The caravan had stopped for the night, their hover carts on the ground in a circle. Luke must have woken up when the hover truck touched down. Bosa gave him a nod and hurried over to the center of their little convoy. They had circled the carts and someone was stacking logs to start a fire. Apparently the servants were working together to make dinner for everyone. Well, breakfast for him, dinner for them.

  Their campsite was in the center of a clearing, devoid of any vegetation. There were large shapes surrounding them. Luke thought they were strange trees for a moment before he realized they were bones. Huge bones bigger than any dinosaur on Earth surrounded the burnt out clearing. The skull was absent, but it was clear these were the bones of a dragon.

  He walked over to the ribcage, but stopped several feet away. The bones were giving off a foreboding feeling. It was like a predator was breathing down his neck, about to pounce. He turned to see that Kruro had joined him on the edge of their campsite.

  She gestured a scaled hand at the gray bones. “This is why we stay here for the night. The bones still have enough draconic magic that they scare away any predators.”

  “I feel like there are spiders crawling over my soul. No wonder this keeps monsters away,” Luke turned to walk back to the caravan.

  Kruro held up a hand. “I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Sure. What do you want?”

  “I’m grateful for everything you have done for me, for saving my life with the duel and then employing me afterwards.”

  Luke chuckled. “Why do I get the feeling you are going to ask for something even bigger now?”

  She wiggled her hands. “Indeed. I will ask for a boon, but not yet. I wish to tell you more, but the wilderness keeps no secrets.” She made a vague gesture towards the elves still lounging in their hover carts. “Instead, I want to ask you a question. What are you willing to sacrifice to do the right thing?”

  “I guess it depends on the situation. I like the environment, but I think paper straws are dumb. On the other hand, I've already fought for my world. I'm willing to lay down my life to save the lives and liberty of others.”

  “That is good. Think more on that question and I will tell you more on the train when we have privacy.” Kruro turned and went back to the caravan.

  As she slithered off Luke shook his head. “If you were any more cryptic, you’d be a mausoleum."

  Kruro laughed softly but didn’t turn around.

  Luke rolled his eyes and headed back to the group. The other carts were working on converting their gondola-like vehicles into a shelter for the night. Widow Falodun was attaching tarps to the inside of the windows and her children were moving the luggage outside so they would have room to sleep.

  Momoh and Imohi’s servants were making much more elaborate preparations. They were attaching a small tent on the outside of each of the six windows. It was tall and spacious, giving everyone a private area connected to the central hub of the hover cart.

  Luke’s preparations were a bit simpler. He had bought a two man tent, the kind that unfolded and set itself up. He staked it down, even though the breeze was gentle. Then he rolled out a pair of thick pads and some sleeping bags. He had originally planned on having Vanessa in there with him, he hoped it wouldn’t be awkward with Bosa there. Kruro had built the cab of the hover truck as her own nest so she would be sleeping there tonight, just as she had been doing all day. Naga slept as much as cats did when they wanted to.

  The sun dipped behind the distant mountain range, turning the sky purple. Stars slowly popped up on the other side of the sky. He realized that this would be his first Kalibutan night. He had spent months of days on this planet, but always went home at night.

  Day transitioned into night and the sky was studded with stars. A glittering arc of light curved through the sky from the east to the west. That was the planet’s ring, seemingly brighter now that it was night. Kalibutan also had three moons, but only one was out now, a distant dot that was brighter than the rest of the stars. The night sky was ethereal and beautiful. Luke took the time to soak it in. It was an inky ocean with celestial currents, where unfamiliar constellations trace out secret stories.

  Dinner was surprisingly good. Luke hadn’t been impressed with Kalibutan food in the past, but today someone changed things up. It was a sausage and squash soup with sharp spices and a heady aroma of something savory. It made him think of an Asian-Irish fusion dinner.

  Imohi wasn’t as impressed and grumbled to the dwarven woman he had brought along that she needed to make breakfast tomorrow.

  They split up the night watch into three, just like the day. Luke volunteered to take the worst shift, the middle one. That way the others wouldn’t have their sleep interrupted. As everyone bedded down for the night and Imohi started his watch, Luke rifled through his bags. He wasn’t close to tired and needed something to occupy his time.

  Finally, he found it. His interdimensional modem. The brick was too simple to be called a computer. It had a terribly simple display and a tiny keyboard, but it did have access to the internet. Despite its simplicity, Luke was impressed that it worked this far from the portal.

  He checked his email first. It took so long to load, and half of it was spam. His hands itched to throttle whoever had wasted so much of his time on an ad for processed meats. There were a few business emails from Allen and Sandwich, so Luke took the time to type out short replies.

  Still bored, he switched over to WikiRunes. The railgun project had new test results up. He couldn’t watch the videos on his crappy modem, but the comments let him know that they had made progress but hadn’t cracked it yet. Someone else had posted an Adept Copy rune, which was designed to copy books, but could copy almost anything with enough mana. It couldn’t copy watches or electronics though, the rune wasn't precise enough. Still, the possibilities were amazing. The entire output of a factory, reduced down to a single rune.

  He was about to close the website before he thought to check for DMs. He had a new one from someone claiming to be from Boston Dynamics. The Boston Dynamics, the premier company in robotics research. They wanted to meet with him and discuss his plans for a runic robot.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Luke was sorely tempted to turn around and head home right away. If they could help him complete his robot project, that would be a real game changer. Unfortunately, he had to wait. His trip to the capital would net him just as many benefits if he was patient. He replied to Robert Playter and suggested a meeting in two weeks at the Norfolk Complex.

  Robert would have to apply for clearance and get a background check, which would be perfect for Luke so he could be sure he was talking to the real deal and not some rando from the internet.

  With his business sorted, Luke put away his brick of a wireless modem and wandered around the campsite a bit. It didn’t take long for him to end up back in the center of the clearing. The dragon bones gave him a haunted vibe and he didn’t want to go near them.

  Cormac was standing guard, Imohi’s only martial servant. Luke wandered over and stood next to him. They stood with the embers of the campfire behind them. They looked out over the landscape in companionable silence for a bit before the Seneschal broke it.

  “I swore myself to him, so I understand if you don’t believe me when I say that the Provisional Lord Imohi is a good guy.”

  “I judge people by their actions, and his actions aren't great.” Luke paused for a moment and then continued. “I get that he’s overcompensating for the fact that he’s not a lord yet. I do. But all his posturing leads me to believe that his idea of a good lord is a pompous tyrant.”

  “Time will calm his river.” Cormac said softly. “There are seeds of greatness in him. For example, he asked me not to activate the sound dampening enchantments in his hover carriage."

  Luke tilted his head to the side. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “We are escorting the Falodun widow and her children back to the capital, a situation that some lords use to abuse their power. Instead, he listens for the cries of her children and tries to keep them calm. That is why he doesn’t want you to use your deafening summons. He doesn’t want the children scared.”

  “Better scared than dead.” Luke shot back. Then he shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean that. I don’t want the kids scared either. Imohi sounds like a better guy than I assumed. I’ll try to keep the loud sounds away from the kids during my shift tomorrow.”

  Cormac waggled his hands near his waist, the Kalibutan version of a slow nod. Luke glanced at his friend's hands. All orc skin was wrinkled, deep groves and ridges that formed patterns across their body. The Seneschal’s skin was deeper than most, the tops of his ridges dusty. Luke hadn’t thought about it much, but the man was a grandfather. Maybe he was older than he had first assumed.

  Luke cleared his throat. “Why don’t you turn in early? I’m going to be awake no matter what, I’ll take the rest of your watch and mine. Get some rest so you can be fresh tomorrow.”

  “That isn’t necessary. I am perfectly capable of completing my watch.”

  “Of course it isn’t necessary. I’m trying to be nice. Go, get a good night’s rest.”

  Cormac smiled. “I suppose refusing would be rude, so I’ll take you up on that.”

  He quietly walked over to the silver cart and slipped inside one of the six tents attached onto the outside. Luke took a deep breath and settled in for a long watch. As creepy as those dragon bones were, it made things peaceful. He had felt on edge most of the day because there were constant attacks. Now he could enjoy the beautiful ring of Kalibutan and the cool breeze of their night air.

  At some point, Jinx padded over and joined him in his watch. He removed his gauntlets and gave her lots of pets. Her purrs still sounded like a housecat, but now they had a deep rumbling quality to them. When she was done with the pets, she phased through his hands and wandered away. He warned her not to go too far, but he was pretty sure she was going to ignore him. Her ability to phase through attacks and escape danger meant that she had never really learned caution as they spent the days hunting monsters.

  At one point, Luke had asked Cormac about her skills, since his own Phantom Shot was interdicted he worried that her phasing abilities would be too. Surprisingly, the answer was no. There were no skills that beast companions weren’t allowed to have. Instead, Beastmasters and their animals were relegated to the outer city. There were numerous skills that kept monsters out of the inner city, and those worked on animal companions as well. The upper nobility didn’t fear the beast skills because they wouldn’t ever see them.

  It didn’t seem fair to Luke. He didn’t want to have to worry about being killed if they found out he had a forbidden skill. He wished that he could let them know and just stay in the outer city without having to worry about being found out and murdered. Sadly, that wasn’t an option. Luke would have to try to level up to twenty-four as fast as he could and sacrifice the skill before a strong enough Seer found him out.

  A bouncing light appeared in the distance and Luke was instantly on guard. It reminded him of the stories of a will-o-wisp. He activated Armor Adjunct to protect himself from any mental attacks.

  The bouncing light came closer and Luke’s perception picked it out as a softly glowing slime. He laughed to himself at freaking out over the weakest monster on the planet. He fired a lightning ball in a long arc that hit a foot away from the bouncing monster. The lightning shot out and crackled against the slime’s gelatinous skin. The glancing attack should have killed it but the slime bounced forward unharmed a moment later.

  Maybe this was a lightning slime? Luke wanted a closer look. He created a pair of Vortex Doors, one on the dirt in front of him and the other on a nearby boulder. He dropped into the portal and gravity switched from down to the side. His dexterity was high enough that the change didn’t throw him and he landed on his feet. He was twenty feet away from the slime now. He oriented himself and fired off a Phantom Shot. Since everyone was asleep it was one of the few times it was safe to use the skill.

  Luke watched the gray and violet slug shoot forward and impact the monster center mass. It immediately slumped, turning into a puddle. An instant later, it slurped up into a slime again and hopped backwards. Then it turned and hopped towards him.

  In surprise, Luke fired off another Phantom Shot. The spell hit the monster and it fell into a puddle again. He could see the slime skin perforate from the shot and its innards spill out into the dirt. But just like last time, the slime slurped itself back up, bounced backwards and was fine. It discovered him again and started bouncing forward to attack.

  One after another, Luke fired off a fireball, another lightning attack, an acid bolt, and a fracture spell. All of them hit and seemed to kill the monster, but after each attack, it reconstituted itself and came at him again.

  Luke had to take a few steps back. The slime was slow, but there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. He looked towards the nearby camp and wondered if he could bear to scare the kids again by shooting the slime with a summoned tank.

  He shook his head. No, he would figure this out quietly. If there were truly a super strong slime out there, he would have heard about it before. Worst case, he could use Vortex Door to portal it away from the camp. It wasn't dexterous enough to avoid a well placed portal.

  As a test, Luke let it get closer and fired off another Phantom Shot. The monster ‘died’ again and then hopped backwards as usual. This time he saw something new. The goop sucked itself into the slime exactly the reverse of how it spilled out. It hopped backwards through the air in a reverse of its previous attack. He smiled as he figured it out.

  This was a Time Slime. Every time it died, it triggered its magic and reversed time to when it wasn’t dead. The smile slipped off his face. If this was a slime that could use time magic, how was he supposed to kill it?