The items that had dropped from the rabbits turned out to be the currency of the world, small hexagonal chips of iron. Oliver showed the group his satchel and they agreed that he should be the carrier of things, since none of the others even had pockets.

The pathways of the burrow were not straight, twisting and slightly dropping as they walked, but the path was linear with no forks or branching paths. The next chamber was slightly larger than the last and four rabbits identical to the first two popped out when the group entered.

“Oliver, sweep left to right! Rose, keep them from flanking us on the right!” Cora shouted as they engaged. Oliver realized as he was calling his spear back from the second rabbit that Cora stepped into the leadership role like a natural. He wondered what part of her background gave her such a good sense for tactics.

The fight went much better than the first thanks to their coordination. Oliver took the rabbits out one at a time while Cora, Rose, and Silas kept them tied up. With Nada healing them and topping off their stamina, the group didn’t even feel tired after the fight, just a bit sweaty.

“Um, excuse me?”

The group froze and turned to Silas. The boy hadn’t said a word outside of directly answering questions since they’d met him, so him speaking out was a shock. Oliver realized that the boy was shrinking from their collective attention and averted his gaze while keeping his ears open.

“Um, well, we should be careful of the next group,” the boy near whispered.

Cora gave the boy her full attention, showing him that she was taking what he had to say seriously. “What is it, Silas?”

“Well, the first group was two and the second was four, if the next is eight, then...”

Oliver’s eyes snapped around to the other members of the group and widened. It was Nada that voiced the problem that Silas noticed.

“If they double every time...”

“Then we’ll be fighting eight the next time and be buried under bunny bodies soon.”

Cora turned her gaze to Oliver, “What does the ring say about this dungeon? It led us here, after all.”

Oliver was silent for a moment then he grimaced. “It says that there are six levels.”

“Sixty-four!” Nada shouted.

“Ring says that it is a ‘good test of teamwork’. Apparently, there are even tougher dungeons on this Stage, but the ring won’t tell us where they are unless we clear this one.”

Rose clamped a hand on Nada’s shoulder, much to the other woman’s chagrin. “Hey, with Nada’s magic, we can handle it! I’ve never felt better, a few more bunnies won’t give us any trouble.”

“Hey, don’t lay this on me. I can only heal so fast and only one at a time,” Nada cautioned.

Cora thumped her shields on the ground. “Then we gotta be even more careful, don’t we?”

The group felt their hearts sink when eight rabbits showed up in the next chamber. Cora directed them to slide along the right-hand wall a few meters to put their backs up against a wall to limit the rabbits ability to get behind them.

Oliver found that he was no longer able to stay stationary and launch his spear. There were simply too many enemies to dodge. He glanced across the group and saw Rose in the same position, dodging and weaving around the rabbits while throwing punches. She was forced to dodge three to four attacks for each punch she returned, but thankfully Nada was able to top their stamina up occasionally to keep the battle from being one of attrition. Their side wouldn’t flag unless overwhelmed, while the rabbits were slowly whittled down.

Oliver took one rabbit out right out of the gate, leaving him three or four to handle on his own. Silas’s lightning bolts were mostly going towards Rose’s side, since the boxer was struggling to put any of her rabbits down for good. Her punches landed solidly, knocking each hit rabbit back several feet, but they were back into the fray after only a few moments.

His spear rocketed out of his hand a fraction of a second before he saw the attack incoming. Oliver knew that the rabbit coming from his right was going to make contact and that the feet flying towards his head would hurt. His eyes caught sight of a wood and iron slab of shield sweeping out just in time to swat the rabbit out of the air like a fly. Cora’s shield flew back the few feet it had swept out, blocking another flying body aimed at Nada.

“Thanks!” Oliver shouted out, calling his spear back and looking for a fresh target. The rabbit that had gotten smacked by the shield was hobbling back towards him. Shield must have broken some part of its leg, he thought as his next throw put it down. Broken leg didn’t stop its suicidal attack charge, though.

Rose finally dropped one of the rabbits hard enough for it to dissolve, which put the group at four rabbits down and four to go.

Silas’s shocking attack held one of Rose’s rabbits locked down in place, so Oliver took an extra second to slip out and line up his next shot a little more strategically. The spear punched through the first rabbit, carrying its body back into the rabbit being shocked. The spear nailed the two together and they both took the brunt of Silas’s attack momentarily before turning to dust.

With only one rabbit left, Rose called out, “Mine! Leave this one!”

The young woman was a whole head shorter than Oliver, which still put her above the rabbits, but not by as much. She danced in and out, dodging the rabbit’s attacks and trying to land her own. Every half-minute, a green glow from Nada would top off her stamina, and Rose kept going. Finally she landed a solid uppercut on the rabbit’s jaw, sending it flying off its feet, dissolving into dust before it hit the ground.

Nada plopped down onto the ground and huffed, “That was eight! How are we supposed to handle sixty-four?!”

Cora and Oliver gathered the drops from the rabbits and found something new amongst the credit chips: two tiny cakes with decorative icing that read, “Eat Me”.

“Oh boy,” Cora announced. “We’ve got something fun here.”

The others crowded around the older woman and Oliver as they examined the cakes. Oliver relayed the ring’s answer to the question that it predicted was coming. “Ring says that these are Strength boosts, plus one to Strength. Permanently.”

Nada picked up one of the cakes and looked it over. “It’s a little bit... What's that British story? Alice?”

Cora nodded. “Yup, Alice in Wonderland. Recognized it right away from the cartoon. Answer me this: Why does a magic alien space System know Lewis Carroll? That’s been buggin’ me for a while now. This all seems a bit too... human.”

Oliver nodded. “The ring says that it doesn’t know the origins of the System, but that it seems to take inspiration from the myths and stories of the species it puts through the Tutorial.”

Rose snapped her fingers and shouted, “I knew it! That viking guy in the third Stage, they sounded like a character from a video game I’ve played!”

“Can’t wait to get dropped into a comedy show or something,” Cora added. “Long as they don’t use reality TV, I guess I’m game.”

At that, all of the adults nodded.

“So,” Nada asked, “who gets the Strength? How are we distributing the loot?”

“Well, it makes sense to give things to the people who can make the most use of it,” Oliver answered. “You and Silas don’t use Strength in your build. What about you, Cora?”

Cora shook her head. “Nope. That’s the benefit of that perk you told me about, I can block with my Intelligence rather than Strength. I don’t even know if I could lift both of those shields, truth be told.”

“Fine,” Nada said dismissively, waving her hand. “Rose and Oliver take one each. I just want to make sure everyone benefits, is all.”

“Fair enough. If the ring is telling the truth, I think there’s something in here for you anyway, we just have to get there.”

Nada seemed mollified by Oliver’s teaser and relaxed a bit. Cora offered the cake she held to Rose, who took it hesitantly.

“I don’t want to take more than my fair share,” she said as she examined the cake.

“Oh, just eat it,” Nada chastised. “It’s not like I’m going to be punching any bunnies anytime soon.”

Oliver and Rose locked eyes and nodded before eating their tiny cakes in one bite. The cake didn’t really have any flavor to it at all, but Oliver felt the Strength come immediately. Since he had hit a ten in Strength, the ring had him switch to Agility, so the consumable put him at eleven Strength, which he realized meant that he should now be stronger than any human before the System.

Rose worked the muscles in her arms while checking herself over. “It’s weird,” she commented. “I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, maybe hitting even harder than Iron Mike, but I’m not any bigger. I can’t imagine a featherweight throwing shots like a heavyweight, much less a superheavy.”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah, my spear has a perk that lets me throw it as if I had an extra twenty percent Strength and that’ll only increase as I upgrade it.”

Nada looked intrigued by the numbers conversation. “Fascinating. I would kill to have some instruments to measure the speed and force. This System is amazing.”

Oliver’s expression fell into something dark. “Yeah. Amazing.” He gripped his spear and headed for the exit to the chamber.

“What? What did I say?” Nada asked.

Cora leaned over and whispered into her ear and Nada’s mouth dropped open. For once, her face lost a bit of the arrogance and hostility it usually carried, and she looked genuinely remorseful.

Rose gave Nada a sympathetic smile as the group hustled to catch up with Oliver and prepare for the next fight.

The group stopped just shy of the entrance to the next big chamber. Eight foes had been a chore and now they faced double that amount.

“Is there some way we can, I don’t know, cheese it?” Rose asked.

Cora cocked her head at the phrasing. “Cheese?” she asked.

Oliver was familiar with the term and explained. “It means to find an exploit. Complete a task by finding some method that the makers did not intend. What did you have in mind?” he asked Rose.

“Well, this passageway is a natural choke point. What if one of us triggered the mob, then ran back to where everyone was waiting? It would help Cora keep them off of us, and you would have a long, straight shooting lane for your spear.”

Cora pursed her lips and nodded. “Not bad,” she praised. “So long as this thing don’t throw us another sixteen when we go back the second time.”

Rose grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Still,” Cora continued, “I think we chance it. At least we’ll know if it works for the next group. Make the thirty-two and sixty-four groups a might bit easier if it does.”

Nada looked around their group. “So, who’s going to play bait?” she asked.

Rose didn’t hesitate and started limbering up. “That’ll be my job.” She knelt down by Barton and rubbed the dog behind the ears. “Barton, buddy, can you give me that Agility buff when I go?”

Oliver was impressed when Barton barked his assent. The dog was really becoming more intelligent as they grew. He wondered if a point would come when Barton would be able to communicate back to them.

Rose smiled at the bark. “Alright, bud. Let’s do this.”