After defeating the flesh abomination, Jason’s temporary team had grown to five. With two defenders in Keane and Sophie, two healers in Neil and Jory, Jason was their only dedicated damage source. They were heavy on sustain but light on immediate damage, with Jason’s powers bringing certain, but eventual death to the monsters they encountered.

This setup made for slower going than they might have with someone like Humphrey on hand but it wasn’t without benefits. With the oversized monster groups they were encountering, fights were long and everyone’s abilities were getting a workout. The results of all that practise were showing each night as at least one member of the group experienced ability advancement.

Ability [Castigate] (Sin) has reached Iron 6 (100%).Ability [Castigate] (Sin) has reached Iron 7 (00%).All [Sin] abilities have reached [Iron 7].Linked attribute [Recovery] has increased from [Iron 6] to [Iron 7].Progress to bronze rank: 35% (2/4 essences complete).

The top end of iron rank represented the peak of human potential in a given attribute. Jason’s power and recovery attributes had both reached seven, vastly improving his cardiovascular health while making him stronger and tougher than his slight frame would suggest. As his skinny physique transitioned to lean muscle, he felt incredibly empowered.

“If it feels this good to advance through iron rank,” he said to the others as they prepared to set off for the morning, “I can’t wait for bronze rank.”

“Where I come from, you can randomly throw a rock and you’ll hit a silver rank,” Keane said.  “They say you aren’t even a real adventurer until bronze.”

They had got to know Keane over the last few days. He was a dark-skinned human, from an island city located in this world’s Caribbean Sea. He had none of the arrogance they had seen from some of the imported adventurers, just looking to be the most effective member of the group that he could.

They fell into a daily pattern. From early morning to late evening, they would move toward the centre of the city, fighting monsters as they went. At the end of the day, they would find a promising-looking building, search it for treasures and clear out any monsters lairing inside before setting up camp.

“What do you think this building was?” Jory asked as they regrouped from searching the latest building. “Some kind of huge inn?”

“Brothel,” Neil said absently, then noticed that everyone had turned to look at him.

“What?” he asked.

“That was a very confident response,” Jason said.

“You spend a lot of time in brothels?” Sophie asked.

“Yes,” Neil said with a sigh. “Hang around with Thadwick Mercer long enough and you’ll see the inside of a lot of brothels.”

“He’s seventeen,” Jason said. “How many brothels can he have been to?”

“I think I’ve seen the inside of every bordello in Greenstone,” Neil said. “High class, low class; high class pretending to be low class. He doesn’t care. He’s spent a lot of money at the church of the Healer in the last year or so.”

“At least he’s using paid volunteers,” Jason said. “He gives off a very strong date-rapey vibe.”

They occasionally met more adventurers, but none of those encounters led to further conflict or team-ups. There was some exchanging of supplies, with many adventurers having been separated from the team members carrying most of the team's gear. Jory proved popular in this regard, with his specialised dimensional bag overstuffed with potions.

They also met more vorger and flesh abominations. Building on their previous experience, by the third and fourth encounters they had a good idea of what worked and what didn’t.

“We’re lucky they’re both fairly mindless,” Keane said as they discussed tactics one evening. “The most dangerous thing about higher-rank monsters isn’t their more exotic powers, but their intelligence.”

“You’ve seen a few higher-rank monsters?” Neil asked him.

“Yeah,” Keane said. “In areas of high-magic density, we iron rankers aren’t allowed to hunt by ourselves, like you Greenstone people. We get to go along and see some higher-rank monsters in action, though.”

One thing Jason finally got going was practice for his execute ability. Even without burst-damage members on the team, only the toughest iron-rank monsters could actually survive enough damage for it to be effective. It was only against the bronze-rank enemies, be they the flesh abominations or regular monsters, that he could actually get some use out of it.

The team were strong enough to handle a bronze-rank monster, but while the flesh abominations roamed alone, the actual monsters did not. With the city so saturated in magic, even normally solitary monsters were appearing in packs. In the face of this, the team’s usual strategy was to make a fighting retreat, using their two defenders and two healers to keep the group intact while Jason loaded up the enemies with afflictions.

This gave Jason the chance to use the two abilities he had the most trouble practising. They were both direct damage abilities, but neither were effective to just open up with. Both required setting up and were quite similar in their use, which, at least meant that when he could get some use out of one, he could get it from the other as well.

Fighting a trio of monsters, the team was being pressured. Their strong defensive strategy was highly effective against iron-rank monsters, even in large numbers, but bronze-rank beasts with powerful attacks threatened to overwhelm them.

The monsters looked like four-armed gorillas, covered in lizard skin instead of fur. They liked to climb and leap, making rapid attacks with their four arms before leaping away to set up for the next rush attack.

Sophie and Keane intercepted each attack while Neil and Jory supported them with buffs, shields and healing. It was enough to hold on but just barely, the team's mana being rapidly depleted as they used their abilities to the full. If it weren't for Jory delivering mana potions and Neil's replenishing spells, they would have already been exhausted and overrun. Jason was nowhere to be seen, although the patches of black flesh and the blood oozing from the monster's wounds marked his active presence.

“I see what you mean by smart being dangerous,” Sophie said to Keane during a lull in the action. “They’re starting to coordinate better.”

The monsters were starting to attack all at once, or attack in rapid succession with little or no pause for the adventurers to regroup, attempting to break up their formation. They had a strong defensive line and good individual synergies but the raw power of the bronze-rank monsters was beginning to beat them down.

A pair of the monsters started hammering on Keane's shield, which began to buckle until one of the monsters abruptly stumbled away after Jason cast a spell on it from the darkness.

Ability: [Punition] (Doom)

SpellCost: Moderate mana.Cooldown: 30 seconds.Current rank: Iron 6 (91%).Effect (iron): Inflicts necrotic damage for each curse, disease, poison and unholy affliction the target is suffering.

While the bronze-rank monster had inherent damage reduction to Jason's iron-rank spell, that same damage reduction meant that the afflictions it was suffering from had time to multiplying without killing it. The result was that the spell, boosted for each one of those afflictions, ravaged the monster's body, even through the damage reduction. The monster staggered away as dead flesh replaced healthy, passing across the creature like a shadow. Jason finished it off with his execute ability.

Ability: [Verdict] (Doom)

Spell (execute)Cost: Moderate mana.Cooldown: 30 seconds.Current rank: Iron 5 (38%)Effect (iron): Deals a small amount of transcendent damage. As an execute effect, damage scales exponentially with the enemy’s level of injury.

Shimmering light of blue, silver and gold shone down on the monster. Transcendent damage ignored the difference in rank and the creature dissolved directly into rainbow smoke.

You have defeated [Grizzard].[Grizzard] has been wholly annihilated. It has been looted automatically.[Monster Core (Bronze)] has been added to your inventory.10 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

The others ignored their share of the loot that fell over them, still caught up in the midst of combat. By the time the fight was over, they were battered, exhausted but grinning in triumph at having overcome such powerful enemies.

“That sparkle power,” Keane said as they sprawled inside a building to hide from more monsters. “You should have been using that from the start with those flesh abominations.”

“You’re right,” Jason said. “Those flesh abominations are hard to time it with, though. It’s an execute power, so they need to be badly hurt for it to have any impact. Normally, you can see the condition a monster is in, but whatever the flesh things do to try and adapt to my afflictions hides their condition. I’m just left guessing.”

“I like this interface power of yours,” Keane said. “I can feel it when my abilities cross a threshold, obviously, but having it show up for me to see gives a real feeling of progress.”

“We appreciate your powers too,” Jory said to Keane. “Standing in front of me and taking all the hits is something I really like in a team member.”

"Being able to take the hits is nice," Keane said, "but some hits I really wish I could dodge. I envy your ability to get out of the way, Sophie. Or into the way, as you need. I've had plenty of times where I'm wasn't fast enough to be where my team needed me to be. I hope they're doing alright without me."

“Huh,” Clive said as a system notice appeared in front of him.

[Jory Tillman] has been added to your party.[Imran Keane] has been added to your party.

“What’s up?” Valdis asked.

“It looks like some of my friends have found each other,” Clive said. “And someone new. It’s good to know they’re alright.”

“That’s a useful ability, working from that far away.”

“A lot of its usefulness is lost at this distance. Better than nothing, though. At least it lets me know they’re still alive.”

Valdis nodded. “Far from a given, in this place.”

After their traversal of the towering building, the other three members of their group were more respectful of Clive. He had proven himself multiple times, including identifying the hoard of growth items they had found at the top. Each member of the team had picked out one pair of items for themselves, from the six pairs. The rest of the team agreed that the last set should go to Clive, as the strongest contributor to actually obtaining them. That last pair was the orb and circlet, which weren’t useful to Clive himself but he knew would be very useful to Neil.

After they climbed back down the building, they set off through the city again. Clive glanced back at the building behind them, then at Valdis.

“You remind me of a friend of mine,” Clive told him.

“Oh?” Valdis asked.

“He’s outgoing, like you. Good at pulling people into his own pace. You both a have a dangerous habit, though.”

“And what’s that?”

“You take risks, ignoring that it may be the people around you that suffer the consequences. My friend, for example, has this indentured servant he had become an adventurer.”

“The outworlder,” Valdis said. “The one who made that big fuss at the meeting. The indentured servant was that gorgeous celestine?”

“That’s them,” Clive said.

“I heard about how he had his indentured servant made into an adventurer. That’s an unusual choice.”

"He was trying to help her because she was a friend of a friend," Clive said. "Then he overestimated his own political acumen and almost handed her off into what amounts to sexual slavery. If you ask him, he'll say he did it because he sympathises with her circumstances. Really, though, I think he feels guilty over what he almost dropped her into."

“I would never do something like that to someone,” Valdis said.

“No?” Clive asked. “Climbing up those towers, you didn’t face any real risk, but Hildebrand was literally dropped off the building.”

“But we got out, safe and sound, with no small reward for our trouble.”

“This time,” Clive said. “But how many times can you take that kind of risk without it going wrong? And when it does, will you be the one paying the price? My friend has done a lot of good for me. His enthusiasm helped me find the part of myself I’d lost that made me want to be an adventurer. In turn, I need to try and help him avoid making the kind of mistakes that will haunt him. Covering each other’s weaknesses and blind spots is part of being a team.”

Clive nodded his head at the other three, having their own conversation, further ahead.

“I hope your actual team isn’t like them,” Clive said. “They have skills, certainly, but you need people who’ll tell you when you’re wrong.”

“I think I do,” Valdis said, frowning. “There aren’t a lot of people in my life who’ll talk to me like this, though. I don’t suppose I can talk you into changing teams?”

“I’m good, thank you,” Clive said. “I’m pretty sure running around with an outworlder will give me plenty of chances to see some interesting things. Especially this outworlder.”