The drive took most of the day, it was evening again by the time they reached the general vicinity of the fourth dungeon.

Levi's biggest advantage was his mental map of dungeon locations. Without that, Charles would have to drive around randomly hoping to stumble into the right combination of dungeons to guide him. Once he got a few right, he could follow their general pathway toward the goal, but he would probably waste hours if not days searching before reaching the right one.

Levi should be able to get there first. And then, he'd claim his final Seed Fragment, and wait for a bit in case Charles decided to show up.

There were plenty of other possibilities, of course. Charles might have already sold the framework, or he might not care about following the one map he had in his possession. In that case, Levi would at least have the complete Seed, whatever it was, and assumed that it could be useful in some way even without the framework that seemed to go with the set.

The only true failure scenario would be if Charles beat them to it, and had already claimed the final Seed Fragment and disappeared. Then Levi would be forced to give up on this whole chaining treasure hunt which he'd pinned so much hope on.

Still, compared to the imminent threat of demonic invasion, what did one treasure hunt really matter? Even in the worst case, he still had more minions and more information than when he started. He had a title power that would continue to increase dungeons' loot. He had a growing group of allies, and a much more reliable way of getting information out to the world than he had a week before. So it would be fine. Whatever happened here, he would come out of the whole adventure better off than when he started.

The part of him that hated to back down from a challenge wanted to win. The part that only wanted to save as many people as possible didn't really care. He wanted it to be finished as soon as possible so he could finally get to Oregon.

Even if he still didn't know what he would say to Irene. How do you tell someone you love more than life itself that you're not the person any more that they love? How do you admit the person they loved is eleven years gone and you're the closest thing that's left over?

How do you say 'I've missed you,' and 'I'm sorry I couldn't save you', and 'I won't let you die again', and 'I'm sorry I've changed so much, I understand if you don't love me any more, but I'll still always love you anyway'.

It was so much easier to think about finding treasures in dungeons and leveling up his monsters.

He tabbed through those who'd hit their first threshold. Cen and Centoo were 1/2 to their first evolution, Skarm and Gremlin Two were 1/3, and Becca was 1/4. If there was a pattern here, he couldn't discern it. He wasn't sure what an evolution would be like for a non-human.

Humans evolved classes into more powerful or specialized classes. Would the minions gain a class when they evolved? Turn into a Gremlin Warrior, or a Centipede Wizard? Or was it something else completely? Would it be an extension of their ability upgrades? Enhanced physical attributes, claws sharpening and muscles expanding, growing smaller or larger, faster or stealthier?

He couldn't deny his curiosity. Evolution hadn't come up in his few discussions with Tamers or Summoners in the past. They'd been more interested in bragging about what they'd managed to capture, than what happened after.

Levi detected a dungeon at the edge of his mana ping range, and guided Gordon off onto a side road. Finally. He didn't like all this sitting around thinking.

If not for the rush to beat Charles to the final Seed Fragment, he'd have loved to stop in Ohio on their way through to clear the level 3 dungeon. To be sure it wasn't going to spawn an Essence, if nothing else. (Though given that if it had done so in the initial timeline, it had clearly been destroyed as a result.)

In any event, they finally arrived at the fourth treasure dungeon of the hunt that had begun so long ago. Levi held up his map to the glowing shimmer in the air, breath held...

It disappeared, just as it should, and the tag changed.

Destruction Dungeon: Level 1+

"Easy. Nice."

They entered the dungeon, which was almost comically underpowered now compared to them. Even with its plus designation giving it extra creatures and a more powerful boss, Levi's team was far above its level and in far greater number than any level 1 dungeon required.

"Exactly how much more powerful are these gremlins from standard? There seem to be about 30% more of them in quantity." Laurence was taking exhaustive notes of everything they encountered, while still somehow managing to smite as many gremlins as Levi's team let reach him. Levi deliberately focused the fighting toward those who were lower level, sending Two out with Shadevine to level them, and allowing some enemies through for Laurence who still hadn't reached level 5.

The boss provided the boost he needed, and he immediately asked how to find a spell to learn.

“Does the type of spell I use change what my class will be? Can you be a fire mage, or an earth mage, or an illusion mage?”

“I’m sure you can do whichever of those you want, but they all start as a standard Mage for the first five to eight thresholds. You don’t have to worry about it. Pick whichever spell you like best.”

While Laurence deliberated, Levi went to check the treasure room. He wasn’t expecting much from the place, but collected everything anyway. One mana restorative, two stamina, a Destruction token, another sheath, and another weather stone. Since he’d traded away almost all the random items he’d accumulated, he had plenty of room for these. He did redistribute the restoratives, ensuring each of the three of them had at least one or two of each type for emergencies.

A gust of wind blasted out, sending dust swirling, and Laurence began to laugh. It started quiet, constrained, but quickly grew in glee and volume until it sounded somewhere between evil and ecstatic.

Another burst of wind, and Laurence continued to laugh. "MAGIC IS MINE!" He cackled to the ceiling. "Next stop, wizard!"

He stopped abruptly and turned to Levi, eyes glittering. "Hey, you learned all your stuff from some secret military place, right? Does that mean there's a secret magic school hidden right under everyone's noses? I don't care if it's controlled by the military, it still counts!"

"That was dissolved some time ago, I'm sorry to say," Levi said, struggling to keep his voice even. While technically true, 'dissolved' was a bitter word to say when the reality was he'd watched his friends and comrades in arms die around him.

Laurence was too excited by his new spell to pick up on anything off, thankfully. He just started rambling on, about how if there was any secret magic academy, he would find it, and if there wasn't, he would found it.

Levi let out his breath in a slow sigh and left Laurence to his excitement. He was here for something else. He slowly moved around the empty dungeon, searching every crack and crevice and pitted hole in the stone. Finally he found what he was looking for, tucked behind a stream of corrosive, a faint glint. He tugged it out.

Unbound Seed Fragment (Rare)

1 of 3

Save what was neglected

He pulled out his other two and pressed them together. They fit perfectly, fusing into an elongated oval of clear, glittering, oil-rainbow facets.

Unbound Dungeon Seed (Unique)

The soul of an unborn dungeon

Saturation: 0/5000

Please provide mana to saturate your Dungeon Seed

Alignment: None

Please provide an alignment to guide your Dungeon Seed

Progress to deployment: 0/2