It took another ten minutes, but in the end Levi and Gremlin Two prevailed.

Staff shattered, health reduced to 1%, the goblin shaman lay helpless and vulnerable, pinned beneath Levi’s foot. Of course it still bit, clawed, snarled, and would invoke its magical aura in another 40 seconds, but for the moment it was contained.

“Serve me,” ordered Levi, activating Tame. His mana and stamina pools dipped, but the skill returned a different message than when he’d tamed Gremlin Two.

RESISTED

Well, he still had plenty of mana and stamina to play with, and potions to replenish each if necessary.

He tried again. “Join me.”

RESISTED

“Stop resisting.”

RESISTED

He glanced at the ‘+’ next to the goblin’s level. It was possible the boss status meant more than simply a 10x health multiplier over standard creatures of the same level.

He continued casting Tame until he’d exhausted his mana supply, and the shaman continued to resist every attempt.

It was beginning to look like bosses weren't meant to be minions.

He considered drinking a mana restorative and continuing his attempts, but the bedazzling effects of absorbing mana in such a concentrated form might be enough to allow his prisoner to strike back. He'd learned long ago that the temporary blindness and other sensory static side effects of mana potions could be just as dangerous during a fight as the physical weakness caused by health restoratives.

Finally admitting defeat, Levi stomped the goblin’s skull in, finishing off its last remaining health. It would be nice to have his own army of overpowered dungeon bosses, but it looked like he'd have to make do without. At least for now. He wasn’t going to give up after one setback. He’d try again in the next dungeon, just to verify it was a boss thing and not a magic-type boss specific ability. And if that didn’t work, he’d just have to wait until he was significantly stronger.

Though even a normal army would be an improvement on the past, he still held out hope that he could do more once his class evolved. He’d seen summoners with seriously impressive entourages in the past.

But for the moment, he’d focus on grinding out the first tier of levels and get to his first evolution.

For loot he’d obtained nothing of real note from this dungeon; enough potions for a net gain of one more weak restorative and a pale green potion of stamina, and a basic wand. No tokens, no equipment.

Wand (Focus, Basic)

Bound spell: (None)

The wand had no spell set into it yet, and mana crafting required the third threshold at level 15 to unlock without specialized training. Levi had never obtained such training, more focused on fighting than creating.

He knew enough of the basics to get started once he gained access to system-assisted crafting, and even if he decided not to pursue crafting himself he knew blank ingredient items would be valuable once people started figuring out what they could do with mana creations.

It did him no good at the moment, so Levi stashed it away for later, then backtracked through the dungeon. He carefully double checked each room in case he’d overlooked lurking enemies or secret side routes.

In general a boss would give significantly more experience than anything else and it was most efficient in use-of-time to go straight for them. In his case, the fact that he needed to waste hours traveling to each new dungeon utterly obliterated any minor increase to experience per minute gains by rushing through. It would be best to squeeze every last possible drop of experience out of each dungeon before moving on.

To his surprise, he did find a passage he’d overlooked the first time, a reverse-facing tunnel that seemed to be intended for an unexpected ambush to rush out behind invaders.

If any such ambush had occurred, it had failed; he had no recollection of anything unusual happening during his previous traversal of this area of the dungeon.

Only one problem: the tunnel was built for gremlin-sized creatures. Levi could probably have squeezed in if he crawled, but his shoulders were too wide and he’d have to scoot in diagonally. Not a good posture for being ready for battle.

Levi handed his dagger back to his minion. “Two, check it out. If you find any enemies, run back to me and we’ll fight them together.”

Gremlin Two nodded acknowledgment and scampered into the tunnel. For a long time, there was only the distant sound of the bog shifting and the slow drip of vile sludge in the nearest swamp room.

Then Gremlin Two ran back, his feet slapping against the soft ground, knife held in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. He presented the paper to Levi with a look of great pride, jumping about and squeaking in excitement.

“What did you find there?” Levi took the page, a perfect square of thick paper, then stared down at it. An expression of shock spread across his face. He stared down at the markings in awe.

Gremlin Two tilted his head curiously.

“It’s a treasure map. I’ve heard of these, they only show up in… maybe one in a thousand dungeon runs. And they always lead to something amazing. Like, a unique four-slot custom weapon, or a special class orb.”

And he'd only found it because he had a minion tiny enough to crawl through an otherwise inaccessible passage. He wondered, how many other basic dungeons had secrets like this, just waiting for the exact right combination of circumstances to uncover them?

Gremlin Two stared up at him, eyes wide with the unspoken question.

Levi grinned. “We’re going after it. No question about it.” The map generally served as both direction and key; he’d need it to access whatever the hidden treasure was.

The markings on the map showed only dungeons, making it difficult to match up to the real world. For a delving team this early in the timeline to locate the right dungeon would require perhaps months of research - unless you happened to have memorized a country-wide map of dungeon locations in a past life.

It took only moments for Levi to orient himself and cross-check the two Destruction dungeons he’d delved so far with the path shown on the map. It headed roughly south and west, a little past Mansfield, west of 71.

The dungeon indicated as the map’s destination was Control type, which lined up well with his aims. Even without the promise of an epic reward, he needed to collect some Control tokens if he wanted any certainty of being able to craft a Summoner class orb when the time came.

Despite Control dungeons being creepy as all get-out, it was something he'd have to face sooner or later, and the map provided some serious incentive.

Something clattered nearby, and Levi’s head jerked up as he tensed, suddenly very alert.

“Sssh!” hissed a voice.

“Someone said treasure map,” someone else whispered. “I want to see.”

“Who’s there?” Levi demanded, his voice strident and carrying as he carefully folded the map and tucked it safely away. “Come out.”

An untidy teen staggered into view at the far end of the corridor, looking very much like he’d been shoved. He glared back toward where he’d emerged from, then grabbed another young man and dragged him out as well.

“Your fault,” the second man hissed.

The first punched him.

“Hey! Cut it out,” snapped Levi, his patience for other humans quite thin at the moment. “What are you doing in here?”

“You’re the weird guy crawling around in secret tunnels.” The scrawnier, dark-haired teen crossed his arms and tried to project menace. He did a very poor job. “Why don’t you tell us?”

“I’m delving this dungeon in order to level up enough to prevent a world-ending disaster from killing those I care about. If you're local and have consistent access to this dungeon, I suggest you get a few more people and start running it regularly. Avoid the boss if you can, but you should be able to level enough to survive the first wave at least.”

The two teens looked at each other, eyes widening. “Crazy bum,” one whispered, circling a finger beside his head to indicate what he thought of Levi’s mental state.

“D’ya think he’s dangerous?”

Levi sighed. “Look, I don’t care if you believe me or not. I’m going to finish searching this dungeon and then I’ll be on my way.”

He stepped forward and the duo backed up. The dark-haired one slipped, one foot splashing into the next room’s pool of rust-hued swamp water with. He yelped and jumped out, shaking his foot and making small pained sounds.

Levi looked out across the swamp, then shook his head. They’d sunk all but two of the stepping-stone hillocks, leaving it all but impossible to traverse.

“Good thing I’m here, or you two would be dead,” Levi mused. If he hadn’t already taken care of the boss, they’d be trapped between the swamp and the exit. Levi had enough health and stamina to survive, but without system-granted protection they’d be lucky to get out alive.

He jerked a thumb back over his shoulder toward the end of the dungeon. “Keep going that way. When you find the big door with a glowing light in it, that’s the exit. You can get out there. I recommend you not come back here again though. Once it respawns its monsters you’ll be in trouble.”

Levi backed up, picked up Gremlin Two and held him to his chest with one arm, then broke into a stamina-fueled sprint. He leaped into the air at the very edge of the swamp, soared over it for a moment before hitting the first of the two remaining hillocks. Immediately he pushed off again, stretching further this time, and landed on the other. This one was too far from either shore, but he leapt again anyway. He landed in the pool with a splash, but his momentum carried him forward as he jumped the final distance and landed safely on the far shore.

The two teens stared after him, disbelief written all over their faces. He had just out-distanced the average Olympic long jumper, after all.

Levi grinned with exhilaration, feeling the satisfying thrill of a perfectly accomplished undertaking. He set Gremlin Two back down, breathing hard from the exertion.

But he couldn't resist turning back to the awestruck teens one last time.

Levi waved in farewell. “If you survive what’s coming, remember this day. You’ll be able to tell your grandchildren you were the first group to be in the same dungeon as Levi Morrison.”

Then he turned away, Gremlin Two trotting at his side, feeling their eyes follow him as he went.

He felt quite confident they would not forget him now.