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    It took less than a day to get to the entrance to the Screeching Shoals. Like my grandmother had said, the Acheron was a whole different beast when she was the one commanding it. I hadn’t noticed a real difference before, but it was clear she’d just been letting us take the scenic route.


    Not just in terms of stealth, but speed as well, the ship had completely changed, swimming through space like an invisible fish cutting through still water.


    During the trip, I took the opportunity to pass out my scrolls to the crew members, seventy two in total, after figuring out which of them were willing to trade stats. After such a big boost to my stats my wish powers had grown in scope, and I was able to get a whopping fifty points per scroll, though based on the difficulty, I was pretty sure I’d hit my limit again until at least late D-rank.


    Thirty six hundred points was nothing to scoff at, but even more impressive was the other sixteen thousand that had come in ambient renown.


    When Black Sorrow had started spreading word of our connection, I’d known I’d be seeing a big upswing in points, but it hadn’t been more than a month since my big windfall, and to be getting nearly twenty thousand points was going to be an adjustment. Even more of an adjustment was how little those twenty thousand moved the needle in terms of overall rank.


    My rapidly snowballing fame wasn’t going to be able to keep up once I hit C-rank, or hell, B-rank. I understood now why the Unlucky Thirteen had been created. Funneling renown to the most promising members of the younger generation through those titles was the only way to maintain the fast rank up pace that so many of us grew used to at lower ranks. It put even more pressure on me to deal with this damned succession war seriously.


    Still, for the moment I’d need to survive the dungeon, and on that note, I took stock of the changes to my stats. The thirty six hundred went into Might, moving me up to just over ninety six thousand total, five thousand each into Focus and Perception, putting them near and past fifty thousand, respectively, and six thousand into Fantasy putting it almost fifty four thousand.


    Might was looking a little stacked, almost twice as high as my other stats, but BS’s stories were apparently playing up my cleverness and intuition rather than raw force, and I assumed the Fantasy aspects were because of the involvement of other gods. I found it all pretty unbelievable myself, so I couldn’t blame the masses for that one. I was conflicted though, knowing that my great grandmother’s influence was helping me keep up, and that I didn’t like owing her anything.


    Callie took my hand, squeezing it gently to get my attention. As I looked up, she smiled warmly at me. “Don’t sweat the big stuff,” she told me in a warm but firm tone.


    “Pretty sure that’s the opposite of the advice most people get,” I pointed out wryly.


    She shrugged. “You’re not most people, Shane. You’re involved in a whole lot of shit way above your paygrade. The affairs of gods are beyond our comprehension, isn’t that what you told me? So follow your own advice. Focus on the trees, not the forest.”


    “It would be easier if the forest wasn’t on fire,” I complained. “But I get your point. Honestly this dungeon might be good for me. Getting back to basics, fighting people our own level with the team.” I squeezed her hand. “With you.”


    She leaned against me happily. “I missed you too, you big reckless idiot. I was learning so much and getting stronger so quickly, but all I could think about was the danger and the pain I could feel from you. I spent the last month or two scared out of my mind you were going to die. I don’t want to be a widow before I turn twenty one.”


    “Then why do you dress like one?” I smirked at her. She let out a faux offended gasp and I triggered Double Trouble on Benny who was nearby, laughing at her squeak of outrage as she fell through my illusion. She didn’t actually fall over, catching herself easily, but she blurred to her feet, flashing toward me almost too fast to track.


    Benny, who hadn’t noticed me appearing behind him, squawked and stumbled back at her sudden rush, and I dropped down into a crouch as he did, letting him flip over my back like I was a table.


    Callie screeched to a halt as Benny hit the ground, her faux fury derailed by the admittedly unprovoked and unintentional assault on my best friend. She covered her mouth, looking halfway between horrified and amused, but the giggles from behind her hand gave away the game as her body shook with suppressed laughter.


    “What the fuck?” Benny spat, throwing his hands in the air. “I expect that from him, but what did I ever do to you, Callie?”


    Her face turned red as her laughter redoubled, giggles making it hard for her to breathe. “Gods, I’m so sorry. I was chasing him and he teleported behind you.” She turned to me with a weak glare. “Did you have to make me an accomplice?”


    Stolen story; please report.


    “Partners in crime, baby,” I said with a wink. “It’s me and you against the world.” I held out a hand, pulling Benny to his feet, laughing as he glowered up at me. I patted his shoulder. “Thank you for your sacrifice.”


    At his confused expression, I gestured around us to where everyone was watching with expressions of amusement or exasperation. I saw when it dawned on him what I’d done, and he rolled his eyes. The atmosphere had been a little tense, and I’d seen a chance to lighten the mood. I made a mental note to slip Benny a day’s worth of scrolls when I could, to make up for involving him in a stupid childish prank. Then I ratcheted that down to five scrolls, because it wasn’t like he hadn’t pranked me in the past.


    “That was so cool!” Bethy squealed excitedly. “You teleported behind him and you were like “ouaggh” and then you were a table and he fell over. I didn’t even think of using abilities to prank people! We should all start doing that!”


    “No!” Everyone in the ship immediately shut her down, our hearts filling with terror at the idea of what BETHY would consider a practical joke.


    Callie smacked me in the back of the head, scowling. “You see what you do? If I wake up with battery acid in my coffee or something I’m blaming you. Honestly, do you want to get us all killed?”


    I winced. Bethy had very little understanding of proportional response. I wasn’t sure how much of that was her messing with everyone, but I WAS sure it wasn’t all of it. I cleared my throat. “No pranks in the dungeon,” I told the vampire sternly. “We can talk about anything else later, but we’re going to be entering soon and we need to be on our guard.”


    She pouted, but eventually nodded with a sigh. “You got it bestie, super serious.” She stuck out a pinkie. “Pinkie swear? Cass taught me this. She said it means you can’t break your promise no matter what.”


    I laughed, but extended my pinkie, locking it with hers. Cass did take her pinkie promises seriously.


    “As adorable as that is,” drawled my grandmother as she appeared beside us. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut this heartwarming moment short. We’ve arrived, and we have a problem. Come with me.”


    The laughter on the faces of my companions faded, replaced by worry, and we headed over to the other side of the bridge, where the screen that showed the exterior of the ship was positioned. Actually, the screen could change size and location, but prior to this there had been nothing but space outside, so none of us had been paying attention.


    “Radiant slide frequency filter,” my grandmother said calmly. One of the crew, sitting at a terminal, hit a few buttons and…something happened. There was a ripple across the screen, and where before nothing had been out among the empty stars, now there were quite a few things. Gaps in space that looked like nothing so much as warped vision from a very curved piece of glass floated in the void of space.


    My grandmother pointed. “First of all, as I’m sure you can see, there are quite a few ships waiting for us. We can avoid those, the Acheron is undetectable with me running it provided no gods show up.” She moved her fingers and pulled on the edges of the screen, zooming in. “Our main issue is this, however.


    “As you can see, the folded space of the dungeon is visible in this spectrum, I won’t bore you with the details of this filter, but this is concerning.” She zoomed in on a large spherical warp, focusing closer until we could see what looked like flows and patterns in the twisting space. “This is spatial power, as I’m sure you could guess. Folded space dungeons have very stable spatial power. The exact stability is called the Vechner Coefficient, actually, but that’s not important right now, what IS important is the speed and complexity of those ripples.”


    My grandfather cut in. “What she’s trying to say is that someone has connected to the inside of that dungeon from the void. It doesn’t change the facts of entry, even from that side, no one above D-rank can get in, but we have no way of knowing how MANY they sent. And they can keep sending them.”


    That was…suboptimal. There was a big difference between them sending a hundred people into the dungeon and having a back door through the void. Theoretically they could flood the entire dungeon with D-rankers. Who knew how many existed in worlds those gods were hiding in the void.


    Obviously guessing my thoughts, my grandfather smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry too much. There’s a war going on. D-rankers are the main combat force Ascendants use in large scale battles. They might have kept some of their strongest in reserve, but there’s no way they’re going to mob you too badly. Especially since there’s C-rankers in that dungeon. The more they send the more they risk getting into a dustup with the locals, and that doesn’t benefit anyone.”


    “Maybe,” I conceded. “But there’s still probably going to be more of them than we anticipated. Besides our own problems, I’m worried about my friends.”


    My grandmother nodded. “Understandable. But the question needs to be asked. Are you still willing to go in? We have no way of knowing exactly how many will be inside or what the situation is. I know you’re determined to help, but this might be a very bad idea.”


    “I don’t believe they can stop us,” I said bluntly. “With Dantalion, Murmur, and all my various combat abilities I can run, hide, and fight better than almost any D-ranker I can name. With Bethy, Callie, and Abel there, our combat power should be some of the best in the universe for our rank.”


    If this was a pitched battle I might have been concerned, but we were dropping into a large scale dungeon. Murmur and Dantalion meant I could both hide and seek perfectly. They’d never catch us unless I wanted them to.


    Sighing, she smiled sadly and pulled me into a surprising hug. “You remind me so much of your grandfather,” she said as she squeezed me tight. “Hopefully you’re better than he is at staying out of trouble though. Be safe, Shane. If things go wrong, have Calliope use her bangle to report to us. We can figure out some way to get you out.” I nodded to her confidently and she sighed, turning to the screen.


    With a flick of her wrist, I watched her tear a swath of darkness in the air, through the screen and into space itself. It was a dizzying effect, and trying to understand how she did it gave me a migraine, but she just gestured to the hole. “Alright, this will take you inside. But that’s all I can do. Good luck, and take care of each other.” And with that, we stepped into the dark, plummeting through space toward the Screeching Shoals.