“You aren’t going to glow like that in the dungeon, are you? I don’t think the camera was picking it up right.” Nat continued staring at Serenity as she asked.

“No. We’ll be out of the ley line once we’re in the dungeon. What did it look like on the camera?” Serenity wasn’t sure what he wanted the answer to be.

“It’s not there at all. Well, maybe a hint of purple, but that could also be the sunset.” Nat shrugged, then looked over her shoulder towards the dungeon. “We’d better get moving, if we leave the made girl alone for too long, she always does something crazy.”

Did that mean that he wasn’t actually glowing? If electronics didn’t pick it up, it wasn’t visible light. Could it be that the eye could naturally pick up something other than visible light? Mana sight was common among mages; maybe that had something to do with it?

“How has she managed to stay employed?” Serenity followed Nat towards the dungeon entrance.

“Not sure.” Nat shrugged. “It’s probably her YouTube following. I don’t see the appeal of her style, but I’m probably too old."

Serenity agreed. He was too old as well. “Hey, Lancaster. Is this everyone?”

Lancaster looked around. “You, me, Rissa, I think you said his name was Raz? and these two. Yeah, I think that’s everyone. Did you expect someone else? The dungeon’ll take up to six, so we could manage another.”

Serenity turned to Rissa’s father, who was watching from a little ways away. “Hey, Russ, want in?”

“I haven’t ever done a dungeon before.” Russ didn’t sound nervous; if anything, he seemed eager, but Serenity wasn’t sure if that was real or just his imagination.

“Share your Status with me?” Serenity knew Russ could fight, but he wanted to make sure he’d get credit for the dungeon. There was no point in bringing him if he wouldn’t get rewards - well, no point other than the experience, but it wasn’t worth making someone else put up with the reporter unless there were rewards.

Russ frowned and muttered for a moment before his Status appeared in front of Serenity.

Name: Russel Latimer

Species: Human (Guardian Variant)

Core: Primarch

Progress:

Evaluation Incomplete

Path: Guardian (Locked)

Level: 13 (90/140)

Tier: 1, 0/13 Spent

Path History:

Tier 0: Guardian

Condition: Healthy

Mana: 650/650

Stamina: 1200/1200

Might: 55

Agility: 55

Phys: 110

Understanding: 11

Will: 43

Mind: 55

Perception: 110

Luck: 1

Titles

Guardian

Serenity looked over it carefully. Russ’s Status was not at all what he’d have expected of someone who hadn’t been to the Tutorial, but it explained a lot about what he’d seen during the fight with the Shard of Decay.

“Have you done a lot in the last few weeks?” Serenity couldn’t see how Ryss could have made it to Tier 1 already without the Tutorial to push him along. Were things like that Shard that common?

Russ shook his head. “No, it’s been fairly quiet. We’ve been sticking near Rissa. Only real excitement was that Shard, and while it was more than I’d throw a newbie at, it wasn’t really that bad.”

The Shard could easily explain getting to Level 13, but it still didn’t explain the Tier. Serenity dismissed the Status; he’d have to worry about it later. “You should come, no reason to leave you out here waiting. Can I set you to guard the reporter?”

Russ turned towards Made and sighed. “Are you going to let me guard you?”

Made looked offended. “I don’t need a guard! I have my special sword, it’s more than enough! I could take this place on my own!”

“Actually, you couldn’t,” Lancaster interrupted. “It won’t allow groups smaller than four to enter. Are we ready?”

“Wait, I thought you said the dungeon could only manage six people?” Everyone turned towards Raz. He’d been quiet, as he often was. “I’ve counted three times and we have seven.”

“Yeah,” Lancaster agreed. “We do, or at least we would if Serenity counted. He has a weird Path Skill that means he doesn’t count for entering Dungeons. So far, the only way it’s mattered is that he does seem to count for dungeons that increase the difficulty based on the number of people, so I’m still not sold on how useful it is.”

Serenity stared at Lancaster. He’d just lied his ass off, but if Serenity hadn’t known the truth, he’d have believed the man. It was a good thing Lancaster was on his side; Serenity didn’t want to think about what it would mean to be on the other side.

Even so, he’d have to remember Lancaster’s explanation. It might come in handy in the future.

Made already had her hand on the door. Serenity wanted to set up roles before entering, but maybe it would be better to wait until they were inside.

[Party]

“Made” Madeleine Fulton - Human

Lancaster - Sword of the Law

Serenity - Evoker

Rissa - Time’s Eye

Razinkh ‘e Sunrise - Speaker to Dungeons

Russell Lancaster - Guardian

Natalie Freeman - Chilled Heat

[Join Party as listed?]

Yes

[Made has been nominated to serve as Party Leader. Confirm?]

No

The only person who would have nominated Made was the woman herself. They didn’t really need a Party Leader; there were very few things that a Party Leader could actually do other than change who was in the party. Still, if Made was Nominating herself, Serenity thought they should have a Party Leader, just in case.

Please nominate Lancaster.

It wasn’t long until the confirmation arrived.

[Lancaster has been elected Party Leader by majority vote. Dungeon entry initiated]

Serenity was still trying to figure out his new surroundings when he realized that Russ was holding Made in a bearhug.

“Let me go!” She’d dropped her “sword” and was ineffectually waving at the air as she squirmed, trying to get free.

“Are you going to run towards danger or are you going to wait for everyone to be ready?” Russ didn’t loosen his grip even when she managed to catch his head with a flying elbow; he just adjusted how he was holding her so it wouldn’t happen again.

“C’mon! People go through here all the time, there’s nothing dangerous here!” Made continued flailing. It was obvious she’d never been taught even basic self defense.

“People who are prepared and ready for it,” Serenity said. “That’s very different from running in ahead. Always wait for your party. Running in ahead when others aren’t ready is a good way for easy to turn into dead.”

He’d seen it, more than once. It was a simple mistake, even in experienced parties - someone’s in a hurry, someone else has an unusual delay, throw in a little miscommunication and he ended up picking up the pieces. Sometimes it was salvageable, but all too often it wasn’t.

“We need to settle roles. You use a sword, correct, Made?” Serenity wasn’t going to count on her, but being included might help her settle into a more useful role in the future, even if she was completely useless here.

Made stopped struggling and stood in Russ’s grip. “Yeah.” Her voice sounded defeated.

“I know you do as well, Lancaster; have you picked up any new tricks?” Serenity wanted to get the front line settled first. This seemed like a very unbalanced party, but at least the dungeon shouldn’t be too bad, even if it had just expanded.

“Yeah, a few. Nothing earth-shattering, but I can make my near-hit cause a damaging shockwave now; it’s very useful for the swarm spots in here. Short range, but when you’re getting swarmed, that’s what you need.” Lancaster sounded calm and confident, giving the necessary information and nothing more.

Serenity nodded and moved on to the biggest wildcard, Russ. “Do you have any ranged attacks that don’t involve throwing your weapon away? Or any area attacks?”

“Not really. Well, I guess I do have one, if they’re close enough to me, but it’s only around me. I usually just use it to keep things from grappling me. It doesn’t work on everything.” Serenity noticed that Russ wasn’t going into any detail, but he didn’t really need detail, so that was fine.

“Nat, you said you can do temperature in an area. Is that enough to hurt the wasps?” Serenity felt like Nat was underestimating her toolkit, at least against wasps. Normal wasps had a weakness to cold in particular, and monsters based on a natural creature often had an overstated form of any weaknesses the natural creature had.

“Slow ‘em down, maybe. Doubt it’d do more than that.” Net drummed her fingers on her camera case as she replied.

Serenity nodded. He’d slot her in as battlefield control then. “Okay, your job is to stay back and make sure the front line isn’t overwhelmed. Keep things spaced out as much as possible, even if that sometimes means something closer comes quickly while you delay something farther back. Russ and Lancaster, you have the front. Made, you’ll be right behind them; keep anything that gets by them from getting at the people in the back.”

Serenity turned to the people he hadn’t asked yet. “Raz, Rissa - anything you can tell me I don’t already know?”

Rissa shook her head; she had her shortspear in one hand, while her crossbow hung on a strap so it was in easy reach. Raz nodded. “You’re asking about area attacks; I have one, but it’s pretty weak. It’s wind-based; I move the air to cut whatever comes through an area. While I have one going, I can’t do anything else.”

Serenity nodded. “That could be very useful against flying enemies; I’ll keep it in mind. Both of you stay in the middle of the group, with Nat. I’ll bring up the rear; that way we have someone who can protect against surprises. I’ll need a minute; I can set up some area spells to do damage, but I have to precast them and that takes time.”