“Really, you two had to spend all of yesterday separate, and I somehow didn't see any of it,” I said as I sat down at a lunch table with the Twinoges currently telling a story. They had been my next target for figuring out who was going to do what during these events. But they had managed to distract me with their previous day of again being two different people.

  “Yep, and the weirdest part was the vision I had when I was visiting the new tree with Alpha and the Hoary Marmot,” Cecile replied. “Still not sure what to make out of it. It was incredibly strange.”

  “When you get a chance, make sure you let Elody know about it. I'm not sure I'll be any help there.” Visions from a world tree just weren't something I had the slightest idea about, and while I wasn't sure Elody could answer the questions, she was a much better resource than I would be here.

  “Yeah, that's already on my list of things to discuss with both of the former librarians. Sadly, they knew next to nothing about what's happening to Cecile and me,” Elicec added.

  “What did the process of re-merging feel like, anyway?” Pryte asked after setting down his own food. He had an assortment of several different items from the kitchens, all experiments that Rabyn was trying to perfect in the last few days he had before the cook-off.

  “Don't know. We went to sleep separately and woke up in a single Twinoge body again. I just wish we had any idea what was going on,” Cecile answered.

  “I mean, we know it's got something to do with your class, right?” I asked, taking a bite of my own odd crustacean-based dish. It almost tasted like a lobster pasta, but I knew there was no way he'd used lobster for this, so what was I eating? Rabyn had called it a shellfish surprise.

  “Probably, though know is a bit too strong a word, but getting back to the important topic, what did you want to see us for anyway?” Elicec asked.

  “Yeah, this is kind of a weird grouping you got here,” Glord added, as he and his sister grabbed two seats, Lorgela nodding as she sat next to him.

  “That's because we're running out of people to sort into our events properly,” Pryte replied after quickly choking down another bite. “Originally, I had been planning to have your older brother here for this as well, but his new project has firmly placed him into a different camp of useful.”

  “The mana beast sanctuary?” Lorgela asked, a note of pride in her question.

  “Yep, that's the one. We finally got the full list of events for the competition, and befriending a mana beast is one of them,” I said.

  “Told you it was a good idea, Glord,” Lorgela said with a smirk.

  “Yeah, yeah, I should have known Glorp was right, he usually is,” Glord replied with a sigh.

  “Wait, so what event do you need us for?” Lorgela asked.

  “Well, thanks to the dungeon delving squad, you all recently decided to put together, that puts the two of you perfectly suited to join the group that's going to be handling a dungeon,” I explained.

  “Wait, is it just the four of us?” Glord asked, looking around the table in shock.

  “Five. I'll be on the squad as well. Corey, Beta, and Gamma may also be with us, depending on how I place them,” I answered.

  “Wait, what about Orglina and Gorpila?” Lorgela asked.

  “Gorpila is going to be working with Rabyn for a cooking event. Your youngest sister, I'm going to need for an entertaining event, I think. Her new mana orb is probably too useful for that to put her anywhere else. But that could…” My answer was cut off mid-final sentence as a searing pain shot through my body.

  It was accompanied by a new System message, which I only just managed to read as my head crashed down into my food.

  “Dave, you okay?” Pryte shouted as I felt Cecile already scanning me.

  “That was weird, and my head hurts like hell. One second,” I replied, fighting waves of pain. I triggered several different abilities that Corey normally would have already taken care of. What the hell had happened to them? They had just figured out how to make the soul chats work individually before this hit.

  Closing out the chat message, I took several deep breaths while wiping random bits of seafood from my face. The searing stab had left a dull headache that the pain management mana skill was only partially handling. It likely would have been doing a better job had whatever the System just done not nearly drained both of my energy reserves.

  In the good news, this was likely the final motivation I needed to actually use the mana skills I had unlocked in my imbuing orb a while ago. Once my headache cleared and this meeting was over, I was going to find something to mana bond so that I could keep a well of energy in case anything like this happened again. And knowing me, it sure as hell would.

  “All right, everyone here. I'm about to say some words that we need to keep very quiet. You two have already been brought into the trust circle pretty strongly, so I believe you will keep this secret. It's not to be brought up unless it's within a meeting of the core group in a private room like this,” I said as I looked in the eyes of both of Glorp's siblings.

  They were young, but I believe we could trust them. They had proven themselves a lot in recent times. Pryte and the Twinoges I already trusted entirely. While Cecile could probably let some information slip from time to time, anything truly important, the man would keep a tight lid on.

  “I understand,” Lorgela said, while her brother nodded.

  “So what stupid thing just happened? I assume it has to do with whatever Corey was trying,” Pryte asked. Despite his shout to check on me, he hadn't actually stopped eating during the entire event. There were times when the Gnome's priorities were only on his stomach. That, or he just assumed I did enough idiotic things that I'd always be fine.

  “So you know how it's been said several times that the link between Corey and me isn't exactly something that would be well received within the Spiral?” I asked, looking to Pryte.

  “Oh, good, what stupid thing did you two do?” He shook his head as he replied.

  “Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with this one. Hell, Ivan and I even told Corey not to do anything too stupid. But they were exploring the soul realm, and while doing so, somehow they created a class orb for themselves,” I said, watching as Pryte finally dropped his fork to his plate in stunned silence.

  “I didn't know dungeon cores could have classes,” Glord said, looking confused at Pryte's reaction.

  “Oh, they can. It's one of those things that not only is heavily frowned upon within the Spiral, it is also very much something they will act against us if they find out it has happened,” Pryte said through clenched teeth.

  “When you say they, what kind of crime is this exactly? Because, as far as I can tell, every faction out here is constantly taking part in criminal activity. And it just seems to be overlooked based on how much anyone cares,” I replied, watching Pryte's face for any tells on how big this shit pile was.

  “In normal circumstances, if the big guys found out, they would obliterate us. Right now, they would probably capture you and figure out what the hell caused this to even be possible. The only good news is that, due to the way that Corey is integrated into you, I don't think it will be possible for them to tell it's not just another class you have,” Pryte answered, tentatively picking his fork up again.

  “Yeah, about that. Corey gained a class called Soul Architect, and then I got a notification that my Core Architect class and their Soul Architect class had caused another class to form within us. This one is called a Human-Dungeon Core Paragon class. So I think that might just give it away,” I replied, watching the fork clatter back to the plate.

  “Stand up and drop every defense you can. I want to scan you as close as I can. It's not like I could tell your exact class name before, but I've never deeply tried,” Pryte ordered as he also stood up.

  I had no reason to fight it, so after taking another quick bite of food, I did exactly as he asked. Dropping all of my activated mana skills helped with my energy drain, but it also brought the headache back strongly. I massaged my temples as I nodded for Pryte to go ahead.

  Instantly, I felt the telltale signs of several different scans go over my body, some of them penetrating deep into my core. I wasn't actually sure what all Pryte’s class allowed him to do. So this was a learning experience for me as well.

  “Still just looks like you’re using a dungeon core for your own classes. I can’t even see that third class you’re talking about. What kind of abilities does it have?” Pryte asked.

  “Haven't actually checked yet, but let me take a look,” I said as I pulled up the system menu, looking at just what exactly Corey had gotten us into.

  That was it. Not the tiniest bit of other abilities or anything that would be unlocked if I found a spiral gate. While some features of the Core Architect class had been pretty cryptic, they didn't compare in the slightest to this. The look on everyone's faces as I relayed exactly what this said told me they shared my own uneasiness with what this could mean.

  “Dave, of everything that you have ever done or said, this is the first time that I have ever questioned, just what the hell you've gotten us into, to a level that I don't have a potential answer. I don't know what a Spiral gate is. I’ve literally never heard the phrase in my life,” Pryte replied, sitting back down to his food.

  “I may know what a spiral gate is,” Corey said, manifesting in the room with us.

  “Oh, good, you're back. Can you keep track of the soul core reaction and figure out how the hell it exactly functions now? I need to get rid of this headache. But also, why do you think you know what a Spiral gate is?” I asked the dungeon core.

  “I'm already working on the soul core reaction. As for the spiral gate, I believe it’s the gate I saw within the strange city deep in soul space. It would partially explain why this class was unlocked, but I have no idea how to get us both safely there,” Corey answered.

  “Yeah, that would make some sense. It still doesn't tell me what the hell is going on. Alright, everyone, as Dave said, this is all beyond top secret. We're going to, in fact, file this all away until after the competition is done because I can't think of any way this is going to help us other than as massive distractions. Everyone good with that?” Pryte asked, looking around the table.

  “I think so, but man, I'm worried it's going to give me nightmares,” Cecile replied.

  “We're all good with this,” Elicec added while Glord and Lorgela nodded along.

  “So I guess back to the dungeon planning then,” I said, trying to change the topic to spare Pryte his own nightmares. My headache was already starting to lessen, so whatever Corey was doing was working.

  “Yes, so it'll be the four of you and Dave, plus whichever of the dungeon cores possibly join. Alpha is definitely off the table. There isn't much we can do to plan a strategy, as we have no idea what the dungeon will be, but Dave is pretty much an expert when it comes to dungeons at this point. Listen to him and listen to Elicec,” Pryte said as we moved back to the actual topic we needed to cover.

  “We'll do our best to keep the dungeon core alive, but considering what we're walking into, there's a real chance it's already completely insane,” I said as I started to lay out what little plans I had for the venture, my mind shifting to wanting more food, preferably something that my head hadn't been in.

  I knew that was just the defense mechanism against what was actually going on in the back of my brain. But this was one change too far for me to easily process right now. Pryte was right that it would just be a distraction we didn't need. So I stuck to that and kept the talk focused on the upcoming dungeon delve.

  There are things even I prefer not to look too deeply into. While exploring the depths of chaotic space was one final adventure for me, what a jet black gateway, hidden in the heart of a cluster of black holes, was, I was not willing to find out. Perhaps in another lifetime. Some mysteries must wait behind other priorities.

  Besides, I was much more interested in learning how that strange card magic I had heard about worked. Plus, Ronald found the gate even more unsettling than I did

  Grom’s Musings

  Starry-Eyed Hero

  by QuiteTheSlacker

  Ten year old Astra has always dreamed of reaching the stars.

  As a humble farm boy living in the countryside, Astra's been surrounded by forests and flowing rivers his entire life. It's a routine full of family fun, community, and good ol' hard work... but sometimes, he'd lay on the grass at night and gaze out toward those bright stars above.

  He'd reach out with his hands, and he felt a yearning to see them: to form a bond crossed in starlight, regardless of the vast space between. Thus was a wish sent to the cosmos. One day, he too would shine just as bright.

  That opportunity would soon come in the form of a galaxy-wide competition for the chance to enter the most prestigious school in the milky way, Excelsior Academy, where noble children from the kingdoms of the Twelve Constellations are raised to become leaders, trailblazers, and most importantly warriors against meteoric monsters from beyond the universe. The encroaching slither of the Constellars.

  Astra doesn't have a special bloodline, belong to a royal house, nor is he the chosen one. But against all these kids with powerful backgrounds and fated destinies, Astra has only one wish.

  To shine bright as a starry-eyed hero.