“So, in addition to controlling my schedule, you want to tell me who to hire?” Luke asked.

  “Do you have a problem with that, loader jockey?” Agent Brown said mockingly.

  Luke smiled. His heart didn’t hurt anymore and he realized something about the oath he had sworn to SPEAR. The magic binding him was a literal magic. It didn’t work off intent, or they wouldn’t be able to get around it by talking about their “friend's” classes. It didn’t work off what he thought was the truth, it worked off what the magic decided was true.

  Based on what his heart felt like right now, Agent Brown’s order wasn’t covered by the oath. It must not be a lawful order. This guy he wanted to add to Luke’s Jaegers wasn’t something his supervisors had ordered. Agent Brown was trying to hook up a friend or work his own agenda. Either way, Luke had the power now.

  “No, I don’t have a problem with hiring a former SEAL that will follow my orders. But speaking of orders, I think we both know that wasn’t one,” Luke said.

  Bumblebee and Sandwich gave him a look. Agent Brown scowled and said, “Mr. Moore, I am ordering you to hire Daniel Rusznyak.”

  Luke leaned in and put his hands on his desk. “No.”

  Agent Brown sputtered and said, “What do you mean, no? You have to obey.”

  Luke shook his head. “No, I have to obey a lawful order from SPEAR. I don’t have to do whatever you want. This pet project of yours isn’t a lawful order.”

  A realization came over his face. “Who told you?”

  “No one told me. I can feel the oath, and it isn’t pushing me to obey you.” Luke held up his hand. “Now, I’m not saying I won’t hire your guy. I’m just saying if I do, we will have to work out some concessions. After all, it's incredibly expensive to employ a Jaeger. And I'm not just talking about the generous salary I pay. Each set of power armor is probably worth a million bucks on the open market. Maybe more. Just the maintenance on that is worth thousands a day.”

  Agent Brown sat back and folded his arms. He was silent for a long while. Luke didn’t blink. Eventually the agent waved Sandwich and Bumblebee away. “You two can go. I think we all know who’s the smartass in your organization.”

  They quickly left, heading back downstairs. When it was just the two of them, Agent Brown said, “What do you want?”

  “In exchange for hiring your buddy and not telling your bosses about it? I want a lot. But I will settle for what you can give me. First off, tell me the truth. What is up with SPEAR and the oaths? What are they really up to? The whole thing seems so shady. Are you really even a government organization?"

  Agent Brown scrunched up his face like he smelled something terrible. "You have some nerve, Mr. Moore. Yes, we are a real government organization. Officially sanctioned and everything. I was even on a zoom meeting with the president once."

  Luke rolled his hand. "Come on, tell me the details I want to know. You are trying to get me to do a favor here."

  "Oh, you want me to spill my evil plan like this is some sort of movie? Grow up. This is the real world. Sometimes we do mildly unpleasant things to protect our families. Deal with it." When Luke didn't reply, Agent Brown said, "I've never lied to you. SPEAR is a government agency, but our authority only stretches as far as Norfolk Complex. You leave the complex, we can't touch you. Our mission is to protect Earth, but so far our only orders have been to build a database of magic classes. We are the second line of defense, not the first. If Kalibutan ever attacks, the Marines have special forces teams with classes that will do the fighting. You'll be called in to support them. That's all the details you want to know, honest."

  That was good to know. Luke couldn't help but be slightly disappointed that the truth was so mundane. They were just one of many government agencies, his oath to them wasn't a deal with the devil. Assuming he trusted Agent Brown, anyway.

  Luke said, "I guess I'll have to accept that answer. Now, for the favor. If I hire your buddy, I want you to look out for me and my company. Put your ear to the ground, help us out if your leadership gets too interested in us. You'll be my man on the inside. I get that I need to do training and defend the Earth if we are attacked, but other than that, I want you to take care of everything, protect us and your friend,” Luke said. He stood back up and folded his arms, mirroring the agent. “You make my life easy, I make your life easy.”

  “You know, blackmail of a government official is illegal.”

  “This isn’t blackmail, this is office politics. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.”

  Agent Brown was silent for even longer this time.

  Luke kept staring at him. This wasn't a big ask. Agent Brown might not like the loss of control, but he needed to suck it up. It wouldn’t be too difficult for the official to leave him alone. Maybe. Whether it was hard or easy, Luke suspected there were other initiatives coming down the pipe that he really didn't want to bother with.

  “Alright. We’ll play it your way. But just so you know, if you piss me off or step out of line, it won’t be hard to get an official order to make you my personal bitch,” Agent Brown said.

  Luke held out his hands. “Now, no need for threats. This is a friendly talk. Now, tell me about Daniel. Is he your personal spy or what?”

  “What kind of monster do you think I am? Daniel’s a friend. He’s had a rough time since leaving the service and he needs to find his purpose again. A third of everyone entering that portal is getting a class. If he gets one, I know he’ll pull himself together.”

  Luke nodded. That seemed reasonable. He wasn't going to trust Daniel as far as he could throw him, but it wasn't like he had a lot of secrets in the first place. “Alright. As long as he doesn’t have PTSD that would endanger the rest of us, he can join.”

  Agent Brown nodded and Luke relaxed. He didn’t want someone unstable on his team, but he knew how hard it was for people in the military to transition to civilian life. Getting back out on the field should be good for Daniel.

  The meeting ended shortly afterwards and Luke walked downstairs to meet up with the others. They grilled him about what happened later, but Luke told them not to worry about it. He was hiring the former SEAL and it would be good for the company.

  That night at home, Luke pulled out his first aid kit. Carefully, he pulled the greater healing potion out from where he had hidden it. If he drank this now, he would wake up in the morning with two legs. But if he did that, Lord Edobar would do his best to make sure Luke never visited Kalibutan again.

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  These past five years, Luke had gotten used to having a prosthetic leg, particularly after he inscribed it with runes. But he never forgot what he had lost. He missed being able to feel his foot. To be able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without having to wake up fully. To have his right leg’s balance be unconscious instead of a constant focus. To not have that feeling of loss and grief when he looked at his stump.

  To go out in public without seeing looks of pity from strangers.

  That last one was possibly the worst. He hated it so much. They thought he was somehow lesser, they categorized him as broken with a look. If he didn’t take this potion, he would be stuck with that look of pity for the rest of his life.

  On the other hand, magic. Killing monsters got his blood pumping, he loved every second of throwing magic around, zipping across a clearing, and repairing his mech with a thought. If he took this potion, he would anger Lord Edobar enough that he would get banned from this portal at the very least. Maybe even the other US portal. Luke would have to leave the country to get his fix of magic and monsters. His life was here, friends, family, girlfriend. He didn't want to move.

  Unable to make up his mind for now, Luke tucked away the potion and went to bed.

  ???

  “Ah, thank the gods that’s done.” Luke said and leaned back.

  He had spent the day crafting weapons for the fight against the hive wolves tomorrow. He started with a Fire Spear for himself and a lightning hammer for Vanessa. Then he started on the big stuff.

  If Luke’s plan was effective, they would have a horde of monsters to fight all at once. They needed way more firepower to make that happen. Literally in this case because he had liberally used his new Adept Scintillating Fire rune.

  He had added it to his own mech, the Mark II. Then he added it to both arms of Vanessa’s mech, making sure to include a safety. She had been in a gun safety course all day, but he was still nervous about accidental firebombs. He wouldn't have installed them so soon, but they were pretty sure that tomorrow was the last day of her assessment period and she was gunning for an elemental mage class.

  Next, he repaired his magic drone the Voidsoul Turtles had killed. It was mostly intact, but he had to replace the mana core. Then he added two downward facing airguns with a long magazine. It should be able to rain down fire and lightning with impunity now.

  He finished preparation with a new weapon design, one he had cribbed from his National Guard training.

  “I hope these magnets work,” Allen said as he walked in with a large Amazon box. “The big ones you ordered are expensive, way more expensive than the little ones you usually use.”

  “They should work, yeah. I won’t know for sure until I test them. I’m headed over to Kalibutan in a minute. Do you want to come with?”

  “Eh, I wanna go, but monster hunting isn’t my idea of a fun time.”

  Luke said, “Don’t worry. We won’t be fighting monsters, just throwing around magic spells. You can use a suit of power armor to keep yourself safe. No one else is using them today since it’s an off day. In fact it would be a big help if you suit up and come with. We need to test the gauntlet mana linkage to the new weapons I built.”

  A smile blossomed across Allen’s face. “I’ll go get a pilot suit on!”

  Allen was dressed and into a suit of power armor before Luke even got up from his workbench. He hurried to join his friend and jumped into his own suit. Luke was just as excited to visit Kalibutan, but instead of seeing a magical world for the first time, he was looking forward to the havoc his weapons could wreak.

  Once he was suited up he knelt down near Jinx and said, “We’re headed over to Kalibutan for an hour or so. Do you want to come with or stay here?”

  Jinx raised her head and gave him a slow blink. Then she lay back down and snuggled into the pile of bandages she had torn out of their packages earlier. Luke chuckled and stood up to go.

  “Alright, you can stay here. I know you are still adjusting to the new legs I made for you. Give it time and they will feel normal again.”

  She twitched her ears. The humans headed out then, walking across the Norfolk Complex with long strides. Luke had stayed nearby in case Allen needed help getting used to the mech. Then he realized he was being dumb. Allen had piloted power loaders for years, and he had been doing touch ups on the mechs for two weeks now. Of course he could easily pilot the power armor.

  Getting through security was as easy as always, the guards were used to his contraptions by now. Allen was a bit nervous to walk through the event horizon of the portal, but once he was through, his fears vanished.

  He happily rushed forward and onto Kalibutan. Luke chuckled as his friend went on and on about the trees, the peoples, even the sky.

  “It’s blue, but like a darker blue than on Earth. It’s like the color of mana,” Allen said as he stared up at the sky.

  Luke gave the heavens his own considering look. “Maybe it is. Not all mana, but maybe the sky is bluer here because of the ambient mana in the air. Anyway, can we go now? I really want to test out my new weapons.”

  “Yeah, I imagine the guards wouldn’t like it if we started throwing around explosions here.”

  Luke chuckled and headed over to the stairs leading down from the stone plateau. He paused at the top and looked back at Allen. This was the spot where both he and Vanessa had gotten the notice that the system of the world was assessing them.

  Allen paused and looked around. Then his shoulders slumped and he shook his head.

  Luke winced and said, “That wasn’t your last chance, it just means that you are going to have a boring next few days. The system only pays attention to people who are going to be there when shit hits the fan.”

  Allen affected a disinterested attitude. “Whatever. Tell me about your weapon. Why does it look so weird?”

  “Mostly because of the treaty,” Luke said and led him south of the portal.

  Civilization was North, East, and West, but South was devoid of anyone that could be hurt by enthusiastic testing. There was a rocky section at the foothill of some nearby mountains that would be a good testing spot.

  “You mean the part about guns?”

  “Exactly. Most people from Kalibutan are bulletproof anyway, but they understand the danger of a sniper rifle. If I want to kill a whole mess of monsters, I gotta make something new.”

  “A mess of monsters? What are you, a cowboy?”

  “Nah, son. Iffin I wanted to yammer like a cowboy I woulda said, ‘A whole passel o critters’.”

  “No, man, don’t torture me like that.” Allen laughed and shoved Luke.

  He shoved back, making Allen stumble to the side several steps. “Sorry ‘bout that, don’t rightly know my own strength.”

  Allen looked down. “Yeah, ‘cus you literally have triple the strength stat you started with.”

  Talk of magic classes made both of them uncomfortable so Luke said, “Anyway. Back to the weapon. It looks a lot like a mortar because it basically is.” He pointed to the lever on the side of the cylinder. “You load up a magnet and then pull this back. It compresses an industrial spring and connects the powering runes. From there you sight it in and push a bit of mana from the gloves into the activation rune here.”

  “This seems like a lot of work to make a crappier version of the arm cannons you already have installed in your mech.”

  “They are for different purposes. Watch.” Luke raised his arm and fired his new air rifle. The runes added a spell to the magnet and it was launched far into the broken scree. The bright fireball exploded in a flash as it hit, leaving an orange spot on the rocks that quickly faded.

  “Now, you try,” Luke said and pointed to the magical mortar.

  Allen loaded and pulled the lever back, something that was slightly difficult even with his robotic assistance. When it was ready, he put his hand on the trigger. Nothing happened. He turned to Luke and said, “What am I doing wrong?”

  “You have to push intent through the gloves into the mortar.”

  Allen turned back to the mortar he held in his hands. He stared at it for a moment and then the runes ignited all at once. The spring shot the magnet through the air in a high arc. A fireball twice the size of the first one formed around the larger magnet, trailing fire like a comet.

  The magnet hit the stones and bounced once before coming to a stop. It was still burning brightly, long after it hit. Luke had discovered that with enough mana pumped through the runes a big magnet would capture a long lasting spell. The fire went out after just under a minute, leaving a smoking hole and softly glowing rocks.

  Luke started dancing. That had been perfect. The new weapon was exactly what he needed, the final step of the plan to exterminate the Hive Wolves. He would put his plan into action tomorrow.