After entering the dungeon, a notification popped up, but he was too focused on his surroundings to look at it now. Taking in the scenery, post-apocalyptic is the only thing that sprang to mind. Not the dusty, dirty, Mad Max type, though. He was surrounded by rolling hills that looked to have once been covered by a dense, mature forest. Now many of those trees had been blasted apart.

  Blasted was the appropriate word since many of them were charred or even currently burning. As he watched, he saw a distant hilltop explode, sending what looked like hundreds of wooden splinters flying. Adjusting for the distance, he realized they were probably more like spears for anyone nearby.

  Looking up he saw a nightmare of a sky. Dark clouds were actively roiling with electricity. It was a lightning bolt from those clouds that had taken out whatever was on that hill. The thick cover above was completely blocking out the broader sky and left the land below it covered in a gloomy shadow.

  Looking closer at his surroundings he started picking out people moving around. Most of those he saw were trying to stay below the hilltops, moving in the small valleys to help hide them. Occasionally someone would break cover and dash across the heights. There was a large camp in the valley next to him, which he assumed was his destination.

  New Quest: The Battle of Ashford Hills (200)

  [The Protian Faction has launched an assault on a nearby world controlled by the Untar Republic. Report to the nearby Headquarters to receive further details on your quest.]

  The dungeon point reward was the first thing that stood out. Other than what he had earned from the chained quests of becoming his mentor’s apprentice, this was the highest amount he had seen for one dungeon.

  The second was that it mentioned a Faction and a Republic. He said their names aloud, testing them with his mouth. While these could be made up for the dungeon, Alan was more inclined to believe they were real forces in the Network. Did that mean he was inside a dungeon or had he been teleported to an actual place.

  “Are you still watching this?” Alan asked his overseer.

  “Yes, of course. Why?” She sounded distracted.

  “Can you tell me, is this a dungeon, or have I been sent to another world?”

  “You interrupted me for that? I was reading a really good book.”

  Alan tried not to get angry. “I’m sorry my life is too boring, but if you could answer my question.

  Tamee released one of her trademark sighs, “you would know if you had been teleported. If you are traveling anywhere other than a point on your own planet, there is a significant delay. The farther the distance, the longer the wait. This is most likely a recreation of one of the millions of battles that have taken place in our history. Before you ask, no I have not heard of those two factions, but there are so many major ones and uncountably many smaller ones that there is little chance I would have recognized them.”

  “Ok, thank you. Out of curiosity, what book are you reading?”

  “Does the name Temeraire mean anything to you?” she asked.

  “No, should it? Also, how are you watching movies and books from Earth? I thought everything was destroyed.”

  “The Network is fascinated by culture and goes to great pains to preserve as much as possible. All of your world’s entertainment is contained in a series of crystals that all of us managers have access to.”

  That was nice to know. Assuming humans were able to win this competition, maybe it would be possible to get back some of what had been lost. That was a consideration for after, though, it was time to focus on the task at hand. Alan was currently on a small rise and had some cover from a small clump of partially charred trees.

  The Headquarters he was supposed to find seemed obvious, it was most likely the camp he had seen below him. It was made up of around twenty large tents and several smaller ones. The entire collection took up a couple thousand square meters, and the entire thing was covered by some kind of shimmery dome.

  It didn’t appear to be a physical object, more like some kind of magical protection. That seemed prudent since he had seen three more lightning bolts strike while he stood here. Someone, and he didn’t know if it was his soon to be allies, their opponent, or both, seemed to be calling down the devastating attacks whenever they detected movement. It did indeed seem like his sneaking would have a chance to improve.

  He cautiously made his way down the back of the hill and then crept around the bottom toward the camp. As he did, he encountered a column of about twenty humanoids who were making their own way to the camp. A taller, stocky man whose skin had a slightly green tinge to it, spotted him and called out.

  “If you’re looking to join up, get in line. We’re on our way to HQ now.”

  This seemed too fortuitous to be a coincidence. It was also weird that the man just assumed Alan was a recruit and not an enemy. No base he had ever been assigned to would have been so lax on security, but he wasn’t about to point that out and make it harder for himself now.

  As they got closer, Alan was able to pick out a couple of fortified positions just outside the shimmering barrier. There were several people in heavy armor and carrying crossbows standing behind stone walls. Those walls had some kind of runes on them, probably enchantments to strengthen them and provide protection for those behind.

  Seeing the column and the green tinged man, the guards waved them through. There was no questioning or code words, not even a cursory inspection. He hoped this wasn’t a sign of how unprofessional the rest of the outfit was. If he was going to be fighting with these people, he wanted them to be as powerful as possible.

  On the short way here, he had used identify on the others in the column. They were all subtle variations on human with a mix of classes. All of them had at least opal classes, though, since none of those listed were one of the eight basic quartz ones. His identify only listed their most advanced class, but it now listed their grade along with their race. So he also knew all of the recruits were white grade, the same as him. Even the green man was white.

  The entire line of the recruits hesitated before crossing through the magical bubble around the camp, but there wasn’t even a tingle when Alan entered. They were then led to one of the larger tents, and inside they were directed into one of three lines.

  At the head of each line there was a person in uniform interrogating each new soldier. A quick scan showed that these people were red grade, so they were significantly more powerful than Alan or those he came in with.

  When it was his turn at the front, he was asked to equip himself for battle. He was already wearing his helmet, chainmail, and hide pants, so all Alan had to do was take out his spewn and pugio. While his main weapon, for a long time to come, would be his spewn, he did have a lot of choices for his off hand.

  He had spent most of his time since being brought to the tutorial fighting with two daggers, but he now had a shield and a sword as well. While there were times that his shield would be useful, like against that last boss, he still thought of himself as a dual-wielder. Also, while he was becoming more ambidextrous by the day, holding the larger gladius in his off hand just didn’t feel quite right.

  In deciding between his two knives, the double-edged, stabbing pugio, or the single-edged slicing seax, he thought the pugio complemented the spewn better. When not wielding it as a mace, the hybrid weapon functioned like a short spear, and the pugio’s two edges were the most similar.

  The man in front of him, a hairy person who was only slightly taller than Alan, with purple eyes, took in his appearance. “Not a main line fighter, you look like you would best work as a scout. Agreed?”

  While the last was phrased as a question, he acted more like it was a given, and he didn’t even pause before handing him a slip of paper, pointing him toward an exit, and calling for the next person.

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  Alan glanced at the paper, but it didn’t make any sense to him. Pixel, S2. He assumed it was some kind of assignment, but the specifics eluded him. Making his way over, he reached the indicated exit and was met by another soldier in uniform who took the paper from him. Alan was starting to feel more comfortable here.

  A huge chunk of his life had been spent in the military, and the return to familiar surroundings was comforting. Even though the specifics were different, this was close enough to his experiences in basic to make him nostalgic.

  He could see a few of his fellow recruits standing in clumps outside of the tent, but he wasn’t directed to one of them. Instead, the soldier called over another man in uniform from a short line waiting behind him. He handed the soldier the paper and told Alan to follow him.

  It wasn’t that long of a trip, but the tents were not set up in neat rows, so there were a lot of twists and turns to get to their destination. The soldier handed him back the paper and pointed him inside a smaller tent. It was well over two meters tall, but it was only a few meters on a side.

  Pulling aside the tent flap, Alan stepped inside. There were four cots set up along the edge of the tent with only a few other items strewn about. Sitting on those cots were two men that he identified quickly. Both had opal classes, one was simply scout and the other was tracker. They were wearing stained t-shirts and loose fitting pants. The third person in the tent was crouching by a bag, but they stood up when they heard Alan enter.

  Pixel: Earth Fairy[R], Shadow Walker, Threat level: deadly

  Well, that was one mystery solved, was his first thought. His second was that he should close his mouth. The person before him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Not only was her face one that men would go to war over, but her body was even more impressive. She was so tall that her long blonde hair was almost brushing the ceiling of the tent, and her body was clearly that of an athlete. Her eyes were a bright blue and her pale skin almost glowed in the dark.

  Surreptitiously moving his gaze down to take in the rest of her. She was wearing what could generously be called a tube top and an incredibly minuscule pair of shorts that looked like spandex. Her outfit left little to the imagination, and there was plenty to imagine. Her long toned legs led to an ample backside. The tube top showed off her six-pack abs and was straining to contain her very well formed bosom.

  He only realized he had been staring when she spoke. “They’re boobs. Get over ‘em.”

  Alan blushed furiously and directed his gaze upwards to meet her eyes. The snickers of the other men in the tent let him know that this was likely a common reaction. Still, he hadn’t missed the rating next to her race, indicating she was red grade. That made her far more powerful than him, and not someone to piss off.

  “That’s better.” The large amazonian woman took the opportunity to give Alan a once over in return. Her gaze caught on his spewn with a look of recognition. She had clearly seen one before, and it caused her to smile a little. Then she reached out and snatched the paper from his hand.

  “So, you’ve been assigned as our replacement. Great.” The tone indicated that it was anything but. She continued, “our group is tasked with scouting ahead of the main force. It’s our job to identify any threats and call in hits on any large enemy concentrations.”

  She continued describing their general assignment, before outlining their upcoming mission. Alan found his eyes constantly darting down to admire her ample cleavage. To be fair, because of their height difference, her breasts were literally right in front of him. He knew it made him a bad person, but it was like driving by a car accident, you couldn’t help but look. It also was making him feel guilty. He and Cassidy had not had a tearful departure where they professed their undying love for one another, but it had hurt to have to leave. Her presence had become more than just comfortable for him.

  Cassidy was also clearly affected by the parting. Nothing had happened, physically, between them, but emotionally there had been a lot. Partly it was from his efforts to repair her soul wound, but it was also from how compatible they found each other. And yet here he was, ogling another woman’s body.

  “If you can’t keep from staring at my tits, how can I expect you to pay attention to your surroundings!” This last Pixel delivered with a shout.

  Once more Alan turned bright red and his eyes shot upwards. “I’m sorry mam, it won’t happen again.”

  She snorted at his response, and then suddenly, she was wearing a thick leather jacket and hide pants similar to his own. When the jacket had first appeared it was open, but she deftly reached down and zipped it up. “Maybe this will help.” Somehow, she must have equipped herself directly with spatial storage. That was a neat trick. His storage items didn’t seem to work that way. Anything he withdrew was in one of his hands, and if he wanted to put clothes on he had to do it the old fashion way.

  “Now, if you can focus, I’ll start again…”

  At the risk of further angering her, he broke in, “no need mam, I heard everything.”

  With a raised eyebrow, she indicated her disbelief. Alan then repeated back to her everything she had said. Mission briefings were nothing new to him and he had long learned to memorize everything he was hearing, even while multitasking.

  “As a scout squad we are supposed to move in advance of our larger forces and we also act as spotters to call in strikes on enemy concentrations. Our specific squad, though, has been tasked with another mission. We are supposed to penetrate far beyond the front line and…then I embarrassed myself, mam, and you stopped telling me the rest.” Alan was proud of himself for only turning slightly pink at the last part, and his eyes never flickered from her gaze.

  Pixel continued to stare at him for another few heartbeats before she continued. “Hmmm…well maybe you aren’t totally useless. Are you any good with that spewn?”

  “It’s pretty new to me, mam, but I’ve had a chance to use it.” He felt like he was probably more skilled than he expressed, but it was better to undersell and over perform than the other way around.

  One of the two other men in the tent finally spoke up, “listen to this guy. Mam this and mam that. He’s gonna give you a big head in addition to your other big assets!”

  She smiled at that, but then her manner became all business once again. The brief interruption suggested that this was a tight-knit group, and also that Alan maybe hadn’t ruined himself in their opinion already.

  “I was going to say we will be traveling all together. No offence, but you look like a green recruit and you haven’t even evolved an opal class yet. However, if you think you can keep up with us, we can try and get a little more creative.”

  She hadn’t asked a question, but he could hear it all the same. Did Alan think he would be a liability? He had spent enough time in the special forces to see a lot of rookies come through. You never wanted one when you were going on a tough mission, one where you had to count on everyone pulling their weight.

  “I’m a little new to my classes, mam, but I have a lot of experience in assignments just like this.” It might be hubris, but he wasn’t lying. He was probably the low man on the team, but he would be damned if he slowed them down.

  “Fine. Enough with the mams, call me Pixel.”

  “Yes…Pixel.” More snickers from the peanut gallery. At least the morale in the group seemed to be high. Pixel continued the briefing.

  “New plan, our objective is to locate the enemy HQ. It will be well shielded, but if I can plant a location marker nearby, our heavy hitters will be able to focus their attacks and start to hammer them. At the very least it will make it more difficult for them to dispatch forces from their gathering area.

  “Instead of sticking closely together, we’ll split into pairs. I don’t want us getting too spread out, but it would be good if we could keep a few hills between us. That will dramatically increase the area we can cover, while still staying close enough for support. Mikael, Jordan, you two will take the left side. Alan, you’re with me on the right.”

  Both of the other men saluted her with a fist to their hearts. They were suddenly much more professional looking. Alan was starting to get really excited about his mission.

  Quest Update: The Battle of Ashford Hills (200)

  [The Protian faction has recruited you into their forces. Proceed with your unit to identify the enemy HQ and help them plant a location marker.]

  It seemed the dungeon was also pumped about his assignment, updating his task. The next few minutes were spent ironing out some details of their search area and getting Alan caught up with the larger battle.

  The Ashford Hills area was strategically important because controlling it would allow the Protian faction to threaten several cities. This would force the Untar Republic to assign more soldiers to defend them. The current front line was about three kilometers away from their position and the enemy HQ should be no more than four or five kilometers beyond that.

  The roiling sky above them was actually a type of siege weapon that the Protians had purchased from the Network. Alan didn’t understand the mechanics of how that worked, but somehow they had caused the system that controlled the entire universe to spawn these volatile clouds above the contested area.

  These types of things were not cheap, but this particular variant was a fraction of the cost of some other options because it was actually a neutral weapon. Either side, as long as they had mages capable, could make use of it.

  The Protians were counting on the fact that they had better Siege Mages than the other side. That wasn’t an actual class, but more of a designation for any one of many classes that had a special ability that let them harness such objects. Jordan had explained for him the difference between class talents and abilities after seeing his look of confusion.

  All quartz classes had six different talents available. As Tamee had tried to explain to him before, these talents were not actions you could take, or things you could do, they instead improved your ability to accomplish things.

  Class abilities were instead exactly that. Things you could do, actions you could take. Class abilities started popping up after quartz. Not all opal classes had them, but everything after would have at least one ability available.

  As it became clear Alan was woefully uninformed about something they otherwise took for granted, Pixel started to become concerned again. She was wondering what other blind spots he had.

  “Alan, are you from a newly inducted world?” she couldn’t help the question escaping her lips.

  He winced before replying, “I am.” He was worried this was going to cause her to go back to the more cautious approach that she had been originally intending. He was worried about the wrong thing however.

  “Please tell me you know what an Army Array is?”