Using Weavestep, there was no sensation of movement. As soon as he activated the skill, Luke felt... something. It wasn't a physical sensation, but one connected to his Weaver's Eye, in a way, or perhaps Weaver's Grasp. Either way, it all happened too fast, and once he reappeared, he did feel quite a few sensations. One was pain, but more than that, he felt embarrassment. In his defense, so would anyone if they teleported for the first time and ended up in the same place they teleported from, except upside down. Luke stood on his head, yelped, and crumpled, falling to the side, his cheeks burning.

  "What the hell?" he muttered to himself, getting up on all fours, then to his feet.

  Milla had turned away, which was a blessing, or she would've teased him for it the rest of his life. The others in his party stood in a clump, all of them looking at him with wide eyes, looking like they were doing their darndest not to laugh and point. Well, everyone except Mateo. That was just what he was doing. His laughter rose into the enormous cavern and echoed off the bare walls.

  Luke walked up to them, shaking his head. "Shut up."

  "Neat skill," Penny said, her voice breaking a little, like she couldn't hold in a giggle.

  Hannah's cheeks puffed up, and she put her hands over her mouth, like she wanted to force the laughter back.

  "Real neat," Liza said, letting out a few quick, stuttering breaths through her nose.

  It didn't work. None of them could keep it in.

  They all burst out laughing.

  Luke couldn't help but chuckle, then join in and laugh. It had been pretty funny. He didn't understand what the hell had happened, but the results spoke for themselves.

  Once the laughter died down, Penny wiped a tear from her eye and steadied her breath, trying to keep from laughing again. "What was that skill? For real, I mean?"

  "A teleport, I think," Luke said, clearing his throat. "But the ways of the Lifeweaver are strange and mysterious."

  That set them off again.

  In the end, they ran to catch up to Milla and the others before they entered the strange dwarven town. By then, most of those who'd stayed and fought the dragon sat around like they weren't planning on going anywhere, while some headed in the same direction as Luke's party, deeper into the dungeon and toward the dwarven settlement.

  Liza hung back, waiting for him while the others continued.

  "Thank you," she said when he caught up.

  "For what?"

  She made a face, showing he wasn't the sharpest scalpel in the drawer, and held up her arms, wiggling her fingers. "For saving me, of course."

  Luke blinked. "Oh, right? Of course. You're welcome. It's my job, sort of, isn't it?"

  "Well, you're good at it. And I'm glad you're in our party. Without you, things would have been much, much worse."

  Luke remained silent. Even with their emotion dampener thing Guide put in everyone, losing Nate hurt like hell, and it would continue to hurt for a long time. Luke didn't have many friends. That brought his thoughts back to Ray. He had to save Ray. The guy was an asshole, but he was Luke's asshole.

  Liza snapped her fingers in front of Luke's face. "Hello?"

  He pulled back. "What?"

  "It isn't good to disappear into your head like that down here," she said, clapping him on the back. "Keep your eyes open, yeah?"

  "Yeah, yeah."

  She walked ahead, but then spun around and faced him while walking backwards. "I hate to ask more of you, but do you think you could come see my girlfriend after this?"

  Stolen story; please report.

  Right, Luke had completely forgotten about Liza's girlfriend. He couldn't quite remember what the problem was, but nodded. "Sure, of course."

  She shot him a wide smile and turned and quickened her pace to catch up to Nymh.

  They were getting close to a wide entrance into the centermost building built into the cavern wall. The buildings weren't free-standing, but more like fronts or gateways into the cave wall itself, with open doorways gaping dark and empty, much like the tunnels. Luke looked up at the wall again, but there were no signs of the Deep Dweller.

  People around him still talked of the battle with the dragon, and he heard a word he hadn't thought of.

  "Loot."

  That's right, the dragon should have loot, shouldn't it? While he continued walking, hurrying to catch up to Penny and Hannah, he checked his inventory. The dragon corpse taking up the same amount of space as a dwarf corpse was interesting. Looting the corpse yielded some impressive items, most of which he found that he couldn't use due to class restrictions.

  Scroll of Raging Inferno: Surround yourself in an ocean of fire to extinguish all those who dare stand against you.

  Linked Bracelet of Night Sight: The wearer of this item can see in the dark.

  Boots of the Winged Lizard: Increased jump height and distance.

  The Bite: This longbow was crafted to maximize power, leading to a high degree of arrow penetration.

  The scroll he could give to Ken, maybe. This stuff might be worth a lot. The Integrated shop was one part of all this he hadn't explored much, but there were some interesting items there he'd noticed, and not just equipment, but utility ones to get information about portals and the like. So... maybe he should just sell all the items. If nothing else, he'd always need an endless supply of mana potions. Then again, sharing the spoils with the others was the right thing to do. The bracelet, he could use, but it was weird with other sources of light around.

  As he pondered what to do with the items, he walked into the tunnel, following right behind the rest of his party. After a moment of darkness, gems set into the wall and ceiling gave them light to see by. And after a brief walk, the tunnel opened up into a chamber with twin stone pillars continuing down the middle of the room, leaving a straight path open between them.

  Other than the pillars, the room was bare without ornamentation, carpets, or furniture. On the opposite side, a door. Not just any door. It was huge. Tall enough to reach up the third floor of an apartment building, and half again as wide. A mural depicting dwarves battling against humans covered the entire thing.

  Smaller figures with red eyes defended against an attack by the taller, evil-looking humans wielding spears tipped with light gems. Even the dragon was on there, above the battlefield, but it looked small, painted like it was afraid rather than fearsome.

  In front of the painted door, dwarven guards stood in a line, their faces grim and set with determination. Before Luke had a chance to even consider why some dwarves had remained when most fled, the larger group of Integrated annihilated them with overwhelming numbers. It wasn't even much of a fight.

  Though still at a good distance from the fighting, Luke's focus on it triggered something in him, and the improved Weaver's Eye thrummed to life. The skill made him catch every injury as they appeared in both dwarves and Integrated, and he felt something wink out each time a dwarf died, like their thread being severed from the weave before disappearing into nothing.

  It was after that morbid display of wounds and death that Luke's attention was drawn to Weaver's Eye. He had to lean against a pillar to support himself as a flood of information threatened to throttle him. Before, he'd seen injuries and illnesses even when he wasn't looking for them, but now this was something else. Even small imperfections revealed themselves, and he got a new sense of wrongness from a few people. Not illnesses or injuries per se, but something else, something more.

  As if that wasn't enough, he even felt the bodily processes of those closest to him. Not bodily processes like the digestive system. Well, that too, but, well, like the woman to his left.

  Integrated Susan. Geomancer. Level 9.

  Her white blood cells were elevated, even though she didn't have an infection. This could mean she had some sort of autoimmune issue or even a bone marrow disorder like leukemia. Or it could just mean she was a smoker. And then there was the dude in front of Luke, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Adrenaline flushed through his body. Luke saw, or sensed, the fight-or-flight response activating.

  It was too much. Far too much. Luke felt like he was going to hurl. Hands shaking, he pressed the side of his face against the cold stone of the pillar and breathed. Rather than let all that information flood into him, he focused and pulled at it with his willpower, trying to force Weaver's Eye to withdraw.

  To his surprise, this time it worked, and the range of the ability reined itself in. Stunned at this discovery, Luke forced it back and into himself. Silence. Never before had the lack of information been so sweet. How was this possible? Focus and Willpower. The mental attributes. They were much higher now than when he had attempted the same thing before, back when he first obtained Weaver's Eye. Interesting. Perhaps the mental attributes did affect things, just like the physical ones. Allowing the effect of Weaver's Eye to spread again, he found that just by the sheer force of his will, he was able to limit himself to only examining one person at a time, or several of his chosing. This was a huge improvement.

  In the distance, a whole group of Integrated moved together, combining their strength to force the huge doors open. Seeing what was through there made Luke stop experimenting and stare.