I awoke in my giant, soft bed and sighed. I felt good and totally refreshed. Pushing my Night Mask off, I took a deep breath. I hadn't slept much since before climbing to stage 3 the first time, and I'd needed the rest.

I didn't need nearly as much as back on Earth, though. I checked the countdown timer to confirm barely 5 hours had elapsed. It was about midnight, but I was ready to get moving.

Jeeves appeared beside me, holding a mug of steaming coffee and another hot towel. I scrubbed my face, and I had to admit that was a habit I planned to continue even when we got back home.

"Thanks, Jeeves. That's very refreshing," I said as I handed the towel back and took the coffee.

"Would you care for a meal?" Jeeves asked.

"Just a sandwich, and maybe a cookie, if Nigel and Steve haven't eaten everything."

"Very good, sir."

He disappeared, and I got dressed. All the food mess we'd gotten covered in during the movie had disappeared when we returned to the real world, which was nice. The items we'd used from our inventory were still gone though.

Jane had begged again that I allow her and Tomas to use my giant tub. I'd told them to be quiet when they finished because I was going to bed. As soon as I lay down, put that mask over my eyes, and selected one of the hauntingly beautiful soothing melodies it could play, I zonked out and never heard them leave.

Downstairs, the castle was quiet. Nigel dozed near the fire, but rose to sit on the table while I ate a sandwich. Then he helped me wolf down a tray of cookies. Or tiger down? Didn't sound as good.

"Do we hunt?" Nigel asked.

I nodded. "No use wasting an entire night. I'm still behind in my levels."

"Shall I wake the others?" Jeeves asked as he entered the room through the door.

"No. Let them sleep. We'll be back by dawn for the planned raid."

"Very good, sir. Good hunting."

"Thanks."

It felt good to step into the narrow street with Nigel on my shoulder. We hadn't gotten to hunt alone nearly enough the past couple days and I longed to kill a few monsters with my enthusiastic murder kitty.

Besides, we didn't know nearly enough about the bosses on stage 3. Running into both Alpha and Noctarus immediately upon arriving on stage 2 had been terrifying but also informative. I'd known exactly what I was dealing with. Now I had suspicions, but little real information. So we'd hunt and explore and see if we could learn anything more.

Outside, water still poured down the dome over the town on all sides, and darkness was very deep. Several balls of floating lights hung over the town, casting enough light for most folks to see by. With Wolf Sight, I could see in the dark just fine, but I liked the lights. They made the town feel more homey.

Except it was quiet, quieter than I'd ever seen. Other times down on stage 1 or 2 when I'd been out in the middle of the night, the town had still been bustling with activity. Now the streets were mostly deserted, other than the occasional patrol. I also spotted people manning the walls around the edges, but not much else.

Until we drew near to the Expanse club. The large wooden structure, built on both sides of the gate, with the repaired skybridge between, looked bigger and fancier than before. Looked like Ruby had finalized the deal with Elizabeth either while I was meeting with Kaelor, or after I fell asleep.

The entire structure glowed with an inviting, warm golden halo. The club's windows, although opaque, probably so no one could get a free peep show, were blazing with multicolored light. Muted sounds of music and laughter filtered through the walls. Might be real, or an illusion that one of Elizabeth's lackeys cast to draw more people in.

It sounded like the party was in full swing. I hoped Elizabeth's plan worked because a lot of people were staking their lives on it. Nigel and I avoided the club and headed into the ruined city beyond. It was raining harder than ever.

The torrential rains pounded over us, but deflected from our Shingle Pins. I pushed out my mana to form my full-body mana shield too. We didn't get wet, but the constant roar drowned out all other sounds, while the soaking wet air made it nearly impossible to smell anything either.

Both of us could see through darkness, but the heavy rain still reduced visibility a lot. Worse, as we moved farther from the town, we entered a bank of dense fog, so thick I couldn't see more than 10 feet.

We'd barely passed the second demon intersection marker when a faint wailing sound echoed from the fog. Nigel froze, hackles rising, a low growl rumbling in his chest. I stopped beside him, scanning the foggy, wet darkness, but sensed nothing.

The wailing came again, this time from behind us. Then again from the right. Nigel spun each time, but I petted his shoulder.

"Back to back, buddy. Let's wait until we see what we're dealing with."

We shifted to face opposite directions to cover the most area as more wailing echoed all around. Something was out there. Maybe a bunch of somethings we hadn't faced before. It didn't sound like anything Burns or Tony had described either.

The air grew chillier and I sighed. Ghosts. Or wraiths. I knew that feeling. Something incorporeal was getting close. I couldn't see anything, though, not even with Wolf Sight's ability to see invisibility. So I pushed out my Mana Control senses and activated Spellseer's gaze.

The foggy night came alive, glowing with dense blue water mana. It choked the air all around us. Not surprising, given the rainy night.

Then I spotted an indistinct shape floating through the mana, heading right at me. It was hard to see, even with my enhanced sight. It looked like nothing more than shifting fog.

"We've got ghosts of some kind," I whispered.

"Ghosts don't make steak," Nigel grunted in annoyance.

More of the ghostly creatures approached through the fog and I finally managed to get Identify to trigger.

"Mist Lurker. Level 50 Wraith. Common. These semi-corporeal predators dissolve into fog to remain nearly impossible to spot until they strike. The moment their glowing blue eyes appear is usually the last thing their victims see because the Mist lurkers dive through their eyes, consume them, then drain all life force and health."

That was super gross. My mind was already racing as I considered my meager options for combating ethereal monsters. I forcibly banished thoughts of Soulrend in the hands of Martin Briggs, then extended my Wolverine Claws. The Soul Slice enhancement I'd applied should still be active. I'd used my claws a lot against Alpha, so it might be mostly worn off, though. I made a mental note to have Jeeves get me another dose.

All of a sudden, 3 of the Mist Lurkers accelerated, coming in fast, straight at my face.

"Here they come!" I shouted and lunged to meet them, claws raking through their forms just as their blue eyes appeared, hovering in the mist and shooting for my face.

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My claws tore through the monsters and they disappeared, while the fog was rent by new, much louder wailing cries. I could track their movement, though. I had hurt them, but not killed them. The coating on my claws really had mostly worn off.

Behind me, Nigel swelled to full Mammoth Lion size and roared, slashing out at other pairs of glowing eyes with his long, ethereal Mufasa's Claws. More wailing, but it cut off and faded away. He was dealing a lot more damage than me. Then I remembered an item I had never gotten to use yet.

"Soul Fire Trap. Auto-trigger or remote activate. Capture weak ethereal beings. Bind, slow, and damage stronger ones."

They were like a fantasy equivalent to the Ghostbusters traps. I had 10 of them, and as more of the Mist Lurkers swept in at me, I pulled out 6 of them and dropped them on the ground in front of me. As 4 sets of glowing eyes appeared and rushed for my face, I triggered them all.

Brilliant, golden light erupted from each trap in cones of brilliance. Four of those cones engulfed the onrushing Mist Lurkers, which suddenly became visible. Their gross, fat bodies trailed half a dozen tentacles, with 2 clawed arms extending forward past their glowing eyes.

All 4 of the Mist Lurkers wailed and writhed in the cones of light, but could not escape as the cones retracted, dragging the monsters inside. Each trap closed with a loud click, sealing the monsters' fates.

They weren't single-use traps either. I wasn't sure how many monsters they could capture, but I planned to find out. I scooped them up and spun, searching for more targets. Nigel was still leaping around, slashing the air apart with his ethereal claws, ripping Mist Lurkers apart.

I spotted 2 more of the monsters, but they were both streaking away through the fog. Smarter than I'd expected.

Nigel stopped attacking and sighed deeply. "Ghost meat is a waste."

I tossed him a steak as I cast Loot and Soul Feed. Tiny streamers of white mist floated to me from each kill, replenishing my health and mana. When I checked the loot, I was pleasantly surprised. The 8 tier-5 mana crystals were nothing, but the other items sounded promising.

"Lurker's Eye. Uncommon. Grants temporary enhanced vision through fog, rain, and darkness when consumed or embedded in gear."

Like the mana crystals, I got 8 of the eyes. When I extracted 1, it really did look like one of the blue Mist Lurkers' eyes, although the blue glow was muted.

I held one up to Nigel. "Want to try one? It's not a steak, but it's supposed to help us see through the fog and rain."

"I will try it."

I tossed it to him and he gobbled it down in a single bite. I wasn't keen on munching down a monster eyeball, so I moved 1 to a hotlist spot and consumed it that way. It worked, and a cool sensation rushed through my entire body, like I'd run through a heavy mist in only my boxers.

A second later, the mist and rain seemed to become mostly transparent. My vision expanded hundreds of yards. Not as far as during a clear day, but the effect was really good.

"Now we can see to hunt. Where do you want to look for monsters?" Nigel asked.

"Echo City, of course." Burns had sent me waypoints with the other stairs his scout teams had found, so I headed for the nearest one. Since space didn't exactly line up between Ruin and Echo City, might as well go down the nearest one and see what we could see.

The transition from chill, rainy darkness to bright, cheery sunlight was as startling as the first time. Did it ever get dark in Echo City? Since there was no actual sun, maybe not. We'd ended up closer to the big castle, and that seemed an obvious choice to explore, but I got an idea.

"Hold on. I want to try something."

I triggered Ping, the once-per-day special ability from my Navigation utility spell. I preferred using it to find dungeons, but tonight we needed monsters, so I focused on that. With luck, the castle would have plenty of monsters in addition to another quest relic.

The spell covered a vast area out to 100 yards times my Perception in every direction. My tier-1 Perception had climbed all the way up to 254, and the spell translated those points down to tier-0. Even at only a 60% efficiency, that equated to over 1500 points. That meant the field extended in every direction far enough to probably cover all of Echo City.

My full-size map appeared in front of me and I shared it with Nigel as it populated with red dots. The wave of information spread farther and farther and I instantly noticed patterns.

First, there weren't nearly as many red dots as I expected. Did the monsters in Echo City have time limits too? Or did they have advanced-enough stealth to block my ability? That seemed unlikely, so maybe Echo City's weird space-twisting magic was distorting results.

A handful of small groups were spread randomly around the glittering city, with a much larger group located around the palace. Was that the clockwork insect home base? It would make sense. I set a waypoint.

Other than that, very few showed up. Something wasn't adding up. I spotted few red dots in the big castle, but there didn't seem to be enough. We'd spotted nothing moving in the Science Academy, but still.

Then I spotted a single red dot appear to the east. It moved extremely fast, then slowed to a halt barely a quarter mile away. I couldn't see the spot through the rows of grand 4-story buildings, but pointed on the map and marked a waypoint.

"There. None of the flying fish moved that fast. It's got to be something powerful."

"Maybe one of those giant flying birds you talked about," Nigel suggested.

"Maybe, although I haven't seen anything flying down here. All the more reason to hunt it before it takes off again. I don't want a giant flying monster attacking the town. No one would expect that."

I'd fought too many crazy-powerful monsters in my insane aerial duel across the skies of the collapsing stage 1. Why we didn't see more of them more often was a mystery I hadn't yet solved, but I wouldn't complain. If one of the giant hawks or, god forbid, another flying eel with its nearly impervious hide, showed up in Ruin or Echo City, we'd be in trouble.

With a destination marked, Nigel and I set off, moving fast. We scaled one of the 4-story buildings and used Tether Slide to jump between them to come at the spot from above. Nigel leaped many of the gaps before I could set my spell, simply flying across in his medium flying lynx size, wingsuit skin flaps giving him amazing distance. Like that, we ghosted through the eerily silent city.

Within moments, we neared the spot I'd marked on the map and slowed to a cautious, crouching jog as we approached the edge of the roof on the building closest to the spot. Peering over, I scanned another intersection of golden roads, flanked by huge, empty buildings.

Nothing. No sound, no movement, and no indication of any monster. Then a voice spoke from our left, and it totally caught me by surprise.

"Good evening."

It was a cultured male voice, a bit nasally, with a high-class British accent dripping with arrogance.

Together we spun and Nigel swelled again to full-sized Mammoth Lion, crouching, tail swishing in preparation for springing into battle. Echo and Scalebiter dropped into my hands and I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet, ready to fight or dodge.

A humanoid figure sauntered into view on the opposite side of the same roof we stood on, as if stepping through an invisible door. About 7 feet tall, he had supernatural good looks. He wore a loose-fitting blue shirt made out of fine silk, or something similar, along with form-fitting brown slacks and fancy, calf-length leather boots covered in intricate silver scrollwork. Two small horns protruded through his stylishly messy black hair, and he wore a woven crown of vines and leaves.

"Count Tydrion, the Wave Tyrant. Nymph Ocean Lord, level 99. Famous for his deep-ocean hunts of the most exotic and powerful sea creatures, Tydrion is a lover of games that stir his usually bored blood. Of course, his pursuit of ever more dangerous monsters has distracted him from his duties and nearly bankrupted his house. He's on the verge of being demoted to viscount and having to serve as a retainer to his most hated rival, Count Nextharos, the Shadow Current. He might be broke, but don't let his dandy demeanor fool you. This nymph lord is part of Queen Marisara's court for a reason, and he's hungry to win her favor."

"Atlantis," I cursed. Level 99? How had another lord of Marisara's court snuck down to stage 3? Could they enter Echo City easier than Ruin? If so, we'd have to be doubly careful or they could slaughter our scout teams one by one.

Lord Ashkaroth had only been a viscount, and only level 82, but he'd been insanely dangerous. My luck stat had stacked several lucky breaks in order for me to win that confrontation. I was a lot stronger now, but I'd never faced a level 99 intelligent mini boss before.

Nigel growled low in his throat and tensed to spring, but I held out a hand. "Not yet."

"Wise of you to still your pet," Tydrion sneered. "My queen sent me to fetch you, but she made no provision for the transport of this filthy animal. His hide would look good on my wall, though."

"I bet he tastes like tofu," Nigel growled.

How did he know about tofu? Any other time, I would have laughed at the astute guess. Tydrion sure talked like a tofu kind of guy.

"How did you get down here?" I asked. If the fancy lord wanted to monologue, I'd give him an excuse to say something useful.

He sniffed. Actually tilted up his head a bit and sniffed in disdain. "My queen warned me you lack any sense of decorum to speak to your better in such a tone."

I shrugged. "She's the one who ran away first."

"How dare you?" he snapped, face contorting with rage and he lunged across the space between us in the blink of an eye.

I thought I was ready, but he must have some kind of speed boost because not even Sixel had moved that fast. I lifted my my blades, but he reached me before I could properly set myself, slipped past my blades, and slapped me on the side of the face with one open palm.

The blow rang like a gong against my Convergence mana shield, then again from my ethereal Embersteel battle helm. Despite all my protection, the world flashed white and for a moment I flailed, totally disoriented.

Then the world snapped back into focus and I swore.

The sly nymph lord had teleported me, just like Queen Marisara's trap with the Briggs. I wasn't dumped back into the sealed antechamber to the dungeon, though.

No, this time I had appeared near the roof of a giant cavern, at least 2 miles across. As I started to fall, I glanced around and realized where he'd sent me.

"Hello, Mermaid lair."

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