"Well this sucks," I muttered as I tried messaging again.

I was able to type out messages, but when I mentally clicked send, they just blinked. Somehow the enchantment ringing the cave still prevented communication and teleport.

How could she do that? Messaging was a system function. Only system-protected areas had the power to block it, as far as I had seen.

"Nigel, check the area and see if you can find an exit." My shaggy buddy loped off.

I partially-triggered Shadow Walk. My harvested spell activated and every shadow glowed in my mental sight. Only shadows within the cavern, though. I hadn't expected to so easily circumvent the wards blocking the cavern, but had to try.

I did spot a single large metal door in a shadowed corner of the room. Dropping the spell to not waste one of the 2 remaining uses, I used Tether Slide to zip across to the door. Best to rule out the easy options first. The door looked like some kind of steel alloy with a matte finish. Even had a handy sign on the wall above the lintel.

"Atlantis Dungeon entrance."

A dungeon? Huh. That might be promising. The door lacked any handle or keyhole. I banged on it and it rang dully. As I focused on it, trying to figure out how to open it, Identify triggered.

"Atlantis Dungeon entrance. Allows entrance from stage 3 into the stage-4 Atlantis dungeon. Note: Door will open only for those at level 50 or higher."

"Not helpful," I growled. Was that why Marisara had dragged me down to that cavern? It offered an alternate path to stage 4, so maybe that connecting space allowed her to bend the rules.

If it granted access to stage 4, there had to be another door leading back to stage 3.

"Over here," Nigel called, right on time.

Instead of using Tether Slide again, I drew Echo and Scalebiter to unlock another 20% Agility from my tier-1 Swordsman ability and simply ran across to my friend. Despite the horrible situation, I still had to smile at how fast I could move. It was a great reminder to focus on leveling up more of my spells and abilities until I could evolve them to tier-1 and unlock more of my efficiency.

Another steel door, identical to the dungeon entrance, marked the exit back to stage 3. It too was closed and Spellseer's Gaze confirmed a warding spell covered it.

I pressed my hands against the door and the invisible barrier spell. Nothing happened, Mimic didn't capture the warding spell, and I got no notification.

"No other exits," Nigel confirmed, dropping to his haunches and licking a paw.

"We need to get through this door." I swapped my blades for my 3000 pound Earthshaker maul and slammed it against the door with all my strength.

The door rang loudly, but the brutal strike made no visible mark. The barrier flared into view for a second, but didn't break and didn't hit back in any way. Frowning, I studied the barrier more closely, searching for runes or any indication of how it worked. Got nothing. Maybe I could short circuit it like I had Noctarus's rune defenses.

So I created the same simple rune script I had used before, again inscribing it onto a bit of ribbon with a dagger dipped in ketchup. Really need to get a pen at some point. I activated my runes and pressed the ribbon to the barrier.

Nothing.

"Nigel, hold this ribbon here against the door."

With my companion holding my ribbon rune to the barrier, I again struck it with the Maul. Again, the barrier flashed, but nothing else happened. It didn't work like Noctarus's had, so my runes didn't do anything.

"Shanghai," I cursed, pacing away, mind whirling. If the door wouldn't let us through, could we go another way?

I scanned the entire cavern again with Spellseer's Gaze, noting that the barrier spell glowed along all the walls and ceiling, but I couldn't see anything across the floor.

"Nigel, come here." I tried willing him back to my base camp, but his collar failed.

So I tried one of my new Home Sweet Home scrolls that opened teleportation gates back to my castle. Again, it failed. Not surprised, but had to try. Holding Nigel in my arms, I triggered a Stone Swimmer potion for the first time.

"Stone Swimmer potion. Uncommon. Fly through a barrier of stone in a single direction as an incorporeal entity until you emerge into the next open space."

Colors muted and the world became kind of fuzzy as we turned incorporeal. I dove down into the floor and exulted when we sank through. Stone flowed past as we fell and fell. Time felt weird in ethereal form, but it felt like we fell for nearly a minute before we shot out of a stone floor into a well-lit open space and phased back to physical form.

My smile fell as I looked around. "How?"

We'd ended up right back where we started. "That's just wrong."

My worry was fast evolving into near panic as I surveyed the cavern. Marisara had trapped us good. We were stuck, all of our transportation abilities cut off, and I couldn't even message anyone to tell them where I was, warn them of Marisara's spying, or ask them to find the dungeon and open the door from the other side.

I had to get out. If we remained trapped in there for 2 weeks, time would run out. Either I had to trust my team and the rest of the folks from Earth to conquer stage 3 and then defeat Marisara and her army without me, or wait for them to fail. Marisara and Thalorian were freakishly tough. I couldn't imagine anyone leveling up enough to stand a chance against them in the next week or so.

No, I had to get out.

"You've been strangely silent," I said, looking up.

"And you've gotten yourself stuck rather well," Cyrus responded, his normal enthusiasm dampened a bit.

I frowned. "It's barely been a few minutes since the life feeds would have started."

"For everyone else."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Cyrus's voice dropped lower and a hint of his usual excitement crept in. "This cavern is locked in a 3-to-1 time dilation spell. Nothing else would block all transportation and communication so effectively."

"No," I breathed as my fear ratcheted up another notch. I'd already been stuck in there for half an hour, which meant an hour and a half outside. So the live streaming was already happening. I might have millions of viewers watching my plight right now, shoving handfuls of popcorn, or the multiverse equivalent, into their maws as they wondered what I'd do next.

Cyrus continued, his tone more thoughtful. "Actually, it's more than that, isn't it? Someone has tweaked this spell and enhanced it far beyond its usual limitations. Huh. The tampering was very subtle. I didn't even notice until I looked more deeply."

"What does that mean?" I'd never heard Cyrus admit he was even a bit stumped by anything.

His voice turned cheery, but with a steely undertone that made me shiver. "It means there's a player in the game I don't already know. They're working with Marisara to undermine my experiments."

Meaning me. "Is that allowed?"

"Of course not," he laughed. "Whoever this is, they took an enormous risk helping Marisara trap you here with a high tier-1 containment spell. They covered their tracks well, but even among those working the inner world, there are not many who could pull off such a change of this quality. That begs the question, why take such a risk now?"

No wonder I couldn't escape if the containment was tier-1. The fact that some unknown player was trying to sabotage my chances was not good. Well, they were trying to sabotage Cyrus, but I was the one who would get killed. I couldn't imagine anyone thinking they could damage the powerful AI. He ran the entire world, didn't he?

I also hadn't dreamed there might be intrigue among those working the inner world. That was terrifying. They possessed so much power, if one of them had a bad day, could they just wipe us all out? Cyrus wouldn't want that to happen, but now it sounded like someone dared work against him, if indirectly. Not good. Had I gotten caught up in deadlier games than I'd realized?

I didn't need more higher-tiered drama. I just wanted to survive the next 2 weeks. I activated my tier-1 Mana Control ability, and the mana in the cavern sharpened into much clearer focus. The spell helped me sense the mana around me passively all the time, but when I focused on it, I gained magnitudes more sensitivity and control.

The magical barrier encasing the natural stone walls glowed brighter in my vision now, and I placed my hands on it, focusing intently. I could sense power flowing through it, but not as clearly as I should. My Mana Control gave me enormous influence over tier-0 mana, but not as much over tier-1 mana. This was definitely tier-1, and its flavor was something I hadn't experienced yet. Closer to pure Nexus energy than any attuned mana I'd interacted with.

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Cyrus had fallen silent again. Was that because people could watch me now? I glanced around, but of course, couldn't see anyone. The thought of so many eyes potentially watching my every move still unnerved me. So many couch quarterbacks watching, studying, commenting, or even mocking my every move.

With an effort, I forced calm back on myself and chose to ignore the possibility of viewers. I couldn't do anything about them. Would Cyrus give me any hints now that he'd discovered someone had tampered with the spell? Maybe, but he'd have to be more careful since people were watching. Even warning me of the time dilation and commenting on the fact the barrier was a modified tier-1 construct had probably stretched things.

As I started walking a circuit of the cavern, studying every inch of the walls with Spellseer's Gaze, I asked, "Can you answer this, at least? How can Queen Marisara and her marshal have levels above 100 and still be tier-0?"

Cyrus chuckled. "I hadn't expected you to ask that one for another week. There is no hard cap on levels in a particular tier, although every level above 100 requires significantly more experience, so it rare to find someone with levels over 120."

I considered that as I walked. It made sense now that I thought about it. If they had gained enough experience to evolve to tier-1, but were stuck on a tier-0 game world, getting another level would be the only option if they couldn't simply bank the experience for when they evolved. Back on their home world, they were already tier-3, so could they even evolve? What would that do to their tier and levels when they returned home?

Their contracts probably prevented evolution. Cyrus had said fully powered tier-1 beings wouldn't be allowed on the game world, which was one of the reasons he set up my very early and very inefficient evolution. Then again . . .

"On other worlds in the multiverse, can people even evolve to higher tiers than their home planets?"

"Now that's a great question. Have a seat."

A plush leather recliner dropped to the stone floor in front of me. Maroon in color, it looked incredibly comfortable. Surprisingly, Identify triggered.

"Recliner of half-time. Rare. Enjoy your favorite game, or just relax for a few minutes in absolute comfort. Increases regeneration while slowing time by half so you can take a longer break without all the guilt."

That was . . . Better than I expected for a seeming gag gift. Actually, I could really use the time-slow effect. I plopped down into the chair and sighed. It was like sitting on a warm cloud. Could I get Nigel to push me around the cavern to keep the time dilation slowed?

"Thanks, Cyrus, this is really nice."

"All great minds have one thing in common. They love to lounge."

"So, how do evolutions work on other planets?"

"That's a topic you still don't have time to discuss in full. Suffice it to say, there are complications and even penalties if a higher-tiered entity remains on a lower-tier world for long."

"When will I start seeing those penalties?" It would totally suck if I finally unlocked my full 100% Efficiency only to get some kind of nasty debuff for being too overpowered. Couldn't be yet, or Marisara and Thalorian would be paying them too, right?

"I doubt you'd notice anything before the final battle with Queen Marisara, so don't worry about it."

That was enough for now. With a sigh, I heaved myself out of the too-comfortable chair, tossed it into my inventory, and returned to scanning the cavern. I had to find a weakness, a flaw, or even a hint of runes or something I could tweak to escape. Cyrus wanted me to succeed. Or at least, he wanted his experiment not to fail.

Slow minutes dragged by as I painstakingly searched the cavern until I ended up directly behind the spot where Marisara and Thalorian had set up their little high tea trap. There, I finally spotted something. Just a faint flickering line of light bending into prismatic colors about 10 feet up and 20 feet back from the wall. I nearly walked right under it until I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye.

"Is that what I think it is?" My heart raced with renewed hope.

Cyrus didn't answer. He'd be watching, though, and hopefully he was ready to pull some video editing tricks because I wasn't about to hesitate to pursue my one slim chance at escape.

Scooping up Nigel, I jumped and punched the crack in the fabric of space. With a flash of rainbow light, an invisible fist punched me in the small of the back and hurled me through the rift. The huge cavern disappeared, replaced by softly glowing walls of golden metal.

"Yes!" I laughed, pumping a fist in triumph as I spun to survey the space.

Instead of a tiny maintenance closet like most of the rifts I'd entered down on stage 1, I found myself in a corridor of uniform golden walls running into the distance in either direction. Corners blocked the view after about 50 feet both ways.

"Took you long enough," Cyrus laughed.

"So we can chat in here?"

"One of the few safe places to do so. Viewers never get to see into the inner world. Most don't even know this sector exists."

Did that mean there were no inner-world areas on other worlds, or were they also closely-guarded secrets? He'd never tell, so I filed away the question for later.

"So what was all that about someone tampering with the spell?"

"Queen Marisara must have an ally embedded within the inner-world staff. She is showing as much cunning and creativity as one would hope to find in a stage-4 boss. It makes life so much more exciting."

"I've got enough excitement for now."

"Oh, come on, Lucas! You have to admit your final victory will feel so much more momentous when it's against a truly worthy foe."

"She's already more than worthy. She's still way too strong for even me to deal with. She doesn't need more resources for me to celebrate beating her."

Cyrus's voice shifted to a deeper tone with a German accent. "It is your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life story will develop."

"I appreciate the inspirational quote, but I don't get the reference."

"Not a movie, but a quote from a Mormon apostle named Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Fascinating fellow, full of wisdom."

"Huh. You're branching into new territory."

"How about this one?" He shifted again, this time to a Jamaican accent. "You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice. Bob Marley."

"Fine, I'm willing to embrace my challenge. What are you going to do about the conspirator lurking here in the inner world?"

"I will find them, of course, learn their motivations, their hopes, and everyone they are conspiring with. Then I will destroy each and every one of those hopes until they are left broken and despairing. At that point, they will try to flee the planet and I'll decide which course will be most entertaining."

The calm way he described absolutely destroying his enemies made me shiver. He didn't sound angry, but eager for a new game to play, and absolutely confident of his eventual victory. I couldn't pity someone who was colluding with Queen Marisara to sabotage my efforts to save my planet, though. I had no idea what game they were playing, or why they would take the risk to fight Cyrus. I just hoped I could avoid getting sucked any deeper into those games. I had enough to do.

"Good luck with it. Can you give me a hint on which way to go?" Finding a rift in the fabric of space in that cavern couldn't just be the most amazing coincidence. Cyrus was again pushing me toward something. Hopefully it included an eventual escape.

Not that I minded a chance to explore the inner world areas a bit. With a quick check, I confirmed messaging worked. I sent a quick update to my team, as well as Tony and Burns, warning them to be on alert for Marisara's agents. I shared a bit about my brief interview with her and the fact that I was working on returning to stage 3.

Steve: "Of course you already had high tea with the ultimate boss. You don't waste a second, do you?"

Lucas: "Not my plan. The cakes were delicious, though."

Steve: "Did you snag us one?"

Lucas: "She took them all."

Steve: "Figures. Evil queen for sure."

Ruby: "Lucas, you're lucky they didn't kill you."

Lucas: "Yeah, they're very strong. She said she wants to use me as some kind of sacrifice."

Ruby: "Be careful."

When I messaged Tony and Burns, they asked for more details, which I couldn't provide.

Burns: "Levels above 120? We need more power."

Lucas: "Tell me about it."

Tony: "We made tons of progress on stage 2. Fighting the stronger monsters on stage 3 will help us progress a lot."

Burns: "Not enough. We'll need to make some sacrifices."

Lucas: "What do you mean?"

That didn't sound good.

Burns: "Don't worry about it. Find a way out. We'll be busy setting up town for the next day or two anyway."

I left them to it and turned right.

After 2 steps, Cyrus said, "Might want to go the other way or you'll run into a security patrol."

"Why have security patrols in a secret installation no one can get into?"

"Standard protocol."

"Did they sense me enter the complex?"

"Who knows?"

I scowled. "You know."

"Sure, but that's classified."

"It is not," I protested.

Cyrus chuckled. "I've wanted to use that phrase ever since the game started."

"Shouldn't I get a loot box for giving you the chance."

"You should focus on running."

So I did. With Nigel bounding silently beside me, I booked it down the hall and around the corner. More empty, glowing corridor. We raced another hundred yards, passing locked doors every 10 yards. I was sorely tempted to check them out, but Cyrus no doubt had a destination in mind. Other forays into the inner world had won me a lot of great loot and power boosts, so I'd see where he wanted me to go first.

Moments later, we rounded another corner and entered a vast open space. It was like a giant warehouse, at least a mile long, with racks of enormous shelves stretching like a quarter of a mile straight up. Hovering drones zipped along the shelves, collecting or depositing pallets 10-times the size of normal pallets on Earth.

Each pallet contained materials for building, well, anything. From full-sized trees in giant potted plants, to stacks of boulders, to crates full of dirt, to 1000 gallon buckets of water.

I slowed to a halt to stare. "What is this place?"

"Maintenance warehouse 94."

"So, all of this . . ."

"You guessed it. Used in maintaining the surface of Arasha. The process of keeping the game world in top shape is incredibly complex. Too bad you don't have time to gawk."

As if on cue, the distinct sound of marching feet sounded from the corridor behind us. I scooped up Nigel and tucked him under my cloak, then activated Mirror Cloak. The world turned monochrome as we faded from sight.

I padded to the left, crossing several of the giant shelf corridors before choosing one at random. Pausing at the corner, I glanced back just as a group of half a dozen large humanoid beings wearing what looked like power armor marched into the room. Only their heads weren't covered in heavy plates of metal.

Nigel growled, low and angry, his entire little body quivering. "Dogs!"

"Quiet. Not the time to start a fight," I whispered as I studied the dog men. Their heads were huge, like mastiffs, and they spread out a bit, scanning the area, no doubt looking for us. Could they smell as well as dogs?

They could definitely hear pretty well. One of them oriented on us as soon as Nigel spoke, raising a heavy club that glowed with magic. Identify triggered.

"Ironpaw Vault Keeper. Tier-3 Level 85 security trooper. The Vault Keepers of the tier-3 world Zerathis are the go-to security troopers for system-sponsored events on low-tiered worlds. Disciplined, intelligent, and absolutely dedicated to their tasks, they pledge the honor of their clan to never failing a mission."

Yikes. I ran. Using Tether Slide would have been faster, but they'd see the telltale golden chain. I was tempted to use Shadow Walk, but held off for the moment in case they could sense active magic.

The canine Ironpaw Vault Keeper patrol hadn't spotted us, but still followed us into the corridor. They must have caught our scent because they took up a howling call and broke into a run, and those dudes could move.

I was fast, but they were tier-3, so they moved like bolts of living lightning, shooting down the row after us. Before I could activate Energy Ward or dodge, they reached me and, despite my invisibility, one of them swept out their glowing club and caught me in the back.

A mighty jolt of magic blasted through me like an electric shock and the world turned white, then black.

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