Hans fell backward into the grass and scrambled away from the petrified Harriet, his hands and elbows slipping as he went. His eyes stayed locked on the young girl, now a stone gray. Even when he was well out of her range, he couldn’t do anything but stare in horror at what he had done.

  Luther didn’t hesitate. He dropped his plate and ran for the cockatrice chicken enclosures. He returned a minute and a half later and dumped a Soft potion on the statue of Hariott. Over the course of thirty seconds, the stone faded to normal flesh.

  Harriet fell forward and bawled. Though his first instinct was to reach out and comfort her, Hans stopped himself. Putting her through that even once was unforgivable. He couldn’t risk doing that to her again.

  Or any of the other children.

  “What happened?” Galinda asked as she and Uncle Ed ran to Harriet.

  “I… I…”

  “Take her?” Luther asked.

  Galinda bent over and scooped the young girl into her arms. She intuitively knew that Luther wanted to separate her from Hans, so she turned away and spoke gentle reassurances as she carried Harriet to Luther’s home in New Gomi.

  “What can I do?” Uncle Ed asked.

  “Umm…” Luther looked out over the terrified faces of Gomi children. “Keep the kids calm. Let them know everything is okay.”

  Uncle Ed nodded and rallied Roland and the other chaperones to keep the children occupied.

  Luther reached to put a hand on Hans’ shoulder. The Guild Master recoiled.

  “Don’t do that. Don’t touch me.”

  “Then follow me somewhere private.”

  Hans nodded. They ended up in the Gomi house they used for their Cursed memory treatments. Dragging a chair as far from the door as possible, Hans sat and dropped his head into his hands.

  “What the fuck was that?” Hans asked, his question only slightly muffled by his palms.

  Luther didn’t have an answer, and Hans didn’t expect him to.

  “I’m fine,” Hans said. “Go take care of the kids. Devon will be back soon, and he’ll want to know what happened, but please tell him to finish giving griffon rides. We don’t need to freak them out anymore than I already have.”

  Without argument, Luther left Hans and went to look after the field trip.

  Hans inspected his hands. They looked and felt perfectly normal. He tapped himself the way he had tapped Harriet. Nothing.

  He thought back over the events of the day and could think of several instances where he interacted with one of the children without anyone turning to stone. He wiped a few noses. He picked up a kid so they could stand on a fence post for a better view of the camahuetos. Then there were half a dozen other instances where he gently steered or guided a child back on course when they began to veer away from the group.

  Why just Harriet?

  Quest Failed: Host a field trip to New Gomi for Gomi’s children.

  New Quest: What the hells was that?

  Guilt churned Hans’ stomach, and he thought he might throw up.

  Devon knocked some time later and let himself in.

  “Everyone got a turn,” the Paladin said gently. “You okay?”

  “How’s Harriet?”

  “She’s shaken up a little, but she’ll be alright. You guys got to her pretty quick, and that helped.”

  “Luther did. I froze up like a damn Apprentice.”

  “You didn’t answer me when I asked if you were okay.”

  “I have no fucking idea,” Hans said.

  Hans recounted the incident as well as the multiple examples of his touch being harmless. He had sat alone in that room for over an hour, replaying every moment of the day. His recent resurrection and Mazo’s observation about his wild mana were his prime suspects, but he had no deeper explanation beyond the idea that wild mana might be to blame.

  “How can I help?” Devon asked.

  That was a question Hans could actually answer. He had thought about that a lot as well.

  “You’d be doing me a huge favor by staying with the kids for the rest of the field trip. They love you, and if anyone is still feeling spooked, they’ll feel better with you around.”

  “Not taking them back yourself?”

  Hans shook his head. “I won’t put any of them at risk.”

  “I can handle keeping children entertained, but what do we do after they’re back home?”

  “Tell Olza and Mazo, and come back with a bunch of Soft potions?”

  “Understood. You’re staying here?”

  “I might go to Bunri’s,” Hans answered, “but I haven’t decided.”

  Devon nodded and shut the door when he left.

  Late the next day, Devon announced that he was coming down the stairs of Bunri’s tower. A moment later, he entered the lab with Olza and Mazo following behind.

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  “I brought you some food,” Olza said, setting a basket on the workbench closest to Hans. Devon set a small wooden box next to it. That contained the Soft potions, Hans assumed.

  “And all of the kids are home safe,” Devon added. “Harriet was laughing at stories before we camped for the night. She was perfectly fine today, too.”

  “Thank you,” Hans said, directing his gratitude to both of them.

  Mazo pulled a stool over. She had it shortened when Bunri’s tower was the headquarters for their mana measurement experiments, so it perfectly suited her stature.

  “From the beginning,” she said. “Every detail.”

  Hans did as Mazo requested. She and Olza took notes as Hans recounted the story. Devon stood in the corner with his arms crossed.

  When Hans finished, Mazo took a few more notes and then said, “Okay. Touch Olza please.”

  “We already talked about this on our way down,” Olza interjected, knowing Hans was about to protest. “Dev and Mazo have weirdly high mana levels. I’m the most normal human in the room, and we have plenty of potions. It’s fine. I promise.”

  Olza extended her hand. Hans hesitated, but he reached out and held out.

  No one turned to stone.

  Mazo wrote that down. “Okay, tap her, starting with her wrist, and then work your way up to her nose to tap her the way you did Harriott.”

  Hans obeyed. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Nothing happened.

  The halfling narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her face. She studied Hans and then reviewed her notes. After a few minutes, she looked up again.

  “We can’t test if Harriet’s age was a factor,” Mazo said, “but there is one other variable we can. Tap Olza with intention. Think about wanting to Petrify her.”

  Olza nodded that she was fine with it.

  The Guild Master reached out and thought about using Petrify, a mental exercise akin to the intention required to cast a spell. As soon as his skin touched hers, the stone began to spread. Devon dumped a potion on Olza before the petrification could finish transforming her body. Other than a few labored gasps when the stone had faded completely, Olza was fine.

  “I’m sorry,” Hans said, shrinking into himself and away from everyone else in the room.

  “It’s alright,” Olza said. “I’m not hurt or upset. It felt so cold, though. I didn’t expect that.”

  Mazo was still focused on the experiment. “Have you been practicing the Petrify spell in secret?”

  “You know I haven’t.”

  “I did, but I needed the answer to be sure.” Then she rapid-fired through several more questions:

  “Do you have any enchanted items on your person? Are you carrying any of the dungeon’s unique materials, like Gruwalda iron, bronzewood, etcetera? Have you recently encountered a monster capable of casting Curse?”

  No, no, and no.

  “Don’t argue with me,” Mazo said. “I want you to imagine yourself shooting armarillia spores out from your body. And soak it with intention.”

  Hans looked at the halfling curiously and closed his eyes. He pictured himself poofing spores out of his skin with the same kind of intention he would put into a spell.

  Devon and Mazo coughed as he opened his eyes. The Paladin held a sleeping Olza in his arms. It looked as though he caught her before she fell out of her chair.

  Mazo waved the cloud away from her face and then cast a spell. Olza awoke as soon as the spell was complete.

  “I might be at my limit for being the spell target,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

  Mazo patted her knee. “That’s okay. We’re done with that for the time being.”

  Hans was again frozen by what he witnessed himself do.

  Devon looked across the room to Mazo. “You’ve got something, don’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Tell me,” Hans said. “I don’t need the preamble about confirmation and method and whatever other bullshit.”

  Mazo closed her notebook and crossed her legs. “The dungeon core regrew you. We’re pretty sure about that, but a few things make you different from the other things the dungeon grows. You’re human, or were human might be more accurate, but the dungeon core is also ninety-five percent Hans, or thereabouts.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your blood. You regrew the core with your life force. Maybe that gives it more than your memories. We have many more tests to do, but my present hypothesis is that you’re part dungeon core or are closely tied to it in some fashion. If you can recreate the abilities of other monsters in the dungeon, that would further support my hypothesis.”

  “When you say ‘part dungeon core,’” Devon began, “how literal are you being?”

  “Too early to say, but it might be quite literal. At a minimum, the core was probably pretty confused about how to regrow Hans, given how close and complex their connection has become.”

  “How dangerous does that make me?” Hans asked.

  “If abilities don’t activate without intention, which is how it seems, you’d be no more dangerous than a Blue Mage who knows a few spells. Head upstairs and try using Earth Smash, the earth elemental ability.”

  “I know which you mean.” Hans went upstairs.

  He stepped from the top of Bunri’s tower into the dungeon hallway. He pictured the motions Mazo made when she used Earth Smash, which was an animated two-handed hammerfist of sorts, and willed Earth Smash to happen.

  The ground shook, and a shockwave shot out from his hands and down the hallway, shattering pavers and cracking bricks until the force diminished ten feet or so away.

  Hans went back into Bunri’s tower.

  “Felt like it worked,” Mazo said.

  Hans nodded.

  “Why are you so pale?” Devon asked.

  “Because I need to get rid of this Curse or whatever it is.”

  Devon laughed. “First of all, you came back from the dead. That alone makes this a blessing. No one gets a second chance like that, and you did. That’s pretty amazing.”

  “How am I supposed to teach when I could Petrify or Sleep my students?”

  “Manage your intention,” Mazo said, answering for Devon. “If this is what it seems, that explains why no one else suddenly turned to stone from your touch. You never wanted them to turn to stone. Your imagination was a bit too vivid with Harriet, I think. But now we know.”

  Hans leaned against the wall and rubbed his face.

  “This sounds like something we can figure out,” Olza said, her voice warm with comfort.

  “Does anyone have ideas for undoing it?” Hans asked.

  Devon laughed again. This time harder.

  “This isn’t funny.”

  “It definitely is.”

  “Are you kidding me? Harriet turned-”

  “Children!” Mazo yelled. “How you two turn into ten-year-old boys the second you’re in the same room, I’ll never understand. Dev, use your words. Explain your conclusion, please.”

  “You’re right,” Devon said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t read the room. Hans, I’m saying you should be happy right now. This is your Diamond boon.”

  Quest Update: Master your Diamond boon.

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Monitor for independently grown sections of dungeon.

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Continue the momentum of establishing a Hoseki-grade library in Gomi.

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Plan for a possible encounter with Wargod.

  Master your Diamond boon.