Levi started stomping shadevines immediately, thankful for the boss room’s relative brightness compared to the outside rooms. There were still small clouds of drifting darkness, but for the most part it would be only a minor deterrent to the team.

Cen and Centoo moved in a rapid circle, pushing away any shadevines to clear a space for the rest of the group, while Frosty spat webbing as fast as she could. The first minute was complete chaos, then things calmed somewhat as the centipedes cleared enough space for the rest to fight unhindered.

Levi ran along the wall, slashing through the shadevines clinging to it while crushing those beneath him underfoot. As the best armored of anyone, he could do the most damage safely. He kept reflexively checking his health, then retreated to the group any time it started to drop. Skarm was on shadevine-removal duty, since he had relatively little health compared to the others and high mobility, and he’d clear any that made their way up an ally’s leg or dropped on their head from the ceiling.

Cen and Centoo were wearing down, far too fast for Levi’s comfort, as the ones in most direct contact with the swarm. But the swarm was also thinning fast.

Gordon stomped around, smacking the flat of his sword against the walls or floor to crush shadevines by the dozen.

Even though each was part of the boss encounter and designated as a ‘Level 2+’, they still had far less health than the average boss would. Whatever multiplier was applied to plus designations, it wasn’t enough to overcome the shadevines’ natural five health.

“I leveled!” Gordon shouted, midway through the fight. “Revive and Dismay?”

“Yes.”

“One point left. I’m going to put it in Dismay.”

“Okay.” That sounded like a good move. Levi continued his crusade against the shadevines, jumping in to swat away a group moving toward Frosty, then crushing another group that had been snared by one of her webs.

“Should I go with less health recovery, or more resistance decrease?”

“Resistance decrease.”

“Done. Should I try it out?”

“On what?”

Gordon gestured around at the shadevines. “I have another minion slot now, too.”

Levi considered. Given their relatively minimal danger on their own, a plus level shadevine would be the perfect test subject. “Find the sturdiest one.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Any that don’t die in one hit, I guess. Flomper? Can you keep an eye out? Grab three or four, in case we accidentally kill one.”

The cynomis poked her head out of the floor to glare at Levi, but she shrugged and nodded.

Three quarters of the swarm had been cleared by now, and Levi was starting to worry that the centipedes wouldn’t last to the end.

Frosty had run out of mana and was limited to spitting her webs much more slowly now, running back and forth anxiously in the meantime. She did bite any shadevine that managed to climb up on Cen, but otherwise appearing flustered and unfocused.

“Frosty, help Flomper find the strongest one, then focus on webbing it up so it won’t escape.”

The spider looked relieved to have a clear direction and immediately ran up the wall to confer with Flomper.

They were down to few enough shadevines that Levi could start making out individual health percentages now. None differed significantly from what he'd observed. All were divisible either by 20 or 4, indicating those with Strength or those without.

None seemed to have higher health than that.

"Cen, get back and stay out of the fight," Levi ordered. His health was down to single digits now, and the others weren’t doing much better. “Skarm, Centoo, be ready to pull back.”

Gordon was still running around, stomping and slashing, but their opponents were thinned out to the point that they were no longer a severe threat. Only if they got complacent or stopped being vigilant would it be a problem.

“Centoo, out.”

By now, there were few enough shadevines that the team could easily move away from them. Levi swatted two away from Gordon that he hadn’t noticed before, then the two of them set about clearing the rest of the room, leaving only the handful of shadevines Flomper and Frosty had captured and designated as their test subjects.

Even now, the tenacious little vines were slipping tendrils out between the strands of webbing holding them in place, growing and stretching in desperate attempts to reach something to drain.

For a time, they all stood back, until they’d recovered enough to begin.

“So, how does this work?” Gordon asked. “Just… cast it?”

“It has to be within taming range first. Which is quite simple with these guys.” Levi reached down with a gloved hand and began tearing off shadevine tendrils until their first target was down to 4%. “Go ahead.”

Gordon cast Dismay, then Tame.

“It says Resisted.”

Levi tore off a few more of the quickly-regrown offshoots until it reached 4% again.

“Resisted.”

They repeated this eight times, pausing for Gordon’s mana to regenerate between every few sets. Finally, on the tenth try, he grinned.

“Success! You will be Plus.”

The tag on the shadevine changed to indicate its new name.

“Well?” Levi asked, impatient. “What are the stats?”

“25 health, 110 mana, 40 stamina.”

Levi checked that against the shadevine on his wrist. “Exactly the same? But it was a plus!”

“Maybe in this case the plus was referring to the number of them?”

“I don’t think so. What are its growth numbers?”

“20 health, 25 mana, 1 stamina. Wow, no wonder they’re so slow.”

“That’s the same. That can’t be right.”

Gordon shrugged. “It does say ‘+’ still. Maybe it’ll grow faster?”

Levi sighed. “Guess so. You planning to keep it?”

Gordon prodded the limp shadevine. “It doesn’t drain automatically?”

“I think it’s like Flomper’s innate ability, something that costs a tiny amount of mana. Shadevine here hasn’t been hurting me in the least.” Levi prodded his own shadevine still tied around his wrist.

Shadevine, predictably, didn’t respond in any way.

“I hope one of their abilities is the option to grow a personality,” Levi grumbled.

“Apart from stamina, the growth numbers are very good,” Gordon said. “Too bad they’re so small and fragile.”

“They won’t always be. I’ve heard stories about shadevine big enough to drop down and wrap you up completely like a constrictor. These are just level 2 babies. If we keep them around long enough and evolve them right, they’ll be really dangerous. Their slow speed is going to be a problem though. They’re really best suited as ambush defenders.” He supposed he could set some up to protect his house, but it would be hard for them to level in that kind of scenario. “Taking them into dungeons will almost always result in them dying or being useless. We’ll need to find a strategy for leveling them safely if we want to study them further. They won't be much use if we need to constantly waste revive slots on them.”

“Oh! I can revive your second gremlin now!” Gordon exclaimed. “It’s only fair, after you revived Flomper for me.”

Levi smiled. “You’re right.” He carefully took Two’s body from his backpack, still perfectly preserved in the same condition it had been before. Something about the connection of maintaining the minion bond prevented decay - for which he was very thankful.

“Oh.” Gordon frowned. “Even at full, I don’t have enough mana. I’m sorry.”

Levi sighed and replaced Two into the bag. “Another few hours won’t hurt. You should probably put your next point into psyche now that you have spells.”

“Yeah, I will. I’m really sorry.”

Levi waved it away. “No problem. You’ll get there. Everyone starts out low level at first.”

“Do you want to tame any more of these?” Gordon gestured to the remaining plus shadevines.

Levi looked at the one on his wrist, then at the plus-designated ones. On the one hand, it made sense to upgrade, even if the plus was nebulous promise without substance. But he wasn’t planning to keep the shadevine around anyway. He wanted the Rift Cat, and would gladly sacrifice the fragile vine in return. It had done nothing to show loyalty, and Levi felt no guilt in discarding it. “You can keep them if you want.”

“No minion slots free at the moment.” Gordon squished the last few shadevines, ending the boss encounter.

The door opened.

“Wait here,” Levi said. “I’ll go fetch the Rift Cat.”