A sharp crack echoed through the air, accompanied by a bright flash of crimson light and a final kill notification. The familiar chime of a completed trial rang in Cyn’s ears as she briefly covered her eyes to protect them from the flash. Once she could see again, she was able to make out the lightly smoking corpse of the rogue Doppel on the ground near the edge of the arena, a series of deep cracks branching out along its skin. The wounds still glowed softly - though that was fading very quickly - and originated from the location Blooddrinker had been embedded into the creature.

  Blooddrinker (Epic)(Soulbound) - This weapon will feed on the blood of any creature it is used on to temporarily empower itself.

  ? If left in a wound it will continue to feed until removed, doing increasing bleed damage. If Blooddrinker is permitted to feed long enough, it will create a burst of unattuned magic damage on removal.

  ? If feeding from its wielder, Blooddrinker will return a portion of the damage dealt in the form of healing when removed, instead of doing additional magic damage.

  Recalling the weapon’s description, she had forgotten until that moment that the weapon would cause extra damage if left in long enough. The dark ichor that oozed from the golem’s wounds did not resemble blood, but Cyn reasoned Blooddrinker must be using the term pretty loosely. Since no one else had even had a chance to attack the vanishing Doppel, it was pure luck that her own single strike, and Spam’s removal of the weapon, was ultimately enough to bring it down. The three-eyed frog had the still-glowing dagger gripped in its mouth, now safe in her tabard pouch. To Cyn’s eyes, it seemed proud of itself. She was just relieved it appeared mostly unharmed, Petting the familiar as she took back the weapon.

  While the trial did not seem to provide direct rewards - much to everyone’s disappointment - and the weapons the Doppel’s used were just copies of their original class weapons, a new, fancy-looking door had popped into existence at what was previously the entrance to the arena. Not ready to move on quite yet, the party settled down together near the doorway to recover and, for three of them, evolve. She had not even leveled up on the trial’s completion, but even though it was also a bit disappointing Cyn was not surprised. With the stats boost she received now for each level, it made sense to her that it would be harder to keep leveling. Once Cyn was satisfied with everyone’s health, she sat down and took advantage of the skill she had received earlier but not used yet. Meditate.

  The skill did not seem to activate unless her eyes were also closed, and once it did she stopped being able to hear the soft noises of her party around her, or even the sounds of Spam in her tabard. She could feel the hard ground below her, and decided she would probably pull out her bedroll next time to sit on. While Meditate definitely cut off her physical senses almost entirely, her mental senses were not dampened at all. She could still feel everyone’s health and location relative to her, and her connection to her familiar.

  Cyn knew this would give her a distinct advantage, at least for now. The downside of Meditate was supposed to be a decrease in awareness, making it risky to use in dangerous locations, but as long as Spam paid attention while Cyn was Meditating, it would completely negate the associated risks. She found the whole experience pleasantly relaxing, and chose to remain in that state until Hex tapped her shoulder, her resources long restored.

  “Hey, you hungry?” Cyn nodded quickly to his question, stretching the stiffness in her limbs away. She must have been sitting for some time to feel stiff, and she did feel a little hungry. Cyn had felt the health of Dana, Sam, and Scott drop after choosing their evolutions, but she had also lost track of time and was not sure how long ago that was. Hope they were not waiting on me, and needed some rest too.

  Everyone else was already eating a mystery soup, courtesy of the Rogue. Since they looked refreshed, she assumed they had also been resting a while. As Cyn started on her own bowl, Scott steered their conversation towards what everyone’s evolution had been. “We need to talk about how our classes evolved. All of you have proven pretty well you don’t need my direct protection,” Scratching the back of his head, the old man sighed before continuing, “And that’s likely for the best. I’m a bit shit at it. My evolved class, Standard-Bearer, looks like more of a support. Giving y’all buffs and the like. While I still have the shield though, you ,” Scott pointed at Cyn, “Should try and stay behind me. Every time I turn around you’ve wandered off directly into danger, killing yourself all the while.”

  While knowing that Scott’s role in their party had shifted was good information, Cyn felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment under the scolding. “Well, ‘killing myself’ is kind of my whole class now. I’m a Martyr. Plus, I have more health than you do. At least I did, until you evolved. I’m not sure now.” Scott dropped his head into his hands with a groan in response, causing Hex to laugh and volunteer his own class.

  “If you thought I ran off too much before, I evolved into a ‘Seeker’. Not ideal, but the description sounded a bit like a treasure hunter and it was better than the other offers I got.” Scott’s second groan was clearly exaggerated, making the rest of the party join in with Hex’s laughter.

  Dana spoke through chuckles as the noise died down, “Tactician. Exactly what it sounds like. I am sure everyone is relieved I decided to pass up the opportunity to become a Demolitionist, considering my track record with explosives.”

  Hex did actually look a little relieved at Dana’s words. Honestly, Cyn thought the other woman had been pretty effective with her explosives, just needing to work on not damaging herself or allies, but it wasn’t her place to judge anyone else’s choices in evolution. With everyone looking at him for the final evolution, Sam just shrugged awkwardly. “Berserker. Not really a change I guess.”

  Scott patted the Berserker on the back. “Ey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You’re doing fine, boy.” Sam smiled slightly at the encouragement, and with that out of the way the party broke into smaller, more casual conversations until Scott stood and announced that if everyone was ready, it was time to go.

  Fully recovered, full of food, and in high spirits, the party approached the door. There was nothing more to be done as far as they were concerned, and they could not even get out of this arena without going through, or over, one of the Hungering Hedges. Everyone took a deep breath before locking their arms together, and Scott barely hesitated before reaching out to touch the door. Surprisingly, the message the party received upon touching the floor exit door was different than it had been previously.

  Please confirm you are ready to enter the final floor of the transitional dungeon. If you are entering with a party, all members of your party must be touching and confirm they are ready before entering the queue. You will be sent to a waiting zone while other parties are found to meet the floor requirements. This floor will require 8 parties to begin.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  [Ready] [Not Ready]

  Multiple parties? The concept made her incredibly nervous. Cyn wasn’t sure she was ready to face other groups of people, and the System was not giving any indication if this was going to be competitive or collaborative. Her party looked at each other, their expressions fluctuating between nervous and excited, but since no one seemed to have an objection to moving on one by one their green checkmarks lit up. As the final checkmark went green, a new notification appeared for a fraction of a second.

  Elite Adapter feat detected 3/5. Party is majority Elite Adapters. Transfer to fresh raid scenario aborted. Entering floor in progress...

  No, wait! Cyn barely had time to process the System notification before her vision went black, and she was whisked away to the third and final floor of the transitional dungeon.

  ***

  Stergu was bored out of his mind. When he signed up to be a Warrior mentor for the newly Awakened dimension, he knew it would not be much fun. What he did not expect was spending almost every moment of his time ‘answering’ the endless tide of stupid questions on the mentor menu. The experience and Horizon gain was supposedly worth it, especially since a chance to raise one’s growth ceiling was so rare, but after a few weeks he wasn’t sure about that.

  He couldn’t even answer most of the questions asked. The System wouldn’t let him, much to both the newly Awakened and his own frustration. At this point, some of them were just using the ability to message him to send vitriol and harassment. Why do we even bother with this? I have yet to see a single question that I can actually respond to that could not be answered by the guide. What was worse, at least in Stergu’s opinion, was that most questions they asked would be considered common knowledge to the Collective. The kind of stuff you learned from your parents as a child. It was a bit disorienting to have clear adults asking him how their stats worked.

  The Archon in charge of the Colosseum’s mentors had assured everyone the rate of questions would slow drastically once the populous reached full adaptation, and returned to their home planets to prepare for Terminus, but as Stergu fired off generic responses to thousands of inquiries an hour for days on end he questioned if that would be true. Feeling numb, he almost did not catch a particularly strange inquiry that came to him before sending a standard response. Luckily, he noticed just in time and paused a moment to read over the novice warrior’s message a few times, each read leaving Stergu more puzzled.

  My teammate didn’t meet a mentor. Can you help?

  While it was possible the translator was malfunctioning, Stergu did not think that was the case here. When that happened, he would just receive nonsense. It was also possible this warrior’s party member was just lying, but... this just did not fall into the scenarios Stergu had a prepared response for. Because he did not have a response at all. It shouldn’t be possible to not meet a mentor, since the Collective had been refining their interference system for nearly two hundred dimensional Awakenings. He hesitated a few moments, watching the comically large number of unread messages grow, before forwarding the strange message to the Archon and continuing his mind-numbing task.

  It was just too weird, and he was too busy to deal with that.

  ***

  The Awakened it had bonded to was kind of stupid and exceptionally danger prone, but it had been an entertaining foray into dimensional space. The conditions required for the creature known as ‘Spam’ to meet someone from inside of a dimension rarely occurred, and until Cyn showed up within its range of detection the creature was not even aware it was possible for it to be able to leave with one. Especially one that was not fully adapted, since the System normally had extra protections surrounding them. But it was possible, perhaps even probable, that that was the key. A fluke of missing safeguards and a lack of full System integration. A tiny loophole it was able to squeeze into courtesy of Cyn’s choices, her natural Gift that preceded an exceptionally chaotic non-standard skill, combined with just a sliver of luck. The familiar bond it had initiated - and, in a way, forced Cyn to accept - protected Spam from the normally deadly conditions inside of dimensions, leading to a wealth of Horizon and new experiences. For anything that lived in the void, new experiences were treasured. Spam was no exception.

  There was just a small cost to the bond. As long as it was active, the creature’s level and abilities had been drastically reduced. What little power it still had was mostly spent on keeping a corporeal form, the shape of which had been haphazardly pulled from the Awakened’s mind. It was more or less accurate, and the Awakened didn’t seem to be bothered with what it looked like. But now that they were leaving this dungeon floor, it was time for Spam to leave too. It had had more than enough excitement, and considering the violence and danger all Awakened faced Spam was not keen to stay. It was much safer in the void, where almost no fighting ever occurred. It was kind of complicated to evolve the ability to fight without physical forms, and there simply wasn’t reason to do so for most creatures that existed there. Not to mention, Spam was over having a body. Having a physical form was unexpectedly uncomfortable. Mostly itchy. Being Petted felt nice, but it did not overcome the uncomfortable sensations.

  It would miss Cyn for sure, but it was time to go home.

  So, as the party passed through a section of void between dungeon floors, Spam tried to break off the familiar bond.

  And nothing happened. That wasn’t right, familiar bonds only existed at the discretion of both participants. They were a partnership, Spam should be able to break it. The creature frantically double checked the skill right as the party passed back into dimensional space. There was a single line that stood out, one the creature had not noticed previously and definitely had not been there when it had agreed to initiate the bond.

  Bond can be strengthened or altered, but never broken.

  At no point had the creature considered that the same unique conditions that allowed it to form a familiar bond - normally unattainable for its kind - and travel to dimensional space could also warp the bond itself in ways beyond anyone’s control.