"Do you understand that the information you've been spreading so recklessly is classified? That you've committed a severe crime by sharing it with everyone you meet?"

Agent 940: Level 22

(Fighter/Mage)

Cassandra raised her eyebrows. "Oh, is it? You know, I did a lot of searches online before we started to see what everyone was saying, but there was no warning or anything. You really should get a better PR team if you want people to know the rules about this sort of thing."

"You are to cease distributing it immediately and destroy any copies you have remaining."

"Destroy them! Do you know how much work it took to make those?"

"Ma'am, I understand that you think you're helping, having some harmless fun, but this is not a game. These 'Dungeons' are incredibly dangerous places capable of slaughtering entire cities if left unchecked."

Cassandra gasped in false shock. "Oh, really? The murder monster factories aren't safe? I'm so sorry, officer, I never imagined that the murderous mindless creatures growing progressively stronger would be dangerous."

"You think you're funny."

"Little bit, yeah. Not as funny as this whole idiotic debacle. You're rounding up Awakened, for what? I'm still a citizen here, you have no right to impede my private affairs."

"Your very public affairs, you mean."

"My none of your business affairs."

"Dungeons and anything related to them have been qualified as secret. This is on the level of advanced weaponry, as something that the public should not have unrestricted access to."

Cassandra laughed and leaned back, feigning nonchalance despite the whole chained-up-in-a-dungeon thing. "So you're planning to restrict access to every dungeon? Post guards, keep people out, level yourselves at the expense of the rest of the population being unprepared?"

"That's the point of having a department dedicated to dealing with dungeons. To protect the citizenry from stumbling into something that'll get them killed. You spreading your little fan club isn't helping."

Cassandra leaned forward, suddenly serious. "This is bigger than you can imagine," she hissed. "I hope you're prepared to protect the people you're denying the ability to defend themselves. Because if you're not, there's going to be a whole lot more than a town or two leveled."

"Is that supposed to scare me? Spouting melodramatic bullshit isn't going to change anything."

"Then I want a lawyer." She crossed her arms, chains clinking. "If you're going to hold me here against my will I'm not saying anything more."

Agent 940 shook his head and left, but as he departed she could have sworn he muttered, "I wish."

Even if Conduit was the long-term superior choice, right now Levi wished with all his heart that he’d chosen Avatar instead. If he could at least see his family, verify for himself whether they were okay, ascertain what was going on…

Crackle could only convey so much, even after conversing with the gremlins at length. Skarm had worked with Crackle to sketch out a map of the village below. Levi could verify it contained several very strong mana presences, as well as the highest level dungeon he'd felt since arriving in the past.

It looked like an ordinary town for the most part, but the area around the dungeon had been cleared and fenced off, with spotlights and watchtowers and guards. Those in the village outside had a weaker mana presence, more in the realm of level 10 or below, while several of those inside the fence came back as notably stronger than Levi himself.

Thankfully, Levi wasn't alone, and his goal wasn't actually to fight everyone down there. He just wanted to find his family and get out. He had two gremlins, a soul-seeker and an eqralne. Crackle 1 stayed with him, and Crackle 2 arrived along with Becca shortly after he chose his lookout spot.

For dead minions, Gordon had stuffed Tink, Frosty, and Firelord into his bag, and Stunner still had Iris, though it would be some time until he was able to revive anyone more.

"Two, you're the stealthiest, can you slip in and reconnoiter?"

Two nodded, then jumped on Becca's back with a pointy-toothed grin at Skarm.

Becca promptly teleported out from under him, and he fell to the ground with a soft squeak of alarm.

Then it was Skarm's turn to grin and wave mockingly.

"Not the time," Levi all but snarled. His gremlins stiffened at sudden attention. "Two, go. Skarm, keep an eye out."

He wanted to rush in and cut his way through anything in his path until he had his family back, but he couldn't afford to make a doomed run. If he got himself killed, it would be worse than waiting a little longer.

He tried to convince himself, but it wasn't until Becca crouched in his path, growling in warning, that he realized he'd started toward it anyway.

"You're right, I should wait for Two's report."

The giant cat didn't move, ears flat against her head, watching him warily as though prepared to pounce if he made a wrong move.

"I'm not that bad..."

She lowered her head, staring up at him with a knowing look.

"Okay, maybe I'm a bit impulsive sometimes, but I know this is important to do correctly."

She took a slow step forward.

Levi sighed and turned away, retreating down the side of the hill to where Skarm and Crackle stood at their tactical map. Crackle had provided a complete layout of the buildings from above, while Skarm scribbled out patrol routes. There were eight high-level Awakened guarding the inner compound, and another twenty or so positioned in various buildings around the place.

Then there was the dungeon. It could have a team delving it, or it could be about to spawn an Essence... no way of knowing.

"And you say that's where Irene and Peter are?"

Crackle settled down on top of the depiction of the dungeon.

"You're absolutely sure?"

Crackle shuffled his wings, remaining in place.

"And you can't tell me why?"

Crackle flew back and forth in a rapid vertical figure-eight.

Levi sighed. "Skarm? Any chance of a translation?"

Skarm gestured at Crackle, and Crackle flew around in increasingly complex patterns for several minutes, while Skarm nodded sagely. Then, after a particularly complicated spiral in midair, Crackle landed back on the dungeon on the map.

"Well?"

Skarm turned to Levi with great solemnity, and shrugged.

"I said this isn't the time. We have no idea what's going on in there." He was half inclined to strangle the gremlin on the spot. "If you can't say anything useful, at least don't waste time raising false hopes!"

Becca sprang out of nowhere, landing on Levi with her full weight and knocking him to the ground, hard enough that his stamina dropped to half to absorb the impact.

"Ow, what?" Levi tried to protest, but she was lying on his face. He shoved her off. She backed up but remained crouched on his chest, holding one paw over his mouth.

Levi glared. "You're siding with the jokesters? This is important!"

As his voice began to rise, she pushed down harder, muffling his complaint, and he finally understood.

"Oh," he whispered. He wanted to smack himself. He'd been so used to fighting dungeons, where you could hold a party right outside their range and they'd ignore you until you got close, or discuss tactics in front of them with impunity.

He'd forgotten that right now they were hiding from humans. A loud argument would attract attention. Levi silently cursed himself. He should have been more aware of the situation.

Becca promptly got up and wandered off, as though she had no interest in Levi any more and never had.

Levi exhaled slowly, his ire expended. He shouldn't blame his minions for being who they were. Even if they were intractable and irksome at times.

Speaking of irksome minions though... he took a quick glance around for Lash. If he'd been thinking strategically, it might have been preferable to revive Iris first so she could reign in her wayward brother, but at the time it had been more important to have someone with a strong grip who could stay on Stunner's back through the long run.

"Crackle, can you go find Lash?"

The scarab shuffled his wings, then fluttered over to the map. After a moment of wandering, he settled on a spot in the village, within sight of one of the watchtowers.

Levi cursed again. "Really? What part of 'stealth mission' does he not understand."

Crackle buzzed in sympathy.

Levi scowled, but he had to admit that there was a better than decent chance that it was his own impatience that had pushed Lash into action.

He'd seen before that his own emotional state could be mirrored to his minions, though they reacted to it in various ways. Lash wouldn't hesitate to go out and fight things under normal circumstances, and the current situation had Levi feeling more on edge and aggressive than usual.

"I don't suppose you can turn him back around?"

Crackle shuffled in place disconsolately.

"Figures. If he won't listen to me half the time, why would he listen to you. If Two gets back before I do, keep him here. I'm going to grab our wayward eyeball."