With that, Earl stopped talking and started tinkering with his new arm.

  Edge took a deep breath and began meditating, letting every thought drift on by. Once he was in a receptive state, he narrowed his focus while seeking a place that was beyond his body and part of it at the same time.

  Eventually, he felt it. That silky sensation caressing his skin like he was wrapped in an impermeable blanket—a frictionless barrier that prevented the mana riding the breeze from passing through. It was deeply soothing, like the satisfaction he felt after adjusting a staticky signal until the channel was crystal-clear.

  Now that he knew this wondrous film was his Disruption field, he spent a while memorizing the sensation, learning to feel it whenever he wanted. When Edge was sure he could enter this state again, he switched his focus to searching for the source.

  Sensing it was elusive—like trying to hold water in a clenched fist—but there was a subtle current running through the Disruption encasing his body. And where there’s a flow, there is a fountainhead. As the minutes ticked past, he tracked the current to its source, which felt like a hand holding the blanket tight around his shoulders.

  He was surprised to learn the sensation was emanating from his core, even though Earl had told him that would be the case. Most unusual of all, the feeling wasn’t coming from the reactor that powered his skills, but another component he had never noticed before. Eventually, he opened his eyes and said, “I think I’ve got it.”

  Earl smiled. “You’re a natural, Edge. I’m impressed. It takes most people weeks to accomplish that feat, although you have more Disruption than the average hunter, which helps. I’ll go ahead and explain the next part too, and you can give it a try now. Keep practicing on your own until you manage to break through.

  “Focus on that feeling, step into your inner world, and search for the representation of your Disruption field. Now that you can sense it, it should manifest inside your central chamber or somewhere nearby. Once you find it, study the source until you can perceive the connection linking it to your reservoir. At that point, all that’s left is to learn how to squeeze some extra magicytes into your field at will, and voilà, Disruption surge.

  “The details are different for everyone, but since the contents of your core are projections of your subconscious, they should make intuitive sense. Keep in mind that surges are messy. You will waste a lot of energy if you don’t have a skill to pair them with, but the momentary extension of your field will erase any lesser magics in range and weaken the rest.

  “I’d highlight some of the benefits, but something tells me you’ve been on the receiving end of enough surges to understand just how game-changing they can be. I can’t tell you how to use that scythe, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out once you’ve mastered the rest, and it sounds like Ander can point you in the right direction.”

  “Thanks, Earl. I’ll give it a shot and then get out of your hair.” With that, Edge popped into his inner world. He waved hello to his skills, explained what he was up to, and then took a lap around his core, looking for anything that hadn’t been there before.

  Sea flew over and perched on his shoulder, and Chibime followed in his footsteps. While the avatars were curious about the matter, they didn’t have any insights to offer. Since objective time slowed to a crawl while he was inside his core, he wasn’t worried about keeping Earl waiting. So, he moved slowly and made a thorough job of it.

  He began by inspecting the contents of his skill village, weaving his way between the bizarre residences and prolific recreational items his avatars had placed within their territories. He poked his head behind his Auxiliary Skill Slot, then inspected his skill sockets, scanning every inch of the marble pillars and the slots embedded on top.

  When he was done, Edge moved on to his central chamber, performing a thorough examination of the black door and his reactor, vault, and reservoir. After finding nothing of note, he ran his fingertips across the stonework while tapping the wall, hoping to uncover a concealed cavity but coming up short.

  By this point, he was growing frustrated, even though Earl had told him this step might take several weeks to complete. He sighed and plopped into his father’s recliner, rubbing his temples while unfocusing his eyes.

  Just when he was about to give up and call it a day, he noticed one of the bricks on the wall opposite his vault was sticking out by a fraction of an inch. Maybe I’m going crazy, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t look like that before. He shrugged, rose to his feet, and took a closer look. Sure enough, the brick was protruding, and he should have noticed it by now if the surface had been uneven from the start.

  When Edge pushed on the askew block of masonry, it sank into the wall with a click that reminded him of when he’d found the alcove where Skill-Eater’s reliquary was hidden. His excitement grew as his core rumbled for the briefest of moments. When the shaking subsided, the brick flipped around, revealing a doorknob attached to the other side.

  A secret door. Now we’re getting somewhere. Intrigued by the mystery of it all, he turned the handle and pulled. To his delight, a rectangular section of brickwork swung out, revealing a space that was filled with roiling fog.

  Somehow, he was certain the door had always been here. He simply hadn’t been able to perceive it until Earl’s exercise attuned him to this aspect of his core. Before he stepped into the unknown, Edge took a moment to examine the threshold. He knew this was just a mental representation, but based on its location, this space existed beyond the boundary of his core—out on the surface of the complex magitech device.

  He couldn’t get any sense of the area’s proportions or see anything besides an endless abyss of swirling mist. It was a little spooky, but nothing in here could hurt him, and he could leave his inner world whenever he wanted. So, accompanied by a surge of adrenaline, he stepped into terra incognita.

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  The door swung shut behind him, and the wall faded away, leaving him alone in the haze—a solitary figure floating in an endless silver sea. Lacking any leads, he started walking, trying to get a better sense of where he was and what the purpose of this place might be.

  It was utterly quiet out here. Nothing existed beyond the flowing fog and the rhythm of his pulse, but Edge had the impression that he wasn’t alone. This silence was deeper than the mere absence of sound, and the mist was soothing to his soul. He lost all sense of time and self as he explored a space that seemed to go on forever yet was as thin as a sheet at the same time.

  How long this continued, he would never know. Eventually, an image formed within his mind’s eye. He had the impression that he was straddling a precipice. On one side was his body and core—the source of his life force and the font of his magic. On the other was an endless expanse, a space unimaginably bigger than his inner world. Between them lay this realm of silence and mist, complete and unending.

  That was when inspiration struck. This is a representation of the Disruption field that wraps around my body. I can walk forever because I’m going in circles. My core is the ground below my feet and above the mist lies the outside world.

  Now that Edge had established a conceptual framework that let him understand where he was, the next step was to figure out what was generating his Disruption. Or, using the vocabulary of this metaphor, the source of the silvery mist.

  While he was meditating earlier, he’d grasped that his field wasn’t stationary; it was flowing like the gentlest of rivers. That means the fog should be moving too. It took some time to attune himself to the motion, but when he relaxed his eyes and focused on the vapor flowing across his skin, he was able to figure it out. He started walking against the current, granting him a sense of relative motion for the first time.

  Not long after, Edge entered an area that felt subtly different from the rest. The mist was thicker here, and the current was heavier. After striding a bit further upstream, he spotted something in the churning flows, a magitech machine a bit smaller than his reactor.

  It looked like a cross between an industrial humidifier and one of those heavy-duty fog machines that bands use for public performances. Mounted to the floor were some of the conduits he’d seen inside his central chamber—wires and tubes leading to his reservoir.

  This device is drawing magicytes from my tank too, he decided. But it feels completely different from my reactor. This machine wasn’t refining the planet’s magic, and the surface was chill to the touch. If it’s not burning magicytes, it must be using them some other way.

  When he took a closer look at the vent where the vapor emerged, he had the sense that the device, which he decided to call his Disruption diffuser, was bigger on the inside than it appeared. However, it was impossible to make out any details through the billowing haze.

  There wasn’t anything he could manipulate on its exterior, so he figured his best bet was to reexamine his reservoir. When Edge visualized his central chamber, a door appeared, and he stepped inside. He walked over to the metal tank and inspected the warren of conduits connected to it, including the set that led to the mana pores embedded in his skin.

  That was when he spotted a network of tubes permeating the wall that he’d never noticed before. They must hook up to my diffuser. When he focused, he could sense a trickle of magic flowing through them, which was minuscule compared to his Generation. As he ran his fingertips across the conduits, he discovered a small valve attached to one of the pipes.

  Lacking any other leads, he shrugged and opened the valve.

  The pipework shook as a massive amount of magicytes were drained from his reservoir in an instant. He could sense the fog on the far side of the secret door surging out before his field snapped back into its usual shape.

  Holy shit. I think I just created my first Disruption surge! He let out a whoop as his avatars clapped—thrilled to have figured it out on his first attempt.

  Now that he knew it was there, Edge was certain he could turn the valve at will, even when his mind wasn’t inside his core. It was just a symbol of one of Skill-Eater’s innate capabilities, after all.

  When he popped back into his own skin, he discovered his breakthrough had the unintended consequence of making Earl’s arm come apart in spectacular fashion. The big rocks had fallen nearby, but the smaller bits were in the final stages of scattering in every direction, blending into the prolific piles of stone filling the sheriff’s workshop. “Whoops.”

  The men looked down at the mess, back at each other, and then burst into laughter.

  “Shit. It’s going to take me hours to find all the pieces again. Ah well, at least this method works. I should have known better than to have you try creating a surge in here after you picked up the first part so quickly.”

  Edge could tell the man was eager to rebuild his arm. Since there wasn’t anything he could do to help, he thanked Earl again and then rose from the table.

  “Thanks for stopping by, Edge. It was fun shooting the shit. Oh, before I forget. You’re officially a deputy now, minus the responsibility and the pay. What I mean is you’re welcome to use our facilities whenever you want and attend any of the classes we teach. We have experts in quite a few subjects, and skills are no substitute for knowledge and technique.”

  “I’ll take you up on that soon. I’m sure it will come in handy. That reminds me, Ander said you might know someone who can teach me how to wield a scythe. I don’t plan to fight with it weapon to weapon, since it’s designed to slice through skills. Still, I need to familiarize myself with the mechanics to make the most of its power and defend myself in a pinch until I can switch to my polearm or blade.”

  “You’re in luck. Momo’s hobby is collecting exotic weapons and learning how to use them. I’m sure she would be thrilled to show you the ins and outs of swinging a scythe. Look at her schedule on the way out and pick a convenient time. I’ll give her permission to tutor you during her guard duty. We can’t spare a lot of time before the kaiju arrives, but we can squeeze in a few hours here and there. Besides, she likes you, and I know she would appreciate the company.”

  “You’re the man, Earl. We should have Trapper’s crew and your people go out for a night on the town once this ordeal is behind us. We grew close over the course of the expedition, and it would be nice to catch up.”

  “That sounds like a plan. Remind me later, and I’ll reserve a room at the Pioneer. We can drink and dance until the sun comes up and Sam kicks us out.”

  Edge stopped in the doorway and asked one last question—something he’d been curious about but wasn’t going to mention if the sheriff wasn’t doing well. “What’s the story with you and Yussuf anyway? It was obvious there was bad blood between you.”

  For a second, he thought the man wouldn’t answer, but then Earl sighed and said, “The short version is we fell in love with the same woman, a brilliant political prisoner who pissed off the wrong people back home. We both courted her. He won. The bastard killed her in cold blood a couple of years later, just to consolidate his control over the Claws.

  “I would have been one thing if she was a tourist, although even that it would have had serious consequences. But to straight-up murder a good woman—someone he claimed to care about no less… I sleep better at night, knowing he’s in the ground.”

  Earl shook his head to dispel the dark memories. He bid Edge farewell while hunting for the pieces he needed to rebuild his new hand, muttering to himself all the while.