We appeared on the edge of a bare, stone island at the edge of a vast lake. I blinked at the bright sunlight of late afternoon and looked around. A sheer cliff several miles north sported a giant waterfall. Mountains rose in ever-increasing tiers to the east and south, while a steep slope rose out of the waters to the west, leading up to a higher plateau. The sun hung low over the tall mountains beyond, painting the western sky a riot of gorgeous colors.

"Stage 1?" I asked, turning a slow circle to confirm Nigel and I stood on one of the remnants of the collapsing mountains of the first stage.

The low island was barely above the level of the water, scoured bare of any plant life. Other islands poked out of the waters that covered the entire central plain that was now a huge lake.

"So many memories," Cyrus said in a wistful tone. "Good luck."

His voice faded away. Right. Live feeds. What video editing games would Cyrus play to justify me disappearing from the stage-3 ruin and re-appearing on stage 1? How could he account for, well, how much time had passed?

I checked the time on my re-activated menus and my heart sank. "Two days? How the San Juan did I lose 2 entire days?"

"Remaining Survivors: 355. Day 14. Stage-2 countdown timer: 30 minutes, 27 seconds."

Cyrus's voice came as a whisper, barely loud enough for me to hear. "You lost more time in that cell than you realized. Plus, Fulvia had to take a circuitous route to avoid detection."

"We only ran for like half an hour!"

"But you passed through many sectors that were undergoing various time dilation effects to keep different areas of the world in sync."

"Why didn't you warn me about that?" At another time, I would have wanted to ask about why they needed to employ time dilation effects, and how parts of the planet could ever get out of sync?

"Lucas, there are more immediate concerns to worry about, don't you think?"

Loser! I'd nearly convinced myself that Cyrus was now solidly on my side. I'd won so many benefits and so much power on stage 2, I figured the games would taper off. He'd even helped me find an excuse to explore more of the inner world and pick up an item to help me snoop even better in the future, but why make me pay such a price? I needed every minute to level up before facing Queen Marisara again.

In the distance, a giant whale breached the surface of the enormous lake, rising over 50 feet into the air before crashing down again. It looked like a huge blue whale, but its partially-open maw clearly displayed rows of sharp teeth.

"Hey, the death whale." I'd bet my vault that was the same monster that had nearly swallowed me when I was fleeing the collapsing stage 1. I'd used my only scroll of Time Out to teleport it away and save my life. Still had that whale figurine that would allow me to teleport 1 target in front of the death whale to give it a meal to replace the one I'd deprived it of.

Stage 1 was no place to linger and ruminate. The sky was clear of the swarms of flying monsters that had nearly killed me, but the entire stage was no doubt still overrun by monsters. I didn't have time to waste fighting them again. Stage 2 was about to collapse. No way I wanted to fight through another apocalypse up there.

Crap! My castle base camp was still sitting in Midmount Vale. If I'd gotten delayed any further, I would have lost it. That amazing prize was one of my best, and my vaults were there.

I checked my messages and found several from Ruby and Steve, asking where I'd gone. Ruby even said she'd tried her SOS spell to find me, but it had failed. That had freaked her out. My brother Tomas and Jane had both messaged several times too, along with Burns and Tony.

Of course, Tony sounded more annoyed that I was shirking my duty helping scout Ruin and shepherd everyone from Midmount Vale to Port Royale.

I sent a quick group message to everyone, telling them I was okay and I'd see them at my castle shortly. Then I triggered an item I'd wanted to try ever since I got it.

"Home Sweet Home scroll. Open a teleportation gate for you and any invited party members to return to your Base Camp castle. Gate remains open for up to 6 hours."

Despite my annoyance at the lost time, I still grinned at the glowing blue oval portal appearing in front of me. It really did look like the Town Portals from Diablo II. Such a great game, and the nerd in me savored the moment as I stepped through with Nigel.

The world flashed and just like that, we stood in my living room. The portal remained behind us. I didn't plan to return to stage 1, so it would hang out there for another 6 hours. I only had 4 more uses of the scroll, though. I really had to find a way to get more.

Jeeves appeared in front of me and bowed, not looking surprised in the least that I'd just arrived so suddenly. He handed me a hot towel for my face and dropped a huge steak for Nigel. The murder kitty pounced on it and happily gobbled it up.

"Welcome home, sir. I trust your excursion proved fruitful."

"Still deciding. How are things?"

"Rather invigorating, my lord. Several persons have expressed growing interest in acquiring possession of this castle due to your long absence and the diminishing timer for this stage."

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"People tried stealing my castle?"

"Indeed, sir. Lady Ruby and Master Steve have defended your domicile with admirable dedication, but I was obliged to activate defensive measures on 3 separate occasions."

"Good job, Jeeves. Where are Ruby and Steve now?"

"Attempting to avert a riot, I suspect." He gestured toward the door.

I didn't need this. Trying to rein in my annoyance, I rushed to the door. Jeeves arrived first and opened it for me, allowing me to storm out without slowing.

Just as he'd said, Ruby and Steve stood outside, along with Tomas and Jane, as well as Andy and Lana from their teams. They stood in a loose line facing a crowd of nearly 30 people who were shouting angrily. An ugly feeling hung in the air, as if they were about to launch into a full-on battle.

"Hey! What's going on here?" I shouted.

Everyone turned toward me. Many in the crowd groaned, but turned away, complaining to each other about missed opportunities and unfairly rigged games. Some remained, though, and only looked infuriated that I'd arrived in time to prevent them from stealing my castle.

"Lucas!" Ruby exclaimed and rushed over to give me a hug. Tomas arrived a second later and lifted me off the ground in a bear hug.

"Where have you been?" he asked, looking immensely relieved.

"Busy. I'll explain later." I stepped toward the diminished crowd and asked, "So you all just decided you should steal my stuff while I'm out exploring to keep you all safe?"

Randal Thorson from team Wheel of Time spoke from a group of Teamsters, who were all glaring at me with open hostility. "You still owe some of us. Why let a sweet castle go to waste when the stage collapses?"

More with that insanity? My patience was pretty much gone.

"I owe you nothing, idiot. I confirmed your old pals Martin and Trish Briggs are now working for Queen Marisara, so if you see them again, don't hesitate to take them out."

The huge Ray Winstone from team Narnia spat on the ground and said, "You lie."

Other teamsters, who made up the bulk of the group still hanging out in front of my castle, grumbled loudly, some reaching for weapons.

"Choose to remain blind if you want, but if I find you're helping the enemy who wants to destroy all of Earth, I will execute every last one of you myself."

Carrie Nowak, the thick-set woman from team Matrix, produced a spiked mace, her hard face ugly with hate. "Maybe we should just kill you and take your castle now."

"All right, that's it. Get out of my sight. Anyone still here in 5 seconds will get all the fighting you can handle." I actually almost said they'd face my wrath, but that cringeworthy line would work better coming from a stage boss, or something.

Several of them shouted angrily, but none advanced. Ruby looked concerned, while Steve only grinned. Tomas and Jane spread out a bit, ready to rumble. It was nice to see them standing with me. I started counting.

"One . . . Two . . ."

Carrie looked ready to charge, but Ray caught her arm and said, "Not worth the hassle. Let's go."

Thankfully, the entire rowdy bunch marched off, still grumbling, with many murderous glances thrown back at me. As long as they didn't try fighting, I could care less. The idiots had no idea how close they'd come to getting seriously beaten.

"Are you sure it's wise to antagonize people like that?" Ruby asked.

I shrugged. "They're already antagonistic. Some people prefer holding onto stupid biases, despite all the evidence proving them wrong."

"So where were you?" Tomas demanded again once the angry group was gone.

"And how can you disappear for 2 days and not come back with tons of new levels?" Steve added. "You're ruining a great track record that usually includes sharing a ton of sweet loot."

"Sorry, this trip was different." I briefly related my experience with Queen Marisara, but left out the fact that I'd stepped into the inner world. I had to make it sound like I'd found a way to escape the cavern only after getting stuck there for nearly 2 days.

"That's insane," Jane said. "You actually talked with Queen Marisara?"

"And she didn't even leave you any of those cakes?" Steve asked. "Rude."

"I know."

"Why didn't she just kill you?" Tomas asked with a frown. Jane punched his shoulder, but he shrugged and added, "Not like I want her to, but it's a valid question."

"She said she wants to use me for some kind of sacrifice and she'd return for me when the time came. Probably planned to execute me in public, or something. She seemed to think I was a leader."

"I'm glad you got out of there," Ruby said.

"Me too, but now we have to get out of here."

I pulled out an Ultimate Glamp potion and poured it over the castle steps. Just like when I'd first collected the building as a log cabin, amber light rolled out to encompass the entire castle before it flashed once and disappeared.

Midmount Vale was basically deserted, all the buildings gone. They'd even taken the huge central castle. Was a glamping potion able to suck in a building that big, or had they bought a different artifact to move it? Either way, it was impressive magic.

As we jogged north through the forest toward the high cliff marking the boundary of stage 2 and the steep canyon leading up to the stage-3 ruins, I told them about the 2 relics I'd found, the quest they generated, and what I'd seen of Echo City.

"Sounds like a fun place to explore," Jane said with an eager glint in her eyes.

"Might win some epic loot if we watch the time," Steve agreed, rubbing his hands together thoughtfully.

"I figured we should take the team down to hunt and explore," I agreed. "Just want to get set up in Port Royale first."

Tomas chuckled. "Good idea. Space is at a premium. The town is packed. Most teams have had to consolidate tents and share accommodations."

"No worries. I've got 4 extra suites. Some of you are welcome to stay with me."

"Sounds great," Andy Hobbs from Tomas's team called. "Think Lana and I can score one?"

Tomas and Jane could take one suite, Ruby another, and Steve the last. No doubt, that meant Susan would join us too, staying with Steve.

"Sure. I think there will be enough room."

"Sweet!" Andy cheered, then shared a grin with Lana, who looked pleased by the arrangement. Looked like the 2 of them had hooked up after all.

Of course, Steve couldn't miss a chance to tease. Glancing at Ruby, he said, "If it gets too cramped, someone could get creative. Being friends with Lucas brings a lot of benefits. Might be a great excuse to explore some new ones."

"Or you could join Susan at the Expanse," Ruby responded calmly. "I bet that would rack up some more VIP points for both of you."

Steve's smile faltered and Ruby suddenly flushed and placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Sorry, Steve. I don't know where that came from. I'm an eejit."

He recovered quickly. "It's fine. I pushed. You pushed back harder. I deserved it."

He didn't look fine, though. The rest of the team had turned a bit somber from the exchange. No one explained, though. Part of me really didn't want to know, but if there was drama affecting my team, I needed to understand it. We were too close to the fights that mattered most and couldn't afford to get distracted.

"I take it there's stuff happening I need to know about."

Andy barked a humorless laugh, Tomas and Jane both looked disgusted, and Steve sighed. "You could say that."

Ruby added, "Elizabeth Maberly is a very different mayor than Paul was, and Port Royale is shaping up to be a very different town than Midmount Vale."

"That's the understatement of the year," Tomas said. "Have you checked your new counters?"

"What new counters? My menus didn't work properly in the cavern, and I haven't had time to check anything since I escaped."

"Take a look," he suggested.

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