In the end, it took longer than Lucas wanted before they could head out. It took almost half the day to get all the contracts sorted out. A significant number of the villagers didn’t really understand why it was in their best interest to contract with the dungeon and Lucas had to spell it out for them. In the end, everyone signed, but it still caused a significant delay. Rose used that time to make brand new Comlinks for both Ralph and Brandy.

Lucas had fitted Ralph with old Military gear. Military combat Greaves, armor, and helmet identical to the ones Lucas had in addition to a large Axe that Rose was able to make for Ralph. It might not be the strongest, but it should suffice for clearing the mine.

Brandy was much harder to equip. In addition to her short height, she just was not well suited to combat gear.

“Lucas, I am a pure mage. I will not be getting into combat range. I have no combat skills, only my healing arts. I do NOT need to wear this,” pouted Brandy

“You do need to wear this. At least the body armor and the Greaves. You need some basic protection in case any monsters try and attack the healer first,” replied Lucas.

“Why would the monsters try and attack me first? I am not going to be hurting them. I will just be standing in the back making sure you and Ralph don’t die.”

Sighing, Lucas responded, “Don’t you think that the monsters are going to be more than a little pissed that you keep preventing them from killing us?” Brandy’s eyes lit up as if she was coming to a sudden realization, “If you have no protection on, they will tear you apart as soon as the monsters realize you are preventing them from killing the people who are hurting them.”

“OK. I will wear these when we get to the mine, but I won’t wear these while I am trying to cultivate Light Affinity,” replied Brandy

“Wear whatever you want when you are cultivating your light affinity. I don’t care. As long as you are protected when we are actually in dangerous situations,” said Lucas, and then to remind her of the fact that she wasn’t a slave anymore, “What you wear outside of combat is up to you. You are a free woman, after all.”

A light seemed to flip on in Brandy’s eyes when Lucas said this. She responded with a sly smile, “Alright, Lucas. I will wear this gear in combat and wear whatever I wish when I am cultivating affinity.”

Obliviously, Lucas responded, “Good!”

This led to Lucas's current predicament. Brandy was lounging in the back of the wagon, cultivating Light affinity, just like Rose had suggested. But what was never mentioned in Rose’s suggestion, and what Lucas was sure Rose would scream at him about later, was the fact that Brandy was cultivating almost entirely naked. Brandy was not entirely nude, she had some sort of panties covering her, but Lucas wasn’t sure of any more detail than that since he immediately averted his eyes upon the realization that Brandy was nearly naked.

“Put some clothes on Brandy!” shouted Lucas

“You told me I could cultivate wearing whatever I wanted, and I don’t want to wear anything,” retorted Brandy. “Besides, when cultivating Light Affinity, the more skin that is exposed to the light, the more impact the cultivation has. So how else would someone cultivate Light affinity, not being naked would lower my efficiency.”

“While you make a good point, I’d rather you have the slightly lower affinity increase rate versus the nakedness,” replied Lucas.

“Why are you afraid of a little nakedness?” questioned Brandy.

“Yeah, why are you afraid of a little nakedness?” asked Ralph, clearly enjoying the view.

“I’m not afraid of the nakedness, I just want to make sure that we are all more attentive to the surroundings than the view,” lied Lucas. In truth, he was terrified of the potential anger Rose might develop if she was aware of the situation.

Rose seemed to harbor a soft spot in her heart for her charge of 214 years, as was evidenced by the first quest. Lucas also held a place for Rose in his heart. Lucas was fond of her wit and banter. He was fond of their conversations, and he wanted to see how this would go. He believed that they could never be physically together, but he wasn’t the type to focus on the now at the expense of the future.

While he was very much a red-blooded American, he had no interest in Brandy as more than a colleague or fellow villager. It wasn’t her looks, or her figure, or anything else physical that turned him off. What turned Lucas off the most was the fact that Brandy was so focused on trying to seduce him. Lucas suspected that her being sold into slavery had more to do with that than anything else. In fact, Lucas wasn’t sure why exactly he was able to get Brandy at the low price point that he was able to purchase the rest of the slaves at. He wasn’t arguing though because it clearly motivated Ralph.

While he was thinking about it, Lucas realized that Brandy had been the short and pretty slave who had attempted to get on his good side pretty much as soon as they came to Esfield. The entire time that Brandy had been a part of the group, she had probably been scheming, ineffectively, on how to get closer to Lucas.

Laughing lightly, Lucas said, “Do whatever you want Brandy, just don’t piss off Rose.”

Purring, Brandy said, “In that case, why don’t you join me up here cultivating light affinity, I know you have at least some light affinity unlocked since I have seen you cast your Lantern spell.”

“Thanks’, but no thanks, Brandy. I’m going to continue to stay alert to my surroundings,” replied Lucas, looking around at the woods they were walking through. It was an especially dangerous area; it was an old neighborhood that had begun to fall down. Some homes were rather complete, with the possibility of monsters rushing out of them, and some of them were leveled entirely, which while less dangerous, still allowed for many hiding spots for a clever enemy. Lucas recalled that these houses had sold for around half a million dollars when they were built shortly before the system went online, now they were essentially worthless.

Ralph started to jump in, to say that he would love to unlock his light affinity with Brandy, but before he could, Lucas shouted, “Ambush!”

At the call from Lucas, the warrior robots that had accompanied them, instantly shifted to an alert position. Turning as one in the direction that Lucas was facing, the three warrior bots raced towards the open front door of a house. As the robots approached, it was very evident that they were about to face a large number of monsters. It seemed likely that the pack of wolves that Lucas fought earlier at the bridge was based out of these ruins. The number of growls and eyes that could be seen in the dank interior of the ruined home was high enough that Lucas couldn’t get a firm count them as they shifted within the ruins.

The robots blocked the door admirably, and the wolves could not seem to get past them. Ironically, as the wolves were unable to eat them, they tried to avoid and get around the robots rather than destroy them.

Deciding that it was an excellent time to test their teamwork, Lucas called out “Robots, let them out one or two at a time. Keep them from rushing out but do not sacrifice yourself to do so. Have Rose tell me via Communicator if I need to rush in with Flames.”

At that, the robots let two wolves exit the home. As none had circled around to use another exit, it seemed there were no other open entrances.

The Wolves raced out towards Lucas and Ralph. As they approached, Ralph swung his axe. The axe continued in an arc and hit both wolves. As the wolves tried to nip at Ralph, he held them at bay with his axe and his shield.

Quickly spinning up his spells, Lucas cast “Haste! Mind over Matter! Windshield!” turning to the two wolves, Lucas cast “Icebolt!” These wolves seemed to be tougher than the wolves from the bridge, and his icebolt didn’t take down a wolf. Just knocked off around 50% of its health. Well over enough to cause the wolf to turn and attack him instead of Ralph. Casting Icebolt again, Lucas finished off the wolf before it could reach him.

Repeating the feat again, Lucas said, “I think we have our method of clearing the wolves. Brandy, keep Ralph topped off and heal me if they get to me. Ralph, do the same exact thing you just did.

In the end, Lucas, Ralph, and Brandy took out 43 wolves before they stopped attacking. Turning to the others, Ralph said, “I think we should completely clear this house. Any wolves in here will breed, and we will have more monsters to contend with later. We are only a small distance away from The Commons, so we should clear every monster den we can find.”

“Agreed,” said Lucas and Brandy in unison.

“Robots, move in, secure the entrance,” with those few words from Lucas, the robots entered the old home and secured the entranceway.

“Mudroom off to the left, Office off to the right, main living room dead ahead. Looks like the mudroom and office are empty,” stated Lucas. “Robots, turn your attention to blocking the way from the living room while we verify these rooms are clear.”

Inspecting the rooms, Lucas saw several things that would be useful as feedstock for Rose’s Nanobots. “Hey, miner bots, get over here!” shouted Lucas. “Grab this statue and haul it outside; we need to take it back to Rose. Strip all the metal you can carry from the room without breaching any of the walls.”

Turning to the Mudrooms, Lucas took a look around and dismissed it as useless. It had already been mostly ransacked. Probably the only reason the statue was still around was the weight of it. The cuts visible in the walls suggested that the copper wiring had also been stripped already. Still, thought Lucas, they needed to clear the wolves’ den completely.

“Robots, advance to the next set of doorways,” said Lucas.

Peeking his head into the doorway, Lucas saw a set of steps up, a doorway that probably led down, and an area that looked like it might be a kitchen and eating area. The one thing he did not see any of, was wolves.

“Robots, block the steps up and down. Ralph, poke the kitchen. There is probably a door into the garage from the kitchen. Check that door,” ordered Lucas.

As Ralph slowly walked forwards, Lucas started to hear a few yelping and growling sounds. Not sure which of the three directions they were coming from, Lucas ordered, “Check that door and get back here Ralph, we are about to have company.”

Ralph shouted, “I see a door in the kitchen; it’s shut, no wolves present.”

As Ralph hurried back, the team prepared to be attacked. But no attack came. “They are probably preparing to defend themselves against us,” stated Ralph.

“Let's check the garage first if that’s clear we can check upstairs, and finally the basement. My guess is they are in the basement,” suggested Lucas.

As they headed towards the garage as a group, the growls got quieter. Opening the Garage door, there were no wolves present. But there was a giant present in the garage for Ross. One very rusty, limited-edition Ford F-150.

“Jackpot!” exclaimed Lucas. “That’s probably enough metal for Rose to make 15 more wooden robots.”

Since the garage door was still in place, but the track was gone, Lucas and Ralph lifted the Garage door and pushed the garage door onto the ground. “I have no idea why none of this has been salvaged yet, but all of it is good scrap materials for Rose.”

Turning to head back into the house, Lucas noticed Brandy for the first time since combat started. “Why aren’t you wearing your combat gear?”

Crying a little, “You never slowed down enough for me to get it out and on! I had to fight all of those wolves naked!” exclaimed Brandy.

“Maybe next time you will just wear your combat gear as I asked you,” responded Lucas.

Brandy opened her mouth as if she was going to respond, but then she shut it and pouted before she headed to the nearby wagon and started pulling out the combat gear.

As Brandy did this, Ralph laughed. “Alright, you two let's head back inside and finish this up.”

Shutting the door out into the garage, and heading back in the front door, Ralph advanced up the steps with Lucas and a fully dressed Brandy not far behind. Lucas left the robots behind so that they could prevent them from being attacked from behind. There was absolutely nothing of any interest upstairs.

“As we thought, they made their den downstairs,” said Ralph. With Ralph leading the way, the team headed to the stairs that clearly led downstairs. The door that had originally stood in this location was broken on the side of the doorway. Useless except for raw materials or firewood.

As they crossed the threshold into the basement, a notification popped up in front of Lucas. Clearing it, Lucas called out, “Did you two just get a notification we were just entering a Spawning Den?”

Both of the others quickly responded, “Yes.”

Brandy spoke up first. “Be careful, Ralph. You hardly take any damage, and I’d hate to break in a new tank.”

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the basement was a wreck. It smelt horrible and was clearly where the majority of the wolves that were already dead had lived. Turning, the team quickly saw the boss of this den. A Large wolf was protecting what appeared to be a relatively large litter of wolf pups.

Both the litter and the large wolf was growled at the team. “It’s a matriarch,” shouted Brandy so she could be heard over the growls.

“Don’t attack the pups if they don’t attack. Rose can probably take them in as minions. Then we can have some guard dogs,” shouted Lucas.

As the Wolf Matriarch lunged at Ralph, the pups behind her stayed still. They were still yipping and yapping, but they didn’t make a move. Ralph tried to dodge the matriarch's bite, but she was faster than the wolves they fought outside, and she got past his guard and took a small bite out of his thigh.

Ralph managed to block the next attack, while Brandy prepared to heal him. “Heal Flesh Wound!” shouted Brandy.

As soon as her heal landed, the wolf’s attention shifted. Her head instantly snapped in Brandy’s direction, and she took off.

Just before the wolf could take a bite out of a screaming Brandy, Lucas shouted, “Icebolt!”

Lucas's icebolt was enough to knock the wolf sideways so that it missed Brandy, but the matriarch quickly recovered. “A half dozen more ice-bolts and we’ve got her. She seems to be a lot tougher than the other wolves, but I still took about 10% of her health!” shouted Lucas.

“Slow!” cast Lucas as the matriarch headed towards Brandy again. Ralph leapt towards Brandy and shoved her out of the way as the matriarch's jaw closed over the space where Brandy’s head had previously been. He may have gotten Brandy out of the way, but he didn’t clear the matriarch's jaws in time.

Crunch. Ralph collapsed as the wolf took a bite out of his shoulder and collided with his body. With the Matriarch away from the pup’s, Lucas finally took out his overpowered spell. “Flames!” shouted Lucas as Brandy desperately shouted, “Heal Major Wound!” over and over again.

The flames did the trick. Ten seconds after he started casting the flames, the wolf was down. But Ralph was still down too. Crying, Brandy ran over to him. “I’m sorry, Ralph, I’m so sorry.”

“Brandy!” shouted Lucas, “I don’t think he is dead yet. Keep healing him.”

Wiping the tears from her face, she cast “Heal Major Wound!” several more times until the wounds on Ralph’s body started to heal up. First, they stopped bleeding and scabbed over, and then the flesh and bone began to heal rapidly. Ralph groaned through the pain and then finally passed out when it was too much.

Walking over to him, Lucas bent down and placed a finger on his neck. Feeling a steady pulse, Lucas spoke up, “He seems to be out of the woods.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Brandy collapsed.