"What'd we just accept?" Adelle asked from atop the paralyzed TA. "The guaranteed A or the fighting-for-our-lives option?"

"The fighting, obviously," I replied. "We're going to escape on our own."

"Aight," the cheetah stretched, striped tail wagging. "I approve."

"Of course," Candace sighed. "Because why take the easy path when there's a more dangerous one available? And here I thought that I would have an easier time with a smol human captain who isn't into punching everything."

"Sux to be you," Adelle laughed.

Professor Fern smiled at me. "A bold choice, Mr. Foster. I expected nothing less."

"Can we keep the treasure?" I wiggled the metal box.

"Yes," Ignis answered. "This is just like a real dungeon with a real reward to keep."

She addressed all of us. "The rules are simple: reach the gymnasium with your team intact and the treasure in your possession. The simulation ends precisely at 3:30 PM. If any of you aren't inside the gym by then, you will be considered forevermore sealed inside the dungeon and therefore dead."

She checked her watch. "It is now 12:06. You have three hours and twenty four minutes. I suggest you use this time wisely."

With that advice, she stepped back into the tunnel opening. "Oh, and one more thing," she added, pausing at the threshold. "I've informed all the 'monsters' that Team Foster has obtained the treasure. They will be... highly motivated to stop you so as not to get a failing grade."

The earth closed behind her, sealing the tunnel entrance as if it had never existed.

Kristi attempted to pry the treasure box open and failed. The rest of my team looked tired and sullen.

"Come on!" I said. "We can do this. We've got the advantage of surprise, if we move outta this tunnel, they won't know where we are."

"Actually," Marlena voiced from under the cheetah, "I should probably mention that Professor Fern is totally tracking that treasure. She will know exactly where you are at all times, and she will share that information live with the 'monsters' via Voicecast. The students and Elementals will all swarm towards you at 1 PM!"

We all stared at the paralyzed seal.

"Shouldn't you be, I don't know, less helpful to us?" Kristi asked.

"Oh heavens no!" Marlena laughed. "I'm a teaching assistant, emphasis on 'teaching.' My job is to facilitate learning, not to make things artificially difficult. Besides," she added with a wink, "I rather like you a lot. You fed me and the cheetah lass is keeping me warm and cozy!"

Adelle chortled.

"And what if we run to the gym now?" I asked.

"If you run, that means you are done luncheoning and the enemy students outside will attack you," the TA clarified. "See, many of the old dungeons like the Superstore are reactive and orderly, following very specific rules! If you sit down to rest in a dark alcove, the monsters won't harass you. If you run with a stolen item, you will get chased and become chowder."

"So, Marlena, how long until you can move again?" I asked.

"The binding should wear off in about… Ten minutes? Give or take," Marlena estimated. "Oh, and when it does, I'll be obligated to try and stop you. Not right away though. At 1PM! I'll just lounge here till then or till you start running. Enjoy your lunch and rest for now. Just as a heads up! Nothing personal, of course."

. . .

I motioned for Candace, Nessy, and Kristi to follow me further into the tunnel, away from where Marlena could overhear our conversation. Adelle remained sprawled across the seal's wide back, contentedly working on her fourth sandwich.

"Alright," I said once we were out of earshot, "I have a crazy plan."

"More crazy than soul-fusing the fox with a husky?" Kristi asked. "Color me intrigued."

"C, can you bind my soul into the seal's body?" I asked.

Candace blinked at me. "You were a mediocre wolf at best, dude. How exactly do you plan to be an effective seal femme when you could barely walk on four legs without face-planting?"

"I'm not planning to escape using her body," I clarified. "I want to use the TA as a trap."

"Explain," Kristi said leaning in closer.

"Think about it," I said, gesturing back toward where Marlena lay paralyzed. "Fern said they're all tracking the treasure, right? They'll come swarming here expecting to find us. But what if they find what appears to be just the TA, seemingly recovering from being bound?"

Nessy's tail began to wag as she caught on. "And meanwhile, the real treasure and most of our team will be somewhere else entirely, right?"

"Exactly. If I'm in Marlena's body, I can feed false information to the monsters, send them in the wrong direction, distract them, buy us time to actually escape." I looked at Candace. "How long would that binding last?"

"With a Level 47 seal host body with us being far enough away to escape? Maybe ten minutes before your consciousness snaps back," she replied thoughtfully. "But that could work. Especially if..."

She trailed off, her gray eyes taking on that distant look that meant she was seeing connections in the Astral.

"If what?" Kristi prompted.

"If the treasure box is magically tagged for tracking, I can unbind that tag from the box and rebind it to Marlena's body," Candace said, her voice gaining excitement. "Make them think the treasure is wherever she is!"

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"That's perfect," I said. "But first, we should probably see what's actually in this thing."

Kristi held up the plain steel lockbox. "It's sealed tight. No visible lock, no keyhole. Can't physically pry it open."

"Leave that to me," Candace grinned, flexing her fingers as silver light began to dance between them. "Unbind lock, Unbind security, Unbind tracker tag… Bind tracker tag to my paw..." She placed her glowing hands on the box, muttering under her breath. There was a soft click, and the lid popped open slightly.

"Ta-da!" she announced. "One unlocked treasure box, as ordered."

I carefully lifted the lid.

Inside, nestled in black velvet, was a small crystal sphere about the size of an orange. It was covered in a network of black, bone-like material shaped almost like fractal hexagons. The sphere pulsed with a soft, warm light that seemed to shift through the entire spectrum as I watched.

"What is it?" Nessy asked, peering over my shoulder.

"A little dragonheart!" Candace breathed out. "Perfect! This solves our mana problem."

"How?" I asked.

"I can leech mana outta the heart," Candace explained. "In fact everyone can, all I have to do is bind myself and the others to it as Kobolds."

"We have a mana problem?" Nessy asked.

"Obviously we do," Candace huffed. "That damn thikk seal is a pain in my ass to bind. If I shove Alec into her body, I'll run outta mana again and be dead weight, unable to do fuck all after and we still need to upscale at least one of the bags, right?"

"You know," I said. "Something like this would have been great to have earlier."

"Yeah," Candace nodded. "But they don't sell these on the open market. It's a rare, incredibly valuable raw material, the perfect battery. Corpos buy them out before anyone else gets a chance."

"Right. That's a raw heart, yeah?" I asked.

Candace nodded.

"Then, I can use Syntropic Fusion to fuse it with… something, reshape it, make it into a proper artifact, and reinforce its effect. The question is - with what?"

I looked around at our scattered supplies, then at my packmates. "What materials do we have that could enhance a dragonheart's mana distribution?"

"The box itself is enchanted," Candace said, tapping the steel container. "It's got preservation and containment bindings and magisteel runes woven into the metal. That could work as a base."

"What else?" I asked.

"If we are distributing mana from it to each of us, then a piece of us infused with our mana could function as the artifact binding link," Candace replied.

Kristi suddenly dropped to one knee before me with unexpected formality. "My Alpha," she said, plucking a large feather from her elbow. "Accept this token of my loyalty and dedication to your cause as your Knight."

She held the emerald-violet plume in both hands, closing her eyes in concentration. I watched as she channeled her mana into the feather, the magical energy making it glow like a torch in the dim tunnel. When she opened her eyes and offered it to me, the feather practically hummed with power.

"Thank you, Kristi," I said, accepting the charged feather with the gravity her gesture deserved.

Nessy immediately followed suit. She picked up a spilled knife and snipped off a tuft of black and white hair. "For our pack," she said simply, her paws glowing as she poured her own mana into her hair until it sparkled like starlight.

"Ads!" Candace called out to the cheetah still lounging on Marlena. "Get over here, we need a contribution from you too!"

"What kind of contribution?" Adelle yelled back, reluctantly climbing off the paralyzed seal and flashing with shadowstep to our side.

"Give me some of your hair with your mana infused into it," I explained.

"This is pack artificin' n' everyone needs to give their essence willingly," Candace nodded.

"Aight." The cheetah snipped off some of her red hair with a sharp claw then cupped them in her palms. I could see her concentrating as her mana flowed into the strands, making them glow like embers. "There."

"And we'll all need to contribute blood," Candace added, taking the knife, cutting off and igniting some pure white hair and giving it to me. "But not just any blood—mana-charged blood! Pour your power into each drop."

We each pricked our fingers in turn with the knife. I went first, letting several drops fall onto the dragonheart while channeling my mana into them. The red drops hit the crystal surface and immediately sank in like water into sand, leaving trails of silver light.

Kristi followed, her blood glowing emerald as it joined mine. Nessy's drops sparkled blue, Adelle's burned violet-red, and finally Candace's silver drops completed the pattern. The dragonheart pulsed with a rainbow of our combined essences.

"This is going to take some time," I warned, settling into a comfortable position with the materials spread before me. "Perhaps thirty or forty minutes."

"I'll keep watch," Kristi volunteered, positioning herself near the tunnel entrance.

"I'll go back guarding the seal," the cheetah yawned and flashed away.

"Is she just going to shadow step everywhere?" I glanced at her.

"She does get too lazy to walk properly after eating. Effin' cat." Candace commented.

I nodded.

"N'ways. Let's get to it. I'll help with the binding," Candace said, wrapping herself around me from behind.

Nessy knelt on the ground in front of us. "Ready when you are, guys."

"Sing something that focuses on unity, connection, shared strength. Something about us. But keep it going—this is going to be a long process," I said.

The husky nodded and began to hum, her claws tapping on her armor to produce a catchy tune. Then she opened her mouth and my mind drowned in her song.

"I sing with voice both strong and true, My deepest dreams to carry us through, Black and white but never gray, I guide us forward, show the way.

Alec stands with branches spreading, Human heart but soul transcending, Tree of strength through storm and trial, Leading us through every mile.

Kristi soars on emerald wings, Pride and fury that she brings, Raptor claws and noble heart, Sworn to never drift apart."

The drumming of her claws accelerated, tail wagging. She rubbed the knife against the edge of her armored shoulder somehow producing a deep, buzz-like background riff to add to the tapping tones.

"Candace weaves the silver thread, Binding souls though heart has bled, Fox of chaos, fox of light, Makes the wrong things turn out right.

Adelle strikes with fists of fire, Shadow-steps when stakes grow higher, Orange blur of loyal rage, Writes our legend, page by page.

Five as one we stand together, Bound through any storm or weather, Pack united, strong and free, Growing like our Alpha's tree."

As Nessy sang, Candace placed her hands over mine, silver light flowing from her fingers to assist my Syntropic Fusion. I could feel her mana joining with mine, amplifying my usually limited magical capabilities.

"Syntropic Fusion," I murmured, channeling everything I had into reshaping the dragonheart.

The process was gradual and methodical. Accompanied by Nessy's music, the crystal began to slowly change under my guidance. The process was much more complex than magic grass weaving, requiring constant attention and adjustment. The steel box melted and reformed bit by bit, wrapping around the heart like liquid metal before solidifying into an intricate framework.

Kristi's mana-charged feather took nearly five minutes to fully dissolve into emerald-violet light that spiraled around the structure. Nessy's supercharged fur became threads of black and white energy that wove through the metal. Adelle's glowing orange hair and Candace's white hair transformed into flowing patterns that danced across the surface, each strand requiring individual attention to properly integrate.

Our combined, mana-infused blood continued to pulse through the crystal core over the course of several minutes, and I felt something fundamental shift, not just in the artifact, but in my connection to my packmates. The Dagaz binding Candace had placed on us seemed to resonate with the fusion, strengthening and clarifying our bond.

"How much longer?" Kristi asked quietly, glancing at her watch.

"Almost done," I replied, sweat beading on my forehead from the sustained magical effort. "Just need to stabilize the entire thing some more..."

When the light finally faded and Syntropic Fusion dropped to zero, I held something entirely new. It was a circlet or laurel crown of sorts, made of the transformed steel with the dragonheart somehow stretched across it as five colorful gems. Delicate metallic branches extended from the heart, resembling a laurel wreath, with small crystalline leaves that shimmered with the combined colors of our pack—emerald, violet, silver, orange, black, and white.

[Congratulations! You have created: Packbound Dragonheart Laurel (High Quality)] [Effect: Pulls mana currently stored within into the wearer: 587/587. Regenerates 50 mana per hour. Amplifies cooperative magical abilities by 33.75% when working with bound pack members while worn by the pack Alpha. Duration: Permanent.] [Warning: This artifact is soul-bonded to your pack. Its destruction may result in severe psychological trauma to all bound members.]

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