Looking at my unspent ranks, it seemed attributes and skill ranks had increased their rate of gain again at level three-hundred. That meant I had a little over fourteen thousand unspent attribute ranks and a little over twenty-five hundred skill ranks. I again questioned how I’d ever spend these attribute ranks, but considering I did have core skills that cost fifty skill ranks per single increase, I assumed something like that would eventually happen there as well.

  I promised myself that once we finished this Arena, I was going to focus more on my connection to the System and how all these things really worked. I wanted Earth to enter this much less blindly than I did, and I figured between everyone I had collected so far, I could at least get a decent primer going. Plus, with some added experimentation of my own, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that I could really figure out how this all worked.

  I started with the obvious choice for the final floor and what would give me the most added strength, at least I thought it would. My new core skill, Overclock, seemed like it could be the right thing at the right time, assuming I could handle the drain that would come with it. I settled on putting twenty-five ranks there before moving back to my regular skills and exploring those.

  With the new core grade, I could increase several of those now, and I figured I’d have a few new ones that needed to be increased before the floor, too. I scanned my list, looking for two very expected ones, and found box cutting almost immediately. The compass took me a minute until I realized it was technically called a pair of compasses and found it under Paired Compassing. I moved those up to a total of seventy-five ranks, found Malleting, and did the same there. That way, all three of my tools were ready for a fight.

  Since I had the spare ranks, I decided to move Close Combat, Pugilism, and Ranged Combat to the max as well. While I didn’t want to do any hand-to-hand fighting if I could avoid it, it was best to be ready for the possibility. Ranged Combat, though I hoped, might work with some of my fireball attacks. I added Climb and Sprint to the list of skills I was maxing, not that I was sure I had done enough physical training for those to matter.

  This brought me to my next problem. I had a ton of unspent attribute points, and I doubted I had really moved any of my physical attributes up to where they were bumping into those endcaps anyway. I was going to have to start forcing myself to do a daily exercise regimen if I really wanted to work on those. What I could spend the points on instead of my actions was raising all of my resistances as far as I could get them. I did the same with my interactions, soul, core, and luck attributes, which all had their caps raised with my core fortification again.

  I left Treerot with no ranks and kept Wicked Wasp resistance where it was as well, which gave me just enough to hit the current maximum values on the rest. I felt my bond with the tools deepen somehow. The connection between us seemed more tangible now. Likely, it was a side effect of something in both core and soul, possibly projection and strength. As far as what it would actually do, my best guess was a less loss of power as energy flowed to them. Hopefully, this meant some much stronger spells out of Alpha, at least.

  Just as I was about to start on the mana orbs, a chat window popped into my head.

  I closed the window, not responding to that. I understood Elody’s point of having a primal mana beast being something special, but I think I’d have preferred a dog or cat. I spotted Trolke and Grant at work on a pathway as I headed over.

  “Hey, Grant, why don’t you join us for this meeting? This might be something important,” I said, not seeing the harm in including him. Plus, it could keep the council placated. The less issues there, the easier our lives would be in the future.

  “Coming,” he said, nodding to Trolke before sprinting after me. “What’s up?”

  “So, apparently, there is an odd energy signature coming from Antarctica that may or may not be new. Corey ,just let me know it’s changed somewhat, so we are going to see how,” I answered.

  “Interesting, and it’s not just the orcs?” he asked.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Good question. They didn’t seem to think so when we discussed it before,” I answered as we walked inside, finding several people, including a now full-sized moose, waiting. It was now standing in the corner surrounded by the kids, and I could swear it was smiling.

  Corey and Alpha were by the table, and I realized that I had no idea when Corey had even manifested. It seemed they were capable of that, without my knowledge, not that I was upset. They deserved some of their own freedom. I just somehow hadn’t realized it was possible.

  “So what’s going on?” I asked as I sat down. Pryte, Sanquar, and Elody were on the other side of the table.

  “We don’t know entirely. Timon and Mel are trying to get a better reading from the bus, but the energy has increased from a point on the continent,” Pryte said.

  “And we are still sure it’s not orcs?” I asked.

  “Sure is a strong word, but no, we don’t believe it is,” Pryte answered.

  “I do not believe the signature existed before the orc invasion, though. I can’t be entirely sure, of course, but I do think I’d have sensed that, and that had it been there, they’d also have gone after it,” Sanquar answered.

  “It’s not the orcs,” Timon said as he walked in the door.

  “Okay then, what is it?” Pryte asked.

  “Not a clue, but just isn’t them. I can make this real confusing, though. The signature started after the orcs arrived, but somehow before we returned, and considering time was frozen during that period, I don’t have a clue how that’s possible,” Timon answered, grabbing a chair and throwing his legs on the table as he sat down.

  “Damn, this is my fault isn’t it?” I asked. It had to be. As far as we knew, there was only one entry made between my leaving and my final return, and it was when I had made one of my many stupidly impulsive decisions.

  “Oh, the soul separation you did. Is the hole you made just your entry point back here? Would that cause this?” Sanquar asked.

  “What would have happened to anyone not Dave coming into your zone of frozen time?” Elody asked.

  “As long as they were accompanied by Dave, they wouldn’t have been affected, as seen with the bus.

  “So let’s operate then under the idea that Dave brought with him some sort of dungeon fragment. The dungeon they had last been in had been one capable of replication, which means it possible that something came through when Dave first pierced back here, and then when they returned finally in the bus that residue energy, found whatever came across with Dave the first time,” Elody said.

  “I’m not going to claim to remotely be an expert in dungeons here, but is that possible?” Pryte asked.

  “Maybe there’s just a ton about dungeon core origination that we don’t understand. Even the cores themselves don’t fully know why they exist or how they come to be, but yes, there are theories involving core energies infecting other locations,” Elody answered.

  “Okay, that’s all well and good, but what do we do about it?” I asked, looking at the faces around the table.

  “Nothing yet,” Mel said, surprising me. Of all people, I’d assume he would want it dealt with as soon as possible. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but ya ain’t really got anyone living there, do ya?”

  “No, there is a small research station, nowhere near where the blip was coming from the last time I saw the map. At least as far as I know, that’s all there is,” I answered.

  “Then we let the damn thing grow. Our resource supply is still pretty damn limited, but if we let that thing grow a bit, it might just speed up the mana flow, not to mention get Dave another dungeon core,” Mel said.

  “That’s actually a really good idea,” Elody added, trailing off as she looked suddenly deep in thought.

  “Then we’re going to have to figure out how to control two mana growth zones; that’s going to require splitting our attention,” Pryte said.

  “Well, we may as well make use of that council then. If they want to help, then let’s let them. Once we clear the dungeon, free the core, and loot whatever else might be there, we can let them maintain some of the security,” I replied. It seemed like a great use for them.

  “I believe they would like to be included in this. It would very likely be a strong stepping stone in their comfort toward all of you,” Grant added.

  “I wonder what’s going to happen to the penguins there,” Maud said before I could reply to Grant. Did they really not trust us that much? I’d ask him more about that later.

  “That’s actually a good point. We probably shouldn’t let it grow long enough to really start impacting the wildlife,” I said.

  “We won’t,” Pryte said.

  “I’m still not sure this is the complete answer, but considering our limited time, I think a deep investigation can wait until after you finish the tenth floor,” Sanquar added.

  “Speaking of, I’ve got some more preparations to make, and then I need to do some training with the rest of the squad,” I said, looking at Mel. This had to take priority. Even if it let the dungeon grow to a problem, it was less of a problem than the tenth floor.

  “Alright, everyone finish up allocating whatever they haven’t yet today, and then it’s time for some final training!” Mel roared. Some of the energy of when I had first met him seemed to be returning. That tree was doing wonders for the man.

  There’s a saying that a lot of universes tend to come to before they enter the Spiral. It usually goes something like, you can’t destroy energy, only transform it. It’s an interesting principle, but it seems to be missing something in the face of the Spiral energies, but I have yet to understand what.

  Breakdown of the Soul-Core Reaction by Karlinovo

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