Crackle promptly started clawing at the ground, scratching a map into the stone.

Straight ahead, a gorge twisted its way down between the mountaintops, through gaps and under overhangs, meandering until Levi lost sight of it around a curve. If he had to bet, he'd say that path was probably stalked by more of those sabercats.

To the left, the view was dominated by the nearest and largest mountain peak, rising to snow-covered prominence with a very obvious treasure circle set near its top with no sign of any adversity to prevent one from running right up and snatching away the rewards. He could even make out the lumpy glint of at least a few items already there, temptingly waiting.

Levi forced down the instinctive greed that urged him to go check it out. It would almost certainly be a trap. Though it was possible that was a miniboss the dungeon hadn't respawned in yet, Levi wasn't willing to take the risk.

He'd stopped consciously noticing the oppressive weight of the dungeon's level, but the way he'd been forced to such extreme measures simply to survive made him quite certain that he didn't want to take on anything here he didn't have to.

Crackle buzzed in satisfaction, drawing Levi's attention down to his map. It took both Crackle and Skarm to interpret, but they were a surprisingly good team.

Midway down the central route, the path split. The second path led over to the triple mountains, but from underneath. They were held in a cavern beneath there, at the far corner.

By the looks of it, Crackle's proposed route would be at least half again as long as if he followed the top of the ridge and only descended into the rift when he reached the triple mountains. But the ridgetop route had the disadvantage of very large dinosaurs and not much in the way of maneuverability. The dinosaurs would have less problem running up and down those uneven slopes than someone Levi's size. At least down in the valleys and gaps both parties would be equally handicapped by the terrain.

Still. Any delay chafed. He wanted to run, jump from hill to hill, cut across straight to them and not waste a second. But he'd already done the max overdraw rush once today and he'd subsequently floundered around in a forest barely able to keep ahead of a giant monkey as a result.

As urgently as he needed to reach his family, he also needed to be in proper condition to help them when he reached them.

"You sure this is the better way? Not following the ridge?"

Crackle walked along the path he'd drawn confidently.

Levi exhaled shakily, his whole body feeling tense.

Crackle hadn't led him wrong so far. "Alright, we'll keep following your plan. Bladefin, take half your swarm to scout ahead. If you find anything, tell me immediately."

Half the flying fish immediately exited Levi's bag, flowing out and around him in their weirdly bobbing patterns as they rushed ahead in a loose formation.

Levi ran after them at a sustainable pace, keeping an eye out in case they missed anything. He wasn't sure how good the senses of a swarm of fish would be.

The cleft between the mountains was uneven and rocky, less of a flat road and more a collection of tumbled rocks where two mountains met. The footing was treacherous, but the heightened awareness and balance of a level 17 Awakened meant Levi was more than capable of handling a few uneven rocks. Though it would make any combat a bit more risky. One more factor to keep aware of.

Sometimes the mountain to one side or the other rose sheer in solid stone, other times broken slate overhangs created deep shadows, or landslide pebbles formed a gravely scree.

Twice they passed dark openings to caves, and once a landslide had buried the 'path' and slowed everything considerably while Levi climbed up and over it.

Still, for the first several minutes, they encountered no adversaries. As it turned out, the Bladefins were pretty good at their job.

About a third of the way to where the path branched off, one of the fish came swimming back through the air, furtive and low to the ground. Levi didn't need a translator to get the message. He cast about for a ledge or cave to offer some concealment, but they were in a relatively open stretch without so much as a boulder to hide behind.

"How many, how far away?" Levi asked in a low whisper, slowing to a stop and crouching to talk to the fish.

It swam over to Levi and tapped his arm with its tail six times in quick succession, then darted back and forth in three quick motions.

"Six enemies, three... something away?"

The fish dove toward the ground and drew a wobbly but recognizable angled line in the gravel slope to their right.

"Three turns," Levi realized. The path wasn't remotely straight, making it hard to accurately gauge distance, but with how many unrealistically small mountains were crammed together into this space he supposed 'turns' was as good a measurement as anything. "Thanks. Good work."

A sheer cliff dominated the left side at the moment, too tall for him to jump. He glanced up at the slope that made up the right edge of their ravine. Steep and covered in small stones, it would be difficult to climb. Not impossible. A detour would slow them down, but not as much as getting tangled up in a fight. Given how little raw combat power he possessed at the moment compared to absolutely anything he'd encounter here, evasion was their best bet.

"The rest of the swarm is out of danger?"

The fish bobbed in the air.

"Good. Keep it that way." Levi pointed to the slope. "This connects to the path we need to follow?" With so many miniature mountains criss-crossing in every direction, it would be easy to get turned around and hopelessly lost.

The fish bobbed agreement again.

Levi glanced up the slope. Further up, this particular mountain leveled out into a flat plateau, topped with what appeared to be a large lobster nest. Levi could see the avian crustacean's silhouette, and he didn't know of any other creature with both eyestalks and feathers.

If it spotted them, that would be another major risk, but at least a giant flying creature would have more trouble navigating the crevices than the pack of whatever the fishes had found. If it came to it, Levi could dive into a cave to escape the roc-lobster.

If only he had Lash still! He remembered the sight of Javier escaping on his own roc-lobster; a flying mount would save so much hassle if he could fly straight across.

But without Lash to hold it in place it would be too risky to engage. Especially without knowing its level. It could be anywhere from 10 to 21, and nothing in that range he was confident in taking on solo.

Levi’s fish swarmed up from the rift as he crawled out onto the steep slope to make his way carefully around the roc-lobster's peak. He moved slow and cautious, wary of setting off a landslide or attracting the attention of the enemies below or above, trying to stay out of sight.

Without warning, the scouting swarm split in half, four swimming back toward Levi in such obvious concern that he stopped moving. Those four hovered in front of him in a loose barrier formation while the other four darting off somewhere.

From around the curve came a sudden cacophony of howling, then the clattering of something sliding on stone. Then the sounds moved away down into the crevice, back the direction they'd come from.

The fishes had drawn the attention of some pack of enemies to clear his path. "Thanks," he whispered.

The remaining fishes bobbed and started off again, moving a bit faster this time, and as they moved further away from the giant nest Levi hurried after them a bit less cautiously.

He did glance down at the valley and saw a pack of small, different-looking kalvex, thinner and more gazelle-like than their bulky Destruction-dungeon counterparts, but still that odd mix of wolfish and herd-animal shape.

Before long their detour rejoined the valley path and Crackle took over the lead again.

By then the fish swarm had already recovered enough mana to repopulate itself back to full, spread out ahead of Levi in all directions like an early warning system.

In this manner, they distracted or evaded almost every opponent they came across. Moving steadily it still took nearly an hour to traverse the room from entry to the base of the first of the triple mountains.

Apart from the lingering tension of potential doom around every corner, it was the simplest of the rooms they'd crossed so far, the sheer size allowing for stealth and evasion in a way the smaller rooms of other levels hadn't.

Right up until they arrived at the cave.

Crackle wilted back into Levi's shoulder. The fish swarm formed up tight around him, three more from his backpack slipping out to take up positions.

Their final obstacle stood blocking the entrance to the tunnel, his body firmly interposed between the inside and the outside. There was no way past. No way around.

Timothy Adams:

Level 19

(Ranger/Scout)