Levi slid into the water with a small splash, then hit the bottom hard enough his stamina dropped by more than half.

Uninjured, he squinted into the dark stinging liquid in search of the way forward he knew must be hidden there. As he’d guessed, the corrosive content was low enough that it didn’t outpace his regen. His health flicked down, then back up, then down and back up in a steady rhythm.

Feeling at the floors and wall of the pit, he took less than a minute to find the outlet. Angled sharply upward, it came out in a new tunnel lit with the same vague luminance as the rest of the dungeon. Mentally marking the direction, he dove back down and swam back through to the pit.

“Come on down, I’ve found the detour.”

Intended as deadly gauntlets for the unwary, with how much the team outleveled the dungeon any detour would instead be little more than nicely pre-bundled experience. Only the bosses held much danger for them now they had a full team of four.

No sooner had Levi declared it to be safe than Skarm and Gremlin Two jumped in, as though trying to outdo one another with their alacrity. Levi pointed them in the direction of the outlet and they dove under at once.

“Gordon? You coming?”

A thunderous splash heralded Gordon’s arrival, and Levi guided him to the outlet so they could climb out into the next passageway of the layer beneath.

“Ueugh, that’s nasty.” Gordon shook his arms to fling off as much of the mildly-corrosive water as possible, then spat a few times for good measure. “You sure this is a good idea?”

“I am. You and Skarm need to level up as quickly as possible. Lead on, do your best, and I’ll step in if things get out of control.”

Gordon looked at Skarm.

Skarm tilted his head back to grin up at him, then swaggered forward as though to say ‘If you’re not going to start, I will.’

Levi grinned. “Good luck.”

Skarm led the way, Gordon close beside him, while Levi and Two followed at a moderate distance. They’d still get some experience from any fights the others engaged in, as they were all in the same group, but the majority of it would go to those in the front.

Of course, as this was still only a generic level 1 destruction dungeon, the grand ambush of this hidden trap corridor of death... were still only gremlins. Three of them sprang out at the front, two diving on Skarm from hollows in the wall, while the third ran at Gordon from behind.

Skarm did not slow down or take prisoners, but immediately turned into a snarling ball of flashing claws and glinting teeth, horn goring his first adversary before it had time to realize its prey was moving faster than it anticipated.

Levi could tell Skarm was burning his stamina hard and fast, clearly eager to show he could make up for the fact that he was behind the others in level, and that he had no intention of dying again.

Gordon on the other hand was having a harder time of it. He was bigger and stronger than the gremlin clinging to his back, but he was untrained and had only the big, clumsy greatsword.

Levi watched his health, ready to jump in if necessary, but Gordon quickly proved that lack of swordsmanship did not equate to incompetence in a fight.

Gordon flailed helplessly for a bit, then seemed to center himself. He tossed the sword aside, grabbed the gremlin on his back with both hands, and yanked it off. Blood trickled down his back, lines of red streaking his bracers as the gremlin tried to claw at them without much effect.

He threw it at the wall, then ran over to the stunned creature and set about kicking it to death.

Good. Levi would have to work on his bladework and not throwing away his weapon, but at least he had the right instincts for combat.

Skarm meanwhile was looking the worse for wear. He'd done serious damage in the initial clash, but he was outnumbered and burning through his stamina too quickly. His two opponents quickly capitalized on his erratic attack bursts to flank and evade. He was wearing them down, but not as quickly as they were hurting him.

Still, Levi couldn't help but admire his gusto. Both his foes were bleeding from countless scratches and despite their best efforts neither was able to pin Skarm down.

Before he could decide to step in, Gordon realized his opponent was dead and spun to help the beleaguered gremlin. With a roar, he threw himself into the fray, kicking the first gremlin away from Skarm and grabbing the other by the leg. It squealed and clawed, but Gordon's bracers continued doing their job with excellence and only a few stray scratches reached him.

Skarm pounced on the other gremlin just as it leaped to its feet, ducking beneath its wild swing and closing in. His head twisted, his horn coming down, and he swiped it through the enemy gremlin's neck with a stamina-charged blow that nearly severed his target's head completely. Skarm hissed in triumph, shoving the body aside, then turned to Gordon and the final ambusher.

Skarm's eyes flicked to the gremlin hanging in the air as Gordon punched it in the face again and again, then to the greatsword lying discarded on the floor. He ran over and grabbed the sword, though it was almost twice as tall as he was, and with a small grunt hefted it in both hands. He nearly toppled backwards with the overbalance, but regained his stance and stood, tiny chest heaving with the effort.

Then he lunged and jumped, stabbing the struggling gremlin in Gordon’s hand through the back. Skarm dropped the sword to jump up and down on the dead gremlin until it began dissolving away back into the dungeon, teeth gleaming as he laughed.

Two was looking off nonchalantly, anywhere except at Skarm, trying unsuccessfully to seem above it all.

Levi couldn’t help but chuckle fondly. It was good to have the whole team together.

Gordon blinked, looking a bit stunned, and retrieved his sword. Breathing heavily, he turned to Levi and shook his head. "I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to this."

"You will."

Gordon gave a short laugh. "Yeah. Guess so. You're the last person I'd have ever expected to end up involved in something like this. If you can get used to it, guess I can too."

"I'm sorry," Levi said quietly. "I wouldn't wish this fight on anyone. If there were any way for me to do this all myself and not drag anyone else into it, I would. But this is too big for any one person to handle. Even once I have an army of max level summons, other people are still going to have to fight before I can do anything about it. A thousand portals all across the planet... there's no way to stop them all myself."

"And you don't have to. We'll get word out. I promise. The whole world will be ready."

Levi shook his head. "We won't be ready. There's no way to be ready. Even I won't be ready, and I've lived through it all once before. But we'll be as well prepared as possible."

"Have you considered informing the military?"

Levi shook his head. "They can't do much. They'll be able to hold off the imps for a few days, but elites and generals and Lords can rip a tank into scrap metal in seconds. Bullets won't do a thing unless they're individually mana-inscribed, and even if we got everyone Awakened today we couldn't get enough crafters ready in time. It would be better to have new Awakened focus on spells and mana weaponry rather than trying to retrofit our existing tech."

"Not much is a lot more than nothing. Do you know where the portals will open?"

Levi started to nod, then hesitated. "No," he finally admitted. "Not for the first wave. I know a few of the more famous ones, but I wasn't paying nearly as much attention at that time. I know the general location of every known dungeon, and most of the North American portals in waves five through seven. This far back, there are only a handful I could pinpoint. Pelican Narrows, Lyon, Cardiff, Orlando..."

Alturas.

Levi swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

The first time around, he'd dismissed the strange system 'Awakening' as a hallucination and all but forgotten it, moving on with his life. He'd been as blindsided as the rest of the world when months later a crackling circle of purple fire tore the residential district in half and poured an army of demons out into the world.

"Levi?"

"I don't know," he said, wrenching his attention back to the moment, forcing his mind to focus on Gordon and Skarm and the fact, the truth, the reality that this was before and it hadn't happened and it wouldn't happen again. "We should keep going."

Keep fighting. Keep leveling. Keep moving. He wouldn't let it happen again. He would not be helpless and afraid and useless. Not this time.

"You okay, man?"

"No." His voice came out clipped, harsher than he'd intended. "It doesn't matter. Keep going. Skarm, lead on."

The gremlin looked at him, then nodded and scampered on ahead. Gordon, reluctantly, followed. Levi stepped after them, Two at his side.

When the next gremlin ambushed them, it took all his self control not to charge into the fray. And when they finished the detour eight gremlins later, and he looked at the boss room door three rooms after that, he didn't even pause before throwing it open and stepping inside.