Agent 325 hadn't expected to get another dungeon clearing run in this week. He knew it was insensitive to be excited. The only reason he'd been added to the roster was that eight of their compatriots had died, so he did his best to control his reaction. But he couldn't help the internal smile, the quiet hope that this would be the one.

He was so close. He could feel it. Feel it in every swing of his axe, every pulse of his shield, every hum of his armor. One more level, and he'd be eligible for rank advancement. Not to mention, another level would let him unlock new abilities.

Anyone under level 20 was basically a second-class citizen around here, and he was well and truly ready for his chance to advance.

Today's clearing run was a little delayed due to all the chaos. First the attack, which had been surprising enough, then Commander Saunders had gone flying off somewhere, then the crafter had come running out of the dungeon muttering a list of items he needed down in the village. Agent 325 stayed well out of his way; the last thing he wanted was to get dragged off on a supply run instead of getting the chance to go on a dungeon clearing.

First off, scheduling was thrown into chaos with the aforementioned dying of numerous guards - which he did feel bad about. Really. Honest, he didn't want any of his co-workers to be dead. But... well, they were dead. No point fussing about it too much. Certainly not reason to neglect an opportunity to advance.

Then, once they pulled in reserves and sorted out who would go, the surrounding chaos of events meant things still moved at glacial pace. The sun was already rising before they finally got underway, one delay after another.

But that was all in the past. In the end, everything was fine.

Now he had a dungeon to clear, and he felt on top of the world. Seize the moment, right?

The first room of the dungeon was still the same as he remembered from last time, and he paused a moment to admire the river-carved ravine below them off to the left.

"325! Contact!"

Agent 325 saluted instinctively, though unnecessarily, rushing to catch up to the others. They'd encountered the first of the feral turkey swarms that guarded the upper tiers of this floor. Eight of them, as tall as a man's chest, fast and vicious.

He'd never take a turkey dinner for granted again, after his first encounter with these vile hellspawn. A shame they weren't edible; they'd dissolve before you could finish cooking them.

By now he knew what to do. Catch 'em on the shield, disorient them with a quick bash, then go for the heart.

A particularly plump looking turkey met his gaze with pure hatred in its tiny evil eyes. They saw each other in the same moment and it was on.

"Stability. Reinforce." He whispered the commands as he ran at his target, shield beginning to glow as he pushed mana into it, axe held out to the side and well away from his legs. (He'd made that mistake once, it was horribly embarrassing and he would never forget it.)

The two rushed at each other, but the turkey's days were numbered. The moment before impact, Agent 325 planted his feet and crouched slightly. The turkey, predictably, slammed face-first into his shield. Agent 325 accepted the impact against his shield, then shoved back with a reinforced heave, sending the turkey reeling.

"Hah, take that!" He was already shifting the mana flow from his right hand to his left, dropping the shield and bringing his axe around in a Rending Slash, brown-glowing phantom claws extending to either side of the blade and gouging three deep furrows down the stunned bird's chest.

Then it was recovered, screeching madly as it rushed at him.

Agent 325 stepped back and twisted to the left, shifting his mana flow again to the shield. They continued to exchange blows for close to a minute, but Agent 325 knew what he was about. Block, knockback, retaliate, evade. Repeat.

Higher level creatures had more health, more sturdiness, and fewer weak spots. It got to where going for the eyes or the throat was no longer any help, and just carving away at their center of mass was the most efficient way to wear them down.

Finally, his turkey fell with one last feeble gobble. He looked up from his fight to survey the rest of the group. They'd outnumbered the turkeys, but a dozen at the front were engaged in fending off one of the spike-covered dinosaurs that roamed the top of the ravine. It smacked its quill-covered tail around, leaving thin barbed needles stabbed into anyone it could reach. That team were the spear-users in front and rangers in back, the former holding the beast at bay while the latter fired into it unrelenting.

The other turkeys seemed to be well in hand, but he still ran over to help finish off the last three. The sooner they finished clearing the dungeon, the sooner he could possibly level.

Kruger squinted up at him suspiciously, as they felled the last of the turkeys in the vicinity.

"Are you giggling, 325?"

"No, of course not." He cleared his throat and fixed a severe scowl on his face. Kruger may be higher level, but he hadn't managed to internalize his agent number yet. 325 felt a certain degree of disdain for the man as a result. "Why would I giggle."

"You do seem awfully excited this morning." 717 leaned on her greatsword, which she'd stabbed point-first into the stone, grinning. "Almost as if you're expecting something."

He hadn't been that obvious, had he? "It's been eight runs since I leveled, and I've been practicing my abilities every day."

717 laughed. "You really believe that 'practice your abilities' thing?"

325 couldn't stop a bit of a defensive edge creeping into his voice. "You never know. It can't hurt." 325 may spend most days stuck outside the dungeon in tedious, useless duties, but he wasn't going to neglect his advancement.

They continued to joke around, mocking his hopes for the next few fights, asking 'ooh, did you level up yet?' after every monster they killed. He tried not to let it get to him, until they finally got bored with it and moved on to gossiping about Commander Saunders and his mysterious 'midnight escapade'. Apparently he'd had some prisoner chick brought with him, which raised all sorts of speculation.

Agent 325 didn't know how to feel about all this. He wasn't good at the whole 'people' thing, better suited to fighting than friend-making.

They cleared room one without much trouble, took the next rooms at a slow and steady pace, then came in sight of the first boss room.

This was where 325's heart started to skip in anticipation. Bosses were worth way more level progress than anything else, and Agent 325 had a really good feeling about today. There was an energy to the air, a promise of potential.

He could level today, he just knew it.

They were halfway to the boss room when 325 stumbled over something shadowy on the ground.

That wasn't normal. Dungeons were always clearly lit. What was there to stumble over?

He still carried a tiny flashlight on his belt, so he shone it down on the wispy lump on the ground. It looked like... a very large dead cat? Black like a panther, with flickers of faintly purple shadow drifting off its fur even though it was obviously dead.

"Hey, guys? I found something interesting."

Whatever it was, this was decidedly out of the ordinary. 325 might go so far as to say it was out of place. It didn't belong. Which raised the question of what it was doing here at all.