My team had entered the first level of the dungeon and were exploring the devastation left behind in the goblin cavern.

"You don't do anything by halves, do you, Bro?" Tomas asked when I raced up to them just as he exited the goblin central hall. It was one of the few buildings still standing.

"Not much left to pick through," Steve added with a scowl as he climbed the steps from the wrecked courtyard, tossing aside a Bonebreaker helm with a crack running down the front.

I rushed past, motioning them to follow as I ran inside. I needed to gather the entire team and head out immediately. I called back over my shoulder. "Alpha did most of the work down here."

Ruby looked up from where she sat at one of the long, rough wooden tables next to Edmund. "Not much left but destruction."

"Unless you want us to hunt those big beetles," Tomas said, jogging inside behind me.

I paused to take in the scene just as Nigel collided with my chest like a shaggy missile. I hugged him as I looked around. The large open space felt surprisingly airy with its high roof and slender support columns. Several logs smoldered in a big sunken fireplace in the center of the room, and the chimney far overhead actually drew the smoke pretty well. Probably some kind of enchantment.

Long plank tables and benches marched up both sides of the room to a raised dais with a high table and places for a dozen. If there'd been any other trappings in the room, they'd all been looted.

Jane, Lana, and Andy waved from where they sat around a makeshift game of cards. Edmund sat at the table nearest the fire with Ruby. He slouched over the table, head low, looking totally dejected.

Ruby motioned me over and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Got more than I bargained for, but I won. Lots to discuss, but now's not the time."

I was about to tell them about Burns's message, but Identify kicked in when I glanced at Edmund again.

"Edmund Pepperell. Level 50 baby human. Team Shakespeare. Class: Ethereal Bridge Warlock. Sometimes treading new ground first brings vast rewards. Other times, one stumbles into unseen pitfalls. Edmund was firmly set onto a mighty path until he foolishly decided to make an incompatible spell permanent and twisted his class into the jumbled mess you see before you."

Oh, no. My smile at seeing he'd reached level 50 and unlocked a new permanent spell fizzled and my heart sank. I rushed over and placed a hand on Edmund's massive shoulder.

"What happened?"

His eyes looked haunted, his expression hopeless and his basso voice squeaked with barely suppressed emotion. "I got to permanent a new spell."

"First person to reach level 50," Tomas interjected.

Edmund grunted, his scowl deepening. "I screwed everything up, Lucas."

"How?"

He just slumped, eyes drooping. Was he crying? I could imagine the old, pencil-necked nerd Edmund back on Earth breaking down if things got rough, but not the hulking, earth-mastering Viking he'd turned into.

Ruby placed a comforting hand on Edmund's shoulder, her own expression tormented. "You were right, Lucas. Every spell we permanent affects our build and can even change our class."

Edmund's gaze snapped up to mine, his tone suddenly accusing. "You knew this could happen?"

"I suspected it could. I warned the city council."

"They forgot to pass it on," Edmund growled, huge fists clenching so hard they creaked.

"Tell me what happened. Then we'll figure out what to do about it."

"Do? We can't do anything." Edmund snapped, then visibly forced control again. "I got a really cool temporary spell recently. Whisper Flight. It seemed like the perfect spell. Turns me ethereal and let's me travel through space almost as fast as teleportation."

"That does sound awesome."

He grimaced. "It was until I made it permanent. It altered my class and wrecked everything."

I frowned. His previous class, Pitstop Groundskeeper, was all about earth elemental powers, with some cool additional earth-focused spells. It turned him into a powerhouse and one of the leading elites. In his place, I would have been tempted to do the same thing. Sure, a flying ghost spell didn't exactly fit his build, but was it that far off?

Jane took up the tale for Edmund. They'd clearly all discussed it in detail already. "The spell clashes with his other permanents, and his new class corrupted everything, including his permanent spells."

"How? I figured class spells might get messed up if a build went the wrong way, but how can permanent spells get altered? They're permanent."

I glanced up as everyone shrugged and Edmund sighed deeply. Cyrus's voice startled most of the group.

"It's rare for a permanent spell to get affected by a class change, but not impossible. Edmund here had the terrible misfortune of picking perhaps the least compatible spell with his previous class."

"How?" Edmund shouted at the ceiling. "It worked just fine when I tried it as a temporary spell!"

"Temporary spells do not affect your core build," Cyrus answered, unruffled by Edmund's anger. His endless good humor got super annoying at moments like that, but calling him out for it wouldn't help.

He continued. "Making a spell permanent adds it to your inner core. All of your other spells and class choices stem from the melding of those permanent spells. Your previous build was firmly grounded in the earth, while Whisper Flight combined elements of the non-tangible and air, both of which are complete opposites to earth."

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"Why didn't you explain that to us before?" Tomas asked as Edmund seethed.

"No one needed to know until tonight. If you had taken a moment to consider your options, you might have given me an opportunity to interject. Instead, you picked your permanent within seconds of the new permanent slot becoming available."

Edmund glared at the ceiling, but then sighed and deflated again. Nodding, he dropped his head into his hands. "I was so excited, I didn't stop to think."

"Usually that would have been fine," Cyrus said, his voice for once more understanding. "Even when you pick an incompatible spell, the results range widely. The most common result is simply not evolving into as good a class as you might have. There are many permutations in between, all leading to the worst-case scenarios, including destroying your class and having permanent spells that actively interfere with each other like you managed to do."

"So your new class doesn't even have class spells?"

Edmund snorted. "Worse than that. All my previous class spells and abilities got twisted along with my permanent spells. Now I can only use any earth-based spell after becoming ethereal, but I need solid contact with the ground for those spells to work best. I lose 95% of the spells' effective power."

Wow, that really did suck.

"I can still use Whisper Flight, but I can only trigger it if I'm first standing on a stone surface above an open space."

"Like a bridge," I guessed. His class was Ethereal Bridge Warlock, after all.

"It gets worse," Edmund continued, staring with hollow eyes at the table. "Class spells let me manipulate stones, but they have to be ethereal, and if I try my mini-gun stone firing spell, the stones turn ghostly whenever they strike something, so can't do any harm. Even my stone golum now has a ghost core that lacks the power to actually possess the stones and make them move until it levels up a few times."

"How can this be fair?" Lana demanded, hands on hips, glaring at the ceiling where Cyrus's voice emanated.

"You can't have such a wonderfully open magic system without some pitfalls," Cyrus chided. "The class system you enjoy here is far more flexible than those on most integrated worlds, but all systems must find balance one way or another. With so much freedom and flexibility, the system on Arasha comes with inherent risks."

I hadn't realized other worlds used different systems of magic. As much I wanted to ask more about it, I instead focused on poor Ed's plight.

"This is a rotten situation. Is there a way to fix it?"

"Of course. Simply pick the right permanent spell at your next milestone level to evolve your class toward something better."

Ed perked up a bit. "How can I do that? My spells are mostly useless. How can I level up that far?"

"It is challenging," Cyrus admitted. "With a class broken this badly, you'll still receive the specifically-allocated stat points, but any free points will be lost."

"That's insane!" Tomas shouted.

Cyrus chose not to answer. Whoa, my mind whirled as I took it all in.

"We'll figure it out," I assured Edmund, focusing on the slim hope Cyrus had given us. "Even if we have to hunt together to share experience, we'll find a way."

"Absolutely," Tomas agreed, and Jane gave Ed a reassuring smile.

Ed was already level 50, ahead of everyone, and the next milestone level was level 75. That was a lot of leveling to do with terrible spells, but I had the funds to help outfit him with great armor and some cool weapons so he wouldn't be left totally helpless. Even without his spells, he was strong. He wasn't crippled, so he could still fight. If we hunted together with him, we could get him there in a week.

That helped mollify Ed, and a spark of hope returned to his eyes. He straightened, sniffled deeply once, then nodded. Sweeping his gaze across all of us. "Thanks, guys. You're the best."

"You might be pretty useless, but we're still friends," Tomas said with an overly dramatic sigh. That made Ed laugh and broke the tension.

All of a sudden I remembered Burns's plight. We were too far to help him win a fight. If he hadn't escaped already, then he was dead, or Noctarus had captured him. He wasn't responding to my texts, but still appeared in my contacts list, so hopefully that meant he was safe, or at least still alive.

"Ed, as much as I want to start hunting with you right now, we've got another problem."

I gave them a quick rundown on the situation.

"Does Tony know?" Edmund exclaimed.

Great question. I hadn't even tried contacting Tony yet. Edmund did, and got a response almost instantly.

"Tony got the start of a message from Burns, but it was cut off. He didn't know even as much as you did." He paused then added softly, "I told him about wrecking my class too."

I hoped Tony showed more compassion to Ed than he had to me during the first few days we'd known each other. He was a great leader in many ways, but could come across as harsh in his single-minded pursuit of victory. He should have done better sharing my warning with his people. That was on him.

I got a text from Tony almost instantly.

Tony: "Lucas, what can you do to help? It'll take me and the other elites who just returned to Midmount Vale from the werewolf ambush a while to get back to Lake Town."

I considered our options for a moment before replying.

Lucas: "Contact your leaders in Lake Town and put them on higher alert."

Tony: "Already doing that, but I don't want them to assault the castle, or anything until we know more."

Lucas: "Agreed. I also think you should go reinforce them with your elite team, but quietly. Depending on what happened to Burns and his squad, Noctarus might make a move against our people, but he won't want to unless he feels the agreement is totally shattered. He still needs our help to finish the ships."

Tony: "That's my take too. That might give us some time, but if he's killed them . . ."

Lucas: "I hope he hasn't. If they failed to escape, he'll probably try to capture them. Noctarus is no fool and he desperately needs those ships finished before he makes his move."

Tony: "I hope you're right. I'll mobilize my team immediately. Our forces at Lake Town already have a bunch of anti-zombie weapons and equipment, along with defensive arrays to seal off the town and block zombie incursions. They can hold for a while if it comes to a fight."

Lucas: "Good. Most of us will head for the castle. We can get there faster, and if my token is still valid, I can get in to speak with Noctarus. I'll keep the rest of the team on standby to back me up, depending on what I find."

Tony: "Be careful. If the situation is bad, get out and wait for us to arrive. All together, we can storm the castle and take him."

True, but if we tried a frontal attack, the zombies would definitely see us coming. A lot of people would die, including Burns and his team.

I related the plan to the rest of the team, then turned to Ed. "Unfortunately, I need you to head back to town."

He sighed. "Figured you'd say that."

I clapped him on his meaty shoulder. "We'll get your class fixed, just not tonight." Then I turned to Lana and Andy. She looked very nervous, while Andy eagerly rubbed his hands across the hilts of his blades. "Will you two escort Ed back to Midmount Vale? The werewolves won't bother you, but there are other monsters in the forest."

Lana sighed with relief, giving me a grateful smile. Andy looked like he wanted to complain, but then noticed Lana's expression and nodded. "Okay, Lucas."

"Thanks. The three of you together should be fine."

"How do you know the werewolves won't attack?" Ruby asked. "We healed, killed, or drove off the pack that attacked with Alpha, but there might be more, and they'll be enraged that Alpha is dead."

I hadn't wanted to get into that yet, but I wouldn't lie to them. "This may sound weird, but I'm the Alpha now."

"What?" Tomas and Steve exclaimed together.

I quickly summarized my new Alpha title. Most of them stared in wide-eyed wonder. Steve just laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. "Of course you're the new Alpha! You always throw a twist into everything."

I grinned. "Got some other cool prizes too, but we'll have to discuss them later. Time could be running out for Burns."

"How are we going to get through the mountains and across half the stage through this fog in time to help?" Tomas asked.

"How many people can we squeeze onto Switchblade?" Jane added with a twinkle in her glowing eyes.

"I've got a better idea. Come on." In an emergency, we probably could find a way to get all 5 of us and Nigel squeezed onto Switchblade with our insane Strength and Agility, but why do that when we could travel in comfort?

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