As we passed a row of fruit-laden dwarf trees, I examined one closely. The fruit looked most like a really big version of those weird star fruit, if star fruit were bright purple. As I studied the fruit, Identify triggered.

"Temporary Promotion Fruit. Common. Sometimes you have to punch above your weight class, and this deliciously sweet fruit does exactly that. One of several keys to the Ashen Covenant's unprecedented success in melding technology and magic, consuming a Temporary Promotion fruit will bump a single spell or ability up 5 levels for 1 minute. Limit: 1 per day."

"Sweet fruit indeed," I laughed and quickly harvested all 45 of the purple wonders. The trees didn't hold as many as I'd hoped, but that was still amazing. For some of my spells and abilities, every level unlocked a lot more power. Five entire levels, even for 1 minute, would give me a huge advantage. Since I could only eat a max of 1 per day, I'd share them with my team.

"Let's see what else this Echo City has to offer," I told Nigel, then summoned Switchblade and jumped on. Nigel eagerly took his spot in front of me and I headed down the street, moving slow to watch for danger and to soak in the wonders of the incredible city.

"Are these streets really paved of gold?"

Cyrus said, "An alloy of gold, yes. Increases shine and durability dramatically. The gilded warriors of the Ashen Covenant were an iconic image for many centuries.

"I'm tempted to pry up some of the street to see what Tomas can do with it."

"I'd like to see you try, but it would be a waste of time," Cyrus chuckled. "There's great loot in Echo City, like the fruit you already found, but most things are just what the name implies: echoes. The golden street would just melt away if you removed it from this place."

That was a crying shame. In fact, as incredible as Echo City was, it still served as a depressing reminder of a once-great civilization. Everywhere I looked, echoes of their wondrous lives were more a mockery of the people who once lived there. We couldn't even build our town down there or use most of the wonders the town seemed to offer.

All of a sudden, the entire city shook and rattled, as if from an earthquake. Buildings groaned and swayed, and somewhere in the distance a rolling crash suggested at least 1 building had toppled.

"What gives?" I asked, crouching over the handlebars, ready to hit the throttle to avoid debris. Since we hovered above the ground, the shaking didn't affect us much.

"It's not entirely stable," Cyrus said, a shrug in his voice.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

"There are reasons I'm sure you'll eventually figure out."

More secrets. Just what I needed. I accelerated as the tremors subsided, and the gilded road followed a sweeping curve through an intersection. Instead of grinning demons, the intersection was marked by a beautifully-carved granite angel, wings furled behind her back, hands clasped in front of her, as if praying for the safety of the people passing by.

Scuttling around the next corner came a squad of clockwork insects. Similar in makeup to the first ones we'd faced in Ruin, except the Cogroaches were replaced by a new creature that Identify called Drillscarabs.

I punched the throttle and crossed the distance to the monsters, unleashing Shattercore Ballista into the front ranks. The explosion sent armored insects tumbling, but wasn't strong enough to kill any of them.

Nigel and I made short work of the squad. The new Drillscarab beetle-like creations had 4 legs and a fast-spinning drill for a head. They were quick and tough, their brass armor covered in steel spikes, and the little buggers could burrow quickly underground. They'd make effective ambush predators if we hadn't spotted them already.

As we headed farther northeast toward that ivy-coated wall and the buildings clustered behind, we ran into 2 more squads of clockwork insects and took them both out. With each group, I tried different attacks.

My heavy weapons could crush them, but no other humans could wield so much raw force. So I switched to my blades. That unlocked another 20% Agility, making me so fast I could dance around the lumbering clockwork monsters. I tried to limit my use of the tier-1 Agility to better mimic what others might experience, but it was hard to hold back. It was just pure fun to zip around like the Flash.

Still, I got some good data. With Scalebiter, I used Elemental Harmony to add various elemental potions to test elemental attacks. The black saber could stack up enough penetration damage to quickly cut apart the monsters, but I focused more on the elemental effects.

Not surprisingly, lightning jolted the clockwork monsters the worst, interrupting their controls and even sometimes sending gears flying. Fire did little until I hit the monsters with enough to start melting their brass armor, but ice did show promise, clogging joints and slowing movement. Earth proved effective as well, either in filling joints with grit or in clobbering the monsters with massive force.

With Echo, I used Force Weaver to link in my spell Divergent Strike to take out one of the Gearspiders. That proved an impressive combo as my upgraded blade unleashed the explosive blast, then echoed another 80% damage, then doubled the damage again, and sometimes tacked on up to another 25% if their defenses were broken. The Gearspider basically exploded into shrapnel that shredded 2 Drillscarabs.

Throughout it all, the extra kinetic energy power charge gathered from my boots kept growing as we moved and fought. That upgrade to my boots was so new, I hadn't used the power source yet. As much as I was tempted to try it, I kept it in reserve. The clockwork monsters didn't pose enough of a threat to need it, so I saved it for a monster worthy of a huge extra hit.

The last enemy group proved far more interesting. Twice the size of other squads, they actually gave us a really fun fight. The insects fought with much better coordination than other groups and were supported by half a dozen Skyreavers that dive-bombed us in coordinated attack patterns. Behind them came a new flying monster.

"Stormpiercer. Level 68 elite. These graceful masters of combat are the champions of their units. Most prey fall easily when bound by their magical restraints before they run them through. Those who escape the bonds are cut to ribbons by their dizzying swordplay."

The description made me laugh at first. The monster swooping in to attack looked like a huge Earth swordfish, although its bone sword snout was more squared than flat, with 4 razor edges. It swam through the air like a dancer compared to the Skyreaver sharks and it accelerated with impressive speed, straight at Nigel.

He growled and crouched to spring, but then froze from invisible restraints. When I triggered Spellseer's Gaze, the clear, blue mana wrapping my lion glowed brightly. Nigel shrank to kitten size, dropping below the diving Stormpiercer and breaking free of the bonds, then swelled in size and jumped at its back.

The monster spun in mid-air, slashing at Nigel with its sharp sword snout. The unexpected agility of the monster surprised Nigel, but he still managed to catch the sword on his sabre-tooth fangs. The blow knocked him away, but he still slashed at the monster, unleashing the ability he got from his Simba title.

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"Mufasa's Claws. Ability. Rare. Rend enemies with ethereal claws that extend up to 20 feet and slice through both flesh and spirit."

The ethereal claws tore through the Stormpiercer, ripping it into bloody chunks. I left Nigel to finish off the smaller monsters as I raced toward the lone monster at the rear of the pack. It had lurked behind the others, concealed by a shimmering illusion barrier.

When I focused on it, Wolf Sight pierced the illusion and I got a good look at the retreating monster.

"Mech-Mantis. Level 72 Overseer. These incredibly smart beings not only construct their clockwork minions and program them for autonomous functions, but can manipulate them in real time for improved performance. Physically weaker than their creations, they surround themselves with living defenses."

The monster looked like a giant praying mantis, with a triangular head that looked too big for its body. Its enormous, glowing silver eyes scanned me with clear intelligence. The description claimed it was weaker, but its serrated scissor-like arms still looked dangerous. Sharp, metallic wings lay folded across its back, and it wore plate armor colored green.

The Mech-Mantis only wanted to escape, and I was tempted to let it flee so I could track it back to its lair. Maybe next time. We were still too new to the stage to try raiding the clockwork army lair, and I still knew far too little about this weird Echo City.

As I closed on the retreating monster, I felt a flicker of connection through my Beastmaster title. So the Mech-mantis was actually a living being, unlike its constructs. Made sense. I tried tugging on that connection. Could I influence it to be friendly and share some of its secrets?

Nope. Its huge eyes flared like lanterns and the monster hissed in rage. Incredibly, I understood its clicking, chirping sounds.

"We bow to no meat sack! The hive consumes all."

Not very imaginative, but that made things easy. The monster stopped retreating, snapped out its wings and they buzzed loudly as it shot toward me like an angry living missile, serrated front legs slashing out to take off my head.

I side-stepped, letting the slashing forelimbs whoosh close past my body, then returned with a thrust of Echo at its big head as it rushed past. At the same time, I used Elemental Harmony and Force Weaver to toss in one of my new Napalm potions. I hadn't tried one yet and really wanted to see how they worked.

Echo stabbed through one of the monster's glowing eyes, plunging deep before a concussive explosion of superheated flame erupted through the monster's head, engulfing it in an instant. Then Echo hit it again with 80% more damage, then doubled the damage again.

The monster's head exploded, every particle of flesh melting and dissolving before anything could hit the ground. Bits of fiery gore splattered all over me, but with my fire immunity, I ignored the hissing flames. The monster toppled to the ground, twitching.

Level 72 was really high, but the only monster I'd fought that could handle losing its head had been that Ironwood Colossus. Hitting it in the vulnerable eye had negated whatever power its green plate armor might have provided.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Mech-Mantis. Level 72 Overseer. Bonus experience gained for defeating a new, higher-level enemy."

Hopefully that meant I'd gain bonus experience, unlike the easier insects.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For being the first human to find a Mech-mantis overseer through its shield of illusion and one-shotting it, you receive an emerald Starcraft loot box."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 39. Stat points allocated, plus 6 free points."

"Oh, yeah!" Fighting much higher leveled monsters made leveling so much easier. With Cyrus's warning that I wouldn't get much experience for defeating the smaller clockwork insects, I'd feared I wouldn't get another level for quite a while. Maybe the title upgrade was better than I'd feared. I triggered Loot and Soul Feed.

As the Mech-mantis dissolved into sticking black smoke, white clouds of energy boiled out and poured into me, topping off my pools and supercharging my stats for 5 minutes.

After a moment, I tried casting Harvest. Mana Beam was awesome, but I was down to 1 use. The clockwork insects didn't seem to use spells, so Mimic hadn't snagged me anything new. The Mech-mantis might be different.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have successfully harvested Shroud of Gears. Uses Remaining: 2."

"Note: Due to your class perk, uses remaining increased to 5."

"Shroud of Gears. Spell. Rare. Surround yourself in protective illusion, making you blend in with your background like perfect stealth. While active, increases your awareness of any clockwork insect within 10 yards plus 1 yard per Intelligence, and grants plus 20% chance to actively control them."

Had I wasted my last use of Mana Beam with the new spell? I already had Mirror Cloak, which covered me with pretty good invisibility, especially with the added stealth from Phantomstep Breeches and my favorite wolf leather hats. As I kept reading, I liked the spell more and more, though. Chance to sense and even maybe control nearby clockwork monsters might prove super helpful.

I added my free points from my latest level to Constitution and Strength, then willed the emerald loot box to open. When the big, brightly glowing emerald box appeared, I asked, "So, Starcraft?"

"You know, the famous video game?"

"Never played that one."

"It was a classic. One of the alien races were insects."

Made sense. The loot box flashed and disappeared, leaving behind 2 items, a scroll and a really unique weapon.

"Torqueblade. Rare. This mighty broadsword can cut through even armor and metal, so flesh and bone pose no challenge. Transform the razor edge into a rotating saw with metal-cutting teeth."

I laughed and hefted the solid, wide blade. It was about 6 inches longer than my short swords. I swung it a few times to get a feel for it, and when I struck it against a nearby stone wall, the edge really did transform. With a surprisingly quiet buzzing sound, it chewed right through solid stone.

"Chainsaw sword! I love it." Wasn't sure when I'd use it, but it was bizarre enough that I wouldn't sell it right away. I turned to the scroll.

"Upgrade scroll. Plus 1 level to Iron Long ability."

"Huh. Thanks," I said as I read the scroll. It flashed and disappeared, ticking Iron Lung to level 3.

That loot box had been pretty random, but I'd never complain about another level in Iron Lung. That super cool ability let me breathe any atmosphere, including water, lava, or even solid stone for 10 minutes per level, while purging all airborn contaminants.

Overall, that fight proved very useful. I looted the other monsters and got more of the same clockwork gears, materials, and cores, some mana crystals, and a few more Napalm potions. I did get a couple interesting items from the Mech-mantis, including the full set of its heavy plate armor, and it proved way better than I'd expected.

"Overlord chitin armor. Legendary. This heavy plate armor is crafted from reinforced chitin donated willingly from an elite Leviathan. Far lighter than steel, it still provides extreme defense against physical attacks, while absorbing 50% of all magical attacks to make it stronger over time."

Now that sounded like some great armor. I couldn't use it in its current state, but maybe Tony could craft me something out of it. Except he still owed me some armor from all that metal I'd donated a few days ago. So instead, I sent myself a message addressed to Jeeves, asking him to pull the armor from my inventory and ask Sythrak to submit a custom order to produce something for me.

The other interesting loot item was a wide scroll that opened into the size of my dining room table. Hovering in the air in front of me, it was covered by diagrams and alien writing that my Linguasight utility spell translated without trouble. Plans for making one of the Drillscarabs.

That was cool. I couldn't make much sense out of it, but my Intelligence stat was high enough that I could at least grasp the concepts. I sent another message to Jeeves, asking him to pull the scroll and share it with my brother, Tomas. With his Scrap-Heap Surgeon class, I bet he could get tons of use out of it.

I shared my findings from the battles with Tony and Burns, along with what I'd seen so far in Echo City. Stage 3 was proving interesting. The monsters were much tougher, but not overwhelming. If they maintained a strong party, armed with the intel I'd gathered, they should be fine.

Echo City was still mostly a mystery, but one I needed to solve. Cyrus wouldn't have gone through so much trouble creating a hidden under-city on stage 3 if it wouldn't play a key roll in what we had to do to beat the stage. That new relic quest suggested as much.

A moment later, we rounded a final corner and broke free of the lines of enormous buildings, entering a narrow band of parkland that stretched for nearly half a mile along the front face of that huge, ivy-covered stone wall. The wall turned in the distance on either side, and the park turned with it, ringing the walled compound.

We'd come out near the middle of the long wall and thankfully, a huge gate broke the wall not far away. One of the gilded roads split the park and passed through the open gates that were 40 feet tall and at least 100 feet wide. I accelerated, shooting Switchblade across the lawns toward the gate. No monsters or any other living thing moved, and none of the trees bore any kind of fruit.

"I hope they have a restaurant," Nigel said as we rolled through the gate.

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