"We really should try to get you some equipment," Levi said, looking Gordon over as they headed back to the car. "I'll look into it and see what I can find." He was going to be negotiating with the Doom Raiders XXX anyway for the missing Seed Fragment after all, and he had a decent amount of tradable goods now.

"I don't need—"

"Yes you do. No arguing. You're going to run out of changes of clothes soon, I don't care how over-prepared you were for the conference. And you'll do much better with proper equipment. You need to start getting more comfortable with fighting directly. Directing minions from a distance is all well and good, but of the Tamers I’ve met, none of them died because of misdirected minions; they all died because something got up close and they weren’t ready."

Gordon pursed his lips, then nodded. “I can’t help but notice that, despite advising the gamer kid to get a large group, you have only you and me.”

"I’ll have Irene and Peter soon. As soon as we finish this treasure hunt."

“And the four of us will, what, quietly amass an army and save the world?”

Levi shrugged. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I’m doing here. Apart from trying to warn as many people as possible, and find a way to keep my family safe, anything more is…” he shrugged again and pulled out his phone to check for any other trade offers, hoping Gordon would drop it. Thinking about the future always made him feel overwhelmed and useless. He much preferred to live in the moment.

The screen remained black. He frowned and held down the button to restart it. "Looks like it's lost its charge," he said, though he knew better. They’d just charged it in the car before this dungeon, it shouldn’t be dead yet. His mana presence was growing too strong, now. He could probably have prolonged its life a few more days if he'd stored it somewhere other than his pocket, but at least this way he knew not to be careless with the laptop. He had warning.

His time with technology was rapidly coming to an end.

“I don’t know,” Gordon said, after a long silence. “I feel like there should be more we could be doing, you know?”

“If you have suggestions, please, tell me.”

“There should be lots of people willing to accept the reality of dungeons and stuff, right? If these guys are any example.” He waved a hand vaguely back towards Tom’s house. “And what about the military? They could use dungeons to train. I’m sure they’d be quick to integrate them into their regimens.”

“You’d be surprised how much bureaucracy gets in the way.” Levi sighed. “It took them a stupidly long time to do anything useful with them, and it’s not until they have it forcefully driven through their thick skulls that they can’t just throw their machines at it that they’ll even bother trying. In their eyes, magic is strictly inferior and should be avoided for its interference with their perfectly capable technology.”

Not that there weren’t secret divisions doing their darnedest to exploit manatech for all it was worth, but there was no way to expedite the process that Levi could think of. Heck, the military knew more about dungeons than anyone else at this point, they’d been fast to confiscate the first few, until they realized they couldn’t actually control all of them.

But whatever they ended up doing, it was out of Levi’s hands. He had no interest in getting caught up in their nonsense any sooner than absolutely necessary.

Once the centipedes were loaded, Levi and Becca took off running while Gordon drove to the motel. They took shadowed alleys as much as possible. Levi wanted to keep the presence of what could be seen as a dangerous wildcat off the radar as long as could be managed.

While he waited for Gordon to settle down to sleep, Levi thought over what he’d said. Was there anyone else he could recruit? All the names that flitted through his mind were people he’d never known before, people he’d met in the years of fighting against the demonic invaders.

He didn’t know the first thing about their personal lives prior to the madness. For a while he imagined it, reuniting with Ricardo and Sayre… or Theo… Rob, Jen and Xyler… Marcus and Eli… Adon…

Too many to remember. He felt a moment of guilt for the people he’d fought alongside and now remembered only as a presence. Would he even recognize them if they stood before him? He doubted it.

Levi slipped out without bothering to try sleeping, sipping a stamina elixir to keep himself alert. Their restorative supply was looking good now, and he needed to do something. All this thinking was going to drive him into a depression if he didn't cut it off first. Besides, there was a good chance he would be able to level someone tonight. They'd all been increasing faster than he'd ever anticipated, the level curve increasing steadily but less steeply than he'd initially feared.

Becca came out from an alleyway where she'd been lurking, falling into step beside him as silently as a shadow. Levi opened the trunk and urged Cen to come out, then walked around to retrieve Centoo from the back seat.

Flomper glared at him judgmentally from between the front seats.

"Don't you dare rat me out." Levi leaned inside the car, playfully bopping her nose.

Flomper rubbed at it with her paws, squinting irritably.

"I'll bring you some bacon next time we go shopping," Levi promised, lowering his voice. "If you like fries, you'll love bacon."

Flomper crossed her paws, unconvinced.

“You’ll love it, I promise,” Levi continued to wheedle, until she finally relented and nodded. "Deal. I'll get you food, you never mention this to Gordon."

He quietly closed the door, only to realize Frosty had slipped out and was currently hiding between Cen and Centoo.

“Frosty, you need to wait here. Gordon will never forgive me if I get you killed.”

Frosty crouched down rebelliously beneath Cen’s leg, watching Levi with her many big spider eyes.

“I’m not going until you’re back in the car.”

Frosty spat webbing onto the door handle, staring defiantly at Levi as if to say, 'now what are you going to do?'

“Why are Gordon’s minions so intractable?” Levi sighed. “Alright, you want to come that bad, I’ll let you, but you have to promise me three things. Cooperate and get back in the car as soon as we get back, never mention this to anyone, and clean up your mess before we go. Got it?”

Frosty bobbed up and down happily. She ran over to the car, jumped up and gathered up all the webbing onto her front legs like it were cotton candy, then stuffed it back in her mouth before running after Levi like an eager puppy. Before she reached him, she stopped abruptly and bolted back to the car.

"If you're coming, come."

Frosty jumped up and down insistently.

"Now you want back in?" Levi exhaled irritably, but opened the car door.

Frosty waved a leg at Flomper instead of entering. Flomper reluctantly grabbed Plus and tossed the shadevine to Frosty. The spider caught it and nudged it to wrap around her foreleg like an armband.

With another wave of farewell to Flomper, Frosty turned away and sprinted to jump on Becca's back. Always one to snatch a free ride, it seemed.

Levi smirked. He couldn't wait to see the look on the spider's face when her new mount teleported out from under her.

They headed to another unknown Destruction dungeon nearby, not wanting to risk encountering an Essence in one of those that had been tampered with by the locals. Clearing level 1 dungeons had become so simple, he'd be willing to bet that any one of the minions could do it on their own.

Cen, Centoo, and Becca set about clearing the gremlins with brutal efficiency, chomping and slashing with unstoppable force. They outleveled the dungeon enough that nothing could touch them.

Frosty, on the other hand, preferred a different approach. She'd run silently up behind or above an unsuspecting gremlin, drop Plus down on them along with a mouthful of web to distract them from the shadevine, then lead them on a hopeless chase while Plus drained them dry.

It was solid strategizing, and Levi couldn't help but be impressed.

Twice the gremlins' wild flailing managed to hit the shadevine, dropping Plus's health dramatically, but each time Frosty jumped in before Levi could, webbing up the offending monster so thoroughly it couldn't more than wriggle, and snatching Plus away to safety while leaving the disabled gremlin to wait for the arrival of the certain death of the centipedes and rift cat.

He didn't even have to engage the boss, just stood back to watch. He kept a close eye on Frosty and Plus, ready to jump in the moment they seemed to be in danger.

This time it was a Goblin Berserker, with a gang of gremlins to back him up. Four gremlins, to be specific. Not exactly a terrifying group. The fight proceeded without any holdups while his team efficiently demolished the enemies. It wasn’t exactly quick, and twice Levi began to worry as Frosty took a hit, but then it was over and no one was hurt beyond what could be recovered in a half hour.

Two more weak mana elixirs, one of stamina, a small bag of seeds, and a Destruction token. Levi took out a pinch of the seeds, tiny flat orange discs and slightly tacky to the touch, identifying them as cleftvine seeds. In this form they could be used in some poisons, while the cleftberries themselves were an ingredient in some mid-tier restoratives.

"Want to clear another one tonight?" he asked. “This one went so fast, we should have plenty of time.”

Cen sparkled in agreement, and Frosty hopped up and down eagerly.

“You,” he said, pointing at Frosty, “need to be more careful. I won’t have you getting yourself killed.”

Frosty skittered from side to side, bobbing up and down as she did.

“You want to get on with it?” Levi smiled. “A spider after my own heart. Alright, let’s go.”