From that one spell, everyone in his party reached at least level two. The group entered through the already open entrance and got to work.

Princess roamed the front of the graveyard, killing whatever she found with ease. The bear had learned a skill at some point, roaring to attract enemies to her, and she used it to great effect without input. Amy stayed behind with Rufus, practicing her new sight. She only vomited twice.

Zack kept close to Irene while providing everyone with mana potions and an assortment of other ones that added buffs to speed, strength, and even mana regeneration. The most interesting potion he was able to craft was one that provided a buff to experience gain. At this point, however, it only added 1% for a few minutes, but Zack swore he knew how to improve on it, given time.

Eli kept a Sigil of Light up for most of the time, allowing everyone to fight without much danger. All in all, it was incredibly boring.

He sent a message to Amy.

Eli: What did Charlotte say?

Amy: Not much. She doesn't want to fight, and I don't blame her.

Amy: Standing up front and being attacked again and again, not a fun time.

Eli: No, you're right.

Amy: She reached level 10 before leaving the party, so she's thinking of multi-classing.

Eli: Well. She'll always have a spot with us if she wants it. She's a Ravenous Barbarian after all!

Amy: Roar!

When it was time to call it quits, Irene had reached level 7 while Cruella barely made it to 6. Sheila ended up at level 5 while Frick and Bob had to settle for level 4. Neither Eli, Amy, nor Zack leveled a single time.

Eli warped them all back to Infinite Innovation Solutions. He was busy writing messages to Bob and Frick, asking them to head back, when he noticed Cruella lingering in front of the stairs.

"I want to stay on."

Eli looked at her, surprised. "In Ravenous Barbarians?"

"That's right. There are only three of you, right?"

"You're a perceptive one. Hold on," Eli said, then sent a message to the party.

Eli: Cruella wants to stay on. Everyone OK with that?

Amy: Of course! Princess liked her. I'm heading to the roof if anyone wants me.

Zack: Sure. I'm adding Irene back in again as well.

Amy: Oooh, Zack has a giiirlfrieeeeend!

Zack: Shut up.

Eli nodded to Cruella. "You're in."

That made five people and with the new additions, damage probably wouldn't be a problem. What they needed was a proper tank, or they would have to rely on Princess.

Eli: We still have hours of daylight left. What do you say about going into the church? I think we're ready.

Zack: Welcome to the party, Cruella!

Cruella: Thanks for the invite.

Irene: Hi again.

Amy: We should fill out the last spots if we're going for the boss.

Eli: I was thinking of asking James. They're still at the graveyard.

Amy: I'm not sure Dana will want to join, but we can ask them.

Eli: Let's gather downstairs. I'll need to mark the location so we can return without going all the way up to the 13th floor every time. I think it's time to settle somewhere on the lower levels.

With all preparations complete, and having waited almost 30 minutes for Amy to return from the roof, they returned to the graveyard to find James, Dana, and Samantha in a spot of trouble.

Eli shouted over the fence, "Do you want help?"

James was pushed into a corner with what looked like almost 30 skeletons and zombies trying to reach past his shield, pushing against it to crush the Warden. Samantha sat on the grass behind his legs, hugging them and burrowing her face into her own lap. Dana had leapt over the fence and was firing arrows into the crowd, killing some and injuring more, but not really making a difference.

James grunted. "I don't think we'd deny a spot of help, right, Sam?"

Eli threw down a Sigil of Light, bathing the area in bright but soft light. It made quick work of the undead.

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Ding! You have reached level 17.

"Whoa," Irene whispered. "I got 2 levels out of that."

Cruella was grinning, her teeth large and impeccably white. "Me too."

"I leveled up too," Amy added. She kept a steady hold of Rufus and some of the color in her face had returned, since she wasn't using See Through Their Eyes at the moment.

James, Sam, and Dana walked over. "Thanks for the save," James said. Sam just grunted.

"Hey guys, we were thinking of going inside the church. Want to come?" Eli asked.

James looked to Dana, who reluctantly nodded, and Sam shrugged.

"Sure," James said. "We got a quest to kill some lord in there."

The three of them left their party, and Eli invited them all to join the Ravenous Barbarians. They were now back to a full party of 8.

The group ventured deeper into the graveyard and began killing everything that moved. Before trying the door of the church, the Ravenous Barbarians circled around the building to make sure there wasn't something to discover. They found nothing. Only graves, zombies, and skeletons. None of the mobs put up much of a fight against their party, and no matter how many they killed, the undead didn't come back stronger.

"When I was here last, stronger mobs appeared after a while," Eli said, healing Princess who'd taken a glancing blow from a skeleton.

"Maybe it's the night-day cycle thing," James suggested.

"Yeah," Eli agreed. "Maybe."

Then it was time to finish the graveyard quest. Eli pulled on the door to the church, but found it locked.

"That's strange," he muttered.

"What time was it when you were here last?" Amy asked.

"Dusk," Eli replied.

Everyone looked up at the sky.

"Won't be much longer," Amy noted.

"Let's just grind a little more," Cruella suggested, swapping from her bow to a longsword.

Eli sat down on the steps. "Go ahead. I'll heal you from here. Plenty of monsters coming."

Amy sat down next to him, and Zack leaned against the wall near the entrance.

"I have a pigeon," Amy said. "From the roof."

Eli looked over at her. "How is that working out?"

"Pretty well. Managed a few seconds of flight without spewing."

Princess was running around happily with James, Dana, Irene, and Cruella, looking more like a companionable dog than the fearsome beast that almost killed them back in the cave. James was handling himself well, getting used to his shield and sword.

The Warden relied more on his shield than the sword, using it to bash zombies to pieces. Dana had unequipped her bow in favor of her lute, and was playing a song that provided a speed buff, while also occasionally bashing a zombie's face in with the instrument. Cruella's sword was obviously too heavy for her, but each laborious strike still downed her target.

Thankfully, the corpses de-spawned as swiftly as the mobs respawned. Samantha busied herself with looting, only occasionally heal-bombing a zombie or two, since Eli kept everyone's health topped up at all times.

"She doesn't look happy," Zack noted.

"But she's leveling quickly," Eli replied. "I wonder if she'll pick Priest like me when she reaches level 10."

He cast Sigil of Light to clear a particularly dense group of skeletons, then looked up at the sky. "Where's the pigeon? Don't see one anywhere."

"It's on the roof somewhere," Amy answered. "I have to tell you, it's really fucking neat seeing everything from above. I leveled the skill for it, but that didn't help with the nausea. I think it's just a 'getting used to it' kind of thing."

"So, guys," Eli asked, "have you given your class choices any more thought?"

"My specializations are kind of crap," Zack said, waving to Irene, who had just decapitated a skeleton in a single swing. "Listen to these options: I have Alchemist, which pretty much sounds like the same thing as Apothecary, only maybe a little more geared toward poisons. Then there's Vitalist, who focuses on making more health potions and buffs. That option might help with some work on the experience potion, but there are no guarantees."

"What's the final option?" Amy asked.

"Master Apothecary."

"That's it?" Eli asked.

"Just more Apothecary stuff."

"Apothecary squared," Amy helpfully added.

"I think so," Zack said, shrugging helplessly. "So then, there's no reason not to specialize, right?" Zack scratched his shin, where light blonde stubble was slowly growing. "The hell with it. Poison it is."

A moment later, Zack glowed slightly. When Eli inspected him again, his class read: Alchemist.

"Why poison?" Amy asked. "Did anything change?"

"Poison might be useful and it’s usually pretty strong in games. Damage over time, you know?" Zack said, "Looks like I got some new skills, but I'll have to go through them later. I'm reading up on classes. I think I'm going to multi-class."

The sky was slowly getting darker, but they still had a little time.

"Have you thought about what class you're leaning towards?" Eli asked.

"I considered Tinker to complement the potions with strange devices and bombs and things, but after seeing what Sheila could do, I've changed my mind."

"Yeah," Eli agreed. "But maybe Tinker gets better at high levels."

"Maybe," Zack replied. "Or maybe it would be better to generalize a little, you know? Something that will let me grab a weapon and use the poison stuff." He raised his hands helplessly. "I don't know. I'm going to have to give it some more thought."

"Amy, what about you?" Eli asked.

"I was thinking maybe Beastmaster to get more slots for pets," Amy said. "And also..." She mimed shooting a bow. "Shoot stuff. I'm not sure how great my aim would be, though, watching myself in the third person from a bird's perspective, or from Rufus on the ground."

Rufus let out a happy bark and wagged his tail, just happy to have been mentioned.

"I was also considering Bard, like Dana," Amy added.

"Why?" Zack asked.

"I think it can have some interesting applications."

"Like what?" Zack pressed.

"You can soothe with your instrument, or provoke, and even harm with tunes. All sorts of things, you don't just have to sit around and play to buff your party." Amy's cheeks were getting red as she spoke, and her voice grew louder. "You know what? I'm going to do it. Right now," she decided.

A slight shimmer surrounded her, and her class now read: Shepherd (14) / Bard (1).

"Cool," Zack said. "Very decisive. Did you get to pick an instrument?"

"Yeah! What should I choose?" Amy asked.

"Electric guitar," Zack suggested.

"Something tells me that won't work," Amy said, laughing.

"Maybe a flute or something small?" Eli suggested.

"A flute?" Amy raised an eyebrow. "Boring!"

"Oh, I've got it!" An instrument popped into her hands. A violin. "As a kid, I begged my mom to let me take violin classes after going to see an orchestra."

Amy: Guys. You can multi-class with more than one class. The Add Class button still appears in my Character Window.

Cruella: I like the sound of that.

"So, what skills did you get?" Eli asked her, just as the door to the church slammed open with enough force to throw a gust of wind at their backs and make them jump from the sound.