Arti waved as he turned around and headed back to the office building. Eli continued alone. The speed buff had run out at this point, and he didn’t feel confident he could keep up with quick movements in the underbrush without falling and making a fool of himself. He also wanted to be wary, given there could be traps in the area. Amy hadn’t been specific about where she found them.

Continuing on in what he hoped was a straight line, Eli put his staff to use as a walking stick. It didn’t take long for the soft sound of drifting voices to reach him. About a minute later, he saw people between the trees and a surprisingly vast cave opening that looked like an arch of stone, with a poorly lit chamber beyond. He’d expected a cave like the ones they found while taming Princess—this was something entirely different. This looked man made. Or well, made by something, at least.

Twenty or so people were sitting outside, most with their eyes closed, probably meditating. A few chatted with each other. All their health bars were low, but their spirits didn’t seem down. He waved to the first people to spot his approach.

“This is the dungeon?” Eli asked. Perhaps a redundant question, but he didn’t know how else to begin the conversation.

The group looked at the entrance, then back at him. “Yep, it’s the dungeon, all right.”

“Mind if I heal you?” he asked.

“Please do,” an older woman said. She was in her 60s, perhaps, with gray, long hair up in a tight bun. She was a mage, like many of the people around her. Fighters or mages were popular classes, apparently.

Two barbarians, young guys, sat by themselves near the main group. They were taller than average and a little bulkier, but not insanely so, like Charlotte. Their armor, like hers, consisted of loincloths and several leather straps across their chests.

Eli cast Sigil of Light on the ground. “Step into the spell and you’ll be healed in no time."

They all complied, and white light flashed as each of them immediately returned to full HP. Their levels were low—most at 4, with a few at 5 and a single level 3. Still, it was a big improvement from just the day before. Then, only those who’d fought against the goblins were above level 1. When he walked closer, he saw the Aura of Defense buff applying to them, estimating the distance at about ten yards, which wasn’t bad, to be honest.

“Want buffs?” he asked, smiling.

“That would be lovely,” the old woman said.

Yvonne. Human. Level 5 Mage (Affliction).

He hadn’t seen that subclass before. He began with Bless, casting it on each of them in turn before continuing with Agility and finishing with Embrace the Dying Light. Their eyes widened as buffs started appearing by their health bars.

“They won’t last long, but I’ll try to keep them active as best I can. Are there any people still inside?”

A man in his forties, with short clipped hair and a massive beard resting a double-bladed axe with a long wooden handle over his shoulder, laughed. “Oh, there are people inside, alright. A lot.”

Byrd. Human. Level 5 Crafter (Smith).

Eli nodded at the axe. "Did you make that yourself?"

Byrd's face shone in a big smile. "Sure did!"

“Cool. So, are you divided into parties?”

"What do you mean?" one of the Barbarians, Angelo, asked, his voice surprisingly deep.

“You can create actual parties,” Eli said. “No one taught you?”

“Nope,” the young barbarian said.

“Just think it—Create Party,” Eli said, figuring that had to be the way to do it. “Then you just think Invite, like you do with all your other stuff, character sheet, skills, talents, et cetera.”

“What’s a talent?” the deep-voiced barbarian asked.

“You’ll get to pick one soon,” Eli said. “You get one each time you reach a level multiple of five, as far as I’ve been able to tell.”

“Cool,” the barbarian replied.

Eli decided to check in with Cruella, messaging her.

Eli: You haven’t taught these people how to make parties?

Cruella: I can’t teach everyone every little thing. Just getting them here was struggle enough for me. You here yet?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Eli: Yeah. Just arrived. Healing some people outside.

Cruella: I’m down on the third floor, if you want to join me.

Eli: I’ll make my way down after I make sure people are up and running here. How many floors are there?

Cruella: Who knows? I'm on three and there are stairs down to a fourth floor. So, at least four. The monsters get quite a bit harder once you go down the stairs, but there are a few people who venture past the first floor.

He continued in the party chat instead.

Eli: Amy, did you get that mount yet?

Amy: Not yet. Getting close. Sasha found one of those books that gives you a profession, leatherworking, and made me a set of leather armor to blend into the forest. I'm looking really cool right now.

Eli: Sasha?

Amy: She's out here with me. Used to work in PR, but she's not terrible. Promise. Actually, I wanted to ask you about letting her join Ravenous Barbarians.

Eli: Sure, of course. You don't need my permission, you know.

Amy: I know.

Sasha: Hello?

Eli: Welcome Sasha!

Sasha: Thanks!

Cruella: Amy and Sasha sitting in a tree...

Amy: Don't make me tame some dalmatians and have them eat you.

Eli shook his head but couldn't help smiling as he stepped through the stone arch, entering the dungeon.

The Temple of Rizari.

A pop-up appeared to announce the name of the place. It hadn't done that for the church. Was that because Light created it? He'd have to ask her at some point. Eli stepped inside, surprised by the dungeon's layout.

The cave inside was not a cave at all, but a man-made chamber in a square form with a huge single room and platforms going down further towards the center, with stairs interspersed at regular intervals, almost like an inverted pyramid. At the bottom, in the center of the room, was a staircase leading down, probably to the second floor. Braziers were lit all around the walls, giving enough light to show imagery painted directly on the stone, with what looked like giant lizards forming some sort of society.

Each platform was perhaps ten feet wide, going all around the room, with about a five-foot drop to the next platform below. People battled frog-like creatures on every single platform. All in all, there were perhaps a total of a hundred people in the room, and an overwhelming majority of them had lost a lot of health.

As Eli watched a nearby fight, he saw that the frogs did indeed fight back, if clumsily so. The fighter got struck by a tongue snapping out of the frog's mouth with quite a bit of force behind it. He yelled out in pain and stepped back, holding his sword in front of him like a shield.

Eli healed him.

The fighter's eyes grew wide. "You're a healer?"

"He sure is," one of those he'd greeted outside said as they came in behind Eli.

"I'll heal anyone who needs it," Eli nodded to the stairs down. "I'll post myself down there and heal everyone I can reach. Spread the word."

He walked over to the closest set of stairs and began walking down them, encountering one of the frogs.

Frog. Level 3.

Enlightening.

It was only level three, but it attacked him nonetheless. It reached up to his thigh but was able to jump high enough to reach Eli's stomach, and the tongue shot up toward his face with surprising speed.

Thankfully, he didn't need to react himself, as Aegis of the Dying Light easily dealt with the attack, deflecting it. Eli brought down his staff on the frog's head, but it dodged away again way quicker than he anticipated. Instead, he toggled Harming Healer and killed it with one spell.

Even with all the braziers, the room was a little too dark for Eli's taste, so he summoned his orb of light, willing it high into air before increasing its brightness as far up as it would go. The white light made it easier to see, and many turned to it, shielding their eyes from the new, unfamiliar source.

Naturally, the next thing to draw their attention was Eli himself, and he waved awkwardly in an exaggerated gesture so those farther away could see. He healed quite a few people on the way down, and many received the buff from his Aura of Defense, meaning he didn't have to be in a party with them to receive the effect.

Eli noticed his experience steadily ticking up at a slow rate.

Eli: I'm near the stairs down to the second floor of the dungeon. Are you killing things down there?

Cruella: Things are dying, yes. Coming down?

Eli: Just want to make sure everyone here is doing okay first.

Cruella: Boring.

Eli: You wanted them to level up.

Cruella: Still. Boring.

People were approaching now, and Eli began healing them all as quickly as he could, but soon found it was a really inefficient way of doing things. Instead, he cast Sigil of Light, directing people to stand in the light.

Instead, he began buffing people. Eli was able to cast Bless and Agility on a lot of people since the mana cost of the spells were low, but Embrace the Dying Light was a little costlier. Together, the three spells quickly drained his considerable mana pool since the durations of Bless and Agility were quite low at 60 and 120 seconds, respectively.

People were thanking him and laughing even as they fought the frogs. The speed buff and the defensive aura protected them from harm and Bless allowed them to do more damage, but Eli soon found it tedious to keep casting the buffs. Going into Skills, he checked the nodes of both Agility and Bless and found the nodes he was looking for. Plenty of available options appeared. Some increases the bonuses offered by the spells, while others added new bonuses, or even transformed the buffs into debuffs to cast on monsters instead.

For now, Eli wanted the buffs to last longer, and with that, he leveled both Bless and Agility to rank 5, to max out the duration nodes for both spells. Funnily enough—or, well, conveniently enough—the duration for both of them maxed out at three minutes, same as Embrace the Dying Light, which was a lot more manageable, even with the increased cost of mana.

Even with that, it felt like he was casting them a lot and he soon had to sit and meditate to regenerate mana. People drew closer to him, wanting to stay within the aura's effect area. Increasing the aura’s area of effect was possible. He'd checked the nodes. But to do that, Eli needed more Commander levels.

Thankfully, it seemed his aura leveled up faster with a lot of people fighting while under their effects, and in about half an hour, it reached 99% of rank 1. But it stopped there, pretty much cementing the idea that skill ranks couldn't reach above the class level.

Eli would have to level up his Commander class or stay stuck at rank one. With everyone now easily killing the frog monsters, Eli formed a funnel around his mouth with his hands and shouted, "Let's go down to the second floor!"