Luke: "Fine, we'll help with the dungeon. Just let me know when you spot Relian again. Next time, I want to be there."

  Luke: "And one more thing, have you set up a place and found people to heal?"

  Johanson: "There are some legal issues on that front, I'm afraid. Will you even have time for that?"

  Luke: "I might not, but my friend will."

  Johanson: "You have made contact with Dr. Marlene? We have been unable to locate her, and she does not have a gem."

  Luke: "Why do you want to locate her?"

  Johanson: "She is a Lifeweaver. One of two in the US, and there won't be any more. Like it or not, you are both valuable to your country."

  Luke: "What do you mean there won't be any more?"

  Johanson: "If Relian falls, we have a person on standby, but that is no guarantee."

  Luke: "What are you talking about?"

  Johanson: "There is a limit to how many people can select a single class, we've found. Five people can hold the same class at any given time. That is a worldwide maximum, and we are somewhat certain China has one Lifeweaver now, and there is one somewhere in the Nordics."

  Tim wasn't just full of shit then, in his text rants about not all of his followers being able to become Lifeweavers.

  Luke: "Right. Well, Dot is with me."

  Johanson: "Please keep her safe. And Luke?"

  Luke: "Yeah?"

  Johanson: "Please return to Chicago. Let us handle the Fallen Shepherd."

  Luke: "No. Nothing you did worked. You need me there."

  Johanson: "We will have Integrated on-site next time."

  Luke: "Yes, you will."

  Johanson: "Do you have a spare gem you could give to Dr. Marlene?"

  Luke: "Sure."

  After their conversation, Luke handed a communications gem to Dot and explained how to use it. Johanson would try to talk her into returning to Chicago through it, but staying or going was her decision to make, and she should have a gem no matter what, to make talking easier.

  "There it is," Hiroki said, pointing between buildings.

  The portals had all been different sizes so far. No one had been able to figure out if that was significant in some way, but it seemed too strange to be random. The color scheme of the portals differed, too, with lighter colors indicating a less difficult dungeon. Most of the time, at least. Things would become easier once more credits were accumulated, and people could start using the different types of items to gain information about the portals and what to expect from the dungeons within. Come to think of it, perhaps that's what Luke should have been saving his credits for. A quick check told him something called a Portal Tester existed, though it cost far more credits than Luke would ever be able to scrape together.

  Portal Tester: Item used to ascertain a dungeon's difficulty and the expected level of monsters within. Infinite uses.

  There were other items as well with similar, but somewhat different uses.

  Scroll of Identify Portal: Cast spell to learn a portal's secrets.

  Dungeon Coach (5 uses): Glean information about optimal party setup for a dungeon, recommended number of Integrated for the challenge, and strategies to conquer the dungeon's monsters.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  There were more things in there, of course. The Integrated Shop seemed endless in its offerings. So many categories of weird contraptions, items, equipment, and consumables. Too many, almost.

  The portal to this dungeon was huge, towering over a three-story apartment building where it stood right next to a parking garage with four levels. A perfect oval, the thing might've looked menacing with its floating motes of light, if not for the baby-blue color. Still, color wasn't always a good indication of a dungeon's difficulty.

  Curtis turned into the parking garage, and soon they were out on the street again. It felt good to get out and walk around.

  "Luke, can you give me my water bottle?" Hannah asked, holding out her hand to him.

  He dumped her bag at her feet.

  "Just the bottle would've been fine," she muttered, the upturned corners of her mouth showing how she was just teasing him.

  "Doubt you want me going through your bag," Luke said.

  "Maybe not," she allowed.

  "Few people," Hiroki said.

  He wasn't wrong. Like in Chicago, the cops were present. Other than them, though, it was deserted. In Chicago, there were always crowds around, with people filming on their phones or hanging over the police tape trying to catch a glimpse of the Integrated going through the portal. Not here.

  Two people sat on the ground outside the portal. From their light injuries, Luke guessed they'd been inside. A brief conversation with the cops was enough to let them through. The police seemed more than happy to welcome them to Fort Wayne, and Luke and the others walked up to the portal.

  "Need healing?" Luke asked the one on the left, a guy in his early thirties with sand-blond hair in a fringe, blue eyes, and gleaming metal piercings in his nose.

  "Please," he grunted in reply, holding up his right arm.

  Luke waved Dot over. "You want to do it?"

  "Huh. What are the odds?" she asked, getting down to sit next to him. "Just like on my arm. I'll fix you right up. I'm Dr. Marlene. What's your name?"

  He left them to it and intercepted Curtis and Hiroki, who'd been speaking with the injured guy’s friend, a woman of similar age and appearance, except her hair was a little longer and she had half again as many piercings in her face.

  "What did she tell you guys?"

  Hiroki was holding his staff now, and he pointed the butt of it toward the portal. "Low-level enemies. Goblins. The quest is to deal with their leader."

  "Nothing special," Curtis grunted.

  "Any clues about why the portal is so big?"

  "None. Those two lounging about over there are level 3 and 4. Haven't been in a dungeon other than the Tutorial, and now this one. Didn't do so well."

  "They're it?" Luke asked. "No Integrated inside?"

  "They were separated from their friend," Hiroki said.

  "What?"

  "There were three of them. One is still inside."

  "That might have been something to lead with, don't you think?" Luke asked. "Let's hurry up and try to find their friend, then!"

  Hannah walked over from where she'd been talking to the officer who let them through. "This is their first portal in Fort Wayne. They're not happy about it."

  "Johanson said it's unusual for them to appear in cities without orbs, but not unheard of," Luke said. "It's still early, so if we deal with this now, we can keep going for a few more hours before stopping for the day. With one of them still in there, we don't have time to sit around."

  "Let's go then," Curtis said. "Even if their friend is probably dead at this point."

  Dot waved at them from over where she'd finished up with the healing. "I'll stay out here."

  "You coming?" Luke asked Hannah.

  "Yes," she said, her eyes hard and her jaw set with determination. "I won't be bullied."

  Luke: "We're heading into the portal now."

  Johanson: "Thank you. Our outreach team is busy with another dungeon at the moment, so this will be a big help."

  Luke: "While I've got you. Do we have anything solid on whether dungeons can actually break or not, and when that happens?"

  Johanson: "Unfortunately, we do not have enough data to determine that at this point. We have reports of monsters leaving dungeons through the portal, and you've experienced that yourself with the Hollow Queen, but under what conditions, we just don't know."

  Luke: "OK. Thank you."

  Johanson: "Let me know how it goes."

  Luke: "Will do."

  Luke nodded for the group to head out. Curtis and Hiroki took the front while Luke and Hannah walked behind them. He couldn't help but glance over to Hannah as she fidgeted with her nails, pushing them into the palm of her hand with enough force to almost draw blood, by the looks of it. Not a great start.

  Motes of baby-blue light swirled around them as they crossed through the portal and entered the dungeon.

  Quest: Deal with the Goblin Leader.

  Reward: ?

  As soon as they emerged from the portal, pain shot through Luke’s shoulder. He stared straight into the snarling, twisted face of a goblin. The force of the monster’s leap shoved him back through the portal, back to Earth.

  The second they re-emerged from the portal, the goblin turned to dust, dead in the blink of an eye. Gasping, Luke grabbed the long dagger stuck in his shoulder and yanked it free with a groan. He healed himself, doing his best to ignore the pain.

  "Luke!" Dot shouted, running over.

  "I’m fine," he muttered, getting to his feet.

  As he ran back toward the portal, he shouted to the two Integrated waiting nearby. "Could’ve told us they were right inside!"

  That brief flicker of an instant inside the dungeon had shown him a large group of goblins clustered around the portal, with even more standing farther back on a patch of grass. Even knowing Curtis's proficiency, in the moment before returning, Luke couldn’t help but worry about his friends.