James nodded, "I agree. We need to use the best weapons for the job. The Divine Light Spell helped. I made it harder for them to hit us, but they could still senes us."

Doris agreed, "I noticed. I thought they would just stand and let us wack at them."

Connie laughed, "You can't complain about the Lightning Bolt. That was a hundred gold well spent."

"A hundred gold! You didn't tell us it was a hundred gold!" Doris exclaimed.

Connie smiled at her sister, "That's because you would have said no. And then you would have missed this."

Barbara shrugged, "I think we would have been okay without it, but it helped. But now you are down at least 40 Mana."

"That is the balance when going through a Dungeon. The balance of managing your Mana, Health and Stamina," Roland commented.

"I think I should have backed up further so that Doris could have been flanking from the start. If I held their attention and she was on their right side, we could have killed them faster," James added.

"Do we have any clubs?" Barbara asked.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one said anything in the affirmative.

"I have an extra Warhammer I can lend you, but only the one," Roland finally spoke up.

"I say give it to Barbara. The rest of us have shields, but Barbara has nothing," Doris suggested, and James agreed.

Connie pulled out one of her Wands and sighed, "I can't keep casting like that."

Barbara gave Connie a quick hug, "Pace yourself, sweetie. This is a distance run, not a sprint."

Connie nodded and followed James as he headed back into the barracks-like room.

The group made its way down the hallway, stepping over the piles of bones, armour, shields, daggers and pouches. Doris paused to collect each pouch, chuckling to herself. The room had no light other than the Divine Light that followed Doris, not that any of them needed it with their Darkvision. The room was still in good condition; the beds were solid and had sheets and blanks, the foot lockers stood open and empty, and the room was swept clean. It looked like it was ready for occupancy. At the back of the room stood a single chest which was not open.

"Who wants to open it?" Doris asked.

"It might have gold," Barbara said with a grin.

"Nice try, sis, but we get the gold no matter who opens it," Doris said with a return grin.

Connie sighed and leaned over to open the chest. It wasn't trapped and opened easily. Inside was a small cloudy spherical gem and a scroll. Connie ignored the gem and picked up the scroll to read.

Doris grabbed the gem and looked at it closely, "Not sure what this is, but I bet it fits the slot at..."

She was suddenly cut off when Connie squealed. Everyone saw Connie bouncing in place, holding the scroll to her chest. "What in the Seven Hells!"

Barbara reached for the scroll, but Connie moved away, "MINE! Haha, mine!"

Doris shrugged, "Okay?"

James tried to get Connie's attention, "Can you at least tell us what spell it is?"

Connie continued to laugh and cry before finally shouting, "FIREBALL!" Onyx barked in excitement.

Barbara smiled, "Well, that explains that."

Doris whispered to Barbara, "I thought she said it was a T3 Spell. Wouldn't that mean she can't cast it?"

Barbara shrugged, "Fuck knows."

Roland stepped forward and plucked the scroll from Connie when she was still bouncing. When she tried to grab it back, he placed a hand on her face and held her back.

"YOU'RE GOING TO RIP IT!" Connie screamed.

"Lesser Fireball. It is a Tier 2 version of the Spell. Not as big and not as much damage, but still pretty effective," Roland stated. Afterward, he tossed the scroll in the air and watched as Connie leaped to grab it.

James chuckled, "It must be pretty awesome, rare or expensive for her to act like that."

Rocko nodded, "In most circles, it is agreed that you are not an actual Wizard until you can cast Fireball. This may open a lot of doors for her."

James shook his head as he watched Connie continue to bounce with excitement. "Shall we head back to the main room?"

Everyone agreed, except for Connie, who was still too excited to think correctly. James followed Onyx from the room while Doris and Barbara grabbed their sister and escorted her out of the room. Roland gave a glance around the room and followed last.

James sighed with relief when he saw that the door at the top of the stairs was open.

Once they were back in the main room, Doris held up the gem. "Do we put it in now or wait until we have all three of them?" No one seemed to have an idea.

"Are there any suggestions in the markings on the wall?" James asked.

Doris shook her head, "Nothing that I saw."

"Well, you seem the best versed in the god in question. What would be logical for him?" Barbara asked her.

Doris pondered the question, "Either add the first one and then the last two together, or add two the first two and then the last one after the last door."

"Or we add them one as we get them, or we add them all at the end," Barbara added to the list of options.

"Yes, well, know what the options are. We need to figure out which one is correct," James replied.

"Why?" Rocko asked.

'What do you mean?' James asked Rocko.

"Why does it matter? It could be the order makes no difference but is there to mess you up. To waste your time," Rocko suggested.

"I think we have to put the gem into the slot to open the next door," Connie muttered.

"She lives," Doris grinned.

Connie stuck her tongue out at her.

James headed to the door they deemed to have the two repeating symbols, "Makes sense. Shall we continue?"

"We can't!" Connie exclaimed, "I have to learn this Spell. If I cast this Spell off the scroll, I can't learn it."

Barbara shook her head, "We have to. If we don't, we will waste the rest of the Potion. We already used half of it, but there should be enough to get us through the next door. If it is the same as the last one."

There was a pause in the conversation as everyone thought about which course of action was best. James decided to break the stalemate, "I say we rest. We have another potion, so we can use that for doors two and three if necessary. We got that scroll for a reason, and I bet we will need more than one casting from it. Also, it is hugely important for Connie."

Rocko cocked an eyebrow, "Hugely?"

Roland had already sat on the floor and was petting Onyx, curled up next to him, her head on his lap.

Doris and Barbara shrugged, "It is your potion, so if you don't feel like we are squandering your gift, then I am okay with sitting here for an hour."

"Four," Connie corrected her.

Doris blinked, "What?"

"It is a Tier 2 Spell. It will take four hours for me to write it into my Spellbook," Connie preened. "But it will only take about twenty minutes for me to memorize it."

Doris sighed as she sat down.

Barbara sat beside her and patted her on the shoulder, "Why don't we count the money from the Skeletons. That should cheer you up."

James sat down next to Roland and laughed as Onyx finished crawling into Roland's lap, "Are you starved for attention, girl? Is that why you think you are a lap dog. You just need a master who will pay attention to you," he joked, giving James a wink. The words rubbed James the wrong way, even though he knew they were true and they were not meant maliciously.

James winced as the dark thought, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Didn't give me much of choice with that one," Roland said with a grin.

James had to grin back. "Are you an elf?"

Roland continued to pet Onyx, who was now quite comfortable curled on top of his cuisses. "I am curious as to why you would ask."

James nodded at the question. It made sense. "When I came to this world, my mind was..." he paused, searching for the right word, "changed."

"I am sorry," Roland replied. James could hear the sincerity in his voice and nodded his appreciation.

"One of the things that I think was done to me was that I have an aversion to Elves," James explained.

"An aversion? That seems like a strange affliction to have." Roland said with a chuckle. "I am sorry. I don't mean to tease."

James smiled back, though it was a little forced, "I instantly don't like Elves. Regardless of who they are. There is no reason. And I hate that I feel this way. But it affects my thinking."

Even if he didn't understand, Roland nodded in sympathy, "What of my sisters. They are half-elf and half-human. Don't seem to hate them."

James looked at the sisters. Connie had a light Spell shining overhead, while Barbara sneaked coins from one pile that coins Doris had already counted to a pile to be counted. James smiled at the antics, "No, I can say I don't hate them."

"Why do you think that is?" Roland asked, watching his sisters.

"I don't know," James said with a shrug.

"I think I do," Rocko offered.

"Oh?" James said, looking over at his friend.

"Ah, the imaginary friend has arrived," Roland said with a smile.

"They are women. When you first met them, you seemed taken with them right away. When you met Ratafic, you were opposed to him because he was male. Same with Roland." Rocko explained.

'As good an explanation as any,' James shared with Rocko.

"My friend thinks it is due to gender," James shared with Roland.

Roland raised an eyebrow, "You don't like males?"

James laughed, "I like males just fine. Most of my friends are males. I am just referring to Elves."

Roland nodded, "Then you will be happy to know that I have no Elven blood in my system."

James didn't say anything but nodded. Roland had done nothing to warrant having any hate directed toward him. His dislike was not due to James thinking he was elven. So that meant it was for another reason. James thought about it for a while and decided to let it go.

'Rocko, a question for you.' James sent it to Rocko.

Rocko looked up.

'The creatures we fought. The scarabs had the word Swarm in their names. What does that mean?' James asked.

"Some creatures that are low level can be placed together to act together and fight together. When this happens, they are considered a swarm. It applies to insects, but some other animals can be grouped as a swarm. Rats are the first thing that comes to mind. I bet you could have a swarm of squirrels. Or maybe bats. A swarm of birds." Rocko explained.

James tried to get Rocko back on topic, 'How are they different from the regular variety?'

Rocko blinked and then smiled, "Sorry. They tend to be higher level than the originals. They share a Health pool and operate as a single unit concerning most things. And their experience is collected when you kill all of them, not just some. Also, their value in experience is far less."

James shook his head, 'Why would it be less? There are more of them.'

Rocko shrugged, "Their Health pool is lower for the individual, their levels are higher, which means higher level people can get experience for killing them. And the big reason is so that Dungeons can add more of them."

James frowned, 'So, they would have more experience if they were not a swarm but had the same number of monsters?'

Rocko shook his head, "No. First, they would have no experience because the individual Scarab would have been too low a level for them. By having them in the Swarm, they were able to get experience at all. Also, their total combined Health pool was probably lower than a Swarm.

'How many Swarms do you think there were?' James asked.

Rocko sighed, "Hard to say, but I would think around two hundred."