When Tori was done fiddling with her gear, and she’d checked the completion percentage—it was at fifty now, confirming that this dungeon did not, in fact, have any trash monsters—we pushed on into the swampy, dirt-covered quarter of the dungeon.

  It wasn’t that there wasn’t plant life. It clung to the edges of the muddy, brown water, growing in an almost washed-out sepia color. Trees arced overhead; if they’d had leaves, the sky would have been blocked by them. As it was, though, they were almost completely dead, and most of the smallest branches were in the fetid water to either side of us.

  “Kinda gross,” Tori said. “Not the worst, though. That’d be the Reversed River.”

  “Agreed. That place was an affront to everything decent.”

  We worked our way through the windy swamp and into its center, where a wide, open space with ankle-deep water sat, surrounded by the same scraggly, mostly-dead trees we’d been working through but otherwise wide open. “Think this is the place?”

  “Has to be, right?” Tori said. “It’s got all the hallmarks of a boss arena. Let’s get in there and see what’s up.”

  I nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”

  My steel feet sank into the muck as I stomped toward the center of the arena, leaving behind massive, water-filled craters that swirled behind me. Tori jogged along next to me, feet sticking a little as she did. “Mobility’s gonna be an issue, Hal”, she said.

  Before I could respond, a gigantic white bird landed in front of us. Black feathers covered its backside, and in its orange beak, it carried a massive bundle easily the size of my mech. It had to be a good fifteen feet tall or more; it loomed over the arena, but didn’t move a single muscle except to lower its head until the bag hovered just inches from the water’s surface. Its eye locked on Tori, and its nameplate popped up.

  The Uninvited Stork: Level Seventy-Six Elite Dungeon Boss (Rank One)

  Current Difficulty: Trivial

  The Uninvited Stork brings uninvited guests to Earth. In its bundle rest all sorts of monstrous horrors, the likes of which will throw the world into chaos. The bird needs only the barest hint of an invitation, and the bundle will open.

  Elite - This monster moves faster and hits harder than a similarly powerful monster.

  Myriad - This boss’s Elite state consists of innumerable members of a swarm, and will continue swarming until conditions change.

  “That’s the boss, alright,” Tori whispered. She stared back at the black eye; it was the size of a bird’s eye, if the bird was three or four times taller than it should be.

  “Be very careful, Tori. That bundle’s definitely trouble.” I slowly spooled up the rail gun; this boss was marked as trivial, and we’d stomped the Sonic Falcon into nothing in only a few seconds, but somehow, I didn’t think this would be the same. “I’m going to take a shot.”

  “Got it. I’ll follow up.”

  The Uninvited Stork still didn’t move. Its beak stayed clamped shut over the bundle, and its eye stayed locked on Tori. The rail gun leveled, facing the boss’s head, and I adjusted my finger position to provide the firing power to the weapon. The Voltsmith’s Grasp drained down for a moment. Energy poured into the triple barrels.

  Three tiny holes appeared across the monster’s beak and neck. It squawked, and the bundle fell to the ground. The moment it did, it started to wriggle. Then the Uninvited Stork’s beak picked at the cloth, pulling a gap open in its side.

  Something squirmed out, and the stork took off, gaining altitude even as Tori landed a Crush on its leg.

  Uninvited Guest: Level Seventy Monster

  The monster that appeared on the ground was hideous. Green, but not a natural one.More of a pulsating neon green that shifted as blood moved through the swollen, distended veins that lined it. A half-dozen tentacles instead of arms and legs. No body shape to speak of. No eyes, no mouth, no nothing.

  I loaded up a grenade.

  This whole dungeon was rapidly turning into a frustrating experience, on par with the PvP problem from the previous phase. I hadn’t really solved that, either. A large chunk of my experience gained in the last phase had ended up being from my limited ‘player versus player’ encounters. And now, I wasn’t learning anything. All I was doing was going up against enemies that were too easy for me, in the hopes that something would stick out and I’d pick up a new bit of info.

  My finger tightened on the trigger, and Charge flowed into the grenade launcher.

  It fired as a second Uninvited Guest writhed its way out of the bag. The explosion caught the first one in the center of its limbs, throwing it back into the second and detaching seven or eight tentacles. The grenade launcher reloaded, but I wasn’t paying attention to the bag, or to the monsters slowly but inexorably coming out of it.

  I was focused on Tori.

  The next grenade fired and ripped into the monsters, and the bundle of cloth. I ignored it. Tori was completely engrossed on a point high in the sky. She had a hand out, and she looked up her arm at her extended pointer finger. She was completely still except for the arm as it slowly moved back and forth in a figure eight.

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  “Tori, you good?”

  “Yep. Just trying to get everything figured out. Keep doing what you’re doing,” she muttered.

  So I did. Another three grenades went off, with eight or nine seconds between them, before she spoke up again. “Okay. Put one right on my fingertip. I’ll do the rest.”

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “You scared?”

  “Uh, yes. If I blow you up, your mom’s gonna kill me. Both of them.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Just do it.”

  So I did it. The grenade arced through the air, but before it could hit Tori’s arm, she fired a Push, then a Levitate. The explosive tore through the sky, disappearing into the distance. I waited one second. Two. Three. At four, the grenade went off as Tori cast, then released, another spell. A small flash of light filled the air, and a second later, a muffled whump hit my ears.

  “Did you hit it?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “No idea. I was just guessing.

  “Tori!”

  “What? I can’t see that far! I haven’t been stacking Awareness or anything.”

  Boss Defeated: The Uninvited Stork

  Level Up! Eighty-Two to Eighty-Three

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  “Guess I did hit it,” Tori said as the bag flopped open. It was completely empty, and Tori swore under her breath. “We’re never going to find that loot, are we?” she asked.

  “Probably not. I did level up, though. Let’s get moving—only one to go.”

  Lady Heron: Level Eighty Elite Dungeon Boss (Rank One)

  Current Difficulty: Easy

  The sovereign queen of Hitchcock’s Nightmare, Lady Heron, rules quietly and with a gentle hand. Those who provoke her wrath, however, learn that her fist is iron, and that it’s just as strong as the blades she wields. Their lifeblood will spill on the black and white tile of her monastery.

  Elite - This monster moves faster and hits harder than a similarly powerful monster.

  Untouchable - This boss has increased speed and reflexes.

  Champion - This boss must be defeated, but not slain, in order to clear this dungeon.

  The final boss sat in the center of one of the curved-roof buildings, inside a circle of black-and-white tiles. And, unlike the other three bosses, she wasn’t in any shape, way, or form a bird. She looked shockingly human, and her eyes were closed. An empty sword scabbard with a slight bend to it hung from her waist, and she wore robes.

  But more importantly than any of that, she resonated.

  It was subtle. If I hadn’t been trained by Erika Samson’s power, and if the dungeon itself hadn’t been completely void of Charge resonance, I wouldn’t have noticed at all. But it was there.

  “Tori, hold off for a minute, okay? This one’s different.” I opened the mecha’s hatch and stretched out my legs. I wasn’t a particularly tall or big guy, but the machine’s cockpit wasn’t forgiving at all.

  Then I stepped to the edge of the ring and sat down, across from Lady Heron.

  She didn’t say anything. And she didn’t move.

  I focused my attention, my Awareness, on the boss. Why was she resonant? It didn’t make sense; the Consortium had to be able to reduce bosses’ Charge resonance if they could cut off a whole dungeon’s, so why her? What was special about her?

  She kept still except for her breathing.

  “Ma’am? Excuse me,” I said. Tori stiffened behind me, ready to cast a spell. I ignored her, though. This was important in a way none of the other bosses had been.

  “Voltsmith,” the boss said. Her eyes flicked open—they were a piercing yellow, with black pupils and absolutely no white, like a bird’s eyes. A feeling washed over me, like a predator was deciding if I was prey. After a moment, it passed, and Lady Heron’s eyes shut again.

  When they reopened, they didn’t belong to her. They were the same eyes I’d last seen in the Whole New World dungeon. I flinched away from Leanna Collins’s eyes—from her face. Lady Heron was missing the tattoos, but it was definitely her.

  “Voltsmith, this is a pre-programmed message from this dungeon’s designer,” Lady Heron said in a male-sounding voice. “If you’re receiving this instead of being attacked, you’ve successfully entered one of my dungeons during Phase Three of Integration and interacted with one of my messengers. This message will only play one time. Afterward, you must destroy the messenger and clear this dungeon as you normally would.

  “My name is Phinran, and I am a Voltsmith like you. Unlike you, however, I did not have suspicions about the system while my world was undergoing Integration, and at this time, it’s too late for me to change things for my people. Any previous messages you’ve received from me regarding life force, Charge, or the World Engine are true. In order to learn more, you must enter the World Engine itself.

  “That will be a challenge, however. In order to do so, you must acquire a Tier Six dungeon early. They do not normally exist until Phase Three, and you must acquire it before the third phase begins. Using the correct Principles, you can exit the Tier Six dungeon in a different location than you entered. This will allow you access to the World Engine. However, while I know that a Tier Six dungeon is necessary, I do not know the trick to getting one in advance, nor do I know how you, specifically, will break said dungeon.

  “This is all the information this boss can convey without alerting the Consortium. The boss will go hostile in twenty seconds. Prepare yourself.”

  “What was that, Hal?” Tori asked from behind me.

  I stood and jogged back to the mecha. “Tori, let’s try getting the jump on this fight. It’s a continuation of what I’ve already learned—and a way forward. I’ve even got half of the puzzle figured out. We just need a Tier Six dungeon, and we’re set.”

  “Okay, but how do we get that? And do you really trust that boss?” Tori started casting. She Levitated a section of the curving, reverse-arched roof, then Pushed it up into the air.

  “More than I trust any of the others.” I spooled up the rail gun as I counted down in my head, and the moment the boss went hostile, I pulled the trigger. Three shots slammed into Lady Heron as she drew a sword from the empty scabbard and spun toward me. Then a massive chunk of tile-covered roof slammed into the floor, cracking the black-and-white surface and crushing the boss. Tori Crushed the whole thing a little more, just to be sure.

  Boss Defeated: Lady Heron

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  Congratulations! For completing one hundred percent of a Tier Four Dungeon, you have received the following reward:

  One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Rank Three)

  Completely clearing a dungeon will result in rewards equivalent to the level of dungeon cleared.

  “Alright, Hal,” Tori said after we scooped up the loot and got moving toward the dungeon’s exit, “Now do you want to tell me exactly what all of that was, and why that boss vaporized? I get why the others did, but we didn’t meet her win conditions.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The dungeon’s acting like it’s cleared, and we have our friend Phinran to thank for that.” Lady Heron hadn’t dropped anything we wanted, but that was fine—it was more parts for the machines I’d have to build. I considered Tori’s question as we walked out onto the Lake Michigan shore and headed for Andersonville. “And as for letting you in on everything…yeah. Yeah, I think I will. I could use someone to talk to about it all.”