Gayle was sitting in the car waiting when they arrived back at the parking spot. Or rather reclining in the car, her seat all the way back, and… yes, upon closer examination, she was asleep.

Peter, for his part, was not. He was more full of energy than ever, despite the late night. Irene was yawning, but then she’d had a late night the day before as well.

“Should we wake her up?” Cassandra asked, staring at her sleeping mother. “I’m sure she’s calmed down enough to be reasonable now. Right?”

Irene tapped gently on the window in lieu of answering. “Mom? We’re ready to go.”

“Ah, of course you are.” Gayle blinked several times, nodded a few more times, took a deep breath, adjusted her seat, and nodded. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Irene and Peter climbed in, Peter leading Henry to carefully climb up onto the seat beside him, scolding him when his claws tore the upholstery. “No, no, be careful.” He glanced fearfully at his grandmother, who was pretending obliviousness to the dinosaur in her car.

“I’ll meet you there,” Levi said, leaning in to give Peter a high five and kissing Irene. “I think I’ll stay out a bit later.” Skarm glanced quickly between Levi and Henry, then hopped up into the car to sit beside Peter before he could close the door. Levi nodded understanding; he’d keep an eye on the dilo, just in case. Even if it proved to be completely unnecessary, it would make Levi feel better knowing he was there.

Gordon waited by his car, then gestured to Levi as he turned toward them. “You coming?”

“No, I’m thinking I’ll go find another dungeon and see if I can hit level 10 tonight. Everyone else is worn out, and I doubt we’d get much good planning done.”

“Can I come?” Laurence poked his head out the passenger door. “I need to level too.”

“What happened to not wanting to level too fast?" Gordon asked. "I thought you were going to wait for Irene and Peter to catch up to you."

"That's why I didn't want to stop at every dungeon along the way. But now that I'm here, there's plenty of dungeon to go around, and every day we don't clear it is another day it won't be stronger and neither will we. It would be a wasted resource, and now that I've seen the local dungeons, I know for sure that they won't be too dangerous for everyone else."

"You're not just impulsively throwing yourself into danger again?"

Levi shook his head, laughing faintly. "No, nothing like that. I won't say I'm not a bit eager to progress, I miss being strong enough to not worry about every single enemy, but it's more than blind pursuit of numerical advantage now. I know what I'm fighting for. Truly. Not just advancement, but to protect and build a safer future."

"Easy to say."

"Quit arguing with the man!" Laurence called out impatiently. "There's leveling to be done!"

"I was planning to run. Laurence might be able to keep up, but Gordon, you've never practiced stamina draw, have you?"

Gordon shook his head. "What's that?"

Levi smiled, perhaps a bit evilly. "I'll be happy to show you."

So it was that Levi and Laurence introduced Gordon to the glorious slog that was stamina dragging. To Levi, it was second nature; to Laurence, a challenge that he could manage maybe a third of the time. To Gordon, it was something approaching hell.

"Stop overdrawing," Levi ordered as he jogged easily alongside the huffing and out of breath Gordon. "We've got a long way to go, you need to balance your draw with your expenditure."

"I don't... understand... how..."

"Pay close attention to when you feel stamina activate," Laurence suggested. He was running on Gordon's other side. "When you understand the feeling, try to replicate it and then regulate it. It's not that hard."

They continued for almost two hours before Gordon got it, and then their progress continued at an only slightly faster pace. While both Gordon and Laurence could do it, neither had enough experience to hold onto it indefinitely like Levi could, which slowed down their progress substantially.

Still, they made it to the strongest local Destruction dungeon with plenty of night left.

Destruction Dungeon: Level 2

This one was another scarab-heavy spot, though its boss clearly hadn't been neglected like those around the Doom Raiders' territory. While still a large scarab swarm in the boss room, it wasn't nearly as large as that one had been, and there was no Essence to trouble them.

Despite his stated intentions, Levi hung back and let Laurence and the minions do most of the fighting. Laurence leveled twice, once mid-dungeon and again after the boss fight, bringing his mage level up to 4.

"Next level I get to start picking out new spells, right?" Laurence asked, eagerly.

Levi nodded confirmation. "Every five levels.”

“Is there a better dungeon nearby? I want my new spells!”

“Threshold levels require a lot more than regular levels,” Levi warned him. “Don’t get your hopes up too high. You’ve been leveling fast, but that’ll slow down soon.”

Levi looked over the treasure, which turned out to be better than he’d expected once again. One stamina restorative, a Destruction token, a bundle of thin green Spine Shoots, something like a cross between garlic and bamboo which Levi didn't recognize but were labeled as an ingredient, a small jar of Scarab Fangs, another ingredient, a crossbow, and - most exciting of all - a proper sword.

Destructive Longsword (Manablade, Standard)

Abilities: (Basic) Destructive Edge

Power stone: 1/1

Upgrade Slots: 0

It came with a power stone already installed, making it a good find despite having no upgrade slots.

“Either of you mind if I take this?” Levi asked.

Gordon shook his head. He’d reached level 7, but made less of a fuss about his level than Laurence. “I’d take the crossbow, if you don’t mind. It’s more like what I’m used to.”

Levi nodded for him to do so, which Gordon did.

Laurence waved the question aside. “You’re the sword guy. But if you find a magic staff, then I call dibs.”

“I doubt we’ll find a magic staff until we have level 5 dungeons. Most staves before then are blank.” Levi swung it a few times, the familiar weight feeling right in his hand, and switched the Beastly Shortsword to his off hand. He nodded, pleased, and sheathed the blades. He felt more like himself, being properly armed again.

“A guy can hope. Hey, speaking of dungeons, your dungeon seed must be getting close to full now.”

“Yes, pretty close.” Levi passed it to Laurence, who added about a dozen mana, then took it back and put in another fifty or so.

“We should be able to fill it by the time we get back to town. What does it need to assign the element? A token? A power stone? Something else?”

“Something else, I think, though we could test with tokens and power stones.” It didn’t have any slot or opening. He hoped this wasn’t what the stolen framework was required for, holding an element to the seed, but when he thought of the shape of it it didn’t fit. What Charles had taken would fit around the Seed itself perfectly, with no room for anything more.

No, Levi was thinking that the vial of subdued essence, intended for crafting, seemed just the right shape to drop the Seed inside. And it would make more sense, as a crafting ingredient used to combine with plants and alchemical ingredients.

Unfortunately, the essence vials were much rarer than tokens or power stones, and the only one he had was Destruction. He didn’t want to use his unique Dungeon Seed on just another Destruction dungeon. He felt like it ought to be something special.

“Laurence, you’re still online, right?”

“Of course.”

“Can you look into buying some things for me? I can trade or pay cash, but there are some ingredients that I’d like to stock up on before things get crazy. I plan to do a lot of crafting in the near future.”

Laurence got out his notebook. “Give me a list and I’ll see what I can find.”