Thrum… thrum… thrum…

  A series of lights flickered into life, stretching from the door along a corridor. Hearing the incoming vibrations build, I stepped into the corridor and turned to see the cart thunder past. The light breeze caused by the displaced air had a slight manure odour, which made me wrinkle my nose.

  I fully expected to see the door close and was pleasantly surprised when it stayed open. My friends joined me after the cart had gone past. Peachy took the lead and led us down the passageway. This passage had doors.

  It also had monsters.

  The first thing we heard was a clicking noise coming from the shadows, and then the light picked up on the swarm of cat-sized scarab-like beetles. What initially seemed like a handful quickly flooded the corridor, and the wave of creatures was rolling towards us.

  Peachy’s Ball Lightning sat proudly not far from one of my own. The arcs of energy leapt from the two spells, creating chaotic chains of lightning that cascaded through the swarm. Jacobs, Darksider and G rotated Fireballs into the mass, while the others sent their own spells in between.

  Kelsey’s exploding arrows, though, had the biggest impact on the fight. While the rest of us were trying to do as much damage as possible, each of her arrows was aimed right at the front of the wave, blasting the swarm back. This bunched them up in a way which maximised the damage coming from the Fireballs and even sent some back into range of one of the Ball Lightning arcs.

  It was elegant, beautiful even. The arrows apparently didn’t do much damage, but they were highly effective at pushing the relatively light creatures.

  Considering the lack of planning or even any discussion about it, it was spectacularly effective.

  And just as quickly as it had started. The flood ended, leaving a huge pile of corpses behind.

  I looked over at Peachy, she slightly swayed.

  “You alright?” I asked her.

  “Pushed a little too much… I got that tunnel vision you mentioned…” she said.

  “Right. Take a seat and start meditating. Not like you to not monitor your resources…”

  “I thought I could take it…” she muttered as she picked a clean spot to meditate from.

  “A little scorched… but otherwise in good nick. I think it might be worth spending a few minutes harvesting,” Sam said, looking at one of the creatures. I looked at the size of the pile and joined Kelsey and Sam in harvesting. After watching us do a couple, most of the group joined in. The others, after they had got their mana back up.

  After the first few, we started getting picky over which ones we harvested. In a lot of ways, that helped to speed up how quickly we got through the mound before we decided we had enough. At least certainly enough to clear a path through. Once we were done, we pushed on down the corridor.

  The first door led to a room with a crafting machine in it. It powered on at a touch, and we stared at it for a second.

  “We got told limited uses...” I said. “What crystals do we have? My bracers, Kelsey’s bow, Peachy’s shield, and did we get the boots or greatsword?” It occurred to me I couldn’t remember how we split the loot.

  “They kept the greatsword, I got the boots,” said G.

  “We found some trousers we think are heavy armour,” Voice said. “Shield then bow, anything special about the bracers?”

  “Magitech Bracers of Interface, they will complete the set I have, which lets me see Magitech items and gives me tools, but I haven't got a clue how beneficial they or the complete set will be…”

  “So we might have something hugely game-changing or utterly useless?” Voice said.

  “About right.” I agreed. “Unless no one has any disagreement, shield then bow, and we discuss what comes next if it is an option.”

  With no one disagreeing, we crowded around to watch Peachy insert the crystal into the slot. The display lit up with a wireform copy of a heater shield. The interface gave her options in the size, colour and even the pattern on heraldry. It filled in her options until, in the end, there was a spinning shield being displayed which matched her choices.

  A very happy Peachy turned to smile at us as she hit the complete button. A green bar started to fill in, and a high-pitched whine built from inside the machine.

  “Incoming!” Voice shouted from the doorway as he took a guarded stance.

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  I could hear a howl and then the patter-patter sounds of multiple paws hitting the ground.

  “Should have known using one of these machines would trigger an incident,” Jacobs muttered.

  Being short is really not a benefit when you are trying to see around much larger, burlier bodies… I ended up having to watch the fight unfold, with my staff in hand and no contribution to be made. Too close for AOE spells, and I couldn’t see well enough to target something. My only consolation was that Kelsey was standing next to me, and her bow went up and came back down again several times without her having loosed a single arrow.

  The fight finished not long after.

  The machine’s noise came to an end, with a loud ker-clunk as Peachy’s new shield dropped into the hopper. I nodded her over, and Kelsey stepped up to the machine and put her crystal into the slot.

  Kelsey had a couple of options in the style, but ultimately it was more about the length and draw weight. In this, she became incredibly specific in what she wanted.

  “You might want to increase that draw weight,” Sam said. “You are considerably stronger here than you were when you were competing.”

  “That’s true… should I double it?”

  “Your present bow is three times what you were drawing in practice, and you have been complaining that it is starting to feel light…”

  “Oh…” she said, then quadrupled the number.

  While Kelsey was fiddling, Peachy equipped her new shield. She practised moving it around a bit and then turned to face us with it in position. The pink edges were very her, as was the design in the middle. A red cross over a white background. A small bunny with a shield in the top left corner and a winking smiley face in the bottom right.

  We stood on guard when Kelsey hit the button… and other than the green line slowly completing and the machines 'I’m working now' whine, nothing happened.

  “So, Boots, Trouser or Bracers?” G said. “I say complete El’s set. I don’t think anyone is willing to break their sets until we have more parts.”

  “I’m in agreement,” Darksider said. “Even if it isn’t awesome, it’s better than something which will sit in inventory until we have more parts.”

  “Agreed.” Voice and Jacobs said.

  When Kelsey’s new bow dropped into the hopper, I stepped up and put the crystal into the slot. On the screen, I saw a rendering of a pair of arm coverings. I didn’t have any customisation options, just an option to eject the crystal or craft the item. I hit craft.

  Surprisingly, the bar seemed to take the longest time to fill up.

  “Any idea what the bracers actually do?” asked Voice.

  I pulled up the full description.

  ‘[Magitech Bracers of Interface]

  Part of the Magitech Engineer set (3-piece set)

  Wrists

  “These bracers enhance the interface connection between an engineer and the device he is working on.”

  Grants feedback from systems on their status.’

  “Says it enhances my connection… but I don’t see anything different,” I shrugged, and shared the description with those interested. The machine had gone dead after finishing the craft, with even the power line connections I had seen gone.

  “You think this is where the scarabs came from?” Peachy asked. Something had chewed a hole through the wall of the tunnel. It created a jagged-edged gap opening up to an unlit cave.

  “If it is, nasty bite those things had…” Darksider said from a squat as he ran his fingers across the edge.

  Peachy aimed her lantern into the cave, looking for clues. “So, are we going in or heading back to that crossroad we passed?”

  We found a dead scarab, which increased the belief that this was the source of the swarm. Our path led deeper into the caves. Along the way, we found several more scarabs which had curled up in death; some looked like they were dragging something behind them in death, though from the marks, something else had carried on moving whatever it had been.

  We followed those tracks down to an opening in a great cavern. Peachy stopped us with a hand and then waved a couple of us to join her. It was a nest, easily a hundred metres in width. Lit by light coming from several crystals buried in the ceiling. A giant obese scarab circled as she carefully laid eggs into mounds of faeces. I could see other small scarabs piling the manure and seemingly bringing in more. The light reflected off piles; it seemed the creatures were pulling in shiny things as well.

  We quietly pulled back and let our friends know what we saw. Sharing the screenshots we had taken.

  “Good loot?” George asked.

  “There were some piles with shiny things in… so maybe… It feels like a boss fight…” I said.

  “Feels like that to me,” said Peachy.

  “Right, so, battle plan?” Darksider said.

  “Peachy’s got the better taunt, so her on sweep, grabbing the adds. I’ll engage the boss directly. Aenara, AOE the adds, G taking out any that she misses. The rest maxing damage on the boss,” suggested Voice.

  “We might need more damage on the adds. I suggest Kelsey prepares to switch to the adds if they need it,” Jacobs said. “I’ll also send some Snowballs at the boss, where I can.”

  “I also have some Arctic spells. We should be able to stack the slow debuffs,” said Sam.

  “Hail Storm?” G asked.

  “I could hit the boss with it at the start, but it’s still a huge mana drain,” I said.

  “What about a Woolly Ice Mammoth?" Peachy asked with a grin.

  “Sorry? What?” Kelsey and Daisy asked.

  “I’m sealing Snowman until I can have a chat with Shiva. That backlash could knock me out of the fight.”

  “That’s a tier 3 arctic spell, isn’t it?” Sam asked.

  “She scared me with this huge Mammoth creature when I logged back in.”

  “In my defence, Jacobs was my target. He tricked me into thinking he would be where you were. Totally his fault!”