They stopped as soon as they were out of the corrosive lake to recover and replenish their diminished health, mana, and stamina. Laurence still only recovered six mana per minute, and he was now regretting putting so many of his points into stamina. Levi's stamina drag speed was hard to keep up with as a pure mage build but he was wishing he hadn't diluted his potential. Having spent over 170 of his mana, that recovery time turned into a half hour of waiting around.

Despite having survived the room 1 ambush with no casualties, the group had barely reached the far side of the shallow lake with the use of five of their two dozen health potions, severely diminishing their supply before they even left the first room. Steele's boots were also down to their minimum durability and Xander's had dissolved entirely.

The fight had its advantages though - Bradley had reached level 6. As per their agreement, he put his new level into Medic instead of remaining a pure fighter. It didn’t take Laurence reminding him either, he just started helping treat the others to stretch their limited stock of potions.

Laurence held him back as he went to open a second. “Should save some until after you get the class, they’ll go further that way.”

“I already leveled. Fighter 5, Medic 1.”

That made Laurence frown. “Your tag still says level 5.” If levels weren't strictly additive, what contributed to your official 'level' tag?

While Bradley continued treating Podge’s corrosive burns on his legs - still threatening to drain his health entirely - Laurence turned to Jeff, the only other multi-classer in the group as of yet. "What are your levels, exactly? Even split, or focusing on one over the other?"

"Ranger level 7, Fighter level 3."

"Your level shows as 8, not 10."

Jeff shrugged. "I don't know what it means. Maybe subclass levels only count for a third?"

Laurence dutifully took quick notes on the phenomenon. “Be sure to tell me when you get new ability options.”

Jeff didn't seem particularly enthused. “Yeah, sure."

Bradley, on the other hand, nodded and saluted. “Will do, boss.”

Before they’d finished recovering, a second swarm of scarabs flew down the hall from the other direction. Being in a close corridor without the corrosive lake as a disadvantage, however, the group was better able to handle them.

Of course, ‘better’ being relative, they still sustained significant injuries and spent most of their mana and stamina, leaving them almost worse off than when they sat down to rest. Though at least none of them was slowly dying this time.

"I wish phones worked in here," complained Xander, one of the younger members of this group at only nineteen. "I'm bored."

Twenty minutes of waiting around did a lot to dispel the tension of being in a deadly dangerous dungeon, even if Bradley's health continued to drop and recover as the environment continued to wreak havoc on his low-level lungs.

Laurence considered suggesting they step outside the dungeon to recover, but none of them wanted to wade through the toxic lake again, let alone twice.

For his part, he spent the prolonged break calculating the health and damage of the scarabs they'd fought so far "I think we need to adjust the build of this group," Laurence murmured to himself, after the second scarab swarm was finally dealt with. Multiclassing was sounding more and more like an appealing option.

Twenty minutes later, another swarm came for them, bigger this time, and they were forced to take turns guarding each other while they used health potions to survive as the scarabs simply refused to die and stung and bit again and again and again.

The scarabs' stacking slow/paralysis venom was becoming a serious problem. Podge was almost incapable of movement, swinging his sword so slowly not a single scarab failed to scoot out of its path before it could reach them, and Jeff’s arms were so weak he could barely lift his manabow, instead sitting against the wall with it rested on his knees to fire.

Laurence had avoided drawing aggro this time, careful to time his gusts so as not to attract the swarm’s ire, but that also limited his effectiveness as a burst damager.

This time, once they reached the final few, Laurence had them stop while he chased the last scarabs around, trying to grab them with his hands.

“What are you doing?” Steele was panting for breath, watching Laurence with a raised eyebrow

“Help me catch one.”

Steele looked at Laurence, then at the scarabs, then waved to Podge. “Shield.”

Podge handed it over.

Steele waited until Laurence was running toward him, scarab skittering backwards away from him, then swung the shield in a sudden stamina-enhanced swing. He snagged the scarab into its underside, slamming it to the floor so it was trapped under the curve. “Caught. Now what.”

"Well, now I need to make it submit to me."

"You going for Tamer, then?"

Laurence gestured around at the team. "There's no way we can win this alone. And if my theory on multiclassing is right... this'll end up more powerful in the long run." He hoped. He was basing it on very slim evidence, but... great leaps weren't made without risk.

It took another fifteen minutes and much biting from the captive scarab before Laurence had it properly pinned down beneath a foot, able to lean over and command it to obey him, but whether it actually worked or he was just wasting his breath, he couldn't be sure. Eventually the scrabbling claws at his foot slowed, then ceased, as the scarab ran out of stamina.

"Ready to submit yet?"

The scarab wiggled its legs weakly.

"I don't know how to interpret that."

He squinted and focused. The scarab had lost its hostile border, the window displaying its health showing instead the bland neutral border of neutrality. Neither hostile nor allied.

"Huh." He cautiously let his foot up, and the scarab fluttered its wings, readjusting its shell, and ruffled its mane. Laurence stared at it. It stared back. "I don't suppose you want to help us fight?"

The scarab stared at him. Then, without warning, its border shifted to red and it flew at Laurence with all the aggression of its previous status.

"Gust."

It fell lifeless to the ground.

"Guess you need the class to get the critters." Laurence sighed. It would be a long time before he leveled again, each level growing progressively harder to attain.

"I want to do it too," Podge said unexpectedly. "I've changed my mind. Tamer will be my subclass."

"Well, if I'm not much mistaken, you'll have your chance soon enough."

They rested again, not using any potions this time since they risked running out if they used them too freely. There was no way to get more until they reached the treasure room, and Laurence knew that could be a while.

They had to make what they had count.

Right on schedule, another group of scarabs came at them about when they were barely over half recovered, interrupting yet again. This time, with everyone on the hunt, they trapped three scarabs after killing the rest, though they were still forced to use two more health potions to avoid losing anyone of their own in the process, leaving them with only half of their original stock.

Podge repeated Laurence's strategy of holding one down under a foot after wrestling it to the ground - it kept flying away every chance it got, circling back to bite before retreating again, and they were harder to keep still than you'd expect - and after another ten minutes its border shifted from red, to neutral blue, to allied white.

"You're better at this than I am," Laurence noted.

Podge grinned, then gestured to the shield beneath which two more scarabs remained trapped. "Let them out."

Hesitant, Steele did so, and Podge went after them with his scarab (whose name had inexplicably been changed to 'Ruby'). The second scarab's health dropped, then dropped again, then it stopped fighting entirely and joined Ruby with the name Dusk.

"You've already leveled?" Laurence asked, as Podge took on the final scarab, his tiny swarm more than sufficient to bring it down, then it too turned allied with the name Velvet.

"I did."

"How do you have so many minion slots?"

"They're a shared resource with blade techniques. I don't use those much, so figured more tames is better."

Laurence's hopes of becoming a master tamer fell. "Tether," he said softly. "Of course."

A mage had focus spells, abilities so ingrained that they could cast them at a mere fraction of their standard cost. But it seemed instead of gaining a new pool of minion slots to fill by cross-classing into Tamer, he'd instead be forced to choose between a minion or a spell for each available slot.

He cross-examined Podge closely to ensure he knew what he was thinking was correct, but from everything he could see his theory was valid. Tethered constructs, whether a mana technique, a stamina ability, or a monster, took up the same slots from the same pools.

It did mean he could use his mage ability to increase his focus spells and use them for minion slots, but even thinking of trading away his magical potential made the prospect of classing into Tamer a bit less appealing.

"Woah." Podge jumped back. Ruby was twisting and shaking, then split in half, forming two perfectly identical scarabs. "That's not normal, is it?"

Both were named Ruby, according to a quick check of their system tags, and both showed with allied borders.

"Aw, did Podge's bugs make a baby?" teased Frire Duck. "Is it a boy or girl? Should we throw a party?"

Podge grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at Frire Duck.

Frire Duck evaded the stone, still laughing.

"It's not funny."

"I think it is," Steele put in.

Podge glowered at him as well. "Do I need another rock?"

"I don't know, do you?"

Podge grinned wickedly in sudden inspiration. Four scarabs swooped in at Steele.

"No fair!"

"Still think it's funny?"

"No, fine, you win, it's not funny!"

The swarm settled, returning to Podge to orbit around him in languid ellipses. "Good. I'll thank you to remember that next time you're being led astray."