We had to beat the other two bosses first.

  It wasn’t difficult; the Dungeon was a common one, with only one type of monster and they didn’t change their element like the other Dungeons we’d been to had. We were overleveled and thanks to Ether and my classes, we were overpowered too.

  The loot was a simple Burn Heal Recovery spell, which Justia already knew, and a pair of Slime Gloves that gave a point of Aura. Aelin had the legendary gloves that Miel had bought her and was moving away from Aura skills and spells anyway, so into Ether’s inventory they went.

  We walked out of the boss room back into the fourth floor. The layout was the same, with it mostly being waterways with bridges connecting the islands that were littered around the floor.

  “We need to find either a cluster of islands that are close enough together that we can each take an island, or we need to find an island big enough to have three spawn zones.” I looked around. “It doesn’t look like any of these meet those requirements.”

  “I can scout ahead.” Nakten stepped onto the bridge in front of us.

  Nope!” Ether grabbed the demihuman’s gray arm and pulled her back. “If we needed someone to scout, it would be Atlas or Aelin. Both of them are fast enough to get away from the slimes while also attacking at range, so they won’t get boxed in.” She let go of the Anubis and touched her CB. “I already downloaded the map of this floor, so it’ll only take a moment for me to find something… HA!” She pointed towards her right. “If we go that way, there’s a cluster of islands that are so close there aren’t any bridges between them.”

  “So we can run between the islands?” Aelin laughed as she danced while we headed in that direction.

  “It looks that way…” She turned around and lifted the visor of her helmet so she could better look at the older woman following us. “Mom, what are you going to do while we farm? It’s going to get pretty boring watching us run in circles for eight hours.”

  “I’ve got the latest Kater Zorn mystery and a comfortable chair.” She tapped her CB. “I’ll sit down in the middle of where you’re running and see how much reading I can do.”

  “You like Kater Zorn too?” Nakten bounced over to Miel’s side. “Is it Murder in the Abandoned Dungeon or Thief from the Forgotten Island?”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Thief.” Miel chuckled. “I guess there are technically multiple series.”

  “I’ve got all of her books.” The Anubis gushed. “I was hoping that by being in the Cathedral Ward I might get to meet her some day.”

  “Atlas already has.” Aelin winked at me. “And he didn’t know who she was.”

  “You what?” Nakten spun around to look at me.

  She reached for my arm, but I took a step back to get out of her range.

  “Seriously?” She pouted.

  “We’re not in touching territory.” I shook my head.

  “You might not be in touching territory.” She winked at me. “But I was ready to dive into this harem the moment Lord Nevah offered me a way out of dad’s palace.”

  “Well, if you want all the way in—”

  Nakten’s laugh interrupted me.

  I shook my head at her humor over what I’d said. It was bad enough that Aelin had a dirty mind, but now we had someone around who looked like they were going to make everything a dirty joke when they could.

  “If you want this to go anywhere farther than just being part of the team, then you need to build relationships with each of us. Show that you can be part of the team and we can trust you to have our backs. The rest will happen when it happens.”

  “Like when I wash your back?” Nakten laughed as she swayed her hips while making scrubbing motions with her hands as she backed away.

  “I thought Aelin was bad…” I shook my head. “At least Jen lost the flirty personality towards me.”

  “Only because she’s into your cousin.” Ether patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her.”

  “Good luck.” I gave my wife a kiss, then looked around. “Aren’t we close?”

  Ether looked at her CB. “One more bridge, then you should see an island cluster.”

  I cleared my throat and raised my voice. “Alright everyone. Let’s pair up. Remember, this is about farming, so kill the two in your group, then move on to the next group. Keep a count on how many you’ve killed and when you get close to spawning the elite, back off so we can fight the elites one at a time.”

  “Yes, sir!” Aelin saluted me, then blew Justia a kiss. “Take care of her for me!”

  “I will.” I checked the ammo in my pistol. Pebble Shot was able to one-shot each little slime as long as I could hit their core. Using Targeting allowed me to be even more accurate, so that wasn’t going to be a problem. I just hoped that once the elites spawned, it would be one at a time, instead of all at once like it had back in Klix. I looked over at the green woman just behind me. “Alright, let’s do this.”

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