Ben opened the lockbox excitedly, only to be terribly disappointed—it was empty.

  At least at first glance. On closer inspection, he found an Energy core that was almost lost given the size of the lockbox.

  A single Energy core didn’t seem like much of a reward given the challenge of the encounter.

  Out of thoroughness, he used [Analyze] on it.

  Energy Core. Tier 2.

  “Wow!” he shouted.

  Michael almost drew his weapons, ready to defend against whatever had given Ben cause to shout.

  Now that he looked closer, he saw that the core was slightly larger and glowed more intensely than the ones they had by now harvested hundreds of.

  “What is it?” Anne asked.

  “[Analyze] it.”

  “Tier 2! It’s the first time I am seeing anything that is Tier 2. What do you think it is worth?”

  “I don’t know, but more importantly, think about what our crafters can do with it! Let’s go and tell the others about it.”

  After his mother and Jamal had finished admiring the find, Allison asked, “What made you take this risk, son? You’re usually not that focused on loot.”

  “Something about the cat triggered me... And this dungeon being very close to Tier 2 means that the loot has to be good.”

  ***

  They finished the second level soon after. It remained very doable for the five of them, but Ben wasn’t sure how many of the other teams would be able to easily clear the level.

  This time, the portal to the next level was integrated into a breach in the sewer walls that seemed to lead into a passage carved into stone and earth by the sharp teeth of large, powerful rats.

  They entered level three—the rat warrens.

  After leaving the giant sewers, the warrens felt almost cozy as they were scaled for rats that were as big as they were, rather than scaled for unknown giants.

  Some faintly glowing stones provided light in the otherwise dark tunnels.

  After just a few minutes in the warren, a single Energy-born, a Brood Rat, came their way. It was another epic creature and, with its razor-sharp, long teeth and tough hide, was a challenging fight—not insurmountable, particularly five on one, but still a challenge.

  About two minutes after they were done with the fight, another Brood Rat came down the tunnel.

  With the experience they had gained, the fight went a bit easier, and Ben developed a deep appreciation for the new armor they all wore.

  Soon after, another rat appeared, and the pattern repeated—the only difference being that they already had two levels behind them and there had been little to no breaks between these epic-level creatures.

  “Boss, this is like clockwork. Remember Rat Attack—it was also timed.”

  “I think Jamal is right; we should push further, faster, to get to the source,” Allison said.

  Ben loosened his shoulders. “Alright, I’m going all out.”

  With that, he stepped past Jamal and jogged forward until they met yet another rat. Ben surprised the rat—accelerating suddenly, sidestepping twice, then unleashing an all-out swing at the beast’s neck. The axe cut deep, blood streaming over its fur. Jamal closed in and blocked the retaliation of the rat, which succumbed to its wound quickly.

  Ben did not stop. He kept moving forward.

  Three more times they had to kill a single rat until they reached a small cavern. In the center of the cavern lay a bloated, disgusting creature that looked like a mix between a rat and a mound of decaying flesh.

  Just as they arrived, another rat crawled out of the mound of flesh, fully formed.

  Ben, as tired as he was, charged the rat, repeating the same maneuver that had let him defeat the previous rats. As soon as the latest opponent had fallen, he turned toward the Brood Mother, but Michael had already taken care of her.

  As he walked toward the head of the Brood Mother, he noticed that she had been lapping at a small basin of clear liquid fed from a few drops running down the wall.

  Liquid of Life. Energy-infused liquid. Tier 1. Rare crafting ingredient.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ben eagerly collected the liquid in a vial for Luz and stashed it away.

  The only exit from the room was another tunnel. It was, however, blocked by a slightly shimmering blue energy barrier, similar to the ones they encountered at every dungeon start—probably something they could step through.

  Ben, though, was exhausted. “I need a bit of a break,” he said, and the others happily obliged and sat down to eat some of their homemade energy bars.

  Even with Ben’s high attributes, the dungeon had been exhausting. With his latest energy push, they had broken through the mechanic of the dungeon, which was quite devilish and would grind people down if they didn’t have the capability to push forward, but it had taken a lot out of him, physically and mentally.

  After more than an hour, they prepared for what was hopefully the final push on this level.

  They stepped through the energy barrier, which disappeared once broken, and walked through a slightly larger tunnel than before.

  A few minutes into the passage, Ben cursed under his breath. “Damn!”

  There were two Brood Rats coming their way.

  “Everybody, focus right. I will go left. Kill it, then help me.”

  This time, Ben fought defensively. Suspecting that there would be more fights, the others staggered their perk usage to not exhaust themselves of options.

  They overcame the duo of rats and then rushed forward to the inevitable next pair of rats. They continued with their strategy, but they did slow down until, at the third fight, Ben became nervous that they might not make it in time.

  So he switched to a more aggressive approach again, accepting a hit—which was largely resisted by his armor and skin—for the opportunity to kill the rat quickly. He then moved to the other one, helping his friends to take it out.

  They had to fight once more until they made it into a slightly larger cavern that had two Brood Mothers.

  Fortunately, they managed to take them out before more rats could spawn.

  Both of the breeders had basins with Liquid of Life, which they harvested again.

  The cavern included a portal to the fourth and final level of the dungeon—the deepest they had ever delved since the establishment of the Protectorate.

  ***

  “Shit!”

  Ben rarely heard his mother swear, but this time it felt warranted.

  They had just stepped through the portal and stood on a ledge overlooking a large cavern. They couldn’t see the ground, though, as it was covered in rats—dozens, if not hundreds, of them.

  Swarm Rat. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Legendary Challenge. Count as Tier 2 in groups of fifty or more.

  “I thought this was a Tier 1 dungeon?” Anne asked.

  “That’s what I thought as well,” Ben nodded. “Apparently, this still counts as Tier 1.”

  “Maybe the dungeon tier is based on the average tier of the creatures,” Allison ventured.

  “This is going to be an endurance game. Conserve your energy,” he said, pointing toward the narrow path down to the cavern floor. “This bottleneck is our biggest asset. We will fight two in front. You cycle through. I will see whether I need a break, but I hope not. Mom, support from the back whenever your perks are off cooldown. Any questions?”

  The others shook their heads. Ben kept the sigh internal as he still felt a bit drained from the previous floors, but he also thought there was an opportunity for him to make progress on his fighting style.

  “Let’s do this!”

  The moment they left the protective bubble of the dungeon portal, the rats went into a frenzy, rushing in their direction.

  Jamal took position beside him, and together they walked down the narrow path to block off any rats from getting to their friends.

  The rats were ferocious, attacking without any sense of self-preservation—their only goal was to kill.

  That opened them up for counterattacks, but Ben was worried about his friends. Jamal would be fine, and fortunately, they all had new armor, but this could get out of hand quickly.

  He focused on trying to find his rhythm. It was more difficult than normal as he didn’t have much space, so his trained movements to enter and evade were not as feasible. His axe needed to do more work. At last, his relentless training in control paid off. Every cut, every slash, every parry had the right level of strength and direction to wound, kill, or defend.

  They cut through the rats quickly, but the tide never ended, and eventually Anne took over from Jamal, giving him a break. The switch happened seamlessly, and Anne clearly had a significantly higher damage output than their shield bearer, but it came at a price. Despite her armor, she quickly started to bleed from a number of small wounds. It didn’t stop her, though, and her [Power Projection] flashed up from time to time, gaining them a bit of space as it killed rats from afar.

  Meanwhile, Allison’s [Growth Caller] roots repeatedly crushed multiple rats at a time, gaining them valuable seconds to catch their breaths.

  Unfortunately, each rat they killed created ramps that the other rats could use to get to the team members in the back, and soon Jamal and Michael were forced to fight on a second front line.

  A few minutes in, he heard his mother curse again. He took a second to look back and saw her administering a health potion to Michael, who had apparently been hurt; Jamal holding the line on his own. “Go, help them,” he shouted to Anne over the noise of the fight.

  At the same time, he activated [Strength of the Protector]—he heard Anne take a surprised breath as she was empowered by his attributes—then stepped into the middle of the path and gave up his resistance to have [Frenzy] trigger.

  The increased Body attribute gave him the additional speed and strength to push forward and pull more and more rats toward himself until he was surrounded by the Energy-born creatures. However, whether it was his armor, his attributes, Constitution, or just his state of mind, he did not feel any wounds piling up; instead, he fought, and fought, and fought until it stopped.

  He was surrounded by heaps of rat bodies, and looking back, he saw his team had retreated close to the initial safety zone with a mountain of rat bodies before them.

  After the last rat had died, the bodies started to disintegrate. Within a few minutes, nothing was left of them; instead, ten Energy cores—Tier 1, he checked immediately—appeared at the center of the cavern.

  That was a new mechanic and a relief—having to go through hundreds of rats to find a few cores would have been painful. With the bodies, also some of the blood and dirt that had covered Ben after the fight went away.

  He took a moment to steady himself and shake off the lingering effects of [Frenzy], and then returned to his team. “Are you okay?”

  They nodded but were clearly tired, and their new armor had some dents and scratches. Especially Michael showed that this fight had not been his ideal engagement; a significant rip in his armor revealed skin that had been recently healed with the help of a potion.

  “That perk you used to strengthen us was quite something—two points in Body make quite the difference,” Anne said appreciatively.

  Ben was glad his self-improved perk had that kind of impact.

  Then he focused on the blinking notification in his vision; they all had a message waiting. Time to choose their loot.