“Aye, lass, I know of where you speak, and you kids should stick well clear of that cursed place.” The wizened man with only one arm, leading a heavily laden cart down towards the camp below the highway, told me when I asked him if there was anything to be aware of in the direction of the place our quest had sent us. “Nothing has come from meddling with the Ancients’ places. Mark my words and stay clear of them.” He turned his face away from me and urged his mules forward.

  “Ominous…” I muttered and moved to catch up with the others.

  “Learn anything?” Darksider asked when I got back to them.

  “That we should stay clear of the Ancients’ places and that nothing good comes from meddling…”

  “Meddle? What are we? Pesky kids?” Jacobs asked incredulously.

  “He also said it is a cursed place.” I grinned.

  “What could possibly go wrong?” G laughed. “OW! What was that for?” he said to Peachy, who had just kicked him.

  “Setting flags,” Jacobs told him.

  We followed a well-travelled road up into the woodlands, eventually coming to a split, one way continued to be well worn, the other looked like it was being buried, but also was in a direct line with our destination. So we took it.

  “Som’ing ‘ovatech’,” I said, reading the highly damaged sign by the gatehouse. The waypoint for the quest had led us to this compound in the middle of the woods. We’d followed the road until we got to a security gate over the entrance to a carpark. A car park in surprisingly good shape. Any markings were long gone, but there were none of the cracks or growth I had come to expect.

  “Santamova Technology,” Darksider corrected, nodding at another sign which was damaged in other ways, but combined gave us the full name.

  “There’s not much security,” I said, nodding at the arm that was blocking the entrance into the car park. The ones designed to break if hit by a stiff breeze, and at some point, a stiff breeze had. The barrier was now wedged up between the fence and the gatehouse. “So can’t have been miltech.”

  “Car park looks in good condition, more nanite maintenance?” Peachy asked.

  “I think so.” Darksider agreed.

  “Kinda makes me think ‘tech bro’ campus…” said Jacobs.

  I tilted my head. “It does look a lot like Voice’s campus.” From what I could see of the front of the building, it was all glass, but nature had gotten its way, and there was growth of vine-like plants covering the entirety of the sun-facing side of the building. The roof, hidden from our angle, also had those same vines hanging over and draping themselves over the upper parts of the building.

  “Nathan’s building is very modern, not at all techbro,” Peachy said, looking at the building, then frowned. “Ok, yeah, I can see the resemblance, but it’s still not techbro.”

  “Totally, brah,” I joked.

  “Like totally,” Jacobs added. Nothing happened when we stepped into the car park.

  “It’s not!” Peachy insisted as she led us across the car park towards the building.

  “Oh, speaking of Nathan, he told Daisy he was just a Data Analyst. Probably avoid saying anything to disillusion her of that…”

  “What? Why are you only telling me this now? We’ve been walking for hours!” Peachy exclaimed.

  “Err, I only just thought of it,” I said in response. “It’s not like it's a huge thing…”

  We heard the howl and the scramble of claws before we saw them. Like little rockets, a pack of large silver wolves burst from the far side of the building, sprinting full pelt at us.

  “We’ll talk about this later,” Peachy informed me.

  We responded like well-oiled machines, equipping weapons and moving to put Jacobs in the middle of our formation. I sent a Fireball at the snarling beasts while they were still at range. It slowed the closest to the explosion point, but the others weren’t fazed in the slightest. I also realised I had underestimated their size; they weren’t just large wolves… They were the size of lions. Fireball hadn’t been effective, so I sent some Ice Bolts at them, hoping to slow them down. The others joined in sending their own bolt spells at them at a slightly slower pace. When the animals were halfway across the car park, I cast and created a Sabre-Toothed Ice Tiger between us.

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  “What the fuck, dude?!” G exclaimed. Oh yeah, I hadn’t shown him this spell.

  “New spell,” I stated as I focused on making it charge the lead beast. The two pounced at each other, both beasts going for the other's neck, while my summons also tried to rake the wolf with its claws. I got the feeling of sharp teeth scraping on my neck, while warm fluid filled my mouth and covered my claws. A side effect I hadn’t experienced in my practice. My ice kitty weighed more than the oversized puppy and managed to get itself on top of its opponent.

  “Focus!” someone whacked me on the arm, Jacobs, right. I shook my head for a moment; the feeling of blood faded. I became aware of more than just my summon and what it was fighting, and realised the other four in the wolf pack had continued past my summon, leaving their companion to fight it. I cast and just in time for me to brace and intercept the charge of the wolf that came at me. I caught a glimpse of the four beasts split between the four of us, Jacobs was safely in the middle, before all my focus went on keeping the one that came for me away. I cast an on the second thrust of my weapon. Used its reach to try to keep it away from me. I noticed it slowing down on my third hit. Ice started to form on its fur. I mixed in another , and it slowed even more. I hit it with a third, I exceeded some kind of threshold with my ice magic, and the creature became a solid frozen statue. I heard the woosh, and G’s new hammer came around, the spiked end smashing into the frozen creature, shattering it.

  With my opponent out of the fight, I was able to bring my attention back to the rest of the group. Peachy was tanking two of them. Darksider had circled around his opponent. It had to keep going for him because if it didn’t, it found itself being stabbed. He kept dodging its strikes and so far looked untouched, but it only needed to get lucky once. Peachy looked like she had her two, and G was back attacking them, so I crossed behind Jacobs and shoved an into the rear of Darksiders' opponent. I’m so glad I don’t need to scream the names of my spells. I’d never live it down.

  Never one to miss an opportunity, Darksider joined me in spitroasting the mangy creature. His Shocking Grasp resonated with my Ice Caress. Something in me inspired me to try it with my own Shocking Grasp.

  We both pulled back, and then thrust in, and released our shocking grasps into it. The only way I can describe what happened is that compatible spells heterodyne. There was a loud crack as our two spells compounded, resulting in a more devastating explosion of force, which ripped the creature apart from the middle out.

  My attention was pulled back to the front line by a squeal of animalistic pain that came out from the creature now crushed below G’s hammer. It's back, clearly broken from the devastating blow. Darksider moved to join Peachy with the last wolf. My attention went back to the first; it was pinned below my ice tiger, which hadn’t moved, jaw around the throat of the pinned wolf. I decided that one could wait and moved to join Darksider, keen to find out if the side effect from that 'duo Shocking Grasp' was a fluke or a normal side effect.

  I looked down at the last of the five wolves, my sabre-tooth ice tiger’s jaw had severed its jugular, and it had bled out in its icy embrace. I dismissed the summon and got to work skinning the creature while my party stood overwatch.

  “I used to have people do this for me,” I muttered as I slid the blade into the flesh. Sam and Kelsey had really made this seem so easy.

  “We should get matching cloaks made with them!” declared G.

  “Veto,” said Peachy.

  “You don’t have veto power!” G responded.

  “Aenara!?” she cried.

  “Errr…” I really didn’t want to get involved in this conversation, especially when I had my arms covered in blood. Ohh, I could get two birds with one stone. “No hugging…” Damnit that expression… “for a mon’… week.”

  I finished skinning the last wolf and stared proudly at my work. This was the best one yet. The system recognised it as well, it gave me another point in skinning. I looked over at Peachy, who was still arguing with herself about whether being able to veto a wolf cloak was worth a week without forcing hugs on me.

  I let out a sigh. Might as well put her out of her misery. “Sorry, G, between my skinning skill and the damage we did to them, I think we only have enough hide to make one cloak. Maybe two if you are lucky.”

  “Really? Bummer. Well… It’s only fair we let our tank get it,” he nodded sagely. He’d been winding her up… I didn’t think he had it in him. I looked at Darksider, he was biting his lip. My eyes went to Jacobs. He’d seen it as well… and then I looked at Peachy.

  “So… we should get on with exploring this place,” I suggested, quickly.

  “Sabastian,” she said sweetly, “do not mistake my kind nature for weakness. You will regret it.” She turned and headed for the building. Jacobs shook his head and hurried after her.

  Darksider indicated I should catch up with them while he had a quick word with G.

  “That was mean, Peachy,” I said quietly when I caught up to the pair of them.

  “Too far?” she asked, her back to the other two. She was trying not to laugh.

  “No.” I laughed. “He had you going, but took it too far, and you saw through it. That deserves the burn… but he looked like you spanked a puppy.”

  “I’m proud of him,” said Jacobs. “Our GoldenFist,” he fake sniffled. “Using his real name, nice touch.”

  “That was probably going too far… Can’t believe I almost gave up a week of hugs…” she muttered.

  “He’s seen how we wind each other up.” I saw a look of realisation appear on G’s face. “And it looks like Damian just enlightened him to the fact that he’s just joined the game.”

  I checked my notifications:

  

  ‘Your extensive use of magic has reinforced your pool, allowing the Aether within you to grow denser, Aether point gained.’

  ‘You saw the impact of cascade interference and correctly inferred its cause, Intelligence point gained’

  Cascade interference? Nah, I'm going to keep calling it heterodyning.