There was no need for a campfire with the ambient heat of the crust. They had to be getting close to Ifskar’s mantle by now. But they still set up Ash’s equipment to operate the welder, and the wilting furnace to melt the cards.

  Jace made a checklist of what he had to do: First, gather Aes from the central crystals. Integrate it, distribute some attributes, and hopefully, he’d finally have enough Aes to finish opening his soul-circle. He might be stronger than average, but no way was he facing Rallemnon without at least being level forty-five.

  Then, between helping with Lessa’s enhancements, he’d work with his cards, and hopefully, they’d be able to reforge his hyperdash.

  Beyond that, there was nothing more he could do to prepare.

  So, while the others were setting up equipment, he scaled the side of the egg. Climbing from wire to wire and ducking between tubes, or dodging spinning gears and chains, he searched for a way in.

  When he reached the top, having spiraled all the way around the outside of the silver egg, he found nothing.

  But, he reminded himself, you don’t need the crystals. You need the Aes. That’s in the tube up-top.

  Scrambling up the side, he approached the upper tube, then wedged his feet up against the base of a tube and held onto a wire with his flesh and blood hand.

  He drew his Whistling Blade and sliced open the tubes at the top, and immediately, puffs of golden Aes poured into the empty air. It was like the columns that vented into his chest every time he defeated an opponent, and it dissipated quickly.

  How…how to draw it in?

  It was free-flowing, unlike the Aes in the accumulator nodes, and when he held his real hand over it, it tingled.

  Recalling the old cycling patterns Kinfild had taught him, he settled into a calm pattern. Sure, they were for internally moving Aes, but if he could create a vacuum in his channels where he wanted the external Aes to enter…

  He pulled his Aes back and away from the channels in his hand, emptying them, then inserted his palm into the column of pure Aes. It flowed in willingly for a millisecond, then stopped.

  The golden sheets whirled up in front of him, warning, [You are about to draw in -UNKNOWN- units of raw Aes. Proceed?]

  “Yeah,” Jace whispered with intent.

  The Aes changed direction without warning and flooded toward him. It condensed into streaks and spiralled around his hand, then shot up his arm. Some tendrils blasted straight into his hand, and others picked channels farther along the limb before dipping in and entering his channels.

  Immediately, his arm blazed with heat, and pain lanced along his arm. He didn’t exactly know what it’d feel like for someone to pump twice as much blood through his vessels, but that was the same feeling he got for his channels. There was just too much Aes all at once trying to enter, and it wasn’t going in through the normal means. It wasn’t like a quest reward that dumped large sums right into his core.

  “Oh, shit…” he breathed.

  A pressure built in the palm of his hand, and before he could do anything, it burst. An explosion of pure Aes flung him back off the top of the silver egg, and he tumbled through a mess of tubes and wires before falling to the ground below and landing hard on his back. A column of Aes trailed behind him, fountaining toward his arm, but after a few more seconds, it dimmed.

  His channels glowed gold beneath his skin, but he clenched his teeth, containing the energy, then passed it around his body with the techniques Kinfild taught him.

  Aes lurched past his core. He let it spread out and filter through his body until his channels no longer threatened to burst apart.

  Panting, he blinked and looked up. Lessa and Kinfild stood directly overtop, looking down.

  “Are you alright?” Lessa asked.

  “Uh…” Jace blinked a few times and rubbed his head. “I think so.”

  “That was truly foolish,” Kinfild said. “I thought you were going to slit open a tube and siphon off Aes slowly.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “He lived, didn’t he?” Perril asked. “Oh, to be young. I did plenty of silly things with Aes back in my younger years, too.”

  “You are not quite old enough to be talking like that,” Ash said.

  “Oh, and you are? Fifty’s the magic boundary, aye?”

  “I did not say that.”

  “Well—”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Jace said. He sat up then opened his main status sheet, curious how well it worked.

  He’d reached level forty-two. Good, but…

  “I’m going back for more,” he announced, then hopped to his feet. May as well get to level forty-five before completing his soul-circle opening business, and if all he needed was to draw on the Aes…maybe he could go a little higher, too.

  Kinfild and Lessa both groaned, but Perril and Ash shrugged.

  “You weren’t like that growing up?” Perril asked Kinfild. “Not even a bit?”

  “Not growing anymore, hopefully,” Jace reminded her as he scrambled up through the wires. “I am technically twenty years old.”

  “Not physically, aye.”

  “I, in fact, was very cautious about my advancement,” Kinfild said. He leaned on his staff.

  “And that is why he is still level thirty,” Ash said. “Thirty-one. There is no growth without risk, and you would do well to gather some Aes of your own when Jace is done. Before that spring peters out entirely.”

  “I will consider it, but only because the heir of the Starrealm is asking.”

  “You don’t desire growth?” Perril questioned as she laid out automaton parts and scratched her chin.

  “Not all Wielders do,” Kinfild muttered. “I desire what I need to do my job and serve the Crimson Table.”

  “Aye, and as I understand it, the crimson table’s falling apart.” Perril placed down a long metal rod. “Besides, we need you at a greater strength if we’re facing that kyborg guy.”

  “We?” Jace asked. He was nearly at the top again, and with how fast he was cycling his Aes, he’d nearly converted it all to a hyperspace-aspect already. “You’re coming with us, then, Perril?”

  She pursed her lips for a few seconds, as if musing on the right response and trying desperately to come up with something. “Well, I need to come down with you guys anyway to deactivate the core, otherwise I’m not getting out either. And you’ll have better chances of destroying the dungeon core if I help out.”

  “Yeah, she’s coming with us,” Lessa said.

  “I think we’ll need more bunks on the Wrath,” Kinfild sighed.

  “I—” Perril shook her head. “We’ll see. If Ash’s still looking to hunt his watchmen, you’ll need the extra hand against that kyborg guy.”

  Jace reached the top of the crystal array’s container again, then navigated up to the Aes-spilling tube and held his hand. He took a deep breath, manipulating his Aes and pulling it away from his hand, then welcomed in another burst.

  This time, he was ready for how it’d feel, but a pressure still built in the palm of his hand, and no amount of wedging his foot into a gap in the wall could stop the blast of energy from flinging him backward off the side of the silver egg. He fell, but this time, caught himself on a wire—with his mechanical hand no less—and slowed his descent, before landing in a crouch between Kinfild and Lessa.

  They both stared at him. He gritted his teeth as the last of the Aes poured into his body, then dispersed it like he had before until it stopped stinging. “Wow. That really…has a kick.” He blinked a few times. Stars whirled in his vision.

  “Perhaps you should give it a rest for now,” Ash said. “The body can only take so much Aes, and you do not want to rupture your channels.”

  Jace nodded, his mouth open, desperate to pull in a little more breath.

  “Besides,” Perril said, “the flow is starting to slow already.”

  “Your turn, Kinfild!” Lessa proclaimed, then pushed him toward the mess of dangling wires near the bottom of the silver egg. “Go get yourself some Aes and do some magic gold dust stuff!”

  Kinfild rolled his eyes, but, after letting out a groan, began climbing the mess of wires with surprising grace for a man of his age. Attributes would do that, Jace supposed.

  As he recovered, Jace checked his status sheet again, and sure enough, that last burst had been enough to bring him to level forty-five. Not enough to go over, and no new advancement progress, but it had to be enough to get him through the rest of the soul-circle opening stages.

  But first, attribute shards. The burst of Aes had granted him fourteen new shards. He drew himself into his dreamspace plain and, after considering for a few seconds, placed eight shards in Agility. He’d need more maneuverability against Rallemnon, fortification card active or not.

  Then with the last six shards, he distributed evenly between Vitality and Resistance. Overall, it left his attributes at:

  [Attributes]

  Strength: 25

  Vital: 57

  Resistance: 72

  Agility: 33

  Potency: 1

  With the shards set, he pulled himself back to consciousness, and, without sparing even a second, began working on his soul-circle.

  He didn’t make the splits fast. He couldn’t cripple his future advancement just to save a few seconds in the present.

  But there was enough Aes to do it all. As soon as he divided the soul-circle into nine separate segments, now open at about the same size as his core pillar-ring (whether that was actually the name, he didn’t know, but it seemed right), and with his status sheet displaying: [Soul-Circle Opening – Ninth Stage – 99.9%], he turned to Kinfild.

  “So…with that done, how do I do the next part? How do I get to the blending part?”