were arranged in a semicircle around

the last tunnel's entrance. All their weapons were aimed directly at it as
they waited for him. None of the shamans were drumming or singing.
The ba le had lasted long enough that they were exhausted and now
each of the magic-cas ng fauns held a weapon of their own, standing
with the warriors.

Max grinned. This is exactly what he'd been wai ng for. Each of his
explosion beads didn't do that much damage on its own, at least not
when monsters this strong were considered. And unfortunately, there
wasn't an easy way to actually increase the blast power. This meant that
for higher level monsters, the explosion beads had limited u lity and
would eventually be useless. Max wasn’t even considering using the
explosion beads against creatures like the giants.

But for a situa on like this, and given the current situa on where Max
had several bracelets laden with explosion beads–over forty of them–
they could be helpful indeed. Now he just needed a good angle.

Staying unno ced, he quietly squeezed through the tunnel blockage,

judged a good angle and let fly. Before the beads had even hit the
ground, he was already retrea ng past the stone growth back into the
rela ve safety of the blocked tunnel.

The explosions were glorious, sounding like mul ple firecrackers on the
Fourth of July…on steroids. Vibra ons in the surrounding stone made
small rocks on the tunnel floor jump. Max didn't bother to go back out
and check for survivors. His spirits could do that. A moment later, he
both heard and felt another of his traps go off.

He’d already go en his spirits’ help to trap the last remaining tunnel.
The spirits had silently carried his ice explosion beads there, and they’d
been instructed to spring the trap when the tunnel had been full of
enemies. Sure enough, a moment later, Max could hear the sounds of
grieving, wailing, and pain increase in volume. His eyes narrowed and he
began the long jog from his posi on back around to the trapped tunnel.

The fauns were beaten but they might not know it yet. Max wasn't
relaxing, though, not taking any chances. They could s ll be dangerous.

Even individually, they were very strong and capable of killing Max if he
let his guard down. However, now that there were fewer of them le
alive, he was able to breathe a li le asier. In fact, he finally could use his
ectoplasm armor again.

The problem with being sneaky, using Lavinia's spirits for reconnaissance
was that they were always away, not available to form glowing
protec on for his body. Now with a thought, his armor sprang back into
place and Max grimly ran forward, preparing to end every last one of the
fauns in this cave system. He thought it was poe c jus ce of sorts that
he'd been dragged into all this by a trap. Now his own trap had begun
the beginning of the end for his enemies.

Without giving away his presence un l it was too late, Max dashed into
the trapped tunnel and mercy killed several fauns with flash-frozen legs
before the rest could even register his presence.

When they belated through the pain in surprise and alarm, Max
watched for reinforcements. None came.

As plans went, this one had gone great.

He hadn’t known what to think about being a new Bead Sorcerer at first,
but now he was a fan. And he also knew he was only scratching the
surface of what he might be able to do in the future.

He went to each of the stricken feral fauns in turn, methodically

slaughtering them all. This was ugly work, but it was be er them than
him.
 Chapter 11

His breath came in bellows, stress making his body react in a more
extreme way than merely some shortness of breath would normally
trigger. A crash from a large log hi ng the ground and pinwheeling away
made an angry buzz that sounded like death. It was a reminder that a
single hit from a projec le like that would leave him broken and
helpless.

Safety was ahead. He turned up the speed, his feet prac cally flying over
the ground. Slick helped him avoid tripping on anything, because that
would mean death, too.

Max ran into the cave, not stopping even though he was fairly sure he
wasn’t in immediate danger anymore. But being cau ous wouldn’t hurt.
His heart beat like a jackhammer as he con nued forward at breakneck
speed and Slick kept helping him avoid falling on his face.

A few moments later, his cau on proved wise as a torrent of head-sized

stones careened around the tunnel behind him at high velocity. He kept
running for a few more minutes, vaul ng over the trap that had
originally caught him. With a wheeze, he finally stopped in the main
chamber of what used to be the feral faun encampment.

He se led into a crude wicker chair that he'd claimed from his fallen
enemy's belongings and leaned his head back as he got his breathing
back under control. Lavinia appeared with her arms crossed. The spirit
looked even more worried than Max was red. "That didn't go well, did
it?" she asked.

"Sure didn't. Nope."

As he thought about the short skirmish he'd just had, his gaze randomly
traveled around the cavern. He was glad that he'd put all the extra effort
into disposing of all the fawn corpses. It hadn’t been very fun to do, but
the alterna ve would have made the place unlivable.

He'd spent the last week perfec ng his Bead Sorcery and prac cing
swordplay. Now Max could tell it was going to be necessary for every
new rank of mana body he achieved to prac ce in order to reclaim all of
his old muscle memory.

Having already mastered mul ple disciplines in his former life meant
that the refreshers didn't actually take very long. There were perks to
building his mana body and one of them was the extreme speed that he
was able to train if he needed to.

He turned his a en on back to the conversa on he knew he needed to

have with his spirits. Slick appeared a few feet away and the li le spirit
crossed their arms in what could only be interpreted as a concerned
look. "Don't worry," Max told them, "I'm not going back out there right
away. That was not awesome.”

“That was reckless," said Lavinia. “A er the second giant joined in you
should have run away immediately."

"Yeah, well, mistakes were made," said Max.

"What about when the third giant joined in?" asked Lavinia.

“Well, that was when I ran away, right?” Max shrugged. He didn’t regret
s cking around even though it’d been dangerous. He'd go en a good
amount of intel from the encounter. One piece of which being that the
giants would ac vely support each other if they were in danger.

On top of that, they were even more fearsome than he'd originally
thought. Each giant was different. Their propor ons differed slightly and
they were even somewhat different sizes. They could all be
unpredictable, too.
One of the giants that Max had just fought wore some sort of crude
armor made from huge bones held together with sinew or woven rope.

But the most distressing thing he'd learned though was how all of them
were willing to use impromptu weapons like picking up and hurling trees
or even taking a handful of the dirt and rocks around them to throw.

When Max had finally retreated to the caves, the giants had
immediately slowed, likely well accustomed to the feral fauns going to
ground. But as he’d been running away, from the corner of his eye, Max
had seen one of them stoop to pick up a handful of something. He’d
intuited what was likely coming next.

Then a er experiencing the volume and power of the giant’s throws, he

knew why the feral fauns had maintained such a long tunnel before
their actual home. Anything closer and it might have been demolished
by stone throws of the petulant giants.

Lavinia tapped her ghostly foot. "Whether you go right back out or
whether you take a while before figh ng again, I sure do hope you have
a be er plan next me."

"Of course I will," said Max. He chuckled, but quickly sobered and
started to think out loud. "The biggest problem is, they're really big and
they're also really tough. All of their weak points are too far up on their
body for me to reach them without exposing myself too much. Like, if I
leave the ground for too long I can't dodge very well and taking a full-on
hit from one of those things would probably break every bone in my
body. I'm not tough enough yet to tank one."

"So what are you going to do about it?" asked Lavinia.

Max lted his head back to look at the stony ceiling. He paused,
thinking, then said, "I have two possible solu ons, and I'm going to try
both. The first is to maybe meet another spirit to contract with. As
you've said before, it's generally not a good idea to try contrac ng with
more than one spirit per general area. That’s even if I could meet one.
It’s usually considered a longshot at best, even in ideal circumstances,
and this is a dungeon.

“I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it before here, due to the strange nature
of this place. Some mes inten onally trying to meet spirits can be
dangerous, too. To tell the truth, I was actually hoping that I would
organically bump into one like I met you, but I know that's probably as
rare as ge ng struck by lightning. But I can use your special spirit
summoning method, Lavinia. This area is s ll sketchy, but the spell
makes the odds of succeeding a lot higher."

Lavinia had been about to speak but she closed her mouth and nodded
with a frown.

"I have the perfect idea of where to do it, too,” con nued Max.

"All right," said Lavinia. "I did no ce before that you weren't trying to
meet any new spirits here and I kind of figured that was the reason.
A er all, this is a dark and sinister place with no mana."

"Yeah, well so is the quartet," said Max. His grin held no humor.

"Good point," said the spirit. "So what's the other plan?"

"Well, contrac ng another spirit is actually plan B, because I don't know

if I'm going to meet any, and even if I do, I don't know how useful they'd
be. It’s a long shot. In reality, I've go en extremely lucky with you two
already." He nodded at Lavinia and Slick. Lavinia made an embarrassed
face and Slick did a backflip.

"So my highest priority plan is to figure out how to create more

powerful imprinted beads than I have before."

"I thought you couldn't though," said Lavinia. "Like even if you keep
prac cing, you just don't have the power necessary. All you can use is
what’s inside you, and it takes power to make your beads as-is. You can't
make an unlimited amount per day at your current level."
"That's true,but I s ll have mana units le that I might be able to u lize,
and…I can try some things. Like remember the technique I created to
pack mana into it mana vault faster? Maybe I can try to do something
similar to affect Bead Sorcery, like…break some mana units and then
shove that power into a bead."

Lavinia raised an eyebrow. "That sounds extremely risky, dangerous, and

probably not a good idea."

"Probably," said Max cheerily. "But risks like that are exactly how I've
been able to make every breakthrough in the past. Don't get me wrong,
some of them came at a cost and I definitely almost died a few mes
but…no risk, no reward."

"Max Cunningham, if you kill yourself in this place with a stupid magical
science experiment, I'm going to haunt you a er death. Even if it takes
decades, you could probably dig traps and just kill the damn things that
way."

"Fair enough," said Max. “But lets’ try to do it my way first.” Then he
stood up, cracked his neck, and stretched his shoulders. "The blood is
s ll pumping and I’m strangely mo vated right now. Let's get started."
 Chapter 12

It took Max several days to verify that there was no way to push more
mana from his surroundings into a bead for a higher level inscrip on or
imprint. He tried not to think about how many mana units he had to
waste during his experiments.

The day he finally gave up on it, Max took a walk around the empty
caverns that he'd cleansed of all feral fauns. He moved with confidence,
feeling rela vely safe since Lavinia's spirits were ranging both ahead and
behind him as scouts, a habit that his contracted spirit had developed
over me.

When Max rounded a bend and saw a place where he had hidden,
hunkering down during his epic last ba le with the monsters, he
spontaneously stopped. Inspira on had just struck. He dropped into a
seated posi on and began breaking mana units to shove into his mana
vault. Then he drew some of the mana in towards his two star mana
body. He kept this process up for half a day, just le ng his mind wander,
not thinking about anything in par cular, when he was finally able to
finish pondering the inspira on he’d had.

Now he had a solid idea but wasn't en rely sure how to go about tes ng
it. The mana vault sat on his palm, delivering a constant stream of
power. He was currently direc ng all of the mana to the por on of his
heart that would help him develop a stronger mana body before
spreading it to his mind and extremi es. But… What if I adjust the
device, alter the flow of power, and try to direct it to a different point in
my heart? It felt like it might work, but Max wasn’t even sure where to
start.

He began to nker.
The process was not intui ve and took him some me to actually
succeed at. But when he finally did, the mana vault shuddered as what
had been a gentle trickle became a torrent.

Mana prac cally gushed out of the ar fact, filling Max with an incredible
amount of mana, making his teeth start to vibrate. In an astonishingly
short amount of me, Max was so saturated with mana, if he were to
take any more in, it might be dangerous. He could actually explode!

With a yelp, he cut off the connec on to the mana vault and then
mentally explored his own body with a sense of wonder. He had at least
a three-star mana body worth of poten al mana in his system now.
Maybe even as high as a four star mana body, but barely. For Max's
current level, it was an astonishing amount of power.

Of course, it wasn't very deep. He'd only be able to accomplish roughly

one ac on with it. It would work almost like a capacitor for a camera's
flash, allowing him to accomplish something that otherwise would be
out of his capabili es. The price was a brief charge up period and a level
of heightened concentra on. I can use this.

Suddenly, he heard a ding in his head and a window popped up. It read:

You have completed the Mana Vault of WD Arand.

He quickly opened his third eye and examined the mana vault. Now it
read:

[Mana Vault of WD Arand]

Once charged, the mana vault can be triggered to release its stored mana.
Release can be adjusted for flow.

Capable of func oning while magically hidden or even in most storage

arrays. Once its owner is chosen, it will find its way back to its owner as
long as they are alive.

Current owner: Max Cunningham, Champion of The Morrigan

Extra effect 1: Faster mana charging speed with owner effort

Extra effect 2: Focused mana retrieval

Extra effect 3: Mana stacking in-body

Max dismissed the window, stood, and grinned. The supercharge he'd
go en from the mana vault was amazing but he could tell that only one
usage had expended a lot of the mana that had been le in the ar fact.
If he ever wanted to reach a three-star mana body, he could definitely
not abuse this power. S ll, it was an incredible advantage. Now he had
more op ons available for Bead Sorcery and even limited applica ons of
his Blade Sorcerer abili es. Max smiled and mentally called Lavinia. He
was going to tell her the good news before moving to another part of
the caves.

He’d accomplished half of his goals surprisingly quickly. Now it was me

to see if there were any spirits in this place that might be willing to have
a chat.

***

“Ouch. Two star mana body and my ass s ll hurts.” He winced as he

complained.

Max got up from the stony ground. He had just finished his third
repe on of Lavinia's special spirit communica on spell. Spell lines and
arcane equa ons were spread on the ground, radia ng from his
posi on. Almost everything was already set up and he just needed to
switch out a few of the ingredients and components between tries. But
now that he'd just finished his third a empt, he only had two more.

"Are you sure you want to do this here?" asked Lavinia. The former
Summoner sat on a rock. Slick was on her knee, mimicking her, si ng in
exactly the same pose.

"I think so, yeah," said Max. "I know you s ll think I should try this at
where I entered the dungeon, but it’s too dangerous there right now.
Besides, I…just want to do it here. Part of it is what I know from what
I've read. Part of it is experiences I've had in my past life. And part of it is
just a hunch."

He was standing near the edge of the abyss that he'd thrown all the
bodies of the slain feral fauns into. Not long ago, he’d been living in the
darkness on the other side, near the ancient temple. He had magical
ways to dispose of garbage, but the bodies of the monsters had been
too large and too numerous to bother trying to get rid of with magic.
Throwing them away had been more prac cal.

The chasm was so deep that even now, days later, he couldn't smell any
corrup on from the long-dead corpses.

"Are you going to try it right away again?" asked Lavinia.

"No," said Max. "I'm going to take a break first." He le the circle and
took a walk to clear his head. Le ng any feelings of disappointment
fester wouldn’t help his next a empt. He wanted a clear mind.

Max's rou ne as he worked to get stronger included studying Bead

Sorcery, prac cing Bead Sorcery, repea ng mar al arts forms, and trying
to encounter a new spirit that he might be able to form a contract with.
On his second try, he actually had met a spirit, but it hadn’t gone
anywhere. The spirit had been very strange, really weak, and neither of
them had wanted to form a contract with the other. Even though the
mee ng had been a failure, Max was s ll glad for the experience
because now he knew what it was like as a Summoner to reject and be
rejected in turn.

A er his training ac vi es for the day were done, Max briefly checked
his internal clock before se ling down to sleep. He vowed that a er
waking up, he would try the spirit contact circle Lavina had invented one
more me near the chasm, then if it didn’t work, he’d move it. Maybe
he’d even try the spell where she’d suggested he do it in the first place.

Back at his arcane circle, he lit the candles around the edge, sat in the
center, and prepared to give it another try. However, this me on
impulse, he also used the mana vault to supercharge his internal mana.
He wasn't really expec ng to succeed. But suddenly, he felt like he’d just
grabbed an electric fence.

Contact!

He was sure of it, this was brushing against the presence of a spirit, but
the sensa on was completely and totally different from what he'd
experienced when he'd first met Slick. It felt even more different from
when he’d felt the weak spirit on his second try.

This spirit felt cold, alien, ancient, and immensely powerful.

Then Max found himself in a fight unlike any he’d ever had before. An
intense contest of wills that pushed him. If he’d been a lesser man, he
likely would have immediately broken.

Something inside Max, his old stubbornness, a dark corner of his soul
that found excitement in danger flared to life. I was Chasa de Milo! he
mentally snarled. Bring it!

The spiritual tug of war lasted a while, but the longer it went, the
stronger Max became. It felt like he was stretching muscles that had
been atrophied. But the danger, the contest, it all awakened and
revitalized primal parts of his soul.

He was a warrior! He’d been called a hero, but what was he actually
good at? What was his greatest talent?

I break things! I will break the world if I have to! His mental voice
shouted the truth in his mind space, and he felt the spirit send back
approval in response. Max took the slight slack as an opening, spiritually
going for the throat. The spirit’s surprise registered as Max
metaphysically ghtened his hands and his jaws, a emp ng to destroy
his a acker. He’d won. The spirit was retrea ng.
There was a flash.

Suddenly, all the pressure ceased as quickly as it had started and Max
found himself in an endless gray space. Now he could see himself,
although he could sense it was not his real body. This was a construct in
his mind. He could feel Lavinia and Slick again. Slick was trying to be as
small as possible, a emp ng to hide behind Max’s soul. Lavina was
shaking, but Max sensed it was less from fear than surprise.

She mentally whispered, Max, this spirit is stronger than me, and I’m an
officer level spirit. Or Captain-level.

“Indeed, it is as that uninspired but no doubt well-meaning contracted

spirit of yours has said.” A figure appeared in front of Max, a tall shadow
of inky blackness that made him suddenly imagine acres of carrion, torn
and ribs exposed. Blazing red eyes regarded Max, at least two feet
higher than his own. “As Summoners measure these things, I believe I
am a Warlord-level spirit.”

Max was s ll heated from the ba le of wills. Through their bond he felt
Lavinia’s terror as he took a step forward, his voice raised. “So first you
try to kill me, then you listen in on conversa ons!? Who the fuck do you
think you are? This is our first mee ng, and I’m half tempted to devote
as much me as necessary learning how to completely destroy you! And
you’d deserve it! What bullshit kind of way of mee ng someone is this?”

“Yesssss!” The dark spirit’s voice was deep, gra ng, and pleased with
itself. “That is the fire I saw, the reason we are having this conversa on
in the first place! Too few would-be Summoners are even worth the me
to no ce, much less talk to.”

Max glared. “I can give zero fucks about your weird ass compliments
right now. The fact is, you must be interested in me if we are having this
conversa on, but I am not convinced I shouldn’t just kick you the fuck
out of my mindspace and then track your spectral ass down a er
figuring out how to hurt you.”
“YESSSSS! Wonderful!” The spirit chuckled and the sound was awful, like
a demented villain gloa ng at the end of a tunnel.

“I’m serious, tall, dark, and insane. Start talking now, or I’m kicking you
the fuck out. What do you want?”

“Oh, this is delicious! Truly sublime! My name is Saliron. Now I have

introduced myself, Max, once known as Chasa de Milo! Oh yes, I heard
your challenge. A lion’s roar! I s ll do not understand your words, but
they carried such weight, heavy as a millstone. And the smell of blood…
so dense and delicious! Truly an auspicious mee ng! As you have
surmised, I wish to explore forming a contract!” The spirit laughed, a full
throated, deranged cackle.

“What are your terms?” asked Max, words clipped.

You are considering this? Asked Lavinia. This is a dark spirit, one of the
darkest I have ever seen without being overtly evil!

Max was s ll angry, but in the test of wills he’d just had with this spirit,
Saliron, the informa on had flowed both ways. The same way Saliron
knew more about Max now, even hidden pieces of himself, he had some
understanding of Saliron, too. He’d felt a hunger, a burning need. It
wasn’t evil, per se, just…coarse, and selfish.

Underneath it was was a…strange desire to serve. But also a resistance

against it.

He thought to Lavinia, Those who hate swords, or any other weapons

think they are dark, or even evil. A tool may be sinister, but is not evil on
its own. Although simplis c and offensive, a contract spirit can be thought
of as a type of tool. A properly wielded tool conforms to the wielder.

“Well said!” crowed Saliron. The spirit’s manifesta on, almost like a
pillar with burning eyes, shi ed closer. “Now I am even more curious
what you will do! It has been many life mes since anyone has thought
of me as a tool! How invigora ng!”
“That is one hell of a funny sales pitch. Last chance before I evict you
from my head.”

“Yes, yes, so hasty mortals are. Hasty. But tasty. I digress! My area of
exper se, my realm of authority, is bones. I do so love bones! In fact,
that is why I happened to be nearby, and why I ini ally came to inspect
you in the first place. You dumped all the lovely corpses in the chasm
here, which further smashed the pre y bones. My children and I have
been nibble-nibbling, just tas ng the lovely bones. Playing in them,
around them. Making lovely memories.

“If I am contracted, my children will live in my contractor’s bones,

making them stronger, cuter, fresher. They can make the bones move,
can protect the bones. Whereas I can be sent to feel the bones of
another, to…how shall I say it delicately? Rearrange them. But the
stronger your enemy or the more resistance I have, the less I can do!”
The spirit’s dark form shook as his gravely voice aped crying. “It is a
travesty!”

When Max began tapping his foot, Saliron got the point and began
talking again. “All I ask in return during the period of my contract is
bones. At least one skeleton a year, procured through violence. And if
you contract with me, you will promise to never contract any spirit
weaker than me again.”

“So only Warlord and above?” Max asked.

“Indeed. A er all, I am an ar st, my work wri en in bone. It would be

insul ng to share a space with those who are baser, less…sophis cated.”

Max grunted. “If you’re talking about my spirits now, you can take it back
or get lost. They are not inferior to any other spirits in any way and I
value them immensely.”

“So you say! Commendable. But as I have relayed, a price for my service
is a certain level of, shall we say…pride of existence.”
Without the strange understanding of Saliron that Max had gained, he
wouldn’t even consider a contract. But now he was. Something about
the nature of what he’d seen, what he’d felt, made him sure that he was
not being tricked. It was similar to when he’d used his third eye.

Cau ously, he cracked his third eye a bit, just enough to view Saliron,
then shut it again immediately.

What he’d just seen had been a bit disturbing, but also matched up with
what he thought he already knew about the dark en ty.

I can feel how sure about this you are, said Lavinia. Even though I can’t
see what you see, since you’re that sure, you should take it. Besides, I felt
your fight. Saliron can’t overpower you in a contest of wills, especially now
that me and Slick are free to help you.

He won’t challenge me again, Max sent back. I don’t know how I know, but
I know. “Okay, Saliron,” Max said out loud. “I’ll give you bones to play
with at least once a year, procured with violence. I will not make a
contract with another spirit unless it’s at least at the Warlord level. And
you will serve me faithfully. Do we have a contract?”

“We do! How fantas c! I feel like I will get to see so many new bones
now!”

A new screen appeared, popping up in Max’s vision.

You have contracted with Saliron, Connoisseur of the Lovely Bones

He dismissed the screen. Then a rush of informa on materialized in his

head. He realized that Saliron’s subordinate spirits must have just
entered his body, strengthening his bones. He felt…stronger, more
sturdy. And with the power, came knowledge.

The spirit had actually undersold his abili es. A lot. Max blinked as he
reviewed what he knew now. What Saliron would allow him to do now
was just…brutal.
“Saliron, welcome to the team,” said Max, tone flat. “I’m going to rest,
but then we’re all going to plan how to kill giants a er I wake up.”

“Five of them? I am aware of the rules of this…dungeon.” The spirit said

the last word with distaste.

“No, I’m planning to kill all of them.”

“Wonderful! How elegant!” Saliron’s laughter rang from the ceiling of

the cavern, the sound following Max as he le the chasm.

Part of Max worried that he might have made the wrong choice, but he
couldn’t deny how powerful of a weapon he’d just acquired. Now he
was even more convinced that ancient Summoners actually were
anything but weak.

What Saliron could do…it flew in the face of everything Max knew about
magic. It broke rules. Even when Max had been Chasa de Milo, he would
have been extremely cau ous of anyone with the power he had through
Saliron now. He began to actually feel a li le sorry for what the giants
were about to experience, but he got over the feeling quickly.

No mercy. The weak could not afford it. Max had a long way to go before
he could start indulging in pity.
 Chapter 13

Max peeked through some dense bushes and spo ed the giant in the
distance. It's right where you said it was, he mentally sent to Lavinia.

Of course, the ghost girl replied. How are you going to do this?

Same as the last one, Max said as he readied himself. All of his gear was
where he needed it, and he felt prepared for the future fight. This
wouldn't be the first giant he'd killed, but none of them had been easy.
He’s grossly underes mated how dangerous they were when he’d first
entered the dungeon. Now that he had experience figh ng them, he
knew one wrong step could mean he would be turned into pulp.

One of the tricky parts about figh ng the giants was that they would
come to each other's aid, and they’d call for it if they were close to
death or feared death. If given enough me, they bellowed for help. On
top of that, it seemed like all the giants in the area had learned that
Max was a er them. So, they were much more wary now than they had
been for Max's first or second kill. He narrowed his eyes, studying his
target.

This giant had thinner horns than most of its brethren, but they were
longer. Like all the giants, it was shaggy, humanoid, and sort of looked
like a goat man with bandy legs. The giant’s torso was
dispropor onately large for its body, and the creatures massive arms
made its strength obvious.

In some ways, the giants all looked like huge, primordial versions of the
feral fauns that Max had wiped out.

He kept watching, staying s ll as the giant idly scratched an armpit and

sniffed it. At least fi een feet tall, the monster would easily be able to
rip Max in half if it got a hold of him. Max was pa ent, just kept
watching un l he knew he was ready. Something clicked, a signal he
couldn’t explain. He just knew it was me to act.

Max ran forward at the squa ng giant as it was doing something with
an uprooted tree. He reared back to throw one of his explosive beads,
aimed as best he could at the giant's head, but the moment the bead
le his hand, he knew something was wrong. The giant turned and
swung the tree in its hand like a club. It had been wai ng for him.

The bead barely flew over the improvised club right before Max
managed to leap over it with a burst of power from Slick. A half second
later, the bead impacted the giant's shoulder and the force of the
explosion pushed Max to one side, making him land awkwardly, his
landing turned into a roll.

Shit! He would be completely vulnerable if he kept rolling. Slick! Max

called. The li le spirit’s power inserted itself between his body and the
ground.

He slid forward with enough speed that the club missed him as it
crashed down. Max flipped up to his feet and ran quickly enough to
avoid ge ng nailed by the en re tree thrown at him. The impact of the
unlikely missile hi ng other trees made cracking sounds as loud as
gunshots.

Okay, everyone, Max thought to all of his spirits. Things are a li le

FUBAR, but let's end this the way we usually do. He got sub vocal
acknowledgement from all three of his contracted spirits and felt some
old, familiar excitement mixed with fear as the ground trembled from
the giant's chasing steps. Despite Max's speed, the giant was so large it
was gaining on him.

When Max figured the me was right, about when the giant slowed to
pick up some rocks to throw, he quickly extended a line of ectoplasmic
rope from one hand. The ground thumped as the giant's foot came
down a moment before it threw the shotgun blast of rocks and Max
threw one arm out, le ng the ectoplasm wrap around a tree he was
about to pass. Then he let his momentum from his superhuman running
speed slingshot him around the trunk un l he was facing the giant
again.

Stones the creature had just thrown whizzed past him. Was ng no me,
he ran directly back towards the surprised giant. He threw himself
forward in a dive, mentally ac va ng Slick's ability again. Almost like he
was on some crazy invisible water slide, Max shot forward near one of
the giant's massive feet. He ended Slick's ability at the same moment he
put his hands down and pushed himself into a forward flip, ending his
forward mo on.

Then, as the giant slowly turned, Max threw a powerful bead, one that
was only possible for him to create a er learning all the secrets of the
mana vault. The bead hit the giant's leg and suddenly, as the huge
monster turned, its limb just didn't work right anymore. With a huge
crash, the giant fell.

The bolo bead always works great!

A heartbeat later Max was next to the enormous monster, holding his
hand on the giant's ankle. In less tan a heartbeat, Max borrowed
Saliron’s power, unleashing it. All of the bones in the giant's ankle
exploded at nearly the same me, detona ng like a string of firecrackers.
The destruc on was violent enough that li le pieces of bone actually
flew out of the creature's thick skin.

Max’s ears rang as the giant bellowed in pain and rage. He danced out of
the way before a huge palm le a two-foot dent in the ground where
he'd just been standing. That was close!

He knew from experience that the giants healed abnormally fast and
due to their size, it was incredibly difficult to actually reach an Achilles
tendon. But destroying bones like this meant that the creature's
mobility was ruined long enough for Max to kill it. He danced out of the
way from another a ack and destroyed the bones in the giant's other
ankle before the beast thought to try kicking at him. Instead of hi ng
Max, the giant's foot hit a large tree, making the creature scream even
louder in pain.

At that moment, as the giant was distracted, Max used the full power of
his two-star mana body to systema cally cut it where it would bleed
most. Armpit. Back of the joints. Bo om of the legs and arms. Sides of
the body.

The giant already began to slow. It weakly tried to grab Max, but he was
far too fast now. He jumped up on the giant’s body, vaul ng upward to
its head. His blade flicked out twice, taking a massive eyeball each me.
And then, as the beast roared and thrashed, Max made the finishing
move, tossing a hemophilia bead into the monster's mouth. It wasn't
poison, but with the giant bleeding from so many places, it might as well
have been.

One last full power cut to the throat, and it was me to go.

Max danced back, then turned and ran. The bead wouldn’t last too long,
but it would be more than enough me for the giant to expire. Other
giants didn’t have the means to save their brethren, so if any giant came
to help this one, the most they’d be able to do was just stand and watch
it die.

Maybe the survivors would fear him. They probably should. He was
going to take them down one at a me.
 Chapter 14

Max wiped his forehead, pleased to see he didn’t have any blood on his
face. "Okay, that's the last giant in the dungeon outside of the
leadership encampment.”

“And it will be for what, another three days?" Lavinia asked.

"Pre y close to that, yup." Max replied. All the giants were dead. Again.
He’d go en very good at killing them. All that was le was the two boss
monsters and their minions. Since he knew that he wouldn't be
interrupted now, he decided to take another look at the leadership
encampment.

Lavinia must have caught wind of his train of thought. She nodded and
disappeared from sight.

Max thought about the mana units that he had and frowned. For every
giant he'd killed, he'd received a decent amount of mana units, but he'd
by far go en the most a er finishing the quest to leave the dungeon.
The first five giants that he'd killed had sa sfied the quest, and since
then he'd wiped them all out…three mes. It seemed every third day
one new giant would spontaneously appear in the dungeon or walk in
from the edges. He wasn't en rely sure. Whenever the new giant
showed up, Max would track it down and kill it.

That way he would remain unbothered as he con nued to observe the

giant chief and the giant shaman. All the giant-watching had come with
some general observa ons.

He’d no ced that while all the giants seemed to eat moss, or rocks, or
other normally inedible things, the command group enjoyed
cannibalism. Several mes now, he’d come across an area where there
should have been a dead giant, one he killed, and the body had been
gone. All that was le was drag marks back to the giant chief’s camp.

Max thought about this as he silently traveled to the large but crude
se lement that the giant chief and shaman lived in.

The bonus quest for the dungeon had been to kill one or the other, but
he wondered how many extra mana units he would get for killing them.

“It’s too bad I don’t get more mana units for killing the new giants that
pop up a er the rest have been wiped out.”

"For sure," Lavinia agreed, her voice directly in his ear.

Max made a face. Actually, let’s talk mentally. We’re not close to the
chief’s camp, but I don’t want to take chances.

Works for me

Anyway If it worked that way, like I could get mana units for killing the
new giants, and I stayed for another few years farming them, ge ng an
endless supply of mana units, I could reach a three star mana body easily

Even if you could, you can’t stay in the dungeon forever.

Yeah, yeah, said Max. I won’t stay here more than a few months, promise.
But anyway, how much do you think I'll get for comple ng the op onal
quest?

Hard to say, Lavinia replied. I've always suspected that those types of
things were part of most dungeons just to try convincing foolish or greedy
groups into ge ng themselves killed and sent back to their home worlds.
Like a test. A er all, when you think about it, if a group is reckless, one of
the best lessons they could learn is what that sort of mindset can lead to.

I suppose that makes sense. I’ll buy it.

Anyway, to answer your ques on, it's probably at least twice what you got
for finishing the dungeon itself. Probably more.
Max couldn't help it–he chuckled for a second, thinking of how many
mana units that could be.

Lavinia mentally said, I don't know why you care that much though. A er
all, the big ques on is whether you'll survive a er you get out of this
dungeon. And if you do, can't you just do more dungeons in the future?
Get more mana units?

I don't know about that, said Max. This has been an eye-opening
experience for me. Even if I learn how to queue up my own dungeons in
the future, I don't think I'd ever trust the system again. At least not un l
I'm powerful enough that it won't even ma er anymore if I get sent to a
higher difficulty dungeon. There are just too many ways I can think of for
people to screw with me if I’m in the dungeons, too.

Too bad you needed to get all the notoriety you have, said Lavinia. Most
students probably don't have to worry about en re groups of lifers
wan ng to kill them or make their life miserable.

Yeah, well, it's not the first me something like this has happened, Max
replied.

You mean in your past life?

Yes. Now you know my big secret, that I was Chasa de Milo…Do you think
that I became the Hero of Albion without people trying to end me every
step of the way? Hell no. Stubbornness and spite kept me going through
some very hard mes.

Lavinia's mental voice sounded shocked. Other than the problem you had
with Alexi the Just, I thought all of your enemies had been the enemies of
humanity.

Hardly. I was born the lowest of the low. You be er believe that once I
started exhibi ng power at the same level of the children of the
aristocracy, there were people not happy about that. Back in those days on
Albion, sure, there was a war going on, and yes, humanity was being
threatened with ex nc on, but never underes mate the greed of people
that already have much more than others and s ll want more. Something
I've learned is that greed comes in different forms, and it's not always just
about money or material things. Some mes it's about valida on or even
self-image, and those are the most dangerous types of mo va ons people
can have. Other than a drug addic on I don't know of many compulsions
that can be stronger for a weak-willed person.

Lavinia was quiet for a while. Some mes I forget that I'm contracted with
a living legend. I guess part of me s ll hasn't really accepted it yet.

Well, that's kind of why I didn't tell you in the first place, he said, mental
voice wry. That and I wasn't sure what our rela onship would be like or
whether you could even tell other people. There are a few things I'd like to
keep close to the chest right now. My past life being one of them.
Obviously having three paths being another. Going back to Earth…Actually,
there's a whole bunch of stuff I need to keep secret right now.

In the back of Max’s mind, Saliron chuckled evilly and didn't say anything
else. As usual, Max thought this habit of the dark spirit was equal parts
creepy and annoying. The problem was, Saliron was probably already
aware of this, so he didn't say anything about it. Neither did Lavinia. By
unspoken agreement, neither of them gave Saliron any encouragement.

Suddenly, Max received a burst of mental informa on from Lavinia–

posi on informa on. He had already known he was ge ng close to the
giant chief’s camp, but it was nice to know for sure. Max slowed down.

He bent and produced two beads from strings around his ankles that he
absolutely refused to call “anklets.” Then he transferred the beads to his
shoelaces and ac vated them. These muffling beads would help his
footsteps stay silent and prevent him from making any footprints. He
also had a stealth bead ready in case he needed to stay s ll for a while,
whether hiding or observing.

Max circled the distant encampment to a small hill he knew of, where he
climbed up and then hid in a cle between two huge, enormous rocks.
Then, he dropped his stealth bead and se led in to watch his enemies.
This was not the first me he’d done this, but it might be the last. He'd
been formula ng a plan that just might work to take out the en re
group.

The giant chief was a huge male, far bigger than any of the other giants.
Tusks ju ed from the chief’s mouth, almost as long as the horns on his
head. Meanwhile, the shaman was female and smaller than most of the
other giants. As far as Max could tell, the shaman had a lot of the same
powers as the feral faun shamans had, just much more powerful. This
similarity in magic definitely seemed to confirm that there was a
connec on between the feral fauns and the goat-like giant.

There were three other giants living in the camp that acted as guards, or
soldiers. The encampment sported a giant-sized iron spit where the
group would some mes roast body parts of another giant. The sight of
the giants butchering and ea ng another giant was grisly to see. Max
had to assume that before he came along, the giants had actually killed
one of their own in order to eat them, since their behavior seemed to
be one born of long habit.

He idly took a twig out of his pocket and a smaller piece of vine,
wrapping the twig into a circle. Max had learned a lot about Bead
Sorcery over the last several weeks and had experimented quite a bit
with this new power. Now he knew that although the efficiency could be
weak, just about anything that was circular with a hole in the middle
could be a bead if he thought of it that way. On top of that, quite
accidentally, he’d discovered that real beads had much higher efficiency.
Beads that had actually been worn for a while could even be imprinted
more powerfully than the ones he s ll had pockets full of.

A er a brief, light movement of power and concentra on, the wooden

circle shimmered to his eye. Looking through it now had an effect similar
to a spyglass. By now Max was already well familiar with the occupants
of the camp so instead, he surveyed the edges, looking for weaknesses
or opportuni es to exploit.

He was there for over an hour just watching, and all his spirits knew
be er than to interrupt him. Max idly brought up his screen, looking at
the big bu on that he could push at any me to return from the
dungeon. He had most of a plan now, and he felt pre y good about it,
since he was also sure that if it all went sideways, I could just run into
the caves again, or just use the bu on to transfer out of the dungeon.

But this risk would be worth it. Who knew how long it would take him to
reach a three-star mana body? He needed mana units, and there was a
good–if difficult–way to get them in eyesight.

Your thought pa ern just changed. I take it you have a plan? asked
Lavinia.

Sure do.

Are you going to tell us about it? asked Lavinia.

I will when we get back to the caves. Not least of which, because... I need
to ask you all some ques ons first, and either way, even if I have to
change the plan, all of you are going to end up helping me with it.

Lavinia's grunt echoed in his head. I can't say I'm happy that we'll be
doing something dangerous again, but I have to be honest, Max. Staying in
this dungeon as long as we have has already been the most boring
experience of my life, or unlife, as the case may be. And I spent hundreds
of years in Summoner Academy.

Yeah, yeah, said Max. It's a li le bit more interes ng if you're learning
new types of magic like me, but I can imagine that you aren't exactly on
vaca on here.

I don't even have any books to read," Lavinia complained. The others are
fine. I mean Slick does exercise, and Saliron can just go down the chasm
and start cracking bones and–

He interrupted her. I really don't need to know what Saliron does for fun.
The dark spirit chuckled in the back of his head again but Max ignored it.
Anyway, I hear you. Luckily, I think you're about to get your wish.

You mean leaving here? asked Lavinia.

That's right. Then he amended, If I can kill the chief and the shaman.
There's nothing else for me to gain in this place.

Saliron's voice intruded on the conversa on. What about the other cave?
asked the unse ling spirit.

We've already talked about that, said Max. I'm not going near that place,
even if I reach a three-star mana body. Remember what we found in the
faun cave? Through their bond, he could feel Lavinia's shudder.

It seemed the fauns had found a small tunnel that they usually kept
blocked off, but when unblocked, would allow entry of giant cen pedes.
The freaky room had shown evidence that the fauns some mes let a
single cen pede in to gang up on. Evidence suggested the fauns had
killed and eaten the enormous cen pedes fairly o en. What's more, the
direc on the tunnel ran was towards the other cave system. Max had
never seen them outside of their cave, but it didn't take a lot of
imagina on to imagine what was in the unexplored caves. It also didn’t
take a lot of heavy li ing to form theories about what the cen pedes
usually ate.

What a messed up ecosystem," he thought.

If you feel that way, good thing you're about to break it, said Saliron,
followed by his signature chuckle.

Max didn’t respond, just shrugged and trudged back to his cave home.
He had a lot of prepara on to do and some conversa ons to have with
his spirits.
 Chapter 15

Max didn't even know how many mes he'd spied on the giants'
encampment from his familiar hiding place in the rocks. Hopefully, a er
today, he’d never need to watch this group of enemies again. His
elaborate trap he’d put together was finally in mo on.

They're taking the right one, said Lavinia mentally.

I thought so, said Max. Finally. Equal parts relief and nervousness vied
for dominance as he watched the scene unfolding before him. Lavinia
was absolutely correct. Especially with the ac on being closer now, Max
didn't even need her spirits to double check it for him. A er all, he could
feel the presence of his beads seated in the body of the giant corpse
that the two camp guards were dragging back.

The last few months had all been leading up to this moment. It had
taken Max a while to come up with a plan that would actually have a
good chance of succeeding. If it'd taken longer, he would have been in
trouble, since in addi on to the dungeon closure looming, he was
running low on resources. In addi on to the enormous stash he’d come
to the dungeon with, he’d also earned thousands from all the monsters
he’d killed, and the clear bonus from bea ng the dungeon. Now mere
months a er he'd met the ini al clear condi ons for the dungeon, he
only had a few hundred mana units le .

Despite all the resources he’d burned, he was s ll barely over halfway to
a three-star mana body. It was possible he could have achieved three
stars if he'd used the mana from the mana vault for his body instead of
making imprinted beads stronger. Probably not. Go a spend mana to
make mana, he thought. His lips curved up in a wry smile as he thought
about his efforts over the last few weeks.
The next hour would be cri cal. Max had watched the giant guards bring
back their brethren’s bodies before. But he needed them to bring back
the bodies that Max had laced with beads, and they had before. The
problem was that they’d mostly eaten the parts without beads in the
flesh.

He’d learned that he’d made other mistakes too.

In the first body the giants had taken, he’d also made the mistake of
using plas c beads from Earth. The giants roasted meat over their fire.
A er contact with the fire, the beads had melted before they could be
effec ve and all of the mana he'd stored inside had harmlessly
dissipated. That had been a costly and frustra ng learning experience.
Now, he only used glass beads or beads he'd made himself out of stone.
There were even beads he’d made from giant bones that Saliron had
helped him with, but he mainly saved those for backups.

So he'd begun using stronger beads and seeding the en re bait corpse,
even though it’d taken more me and effort.

It was a grisly business.

As Max watched his improved trap finally unfolding, he double checked

his prepara ons. First he nervously extended his senses, feeling the
loca on of every bead placed around the area, all of which had mental
triggers woven into their magic. Max could pop any of them at any me.
But his plan wouldn't work unless every moving part came together just
right.

For months now, Max had been carefully preparing this en re camp area
with traps–the most important of which were improvised claymore
mines made inside hollowed-out logs–using a combina on of explosion
beads and razor-sharp caltrops and spears of bones. The bone
projec les had been made with Saliron’s power. He’d also been able to
strengthen them to a certain degree. Giant bones were strong to begin
with, so they would hopefully be good shrapnel.
Making them hadn’t been too difficult. Each had explosive beads and
even some homemade gunpowder that Max had made. He’d figured out
ways to reinforce the “barrel,” without too much difficulty, too. Ge ng
all the improvised mines in place had been a bit more tricky.

A er plenty of experimenta on, Max had verified that the giant

shaman’s wards and alarms around the campsite were not triggered by
spirits. They didn’t extend underground either, but that s ll stopped
Max from placing traps himself.

Instead, he’d used Lavinia’s spirits.

It turned out that the slower they moved, the more they could li . So
slowly, agonizingly slowly, Lavinia's spirits had suppressed any possible
light they could have generated and had moved everything in, then
properly posi oned the improvised weapons where Max had directed.

There were a few other surprises for the giants too, but the main plan
for the guards was a combina on of them swallowing hemophilia beads
before being hit by a hail of bone projec les. With luck, the weapons
would cut them to pieces, causing bleeding and death. Of course, all of
that would be pointless if the shaman's near perpetual magic buff was
s ll on the en re group. But the cannibalis c feast all the giants would
partake in soon would hopefully solve that problem.

Max stood completely s ll as he watched the events unfold and he

silently willed all the giants to act as they had every me before. When
he saw the five of them choose and prepare an arm and leg of the giant
they’d brought back, then cook the pieces, and finally begin ea ng, he
had to restrain himself from fist-pumping or exclaiming in excitement.
This was it. This was the first me he'd successfully go en the giants to
swallow his trap beads.

His hands nimbly checked all of the myriad imprinted beads on his wrist
he had prepped, as well as the two dozen or so crucial imprinted beads
he kept in a small pouch. Throwing a handful of explosives at these
giants would definitely not be enough to kill them, but he had other
plans.
One major advantage of Bead Sorcery was its versa lity.

Finally, a er the five giants had eaten their fill and lethargically
bellowed at each other, Max began to move. In the camp, the giant chief
and the shaman lazily headed towards their cave.

Max faded back behind the raised rocky area he'd been watching from
and dropped into the camouflaged hole that he'd stealthily dug some
me ago with the help of his spirits. It was a li le claustrophobic but
Max let his mind wander as he low-crawled forward through the dark.

The most disturbing thing about the tunnel was that at this point was
the minute possibility he might not be alone. By this point, he’d
confirmed that the one cave system he had not explored was absolutely
infested with colossal cen pedes. If he were to meet one of them head-
on in this tunnel, it would be very, very bad. Luckily, he s ll had Lavinia's
spirits to range ahead. They all knew to be on the lookout for the
dangerous many-legged creatures.

Back when Max had been digging this tunnel, Lavinia's spirits had been
easily able to tell him exactly where he was in rela on to the camp since
they could pass through solid ma er.

He realized his mind was wandering a bit too far as he shimmied

forward in the dark. The air was thick and loamy, but he ignored feelings
of extreme discomfort and fear. This had to be done. Finally, when he
reached the end, Max stood to his full height.

Like the entrance to the tunnel, he was standing in simple upward

access. But on this side, he hadn't completed it yet. It wasn’t finished at
the top so the giants hadn’t discovered it. Right now, separated by only
two or three feet of dirt, Max was standing inside the giant's compound
directly outside the cave that the shaman and the chief were currently
fornica ng in.

He made a disgusted face as he thought about what was taking place

above him.
Over the course of his recon, the second thing Max had discovered
about the shaman’s wards was that she dropped them right a er ea ng
another giant, and when she was ge ng down and dirty with the chief.
This was the perfect me to strike–perhaps the only good me to strike.

With an air of finality, Max mentally ac vated all of the hemophilia

beads in all five giants' stomachs. He’d wanted to wait un l the last
minute to do this, just in case they would feel anything different, be
alerted. Then, using a combina on of Slick's powers and Lavinia's spirits
formed as digging claws on his hands, he hopped up and dug the last
few feet un l he could wedge his head and shoulders through the hole.

Then he climbed up far enough to use his arms, basically just past his
armpits, all while ignoring the sounds and mo on coming from within
the cave. He reached into his li le bag and withdrew a handful of the
most important beads for this step of the plan. This step could not take
place un l everything else was in place, and had been the reason he’d
dug the tunnel. The cri cal beads in his hand were two dozen
supercharged stone growth beads–imprinted to be as powerful as they
could possibly be. He didn't think that they would grow stalagmites tall
enough to actually seal the mouth of the cave, but there would be a lot
of them. They’d all end in a point, too.

Max did not turn to look at the bickering giant soldiers. Instead, he
centered himself, took a breath, and threw all of the beads in an arc at
the entrance to the Chief's Cave. None of the giants heard the sounds of
the beads landing over all the other camp noises, which was lucky. By
this point, it probably wouldn’t ma er, though. Max waited to see that
the beads had landed where he needed them to and that they were
growing at a good clip before he tucked his arms in and fell down the
hole.

There was no finesse to his fall. Now was the me for speed.

Once he was back down, he even crawled himself feet-first into the
horizontal part of the tunnel and instructed Lavinia's spirits that were
not scou ng to form a protec ve cylinder around his body. A cave in
wasn’t likely, but it would be a dumb way to die if he didn’t try to
prepare just in case.

Then he ac vated every one of the twenty improvised claymores around

the perimeter of the camp.

The ground lurched.

 Chapter 16

Bellows and crashes made the ground shudder. Luckily, Max was
insulated from most of it, but he s ll needed to move. Despite the
precau ons he'd taken against his tunnel collapsing, if it did, it would
probably cost him victory and he really didn’t want to leave the
dungeon without comple ng the op onal quest. He was unsure what
the reward would be, but it stood to reason that it’d be significant. A er
all, extra rewards and extra treasure was a shiny carrot that only worked
if they were actually things that Challengers would want.

It really did feel like the bonus quest was a way to trick greedy students
into ge ng killed. Max was self-aware enough to know that at the
moment, he was one of those greedy students.

He shimmied forward into the ver cal tunnel, gathered his feet under
him, and prepared his mana for an explosive effort. Like a rocket, he
shot towards the top of his claustrophobic tunnel. Then, at the same
me, he triggered some of Slick's power for good measure. It was a li le
painful on his head and shoulders since some of the dirt had collapsed,
but he cleared his grave-like hiding place with an explosion of dirt. The
jump probably carried him at least a hundred feet in the air. From this
height, he had a great vantage point to immediately see the results of
all his planning.

All three of the giant guards were a mess. One of their legs had even
been shredded so bad, it looked like it was hanging on by sinew alone.
Max was pleased to see that the handful of long bone spears included in
a few of the improvised explosives had been very effec ve, s cking out
of the giants at odd angles. The stone pillars he'd magically grown in the
mouth of the chief’s cave were currently doing their job keeping the
chief and the shaman at bay. It looked like the two of them hadn't
completely understood what was going on yet, or why they were buck
naked straining at stone pillars.

When Max had planned this opera on, he'd put a lot of thought into his
prepara ons and the kill order. There were three separate targets to
consider: the guards, the chief, and the shaman.

He'd eventually reasoned that thinking about it like that was se ng

himself up for failure. If he killed any of these three elements first, the
other two could poten ally team up to bounce back and destroy him if
he got caught. Furthermore, they all had an advantage. The soldiers had
numbers. The chief had raw power as well as likely some sort of magic.
The shaman had magic that she used every day.

So the best plan Max had come up was to essen ally kill all of them at
once.

At the top of his jump, Max borrowed Lavinia's spirits to create a hang
glider a ached to his chest. This was a usage of their power he had
perfected at this point. He glided to the top of the cave, which was part
of a large hill. Then he looked back at the stricken giant guards.

The moment he was anchored and stable on solid ground again, he

jumped high again, hang glided away, and triggered the next set of
traps.

Lavinia's spirits had been the MVPs of this opera on. They could not
only escape detec on, but also manifest as much smaller ectoplasmic
en es than they usually did. This meant they were able to get into
spaces even cockroaches might find a ght squeeze.

For over a month, the spirits had taken the form of moles and other
small burrowing creatures to dig holes into the mountain above the
chief’s cave, or merely follow cracks deep inside and plant a number of
explosive beads. Also helping the sapper effort, Max had discovered
more quirks about Bead Sorcery. Any round object with a hole through it
could be imprinted if he considered it a bead, but the same was true for
smaller beads. This rule allowed Max to give the sabotaging spirits some
truly ny bombs that would s ll carry the full force of a standard sized
explosive bead.

There were hundreds of the explosives in the rocky hill above the cave,
and they extended almost all the way down to the ceiling. Even with his
distance away from the cave now, Max s ll waited un l he reached the
ground before he triggered them.

The explosions started from the bo om and went up. With a crash, the
en re side of the mountain began to move. The sound was absolutely
apocalyp c.

It was like Max had unleashed the anger of Nature herself, The crash of
all the stone falling was louder and more savage than the actual
explosions had been. A dust cloud shot out at a forty five degree angle
into the sky like an enormous, angry firework. Max didn't turn to gawk
or even wait for all the a ershocks to se le. Instead, he drew his sword
and sprinted at the first of the downed guards bleeding on the ground.
With all of his speed and weight behind it, he slammed his sword into
the monster's neck and ripped it straight upwards. It was one of the
cleanest hits he'd ever been able to make on any giant so far.

All of the surrounding destruc on had been so sudden and thorough

that the last two giants didn't even no ce Max's presence un l a er he
had given them similar horrendous injuries. One of Max's greatest fears
for this opera on was that the shaman would collect her wits fast
enough to begin healing or buffing the other giants. He had almost
decided to trigger the traps over the chief’s cave first. But a er running
through all the possible worst case scenarios, he decided that springing
the traps the way he’d actually done so would have the greatest chance
of success.

It seemed he’d been correct.

And as Max watched the remaining giant guards bleed out and expire,
and the last of the dust se le from the destroyed Chief's lair, he was
both gra fied and vindicated by seeing a new window pop up. It read:
Cradle of Giants, er five dungeon.

Op onal addi onal clear requirement: kill the Giants Chief or Shaman:
Complete

Now on his screen, the bu on Max had that he could press at any me
to leave the dungeon had a gold wreath around it. Suddenly, another
window popped up.

Addi onal rewards for Cradle of Giants: Full Clear.

Choice of Prizes.

Max frowned as he saw the message, wondering what in the world it

was talking about, un l he spo ed what looked like a glowing doorway
standing among the freshly slain bodies of the giant guards.

His eyebrows rose in excitement and Max approached the structure. It

looked plain at first un l he was close enough to see how organic it
appeared. Its golden color glowed with a faint light from within. A
swirling, grey energy filled the doorway itself, and Max ins nc vely knew
not to touch it.

Despite all the giants being dead, he kept scanning the area for threats.
The only thing he really needed to watch for at this point were the giant
cen pedes. He gave it a fi y-fi y chance whether they would be
a racted to all the dead giants or repelled by the explosions and
magical residue in the air. Either way, he didn't plan to linger too long.

When he stood right in front of the doorway, his eyebrows climbed even
higher as a new window appeared in his vision with a list of items he
assumed were beyond the doorway. A er the list of items there was a
prompt that read:

Please make three choices.

Max did a quick count. There were twenty-five items. But as he got to
the bo om, he thought he hadn't expected this sort of reward choice
either. On top of that, there was a countdown in the lower le corner of
the screen that gave him just over a minute to make his choices. "This is
so rigged," he mu ered.

Max made the three best choices he could while pressed for me and
sure enough a er a flash all three items appeared on the ground as the
doorway faded away. Max grabbed up the loot in his arms, turned, and
started booking it towards the rela ve safety of his commandeered cave
system. It s ll wasn't quite me to leave the dungeon, but he couldn't
wait to get out of this place.
 Chapter 17

"Okay, this is a problem," said Max. He stood in the cavern that had
become his home over the last few months, staring at the pile of loot on
the floor. Now, in addi on to the two swords he'd taken from the
dungeon on Earth, and a few odds and ends from this dungeon, he had
three more items.

His spirits materialized before him. Slick was doing an exaggerated show
of holding a hand on their chin and tapping a foot. Lavinia had her
hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised, and Saliron looked the same as
he always did whenever he manifested. A big dark cloak of midnight
seemingly standing by itself with two piercing red eyes within the hood.

"What's the problem?" said Lavinia.

Max pointed at all the loot. "That's the problem."

"That seems like a good problem to have to me."

Max shook his head. "No. It's not that I have the loot that's the problem,
it's the fact that a er I hit this bu on,” he said while waving generally in
front of him, indica ng his screen, "and I leave this dungeon, I'm
probably going to be in a rather nasty fight. And this is a bunch of stuff
to carry."

"Ah, I see what you mean," she said. "Couldn't you just, I don't know,
take all of it with you in your arms and throw it to the side?"

“No way. Especially for Mys c Spear Path Challengers, even a half-second
might be crucial. I really don't know what to expect and I want to plan
for the worst."
"I see, that makes sense. And you can't use your storage yet, right?"

"Nope. The problem is I s ll need more power to do it than I currently

have. I can do things right now to get rid of stuff…like how I've been
ge ng rid of my trash, but that's a one-way cket. All that stuff goes
who-knows-where. Now I basically need some sort of magical storage or
transporta on. What I really want is a temporal storage space, basically
like a small micro-dimension a ached to my soul. I can do it with the
help of my mana vault but only a er I reach third star mana body. Then
I’d be able to overclock the mana capacity to reach the juice for that
kind of inscrip on. All of this is one reason I’ve s ll been working so
hard on my mana body even though I haven't exactly had boun ful
amounts of mana in this dungeon."

Lavinia gravely nodded to show she understood.

Max folded his arms and pondered the new ar facts he'd obtained.
They were actually pre y good. And if he chose to ac vely use them,
then that would definitely lower the number of items he had to store.

He opened his third eye and read aloud:

Bracelet of Bloody Arrows

Bleeds the user to form arrow structures out of blood, that can then be
shot with great force and accuracy.

Flask of Unending Water

The water never runs out. Once a staple of adventurers all over the
universe, now exceedingly rare. This model can be adjusted to produce
boiling, hot, warm, lukewarm, cold water, or ice cold water.

Weight Reduc on Adventurer Pack , Mk 4

A pack from another universe made for adventurers. Water proof, magic
resistant, weight reducing, and impervious to vacuum, small animals,
impacts, or most wear and tear. Bigger on the inside than it is on the
outside.

"Really? That's what you got?" asked Lavinia. "What other kinds of
choices were there?"

"Well, I didn't have a lot of me to look at them all," said Max. "But a
couple I remember are like..” He recited from memory:

Shield of the Unseen

When worn, allows the user to see the unseen. Repairs itself over me.
Weight significantly reduced. Can be magically folded and worn as a
gauntlet.

Weekday sword.

A fine sword that changes elemental profile every day of the week,
randomly. Available elements:
Death
Life
Holy
Unholy

Light

Dark

Fire

Water

Earth

Metal

Nature
“--And a few other elements I don’t remember off the top of my head. It
was a cool sword but also kinda weird.”

Lavinia slowly said, "Okay, I think I understand why you chose what you
chose. And I can definitely see why you wouldn't want to be carrying this
stuff. Like, couldn't you put the flask in the pack, but then you probably
wouldn't want to be figh ng with the pack on, right?"

"Exactly," said Max. "And... The bracelet of bloody arrows will be

extremely helpful later. I think I've read of similar items before. The
problem is that I'm s ll too weak to be bleeding out just to form a acks
right now."

"Couldn't you just put it on in case you really need it later?"

Max shook his head. "No, because an item like that will start bleeding
you as soon as you wear it. And... If I'm ever so screwed now that I need
to bleed myself for a acks, then I'd probably already be bleeding from
other wounds, and bleeding even more would be a bad choice."

"Couldn't you try it?" asked Lavinia.

"Nope, don't wanna. I don't want to give myself a crutch or tempta ons
to use weapons that I’m not ready for. That could end up screwing me. I
know myself and I'd probably keep thinking about it when I shouldn't. So
I just want to put it away."

"Fair enough," said the spirit. She took a step back and raised her hands
in a sign of surrender.

Max stared at the items on the ground for a bit longer and thought
about some of the strange rocks and other oddi es he'd found that he'd
also like to take back with him. At least his mana unit problem was
solved since his pouch seemed to store an unlimited number of them.

An awful gra ng voice reverberated through the area, Saliron’s voice.

"Actually, contractor, I believe I might have a solu on for you."
Max raised an eyebrow at the bone-loving spirit. "I'm listening."

He couldn't see Saliron's face, but he got the dis nct impression that he
was smiling. "I am not en rely sure it will work, but I believe that my
idea is worth an experiment. All you need is some bones."

"Of course I do," sighed Max. "Okay, what are you sugges ng?"

***

Max made a face and looked cri cally at his handiwork. It was a horrible-
looking doorway of bone, with all the pieces joined together with magic,
looking almost like the bones had melted into each other. It was
unpowered–he could see right through it. There was more than one
standing in a line. This was the first he’d made.

"What now?" He gestured to the doorway and a pile of bones to one

side, all harvested from one of the giant corpses li ering the dungeon.

Saliron’s horrible chuckle echoed off the ceiling. "Now, I instruct some of

my spirits to leave your lovely living bones and move into this structure.
Then, you will press your incomplete temporal doorway bead to it. If
your problem right now is truly merely a ma er of power, not the actual
structure of the imprint, I believe that my spirits may be able to bring
you the rest of the way to comple on. Bones converted to energy."

Max eyed the ugly archway skep cally. "What's the catch?"

"The ‘catch’ is as you see," said Saliron. "This method will only work with
a bone archway made in this style. And you will probably only be able to
use the archway once per ac va on of your bead.”

“--And the bead is ed to my soul," Max finished. "Okay, but you never
explained the extra pile of bones over there."

Saliron gave a creepy laugh and said, "Collec ng bones is its own
reward, don't you think? But, in addi on to the joy of acquisi on,
perhaps you will want bones to make more gateways in the future, or
perhaps construct more delicious effigies like this one. In that case, you
will already have them on hand."

Max frowned and scratched his cheek. "Okay, but that doesn't help me
make a new gateway when I get to the Quartet in order to get to these
bones in the first place."

"Ah, I do believe that is what you would say is your problem."

"Great," Max said under his breath. "Okay, fine, let's see if this works. I
need to test what happens a er the mana vault is stored, too."

"Of course, dear contractor, I exist to oblige." Saliron’s voice faded away
as the spirit also chose to cease being visible.

"What a drama queen," Lavinia mu ered.

Max rolled his eyes, walked up to the doorway of bone, and pushed an
inert temporal doorway bead against it. Nothing happened. Then he
grunted and tried actually ac va ng it while pressed against the
doorway, despite the fact it was not finished and shouldn't do anything.

The moment he tried, the bead melted into the bone, which flashed,
and a pitch black surface, almost like oil, spread from the edges to fill
the en re center of the doorway.

"You know, that really does look like the doorway you got the stuff out
of a while ago. The golden one in the dungeon," said Lavinia.

"That thought has occurred to me," responded Max. He observed the

doorway from every angle curiously un l he intui vely sensed that it
would only last a few more minutes.

As he studied it, Max also began to slowly register how his body had felt
different before. A er the spirits had le his bones to inhabit the
gateway, he hadn’t no ced how he’d felt…lesser. But now that they’d
returned, it was definitely notable.

He could ponder that later, though. The gateway wouldn’t last all day.
"Oh well," he said, and began tossing everything he wanted to keep into
the doorway. As he did, a screen formed just like the one for the
dungeon's doorway. It wasn't quite the same, he verified a er an
inspec on, but it was close enough. Weird. Max had no idea what to
think about it and filed it under his weird-shit-that-he-couldn't-explain-
right-now mental folder.

Once he'd divested himself of the loot, with an effort of will, he

collapsed the portal in the doorway. A er that the doorway itself began
to crumble and fall apart, making horrible, empty clacking noises on the
stone as the bones fell. "Okay, that wasn't super pleasant, but it worked.
Thank you, Saliron."

The spirit's voice echoed in his head mentally. "Any me, contractor."

He tested whether he could use the mana vault while it was inside the
doorway. The only func on he sensed would work was his super
charging ability. Max moved to the second doorway that was ready to
go, waited for his spirits in his bones to make the jump, and ac vated
this one too. Then he fetched his mana vault.

"All right," Max did one quick check. "I think I'm going to spend a few
more days crushing mana units and building my mana body. Too bad I
know I won’t hit three stars in that me. But I'm going to just sit right
here and work on it. If you all could keep watch, I would appreciate it."

"Of course," said Lavinia.

Max sat on the stony floor and tuned out the world. He started the cycle
of crushing mana units, sucking it up with the mana vault, and then
direc ng the flow of power directly into his palm to u lize as he slowly
changed his body. As usual, this gave him plenty of me to think.

He used that me to plan for his fight a er ge ng gack to the Quartet,

as well as formulate some plans for a er he was back.

***
Three days later, Max stood and stretched. "Okay, everybody, I'm going
to do one more walkthrough of the caverns while I think about this. But
a er that, I'm hi ng the bu on and we're ge ng out of here." He
loosened his sword in his scabbard.

"You're not going to cra more beads?" asked Lavinia out loud.

"No," said Max. "Already thought about it. I have lots right now and I
s ll have the extras that I squirreled away in the room over there." A
well-sealed cave off of this chamber that Max had been storing his bead
supplies and extra beads in.

"Fair enough," said Lavinia.

Two hours a er that, Max was standing in the middle of what had been
his home for some me. "And you're s ll not going to do anything about
the cen pedes before leaving?" asked Lavinia.

"Oh, hell no," said Max. "There's dangerous and dumb, like trying to take
out the giant chief and the shaman. But then there's the next level
dumb, which would be crawling around some tunnels with fi een-foot
long cen pedes. Fuck that." Slick gave Max a goofy salute.

He pulled up his screen. "Okay, this is it everyone." Then finally, Max

read the line again, [Would you like to exit this dungeon?] and he
pressed yes.

Max tensed, expec ng to immediately be teleported back to the

Quartet. The moment stretched to seconds un l he opened his eyes that
he hadn’t even realized he’d squeezed shut. He was s ll in the cavern.
The only change was a new screen that had popped up.

His his jaw dropped as he read it. "You have got to be kidding me," he
said.

"What?" asked Lavinia.

"The system is making me stay here one more day before I leave."
"Wow," said the ghost girl. "So if you had tried to use escaping from the
dungeon as a last-ditch way to save yourself, like if the fight against the
giant chief had gone badly, you would have been screwed, huh?"

"It sure looks like it," mu ered Max. He face-palmed. "Well, I have
another day. I might as well do some bead cra ing a er all.”

Saliron seemed excited. “Perhaps you could collect some more bones,
too.”.

"Yeah, I have the me. Maybe if it'll make you happy. And you did help
me with the storage problem."

"Excellent," crowed Saliron. "One can never have too many bones!"
 Chapter 18

Max watched the countdown on his window draw closer to zero, the
moment when he would finally leave the dungeon. He leaned against
the wall with all his spirits manifested around him. They were having a
last-minute mee ng, one that Max hadn't even realized he probably
needed. In some ways, the wait before leaving the dungeon had been a
blessing in disguise.

Out loud, he said, "Yes, it would be be er if I could hide some of my

abili es, but given what I might be walking into, I don't see any way to
survive unless I go all out. To clarify, it seems to me like I have two
choices: either go all out and probably make it obvious that I'm a three
Path challenger, or just let myself be killed."

Lavinia was wearing a short ruffled skirt and a graphic midriff with a
teddy bear holding a knife above the word, “badditude.” She pointed at
the tall, foreboding figure of Saliron. "Can't you avoid using Bead Sorcery
now that you have Saliron"

Max shook his head. "No, I'm s ll just a two-star mana body. That means
that I need to focus a lot more on defense. If I was a three star mana
body, then yes, using Saliron’s abili es would be a game changer. But
some of the Mys c Spear Path students are really fast. I can probably
defend myself against one of the more advanced ones, even if they're
technically faster and stronger than me, but if there's a group, all bets
are off. That's why the original plan focused on throwing them off
balance."

Then he shook his arms at her, both of which had so many beaded
bracelets it looked like he was going to an early 2000’s emo concert.
"Bead Sorcery gives me a huge edge. It’s a li le different than Blade
Sorcery or Summoning because, given enough me and mo va on, I can
literally make myself more consumable weapons and u lity. The more
me I have to prepare, the more op ons I’ll have. And I've had a few
months to do nothing but sit around making beads. There are enough
explosive beads on this one arm now to take out an en re army of
kobolds."

Saliron gave his trademark evil-sounding hollow chuckle, probably in

response to the idea of Max killing an en re army of anything. Or maybe
it was because he’d be using bone beads to break more bones.

Lavinia crossed her arms and made a face. "You're probably right. It just
seems unfortunate that you've hidden your abili es before this, but
now you have to reveal them. Especially since you're not par cularly
strong in any one of your Paths yet.”

She waved a hand and corrected herself. "Well, that's not en rely true.
You're probably the strongest Summoner in the Quartet now, other than
maybe some of the professors. There is no way another student has
anything like Saliron."

Max didn’t respond verbally, just nodded and shrugged. Being the
strongest Summoner student was not exactly a high bar from what he’d
seen.

Saliron ered as his name was said yet again. "If other Summoners
desire a spirit of my caliber, perhaps they should spend more me
developing an interest in beauty and art. A er all, Max made such a
stunning pile of bones. Down in the dark. All those bones, down in the
dark. Just doing bone things. Wai ng to be nibbled on. Admired.
Nibbled."

Max ignored Saliron’s outburst. "Okay, Lavinia, you're right," he said.

"And you know another way I know you’re right? Because I said ten
minutes ago exactly what you just said now. But I s ll don't see a way
around this. The fundamental decision is, do I go all out and try to
survive, or do I act like I'm powerless and allow myself to be killed, or
worse, just commit suicide?
“I have sat here thinking about it for the last few hours, and if the
powers-that-be in the Quartet know that I am a three Path Challenger,
the greatest risk is…I don't know what they'll do. My experiences in the
Quartet haven't been the greatest so far. It’s possible they’d suppress
me or try to take advantage somehow. Who knows? There is the chance
that they won't care, but I highly doubt that."

He shook his head. "It could be that something fortunate could come
out of it too. But there's no way in hell that I'm going to bet on that. No.
The best choice I think I've got is to go all out, kill all the witnesses, and
hope that none of them recognize I used three Paths. Like, maybe they'll
think that the beads are the power of some weird powerful spirit
they've never heard of before. Either way, even if they figure it out, if
they’re all dead I'll have a week or two to try for some damage control
before they respawn. Then even if they come back to life and try telling
their professors that a three Path Challenger killed them, the fact it was
me will complicate things. The professors or Quartet staff might not
even believe them. That could lead to outright dismissal, or maybe going
on a fact-finding mission. I don't know."

Max ran his fingers through his hair. "From the perspec ve of keeping
my abili es hidden, I don't really have a lot of great op ons here either.
I could develop a habit of le ng enemies kill me in the future if they're
stronger, at least un l I’m stronger, but I'm just not the kind of
personality to let that happen. I also need a bunch more mana units so I
can keep training my mana body. Otherwise, my Blade Sorcery abili es
will stagnate. Ge ng more mana units will require overall just winning
in various ways, not playing dead."

He sighed. "I've already basically made my decision, and we've only got
three minutes le . so I guess that's it.” He frowned. “Actually, wait a
second."

A new window popped up in Max's vision. It read:

Preparing to leave the dungeon.

[Bonus rewards being calculated.]

Dungeon comple on: five hundred mana units.

Giant Warlord killed: five hundred mana units.

Giant Shaman killed: five hundred mana units.

Bonus Monster Groups killed: [one]: five hundred mana units.

All giants dead at me of departure: five hundred mana units.

“What happened?” asked Lavinia.

Max's eyes bugged out as he read the messages and added up his bonus
haul. "Okay, uh, I just got an extra 2500 mana units from the dungeon.
With this extra amount, I guess money and mana units won't be a
problem, at least for a while. At least I think it will get me closer or
maybe even the rest of the way to a three-star mana body. A er that,
we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

He rolled one shoulder, stretching it. "Okay, gang, get your game faces
on. We're probably walking into a fight for sure. Thirty more seconds."

All three spirits vanished. And when the countdown mer hit zero, the
world went black.

***

The moment Max's consciousness returned and he found himself back in

the Quartet, inside the dungeons terminal building. He immediately
threw his hands wide, willing smoke screen beads to fly off of the strings
on his wrist. His recently developed technique of willing the beads off
their string made deployment much faster.

Almost immediately, the en re area was covered in smoke. He’d thrown

the beads without was ng any me, before even looking around or
taking stock of the situa on. But now that visibility was effec vely zero,
he had the advantage.
Lavinia dumped informa on into his mind through the quick
reconnaissance of her spirits. There were two figures in the large
building with him. That by itself might mean that he actually wasn't in
danger. However, there were no personnel behind any of the dungeon
counters. Neither figure was shou ng or asking ques ons. One person
was far away, outside the actual doors to the building, and the other
was heading directly for him despite the smoke. On top of that, the
person aggressively approaching was holding a spear.

Shit, thought Max. He remembered the powerful students that had

u erly destroyed his body back in the Mys c Spear Path Academy.

Spirits, he thought. It looks like Regal hired an assassin or something.

"Saliron, tag this person with one of your spirits, please. Let’s light em’
up."

With pleasure, drawled the dark Bone Lord. Oh my. Thes are some very
strong bones.

Suddenly, even through the smoke, Max could feel the loca on of the
person approaching him. He wanted to see what they'd do. A second
later, all of the uncertainty was removed from the situa on as his
connec on through Saliron’s bones revealed the figure rearing back to
throw their spear.

Max dove to one side just in me to avoid being impaled. The

turbulence of the spear was so powerful, it dragged an obvious trail of
smoke a er it. Max’s takeaway was grim. It seemed he was not the only
one with ways to see through the smoke.

He cursed and threw a handful of wind vortex beads to either side.

Almost immediately, the smoke began to clear, and Max got sight of his
opponent just in me to see the man lazily rearing back for another
throw.

With a powerful explosion of movement and help from Slick, Max

avoided the screaming missile as it sailed past. He didn't hear it hit
anything behind him, and with a flicker, the spear reappeared in the
man's hand.

Oh, this is great, thought Max. Now that they could see each other, his
ins ncts were screaming at him that this was an extremely powerful
opponent. Apparently, Regal had pulled out all the stops, probably
buying the best killer he could afford. It made a certain sort of sense
a er their repeated run-ins with each other.

Pity, thought Max. He'd really wanted to kill the Prince again. He’d also
been hoping for an easier fight. So far, he was concerned. He couldn’t
get a good grasp on this man’s power.

Max drew his sword, and the other man watched him with a smirk. He
was tall and rangy, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a goatee. Although the
armor he wore was abbreviated, without total coverage, it was
obviously of extremely fine quality. And the spear he held was a work of
art. In fact, the man was wearing the best equipment that Max had ever
seen anyone own in the Quartet so far.

The two of them stared each other down for a moment.

Okay, all, he told his spirits. This is definitely going to be a tough fight.
Maybe even tougher than I thought it would be against Regal and all of
his friends. No, actually, definitely tougher. So we're gonna get serious.
Not that we weren’t serious before, but you know what I mean. Are you
ready?

All of his spirits sub-vocally indicated they were ready to fight.

Okay, let's do this, thought Max.

He broke the staring contest, flinging five explosive beads at his

opponent, mainly to test the enemy’s reac on. The man didn't move,
just waved his hand a er the explosions, clearing all the smoke with one
supernaturally-empowered gesture. It clear that he was absolutely
untouched. His dark eyes gli ered as he gave Max a mocking smile.
The explosive beads were not as powerful as Max would like, not for a
fight at this level, but they were s ll plenty strong enough to blow a
vanilla mortal apart. Meanwhile, it looked like the man’s armor wasn’t
even smudged.

Okay, this might be even harder than I thought, Max thought grimly.
 Chapter 19

Another narrow miss made Max hiss in frustra on. If he tried to close
the gap with his enemy, he was buffeted by raw power, or had to give
ground in the face of a acks carrying incredible force. Any me he
created space, he would need to dodge another spear throw. The
missiles seemed to keep ge ng faster, too.

And none of his Bead Sorcery a acks had been strong enough to do any
damage at all.

Max hadn't had a fight quite like this one in a long, long me. He’d come
a long way since he’d first found himself in the Quartet with just a
frac on of an incomplete mana body. Each new level of mana body was
an exponen al jump in power. Even though he wouldn't get the
endurance and regenera on that blade sorcerers were famous for un l
he reached a three-star mana body, at this point, he was no slouch.

In addi on, all the Bead Sorcerers out in the rest of the universe would
probably be green with envy if they knew how quickly Max had
mastered the concepts he’d learned. A life me of very similar mana
control had helped immensely.

And yet, despite all of his harmonizing powers, he was constantly

threatened, always on the defense.

What was worse, the most frustra ng thing, was how Max got the
feeling that his opponent wasn't even taking the fight seriously yet.
There had been several mes that Max braced for a savage riposte that
hadn’t come. Instead, the dark-eyed bastard kept pushing him back with
blasts of unfocused energy and flashy, fancy spear play.
Max was beginning to feel strangely insulted. His enemy obviously
believed that he outclassed him. It was frustra ng that he was probably
right. But in this ba le, losing was unacceptable. His ba le plan he’d
come up with back in the dungeon wasn’t working so he needed to
switch it up. He was never going to win against this guy at this rate, and
leaving no witnesses behind was kind of impossible if he couldn't even
get a hit on his opponent.

Mentally, he told his spirits, Everyone, I'm going to pull out all the stops.
Just like I said I might have to before. This is going to be balls out. Saliron,
get ready to do your worst.

I am always ready, came back the haun ng reply. The other two spirits
just gave Max their acknowledgment.

Then, Max gave ground, wai ng for the right moment to turn the fight
up a notch. Despite the deadly nature of the ba le, the conflict had
almost felt like a spar so far. Maybe it was because all the danger had
been one-sided. That was about to change.

Slick, now, he thought. And Max bounded forward, using the power of
his enigma c li le spirit to give him extra forward momentum and
reduce fric on. Even a slight reduc on in fric on made a difference. The
way Slick could bend the laws of physics was going to give Max just the
advantage he needed to get close.

In less than a heartbeat, he was finally close enough to really press his
enemy. Just like that, Max was suddenly fending off rapid-fire strikes. His
sword parried, blocked, and was stopped cold so rapidly the sound was
like a machine gun shoo ng silverware into a junkyard. Max's sword
blurred, ge ng closer and closer as he weaved a web of angry steel,
striving to reach the fancy man's throat.

Just in me, Max saw the man's eyes narrow and felt something in the
air. It wasn't quite mana, but Max's experience screamed at him to
dodge, and that's what he did. Dar ng backward and providing himself
with a general defense, it was barely enough to protect himself as the
man swept the bu end of his spear in an absolutely devasta ng
crushing blow.

Max grunted, taking the hit on the flat of his sword and locking his arms
like springs to absorb the recoil, even as he let his feet slide across the
ground with Slick's help to avoid being bowled over.

His counter allowed him to slide back twenty feet without his guard
being broken, and the moment his backward movement ended, he was
back on the offensive. He threw a hand out as he struck with his sword
and med the move perfectly. His opponent sprang back with
supernatural speed, parrying Max's strike, but the caltrop bead that Max
had thrown, ny as it was, struck the man's leg and immediately made it
fold. Max's opponent yelped in surprise as his leg crumpled under him,
and Max didn't hesitate to take advantage of the opening.

He darted forward, borrowing the power of the mana vault inside his
spacial storage space. The air crackled with power as Max used a
technique that outclassed his current mana body poten al, an ability he
should not have access to yet. This was an a empt to end the fight in
one shot, cranking the power up to the maximum, surging his body with
an ar ficial and unnatural amount of mana. Max's sword crashed down
with explosive force. A haze, a wave of destruc on preceded his blade.
But facing such a strong enemy, Max was not complacent. He
maintained his focus to drive home the technique, not res ng un l his
enemy was dead.

But instead of being obliterated by the slash, the man somehow

stopped the a ack. A strange hexagonal matrix, like a half-shield,
formed over the blocking spear, and Max could actually see the power of
the strike being directed around the shield instead of penetra ng. Then,
while Max was slightly off balance, the man's spear darted forward.

Slick! thought Max desperately, and the li le spirit heeded his call.
Hopping using his ankle and toes gave him just enough momentum for
Slick to help him into a spinning aerial move. He barely avoided the
seeking p of the spear as his sword bit into the sha , diver ng the
strike to one side. Then in midair, he delivered a savage backhand
directly at the man's dark eyes.

That definitely seemed to get his a en on.

This me, Dark Eyes cursed as he gave ground, and Max tossed a
handful of explosive beads a er him to press the advantage. The
explosions wouldn't be enough to do much, but any kind of confusion at
this point would be helpful. Max’s caltrop bead earlier had done a
fantas c job of crea ng an opening, but he feared that his opponent
would be watching for a similar sneaky a ack now.

Max pushed forward aggressively, taking advantage of the ability to keep

track of his opponent through the smoke. He took a running leap,
delivering a haymaker cut with all his weight and supernatural power
behind it. Somehow the spear darted up to block the a ack. Before
Max's feet touched the ground again, he threw out an ectoplasmic line,
conver ng his arm armor into a rope. With centrifugal force, he whipped
the line around his enemy's leg and reduced the fric on under his feet
to nothing with Slick's help. The move was similar to how he'd perfected
killing giants in the dungeon.

He whipped around faster than the other man could react, but he didn’t
have a good angle to strike. Instead, he tried for a backhand at the
man's knee and followed it up with another caltrop bead thrown at the
other leg. The man danced out of the way of the cut and de ly deflected
the bead with the bu of his spear. Then Max was on the defensive,
dodging another rocket-like spear throw. The blade actually grazed his
hip as it flashed past, and Max sucked in a breath as his clothing tore
and a small cut began to bleed.

Wincing, he threw another handful of exploding beads at the man even

as the spear got recalled. The force of the explosions buffeted Dark Eyes
just enough that the angle of his newly appeared spear was just slightly
awkward in his hand.

Opening!
Max immediately struck, using another burst of power from the mana
vault to enhance his mobility instead of empowering another strike. He
sprang forward, flipped onto his back before hi ng the ground, then
rode a cushion of bent physics, courtesy of Slick.

With a grunt, Max’s sword flicked out, aiming for his enemy’s knee. But
somehow the spearman got the p of his weapon down in me to
protect himself. Even as the weapon was posi oned to block, the p was
heading for Max's body.

Goatee Guy was blocking with a strike. It was well executed. If Max
hadn’t been about to be skewered, he would have applauded the
response.

Max used a combina on of his forward momentum, Slick's power under

one leg, and

a complete return of fric on under his empty hand on the ground to

lever himself into a forward flip, barely avoiding the spear p. He flipped
his sword around to deliver a cut to the other man's face.

Dark Eyes Goatee Guy was extremely powerful and very fast, but this
me he couldn't escape a line of red drawn across one cheek. A hand
went up to the wound, and he looked at the blood on his palm with an
almost comical expression. It reminded Max of old Kung Fu movie scenes
on Earth. But when Dark Eyes roared, and his raw power beat on the air,
it wasn’t funny anymore.

Max didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't ignore the reality that this
man was stronger than he was. Probably a lot stronger. Only tricks and
the synergy of his three Paths had allowed him to stay in the fight for
this long. Unfortunately, with only a two-star mana body, his body was
simply not strong and fast enough to keep up with his skill. Meanwhile,
Dark Eyes seemed to have power to spare. As if reading Max’s mind, the
man readied his spear and the p was surrounded by some sort of aura.
Max had seen Mys c Spear Path warriors use a similar technique before,
but never this large or dense.
The air trembled in an cipa on. Max pumped more mana into his
sword, feeling frustrated that the weapon was simply not good enough
for this fight. He was having to baby it too much to prevent it from
breaking. The blade was just not strong enough for this fight.

And now things had go en even worse. His opponent had just stepped
it up a notch. Again.

"Oh, come on!" he mu ered. He had crossed blades with the goateed
man dozens of mes. The flashing strikes and parries were delivered
with skill and convic on. Despite how fast-paced the fight was, Max grew
more and more frustrated that he was only a two-star mana body. The
strange ways he was needing to contort himself just to try making up for
his lack of speed and power was pushing the computa onal abili es of
his mind to the limits.

His enemy's eyes gli ered as Max closed in yet again, aggressively
pushing the fight to close quarters. For mortals, a spear was an
obviously superior weapon to any sword. But in a fight like this,
between fighters with supernatural powers, that line blurred. Max didn't
want his target to create space, not least of which because he had
ranged a acks that would blow Max to pieces. But he was at a
disadvantage at any range now.

Closing was less about mi ga ng Goatee Guys’s strengths and more

about playing to his own. He bi erly wished he had a three star mana
body, but there was no helping the situa on. At least a er closing so
many mes, his opponent shouldn’t be too wary about it. But he’d have
to set up the trap first.

Okay, this is it, Max told his spirits. He waited for the Mys c Spearman to
dart to one side again, se ng up a throw or an ambush. Max threw a
handful of beads underhand at his feet, his slippery beads.

The effect was immediate, reducing all the fric on on the ground.
Exactly as he had intended, the other man lost his balance. The two of
them had already been closing in on each other, so it was the perfect
me to go all in. Max leaped forward and used a boost from the mana
vault, moving faster than he had any right to. Goatee Guy s ll managed
to get off a nasty one-handed thrust of his spear, but Max parried it on
the ha behind the spearhead with his forearm armor. His hand
clamped down.

He knew he didn't have much me. Any spearman of this skill would
have all sorts of counters for somebody grabbing their weapon. But the
other man didn’t seem too worried about this new development. The
power difference between them just kept growing, a er all.

And this move had eliminated Max’s sword as a threat. There was no
way that his weapon, so far away, could reach his enemy without first
reposi oning himself, at least not without crea ng new ways for Goatee
Guy to block or escape.

But Max was a er something different. Goatee Guy grinned, and Max
grinned right back before briefly touching the man’s arm with his empty
hand.

Saliron, now! Max commanded. The dark spirit's focus extended past
Max's palm into his opponent's body. With a sudden shriek of pain,
Goatee Guy threw himself back, explosively flying into the air into a flip
and landing on his feet.

Max narrowed his eyes. Through his link, he felt what Saliron had done.

The spirit had just tried to break all the bones in the man's arm, but
he'd only managed to sha er his ulna. Goatee Guy’s toughness and
resistance had been too much to do more than that before he broke
contact.

With a grin, Max tossed another handful of explosive beads, preparing

to close in again. But suddenly, there was a flash. His ins ncts screamed
at him. He crouched and brought up his armored arm to one side,
blocking his head and body as best he could before it felt like an en re
house ran into him at the speed of a jetliner. The impact made him see
stars. He flew to one side, his spirit-formed armor leaking ectoplasm.
Despite being dazed, long prac ce and experience helped Max roll, try
to recover. He was afraid that he was using his mana vault too hard, if
he kept running it this way it might completely run out of mana, but he
didn’t have a choice. Max’s body greedily accepted the mana he
supercharged his body with to shake off the dizziness.

He got up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Goatee Guy
stood warily, eyes narrowed as he recovered from the savage bu strike
he’d done with one hand. He must have moved so far, he’d prac cally
seemed to teleport.

Max spit and prepared to close in again. Maybe this me he'd be able to
touch the man's head and break his skull. Meanwhile, now his
opponent's spear was enveloped in a new aura. Goatee Guy wasn't
smiling anymore. The man's dark eyes had turned cold, and Max could
feel the air around the room change.

Shit. He was almost out of trump cards, almost out of surprises. But if he
was going down, he was going to take this guy with him. Max tensed,
prepared to experience a lot of pain, but also ready to give Saliron an
opportunity to do as much damage as possible.

He prepared to spring forward, just reaching with some of the last of the
mana in his mana vault when suddenly the doors to the dungeon
control Center were pushed open. A thundering voice shouted, That is
enough!”

Max was focused and wasn't going to turn or be distracted by the

obvious fake-out. But then he was shocked as Goatee guy made a face,
stumbled, and turned. Max blinked, and allowed himself to glance at the
newcomer. Then he blinked again when he recognized who it was.

"Headmaster!?" he asked. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, the
man who’d just thrown open the doors was Mon Hao Han. His long
mustache was trembling in irrita on.

"That is enough!" the Summoner headmaster repeated. He pointed an

accusing finger at Max's opponent. "Tarrit! What are you thinking? You
were just supposed to just test the boy!"

The dark-eyed man, who merely moments before had been trying to
drive a foot and a half of steel through Max's body, ground his spear,
transferred it to the crook of his damaged arm’s elbow, and sheepishly
scratched the back of his head. He shrugged. "What can I say? I just got
carried away. But I will admit, you won the bet. This student is not only
worth the trouble to come out here; he's a damn monster. A first-year
pushing me to this level? Absurd!"

Headmaster Mong Hao Han folded his arms. "Territ, you should have
known be er than to increase your power to this level. If you went any
further, I would not have been able to protect this building from the two
of you destroying it."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Max didn't let his guard down. His blade was s ll up, mana charging
through his body, ready to be unleashed. "Is somebody going to tell me
what the hell is going on here?" he growled.

Headmaster Mong Hao Han walked up next to the mys c spearman that
Max had just been figh ng. "I am sorry it happened this way, Max," he
said. "Allow me to introduce Territ Mond. He is the headmaster of the
Mys c Spear Path Academy, and I believe we all have something to talk
about." Then he turned with fire in his eyes. “Territ, put the damn spear
away. I’m serious that I’m not protec ng this building anymore!”
 Chapter 20

"I suppose we do owe you an explana on now," said Headmaster Mong

Hao Han as he shot a dark look at the spear man, Territ Mond.

Territ, the Mys c Spear Academy headmaster ground the bu of his

spear into the ground. "The truth is, I wasn't expec ng to go this far,
Max, but you just kept surprising me! I needed to use more and more
power un l eventually..." He held his arm up, wincing. "This really hurts,
you know." He turned to follow Mong Hao. "I need to go to the healer
now."

"Seriously?" asked Mong Hao.

"Do I look like I'm joking to you?"

Mong Hao sighed and raised a hand. There was a change in light around
the area, and Max turned his gaze away from the two headmasters,
opening his third eye as he observed his surroundings to try
understanding what was happening. The truth of the ma er was
immediately obvious a er that. He turned off his third eye before
looking back at the two older men standing across from him.

"So you really were protec ng this place, Headmaster?"

"Yes. Territ insisted on seeing you first and tes ng you himself. To avoid
him ge ng too excited and blowing the building away, I had one of my
spirits oversee protec ng the facili es. Li le did I know that you would
be joining in with Territ, trying to destroy everything. And of course,
then Territ tried even harder." He glared at the other man again.

Max shook his head, staring at the two men past his sword blade. He
s ll hadn't let his guard down. "Okay, that's interes ng and all, so when
are you going to tell me what the hell is going on? I was expec ng to be
ambushed by a bunch of arrogant, sociopathic Lifers."

The two headmasters gave each other a look. Territ Mond shrugged, and
Mon Hao Han turned. The Summoner headmaster said, "I suppose it
should come from me." He gestured at Max's sword. "You can put that
away now. I assure you that you are in no immediate danger."

"Do you swear it? Swear by your posi on in the Quartet."

Mon Hao frowned for a half second and sighed. "Very well, I swear by my
tle as Headmaster of the Summoner Academy that you, Max
Cunningham, from a newly besieged world, are in no immediate
danger."

Max nodded s ffly. Then, as a subtle show of his displeasure, he sent a

request to Lavinia. A moment later, the ectoplasmic armor on his body
wavered before construc ng a chair similar to the plas c seat he'd been
using back on Earth. He sat, put his chin on his fist and said, "I'm
listening."

Mong Hao’s eyes went to the sword that was s ll in Max's hand, and he
sighed again. "Very well. I suppose a er everything you've been through,
it would be more surprising if you were not suspicious and guarded. But
I've been helping you behind the scenes ever since you began having
troubles in the Quartet."

Max had to bite his tongue from saying he had no real proof that Mong
Hao had been helping him, at least not in significant ways. Instead, he
gave a slight nod for the headmaster to con nue.

Mong Hao said, "Ever since the tensions between you and some Mys c
Spear Academy students culminated in your rampage, my poli cal
headaches have mul plied. While your spirits were not weak and are
even stronger now, there are some spirits that specialize in
reconnaissance. In stealth, being invisible, even to other spirits. I have
lived a long me; I have contracted a wide variety of spirits. Suffice to
say, even though the alerts I specifically requested at the Quartet-level–
requested reports of your wanderings–stayed silent for rather obvious
reasons now, I was s ll aware within hours that you had gone into a
dungeon.

“A er that, as a ma er of curiosity, I looked into which dungeon you had

chosen. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Max Cunningham, a
first year, had entered a er five dungeon. A dungeon that was
unpopular and hadn't been challenged in many, many years due to its
difficulty. A er that, it also wasn't very difficult to get a confession and
find out who ordered such a thing–bribed for it. I'm sure that you could
hazard your own guesses as to who that was."

Max nodded grimly.

Mong Hao con nued, "All of this was at least as serious as the
allega ons and eventual proof that some students had been
inten onally killing others as they resurrected, maliciously, just to
prevent them from actually being alive in the quartet for any amount of
me. A er all, our role here is to prepare warriors to defend and
hopefully take back their worlds. It is why we largely turn a blind eye to
student-on-student violence unless a large enough group is the
perpetrator, or it crosses certain lines.

“Discovering that some students with resources had all but condemned
another student to be returned to their world without any of the fruits
of their labor was absolutely unacceptable. I approached Territ Mond
here with these allega ons, and he agreed with me that it must be
addressed. However, just like me, despite being headmaster, he does not
necessarily have the power to do whatever he wants in his own
academy. But, also just like me, he has certain knowledge that others do
not possess, and we are sworn to secrecy about.

“One of those pieces of knowledge that, no, I will not share with you, is
why it is so important for a Challenger from our Quartet to have a good
showing at the next inter-Quartet compe on. You see, Max, I have high
hopes for you because not only have you demonstrated a certain talent
for your Summoner Path, but it was very obvious to anybody who'd
actually seen Blade Sorcerers fight that you were a dual path challenger
already."

Mong Hao Han looked up in the air and made a face. "Actually, I think
everybody had to know that you were a dual Path Challenger;
otherwise, there was no possible way that you would have beaten
Mys c Spear Path students with a sword in your first year! But, I do not
think that many people, could have recognized just how special your
combina on was.

“So when I approached Territ, I told him everything I knew. You see, it
was a calculated risk. I decided there were two op ons: one, you would
die in the dungeon and on your scheduled me to return, you would be
a no-show. In that case, telling Territ any of your secrets would not have
ma ered. In fact, it would probably mo vate him to punish his own
students even harsher than he already currently has. However, if you did
return, regardless of how long you actually spent in the dungeon, it
would prove your creden als. Then we could support your growth as
this Quartet's greatest hope."

"So you're saying that it's not just about the individual Path academies?
That the Quartet as a whole competes too?"

"That's correct," said Territ Mond. He glanced at the Summoner

Headmaster. "But unfortunately, most other staff don't know what we
know, so they don't understand just how important that fact is. And the
other two Academy Headmasters in this Quartet have no spine, or take
too long to make decisions. Mong Hao Han is not my friend. We have
mutual respect, that is all. But it is awfully rich the other headmasters
beli le Summoners and especially the Summoner Headmaster when
none of them are willing to take any risks at all."

Max nodded. He could hear the convic on in the Mys c Spear Path
Headmaster's voice.

Mong Hao said, "I think Territ explained it well. So you can perhaps
imagine our shock when not only do you return, not only do you show
astonishing, perhaps unbelievable growth, but you also, rather
obviously, are a three-Path challenger now."

Max's heart sank. He knew that it had been a long shot, hoping that the
headmasters in the Quartet wouldn't no ce he was on three Paths. He
briefly even entertained the thought of trying to convince them that he
s ll only had two Paths. But the absolute certainty in Mong Hao Han's
words let him know there was no hope of fooling them.

Max began to wonder just how long these men had been alive. A er all,
he had decades, centuries of memories, but he s ll felt like he was
talking to two old men at the moment.

"Okay, so what does all this mean for me?" asked Max.

"Well, it's going to be very fortunate for you," said Mong Hao. "A er all, I
was willing to help you before when you were just a poten al talent,
but now that you are likely the most talented Challenger in the en re
Quartet, and this powerful before mid-semester in your first year, you
are irreplaceable. I don't think it will be that difficult to get more of the
staff on my side. And what that means is that you will be sponsored."

"Sponsored?" asked Max.

"Yes, sponsored. Basically, supported by at least these two," he moved

his finger between himself and Terrid Mond, "academies in this
Quartet.”

“Indeed. What Meng Hao Han said. What do you think?" asked Territ. He
grinned and put his broken arm across his chest.

Max frowned. "I think I'm interested, but I want to hear some more
par culars, and I also have some condi ons first."

"Condi ons?" asked Mong Hao, "Like what?"

Max stood, and he let his killing intent leak. "For starters, I want the
head of the man who sent me to the Cradle of the Gods."
Territ Mond frowned. "But he's Quartet-born, and staff. If you kill him,
he'll really die. He’s really here."

"That's kind of the idea," said Max, his eyes narrowed. "Bring him here
or bring me to him. I want that fucker dead."

The two headmasters shared a glance before they both turned back.
Now they seemed to look at Max somewhat differently. Max crossed his
arms. "Un l that bastard's dead, I'm not playing along with any of this."
 Chapter 21

Max sat across from the two headmasters in a small, plain room. They
had escorted him there a er realizing that he wasn't going to change his
mind.

On the way, as they’d hustled him through the central area to a

nondescript building, which housed this room, Max thought about the
effort they’d put into this mee ng. They must have emp ed the
dungeon facility before Max came back to the Quartet and done
whatever was necessary to suppress it.

Maybe they were telling students that wanted to go to a dungeon that

they were cleaning or renova ng. The specifics weren’t important, but
the implica ons were interes ng.

Considering how it sounded like the other two headmasters were not a
part of this and not even aware of what was happening, it had been a
pre y ballsy move. This all also helped explain why Mong Hao Han and
Territ Mond had wanted to get him out when he didn't play ball right
away.

Now the two older men just silently sat, watching Max, and he silently
watched them right back. Perhaps they expected him to be a naive
young man, but this situa on didn't make him uncomfortable at all.
Besides, they needed him more than he needed them. He reflected that
if they had known he was going to be difficult, they might not have told
him as much as they did before. The act he had put on at the Summoner
Academy before, where he pretended to be docile, was paying off.

Mong Hao Han finally broke the quiet. "We need to get you to work with
us on this. You already agreed to fight for the Summoner academy in the
Quartet compe on. And that likely would have led to the inter-Quartet
compe on in the first place."

Max held up a hand. "I don't recall expressly agreeing to do anything

other than par cipate in the Quartet compe on. A er all, wasn't the
objec ve to prove that summoners weren't weak? To earn some respect,
even if by the edge of a sword? Well, I think I’ve already contributed to
that. But most importantly, there was give and take with that deal. What
you were discussing earlier would be a different ma er, wouldn’t it?"

Mong Hao coughed nervously, dar ng a glance at Territ, who smiled

sardonically. Max couldn't even begin to decipher the layers of history
between them. He thought he’d directly hit the mark for the Summoner
academy headmaster to understand his posi on, though. The subtext
was very clear: "I'm not a soldier. This is transac onal. So, what do I get?"

In the back of his mind, Lavinia whispered, I am disturbed by all of this,

and I'm not sure how I feel about you working with the leadership in either
academy. But I trust you will handle this well. You have my support.

Thanks, Lavinia, thought Max.

Then she said, Mong Hao Han s ll makes me nervous, too. It wouldn't
surprise me if he could s ll hear me talking to you, so I'll keep radio
silence now.

That idea had never occurred to Max, and he gave the Summoner
Academy headmaster a suspicious look, but the other man didn't seem
to no ce, or he was a really good actor. A er all, he had definitely lived
long enough to have developed a skill like that.

"How about we just cut to the chase?" asked Territ.

"I would like that," said Max. "I'm listening."

"Okay, as you know, we would like you to fight for our Quartet and go as
far as possible. As you probably also know, there are two divisions,
junior and senior. Each Path has different lengths of maximum residency
for Challengers in their own Quartet schools. The divider for the
divisions is half that me, rounded up. So junior Summoner Challengers
are from year one to four. Seniors are five to seven years. Junior
Challengers from any school can choose to compete at the senior levels
if they and their faculty believe they are good enough.

“That does not happen o en. There are rewards but also risks. The top
eight Challengers in each division get rewarded according to their
placement.

“If a Challenger from the junior division challenges the senior division,
and they fail to place in the top three, they just lose with no prizes. But
if they take first,second, or third place, they can challenge the winner of
the junior division to a duel. If they win, they will effec vely win both
divisions. This rule is in place because some of the most talented
Challengers may choose to leave their Quartet before staying long
enough to be senior compe tors.”

Max raised his eyebrows at that, but it did make a certain sort of sense.
The lack of any prize at all if a junior Challenger didn’t take the top three
in the senior division would help keep juniors entering an excep on,
too. “So you want me to fight. I knew that," said Max. "But how is it
going to work now? Do you s ll want me to do the qualifiers at the end
of the semester?"

The two headmasters looked at each other, and Mong Hao said, "No."

Max slightly narrowed his eyes. "So nothing public, eh? You want to
keep the fact that I'm a three-Path Challenger a secret, right?"

The two headmasters looked at each other again before chuckling.

"He really is quite sharp," said Territ.

"Indeed."

Max furrowed his brow in thought. "Keeping it all a secret is impossible,

though. If I'm figh ng other students in the Quartet at some point, I
would assume that the upperclassmen would be able to figure out that I
have three Paths, too. The other headmasters would know for sure."

"Well, that is where our plan comes in," said Mong Hao Han.

When the headmaster hesitated to con nue, Max waved a hand. "Go
ahead. If we're laying all of our cards on the table, just tell me what you
want me to do, and I’ll tell you whether I’m willing to go along with it,
and how much it'll cost you if I am."

Territ threw his head back and laughed. "I like this student. Are you sure
he's a Summoner?"

Mong Hao smiled back sweetly, his mustache twitching. "Indeed,

because a er he killed so many students in your academy, it was my
academy that had eventually uncovered how the Mys c Spear Path
students had been suppressing Summoner students. I’m sure you
remember."

Territ's laugh cut short, and there was an awkward silence as the two
headmasters scowled and pointedly did not look at each other.

What kind of rela onship do they have? wondered Max. Old, comfortable
enemies, maybe?

Finally, Mong Hao Han coughed and said, "The process that makes the
most sense, that would also be fair for the other students, would be for
you to fight the winner of the Summoner Academy qualifiers in secret,
with only me and a hand-picked number of other faculty watching.
Fairness is important. Then, at the end of the year, you will have to fight
the best from every academy. If you win, we will nominate you as our
quartet's lead challenger."

"So you want me to skip the regular Quartet compe on!? Won't the
other students think that's kind of weird?" asked Max.

"Oh, definitely," said Territ with a nod. "But as long as the most powerful
compe tors from all the other schools in this Quartet are on the same
page, there shouldn't be a problem. And of course, they will all be under
strict oaths not to reveal any of your powers."

"That way," Max finished the thought for him, "by the me the first
inter-quartet compe on begins, nobody in the other schools will know
that I have three Paths."

"Precisely," said Mong Hao Han.

“Okay, what about the last place in the Quartet compe on? They’ll get
bumped out of the rankings, right?”

“In your case, if you get first place, both junior and senior divisions, yes.
But the last place of each division will receive compensa on for winning
eighth place first, so there should be a minimum of fuss. They wouldn’t
be going to the inter-Quartet compe on anyway.”

Max frowned. “Wait. I am ckled that you think so highly of me, but why
do you want me to fight at the senior level? Wouldn’t it be easier for me
to compete in the junior division?”

“Of course. But then it wouldn’t ma er. At least not outside of this
Quartet.” Territ folded his arms. “Only the senior compe on ma ers.
Winners at the junior level don’t take part in the inter-Quaret
compe ons. This is another reason why talented junior Challengers can
take part in the senior division.”

Max thought about everything for a moment and said, "What do I get
out of all this?"

"Well," said Mong Hao, "isn't that what we're discussing right now?"

"Indeed," said Territ. “Speak.”

Max pursed his lips and gave it some more thought. There were several
layers to this, not least of which was the unspoken fact that if he failed
any of these unofficial official tests, he would no longer be the darling of
his Quartet. He’d no longer be protected. In fact, he was expected to
take first place in the overall compe on for this Quartet. He would
have no chance now, but Max was fairly confident he had a good chance
at the end of the year. Everything hinged on achieving a three star mana
body.

There would be a lot of pressure to perform. But if he refused this deal,

his perks would vanish now and there would be no uncertainty about it.

Max was glad that he had been to Earth so recently, a fact that neither
of the headmasters could possibly know. The trip being fresh on his
mind allowed him to focus on what truly ma ered. A er all, the whole
point of his me in the Quartet was to get stronger and return to Earth
with great power. The fact his me in the Quartet would likely be longer
than the me passed on Earth while he was gone would help with that.

The problem with Max’s situa on was that this Quartet didn't have all
the resources that he needed for two out of his three paths. There were
personal issues, too.

Certain things he'd like to do, like publicly humiliate Regal or kill the
man right a er he respawned like he’d intended to do to Max, would be
intensely sa sfying but wrong for the same reasons that Regal was
wrong.

Regal was a sanc monious, spoiled piece of shit, and his world was likely
not in danger of ending any me soon. But his power was s ll going to
help ci zens on his world not have to deal with a daily reality of fearing
monster a acks. Even if Regal and his ilk only closed portals for their
own fame or gain, it s ll benefited the regular people of his world. And
Max didn't want to rob them of that.

Of course, if he was outside the Quartet and somebody like Regal came
for his life, Max would have no problem turning him into dog food. The
Quartet was more or less a giant school, though, and they were all from
different worlds. Max's conscience had drawn a strangely placed but
very firm line that he was not willing to cross. Killing random people in
the Mys c Spear Academy had go en uncomfortably close to that line,
but all of the people he'd killed would s ll come back to life and be able
to learn again with only a minor inconvenience in me. If they couldn’t
get over the bad memories, they would be a piss-poor defender of their
world.

In fact, like Lavinia had said in the dungeon, specula ng why there were
bonus dungeon quests to begin with, Max could ra onalize his ac ons
by how the trauma c experience might actually help the students he'd
killed become be er warriors. …Or it could turn them into absolute
psychopaths that had a burning desire to hunt Max down for the rest of
their life. But he was willing to take that risk.

"Okay," said Max, "I think I’m willing to play along. Here's what I want for
it. First of all, I need a new weapon. So I want to get any weapon I
choose from any of the stores in the Quartet, and you all are going to
pay for it."

Territ winced. He said, "I think we can do that, right?" He glanced at

Mong Hao, who also looked pained, but nodded.

"Yes, especially if we get the other headmasters on board. But that will
probably take some me." The Summoner headmaster tapped his knee
with a finger. "Yes, we can do that, but Max, if you lose any of your fights
before the first inter-Quartet compe on, you have to give the item
back."

"Of course. No problem," said Max, waving a hand. "Second, I want a ten
thousand mana star ng fee and 250 per month per headmaster, un l
the inter-Quartet compe on. So 500 per month."

Both headmasters stared at Max, jaws agape. "Why could you possibly
need so much money when we are already le ng you get whatever
weapon you want?" asked Territ.

"Actually, a weapon is not enough. Let’s include one piece of gear, or

armor with the weapon. Two items total, unless the gear comes as a
set." Max grinned without humor. "And the answer is simple. It’s
because two of my paths require mana, and this Quartet has almost no
ambient mana. Even the dungeons probably don’t. At least the one I
was just in before didn't. And it’s not like I can check the others. I can
guess that if we do this deal, you guys are not going to want me to go
into dungeons anymore for all sorts of reasons.” The two headmasters
nodded. Max con nued, “So, that means that I won't even be able to
make extra mana units on my own. How do you think I was able to get
stronger?"

He thought quickly about how to tell some truth but leave out some key
details. "I just came back from a rank five dungeon that I completely
cleared by myself. How many mana units do you think I earned from
that? A lot, sure, but I needed a lot just to survive in the first place. If
not for my duels and such, I would have died. And what you are wan ng
me to do, win the en re Quartet compe on in my first year is even
harder."

The two headmasters looked though ul. “That is a lot of money,” said
Territ so ly. Max didn't understand at first what they were even
hesita ng for since he suspected that some of the Lifers had the amount
of mana units Max was asking for as pocket change.

He realized that was learning something here. The fact that the
headmasters were so reluctant to pay him made him fairly certain that
they were dipping heavily into their own resources in order to fulfill
Max's demands. Or at least there were finite resources.

Both nodded a er a quick consulta on of meaningful glances.

Territ said, "I hadn't even considered that you would need a source of
mana for the growth of your other Paths."

Max nodded. "I have been crushing mana units almost literally since the
moment I got any."

Mong Hao held up a hand. "A quick point of clarifica on, but the gear
that you are ge ng for free will likely be some of the most expensive in
the quartet, right?"

“Yes.”
The Summoner academy headmaster wiggled his mustache. "That is fine,
but when you leave this Quartet, you will be required to leave it behind
because this will be a loan, not a gi . Everything you procure will s ll
belong to the Quartet. To ensure that, as of this moment, we are
preven ng you from buying any of the special ckets for binding gear or
weapons to one’s soul. I have already sent out one of my spirits with the
blocking order. And as the person using the cket must be the one that
buys it… This will also block you from bonding with any weapons you
buy yourself, but I am not willing to take chances. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly," said Max. "You're giving me this gear to win compe ons,
not to save my world."

Mong Hao frowned. "It's not that simple. If I could wave a hand, I would
give every student in this Quartet the best gear they could carry back to
their own world."

"Sure. Right. And once again, I'm sure that there are very important
reasons stopping you that you can't share with me, right?"

Mong Hao Han’s eye grew flat. The room suddenly felt like it had more
weight. "We have a friendly working rela onship right now, Max, and I
want to help you. Don't push it."

"Noted," said Max. He cleared his throat. "I also want to be completely
cleared from taking any classes."

"That's not possible," Mong Hao shook his head. "If I tried to push that
through, half of the staff would mu ny. It breaks too many rules and
flies in the face of tradi on, too."

Max had half expected the other man to say that. So he countered,
"A er the end-of-semester compe on, I want to be able to sit in any
lesson in any classroom as an observer."

Both headmasters jerk their heads back in surprise. Mong Hao asked,
"What?"
"Just what I said. I want to be able to walk in and just listen to lectures
or watch demonstra ons. I don't know how you could explain it to your
staff, but I want to be able to do it."

Mong Hao pursed his lips. "Perhaps the Academy can start pu ng out a
newsle er again, and we can merely include your name on the roster of
volunteer students who are working on it. Make you part of the
newsle er staff. That way, you would have a plausible reason for visi ng
classrooms."

"Sounds good to me. I don't really care how it's done, just that I have
the freedom to learn new things when I can. Oh! I also want a library
pass for any of the libraries in the Quartet, including the other
academies. Full access.

Territ frowned. "You want to come into my library to browse?"

"Yes," said Max. He grinned. "Is that a problem?"

"Maybe not later in the year, but if you did it right now, I don't know
what would happen."

"Okay," Max said, nodding. "Then I would expect you to put real effort
into making it a reality for me, and also, if you bring the other Academy
headmasters into your li le cabal, I would expect you to persuade them
to give me access to their libraries as well."

Mong Hao frowned. "That would mean you would need a pass. That
would mean eventually you would need a pass to all four academies,
right?"

Max shrugged. "I suppose so."

The two headmasters seemed though ul. "Anything else?" asked Mong
Hao Han. He sounded exhausted.

Max knew that there wasn't really much more that he wanted in the
first place and also that pushing further might actually be harmful. But
there was one thing he was not willing to back down on.

"Yes, actually," he said. "I understand that there's a limit to how much I
can go a er the students who tried to set me up for death, trying to fuck
me over and send me back to my world. Although I’m sure they
wouldn’t have blinked to do worse. He fixed Territ Mond with a steely
gaze. "I certainly hope that everybody involved is punished as much as
they can be."

"Of course," said The Mys c Spear headmaster. Max doubted the man
was being completely sincere, but there wasn’t much else he could do
about it.

There was no point in hiding his thoughts on the ma er. "Well, I can't
really do much more about that, but the man who was working in the
dungeon facility, the one who sent me to die. I want to execute him
today, now, and a er it's done I want the word spread to all of the
workers in the Quartet that if they betray me, they die. If any lifers ever
bribe a Quaret-born to harm me again, I want that person to really
understand the risks."

Mong Hao twitched his mustache. "As we've said before though, Max,
that is a real person. That man is not a spiritual body in the quartet."

"I don't care.” His jaw firmed. “Like I said, he must die. He tried to kill me
and he tried to fuck over my world for money. He needs to die. And I
want to be the one to do it to know it’s done properly."

"But we looked into him. He has a family," said Territ Mond.

"That's unfortunate," said Max. "But soldiers have families too. And they
die in wars every second of every day, everywhere in the universe. Hell,
how many Challengers are going to die figh ng monsters? As I said, I will
show this traitor some respect by killing him with my own hand, the
same as he used his hand to send me to the Cradle of the Giants
dungeon."

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" asked Mong Hao.

"Yes. We have no deal if that man doesn’t die.”

“How did you get this way? What in heavens did you do on your world
before you came here?"

"I was just entering the workforce from being a student," said Max.

"You were a student!? Your world must be a truly horrible place," said
Mong Hao sadly. “Or at least have horrible things.”

"Horrible things?” Max chuckled. “You ever hear of student loans?

‘Horrible’ pre y much covers it.”

***

An hour later, Max was looking directly into the eyes of the older man
who had sent him to a dungeon to die. He was just as Max remembered
him, with a broad face, small nose, a lipless mouth, and beady eyes.
Now his face sported days of stubble.

The two headmasters were behind him, and the rest of the small jail
had been cleared out. While poli cs may be complicated, or at least so
Max had been told, the two headmasters together s ll commanded
absolute authority in the Quartet central area.

Max was pre y sure that Territ Mond and Mong Hao Han s ll believed
that he was bluffing or that he'd have a change of heart. They obviously
didn't know him very well.

To the old man, Max said, "Do you know why I'm doing this?"

The traitor nodded. "Yeah, can’t never catch a lucky break to save my
life. Also, can’t stomach this. Being judged for nothing, by nobody. In my
shoes you’d do the same thing."

Max's expression was as grim as the grave. "I don’t believe I would, but
you can tell yourself whatever you’d like. I’ve heard you have a family, I
have a family too. And if I'd been sent back to my world as I’d been
when I le , my family very well may have suffered. These gentlemen
back here," he said and hooked a thumb at the two headmasters, "have
told me that a er you die, your family will be taken care of for a few
years and s ll receive your pay. Honestly, I think that's extremely
generous since you already took what was likely a large bribe to betray a
student."

The man didn't respond, just shrugged. Max hadn't bothered to learn
his name. He judged there was nothing much more to say. So with a
thought, he drew his sword, sent mana surging through his body and his
weapon. Then he sliced the man's head off, making sure the kill was as
humane as possible.

This sort of thing, this necessary messiness…it was like pu ng on an old

hat. Max had learned a lot during his me as Chasa de Milo. He'd
learned to be kind to his friends and ruthless to his enemies. But he'd
also learned that anything more than a quick death to prisoners was
self-indulgent and would just leave the torturer twisted and miserable.
No amount of pain doled out to a criminal or enemy could undo the
wrongs that had already been commi ed.

As the condemned man's body slumped to the floor, Max flicked blood
off his blade and sheathed it before turning. Mong Hao Han looked
horrified, and Territ Mond’s eyes were specula ve.

"So that concludes everything," said Max. "We have a deal. Can I go back
to my room now? I've had a really, really long dungeon dive."

The two men nodded, and Max le the jail without looking back.
 Chapter 22

Max got back to the Summoner Academy without issue. Instead of his
room, the first place he stopped was the cafeteria. Ignoring all the stares
he was ge ng for his appearance, probably for mul ple reasons, Max
asked the cafeteria staff with clipped words if he could buy to-go meals
separately. The answer was yes.

He also inquired whether he could buy bones le over from food

prepara on. The answer to that was a much more hesitant yes, but he
would have to come back in a few days. They would set aside a few bags
for him. Good enough for me, thought Max.

In the back of his mind, Saliron was chuckling, his volume and tone
randomly changing. It was creepy whenever the spirit did that, but Max
was growing used to it.

He ate while ignoring the looks and outright stares directed at him. Just
in case someone might get a wild hair and come talk to him despite his
destroyed clothing, used sword, and small spla ers of blood, he also
scowled. His “do not fuck with me” vibe was turned up to the max ,and
luckily, everyone seemed to get the hint.

When he was done, he took his piled-up boxes of food back to his dorm.
Despite s ll being red from his ordeal, and a fight with Territ Mond, a
two star mana body was a wonderful thing. He didn’t need to sleep yet,
so he spent the rest of the day blessedly doing nothing. During this me,
Slick and Lavinia showed Saliron around the dorm, at least he assumed
so. This assump on was proven correct later on when Lavinia sent Max
a quick mental note that the bone-obsessed spirit seemed to
par cularly enjoy the dark room.
Max decided that as soon as he got some bones, maybe he could throw
some in a corner of th dark room to keep the eccentric warlord-rank
spirit happy.

When sleep finally came, it came hard.

Bliss.

It felt wonderful to sleep in a real bed again.

A er waking up, Max immediately fell back into his old habits, training
and working on his various Paths. He’d discovered that medita on was
helpful for the Summoner Path, so he devoted the first half-hour of the
morning, while he was waking up, to thinking about everything he had
learned about spirits. He pondered his own spirits in par cular.

This medita on me also allowed him to recall everything he’d learned

about spirits so far. Max’s perspec ve on the Summoner path was that a
great deal of how strong a Summoner could be, their poten al, was at
least par ally based on their ability to understand spirits.

It could actually be mentally taxing trying to put himself in the shoes of

a spirit like Saliron, though.

When he was done with his medita on, he felt accomplished, ready for
the day. This en re turn of events also made him realize how much me
he could save in the Quartet if he stopped going to the cafeteria for
every meal.

He looked at his current account balance and grinned. Even a er

burning through so many mana units in the dungeon, the rewards had
been astronomical. Max had made more units than he had ini ally gone
in with and was currently si ng on a substan al amount.

He had plenty of money for food, especially if the two school

headmasters he had been dealing with followed through on their
agreement. As if she could sense his thoughts, Lavinia appeared before
him. "We need to talk," she said.
Max nodded. "I knew this was coming."

He sat in one corner of his bedroom, where he had a table that he had
been using as his ea ng area. Lavinia took a seat in mid-air, not even
pretending to be substan al.

"I've been with you every step of the way, and I've heard and seen
everything, so I can pre y much already grasp your thought process on
this agreement to work for the Quartet," she said.

"Uh-huh," said Max. He nodded and waited for the spirit to con nue.

"I've been wrestling with whether all these new developments go

against anything that we agreed upon when I first formed a contract
with you…and I’ve decided it doesn't."

Max nodded again.

"You don't seem surprised or showing any kind of reac on at all,"

Lavinia observed.

"It’s something I’ve considered. I’ve already thought about this. Do you
think I would have made a decision that important without considering
my rela onship with my spirits, especially you? You were my very first
spirit and, more importantly, you've been a guide for me as I have been
naviga ng this new world. Of all the rela onships in my life now, you are
probably my most important friend."

"Oh." It could have been a trick of the light, but it almost looked like the
ghost girl was blushing. "That's, uh, good to hear."

"Like I said, setbacks. I thought about the outcome of all this stuff, if it
goes the way it's supposed to, and concluded the same thing you
probably did. If I succeed in making a good showing at the inter-Quartet
compe on, it means summoners will definitely not be seen as weak
anymore. Even if I'm viewed as an extreme outlier, there will always be a
caveat when people in universe discuss Summoners being weak. More
importantly, I plan to iterate on and improve your original summoning
enhancement circle and eventually share it with other Summoners. It's
way too dangerous right now, especially a er my experience mee ng
Saliron."

This me it was Lavinia's turn to nod. "That's true. A weaker summoner,

or just even a weaker person–like maybe your friend Lance–would have
likely been destroyed."

"My thoughts exactly," said Max. "I haven't forgo en anything from our
contract. So you know what else I haven't forgo en? You promised that
you were going to share secrets with me a er I upheld some part of our
bargain. And I have definitely done so. If there's one thing I feel like I'm
lacking right now, other than power, it's informa on."

Lavinia sighed. "I will admit I have been thinking about that too, and
you're right. However, some of the secrets I have to share are not only
mine. There are certain prepara ons I need to make before I can tell
you, or maybe show you."

"I have no idea what that means, but keep me posted," said Max. “So I
think we understand each other.”

"It does seem to be that way. I should probably just never doubt you
again, huh?"

"That would probably be a fair bet." Max smiled at Lavinia as she faded
from sight. A er she was gone, he said to the open air, "But that doesn't
mean you can spy on me in the shower again."

"I never did that," said a whispered voice in his ear, and he felt an
invisible hand gently push the side of his head.

Max grinned. "Whatever. We both know the real score."

He snorted. There were pros and cons of being a Summoner. It took

some ge ng used to, the idea that he was never really going to be alone
again. But there were advantages, too. He wouldn’t ever have to keep
his own council again, not really.
No wonder spirits were so picky about who they contracted with. If a
Summoner and spirit had a bad rela onship, it’d likely be awful for both
of them.

Max felt like he’d just had a decent insight, so he cat down to meditate
for a few minutes. Enlightenment was just on the p of his mind, but it
eluded him. The sensa on was sort of like needing to sneeze and then
not being able to.

He shrugged and got up, deciding to move his body. A bit of exercise
might be good to let him think, too. He put his swords through their
paces, contempla ng what kind of blade he wanted to get from the
weapon stores in the central area if and when he heard back from Mong
Hao Han. As for the other freebie, either armor or gear, he already had a
pre y good idea of what he was going to be searching for.
 Chapter 23

For everyone else in the Quartet, a week had passed. Meanwhile, Max
had been figh ng for his life for months. On top of that, he'd even been
back to Earth. So, going to class again and walking through the
Summoner Academy grounds felt a li le surreal.

As he neared his group combat class, some of the other students gave
him a double take. One of the women whispered to her friend when she
saw him. The two of them tried, and failed, to subtly distance
themselves from him on the walk to the classroom.

Their avoidance didn’t ma er to Max. He was used to varying opinions

in his past life, when the en re world had known his name. It didn’t
bother him if in the Quartet, a temporary situa on, others kept their
distance.

However, as soon as he was in the small building, Professor Grave Call

prac cally beamed. He must have talked to the headmaster, thought
Max. Once class actually began, Professor Grave Call said, "We are going
to do something a li le bit different today." Every student in class
including Max was silent, taking that in. He started to feel to feel a sense
of foreboding.

"A truly rare opportunity here," said Professor Grave Call. "As you all
know, Gantry Pliss and Max Cunningham have been the two strongest
fighters in our class for some me now. However, I have received word
that Max is significantly stronger now." There were rustles around the
room and whispers as the other students absorbed this. Gantry turned
and gave Max a searching look. Max tried to keep emo on en rely off
his face, but inside, he was seething at the professor.
Where the hell is he going with this? he wondered. In the back of his
mind, Lavinia was laughing. Her amusement didn’t help with Max’s
growing irrita on.

"Class, please follow me. Hold your ques ons for later." Then, without
further ado, Professor Gravecall got up and le the classroom. All the
students were le for a moment, just looking at each other, un l a man
whose name Max didn't know got up and le a er the professor.

The prac ce area was the same as it always was,except now there were
more chalk-ou ned circles, all of varying sizes. One of them was
absolutely huge.

To one side, the weapon racks had grown in number. Now there were
even more prac ce weapons ready to be used by students. Matx spo ed
a few exo c-looking weapons that definitely had not been there before.
He figured that over the course of the semester, students had requested
addi ons based on their style or skill. Professor Gravecall’s group
combat class was not the only group using this prac ce area.

"Now then," said Professor Grave Call, "Max and Gantry, please enter
the original circle." Max frowned, wondering what in the world the
professor was trying to prove. But as he selected a sword, Gantry with
him, the professor suddenly called out, “Percy and Isaz, please join
them.

Both of the new students that had been called showed visible signs of
confusion and surprise, but they slowly obeyed, heading to the weapon
racks and choosing their own prac ce weapons.

Percy was an average height and build. He used a thin, single edged
sword. Despite its light weight and nimble handling, the sword was s ll
strong due to the rigid spine and clever construc on–with fullers down
most of its length. The trainer weapon he was using perfectly copied the
real steel weapon he preferred. Percy was a Lifer, but not an obnoxious
one. His pockets weren’t too deep, either. His face was thin, and he wore
his hair long.
Isaz was pale and muscular, with short dark hair. She was about as tall as
an average human man, but she apparently was small for her kin. Her
inhuman features were slit nostrils, a slightly blue nt to her skin, and a
small tail. Her weapon of choice was a heavy, two handed hammer.

Moments later, Max stood in the center of the field with the three other
students. All of them were wai ng for Professor Grave Call to tell them
what in the world was going on. "Now," said the professor, "all of you
are aware that Max was able to beat Gantry the last me they sparred.
Sorry, Gantry.”

“It’s okay. No complaints. It was a good fight.” Max’s friend shrugged.

“That’s a good a tude to have,” said Grave Call. “What we will be doing
now is perhaps an object lesson, perhaps not. We will see." He gestured
at the four students in the center of the field. "Gantry, Percy, and Isaz,
you are on one team. Max, you are on your own, ac ng as a stand-in
monster. The group’s goal is to force Max outside of the circle that he is
currently in."

Gantry frowned, but it was Percy who raised a hand and asked,
"Professor, don't you mean 'Beat Max'?"

"If you can beat him, go ahead. Hell, you can even try killing him. The
truth is I have not seen him fight yet, with this new power I hear he has.
But I believe it. If he dies I will take responsibility and pe on the
Quartet administra on to channel extra power into his recovery. And if
you beat him, I will award your en re team five mana units. Each.
However, your actual win condi on is just to force him outside the circle.
So don't forget your goal in the face of greed."

Percy slowly lowered his hand with further confusion showing on his
face, but Max understood what the professor was doing. At least he had
a really strong suspicion of what this demonstra on was supposed to
teach. Grave Call said, "Team of three, would you like to confer before
the fight?"

Gantry nodded his head. "Yes."

"Okay, you may walk some distance from Max if you'd like. Max, please
stay in the circle and don't leave it. If you leave the circle, you lose."

"Got it," said Max. He sighed. Now he was more sure about what he
thought the professor was trying to do. All three students that he'd
called together were from different teams, which meant that they were
likely going to have bad teamwork. The professor was likely trying to
demonstrate that teamwork was extremely important in a visceral way.

But Max had other plans. He wanted the students to have a different
understanding. It was obvious and prac cally confirmed at this point
that Grave Call had talked to Headmaster Mong Hao Han and had heard
that Max was stronger now. How much stronger, he didn’t seem to really
grasp.

There was a big difference between a one star mana body and a two
star mana body. Max didn't want to discourage or break the will of his
classmates, but it was a big universe, and maybe if he showed them
even a bit of his true abili es, it would help those who were already
mo vated work even harder.

It might also humble those who never le the Summoner academy and
didn’t know how strong the other Paths were.

Max was thinking of his mar al arts students watching all of this well.
Gantry was even par cipa ng. He would see the rest of them later in the
day to teach, and this might be a good object lesson for them.

Before this point, Max had seriously considered just barely winning,
pu ng on a show to hide most of his abili es. But it was not in his
nature to hide too much, and he’d already decided he’d do more good
by going into this spar seriously. He s ll wasn’t going to use bead
sorcery, but he decided to otherwise try to end the fight as fast as
possible.
 Chapter 24

As soon as Professor Grave Call gave the signal to begin, Max energized
his muscles with as much mana as he could handle without
supercharging using the mana vault. With all the power he had, he
threw his sword up into the air. Then he sprang forward toward the
group of sparring enemies.

His spectral armor had already formed from the Lavinia spirits.

Gantry was closest, which suited Max just fine. His friend’s eyes widened
in shock as Max closed the distance so quickly. Max never fought this
hard during any of their normal spars. Mid-air, he parried Gantry’s hasty
strike with an armored forearm and kicked his shoulder. The man cried
out and flew back, but he recovered quickly. He had been ge ng
excellent training, a er all.

Max wouldn't be able to truly handle some of the aerial swordplay he'd
been known for in his previous life, but a two-star mana body gave him
many more op ons than a one-star mana body had. Instead of landing
on his feet, he dove and performed a front handspring.

He used his momentum and weight to precisely kick aside an a ack from
Gantry, using the flat of his foot on a hand. Fingers broke. Then Max
dipped low upon landing, striking hard with the knife edge on the side
of his open palm, breaking a leg. He came up and delivered a so er hit
to the jaw. A broken jaw hurt like hell, and Max was not trying to maim,
kill, or humiliate his friend.

At least a healer was nearby.

Everyone in this class was familiar with going to see the healer for
injuries. Some of the students in class had physical abili es from a spirit
that they were contracted with that would help them get there faster.
But even for the uncontracted, everybody in this class was in good
physical shape.

They’d make it to the healer quickly if they needed it. Pain was a great
mo vator.

Immediately a er finishing with Gantry, Max turned to Percy. He dodged

two thrusts in quick succession.

Generally, figh ng somebody wielding a sword with bare hands was

prac cally suicide, but that was only if there wasn't an overwhelming
level of skill or physicality difference. Max had both. He dodged another
strike, got up under Percy's arm, and a er securing a strong hold,
pivoted all of his weight over his hips. There was a sickening crack as the
other man's arm broke. Then Max jumped and kicked him in the head.
At the last minute, Percy rolled and Max’s kick connected with the
shoulder instead. That should be enough, he thought. Then he stepped
forward quickly and touched his toe to Percy’s throat. “Dead,” he
pronounced. No use in actually killing the man and making him lose
class me.

Now only Isaz was le , and Max didn't wait for her to come to him. He
used a move he'd been coming to affec onately nickname the Slick Slide.
He dropped into a controlled slide, courtesy of Slick's power, and easily
avoided an a ack aimed for his head. Then he punched sideways as he
was going past, breaking her knee.

Max sprang up into a standing posi on before Isaz had even recovered
and hit her in the kidney and in one shoulder at the same me with a
double fist strike. He wasn’t sure if anything had broken, but the blow
didn’t sound good. Of course, in a real fight, he could have aimed for her
neck and just let Saliron run wild. That was not necessary now, though.

With all three opponents down, Max dashed to where he'd started
from, barely reaching the posi on in me to de ly catch his prac ce
sword and mimic sheathing the blade.
Stunned silence rang out around the prac ce field, other than sounds of
pain from the three he’d just broken like toys. Maybe I went a li le too
hard.

But as he surveyed the carnage, he reminded himself that he could have

killed all three. Even with his bare hands it wouldn't have been difficult.
From that perspec ve, maybe he’d shown restraint.

Of all the people on the field, Professor Grave Call seemed the most
stunned, but there was also an element of excitement to his expression.
Before anybody else could speak, the professor said, "We are very
fortunate to have such a skilled student in our class! From this moment
on, Max is no longer a team leader and will instead be a stand-in for
bosses. Although he is obviously powerful, all three members of the
other team can teach everyone here a lesson. They did not work
together well.

In a real ba le, working together, even with such a disparity of power,

would have possibly prevented such fast takedowns”

.Just like I thought. I guessed right, thought Max.

He looked around the training yard one more me and specifically

sought out each of his students that he'd be teaching later. All of them
had a mixture of emo ons on their faces except for Gantry, who was
obviously in a great deal of pain. There didn't seem to be any
resentment on his face though. That was good. Warriors could be tricky
about pride. He knew that from experience.

Max only paid half a en on as Grave Call gave an impromptu lecture

about group tac cs versus a strong monster or an excep onally skilled
opponent. Then everyone went back to the classroom and researched a
specific ba le in which a far smaller unit prevailed over a massive
monster invasion. Even though Max had other things on his mind, he
s ll found it worthwhile to tune in once in a while. It was interes ng
how similar the professor's story of a massive, world-shaking ba le was
to the story on Earth about the last stand of three hundred Spartans.
Only the scope, world, and weapons were different. The broad strokes
were the same, though.

Finally, when class was over, the professor somewhat predictably called
out for Max to stay.

Max waited for the class to leave. On the way out, all of his students
that were not ac vely avoiding him gave him apologe c or knowing
looks. He was sure that they'd ask him a bunch of ques ons later on
that day. When Max and Grave Call were alone in the room again, the
professor said, "Would it have killed you to turn it down a li le bit,
Max?"

"I did.”

"Really?"

“I didn't use a weapon and I wasn't going full power."

The professor ran his fingers through his long hair. "I'm going to keep
increasing the number of students figh ng you, not all the me, but
once in a while. From your perspec ve, actually maybe probably pre y
o en, since you only take the class once in a while. I'm suspec ng that
eventually it will be the en re class figh ng against you."

Max frowned. He hadn't truly fought at his absolute full strength yet in
front of anyone, even Headmaster Territ Mond. To be fair, Territ had
pushed him close, and Max was very aware of the fact that even if he'd
go en his absolute full power in that fight, he would have s ll lost.
Territ hadn’t really been trying to kill him seriously. Some differences in
power could only be overcome with numbers, informa on, proper
planning, or some combina on of those three things. This was obviously
also what Professor Grave was currently trying to teach his class.

The en re class, huh? Max wasn't sure if the en re class all together
could defeat him, but there was a possibility. He was sure. His
capabili es had increased a lot, but he was nowhere near where he
wanted to be. As a disorganized mess he could destroy them all. But he
was probably s ll not strong enough yet to face an en re class of
Challengers who were all planning to take him down, working as a team,
watching each other’s backs, and armed with a plan made ahead of me
on how best to deal with him.

There was a big difference between figh ng solitary warriors and

defea ng a cohesive army. That had been a mistake that he made in his
last life, not understanding that fact. Although there was a caveat to
that rule. If a warrior is powerful enough, it just didn't ma er. So his
second mistake in his first life was not being stronger.

But Max had a long way to go before he'd hit anywhere near those
heights.

Professor Grave Call got quiet and looked pensive as he tapped the pen
on the table. Eventually, the tall Summoner stood and said, "I knew you
were special to begin with, Max, but Headmaster Mong Hao Han was
correct. You are truly a monster. I mean that in the most complimentary
way. In fact, right now," he said, hesita ng, "If you and I were to fight,
who do you think would win?"

"I don't know all of your abili es, Professor. So I can't even guess."

Grave Call gave a rigid grin and nodded. "That would be exactly my
answer too, which is both exci ng and also frightening. You haven't even
been in this Quartet for half a year. And I would bet that there are quite
a few professors now that would have difficulty figh ng you."

"Didn't Headmaster Mong Hao Han tell you that I sparred against
Headmaster Territ Mond?"

Professor Grave did a double-take. "No, he didn't. How did it go?"

"About as well as you would expect," said Max. "I would have lost."

Professor Grave Call looked disappointed but maybe also a li le

relieved. "Well, just keep working hard, and that might change."
"Absolutely," said Max, his eyes sparkling. "I'll keep working hard, that is.
Is there anything else, Professor?"

"No, that was it. I just wanted to let you know that you're probably
going to be enemy number one of the class for a while, maybe even the
rest of the year."

In the moment, Max almost informed the professor that he'd been
teaching his students, but decided not to. There wasn't any big reason
to keep his extracurricular training a secret, but Max was cynical by
nature now and did not want to volunteer informa on unless there was
something to gain from it. The only reason he'd told Professor Grave Call
that he'd sparred against Territ Mond was because he wanted to see
how much Mong Hao was divulging to his inner circle.

Apparently not a lot. Good.

Luckily, Max was fairly certain that Professor Grave Call wasn't going to
leak a word of this informa on to anybody, too. That tracked since he
was trusted by Headmaster Mong Hao Han in the first place.

"All right, I'll see you later, Professor," said Max. He le and as he walked
across campus back to his dorm, he ignored the curious stares and
challenging half-shouts from some of the other students. If any of them
had actually put serious effort into ge ng his a en on, maybe he
would have obliged. None of them had the stones to actually approach
him, though. So he got back to his dorm without further incident and
decided to meditate before heading out to train his students.

Suddenly, Lavinia whispered in his ear, "If you're going to meditate, you
should also probably respond to the messages from your students
beforehand. I'm sure they've asked you if there's going to be prac ce
today, but you've had your tablet off since the dungeon."

Feeling a bit embarrassed, he turned on his tablet, and promptly turned

off the no fica on sounds for no fica ons, unable to stand the
constant noises as it caught up. Then he opened up his message log and
sadly shook his head. Medita on was going to have to wait a while.
 Chapter 25

Max showed up in the woods, on me to teach his mar al arts class.

Quite predictably, all of his friends had ques ons for him. In par cular,
Tessa Alvarez seemed eager for answers as to how Max had become so
much more powerful so quickly. Everyone did stretches on their own as
they listened to Max's response.

Earlier, during his short medita on back in his room, Max had
an cipated that someone would ask him ques ons like this. He had
prepared answers that, while not par cularly untrue, didn't volunteer
too much informa on either.

The story he was s cking to was that although there had been a mistake
and he'd been sent to a different dungeon than he'd chosen, he'd been
able to find great rewards. He tried to downplay the betrayal and he
didn’t talk about his execu on of the Quartet-born.

During the en re me Max explained this, Gantry Pliss was uncommonly

quiet. He kept rubbing the spot where Max had broken his bones,
looking though ul. Max had actually worried that the man might be a
li le resen ul.

All of them seemed almost a bit disappointed when Max stopped the
impromptu ques on and answer session to get to business. He asked
them to show how they'd improved with some of the forms he'd taught
them. Then, over the course of the next thirty minutes, Max carefully
watched his students, trying to decide how best he could help them
with equipment that would suit their bodies, personality, and style..

It was ironic that Tessa Alvarez had been the most outspoken with her
ques ons because she was also possibly the easiest person for Max to
help. Her chosen weapon was a spear, which made finding rela vely
inexpensive upgrades for her in the central area exponen ally easier,
given that a good chunk of the Quartet specialized in spears. All of the
weapon shops were prac cally full of them.

Momo, however, was likely going to be the most expensive to help. Max
wasn't sure exactly what he could do to help her with her chosen melee
weapon, her strange weighted whip. Enchanted throwing knives came in
all sorts of different flavors, but they were all expensive, probably
because almost all of them had some sort of magic retrieval
func onality built in.

They didn't have to be a master work like Headmaster Territ Mond's

spear, but they s ll wouldn’t be cheap.

Benjamin G. Northside was an interes ng case because although he was

using a large axe now, Max actually didn't think that it was a very good
weapon for the man. Instead, he was planning to buy him a large sword
similar to the prac ce weapon he’d used when Max first saw him in
group combat class. Not only did Max think a sword would fit
Benjamin’s body and figh ng style be er, it was also a weapon that Max
could offer far more help in mastering.

Apparently Benjamin had lucked into a decent axe and had switched
weapons because of it. It was s ll a mystery where Benjamin had go en
the axe from, but from what Max understood, it had something to do
with a chance encounter with an amorous, older woman. Max didn’t
know all the details and some of it had sounded silly so he hadn’t pried.
Maybe if he thought about it later, he could ask.

Gantry was actually the easiest of all of them for Max to help. Whenever
he was able to access his spa al inventory, Max s ll had the two short
swords that he'd taken from the kobold dungeon on Earth. Due to
Gantry's fluid figh ng style and the skilled spirit assis ng him, Mas was
planning to encourage Gantry to try figh ng floren ne–with a sword in
each hand. His contracted spirit should be able to help him adapt more
quickly. Both short swords from the kobold dungeon were decent
weapons and would probably serve Gantry well for a long me.
Eolus, the last of Max's students, would likely benefit from a rapier-type
weapon. But these types of blades were rare in the weapon shops, at
least from what Max had seen. The fewer of a type of weapon the shops
had, the more expensive they tended to be.

Max wasn't planning on telling his students about his plans to buy some
of them weapons. It’d be a surprise. He was hoping it would just cost
him a small fortune, though–not a large one.

A er the quick assessment of his students, Max taught them a new

form, did a run-through of its prac cal applica on, and then asked them
to all stand in a semicircle around him.

"Okay, everybody," he said. "I haven't been gone that long, but we're
ge ng closer to the end of the semester. Has anybody found and
contracted with any new spirits yet that might change their figh ng style
or anything else I should know about?"

Three of the class raised their hand—Momo, Benjamin, and Gantry.

"Really? Gantry too?" asked Max. Based on how the rest of the academy
performed, it could be considered surprising, very surprising, that so
many members of this group had found new spirits so quickly. But not
only were these some of the most driven students in their respec ve
years, they were also in the middle of learning a new Path—the same
path, in fact, that Max's students on Earth had acquired. Max ac vated
his third eye briefly and verified it. All of them were a Summoner and
Mana Swordsman.

Gantry grunted. "Yes, I contracted a new spirit, and I understand why

you're surprised. I didn't even get the chance to use his power against
you in the spar earlier because you beat me too fast."

The other students laughed good-naturedly at Gantry's frustra on. Max

chuckled too and asked, "What does your new spirit do?"

Gantry scratched his cheek. "He's a screamer class. Name’s Ya o. He can

shriek in one of my opponent’s ears. It can be startling or even mess
with their concentra on if the shriek goes on long enough."

"How long can it last?" asked Max.

"Right now, like five or six seconds, but I'm pre y sure that if I keep
working with my spirit, we can get it up higher."

"And how long does it take between shrieks?" asked Max.

"Maybe another five seconds."

"Can other people hear it if the spirit shrieks in their ear?"

"Nope." Now Gantry was showing obvious pride, and Max understood
why. It would be a useful ability against any opponent, whether monster
or human, unless they just couldn't hear. But even if the shriek didn't
ruin their concentra on or startle them, it would s ll take away one of
their senses, poten ally crea ng openings.

"What about you, Momo?" asked Max.

Momo's red eyes were hooded, and she seemed unusually vulnerable. "I
actually have two new spirits."

"Really?"

"Yes. I've only told my friends in the dorm so far. But, yes. Only one has
combat capability. I got a mover class that's actually really fast. She can
move things that belong to me. Really fast. Really really fast."

"So, that means that you basically can throw knives farther and more
accurately than before, right?" asked Max.

"Correct."

Aeolus frowned. "Wait? What did you mean, ‘belongs’ to you?"

Momo shrugged. "It's up to the spirit to decide, but I think she considers
anything that I own or that I've worn or used for long enough to belong
to me."

"That's good to know," said Max. "It's good that you were able to find a
spirit that complements your skills."

Momo gave a small smile and said, "Yes, as it turns out, I was actually
prac cing throwing knives and she just showed up."

"Lucky," said Aeolus. "Compa ble spirits just approaching us is super

rare, especially in the Quartet."

Max thought about how he'd met Lavinia and kept his mouth shut.
"What about your other spirit?" he asked.

"Like I said, the other is not really combat related. He is a memory spirit
and is very wise. He's kind of like Gantry's spirit that shows him how to
fight with swords be er, but he—uh—" she paused, "—he was a
professional chef, so I'm learning to cook really well."

"Oh," he said. "That’s…handy."

Momo grinned. "I'm not very good yet, but perhaps later, a er I’ve had
me to prac ce more?"

Max nodded slowly. “Yeah. Maybe later.”

He was glad that Momo had found and embraced both of her new
spirits, but he couldn’t help but admit this was why the other Paths
currently thought Summoners were so weak. If every Summoner could
only meet a limited number of spirits in a life me, and some of them
could get the bad luck to find compa ble spirits that didn’t confer
abili es that helped them get stronger, it was almost like…wasted
opportunity.

But as he considered it further, Max realized he was maybe thinking too

narrowly. A er all, people s ll needed to eat, and some mes knowing
what foods were poisonous or how to prepare certain meals might save
one’s own life or an en re team. On top of that, if it were possible to
contract with spirits that could teach other skills, not just mar al skills,
it would make a Summoner a far more well-rounded, dynamic person…
but only if they were able to find and contract more spirits.

Max already had three contracted spirits, and one was warlord level. Of
course, he couldn't compare his arts students to himself. Or, who knew,
maybe they would all eventually surpass him.

The feeling hadn’t been coming as o en lately, but he was s ll struck by

how li le he actually knew about Summoners.

Benjamin, the tall mysterious man, raised a hand. He said, "Now I can do
this." Suddenly, a blue flame manifested above his palm. "I got pre y
lucky. This flame I can generate for a while, it lets me burn whatever I
want to burn and not burn things that I choose not to."

He picked up his wooden training axe and suddenly it was covered in the
same blue fire. "I can also transfer the flame to anything I'm holding."

"Oh wow," said Gantry.

"That’s a pre y blue," Momo murmured.

The rest of the class gave voice to their admira on as well. Max could
already understand the strengths and weaknesses of the power.
Benjamin would have to carefully me when he'd use the flame since he
couldn't keep it manifested the en re fight. But how quickly it could
burned something would ma er a lot for how powerful it would truly
be.

"Have you begun experimen ng with what it will burn and how fast?"

"A li le bit," said Benjamin. "I definitely understand where you're going
with that, and I agree that it's something I need to know."

Max nodded and looked up in thought as he crossed his arms. Then he

said, "Everybody, eventually I'm going to be able to show you something
else other than mar al arts. Maybe a way for all of you to meet and
hopefully make contracts with other spirits more easily."

Are you going to give my circle to them? Lavinia mentally asked.

No, replied Max. Even if you'd let me, it's far too dangerous as it is. I'm
not going to do anything un l I figure out how to make it safer.

If you do that, it will be less effec ve.

Yeah, well, nobody here is going to be able to fight anymore if something

eats their soul, Max replied.

Good point, said Lavinia. Saliron chuckled.

“What do you mean?” asked Gantry.

“I’m thinking about sharing a secret magic circle I’ve been working on
that will make it much easier for all of you to meet new spirits.”

"Are you serious!?” exclaimed Eolus. His spear dangled from slack
fingers.

“Yes, but before I hand out anything, I want to get some magically
binding contracts because this would be coming from me, not from the
Academy, and I don't want the informa on to spread."

Gantry slowly asked, "Why not? If it's a way to help Summoners meet
new spirits, wouldn't it help everybody?"

That was a good ques on, and Max didn't know quite how to answer
without telling everybody about the current poli cs and power plays in
the quartet. "I'm not convinced that helping everybody wouldn't end up
making me more of a target than I already am. I am also not sure that
the unintended consequences might be worse than everyone being
weaker, like now.” He realized as the words came out of his mouth that
this pre y closely reflected how he’d felt about everyone on Earth with
the talent to do so learning to be a Mana Swordsman.
His students slowly nodded at that. A er all, everybody in the
Summoner Academy knew who Max was and what he'd done at the
Mys c Spear Path Academy by this point. Even the students who had
been inconvenienced or their romances temporarily put on hold had
mostly admi ed by this point that what Max did probably should have
been done. There were s ll plenty of students who didn't like him, but a
lot of the fallout, at least in the Summoner Academy, had abated.

"Okay, everybody, I'm going to show you all one more form today, and
then we're going to do some light sparring at half speed," Max
announced.

"I'm not sparring against you again, not today," said Gantry.

"Fair enough," Max replied. "That's fine. I'll stay out of it in general. But
a er your sparring, we're going to do test cu ng with your real
weapons, or test bashing as the case may be. Then we'll stretch and be
done for the day. Any ques ons? No? Okay, let's get to it."
 Chapter 26

The next day, Max got up early. A er some light morning exercises, he
went to breakfast. He checked his tablet on the way and saw a few
messages that he decided weren't important. Dealing with them could
wait. He had a lot to do, even though he wasn't going to class.

At the cafeteria, he scarfed down breakfast as quickly as he could,

making sure not to make eye contact with anybody, lest they take it as
an invita on to talk. Then he got a few meals to go and went back to his
room. He decided on the way back that he should probably look into
room service or something of that nature. The feeling he was ge ng was
that his imagined aura of menace or mys que that the other students
might feel was star ng to fade. As a result, he was sure he could have
more annoying social interac ons in the future.

One advantage of being in the Summoner Academy is that the

Summoner students, by and large, were not exactly the bravest people
in the world. He had to give them respect for killing a monster on their
home world to even be here, but that could have been out of
despera on as much as anything. S ll, a lot of them were bored,
especially the first and second years. Max didn’t want to turn into a
Summoner circus animal.

As he stepped back into his dorm, he reflected on his chain of thought–

specifically that so many Summoners were shy–and wondered how that
was even possible. A er all, if the Paths given in the in-between world
were truly random, then why did it seem like so many more mid people
became summoners?

He actually sat down in his si ng room to think about it, which was only
the first or second me now that he used the si ng room for its
intended purpose. Max pondered for a while.

All the poten al challengers who came to the in-between space, who
were going to be awarded a Path, had a set number of Paths that they
would be compa ble with. And it made a certain sort of sense that
someone who was more cau ous and not exactly a warrior-type would
not be well-suited for, for instance, the Mys c Spear Path.

And perhaps…people might also be classified by not being too afraid of

spirits or strange things…and have the ability to make odd friendships
more easily. That would definitely make someone a candidate to be a
Summoner. Now Max felt like he might be onto something.

Maybe if a new Challenger was quiet and just had a highly developed
sense of empathy, they would probably be a good Summoner too. And if
the universe func oned the way it probably was supposed to, with
Summoners roughly being on par with all the other Paths in terms of
power, their natural personality quirks would be working in their favor,
not against them, unlike at the present moment.

The more he thought about it, the more Max grew irritated that
Summoners had been screwed over for so long. The real injus ce was
that with Summoners screwed over, it meant that people on their home
worlds would be less protected once the Summoner returned.

Irritated from his current direc on of thinking, Max got up from his chair
and put his food away in a cleverly hidden refrigerator in one of the
walls. That was when he realized he'd forgo en something.

"Damn it," he mu ered. Bones.

He went back to the cafeteria and asked for bones. The staff directed
him to the back of the cafeteria, where there was a loading dock to the
kitchen, and for the first me since Max had been in the Quartet, he
wondered where the cafeteria got its meat and other supplies from. The
more he thought about it, the more of a mystery it was. A er all, based
on his understanding, the Quartet was just the four academies, the
central area, and living spaces for the workers in the central area and
Quarter-born that func oned with a micro-dimension system. He filed
the mystery away to revisit later but decided the most likely answer was
farming micro-dimensions. Or maybe the Quartets weren’t as isolated as
they were all taught. In fact, considering the eventual inter-Quartet
compe on, that would definitely require some travel between
Quartets. So even if the food didn't come from outside the Quartet,
travel of some sort between Quartets had to be possible.

Max felt like he was on the verge of understanding something deeper,

something bigger about the Quartet system, but it was just on the p of
his mind. He kept pondering it, but hadn't had any eureka moments by
the me the rear doors opened and some cooks brought out an en re
rolling bin of bones. In Max's head, Salironbegan gibbering in
excitement. Max pulled a plas c bag with all the bones in it out of the
bin, ed it off, and threw it over his shoulder for his walk back. Once he
was safely back inside his dorm, he said out loud, "Lavinia, where do you
think I should put all this bone stuff?"

His spirit appeared before him with a hand on one hip and a though ul
expression. "If you would have asked me a day ago, I would have said
the magic workroom, but now I actually think you should put it in the
dark room."

"Why?"

"Well, that's obviously Saliron's favorite room, and it won't bother me if

it's there, or any other spirits for that ma er. It’ll be out of the way for
you there. You're only going to really use the bones like once, right?"

"Well, maybe once in a great while."

"That’s okay. Whenever you go in the dark room, can you keep the light
down, like maybe only use a single candle?"

"I guess. What's the reason for that though?"

"The longer a room is dark, the more dark it stays, the be er it feels for
spirits. That's why that room that you used to live next to in your old
dorm has so much spirit ac vity."

"About that," said Max, "are you ever going to tell me anything more
about that room?"

"I'm working on it. Please just be pa ent."

"Okay, okay," Max held up his hands. "I'll use the dark room, thanks.”

“When you first set up the bone gateway, it's okay to use an extra
candle, two, but—"

Max cut her off. "One should be fine. A er all, I can just divert more
mana to my eyeballs so I can see be er in the dark."

"Okay, glad to hear it. And thank you." Lavinia vanished from sight, but
Max knew she was s ll there. It was strange developing a friendship with
somebody who was almost always there unless they chose not to be.
There were some advantages, though. It sure did reduce the amount of
me it took to catch her up to speed on things that had happened. Max
chuckled at his own lame joke while he dragged the bag of bones to the
dark room.

In the hallway, he realized that as he was chuckling, Saliron was also

chuckling in the back of his head. Max abruptly stopped. He didn't
honestly believe that the dark spirit would end up warping him to start
loving bones, but there was no use in temp ng fate.

***

The bone doorway was complete. Max studied the whole thing with the
light of his single candle and ignored the rest of the room. It was a li le
strange how the darkness seemed to press in on his light, but he wasn't
going to light up the space anymore for his own comfort. Besides, it
shouldn't be affec ng him like this in the first place. Normally, actually, it
wouldn't be. Max was not afraid of the dark. The only explana on for
his weird discomfort was that the room was likely full of spiritual energy.
For those who were not used to spiritual energy, it could play havoc on
their nervous system a bit. That’s what he’d read, but this was his first
me experiencing it.

Saliron had helped him build the bone gateway, and the spirit was
happy with the result too. "Yes," the dark en ty crowed out loud, his
cracked, growling, cracked voice echoing in the empty room. "This is truly
an edifice worthy of displaying just a ny por on of the wealth that my
contractor has just received. The nibbly, lovely bones piled against one
wall, so pure, so randomly stacked, displayed to the world in random
beauty. Charming. Absolutely charming.”

The licking of lips, which Max knew was not even physically possible for
the spirit to do, on top of Saliron’s horrible voice was just the creepy
icing on the cake. Even though he was with his own spirits and Max was
too old and too seasoned to be really afraid of anything, he didn't really
like being in this dark room very much with Saliron smacking his lips.

"All right, here goes…anything," mu ered Max. He touched a bead to

the bone doorway that he'd prepared ahead of me, and just like back
in the dungeon, a spa al ripple appeared. His list of inventory inside
came up, but he really didn't need to interact with it. Lavinia already
knew what she wanted and had sent a spirit through the doorway as
soon as it had formed. Two seconds later, it looked like everything Max
had wanted to extract was pulled out. He watched un l the last item
was through and then canceled the magic. Unlike last me he’d used the
bone doorway though, this me the structure stayed mostly intact.

"Oh, that's handy," said Max. "Now I won't have to build a brand new
doorway out of troll bones in order to use it again."

"No," rang out Saliron's voice. "It is not acceptable to disrespect the
charming bones so. These bones must be put to rest and never used
again. Well, put to rest a er being tasted, of course. Tasted many, many
mes.”

Before Max's eyes, in the dim light of his candle, the bones truly began
to disappear. It looked like dozens or maybe even hundreds of ny
unseen en es were taking bite a er bite of the remaining bones.
"Is that really necessary?" asked Max.

"Of course," drawled Saliron.

"If that’s the case…then maybe it’s about sacrifice, or…exchange. It does
actually sort of make sense if the bones are more of a conduit or an idea
than a structure," said Max.

He didn't realize he'd actually spoken out loud un l the spirit chuckled
and replied, "You grow in wisdom, Max Cunningham."

Max rolled his eyes and grabbed the items he was taking out of the
room. All the troll bones could stay against the wall in case he needed
to make another gateway. Once he’d le he shut the door, he blew out
his candle and went directly to his magic workroom. There, he laid out
the two swords he brought from Earth and gave them a once-over. They
would definitely be good for Gantry. Perhaps they wouldn't last as long
as the weapons he was going to get his other friends, but Gantry was
most likely des ned to go farther than them anyway. He’d be able to get
his own replacement weapons on his own.

The other items that Max had brought from the gateway, he set on a
shelf in case he needed them later. Then he folded his arms and tapped
his foot. "Lavinia," he said.

"Yes, that's my name, don't wear it out!”

“This isn't 1998, and we are not on Earth. You sound ridiculous.”

“Whatever, bruh. Cowabunga.”

Max sighed. "Lavinia, chill with the weird dad humor for a second. I have
a ques on."

"Then I might have an answer. No promises though. Smokin’!"

Now it was obvious that she was being goofy on purpose, so Max
ignored her. He said, "Okay, so Headmaster Mong Hao Han basically
made it clear that he's been spying on me with his spirits. Do you think
they can see me through the wards that you helped me set up around
the dorm?"

Lavinia shook her head. "Probably not, because you specifically created
them against eavesdropping and things of that nature. I also helped you
close off some tricky loopholes that some Summoners might not know
about."

"That’s right. You're really like an ex-hacker turned cybersecurity person,

except with you it's the exact opposite order."

"Huh?" she asked.

"Oh, I guess you haven't go en that far in my memories yet. Just wait ll
you hit some epic YouTube rabbit holes I went down when I was
procras na ng in my senior year of college. Anyway, I want to try ge ng
a message to the headmaster, so let's do a quick experiment, alright?"

He didn't wait for an answer and promptly went to the doorway of his
dorm. Then he stepped outside. There was nothing out there by his
security golems. Even so, he spoke out loud to the empty air. "I am just
talking right now, not talking to any golems. Just talking. I need to talk to
Headmaster Mong Hao Han because I need to leave the academy and go
to the central area. I'm going to stay in the academy right now for most
of the day, but I want to leave in the early a ernoon so I can get back
before most of the Quartet students usually go to the central area. This
is an a empt at communica on. I'm trying to be a team player and
avoid problems."

Then he gave a sly grin again to the empty air and went back into his
dorm.

"Well, that's one way to do it," said Lavinia.

"Yep, now let's see if I get a message back."

 Chapter 27

“This line is too much, I think,” he said. His finger traced a single curved
por on of the magic circle he’d been dissec ng and reassembling with
Lavinia hundreds of mes. Max was working in his magical workroom,
building arcane logic-circles yet again and looking at them cri cally when
he was suddenly interrupted.

Lavinia appeared to one side. "Well, it didn't take long for you to get a
reply.”

“I take it that one of your spirits at the door just told you that a note
came."

"Yes. One is bringing it in." Max glanced up, and sure enough, a pair of
spindly ectoplasmic legs with a small golem-like body carried in a note.
He flipped it open, read it, and then put it on the floor for his spirits to
read. The note had been simple. Headmaster Mong Hao Han was asking
Max to wait a few more days, two days minimum. No pleasantries, just
the request.

Max tapped his arm, thinking about the message. Part of him wanted to
be stubborn and obs nate–just go to the central area anyway, but that
would probably be a dumb thing to do. A er all, the headmaster would
immediately know he went. Max didn't have a way to even detect the
surveillance yet, much less block it, and he wasn't sure what would
happen if he just did what he wanted.

At this point, at least two headmasters had a vested interest in making

sure he didn't go and get himself killed. On top of that, just like before,
there was s ll likely a chance that Max could be murdered if he ran into
somebody more powerful than he was, or a sufficiently mo vated group.
Like it or not, the days of him going off by himself and scamming hot-
headed idiots out of their money were probably over.

"You're thinking about going anyway, aren't you?" asked Lavinia.

Max nodded, then shook his head. "No, I was thinking about it, but I've
decided against it. S ll, it's kind of annoying that I have all this money
right now and nowhere to really use it. Well, except by destroying it, but
there’s a limit to how fast that process works."

"How much do you actually have now anyway?" asked Lavinia.

Max pulled up his screen to double-check and answered, "This number

should be a few hundred plus whatever I got at the end of my dungeon
plus ten thousand."

Once he read off the number, Lavinia's jaw actually dropped. But Max
knew that the amount was decep vely large. A er all, he'd already
spent thousands of mana units ge ng to where he was with his current
mana body. There were s ll expensive things to buy, too. On top of all
that, he couldn’t be too happy about his gains from the dungeon. While
it would probably have been possible to reach a two-star mana body in
the first place without being stranded in Cradle of Giants, the act of
sending Max to the dungeon really had been a death sentence. If he
hadn't had hundreds of years of experience to draw from and some
incredibly strange pieces of fortune, he would have perished.

He didn't think back to his execu on of the worker with any sort of joy,
but he definitely didn't regret it.

Max looked up at the ceiling, thinking about how he could fill his days
without going to the central area first. He was feeling impa ent, but
le ng the emo on control him wouldn’t be wise. Besides, there were
things to do–he could wait another couple of days. But if the
headmaster dragged his feet too long, then he was going to push back.
He said as much to Lavinia. She said, “Sure, you have lots to do.
Speaking of which, why haven't you been working on your mana body
since you've go en back to the Quartet?"
"Well, that's one reason I need to go to the central area. I already have
ways to make mana usage more efficient, but since here I have to
literally burn mana just to get any in decent amounts, I want to stretch
what I have even further. All my mar al arts students here in the quartet
need mana too, and they don't even know it yet. They're showing some
improvement. The mana quality here is horrible but it is somewhat
present, be er than back on earth before the monsters showed up, but
it s ll isn't good enough. Warriors on a mana path like them need to
improve their bodies faster."

"Faster for what?" asked Lavinia.

"Fast enough for them to place in the Quartet compe on for one. If I
have to go to another Quartet for an inter-Quartet compe on, I don’t
want to be stuck there alone.” Max grinned. “Maybe a li le selfish of
me, but I’d like my friends to win some rewards and mana units, too.”

"I'll be damned, you really are planning ahead, aren't you?"

"Trying to. So here's what I'm thinking: since I won't have a lot to do for
the next couple of days, I want to spend a lot of me trying to work on
this mana circle of yours and make it a li le bit tamer so some of my
friends can use it."

Lavinia laughed, and Max frowned. "What?"

"Oh, you just referred to them as your friends. I thought it was cute."

Max gave the ghost girl an exasperated look. "Of course they're my
friends. I don't think that's weird. In fact, this morning I sent a message
to Gantry asking about food, but he'd already had breakfast. Right a er
that Momo asked me if I wanted to get breakfast or dinner with her
today."

Lavinia's light laughter turned into a full-throated howl. "

'What?” He frowned when she didn’t stop. “What!?”

"I think Momo might be interested in a li le bit more than friendship
there. Oh, wow. This is ridiculous."

Max blinked. "Wait. You really think so?"

By this point, Lavinia was rolling around on the ground. Slick suddenly
manifested and began doing backflips across the room. Max wasn't sure
if the li le spirit actually understood what was going on, or was just
excited by all the commo on and wanted to be involved.

Lavinia pointed and said, "For such a powerful person who has lived for
so long, you can be surprisingly dense. How in the hell did you ever
marry? You didn't no ce the looks that Momo…hell, half of the women
in the Summoner Academy have been looking at you like you're a piece
of meat and they're a lion. A hungry lion. Lioness. Lionessses. Whatever.”

“A piece of meat?”

“Maybe a scary piece of meat, but a piece of meat nonetheless. How can
you not tell? Maxl, I can tell, and I'm dead, and I was a virgin too."

She suddenly covered her mouth with both hands. Max got very s ll and
only moved his eyes to follow her.

"Wait, you were a…a what?" he asked.

"I didn't say anything, don't worry about it. Mind your business.”

"No, no, no, no, no. I'm pre y sure I heard what I heard."

"Drop it, buster. Unless you don't want armor or ectoplasm again."

"Uh-huh," drawled Max. "Well, I'm fine being made fun of since it's the
pot calling the ke le black over here. But I really don't think Momo
contacted me for…you know."

He did give it some thought, though. Max felt a bit of confusion as he

tried to remember the red-eyed woman’s expressions from the day
before.
Lavinia seemed to sense what he was doing. She chuckled and shook her
head again. “Well, stop wondering about it. Are you going to meet her
and find out?"

Max looked at the mys c circle on the ground before sighing and pulling
out his tablet to check the me. He said, "You know what, if we get
enough work done on this circle stuff today and I do a few other errands
I wanted to run, maybe I will meet her for dinner. Then I suppose we'll
find out which one of us was right."

"So what do I get if I'm right?"

Max rubbed his chin as if deep in thought and said, "If you win, maybe I
can find a nice spirit gentleman who is open to mee ng a sarcas c,
somewhat inexperienced bookworm, former Summoner. Maybe I can
hook you guys up. What do you say? Oh, I'll even make sure that he's
cool with the whole spying in the shower thing. But not on him, on me.
I'll tell him you did it to me."

Lavinia narrowed her eyes and very slowly and deliberately picked up a
physical piece of chalk from the floor before lobbing it at Max as hard
and fast as she could, which had barely enough speed to even reach him
in the first place. As the chalk bounced off, Max laughed and said, "Okay,
play me's over. Let's get back to work here on this circle. It took you a
few years to create it in the first place. You’ve been thinking about it for
hundreds. Now you have another month to improve it.”

“So just drop it? Just like that?”

“Yes. And besides, I know you're curious about this Momo situa on
too."

"Well…I have to admit…sort of guilty. How can you tell?"

Max pointed at his head. "Some mes, well, you live in my noggin now,
and you were the only person I talked to in the dungeon before we got
our bone-loving warlord class spirit friend All he ever talks about is
bones."
Saliron’s voice rang out from nowhere in the room. He said, "Bones are
the only thing worth spending energy to discuss."

"Noted," said Max. He turned to Lavinia. "See what I mean? Anyway, by

this point, you're probably one of the best friends I've ever had."

"Really?" asked the spirit.

"Really," said Max. "Mee ng you was one of the luckiest breaks I've ever
go en so far in this life."

Lavinia looked down at the floor and picked up the chalk again, bringing
it over to the arcane equa on she'd been working on. She so ly said,
"Thank you."

"Don't men on it," said Max. "But for the record, I really don't think that
Momo wants to meet up for a date."

“I guess you’ll find out, huh?”

“You know what? For sure. Yeah.” Max expanded his tablet from his
wrist and replied to Momo’s message. He told her he might be able to
make dinner.”

He s ll thought Lavinia was probably wrong, but the speed with which
Momo replied made him start doub ng himself.
 Chapter 28

When Max was finally heading to the cafeteria from his dorm for dinner,
Lavinia's voice sounded mentally in his head. Now that you're going to
see Momo, isn't Lance going to be pissed again that you didn't tell him
that you were back in the Quartet and okay?

Max answered mentally, No, I let him know as soon as I got back to the
Quartet. And once I actually started going through the messages on my
tablet, I had a bit of a conversa on with him already.

Really? You truly know how to use your tablet now? I’m skep cal.

Uh huh. Well, I do. While I was in the dungeon, I was busy a lot of the
me, but I did have down me, and I was there for a few months. So, I
didn't really have anything else to do other than use my tablet. Messed
around with it, played with se ngs…I read every single book that I had on
it, basically all the books from all the classes I signed up for at the
beginning of the semester and a few that I checked out from the library. At
least the ones that had a format that I could read on my tablet. Not all of
them are the right format, you know.

Lavinia’s reply was indignant. Of course, I know. I prac cally lived in the
library for seven years.

Oh, that's right, said Max. Anyway, I have a lot of me to mess around
with my tablet, so... I'm pre y familiar with it now, and all the chat
func ons don't confuse me anymore.

Wow. You're such a Boomer, mentally laughed Lavinia.

Yeah, that's rich coming from the several-hundred-year-old lady ghost who
spent a bunch of that me hanging out in dark rooms, Max retorted.
Whatever. Max couldn’t see her, but he could imagine the ghost girl
rolling her eyes. She said, Anyway, so you talked to Lance, but wouldn’t he
want to meet up?

Well, I'm sure we will if we have me. But Lance has other things going on
too. I guess he just started seeing some girl.

What?! when!? Doesn't he have a woman and a child back on your world?

Max shrugged and said, All I know he s ll cares about them, but life is
weird right now for all of us. Most of the people that we get to know here
we'll never see again once we leave. And Lance has done a lot of thinking
about how he doesn't know when he's even going to get back to Earth. He
doesn't know if his girlfriend's s ll alive, and he definitely doesn't know if
she's going to stay faithful to him. And based on how a lot of people act on
Earth whenever their girlfriend or boyfriend, wife or husband gets
deployed in the military, I think the outlook for Lance's rela onship is
grim. At best.

Lance was thinking all of this, probably every day. Then as it turns out, the
girl he's seeing was in a very similar situa on to him when she le her
world. So I think they're kind of leaning on the fact that neither one of
them can be in each other's lives a er their Quartet me is done. It
probably helps them both deal with the situa on and sort through their
feelings on the ma er.

Wow, that's complicated, Lavinia remarked.

I know, right?

Lavinia huffed, But if I had a man, I don't care if I was in the Quartet from
my old world, I would definitely not have cheated.

Oh, really? How would you know, Miss Perpetual Virgin? he teased.

That’s mean, Max.

Max winced. Yeah, probably. Sorry, but the point s ll stands. You never
even had a real rela onship to be tested.

Morality is not situa onal unless someone is weak or selfish. Also, I s ll

know my own mind. I didn't back down from my research or my goals,
even when people kept killing me and harassing me. Betraying someone
just to deal with some temporary loneliness seems hedonis c and stupid
to me.

It’s true that you were, are, a very tough chick.

Indeed, don't forget it. Lavinia wasn't even trying to hide the pleasure in
her voice. Anyway, you best be careful with Momo. No ma er what
happens, don't break her heart.

What are you even talking about? Max asked. I'm pre y sure she just
wants to meet up to talk about throwing knives or something.

Uh-huh. It's too bad I don't own anything, or else I would be making a bet
with you for sure.

Noted, said Max. I'm at the cafeteria now, so I can't talk to you anymore.
Trying to keep two conversa ons going at once is tough.

I understand. No me for your hard-working spirits. I will talk to you when

it's convenient for you, Lavinia said with a passive-aggressive farewell.
Max sighed at her tone, but he knew she was mostly joking.

Suddenly, he felt a sensa on like a ny li le hand pa ng the back of his

neck. Out loud, he said, "Thanks for the support, Slick."

In the back of his mind, very faintly, he heard Saliron say, What is all this
fuss mortals make about rela onships? Why are rela onships even
necessary when there are beau ful bones to play with? Bones never lie.

Max ignored all his spirits. He paid for his meal at the front counter, a
process he was familiar with enough now that he barely paid a en on.
Then he scanned the cafeteria. He spo ed Momo in one corner, but she
wasn't by herself. There were two men standing next to her. Max
frowned when he saw her body language. He walked straight there, only
devia ng slightly off course to grab a muffin and a chilled glass bo le of
water. Leaning over Momo's table, he said, "Can I help you fellas?"

They turned, one of them with a sneer forming on his face, before
registering who was talking to them. In the space of about one second
flat, his expression melted and he almost tripped over himself trying to
back away. "Oh, hello there. Uh, Max, uh, Max Cunningham. Um, I didn't
know this was your girl, and she wasn't saying anything to us."

"She's not my girl. She's my friend," Max tried to say, but the two men,
both second-year summoners, had already beaten a hasty retreat. Max
didn't recognize or remember either one of them, but that wasn't saying
much. He hadn't exactly expanded his social circles all that much since
he first started classes.

Momo had been staring straight ahead, but now she looked up and said,
"You're here. Why don't you take a seat?" Her eyes smoldered, and it
took a second for Max to place the emo on. Irrita on.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "Am I late?"

"No, no, no," the pale, sharp-eared girl shook her head. "You're right on
me. I was just annoyed that those men wouldn't take a hint and go
away. I was afraid to talk, or I might have bi en one. Then I might have
had to kill one, or both, and I don’t want to risk demerits unless I really
have to.."

"Huh?" asked Max as he sat down.

She made a face. "They smelled bad, so the fact they were ge ng so
close was annoying me."

"Oh, okay," said Max. "I understand." But he didn't understand at all.
Then, deciding that he should probably just say so, he just said out loud,
"Actually, I don't actually understand that at all."
"That's okay," said Momo. "You know, I'm the only one of my kind in the
Summoner Academy. My species."

"I didn't know that," said Max.

She smiled sadly. "You don't know how lucky you humans are. Even
though there aren't very many people from your specific world, the
overwhelming majority of Challengers in this Quartet are human. So
even though you may have different backgrounds and might not share
many similari es from your cultures, at least you're s ll the same
species. That means that many or most of your sub-vocal
communica on, your humor, and even some analogies are going to be
similar. But me?" She waved a hand. "I tried to explain to another
woman a few weeks ago that a man she pointed out and thought was
very handsome smelled terrible. Apparently, she started da ng him a
while ago and took what I’d said as an insult, so one of the handful of
people I might have been friends with won't even talk to me anymore."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Max. "I hope I don't smell bad." He chuckled as he
began to eat the muffin he’d grabbed. Muffins were good any me of
the day as far as he was concerned.

"No, you don't smell bad at all," said Momo.

Max stopped ea ng for half a second, but then con nued when he
didn't see any other reac on from the red-eyed woman. But the stuff
Lavinia had said just kept running through his head. Damn…shi y ghost,
he thought. He refused to think about her any more disrespec ul than
that. No ma er how delusional, the contracted spirit was one of the
reasons why he was even si ng here in the cafeteria.

It looked like Momo was ea ng something like a steak and salad. Max
finished his muffin while Momo took a few more bites of her meat. Then
she pushed her plate away a er Max was done. "So, the truth is, I have
something to ask you."

Told ya! he suddenly heard Lavinia whisper in his mind.

Quiet, you. Out loud, he said, "Well, I'm here, it's just me, we don't even
have an audience." He gestured around at the tables surrounding them,
all of which were empty.

Momo suddenly smiled, the expression as bright as it was flee ng. She
said, "Of course there's nobody si ng by us. Half the Quartet, probably
most of the Summoner Academy, is terrified of you."

"Really?" asked Max.

"Of course! It is true you've only killed Mys c Spear Path students, but
just the fact that you are able to do so, and even get away with it makes
you almost like…a legend in the making in this academy. There are
plenty of Summoner students that have been abused by other students
in the Quartet, but dispropor onately by Mys c Spear Path students. As
such, the fact that you did what you did..." She took a sip of water.

"Crazy," Max mu ered. It wasn’t like he didn’t have eyes. He knew

people avoided him, or seemed scared, and he’d had plenty of
conversa ons with Lance about it. But hearing it from Momo felt
different.

Momo waved a hand in what Max was beginning to interpret as a shrug-

style gesture. She said, "All I know is that you are without a doubt one
of the most capable, level-headed people I think I've ever met."

"Level-headed?" asked Max. "Didn't you get the part about when I killed
a bunch of Mys c Spear Path students in a bathroom?"

"Yes," said Momo. "That was ruthless. To somebody who has lived an
easy life or has never seen violence or had to fight injus ce with their
own hands, what you did might have seemed unnecessary or perhaps
unhinged, but my home world is one of war."

"I didn’t know that. What is your home world like?" He decided to ignore
the “unhinged” part she’d men oned.
Momo's red eyes grew unfocused as she looked far away into memory.
"In my world, there are constant storms. Neusapiens, my race, have lost
much of our original technology, but we s ll have enough to tap into the
core of our planet and have power. The problem is, there are many
shortages of other resources on my world, Oas Panchia, because of the
storms.

“Most of my people live underground. I did too. In fact, almost everyone

above ground was a scien st or explorer or laborer of some kind. So
when the monster portals came and my world became Besieged, there
was nothing to ini ally stop or distract the monsters. They were able to
grow in numbers and power very quickly. When they finally figured out
where we actually were and a acked the tunnels, it was already
probably too late.

“I doubt my world will even be whole when I return." She looked down,
her eyes having lost some of their luster. "I know for a fact that my
immediate family is dead. When I was chosen by the system, I was
working as a guard and got a lucky shot with my rifle. Killed a monster.
My family's dwelling was nearby at the me, and just before my kill, I
saw it get fla ened. I have nothing to go back to my world for now. My
family is gone. There is no mate wai ng for me either, at least in part
because I am so incredibly ugly."

Max held up a hand. "Wait a second. What are you talking about? Ugly?
You aren’t ugly. Quite the opposite." Max tended not to regularly think
about any of his new acquaintances on a scale of a rac veness, but if
he did, Momo would be about an eleven out of ten. She was stunning
and her inhuman traits made her exo c, almost like a cross between an
elf and a vampire. Her pe te size hid a surprising amount of strength,
too, which meant even the way she walked was graceful and powerful.
She moved like the warrior she was.

Momo frowned. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Of course not," said Max. "I'm serious."

"Oh," she said, and twitched a smile on one side of her mouth. "That's
right, I forget. Species and cultural differences. Well, in my world, my
eyes are the wrong color, my teeth are too small, and my ears are much
too small. The angle of my ears is also wrong, as is my face shape."

Max glanced at her ears, which were actually a bit bigger than his own
and came to a point. For the first me since Max had known her, Momo
showed signs of self-consciousness and covered her ear with a hand. "I
would prefer you wouldn't stare."

"I was just glancing," said Max. He held up a hand. "I promise. But I also
promise that to my eyes, your ears look cute."

"Really?" Her hand slowly dropped, and she blinked. "Now, without any
context, perhaps it makes more sense why males of other species keep
approaching me to awkwardly talk about nothing."

Max looked to one side in amusement and chuckled. "Yeah, these last
two might have been coming on too strong. It was also possible they
were awkward and were just trying to flirt with you. Either way, it was
foolish of them to hang around a er it was clear you were not
interested." Max had no ced other women looking in Momo’s direc on
before he’d scared off the second years. The two men probably hadn’t
done their reputa ons with the academy women any favors.

Momo made a face. "They smelled terrible. It's so odd to me that

anyone, when seeking any sort of ma ng arrangement, would not first
establish a mutual smell agreement."

"So that's a big deal in your culture, huh?" asked Max. "The smell thing?"

"Indeed," said Momo. She pointed at her nose. "It has been a strange
thing for me. Some other Challengers' senses are..." She seemed to
search for the word. “Lacking.”

Max suddenly wondered what he smelled like, un l he reminded himself

that Momo had declared he smelled good. Feeling much less sure of
himself now, he said, "Thank you for telling me about your world and
your people, but you said you had a ques on for me, right?" He took a
sip of his water.

"Yes, that is right. Telling you about my background will be helpful here.
I don't have anything to go back to on my world, at least nothing I feel
par cularly a ached to. My family is gone, my friends are all dead, and
my government was corrupt. I was treated badly because I was so ugly.
So, when you go back to your world, I want to go with you."

Max almost spit out the water he had in his mouth. Has ly, he
swallowed and managed to get out, "Why? And what makes you think
that's even possible?"

Momo gave another one of her flee ng smiles that completely lit up her
en re face. Her expression went back to neutral as she said, "I have not
talked to many from your world. Your friend Lance in passing, and I've
seen a female Challenger in the mall before, in the central area, a
student of Elemental Shi er Academy. I do not know much, but what I
do know is that it sounds very interes ng and close enough to the
technology level of my world that I would not feel lost. Addi onally, you
are perhaps the strongest Challenger I have ever met, if one takes
poten al into considera on. I have been here for over two years. The
fact has not eluded me that it was only a er I met you that I was able to
form contracts with the excellent spirits who are currently on my
journey with me. But most of all, my intui on has told me that this
journey would make my life interes ng and more fulfilling. My intui on
is one of the few things I have le that I truly value."

"What about the part where any of this is even possible?"

"Ah," she waved it away like a trivial thing. "You have proven during
your short me in the Quartet so far that you regard rules and common
sense as things meant to be broken. There are rumors in the academy
now that the highest level of summoner staff are grooming a super-
compe tor for the Quartet compe on. You. I believe them. I also
believe there must be some way to transport our bodies to different
worlds, or even to the Quartet itself."
"Why do you say that?" asked Max.

Momo dropped her voice. "Because I have seen evidence that a er

some of the professors get hurt, they heal far slower than the rest of us
and they fear death."

Damn it, she beat me to it. I was going to tell you about that, said Lavinia
in the back of his head. Max was about to shush the spirit when he
realized that Lavinia had basically just confirmed Momo's observa on.

Slowly, Max said, “So basically, you think that if it's possible, I'll find a
way."

"Yes."

"Well, I'm fla ered by your faith in me," said Max. "But why would I go
through all of that effort to make the impossible possible? I mean, don't
get me wrong, you're my friend and all, but..."

"Ah," said Momo. "This is a reasonable thing to ask." She made a curious
gesture, touching her ear, then her mouth, and then pu ng a hand over
her chest before dropping her arm again. "I swear it to you that if you
help me avoid living the rest of my life on my own world, I will serve you
honorably as a soldier. Perhaps a knight. The tle does not ma er. I am
confident in my poten al. In fact, my skill with arms is one reason why I
chose to specialize in throwing knives a er coming to the Quartet."

"You said you had a rifle before," said Max. "Why did you choose
throwing knives instead of one of the guns?"

She shook her head. "Firearms are terrible for Summoners. They're too
slow to load, we have no way to empower them to be effec ve, and I
don't trust guns anymore, not a er seeing the horde of monsters a ack
my world. Guns can run out of ammuni on. Throwing knives can be
retrieved. They’re also far easier to empower mys cally."

"I guess that's fair," said Max.

Momo tapped one of her knuckles with a finger. "The truth is, I did some
studying before my choice as well. Unpopular or otherwise odd choices
in weapons, armor, or even a re can some mes a ract spirits, just by
using them. I believe there is only one other student of this academy
that throws knives, and he does not do so as one of his main weapons. I
reasoned that if there were any spirits available to help with any
weapon disciplines, I would be far more likely to find them with less
compe on."

Max pursed his lips and nodded. "Well-reasoned. It definitely worked,

too."

"Indeed, but again, only a er I met you. And especially now that you
have been training me in your amazing mar al arts, I promise I will work
to be the strongest version of myself I can possibly be, whether you take
me with you or not." Her jaw firmed and her eyes flashed. "A soldier I
was, and a soldier I will always be."

Max was impressed. He realized that Momo might be the closest to his
personality of anybody else he had met in the Quartet. He took another
sip of water and said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I do like to research
various things and I poten ally have a few ideas for various projects.
Maybe not inter-world teleporta on projects, but who knows?I will keep
your request in mind, and I promise you I'll try to do whatever I can to
help you. Not just for your sake, but for mine, for my world. If any of my
friends want to go back with me to my world, I would be a fool to turn
them down."

"Excellent," said Momo. "I'm glad that you have decided this way." She
took a dainty bite of her meat and smiled.

Then Max chuckled. When she gave him a ques oning look, he said,
"You know, it's funny—before I came here, one of my spirits told me that
you were probably wan ng to have dinner with me as a date or
something."

Momo finished chewing and looked up in confusion. "You mean as a

ma ng ritual?"
"Yes, exactly."

"Oh," she glanced up and frowned before cocking her head to the side.
"That was not why I called you, but I have already told you that I believe
you smell wonderful. I forget again that you are not from my culture.
This should be a fairly obvious thing to tell a man. But since we are on
the subject, you are not displeasing to my eyes, and I have great respect
for you as a person and as a warrior. If you ever informed me that you
wanted to establish a ma ng rela onship, I would be interested."

This me, Max really coughed on his water. In the back of his mind,
Lavinia cackled. I might not have completely won the bet we didn't
actually make, but this has to at least be a e!
 Chapter 29

For the next two days, Max killed me as produc vely as possible. He
did all the things he normally would do with a few things added in. The
addi ons were a bit more me spent researching magic and more
intensive reading in the library. But he also made me to meet up with
Lance in person, and he was somewhat surprised to find himself having
dinner with Momo again. He genuinely found stories of her home life
and her home world very interes ng.

Max told himself the glimpse into an alien world was the main reason
that he was mee ng up with Momo, and that it had nothing to do with
the fact that she was a very a rac ve woman who also had made it very
clear that she would jump his bones if he merely gave the go-ahead.
That was the kind of straigh orwardness and naked interest that could
go to a man's head. He tried not to let it affect his judgment.

Part of him wondered why he was holding back, though. He'd go en

over his wife's murder from his previous life even while he was s ll back
on Earth. However, it was also true he hadn’t been planning to find
romance in the Quartet. He hadn’t exactly had much me for da ng
either, as busy as he had been. Besides, most women who were age-
appropriate for Max now were just too immature and inexperienced for
him. It was strange that he felt so differently about spending me with
Momo un l they stumbled into the subject over their dinner.

Max had grown accustomed to speaking to Momo that same way she
did with him–no pretenses, no filters, just saying what he meant. "It's
odd that we're having this conversa on right now, and I definitely don't
feel like I'm having it with a younger woman."
Momo was ea ng steak again. She replied, "It is true that I am fairly
young for my species, but I think that the way Neusapiens judge these
things is different from humans."

"What do you mean?"

She paused ea ng to think of how to phrase her thoughts and said, "On
your world, are your years similar to the Quartet, give or take a month a
year…or an hour a day or two?"

"More or less," said Max, nodding.

Momo pointed her fork. "Then by your standards, I would be near fi y

years old, I suppose."

Max's jaw dropped. But a er he recovered from his surprise, he felt

somewhat foolish. A er all, on Albion, humans were not the only
intelligent species and they all had different lifespans. Earth had really
dulled his sense of normalcy for the universe. It wasn't that surprising to
find out that Momo's people lived longer than humans. In fact, he had
far outlasted the a standard human lifespan in his first life.

The revela on about Momo’s age made her even more a rac ve to him,
which was a problem. He had way too much going on right now to be
distracted in this way. A dinner here and there was fine, but he couldn’t
afford to go charging into anything more. Doing so would require that
he sacrifice some training or study me, and he couldn’t yet.

***

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Max stood staring at a new le er

in his hand.

At the end of the two-day wait, he’d received another message asking
him to wait another three days. Even though two days hadn't been that
long, Max was star ng to feel a li le bit antsy.
“Fine. That’s it.” First he went to his darkroom to access his dimensional
storage. Then he went directly out to the woods, away from prying eyes.
Three more days wasn’t actually that much longer, but he wasn’t going
to put off training his mana body any longer.

He was frustrated as he sat, before clearing his mind and sinking into
the rhythm of crushing mana units, absorbing them into his mana vault,
and improving his body. This process should be more efficient later if he
could go to the central area and acquire what he needed. However,
there was no subs tute for lost me. He was not going to spend three
more days without working on his mana body

As he sat and meditated, he thought of many things. Dancing on the p

of his mind was the possible choice of just going to the central area by
himself, sneaking there. Nah, that’s no good. Damn. He talked himself out
of it for a number of reasons, not least of which was that he didn't have
nearly enough money to buy the piece of gear he wanted by himself.
Unless the headmasters were s ll sponsoring him, his plans would be
ruined. As ar result, he would need to be in the Headmasters' good
graces.

With his mind made up and another three days to kill, he altered his
previous schedule.

In addi on to his other daily ac vi es, he began training his mana body
again. He also somehow ended up having dinner with Momo again.

During his new dinner with Momo, she told him that she had discovered
a special sort of “magic” she could use when men at the Academy tried
talking to her. All she had to do was say a few words, as if cas ng a spell.

“What in the world are you talking about?” he asked.

“It’s simple, really. If someone won’t leave, or they bother me, I just tell
them that I am considering ma ng with Max Cunningham and he might
show up near me at any me.”
“...oh.” Max wasn't sure how he felt about the fact she was making up
rela onships that didn't exist, but it probably didn't hurt anything. He
was happy to help a friend and he said as much.

However, things started ge ng awkward at mar al arts prac ce. Some of

his students started ac ng like immature children whenever he was
teaching Momo. Benjamin Northside was the absolute worst.

Once, when Max corrected Momo's form, adjus ng her leg and waist,
the big man had started making a sugges ve whistle. The other students
had laughed, but acted innocent when Max asked what was funny. Max
had rolled his eyes, not least of which because all the goofing around
was detrac ng from everyone’s focus. Momo hadn’t seemed fazed at all,
though.

Ul mately, Max knew it was silly to even care, but he s ll didn't know
what to think about Momo. It hadn't even been a full week yet since
she’d started talking about “ma ng,” so he hadn't intended to explore
the possibility of a rela onship yet, let alone suddenly run into it head-
on.

He needed to make a decision about whether he wanted to date Momo

or not…but he didn’t need to make it immediately. Luckily, she'd made it
clear that she wasn't in a huge rush, for which Max was deeply
apprecia ve.

Then finally the day came when Max received a le er giving him the go-
ahead to finally explore to the central area again. But when he saw the
added instruc ons in the new note, his eyebrows tried to climb into his
hairline. "Three different golems," he said out loud, "from three
different schools. Wow."

The note read:

You can now go to the central area, but please inform your dorm sentry
golem before you go. Outside the Summoner Academy gate, you will be
escorted everywhere by three different golems. One will represent the
Summoner Academy, one will represent the Mys c Spear Academy, and
one will represent the Replicator Academy. Thank you for your
coopera on. And of course, please do not a empt to enter any
dungeons.

Max thought about the le er for a few minutes. The headmaster was
basically le ng him know that three out of the four headmasters in the
Quartet were now suppor ng Max behind the scenes–at least as long as
he con nued to get stronger and win the Quartet compe on. This was
good because he had realized that he needed more money. Maybe he
could shake down any new headmasters for more of an allowance.

An extra two hundred and fi y mana units per headmaster per month
would be nice. It honestly s ll wasn't enough, but it’d help.

Worrying about money was frustra ng because he shouldn’t have to.

Max was pre y sure that some of his other ideas to make money were
viable, but most weren’t possible anymore now that his status had
changed.

He needed to go to the central area, not only for shopping but also to
explore some of the plans he and Lavinia had discussed earlier. Some of
his plans were definitely viable, and would need to work out in order for
his current situa on to really pan out as much as some other paths he
might have taken.

He’d been thinking a lot lately about weapons and armor.

Even with all the dungeon diving done by students in the Quartet, there
was a shortage of weapons and armor. The prices were high because the
truly excep onal students would pay to have various items a ached to
their soul. That way, when they returned to their original worlds, their
equipment would go with them. In fact, all of this was one of the largest
reasons why truly talented Challengers stayed in their Quartets for their
maximum me alloca on. The more weapons they could buy and bring
back with them, the more tools they’d have and the more other people
they could arm.
Max had been thinking about the en re system a lot lately. He’d
concluded it didnt make a lot of sense if the goal was actually to help
Challengers save their worlds. Who was paying for everything? If food
and lodging and power were already paid for, why did gear need to be
so expensive in the first place? Maybe the Quartet system’s economy
existed to push students to be as individually powerful as possible,
en ce the talented and greedy students into buying more gear, or to
force the less talented ones into staying, or to actually prevent too
many students from going back to their world with weapons. Maybe it
was some combina on.

One thing Max was fairly sure of now is that despite the veneer of
righteousness and altruism, he definitely didn't believe the en re
Quartet system was completely charitable or selfless. Somebody,
somewhere was benefi ng from its existence. He couldn't help but
remember the passage he'd seen in that strange temple right before
talking to the Morrigan. The words were burned into his memory. They'd
read:

Blessed be the Originators.

Try to

Love them

Hate them

Fear them

Join them

Destroy them

But never underes mate them

Lavinia got done reading the note on the floor. She said, “Well, I guess
you get to plan a trip to the central area now.”
“Seems like it. But I can’t go alone. Needs to be a way to make the whole
thing look a lot more natural and more casual. Too much scru ny will
ruin everything.”

“Just go with someone.”

“I’m not sure who to ask. And if I just take one of my normal friends or
mar al arts students, it s ll won’t look casual enough. Especially with
golems following us around."

"Casual, huh? You’re a student. Technically. Why don't you just go on a

double date?" said Lavinia.

"A what?"

"A double date. Not only that, if you go with the right people, you can
even make it a li le fun for yourself, you know, break up the monotony
of training a li le. I’m not sure if you understand the concept of fun so
I’m using small words."

Suddenly, Slick came around the corner, holding alo an impressively

large piece of troll bone. The spirit ran in and began jumping up and
down in excitement. Somehow Max knew that Slick was trying to be
encouraging.

“Slick!” Exclaimed Lavinia. “Go put that thing back! Those bones are
dirty! The cleaning spirits will throw them away if they’re outside of the
dark room!”

Saliron’s awful voice echoes out of everywhere and nowhere. “On the
contrary, The small one is perhaps finally understanding the allure of
bones. I approve." Then the dark spirit cackled.

Max tuned them out. He knew exactly what Lavinia had been sugges ng
before and it actually wasn't a bad idea, even if he personally wasn't
sure if he wanted to commit to a date–even a fake one. He didn't believe
in leading people on, much less somebody he actually liked and enjoyed
spending me with. But then he realized that was the man from Albion
in him talking. People in other worlds could take courtship much less
seriously.

Max privately didn't believe that was a be er way to live, as evidenced

by the many people working in the Quartet whose mothers and fathers
had gone back to their home worlds, leaving them alone, but he
supposed all those people would rather exist now than not.

Moral and ethical dilemmas red him out, so Max decided to cut his
losses and go to the library to study for a while. He loaded up his tablet
with good books. His me in the Cradle of Giants dungeon had truly
driven home how useful and powerful his tablet really was, and he
never planned to go anywhere again without a good number of books
on the device.

As he wound down for the night, he decided he'd try the whole double
da ng thing. Max pulled out his tablet and sent a message to Lance.
 Chapter 30

That night, Max suddenly felt a tugging on his elbow. He woke up from a
deep sleep and troubled dreams of his childhood on Earth.

In the dream, he had been a rela onship counselor trying to help his
parents reconcile so they wouldn't get divorced. The dream was one
he’d had before, but not for a long me.

His thoughts slowly sped up and he remembered he was going to the

central area in the morning. What had woken him up? He wasn’t sensing
any danger.

A er his eyes flew open, he registered Lavinia's glowing form standing

next to the bed. So it was Lavinia. He almost admonished her since he
was half asleep and she was not allowed in his bedroom, but thankfully,
he remembered there were excep ons such as important messages and
emergencies.

Wait, what’s the me? He glanced at his tablet. It was three a.m. "What
is it, Lavinia?" he mumbled.

The ghost girl's eyes were bright, and she wore a savage smile. "Wiley is
out," she said. "In fact, he's not only come out, he le Summoner
grounds and he's in the woods right now. If you hurry, you can catch
up."

That definitely got Max's a en on. With some concentra on and a brief
movement of mana, he was wide awake and ready to go. He vowed to
himself to never take this ability for granted, not a er his hellacious
mornings living on a no-mana Earth.
Max hopped out of bed in his underwear and Lavinia abruptly turned.
"For someone that makes all those jokes about the shower, you sure do
like to startle a girl."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Max. "I'm just as covered as if I were

wearing swim trunks to a beach.”

“Do I seem like the beach-going type to you?”

"Point taken, I guess. But I need to get dressed really quick. Wait out in
the si ng room. I'll be there in two minutes. Then you can lead the
way."

"You got it." Lavinia disappeared, and Max got ready.

Minutes later, Max was running through the empty campus. There were
a lot of late-nighters at Summoner Academy, so he s ll saw the
occasional student, but they definitely had their minds on other
ma ers. His running footsteps didn't even get much more than a second
look, especially since he’d decided to wear some of his Academy-
supplied athle c clothing. It was be er to move in than the standard
academy robe but s ll wasn’t uncommon. He’d made sure to stay far
enough away that no one would recognize him. None of them seemed
to.

This me, unlike the last me Max had caught up with Wiley, the other
man would be in the woods. That meant this me, Max wouldn't have
to work so hard to avoid witnesses.

He frowned as he ran, thinking about the first me he’d tracked the

weasely bastard down. It’d been right before leaving to try his first
dungeon, Cradle of Giants, and the event had been so an clamac c he’d
put it out of mind almost immediately. It’d been a ny blip in his day at
the me. The fact was…he’d been so excited to finally find the elusive
traitor, and working so hard to avoid being seen a acking him, that he
accidentally killed the other man in seconds. Wiley’s head hit a corner of
some brickwork and that had been that.
Max had barely thought about it since then, since deaths in the Quartet
were not permanent and he’d been trying to capture Wiley, not kill him.
Of course, he'd s ll been given two demerits for the “murder” by the
system, but Max was long past caring about demerits.

The moment he entered the forest between the Summoner Academy

and the central area, he automa cally switched to his method of
traveling stealthily through the woods. He was s ll able to make great
me in no small part because he could use Lavinia's spirits as
ectoplasmic rope to create bridges or swing over obstacles. Traveling
quickly through the woods was a different experience now that Max was
a two star mana body Blade Sorcerer. His mana-body granted night sight
as well as superhuman strength and reflexes.

Lavinia fed him the informa on that she was ge ng from her spirits in a
steady streamShe had a number of them shu ling back and forth
between Max and Wiley, sort of like a bucket brigade. Each spirit only
had to go back and forth a rela vely short distance before passing
informa on back, making the updates very fast. As a result, Max knew
that Wiley was not actually heading for the central area. Instead, it
seemed he was trying to take a roundabout path to the Mys c Spear
Academy grounds. Max knew for a fact that the border between the
schools was guarded, which meant Wiley must have some underhanded
method to get past it. Otherwise, his clandes ne travel through the
woods wouldn't make much sense.

Max could hear Wiley before he could see him. Obviously unaccustomed
to nature, Wiley was making a huge racket and carried a candle to help
him see. Now that Max thought about it, he wasn’t sure if Wiley had
contracted any spirits. If he had, he wasn’t asking them to watch for
danger.

Max was actually able to catch up and just tail him from a short
distance. He was curious about where exactly Wiley was heading. When
they were only fi y yards or so away from the border between school
grounds, Max struck. He sprang off a tree, flying forward in a silent and
graceful arc with the help of an ectoplasmic monowing. His hand gripped
the back of Wiley's neck and he slammed the traitorous bastard into the
ground so fast he wasn't even able to cry out.

Wiley’s candle flew from his outstretched hand, tumbling end over end,
and had a lucky landing on top of a large rock. Max was glad; now there
wasn't much chance he'd have to put out a fire regardless of what
happened next. The ny bit of light from the distant candle must have
made his face take on a hellish cast, though, because Wiley seemed even
more terrified than he had been the last me Max had run into him.

"You’ve already killed me once! What do you want?" he whined.

Max didn't bother talking. Instead, his sword came out, and with two
easy, economical slashes, he cut off the front half of Wiley's feet. It took
a couple seconds for Wiley to believe his eyes, even a er collapsing.
Then he shrieked. Max pounced on him, holding his arm in a vice-like
grip as he ignored Wiley’s weak slaps and punches. Then he cut the
man’s fingers off of his hand with surgical precision.

Wiley shrieked again. He was flailing around like a fish and making too
much noise, so Max rabbit punched the snake-like bastard in the jaw.
Then while Wiley was woozy, he cut the fingers off of his other hand.
Only the thumbs were le .

Max was covered in blood. He remembered Land covered in blood,

screaming while being tortured for not reason, and his eyes narrowed.
He refused to feel sorry for this mewling piece of trash writhing on the
ground.

He didn’t want Wiley to die, at least not yet. Max bent to wrestle the
gagging, screaming traitor, using a bit of mana to cauterize the wounds.
The process involved rubbing mana against itself to create heat, a
process only possible with Max’s fine mana control.

When it was all done, Wiley no longer had his toes or his fingers. Of
course, he could choose to end his life at any me, but then he would
be placing himself on an extra suicide mer.
It would also be unnerving to choose that op on. Wiley was a coward.

"Hello, fucks ck," said Max. "I've missed you. Why haven't you been
coming out of your dorm?"

Wiley had stopped screaming. How he just hissed and stared at Max
with hate-filled eyes through gri ed teeth.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" said Max. "I didn't sell you out to
some assholes in another school to be tortured and killed. And unlike
you, my friend and I are not lazy pieces of shit who took the absolute
minimum of classes to s ll get free food. Well, that was before you
started pissing yourself at the thought of me. If anything, I think you're
ge ng off the hook rather easily. If this were the real world, I would
have killed you already. The kind of killing that makes you stay dead."

"Fuck you," said Wiley.

"Oh, that's some tough talk from the weasel who couldn't even watch
me and Lance ge ng tortured a er you led us into the trap in the first
place. Traitors who make friends just to sell them out for money should
really have stronger stomachs."

Max rapped on the top of Wiley's head with the flat of his sword.
"Where is all your a tude coming from anyway? There isn’t any way for
you to ra onalize being such a rat. You're in the Quartet. You can't even
make up some lies about needing money for a sick rela ve or something.
You are just a greedy, opportunis c, amoral, worthless garbage person.
And you know what? You know the thing that really irritates me? Want
to know the reason why I want to keep tracking you down over and over
and over again? It's because you actually pretended to be Lance's friend.
And unlike the two of us, he doesn't understand the score, he is not
en rely wise to the world yet–a fact I am sure you were aware of. In fact,
deep down I think he thinks you might s ll be his friend. And that is
unacceptable." Max hit Wiley on the top of the head with the flat of his
blade again.
"Wiley, what’s going on? Is that you?" Called a voice called through the
trees.

Max glanced up, sharpening his eyes. "Oh my! This is truly a night of
surprises."

I can guess what you’re thinking. You're right, I already confirmed it, said
Lavinia in his mind. That's Prince Regal and two others.

Max whispered to Wiley, "I understand be er now why you're not

telling the system to kill you. Maybe you think that your li le sponsor
over there can help you out of this mess. Shout for them. Go on." He
made a pushing gesture with his free hand.

Wiley glared at Max in equal parts frustra on, despair, and impotent
anger before finally shou ng, "Prince Regal, I'm in trouble, help!"

"What's going on?" shouted Regal. "I can't go to the other side. Hurry
up. The gap is going to close!"

Max stood up and walked towards the boundary between the school
grounds. He couldn't see a golem anywhere at the moment, which was
likely one way that Regal had organized this li le stunt.

Lavinia, armor please, he thought, and instantly his body was covered in
plates of glowing, ectoplasmic armor.

"Oh, hello friend," said Max. "If it isn’t li le prince Regal! Long me no
see. I hope your family is doing well."

"You bastard! What did you do to Wiley?"

"Oh. He was a li le underfoot. But now he could use a hand."

"What does that mean?"

"He cut off my fucking fingers!" Wiley screamed from the undergrowth.

Even though Max had cauterized the man’s wounds, he was s ll missing
half of his feet now, and his wounds had to hurt like hell. Trying to get
up without the use of one's feet or hands would be difficult, if not
impossible for him.

"Yeah, why don't you help him," said Max. He beckoned to Regal, who
was now visible through the barrier. All three Mys c Spear students had
uncovered some sort of magic lanterns and had lights on their weapons
as well.

"On the contrary," said Regal, "why don't you come over here, Max?" He
smiled but his eyes were furious.

"Oh, I don't think so," said Max. "I'm just out for a stroll, and I met our
dear friend Wiley over here. Ah, it sounds like you all won't be able to
get together soon. What a shame that is. Although…I might be helping
our esteemed, wayward Wiley. A er all, I'm not sure what he expects
he's going to be able to do if he escapes to another academy. What, did
he apply to be your butler or your servant or something?"

When Prince Regal's face grew somewhat stony, Max laughed. "Wow, I
actually guessed it! It was something like that a er all." He looked back
at Wiley. "Pathe c. And to think, if you weren't a backstabbing, greedy
bitch, none of this would have happened."

"Fuck you!" screamed Wiley.

"And you see," said Max, "that's yet another reason I don't feel sorry for
you. You don't feel sorry for what you did. Instead, you're just upset that
you picked the wrong person to mess with." He turned back to Regal's
group. He couldn’t hear them whispering, but his spirits could.

Lavinia told him, Those two men just said that the opening in the barrier
is going to close in like five more minutes.

Max briefly wondered if Regal was trying to bluff, maybe to convince

Max to leave so they could come over and grab Wiley, or the traitor
could crawl his way there. Max really didn't think Regal was smart
enough or cra y enough to plan that far ahead on the fly, but he didn't
want to take any chances.

He said, "You know, it's funny how the first me I met you, you were so
arrogant despite being so weak. You wanted to humiliate me in front of
everybody, just a first year to the Quartet you thought would be
powerless. But now, here we are in private, you have two goons with
you, but you s ll won't come over and fight li le old me. Tsk, tsk. What
a fucking coward. If I ever get a chance to meet your family, I'm going to
be sure to tell them what a bitch you are. Then again, the apple
probably doesn’t fall far from the tree. In case you don’t know what that
means, I’m saying your family is probably all a bunch of useless
blowhards, too."

"How dare you," screamed Regal. Then he started yelling a choice list of
insults, but Max had already tuned him out.

Wiley lay moaning in the undergrowth. Max felt a flash of irrita on. He
grabbed the back of the man's shirt, pulled him up, and held up one of
his hands with severed fingers. “Want me to shove this in your mouth?
Stop moaning, genius. I went through a lot more than this when you
sold us out." Then he began forcefully dragging Wiley back to the
Summoner Academy.

Behind him, Regal’s voice grew even louder and more shrill. Max
con nued to ignore the prince, which was probably the perfect thing to
make him even more furious. The prince’s growls and howls warmed
Max’s heart.

His late wife really had been right. He had to admit that he had a
vindic ve streak. It was probably a character defect, but Max wasn’t too
interested in fixing it.

Eventually, he grew red of dragging Wiley and hearing the other man’s
moaning. Now that he’d spend me and effort moving him, Max didn’t
want him to find a kernel of decisiveness somewhere in his black heart,
so he smacked him in the face, allowing one of Lavinia’s spirits to fill his
mouth with an ectoplasmic gag. Then more spirits manifested, crea ng
what looked like a stretcher with li le miniature walking legs beneath it.
Max unceremoniously dropped Wiley onto the contrap on. Then, for
the rest of the walk back to Summoner Academy, he neither had to carry
the man nor hear his self-righteous wailing.

Once back at the academy, Max realized that he was in a small but
beau ful garden, one of the first loca ons he explored when he first
came to the Quartet. Even though he liked the garden, it felt like a
perfectly disdainful place to drop Wiley off at. So that's exactly what he
did. Lavinia's spirits ceased exis ng physically in the world, and Wiley
heavily dropped to the ground. His feet and hands both experienced
shock that sent him screaming again behind his gag.

"Oh Wiley," said Max, "calm down. Don't worry your traitorous li le
head. I'm not an evil fuck like you and your friends, just ge ng some
revenge. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth and all that. Seems to me that
we’re probably closer to equal at this point so this is the last me I will
visit you with my tender ministra ons. However, I do want to give you
one last thing to remember me by." Max bent down, grabbed one of
Wiley's thumbs, and turned Saliron loose. The dark spirit cackled in
Max's mind as he and his subordinate spirits began taking ny, rapid
bites out of Wiley's thumb bones. Wiley screamed behind his gag the
en re me. By the me the spirits were done, all that was le of the
man’s thumb was flaccid flap of skin hanging down from his hand.
Wiley's eyes were wide and desperate.

Max was privately shocked that the other man hadn’t elected to die like
Lance had before. There had to be some reason he wasn’t aware of. Oh
well, be er this way.

"Now Wiley," said Max, "you need to be quiet and pay a en on or else
more bad things might happen to you." Somehow, Wiley got a hold of
himself enough to quiet down and focus on Max. All of his earlier fight
and rebellion were gone. Now the only thing le in his shaking eyes was
fear.

"You see, Wiley," said Max, "I don't mind if you tell everybody what I just
did. Because if you tell everybody what I did, you are probably going to
have to tell everybody what you did, too. And if you don't, I'll make sure
they know. But even so, if you tell people about our walk in the woods
tonight, I don't even mind, beyond making sure everyone knows the full
story. In fact, I give you permission! Most everyone already thinks I’m a
monster, but they don’t know you are. It might bother you if the en re
academy knows what a useless, honorless coward you are.

“However, this is an opportunity for a new start! Isn’t that great! if I ever
see you again, I'd be er hear sterling things about your character. You'd
be er walk the straight and narrow now, motherfucker. If I ever find out
you’ve done one more shi y thing to anyone in the Summoner
academy, it's game on again. Because you see, I already don't like you. I
don't forgive you and I will never like you. The only reason I'm not going
to delete most of your bones every me you respawn–or maybe even do
something worse–is because I don't want to go too far. The line between
jus ce and evil can be thin and move around quite a bit, don’t you
think? Don’t make me go full evil, Wiley. The power is in your hands.
Well, half of them right now."

Then Max pa ed Wiley’s cheek a couple of mes, removed the gag, and
walked away. All the windows that had popped up informing him of
demerits being added by the system finally stopped.

Despite the obvious pain he was in, Wiley just panted and whined un l
Max was out of earshot. Hur ng Wiley didn't make Max feel be er
about what had happened, but he hadn’t really expected it to. He was
under no illusion that what he just meted out was jus ce. That had
been revenge, and he was okay with that. The short-lived rush of
payback was already fading.

This wasn't Max's first rodeo with retribu on. His vindic ve streak
definitely wasn’t the best part of him, but ironically, it was one of the
reasons he'd been called a hero in his former life. People, in general,
were usually okay with somebody doing horrible things to somebody
else if they were an enemy. Even though Max had stared into the abyss
and accepted that everything he'd done in the name of revenge had not
been jus ce, a lot of people in the universe seemed unwilling or unable
to be that brutally honest with themselves.

Jus ce was done on the behalf of someone else. Pain for one’s own sake
was generally something different, darker.

But even so, Max got back into bed and slept like a baby.
 Chapter 31

Max met Lance outside the cafeteria before heading to the central area.
"Are you ready?"

"Of course," said Max. He gave Lance a weird look. His friend had been
ac ng a li le strange about their planned double date and da ng in
general. This was ironic considering Max s ll didn’t really feel too
excited about any of this and Lance was the one trying to have a social
life lately. Max hadn't had enough me to really ask his friend what was
up, and it’d been the wrong place and me before. But if he had to
guess, he would assume that Lance was s ll a li le conflicted about
giving up on, or at least postponing, his rela onship on Earth.

Of course, Max was also willing to admit he might just be projec ng. Not
everyone felt the same about rela onships as Max did. Back on Earth,
some mes his friends and classmates had told him that he was like an
older man in a young person's body. He always found those comments a
li le irrita ng…probably since it was the truth.

The moment they began walking, he no ced three golems begin

following them from a discreet distance. He’d already told everyone who
was going to expect the chaperones.

Max and Lance met up with the girls near the path out of the academy
grounds. Lance's new girlfriend, Belle, and Momo were standing
awkwardly together. Max had told Momo ahead of me that Belle would
be joining them so at least there was no surprise. He wasn't sure how
long the two women had been standing there. Luckily, he and Lance
hadn’t been running late.
But the two women were very dissimilar, in appearance and vibe.
Momo, despite her small stature, was like a razor blade. She was sharp,
dangerous, and stood out in a crowd. Belle was physically larger and
seemed much more approachable. Max wondered if the two of them
hadn't made any efforts to be more friendly or any efforts to do so had
failed miserably. There was no way to be sure, and no real diploma c
way to ask right away.

Max wasn’t worried. Group social ac vi es could usually be salvaged

once people weren’t just standing around trying to come up with
something to say to newly met people.

As the group began walking to the gates to the academy grounds, Max
had a thought. He asked Lavinia if she could just speak to one of Momo's
spirits, find out about how her mee ng with Belle had gone. Less than a
minute later, in a bored tone of voice, Lavinia confirmed that the two
had met and barely spoken to each other.

Although the en re sequence of events over the last few minutes was
somewhat trivial in the grand scheme of things, it got Max's mental
wheels spinning. He started to wonder why Summoners didn't speak
privately to each other more o en using their spirits.

Then he answered his own ques on: messaging on tablets was easier
and more convenient. Plenty of Summoners might not trust each other
enough to give others informa on on their spirits, either. However, some
sensi ve communica ons might not be good to send via tablet…like an
ongoing clandes ne sponsorship rela onship with the headmasters of
the Quartet. Speaking spirit-to-spirit would probably be quicker and
more secure than exchanging notes. Mang Hao Han must be incredibly
private about what types of spirits he had.

Max mentally asked Lavinia if there was a way she could radiate, or
maybe send a signal to other spirits that she wanted to talk. I don't
know, but I can give it a shot," she said. Luckily, she'd immediately
grasped Max's inten ons.
If Headmaster Mong Hao Hong was clandes nely observing him with a
stealth spirit, maybe it might unstealth long enough to have a
conversa on with Lavinia, to pass on a message. If so, that would be one
less thing Max would have to worry about.

Right now, high on his to-do list was ge ng a message to Mong Hao
about the Summoner Academy compe on at the end of the semester.
A er all, the people expec ng Max to do well at the overall Quartet
compe on hadn’t really given him a lot of specifics yet. Max wasn’t
sure exactly how they wanted him to compete yet. He figured he’d be
ready for the senior division at the end of the year, but not yet.

Lance laughing brought Max back to the present. He’d worry about the
Quartet headmasters later.

While she hadn't been very outgoing just standing with Momo, now
Belle was very cha y. "It's great that I get to go and see the central area
again," she said. "I've been in the Summoner Academy for more than
two years now, but I've s ll barely made any money. Being poor makes
the trip less fun. Like, there really isn't much use going out unless one of
the restaurants is going to have live music. But even then, if the tables
fill up and you're not paying, they'll kick you out."

Max listened as Belle con nued like this, detailing her experiences in the
central area. Momo stayed quiet too, content just to walk next to Max
and observe the passing forest. When he realized the group was almost
to the Summoner academy gate, he took a quick scan around the area,
no cing the Momo was already doing the same thing. It seemed she’d
been literally watching his back. Max quirked a smile. Whether she was
currently just a friend, a comrade, or a roman c interest, Max's
apprecia on for the red-eyed woman increased.

Belle seemed oblivious to everything un l the group actually stopped at

the gate and she seemed startled when the gate guards wanted to scan
all of their hands. So far, Belle had not exactly made a great impression
on Max. For the sake of his friend, he planned to get along with her and
look for good aspects of her personality.
Just like Lance, Belle had le behind a partner and a child on her home
world. The fact that this fact bothered Max when he was trying to give
Lance a pass about it, he knew was hypocri cal. Then he amended that
since Lance’s choices recently were bothering him too, perhaps he
wasn’t a hypocrite. He was just… not willing to judge his friend harshly
on the ma er.

Max just couldn't stop thinking about his deceased son. Even though all
of the tragedies of his past life had happened hundreds of years before,
they had le scars that he might never heal from. Anyone with a living
child just…pu ng that aspect of their life on hold bothered him. But he
was willing to admit it was illogical. There wasn’t anything that Lance or
Belle could do about their situa ons except adjust. Wallowing in misery
wouldn’t help their training.

By the me Lance got done with his me in the Quartet, everything back
on Earth will have changed. Whether he returned a year a er his
disappearance, or ten years, there was no way he would be able to just
pick up his old life like nothing had happened.

Not for the first me, Max was glad he didn’t have a girlfriend or wife
back on earth. Worrying about his family was bad enough…and Max had
been back to ensure they were all s ll alive so far. That was a fact he had
not told a soul.

He was willing to admit that some mes he fixated too much on training
and pondering the world around him instead of spending appropriate
me thinking about the people around him. The last few minutes had
helped him understand Momo a bit be er. In that moment, he decided
that no ma er what, he’d do his best to honor her request to come to
Earth.

The group cleared the Summoner academy gate area and Max paid
a en on to Belle’s small talk again. He gave himself permission to
dislike her if it came to that, but he also made a promise to himself to
give her a fair shake.
"Where are we going first?" asked Belle. She seemed to realize that she
was the only person that had been talking for the last few minutes. Max
turned to regard her though ully. Belle really was quite pre y. He could
understand at least one reason why Lance liked her. She had flowing
dark hair and sharp, dark eyes that sparkled.

Lance responded, "I don't know, I'm not calling the shots for this one.
Max here is Mr. Moneybags."

"Oh my! Then where are we going, Mr. Moneybags?" asked Belle.

Max managed to crack a smile. "We're going to be walking around for a

while, so how about we go to a shop to get some snacks and drinks
first? I actually have one in mind where I s ll have some credit. If you all
don't mind, I'd like to go there."

"Oh, really? I'm assuming it's not just for the credit. It's good too, right?"
asked Belle.

"It sure was the last me I went."

Max grew be er at making small talk with Belle and Lance as they got to
the shop and placed their orders. Momo s ll hadn't said much. Max was
beginning to feel concerned she wasn't having fun so he caught her eye
and gave her a ques oning look. In response, Momo gave him a
Neusapian hand wave gesture, then her expression went back to
neutral.

One thing that Max really appreciated about all his closest friends he'd
made in the Quartet was the ability for sub-vocal communica on, just
like he'd been able to talk to Blake back on Earth some mes. Momo's
message was clear: she just didn't feel like talking and told him not to
worry about her. Max decided to take her on her word, but he gave her
a wink to thank her for watching his back. She gave him a half-smile in
response before turning her head to watch the doorway to the shop.

A er the group got done with all their drinks and snacks, they le again.
"I don't really like that place," said Lance.
"Wasn’t great this me," agreed Max. Momo just waved a hand and
wiggled her ears.

Belle seemed taken aback for a moment before she smiled again and
said, "Well, where are we going next, Mr. Moneybags?" Max realized
that the woman was trying hard to get along with Lance's friends, to fit
in with a strange group. He felt a li le guilty about his earlier judgments.
Once again, he reminded himself not to make snap judgements during
an inherently awkward group date.

It was mes like this Max wished that he was just figh ng something or
someone. Whether it was watching his parents' marriage fall apart,
interpersonal rela onships, or dealing with unhelpful would-be
managers when he was looking for a job on Earth, some mes Max just
had to admit to himself that people just didn't make sense to him.
Luckily, he’d s ll been able to forge some amazing friendships over two
life mes. Now he was just hoping that for Lance's sake, Belle ended up
confusing him less in the future.

The problem was not that she was trying to be outgoing. He really didn't
mind talka ve people at all. In fact, he enjoyed their company. But she
had been speaking almost non-stop since they le the Summoner
Academy and had yet to say anything of any real value.

Max remembered a saying back on Earth. “Be the change he wanted to

see in the world.” He smiled ruefully to himself, then in one of the rare
quiet moments, he asked, "What kind of world are you from, Belle?"

"You know, the same as everybody else. Completely different than the
Quaret. And everybody's probably being killed right off by now." She
laughed at her a empted joke, but Max could hear the frustra on and
pain in her voice.

Okay, that was the wrong ques on to ask, he told himself. However, then
he had a change of heart when he realized that almost all the ques ons
he could ask her that were relevant to their life in the Quartet would
likely s ll be related to their worlds in some way. Since shying away from
the difficult topic wasn’t possible, Max leaned into it.
Max nodded. "I le my world not long a er the first a ack because I was
trying to get some people away, escaping from my job, and I killed a
monster in the midst of all of that. I think I was probably one of the first
people from my world to accept the window prompt. Max gestured
around them. "Kind of weird that now I'm walking around ge ng coffee
and thinking about going to a mall. You've been here longer than me.
How do you deal with all of this, Belle?"

The woman paused, and Max got the impression she hadn't expected
him to take that route of conversa on. She slowly answered, "Most
days, I just don't think about it. This is my new reality, at least for the
next few years, and I'm just trying to make the most of it. I’m just trying
to live my life, you know? Some people in the academy, they dwell on it
all day long, and they just can't get over it. They're the ones who just
kind of exist in the academy, dragging themselves day-to-day. And the
sad thing is they're usually not the most accomplished in classes, despite
the fact that's all they focus on. When we eventually do go back, I think
that people who try to keep a good a tude, try to keep living life, and
just make the best of the situa on, they are going to be the ones who
are the most help to their world whenever they get back."

Max nodded slowly. He wasn't sure if he en rely agreed with her, but he
understood her logic. Belle turned to Momo. "What about you, Momo?
You've been here a while, too."

The pe te, red-eyed woman shrugged. "I just want to go wherever Max
goes now."

Belle blinked. "Okay. I thought you guys weren't even officially da ng.
That sounds pre y serious."

Max gave Lance a glance that was meant to say 'blabbermouth,' and he
believed Lance got the message despite the fact his friend was making
an innocent face and trying to look away.

"We aren't da ng yet," said Max.

Suddenly, Lance was paying close a en on again and he chuckled. "You
just said 'yet,' so it's only a ma er of me, huh?"

Max rolled his eyes and sighed. He could tell this was going to be a long
shopping trip.
 Chapter 32

Buying weapons ended up taking longer than Max had an cipated. He’d
actually been expec ng more people to be curious about the golems
following them, slow the group down that way. Luckily, almost nobody
actually even seemed to have no ced. That was great. But actually
finding what he was looking for had proven difficult and me-
consuming.

The biggest problem was finding the throwing knives for Momo and
rapier for Eolas. He hadn't told Momo that he was even ge ng her any
weapons on this trip to the central area, but a er he picked up a spear
for Tessa and a great sword for Benjamin, she must have put two and
two together because she started ac ng strangely shy.

Max finally found the rapier for Eolas at Blade and Bow, his favorite
weapon shop. Amy was working there again. Max walked quickly so he
was ahead of his group when he raised a hand and said, "Hey Amy, good
to see you again." The clerk looked up from her work on a pad of paper
and beamed at Max. The pink streaks she’d had in her hair before were
gone. She seemed to have a new look.

"Good to see you again too, Max! Do you have more business for me
today?" Then her eyes moved behind him, and she said, "Are these
some of your friends?"

"Yeah," said Max, "The handsome guy is my friend Lance, that’s his
girlfriend Belle, and the girl with red eyes is Momo."

"Oh." Max could have imagined it, but he thought Amy's smile became a
bit strained. "And is Momo your girlfriend?"
Momo walked up. "No," she said, "but I think he's thinking about it. I
made an offer."

"I see," said Amy. "Well, you know where everything is in the store. Feel
free to browse. If you have any ques ons, I'll be here." Then she got
back to whatever she was doing with her pad of paper and a pencil.

Lavinia whispered in Max's mind, I told you that she has a thing for you!

Yeah, whatever, thought Max. He had to admit it was possible now, but
he s ll couldn't understand why Lavinia had always seemed to dislike
the friendly clerk. Now Momo was ac ng very strange as well, throwing
glances at the front counter while browsing around the shop.

That was when Max truly no ced for the first me how pre y Amy really
was. He wasn’t blind, so he intellectually knew she was very cute, but he
didn’t let himself…linger on any beauty if he could help it. Max wasn’t a
window shopping sort of person, at least not when it came to women. It
was easier to deal with other people fairly when he wasn’t le ng his
libido do its best to make him act stupid.

The vibe in the store was throwing him now, though. All of his visits
before had been fun and friendly, but things were frosty now at Blade
and Bow. He could feel a chill. Even though he usually chose not to
fixate on irrelevant things around him, Max did have experience with
people and the ability to no ce what was going on. All the women in
the store were suddenly making pointed looks or doing weird, passive
aggressive things to show their irrita on. What the hell?

Max had lived two life mes and hundreds of years, but women could
s ll confuse the hell out of him. Why in the hell do Momo and Belle
dislike Amy? But then Amy doesn't seem to like Momo either. What kind
of ca y bullshit is this?

Max decided to stop worrying about it. It didn't ma er, and he was in
the store for a reason. He found a rapier that would work a er searching
almost the rest of the store. It didn't take long to hash out a deal with
Amy for the weapon a er that, and it went into the big, thick burlap bag
that Max was carrying over his shoulder with all his other purchases for
the day.

Before they le the store, Amy smiled at Max and said, "You know,
some mes I get some interes ng deals in here. You seem to s ll be
searching for something."

"Really? Well, it is true that I'm s ll looking for a sword," said Max.

"Well, why don't you give me your contact informa on for your tablet,
and I can forward you informa on on any interes ng pieces we get in."

"Really? You can do that?"

"Yes. All of the shops in the Quartet have their own tablets, similar to
the ones that students receive. Of course, as somebody who lives in the
central area, I don't get a tablet unless I buy one. I can't afford one yet."
Amy smiled and shrugged.

"Well, I think I can probably use updates and such," said Max. He
scribbled his contact informa on on a slip of paper and gave it to Amy
before he le the store.

As the group walked down the street to the next weapon shop Max
wanted to visit, Lance dropped back to whisper, "That was pre y bold of
you to give her your number right in front of Momo. She is hot, though."

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Max. "Me and Momo
aren't even da ng. And that wasn't for Amy's personal tablet."

"Sure, that might technically be true," said Lance, "but I know what it
looked like." He gave Max a sugges ve grin and a thumbs up.

Max rolled his eyes. He had more important things going on in his head
than this rom-com level silliness that his friend was cooking up. He made
a face and thought about the next store they were heading to un l he
interrupted himself with an embarrassing thought. What if Lance was
right? He didn't have any roman c plans on anybody right now. Max
also really didn't want to ruin his rela onship with Amy, who had been
an excellent buyer and supplier of weapons so far, nor with Momo, who
was already a friend, a confidant, and a comrade in arms.

Max frowned, feeling frustrated, but then gently corrected himself.

Perhaps people trying to find a li le bit of happiness in an otherwise
horrible situa on wasn’t the problem. They just weren’t focusing on the
same things he was to manage it, and it all probably came down to a
difference of personality.

When he’d been Chasa de Milo, Max had been much less forgiving–
much more judgmental. A er all, he’d fought his way from the bo om
to the top. But now that he’d been on earth, grieving for years over his
murder and the loss of his family, he had gained too much perspec ve
to be that self righteous anymore.

Whether this life or the last one, he also had a habit of ignoring
romance unless his life was stable and otherwise happy. It could be a
strength and weakness. He had to admit to himself that he’d probably
been being deliberately obtuse for a while now. Drowning his worries
and stress in someone’s arms would be nice…maybe too nice.

Dammit, I hate introspec on some mes, he thought. The uncomfortable

feelings he was having was proof that he was probably gaining wisdom,
though. In his experience, whether it was muscles hur ng a er a
workout, a cut healing, or working through emo onal issues, pain was a
necessary part of…ge ng be er.

There was probably some sort of lesson in that. Or perhaps the universe
was just cruel.

Suddenly, something else occurred to him from the conversa on about

the tablets.

At the next weapon store the group visited, The Flying Dagger, Max was
pleased to see a wider selec on of throwing weapons. He gravitated
towards a set of vicious-looking throwing stars. Now that he'd talked to
Momo about her weapon choice, Max knew she was far more familiar
with firearms than blades. At the moment, he was approaching the task
of finding her the right gi more as an instructor than as a friend.

Max finally found the perfect weapons for Momo, but winced when he
saw the price. It was going to use up almost half of the rest of his
available funds, but it was s ll probably a great deal. Max had honestly
never seen a rig quite like it before.

There were two holsters, or quivers, of three knives each. All the knives
were fairly big and heavy. Heavy meant more damaging. For Momo’s
throwing style with no spin, combined with her spirits’ help, bigger,
heavier knives like these were ideal. On top of that, whether she
strapped the holsters to her arms or thighs, she would have access to
knives with both hands. The included enchantments were as simple as
they were useful; the blades were self-repairing and enchanted for
strength. More importantly, with a mild siphon of available mana, the
bonded user could ac vate the sheathes to summon the blades back.

Max examined them for a long me. Luckily, there were telltale signs
that the throwing knives had been in the weapon shop for a long me,
hopefully giving Max be er bargaining power. His friends no ced when
he went to the counter, and curious, wandered over.

As Lancy, Momo, and Belle got close enough to hear what was going on,
Max was already haggling with the clerk, a middle-aged man with a
permanent frown. When Momo saw what he was trying to buy, her eyes
widened. She jerked her head over to look Max in the eyes and he just
winked at her before going back to haggling.

He ended up talking the clerk down to half the listed price. Five
thousand was s ll a he y amount, especially compared to the other
weapons he already bought. But unlike the other weapons, these knives
would likely serve Momo well for the rest of her life. She would never
have to upgrade.
"Here you go, Momo, these are for you," he said.

"I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"And he says he's not da ng her," said Lance in a loud whisper. Belle
laughed. Max rolled his eyes.

A er that, Momo kept inspec ng her new weapons in wonder, barely

paying a en on to her surroundings. The group checked out a few other
stores, but eventually, Max gave Lance a couple of mana units and asked
everyone if they would mind wai ng for him in a coffee shop. Nobody
had any problem with that. Max breathed a sigh of relief as he went
back to check out the weapon shops alone.

He enjoyed spending me with friends, but he would have a lot more

fun a er his errands were done, and he could move much faster by
himself than he could with the group.

Over his me shopping so far, he'd a few poten al swords for his own
use in several shops, and he wanted to check them all out again, one by
one, to try to make a decision.

It seemed that several stores had incredible, expensive weapons as

a rac ons to lure would-be customers to buy more affordable goods.
Max went to check on the extremely expensive sword he’d no ced on a
prior central area ou ng, the one worth a bit over a million mana units.
An ornate case displaying and protec ng the weapon was in the center
of a store called Vowron Blades.

The incredible sword was temp ng, but despite its massive number of
enchantments and huge price tag, Max had decided it wouldn't actually
serve him very well. For one, the enchantments were fairly redundant to
what he would already be empowering a sword with as a Blade Sorcerer,
and it also wasn't the size, shape, or even aesthe c style that he was
looking for.

It was ridiculously powerful, though.

Maybe, though… Max rubbed his chin.

The clerk had ignored him at first when he asked to take a look at the
sword. He’d just pointed to a sign on the thick display case that read,
"Serious Buyers Only." With an arched eyebrow, Max withdrew the token
he'd go en from Headmaster Meng Hao Han, the one good for one
weapon. A er that, the clerk's manner had changed drama cally. The
pimply-faced youth's boredom had transformed into borderline
reverence. It took him several minutes to find the keys he was looking
for behind the counter. Then as he’d unlocked the case for the gli ering
weapon, his hands had been shaking.

When Max held the sword, he had to admit it was truly a fine weapon.
He opened his third eye all the way, beholding the sword. It matched
the specs on its display case.

Shadow Sun Rising, sword of the Ba leborne

A legendary blade from a forgo en age, forged in unknown fires that

have long since burned out. Only the maker’s mark, “Willmarth” offers a
lead to its mysterious origins.

Self repairing

Self sharpening

Enhanced toughness

Semi-sen ent

Self regula ng mana core

Appears when called by owner

Powers while sheathed and within a certain distance from the

imprinted wielder:

Enhanced toughness
Natural armor

Elemental resistance

Regenera on

Poison resistance

Enhanced speed and strength

Magical manipula on resistance

Powers conferred while wielded include all those while sheathed plus:

Temporary barriers
Burn undead
Poison strikes at will

Mana force edges

Further enhanced speed and strength

Ac vated ability: Piercing Eyes

Distance a ack: Flame slash

Limited, short distance teleporta on

Wow. He was struck all over again by how–at least on paper–it was
be er than Moon Etcher, his sword when he'd been Chassa de Milo on
Albion. However, he would take Moon Etcher over a million copies of
this one, no ma er how well made. He thanked the clerk and le the
store, wondering about the young man's excited reac on un l he
realized there could have been a poten al commission involved. That
definitely would have explained some of it. Sucks for him, thought Max.
Maybe from now on he'll pay be er a en on.

He went from store to store, looking at each weapon. Finally, he caught

sight of one he hadn't even no ced before. Hanging on one of the racks
was an extremely unassuming blade, a sword similar to a Filipino
ginun ng back on Earth. Almost like a reverse katana, it curved forward
with the sharp edge being on the inside of the curve. A few stores back,
Max had been carefully opening his third eye to sweep the swords on
sale in each store and had realized that some of the more powerful ones
gave off an interes ng aura. He had been a racted to this one because
of the aura that it was exuding. When examined more closely, although
it was priced expensive, almost eight thousand mana units, Max grew
more interested. Like the throwing knives he just bought for Momo, this
one showed signs of being in the store for a very long me.

Max studied it even closer, pu ng more energy into his third eye, then
observed the window that popped up. Sure enough, what his third eye
was telling him did not en rely match the one on the wall for this word.

The sign read, "Short sword. Strength enchantment. Stability

enchantment of steel. Sharpness enchantment. Self-repairing. Comes
with sheath." However, Max's third eye showed him,

Experimental Weapon: Blackmist Incident of Actus. A rare example of a

weapon other than an axe forged by the mysterious master smith only
known as First Defier.

Powers and abili es: Shock resistant, magne cally resistant, enhanced
toughness, self-repairing, self-sharpening. Can be magne cally a uned
to a ract steel, monster cores, or magically imbued items. Enhanced
strength. At the bonded wielder’s order, will create an eldritch buckler
to be used in the other hand with limited ability to change shape.

Sheath is designed, on command, to magically shrink the sword to the

size of a large knife un l drawn.

Max blinked. He could definitely understand why, even if all the

enchantments were known, this sword wouldn't be worth as others in
the Quartet. A er all, other than being an excellent weapon, this sword
wouldn't necessarily make any warrior stronger on its own. But for Max,
it was almost perfect. He went to the front and, a er paying nearly four
thousand mana units a er haggling, he had his new sword in hand. He
was prac cally trembling in excitement.

He made his way to the coffee shop his friends were at to check in.
Momo seemed happy to see him back, and she said as much, and also
seemed to pick up on the fact that he was extremely excited about this
purchase. Max was in a hurry. He told everyone he would be right back,
and thought he saw a shadow cross Momo’s face as he turned to leave.
What the hell was going on? he wondered. Was Lance actually right? Was
Max's weird, desperate a empt to get more powerful in the Quartet,
actually turning into some kind of crazy reality TV show without his
knowledge up un l now?

As he speed-walked to the store with the Shadow Sun Rising sword, he

decided that there were hints everywhere that the Quartet was an
extremely horny place, not least of which so many children got le
behind to work in the central area. There was also all the commo on
when new rules had prevented students from merely visi ng other
schools at night. Maybe, at the end of the day, to the majority of
students, Max was the weird one. Or at least people like Max and
Gantry Pliss, people who were trying to be the best warriors they could
possibly be without too many distrac ons.

On that note, what he was about to do amused him greatly. He walked

into the store that the Shadow Sun Rising had been in, marched up to
the clerk, and told him he was going to buy the sword he had handled
earlier. The clerk looked about ready to pass out, and Max was highly
amused by his reac on. He also looked forward to Lance's reac on when
Max gave it to his friend to use. A er securing the incredibly precious
weapon wrapped up in canvas, Max le to try loca ng the ar fact he
was going to be using his remaining voucher for.
 Chapter 33

Max got distracted checking out a couple of bookstores and had to

remind himself that his friends were wai ng on him. Then he began
searching in earnest for the last item he'd come to the Quartet for. The
first two stores had magical gear but not what Max was looking for. He
began to wonder if he'd imagined seeing what he'd thought he'd seen in
the Quartet before. At his third store, he found what he’d seen before.
He hadn't imagined it. However, the device was different than he had
assumed.

Now he just had to wander around and hope that he could find what he
was actually looking for. There was no way to know for sure they even
existed in the Quartet, but the furnace he’d just seen, although not
what he needed, was encouraging.

Feeling frustrated, especially carrying around mul ple swords in his

arms, he rounded a corner and spo ed a shop he'd never seen before,
“The Forbidden Kingdom.” It was small and ramshackle, especially
compared to the other shops in the central area that were all clean and
well-kept. He walked in, and a small bell rang above the doorway. The
shop was dark and clu ered, but the moment Max entered, he could
sense the power of some of the merchandise. His eyes grew wide as he
glanced around, trying to determine which items were crea ng the aura
of power, then poking around the crowded shelves.

“Can I help you, valued customer?” came a voice. Max looked up and an
old man was standing behind the counter where nobody had been a
half second before. He was wearing flowing robes and a long mustache
that he was currently twis ng on one side.

"Do you have any pill furnaces?" Max asked.

"Hmm. As a ma er of fact, we do," said the man. "There isn't much
demand for them, so I think at least two have been here for a long
me."

Max blinked. "You have more than one?"

"Of course. We have a total of three, of different sizes."

"Can I see them?" asked Max, skep cal.

"That depends en rely on how serious you are about purchasing one."

"Oh, I'm serious indeed," said Max. He took out his voucher for one free
piece of gear in the Quartet that would be reimbursed by the Quartet
itself. The old man's sudden smile was as disarming as it was swi .

"I will be right back." He disappeared into the back through a beaded
curtain, and only a few minutes later returned with a stack of boxes.
Then he opened each box and set a total of three pill furnaces on the
counter. Max no ced that the man did not a empt to sell any of them
to Max or even explain what they were or what they did.

This shop definitely felt like it was for experts with a lot of money to
throw around. Maybe that's how it could survive being out of the way,
located in such a strange place compared to the other supply shops in
the Quartet. None of the students could probably afford anything in this
shop unless they were six or seven years…or maybe more if the other
Paths had longer training programs.

Max's mind wandered as he inspected the pill furnaces. Did the other
academies in the Quartet have a seven-year me limit as well? He
couldn't remember.

He hummed to himself. The first pill furnace was interes ng, but Max
would never be able to use it. He knew that warriors who used Qi o en
had ar facts that could s ll be ac vated with mana if the mana user had
the right amount of control. There hadn't been many Qi users on Albion,
but enough of them had fallen through interdimensional portals over
thousands of years that the mana scholars had a fairly detailed
understanding of Qi systems. And because Max had been the hero of
Albion, he'd go en access to records that were normally only available
to rulers and the most elite scholars in the world. Because of that, Max
knew an impressive amount of informa on concerning ar facts used by
a few completely dissimilar Paths.

Back then he’d just thought of them as different power systems, not
Paths. His understanding had deepened.

He con nued to inspect the pill furnaces and focused most of his
remaining a en on on the last two. He was fairly certain he could get
them to work with his mana, but the choice between the two was not
easy. One would be easier to use but perhaps give lower quality results.
The other pill furnace was much trickier, not only to operate but to fire
up to begin with. As Max fed a ny thread of mana into it, he could feel
its tumultuous nature. He could also definitely sense that its output
would be greater than the other one.

If he were anyone other than who he was, he would have taken the
easier to use pill furnace. A er all, using a pill furnace at all could be
inherently dangerous. But if there was one thing Max had an
excep onal advantage in, it was mana control.

"I think I'll take this one," he said.

"Ah, interes ng," said the old man. "Should I tell you how much it
costs?"

"No, that's fine," said Max. "I'm probably be er off not knowing." He

laid his equipment voucher on the table.

The old man laughed. "My name is Thomas."

"I'm Max.”

“Excellent, Max. Nice to meet you. I'll wrap this up for you and take your
payment."
"Sounds like a plan to me.”

He waited for the old shopkeeper to prepare the pill furnace for its trip
out the store. As Max thought about the ways he could use it, he
realized this new acquisi on would be the icing on the cake for his plan
to get some of his friends into the Quartet compe on with him.

I'll be damned if I have to do all this myself, he thought.

He le carrying the pill furnace out of the shop with a grin on his face.
With his large sack and all the packages he was carrying, he probably
looked like he'd just done the Quartet equivalent of Christmas shopping.
Even with the three golems following him from a discreet distance, he
knew the items he was carrying were likely two of the most expensive
items that had been for sale in the en re Quartet.
 Chapter 34

Max had had a surprisingly fun me in the central area, but he was glad
to be heading back to Summoner Academy now. All of the packages he'd
bought were s ll wrapped. Opening them all and flashing that amount
of wealth in public probably would not have been a smart idea.

A er he’d met up with Lance again, his friend had made a fuss over how
much Max had bought. Belle had done a good job hiding it, but Max
could see a ny flash of jealousy in her eyes. He s ll wasn't sure how he
felt about her, so he decided to merely keep an eye on her for the me
being.

Max congratulated himself for deciding not to open any packages, not to
hand out any presents. If Belle had seen Max hand Lance a fortune, it
could introduce complica ons into their brand new rela onship that
they were not ready for. Of course, it could be that Max was just being
paranoid again, but either way, he was glad that all of the gi s he'd
bought were s ll safely wrapped up.

If Lance and Belle broke up, he didn’t want to be the one responsible for
it.

He’d had such a fun me, he’d almost begun to believe that nothing
would go wrong.

The a ack came when the group was nearing the mall, ge ng closer to
the Summoner Academy gates. One minute everything was the same as
it had been the rest of the day, with small groups of students walking
around. The next minute, Max knew something was wrong. He tensed,
about to act, but stopped when the golems began to move. One of them
zoomed above him, covering him in shadow, blocking more than one
spear that had been thrown at the same me. A moment later, the
second golem took its place to one side of the group, and the last golem
situated itself on the other side.

Belle screamed and Lance grunted in surprise. Momo crouched with a

knife in her hand, trying to watch every direc on at once. Most of the
uninvolved students were already running away.

The golem that had just blocked the spears aimed for Max said in its
ar ficial voice, "Please hurry to your des na on. This loca on is no
longer safe."

Max's old sword was in his hand and he wished he’d already put on his
new sword, the Blackmist Incident. He'd sensed the a ack and had
barely been prepared for it in me, but he was grateful for the golems
all the same. While able to protect himself, there was a possibility that
Momo, Lance, or Belle could have been caught up in some collateral
damage.

Unlike the fancier spears that Max had seen Mys c Spear Path fighters
throw in the past, the missiles that the golems had blocked did not
return to their owners. Most got sha ered by the golems’ stomping feet,
but a few lay on the ground where Max could get a be er look at them.
They weren't much be er than just a dowel and a plain iron spearhead.
When Max had been causing trouble in the Mys c Spear Path Academy,
he'd seen many cheap spears like this. These had obviously not been
meant as more than throwaway weapons.

Of course, enhanced by Mys c Spearman, he was sure they would s ll

be plenty deadly.

The people around his group on the street were s ll reac ng quickly to
the violence. Most had already run away to take cover but a few were
quickly scanning the area to understand the situa on, similar to what
Max was doing. Curiously, there were very few screams or sounds of
panic like there would have been on Earth, but that made sense
considering most everyone walking around was likely a Challenger—a
warrior in the making, someone who had killed a monster to even be
invited to the Quartet in the first place.
Suddenly, about ten people dressed in black with face masks jumped
down from a distant roo op and ran at Max's group. All of them had a
spear in both hands. They split, with half going one way and half trying
to flank around. Max could quickly see what they were a er and also
understood why the golems had already preemp vely taken a posi on
on either side.

Leaving the protec on of the surrounding golems would not be smart.

But none of the golems were countera acking, either. Max was sure
they had ranged weapons.

Several things ran through Max's mind at once. He narrowed his eyes
and asked, "Golems, are you allowed to take ac on against a acking
students?"

The golem to Max's le , apparently affiliated with the Mys c Spear Path
Academy since it was carrying a giant stone spear, answered, "We may
not kill students."

Max growled, "Then what the hell good are you for?"

The same golem answered, "We must protect our charges, and if
a acked, we must incapacitate and impose demerits on the aggressing
party."

“Can you at least tell us the iden es of those a acking us!? They have
masks on.”

“We cannot unless they are incapacitated and their coverings removed.”

Max watched the ambushers con nue trying to flank and face-palmed.
"Just fucking great," he said. "Lance, Bell, Momo, get moving." He suited
ac on to words by jogging forward. The three golems began to keep
pace, and the Mys c Spear Path a ackers hissed something at each
other in code. More flew in, slamming into two golems’ blocking arms.
The missiles impacted with ferocious energy, thrown with superhuman
strength and precious, charged with destruc ve energies.
"Man, these guys really want you dead," panted Lance.

"Tell me about it," said Max. He was weighing the pros and cons of
ge ng directly involved. If he le the protec on of the golems, he could
definitely kill some of the a ackers… He decided against it again. This
a ack by the spearman felt too much like a suicide mission. In fact, Max
suspected that every weapon the a ackers were carrying was just a
cheap throwing spear like they'd already used before. It was likely that
they'd all put their money and other, serious gear in safekeeping so if
they were killed during this a empted murder, they wouldn’t lose
anything important. At least that's what Max would have done, and he
wasn't willing to assume that his enemies were stupid.

It was also reasonable to assume they had a plan in place in case Max
closed with them.

Hiding his new Path was already a pain in the ass. It would be rela vely
easy for him to throw a handful of beads and obliterate all of them. But
doing so would basically be announcing to the world his capabili es
without really ge ng much reward from it.

He stayed with his li le group as they ran toward the safety of the
Summoner academy. Max watched his a ackers carefully, even telling
the golems when to speed up or slow down. A er the ini al ambush,
Max had go en a good idea of how well the golems could block a acks,
which luckily was actually quite good.

As his group got closer to the Summoner gate, Max had a quick
conversa on with Saliron. If I put one of your subordinate spirits in the
bones of each person a acking us, would you be able to eavesdrop on
them or get any kind of informa on that way?

The dark spirit responded, You would be able to iden fy them by the
presence of the spirits later, but they cannot spy for you. They are
connoisseurs of bones, nothing more.

And they can’t actually eat those bones unless I make contact first, right?
Correct.

I thought that might be the case, said Max. Then he instructed, "Saliron,
please have one of your spirits enter the bones of each of our a ackers
right now."

With pleasure. The dark spirit laughed.

Max counted a total of nine ambushers. Despite their masks, he could

tell they were frustrated. The moment Saliron’s spirits entered their
bones, Max could sense them now. From this point on, even if they were
concealing their iden es, Max would easily be able to recognize them if
he encountered them again.

The would-be assassins threw their spears again before Max and his
group were a hundred yards from the Summoner Academy gate. Max
had an cipated the a ack. He'd carefully placed himself in a posi on
that made hi ng him even more problema c. Only one of the a ackers
actually targeted any of Max's friends, but that spear was blocked the
same as the others.

When Max had first been told he'd have three golem nannies, he hadn't
been too happy about it. But right now, he was grateful for the
bodyguards. With his current level of power, he was currently sure that
he'd be able to kill some of the assassins, but he didn't think he would
have been able to protect his friends. There was also no way he’d be
able to kill all of his enemies without revealing his third Path.

As his group got within spi ng distance of the Summoner Academy

gates, the ambushers a empted one more a ack. The golems blocked
all but one spear, and Max managed to cut it out of the air. He gri ed
his teeth in frustra on. Every fiber of his being wanted to retaliate. Max
made a mental note to get some new ranged weapons in the future if he
hadn't revealed his three-Path nature yet.

As Max, Lance, and their dates crossed through the Summoner Academy
gates, the Mys c Spear Path a ackers turned and fled. One screamed,
"You're s ll dead, Max Cunningham!"
Lance stood tall and gave the retrea ng group the finger with a smirk. At
least two a ackers had turned back to look before vanishing. Max
groaned. All of the aggressors had mostly just been going a er Max. If
they also began inten onally a acking Lance, it would make his life
more difficult. But he couldn't begrudge his friend for talking some trash
to assholes that had just tried to murder him again.

"Well, that was exci ng," said Max. He gave the group an exaggerated
grin. “Anyone hurt?”

“I don’t thinks so,” replied Belle. She was checking herself as she spoke.

"Is it always like this with you?" Momo asked.

"Pre y much," said Lance.

 Chapter 35

There was a flurry of ac vity as the group passed through the Summoner
gates. It seemed that the guards weren't there just for show or only to
scan students. As Max watched, one of them manifested ectoplasmic,
bladed arms growing out of his shoulders. Another one held up a hand
and flaming skull appeared above her palm.

Neither guard had reason to actually a ack, but Max thought the show
of force was a nice gesture. The real deterrent against the ambushers
were the golems at the gate. Unlike the golems protec ng Max, the
border golems were holding out hands with glowing gems in their palms
—obviously ranged weapons. The spear a ackers were already long
gone, but Max was willing to bet if they'd crossed the border, the golems
would have lit their asses up.

He felt glad that he’d listened to his ins ncts and not a acked or
retaliated against the ambushers. Now he had a be er understanding of
the rules and limita ons that they were working within. It was almost a
certainty that Max would have go en nothing out of revealing his power
to them.

The gate guards stayed at their post, and a group of students who'd
been about to leave the academy grounds stood aside with mouths
agape. Another professor prac cally materialized out of nowhere and
began ushering Max's group and the golems following him back to the
academy. When Max stole a glance at the professor's face, one he was
not familiar with, she seemed confused enough that Max assumed she
was ac ng on orders. On top of that she kept glancing at the nanny
golems. Max blinked. The golem chaperones seemed to convey some
sort of immediately recognizable status to the academy staff.
Nobody spoke on the way back to the academy grounds; everyone was
lost in their own thoughts. Even the professor who traveled with them
didn't say anything. The fact they didn’t ask any ques ons at all seemed
astonishing at first. But now that Max was aware that spirits could
communicate with each other, and now that he was more familiar with
messaging through the Quartet tablets, he figured ther ewas plenty of
conversa on going on–he just couldn’t hear it.

Max and his party got back to the academy, and the instructor
accompanying them vanished as quickly as she'd materialized in the first
place. It was likely that she had a contracted spirit that let her bend
light. Lance spoke for the first me since they'd made it past the gates.
"What the hell?" he mu ered.

There was a group of at least twenty students who were watching from
the de facto entryway to the academy grounds. None of them were even
trying to hide their curiosity and stares. At first, Max couldn't figure out
what was going on, but then he remembered the messaging system and
the fact that there had been students at the gate. For the first me, he
actually thought about some of the differences between the tablets and
smartphones back on Earth. He felt grateful that tablets could not take
pictures. Otherwise, who knew? Maybe Max's run-in with the would-be
assassins would have gone viral or something.

As if a some cue was given, the group rushed forward and began
excitedly interroga ng Max's companions. He noted with amusement
that they all gave him a wide berth. Some even shot him worried looks.
This behavior wasn't exactly surprising based on how other students
usually acted around him. It was also not unwelcome at the moment
because he was carrying an absolute fortune worth of wrapped gear. The
last thing he wanted was a dozen students crowding around him where
it would be easier to try snatching things out of his arms.

In a moment of clarity, Max realized that although his life in the Quartet
had been extremely dangerous and stressful fairly o en, but for the
average student, it was probably anything but. A er their ini al
adjustment, they probably experienced a life of much more boredom
and rou ne. For them, hearing about a mysterious assassina on
a empt by Mys c Spear students and seeing the intended vic ms–
Summoners–come jogging in a erward might be one of the most
exci ng things they would experience for a while.

Max took advantage of his notoriety to push right through the crowd.
All he had to do was clear his throat, and students wearing Summoner
Academy robes melted away from him like mist. When he was close
enough to his party, Max said, "Hey, we go a go, follow me." And then,
without looking back, he set off directly through the middle of the
academy grounds. The group of other students followed them for a
while but eventually gave up when nobody talked to them, and Max's
group traveled further away from the more common areas that students
usually traversed.

When he finally made it to his dorm building, he glanced back with a

raised eyebrow. At some point, Belle had le . Even though Max was
really trying to give the woman a fair chance, he couldn't lie to himself
that he cared if she was gone. He didn't exactly dislike Belle, but she
hadn’t done much for him to really consider her anyone special. He was
completely neutral.

Yet again, Max wondered if he was being too hard on her. Then he
decided that he had been second-guessing himself about this subject
too much. There were more important things at hand and if he didn’t
like his friend’s girlfriend it wasn’t the end of the world. Lance would
handle his own business and it wasn't Max's job to tell his friend how to
live his life.

Deciding that made him feel be er, because in his heart of hearts, he
knew he was never going to like Belle.

He walked up to the door of his dorm where the guarding golem waved
him through. With a sense of relief he entered his dorm, ushering Lance
and Momo into his si ng room. The other three golems took up places
around the outside of his dorm as well, so he had a full four golems
standing guard. When he finally closed the door behind him, he leaned
against it, le ng his head roll back and gently bump the doorframe.
His arms, full of wrapped weapons and other gear, were not exactly
heavy for a two star mana body Blade Sorcerer, but it would s ll feel
nice to finally put all of the stuff down. He ended his brief rest in the
doorway, straightened, and cleared his throat.

"Okay, so now that we're here," he began, but then he no ced his
friends' expressions. Momo's eyes were prac cally bugging out of her
skull as she tried to look at everything at once. Lance was just staring at
the beau ful mosaic floor les and so ly shaking his head. He finally
turned to look at Max and said, "Dude, why is this the first me I've ever
been in your place?"

Max shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it just never came up."

"When you told me that you were living in the troublemaker housing, I
definitely wasn't envisioning anything like this."

Max frowned. "I told you it was expensive."

"Yeah, well," Lance shook his head again. "I s ll wasn't thinking it was
anything like this."

Momo finally spoke. "You actually live here?"

"Yes."

"By yourself?"

"Yes. I mean, my spirits too, but yeah.”

“This is nicer than anything else in the academy," the red-eyed girl
mu ered. She walked over to one of the chairs in the si ng room and
poked it. "Even this chair is disgus ngly well-made. How much did this
place cost?"

Max frowned, thinking back. "I could look at the logs to verify it, but I
think it was just under two thousand mana units or something like
that." He shrugged. So much mana units had come through his hands
just to be destroyed at this point, he personally didn’t really give them a
lot of value.

"Two thousand mana units?" Momo's eyes grew even bigger.

In Max's head, Lavinia chuckled and said, If they're having a tough me

with this, wait un l they see the gi s you got them.

I know, right? He was star ng to feel a li le embarrassed. Max didn't

mind the limelight or a en on, but he didn't feel comfortable with the
idea that his friends would ever feel…too indebted to him. He wasn't
going to just not give them their gi s, though. That just meant that they
would just have to get used to expensive things in the Quartet pre y
quickly. A er all, if they kept hanging out with him, especially Momo and
Gantry, they would probably start making their own money in due me.

He suddenly thought about how he and Momo had contracted spirit but
Lance s ll didn't. In fact, as a normal student, Lance probably realis cally
wouldn't meet or contract a spirit for another year or two. Max decided
that was unacceptable, especially since Lance was likely about to own
what was likely the most expensive weapon in the Summoner Academy,
if not the en re Quartet. Max vowed to step up his research, tweaking
Lavinia's spirit-seeking circle quicker..

Hey Lavinia, where should I give these two their gi s?. He'd thought
about including all of his spirits in the conversa on, except Slick didn't
speak, and Saliron would probably just start uncomfortable love-rants
about bones again.

Lavinia came back with an answer fairly quickly Probably your workout
room. A er all, the magic research room has a few sensi ve things in it,
and the other two rooms are private.

That's true. He realized that in the future, the si ng room would

probably be the best room for entertaining regular company since it was
also not far from the second bathroom in the hallway. He mo oned to
Lance and Momo to follow him and said, "Let's go to my workout room,
and I'll show you guys some stuff there. You can stay in here for a while
un l everything dies down outside."

“Workout room…” whispered Momo.

"Un l everything dies down?" Lance grunted. "I'm just a normal guy, not
the second coming of Bruce Lee. What the hell am I supposed to do with
all this a en on?"

Max ignored him. And once his friends were in his exercise room, they
made shocked noises and gave Max offended looks all over again. This
me Max just rolled his eyes and sat down on the bench of a piece of
exercise equipment. He set down all of the wrapped bundles in his arms
on the floor beside him. Then he said, "You guys should take a seat,
too."

Lance looked around at all the exercise equipment and raised an

eyebrow. "Do I have to?"

Max chuckled. "Yeah, I think so. Because I'm about to give you
something that is probably going to surprise you a bit."

"Surprise me a bit," Lance repeated. And then he sighed in resigna on,

took a seat, and asked, "Okay, what is it?"

With a flourish, Max unwrapped the Shadow Sun Rising and handed it
over to his friend with a smile. Lance's eyes glazed over, and his mouth
opened as if he'd lost all power to his facial muscles. Max knew why.
A ached to the sword was a piece of parchment that listed all of the
sword’s enchantments. He could s ll remember the list very clearly.

Lance choked a few mes before finally finding his voice. "What the hell
is this? How much did this thing cost?"

Max gave a full-throated laugh and responded, "Don't ask ques ons you
don't want to hear the answer to."

"This is seriously for me?" asked Lance.

"You bet, buddy. And you know what? This is for you too." Max mimed
holding out a hand, which Lance did. Then and then Max placed twenty-
five mana units into it. Hilariously, his friend goggled even more at the
mana units than he had at the incredible enchanted sword.

"What is this for?" he squeeked.

"Well, you see, I looked into it, and it costs twenty-five mana units to
have a weapon ed to your soul. That way if it's s ll in your possession
when you go back to your home world, it will appear next to you when
you return. So…I want you to take this back with you to Earth." He
smiled.

Lance con nued trying to form words that wouldn't come, while Max
grinned like an idiot. A er all, Headmaster Mong Hao Han, Territ Mond
and likely the other head masters would expect him to give back any of
the tools or weapons that he had just effec vely bought for free today.
However, Mong Hao and Territ hadn't said anything about him giving it
away to somebody else. He laughed again, and this me, all of his spirits
mentally joined him, all of them in on the scam, as Lance spu ered and
Momo kept making concerned looks at the bundles on the floor.

Max finally stopped chuckling and winked at her. "You guessed it. One of
those is for you."

Lavinia mentally said, I’m glad you got something for Momo, but you
could have picked up something for your hardworking spirits, too. Me in
par cular.

He knew she was joking, but Max s ll responded. Saliron already has his
bones. Slick doesn’t need anything, and you have the pleasure of my
company. But seriously, you know if you were s ll alive, I'd get something
cool for you too.

You would?

"Of course."
Lavinia hummed happily as Max began unwrapping the throwing knives.
Momo’s reac on was going to be funny.
 Chapter 36

Before his friends le , Max and Lance had a serious discussion about his
new sword, and they decided to leave it at Max's for now, un l Lance
was stronger. The reality was that such a powerful weapon would be
enough for Lance to protect himself if he had only the scantest bit of
power himself, but unfortunately, he wasn't quite there yet. Despite
Lance's earlier decision to take and finish his basic combat class before
learning anything more advanced, he'd agreed to do private mar al arts
lessons with Max at least once a week from that moment on.

A er his friends le that night, Max pulled an all-nighter working on

Lavinia's magic circle. But now he was adjus ng his focus. Instead of
trying to create a one-size-fits-all magic circle that was also safer than
before, he focused on adjus ng it for only one person: Lance. It was
much easier to change the circle in ways that made sense and were
stable if it were made for an individual person. It also helped that
Lavinia had slightly different senses than Max, and both of them had a
very good read on Lance’s energy by this point.

Lavinia could run simula ons in Max's mind on how well each itera on
of the new circle would work with Lance's unique body and mana
signatures. Before the night was even done, Max was pre y sure he had
a working prototype to give Lance–a tool to give him dras cally be er
luck finding a spirit.

The accomplishment was making Max feel full of energy again despite
the long day.

In fact, as a two-star mana body, if he chose to go without much sleep,

he could easily do so. There was s ll plenty of me for him to unwrap
the package containing the pill furnace he'd acquired and take a look if
he was willing to cut into his sleep. Screw it. YOLO.

Max brought the package from the workout room into his magic
workshop, and Lavinia squinted. She said out loud, "I don't understand
what makes that thing so special."

Max didn't answer her right away. Instead, he gathered up one of the
giants’ bones that he'd set aside for this purpose. He asked Saliron if he
would help him cra several spheres the size of marbles out of the
heavy, solid bone.

"But of course," replied the dark spirit. “It is always a blessing to be lay
my senses on some exquisite bones, to touch them, smell them. Taste
them. Mmmm, taste them.”

Max was ge ng used to how Saliron spoke. Before he might have

reflexively rolled his eyes, but this me he just ignored the spirit’s bone-
related outbursts.

A er a few minutes, he ended up with a handful of perfectly spherical,

polished troll bone beads. However, they did not have a hole through
them. Max was not planning on using them with his bead sorcery.

Max fetched the ancient pill furnace that he'd bought and ignited it with
a bit of his mana. A pill furnace was an extremely unique magic ar fact
from an en rely different magic system at the farthest reaches of the
universe. He knew the theory of how pill furnaces worked inside and
out, and he was also aware of how difficult they could be to operate
effec vely. The usual func on of a pill furnace would be for a cul va on
Path expert to add various ingredients, drawing out their magical
essences or thema c direc ons and then combine all of them
harmoniously in order to make a powerful medicine or mixture. Then
this would be used to create pills. True experts could even compress and
dry the pills in the furnace itself so they were completely finished the
moment they were retrieved. Of course, that advanced u liza on would
require even more skill and prac ce from the alchemist.
In Max's case, he wasn't doing anything so complex or impressive.
Instead, Max was going to use the pill furnace to capture the ny bit of
mana that escaped his purifica on process and store it all in the troll
bone sphere. The idea was that a er the sphere was sufficiently
saturated with mana, its ma er composi on would change and it would
naturally become a pill inside the pill furnace.

Max had never a empted anything like this himself but he was
confident about his odds. The process would be a huge boon, too. If it
worked, what the pill should do is not only confer a certain amount of
extremely pure mana but also jumpstart that person's body into
passively absorbing ambient mana automa cally. The effect would last
for days. So although the quartet had low amounts of mana,
theore cally speaking, whoever took the pill would be absorbing mana
every minute of every hour of every day un l the effect ran out.

For Max's friends, this effect would be the equivalent of them growing in
power as quickly as Max's friends back on Earth, despite the huge
disparity in atmospheric mana. Even for Max, at his higher level of mana
body, it would help tremendously. A er all, if he was passively absorbing
mana at the same me he was ac vely absorbing mana, his progression
speed would be even faster.

Max tested the pill furnace out briefly once before bed. He assumed a
full lotus posi on and, right there in his room, began slowly shoveling
mana into his mana vault before drawing mana from the device into his
body. He kept the pill furnace in his other hand. The flow of mana was
like the des of the ocean; it ebbed and flowed.

Before he knew it, an hour had passed. It was me for bed then, but he
was happy to see that his experiment had been at least a par al
success. The bootleg mana pill wasn't quite finished yet, but it definitely
showed promise. Using this method, Max would be able to effec vely
eliminate all waste, keeping every bit of the mana he was imbibing,
including ambient mana from the atmosphere around him. On top of
that, he'd be able to give these crude mana pills to all his friends in
order to speed up their rise to power. Although they had an
exponen ally easier level of difficulty than Max as he built his mana
body, it would s ll take me and effort for them to grow stronger using
mana as their founda on.

Max dropped back into his trance in order to con nue working on his
mana body long enough to finish the pill. When it was done, he
unceremoniously fell into bed with his clothes on and passed out. He
had a long day ahead of him s ll.

***

At mar al arts prac ce, Max gave out the rest of the weapons he had
bought for his friends. This me, Lance stood to one side, looking
somewhat awkward, but everyone already knew who he was and didn't
even ques on his presence. Lance wouldn't actually be taking part in
any group training for a while, but Max had suggested that he watch to
expand his horizons and know what to expect when he started training
with Max one-on-one.

As Max handed out the presents and his students were all in various
states of shock, Momo stood to one side, arms crossed, ac ng like it was
completely natural. Max caught her eye while the others were gushing in
gra tude and gave her a look that was meant to say, "You are
completely full of it." Apparently, she got the message because her
cheeks reddened and she looked away.

“Thanks so much. Thank you again!” gushed Benjamin. The with a pause
before pu ng everything he had into it, he threw is ba leaxe against a
tree in the distance.

"What was that for?" asked Max. Benjamin grunted and regarded the
discarded axe with disdain. "I really don't like axes. I know they work
really well for a lot of people, especially bigger people like me, but it
wasn't my choice to use that."

"Well then, why were you using it?" asked Max.

Benjamin sighed. "One of my other teachers, my teacher for my Animals

of the Universe class, Professor Sine, he told me that he thought I would
be a good axeman. He knew I didn't have a weapon of my own. Well, he
gave me this axe, and I couldn't just turn down a real weapon. Most
people have to save up to buy their first weapon a er a year or two in
the academy. And then they only get a cheap one. This axe would
probably serve me pre y well if I actually liked axes. But now that I have
this sword, I can very humbly and very gratefully return this axe to my
professor."

"So that's what it was, huh?" Max actually felt be er hearing the story. It
was nice to know that there were a few more professors in the Academy
that seemed to actually care about their students. Max knew that the
corrup on in the Quartet was deep, but it was good to know that there
were s ll professors that took their job seriously. This new knowledge
would help prevent him from becoming too cynical. Maybe.

Once everyone had their weapons, Max used Lavinia's spirits to cra a
pole in the middle of the clearing. This would be for cu ng prac ce. It
was easy to adjust the difficulty of cu ng the pole by increasing or
decreasing the density of the ectoplasm. And cu ng the pole didn't
harm the spirits in any way. It just took a li le bit to regenerate,
depending on how many spirits had been compressed into the target.

Cu ng prac ce went well and everyone liked their new weapons. Then
everyone stretched before the end of the session.

Max had made a total of three mana pills before prac ce. One of them
he had already swallowed in order to verify it was safe and would work
the way he had intended. So far, it was working perfectly. Before all of
his friends went their separate ways, he said, "Momo and Gantry, you
two stay back, please." They nodded, and before long, the only people
le in the clearing were Lance, Max, Momo, and Gantry.

“Lance won’t be training with us, but he might stop in to watch.” Max
jerked his head at his friend, This was said mostly for the benefit of
Gantry, who was unofficially his assistant instructor. Then Max held up
the two mana pills. He said, "Momo, I know you're having trouble with
your throwing knives right now, recalling them." She nodded without
responding further. While she had been prac cing with them earlier, it
had taken her a few seconds per knife to recall them back into the
sheath. This delay was en rely a product of the fact she had so li le
mana stored in her body yet.

"And you, Gantry, you are the most advanced student so far. I think that
the two of you should try these out first."

"What are they?” asked Gantry.

“Mana pills. I created them with some stuff I got in the central area.
They will help you build up mana in your body faster."

"Wait a second," said Lance, poin ng at the pills in Max's hand. "Are
these experimental? What the hell? Did you really make those?"

Max grinned. "Yeah, I made them last night. They're experimental. I

don't know how safe they'll be, but I took one myself and it's been
working well so far."

"Will it make me stronger?" asked Momo.

"It should, yes," Max replied.

The red-eyed warrior calmly nodded and snatched one out of Max's
hand before popping it in her mouth and swallowing without hesita on.
"Oh, strange," she murmured. "It prac cally vanished on the way down."

"It's supposed to do that," said Max with a nod.

Gantry was more cau ous, but he eventually took one too. Lance shook
his head and said, "No hesita on. Complete trust. Some mes I feel like
everyone else I know is a main character and I'm just a side character or
something."

Max grinned at his friend. "Last I checked, you’re the one with the super
powerful sword. And if you're the only different person, wouldn't that
make you the main character?"
Momo laughed, and Lance opened his mouth as if he was going to
respond before shu ng it. He got a though ul look. Max grinned. "Now
that I think about it, none of my friends have ever just gi ed me an
insanely powerful weapon out of nowhere. Dude, I think you are
actually the main character of the quartet."

Now Gantry laughed too. Lance frowned as he pointed at Momo and

Gantry. "Didn't they also get powerful weapons? And isn't she kind of
sort of da ng you right now? If we're talking about who's more likely to
be the main character, I s ll think it's not me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Max. He so ly punched Lance in the

shoulder in a good-natured way. "I can't go to a dungeon right now, but
I'm thinking about trying to get the opportunity later. If you guys go, you
should go with the whole group, all the Western Wind Style students."

"Well, that's a no-brainer," said Lance.

Momo smirked. "You say that like it's obvious, but certain people–" she
said as she made an exaggerated look at Max, "do crazy things like going
by themselves to their first dungeon."

"Holy shit, everybody's a cri c today," mu ered Max. "Didn't I just give
you guys a bunch of gi s? Damn, can't a guy catch a break?"

"No rest for the wicked," Gantry said.

Lance said, "Speaking of wicked, have you all heard anything more about
the spear throwers yesterday?"

"No, not yet," said Max, "but in my experience so far in the Quartet, the
faculty aren't exactly the best about proac ve communica on…or
upda ng us at all. My guess is that all those guys got +away with it, and
if we want to do anything about it, we'll have to do it ourselves."

He didn't men on to his friends that he'd met the Mys c Spear Path
headmaster. Max had a few ideas on how to get retribu on for the
would-be assassina on a empt. Having contacts was nice.
"Maybe you should just leave it alone," said Lance. "A er all, nobody
actually got hurt."

"Maybe," said Max. He didn't explain that his main worry was that his
enemies would try going a er his friends again. At the moment, one of
the first things he wanted to discuss whenever he actually met with the
headmasters suppor ng him again would be some sort of protec on for
his friends.

The four of them arrived at the cafeteria without any of them having
discussed the ma er beforehand, and they went inside for a snack. But
when Gantry and Lance got their food, Max no ced that they'd go en a
box to go. The two of them gave each other a conspiratorial look.

Lance said, "See you later, Max."

"Yeah, see you next prac ce." Gantry waved.

The two of them gave each other another look, and Max frowned.
"What was that all about?" he asked Momo. Then he no ced that the
two of them were standing alone and said, "Oh."

Momo just shrugged and gestured at one of the empty tables. "I don’t
mind. Want to sit over there?"

"Yeah? Sure, I guess. Might as well."

 Chapter 37

About a week had passed since Max had go en used to the small
addi ons to his rou ne. During that me, he had produced a good
number of mana pills, and he had received praise in a le er from Mong
Hao Han. How the Summoner Headmaster knew that Max was ge ng
stronger, he had no idea. At least the man didn’t know what Max had
pulled with the Shadow Sun Rising. None of the Headmasters would
probably ever imagine that he would give away such a precious weapon.

He was in his magic research room when suddenly his tablet emi ed a
small no fica on sound. A er Max checked it, his eyebrows rose, and he
smiled. The circle that he'd given to Lance had yielded success. Max had
shown Lance how to use the circle, made him memorize it, then
destroyed the instruc ons. A er that, it had all been up to Lance, who
had now found success.

In his tablet, Max messaged, [Do you want to meet somewhere to talk
about it or celebrate?]

Lance responded, [Nope, don't worry about it. I've already got snacks,
and I'm heading over to your place.]

Max snorted. Ever since Lance had seen his dorm, the man had been
coming up with prac cally any excuse imaginable to stop over. It was as
if even a er all this me, he couldn't quite believe where Max lived. Max
had considered buying Lance his own fancy dorm but had decided
against it. He had a long way to go before he could start was ng
resources like that. It would probably never be feasible. He needed to
reach a level where he could protect himself and others and it would
just get more expensive to grow as me went on.
Since Max had bought his own dorm, he'd come to see it as an
investment because it allowed him to increase his power and knowledge
much more efficiently. Lance just didn't have that kind of drive, and he
had already remarked about how much easier it would be to get alone
with Belle if he had his own dorm. Max definitely wanted his friend to
be happy, but he wasn't about to use the resources meant for saving his
family and the rest of Earth to make Lance’s love life more convenient.

His friend showed up at his door about ten minutes later. Max
instructed the golem to let him in using a method that he had
discovered almost by accident a few days ago. It involved envisioning
the dorm’s menu in his mind. Doing so actually popped up a dorm-only
status screen.

Lance made a beeline for the magic research room one he was past the
front door. Max hadn’t told them that was where he’d be, but it was an
accurate guess. Lance burst in like a whirlwind with boxes of food in
both hands and said, "Dude, this is freaking awesome!" Then he
stopped dead in his tracks with an expression of confusion.

"What's wrong?" asked Max.

"Well, my spirit I contracted with—he's usually a really laid-back, joking

sort of guy in his own way—but he just got really scared and quiet."

"Oh?”

“Yeah, give me a second."

Max watched Lance put the food down on the floor and get a faraway
look in his eye, apparently talking to his spirit. Max mentally asked
Lavinia, Do you think Lance is very talented as a Summoner? Thinking
about other Summoners in terms of talent hadn’t really been on his
rader un l recently.

Not really.

Well, good thing he got the summoning circle, then.

Finally Lance looked up and said, "He's afraid of you," then paused. "No,
he's afraid of your spirits."

Max remembered Lavinia's reac on when he first met Headmaster Mon

Hao Han. He asked her how to fix the situa on. When I met Mong Hao
the first me, what would have made you more comfortable? He held up
a hand for Lance to wait while Lavinia answered.

She slowly said, I think that part of what was so scary is that I could feel
edges of how powerful the spirits were, but I couldn't actually see them. It
was kind of like maybe when people go out in the dark with no flashlight.
Even if the things out there are scary, if you know what they are and you
know they're not going to a ack you, the fear is easier to handle.

She sighed mentally. Maybe not the best way to explain it.

No, he disagreed."Maybe we can work with that.

Max said to Lance, "Can you ask your spirit to manifest so that everyone
can see him visually?"

Lance slowly nodded. "I think so, give me a sec." A moment later, on the
floor nearby, there was a semi-translucent gnome, or what looked like a
gnome. On his pointy hat, there was an image of an open eye that could
have been drawn with a ballpoint pen. He had his thumbs in his li le
red overalls and was looking down at the floor, obviously nervous.

"This is Eyel," said Lance. "Eyel, this is my friend Max." The li le spirit
raised one orange hand in gree ng before quickly pu ng it back behind
his suspender. He didn't look up the en re me.

"Awesome," said Max. "What can Eyel do? What does he help you do?"

"Oh!" Lance puffed out his chest with pride and said, "Eyel gives me 360-
degree vision, like I have eyes in the back of my head now! I can also see
in different color spectrums and even some stuff I don't exactly
understand right now. It's a seeing power, and I haven't tried it yet, but
I'm pre y sure I can use my third eye with it too."
"No, no, no, no, don't do that," Max held his hands up. "Be careful how
you use your third eye. Don't ask me how I know. It's kind of like pu ng
your hand on a plate to see how hot it is. Everything's fine unless it's hot
enough to burn you." Max made a face and looked up at the ceiling.
"Actually, that was a great example."

He felt the phantom of an open hand gently pushing his head. Lavinia
had caught the teasing.

Lance said, "Oh yeah, I think we went over something like that in class
the other day.” He paused. “It's kind of weird you're not in school
anymore."

"I sort of am," said Max. "I was actually thinking about si ng in on one
of Momo's classes in a few days."

"Oh, it's that serious, huh?" Lance gave him a goofy look and waved his
eyebrows.

Max shook his head. "No, she's just a friend for now, but she's talked
about some of her classes that she’s in as a more advanced student, and
they actually sound pre y interes ng."

"Okay, cool," said Lance. "Now, are you going to have your spirits come
out?"

"Oh yeah." Max made a quick mental request, and a second later,
Lavinia stood next to him on his le side, her arms crossed as she
regarded Eyel with something like curiosity. Then Slick appeared on the
floor and immediately ran over to Eyel, who startled at the approach of
the similar-sized spirit. But then Max's half of the room grew dark, the
lights dimming as Saliron manifested. His voice seemed to echo around
the room as he said, "You called, Master?"

"Holy fuck! Jesus Christ, what the fuck is that?" yelled Lance. He tried to
back up to the door and almost fell over.
"Wait! Hold on, hold on," said Max. He glanced over at Saliron with
irrita on. "Do you think you can maybe let the light shine a li le bit
more?"

"As you wish, Master," Celerion drawled. It was obvious the spirit was
very amused with himself.

"What the fucking fuck!?" yelled Lance.

Max pointed at Slick, who was currently holding hands with Eyel and
jumping up and down. "That's Slick." Then he pointed at Lavinia. "This is
Lavinia. I think you already knew of her." And then he hooked a thumb
at the brooding Saliron, who was almost as tall as the ceiling of the
room. "And that's Saliron. Slick is a soldier rank, but powerful. Lavinia is
an officer class; she describes herself as a captain class. I think that’s an
older style ranking. Saliron is a warlord class spirit."

Lance's mouth opened and closed like a fish. "Dude, you have that thing
with you all the me!?"

"Anyway, that should be enough, right?" asked Max. He glanced at

Lavinia, who gave a curt nod. Then Max mentally asked his spirits to de-
manifest, except for Slick, who was given the op on to hang out. A er a
quick, silent chat between Eyel and Slick, Slick turned to Max, shrugged,
and the last two visible spirits vanished too.

"Okay, did that help?" asked Max.

Lance was s ll blinking rapidly but seemed to have had a quick talk with
Eyel. "Yeah, Eyel says everything's be er now, but dude, what the fuck?
A warlord-level spirit?"

Suddenly, Lavinia popped into existence again. And out loud, she said,
"You're not the smartest person in the world, are you, Lance? This
situa on is surprising you a er everything else your friend has done?"
Then she scoffed and disappeared again.
Lance slowly stood up straight, a bit of annoyance creeping through the
other emo ons on his face. "Your spirit's got a li le bit of a mouth on
her, doesn't she?"

Max laughed. "Yeah, I suppose she does at that, but she's also super
awesome, and she's usually right." He felt a burst of approval and
amusement from Lavinia through their bond. Max pointed at the boxes
of food on the floor. "So, are we going to eat or what?"

***

About twenty minutes into his celebratory meal with Lance, Max got
another sudden chime on his tablet. The front door golem was
reques ng his presence.

"What the hell?" he said.

"What is it?" asked Lance.

Max told him, and the two men got up, heading to the front door. At the
door, in the distance, Max could see a receding golem, one of the
workers in the Academy. He turned to regard his guard.

"Message for Max Cunningham.” In its hollow voice, the golem reported,
"A denizen of the central area has le a box for you. It is wai ng for you
at the front gate. Would you like for me or one of the other guards to
retrieve it?"

Max frowned. "No, that's fine. You stay here. I'm going to go check it
out." He glanced at Lance, who gave a quick grin.

"Sounds interes ng," said Lance. "I'll come with."

“Okay.” The two began heading for the gate to the Summoner Academy
grounds.

It was a bit of a walk, but Max con nued the conversa on they'd been
having earlier in his dorm room. Most of it revolved around ways that
Lance could use Eyel’s power to help with his future combat style. The
li le spirit's ability wasn't en rely ideal for Lance, but was s ll powerful–
extremely useful. In fact, Max wouldn't mind if he were to meet a spirit
with Eyel’s power in the future. Because of this, it was even easier for
him to give his friend advice.

A er the long walk to the front gate, the gate guards wordlessly handed
over what looked like a plain cardboard box. "We've already scanned it
for any danger," said one of them, a younger-looking man with big
sideburns. "Shouldn't be anything dangerous."

"Who le it?" asked Max.

The other gate guard on duty, an overweight, older man, gave a belly
laugh and said, "It was a pre y girl." The other guard gave him a sharp
look, and the man just laughed again. "What, are we supposed to just
not answer? I have eyes."

"What the hell?" Lance mu ered. He gave Max a searching look.

Max took the box, turned, and began slowly walking back to the
academy. Once he was a decent distance from the gate, he opened the
box to glance inside, his curiosity piqued. Lance looked over his
shoulder, and it almost looked like the two guards at the gate were
trying to sneak a peek from the distance too. Inside was a basket of
cookies covered in some sort of translucent protec on. And there was a
note too. Max picked up the note while he carried the box in his other
hand and read:

Max, I wasn't sure how to go about doing this, and I didn't want to be
rude and send you a message to your tablet. Also, I didn't want to give
the wrong impression, but I just wanted to say thank you for being so
nice when you come into the store, and thank you for your business.

It was signed, "Amy (from Blade and Bow).”

"Uhh.” Max blinked and reread the message.

Lance looked up from the note incredulous. "Why do you have women
coming out of the woodwork? Do they all send you cookies like this?"

Good ques on, said Lavinia in the back of his mind.

Max snagged one cookie and took a bite.

"Let me try one," asked Lance.

"Dude, you just..." Max started, but Lance interrupted.

"Let me try one," insisted Lance. “I’ve never had a woman send me
cookies in my life!

In the back of his mind, Lavinia said, You should tell him to have Belle
make him some. Her disapproval was clear.

Max was so surprised by the situa on, he actually repeated what Lavinia
had said. "Why don't you have Belle make you some?"

Lance backed off with an expression of over-the-top sadness. He made

huge puppy dog eyes. "Fine, fine, a gi from a girl, I get it."

Meanwhile, in the back of Max's head, Lavinia cackled. She had

developed a dislike for Belle that seemed to have been festering for a
while.

Max sighed. He thought to himself, My social life was never this

complicated when I was on Albion or back on Earth. It’s like the busier I
get, the crazier everyone else gets.
 Chapter 38

Max placed the tablet back on his wrist, his mood pensive. He had just
finished having a messenger conversa on with Amy, the store clerk. He
had wanted to thank her for the cookies she sent, but she hadn't been
working the previous day or the day before that. This was the first me
he had go en a response from her a er messaging the Blade and Bow
store tablet.

They’d made plans. Apparently, they were going to meet for lunch in the
Quartet central area in a few days. His conversa on with her had been
fun and, more importantly, interes ng.

There was an en re ecosystem and way of life in the central area that he
had seen nothing but glimpses of and could only speculate on, even
with the added informa on he had just go en from Amy. However, he
wasn't sure what he thought about her or da ng in general s ll. Her
inten ons now were obvious.

Max was very aware that the majority of his friends, and even casual
acquaintances at Summoner Academy, thought he was trying to be a
monk or something. But he wasn't blind, and over the last few days, he
had been paying more a en on to the signals that some other students
were trying to send his way. But he just couldn’t bring himself to care
more than a quick flash of curiosity.

Maybe it was just due to his old age or old soul; Max was annoyed by
meet-cutes and a empted subtlety now. Momo's directness had been
very appreciated, and Amy very clearly wanted to be more than just his
friend. The fact that she had taken the me and effort to make or get
him cookies, even leave them at the gate was respectable. Of course, he
wasn't exactly shocked by it either.
In Max's experience, having grown up on a different world and now
mee ng people from other cultures around the universe, it seemed he
was not the only one who thought simple, straigh orward
communica on was best. It was too bad that people on earth, at least in
some cultures, had a habit of needlessly complica ng the simple act of
showing roman c interest.

Now he was si ng in his magic research room, where he had been using
a desk to sketch ideas. For the last fi een minutes he’d just been staring
at the wall, thinking about his upcoming sorta-maybe-date in the central
area. He was interrupted when his tablet vibrated, le ng him know he
had a no fica on. It was from an unknown contact.

The message said, [Your spirits should have a communica on for you
soon.] That was it.

Max looked at the message and scratched his head. He showed it to

Lavinia and asked, "What in the world is the purpose of this?"

Lavinia considered for a while and then held a finger up. "Maybe it's
because of rules or regula ons."

"What do you mean?" asked Max.

"Well, you've never asked for Headmaster Meng Hao Han’s contact
informa on. Maybe this was the only way he could you informa on via
messaging in a roundabout way."

"Huh," Max said. He looked at the message again and shrugged.

Suddenly, Lavinia held up a finger again. She cocked her head to the side
as if she were listening to something and said, "The message was just
delivered. It was actually delivered to one of my spirits that had been
standing outside your dorm."

"You had spirits doing that?" asked Max.

"Of course. I wasn't going to trust your golems to oversee security

alone."
Max smiled at Lavinia. "You know, some mes I am truly astounded by
your paranoia…and pleased about it all over again."

"Damn straight," said the former Summoner. “Want me to have my spirit

read the message?”

I don–”

“Good, because the message has already been read. It says they want
you to go to the Summoner academy forest tonight. Three guesses who
‘they’ are. Ah, there's a map." She paused. "Yeah, I think I know where
this is."

Max frowned. "So we just got a cryp c message that I'm supposed to go
to a forest at night in the middle of nowhere?"

"That sounds about right."

"Great," mu ered Max. "I wonder what kind of party this is going to be."

***

The night in the Quartet was as strange as always, with nothing but
pinpricks of stars overhead and no moon. “It really does look like we're
in the middle of outer space," said Max.

Maybe we are, Lavinia spoke in his mind. Are you sure you didn't want to
tell any of your friends what you're doing?

No. No way. I don't want to get them involved in this stuff. Not only that,
they won't be able to help much, realis cally. And if they follow common
sense and don't follow me, they'll just worry.

I can't really argue with your logic, but I also can't argue with the fact that
if I were one of your friends, I would be pissed if I found out you didn't tell
me a er the fact.

Yeah, well, we'll cross that road when we come to it, said Max. What are
your spirits saying?
Same as before. There's just a group of people ahead, wai ng for us at
that clearing you're supposed to go to.

This is so cloak-and-dagger, thought Max. He didn't think it could be his

enemies calling him out on Summoner grounds. Even if it were, Max was
fairly confident that he could escape if nothing else. Doing so might
require that he show all of his abili es, but that would be a price he'd
be willing to pay in that situa on.

In fact, he had not been idle since he'd been back in the Quartet from
the Cradle of Giants dungeon. He had a number of new beads on strings
around his wrists. Now he was ge ng closer to achieving a three-star
mana body too, but wasn't quite there yet. All of his gear was in place,
ready to go. His new sword, Blackmist Incident, was on his belt, shrunk
down. He had new beads on his wrists and ankles. All of his spirits were
on high alert.

When Max finally stepped out of the forest into the clearing, he raised
an eyebrow at the sight. Mong Hao Han and Territ Mond he recognized,
both standing with two addi onal professors, but there were also two
other groups. None of the Quartet staff were wearing their official robes,
only plain black ones.

Max didn't say anything as he came to a stop and all eyes turned to him.
Mong Hao approached him alone, speaking loud enough for the others
to hear. "Young Max, I am sorry to spring this on you. But as I have told
you before, I would be trying to speak to the other headmasters in this
quartet. I have, and I am happy to say that myself, Headmaster Territ
Mond of the Mys c Spear Academy, and Headmaster Winno Smith of
the Replicator Academy are all working together. However, Headmaster
Bojana Gala Tassy A’Mind," he gestured at the furthest group headed by
a tall and lean woman with gray hair, "is interested but…skep cal."

Territ Mond spoke up at this point. "She won't believe us that a student
in his first year injured me, even though it was embarrassing for me to
admit. I have no reason to lie." He glared at Headmaster Bojana, and she
gave him a gracious bow. Not quite mocking, but not quite respec ul
either.
"So what do you want?" asked Max. "Do I need to fight another
headmaster?"

He no ced that the a endants for all four headmasters seemed to grow
restless at his ques on. There was one excep on. Professor Grave Call
merely quirked a smile.

"Nothing that extreme," said Mong Hao while waving his hands
downward. "She has asked that you fight her most talented student
compe ng in the Junior division of the compe on. This student is one
she believes could actually do well in the inter-Quartet compe on.
Despite your impressive growth, you are not ready to compete in the
senior division, and this is reasonable. You will s ll have one full
semester to improve a er the mid-year placement compe ons. If you
win against Headmaster Bojana A’Mind’s student, it will sa sfy her that
you will at least do well in the junior division, and she will accept that
you might be able to compete in the senior division. Even if you do not
win at the end of the year, merely compe ng at that level in your first
year will quell my associates’ doubts. This mee ng is so that all the
par es involved can see you and also hear your answer about this."

"Before I give an answer, I want to hear more par culars," said Max. He
crossed his arms. Most of this he was already aware of. A er all, it’d
been his idea to fight a hot shit junior division Challenger to appease
the other headmasters. That had been included in one of several
communica ons he’d sent the Summoner headmaster.

"Wan ng to hear more details is understandable," said Headmaster

Bojana as she spoke for the first me. Her voice was surprisingly
melodic. She took two steps forward from her group and fixed Max with
a steely stare. "What all the headmasters are sugges ng," she swept her
peers with a glance, "you would not be compe ng in the standard mid-
year, end of semester placement compe on. However, I am not
convinced about your skill. So it seems more than reasonable that a er
all the academies in the Quartet do have their standard mid-semester
placings, that you duel the number one from my academy at the Junior
level. If anything, this is rather generous since nobody is even sure yet if
the student I have in mind will truly even place first in my school, much
less against all the others.

“As already stated, we can all agree that we should not expect you to
fight in the senior division un l the end of the year. But I, and others,
would like to see your power with my own eyes, not only qualifying you
to even be at the junior level, but also to see how easily you can defeat
my challenger. It stands to reason that regardless of how or why you
grow in power so quickly, or even being a three-Path Challenger, if you
were able to compete solidly at the senior level at the end of the year,
you should not be struggling to win at the junior level.

"Okay. Sounds good to me. I'll be there if we come to an agreement,"

said Max. He smiled winningly.

Headmaster Bojana narrowed her eyes and frowned, but didn't say
anything more. She nodded and stepped back.

Mong Hao waved a hand, his long sleeve trailing behind. “I believe we
are all on the same page now, yes? So Max, you will–”

"One moment please, headmaster.”

Mong Hao Han cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. Some of the
true, poli cal, powerful, calcula ng man Max knew he had to be was
showing through. “Please explain, young Max.”

“Absolutely. I do believe that the par culars are se led now–

func onally, that is. However, the deal has changed. Again. I think we
need to have a bit more of a chat before we can all walk away with a
deal.”

The headmasters’ heads all snapped up, laser focused on him.

Max con nued, "The original deal that I made with Mong Hao Han and
Territ Mond was for me to get two hundred fi y mana units per month,
each. I also received a bonus for signing. The bonus ship has already
probably sailed, but I think it’s reasonable to expect another two
hundred fi y mana units per headmaster, per month. A er all, I will be
working to become the prize fighter of the en re quartet. Now that all
four headmasters are on the same page, or at least will be soon," he
pointed at Headmaster Bojana, and she nodded in response with an
unfriendly smile, "I think that my original allowance should double."

"This is outrageous!” growled headmaster Winno Smith. She had green

flames beginning to glow on her shoulders.

Max waved a hand at everybody assembled. "I understand this might be

sudden for some of you. But the scope of this…arrangement keeps
changing., It seems to me if I am carrying the hopes and dreams of the
en re Quartet, double the amount of Headmasters, I should get another
five hundred mana units per month. And a er all, I am completely fine
with no longer par cipa ng at all if you will think it is too risky. Or
perhaps…the headmasters sponsoring me can hash out a deal that if
and when I go farther in the inter-quartet compe on, that they will not
need to share the rewards."

That last bit had been a gamble–Max had no idea what he was actually
talking about. But he could tell he had their a en on now.

There was a moment of absolute silence before all of the gathered

Quartet staff began talking or whispering at once. Max folded his arms
and, as the sound died down a bit, he nodded his head.

He gestured at Mong Hao and Territ. "These two brought into the fold
and showed their sincerity. I think it's only fair that the other
headmasters do too."

"How dare you!" shouted a man behind the Replicator Academy

headmaster. "Who do you think you are!?"

Max lost his grin and his eyes went flat. "I'll tell you who I am. I'm
somebody who doesn't actually need to do anything while I'm here, and
I could take all the money I already have and live a very lavish lifestyle,
enjoying all of the Challenger groupies who hear of me for the next
seven years un l I can finally leave this place.
"Even without any backing, I beat a level 5 dungeon before my first
semester. There is no way I can’t do it again, especially in the future
when I have more power.

“Or I might even just be ‘graduate,’ to just leave this year or maybe next
year. Even if you try to block me, I have connec ons who are not present
here telling me that I would s ll be able to do so. If necessary, I can
escalate it.”

That last bit had been another calculated risk. He had to assume there
were levels of management in the Quartet system, especially since the
inter-Quarter compe on existed.

Max glared. “Whether you want to believe that I fought Headmaster

Territ Mond or not, the fact that I survived and even wounded him
before the end of my first semester–ever–should be verifiable. The fact
is, I don't need any of you, but you need me because your Quartet sucks
and you don't ever win. And that means you are resource-starved. When
is another Challenger like me going to come around again?"

He narrowed his eyes and let his gaze play around the ring of Quartet
staff who all had their mouths open in shock at his blunt words and
brazen a tude.

"Let me make this very clear. This is not a nego a on. This is an
ul matum. You will do as I ask, which is not even that heavy considering
the allowances of some of the lifers. And I know some of them have to
get that money either from some of you or the people under you. So
play ball, or I'll just go home. I don't have any reason to fight for you
unless you pay me. I am not your soldier. I am a mercenary."

Max folded his arms again and stared down every last person that eyed
him with animosity or contempt.

Bojana didn’t back down. She frowned. "If you beat my champion, we
will discuss it."
"Nope, wrong," said Max. "You will agree to it now. If I win against your
champion, no weaseling out of this en re deal, either."

She ground her teeth. Max thought, I can just tell me and her are going
to be friends.

Lavinia’s voice whispered in the back of his mind. You got them by the
balls, Max. It’s sort of beau ful.

Max silently sent her mental agreement. He just hoped that a thousand
mana units a month was going to be enough. His mana body efforts
were gobbling up resources at an alarming rate.
 Chapter 39

Max stared at the ceiling, thinking about the mee ng with the
headmasters he had earlier that night. It felt like there was suddenly a
lot going on in his world.

Part of him wondered if he wouldn't be be er off just gradua ng as a

Summoner and leaving the Summoner academy. Supposedly, when he
got back to his own world, there would not be any correla on to the
me he spent in the Quartet and the me passed on Earth. But Max s ll
wasn't sure if there was a so limit to how far he could develop his
mana body in the Quartet, in this par cular Quartet. What would be
ideal is if he were in a quartet with a high mana concentra on. Then
staying longer would be a no-brainer.

As he was thinking about the near future and wondering if he was truly
comfortable basically being somebody's prize fighter, he heard a knock
on the door. Max's Summoner senses automa cally told him that the
knock wasn't real and that it was Lavinia trying to get his a en on.
Usually, if any of his spirits wanted to talk to him when he was in his
bedroom, they would—almost always Lavinia—usually let him know in a
way similar to this.

"Go ahead and come in," said Max.

A second later, Lavinia appeared nearby, wearing yet another new ou it.
Now, her hair was in braids, and she had on a jumper with a cartoon
dinosaur on the front. Underneath it said, "RAR."

"I need to talk to you, boss." The spirit's serious tone of voice and the
unusual way she was addressing him made Max sit up straight and grow
more focused.
"What is it?" asked Max.

"Well, remember when we first formed our contract? I was supposed to

share secrets with you. Even though it hasn't been that long, and even
though you haven't fulfilled my wishes in exactly the way I had
an cipated, I've realized tonight that I need to hold up my end of the
bargain."

"What brought this on?" asked Max. "The mee ng with the
headmasters?"

"Yes. I am seeing new layers to the Quartet that I've never seen before,
even a er hundreds of years of haun ng this place. If I weren't so
awesome, it would be giving me a li le bit of an inferiority complex. But
more importantly, I have watched you almost every step of the way
con nue to pull bullshit out of your pocket and make amazing things
happen. At this point, I have no doubt that you're going to easily smoke
the compe on at the end of the semester and probably do great things
at the end of the year. More importantly, I've grown more convinced
that you are probably going to live a long me. If you don't get yourself
killed, you might even end up living longer than your first life. So
basically, I don't have any reason anymore to keep gatekeeping."

"Gatekeeping?" asked Max.

"Yes, gatekeeping. There are a few secrets that I was keeping. I planned
to tell you all of them in good me, but the first is about…remnants."

Max didn't ask any ques ons, just con nued listening.

Lavinia said, "It's something that isn't real fun for spirits to talk about,
but everything dies, even spirits. Spirits just tend to exist for a really,
really long me. But things can happen that damage them, us, or cause
them to lose the will to exist. Some mes spirits can get very a ached to
places or people, and a er they go away, the spirit loses interest in
being a ached to the material world any longer. When spirits begin
waning, when the Summoner contrac ng process may destroy them,
they're called remnants. And it's something that the Summoner
Academy doesn't teach anymore.

“As far as I know, all the records of remnants and all books about them
have been scoured from the library at every level, and I doubt most of
the professors would even recognize the term now. Remnant spirits are
very, very rare. There is only one place they have ever been common,
one place in the en re universe."

"Summoner Academy," Max guessed, slowly.

"Bingo! And you know what? Something that's really freaking odd?
There are creatures that do nothing except roam around looking for
remnant spirits. I don’t even know what they’re called or what they are!
They’re scary as all hell. All I, we, know is that once they find a remnant
spirit, that spirit disappears."

Max blinked, thinking of all the implica ons.

"I actually learned about them before I died," Lavinia con nued, her
manc speech slowing down. Max no ced that the former Summoner was
not skir ng around the subject of her demise anymore, or being
par cular about how she described it. She usually added in words like
'technically' and such. Max made a gesture for Lavinia to con nue.

She folded her arms. "I'm pre y sure, in hindsight, that me poking
around into subjects like remnants was why I was suppressed. But
anyway, I actually didn't get that far in my research into remnants. Most
of my focus and energy were spent in other places. The communica on
circle that I gave you was one of them. I learned more about remnants
a er I was a spirit myself, and it took decades a er that."

She had Max's full a en on now. He nodded at her to go on.

"So…remnants are a li le bit different than other spirits because the

contract process will destroy them. Like I said. But they can s ll choose
Summoners. This means here isn't a contract process, not really. It's a
pass-go. Yes, no. Will they agree to basically–" she paused, the
con nued, "stop exis ng and give the Summoner…some of what they
are. In the past, like during my life me, remnants were very hard to
come by. They are even more so now. But the ones I know would rather
pass on what they have to somebody deserving than be caught by the
Quartet and then who knows what."

"Wow," said Max. "So is somebody destroying them or harves ng

them?"

"Nobody knows," she said and shrugged. "But consider this. There are
how many different Quartets out there for how many different paths,
and all of them are receiving funding from somewhere. Granted, most
Quartets have pocket dimensions with farms and such that they get food
from. But s ll, there are direc ves that come down. From somewhere.
Higher. And now you're mixed up all in the middle of it with your secret
deals with headmasters and such."

"It sounds bad when you say it that way," said Max.

"I'm not sure it isn't bad," mu ered Lavinia, "but I'm pre y sure you
know that too. Like always, it feels like you take the best of a bad
situa on and then turn it around for your own benefit. And quite
frankly, I don't think there's going to be another Summoner like you in a
long me. Maybe forever, if things keep going the way they are. What
you said back in the mee ng with the headmasters, what you said about
yourself? It wasn’t very humble, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t sound like
the truth to me.

“As you know, I've been here for a long me. I've seen– Year over year,
Summoners get weaker. I'm sure that part of it is because all the
remnants have been eliminated or chased into hiding. When you think
about it, the way the system used to work would be a beau ful thing.

“I could imagine older, seasoned Summoners coming to work here as

professors before likely just ge ng red of living. Their spirits would be
le behind. If mul ple cycles took place like that, especially over millions
of years, this place would be flooded with remnants. That would mean
that the most powerful Summoners, or the most sensi ve, or the most
talented would likely meet at least one or two remnants over the seven
years they were here. It would be a hell of a solid start.

“But s ll, that might not sound like a lot un l you consider how long a
professor might have lived for and the fact that there's really no limit to
how many spirits a Summoner can contract with. The only real limit is
that they need to finish bonding with their previous spirit before taking
another. And this was one of the reasons why I was ini ally hesitant to
even tell you about remnants. Most people, most Summoners, take a
while to bond with a spirit. But you're different."

She shook her head and gave him a strange look.

"Even now that I intellectually know you are Chasa de Milo, some mes
it's hard to accept, but I have to admit, I've never seen anybody in my
en re existence bond with spirits as quickly as you do. Even Saliron. It’s
true you will probably learn more about him as me goes on and
manifest more powers and even find new ways to use those powers, but
he was working in harmony with you in no me flat. A warlord spirit!
And even me! I felt like the process with us took less than a week. In
hindsight, it was probably only a day or two, and that is absolutely
insane. In fact, it's one reason why I really think you should start da ng
Momo seriously."

"Wait, what?" asked Max.

The spirit held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah, forget that for now. Too much of
a subject change. That's a conversa on for another me. But the fact
she was able to bond with two spirits so quickly means that she bonded
with at least one of them excep onally fast. Her talent might be the
highest in your en re friend group other than your own."

Max nodded though ully. He hadn't thought of it that way. Now that he
was hearing it, he vaguely remembered reading a book on the subject of
talent and bonding. He grew momentarily frustrated that he hadn't
been taking regular classes like all of his friends. Max forced himself to
remember the context of his me at the Quartet so far. If he were taking
classes like everyone else, he would be far behind where he currently
was.

Lavinia hal ngly said, "I know some remnants. I'm not even going to tell
you how many. And it should be obvious that I wouldn't be having this
conversa on with you if your dorm wasn't shielded. I know you are not
stupid, but just to be clear, you should probably never repeat this
informa on to anyone ever again. Ever."

"Yeah, I got it," said Max.

"Good. Anyway, there is one remnant I keep contact with that I have
finally told about you, and he wants to meet you."

"Okay," said Max. "When?"

"I know where he is right now, so as soon as you're ready."

Max chuckled without humor. "This has been an absolutely crazy night
so far. Why not make it crazier? Want to go now?"

Lavinia gave him a look that was hard to read. "Okay."

It was only a er she le the bedroom as Max was ge ng ready, just like
she usually did, that Max realized this remnant was one of her friends
and likely had been for a long me. And, if Max formed a contract with
the Remnant Spirit, it meant that one of Lavinia's friends, one that she'd
likely known for decades, if not centuries, was going to stop exis ng
tonight.

"Damn," he mu ered.
 Chapter 40

When Max realized where Lavinia was leading him, he ruefully shook his
head. Figures, he thought. Presently he stood in front of the door to the
common area that he used to shower in. Max tried the door. It was
open. Once inside, he checked the door to his old room out of curiosity.
It was open as well. But what he saw inside made him raise his
eyebrows. At some point, somebody had ransacked the place. Everything
was in disarray: the closet was opened, and drawers were pulled out. It
looked like a scene back on Earth a er crime scene detec ves had
turned a house upside down.

"I wonder who did this?" mu ered Max.

"Who knows?" said Lavinia. "With your history, it could have been
several people or groups by now."

"Yeah." The number of individual groups that hated him made him even
more dedicated to ge ng stronger, faster.

Max went back out to the common area and pointed at the other where
he'd heard strange noises a er first coming to the Summoner Academy.

"Is this where we're going?" he asked.

"Yes. It is not the only truly dark, uninhabited place on campus, but this
one is a favorite of one of my friends," Lavinia explained.

"How is it that people went in my room, my old room, and tore it apart,
but this door is s ll closed and locked?"

"It has a glamour on it," answered Lavinia. "The fact that you even
no ced it before as a new Summoner is s ll something curious that I've
not yet been able to understand. It could have something to do with
you being a Blade Sorcerer, or maybe the strength of your soul. I would
imagine a few of the Summoner Academy professors might be able to
no ce it, but not many. Maybe only the oldest, or most powerful staff.”

“It’s probably my Blade Sorcerer roots. The magic involved is specialized

for breaking other magic, a er all.”

"Probably. Anyway, right this way," said Lavinia. As she finished

speaking, the previously unlocked door eerily swung open on its own.
She walked into the room and beckoned for Max to follow. Once inside,
he sneezed from all the dust in the air. The moment he was inside, the
door closed behind him on its own. Lavinia's glowing form helped Max
see in the darkness.

At some point in the past, someone had bricked up where the window
had been. He could feel a hint of magic coming from that area and
assumed it was an illusion. Just another security measure that had kept
the locked door from being unmolested all this me. Max probably
wouldn't have considered doing so anyway; he'd never even considered
picking the lock or opening the strange door on his own before, even
just to look inside.

It occurred to him that this place was probably created by a Summoner

as a place for their spirits to rest in, same as the dark room in Max’s
dorm.

In the dusty room, there was a bed against one wall without any sheets
on it, just a ma ress covered in plas c. On a small table against the
opposite wall was a collec on of ragged stuffed animals. There was
random junk on the floor, mostly toys. None of it really made sense to
Max, at least not from the perspec ve of this room being a popular
spirit hangout spot, un l he remembered that none of the spirits
actually needed furniture to sit on or be comfortable. The space itself
was good enough.

Curiously enough, although the room was extremely dusty, the area
around the toys was either dust-free or the dust had been disturbed,
maybe like someone or something had been playing with them. It was
very possible that was the origin of the odd noises he'd heard before
when he'd been living next door.

"How many of these types of rooms are in the dorms?" asked Max.

"More than you'd think," came an unfamiliar voice. “A er all, this is the
Summoner Academy.”

Max was able to locate the source of the voice with some difficulty. A
spirit was si ng on the bed, human-shaped like Lavinia, but also
different in appearance to Max’s eyes and Summoner senses. He
appeared to be a young man in his twen es, with a friendly, honest face,
red eyes, and an amused smile. He wasn't glowing, and in the dimness,
even with Lavinia's light and Max's mana-enhanced vision, he was barely
visible.

When he realized that Max had seen him, he smiled wider and
introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Tom."

"I'm Max. So, do you…live in here?" Max asked.

"Most of the me, I tend to stay in the safest places, and this is one of
them. But us remnant spirits don't have a lot of energy, and it takes
energy for spirits to move around, at least in the physical world."

"How do you all get energy, actually?" asked Max, the ques on slipping
out of his lips before he could even think about it properly.

Lavinia answered, "It depends on the type of spirit. For instance, Saliron
needs bones.”

“Bones are life," Saliron's voice echoed around the small room.

Max had half expected Tom to look nervous or scared like some other
spirits when Slytherin manifested in any way, but the remnant spirit
seemed completely unfazed.
"Oh my," he said, "a new Summoner who has already made a contract
with the warlord-level spirit." He turned to Lavinia, "You were not joking
that this one is probably special."

Without any other place to sit other than the dusty bed next to the
spirit he was talking to, Max went to lean against the opposite wall
instead. "So, I just learned about remnant spirits literally tonight," he
said.

"Yes, not many know of us anymore," said Tom. "You may be wondering
why I have this human appearance, and if you aren't, I will s ll explain
why." His quick smile made Max grin in return.

Max’s first impression was that Tom definitely seemed to have a great
personality, especially in the face of all the terrible things he could intuit
the spirit had seen. He was reading between the lines with this en re
situa on. For spirits to hide, they have to be hiding from something. The
shadowy hunters Lavinia had told him before might not even be the
only things looking or remnant spirits.

It had already occurred to him that his current path might make him just
as big of a target as Lavinia in the past, if not more so. His new
benefactors, the Quartet headmasters, would likely not shield him from
it. In fact, some or all of them might be in on the en re thing. He had no
way of knowing, and he was damn sure not going to ask.

Tom explained, "I was contracted with a powerful Summoner. When he…
died, I elected not to form a contract again. My experiences and my
friendships had eventually made me more human, I’d developed more
sen ence, but it was a double-edged sword. As my personality grew, so
did my pickiness towards who I would ever contract with. I am old,
young Max, old enough to have seen many changes in this Summoner
Academy, this Quartet, and even this universe. There are secrets I know
that I do not dare tell you out loud. If we contract today, some of those
secrets you may only learn in the future, and even then, only in
dreams."

"It's really that dangerous, huh?" asked Max.

"Oh yes, indeed. I am not embellishing, but I am also not clarifying. No
agreement, no contract has even been made yet." The spirit held out a
hand. "Would you allow me to taste your soul?"

Lavinia quickly exclaimed, "Why would you describe it like that, Tom?
That's like the worst possible way to phrase it. You made it sound as
creepy as possible. I have told you about this before!"

The remnant spirit shrugged. "But it is accurate, and I think reasonable

given the situa on and what we are discussing."

"What exactly does tas ng my soul mean?" asked Max.

Lavinia answered for Tom, "It's basically what I did when I first
contracted with you, except less involved and less invasive. Instead of
taking in and processing your memories, the ‘taste’ gets a feel for who
you are, the quality of your soul, and maybe only a few of the most
powerful memories of your life. You will not lose anything, and you can
keep your wards up the en re me. A spirit can actually take a taste
without permission. Tom is being courteous."

Tom didn't say anything more and Max thought about it. He trusted
Lavinia, and he could half-remember something he’d read in a book
about spirit tas ng, too. Lavninia’s explana on seemed like a good one.

He really didn't like the idea of giving consent to other en es for any
access to his soul or memories at all. And he especially didn't like the
idea of gran ng access with nothing in return. But in this case, since Tom
was basically doing due-diligence on whether he should give up his
en re existence, Max decided it was reasonable to play along. Besides,
Tom was asking permission. Saliron had tried to destroy Max out of
nothing but curiosity.

"Okay, fine," he said, and held out his hand.

Tom's spectral hand touched Max's, and he felt a spark, nothing more.
The remnant spirit withdrew his hand and got a faraway look un l his
eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh my! Such an interes ng life, so much poten al power, and you even
have a touch of the divine on you!"

He turned to Lavinia and beamed. "Not only have you described your
Summoner accurately, if anything, you undersold his accomplishments
and who he is. This makes me feel so much be er about just
everything."

"So, speaking of which," said Max, "I understand the gist of you being a
remnant spirit and us talking like this, but although helping you would
probably be a good deed in itself, what do I get out of this?"

Lavinia squawked, but Tom held up a hand. "I appreciate directness, and
it was an appropriate thing to ask." He fixed Lavinia with a skep cal
glance. "A er you have spent more than a hundred years trying to wrest
my secrets from me, I think you, of all spirits, have very li le moral
ground to stand on for being offended by Max's ques on."

“It wasn’t like that a er I got to know you.” Lavinia frowned and sulked.
Max was a li le amused by the exchange, since it felt like Lavinia usually
managed to get the upper hand in any other argument or conversa on
she'd ever had with him.

Tom turned back to Max. "I will not mince words. If we form a contract,
who I am, what I am, will cease to exist, as well as all the spirits that are
subordinate to me. Over me, those that remain have…become part of
who I am. Remnant spirits do not follow the same classifica ons as
other spirits, from soldier to king. Instead, we are something else
en rely.

"A contract would definitely benefit you. The direct advantages I will
confer upon you will be a much stronger soul, mind, and spirit. I can
sense that you have been tested mul ple mes in your life, a acks that
threatened to unravel you. With me bolstering your soul, it will be like
turning a tree, albeit a strong tree in your situa on, into steel. You will
probably no ce things and remember things with more ease. Illusions
will be much less effec ve on you, which, again, you seem to already
have advantages against, so the idea that you'll become even stronger in
this aspect pleases me. And lastly, you will be able to see the spiritual
easier and be guarded against the spiritual automa cally. This s ll does
not mean you will be able to use your third sight recklessly, but you will
have be er protec on against backlash."

The spirit turned to Lavinia again, giving a wis ul smile. "Goodbye, my

friend. I may be leaving this plane of existence, but I believe that old
spirits never truly vanish. Do I truly have a soul? I don’t know. But if
anything, old spirits live on in those closest to them. One day, perhaps
you will understand, and even search for oblivion or change through
sacrifice for yourself."

Tom turned back to Max. "I have existed for a very long me. Now I have
told you what benefits you will reap if you help me, but I must be
honest about the burdens. Occasionally, you may dream my memories.
And as I've said before, you may dream my secrets. I cannot
overemphasize how much danger knowing my secrets will place you in,
but at the same me, I am confident that they will give you knowledge
and power as well. I will not require you to take ac on about anything
you might learn, but based on the measure I have taken of you, I believe
it is likely. For now, that is enough. What do you think?"

“I think I’d be a fool to turn this down.”

“Just so.” He held out his hand again and said, "Let's shake on it then."
He smiled sadly but triumphantly as Max reached forward and tried to
take the hand of the wispy, insubstan al remnant spirit. The moment he
did, it felt like he got hit by lightning.

When he came to, he was si ng against the wall, seated on the floor
with his legs splayed out in front of him, making mul ple tracks in the
dust. He wasn't sure how long he had been out, and with Lavinia’s
disappearance, there was no more light in the room, but he could hear
her audibly sobbing in the corner. There were other crying voices too,
just on the edge of his hearing. His ears were not how he was hearing
them. He was definitely more sensi ve now and wondered what other
changes Tom's presence would bring over me.
Max stood up unsteadily, a tear forming in his own eye, and he
mu ered, "Excuse me," to the room in general. Then he went to the
door and le . Lavinia did not go with him, and he could feel her absence
un l he got back to his dorm. Once she returned, she didn't say
anything, and Max's other spirits were silent as well.

He was curious about the changes that his new remnant contract had
brought about for him, but he was also gripped by a strong and
deepening melancholy. It had truly been a long day, and the emo ons
he was feeling might not even be en rely his own. Ul mately, he
decided that anything else he might have to do that night could wait. He
crawled into bed and went to sleep.
 Chapter 41

The day came for Max to meet Amy for lunch. From the moment he'd
set out, Lavinia seemed grouchy about the en re situa on. "What is it
that you don't like about Amy?" asked Max. He walked along the
pathway to the summoner at the gate, his four guarding golems
following at a discreet distance.

"It's not that I don't like her," said Lavinia. "It's that I think you're was ng
your me.”

“What do you mean by that?" asked Max.

"Well, you are not on your world right now. You're in a quartet. If you're
going to invest me in people, you should invest me in fellow warriors,
Challengers, people who can help you on your way, or at least people
who share your same values and energy. Amy might be a nice girl, I don't
know, but I’m not sure what she can offer you right now past what ever
other woman in the universe has. Like, what the hell can she possibly
know about you, the reincarnated Chassa de Milo, the number one
student in Summoner academy, the number one target for Mys c Spear
Path Lifers, a goddess’ champion, and a three-Path Challenger?"

Max frowned. "People can't be categorized just by their achievements or

their talents. My mom back on Earth hasn't really accomplished
anything great, but I s ll care about her."

"Of course you do," said Lavinia. "She's your mother. She's your family.
You've known her your whole life."

"Yeah, well, I know Amy too, and she seems like a good person," said
Max. "More importantly, when I talk to her, I feel like in some ways
maybe things get a li le bit be er, that my stresses aren't quite so
stressful."

"Max Cunningham. All you've ever done is buy or sell weapons to her.
Where are you ge ng this from?"

He shrugged. "It's just a feeling. And besides, I'm just going to have lunch
with her. And I realized yesterday that I don't really know much about
the Quartet Born."

"You're probably be er off not knowing," Lavinia mu ered.

"What was that?"

"Never mind. I just think you’re ac ng like someone a frac on your age.”

“On the contrary, it’s because of my long life that I’ve come to
appreciate people for more than just their stats on paper. For instance,
my accomplishments in my past life were lengthy, but I was a bastard
who didn’t really care about others un l I was mellowed with a family.
There is logic in some of what you have said, but it ignores the reality
that life is complex. Friendship and rela onships are not so easily
quan fied.”

“Whatever. I've said my piece. Do what you need to do. But if you’re just
thinking with li le Max, I’m never going to forget about this."

He rolled his eyes. Since Lavinia was almost always with him, she knew
for a fact that merely spending a night with a woman would be stupidly
easy. Just that week, two women in the Summoner academy had asked
him back to their dorm. One had handed him a note. Like always, he’d
just ignored them.

Despite saying she was done, Lavinia con nued grumbling. Max let her
keep complaining to herself. Ever since he'd contracted Tom, Lavinia had
been a li le bit surlier than usual. She was obviously pu ng effort into
ac ng the same as she usually did, and Max didn't have the heart to tell
her that he’d no ced and she'd failed miserably. Grief could be a tricky
thing and Lavinia had known Tom for a long me. Of all people, Max
understood how difficult that could be. He'd lost most of his childhood
on Earth to grief for things that had happened in a different life.

Max enjoyed his walk to the Summoner academy gate. It gave him a
li le more me to think about what he was about to do. He was
mee ng Amy today at a cafe he'd never been to before called The Li le
Wing.

Once he was back in the central area, it wasn’t too difficult to find. The
building was on the other side of the mall, a place he'd barely been to
before, and really only seen from a distance. When Max arrived, he was
pleased to discover it didn't seem very busy, and when he walked in,
Amy was already seated at a table in the corner. She waved at him and
smiled nervously.

Max took a seat and looked at the menu. "Is this a place where there are
servers, or do we order at the counter?"

"We order at the counter," she said. "They can be kind of slow, though. I
kind of already ordered for you since you told me what kind of things
you like. But since you offered to pay, I made sure I didn't order the
most expensive things on the menu."

Max chuckled. "All right, sounds good to me. I guess you really did pay
a en on. I told you I'm not too picky, huh?"

She flashed him a bright smile. "Absolutely. Not only that, to be honest
with you, I hate the whole…discussing-the-menu thing with someone
you're ea ng with. This way, I can spend more me cha ng and less
me thinking about sandwiches."

"Okay, so, you wanted to meet up. Here I am."

"Oh geez. No pressure, huh?" Amy chuckled nervously. "You know, you
can be kind of in mida ng."

Max gave her a weird look. "In mida ng? What are you talking about?"
"You're just so self-confident and direct, and it's just strange. I have a
hard me explaining it. The other customers I deal with, the other
students in the quartet who are as self-confident as you are, usually also
arrogant. A lot of them are the lifers that come in and think that just
because they have mommy or daddy's homeworld money that they are
special too. But you... You're totally different. It's hard to explain.

“One thing that is easier to explain is that with people like that, what
they want is obvious. Whether it’s weapons, money, or leering at my
body, whatever it is they’re a er is always obvious. Believe it or not,
someone just stopping to chat and…trea ng you like a person is not
exactly common, at least not in my experience. You stood out right
away.”

She went quiet for a while and then said, "I actually have to come clean
with you, both for my conscience's sake and also so that maybe we can
at least really be friends."

"What are you talking about?" asked Max.

"Well, the truth is, yes, I know you as my customer, but ever since you
first showed up, I've kind of taken an interest in you, and I've paid
a en on to the gossip. So I've heard about a lot of the things you've
done in the Quartet. And I even heard about how you killed Hannibal."

"Hannibal?" asked Max.

"The Quartet born man who worked in the dungeon building. He’s dead
now. I think you had something to do with it."

"Oh." Max schooled his face into a neutral posi on. "Is that a problem?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. The opposite, in fact. You have no
way of knowing this, but Hannibal has been a terrible, terrible man for
many years. A lot of us have feared him, especially girls."

Max stayed quiet and listened.

"Hannibal has liked groping and worse over the years. You see, you
might not know this, in fact, you probably don't, but we don't really
have any defenses in the Quartet. Sure, in shops we do. Not only are
there defenses in the shops, there are steeper punishments too. If we
get killed by one of the students, they can actually be expelled."

"Expelled?" asked Max.

"Yes. Demerits are one thing, and from what I understand, if a student
gets too many demerits and they're broke, their me in the Quartet is
very unpleasant. There are a few things that are usually deemed bad
enough for a student to be expelled. Expelling a student means forcing
them back to their body on their original world."

Max blinked. "Just like if they died in the dungeon?"

"Exactly," said Amy, nodding.

"I had no idea that was even a thing," said Max.

"Well, from what I understand, the Quartet staff don’t adver se it. The
known deterrents to stealing or assault in the shops are usually enough
. Besides, if a student has already go en enough demerits that they
couldn't eat anymore and also didn't have any money, it might actually
incen vize them to try killing central area clerks."

"I see," said Max. "Basically, for students like that, it would cut their me
in the Quartet short, and they didn't care about the power they'd bring
back with them anyway."

"Exactly. And like I said, there are the defenses. As you likely know, the
different shops in the Quartet have strong defenses in place for the
Quartet workers. But on top of that, what you probably don't know–and
all of us are encouraged not to tell students–is that we have direct
access to our shops.”

“Direct access?”
“Yes. From our living area and to all the other shops in the Quartet too.
So, with very few excep ons, Quartet workers don't really need to go
outside of shops at all. That’s why you don’t see us on the streets very
o en. If we s ck to shops and our living areas, we stay protected. But
that's only protected from students.”

“It's not protected from each other, huh?" asked Max.

"Exactly. And we s ll get punished if we kill each other. So the Quartet

born have had to figure out their own methods of jus ce. The problem
with that is, and I assume every Quartet varies, but in our quartet,
things can get kind of murky around anything other than really obvious
crimes. So certain people–like Hannibal–would skirt around our self-
made laws. People like that can be terrible forever without ever truly
ge ng in trouble for it unless some other Quartet-born fights them. But
the risk of death is always there, and even if not, if the system decides
someone is too close to death, the a acker can be punished. The bad
people usually know be er than to start fights they can’t win."

"That sounds, uh, not ideal," said Max.

"Yes, definitely. It made walking the hallways of the Quartet-born living

areas kind of scary, and some mes... and it's why a lot of us, especially
us girls, never walk anywhere alone."

Max thought, Wow, the universe is really ro en just about anywhere you
look. He asked, "So how many people know that I'm the one who killed
Hannibal?"

"By now, pre y much everybody, or at least all the Quartet born who as
clerks, which is most of us. It’s why you have special permissions now."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Max.

Suddenly the person working behind the counter called Max's name. He
looked up and saw a couple of trays wai ng on the table.

“I’ll grab it,” said Max.

“You sure you can get it all?”

“No problem.”

"Okay, I'll wait," said Amy. She gave him a dimpled smile.

Max got up to get the trays, and when he approached the counter, the
woman on the other side asked, "Are you Max? Max Cunningham?"

“That's me.”

She gave him a look that was halfway between embarrassed and
grateful. "Thank you. Thank you for what you've done."

He blinked. Over the course of two life mes now, Max had killed a
decent number of people. It had been a long me since he’d go en this
reac on a er killing somebody, especially someone he'd killed for
mostly selfish reasons. He mumbled an awkward thanks, grabbed his
trays, and took them back to the table. It looked like Amy had ordered
him a couple of turkey sandwiches, which he was more than fine with.

"So you were saying?" he asked, and spared no me immediately tucking

into his food.

Amy chuckled at his ravenous behavior and then gave him a genuine
grin. "If a worker wishes to bring a student into the Quartet born living
area, they need to pe on it. That means a formal request that the
elders need to vote on. But in your case, you have been given an
honorary pass already."

"What? Just for killing a guy?"

"Yes. Well, not just that, also your behavior in the schools. It is obvious
to us that you are very different from most of the other students who
are either powerless or tyrants."

“I killed a lot of people. They come back to life. Aren’t the Quartet born
worried that I’ll do the same there?”
“No. First off, you’re a student, so the punishment if you murder one of
us is the same anywhere. Also, several of the elders really hate some of
the Mys c Spear students. Lastly, I, uh, might have vouched for you.”

Max though ully finished chewing his food and said, "So... I'm able to
visit the workers' area of the Quartet, where you all live, whenever I
want?"

"More or less," said Amy, "but somebody needs to accompany you. I'm
not going to give you the code to the portal."

"Code to the portal," Max silently mouthed. He began ea ng again,

mulling over everything Amy had said. She ate too, and he got the
impression that she was carefully watching him for any other reac ons.

To change the subject, while he further considered what she'd said

earlier, he asked, "So you work in the Quartet and all the other Quartet
born do too. How o en do you get to eat in a restaurant like this?"

"Once in a while. We don't actually get paid in money; we get paid in

vouchers. And the vouchers can add up to whatever a restaurant will
charge for food or services or whatever. That's also how we save up
enough resources to buy new ou its at the mall and whatnot. But the
way clothing usually works is that every Quartet-born, receives a new set
of clothing every half year when they're children, and then a er we
become an adult, you get one new set per year unless we pe on for a
new wardrobe based on our body changing or if we get pregnant.
Clothing replacement is possible too, and it’s another way some people
can get new clothes if their bodies change. They just have an ‘accident.’"

"I see," said Max. "So if you work, how much do you get from it? And I'm
sorry if this is too personal."

"Oh no, it's fine. In fact, it's refreshing. This is the first me a student has
ever asked about my life or how the Quartet actually works." She
frowned and then said, "The simplest way to explain it is, at first when
we're learning a job, we get room and board and not much else. But the
be er we get at the job, the more we'll earn. So for instance, with my
job at the weapons store, a er I became an expert on armor and
weaponry, this meant I could make the store more money by doing deals
and trades without having to message the owner. A er that I was able
to start ge ng higher pay and a small commission. So I do be er than
most, I think."

"Really?" said Max. His meal came with a pickle, which reminded him of
Earth and meant the prac ce of pickling stuff like cucumbers must be
universal. He usually didn't eat pickles that were included with
sandwiches, but he absentmindedly munched on his and decided it was
delicious.

"So what if you are Quartet-born and you don't work or you don't have a
job?" asked Max.

Amy looked sad. "This Quartet's pre y lucky right now, because we have
enough jobs for everybody if they want to work. But I've heard it wasn't
that way in the past. And everybody who doesn't work has to live in the
Holdover Bay. The Holdover Bay is basically just a large set of tunnels
with cots and not much else. Everybody living in the Holdover Bay gets
fed three meals a day, but they're really basic, like…gruel sort of stuff.
It'll keep you going but not much else. Some workers are stupid and they
get mixed into drugs, and all of them end up in the Holdover Bay at
some point. Some pull out of it, get be er, some don't."

"What's the rest of the area like? Like for workers?" asked Max.

"It's hard to describe," said Amy. "I want to say it's sort of like a mall, but
I think you'd have to see it for yourself."

Max nodded and waited politely while she finished the rest of her food.
When she was done, she wiped her hands on a napkin and wiggled her
eyebrows at him in a humorous way that tried to hide her nervousness.
"So what do you think? You want to see it?"

Lavinia grumbled in the back of his head, but Max said, "Sure, why not?"
 Chapter 42

Max followed Amy past the counter of the restaurant. The woman
working there smiled at him again. Max reflexively smiled back. Amy led
him into a small hallway where the public restrooms were, but she
stopped in front of a different, unmarked door. The door was solid,
appearing to be made of some sort of metal. Max had seen doors like
this before and assumed they led to a cooler or something similar. As he
watched, Amy touched what looked like a plain metal bulge to one side,
and a second later, the door silently swung open. She waved him inside
and then closed the door behind them.

His eyebrows rose in surprise and interest. There was at least some
similarity between the small portal domina ng one wall of this bare
room and the portal he had gone through back on Earth to reach a
dungeon. He kept this observa on to himself as Amy shyly took his hand
and led him through. Max allowed her to do so, but he stayed vigilant.
One huge advantage of being a Bead Sorcerer was his ability to
immediately deploy offensive or defensive beads by merely flicking a
wrist. Short of actually having his weapon out of its scabbard, there was
no way he could be more prepared for combat at any me as long as he
was wearing beads on his wrists.

Max blinked when he exited with Amy in a new place and no ced
another person, a middle-aged woman, coming out of an iden cal portal
about ten feet away. It looked like there was a row of entry portals on
the other side of the large chamber. Max and Amy had just transi oned
through one of the entry portals.

He watched the central area workers move to exit portals, adjust

something on a pedestal, then walk forward to disappear. The area
reminded him a bit of the dungeon entry room in the Quartet Central
Area he'd been to before, but this space definitely seemed more of an
airport or maybe a modern train sta on. One thing conspicuously
absent was any loca on to pay at. But the way Amy had described the
system, it was all free—just a ma er of course for the dungeon-born to
use this portal transporta on.

Around the perimeter of the large area, Max spo ed a number of

sta onary golems, and when he extended his observa on to the ceiling,
there were dark orbs that he assumed were some sort of surveillance
devices. Interes ng, he thought. In his mind, he checked on his spirits.
Slick was basically the same as always, almost indecipherable. Saliron
didn't care about anything going on in the slightest and instead seemed
to analyze the density of every person's bones within sight. Lavinia
seemed a bit more energe c now than she had been since Max had
contracted the remnant spirit Tom. She hadn't been very talka ve, and
Max had mostly le her alone, figuring they could chat when she was
ready. Current developments were definitely having an effect on her,
though. Max doubted even a er all the me she lived in the Quartet
that she'd ever seen this area, at least not as a living person.

Then again…He thought a ques on to Lavinia. Have you ever actually

seen this place?

No, came the response. This area is not in the Quartet. I've known that it
existed, but I've never actually been able to reach it. Spirits can't use
portals. Remember, I have to ride in your soul space.

"That's right," responded Max.

Amy led Max to what had to be an exit, and once they were through, he
saw what looked like a small shopping center, but with a large open area
between the stores, set up with tables and even stages. It was definitely
some sort of social gathering area. The businesses were far more plain
and u litarian-looking than most of what he'd seen in the Quartet itself.
On the other side of the square, there was another doorway similar to
the one he had just le from with the portal room. Max no ced a man
coming in through the opposite doorway and realized it was likely a set
of portals to the Quartet's farmlands. He was wearing serviceable, dirty
clothing.

There were doorways in the other two corners of the square, and Max
assumed that they were other portal areas leading to manufacturing or
something similar.

Amy led him to a wall of the square where there were several similar
doorways to the ones in the corners, just smaller. They went through the
rightmost one without speaking, and on the other side was another
portal room. Amy walked up to one of this room’s exit portals, fiddled
with the podium, and then led him through yet another portal.

As he looked around at his new surroundings, he could almost believe

that he was in a hotel lobby back on Earth. Amy grinned at his reac on
and led him through a large common room to a bar. She took a seat, and
Max sat next to her. Amy ordered a couple of drinks that Max didn't
recognize, and then finally turned to speak. "So you’ve seen some of it
now. What do you think?"

Max glanced around again. "It's very impressive," he responded

honestly. "And I think the most surprising part is how everybody gets
around."

"You mean the portals?" asked Amy.

"Yes, I can't even imagine how much power this transit system uses. Or
maybe the tech or the magic is so advanced that it barely uses any," he
mused out loud.

Amy chuckled. "I have no idea. It's just always been there, ever since I
was born. All of that has been there for thousands of years, I think. But I
do know that some mes other Quartet-borns speculate about where
they came from." She lowered her voice. "Some of those who dream of
escaping this place fancy themselves portal scholars."

"Oh, really?" asked Max.

The bartender, a middle-aged man with a wide face and a stylish hair
cut, set drinks on the table in front of the two of them. He wore a towel
at his waist. "This is rare. Who's your new friend, Amy?"

Amy smiled and winked. "This is Max Cunningham, the summoner

student."

"Oh, neat," said the bartender, smiling and nodding, un l suddenly he

did a double-take at Max, his eyes widening. "Wait, that Max
Cunningham?"

Now Amy was openly grinning. "Yep, I told you I knew him. You said I
was lying."

The man flashed a look at Max's badge, which almost nobody had even
glanced at or even no ced so far. It made a certain sort of sense to Max.
A er all, if Challenger students rarely came into these Quartet-born
spaces, and Max was not wearing his school uniform, it wasn't likely that
the people here would have a reflexive ac on to check for badges.

"Well, I'll be damned," said the bartender. He shook Max's hand and
walked away.

Amy lightly pa ed Max's arm. "You have no idea how sa sfying that
was," she said.

"Really?" asked Max.

"Yes. You might not be as well-known among Quartet-born as you are in

your academy, at least I'm guessing, but there were a lot of people who
really didn't like Hannibal. And it just so happens that he lived in this
housing area." She gestured around them.

So their housing areas are like hotels, thought Max. Or

maybe...apartments rigged up like hotels. It made sense. It was probably
the most economical way to house all the workers that supported the
Quartet. "Do you all have room service staff?" he asked.
"Yes, but they only come every three days."

"Gotcha," said Max. He absently took a sip of his drink and was
surprised but s ll managed to get down a burning mouthful. "Alcohol?"
he asked.

"Yeah, what were you expec ng? We're at a bar," Amy replied. When
Max gave her a look, she shrugged. "What? It's my day off."

Max thought about it for a second but decided to go with the flow. A er
all, Amy was friendly, and she'd given him an absolute treasure trove of
informa on about how the Quartet actually func oned. He finished his
drink in one go and then asked, "In that first square we went into, a er
we took the portal in, the one with all the shops, I saw a total of four
corner doors. The one directly ahead of us when we came in, I think I
figured that out. That was to farmlands, right? What were the other two
doors?"

"Yes. That was farmlands. One of the others goes to tex les, and the
other one goes to the hospital and the overflow area," Amy replied, her
expression darkening as she took another sip of her drink.

"I see," said Max. “So all the shops in the biggest area are like
restaurants and clothing stores and things like that?”

"Yes," said Amy. "Some of them are there because it's more convenient
for us to shop closer to home, and some have cheaper items than are
sold in the Quartet. A er all, most of the things in the Quartet are either
luxury goods or really high quality for students who are going to be
trus ng their life to their equipment." She amended, "Or they're lifers
with bags of money to throw around and spend on frivolous things."

She took another sip and finished her drink, then gestured for another
round from the bartender. When the new set of drinks came, maybe
par ally because of the alcohol that was hi ng his system, Max bluntly
asked, "So why did you really invite me to hang out like this?"
"What do you mean?" asked Amy quizzically. She looked at him over her
glass as she took a generous sip.

"You know what I mean," Max pressed. "I mean, I really appreciate all of
this. Even though I bought lunch," Amy gave him a wry smile in response
to that. "But I mean, I'm sure you have a million ways to spend your day
off. Why spend it talking to me?"

Amy finished her drink, put it down on the counter, and said, "Don't
make me drink alone, Max. Bo oms up, and I'll answer you honestly, I
promise."

Max raised one eyebrow at her but did as she’d asked. Once the glass
was down, she folded her arms and pursed her lips.

Amy mu ered, "The truth is…maybe I could use a li le more alcohol for
some liquid bravery." She tapped her finger on the counter and glanced
at him out of the corner of her eye. Whatever drinks she'd ordered, they
were really strong. Max hadn't drank in a while either. If he chose to, he
could use his mana body to burn off the effects of the alcohol much
quicker. However, it was kind of nice to have a glow going on a er
everything he'd been through, especially in the company of a pre y
woman. The situa on, or the alcohol, definitely led him to no ce Amy's
beauty in a less cerebral way than he had before.

When he’d first met her she’d had pink streaks in her hair. Now she’d
changed her style. If Max had to describe her simply, he’d say she was a
classic beauty. She was just a li le on the tall side for a woman, and had
generous curves. Her long eyelashes flu ered magically as she talked,
and she had big, sparkling eyes.

A er a minute or two of awkward silence, Max forced a grin and said,

"Okay, that should be enough me for the liquid courage to kick in. Spill
it."

Amy quirked a smile and signaled the bartender to hold off on another

round. "Okay, look, I'll just say it. There are three types of Quartet-born
in general. The first are those that are unhappy and stay unhappy. They
channel that anger, that frustra on in making others’ lives unhappy, too.
The second type or those who either make the best of it, or are always
daydreaming schemes to escape. The third type don't do anything
produc ve and just wait for death. A lot of mes they find their way to
the overflow area." She shook her head. "I'm the second type, an
op mist. I mean, I'm alive, I like myself, I like the life that I've made, I’m
proud of my hard work, and there's no use ge ng upset about things I
can't change. I didn't even know my parents very well. Like most Quartet-
born, I was mostly raised by my teachers.”

“There are schools?" Max asked

She nodded. "Yes. Three of the other living loca ons each have a school
in them, corresponding to different age ranges."

"I see," said Max, and then gestured for her to con nue.

"Anyway, all I know about my parents is that my mom was an Elemental

Shi er and my dad was a Mys c Spear student. For all I know, they're
dead right now. Monster food." She grimaced. "They both le me a
le er before they le , though.”

Amy laughed without humor. “I'm trying to act like I don't care, but I do.
I s ll have the le ers." She screwed her face up in an expression of old
pain before it se led again. "Sorry, that's not what this is about, but
maybe the context helps. Anyway, everyone around my age I pre y
much grew up with. I don't see other Quartet-born as roman cally
viable. And maybe part of that is because I don't like the idea that if I
ever had children with them, maybe the child would grow up to resent
both of us." She held up a finger at Max's look of confusion. "You have
no way of knowing this, but a lot of Quartet-born whose parents were
Quartet-born resent their parents. Especially the nega ve types I
men oned, who o en see our en re existence as a form of slavery.
Maybe a good example would be parents who have health problems
they know they will pass on to children, but have children anyway."

She shook her head. "Don't worry, this is not a bid to escape. I'm not
going to ask you to take me with you. I know that's impossible. Unlike
some others, I'm a realist and I don't have any fantasies of a rich,
powerful Challenger whisking me away to another world and away from
all of this." She waved around. "Wanna know something I didn’t even
realize un l I was twenty? I've never actually seen a real sky before in my
life." She giggled at her own joke that was not a joke, and Max just
con nued to listen. He absently took another sip of his drink.

Liquid courage indeed, he thought.

"But I'm not dead, and you know the real tragedy of all this? Deep
down, I really am a roman c. And, if I'm going to be honest, I'm a li le
selfish too. You see, part of the reason I'm so realis c about not being
whisked away is because I've actually met many of the rich lifers, and
they're not good people. I’d rather gnaw my own arm off than ever have
a roman c rela onship with a person like that. Truth be told, I would
prefer never to see them at all without the protec on of being inside my
shop. Some of them scare me.

“But even nice students are usually not worth ge ng to know. Quartet
students have other things going on. Most of them don't even have
money to go into a shop for more than randomly browsing around un l
they're in their third or fourth year. In this Quartet, the longest me any
student stays here is seven years. That means if I were to meet a man
who's a fourth year, the longest my rela onship could possibly last
would be three years. And I'm not ge ng any younger.”

“How old are you now?" Max asked.

"Twenty-six," said Amy. She gave a self-depreca ng laugh. "And I've

never had a boyfriend." She took a gulp of her drink and hid a burp
behind her hand. "This feels good to talk about, you know? Kind of
cathar c. Probably not really a rac ve, but it is what it is."

"You're not bothering me at all," said Max.

"Well, that's good, I guess. Either way, I pulled the plug on this tub of…
whatever. It’s all going down the drain now. Anyway, the fact is, there
are some things about you that were not must-haves if it came to
mee ng a man, but the fact you have these things is just so ideal it
actually makes me nervous. I mean, you're a first year, I think you're
handsome, you're already developing a reputa on for being powerful
and standing up for yourself and others. The lifers are scared of you, or
at least cau ous of you. You don't treat me like I'm a servant or beneath
you, and as far as I know, you've never treated any quartet worker like
that. You're asser ve in all the ways that many of us wish we could be.
You're kind to your friends, and pa ent," she chuckled and pointed at
him. “The present situa on is a good example of all that. I barely know
you well enough to have invited you out and here I am spilling my guts."

She shook her head. "I am not a stupid person. I may be slow on the
uptake some mes, but I would have to be blind not to no ce that one
of my best chances for any kind of rela onship with a good man, much
less a great man is right now. And it's probably the best I'm ever going to
get."

"Well, that's kind of grim," said Max.

"That's one way of looking at it," she said, "but like I said, I'm a realist,
and more importantly, I'm an op mist. So you say it's grim, but I think
it's beau ful, because instead of recognizing this and le ng it pass, or
not even having a chance, here you are, in my living area, a er both of
us have had some drinks."

Max looked down at his glass and finished the last of it. "That is true,"
he admi ed.

"So," said Amy, her eyes glin ng, "I don't know where this is going to go,
and quite frankly, I'm a li le nervous about all of it. But, even if all I get
out of this is a great experience, and a cool story, that's good enough for
me. Because, trust me, my life is good, and I like who I am, but I am
definitely short on great stories. Whereas you probably have more than
you can count."

Max didn't know how to respond to that. He just looked at Amy,

thinking about everything she had said, and wondering what he would
do in her situa on. There was a prolonged silence un l finally, she
shotgunned the last of her drink, set it down, and said, "I go a say this
before my courage runs out. Okay, buddy, are you going to come
upstairs with me to have a good me? Or am I going to pretend like
none of this ever happened and scream into my pillow out of
embarrassment at an undisclosed later date?"

Max thought about it. As he did, Saliron suddenly murmured in the back
of his mind, "Contractor, I must say, she does have lovely bones."

Oh shit, I forgot the spirits are in here, thought Max. Okay. I want
everybody out. You guys can wander around this area un l I call for you or
I come back.

Wait, Max, are you sure this is a good idea? began Lavinia.

But Max cut her off. If you want to leave one of your spirits to discreetly
watch out for any danger, I will accept that. His mental tone was firm.

Lavinia sent him a strong sense of disapproval, that was to be expected.

She’d never liked Amy.

Max cared for Lavinia. She was quickly becoming…probably even closer
than family to him. But he had no ced that she had a bit of a tendency
to a ribute more importance to people with power. She and Max might
never see eye to eye on that. From Max’s perspec ve, sure Amy
definitely didn't have a lot of power, but what she did have was a lot of
bravery and an excep onal amount of heart. That was a type of power
on its own. He found it endearing.

"You know what? Fuck it, let's go," said Max.

Amy beamed at him, took his hand, and began leading him to a set of
stairs leading to a higher floor.
 Chapter 43

At mar al arts prac ce, while the others were straggling in, Momo
pulled Max aside. She did not beat around the bush. "I can smell
another woman on you," she said so ly. Max didn't feel a response was
necessary and just con nued to listen. "I wish for you to know that my
decision has currently not not changed. You are s ll the only person in
this place whose smell I enjoy. Other poten al mates are inferior.
However, I will admit that a few minutes ago, I was beginning to feel
nega vely un l my spirit conversed with your spirit, and I found out the
woman you are seeing is a Quartet worker."

Momo puffed her lips out in a curious expression. "I believe in you, Max
Cunningham. If there is a way for you to take me to your world, I am
sure you will do so. And if you do, that means I win automa cally. The
en re me we are in this place, I will not age. Instead, I will only grow in
power and wisdom, just like you. And eventually, in seven more years,
you cannot stay here. So when all is said and done, eventually, we will
be figh ng together on another world–unchanged–with years of history
and loyalty between us." She smiled, and whether inten onally or
uninten onally, she showed her teeth. “All I have to do is wait. Or find
another poten al mate that is equal or be er than you. But wai ng
seems more likely. I promise that I will not kill the woman you are
seeing. No need to ask.”

Then she turned around and went back to a target she had been
prac cing throwing her knives at. As she walked, Max reflexively checked
how much mana she had in her body. Since last me, maybe triple.

If you are going to stare at her bu , you should have seen her instead of
that Amy girl, Lavinia mentally groused.
I am not staring at her bu .

Whether you are or you aren’t, if you ever date Momo, I will approve of
it.

That’s not even what’s important right now, Max said. What’s this about
you talking to Momo’s spirits?”

How do you know it was me?

Of course it was you! You need to quit blabbing about my personal life.
Understood?

Fine. But I s ll think you are making a mistake with that Amy girl. Saliron
only cares about bones, but I bet if Sllck could speak to you, you'd hear the
same that I've been saying."

Suddenly a screen popped up in Max's vision, very different from any of

the system screens he'd ever seen before. It read,

[SLICK. SPEAKS.]

Then

[One moment]

[Much Be er. Do not mind Lavinia. She is probably just mad she didn't
get to watch you when you sealed the deal with Amy.]

Max was so surprised by the message, he laughed out loud. Apparently,

Lavinia understood what had happened. She growled. Of all mes, Slick
had to figure it out now? I take it Slick is talking to you now and agreed
with you ,because Slick is a fool, too.

[She’s just salty. Don’t mind her.]

How are you talking now, Slick!?

The li le spirit responded with another text bubble.

[You are much stronger now. That is why I can do this now. S ll takes a
lot of power. So not very o en. Sorry.]

Well, okay, said Max. Even if it’s only once in a while, I am glad that now
I can talk to you be er.

[I am excited too. Also, about me you finally got laid.]

Max laughed again and shook his head. The message screen closed.
Since he figured Slick couldn’t talk anymore for a while, Max sent a
mental poke to Lavinia. She didn't respond, and a er that, Max le her
alone. It was one thing to tease his spirit, but just in case she was
actually upset, he didn't want to push it too far.

Finally, when all of Max's students were gathered in the clearing, and
even Lance was standing by the sidelines to watch, Max got up on a log
as a makeshi podium. He said, "Okay, people, I have an announcement
before we do any classes today. I'm not sure how much I can talk about
all the other stuff going on behind the scenes, but I'm going to need to
fight a really important duel at the end of the semester. This is going to
be super, super important. That means that I'm going to be training with
all of you, not just teaching now, because the end of the semester is not
far away. But I also want some of you to qualify for the Quartet
compe on, and I think you can. Training for all of us is going to a bit
more intense now.

“This is my first year here, though. Gantry has competed before, so I

kind of want to turn the floor over to him on his general thoughts, but
also for any informa on he might have on what to expect.”

Gantry didn't seem too upset about being put on the spot by Max. In
fact, if anything, he looked excited to be talking about the Quartet
compe on. "Max is right. I have par cipated before, although some
others in this class have watched it for at least a year or two, so some of
this probably won't be new informa on. Some of it will. Either way, I'm
just going to kind of get through it, and then you all can decide what's
worth remembering or not."
The white haired man took a deep breath. "The Quartet compe on is
not just duels. By the end of the compe on, when it's just the lead
student of each academy, and I presume at the inter-Quartet level, there
are three challenges. One is a duel, one is a hunt, and one is random. All
of these events have scores, and that is how the winner is chosen.
Supposedly, this system makes it so any Path has the poten al to win.
For instance, if the random event is a group combat, then a really
powerful support class could do so well they would s ll be able to win
the en re thing even a er doing poorly in duels. In reality, that doesn't
usually happen, at least from what I understand. But I will admit that I
have not exactly seen a million of these things."

Max asked, "Based on your perspec ve, especially as someone who is

being groomed as the number one Summoner fighter in the junior
division, what do you think the chances are of some other people here
making the cut to compete at the end of the year?"

"The odds are great. Combat-wise, at least in single combat, everyone

here is at least in the top thirty of the academy in the junior division,
maybe higher. The only thing holding everybody back is the number of
spirits we have, or maybe lack thereof. Some of the senior division
summoners are s ll weak compared to the other paths in the Quartet,
but a few of them have lucked into combina ons of spirits that work
really well."

"What do you mean?" asked Max, genuinely curious.

"Well, there's a seventh-year girl I know of whose spirit lowers the air
temperature around her to ridiculous degrees, but she also has a spirit
that keeps her warm and unaffected by the cold. So if she gets close to
somebody and they're not expec ng it, she can damn near freeze them
before they even know what to do. Of course, that's not going to work
on faster, more powerful, or more skilled fighters, but if she catches
someone by surprise, or the other fighter doesn't have a way to deal
with her, like ranged a acks perhaps, all she has to do is just move
towards you."

"Just press W, huh?" asked Max.

"What was that?" asked Gantry.

"Nothing," said Max. Out of the corner of his eye, he no ced Lance give
him at least a polite smile for his joke.

In the back of Max's mind, Lavinia said, Don't beat yourself up. That
actually wasn't too bad, but I'm s ll irritated with you, so I'm not going to
laugh. The way she mentally delivered the words was s ll underlined
with humor, though.

"Don't worry about it," said Lance. "It's a gaming joke from Earth."

"Oh, okay. None of your humor makes any sense to me," admi ed
Gantry. "So, we all have to work really hard before the tryouts and
placements at the end of the semester. Since most of us are in the group
combat class, and Professor Grave Call is so heavily involved in the
compe on as a whole, I think anybody who wants to try par cipa ng
can probably do so easily. We just need to be ready.

"I think that basically covers it, Max," said Gantry. "But I do have
something more to add."

Max wasn't expec ng this, and he cocked his head in ques on. Gantry
waved at everybody around him and said, "Somebody overheard you
talking to Momo about something kind of important. All of us here are
sworn to secrecy, so don't worry about it, and we're out in the middle of
the woods. If anyone or anything is listening to us, there's not really
much we can do about it. Anyway, we know that Momo asked you to
take her to uh, wherever you go. Some of us need to get home to
protect our world and see our loved ones, but I think others might be
interested in going somewhere else if they can. If you’ll have them. This
is probably way in advance, since you have a lot more me here. And
you're only a first-year so far, but I figured it was worth men oning right
now."

"Really?" asked Max. He no ced a few nods from the surrounding

students. "Okay, I'll keep it in mind. So is there anything else, or is that
it? I'm serious about opening the floor right now. But if there's nothing
else that anybody needs to tell the group about, we're going to start
working out like hell and pushing spars to the absolute limit."

"Oh, there is one more thing," said Gantry.

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure everybody knows this, but the pla orms that duels take
place on for the compe ons are special. Usually, it takes us a while to
resurrect if we die in the Quartet, but the duel pla orms make it happen
in just a couple of minutes. Or seconds."

"So we fight to kill."

"Not necessarily, you can get a yield too," Gantry shrugged.

"Okay, good to know," said Max. He rubbed his chin with one hand and
said, "Today, we're going to start drills with real steel. We're not going to
hurt each other, but I want everybody used to the sensa on and sound
of figh ng with real steel." He glanced around and no ced that Iolas
looked the most nervous, so Max gave him a grin. "It'll be easy, just wait
and see."

***

Later, exhausted, Max finally crawled into bed. Everyone in his class had
worked hard. Even Lance had joined in at one point. Max had decided
when he got home that night that come hell or high water, he was going
to fix the magic circle to help his friends find more spirits to contract
with and grow stronger.

That night, he had finally succeeded. Max had the precious, completed
circle under his pillow. The next me he saw everybody, he was planning
on giving them a secret copy and also enough mana pills to last them
probably a few more years. He'd been busy working on his own mana
body and manufacturing the pills in the process. In fact, he was ge ng
very close to finally reaching a three-star mana body.
Max's muscles hurt, but he had the glow of sa sfac on from a hard
day's work and accomplishing an important goal. However, once his
head hit the pillow and he fell asleep, his rest was interrupted. It was his
first not-a-dream, courtesy of Tom the remnant spirit.
 Chapter 44

Altered consciousness was not Max’s specialty.

At first, Max wasn't sure it was a dream. In fact, he wasn't even aware of
his own iden ty. The scene began to play out, and it was only a er a few
moments that Max caught himself, preven ng himself from being totally
engrossed in what was unfolding before him.

Once he had re-established his own sense of iden ty, accep ng that he
was in a dream and that he couldn't do anything about it, he put two
and two together. It was especially obvious when he began paying closer
a en on to what was actually happening.

A tall, dark-skinned man stood in formal Summoner robes wearing a

badge that declared him a fi h-year. There was a woman standing
before him with a serious expression. She was stocky and pale with
sharp, serious eyes. The woman had been speaking, and Max began
actually paying a en on as she said, "I believe you're the most talented
student the Summoner Academy has ever seen. I do not understand this
desire to leave. Truth be told, you could have le your second year.
Perhaps even your first year. And as you know, even with all the
professor endorsements to leave you've go en, I s ll have the right to
try guiding you. This is my academy, a er all."

At those words, Max started and suddenly no ced that the woman was
wearing accessories he recognized. Whenever this memory was made,
this person must have been the headmaster of the Summoner Academy.
She con nued, "Ancilla, even though it's two more years, staying here
won’t affect when you get back to your world. And in two more years,
you would have had two more years to learn. It's a waste to go back
now."
The tall man, Ancilla, shook his head. "No, headmaster, I have made up
my mind. Besides, I do not think there is much more I can learn in this
Quartet."

Obviously frustrated, the headmaster sighed. "The fact you're limited to

knowledge in this Quartet is your own fault, though. You've refused to
take part in the quartet compe ons. You would have very easily gone
far and you could have asked to study in other Quartets, maybe even
go en an extension on your allocated me."

"Yes, that's right," said Ancilla. "I did not. And, I believe you know why as
well."

The headmaster hissed, "Quiet, no more on that, even in private."

Max no ced at least two spirits behind him and Ancilla now, but he got
the impression there were more. The power he had received from Tom,
the remnant spirit, seemed to be growing. In fact, one of the spirits that
Max could barely make out behind Ancilla was Tom. At this point, the
spirit was recognizable but sort of like a gnome floa ng with a wispy tail.
Max remembered Lavinia saying that Tom's personality and how he
looked might have changed over me.

Not for the first me, Max wondered how old Tom had been. The
ques on was relevant to this memory.

Ancilla chuckled, "I'm about to leave, Headmaster. You're the one who
needs to deal with this mess, with poli cs and backstabbing and
shadowy powers. I want no part of it. And although the tempta on for
more knowledge is great, and I would love to visit the other Quartets, I
want to avoid complica ons."

The headmaster shook her head. "Ancilla, I think you're in denial. You
have seen enough and you know enough, unfortunately, to know that
complica ons are inevitable for those who stand out. Those who stand
out the most will end up bending the knee or being destroyed. It is only
a ma er of me. This is why you should stay. If those like you all meet
the same end anyway, why not grasp all the rewards you can
beforehand?"

"I'll take my chances," said Ancilla.

The headmaster stared at the fi h-year student for a full five seconds.
She turned and said, "So be it. I hope for your sake that you are able to
grow in power quickly enough to save yourself when they come for you.
Because mark my words, with your talent, they will definitely come for
you.”

“I thought you said not to speak of this, even in private.”

The headmaster made a frustrated slash of her hand. “Avoiding Quartet

compe ons only delays the inevitable, and it might have prevented
you from discovering other ways to make yourself stronger…or perhaps
gather allies."

"I will be fine, and I've had the good fortune of contrac ng with five
remnant spirits."

"Five?" The headmaster whirled around in surprise.

"Yes, five.”

“That is quite a bit. Yes, quite a bit. But you are s ll arrogant. I have
many more spirits than you, and far more experience. Granted, I am not
as talented, but I'm sure that you would agree I am the most powerful
Summoner in this quartet. And yet, even I would be terrified to go
against–" She paused and whispered, "you know who."

"Yes, yes," said Ancilla. "I promise you I will remain diligent and vigilant.
But for now, I would like to go back to my world. And you are the one
who facilitates this."

"It is true that this is one of my du es," grumbled the headmaster.

She turned away from Ancilla and moved to a sec on of the wall
indis nguishable from the rest, with led mosaics, scenes of different
archetypes of spirits, all laid out in different ar s c styles. She pushed a
specific sequence of three small les, and a drawer popped out. Max
was able to move closer in the dream and looked into the drawer.

Inside, on a bed of velvet, were two daggers. Both of them hummed

with power. Max could feel his spirit vibrate with it, even in the dream.
The drawer that had held them must have been heavily shielded. Out of
the corner of his eye, he could see Ancilla react as well. He li ed an
eyebrow.

The daggers were not iden cal–one was white and one was black.
Curiously, the white dagger looked very well used, while the black dagger
almost looked like it had never been taken out of the box. Max no ced a
curious design he'd never seen before on the white dagger, before the
headmaster li ed it out and closed the drawer. She held the weapon
loosely in one hand with an air of familiarity.

"Ancilla, do you know why the headmaster is usually the most powerful
Challenger in any Quartet academy?"

Ancilla frowned at the seemingly random ques on. "I thought it was
obvious…so that the leader of the academy would also be respected as
the strongest."

"That's part of it," said the headmaster, "and it's par ally about checks
and balances. Also par ally about ability. But a large part is because it’s
necessary in other ways. You see, this dagger is one of the most closely
held secrets in the en re Quartet system to the unini ated, or at least
the existence of the dagger is. All students know they can be sent back
to their home world early and nobody ques ons how that is, because
everyone turns up in the Quartet painlessly a er receiving a Path. But
going back early from the Quartet requires sacrifice. It requires death.

“In order to head back early, you need to die one more me, and it
needs to be with this dagger. Its default shape is a dagger. Of course, I
might be able to change it to other weapon shapes if I wanted, but my
gi s are not mar al in nature, and this dagger will serve me just fine. For
you see, that is one reason why the Headmaster must be strongest. This
secret is kept very well. And in order for it to stay that way, students
who falter, who change their mind at the last minute, perhaps students
that have never died in the Quartet before and are afraid, they must be
sent back through force if necessary."

“How does everyone who is sent back early not just tell everyone?

“It’s a magic built into the device. Those it is used on will find
themselves forge ng about it, and strongly reluctant to talk about it if
the subject comes up. But that circle of secrecy only maintains itself if
everyone who sees these devices either wields them or is transferred by
one.”

Ancilla eyed the dagger and he chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't run away.
It makes a certain sort of sense to me, although I will admit." His eyes
glinted, and the spirits behind him, including Tom, all s rred restlessly as
they sensed Ancilla's mood. "If you had removed the black dagger from
the box, I think we would be having a different conversa on right now,
though. And perhaps I would be figh ng you with my life on the line as a
result."

The headmaster gave him a flat look. "Again, you are saying things out
loud that are too dangerous to ever be u ered anywhere, much less in
the middle of an academy, in a headmaster's study in one of the
Quartets. Some things you are able to intuit, or think you have intuited,
you should keep to yourself. For your own safety, I will neither confirm
nor deny anything that you have said. However, if you push this… as
much as I like you and as much as I believe you will do amazing things, I
will have no choice but to test your theory. My first loyalty is to this
academy."

Even as a spectator, Max could feel the sudden chill in the air. The
headmaster was being absolutely deadly serious.

"I understand, Headmaster. Do what you have to do now, please. Let's

get this over with. I have li le love for the Quartet, although I must
thank you for everything you've done for me and all of the many talks
we've had, all of the wisdom that you've shared with me–especially over
the last year. You will always be an important teacher to me."

The headmaster's stern expression melted a bit, and her eyes glistened.
"I'm truly going to miss you, Ancilla. I believe you are going to do great
things, truly great things. Remember that everything you do reflects on
the Summoner Academy and will bring glory to those who trained you."

"Oh, definitely," said Ancilla. He smiled warmly. "I want to show the
whole universe how well we are taught in the Quartet."

He coughed, and as he turned, his eyes changed, growing flat. It was

only a split second, but Max saw it. His expression had gone from warm
to predatory in a split second. Max got the feeling Ancilla had an
objec ve, and it was highly unlikely that the Summoner Academy
headmaster knew of it or would approve. She approached one more
step and then let the dagger loosen in the air. It hovered in front of her
face, slowly rising.

She said, "Again, goodbye, Ancilla. It was a pleasure knowing you, and
it's unfortunate that we will likely never see each other again. However,
if we were to meet again, I would be pleased."

The dagger flashed forward, and the en re scene was coated in red. The
vision–or dream– began to fade away, but before it did, Max heard
Tom's voice whisper in his ear, "As the future had it, Ancilla and the
headmaster did see each other again, and upon their mee ng, she was
not pleased to see him at all."

The dream ended, and Max woke from his sweat-stained sheets. He sat
up and ran a hand across his face. "What in the heck was that?"

Most days, he would start his day with some sort of training or exercise,
but this me he got out of bed, hopped in the shower, and dressed in
one of his new ou its before heading straight to the library. He wanted
to research everything he could remember from his dream while it was
s ll fresh in his mind.
There was no way he was going to write notes about his dream in his
tablet unless he used code, and even that might not be wise.
 Chapter 45

Other than the bare minimum of working out and prac cing his mana
exercises, Max spent all his me for the next three days holed up in the
library, searching for informa on on all that he’d seen in Tom’s memory.
It was frustra ngly difficult to find anything about the appropriate era at
all. In fact he likely wouldn't have had any luck if he hadn't already been
given full access to the en re library at the Summoner Academy.

A er running into dozens of dead ends and finding seemingly no

men on of any Summoner who had ever been named Ancilla, much less
an extremely talented one at that, Max remembered the glint in the
man's eyes. On a hunch, he picked up a book that he had actually
flipped through weeks before on notable villains—Reviled Challengers
that had gone down in history as the worst of the worst. Ancilla’s
expression had actually helped Max remember something odd he'd seen
before in that tome.

What if the reason Ancilla wasn’t men oned in history, was because
that was not how he’d been known? What if history had given him a
different name? Max had already gone down this route with notable
heroic Challengers…but what if Ancilla had not died that way?

Sure enough, he found the entry in the book been thinking of. Where
there had once been a name, it had been scratched away. But there
were just enough impressions and hints of ink le for Max to imagine it
had once spelled out "Ancilla." The entry was for Scorn the Ruiner.

Max blinked. He’d read about Scorn the Ruiner before, but there had
never been any men on of the extremely dangerous, murderous man
being a Summoner. In fact, now that he was going through library books
again, cross-referencing other books on villains he'd read, none of the
texts in the library actually men oned Scorn the Ruiner's Path at all. One
heavily implied that he was a necromancer or a dark mage of some kind.
How strange, thought Max.

It took him another half a day of study, ge ng into some extremely old
texts, dusty texts to be absolutely sure. He hadn’t been en rely
convinced that Scorn the Ruiner and Ancilla, the incredibly talented
Summoner, were the same person un l, once again, more by luck, he
happened across a drawing of the man. Max's breath caught. The
drawing was of the man that Max had seen in his dream. It was
definitely him, Max thought. He shook his head. So, I contracted with the
remnant spirit that used to be with Scorn the Ruiner. Wow.

Max dove back into the history books, trying to find as much
informa on on Scorn the Ruiner as he could, but he could locate was
precious li le. In fact, other than the general list of crimes the man had
commi ed—such as arson, murder, a empted genocide–an en re page
of evil deed—there wasn't much specific informa on on him.

I wonder why the fact he was a Summoner was scrubbed from all the
records. Then he remembered what Ancilla had said during the dream,
that he'd contracted mul ple remnant spirits and seemed extremely
confident in his power, perhaps even a bit arrogant. There was also the
shadowy organiza on or people that the ancient headmaster had been
afraid of. She never men oned any names and despite Ancilla's
confidence, even he had seemed wary of the unnamed group as well.

There was a strange pa ern in the books that Max was reading. The
majority of notable villains in the history of the universe had specific
informa on recorded about them. But several were just like Scorn the
Ruiner–almost everything about, especially their Path and powers was
just…missing.

Max ul mately decided not to take down wri en notes. The white and
the black dagger from his dream kept running through his head. He
commi ed everything that he was learning to memory, which was luckily
easier to do a er contrac ng with Tom.
Finally, when Max was done with the library, blinking owlishly into the
a ernoon light as he le , he truly knew he had stumbled upon the
edges of a dangerous secret.

The spirits had warned him. At least he wasn’t surprised.

Max wasn't sure exactly what to do with the informa on he’d collected
yet, but he felt like he had a solid lead on learning more about some of
the mysteries surrounding the Summoner path and even the Quartet
system in general. There was no way that someone as notable and
reviled as Scorn the Ruiner should coincidentally have had their history
scrubbed clean. It’d be like…if someone was trying to research Hitler on
earth and could only find passages amoun ng to, “This was a bad
person.”

There was another mystery around all of this, too. As Max understood
it, for Tom the remnant spirit to have been in this Quartet should mean
that Ancilla, Scorn the Ruiner, must have died here at some point too.

This seemed to be supported by the strange message that Max had

go en at the end of the dream, presumably from Tom. Tom was
obviously not only divulging secrets but trying to tell him a story. At
least that was Max's feeling about the ma er.

In this first memory he'd been shown of Tom's old contractor, the
Quartet, and about to begin his journey. As Max walked a concrete path
in the academy back to his dorms, he mu ered, "This almost feels like
I'm watching the origin story for Darth Vader all over again, or
something. It’s like I just met Anakin."

"What was that?" asked a second-year Summoner Academy student in

surprise. Her eyes darted up. She saw who she was talking to and eeped.

Max quickly put his hands out and reassured her, "Nothing, nothing. I
was just talking to myself, sorry."
But the woman said, "No, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," and walked away so
quickly it could almost have been called a run.

Max remembered his friends telling him about his growing reputa on in
the quartet, and he realized that he truly had been living in a bubble
lately. Other than his group combat class and going to the cafeteria, he
almost never saw or spoke to other students at all. Since he had even
more on his plate now, with researching the mysterious Ancilla on top of
everything else he was doing, it probably wasn't smart to take even
more on. But the desire to see other students and actually be a part of
the academy a bit more suddenly grew, and Max quickened his step back
to his dorm.

The moment he was inside, past the security golem, he detached his
tablet from his wrist and began scrolling through the various classes that
had been available at the beginning of the semester. Lavinia appeared at
his elbow.

"Are you thinking about a ending a class or two now?" she asked.

"Yup," said Max.

"Did you discover anything at the library?"

"Yup," responded Max.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"You could have read the book over my shoulder if you wanted to. And
more importantly, I'm afraid to say it out loud."

Okay, then don't say it out loud, said Lavinia in his mind.

Max sighed and put down the tablet. “Okay, fine. I actually do need to
tell you. It’d be nice if you’d read with me, though." In his mind space,
he said, I discovered that the weird dream I had that wasn't a dream—
that man named Ancilla—it turned out he was actually Scorn the Ruiner.
Lavinia gasped, and suddenly Saliron’s voice echoed through the shared
mind space. That is a name I have not heard in a very long me! the dark
spirit drawled. Oh yes, Scorn the Ruiner created many, many lovely bones,
but also destroyed many. What a shame.

Max frowned. You knew Scorn the Ruiner? The man had definitely lived
long before Max had been Chasa de Milo.

Oh no, not at all. But I knew of him. I was contracted to another at that
me, a er all.

Could you tell me what you know about him? asked Max.

Silurin's voice turned sly. Perhaps if you were to bribe me with some more
delicious bones, I might be tempted to let a few things slip.

Max grunted and stood up. "Why the heck everything in my life a side
quest all the me? You know what? It can wait. Whatever, never mind."
Max stalked to his exercise room to prac ce some sword forms.

In his mind, Saliron spoke more quietly than before, saying, I am not that
picky. Perhaps just a few more bones, just a nibble? Just a nibble-nibble?

"Fine. I'll give you some more bones later," Max responded out loud in
exaspera on.

Saliron crowed, I am victorious! When it comes to bones, I do not accept

no for an answer! The spirit chuckled, Oh yes, one must become a master
of nego a on in addi on to raw power in order to secure the maximum
number of bones.

Max mu ered, "Is this Babadook-looking weirdo delusional?"

Saliron's echoing, creepy laughter in his head was filled with such
confidence Max began to even ques on himself.
 Chapter 46

For days on end, Max threw himself into work, le ng everything he'd
seen and learned simmer in the back of his mind as he focused on
crea ng beats, refining pills, fixing things, and making himself stronger.
He knew from experience that some mes, when given new data, it was
best for him to engage in other ac vi es instead of fixa ng on whatever
it was he was pondering.

He spent more me on the summoning circle with Lavinia. The

breakthroughs they had one a er the other made the spellwork safer
for Lance and, in turn, for all of Max's friends. These breakthroughs
unlocked a new understanding for Lavinia of her own magic formulas.
She was s ll far more advanced than Max, and he suspected that if she
had s ll been alive and had lived long enough to master her summoner
Path, she probably would have organically found her way to a second
Path through her study of sigils and such.

Thoughts of Tom and Scorn the Ruiner kept running through his mind
the en re me he worked on his many projects. Everything he’d learned
about Ancilla, things he’d researched just didn’t add up. The…feeling
underlying Tom’s memory he’d shared had s ll been one of pride. Tom
had been proud of Ancilla.

How could the spirits be proud of what was supposedly an irredeemable

mass murderer?

Finally, a er yet another produc ve day, Max laid down to sleep again.
He’d been a bit on edge very night before bed. Ever since the first not-a-
dream he'd had, he'd half-expected to experience one again. So when he
finally found himself in another strange environment, observing the
summoner Ancilla next to the spirit Tom, he wasn't en rely surprised.
Now that Max immediately knew what was happening, he took stock of
the scene to understand if there had been any changes. There had been.
Now, Max could sense Ancilla's emo ons, and other spirits around him.
Max took that to mean that since he was viewing the world through
Tom's memories, either Tom had probably go en stronger or deepened
his bond with his contracted Summoner.

Ancilla appeared different than before too. Seated behind a large,

expensive-looking desk in a lavish room, he’d definitely seized some sort
of success. His robe was fine, etched with all manner of wards and sigils.
He'd aged, at least somewhat, but now even the space around him
prac cally thrummed with power. Max suspected that Ancilla was s ll
only on the Summoner Path. This new scene definitely cemented the
fact in Max's mind that modern Summoners, even the current
Summoner Academy headmaster, would be like an ant before Ancilla.

The tall, powerful, dark skinned man suddenly looked up, staring at a
corner of the large room where a man dressed in dark green, wearing a
mask, had just materialized. When the strange man no ced Ancilla
glaring at him, he chuckled. "Good thing I don't underes mate you, or it
might have surprised me that you felt me coming."

"Indeed," said Ancilla, his voice full of gravity. "I had been expec ng one
like you for some me."

"Oh really?" said the masked man. He sauntered over to the other side
of Ancilla's desk and helped himself to a chair. "That's interes ng. So did
you know the consequences of ending the besieged status of your
world?"

"Id suspected," grated Ancilla. "While I can't claim to know all the
specifics, I have done my own research into those who disappear from
besieged worlds, as well as those who disappear from worlds that are
saved. It is safe to say there is some sort of culling that takes place. And
once a world is saved, the disappearances get worse before it
disappears."
"Oh my, you are uncommonly sharp. The masked man scratched
underneath an armpit. Max suddenly no ced that on his belt he had
four daggers sheathed. The black dagger and the white dagger were
both familiar to him. But there were two more.

Ancilla no ced them too. "So, you have four transfer blades. One is
purple, and one is crystal clear."

The unknown man shook his head. "No. That one is diamond, and it is
the one I hope you will accept being used on you today."

"Oh really now," said Ancilla, "and where would this be sending me?"

The cloth over the masked man's face twitched, revealing that he was
smiling. "Normally, telling you this informa on would mean I would
need to kill you, but since you are about to be heading there anyway, I
suppose I can let you know. You are about to be going on a one-way trip
to the central tower."

"The central tower?" Ancilla's voice and expression turned cold. "I was
hoping that place was not real. So, the central tower really exists. The
Tower of the Originators."

The masked man leaned back a bit. "Oh my, you truly have been digging
up secrets, haven't you? Such a busy li le bee. Well, you can't complain
about what happens then. If yours had been like all the other greedy
worlds, leaving the portals open, perhaps you would have been
collected later, or maybe not even at all. But since you've ended this
farm, the farmers need to take what they can get."

Ancilla's eyes gli ered. "Your masters must have great faith in you to
have sent you here alone."

The masked man chuckled. "Of course, I have been doing this a long me
a er all. Some I meet bluster, some try to bite, but it all ends the same
way. You have two choices now. Let me end you here with this dagger,
send you on your way. If you resist, you will s ll end up going, but I will
also trigger the destruc on of one of your world's most cherished ci es. I
believe it is called Hendel? It is home to millions of souls, correct? So are
you going to come quietly, or do we need to do this the hard way?"

The intruder drew the clear dagger and stood up, and Ancilla stood as
well. The Summoner’s face hardened. “My life, ignoring what happens to
me, I would s ll be giving you my consent to steal people from this
world. Will you ask permission before you take others? To respect their
wishes?”

“No. They will get the same choices you are ge ng now. None.” The
masked man smiled beneath his mask again.

“Then I believe we do this the hard way."

"So be it."

There was a violent flurry of mo on. The memory suddenly ended. Just
as quickly, Max was in a new memory.

This me, Ancilla looked like he'd aged a bit more. He was standing on a
field near a large portal. A large, muscular man ran up to him. The
unfamiliar man was burs ng with power, and Max realized that Ancilla
was stronger than last me too. The two men gazed in the distance at
what looked like a dark fortress.

"Ancilla, I can't be sure, but I think this is where we will get answers.”

“It's been so long," said the Summoner, "and we've come so far."

"That's true," said the big man. He paused. "Are you sure you want to go
all the way to the end? You might not like the answers that you find."

Ancilla frowned. "It is no longer an op on to back away, not a er the

enemy has killed so many innocents, so many civilians. It’s childish as
well, like a temper tantrum. They have been breaking their toys. For all
we know, they began the monster incursions on every world in the first
place. If we were to turn back now, a er merely conquering a few of
their own worlds, what would my legacy be? The enemy already calls me
by a different name."

"Yes, I know," said the big man, "Scorn the Ruiner."

Ancilla smiled. "It is true that I ruined many of their plans, not least of
which when I blocked my world from them, preven ng easy trespassing
any longer. Honestly, using pyramids was a stroke of genius. We must go
to as many unaffected worlds as we can and tell them the truth, and tell
them how to make pyramid defenses," said Ancilla.

"What if the rumors are true, though?" asked the big man, and Ancilla's
head snapped around.

"Gerald, are you a doubter as well?"

"Not at all," said the big man, Gerald. "I just…do believe there could be
truth in the fact that stopping the process en rely could destroy the
universe. However," his face grew grim, "I had family in one of the ci es
that was destroyed. If we end the universe, so be it. The state of affairs
is already a meat grinder. Besides, everything must die at some point."

Ancilla stared at the man for a long couple seconds before slowly
nodding. "I fear that you may be right, my friend, but as I've said, I don't
know if I can stop anymore on this path that we've chosen."

"Well then, how about we go take this city, get some more informa on,
and go from there?" said Gerald.

"My friend, you have a talent for making the complicated

uncomplicated. Yes, let us go."

They moved, both of them traveling far faster than either looked like
they physically could, and soon arrived at a giant army. In the center of
the army, a flag was raised; Max recognized it. It was called the Mark of
Opposi on, the symbol that those who wished to destroy the universe
would proudly fly, although Max had already begun to ques on the
accuracy of some of what he'd been reading in books.
A sudden darkness in the dream turned into an opulently decorated
chamber. Ancilla stood in the middle of the room. He held a silver
dagger in his hand.

"Don't do this, Ancilla," said the big man from the previous vision.
"Please don't do this, you know it's a trap."

"Of course it's a trap," said Ancilla with a smile. "But, it is also a fact that
the staff in every Quartet are vulnerable. If I destroy them, they die."

"But maybe there's something else we can do," said a woman. She was
tall and stately, with her hair done up in a large bun. She looked at
Ancilla with admira on and love. "Please, there has to be another way."

"There is not, my heart," said Ancilla sadly, "and you know this too. Our
protec ons do not work anymore, and I can no longer a ack when I
must defend. What's worse, defense is already all but impossible when
we never know when they will strike or how. And what's worse, we face
the possibility that they can somehow cause our world to be besieged
by monsters again. I was willing to sacrifice the en re universe for our
cause, but I will not sacrifice all of our world's people on their own."

The woman silently cried but nodded her head. Other people around
the room were crying as well.

Gerard shook his head. “But…what about the tower? Isn’t that what
they’ve wanted this en re me? You might even survive! You might even
win!”

“If that was all they had been asking, we would not be here, friend. I
would not have fought a thousand ba les on a hundred worlds. Like
with every other ma er in the universe, they are not content, not fair,
not respec ul. There is always overreach. I said a long me ago that if it
were just my life, I would have gone quietly. But the way a single
decision of mine would have led to the slavery of an en re world, and
even more worlds later? That I could not do. And over the many years,
the people have backed me on this.”
“That’s true,” said the big man. “I hate this. Please consider taking me
with you?”

“No. And you know why that is not possible.” Ancilla smiled sadly and
said, "Goodbye, my friends. I am sure we will meet again." Then, he
gripped the silver dagger in a reverse grip and plunged it directly into his
heart. At the same me, his spirits did something that Max couldn’t
quite catch. Ancilla also channeled some sort of magic power that Max
was not familiar with. He assumed that all the extra measures were to
bypass whatever life-saving systems or natural toughness Ancilla had
cul vated over his years of conquest and personal growth.

The scene changed. He was suddenly in the Quartet.

Max recognized the forest, which was incredibly odd since this scene
happened so long ago, yet everything looked exactly the same. Ancilla
was in one of the respawn circles in the Quartet, but in his own body. He
was wearing the clothing he’d had on before, too.

A spinning portal suddenly resolved near him. With a grim smile, a man
stepped through before the portal widening, growing. On the other side
was a semicircle of fi y or so powerful Champions, all glaring a Ancilla.
They all stepped through and the portal winked out.

"This is fla ering," said Ancilla. "You brought twice as many as I thought

you would."

The woman in the center of the semicircle stepped forward. "You are
sentenced to death, Ancilla," she said, "unless you go immediately to
the tower and throw yourself on the Originators’ mercy.

“Death or servitude, is it?" Ancilla threw his head back and laughed.
"What li le dogs you are. How about you tell your masters to give me a
purple device, and maybe if I can figure out how to get to the tower on
my own? I will, out of curiosity's sake, if nothing else. But I am not le ng
any of you use a tampered device."
There were flickers in the expressions around the semicircle. Ancilla
laughed again. "Yes, I know about your dirty li le tricks. I know you hate
me, and I know that there is no possible way I would get a fair chance at
the tower. Especially not now. Even though I fundamentally disagree
with the tower's existence, I might have s ll been willing to try it, if not
for your meddling and your control. You brought this on yourself, both
with your dishonesty and with your cowardly a acks on my world."

A younger woman stepped forward from one side of the semicircle, and
with a start, Max realized he recognized her. Bojana Gala Tassy A’Mind,
the current headmaster of the Elemental Shi er academy. Ancilla didn’t
recognize her as anyone important, or at least his expression didn’t
move. She shouted, "There's no point in further talking to this criminal.
Let's get this over with!"

Ancilla responded, "Are you going first?" He arched an eyebrow, and

Bjoana snarled at him. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the other side
of the semicircle shot at Ancilla, who just as suddenly was not standing
where he had been before. In the blink of an eye, the fight began, and
Max only caught a handful of flashes of the ensuing madness before the
dream ended for good.

As everything went to black, he heard Tom's voice in his head again. "I
loved Ancilla. He was a great man who was forced to do terrible things.
And those others who did horrible things were never held accountable.
Please honor my master's memory by remembering him. And also, there
is one last thing I must tell you, but cannot tell you directly, due to a geas.
The only clue I can give you is that remnants of spirits are not the only
remnants that modern Summoners are kept from ever mee ng or even
knowing exist."

With that, the dream ended completely. Max woke up slowly. He sat up,
ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed. The power that the remnant
spirit Tom had granted him was s ll there, but he couldn't feel any
lingering traces of the remnant himself. He intui vely knew there would
be no more memory dreams. Out loud, Max said, "Goodbye, Tom. I will
remember your master, and I will also remember you."
 Chapter 47

Max had his head propped up on one elbow as he talked to Amy, both
of them lying in his bed. But for what felt like the third me that night,
he was zoning out, his mind elsewhere. A lot had happened in just a few
days. He had learned a plethora of new things as well. So many things
he’d discovered were important or unexpected enough, it was hard to
wrap his mind around all the implica ons.

His past life, when he'd been Chassa de Milo, had been difficult. The
ba le with the Jeela had been difficult and awful at mes, but at least
he'd always known who the enemy was. He hadn't been confused about
it. Sure, he’d been wrong about some of the calls he’d made in his past
life, but he hadn't been ac vely confused like now. At this point, he
wasn’t even sure who the enemy was, at least past the monsters
a acking his world. They were simple. Monsters = bad.

The more he learned about the universe, the more Max began to doubt
that the Quartets system itself was really part of the good guys, or at
least not being run by the good guys, but he wasn't quite sure they were
the bad guys either.

The fact was, without the Quartet system, it was likely that many more
besieged worlds would be destroyed. Countless billions of lives would
be lost. That definitely seemed be er than the alterna ve.

But he couldn't figure out where the angels that granted Paths in the
halfway place figured into all of this. Who did they work for? Didn't
angels usually work for gods? But the “angel” he'd met had called herself
a messenger. But weren’t angels supposed to call themselves
messengers too? Yet by her own admission, the way the angel had
appeared was not her true appearance. It had been like…a costume
worn to be easier to interact with people from Earth.

For the first me since he'd been back, Max was actually thinking about
how it was likely that the angels who met all the Challengers from his
world would likely have met the Challengers from some new planet that
was being destroyed a erwards. How many of them were there? He had
no way of knowing.

In fact, with as many Quartets as he suspected existed, there might even

be more than one world at a me that was being freshly a acked at any
given moment. What a shi y system this is, he thought.

Not for the first, and likely not for the last me, he wondered if the
en re way the universe worked had been set up this way, or if the
Quartet system had been created in response to something awful that
just spontaneously happened. No ma er how much he dug and tried to
learn about it, he couldn't even get any clues to how the universe
actually func oned.

Amy suddenly stopped talking and frowned. "You're not listening again,
are you?"

Max smiled and tried to convey to her how mentally red he was with
his eyes. "I'm really sorry. I was truly listening, I promise. There has just
been a lot going on lately."

"You mean with school?" she asked. "Because if it's a problem seeing
you, we can go a few days without—"

Max cut her off. "No, seeing you is not the problem. I have just enough
free me that a date here and there or having you over to my room isn't
the end of the world. No, it's just—" He paused, trying to think of how
to explain it. "I've learned a lot of uncomfortable things lately about
some things—and more importantly, I feel like I need to understand
everything that I've learned now, or I won't be able to learn anything
new on top of that. That probably doesn't make any sense, but..."
Amy shook her head. "No, I think that makes some sort of sense. And
based on how you're talking about it, I'm assuming that it's not
something you can share with me." She gave him a hopeful smile, and
Max knew she was invi ng him to open up in a very though ul way.

He said, "That’s right. I'm sorry, it's something you would need a really
weird background to understand at all."

"Like being another student?"

"As a start, yeah," said Max.

Amy leaned over and lightly tapped him on the forehead with a knuckle.
"Well, then why don't you talk to one of your friends, buddy?"

"One of my friends?" Max asked.

"Yes, nobody is an island. Some mes, it helps to talk to people we trust

about things. You said that you need somebody who has a certain kind
of background to help you with your problem, right? Or at least to
understand it? It's too bad that I don't have that background, but I
understand. If I had a really kno ed problem with the store, you
probably wouldn't be the first person I'd ask for advice, despite the fact
that I really do love talking to you." She gave him a cute smile and
winked.

Max couldn’t help laughing. Amy con nued, "So maybe think about who
might understand your problem, who can also help shoulder the
burden, and who would give good advice. Also, obviously, who you
trust. When you run the people you know through that filter, you can
usually figure out who you should probably be talking to about any
given problem, especially if it's not a personal problem and has more to
do with work."

Amy's simple explana on hit Max between the eyes like a hammer. She
was absolutely right. The thought she was conveying wasn't exactly
something Max didn't know himself, but he'd never boiled it down like
that before. What she’d said about people needing each other was
absolutely true too.

Of course, he’d tried to confide in his spirits about all of his dreams and
visions. However, Slick hadn't even paid a en on. Saliron didn't care,
and Lavinia was s ll thinking about it. Max got the impression that
Lavinia was just as overwhelmed about all this new informa on as he
was. This was understandable since she'd spent hundreds of years in a
summoner academy and hadn't known a single bit of the story that Max
had told her. What’s more, Ancilla’s life and death had been directly ed
to Tom, one of her oldest spirit friends, no less.

He suspected that part of her dismay about that was how she really
hadn’t managed to get many secrets out of him at all when he’d been
si ng on a mountain of them.

Max thought about the other Summoners he was friends with, trying to
think of who he could talk to. Of course, security was an issue as well,
but he'd already thought of a way around that before. A er all, if he was
discussing something sensi ve with another Summoner, they could have
spirits as well. Spirits could talk.

In the Summoner Academy, Max thought of Lance first, but almost just
as quickly dismissed that op on. Lance was a great guy, and from
everything Max had seen, he was trustworthy too. The problem was, he
wore his heart on his sleeve. Asking Lance to keep a huge secret might
not be wise. Addi onally, although Lance may be a great warrior in the
future, he was not very talented. Something about the visions Max had
seen made him think that for someone to give him guidance or
perspec ve, they have to be on the same general warrior’s journey as
Max. Sharing secrets with Lance before he’d even finally decided what
kind of Challenger he was didn’t seem right.

Gantry was an op on.

The problem was Max s ll didn't really know Gantry that well. Even
though he was gregarious and outgoing, Gantry was very ght-lipped
about his life before coming to the Quartet and seemed to keep at least
some of his own secrets, not to men on his own counsel. That didn't
mean Max didn't trust him, but it did mean he didn't trust him with
secrets that could theore cally get everybody killed or who knew what
else.

Max even thought about maybe confiding in Professor Grave Call. The
professor was powerful, wise, had lived a long me, and even had the
advantage of being part of the establishment. But he was part of the
system. He was even in the same fac on of the Summoner headmaster.

There was no way Max was going to trust Quartet staff, especially not
with something as explosive as this. And that was before seeing a
memory of a current Quartet headmaster actually being in one of the
memories!

To Mong Hao Hong’s credit, the man hadn't tried to hide that he had his
own agenda. Max respected that, which was why he'd work with the
man in the first place. But they were not friends, and damn sure not
confidants.

His thoughts roamed to the other students he had the best rela onships
with. One stood out, the person he'd been spending most of his me
with in the academy, and the person who probably understood him the
most. It's go a be Momo, he thought.

Once he came to that realiza on and made a decision to share some

things with Momo, a good chunk of his stress seemed to melt away like
ice. Amy no ced his improved mood immediately and said, "Did that
help?"

"Yeah, I think it really did."

She gave him a dimpled grin and said, "Well, now that you feel be er,
we don't have that much me le . How about we make the most of it?"

"Good idea," Max said. He tackled her and gave her a kiss. She squeaked
in fake surprise.
***

Max waved goodbye to Amy as she walked to the closest shop. Once
inside she’d take a portal to return to the Quartet born quarters. Max
stayed behind the Summoner academy gate and watched her un l she
disappeared into the doorway. Although the walk from gate to the
business was not en rely safe, Max and Amy both knew that as long as
she was in sight of all the golems guarding the Summoner Academy
grounds as well as the gate guards, she probably wasn't in much danger.

It was s ll polite for Max to watch when he could, though.

They had just finished their rendezvous with the help of a tablet that
Max had bought for her. Now she was one of a very small number of
Quartet born with her own tablet. This meant they could directly
message each other, not just when she was at work. And the tablet had
only cost him thirty mana units. Although this number was a lot for a
Challenger, near the total amount of mana units that a student in the
Quartet would make just by studying for their full seven years, it was an
astonishing amount of money for a Quartet born.

Amy had been shy about receiving the tablet for a while but had finally
go en over it a er it had proven to be so helpful in her life and for their
rela onship. What was even be er was how the tablets were
individually keyed for each person, so she didn't even need to worry
about anyone stealing it from her.

Max turned from the gate, ignoring one of the middle-aged gate guards.
The man tried to get Max's a en on by giving him a thumbs up. Max
pretended not to see it and began walking back to the academy. With
his plan to talk to Momo in mind, he almost directly went to find her,
but remembered her keen sense of smell and decided not to. Even
though Momo wasn't ac ng jealous about his rela onship with Amy,
Max decided that since he liked and respected her, it would be
considerate to take a thorough shower first.

A er ge ng out of the shower, Max messaged Momo on his tablet,

asking where she was and if she had me for a one-on-one spar and
some throwing knife prac ce in the woods. At the same me, Max also
instructed Lavinia to find Momo and tell her spirits that he wanted to
have a secure conversa on with her. The spar would be their cover.

Even though Momo responded quickly, saying that she would like to
spar, Max waited for a few more moments. A minute later Momo added
emo cons made of Quartet language characters that Max had taught
Lavinia before. This was a code. It meant she'd go en the message and
was s ll willing to have a secure chat. He told her to meet him in about
half an hour where they usually prac ced. Then he set down his tablet
to get dressed and head there.

***

Once Max met up with Momo, they didn't talk out loud much. She
communicated with her eyes that she wanted to speak through their
spirits right way. Suddenly, Max saw a message from Slick. It said:

I will send you messages this way. It actually takes me much less energy
to relay messages like this than send you my own thoughts. That’s some
bullshit, right?

Sorry, Slick, Max sent.

It’s okay. Anyway, everything will be from Momo from here on. Momo:
This is surprisingly easy. One of my spirits is able to communicate with
me without talking, even mentally."

Max sent back, How does that work?

Momo sent, Smells. Well, not en rely scent. It mixes smells into
language in a way that would basically encode it from the perspec ve of
someone who is only reading text or listening to sounds.

Max sent, Wow, your sense of smell is really that good?

Yes, she replied. Her nostrils flared, and Max got the dis nct impression
that despite his shower, she could tell that he'd just seen Amy. As every
other me, she didn't say anything about it. It felt a li le awkward, but
only for a few seconds. A er all, Max truly considered Momo a close
friend at this point.

Well, this makes things much easier, he sent.

I agree.

The two of them fetched a couple of handmade prac ce weapons from

where they were usually stored then began to go through the mo ons
of prac ce and sparring. During this me, Max filled Momo in with
everything that had happened recently. He le very li le out. One thing
he omi ed was the fact that he was a reincarnated person. In Momo's
case, she probably wouldn't understand the significance of his iden ty
in his past life anyway, but he tried to do his best to give her a good
overview of everything else.

Once he was done, Momo covered up how surprised and shaken she
was by ac ng like she needed a break from prac ce. She took a sip of
water from a bo le. Then she sent back,

You were not joking that you needed to talk to somebody about this.
Am I the only one you've told?

Other than my spirits, you are the only one who knows, said Max.

Out loud, Momo said, "You should prac ce throwing knives, Max. You're
pre y good, but probably s ll need to do more o en. It’s one of those
things that might save your life one day, but only if you get it right."

"Yeah, yeah," said Max. "That's easy for you to say. You have a spirit
that'll help you."

She shook her head. "The spirit helps, yes, but if I didn't prac ce, the
effec veness would s ll be limited."

They moved over to a set of log round targets that Max and his students
had set up before. The two of them began throwing bo shuriken into the
stumps. They didn't face each other, but their conversa on con nued.

Momo said,

I think you need to have an escape plan.

What do you mean? asked Max.

What I mean is, if it ever gets out that you know what you know, or
darkness-forbid, you find out even more secrets of the Quartet, they
might come for you. …Whoever “they” are. A er all, this legendary
historical figure you told me about, Ancilla, was not only killed, almost
all the traces of his life were wiped away. What remained of his memory
has been tainted and colored in such a way that he will always be seen
as a villain. But what is even more worrying is how this was all done
despite the fact you said he waged war on mul ple worlds.

Max missed his throw, and the knife bounced off the stump directly back
at him. He li ed a foot, and the steel passed harmlessly beneath him.

"Damn it," he said out loud.

"No," Momo replied, "you need to focus. Throwing knives and you don't
respect the consequences."

"Noted," said Max.

Using spirit relay messaging, he sent, So, an exit plan, huh?

Momo nodded and covered the gesture with another quick throw, ac ng
like she'd been lining it up.

Yes. Not only that, I have a request. Actually, two.

What's that?

First, I am serious that I would like you to take me to your world. Since
we know that there are powers out there that may be benevolent–but
probably are not, it would make me feel be er if you had discovered a
way that I can fight with my friends in the future. Or just with you. That
would be acceptable as well.

Several things occurred to me that have probably also occurred to you.

Students that wait the full seven years are automa cally processed back
into their original bodies by the Quartet system. But if what you saw is
true, that a…daggers, a blade of some kind effec vely killing our current
body is what severs our connec on to the quartet early, it is good that
you know where one is.

In the headmaster’s office, or residence?

Yes. Do you remember the combina on to open the secret drawer?

I believe so.

Good. This is my second request. I think that if something terrible were

to happen, I would like you to kill me with that dagger so that I can
reawaken in my real body. I do not want to be stranded in the Quartet if
a hidden enemy locks it down and limit our freedom, or worse. And by
worse, I mean trying to come a er you by using your friends as leverage.
The man in your vision held an en re city hostage. Pu ng nameless
Challenger trainee Momo in danger would be nothing.

Max hadn't considered that. He told Momo as much, and she nodded
again as she threw another knife, hi ng dead center of the target she'd
been aiming at over forty feet away. Of course, for her, this was nothing
special.

She said, You are very strange in some ways, Max Cunningham.
Some mes I can see a ruthless warrior in you. But other mes, I see a
hopeless idealist. It is like you have a dual nature. It seems when both
sides are in alignment that you are able to be at your best.

What do you mean by that?

She waved around her at where Max's students had been prac cing for
months now. Our li le group is an example of that. Once you decided to
start teaching us, it happened quickly. And it is not obvious, but also not
hard to figure out that your reasons for doing so are probably a mixture
of selfish and selfless.

Max frowned. That seems kind of obvious to me. Isn't the best deals or
the best social interac ons ones where everybody is ge ng something out
of it?

She recalled her thrown knives and started her prac ce all over again.

Perhaps for you, it is obvious, perhaps even for some others in your
world, but I would bet that there are plenty of others from your world
who do not share the same worldview that you do. In my experience,
many mes, those who have a soul like a sharp blade see every problem
as an enemy that needs to be cut. But a er observing you closely, you
have much more complexity than that. You can cut with the quickness of
a predator or heal with the skill of a surgeon. A skillfully wielded blade
does not need only destroy. Your friend Lance, for instance, has
benefited greatly merely by knowing you.

Max couldn't exactly deny that. He changed the subject. Back to the topic
at hand. So you are saying that if and when the me comes I may need to
make some difficult decisions, huh?

That is exactly what I am saying. The burden of this knowledge is heavy

and brings a great deal of responsibility. I gave you permission to tell
me, but I can already feel strain, and I do not even have the power or
capability that you do. I suspect that you should probably spend a great
deal of me crea ng those con ngency plans that we just discussed.

I think you're probably right, said Max. Thanks, Momo. So, do you regret
le ng me tell you about all this now?

She threw a knife badly on purpose. Max knew it was deliberate because
he'd seen her make the exact same throw a thousand mes before
perfectly. The bad throw gave her the excuse to shake her head.
No. I am glad you told me. But also, if the worst does happen, I will not
be confused and may be able to help both you and all of our friends
escape the inevitable fallout with our lives. But I have long suspected
there was more going on out in the universe. The fact there are likely
fates worse than death is not a surprising idea, but s ll a terrifying one.

You really think it would be that bad if push came to shove, huh?

Based on everything you've told me, absolutely yes.

With that, the two ended their secret conversa on, and Max threw
knives for a while longer, deep in thought. A er they were done, Momo
said, "I need to eat. If you would not mind, I would prefer your company
to going alone. A erwards, perhaps we can go to the library. There are
some things I would like to research.”

“Me too,” Said Max. “It sounds like a plan to me.”

 Chapter 48

The next day, Max got up and began his rou ne as usual, but he could
already tell that something was different. Usually, Lavinia would greet
him shortly a er he came out of his bedroom. But so far, she hadn't said
a single word to him.

It wasn't un l Max was snacking on a muffin at a table in his bedroom,

with the door open signifying that his spirits could interact with him in
his room if they wanted, that she finally greeted him. The former
Summoner manifested wearing the original ou it Max had met her in.
"Good morning," she said. Sure enough, there was something strange in
her tone.

"Good morning. He turned a page of the text he was reading on his

tablet. Conversa onally, he said, "You know, something has occurred to
me that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Supposedly, a er we leave the
Quartet, we bring our tablet with us. Except, when we are sent back to
our own world, it is in a different body. We have to e weapons or
armor to our souls in order for those items to follow us back to our
world.

“So knowing all of that, that must mean that our tablet is also keyed to
our soul. And if our tablet is keyed to our soul, and pairing the tablet
was a rela vely simple thing to do, it begs the ques on why it takes
twenty-five mana units and a specialist in order to do the same thing for
a sword." He turned the page. “It also begs the ques on why the tablet,
and the pairing, is free.”

"I suppose that is true," said Lavinia hesitantly. "Is there a reason you
are studying this?"

"Several," said Max, but he didn't explain any further.

The truth was, as convenient as the tablets were, he didn't understand
why the Quartet would give them away for free to students when they
were so precious. Not only that, Challengers took them back to their
own world. Max remembered the story from Earth of the Trojan horse,
and he'd begun to look at his tablet with a certain amount of suspicion.
He wouldn’t need to be a die hard conspiracy theorist to wonder if
tablets were used as tracking devices of sorts. The really disturbing
implica on was that if so, somebody might know he had already
returned to Earth.

Challengers from a non-technologically advanced world might never

have had some of these ques ons.

Lavinia seemed to understand where his thoughts were going. "I'd never
even considered it. Then again, I was never planning on going back to
Albion, so there is that."

"There is that," Max agreed.

Lavinia phased into the visible light spectrum a bit stronger, her outline
becoming clear as she stood next to Max. "There's something I need to
talk to you about."

"I figured," said Max. He took a bite of his muffin and said, "I'm
listening."

She sighed. "I think I want to just get this over with and show you my
biggest secret."

Max held back a look of surprise on his face. "You're intangible, Lavinia,
and I kind of already have a girlfriend. I'm sorry, but your love will be
unrequited."

The ghost girl frowned and crossed her arms. "I'm being serious,
asshole."

Max didn't even allow himself a chuckle, although he felt a flash of

amusement. Now he could tell how serious his friend was. He
immediately fixed his posture and met Lavinia's eyes with sincerity.
"Sorry about that. I didn't know you were going zero to sixty
immediately."

"That’s okay. I know it’s just how you are," she said. Then she pointed at
the empty chair opposite from Max and asked, "Can I sit down?"

Max nodded wordlessly, and as always, he wondered why she bothered

going through the mo ons when si ng or standing was all the same for
her. Perhaps it was calming emo onally.

She said, "I just went to check recently because I usually don't go back
there, but my original workshop, the one I used before I became like
this, has s ll been untouched since the last day I le it."

Max nodded slowly. "I had suspected, but it's s ll pre y incredible to
actually hear it from you."

"I hid it well," Lavinia paused and then said, "As you may have figured
out, although I consider myself an officer class spirit, when I was a
Summoner, all of my spirits were prac cally iden cal and they were all
sergeant class. You may have wondered why they were all the same. The
truth is, I used my circle a er lucking into the first sergeant spirit. A er
that, I thought very strongly about the type of spirit I needed and put
some power into the calling. I believe you’ve tried something similar
before, but it might be useful to lean into it. There is a lot power in a
Summoner’s will.”

Max frowned though ully and Lavinia shook her head. "There is a point
to me talking about this. I needed my spirits to help me get to and from
my workshop. Even though I was a shut-in, I s ll needed to go to the
cafeteria, and I needed to get into and out of my lab. You've already
seen how my spirits can act as ropes. I couldn't climb them as adeptly as
you, but I could s ll make do with what I had. Anyway, I would like to
know if you are up to go…see my secret.”

“Well, when do you want to go?”

“ I could go whenever. Other than the usual, I don't have anything to do
un l this a ernoon."

"I don’t know how long it will take. We should probably go tonight," said
Lavinia firmly. "That's when I always went, too."

"Okay, slight change of plans for my day now," said Max. "We will go out
tonight a er it's dark, and then you'll show me your old lab."

"Can't wait," Lavinia said, her tone hollow.

***

Max crouched on the roo op of Summoner academy dormitory at night,

mentally communica ng with Lavinia. You know, I forgot something, he
said.

What? asked Lavinia. She was unusually on edge.

If I'm being followed by a reconnaissance spirit, if we go to visit your old

workshop, isn't the headmaster or maybe somebody else going to know
about it?

Her voice sounded smug as she answered, Nope, because I put my

workshop where I put it for a reason. I found a torn leaf of a book inside
another book hundreds of years ago. That's how I discovered this place. It
has powerful magic to deter sight and also confuse anybody watching. The
effect cuts in before we get there. You'll see.

Okay, said Max. He shrugged, knowing that Lavinia would s ll see the
gesture in the dark. Did you used to live in this dorm? asked Max.

Yes, I got myself transferred here eventually so it would be more

convenient to make it to my lab and work at night. Since I kept ge ng
killed anyway, even though I was s ll technically enrolled in classes,
everyone knew that I was dying over and over again. Eventually just
stopped going to classes and no one even no ced.
Max didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded. Then,
Lavinia's spirits created a rope down from the roof, not glowing, exactly
how Lavinia had used them when she'd been alive. Max rappelled down
into a small garden. Across from the garden was another building, which
from this angle seemed fairly unassuming, but was one of the central
administra on buildings in the Summoner Academy.

Nothing here has changed in hundreds of years. The ghost girl’s mental
voice was subdued.

Lavinia guided him to a hedge near the administra on building and then
instructed him to crawl forward on his hands and knees. There was
probably ten feet of bushes, but Max managed to reach the wall. Then,
following Lavinia's careful orders, he pushed a series of bricks un l a
small por on of the wall moved in and then slid aside. At the same me
this was happening, a small light above the hole lit up and around it a
circle of runes glowed. In Max's mind, Lavinia said, To anybody watching
you now, you just fell asleep and took a nap. If they come to find you, they
will believe that you le . This is powerful magic. I don't even know what
Path put it in place.

Max wanted to ask her what this hole led to, but he knew she'd just
respond to wait and see, so he didn't give her the sa sfac on. Instead,
he crawled forward un l he found himself in a small hallway that he
could stand in. Behind him, the doorway in the brick slid back again,
sealing the entrance. Lights overhead came to life a er the entrance was
sealed, and Max was astonished that he couldn't see a trace of dust
anywhere.

There must be housekeeping spirits or something here, Max sent to

Lavinia.

Yes, I never saw them before, but now I can feel them around us. They're
completely neutral, but they are definitely there, she replied.

Max nodded absently and walked forward down the short hallway that
curved downwards almost like a cellar. He wound up before a door made
of metal. Once again, Lavinia instructed him to touch a pa ern on the
wall and once it was done, the door soundlessly swung open. Max
walked inside and shut the door behind him, slowly looking around
himself as a mix of emo ons compelled him forward to get a be er view
of the en re room.

Against one wall was a bank of what looked like organic machinery.
There were lights embedded in it, and even though components of it
were made of metal, they s ll contracted and moved like they were
alive. The rest of the room had been empty at some point, but now had
tables and furniture on three walls. In the center of the room was a
contrap on that looked like part magic circle, part steampunk machine,
part reclining electric chair.

Lavinia appeared next to him and said, "You can speak out loud here;
this place is about as secure as any place can be in the Quartet."

"What the hell is this?" asked Max.

She pointed at the one wall that s ll pulsed and moved. "That is a
backup generator for the Summoner Academy. Every school in the
Quartet has one. The different buildings and some of the sensi ve areas
are protected in various ways, but that requires power. Whoever built
the Quartets had redundancies in place to prevent anything from ge ng
too damaged even if the standard power went down. And you're looking
at one example of that."

"Why doesn't anybody else know about this?" asked Max.

Lavinia shrugged. "Who knows how many thousands of years this was
here before I even stumbled on it? The leaflet I found in a book seemed
to have come from a library from a different Path. And a er I read it and
memorized the code, I burned it."

"You burned it?" asked Max.

"Sure did," she said, and her voice was completely free of any guilt.
"Since the page came from a different book, the library system didn't
even register it as missing. So when I walked out with it, I didn't trip any
alarms. And then I disposed of it because with the informa on only in
my head, nobody could steal it. This sanctuary is the only reason I was
able to accomplish anything before I died. If I hadn't had a safe place like
this to work in, I probably would have just been dead all the me. Or
maybe I would have tried to get some excep on to go back to my world
or test out early from the academy just to make the monotony of
permadeath end. I guess it's more accurate to say that this room is the
reason why I could accomplish anything during my seven years in
Summoner Academy."

Max walked around the center of the room. He immediately no ced

similari es in the wri en notes on the table to the magic formula to the
summoning circle that Lavinia had developed. Perhaps she'd predicted
where his thoughts were heading because she pointed at one table
against the wall and said, "That is all of my research materials on
summoning circles, including a few books on magic, circles, and glyphs."

"How do you have books in here?" asked Max.

Lavinia shrugged again. "I was able to steal some mana units while I was
alive to fund my research."

"You were a thief!?"

"Well, how else was I going to get money? I wasn't a fighter and I wasn't
even going to class because people kept killing me.”

“But how did you even steal? Don't people keep everything on
themselves?"

"First years don't always," said Lavinia, "especially the first-year lifers.
Some of them get overconfident. A er I had my spirits, they could ind
where some students had stashed money or things I could sell for
money. My ectoplasm spirits might not move fast but they could be
really strong and break open safes or hiding holes. This lab gave me a
place to stash things safely.”
Max shook his head. "If you could do this, why didn't other Summoner
students beat you to the punch?"

"Oh, that's easy," said Lavinia. "When I was a third or fourth year and
had spirits, think about it. How many other third or fourth years with
spirits would be was ng their me trying to get ten or twenty mana
units here or there from first or second-year students? It would be a
much be er use of their me to just go to a dungeon. What I did, I'm
not proud of, and it got me what I needed, but I'm not going to pretend
that I wasn't just ge ng table scraps compared to what I might have
been able to earn if I had been a proper Summoner student."

Max nodded and walked around the rest of the room. Then he did
another circuit around the contrap on in the middle of the room. He
pointed at it and asked, "So you were here when your seven years was
up?"

"Yes," said Lavinia quietly, "but don't worry. There's no body. Nothing
decayed here. When my me was up, I died. But just like other bodies in
the Quartet, my spiritual body vanished."

"I see," said Max. He spent another hour or two poking around the
room, and finally said, "Lavinia?"

"Yes?" Now she sounded strangely worried.

Max said, "You le a ton of material here and on top of that, I've spent
the last few months with you going over the summoning circle that you
developed. So I kind of understand your methodology and also the parts
that you used in order to make all this stuff work. All this is to say, I
think that if you and I both were to work on this," he paused and looked
at the machine in the center of the room again, "we could make it
func onal. I think you almost pulled it off. The fundamental theory
behind your machine is not flawed. I'm guessing that one of the outside
parameters you used was just a li le bit off and created an error, which
created a feedback loop." The pointed at a specific series of glyphs
carved into the floor. “Here, I think.
"I thought as much too. A er all, I've had a long me to come down here
as a spirit and just observe this machine for years."

"So, then you might have even be er ideas on how to fix it," said Max.
"But how did you get down here as a spirit?"

"Same way that the housekeeping spirits are here," said Lavinia. "Since
I've been in this room before, I've been a uned to it. All of your spirits
could probably get in here on their own now, too."

"Oh," responded Max. He went back to the machine and studied it

carefully. He thought about some of the books he'd seen on soul and
body transporta on in the library.

"You know what, Lavinia?" he asked.

"What?"

"You know what else I think this machine could do?"

"I'm listening," said Lavinia.

Max rubbed his chin and slowly said, "I think that this machine could be
used to send a Quartet student back to their world, like to sever the
connec on with the Quartet and send a person's soul back to their
original body. I would assume that once the soul enters the old body,
whatever holding pa ern it's in to keep it in storage ends and the body
appears back on earth. So basically, what you developed this machine to
do, I think it can do the opposite too."

"I'd never thought of it like that before," said Lavinia. She looked up in
absolute shock. “Holy shit. I think you might be right.”
 Chapter 49

Max stayed busy with a variety of ac vi es. He visited group combat

classes, engaged in self-study at the library, worked out, refined his
mana body, and trained his mar al arts students. With such a packed
schedule, Max didn't have much free me to begin with. However, he
somehow managed to fit in me for research and explora on in
Lavinia's old laboratory.

At the end of one mar al arts prac ce with his friends, Max was pleased
to see that Lance had improved a lot. Lance was currently doing cu ng
prac ce on tree trunks cut to human height a er being buried in the
ground for a few feet. The goal was to cut as thin a slice off the top as
possible while the target was gradually whi led down to the ground.
Lance took another chop, sending a hair-thin slice flying into the air.

"When I just let the sword do the work," Lance said, turning to Max, “it
is a lot cleaner. That was a good call when you told me to lean more
heavily on my spirit to guide my strikes. I never thought of that."

"You were missing your cuts en rely before," said Max. "It's a lack-of-
prac ce problem, but as you increase the efficacy of any of your senses,
your accuracy will improve. Ul mately, most fights come down to ming,
distance, and stamina. You have a lot of huge advantages with that
sword. But you also have some good advantages as a Summoner, even
with only one spirit. And don't forget, if everything else goes sideways in
a future fight, what should you do?"

"Put all my focus into my defensive abili es through the sword and run
like hell," Lance repeated. It was a line that Max had tried to drill into
his friend's head.
"That's right. Don't get cocky just because you have some power. If you
ever meet somebody that you can't win against in a rela vely short
amount of me and they're pressing you, that's when you know it's me
to get the hell out. You are not going to be able to overcome real skill
and power with just your sword."

"I gotcha," said Lance, a bit sullenly, but Max was happy to see that his
friend was taking his warning seriously.

At the moment, all of his students were prac cing on their own in some
fashion, and Max walked among them, watching their efforts with pride.
His pride was twofold—for his instruc on and for their hard work to
reach new levels of skill. Everyone Max had begun teaching months ago
had shown explosive growth. On top of that, the mana pills that he’d
been giving them had allowed them to increase their mana satura on
far faster than before.

Max judged by now that all of his students were at least at the same
level that his friends back on Earth had been. But on top of that, this
group of students were also Summoners. Now, a few even had two or
even three spirits.

Once he was done with his rounds and fully sa sfied with everyone's
advancement, Max went to stand on top of a short stump and called a
mee ng. Immediately, everyone stopped and came over to the mee ng
point, forming a loose semicircle. He didn't do this o en, more recently
just to explain a new point of more advanced mar al theory. Other than
Lance, all of the students he'd taken on were far past the need for
regular personal instruc on at this point.

"Okay, everyone," Max said. "Do you all remember the rally point?"

There were a few confused glances and expressions, but they all
eventually nodded that they remembered. About a week ago, Max had
taken them to the rally point, a landmark in the Summoner woods
about a mile away. At the me, none of his students except Momo had
any idea why he'd done that.
He explained, "If there is ever an emergency in the future and I feel like
we need to meet, but I want to meet at a different place than here, I will
tell you to join me at the rally point. Does everybody understand?"

There were more confused looks this me, but everyone nodded.

"Good," said Max.

Suddenly, Eolus smacked his fist into an open palm, grinned, and said,
"Secret plans? It's because everybody knows we always meet here,
right?"

"I don't know about ‘everybody,’" chuckled Max, "but yes, a decent
number of people seem to know that we meet here now. In fact, we've
had people watching before. Some of you have even told me." In reality,
he'd always known if someone was watching. Lavinia's spirits were great
scouts, a er all. But it had been good prac ce to let his students
discover and then develop their own healthy dose of paranoia.

"So now I will move on to my next point," said Max. "We only have a
li le more than two more weeks un l the end of the semester. As I've
told you all, I will be par cipa ng in the end-of-semester compe on in
order to be qualified to fight at the end of the year. I think that based
on the skills I've seen all of you show, if you decide to par cipate as well,
you will probably place and be able to par cipate in the end-of-year
Quartet compe on, too. If you need a nomina on, please let me or
Gantry know so that we can talk to Professor Grave Call. There's s ll
plenty of me to do it if you'd like to.

“I'm not going to ask right now who's going to par cipate because I
know it might change in the next week. But I want to encourage anyone
who might want to give it a shot to do so. Every one of you has come a
long way from when we first started training together. And more
importantly, you are all dual-Path challengers now. Yes, you haven't
been dual-path for very long, but if I might say so myself, you've received
some excellent instruc on." He winked at them.
Eolus groaned. Gantry threw a pinecone at him and said, "It's not a
compe on for the biggest head, Max."

"That's too bad, Eolus, you fop. You would likely be the automa c
winner," crowed Benjamin.

"Oh Gods, not you too," said Gantry. “Benjamin, don’t encourage him.”

"The compe on is about figh ng, not talking," said Tessa. "It is too bad
though, because if there was a compe on for wai ng me and
gossiping, Benjamin and Eolus would definitely be ed for first."

"Even you, Tessa?" cried Eolus.

The group began good-naturedly ribbing each other, but Max tapped a
tree next to him with a s ck, ge ng everyone's a en on again.

"I have one more thing to tell everybody," he said, “and actually
something to give out.” The serious nature of his voice calmed his
friends almost instantly. He took a few simple necklaces out of his
pocket, each one nothing more than a string with a single bone bead on
it. There was one for every person there.

Max had had a breakthrough two days ago. He'd been spending serious
me and thought on Momo's request to return with him to Earth.
Ul mately, Max had decided it was impossible to actually take her with
him. But transferring her to Earth a er they were back on their own
respec ve worlds was theore cally doable. Perhaps the two largest
problems were the power requirements and loca ng her in the rest of
the universe. The power issue should eventually be solved on its own as
Max con nued to develop his mana body, but loca ng her was going to
be difficult. If a Bead Sorcerer was powerful enough, they could
theore cally use their arts to locate things in the rest of the universe.

At high levels, bead sorcerers could theore cally use their beads in
combina on with wri en spell equa ons to do truly miraculous things.
Then distance or even most dimensional interference wouldn't ma er
when it came to transport. The greatest weakness of Bead Sorcery, an
extremely rare Path, is a lack of raw power. But as a Blade Sorcerer, in
the future Max would have power in spades. There would be great
synergy between the two Paths.

However, Max had not reached anywhere close to that level of power
yet. Even if he did in hte near future, he likely wouldn’t get a good
enough read on his friends to trust an a empt to move them through
me and space. A million things could go horribly wrong.

But he'd had an idea. Similar to how Saliron had used bones as a
catalyst for magic processes that were normally outside of Max's
capability, there might be a way to use bones and Saliron’s power as a
catalyst to increase efficiency, and therefor power. Using an anchor, or
beacon, it might be possible for Max to s ll get a read on his friends'
unique soul signatures without actually being strong enough yet to
locate or transport them.

He handed out one necklace to every person and said, "If you put these
on now, a er about a week, I should be able to have memorized your
soul signature. This is helpful for lots of reasons. For instance, in the
middle of a ba lefield, I can find you more easily and also differen ate
my friends from my foes be er. But in the future, if you ever would like
to see my world or visit me, this is how I could poten ally transport you
there. I’m s ll working on some sort of communica on method, too. Just
remember that when you put this one, you need to make a conscious
decision that you are allowing me to read your soul signature. It’s a li le
bit like when a spirit taste our soul, but obviously much more simple
than that."

“Thanks Max,” said Gantry. “I don’t think I’ll be needing you to summon
me, but wearing this thing shouldn’t hurt anything right?”

“No way,” said Max. T”o anyone but me it is just a bead. All it does is
help me passively connect and scan a person so I can find them later.”

“So it’s like a bluetooth connec on,” said Lance. “Or maybe like a radar
tracker.”
“Exactly! But nobody else is going to get the reference.” Sure enough,
everyone who wasn’t from Earth looked confused.

Momo was the first to put her necklace on. She caught Max’s eyes and
gave him a look of hope and challenge. He wasn’t sure what that was all
about, but smiled back at her in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

Then it was me to get back to prac ce. “Okay people, everyone get a
prac ce weapon. We’re doing rolls prac ce. Do rolls from one end of the
sprint field to the other. If you drop your weapon, or you get hit by the
rocks I throw at you, you’ll have to do thirty pushups. The usual.”

Eolas groaned, but everyone else just frowned.

Max hated doing training like this too. As usual, whatever training his
friends did, Max always did the same, and usually for longer. Roll
prac ce was even harder and more unpleasant to do alone. Pel ng his
friends with rocks like this made their training easier and was for a good
cause.

At least by this point, he wasn’t exactly worried anymore that any of

them would immediately die a er Returning to their own world. It was
not a humble thing to think, but he was sure now that they were likely
on par with most of the Summoner academy 7th years, or maybe even
stronger.

The Mana Swordsman Path gave them power and durability. Their
Summoner path gave them versa lity with limitless growth poten al.
Theore cally.

It was too bad there was not more mana to go around in this Quartet or
they’d really be a fierce group.
 Chapter 50

Max walked into Amy's apartment with a grin. She gave him a hug and a
quick kiss. "Any problems on the way over?" she asked.

"No, not at all." Max actually enjoyed the walk from the Summoner
Academy to Amy's apartment. Both ways, he got an up-close view of the
stable portal system that the Quartet workers used to get around. Every
single me he saw the system, he came closer to some sort of new
understanding of portals. So far, it was s ll eluding him, but he knew it
was only a ma er of me.

Discovering the portal system through Amy had been super helpful for
Max. Now it was incredibly easy to get around the central area without
a rac ng a en on. He could portal to the Quartet-born area from one
of the shops near the gate to the Summoner Academy, head to the
portal exchange room, and head directly to any shop he wanted to
check out. He’d long since figured out how to use the switch podium
dials.

Now his traveling did not even really present any opportunity for an
ambush. Prince Regal's friends must have been downright perturbed
about it. Of course, none of his nanny golems could follow him anymore,
but that really wasn’t much of a problem. The fact none of the
headmasters had contacted him about it meant they must feel the same
way.

However, it turned out that in order to link a portal to another specific

portal in the Quartet, there was a fairly complex code for each other
portal. These codes were necessary to use as the switch podiums. Luckily
for Max, he had Lavinia wri ng in his head without a physical brain to
baby along, and not much else to do. She had proven to be absolutely
fantas c at memoriza on. Amy had given Max a handy booklet to
borrow that listed all of the portal addresses for most portals in the
Quartet. Lavinia had them all memorized. Max suspected that the power
he’d go en from contrac ng with Tom had also improved all of his
spirits’ intellectual ability as well, not just Max.

Amy sat down next to him on the couch and leaned against him. "You
have that look in your eye again," she said.

"I do?"

"Yep, I know you're thinking about something else."

"What can I say," said Max, "I'm a deep thinker."

Amy crooked a smile and got up. "I'm ge ng something to drink. Do you
want anything?"

"Just water is fine. Thank you."

As Amy went behind the couch to her li le kitchen, Max thought about
how similar her quarters in the Quartet was to his apartment back on
Earth. In fact, some of the resemblances were uncanny–even the floor
layouts were similar. Then again, floor layouts for apartments were
pre y similar on Earth too. He briefly wondered if there were only so
many ways that bipeds could link rectangular rooms together in the
most space-efficient way possible, or if maybe there was like…a
grandfather apartment plan out there in the universe that everybody
was copying off of.

He was s ll thinking about that when Amy came back with a glass of
water. Max took a sip and put the glass on a wooden coaster. Opposite
from where he sat against the wall was what looked a bit like an
entertainment center on Earth. However, this one, instead of a
television, held a large glass ball–a viewing ball. Max had seen them
used before and thought it shared similari es to viewing crystals on
Albion, but it was definitely cruder.
In the Quartet-born area, the viewing balls were not accessible all the
me. There were very specific mes of the week that Quartet-born
ci zens could view any programming. The excep on was any poten al
emergency announcement. Max privately suspected that the main
purpose of the balls was actually for emergency announcements and
communica on from leadership with the rest of the Quartet's workers.
The handful of entertainment was probably just so people valued the
balls and didn’t cover them up or something. That was kind of a
depressing thought.

"So what have you been up to?" asked Amy.

“Well…” Max started. Then the two of them had a nice light chat. He
kept most of the details light, but did tell her about a number of things
he did on a day to day basis. They hadn't seen each other for a few days.

Then Amy told Max what had been going on at her job. Some of it she'd
already messaged him about on her tablet, but Max listened to it all
over again just the same. Amy was the type of person who liked to talk
through her problems. That included discussing her wins and her bad
days too. It was all how she processed informa on. Then the discussion
came back to what Max was doing. Amy was especially curious about
what he was planning for the next semester.

But when he was talking about mar al arts prac ce, she suddenly froze
and got a strange expression on her face. "What is it?" asked Max.

"What did you just say again?"

"I was saying that all of us are working harder because we have the
Quartet compe on qualifiers at the end of the semester. It's coming up,
and I need to compete." Max hadn't told her about his deal with the
headmasters or anything sensi ve like that. It was as much to protect
her as it was because they had a rela vely new rela onship, and Max
didn't want to spill his guts unless he knew they were both in this
rela onship or the long haul.
It was something he struggled with a bit. Max wasn’t exactly loose with
secrets, but so many of his secrets were so important to every decision
he made in the Quartet, he’d had a hard me keeping Amy in the dark.
His rela onship with Amy was new, but it had been pre y good so far,
and he did like her. So, a nebulous desire to spirit her away from her
wage-slave existence in the Quartet was definitely one of his mo vators
for all of his study on portals and such.

“Oh. Amy looked down at her hands.

Unfortunately, the strange vibe didn't go away. The chill in the air
seemed to get deeper as Amy scooched a couple of inches away from
Max before turning to face him more fully on the couch.

“So I take it something is bothering you?”

‘Yes,” she said.

Max blinked. "I thought I had men oned the compe on stuff. If not, I
apologize. To be honest, working towards some of this stuff stresses me
out a li le bit, so I don't talk about it very much unless I have to. But
you know my reputa on in this Quartet. You didn't think that I would be
shanghaied into par cipa ng?"

Amy frowned. "I don't know what 'shanghaied' means, but no, I didn't
think that you would be par cipa ng. If anything, I thought that your
reputa on would mean you were less likely to par cipate since you
killed the Mys c Spirit Path students and there's so much bad blood
between you and other students. The golems following you around, the
fact you never talked about it, I just…assumed. I feel foolish now."

"Well, it’s not exactly en rely my choice," mu ered Max.

"You don't want to do it?"

"Of course I don't want to do it," said Max. That was mostly true. Most
of him didn't want to par cipate, but there was a small, curious part of
him that hungered to measure himself against the other warriors of this
Quartet. "It's something I can't get out of, though. I've had too many
people helping me, and they're calling in the favor."

"You should s ll refuse," said Amy flatly.

"Wait, what? Are you serious right now?"

"Yes," she nodded her head in a very no-nonsense way. "I'm completely
serious."

"Why?" asked Max. He was genuinely confused about why this

conversa on felt like it was falling into a fight. “If I die, I'm just going to
come to life again. In fact, in the Quartet compe on, we use special
stages, so if we die, we come to life again minutes later."

"I know," said Amy, with some exaspera on leaking into her voice. "I've
seen years of Quartet compe ons on the viewer." She pointed at the
crystal ball in the cabinet across from the couch.

"Okay, then you should know all about it," said Max.

"Yes, I do. But I also know that most students who disappear from the
Quartet do so around the me frame of the end of the year compe on.
Usually a erwards."

"Why?" asked Max.

"I don't know. I can speculate, probably the same reasons you can.
Maybe a er the compe on, they get inspired by other fighters, or
maybe they get discouraged, or maybe they were a fighter and feel like
they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish. There are many
reasons they could leave. Unless a student thinks to tell everyone why,
nobody gets no ce of who goes back to to their own world early. But all
I can say for sure is that those two mes of the year, the end of semester
compe ons and end of year compe ons are when most people leave
this Quartet other than those who just me out a er the end of their
allocated years. It's always the same. And there seems to be a higher
percentage of people that leave early who par cipate in the
compe ons, too."

"Really?" asked Max.

"I swear on my parents' memory," said Amy. She held her hand over her
heart.

What the hell is going on right now? Max wondered. He said, "I think I
understand your fears. It’s not in my plans to vanish a er any of these
compe ons, so I’m not really on the same page…” He paused.
“Something is bothering me, here. I know you want me not to compete.
Just to be clear right now, are you asking me or are you telling me?"

"Asking or telling what?" asked Amy.

"Asking or telling me not to par cipate in the Quartet compe on."

Amy frowned and slowly said, "This sounds bad, even to me, but I'm
going to be honest. I'm telling you. I can't handle it if you par cipate. It's
too much. I've already lost my parents. I just started this thing with you.
If you par cipate in the qualifiers, that means I'll have to wait an en re
semester to see if you disappear, if you don't already."

"Wow," mu ered Max. "I didn't think we'd been together long enough to
be having ul matums."

Amy smiled in apology. "I know it's probably not the best thing for me to
do, but I can't help how my heart feels. It’s horrible right now, just
hearing about you going to fight."

The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence. Way to kill the mood,
Max, he thought to himself. But he knew this wasn’t his fault. The
subject had to come up sooner or later, and he wasn’t even en rely
surprised that Amy had a line in the sand like this. People she’d cared
about had been leaving her over her en re life.
“So just to be absolutely clear, you cannot handle if I fight in the Quartet
compe ons at all. Just thinking about the possibility upsets you. It’s a
deal breaker.”

She nodded jerkily without looking up. A single tear ran down her cheek.

This sucks, thought Max. She knows that she put me in this posi on, but
at the same me, I can tell she really feels strongly about this.

Max sighed and stood. He turned to face his new girlfriend. They'd only
made the rela onship official-official two weeks ago. This sucks, he
thought again. He reached down and gently took her hands. She didn't
look up to meet his eyes, and another tear was rolling down her cheek
now.

He said, "I'm sorry, but this is unavoidable for me now. Deals have been
made and some of this is just…greater than myself. I need to do what I
need to do. However, I completely understand your stance on this and
why. Even though the ul matum isn't good, I’m not going to hate you
for it. I’m glad you told me clearly how you feel. And I respect your need
to protect yourself, especially since we haven't been seeing each other
for very long. You may be convinced that I may disappear…but you're
not going anywhere.”

Max squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his emo ons to se le. He hadn’t
bee expec ng this at all. Part of him had been wondering if he’d actually
get to have a personal life again. It was illogical, but he also felt like he
might have let Amy down, despite the fact he had no way to know
about any of this. But if he somehow had, he would have made the
same choices. It just meant he wouldn’t have go en involved with Amy.

This sucks.

Now that he’d begun da ng her, he knew what a wonderful, bright,

strong, caring person she was, though. That knowledge existed, and Max
couldn’t just walk away anymore, at least not without leaving a chance
for reconcilia on. He cleared his throat, struggling to keep his tone and
voice steady. “How about this? We'll take a break. We will officially not
be seeing each other, so you don't need to worry about me. And if at the
end of all this I'm s ll around, maybe we can pick up where we le off?"

"I would like that," she mumbled. It was obvious she was about to start
crying.

Max wasn't feeling really great himself. He couldn’t draw this out or it’d
just make the en re situa on worse. He pressed his lips together, sucked
in air through his teeth and said, "So I guess that’s it, then. I'll see you
around, Amy. If you need anything or just want to talk, I'm just a tablet
message away. You’ll always have my help if you ned it.” Then he bent
down and gave her a quick hug. He'd half expected her to give him a
crushing embrace, but instead, she was like a wet noodle. She leaned
against him, though.

He stood. "I'll let myself out then," said Max.

She nodded and said, "I know that I did this..."

Max cut her off. "No, this is nobody's fault. Nobody did anything wrong.
We didn’t hide things from each other. You made a decision, but I made
a decision too."

She nodded again and a sob escaped before she managed, "Thank you
for being so nice to me. Not just right now, but you know, everything."

"You're a great person and I enjoy your company. How could I be

anything but nice?" His eyes grew a li le bit misty, so he awkwardly
turned and said, "I'll, uh, see myself out. Sorry for, you know."

"Yes," she said.

Max le the apartment and almost immediately a er he closed the

door, he could hear Amy sobbing inside. Well, that was a quick
rela onship, he thought. If it's meant to be any further, it'll be, I guess.

He walked back to the portals, holding in his sadness like balancing an

overflowing cup. He s ll had to stop a couple of mes to run his wrist
over his rapidly mis ng eyes. By the me he got to the portals, he wasn't
in the mood to inspect them. But he thought of the inspec on as part of
his job now, so he forced himself to try burning every aspect of the
devices into his memory. He wasn't sure how useful going through the
mo ons were, though. In the back of his mind, he kept hearing a
replaying memory of the sound of Amy sobbing.
 Chapter 51

Max threw himself into work. It turned out that with a combina on of a
lack of a social life, extreme focus, and no real need to sleep much, he
could get an astonishing amount of work done. He even managed to
make several breakthroughs. The most notable was with the summoning
circles and Lavinia's machine. The actual me it had taken him to
improve the machine surprised even him. Of everything he was working
on, that effort had taken the least amount of me. He started bragging
to Lavinia to tease her, but she had not been amused.

"Yes, but we've been working on these same sorts of problems now for
months," she said. "And I had years of work done ahead of me too."
She huffed.

Max had stopped talking and just nodded. He didn't want to actually
hurt his friend's feelings or pride.

The other efforts he put in started showing fruit too. He made great
strides in training his physical body and brushing up on mar al arts.
Since he had completely processed his contract and a unement with
the remnant Tom, now he would be able to contract with a new spirit if
he could find one. That in mind, he tried contac ng spirits using
Lavinia's improved circle a couple of mes. Unfortunately, although Max
met a few more spirits using this method, none of them were mutually
compa ble for him.

Trying to find a new spirit to contact with hadn’t worked out, but finally,
at the end of just a few short but produc ve days, he finally managed to
achieve a three-star mana body.

That morning, he took a mana pill as part of his rou ne. It allowed him
to more efficiently process mana while simultaneously ac va ng his pill
cauldron. With this combina on, not a single solitary scrap of mana was
wasted. As Max had go en closer to a three-star mana body, his ability
to refine mana had improved. The final step before comple on of his
new level of mana body was the hardest, requiring an effort of will that
was surprisingly difficult, despite the fact he had already done it before.

While he struggled, it brought back memories of his first life and how
achingly difficult it had been to achieve every stage of his first mana
body. Most adventurers and mid- er soldiers on Albion, if they were
lucky enough to be taught as Blade Sorcerers, had two-star mana
bodies. Reaching a three-star mana body was the very first step to
becoming an elite.

When Max crossed the boundary into three stars, his en re body
shuddered. A change almost instantly took place, moving from his heart
outwards. With building momentum, a wave of force billowed from
where he sat on the forest floor, kicking up leaves and small branches
out to over fi een feet around him. Birds overhead took flight in fear,
cawing angrily. In moments, the forest was incredibly quiet.

Max maintained his medita ve state as the last of the changes trickled
through his body. Pain came and went, growing with the last wave of
change and advancement, but he welcomed it. This was finally a stage
where he felt like he could truly punch above his weight class, even
without his other Paths. As a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer, Max
would be able to use much more of his hard-won experience from his
first life. More importantly, now he had the durability to make choices
and fight in different ways that otherwise would have been suicide.

Max slowly stood from his seated posi on. He li ed his head, le ng
rays of light falling through the leaves illuminate patches of his skin. This
felt…right. He savored the moment, le ng himself be cradled in the
aura of what was effec vely the closest he could get to nature in the
Quartet.

When he suddenly felt a presence, he snapped his head down and

opened his eyes, but didn't see anything at first. Then, he no ced the
outline of a wolf. This was the first me that a spirit had appeared to
him this way since he'd met Lavinia. More surprising, Max was fairly sure
that what he was looking at was actually a remnant spirit. The feeling he
had now was the same as before with Tom…but it also felt somehow
deeper. The wolf's mouth opened, and a tongue lolled out in gree ng, or
perhaps amusement.

“Hello, Max,” said the wolf. The spirit’s speech was clear, with a strange
accent.

“You know my name?”

"Yes," said the remnant. "And I was present when you made a contract
with Tom. I can also tell that you respected his decision and the
assimila on has gone perfectly." The wolf shook his head. "You truly are
a talented Summoner."

"Thank you. Isn't it dangerous for you to be out in the open talking to
me like this?"

"Normally, yes," replied the wolf. He sat on his haunches. "However, I am

here with my friend. You should show yourself, small onel."

A moment later, a new spirit appeared, with a li le stem-like body and

flower petals around her face. She smiled at Max, waved a leafy hand,
and then disappeared again.

"Even a er all this me, she is s ll shy," said the wolf.

"Okay, so I take it that her being here is protec ng you. What's your
name?" asked Max.

"I am Dura. And, like Tom, I have been wai ng a long me for the right
Summoner to finally arrive. But I am older than Tom, much older. I can
remember days when the Summoner Academy was full of both spirits
and remnant spirits. Summoner professors used to tour the universe
just to locate spirits and bring them back to the academy in order to
help new students grow. Of course, they would also find their own, but
if they met a spirit that was not right for them, they would tell the spirit
about this place and lead them here. Things have changed; ma ers have
go en progressively worse. What you might not understand is that the
universe turning its back on Summoners has also been bad for spirits.
The truth is that only more powerful spirits generally can survive as
much as a few centuries without forming a contract with a summoner.
Only the most powerful spirits can last as long as I have."

"How old are you?" asked Max.

"I do not know the answer to that ques on. But, while now I may have
the aura of a low-level spirit remnant, at one me, I was much greater
than I am now.”

"That is…impressive. So why are you talking to me out in the open like
this?"

"It is a ma er of ming. I felt it was possible you were going to break

through to the next level of power that you have been trying to achieve.
Since I have been watching, I was aware when you did so. Prior to this, I
felt like you and I would not be able to form a contract. Now you can.
You are qualified. And I will not mince words. I am desperate."

"Desperate?"

"Yes. My long- me friend is growing weaker, and I will not accept it if she
turns into a remnant spirit like myself, much less discorporates. So as
she covers this mee ng to provide us some modicum of privacy, I wish to
share a proposal with you."

"I'm listening," said Max.

The thought occurred to him that he had just reached his three-star
mana body and hadn't even had me yet to check all the changes. Of
course, he'd already done this before, so he already knew what to
expect and should already be able to handle his improved power. But
this truly was a strange mee ng so far.
The plant spirit appeared again and waved shyly. This me she didn't
disappear.

"I am very old, Max," said the wolf. "So let me explain this to you in a
way you will understand, and hopefully, my knowledge and wisdom will
help save us both me. Because another reason I am desperate is that
ever since Tom made a contract with you, a sensor or divina on must
have been tripped. The invisible searchers in the quartet, those that
seek remnants, are ac ve again. Even hiding in the hidden dark places is
not enough anymore. If not for the help of my friend here, I fear that I
would have already been caught, and I refuse to let them have me. I
have resisted a contract for a very long me, even while technically open
to finding the right contractor, but events have pushed me into a corner,
so to speak."

"I see," said Max. "So what is your proposal?" His voice carried the
gravity appropriate for the situa on. This ancient spirit was discussing
the end of his life, a er all.

Dura said, "First, I come to offer you a contract as a package deal. This
means that I will contract with you, but I also expect you to contract my
friend, Trill. There is the possibility of dissonance or a lack of
compa bility, but I believe that a Summoner of your current power and
talent can overcome that even if we have some lack of compa bility.
Well, as long as we are willing."

"But there's two of you," said Max. "I can only do one at a me."

"That is not en rely true," the great wolf shook his head. "Truly talented
Summoners can contract with more than one spirit at a me, and it was
not unheard of for this to happen in the past if the two spirits were
bonded together in some fashion. Addi onally, I am a remnant spirit,
which means that if we form a contract, I will be merging with you in a
different way than my friend would."

"I think I understand," said Max. "The only other problem is I have a
contract already with a warlord level spirit, and he has required me to
never form a contract with any spirit lower than war-war level."
"Spirit, come out!" barked Dura. “Speak and let your Summoner
witness.”

Suddenly, Siliron was standing among the trees, tall and foreboding as
always. But this me, he seemed to have a new aura–one of respect.
Maybe even reverence. “This one offers gree ngs.”

"Well met, spirit." replied the wolf. "I wish to discuss an excep on to
your contract terms."

"For one such as you," said Siliran, "surely you jest. Despite your current
state, you s ll have some aspects that mark you as the rank you once
were."

"I am but a shadow of my former self," said the wolf. "However, I did not
call you out on my behalf. A er all, any spirit would agree with you.
Rather, I speak on behalf of another.” The plan spirit shied away but
didn’t disappear.

"What is this one?" asked Siliron.

“I will respond to this ques on in the nature of spirits,” said Dura. The
wolf lowered his head, staring up at the dark spirit with, Max thought, a
hint of challenge. Saliron didn't move at all for a minute, while the two
spirits spoke in what Max presumed was their own special spirit
language.

Finally, Saliron spoke out loud again. “I will accept this with some
payment from the Summoner.”

“What are your terms?” aske Dura. The wolf glanced apologe cally at
Max.

“More bones!”

“So for more bones, you will accept me contrac ng with a lower level
spirit like Dura’s friend?” asked Max. He wanted to be absolutely sure.

“Yes. Bargain accepted.”

Max hurriedly said. "I accept."

Siliran hadn't even specified how many bones he was expec ng. But Max
wouldn't skimp out. Bones were cheap, if not free a er all. He'd give the
strange spirit an extra bucket in the dark room every week.

Saliron chuckled, bowed to Dura, and disappeared.

"Well, it looks like that's se led," said Max. "What can you two do
anyway?"

"As a remnant spirit, my powers have all but faded. All that's le is a
memory of an idea," said the shaggy wolf. "Mine, such as it is, is the
concept of disrup on."

"Disrup on?"

“Just so. Similar to how Tom embodied ‘memory.’”

The wolf turned and flicked his ears at the li le plant spirit. "And my
friend specializes in hiding. She is adept at two things. One is to create a
bubble that will dull the senses of anyone looking from the outside in.
Whoever or whatever is inside the bubble will also appear very
uninteres ng to them. Her other power is to block the sight of other
spirits, which is the ability she is employing right now."

"I see," said Max. "So, if you both want to bond with me, what are your
terms?"

"Mine is simple," said the wolf. "If I form a contract with you, I expect
you, within two years of me rela ve to yourself, to have doubled your
power. If you have not, you risk forfeiture of your life."

"I accept," said Max.

The wolf's tongue rolled out of his mouth again. "I figured you would,
given the amount of me it has taken you to reach the level you are at
now already. As for my associate, she just wants to see more of the
universe and not be mistreated."
"That shouldn't be too difficult," said Max. He smiled reassuringly at the
flower-faced spirit, and she covered her face with her fern-like fingers.

Suddenly, the system screen popped up and asked Max if he was

forming a contract with Dura and with the plant spirit.

Do you wish to contract with these two spirits? Please note that “Dura”
is currently classified as a remnant spirit.

Max pressed yes, then the screens asked him to name his new soldier
level spirit.

Please name your spirit.

Max didn't think about it too deeply, since he was picking up from Dura
that me was short. "Trill," he decided, and inpu ed the name into the
system.

"Ah," the wolf chuckled. "Trill, I see you have a new name."

The flower spirit looked curious and happy at the same me. The next
moment Dura said, "I accept our end for both of us."

A second later, Max felt like he got hit with two large cold buckets of ice.
He fell to one knee and actually lost his balance. With his vision turned
sideways, he felt led to take ac on, walking forward and took one of
Trill's insubstan al li le hands in both of his own.

Dura’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned his inhuman head to Max.

A screen popped up in Max's vision again as Dura silently sent,

I think you did well, Summoner.

This was definitely a different experience for Max than his other spirit
contracts, and he briefly wondered why this me he'd seen windows. He
didn’t remember as many when he'd formed a contract with Saliron.

Max elbowed his way over to a tree and sat with his back against a
trunk. Then he pulled his knees up and assumed a comfortable posi on
to meditate. Even though he had just reached a three star mana body,
pure strength was not going to help with assimila ng his new spirits. He
could definitely feel the strain of handling two at once, but luckily,
whatever Dura had been long ago, as of now he was only about as
difficult for Max to assimilate as a standard soldier spirit, just like Trill.

When Max got a li le bit deeper into the process, Dura in par cular, but
even Trill, seemed to have some difficult, guarded layers to access. He
mu ered, "This is nuts."
 Chapter 52

When Max had formed contracts with Dura and Trill, he'd assimilated
Trill in less than an hour, which turned out to be rather lucky. Even he
could tell that his Summoner power burned much brighter now. Once he
had bonded completely with Trill, he'd immediately go en a decent idea
of certain things that he could do with her power. Max wanted to
prac ce with her, but ever since their bonding, she'd been non-stop
genera ng a field to hide Max from other spirits and from Summoner
senses.

This was necessary. The two of them had had a quick conversa on at the
speed of thought, and Max agreed with Trill that she should do so. Now
he knew that Dura told Trill before contrac ng with Max that it would
likely be necessary.

The problem was that Max stood out too much now in dangerous ways.
With two remnant spirits, especially one as powerful as Dura, he had
zero expecta on that he would con nue to fly under the radar anymore,
especially if he was physically too close to one of the older professors,
much less Mong Hao Han himself.

Max finished assimila ng Dura's spirit a few days later, and from that
point on, his days had truly become the most busy that he'd
experienced since coming to the Quartet. It felt like all he did was train,
study, and sleep.

Every me he started thinking about Amy, or roman c rela onships in

his past life–old regrets, he threw himself even harder into work.

When he had started his crazy schedule, the end of semester

compe on was just over a week away. The compe on itself was going
to last about two days, and then Max had been told via spirit messenger
that he would be summoned. His tes ng was going to be called an
“exhibi on match.”

Max had been in fairly steady correspondence with the Summoner

Academy headmaster, and he asked the man to organize for some of the
senior compe on to be on standby for the exhibi on match. Max
didn't want to just come out and tell the headmasters that he was so
much more powerful now. Mong Hao wasn’t happy about Max’s line of
ques oning about the upcoming exhibi on match, but also seemed
cau ously op mis c about it. He was reading between the lines that
Max was feeling confident. Max had also assured the Summoner
headmaster that no ma er what happened, he would se le the other
headmasters’ minimum requirements for him.

As a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer, Max felt confident standing
toe-to-toe with most enemies he could encounter un l he returned to
Earth, now. He might not be able to win every fight, or prevail against
some of the strongest monsters in the Quartet dungeon system, but at
least he would be able to hurt them. More importantly, they wouldn't
be able to kill him quicker than he could escape.

His new, more durable body was not the only advantage he had, either.
Armor from Lavinia was just a thought away. Saliron’s spirits inhabited
his bones, making them even stronger than they otherwise would be. He
was tanky as hell now, but his offense had gone up too.

Now that he was a three-star mana body, Max could use the mana vault
ar fact much more easily…and get greater effects pairing it with his
bead sorcery. Max now kept a few small pieces of bone in his pocket.
Saliron also gave him a power amplifier, le ng him increase the power
of his available tools with different synergies. If he used a bone bead
and supercharged it with mana, Max could now create a gate into his
storage space much more easily. He no longer had to build an en re
doorway of bone.

This new func onality had presented some interes ng poten al op ons,
like the possibility of stealing books from the library. However, a er
discreetly looking into it, he was disappointed. Whoever had planned
the Quartet schools was no dummy. It was very difficult to steal anything
in any way from any building in the en re Quartet. Even though this
quartet didn't generally have any Challengers with spa al abili es or
powers that helped with the , the other Quartets in the universe
definitely did. They were all protected the same.

Max had almost run out of mana units while reaching a third star mana
body, but luckily he s ll had a great deal of mana pills le . The large
stock of mana pills meant he didn’t need to worry too much about being
broke, at least for a while. Mana pills s ll helped him, and definitely
helped all of his friends, s ll.

Besides, since he’d just achieved a new level of mana body, the most
important training he needed in the short term now was prac cal, not
further mana refinement.

When the day finally came for the end of semester compe on, Max
wasn't really excited or worried. If anything, he felt somewhat numb, like
he'd put all of his expecta ons and nerves on hold un l a er they would
be convenient again.

His friends all met in the forest the night before. More than half of them
planned to try placing in the compe on and be qualified to fight at the
end of the year. They didn’t meet to train. This get together was more of
a celebra on than anything. Lance, over the last couple of months, had
become very good at procuring alcohol if Max gave him a mana unit or
two, and so all of them had plenty of drinks on hand around a bonfire.

Max drank too, and a er he was psy, Gantry said, "Hey everybody, you
should see what Max can do now."

Max was si ng in a crude log chair, just relaxing, he glanced up in

annoyance at Gantry. "First, what the hell are you talking about? Also,
why are you so drunk? You all have to compete tomorrow."

"That's not a problem because of you," said Lance, drunkenly poin ng at

Max. "A er all, you're the one who showed us how to use the mana in
our bodies to burn off alcohol."
"Damn it, that's true," grumbled Max.

"Come on," Gantry pleaded, "just show them one me. You know what
I’m talking about."

"Fine," grumbled Max. He didn't like to let Trill drop the concealing field
that she kept around him at all mes. But luckily, even for this trick, he
didn’t need to. One thing he discovered almost immediately a er
contrac ng with Trill was that the field she kept ght to his body could
also be expanded into a sphere around him. Before this, the only quick,
supernatural structures Max had access to building were Lavinia’s spirits
crea ng armor, and a handful of other shapes or tools. But now Max
had a bubble and all of Max’s spirits’ powers could interact with each
other.

Max hadn't forgo en how Territ Mond had blocked one of his a acks
during their fight. The half-shield of power made of interlocking plates
was something Max would probably never be able to replicate. However,
Lavinia's spirits could mimic a close approxima on. In barely more than
a thought, suddenly a half-circle of interlocking ectoplasmic plates
shielded Max from the front. He wasn't sure how durable this protec on
would be, but he was fairly confident it could stop extremely substan al
a acks. Once the barrier manifested, all of his friends made suitably
impressed noises and then went to get another beer as Max se led back
in his seat.

He knew he probably shouldn't since he'd been drinking, but he opened

his tablet to see his message history with Amy. Since they'd stopped
seeing each other, Max had messaged her twice. The first me, she
hadn't answered at all. The second me, when he asked, "Are you
busy?" she just responded with "Yes."

Oh well, maybe third me's the charm, Max thought. He didn't truly
expect for the rela onship to start again, but Amy was a good person
and he didn't like how things had ended so abruptly. And more
importantly, he didn't like the idea that she would s ll be upset about
what had happened. It probably wasn't the most ra onal thing for him
to feel since neither one of them had actually done anything wrong, but
he couldn't help it, and the alcohol wasn't making ma ers be er.

Reaching out to an ex while drinking was dumb, and he knew be er, but
he forged ahead regardless.

He sent,

[I hope you are doing okay.]

This me he got a reply back almost immediately, but it made him

frown. He stared at it for a moment. It read,

[I'm fine. Good luck in your compe on. I think it's tomorrow.]

Max thought of several different things to respond with, but ul mately

just closed up his tablet and put it back around his wrist. He might have
been unwise enough to send the message in the first place while he was
drunk, but there was no way in hell he was going to have a messaging
conversa on with Amy while he was inebriated. He also wasn't ready yet
to burn away his buzz with mana. Everyone around him was s ll having
fun. His friends, at least some of them, could drink like a fish.
Surprisingly, Momo probably held her alcohol the best.

If Max burned off all of the alcohol in his system, he'd be the only sober
one there. So he stayed in his chair and was just content watching the
fire. It didn't take long un l even while inebriated, he started planning
out new beads to create and stash around his wrists and ankles.
Recently he'd go en over the discomfort of tying his bracelets ghter so
he wouldn't jingle as he walked.

Max realized that it was very difficult for him to stop working even when
he was otherwise at rest. With a flash of clarity, he decided that while
he generally liked himself, some mes his workaholic tendencies made
him hate himself just a li le. He took a drink and wondered where all
this focus had been when he was on Earth. Recognizing that the alcohol
was likely fueling some self-indulgent depression, he regre ully finally
burned the alcohol out of his system and told all of his friends he was
heading back to his room.

He didn't miss the look that Momo gave him before he le . The
invita on had been more than obvious in her eyes. He ra onalized his
pretend ignorance that his friends would be compe ng the next day and
nobody needed any more distrac ons. But before he got back to his
dorm, he admi ed to himself that he just wasn't ready for any more
roman c a empts. Maybe a er he was done pleasing the mysterious
headmaster Bojana, he’d also have me for more than just training.

Then all the headmasters would theore cally be on his side. Of course,
now that Max knew about Bojana's history with Ancilla in the very
distant past, he was wondering even more than before who he was
really working for now.
 Chapter 53

Max didn’t watch the end of semester, qualifying compe on. He’d been
asked not to by the cabal of headmasters. Two days passed with Max
just con nuing to train. Luckily, working alone didn’t bother him and
gave him more me to perfect his teamwork with his spirits.

A er the end of the compe on, all of Max's friends went to party in
the woods again. However, in the invita on Max received, he discovered
they’d gone to a different area than where they usually prac ced, and
this me some of them brought dates. By the me Max showed up,
there were at least a good thirty or forty people in a endance, all
drinking around a bonfire. Max had never seen anything quite like it at
the Academy. The mood was fes ve, and some of Max's friends were
celebra ng harder than anyone else.

Nobody had really told Max yet what was going on, so he made a
beeline for Lance. His friend was si ng on a log, watching everything
with a half-smile. He glanced up as Max sat down and said, "Hey buddy,
a lot happened. I kind of wish you would have gone to the compe on,
but I guess I understand why you didn't."

"Yeah, a few reasons," said Max. Despite the guidance he’d received,
he’d been tempted to show up just to mix things up a bit but ul mately
decided not to. A er all, his goals didn't include trolling or pe y
vengeance. When Max's vengeance came, it would be anything but
pe y. So, dealing with the fallout that his presence could cause, for as
li le gain as he'd get from it, just wasn't worth it.

Instead of explaining all this to Lance, Max just shrugged. "So what
happened?"
"Well, all of our friends did really well, but you probably could have
predicted that. As it turns out, the top four in the Junior Division for the
Summoner Academy looks like it's going to be Momo, Eolus, another
summoner here, and some big woman I've never even seen before. In
the senior division, Gantry is in the top two, and there are two seventh
years and one sixth year that I don't know."

"Wait, what? Gantry is in the senior division?"

"Yeah, wild, huh?"

Max's friend hadn't told him that he planned on compe ng in the senior
division, but it did make sense. "So what happened?" asked Max.

Lance waved a hand. "Basically, everyone we know cleaned up. At least

in the junior division, it really wasn't even close."

Max smiled faintly at the news and held that expression as Lance gave
an impassioned, if not en rely understandable, play-by-play of all the
best fights. When his friend was done talking and took a sip of whatever
he was drinking, Max said, "I'm glad everyone did well."

"They did more than well," said Lance. "And you know what's really
crazy? I got the feeling that if I had par cipated, I might have had a shot
too. But I know, I know," he held up his hands, "it would be really stupid
of us, and by us, I mean me, to be showing off the fancy sword you got
me. And since everybody uses real weapons in the match, I’d have to
use my sword since that's like seventy percent of my combat poten al."

"More like ninety percent, remember?" Max interjected.

"Thanks, dude, thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Any me, Buddy."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m just here to party.”

“On that note, where's Belle at?" Lance's face fell, almost too li le to
no ce. Max immediately regre ed the ques on.
With a different tone of voice than before, Lance said, "I don't know. I
invited her, but things lately have been a li le tense. I don't know what's
in her head, man. I mean, I get it. I'm not really happy with everything
either, but I felt like I needed to move on, or else I was never going to
really accept this new life.

"I get the feeling some mes that Belle says she's in the same boat as
me, and she even pretends she is. Maybe she even tells herself that. But
she talks about her ex a lot. Like, a lot. And dude, she wasn't even with
him for more than a few months. That was years ago. Like, I have a kid
with my girlfriend back on Earth, and I had a good rela onship with her.
I'm just..." He ran his fingers through his hair in frustra on. "I don't even
know if she's alive, you know? And if I were to be wai ng for her the
en re me I'm in the Quartet, I'd also be thinking about my kid and
whether she's doing okay. And it's just too much weight. I have to think
about other things.

“What's more, if I were to somehow just focus on them the en re me

I'm in the Quartet, and in seven years go back and she's given up on me,
or she found a new man, or worse, she's dead... I don't know what I'd
do. Maybe I'd... unalive myself. I don't know, man. I mean, I've learned a
lot about myself since we've been here in the Quartet. I'm a lot tougher
than I thought I was. And when I'm backed into a corner, I guess I am a
fighter. Wild. I mean, I guess it wasn't en rely a fluke that I killed a
monster and ended up here in the first place. But I didn't sign up for all
of this. I know nobody on Earth did, and it makes me feel selfish to say
that. But I've given thought to the fact that by the me I get back to
Earth, my li le girl isn't going to be li le anymore. She probably won't
even recognize me. I'm going to be like a stranger to her. How do I come
back from that?"

"I suppose you'll just have to take it one step at a me," said Max. "It
sounds like a cheesy line, but it's true. But I do agree with you that
stressing about it before it's me to deal with it probably isn't good for
your mental health."

"No joke. So, it kind of sucks that it's not working out with Belle, but it's
not the end of the world. Who knows, she might come around. It's weird
that despite so many hot women in the Quartet, there are so few that I
feel I have anything in common with," said Lance.

"Well, if you date within the Summoner Academy, at least you have
being a Summoner in common," Max pointed out.

Lance waved at him. "Dude, that's like a job. It's not the same thing.
That's like having a colleague at work. But enough about me. What's
going on with you and Amy?"

Now it was Max's turn to hide his facial expressions. Lance no ced and
didn't press, but Max decided to tell his friend what had happened.
When he was done, Lance was quiet for a while. Then he said, "I don't
know how to say this because you were just really nice to me and
actually gave me good advice, but I just got to come out and say it."

"What?"

"You are an idiot, Max."

"Why?"

"Dude, you are not me. I have to go on epic quests just to find a woman
who will talk to me, much less date me. Sure, back on earth I guess a lot
of women thought I had good looks, but it’s a li le more compe ve in
the Quartet with so many people walking around looking like Greek
gods. Do you know how much effort I had to put into just ge ng to the
talking stage with Belle? Meanwhile, you can throw a rock somewhere in
the Quartet and probably find some good-looking Challenger to hook up
with. You are fucking famous! Kung fu Summoner ac on Jesus. And on
top of that, you don't even have any baggage back home.

“But the absolute most insane part of all of this is every other day you
see a gorgeous girl who's crazy about you, who I have overheard wants
to go with you back to your world, who's wai ng for you despite you
being a dumbass, and who's probably one of the only people in the
en re Summoner Academy can keep up with you now and will be able
to in the future, too. I'm not blind, dude, I know that Momo has a thing
for you, and everyone here knows eventually Momo is going to
completely overtake Gantry, power-wise. All of us in the junior division
classes, like first, second, and third years, figure that in one or two more
years, the three untouchable summoners in the academy will be you,
Gantry, and Momo."

"Really?" asked Max.

"Really.” He sighed. "This freaking guy, I swear. You may be a genius with
a blade, but you're kind of a dumbass when it comes to people."

Max felt like he'd been hit between the eyes with a hammer. He shook
his head and chuckled. "I wish I could say it's the first me I've heard
that. But it's not people that confuse me, or even women, to be
honest."

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Lance.

Max spit. "Some mes I just don't know what to do with myself."

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you gay? If you're gay, just
find a nice dude or something. But not me, not my speed."

"Shut up and listen or I’ll take the sword back.” He pretended to reach
for the blade, and Lance comically jerked it away with a hiss. Max
con nued, “What I mean is, I feel I have so much pressure to do so
much, and I have so li le me. And honestly, I haven't told you guys
everything, but you can probably read between the lines that there's
more going on behind the scenes."

"Yeah, that's pre y obvious," said Lance. "Every me I get that feeling
from you, I think, be er him than me. You're the sweaty tryhard. I just
want to get out of here with my mind intact and some power so I can
actually be useful back on Earth."

Max laughed at his friend's brutal honesty. "I respect that, man, I do. I
just…”
“I know your problem," said Lance.

"What's that?"

"Your problem is that you take everything seriously. It's probably a

double-edged sword. It's one of the reasons why you're doing so great,
obviously, but when you take everything seriously, it's hard to priori ze
what really ma ers over what doesn't. And what's worse, the things that
really truly do ma er, you might approach the wrong way and actually
be less efficient in the long run."

Max's jaw dropped. Despite all his years of living, he had never heard
anybody sum up some of his issues that efficiently. Lance seemed very
pleased with himself as he took another sip.

Max closed his jaw and said, "That was actually pre y good."

"I know, right? Maybe I can moonlight on the side as a fortune teller or
an advice giver or..."

"Yeah, don't quit your day job," said Max. "I can't give you a magic sword
that's going to help you sound smart to other people."

"Ha, very funny, dude,"

Max laughed and got up. "I can't hang out much longer tonight, but
Momo's been giving me looks. And although I'm not ready to start
anything with her, she is a really good friend, and I'm not going to ghost
her. Especially tonight when she's celebra ng her win."

"That's the smartest thing you've said since I've seen you today," said
Lance. He waved his drink in Max's general direc on and then turned to
watch the fire.

Max shook his head as he walked over to Momo. She was pretending
not to no ce that he was coming. He didn't plan to make this
conversa on very long because he s ll needed to get sleep before his
special event the next day. The le ers he'd been ge ng from
Headmaster Mong Hao Han had been very explicit in their instruc ons.

He’d given the headmaster another heads-up that he might mix up his
exhibi on matches a bit. The Summoner headmaster wasn't en rely on
board, but that didn't ma er. One way or another, Max was planning to
force the issue the next day.
 Chapter 54

The exhibi on matches weren't actually scheduled un l the next

evening, but Max did not plan on res ng un l then. If he s ll had a
mortal body, he would have had to, but as a three-star mana body
Blade Sorcerer, there was no reason not to train any moment he had the
opportunity. He started his day the way he always did: medita on and
working out. But today, he focused less on the physical and wanted to
spend more me with his spirits.

For several hours out in the woods, he went through drills with all of his
spirits. Ac ve use of Trill's power was extremely interes ng.
Unfortunately, Max was s ll nervous about using it too o en. Some uses
would break his concealment and he didn't want to reveal to anything
or anyone watching that he had assimilated Remnant spirits. Not being
able to use Trill's full abili es in the match was definitely going to be a
handicap. On the other hand, the no on of [disrup on], granted by
Dura, was extremely useful, although mentally taxing to use. It turned
out disrup on had a wide variety of applica ons. As a concept, or
modifier for his abili es, it extremely flexible.

For instance, Max found that he could supercharge his strikes using the
power of disrup on–probably the most simple applica on of the
concept. Almost by accident, one way he found to use the power of
disrup on was with his shield. He'd been prac cing with the magic
shield that his new sword Blackmist Incident could conjure, and he
found that if he inserted a bit more mana into the construct itself and
then also layered some element of disrup on on it, it would ac vely
mi gate the kine c energy or mys cal power of whatever was striking
the shield's face.

This made his shield orders of magnitude more effec ve.

He was actually glad nobody had been there watching while he
discovered this applica on of his new power. At the me, he'd been
hi ng his own shield, bashing his sword against it, and blocking it over
and over again, trying to get a good idea of the shield's limits and
capabili es. As he experimented with various energies in both the sword
and the shield, realizing that the power of disrup on could be used
defensively had been amazing. He'd been so surprised he'd fallen on his
bu in the forest.

***

Finally, Max received a summons to a end his exhibi on match. The

message that he received from Mong Hao Han's assistant instructed him
to go somewhere different, a loca on in the Summoner academy
grounds; not the building in the central area that he'd been told before
was the compe on arena. Max shrugged and didn't think much of it. As
long as he was s ll in the Summoner Academy, he was rela vely safe
and didn't really worry about schemes by Regal or anybody in the other
Path academies of the Quartet.

When he reached the mee ng point, though, he was surprised to see

several other Summoner students, including all of his friends who had
won par cipa on slots in the end-of-year compe on. Momo spo ed
him the same me he no ced the group, and she walked to his side.
Reflexively, Max used a bit of Trill's power to cover both of them for
privacy as she whispered, "I thought you were going to your challenge
matches by yourself."

"So did I," said Max.

Gantry caught his a en on and raised an eyebrow. Max shrugged back.

A moment later, though, the headmaster rounded a bend and walked
into view, followed by three other professors, including Grave Call,
Professor Happy–who Max had not seen in some me, and one of his
least favorite people in the Quartet, Professor Dalton.

Max nodded respec ully to Grave Call, the least he was required to do
to maintain protocol. Professor Dalton, the Dean of Discipline and
Extracurricular Student affairs no ced and scowled at him. Max gave her
a sweet smile back.

He reflected on how deeply his perspec ve had changed.

Everything in the Summoner Academy looked different to him now. As a

three-star mana body, three Path Challenger, Max was all too aware of
his current limita ons, but also fairly confident that none of the
professors, except maybe Grave Call, would be able to give him a serious
fight now. That was only for the Summoner academy, though. The other
Path academies, he wasn't so sure.

"We're not going to the usual loca on in the central area," said the
headmaster without preamble.

Eolus shot up a hand to ask a ques on, but the headmaster ignored it.
He said, "We are leaving right now. Let's go, we're already running a bit
late." And with that, he started down the road to the gate out of the
Summoner Academy. Some in the group looked confused. Max was at
first, but then realized that for be er or worse, the headmasters were
bringing the current end of year compe on fighters to this exhibi on
match. Max decided that it could be a blessing or a curse.

His fight was going to have an audience.

***

Max was interested to see that the building they were heading to was
the same one he’d gone to a er his duel with Territ Mond. This was
where he’d made his first deal with the headmasters. However, this me,
Mong Hao Han ushered the group through a different door. Momo
whispered, "This is not where we had our matches. We were in the
Summoner academy area."

Gantry added. "This is where they have the full Quartet compe on at
the end of the year."
Max slowly nodded. Now the venue made sense to him, even if it might
not for the rest of the Summoner academy students.

Mong Hao led them down a long, downward-sloping hallway. At the end,
he opened a door and ushered them into a huge chamber. Max raised
his eyebrows when he saw the ring in the center of the enormous floor.
There was an iden cal ring above it on the ceiling. Now that Max knew a
bit more about magic circles and such, he could recognize pieces of
some of the incredibly precise spellwork that had gone into each ring.

At each corner of the room, there was a symbol represen ng one of the
four Path schools of the Quartet. Mong Hao Han led the Summoner
group to their corner just as the Replicator academy group appeared.
The Elemental Shi er group and the Mys c Spear people were already
se led in their respec ve corners. It seemed that all four schools had
arrived with the same size groups: the headmaster, three professors,
and a total of eight students. Max was the only irregularity, and there
were definitely eyes on him as the summoner group approached their
corner.

Each corner had sea ng for many more people than the different
schools had actually brought. Around the room, there were orbs near
the ceiling that Max assumed were recording devices of some kind. A er
all, when the official Quartet compe on took place, others could
watch; Quartet students in addi on to the Quartet-born.

Once his group was se led in the corner, all four headmasters walked
forward to a small podium and interacted with it. Soon a er, there was
a flash in the middle of the room, in the center of the large ring, and a
new person was standing before them all. She was lean with short spiky
hair and wore a formal robe, similar to the headmasters', but a bit less
ornate and with a large insignia on her chest that Max had never seen
before. On one side of her belt was a wide, fairly bulky leather pouch.
No, that’s a sheath, he thought. It was covered by a flap, so Max could
not see the weapons it held, but based on its size, he assumed it was for
holding large throwing knives similar to the ones Momo carried now. On
the woman's other side were a few small pouches like the ones the
headmasters usually wore.
Before Max could see her face, she removed her cowl, revealing a
prominent scar down one cheek. The moment she appeared, Max felt a
strange sense of danger from her that he didn't understand. It was
unlike anything else he'd ever experienced in his life. And he no ced
that she immediately swept her gaze across the room, as if assessing a
poten al threat. He readied himself, but before he could do anything to
embarrass himself, Ming Hao Han announced, "Thank you for joining us,
Adjudicator."

At that moment, Territ Mond stepped forward. "We ask for an

adjudicator to preside over this exhibi on match. Circumstances that
are not necessary to describe right now require secrecy to be enforced.
You are here not only to act as a judge but also to help us ensure that
word of this match does not spread."

She's an adjudicator, huh? thought Max. He'd heard of them before. They
were like managers over the different Quartets, except each was part of
their own team as well. He didn't know how to read the insignia on the
adjudicator's robe, but he assumed that she wasn't the highest on the
totem pole, or she would not have come here herself. In fact, he
assumed that she was fairly low in seniority, but that didn't mean that
she was weak. Everything Max had read about the Quartet system
stated that adjudicators should be respected and cooperated with at all
mes. He doubted that many regular students in the Quartet system
even saw an adjudicator in person before they went back to their world.

The adjudicator turned, sweeping everyone with her eyes, ending up

staring at Max again. Now he had a pre y good idea of why. A er all,
this en re exhibi on match was being held because of him.

When she spoke, she had a surprisingly musical voice, considering her
appearance. "Let me introduce myself. I am Adjudicator Ni Na Long
Swan. You may call me Adjudicator Swan, which is how I am generally
addressed. Before we begin, I need everybody to carefully read the
screen they are about to be shown. To help you understand what you
are going to see, the screen will tell you that in order to proceed or
par cipate in any fashion in the upcoming end-of-year compe on, you
must agree not to talk about this exhibi on or spread informa on about
it with anybody who is not currently in this room. This means taking
every reasonable precau on to prevent others from learning of it. If you
do not agree, you will need to leave right now, and you will no longer
have a place in the compe on. If you agree, the system will enforce this
contract by immediately causing you pain or even killing you if you
violate it."

Suddenly a screen popped up in front of Max, full of what he assumed

was the Quartet version of legalese. He s ll read the en re thing, unlike
some others he no ced just hit the accept bu on immediately. But sure
enough, the system contract more or less mirrored everything that Swan
had said. Max clicked his acceptance on his screen and looked up to see
the last few others in the room doing so at about the same me.

Adjudicator Swan con nued, "The reason we are gathered here today is
an irregular request from the four headmasters of this quartet. Will Max
Cunningham please raise their hand?"

Max did as she'd instructed, and suddenly every pair of eyes in the room
was on him.

"How does the tested wish to proceed?" said the adjudicator.

Max glanced over at Mon Hao Han, who shrugged and gave Max a look
of resigna on. He s ll didn't like what Max wanted to do, and also didn't
like that the other headmasters were not opposing Max's idea. It was
obvious that at least two of them, perhaps all three other than Mong
Hao wanted Max to fail this test. But none of them knew that he had
achieved a three-star mana body. Most of them probably wouldn’t know
what that would mean if Max told them. They knew that he was
advancing in power rapidly, but likely figured they had a firm idea of
where he was at, power-wise.

If he’d s ll relegated himself to the junior division, which was all he

needed to do, he figured he had zero chance of failing.

But he knew himself. He wanted to rub the headmasters faces in their

lack of true support. There was always the possibility that they’d try to
wear him down with fight a er fight, or some other unfair test, and he
didn't want to risk the chance of being strategically exhausted. But most
importantly, he didn't want to have to redo this li le circus at the end of
the year before he was required to fight in the actual compe on.

Max stepped forward, and in a voice that carried all the way across the
room, he announced, "Since we are here for me to be tested, I suggest
that we save me. Originally, I was meant to only prove myself against
the Junior Division Challengers. I understand that I s ll must sa sfy that
requirement. However, I would also like to suggest that should I win a
match against them, that I also fight the most powerful senior
Challenger.

Swan frowned. "How do we determine the most powerful senior

Challenger? What exactly do you propose?”

"I suggest that the four headmasters confer and find candidates they
agree on, I will respect their decision." Max smiled.

There was confused mumbling around the room from the students,
while all the professors kept poker faces, staring at Max. The only two
excep ons were a Replicator professor who couldn't help but let a
pleased expression show through as her eyes lted upwards, and
headmaster Bojana. Max vowed to keep an eye on her the en re me,
now that he knew a bit more about this quartet's sordid cast.

The four headmasters moved to the center of the ring, located over a
hundred yards away from everyone else. A er some talking, they
eventually headed back to their corners. Max knew that Mong Hao Han
had already discussed this sugges on with the other headmasters, but
even if he hadn't, Max was sure they'd take this offer. A er all, none of
them were probably confident that their junior contestants could win
against Max, but he was sure they believed he would have a hard me
against the senior division fighters.

When the Summoner headmaster returned, he didn't glance back at

Max but stared unwaveringly forward, maintaining a stoic aura befi ng
his sta on. In the center of the room, Adjudicator Swan waited un l all
the headmasters were back before she announced, "The headmasters
have agreed to the tested's proposal. For the Junior Division, Max
Cunningham will be figh ng Plemdo from the Elemental Shi er School. If
he wins that match, he will be figh ng Lin from the Mys c Spear Path
Academy. Max Cunningham, Plemdo, both Challengers, please step
forward."

On the elemental shi er side of the room, a huge man stepped forward
and crossed his arms. He seemed to remember where he was at the last
second and hurriedly gave Adjudicator Swan a respec ul bow. He wasn't
wearing any weapons, just a loose robe. In the Mys c Spear corner, a
man stepped forward holding an ornate spear and s ffly bowed to
Swan, and then to each corner of the room, except for the Summoner
corner. The spearman turned and gazed coolly at Max.

Max recognized him. He was the student who had killed him and
destroyed his body in the Spear Path academy.

This is going to be fun, Max thought. He raised his hand, and Swan
blinked. "Yes, tested, do you have something to add?" she said.

"I do," said Max. He grinned at the Mys c Spear Path corner and said, "If
the headmasters allow it, in order to make this exhibi on more
challenging and entertaining, I would like all the Mys c Spear junior
challengers to also join my opponent Plemdo in a junior bout."

The room erupted in noise, despite Swan's glower, and Mong Hao Han
shook his head at Max. Max shrugged. The Summoner headmaster had
to realize that if he could win against a senior challenger, much less the
best senior challenger, he should have a good chance against five at
once on the junior side too. What Max hadn't told Mong Hao Han was
that the moment they walked into this room, he recognized the junior
challengers for the Mys c Spear academy were all people who had
thrown spears at Max and his friend in the central area.

As Adjudicator Swan restored order, Max shot the four of them a

mocking smile as he instructed Saliron to recall the spirits he'd placed in
their bones for marking and tracking. The spirits had done their job.
 Chapter 55

Max thought it was unfortunate that Regal was not among the Mys c
Spear Path students he was facing. Behind them, he caught sight of
Territ Mond glowering. Max didn’t care. The headmaster was not his
friend. Max had no illusions to their rela onship. He was being paid to
fight for them, in order for the headmasters to receive benefits from
Max winning. He was Territ’s mercenary, not his subordinate. And the
man was likely either roo ng for his downfall or maintaining neutrality.
There were obvious poli cs in play between the headmasters.

Besides, Max s ll had a bone to pick with a few Mys c Spear assholes.
Ul mately, Regal was responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of what
Max had suffered in the Quartet. Maybe one day Max would get to meet
him in person to kill him again–or to kill him for good one day. For now,
punishing his friends would need to suffice.

He briefly thought that he might be taking it too far, but then he

remembered Lance being tortured just for the sin of being Max’s friend.
Nah, fuck these guys, he thought.

Max glanced around at the surrounding people, par cularly the

students. The only students who didn't look confused were his personal
friends, who knew in general what this was about. The rest had
absolutely no idea. Based on their expressions, it seemed the majority
of them currently believed that Max was about to get torn apart. Most
had gasped earlier when they’d heard his name, but apparently his
notoriety was one thing. One first year facing five junior division fighters
at once was another.

In the ring, the most confused person by far was Plemdo. The big man
kept glancing between Max and the four Mys c Spear students who
would be figh ng as his allies. They stood apart from him, though.

Max turned his a en on to the Mys c Spear students. Three were male.
Two were human. One non-human was leonin and shaggy–the other had
scales and claws. As Max and his opponents sized each other up,
Adjudicator Swan moved to the edge of the ring and began walking in a
circle around it. She explained, "This match has no rules. A win is
decided by an opponent commi ng suicide or being killed. Deathless
forfeits are not allowed. This match is an exhibi on match, so the rules
are flexible and have been modified for par cipant numbers. Max on
one side. On the other side, Troy, Goodlight, Vray, Ho-Leon, and Plemdo.
Fighters, Challengers, are you ready?"

Suddenly, a window popped up in Max's vision, similar to the ones that

would appear during a duel. The window read,

You are about to have an exhibi on match. Are you ready to begin?

There was both an accept and a decline bu on. Max waited un l it

looked like the rest of the challengers had hit accept. He suspected that
he was the only one who had never seen one of these types of matches
before.

"I have a ques on," said Max, raising his hand.

"Yes?" Administrator Swan's eyes narrowed as she called out, "I

recognize the Tested. Ask your ques on."

Max said, "Does the match start as soon as everybody hits accept?"

"That is correct," said Swan.

"Okay, good to know," said Max. He wondered if he could energize his

body before the match itself started but decided not to try. He'd no ced
that there was a shortage of informa on being supplied and wondered
if this was some sort of sneaky way to disqualify him from the fight
before it even started. Another thing he'd no ced was that none of the
Mys c Spear students had even leveled their spears at him yet. So,
following what his opponents were doing and staying in a neutral
stance, Max pushed “accept.” But the moment he did, and he saw a new
screen that flashed:

Compe on Start

Max immediately moved. Now he had the advantage because even if the
difference was only a split second, he knew exactly when the match had
started. His opponents would have been smarter if one of them had
held off on pushing accept un l they were sure that Max had.

Then again, there were five of them. They might think the fight was as
good as over already.

Even as he moved forward, Max signaled for Lavinia to generate his

ectoplasmic armor. He also drew his sword, the blade growing un l it
was full-sized, not the miniature knife-sized weapon he usually wore on
his hip. At the same me, he shoved mana into his muscles, exci ng the
mana in his body so that it moved at an exponen ally higher rate
through his veins. His rush became something more. Max shot forward
like a rocket, the air literally buzzing around him.

The ring was large, over one hundred meters wide and one hundred
meters tall. How such a thing could fit in a building in the central area,
Max wasn't sure. Probably temporal magic of some kind. The boundaries
of the ring had solidified a er the match started. He had no doubt that
those outside could s ll see in clearly, but to Max now, the edges of the
ring were a smooth, light gray material.

Plemdo had begun doing something with his ability. His hand turned to
fire, and he was in mid-swing. Max was so fast, Plemdo didn't even get a
chance to react before his body was cleaved in two. The strike had
begun at the shoulder near the neck and ended at the hip. Max flashed
past through a layer of lowered fric on courtesy of Slick. He came to a
stop facing the four Mys c Spear men who all stood gaping at him.

"So let me introduce myself," said Max. "I'm Max Cunningham, and I
know that you cowardly li le bitches threw spears at me and my friends
a while back. I also know that in the Mys c Spear academy, surrender is
not an op on. I believe that includes suicide within the system. So I just
want you to know, there may be four of you, but I'm not locked in here
with you—you're locked in here with me. Punks." He spit on the floor
and smiled, then began closing in on his prey.

At first, it was like his unexpected behavior had cast a spell on the four.
He walked slowly but steadily towards them and was halfway there
before one finally reacted. Thats too bad, Max thought. Maybe if they’d
let him walk right up to them and start hacking, some of the audience
would think he had mind control spirits or something.

At the same me that one of the human Mys c Spearmen moved, Max
finished closing in. With a thought, he shrank his sword to dagger-size.
Then he was among them.

The four junior Mys c Sphere Path students, some of the best in the
en re Quartet for their respec ve years, were hopelessly outclassed.
Despite all of them trying to a ack him at once, none of them worked as
a team. It was rela vely easy for Max to dance among them using
nothing but his strengthened forearm armor to block or parry blows. His
miniaturized sword flashed out several mes, finding flesh each me. He
had the ability to end the fight pre y much any me he wanted. But
instead, every calculated strike he made was a superficial wound in
unfortunate places for his enemies: on the wrist, the arm, a hip, or even
the back of the leg. He danced, he floated among them, and as he did
so, he taunted them the en re me.

"Didn't you know that you were signing your death sentence? You are
also just bad. Cowardly and pathe c. A acking a group of students that
you outnumbered, that you believed were weaker than you? And you
didn’t even wound any of them? Wow. The next me you take bribes or
try to kiss the ass of some worthless, pompous, self-important liar, you
should consider the consequences. And if you're confused about what
the consequences are, well, you're living them right now."

Max gave the most deranged laugh he could muster. In the back of his
mind, Saliron complimented, That was quite lovely. Perhaps you have
truly become enlightened and will surrender me their bones a er you're
done with them! Max ignored his spirit. This was all a show, a er all.
What he wanted was for nobody in the Quartet to be willing to work
with people like Regal or those like him.

The human man was the most skilled. His strikes were sharp and
explosive enough that Max could actually feel his killing intent as he
parried. Despite his ferocity, his eyes stayed flat and focused.

Max had half-expected Regal’s brother, Valiant, to be present, to be one

of those he challenged. Now he knew why he wasn’t here. These fighters
all had to be be er than he was. “It’s too bad that snake Valiant isn’t
here,” said Max. “I knew Regal wouldn’t be here, it’s obvious that he is
too weak. But Valiant acted like he was hot shit. But if he was, I’d be
cu ng him to pieces instead. Pity.”

The human man reposi oned and unleashed a deadly a ack. Suddenly,
instead of one spear point heading for Max's center of mass, there were
three. Max just snorted. He ducked under the strike, parrying it upwards
with his armor, and then didn't even bother to cut his enemy. Instead,
his armored fist came crashing down on the other man's nose. The
spearman flew backward with a spray of blood trailing from his face.

"That gives me an idea," said Max out loud. He turned to the other
three. The human woman was scared, but the furry man was beyond
that, showing signs on his face that he'd rather be anywhere else.

"You see," said Max, slowly keeping his distance and circling the three
who were on their feet. He kept a wary eye on the human man as he got
back to his feet with a bloody face. Max hadn't exactly held back on that
blow, but he hadn't been gentle either. It would have killed an average
person back on Earth before everything had changed. The man definitely
looked worse for the wear, but he could also probably s ll fight. But Max
intended to change that very soon.

"All of you get to thank Prince Regal and Prince Valiant for what's about
to happen next. Valiant is a cowardly fuck who helped his psycho c,
narcissis c brother Regal try to get revenge on me in mul ple sneaky,
unethical, and quite frankly, bitch-ass ways. It’s too bad Valiant nor
Regal are here, but I guess they aren’t good enough. However, I know
you are friends with them. Maybe some of you might have even been
present behind the restaurant.” Out the corner of his eye, he saw the
human man react. Bingo. “I'm going to do to you all what was done to
my friend and me. I hope you enjoy it."

And with that, Max sprang at the lion man. His enemy cried out and
tried to impale Max with an interes ng skill that created an a erimage
of spears while hiding the real one. With Max's experience, he could
very clearly tell which strike was the real one. It was prac cally the
easiest thing in the world to bob around the strike and take off the
man's le leg in one clean cut.

Max sensed a strike coming from behind and sprang up in the air, swi ly
parrying downwards as he turned. The response perfectly caught the
spear that had been aimed for his back, leaving him a great opportunity
to countera ack once he landed. A second later, and the female fighter
was screaming on the ground, holding the stump of her leg as it pumped
blood.

It's too bad I have nothing to cauterize these wounds with, thought Max.
Oh well, Quartet bodies are tough.

The lizard man threw his spear. The missile had a surprising amount of
speed and force to it, and Max quickly realized that the man had thrown
the weapon at his feet, not at his body. That could only mean one thing.
Instead of lingering, Max sprang to one side, quick enough to avoid even
the edges of a resul ng explosion. Then, before the man could complete
some sort of summoning or rematerializa on of the spear into his hand,
Max flashed forward and Blackmist Incident took his leg too.

The dangerous human man engaged again. This Mys c Spearman, who
would have been far beyond Max's ability to face what felt like a life me
ago, seemed painfully slow to Max. It was barely an effort to slap the
man's powerful strike to the side, hit him in the face with the pommel of
his sword, and then bring the blade down, cleanly cu ng his leg off at
the knee. The man didn't scream as he fell. In fact, he somehow
recovered from his botched a ack and managed a wild stab at Max's
head, the p gli ering green.

Max had no idea what that color signified, but he could guess that it
wouldn't be good if it connected. He kicked the bo om of the spear
sha , sending the strike directly into the air. The moment it was fully
extended, a beam of green light shot towards the ceiling of the grey
dome. Max's sword flicked out viper-quick, taking both of the man’s
hands. With this injury, the man screamed and tried holding his new
stumps to his chest. Max flowed to one side, easily dodging a spray of
blood from a wildly flailing arm, not ba ng an eye about it.

When all was done, all four of his opponents from the Mys c Spear
Academy were either gri ng their teeth and hissing or screaming on the
ground. Max figured they would bleed out given enough me, or they
would commit suicide through the system. Either way, he didn't care.
The strongest fighter, the human man, bared bloody teeth at Max as he
approached.

“What’s your name?”

“...Vray. I would not usually give my name to a nothing, but I have the
advantage of your name already.”

“Oh, that’s rich. Pretending to be honorable, and also pretending to s ll

be in control of this situa on.” He laughed. “I suppose it shouldn’t
surprise me that Regal and Valiant’s friends are delusional and awful to
the core.”

“You get lucky once, and suddenly you become so arrogant. I gave you
the respect of a warrior and you spit on it. You should know your place.”

Max conversa onally said, "Would you like me to show you what I
remember of what you and your friends did to me in that alleyway?"

"Fuck off, trash," said Vray. "Have your fun, do what you will, but know
this: you will suffer forever. Valiant’s family will—"
Max got red of hearing the man’s mouth, so he casually knelt down
and rabbit-punched him in the jaw full strength, sha ering the bone.
Vray's jaw was hanging by a thread, his tongue rolling out without any
support. Strangely, he actually recognized the man in that moment. He’d
been one who’d been stabbing Lance.

Well deserved.

Then Max began to methodically stab holes into Vray's extremi es.
Apparently, the pain and humilia on that Vray was feeling, knowing that
he was currently a spectacle in front of the best and brightest of all four
academies in the Quartet, was too much. The dishonor of choosing
suicide was be er than what Max was pu ng him through. He devolved
into motes of light.

Max turned with a grin towards the other Mys c Spear students, all of
whom were s ll alive. But the moment he met their eyes, they all too
turned into motes of light. Suddenly, the ligh ng in the room changed,
and the grey dome vanished. Max held his dripping sword loosely,
looking back at the students who were staring at him in stunned silence.
A few seconds later, there was a flash to one side of the unoccupied
room as all the Mys c Spear students were reborn in the basic clothing
of the Quartet. Plemdo was already standing nearby, also staring at Max
with wild, hooded eyes.

Outside where the dome had been, Adjudicator Swan cleared her throat
and announced, "The first exhibi on has ended. Max Cunningham,
winner." A moment later, a screen popped up in Max’s vision displaying
the result as well.

A er turning, Max gave his defeated opponents a bow and then clapped
for himself. It didn't seem that anybody else was amused; nobody
moved, and the room was s ll silent.
 Chapter 56

The quiet around the large room persisted un l Adjudicator Swan spoke
again. "Max Cunningham, do you require a break or any me to rest or
repair equipment before your next match?"

"No, I'm ready now," he replied.

"So be it. We will prepare for the senior division match. Lim Jezzen,
please enter the ring."

Max watched as Lim le the Mys c Spear group corner. His eyes
narrowed as the other man hopped into the air, clearing most of the
distance in a single bound. Max was s ll confident that he could win,
but he was aware that this was no ordinary opponent. It was one thing
to be confident, quite another to be overconfident. The memory of his
en re body being disintegrated by a single strike from this man replayed
through his head. They regarded each other over the distance of the
ring, both of them standing just inside the line of the boundary where
the dome would be.

"When you are ready to begin, please indicate so," said Swan.

Just like last me, a window popped up in Max's vision. It asked if he

was ready for his duel. He pushed, “Yes,” and the fight was officially on.
The grey dome went up again, crea ng a sort of illusion that Max and
Lim were the last two people le in the world, and now they had to kill
each other.

This me, Max, sword in hand, stayed wary and didn't rush. Instead, he
began circling to the right, staying near the boundary. With a thought,
he instructed his sword to generate a cool blue magic shield in his
o and. The shield was similar to a buckler but larger.
Max watched Lim with curiosity, unsure what the other man would do.
He felt he had a pre y good idea of how Mys c Spear warriors fought
now, but knew he could s ll be surprised. He could remember Lim
destroying his en re body in the Mys c Spear Academy before, but
didn’t know what technique that had been. This man was dangerous
and probably had plenty of tricks.

He con nued to cau ously watch Lim, wondering what the other man
was going to do when suddenly Lim reared back and threw his spear.
Unlike when Territ Mond had thrown his spear, which had traveled like a
cannon shot, Lim's spear dri ed high in a graceful arc before coming
down and spli ng into three spears. Then the three split into nine. All
the spears split again and again, un l the en re sky seemed dark with
copies upon copies of spears.

Max manifested Blackmist Incident’s shield on his free arm, but realized
it wasn't going to be enough, especially since each spear seemed to truly
be a copy of the original, carrying some sort of mys c, destruc ve ability
channeled into it. Mee ng the a ack head on would not be wise. Max
jumped straight up un l he reached the ceiling of the grey dome.
Without me for hesita on, he kicked off the grey shell surrounding the
ba lefield, sailing as close to the top of the dome as he could, barely
clearing all the spears. Then with a thought, his armor transformed into
the glider form that he had used before to great effect.

He was tempted to throw beads at his opponent but resisted the urge.
Max was confident that he could win this fight without revealing his
third Path or the presence of the remnants spirits he bonded with. But
he was also le without Trill's full set of abili es and synergies, since she
was constantly shielding Max from prying eyes. This fight was definitely
shaping up to be difficult.

Lim glowered at Max. The original spear he'd thrown returned to his
hand. It seemed to func on differently than Momo’s throwing knives,
but the result was the same; Lim could throw his spear and retrieve it
almost instantly. However, Max no ced that the original thrown spear
had hit the ground before Lim retrieved it. When Lim didn't throw
another salvo at Max, it suggested that the a ack had the limita on of a
 me requirement or Lim being without a weapon un l the throw
landed. This suggested at least one disadvantage, which was good. The
hail of thrown spears earlier had been one of the most terrifying a acks
that Max had seen since his death on Albion.

Before he completely closed with the wai ng Lim, Max terminated the
hang glider form of Lavinia’s spirits and returned them to armor around
his body. He planned to touch down a decent distance away; close
enough to close, but far enough to react to any more strange a acks…
hopefully.

Max stayed wary, ready for anything–when Lim suddenly shoved his
spear straight down at the ground and the p exploded from the area
that Max was about to land, he was able to react in me. He quickly
turned his arm armor into large sails and scooped the air as Slick
reduced his fric on with the air in front of him. As a result, he shot
forward about ten feet right before landing, easily clearing the point of
Lim's spear.

But the moment he landed, the other man thrust his spear into the
ground again, this me at an angle. Max barely managed to li one
armored shin in me to deflect the spear to one side, pushing his body
away from the impact. The impromptu wings he'd created returned to
his forearms, and Max narrowed his eyes. He pumped his muscles full of
mana and shot forward.

This would definitely have to be a close-quarters fight. Lim had too

many long-range op ons, and Max had none unless he wanted to give
away the full extent of his abili es in this ba le.

A spear suddenly shot out of the ground directly in front of Max at an

angle for his stomach, but he was able to easily pivot to one side, doing
a complete spin in the air before coming back down and gracefully
resuming his run. Now that he knew what to look for, Lim's stabbing the
ground was a tell that he was about to deliver a ground-based a ack.
When the man suddenly jabbed his spear to one side, Max intuited
what that would mean before the weapon suddenly appeared out of
thin air directly in front of his face. He managed to slide under the a ack
rela vely easily, using Slick's power again, and hopped up to deliver a
savage strike at his opponent.

Lim dodged the a ack and immediately responded with a glowing spear
thrust that Max recognized, the a ack that killed him before in the
Mys c Spear Path Academy. Max remembered the explosive nature of
the a ack. With Slick's help, skated to one side over the ground,
protec ng one side of his body as best he could with Blackmist
Incident’s shield before Lim’s spear p detonated in a cone of mys c
destruc on. Max was in an awkward angle to bring his sword to bear, so
as he flashed past, he kicked Lim with all the strength he could muster.

There was a sa sfying crunch as something broke.

New iner a from his a ack almost made him fall, but Max turned the
tumble into a flip back to his feet at the same me that Lim recovered.

The two of them stared at each other, neither showing much expression.
This was a truly dangerous opponent. Lim eyes were vacant as he
focused on everything and nothing, the same as Max. Then the two of
them sprang towards each other.

Suddenly, Max was in an incredibly intense, high-speed series of parries

and strikes as he stamped back and forth with his enemy. The rapid
blows le zero margin for error. Lim’s spear was incredibly agile and
always seemed to be aimed for his vitals. But Max never stayed s ll. And
despite his opponent's surprising physicality, Max had more skill and
experience.

Despite being a three star mana body, Max was shocked. The moment
he'd first clashed properly with Lim like this, he'd realized that the other
man was significantly physically stronger than him. Max could adapt.

S ll, the fact that Lim could actually outperform him physically was
worthy of respect, especially for someone who had presumably been
studying his Path for less than seven years. Max felt grudging respect for
his opponent. As somebody who'd once been called a genius among
geniuses, Max wasn't sure that he had reached this level of power
within the same meframe during his first life.

The fight turned into an increasing test of speed and skill, with both
Max and Lim barely turning aside strikes that were as savage as they
were precise. Lim darted back and forth, showing great footwork as he
tried to keep Max in the ideal range to blow into pieces with his charged
spear a ack. Max didn’t let him, instead elec ng for close quarters
clashes that resulted in flashing blades and gravity-defying leaps to
avoid strikes.

Whenever their weapons collided, the air vibrated.

At some point, Max realized that he was actually having fun. He hadn't
expected this fight to be quite so difficult, even without using his full
power. If he needed to, he planned on pulling out all the stops. The fact
this thought even ran through his mind was exci ng. He s ll didn’t think
he’d need to, but if so, he was going to have to work a lot harder to earn
his victory.

Gales of razor-sharp power buffeted his body, but his armor protected
him, and his three-star mana body resisted damage. When he did get
small cuts, they healed very quickly, prac cally before they had a chance
to bleed more than a drop. On top of that, Max's mana-bathed body
didn't re in the slightest. Lim was performing solidly too, but Max could
s ll remember life-and-death fights on Albion where the deciding factor
between who won and who died was no cing the smallest of changes.

He stayed vigilant and calm.

As Max con nued to bat aside deadly blows and flip his sword in
complicated, dazzling strikes, he realized that if he was only a three star
mana body Blade Sorcerer, he would probably not be able to win this
fight. For the first me since Max had come to the Quartet, he got to
truly feel how much of a force mul plier his different Paths were. The
fight with Territ Mond had u lized all three of his Paths, but Territ had
been too far from his current power level. He’d needed to fight a true
peer.
Lim was undoubtedly a genius. What's more, Max didn't feel any
personal enmity from him or against him. Even though the man had
been the one to kill him in the Spear Academy, it didn't feel like any of
his lethal a acks aimed at Max were personal; he'd likely just done what
he felt he needed to do, and Max respected that as well.

Figh ng a truly skilled opponent who was worthy of respect–one could

not ask for more.

The two combatants flashed around the ring, and Max felt glad that
he'd chosen Blackmist Incident. The added buckler on his other hand
had proven invaluable mul ple mes now. Lin's ability to stab the
ground and try hi ng Max from one of his blind spots was proving
extremely tricky and had almost go en him twice now. Both mes the
buckler had saved the day. Max was tempted to infuse it with the idea
of disrup on courtesy of Dura, but he restrained himself. He had no
doubt that word of this match would get out to his future compe tors,
regardless of whether Adjudicator Swan had made everyone swear to
secrecy or not. There were always ways.

Max bounded straight up in the air, avoiding a par cularly nasty

explosive thrust from Lin. As the other man glanced up to track him,
Max threw his buckler down with all his strength. The conjured shield
wouldn't last long in the material world without Max’s physical contact,
but it wouldn't need to. With a wet thud, it hit Lin directly in the face,
breaking his nose and cu ng him above one eyebrow. Lin was too
skilled to let that break his concentra on, and he sprang backward with
his spear held in front of him in a guard. But Max took advantage of the
change in the man's rhythm to dart to one side, then come slashing in
with a truly merciless, mana-charged a ack. Lin barely managed to block
the blow with his spear, but the energy of it s ll knocked him backward.

Then, Lin used a technique that Max hadn't seen yet, perhaps out of
despera on. If Max had never seen the move before, it might have
caught him unawares, but it was one of the techniques that Tarrit Mond
had used before to great effect.
Lin seemed to vanish, leaving nothing but an a erimage. Max couldn't
see the man, so he didn't try. Instead, he crouched and pivoted, blocking
with his sword behind him and his buckler before him. He got lucky, and
Lin's wide swing rebounded off Max's sword. He turned, swinging his
freshly conjured buckler and hit Lin in the elbow. Bones sha ered. Even
though Max hadn’t directly used Saliron’s power yet, the dark spirit
giggled and whispered with excitement from the exchange.

Before the other man could recover, Max snapped his shield arm out
and willed his ectoplasmic armor into a whip that extended from his
fists. Centrifugal force helped a line wrap around Lin's raised arm before
Max yerked his enemy back. His sword gli ered in a ght semicircle
slash.

A heartbeat later, Max was past his opponent with one of Lin's arms
hanging from his conjured whip. Lin had his spear in his good hand, but
the man seemed to know the loss of his arm was the beginning of the
end. Max discarded the arm to one side, never taking his eyes off of Lim.
He stayed wary. Their next few lightning-quick exchanges slowed by a
hair each me, un l Max was able to get inside the other man's guard
and hack almost all the way through one knee.

He had no desire to treat Lin as anything less than an honored

opponent. A er all, when the man had killed Max before, he'd had good
reason to do so and had ended it quickly. Max's blade flipped out,
taking Lin's head. And just like that, the match was over.

As Max stood pan ng lightly, he thought about how far he'd come since
he'd first stepped foot in the Quartet. Before when had hadn’t even
been a single-star mana body, he probably would not have even been
able to follow Lin's movements. Even as a two-star mana body, he would
have been hopelessly outclassed. It was only as a three-star mana body
that he had the speed, strength, endurance, and toughness to handle a
fight like this, much less win, without taking any serious wounds himself.

The dome around the ring disappeared.

There were no celebra ons around the en re room. Most of the
expressions Max could see were of disbelief or astonishment, except for
a smug expression on Mong Hao’s face. The headmaster nodded at him.

A er a flash of light, Lin reappeared on the resurrec on pla orm with a

complicated expression on his face. He held out a hand and his spear
zipped across the space from the arena, smacking into his palm.
Administrator Swan witnessed this before slowly turning to announce
Max’s win with a stunned expression. It seemed to be a cue that broke
the spell over the onlookers.

There was zero fanfare.

With surprising speed. all four groups that had entered the
underground training area began to leave. Mong Hao Han gestured Max
over to their group, and Max complied, hurrying over and wondering if
he was expected to walk all the way back to the dorms with messed-up,
blood-covered clothing.

It turned out he didn’t. Professor Grave Call gave him a pris ne white
over robe to put over his soiled clothing. Dressed in this way, in silence,
Max marched back to the Summoner academy with his group. Once they
were in the Academy proper, past the road, the headmaster nodded at
Max. "Good job, Max Cunningham, you have done our academy proud.
Everyone, dismissed."

All at once, Max was suddenly bone red. He hadn’t had a life or death
fight quite like he’d just experienced in a long me. His friends seemed
to sense his fa gue and le him alone. They had to have a million
ques ons, so he appreciated their restraint.

Some of the other Summoner students in the group tried to talk to Max,
but he le without engaging with any of them.

On his way back to his dorm, Max reminded himself not to be arrogant,
but it did feel good to know that if he had fought Lim with his full
strength, the other man would not have stood a chance.
 Chapter 57

Max was roused from his slumber by Lavinia saying his name over and
over again.

“Max. Max. MAX!”

“Thought you weren’t coming in here when I sleep,” he mumbled.

“Normally, no. But someone is knocking at your door.”

“Time?” Max said as he looked at his tablet. It was two in the morning.
“Who in the hell would bother me now?” He yawned, s ll red from his
fights.

Max began ge ng out of bed, but he wasn't in a par cularly huge hurry.
He checked the messages on his tablet and saw that some of his friends
had met up the previous evening. Most of them had gone to bed early,
the same as Max. Due to the sensi ve nature of the exhibi on match,
nobody who had a ended was answering ques ons from friends who
didn't. That was going to be a can of worms later, figuring out how to
deal with a secret like that. Ul mately, there was probably no solu on
other than to tell those who weren't there that they couldn't talk about
what had happened. Max sincerely hoped it didn't cause any schisms in
the rela onships within his small, ght-knit friend group.

As he got up and began ge ng dressed, he also realized that since he

was going to be taking one of the senior division Summoner slots for the
end of year compe on. There might be social fallout from that later
too. Lovely, he thought, what a great way to wake up.

"Lavinia," he said out loud, "could you check to see who it is at the
door?"
"Of course," she said.

Moments later, she came back, her voice ght. "It's Adjudicator Swan
and Professor Munka."

"What!?" He got dressed faster.

Lavinia con nued wai ng from her respec ul posi on outside the door.
Of course, as a spirit, she could easily move through the door or spy on
Max if she wanted to, but Max was sure she wasn't, and her rela ve
posi on was just for Max's sake.

Through the door of his room, Lavinia said, "It looked like Adjudicator
Swan was trying to do something to your door directly, but a golem got
in her way. It's actually a different golem that's knocking on the door in
her stead. They aren’t le ng her get close anymore."

"Oh, hell," said Max. "Why is it always something?"

On his tablet, there were several other no ces and private messages
that he hadn't even had a chance to get to. But based on the deference
that the headmasters had shown Adjudicator Swan, he felt like keeping
her wai ng too long would not be a good idea.

Luckily, it didn't take him long to throw on clothes, shoes, and make sure
he had his weapon belt on. All of his many bracelets and anklets that he
wore prac cally never came off anymore, so he hadn't had to even
remember to put those on.

Max approached the door and opened it while schooling his expression.
He didn't truly respect any of the people involved with running the
Quartet at this point. However, he felt like there were s ll things he
could get from the Quartet system, and more importantly, he intended
to be figh ng in Quartet compe ons in the future. A er all, without
doing so, he figured finding a Path book would be much more difficult.
His deal with the Goddess Morrigan hadn’t been too bad so far, but he
would prefer to be a free man again one day.
Outside of his door, there were a total of three golems now. Adjudicator
Swan stood with her arms crossed, wearing the same formal robe that
she'd had on the last me Max had seen her. Professor Munka looked as
red and frazzled as Max felt. The sorceress definitely hadn't taken the
me to put herself together.

"Yes?" asked Max.

"Max Cunningham," said Swan, speaking his name like a ques on.

"Yes, that's me," said Max. "You saw me less than a day ago, Adjudicator,
so I believe you know what I look like." Max carefully dialed his tone and
words to be just short of disrespec ul.

The Adjudicator narrowed her eyes. "I have come for something urgent,
and I am doing you a favor, but it doesn't ma er to me one way or the
other. So if you would prefer an Adjudicator of the Quartet system does
not personally help you, then I can easily leave. That would be a pity,
since I have taken the me to come here at an odd hour of the night,
and even woken up Professor Munka to help."

Max blinked. "You're helping me?"

"Indeed." Swan gave Max a half-bow. "Allow me to introduce myself to

you again. I am Adjudicator Swan. Un l the end of the selec on process,
my posi on comes with a great deal of responsibility, and some mes I
don't get much sleep, like now." She smiled thinly. "If you are ready to
step out, could you please come with me, Max?"

"Where are we going?" he asked, but he le his dorm and shut the door.

"There's no me to explain," said Swan. "Professor Munka, could you

please create a portal to the loca on we discussed before?"

"Yes, Adjudicator," said Professor Munka.

Underneath her fa gue and professional tone, Max definitely caught an

edge of irrita on from Munka. So he was not the only one, it seemed,
that was a bit frustrated and possibly confused about what was going
on. However, since Max had met the Headmasters in the woods before,
and he'd just had his exhibi on match, he had a few suspicions about
what this could be. Having another mee ng at this point would sort of
make sense. He wished that he'd taken a li le bit more me to make
himself look presentable, but there was no point in worrying about it
now.

Professor Munka made a portal. Swan gestured for Max to go through

first, and he did. On the other side, Swan followed him and began
fiddling with her clothing as they waited for Munka to come through
last. Max briefly glanced around, no cing that the portal had opened up
in the Summon forest, almost near the edge of the en re quartet.

Munka stepped through her own portal and it winked out. The woods
grew darker once the magic dissipated. Adjudicator Swan said, “Pay
a en on. Our guests will be approaching from that direc on.” She
pointed. Both Max and Professor Munka glanced curiously in the
indicated direc on.

Suddenly, Max got a flash of intui ve warning at the same me as

Lavinia mentally pinged him, panicked. A wet sound to one side dragged
his vision over and his eyes widened in shock.

Professor Munka’s throat had been cut.

In Swan's hand, she held a black blade, a dagger that Max recognized, or
at least he recognized its type. Apparently, Professor Munka did too,
because the surprise that was already in her eyes as she held her ruined
throat turned to absolute terror. A strange mist outlined her body and it
was obvious to Max that she could not move a muscle. As she was
helpless, Adjudicator Swan slow walked forward, then used the black
dagger again, stabbing it into the professor’s heart. Only then did the
mist disappear and Munka fell to the ground.

Max couldn't move either. The same mist was covering his body. In the
back of his mind, Lavinia screamed in warning, but it was too late. A
wave of loathing ran through Max as he realized how thoroughly he had
let his guard down. Especially a er everything he'd been through in the
last year, there was no excuse for this, and he had to put a fresh wave of
hatred for himself to the side. Bea ng himself up in this situa on was
not going to help him save himself.

At the same me, he realized with shock that an ac on was open to him,
an ability he probably should have used the day before. He opened his
third eye and properly examined Swan. The informa on he saw made
his blood run cold. It read:

Ni Na Long Swan

Quartet Adjudicator, rank 3

Aura Sorcery Path.

Champion of Demeter.

She's a freaking champion, thought Max. He remembered the weird

feeling he’d had when he’d first seen her. Now he knew what that likely
meant.

He cut off his third eye and desperately tried to move his body, but
nothing was working. Swan tapped the blade of the bloody dagger on
her other palm. Now that the leather case on her side was open, Max
could see the handles of several other daggers as well, even some colors
he hadn't seen before in his visions.

"This is going to be quite difficult to deal with, you know," said Swan,
conversa onally.

Max tried to respond, but his mouth wouldn't open. He could feel that
the mist around him was slowing down and interfering with his mana.
He tried a simple effort of will to create wind by pushing out his mana,
trying to push his mana, to blow away some of the mist, but nothing
happened. On top of that, his connec on with his spirits felt different,
fuzzy. They were s ll there, they knew what was going on too. All of
them were asking ques ons, including Slim, using text boxes, but Max
couldn't respond, not even mentally, and he could clearly feel what had
happened. His connec ons with his spirits had been broken, or at least
temporarily damaged. As a result, none of them had any power.

Max couldn't do anything but glare at Swan. She no ced his fierce
expression and smiled in return. "Oh, don't worry, I'll be fine. I will admit
that this is going to bring some heat down on me. A er all, an
absolutely extraordinary student like yourself would be a prime
candidate to be taken to the Tower. And I'm sure the powers that be
here will complain once you are dead. But, you have already shown that
you are not shy about killing others in the Quartet. Yes? I can merely say
that I took you out here to interview you, and poor Professor Munka
was your first vic m. Then what could I do but fight for my life?

“In the end, I wrested back the transfer tool that you stole from me and
ended your life just like you killed poor Professor Munka. And, since we
were portaled to an area that I scouted out before and already seeded
with my aura, there will not be any spirits around to witness this, except
of course your own. Your spirits will be missing, though. There will be no
way for your professors to find them, much less bond with them, much
less get any kind of coherent story from them." She grinned. "Oh, and
just in case you feel like you can do something right now," she pointed
at a thin layer of mist that seemed to cover her own body. "I have been
doing this for a while. I may not be the strongest Challenger or
Champion in this universe or any other, but I'm good at planning, I'm
good at taking risks when I need to, and more importantly, I'm good at
using the power that I have."

She smiled broadly and took a step towards him. Her hand on the black
dagger ghtened. "Goodbye, Max. Again, it's a pity, but this isn't
personal, and by killing another challenger, I'll be rewarded. Since you
are somehow a champion yourself, I shouldn't have to explain this to
you."

As she drew her arm back to strike, Max's life flashed before his eyes—
two life mes—and he was struck by how similar in some ways this
situa on was to how he died as Chasa de Milo. But even though he'd
been much stronger in his first life, he had more varied op ons now. He
wasn't sure if any one idea he'd come up with would free himself, so he
did several things at once.

Trill's power was the only one of his spirits’ powers that constantly
ac ve. The concealment barrier, the bubble that she could generate, was
just under his skin's surface for Max. So although the mana-inhibi ng
aura around Max played havoc with everything else, Trill's barrier had
been unaffected. It was not part of his body, was not outside his body,
and the power to maintain it had already been used. It didn't need to
draw on any more power.

Max could also u lize the ideas that he'd received from the Remnant
spirits. From Tom, he'd go en a faster, sharper mind, perfect clarity, and
be er memory, all of which he was using at the moment, making his
thoughts race, finding op mal solu ons to every problem he could
imagine in the space of a frac on of a second.

He applied Dura's concept of disrup on to Trill's barrier, then expanded

it. He also detached several explosive beads that dropped. The blast
from each bead hit Max at almost the same me. If he hadn't been a
three-star mana body, that might have taken him out of the fight. As it
was, it just threw him to side and hurt like hell, but he began
regenera ng immediately. Granted the healing, it was slow, but he
would be able to fight.

His efforts allowed him access to some of his mana. He dumped mana
into his leg muscles, helping him absorb the shock of being blasted
away, and to keep his balance. His mana body fluctuated wildly, affected
nega vely by Adjudicator Swan’s power. Using his mana was like walking
a ghtrope while running. But Max was extremely experienced with
mana management. Instead of burning himself out, he navigated the
danger and came out the other side, strengthened and focused.

Swan screamed. The explosions hurled her backwards, and Max was
gladdened to see that she was missing at least part of one bicep, and
half her hair had been burned away. One eye was closed, too. She
wasn't on the ground long, though. A new, red aura flared and she
floated up. Now there were more auras gathering around her. Another
shade of red appeared.

Max figured that as both a Champion and an Adjudicator, she was no

slouch. She had caught him unaware and had been toying with him
before out of arrogance. It would be a rookie move right now for Max to
fight defensively. Nobody was going to save him. Swan needed to die–
fast. A er all, not only was she likely much more powerful than Max, but
she also had an incomparably superior social standing in the Quartet.

Braving the rapids of his stabilizing mana body yet again, Max pumped
power into Trill's bubble, extending it a bit further, just past where Swan
was standing. It didn't affect her growing auras much, but they did
flicker, which was something. At the same me, Max threw a handful of
beads at Swan that included explosive beads, freezing beads, and shock
beads. Elemental beads had opened up for him a er reaching his three-
star mana body. He didn't have as many of them as his explosive beads,
but they could be used in a more versa le manner.

This was not a well thought out, strategic a ack. He was just throwing a
whole bunch of beads and hoping for the best. Luckily, the extra work
he’d put into his mana body helped him se le the power raging through
his body a bit, which was good because without some sort of reprieve,
he was probably going to destroy himself with the next thing he did.

Max pulled mana from his mana vault, supercharging his body and
empowering Blackmist Incident un l his sword hummed.

Power shone from his blade as Max sprang forward. With a sneer on her
face, visible through the smoke of Max's bead atack, Swan directed
clouds of aura at Max. When he ran through them, it felt like he was hit
by a train over and over again. But his mana body held. Each me an
aura struck him, he lost a bit of his power, but he'd been so saturated
with energy that by the me he reached the astonished Swan, fear in
her eyes, he s ll had plenty to spare.

His sword flashed down savagely, cu ng off Swan's arm at the elbow.

Then, he reversed his swing, coming back to hit her in the ribs with the
pommel of his sword. He put all of his strength and body weight into the
strike. Mul ple things broke, and the would-be killer flew to the side,
rolling in the undergrowth, blood spraying from her mouth.

Max had lived too long and too dangerous a life to stop there. He bent
down, picked up the black dagger that was s ll held in Swan's clenched
hand, and ran at where the woman lay in the undergrowth before
slamming the dagger home into her chest. The strike was true; it found
her heart, and her one open eye almost immediately glazed over in
death. The various auras surrounding Max winked out as quickly as
they’d appeared.

Once all of the alien magic was gone, Max sat down heavily on the forest
floor in the darkness.

This was probably the closest he'd come to death since he'd been
reborn, and all because he let his guard down. He shook his head at that
thought. It pained him to admit it, but perhaps having his guard down
and seeming like such easy bait had actually saved his life. If instead of
holding him helpless to stab him, Swan had a acked with everything she
had, he probably wouldn't have been able to turn the situa on around.

He no ced that Professor Munka's body hadn't begun disappearing yet.

She was dead for good, just like Max had seen in the vision. So was
Swan. But the system didn't seem to know how to deal with it right
away. Finally, a screen popped up in his vision.

Congratula ons! You have triumphed over a would-be murderer. Mana

units awarded. Error. Title awarded. Error. No fica ons sent to quartet
officials blocked, unsent, error.

Max quirked his lips redly as he dismissed the windows. It seemed that
Swan had been very thorough in her prepara ons to kill him. She'd
acted quickly, and Max figured that this was the fastest that she'd been
able to come retrieve him a er making sure she'd given herself an alibi
and blocked any poten al witnesses, even doing something to block the
system itself. As an adjudicator, she probably had some sort of
moderator privileges that she'd abused.
Suddenly, another window popped up.

Eternal struggle reward system. You have...

The rest of the text was garbled. A new window from the quartet system
popped up that just read:

Error.

Max closed out the unfamiliar window that he assumed was from the
alien champion system, courtesy of the Morrigan.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," he whispered. He let his head roll back and
rest against a tree. There were two dead women on the ground nearby,
and Max was not naive enough to think that he could just tell everybody
what had happened and come away from this situa on unscathed. It
was me to enact his con ngency plan–a daring one at that.

But for now, he wanted–no—he needed to rest for a few seconds.

 Chapter 58

All of Max's spirits were arrayed in a semicircle around him. They were
not physically manifes ng, but Max could feel their presence all the
same. He said, "Everyone, I've told you before that we may have to leave
the Quartet one day in a hurry. My escape plans... Well, the me has
come. We're star ng an escape plan right now."

"Which one?" asked Lavinia, her voice unexpectedly devoid of emo on.

Max hesitated and said, "Number three."

She didn’t say anything in response immediately. A couple seconds

passed before she yelled, "You can't possibly be serious. We're not
ready. It's all untested!"

"Yes, but you agreed with me that it should work now.”

"I thought it would work before I died, too! I was wrong back then! I can
be wrong again!"

"Yeah, well," Max shrugged, "I believe in you, and I believe in me, and
I'm willing to risk it because these are worth it." He pointed at the line of
daggers on the ground that he'd secured from the sheath on Adjudicator
Swan’s body. There was a white dagger, a black dagger, a purple dagger, a
blue dagger, and a red one. He hadn't seen all these colors even in the
visions. He was curious about them, but now was not the me to be
examining magical ar facts.

"Are you sure you won't change your mind?" asked Lavinia.

"Not at all," said Max. "This is what we're doing."

Her voice was small as she asked, "What if you die?"

Max grinned and directed the expression at all of his spirits. "If I die,
then hopefully I'll end up coming back like you did, and we will all be
able to spend a lot more me together."

Saliron cackled. "Contractor, if you can become as a spirit, I can truly

teach you the joy of playing with bones."

"Of course, Saliron," said Max. "I was expec ng you to say something like
that."

"I am glad that I met your expecta ons, Contractor. Anything for the
bones," Saliron chuckled again.

Speaking of bones… Max reached into his pocket for one bone bead and
then threw it at his feet. He used a small burst of power from the mana
vault and help from Saliron. That one bead turned into a portal to his
storage area in seconds. Then, Max began throwing everything he could
find on the two corpses that might be useful into the portal, except for
the white dagger. Max concealed it in his clothing. The red-headed
professor hadn't had much on her except for a money pouch and a
journal. Everything went into the storage portal. Then Max deac vated
it.

The next thing he did was send an emergency message to all of his
friends in the Quartet, telling them to meet him at the rendezvous point
different from their normal training area. Max didn't think that anyone
was going to find out about Adjudicator Swan being killed within the
next hour, but there was no harm in being careful.

It was ironic that her own meddling was actually benefi ng Max now
that she was dead.

He said, "Lavinia, can you send this message out from my tablet every
minute or two? I set it up so you just need to push a bu on on my wrist.
The vibra ons on everybody else's wrist should make sure they get the
message. I know it's a weird me, but..."
"I've got it, Max. You can focus on what you need to."

"Okay, good," said Max. He filled his muscles with mana and ran all the
way to the rendezvous area where he would hopefully be seeing his
comrades soon. Sure enough, he began ge ng messages back from his
friends as they woke up and began coming. He'd never done anything
like this before, and some of his friends had been present at the
exhibi on match.

The first to arrive was the white-haired Gantry. He saw Max in the
darkness as he ran in and began to say something but must have
no ced the expression on Max's face. Instead of talking, he quietly
stood nearby, ge ng his breathing back under control as he scanned
their surroundings.

In his messages, Max had been very sparse on details. He just told
everyone that they needed to gather at the rendezvous place
immediately and that it was a ma er of life and death. The next to
arrive was Benjamin G. Northstrider. The big man nodded to Max in the
darkness and went to stand by Gantry Pliss.

Even though Max's students were not very advanced mana swordsmen,
the power accumulated in their bodies was enough to find their way in
the darkness well enough not to trip over everything. One by one, Max's
students trickled in.

When Momo arrived, she darted into the area and drew her weapons,
taking a posi on behind a tree. The fierce woman scanned their
surroundings, and Benjamin whispered, "What's got you so worked up,
Momo?"

"Don’t know what is going on. Max is covered in blood," she murmured.
All the other students that had gathered turned in surprise at Max. He'd
been hiding evidence of his fight with Adjudicator Swan.

Max winced. "That was from a while ago, but we're pressed for me. I
think we're okay for now, but I need to start this soon." Everybody
slowly nodded.
He waited another five minutes for everybody to gather. Eolas ran in at
the last possible moment, huffing and out of breath. He explained,
"Almost forgot my weapon, had to go back." Max rolled his eyes.

For a person who could be so focused when he wanted to be, Eolas had
a surprisingly klutzy side to him. Max was glad to see that all of his other
students had their weapons on them. Of course, they probably didn't
have anywhere to leave them since they lived in the normal dorms and
had to take everything they owned with them everywhere they went.
But as far as he knew, everyone he gi ed a weapon to had used the
mana units Max gave them to imprint it on their souls. That meant a er
they le the Quartet, their weapon would appear next to them
regardless of what world they went to. Another advantage of the
imprin ng was, if someone stole an imprinted weapon and never got
the soul anchor rewri en, it would s ll appear next to the righ ul
owner a er they were back on their own world.

"Okay, listen up," said Max. "There are some things I'm going to tell you,
but there are some things I s ll can't tell most of you. The highlights of
how everything just got messed up is that Adjudicator Swan and
Professor Munka... neither of them is going to come back. They're both
fully dead."

There were gasps all around. But Gantry asked, "How do you know
that?"

"I just know," said Max. He shook his head. "This is one of the things I
can't tell you guys yet. I'm sorry. But trust me, I'm not withholding
informa on to be mysterious. It's to protect you. And that kind of leads
into this next part. I am planning to leave the Quartet tonight. My route
is going to be a li le bit more dangerous, but I now have the knowledge
and the means to send any of you back to your world immediately if you
would like me to. And I am going to be honest, I don't know what's going
to happen here in the Quartet in the next few days, hell, maybe even
the next few months.

“Maybe just being my friend probably means that you'll be in danger,

too. I promise you, I swear on my world that I didn't do anything wrong.
There are things going on in the en re Quartet system that I cannot tell
you. I fear that if any of you stay in the Quartet, you will become targets,
and I don't want that on my conscience. However, I know that this is
your life, your choice, and your responsibility to your world. If you want
to stay here, that is fine. But if you would like me to send you back to
your world now, tonight, you need to make a decision."

"Is there anything more that you can tell us?" asked Eolas. "Anything at
all? Come on, Max, you're not giving us much to work with here."

Max shook his head. "I thought about it before you all got here, and I
truly don't think it would be a good idea to fill you in on everything. If
you would like me to try finding you again a er I'm back on my own
world and reunite with you, to bring you to me, I will a empt to do so."

In the darkness, Max no ced a few of his students glance at each other.
Nobody said anything. Max got up and began walking back to the
academy. He said, "In one half hour, if you want to leave the Quartet,
come to my dorm. I believe all of you know where it is. A er an hour is
up, maybe less, this window will close.”

“So that’s it?” asked Tessa Alvarez.

“That’s it. I'm sorry for the short no ce and I'm sorry for the short me
to decide, but I am truly in danger right now, real danger, not even the
kind— Actually, no, I am not going to elaborate on that. Please do not
message me on our tablets ever again a er this. Actually, maybe if it’s
truly an emergency." He smiled without humor. "That's it, everyone. Go
make your decisions."

Benjamin raised a hand and hissed, "Only a half-hour? Even if I run full
speed back to the academy, change, and get to your dorm, I won’t have
much me to spare."

"Yeah, well, be er hurry," said Max. Several of his students looked at

each other, looked at Max, and then began jogging back to the academy.
Max walked at a brisk but reasonable pace and gave Momo, Gantry, and
Lance a ght smile. The three of them ran with him all the way straight
back to his dorm.

***

"Okay, everyone, wait out here while I prepare some things," Max went
into his dark room in his dorm and shut the door behind him.

He heard Gantry whisper to Lance, "Did you always know that Max's
dorm was like this?"

"Yup," said Lance. "Why do you think I came over here all the me? I
mean, Momo was obvious because she wants into Max's pants. But
yeah, I came over here to hang."

"...Wanted in his pants?" Gantry asked. Then he chuckled. Momo sniffed,

obviously conveying that she was above their banter. The joking seemed
to break some of the tension that Max's friends were under, and all
three of them began so ly laughing before focusing again.

In the dark room, he took a piece of bone out of his pocket, quickly
making a storage gate. Then he threw everything in his room that he'd
accumulated into the portal. A er this, a er he dealt with his friends, he
planned to stow all of his clothing and most of the furniture from his
dorm. Since his storage area was large enough, he planned to steal
everything that wasn't nailed down. Finally, he closed the magical
structure again. He tucked the white dagger that he’d taken off
Adjudicator Swan’s corpse into the back of his belt.

Max went to the door and opened it. In all his two lives, Max had never
experienced murdering one of his friends. This was going to be a first.
Unfortunately, he couldn't even tell them what he was going to do
because it would take me and possibly even cause me-was ng
problems.

He had to move fast. Eventually, someone was going to figure out

Adjudicator Swan's was dead. Max had zero illusions that once that
informa on came out, he would be a prisoner. Although he was likely
the strongest student in this quartet now, he had zero confidence in his
ability to fight an army of professors, including the four headmasters.
There as also the possibility of a squad of other adjudicators showing
up…or worse.

And even if he won, then what? There's always a bigger fish. No, he
needed to escape, and he wanted to help his friends who were willing to
take the plunge as well. In the back of his mind, he accepted that he
might be screwing them over. Perhaps when everything shook out, none
of them would be in any trouble or be persecuted at all. But he
somehow doubted that.

What was hardest about what he planned to do was that he'd need to
start with Momo. Otherwise, the moment she entered the room, she'd
smell the fresh blood and understand. He also didn’t want any of them
to be scared. They trusted him. He felt like a bastard, but he could use
that to make it easier for them. Max went to the door. He asked them all
to remove their tablets. He’d put them into his storage soon. Then he
called Momo in.

"What do I do?" she asked. "How does this work?"

"Just trust me," said Max. "It's surprisingly simple, just not a whole lot of
fun."

"Will it hurt?"

"Yes, probably. I won't lie to you, but at least I'm pre y sure I know what
I'm doing, so it won't be too bad."

"Okay, I trust you," she said.

Max’s heart lurched. He felt a pang of guilt before ruthlessly suppressing

it. Then he led her over to one corner of the room. He instructed, "Face
the corner. Fold your arms in front of your chest, close your eyes, and
relax. I need to form the circle behind you."
"Okay," she replied. As she folded her arms, she said, "Don't forget your
promise. One way or another, find me. I want to go to your world."

"I won't forget," Max said. "I promise."

He drew the white dagger from behind his belt, and his arm flashed
forward horizontally, plan ng the blade all the way through Momo's
skull. A pale light began to glow the moment the blade entered, and it
grew brighter as Momo died. Seconds later, there was a muted flash,
and Momo’s body was gone. Max almost dropped the dagger. He stared
at the area where Momo had just been standing and reached up with
one hand to wipe away the dampness in his eyes. Other than a small
mis ng of blood on his hand and arm, and a bit on the wall, there was
no evidence she’d even just been standing there.

"Well, this isn't fun," he mu ered.

Part of him wanted to wonder if he was doing the right thing again.
Another part of him wanted to dwell on his uncertainty in any proof
that the white dagger did what he believed it did. He ignored the voices.
If he was wrong, his friends might resurrect in a week, or maybe they'd
find themselves waking up in an unfamiliar Quartet.

As long as he was not killing them for good or sending them to the
“Tower,” it was not the end of the line. If he was right about all of this,
he might be saving them a lot of pain and suffering—suffering that he
would have caused. And besides, at least one of his friends had wanted
this all along.

Max went to the door and called in Lance.

Two more mes he stabbed the dagger through one of his friends’
heads, a feat that was easy for him as a three star mana body Blade
Sorcerer. Each me he did it, he focused, making sure that it was a clean
hit, that nothing was amiss. A er the last of them, Gantry, had
disappeared, Max tossed a bone on the floor, making the portal to his
storage again. He tossed the white dagger inside.
Max wished that he didn't feel so terrible and wasn't ha ng himself so
much right now. But he was also glad that he’d followed through.
Ironically, if he couldn't kill some of his best friends without feeling
conflicted about it, he wasn't sure if he could have lived with himself
anymore.

None of his other friends had shown up. He wasn’t sure how to feel
about that.

Max got up. He didn't realize that he'd taken a seat in the middle of the
floor. He went to the door and then robo cally began gathering up
everything in his dorm that was worth pu ng into his storage. As he
did, a screen popped up in his vision. It read,

Slick: I'm sorry, but I think you did the right thing.

A moment later, Lavinia's voice whispered in his ear, "I'm so sorry, Max.
Do you want to talk?"

"No," he mu ered. "Too much to do. Maybe if everything works out,

maybe later. But not right now."

"I understand," she said.

Max felt a mental pat from Trill and sent the li le spirit back a wave of
gra tude. As he was gathering up the sheets and bedding in his room to
take back to the portal, in the back of his mind, Saliron said, I don't
understand the problem. You even let them keep their bones.

***

Max felt more naked than he had in a long me as he low-crawled

through the bush outside the secret entrance to Lavinia's laboratory. He
had stowed all of his weapons, put almost everything in storage. The
only thing he was currently armed with was a pencil in his pocket and
his dubious wits.
He made it to the secret doorway, closed it, moved down the hallway to
Lavinia's old laboratory, and then shut that door behind him too. Lavinia
appeared to his standard sight with her hands on her hips, in a long
frilly skirt and a "Born to be Wild" t-shirt. The former summoner said, "I
can't believe you are actually going through with this."

"What else am I supposed to do?" Max asked. "I could try falling on the
white dagger, but I don't know if it'd work. And even if it did, I'd be
leaving it behind. I'm not willing to do that. The only way that I can get
out of here and keep everything that I just literally killed for is to use
your machine to return to my world."

"That worked out so great for me," said Lavinia. “Remember?”

"You weren't really trying to return," said Max. "You were trying to fight
the flow of the Quartet, of the universe directly. We've already talked
about this before."

"We've never tested it though," said Lavinia.

"That's because we couldn't, Lavinia. You know that. It's not like we have
some handy students that we can throw in this thing and risk their lives.
No, it's got to be my life that I'm risking. But we've worked on this thing
for months."

"Weeks," corrected Lavinia.

"Weeks. But you've had hundreds of years to study it. And I had a new
perspec ve. I believe in this machine. I believe in you."

"Yes, well, I believed in myself too. And I wound up wandering around

feeling sorry for myself for a few centuries."

Max laughed at her tone. "Well, I did think about that and you know
what? If we're wrong, maybe I'll turn into something like you and then
we can haunt each other."
Lavinia stopped her pacing and gave him an arched look. "Are you
serious about that?"

"Of course I am," said Max.

"You would s ll spend me with me even if we weren't contracted

anymore?"

"Of course," Max reassured her. "Like I told you, we're friends. Friends
for life. Forever."

Lavinia smiled radiantly at him and looked at her feet. Max added,
"Besides, if my situa on is exactly like yours, you'll s ll be contacted to
me just like your spirits are. So, I guess I'd be a high level spirit."

Her head shot up. "I hadn't even considered that.” A number of
emo ons splashed across her face. “Would that even be possible?"

"I have no idea," said Max, "and I'd rather not die to find out. Or at least
not permanently. But I think I'm going to have to die just like my friends
just did, at least temporarily, in order to make this thing work."

"Okay." She quietly said, “I’m scared.”

“I’m scared too. But the only sure way to never grow and to never
survive ght scrapes is to be too afraid to act.”

Suddenly, Max's tablet started chiming with rapid fire no fica on

sounds. He raised his eyebrows and stared at the thing. "I guess they
found out," he said. "I can't believe I forgot to get rid of this thing.” He
drew out a piece of bone from his pocket and created a storage gate
again.

"You should probably stop doing that so o en," said Lavinia. "Don't you
have to use a li le bit of mana from your mana gate every me you do
it?"

"Yes," said Max, "but that's only a problem here. If I somehow get back
to Earth, all I have to do is take that thing out for like an hour and it'll be
charged for a year."

"Good point," she said.

Max got a pensive expression before going back and forth about sending
one last text to Amy before leaving. He ul mately decided not to.
Whatever closure it might offer wouldn’t be worth the danger it might
put her in. Then he threw his tablet in its bracelet form into the
doorway of his storage space. A er that he cancelled the ability, making
the portal collapse. Now he truly had no tools or weapons on him.

"It's too bad that none of your other friends came to your dorm," said
Lavinia.

Max shook his head. "No, they made their choice. My conscience is clear
either way. Now I just need to hope that everything works out for
them."

He thought about Iolas's quick wit, Benjamin's huge frame, and Tessa's
confident smile. "Hell, maybe they'll end up winning the Junior Quartet
compe on or something. Sucks that I can't be there." Max went to one
table and fiddled with a box.

"What are you doing?" asked Lavinia. "I never did ask what you were
messing with over there before."

"Time work," grunted Max. He opened a small pocket in the contrap on

that he'd been working on off and on for several weeks. "It's been done
for a while now. I just didn't know how much boom to put in it."

"Boom?"

"Yeah, boom." Max showed her the fi y explosive beads squirreled away
inside the device. "Once I hit this bu on, five minutes later, all these
beads are going to go boom. Once I leave this room, one way or another,
nobody else will be able to use any of this stuff that we've worked on."
Lavinia stared at him. "Max, I will admit, some mes I forget that you
used to be Chasa de Milo. However, at mes like this, I'm reminded all
over again."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Max.

"If you ever read an Albion history book, at least from my era, you
would understand."

"Don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean," Max grumbled. He
checked his explosive device one more me, and then hit the bu on.
"Okay, this is it," he said.

Then he mounted the stairs to the pla orm in the middle of the room
and sat in the cold metal chair surrounded by magical scripts and glyphs.
He closed the restraints over his feet and legs, closed one over his arm
and wrists, and Lavinia's spirits helped him close the last over his other
arm and wrist. Then he said, "All spirits, all aboard, or else I have no
idea what's going to happen to you."

A moment later, he ensured that all of his spirits were safely tucked
away inside his soul. Then he said a silent prayer to Lady Luck and, a er
a moment of hesita on, shrugged and said, "Fuck it." Then he sent a
quick prayer to the goddess Morrigan.

"Goodbye, Quartet," he said out loud. "I wish I could say it was all fun."

Max yelled, "Adios!" He used his mana to ac vate the machine around
him. Brilliant purple lights sprang up, running through all the glyphs and
magical text around the machine un l it reached the chair itself.
Suddenly, it felt like Max was being stretched in every direc on at once
and compressed about a thousand mes per second. The sensa on
didn't last long before he knew no more.

In the room, Max vanished off of the chair. Four minutes later, the
explosives he'd rigged up detonated, taking out the room and doing
extensive damage to the floor of the building above. If not for the heavy
protec on magic on the structure, it likely would have smashed through
the floor and done a great deal of damage to the building.

The biomechanical generator on one wall was not so much as scratched.

 Chapter 59

Max woke up in an alley, behind a dumpster. He was lying down in

something smelly. He got to his feet and peeled off his soiled clothing.
Then he reached into his pocket on the ground to grab the handful of
bone beads he’d had in there. Max threw one of the bones on the
ground that he'd retrieved, opening up his storage gate. Then he
withdrew one of his plain ou its, got dressed, and also removed his
sword and belt. His handful of bone storage-opening beads went into
his pocket again, and he put his bracelets full of beads back on his wrists
and ankles. Once he was properly armed again, Max closed the gate.

In the back of his mind, he wondered what was wrong. Something in the
back of his mind was nagging at him that something was off.

“Um, Max, the machine didn’t work,” said Lavinia. Her voice was a
whisper in his ear.

"What? Um, the machine didn't work. What do you mean it didn't
work?" Max's head s ll felt fuzzy. He rubbed his temple and looked
around him. Unless he was wrong, he was definitely back on Earth. At
least it sure smelled like Earth.

Lavinia's voice had a strange quality to it as she said, "Max, I need you
to find a place to sit down and clear your head, okay?" Max thought
that the spirit was overreac ng, but he shrugged and found a nearby set
of stairs to sit on. He put his chin in his hands and thought about
everything he'd just been through. He was pre y sure that he'd just died
again, but at least he was corporeal now. He hadn't turned into a spirit,
and he was pre y sure he was back on Earth. That meant that the
machine and his gamble had worked out.
Finally, what Lavinia had been trying to tell him hit him like a ton of
bricks. Max turned to look down the alley at where he'd appeared. His
dirty, bloody clothing was s ll on the ground, clothing that he'd been
wearing in the Quartet. "No fucking way," said Max. "No fucking way," he
repeated. He absently got up and ambled over the pile of soiled
clothing, aiming an empty palm down at it.

A few moments later the pile caught fire with a few pages of newspaper
it was res ng on.

"Yes," said Lavinia. "I believe you have somehow permanently come back
to your original world in your Quartet body."

"No fucking way," Max whispered. His original plan had been to find
some bones somewhere to make new beads to access his storage. In his
confusion, he’d reached into his pocket without thinking.

A moment later, a screen popped up in his vision.

Warning: anomalous existence detected. Warning: existence outside the

system detected. Temporary spirit student body found on Seedworld.
Possible solu ons: searching.

That window closed by itself, then another window popped up.

Equilibrium and balance func ons priori zed. Possible solu on found.
Original organic body... destroyed. Equilibrium re-established.

Then that window closed.

Finally, a third window popped up.

Congratula ons on returning to your world. Although your existence is

irregular, the system has been able to successfully correct for it. Good
luck in defending and saving your world. And thank you for using the
Quartet training system.

Then that window winked out by itself.

Max stared at the space the window had just been in and slowly shook
his head. "What the fuck?" He sat on the steps again for a few more
minutes un l he got a strange feeling. The sensa on he first felt when
he opened the gateway was building in the back of his mind. He
frowned, took a piece of bone out of his pocket, and threw it on the
ground, opening up the gateway again. Then he began removing things
un l the weird vibra on in his skull stopped.

He had almost all of the colored daggers on the ground in front of him
that he'd taken from Adjudicator Swan's corpse. Now he could feel
something from one of the daggers. It drew his a en on.

When his hand closed over the purple dagger, he heard a voice in his
mind. [Are you going to help me out of here or just stare at me?]

"Fuck!" yelled Max. He dropped the dagger onto the concrete. A rustling
caught his a en on, and he turned his head to see a newspaper being
dragged over to him by one of Lavinia's spirits. His eyes were drawn to
the date. Somewhat numbly, he said, "Not as bad as I thought it could
be." Then he threw the newspaper aside and stared at the purple
dagger a bit longer.

Finally, equal parts horrified and curious, Max bent down to pick the
dagger up again. [Please don't throw me again], said the dagger. The
voice in Max's head was cultured and dry. Now that he was spending
more me focusing on where the voice was coming from and felt a li le
bit less confused about the situa on in general, there were quali es
about it that he was familiar with. He frowned.

"Wait, are you a remnant spirit?" asked Max.

[Close, but not exactly. I have been trapped in here for a very, very long
me though. If you let me out, I promise that I will form a contract with
you, no strings a ached, just to get out of here. And also, because I saw
the whole thing. You killed an adjudicator. That means you are my type
of person!]
"If you're not a remnant spirit, but you feel like a remnant, and you're
talking about forming a contract with me, what the hell are you?" asked
Max.

[Oh, that's right, they tried to expunge that informa on from the
universe, at least about Summoners.] The voice unnecessarily cleared its
throat. [I am a divine remnant. It's somewhat embarrassing to say, but
yes, I used to be a god, and yes, what is le of me has been trapped in
this dagger, powering it for thousands of years. Now are you going to
break this thing, get me out, and let me help you set fire to the
universe? Or should I just go back to sleep?]

Max's jaw dropped. "What in the fuck?" He blinked rapidly and out loud
to the dagger said, "Before anything, I need to get some food first. Can
we pick this back up a er that?"

[Sure thing, buddy. It's not like I'm going anywhere. But a er what you've
done, they're going to come a er you eventually, so you be er think
fast.]

"This is just great," Max mu ered. He got up slowly and ambled out of
the alleyway, thinking about his friends and the Trifecta Guild. But food
came first. And although there were a lot of things he currently didn't
understand–although he ins nc vely believed the divine spirit in the
dagger about future struggles–he couldn't help but enjoy the thick mana
of Earth roiling around him, almost like an ocean of power.

He grinned in spite of himself as he hobbled down the street, his

muscles warming up again. If he could find his friends and find a safe
place to train for a while with this amount of mana in the atmosphere,
he was going to be a whole new man in a very short amount of me.
And a er that, if anybody came a er him with ill inten ons, well, that
would be their problem.

***

Back where Max had come from, the newspaper he was looking at
flipped over in the breeze. One of the ar cle headlines read:
“Future Uncertain for Disgraced Trifecta Guild”

Lavinia read the tle. It was lucky that she’d been able to pass down a
general command of the English language to her spirits that she’d
received from Max’s memories. She addressed her spirit. Thank you for
telling me.

No problem, boss!

Lavinia quietly sighed. Then the former Summoner hurried back to Max.
She was going to tell him what she’d just seen, eventually, but now was
not the me.

It could wait un l a er he ate.

-End of book 2, Past Life Hero