That night, in a large room with a table in the center and a plaque on the wall that said ‘War Room’, Morgan presented everyone with the items he didn’t need, offering for them to take anything they might use.

  To Frank, he presented the Helmet.

  ::Helmet of Iron Will - Rare - Material: Iron - Weight: 2lbs. Properties: Iron Will, Bolster Allies, Con +5::

  He placed it on his head. Looking up, serious face and eyes, he looked imposing through the Roman-style helm. Then he broke into a giant grin. A sensation similar to the Loner buff washed over Morgan, but not as strong.

  “Ha, I love it, Lad,” He said, beaming.

  To Mara, he gave the armor from the shaman. He had already shown her, but she still tried to act surprised.

  ::Armor of Enemies - Epic - Material: Basalisk Hide - Weight: 5lbs. Properties: Con +3, INT +3, Superior Magical Resistance::

  Sara, Mara’s sister, was out on an extended patrol. She would get the Lightning Wand. He asked if Annabelle, Marcus or Jiwoo wanted the absurdly enormous sword or the sacrificial dagger, but they declined. Finally, to Katherine, he gifted her the staff from the shaman. Its shimmery wood sparkled in the glowing mage lights at the corners.

  ::Staff of Concentration - Legendary - Material: Ironwood - Weight: 4lbs. Properties: Split Mind, Mana Absorption, Endless Pool::

  Her eyes widening, Katherine stuttered in her British accent, “Morgan, this…this is exquisite, but it’s too lavish for me. I couldn’t possibly repay you.”

  “Repay me?” Morgan asked, placing his hand on his chest dramatically. “It is a gift, Ma’am. I can’t use it, so it is better that someone else does. Especially if that someone else is on my side.”

  “Well, I graciously accept your gift,” she said, eyes wet and lips quavering slightly. As her hands closed around the weapon, her eyes unfocused in the usual ‘browsing’ look. Her eyes refocused sharply directly on Morgan, mouth opening wide. “Do you have any idea what this thing can do?”

  “Honestly,” Morgan said, smiling. “No.”

  Three of Katherine’s voice projections went off in inaudible whispers in the corners of the room. Each one was saying something different, and the words overlapped and faded.

  “I can split my mind into three parts, and each one is fully aware of the others…” She leaned back heavily in her chair, the staff dissolving away into a swirling cloud of gray particles and getting sucked into Katherine’s hand. “Thank you ever so much. I’m most grateful.” She regarded the room with tears on her face, then pulled out a silky cloth and dabbed at her eyes. “I beg you to forgive the waterworks.”

  Then they sat as Morgan told them all his story, not as in depth and intense as it was with Mara, but everyone still hung on every word. Sitting in shocked horror as Morgan talked about the vampire and the dungeon. He showed them Broken Fang, which Annabelle had offered to make a new handle to replace the cut wooden one. The cherry on top was when he gave Katherine a book from her library at the Academy, then another, and another, and then a pile.

  “I have them all,” he cackled, a huge smile on his face. “I might have grabbed everything that wasn’t nailed down.”

  “Now, what in the hell?” Marcus blurted out, ducking his head as his wife elbowed him. “I mean… how?” he asked in a lower, more conversational tone, scowling at his wife as he rubbed his ribs.

  “I have a skill that lets me store a lot of stuff,” Morgan replied. “So, do you have a storage room? I have all the gear, rations, and everything that was left at the Academy.”

  Later, after unloading his spatial storage into not one, but three spare rooms, he said goodnight to everyone. It was nearing midnight, and most of them had a guard rotation in the morning. The guard rotations had actually been Frank’s suggestion when they arrived. It spread out the experience and helped build teamwork through shared ‘suck’. Marcus and Frank were the instructors for the training Morgan needed to go through for the Academy sector. Frank said it would only take a few hours, not the weeks Burns had said.

  Alone, leaning on a half wall of the wide flat roof of the main building of the sector, Morgan looked out over the Citadel. There were a few dozen sectors spread around the major fortress. Each had their own mini-fortress like the one he was in, and all surrounded by a giant wall. Mara had marveled as she told him one man had built all this in just a couple of days using powerful earth magic. Her sister was out escorting him north to make a similar settlement up there. The sounds of fighting came faintly from the walls, but apparently that was a constant here.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Morgan asked.

  Morgan said, leaning back in a chair to look up at the stars. “

  He purchased the keys to the dungeon loot boxes for 5 tokens of their rarity. The mythic box required a key for 5 MT, which he had none of. He purchased the materials for Annabelle to repair his helmet, broken arm and leg guards, as well as a new material for the handle of Broken Fang. This new material, Aethril, was the best according to Annabelle and Sophia. It was expensive, wiping out the rest of his higher tokens.

  He purchased all the items for the interfacing and new clothing.

  Morgan said.

  Sophia said, confused.

  A list of options streamed by.

  The list shortened to a dozen.

  Morgan slapped his forehead lightly.

  The box held a collection of tokens and five small glowing spheres of different colors.

  Morgan asked, staring at the small pile from the first box.

  Morgan opened all the chests. He now had a bursting wallet again with 14421CT, 741UT, 384RT, 124ET, 12LT, and 4MT. He was excited about the Mythic Tokens when he opened his first Legendary box and got three, but the second only had one in it. Spread out in front of him was a small mound of glowing spheres. He separated these into piles based on their glow. Sophia had informed him that blue held rare, purple epic, legendary yellow and red mythic. His piles contained 15 rare, 9 purple, 6 yellow, and 2 red spheres.

  He opened the two red spheres. Inside were a gorgeous piece of slightly glowing armor and a sleek quiver.

  ::Astral Cuirass - Mythic - Material: Aethril - Weight: 3lbs. Properties: CON +8, STR +4, DEX +4, Resistance, Jaunt, Brazen Aura::

  ::Endless Quiver - Mythic - Material: Shadeleather - Weight: 1lbs. Properties: Duplicate, Attachment, Quick Draw::

  Morgan said, reading the descriptions.

  The yellow ones contained a shiny ring, a crossbow, a simple circlet, a dark set of thin daggers, a short black cloak and a pair of leather gloves.

  ::Ring of Veiled Stars - Legendary - Weight: - Properties: CON+1, INT+2, Intercept, Starfire, Meteor::

  ::Light’s Crossbow - Legendary - Weight: 4lbs. Properties: DEX +3, Beams, Repeater::

  ::Seer’s Crown - Legendary - Weight: 1lbs. Properties: WIS+3, INT+4, Scry, Insight::

  ::Second Hands - Legendary - Weight: 2lbs. Properties: DEX +4, STR +2, Vanishing Strike, Shadowmeld::

  ::Veil of Midnight - Legendary - Weight: 1lbs. Properties: DEX +3, Veiled Retreat::

  ::Crafters Mitts - Legendary - Weight: 1lbs. Properties: Nimble, Subtle, Glamor, Precise::

  He asked.

  The rest of the loot contained nothing special either, but he got an epic short sword, a wakizashi, which he decided to wear.

  ::Seeker - Epic - Weight: 2lbs. Properties: Marked Strike, Guiding Bolt, Quick Draw::

  He stored the rest of the random items and strapped the short sword over his new cloak. As he prepared to enter VISTA and train with his new gear, an alarm bell echoed over the Citadel. He was going to be trained in a few hours what the bells meant, but with the growing sense of panic in the air he knew it wasn’t a wonderful sound.