“Mr. Donner, when was a time you had conflict with a fellow employee, and how did you resolve it?”

  “I’ve mostly worked… remote. I had some conflicts with classmates during school though, would that work?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Ok. One time in eighth grade there was this kid who just wouldn’t leave me alone. Shoving me, teasing me, swiping my glasses, you name it. It just wouldn’t stop. Teachers basically ignored it.”

  “And how did you resolve this conflict with your fellow student?”

  “I had Jett kick his ass.”

  “All right, folks!” yelled Brick. “Money in the bag, and you don’t get the Mantis treatment!”

  Brick waved his gun at bank tellers, energy shield ready to deploy at the first sign of trouble. For her own part, Mantis was enjoying playing the part of mad dog on a leash with literalistic fervor. Her teeth and her icy claws snapped as she made a terrifying display, leaping onto the counter, scattering papers, swiping inches over the heads of the cowering employees and customers.

  There were no surprises here. The silent alarm had been tripped. The GPD knew. The Elites knew. It was a textbook robbery, and the two sorcerers would make a textbook escape. What they really needed was for G-Tech to respond. They needed the funds, but they also needed to experiment. To figure out what would draw the cavalry.

  “Mantis! Squad car pulling up!”

  Mantis dashed to the doors, dispelling the ice coating she’d used to seal them. She quickly spotted the flashing lights approaching. She opened the door, sighted carefully, and activated her new skill.

  Ice Beam has reached Tier 1 Level 10. Tier upgrade available.

  She still enjoyed her Ice Ball, but the beam attack had so much potential. The range was long, and she could use it continuously. As she did now, sweeping it across the squad car’s tires until they froze to the ground, then going to work on the doors. In seconds, the cop was all but trapped inside his own vehicle. She cackled and resealed the bank door as she shut it.

  Ice Destroyer Journeyman has reached Tier 3, Level 8.

  [Kill them all.]

  “I’m gaining levels so quickly now,” she said conversationally as she stepped up beside Brick. She kept a claw at the ready, scanning the many bodies lying face down on the floor, hands on the back of their heads, for any movement besides trembling.

  “That’s wonderful,” Brick growled, keeping his weapon trained on the pair of employees loading rolls of cash into the bag.

  “Imagine how much faster it would go if I killed more people?”

  Brick glared at her, then spoke with measured patience. “I will imagine it. And that’s all I’ll do. Stick with the plan, Mantis.”

  [Kill.]

  Mantis spotted a banker fidgeting. She leapt over to him. “Now now,” she said sweetly, dragging a jagged claw across his cheek and causing him to howl in pain and terror. “We said hold still and we meant it.”

  [Kill him!]

  Mantis clicked her tongue in annoyance. The Destroyer had become more insistent as of late. It was still easy enough to ignore its commands, this strange bloodthirsty presence that served as her lecti. Its pleas for more violence were pathetic, if anything. Certainly she felt it too, the desire to kill wantonly. But she killed in her own way, on her own time, and according to her own strategy. She wouldn’t lose herself in the moment and risk sacrificing the sweetness of later kills. That simply wasn’t her way.

  “Mantis!” Brick called. “G-Tech van! We need to go! Hey, you two! Gimme that bag!”

  “Is it Snowcrest?”

  “The hell should I know? I’m damn well not waiting around to find out either. Mantis?”

  Mantis’s head snapped up suddenly, but it wasn’t in response to Brick’s voice. It was a woman, obediently lying on the floor. Mantis stalked toward her, crouched low, her ice claws tapping the floor as she walked as if she truly were an insect.

  “What did you say?” she hissed.

  The young woman glanced up, fright on her face. Then she buried her head again. She spoke, muffled. “I s-said I love you.”

  Mantis let one of her claws dissolve. She touched her own face. Could this woman really be talking about the monster she saw in the mirror every morning? People had told her that once. People she’d called family. Then they’d shown her what they really thought of her.

  What they really wanted from her.

  Mantis shook herself, and she ground her teeth. She growled, “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re my hero,” the woman sobbed.

  Mantis scoffed. Oh. This. “I’m no one’s hero. Don’t you dare say that again.”

  “You are. To the weak among us. The vulnerable. Your story gave me the courage to leave my husband. I love you, Mantis. We all do.”

  “You!” Mantis recoiled at the words. She reformed her other ice claw and stood over the trembling woman.

  [Kill her.]

  “Mantis?” Brick cried in alarm.

  “Let’s get one thing straight,” Mantis growled, raising a claw. “I am no hero. And no. One. Loves me.”

  Ice Destroyer Journeyman has reached Tier 3, Level 9.

  The following morning I felt more genuinely rested. Which was good, because it was time for my sorcerer training to begin in earnest.

  “Stats.”

  I blinked up at the woman.

  Valery Drake was a freaking mountain. Rock hard toned and taller than me, she danced on the razor edge between merely being a fit muscular woman and being a female body builder. I was hardly flabby, but I was far from the physical peak I’d hit while training for the skid pros a few years back. I felt like a weenie in my grey and blue G-Tech gym clothes. This damn color scheme!

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  Habby was more smitten with Valery than with any woman we’d yet encountered during our brief, bizarre partnership. He was almost catatonic. If I mentally prodded him he just whispered [Thighs…] I prayed Tala, or any other sorcerer who could perceive lecti, wouldn’t enter the gym.

  “Stats?” I asked. My brain had shorted out. Was that some kind of foreign language command? She did have a slight guttural accent.

  “Tell me stats. And skill levels. Come on!” She held up a tablet.

  “Oh, those.”

  I actually hadn’t closely looked at these since before things went nuts on the evening of my birthday. I knew I’d gained some numbers through my starter packs, along with a boost when I’d promoted to Tier 2, which Habby had assigned for me because I was busy getting mauled by a cat. As it turned out, he’d just distributed the twenty points evenly down the line except for Essence, which I wouldn’t benefit from unless I learned more spirit or summoning-based skills. Many of my skills had trained up too. Here’s what I was looking at:

  Class: Fire Guardian Acolyte

  Level: Tier 2 Level 3

  Class Points: 0

  Levels to ascend to next tier: 17

  Class Points to ascend to next tier: 3

  Basic Stats

  Might: 139

  Alacrity: 134

  Resilience: 82

  Arcane: 141

  Vitalis: 123

  Essence: 104

  Fire, Combat

  Concussive Fireball: Tier 1 Level 6

  Fireball: Tier 1 Level 4

  Immolate: Tier 1 Level 5

  Torch Thruster: Tier 1 Level 5

  Torch: Tier 1 Level 6

  Fire, Support

  Command Fire: Tier 1 Level 1

  Heal Burns: Tier 1 Level 3; Contrite

  Heat Sense: Tier 1 Level 1

  Imbue Armor, Fire: Tier 1 Level 4

  Imbue Weapon, Fire: Tier 1 Level 6

  Fire, Passive

  Fire Absorption: Tier 1 Level 3

  Fire Contact Protection: Tier 1 Level 5

  Rekindled Flame: Tier 1 Level 6

  Spice Absorption: Tier 1 Level 3

  Physical, Support

  Minor Heal Other: Tier 1 Level 1

  Physical, Passive

  Guardian’s Immunity: Tier 1 Level 1

  Life Support: Tier 1 Level 4

  Muscle Memory: Tier 1 Level 6

  Physical Enhancement: Tier 1 Level 9; Uncapped

  Regeneration: Tier 1 Level 6

  Spear Aptitude: Tier 1 Level 5

  Meta, Support

  Coat Check: Tier 1 Level 2

  Meta, Passive

  Bind Armor, Tier 1 Level 3

  Bind Weapon: Tier 1 Level 6

  Guardian’s Resistance: Tier 1 Level 3

  Lecti Avatar: Tier 1 Level 4

  Legacy: Tier 4 Level 38

  That was a lot. Quite a few skills had leveled up multiple times. But of course, I still had no idea how that really compared.

  “Give it to me straight,” I said. “Do I suck?”

  “You’re just starting out,” Valery muttered. “Supposed to suck.”

  “Oh. Maybe not that straight?"

  “You want touchy-feely rundown instead?” she asked.

  [What does she mean by that?]

  “Fine,” she continued. “Good potential. Healing skill, maybe bit stupid.”

  “Hey, I’ve already used it, and in a fairly clever manner!” I gave her a quick rundown of when I’d broken Jessie free of Mantis’s icy grip, simultaneously burning and healing her to melt the ice.

  Valery wasn’t even slightly impressed. “Get Contact Protection to Tier 2, take Extended modifier, same effect.”

  “And I got that boon from Gibermo, just for being nice.”

  “Congratulations. You make aether from indigestion.”

  I withdrew a dried scorpion pepper from a pouch in my gym shorts and crunched down on it without breaking eye contact with Valery. G-Tech’s nutrition department had come through, and I now had a decent number and variety of peppers to experiment with. The heat was burning yet pleasant, and I could feel it filling me with energy and boosting my aether regeneration. The problem was, some peppers still tasted kind of nasty. Also, a bit of hard dried skin got stuck in my throat, causing me to cough and gag for several seconds.

  “Wrong pipe,” I rasped, eyes watering. “That’s all that was. So what are your (cough) recommendations?”

  “First big task is get all combat and survivability skills to Tier 2. All major upgrades, sometimes choice of enhancements. Meanwhile, we start gym regimen. Build up natural strength and endurance, add points to physical stats, also level up physical enhancement. Here.”

  She handed me a sheet with a weekly regimen. My eyes bugged slightly. It called for two separate groups of cardio, plus weight training on two muscle groups per day. “This is… intense. Wait, this often has the same muscle group on consecutive days. Isn’t that bad?”

  “First group of day normal. Tell lecti, no enhancement. Use regular machines. Second group of day, same as first group of yesterday, enhanced. Find sweet spot.”

  ?Habby. Snap out of it. Help me parse this.?

  [Thi—Oh! Um, right.] His avatar appeared and read the paper. [I see. Yes, some of this is familiar. You still have to train your unenhanced body, you see. That’s what your enhancement, well, enhances. It results in multiplicative gains. If you can double what you can lift without aether, then turn around and double the efficiency of your enhancement, that means you can lift four times as much.

  [‘Sweet spot.’ Hmm.] He zipped in and out of my head to look up the idiom in a matter of seconds; he really was getting more efficient at that. [I see. The point of maximum efficiency. The most effect for the aether used. Say, for a moment, that your fireball cost you 10% of your aether, and that was your most efficient point. You could power it up further, but the cost would increase exponentially. You could double its power, but then it would cost 40% of your aether. That’s extreme, but you see the point. By the same token, if you reduce its power you’ll reduce its cost, but you’ll still lose efficiency. Cutting the power by half won’t cut the cost in half. It might still use 7% of your aether.

  [Anyway, as you level a skill and as I find ways to optimize it, your overall efficiency will improve and your ‘sweet spot’ will climb, allowing you to sustain more power for longer.]

  “Are you done farting around with lecti?” Valery asked.

  “What? Uh, yes, we are done consulting.”

  She stared hard at me, and I started sweating, despite not having any physical need to sweat. Had Tala been talking?

  “Right then. Let’s get started. First rule in my gym is ALWAYS RACK YOUR WEIGHTS!”

  Her voice rose to a superhuman volume at the end of her declaration, reverberating through the gym and startling a few others working out nearby. They quickly murmured their assent.

  Valery nodded in satisfaction. “Second rule is do whatever I say. Come on.”

  “So Sabaton, you were doing this on a tablet?”

  Wally felt a thrill at using an actual plasma cutter on a sheet of titanium. It almost made up for how stifling the welding mask felt, but he thought he could get used to wearing it with time. Especially coupled with the additional thrill of Fushigi Tetsumi looking over his shoulder at his work. Even if she was also wearing a mask.

  “Yeah,” Wally replied. “I was already using the tablet a lot, and I thought the camera controls would help with precision. So I attached a cheap laser cutter I’d modded and wired it up. It kind of snowballed from there”

  “That’s some wild shit. Where is it? You should bring it down here so I can take a look.”

  “It’s in our room. I don’t think I can bring it into this area. It’s not compliant? I showed it to the head of IT and he about crapped himself.”

  Fu laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. Normally that made him wince and shrink in on himself, but she had a gentle way about it, even with her thick work gloves. “I bet he did! Ah well, we’re government cleared and all that. Maybe you can build a new one.”

  “Maybe. I’m trying to think of a new weapon. You know, see if I—if I could go out into the field the same way you do.”

  “Yeah, you took out some grunts, didn’t ya? That was rad as hell.”

  “It was scary as hell.”

  “And that’s exactly why it’s so rad, dude. Well, we’ve got mechsuits. I bet you could customize one to your liking.”

  Wally looked over at the Fu’s bulky robotic suit. “I don’t know. It might feel a little claustrophobic? I uh… remember how yours froze up when it got damaged a few nights ago, and it was hard to open up. I think I might panic if that happened to me.”

  “Fair. It’s no damn fun, that’s for sure.”

  “Plus I’d have to mod the legs to support my own legs, and I don’t think my—” Wally looked down at his own cybernetics. “I mean, these are kind of like half of a really low profile mechsuit. What if I just kept building up from where I stopped at—at—”

  “Your ass?” Fu finished with a smirk.

  Wally blushed.

  “No really though, I think you’ve got something there. Something more like power armor than a mechsuit. That could work. Then you connect your lasers or cutters or whatever else. But before you can do any of that…” Fu pointed over Wally’s shoulder, “… you gotta talk to him.”

  “Mr. Donner?”

  Wally turned to see a short, slightly weaselly man approaching. He’d seen him on his way down to the workshop floor, hunched over a table near the artifact storage chamber.

  Wally shut off the plasma cutter and lifted the welding mask. “That’s me.”

  “Nice to meet ya.” He extended his hand, and Wally fumbled his gloves off so he could shake. “Names Colin Rusk. I’m the resident runesmith. Let’s see if we can get you fitted for a band, eh?”