Levi ended up leaving Elmire with Ward, since the two gremlins liked working together anyway, but since Peter was going to stay with their group Cassandra argued that they didn't need two ogres.

Levi readily agreed to take Drok with him and Gordon. That left the recruitment team with Greg and Slayer, Henry, Crimson, Ward and Elmire, Crackle, and Becca, while Levi and Gordon took the rest. It would probably be better this way anyway. With Drok to act as main tank, Cen as off-tank and crowd control, and everyone else as overwhelming damage, they shouldn't have any problem.

Also, Levi was looking forward to seeing Drok’s new Dark punchy gloves in action.

The nearest dungeon in the loop Levi had picked out was still a good four hours away from where they were, closer to five counting in the slower speed of some of his minions, perhaps six or seven with the need to avoid cities and the likelihood of an ogre stomping on a car by mistake.

Therefore, instead of setting out in a straight line directly, Levi decided they'd check out the other dungeons in a line to their new loop in case they had leveled or were spawning Essences. (So far, he'd yet to find another, but he doubted the streak would last forever.)

Between three lower level Destruction dungeons, there was a single Stone dungeon, and this one was level 3.

"Ready to kill off your cousins?"

Cen and Centoo seemed untroubled by the notion.

The moment they entered the first room, a dozen Cynomis Burrowers jumped out in ambush, flinging themselves from ceiling to wall and slashing out with their claws and teeth.

Flomper bared her teeth as though this behavior was a personal affront to her. She dove into the wall to chase them down, catching up easily with her higher level and hurling first one then three then five down to the eager ogre and centipedes waiting below.

Drok slammed them out of the air with his dark-glowing fists, Cen quick to finish off any who survived. Between Two and Skarm and Maggie and Frosty, those braver cynomis who elected to face their adversaries directly instead of cowering in the ceiling were dealt with just as quickly.

Levi barely even had time to register the fight's tempo before it was over, a dozen cynomis corpses already beginning to disappear less than a minute into their delve.

Gordon stood stunned, one hand on his un-drawn sword. "Quite the welcome. I wonder how effective it is against the locals."

"They should be used to it by now." Levi started toward the hall, Centoo and Skarm rushing ahead, Frosty scampering along the ceiling. "Dungeons don't tend to change their tactics between levels."

"What if this dungeon only just reached level 3?"

Levi shook his head. "We don't have time to help everyone. If they're experienced enough to have leveled this to 3, then they're experienced enough to deal with a simple ambush like this."

If there were a risk to unAwakened, he would likely jump to protect them regardless of the circumstances, but at a certain point sheltering someone was only setting them up for failure when you weren't there to catch their mistakes.

The next room was big and open, with nowhere to hide and nothing obvious to fight. Levi slipped on his Beast-Sight lens again, checking the walls for ambushing cynomis, but found nothing.

Gordon hesitated, not setting foot inside. "This feels like a trap."

"Yes it does. Two? Shadevine?"

Two and Shadevine, as the stealthiest of his minions, crept forward. Shadevine still utilized his branching body as if he were a miniature centipede made of purple-grey roots, while Two held his nature-green knife at the ready.

Nothing happened. Both minions reached the far side of the room safely, with not a single trap tile or sudden falling rocks or swinging blades. They moved back more slowly still, covering more of the floor and moving less stealthily - Shadevine prancing across half the room in an attempt to trigger anything - but still nothing.

"Maybe the dungeon never finished interior decorating?" Gordon suggested.

"Or perhaps all the cynomis from this room went out to help in the first room."

"Can they do that?"

Levi shrugged one shoulder. "Who knows. Dungeons each follow their own rules, and trying to define them as a whole is futile. Any rule you can think of will have exceptions."

Cen and Centoo started across the floor, Maggie slithering after them. Drok waited until they'd crossed, then started after them. His footsteps were as gentle as he could manage, only lightly shaking the room, but if there had been any traps that the others were too light to set off, his presence would have been enough.

Still no trap. Levi started after them, Gordon and the rest of the minions beside him or trailing behind.

The third room was full of pits. Or slides. And slanted wall sections. It wasn't very well designed - they could easily move between the walls and slide-pits avoiding both with ease. Levi checked it over for creatures, and saw only a single stone centipede lurking below.

"Ah, so it's a detour. Skarm, Two, care to join me?"

Levi crossed half the room, then dropped into the nearest slide. It twisted as he slid, slamming him into spiked walls with sharp turns, but his armor absorbed most of the impact and he flared health to handle the rest. With the result of him emerging from the slide in perfect health, swords drawn and ready.

The stone centipede rushed at him, just as Skarm and Two tumbled out of the chute behind him. They took one look at each other, then split up and ran at the centipede's relatively vulnerable back.

Levi himself stabbed his swords both up into the centipede's mouth, Beast Bite clamping its jaws shut and Destructive Slash dropping its health by almost half.

It lashed out with its legs, slicing them against Levi's armor, but he stood firm and maintained his hold. It tried to tug backwards and away, pulling him off balance, but he took only a single step to recover before bracing himself and hauling it back in line, like a disobedient hound on a short leash.

The gremlins struck from behind, Skarm's unarmed and leap bonuses coming into play, as did Two's ability to strike from stealth. Since the centipede's full attention was forced onto Levi, his minions had free reign to bring it down.

Skarm hesitated when it reached 2%, glancing up at Levi questioningly.

"Thanks, but go ahead. I'm satisfied with our current crop of centipedes, don't need another one."

Skarm nodded and the two of them finished it off together, each with a single blow.

The remainder of the detour involved a poorly set up rolling stone trap, which Levi was able to simply jump over with a gremlin tucked under each arm, a second centipede which posed about the same level of non-threat as the first, and a treasure room complete with two mana elixirs, one stamina, three Stone tokens and one Stone power stone, and a pair of boots. The boots had an upgrade slot, but no linked tracing for an effect. Yet another thing he'd have to upgrade when the time came.

Moving on, after opening the hidden exit from the detour treasure room back into the main dungeon, they encountered another swarm of cynomis burrowers, but there were only four this time and Levi's elite gremlins didn't need backup to finish off four little cynomis. It took a few minutes longer than it would have if everyone had been present, but not long enough to be the slightest bit worried about.

They backtracked through another empty room and back into the room of slanted chutes, where Gordon and the other minions waited. Together they moved on to the final trap corridor - another rolling stone, which Drok stopped cold and picked up to carry with him - and to the boss room itself.

As with the previous dungeon Levi had traversed that seemed oddly empty, it was immediately obvious that this was where the majority of the danger was concentrated.

The room itself was impressive enough. Sheer walls, tall enough that you could stack a dozen ogres and still not reach the top, formed a sort of four-point star.

At the center of the room the boss waiting coiled and confident, head raised to fix them in its cold grey eyes.

Level 3+

(Stone Centipede)

Health 100%

"I take it back. Maybe one more centipede could come in handy."