Tommy Wright told me everything.

  I already knew some of it. I knew that The Captain ran the show, and that he was ridiculously strong. He’d been in the high Thirties before the Tier Two Dungeons even opened, and according to Tommy, he and his team were going to full-clear the Field Museum and then move on to Soldier Field.

  Some of it, I suspected, but the confirmation made me want to kill him right here. Eddie had definitely killed Brian. Tommy hadn’t seen it happen; he’d been chasing the twins until a fireball knocked him out of the hunt. When he’d returned to Eddie, the fight had already been over, and the big biker was looting the body.

  I didn’t know why The Captain was skipping the Shedd Aquarium, and neither did Tommy. According to the former Raging Bull, they’d been assigned the Adler Planetarium, and another team had gotten the Shedd. He didn’t know why The Captain wanted the museum and the football stadium. He didn’t know who the Captain was.

  There was a lot he didn’t know.

  But what he did know painted enough of a picture for me. Tommy told me about Eddie’s conversation with The Captain, and his reaction. Knowing that the man knew I was around felt…strange. I’d never been a spotlight hog. Worse, if he knew I was around, he’d know Tori and Calvin were, too. Did we need to disappear?

  One thing was clear: I couldn’t out-level The Captain. He’d figured out a way to power-level himself, and he’d outgrow me no matter what I did—at least on the leveling front.

  If I wanted to fight him, I needed to adjust my tactics. I needed to get stronger—but not with levels.

  I needed parts, and I needed tools. Lots of tools.

  Eventually, I left Tommy behind. I’d cut his legs free—mostly—and I’d warned him not to go straight to The Captain. He would, but that was okay as long as he did something else for me first.

  I could only hope The Captain didn’t know what to do about me, or that he was too busy in the Field Museum to spend the time hunting me down.

  The sunset through Chicago’s skyscrapers cast long, toothlike shadows across Lake Shore Drive and Museumtown. I watched the red and orange clouds as I hurried back toward Jessica’s trailer. Something huge flapped through the canyonlike streets and vanished as it turned. A loud screech followed, and I couldn’t help but shiver.

  Area Message: The Reliquary of Bones’ second floor has unlocked. This floor will remain unlocked for twenty-four hours, after which time the first floor will reset.

  That had to be the Field Museum. I hurried; the last thing I wanted was to be on the streets when The Captain and his team exited the dungeon, and I had no idea if they’d keep pushing or come out for the night and try again tomorrow. If I was them, I’d keep pushing unless that first boss had been too much, but they might feel confident. After all, they had control, and could move at their own paces.

  I couldn’t.

  Tori’s voice echoed out of the trailer, then cut off. She still hadn’t give up on coming with me. I looked up toward the sky, begging anyone who’d listen for help. She really was like Beth.

  Someone answered my prayer as I went up the ladder. Tori stayed quiet. Calvin didn’t, though. “Ma’am, the world’s changed. Tori’s fifteen, yes, but she’s also a powerful mage. She’s saved my life several times. I ain’t saying she’ll be safe out there, but I am saying she ain’t safe here, either. Out there, she’ll be with Hal. In here, she won’t have anyone to watch her back.”

  “I’ll keep her safe!” Jessica sounded pissed.

  I opened the door. Everyone’s head jerked toward me, and Tori started casting a spell. “Just me, guys. It’s okay, carry on.”

  “How will you keep her safe?” Calvin asked.

  Jessica stared at him like he’d slapped her. I chose to stay out of it. Whatever Calvin was trying, I didn’t need to be part of it.

  He kept going. “I know. You’re relying on your skill to be irreplaceable, and right now, that’s true. The guys in charge of this place need you. In fact, I’d bet someone will be by in the next half-hour or so to drag you over to the Field Museum. You’re needed, but that only lasts until you’re not. When that happens, you’re just as powerful as me. And I can’t keep myself safe if those gangsters decide I need to go.

  “If you let Tori grow, she’ll be able to protect herself. She’ll be able to protect you, too. If you don’t, there ain’t a thing you can do to keep her safe,” Calvin finished.

  Jessica’s face was pale. Tori opened her mouth, but Calvin put a hand on her shoulder, and she went quiet again. The woman was obviously struggling. She sat on the sleeping bag, eyes shifting. Then she looked at Tori and me. “Get out. Go take a walk or something. Give me ten minutes.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice, but I also didn’t want to be out and about in Museumtown, so instead, I climbed the ladder again and stepped into Jessica’s workshop. It stank of blood and sweat; she was obviously not a doctor, and though she’d tried to keep it clean, she didn’t have the cleaning supplied to sterilize it. Even if she had, the wooden table wouldn’t ever be sterile. Jessica didn’t have much in the way of magic items to rely on, either; the space was more the idea of a doctor’s office than a real one.

  Tori followed me inside, nose wrinkling. “So,” she said with some effort, “you cleared the Planetarium’s first floor. Was it hard?”

  “It was a puzzle. I solved it. The guys who went in after me were worse.” I spent the next few minutes telling Tori all about what had happened.

  When I got through the fight where I killed Eddie, she nodded sagely. “PvP. It was always going to have to end like that.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, there are always players who don’t know when to quit, and they think they’ve got some huge advantage over everyone else. They decide to test themselves, and they’re never as good as they think they are,” Tori said. “You did what you had to do, and it sounds like it rewarded you for it. Did you kill the others?”

  “No. Two of them died to the boss, though.” I didn’t tell her how they’d died. She didn’t need that image in her head. “The last one’s still alive. Tori, this isn’t a game.”

  “I know it’s not, but it’s following so many game rules I can’t help it,” she said.

  I wanted to respond, but before I could, Jessica started came down the ladder. Her nose wrinkled, too, as she joined us in her workshop. “Tori, I’ve decided to let you go with Hal—“

  “Yes!”

  “I’ve decided to let you go with Hal if you follow some rules,” Jessica finished.

  “Awww.”

  “Don’t give me that,” Jessica said. “I’ll take back my permission in a heartbeat, I swear to God. You’re not allowed to go into dungeons or leave Museumtown by yourself. You have to go with Hal. I’d prefer if Calvin went with you, too, but he’s made it clear he wants to fight even less than I do. Hal has to tell me where you’re going before you leave. And absolutely, positively no Tier Two Dungeons until I know they’re safe.”

  “But Jessica-Mom!” Tori whined.

  I put a hand on her shoulder. “Tori, this is the best you’re going to get right now,” I said. Truthfully, it wasn’t a long-term solution. My hope was to take care of my parts needs, then swing back for the second floor of the Void’s Embrace. If I was taking Tori along, I’d need to adjust my plan. On the other hand, Tori and I had worked well together so far, and if the ones we’d done so far were any indication, I was pretty strong for Tier One dungeons. She’d be safe with me, and Jessica knew it.

  Tori knew it, too. She wasn’t happy about it, but after a minute of pouting, she gave Jessica the ‘okay’ nod. “Fine. We’ll keep safe. But what about the guys running this town?”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, heading for the exit. “I’ve got a plan. Tori, meet me outside in five. We’re going to search for Tier Ones near Chicago Station. I’m working on some ideas for handling The Captain and his people. Don’t worry, Jessica. Your kid’s safe with me.”

  “That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Jessica said, but she didn’t object as Tori headed out the door.

  I looked at Calvin and Jessica the moment Tori was done climbing down. “Okay, here’s what you’re both going to do...”

  Tori wasn’t exactly a powerhouse anymore.

  Her Level 24 had been solid when we arrived at Museumtown, but I’d put on a lot of levels, and I was now eleven ahead. She was being obnoxious about it, too. “Where to? Which dungeon’s first? I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so hopefully, we can get two or three before we have to hole up somewhere for the night. How do you feel about speed-running? How much can we pull at once?”

  I rubbed my temples. “We’re not going to a dungeon.”

  “What? Hal, this is bullshit!”

  “No, it’s not.” I pulled the Orerry from my inventory and handed it to her. “I got this for you. It’s from the Tier Two I cleared the first floor of. Should fit your build pretty well.”

  It was a blatant attempt to distract her, and I knew it. So did Tori. Her eyes narrowed as she took the Orerry. A moment later, the planets all started orbiting her wrist as the black stone appeared on the back of her hand. She lit up, then forced herself to look angry. “Okay, you bought yourself time for an explanation. Start explaining.”

  “We’re not going to a dungeon right away,” I said. “The Captain—whoever he is—cleared the first floor of the Field Museum just after I got the Void’s Embrace’s first boss down. He was a higher level than I am now before the Tier Twos even opened, and he’s definitely even higher now. I can’t compete with him on levels—especially because he’s got other teams in other dungeons. I need to approach the fight from a different place.”

  “Really?” Tori said. “What about me? I need to catch up so I can help you.”

  “Yes, you do. That’s why we’re going to do some dungeons. But before we do that, I need to make a quick stop. It won’t take long—I doubt the place is even open. But if it is, it’ll give me more of an edge than any dungeon could.”

  “Oh? And where’s that?” Tori asked.

  I smiled. “Cindy’s Automotive.”

  Jessica Silvers had blood on her hands. On her face. In her nostrils.

  She could taste it on her tongue.

  Her body wouldn’t stop shaking, and if Tori wasn’t out tonight, she’d have passed out on her workshop floor. Using the sheer volume of magic she had was exhausting under the best of circumstances, and when she was mid-anxiety attack over the girl she wished would call her Mom? She had nothing in the tank.

  But Alan, the level Sixteen Rogue on her table, was going to live. And right now, that was all that mattered. Not that she was covered in blood and sweat. Not that his screams had probably woken the dead in the little towns across Lake Michigan.

  He’d live.

  Someone knocked on the door. “Just a minute.” She groaned. Her back ached, but she forced herself to walk to the water basin and slowly wash the blood from her face and hands until she looked almost human.

  The door knocker rapped again, sounding more insistent. “I said just a minute,” she said more sharply than she intended to.

  “The Captain’s tired of waiting,” the voice said. The door opened, and a pair of men in police uniforms entered. They both carried swords; with them were two others: a man who entered looking like a beaten dog, and The Captain himself. She shivered when he saw their nameplates.

  The Captain: Level Forty-Five

  Class: Administrator

  Thomas Wright: Level Twenty-Six

  Class: Ice Sculptor

  “Is this one of them?” The Captain asked. He gestured at the boy on the bench, then pointed at Thomas. “Well, is he?”

  “No. He’s a nobody—or at least he’s not one of Hal’s people,” Thomas said. “Never seen him before in my life.”

  “What’s going on?” Jessica asked. “You know the arrangement; you can’t barge in here and expect—“

  The Captain held up a hand to silence her, then waved it at the ceiling. “Go check upstairs. Tell me if anything’s out of the ordinary. No need for forensics—a quick scan will do.”

  “Got it, sir.” The two cops disappeared. She could hear them climbing the ladder and stomping around above her. Was anything of Tori’s up there? No, worse—was anything of Hal’s?

  “Sir, you agreed I’d have the independence to treat whoever I wanted if I told you which exhibits were on display in the Field Museum. I gave you what you wanted, and I’ve dropped everything to take care of your men whenever they’ve showed up. My daughter showed up a couple of days ago, and now you’re sending thugs to root through her stuff?” Jessica took a deep breath. She was working up a head of steam, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d give away more than she wanted.

  She’d already had to tell him about Tori, and that alone was more than she’d willingly tell him—not when she knew what his end-game was for Museumtown.

  Jessica expected him to be furious; he wanted to know everyone in Museumtown, to have them all registered in his records. Class, name, and level. The new identification info that mattered.

  Instead, he smiled and said nothing. He stood in between her and the door. The boy on the bench breathed shallowly, and she put a finger to his neck. His pulse was weak, but it was there.

  One of the cops opened the door, and The Captain stepped aside to let him in. “We found evidence of four people, not one.”

  “And not two, either,” The Captain said. “Jessica Silvers, you haven’t been holding to your end of our bargain. That’s a shame. I’m shutting down your practice; you’re coming with me.”

  The cop grabbed her arm, and when she tried to wrench herself free, he tightened his grip until she screamed. As he dragged her out the door, The Captain cleared his throat. “The boy might have heard this. Kill him.”

  A heartbeat passed. Then another one. And then Jessica Silvers heard the gunshot, and the boy’s breath turn to a struggling gurgle that faded away to silence.

  She screamed.

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