An hour later, the five of us—Tori, Carl, Zane, Erika, and me—chugged across Chicago in the Explorer. I had a handful of useless common items to reset my Charge twice, and the Union Center dungeon was rapidly closing in.

  Well, relatively rapidly. The SUV didn’t have a great top speed, and I’d avoided upgrading it at all in case Erika tried anything. Plus, with the amount of rubble in the road, it wasn’t wise to move too quickly anyway. Both brambles and overgrown vehicles littered the streets, alternating as the patchwork graft of Solemnus-Six and Earth flew by below us.

  I had a lot to think about. Calvin had forced my hand, and so had Jessica. I had been thinking about the Grovetender’s Heart, and how to use what I was learning from it. But the designs for what Calvin considered to be ‘tanks’ were more rough sketches in my head and less concrete plans. Even if I figured it out today, I wouldn’t have a working prototype in a week—unless you counted the Explorer, and the best-case scenario for that involved Erika taking it to Wyoming after I knew how to power it.

  Zane and Carol were quiet for most of the trip. Only as we closed in on the Union Center dungeon did Tori clear her throat. “You know, Carol, Hal killed the GOAT.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep,” Tori said. “It was the second boss we killed on the Seared-Wilds Tower’s second floor. That’s the boss that dungeon broke, right?”

  “Right,” Zane said quietly.

  “Right,” I said. “You went into this place once already. It’s a lot different than it was. Don’t think of it as the same dungeon at all. It’s been overrun by orcs, and I doubt any of the original occupants are here.”

  “Plus, last time I saw inside, there was no chance of the dungeon breaking,” Tori said.

  I guided the SUV into the parking lot outside the basketball stadium, then stopped it and quickly drained the Charge. Erika’s shoulders slumped slightly, but she had the grace not to look too disappointed. Instead, she only cleared her throat and pulled herself out of the crowded, beyond uncomfortable back seat, stretching her back. “Alright. We’re here. Anything we need to know?”

  “No, I finished ‘locking up’ the Explorer and joined her on the stone ground, staring at the curated, trimmed brambles that surrounded the dungeon. “Last time, we were inside for a grand total of like 5 minutes. We didn’t even get a good view, except for of a Level 65 Orc Juggernaut that it took all our power to kill. We’re even with that thing now, more or less, and the three of you are at least close. We should be okay.”

  Zane shot a look at Carol, who returned it. They seemed to converse for a second without saying anything. Then Zane’s eyes lowered, and Carol said, “Alright, let’s get this place cleared out.”

  Carol and I took point, with Zane and Tori in the middle and Erika in the back. We strode toward the fog wall, then stepped through.

  Tier Four Dungeon: The Stronghold (Floor One)

  Objective: Defeat The Warlord (0/1)

  Objective: Breach the Inner Gate (0/1)

  Objective: Survive (0/1)

  Completion: 0%

  Open Environment: Dungeon monsters can leave this dungeon for limited time periods.

  Open Floor: Once triggered, the dungeon’s bosses will roam freely.

  Alarmed: This dungeon’s monsters will alert other monsters near them, and will flee to find reinforcement.

  Unlike last time, there wasn’t an Orc Juggernaut waiting for us. I took a relieved breath and looked around.

  The grafting of the Union Center’s walls had continued; almost all of the concrete was wooden beams held together with woven bramble. The court had been completely removed, and in its place was a wide dirt circle at midcourt. It was the only bare space in the entire arena.

  Everywhere else were either wooden huts, wooden shacks, or a gigantic contraption near where one of the baskets had been. It looked like it was nearly finished, although Charge poured from it as the orcs kept working on it. And it looked like a cannon. A cannon on massive, spike-covered wheels, with a wood-and-steel frame around it.

  The rest of the arena—the stands, where we’d come in, in particular—was shrouded in foul-smelling smoke. The arena’s roof, overhead, was still steel and modern framework, and other than a small hole that let out just enough to avoid suffocating everyone inside, the building held all the smoke from the village below, and from the construction project at the dungeon’s far side.

  “I’ve seen this,” Tori said suddenly. “I don’t know why I missed it the first time.”

  “What is it?” Erika asked.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “The Orcish Foundry. There’s one in literally every MMO. The final objective is to take out the guy in charge, after sabotaging whatever they’re building.”

  “Well then,” I said, clapping my hands together and summoning the Trip-Hammer, “Let’s get started.”

  Tori and I had struggled in The Stronghold the first time.

  A single Orc Juggernaut had pushed us to our limits.

  This time, though, there were five of us. Tori was only a level back from my Level Sixty-Six, while Zane and Carol were both Sixty-Three. Erika was Fifty-Nine, but she was also fast, hit hard, and could shut down magic around her. Other than trying to split the orcs’ experience five ways, we were well-prepared.

  And the first group of orcs proved it.

  Orc Juggernaut: Level 65 Monster

  Orc Mechanist: Level 60 Monster

  Orc Hammerswinger: Level 63 Monster

  There were four of them. And then, the Juggernaut took a spear to the chest, two Trip-Hammer swings to the skull, and a fireball to the face. Just like that, there were three.

  The Mechanist died second; Erika cut the gap between it and her, then activated her aura. That shut down Zane and Tori—and caused both of them to start swearing. But it also stopped the Mechanist mid-something, and a beat later, it was bleeding from a slash across the throat.

  Another beat, and it—and the blood—were gone. An experience orb sat there for a second before Erika absorbed it.

  “Hey! We were splitting those after the fight,” Tori said.

  “Are we? We didn’t discuss that,” Erika shot back.

  I ignored them. There was still a Hammerswinger and a second Mechanist to kill, and I was only half-paying attention to the monsters as Carol and Zane cornered the smaller of the two. My mind was fully focused on trying to feel that same resonance I’d felt in Rosehill Mausoleum and Norse Town. If there was any dungeon that should have it, it was this one; I could practically feel the Charge in the air.

  It wasn’t resonant yet, though. The pulse of energy I’d felt was missing. “Come on!” I growled as I slammed the Trip-Hammer into the Hammerswinger and pulled my body out of the way of its counter-swing. Then Tori Crushed it, and Erika’s sword ripped across it. A moment later, it was dead.

  “Any alarms?” Tori asked quickly.

  “I didn’t hear any,” Carol said. One by one, we shook our heads.

  Tori nodded once. “Great. In the future, we’re going to be distributing experience evenly when we can. It’s the most logical way to handle it with a group this big. Erika, you’re kind of an assassin, right? I want you to—“

  “Why are we listening to the twelve-year-old?” Erika asked.

  I sighed. “She’s fifteen, and we’re listening to her because she’s got five years of experience with MMO games, and so far, these dungeons have followed MMO rules. We don’t know why they do, but they do, and Tori’s an expert on what those games like to pull on their players. So, what’s the plan?”

  “Uh, right.” Tori took a breath. Erika’s an assassin, so we want to use her to stop alarms. Any monsters that try to run or signal to the others in the dungeon, she needs to be ready to kill. I’ll help out with that with my telekinetic spells, but Erika’s got a lot more raw damage. My build’s not there yet, so I’ll play support for now. Carol, Zane, you’re our main damage-dealers.”

  She looked at me. “Hal, you’re distracted.”

  “I am,” I admitted. I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “There’s something here I need to find for my Voltsmithing. It’s not gear—or at least, it’s probably not gear. But something’s going on with the Charge in here. It doesn’t feel like the other dungeons. It’s more…”

  The word wouldn’t come. I almost had it, but not quite. After a few seconds, I shrugged. “I can’t describe it. Sorry.”

  “We need you focused, Hal,” Tori said.

  “That’s the word. It’s more focused here. It’s got to be what they’re working on down below.” I breathed in again, breathed out, and settled myself. “I’ll check in again on it soon, but for now, I’m ready. Let’s keep moving.”

  Carol and Zane stared at me for a second before looking at each other and doing that same silent conversation thing they’d done before. Tori nodded curtly. “Alright. Hal, you’re on point. Hit hard, knock out the biggest threats, and be as scary as you can be with your hammer.”

  I lifted the Trip-Hammer up to my shoulder and started walking around the United Center’s wood-lined upper deck. “Let’s find a way down.”

  The stairs were gone.

  There were supposed to be stairs every so often to allow fans in and out of the bleachers. The Cozad football stadium had them, and there were only three rows of bleachers. So did the rodeo arena the next town over. But at some point in the Phase Zero terraforming or Phase Two grafting, those stairs had vanished.

  It was ridiculous—and predictable. The Consortium wouldn’t want us taking shortcuts, and the concession hall that looped around the arena below was a perfect funnel for us. It forced us around and around, the gaps where the stairs should have been barred with boards, brambles, and steel railings welded together into a mess we could just about see through, but couldn’t destroy.

  I charged into a group of Orc Harvesters led by a single Juggernaut. The Trip-Hammer met the Juggernaut’s axe mid-air, and we shoved against each other for a moment. The monster was stronger than me, but when I triggered the Trip-Hammer and its heads spun, the axe ripped out of his hands. Then his arm turned to pulp as the second hammer crashed into his shoulder.

  “We’re making good progress,” Tori said. She used Gravity Well to pile up the Harvesters. A moment later, Zane’s fire ripped across them as he unleashed a barrage of magic.

  I didn’t get to see the rest of their ‘fight,’ but I knew their strategy at this point. Keep them grouped up, let Zane do his thing.

  Right now, though, I had a half-dead Juggernaut barreling toward me, remaining arm reaching for the Trip-Hammer. I ran through my options: counterattack, retreat, try to block, hope for help. Then I shrugged and fired a single rail-gun blast from the Voltsmith’s Grasp into the monster’s head. It slumped over and vanished before it even hit the ground.

  As the screaming behind me stopped and the waves of heat cut off, I pulled up the dungeon’s status.

  Objective: Defeat The Warlord (0/1)

  Objective: Breach the Inner Gate (0/1)

  Objective: Survive (0/1)

  Completion: 31%

  “We’re making great time,” I said. “Completion percentage is high. We should see the first boss soon.”

  Then I kept moving. The experience orbs got divvied up as I stalked forward, toward the next choke point where hanging steel gates could be pulled down when the old United Center arena was closed. I’d checked, and there weren’t any gates anymore, but the choke points were useful.

  And as I looked, two things stood out.

  First, the stairs. Concrete with metal grip pads, they led down into the sea of chairs and orcish buildings below. They were the first set I’d seen in a long, long time.

  And second, the massive, armored orc staring back, spear in one hand and battle standard in the other, sitting astride one of the largest wolf-looking things I’d ever seen.