The twilight sun shone its unadulterated light on the team, even passing through the Dungeon's Mana Shield, its properties were unaffected by it. In fact, it gently reflected on Gabriel's Sk'rayr Spear when with a rising swing, he brought the tip of the spear through the giant creature's calf, cutting it open and making it stumble right in front of an already diversely occupied Fred. He was keeping at bay another Yggs-dog.

Liz was occupied with maintaining her grip on the creature's neck while she whipped her long tail on its face in order to keep it confused; she had long since exhausted her Spirit. However, her 25 Power points coupled with her massive Resilience, were capable of opening cuts on the creature's cortex skin just as easily.

They had encountered eleven different assaults since they ventured through the Dungeon's entrance. The first one being the weakest of them all. But they had not been enough to put a dent in the Party's formation. They were simply too shrewd to show any weak points; however, that was not all. Gabriel had noticed that the team's true pearls were the pinpoint accurate Greta, whose shield, small buffs, and healing were exactly where they were needed, the moment they were needed. The girl was like a machine.

Then there was Sato. The Japanese guy was a creature of nightmares.

His shots turned into proper lightning bolts that tore through the air leaving impressive gaps in the victims' bodies and burning their skin consecutively halting the creature's recovery processes. As it seemed, Lightning damage was classified as Fire in regard to Weaknesses.

Gabriel had asked and had understood that Lightning was a Higher element formed by the fusion of Fire and Wind. It was clear that Sato was not fusing them through the use of Magic Skill. His regular Skill simply allowed him to use Lightning, overstepping the requirements.

It wasn't clear what other Skill he had, but he did not need to show any further. With the one he was using, it was clear who the MVP in the Party was.

Gabriel hoped to gain a Skill like that. However, something suggested to him that it wasn't there that he had to look in. There was another road he had to follow.

The first time Gabriel felt this thing whispering to his psyche such a thing, he thought about Liz. But she was not the one. So, for the moment, the young man decided to put it aside as a fickle of his imagination.

"The was the last of them." Saying so, Fred slammed his shield multiple times on the already downed Yggs-dog. "And I think it's time we stopped to find camp. We could use the rocks."

That last word seemed to be a familiar word among them, as they all nodded in agreement.

Gabriel decided to see where they'd take him. And soon, a little clearing showed a rock construction where a couple of camps had already been prepared around it.

"Looks like we have to share," Prisha said. She was weirdly excited.

"Pri. Don't do anything stupid. We don't want any more nicknames; I swear to N'arr if I get only a whiff of someone calling us the whore couple again… I'll throw you out!" Greta said out of the blue. She seemed to not be joking. As the Anchor light of a Binding taking effect appeared on her head.

"Damn, Greta! It's not my fault if they call us that! How am I gonna control it?" The girls retorted.

"Behave yourself, and it'll stop! That's how you control it!"

Gabriel chuckled to himself… maybe the petite Indian was a nympho. Liz yapped too. She had taken a liking to Bjorn, as she sat on top of him, resting comfy on its cashmere looking wool. Bjorn let her do as she pleased. Thing, which drew quite an embarrassed Greta to whip him with her staff to stop the behavior, but obtaining just confusion in response.

Three other parties had decided to stop by the rock; they would be the fourth, and while two shared a fire, the other stood by its own.

Judging by their relatively average worse for wear looks, they were low level; even their bonds were still as basic as they could be. Most were still healing their wounds. So, it seemed that the Dungeon really was one for low levels; however, that did not mean easy. In fact, their weariness showed exactly that.

On the contrary, Starsedge was stopping only to recover for the night the natural way. They were still relatively full on energies, and the damage they had carried over was nonexistent. Even Fred was completely unscathed, courtesy of Gabriel and Greta overlapping heals. They both recovered through Recovery enhancements instead of other techniques. Yes, the thing meant that Greta had limited healing; however, what she lacked in that department complimented with exceptional defensive and buffing capabilities.

Taking out his top-notch camping equipment for the first time, Gabriel noticed that Sato had already everything out. Which meant a tent, the necessary equipment for cooking and lighting fire.

After placing his sleeping bag in the tent, which had been set on the shadow of the big rock composition, he shared another glance at the parties around them, which had simply saluted his Party without any unnecessary behaviors.

Things should be fine.

Gabriel profited from the free time to check for his last notifications. Fred was the one who really knew how to cook among the original Party of Starsedge, and Gabriel didn't want to break the spell; anyway, he did not know the local cuisine, too; so he didn't think of offering himself.

During the twelve total encounters, Gabriel had barely managed to take his Level and Class level on the verge of respectively thirty-four and twenty-nine. However, his Dash had seen a beautiful rise; it had risen three full Tiers, getting him to Tier 5, and his Alacrity had seen a vast improvement in the process.

His current Anchor Attributes were the following.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

33 (97.03%)

Class

Dark Arts Jack of all trades.

Class Level

28 (98.69%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Shiny-Lizard

Spirit Level

31 (72.17%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

21/60

21/75

1/50

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

38 (19)

7

45

Alacrity

27 (18)

11

39.6

Power

17

25.5 (17)

42.5

Recovery

51 (17)

8

59

Resilience

40 (20)

55 (22)

95

Stamina

21.6 (12)

10

31.6

He smiled. The only Attributes that were lagging behind were Power and Stamina; Alacrity would increase even further as he Tiered up Dash, so it wasn't a problem.

Stamina was vital because he could currently recover the nominal amount of Energy every twenty-four hours. While his Mana and Spirit regeneration, tied to Affinity, would double while he stood in Darkness, which meant that during the night, even though the light coming from the fire, or artificial night, he would be affected nonetheless.

Tomorrow he would wake up to almost full Mana and Spirit Pools.

The sun was entirely down when Greta offered him broth, bread, and what looked like chicken. "You've been very active today, Gabe. May I call you Gabe?"

Gabriel took the plate, he didn't know until then, but he was famished. "Of course, I bet Greta is already the short for something, yes?"

"Margareta," she answered. Then she sat by him; Bjorn sat behind her so she could lay her back on him. "I'd say, today you did thirty percent of the work on your own." She took a spoon of broth. Now, I know you want to push those levels, but there's only so much you can push before you crash something. We are not immortals, you know?" Greta

"What do you mean by that?"

"That your soul is not a machine. There's so much it can unleash. Now it may feel like an infinite resource, but as you Tier up, you'll notice its limits." She paused, taking another spoon of her soup.

Sato was playing a game that he thought was Shogi with Fred and Prisha together, it was two against one, but they were probably being soundly beaten.

"There are wounds that can't heal. There are times when you can't stand up, even while at full Energy; there are Magic Skills that just won't take effect when you are at your soul's limit. It needs its rest."

"Even if my energies are at the ready?"

"Even if they are overflowing, your soul has limits. Do you think your body needs to sleep? Well, maybe with your Stamina, yes, it still would; but think about her?" She nodded toward Prisha.

"She has almost double your Stamina. Five times that of a regular human, but she needs to sleep each night nonetheless. Logically anyone would think about having the ability to stay up and about continually for sixty or more hours; yes, that is feasible but even then. We don't take into consideration Skills usage. Our soul produces those energies. If our minds are the mainframe, pardon me the profane expression, then our soul is the engine which powers it."

Gabriel thought back to when he was fighting the Tyrant King. How his Helping Hand started slipping and lasting for less and less each time he renewed it. The fight went on for more than two hours. It was only natural that something of the like happened, and stupid for him no to think about it before.

"That explains some things that I was wondering about," confessed Gabriel. "What's more important now, though, is… you've started to trust me?"

Greta, mopping up her broth with a piece of bread, was taken aback. "I thought Sato told you we needed to test you. To you are still really bland in regards to Skills, you are no pushover, Gabriel. Your battle style, your experience, your reading of the battle, they make me feel at ease. I could trust my life to you now that I know of your abilities. It was only weird if I trusted you right off the bat," she confessed; there wasn't an ounce of embarrassment in her.

Gabriel placed the bowl on the ground, scratching his head, "I'm sorry then. I guess… I misjudged you a little. I thought you were all snobs. But I'm seeing none at all now."

"Well, you might have been right. We tend to be a little… stuck-up bitches. We must have developed it while staying under Nastia. We got whatever we wanted, but it's not even been two weeks now, and we can already feel the difference in treatment. Nobody just those whatever we want anymore," she chuckled.

"She had that much control over people? I just remember a very violent girl, though I must admit she was a ten, eleven maybe," Gabriel paused, while Greta waited to gulp down her bread before answering.

"It must be her mother, but please never say I said something of the likes!" Greta said, then got closer, "She's always treated her like second-hands good; as if she wasn't even her daughter. It makes me happy to belong to a relatively rich family."

"Oh, yeah? What does your family do?"

"Oh, we practically owe half the territory around the Alps and all the businesses that stand there."

Gabriel choked, spitting broth from his nostrils.

When he had recovered, after the laughs of every single one in the encampment, he finally managed to answer. "Relatively rich, eh?" He shook his head. "Your standards must be… I don't even want to think about it," he answered, amused.

"Well, we heard you've been to Reevers's manor, which means you have a rough idea about the type of standard even we can't access," she gave him the tongue.

I thought it was supposed to remain secret. Power play; I see, Gabriel realized. "Well, that's plain… absurd. My camera was like a high-end royal hotel suite," he confessed.

"I don't think their assets can be judged by their manor. Nastia told me that when she was led to visit the left-wing of the manor, she had to accept a Binding," Greta yawned after that. "Well, it's been fun, Gabe. My time's up, so I'm gonna sleep. Rest well."

She got inside the big tent with Bjorn soon after.

For Gabriel, it was a first, having to sleep outside with strangers, both in the Alter or the real world. He had done nothing but work every time he had free hours. He had never allowed himself much freedom, if not just to catch some movies with his girlfriends. The rest he had managed to do between school time and gap hours at his various jobs.

He didn't know if he was enjoying the situation yet; however, one thing was clear: all the previous day's movement had alleviated some of his worries, or at least switched their orders around for a bit. Enough to give his ever worrying mind some rest.

Right after Greta did, Gabriel went to sleep too; Lizzy positioned herself by his chest, craving his warmth more than giving him much. The rest of the team still played when he finally closed his eyes.

***

"It's now or never," Phreviel paused, turning behind, he addressed the small crowd lying in wait with him, "Really this time."

A small contingent of armed Yggdrasilians stood in wait a few hundred yards by the resting rock. It was the name that the invaders had given it and how they chose to call it too. The name was as old as the Dungeon, and nobody had ever cared enough to change it.

Phreviel had been elevated. Once again, when the Tree had chosen him as assignee of the sacred mission. He had been bestowed with the Rank of Elite. It did not only mean that his Attributes had doubled again. He effectively became even more aware of the world.

If before he had been elevated to Guardian, he was a nobody, spawned in the Dungeon from a long-dead Spirit, with his first elevation, Phreviel was given life anew, he had been reborn; bestowed with consciousness, and now, he had been bestowed with a desire. A desire to free himself. A desire for freedom. He knew there was a way for everybody to be free of their constraint, of their small world. If the mission succeeded, the Tree had assured him that they would be free again.

"Remember," he said to his small army composed of mostly Guardians and drones, we must take the one with the lizard alive; everybody else you can kill. Exactly as they killed your brethren. Now. Let's hunt."

***

Sato tore the tent open. Gabriel was awake that same moment, his training in The Memory still incredibly fresh; he would wake up and be ready to act in an instant.

"We're being ambushed!"

"What!?" exclaimed Fred, already up too. Sato had been doing the second guarding shift. The first one had gone to Fred, which had yet to fall asleep.

But there was no need to explain as an arrow fell a few inches from Greta's leg, she got out screeching and summoned her defenses. The thick Mana burned through the tent's fabric, which crumbled upon itself and exposed them to the starry sky.

Her buff came the next second.

You have been affected by Light Veil. For the next fifty-seven minutes al,l the magical damage you receive is halved. Reduction scales down as enemy Tier scales up.

"Go all out!" Sato called. And he met Gabriel's agreement; because in front of them, more than a hundred between Yggdrasilians hunters, dogs, lizards, raptors, and Yggdrasilians casters were launching their skills or directly themselves at them.

What the hell!

The massive body of what definitely was a Guardian ranked Ygg-dog smashed against the rock with a charge, the connection exploding the still recovering people with smithereens.

The first couple of deaths were granted; the other solitary group had placed itself too much over the front. It was targeted first. Gabriel noticed a young girl get skewered by a giant arrow of thorns.

His eyes turned to where the arrow came from. It came from one of them riding a bigger than usual dog. They were most probably both Elite ranked.

Another group had joined in the night, which raised their forces to thirty men strong. But it wasn't enough. Not by a long shot. If what Dikez had said, that it took an entire party of equally leveled people to take on a single elite. Then they would have no chance at making it out of here alive.

The chances were two, run, every man for himself, which in this situation would amount to a slaughter, Gabriel had witnessed it long enough in The Memory, or buckle up for the damage and go all out.

Gabe was confident that if he used Burst of Fury, he could take out a couple of Elite by himself, not that he had ever tried; he just felt he could, but then that would be it. He would find himself in the middle of the enemy lines, powerless and confused.

Gabriel was still in the middle of his strategizing when the order from Sato came. "Split! Run!"

Everybody followed that order, including Gabriel. But not everybody was so lucky as to have unlocked a running Skill. Fred lacked one, and Greta as well; in fact, before making his decision, Gabriel witnessed Sato disappear in the trees while drawing a big number of the enemies' attention with his Half-Owl form; each of his shots tore through the enemy formation, Guardians or not. Prisha raised Fred like a princess and got on a run, signaling Gabriel for the nearby Greta. Gabe took it for granted.

He placed ungraciously Greta on his shoulder as the two Spirits disappeared inside of their bodies and took on a malicious run. Dash, Burst Attack, Meridians Gabe used everything he could to increase his speed but Burst of Fury, and disappeared in the night.