Thanric waited, waited and watched.

  Everyone below could tell something was up with the portal to the dungeon as it flickered and flared as it sent waves out across the clearing.

  Parties and their supervisors were coming out of their camps from where they had been waiting for the dungeon to reopen to have a look at what was happening with the dungeon and its sudden increase in activity.

  Only he knew for certain it wasn’t going to reopen. When Alicia, Kai and the system guide, Syl, came out, the dungeon was going to close for good. He had both the system and the goddess who designed the dungeon to vouch for that.

  He had already contacted many of the adventurer teams that had come to do their run of the dungeon.

  The sensible among them trusted the word of the sage and the recent system notification, turning about and making back to their academies and guilds to reevaluate centuries-old traditions in the face of the dungeon disappearing.

  Few were happy with the news; this dungeon had been around since the system first came to Alea; for many, it had become a rite of passage.

  That was perhaps the reason for the obstinate reasoning of many of those that had decided to camp out below.

  Some, he could find no blame with those who chose to remain despite his advice; they had trained for years and travelled far to visit this dungeon, and leaving so soon could have real ramifications on their careers as adventurers.

  Others made him more suspicious.

  Three teams comprised of adventurers at the limit of entry into the dungeon had shown up.

  A not uncommon practice, but they were each accompanied by higher-level minders of around level twenty, which for a team around level ten seemed unnecessary.

  Furthermore, they outright ignored attempts to communicate, refusing to meet with him or his people.

  He had, of course, investigated everyone he could. All of them had one detail in common: they had set out not long after the System event.

  Thanric had done everything he could to prepare, even going so far as to ignore the advice of his godess. He was glad blind faith had not been part of the agreement.

  Now he just had to wait for-

  There was a pulse of energy from the dungeon portal as it disappeared with a notable pop, and two cloaked and hooded individuals were deposited in its place.

  There was an audible groan from the watching crowd as, true to his word, the dungeon was gone.

  Thanric turned to his aide and gave them the signal to launch one of the landing crafts.

  Turning back, he tried to examine the two newcomers from where he was, but for some reason he couldn’t get the system ability to trigger.

  Remembering how difficult it had been to examine Kai during the system event, he was unperturbed and moved on to eyeing the milling adventurers wearily, waiting for them to make their move.

  As the taller hooded figure pointed up to him, someone from one of the side camps chose to approach the two who had left the dungeon.

  It was one of the level zero team leaders, so he wasn’t too concerned.

  The three of them seemed to have a short discourse before the one who must be Kai shrugged, and they departed, their shoulders slumped as they went to deliver the bad news to their team.

  Sighing, Thanric asked his aide to do something for those that lost out on the dungeon.

  Many of the groups had seen the youths reaction and started to return to their camps to pack up, the message that the dungeon was closing for good finally sinking in.

  A few, however, remained, the ones that held his suspicion, having animated discussions amongst themselves whilst sending furtive looks at each other across the clearing.

  He sighed. Something was definitely going to happen.

  He turned to his aide again, giving the girl a signal to have everyone prepare for the worst.

  Kai and Alicia must have seen the landing craft depart the ship to collect them as they turned to each other and started chatting as if they weren’t surrounded on all sides.

  He would have to discuss situational awareness with them.

  It was then that someone broke from the closest group to go talk to Alicia and Kai; again there was a short discussion, Kai shrugged again and the woman turned around and nodded.

  All hell broke loose in that moment as there was a bright flash.

  If Thanric had been lower level, he might have missed everything that happened in that moment, but the bright flash only stung, and squinting, he watched on, preparing to trigger his spells.

  It seemed Alicia had been expecting something as she covered her eyes, narrowly avoiding being blinded by the bright flash.

  Kai, however, seemed completely unperturbed by the opening attack and reached out with a black gauntlet, his clawed grip twisting the air around the woman that they were just talking to as his eyes flashed bright blue and then settled into a deep glowing purple before he spun, a long blue blade of mana manifesting from something he held in his hand.

  Cutting the air with intent in three places, invisible attackers fell to the floor with each swipe of his blade as mana bolts appeared all around him and fired off to cut down would-be attackers he was not even looking at.

  Alicia, for her part, recovered quickly, spinning to face one of the teams that moved to take them from behind, a bow the likes of which Thanric had never seen appearing as she shot off splitting streaks of golden light that took down the five fools with ill intent before she moved on to the next group.

  In just that moment, three stealthed attackers had fallen, one man had been locked in place as he twisted back with a blade in hand, and three five-man teams had been cut down before they even got close.

  Thanric's people had no chance to intervene. They just looked on with stunned expressions, their weapons at the ready as they moved in from their hiding positions.

  It was lucky they had not been engaged by either Kai or Alicia, as at most they had presented a threat in at least readying their spells and weapons.

  As things settled, Kai and Alicia spun with their backs to one another, looking for any other threats as they somehow dismissed Thanric's people.

  Alicia then dropped to one knee as she fired off a shot into the trees, a wholly unnecessary movement he would have to talk to her about.

  Kai at the same time dismissed his blade, held up the contraption that created his sword, and used it to fire off a blue blast in another direction.

  He couldn’t even see the shot travel, but by the way Kai relaxed, it must have done something.

  Reaching out with his senses, Thanric felt for their targets and was pleasantly surprised to find each of them had taken out a hidden observer that had decided to flee the moment the attack was over.

  Their targets taken care of, the two seemed to do one final assessment of their surroundings before the slain bodies started to disappear.

  His people barked orders to secure the area and check the camps of those who had attacked Alicia and Kai.

  Honestly, he was impressed; maybe he didn’t need to have a word about their situational awareness after all.

  By the looks of it, they even had the sense to keep one of them alive.

  Alicia had certainly grown in the time she was in the dungeon.

  That was when Kai fell to a knee and started to retch.

  “Now, do you understand why I told you they should handle this?” A feminine voice said within Thanric's mind, “Kai had a similar reaction when he killed his first goblins in the dungeon. This was a trial he had to face; now might be a good time to go down there and deliver some sage advice.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Just minutes earlier Kai, Alicia and Syl stepped out of the dungeon.

  A loud pop behind them and a wave of energy signalling the close of the dungeon.

  Syl had donned her cloak, though as she was still a projection and currently imperceptible to everyone but their party, she didn’t get any of the benefits.

  Ignoring the flood of notifications, Kai clicked his tongue as he looked about. “We’re surrounded.”

  “I told you the cloaks would not do much if people were watching the dungeon for anyone coming out.” Alicia chided him.

  “It was worth a try, that and they make us look all mysterious.”

  “Why would we want to look mysterious? Mysterious is just obvious with a different spelling.”

  Kai just shrugged as he continued to look about; looking up slightly, he paused and pointed, “That’s a fucking airship.”

  “Yes, Kai, that’s an airship. Don’t you remember? You were on that very airship just a few weeks ago.” Syl said.

  He scoffed, “I think I would remember being on an airship.”

  “It is true. When we left the system event, it was where the system sent you. Though you were not on the ship long before we departed for the dungeon. That, and it had actually set down in the clearing so we did not have to depart on a landing craft.” Alicia explained.

  Kai looked at the odd floating horseshoe of wood, metal, cloth and rope. “There is no way that thing set down in this clearing.”

  “Not the whole thing, silly; it has a ramp; all it has to do is get low enough, then it can use its landing gear. They most likely had to take off to make room for all these adventuring teams,” Alicia said as she adjusted her hood.

  “Speaking of those adventurers, one of them is approaching,” Syl said as she pointed to the pink-cheeked sixteen-year-old-looking boy that came their way.

  Kai reached for his hilt, pulling it free below his cloak as his scale gauntlets grew into place.

  “Relax, Kai, this one’s not even levelled yet.” She looked about the clearing. “I’m going to do some scouting; some of those teams are giving me the creeps.” Syl said as she flared into her orange wisp form and shot off towards one of the groups who kept giving them odd looks.

  “Excuse me…” the El'vei youth said as he drew close, “Do you happen to know what happened to the dungeon?”

  Kai looked to Alicia first, but she just bit her lip.

  Letting out a sigh, Kai said, “We were informed the dungeon was closing and decided to end our run and come out.”

  The youth eyed their matching cloaks suspiciously. "So you are saying you weren’t the ones to complete the dungeon?”

  “Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I was running the lower levels again and again, trying to improve my rewards.” He shrugged, “Got to the second reward room when the dungeon changed on us. Things got weird, and we decided to leave.”

  The youth grimaced, “My mother is going to kill me. I was supposed to be the first in the family to run the dungeon. We sold my sister's old gear to get here, and now I have nothing to show for it, no levels, no dungeon rewards.” Turning on his heels, he thanked them and departed.

  ‘Heads up you two. Don’t react, but at least three of these parties are trying hard to identify Kai; the fact your eyes aren’t glowing right now is throwing them off, but some of the higher-level ones are already planning to take you anyway; good news, bad news, they don’t seem to be concerned about you, Alicia.’

  The people all around them started to light up with mana marks on his party overlay.

  ‘Purple is high threat, red is hostile, and green should be friendly.’

  ‘Friendly?’

  ‘Yeah, it seems Alicia's master anticipated trouble and positioned some people to help.’ Syl paused. ‘I think they just received some signal.’

  Kai looked about, seeing nothing obvious, he asked, “I feel like a sitting duck. Should we not make a move, go meet with Thanric, you know, make that report you were dreading, Alicia?”

  “Sitting duck?” Alicia asked, then abruptly shook her head before nodding in the direction of the airship, “There is no need to go anywhere; Master has sent a landing craft to come get us. This clearing is the best place for us to wait for it.”

  Unable to contain himself Kai shot Alicia a wide grin. “Are we really going to take a ride on an airship?”

  Alicia giggled, “Kai, I have lived on that ship for the better part of five years. The T.S.S. Spirit of Exploration is Master’s personal ship; I would not be surprised if a private room has not already been set up for you.”

  He looked up at the strange vessel with no small amount of awe; someone had good naming sense.

  ‘Kai, stop drooling.’ Syl said, still using the party's mind-to-mind communication as she appeared at their side, ‘The group I was monitoring just got word there’s going to be a bright flash. That and the human woman approaching us from the front while three people I can just detect sneaking up on us with my mana sense, I would say they’re about to make their move.’

  Kai’s hackles rose as he tried his best not to actually look in the direction of the three purple marks moving into striking distance using their blind spots to make their quiet approach.

  Learning mana sense from Syl was rising to the top of the skills he wanted.

  Kai looked at the woman who was coming their way. ‘How about I lock this woman down and deal with the other three coming into melee range? That should leave you two to clean up the others from range.’

  ‘Sounds good to me.’ Alicia said, ‘Even if I am blinded, I am certain Gift uses other senses to find our targets; our time in the mist proved that much. I just need to know where to point him, and I can see those markers with my eyes closed. Syl, you are certain of all your marks.’

  ‘Positive, I even managed to pick out a couple that were hanging well back. And Kai, be careful; the one approaching us is level twenty-five, and the others in stealth are all around twenty. We need the element of surprise as much as they do.’

  "I would use focus on you, Kai, but I don't want to alert anyone by using magic.' Alicia sighed.

  “You two, do you have any idea what happened to the dungeon? Did you get any system notifications?” The woman said as she got just outside inside the personal space Kai would reserve for strangers.

  Kai rolled his eyes as he double-checked he had, in fact, shut off the barely perceptible amount of mana that constantly flowed into them, making them glow and enhancing his vision in the process.

  “Look, I will tell you the same thing I told the kid who came to ask us what happened to the dungeon earlier. I was repeating floors, trying to get the hang of things and increase the potential of my rewards.” He shrugged, “I didn’t even catch up to where my partner was, and the dungeon changed on us; I got out as soon as it seemed reasonable.’

  The woman eyed them suspiciously before grunting and turning away.

  ‘Eyes now!’ Syl cried throught the party system.

  Kai moved, reaching out with his free hand to take hold of space and time around the woman as she spun back on them.

  There was a sudden flash, hoping his spectre’s shroud might protect him. Kai hadn’t tried to protect his eyes.

  He was blinded.

  Though it was for less than a split second as he reacted on instinct and flooded his eyes with mana, his sight returned with crystal clarity as he summoned his spectral blade and spun on the closest mark.

  They must not have been expecting him to turn on them, their eyes going wide as they failed to react to his vorpal blade as it cut them cleanly in two.

  He barely registered the fact he could see the supposedly stealthed assailants as his blade vibrating with power took the next through the neck; the fear on his face as he died shook Kai’s soul.

  But he couldn’t stop, something deep within telling him they would show him no remorse the moment he lost the advantage.

  He turned on the last, confirming to the woman he could see her, her confusion vanishing as she prepared to counter, but she was too slow to react; her dagger was no match for the length and reach of his weapon as he whipped it across them.

  Had any of them worn any actual armour, they might have been troublesome. The thin-cloth clothing only suitable for stealthy movements and shadier tactics than any actual duel.

  The look of shock mixed with fear as he turned on them stuck with him as he turned his mind back to the ambush.

  ‘The rogues are down, dead I think.’ He reported.

  ‘My party was caught off guard, blinded by their own blast. I had to overcharge a few bolts to punch through their armour; they were well equipped.’ Syl made her report.

  Thrum-thrim, Gift chimed helpfully.

  ‘I think we got the other two parties you marked.’ Alicia reported for them both.

  ‘Check,’ Kai ordered as he stepped round with his back to Alicia to get a good look at their surroundings.

  ‘Clear,’ Alicia said as she moved in tandem with him.

  ‘Clear,’ Kai confirmed as he made a full circle.

  ‘Just the two observers,’ Syl said as she paused to check on them, ‘They are moving off, and they are moving fast; I don’t think I can get them with a mana bolt with all these trees.’

  Thrum-thriim, Gift chimed.

  Alicia grunted in reply as she dropped to one knee.

  Realising that the decision had been made not to let anyone escape, Kai decided he would help out.

  He dismissed his spectral blade as Alicia realised her shot behind him.

  Lifting his now blade-less hilt, he pointed it at the last remaining mark and created a pocket of distorted space at its tip. Satisfied, he created an overcharged mana bolt, compressed down as small as he could, forming a ball the size of a small marble; he released it down the hollow haft.

  The mana bolt shot off through his simple wand, picking up the distortion of space at its tip and then disappearing with a soundless flare of light.

  The distant mana mark vanished.

  “What was that?” Alicia asked as she relaxed the shot she was preparing at his side.

  Thrum-thrim-thriiiim-thum? Gift asked, his own curiosity clear.

  “A variation of something Kain taught me, supposed to be a movement technique, too dangerous for me at my level, but enough to move anything I want very, very fast. Almost like a magical railgun. But at the same time, not.”

  Alicia gave him a nod to continue.

  “I compressed space in front of the bolt and stretched it out behind it… I think. My control over time and space is all done by feel. Had to anchor it to the hilt to keep the distortion in place until I could introduce my mana bolt,” he said, looking at the item Inego had prepared for him, “maybe these are wands.”

  Syl scoffed as she appeared by their side in her full high-human form, with not a single wisp of vibrant, fiery orange hair out of place. “I told you they were wands, and for the love of all that is, step into one of those twisted distortions.”

  Kai nodded as he took a moment to check on the woman he had locked down; she might be a higher level than them, but even her stat difference was not able to overcome time. Though she still looked surprised as she reached out to strike with her dagger, by her trajectory she had been aiming for Alicia, but the turn of her head told him her reaction was to him.

  Her surprise reminded him of the fear he had seen moments before killing the other three.

  “We should loot all the bodies, maybe find some clue as to who and why they ambushed us?” Alicia suggested.

  Syl nodded.

  A sinking feeling set over him.

  “Kai, are you okay?” Syl asked as she stepped closer, her words oddly distant.

  A high-pitched tone whined in his ears as he looked about at the carnage they had wrought.

  His heart thumping as he looked down on the bodies of the people he had just killed.

  The world shifted, and he fell to one knee.

  They were real people, not dungeon spawn, and he had just cut them down…

  Breathing heavily, he tried to calm himself. “Come on, Kai, they were attacking you…” He whispered to himself, the words silent to his own ears, a numb, sour, tingling feeling forming in his lower jaw.

  ‘You had no choice, Kai,’ Syl said through their connection.

  “I know…” Kai breathed.

  He felt at all the essence that had come in during the ambush and realised his new advanced levelling system action was busy purifying it.

  he felt his pulse throb in his ears.

  A moment later he watched in horror as the mass of energy split and settled onto his physical and magical core, just as he set it up, the quantity of essence enough to level him up twice.

  He vomited.