Luke discovered that he was still bonded to his old suit of power armor and he needed to switch it to the new one before he could get the buff from his class and the control from Machine Bond. As soon as he figured that out and made the switch, he was greeted with a pleasant surprise.

  He hadn’t known that switching bonds would help him level the skill, he wondered if he could power level the skill by switching between all of the suits they had available. Something to test out later. For now, he stood up to his full twelve feet tall height and took a deep breath.

  The passive air filtration in his new mask worked great, no airflow problems. He had replaced the narrow slit in his visor with a wide section of thick plexiglass. That combined with the perception runes on the helmet enhanced his vision greatly. When combined with his buff from his class, he could see much better in the suit than out of it.

  The industrial leaf springs in his new legs should help him with running and jumping. He almost tested them out inside, but thought better of it. He ducked out the loading door and took a few steps away from the building. Jinx gave him a few meows to let him know he couldn't leave without her.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just let me test this out first.” He dipped low and jumped as high as he could.

  Luke rocketed into the sky, his head peeking up over the top of the warehouse before he started to come down. The landing put a small crack in the concrete. Whoops. His new bigger suit was heavier too.

  He didn't need to test out his new Stone Beetle armor because he knew how tough it was from experience. He was sure some monster would slip by his defenses at some point anyway and he would see then how tough it was in practice.

  The final test came with his airgun-powered spell rifles embedded in his forearm. Using Machine Bond, he pointed at a bush near the fence line and fired four times in quick succession. It was nice not having to manually pull a trigger. All four magnetic balls hit where he was aiming, although only one had a spell connected. Luke had left three of the four spell rifles free so he could add the elemental runes as he learned them. The bush froze over and Luke walked back inside.

  There was still time to inscribe an elemental spell onto one of the other spell guns, but he hadn’t cracked any more adept elemental runes yet. He had tried several times to get the fire rune to work without success. Fireballs were still out of reach.

  With what time he had left, he experimented with lightning. He needed to use three intents, the first was of course lightning itself. The second and third were the tricky ones. He tried a few new permutations, but none of them worked. When he had only twenty minutes to go, he surprised himself by getting it right. The Adept Lightning rune was powered by the intents of lightning, opposing electrical charges, and plasma in motion. He laughed in delight and spun around in a circle.

  Bumblebee walked in then, and said, “I can come back if you want more time alone to do that cheugy dance.”

  “Hey, now. Don’t insult your boss, particularly when he has a present for you.”

  “A present?”

  Luke gestured towards his old suit of power armor. “This one is all yours. You will have better armor than you are used to, and an ice gun. There is a switch in the gloves to fire them. And another set to extend or retract the legs. I bet you’ll be able to really get moving.”

  “No cap? Damn. Sorry I said anything about your dancing. You are the GOAT, straight up.”

  Luke laughed and showed him the controls. While Bumblebee got used to the new mech, Luke quickly popped open his left forearm and inscribed the Adept Lightning rune onto one of the two airguns inside. Now he had two elemental ranged attacks. Perfect.

  The bushes along the fence line were his test targets again. He raised his left arm and fired a single magnet out of the upper airgun. A buzzing sound accompanied the pop and crack of the rifle. The magnet had a small field of crackling energy surrounding it as it sped through the air. The impact on the bush caused a detonation of electricity in a five foot dome around it. The bush sparked and burnt, a pattern of electrical burns instantly forming across it.

  The bush caught fire and Luke had to run over and stomp it out. Whoops. He needed a safer shooting range for his next tests. Regardless, they were ready to go today.

  They asked Allen to bring the power armor Bumblebee had been using and the three of them strolled across the Norfolk Complex. Luke couldn’t help but enjoy the double takes and long stares.

  The three sets of power armor walked up to Shepard and his group. Luke could tell they were impressed and trying to hide it.

  “Glad you all made it,” Luke said through his suit speakers.

  “Is that you, Skywalker?” Shepard asked.

  “Yep, it’s me. We are storing our power armor Earthside, that way I can repair them myself without having to go through the portal.”

  “Mighty convenient, that. I suggested something like that to Elwood, they said it was too expensive.”

  “Yeah, the taxes are annoying, but we are making enough profit to cover it,” Luke said. “One of you needs to take the armor that Allen is wearing. Who’s it gonna be?”

  “I’ll take it,” Shepard said. “Green, Davis, Barrow, you still need the exercise to be able to keep up with me.”

  Allen sat down and started climbing out of the armor’s chest as Luke said, “Alright. Before Allen heads back, I need you all to provide him with your details. He’ll enter you into payroll. Like I promised, you’ll get paid at the end of the day today, and then once a week after that.”

  They were all too happy to give Allen their info. Once he was done collecting the data he turned to Luke. “Anything you want me to do today? I should be mostly caught up with everything except that rune database, but I figure that’s not urgent.”

  “I did have something, yes. Can you talk to the scientists in the complex about what they use for surveillance? I want to use drones to keep track of the monster population, but the Lighthouse forums say that doesn’t work. Birds or monsters always take them out,” Luke said with a shrug.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Allen looked away. “I don’t know if they’ll talk to me. Maybe you should do it.”

  “Dude, you are the CFO of a major company. They’ll try to wine and dine you in exchange for funding. Trust me, the purple coats will love you.”

  “Yeah, alright. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  The six of them headed into the huge concrete building and walked through the maze of corridors designed to slow down their enemies. They didn’t have to get a day pass like normally because Allen had gotten them all badges that said they worked for Monster Jaegers Inc. Luke made sure to register his new power armor with the tax guy so they wouldn’t have to pay to bring it back through the portal.

  He led the way through the portal when it was their turn. The view had changed, he could see the corridor between worlds much better in the new suit. It was beautiful. He became more convinced that they were literally walking through space. It was like he had boots that took him several lightyears with every step.

  On the other hand, the walk through the forest to Bona Urbo felt like forever. Luke had gotten used to jogging through the forest in his mech. Now they had to go the speed of their slowest members, human jogging speed. At least they were fit.

  As they walked, Luke remembered to activate the first half of Repair Craft. That made him think about classes and his oath. He wanted to ask Shepard about his.

  SPEAR had made Luke swear a loyalty oath, but for some reason the only thing they wanted to keep secret was the existence of SPEAR. That and the true extent of his magic class’ power. There was nothing holding him back as they walked through the forest.

  “Hey Shepard, you have a class, right? You might not know that Bumblebee and I have classes too. I have a class called War Machine and it helps me repair my armor, and Bumblebee has a Driver class that helps him go faster.”

  “Dude! We can’t talk about that,” Bumblebee interjected.

  Luke shook his head, “Don’t worry about it, Bumblebee. The oath didn’t include humans. I think they forgot. It’s fine. So, Shepard, do you want to share the details of your class?”

  “What makes you so sure I even have a class?” Shepard asked.

  “Cus I’m not an idiot? Look, as your employer I could have demanded your details without telling you anything. But I shared our class info first and I am asking nicely. Please will you tell us the details of your class so we can work together better? You get paid more, remember.”

  Shepard was quiet while he thought about it. “I can’t talk about myself. But, I have a friend that might have a class.”

  Luke smiled behind his helmet. Shepard was talking about himself, but couldn’t say so. It seemed like SPEAR had gotten to him and given him a more strict oath. But not strict enough if he could talk around it like this. “Tell me more about your friend.”

  “I think he has a class called Stoneheart. I don’t know what that means, really. But he fights better underground, and both of his skills are badass. He has a level ten Tremorsense, which means he can feel monsters coming, particularly if there is stone nearby. The other skill is Retribution, but that’s been stuck at eight for a while.”

  “What’s Retribution?”

  “If he times it just right, he can bounce monster’s attacks back at them. Kicks, bites, acid, doesn’t matter. He can reflect everything.”

  Luke nodded, impressed. “Sounds like a pretty useful skill.”

  “Damn useful. Killed a lot of nasties with it.”

  Bumblebee grunted. “Knew you had a class. Only way you could have beat us so often.”

  Shepard shook his head. “I didn’t say I had a class. We’re just professionals. Besides, you apparently have a class and your team always came up short. Magic classes clearly aren’t enough to tip the balance.”

  Bumblebee grumbled but Luke thought Shepard might have a point. The team that Sandwich led had five people, two with a class, and they still lost to Shepard’s team of four. Then three of them died. He didn’t say any of this, of course.

  Luke said, “Bumblebee, we know the path from here back to the portal is free of monsters. Why don’t you do a test run with the leg extensions? The novelty might be what you need to advance your Rush skill.”

  He perked up and said, “Bet. You guys keep walking, I’ll catch up. Time me, I’m finna break some records.”

  Bumblebee activated the digitigrade leg extensions on the power armor and bounced around a bit to get used to them. Then he turned and dashed off towards the portal. Luke didn’t have a stopwatch, but he had to admit that the young black guy was much faster than Luke was with the suit he built. Then Bumblebee activated Rush and blurred away.

  The rest of them continued walking/jogging, but it wasn’t long until Bumblebee returned. He slid to a stop in a small cloud of dust. He threw his hands in the air and yelled, “Rush thirteen, baby!”

  Luke laughed and clapped him on the back, a clang of metal ringing out. “Congratulations. I knew you could do it.”

  “It’s like you said, new vehicles, new challenges. That’s the secret there. No cap. I’m gonna do a run through the trees next, or try out a new suit, or try and run up a mountain,” Bumblebee said, the words tumbling out.

  “Great idea for later. For now, let’s stick to doing our jobs, ok?”

  Bumblebee reluctantly agreed, but refused to lower his legs. He kept them extended and bouncing around in excitement.

  They arrived at the runewright’s workshop shortly after that. While Green, Davis, and Barrow suited up in the power armor Kruro had created, Luke talked to the naga. She agreed to take care of Jinx as usual. Luke realized then that the others hadn’t asked about his cat. He decided not to introduce them since they didn’t seem interested. They passed out the magical swords and Luke had to give up his flame sword so everyone was armed.

  “Cormac left word for you. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. He’ll want an accounting of what you surveyed and then you can plan out next steps. Are you going to attack the hydra today?” Kruro asked.

  Luke slashed his hands down. “No, we aren’t ready for that fight. We need teamwork practice first, and maybe some new weapons. Today we are heading out to check on the Crystal Golems, like Cormac asked.”

  Kruro slinked down a bit. “Alright. Be safe. Make sure you are back before midday, the seers predicted an electric storm later today.”

  “Will do. I did catch your hint about the hydra. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you.” Luke said and reached into the compartment on his back. He pulled out a box and handed it over to her. “This is a spice rack with jars of spices inside. You got all the regulars, Basil, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary, etc. Be careful with the Cayenne, Red Pepper Flakes, and Curry Powder. They are spicy and I noticed your food yesterday was a bit bland.”

  “This, this is too much. I was expecting two bottles, not twelve.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It cost me the equivalent of a few bronze coins.”

  “Still, this, this is worth so much more here. You don’t understand. Farming is difficult and expensive here, particularly expensive for spices. You used to owe me for the Seer's advice and the use of a healing potion, but now I feel like I owe you.”

  Luke’s ears heated up. He had completely forgotten that he had used a healing potion to save Sandwich’s life. “Don’t worry about that. You don’t owe me anything. I’ll see you in a few hours. It shouldn’t be too long. We are checking out the Crystal Golem caves today and we’ll come right back afterwards. Let’s get going, I have a date tonight and I can’t be late.”

  They chuckled and headed out. The six of them were jogging at a faster pace now that they all wore power armor. They went straight west from the estate village, into a forest that grew increasingly thick. The dense canopy blotted out most of the sunlight. A rich loam smell made it through Luke’s air filter. The trees were taller than any he had seen before. Except the main estate tree, of course. That was still the tallest object he had seen on Kalibutan.

  The squad of six jogged through the forest in a tight formation. Shepard and Luke spotted the ambush at the same time and shouted for everyone to stop. Luke made a mental note to talk about leadership hierarchy later. For now, he had some monsters to kill.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Good Will Hunting (1998)