Callie: 12,660 Health, 23,500 Mana
Marie: 8,800 Health, 18,000 Mana
Agent 3: 9,000 Health, 19,000 Mana
Agent 4: 9,600 Health, 25,000 Mana

...

Agent 4 returned with the red crystal and immediately sought out Rukhar to ask him if he knew what the crystal did. Jay took the logical route for once and decided to not go to Rukhar and risk getting kicked again.

It wasn't long before agent 4 found him. He and Callie were resting, watching agent 3 swimming in a short race with several of her classmates. A mermaid was destroying, but Agent 3 and a muscular dragonkin were in the lead of the rest of the group.

"Hey Rukhar?" Agent 4 asked.

Rukhar and Callie looked at him.

"Oh hey 4!" Callie said.

"What's up?" Rukhar asked.

"Jay and I found this big red crystal after clearing a dungeon. Do you know what it does?" Agent 4 pulled out the crystal.

"Hmm..." Rukhar inspected it. "I'm not a crystal expert, but it looks like a shoddy job of combining several smaller crystals."

Agent 4 poked it.

"Hmm. Who would know?" He asked.

"Besides Axel, the staff will know. Anyone in the factory could tell you, probably. Rago is a mage, he might be able to tell you." Rukhar said after thinking for a minute.

"Ok. Thanks!" Agent 4 turned to leave.

A cheer went up. The mermaid had finished the race.

"Keep going 3!" Callie called enthusiastically.

A few minutes later, Agent 4 had gotten to the factory. To his luck, Jacopo was on duty.

"Master Jacopo!" He called. Jacopo looked up.

"Yo." He said.

"I found this crystal but I don't know what it does." Agent 4 again pulled out the crystal.

Jacopo looked at it.

"Hmm. It looks like a bad crystal welding job." Jacopo said. He very gently hit it, and it collapsed. A handful of small red crystal shards and a key lied there.

"Wow." Agent 4 said.

"And that's a raid key. As for the crystals, lemme just..." He picked them up and reformed them into more normal shapes.

"Health boost. Pretty decent grade too, if I may add." Jacopo said.

"Did you say health boost?" Agent 4 was aghast.

"Yeah. As long as you have whatever they are put on equipped, you get the boost." Jacopo said.

"How much health boost?" Agent 4 asked.

"725. Each." Jacopo said. "At least for the 6 bigger ones. The dust isn't worth anything, besides glitter in your clothes."

"Do they stack?" Agent 4 asked.

"I mean, it's better to use the highest grades and have several different types, but yes. Any crystal will stack. But you need enough slots for them. Before you ask, the Runeblade has 4 slots, Callie's hammer has 5, Marie's gun has 3, and Agent 3 bought a rocket launcher recently with 2." Jacopo said. "I already know what you want. You'll need Axel, I'll let him know."

Agent 4 nodded, and called the agents to his room. However, Callie immediately insisted they go to her room, because it's bigger.

"Guess I gotta wait for everyone else." He mumbled as he left.

When he got to Callie's door, Marie was already waiting, cleaning her gun.

"So why did you ask us to meet?" She asked.

"Jay and I found some health boost crystals in a dungeon. We can put them on our weapons to go home!" Agent 4 said.

"Are you squidding me? Let me see." Marie said.

Agent 4 took out the handful of small crystals.

"Jacopo said they each give 725 health. How much do you have?" He asked.

Marie checked if her headgear told her. It did. "That's something I didn't know... Wish I found out sooner to leave it on." She mumbled. "8,800." She said after a moment.

Agent 4 looked. "Where'd you find that?"

"Ok, so you need to go to 'informal', and it's the 3rd options down. You're looking for something that says 'personal stats'." Marie explained.

Agent 4 found it. "I've got 9,600."

"Wow." Marie said. "I wonder how much Cal has. She spends so much time hunting and stuff after all."

"And she has that bonus." Agent 4 said. "I bet she won't need any of these.

Callie arrived soon after. "What's going on guys?" She opened her door while asking.

"Agent 4 found some health crystals. How much health do you have?" Marie explained.

She repeated how to look.

"Hmm..." Callie said. "12,660 it says..."

Marie's jaw dropped.

"Thought so." Agent 4 said.

"We only needed 10,000 to leave. That's huge!" Marie eventually exclaimed.

"Really is, isn't it. Not even mine goes that high." Rukhar spoke behind everyone. "Brawler health boost. Does wonders."

After a minute, Agent 3 arrived. She had a towel in one arm. "Hey guys."

Marie repeated her explanation one last time.

"Is that so..." Agent 3 said. She checked her health. "9,000. Not terrible."

"But how do we inlay these things, or whatever you called it?" Callie asked.

"You gotta just, stick them in their slots. Like this. Pass me one?" Rukhar asked.

Agent 4 tossed one over.

"I calculate that 4 needs one, and Marie and 3 both need 2." He took the spare gem. "Cal, your hammer?"

Callie gave him her hammer. He looked for a moment before finding a gem slot.

"They look like this, for the most part." He said. He put the gem into the slot.

"Shiny." Callie said. She took her hammer back.

The headgear registered the boost.

"Yep, it goes up." She said.

Agent 4 handed out the crystals. Marie and Agent 3 found their slots, and put the gems in.

Agent 4 put his in after.

Now they all had over 10,000 health.

"This feels like cheating." Callie said. "But now we get to go home.... How do we do that?"

Axel dropped through the ceiling.

"Yeah that. That's the thing. I am aware you want a route back." Axel said.

Agent 3 jumped.

"Before anything else, I have to warn you 3, that if you run out of Mana in your world you will not be able to swim again until you recharge. You cannot recover your Mana outside of this world. The latter applies to everyone here." Axel said.

The agents nodded.

"As for the return, that's not hard. All you need, is a portal key." Axel said. "Don't be fooled, it's not a normal key. And it doesn't work leaving, only entering."

"Why is everything so finnicky?" Marie asked.

"Can't give a good answer for that one." Axel said. "Anyways, here you go."

He gave each agent a dull, green and black stone in the shape of an arrowhead.

"Simply swipe down with that and a portal will open. It closes when you go through. The key needs to recharge here too." Axel said. "And now, are you ready to go home?"

The agents looked at each other. Callie hugged Rukhar tightly.

Marie nodded. "Yes."

"And are you gonna try and smuggle Rukhar through the portal too Callie?" Axel smirked.

"...maybe." Callie said.

"Long distance relationships are tricky. But eh." Rukhar said. "I can technically visit, can't I?"

"No reason of say no, but there are no humans in Callie's world. So you'll need to be sneaky. Anyways..." Axel closed his eyes. A static line appeared. Then it ripped open, creating a portal.

"I'll Shepard everyone through quickly. You coming or not?" Axel asked.

Rukhar hesitated. "Why ask me?"

"Because I know you two are dating and I care about these things." Axel said. "It will take all of 3 minutes to get there. The exit and emergence are what do all the damage. Don't fret, you'll feel tired but you will be ok."

Rukhar thought. Then he took Callie's hand.

"I'll go."

"Then we are off. You won't like this, but do not panic." Axel said. He pulled everyone through the portal.

3 minutes later...

Cap'n Cuttlefish POV

After using the mysterious yellow stone Axel left, Agent 8 had driven off the Octarian army. It released a massive chain lightning attack to wipe out the front lines. At the moment, Cuttlefish was eating crabby cakes and picking at the table. Though he wouldn't admit it, he was worried sick about the agents.

"Please, stay safe..." He thought for the 10th time that day.

At that exact moment a portal materialized just outside his window.