In the end, they recruited around a third of the people they'd rescued. A lot had already left and even of those who'd hesitated to run off without a leader, not all wanted to continue fighting.

Levi spent several hours explaining as much about the coming invasion as he could to those who wanted to go on their way, warning them to be prepared, to gather their friends for 10/24, to group together and stay alert, but he wasn't sure it would be enough.

If there were groups like the one who’d taken over this dungeon who actively suppressed the information, they didn't need to get a few isolated pockets of people to start preparing. They needed to get it so wide so fast that no one could shut it down.

They needed to go properly viral. But with the increasing visual interference from mana creatures and objects, he couldn’t think of any reasonable method.

Well. That was a problem for another time. His consultations with Irene and the more leaderly-inclined of the escapees showed another factor he was neglecting.

Cassandra was still missing, as were all the minions who’d been killed in the capture or escape attempt.

Then there were the even more immediate concerns; in addition to missing minions…

Peter stood with Mark, the tamer Levi had left in charge of the other kalvexes, overseeing the patrol of several minions by the entrance to the dungeon. The tamer had come through with high confidence in himself and his new minions, eager to integrate into the group. Amy, the other tamer, had joined without much persuading as well, though she still wanted to find an Ice dungeon to restock her spiders, if she couldn't find the ones that had been lost. Currently she was helping with distribution of the items they’d salvaged from the dungeon or the smashed buildings outside.

“So where’d this fella come from?” Levi nodded toward Peter’s spider-skunk, a bit taller than his waist and following him around like an overeager puppy. “I thought I’d grabbed everyone.”

Peter looked hesitant, torn somewhere between eagerness and worry.

"What happened?" Levi demanded, his own worry flickering.

Peter’s story spilled out in a rush. "Bladefin found a secret treasure room under a maze, with a complicated puzzle on the walls. Riana and I solved it, and then this guy came jumping out at us. We had to fight him, even though he was throwing webs everywhere. It was hard and scary, but Fang helped us get out of the webs and I tamed Stinky here, and then we finished the puzzle and found so much treasure, you have to see it, there's probably a hundred tokens there."

"We'll have to go over a strategic breakdown of the fight later, but as long as you had Fang and Bladefin with you I'm sure Stinky didn't give you much trouble, being that low level."

Peter gave an overly-bright grin and nodded, in a way Levi found immediately suspicious. Concern sparked immediately, but if anything had gone very wrong Irene would have told him. Whatever Peter was feeling guilty over wasn’t essential at the moment. If he’d made a tactical error in the fight it was good for him to be concerned about it, but right now they had more pressing problems. He could deal with whatever his son had gotten up to once they had secured the rest of their team.

“Can you read out his stats for me?”

Stinky: Level 11 Spider-Skunk

Strength: 5

Health: 300/300

(+8/min)

Psyche: 4

Mana: 52/52

(+7/min)

Spirit: 2

Stamina: 60/60

(+5/min)

It had been long enough since Levi seriously tamed anything low level and non-plus that the stats felt decidedly unimpressive, but perhaps the webbing utility would make up for it.

Strength: +20 Health, +1 H-Regen Psyche: +8 Mana, +1 M-Regen Spirit: +10 Stamina, +1 S-Regen

Levi noted them down. Even if nothing special, he wasn't going to say no to having another minion added to their group, especially when so many of theirs were already down from the recent conflicts.

Even with five or six tamers available to work with, it would be two days before they were able to revive their full roster, and Levi doubted their adversaries would be that patient. If they wanted any guarantee of retrieving Drok, Greg, and Stunner, they should move now.

“You planning to raid the other places?” Mark asked. “I heard talk about training facilities.”

“Yes. At least the research base. We’re fairly certain that’s where our missing minions are being studied.”

“Got room for one more?”

“We haven’t made a plan yet, but I’ll probably be going solo.” Well, solo plus minions. “I don’t think anyone here is ready to face the level of opposition we’re going to find there.”

If it were Gordon, he’d have expected an ‘and you are’, and he would have had to admit that he wasn’t, but this was Mark. No such reprimand came, only an understanding nod.

“Keep up the good work, you two. I may have to borrow the kalvexes for the trip, but I think you’ll be okay.”

Mark’s expression tightened. “So you have room for them but not me?”

“How’s your stamina-drag pace?” Levi countered.

“My what?”

“How long can you run at steady draw without running out of stamina.”

“I… haven’t ever tracked that.”

“Then you’re not qualified to run with me. The kalvexes instinctively know how to regulate stamina draw - they’re more system energy than physical being, it’s like breathing to them.”

Mark had no retort, staring between the very physical-looking giant antlered wolf-monsters, and the crazy man from the future who knew too much about everything.

“It’s okay, Dad, I can show him!” Peter offered. “If he can learn it on time, then he can come. Right?”

“Sure. Deal. You learn to stamina-drag well enough to keep up before I leave, you’re welcome to tag along.” Levi smiled. “Good luck.”

Mark flinched.

Peter whistled for Fang. “First, you need to know how to draw on stamina at will. Can you do that yet?”

Levi left them to it, satisfied it would occupy them both for the foreseeable future while also helping them better prepare for the future. Peter’s eagerness to act as teacher to the newcomers was encouraging. He was glad to see his son stepping up so readily, gladder to see that his kidnapping and imprisonment had been so easily moved past.

Peter was proving both flexible and resilient. For a moment Levi turned back to watch, pride and happiness suffusing him, but he couldn’t indulge himself for too long. There was a lot to do.

—-

"I have this map of places that they've used in the past." Irene spread out the local map on the table. It'd been crushed in one of the buildings but salvaged for their use by enterprising hands.

Levi looked at the locations she'd marked. A training facility, a research facility, and a second training facility.

"Which one of these do you think they'd have taken Cas to?" Irene asked.

Someone Levi didn’t recognise spoke up. "They don't know which direction their commander would have taken to get out of here, but they know he left during the chaos. I heard they took minions they captured to the research facility, but I don't know what they'd think about a captive human."

“Pretty sure that’s what this place is for,” Levi put in. “Containment, they called it.”

“And there’s no alternative ‘containment’ site?”

“None that our information sources can tell us about.”

“Then how do we find them? No one kidnaps my sister and gets away with it."

Levi smiled. Irene was as fiercely protective as ever. Seeing it translate so smoothly from negotiating with teachers and other parents to fighting monsters to prevent the apocalypse only made him more grateful.

Whatever unknown fate had allowed him to come back and redo things, he'd never be able to thank it enough. Whatever fate had allowed him to find this wonderful woman and somehow not scare her away despite everything, even more so.

"We're going to find her." Levi put his arm around her shoulders, and Irene wrapped hers around his waist. “But we don’t need to wait for someone else to give us directions.”

Levi gathered his mana fully, concentrated it to its utmost, then pushed it out in one massive overcharged ping.