"So, are we considering your trip, that you took without me, a success or not?" Timon asked as we sat down in a meeting room back in Alexandria. He had been a bit annoyed the whole way back at not getting to come.

"Who would have rescued us if you had been there too?" I asked, not sure it was a good point, as we likely would have just brought the bus, but I figured I may as well distract him with his own deeds.

"Yeah, yeah, always gotta play the rescuer, I suppose. Did you at least have fun? Tell me you had fun?" His new questions came with a smirk and the return of his carefree voice.

"How was your trip?" Elody said, echoing Timon as she walked into the room, followed by Quarilyn and Glunderlin.

"Interesting. Our diplomacy with the GPA is basically over. Roberts has agreed to join us, and they weren't all that happy with how forceful I was about my demands." It was a very brief retelling of what had happened, but it was enough for now. There were other things we needed to figure out now that Roberts was here.

"I'd say it's a little more than over. They are probably discussing the feasibility of attacking Alexandria right now. Luckily, considering the damage you did alone, they should decide against that, but…" Roberts started to say as Karlinovo entered the room, cutting him off.

"But we need to make sure they can't just fire a missile at us from a distance. The good news is they can't, at least I don't think they can. Between the mana flow and the dungeon energy blanketing this city, any native Earth technology that we haven't already hardened against the interference is going to go haywire."

That only mattered if they used circuit boards for the technology. There were plenty of less advanced ways to still attack us. Several of them had occurred to me on the trip back.

"That won't protect us from dumb weapons fired from far enough away, though," I countered. This had been my fear with any sort of attack on their HQ, but I hadn't expected them to escalate enough to make the fears as tangible as they had now become. The firing mechanism in nuclear weapons might not work thanks to the mana flow, but conventional explosives almost certainly still did. And considering we had just seen plenty of aircraft they now had access to again, this seemed like a pressing issue I had caused.

"No, it won't. Which means we need to further shield the city. The good news is we still have all our towers. The jesters didn't do much damage there since they were simply let into the city to begin with," Karlinovo replied.

"And in the future, that won't be possible by a single person," Quarilyn added.

"Yes, what Quarilyn said. The problem in the meantime, though, is going to be the mana needed to run a shield over the entire city. We just don't have nearly the mana flow required to power anything like that yet. In another year? Maybe, but not today. And I'm guessing from your tone you think we need it now," Karlinovo continued.

"I do. I saw how many helicopters they had up and running again. We can only assume they've added more of the world's military tech to their holdings. And while I fully intend to start breaking parts off from the world from the GPA, first, we need to make sure we are safe here." While I was worried about how soon the counterattack would come, I didn't expect it to be immediate.

I suspected there would be an issue with them getting true satellite access. With Roberts here, there was a good chance that cut them off from a lot of military assets they would otherwise want. But that was likely only a concern that had kept us safe in the past, as they could work with their allies to destabilize us in other ways. Now that I had made us a direct threat, they would likely be just as direct in return. And while guidance systems made it easier to handle aircraft, the human race had been fighting with planes since before we had a single satellite in space.

"Alright, then more risky tactics it is. Corey, how difficult would it be to set up a perpetual dungeon field about twenty miles out from the city?" Karlinovo's question was met by Corey manifesting near the table at the same time Glorp entered the room with Grant behind him.

After the door shut behind them again, Corey began to speak. "I do not know how to place a dungeon field without a dungeon. The one in the Antarctic base only continues to exist because the core does. Apollyon actively suppresses it. What would be the purpose of using a dungeon field?"

"I assume Ivan wishes to use the unique properties of the field to detect anything that comes within it as a way to trigger shielding the city," Elody answered, giving Karlinovo a curious glance herself.

"That was my thought, but if there isn't a realistic way to create one around the city, then that idea is out. Would it be possible to tie one of the dungeon cores more strongly into our tower system than they already are?" Karlinovo asked, looking back at Corey.

"Possibly, but I do not know that Apollyon has the spare mental power for something like that. Both of the Travelers are tied to handling the gate at the moment, and the rest of us are tied to Dave's mana channels," the core answered.

"What about the penguin?" I asked. None of my own dungeon-related class abilities looked likely to help. At least none that I had unlocked yet. And I didn't want to start tossing levels into unlocked abilities until I was sure we had no other choice.

"Unlikely. Their fusing with the penguin form has limited their ability for socketing into anything else. That may change as they further develop, but for the moment, it does not help us," Corey answered.

"Well, the only other thing I can think of is the jester's death curse that I sealed into a dungeon core. The System referred to it as a soul cage. Any idea if we can use that?" I asked the room, having no idea if anyone present knew the slightest about a soul cage.

"That was next on my list of ideas. I'm not entirely sure what it is yet. It might be possible to channel the energies. How soon exactly do you think we need to be ready to defend against a counterattack?" Karlinovo sounded somewhat worried now that we had gone through most of his options.

"If we could do it now. I think that would be the best option. What Dave did at the GPA HQ isn't likely to go unanswered for long. Right now, they are probably still searching for him, assuming that with the destruction of the gate, he was stuck, but that won't keep us safe for much longer." Roberts' answer echoed my own thoughts on the matter.

"Damn. It's going to cost us more mana than I'd like to dedicate to it, but I don't know what choice we have. We are just going to have to fire off a detection spell every hour from each of the towers. It's probably going to require people working in shifts now to keep that up." Karlinovo shook his head as he spoke. He clearly didn't like the solution.

"We should have enough trained Reltleons for something like that. Assuming they don't have to cast the spell themselves, that is," Glunderlin said.

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"No, they shouldn't have to. The towers were already built with this in mind, but with a plan for them all working together to produce a field once we had the mana flow. This will be incredibly wasteful mana-wise, but this is likely the only option we have in the immediate," Karlinovo answered.

"Good solution or not, that's one problem down. Now we need to discuss the next issue. We need a new team to handle the dungeon delve. With the way the weather patterns work on their planet, we can't put it off for long, a week tops. So, within seven days, we need some extra recruits to handle it," Pryte said, looking around the room as he spoke.

"How many do we need? Realistically, we only lost Yorela and Maud since we weren't planning on Mel being here to join us when we made the plan," I said.

"You're forgetting the soul knots. We can't take them offworld, especially if we are just using a makeshift solution that requires monitoring here. That puts us down almost everyone except you, Elody, Grant, and Glorp. And that assumes Glorp is up for the fight," Pryte replied.

He was mostly right. It wasn't that I had forgotten about the knots. I just hadn't considered their implications here. That was a problem.

"I'm going, and I'll take care of the extra manpower we need," Glorp replied, before I could speak.

"I'll decide on whether you are going or not once I see how much you've healed in a few days, but yes, let's do another meeting in four days, and we can discuss the plans for fielding a group there," I said, looking at Glorp with concern in my eyes. I didn't want him to worsen his injuries by pushing himself before he was healed.

"We need the pacemakers, don't forget that," Karlinovo said immediately after I finished speaking.

"Yes, we in fact need more than pacemakers. We need a list of people willing to join us. I assume that's what's contained in the binders we took?" I directed that question back at the former president.

"It is. If the need for pacemakers is that critical, we will want to start with the biomedical engineering folder," he answered.

I scanned the shelves in my System storage, finding one labeled 'bio-med'. I placed it on the table in front of me. "Any guess who would be the most likely to join up?"

"I personally know Oscar Byrne. I've verified he's alive, and his area of research should mean he has access to pacemakers," Roberts replied.

"Timon, while I'd rather not use the bus for this. We need them as soon as possible, and I'm not sure I trust any of the library transports we have running back on the roads until we've scared off the GPA even more. Can you take him?" I asked, looking at the large mantis man.

I had too much to do to go with them at the moment, and in truth, the GPA excursion had taken more time than I had wanted to spend. I had no idea how I hadn't considered that they would destroy the gate. Apparently, they just hadn't been as willing to bend to my demands as I thought they would be. That was likely a mistake for them, assuming, of course, we could get our own defenses in place.

"Yeah, I've already done what I could do here safely today anyway. I'm sure one more trip out into a world that totally isn't terrified of people that look like me won't hurt," he answered with a smile.

"Thank you, alright, I'm going to grab something to eat. My core is nearly drained from our escape. Elody, any chance you've got some time to join me? I want to pick your brain on golems," I said as I stood up, nodding to everyone present.

Grant looked like he had something he wanted to say, but didn't know how. "Actually, on second thought, give me a few minutes with Grant and Pryte, and I'll meet you out there if you have the time."

"I do. I'll see you shortly," she replied with a smile of her own.

"Alright, what's wrong?" I asked the moment everyone else had left the room. "You look like you're ready to explode."

"You really expect the GPA to attack us? And you still want me to work for them for the competition?" His face turned red as he asked the questions. This was a very unhappy man.

"Look, you're a military man. You have to understand the value of a double agent, even if they assume you are more loyal to us than you are to them. At the very least, it keeps a spot on their roster filled that could go to god knows who," I answered.

"Grant, I know you don't like the idea of this, but we don't have anyone else for the job. Obviously, you don't have to win the thing, but any information you manage to learn while working for them could be incredible useful," Pyrte added.

"Did they have anything to do with the jesters?" he asked, none of the redness leaving his face.

"I don't know. I think they, at the very least, planned to benefit from the attack. Whether they had anything to actually do with coordinating it or not, isn't something we've managed to figure out just yet." I went mostly with honesty. I figured it was still better that he didn't know about the potential deepscale infestation until Timon had time to hunt them down as best he could.

He slumped forward in his chair before finally replying. "Dammit, why can't any of this be easy?" he asked, sounding defeated.

"Sadly, once you move past just direct orders, shit gets complicated very fast. I'd apologize for getting you so deeply involved in all of this, but at the same time, I know how much you appreciate the people you've been able to save," I replied. I was pretty sure he didn't want pity, and just more a commiseration of the reality we occupied.

"Can you promise me, at the very least, that once this competition is over, we will be done with them?" Grant lifted his head and looked me directly in the eyes as he said this.

"Yes, assuming we aren't done with them before. I promise we will be once it's over."

Stephen Roberts

Stephen could hardly believe the turn his life had taken. He had never really had any ambition toward the presidency. And even if he was the second shortest serving president in American history, he had still been one, possibly, no, likely the last one. Still, he had lasted longer than Harrison. That was something.

How had he not seen the GPA coming? That was a question he had asked himself repeatedly. In hindsight, it was obvious when the different coalitions started working together across the globe that something was up, but at the time, he had just assumed people were coming together in the face of disaster. Of course, he should have known better, but geopolitics was never his strong suit. That was why he had needed Laura.

Not for the first time, he wondered if they could have avoided this entirely if she hadn't been off on another world doing diplomacy on a universal scale. He sighed out loud at that thought, causing the strange driver to turn his head back and peer at him. No, what Laura was doing was far too important for the future of the world to have tried to convince her to stay and work directly with him here. The GPA problem would be handled. He had thrown his lot in with her ex-husband for better or worse.

Now he was on a flying bus with a large mantis man heading toward the home of one of his oldest friends. He suspected Oscar would gladly come with them. The man lived for new, weird challenges, but still, this was a bit beyond anything he could have ever expected for his life.

"You okay back there? You're looking a bit pale. No second thoughts on joining us, eh?" Timon said, in his weird, jokey tone that Stephen associated far more with a comedian than whatever this man was.

"I don't regret joining you, but as far as second thoughts go, I have nearly infinite of those. There are so many choices I wish I had made differently since this all happened," he replied, watching the bus come in for a landing through the front window.

"Don't we all? Man, if only hindsight let us change the past, imagine how insane that would be. I might have never married the ex. What kind of man would I be then? That first time she tried to kill me was a pretty formative experience," the mantis replied, chuckling loudly as he hit the part about an attempted murder.

Stephen, not having any idea how to reply to that, instead tried to relax in his seat. How did you invite an old friend onto a bus with a giant mantis anyway? At least Timon was somewhat easy to talk to, even if he often came off as a bit unhinged.

There exists a series of classes often referred to as the vegetable collection. And while many a person has heard of the fabled onion knight, few realize it is only one of many possibilities within this collection. The radish avengers are one of the stranger examples. It is usually only used by the Bearskins of Krelsh Moon, as it specializes in an odd combination of masked combat.

The main unifying path that all of those who possess the class seem to share is the benefits it provides as long as the host is wearing a full head covering made of a single hollowed-out vegetable. The origin of how this class came to be is entirely lost to time, and tracking down how the idea of how someone donning a pumpkin for battle could ever birth a class orb seems a fool's errand.

But despite how strange it may seem, the radish avengers are highly prized mercenaries. As their masked powers grow, so does their ability to avoid any sort of mind intrusion. This makes them extremely valuable when dealing with a variety of mana beasts.

Unusual Classes by Zolinjar

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