I closed Luke’s eyelids, happy to know he chose to do the Bond with me. I wondered why it had given me a set of crossed daggers for his Stigmata? Did the system know what kind of class Luke would get? The Fae had known about Beema, so the system knowing was plausible. I jumped to my feet. I could possibly still save the kids.

I ran towards the closest soldier. It was the man Luin had roasted. His body was still intact, but the smell was terrible. I stabbed my dagger down and began cutting where I hoped his heart was. I began gagging as I had to remove my hammer and cush the ribs before getting to the man’s heart. I removed it and began looking for his core. I was about to give up when I caught the glint of blue next to the man’s lungs.

I tore the core out and tossed it into my bag, moving on to the next intact chest. I kept counting in my mind. I had just reached a thousand when I yanked out the fifth core in a hurry. I had guessed everyone had been dead for fifteen minutes now. I pulled the other four cores out and tried to clean them as best as possible.

I grimaced as I began to pop the five cores into my mouth. They were not as clean as I had liked, but I pushed them down anyway.

[ System Notification ]

Three Rank D Azure Cores has given 96 Energy

Rank C Azure Core has given 40 Energy

Rank B Azure Cores has given 48 Energy

5% Bonus: 9

193 Energy converted to 1930 Mana

I hoped it would be enough. I ran over and removed Owena from Luin’s grasp and carried her over and onto the street. I then jumped back into the crater and searched frantically for the others. I found the young Beastkin boy with a simple bow still clutched in his hands two minutes later and brought him over to Owena’s body. I looked everywhere for the other kids but couldn’t find them.

I wasn’t a religious man, but I prayed to Elune, hoping she could hear me across the galaxies that the other kids had never been in the building, to begin with. I paused and gave one final look at Luin before trying to pick her up. I couldn’t budge her and cursed myself for being weak and unprepared. I didn’t have time to try and figure out a Strength Aura or waste any of my precious Mana. I leaned over and kissed her forehead before sinking her body deep into the ground. I was comforted knowing she would be back in a year. She would be back in a year, right? Oh, Elune, the comfort was slipping.

I rushed back over to the two bodies of the children, then cursed myself. I ran over and pulled with all of my might, yanking Luke off the impaled piece of timber and bringing his body over to the other two kids. I willed the gate to be half as big, hoping to conserve Mana, and picked the same spot as I had the last time I did this.

The door shot open, and I could see the surprised members of The Guild. I yelled for help, hoping my voice carried. A giant behemoth of a man stepped forward, and I recognized him as the man who had carried the dead Gnomes through my previous port and had kicked what I thought was the Hunter.

I felt my Mana draining quickly. I picked up Owena, ensuring she was first across the gate. The man gently picked the body from my hands before I bent down and picked up the Beastkin boy next. I gently placed the boy in the man’s other arm, and I turned as he rushed off somewhere.

I picked Luke or Lucian’s body off the ground and turned to walk through the portal when I hit a solid wall of air. My Mana was almost gone, and I began freaking out, I tossed Luke’s body into the hall just as my body gave out and the gate snapped shut.

I collapsed to the ground, exhausted. I leaned back just as I heard a distant explosion in the distance. I felt like I was about to pass out when I heard something behind me and then laughing. I focused on the voices and felt my body heat up as I heard what one of the men said.

“Lookie here, we got another one of them, beast-loving humans. Let’s get a collar around him and let him join the others.”

I pulled myself to my feet and looked over at the group of dark crimson-colored armored men. “Why do I hear dead men talking?” I said as I looked at my mana and cursed.

“Oh, we got a live one here, boys. He doesn’t look much more than a Bone, maybe a Jade. Let’s have some fun before selling him to the slavers.”

The death of Luin and the death of the children sprang to the front of my mind. These bastards killed them. Now they were looking for survivors and putting collars on them? Were they looking for people to sell to the slavers? I felt my body begin to burn hotter, my rage beginning to boil over. Luin was already dead. I didn’t need to protect her or myself any longer. Maybe it would be best if I just let go.

I thought back on what Lastaf had said and figured it was a great way to go out. This way, I would be with Luin again, and mduch faster began to burn in my mind even brighter. I pushed on the Rage rune on my wrist, willing it to fill me. I pushed the Blood magic into my mind that I had glimpsed for a mere moment before going berserk. Then, because I just didn’t want to go out easy, I thought about my Ice Armor, using the Blood nodes instead.

A multitude of things happened at once. I began laughing like a maniac before my chest and right forearm burned. My mind began to seeth, pushing against me to protect itself. I pushed harder, wanting my suffering to end and to wreak vengeance on those responsible.. Blood red armor snapped around me, and two smaller hand axes coalesced into my hands.

Then my mind was forcefully ejected from my body. I could see my entire red armored body stand there, laughing like some evil villain out of a tv show or graphic novel. I looked up at the group of men who were no longer joking around and were instead all pale-looking and fidgeting nervously.

I wanted to tell them to run, make this more entertaining for me, but my mind reeled in pain, so, so much pain. The pain just gave way as I felt my mind begin to be pulled. I looked around, grasping for anything that could tell me why in the world I had felt so much pain.

I finally focused on my body, the same body that was now dismembering one of the men who had begun to run away. My body blasted forward after the next soldier, whose head went sailing through the air. The man's body kept running for a few more steps before realizing no one was in control and finally fell over.

I noticed my body began laughing and yelling in glee as it struck down the rest of the group. An explosion ripped through the air on the other side of town, and it began yipping in excitement as it barreled towards the noises in the distance, with my conscience in tow behind it.

***

As I slowly woke, I blinked my eyes a few times, looking at a dark orange ceiling. I hadn’t gotten myself killed and sent to respawn, I wondered out loud as I sat up and looked around. I was inside one of my Unground Campsites, but it was a bit different. It was much larger than I had remembered it being. Why had I made it larger last night?

My entire body seemed healed of any injuries. I tried to recall what happened as I watched my body as a passenger, but I couldn’t recollect anything after the first fight. I groaned as I swung my legs off the platform. My entire body hurt like hell. I created a dim Light orb in the palm of my hand and let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t burnt my Mana Channels out.

I looked down at my backpack and then just stared at the pile of cores to its side. I then noticed a piece of paper leaning against the treasure trove. I bent down and grabbed the corner of the paper, pulling it up. The paper had a message written on it.

I wouldn’t rely on your Berserker ability in the future, as there may not be a team to stop and calm you down again. We collected your cores and added a few from the monsters we took out as a thank you for saving some kids you dropped off at Mythtide. The boy, Luke, gave us quite the story.

The Void Lord.

P.S. I recommend you find our team’s hideout south of Mythtide. I’ve left a way to get your blue companion back.

P.S.S. The map is on the back.

Wait, could this Void Lord slow down time? Was that what happened to me before? I had so many damn questions! How did they know how I could get my blue companion back?

The map looked to be of a coast. The top right of the map showed a city or port with the letters ‘MT’ written under it. Mythtide? Far south on the coast was a little ‘x’ with a circle around it. Around the ‘x’ were various crudely drawn mountains or hills. What kind of answers would I get if I followed the map? I doubted it was a trap. Why leave me a fortune of cores just to ambush me later?

I pocketed the note and looked at the mountain of cores. I could see at least an orange and a yellow in the mix of greens and blues. I began to pop the cores into my mouth, saving the few Rank S Azure cores to sell.

[ System Notification ]

Five Rank D Jade Cores has given 60 Energy

Nine Rank C Jade Cores has given 144 Energy

Seven Rank B Jade Cores has given 140 Energy

Eight Rank A Jade Cores has given 192 Energy

Twelve Rank C Azure Cores has given 480 Energy

Ten Rank B Azure Cores has given 480 Energy

Six Rank A Azure Cores has given 336 Energy

Rank B Citrine Core has given 104 Energy

Rank D Amber Core has given 152 Energy

5% Bonus: 104

212 Energy converted to 2114 Mana

Skeletal System: 300/300

I had no idea who my saviors were, but I felt like they knew what I would be going against and were pushing me in the right direction. I selected my Nervous System and instantly leveled it to Rank 7, taking seven hundred of my energy, leaving me with a single point over eleven hundred, and leveling me up.

[ System Notification ]

Congratulations!

You have reached Level 6

Obtained a perk point

I now had three perk points, and I pulled up the menu with the available options. I stared at the menu for a while, not seeing a single option I could afford. The Mana thread option was gone under Leatherworking and was replaced with a perk costing ten perk points called Fast Tanner.

The perk allowed me to tan my hides inside my inventory. I would have bought it in an instant if I could afford it. That made me wonder how people could afford some of these Perks and Traits. Did they save up for years, waiting for certain ones?

Then I remembered how Hiroaki explained Dungeons could award perk points for clearing out floors. Maybe when I got stronger, I would become a Delver and do the same.

With the amount of Energy, I had leftover I leveled Nervous once more to Rank 8 taking eight hundred points from the remaining pool. The seventh and eighth ranks both gave me another five hundred Mana each for a total of four thousand Mana.

Looking through my System’s Ranks, I maxed out Rank 3 of Epidermis and then selected Endocrine. A single point was left in the Energy pool.

[ Endocrine System: 1/300 ]

I picked up my backpack from the ground and tossed it onto my back. I opened the door, climbed the curved stairs, and stopped as I got to the ground level. My jaw wanted to fall to the ground as I looked on in shock at the two massive corpses of the snake turtles that had rained down destruction on Meckingmoor.

I stood there looking around sadly. Smoke still billowed out in black streaks within the town. Large looking birds were all over the corpses of the massive turtles. They were probably having the best meal of their lives.

The note had said Luke was alive. I hoped that meant all of them; the kids I sent to Mythtide and the kids I couldn’t find in the town. I debated on what to do for a few minutes. I had this feeling the Akhusite army had been wiped out. Jarrax wouldn’t be getting out of The Guild’s hall for another two days. I thought back to the note and the spot south of Mythtide.

Not really coming up with many options, my mind was made up. I removed a travel ration and skin of water to appease my dry mouth and grumbling belly before I began walking east towards Mythtide.

Nope! I stopped myself, thinking that my luck with everything has been rotten so far, so I began walking south and around the burning city. I didn’t want to chance an encounter with a Hunter. Instead, I would play it safe and I’d walk well south, then east towards the coast making my way to the mysterious ‘x’ marked on the map.