Cragforge extended as

  deep into the mountain as it rose high. Its metal framework dug into the stone,

  carving out openings for homes, reinforced with beams to keep the structures

  safe. Wexi led Sam into one such space, hidden behind the vibrant surface of

  the city. She walked as if taking flight, humming a song Sam found slow and

  melodious. They had walked away from Alecsa’s administrative building in

  silence, Sam following behind, marveling at the city’s machinations.

  Outside, he caught the

  name of the place, carved into the surface of a thick iron slab swinging from

  iron rings. His stomach growled, reminding him he hadn’t eaten in days. He sat

  down with Wexi, his eyes scanning the smooth walls, tracing the networks of

  black-painted marks drawn up to where soft yellow light glowed above them. He

  felt the subtle working of essence but couldn’t trace the origin. Everything

  confused him, but that was to be expected.

  “Jin!” Wexi called,

  half-turning on her seat. Someone rushed out of the door behind the grey wood

  counter. He moved with unnatural ease, his step a whistle against the hard

  floor. Wexi grinned at him. Sam didn’t think there was any way to animate the

  woman more, and she surprised him. Her slim fingers made circles on the table.

  Jin’s smile faded when he saw Sam, his mouth settling into a polite line.

  “The Stray,” Jin said

  with an accent different from Wexi’s. “You are the one that caused the tremors

  above, aren’t you? The city is buzzing with stories.”

  His voice was slow but

  heavy enough to confuse Sam. He looked from the mustached man to Wexi and she

  rolled her eyes, waving him away. Sam sat quietly, confused. Wexi replied

  instead, her smile fading briefly.

  “Those damn half-breeds

  caused the tremors, Jin. Leave him alone. You bringing my food or what? Also,

  it looks like your rune lights are going bad, you might want to call Fin. He

  will help you reconfigure the runes to work with the lighting system. Or you’ll

  have to start buying essence lamps from one of those tinkers in the Trade

  sector.”

  Jin’s frown deepened as

  he shook his head and left them. “Wexi, you are lucky you are smart!”

  Wexi laughed, her face

  folding with delight. Sam leaned forward, curiosity boring a hole in his mind.

  “Rune lights?” he asked.

  Wexi nodded, gesturing to the small light orbs fused crudely to the roof.

  “They run on stored

  essence. Not raw essence though, as that would need refining for something like

  that to hold it. That is what the rune does. So, I guess they are spells in

  written form. Each mark carries the authority of the rune carver. They transmit

  the stored essence in its refined form to the orb.” She grinned when Sam stared

  at her as if she’d just said a lot of nonsense.

  “You will understand when

  you see Fin do it. Although he doesn’t like to be watched.” Her smile dulled

  and her shoulders slumped. “On second thought, you should probably not meet

  him. His brother died in the attack that saved you. Many of the Forgers think

  like Jin here.”

  Sam thought about that

  for a moment and nodded. He’d chosen running up North as a last resort for

  survival without thinking about how that would affect the people living here.

  That had been a huge oversight on his part, but he wasn’t sure he would have done

  anything differently. He kept that to himself though, listening to Wexi talk

  about the rune light.

  “Does essence go straight

  to the bulb?” Sam asked, wondering if they used the same framework as with

  electricity back on old Earth. Wexi shook her head, her face lighting up as Jin

  came out with her food. Two bowls. One filled with meat, soup, and vegetables,

  and another two flat, white things that looked like bread.

  “Wild Hound!” Wexi

  screamed in delight. “Who has been going down recently, Jin?”

  “Zel and her folks,” Jin

  said, folding his arms in front of him. “You act like you haven’t eaten this

  before.”

  “Jin! Every food is a

  miracle and tell Zel I owe her one mid-rank essence blaster for this!” She

  said, tearing a piece of the white dough thing. She grinned, dunked the edge of

  the piece into the soup, and bit it off.

  “As amazing as ever,

  Jin,” she said and the slim man chuckled, shaking his head as he walked away.

  “There’s a spoon there,

  Wexi. Use it!” he called just before he vanished into whatever room was in the

  back of the counter. Wexi gestured for Sam to join her. He hesitated for a

  moment, but he wasn’t sure when next he’d get something to eat, so he obliged

  her. She hummed as she ate, her body never at rest. There was some electricity

  to her as if she functioned on an ever-running charge. Sam liked it, but more

  than that, he liked the brilliance in her eyes. And Jin had confirmed what he’d

  suspected before.

  “You are a big deal here,

  aren’t you?” he asked, plopping a piece of the doughy thing in his mouth. It

  tasted sweet, different. But it mixed with the soup which burned mildly on

  Sam’s tongue.

  “That is Alecsa,” Wexi

  forced out, her mouth full. She chewed with a smile, mischief dancing in her

  eyes. She swallowed and continued. “Alecsa leads the whole Forge.” She picked

  the spoon Jin spoke about and scooped soup to drink. She closed her eyes,

  savoring the flavors and bite. She dropped the spoon and picked a chunk of meat

  to feast on.

  “I lead the tech

  quadrants though,” she said with a little shrug. “Our city runs on scavenged

  materials and a lot of crazy ideas merged with an ironclad will and the ability

  to be creative. That is why I want you.” She paused, smiling. “That and the

  weapon they found when they saved you.” She placed what was left of the meat in

  the empty bowl beside it. Something changed—a switch as if the playful Wexi had

  been replaced by someone older, with eyes hard as a mountain. Sam sat up

  straight, the reaction involuntary and compulsive.

  “I scanned it with my

  Component skill and realized that I had never seen anything like it. So, it

  confirms what you said about not being from this world. Yet, although the

  design is different, its function is almost the same as our essence blaster.”

  She sat back, eyeing Sam. “What is it? And how do you make it? How similar is

  your world to this one? And how come you have the System of Ascension if you

  are from a different world?”

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  Sam stared at her, unsure

  if he should speak yet. She wasn’t armed, but the new aura she gave off was

  thin enough to slice him if he said the wrong thing. But suddenly she sighed,

  deflating. The aura dispersed and her reassuring smile crept up her face again.

  Sam stared wide-eyed at her, confused by what had just happened.

  “She does that to the new

  tech recruits,” Jin said beside Sam. His voice startled Sam, but the slender

  man ignored his shocked face and placed an old tin jug on the table. He

  scratched his chin, giving Sam a weird look. “You are really weak, aren’t you? She

  didn’t even use much of her skill’s authority and you were shaking like a twig

  in a storm.”

  He shook his head,

  turning to leave while Wexi tried to suppress her laughter. Sam looked from the

  retreating man to the woman opposite him. He was more confused than ashamed.

  But Jin was right about something. He was too weak. As he was, he’d die like Alecsa

  warned—whether he was in the city or out in the wild. He had to get stronger.

  So he sought answers from Wexi. She had gone back to eating the meat.

  “My world didn’t have

  magic,” Sam said and pointed at the rune lights. “But we had other ways of

  making things like that.” He saw her eyes light up with curiosity. She nodded,

  egging him to continue. Sam picked a bit of the wild hound and bit off a piece.

  He chewed quickly and swallowed.

  “We called it

  electricity,” Sam said. “It was basically energy transmitted through a thin

  wire until it gave off a heat glow.” Sam poured from the tin jug into wooden

  cups. The fragrance of the drink filled the common room. It was cold to the

  touch too, which surprised him until he saw the small line of runes inlaid into

  the base of the jug.

  “That doesn’t make

  sense,” Wexi said, pouring herself some of the sweet drink. She frowned after

  the first sip and gulped the rest quickly before dropping the cup. “That

  wouldn’t last. You would probably burn through wires a lot?” she asked. Sam

  shook his head, taking his second cup of the drink, savoring the taste and

  texture before swallowing.

  “With the introduction of

  bulbs, like the orbs you have there, it allowed the wires to glow longer.”

  She thought about it

  briefly and grinned. “But what was your source of energy if you didn’t have

  essence? Here we refine essence, diluting its potency to something we can

  contain in low-grade material like that orb. How do you refine your energy?”

  Sam grinned.

  “Wires.” She stared at

  him, confused but excited. He knew he had her, which was good because she had

  him too. “What other domain do you have?” he asked, getting a frown from her.

  Sam leaned back, wondering if he’d made the wrong move. “I only ask becau—”

  Wexi waved at him to

  stop, her grin returning. “You get flustered easily. But it is rude to ask

  that. Many will think you have other motives aside from your curiosity.” She

  shrugged. “Not me, though. I have two. Profession and Technology. My tech

  domain is more advanced because I focus mainly on it. However, my professional

  domain gives me some skills that help with dealing with people. And my

  Authority skill lets me overwhelm others with my aura. It can be boosted with a

  skill from the martial art or magic quadrant, turning it into a weapon.”

  Sam nodded, learning more

  from her in minutes than he’d learned from the Scavengers. But then he’d

  noticed how little they knew of the system, even though Handel made it seem

  like she was hiding knowledge. Sam smiled, imagining what he could do soon. His

  thoughts were disrupted by Wexi’s waving. He looked up to her eager face, that

  deceiving smile back on and her eyes soft and inviting again.

  “What about the weapon?”

  she asked. “Tell me about it. Do you use that energy for it too? I couldn’t get

  it to work, but I was close.” She said, grinning.

  “It is called a gun,” Sam

  said, feeling like he was back at the office, talking to clients who needed

  guidance. “I saw some of your rifles, I imagine it works the same? Perhaps

  optimized with essence?” Sam asked.

  Wexi shook her head.

  “Rifles,” she said. “What are those?”

  Sam frowned, something he

  hadn’t thought about before dawning on him. “Your weapons. I saw Daryl’s squad.

  They carried long weapons, slung across their backs.”

  “Oh! Yes! Those work

  differently from what my scan gleaned from your weapon. They require essence to

  pass through a filter to activate. It works with a mechanism that repeats the

  instance to eliminate delay time in combat.”

  Sam frowned. It sounded

  complicated. “But if you have scanned my Glock… my weapon, you can replicate

  it, yes?” Wexi shook her head. Sam’s eyes stayed on her for a moment until he

  was sure she wasn’t kidding. He still didn’t know how the tech domain worked,

  but he was eager to learn.

  “To replicate, I need to

  understand the function of each component and their exact makeup. Or I’d create

  faulty copies that might just end up killing the user.”

  And that gave him the

  answer he wanted. He’d wondered why she wanted him before, knowing that there

  was no altruism in this world. Now it was clear. He wondered why she hadn’t

  told Alecsa that, but that wasn’t his question to ask. He wasn’t sure how close

  they all were. It had seemed like an informal meeting while Alecsa’s authority

  had been respected completely. He decided to focus on his own gain. He’d learn

  all he could from them until he was sure he could defend himself properly.

  “You want me to work with

  you?” Sam asked cautiously. “You said it yourself that I am weak. No, not you.

  Nadia did. But it is the truth. I don’t have a domain yet and my stats are

  low.”

  Wexi nodded. “Most of the

  active population of the Forge are above level twenty, even though we don’t

  fight monsters regularly. The city is protected by CragDrones and special

  squads from threats at the top. And we are too high for stray monsters below to

  invade the city. Except for a few Leech monsters and bugs. We—”

  “You do monster hunt,”

  Sam said, unable to help himself. Wexi grinned, nodding.

  “Controlled monster hunt.

  In teams. You will join one of the teams when you can move your hand. For now,

  I want to show you something.”

  Her khaki-colored pants

  had large, deep pockets. She pulled out scraps of clinking metals. She placed

  one rusty rod on the table in front of him, and a thin, flat metal with a

  purple sheen. She dropped an opaque stone next to the first two and grinned.

  “You thought about the

  first domain you want to get?” she asked. “You have to think hard about it.

  Most humans can only attain two domain statuses. And getting the domain is not

  the best part, your first domain skill shapes what you do and what you become.”

  Sam was about to ask what

  her domain skill was, but her grin stopped him. He frowned, hating that he was

  that easy to read.

  “One of my Tech domain

  skills allows me to recognize and purify materials. For instance,” she held up

  the rusty rod and moved her finger from top to bottom, rubbing it slowly. A

  spark of blue fire ignited, hissing as it faded away. A strong smell filled the

  common room, but only for a moment. Wexi dropped the rod on the table to show

  Sam the new form. Its black shone. The chipped edges looked rounded too.

  “I can boost very little

  physical properties. But the main function of the skill is to return it to

  prime form for usage. This takes a lot of essence and stamina. And my willpower

  has to be strong enough to hold the working I am trying to employ.” She leaned

  back, beads of sweat forming on her face. She grinned at him, but Sam wasn’t

  looking at her anymore. He was staring at the rod she had just purified.

  “Now, what is the first

  domain you’d like to get?” Wexi asked. Sam blinked, pulling himself back to the

  common room, what she’d done filling his mind with thoughts and questions.

  “Martial,” Sam said.

  Wexi groaned,

  disappointed. Behind the counter, Jin laughed.