"There. Easy." Irene brushed away the mana residue on Levi's arm and poured a few drops of health restorative over the spot. She smiled, a weary smile that didn't reach her eyes, then turned to the remaining minions who had survived.

Not many of them had.

Levi flexed his wrist, twisting his arm this way and that, and nodded in satisfaction. "Perfect. And Peter?"

“I scanned him first thing. Nothing to worry about."

Taking her at her word, Levi turned and returned his attention to the pile of treasure.

The first thing he saw was a welcome surprise. He knew he shouldn't get too used to it, not every Essence would drop crafting essence, but couldn't deny a quick thrill of satisfaction at seeing the glowing green vial. Nature essence. He was getting ever closer to his goal of collecting them all.

He stored the vial in his belt pouch for now. The Dungeon Seed still needed several thousand more mana before he could add another essence to it.

Beyond that, there was the expected pile of restoratives, nicely replenishing their diminished stock. A handful of dungeon tokens, which would be helpful for crafting later. He wasn't sure Nature tokens were involved in any of the essential items he needed, but they would definitely have some useful purpose.

Glancing around at the pile of dead minions they would have to wait to revive, Levi mentally moved figuring out the crafting system further up his mental checklist. They wouldn't be leaving here today, and perhaps not even tomorrow. With Greg up, they could probably carry the others out, but it might be wise to stay here a while longer if there were any chance of trouble from the guards outside.

Levi's understanding of the political entities involved in the initial response to the arrival of the dungeons was pretty thin. News in the first timeline hadn't been all that important to them, particularly not of such an obscure nature. The demon portals opening all across the country were the first sign the average citizen would get about the arrival of magic and the apocalypse.

Concerns for another time. For now, he stored away another few crafting ingredients—an elixir base and a blank orb, prickly cactus hide, a handful of fox vines, a small bottle of venom, and a bag of tiny round seeds—then turned his attention to the larger items.

A wooden storage box, about a foot and a half long by six inches by three inches. Big enough for most ordinary items, or smaller weapons. This one came with a complex lock and deep green-grey key. Of course, being dungeon-made, the key more resembled a hexagonal jewel set on an oversized ring, with patterns of darkness and transparency and tiny imprints in the jewel serving as the unlocking sequence for the box.

Levi immediately transferred the Dungeon Seed, his collection of essences, and the rest of his crafting supplies into the box before shoving it into his medium storage bag, the key going in his belt pouch. Boxes had the advantage of being much more easily organized, while pouches and bags tended to be a bit of a jumble.

He still wasn’t sure how they worked, only that they did. If an object fit into the storage item, then it fit. They weren’t quite bottomless, but wherever the items were actually stored was not physically limited by the confines of the storage item.

With the box, Levi could see all the different layers of items he placed inside, could move them around to reach past to something else, yet what would have in an ordinary box become an unwieldy pile remained fully contained.

Lastly, a spear and small round buckler-type shield, both with a tracing already installed, lacking only power stones to activate. The spear looked to have a binding type activation, while the shield’s looked more offensive. Some kind of pulse for use in close quarters.

“Hmmm. This actually looks like a good place to use this.” Levi found one of the Lightning power stones he’d been hanging onto this whole time.

Lightning was an unreliable element for weapons, but the shield’s pulse tracing looked fully outward-focused. Levi sat down on the stone slab that had held their treasure pile and considered the shield with more intense scrutiny. Tracing analysis wasn’t his specialty, but you needed to know a little of everything so he had the basics.

Active pulse, outward focused. Yep. Should be safe. But he’d definitely be testing it before using it in a serious fight. Worst case, it’d be useless, but neither a single shield nor a Lightning power stone were irreplaceable.

Electric Buckler (Armor, Standard)

Abilities: (Basic) Lightning Pulse

Power Stone: 1/1 (Lightning)

Upgrade Slots: 0

For a moment he considered trying Lightning with the spear’s tracing, which was active on target, but ultimately decided against it. As much as he’d love to be able to stab and zap, without something to protect the user from the potential backlash, Lightning wasn’t worth the risk. He had Dark, Destruction, and Beast stones he could socket in, but since he wasn’t planning to use it himself he’d leave that choice to whoever claimed it once they all regrouped.

The shield was small and versatile enough his first instinct was to keep it. The goal was for him to eventually not be in the thick of things, in which case giving it to someone more frontline made sense, but he wanted it.

"Hey, Skarm, you think you could fit this thing?"

"Skarm glanced at the thing in question, grabbed it in both hands, and held it up. The lightning stone shone out blue and bright. With a scoff, the gremlin handed it back.

"Yeah, you're a lot stealthier without that. Centi?"

They glanced at the giant centipede. “Maybe no. I like the idea of him being able to stun by both sparkling and sparking, but he wouldn’t have enough distance to ensure he doesn’t get caught in the side flash.” The last thing they needed was for their primary rush engager to end up self-paralyzed.

He strapped the buckler to his own arm for now, testing its weight and impact on his mobility. Minimal adjustment required. As long as he ensured he wasn’t facing any of his allies when he set it off, it would give him a nice delaying option in a pinch. The mana cost was higher than he’d prefer for casual use. He couldn’t see himself using it often, not when the same energy could be used to supercharge his swords for significantly longer, but against something like a swarm it could be invaluable.

Leaving the spear leaning against the wall by the portal for now, Levi handed Irene the bulk of their new restoratives, retaining a few for himself for emergencies. Even if using restoratives in combat was generally a terrible idea, he’d been forced to resort to it too many times in the past not to be prepared.

That took care of the rewards of their labors. It felt a little underwhelming after the huge piles from the higher level Beast dungeon of the previous week, but Levi knew they’d come out well above average for something this low.

He glanced over his minion sheets next, pleased with the results. Before investing so heavily into Conduit, minions needed to be alive at the fight’s conclusion in order to receive credit and level. Now, even when dead they could receive the echoed experience through Levi. For maximum experience gains living would still be preferable, but it’d no longer be as complete a loss of progress if they died.

Becca had survived and leveled, bringing her to level 11. He put her stat points into Strength and Psyche, increasing her health and mana. Lash, Tink, and Firelord had finally crossed into level 10, though he’d have to wait until they revived to look through their new ability options. Bladefin, Crackle… even some of the minions out with the other team had leveled as well; Maggie, Ward, and… Harpy 3? But not the others, for whatever reason.

Between leveling practically half his team and making some more progress on crafting, he’d have plenty to occupy him for the next couple days.