"Anything good?" Gordon asked as Levi stared into his system interface.

"Yeah. Very interesting stuff here. One physical attacker, one tank. Their mana gains are ridiculous." As he was speaking he named the more standard one Iris, and the second Lash. It seemed appropriate.

"How ridiculous?"

"One hundred twenty per point. And as if that isn't enough, this one," he patted Lash's side, "also can co-opt other minions. We'll have to see if that extends to dungeon minions, or only Tamer type ones."

Once satisfied with his survey of the new acquisitions' strengths and weaknesses, Levi flipped through the rest of his minion list to check on the away team. To his surprise, he found that Crackle had leveled while they were fighting. Since the scarab was with the other group, it was easy to forget he existed.

Conduit continued to prove its value. He'd have to find out if minions fighting in different dungeons would channel experience to him and then on to the others, or if it would stop at him. If it could all be channeled in all directions it may be worth fully expanding Conduit so he could level the rest of his team, even if it would dramatically slow his own progress.

But first, he had a scarab to level, crafting to get started on, and a whole lot of minions to revive.

As he looked over the available options, one ability stood out to him immediately.

Rust Scarab Abilities

Corrosive Claws

Even a scratch from a Rust Scarab can leave lingering damage.

Duplicate

Create a duplicate of itself. Duplicates share a mana pool, and the mana cost of the duplicate is a sustained upkeep cost until one is killed. (Other resource pools remain distinct.)

As long as one survives, the swarm survives.

Silent Flight

Scarab’s wings become much quieter and more difficult to distinguish from ambient noise. This is most effective at low speeds; faster movement still generates sound.

Tough Shell

Increase the sturdiness of the protective chitin to decrease likelihood of death.

Aside from having the most interesting effect mechanic-wise, Duplicate was the only ability that seemed to play to scarabs greatest strength: numbers. If he hated swarms, maybe his enemies would hate them too.

It should increase Crackle's utility at least from being hardly any use in a fight to something that could swarm an enemy and deal massive damage or lingering corrosive over time. Or split up and perform stealth attacks, perhaps in coordination with the gremlins or shadevines. The ability to repopulate from any single survivor meant that at higher skill levels, he could send a whole swarm in while holding back one to ensure Crackle's survival.

The fact that the duplicates all relied on a shared mana pool was a potential drawback, but the Rust Scarab's highest stat gain was in mana anyway, so it should be easy to stack up.

But before he did that, he checked over the species-wide ability options again.

Rust Scarab: Eternal Swarm (0/5)

Rust Scarab minions will gain an automatic duplicate every 5th level.

Killed duplicates will return at a rate of 1 every 24 hours until the maximum is reached.

Eternal Swarm duplicates do not require mana upkeep.

(2 ability points)

Rust Scarab: Potent Paralysis (0/5)

Rust Scarab minions’ venom will increase in potency by 15%.

(2 ability points)

Eternal Swarm looked... questionable. While having free duplicates would be good, it wasn't likely to be a significant power shift compared to regular duplicates. Paralysis upgrades would be helpful, but again, unlikely to be a game-changer unless he were to specialize in Rust Scarabs in vast quantity. Not something he planned to do at present.

He put one point into Duplicate, then looked over the final ability window to decide if it would be worth advancing further. Some details about abilities were hidden until they were unlocked, such as the exact mana cost.

A duplicate would cost 60 mana, over half of Crackle's mana pool. A second ability point brought the cost down to 50, and adding a stat point to Psyche to increase the mana pool brought their available mana to a more comfortable 120. Enough for two duplicates and a little extra.

As tempting as it was to add a third point and bring the cost down to where he could have three duplicates active, one of the other abilities was also calling to him. Corrosive Claws, adding the signature Destruction power to the swarm's attacks. He put the third point there.

While Duplicate's mana cost was initially a bit discouraging, the fact that it was decreasing steadily by ten each ability point meant it would bring the individual cost down to 10 once it was maxed. Adding in the fact that Crackle could add an additional 20 mana every level if Levi continued pushing Psyche as his main stat, and in another few thresholds he could have himself a properly dangerous scarab swarm.

He didn't even have a chance to give a mental order before Crackle's mana pool dropped twice in quick succession, locking itself to 20/20 as a new display showed the number and health percentages of his duplicates. Each was losing stamina at a steady rate, the whole swarm on the move. Levi nodded, pleased with Crackle's initiative.

When he finally looked up from his system windows, Gordon had already moved into the treasure room to sort through their haul. If Levi was honest, even a level 5 dungeon like this felt meager compared to the overflowing piles that awaited them after each level of a level 100+ dungeon, but at least this time he hadn't had to watch any friends die for good. Minions, yes, and that still hurt, but he could acknowledge that their lives were expendable compared to his or Gordon's.

"Anything good?" Levi echoed Gordon's earlier question as he stepped into the room.

"More health potions, basic dagger, and this." He held up a knife, gleaming with a faint golden hue.

Controlling Knife

(Manablade, Rare)

Abilities: (Uncommon) Controlled Aura

Power stone: 1/1

Upgrade Slots: 0/1

"What's Controlled Aura?"

"Pretty useful if you pair it with something powerful. It allows you to reshape the blade extension pretty drastically." Levi held out a hand for the knife, which Gordon obligingly handed over. "Last time I did this with Ice, but it works just as well with Destruction." Levi slotted an orange token into the upgrade slot, shifting the ability.

The blade lit up when he ran mana into it, a thin golden forcefield enclosing the orange Destruction glow. For a moment it remained blade-shaped, then Levi flexed the aura control aspect of the weapon and the golden light compressed and reshaped the destructive power, leaving it in curved barbs and sharp protrusions vaguely reminiscent of a chainsaw.

Levi held it up for Gordon to see, then set the barbs vibrating. It didn't have the full circular motion of an actual chainsaw, or the sequential sawblades of ice he'd used on his sword in the first timeline, but this was easier to maintain and activate and could be just as effective for a short weapon. Even the Control aura wasn't enough to make something more complicated on a weapon this small.

He drew his shortsword and activated its blade, slamming it into the edge of the marble slab that held their rewards. The blade bit into the edge but stopped before he'd gone more than a few inches in. Then he switched to the Control knife.

The blade's jagged edge tore into the marble with a loud grating shriek, sending stone chips flying in all directions. The sound rattled and echoed off the walls as the knife sank into the stone, deeper, deeper, then the whole corner sheared off and fell to the floor with a resounding thud.

Levi grinned and proffered the hilt to Gordon. "I know you don't much care for up close and personal, but it's yours if you want it."

Gordon stared at the knife, not moving to take it.

"It'd be a good exercise, practicing forming the blade into shapes."

Gordon hesitated, then extended his hand.