“As long as it gets us free from the prison you keep us in. We wish to experience the world again!” one of the two orbs said.

  “I will even offer you my knowledge of channeling. Just let us be free!” the second said. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. Neither of them sounded hostile exactly, but dungeon core voices were notably lacking in inflection when outside bodies. Traveler had learned some, but these two were more like Corey when they first started talking to me.

  “Yes, that’s the idea, but both of you two seem to have a stronger understanding of just what you are and what you’ve done than the wasp core does. So I need you both to understand that attempting to betray us won’t go well for you,” I said firmly.

  “As long as we get to experience the world again, we can both agree to that,” the first said.

  “I demand the right to read your books. I was told you have books. I will agree to your demands for penance if I can read books!” the second one said. I pulled up a chat window for a private conversation with Corey.

  I closed the chat window, accepting Corey’s point. “Do either of you have any preference on the tool you would like to be in?” I asked.

  “I request the one with the writing implement, I wish to write things,” the one that had wanted books a moment ago said.

  “We do not care,” the other said.

  “Okay, how about names? Anything?” I asked. Differing echoes of no followed.

  “Alright, well, then, following Corey’s scheme, the knife will be Beta, and the compass will be Gamma,” I said. If I somehow ended up with more than twenty-four linked orbs, I’d figure out an additional naming scheme, but for now, this would certainly work. With no complaints voiced, I got to work putting them in their new homes. I soon had all three of the cores floating around me as I left the garage, ready to show the others my new handiwork. I was a bit proud of myself as I could actually help again on the next floor and was glad to do so.

  “Dad, why do you have three tools now?” Alex asked, spotting me first from a bench she was sitting at next to Connie as they talked to some of Glorp’s siblings

  “Did some refinement on my core and sockets, and even fixed the issue I was having channeling,” I answered, smiling.

  “Well, that’s some great and pretty timely news there. We’re going to need as much firepower as we can get for floor ten,” Connie replied, her foot tapping out a rhythmic beat alongside one of the kids.

  “Are the two new tools just like Corey?” Glord asked, standing up from the bench to examine them.

  “Actually none of the tools are Corey,” I said, realizing Corey hadn’t accompanied me outside in their new form, but before I could send them a message, they appeared next to Glord. I was pretty sure Corey had done that as a surprise from the look of how he manifested. Had they made actual friends with the other kids at some point? It made a lot of sense; mental maturity-wise they were far closer together than we were.

  “Woah!” Glord exclaimed the moment Corey popped up.

  “Yeah, that’s their new form. Part of the change was that Corey is now directly socketed over my own core, and as an added benefit, they can project their own form. The reason for the form, though, well, that’s Alex’s fault, I hear,” I said, looking over to see Alex in a similar position I had been at first, doing her best to hold in the laughter at the scene in front of her.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Alpha, Beta, Gamma, you are going to accompany me and the children, and we are all going to play a game. I will be monitoring all of you, so this is your only warning,” Corey said, nodding their head slightly toward the kids. There were several gasps of excitement before everyone ran off after Corey and my new floating tools.

  “Is that safe?” Alex asked, looking concerned.

  “I think so. Corey has complete control over them now, and he’s much more a part of me,” I answered. I could actually somewhat feel the connection he was holding between the three of them. He had all of them on a very tight leash, just enough mana to float around slowly. He could drain it instantly if needed. I was confident that the kids were in very good hands, and I was glad to see Corey enjoying themselves so much.

  “Sorry I’ve been so absent the last little bit. The tree did something in me that’s hard to say, but I got a lot of feelings I ain’t had in a long time,” Mel said, appearing from beside the house, bobbing his way over suddenly. He was a dark forest green color, and it looked very good on him. I had a hard time telling, but it really seemed like the man had lost a decade of wear on his cloud face.

  “Hey, I get it, you’re going through what happened to me when this all settled finally in. Yeah, the apocalypse kind of happened. Yeah, we have so many problems my anxiety sometimes wants to make my heart explode. But also, I have something wonderful back in my life and a second chance to fix some of my own glorious screw-ups,” I said this last part as I turned my head to my daughter with an awkward smile. I was so glad she had returned to my life.

  “This ain’t what I expected at all. These trees, they’re the lifeblood of my people. We can live without ‘em, but we slowly start to fall apart as time goes on. There’s just this constant pain as parts of ya drift further away. My messengers ya seen were originally my way of fighting it off a little longer, but this, this is the real thing,” Mel said, a look of longing in his eyes.

  “I mean, you might be a bit of a sourpuss at times, but I don’t think we’d be here without you. So, how do we start working on more of those trees? Do you want to put the call-out to your people once Traveler is here?” I said, entirely honestly. Sure, it was more mouths to feed, but it was also more knowledgeable hands. We were likely to attract refugees anyway, and I’d be hard-pressed to turn people away who needed somewhere to live.

  “Yeah, there’s a lot that’d come, but that’s a topic for another day. Best you let Pryte advise you there, I’m too partial to what I’d want, possibly not what’s best,” Mel replied.

  “Fair. We’ve gotta figure out a meeting time with the president too. Not looking forward to that at all,” I said.

  “More importantly, we gotta do some practice drills. We need ta hit the ninth floor soon, and if yer as fixed up as you seem, it’s time ta see what ya can do,” Mel said, surprisingly without the tiniest bit of anger.

  “Did you see the new dungeon core tools?” I asked, still proud of that one. The idea of having a workforce of intelligent tools was pretty appealing, especially if some of them enjoyed the work, and I was really hoping the former crystal one, which I was now calling Gamma, might. It had seemed very interested in learning, and hopefully, that didn’t cause any problems.

  “I did, and if possible, we should keep that one under wraps on the next floor. So unless absolutely needed, mallet only, but we can train with ‘em all anyway. So how exactly do they work?” Mel replied, a slight hint of his manager’s tone coming back.

  “One of my core affinity changes when I added Corey into my channels was the ability to network additional dungeon cores through them,” I explained.

  “Hrm, so does that mean Corey has control over the other three? Almost feels like Corey is headed down a beast-tamer classpath. Not that dungeon cores can get classes,” Mel said.

  “Actually, Elody seems to think they can but has no real idea how, just some more old knowledge,” I replied.

  “Hey, question. I know I’m interrupting, but what kind of options are there going to be for cores and classes in the future? I don’t really like the idea of my dad doing this himself alone, and you know John is going to want one with Maud having one. So I really can’t get left behind,” Alex said, speaking up.

  “All kinds, yer the next in line for the throne. The pick of what ya want is entirely yers,” Mel said.

  “Have you ever considered a career in jesting? I think I have a laughter orb somewhere. If we put that with a jester class, you could do amazing!” Connie said, suddenly animated and excited.

  “I ain’t gonna lie. That’d be a powerful combo for someone in yer position,” Mel added.

  “Not that I’m entirely against it, but I think I’d like something closer to whatever Trolke has. I’m more of a builder,” Alex replied.

  “Well there’s a ton of crafting classes out there that could also be incredibly useful. I’m sure we can find ya something as soon as the mana flow is strong enough to get a core in ya,” Mel said, looking thoughtful.

  “Whatever you want, I’m happy with Alex and that little guy in there. We can figure out what he wants someday, too,” I said. I had no intention at all of telling her what she had to do with her future. I’d help as best I could, but she had every right to make her own path.

  “Alright, enough mushy stuff. Training time!” Mel said, yelling the last two words.

  There are many variations on bard classes across the Spiral, and while most tend to focus somewhat on music, some still take the path of the fool. The Jester variations combine wit and dexterity, often surprising people who expect just a bard. There have been more than a few rulers who dabbled in such a classpath.

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