The second dungeon bore almost no resemblance to the first. This one was swamp-themed, and had those frustrating sinking hillocks that you had to jump from one to the next as they slowly vanished into the corrosive sludge beneath.

Worse, several times it happened that the next one he jumped to turned out to be a pile of slimy stones only barely held together by the drapery of moss. These wouldn't sink, but shifted under his foot and scattered apart, giving him only split seconds to make the next jump before the collapse would plunge him knee-deep in the vile bog.

Still, despite the frustrating environment, Levi easily subjugated the first gremlin he encountered. He added it to his roster with the designation Gremlin Two. He had grown attached to Skarm, but as levels became harder to attain he didn’t want to tie up too many of his limited minion slots with low level minions.

Until he found or leveled a dungeon higher, gremlins seemed to be his only option at the moment, but he knew he'd want more variety eventually. It would be nice to try at least one of everything to see how they scaled; most of all he wanted his roster to be flexible until he had sufficient information to optimize it.

Plus, he still wanted an ogre, even if subjugating one was currently beyond his capabilities. Maybe he should try for a non-boss ogre first. They should start showing up in dungeons around level 5.

Gremlin Two resembled Skarm only superficially, his skin had a greenish yellow hue that accentuated his scrawny frame with dark patchy markings down his side instead of Skarm’s mottled lavender. Also, Gremlin Two’s default initial stat point had been pre-allocated to Strength instead of Spirit, giving him a little more health at the expense of stamina.

That discovery made Levi wonder how dungeon minions got their level gains. Did the dungeon assign points for them? Or did they choose their own? Gremlin Two only squeaked in confusion when Levi tried questioning him.

Apart from the different environment, this dungeon played out quite similar to the first. Levi moved more cautiously this time, restraining his impatience as much as possible, and made use of his potions to speed up recovery once after a particularly large gremlin swarm got a few lucky hits in. This dungeon relied less on traps and more on environmental hazards, many of which necessitated Levi carrying Gremlin Two across them.

But in so far as a dungeon run could ever be said to be uneventful, this one was entirely uneventful. He found the boss room shortly after reaching level 4, while Gremlin Two had also obtained level 2. He’d saved his own point to assign once he had time to think about it, but put Gremlin Two’s into Strength. Since he’d been started on that path, may as well see if the extra regen made him better able to survive.

This time Levi did not enter the boss room immediately. He returned to the treasure room, where he'd already collected the health restorative and two bundles of shiny plant stems he knew could be sold to alchemists.

This time he was determined to force himself to actually wait until all his pools were full before attempting the boss fight. He’d already proven that an unprepared Levi plus one gremlin wouldn’t suffice to deal with a boss. He considered backtracking instead. He could find another dungeon before challenging a boss, increase his level and minion count. At level 5 he’d start unlocking ability points, so he could increase his options in combat.

“What do you think, Two?” Levi asked his green-skinned gremlin.

Gremlin Two shrugged and pointed at Levi’s knife.

“I know you want a weapon, but you’ll have to be patient. Right now I need this one.”

Level 1 dungeons were a strange combination of too easy and strangely difficult. The early rooms could be cleared within an hour or two in relative safety. But the boss fights… that + in their names really wasn’t an exaggeration.

But now wasn’t the time to start hedging his bets.

Levi checked his stats, then added the point to Strength. Health was his largest pool by default, but his regen was abysmal.

Levi Morrison Unassigned Levels: 0 Stat Points: 0 Ability Points: 0 Primary Class: Tamer Tamer Level: 4 Subclass: None Strength: 1 Health: 107/125 Health Regen: 2 /minute Psyche: 2 Mana: 45/45 Mana Regen: 3 /minute Spirit: 1 Stamina: 28/75 Stamina Regen: 2 /minute Minions 2 of 2 Name Level Type Strength Psyche Spirit Health Mana Stamina Skarm 2 Horned Gremlin 0 0 2 0/50 (-/min) 0/0 (-/min) 0/70 (-/min) Gremlin Two 2 Horned Gremlin 2 0 0 60 (3/min) 0 (1/min) 50 (1/min)

It would be best to bring his regens all to at least 4, maybe 6, before he started making stat assignment choices based on any other considerations. After a while, the difference a single point provided would hardly matter - from 30 health per minute to 31 health per minute was hardly noticeable - but at the lower levels it mattered a lot. The difference between recovering a health point every 20 seconds vs every 30 seconds was considerable.

Another consideration was that the higher he leveled, the less benefit he’d gain from grinding level 1 dungeons over and over. The experience required to level increased pretty steeply after the early initial levels. It would probably take a minumum of two dungeons to reach level 5, and since they only respawned every 24 hours, that meant he’d need to roam further and further to find suitable grinding spots.

It was both a blessing and a curse being the only one aware of the true stakes of the world. He could get a head start, preparing for the coming fight months before the first demons ever arrived, but he also had to wait for everyone else to get up to speed before he’d be able to find on-level dungeons or trade with crafters.

Dungeons tended to level faster than humans as long as they had a steady stream of delvers to test themselves against, but with Levi running them solo he knew it would take longer. A level one dungeon could be leveled by a standard party of five in two days, but on his own it would take a week or more. And the newly level-2 dungeon would still be underpowered compared to him.

He needed to get word out to the rest of the world somehow. If he could convince them to start grinding dungeons globally, then not only would there be leveled dungeons waiting for him, but humanity as a whole would be better prepared for the coming demonic invasion.

A problem for another day. He’d already endured more awkward human interaction today than he wanted.

Trying to convince the world about a coming apocalypse when most people weren’t even aware of the existence of the dungeons, without getting himself locked up or scoffed out of town? Nope. He was not ready to face that just yet. Maybe once he had an army at his back and a full set of mana-powered armor and weapons.

His health and stamina weren’t entirely full, but he was getting antsy waiting around here pondering all the problems of the future. He’d rather get to confronting the problems of the present.

“Let’s just do this.”

Gremlin Two scampered obediently behind him. The dungeon had respawned two gremlins between the treasure room and the boss room, but Levi didn’t have any problems taking them out.

Levi pushed open the door to the boss room, assessing the room at a glance. A goblin in ragged robes adorned with bones stood at the center of the room, his staff glowing with the same corrosive yellow-green light as a dozen crystals implanted in the walls.

Level 1+

(Goblin Shaman)

Health 100%

Levi had seen enough similar rooms that he quickly understood the trick. He'd need to destroy the crystals from range - they'd probably explode upon impact, fooling most people into assuming they were traps rather than essential targets - and after that it would be easy enough for them to take the shaman down in a physical contest.

If neglected, the shaman would slowly empower himself by draining power from the crystals, eventually growing strong enough to morph into a more dangerous second form if none of the crystals were destroyed.

But even if he knew the trick to it, smashing crystals at a distance would be easier said than done with Levi’s current equipment.

Almost all the abilities Levi knew well enough to unlock himself were utility spells that everyone knew, most of which required more than his maximum mana to cast, or Fighter and Swordsman abilities requiring prohibitive quantities of stamina. He could try pushing mana out in raw bursts like he’d done to topple the pillar on the ogre, but that was too weak an impact to shatter crystal.

At least it wasn't another ogre. Goblins, while tricky and dangerous in swarms, were never known for their ability to stomp your skull in. He could work with this.

Levi backed away from the door and turned to his gremlin. “Alright, Two. Here’s the plan.”