They continued to hammer out the details for another several hours, Laurence demanding details about everything Levi had experienced, Cassandra and Irene going over maps and lists of addresses, building out a convoluted route for both the convention circuit and Levi’s team.

Levi answered questions while helping to route both groups past as many specialty dungeons as possible while in pursuit of their other objectives. He very much wanted a non-Destruction crafting essence to grow his Dungeon Seed with, and while its specific utility would depend on what it grew into, he would prefer to have it up and running before the invasions started.

When he mentioned Conduit, discussing his new class options, it made Laurence's eyes widen dramatically. “And you didn’t take it?”

"What, it's minuscule."

"No, this is the missing piece. The way abilities work, I'd guess it'll increase by a further 5% for each point, making its max 30%. But thirty percent of experience is anything but trivial. Remember, experience is currently divided among participating individuals, capped at an arbitrary percentage of their level requirements - encouraging group combat instead of solo play."

"How in the world can you know that?"

"I ran some tests with your minions and myself when we were leveling."

"Well… good work."

"Yes, yes, that's not important right now. The point is, if each minion gets, say, 10% credit for a boss kill, that means that 3% of that total will be reflected to each of the others - for each participating minion."

"I don't follow. How is this impressive? Couldn't we just run another dungeon?"

"Conduit applies to all minions! Not just those active in the group. Look, the minions who went with me, they all leveled, right? While the ones sitting home playing babysitter didn't. Yes?"

"Yes..."

"So if you'd had Conduit maxed, they'd all be getting a third of any experience my team gained, and if you ran a dungeon at the same time..."

That's when it clicked. "Concurrent dungeon runs." Since he'd increased Pack Leader, he'd be gaining a new minion slot every single level now. At the moment, he had enough minion slots to support two fully capable teams, maybe three if he were willing to split up his current core group.

And every few levels he could add another team to that number.

"If I start sending the minions out on their own, Conduit-ing experience from each group to the others..."

"I know! It's mind-blowing that no one did this before, it's so obvious."

"They may have," Levi said, remembering how powerful Summoners' minions had always been. There was a reason he'd chosen that class to pursue this time, even though none of them had survived the final few years. Sooner or later, they all made a fatal miscalculation, and when you operated alone as the sole leader of an army of monsters, there was no one to pull you out of the fire.

Levi was better prepared, with his years of Swordsman training. He wouldn't make the same mistakes they did. He'd take all the power and none of the weaknesses, and build a new future out of the ashes of the old one.

Of course, to do as Laurence suggested would require a huge investment of ability points. He thought the end result could be worth it, but he'd need to decide whether it was worth not improving his other abilities. Dedicating all but a single point across two thresholds to a single ability was not something to undertake lightly.

The discussions continued, but eventually Gordon and Laurence departed and Irene went to bed, leaving Levi and Cassandra to focus on making necessary adjustments to their advertising pamphlet’s text. The info on elixirs was easiest to correct, since he was intimately familiar with their benefits and side-effects.

He did his best to be unbiased and present each class fairly, but something useless like Scout couldn’t be made to appear as anything but a joke compared to Fighter and Tamer and Mage. Even Ranger or Medic came off looking good in comparison. Sure, you needed a few scouts to keep an eye on things and relay information, but more than a handful would be wasteful.

Cassandra insisted on giving everyone the choice, and her argument that people would function more efficiently in a role they chose rather than one forced on them by necessity did resonate with Levi. If he’d been given any choice in the matter the first time around… well, he probably still would have chosen Fighter for the survivability, but he would have resented it a lot less.

The next morning, everyone slept late - though not as late as most would have preferred. Levi was awake first again, even relaxing as much as possible he was out of practice at staying asleep for more than a few hours at a time. But he didn't get out of bed, content to lie in the warm cozy bubble beside Irene and just bask in her presence.

He thought about their coming family road trip, trying to calculate how any of it would work out. His speed was insufficient, he didn't have the stamina regen yet to outpace a car, and while that was only a minor inconvenience locally, the time delay would add up significantly the further away they traveled. An extra half hour on an hour trip was one thing; an extra four hours on an eight hour trip was another thing entirely.

It also made him feel oddly lonely. He was used to being on his own, yes, but Irene, Gordon, and Peter would be packed together in a car for those hours of travel, while he would be escorting his pack of minions.

Pushing the concern forcefully away, he centered himself in the moment and drifted off into a cozy haze of half-dreams, only rousing fully when Irene's alarm went off.

"You don't need to pack so much," Levi tried to protest. "We won't be needing food or anything in the dungeons, we should just focus on essentials."

"Some of us still need lunch," Irene pointed out.

"Will Cassandra be joining us?"

Irene shook her head. "She has to work with the graphic designer if she's going to get her pamphlets set up properly. She even hired an artist."

"What's wrong with the text version?"

"She wants it to be an entirely professional presentation. So it's going to have a background color, and icons for the classes, and pictures of the potions and everything."

"Seems like a lot of extra effort."

Irene smiled fondly. "That's Cassandra. If she gets it in her head to do a thing, she'll go to the ends of the earth to see it done right."

"How does she make money? I can't remember anything specific about her job."

"She does consulting for various high-end companies, works with a lot of family members of important people on coordinating various..." Irene huffed out a breath and shook her head, sounding vaguely frustrated. "I don't actually know. She signs so many NDAs that she can't even tell me names."

"Do you want the ham? Or does it go back in the fridge?"

"It can go back. It was in the way so I stuck it on the counter."

Levi replaced the ham and closed the fridge door. "How are you holding up?"

"Better this week than last week. It's overwhelming, but at least it's not... I know where you are, and that you're alive."

"I'm sorry I worried you. I was completely overwhelmed, and it seemed better to stay away and not inflict the insanity on you any sooner than necessary."

"I had such a terrible feeling of dread, when you stopped answering my texts. I thought... it felt like you'd died or something terrible had happened, and I'd never see you again." She set down the box she'd been packing and stared up at his face, tears lingering in the corners of her eyes at the memory, then she smiled and turned away.

"In a way..." Levi said quietly, then trailed off. He couldn't quite say 'in a way, you never will,' because that came too close to admitting his deeper fears. That she'd eventually realize how much he'd changed, how much harsher and colder he'd become, that she'd see through his facade of normalcy and run from what she found beneath.

"We'll be fine," Irene said forcefully. "I may not understand all of what's happened to you in the interim, but I know you. You're still the same person underneath it all. The same man I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Levi wanted to believe her, wanted it to be true. He worked so hard to pretend to be the person he barely remembered. Having her and Peter and Gordon made it easier. He could let the patterns play out, forgotten but not erased, and everyone settled easily into their roles and places without much effort on his part.

The fact that there were no demons, no true danger yet, made it easier. He still feared what they would see when the time came. That fight would bring out a whole different set of patterns. Ones they may like less.

"Is there anything else we need to take?" Levi asked, abandoning his attempts to curb her packing.

"You'll need to go shopping still," she pointed out as though this were obvious. "Once we get back."

"Me?"

"You aren't going to wear the same clothing for two weeks, are you?"

Levi shrugged. He hadn't thought about it. He had his armor, and he had enough mana to cast the cleaning spell now, finally. What more did he need?

"I'll help you," Irene said, rolling her eyes at him. "I suppose you lost your suitcases?"

"I'll be honest, I don't even remember what they look like."

"I'll contact the hotel and see if they can ship them to us."

Levi just nodded.

"In the meantime, I'll bet Mom has something I can borrow. She probably knows some good places to shop around here too."

"Can't we just order it online? That's still a thing, right?"

"We need them right away. Easier to pick them up in person."

Levi stopped arguing. He had forgotten how much he hated shopping for clothing, but at least this time there would be no social obligations forcing him to choose something nice-looking and uncomfortable. He could grab the first thing in his size and call it a day.

As with their first dungeon outing to Awaken his family, the preparation time was much longer than Levi had anticipated, eating the whole morning and much of the afternoon before Irene finally forced herself to stop with a stern 'Good enough.'

"Ready?" Levi asked.

"I'm sure I've forgotten something, but let's go."

"Time to get an ogre?" Peter asked eagerly. “Gordon’s coming, so we can do it now, right?”

Levi had similar feelings. He'd been wanting an ogre since day one, and if they found more than one he'd gladly take one on himself. If nothing else, it would be valuable to have two different cases to compare against each other.

And there was just something viscerally satisfying about having a giant punchy monster stomp around ready to clobber things at your command. Even if he ended up sending it off to protect Cassandra and Laurence, that was only a temporary arrangement.

He smiled at his son. "Yes. Time to get an ogre."

Finally.