“I refuse to have this conversation with you,” Grizzizzik said.

“Why?” Clarissa folded her arms. “Because I’m right? And you’re too stubborn to agree? You attacked a stronger monster outside the bubble, proving to the mana of this world that you can handle these creatures, and opened the path for them to enter! You altered the leveling of the bubble!”

Evelyn’s eyes widened as she stared at Clarissa. Level six creatures could enter the bubble now. She glanced at Tyler, her eyes still wide. Sensing the gaze, he glanced at her, though he didn’t look as worried as she felt.

“So… stronger creatures are coming into the bubble?” Hraktar asked.

Clarissa kept her arms folded, glaring at Grizzizzik. “Yep.”

“But—” Grizzizzik held a palm up to Clarissa and Hraktar as though prepared to fight them back, “—we get stronger as we fight them. The bubble has only allowed a certain level of creature to enter. From my estimates, only level six. Once we ourselves reach level six, that doesn’t mean level eight creatures will be allowed.”

“If we survive that long!” Clarissa shouted. “Stronger creatures are entering the bubble, Grizzly Bear! We barely survived a dragon! What if we have to face three next time?”

“You did survive a dragon!” Grizzizzik shouted back. “Look at you! You’re practically untouched!”

“Thank the Great Lady,” Ezekiel mumbled for good measure.

Clarissa unfolded her arms, balling her hands into fists. “You do not attack things outside the bubble! Especially if they’re stronger than you. Okay!”

“Quit pretending I knew this would happen.” Grizzizzik’s teeth lengthened. “We need to get stronger. All of us do. The deadline for the apocalypse is a mere nine months away, and we are weak. If this is the kick in the ass we need to keep leveling, I will not apologize for it.”

“You don’t force these things on us!” Clarissa pointed at the cleric. “Ezekiel is still recovering!”

“Stop babying that cleric! He’s a grown man and you’re his wife, not his mother.”

“You need to stop turning my empathy and concern into something to belittle and disregard.” Clarissa took a dangerous step forward, her eyes burned with warning. Evelyn couldn’t help but give Nick a worried look of her own. Nick was too busy rubbing his hands down his face to notice.

“No, you need to stop disregarding what you see as a lack of empathy as anything less than the reality check it is. We have no hope of ever returning to the Shrouded Domain. This is our home now, and we’re some of the few that can take out these creatures before they destroy it. The billions of inhabitants here are depending on us, and we’re taking our time getting stronger. So bring on the stronger monsters, I say, and let’s wipe them out well before August.”

Evelyn gnawed on her bottom lip. She hated to admit it, but underneath the bitterness and the anger, Grizzizzik had a point. A dangerous one. Here they were at the beginning of November, at level four. They were averaging about a level a month, and that wouldn’t work. The highest they could get was twenty, and if they kept a level a month, they’d reach thirteen by next August. They wouldn’t survive an apocalypse that way.

Clarissa placed her hands on her hips and glared at Grizzizzik. Evelyn could tell her character understood where Grizzizzik was coming from. Clarissa was convinced, but she had her own pride to struggle through.

“You do this every time.” There was a harshness in Clarissa’s voice. “Manipulate your way out of trouble.”

Grizzizzik narrowed his eyes. “I’ve already told you, I didn’t know killing the black mage would cause this. Placing blame fixes nothing. What will fix it is you getting off your high horse and helping us get stronger so we don’t run around like chickens with our heads chopped off in August.”

Milo had his hands behind his back, then slowly backed away, headed toward the desert dragon corpse. Clarissa shot him a dirty look, and Milo froze in place, then lifted his two hands in surrender. “You two could argue like this for hours. Might as well do something useful during the time.”

“We can’t be near the bubble,” Clarissa said.

“You’re right. So as soon as you and Grizzizzik finish arguing, we can go.” Milo took a huge step back before he turned and jogged the rest of the way toward the corpse.

“Actually, let’s keep this argument going while I get some of those claws.” Grizzizzik gestured for Clarissa to follow him. “Dragon claws would make for excellent throwing daggers.”

Clarissa’s eyes darkened as Grizzizzik kept gesturing as he walked right past her to reach the dragon. Clarissa didn’t move, but she was fuming. Ezekiel walked over to her, smiling. “Let’s go check on your brother. I’d like to do more religious studies on him to make sure he’s recovering.”

“We shouldn’t be near the bubble,” Clarissa said.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ezekiel glanced at the base, then back at her. “Your brother’s still a forest elf. He needs a good long rest to regain his strength before we head to Elmwood. We give him that time while I’m watching him, then we all leave.”

Clarissa did nothing. Ezekiel held out a hand to her, smiling. She took it, her eyes still fuming, as Ezekiel led her into the rock tunnel to where Rafael and Derek had Sylvar.

“It makes me uncomfortable when Grizzizzik is right,” Evelyn said.

Nick kept a finger to his forehead, not looking at anyone. “Everything about Grizzizzik makes me uncomfortable.”

Tyler glanced at everyone. “Did anyone level up in that fight?”

Evelyn shook her head, and was surprised everyone else shook their heads, too. Tyler asked Derek and Rafael when they came out of the tunnel. Neither of them had leveled up, either. Two constructs, a black mage, and a young desert dragon, and they were still at level four.

After everyone gave their total experience points, Tyler wrote the names down in order of who had the most. Milo had the most at 5,400. Hraktar was close with 5,340. Grizzizzik had 5,245, and Clarissa had ten points less at 5,235. To no one’s surprise, Ezekiel had the least, at 4,640 points.

Tyler rubbed his chin. “As always, I’d feel better if we leveled up, preferably before Akshi comes to seek revenge.”

“So… tomorrow session too?” Derek raised his eyebrows in excitement.

“We have our double date,” Rafael said, not looking at anyone.

The excitement drained out of Derek’s eyes. “Oh. Right.”

“Well, think about it, guys. Some of us don’t need to be present when they fight the monsters. I haven’t for a month. It still worked. Our characters could fight again on Sunday without all of us being here,” Nick said.

Derek whimpered but said nothing else. He clearly wanted to be involved in everything, but eventually he’d have to make this choice.

“Leveling up is the most important now. Between Akshi and this new threat of level six creatures entering the bubble, it’s pretty ridiculous not to have the characters to fight again tomorrow. As long as they’re all together, one level six monster shouldn’t be bad.” Tyler let out a breath. “Hopefully. We’ve got to make sure they don’t fight two level six creatures at the same time. And see if Ezekiel can take on a creature by himself during a fight. Maybe that’ll give him the full experience points of that monster.” He pulled out his phone, scrolling through the list of monsters.

“How are we doing with the big list of monsters?” Rafael asked.

“Between us and the other groups, we have a little less than seventeen hundred monsters left,” Tyler said.

Nick rubbed his eyes and said nothing. Evelyn understood the hesitancy. Less than seventeen hundred did not comfort her at all. Grizzizzik was right. They’d have to bump up their sessions a lot.

“To be on the safe side, I’ll bow out on tomorrow’s session,” Nick said.

Tyler nodded, then glanced at Nick. “It’s been fantastic having you back, and we don’t want to anger Walt.”

Nick placed his hands in his pocket, glancing at his character near the dragon. Grizzizzik was using the hell dagger to pull out the dragon claws.

“Sylvar, you need to rest,” came Clarissa’s voice from inside the secret lair.

“I will after I talk to him.”

Evelyn turned to see Sylvar, Clarissa, and Ezekiel walk out of the tunnel. Sylvar recoiled in the sunlight, but he kept his eyes half closed as he staggered over to their group. Clarissa grabbed her older brother and steadied him. Sylvar sucked in a ragged breath before walking toward them. Tyler was still scrolling on his phone, looking at the different levels of the creatures, which meant he didn’t notice Sylvar had stopped right in front of him until a few seconds later. Once Tyler met his gaze, Sylvar reached behind him and pulled something out of the small of his back. It was a familiar red velvet bag, and he held it out to Tyler. Their game master hesitated, then held out his hand as Sylvar dropped it in his palm.

“I don’t know what it means, but I know it’s you,” the druid prince said.

Tyler’s eyes widened as he stared at the red velvet bag. Evelyn covered her mouth to keep in a gasp. Sylvar turned around and used Ezekiel and Clarissa to help him back out of the harsh sunlight.

Tyler froze for a good ten seconds, staring at the velvet bag. He opened the draw strings before seven CCNC dice tumbled into his palm.

“Duuuude,” Derek whispered.

Tyler picked up the d20, staring at it in the sunlight before moving his head around, looking all over. “Do you all see the words?”

Derek shrugged. “Yeah. You don’t?”

Tyler shrugged. “Not until now.” He moved his head back, again looking all over. “God, what is this? You guys live with this all the time?”

“You get used to it. You can mentally stop the chart, but you might have to roll for your character first,” Nick said.

Tyler snorted, picking out a d6. “Like I haven’t rolled for a hundred thousand characters already.” He knelt on the ground and started rolling.

It took perhaps five minutes of near constant rolling, but Tyler was looking at a character sheet only he could see. “Not good.”

“What’s not good?” Evelyn asked.

“First, I rolled horribly for his strength, but… story wise, it makes sense. He survived something that should have killed him.” Tyler stood up, brushing himself off. “He’s starting at level two, which… isn’t bad, but…” Tyler trailed off again, studying the character sheet in his vision. “Prince Sylvar will remain a wood elf. He can’t change into a desert elf.”

Evelyn flinched. “That’ll make things harder.”

Tyler shook his head. “I don’t think he’s meant to stay in the desert.”

Evelyn frowned, trying not to think about what that meant. “You expect them to separate again?”

“Prince Sylvar was never meant to be a constant in Princess Clarissa’s story. He had his own adventures.”

Evelyn swallowed, trying not to imagine how Clarissa would react to that.

“So what’s the plan with Prince Sylvar?” Nick asked.

“I get a strong enough bond with him to roll from a distance, then once I do, I’ll see if the other groups need an extra person to help. Keeping a wood elf in the desert won’t help anyone. Especially now that’s he’s in circle of spore.”

“Oh.” Evelyn’s eyebrows rose. “Not… circle of moon?”

“No.” Tyler rubbed the side of his face. “The ritual made him weaker and changed a lot of his druidic powers, turning them more necromantic.”

“He… could still stay,” Evelyn said as a last effort.

Tyler shook his head. “He’s needed elsewhere. I’m as certain of that as I am about us staying in Arizona and picking off the monsters here. I will reach out to the other groups and see if anyone needs him. Preferably somewhere in more forestry areas. He’ll thrive there as he comes to terms with his new abilities.”

Evelyn frowned, then looked at the shifted rock pile. She wasn’t sure what to expect. Clarissa always knew her brother wouldn’t remain in her life. They had such a deep bond; it was strange to see evidence of such a deep bond, and yet have them separated so long. They didn’t even have cell phones to keep in touch with each other. It was something she couldn’t comprehend, but perhaps it was because Clarissa and Sylvar didn’t know any other way.