Of the tamers assembled, only four had reached level 5, and of those only half had chosen Revive as one of their abilities.

Mark Collins and Amy Goodman each had a single point in Revive, meaning they'd have the full 24-hour cooldown. Amy had put her other two points into Empower, while Mark was going for a more familiar build with Dismay and Pack Leader.

Of the available minions Levi had to revive, Firelord was a definite necessity. He had the best ranged damage of any of those present. Frosty vs Tink was a harder call to make, but he chose to start with Frosty for now for multiple reasons.

First, Levi's own revive would be off cooldown in a couple hours. Now that everyone was free the urgency to rush ahead had faded a bit. Though they'd still want to move sooner rather later if his plan was to be at its most effective, a few hours was no longer a ticking time bomb of looming despair.

Second, though Tink's illusion abilities would be absolutely essential against the humans outside, they'd be practically useless in the dungeon given the nature of Levi's plan.

Third, it would give Gordon a more precise location to anchor on. Dead minions didn't give the same direction sense as living ones, and if he got close enough they might even be able to come up with some rudimentary communication system. Well. Probably not. Though now he was thinking about it, they should set something up in case of being separated in future.

Decision made, he pulled off his backpack and took out Frosty and Firelord's bodies. "These two."

Amy's eyes lit up immediately when she saw Frosty, but the hope quickly turned to disappointment as she read the tag. "I was hoping you'd found one of mine."

"You have Frost Spider minions?"

She smiled and nodded. "They're the best thing I've found so far, so I decided to go all in on them. Ranged debuff, cute, and fluffy? What's not to love." She cast Revive.

Frosty immediately animated, standing up on her ice-splinter legs and skittering about uncertainly. Frosty ran up one wall, stared down at Levi from the ceiling, then dropped onto Irene's head.

Irene stared up at the spider. Frosty stared down at Irene.

"Hello, Frosty... could you move a bit?" Irene held out an arm, and Frosty obligingly hopped down onto it. "You're hurt?"

"She'll recover on her own," Levi called.

"That doesn't mean we should be callous about it." Irene patted Frosty on her fluffy back. "I don't have anything to help right now, but I promise you'll be okay."

Amy went over to fawn over Frosty as well, so Levi left them to it. He didn't need the spider immediately.

Mark, the other Tamer, was more interested in Firelord. After reviving the kobold magus he walked around him in a slow circle, nodding and smiling. "I don't suppose he's for sale?"

"I doubt you could offer what he's worth."

Firelord preened under the attention, summoning fire in one palm with a dramatic flourish.

"Where did you find a spellcaster minion? I've never seen one."

"Fire dungeon. He was the boss."

Mark sucked in a breath, whistling in admiration. "That explains the plus. Wow. I tried taming bosses a few times, but they always resisted. Thought you weren't allowed to tame them at all."

"You have Dismay, what did you think it was for?"

"Mitigate level difference? I tried taming one of the kalvex out front when they were bringing us in, no plus, and it still resisted."

"Noted." Interesting. Levi had grown used to being the higher-leveled one in every fight. It hadn't occurred to him that higher level creatures could resist Tame even if the other requirements were met.

"Seriously, how much for the kobold? I don't have much, but I've been saving up for a new car--"

"I don't need money. Rare crafting ingredients, bulk power tokens or restorative elixirs, and tracings are about the only things I'm looking for. And I know you don't have any of those on you."

"Yeah, I don't." Mark visibly deflated.

"If everything goes according to plan, I'll see to it you get something worthwhile out of this. We're going to be needing some monsters soon."

Levi had initially dismissed the other Tamers, but with the revelation of level difference requiring Dismay and not only plus-status, he called them back to check. Both of them did have Dismay, bringing their total to three, four if you counted Peter. Which he did. This was going to be dangerous enough without under-utilizing one of his most powerful assets. At level 9, Peter was among the strongest handful of Awakened they had to work with.

A surprising number of others had volunteered to join, nearly half the group eager to help fight their way to freedom.

"Only come if you're actually confident in your ability to fight in life or death stakes. This is not going to be a fun or easy run. This is nothing like the dungeons you've run in the past. This is a dungeon so powerful I would hesitate to challenge it even with my full team. Not something to be treated lightly."

There were some murmurings at this; most of these Awakened had only seen the low level dungeons Irene and Peter had been using to recruit newcomers. They didn't have the experience to even guess what level of danger this particular location represented.

Levi very nearly said 'forget it' and went off without any of them, but as much as he loathed the idea of dragging them into danger he knew with absolute unshakeable certainty that if he didn't take reinforcements with him he was going to die. He'd jumped headfirst into enough close calls to be intimately familiar with his limitations. He knew what he could do, what he could maybe do, and this was something he definitely could not do alone.

Right now he needed them as much as they needed him, and they'd all have to work together if they were going to escape.

He liked their chances with the dungeon monsters a good deal better than their chances against a full team of trained Awakened. The fighters outside had been taken off guard and still managed to drop Stunner in minutes. Sure, Levi could probably beat them one on one, even with their level advantage, but only probably. If the guard out front had been an indicator of their training level, possibly more than one. Two at most. If they waited around long enough for the dungeon clearing team to reach them, he'd be dangerously outnumbered.

The last thing he wanted was to start a fight that would only get everyone with him killed.

Still, he was surprised how many of the former volunteers backed out as he began to outline the preparation stages of the plan.

Both the tamers stayed, along with Drakonias, who at level 9 represented a significant resource, and eight or so others he didn't know.

Perhaps he'd been a bit too honest about their chances of dying on this leg of the mission, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to them. They were going to be his allies, companions, not something to be used and discarded recklessly.

Throwing huge groups of low levels at a stronger dungeon to see who survived wasn't his style.

Despite the turmoil of his thoughts, his bearing remained calm and controlled. "Good. All of you volunteers, gather in the upper hall and we'll go over your builds." Levi frowned faintly, then turned to Irene. "Has anyone found Cassandra yet?"

She shook her head.

That was a shame. A high level ranger would be very useful right about now. He'd have to work with what he had.

He turned to the Tamers first. "Let's start with you. Amy? I know your abilities already, what else do you have?"

Amy proudly declared her intent to form a quality-over-quantity build, but hesitated to unbind any of her currently dead and missing minions. She waffled over which of her three spiders to unbind for minutes before finally choosing one with obvious reluctance.

Mark was the opposite; upon hearing Levi's plans for them he unbound his own missing minions without hesitation, leaving all four of his slots open. Levi was a bit taken aback by the callousness, suddenly glad he'd rejected the man's offers for Firelord.

Next he ran the other recruits through a quick assessment, testing their mana, stamina, and reflexes. None were 'good' but none were terrible either, and he wouldn't be ashamed to have them fight beside him. He'd still have to keep a watch out for their survival, but they wouldn't be a liability.

"Keep them safe," he told Irene, handing her his sole remaining health elixir. "Especially Peter."

"And you."

Levi laughed softly. He wasn't used to thinking of himself as someone who needed protecting. Working out how to keep himself and everyone else alive was his own job.

"Everyone ready?" He took one last glance over the group, receiving nods and murmurs of assent. "Then let's go grab some monsters."