An hour later, Max walked through the portal with a ball the size of her head that Ford had asked for and froze as she saw a massive beast crouched over Ford, its gaping maw dripping with molten blue flames. The beast slowly turned its head toward her, its flaming deathly eyes locking on to her. Its snout curled, and a growl emanated from the beasts flaming body, and it took a step toward her, then another and another.

Max took a step back toward the portal, keeping her eyes on the monster as it slowly prowled toward her. Before she could run back through the portal, she heard someone speak, “Ah, Max, what brings you here?” Max turned and saw Morgan sitting at a workbench tinkering with some mechanism.

“Morgan, what’s that thing?” she asked, pointing at Ace.

“That is HK-9. But Ford, and I call him Ace.” Ace snarled again and got low with his tail up and wagging, “ACE SIT!” Morgan yelled. The giant mechanized dog stood straight and planted its butt directly on Ford.

Ford groaned as the mech dog sat on her, “Damn it, dog. Get off!” Ace didn’t move and bent its head toward her and stared. “I don’t care!” Ford groaned. The dog continued to stare at her, “Fine. I’ll tell her. Hey, Max!”

Max didn’t want to move from her spot and look at Ford, but she still responded, with a studder, “Yeah, F-Ford? W-what is it?”

“Throw the ball!”

“What?”

“Throw the ball! He wants to play fetch!”

“What!?”

Ace’s tail began to wag, smacking Ford in the face, “Ah, Throw the damn ball!!” Max threw the ball in the opposite direction of Morgan, and the massive dog leapt after it. As the ball bounced, so did the dog, each hop shaking the ground of the workshop before its snapping jaws clamped down on the bouncing ball. Once it caught the ball, the dog turned and pranced over to Max, looking extra prideful. It gently placed the ball in front of her and looked at her expectantly with its tongue hanging out of its mouth.

Max looked at the ball covered in blue flames yet not melting, “Ford, what is it doing?!” she asked.

Ford sat up and looked over at them, “He wants you to throw the ball.”

“What?!”

Ford chuckled, stood, and said, “Ace, finish!”

Ace picked up his new ball and walked over to Ford; sitting down on her left side, he looked over to her and asked, “Am I a good boy?”

Ford rubbed the dog’s side, running her fingers along with the spiked metal so she wouldn’t cut herself on him, “Yes, you are a good boy.” Ace’s tail began to wag as he laid down and gnawed on the ball.

“Umm,” Max said as she took a few hesitant steps toward them, “So, you two have been in here building that?”

“He has a name,” Ford said defensively, “He is the mechanized hellhound model HK-9, and he is named Ace, and he is the bestest boy, aren’t you?”

Ford scratched behind Ace’s ear, and he said, “I am a good boy!”

“AH-HAA!!” Morgan exclaimed as he lifted the device he had been working on all day.

The exclamation made everyone jump, and the ball fell from Ace’s mouth; the ball rolled away, and Ace watched it and said, “Ball,” sounding very disappointed.

“What’s the ‘ah-ha’ for Morgan?” Ford asked, only a little interested.

Morgan stood and made his way over to Ace with the device. The device was the size of Ford’s hand and looked like a speaker. “I have made a device that can transmit someone’s voice using mana. I truly am a genius!” Morgan said through the speaker without moving his mouth, “Clearly smarter than-” Morgan’s eyes grew wide, and he took his hand off the speaker’s base.

Ford took a few steps toward Morgan, and Ace rose to his full height, his flaming visage towering over her and Morgan. Ford bent over and said, “Sorry, I missed that last part. Clearly smarter than who?” Ace growled, emphasizing the question.

Morgan leaned back, his eyes still wide, and said, “Oh, no one. Just a childhood enemy who won the invention fair over me from a long time ago.”

“Ah-huh, yeah, sure,” Ford said, then straightened, “You made a speaker.”

“Yes, I did!” Morgan answered confidently, “Ace, down,” Ace laid down in front of the Dwarf, “Open up,” Morgan commanded, and Ace opened his giant flaming maw. Then Morgan stuck his hands with the speaker in without hesitation.

Max freaked out, “Morgan! What are you doing!?”

“Relax, Max. The fire is harmless. There got it,” Morgan said, then pulled his hands out, showing them to Max to show her that he was indeed unharmed.

Ace closed his jaws and looked at Ford, then at Morgan, then spoke in a voice everyone could hear, “Can I have ball?”

“Yes, go get your ball,” Ford chuckled.

“Ball!”

As Ace jumped at his ball Max watched and finally smiled just a little; then, a thought occurred to her, and she asked, “How will he get out of here? Isn’t he too big?”

Ford and Morgan froze and looked at the portal, which was half the size of Ace, then looked back to the dog playing with his ball. “Ummm, we didn’t think that far ahead, did we?” Ford stated, half asking.

“No, we didn’t.”

Ford sat and crossed her legs, looking through the skill trees. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Mage selected. Select class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, Light, Dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, Possessor. Possessor selected. Skills: crystal core, weapon possession, mechanized servant, self-repair, astral possession. Ford began reading all the new skills, which were primarily for upgrading the mechanized servant or controlling things. She cursed and backed out of the skill tree.

‘There has got to be some way of shrinking him or storing him somehow. Other than putting him into void storage.’

“Didn’t Kii and Mizu’s uncle shrink and grow himself,” Wrath said, “and wasn’t he a space mage?”

Ford snapped her fingers and thought, ‘You’re right! Thanks!” then she went back into the skill trees and opened up the space class. Select route: Area control, Travel. ‘Travel?’ Travel selected. Skill: close-range teleportation: teleport anywhere within sight; requirements: INT: fifteen, WIS: fifteen, LCK: ten; cost: two-hundred mana; level: zero of one.

Skill: long-range teleportation: teleport anywhere you have been before no matter how far; requirements: INT: twenty, WIS: twenty, LCK: ten; cost: three-hundred mana; level: zero of one.

Skill: target teleportation: teleport anywhere so long as you have the coordinates; requirements: INT: thirty, WIS: thirty, LCK: twenty; cost: five-hundred mana; level: zero of five.

Ford stopped reading the skills and closed the window and looked at Morgan and Max who were waiting expectantly. Ford took a deep breath, “MOTHER FUCKER!!!” she yelled.

Before the other two could ask any questions Ford opened the skill trees again and went into area control and looked at the tenth skill down. Skill: size: control the size and mass of any object that you choose; cost: one-hundred mana per second per object; level: zero of one.

Ford put the point into size and angrily stood. Max stood as well and asked, “Why did you yell?”

“As it turns out,” Ford began, “there is a teleportation spell that could bring us directly to any dungeon in the world so long as we know the coordinates.”

Max and Morgan froze for a second and thought about the implications. Then in unison, “Mother fucker.”