The moose proved the hardest part of finishing off the healing before breaking for the night. Eventually, though, it seemed to understand what we were trying to do and finally allowed Elody and me to clean it up as much as we could before Cecile offered it a few more enhanced carrots. The moose then trotted off slowly back into the woods, seeming to heed some of Pryte’s words as it stayed in view the whole time.

  I went to sleep that night comfortable, at least in one aspect. Progress was being made here on Earth, even if I wasn’t directly part of it yet. That did mean, though, that I had to do everything I could before the final floor to make sure it wasn’t all for nothing. This also meant it was time to start speed-running as many levels as I could dump into my class from the simulator. With my core rank up again, and Corey able to take a lot of the backlash into themselves, I could hopefully push a lot advancement toward that.

  After that, it would be time to do a deep review of all my skills, core, mana and otherwise, because holding the points I generally do in reserve just wouldn’t be worth it anymore if I died on the floor. And it wasn’t just me I was concerned with. I didn’t want anyone dying on the floor if I could help it.

  As always, this brought me back to my worries about letting Maud participate. Was she anywhere near strong enough for this? She had gained several levels, but she was going through the Arena without a class, thanks to her quest. I needed to get Mel’s honest opinion there. I added that to my growing list of things to do in the coming days as I let my eyelids grow heavy.

  Why did my face feel wet? What was happening? I woke up in a jolt of confusion to a moose standing next to my cot, its tongue disappearing back into its mouth. Had the moose been licking me? No, wait, why the moose even in here?

  “Buddy, I know we just healed you up, and you did great yesterday, but I really can’t be waking up to a moose licking me. Can we make that deal, please?” I said, looking up at it.

  The moose cocked its head in response to my words, almost like it was trying to understand me. Wait, how sapient did primal mana beasts get? Was it going to learn actual language? Not that I fully understood how my language skills worked anymore with the System in play. I remembered my earlier thoughts on finding a linguist or two to consult on that oddity and added them to my list of experts to find.

  I realized my brain had jumped from the issue at hand. The wandering thoughts were always worse before I had breakfast, but right now, I had to focus on the moose-sized problem in the garage with me. He was still staring down at me, watching as I climbed out of my cot and as I started for the door to the soon-to-be repurposed kitchen. Behind me, there was a popping sound, and I turned my head to see the moose, now the size of a small deer, still behind me. Was he just going to follow me all day now?

  “Anyone have any idea why the moose has decided to wake me up and follow me around today?” I asked as I entered the living room, spotting John, Maud, and the kids already awake and playing a board game.

  “Aww, he just doesn’t want to be away from us after yesterday. Isn’t that right Mr. Moose?” Maud said, walking over to him and scratching the animal’s back, causing it to make a loud, happy whining sound.

  “Well, then I’m going to leave it with you while I grab some leftovers and do some personal training,” I said, slowly backing away, hoping the moose stayed with them.

  I got lucky and managed my food trek and return trip to the garage without the reappereance of the moose. After quickly scarfing down some of the leftovers, I checked over my level. I had three hundred and thirty-nine levels I could spare to this, and I could likely reliably do this several times. So, what did I want to shoot for first in my class?

  Looking over the options, I knew the reality of what I had to do first. The core interlinkages for each of the new cores had to be unlocked. They had been willing to work with me, and even if that was their own way to gain freedom again, they had agreed to it, and that meant they deserved the chance to further develop. There was even a good chance the reason Corey was progressing in the way he was was because of our own increased bond there.

  I opened a chat window to let everyone know the plan and to make sure Corey was okay with the dungeon runs we were going to do today.

  I closed the chat window and pulled up my class again, going to the Path of the Dungeon, and quickly realized it was a steep climb after I unlocked the first two. It seemed each new core multiplied the cost by ten. That meant the third core was going to cost one thousand levels. I decided to throw the rest of the levels into soul infusions for my other mana orbs, linked actions, and linked reactions before pulling the chat window back up in my head.

  I exited the chat and quickly moved them each up to level one. The chat window popped up before I had a chance to reply again.

  That was good news. I added getting each of the cores to level ten to my planned activities for the day. I did the math, and assuming it went up by a factor of ten each time in the experience count, that wasn’t that extreme compared to the thousand levels I would need for Gamma’s linkage.

  After four runs, I finally had enough experience to finish off the leveling of each core. I had saved that for next to last with only my own leveling remaining. I started with Corey, and the moment they hit ten, their physical form manifested in front of me.

  “Dave, I just gained a quest,” they said. I checked their status screen and saw that one of the previous unknown fields had been replaced with the word quests. That was interesting. Would it apply to all of the cores?

  “What quest do you have?” I asked.

  “It just says experience. I do not understand,” Corey replied.

  “Huh, do you want me to move the other three up to level ten as well and see if they get the same?” I asked.

  “Yes, please,” Corey replied, so I did. Seconds later, they confirmed that they, too, each had a quest that just said the same thing.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of it. There was the obvious interpretation that they needed to experience some sort of emotion, possibly, but Corey seemed to already be doing that, so it had to be more.

  “Corey, what do you think this means?” I asked them.

  “I do not know. I wish to not explore it further until I talk to Traveler,” they responded.

  “Alright then, I won’t force you. You feeling up to one more simulator run?” I asked.

  “Yes, but I do not believe I will be able to handle another for several days. This has drained me dramatically,” they responded.

  “Would you recover faster if we just stopped right now?” I asked, not wanting to push them if it just delayed their recovery time.

  “No, I don’t believe the effect becomes cumulatively worse, at least for me. I do believe it does for you,” Corey replied. That was another interesting point of the day. They did seem to handle the feedback much better than I did.

  “Alright, well, let’s do this last one, and you can rest while I go see what Mel wants us to do for the last bit of training we have left,” I said.

  “Understood,” Corey replied.

  Many newly integrated worlds are surprised to find what they consider to be humble garbage collectors to be a well-respected career choice within the Spiral. One of the reasons behind this is the sheer amount of materials thrown away on a daily basis. Few factions have bothered to set up the infrastructure needed to process and recycle such waste byproducts, but the garbage collection services have done so. They scout and recruit some of the most talented shapers and crafters they can early as they are one of the only organizations that have dedicated schooling set aside for their recruits. Even more interestingly, they refuse to claim any faction title and remain a wholly independent path of the Spiral—one of the few of their size to do so.

  System Paths, Careers in the Spiral by Glarppp

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