“Alright so we skip the css for now then. Maud any idea on a mana orb?” I asked, focusing the conversation back onto the here and now. I decided I’d worry about faction wars ter when Pryte expined to me more about them.

  “Oh, that’s easy, give me one of those elemental ones. I have pns!” she said with a devious smile crossing her lips.

  “What exactly are those pns?” Sanquar asked curiously.

  “Oh, um,” she started ughing nervously. “So I have a favorite cartoon, and actually, how about I show you it ter? That will expin it better, but let’s just say I want to go for a mixture of all the elements like Elicec told me he has.”

  “Interesting. I will try this cartoon with you, and that is a very safe choice, so I have no compints,” Sanquar replied, nodding his head.

  “Yeah, hard to go wrong there, though the css is gonna make it real interesting,” Mel added as he dug out an elemental orb for her. “Here, this one is already set for for elemental mixture and is rank three. That will give you a bit of a boost since it’s looking like ya gotta take care of Dave somewhat on the next Arena floor.”

  “Wait, I’m actually going?!” Maud yelled enthusiastically as she pushed the orb into her chest over her core, copying what Glorp had done.

  “Yeah, you are. We need to get this floor done soon, and I don’t think I’ll have my mana channels fixed by then, which means we are going to spend the rest of the day doing some basic practice work,” I answered. At the very least, I wanted her to understand how her channeling worked. I hated how blindly I had gone into that first dungeon and didn’t want to remotely replicate it with her. Whether that was how I met Corey or not.

  “What kind of training?” Maud asked.

  “Gonna start ya with some targets as soon as we’re done in here,” Mel said.

  “I also want to test our connection in regards to mana channels and Corey. But first, I want Sanquar to come over here and take a seat. We should see what happens if he tries to access a full System terminal,” I said, looking toward the bird.

  “Is that a good idea? I don’t know the exact terms of how I was banished in regards to the System,” he asked cautiously.

  “I doubt it will hurt. Personally I think the worst that happens is nothing, but we are in uncharted waters here,” Pryte answered.

  “I agree with Pryte. The System shouldn’t be capable of being weaponized in a way to truly hurt you, but I also agree with his second part, so the choice is yours,” Elody said, nodding at both of them, all four of her eyes studying Sanquar intently.

  “Alright, I’ll try,” he replied, hopping up onto the chair Maud had previously occupied and awkwardly managing to get it into the proper pce.

  “Oh, hello.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember.”

  “I understand. Thank you for everything you’ve done. I will do my best,” Sanquar said, and instead of this one being followed by a pause, he hopped out of the chair.

  “That sounded kind of promising,” I said, studying his face to get a feel for what had happened. I wasn’t sure why I thought that would work. I wasn’t even very good at that for people, let alone alien birds.

  “It felt like talking to an incredibly old friend, and yet neither of us could fully remember what had happened between us, but while almost all of my menus were corrupted, I was able to access my quest menu, and it had a single entry. Curiously, it said I needed to track down the first human of this pnet to enter the Spiral,” Sanquar responded, looking back at me intently.

  “Is that not just me?” I asked, my curiosity now piqued. Had I not been the first person to find my way there? If not, who had been?

  “I would have assumed the same thing, but as being near you isn’t completing the quest, it seems not,” Sanquar replied.

  “Anyone have any guesses then?” I asked, looking between Pryte and Elody, both shaking their heads in return. “Guess that’s a new mystery to add to the list.”

  “Mystery or not, it is some of the most positive news I’ve had in quite a long time. I have a quest, and that means potentially I can start on the path to fixing myself,” Sanquar responded, smiling in a way I hadn’t seen from him before. He looked like a baby bird who had just seen his mother return to the nest.

  “Well, if you all want to take Glorp outside and start working, I’ll bring Maud shortly, just want to py around with our connection between Corey,” I said. Everyone except Elody started filing out of the room. She instead leaned back in her chair, one pair of eyes on me and the other on Maud.

  “I wish to try and detect this connection if that’s all right,” She said.

  “Sure, can’t really see the harm,” I answered, pulling Corey from my storage space and bringing up the chat window.

  >Dave: Hey Corey, any chance you can tell if you are pulling mana from Maud as well as me? Oh, and does the soul mana coming from me seem different than the core mana?

  >Corey: There is a weak connection to Maud, yes, but it is just a trickle. The soul mana does feel different. It seems to be filling a different component of myself that I was not entirely aware of.

  >Maud: How exactly did you all get used to this anyway? Having a weird chat window pop up in my head just feels off. :/

  >Dave: You start to get used to all of this insanity pretty easily eventually. It may have helped me initially that I was so focused on the loss of everyone on Earth that the wonders of the Spiral took a giant backseat to my anxiety.

  >Maud: Ah, yeah, not a big anxiety person, now a talking too much person, that one I can cover. :)

  >Dave: And we all appreciate it. Maud, are you able to feel that trickle of energy feeding into Corey?

  >Maud: I don’t think so. What should it feel like?

  >Dave: On my end I feel the connection almost like an extra finger. I can partially control it until it flows into Corey, or at least I could.

  >Maud: Hmm, I don’t think I feel anything like that. :(

  >Corey: Maud, may I try something?

  >Maud: Sure. :)

  >Corey: I am unable to increase the mana draw from Maud. I suspect our bond is not the same as the one you and I share, Dave. It may be possible to increase it in the future, but for now, the trickle is likely just the connection that controls this chat.

  >Dave: Got it, thanks, Corey. Did you want to join us for some training? Should probably get an idea of how much you can do before the draw is too great on me now.

  >Corey: Yes, that is a good idea.

  After closing the chat window, I looked back at Elody. “Were you able to see any of the connections between us?”

  “Yes and no. If I didn’t know about the connection I’d have never been able to spot it. It looks exactly like any small mana channel connection. I couldn’t differentiate any part of it. We will need to experiment with it in a null mana zone at some point, but that isn’t a high priority and not something I expect us to encounter any time soon. Getting Maud to see the Jritotle, though, that is. I think after we finish these ten floors, I will see about a trip,” Elody expined.

  “Pnetary roadtrip? One hundred percent in!” Maud replied.

  “Well, if we want to have a chance at that trip, it’s best we go join everyone outside and see what their pn is,” I said, heading for the door myself. This time, Elody did follow alongside Maud and Corey.

  Once outside, it became very obvious what they were doing. A series of targets had been setup all over the yard, and Glorp was running as fast as he could between them, pcing and removing objects both into and near them. First he would stop near Pryte, grab something I couldn’t make out, and then swap it with several items along the way, and finish by pcing the st item directly into Sanquar’s beak. The whole thing was done remarkably fast, making it hard to tell exactly where he was using the cy mana orb, but every so often, the ground looked the slightest bit different after he had passed.

  “Good job, Glorp. At higher levels, that css should let you start to grab things from unsecured System storages as well,” Pryte yelled to the teenager.

  “Get high enough, and there won’t be much security that can stop him either,” Mel added.

  “Glorp, put a hat on Mel!” I yelled, not sure if he would actually listen. But a few seconds ter, a hat had appeared on the man’s head. Where had he actually found a hat? I didn’t have any inside that I knew of.

  “Oh, very funny, just fer that, I wanna see ya run full out and use the cy orb to slow yourself as rapidly as ya can without breaking anything,” Mel bellowed back at the fleeing Glorp.

  “What should I do?” Maud asked.

  “Start firing at Glorp!” Mel ordered, with a devious smile on his face.

  The urge to set up systems of control seems to be an innate desire amongst members of every species I’ve ever encountered throughout the Spiral. The problem is those same peoples tend to think once they have those controls in pce, written into official documents as ws, that they have become tangible things that can be applied equally and fairly across a society forever. The reality is that ws are neither real nor fair. Even when those rules begin from a pce of good, they rapidly turn into weapons to be wielded by those with power against those without, while the ignorant continue to utter the words that will lead to their own inevitable doom.

  ‘The w is the w, after all, and we must punish those who break it.’

  Xxlptr Padin of Anarchy’s Closing Words in his Own Defense