The team gingerly entered the stand of trees. As instructed, Rowan opened the march, while the other four followed him closely. He looked behind and spotted Amelia walking fifteen yards behind.

“I’m going to let you go. I won’t intervene, unless you’re making a mistake, or get over your heads.”

Rowan didn’t like the idea of having wolves all over the grove, ready to jump him. While the idea of getting stronger than humanly possible was attractive, he was starting to think that the Labyrinth was a bad idea. But if he now owed 72 pounds to the Company, he was certainly not going to be able to weasel out of the deal.

Amelia pointed to the front and side. Rowan followed the indication and immediately spotted the larger wolf coming from behind a tree.

Young Grey Wolf

Level 6

Health: 141

Mind: 62

Stamina: 81

Aether: 0

The wolf noticed immediately the group and charged the intruders. Rowan moved in front, using his shield to disrupt the charge. Another skill notification popped, which he immediately dismissed from his attention. The other of the team arrived from behind, using their own weapons. Or, in the case of Luther, a fire ball singing the fur.

The wolf fell down fast. Although it was much larger – and with obvious higher numbers – the piling of the whole group without too much hesitation from surprise made it go down fast. The experience was also significantly higher without Amelia being involved.

Young Grey Wolf: 232XP/5 contributors = 47XP.

Amelia didn’t let them rest. With a wave, she directed them further.

After a while, they came out of the small forest and found themselves at a clearing. Amelia came out first and raised her arm, stopping the team.

Rowan looked at found out quickly why. The clearing had a handful of large stones, with a small group of wolves.

Grey Wolf First-time Mother

Level 8 veteran

Health: 292

Mind: 129

Stamina: 176

Aether: 0

Young Grey Wolf

Level 7

Health: 146

Mind: 64

Stamina: 86

Aether: 0

Weaned Grey Wolf (×2)

Level 7 minion

Health: 75

Mind: 33

Stamina: 44

Aether: 0

There were two of the pups with a slightly older wolf and the mother. Seeing all four together, Rowan could notice immediately the differences in scale. The mother would obviously be the most dangerous.

“So. How do you think you should approach the combat?”

Rowan hesitated, then saw she was looking at him when asking the question.

“I… think we should go for the big one first.”

“That’s a way to go. The thing is, if you go for the big one, the rest will have field day with your team.”

Rowan frowned.

“You’re about right. The biggest of the group is the one you need to make sure you, and only you, get attacked by. But the rest will do significant damage as well. In fact, all three together will do more than just the mother on her own.”

Rowan hesitated.

“Anyone else?”

The team stayed silent.

“Ok. The way I’d do it, if this was a group of critters at my level, and I was the team lead is to make sure most of the wolves come at me. Then you designate a small one, and the rest kill that one as fast as they can. Then the next. Then the medium wolf. And only then the big one.”

Rowan debated with himself, then decided to ask.

“Why that order?”

“They’re pretty much all similar, except for the size. Rule of thumb, the larger the critter, the less they do damage compared to what they can take. So it’s much faster to kill the small ones and not to worry with the damage anymore. The worst case is when everyone tries to kill a different wolf. That’s how your Mender ends up without Aether. And then I have to finish the fight for you, and I get to punish you for messing up.”

“Now, later, you’ll have to face different types of critters at the same time, and you’ll have to figure out the one who are more dangerous and need to be taken first. But for now, it’s easy.”

After conferring with the team under Amelia’s watchful gaze, Rowan settled on a plan. He’d move first, try to catch the attention of at least the mother and her… eldest son? Young companion? And the rest would kill the one of the two pups that Luther fired on first before doing the rest.

To his surprise, the plan worked nearly perfectly. He spent a lot of stamina on his first moves, picked a fourth skill, and faced only the two wolves. The pups moved to his sides and kept running toward the group.

His health dropped a bit fast at first, then stabilized as Dick used his healing skill to keep him from going down further. The team list showed Luther and Ada getting bit by the pups, but the fight went fast. Then the team arrived and started wailing on the young male.

In a short while, the whole group fell down.

4 Grey Wolves: 962XP/5 contributors = 192XP.

“Whoa.”

“Feels good, right?” said Amelia.

She added, “You’re a balanced team, which means you can push yourself faster. If any of you were on her own, you’d get wrecked by those wolves. Here? Hicks still has half of his Aether, right?”

“Yes m’a… Amelia.”

“Ok, a bit more. Normally, there’s a wolf pack around. I want to show you more stuff before we head back to HQ and show you your quarters for your duration in Grailburg. Meanwhile, let me know when your vitals are back to max.”

Grey Wolf Young Alpha

Level 10 elite

Health: 531

Mind: 231

Stamina: 334

Aether: 0

The wolf was lounging in the grasses in another clearing, watching two small minion pups playing, level 6 and 5.

“Your first challenge. As you see, you have a big one here. This time, it’s absolutely vital that the wolf doesn’t go into your team, Rowan. Even your current armour will not reduce much its attacks, and Richard will have to keep you up quite frequently. Same as before – your team goes for the two pups, and then kills the big one. Don’t bother healing anyone but Rowan, Hicks. You need to conserve yourself.”

The wolf jumped on his feet as soon as Rowan entered the clearing, then ran, the two yapping pups on his heels. When the wolf collided with his shield, Rowan immediately realized why the “elite” qualifier was applied.

Grey Wolf Young Alpha bites for 30, doing 27 damage (defence rating 32)

Just like that, over 15% of his health was gone. The healing flow from Dick didn’t even fully heal all of the damage. Rowan ignored the yip of the two pups as the three other team members started to tear into them, and concentrated on avoiding the Alpha’s attacks.

In no time at all, his stamina dropped to nearly zero, and he found out impossible to use his shield correctly. His arm failed to move correctly, causing him to miss completely his slams and other attacks. But at that point, the two pups had been done, and the team went on the attack.

“Out of Aether,” called Dick.

“The wolf is nearly done,” replied Rowan. “I’m good.”

His health was still at nearly half when the wolf dropped on the ground, finally dead.

3 Grey Wolves: 1120XP/5 contributors = 224XP. Level up.

The XP notification was different. Rowan realized that, with the handful of wolves they’d fought searching for that Alpha wolf, he’d been close to the 1000 total.

Rowan Smith Rivers

Health: 72/156

Mind: 172/174

Endurance: 11/192

Aether: 161/162

Effective level: 2

Level 2 Shieldbearer

Experience: 34/2000

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 15

Agility: 14

Constitution: 15

Stamina: 18

Wisdom: 14

Focus: 15

Presence: 14

Fortitude: 17

Intelligence: 16

Milestones: None

Skills: Deflect (rank 0); Block (rank 0); Slam (rank 0); Protect (rank 0)

The first thing he’d noticed was that the “experience” had doubled, while he had now an additional level as a Shieldbearer. And his vitals had increased, exactly as the Profession sign indicated, with additional endurance, health and the rest.

The endurance was welcome. At the speed at which his skills consumed it, the more the better.