A few moments later, the group was reunited at the bottom of the ravine.

Kaldalis considered that he might be able to jump up (with the use of his cooldown) and pry open the exit to force their way back into the dungeon from the wrong side. It might be possible to just farm the last boss somehow, if they could trigger the dungeon start and then just run straight here.

But they’d gotten more treasure from doing the whole run than they’d gotten from just the last boss, so it didn’t seem like a productive endeavor. Not to mention that the wall of branches and vines halfway up a slick, mossy cliff was likely intended to deter players from breaking in backwards. Monsoon might have put an invisible wall there as an added measure of insurance against that kind of speedrunner bullshit.

Instead, the group started to make their way back to town. They didn’t know where they exactly were on the island, but the quest to deliver the scroll to the researchers gave them a direction on their minimaps, so they did the only thing they could and followed it.

“So where do we go from here?” Balrim asked as they followed the ravine. “I mean, after we get back to town. Do we get some potions together and go again?”

“Not all together,” Myrin said. “You read the pop-up, right? We get reduced drops if we run it right back with the same group.”

“I know your heart is in the wrong place,” Kaldalis said, “but you have the right idea. Everyone in the camp has been pretty loot-starved since we landed. We should get as many people through the dungeon as efficiently as we can.”

“I want to be mad at the accusation,” Myrin said, “but you’re not wrong.”

“So, efficiency would mean that one of us hops out and then three of us take people in one at a time to maximize our drops,” Balrim said. “But I don’t know if I like that plan.”

Kaldalis shook his head, and then paused to pull a bit of vine off one of his horns when he noticed it flopping about. “No, I think efficiency should be in distributing the experience. And not the experience points, but instead familiarity with the dungeon. If we can make sure everyone who goes in has someone there to tell them what to expect, no one will get caught off-guard by the firemicids, or the branching paths.”

“Oh yeah,” Myrin said. “There was a gate that closed behind us, too. So all the branches have those. They might have been meant to keep us from doubling back and clearing every boss, not splitting us up.”

“And that reminds me,” Kaldalis said, “when I was fighting the boss, I had some kind of stat boost, so it seems like there’s some minor bonuses for solo players if you get split up.”

“My healing numbers were a little larger against our boss, too,” Balrim added. “I think even though it wasn’t intended to split us up, Monsoon foresaw the possibility.”

“What was your boss?” Kaldalis asked. “Mine was a giant bat pangolin gorilla snake. It did the glowing red ball thing, which is how I knew what they were on the last boss.”

“Oh, we had a crazy mantis ant centaur,” Balrim said. “It also had antlers, so we’d seen some similar charge mechanics to what was on the last boss.”

“I wonder if that affected things,” Myrin said. “Maybe the last boss’s mechanics are based on what second bosses you face. That last fight might have been more complicated because we split up.”

“Maybe they planned for that, though,” Kaldalis said. “The Chiraptor King spawned a whole bunch of the red things, not just one.”

Balrim tilted his head thoughtfully. “Maybe you’re right. The Cervis Mantid’s charge was between five and six passes, not just two like the last boss.”

“Interesting,” Kaldalis said. “We should make sure we run as many different branches as we can to figure out what all the mechanics are.”

“We should also try and track what the drops are,” Myrin said. She flicked her silver-shelled charm. “Since the composition of the charm appears linked to the boss itself, there might be some who drop particular stats more often.”

Kaldalis sighed, wistfully. “My kingdom for a spreadsheet program.”

Balrim laughed, a deep throated thing. “I bet you never thought you’d say that in your life.”

“Hey, I was a fucking accountant,” Kaldalis said defensively. “I can do things with a spreadsheet that lesser men only dream of.”

Balrim cracked up, laughing even harder.

Kaldalis rolled his eyes and let him. It sounded way more badass in his head, anyway.

“Alright, so, all four of us should take in three other people,” Kaldalis said at last, when Balrim’s laughter died down to giggles. “We get more people familiar with the dungeon, gather loot, and then everyone we run through can split up and get their own groups going. We should prioritize getting the dungeon on farm status, just to get as much gear out of it as possible. Everyone in up-to-date charms will go a long way towards fighting off the Infernal Horde. Hopefully that’s a step in the right direction to establishing the town.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Haldir said, “but I’ll have to check in with the Expedition Leader. If she has some other task for me on the censer, I have to prioritize that.”

“Of course,” Kaldalis said. “Nothing is going to help us against the Horde more than the censer. But if you can spare the time, I’m sure there are three people who would love the assist.”

“We’ll see,” Haldir said, though his tone suggested he knew which way it was going to go. Given what he knew about Onirioago, Kaldalis couldn’t blame him for his pessimism.

“There’s also the matter of Kaia’s Flicker,” Kaldalis said carefully. “What do we want to do about that?”

“You said yourself,” Myrin said, “it’s a useful ability. Knowing it makes people more powerful. More powerful people means easier fights against the Infernal Horde, right?”

“I’m just worried that some people might not be… receptive to the idea,” Kaldalis said. He tried not to look at Haldir when he said it. “We are accepting a mysterious power from an unknown source. Sure, a lot of people are going to react like you did and slam that shit down like a Red Bull at 6 AM, but some people might be uncomfortable with it.”

“Right. So, I’m hearing you say that we shouldn’t be twisting people’s arms for it. I get it.”

“We should also try and be chill about it,” Balrim said. “If people are going to be religious zealots about us distributing strange powers, we should probably avoid drawing attention to it.”

“Are you trying to anticipate the Spanish Inquisition?” Myirn grinned. “I’m impressed by your foresight; as I understand it, people usually don’t expect them.”

“We should be honest with people,” Kaldalis said, ignoring Myrin’s joke, “I don’t like the idea of hiding something that people might have such a strong reaction to. We should be up-front that there’s some crazy shit available for the taking at the end of the dungeon.”

Myrin frowned. “I was only half-joking, by the way,” she said. “If word gets around, we’re risking being burned at the stake. We shouldn’t tell people until they’re in the dungeon with us, and not where they’re surrounded by enough people to menace us with torches and pitchforks.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to react that poorly,” Kaldalis said. “People are smarter than that.”

“A person is smart,” Myrin corrected. “People are dumb, dangerous, panicky animals and you know it.”

“That’s fair,” Kaldalis said with a grimace. “We should be honest, but lies by omission should be acceptable. We won’t tell the whole camp about the new powers, but we tell the smaller groups when we come in well before we get to the end. Agreed?”

“Definitely,” Haldir said. “I can’t predict how the expedition leader will react to it, so it’s better to err on the side of caution. If she decides that it’s too dangerous, there’s no telling what she’ll do to us for having it. Just four of us? She might determine us to be an acceptable sacrifice to maintain the status quo. If she doesn’t find out until after our second runs, and there’s sixteen of us? Maybe she’ll think twice about making herself a villain. If we can get a run after that? She’ll pretend she knew and has been on board since day one.”

“That does sound like her,” Kaldalis said with a grimace. “And a safe way to handle it. If there’s a few dozen of us with the new ability and the word doesn’t get out, I’ll go talk to her about it personally. She won’t martyr me for it if she knows there are enough people who have already tied their fate to mine.”

“Brave of you to suggest,” Haldir said, “there are worse things she could do than martyr you.”

“Oh yeah, like wha-”

Kaldalis stopped mid-word as they emerged from the ravine. They entered a clearing in the jungle much like where he’d first fought the grizzled dragon and the irritator. The quartet paused for a moment, finally able to see the sky clearly for the first time in hours.

A column of smoke was rising in the distance ahead of them, in the direction of the town.

“The Infernal Horde,” Haldir said suddenly. “They came back.”