Dent furrowed his brow, eyes darting back and forth across the screens. His metal hand gripped at the table edge. “Ah, Chuck? Chuck?”

  A flash of blue light illuminated the chamber full of monitors as the wireframe Architect appeared. Despite being an intangible object these days, he still managed to look exhausted. “What is it… oh.” His eyes widened as information filtered in.

  “It’s not meant to be possible for things to board the Omen, right?”

  Chuck shook his head, concern across his expression as he sat at a console. “No, as it doesn’t… exist in a physical sense. Not in a capacity where we had to worry about outside interference…” His voice trailed off again for a moment. “But what is that on board?”

  Dent was none the wiser. “Sure isn’t a Player. Never seen that sort of energy signal before. Dangerous?”

  In his experience, the unknown was often dangerous. Not even counting people like Sally, who were spontaneous and did the unexpected - but the Sea and every System world seemed to have a catch at every turn. As if they didn’t have enough on their plates.

  “Jackie is currently fine.” The Architect exhaled through his nose. “Losing the Omen would not be ideal. Not only would it weaken those on the planet, but bringing them back to Sanctuary would be more of an ordeal.”

  “One fraught with difficulties and further potential for things to fuck up?”

  Chuck turned and gave the swordsman a grim smile. “That’s what we’re known for, isn’t it?”

  Jackie worked her jaw and glanced to where her crossbow was leaning against a wall. “I’m just going to say this one more time, pal. Who or what are you?”

  The dense mist forming a loose humanoid shape turned its white eyes from side to side. “I am lost.”

  “Right. You ain’t supposed to be here. That doesn’t answer who ya are though?”

  “I… do not remember.”

  The mobster screwed up her face. She already had enough babysitting to do without this mysterious entity being vague and distracting her. She felt a terrible amount of dread in her core when looking at it, but it wasn’t being aggressive so far. That wasn’t good enough.

  “Ya going to attack me? Or can you sit nicely so I can focus on my job here?” Jackie jerked a thumb toward the monitor.

  The misty being turned its circular white eyes over to where she was pointing, and then to the nearby table. “I’ll… sit.”

  It shifted as it moved, as if the shaded cloud forming its lower half was trying to mimic walking. The entity sank through part of the table as it lowered onto a chair.

  Jackie continued watching it, just in case something bad was going to happen. How could it not? The Omen wasn’t supposed to host uninvited guests, and she was already seething about leaving the planet early. If something happened and she was sent back to Sanctuary without the others…

  The entity raised its eyes after staring at the table for a moment. “I’m hungry. Do you happen to have any pancakes?”

  Sally rested her back against the wall and blew air from her mouth. A bomb had finally set the grease alight, and after one very quick addition of a barrel of oil, every viewing port and opening in the defenses had been covered. All the heat and smoke would have to billow back down out of the tunnel into the faces of the roaches.

  That didn’t stop the heat from warming her.

  “Top three worst things about a new System.” She turned her head to the demon. “Not being able to eat real food. Not being able to sweat. Not being able to eat real food.”

  “You really are guided by your appetite,” Edward replied.

  “If Theo were here, you could replace one of the eating ones with smooching.” She grinned and closed her eyes. “The lack of edible brains here might be a problem if we’re here a while… but I ate well this morning.”

  For as much as Chuck could alter their arrival to include the skills and equipment used on Sanctuary, he hadn’t been able to change the fact that she was the living dead. Perhaps that could change once she had killed enough bugs.

  Edward sighed and rolled his sleeves back down. “Weren’t you told it was a matter of bandwidth? With the five of us here, your dietary restriction is low priority.”

  “I’m pretty sure I was having an episode where I couldn’t stop thinking about puppies that day.” She grinned and got up. “This fire is going to make it difficult for the roaches to get close for a while. Stops us from escaping too. What should we get up to?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Before the demon could answer, they both turned at the sound of footsteps. From the side entrance, a group of six skeletal dwarves entered the chamber. The one at the front not only had a crown on his head, but Archie was standing on his shoulder as well.

  Sally hopped down from her firing platform with a grin on her face.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Danger.” The crowned dwarf bowed, and the cat jumped down to the floor.

  “Please, Mrs. Danger is my Mummy, you can call me Sally.”

  “King Gralp,” the dwarf announced as he righted himself once more. “When Kerrin told me the prophecy had finally come to pass, I could barely believe it. Yet here you all stand.” His eyes went around the room at the Outsiders. “Mostly.”

  “Our fifth is currently providing us recon, your kinglyship-ness.” She jerked her thumb back at the wall. “Apologies for bringing the enemies right up to the gates.”

  “Not at all.” Gralp gestured for one of his retinue to come forward. “We have prepared for this day, of course. Allow me to present you with a gift.”

  The zombie leaned forward slightly, eyes aglow, as a skeletal dwarf stepped forward. Slightly more armored than the others, and holding a rectangular case. Very ornate. She bit her lip as the King took it from the other dwarf and presented it to her.

  With the clasps popped open, a metal shape was revealed - a metallic hand-crossbow snuggled amongst red silk inlay.

  [Plaguesow]

  [Deals Necrotic Damage]

  [After killing 5 targets, loads a Pleaguereap Bolt]

  [Pleaguereap Bolt]

  [Explodes on target, reduces Movement Speed and Vitality in a 15ft radius]

  Sally whistled. “This is beautiful, thank you!” Now she would Plaguereap what she Plaguesow. It probably didn't mean female pig.

  The miniature crossbow was made of a dark metal, polished in parts to bring out the skeletal design. Ribcage-like bumps down the main body. Small skull at the front. Bones for the arms, and along the handle. Despite being mostly metal, it was surprisingly light.

  She grinned to herself. While often switching between a roguish skirmisher and a supportive necromancer, this clearly pushed her closer to the former once more. It paired well with Skeleton Key, at least.

  “We hope that you put it to good use,” the King said with a nod. “Unfortunately, other than shelter and this artifact, we are unable to offer you much else. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have, however.”

  “Oh, I do have one.” Sally put the weapon away in her Inventory. “How do your eyes not dry out, since you have no eyelids?”

  “Magic.”

  She could accept that. “And do you still have brains?”

  The King nodded, but his expression suggested he might regret giving her the opportunity to ask him anything.

  Humphrey stepped in from the sidelines and put his hand on Sally’s head. “Forgive the intrusion, but perhaps I can field questions to the King, and you can return to watching the wall?”

  The zombie considered it for a moment, then agreed. “Sure, Pops. We’ll need a plan once the roach-grill runs out of flame.”

  She yawned as she excused herself and climbed back up the platforms to where the demon was sitting with his eyes closed. “Wondering how Theo is doing?” she asked.

  Edward opened one eye. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he were back in Sanctuary having been successful in his solo mission already.”

  “Nah. See, that’s where I know him better than you.” Sally sat down and leaned back against the wall. “He would have found something on that world that tickles his fancy, and he’ll be grinding for some rare item or chance of a skill. Anything to avoid the social part of his mission.”

  “At least until he has aura-farmed enough.”

  Sally grinned. “So true. Then again, if our roles were switched, I’d have eaten my fill and would have a zombie army big enough to make me appear as a villain.”

  It wasn’t just a matter of letting Chuck down. There were Player lives at stake on that world. The sooner it could be rescued, the better - especially if that meant a few more Outsider-level allies. She wanted to meet them, and possibly fight them once they had been saved to Sanctuary’s System. Speaking of levels, however…

  “It’s such a drag getting experience after Level 40,” she complained.

  Edward shrugged. “The soft cap is 50, isn’t it? Aren’t you powerful enough?”

  “But the hard cap is 100. Even if there are diminishing returns on the Stat Affinity increases, I can still get a Class upgrade every five Levels.”

  Most of the Outsiders had a mix of Classes at this point. Chuck had been tight-lipped on whether there would be an item or ability that could reset their Class choices. That sort of thing could cause several large problems, according to Dent - and neither of them would commit to saying this was the final version of the STAR System for Sanctuary.

  It was much closer to perfect than the original System had been… and she had to admit the prospect of only earning new skills by starting fresh with new worlds would have gotten boring pretty quick. Especially if they were such a struggle as Thrimble had been. That said, nothing really mattered right now. Not until they repelled and destroyed the fleet of Radochs coming toward Sanctuary.

  “The roaches have a buff that reduces the experience they are worth.” Edward had closed his eyes again. “Not even the System they come from values their existence much.”

  “Really?” Sally furrowed her brow. “Kind of sad in a way. No experience and no brains to eat.”

  The demon grunted. “I had Bully check out the properties of one of the calcified hearts. It’s like an on-death reaction. Here.”

  [Radoch Calcified Heart]

  [Full Looting restricted to Race: Radoch]

  [Spells and abilities that affect corpses have no effect]

  “Ah.” Sally tilted her head. “That’s why I can’t turn them into zombie pals. The loot restriction is interesting too. When we die, everything is kept in our Inventories, right? I don’t think we even drop gold.”

  “As far as I know. We can test it if you’re eager to learn.”

  “I just wouldn’t want the roaches to get copies of my overpowered items.” She was sure it wasn’t possible because the Radochs operated under their own System. It had taken Chuck a lot of effort to allow even one Sanctuary weapon to work in Thrimble, and they could only use their stuff now because of the Omen.

  Thankfully, the Architect had assured them that nobody would be able to attack or board their spaceship. One silver lining to the current situation.

  She looked down as Archie hopped up the platform to join them both.

  Once up, he sat and gave her a blank look. “So, I have something to tell you about the Omen…”