My arms ached from swinging my mace, and that was starting to feel almost normal. It had only been two days since I’d left the Labyrinth, and there I was, right back inside of it for training. I was beginning to regret not having taken another day or two to rest first.

I was currently walking through a wide tunnel which kept branching off in other directions. The crystal veins around me glowed with an almost eerie green light. It let me see my surroundings, but everything felt just a little off-color and spooky.

“You know,” I commented wryly. “I think I’m starting to get to the point where I can identify one tunnel from another by the shade of the rock and the color of the crystal glow.”

“Really?” Ace asked. “They all still look the same to me.”

“This tunnel[ is sort of green,” Bunny pointed out. “That last one was more blue.”

“And the one before that was almost violet,” Olivia commented almost absently.

We all paused while Olivia pulled out a notebook and wrote something down, probably the very thing we were talking about. Olivia was the group’s navigator, mapping our path so that we could find our way back when we were done. Then, as if to emphasize this, she bent down and used a piece of chalk to draw an arrow in the direction that we’d been walking.

“I still can’t believe we’re actually on another planet,” Ace said with a shake of his head.

“Another dimension,” I corrected.

Nobody was quite sure of what the Labyrinth was or where it was located, but because the very laws of physics were off…and not always stable…most researchers agreed that it was in some other dimension. Technically, they used terms like sub-space and pocket dimension, but the details didn’t really matter. What mattered was that the Labyrinth existed outside of our world, and that passages between the two would sometimes open without any rhyme or reason. The first recorded entrance had been discovered in the Australian outback nearly sixty years ago, and more than a hundred more had appeared across the world since then.

“I wonder where this place really came from,” Turtle said as he looked around. “This place is so strange… It clearly isn’t natural.”

“Personally,” Ace offered, “I think the Labyrinth is just a glorified holodeck that went all Skynet.”

“What?” Bunny asked, staring at Ace as though he was an idiot.

“Look, it makes total sense,” Ace insisted.

“Please don’t,” Olivia complained with a roll of her eyes.

“Please do,” I told Ace, trying to get a better idea of what he really meant.

“Please don’t encourage him,” Olivia told me with another roll of his eyes.

Ace just grinned. “Please do.” Then he stepped back and gestured around us. “This place… It creates new environments all the time and changes them without warning Tunnels. Cities. Forests. All sorts of places. It makes all these monsters that try to kill us…and then it makes all sorts of artifacts that we can use to fight back.”

“The Labyrinth is a contradiction,” Bunny agreed a little uncertainly. “I mean, we do have monsters all over the place, but we also have safe zones where the monsters won’t go…and where food sometimes just shows up.”

“Exactly,” Ace triumphantly exclaimed. “I figure, some alien race probably build the Labyrinth a long time ago. Maybe it was for training…or just entertainment…like some kind of giant game.” He shrugged at that. “I figure, it probably grew too big or went out of control, and now it just keeps spreading. Like kudzu.”

Olivia gave Ace a flat look. “So, now you’re saying that the Labyrinth is an invasive weed.”

“I’ve heard worse theories,” I admitted. In fact, I’d heard variations of that same one before too.

“Like that one where the Labyrinth is actually Hell,” Bunny offered cheerfully. “And players are all damned souls who escaped.”

“Or that we’re all demons who are pretending to be the damned souls,” Turtle added.

“I do like that one,” Ace said with a chuckle.

Just then, I noticed the skittering sound coming from down the tunnel. “Heads up,” I called out as I turned to face the approaching rats.

Several dozen giant rats came rushing down the tunnel at once in some kind of rodent stampede. A couple of them were even the extra large variety that were much harder to kill. However, we’d already dealt with enough of these monsters that we knew what to do.

Turtle moved forward to intercept the main flow the rats, using his shield to block as many as he could while he also swung his sword to catch any that tried skirting around him. Just as it looked like he was about to be overrun with sheer numbers, his entire body began to glow, indicating that he’d just activated his ability, one that made him a LOT tougher and harder to hurt for a short period of time.

While Turtle was doing this, Ace and Olivia both unleashed their own attacks, killing as many rats as they could from a distance. Ace held out both of his scepters, alternating between them as he fired his attacks. Most scepters would have been long since drained of power, which suggested that he was using some kind of ability with them. I didn’t know if he channeling his own power through the artifacts, or if he had an ability that let him recharge them on his own. In the end, how it worked was less important than the fact that it did.

Olivia stood there with her wooden staff clutched firmly in hand while she held out her other hand and fired blasts of blue arcane energy. Her attacks were more powerful than Ace’s, but also a lot slower. She was only able to launch one attack for every four or five of his, but each of hers took out several rats.

Bunny stood back and called orders to her horned rabbits, sending them after any stragglers that slipped away from the main group of monsters. Her pets were fast and vicious, charging the rats and impaling them on their small horns before tearing at them with their claws. But unfortunately, the rabbits were fragile and were easily taken out themselves.

My own job was to deal with any monsters who made it past the rabbits. I stayed close to Bunny, Ace, and Olivia, watching our backs and sides to make sure there were no surprise attacks.

Just as I was starting to feel useless in the fight, one of the extra large rats burst through the wall of rabbits, killing the last two. Bunny leapt back and cursed since all of her pets were gone and I knew it would take awhile before she could use the summon ability again.

“I’ve got this one,” I said, gritting my teeth against the searing pain that shot through my body and then out my hands.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ hit the rat dead on, causing it to collapse to the ground in pain. I ignored its loud shrieks and the instinct to feel sorry for it. It wasn’t dead yet and assuming it was, would be a good way to get killed again. And as I expected, it quickly got back to its feet and charged right at me, now completely pissed off.

“I thought you had that one,” Ace said, firing two blasts at the rat, one after the other. It barely seemed to notice the attacks.

I stepped forward to meet the giant rat, slamming my mace down on its head as hard as I could. There was a sickening crunch as its head caved in. I kicked the monster back, then leapt on it for another swing, smashing what was left of its head.

“I do,” I told him with a grin.

“And that should do it,” Turtle announced as he straightened up and shook himself loose from the pile of rats.

Turtle’s shield and armor were pretty scratched up, but he himself didn’t look like he’d been hurt at all. Considering how many rats had been attacking him, I considered that a minor miracle, or at least, a pretty powerful ability. It was just a shame that he wouldn’t be able to use it again for at least half an hour.

Once I looked around to make sure that there were no rats remaining, not even a straggler off to the side, I was able to turn my message to the popup message that had appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3

I’d already felt the change, the increase in power level. It was subtle, something that went on in the background, behind any of the stats I could see. But I could still feel it.

When I looked at my stat page, I saw exactly what I’d expected to see. It looked the same as the last time I’d seen it, with one exception. I had one free stat point to assign.

My first thought was to assign it to vitality again since that had become my favorite stat, but I quickly decided against it. Sure, it would be nice to become even healthier, but as an invoker, there were other stats I would need to rely on as well. It was about time I started working on those too.

With that, I assigned my free stat into focus, bringing it up to nine. That would be a damn good number for anyone who wasn’t a player. As it was, being a player just meant that I’d have opportunities to increase it even more.

I turned my attention to the others, who were already starting to move down the tunnel again. I shrugged, shifted my mace to the other hand, then followed behind.

----------

I stepped into the new cavern and then paused to look around in surprise and even a little wonder. It was smaller than many of the caverns that I’d recently been inside, but much brighter. Instead of having veins of glowing crystal, half the wall and ceiling space was covered with it. There were even large crystal stalactites hanging from the ceiling, acting almost like chandeliers.

But as impressive as the walls and ceiling were, I was even more interested in the pond that occupied the middle of the cavern. It was only about fifty yards across, but the water literally glowed from beneath. There had to be crystals on the bottom, and probably a lot of them. It was strangely beautiful.

“I don’t see any monsters,” Bunny said.

That brought my attention back to something that I never should have lost track of. I silently chastised myself and then did my own visual sweep of the room. I paid special attention to the ceiling, half-expecting to see monster bats waiting up there. There weren’t any.

Once I was confident that no monsters were going to immediately attack, I looked around again. There was a strange feeling to the air, almost like static.

“Do you feel that?” I asked as I looked for what might be causing it.

“Feel what?” Bunny asked blankly.

Turtle shook his head after a few seconds. “I don’t feel anything.”

“It looks like you’re imagining things,” Ace told me with a shrug.

I frowned at that, focusing more on what I was feeling and trying to get a sense for what it was. “No, I’m definitely feeling something…”

Olivia gave me a thoughtful look, then asked, “Could it be because you’re an invoker?”

I paused in realization. “I think you might be right.”

This thing I was feeling, the static in the air, it was…familiar. It took me a few more seconds to realize why it was familiar. It was sort of like the energy I felt when I used ‘Invocation of Spite,’ though it was completely different at the same time.

“Primal energy,” I whisper in understanding. “Just a different type.”

“What was that?” Bunny asked.

I cautiously moved around, paying close attention to that static sensation and trying to determine where it felt strongest. The others all stood back and watched me with bemused expressions. Eventually, I stopped in front of the pond.

“I think,” I said slowly, staring into the glowing water. That was definitely where the static was coming from. “I think there’s a primal in the water.”

Just then, a ripple suddenly moves across the pond, starting in the middle and then moving off to one side. I stare intently, realizing that it isn’t just a ripple. The water itself is shaped like some kind of a snake, at least for a moment, before the ripple settles back down and vanishes.

“An elemental,” I whisper in realization.

When Wolf and I had been talking about the different types of primals, he’d mentioned the elemental type. He’d said that elementals were similar to naturals, but where naturals were aligned with plants and animals, elementals were more aligned with the environment itself. He said that they usually represented the elements, and not just the classic elements like earth, air, and fire, but also ones like lightning, ice, or copper. What I was seeing now could only be an elemental.

“A water elemental,” I stated with a grin of anticipation. “I think it’s time to see if I can make a deal.”

“Good luck,” Bunny told me cheerfully.

I crouched down and put my hand in the water, sure that this would get the elemental’s attention. After all, I was an invoker and it was a primal. We were a match made in the Labyrinth. Nothing happened.

“Elemental,” I called out, trying to get its attention. “I would like to make a deal with you.”

There was no answer. No response. I tried a couple more times but nothing changed. A short time later, the elemental rippled across the surface of the water again, but this didn’t seem to be in response to me. It just seemed to be stretching out and changing position.

“Here, primal primal primal,” Bunny called out with a giggle. I gave her a flat look which only made her giggle again.

The others all sat down and took a break while I continued trying to get the primal’s attention. However, nothing I did worked. I asked to talk to it, offered it a deal, and even repeated Bunny’s call of ‘here, primal primal primal’. It just continued to ignore me, if it even noticed me enough to bother doing that. Eventually, I realized how futile this was and that I’d been wasting everyone’s time.

“Sorry,” I told the others with a sigh of resignation. “I’m ready to continue on now.”

“Sorry it didn’t work out,” Turtle told me sympathetically.

“Water magic could have been cool,” Bunny said with a sigh of her own disappointment.

Just before leaving the cavern, I turned back to take one last look at the pond and the missed opportunity within. For the first time, I truly understood exactly why presence was an important stat for invokers.