The dwarf commander strained and put his whole body in the downward motion that would end right across Luke's neck. Desperate, Luke lashed out with a thread of mana from the back of his head and pushed the commander so the axe blade dug into the back of one of the dwarves weighing Luke down.

  Unable to move his arms and legs, or even draw in a proper breath, Luke gritted his teeth. Threads of Mana surged outward, four of them pushing into dwarves, not to kill them, but to take command of their mana channels. Luke latched on and began to drain. Mana flooded into him, and he used it all to heal himself, brute forcing the wounds closed, even as new ones took their place.

  The monsters bit at him and chopped, but with all that mana, Luke regenerated faster. Once the dwarves had run out of mana, their bodies wizened like raisins. Luke took them into his inventory and moved on to the next dwarves in line. Four Threads of Mana turned into six, and Luke's head spun as he latched onto the commander, pulling the monster down close to his face.

  No longer smiling, the dwarven commander died, his monster core ending up in Luke's inventory.

  "More," Luke grunted, pulling in mana as dwarves threw themselves at him.

  All he saw were red eyes and disgusting, grime-filled beards, as he lashed out again and again, killing everything that moved. No armor could protect them from an angry Lifeweaver fighting not only to survive, but to show these bastards how futile it was to stand against him.

  Despite keeping himself topped up with stolen monster mana, Luke's head throbbed, and the many Threads of Mana trembled. With many dwarves dead, Luke got his feet under him, panting, stars in his vision, and pushed himself to standing.

  He screamed, Threads of Mana extending out from his arms, each of them longer than what he'd ever managed before. The abundance of mana allowed him to use more power, adding more threads in a blur of death, frustration, anger, and fear. Luke once again saw the weave of the universe, the splendor of it appearing before his clouded mind, and he reached out with a hand as if to touch it.

  "Luke!"

  Something grabbed Luke's hand and squeezed, and Luke attacked with several Threads of Mana, and found them blocked by a shimmering blue, translucent barrier.

  Luke blinked and shook his head, seeing.

  “Nate?”

  It all came crashing down, and his knees buckled. Nate reached out and caught Luke, keeping the barrier up on his shield while the two stumbled backward. All around them, Integrated were pushing forward, striking at the remaining dwarves and moving to stand between Luke and the monsters. That was unnecessary, though, Luke saw. None of the dwarves even attempted to get close. They all just stood there, watching him go.

  “How’re you doing?” Nate asked. “You look like shit.”

  Luke snorted. “Thanks. I feel like it.” He looked up at Nate, who was almost fully carrying him at this point. “How are you here?”

  “My head.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s get you somewhere you can sit down first,” Nate said.

  Mateo came running. “Luke, my friend!”

  “Mateo,” Luke said, nodding to Penny, who’d joined in despite her earlier saying she couldn’t. “Penny.”

  Nate set him down on a rock and, after Luke gathered his breath, he looked out across the field of dead or dying dwarves. “I’m never heading into a dungeon without a full party again.”

  “You showed true bravery, my friend!” Mateo proclaimed. “No dwarf could stand in your way! Se burló del peligro!”

  “It looked a little scary,” Penny said.

  “Scary how?” Luke asked. “Like I was close to dying?”

  She shook her head. “For a minute, sure.” Penny hesitated. “Then they all started dying. Most of them looked like you were drinking their blood.”

  “Mana, I drained mana,” Luke said, craning his neck to look around. “Did Curtis make it out?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “The grumpy guy ahead of you?” Penny asked, pointing. “Yeah, he’s over there somewhere.”

  Luke slumped. “Good. That’s good.”

  “You OK?” Penny asked.

  “No, not really. My head is spinning, but there’s nothing wrong with me. Nothing to heal, at least. I think I just did too much, or something. You should go help the ones in the outpost over there if it isn’t too late already.”

  “Kirk’s party is pushing forward, but the fight went out of the dwarves when you killed a bunch of them,” Penny said, nodding toward the outpost. “The DIA party is out there, too. They’ve got a guy who’s good at blowing stuff up.”

  Luke accepted a party invite from Mateo and blinked, raising his head to look at them. “Quite the party.”

  Nate. Knight. Level 7.

  Mateo. Lancer. Level 10.

  Penny. Stormsinger. Level 11.

  Hannah. Vesper. Level 8.

  Liza. Warder. Level 6.

  Luke. Lifeweaver. Level 12.

  Mateo grinned and pointed his spear toward the outpost. “We must be off! Gather your strength, then come find us, my friend!”

  With that, he ran toward the outpost.

  “Didn’t think you were coming,” Luke said to Penny.

  She shrugged. “The issue resolved itself.”

  “Colt?”

  “Yeah,” she said, sighing. “Turns out, he’s an ass.”

  Luke didn’t know what to say. “Sorry.”

  “Thanks,” Penny said, wincing. “I'd better follow Mateo so he doesn’t get himself killed. See you soon.”

  “See you.”

  With her leaving, it was just Luke and Nate. They sat in silence for a moment before Nate cleared his throat. Luke beat him to it. “You’re worse.”

  “Dizziness. Headaches. Some blackouts.”

  “That’s not great.”

  Nate gave off a tired chuckle. “Is that your professional opinion?”

  "Something like that. Want me to take a look?"

  "Please."

  Luke put a trembling, tired hand on Nate's leg and closed his eyes. Using that single Thread of Mana was like someone scraping their nails across his brain. Luke winced but didn't stop despite his exhaustion, certain he could do this. What he found was another instance of physical and metaphysical problems being tied together. Both aspects of Nate were wounded.

  "It looks like something called CMB, cerebral microbleeds. It's not something you can reverse with modern medicine."

  Nate let out a shuddering, but, for some reason, relieved breath. "Thank you."

  "Haven't said I can fix it yet."

  "It's just good to know that there's something there. That I wasn't imagining things."

  Luke nodded. "I'm pretty sure I can help you, but it's precise work, so you'll have to give me a minute to catch my breath first."

  "Really?"

  "Really," Luke said. "But it's your brain, so it's dangerous work."

  "I remember Alan," Nate said.

  Luke couldn't help but show a small grin. "I fixed him. He flew to me."

  "Same as me, then," Nate said, returning the smile.

  Luke took his moment of rest as a way to get the level up taken care of. After giving the available skills another once-over, he went ahead with the one he’d planned to get.

  Weavesense [Passive]: Hidden from view does not the weave obscure.

  As soon as he picked the skill, Luke noticed something strange in the unfocused background of his vision. Dismissing the interface revealed the change. The description didn’t reference stealth, at least that wasn’t the only part of what it did. In the distance, threads of color sprang to life from the hands, wands, and staves of spellcasters as they barraged the remaining dwarves. Mana of different hues danced in intricate patterns before becoming fixed and then releasing in the form of spells.

  “Whoa.”

  “What?” Nate asked.

  “I think,” Luke began without taking his eyes off what looked like a festival of fireworks playing out right in front of him. “I think I’m seeing the weave of spells.”

  “That’s cool, Nate said, some hesitation in his voice. “Can you do something with it?”

  “I’m not sure. Do you have any spells?”

  Nate shook his head. “Just skills.”

  "Well, okay," Luke said. "Try a skill."

  They met eyes, and Nate looked apprehensive. "I'd rather not, if that's okay."

  "Why not?"

  "Every time I use one, I get a throbbing headache for a little while."

  "Oh," Luke said. "Well, let's heal you first, then. By the way, how did you find me? I don't remember telling you where I'm from."

  Nate shrugged. "Called the DIA and checked the registry."

  "You can do that?" Luke asked. "Just call and ask?"

  "After they confirmed I'm Integrated too, they were fine with giving up the info."

  "That's strange," Luke said. "Well, are you ready?"

  Nate put his shield back into his inventory and removed the same leather armor he'd worn in the Tutorial Dungeon. "I'm ready."

  "There might be some discomfort, but I don't think you should feel pain," Luke said. "I'll be strengthening the blood vessels and then flooding your brain with healing mana while I repair your weak mana channels. Hopefully, that should do it."

  "Go ahead," Nate said.

  Luke drew in a deep breath and performed the healing procedure. For once, it went off without a hitch. "There."

  "That's it? Didn't feel a thing."

  "Give it a go," Luke said. "See if the headache comes back."

  Nate brought the shield back out and tried the barrier skill that he'd used to block Luke's Threads of Mana.

  "Not seeing anything," Luke said.

  "Maybe it only works on spells," Nate suggested, his eyes looking a little moist. "I feel fine. It worked."

  "I'm glad."

  "Thank you."

  Luke waved it away. "Said I'd heal you back when we were in the Tutorial Dungeon, didn't I?"

  "You did. Can I repay you somehow?"

  "Since Colt seems to be out of the picture, it looks like we need a tank."

  Nate grinned. "I can do that. Was thinking I'd stick around Chicago for a while, at least."

  "Great," Luke said. "That's settled, then." The battle below looked like it was almost over. "We'll have to find the others and see what's possible, but it looks to me like this skill can do more than just see when spells are being cast."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Maybe, just maybe, I'm able to touch spellweaves somehow."

  "That'd be something," Nate said.

  Luke gave him a look, then turned back toward the outpost and got to his feet, throwing the available attribute points into Vitality. "Yeah, it would, wouldn't it?"