Now that we had a tailor in town, I requested a new set of clothes be made for me with our stock of iron petals. Making clothes was far more involved process than I thought it was. She needed everything, all of my measurements, from every angle. Because she was designing a style of clothing for me, she had plenty of other questions for me as well. Things like, what’s your favorite poem, do you have a favorite view, describe that view. Why do the buildings look the way they do in Heaven? Why the colors? This line of questioning went on for several hours until she was finally satisfied. Now that she had whatever plan she had in mind I was excused and was told to wait another month while she made some designs for me to try.

Leaving her workstation, I wandered around until I found Pan and Emmy chatting. Whisper was also there drinking some of that Sunflower wine he liked so much. Emmy was talking animatedly while Pan sat there listening to her. Paying close attention to everything she said. It’s been about a few months since we came back from the Earth dungeon and none of us has returned to collect more ore. True Pan, Whisper, and I brought back quite the haul, but I had a feeling that we were about to run out.

I took a quick look at the clan interface and saw that more than a few Defenders were nearing 100 points. That means we’ll need quite a bit of metal soon. That helped me make my mind up.

“Hey guys! Are you busy?” I called out to them.

Pan jumped out of her set at the sound of my voice while Emmy and Whisper just casually looked at me.

“As you can see, I’m just enjoying some of my favorite wine. Care to join me?” Whisper asked.

Sitting down next to him I looked at the girls, “How about you two?”

They both said that they weren't doing anything important.

“We’ll. Looking at the clan menu, more than 50 defenders are about to get promoted. You know what that means. We only have enough metal to make 4 or 5 more weapons. So, I was thinking of doing a few runs through the Earth Dungeon. Then heading on to the Shadow or Beast Dungeon after setting up a gate. What do you think?” I asked.

Pan crossed her arms over her chest in thought, “Well the Beast dungeon would give us some really good supplies. We are living on a very heavy plant-based diet right now and that could help with that. On the other hand, I’ve heard the Beast dungeon is super dangerous. From fallen adventurers within my own dungeon.”

“I’ve heard the same thing.” Whisper chimed in, “Massive beasts. Each with enough power to devastate a group of experienced hunters. That’s not to include the boss, which I’ll assume we are aiming to take out the boss. Given our track record of always aiming for the boss.”

Emmy raised her hand, “Well whatever you decide on I want to come with. I’ve been bored and the kids are at the age where one of the defenders can watch them.”

“Adding Emmy to our party will change up how we fight for sure. I also don’t want to risk anyone dying due to poor communication while we fight.” I thought aloud, “Okay. We’ll tackle the Earth dungeon a few times to gain some proper understanding of our combat styles and how to work them in with each other. Emmy You’re going to have to hold back on your glass and blood magic. They won’t be very effective in the Earth dungeon but fighting together will help us understand how you set your priorities. It will also help you understand how we do the same. So, for the first few runs, just hang back and only cast spells when you see an obvious opportunity to attack without being in the way or when it's obvious, we are in danger. Sounds good?”

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“You got it boss!” Emmy said.

We spent the next few days walking back to the earth dungeon. During our travels, Emmy did all the hunting. Using the opportunity to cast her Glass and Blood Magic before it became useless or less effective. Pan was the first to say something. After a messy spell casting session Emmy had with a pack of wolves. Which also happened to be the first time Pan saw Emmy’s magic.

“Um, Emmy. What the fuck kind of magic is that?” she said with a look of concern.

“Oh. That's my Blood and Glass magic. Savas said I couldn’t use it in the dungeon because the creatures inside don’t really have blood and they are made of rock and dirt. So, I figured that I would get it all out now you know?” she said with a glowing smile, overshadowed by the large quantities of blood still raining down on her. Caused by the excited use of her magic. Pan looked at me with a deep level of concern.

“Are we going to be, ok?” her eyes seemed to ask me.

I just smiled back at her while Emmy forcefully extracted the remaining blood from the corpses of the wolves.

Whisper didn’t seem to have an issue. Calmly taking portions of meat off the bodies so we can eat for the day. Sending the rest back to the clan using the storage option.

“I have to say. This whole clan menu thing is amazing. It’s going to greatly speed up the rate we gather supplies. Making it easier to stay out longer and reduce how much weight we are holding, further improving our gathering rate.” He said.

“So, we are just going to ignore the fact that she is literally making it rain blood right now?” Pan asked.

“Yup.” Whisper and I said in unison.

Pan threw her hands into the air in defeat and went to wait for everyone to be ready to move forward again. The bloodshed didn’t stop until we reached the area the earth dungeon was in. At this point I instructed Emmy to stop using Glass and Blood magic, not wanting her to waste her mana or give us away.

She switched to using Water, Dark, and Spatial magic, which proved to be effective against Earthen Defenders. We carved our way through the dungeon with relative ease. Pan’s new sword and bracers gave her far more offensive power and slightly more defensive options than the last time we were here. The same applied for Whisper’s arrows. The metal broadheads allowed him to deal heavy damage and he was able to recover more arrows than the last time. There was no change for me as I just used magic and with Emmy aiding me most of the defenders died before they really got a chance to deal any damage.

To add to things Emmy had a spell called rejuvenation and a spell called blood clot. Blood Clot would stop the bleeding of a target and Rejuvenation would speed up the target's natural recovery. It would close a wound right in front of your eyes, but a couple scratches would vanish as if they were never there in about an hour. She kept these spells her priority throughout the dungeon. She only needed to target Pan for the most part with her healing spells weak as they were.

When the opportunity presented itself, Emmy would cast Negative Blade and Dark Divide. Sending out a blade of dark energy or a wave of it crashing into the defenders. Causing heavy wounds on them.

Not only did this make the dungeon far easier to complete than it did last time, but the time it took was cut almost in half. It seemed adding another offensive caster was a good call. We made it to the golem in no time. Battling and defeating him in short order. Because we knew what to expect we prepared for it in advance. Sharing what we knew about the boss with Emmy as well.

She cast a spell called Picture Window at the start of the fight. It created a large sheet of dense, invisible glass between us and the golem. Inside the glass was an image of Pan, the boss charged it right away. Smashing into false Pan and causing great cuts to gouge their way into the golem from the force it used to attack the glass. It also had the added effect of stopping its charge. Allowing Pan to dig into melee combat with the huge defender. That was all we needed to overpower the fight and we targeted the helm and took the boss down in short order.

With the boss down we sent back all the ore and gems we got our hands on, which was a heavy load. A couple hundred pounds according to the clan menu. I also set up a gate at the entrance on the inside of the dungeon. I set a few restrictions on the gate to prevent issues from coming up in the future. In order to use the gate, you had to be a member of the clan and it wouldn't let you enter the dungeon if others were too close to it. Preventing misunderstandings to a degree.