Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven - In First

I stepped into the portal first, sword in one hand, revolver in the other. It was a decent combo at short and medium ranges, and that's about what I needed at the moment.

Taking a few steps forwards, I waited for the girls to pop in behind me, then I gestured ahead. The lone bugling in this room was to one side, minding its own, at least, until Becky spoke up. "Damn, it really is dark in here," she said, very much using an outside voice.

The bugling spun around, beady little bug eyes searching for us in the dark, and finding us right away.

"Enemy," I warned. "And keep your voice down. We don't need to attract the entire dungeon's crop of monsters."

Stepping forward, I met the little monster with a quick, hard thrust of my sword, letting it impale itself on the tip before I moved to the side and jerked my wrist to dislodge the blade before it got stuck.

That wasn't quite enough to kill the bugling, but it left it dazed and a little injured, enough that I was able to kick it in the side with the end of a steel-toed boot. My sword came down in a hard chop, and that was it for the monster.

I checked my lights, making sure to turn them all on, then I scanned the room, looking for more buglings. We were in the clear, for now.

"Nice moves, DL," Becky said.

"Thanks," I replied before tugging my mask off. There was no need to cover our identities in here. The buglings weren't going to report us to anyone. "So, this is the main kind of monster we can find in here."

"It seems insectile," Fran said as she approached. She flicked her hand to the side and summoned a beam of light.

Becky stared. "Is that a fucking lightsaber?!

"

"It's a Light spell that allows me to summon a sword," Fran said. "No relation to the Disney property at all."

"Uh-huh. Does it cut through shit really well?"

"I'd hardly use it as a blade if it didn't," Fran said. "It isn't the stealthiest of spells, I'm afraid. The light alone is eye-catching, obviously, and it makes this noise when moved." She swished the beam around, and it made a humming noise as it... probably cooked the air or something.

"It's definitely a ligh--"

"Becky," I interrupted. "Stop staring at Fran's stick for a moment? We're in enemy territory."

Becky sniffed. "Fine. That's super cool, blondie, but I'm not gonna let you get ahead of me."

"Oh?" Fran asked.

Becky nodded. "Gimme a week or two, and I'll figure it out. I'll have my own lightsaber, but it'll be made of lightning instead, which is way cooler."

"I look forward to it," Fran replied. "Do you have any training with bladed weapons? We could spar."

"Oh... shit, no? Was that a requirement? Am I missing out?" Becky asked.

"Only if you keep failing to pay attention," I said. "Buglings. Lots of them. I'm pretty sure any one of us could solo this portal, but it wouldn't do for us to be casual about it."

It felt kind of weird and off-putting to be the one insisting that others pay attention and be careful, but... yeah, I had infinite-ish tries to get things right, but my friends (if I was ready to call them that) didn't. They had one life to spend on this, and I was feeling strangely risk-averse on their behalf.

"Yeah, they're ugly, aren't they? I've seen pics of some cute bugs, but this ain't it," Becky said. She poked at the dead bugling with a foot. "Big tho."

"Quite," Fran agreed. "These could be a menace. Are they well-suited to this environment?"

"They can dig traps, and I guess use sticks and stuff. I don't know if I'd call them tool-users, any more than like, a bird might be. So low on the intelligence scale, but high in adaptability," I said. "Look at those mandibbles. That'll claw through dirt like nothing, and probably legs too."

"Yikes," Becky said. She pointed down at the bugling, then a zap of electricity shot from her fingertip and into the corpse. It twitched. "Conductive."

"Was that a spell?" Fran asked.

"Nope, just raw magic," Becky said. "Anyway, if they have nerves and don't have some sort of resistance to my moves, then this will be a cakewalk."

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"Sure. So let's get that cake walking, shall we?" I asked.

Becky grinned. "Thanks for noticing!"

She strutted forwards while I shook my head.

The rest of the portal was... easy. The moment we were in the next room, Becky spotted the three buglings deeper in, and then she fried them before we could come up with any sort of plan.

Big lightning bolts that could fork in mid-air to hit multiple opponents and which left the air smelling like ozone were strict overkill on such low-ranked monsters.

I still made a point of showing them the trap that the buglings had been digging, and when we went into the next tunnel, I fired some Shadow Bolts ahead of Becky, smacking a few of the buglings hiding in ambush.

She then rained down electric hell on them, cackling all the while.

"She's strong," Fran muttered from next to me. We were some ways behind Becky, who was having fun.

"Yeah," I agreed. "She's probably closer to C-rank than most, I think. Maybe? I hardly have her stats, but my gut tells me that she's been a D-ranker for a while. Still, I think she, uh, lacks some of the kind of formal training you'd expect from someone who has worked in a more corporate environment."

"She's casting without spells," Fran said. "That's... dangerous, and powerful, and most of all interesting. How hasn't any corp picked her up? No, don't answer that. She seems too free-spirited for corporate work. Lightning mages rarely fit in that kind of environment."

"They don't?" I asked.

Fran shook her head. "The emotions that power her magic are somewhat antithetical to office work."

Fair enough. There was Terry at Luna Corp, but I think the company was working pretty hard to keep her interested in her work, and giving her lots of opportunities and cash. Compared to some of the others on the team, she probably cost the company a lot more to keep on board.

And yet, she was also fast approaching C-rank, a point where all of the company's hard work would pay off, because they'd gain another heavy-hitter.

"What's your plan with her?" Fran asked.

"I told you a little about what's coming," I said. Damn, I couldn't even remember all the details I'd actually given her, but I was pretty sure she had the basic outline.

"You have," she replied.

"Well, I'll need every bit of help I can get. Becky's strong. More importantly, she's not hard to work with, and I think our goals will align, at least a little."

During the Breach, there had been several street gangs that had come out of the woodwork to help. I wasn't sure if the River Rats were one of those, but considering their location, it wouldn't have surprised me at all.

"I can see that. And how large is this team you want to build going to be?" Fran asked.

"Well, assuming you can take the occasional afternoon off from being the queen bee at Redline, three people, so far," I said.

Fran sniffed. "Hardly. Though... completing portals on the side, on top of my training and magical intake... I don't intend to remain at D-rank for very long, and I imagine the same is true for you. D-rankers in positions of power aren't that uncommon in the larger corporations. Not all of us are suited to delving. But C-rankers? Those are significantly rarer."

Yeah, that was obvious. A C-ranker was one step away from a national asset. A minor national asset, but still.

"Then we'll tackle it as a team of C-rankers. How's that?" I asked.

She paused, then nodded. "Good. Very good. Ambitious, but I believe that Midnight Tea Garden started in a similar way, and it worked out well enough for them, didn't it?"

Yeah, because we were just going to casually match up to one of the strongest teams in Fortress ENE and probably a top one-hundred in the nation.

"Miss Becky," Fran called out. "How about you allow me to take on a few? I'm not going to improve if all I see is your back."

"Yeah, but it's one hell of a back, ain't it?" Becky asked.

Fran chuckled, then stepped up. The next room, with the large water feature, was all hers, even if Becky grumbled about it being practically designed for her.

At this rate, we'd be through this portal in under an hour. It really had turned into nothing more than a cake walk.

***