Day four was largely uneventful, on the fifth day Gavins presence was officially requested, the message was irritably relayed through Sam because the guild liaison sent to contact him couldn't get through the front door of the fortress. He made himself presentable, then stumbled out into the sunlight.

  “How's it mate” he grumbled half heartedly.

  “Fine, Ms Evertree requests you attend her.”

  “Who?”

  “Haylee Evertree.”

  “Oh, right, well, come on, the sooner I can get this over with the sooner I can get back to my work.”

  The messenger led Gavin through to the guild compound to the administration building, there he found Haylee buried under a stack of paperwork.

  “Hey Haylee.” Gavin said, taking a seat on the other side of her desk, “how have you got paperwork? We’ve only turned in one contract.”

  “Funnily enough I have a lot of work to do implementing the procedures the guild negotiated with the locals.”

  “Oh? Is it more complicated than just we kill monsters in the areas around the villages?”

  “A lot more complicated.”

  “Back on my world a group of people set up a colony in my country, it was populated with a people like the locals here, they didn't have a concept of sovereignty, so in the treaty they translated it something closer to governorship, not realising they were essentially turning over their country to the settlers.”

  “Oh? I’d be interested to hear that story some time” Haylee said, genuinely curious.

  “Yeah, no worries, I’m not an expert on my country's history, but I do know quite a bit. Anyway, what did you call me here for.”

  “I delivered the goods you looted Chief Kala, he wished to express his gratitude to you personally. I explained to him that would put us in a difficult position, your team is only of the second rank within the guild, and I absolutely do not want to go against Commander Kalista’s orders regarding lower ranked members interacting with the local populace.”

  “Reasonable.” Gavin agreed.

  “I am tempted to recommend you and your team for level four guild status on account of a chief asking for you by name, but I am aware it could backfire on me if you mouth off to the wrong person, your team has earned a certain reputation.”

  “Then don't, let someone else take the hit for you. If i were you I wouldn't go sticking my neck out, kick it up the chain and let someone else find out what happens if you give us political leverage. I don't intend to change my behaviour for some nebulous rank, so if the guild feels they're okay with my personal brand of politics then that's for them to reward or not. I trust my friends to tell me to knock it off when I'm being too obtuse, but they generally give me a long leash, I think they like it when I piss off people in power.”

  “I can respect that.” Haylee laughed.

  “In the meantime while you decide on what you want to do, can you relay my regards to the chief, and that we would be happy to pass along other resources if they want, so long as we are stationed here of course”

  “I will do. One last thing, the debrief you wrote for your last contract was good. Keep it up.”

  “I used to have to write a report after every task in my old job so the office lady could invoice the customer. I've had a lot of practice, and feedback on how to make their lives easier. I understand it’s why my team was recommended for level two. We made the clerk's job easy and they put our name in front of an administrator.”

  “Good, keeping the admin team happy will take you far in the guild.”

  “Well, I'm gonna go get my nose back to the grindstone. I'll put on another movie night on Firstday, if you want to invite everyone along again.”

  “I will.”

  Gavin returned to the fortress, not coming out for dinner that night or the following morning. Sam pushed into his room late into the morning on sixthday, finding him dead asleep across his bed, still clothed in the previous days attire, snoring. She kicked him awake, swearing and grumbling.

  “What?” he moaned, rolling over to reveal bloodshot eyes.

  “Contract. There's a level two encounter just popped up. Get out of bed, we will need you”

  “Yeah, okay, give me a minute. I'm shattered.” he said, groaning as he pulled himself out of bed.

  “How much sleep did you get last night?”

  “What time is it now?”

  “Two hours before mid day”

  “Ahh, maybe like three hours then.”

  “You are not enchanting anymore today then. That is enough.” She scolded him.

  “I'm so close though.”

  “Well, I don't much care about your bet, and it's not like you even care about an ingot of etherium. You will rest today, and you won't push yourself to this level tomorrow either. You're putting us at risk for the sake of a day or two.”

  “Yeah, fine, sorry.” he grumbled, “have a smoko then head out? Your aura is making me feel a lot better.”

  “My health, mana, and stamina recovery aura? You've been asleep for hours, you should have healed up to full by now easily.”

  “It doesn't just heal physical wounds, you probably haven't picked up on it, but it helps heal the bond between soul and ability, it's probably a side effect of being able to reduce cooldowns, I'm pretty sure that's why cooldowns exist in the first place.”

  “Are you saying you've been giving yourself soul damage?”

  “No, I've been getting close to it. It's part of why I'm levelling up so fast, I've learned where the line is, I'm just incrementally creeping up to it when my body of iron gets more powerful. It's no more or less dangerous than, say, going to fight an unknown level two encounter.”

  “Fine. But you're done pushing yourself like that. I want you in top form at any moment, if a contract comes in you need to be ready to go in an instant, not waffle about dragging yourself out of bed like a kicked goat.”

  “Understood. ” he groaned, “Come on. I'll be okay in a minute.”

  Gavin willed himself into the dining hall, dragging himself along like an unseen giant was dragging him by the back of his shirt, his toes scraping the floor. He plonked himself down in a chair, summoning a sandwich and a juice from the kitchen. Wordlessly he ate, feeling a lot better as he consumed his meal. The team stood assembled watching colour slowly return to his ashen face.

  “Okay you lot, that's enough fucking about, let's go, daylights wasting, so, where are we going?” Gavin said, pulling himself to his feet.

  “Seventeen miles west.” Sam said stiffly.

  “Okay, I'll put us out on top of that mountain across the way.”

  Summoning his portal, Sam and Val filed through, though Judy blocked the way, hands on hips.

  “You too? Sam already gave me a kicking.”

  “Everything you told me the other day goes for you too Gav.”

  “Yeah, sorry, Sam's making me take it easy from now on.”

  “You shouldn't need to rely on Sam to tell you that.”

  “I mean, it is kinda her job.” Gavin said. “Come on, let's go punch some goodies out of some monsters.”

  The extradimensional pocket was easy to spot. The pearlescent cube loomed above the treetops creating an odd Refraction of the skyline.

  “So uhh, this is quite big” Gavin said “We sure it's level two?”

  “We're sure.” Sam replied. “It is likely to be very dangerous though, so be on your guard.”

  Sam stepped through first, followed closely by the other three. Gavin took in his new surroundings, the scene before him bent his mind in a way he wasn't prepared for, it took him a moment to orient himself.

  They were on a bridge that led into something that was reminiscent of an M.C. Escher drawing. A maze of interlocking polished stone slabs wound in all directions forming a rough cube. The outer edges of the cube seemed to bend and warp at the corners of his vision, bleeding off into the spiral galaxy and midnight sky behind the gigantic edifice. Statues of people, their features washed away by time wandered the maze, eternally locked in their stone prisons. Giant fingers protruded through the gaps, pushing walkways out of the way as they grasped the cube in their twisted grip. Behind the tangle, a gigantic devils head laughed, its mouth opened wide revealing pitch black doom inside its gullet. Twin horns spiralled down from the devils head to pierce the cube, winding paths wrapping around them at discordant angles.

  Gavin felt like the platform they were standing on was vertical, as if he was standing on a wall though his vision was oriented correctly, the sensation was like lying down while drunk and watching the ceiling spin until he could focus on one point to keep it stationary.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The room was uncomfortably cold, icy fingers caressed his neck. A bone deep chill gripped him even through his layers of robes and armour. He had gained additional control over his body processes as he levelled up and could manually increase his core temperature. He did so now, feeling himself burn into his reserve of energy.

  “I feel like this is a poor idea” Gavin said apprehensively.

  “I never thought I'd see the day when you'd back down from a challenge.” Val scoffed.

  “I never said I was backing down, just that it a poor idea.” Gavin said defensively.

  “Oh, well, that's fine then, following through on poor ideas are right in your wheelhouse.” Val laughed.

  “Judy? Thoughts?”

  “We can always portal back here if anything goes wrong and try again.”

  “Ahh, I'm getting the feeling that we might not be able to. Can you feel your teleport power is all- gooey?”

  “Actually yes.” Judy said, shuddering.

  “My portal power feels like that but worse, like using it here wouldn't be a fun time.”

  “So we go on foot. look at you two, as soon as your fancy powers go a bit funny you get all squeamish.” Val said, her tone hardening.

  “Yeah yeah.” Gavin said, “come on, you reckon we have to get to that devil's head?”

  “You mean the god of entropy over there?” Val asked.

  “Wait, that's Entropy? Now I think this is an extremely poor idea.” Gavin said “Sam, what do you think?”

  “We have to close this space. There's nothing to do but move forward.”

  “There's not even monsters here. The challenge is probably just the maze with an item at the end.” Val said, clearly bored with the dithering.

  “I think you're right” Judy agreed “this place is having an effect on us, I can feel it trying to make me feel unsure of myself.”

  “Okay, fine. There probably is something here that's making us paranoid.” Gavin said steeling his thoughts.

  “Odd that a pocket dimension themed around Entropy would make you feel paranoid.” Val said rolling her eyes, “This sort of thing isn't unheard of, I once cleared a pocket that was themed after chaos, it was just random stuff happening and nothing made sense, didn't you and Sam clear one of these things out and it was themed around nature?”

  “Yeah, and it nearly killed me.” Gavin said, remembering his close brush with death.

  “Whatever, come on, let's get going.” Val said, stepping awkwardly into the maze, trying to get her balance.

  Judy followed her, staggering like she was on her way home from town around four in the morning. Usually sure footed and agile, she seemed the worst affected by the strange realm. Gavin followed haltingly, sliding his boots along the smooth stone, the sensation making his feet itch. Sam took up the rear, focused on her team, she put one foot in front of the other, finding the experience less disorienting than her companions.

  As they entered the maze Gavin got the idea to mark the way, fabricating a stick with a rod of charcoal at the end, he drew a line on the smooth stone though his makeshift pencil scraped across the polished surface, leaving no trace. Crushing the charcoal into the floor, the powder blew away on some ethereal wind that none of them could feel. Gavins spear and gun left no marks, nor did any of Vals enchanted weapons. Finally, placing a bar of iron on the floor Gavin watched it slip away into the void as if gravity operated on a different axis for it.

  “Guess we aren't marking our way then” Gavin said “I could probably make something that wraps around the walkway but I don't have the resources to do that for the whole maze.”

  “Come on Gav, stop trying to think your way through this, the whole point of this place is to frustrate you for trying to outsmart it.” Val said throwing her hands wide.

  “I think someone should stay here, I should be able to open a portal if I can use our soul link like a compass.”

  “What's a compass?” Judy asked.

  “It's a device we use back on my world to tell what way is north, well, very slightly to the side of north.”

  “I'll stay here.” Sam said “I seem to be handling this a lot better than the rest of you, and two chances to open a portal is better than one, Val, you have more experience with this sort of thing, so you're going.”

  “Good call.” Gavin nodded, “alright, enough faffing about, let's go smash this out.”

  Val led the way in, muttering to herself about something Gavin didn't care to listen to. As they followed the path they passed a statue fused to the stone, it looked like it would have been a fine work of art, once, but had melted and distorted slightly. Detailed features were a little droopy and asymmetrical, a look of unfeeling horror etched on its face.

  Gavins feeling of unease heightened as they delved deeper into the maze. Noticing Judy becoming a ball of stress, he reached for her hand, finding it cold and clammy. He squeezed it reassuringly, hearing her deliberately trying to calm her breathing.

  Val, for all her boasting was uncomfortable too, not to the same degree as her companions, but definitely feeling like she was walking into the lair of a dangerous monster. She could feel Sam's location which helped her navigate their path. Judy seemed to be struggling with her multiple vision powers and Gavin was overthinking things as usual, both not helping their situation. Val, being further into level two than Gavin and having an elevated spiritual and intellectual fortitude was able to mitigate a lot of the disquieting effect this realm had.

  Paths spiralled in all directions, branching left and right, but also becoming the walls and ceiling. Gavin could feel more than see the shadows moving in the corners of his vision, the dead silence felt like the echo of a tortured scream in his ears. He was glad Val was leading the way forward, he felt he could get back to Sam who remained a lighthouse in the back of his mind, but the way forward was incomprehensible. He couldn't trust his own senses, holding on to Judy and following in Vals footsteps was taking all of his mental bandwidth.

  Time seemed to stretch out, their footsteps thumped like drum beats, he could count the seconds between each step, losing himself in the slow rhythm until Judy tugged on his hand, pulling him back into his regular thought pattern. He'd slowed to a stop, gazing out into the void of space that surrounded them and was at the same time obscured by the labyrinth.

  Climbing a wall Val led them around a twisting path taking a left fork then an upwards fork, emerging on the top of the cube. To either side a twisting horn pierced the walkway, serpentine avenues spiralled off into the sky, wrapping around on themselves to meet at the looming face of Entropy. From here its visage had shifted from a wicked cackle to malice and hate. Gavin felt like the effigy would like nothing more than to devour them all.

  They took the left path, walking a straight line as the universe rotated around them, twisting and writhing without reason. A set of stairs brought them down past the inky void of the gods eye, the total darkness seemed to watch them, a predator in the night. Judy had her gaze firmly set on the stairs in front of her, her lifeline to Gavin had become slick with sweat.

  Stairs turned into a swirling path as they walked down the cheek towards the open mouth. The glossy stone road doubled back and overlapped itself, though never seemed to cross its own way. Gavin contemplated taking a shortcut, stepping across to a point further along but the thought left him paralyzed with fear, to do that, he felt would be exceedingly dangerous.

  The god's lolling tongue beckoned them in. Statues of mangled corpses begging for salvation lay crumpled amongst twisted teeth. In the darkness at the back of the gods throat a metal spike impaled its oesophagus, a fractal pattern of red veins pulsed out into the stone.

  Val marched up to the spike and hauled on the shaft. Stone parted like flesh as the halberd pulled itself free, instantly the world shifted, a sensation like missing a step rocked the team. Stumbling, Gavin used his force of will to keep himself oriented the right way up while judy pulled him off centre as he surged to grab Val. He snatched at a loose fold of clothing and pulled her back with a tug, saving her from tumbling down into the cavernous throat. She clasped a hand around his wrist and let him pull them all out of the now undulated and gnashing mouth.

  Val took the lead again, this time running for safety, though she came to a halt outside as the cube shifted, unravelling into a mass of broken strands that bled into the stars around them.

  “Can you portal us back Gav.” Val asked, a note of panic creeping into her voice.

  “Hold on, ahh, my connection to Sam is a bit iffy.”

  “Shit, We're going to have to get back through that before the pocket collapses.” Val said, noting the edges of the gods head already crumbling to ash.

  “Hold on, let me try something.” Gavin said, kneeling to meditate.

  He focused on his connection to Sam, it felt like a radio station slightly out of tune, picking up other frequencies and bombarded with static. Willing his mind to stillness he planted himself like an anchor, hauling on the thread that connected them. She was his first friend in this world, from the first day he'd been nearly inseparable. Their friendship had evolved and changed over time but that knowledge of steadfast trust was a bond that would hold them together over any distance. Then she was there in his minds eye, a moment of clarity as the warping maze parted to reveal her, a golden shaft of light in a murky ocean current.

  “Got it.” he yelled, eyes flaring as he summoned a portal, “get in, now, go go go!”

  He threw himself at the void filled arch as the world heaved underneath him. Val and Judy followed, leaping clear of the twisting path to sprawl out on the walkway from nowhere. Gavin pulled himself to his feet, helping his two companions up.

  “Okay Judy, do your thing.” Gavin said watching as she began to focus on absorbing the latent dimensional forces into her inventory power.

  “Lets go.” She said when she'd had her fill.

  The team jogged the short distance out of the space, not stopping to look behind them as the last of the maze broke down.

  “That was certainly an experience” Val said sitting down on the bare rock just outside where the dimensional space ended.

  “It definitely was.” Gavin said, planting himself down beside her. “Pie?”

  He offered out the hot pastries for the team, taking a mutton pie for himself. He relished the gamey flavour and chunks of tender meat and vegetables.

  “I didn't get a good look at that halberd, chuck us a turn?” he said holding his hand out.

  “It's not my style, you can break it down for parts if you want right?” She said, handing him the shaft.

  [Item: Halberd of dissonance]

  [Type: Weapon, halberd]

  [Rarity: Level 2, very rare]

  [Description: a weapon designed to disrupt and ruin its victims]

  [Effect: Deals entropic damage]

  [Effect: Enemies struck by this weapon have any active cooldowns extended. If no abilities are on cooldown, one ability chosen at random is put on cooldown for a random duration]

  “Oh shit.” Gavin whistled “bro, this is quite the effect, here, take a look Judy.” he said handing the weapon over to her.

  “Entropic damage? Never heard of it” Judy said.

  “It's a very very rare damage type, good at dismantling magical shields” Val said, finishing her pie.

  “Wow.” Judy said, passing the weapon back to Gavin, “Thanks Val, you were awesome in there”

  “Yeah, no problem, it was easier for me, the effect was less extreme on my senses. Good thinking on leaving Sam back at the entrance.” Val said.

  “Yeah, really saved the day Sam, it's nice having one member of the team that doesn't go showboating.” He laughed.

  “Excuse me? You're the only one here that showboats.” Val argued.

  “You are excused.” he rebutted, Playing a video of Sam and Val riding the dragon hacking at it with their swords “Guess the only one who doesn't showboat is Judy then.”

  “She killed two thousand goblins by herself just a few days ago.” Val pointed out.

  “Yeah, that's true actually, the main reason I asked her to be on the team was how cool she looked standing on the top of that hill while she shot those sand crawlers.”

  “She did a good job with that yeah.” Val agreed, “old whatshisface was doing his best possible job to block her shots, but she didn't even hesitate, getting arrows around him and on target like it was easy.”

  “Plus, if I'd hit him it wouldn't have mattered too much.” Judy said.

  “I probably would have passed you even if you'd put one in his neck.” Val shrugged.