It took ten more minutes, and around a dozen health elixirs, but with Jayke acting as tank and covering for the gremlins they brought down the grounded harpy's health sufficiently for Levi to cast Tame without losing anyone else in the process.

Harpy: Level 9

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Strength: 6

Health: 117/800

(+24/min)

Psyche: 0

Mana: 0/0

(+2/min)

Spirit: 3

Stamina: 22/175

(+10/min)

It took only a glance at the stats to convince Levi and Gordon that they definitely wanted more harpies. All the harpies. And the bosses.

With health totals like that, in addition to being mobile flying ranged attackers? Any thoughts of just taking one and holding out for something better vanished. The 'something better' was right above them, currently trying to kill them.

After that, with the new harpy and Jayke trading off as cover for the humans and gremlins, they made a makeshift fortress out of Pierce's body from which they slowly whittled down the health of the remaining adversaries.

One or both of the gremlins would hitch a ride on one or both of the harpies, transporting them up to where they could spend a few minutes clawing and goring the enemy harpies, before dropping back down and returning to the 'base'.

Jayke and Levi's harpy fired back their own attacks against the five remaining harpies above, trading out frequently for restoratives. The first time Levi watched Gordon pouring health restoratives down Jayke's throat, the harpy kneeling with head tilted back, beak upturned and open, it summoned the distinct impression of a very large baby bird begging for food.

Regardless of dignity, Levi and Gordon continued acting as support for their minions, conserving their own mana and stamina for the next step.

Twice more the bosses attempted their full-room stun, but the buildup to it was flashy enough and took long enough for Levi and Gordon to safely evacuate to the ledge above. The ledge was far more exposed to attacks than their crumpled-Pierce hideout, but it was preferable to take a few minutes of extra damage to avoid the certain death of being stunned and paralyzed. If they didn't have two harpies to fly them up, it would have been very bad. Thankfully, the cooldown on that twin lightning move of theirs seemed to be in the realm of twenty minutes.

The battle of attrition dragged on, with the advantage slowly shifting from the relentless harpies above to the humans below as first one, then two, then all three of the remaining standard harpies were converted.

It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't dignified, and it certainly wasn't fun, but in the end their conservative tactics (and vast stockpile of elixirs) won out, leaving the bosses alone without their support.

Showtime.

The bosses took longer, but not by as much of a margin as Levi would have expected. Sure, they hit harder, fired more frequently, and had more health, but aside from their focused damage they were rather unimpressive as bosses. Even the lone harpy boss they'd fought previously had more flair, swooping down to slash at them with its wings, setting off stuns as it passed.

It seemed there was some manner of tradeoff between powers and allies. Levi remembered the first Control dungeon, where it had eschewed minor creatures entirely and put everything into a single boss. No two dungeons were alike - not even every run of the same dungeon was the same - but there was definitely some balance to what they could contain.

Finally, after depleting over 70% of their stored elixirs just to keep their flock of standard harpies alive, they brought down the health and resistances of first one, then both of the bosses.

Tame: Success!

Would you like to name ‘Steelfeather Harpy’ at this time?

By the end of it, Levi was too exhausted to even look at his new harpy's stats, and just lay back on the floor, staring at the ceiling, all strength gone from him as though he'd drunk one restorative too many. Or, more likely, ten too many.

"Guess we're camping out here a while." Gordon finally broke the silence.

Levi grunted.

"I'm glad I maxed Dismay, even if right now I'm wishing I'd gone for more rapid Revive."

Levi made a vague sound that required slightly less effort than a grunt.

"I don't know how you do it."

Gordon's subdued voice got Levi's attention. He turned his head to look, and saw Gordon staring down at his hands with a pensive frown.

"Do what?"

"I've been training for weeks and yet, until the very end, I couldn't do anything but sit back and hand out potions."

"You were conserving mana and stamina for the taming and dismays, that was the plan."

"It's a nice excuse, but we both know I'd have done the same without a plan."

"You're doing just fine. Give it time. Right now, you'll fight for yourself, and when it comes right down to it, you'll fight for a friend. That's more than enough to get started with."

"But I could be doing so much more."

"Good. Keep chasing that. It's not a magic formula that you can follow for a week and be someone else. It takes a lot of work, a good bit of failing, and people to help you along the way."

Gordon looked over at him, squinting. "That's oddly specific of you to say."

Levi shrugged. "I've spent a long time being someone I don't want to be."

Gordon didn't press. They sat in silence another several minutes, then as their health and stamina gradually returned, got to their feet and headed on into the treasure room to reap the tangible rewards of their effort.

7 Health, 5 Mana, and 4 Stamina. Not close to enough to replenish what they'd used, but a good start to it. Four Lightning tokens, which was unsurprising, but also three power stones, which was much less common. Levi rarely saw more than one or two in a single dungeon, let alone a single treasure room. At least at this level.

By the time dungeons got up to the 100s, power stones were so common as to be almost useless - everyone already had whatever powers they were going to use, and power stones couldn't be crushed or reformed as an ingredient like tokens could. Some recipes required them, mainly high-end custom weapons, but in those cases it was the other ingredients that were insanely hard to come by.

Aside from those commonplace items, there was also a small box of Storm Chenille flowers which looked like fuzzy blue caterpillars, an ingredient Levi had yet to receive before now and which may unlock new options.

More uncommon still, a staff and a book with Lightning tracings pre-inscribed.

Staff (Enhancement, Standard) Inscription: (Uncommon) Lightning Focus

Tome (Enhancement, Standard) Inscription: (Uncommon) Electric Field

While Levi wasn't a mage, he'd been around them enough to get the impression that these kind of items functioned as a temporary powerup for spells, something like what a sheath did for a sword. He smiled as he stuffed them into his backpack. Laurence would be ecstatic over these.

Another storage bag, the standard medium size unfortunately, not one big enough for their larger items. He tucked that away, always good to have an extra storage bag on hand to give away to someone who needed it.

Lightning Circlet (Headgear, Standard)

Abilities: (Basic) Lightning Speed

Power stone: Lightning

Upgrade Slots: 0

Despite its impressive name, 'Lightning Speed' didn't actually increase movement speed, nor was what it did enhance anything close to lightning in speed. Levi still put it on immediately. Though in reality only a minor boost to cognitive speed, the ability to literally think faster was never going to be a drawback.

Iron Helmet (Headgear, Standard)

Abilities: (Locked, Basic)

Upgrade Slots: 0/1

Iron Breastplate (Armor, Standard)

Abilities: (Locked, Basic)

Upgrade Slots: 0/1

Iron Chausses (Armor, Standard)

Abilities: (Locked, Basic)

Upgrade Slots: 0/1

The set of heavier armor would do much better than what he was currently wearing for resisting physical attacks, even if lower-grade metals tended to conduct magic a bit more thoroughly than Levi would have liked.

You could physically wear any number of layers, but stacking mana-powered items too closely on top of each other tended to end up with things either failing to work or, in rare cases, exploding. Since it was magic-conductive, the iron armor could carry a minor reflection of any power used underneath it, but not enough to be worth continuing to double up once he crafted something really worthwhile. The dilution effect wouldn't be worth the added physical protection.

And, finally, at the very bottom... a high grade Resistance tracing, the kind that could be fused to a piece of armor. He wasn't an expert on tracings, but it also looked to have a complicated secondary effect built in. Try as he might, apart from recognizing the central Resistance form, Levi couldn't discern anything more from the complex blue lines.

He added that one to his special crafting supplies pocket. It would be a valuable piece to his eventual proper equipment set when the invasion drew closer.

Then, with the table cleared, Levi sat down and finally opened up his new harpies' full stat sheets.