Naturally, Levi’s first move was to max Pack Leader.

There was no other ability that called to him the same way, that was so clearly essential to his future plans of leading an army of monsters and demons into battle. And this time when he put the point in he could've sworn he actually felt it. As though something actually changed within him, the dramatic broadening of potential as new connections opened and his comprehension expanded.

He instantly went from having 15 max minions to 23.

He currently had twelve, which meant he could practically double his roster; it had been some time since he'd last tamed anything, since they’d been focusing on levels.

As tempting as some of the enemies they'd faced had been, there was the problem of leveling to consider. The more people there were, the harder it was to ensure they were all equally able to participate in the fighting, and the more bosses they captured the less experience there was to go around.

A lot of the time minions like Tink and Shadevine got left out, hardly gaining anything because everyone else finished the fights so fast. Shadevine was most useful and gained the most from boss fights, but Tink really struggled to find a way to meaningfully contribute.

Also, there was the steady increase in dungeon levels to consider. The bosses they fought now were tougher than those they'd fought a week ago, but the bosses they’d fight in another week would be stronger still. He hadn't decided yet if he should go all-in on a handful of species, and if so which ones. For now he continued to gather information. The more options he had available, the easier it would be to make the decision when the time came.

In another month, they'd have to start preparing for the invasion properly, but at least for the moment it was more time-efficient to let the dungeons level their bosses for him. Once their team was up against something that pushed them to their very limits, then would be the time to start recruiting again, before the dungeons outleveled them too much. Or grab them once they were ready to leave the loop and head back to regroup and start the second phase.

Focusing back on his options for this levelup, he skimmed through the species based upgrades one more time, but they all seemed rather... situational.

If he ended up changing the composition of his team in the future, it would be wasteful to have already assigned his own points to something that ended up obsoleted; if monsters didn't retain their species type bonuses once they evolved far enough, for instance.

Unless and until he decided to go for a focus on a lot of a few specific types, it would probably be best to stick with having the minions increase those abilities themselves. Especially if he could speed up their leveling. So he'd focus on being the best Tamer that he could be, and right now...

Two options stood out in the pursuit of maximizing his minions’ levels. First, Revive. It was the ability that they needed most often, at this point, and two every twelve hours was still leaving one or two minions out for most dungeons by now. Bumping it up to every 6 hours would halve the chances of the more powerful minions dramatically outleveling the others before they had a chance to shine.

And then... Conduit. The simplest way he could safeguard his team against becoming too imbalanced, even if some minions spent less time in combat. Since as far as they knew, channeled experience didn’t have the same cap as actively participating in a dungeon oneself, it should even bypass the level equivalence limiters and gain his lower level minions proportionally more, making it much easier to bring them all up toward an even balance.

Laurence had recommended it, even with its potential drawbacks, and when it came right down to it, Levi was willing to trust Laurence's analysis in this case. 20% experience channeled to his minions would go a long way toward keeping their levels up even if they ended up crowded, and also meant he could much more easily split his team up without worrying about the ones off in transit being left behind in levels. Even if Becca and Ward ended up hardly fighting at all, they could still benefit from Levi's practice here.

Then there was the multiplicative factor to consider. The channeled experience wasn't split among his team, but rather mirrored equally to everyone. It was a short term sacrifice for longer term gains. Levi himself may level 20% slower, but every single minion would level 20% faster. And the more powerful they were, the faster they could clear dungeons, and the less often they'd end up dead. It would make everything go smoother in the long run.

Levi Morrison, Secret Seeker + Unassigned Levels: 0 Primary Class: Tamer Tamer Level: 15 Subclass: None Minions: 12/23 Stat Points: 0 Strength: 3 Psyche: 6 Spirit: 6 Health

245/245 Mana

185/185 Stamina

225/225 Health Regen

4 /minute Mana Regen

7 /minute Stamina Regen

7 /minute Ability Points: 0 Mana Ping Tier: 1 Cost: 10 mana Fire an unfocused burst of mana in all directions, returning location details about mana entities nearby. Tame Tier: 1 Cost: 5 mana

5 stamina Attempt to convert a creature into a minion. Can only be used on creatures with less than 5% health remaining. Mana Push Tier: 1 Cost: (variable) mana Fire a focused burst of mana at a targeted location. Revive Tier: 3 Cost: 50 mana Restore one [Dead] minion to life at 10% of its maximum health

Can only be used once every 6 hours Pack Leader Tier: 5 Cost: None (Passive) Increases minion slots by 1 every level. Conduit Tier: 2 Cost: Experience

(Variable, max 20%) Channeled experience is mirrored to each of the Tamer's minions.

This ability must be active when experience is gained to take effect.

Its effects cannot be reverted or applied retroactively.

Levi let out a breath as he read the official ability description for Conduit. So it wasn't an always-active thing, but an actual toggleable ability. That was a bit of a relief; if the time ever came that he needed to level quickly, he would worry about having his progress slowed too much.

For now... he needed his minions leveled more than he needed himself leveled. Until the dungeons were closer to his level, he'd only gain minimally from these fights even if he took 100% of the experience.

He slid the setting all the way to 20%, pleased to see that it had options for every individual percentage in between. If he ever needed to adjust his gains fractionally, this would come in handy.

The upgrade proved its worth in their very next dungeon.

Ward has reached level 5!

Horned Gremlin threshold 1 attained.

Evolution threshold advancement progress: 1/5

Ward has 4 stat point available.

Ward has 3 ability points available.

Though there'd been no evidence of any of the away team accompanying Irene and Peter having been in a serious fight recently - for the past four days, Levi hadn't once checked in and found their health low and none of them had leveled for the same span of time - Ward hit his first threshold midway through the newly-level-5 Control dungeon.

Interestingly, his evolution progress was one of five, unlike Skarm and Two who'd been of three.

Horned Gremlin Abilities

Sharpened Claws

Increase damage dealt by unarmed attacks.

Sneaky

Increased stealth, and increased damage from stealth.

Gorer

Horn obtains barbed protrusions, inflicting more damaging bleeds.

Leap

Ability to jump is doubled, and attacks landed from the air deal significant additional damage.

He still had the same options though, which made the choice easy. Ward was a gremlin, so Levi's first priority was boosting stats again. He left the Ward-specific options alone for now and wrangled his way through the usual maze of the system to reach Levi's horned gremlin abilities, a shared pool linking Ward, Skarm, and Two together. Though they cost 2 points each when taken by a gremlin instead of Levi himself, they were well worth the investment. Ward's brought the total bonus points per level up to 4, and his available stat points jumped from 4 to 9.

That also boosted Skarm and Two, but he'd deal with their stat points later. First he had to finish with Ward's abilities.

Since there were new abilities locked behind each base ability, and there was one base ability for gremlins he had yet to explore, he decided to give Ward the Gorer ability. It wasn't one of his first choice abilities, since it focused only on the horn, but its more damaging bleeds did hold promise. And he definitely wanted to see what was gated behind it.

There seemed to be some logic to the advancement of abilities in a chain, though he often couldn't tell what it would be until after the fact. From sharpened claws to corrosive slash the progression was clear; additional damage, claw attacks. Leap and Scamper were both mobility effects. Sneaky and Echo Mimic were both stealth-based. Gorer gave no clear indication of what its followup abilities might be. Damage over time, perhaps, if its initial power was any indication, but he wouldn't know for sure until he reached level 10.

That done, he turned to everyone's stat points.

Skarm and Two each had another ten. Levi split Skarm's between Strength for health and Spirit for stamina, but split Two's between Spirit and Psyche, for mana. He'd noticed that Two's ability to recharge his knife sufficiently was beginning to lag behind his ability to stab with it; as dungeon delves grew longer with each increase in level, the downtime to recharge was no longer sufficient to last through a whole trip. By increasing Two's mana to 18, and his regen to 6 per minute, he could charge his knife as needed without worrying about running out so often.

There was just something incredibly satisfying about watching the tiny gremlin sneak up on much larger enemies, stab repeatedly from stealth, then scamper away before they could retaliate, leaving poisoned and corrosive wounds behind.

Ward, he considered building as a tank, but even with the bonus stat points gremlins just weren't that well suited to it. Since Skarm was a mobile striker with decent health, and Two was a stealth ambusher, he decided to build Ward out toward fast attacks. It would pair well with his Gorer ability as well, giving him the chance to use his more dangerous horn and hopefully still avoid retribution.

He put all his points into Spirit.

Ward: Level 5

Horned Gremlin +

Strength: 8

Health: 230/230

(+20/min)

Psyche: 0

Mana: 0/0

(+2/min)

Spirit: 17

Stamina: 440/440

(+38/min)

Ward's stamina was up to 440 now, surpassing even Becca's 405 health as the largest pool of any minion, and his regen was incredible. Not even two seconds between stamina points.

Those extra stat points really made gremlins stupidly powerful, and using it on a plus gremlin only amped things up that much further. Levi found he couldn't quite stop smiling as he glanced over the final results.

Skarm: Level 10

Horned Gremlin

Strength: 25

Health: 225/225

(+28/min)

Psyche: 0

Mana: 0/0

(+3/min)

Spirit: 25

Stamina: 350/350

(+28/min) Gremlin Two: Level 10

Horned Gremlin

Strength: 19

Health: 195/195

(+22/min)

Psyche: 6

Mana: 18/18

(+6/min)

Spirit: 25

Stamina: 350/350

(+28/min)

Gremlins may be small, but they had insane potential.