Having to crawl back the way he came to desperately try to fix his mistake made Alex feel like a massive failure. He had made reckless choices, and as a result his party was in peril. His mind flashed back to the image of Ben, Mel, and Mike all sitting on the cocoon cushions, their brows furrowed in concentration as they focused on leveling up. When Alex had tested how deep their trance was he had tried clapping his hands inches from Ben’s face. Alex hadn’t noticed the slightest reaction from Ben to his antics. His party wouldn’t see or hear the warriors coming.

If Alex could kill unsuspecting opponents in a single strike there was no reason that the same wouldn’t be true of the maur warriors. He just hoped that the simple warriors wouldn’t go straight for the throat or any other vital region. Perhaps instead they would go for a chomp on Mel’s armoured legs, waking her up in time to fight them off with no more than a bit of a limp. He didn’t know how breaking her trance would affect her but it would be better than death.

Forcing his little body into the shaft was no less claustrophobic than the first time, but this time he wasn’t motivated by a mix of boredom, curiosity and an alcoholic buzz. This time the lives of his companions were on the line. A welcome burst of adrenaline washed through him. This helped him keep himself moving despite the Strain he had acquired from bottoming out his Energy. It was like he had just run a race, and before he had regained his breath the next race had started. Alex pushed himself forwards as fast as he could, motivated by panic and a sense of urgency. Despite having a rough idea of how long the passageway was this time around, it like it went on and on with no end in sight.

When Alex arrived back at the nesting room he felt knackered, though it couldn't have taken him much more than a minute to climb back through the shaft. He rolled out of the tunnel and looked around, his enhanced senses taking in a curious scene. The enhanced worker drones Zedd had left behind were protecting Alex’s incapacitated companions, fighting for their little lives. The defenders had formed a wall of chittering chitin in front of Ben, Mel, and Mike.

The larger warriors had a significant size advantage over the little drones, but the workers outnumbered them five to one. The little creatures snapped fiercely at the legs of their larger kin, beating them back. A couple of worker drones lay twitching on the ground with grievous crush wounds, but the force of their numbers was gradually wearing down the warriors.

Alex was relieved to discover his companions were safe, no thanks to him. They still hadn’t moved a muscle and if not for their cat sized defenders, the warrior maur could have easily snapped their necks before Alex had arrived. Alex took stock of the situation. The defenders didn’t really need his aid, but if he could take out the attacking pair quickly then he might save them further injury. More importantly those two drones represented a nice chunk of essence to be gained. Alex selected his first victim, the one to his left looked like it was more injured, so he decided to go for that one first.

Almost two minutes had passed since his Energy had bottomed out. Due to the strain it was under it was regenerating at half its normal rate and would do so until refilled. It was currently sitting at 54, so if he waited just a little longer the strain would be removed. Alex considered sitting on the sidelines, but he couldn’t help feeling shame at the idea of letting these brave little workers fight for him. Hiding behind the nine-foot-tall Mel was one thing, letting the workers die for him would be shameful. Besides, if one of them got the killing blow he would be missing out on the chance to bank some easy essence.

Alex ran forwards on the balls of his feet. He flexed his Muted Body only as his feet touched the ground, feeling confident that he was starting to get the hang of this technique. By conserving his energy on his approach Alex arrived behind the attacking warriors with plenty to spare. As Alex thrust his blade forwards, he activated Enhance Senses, having a theory that doing so increased his hand-eye coordination. This time he angled his blade upwards so that it would penetrate the brain from behind. Alex hoped that would prevent it from sending out a death signal. Luck showed itself to be on Alex’s side as he landed another perfect killing blow.

You have killed level 4 Maur Drone. You gain 24 essence.

Unfortunately, luck is a temperamental bastard, and as the drone warrior went limp its body twisted, wrenching the dagger from Alex’s grasp. Shit. Alex reached down to pull the dagger out and narrowly avoided having his hand crushed as the second warrior snapped its mandibles at him. Alex took several steps back, keeping his eyes on the warrior. It didn’t chase him, instead it turned to snap at the workers, but it did keep him in its field of vision.

“That was close, I was hoping to get both of them, but I suppose I’ll let the workers finish it off. Why did I get so little essence from that kill?” Alex asked Zelda.

“The workers were all close enough to the kill that they got a chunk of the essence for themselves. You still got more than any of them for stealing the killing blow.” Zelda sent back to him.

“That makes sense, I guess. It would be nice if I could get the kill on the second one, but honestly for twenty-four essence I’m not going to risk getting my hand nipped off.” Alex sent back to her.

“I’m all for you not risking yourself needlessly. I don’t understand why that beverage had such a reckless influence on your sense of self-preservation.” Zelda sent.

“I’m basically the size of a child; it isn’t my fault that I’m a bit of a lightweight.” Alex sent back.

“I understand the effect of your body weight on your ability to resist poisons. What I don’t understand is why you would knowingly ingest poison in the first place. Many of the authors of my memories did the same, but I still don’t understand it.” Zelda replied. If they had been communicating verbally Alex might have taken offence to her criticism, but he could sense the genuine confusion in her thoughts so instead tried to explain.

“Drinking helps people relax, forget the stress of their lives, makes us less inhibited so that we can enjoy ourselves.” Alex explained.

“Stress is a natural defence mechanism against danger, why would you want to ignore it?” Zelda sent.

“Because… look, emotions are complicated, ok? A lot of the time we get stressed over crap that doesn’t even matter. The kids in my class often drive me up the wall, but I wasn’t in ‘danger’ from them.” Alex accompanied the thought with a memory from a few weeks ago. One of his students had turned in a blatantly plagiarised essay, insisting it was his own work when large chunks of it were obviously from wikipedia. He focused less on the details of the incident and more on trying to send across the way it had made him feel.

“A child made you feel this way? Perhaps I can understand why you would attempt to numb emotions like this. Such frustration can’t serve any meaningful purpose.” Zelda sent back.

As Alex and Zelda talked the maur workers had dragged down the second warrior to the floor. Free to retrieve his dagger Alex put the creature out of its misery with a nine-inch blade through its eye. He would have been lying if he said he was acting from altruism; he felt a satisfying rush of essence flow into him as he stole killing blow from the workers. Sorry guys, but I need this more than you do. He was close to being able to afford Quick Burst and while this kill wouldn’t get him there it would get him one step closer.

You have killed level 4 Maur Drone. You gain 26 essence.

The drones looked at Alex, and for a second Alex thought they might be annoyed at him, but then they got back to work around their nest. Alex left the workers to their tasks, letting them dismember the fallen warriors. The grinding of mandibles on carapace put him on edge, but he couldn’t complain. Without the little drones his friends would probably be dead. Alex glanced over to his companions. Throughout the fight they hadn’t moved at all. They were totally defenceless and hopelessly vulnerable. When he was finally able to level up himself he would remember to do so in a more secure location.

Alex’s brief reconnaissance mission had killed half an hour at most. Based on their previous estimates he still had hours longer to wait. Even with their constructs aiding them through the process his companions wouldn’t snap out of their trances any time soon. If he had levelled up with them, he wouldn’t have had so much time to kill by himself. Alex idly watched a worker drone dragging away the severed leg of the maur he had lost his dagger to.

“If I sent a drone to fetch something and then followed it I would stand a better chance of discovering something than if I just blindly wandered the dungeon.” Alex sent to Zelda, though he was mostly thinking to himself.

“That is slightly more intelligent than your last plan. What advantage is there in doing that over simply waiting for Zedd to return and asking her?” Zelda replied.

“Why would I trust Zedd to tell me anything?” Alex replied. He was fairly sure Zelda was on his side, but she did seem to look up to Zedd, she was Zedd’s creation after all. Alex on the other hand hadn’t decided if Zedd was more of a mad mage or an evil genius sort of kidnapper. That she was both powerful and intelligent was undeniable, but her motivations remained circumspect. She had stolen his entire mind without his consent, regardless of her intent he couldn't trust her after that.

Zelda didn’t reply to Alex immediately, leaving him tense as she waited for his reply. Alex’s curiosity got the better of him and he looked for him in his mind, probing for her thoughts. To his own surprise Alex found her. It was like remembering a long forgotten memory at the back of his mind. One moment he was unaware of her presence, the next he could suddenly feel her presence. This didn’t give him any more insight into her true feelings; unlike his own chaotic thoughts Zelda’s mind was like a fortress, impenetrable.

“Zedd has done several things that would not make logical sense if she bore you ill will. She sacrificed her minions to give you and your friends essence to level up. Not to mention, she gave you me. Even for a master mind mage such as her doing so would have strained her Will, especially as she was creating four of us one after the other. I suspect that strain is why she slipped and injured your mind, infecting me with your emotions without realising it.” Zelda finally answered.

“Ok, but what does she actually want with us? She may or may not be on our side, but she has put in a considerable amount of effort to get us here. She said we are Test Group 7, that’s even what our party interface says, but what happened to the previous six? Why did she choose us?” Alex sent her.

“Perhaps you were chosen at random. Zedd said that she was using your test group to calibrate the process for future targets of greater value, individuals who could recreate some of the technology of your world.” Zelda replied, as she sent Alex the memory of Zedd saying exactly that.

“If she spent that much effort bringing us to our world it seems logical that we weren’t just randomly chosen.” Alex sent back.

“What would she want with you specifically? You have some useful knowledge, but nothing more than the average chemistry teacher.” Zelda asked, never one to spare Alex’s feelings.

Alex paused to mull over Zelda’s words. It chafed his pride a little to admit, but he really wasn’t anything special.

“Maybe I’m not her main target. Wait… Shit. I just realised something. Zedd didn’t make the forum thread that I replied to, it was a post from Mike who was looking for a game in our area. Then after Ben replied, John… I mean Zedd, offered to host a game for us. How did I not think of this earlier!?” Alex sent to her, remembering when he stumbled across the post himself. The game had sounded a little convoluted, but just odd enough to catch his interest.

“Your mind has had a lot to process in the last few hours. On top of that you lost some memories in the transfer. Your mind will be able to patch together some of the gaps but others will be lost.” Zelda sent to reassure him. Her words had the opposite effect however.

“Damn. If I’ve lost bits of my mind then how do I know I’m still me?” Alex asked, concerned.

“Who else could you be than yourself? You forget that you are not Alex Cooperson, you are Lex Lionheart.” Zelda asserted with unyielding and unsympathetic logic.

“I… I guess that’s true. Though I’m not sure when I started believing any of this was real and not a drug induced fever dream. Anyway… was Zedd replying to Ben or John?” Alex musee.

“If her ultimate goal is knowledge then you should consider who would best further than end.” Zelda sent back.

Alex considered how well he knew his companions. “I don’t really know that much about them to be honest. We were messaging each other for a couple of weeks before we met up but we mostly talked about game related stuff.” Alex sent as he wracked his memory for useful information “I remember Ben asking if John had considered broadcasting our game, and that he streamed on weekends.” Alex remembered checking out Ben’s channel and becoming a little jealous to find out that he had quite a much larger following than he had expected. Alex tried to remember what he knew about Mike, but came up mostly blank. All he really knew was that the older man worked long hours and drove a black SUV he had parked outside John’s house. Alex knew even less about Mel, as she hadn’t posted in the group chat more than once or twice.

In the time Alex and Zelda had been speculating the drones had finished dismembering the warriors Alex had led to them. One of them was dragging away the last maur head. Watching it do so Alex decided that it was time to take the smart approach.

“Zelda I want to test how far I can order these drones about. You can give them mental commands like Ben’s construct did, can’t you?” Alex asked.

“I should be able to, yes.” She replied.

“Can you ask that one to stop moving and to drop the severed head?” Alex sent as he gestured to the drone making off with the last remains of the dead warriors. Zelda didn’t reply but a second later the drone dropped the head on the floor and turned to face Alex. “This is going to be fun.” Alex thought to himself.