The police escort got us to the neighborhood of the tower in record time, but on arriving, even from blocks away, I was blown away by how much it had changed over the past 24 hours.

Whereas there were thousands of people people surrounding the tower when I was here the day before, there were now tens of thousands of people and the police and the national guards were struggling to keep the crowd under control.

"Wow, what the hell happened here?" I said out loud without thinking.

"I'll tell you what happened, YOU happened!" The mayor snapped, not holding back her anger. "What did you think would happen when you started flashing gold and magical potions? This is all your doing, and if anything happens to my son and his friends, you better believe that you are going to be held responsible, blood pact or no blood pact."

The mayor was right, I needed to enter the dungeon ASAP in order to retrieve the mayor's son, if it wasn't already too late. If anything happened to him I was certain that it would be the start of an outright war between the Mayor's office and the tower and my family Cara and I would be the first targets.

As we were already in the mana rich zone, I decided to contact Will to see if he could help me out.

"Will, can you hear me? I need your help."

"Hello Matt, what is is it that you need?"

"Some teenagers entered the tower but they are completely unprepared for the dangers. One of them is the Mayor's son, with whom I am negotiating for opening the academy allowing people to enter the Dungeon."

"I need to make sure that they get out safely or we will have no chance of being accepted. I was hoping to go in and help them get out but there are too many people in front of the tower entrance, could you create a portal to bring me directly to their location?"

"A portal takes time to create," Will replied "and with your skill set, getting through a crowd shouldn't be an issue. The group of 4 is still alive but some are wounded. They are getting close to the first level boss as we speak, so if I were you, I would hurry. When you enter the tower go straight ahead until you cross a bridge, then turn left and you should find them."

"OK Will, but if you can do anything to slow them down and keep them alive until I get there it would be really appreciated."

"Madame the mayor, I know where they are and I am going in, but I need you to call ahead and tell the police and the guard to let me through."

"Don't worry about that, I am coming with you." the mayor replied with a look of unmovable determination on her face.

"You will just slow me down. If you want me to save your son, I will get there much faster on my own."

"I don't think you heard me correctly, I am coming with you, and I won't slow you down, I was on the university track team and I run 5 miles 3 times a week, so quit arguing and let's get moving!"

The first challenge was going to be the tens of thousands of people blocking access to the tower. I couldn't exactly blast them out of the way, so I figured an ice breaker formation might do the trick.

"Stick close to me" , I told the mayor as I formed mana barrier around us but with a wedge shape extending in front of us.

As we moved forward, the crowd split like the red sea as we advanced but many started pushing back a clinging to the mana barrier when they figured out that I was person from the tower and recognized Mayor Levine next to me.

They started pressing against the mana shield pleading for money or health potions or to come with us into the tower and they started slowing our progress.

I called on my water attribute to create a thin sheen of ice over the surface of the mana wedge which I hoped would reduce the resistance. After this we managed to slide through the crowd without too much difficulty.

When we arrived at the first police barrier, the mayor instructed them to let us pass, and once on the other side, I could finally release the mana barrier.

We quickly arrived at the second barricade which was maintained by the national guard.

"Mayor Levine," the officer guarding the gate said, saluting the Mayor. "I am the captain Frank Demill, I am in charge here."

"I am sorry, " he continued "but I can't allow you to enter the tower, it could be extremely dangerous in there. And to be honest, we also haven't figured out how to get in. It's a mystery to us how your son and his friends managed to get in."

"It's actually quite simple," I replied. "You haven't been able to enter because of your weapons." I replied, pointing at his sidearm. "Remove your grenades and firearms any of your modern weapons and you will be able to enter. Swords, knives, hatches, axes, bows will be fine." I said.

"And the mayor is coming with us, her son is in there and she will be fine with me, I will see to it that nothing happens to her."

"Ahh, I recognize you now, you're the bigshot who came from the tower, aren't you. If it were up to me you would be locked up or worse. All these people are here because of you, those kids entered because of your propaganda. If it weren't for the fact that we need you to get those kids out, I'd have you locked up on the spot. Just know that if you get out alive you're going to have to answer for your actions."

He turned to some of the the men standing behind him "Louis, Hench, Mitch, Ben, you heard the man. Lose your firearms and grab some knives and axes, shields, whatever you can find, you're going in there with them, you have exactly 1 minute, so get going."

The minute seemed like an eternity, but as soon as they returned we headed into the tower. We now had 6 persons in our group and I prayed that we hadn't lost too much time.

"My name is Xander", I said "and if we are to survive, you will need to listen to me."

"We need to go fast, the kids are going to be arriving at this level's boss at any moment. Be ready for anything, some of these things could be poisoness or spit acid or have really virtually impenetrable skin. I have never done this level so I don't know exactly what we will be facing but I have a general idea. What I do know is that we need to head straight ahead and turn left at the bridge which is where other group went. "

"Now, let's move!"

When we entered the first level, we came into what looked like a medieval village but it looked uninhabited. The buildings were made of stone blocks and they were largely covered in vines.

The tavern sign was hanging on by one chain, making a creaking sound as it rotated in the light breeze. The tavern door had been broken in and there was no sign of life inside. Most of the other shops weren't in much better shape.

Crows were feasting on the remains of what appeared to have been a dog. The main street was packed dirt and in disrepair with holes appearing randomly as far as we could see.

"Man, this place sure is creepy" Louis said, a hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other.

"Looks like some kind of movie set from a horror movie, to me." Mitch said, his axe slung over his shoulder.

"I don't know," Ben replied "A little bit of paint and some elbow grease and I could see myself living here. It kind of reminds me of the village I grew up in."

"Well I have been seeing some things moving around in there," Hench said pointing up at a window on the second floor. "You could always go in and see if there's a room for rent."

It was true, there was some movement in front of the windows, but it was hard to tell if it was human or something else.

"Stay away from the holes and keep an eye on the doorways" I said as we moved at rapid pace down the main avenue.

Occasionally we would see movement in the windows as we passed and ahead of us, and crows started gathering on the rooves of the buildings.

From behind us I heard a sound and noticed that large rat-like rodents were following us. Also up ahead I saw that the same type of creatures started climbing out of the holes in the street, each one the size of medium sized dog. Their incisor teeth were reminiscent of a saber-tooth tiger's teeth, extending well beneath their jaw line, and they had scales instead of fur. Their claws were also long and sharp and they had wicked looking long barbed tails.

I was impressed that the mayor's son and his friends had gotten past this challenge. These things were no joke.

"I think I could take five or six of them but there must be 100 at least, and there are still more climbing out of those holes."

"I don't think that will be necessary" I said. "I have created a barrier in front of us and laced it with lightning. The only ones we need to worry about are the ones coming from behind us, but I will leave those to you."

"Also keep an eye out for any that might pop out of any nearby holes."

Almost as soon as I said that, one managed to enter behind our barrier by jumping out of a hole just as we were passing over it, it made a loud screech and was about to take a chunk out of the Mayor's leg, but Ben made quick work of it with his axe.

Most of the saber-tooth rats in front of us had mostly been killed by the electrified barrier and I saw that the national guard crew had eliminated most of the rats that had been coming up from behind. Even Mayor Levine had managed to kill a couple with a machete she got from Louis.

Once all the saber-tooth rats were dealt with, I was surprised to see that people started stepping out of the buildings as they began fixing up their houses and businesses. It didn't make much sense to me as the town would likely be reset once we finished the level and I was pretty sure they were NPCs but still, the realism was mind blowing.

At the end of the street we saw a river running roughly perpendicular to the street and a bridge crossing over it, I breathed a sigh of relief realizing that we were nearing the area where the children should be.

As we got closer to the bridge, another saber-rat creature crawled out of the river, but this one was easily the size of an adult grizzly bear. A mass of pure muscles and claws that would even give Freddy Kruger nightmares. Like the other rats, Its tail was long and pointy with sharp barbs sticking out of it like rows of giant arrow heads and it skin was scaled like snake skin.

I was pretty sure that I could it on my own but it couldn't hurt to let the 4 guardsman get in on the action as well.

"Is this the boss?" Hench asked holding a hatchet in each hand.

"This is certainly the boss of the rats I replied, "I guess that you could say that this is the saber-tooth-rat King, but this is definitely not the boss for this level."

"Louis, Mitch, take the right side," I said "Ben Hench cover his left side."

Mayor Levine was trembling and was gripping my arm with an impressive strength.

"Mayor Levine, I want you to stay here. I will set a protective barrier around you so you will be safe, but you first must let go of me."

The mayor suddenly became aware that she was clinging to my arm and let go, with a look of embarrassment.

I created a thick dome of semi translucent mana around the mayor and prepared for our first real fight since entering the Dungeon.