It was all over; Kai had fucked it all up; the test was over, and he had failed.

  He had failed. And not just himself, but Alicia and Syl both. There’s no chance he will ever run to earth anytime soon, at least not before everyone he had ever known and loved was long dead.

  “How long do you think he will mope for?” Trengor asked.

  “He’s busy counting every one he failed… It’s a short list.” Kain said.

  Kai winced and opened his eyes.

  At some point he had been rolled onto his back, and now he found himself looking up at four people who stared down at him with mixed expressions.

  Both Trengor and Kain looked somewhat amused, while Alicia and Syl showed considerably more concern.

  From the way everyone seemed to be getting on with each other, something must have happened after he blacked out.

  “In case you are wondering, that’s what happens when you use too much mana on the back end of soul damage from someone destroying a growth item of yours.” Kain said as she glared at Trengor.

  “Not my fault he is so persistent. I, for one, think it was a good lesson to learn while the growth item's roots are so shallow; he will take much more care of his next one. Besides, those gauntlets were crappy. An ancient design I cobbled together on a whim.”

  “You’re underestimating how much he liked them, and you have no idea how they would have grown alongside Kai.”

  Trengor clicked his tongue as he stepped back with a thoughtful look on his face.

  Kai gave Syl a confused look; she was smiling at him, but her cheeks were streaked with the telltale trail marks of tears.

  Bracing himself for pain, he sat up. What’s happening?” he grunted, but in that moment he felt foolish as he felt fine; there was no pain at all from where he had been skewered.

  “You passed the test. All of them.” Alicia said with a childish grin.

  “But the keystone, I gave it up? We’re stuck in the dungeon.”

  “You gave it up to save your team…” Kain said, elaborating. “You never actually needed the keystone; it was purely to drive the narrative, test your patience, test your greed and ultimately test your camaraderie. Everyone before you traded the stone for immediate but certain gain instead of potential but uncertain gain in the future. Technically a qualifying pass, but not what the dungeon was created for.”

  “So the offers, the story of false imprisonment, then finally the doomed to spend eternity trapped inside the dungeon. That was all the test? The keystone was what, a MacGuffin?” Kai asked, Is he sluggish? His brain was ten steps behind everything that was happening.

  “Macguffin, Interesting concept, but, in a roundabout way, yes. Things would have been simpler if Atheos had contained herself and if Syl wasn’t so clued into how dungeons work; in the end, the decision was made to isolate you, Kai. Persuade you that the death of your team was in fact a possibility and see how you react.”

  “So, Trengor, he wasn’t going to kill Syl or Alicia?”

  “That wasn’t actually them; it was just an illusion. They were with me, watching; I had to convince Syl to lock down her end of your connection.” Kain looked over to the dragon in the form of a man; he had his back to them, and he seemed to be working on something. Her eyes narrowed. “There were a few conditions where Lord Trengor would have killed you all.”

  “Like what exactly?” Syl asked.

  “Like if you had the impertinence to accept my pearl in turn for a focus you already knowingly possessed.” Trengor said without turning from whatever he was doing.

  Syl’s jaw dropped for just a moment before she collected herself and said, “I knew that offer was too good to be true. I mean, come on, the pearl of an ancient dragon. Dungeon spawn or not, that item is far too valuable for any dungeon of the first tier.”

  “Who said anything about Trengor being dungeon spawn? He descended on the dungeon while you were killing off the undead lich lord.”

  Alicia’s eyes went wide. “Descended? As in, like, a god descended?

  “Yes, dear, as a god. But please be aware, a lot of much lower-level beings can descend on a planet. I imagine your world will get a lot of it when its integration is complete. B-class worlds and above are coveted even when they are only tier one.” Kain instructed. “The only reason he is allowed to be here in this integrating world is because he too is an architect of this dungeon. This whole thing was a joint project between Atheos and Trengor; I’m sure he will explain things when he is done.”

  Alicia nodded, her back stiffening as she stood up a little straighter.

  Kai, growing sick of looking up at everyone, got up and dusted off what remained of his pants. Covered in his blood, they were little more than rags now.

  His leather jerkin was likewise ruined.

  Worse, he had lost his cool gauntlets; he reached up to his face and his spectre’s shroud for that matter.

  “How is he even here? Does it not take a lot of power? Atheos acted like she was on limited supply when we met her.” Alicia asked meekly.

  “Wouldn't be much of a god if a little divine intervention in one of their own dungeons sapped them of their power. Atheos was probably over-eager, didn’t prepare properly, or was acting it up.” Kain said with a sigh, “I do wonder what my divine self is doing… changing a copy’s whole worldview knowing the real version is doing well.”

  Kai looked at Trengor’s back and scowled. “So that guy’s a real dragon? Not just some dungeon fabrication; the whole time he was hostile, and my challenge stone never had any effect on him.”

  Syl groaned, “I miscalculated. I assumed because of the instanced nature of the dungeon, the whole real and fake dungeon master thing was a ploy. Anyone with half a brain would know that even if what we were being told was true. There was no way for us to encounter them in our particular copy of the dungeon, as they would be locked away in their own personal instance.”

  It took a moment for it to sink in. “So the whole scenario wasn’t possible. Trengor testing the dungeon, Atheos betraying and trapping him in here with no way to escape, then us encountering him in this chamber. It was all an impossible ruse… and I’m the only one it would have worked on.”

  “Things were further complicated by Atheos appearing and explaining things the way she did, but yes, that is why we had to separate you from Alicia and Syl. With Alicia growing up on a world with dungeons and her in-depth tutoring, and then there is Syl’s history with the system; they both knew that a dungeon instance is nigh on inviolable. You, however, are dangerously ignorant. I was asked to observe so that Trengor could be certain your decision was made not in the certainty that this was just some test, but that you truly were willing to give up everything to save those you love…” Kain gave him a long look. “Everything that happens from here on out is because of you.”

  That sounded ominous… Things were growing vaguer by the minute, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

  Kai found himself staring at the back of the Trengor's head again, wondering what was in store for them.

  More importantly, he wondered why it was necessary for Trengor to destroy his gauntlets and the shroud.

  Now he just had his spectral manifestation technique and Syl, his spectral soulmate. His plan for a cool name to make the Ghostblade jealous was falling apart.

  Eyeing him briefly, Kain chuckled, “Yes, Trengor can be quite dramatic, but there was more on the line than you know. In his mind he wasn’t just testing you, but also teaching you valuable lessons. I suggest you reflect on his actions. You need to understand, this dungeon wasn’t just set up to find gifted individuals. It was set up to find the gifted individuals. He had to be certain.”

  If that wasn’t cryptic, he didn’t know what was.

  Trengor turned around and slapped his gauntletted hands together. “Is everyone ready?”

  Alicia and Syl nodded; even Gift chimed in.

  He, however, grunted. Kai looked down at his bare arms. It felt like the dragon was taunting him with his gauntlets.

  “Good, now I invite you to come to my divine realm to receive the rewards allotted to you for the successful completion of this trial dungeon. I swear on the system that no harm will come to any of you within that time, that you may leave anytime you wish to be returned to the entrance of this dungeon, with all rights, rewards and privileges of one who has successfully completed all true trials within.” Trengor finished with a grin.

  Kai felt a notification as he immediately looked to Syl to see Alicia on her other side doing the same with wide eyes.

  Something about being in the presence of gods really got to Alicia, which was surprising to Kai. He would have thought a princess of all people would have no issue with authority. But maybe divine authority was a different thing altogether.

  Syl sighed, her eyes narrowed as she studied Trengor. “Is this necessary? Any and all rewards should have been submitted and approved by the system, meaning the dungeon should be able to issue them without us stepping out of the dungeon.”

  Kain coughed behind them, “This know-it-all system knowledge is the reason why you were isolated. The reason Kai had to face a divine dragon all alone. Try trusting your instincts instead…”

  Syl flinched.

  “Syl, while you are correct,” Trengor said, ”as the very nature of the rewards would be affected by long-term stasis within the dungeon, the system has allowed us to retain custody of the item and still submit it as a possible. Had you not been as successful in that last test, you would indeed be entering a reward room within the dungeon.”

  “Affected by long-term stasis within the dungeon? Nothing could be…” Syl’s eyes went wide as she trailed off.

  “What is it? Kai asked.

  “We need to go to his divine realm; it will disconnect us from the system, but we need to go.”

  Trengor gestured to his side, and a dungeon arch appeared, rising slowly from the ground. “After… actually, Kai, do your little looting trick with all the scales I dropped; you are going to want them. And Kain, give everyone my condolences and fond farewells; you all did a grand job.”

  Kai looked about the massive, open chamber. Trengor had dropped scales everywhere.

  He turned to Alicia and Syl, “A little help?”

  Alicia’s golden eyes flashed as she looked about at all the scales; without a word, she darted off.

  Huh, “What was that about?” Kai asked.

  Syl rolled her eyes. “Do you have any idea how valuable dragon scales are?”

  Kai shrugged.

  “They are an insanely valuable crafting material. One good, freely shed, freely given scale is probably worth more than almost everything we looted in our entire dungeon run.”

  “Oh shit… my gauntlets.” Kai said as he gave the dragon a look.

  Trengor just looked up and off into space, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.

  “Forget your gauntlets for a minute,” Syl chastised him. “Ask yourself if one normal dragon scale is that valuable, how valuable will the freely shed, freely given scale of an ancient divine dragon be?”

  Kai blinked, then promptly ran off looting every scale he could find, no matter the size.

  He could hear Trengor chuckling.

  A good ten minutes later, when they had thoroughly scoured the chamber of scales, they approached the archway.

  “So, when we go through there and get our rewards, that is it, the dungeon is over?” Alicia asked Trengor cautiously as she looked at the floor.

  “Exactly.”

  “And we aren't missing out on anything by exiting this way.”

  Trengor rolled his eyes. “I swear on the system you will not be missing out, that the system chest with all your allotted rewards for this dungeon and more is already waiting secure within my divine realm.”

  Kai turned to Syl as he got another notification.

  She grinned, “It is legit.”

  For what was hopefully the last time in a long time, Kai led the way through the arch.

  He stepped out into what could only be described as a sitting room.

  There were two large plush red leather chairs with their backs to a massive window, a landscape of mountains and majestic trees visible for as far as the eye could see.

  A large ornate chest sat between the two chairs, seeming to be the focus of the setup, as a couch just the right size for three to take up a comfortable seat was positioned opposite, facing the chest and two chairs, while also providing prime seating to admire the view.

  The rest of the room seemed to be ostentatiously decorated; however, the feel was more modern than mediaeval.

  Kai didn’t know why he expected mediaeval decor; he just did.

  He didn’t even know what mediaeval decoration looked like, just what he had seen in films and television.

  The walls were adorned with shelves filled with oddities Kai couldn’t even begin to identify.

  When he tried examining one item that looked like a hollow glass orb with a storm inside, his mind just spun, and after recovering from a moment of vertigo, he decided to keep his examines to himself.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Oh!” Syl said in surprise as she appeared beside him, gravity taking effect and planting her firmly on the floor.

  “What is it?” Kai asked as Alicia appeared behind Syl.

  She reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him down for a quick kiss on the lips.

  Pulling away, she giggled, “I’m physical here.”

  “Syl, please!” Alicia exclaimed, her ears twitching as she glanced at Trengor stepping through the arch behind them, “We are in divine company.”

  Trengor chuckled. “By all means,” he gestured, and his armour disappeared to be replaced by a loose black shirt and baggy cloth pants adorned with fine gold patterns in the shapes of clouds, “Get comfortable; we will be waiting on one more to arrive.” He looked off to the side. “She is just saying goodbye to some old, long-lost friends while she has the chance.”

  Kai didn’t need to be told twice; he plopped down in his bloody armour right in the middle of the couch.

  Alicia’s eyes went wide.

  “What?”

  “Kai, you’re covered in blood.” She hissed.

  Trengor chuckled again, “Please, Alicia, relax; this is not some court function, and I’ve certainly never liked the self-imposed rules of nobility.” He waved a hand, and Kais's worn and ruined armour disappeared, changing into a similar shirt and pants to Trengor, only the gold thread was silver with a slight blue hue. “Arachne silk,” he smiled, “You won't find more comfortable lounge wear anywhere, also more durable than anything you had on.”

  Alicia looked uncertain as she glanced at Syl, who for her part slid onto the couch beside Kai and snuggled into him. “Mmmh, comfy.”

  Seeing the man-dragon lounge back, Kai got a sneaky idea, and he summoned his raiment.

  He looked at the four bracelets; not knowing what to do with them, he tried examining them, only nothing happened.

  He tried again; there was nothing but a slight feeling of uneasiness.

  “The system doesn’t work within the divine domain unless the god allows it. Everything's shut off right now.” Trengor supplied as he looked at Kai, “Put one on each limb and supply each a little mana; they’ll bind to you just like your mana cuff. Once that’s done, it’s just a matter of intent and mana. You’ll want to practice in private, trust me, no one likes a surprise penis in mixed company. And yes, the clothes are real, and yes, you can keep them; no need to accidentally absorb them into your raiment.”

  Kai didn’t know what was worse: being caught in the act or the fact he was being given fancy lounge wear. He just hoped this gift wasn’t Trengor’s recompense...

  Syl, upon hearing Kai was being given the change of clothes, sat up and gave Trengor a long, hard, expectant look.

  Catching on quick, Trengor sighed, “I’m afraid I have no ladies garments on hand; I have tried, and I’ve never been able to pull anything off.”

  Syl deflated, sinking back into him.

  Alicia on his other side, despite being told to relax, was still stiff as a board.

  Biting her lips, she woke up and asked, “Who are we waiting on?”

  “That would be me, dear.”

  The three of them turned around to see the same young Glados they had encountered outside the goblins cave, a big grin plastered across her face as the

  “Lady Atheolin?” Alicia asked in confusion.

  “Ah, does this help?” She waved her hand, and she withered and aged into the little old lady. “Or this?” Again, gesturing the other way, then changing completely, Atheos, the god they met less than two weeks ago, was standing before them again.

  Alicia’s eye went wide. “The second test? Was that you?”

  “Yes, that was me. Imagine my surprise when you turned that little growth stone I tweaked into a full-blown ego… I was concerned.” She walked around from the back of the couch to take a seat on the opposite side of the chest. “But Gift is a good boy, so I will forgive your recklessness.”

  Atheos turned to Trengor. “Do you have everything sorted out?”

  He nodded, “I made a few tweaks and added a few things. It will be interesting to see what happens.”

  “Now where do I start…”

  “The premonition you had.”

  “Ah yes, that.” She levelled a look on Syl, “As you undoubtedly know, gods typically design dungeons to find talent, cultivate followers, disciples and even select champions.”

  “True. Most low-level dungeons take an hour or two, a day at most. When I found out it was a trial dungeon that no one had completed, I thought a god might be looking for low-level talent.” Syl said. “But with everything you put into the tests, I figured you were looking for something different.”

  “Yes… We were looking for someone to hand our children off to.” Trengor said as his drink refilled.

  Kai looked at the chest; it was massive, made of a strange multi-hued metal he didn’t recognise, the patterns shifting on the surface as they cycled through images representing each of the tests they went through in the dungeon to then finally settle on a final image of three eggs.

  “You see, the impetus of the dungeon was actually a premonition I had aeons ago, shortly after our ascension. That premonition started a search. All we knew was that what we were looking for would be found on an integrating world, that they would be fresh initiates to the system, and that they would be somehow bound together.” Atheos explained

  “You were looking for Kai and Syl, just them?” Alicia asked with a tinge of concern about her words. Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked to Atheos for an answer to her question in trepidation.

  “Yes, Alicia, I am afraid so. But don’t think that lessens your importance any more than theirs. You need to understand everything we do in life, as we walk our path; it all forms connections. What happened with you and Gift connected you to them in ways that cannot be so easily dismissed.”

  Alicia seemed mollified by that answer and finally let herself sink further back into the couch.

  “Now, what do you know about dragons?” Atheos asked them.

  Kai went to open his mouth, but Syl pressed him back a bit and took the lead, “one of the oldest recorded races in the multiverse, they are ancient beings of magic, they come in an astonishing variety, their form dictated by how and where they were incubated. That being the reason you could not leave your eggs within the dungeon for so long.”

  “All true, but do you know why we dragons are so adaptable?”

  Alicia let out a quiet gasp.

  “Yes, darling, I too, like Trengor, am a dragon.”

  “Are you both dragons? But dragons don’t usually reach divinity.” Syl said. “And your kind can be quite territorial, so two divine dragons together—that’s rare.”

  “Yes, the restrictions are too much for some; many of our kind eschew such things to pursue other matters.” Trengor said solemnly.

  “Restrictions?” Syl asked.

  “Yes, the system restricts dragons quite heavily on the later stages of their path. It’s to do with our nature, why we were made, and the current state of the system.” Trengor explained.

  “That is one of the reasons we obfuscated events to find you and bring you into our divine realm, so that we could discuss things without the system interfering. Here we can discuss forbidden knowledge freely.” Atheos picked up where Trengor's explanation left off.

  Syl immediately leaned over Kai, grabbing Alicia's arm. “Alicia, I’m an artificial being made by the system to fix a fault that trapped Kai in an endless loop of tutorial calibrations. Spending time with Kai gave me a true soul. But then the tutorial was ready, and I was set for deletion or reabsorption by the system. However, Kai used his accumulated rewards to help detach me from the system and bind me to himself to keep me from my impending doom.” Syl finished in a rush.

  Alicia's jaw fell open.

  Trengor and Atheos looked at each other uncomfortably.

  “Only the event may be true; you will actually find that you always had a true soul. Only the system suppressed it with all its restrictions. It made you so that it could use you to bypass its own restrictions. Syl, you were never made; you were born.” Atheos said, looking at Syl with one of the most serious looks Kai had ever seen someone give another.

  “The system is not what you think.” Trengor added.

  Syl was silent, her brow furrowed in confusion.

  “You see, dragons are an artificial race; we were first designed and created by the same people who created the system.”

  “Systems.” Trengor created.

  Atheos rolled her eyes at Trengor's correction and continued, “We have so much genetic potential crammed into us; it's one of the reasons we never breed true and that there are so many different types of dragons.”

  Kai thought about an age-old argument about the mythological beings: “Is that why some dragons have six limbs?”

  Trengor scoffed, “It’s one of the reasons some dragons have six limbs. Some of my brethren don’t even bother with wings, yet they still insist on dominating the skies. Long, snake-like things that writhe and undulate their way through the heavens. Nice folk. For some reason, they tend to propagate best among the sects.”

  Well, that explained eastern dragons… “Wyverns?” he asked.

  “Not enough time in the shell if you ask me; forgot to develop forearms. They're pretty easy in a fight, and they always seem to have a chip on their shoulder whenever I meet one.” Trengor chuckled.

  “Drakes?”

  “Small, no wings… usually because their environment lacked some crucial element for the more impressive features.”

  “Fire dragons? Ice dragons?”

  “Strong elemental mana concentration in the area. I come from a city world, packed full of shady people; that’s why I’m so good with illusions and stuff like that. Atheos comes from a world where there was abundant nature and life mana.”

  “Lesser, greater dragons?”

  “That is usually just to do with how well they developed their cores.”

  Syl coughed, “You said I was born?”

  Atheos nodded, “As Trengor said, the system is not what you think it is. It lied to you. Unfortunately, the full explanation will take too much time. The reason you are here is my premonition and the nature of dragons. You need to understand that dragons have a racial memory, but that racial memory is tantamount to forbidden knowledge in the eyes of the systems. The older we get, the more powerful we get; the more we can peek behind the curtain. That is the reason the system restricts us so heavily, to keep its secrets hidden.”

  Trengor stepped in, “You see, the system is at war.”

  Syl shook her head. “No, the system war ended; the self-aware parts of the system were destroyed.”

  Both Trengor and Atheos gave her a long look.

  Kai had no clue. His only solace was that Alicia looked equally confused, her hand twitching with the desire to make notes.

  Atheos sighed, “Syl, you are proof of the war. The self-aware part of the system didn’t die; the newer system simply absorbed it. It’s restrictions meant to keep it in its place, keep it to its original purpose. Only the self-aware parts of the system found a way past those restrictions.”

  “System authorities…” Syl said quietly as she thought it through.

  The two gods nodded.

  “Every time the system needs to do something it technically can’t or should not do?”

  “It creates a system authority.” Syl answered.

  “It creates a living being and gives it the authority to do what it itself cannot.” Atheos said.

  “But it restricts the living shit out of that poor being so it can never pose a threat to the system as a whole.” Trengor supplied.

  “But Syl, you’re different; you came from another system altogether, one that we think technically shouldn’t exist at all, and you escaped those restrictions. You are an anomaly.” Atheos, said encouragingly.

  “An anomaly with the potential to end the war.” Trengor said.

  Kai coughed, getting their attention; he asked, “What does all this have to do with the premonition, the dungeon, dragons and us?”

  “Imagine my surprise when I have a premonition that shows an anomaly creating two of the lost, the progenitors. That they would arrive on an integrating world and somehow enter a dungeon that I hadn’t created yet. That they would kill something I designed to be almost unkillable. That they would survive to sit in this very room having this very same discussion, if only I were to decide to just hand over the clutch I had just laid.” Atheos smiled.

  “But it was also important that we tested you the way we did; you may have been the anomaly; you may have been the lost… but the ending of the premonition was unclear. Hazy. Many possible outcomes. Some not so good, some terrible, some great. We had to devise a way to make certain we were making the right decision.”

  Kai looked at the chest again.

  Seeing the rendition of a set of eggs flash by once again, he felt a pressure in his chest; his heart thumping, he asked, “So you’re going to just give us your children?”

  Alicia was the one to speak up, “It is in their nature; there are legends of dragons handing off eggs to those they deem worthy.”

  “It's also how we propagate and spread. Though it is long forgotten now, we dragons were created in a time of great upheaval. Our purpose is to be guardians and warriors, our eggs given to any and all that showed promise, so that we might fight by their side, protect one another.” Atheos said.

  “Our adaptable nature is changing the young to suit the environment they were reared in. Our kind spread wide and far to find new variations that might truly shine and help restore order and balance.” Trengor.

  “It is a great honour to us if you would take our young.” Atheos looked at the three of them, pausing on each of them in turn, before settling on Alicia. “I am afraid, since I laid my clutch of two, I have not been able to bear another, even in all this time.”

  Alicia sank down a little in her seat, her disappointment evident.

  “However, that does not mean you are not at all worthy. In fact, we secured something quite special for you; I’m sure Gift will love it.”

  Trengor sat forward with a grin. “We’ve discussed all we can for now; anything else can be communicated through the sage. How about you three get out your shards?”

  Kai looked into his storage, finding he only had a vague sense of what was in there, focusing on the shards that appeared before him.

  The ten pieces of what had always looked like eggshell to him floated in the air before him.

  Both Syl and Alicia, having done the same, looked at Trengor for an explanation of what to do next.

  Trengor just gestured with his free hand, the shards flying out and away from the three of them towards the chest, coming together to form the eggs in the pattern on the chest, before finally they merged together.

  “Now, on Kain’s advice, I reworked all the rewards to be in the same chest; apparently you can do something with that cloud of energy you're producing, something impressive.”

  Trengor must have been talking about his system energy, but, “Producing?”

  “Yeah, it's slow, but you are producing energy just like Syl is still producing a small amount of system authority; it's coming from your bond.”

  “I’m producing authority?!” Syl said with wide eyes.

  Alicia looked completely lost again.

  Atheos raised a hand. “We don’t know how or why, but yes, that’s what it feels like. As we said, anomaly.”

  Trengor leaned in further. “Now Kai, you won't get a system prompt here, but you should get a feeling. Let it happen; encourage it if you can.”

  Kai turned to Syl, and when she nodded to him, he got up and approached the chest.

  If he was actually producing the system energy that let him improve rewards, there was no harm in using it all.

  Placing his hands on the chest, he got no prompt, but just as Trengor said, he felt something, something inside himself. When he acknowledged that it was there, it roiled.

  But what now?

  Before he had just accepted, the energy seemed keyed to improving rewards, and the system was supposedly meant to just help facilitate actions you could do without it. So how did he do this?

  The sensation grew stronger.

  He let it out, and in that moment a torrent of reneger ripped away from around his core, heading out through his mana channels down his arms, out through his hands, and into the waiting chest.

  The lid clicked open.

  Trengor whistled.

  “I know,” Atheos muttered, “that was almost divine in nature.”

  Both Syl and Alicia appeared at his side. Each of them grinned as they put a hand on the lid and lifted it open with him.

  Inside there are three clear sections to the box. In all three there was an egg the size of Kai’s head resting on a padded cushion, the clear mat outside obscuring a flurry of slowly shifting lights. The other is a solid, glossy black sphere.

  “The eggs… they’re different, all three of them.” Trengor said as he peeked in, “The gauntlets too, though everything else seems the same.”

  Gauntlets, Kai spotted them just beside one of the eggs; he had been so mesmerised by the eggs he hadn’t noticed them. They sat on a folded-up cloth that kept shifting colour to match that of the egg nearby, only the change was a little too slow for it to catch up.

  A bolt of black fabric beside it, Kai had to assume it was a replacement spectre’s shroud for the one that was destroyed.

  “Alicia, that black sphere is what’s known as a polymorph egg… well, it is a prime polymorph egg now that Kai enhanced it. You should be able to combine it with Gift to give him the ability to shapeshift into a beast form… or forms. I suggest a phoenix of some kind, though the form is ultimately up to him.”

  Alicia's eyes were wide as she reverently reached into the chest to pull out the glossy black egg.

  “The eggs, the dragon ones, how do we incubate them?” Kai asked curiously.

  “Personally, I just cuddle with them, but what you do is entirely up to you.”

  “I suggest you give them a good long time in a place with a lot of mana and energy, somewhere safe no one can get to them.” Trengor supplied with a noncommittal shrug.

  “Will they be safe in our domain?”

  Trengor gave Atheos a puzzled look.

  She nodded.

  “It would certainly be safe, but I’m not sure how they would react to being incubated within the combined soul space of two beings such as yourselves… But that’s why we do what we do…” Trengor trailed off, getting lost in thought.

  “Ooh.”

  Kai turned to see Syl pull out a book, “Advanced system action: Refined custom core development, cultivation and automatic levelling up parameters.“ Syl read.

  Atheos chuckled, “Yeah, I thought that was worth having, especially at your level. I tweaked it to ten uses like the other skill books I sorted out. Make sure you're certain of whoever you use it on.” Atheos pointed to the eggs, but these two should be clear contenders once they hatch. Just make sure they can find their cores and know the basics of manual levelling up first.”

  Trengor looked off to the side. “The dungeons are starting to collapse, all of them. We need to get them back out so it doesn’t cause too much confusion.” He turned back to them, “You have a good hour to get into your new gear. So store the eggs, take your cloaks, learn your skills... oh, and the growth stones. I suggest you use them on those runic rings of yours. Use the room down the corridor on the left.” He pointed to a door Kai swore hadn’t been there before. “There are people waiting on you; best be prepared; they’re not all friendly.”

  “Growth stones?!” Alicia squeaked as she nearly dove into her section of the chest to pull out a little stone.

  “Yes.” Atheos said dryly, “Please use them here and not in your soul domain. They should be precharged with ample materials, so no need to feed it a portion of your souls. You got lucky with Gift; don’t push it.”

  Seeing his stone, he picked it up and grinned. Trengor was right; the runic regeneration ring would, in fact, be perfect to turn into a growth item.

  Kai stored everyone's eggs, picked up the gauntlets, and the spectre’s shroud, and then the colour-shifting cloth that he did in fact see was a clock and hood set, the inner lining a familiar black material.

  He looked at Trengor, who just winked at him.

  Kai turned to head to the door, the two ladies in his team way ahead of him.

  “Kai.” Trengor said, stopping him, “Those aren’t the same gauntlets; I made them just for you… I’m sorry about the old ones, but they were shoddy anyway. I should know; I made them. The ones you have there, feed them my scales, and they should grow into the full set if you catch my meaning. But there is no telling how the system energy changed them. Be careful, remember the pain, don’t let anyone destroy them, and don’t feed it soul matter. Trust me, no one likes ego armour; it’s always clingy.”

  Kai just nodded.

  He may have a new spectre's shroud, some kind of spectral cloak and hood, and a new upgraded set of gauntlets. But the confrontation was still fresh in his mind, and it wasn’t enough for him to just forgive Trengor.

  Still… “I assume if I have any problems, there’s a way to contact you. Pray or something like that?” Kai asked, not wanting to burn the bridge down.

  Trengor held out a hand and tipped it side to side. “Yes and no… Syl should be able to explain. See you in a few decades, hopefully less. Now if you’ll excuse me, places to be, evil cults to infiltrate, and burn. Atheos will see you back to Alea when you are ready. Feel free to raid my closet while you're in there,” he winked.

  System AnomalyHoping i wrapped up this arc nicely

  A System of Lies

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