I had to clear out a bunch of useless junk from the table, tossing it all into the sell pile, before I got a good look at the table. It was beautifully crafted, with the flat top inlaid with tiny colored crystals, forming a stunning image of some kind of burning phoenix in flight over a thick jungle. Wide, thin shelves situated below the front side of the table contained nothing but a single, blank map as wide as the table.

Intrigued, I extracted it and unrolled it across the table. Maybe it was written in invisible ink, or something. As soon as it settled onto the table, the map flashed and drew my mind into a weird, multi-dimensional space bursting with hundreds of maps.

I couldn't see myself. It was like my consciousness was floating in the space with maps of all sizes and levels of detail. I found I could will them to flip past so I could scan through the collection, or will one of them to fill my vision for in-depth study.

Some covered entire planets, detailing weird continents. Others revealed cities that could house billions. Some of those, I could plunge my view closer, magnifying the map hundreds of times until I could study individual structures and swoop down wide alien avenues.

Still other maps showed huge compounds, while even more contained only single buildings. Some of those I could plunge my view inside and study every level in stunning living 3-D. As I gawked and explored, I finally noticed red X's marked in what looked like blood. Quite a few of the maps had those marks.

I recoiled and willed the maps closed. Was that her personal journal where she recorded all her kills? I felt dirty just looking at them, but that didn't mean I wouldn't open the incredible map again and study it. All those maps represented real places across the multiverse. The paintings I'd taken from the hall outside of Velexis's lair in the Grindstone dungeon had offered wonderful glimpses into life on a couple other planets, but those maps contained hundreds of times more information.

After returning the map to its drawer, I headed toward the glowing barrier at the back of the vault. On the way, I passed a bunch of things that were obviously used for her disguises and assassination work.

I found ID chips with runes to alter the identity displayed when someone used Identify or similar spells. Cool, but not helpful to me on Arasha. I found an entire rack of authorization tokens granting access to various facilities on a bunch of different planets across tiers-3 and tier-4 worlds. Again, interesting, but ultimately useless.

Even more interesting was a tablet-like device that could apparently interface with different magical systems to scan for data, unlock access, or send false information.

"She was like a super magic hacker," Tomas said as he checked out the tablet with me.

I hated hackers. "I wonder if I could use this to interface with Earth tech when we get home? Might help me track down scammers and internet hackers better."

Tomas laughed. "When we get home, if we still have our powers, I think scammers will be the least of our worries."

Yeah, good point. Moving on, I found a cabinet overflowing with buckets of small silver crystals. I picked one up to study more closely.

"Information crystal. Common. Infused with information regarding a specific subject, these are like Wikipedia on a far grander scale. Access denied."

"Hey, why no access? I own this vault."

Cyrus said, "There's a wealth of information on those crystals regarding factions, clans, federations, guilds, and much more spanning many planets between tier-2 and tier-4. Velexis was an accomplished researcher and extremely thorough as she prepared to target her victims."

"Great, so why no access?"

"You don't need to know this kind of information while on a tier-0 game world."

"You're no fun." So Cyrus was blocking access for some reason. What could it hurt to know more about the multiverse?

"I'll tell you what. I'll scan them, and if you get to the point where you either win the game or gain additional authorization, I will share it all with you."

"How likely is that to happen?"

"Winning the game? Depends on how fast you grow stronger."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. Fine, scan them, but don't destroy them. I want these copies left in this vault until I decide what to do with them."

"Done."

"Done, as in you agree to scan them?"

"Done, as in already done. It may be a wealth of information, but that doesn't mean it takes me long to read it all. I scan entire worlds, remember?"

That was impressive, even for an AI. How much processing power did he have? Did he even have a processor, or just some kind of super-enhanced magical core?

"Are you a tier-0 being?"

"Another excellent question. You are again the first to ask, but since most people don't know about tiers yet, it doesn't count."

"Hey, I should get a loot box, right?"

"You got a vault. Don't complain."

I dropped it. I still had more of the vault to explore. Near that back glowing wall, I finally found the hard currency I'd expected. We opened some huge bins that overflowed with tier-3 and tier-4 mana crystals. The soft blue glow from all those mana crystals bathed the laughing faces of my team.

"There has to be tens of thousands!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Probably more," Steve said, plunging his hands deep into one of the bins and lifting a double handful before allowing them to fall back onto the pile with a musical chorus.

Once I willed them all into my inventory, I could get an exact count. I didn't bother for now. Looking at the huge pile of mana crystals was too much fun. Plus, I had plenty of money for my current needs. It was always good to keep money saved out for a rainy day.

"Check this out," Jane said from another large bin to the right of the ones we'd already opened.

When I went to check, I found the bin full of crystals that looked a lot like mana crystals, except they were about 50% larger and they glowed with a soft white light instead of the normal blue.

"Nexus crystal. Common. Containing pure nexus energy, these crystals are the tangible representation of the fundamental energy that fuels the universe."

"Warning. Extremely dangerous to handle for beings with mana pools below at least convergence level. Contact with beings with only basic-tier mana pools is usually fatal."

Jane reached a hand down to pick up one of the nexus crystals, then froze and recoiled with a shout. Thank goodness she finished reading the description before touching one.

The others came to see what made her shout, but I waved them back and explained the danger.

"Nexus crystals? I've never heard of that," Ruby said.

"Convergence?" Steve added, glancing at me. "You said something about evolving your mana. Do you know what that means?"

When Cyrus didn't interrupt, I said, "Yeah, I do. We all use what's called basic mana. As we level up, we can eventually evolve our mana pools to higher levels to unlock a lot more power. First mana evolution is attuned mana."

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"I've heard of attuned mana, but never understood what it meant. Thought it was just something about monsters," Tomas said.

"Some of the stronger monsters do have attuned mana. They're usually the bosses, and it's one of the reasons they're so much stronger."

"So convergence mana is higher than attuned?" Ruby asked.

When I nodded, Steve said, "And you've somehow unlocked Convergence mana, haven't you?"

I hesitated, and he laughed, snapping his fingers. "I knew it! You fight bosses entire tiers above anyone else, so of course you've got mana 2 tiers above ours too."

"How?" Tomas demanded.

I shrugged. "It's kind of a long story, and one of those things I can't talk about in detail."

"So you can pick up those crystals?" Jane asked.

I reached over and picked up one of the softly glowing nexus crystals. A jolt of familiar power raced up my arm, and suddenly I felt ready to sprint back to the Grindstone dungeon and fight all the trolls on the third floor bare-handed.

"Whoa! That's quite a rush." My mana bar glowed silver and showed a plus 200% buff. Nexus energy was no joke. I'd gotten one tiny jolt of it back on stage 1 in one of those secret inner-world maintenance closets and it had flung me across the room.

I tossed the nexus crystal into my inventory. It still felt undimmed, despite the energy it had just poured through me. How much energy did one of those things hold?

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

I grinned. "Yeah. That was a trip. Not sure I can handle more than a second holding one of those."

Tomas whistled. "So it really would kill the rest of us. What does the description mean? Fundamental energy fueling the multiverse?"

Not surprisingly, Cyrus interjected. "Few contestants on game planets ever encounter nexus energy, let alone nexus crystals. This information is considered restricted, so don't go around sharing it."

He wasn't blocking me from telling them. What a relief. I'd already shared more than I'd ever expected he would allow. Not sure what had changed, but I wouldn't complain.

So I told them what I knew about nexus energy as the lifeblood of planets and the foundational power in the multiverse, as well as how it was converted to various types of attuned and basic mana for use on various worlds.

"So does the conversion go the other way?" Ruby asked. "Do bunches of mana crystals get smushed together into a new nexus crystal?"

"Great question," Cyrus said. "There is a way for mana to be condensed into nexus crystals since nexus energy is the primary energy that moves between worlds."

"So how did Velexis transport all these mana crystals to Arasha?" Jane asked.

"Mana crystals can be transported, but raw mana does not. Different tiers and different worlds use different attunements for mana at different densities. Trying to transport mana from one world to another, even of the same tier, will fail as the mana signature of each world is different."

"So how can we use magical weapons from this vault?" Tomas asked.

Wow, my team were asking one good question after another. Cyrus should have offered some loot boxes.

"When a magical weapon first arrives on a new world or, in this case, is taken from the vault, any mana already absorbed into the weapon deteriorates, allowing the weapon to absorb local mana."

"And that works? There aren't compatibility issues?"

"Usually it works just fine."

"How?" Ruby asked.

Steve shrugged. "System machinations behind the scenes probably."

He was more right than he knew. I'd met Fulvia, one of the fairies working in secret inside Arasha, controlling and maintaining the game world. Did other worlds have secret organizations concealed in their hearts too?

Cyrus didn't share more, but even the hints he'd given contained a lot to chew on. If nexus crystals could move between worlds, they must be super high-tiered, or they wouldn't work on higher-tiered planets. Each tier was 10 times more powerful, so how much mana would it require to condense mana from a tier-0 game world like Arasha to make a single nexus crystal that could work on higher-tiered planets?

What if that nexus crystal was transferred to a tier-5 world? Or a tier-10 world? Tier-5 worlds should have mana 100,000 times more powerful than a tier-0 world. So would that mean it would require a 100,000-to-1 transfer to make a nexus crystal powerful enough to be used there?

That was an abysmal conversion rate, but it would be worse for a tier-10 world. How was it possible to convert 10,000,000,000 mana crystals just to create a single nexus crystal. No way the system was that inefficient. Or maybe all nexus crystals started at the highest-tiered worlds and only moved down the system?

"Can I sell these nexus crystals?"

"It is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd only get a single tier-5 mana crystal for each nexus crystal."

"Why so low?" Was there a limit to how many tiers a mana crystal could be valid in? There had to be something else going on I didn't understand yet. Either that, or the system store was as good at shafting people as government-run stores were back on Earth.

"Nexus crystals are only used by system-run entities or as an alternate currency method in some transactions between giant corporations that span multiple tiers. Outside of those channels, no one uses them."

"I'd think that would make them even more valuable," Ruby said, her frown matching my own. She'd studied business and paralegal before taking on the job as the personal assistant to the rising star, Elizabeth Maberly.

"Wasting time discussing multiverse inter-planetary trade practices does not seem wise," Cyrus said.

The not-subtle hint was also not satisfying, but the AI had still shared more than I'd expected. I had a messy hoard to finish exploring. The bins full of mana crystals were still super welcome, but I felt like the vault wasn't living up to the hoard of a legendary intergalactic assassin thief.

"This is my kind of loot," Jane announced. She'd wandered off and now heaved a huge bucket from behind a shelf piled high with an endless assortment of shiny golden blocks about 6 inches square. Holographic images on the front of each one looked like variations of Earth participation trophies.

Many showed humanoid forms in victorious poses, others sported alien fists with various digits extending, like an alien thumb's up. Others showcased plaques with dates and locations that meant nothing to me. Looked like Velexis really liked to feel appreciated.

The rickety shelf collapsed, tumbling the little glowing trophies into a pile of rusty metal pans with a musical clatter. Jane ignored the mess and popped open the top of the bucket to reveal piles of shiny gemstones. Smaller than the huge ones we got from the Plateau dungeon, they were still beautiful and sparkled with dozens of colors.

"Oh!" Ruby gushed and dove into the pile of junk, looking for more crates of jewels. She soon found one and pulled it out, creating another mini avalanche.

"How can anyone own this many jewels and not feel at least a little joy in life?" Ruby asked, holding up a sparkling emerald.

Chuckling, I resumed my search and soon stood in front of the glowing golden barrier wall blocking the rear of the vault. I'd assumed that must be the back wall, but behind the semi-transparent barrier I could clearly make out racks of weapons and armor and shelves full of stuff. The area looked much better organized.

"What's back there?"

"A restricted area, keyed to only allow access to someone at tier 3."

"Why would Velexis limit her own vault?" Tomas asked.

When Cyrus didn't answer, I growled, "Because she didn't. Why would you block off parts of my vault, Cyrus?"

Amazingly, he answered. "Velexis roamed far and wide in her years as an assassin and thief. Accessing powerful tier-3 and tier-4 artifacts will not help you in the current game, but could easily kill you."

"I could sell it all and make a fortune, though."

"Perhaps, but the time may come when it will prove useful."

I glanced to the glowing barriers along the left and right walls. "What's behind those?"

"Tier-4 and tier-5 loot."

I muttered a string of curses that Cyrus changed to random composer names. No wonder the vault had felt underwhelming. The best loot had already been pulled out and hidden by Cyrus.

"This is going to be another test, isn't it?"

"When the time is right, you'll receive quests to win the keys to unlock the various barriers," Cyrus confirmed.

"You know, letting me loot a prize only to block most of it away for later is super frustrating."

"Challenges are good for character growth. Focus on all the loot you have now, as well as the wonderfully unique opportunity you have to meet with a representative of the elven faction."

He definitely had a point, but I still didn't like it. The junk-pile vault still contained a bunch of weapons and interesting gear and items, plus those huge bins full of mana crystals. The nexus crystals might prove even more beneficial once I understood how to use them. I'd made out well. It just irked that Cyrus couldn't resist setting up yet another game.

With a deep breath, I focused on the good things we'd seen. Over the next few minutes, I finished my sweep of the vault, tossing a lot more stuff into the inventory pile for Jeeves to sell. Some other stuff was interesting, but I didn't add any more to my current inventory. I had good weapons and gear. Once I knew what we'd be facing on stage 3, I could make adjustments.

"So, anyone want anything?"

Steve took that longsword that consumed ethereal beings. Ruby found a couple crates full of assorted specialty grenades, and Jane took some weapons. She didn't usually do much melee fighting, but sometimes she couldn't avoid it. So she grabbed a couple daggers that drained life to replenish her own health points, along with a really interesting crossbow.

"Wrathspire Crossbow of Conflict. Epic. This mighty weapon once belonged to Darysta Vryn Shadrael, the Crimson Whisper. The feared assassin was Velexis's great aunt, renowned for delivering death with eerie precision and vanishing before the echoes faded. Will rapid-fire purely magical bolts of mana attuned to fit your build. In this case, bolts will contain psychic power and explode on contact to deliver massive amounts of spiritual damage."

"Good choice." I hadn't even noticed that one. I'd barely skimmed the bows and crossbows. I didn't want it. My stiletto quiver with my poisoned and exploding crystal blades was working wonderfully as my ranged fast attack weapon.

Tomas chose a different track. Gesturing at the remaining piles of junk, he asked, "Can I just take a bunch of stuff to use building my on-the-fly guardian contraptions?"

"Excellent idea. Take all you want."

He took a lot, from piles of basic weapons to racks of armor I hadn't bothered sorting through yet, to piles of random metal and wood and junk. His Scrap-heap Surgeon class allowed him to fast-craft guardian constructs to help fight monsters on the fly. His recent title added a mind space he could step into for up to a full minute while only 1 second passed in the real world, letting him craft even faster.

As soon as we exited the vault, Jeeves appeared. "Sir, Sythrak promises to inform you as soon as the elf representative is ready.

"Good. Please sell off all the gear I marked in my inventory while I go visit the council."

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