Two Golds, two Silvers, and four Bronzes. Grey looked at the Keys spread out in front of him. The Golds came from combining Silvers. He had yet to conquer a Gold solo yet. He didn’t think there was anyone in the city who could, either. Not even close.

Working solo was too slow, but neither did he have a group he could trust. The only remaining option was to steal from those who did, which left three targets. The ARA was a work in progress. He had to move carefully, else Jessica notice his intentions.

The other two were easier to steal from, but as he was an outsider, gaining information was proving difficult. Thankfully, he had already accounted for that.

With Rose’s death, their team had shrunk to four, meaning that Wells had been forced into a tough spot. She either joined the patrols herself or sent someone alone, and with injuries being common among them, they often had only one or two able-bodied people at a time. In short, Grey was under much less supervision than before.

He swept the Keys into his Inventory and looked out over the street below. He stood on the rooftop of a mid-sized finance company on the north side of town. It overlooked a certain casino, and Grey made notes in a small journal, occasionally pulling up a pair of binoculars to make out the fine details.

Guards stood outside the front doors, and a small wall of sandbags, concrete, and wire stood in front of them, blocking the casino off from the street. The Hunters had already eliminated the nearby Dungeons, so Dungeon Walker was not the solution to his problems. Yet. There was a Gold nearby that would soon expand to overlap with the casino, but that was maybe a few months off at best.

A familiar voice split the rooftop’s silence. “Grey, I need you to head on back.” Jessica’s voice rose from the walkie-talkie that sat on the ledge next to him. “Rodriguez has called the teams in. We’re hitting a Gold. Today is the debrief. Lazarus will pick up your duties for the day.”

“Alright.” Grey sighed and stored his journal. Tonight, he would have to look at the map he had drawn and think over it. After the Dungeon raid, he planned on checking the Guild’s main base, as well. He believed it was a former school.

He had worked with one of the craftsmen at the ARA’s main headquarters to repair his chitin armor, but the woman had taken one look at the gear and told him it needed more than repairs. That had been before Rose’s death, however, and he had only just got the new set back a week and a half later.

It was thinner than the one before, the chitin shaved to allow for more mobility and a tighter fit. A kevlar plate now lined his breastplate, and leather straps sat over it to hold his many knives. Perhaps he would spare the woman a place in what was to come. Good craftsmen were few at this point.

Jessica greeted him outside of the coffee shop. As always, she wore a smart suit with her chestnut hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Her eyes dissected him over a warm smile. She held out a hand.

He clasped her forearm instead. “Is everything good here?”

“Yes,” she said. “Did the patrol go well?”

“It did.”

“Good, good. I got that report back on your family you requested. We’re hoping they can be relocated soon.”

He nodded, knowing she spoke a lie. Jessica would never let his family come close to him, not until he proved he was not an enemy. Neither could he show much interest in saving them. He had to act uncaring. It was a problem to which he had no easy solution. Not yet.

“Thank you. Did they have anything to say to me?” he asked.

“Yes, I believe so. Their messages should be on the network.”

A Returnee had managed to develop an Evolution that allowed him to support an internet network, and the ARA’s forums had transitioned to it. Grey had already written down the Evolution combination for future reference.

“Alright, I’ll check them when we get back,” he said, and they started walking. All of the Dungeons in their immediate area had been conquered, their spawns slowing rapidly. In fact, besides the occasional new Dungeon, the ARA-controlled sectors were relatively tame. Save for the Gold Dungeons, of course.

The rest of the city was another matter entirely. The Hunters and Guild skirmished openly, fighting over Dungeons and territory like backyard dogs. The war was still in its infancy, but Grey had continued to feed the flames where he could in the past few days. The monsters only worsened the conflict, many of their victims having been pinned on the other faction. Even the ARA had begun to get looked at funnily.

It was almost time to move in truth. Grey could taste it in the air. Tension, heavy and numbingly electric, clung to him like a crossed lover, whispering for him to move, to act. Not yet. Perhaps he was a coward, but Grey only picked fights he held all of the cards for.

“Do you know what Kamaru brought this morning?” Jessica tilted her head, smiling slightly.

“No, what?” Of course, he did.

“A chessboard. We have to play, yeah?”

Weren’t they already? “Sure.”

“Rodriguez asked me to look into the first attack between the Guild and the Hunters the other day.”

Grey ran his eyes over a ruined building before turning and raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes,” Jessica said. “It’s strange. It happened the same day… Well, the same day as Rose’s passing. While you and Kamaru were out.”

He kept his expression flat. “A poor day for us all, then.”

The ARA had moved its main headquarters to the city hall, and upon arrival, Grey and Jessica made their way to a conference room. The familiar faces of the other agents sat there, sparing him brief nods and half-smiles. Meanwhile, he counted the number of weapons they had scattered about their persons. A difference in priorities, he called it.

Agent Rodriguez led once more, though a nasty scar now peeked out from the collar of her shirt, pink and raw. In fact, he counted some missing digits, scars, and the like among those faces present, and perhaps more telling was the lack of some faces at all. Though he had been lucky to avoid it so far, portions of the city were ruined completely, while the country at large was little more than the scraps the ARA and the military had managed to preserve.

“Good morning, Agent Wells. Nice to see you once more,” Agent Rodriguez said, inclining her head. “And you, Agent Shor.”

Grey nodded with a small smile and slid into a seat. A few other greetings and pleasantries came, but he shut his eyes to it all. The last time he had sat in on one of these, the board was not yet set. Now… Well, now it was close. He had but to move a few pieces, and it would all be his.

There was one problem, however. He cracked an eye, watching as Jessica shook the hands of the other agents and smiled. The queen was the most dangerous piece on the board, yet removing her was not so simple. Oh, he could slip into her room at night and slit her throat. If he was an idiot. She had contingencies in place, and the ARA would come down on him before he had outmaneuvered them. That was unacceptable.

Still, this raid represented an opportunity. An opportunity to learn. And after, well they had already received word that their team would be moving onto a “special” assignment. They were too understaffed to properly patrol their area, and with the subjugation of most of the Dungeons in their area, it was time for the ARA to spread its wings into two avenues: the Gold Dungeons and the neighboring sectors. The latter, of course, was in the midst of a rising war. A lot could happen in such a theater. He closed his eyes again.

Right, there were still variables to consider. He had to get the ARA to gather their Keys in one place, and he had to pave the way for their new assignment. The less control Jessica had over the situation, the better.

“Please glance over the documents we are giving to you,” Rodrigue said, and Grey opened his eyes when a packet landed in front of him. “The Anomaly we are hitting is near the center of the city, right off Abel Street.”

“Isn’t that Hill’s area?”

“It was.” Rodriguez stared down at her packet for a moment before looking up, a stoic look on her face. “Agent Hill and the rest of his team died. That’s why we have to move. These are not the typical monsters. We believe they are sentient. Look at the photographs printed on the second page if you would.”

Grey flipped, his eyebrow climbing. Suits of whitish steel armor that resembled a mix of Ancient Greek, medieval European, and something completely alien manned a series of makeshift battlements. The structures were made of a variety of concrete and wooden objects pulled from nearby buildings, and just behind them, he could make out the abyssal gate of a Dungeon.

“They have two known Evolutions. The first we have named shield wall. Locking their shields together boosts their physical abilities as a whole. The second allows them to coordinate and communicate mentally. Mundane weapons are useless against them, only attacks using Evolutions make any sort of impact. We call them the Steel Legion, and as of this moment, they are the most dangerous Gold Dungeon in our territory. A more thorough list of our strengths and weaknesses can be seen on the next page.”

He flipped and read it over, taking mental notes. Weak when separated. Need room to properly form a shield wall. Magnetic and metal-affecting Evolutions work, but at increased strain.

Metallurgy would work then, but he would have to see its cost before deeming it useful. Besides, he wanted to conceal his Evolutions from Jessica as long as possible. So far, she knew of only Dungeon Walker and Chi Breathing, and even then, she didn’t truly understand or know their capabilities, only vaguely what they did. His Inventory and the rest were unknown.

There was another positive of his participating in this raid. He might actually learn about Jessica’s Evolutions. She didn’t kill many things from what he saw, so she either drew Chi in from the air and condensed it or had some other way of gaining Evolution Points. She could also be weak, of course, but he doubted she would have chosen a simple Evolution to begin with.

“So what is our plan?” an agent to Grey’s left asked.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Rodriguez smiled. “On the final page of your packet, you will see a list of participating agents and a general summary of their abilities provided by their superiors.”

She continued speaking, but Grey’s eyes were only for the page, soaking in the information. They had given the most valuable weapon of all: information. Oh, the benefits of trust.

His plans were soon to reach a climax. It was time for a gambit, a sacrifice.

Phase two of the Ultimate Plan started.