When the two soldiers returned Keith had Clarissa use her new cleanse skill on Jones to determine its effectiveness. As far as I could tell, it was just as potent as my skill, she just had much less mana than I at this point. She barely cleaned up Jones, the man was lethargic and stiff from the infection but returned to his energetic ways as soon as the gray dust blew off. I cleaned up the Corporal as well and gave the rest of the group a top off. Having Clarissa as a back up relieved my tension immensely though.

We finished packing up as much of the supplies as possible onto the trailers and then carried the rest on our backs. It was heavy stuff, but nobody complained. They had better not, otherwise they’d end up eating wynot meat for the rest of the instance.

As we trudged through the mossy ground on our way to the temple, I wondered what was going on out in the real world. Not much, considering the time dilation. There was a plan for the military to push some supplies into the sphere periodically, but I doubt it would even come to that. We might be finished up in here before they even had time to push around another wagon.

Besides the pack on my back, I pushed the stupid core around. The thing was light and hovered above the ground, defying gravity, but it was bulky and hard to maneuver. Worse, I couldn’t see over it as I pushed it, making the whole journey annoying as I kept tripping over the land. Nobody could help me either on account they might die. Like it's the ark of the covenant or something.

Charles stayed with me, carrying a pretty heavy pack as well.

“So, how did you get onto Keith’s team here, Charles?” I asked, trying to make small talk as I slipped on the damp foliage. I try to give him a smile, “What made you pursue a life of alien artifact research?”

Charles gave me a chuckle, straining under his own load. “It wasn't my first choice, actually. I had applied to several other laboratories for my doctorate program, but I wasn’t accepted in any of them. I was part of a research fellowship at Sealridge Laboratories, but that project got shut down earlier this year. I needed another gig in order to finish up my doctorate program, but nothing was coming to me.” He looked over pointedly over at Keith, “I knew Keith from early on in my grad classes, he was several years ahead of me. He offered me a position with him and I almost didn’t accept it.” Charles looked over and gave me a grimace, “Working for the military has its own stigmatism, but, like I said, I needed the gig. That was a few months ago.” He adjusted the back on his shoulders and gave me a halfhearted smile. “And now it's turned into this? Unbelievable, right? The worst part of it is I can’t use any of the material here in my thesis, it's all classified at this point.”

“Huh,” I reply, not knowing what to say.

Charles has been a nice enough guy since I first met him, but it still boggles my mind he volunteered to come to this rotten place. His answer seemed pretty normal, what would motivate a desk researcher to risk certain death? It sounded like the guy just wanted to finish school.

“So, any family?”

Charles shrugs. “Mom lives in Florida, moved down there a few years ago after she and Dad got a divorce. Her parents live down there, so she’s with her family. Dad’s still around, but I don’t see him much anymore. I’ve got a sister, but she’s married and works in Seattle with her husband. They’ve got a cute kid, turning three this year. I’ve met him a few times.”

“No, er… partner?”

Charles gives me an eye roll. “I broke up with my ex last year. She was bad for me, you know? Toxic relationship. No kids either. Why do you want to know?”

I consider Charles before I answer. The guys got brown hair with brown eyes, an easy grin and a carefree attitude. He’s about my age, a few years younger maybe, late twenties. But apparently works hard and gets serious at the right times. Keith thought highly of him and his work.

“I’m just curious, you know.” I say, keeping the core in front of me. “You seem very normal, I guess, so I don’t understand why you would come on this mission where you have a very real risk of death.”

Charles gives me a laugh. “I know right? If my mom knew she would kick my ass so hard my cheeks would be red for weeks. No, I’ll be keeping this a secret from her forever.”

We trudge along a little longer before I come back. “But, why did you come, you didn’t answer the question.”

“Why did you come?” Charles says, shooting my question back at me.

I scowled at him. “I have to come. You know that, I need to keep you guys cleansed or else you’ll die. You can’t do this without me.”

“Sure,” Charles replies easily, “but why bother at all?”

I keep scowling at him and don’t answer. Its a dumb question anyway, how am I supposed to answer that?

Charles keeps talking after my non response. “You are an accountant, right? You work at a local company.”

“Right,” I say automatically, “Hershwhile Transportation. On 32nd street.”

“Yet here you are, even less likely than me to be here, challenging these alien deathtraps, trying to save the world.” He waives his hands around, showcasing the marshy landscape. “That’s a lot to put on yourself. How can I step away from this when you’ve put yourself out there so far you're liable to never make it back to back? You’re just one man, we can’t let you carry all this on your own.”

…

“That’s how I see it, at least.” Charles adds looking off and away. “Anyway, success here means a lot for my career, so there’s that, eh? Plus, I’m part of ground breaking research into the very fabric of reality with tangible subjects to study. It's hard to say no to that. I know you’ll keep me safe, though, right? I have complete faith in you. Plus, I want to do magic.”

…

High praise.

… and don’t thank me yet.

“What kind of class do you want?” I ask, changing the subject.

“Clarissa’s class is nice, I might end up taking it too. There’s value in figuring out all the different possible classes we can get depending on the variables, but we don’t have the resources for that. The class that Private O’hara has might be good too. Ideally, something that will help me translate the languages at the temple. If Clarissa’s class allows her to do that, then I am totally taking it. It sounds like it would be helpful back home too, you know? Ah.” He paused, coughing.

He gives me a weary smile. “Lung infection. Can you help a brother out?”

I roll my eyes at him and lean over to cleanse him.

We make it to the temple without issue, a couple of zombies appeared on our trek, but Jones and Jeffrey neutralized one each. I had identified one of them before it got blasted with a shotgun and saw that it was level one.

Pesos hasn’t shown her black snout since Jones and Duncan spotted her, but I know she is out there. At level one her threat is much diminished, but just knowing there’s a spirit always out there waiting to rip your throat out is unbalancing. On the other hand, I think I’ve been unbalanced for a while now. It's nothing new.

The temple is exactly what we expected to see, the granite A frame structure looking over the dead expanse of the instance. It'll be a tight squeeze for us all to stay here until we figure out how to expand it, especially with stuffing the supplies inside. The core stays outside for now. Judging by the brown earth outside the temple in a ring devoid of the plant matter and other instance settings, I think the whole area is protected. We’ll soon find out.

“At last, we meet!” Keith coos as soon as he enters the doors, ignoring his two assistants unpacking. He makes a beeline for the holographic board, the blue light dimly illuminating the room.

Jeffrey motions over to me at the door and we make our way to the steps together.

“Can’t believe we are back here.” He says, looking over the landscape.

I snort back at him. “No kidding. I’ve been saying that since the first moment here.”

Silence descends for a few moments while I wait for Jeffrey to continue. He speaks up after a second. “This is a great opportunity for all of us, Greg. We couldn’t have done this without you. You are used to going at this alone and you must hate being back here. But know that you aren’t alone anymore.”

I look at Jeffrey. He’s got a stern serious face on and I can’t help but laugh a little at him. “Did somebody tell you to say that to me?” I ask with a smile.

“Yes,” Jeffrey admitted. “But it’s still true. With what you’ve been through its important for you to know that people have your back. It’s not Greg versus the world, despite how you may feel.”

“Thanks Lieutenant,” I reply. “I mean it, but I would feel better once everybody’s leveled up some and Clarissa can support everybody by herself.”

“Agreed.”

Unpacking and unloading took the better part of an hour, leaving somebody on look out. Not much happened out in the instance, except for a few wandering zombies. No skeletons had appeared yet, assuming they would at all.

We also determined that Clarissa could not ‘equip’ the control board and give herself instant understanding of it, which was a bummer. Keith’s got some theories as to why, but ultimately we don’t know why it works the way it does. That leaves few options on translating, the most likely, brute forcing the issue with trial and error. That seems to me particularly foolish but I decided to leave that issue to Keith and Co. It’s not like I have a better idea.

Before we do any of that though, we go wynot and zombie hunting. Clarissa needs some levels and Keith and Charles need classes. We leave Jones and Clarissa behind for the first trip, Charles goes for the safe option and chooses the same class as Clarissa, electrocuting the first zombie we come across with the beefed up taser gun and secures for himself the class.

“Astounding.” Charles says afterwards, holding aloft the side arm he has been issued. “I’ve had a little training with guns before, but now I understand how this thing works, how its connected, how to clean it…” his voice drifts off and he aims the weapon off to the side, pointing at a particularly gnarly stump. He ultimately doesn’t pull the trigger though and looks around sheepishly. “The skill can give me the correct form for aiming, but it doesn't actually make me aim better.”

“Does the knowledge stay with you if you equip something else?” Keith asks.

Taking the taser back, Charles equips it and then gives us a frown. “No… it doesn’t. It feels like…. A little like a dream, you know? At first the memories are vivid, but the more I think about it….” his voice trails off and he eyes the taser. “It costs mana to equip items too, so I can’t keep doing it forever.” He looks over at us and gives a smile. “Still a rad class.”

I see Duncan roll her eyes at him. I give him a shrug. “Maybe in the future you’ll gain the ability to retain knowledge.

“Maybe.” Charles replies amicably. I let him copy my cleanse skill.

Keith wants something different though and he’s convinced he knows the best way to get the type of class he wants.

“I need something that will help me interact with the temple. A technology class, you know? What if I build something I then use to kill a zombie. Eh?”

“I don’t know,” I say thoughtfully. “I kinda feel like trying to get a class is a little bit like giving wishes to an evil genie. The wish is going to be intentionally misinterpreted and you are not going to get what you are looking for exactly.”

“What if you build a cage and starve a wynot to death?” Duncan added in.

Uh….

“What if you planted some stakes into the ground and then dropped a wynot on them? Or,” Duncan asked, mostly to herself now, her hand up to her chin thoughtfully. “What if you ate a wynot to death? What kind of class would that give, do you think?”

“I honestly don’t want to think about it,” I reply with a shudder. “That kind of action seems to be asking for trouble. I think you would die from the poison and acid before that happens anyway.”

“But you could keep Keith healed while he ate the wynot, so it could work!” Duncan insisted, a morbid curiosity in her eyes.

“Maybe…” I reply uncertainty as I look over at Keith. Keith was giving Duncan a horrified expression. After a moment, Duncan laughed at him.

“Seriously, though.” Keith replied, clearing his throat. “I kinda like the stakes idea. But it sounds like it might give a class associated with making good traps. Not what I am looking for.”

“I agree.” I say, watching Duncan’s grin off to the side.

“Gregory.” Jeffrey’s voice calls out from across the group. He nods in a direction and I see Pesos crouching among some foliage a ways away, inching her way forward on her stomach. It looks a little comical as she shuffles forward, but I guess her skill that let her turn to mist and reappear a ways away was gone so she’s got to work with what she’s got.

Sensing my attention I hear her growl and stand up, abandoning her stealth. She doesn’t run at me though, but stays a ways away making noises.

“So that is Pesos,” Charles said, looking over at her. “She was your brother’s dog, right?”

“Yes.” I say with a sigh. “Everytime I dispatch her she comes back a day later with a higher level. I can’t get rid of her. When Jones killed her last time her level reset, so I think that’s the ticket. As long as somebody else kills her she doesn’t remain much of a threat, but she was a nightmare for me during the two weeks I was here. I knew it was stupidly overpowered, turns out it had this weakness all along.”

“Pitiful thing.” Charles says after looking at it. “Want me to take care of it for you? I can take flare from you.”

Before I can respond, Pesos starts backing away, crawling into the bushes again and disappearing from view. I stare at where she withdrew. “Damn. That’s a good idea Charles, but she’s not going to be so easy this time it seems. Last time she just came at me. This new behavior is concerning. She’s weak, but still dangerous. At this level she really is just a greyhound, but she doesn’t need food or rest.”

“We’ll deal with it,” Jeffrey says. “We’ll keep a lookout for her. I know it’s hard knowing she’s out there, Greg, but as long as we are careful she won’t be a problem. Come on Keith, hurry up and get a class. We don’t have all day.”

“This is literally a life changing decision!” Keith protested. “I can’t rush this!”

We found another zombie on our way to the creek but we let Charles take care of it again, gaining some experience.

“How is experience gathered?” Charles asked as he cleansed the zombie he had shotgunned. “Is it all based upon the last hit on the kill? That’s something exploitable.”

I shake my head, “We’ll have to find out. It’s not like we get notifications on it. In fact, I’m just calling it experience for my own convenience, the system doesn’t say anything like that. All I know is that the more stuff I killed, the higher my level got. That said, the mage and creatures of the instance had their levels raised as long as the instance was on, so I have no idea how they managed that.”

“Another thing to figure out,” Keith added, rubbing his hands. “From now on I’ll need detailed statistics on everybody's levels and well as a transcript of your actions so we can figure out how it all ties together. Got it? When we get back, everybody’s going to get a journal.”

I scowl at the news, but accept it for what it is. Keith needs data to figure this all out, so data is what he is going to get.

“Alright, I got it!” Keith says excitedly when we reached the creek. I stare at the green sludge gloomily. “I’m going to choke it to death!”

I give Keith a double take and he laughs, “just kidding! I want to test out the theory that the state of mind can have an impact on the class we get. I’m going to do what Private Jones did, but try for a different class.”

I bait a wynot out of the water and Charles and Keith are properly horrified by the grotesque creature as it screeched in pain when I crippled it. Only at the small costs of some acid eating away at the skin on my hand.

I hate these buggers.

“You ate these for two weeks?” Keith asked disbelievingly, his earlier courage gone. He stayed away from the wynot writhing on the ground, its feelers grasping onto my arm and burning the skin where it touched. I flared and healed my arm, making the wynot let go with a loud screech.

“You ready or not?”

Unwillingly, Keith stepped forward at Duncan’s gentle shove. “Remember to have the correct mental image, Doctor.” Duncan added teasingly, “We wouldn’t want you to get the “trembling legs” class.”

“F*** you,” Keith replied, “I got this.”

I roll my eyes and hand over my spear to Keith. I hear him muttering to himself over and over again, “technical prowess, technical prowess, technical prowess,” as he holds the spear ungainly with both hands.

I don’t have much faith in Keith’s idea, and feel my evil genie theory is more accurate. Still, I flare him and the spear up. After a moment of hesitation Keith shoves the spear downward.

...

And misses, striking the dirt next to it and sinking the spear tip into the soil a good six inches.

I hear Corporal Duncan snickering behind us, but nobody comments as Keith pulls the spear back out of the ground. “Damn, this thing is heavy.”

“Just try again,” I say as soothingly as I can, keeping the flare up. “There is no rush.”

“Shut up.” Keith says, eyeing the screaming wynot. “I’m not embarrassed.”

I hear Duncan snicker again.

Keith takes a few breaths, and I hear him muttering his mantra again.

...

“Actually, I can’t keep this up all day.” I say after half a minute.

Keith doesn’t reply, but keeps trying to build his mental image.

“Pesos is back, Greg.” I hear Jeffrey state.

I look out and see her, standing a ways away on the other side of the creek, barely noticeable in the shadows of a fallen tree she was hiding in.

“Let me take flare.” Charles says, stepping up to me. “I’ll make sure she stays back.” I nod and let him come up and switch out his skill.

“Hurry it up, Doctor,” I hear Jeffrey growl as the rest of us keep an eye on Pesos. The dog doesn’t make any noise this time, but walks up, directly to the other side of the creek, keeping her black eyes pointed at me. It’s a little unnerving and Charles steps in between us.

After a second, a shotgun blast rings out from Duncan and Pesos isn’t even phased as the shots pass right through her, like she was a fog.

“Well, that answers that question,” Charles says dryly, shifting his grip on his own weapon.

After staring at me for a few seconds, Pesos moves.

Instead of charging across the stream, Pesos lowers her snout down to the ground and begins sniffing like… a dog, shuffling down the stream as she keeps sniffing.

“What’s she doing?” Charles asks.

“She’s looking for something,” Jeffrey replies.

She stops moving a few paces away and her sniffing intensifies. After a moment she lifts her head up and howls like a wolf. I feel the hair on my neck stand on end at the erie noise and then she comes trotting back and starts sniffing the ground, heading up the other way on the creeks edge. After another ten feet she stops and howls again.

“Doctor…” I say.

Pesos just stares at me some more but a second later Keith thrusts forward again, successfully hitting the still screaming wynot, silencing the creature. “I hit it!” Keith said happily.

I cancel my contact with Keith and turn my full attention to Pesos who has returned to facing us directly across the creek. Her black eyes stare at me balefully.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

“We should head back…” I say, stepping back from the creek’s edge.

Before I can finish, two wynots burst out of the creek in front of us, tangled limbs flailing and grasping in the air. One aims at Keith, still close to the edge after successfully stabbing the crippled wynot, the other at Charles, who was standing between me and Pesos.

As always I am amazed at the leaping abilities of the wynots.

Pesos takes the opportunity to leap across the creek as well, bypassing Charles who suddenly has a wynot in the face.

I can’t help but think of a line as the unexpected situation exploded around us.

Clever girl…

Instincts take over me and I flare up my arm and bitch slap Pesos so hard her head explodes into shadowy splinters. I then turn my attention to my two beleaguered colleagues, both of whom are struggling with a wynot on the face, like the creatures from Alien. Panic floods me.

I move quickly, flareing up the right hand and grasping the wynot on Charles’s head and exploding it with pure golden flames. Charles’s face looks like somebody melted off the skin and bones, leaving only holes for which he can scream out his agony. I give him a quick superficial heal before moving to Keith. Duncan was on him, trying to cut off the wynot but only succeeding in melting her knife.

“Out of the way!” I shriek and push Duncan to the side and explode the wynot in similar fashion. Behind me, I still hear Charles screaming in agony. Keith is silent.

I heal up Keith as fast as possible and am relieved to see that he is still alive, just unconscious

Small mercies.

“Get him away from the damned creek!” I shout out, as Jeffrey was already pulling Charles away.

After stabilizing Keith I leave him to Duncan to drag and I rush over to Charles, the man incoherent and still screaming. I push most of my remaining mana into heal and cleanse, alternating to prevent issues and before our eyes and bones reform on the face of the man grows back.

Charles screams stop and he shields his newly grown eyes from the dim sun. Moaning and groaning comes from his lips along with a litany of curses.

“Is he going to be okay?” Jeffrey asks, looking around the landscape suspiciously.

“Physically,” I reply, getting up and feeling woozy from the mana drain. “Keith’s going to come out better from this as he was unconscious, but Charles was awake the whole time. It's not pleasant to experience your face being regrown.”

“You’ve experienced it before?”

I sit back down, feeling weak. “Several times.”

Duncan appears in view, hauling the still unconscious Keith away from the creek.

“He’ll be fine too,” I saw before Jeffrey can ask. “Once I get my mana back up I’ll heal him fully. Like I said, he’ll be better off for it, having been knocked out.”

Duncan deposited Keith next to me and looked up at Jeffrey. “We messed up.” was all she said.

“No kidding,” Charles croaks next to us. “I almost got eaten alive!”

“I didn’t think Pesos could coordinate with the creatures here.” I say, my mouth dry. “She’s never done that before.”

“Still, we should have considered the possibility and taken precautions.” Duncan said seriously. “We shouldn’t have stayed near the creek.”

“We got careless,” Jeffrey said with a sigh. “It was too easy last time, and we rely on Greg too much. This won’t happen again. It must not happen again.”

After a moment Charles speaks up, still lying on his back with his arm over his eyes. “I’m never going near that f***ing creek again. I’m all done with the flying spaghetti monsters. Also, I take back any kind words I said about that dog, Pesos. She’s a bitch.”

I chuckle and sigh. “Unfortunately, she got what she wanted. I ended up killing her again which means she’s going to become stronger. If she can keep orchestrating circumstances she is going to become a bigger threat. We will be lucky if we get out of this without anybody dying. This is an important lesson to take to heart. If we weren’t taking this seriously, now’s the time to do it.”

We keep seated for another ten minutes. Once my manas back up I move over to Keith and finish the healing on him. Soon, his face is back and unblemished. Both Keith and Charles are half bald now though, so they are going to have to live with that. Keith remains asleep and Duncan and Charles carry him back to the temple.

“I wonder what class he ended up getting?” I ask aloud, keeping an eye out on the landscape.

“Whatever it is,” Charles says sourly, “it better be f***ing worth it.”