The rain had grown more intense, coming down in constant sheets that obscured the water-soaked ruins, while the thick fog of the night before still lingered. I still had some of the Lurker’s Eyes, but not quite enough for everyone. Nigel and I each took one, since we’d be scouting out wider.

  Steve got one since he could share vision enhancements with his clones. The other 3 went to Ruby, Tomas, and Andy. Jane said she could scan for mental signatures, so didn’t need to see as far, and Lana seemed happy to give the responsibility to Andy.

  Again the rain and fog seemed to turn transparent, increasing our vision by hundreds of yards. While the others took Water Flight potions, I summoned Switchblade. Got a wistful sigh from Jane, who regarded the bike like an old lover.

  “I’ll loan it to you soon.”

  She flashed a happy smile. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Flying might be slightly faster, but Nigel preferred riding Switchblade, so we’d stick with the hover bike, at least for a bit. I hit the throttle and we raced northwest. The rain couldn’t quite touch me, but it did pour off my Embersteel Battle Helm face shield in what would have been blinding sheets, if not for the Lurker’s Eyes. When I focused on the water coursing down past my face, it was really distracting.

  Keeping my gaze fixed out farther, we soon raced deeper into the ruins than I’d ever explored in that direction. Tony sent a waypoint marking the location of the warehouse, and it was almost directly north of town. Wouldn’t take long to reach it, but we couldn’t ignore the possibility that Burns and his team had gotten ambushed somewhere else, so we scouted in sweeping arcs back and forth, covering as much ground as possible.

  As we rode north, I kept one eye glued to my mini map. With Navigation at level 10, it covered a larger area, but not nearly enough to find my friend fast enough. If only Ping would allow me to search for people in addition to monsters. Even if it did, I’d cast it just last night, so it was still on cooldown.

  Between all of us, we did spot a couple bunches of clockwork insects, but fewer than I expected, and we avoided them. I did note the locations for Tony to have squads go eradicate them. We also spotted an occasional single red dot, and those we did check out.

  Most were more of those watery humanoids Nigel had spotted earlier. The first one I got close to triggered Identify.

  “Drowned Whisperer. Level 69 Elite. These stealthy spies are perfect for this rainy stage, blending in with the environment and able to melt into puddles or streams to reappear elsewhere. Their hypnotic whispers can conceal their presence or lure the weak-minded into traps, while everything they see is recorded and direct-transmitted to their twin in Queen Marisara’s castle.”

  That confirmed they were spies. Using Switchblade’s new cloaking paint, along with Mirror Cloak, Nigel and I caught a couple by surprise and finished them off before they could dissolve into the rains and escape. Jane reported that she immobilized another with her mental powers while Steve used that longsword he got from Velexis’s vault to absorb the ghostly monster.

  Each of the next two solitary monsters turned out to be different. Like freaky gaunt, ghostly women weeping silver tears that they collected with clawed hands.

  “Tear-eyed Seeker. Level 65 Wraith. Another ghostly spy in Queen Marisara’s arsenal, these shackled souls of beings destroyed by Count Vhaernos weep in eternal agony. Their silver tears record everything they see, while their voices can mimic anyone they’ve recorded. They often lure the unwary into traps, or claw out their essence, leaving them shambling husks of their former selves.”

  Nasty. The first one somehow sensed our approach and swept toward us, moaning a spine-shivering cry of pain and endless hunger. My Soul Fire trap sucked her in without issue. The second one, Nigel was going to tear apart with his ethereal Mufasa’s Claws, but I stopped him.

  “Wait. I want to try something. Be ready to finish her off if this fails.”

  The ghostly woman, floating just above a partially-intact second-floor ruin, was staring at the distant wall of Port Royale, dimly visible through the heavy rain. What she could glean from such a distance was a mystery, but she was stationary. The perfect target to attempt using a nifty new spell, so I focused on her and cast Minion Minion.

  “Minion Minion. Epic. Level 4. 15% chance per level to steal a minion or follower of an enemy if your level or your tier is higher than the minion. Percentage adjusted by 1% up or down based on the difference between your tier-adjusted level and that of the minion’s boss.”

  I wasn’t sure what my tier-adjusted level was compared to the unknown Count Vhaernos, and the spell didn’t say as I cast it. A bright blue light flared around the Tear-eyed Seeker and her entire ghostly form stiffened, clawed arms splayed wide, shaggy hair flying as she arched her back, head tilting toward the rainy sky. For a second, a slender crimson tether became visible, stretching north out of sight.

  Then a second, blue tether appeared, stretching between the wraith and the center of my chest. As soon as it made contact, the connection formed and I felt the wraith in the corner of my mind. Even before the announcement came, I grinned.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! You have stolen a level-65 Teary-eyed Seeker from the control of Count Vhaernos. Your new minion’s soul is split across 2 wraiths, who communicate in realtime and also permanently record everything they sense in their silver tears. The partner wraith is currently situated in the information center of Queen Marisara’s castle.”

  That was incredible! When I focused on the conduit to my new minion, I sensed the ability to sort through its recorded impressions, but also the ability to pull realtime information from its partner. I did so, and my vision split, half now consumed with the view from the wraith’s distant twin.

  It hovered in a large, stone room with delicate arches meeting high up the peaked roof. A dozen other Teary-eyed Seeker twins hovered in loose rows nearby, each receiving information from their distant counterparts, probably concealed around town.

  Even as the scene registered, a deep-throated, mighty roar seemed to shake the room, sending wraiths scuttling back from a gigantic humanoid monster with black, smoldering skin, as if he burned from within. He wore a spiked leather vest, leaving his hugely muscled arms bare. His surprisingly handsome human face was twisted in a mask of absolute rage. Short, twin horns sprouted from the mass of shaggy red hair on his head.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “You dare?” he roared as he closed on my distant minion.

  It tried to retreat, but couldn’t move nearly fast enough. As the giant monster bore down on it, Identify triggered.

  “Count Vhaernos Dreadtide, the Scorched Tyrant. Level 99 Noble Brute Fire Nymph. Lord of one of the few domains situated mostly on dry land, Vhaernos rules with a fiery, cruel fist. A senior member of Queen Marisara’s court, he leverages the great influence that comes from controlling the network of ethereal ghosts and wraiths that directly compete with his hated rival Countess Syvelis’s network of traitors, possessed, and mind-cracked informants.”

  That was a lot to absorb, but Count Vhaernos gave me no time to figure out how to leverage my unexpected access to his domain. With another angry roar, he swept his arms forward and a massive, two-handed greatsword with a jagged, flame-scorched edge appeared in his hands.

  I instinctively dodged to the side as it swept down, seemingly right at my head. It wasn’t aimed at me, though, but at my new minion’s twin. The wraith’s vision flashed with crimson fire, then winked out. Atop the nearby ruin, the other twin convulsed as living flames consumed it. Within seconds, it evaporated.

  “Your Teary-Eyed Seeker minion was killed by Count Vhaernos.”

  I sat there for a moment on Switchblade, mind whirling from the abrupt vision and its even more abrupt ending. My heart raced with adrenaline from the memory of that huge, flaming sword sweeping down to cleave me in two.

  “Whoa, what a trip,” I breathed.

  “I guess it worked,” Nigel commented. “Nice touch with the fire. Ghosts don’t drop steaks.”

  I reflexively scratched behind his ears. “It did work, maybe better than I could have hoped.”

  In that brief vision, I’d gotten vital intelligence about another of Queen Marisara’s court. No, 2 members. Count Vhaernos ran the network of wraiths and ghosts Marisara was using to spy on us, but Identify had mentioned a Countess Syvelis and suggested that not only did she run a network of living spies and traitors, but that the 2 lords were bitter rivals.

  I still had access to Queen Marisara’s court chat. I’d been waiting for a court-wide message to learn more about her other vassals, but now I had 2 names and a hint about them I might be able to leverage to my advantage.

  Find Ed first. We’d spent only a little time on the monsters, time that might have been extremely well spent, but we needed to move.

  We pressed on, searching for Ed and for Burns, but found nothing definitive. We could waste days riding back and forth through the vast ruins, but what if time was running out for Ed?

  Ruby: “Lucas, we reached the warehouse. It’s totally destroyed. No sign of Burns or Ed or anyone. Where to next?”

  I slowed to a stop in one of the intersections about a quarter mile east of Ruby. The eroded demon marker statue didn’t have our new numbering system engraved, so either no one had made it that far, or they hadn’t bothered keeping up the system.

  “I can’t smell anything through the rain,” Nigel reminded me.

  “I know.” I scratched behind his ears where he stood propped against the front of the dash, front legs locked to the display with his magnetic clamps. “We need to do this smarter. I’m going to try something, and I need you to keep watch because the one time I tried it before, it kind of messed with my head for a minute.”

  Nigel perked up. “What are you going to do?”

  “It’s a new ability called Perception Pulse.”

  The ability had jumped up to level 15 with all my other tier-0 abilities, and it would allow me to extend all my senses out in every direction over a huge area. When I tried it in King Corvath’s pearl throne room, the location had restricted the area, and even then it had nearly overwhelmed my ability to comprehend it all.

  Now I’d unlocked another 20% Efficiency in my Intelligence, and with Crisis Management also pushing my Efficiency even higher, hopefully I had the mental capacity to handle it. One way or the other, I was about to find out. Taking a deep breath, I triggered Perception Pulse.

  Again, my head seemed to explode outward in a painless rush as all my senses rippled away in every direction, flooding the ruins with my mind. Every falling raindrop called out to be noticed, each bit of pure water tasting clean against my tongue. Every bit of rubble felt as familiar as the back of my own hand, while the constant thunder of rain and rush of nearby canals roared in my ears.

  For a moment, I lost all sense of myself as my mind spread out so far, it felt like I’d never again return. At the uttermost edges of my ability to comprehend all the information flooding back in, I felt myself stagger and drop forward against the handlebars. The smooth metal under my gloves melded with the feel of thousands of stones ranging far into the distance in every direction.

  The next thing I knew, something wet was dragging down my face. Was it raining? Why wasn’t my Shingle Pin protecting me? Then it came again, rasping along my skin and my mind awakened fully. I blinked open my eyes to find Nigel perched on my chest, licking my face. I’d fallen completely off Switchblade.

  “I’m awake,” I said, my voice hoarse as if I wasn’t lying on my back in a puddle the size of my living room. More buckets of rain kept pouring down from above, sluicing off my protective barrier and adding to the puddle.

  I sat up, mind aching like I’d used it as a punching bag. I really needed to find ways to increase my Mental Resistance, or something to help me manage that overwhelming rush of information.

  “Did it work?” Nigel asked as I stood.

  Amazingly, even though I’d been lying in a puddle, I still felt warm and dry. My mana barrier had fizzled when I blacked out, but Sam’s lager hadn’t worn off yet. Never underestimate the power of a good brew.

  I nodded and pulled up my full-sized map, sharing it with Nigel. The area for over a mile in every direction was populated in beautiful detail. I sensed the map could have expanded farther if I hadn’t blacked out, confirming the ability was still stronger than my capacity.

  What had populated was amazing, though. I could zoom in on individual bricks in piles of rubble if I wanted. Every monster in the area was clearly marked, or at least the position where they’d been seconds before, and I knew as much about each of them as if I’d stood close and studied them.

  More captivating was the image of Ruby, standing with my team near the blackened husk of what had been the clockwork insect warehouse just hours ago. Every inch of her skin, every curl of her red hair, the careful way she studied the area through those gold-speckled, brown eyes, all of it was as clear as if she stood 3 feet away.

  We were just friends for now, but I couldn’t help lingering on her face for a moment. It was a rare opportunity without Steve instantly appearing and teasing me to just admit I wanted to date her. I was honestly kind of surprised he didn’t suddenly teleport to my side for just that reason. With an effort, I forced my gaze away and swept my focus north, scanning Ruin for Ed.

  There! About half a mile almost due north of the warehouse, in an unusually clear spot of ground stood Ed and a few other people, with Burns and 2 of his teammates facing them in a half circle. Several other people lay unmoving nearby, obviously dead.

  My initial elation at finding Ed fizzled to confusion. The way the group was standing looked like Burns and his teammates were hemming in the others. All their weapons were drawn, their expressions grim, while Ed stood facing Burns, in the middle of shouting something, his expression pleading. The people huddling behind him looked universally terrified.

  Lucas: “Ed, what’s going on?”

  Ed: “Lucas! Thank god. We need help. Burns and his team just started attacking all of us. He’s killing us all.”

  The situation was even worse than I’d feared. Burns and his 2 teammates could slaughter Ed and the others in seconds. Had they snapped, been possessed, or had the broken classers been the ones possessed? No, I couldn’t imagine so many getting influenced together.

  Either way, we had to get their faster. I marked a waypoint on the map at Ed’s location, then banished Switchblade.

  “Nigel, we have to move faster. Time to fly.”