Ben’s mind raced. How much to sacrifice. He didn’t want to be weak again. But he did it anyway. He chose 10 points. More than half of his strength and physical resilience. For his mother, and his friends.

  Power surged into the axe, vibrating through his burning arms. His perception narrowed, only his [Axe Handling] perk kept him steady as he brought the weapon down, full force, between the mole’s eyes.

  The axe sunk into the beast’s skull, cutting clean through bone, muscle, and brain matter. Only the ground stopped his attack.

  The beast twitched once more, before falling dead.

  Ben collapsed to his knees, drained. His armor felt like lead. Oh no, I can’t walk anymore.

  “What the heck was that attack?” Jamal shouted.

  “Son, are you okay?” Allison called out.

  Anne rushed to him. Michael scanned the area for new threats.

  But Ben barely heard them. Mesa’s voice echoed in his mind, laughing softly.

  You humans… that was dramatic. Overkill, don’t you think?

  Anyway, good job. Now get the Protectorate to Level 2. That’s when you slowly start to become useful to Meta.

  Ben exhaled slowly, trying to keep it together. “I’m fine. Just… give me a minute.”

  He opened his status screen.

  Body: 8 (Note: Down from 18 – recovers 1 per hour, or 2 per hour resting)

  Oh, thank all that is holy. My strength is coming back!

  “I got a perk—[Cleave]. It lets me channel my Body attribute into a single powerful strike. Obviously effective… but I’m going to be recovering for hours.”

  “That was wild,” Allison said, patting his back. “Interesting how with Magic, using attribute points doesn’t reduce the stat itself. Probably because spell strength scales off Magic. If that dropped, you’d be useless in a long fight.”

  Ben nodded and slumped against the iron-veined wall, breathing heavily.

  Anne approached with the mole’s core and claws. “Maybe we can sell these—or use them. It was a rare beast, after all. Oh, and I got a perk too: [Hardened Skin]. Should let me hit harder and reduce the damage to myself.”

  “That’s awesome,” Ben said. “Maybe hand-to-hand has a future after all.”

  While they rested, Michael tried mining some iron and found it surprisingly easy. Within minutes, he had several kilos of pure ore.

  Anne raised an eyebrow. “You planning to carry that all the way back?”

  Michael just shrugged, nodding toward Ben. “The boss is strong.”

  “Not right now I’m not,” Ben said, laughing.

  After an hour, Ben’s Body stat had ticked up to 10. Still tired, but functional.

  “Let’s split the load and haul it back to the portal room,” Allison suggested. “We’re likely done with this section anyway. We can decide later whether to carry it all the way home.”

  Everyone agreed. After another hour of rest, they made their way back. What had taken over two hours to explore, they now covered in less than thirty minutes.

  They dropped off the buckets full of iron ore at the portal. Then Ben turned to his team.

  “I suggest we do some slow and careful exploration of the second corridor. It’ll take several hours until I’m back at full strength, but as long as things don’t escalate too much, we should be fine.”

  Everyone nodded, but Anne spoke up.

  “I’m fine with this, but I’ve noticed your tendency to rush into danger and soak up damage. Maybe ease up on that and stay in formation with us—at least until you’re really back at 100%. And even then, I think most of us would prefer not to see you get hurt needlessly.”

  “Boss, she’s right,” Jamal added. “We’re strong enough as a team that you rarely need to take that much risk.”

  Allison patted Anne on the back with a chuckle. “I didn’t even have to pay her to bring that up.”

  Ben thought back to their recent fights. On reflection, he had to admit she had a point. His instincts pushed him to protect the others, but if he got taken out by his own recklessness, he’d help no one. A tighter formation might reduce everyone’s risk. He wasn’t a trained fighter or tactician—just someone stumbling forward with strong armor and the [Resilient Body] perk. He needed to find the right balance.

  He slowly nodded. “Thank you for the feedback—and for caring. I’ve been stumbling through the last week, and while things have worked out, I know there’s plenty of room to improve. I’ll try to rein in the bull-rush instincts. Let’s save that for when we’re truly out of options.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The left-hand path changed after just twenty minutes. The smooth walls gave way to something more natural—less mine shaft, more cavern.

  There were a few dead ends, but after about an hour in total, they saw the tunnel ahead widen into another large chamber.

  Ben’s Body attribute had crept back up to 13. Still far from his maximum, but at least he no longer felt encumbered by his armor. He took the lead again, motioning for Michael to scout ahead, relying on his [Perceptive Mind] and [Silent Step] perks.

  Michael took his time. Even after reaching the cavern entrance, he stood still for several minutes, silently observing the gloom.

  Eventually, he returned and reported, “Bats. Lots of them. I suspect there’s a variant among them.”

  Ben frowned. They weren’t well-suited for aerial enemies. So far, their saving grace had been how squishy the bats were—usually going down with one hit. His mother’s summoned crow was their only real anti-air asset.

  He turned to the others. “How about this—we enter quickly as a group. Jamal taunts immediately. All melee fighters focus on protecting Jamal and clearing the small fry. Mom, your crow tries to distract the variant for as long as possible?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Allison agreed.

  “Anne, Michael—you make sure nothing gets to hurt Jamal. I’ll try to thin them out before they land.”

  The others nodded, and they entered the cavern—at least twice the size of the entrance cave.

  It was impossible to count the flittering bats descending from above. Dozens. Maybe not quite a hundred, but close. They had been circling a large stalactite in the center of the cavern, and Ben thought he spotted a massive figure hanging from it—but before he could make out details, he was swarmed.

  Jamal’s shout echoed as he activated his taunt. The bats veering toward Ben shifted direction, giving him space to go on the offensive. With a pair of sweeping swings, he cut down three or four at a time, then switched to shorter, faster attacks once the melee tightened.

  Ben lost himself in the rhythm. Almost every swing was a hit—but the bats kept coming. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered several of them latching onto him, their teeth sinking in, blood draining—but he stayed focused on the fight, refusing to falter.

  Then everything changed.

  Two things happened simultaneously—Allison shouted that her crow was down, and a jolt of searing pain exploded through Ben’s body. Every cell vibrated with agony. He couldn’t focus. Could barely hold his axe.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jamal grimacing and Michael collapse to one knee, struggling to stay conscious. Then the source of the attack revealed itself.

  The bat was enormous—easily twice the size of the others.

  Blood Devouring Bat. Leader. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Rare Challenge.

  It dove at Jamal just as its soundless screech ended. Ben knew that if it got a grip on his friend, the result would be disastrous—possibly fatal. He summoned his remaining strength and lunged, hurling his axe end-over-end.

  It missed the body—but tore into the creature’s left wing, opening a massive wound and sending the bat crashing to the ground just a few meters away.

  It scrambled to rise—but not fast enough. Roots erupted from the ground, wrapping around its lower body. Michael, bleeding from the nose and looking battered, darted in and stabbed it in the chest. From the other side, Anne unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks, breaking bones with every hit.

  Ben took a few steps to retrieve his axe, but by the time he turned back, the leader was dead.

  He turned to mop up the remaining bats, which had grown more frenzied following their leader’s fall. It took a few more minutes, but eventually the last of them dropped.

  Silence fell—except for the heavy breathing of the party.

  “That must have been close to a hundred of them,” Anne said, wiping the sweat from her brow.

  “Agreed. That was exhausting.” Ben looked at his team and found them mostly fine. “Michael, would you mind scouting the cavern? Would be bad to be surprised by anything else. Then I suggest we rest until we’re back in shape.”

  While Michael silently moved through the cavern, Ben harvested the core from the bat leader. There were no obvious valuable parts on the huge animal, except perhaps its brown fur, but he didn’t feel confident skinning the bat without ruining it.

  When Michael returned, he pointed toward the back of the cave. “Portal.”

  “Oh, interesting. No other exits?”

  Michael shook his head.

  “Great, thanks. Let’s move there and rest.”

  Once at the portal, a familiar ice-blue and slightly transparent screen popped up in Ben’s vision:

  You have cleared Level 1 of the dungeon. Time to break has been set back by two days. When entering Level 2, expect a significantly higher challenge.

  He turned to the others. “As expected, this is the entrance to Level Two. It’s warning us of a higher difficulty level.”

  “It would’ve been surprising if it got easier…” Anne joked.

  They rested for almost three hours. Jamal and Michael even managed to nap for a bit. Ben, feeling the pressure of the situation, couldn’t relax enough to sleep.

  This level was quite doable, but if his axe throw had missed, Jamal might be dead. If he hadn’t been by her side, his Mom might be dead as well.

  He was close to suggesting they abandon the run when he remembered that they had all committed to the values of the Protectorate—among them:

  Growth – ever forward.

  It wasn’t his job—or his right—to deny others, especially his friends and family, the opportunity to grow just because he was afraid for them.

  With that, he let [Calm] take him and focused on his breathing exercises.

  Ben’s Body attribute was back at 18 as they assembled around the portal to the next level. Without further ado, they stepped through.

  This transport came with no negative side effects, but they were still surrounded by the typical shimmering barrier. As had become his habit, Ben checked the portal and was pleased to see that they could return freely, with no requirements.

  They had arrived in a cavern that looked completely natural. The only artificial element was the portal itself, which stood in the middle of the roughly ten-by-ten-meter space. The ceiling loomed at least eight meters above.

  There were two paths forward—one on each side of the portal.

  Allison summoned her crow companion and sent it in the direction they’d been facing when they emerged. After a few minutes, she shook her head. “Nothing. Either there’s no danger, or the bird didn’t trigger it.”

  Ben shrugged. “Well, looks like we’ll have to find out on our own. Let’s go.”

  The crooked path forward looked like the gray stone had been torn apart by natural forces. They could comfortably walk two to three people side by side. Despite the rough look, torches still lit the way.

  It quickly became apparent that they wouldn’t be following one or two large corridors this time. Instead, the path branched quickly and often. Most dead ends were short, but some forced them to backtrack after ten or fifteen minutes.

  For the first 30 minutes or so, everything was quiet. Then—“Danger!” Jamal shouted, pointing to the front left.

  Michael added a single word that made Ben shiver. “Spiders.”