Riley discovered his return when she tapped on his door.

"Hey, Riley."

"Hector! I didn't know you were back already."

"Didn't you knock on my door?"

"Oh, I always do that when I come home just in case you're around." Riley clasped her hands together. "Guess how many credits I have now."

"How many?"

"You need to guess, Hector. It's a lot."

"A hundred thousand?"

"Over five times that! I never knew how easy getting credits was." Riley pointed her palm towards the window in an action pose, miming a chaos bolt. "I'm getting really good at my chaos bolt. It still works even if you miss a little."

Hector grunted, still uneasy about his meek student performing dungeon runs. Though, given his frequent absences, maybe Darius had a better claim to being her teacher than he did. "Are you still dating Siegfried?"

"Yes! I don't know why he likes me so much, Hector. He's a prince and… well, he doesn't know what I used to do, but he still shouldn't fall in love with random women like that."

He laughed. "Men aren't complicated creatures, Riley. Being pretty and nice can be enough. Is Darius warming to Siegfried yet?"

"No," Riley chimed. "But Darius doesn't like anyone except us."

"And Esther."

The smile slipped. "Yeah. Everyone likes Esther."

"How do you like delving with Darius?" His question caused Riley to stare at him until he grew uncomfortable. "What?"

"Do you want to talk about that woman Jasmine from the tournament?"

He flinched. "Fine, I won't poke around in your private affairs. Even if it seems like things are being criminally mismanaged."

"Hector…."

"It's amazing how killing a few monsters turned you assertive."

Riley's smile returned. "People want to come with us every run. We're famous, Hector."

"That's great, Riley. I don't think anyone remembers the Stalwart Xian anymore."

"Because you've been gone for half a year," she accused.

Before you agree to any social events, be aware that you have a meeting with Transit in two hours. You should leave soon.

"Are you free to grab lunch tomorrow?"

"Of course! I only go into the dungeon once a week."

Soon after he was riding towards the Svarga embassy. In the taxi he learned that the Sage of Transit already received a million credits supposedly from him as a down payment for leasing the abandoned Stronghold Alpha. The money was the System doing shenanigans with balance sheets. The reason for the down payment was that a model of Transit's behavior suggested he would be much less likely to back out of the agreement if he had to issue a refund. The Reconquest was eternally desperate for money and receiving a million credits for making a single portal to an abandoned base would be impossible to resist.

For his part, Hector felt strangely content to be a pawn in the System's plans. He trusted that his actions would benefit the causes he supported. No doubt he'd be more effective following the plot of the System than he would left to his own devices.

The taxi dropped him off at a gate and Hector had to submit to being searched by Arahant guards who openly questioned whether it made sense to worry about a Xian carrying weapons when their greatest offensive abilities were inherent to them. In the end, they followed protocol in a manner that Hector interpreted as CYA behavior.

He was escorted to his meeting with Transit by an entire squad of guards, all of whom looked decidedly uncomfortable even though Hector did nothing remotely threatening. Other than being a level seven Xian, that was. Hector used his mental sense to get a read on the guards. They were mostly the same level as him, with a couple being at level eight. Given the differences in combat capabilities between different kinds, Hector suspected he was roughly equal in might to all ten Arahant guards combined. If he had a chaos bolt instead of a transit sphere, there would be no comparison.

The Sage of Transit looked up from a messy desk and set aside the paper he was reading. "The missing member of the Miasma Mitigation Project returns."

Hector blinked. He hadn't expected those words. Especially not uttered with that level of frustration. "I've freed myself from the Lord General's service. I plan to return to the Reconquest once I take care of some things."

Transit folded his arms and rocked back in his chair. "That's good. What is the deal with these prisoners? Are they dangerous? Is this supposed to be a punishment for them or a cruel execution?"

Claim they are volunteers.

"Everyone I take to Stronghold Alpha will be a volunteer."

The Sage leaned forward. "So you're moving people from a prison to a war front? Is that an improvement in their circumstances? Do they understand what they are getting themselves into?"

Hector scowled. "I wouldn't abuse people like that."

Transit turned his ear towards Hector like he was listening to something in the awkward silence of the room, where only the occasional rustling of fabric from the guard uniforms made any noise at all. "You are very close, aren't you?"

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The question caught him off guard. "Close to what?"

"An insight. Or an expansion of your existing one, I should say. It's not possible to gain a second insight that is disjoint to your first. You've been questing since the first time we met."

Questing. The process of gaining or deepening an insight. Cleo once told him that those in the midst of it were seldom aware of what was happening. He certainly didn't feel like he was doing anything of the sort, which matched that expectation. "Are you sure?"

Transit smiled. "Most Sages wouldn't notice unless they possess a related insight. I am considered top ten in the rankings kept by the College. That list might be subjective, but it isn't all that inaccurate either. If someone can reach across worlds, then you should assume they have the conceptual depth to detect your fumbling."

"I didn't realize any such thing was happening." Hector tried to keep the doubt from his voice. "You said it has been happening since I joined the miasma mitigation project?"

"What I said was 'since the first time we met'. We didn't interact at the time, but I first encountered you while sending volunteers to Eden. Most of us quest for only a short time, Hector. Though given how rare it is to have a second quest, you were bound to be an unusual case."

Hector clenched a fist and tapped it against his thigh. "What now?"

"As a Xian, do you even know what it means to quest? Your kind tend to be ignorant of these matters. I can imagine the entire process being seen as something that just happens to some people. Though that isn't far from the truth, given that questing is an unconscious seeking. Plenty of youths go on adventures in the hope that they will inspire a glimpse. That is putting the cart before the horse, if you understand the idiom. The adventures are a side effect of questing, not something that inspires insights.

"Our insights are organic to us, you see. There has to be a personal element to connect an ego to a portion of ultimate reality. No amount of desire or knowledge can bridge the gap without that. Personal connection, a resonant form of energy, and a deep understanding of a particular phenomenon is enough to let you quest for a glimpse. It's a wild ride as your tenuous connection to ultimate reality slowly blossoms. I've always been partial to the analogy of a sailboat caught in a storm, the mind driven by winds no one else can perceive.

"I've shielded you from repercussions while you've been part of the Reconquest. In part because I sympathize with your situation. Mostly I hope this benefits the cause. Any improvement to the primary thrust of your insight would be welcome."

Hector thought for a few moments. He'd been accused of erratic behavior often enough that it wasn't possible to be completely oblivious, even if he thought his accusers were unreasonable when judging his motivations. "Can you tell what direction it's going?"

"I feel that your presence is far more defined than it used to be. You're very close, Hector. To what I cannot say. Given how far you've come, you should be able to determine the direction based on your own psychology. Evaluate what is driving the changes in your behavior."

That advice held far less value than it initially seemed. What had driven Hector's changes in behavior over the past several years? The list was too long to itemize. His marriage failed. His father died. A lifetime of memories downloaded into his brain. He saved his entire world. He left that world behind. He established himself on a new world. He fought often with his life on the line. He witnessed the slow losses on many fronts of the war humanity was losing. He formed friendships deeper than anything he'd experienced in his mundane existence.

So much had happened that he didn't even feel like he was the same person. What drove his changes? Everything. Hector sighed. "I'm not sure what to do with this information, Sage."

"If my advice holds no value, then simply continue on as you have been. I hope you keep your promise to rejoin us on Aes. While I know how easy it is to get distracted while questing, the Reconquest needs what you can do."

A thought occurred to Hector. "I know someone who inherited the same insight. He is level eight already. Maybe we can rope him into the Miasma Mitigation Project."

The Sage bobbed his head. "The more the merrier, Hector. I'll open a gate to Alpha now. Be ready to jump through as soon as it stabilizes. I can't let miasma fill my office."

When Transit began his working, Hector felt an immense pressure descend upon reality. It was louder than it had been during his previous encounters – there was an insistent demand for passage to be granted. His mental sense caught the thinning of reality in a door-shaped plane as illusory energy displaced all other types in the two-dimensional footprint of the forming portal's surface. Transit's bridge externality slotted into place with the nascent portal. Only then, after his realm and externality had prepared the way, did Transit's domain become involved. A savage punch tore open the portal and connected to a distant universe.

Hector hopped through the portal without hesitation and felt it close moments later. All around him rose a military base similar to Stronghold Gamma. There were concrete dome bunkers, garages, a tall wall in the distance, and a few watch towers. Where it differed was the lack of personnel and the miasma on the air.

With a clear mission before him, Hector put aside the conversation he'd just had. There was a lot to unpack there and he wasn't sure he was up to navel gazing at the moment. He was drowning in obligations at the moment and needed to act. Perhaps once he was back on a Stronghold he'd have time to ponder what was in his heart.

He spent several hours doing a sweep of the facilities, dispatching a handful of weak monsters. When that was done, he chose a bunker that still had enough power in its radioisotope thermoelectric generator to power the lights for his return point. Then it was back to Union Central.

"Hector!" Esther charged at him from behind the counter of the cafe. Her arms were slick with blood up to her elbows. "Matthias wants to talk to you in his suite. I begged him not to evict you, but you might want to show some contrition when you get there."

"Are you bleeding?"

Esther glanced down at the mess on her. "It's not mine."

"Whose is it?"

"Zara brought us a level six fish as big as me – core intact still, if you believe it. It's a real mess. I don't know what I'm doing and there is so much meat I have to empty out everything else in the freezer to make space." She was smiling as she complained.

Hector sighed. "Has the prospect of earning credits caused you to forgive me?"

"I think you finally discovered the secret to making me happy, Hector."

"Business opportunities. So… Matthias is still upset with me?"

Esther nodded. "Very. He told me to send you up as soon as you got back."

"Well, I'd better go get evicted, then," he said.

"You know, Hector, I'm starting to see Isabel's point about you."

Hector had started to turn away, then jerked back. "What point?"

"You really struggle with your sense of humor."

With everything else going on, it seemed like a strange thing to get offended over. "What?" He didn't let rational sensibilities stop him. "That wasn't a joke. I was clearly being sarcastic."

Esther raised her bloody hands in a gesture of surrender. "I stand corrected. Good luck."

As he rode the elevator up towards the highest floor, Hector fumed. People thought he had a defective sense of humor now? This was obviously slander from Isabel infecting public opinion.

Do you have any thoughts on what Transit said?

"Only that it wasn't particularly helpful. Do you have any idea what I'm developing?"

It is well known that some insights contain a moral component. Given your acute interest in training virtues, that seems a likely candidate.

Hector shook his head. That didn't feel right to him. "Anyway, how likely is Matthias to kick me out of the building?"

That is unlikely. Matthias does not take drastic actions. The purpose of this meeting is to make you feel guilty for causing his current discomfort.

The elevator doors opened to admit Hector to the small space outside of Matthias' suite. Somehow the prospect that he was being called to task for causing a friend distress hit harder than worries he might be kicked out of his community.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.