The return trip had been much slower than I would have liked. It didn’t leave me much time to do a thorough reconnaissance of the area before nightfall, and considering we’d been away for most of the day, that was plenty of time for something to have tried to move in.

  “Lukiss, help Ash get everyone unloaded into that building. Ralph, stay with him. Floof and I will take a look around, make sure nothing's crept in while we were away,” I said, pointing to the garage we had spent the previous night in.

  The door didn't look like it had been tampered with, and nothing was itching at the back of my perception, so at least that remained safe. But considering the dungeon, the leviathan, and the slugs, it was possible something else had snuck past, either in or around one of the other buildings, and I really didn't want anything attacking us in the night.

  “Floof, go around the back of the buildings. Meet me at the far end,” I said to the dog, curious about how much he would actually understand. I didn't expect him to listen perfectly, but this would be a good test.

  If he’d already picked a class, I was really curious what it was. There were just as many animal classes out there as there were for others. Hell, there were plenty of classes designed for people that could be applied to animals just as easily. But that wasn't a field I knew a ton about. We were going to eventually have to find someone who was an expert in animal companions.

  If somehow he was managing to hold off on picking one, all the better. But considering he had started applying attributes as he leveled up, it seemed unlikely. It was probably far too much to expect him to understand that the class choices would become even better at higher levels.

  As I passed the houses that I knew were already infested with the rats, I couldn't sense much of a change in them. That was probably a good sign, but it likely meant the dungeon had been growing. I'd prefer if it stayed about the same size until we were ready to handle it. That day was getting pretty close, but it wasn't here yet.

  It wouldn't be here, not until I was sure Ash was on the path to fully beating the cancer. Once I was, we were gonna storm that dungeon together, and I was going to teach her exactly how to properly delve.

  I was glad to find nothing new as I rounded the final still-standing house of the row. I was surprised to find Floof standing there waiting for me.

  “Good boy.” If he had managed to understand my previous instructions, it seemed pretty likely he understood being told he was a good boy.

  “Alright, come on, let's get back to the others. We’ll see if we can put something together for food and figure out just how bad everyone else is. Maybe I can even get my arm working again.”

  Floof looked directly at me and nodded his head. That, more than anything he had done so far, confirmed to me entirely that he had figured out his System interface.

  Several grumbles emanated from inside the garage as we neared. One of them sounded a lot like Lukiss's voice, but the words were entirely alien. Once I was inside, I saw why. It seemed the Rock Trolls had already woken up despite Ralph's expectations.

  Quickly looking to the humans, I saw they weren't quite so lucky. They had been set up comfortably on some makeshift beds in the corner.

  “Everything okay?” I asked, looking to Lukiss and then to Ralph.

  Ralph only shrugged, while Lukiss continued talking to who I assumed were his parents. What I'd initially taken for some sort of anger, at second glance, looked to be more like just highly animated happiness. These were parents overwhelmed, but glad to see their son again. I could entirely relate.

  “Sorry, they were just excited. When they woke up, they hadn’t expected to see so many other people, especially not me. They hadn't even expected to live through the spider attack.” One of the Rock Trolls, who looked like a much larger version of Lukiss, leaned in and hugged him tightly as he spoke.

  Several more words were exchanged in a language I couldn't understand. The other surviving Rock Trolls each walked up to me and gave me a strange bow. While I couldn't understand any of their words, it was obvious that it was a gesture of gratitude.

  “Lukiss, could you tell all of them that I don't need any thank you? And that was the right thing to do.” I had just never been overly comfortable with big shows of thanks. I hadn't done anything that people shouldn't do for each other.

  That didn't mean I was stupid enough to think that everyone did do it. I understood that during an integration, most people tended to leave everyone else to die and only help themselves. But if I was going to be forced back into this, I was certainly never going to become one of those types.

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  “They said they'll try to tone it down, but they do want you to know how appreciative they are for reuniting them with their son,” he said, sounding embarrassed with that last bit. “They also want to know if you understand what's actually going on with that voice that keeps telling them things.”

  “Tell them that yes, I do, but I am not one of the groups invading our newly combined world. The other Humans and I, not including Ralph, were from one of the planets that was merged together when the integration started.”

  He quickly rattled off the translation of what I had said in his language to the other Rock Trolls.

  “They want to know if that's why we seem to have more moons now?” Lukiss translated back to me.

  “Yes, that's one of the big changes. The size of the planet is also likely to have grown by a lot, as well as the landscape deeply shifting all over it. There's going to be an increase in the type and number of monsters across it, but not everything is a monster. Those spiders we fought, for example, were part of an invading force, one that is competing with other invaders to claim this planet and its resources,” I said, giving a quick explanation for what was going on.

  “Sorry, it turns out that this species of rock trolls is a little more resistant to poisons than the ones I'm used to from within System space,” Ralph said, joining us.

  He then looked at the family of rock trolls and started speaking the same language they had been using with each other. I decided right then, at the moment we were safe enough, I was finding all of us something to handle translations. I hated being in the dark like this.

  Just the information we had likely missed out on from not being able to spy on the spiders alone should have convinced me already. But this had been enough to do it.

  “Ralph, let me know if anyone needs anything. I'm gonna go talk to Ash about her new classes and levels,” I said, not wanting to put that off for any longer today.

  “Don't worry. Between Lukiss and me, I think we got this, right, kid?” He shared a wink with the younger Rock Troll.

  “Thanks,” I said, heading for where Ash was sitting next to Floof. “Well, after that giant mess, how are you holding up? How are your energy levels?”

  “I don't know. I think I'm okay, but I keep lingering on that weird dream I can't really remember. I feel like that title is connected to it somehow,” she replied.

  I had a worrying feeling that was all connected to the glyph I had carved onto her arm. The timing was far too coincidental for me to believe otherwise. But no matter where this stood, there wasn't anything we could do to figure this out yet. Even Ralph didn't know what was going on, not exactly.

  “It's possible, but it's usually best not to dwell on things we don’t have a chance of figuring out yet. And right now, I assume we've got other things to deal with. What level did you hit?” I asked, running my hand over the top of her head in reassurance.

  “Twenty-four,” she replied. I had hit the same level, which was to be expected. We weren't really doing different things at the moment, but with her strange title, it was possible she’d been able to do something else and get experience from it.

  “Alright, good, keep putting all of your free attributes in constitution. Let me do mine real quick, and then we'll go through classes together, okay?” I said, giving her a gentle smile. Behind us, the rock trolls had begun to laugh loudly along with Ralph.

  “Works for me,” she replied.

  Fourteen new levels, meant another seventy attribute points. Constitution was the first priority. Gift of Growth meant I could give Ash up to forty-eight points now, and while that applied to any attribute, I just didn't have the spare points in them to share yet.

  I settled for moving my Constitution up to sixty, with Iron Fortitude pushing it up to sixty-six. That left eighteen points of Constitution for me, with the rest of it going to Ash. I took the ten points I had been holding in reserve and split them with the rest of the attribute points across the other three stats, bringing each up to twenty.

  We were leveling quickly, and I was glad for that, but I knew it wouldn't last forever. We were about to hit our first doubling bottleneck at level twenty-five. And that would continue every twenty-five levels after, with experience needed again doubling.

  It was one of the many ways the System made sure that the people newest to it could participate in it. If those at the bottom didn't level faster than those at the top, it would just be a bigger bloodbath than it already was. But that slowdown could be a giant problem if we didn't find the right class before it happened.

  “Huh, interesting. You kids found a mana orb, did you?” Grimbleflork, the Goblin, who had invited him to this auction, said. The first thing they had done when they arrived was to track him down, partially because he was the only one they knew, and partially because they could be sure he spoke the same language they did.

  “One of the big frog monsters dropped it when we killed it,” Alecks replied.

  “Yeah, that's not too surprising. Some of the more powerful monsters have managed to develop mana orbs of their own,” Grimbleflork said.

  “What exactly is a mana orb? Remember, we don't know anything here,” Adam added, trying to steer the conversation to what they really need to know.

  “Keep in mind I ain't really much of an expert on this. But as far as I know, mana orbs are the crystallized form of mana. It's something that solely happens inside the body of any channeler. We all eventually start to form our own mana orbs. And if they are refined enough, sometimes they survive the death of the host,” he answered.

  “What can we do with it?” Alecks asked.

  “There are a few options. Some people put them inside weapons, armor, or other items, with special slots for ‘em. Others take them into their own body, but that can be incredibly difficult to make work, since the mana signatures are completely alien. Some people just break them down, and then use their components for other things,” the goblin answered.

  “So what do you think we should do with it?” I asked.

  “I think you should find someone here who could appraise it and see what they're willing to buy it off you for. You kids could use it to buy some real armor or weapons. It’s gonna be a long while before you figure out how to work a mana orb.”

  Memories of Adam Miller before he found Earth