It took most of the day—but not all of it—to finish the mech.

  But well before the sun started to paint Lake Michigan neon colors, it was finished.

  Standing at eight feet, two inches, it was a little too big to walk through a standard doorway, and it wasn’t a comfortable ride. I’d done my best with a BMW’s racing bucket seat and crisscrossing straps, but even then, my knees were almost in my chest. I’d had to sacrifice the leg room to my hard, non-negotiable weight restriction. The machine weighed just a hair under 1.1 metric tons, well below the 1.23781 my inventory could handle.

  Both legs had minimal armor, and what protection I’d included was centered around the joints and feet to lower the machine’s center of mass. Its two arms were only marginally more armored, with the majority of the steel packed into its two hammer-shaped fists. And the two weapons systems—the grenade launcher and rail cannon—were both completely defenseless. I couldn’t even store most of the ammunition in the mech, it was so tight. It rode separately in my inventory, taking up almost half of my remaining space.

  On the other hand, the armor around my cockpit was tough enough to make up for all of those deficiencies, and unlike the Chariot, this thing could handle. It was agile enough to keep up with Tori and Carol, and packed enough firepower to rival Zane or Bobby. I stared at the solid, metallic frame and nodded. “That’ll do. It’s finished.”

  The System messages rolled in, one after another.

  Voltsmith’s Mech (Created Item, Charge 70/70, Upgrade Level 0)

  The Voltsmith’s Mech is a Charge-enabled war machine. In its unupgraded form, it carries two ranged weapons and can handle melee threats with its armored bulk and sledgehammer-like arms. It relies on both fluid and electric Charge to operate its various systems. Expended Charge regenerates over time, and can be borrowed from other Voltsmithing devices.

  Congratulations, [Hal Riley], on completing your Voltsmithing Rank Two Trial. Your Class has ascended to Rank Two.

  You may select one Class Skill to augment your Voltsmith class. An additional skill may be selected from a new list at Rank Two, and the options available at Rank One may or may not appear on future lists. Choose carefully:

  Liquid Metallurgy - Expand your ability to manipulate fluid Charge in both energy and physical form.

  Core of Armor - Focus your Voltsmithing into stronger, more reactive defenses, including shields, barriers, and reinforced armor.

  Lawsmith - Learn the secrets of Voltsmithing’s Principles, allowing you to more quickly understand them.

  Major Principle of Voltsmithing Learned: Kirchhoff’s Broken Law

  As a Voltsmith grows into their own, they must reckon with a myriad of possibilities. Every time they raise a tool to create something new, they unleash potential. But most are incapable of understanding that potential. You are.

  You have realized that the world is not a balanced, fair place. The simple blade of a knife tips when placed on a finger, and so, too, does Charge. Kirchhoff’s Broken Law guides Voltsmithing into the second Rank, and as a smith who understands the imbalance of power inherent in the system, you are primed to use it to your advantage.

  That last one—the Major Principle—rang a bell. There was something in the last line, something that felt like it was about more than just the Principle itself. Like it might be about Integration. I filed it away, though—there were choices to make and powers to gain.

  Lawsmith was the obvious best choice. It had to be. I almost picked it immediately, without even considering the other two. And why wouldn’t I? I’d seen Core of Armor before. Granted, it was related directly to the mech sitting on my Voltsmithing Laboratory’s floor—but it would also give me ideas on how to upgrade it. It was also, as Tori had said, an ‘engine.’ If I took it, I’d be indestructible in a matter of weeks.

  The problem was that I didn’t intend to be dealing with Integration in a few weeks. It had value if I was wrong—or if I could build up faster than expected—but I wasn’t sure about it.

  The other choice, Liquid Metallurgy, felt like more of a hint at something and less like a Class Skill I’d want to take. Liquid Charge being treated as solid—or at least as a physical thing—opened up all sorts of interesting storage possibilities. But I didn’t need the skill to figure that out, and now that I’d seen the hint, I knew it was possible. It was the least interesting of the three.

  So, Lawsmith and Core of Armor.

  As I pondered it, an uncomfortable feeling rose in my gut. I struggled to word it, but once I did, it made total sense. Core of Armor was here because it had been here. Why was Lawsmith a choice? I hadn’t learned that many Principles, and I hadn’t applied all of them to the mech suit. And, more importantly, the ones that I had learned were all earmarked not for building armor, but for ripping into the Waypoint Beacon and reconstructing the device I’d found earlier.

  The Class Skill was perfect.

  But as I looked at it, I realized that its perfection was the problem. I hadn’t made my revelations about Integration inside Cindy’s Garage. I’d made them out in the field, then brought them back. Lawsmith would focus me in on the lab—on the craft of Voltsmithing. And I’d built the Voltsmith’s Mech specifically to do the opposite. I didn’t want to work in a garage. I had. And I still would, someday. But for the rest of Phase Three, my goal was to learn what the Consortium didn’t want me learning.

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

  I couldn’t do that at Cindy’s. I had to enter dungeons and break them to do that.

  [Class Skill: Core of Armor] unlocked.

  Congratulations, [Hal Riley], on learning [Core of Armor].

  Rank One stat increases unlocked:

  +5 Body

  +5 Awareness

  +10 Charge

  I pulled up my new stats.

  [Hal Riley] [Class - Voltsmith] [Level - 82, Rank Two]

  [Stats]

  ?Body - 45 (+5)

  ?Awareness - 52

  ?Charge - 6/141 (+15) (120 Used)

  Stat Points Available: 0

  [Class Skill - Decharge/Recharge - Drain the charge from magic items to power your own creations]

  [Class Skill - Remote Voltsmithing - Use your Voltsmithing to empower Creations even when others are using them—or when no one is.]

  [Class Skill - Core of Armor - Focus your Voltsmithing into stronger, more reactive defenses, including shields, barriers, and reinforced armor.]

  [Skill - Spellcoding - Transfer spells from Tomes to Spellscrolls, allowing weaker versions to be cast with Charge instead of Mana]

  Items

  ?Voltsmith’s Mech Upgrade Zero (70/70 Charge)

  ?Voltsmith’s Grasp Upgrade Two (45/45 Charge) - Rail Gun Module

  ?Empty

  ?Warrior’s Sheath (Empty)

  Remote Voltsmithing

  ?The Explorer (5 Charge)

  I was stronger than I’d ever been—stronger than anyone I’d met before. With the new stats, the Voltsmith’s Mech, a handful of Charge Converters, and the Grasp’s ability to strip Charge, I was a walking armory ready to attack Integration directly.

  It was time to take the mech for a spin, start tearing into dungeons, and find the pieces I’d need to rebuild the device.

  I stomped down Lake Shore Drive, heading north along Lake Michigan. The Voltsmith’s Mech’s joints and pneumatics cushioned every step, but it was still like riding a mechanical bull, and I couldn’t help but feel thankful for the racing seat and straps. There was enough going on inside this cockpit without the jostling motion knocking my body into the buttons, levers, and twin joysticks.

  The right-hand joystick was a work of art. I couldn’t help but be proud of its design; I’d built it with five ports for the Voltsmith’s Grasp’s fingers, and the joystick itself operated on buttons hidden in each port. I could redirect the gauntlet-arm’s extra energy to any of ten different subsystems in the mech at any time.

  “This is pretty good, right?” I asked Tori as she jogged behind me.

  “Sure. Whatever.”

  I laughed from inside the machine. “You’re just mad because riding on top is a good way to get hurt.”

  “I am. You couldn’t have built it a little smoother?” Tori asked. Then her theatrical glare cracked. “So, we’re heading north why, exactly?”

  “Two reasons. First, I need a Tier Four dungeon to test this thing out in, and there’s something on the north side, by the beach. It got cleared once during Phase Two, but it should be refreshed. That’s our first stop. And second, we need to pay the Rats’ Nest a visit.”

  “Do we?” Tori asked.

  “Yes. They have a few questions I need answered. First, why’d they bail on us during the Battle of Whiting? Second, how do they feel about an alliance for Phase Three? And third—and most important to you—what happened to that piece of gear they promised?”

  “Piece of gear?” Tori asked.

  I nodded and rotated the cockpit to face her, staring out the viewport. A single dot lit up the Bio-Electric Scanner over the open windshield. “Yes. They owed you—“

  “A shot at the Runesmith! I remember! Yeah, they do, don’t they?”

  “Yes.” The mech kept moving north. “So we’re going to take care of that.”

  “And why aren’t we driving?”

  “So I can test this thing out, get a feel for how it moves, and so on. I don’t want my first time piloting it to be in a dungeon with actual stakes.” I pushed on one of the pedals, then the other, and the mech walkedin time with my motions. “It’d be best if I find any flaws with the basic systems before we have to fight for our lives.”

  “Makes sense,” Tori mumbled, staring at the lake.

  We walked for a while—or rather, the mech walked, I pushed pedals, and Tori jogged. And, after an hour of moving as fast as I was comfortable with pushing Charge into the machine’s legs, we pulled up on a narrow spit of land jutting out into Lake Michigan.

  “The bird sanctuary? Really?” Tori asked.

  “Yes. This is the Tier Four dungeon.”

  “Doesn’t look like much.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. But neither did the Dozen Path Descent. The guidebook—“ I was referring to Calvin’s Hello Kitty notebook with all the information on the various dungeons in Chicago in it “—said the entrance was in one of the lighthouses at the end of the spit. Let’s head out there.”

  “That thing’s not going to fit in a lighthouse,” Tori said, eying the mech.

  “You’re absolutely right.” I pushed Charge into a subsystem, and the armored shell around the cockpit cracked in half with a satisfying hiss. I slid out through the gap, then pulled the whole thing into my inventory. Then I shrugged, stretching out my shoulders, and bounced on my toes a few times. “Alright, I’m ready.”

  “That’s some bullshit. No one else is carrying around a one-ton battle suit in their inventory, Hal.”

  “Just because no one’s thought of it doesn’t make it a bad idea.”

  We walked down the beach, past grass-covered dunes and toward a jetty with a small lighthouse at its end. Tori Pulled and Crushed a few Concrete Falcons, but other than that, the bird sanctuary was suspiciously empty of birds. It took less than five minutes before we stood in front of a dungeon entrance, the fog wall perfectly blocking the tiny door to the lighthouse.

  I stepped through.

  Tier Four Dungeon: Hitchcock’s Nightmare

  Objective: Defeat the Birds (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat the Sonic Falcon (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat the Uninvited Stork (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat Lady Heron (0/1)

  Objective: Survive (0/1)

  Completion: 0%

  Open Floor: Once triggered, the dungeon’s bosses will roam freely.

  Grafted: This dungeon is not from its host planet and is fully alien.

  Fragile Walls: This dungeon is close to breaking. Its inhabitants will be freed if a threshold of Delver deaths is reached within.

  Lethal: Aspects of this floor’s environment will be instantly lethal to delvers and monsters alike.

  We stood in an open field that almost matched the Urban Sprawl, but with one noticeable exception. In every direction around us were different environments: cliffs that rivaled the tallest of Solemnus Six’s Grafts, a hedged house with a single oak tree and an ancient car covered in rust, a windswept expanse of swampland and dirt, and a calm, watery wetland with a few stylized, overly-curved buildings.

  Tori glanced at me. “Ready?”

  I cracked my knuckles, pulled the Voltsmith’s Mech from my inventory, and nodded. “Ready.”

  And we got to work.