“Okay, we need to kill as many monsters today as possible. I do not want to depend on Splash during some crazy chaos eruption with lots of monsters.” Anika planned to push Philip to the limit today and get some good power-leveling in.

  After reading the book last week about local dungeons and dungeon monsters, she’d asked Leka if they could visit a different dungeon today. This dungeon, in a rockier, forested region, took longer to walk to and held slightly higher level monsters. But Anika felt confident they could take on the monsters, as many of them lacked ranged attacks, which meant they could use similar strategies as they used with the squirrels their first day in the dungeon. Anika really didn’t want to play dodgeball again.

  “I’m sure you’ll find plenty to kill here.” Leka moved ahead of the group and pointed at a path leading up a hill and through some trees. “Up that way you’ll find some of the wolves you read about. And if you stick to the valley path you’ll encounter most of the reptilian creatures.”

  Leka’s tone became more serious, and she looked over the group sternly. “This is a more dangerous dungeon, so I will stay closer than I have in the past. I wouldn’t normally allow someone to come here so soon… but you prepared in the library, and with the timeline we have now… I’d rather you experience these monsters while I can be present to assist you.”

  “Are you sure we should do this, Anika,” Lily’s normally cheerful voice sounded timid and afraid, so Anika scooped her up in her arms.

  “We need to push ourselves if we want to be ready for the Chaos eruption. Leka is here to help us if we get in trouble. And we’re all level 8 now, so you and Epona both have new buff spells that you can use to help Philip. And I picked this dungeon because it said that the monsters didn’t spawn in large packs as often as the lidoks and the squirrels, so we can focus on only a few monsters.” Anika hoped that all her reasons for asking to visit this dungeon led to a successful day of leveling rather than a traumatic experience for her capybara… she didn’t want to anger Water.

  “If you say so… I will cast my Boost on Philip and it will give him more Anima.” Anika didn’t see any sign of magic, but trusted Lily and Epona would both give their buff spells to Philip.

  “I’m ready to go!” Philip grabbed his shield from where it hung on Epona’s saddle during the walk to the dungeon and started up the road towards the wolves. “I’ve been practicing what Zali told me, and she says I am doing really good!”

  “See, no worries!” Anika gave Lily a little squeeze before putting her down so she could grab her bow from her back. “And don’t forget, your fancy scarf will help keep you safe.”

  Reminding Lily of her magical item had the effect Anika hoped, and Lily perked up and started to follow Philip, “Right! My scarf is awesome and it will protect me!”

  As the party reached the top of the hill, they encountered the first group of wolves sleeping under a tree. Lily promptly transformed all five into capybaras using her polymorph spell, and the small pack of capybaras joined the group.

  “Keep them in the front, that way if we run into a larger pack than Philip can’t hold alone, your capy-crew can block them from reaching us. But you stay in the back with me!” Anika felt the best use for the transformed creatures right now involved simple shield wall style tactics to protect her, and especially Lily. The wolves did not have any ranged spells, but their mouths could envelope Lily in a single bite with no difficulty. Anika wanted to prevent that at all costs.

  Philip continued in the lead, Epona on one side of him, with the five capybaras forming a V like ducks in flight to either side of them. Leka did not use one of her camouflage potions in this dungeon, instead staying back about 20 yards to give the party space, but clearly ready to step in if needed.

  The group approached another pack of wolves, this one with only four members. Philip held his position in the line rather than charging forward, to Anika’s delight. Philip had clearly listened to her discussion on recklessly charging in, as well as adhering to the instruction of the Earth magic tank he had practiced with for the past week.

  The wolves, on the other hand, did not take a slow approach. Once they saw the party, they leaped up and sprinted in the direction of the group. Anika fired an arrow at them as they ran, managing to hit one of them in the shoulder, causing it to stumble. At the same time, Philip used his Dirt Disc on a different wolf, the globs of dirt pelting it in the face. As the spell hit the wolf, the fur on the wolf’s back ruffled, a sign of Epona casting her Gust spell. The wolf didn’t die from their combined spells, but it did let out a howl of pain. Lily radiated her Calming Presence, which at level 8 could reach a much larger area, and Anika noted the buff to her Anima.

  As Anika reached for another arrow in her quiver, the wolves made contact with the defensive line by activating their haste ability, causing them to shoot forward faster than Anika expected. Epona met the wolf in front of her with a crack as she reared up and landed heavily on the wolf’s head. Philip blocked the wolf he had targeted with his Dirt Discs, his metal shield shrieking as it made contact with the wolf’s claws, the nails on chalkboard sound causing Anika to flinch. He then stabbed diagonally forward with his trident towards the wolf Anika had hit with an arrow. The last wolf tried to latch on to one of the polymorphed capybaras with its teeth, but a rock flew into its mouth, powered by Lily’s telekinetic energy.

  “Nice move, Lily,” Anika praised her companion. She worried about trying to shoot an arrow now that the monsters had engaged the front line in melee combat, so she moved up closer to the wolf now gagged with a rock and reached her hand out to cast Improved Splash.

  Water erupted from her hand in a far more violent flow than she had expected, hitting the wolf square in the eye and causing the wolf’s head to jerk backwards. The power of the water threw the wolf off balance and caused it to land awkwardly on its side. Shocked by the effectiveness, Anika mentally apologized to the universe for assuming the worst about Splash.

  Philip’s trident slammed into the belly of the wolf he had blocked, pushing it backwards as it instantly went limp. Anika saw he had already dispatched the wolf she had shot with an arrow, making that his second takedown. A rock directed by Lily pelted the wolf Anika had just knocked to the ground as Epona reared up to land again on the wolf that had rushed her, her powerful hooves crushing the wolf and preventing it from getting up. Anika waited for her spell to come off cooldown, but Philip quickly finished off the wolf she had taken on. The entire encounter took seconds.

  “Hm. Quick and effective. I think you were right that these would be appropriate targets, Anika.” Leka moved to examine the four dead wolves as Anika bent down to give Lily a pat for her good use of Aether magic during the battle.

  “I believe you can handle up to six wolves using your current strategy, but if you see a larger pack you will likely want to utilize more of Philip’s skill set.” Leka added as the group moved to continue down the path.

  “Yeah, I planned to use the area spells to handle larger numbers.” Anika turned to Philip. “If we see seven, use your Warp Earth, Distortion, or Gravity Well. If we run into a lot of large packs, we will take a break and wait for the cooldowns.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The wolves all had yellow and red auras to Anika, indicating that they were all higher than her level 8. The dungeon book had said this dungeon generally spawned monsters between levels 10 and 15, which meant the experience, especially with Lily’s five charmed capybaras increasing their Capy Cultivation bonus to 45%, came much more quickly than it did in the first dungeon. After five packs of monsters, Anika had already earned over 6,000 experience. They’d had to replace three of their charmed wolves-turned-capybaras, but they earned experience even when the transformed creatures died, which meant as long as they didn’t lose them faster than Lily’s cooldown, using the polymorphed creatures to shield them from the wolves resulted in an effective use of resources. So far, Anika hadn’t needed to heal anyone with Soothing Waters.

  As they saw their sixth pack of wolves from a distance, Leka spoke up. “This looks like a pack protecting the lair of a Packmother. Usually the Packmother will not engage with the pack immediately, but you will want to take the group out quickly before the Packmother emerges.”

  Anika could see what Leka meant. The large group of a dozen wolves lounged around the mouth of a cave. Anika had read that this dungeon had a plethora of caves, many which housed bosses. She also recalled that the packs that protected the Packmother often contained several rare monsters that had more abilities than the easy to deal with haste.

  “Some of them might be rare and have the Time Leap ability, right Leka?”

  “What’s Time Leap?” Philip asked.

  “Yes, that is correct. I would guess that a handful of those wolves have Time Leap. The ability allows them to jump forward in time. The practical effect is that the wolves will appear to teleport in front of you. These wolves have limitations in their use of the ability, as they must quite literally jump to initiate the time leap. There are higher level creatures with similar abilities that do not have that limitation. This means the wolves here will likely leap towards you, but are less likely to appear to teleport once they have engaged you in melee.”

  Anika surveyed the position of the wolves, considering the best strategy. “I think that the transformed capybaras should enter the battle first. If the wolves begin to run towards the capy pack, that will group them up for Philip to use his Distortion ability. The spatial distortion might disrupt the Time Leap ability. You could also try Gravity Well if they start leaving the Distortion. Once the wolves kill the five capys, Lily, you can make new ones. Pick from the wolves furthest from the pack that are outside Philip’s Distortion, or from any that break free from the pack to run towards us. Philip, as soon as you cast your Distortion, move forward with Epona. Use your ranged spells as you move in. Lily, keep doing what you’ve been doing with the rocks. Even if they don’t do a lot of damage, you’ve done great with distracting the wolves and preventing them from biting. Everyone got it?”

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  “Yes! I’ll send my minions in!” Lily cheerfully directed her five capybara creations to run at the wolves, initiating the battle.

  Anika readied an arrow as she watched the capy pack run at the wolves. The wolves heard them coming and immediately jumped into action. Several howled before stalking towards the five capybaras. Others immediately leaped towards the large rodent, like hyenas chasing after a perfectly presented meal of warthog.

  A wolf appeared beside one of the capybaras, its large jaws crushing down on the former monster.

  “That one is a rare one! Lily, try to target it once you can cast your spell!”

  As the wolves closed in, a cube of air around them began to flicker and contort, the sign of Philip’s Distortion spell. Immediately, Philip and Epona charged into the fray. Anika loosed her first arrow, managing to hit one of the wolves in the chest, and quickly drew another from her quiver. The scene became a chaotic blur as Philip and Epona unleashed their spells on the wolves and began to engage in melee combat. Lily levitated a rock around the wolves, aiming for their heads to distract and deter them from biting at the small man and his pegasus.

  Anika let fly another arrow, targeting wolves around the outskirts of the battle so that she wouldn’t risk friendly fire. The arrow missed as the wolf surged forward towards Philip, only to turn into a capybara as Lily cast her spell. Several other new capybaras dotted the field of wolves, adding to the chaos. Philip twirled his trident, keeping a group of wolves at bay as Epona kicked with her strong hind legs as wolves tried to surround them.

  Anika took aim with another arrow, but yelled and stumbled backwards as a wolf suddenly appeared two feet in front of her. Completely unprepared for the sudden appearance of one of the rare wolves, Anika cursed herself for not keeping better track of the wolves in front of them. She heard Lily scream her name as the wolf lunged towards her. She let go of the arrow, hoping to throw the wolf off course as it lunched towards her.

  A wall of ice appeared in front of her as soon as the arrow cleared the bow, and Anika heard the wolf crash into her frozen savior. She stared, dumbfounded for a moment, until she heard Leka’s voice.

  “Focus! Eyes on the enemy!”

  Anika backed up, scrambling to get another arrow out of her quiver and onto the bow as she made use of the moments Leka bought her. Lily reacted faster than Anika, and a rock sailed through the air to hit the wolf square in the head. The ice shield dissipated into mist, and Anika fired the arrow point blank into the wolf’s throat, immediately following up with her Improved Splash ability, casting the attack through her bow arm while reaching for another arrow.

  The combination of rock, arrow, and water spell surpassed the wolf’s endurance, and it collapsed. Anika looked somewhat frantically around to ensure no other wolves had escaped the main pack around Philip to sneak up on the defenseless backline. Four wolves out of the seven that Lily had not turned into capybaras remained around Philip. As Anika watched, one of the wolves managed to make contact with Epona’s front leg, and she let out an indignant neigh as she reared and threw the wolf with the assist of her Air magic.

  Philip yelled something unintelligible, and the ground around him quaked as he cast his Tremor spell, causing the wolves to stumble as he thrust his trident forward at the other wolf near Epona. Anika decided to trust her aim, now that no wolves threatened her directly, and fired an arrow at one of the wolves attacking Philip from the side, leaving her the full length of the wolf to target. The arrow flew true and landed in the beast’s stomach, though she had been aiming for the heart. Lily’s rock hurtled down, crashing onto the wolf’s head, and it slumped to their combined force.

  Another thrust with the trident to one wolf and Dirt Discs to another, and Philip took out the last wolves still fighting as Anika ran forward to check on Epona. Her front leg bled from a jagged bite mark.

  “Hold still, Epona, and I’ll heal you.” Anika knelt and reached her hand down to touch the leg above the wound, focusing on spreading her Soothing Waters into the cut. She felt the magic responding faster than it had last time she tried to cast the spell, and in less than a minute the skin had knitted back together, leaving Epona uninjured.

  “Well, that could have been worse…” Anika sat back and Lily, who had sat silently at her side during the healing, now tried to crawl, shaking, onto Anika thighs. Anika pet her, trying to calm the clearly terrified capybara.

  “It would have been, had I not been here,” Leka approached briskly. “You understand your abilities and have good leadership capabilities. However, you need to be prepared for when things go wrong. You cannot get so caught up in what you are doing that you lose sight of the field around you.”

  “I was really scared when that wolf came out of nowhere!” Lily’s voice shook and she pushed her trembling body against Anika’s chest.

  “I should have been more careful. I’m sorry Lily, I will watch more carefully in the future - I just really wish I had a minimap I could use to watch for enemies! And I need to learn how to defend myself in melee. Do you think Vok will teach me?” Anika directed the last statement to Leka.

  “It will become easier once you are level 10. We do not generally send trainees to the field until that time. Before then, you do not have the ability to conjure your element from nothing. It leaves you with many weaknesses. But there are additional skills Vok can teach you. And until then, it is why I am here to help bridge the gap between your level and the monsters you face. Philip, you did an excellent job managing multiple monsters in this encounter. You must work more with Zali on integrating magic…” Leka paused as a deep howl pierced the air.

  “The Packmother is coming. Prepare yourselves.”