“Alright so we skip the class for now then. Maud any idea on a mana orb?” I asked, focusing the conversation back onto the here and now. I decided I’d worry about faction wars later when Pryte explained to me more about them.

  “Oh, that’s easy, give me one of those elemental ones. I have plans!” she said with a devious smile crossing her lips.

  “What exactly are those plans?” Sanquar asked curiously.

  “Oh, um,” she started laughing nervously. “So I have a favorite cartoon, and actually, how about I show you it later? That will explain it better, but let’s just say I want to go for a mixture of all the elements like Elicec told me he has.”

  “Interesting. I will try this cartoon with you, and that is a very safe choice, so I have no complaints,” Sanquar replied, nodding his head.

  “Yeah, hard to go wrong there, though the class is gonna make it real interesting,” Mel added as he dug out an elemental orb for her. “Here, this one is already set for for elemental mixture and is rank three. That will give you a bit of a boost since it’s looking like ya gotta take care of Dave somewhat on the next Arena floor.”

  “Wait, I’m actually going?!” Maud yelled enthusiastically as she pushed the orb into her chest over her core, copying what Glorp had done.

  “Yeah, you are. We need to get this floor done soon, and I don’t think I’ll have my mana channels fixed by then, which means we are going to spend the rest of the day doing some basic practice work,” I answered. At the very least, I wanted her to understand how her channeling worked. I hated how blindly I had gone into that first dungeon and didn’t want to remotely replicate it with her. Whether that was how I met Corey or not.

  “What kind of training?” Maud asked.

  “Gonna start ya with some targets as soon as we’re done in here,” Mel said.

  “I also want to test our connection in regards to mana channels and Corey. But first, I want Sanquar to come over here and take a seat. We should see what happens if he tries to access a full System terminal,” I said, looking toward the bird.

  “Is that a good idea? I don’t know the exact terms of how I was banished in regards to the System,” he asked cautiously.

  “I doubt it will hurt. Personally I think the worst that happens is nothing, but we are in uncharted waters here,” Pryte answered.

  “I agree with Pryte. The System shouldn’t be capable of being weaponized in a way to truly hurt you, but I also agree with his second part, so the choice is yours,” Elody said, nodding at both of them, all four of her eyes studying Sanquar intently.

  “Alright, I’ll try,” he replied, hopping up onto the chair Maud had previously occupied and awkwardly managing to get it into the proper place.

  “Oh, hello.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember.”

  “I understand. Thank you for everything you’ve done. I will do my best,” Sanquar said, and instead of this one being followed by a pause, he hopped out of the chair.

  “That sounded kind of promising,” I said, studying his face to get a feel for what had happened. I wasn’t sure why I thought that would work. I wasn’t even very good at that for people, let alone alien birds.

  “It felt like talking to an incredibly old friend, and yet neither of us could fully remember what had happened between us, but while almost all of my menus were corrupted, I was able to access my quest menu, and it had a single entry. Curiously, it said I needed to track down the first human of this planet to enter the Spiral,” Sanquar responded, looking back at me intently.

  “Is that not just me?” I asked, my curiosity now piqued. Had I not been the first person to find my way there? If not, who had been?

  “I would have assumed the same thing, but as being near you isn’t completing the quest, it seems not,” Sanquar replied.

  “Anyone have any guesses then?” I asked, looking between Pryte and Elody, both shaking their heads in return. “Guess that’s a new mystery to add to the list.”

  “Mystery or not, it is some of the most positive news I’ve had in quite a long time. I have a quest, and that means potentially I can start on the path to fixing myself,” Sanquar responded, smiling in a way I hadn’t seen from him before. He looked like a baby bird who had just seen his mother return to the nest.

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  “Well, if you all want to take Glorp outside and start working, I’ll bring Maud shortly, just want to play around with our connection between Corey,” I said. Everyone except Elody started filing out of the room. She instead leaned back in her chair, one pair of eyes on me and the other on Maud.

  “I wish to try and detect this connection if that’s all right,” She said.

  “Sure, can’t really see the harm,” I answered, pulling Corey from my storage space and bringing up the chat window.

  After closing the chat window, I looked back at Elody. “Were you able to see any of the connections between us?”

  “Yes and no. If I didn’t know about the connection I’d have never been able to spot it. It looks exactly like any small mana channel connection. I couldn’t differentiate any part of it. We will need to experiment with it in a null mana zone at some point, but that isn’t a high priority and not something I expect us to encounter any time soon. Getting Maud to see the Jritotle, though, that is. I think after we finish these ten floors, I will see about a trip,” Elody explained.

  “Planetary roadtrip? One hundred percent in!” Maud replied.

  “Well, if we want to have a chance at that trip, it’s best we go join everyone outside and see what their plan is,” I said, heading for the door myself. This time, Elody did follow alongside Maud and Corey.

  Once outside, it became very obvious what they were doing. A series of targets had been setup all over the yard, and Glorp was running as fast as he could between them, placing and removing objects both into and near them. First he would stop near Pryte, grab something I couldn’t make out, and then swap it with several items along the way, and finish by placing the last item directly into Sanquar’s beak. The whole thing was done remarkably fast, making it hard to tell exactly where he was using the clay mana orb, but every so often, the ground looked the slightest bit different after he had passed.

  “Good job, Glorp. At higher levels, that class should let you start to grab things from unsecured System storages as well,” Pryte yelled to the teenager.

  “Get high enough, and there won’t be much security that can stop him either,” Mel added.

  “Glorp, put a hat on Mel!” I yelled, not sure if he would actually listen. But a few seconds later, a hat had appeared on the man’s head. Where had he actually found a hat? I didn’t have any inside that I knew of.

  “Oh, very funny, just fer that, I wanna see ya run full out and use the clay orb to slow yourself as rapidly as ya can without breaking anything,” Mel bellowed back at the fleeing Glorp.

  “What should I do?” Maud asked.

  “Start firing at Glorp!” Mel ordered, with a devious smile on his face.

  The urge to set up systems of control seems to be an innate desire amongst members of every species I’ve ever encountered throughout the Spiral. The problem is those same peoples tend to think once they have those controls in place, written into official documents as laws, that they have become tangible things that can be applied equally and fairly across a society forever. The reality is that laws are neither real nor fair. Even when those rules begin from a place of good, they rapidly turn into weapons to be wielded by those with power against those without, while the ignorant continue to utter the words that will lead to their own inevitable doom.

  ‘The law is the law, after all, and we must punish those who break it.’

  Xxlptr Paladin of Anarchy’s Closing Words in his Own Defense

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