"One more!"

My SolarTitanium kick shattered Nova's Flow Shield as if it was made of nothing but air.

I had learned how not to lose my stance for the subsequent pushback, and when I did, I started her –torture– training.

She grunted, but the Flow Shield once more manifested in front of her, and once more, my kick augmented by my increasing expertise in the Form of the Vector, burst through it as if it was made of butter.

Form of the Vector's current expertise: Practitioner Level 7. Expertise for the next Form of the Vector's level: 28596/70000

She staggered back as the almost physical recoil of her shield breaking sucked away a good deal of her Stamina.

We hadn't known before, but indeed, her shield not only fed on Flow but it chipped away at her Stamina every single time it shattered.

"Is that how you are going to react when droids surround us!? Come on!"

"No!" She shouted, raising her hands up and summoning another.

This time I could feel it was roughly different. She had finally triggered one of her new possible Skill Perks. I kicked back to nonexistence all the same.

"Good! Again! Remember, the more you follow what the Skill suggests to you, the sooner we are going to level it up."

She was all red for the effort, but my little monkey did not stop.

A drop of sweat left a strand of her hair to splash on the ground, and at the same time, her Flow Shield formed anew, this one a little different than the previous.

I felt a slight danger from it, so I traced it.

Flow Shield

Durability: 100%

Flow Capacity: 100%

Flow Density: 100

Strengths: Offers a good defense, venomous on destruction

Weaknesses: Heavy Stamina consumption

This Flow Shield has been conjured by Nova Nightfold.

Given the inherent qualities of Flow, it is heavily resistant to Shade.

When it shatters, the attackers are thrown back and poisoned by a weak Flow-based poison.

My Sixth Sense hadn't gone crazy, so it was likely that the poison was not extremely dangerous. Still, it would debilitate me, and I would require Nova's healing to get free of it; I was already pushing her to the limit; I didn't want to tire her more than it was necessary.

I threw my dagger to the side, paying careful attention to not throw it in the direction where Ro and Isha were training with magic, then I slammed my leg on Nova's shield and ported to my knife.

The shield exploded in a faint purplish cloud that soon disappeared.

"Loke…" Nova called as she fell on her knees. "I've got one… What do I choose?"

"Let's hear it," I speedily headed to help her up.

☆☆ Flow Shield - Willpower

(Eligible for Promotion)

☆ Summon a Shield of Flow, less Stamina consumption

Your Shields explode, damaging everything around you; you can trigger the explosion

Willpower + 6;

☆ Flow defends you from weak attacks

By the end of the morning, we found ourselves with her new and improved Flow Shield.

She had taken what she liked best, although, as she had said, the Moon counseled her in the choosing.

However, taking a Willpower Perk for her passive had been my idea. It soon revealed to have been the Moon's as well.

"I think we should stop here for today," I said, after shattering her last Flow Shield of the day.

Flow Shield

Durability: 100%

Flow Capacity: 100%

Flow Density: 200

Strengths: Offers a good defense

Weaknesses: High Stamina consumption

This Flow Shield has been conjured by Nova Nightfold.

Given the inherent qualities of Flow, it is heavily resistant to Shade.

When it shatters, the attackers are thrown back.

If it followed the same pattern of her swords, with the next upgrade, she would be able to summon a Flow Shield with a Flow Density of four hundred.

I already needed to stab it twice to break it now; it would require active combat to train her after she Promoted it once more.

Yet, Nova was left with only two Dark Crystals now. I still had four with me, but I needed them for an emergency, so we decided that for now, maximizing her defenses, and thus those of the team as a whole, was the best way to use her remaining Dark Crystals.

I sat by the table now, looking at the distant yet not so distant Fallen Kingdom.

Harlow, Alistar, and Faruq had decided to delve; he had brought Loki along while I chose to stay here. Not only was I not in the mood for it right now, but given that Roana was still healing and that I had Nova to teach, a few days of rest were ideal for us.

I did not intrude on his decision, though, and surely I couldn't tell Harlow what to do; she was my senior, and I didn't really have to worry about her; she was the strongest among them.

"Worried for your woman?" Roana asked, sitting near me.

"Kinda, kinda not," I shrugged.

"You know, we never got to talk about those nomads,” she said, “alone, I mean."

"I...I need to thank you," she said. "You went out of your way to try and solve something that didn't really matter for you, but somehow it did for me."

"Ro, what are you talking about? You don't have to thank me at all. Besides, I've done nothing, really. I'm still sorry about that young chief. He's Nova's age, and now he's all alone without his sister by his side. If it wasn't for the fact that their path crossed mine… I would have let them go after freeing those Cyclopses, of course."

Roana sighed, "You are full of bullshit…" she chuckled. "You would have forgotten about those Cyclopses if it wasn't for me, right?"

I couldn't really hide that I had almost entirely forgotten about the Cyclopses in the middle of all that…

"Well… you still don't really owe me anything."

She leaned on me, "I want to owe you everything, Loke…" she sighed, "Ah… Forget this, she said in her Command voice."

I turned my head to the side, faking that her Skill had worked on me.

It really hadn't.

I had borrowed Loki's Willpower just at the start of the day; I wanted it to help me in helping Nova train. Give me that edge I needed to not feel overly sensible as I helped in sapping her of her Stamina.

Yet, the way in which Roana had just done that, the easiness of it, suggested to me that this was not the first time she had done it.

When had her power become so strong?

No, it wasn't just that; it was a subtle use of her powers… she had first instilled an idea in my head, an idea about listening to me, then she had used her Command, likely bolstered by her Relentless Stance.

Now I knew that she had started training her powers on us. I didn't like that.

"You know that's actually quite a bit over the rudeness threshold?" I said as I turned toward her.

Roana whirled around.

"Loke?"

"Yeah, it didn't work. Today I borrowed Loki's Willpower…"

"Oh, for Sun's… sake… Loke, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! I mean, I wasn't trying to… I mean, I didn't do anything bad with it, I swear!"

"Alright, calm down. Just how often do you use it?"

"Ah… a bit… I'm trying to become very good at it… good enough to… well, defend myself in each and every case."

"I get it… Well, Ro, just don't use it like this. Also… I'm happy you feel that way. You are very important to me, so you don't have to hide anything… I mean, you will always be part of my family… but…”

"I… yeah. I know… I know. Well, have fun with… whatever you were doing, and, sorry, again,” she left, blushing after that.

Damn… I could have handled that better.

"You will always be part of my family— I couldn't be any lamer…" I repeated to myself.

"Yeah, you could have," said Logan as he sat by the table.

"You could have said, "You will always be like a sister to me." How lame is that?" He said as he slammed a bottle of his ale on the table and a few glasses he had brought.

"Logan... not helping."

"Yeah, let's put stupid teenagers’ things aside because you are going to listen to me now."

Alright, that was serious-Logan. I had to listen to serious-Logan.

"What's going on?"

"What is going on? Is this," he poured a glass to me, then made it slide toward me, "you are going to get yourself a SolarTitanium implant for your shoulder."

Oh, not another of those operations… hadn't I suffered enough already? Oh, wait. I could be put asleep here.

"But before that, I need to know something.”

I shrugged, “Shoot.”

“You are convinced that you want to go to the City, after all, that you’ve been through.” He emptied a glass in a moment, “Why?”

It took me aback.

“For Nova, of course, to give her a better life.”

“Bullshit.” He emptied another. “Try again.”

“What?”

“I said, try again!”

What was going on?

“I guess…” yeah, why not. It was Logan we were talking about. He could understand what I was going through; he told me about his life. He would understand mine.

“I guess… I’m kind of fed up.”

Yeah, it was alright. I could speak my mind freely...

“I’m fed up with all these problems. I’m fed up with being by the side of the weak. I mean… Sundoor is glorious, yes. It’s full of pricks, yes. But it gives us a chance. I mean, there are Shade-cursed even behind those walls. And they are not being kicked away. So, the City is selective, alright. They want only the best; that’s why the extreme entry fee. But it’s not like it’s impossible to pay! Delvers do it all the time! And there would not be Citizenship for military might if they just didn’t want us to become Citizens at all. As you said, they do it for an equilibrium of Shade and Flow; well, my father made it. Why the fuck I shouldn’t!?”

I was getting heated up. My heart was beating fast.

“Go on!” Logan said, slamming his mug on the table after emptying it again.

“I can do whatever the fuck I want, isn’t it!? I have no place to call home! I have no family remaining; besides you, guys! I have no obligation toward anybody because I’ve paid it all back! I’ve given much more than I owed!”

“What about the Sunguards you hate!?” Logan asked with glee.

“They can go fuck themselves because I’ll be a Citizen, and they can’t touch me! And if they did, I’ll just make them disappear! Because I’m the son of a Spectre!”

By the end, I was shouting but I felt damn fantastic...

Logan slowly downed another glass of ale.

“Well, that’s better, isn’t it? Now, to get back on relevant topics…”

“What? I… I thought you were going to scold me or something?”

“Scold you? Why, Loke? I’m not your father. You’re a man. I think you are a man enough to allow you to fuck my own daughter. I just needed to know you weren’t doing it only because of Nova, for if that was so, you would have put yourself in a world of hurt.”

I cringed a little at that but really had no idea how to answer...

“As I was saying, for the sake of research and to push our luck, I'm going to add a few more implants in your body, I've got to try something on you, or we'll keep on only hoping that you develop the Major Perk we need."

I was still shaken, but I knew how to answer.

"What!? You want to cut me apart because of your damn experiments?"

Logan curled his eyebrows, "Implants don't necessarily have to substitute appendages boy, I thought Harlow taught you that."

"Oh, right… she did."

I was still on edge, though. —Not thinking clearly.

"We're going to implant you with sixteen receptors, plus five more to bind to your already… lost parts."

"Sixteen… can't we like, start with six? Then work our way up to that number as we delve?"

"No," he said, sipping at his home-brewed ale.

"But you should be happier. That's sixteen more Bonus Constitution points for you, Loke."

Wait, that was right… Why did this man have to put me so much on edge? After he had told me his story, I couldn't help but be always a little on the defensive, no matter how he had opened up to me.

"That's a good point."

"See? You are seeing things straight, just like I hoped you would."

"Anyway, what will these receptors do?"

"Receive, obviously."

"That's not helping."

"They will receive information about you and work as a propeller for your Technomantic Body Major Perk correct development."

"Alright…"

"So, are you ready!?"

"Ready? You mean, like now?"

"When else, Nova's here, she can fix you right up. Although… you're right, we might want to wait for Harlow; four hands are better than two while slicing up meat."

I had to force myself not to scream at him at that last comment.

For Sun's sake, I missed momma Jane so much at that moment. Staying at the treehouse was so much better than here.

Roana was under control, Alistar wasn't a crazed battle junkie, Logan… wasn't there. Everything was better; if only Harlow had been there, I would have probably never left the place.

Yeah, enough with the jokes.

Sixteen points of Bonus Constitution were a lot. If I had to suffer because of it, it might have been worth the trouble.

I was likely going to get a SolarTitanium arm for sure.

A certain arm I had seen once wormed into my brain, and although it was still a little too big for me, I could have worked around it by eating a bit more and training a bit more.

Twilight was soon upon us, and luckily Roana and Nova had taken upon themselves the chore of cooking; Aisha and I had been gladly banished to the bench.

We were playing a game of cards as we waited for the others to come back, and she was utterly destroying me at the game, that in my defense, she had just taught me. It was called Poker.

It hardly made sense, but not many games did; who was I to judge?

However, when Loki's whispers reached me, I knew the others were finally coming back.

Loki has earned 1958 (x22) + 8521 + 4157 (x6) + 3256 + 1785 (x15) + 2264 (x3) + 21458 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 298,556/340,000

By the number of Soul fractions he had received, I could already feel that the difficulty he had found in facing the Fallen Dungeon's creatures had significantly decreased. But I could also tell that his improvement had played against him in lowering the Soul fractions he received by battling against enemies of that difficulty.

Indeed, the diminishing return had made itself known. I wondered how much I would be able to gain from battling them, tech creatures, now.

I already knew that if I went there at night, I could likely lay waste to the entire Outer Ring by myself.

Maybe giving my friends space to train by themselves to catch up to me wasn't that bad of an idea. Especially for Alistar, who really needed to build back confidence in himself.

"Those were really nice people. I've never really met so many Kobolds at once," said Harlow.

Her armor was a little bent, here and there; she would definitely need to reshape it, since her ability to regenerate her armor weirdly didn’t work when it was bent.

"Yeah, I would gladly join them again," Faruq concurred.

"Hey, guys, what are you talking about?" Nova asked as she threw herself at Harlow.

My Harlow made her whirl in the air.

It was a funny scene given that Nova almost looked like a grown girl, although she was only thirteen.

I rose up to meet them; the cart looked like it needed emptying for what they had collected. In fact, they were all holding a few tech creatures bodies on their shoulders.

"You joined another party?" I asked, “How did it go?”

"Really good, Captain. I didn't expect them to be so considerate. Alistar has been partying with them for a few days now."

"Yeah?" I asked, looking at Star.

"They are good fellows; most of them have almost maxed their Ultimate Class and don’t have many Skills left to evolve. So, they delve for the sake of it. They let me train with them, and I tank for them," he shrugged.

But I could already feel that his wounded pride had been healing.

I suspected that it had to do with his level-ups, but there was something else as well. As if his ego had found validation in these new people he had met.

Alistar Migs Guardian Level 34 (211,255/330,000), SpearFisher Level 34 (186,265/340,000

Health: 100%

Stamina: 89%

Agility: 15

Constitution: 33

Strength: 22

Focus: 7

Perception: 18

Willpower: 16

Strengths: Duress III, Icy Fortitude

Weaknesses: Focus

Class Skills: Duress III (Constitution), Brandish Spear (Strength), Unwavering Resolve (Willpower), Luck of the Draw (Fortune)

Sub-Class Skills: Icy Fortitude (Constitution), Harpooneer's Revenge (Focus), Follow the Flow (Perception), A waiting business (Willpower)

Race: Kobold

Sex: Male

Height: 200 cm

Weight: 108 kg

Age: 19

Origins: Murkstall

Family: Potts Migs, Gudri Migs

I could see that he had indeed been focusing his efforts on raising Strength.

I recalled then what the whispers said about Strength.

Strength (Attribute)

Strength (Basic): Measure of the individual's connection with their body’s power. The parameter for governing the power of the body. Strength counts toward Physical Power, Physical Defense, and Speed. The higher the Strength, the better the individual can tackle the hardships of the Physical Realm. Strength (Bonus): Skill-derived Strength. It acts as a multiplicative factor for incrementing Basic Strength. If not directly specified, it does not stack with other sources of Strength. Strength (Class Bonus): Hybrid Strength. It acts as Skill-derived Strength until Class absorption, then it becomes Basic Strength. Strength (Augment): Equipment-derived Strength. It works exactly as Basic Strength. Strength (Borrowed): Class Perk derived Strength. It counts as Skill-derived Strength, but it can only get as high as the Class or Sub-Class level is; if higher, only the maximum amount will be counted.

It was good for him to increase his Strength. Alistar would generally lack a good amount of Agility; his Classes would not give its Bonus and likely never would, so the higher his Strength, the higher his speed would get. It also increased his Physical Power and Defense, which was all he really needed. I only wished I could better gauge at these parameters of which Trace spoke of.

Overall, however, Alistar was doing really well.

His senses were not overly developed, but if he smoothened his rough edges and his pride a little, he would become a good commander as well.

However, he would have to likely take a few more lessons in losing or getting into more trouble than he had asked for.

But here I was, judging other people by standards I thought I had already surpassed. I had a long way ahead of me too.

"Loke? What are you staring at? Why don't you help me pick up those bodies? Instead of staring into nothing." He asked.

"Wha? Oh, sure, sure."

However, I kissed Harlow on the cheek before going back with Alistar, who dropped the weight he was currently holding to the ground.

"Your father decided that you are going to cut me up, Harlow-bear," I whispered in her ear after I gave her a nibble on the ear lobe.

"What do you mean?"

"Abyss if I know!" I answered as I descended the hill with Alistar.

"How many did you bring back?" I asked incredulously as I stared at the fifteen of the Technoperegrines' bodies that they had stacked on the cart's back.

"I think your girlfriend has got something in mind," Alistar said. "Don't ask me what, though, I understand jack-shit about this clock-tech."

I took one of the Technoperegrine up, studying its body.

There were a few interesting things on them.

The most interesting part of their build, however, was their thruster. It was situated where their ass... would have been.

It wasn't used to fly, no. They used it to speed themselves up, and most of these peregrines thrusters were not even scratched.

"Let me guess," I asked as I turned a few of them around to study them, "Harlow has taken care of these personally, didn't she?"

"Yeah, you can tell?"

I nodded knowingly. "I think I might have half an idea about what she wants to do with all these birds. Damn, she's a fucking genius..."

Alistar chuckled.

"Loke, listen. I've been…" he threw the peregrine he was holding back on the cart. "I might have been a little distant."

"I…"

"No, wait. Let me finish," he said, stopping me. "I felt— a little bit useless the first time we delved. I felt as… as if you were carrying us all on your back. You and Harlow, at least, I was… useless, really."

"Nova and Faruq wouldn't have amounted to much without you tanking for them, Star. Not to count Roana."

Alistar chuckled, "Yeah, right. Listen, I said let me speak, so shut up and just let-me-speak."

I smiled, raising my hands in the air.

"I can recognize when I fail. Faruq handled himself well, and Nova did what she was there for; she's fucking thirteen, she's gone way overboard. But I... I was not useful as I should have been. I was just thinking of hitting as many creatures as I could. I've— figured out that I was just craving power, not really being part of the team. I was using you guys as a tool to get the fractions I wanted for… Yeah, that doesn’t matter. So… what can I say? I'm sorry."

I couldn't know how to answer that. I thought Star had been doing his job rather fine and that he was down because he hadn't been able to damage the creatures as he wanted. Instead, I had got him entirely wrong…

What a fuck-up.

"Star… I'm sorry myself, I thought… let's just say I got you entirely wrong…" I shook my head. "It seems I've got more things to learn than you. At least you've learned your lesson. I just keep throwing my life in the worst situations, hoping I'll get out on top, and look what my last stupid adventure brought me," I pointed at my metal leg.

"Oh, now shut up… or I'm gonna cry…"

"You cry? I wouldn't believe it even if I saw that!"

"Shut it. Anyway… it looks good on you. Come on now, let's get these things to your crazy girlfriend."

Getting up the hill and smiling while joking about Harlow with Alistar, I knew that I had found back the equilibrium I had thought was lost.

I was happy; Star and I had reconnected. My family was back together, and everything was going well; if this type of peace would last forever, maybe even the call of the City would lose its pull on me.