The trip became much lighter after that. Levi spent most of it dreaming up what items he could create with his special upgrade options, a far preferable pastime, even if most of his ideas were probably infeasible for actual production. Crafting was complicated and he knew relatively little about it.

“Do you think I should make you anything?” he asked Skarm. “You’ve got hands and everything.”

Skarm shrugged, patting the armor he’d appropriated from Ward.

“I know you’re fine right now, but once we get everyone leveling dungeons we’ll have to ramp up our power fast.”

Skarm gave a one-armed shrug like it didn’t matter to him either way.

When Levi reached Gayle’s neighborhood, new minions in tow, he caught more than a few odd looks from the neighbors. They may have been able to overlook his previous group, strange as it was, but now his group looked more like a circus performer's menagerie than anything that could be construed as normal.

Drok and Greg towered above the rest, Maggie left softened pavement in her wake, stone centipedes flanking the gremlins gossiping in their unintelligible squeaks...

Honestly, if Levi had seen this group coming, he'd have grabbed his swords and prepared for battle. His little team was starting to look seriously intimidating. Luckily, none of the neighbors were Awakened, so while they stared oddly at the parade of various-sized creatures parading past, they seemed more confused than terrified. More than one person went to wipe their glasses, or shook their head and turned away with a shrug.

Thank you, mana distortion. Weird nonsensical physics effect, but very useful in certain circumstances. Downright detrimental in others, like trying to prove your claims to having monsters, but everything in life was a tradeoff to one degree or another.

The moment they reached the house, Levi found Ward and Two standing in his way, arms crossed and clear anger on Ward’s face.

“What’s this about?” Levi asked. Skarm squeaked something at them imperiously from atop Centoo, and Ward squeaked back. Levi hadn’t noticed before, but Ward’s voice was notably deeper to go with his different physique.

Ward gestured, and Two turned and dragged something out from behind the fence. Gremlin Three’s body. Elmire something now, Levi supposed, not that it mattered.

“What? I can revive him right now, no need to be all huffy about it.”

Levi cast Revive, and Elmire sat up, stared around, then up at Ward. Ward huffed and gestured for Elmire to follow him, and they stalked away. Two raised his chin and glared up at Skarm defiantly. Skarm crossed his arms and stared him down. Two drew himself up, then turned his back on Levi and Skarm to follow Ward and Elmire.

“What was that all about?” Levi asked.

Skarm shrugged and waved a hand, indicating the group around them. Greg had immediately detached himself from their group and gone running to find Henry, leaving Levi with Becca, Maggie, the centipedes, Drok, and Skarm.

Of course, they were about to split their forces, so it wouldn't remain a single group for long.

Levi surveyed them, already disliking the necessity of dividing the group. He didn't want to send anyone away, wanted to watch them grow and help them evolve and foster an unstoppable army of monsters ready to face the demon wave and stand victorious.

Even for someone as used to stamina dragging as Levi, that last leg of the trip had been on the arduous side. While their initial trip out had been between dungeons generally around two to three hours apart, from the final dungeon back to Gold Beach had been five and a half hours by car, and closer to six and a half on foot.

"Come on, inside everyone." Levi herded them all into the fenced-in yard, at least providing some privacy from the gawking neighbors.

Then he lay down on the grass beside Becca, staring up at the evening sky and not thinking about how much he didn't want to attend another strategy meeting. Maggie laid down beside him, warm head resting on his chest, and he gingerly stroked her hot sleek scales.

The past two days had been amazing. Him and his family, dungeons to delve, monsters to tame, treasures to find. If every day could be like those days, they could cycle through dungeons steadily enough to level them up around them, and grow to be strong and capable when the portals showed up in October.

But the others were right. He couldn't save the world alone, and it would be stupid to try. He needed people like Laurence and Cassandra to spread the word so that not just a handful of people would be leveled and ready, but tens of thousands.

He just... wasn't cut out for this kind of thing. He was a warrior. A weapon. Point him at a problem to kill and he'd kill it. Talking to people had never been his thing. Now, even less so.

Training his wife and son was challenge enough. He'd never been properly taught himself, a combination of 'do-or-die', system information, and picking up scraps of knowledge by osmosis.

Levi was terrified of trying to push them too far, and just as terrified of not pushing them hard enough. He didn't think he'd survive losing them again.

Where was he supposed to get the mental energy to juggle saving the rest of the world too? There wasn't a simple 'save world' switch he could flip. The more they tried to figure out a plan, the more complicated everything became.

In a way, he'd prefer to forget the whole thing and focus on making an elite force. If he and a handful of others could reach the level of strength necessary to take on the Demon Lords, they could take care of the biggest threats and leave everyone else in a much better position.

The active waves were thousands upon thousands of low-level hellhounds and imps, but they weren't so much of a threat that they couldn't be counteracted by existing military forces.

It was the Lords that truly tipped the balance, who could destroy a city in under a minute, who hunted down the most powerful fighters and eliminated them. And against whom even a dozen level 50s would not suffice. But even Levi's months head start would only do so much. Leveling took time, even assuming they could focus on it completely.

Levi groaned and closed his eyes. It was an impossible situation to be thrown into. Perhaps if he'd come back with a plan, with secrets and leverage, with allies planned out, but he hadn't. He'd been taken completely by surprise, waking up unexpectedly in the past. However much he wished he could remember more useful details from this era, he simply couldn't.

How was one warrior supposed to save the world? He wasn't a researcher, wasn't a strategist, wasn't a genius. Just a normal guy, thrown time and again into events too big for him, trying desperately to stay afloat.

He was still lying there, one hand still absently stroking Maggie's warm scales, when he heard the door swing open.He tilted his head back, blinking up at the porch.

Gayle cleared her throat loudly. She stood, arms crossed, glaring down at him. “About time you got here. Everyone is waiting.”