“Gathering?” I asked, not entirely sure what he was talking about again. The idea of having some sort of get-together for people like us seemed like an incredibly idiotic idea, considering the warning both of them had made sure to give me. The longer I was here, the less comfortable I was with any of this. Just because we had a relationship with dungeon cores in common didn’t mean we shared any other ideas on how the universe worked.

  “Yes, we generally have private events for those in order to better learn from each other. I assume you’re now questioning how something like that could even be possible?” Rorland asked.

  “I don’t see how it fits very well into the idea of how much danger we’re in simply from existing,” I replied.

  “Yes, that’s a common fear. The answer is relatively simple, though: thanks to your bond, we’ll be able to create a cryptographic key that partially exists in each of you; each half will be required to access the event, and any attempt to copy the key destroys it instantly,” Rorland answered. That statement alone was a huge leap in any sort of technological knowledge I had seen demonstrated by anyone in the Spiral so far. They’d piqued my interest here, but I wasn’t sure it was the best idea to let them know that.

  “And if someone just reads my mind and learns about all of you?” I asked, pointing out another issue I was having with this entire concept.

  “Then they get our masks. You aren’t seeing either of us as we actually exist, and while you have my name, it’s certainly not unique in the Spiral. Attaching it to Teral will be impossible and won’t help, as their sapience hasn’t been revealed outside this order,” Rorland explained.

  “So all I know is some random person, appearing as a dwarf with a dungeon core, visited me in the System,” I said, following his logic. This meant it was likely someone with this knowledge had already leaked it to some factions. It was just a matter of them being able to create the circumstances needed to actually attend one of the gatherings were exceedingly difficult and worth little gain for the effort. Given that reality, I was more willing to give one a shot.

  “Correct, more interested now?” Rorland asked.

  “I am, but unless Corey is entirely on board as well, I won’t be attending,” I said, looking over to the core floating nearby.

  “I am interested, but I will be honest here. I do not trust this at all. I dislike that our minds were hijacked in an attempt to go about our plans. This seems exceedingly dangerous for both Dave and myself without little offering in return. I will attend the first meeting to make my final judgment on the matter, though,” Corey said. I was glad to see they were growing into my internal voice of reason. I wasn’t the best at avoiding impulsive decisions, and perhaps quick talking over of things with Corey could help that in the future.

  “Good, then you’re both free to leave. Upon exiting the door you will return to what you were heading into, and the new key will be safely in your consciousnesses,” Rorland said as a door appeared behind him.

  I immediately stood up, wanting to be free of this place and deal with the things we had initially come to the simulator for. This was just another potential problem point added to our ever-growing collection of them. Was that what it was to lead a faction? Infinite potential problems and places to grow with no real guide on how to do anything? I couldn’t imagine that was the original intention of the System when it was created. But that also assumed there was an intention. It was possible an artificial intelligence, assuming that that was what it was, emerged from other unrelated experiments. The fact that an old Spiral existed made me think it was likely that anyone who knew the truth was long gone.

  “Thanks,” I said to our hosts, then quickly made my way to the door, followed by Corey. I was glad they were on the same page as I was about this, and after the simulation, it was time for a long talk.

  Exiting through the door produced a moment of complete blackness before what I assumed was the simulation loading into place. As I couldn’t see or hear it, I just had to assume the brief moment of extreme heat followed by a cooling sensation meant Corey was going to work. Instead of spending the time waiting to see if we would manage this run doing nothing, I instead decided to see if the chat window worked and, if so how far its range worked in a simulator. Despite the blindness status, I was able to see the chat window. Would that apply outside the simulator as well? Considering how it seemed to work so far, I had a feeling it would, as I was reasonably sure the chat only truly existed in my mind’s eye.

  I closed out the window, not wanting to bother her more, but that was an interesting revelation as well. I was able to communicate outside the simulation during it. The bigger revelation, though, was still the dwarf and the core we had just met, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do about them. I had made up my mind to tell Pryte, and only Pryte, about the experience to get his opinion on it, but I doubted he would have much advice. What I really needed to do was find a way to get Sanquar’s memories back so we’d have access to everything he knew before his banishment.

  The feeling around me came to an end. An experience notification popped into my view, telling me my vision had returned, and the simulation had come to an end. Surprisingly, my head felt fine. Had I really come far enough to make the simulator entirely safe?

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  In theory, that was as far as I could push the simulator at the moment. I tried placing skill ranks into it again, and was still unable to move it any higher. So until I found a way to do that or handle harder monsters, this was what I was stuck with. Not that I was complaining. That had done exactly what I wanted and pushed me to my new level cap of three hundred.

  “How are you feeling, Corey?” I asked, the mallet having appeared on the desk after we finished with the simulator. I wasn’t sure if that effect would ever be relevant, but it was something else to note as they had started in my storage.

  “I feel oddly drained. I do not believe it will be a long-term problem, but at the moment I think I would have trouble performing in another simulation. Is that normal?” the core asked. Interesting, they must have taken some of the mana backlash themselves. Was that the real reason I felt fine? Was it possible the more cores we added to the simulations the further we could disperse the potential backlash?

  “Possibly, it sounds similar to how I initially felt, though not as extreme as when I pushed myself. Which means both of us are certainly improving here. The good news is that we have enough levels to hit the next core fortification, though, so we are likely ready to attempt our next step,” I said.

  “I would like to rest briefly before we do that. This is a new experience for me. Usually, the only energies drained in a fight come from you, but somehow, that tapped directly into my own. I do not know what that will mean for the future,” Corey said.

  “Well, we are stronger together, so it’s possible it just means we will have access to both of our core energies as we continue to grow, but yeah, I can see how that would be a weird feeling. It might also have something to do with some of the abilities of my class. Either way though, yeah, we can take a break. Pretty sure I smell breakfast anyway, and I want to talk to Maud about how she experienced that chat window from when we were in the simulator,” I said. I also wanted Elody and Pryte around for my attempt at fortification with Corey.

  “I will rest here,” Corey said, not moving from the desk. Not that they usually accompanied me everywhere, but that was still pretty different from what I was used to with them. Had the simulator hit them worse than they were letting on? What did a mana backlash look like for a dungeon core?

  “No problem, I’ll check back on you later. Come on, Chip,” I said as I walked back into the kitchen and spotted John already at work on breakfast. He was humming to himself, but I couldn’t make out the tune. Deciding not to interrupt his routine, I crept out of the kitchen toward the sleeping pile of children in the living room.

  That was when the cell phone on the table started to ring, causing Alex to bolt up awake. She looked at me before grabbing it, and I just nodded my approval in return. Had they managed to get communication towers back up and working?

  “Hello,” she said nervously as she put it to her ear.

  Why won’t they tell us what happens on the planet Erblanctil? First, they claim the universe isn’t flat despite the evidence of our eyes. Now, they tell us that they aren’t harvesting our organs, and yet they won’t let us visit that planet to investigate. I tell you, dear listeners, something sinister is going on in the Spiral, and we are the experiments.

  Xela Trombone’s Daily Rant

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