One mana restorative, three stamina, one health, a Dark token, a Dark power stone, and yet another Dark power stone. No new weapons or armor, yet again, but his crafting supplies continued to increase and they were accruing a nice stash of restoratives. It seemed the Dark dungeon really liked giving him power stones.

Levi was becoming more and more convinced that this time around he'd have to take crafting seriously. He may not know the exact, direct application of his knowledge, but trying to pass on his vague general knowledge usefully to a group of ignorant crafters would be nearly impossible.

The best option was to learn it all himself and only pass accurate and complete knowledge on. He was already at level 8, the crafting system would unlock at 15, and then he'd only need to take a few crafting levels to unlock the necessary abilities.

It would slow down his Tamer levels in the short term, but being able to craft whatever powerful equipment he needed without waiting on the rest of the world to catch up to him would pay off in the long run. Especially if he kept finding rare crafting-related items like the seed and power array.

"Should we take the critters with us to the meeting?" Gordon asked, once they'd showered. One nice thing about dungeon monsters was that their blood evaporated before too long, leaving armor spotless if a bit scratched up. "And... I've been saying 'we' but do you want me there? I can wait in the car if it's private."

Levi pondered. Gordon wasn't exactly a shining paragon of skilled fighting prowess and his presence might detract from the Doom Raiders' impressions. But Levi wasn't actually there to impress them; he just needed them willing to talk so he could get the third Seed Fragment and move on.

"Do you want to come?"

Gordon hesitated.

"You don't have to."

"I'm hesitant to let you out of my sight. Who knows what you could get up to. You might disappear on me again."

"If I wanted to ditch you, it wouldn't be hard. You don't have to worry. I'm as eager to get home as you are."

Gordon snorted. "That's not reassuring. What do I have to go home to?"

"You don't have a family?" Levi thought he remembered a family.

"Nancy took Robert with her when she left, and I'm only able to see him on certain weekends," Gordon said bitterly. "If I even tried to talk to her about any of this, she'd use it as an excuse to stop me from even that much."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, it sucks."

"You don't think she can be reasoned with, once she knows the truth?"

Gordon exhaled heavily and stared up at the clouds for a long moment before answering. "Nancy would disbelieve the existence of air if she saw some benefit in it for herself. Unless you can convince her that fighting demons is a better future for our son than hiding out in her apartment pretending the apocalypse isn't happening, good luck getting her to budge."

"We can bring him with us. We've got enough mana in our systems now to mess up any attempts at identifying us with camera footage. I can collect him myself, so you won't even be implicated. And once society collapses, everyone will have better things to do than hunt us down."

"Are you... offering to kidnap my son away from his mother?" Gordon asked, a note of disbelief in his voice.

"Yes." Levi's voice went low and very, very serious. "I promise, if you leave him there and anything happens, you will hate yourself for the rest of your life. If we have the chance to do something, we can't just ignore it and hope things turn out."

"But... I don't know shit about parenting." Gordon's voice had shifted upward toward panic. "I didn't even try to fight the decision, because... even if I don't like it, I know she can do a better job than me. Sure, I may gripe, but... I wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility of single parenting. I couldn't even handle half of normal parenting, how can I expect to do better alone?"

"You won't be alone. I'll be there. Irene will be there. We'll all work together. Heck, even Peter can help."

"Yeah, you'll be changing diapers between fighting dungeons and saving the world from demons?"

"If that's what it takes." Levi met Gordon's eyes with vehement intensity. "I will not leave anyone I care about behind. Never again. If I can save you, I will. If I can save your son, I will. Same goes for anyone you care about. From the squirrel to the ex, if you want to accept someone under your protection, they're under mine as well. And if that means protecting them from diaper rash, so be it."

Gordon's voice was faint and his eyes flicked away from Levi's. "Why?"

"I've been down the road of losing everyone. I've seen what happens when you stop fighting for someone and start fighting for the sake of it. If not for you... I might still be there. It's not a good place to live. Empty but for the eternal drive to keep fighting, however meaningless it may have become. I refuse to go there again, and I don't want you there either."

"I'd just be dead," Gordon said with a sad attempt at a smile. "I'm not a survivor."

"You will be. And so will your son."

Gordon rubbed his neck uncomfortably. "I don't know, this seems dubious."

"We can bring Nancy too if you want her."

Gordon snorted. "She won't cooperate," he said with absolute conviction. "She'll probably shoot you first."

Levi looked down at himself. "This won't stop a bullet, unless I add the power array. Powered armor would do it."

Gordon threw his hands in the air. "You're going to try to perform a kidnapping in full knowledge that it might get you shot?"

"I've survived worse than one angry ex."

"Easy for you to say, she's not your ex."

"Which is why I'm happy to take on all child-liberation responsibilities in your place."

Gordon sighed. "I'll think about it. I really don't like it."

"Your decision. I don't even know where she lives. But I highly recommend you consider it. There are going to be hundreds of invasion points across the country, and I can't predict more than a handful of them. For all we know, they'll be right in the path of fire."

"Yeah, I get it. Let's just do this interview thing and we can talk about this another time. Okay?"

Levi raised his hands. "Fair enough. I won't say a word. So, you coming with, or not?"

Gordon shook his head. "I think I'll stay here. I'd only be a liability."

Frosty leaned toward Levi, then looked back and forth between the two of them, eyes big and pleading.

"Yes, you may go with them, if that's okay with Levi."

"It's fine."

Levi looked over the assembled crowd. Gremlin Two and Skarm stood beside Centoo, where Skarm was proudly gesturing as they conversed quietly. Cen was sparkling enviously, while Frosty egged him on. Becca lay sprawled beside the car, pretending to be its oversized feline shadow.

"Should I go for awe, or subtlety?" he wondered aloud. If only Becca were a bit larger; riding in on a rift cat would certainly make an impression. "Well, it's a chance to show off my abilities, and a big part of being a Tamer is all of you, so I guess we're all going."

"You won't need the car, I take it?"

"No. We'll be running. Everyone load up."

Skarm and Two jumped on Centoo's back, Cen stopped sparkling and turned to Levi with focus, Becca lazily stood up and stretched with a huge yawn, and Frosty jumped onto Cen's head. She already had Plus with her, as usual.

Flomper looked back at them over Gordon's shoulder, torn.

"You're welcome to come too," Levi offered. "Free experience."

Flomper narrowed her eyes at him and turned away.

"Fine, have it your way. Everyone else, let's move out."