It was a beautiful warm evening, with a refreshing breeze, and after the day that we had had, we were both happy to relax on the terrace of the restaurant next to our hotel.

Cara was particularly quiet and I asked her what she was thinking about.

"I was thinking about the night that we arrived in Evola," Cara said. "When Henni threatened me, and, well, you changed; you weren't yourself. It seemed as though you weren't even there, as though you were possessed. You scared me, and I was wondering if you know what happened to you?"

"I have thought about it as well," I said. "I remember, getting a super mana surge from the medallions, and then I thought about what they wanted to do with you, and my anger flared and I just wanted to destroy them.

"And you're right, I wasn't myself, it was as though I let my rage take over control of my body. If it weren't for you, I probably would have killed them, and not in a very nice way.

"I am sorry if I scared you, I will try to be more careful in the future. Those medallions feed the mana much faster than absorbing it from a beast core, and I suspect it was at least in part due to the mana surge."

"There is something else that I don't understand." Cara said. "I saw you lift the three of them off the ground, as though it was nothing. I have never seen mana used that way before. Normally mana can only be used to lift very small or objects, but what you did should not have been possible. You lifted three large Evolans at once. How did you do that?"

"I don't know ," I admitted. "I remember wanting to lift them and there was some brief resistance, but I refused it and I just enforced my will and suddenly the resistance disappeared. I think the resistance was simply gravity, and that I must have created some form of anti-gravity."

This made me think of what Will had told me when I asked him his name. He said that it wasn't Will from William, but because the things in the dungeon were created through his will. I wondered if what I experienced was what he was referring to.

"I don't know if I will ever be able to do that again," I said "it was somehow linked to the state that I was in at that moment, and I would prefer to never lose myself that way again. If I could recreate the effect, without having to lose myself, it would be a pretty major breakthrough.

"By the way Cara, I wanted to tell you that I was pretty impressed with you today. I guess it is maybe because I never saw you fight before, but I always felt as though I needed to protect you. After seeing you in action today, I realize that you can more than take care of yourself. Of course, I will always be there for you if you need me, but at least I won't have to worry about you as much anymore." I said smiling warmly.

"I have become much more powerful the last couple of days, but you know, you still haven't created any weapons for me." Cara said sulking, but I knew that she was just teasing me.

"I am sorry", I said "I guess that I didn't want you to have to fight, but you're a pretty heavy-duty battle mage now, so do you have any idea of what you would like for a weapon?"

"I have been thinking about what would suit my style of fighting best, and I think that I know what I want.

"I would like a whip, with sharpened spikes at the end and I would like them to explode the way your hammer does when they hit their target. Do you think that will be possible?" She asked, and I could tell that she was really excited about it and had probably been thinking about a design for a while now.

"I think that I will be able to come up with something for you, but it may be a bit of work. In the meantime, if you are interested, I have the mace we got on our first night here, which is similar to what you are asking for. I could make it very light, and make the spikes explosive and maybe make the chain a bit longer. Would that be OK until I have the time to make you the whip of your dreams?"

"A mace, with a longer chain should do, at least for now, but who knows, I may end up preferring it over the whip, I have never used a weapon before.

"I think that a whip would suit you better, more cat woman, and less Orc, but I will work on the mace tomorrow morning, it could come in handy if we do the third floor of Lunira tomorrow."

"You know, we won't be able to stay here much longer before we will have to return. It will be a challenge to manage our projects here and back on earth. If you don't mind, I may need you to return here without me from time to time."

"I don't mind, it isn't exactly very far, but it won't be as fun without you."

"I am working on that." I said. "I need to find a way to communicate between here to earth. It may not be possible over such a long distance but I would like to do a test tomorrow when we arrive at Lunira, so I will need to create some communication devices before we return to Lunira, as well."

We talked a bit about anything and everything and just got to know each other better, and before we knew it, our food arrived.

The waitor had been present that morning as well, and seemed to be trembling slightly as he brought the plates to our table. I certainly hadn't intended to scare the locals, but I guess it was likely to happen at one time or another.

While we were eating, I noticed a couple of people who had been standing in the shadows, pretty much since we had arrived at the restaurant, and they had barely moved since.

I didn't want them to see that I had noticed them, but I redirected some mana to my eyes to improve my vision, and it was clear that they were watching us, and from the way they were dressed, I suspected that they were some of the officers who had arrangements with Jensu and his men.

Up until now, they only seemed to be watching, so I paid them no more attention, but I expected that they would be making contact with us soon enough.

Once we had finished our dinner, we returned to our hotel which was just around the corner, but I could see that the watchers, followed us from the shadows until we entered our hotel.

When we arrived in our hotel room, I got to work immediately on the communication device in the form of a bracelet made from mitrium. There were sending and receiving communication runes, and there were also messaging and recording runes, do I hoped that by placing in the right order, I could set up a two-way communication with its twin.

It took me a few tries to figure out how I could create a recording and send it as a message to the communication rune which in turn would be received by a similar device, and play back the recorded message.

After I managed to get that working, I needed to create a trigger to send the message and another to play the message, and yet another to signal that a message had arrived.

When I had completed the rune sequences, I created 2 identical bracelets and I gave one to Cara and I created a message for Cara and sent it.

I saw that the signal light on Cara's bracelet was lit. I asked her to trigger the message to play by feeding a little mana in the appropriate rune.

We were both surprised, to hear the message play back clearly. The next test would be from outside Lunira, to inside Lunira. As the dungeons were not actually on the planet, it would be a good test of long-distance communication.

I knew that there were still some changes that I needed to make. I may one day need to send a message to one specific person, and not everyone who had one of the bracelets, but I would wait until I had tested it on Lunira before making any further improvements.

I stored the bracelets away and we went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up early to convert the mace into the closest thing I could come up with for what Cara wanted.

To make the mace more like a whip, I first covered the full surface in mitrium and fused it to the metal of the mace. I then transcribed the extend rune on each of the chain links, which would allow them to stretch, and I added a few more links to make the chain a bit longer.

I applied most of the runes that I had used on my hammer making it very light, but on impact it would increase in mass and explode while generating lightning. I also added a penetration rune to each of the spikes.

It was by far the most difficult weapon I had made up until then, as there were many inscriptions to be made for each chain and each spike, and everything needed to be connected to the gems for powering the different runes.

In the future I would need to find a way to mass produce these weapons, I thought to myself, but I wasn't sure if runes could be mass produced. That would be something to look into another day.

By the time Cara woke, her mace-whip was completed, and I just needed to bond it to her. I was impatient to see how it would perform in the dungeon later.

When we stepped out of the hotel, we found the whole crew waiting for us, but instead of the dangerous looking thugs we had seen the day before, we found a group that actually looked happy to be there and impatient to get started.

Anyone care to join us for breakfast this morning?" I asked. "It’s on me." I added smiling.

Everyone joined us, and we had actually had enjoyable conversations.

The restaurant crew and some of the guests looked nervous at first, but they eventually saw that the ambiance was totally changed from the day before.

I also noticed that our watchers were back, but this time they were taking breakfast at a table not too far from ours and I was sure that they would be listening in, and I didn't particularly want them overhearing us.

Without anyone noticing, I created an invisible mana barrier at the end of our table where no one was likely to run into it by accident, and I applied the same sound proofing principles to it, as were used for sound insulation in windows.

I was wondering what they would do when they realized that they couldn't here our conversation any more.

"Jensu" I said "don't look now, but the two from the table over there have been following us. Do you know them?"

"Yeah, they were on our payroll." Jensu said. "They were paid to cover for us and to look the other way. You, of course, have nothing to worry about, but they can be pretty nasty, so I might have some trouble from them if they come to me for payment."

"Don't worry," I said. "I will have a chat with them after we finish here. I will make sure that they know that they have to deal with me in the future. If there is one thing that I dislike more than a criminal, it's corrupt cops."

When we finished breakfast, I asked everyone to go to Lunira and wait for me there.

When they left, I took my chair and joined the two officers at their table.

"Good morning, my name is Xander." I said, introducing myself. "Jensu works for me now and I just wanted you to know that your business arrangements will be changing from here on."

"Nice, to make your acquaintance Xander. My name is Track, and my partner here, is Gant.

"We had an arrangement with Jensu, so if we need to renegotiate with you, there will be a surcharge. Jensu, we know, you we don't."

"I don't think that you understood me. Actually, I expect you to do your jobs, for which your employer already pays you if I am not mistaken. My group will be assisting you for free, in their spare time. You see, our new goal is to clean up this town. Call it a redemption if you will, they regret their past and want to make up for their past errors."

"That's pretty funny, "Track said, laughing. "you're a funny guy. Don't expect me to believe for a second that your group of low-lives have suddenly decided to become the town heroes."

"You had better start getting your head wrapped around the idea," I said in a dead serious tone. "because if you cause us any trouble, then you will have to deal with me.

"Now, I know that you don't know me, but I arrived in town only a couple of days ago and I have already taken over Jensu's gang. So if I were you, I would be wondering who I was dealing with and I would be wondering if it is worth the risk to cross him.

"You can ask around, but I can assure you that you won't learn much about me, so I will help you out. You should just go back to doing the jobs you are paid to do and pray that I never catch you accepting hush money or abusing your power. I promise you that you will regret it."

"Very impressive speech" Track said "but we have a whole team of law enforcement who has or backs, and we can call in even more if necessary. You may have managed to take over Jensu's band, but even they knew better than to cross us."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Gant replied.

Something in his arrogance triggered something in me, but this time my mind remained clear, I suddenly understood how will power worked.

"Remember my warning, or you will regret it." I said rising from the table and letting my aura of terror, seep through their mana barriers and through their skin, caressing their souls, threatening to snuff them out of existence at any moment.

I watched as they paled from fear, as I continued to rise. They stared at me in horror and disbelief as I now was floating well above the table, before turning and shooting off through the sky to rejoin my group at the entrance to the Lunira dungeon.