[Quest: Ryu de Teigh y Cyronax has sent you a friend request]

[Accept Yes/No]

I read the message three times before the import and meaning finally made sense. Ryu had obviously arrived on Ijal and successfully been integrated. I had been warned that System offered unique opportunities and new features for the Pantheon that would claim a world. This adaption by System allowed new functionality to be implemented. It was almost an evolutionary imperative by System, the use of integration to upgrade, and in the course of adaption to meet the growing needs of users.

One of the many inequalities that had been foisted upon the Sidhe was the stagnation of System on Talahm. There had been no new features, no innovation, no adaption to the changing technologies, and growing knowledge since the Tuatha de Danaan entered Sleep. The efforts to keep the Sidhe looked on Talahm would have eventually deprived us of the ability to grow.

It was one of the reasons for Sidhe's infertility. The System had not been able to adapt when plants and minerals were mutated and forced grown within Dungeons. Our efforts to do as little harm to the planet may seem hypocritical after all both Seelie and Unseelie had diverted they ley-lines and done immeasurable damage to the territory I claimed, but those efforts had not come without side effects that had never been identified.

After I accepted the friend request, I received my first System message. Social interaction, friends, guilds, messaging, had been non-existent. We relied on M-AI, devices powered by magic, and enchanted with arrays to allow for holographic projection for our communication needs. The equipment worked perfectly unless you were in an area without access to a ley-line communication relay. A woven construct that required ground towers to empower and stabilize.

My greatest fear when deciding to send Ryu to Ijal had been the lack of communication. There was no ley-line communication deployed on the planet, no teleport pads constructed and linked to the Universal hub system.

The message I was reading would minimize those fears I thought, as I entered into a chat with Ryu, messages linked to quests, and delivered with a small magic cost. It took a bit of finagling before I got the trick of it and managed to stop entering every random thought that entered my head in the text field when I replied.

[Quest: Message from Ryu – Reward Message from Ryu - Accept Yes/No]

[Yes.]

[Ryu: Grandfather. As part of the system integration we underwent, we received access to a messaging system. This is just a quick test to see if it works.

[Quest: Respond/Delete/Save Message – (Note: Response requires .01 percent of Magic pool for each message - Reward: Message Sent/Deleted/Saved]

[Respond]

[Teigh: I received your friend request and your message. This should come in handy. It would be nice if we get to keep it after Ijal has been claimed]

[Quest: Message from Ryu – Reward Message from Ryu - Accept Yes/No]

[Yes.]

[Ryu: I'll try to send you a note that with details of our progress. And to let you know when I will be entering the Ring to coordinate item exchanges.]

*** Ryu POV***

Exchanging those few words with Grandfather had released some of the tension I'd been suppressing. By sending me, as the scion of House Teigh to Ijal, he had placed a lot of trust and responsibility on my shoulders. I had been afraid that the decisions I made would have negative repercussions on System evolution and how Talahm integrated those System changes.

I wasn't too worried about the dungeon or claiming the planet for the Tuatha de Danaan, that seemed pretty straight-forward. It was the ancillary actions and quests that might pop up that worried me. Ijal was the first planet to be added to the Sidhe sphere of influence, and whatever happened here, Sidhe had long memories and my name and House Teigh would be remembered as responsible. I didn't want to be the person that destroyed the legacy grandfather was trying to build.

Beag and Bob had continued their exploration while I had experimented with the new System social settings. The fog of war was slowly receding as Bob's circular pattern increased in scope with each revolution. Beag's exploration had filled in some of the finer details that Bob had uncovered. Markers began appearing on the mini-map, blue, yellow, and red dots that I could highlight to reveal additional information.

Blue markers represented party members, yellow markers were unidentified resources, herbs, food, and animals for the most part, while red markers displayed enemies or potential dangers. I had no idea what criteria System used to segment and define each blinking marker, something to study as we explored more of the world, and I was going to verify the efficacy of the System markers. It didn't make sense to me that things like herbs that we had yet to identify would show up, simply because they were within range.

The area we had been arrived at was completely unexplored, or if minimal scouting had been performed, the information had not been shared with us. We had received just enough information to know that we were in a low-level area. We had been teleported to a safe enough environment to begin our exploration. Low enough level that we wouldn't die if we practiced caution and treated the area as enemy territory.

Grandfather had given me a camp array he had used many years ago, one that when powered would expand to create a small estate including stables. We could set up each night, but there was no point in selecting a permanent site until we found a Dungeon that we could survive and conquer.

He'd also entrusted me with the Silinium, and enchanted arrays required to build a teleport pad, along with the permissions and passwords needed to link the pad to the Universal network. Sieph would actually build and activate the portal, I was simply the baggage carrier, the Ring of Hidden Depths allowing me to store an amazing number of items. Resources that could be replenished by Grandfather from Talahm if needed until we managed to build and activate the portal.

That would have to wait until the planet was claimed, any attempt before then would result in a cascade failure as the frequency feedback from claimed worlds created a disharmony that would result in a catastrophic explosion. It had been tried before, some of the explosions so large that it had resulted in earthquakes and volcanic activity that had shifted tectonic plates and reshaped continents.

I had become too focused, trusting in Bob to give a warning if something dangerous was approaching. I would like to blame my inattention on necessity, the need to understand System mechanics over-riding the training I had received. I should have made sure to have Sieph and Thutmose on alert, but Sieph like me was immersed in System functions.

The attack might have been deadly without the bond that existed between Beag and I, his warning came early enough to give me enough time to engage [Shadow Blend] and hide. I regretted that I hadn't spent the time using the party function to get us organized, something I would remedy as soon as we dealt with whatever danger approached.

"Beag is warning of danger," I said even as I moved, "an animal or monster that he has come across as 'other' and dangerous.

"Get ready for an attack," I said.

Bob was still scouting the area, and judging from the mini-map, I doubted he could make it back in time to assist in this fight, not unless whatever we were about to encounter was more dangerous than the survey scouts had led us to believe. Or the skills and spells that we had just unlocked required our familiarity to become useful.

Thutmose equipped his mace and shield, his Caste specially tailored for the use of the mace. The Egyptians had perfected techniques using that weapon, almost since they began making war, and as a scion, he probably had secret techniques perfect by Pharaoh.

That was another failing of mine, a mistake I hoped wouldn't end our adventure before it really got started. Even before we arrived in this world, I should have spent time finding out everyone's strengths and skills. I never spent the time talking with Thutmose about his abilities, and what he could do, and what he excelled in. I'd allowed my own form of bigotry to marginalize him.

Once we arrived, I had been too enraptured with my new abilities, playing with System functions that would do nothing to ensure our survival. I should have been focused on what really mattered. I'd not bothered to ask what skills or spells Sieph and Bob received as a Technomancer or Night-Terror.

Not asking Thutmose about his abilities was vain, not asking Sieph and Bob was a breach of duty. It was my responsibility to understand this team and forge them into a cohesive group that could survive a Dungeon dive.

The messaging and friend System we'd received, may become an important clue into the direction System might evolve. But Sieph and Bob had received classes, skills, and spells, or at least I believed they had, and I hadn't bothered to find out what they were, how they worked, or how we could merge these new abilities to make for a cohesive fighting force.

The ability to communicate with grandfather was important but living to claim the planet was vital.