After a pretty good reading session at the local undead library, it was time to try out teleportation. The three of us stood before the circle, our inventories stuffed with every book of note. I discovered Marius had an inventory space of his own. Lucky bastard had the thing set up with his interface. It was not unheard of for certain classes to have inventories, so chalked it up to esoteric.

  I felt a little giddy and couldn't keep my hands still. For most denizens of this planet, especially adventurous sorts, using something like this would be second nature. A lot of dungeons had them, especially the big ones with a lot of levels. Using a portal was trippy, but this was a moment.

  It's weird, I know. I practically isekai'd myself to this world. And unlike the poor, hapless Earthers getting thrown between worlds, I had pre-knowledge. But knowing something pales compared to experiencing it for the first time. Savouring the moment, I took a single tentative step aboard.

  It was like stepping through a teleporter onto a spaceship in orbit. I resisted the impulse to ask Scott to beam me up. Marius wouldn't get the reference, so I probably should avoid saying any. It would make me super obvious as someone not from this world. Or a crazy foreigner, which I could totally pull off.

  The next foot claimed purchase in the circle, and soon all three of us were inside. We decided I was going to access the teleport interface, and since Jeremy couldn't talk. It was up to me to press the button.

  Vaguely, I felt a sense, a tether trying to reach out and connect. But with my stealth programs in effect, it couldn't find me no matter how hard it tried. The system AI was not in operation currently; it was unknown when the actual process of downsizing would begin.

  We would sense the rise of artificial intelligence across the system. Jenny would let me know. So, it should be safe to lower my defences for a little and connect. In giving the command, I became visible to the system, but only long enough to establish a link. Jenny raised the stealth program a second later, keeping only a single connection open.

  [Teleportation Circle Activated!]

  [Select your destination:]

  [Coliseum - Personal Box]

  A series of prompts informed me of the successful connection. Reading the list of options, I frowned at the lack of options. Only a single destination, why only one? Then I remembered, this was most definitely a dungeon-based circle. These initially had one destination by design: the next floor. How did they get this in here?

  Placing a hand on my temples, I tried to dispel these unnecessary questions. They were just going to sidetrack us. We needed to get out of here and get as many levels as possible. Especially for me since I was burning experience points instead of levelling up. Eventually my levelling would slow down, but not at the typical bottleneck.

  "It has only one location — a personal box at the Coliseum." I informed Marius.

  Scrutinizing the interface for a little while, I turned to check with my companion. His eyes were wide, his teeth bared in a wide grin of pure joy and anticipation. Confounded at his sudden shift, I asked him what was up.

  "A pulvinar, you say? Such luxury is fit only for the nobility. Of course, we shall go." He explained.

  "Yeah, I suppose a personal box would be for very important people."

  With that decided, I selected the one and only destination. The circle came to life with bright blue motes of light. The world went immediately black, and a sense of weightlessness preceded a massive, nauseating shift. In a moment I found myself in a new area, on an identical magic circle.

  Once my eyes adjusted, teleportation covers your vision in spots, and no doubt if I were human, I would have vomited. Thank you, special clerk constitution. No vomiting, just super dizzy.

  Eventually the spots went away, and the world around me came into focus. It was almost exactly what I expected. Whoever created this place had a Roman imperial fetish. Understandable, since I knew on good authority that much of the system worlds was copy and pasted from Earth history.

  With no lawyers in the void to enforce copyright, the gods did as they pleased, and any earther would notice similarities. Well, depending on whether they are from an Earth that had the Roman Empire. The one I got most of my TV shows and anime from had a Roman Empire.

  But when I ran out of seasons on a cancelled show, I went shopping across the multiverse and found an Earth where it wasn't. Shaking off the fact that I can never do stuff like that again. I had to accept that my vast downloaded library was all I had.

  Shifting my focus to my surroundings, I found we had entered a rather lavish room. Velvet seats faced a balcony; bright light cascaded through, illuminating the arena below. The faint sounds of steel clashing and the screams of the dying filtered through. Beastly roars and strange languages spoke of the carnage below.

  Curiosity warred with caution, and I stopped myself from peeking. The strategic thing to do was to make sure we weren't conspicuous. A plan took shape as I peered down at my clothes and then to the robed Marius, his sickly staff in hand. He looked like a stereotypical necromancer. I looked like an office worker fresh off a cosplay binge.

  "Before we show ourselves, we need to blend in." I stopped Marius from taking a step.

  In explaining the plan, he nodded at my brilliant strategy. The last part was just for fun, and Jeremy didn't seem to have an issue as he leapt from my shoulder to the undead. The feline had always been super friendly to my friends. Probably because he realised he could suck up to them and get treats.

  Marius was in costume, so I needed something to make me stand out less. Thinking back to the death knight, I carefully withdrew the ominous cape. Inspecting the item and its truly evil details didn't endear it to me to wear it. Even touching the dark object made my skin crawl. It was totally cursed.

  But I needed a disguise, and so I would do what every gamer would frown at me for doing. I activated the skill Unravel the System, dumping a decent amount of system points into erasing these item's features. With a supreme force of will, I shattered every enchantment, system detail and magic inside this piece of cloth.

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  It was now just a regular tattered cape with nothing special about it. No longer radioactive, I donned the article and flipped the hood over my head. Probably was looking suave as hell, but didn't have time to ogle my new look. With our disguises, I unleashed Marius upon the pulvinar.

  He moved with gusto, with a smooth gait, like he owned the place. The soft tapping of the staff preceded every step as he turned and seated himself. Surveying the arena, he looked like an emperor ready to be entertained. I acted like a silent bodyguard and stood behind my new undead overlord.

  "Remember, I am a Death Knight in service to a supreme being." I whispered to Marius, who nodded while casually stroking his cat like a Bond villain.

  Seated across a wide expanse, we got a good look at the bloodied arena below. The first thought that came to mind was a gladiatorial event with a doctore informing former slaves about the sacred sands. But in this case, we subbed in monsters for gladiators.

  Well, they could be gladiatorial monsters and, despite what tamers like to say, they would be slaves if you commanded them to fight for entertainment. This is basic stuff many people delude themselves about.

  Bringing myself back from that tangent, I turned my focus to the arena. A group of Volkaran was fighting a group of gargoyles. The battle was almost done, with both sides having received heavy casualties and with only a few fighters left. Many of them sustained heavy wounds.

  With my expanded senses, I stretched my reach further than ever before. When the combatants came into range, I quickly inspected each of them. The remaining Volkaran ranged around level twenty to twenty-five. In comparison, the Gargoyles were much lower level, being around level eighteen.

  Two things stood out from the assembled gladiators. The gargoyles were named, and their race was Garathi, a race I was unfamiliar with. However, Gargoyles were clearly connected to them. They were practically humanoid versions.

  Another facet had me stumped. For a second I thought it was a glitch, but a quick mental chat with Jenny proved it was not. One of the so-called Garathi was level zero. Did that mean he hadn't levelled up in all his life? If so, how was he surviving in there?

  Watching closely, I noticed that his fighting style was heavily reliant on gear and his natural abilities. He was a ranged fighter, using air superiority and what looked like twin crossbows. Weapons that somehow never run out of bolts.

  "He is very good." I couldn't help but say.

  "A skilled warrior, every shot met its mark with artistic precision. If we bet on the proceedings, I would wager on him."

  I gave my companion the side-eye. Was he being serious? I mean if we were betting, I would totally wager on the underdog. Even if it wasn't a safe bet. However, what can I wager? I don't have any money, and it's not like my enemies drop coins. Dungeons have coins, and I know that because they were designed that way.

  "We don't have money unless you want to wager your staff?" I half joked.

  He looked at me as if I had just uttered a sacrilege. Akin to a priest's gaze upon a loud blasphemer, in need of correcting. That was the look of a man attached to his loot, which I kind of respected.

  It made me think about my loot and the utter waste of a good cape. I purged it of evil in a manner of speaking, so it was a blank page. Ready and waiting for our brand of system magic.

  Observing the battle, I began multitasking with Jenny. Previously I coded most of my stuff, but Jen is quite good, so let's give her time to shine. Sending a few ideas for enchantments, she replied with a yes or no, using lyrical snippets. There are few options available, specifically on the higher tiers of magical effects.

  Most of what we could do was add an augmentation to my attributes or add an attribute to the cape itself. The first option was decent, while the second had dual purpose, providing not a buff but additional attribute points to utilise. But what attribute to assign.

  Sense and cognition seem wasted on it; they were be better on a circlet or magic glasses. So instead I considered the tried-and-true attribute, the force attribute. Adding a kinetic field to a cape just sounded really cool and very superhero.

  In outlining the idea, Jenny ran it through her processes to come up with some options for a level one magic cape. None too soon, as the fight below was getting interesting.

  The level zero Garathi and his two surviving companions eliminated the last Volkaran. Mostly, it was Mister Zero who flew above them and rained crossbow bolt after crossbow bolt until they became pincushions.

  Corpses littered the sands, and Mister Zero descended, victor of the arena. I mean, his friends helped, but it was pretty much him. His flying speed was no joke, weaving around the battlefield like a reaper. Along with his crossbow akimbo, he peppered the sands with Volkaran corpses.

  I glanced at Marius, who was stroking a purring Jeremy, grinning like he had just predicted the future. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Jenny's work. She had a few prompts for me.

  [Cape of Lightfeet. Description: A cape imbued with the power of force. While wearing this cape; every step is light, reducing noise and impact.]

  [Cape of Momentum. Description: A cape imbued with the power of force. While wearing this cape, you gain bonus speed the more momentum you gain.]

  [Cape of Ascended Motion. Description: A cape imbued with the power of force, when active, negates fall damage and slows descent to a gentle drift.]

  The three options were decent, and I gave a mental high-five to Jenny. The first two were tempting; light feet would work well for a stealth build. But I was more of a long-range to short-range fighter. Momentum would be great, but my speed was already pretty good.

  But the potential for flight was too tempting to overlook. Jenny knew what I was going to choose and had already prepared to integrate. She knew me so well.

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