They weathered the next attack just as they had the last. Shields high, curses ready on their lips for beaks catching exposed flesh, and blind attacks with melee weapons. The basic calculus stayed the same. They were put through pain and frustration, but every time, the pigeons left dead companions behind.

Fortunately, the birds couldn't figure the odds. That, or the system's meddling just made them too aggressive to give up on a hopeless fight. The pigeons continued attacking with the same fury every time. While the spirit was willing, in the end, the flesh was weak.

Rather than a victory cheer, Solomon joined with the crowd in a collective sigh of relief. The group split up, most picking their way past the piles of dead pigeons to make for the decrepit picnic tables. Soon enough, they'd all found spots on the bench seating to rest. Ordinarily the creepy nature of the abandoned playground might have had people looking for the exit, but at some point it seemed everyone had become too tired to be afraid.

At least the system had been impressed by his ability to shoot birds out of the sky.

Congratulations on completing a successful combat encounter! Your Marksmanship has been raised to level 6. You have been awarded 6 Grid Points!

Solomon was always happy to pocket more grid points, even if he didn't want to spend them right now. He dismissed the announcement and took a look around.

Solomon had noticed that his companions had entered the dungeon with a certain amount of pep in their step. Anybody would be excited to explore the unknown. When the unknown proved to be filled with little monsters that were determined to extract a pound of flesh even at the cost of their own lives, it had certainly dampened the group's enthusiasm. Even when the system could replace the missing pound of flesh at the cost of HP, pain still hurt.

He himself only took a short break to catch his breath and let go of the stress the battle had put him through. He was still the only person who could pluck useful items out of the dead bodies of their foes, after all.

The harvest from the pigeons was discouraging. They had a beast core that was about the size of a grain of rice, and that was it. His disassembly skill didn't consider anything else about them worth saving. Looking them over, he couldn't help but agree.

Still, he needed every bit of powder that he could get his hands on. Each individual pigeon might not let him make much of it, but those little bits would add up. It also didn't cost much in MP to disassemble their smaller bodies. He started working through the pile. He was reaching for a pigeon when he found a hand holding one in front of his face.

He looked up to see Tiffany, looking at him with a quizzical expression on her face. He decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and took the pigeon with a grunted thanks. He disassembled it and took the next, only to pause his work when Tiffany spoke up.

"You got through a whole dungeon on your own?" she asked. Where before she had sounded a little dismissive of his accomplishment, her tone now carried an unmistakable note of respect.

Solomon knew he needed to correct her misunderstanding, though. "It wasn't like this. I went through a one man dungeon."

Solomon would have died several times over if he had been forced to take on something like that horde of raccoons as soon as he stepped inside the first dungeon. Hell, with all of his advances within the system, he still would've died if he had been forced to take on that mob all alone. If his sister expected him to pull off some kind of superhuman rescue should the group fall into a dire situation, she was just setting herself up for disappointment.

"Sure," she said, "it was scaled down. Still, was it easy?"

Solomon shook his head. "No."

He could see her point. He liked to think that if his family could have watched a video of him working through that first dungeon then they would have been impressed. Or surprised, at least. He'd been a little surprised to get through the experience alive.

"They're really trying to kill us," his sister said. "Or, the system is. It's weird. If it wanted to kill us, it should be able to just do it, right? But then I saw the way these monsters keep coming after us and it just feels personal, you know."

Solomon nodded. Honestly, as far as he had seen, Tiffany had done a great job in the heat of the moment. In the face of the leaping and flying hordes, she had done her best to fight back. It seemed she had been pushing through her distress this whole time. Honestly, he couldn't blame her for feeling strange. He'd never had anybody try to kill him his whole life up until the system showed up. Really, it was odd how quickly he'd adapted.

"I guess you get used to it," Solomon said. He couldn't help but think of the trail of bodies he had left behind on the university campus. The system didn't necessarily want to kill them, but it did seem to want to mold them in its desired image. Considering the power the system could call on to enforce its will, it wasn't too surprising that it got what it wanted.

"I don't know," she replied. "It's one thing to fight back against those bastards trying to take over. These things, though. I just don't know."

He looked at her with concern. "Are you going to be all right?"

She drew herself upright. "I won't let you down in here."

Solomon frowned. "That wasn't what I asked."

She shrugged, giving him a wry smile. "What does 'all right' even mean any more? I'm pissed off, I'm scared, I don't know. Maybe killing more of these things will start making me feel better."

Everybody had their own strengths and weaknesses. Going up against a human opponent who you hated was different from taking on a monster the system had created solely to try and kill people. Solomon felt bad about what he was putting his sister through, but he was glad that she seemed to be strong enough to get through it. He'd definitely do everything he could not to drag her along into the next dungeon he had to clear.

Tiffany seemed reassured by their conversation, at least. Solomon turned back to his work harvesting material from the pigeons. The pause to talk had let his MP come back, and he was able to work with his sister to plow through the bodies faster than before.