Countdown until level collapse: 5 days 0 hours 12 minutes

“What do you mean, it’s unusual?” Elise wondered.

“I mean, it usually takes a few days and quite some patience to train your pet to be an actual addition to the party. Or, in easier terms, for it to become an orange blip on your minimap.” Volos said. “The second-most common reason for pets to die is because the dungeon floor collapses before they’re tamed. They can’t follow you down the stairway before they officially join the party.”

“First-most reason being that these little lvl1 grubs attack anything that moves and get themselves killed?” Elise said, holding the squirming demigriff.

“Jup. The dungeon removes all the self-preservation and fear inhibitors of these creatures to keep things interesting and training them doable, but it comes with obvious downsides.” Volos said. “It’s no surprise that only about one in six pets actually survives to level up even the once, and that’s after the patches they added a few seasons ago to make getting pets more viable. You’re incredibly lucky that you skipped the initial stage of hostility and saw it gain three levels right off the bat.”

“Guess that the Maestro was being even more of a secret benefactor than we thought.” Elise said with but the slightest hint of sarcasm. For her doing, at least.

“Or it was necessary for the demigriff to follow us to the second floor.” Thomas said. “Though I agree, they could’ve given us something less expensive and complicated. They probably went with the demigriff because it will be a growing and constant boon, where an item will eventually be replaced.”

“Either way you guys are incredibly lucky. You weren’t on the recap for killing a Borough Boss on the first floor, Death Watch Extreme probably bought the rights to that scene, but still.” Volos said. “Boss boxes tend to be better than all these random achievement boxes, so getting a silver one this soon will be very useful. And a pet? I sure didn’t get this lucky on the first floor.”

“Aw man, we didn’t get some exposure after that awesome fight?” Ben sulked.

“Did they show anything useful?” Thomas said. “We unfortunately didn’t find a Safe Room before it aired, it started almost immediately after the second floor opened. Another hint we should wait until the last six hours, I guess.”

“Not really. You got the patch announcements?” Volos said.

“We did. No defecating in the hallways.” Thomas said. “Which seems off, as we clearly saw the Syndicate tv not having the same prudish restrictions as our Earth media had. The first show even went out of their way to highlight our genitals and such. They may not like seeing them in use, but I fail to see why such a hard line was drawn.”

“You’re correct about the lack of prudish restraints. Crawlers that have sex with one another tend to gain popularity and are even encouraged to do so by the hosts. If any of you want to get your rocks off, don’t do it in the bathrooms where no one can see you.” Volos shrugged. “On the peeing though, I can’t help you there. I’m just as lost as you are, never heard of something like this happen before.”

“Anything you can tell us about these rage elementals?” Elise asked.

“Nope. Never got that far myself nor have I met anyone that has.” Volos said. “Encountering one of those things would probably be the end even for me at my prime, back when I was still a crawler.”

“Fortunately I wasn’t planning on getting a public defecation habit any time soon.” Thomas said dryly. “So let’s just hope that no one summons one of these things and leaves it to kill 99 more of us before it disappears. That aside, how were the rewards?”

No one had to tell the others what they got in their ‘special’ Bronze Coward Box, rewarded to them for descending early. Instead of outright telling them that they got nothing, the AI gave them a bronze box that opened with a spray of confetti and accompanying confetti gun sound before disappearing and leaving nothing behind.

Darryl had five other boxes, a bronze, three silver and a gold one. Everyone had gotten a bronze pet box with the same rewards, stocking them up with plenty of pet biscuits. While the demigriff could eat human food and certain felled foes instead of the biscuits, the scrolls would certainly come in handy.

They had all gotten the gold Samaritan box as well, for ‘rushing in to save other crawlers’. Everyone but Darryl got a Vanquisher pass, getting the same tattoo that he already got on the first day. They all got tickets for Vanquisher drinks too, and a collection of healing scrolls and other basic items. The gold box made sure that they got a lot, but nothing noteworthy.

The silver masochist box gave Darryl a single potion of masochism that reduced damage taken by 50% for an hour in exchange for doubling his nerve sensitivity for the same duration. Or in simple terms, double pain for half damage. The silver arsehole box contained a bag of trailer-trash meth and the needles and spoon needed to use it without the hotbar. Thomas got a light spell called Guiding Bolt from his unique silver box, likely intended as a jab at giving away the staff that would boost it. Ben got an oil that would further boost one attack if applied to his blade.

But as Volos said, the Silver Boss Box was by far the best one they had.

Thomas got a membership of the Dungeon Floor Book Club, which would grant him a new spell tome with every level he gained. He also immediately got one tome in his mailbox, called ‘Boned’. It was able to animate skeletons, and though they would always be weak minions for a high mana cost and required corpses to be stripped of their flesh to work, the skeletons would last until destroyed. Most summon spells apparently didn’t have such a boon that could both compound and stack.

Ben got one of those triangle-shaped hats with a feather in it that you only saw cartoonish Robin Hoods wear, but painted black and purple. It was literally just called ‘a scout cap, but edgy’ with ridiculing description to match. It granted him +2 skill buffs in Aim, Accuracy and Reload of any ranged attacks that weren’t strength-based.

Elise got another hint to become a berserker, gaining Barbarian Bracers that increased her bat’s bloodlust curse but also gave amazing melee and strength buffs to entice her to actually use it. Though Thomas seemed doubtful about the whole ordeal, he held his tongue as Elise equipped them. In here, being too cautious would get them killed just as certain as recklessness.

Darryl got a Skill Potion, which would upgrade a recently used skill by one. The obvious choice was to store and use it once his skills neared lvl10-15 where they would plateau, if it weren’t for the half hour timer forcing him to chug it immediately. His Protector Aura jumped to level 3, though he still had no idea what and how much it actually did. His intelligence score and ‘Know thyself’ skill were too low to get hard numbers on his skills, and unlike items Thomas couldn’t see those.

Equipping their new gear, they headed back out into the crowd. It actually took three tries, someone must be holding the door to their own tutorial guide open for a while causing the door that was actually a portal to ‘jam’, but eventually the handle went down and they could leave their guild.

They were immediately hit by the sound of a dozen conversations echoing loudly against the dungeon walls, and people approaching them. Just like Dave said, there were a little over a hundred people gathered here from several stairways dropping people into this general region.

About eighty crawlers had descended the same stairs as mostly the one group, the survivors of a group initially thrice its size. Of those, a dozen or so had the mentality to fight. Those were already in private parties, while the rest remained in the automatically generated party one joined when entering the dungeon.

Many of the other Stairways ending in the general region seemed to produce mostly dregs as well, ones that survived by encountering a stairway before any dangerous mobs one didn't escape that easily. Over half the people here hadn’t even taken the tutorial on the first floor, and were now facing the second floor at level one.

Such a massive grouping of survivors wasn’t odd, apparently. Two small groups spoke of entering the dungeon in similar or larger groups, and both told of those groups being relentlessly hounded and swarmed by mobs before the end of the first day. One scattered while the other huddled up, which the latter found out to be a very bad call when the mobs encircled them. The four people that survived this fate didn’t expect other survivors to show up.

When Darryl asked about it, Volos easily confirmed it. Greater numbers just meant a louder target that moved slower, and some mobs evolved when they successfully killed a crawler. Intelligent mobs even organised war parties to pounce on the groups before others could, as they would be rewarded come next season for every player kill.

He also suggested that they should leave for quieter hunting grounds immediately to avoid getting bogged down themselves, but no one seemed to be a staunch supporter of that plan when the party quietly discussed it in chat.

Not even Elise, who had complained loudly about the lack of real mobs to fight. Or the trouble getting into a Safe Zone. Dave got them in after a while, but they had to wait for an hour before one of the guys willing to leave woke up.

Safe Zones had a hard limit on how many people could enter, and one more would find a forcefield or a locked door barring them. Nor could one just walk into your bedroom but you, and the lad wouldn't wake up from the banging on the door. It led to an awkward situation back on the first floor, when many people that entered the safe and well-lit Safe Zone simply refused to return to the dark and dangerous tunnels, and there was nothing that Dave could do about it.

As such they had to wait, letting Elise go in first while the three guys ate out in front of the door. The food inside wasn't as good, so that was no biggie. But being unable to get a damned bed after a long day of travelling and fighting would definitely be met with less patience next time.

But that was a worry for later. They had a good night of sleep and some breakfast. And today they would probably set out to the camp's fringes to clear out new neighbourhoods to sleep in an otherwise empty Safe Room tonight.

After a few men brushed past them to enter the Tutorial Guild, only three people actually approached the party. Two middle-aged women and a man somewhere in his late sixties, the former two already familiar to them by their insistence and the latter an unknown.

“Not now and not ever, Beth. Buzz off.” Elise said as Beth opened her mouth, and then completely ignored her when the woman turned red from indignation and wanted to say something about it. “And you, if you’re here for handouts then you get the same answer.”

“No Elise, that’s not why I’m here.” The old man named Martin said, the text above everyone’s head making introductions unnecessary. “Mr. Geruet has a message for you.”

“Good. I was already worried that they wouldn’t want to talk to us.” Thomas said. “Woolf or not, things still happened that would make it understandable if they want nothing to do with us.”

The quick glance at Ben’s skull suggested that Martin knew or at least suspected what happened, but he was tactful enough not to say anything in front of Beth and Maribelle. “It’s a short message. North north-east, need back-up for neighbourhood boss. Quick response appreciated, we’ll talk before the fight.”

“Might be a trap.” Elise said.

“Doubtful. That kind of suspicion got us into this situation to begin with, let’s not allow it to make things even worse.” Darryl said.

“Not to mention we’re not exactly small fry. There’s two of them and four of us, and we’re stronger than them.” Ben said. “Even if it is an ambush, we’ll no doubt win.”

“Though it wouldn’t necessarily be two against four, I concur with the conclusion. There aren’t that many people that match our level around here, and fewer would consider player killing.” Thomas said. “If anyone is going to attack us, then joining forces with the Frenchmen will be their best bet. But basic self-preservation should dissuade most despite that.”

He had a point there. The highest level before they and the French pair showed up was level 7, and while she had several bronze stars to her name she didn’t look loaded with gold box items. And the ones that came in with a large group, they were even worse off item-wise.

According to Volos it was a simple matter of numbers, more people meant less rewards. While going solo wasn’t the best idea either, Borant and the AI urged people to stand out individually. Being a part of a large group would only bother the viewers with complicated hierarchy, long discussions and having to remember a lot of human faces that all looked alike to them.

As a result, the strongest people here were outsiders while the large groups often found themselves subtly underpowered. And though Volos didn’t say it outright, he hinted that many crawlers deemed dead meat had their Stairways drop them near large groups to coagulate and fight over resources while the popular crawlers got more room to explore and grind freely.

“I have not seen anyone who might want to try such a thing, nor have I gotten any orders to lead you through any specific corridors.” Martin said, looking them straight in the eye. There was a hint of wariness in his gaze, but that was probably because they were talking about people killing people rather than a lie on his part. “And I’ll fight with you if I’m wrong.”

“Don’t worry, we believe you. Lead the way.” Darryl said.

“Yeah, I can believe in our strength scaring anyone off, at the very least.” Elise said. “We and the frenchies are the only ones with a silver star next to our name, after all. Ought to give most a good scare.”

“Before you go, can-” Beth tried, only for Elise to put a finger on her lips.

“No.”

“But.”

“No.” Elise said, in a slow drawl as if talking to a dumb child.

The rest of the party didn’t deign to give a different answer, Thomas giving Beth a blank stare and Ben looking away uncomfortably. Beth looked at Darryl, half pleading and half demanding.

Darryl sighed, feeling a bit bad but at the same time knowing he owed the woman nothing. “We already gave you the whacking stick to get you started, don’t keep begging for more. There are others around here needing as much if not more help than you.”

“B-hth…” Beth tried to say, only for Elise’s finger proving to be a surprisingly effective gag.

“Nope.” She cheerily said. “And that’s final. So scram.”

“Sorry about that. Lead the way.” Darryl said, turning to Martin.

The old man nodded and started walking, and to the party’s annoyance the two women trailed after them even past the camp’s boundaries. Well, this was probably one of the reasons why Volos told them to leave this place. But they could worry about that later.