Rhen desperately didn’t want to look like a noob in front of such a powerful delver, and pulled out all the stops to not get chomped. His body surged with a massive burst of Swift Twitch just in time to pull out of range, leaving one blade lodged in the beast’s side.

The angrigator—Rhen decided—pulled itself onto the patch of land, revealing all twenty feet of its horror to Rhen. It had paddle-like fins for back legs, but another set of legs mid-body that it used to stay agile. Its tail was heavily spiked, and it’s clawed feet oozed with poison.

Shevine jumped out of the water with a flip and landed on the beasts back, her shoes having been cast off. Her foot splayed out into three vicious claws and she dug into the monster’s back, then hammered it with blows from her blades from above. The angrigator bellowed with rage, its head twisting back and forth as it tried to get at her.

Rhen pounced on its face, slamming its jaw shut. He planted his palm between its eyes and triggered Tremor Blast. Its eyes vibrated violently, then burst out of its skull. The beast went still, defeated.

Shevine didn’t waste a second in dissecting it. She pulled a pouch from under her dress that opened to a large-mouthed sack lined with enon syntials. One by one she ripped out the tail spikes while Zeichen went for the creature’s core. Rhen opened the mouth and started pulling out teeth, though he wasn’t sure whether they were useful or not, he just didn’t want to stand there like a dolt while the others worked.

By the time the creature started dissolving, they’d harvested much of the undamaged scales, teeth, claws, tail spikes, and the bright green core the size of Zeichen’s fist. She held the crystal out to Rhen with a smile and signed something he didn’t know yet.

“She says you earned it.”

“I don’t know about that. I helped.”

“Don’t refuse a gift,” Shevine said.

Rhen bobbed his head in agreement and signed, “Thank you,” before accepting the core.

Zeichen signed back, “You’re welcome,” with a genuine grin.

They turned off down the path, heading through the lights without another interruption. Rhen stayed on alert while pondering all that had happened. So far as he could tell, Zeichen wasn’t a monster looking for the first opportunity to screw him over. But what did she want?

They left the swamp chamber and walked another series of connecting tunnels until they made it to a small, plain chamber, with another node. Zeichen placed her hand on it, and the crystal came to life with information. It was a Mastery node. She beckoned Rhen closer.

“Pick anything you want,” Shevine said, “But Zeichen recommends Predator’s Guile or Infernal Armor.”

Rhen placed his hand on the node, holding the angrigator’s core in the other. “Please show me those two options, and any Ancilla or Tertia I could apply.”

[Syntial Additions and Expansion]

Available Options: 194 {Expand? Y | N}

Recommended Options: 5

{Predator’s Guile}

Prima I | Passive +Aura Effect | Anima | Death | Cost for Aura: 10% Anima/Hour

Don the cunning of a predator, enhancing your visual acuity, nervous system response times, mental processing, and predatory instinct by [10%].

Aura Effect: Any enemy within [20] feet of you will have decreased mental clarity and increased nervous system response times.

{Infernal Armor}

Prima I | Active:Persistent | Mana | Dark | Cost: 15% Anima

Envelop yourself in a second skin of brimstone and hellfire. Any creature within [5] feet of you can feel the armor’s effects. Any creature that you touch, or touches you, while the armor is active will be burned, with a N=[5%] chance to conflagrate where “N” is the length of the creature’s hair in millimeters.

Infernal Armor protects from Fire and Dark based Mana attacks by up to [30%] depending on the strength of the spell, with a minimum protection of [5%].

Infernal Armor can be cast up to [3] times to increase the effects.

Infernal Armor can be cast on allies that you are touching.

Infernal Armor applies over the wearers current armor.

*Warning: Infernal Armor does not deal damage to the wearer but can damage allies.

{Consume the Light}

Ancilla I | Active:Duration | Mana | Dark | Cost: None

Append to Prima Caress of Night with a sister Ancilla on Primordial Breath. Pull the ambient lumens into your body through your breath, converting up to [20%] lumens into Anima of equal volume. You may immediately use this converted Anima to cast spells. You may actively cast this spell while casting others. This spell’s duration is dependent on your level of concentration. Continual focus will increase conversion efficiency, while distracted states will reduce it, and increase the damage to your Anima pathways.

*Warning: This spell causes damage to your anima pathways in the conversion. Holding this spell for long periods of time or attempting to consume extremely dense lumens rapidly may cause your Anima pathways to rupture, disconnecting your Anima core from that section of the body. If a syntial lies at that position, those spell(s) will be disabled until the pathway is repaired. Repairing damaged anima pathways is a lengthy and meditative process.

**Warning: If the light consumed is emitted by an enemy spell, the damage to your pathways is increased.

***Warning, this ability will permanently link Prima Syntial Caress of Night to Prima Syntial Primordial Breath, altering their affects.

****Warning, this ability will take up two ancilla slots, one on each Prima Syntial.

{Dancer’s Grace}

Ancilla I | Passive | Kinse | Chaos | Cost: None

Append to Prima Swift Twitch. Increase agility, dodge ability, and balance by [25%].

-----

Wow. Rhen wanted to know the story on the monster that gave them Infernal Armor. That was an absolutely badass ability, but he wasn’t sure if it was for him. He spent a lot of time underwater, or in cold environments where the creatures dealt mostly physical damage… but he never knew when he’d discover a heat or fire based eco-chamber in his dungeon, or in the new realm.

Predator’s Guile was free, and incredibly powerful, but he couldn’t turn it off. He didn’t know what “enhanced predatory instinct” would do to him. Would it change his personality?

Sensing his question, the readout above the node shifted.

[Predatory Instinct Effect]

Increased chance to instinctually know where vital organs and veins are in creatures you have not encountered, allowing for swift killing blows. Increased drive to pursue a fleeing creature when in combat. Increased drive to assert yourself when threatened. Increased ability to intuitively know an enemy’s next move.

-----

That answered that, then. While the other effects were cool, it wasn’t worth it. Rhen didn’t want to be in a dungeon business meeting when his idea was challenged, and then go all assholey on someone who didn’t deserve it.

The stat readout beside the header also let Rhen know he could select up to two new syntials, since his anima essence was bursting at the seams. It was risky to run it this close, but Rhen had been so busy with meetings and running around playing Dungeon Owner, he forgot to check to see if he was about to explode. All the better, because he really wanted three things, and with the angrigator core, he could swing them all.

“I would like to add Infernal Armor, Consume the Light, and Dancer’s Grace.”

Pain needled across Rhen’s diaphragm, back, and pec, as the ancilla additions applied first. Then, just below his collar bones, new and intense pain burned into his flesh. Infernal Armor took fifteen agonizing seconds to inscribe. When it was done, Rhen winced, bending over at the hips, and reflexively covered his chest.

Zeichen smiled. “You took that one like a champion. Most people can’t bear to have it inscribed.”

“Why did it hurt differently? I’ve never felt that before.” Rhen asked, his voice still a little strained.

“Let me show you.” Zeichen led the way to the next hall.

The go-between tunnel was not very long, and in a matter of moments they reached a desolate, blackened chamber. Ash covered the ground, and dry riverbeds snaked from the walls up to the center. On top of a pyramid-like mound sat a gnarled husk of a plant-thing that Rhen couldn’t identify. It looked almost like a flower, but every petal was withered and droopy. A hole had been cut at the center of the petals and inside was the seat of what had to have been a node.

Zeichen walked toward the flower, signing to Shevine beside her. Rhen followed.

“This chamber was once like a volcanic pit. From atop the mound, the Laval Flower would release streams of hot, metallic sap. The metal was instrumental in building several of the structures within Desedra I city.”

Zeichen sighed and placed her hand on the side of the rocky pyramid. “At my father’s demand—from my wretched brother’s insistence—I removed the Eco-Node so that it could be brought to a lab and replicated.

“I had known for some time that the dungeons were more connected than we believed, I’d seen it for myself in my travels. I told them removing the node could damage or break it, that it could ruin the power within, but my father didn’t believe me. I plucked the beating heart out of this wonderful being and gave it to my father. Within hours, the light faded from within it, and the node was useless.”

Rhen looked up at the plant with new eyes. He thought back to the nodes nestled within the towering Corraphine crystals in the alpine chamber. If he were to remove any of those, he’d likely destroy the Corraphine crystal, and the razor whisker population around it, but could he also make that section of the chamber barren like this one?

“This is why we have over-harvesting laws on a percentage of eco-chambers in a dungeon, right?”

“Yes.”

Rhen shook his head. “I don’t over harvest any of my chambers, personally. I’m not sure why it’s allowed at all.”

“Profit.”

Frustrated heat built in Rhen’s chest. “The long-term profit of maintaining all the chambers is far greater then farming out a chamber quickly.”

Zeichen nodded fervently. “But that kind of thinking requires us to become immortal, or grow a love for our future generations as much as we love ourselves. We all die our final death at some point and return to the Tree of Being, it is the way of life, and greed, the superfluous desire to amass wealth beyond one’s ability to use it, is a poison.”

Rhen’s head was spinning. Was this really what Zeichen believed? All evidence so far pointed to yes…

“Why did you bring me here?” Rhen came right out with it. He was done playing around the trap and was ready for it to snap shut.

“I have long sought an ally for my convictions. Alone, I am powerless against the majority. But you saw what happened today in that room. You spoke, I enforced, and we got results.”

“That’s true, but…” Rhen winced.

“But you worry for their freedom?”

“Yes.”

“They have passed the point of personal accountability. Their poisoned minds cannot see the Tree of Being, or the way we are connected, and they do not care for the suffering of others, only the progression of their power.”

“But don’t you think we could change their minds? If we lead by example, showed them the way.”

Zeichen’s shoulders bobbed with laughter, her face sad. “What do you think I’ve been doing for the last ten years? What are the tabloids you hear about me? “Zeichen IV rescues eco-collapsed dungeon from destruction” or “Zeichen kills underperforming dungeon manager in a Fit of Rage?”

Rhen swallowed. “The latter.”

“Yes, the latter is true. When the dungeon manager told me he would not stop the farming of the last eco-chamber, and I told him he was fired, it went to blows. I put him down swiftly, and then saved the dungeon—this dungeon—from complete destruction. Desedra VII was in a very bad way only three years ago, and we brought it back from the brink.”

“How?”

Shevine did not translate, and instead, signed back at Zeichen with swift, pointed movements. Zeichen rolled her eyes with a huff, then nodded.

Shevine turned back to Rhen. “We will tell you more when we can trust that you are not infected by the greed that plagues the others.”

“Are my actions thus far not proof enough?”

“Not for me,” Shevine said with finality.

Rhen turned to Zeichen. She see-sawed her head with a shrug that said, “What can you do?”

Rhen nodded to Shevine. “Then I’ll work on that. But for now, I think it’s time that I get home.”

“Of course,” Zeichen signed, and bowed. “We’ll take you the fast way.”

Zeichen motioned for Rhen to keep following as they made their way deeper into the dungeon.

“Uh, I don’t really want to go that way,” Rhen said, grimacing.

Shevine laughed. “He thinks we’re going to kill him.”

The pair smiled at each other.

“We have a Nexus node that can connect to any dungeon by reading its essence signature on your anima profile save.”

“I didn’t know Nexus nodes could do that.”

“I’m gathering there is much you still don’t know about dungeons. That’s okay. Most people don’t.”

“How did you learn? Or, is this more out-of-bounds conversation topics that I need to prove myself for first?”

“Out-of-bounds, I’m afraid.” Shevine said.

Rhen sighed with defeat, and didn’t press the matter. The tunnels branched this way and that, pulling Rhen deeper into the maze. If they were lying and there was no Nexus node, this was going to be a pitiful hazing trick.

But there was a Nexus node. At the center of a shimmering pool of silver liquid sat the glowing purple node on a pedestal. Zeichen walked across the liquid, the surface rippling with every step. She motioned for him to follow, and place his hand on the node.

Rhen took a tentative step into the pond but found the surface quite stable. Zeichen’s dungeon was full of wonders. He put his hand on the node and felt the tingle of a scan across his ID Syntial. Then, above the node, hung the option to teleport to Zephitz I Dungeon for a modest anima cost.

“We’ll speak again soon,” Shevine said.

Zeichen reached out for a handshake, and Rhen accepted. When she released him, she signed, “Farewell.”

Rhen returned the sign with a smile, and then disappeared into the Nexus.