After that pair, the lightning started spitting out pairs of monsters in all sorts of combinations, followed by triplets. The penultimate group was four monsters, one of each type. The last one to fall was the fulgurite golem, as it happened, since Gabriel took care of the water elemental while Serenity handled the tornado and Daryl took out the lightning.

Naomi darted away from the spot where she’d been holding off the golem. Her cloak was now badly ripped in front and she seemed to suffer from a round of shocks whenever another wave of lightning passed through the air or along the ground, but she didn’t let that stop her from running back to the group.

Serenity kept his eyes on the lightning. There had to be a reason she ran and he fully expected it was the reason. His guess was rewarded when the lightning seemed to fall out of the sky and spray along the ground, reaching about twenty feet in all directions.

It was impressive but not something Serenity wanted to stand in. It seemed like Naomi didn’t want to, either.

When the lightning show ended, it left behind a lightning elemental that looked more like the cascade of energy that had just happened than the single lightning bolt elementals they’d faced earlier in the level. Fortunately, despite its increased size, it was still only a Tier Six dungeon boss and they were all higher Tier and prepared for it. It didn’t have any special tricks, so even without her lightning protection functional, Naomi was able to hold it off while the others pounded it with magic.

All it left behind was a fulgurite - a real one, this time, rather than a golem made to look like one. Daryl picked it up and tossed it at Serenity. “This should be worth about half what the fire-heart is, so it should cover your part of the trip so far.”

Serenity could feel the magic embedded in it; it was mostly energy Affinity but there was something else that he’d have to think about to figure out. He tucked it into his Rift next to the monster cores he’d recovered throughout the dungeon. It hadn’t been particularly lucrative so far, but then dungeons often weren’t unless you had a specific reason to clear them. It was enough to cover expenses if he’d had them, though since he was staying at the Library that mostly just meant repairing and replacing gear.

“While we’re at it, you should have this, too.” Daryl held out a folded strip of cloth. There was a string that ran through one side of the cloth, inside one of the folds. Serenity wasn’t immediately certain what it was for, but that question was quickly answered when Daryl pulled out another and tied it around his forehead so that the cloth covered his eyes.

“A blindfold?” Serenity was surprised by that. “I know you said the seventh level was bright, but is that really necessary?”

“It’s blindingly bright,” Gabriel pitched in. “Literally, if you don’t protect your eyes. It takes some really specialized healing to recover afterwards, too; not something I can take care of in a dungeon. So cover your eyes and let’s get going.”

Serenity didn’t like the idea of being blinded again, especially since he couldn’t use Eyeless Sight through a blindfold. On the other hand, a blindfold wasn’t the only way to protect the eyes; maybe he could come up with a filter or something? He vaguely knew how the specialized glasses worked that were used to protect the eyes in order to look at the Sun during an eclipse; maybe he could turn that partial knowledge into something with Aide’s help?

It was worth a try. They were going to stop for a “night’s rest” at the beginning of the seventh level, after all. If he did fail - and he probably would, at least a few times - he had his own healing to fall back on. It was good enough that he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be blinded for long.

For now, Serenity tied the blindfold around his eyes. He’d try when no one could see him repeatedly fail.

He accepted the transfer to the next level only to realize that he’d made a small mistake.

Hearing that the seventh level of the Layered Dungeon was extremely bright didn’t prepare Serenity for how bright it was. It was bright with his eyes closed while they were covered by the blindfold. Preparing a solution for this might be more challenging than he’d assumed. That didn’t mean he was going to give up; instead, it made the task even more important.

Perhaps he could just temporarily blind himself by disconnecting the optic nerve? He was pretty sure Aide could do that. Then he’d be able to take the blindfold off. It wouldn’t prevent the light from damaging things, but it might help. More importantly, he’d be able to use Eyeless Sight and might be able to use Magesight; right now, they were probably not going to work even if he took the blindfold off because of the sheer brightness.

Serenity decided he’d blind himself only if he couldn’t figure out any better options. There had to be some. Maybe a darkness-based spell? Not that he was any good with darkness.

No, even better. A Nihility or Liminality based spell. He could surely do something with one of those. He had plenty of time to try; they were going to stop for at least ten hours here, maybe longer.

Raz looked up from the guide. The dungeon seemed approachable, especially with Kerr’s help, but Rissa’s pacing wasn’t helping him pay attention. “Are you sure you want to go? I know you’re not really that interested in dungeons.”

Rissa sighed. “I do. I have to. You heard what Kerr said. I need practice in a situation where there’s actually some danger. That’s why you and I will be doing the work, while she’s ready to pull us out if there’s a problem.”

Raz nodded thoughtfully. They were at the same Tier; his attributes were higher than hers because he had one more Path than she did, but they were both Tier Two with attributes that weren’t even capped from Tier One, even their primary attributes. The difference was that Raz was trained to fight, while Rissa wasn’t. She was tricky to spar with since she often knew what he was going to do in advance, but that didn’t always help her stop it. “Most people don’t actually fight; I knew Serenity talks like they do, but even my mother didn’t delve. Serenity seems to think everyone’s a mercenary. You can have a really good life without it.”

Rissa shook her head. “I know, but I also know that’s not the life I want. I don’t have to be the best; I don’t have to keep up with Serenity. I have my specialty, he has his. I do need to be able to take care of myself. That means I need to be able to fight, even if I don’t want to.”

Raz didn’t understand the point Rissa was trying to make. He wasn’t even sure if she understood it. What he knew for sure was that she wasn’t going to back out of their trip into the dungeon the locals called “the annoying one”. He’d picked it because it was the best training for what Raz wanted to work on, but it should also work well for Rissa.

Raz nodded slowly. “Right, then. The Bouncing Rabbit …” he trailed off waiting for Rissa’s response. Raz was more than a little disappointed that she didn’t seem to have one. “... is full of rabbits. Surprising, I know. Normally, a rabbit dungeon would be a major food source, but not this one. It’s a long way from Takinat, far enough that we’ll need to take a portal to get there in a reasonable period of time. That’s one of the problems; it just costs too much.”

Rissa nodded. “We should bring some rabbits out, then. I have some recipes I’ve been wanting to try, and some of the local restaurants might also want some rabbit.”

Raz nodded. “There’s a list of places that buy rabbit at the back of the guide; I think it’s from before the attacks so they may not all be there anymore, but I’m sure we can find somewhere that will want rabbit. The thing is, that’s not the only problem. The rabbits apparently have a habit of flash-cooking themselves, dissolving themselves in acid, getting smashed into paste … there’s a list. It’s apparently a little difficult to actually recover rabbit meat.”

That got the reaction Raz was expecting from Rissa. “That has to be deliberate. What is the dungeon thinking?”

Raz grinned widely, almost a grimace rather than a grin. “It’s thinking they make great bait. The Bouncing Rabbit is full of traps. Traps are the most common type of clever dungeon contraption, so I picked out a dungeon that’s really good at them. I think it’ll be a good one for you, too; dangerous but you can take your time and it’s dangerous in a predictable way.”

Rissa frowned and started to say something, but stopped before Raz had any idea what she was trying to say. She tilted her head a little to the side, clearly thinking. “I hadn’t thought about traps at all, but you’re right. I need to use everything I’ve got, not limit myself to stuff the Voice gives me.”

That didn’t seem to have anything to do with Raz’s choice of a trap dungeon, but he was willing to take the credit for helping her come to a good idea. Assuming it was good, at least.

“Yeah, that dungeon sounds good. It’ll let me see what a dungeon can do with stuff at low Tier, then I can figure out how to do something with that. I bet the military’s already working on something; I won’t be able to hire them, but maybe I can get some other people … eight or nine years ought to be plenty of time, especially if I can figure out where they’re going to enter.”

The smile on Rissa’s face was enough to make Raz decide that he didn’t want to cross her. Serenity would be reasonable, but for a moment Raz was not sure about Rissa.

No, that was ridiculous. Rissa was one of the nicest people Raz had ever met. He was probably imagining things. Even if he wasn’t, it was fine; he knew she was thinking about people invading her planet, after all. Raz knew exactly how he felt about that; he wanted to utterly destroy the people who killed his Clan.

If he could, he’d be doing that instead of heading into a dungeon. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where to start. He’d already sent a message to Grandma Tillon to tell her he was back on Asihanya with help; he’d done that the moment he arrived, while they were still at the Portal Node. She hadn’t replied yet. Raz hoped it was because she was trying to protect him instead of because she was badly hurt.

Maybe he should tell her Serenity was Tier Eight instead of just telling her he’d brought help? That might make a difference. Legion might matter too, though he really wasn’t sure how to talk about Legion. If only there were something he could do to deal with the people who killed his Clan. The people who killed his mother.

“So what should we expect in the Bouncing Rabbit Dungeon?” Rissa’s expression had already returned to normal when she pulled Raz out of his funk.

Raz shook himself. One step at a time; that was what Aki said. The next step was the Bouncing Rabbit. “The first floor is filled with rabbits that run whenever you get close. If you want to catch them, you have to kill them without getting close. Never chase them; the rabbits will always lead you somewhere they can at least seem safe for a bit but that will hurt you…”