Control. One of Levi's least favourite dungeon types, but a necessary encounter if he wanted to properly prepare. He wasn't sure of all the specifics of crafting the Summoner evolution item, but he knew that all Tamer class upgrades require Control tokens predominantly among their ingredients. Both summoners he'd spoken with in the first timeline had complained about it.

Fortunately, this Control dungeon was much less dangerous than the first he'd entered. That one had eschewed all creatures in the earlier rooms to create a vastly overpowered boss to ambush him with its paralyzing mental fear effect. This one had no Soul-Seeker in sight, just a lot of Glitterlings. Like the hypnotic equivalent of the Dark dungeon's Night Wisp, a glitterling resembled a floating ball of light with dragonfly wings, and did their best to dazzle and confuse visitors to their dungeon.

Levi grabbed one to tame, just so he could see what its stats were like, but, like Shadevines, they were simply too weak to be tamed. Only five health, so they died before dropping below 20%. Since the dungeon was only level 1 at the moment it would be a while before he could get one to study. Unless he got lucky and the boss was a glitterling swarm like with Shadevine...

Alas, it was not to be. Once they cleared many rooms of glitter sprites ambushing them in various ways - none of which were sufficient to more than stun a single minion - the boss ended up being a Mirror Sprite.

Another enemy Levi had never encountered personally, as Control was never a popular dungeon type for leveling in, but he had heard stories. Mirror Sprites, unlike most Control creatures who attacked mentally, actually manipulated light itself to create impossibly convincing illusions. This made them incredibly infuriating opponents - they could falsify a floor over a pit, or a wall in an open space, and you'd almost never be able to actually catch sight of it until you wore it down with area attacks or tanking its attacks until it ran out of mana.

Levi's team was still quite lacking in area attacks, but they had one very big advantage: volume.

Pierce alone could account for half the room, with his many, many legs slashing out blindly. Between the rest of the team, the mirror sprite would be left with very few places to physically hide, whatever attempted illusions it may put forth.

Like most Control creatures, it could fly, and quietly enough that it would give little warning of its presence, but it wasn't tiny like a glitterling. It took up a substantial amount of space, and that would be its downfall.

"Split up and spread out." Levi hefted his sword. "Time to show this sprite there's nowhere it can hide."

The moment they stepped into the room, each of his minions disappeared, replaced by the unwavering illusion of an utterly empty room. Under ordinary circumstances, this would easily lead to the party accidentally hitting one another instead of their enemy, but Levi's minions were all directly connected to him. He could sense their presence even if he couldn't see them, and they could detect one another through him by proxy.

"Where are you?" Gordon asked, as Levi stepped inside.

Levi reached out a hand. "Here, I'll guide you. Just keep swinging at the open air above and in front of you and you should be good."

Levi's team split the room between them, pushing against walls and feeling for pitfalls, slashing out at empty air with unrelenting speed. Before long, thuds and squeaks were in evidence as the unseen adversary tried in vain to evade everyone and get in strikes of its own.

Despite their numerical advantage, the fight dragged on for minutes. The sprite quickly grew better at evading, flying high enough to be out of reach of any but Pierce and Drok, avoiding the others altogether. It did swoop in at Drok a few times, judging by the ogre's grunts of irritation and dropping health, but the ogre was more than able to handle the minor attacks.

Then, finally, its mana ran out and the illusion faltered. The sprite hovered by the ceiling, vaguely humanoid, a little bit taller than a gremlin but thinner and more insectine, with four rainbow-dragonfly wings and six pincer-clawed legs. Or arms? It was hard to differentiate.

Its eyes were big and dark gold, watching them with spite. It bared its teeth at them, thin needle-like teeth that looked like they belonged on a deep-sea fish.

Level 1+

(Mirror Sprite)

Health 40%

Levi returned its grimace with a smile. "I think you'll be coming with us. We happen to have an opening for a flying illusion-based scout."

The mirror sprite snarled and dove at Levi, clearly affronted by his long eye contact, claws extended. And they were claws. Not humanoid-finger claws like Skarm's, but blade-sharp pincers that threatened to slice Levi's arm right off.

Or, at least, they would if it were any bigger. As it wasn't much bigger than Skarm, the threat of the flying bug's snappy claws was less than intimidating.

Levi swung his shortsword, slamming a Beast Bite into the sprite's stomach. It snapped at the blade with four arms. To Levi's surprise, his sword's durability dropped under the assault, but the sprite was immobilized and within easy reach of Levi's other minions. Unable to flee, it stood no chance at all.

Levi watched with a faint smile as he maintained the Beast Bite and his minions swiftly brought the sprite's health down into taming range. Gordon cast Dismay. The sprite continued to lash out and struggle futilely against his sword's jaws, snapping at the blade, at Pierce's claws, at anything that came near, but the end of the fight was already decided.

In the end, it was a futile resistance. The sprite was utterly overwhelmed, and Levi's first tame brought it into the fold without resistance.

Mirror Sprite

(Level 1 Mirror Sprite +)

Strength: 0

Health: 50/50

(+1/min)

Psyche: 1

Mana: 165/165

(+4/min)

Spirit: 0

Stamina: 50/50

(+1/min)

Pretty good, for a level 1, but nothing too extreme. Its illusion power was the real benefit here. He didn't want to let an ability like that go to waste. It seemed to drain a lot of mana though, even with the sprite's naturally high pool.

He searched out its gains, raising an eyebrow at the results.

Strength: +3 Health, +1 H-Regen Psyche: +45 Mana, +2 M-Regen Spirit: +3 Stamina, +1 S-Regen

Luckily, mana was one of its best options, and as an innately flying creature it would be perfect for an open battlefield. Its low health was its biggest drawback, but sufficient illusions and staying at a safe distance could make up for that.

Levi could already imagine, deploying dozens of mirror sprites to erect illusionary walls to block the demons' view, hide defenders and misalign their shots. Trick them into attacking things that weren't there. The illusion power seemed limited to static objects for the moment, no way to create illusions of creatures - probably a good thing, for those who had to fight the sprites, though he couldn't help hoping that he'd get the option to unlock moving illusions at a later threshold.

But, as with everything, there was a tradeoff. By taming these bosses instead of killing them, they weren't leveling very quickly. He'd need to hold off on taming too many more things, but he did love the potential of the Control creatures. Demons were known to be susceptible to mental magic, but too few wizards had found their way to a mental skill tree and they were always targeted as soon as the demons realized what they were up to.

Minions, though, could be revived when killed. One battle going wrong wouldn't be enough to stop them. There was nothing else that could match the sheer potential of directing an army of immortal monsters from a safe distance. Sure, mages could fire flashy spells, but once they ran out of mana that was it. Tamers didn't rely on individual abilities, their creatures could do that.

Levi hadn't exactly doubted his path, but now he felt more certain than ever that Summoner was the correct route to pursue.