Dungeon engineering turned out to be a little more complex than a single Charge Converter.

  When I applied the device to the wall panel, it fizzled out, but without the overload message I’d hoped for. Not that I’d expected it; a dungeon, after all, was an order of magnitude larger than a Waypoint Beacon and far, far more complicated than any other creation I’d seen. I held the burned-out Charge Converter in one hand as I stared at the wall.

  “You good, Hal?” Tori asked after a minute.

  “Yep. I’m better than good. That was exactly what I expected.” The broken Charge Converter hit the floor as I sat down in front of the panel and started pulling components out of my inventory. It wasn’t the first time I’d thanked Calvin for forcing me to load up way back in the Tutorial Dungeon; I’d kept the habit up, and as many components as I could realistically carry traveled with me.

  The Voltsmith’s Laboratory, this wasn’t—but it was close.

  At its core, the problem had to do with both the quality of the cobbled-together Charge Converter and with the sheer volume of Charge I had to work with to create a dungeon floor skip. I needed a device that wouldn’t burn out instantly from poor connections like the original model had, and I needed one that could handle the longer-term wear and tear from potentially thousands of Charge flowing through it all at once. A little gizmo I’d assembled out of scrap in the middle of a dungeon wouldn’t be good enough.

  I needed a big gizmo, assembled out of a lot of scrap.

  So, instead of the original Charge Converter, I took my box of scrap, sat down in the middle of the Hand That Feeds, and got to work assembling that different, bigger gizmo.

  The core of the device was an Emitter/Refiner pair. I started there—with the burnt-out pieces for now. I wasn’t ready to risk fresh components yet.

  The fundamental purpose of a Charge Converter—when used the way I’d used them, at least—was to burn out. I needed to increase the resistance the Charge encountered as it entered the device to improve its longevity. Wiring and conduit wouldn’t help; the oncoming energy had overwhelmed the device almost instantly. But a properly-deployed Lens Array might.

  I started installing the new component, then stopped.

  The Lens Arrays I’d used had always been for concentrating Charge. That’s what they did, bouncing energy from lens to lens and slowing it down into something more energetic and less speedy at the same time. But there was no reason I couldn’t repurpose the component. I didn’t need more potent Charge more slowly, and I didn’t need all the Charge all at once.

  It was going to come all at once, whether I wanted it or not, though. That was the point of the Charge Converter. I couldn’t stop it if I wanted to create an Overload.

  But I could redirect it slightly.

  I rearranged the dozens of lenses, slowly forming a totally different array than the one I’d gotten used to using. When I put a single point of Charge into it, the energy’s color didn’t change, and it didn’t speed up or slow down. Instead, it bounced from lens to lens, then formed a loop. I’d trapped Charge within the Converter. It was working.

  However, it was also producing a shocking amount of heat.

  I drained the Charge before the whole device could melt. It needed an outlet for that heat—or for that Charge.

  Mana Coils. Three of them. All in a line. The Charge Converter had fit in the palm of my hand. Whatever I was building would need both hands to operate if I kept it up. But when I added the Charge back in, the energy sink worked. Sort of.

  Instead of a self-contained loop within the device, the new Charge Converter sucked in energy through the Emitter/Refiner pair—a reverse of the Emitter’s intent. Then it looped it through the Lens Array before vomiting it out in an arcing orange bolt. But it didn’t stop there. The Emitter grabbed the bolt and sucked it back into the device, completing a larger, open-air loop that almost mirrored the Lens Array.

  The next step was wiring. I replaced the open-air arc with wires, then with a crude cage to protect me from the bolt of crackling orange Charge.

  “I think it’s ready,” I said.

  “What even is that?” Tori asked.

  “Charge Looper. I’m hoping it’ll slow down the flow of Charge enough for the Converter elements to do their job. If it works, this floor will overload, and we’ll end up on the next one.” I waved her back as she stared at it. “Let’s give this a go.”

  I held it out and touched it to the wall. The moment I did, X things happened. First, I learned a Principle of Voltsmithing, but not what I’d expected.

  Principle of Voltsmithing Learned: Energy Bypasses

  Inefficiency is a fact of engineering. Components don’t fit within tolerances, extra parts become necessary, and creations drift further and further from Rube’s Principal. Beginning Voltsmiths must sacrifice efficiency in the name of functionality. By rerouting Charge and changing its form back and forth, you have applied the Principle of Energy Bypasses to increase efficiency and route around obstacles instead of through them.

  Before I could wrap my head around it, energy ripped out from the wall and into the Charge Looper—entering from the Mana Coils and flowing into the Lens Array in reverse. I realized my mistake right away, but I couldn’t stop it now. The Charge in the dungeon’s construction wasn’t electric. It was fluid, and fluid Charge followed different rules than the stuff I was used to working with.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  It arced through the air, ignoring the wiring completely, and slammed back into the wall a half-dozen yards down the cavern wall. I stared at it, open-mouthed, as it erupted back outward, then arced even further.

  A second arc hit me. But instead of burning or hurting, it merged with my Charge. The orange power rippled across my Voltsmith’s Grasp and into my arm, then arced across me as Tori yelled something into my ear. I didn’t hear her—and even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to respond.

  I was too busy watching as the Overloading dungeon floor’s Charge merged with mine, then separated, leaving me somehow unharmed. It was almost miraculous, and there was only one answer. As the glowing orange around me faded and I could finally see something besides Charge, I mumbled, “Energy Bypass,” to myself.

  “What? What’d you do?” Tori asked.

  The dungeon shook slightly, almost like it was convulsing from the sheer energy pouring through its construction. Then the not-quite-light that was practically ubiquitous in dungeons flicked off, and an orange glow poured in from the walls—a very liquid orange glow.

  Dungeon Floor Compromised

  The first floor of The Hand That Feeds is compromised. Emergency stairwells activated. Evacuate immediately.

  Time Until Overload: 4:26

  4:25

  4:24

  “There. Told you it’d work,” I said as a gold-lit, metal staircase appeared in the middle of the floor between us, leading upward in a tight spiral. I stepped onto it and started climbing. Tori shook her head and followed me. And Bobby…

  Bobby was already halfway up.

  The moment we reached the second floor, my system messages went wild.

  Tier Four Dungeon: The Hand That Feeds

  Objective: Defeat the [Boss Not Found] (0/1)

  Objective: [Objective Not Found] (0/1)

  Completion: 0%

  Unfinished: This dungeon has no defined structure, with no clear floors or theme.

  Labyrinthine: This dungeon cannot be mapped and is constantly shifting.

  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.

  Break Counter: 0/5

  New Objective: Secure the Beacon (0/1)

  The Waypoint Beacon is Currently Contested. Claim it to exit the dungeon early.

  I stared at the dungeon’s second-floor message. It was almost identical to the previous floor, but with two glaring changes. The boss’s name—or maybe its entire existence—was missing. That fit in with the Dungeon Technicians crawling all over the floor. Most of them vanished the moment we arrived, panic in their not-quite-human faces. A few others stuck by their posts, trying to finish whatever they were doing.

  The ‘Survive’ objective was gone, too. That was more concerning. We’d always had the ‘Survive’ objective, except in the most dire of circumstances.

  “Hal, what’s going on?” Tori asked. I glanced at her, then at the desperate Dungeon Technicians working to…stabilize the Hand That Feeds’s second floor.

  “I think I broke it,” I said. Then I burst out laughing at the next set of messages that appeared in front of me.

  Major Principle of Voltsmithing Learned: Grand Engineering

  With fluid and electric Charge, remote Voltsmithing can take on much more complex forms. The devices a Voltsmith creates—and the impact they have with even a small amount of Charge—improve by leaps and bounds. Some shy away from the challenge, and others find those problems impossible to solve. Not you.

  All creations follow the same Principles, although their applications change dramatically as size increases. From devices as small as the palm of your hand all the way to the largest dungeons and beyond, the Voltsmith’s ability to apply the Principles of Scale, Overload, and Liquidity to their projects will be critical in their endeavors ahead.

  Energy Bypass Complete

  Congratulations, [Hal Riley], on reaching Level [System Error]!

  For reaching Level [System Error], the following rewards have been delivered to your inventory:

  One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Enhancement, Rank Two)

  One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Rank Three)

  One [Voltsmith’s] Laboratory] Upgrade Token (Rank Two)

  The Voltsmithing Rank Two Trial will commence once your Voltsmith’s Laboratory has been upgraded. Once you’ve ascended your class to Rank Two, new materials and creations can be used.

  Experience gain is reduced to zero until the Rank One Trial is completed and your class has ascended.

  “No, I definitely broke it,” I corrected myself.

  “The dungeon? No shit, Hal,” Bobby said.

  I just shook my head. There was no way I was supposed to get my Rank Two Trial this early. I hadn’t just broken the Hand That Feeds dungeon. I’d temporarily—or maybe permanently—broken the System that governed Integration.

  The sheer ridiculousness of that warred with my understanding of what Charge was—and with a growing sense of horror as I stared at the burned-out wreck of a device in my hand. I could probably build it again if I needed to, but every single component was little more than ash-caked, blackened metal. The dozen lenses in the Lens Array had shattered, and the Mana Coils had melted into shapeless blobs.

  I couldn’t tell Tori about this. Not yet—she’d demand I try again to trigger her own Rank Two Trial, and I didn’t know anywhere near enough to risk it with someone else. If I’d known what would happen, I wouldn’t have tried it myself.

  And I couldn’t tell Bobby. He was a good guy—I was sure of it, under the scummy-feeling exterior—but he wasn’t playing the same game we were. Or if he was, he played by different rules. I could trust him to help us out here, but not to be on our side forever.

  So, after a moment, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, the dungeon.”

  “And not your level?” Tori asked.

  “What’s it showing as?”

  “Level [System Error]. What does that even mean?”

  I shrugged. “It means I was playing with forces I shouldn’t have, and I took a hit. My status is all screwed up, but everything feels like it’s still functioning. Let’s get moving.” Taking my own advice, I started walking down the unfinished, scaffolding-like corridor in front of us.

  There was one other part of the System messages I’d gotten that bothered me—and I couldn’t help but kick myself for not noticing it sooner.

  The Waypoint Beacon is Currently Contested. Claim it to exit the dungeon early.

  Someone else was in the dungeon.

  I opened my mouth to tell Tori to keep an eye out, but before I could, one more message appeared—and this one showed up for all three of us.

  Waypoint Reached

  An inactive Waypoint Beacon within this dungeon has been reached. If it is not contested within the next ten minutes, it will activate, and [Taven Liu] will gain control of the beacon.

  Time Until Activation: 9:59

  Hello, readers!

  The third and final book in The Halcyon System came out a couple of days ago on Kindle and Audible. I was in the middle of a pretty brutal trip back from a cousin’s wedding, getting sick, and then it was Christmas, so I'm only getting to the promotional stuff now.

  I really enjoyed writing Guardian Rising, and it was a great learning experience as a book. I think Claire’s relationships with her father, friends, and James all take major turns in this book as she becomes something more and pushes herself to the limits of reality in an attempt to save it.

  If you’d give it a look, I’d appreciate it!

  Kindle:

  Audible: