Myles recovered slowly from the mental barrage, sipping on an offered healing potion by Tail. He didn’t know what good it would do, but he didn’t know what else to do. The pain was nauseating to the point of being nearly being paralyzed by it. He’d rather have had an arm chewed off by an ambush rabbit at this point.

“That wouldn’t be worse.”

That’s the point. You aren’t the one feeling it.

“But then you wouldn’t be able to fight or cook.”

It’s a turn of phrase, Ashra.

“What’s a turn of phrase?”

He was not ready to deal with this.

Ashra relented for a few moments after that. She was concerned, Myles knew that, but she had an odd way of showing it sometimes. He tried not to let it get to him and took a look at his new skill when it felt like he wasn’t going to throw up.

—

Monster Tamer’s Avatar

Skill Type: Active (Unique)

Restricted Skill: Grandmaster Monster Tamer (Unique - Dungeon Core Modification)

Cost: 50 SE (Scaling with Soul Link Status)

Cast Time - 60 Seconds plus a varied additional time for body modification. Time increases with complexity of the changes and species differential.

Duration - 24 hours, until canceled, or until Critical Damage has been obtained

Cool Down - 24 Hours

Distance: Touch

Success Determination: Soul Link Status

Effect: Deepen the connection between your soul and the soul of another living creature bonded to you and merge your forms, classes, skills, and personalities to create the [Monster Tamer]’s Avatar. In this state, Tamer and Monster become one, adding the two stat pools together and averaging them with a skew to a higher levels of each. Strain of the skill is split between the two bodies evenly upon separation.

Only a single avatar can be created per species type and is lost upon the death of the bonded monster. New Avatars of a prior species can be attempted after the expiration of the Soul Shivered Debuff but becomes increasingly difficult with each monster’s death of that species despite Soul Link status.

If this skill is used with a spirit class or other astral creature that has no corporal form, you will suffer from the Astral Walker status for 24 hours.

This skill cannot be used on Dungeon Cores, undead, or plague creatures.

—

Whether it was the wording of it or the fact it was restricted to a grandmaster of his class, Myles was blown away. The fact it was modified by Silpha wasn’t lost on him either. If he understood the skill correctly, it gave him a huge level of flexibility the rest of his party was lacking.

The sheer power of the skill boggled his mind.

Was this what they needed to talk about?

For a long while, Myles said nothing as he finished the small healing potion, ignoring the questions of the others as he processed what exactly to do with it or how to tell them. In the end, he decided to keep the skill in reserve, but he would tell the others it existed. Mentally, he shared the information with Ashra, and she agreed but made it very clear she was unwilling to use such a skill without reason.

Finally with the ‘helpful’ advice from Lyna on how to get off his rear and walk, Myles got to his feet again.

“What happened?” Will asked. “It looked like you got kicked by Ashra.”

Myles shook his head.

That was a mistake, and he had to catch himself with Ashra’s speed. After a few moments, Myles explained. “No, I got a new skill.”

Kendra scoffed. “Another one? Unless it’s an observational skill or a planning skill, I call sket on it. Did you even level?”

He shook his head. “It’s a unique skill, Monster Tamer’s Avatar.” Myles hesitated before adding, “It says it’s a grandmaster skill, and it feels like someone cracked open my head and poured molten rock inside to get it there.”

“You should have said so,” Tail chided. “I have experience with headaches.”

With that, he felt a hand on his shoulder and a soothing cool mist climb up his shoulder and cascade down his head like a curtain, surprisingly easing the pain more than the potion had. If he had been a Felkin, he would have purred, but the tranquil, cooling mist was not to last.

Lyna held up her hands, attempting to draw all of the attention back to the task at hand. “No! No, we are not passing over this.”

“What do you mean?” Myles asked through the, wonderful cooling fog.

“You are not going to drop a boulder like that and not expected us to want to know what it does. Grandmaster skills don’t just drop out of the air like drunken birds.”

Will cleared his throat before Myles could ask about that specific metaphor. “What she means is… well… yeah, she was right on. How did you get that without being a grandmaster?”

“It is rare, but not unheard of,” Tail said. “Sometimes you just meet the criteria early. I have one. It is the basis of my class.”

Will dismissed the explanation. “You’re a Korgan, Tail. Your people sometimes don’t have a rhyme or reason for why you get skills for your classes. Half of the know Classes for Korgans can’t even be gotten by any of the other races. Myles is human and has a stable soul, no offense meant, but he should progress normally.” He stroked his ear, thinking for a moment. “You bring up a good point though, Myles doesn’t exactly have normal classes.”

“I’m right here,” Myles pointed out, feeling much better after a few moments of the cooling mist. He wasn’t ready to reveal Silpha’s existence yet, but he felt like he was being insulted. “And there are entire monster fighting leagues across the nations.”

Will shrugged. “So, that doesn’t mean you’re using it like they are.” When Myles and Ashra gave him a stare, he added, “I’m just saying that under normal progression, a skill that makes sense to be a grandmaster skill is different than one in the position you’re in. What’s it do? Might make a lot more sense to get sooner if we knew what it did.”

Will had a way of sounding diplomatic when he wanted to be. Seeing no point in hiding what the skill did, he explained it the best he understood it.

That got quite a few slack-jawed stares.

“Does this mean I don’t have to be the meat shield anymore?” Lyna asked, wide eyed through the slits in her helmet. “I mean it’s fun and all, but if Myles can become Ashra or a troll or something…”

“Probably not,” Will said before Myles could get a word in. “It’s a once a day thing, and we need him to keep us organized.” As if the words triggered a trap, Will’s attention snapped to Myles’s previous actions. “Speaking of, what was that earlier?”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Myles said as the veil of mist retreated, and Tail stepped away to pick some more of the purple flowers growing around the glade.

“When the fight started, it seemed like we weren’t in control of ourselves. At least, that’s how it felt to me.”

Kendra nodded. “It was like you were telling us something important, and we just responded without question.” A grimace crossed her face a moment later, and she looked like she’d bitten into a particularly sour lemon. “I didn’t like that at all.”

“Not going to look a gift kirin,” Lyna said. “It did help us defend the cave, but I’d like to know what it was and for you to never do it again without warning us.”

Myles sighed. How would he explain it without sounding like a puppet master? “It’s hard to explain, but I need to start at the beginning. Does anyone realize I have an empathic connection to everyone in the party?”

Tail gave an affirmative reply with a swish of their tail, Ashra nodded, and the rest looked at him dumbly as he checked the party interface, and Myles watched their trust drop as he continued to explain.

—

Current Party Trust: 36/120

Active Abilities: Empathic Link (Party)

Abilities Unlocked: Empathic Link (Party), Shared Moment

—

It made sense, unless they had the status, Myles doubted they’d understand what it was, and now that they knew about it…

He wouldn’t have wanted someone in his head without his permission either.

Myles sighed and continued, hoping to win back some of their trust. “It’s a combination from my Class and the Leader title. I have a passive empathic link to everyone in the group. I can feel what you’re feeling on a basic, emotional level. The more trust the group has in me, the more I can sense and influence that link. Sometimes with Ashra, we get in sync and what we know becomes second nature for that time. According to this, it’s called a Shared Moment. When we were in battle, we must have all gotten into the same beat and you knew what everyone else knew.”

There was a long pause as the group considered what he had said. Most of the group seemed complacent in the knowledge, and it reflected well a moment later.

—

Current Party Trust: 82/120

Active Abilities: Empathic Link (Party)

Abilities Unlocked: Empathic Link (Party), Shared Moment

—

Once his friends knew it wasn’t dangerous or something Myles could use to directly control them like puppets, he’d regained much of the trust he’d lost. For most of the group, the danger in the ability seemed to melt from their minds.

All the minds except for Lyna. She seemed the most concerned of the lot with the abilities it gave him.

“Can you sense Rocky?”

Myles paused. He hadn’t actually considered that. Of course, he could differentiate between the different…

He stopped a moment after he began, remembering what Rocky was. Of course, Myles couldn’t sense her pet rock. “No, I can’t.”

Despite the negative, Lyna smiled. “Good. You don’t wanna know what’s up there, Myles.”

Lyna’s answers never made Myles feel exactly comfortable. If he stayed connected to her long enough, would he become that unhinged? The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. Lyna didn’t feel unhinged. Her thoughts were perfectly normal, her emotions were no more erratic than Tail’s or Kendra’s. Then again, Kendra wasn’t a great benchmark to go by. Maybe her act was just a long con to get sponsors?

He hoped that was all it was as he looked at Rocky. As he did, the stone’s crystal ‘eyes’ glinting in the light, sending a shiver down his spine.

He really, really hoped.

***

On the way back, the forest was as silent as when they had come — maybe even more-so. After their victory against the pair of alphas and the rewards they gained, Ashra wanted to continue the search to wipe out the alpha’s den, but the rest of the party was against it. Myles still had a headache, though not as powerful. Kendra had also raised the point that they did not have the same advantages they did the first time. With an unknown number of elite creatures and probably more than a few of the regular wolven, no one wanted to take the chance.

Speaking of unknowns, no one could decide on who should get the rings. Will had backed out, saying he didn’t want the personal attention it would give, but that still meant the group now had three items to distribute when they got back to Myles’s place: The Blessed Rings of the Wolven Alpha, the Clear Mother Slime Victory Statue, and Earrings of the Mother Slime. In all the excitement of the other day, Kendra had forgotten she was carrying the other two in her inventory. At least, that’s what Myles wanted to believe since Kendra was the one who brought the information up. He’d completely forgotten about them in the excitement.

Still, Myles didn’t understand the way the dungeon distributed those off treasures. The loot preferences only worked for what the monster would drop, and they needed a better way to get that loot to each other.

They talked about this at length, and decided the only fair way was to draw lots from a helmet. It wasn’t exactly Need before Greed, but it was at least random. The group decided to keep it simple. If you wanted something, you took out a copper coin and put your name on it. It went into the helmet and whoever got pulled got to pick their loot. Once you were picked, your name was taken out of the drawing. If you didn’t want the remaining loot, you could remove yourself. It was a mostly fair system, but it had an inherent risk. If something better came for you down the line that didn’t fall into the Need versus Greed distribution, you risked losing out.

Still, Myles had faith that the group would do what was best for everyone.

As the group’s conversation returned to a friendly, but guarded silence.

Myles took the quite as a chance to finally talk to Silpha, but she simply blocked him out. Unlike when Ashra or Tail didn’t want him to feel their emotions, Myles couldn’t even feel her presence. It was just a link that abruptly ended before touching her soul, like a recipe only half written down. Then again, she had completely modified his connection to her. Was ‘Of One Mind’ the highest his connection to go to a creature, or was it just something Silpha created? The thought of her being able to manipulate his own abilities didn’t exactly frighten him, but it did unnerve him quite a way. She couldn’t hurt him after all.

As he considered the changes, Myles notes that the mark on his hand felt different now too. It felt like he could feel Silpha more through that than though his Empathic Link -- which made sense in a way. She had marked him there rather than the other way around. Checking his interface, he didn’t see any changes like he had with the normal increase in a bond, but then again, Silpha wasn’t exactly… normal.

Name: Silpha

Age: None

Race: Dungeon Core

Patron: The Overseer

Primary Class:

Dungeon Core

Secondary Class:

Avatar

Mana: X

Elemental Alignment:

Water/Air

Title: The Purifying Wake

Skills:

Fabrication

Absorption

Influence

Summoning

Avatar

Traits:

Soul Link: {Myles Chase)

Condition: Active

Advanced Menu (Locked)

Sipha had no primary status, no mana count, no soul energy count, and a secondary class he’d never heard of. Upon further inspection, Avatar was also one of her primary skills. Just when he thought he was getting a handle on things too. Maybe dungeon cores were just that different than normal creatures.

The words gave him pause though.

Tamer, we need to talk.

Those words never ended well even if they were about a grandmaster’s ability she’d given him.

By the time he’d considered the implications of the words and how Silpha was a different entity entirely, they’d broken through the forest and returned to his ranch. The sun was starting to set in the distance and the darkening sky told him just how long things had taken. Home was more than a welcomed sight, but he stopped a few steps out.

There was someone standing between him, talking to Silpha, and a warm bed.

The colors of fall were draped over her liberally, making a strange, sultry appearance across the woman’s features. To Myles, it looked like a functional cross between a combat robe and a formal dress with an over-sized furry fluff around the neckline— a hood, he realized. When he finally met her eyes, the orange and brown haired Foxkin looked like she was less than pleased with him.

“Welcome home, Myles Chase. I have been waiting to meet you,” the Foxkin Myles could only assume was Foliage said. “Where is my dinner?”

There was a long pause at the words of the newcomer then Lyna burst out laughing.