The lady in red flicked her hair to one side as Leo looked at her with a mixed expression.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Leo said.

“And why not?” she asked like he was stupid. “This is the end of this tutorial. No way would I miss it.”

“But you do show up late,” Ashley muttered.

“Showed up just when I needed to, actually.” She turned with a flourish, and the flames started to dwindle. “I cleared us a path!”

“Us?” Ashley questioned, approaching Ruby. “There is no us. You tried to kill Leo after you acted like a brat. No way are we working with you.”

Ruby waved her hand like she didn’t care and began descending the steps towards Cecelia. “Not up to you!” She skipped like she was having the time of her life.

Ashley groaned. “Why is she here? Like we don’t have our hands full enough already.”

“Just be glad she wasn’t aiming at us,” Leo said.

At the bottom of the area, just past the broken gates, Cecelia was already conversing with Gareth, likely forming some kind of makeshift alliance once again.

The flames behind them had spread into the castle itself, killing what must have been an insane number of antlings. It gave them a brief respite where no more were coming right now. Exactly what they were looking for in order to progress.

“We should regroup with everyone, it’s time to go,” Leo said, scooping up the tired looking Ellie. She vanished into his soul-space, taking a rest after holding back a tide of flames somehow. Leo would check his notifications shortly. Now seemed like the best—and perhaps only—time to do so.

He jogged down to where his friends were, catching the tail end of the conversation after Ruby arrived.

“With what happened last time our people interacted, I believe that we should be cautious in our choice of alliance,” Cecelia said pointedly.

“Ruby assures me that it was a bit of misunderstanding and is willing to apologise,” Gareth said, surprising Leo as he joined in.

“This true?” Cecelia asked Ruby.

“Sure.” Ruby turned to Leo and spoke in a sing-song voice, “Sorry!”

“See, now we’re all good!” Ruby smiled, warm and inviting.

Like a devil making a bargain. Leo thought, and no doubt Cecelia saw through her too.

“Very well,” Cecelia said, turning to Leo. “How does the entrance look? Can we move now?”

Leo nodded. “Looks clear enough for now, I’d say we better go while we can.”

“Alright. Quickly check your notifications, any level ups, etc. We move in two minutes,” Cecelia said, moving to gather those she needed.

Leo opened his notifications, seeing an extremely large number of kills. The list went on and on, spanning pages and pages he quickly skipped over. He focused, making only the level ups and skill notifications show.

Your Elemental Adept Class has reached level 64
Stat points distributed
+3 Free Points

…

Your Elemental Adept Class has reached level 69

Stat points distributed

+3 Free points

Anchored Progression:

+6 All stats, +12 Free Points

Ellie has reached level 60

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

Level 60 Bond of Unity skill selection available

Ellie has reached level 65

Stat points distributed

+3 Free points

Ellie’s gains from Race:

+30 Free Points

Ellie has learned the skill: Elemental Interdiction (Uncommon)

It was an absurd number of levels, far more than he was expecting for him and Ellie both. He’d fought ants for days before now and only gained seven levels, now in one afternoon he’d gained another six. His attack must have killed more antlings than he was expecting.

Ruby must have gotten a truck-load for that spell.

He was curious about the new skill Ellie had unlocked at some point during the fight. Whatever it was had to be related to how she made the flames somehow stop in place. Excited to read, he opened it up.

Elemental Interdiction (Uncommon)

Tap into your elemental affinities, gaining control over elemental influence within range for a short duration based on the elements you have bonded with. The more elemental phenomena you try to control, the higher the mana cost and strain.

Scales with Will

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Wow, that’s an awesome skill.

The skill was a little vague, but its effect was clearly incredible. Its uses were massive in combat, giving Ellie a much needed utility and defensive skill. Leo could already think of ways to utilise it.

“Did I hear little Ellie-bean roar earlier?” Ashley asked, somewhat distracted and making conversation. She kept glancing at the red-head, who was smiling brightly whenever they met eyes.

“Yeah, she got a new skill, a real good one too,” Leo said, smiling.

“She’s the cutest.”

“Sure is,” Leo agreed. “Get any new skills?”

Leo identified her, quite impressed by her level.

Human - Level 61

“I did,” she said happily. “I got quite a lot of experience when you did your whole; ‘sky is on fire help, help’ move.”

“My… what?”

“You know.” She wiggled her fingers downward, mimicking something falling. “Big boom. Fire everywhere. Very dramatic.”

“No, no, I get what skill you mean, just…what was that name?” Leo said, giving a bewildered chuckle.

“Oh.” She blinked. “I name all of your skills.”

“You… what?”

“Yeah!” she said brightly. “Wanna hear?”

He hesitated. “I feel like I’m going to regret this. Go on.”

She perked up immediately. “Okay! The lightning punch one—”

“My Volt Crash,” Leo added.

She wrinkled her nose. “Ew, that’s terrible. I call it Sparkle Punch.”

Leo blinked. Once.

“Sparkle… punch?”

“Yeah! Because it sparkles,” she said, as if that settled everything.

“It does not sparkle. It sends a chain lightning through enemies after shocking them.”

She spoke slowly. “You punch. It makes pretty blue sparkles. Sparkle. Punch.”

Leo dragged a hand down his face. “Right. Of course, that makes… sense.”

If you were a toddler, that is…

She nodded, completely satisfied. “Oh, and the one where you go really fast?”

“Lightning Drive?” Leo asked. “Sparkle Dash wouldn’t be far off what it used to be actually.”

“Nope. Zoomies.”

“...Zoomies.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You look like a dog that just got let outside.”

Leo stared at her for a long second.

“...I hate this.”

“Don’t be a baby. You know I’m right,” she said casually.

“It’s not really worth me trying to argue, is it?”

“Nope!”

“Well… I’ve got a new skill to unlock before we head out again, so we should probably both do that,” he said.

“Ooh, let me know what it does so I can name it,” Ashley said excitedly.

“Not a chance.”

Leo opened up the bond skill selection, the words of Ashley still occupying his mind as he tried to guess what other ridiculous names she had come up with for other skills.

I mean, Zoomies? Come on… She’s probably just trying to rile me up.

The selection had three options available, and the first one had him quite interested.

Dragon’s Deception (Uncommon)

A dragon is an extremely rare find, with many enemies that may want to take advantage. With this skill, you and your companion will have their level and race masked by anyone to a similar level to you. Blocks skills that attempt to peer deeper into your status.

Has restrictions and less usefulness when an entity attempting to investigate you is of a higher grade.

Cooldown: None

It was a complete out of the park kind of option. It wasn’t combat related, nor healing. It was pure utility. And it was really good—depending on how many people had bad intentions for the pair. Leo also liked the idea of people not being able to see his level as he had used other people’s levels as a way to gauge skill and power. If he took this skill, the only way he’d be identified as powerful would be his aura.

Definitely a consideration. It just appeals to me even more when I think harder about it.

Already pleased with this selection, despite what was left, he opened up the next option.

Combined Senses of the Dragon (Uncommon)

This is an upgrade to your current Senses of the Dragon skill.

Your senses sharpen as a dragon begins its growth. Your vision becomes clearer and more precise, your hearing attuned to subtle shifts, and your sense of smell heightened beyond human limits.

It now will allow you to share perception with your bonded companion for a few seconds at at cost to mana
Grants increased sensory perception and awareness.

Scales with Wisdom
Cooldown: 5 Minutes

It was… okay?

It was definitely a skill he’d just completely forgotten about after he’d gotten used to all the new stimuli. Some nights, when he’d been relaxing in camp, Leo would go through his skill list and try to think about potential paths for upgrades on his skills and ways to do it. When it came to this skill, Leo actually thought about this as a possibility, but had absolutely no idea how to execute it.

How did one share senses with someone else without being already able to?

So he gave up on it for now, hoping that with a higher race grade, or higher will stat, that he would be able to upgrade it somehow.

This option was that answer, but to a need he didn’t have right now. Sharing senses with Ellie for a brief moment would be cool, but they were mostly together anyway.

So Leo passed on this skill, opting to check out the last.

Twin Claw (Uncommon)

You and your companion slash out with ethereal claws, tearing through flesh like a knife through meat. Can only be used when both you and your companion are in range to do so on the same target.

Costs a small amount of Resonance

Scales with Agility and Bond

Cooldown: 1 Minute

Ooh, that’s a nice one.

It was his first skill, apart from the Draconic Equips, that cost Resonance, which made him think two things. One, that it would be powerful, and two, that more skills like this could appear in the future.

He tried to think of reasons to not take this skill right now, and the number of them were extremely low. The only reason to not take this right now would be to wait for something better that also consumed Resonance to appear. But not taking this skill could perhaps lower the number of skills like it from appearing. Sort of like building a character and getting skills based on choices.

There wasn’t a lot of evidence on that front, but the thought still made him pause.

Decision paralysis had set in hard now, and Leo had to figure out what was best, not just for him, but for Ellie too.

He’d ask her opinion, but he already knew she would be pleased with anything he chose. She was a great little dragon.

I’m gonna make the somewhat dumb, but more useful decision long term. We’re going back to Earth soon, and I feel like if I don’t take this now then I won’t take it at all.

You have unlocked the Bond of Unity skill: Dragon’s Deception (Uncommon)

What swayed him in the end was the tutorial coming to an end soon, and with it, exposure to the multiverse out there would begin. Right now, one more attack skill would be useful, but not vital to winning. Probably…

“Right,” Leo said.

He looked around, expecting Ashley to be next to him, but instead it was a line of people all staring at him while he stood there looking like an idiot. Cecelia was tapping her foot with her arms crossed.

“Come on, kid!” Bjorn called. “Time for regicide!”

“I’m surprised you know that word,” Cecelia said.

“Just because I look like…this, doesn’t mean I’m not a learned individual,” he retorted with a chuckle.

“He watched Game of Thrones,” Ellen muttered, causing a few chuckles.

“Sorry, new skill issues,” Leo said, arriving in a flash. “Ready to go.”

The group assembled to attack the Queen was as follows; Leo, Cecelia, Bjorn, Ron, Ashley, Nolan, Gordon, Morgan, Cain, Matilda, Ruby, Gareth, and two others Leo didn’t know the name of, the young healer that had helped Lena and someone from Cain’s group. He looked like a warrior, armoured and scary looking.

Well, scary looking if you didn’t have magical powers.

The rest were assembled at the bottom of the gates and would be stopping any ants from venturing out into the city to cause issues with the undefended crafters. The strike force was small, but effective. Leo had no doubt that they would be able to kill the Queen with this line-up.

The only issue would be what came after all these personalities clashed.

A rustling, skittering noise came from the earthen entrance to the Queen’s castle. The walls packed with dirt were vibrating, small chunks of burned earth crumbled into the entrance.

“We’re heading in!” Cecelia called. “Antlings will come, do your best to hold them until we can kill the Queen.”

Without another word, the group moved inside. Their loud footsteps echoed out through the tunnel system, which was the only noise they made. Leo took in the sights around him, noting the small hints of wall and rubble that used to be part of the castle, now completely encased in dirt.

There was a clear path the antlings walked, which the group followed intensely.

“This place feels huge,” Bjorn whispered, looking around incredulously.

“It’s probably a whole network of tunnels that was once a castle,” Gareth said. “This could be a ballroom, or a large bathroom. There’s no way to tell anymore.”

“It gives me the creeps,” Ashley said.

“I kind of like it,” Morgan said. “Feels comforting.”

“Strange idea of comfort,” Cecelia said.

“To each their own,” Matilda added with a chuckle. “We are not to judge.”

The mood felt quite upbeat, even with the impending deadly combat. Ruby had barely said a word or even made eye contact with anyone. It was a little worrying. All she did was skip and smile. But it felt forced.

Leo wished there had been a chat system or something, a way for his group alone to talk to each other, make tactics in case of betrayals. The thought of it made him uneasy, like a wave of dread creeping up from within.

Cain suddenly growled as they rounded a corner, fur crawling across his skin.

“What is it, boy?” Leo said. “Do ya smell something?”

Nolan let out a laugh that he quickly covered.

“Fuck off,” he growled, a bit of aura flaring.

“Easy boys,” Matilda said, laughing softly. “I assume he senses some kind of enemy up ahead.”

Cain nodded. “Two turns.”

“Prepare yourselves,” Matilda said and Cecelia mimicked the statement.

Weapons were drawn as the group found themselves taking two tight turns, following Cain’s nose—or whatever sense he was using. It opened up into a massive hall, not covered in dirt. It was lit up with small torches that burned endlessly along the walls.

Cain was right.

And Leo realised why he was already covered in fur.