“Seriously? You're offering me another diplomatic mission?” Eric chuckled, though when his familiar hopped up and claimed the envelop before returning to his side, he didn’t hesitate to claim it.

  “Indeed,” the Silver-tier headmaster assured, eyes twinkling. “Should you find yourself heading to New York…”

  “Or Boston,” Elonia said with an anxious smile of her own, handing him a second note and whispered words that made him wince internally.

  But all he did was nod noncommittally. “Should I find myself with a decent opportunity…”

  “We can ask for no more than that, Eric,” Wyrmwood assured.

  Eric flashed a hard smile. “I'll take these letters. But it's with the solemn understanding that, whatever happens, no matter what happens in New York, even if I’m unable to deliver these letters at all, the privileges, lesser title, and bonus training hours I earned are still mine to claim with the start of the semester. Correct?”

  Headmaster Wyrmwood solemnly nodded. “Without a doubt.”

  “Good. Now before I head out, I’d like to go over a detail we haven’t touched upon at all.”

  The headmaster gave him a curious smile. “By all means, Eric.”

  He forced himself to leave his super comfy chair to point to the territory of particular interest on the displayed map. “Notice anything significant about the territory directly below New Arcadia on the map?”

  Elonia furrowed her brow. “It’s red, not orange, Eric, and the delve remains untouched.”

  Eric nodded, sardonic smile turning to a worried look. “True. What else?”

  Wyrmwood and Elonia exchanged a puzzled glance before gazing Eric’s way once more, their expressions equally polite and puzzled.

  “Wait, seriously? You don’t see it?”

  Elonia’s calm demeanor hardened. “What are you talking about, Eric?”

  Eric blinked. “Seriously? You don’t see the angrily glowing hue of the red territory between your own and all the oranges we’re stressing?”

  Elonia gave her counselor a worried look.

  Wyrmwood rubbed his brow before turning to Eric. “Regrettably, Eric, I sense no such thing at all.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Clearly, I didn’t take into account a Contender with your remarkably high Perception detecting finite differences in the hues of my, ahem… projection.

  Eric blinked. “Wait… you’re saying I’m stressing over pallet choice?”

  Elonia’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “Eric, you’re stressing Headmaster Wyrmwood’s arcane projection! It’s an artifact he created to aid us with what he instinctively understands, being so in tune with Mistridge and the wondrous bounties you’ve secured for us. Including a sense of where all the delves in this corner of the world happen to be. Maybe he emphasized colors a bit too much so that you’d pick up on…”

  “The already cleared delves in those orange territories?”

  Elonia nodded. “Precisely. So relax, Eric. And don’t feel too embarrassed. It’s honest observations that allow us to hone our craft, after all.”

  Eric winced, then let it go with a chuckle. “Fair enough. Is there anything else of significance that I should know?”

  Elonia exchanged a look with the headmaster, who slowly shook his head.

  “New Arcadia should be fine, Eric. And if you can deliver those letters? All the better,” she assured, before looping her arm with his own. “Now come on, let me at least escort you back to your levi.”

  Eric chuckled at that, parting with a farewell wave to what he hoped would soon be his headmaster in a few short weeks as they slipped out the door. “Fair, but, um… I can’t actually drive. Neither cars nor Levimobiles. I just never got around to learning. And then there was the apocalypse! And maybe I accidentally crashed Reece’s car that one time, so… yeah. And who needs to worry about driving in New York City? Or at least, I didn’t. But you already know all that. Right, Elonia?”

  Elonia blinked, gazing at Eric oddly. “Wait. Eric. You’re not seriously… then how?”

  Eric laughed. “Really? You don’t know?”

  His sister gave Eric an odd smile, shaking her head. “Sometimes, I forget how clueless you are… and how simultaneously utterly beyond the pale you can be,” she said, her soft voice not carrying at all as they made their way down the now empty corridor.

  Her bemused smile filled with concern. “God knows I’ve always admired your confidence, seeing you at your best. And sometimes when I look at you now…” she shook her head. “I really can believe in miracles. Even if I’m not sure what’s dream and what really happened. I just somehow know you’ve been at the center of it all.”

  Her awed smile turned to a look of concern. “All jokes aside, Eric. Please promise me you’ll be careful if you actually go to New York? Because it’s one think to joke around about being Super Punch man. But if those orcs actually have dozens of cannons that are now at their disposal, not the half dozen that should be the maximum they’re permitted in any one state…” Anxious eyes peered intently into Eric’s own. “Seriously, brother. I know you’re fast. I saw you save my life! Even if the fighting was so fast that…” She paled, looking away. “Anyway, I know damn well how deadly actual cannons used during wars are, Eric. We both saw those documentaries when preparing for our movie together. And if those dreams I have have even a glimmer of truth in them… promise you won’t do anything stupid?”

  Eric winked. “I’ll only push myself if I’m having a really good time. Fair enough?”

  “Eric...”

  He laughed. “Relax, Elonia. I know the difference between cannon and swordsmen. One I’ll gladly take on. The other?” He shrugged. “Depends on how sharp his blade is.”

  She sighed. “Not funny, Eric. But if you really wanted to make a difference and could drop those letters off, I really would be grateful.” She then scowled. “But seriously? You can’t drive a car or a levimobile?” She gave a thoughtful nod. “Alright, I can get someone. They’ll handle the driving, you’ll handle the diplomacy, defense, and stealth. And you’re definitely taking Driver’s Ed, this semester!”

  Eric blinked. “Our Legendary Arcane Academy actually has a Driver’s Education course?”

  Elonia smirked. “Sure as anything it will now.” She sighed, giving him a hug he gently returned. “Are you sure you want to do this, Eric? You really have done way more than I ever had any right to hope for.”

  The lakeside breeze teased her curls as they both took in the magnificent view of the city harbor from the top of the massive citadel. Elonia’s eyes twinkled with wonder. “Every day I wake up humbled and grateful just to be here, Eric, and I know I owe it all to you.”

  Eric laughed. “Happy to be your super hero, sis. And this is Lake Ontario, right?”

  Elonia’s smiled. “It is. And yes, the topography’s shifted a bit, but thanks to you, my northern border is actually secure. Since the lake now curves around the city, our Western border is partially secure as well. Even better, my Domain stretches for several miles beyond shores edge so no enemy ships will be getting too close before I know… and can take steps.”

  Her eyes flashed with the memory of lightning, wrathful gaze easing to an excited smile. “But we’re totally open to maritime trade, of course! Though I have no idea how likely that will be. Thank goodness no sea monsters… lake monsters? Have crossed into my Domain, and my citizen’s pleasure craft and fishing boats have been left completely alone. But considering that the St. Lawrence River should flow right into the Atlantic… we’re technically open for trade with the world. Assuming the seas aren’t a Black-Tier nightmare. So, I’m hoping for the best.”

  Eric nodded. “Your northern border is secure. You’re partially secure to the west, you have Freetown to your east. It’s south that we have to worry about.”

  Elonia chuckled. “Remember, brother dearest, I have a full hundred half-step Bronze Heroes who can now truly ascend, thanks to you securing Ashland Province, for which I’ll always be grateful. With them fighting by our side, with seven million brave souls who’s love for their country burns as fiercely as life itself… no foe will find New Arcadia an easy conquest, I promise you that!”

  Eric nodded, choosing to keep his worries to himself. Especially the growing sense of unease he felt.

  A tingle of doom.

  A noose eager to slip around his neck.

  “I’ll message you as soon as I have good news to share,” he said, crossing the bridge at a sedate stroll. A pair of paladins immediately stiffening with salutes, fists to mithril-covered chests as their Queen hurried after him. “But Eric, we need to get you a ride!”

  He shrugged, the breeze from the top of the bridge tousling his hair just as much as his sister’s.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it, sis. I can move pretty fast, when I want to.” He looked carefully around, admiring the picturesque view of the magnificent city of grand palaces, graceful towers, brilliantly blooming gardens and pastel-colored edifices that altogether formed the best parts of a faerie tale city that never was.

  Yet now most definitely was.

  He blinked back tears of wonder and joy, sensing the content lives of countless souls below.

  He glanced to his left and saw the beautiful crystal blue lake waters, with any number of sail boats gracing the waters. He looked to the right and saw a brilliant green vista of lush orchards and wild forest checkered with countless farms growing a bounty of food that would let no one go hungry in this beautiful territory.

  It was then that he sensed it with shocking clarity, in sharp contrast to the pristine beauty all around him. The gentlest of gifts from the wonder he had forged. Simply seeing the stark contrast piercing so many illusions, in this nexus between overlapping realities and realms of magic.

  He suppressed a tremble, forcing himself to glimpse at what he could see so clearly for a single heartbeat.

  The deadly bone white cord. So thin it was less than a hair’s width, fluttering out into the void of deep space with one end…

  The other wrapped tightly about his—

  He forced a smile, looking back at his sister, seeing that she and the pair of paladins by her side were just as moved by the spectacular vista as he had been, just moments before.

  “Eric.” That one word, so laced with reverence and wonder, made Eric laugh.

  “You know my sense of direction isn’t the best, and my Dominion Interface Map is kinda fritzing since we’re in the locus point for a dozen… or is it eighteen? Overlapping planes of magic and reality, and I don’t want to lose any time so… seeing as your the queen… can you do me a favor point me into the direction of that Red-Tier region that I absolutely don’t need to worry about?

  His sister gave him a curious look, then laughed. “Sure, Eric. It’s that way.” She pointed in a direction that made Eric momentarily dizzy, and he was almost positive that something was trying to coax him to go anywhere but there, when suddenly everything snapped into crystalline clarity, his momentary dizzy spell gone as if it had never been.

  Willpower check: Successful!

  Not that you have any reason for such a check (officially!)

  But just in case you needed it: You’re good!

  He flashed a fierce smile when he gazed southwest.

  Elonia’s finger then pointed true south. “But that’s where you want to go if you want a straight shot for New York, and you want to dodge Red-Tier troubles entirely… Eric!”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Her voice filled with a spike of panic when Eric winked and leaped over the crystal bridge.

  “Eric!”

  Her desperate cry became a gasp when she caught sight of her laughing brother who was the farthest thing from plummeting with a cry to his death.

  Instead, he was racing through the sky as if it were flat ground, moving so shockingly fast that within seconds he was a tiny dot in the horizon, the air ringing with his laughter as he raced at speeds that would have shattered the sound barrier if he weren’t making full use of all his perks.

  Speed Racer II in effect! All terrain is pristine! You may race through the air with minimal resistance! You may manipulate your inertial at will!

  “Ooh! Go go Speed Racer!” Bunbun squealed, sneaking a look back. “And the flummoxed expression on your sister’s face! Priceless! Ooh, she just sent me an IM, by the way. She thinks you’re absolutely mad! And no wonder you never learned how to drive. Why the fuck would you even bother? And how fast are we going? And next time, she totally wants to join us! Ooh, I think we just broke the sound barrier, fearless leader! But I’m not sure it counts, since you have us at just enough air resistance to fill your lungs, and that’s about it!”

  Eric laughed into the wind, eyes wild with fiercest glee. “We can finally cut loose, Bun! No more diplomacy, no more holding back! No more Administrative tyrants trying to constrain us and blackmail us into giving up ever hard-fought prize we claimed!” Eric pumped his fist as his feet raced into a blur so glorious he was actually starting to feel the burn. “We’re finally fucking free, Bunbun! Free of emergencies and crisis and endless bullshit! Free of my mother pulling my strings so fucking hard that I was little more than her freekin’ puppet! Free to make our mark on the world without anything or anyone holding us back!”

  “Damn right, hero of my heart! So long as we do whatever we’re going to do in two weeks time… and maybe keep all our new and future friends’ territories cannon free. Because you just KNOW the goblin assholes are going to fuck with our school HARD! Because success and a promising future are things those shitheads just can’t abide!”

  Eric flashed a fierce smile as he raced over forests and fields, lakes and streams so fast it all flashed past in what for any mortal would have been a dizzying blur. “Yup! And even if a tiny part of me was feeling guilty because of you-know-what… hearing that those assholes are STILL trying to infiltrate my sister’s territory with hit squads and corrupt administrators… yeah. I think it’s time we put down those cockroaches, once and for all.”

  Unexpectedly, Bunbun’s chipper voice was replaced with something far more serious. “Careful, Eric. We’re dealing with an unknown threat that managed to clear over half a dozen delves since a certain phoenix was finally taken out of play. That hasn’t been too many days. Which means that we have a very serious, very tactical and self-aware player. And that, if we’re not careful, could equal a very, very bad time for us.”

  Eric’s features tightened. “You’re right, Lilly. We need intel.”

  He glared at the bone-white strand trailing behind him that he could now see so clearly as he sprinted at speeds that were nothing short of absurd.

  “Say, Bunbun. I think I know why we always seem to end up in the thick of it, no matter how fucking hard we work to get ahead. Even after taking out so many assholes.”

  His familiar’s ears perked up, before being blown forcefully back by even the extremely reduced air pressure. “Really!”

  “You see that?”

  “Um… see what?”

  “Never mind. Not important. Okay, let me send this off.”

  E – Hey Caliban, any intel on New York? I hear over half a dozen delves were cleared in just a handful of days. How do I get on this winning team!?

  His wild mirth chilled by the seriousness of the threats ahead, and the one wrapped so tightly bout him. His excitement transformed into something hard and focused, which was exactly what he needed to be.

  Fully aware of his environment, as halcyon beauty and wonder was suddenly replaced with the wild sharp spicy tang of a territory whose massive delve had never been cleared and stabilized. A territory under such inconceivable pressures that his ears actually popped. His eyes widened with vindication and dread in equal measure.

  He had been right! But why had Elonia and Wyrmwood been utterly blind to what had seemed so obvious to him?

  Faerie tale spies of spun cotton candy and pristine blue were replaced with brooding thunder clouds, flashes of lighting and gale-force winds, and Eric laughed in the storm.

  Speed Racer II mitigates Hurricane Force Winds!

  Though when he dove down to race upon the fern covered ground, he got a surprise just as sobering as Bunbun’s reminder. Because the forest was one of massive conifers, and over half of them were covered in thick viscous strands of silk, just as strong as cables of steel.

  “Eric! This place is the farthest fucking thing from stable! It’s about to erupt to black!”

  “I know!” Eric’s face lit in a beatific grin as a monster straight out of nightmare loomed behind him.

  Bunbun’s ears stiffened at the sight of eight massive eyes glittering like obsidian orbs above two massive venom-dripping fangs and a pair of pedipalps eager to grasp its prey. Enormous limbs effortlessly lifted the gigantic abomination of a spider completely above the web-covered tree that Bunbun now had no hope of hopping free of.

  “Wow, these strands are reaally sticky, aren’t they? Especially the ones now under our feet. Why did I hop off again? Hell, I can’t even move! And fuck… we’re not exactly alone, fearless leader!”

  “This, Bunbun. This is what I want!”

  “Massive gigantic spiders that look ready to chomp down on us, Fearless Leader?”

  “No more politics, no more fucking constraints, limitations, or bullshit. No more hidden clauses, conditions, or Mother Dearest using me for her schemes or to carve some advantage for herself or the Sylvan Alliance!” Excited eyes filled with warm joy and the reflection of a massive spider about to devour him peered warmly into Bunbun’s own.

  “Yes, but um, these strands that you for some reason decided to land on are very sticky, so—”

  “Don’t you see, Bunbun? We’re finally free! No one’s holding us back, ever again!”

  “Except for the strong-as-steel webs, Eric! Those are definitely holding us back. And the Giant spider is about to—”

  Death struck.

  Bunbun screamed.

  “Eric!!”

  Power Blow has successfully decapitated Greater Arachnid Horror!

  You have slain a level 100 Arachnid Horror in single combat with an Eve-approved skill!

  Congratulations! You are now a Level 50 Death’s Disciple!

  When a horrified Bunbun shook off the viscera she saw her prince, her hero, laughing with a manic grin on his features, trembling with the fearsome potency of a half-step Bronze monster he had just decapitated with a single swipe of what was now a 24-foot long bar of brilliant flaming crimson death.

  Bunbun’s look of surprise turned to excited glee.

  “You did it, Eric! I absolutely new you would!”

  Surprisingly, Eric had the grace to look apologetic. “I’m sorry, Bunbun. I was so caught up in the moment, so excited to finally feel FREE! To do whatever I want to do, slaughter any fucker that gets in my way and NEVER surrender my future sweet armies of ‘yes, I will FUCK YOU UP!’ again, that I totally forgot to sync you into my Battletime.”

  Bunbun blinked. “You were syncing me into your Battletime before?”

  Eric’s smile turned to a deadpan stare as a globbet of spider innards splashed down on him from the spurting corpse.

  Without hitting him, Eric moving so fast there wasn’t even a blur. Just sheer teleportation, as far as Bunbun was concerned.

  “Seriously.”

  Lilly winced. “Okay, yeah. You’re what, over a thousand points faster than me? Sorry.”

  Eric sighed, gently patting her head with a gore-spattered mithril-covered hand before gently plucking her free of the webbing, whispering a single word.

  “Repudio.”

  The world seemed to tremble as a higher order Spell in tune to the essence of Dominion itself shattered countless arachnid enchantments like flicking away cobwebs with a power blower.

  Critical Success! You have successfully abjured ALL spells and strands that had been lodged to your form. Both physical and of fate itself!

  Transcendent Abjuration is now Rank 7!

  Bunbun gazed at Eric with genuine awe. “Duude! You just tapped into your potency pools something fierce! 40 points in each? Just to keep from having to yank spider web gunk off my fur? You glorious madman, you!”

  Eric smiled in apology. “Least I can do, Bunbun. I never should have gotten so excited that I let you get stuck! And thanks for reminding me. Time for me to get my Blood Orb up, so I’m only paying 1/3rd standard cost out of my temporary Soul Reserves.”

  Yet beneath Bunbun’s quip, her own mind was now racing hyper-fast, the equal of his own. Looking for some sign, any sign, that her master’s impulsive act had just cost them absolutely everything.

  Her pounding heart eased to a far more normal rhythm for a pretty much fully revived and once-more-living and only nominal greater revenant of a familiar with the soul of a human. Because as far as she could sense… no one had had their twisted little claws caressing the skeins of fate to sense what Eric, or Ernest Edgelord Slaughter, had just done.

  Sensing that a burden that had been there, that she only knew from its absence, was gone.

  Her eyes widened with sudden insight as Eric’s mind filled her own.

  A pair of vulnerable teens stuck in a training pod, their souls and minds vulnerable to predators that had always been aware of how deliciously vulnerable Elonia had been the whole time. And suddenly Eric as well.

  It had been a miracle of desperation and it was thanks only fiery vines infused with essence that the pair had escaped with their lives.

  And how tightly the goblin Seers had been able to fixate and tie themselves to Eric’s every movement, from that moment on.

  As if perhaps they had left shadowy vines of their own pricking Eric’s soul.

  Vines that an awed Bunbun now sensed were no more.

  She gazed for long moments as Eric’s mischievous smile.

  “You absolute fuck. You were leading me on, waxing poetic about glorious freedom loving bullshit when that spider—”

  Eric gently kissed her trembling head. “And I meant every fucking word I said. We’re finally free! And if you hadn’t been stuck to that webbing…”

  Bunbun stilled. Instantly getting it. “Freeing your familiar was the perfect pretext to try that. And there’s no other place that you can get away with a higher-order transcendent abjuration than in a territory with Mana levels fluxuating so wildly, because it’s ascending. You absolute madman!”

  Eric smirked. “To be fair, that part was luck. Or maybe this territory's instability is tied to our ultimate enemy’s machinations which actually worked for us for once!”

  Bunbun nodded. “Yeah, but still! If you had used that ability without any buildup or pretext, If you hadn't used it to dispel the webbing that didn’t even hold your 850 fucking Strength feet back, though your boots are shredded… a truly Malice-filled asshole would have instantly picked up on it. Half a galaxy away.”

  Eric sighed and shrugged, before popping his soul-bound boots in and out of his ES space, Flesh Sculpture and essence ties instantly repairing them. Clearly, the connection his enemy who hew as almost certain was Malice working with the other goblins seers hadn’t been perfect. No one had accused Eric Orcbane of being Ernest Edgelord, after all. At least not yet.

  But the increasing pressure he had felt… sensing doom steadily closing in… Eric had feared it was only a matter of time before another disaster struck that would have no doubt doom him pretty fucking quickly as a powerless level zero student at Mistridge.

  Only now, that bone-white strand he had sensed was gone.

  He was truly free.

  They both were.

  Eric took a deep breath and laughed at the glorious scents of pollen and rich foest loam, the hot, spicy tang of magic and most of all... steaming arachnid entrails.

  “And now, my dear Bunbun, it’s time for the next step in our plan.

  He glared down at the absolutely massive arachnid that had come so close to devouring his adorable little familiar. A crime for which there could be only one sentence.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  The words reverberated against spiritual chasms a world away from the cloying, humid jungle air.

  Yet Eric’s call was undeniable, radiating a command that wouldn’t be denied as a wild, alien spirit fought furiously against his command. Yet Eric had but to flex his will. A will enhanced by a shockingly high Spirit Mastery Rank that was itself tied to Dominion’s essence for the powerful howling spirit to still and submit itself to the monstrous forces now reforging its body from the shattered husk it had been reduced to, with a single obliterating blow.

  Modified Arachnid level below max level that may be raised without peril or penalty (Or use of Underlord Fusion) in a single being!

  Congratulations! You have raised 1 Arachnid Horror Revenant!

  Modified level = Monster Level + Master Necromancer Level = Level 138!

  Eric took a deep breath, squeezing his fist and savoring the absolutely delicious feeling of his shattered foe rising from its own steaming remains, reformed, whole, and stronger than it had ever been before. Now blessed with the boons of Mark of Resilience, its body blazed with multiple runes of Resilience and Dominion glittering upon a carapace now stronger than the hardened steel plates of a battleship designed to take heavy fire. Nothing less than Bronze-tier killing force or the most elite Perk-enhanced attack was penetrating, and even if it did, the organs were optional, not mandatory. Absolute destruction of the cephalothorax would be needed before his latest creation would finally succumb to final death. Add to that vampiric restoration which meant it could heal its own wounds, taking down enough prey.

  Eric flashed a feral grin, eyes glittering with unmistakable glee as he fondly stroked his rabbit.

  “I think we’re off to a fucking legendary start, Bunz.”

  Her familiar nodded. “Me too, fearless leader! If this choice specimen is what we have to look forward to, we’ll have an entire tank-class division of revenants to roll over all our foes and fuck them the hell up!”

  Eric chuckled. “Heavy cavalry will always have it’s place. He spun around the jungle absolutely brimming with thousands of red tier threats now blinking across his Dominion Interface Map.

  So many predators getting so close to their manic prey, spinning about with his arms outstretched.

  “Be honest, Bunbun! Is there any place else in all the world you’d rather be than right here, right now?”

  His rabbit laughed with a manic glee matching her masters, hopping back on his shoulders, eyes wide with the exhilaration of Battletime as she formed a gestalt of focused awareness and killing intent with the only man she would ever love.

  Because Eric was right.

  There was no other place she would be right at that moment than fighting and killing by his side.

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B08261T1YF (All my books are on Kindle Unlimited and Book 1 is just 99c, always!)