Ben turned to his team. “This could be very hard, be prepared for further mental attacks. I will try to get to the witch quickly; you hold the line.”

  As they stepped into the grove, the witch raised her bone staff with a hyena skull and the grove itself came to life. Wind howled through the trees and stone pillars, dust and ash rose from the ground, and shadows flickered without cause.

  Ben remained fine, but he felt how the pressure on his team’s mind grew and their steps faltering.

  As much as he knew that he should make better use of [Party Coordination], as much as he knew that staying in harmony with his team was usually the best. This time he felt that letting loose was actually the best course of action.

  He cut the air with a couple of practice swings, and then got his body rolling. Within moments he had gained incredible momentum and as he closed in on the zombies, he launched himself up and forward and landed in the middle of them.

  He started to hack.

  Every swing mutilated one of the zombies. More often than not separating one of the terrifying hyena skulls from the human body.

  His goal was clear, reaching the witch and ending her before bad things would happen to his team.

  The witch had easily identified him as the biggest threat and raised her staff again.

  He could feel her try to worm her way into his mind. The attack multitudes stronger than that of the ‘Shackled Ancestors’ from the last floor. He started to see images. The accident… his father, … but with a force of will, his [Palisade of the Mind] snapped into place.

  Ben was furious that the witch, the dungeon, had tried to use some of his most traumatic moments against him. He noticed [Frenzy] flickering into being, but it was muted, his [Meditation] from earlier this day paying dividends.

  The witch raised her staff again, and some of the fallen zombies, even those with their skulls cut off, rose again.

  Ben ignored them, three more zombies stood between him and the witch.

  He dodged one attack, closed in, and with a swift combination, right, left, he took out two monsters.

  Instead of fighting the last one, he just body checked it out of the way. He had a free shot at the witch that had just raised her staff again, trying yet another attack against his mind. It was her last one. With a lot of pent-up fury, Ben cleaved her apart with a powerful swing from left to right.

  After that it was just clean up that everybody could contribute to, as the mind attacks had died with the witch.

  As rewards Ben got a set of bones, that apparently were helpful crafting materials and could be used in armor or other gear. He would hand it over to Adam and have him figure out who would get it.

  They collected the dungeon core and quickly left not just the dungeon but also the beautiful African landscape behind them.

  Ben had to think about whether he wanted to add the dungeon with the same theme or not. On the plus side, it would remain a good challenge for several of their increasing number of teams, the downside, the number of cores they got out of the dungeon was very low and for teams without high mind attributes, it was almost impossible to run.

  The problem was that he had no idea what else to choose.

  A problem for another day.

  It was too late to head out for their foraging trip, and that meant they probably had to delay it till after the visit of Councilor Stemberger. Not ideal, but also no big issue. It just meant that Ben had a few days to train. Worse things could happen.

  ***

  It was the next day. Ben was having breakfast with Alison and Barry. Things were going well in the settlement, and Barry updated Ben on their latest initiative to train more people to defend against attacks.

  They had decided to fast track a group of archers. Together with Niels as an instructor, they now had a dozen citizens going through daily training to improve their marksmanship. They had also acquired a number of new bows and arrows, and at the same time were working with one of the new craftspeople to establish their own arrow production. Perhaps bow-making would come later.

  Ben was delighted about the change, because it would mean more defense without exposing more people to the risk of getting hurt when fighting creatures, energy-borne or otherwise. Shortly after, the two left Ben to his own devices, and Sarah cautiously approached his table at the inn.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He smiled at her and motioned for her to take a seat. "How are you, Sarah? I haven't seen you in a while."

  "I'm all right, I guess. It's my birthday next week, and I'm a bit anxious about what kind of perk I will get and what it will mean. But that's not why I came by. I wanted to apologize for my behavior and putting everybody at risk the other day.

  "I had some sessions with Keith, the therapist."

  Ben nodded. "Good, I see him myself."

  "Oh, I think he's great. So, he explained to me that maybe I was suffering from a bit of a loss of control, you know, with Arrival Day happening. So, my attempts to become a Protector were maybe part of me trying to compensate for that. But no matter why, I should not have followed you through the gate, and I'm sorry for that."

  Ben smiled and nodded at her. "Apology accepted. I can only imagine how hard it must be to face everything you have at your age. And as I said the other day, I'm very grateful for you wanting to help and wanting to become a Protector. I'm sure you will become one at some point, and you will be fantastic at it."

  Sarah smiled in relief, and after another couple of minutes left as well.

  Sitting back, Ben's thoughts went back to the dungeon they had conquered the previous day. Since even experienced people like Anne and Jamal had struggled with the dungeon, keeping it seemed dangerous. But at the same time, Ben thought, how were people supposed to get better if not with the help of a dungeon like this? After a bit more thought, he decided to keep it, and if it proved too hard, he would have to run it himself and let other people just access the first level of the dungeon.

  With that decision made, Ben stepped onto the plaza, pulled the dungeon core out of his bag of holding that he now always carried with him, and added the core to the settlement infrastructure. With this being the sixth dungeon, the process was a familiar one. He placed the core onto the plinth, and while the plinth sank into the ground, the Protectorate Pillar rose by more than half a meter, now almost four and a half meters tall in total, into the sky.

  The new dungeon portal rose on the west side of the plaza, and a new plinth rose beside it. This was by now a familiar process for Ben. But another notification appeared in his vision.

  Congratulations, you have added the sixth dungeon tier to the infrastructure. As per the Protector Protocol, your Body attribute is increased by another 10%.

  He felt Energy racing through his body, strengthening every part of it—he now clearly had left behind what could have been described as normal prior to Arrival Day.

  Despite his own progress, Ben was glad that a third class of Protectors would be started soon, as the workload with five real dungeons to be run was heavy, particularly if they wanted to account for Ben and team going on expeditions from time to time. With the arrival of new citizens from the Basotho village, they had opened another instance of the farming dungeon—now three total—adding sheep alongside the cows and chickens they already had.

  Satisfied with their progress, Ben looked into the sky, and he thought he could see a large bird circling in the summer breeze. Even with his heightened perception from a strong Mind attribute, he struggled to identify it, though he suspected it was the eagle he had saved on their last trip from Simonston. Ben waved at the animal and moved on to his next training session with Barry.

  ***

  They were still working on merging Barry's martial art know-how with the styles that the systems had provided them with the library and Ben's [Axe Handling] perk. Initially, they had wanted to build a style that was agnostic of the weapon used, but that had proven a dead end. There would be common building blocks that could be taught to all newcomers, just like Barry's five mantras, but then it had to be dedicated to different weapons and even different roles.

  They had started with the axe, not just because Ben used it, but also some of the other old-timers like Jamal had the axe as their preferred weapon. A challenge for both Ben and, surprisingly, Barry was figuring out how to integrate superhuman strength, dexterity, and resilience into the style. It required a different way of thinking about the seven techniques that had formed the basis of Barry's training.

  Each technique needed rethinking, with precision and control becoming even more important. With his enormous strength, every swing could easily lead to an unbalancing of his whole form. Repetition of each individual technique hundreds, if not thousands of times, and then seamlessly integrating them into a new flow was how they spent their days.

  It was hard work, and it was unlikely to yield results in days, maybe even weeks, but Ben enjoyed it terribly and celebrated every time he managed to enter the flow state with improved control over his swings and movements.

  Ben was particularly grateful for Barry's creativity when it came to training exercises. One of his favorite drills was balancing one-legged on a log while Barry applied subtle pressure, forcing Ben to stay centered without overcorrecting.

  In another drill, Barry set out wooden blocks of different widths, and Ben had to strike each with his axe while leaving the same uncut gap—training fine control over his force. Even though Ben hadn't made progress on merging axe handling and self-defense into a new perk, he felt himself getting better and better every day.

  ***

  Another change that Ben had implemented into his routine was to actively reflect on some of the perks he wanted to adapt or upgrade.

  For example, he wanted to improve [Party Coordination]. As a result, he tried to adapt and make some changes during their daily dungeon runs. In doing so, he felt his actions aligning more with the Path of the Unyielding Protector.

  Dealing with [Frenzy] remained his top priority. Though he had “let loose” in the Witch of the Dead dungeon, he hadn’t lost control; his decisions remained deliberate.

  He had set up a session with Professor Gunther and his [Clarity] perk. The session’s chief purpose was to address [Frenzy].

  For now, Ben paused his deliberations to prepare for Councilor Stemberger’s visit that evening. He planned a quick shower and some family time before the watch notified him of the councilor’s arrival. After a briefing with Steve Taggart, the new guard captain, Ben had grown more skeptical about Stemberger’s intentions. Still, he resolved to keep an open mind and see what the visit brought.