“If I can put one of my Crafting spells on the citystone—or even just one blueprint—then everything changes,” Josh insisted. “My bottleneck right now is that I can't use most of the bigger blueprints, because my Capacity is muck. But citystones cast off their own mana. That means they can cast much bigger spells.” They'd also be more expensive, because they wouldn't be benefiting from his absurd Sensitivity score, but that was a small additional price to pay. “I'll bet we could build a good wall in a matter of days.”

“There's also the Woodcrafter stones to consider,” Darius pointed out. “I believe I can get us an Alchemist without too much trouble. I just need a Mender who can make it to their next advancement again quickly.”

“Oh, thank God,” Josh muttered.

“Healer's bloody staff, yes please,” Mary added. “I hear real Alchemists can make their healing potions taste like soda.”

Josh didn't even like soda, but practically anything would be better than the healing goop they made without actual Alchemists.

“After that, I just need to grind up my level as fast as possible,” Josh said. “If we're lucky, I can qualify for a new class advancement at level 40.”

Darius adjusted his glasses with one finger. “I remain worried about your Improved-tier classes. We don't know what achievements you need.”

Josh sighed. “Well, we just have to roll the dice, don't we? I'm learning plenty of blueprints and doing things with them, that's probably the right direction.” He snorted. “Guess I could try to learn some more crafting spells, but not sure what that would look like.”

While he had learned plenty of techniques over the course of basic crafting, he hadn't learned a single extra spell beyond what his classes granted him automatically. He would probably need to really buckle down on that if he ever wanted a magitech class. But he didn't know, because he didn't have access to the class records in the bloody City!

“How is everyone else doing?” Ruth asked, looking around. “Mary, you know how to get to your next tier, right?”

Mary made a face. “It's annoying, but yeah, I've got it.” She'd have to jump sideways to Gun Lord, which was an Improved-tier class, and then from there advance to Arch Gun-Lord. Another problem that they wouldn't have to deal with if there were more bloodstones. With a Gunner bloodstone, she could go straight from Mage Gunner to Arch Gun-Lord, with the right achievements and advancement resources. Without it, she had to go the long way around.

Ruth nodded. “And Darius, you're still a Shroudcrafter. Any luck on advancement?”

He shook his head. “I do not even know if there is an Improved-tier version of the class, or if I would have to specialize more.”

Josh thought on that one for a minute. “I think... I know there's a Master Shroudcrafter class, but I don't know if that's the next tier up.” The System had an annoying habit of sorting things into unofficial tiers, in addition to the official ones. Case in point, his Stonecrafter class was effectively a higher tier than his Woodcrafter class, but not actually. Both were Basic-tier, and there used to be bloodstones for Stonecrafters and Metalcrafters and all sorts of other specializations. So he didn't know if Master Shroudcrafter was the next step after Shroudcrafter, or if there was a Journeyman Shroudcrafter in between. Even if there was, maybe Darius could skip it.

What I wouldn't give for the internet, Josh thought to himself ruefully. The City still had the internet, or a version of it at least. No one really bothered trying to extend it to the villages outside the Burn Line. No satellites meant that the range was pretty limited. There had been some attempts to set up radio towers, under the theory that the monsters would ignore them without people on them, but they were too expensive to set up and high-level monsters would destroy them completely by accident. It wasn't worth the trouble.

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“I believe I have a few reasonable leads,” Darius said. “I'm learning more shroud blueprints on my own, and observing people using them in real combat. I've also been carrying a full rack of bloodstones on me at all times, including a Woodcrafter bloodstone, to ensure I don't miss any possibilities.”

Josh blinked. “Huh,” he said. “Yeah, that'll do ya.”

“So there's a plan, now?” Anna asked. “Level as fast as possible, clear out the tunnels, upgrade the citystone. That about the size of it?”

Darius exchanged a glance, making sure neither had anything more to add. After a moment, Darius nodded to Anna. “Yes. That is... the size of it.”

“It's going to be a heavy road,” Anna said. “That Hou Zheng was level 64, and I don't think little miss Kun is that far behind.”

“Wait, what?” Ruth asked, aghast. “How do you know?”

“He told us, didn't he?” Mary said. “Outside the dungeon. He didn't take his mask off, so no hard facts on it, but I've been around high-level nobs before. He's got a spread of points and skills that tells me he's at least as strong as he says.” She gave Josh the side eye. “Should probably assume he's even stronger.”

Josh took a breath. Level 64 was... problematic. On the one hand, he was a [Healer], the least directly dangerous role. On the other hand, he clearly had enough attack spells to make a nuisance of himself, and even if he didn't, Kun was an [Attacker]. She could certainly make a nuisance of herself, especially when supported by a skilled [Healer]. He also suspected that they hadn't seen her full suite of abilities. She felt to him like a stealth class, best suited to ambushing unsuspecting prey.

Which, now that he thought of it, might have been why Anna was the one who started the fight. Giving Kun the chance to draw first blood would have just gotten them all killed before the first one even realized that they were dead.

“Level fast,” Josh said firmly. “We'll start with the monsters in the tunnels.” Then he sighed. “Even though at our level, they'll give a point each. Still, there are enough of them to make a dent in our experience bars regardless.”

Beor coughed politely.

Josh raised an eyebrow. “You got something to say there, friend?”

“I am... high-level.” He shrugged. “Relatively.”

“Sure.”

“You know I got there with bloodstones.”

“Yeah, I—” Josh stopped. Then he took a deep breath and looked the man dead in the eye. Josh loomed over him, but he loomed over everyone. Beor, for his part, didn't back down. “You want to feed bloodstones to monsters so we can kill them for experience.”

Everyone else in the room flinched.

Beor nodded. “Aye.”

“That's a risky move,” Josh warned. “To be worth it, the monster has to be higher than our level. If we grab a level 24 mob to boost to level 40, that means it's got two advancements to go through. That means it gets two chances to evolve into something nasty specifically for messing with us.”

“There are ways around that.”

“To a point!” Mary snapped. She glared at Beor as if he had suggested stealing the Second Immortal's socks. “Any trick you use can backfire. Put the monster in a cage? It turns intangible, or explodes. Put it in a big arena? It grows wings, or explodes. Put it in a huge outdoor area so big that there's no possible way it could notice you? It grows giant and eats you, or it gets super speed and runs away, or it explodes.” She threw up her hands. “No matter what you do, the evolution finds a way to screw you over!”

Beor shrugged. “It has risks. But for that last bump to the next advancement, maybe it's worth it?”

Josh exchanged a glance with Mary. She scowled at first, before slowly simmering down under his look. She rolled her eyes, then nodded.

“We'll try it,” he said firmly. “But we have to be careful.”

Beor nodded. “Of course. This will not backfire, I promise.”