“You want to clear out a dungeon?” Josh asked, incredulous.

The City operative nodded. “I think it's the best idea at the moment, yes.” He tapped his long cigarette on the table, then took another drag.

It was the next morning. Josh had walked into the planning room after breakfast, expecting more of the usual, when they dropped this bombshell on him. Paul and the operative were both here, but Ruth wasn't. Josh wasn't sure if that was because she was still sleeping in, or if her father had already sent her to work on her runes.

Mary didn't seem much more impressed. “I'm not sure I see the point,” she said. “I mean, dungeon monsters don't even give good experience.”

“They do have loot, though,” Paul pointed out.

Dungeons were like small Towers, digging underground rather than soaring into the sky. There was usually something worthwhile in them, such as a monster nest with rare materials in a biome that wasn't native to the area.

But the loot wasn't that great, and the monsters were typically of lower level than the surrounding area. The stronger monsters always left the dungeon as soon as they could. It was the weaker ones, scared of the outside world, that stayed. It generally wasn't worth the trouble.

“I will not pretend I have no interest in the magical materials,” the operative said gravely. “The dungeons themselves are enchanted, as well. Studying the runes could be helpful for Ruth. But that is not the main reason I propose such an expedition.” He tapped the map. Josh saw that the dungeon was close to the factory. Just a couple miles farther north. “It's too close to our location.”

“So?” Mary asked flippantly. “Look, maybe it's different close to the City, but we're used to dungeons out here. Leave them be, and they'll leave you be.”

The operative raised an eyebrow. “I am well aware of how things work out here, Miss Manganese,” he said in a clipped, professional tone. “What you are forgetting is that our little camp is becoming a more permanent settlement. Between the factory and the aid of Mister Hundredborn, we are going to be here for quite some time. We will not have the luxury of uprooting and finding a safer location if an unexpected enemy appears.”

Josh nodded in understanding. “You're worried about something popping out of the dungeon to cock us up at the worst moment.”

“Precisely. Even if we clear-cut the Jungle and salt the earth for a hundred kilometers—”

“Which I'm all for, by the way,” Josh interjected.

The operative gave him an odd look, pulled on his cigarette, and continued. “Even if we cut back the Jungle, the dungeon will remain a threat.”

“Look, I'm not a dungeon expert,” Mary said, cleaning her fingernails, “but aren't they trapped in there? They can only come out one day a year. We can handle that.”

The operative sighed. “Of course we can. But why bother placing guards on the dungeon entrance, taking up valuable manpower, when we can simply send a small party in now and clear it out?” He frowned at the map. “Honestly, I'm tempted to go myself.”

Josh understood the sentiment. In fact, he was surprised that the man wasn't insisting on going. He'd get first crack at the rewards, which would probably go straight to his daughter. If they were really lucky, they'd even find enchanted items. That had happened a few times. “Why don't you have a go, then?”

“Too much to do up here,” Jonah grumbled, looking more human than Josh had ever seen him. “In addition to organization and logistics, there are a number of monster clusters that require my personal attention.” He shook his head. “No. We will leave this to a small party. Someone trustworthy, but not particularly valuable.”

Mary shrugged. “I'll go.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Wot?” she asked, sounding offended. “I've got nothing else going on, I'm reliable, and I'll probably get a pretty pouch of experience from the monsters. Do we know their levels?”

“Scouts said the ones in the entrance were level 10,” Paul said.

Mary snorted. “Oi, I bet I can clear the whole dungeon by myself.”

The operative and Paul both nodded, and Josh couldn't find it in him to disagree. It had been known to happen. Technically a party of four was recommended for any dungeon, but you could go in alone, or take as many as eight.

“I am amenable to your participation,” the operative said grudgingly. “Not alone, though. Paul, can you spare a Mender?”

“Sure, Stephen isn't doing much right now.”

“Excellent. With that settled—”

“I'd like to go too,” Josh said.

Jonah and Paul stared at him. Mary just grinned.

“Why on Earth would you want to do that?” the operative demanded. “You are a non-combat class. You are both more use here, and far more vulnerable than anyone else. Not to mention your value.”

“Non-combat classes get experience from killing monsters too,” Josh pointed out. The combat classes got more for performing their role actions in combat, but everyone got experience for killing monsters. “My gains on the blueprints I know have slowed to a crawl. Besides, I think I'll learn something new if I try to fight.”

Paul nodded slowly. “You know, I think I've heard something about that in the old histories. The Grand Mechanist, who built the life pods, was a Crafter. He joined in the Last Raid.”

“He died in the Last Raid,” the operative said, tone short and curt.

Paul didn't blink. “So did almost everyone else. But he got there, and I think Josh can get some good experience this way.” He shrugged. “Unless you would rather he fight the level 30 and above monsters wandering around out here.”

The operative glared for a moment longer, before turning to Josh again. “I will not make an issue of it. If you truly believe this will get you past your bottleneck, then by all means go.” He tapped ash off his cigarette. “Simply be careful.”

Mary snorted. “Yeah, because nothing ever goes to shambles if people are just careful.”

Josh elbowed her, then gave the operative a solemn nod. “We will be on our best behavior.”

“You also won't be going alone,” Paul said. He rolled his eyes. “You think we're letting you wander in there without any backup? Like I said, Stephen should be available, but I think we should be able to find you a Defender as well.”

Mary frowned. “Wait. Stephen usually rolls a Defender. He's a Healer this time?”

It was Josh who answered. “He said he wanted to try something new.” He snapped his fingers, remembering. “Y'know, I think he said he swapped classes with Darius. He's trying out Defender this year.”

The operative did not look impressed. “Are you two comfortable partying with a completely green Healer and Defender?”

Maria shrugged. “Having anyone is probably overkill, and you know it. They may as well get their experience somewhere safer than the Jungle.”

The operative waved his free hand. “Very well. If you think that is best, who am I to stop you?”

Josh nodded and prepared to leave. Before he could, though, the door of the planning room opened. Ruth walked in, holding her skirts up, a broad smile on her face.

“I did it!” she said proudly. “I mastered the first rune! Once I did it right once, I got a blueprint for it.”

Her father nodded. “Good. Do you know what you did wrong? I hope it wasn't simply random luck.”

“I guess it matters how deep you carve the rune,” Ruth said with a huff. “That's going to be annoying, but now that I know what to look for I should be able to learn more runes soon. Everyone has been so helpful!” She looked between them. “What's going on? Are you leaving?”

Josh nodded, but said nothing. The operative was a little... protective of his daughter. Josh had no desire to draw his ire.

Mary, as usual, didn't care one whit. “Yeah, we're gonna go run a dungeon with a couple of our idiots. You wanna come?”

Ruth immediately brightened as if she had been given a thousand birthdays at once. Her father choked on his cigarette.

“Yes!” Ruth said. “Oh, I'll have to change, but I would love to—”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“No!” the operative snapped. “Absolutely not!” He pointed at Mary. “You stop putting ideas in her head!”

Ruth puffed out her cheeks. “Daddy.”

“Sending out one of our Crafters is risk on its own,” he said, regaining his calm authority. “With a backup, I can accept it. Sending out both of you—on the same mission, no less—is impossible.” He shook his head. “We'll capture some monsters for you.”

She glared at him. “I'm done with leaked experience! You never even let me fight the monsters myself!”

Josh blinked. Wait, she had gotten all the way to level 8 with leaked experience? That was when you were in a party with someone who killed a monster, but you didn't do anything yourself. It was much slower than shared experience. Exactly how many monsters did her father kill to level her up that fast?

The operative didn't so much as blink. “This matter is settled.” He pulled out a replacement cigarette. “Stay here, practice your runes. You'll probably level faster than Mister Hundredborn if you're diligent.”

Ruth scowled. “We only have three runes throughout the entire camp!”

Josh frowned. “Wait, really?” He had known enchanted weapons were rare—partly because all the ones they had left were too weak to bother with—but he would have thought they had more than that. “I know more than three people with enchanted weapons.”

Ruth puffed out her cheeks. “The runes are almost all duplicates. I can't learn much here.” She stomped her foot. “Which is why I need to go to the dungeon! There are runes inside, I've read about them!”

That was true, Josh realized. Most people focused on the valuable parts of the rare monsters, but there were also various glowing runes inside the dungeon itself. The walls were all enchanted to prevent the monsters inside from leaving. Or, he assumed that was what they were for.

Her father was not moved. “The reclaimers will copy them down for you.”

“That won't work! There's a depth to the runes that I can't tell from a sketch—”

“Then you will have to simply guess,” the operative snapped. “This matter is closed.”

She glared at him for a few moments. She was trembling, but Josh couldn't tell if it was with rage or tears. After a moment, she spun on her heel and marched out of the room. She slammed the door so hard that Josh heard something crack.

I might be able to fix that, he thought idly. With my new Architecture skill. He hadn't had time to really flex the skill yet. All he'd done so far was learn blueprints for posts, beams, and planks. Those had counted as separate blueprints, even though to his eyes they were all basically just square lengths of wood.

The operative took a long drag on his cigarette, then turned to Josh. “You have your orders, Mister Hundredborn.”

He nodded. “Sir.” He saluted and left with Mary.

Fifteen minutes later, the two of them met up with the other members of their new team at the gate. All the reclaimers knew each other, so there were no surprises, though Josh and Mary hadn't gone on any missions with these two before.

Healer: Level 12

Stephen Deacon, the new Mender, was a big Asian man built like a brick outhouse, one of the few men who matched Josh in size. This worked well for him in the class he normally started with, Shrouder. Seeing him with a Healer's staff was vaguely odd, like seeing a dog with a knife in its teeth. His staff was one of the few enchanted items in the camp. Most of the magic classes needed an enchanted item to even use some of their basic abilities, and Healers were too valuable to settle for inefficiency. In this case, without a staff Stephen's healing would have been limited to what he touched. With a staff, he could cast at range.

Defender: Level 10

The other man, Darius Danson, was black, reasonably tall, and with the reedy build of an active Healer. Not muscular, and certainly not fat either. Just someone who got enough exercise to run after the more physical classes. He had a big bushy afro, square glasses, and wore a sensible jacket and jeans ensemble. Unfortunately, he was unarmed. That tracked with him being a Shrouder this time, instead of a Healer. Shrouder was a Defender class, if a non-standard one. And he didn't have the magic item that made Shrouders most effective. That item, the shroud itself, was more rare than a Healer's staff. At least unlike a Mender, a Shrouder could get by without any special equipment. Mostly.

Josh wondered if Ruth would be able to create new shrouds one day. He didn't know much about enchanting, but he suspected the process was more complicated than just copying down the right runes and putting the right magic in them. There were definitely magic items that worked without runes, and he thought shrouds might be one of them.

“Hey, boys,” Mary said as she strode up. “Ready for a trial by fire?”

Darius frowned and adjusted his glasses. “I thought the dungeon was going to be easy.”

“The dungeon?” Mary asked in mock confusion. “No, I mean me!” She patted the revolver at her hip. It was the same one that Josh had found at the factory. “I need to see what you can do, so get ready!”

Darius raised an eyebrow, and Stephen just cocked his head. “You already got the Gunner class, Mary?”

She nodded. “Really buckled down and went for it. It's just stat milestones.”

Stephen made a face. “I hate going for stat milestones, especially this early. You can't branch out at all. Did you put any points into anything besides Agility?”

Mary blew out a breath. “No, and that means my magic stats are still crap right now.” She scowled. “I managed to get three spells that will work for Gunner, but I can't use them yet because I don't have the Capacity or the Sensitivity for them!”

That was the problem with learning too many new abilities. Sometimes you ended up with something that seemed great, but you couldn't make use of it with your build.

Darius was looking between them as though he expected them to come to blows at any moment. He also didn't look all that worried about that possibility. More annoyed that he might have to find new party members.

“What about you, Danson?” Josh asked. “Why go for the Shrouder? You didn't want to start with something easier?” Almost every other foundational class they had access to—including the other Defender classes, Knight and Shielder—were easier to learn than Shrouder.

Darius huffed in annoyance. “I thought I would pick it up. Besides, the class evolution path is powerful.”

“Sure, if you can get past the first step, which is being a Shrouder.” He rubbed his forehead. “Please tell me you're at least properly specced for it?”

“Oh, yes. All my points are in Power and Capacity.”

That meant he could keep up his shields for longer. That was really all a low-level Shrouder could do. But, as he said, there were some nice upgrade paths. If he played his cards right, he could get a powerful Improved-tier class as early as level 16. As far as Josh knew, that was the soonest of any of the eight foundational classes they had access to.

But getting an Improved-tier class was more than just a case of the right stats and the right bloodstones. There were performance goals to meet. Hopefully, Darius had a plan for that part.

“All right,” Josh said. He looked out the gate, at the Jungle around them. Even though they were cutting it back every day, it was still creeping up to the walls again. The doors closed behind him with a boom. “Which way to the dungeon?”

“This way,” Ruth said, pointing.

Josh nodded. “Thanks. Now we just need to—” He stopped, blinked, then turned to her. “Ruth?”

She smiled at him with suspicious innocence. “Yes?”

“Ruth?”

“Yes!”

Mary started laughing.

“Your dad's gonna kill me,” Josh muttered to himself. Should he run? He should run. But the only place to run to was into the Jungle, which was horrible...

Ruth smacked him on the back—hard. He stumbled forward and almost tripped on a root. “Oh, lighten up! He's clearing out some chiropteran nest near the factory. We're going in the opposite direction.” She grinned. “What he won't know won't hurt him!”

“It might hurt me, though,” Josh said. He struggled with himself for a few moments. “Wot happens if I order you to go back?”

Ruth smirked.

“Fair,” he said. It had been a stupid question. “Wot if we throw you back inside and run for it?”

“I'll make it to the dungeon before you, because I'm the only one who actually knows where it is.” She leaned forward, grinning up at him. “You could have looked at a map before leaving, you know.”

Josh sighed. She was right. Short of tying her up, he doubted there was any way to keep her from following at all. He suspected her father wouldn't appreciate them doing that to her, either. Even if it was for a good cause.

And he had to admit, she did seem prepared. She was wearing sensible traveling leathers and had a solid wooden club—one she had crafted herself, he assumed. It even had a single rune glowing with colorless light. She was also level 16, the same as him, making her overpowered for this dungeon.

“Why are you even here?” he asked, more tired than anything. “You can get plenty of experience with what I bring back.”

She huffed. “I don't want to just leech experience. I want to help people.” She grinned and hefted her club. “Here's the best place to do that. To be able to actually see that what I'm doing is important.”

“Yeah, fine,” he said with a sigh. “You can come.”

“Yesss.” She pumped her fist.

He nodded at her clothes. “You sure you don't want some better armor?”

She smirked. “What, like yours?”

He raised his chin. “Oi, this is monster flesh. I'm practically a barbarian warrior!”

“It's wood, Josh,” Mary said with a laugh.

“Wood from walking trees!” he snapped back. “Brought down in epic battle!”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, buddy.”

The armor was awkward, at best. It was heavy, clunky, and didn't really offer enough protection to be worth the trouble. There was a reason people didn't normally wear wooden armor. But it fit him literally perfectly, and he suspected that wearing it in actual combat might get him a bonus or new blueprint or something.

Ruth took the lead, and Darius—bless him—stuck close to her side, ready to defend her if need be. He might be new at actually rolling a Defender, but he knew basic tactics. Even in this case, defending Ruth was more about making sure her father didn't murder them all when they got back.