The first skill, Remote Voltsmithing, looked like a solid option. It’d be especially powerful if I worked with the same people a lot, or if I could give and take Creations from people between fights or dungeons. The problem I saw was that other than Tori, I didn’t team up with the same people all that often, and that a lot of my fighting was solo. The second part was intriguing, though. Could I use Creations as traps? Or could I, with some work, build creations that piloted and activated themselves, like robots?

  The second, Core of Armor, was straightforward. Get tougher, replace all my Body points—which were kind of a waste—with Charge points, and use those Charge points to get even tougher. Simple, effective, and what Tori had once described as an ‘engine.’ According to her, an ‘engine’ in games was two powers that fed into each other and got way stronger than they needed to be. This worked with the Voltsmith class, and with enough time, it’d make me indestructible.

  Shock Trooper was also straightforward, but unlike the Body-replacing Creations I could imagine making with Core of Armor, this one simply allowed me to make everything a Taser—or maybe stronger. As much as I wanted more punch, it just wasn’t the right choice for me.

  So, it was really between Core of Armor and Remote Voltsmithing. Core of Armor was the obviously right choice if I was going to keep working with Tori and Bobby, wherever he was. Neither of them was a tank. That’d always be my job as the guy with the hammer, and it’d only help the group out.

  But something about Remote Voltsmithing appealed to me.

  There were possibilities there, as I got more and more Charge. Load Tori up with a bunch of railguns set to fire at any enemies she chose and send her into fights? Maybe. Suit Jessica up with a functional set of Autoplate so she could level without being in danger? Why not? Set up Contingent Casts other people could carry around for me? The possibilities were there, and if I was creative enough, they were endless.

  In the end, I made the correct choice for me instead of the simple one.

  [Class Skill: Remote Voltsmithing] unlocked.

  Congratulations, [Hal Riley], on learning [Remote Voltsmithing].

  Rank One stat increases unlocked:

  +5 Body

  +5 Awareness

  +10 Charge

  That was a nice perk. The stats alone put me a good ten effective levels over anyone who hadn’t cleared their Rank One trial, and the extra Class Skill could be overwhelming. I didn’t think anyone in Chicago, with the possible exception of Bobby, could fight me and win at this point. Of course, I didn’t know if anyone was grinding north of Andersonville, or on the South Side, but even so, I felt pretty strong. Pretty ready.

  I opened my status.

  [Hal Riley] [Class - Voltsmith] [Level - 50, Rank One]

  [Stats]

  ?Body - 35

  ?Awareness - 47

  ?Charge - 0/69 (59 Used)

  Stat Points Available: 0

  [Class Skill - Decharge/Recharge - Drain the charge from magic items to power your own creations]

  [Class Skill - Remote Voltsmithing - Use your Voltsmithing to empower Creations even when others are using them—or when no one is.

  [Skill - Spellcoding - Transfer spells from Tomes to Spellscrolls, allowing weaker versions to be cast with Charge instead of Mana]

  Items

  ?Autoplate Pauldron (8 Charge)

  ?Voltsmith’s Grasp Upgrade One (19/30 Charge) - Rail Gun Module, Taser Launcher

  ?Heavy Trip-Hammer 2.0 (25 Charge)

  ?Warrior’s Sheath (Spellcode Scroll-Reader) (7 Charge)

  It would be enough. It’d have to be.

  Time Limit: One Day, Six Hours, Five Minutes

  “Where the hell is Bobby?” Calvin asked.

  The sheer presence of the Willis Tower was starting to weigh on the whole city. Its two antennae spiked upward into the late morning clouds, and the black steel and mirrored windows reminded Tori, according to her, of Barad-dur or Orthanc or the Dark Tower—a dark fantasy tower looming over the rest of the world.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It wasn’t a physical presence, either. I could feel it in my mind, had even dreamt about it last night. It needed to be beaten.

  “I don’t know,” I said, as Calvin and Jessica stared at the tower. We’d gathered near the Field Museum, since the fortifications were still under construction and the stairs weren’t a viable meeting place. “He was supposed to show up as soon as he finished his Trial, and I can’t imagine him falling behind by more than a day. He’ll be here.”

  “But what if he’s not?” Jessica asked.

  I started to say something, but Calvin cut me off. “If he’s not, we can’t spare the twins. They’re needed here, both to clear the Tier Twos just before the timer runs out and to shore up the line if Hal fails.” I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t mention Tori’s name. That was intentional. We’d discussed it beforehand, both together and with her, and the plan was simple. Don’t mention her. At all. Jessica didn’t need to think about her stepdaughter going into the most dangerous dungeon in Chicago.

  Calvin kept talking. “Hal’s capable, and that Rank One buff’s big. Anyone at that level should be ready for the Tower.”

  Jessica’s lips pursed, almost white from how tightly she pressed them together. I knew why; Tori hadn’t reached Rank One yet, but she claimed to be close, and if she made it, Jessica would have to let her run the Tier Three Dungeon. “Should we—“

  “No, we shouldn’t look for him. It’s a big city, and we don’t know where he went,” Calvin said.

  “I agree,” I spoke up. “Besides, if he’s finished with his Rank One Trial, and he hasn’t come back here, there’s only one place he’ll be. He’s trying the tower—and we should be, too.”

  It was true. There was only one reason to wait—and that was for Tori. I wasn’t sure we could clear the tower even if it was the two of us, but I had no doubts that it’d be almost impossible by myself. Even with an inventory full of Charge bombs, spare Creations for different situations, and my second Spellscroll—ironically, Gravity Ball, which I’d gotten from the Museumtown community gear stockpile—I couldn’t imagine fighting a boss like the Queen Tyrant, but twenty levels stronger.

  I needed Tori’s help. We all did.

  As long as it didn’t get her killed.

  Time Limit: One Day, Three Hours, Forty-Four Minutes

  Tori, Carol, and Zane sat around the gigantic steel statue on the edge of Museumtown. The sign said it was called Habakuk, but Tori didn’t care. What she did care about was that she and the twins had all felt energy converging there—and where there was energy converging, there were rules to learn. They weren’t long enough to form a ring completely around the squashed-looking metal cubes, but they held hands even as they each meditated on their own sets of rules.

  Right now, Tori’s was about weight and lightness, and how the two were completely opposed but fundamentally the same. Zane’s eyes were blazing orbs of fire, and Tori’s hand dripped with sweat in his light’s grasp. He radiated heat across the grass—it had already dried up all around him. She wished she knew what rule he was trying to figure out.

  Carol sat as still as the statue.

  She hadn’t moved in almost an hour. Tori couldn’t even hear her breathing. If it weren’t for the faint pulse in the older girl’s wrist, she’d be worried that Carol had died. Still, this was her idea, and Tori could feel it working. It was definitely working.

  The energy swirling around the three young Delvers howled and tore at them. Tori hadn’t noticed at first, but as the afternoon turned to evening, the weight and the lightness threatened to crush her and to throw her into the sky at the same time. It felt hot and freezing and solid and gummy and heavy and light as a feather all at once, an overwhelming mixed drink of sensations. A lot like when Tammy had offered her a hit for the first time, but more.

  But she hadn’t broken through to Rank One yet. None of them had.

  Tomorrow, Hal was going into the Tower. Maybe even tonight, if the meeting she hadn’t been allowed at went the way Hal thought it would. Tori was determined to go with him—if only to keep Bobby Richards honest. Not that she’d seen him, but he’d be there. But she couldn’t go if she couldn’t break through. It was a lot like the Raid Portals in her games. If she wasn’t strong enough, or attuned enough, it wouldn’t let her in.

  Except the attunement was ‘convince your step-mom you’re strong enough.’

  Carol and Zane didn’t have that problem. They were strong enough to handle the Watery Grave and the Field of Warriors without help, and that was their job. They were only trying to break through with Tori because she was desperate to make it happen. Desperate to help Hal. He’d need it, just like she’d needed it in the Redline Tunnels, and she wanted to be there for him.

  So she sat around the Habakuk and held hands with Zane and Carol.

  Tori wasn’t sure this group meditation stuff was working. So far, all she’d gotten from it was a sticky hand on one side and one locked in an iron vise on the other. She couldn’t leave if she wanted to.

  She focused in on the weight and the lightness. On moving them—not on moving an object with her magic. That was easy. She could almost Push and Pull in her sleep. This was different. This was moving concepts with her mind. It was opening boxes and letting what she knew about physics itself run free.

  It was hard.

  She’d been at it for hours. For days. And she was out of time. It had to happen now. Even if—even if the answer didn’t make sense.

  That was it. It didn’t have to make sense.

  Suddenly, it clicked. It all made sense. Lightness and weight were the same. Spells and memory were the same. Power and thought. Advancement and uplifting. Fiction and reality. They were all malleable. She was enlightened. With enough effort, she could—

  The swirling energy peaked into three separate spikes. The inferno roared out in every direction, exploding like a bomb before vanishing, crushed by Tori’s will—and by Zane’s and Carol’s.

  She collapsed. Her hand slipped from Zane’s overheating grasp and from Carol’s steel grip. As her head bounced off of a thin layer of energy that formed before she could hit the ground, she saw a System message.

  Congratulations, [Tori Vanderbilt], on completing your Telekineticist Rank One Trial. Your Class has ascended to Rank One.

  Smiling through the sweat dripping off her, Tori picked Lingering Telekinesis. Allowing her spells to last longer in place would turn her into exactly the crowd-control mage she wanted to be, and make any battlefield she was on her plaything. Then she watched the nameplates over Carol and Zane’s heads slowly change.

  Zane Parker: Level 50 (Rank One)

  Class: Mage

  Carol Parker: Level 50 (Rank One)

  Class: Skirmisher (Fighter)

  Patreon, if that's something you're craving! If you're not sure, you could also become a free member, and get access to one (1) chapter in advance!