Walking slowly, I made it inside under my own power. Ingrid and Blaze stayed close on either side, ready to catch me if I stumbled. Bhaarrt loomed behind, his heavy bare feet slapping on the convention center’s tile floor as we entered the middle of the room.

  The main room buzzed with activity. The two halves of the room split down the middle with soldiers on the far side and academics closer to the door we entered. Neat rows of tables for the soldiers and scattered tables and chairs for the GRA and university types. The air smelled faintly of coffee and various snacks on the academic side. Their discussions were undercut by the hum of electronics and the clatter of keyboards.

  The academic side’s people had swelled to at least three times its normal size. Professors and grad students crowded in, voices overlapping in bursts of jargon. Across the way, most of the soldiers huddled around a bank of terminals, probably combing through the drone videos and satellite feeds.

  I hesitated, unsure which group to approach first. Dr. Peters spotted me and waved me over. First come, first served, I decided, angling toward his table.

  “I know you just got the samples, but besides the obvious, have you found anything in…“I glanced at my watch,”…ten minutes?”

  “If by obvious you mean dirt, stone, dung, and some bits of plants, wood, and cud, then not yet. We’re still looking,” Peters said.

  Two microscopes sat on the long table. Students hunched over them, shoulders tense, while others in gloves and masks sorted baggies of material. The sharp tang of disinfectant hung faintly in the air.

  “What else have you found?” I asked.

  “Nothing beyond that. Apparently, sheep use the cave often. They’ve trampled their dung deep into the dirt. Some people are surprised there isn’t more vegetation. As soon as we get a centrifuge here, we’re separating bacteria from the samples to culture it.”

  He pointed at another table further away. So far, what we’ve identified is standard soil and ruminant strains. Normal for the area. Specialists are on their way.”

  “I figured most of it would be normal. Anything created by the Game would’ve had only a week to grow, and I don’t know if it generates things that detailed.” I froze mid-thought. “Created. The Game creates everything out of MANA. MANA!”

  “Yes, you’ve told us that,” Peters said carefully. “Why is that important?”

  “Have your people step away from the table. I can DETECT MANA on the samples. If anything’s Game-created or modified, I think I can see it.”

  His expression shifted…from skepticism to the kind of wary interest you give someone who might just be foxlike crazy. “We should have thought of that. Stay there.” He hurried off to clear the table.

  “Will,” Ingrid said softly from behind. “Chair. Sit until they’re ready.”

  I turned. She stood, holding on to a chair behind me, watching me like a hawk. “You aren’t taking any chances, are you?” I lowered myself down slowly, steadying on the backrest.

  Her head shook. “No. I didn’t like how you looked when they brought you in. You overdid it today. We need you at full strength…for your spells, for how you hold everyone together. You’re not doing this alone, and we won’t let you. Maybe we could beat this boss without you, but what about the next one? What happens if you’re not here?”

  I managed a smile up at her. “You’ll do just fine. You’ll figure it out. You can’t depend on one person.”

  “We know that,” Blaze cut in, her tone edged with ice. “That’s why we’ve been running our own spawn fights. Learning to mix what we’ve got and make it work no matter what the Game throws at us. But we still need you to keep us steady.”

  “I talked to Dr. Lucas, your orthopedist,” Ingrid added. “You were due for a checkup six months ago. You’ve got an appointment Monday morning at nine. Blaze will make sure you get there on time.”

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  Blaze smirked. “And if I gotta light another fire under your ass to get you moving, I will.”

  That cracked a laugh out of me. “Literally light a fire.” I sighed, knowing I’d lost this battle. “Fine. I’ll be there.”

  “You better,” Ingrid pressed. “He said no overdoing it until he sees you. If I have to drag him here to check you in person, I will.”

  “Why do I believe that?” I said deadpan. “Maybe because you would. You ought to be a doctor. You act like one.”

  “I’m a paramedic. I'm used to being around them. Daryll keeps telling me to move up to nurse practitioner, maybe ER doctor. I’ve put it off. But give me a few more levels, and I can heal the damage to your legs. Until then, you’re not getting closer to this thing than you have to.”

  She pressed her hand over my mouth before I could answer. “I know…you need to be there to draw it out, protect people. Fine. But you’re not going in without a way back safe. If you don’t take care of yourself, I’ll stick you in a hatch of one of those army vehicles to direct the fight. That’s what we’ll do. Before we went there, I told the lieutenant to send men after you if they had to at the quarry.”

  All I could do was stare. This was a side of her I hadn’t seen before. Some of it, but not this intensity. This was Ingrid, yes…but mostly Sally McCormack, paramedic, in full force.

  “Will.” Shadow’s voice cut in from the other side. “This time you’ll do as we say. You point; we kill it. You ain’t gonna be in the line. You can sit back and be Napoleon. Cast all the shields you want. But you stay out of it. Ya hear?”

  “Loud and clear.” I straightened. Bhaarrt was across the room with the military, and Blaze had slipped off somewhere, but I knew I’d get the same lecture from both before the day was out.

  Silently waiting, I watched them finish laying things out on the table with the microscopes.Finally, Dr. Peters turned to me and said, “We’re ready. Cast your detection spell and let us know what you see.”

  “OK.” I looked at Ingrid. “Can I get up so I can see better? Go over there if I see something?”

  She chuckled. “Go ahead. But Shadow and I will drag you back if you get reckless, and back to the chair you go.” Shadow’s laugh confirmed it.

  “I promise.” My legs ached but held as I held onto the back of the chair to support myself as I stood up. I cast DETECT MANA over the table. Most items looked ordinary…but not all.

  “I need to get closer,” I said, shuffling forward. I pointed to three baggies and both microscopes. “Those. The rest looks normal.”

  Peters and another researcher swept the extras aside. I leaned in. The baggies glowed indistinctly. Slides in racks beside the scopes shimmered with the same light. When I looked in one microscopes, one slide showed rock flecked with a strand of dried grass. Another held grit smeared with something dark. I pressed my palms to the table, straining to focus.

  “I can’t tell what’s MANA and what isn’t. Spread out the slides…I’ll see if all of them glow or just some.” I retreated to my chair on my own, but under Ingrid’s and Shadow’s watchful eyes. Their hands were ready to grab me.

  “Did I do as the doctor ordered?” I grinned. She laughed.

  “You did fine,” Ingrid told me. “Now let them do their thing. What did you find? It had to be something.”

  “Something, but it’s too small to say. At least the sheep dung didn’t glow. The thought of a Boss Monster sheep is a little too corny…unless the Game makes that baaaad a joke.”

  A light smack caught the back of my head. I laughed; Shadow laughed with me.

  “You couldn’t help it, could you?” She asked.

  “Nope. It’s part of me. Suffer well.”

  “Huh? Don’t get that one.”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Ingrid said. “Or Daryll will…he used to play one.”

  “Oh. Fine. But he still deserves it for the puns and bad jokes.”

  “Don’t forget obscure cat references which you got,” I teased, ducking. They both laughed, drawing puzzled looks from the room.

  Eventually, Peters called us back. They’d spread the samples into neat groups. I cast again, pointing out what glowed…less than a quarter of the baggies, and five groups of slides.

  After repeating the process several times, Peters rubbed his forehead. “If we’re down to separating individual grains of sand, it’ll take hours. Can you return later?”

  “We can,” I said. “I want to hear what the Army found anyway.”

  “Thank you. Come back around five…we’ll have more prepped.”

  “Deal.” I headed toward the soldiers’ side, Ingrid and Shadow catching up to flank me again. My body betrayed me then…I noticed sweat dripping down my back, fatigue weighing heavier.

  “Will? What’s wrong? You look worse.” Ingrid’s voice was clipped, clinical.

  “Not sure. It started when I left the table. I need to sit before I fall.”

  “Ingrid!” Shadow barked.

  “Darryl! Help! Now!” Ingrid snapped.

  Bhaarrt’s head shot up. He barreled through the crowd. I managed two steps before he had his huge arms wrapped around me. One arm around my back and the other under my legs. Shadow and Ingrid assisted me into his embrace.

  I expected someone to shout for a medic, but no one did…not with Ingrid already gripping my arm.

  “Shadow…” she started.

  “I know…get your bag.” Shadow bolted for the parking lot door.

  “I got ya, buddy,” Bhaarrt rumbled behind me, his massive hands bracing me upright. The world tilted. Pressure bore down on me, smothering. A siren wailed faint in the distance. Maybe for me?

  I closed my eyes. The dizziness ebbed, but only a little.

  First Mana Mage - The Dungeon. Then we'll take a short break like we did for book 3, and start book 4.

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