Bob watched as Jenna addressed their ninety-plus Beli recruits.

  “Congratulations to you all! Never in my life would I have imagined meeting such a group of talented soldiers. You were born for this!” she said cheerily—perhaps too cheerily.

  “I am proud to announce that you have all graduated. It is time to defend your homeland.”

  The announcement fell into stunned silence.

  “But we have only trained for a total of nine hours,” a pockmarked youth blubbered.

  “Yes! And look how much you have accomplished!” Jenna went on. “We go back to Belona tonight, let our enemies tremble!”

  Pob, who was standing next to Bob, leaned closer and whispered, “Can you tell me what the hecking hell has just happened?”

  “All the Progression Dungeons in Belona are going to turn into Tribulations in fifty days. All of them. At the same time. We have to strike now,” Bob whispered back.

  Pob swore under his breath. Then, he addressed the group.

  “This changes nothing. We will keep training, but at home. We shall take with us the incense and all the alchemical products we were using.”

  “But are we expected to fight now?”

  “Well, yes. There will be a bit of fighting between training sessions, just to add some spice,” Pob answered. Chaos erupted in the hall.

  Finally, Billy took charge.

  “You all knew this day was coming when you volunteered. No one planned this. If we do not attack now, you will not have a home to return to. We will not force anyone, but the Losers are certainly fighting, and we are not even Beli.”

  This was met with ashamed silence. Bob did not expect a miracle. They would be lucky to get one-third.

  He would not judge them. Many of them had not even called their Joker yet.

  “We are proud sons and daughters of Belona. If you fight, you'll have us by your side. Follow me! Let’s teach these Imperial scum what Beli are made of!” Beliza shouted, standing proudly and taking her place beside the Losers. She turned, expecting to see her compatriots flocking to her.

  Then she discovered what Beli are made of: two quarters of realism, one of pragmatism, and one of healthy cowardice.

  No one had moved.

  Bob intervened again: “Jenna, I hate to say this, but they are right. We took them from the streets nine hours ago. Most have not even awakened their powers. They would do more harm than good right now.”

  He turned to Pob. “How much time do you need to turn them into something passably resembling a fighting force?”

  “With this lot?” Pob answered dryly. “Probably five or six thousand years, give or take. You only came because I promised free food, didn’t you?” he asked, turning savagely towards them.

  “I will fight,” an elderly man who walked with a cane stood up.

  “We will fight too,” said a couple of brothers, no older than twenty.

  Bob watched the rest, waiting in vain for some kind of Spartacus effect. The remaining Beli were busy whistling tunelessly or studying the rafters.

  “Ok, four out of ninety is not bad,” said Pob. “The rest of you lose your right to dessert. And you will train day and night as if I were present. We will come back in thirty days, and this time I will not ask. I will command.”

  Bob met Billy and Jenna at the hall. Pob and the four Beli volunteers were already waiting for them. The Losers had all donned their elven weaponry and armor. Gone were any ideas of settling this peacefully.

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  Bob was surprised to see that Billy had returned to his true form.

  When asked, he explained the situation: “The Alchemical Master is the Core of a dungeon with no Hatchery tag. It can’t physically leave it.

  Bob frowned.

  “Fortunately, as a Core, I got a lot of achievement points just by absorbing part of the Essence generated inside the dungeon. This is actually my Thousand-Faced Assassin form, but I feel more comfortable looking like myself,” Billy explained.

  “I still have around three thousand achievement points left, and thank god for that; we will probably need them.”

  “And did changing form take care of …your problem?” asked Bob, referring to Billy’s equine tendencies, acquired by the misuse of a medicinal pill.

  “I am pretty sure they are over now. I feel like myself again. I would like a carrot, though,” he said. And then, he neighed.

  Jenna looked at him with absolute horror.

  “Just joking, just joking, honey,” Billy hastily added.

  Much in tune with their Xianxia environments, Jenna looked at him with killing intent. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. She laughed till she cried.

  “I will get you for this, Billy,” she promised.

  Bob was relieved to see her reaction. Jenna had been bullied all her life. She had struggled bravely with her issues and was on her way to recovery when she had the misfortune of meeting Dr Brinkman.

  She had performed some drastic psychic surgery on herself with her powers and managed to control her overblown guilt and aversion to conflict, but the defenses she had built over the years were still there.

  She had a lot to unlearn, but her relationship with Billy was working wonders on her.

  They finally decided to get down to business.

  Bob opened a shadow gate to Discovery’s home, aided by Jenna’s mental directions.

  Most of the building was now empty. They were not far from one of the occupied dungeons, which had become a battleground among rival imperial factions.

  Belona looked very different from the beautiful but slightly chaotic city they had left a few weeks ago. Several fires dotted the skyline, and three of the buildings on their street were now in ruins.

  Bob could see Imperials from different factions fighting among themselves in the night sky, indifferent to the chaos their powers unleashed.

  Not a single Beli was in sight. He guessed most must be hiding in the underground refuges.

  Suddenly, combat erupted in the streets below.

  A giant, scaly, winged monster with the head of a baboon crashed to the ground, battling a snake-like creature that grew new heads each time its opponent bit one off.

  They were fighting over a bag filled with spirit cores, which one of them had been carrying when the other attacked.

  In the midst of their struggle, a small humanoid with four wings snatched the bag, only to be devoured by a giant, multicolored flower with fangs that sprouted from the ground as it flew overhead. The winged baboon, having finally defeated its opponent, howled in fury and charged at the plant, intent on reclaiming the spirit cores.

  In the world of the Old Empire, evolution and civilization did not march in tandem.

  They installed Pob and the other four Beli in adjacent apartments and met for a war-planning session over a cup of brew that Pob assured them was the Beli equivalent of tea.

  “We have made some powerful alchemical stuff and have ingredients to make more. Discovery had a fully equipped laboratory on the upper floor. That is on the plus side,” Bob began.

  “On the negative side, practically all the rest. We have no way of taking those dungeons by force. And there are too many of them.”

  “Do the Imperials know the dungeons they are creating are going to evolve into Tribulations?” asked Billy.

  “I am sure they do not. Their tactics would be different if they knew they had a time limit. My take is that Necessity planned to surprise them, forcing all the Postulants they had managed to rank up to flee to Earth and face Dignity.”

  “By making Belona uninhabitable, he takes away the possibility of the Imperials going local and refusing to leave,” answered Jenna.

  “Could we perhaps talk to them? Inform them of what is going to happen?” asked Billy.

  “Last time Jenna talked to them, she stole all their cores and started a civil war between them. Eleazar himself threatened to kill her if they met again,” Bob reminded Billy. “I think it is past time for diplomacy.”

  “There is always time for diplomacy. Always,” an unknown voice said.

  All of them turned as if on a pivot, expecting an attack.

  A well-dressed man in his forties, dressed in some exotic robes, was seated behind them, drinking from a cup of coffee as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “I recognize this guy,” Jenna said. “He was in the Imperial palace when I gave them the Discovery book. Who the hell are you, mister?”

  “My name is Eleon, leader of the Record of the Old Empire, the fourth Imperial faction. I am Governance’s youngest son and Eleazar’s brother. I am here to help you.”

  “You are having tea! Lovely, I brought scones,” he said as he offered them a brown paper bag filled with pastries.