For one heart-stopping instant, Logan dangled over the abyss. Feet swinging above the pitch black, he built momentum and swung to a small alcove.

In front of him, the Coil thrashed. Whatever the rod descending from the furnace room ceiling was made of, it didn't break. Nor did the orb itself or the chains holding the Coil in place.

The redirected beam cracked its core apart from within, the light flaring as the last of the monster's strength unraveled into vapor. Rainbow motes drifted upward, the beam dispersing like a dream ending too suddenly. Even after it vanished, its afterimage lingered, seared into Logan's eyes.

With a final convulsion, the Coil's titanic neck slackened, slumping like a dropped rope. Kinks unfurled in slow succession until the whole monstrous length slipped into the void. Yet its head remained secured to the orb, reminding Logan of a pullchain on a ceiling fan. A really gross pullchain that he still watched with hesitation lest an eye open.

Logan hung for a moment longer, then finally pulled himself into a gap in the debris. The only sound was the faint chirp of the dragonet on his shoulder, curling tighter around his neck like a scarf of soft gold.

A hissing steam vented from the desiccated corpse dangling off the no-longer-powering orb. The dragon, despite its participation mere moments earlier, had gone utterly still, asleep as if nothing had happened. Logan tilted his head to watch it nuzzle his collar, breathing slow, rhythmic puffs of warmth into his skin.

"Do all dragons sleep this much?"

A long-buried thought flickered through his mind. The thought of his niece.

Logan hadn't seen his brother in years, mainly because his brother had the sense not to stick around his father. More sense than Logan, anyway. His niece should be turning six soon, but Logan could still only picture her as an infant. He still remembered how she would fall asleep mid-giggle when he held her.

The memory hit him like a blow to the chest. He didn't know where to begin in answering how far from home he was now, and yet, somehow, he didn't want to leave.

Logan's reserves were already nearing full, but he didn't want to stir the dragon yet. He would go to the others soon.

As he sorted through his thoughts, he opened his status to review a slurry of waiting notifications. He nearly choked when he read them.

You have helped kill the Devouring Coil! Shared experience gained!

You are now level 27! +9 END, +18 DEX, +27 INT, +36 PER, +18 WIL You have 36 free stat points.

You have defeated an Ancient! Reward: Celestial Monster Core added to your inventory.

You have completed a quest: Defeat the Devouring Coil! Reward: Brand of the Void Sage.

You have completed a quest: Survive the Devouring Coil's Consumption! Reward: You have earned a title! Regurgitation Station V [Error: No Vitality stat to enhance] You have recovered consumed skills. The portion of skills not fully ingested (after 12 hours) by the original consumer have returned to you. Yum.

Notifications rolled in to dizzying effect. Every skill he had lost levels in had returned, with Climbing even stronger than before. He had unlocked threshold perks in Pain Resistance, Running, and Climbing for having reached those skill levels with his Endurance and Strength stats each at 50.

When the last notification faded, he opened his status screen, still in disbelief.

Name: Logan Vitali Race: Human, Exalted Kin (Masked) Level: 27 Trait: Measured Touch Heritage Boon: Forked Gambit, Core Cracker Affinity: Void (Active); Life (Cooldown: 22 hours) Harmonic Threads: (2 of 3)

Health: 318/318 Stamina: 514/514 Mana: 828/828

Stats:

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. STR: 51 END: 57 DEX: 92 AGL: 50 INT: 107 PER: 145 WIL: 108 CHA: 6

Free Points: 36

Core Skills: Aetherlens (L), lv 23 Analyze (C), lv 27 Climbing (C), lv 34 - Threshold Perk: Vicelock (Enhanced grip while stationary) Crafting (C), lv 13 Meditate (U), lv 28 - Threshold Perk: Pacifist Mindset (Meditate in combat) Running (C), lv 27 - Threshold Perk: Fleetframe (Reduced inertia penalty) Stealth (C), lv 18

Resistance Skills: Cold Resistance (U), lv 13 Heat Resistance (U), lv 18 Pain Resistance (C), lv 38

Combat Skills: Aerial Combat (R), lv 18 Gauntlet Mastery (R), lv 16 Parry (R), lv 4 Sharpshooter (U), lv 12

Void-Aligned Skills (Active): Null Pulse (E), lv 24 CryoPyre (L), lv 18 Unrelenting Hunt (E), lv 22

Life-Aligned Skills (Inactive): Eldertread (E), lv 24 Feral Echo (E), lv 22 Invigorating Flame (L), lv 18

Utility Skills: Interdimensional Storage Ripple Quest Board

Titles: Giant Slayer III (+8 END, +5 STR, +5 WIL) Intrepid Explorer II (+5 INT, PER, WIL) Lizardboy II (+15 WIL) Mold Breaker II (+4 END) Monster Slayer III (+4 END, DEX, INT) Regurgitation Station V (—)

Other: Bounty of Silence: 1.5x Meditate efficacy; Concentration multi-focus

Talent: Missing

It was mind boggling how far he had come since first arriving here. He wanted to examine the new celestial core, but didn't dare handle it over the abyss. It had automatically appeared in his storage ripple, which the System apparently did since there was no surface it could hover over.

Around him, the void fissures had begun to die down. One by one, the shimmering tears in space blinked out. Even the expansive rift sealing off Gnashridge Heights had flickered once before stabilizing.

Logan stood, stretching sore limbs, and used Null Pulse to bounce his way back to the others.

Cassandra, Bromlin, Senna, and Alden all clustered together, battered but alive.

Cassandra gasped first. "Logan!"

Her arms were around him before he could speak. He coughed once, partly from her shoulder hitting his ribs, and then relaxed into the hug.

"You're okay," she whispered.

"Glad to see you are too," he said with a smile.

When she finally pulled back, her hands lingered at his collar and a flicker of warmth crossed her face. It was over in an instant and she coughed lightly, with only a coy smile remaining on her face. Logan chuckled and scratched his neck.

Alden interrupted, clapping Logan on the back with a wide smile. "I'm glad to see you survived. I gained seven levels from this. If you can keep that rate up, I'm willing to keep you around."

The group shared a laugh.

"We saw the Coil drop," said Bromlin. "Before that, there was a golden light. What was that?"

At that moment, the hatchling chose to stir. It popped its head from beneath Logan's collar, blinked once, chirped a high trill, then ducked back down into his tunic like a shy kitten.

The group stared.

Senna tilted her head. "Well. That's not something you see every day."

Logan chuckled. "I don't know. That might apply in my world, but I'm not so sure about here."

While Bromlin told Logan all about how many raptors he had killed, Senna was busy placing a bunch of bone fragments in a pile. Logan squinted and realized she was gathering loot from a bunch of the fallen beasts. She excitedly stashed raptor talons and prowler claws into her gear bag.

When she lifted up an unused drakla pit, a flicktail squirrel darted down from a ledge and snatched it from her before she could stow it. It placed the seed in its pouch, exchanging it instead for a half-scorched drakla pit, which it promptly launched at Logan's head. He ducked with a yelp as the squirrel scampered off into the darkness, squeaking with what sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"I could use Mishki's Critter Taming right now," he muttered. The mood dipped slightly when the others asked Logan where he was.

He explained everything he had seen and how Mishki had seemed to enter a trance and somehow incapacitate his former warlock. They all glanced upward to the open sky, where the aerudine had flown Mishki back to Gnashridge Heights.

"I guess," he said, "we should make our way into the castle. The stairwell has caved in, but I think Alden should be able to help move the larger stones out of the way."

As the others helped Senna gather the last of her bestial loot, Logan paused near a cracked wall, where a faint shimmer caught his eye. Nestled in the rubble, gray cave moss clung to the stone.

He crouched and plucked it free. He hadn't used any of it in all the chaos, and maybe he could find enough to complete that outstanding quest for the apothecary.

When he opened his questboard to see how much he still needed to get, he froze.

The quest was grayed out.

This quest has expired. The quest giver has died, being skewered with an enhanced blade by a reaver.

Beneath that, a string of new quests now populated the board.

Reclaim the Gnashridge Adventurers' Guild! Extinguish the flames devouring the inn! Defend the chicken coop! (Urgent) Stop the reavers!

So, the reavers had made an appearance after all, but they were fighting on the surface. The same reavers whose attack on Razor's home had prompted her and Mariv to summon him to this world in the first place. And the same reavers who were more than five times his level and apparently defied the System's limits.

The others had also paused, and the glaze in their eyes told Logan they were seeing the same thing.

He shared a look with them all. "Wanna join me on a quest?"

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