The second floor was very different from the first in layout. It was still spacious enough, but now, rather than one huge room, Eli found himself in a wide corridor. It was well lit, with glowing stones along the walls, near the ceiling, giving a cold but adequate light.

Sounds of combat rang out, bouncing on the bare walls. A smaller group of people was fighting farther down the corridor and doing a good enough job of it, killing a few lizardlings without getting too many injuries. While people filed in from behind him, Eli healed the small group ahead and buffed them.

Eli: On the second floor now.

Cruella: The mages can be a bitch. Be careful.

Eli walked up to the group after they finished their last opponent.

“Thanks for the healing,” a lean man in his 40s with olive skin and dark, almost black hair said, flashing a quick smile as he sheathed his sword.

Leonardo. Human. Level 6 Fighter (Swordsman).

“And for the buffs,” a younger guy with the same sort of complexion chimed in.

Luca. Human. Level 6 Rogue.

“Wow, your level is really high,” the third person in their little group said, a Tinker. Her long, chestnut-colored hair was matted with sweat and blood, and faint scars covered much of her face. For some reason, she was fighting with a sword despite being a Tinker.

Helen. Human. Level 5 Tinker.

“Yeah," Eli said. "I’ve been leveling a lot. You look like you're doing alright here."

"We stay near the stairs,” the fourth one in their group said. She was an older woman, and it was she who'd finished off the last lizardling with a shard of ice through the chest. She'd picked the same sub-class as Barbara.

Agnes. Human. Level 6 Mage (Cold Mage).

“You used to be HR?” Eli asked, thinking he remembered her.

“I did,” she answered. “Not anymore.”

“Fair enough,” Eli said, when a scream reached them from the adjoining corridor off to the right.

Eli ran and found an archer being chased by three lizardlings. He healed him, and the mass of people now filing in behind them quickly killed the lizardlings.

The archer pointed down the corridor. “Gustavo!"

"A friend?” Eli asked.

The archer nodded and set off running, the soft footfalls of his leather boots slapping against the stone floor of the empty corridor. Eli followed. Everyone else stayed put, but it didn’t matter. The things down here were far too low level to pose any real threat to him.

At the end of this new corridor, someone was under attack, back against the wall, swinging a wooden staff back and forth, trying to keep five lizardlings from sticking their little spears into him—trying and failing. Blood ran down Gustavo’s arms, legs, and chest.

Eli healed him, buffed the man, and then used his heals to kill off four of the lizardlings while the archer stuck an arrow through the fifth neck.

“Are you okay?” Eli asked, hurrying up to Gustavo.

“Thank you,” Gustavo breathed. “I thought I was done for.”

“Why are you using a staff?” Eli asked.

“It’s magic,” Gustavo replied, holding it up, allowing Eli to inspect it.

Wooden staff of Might: +5 Strength.

“I think a sword would be better, don’t you?” Eli remarked.

“Yeah. Shouldn’t have gone this far in,” Gustavo admitted.

"I told you!" the archer barked, a thick, eastern accent coming through.

Aleksy. Human. Level 7 Fighter (Archer).

Gustavo. Human. Level 7 Fighter (Swordsman).

"Take this instead," Eli said, handing over a sword and a shield from his inventory. "I don’t think +5 Strength is going to do you much good, anyway.”

“You’re right,” Gustavo said, gratefully accepting the sword and shield. “Hey, this gives +10 Constitution," his eyes glittered, but then his face fell.

"What?"

"I don’t have any coin left to pay with—used it all to buy potions.”

“That’s fine,” Eli said. “I have plenty. Just stay safe, all right? Are there more people in your party?”

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“No, it’s just us now,” Aleksy answered.

“Now?”

“Yeah, we lost some friends down here.”

“People have died?” Eli asked.

Gustavo gave him a strange look. “Of course, people have died. Where do you think we are?”

“How many?”

“I don’t know… three from our group. Stefan, Filipe, and Guinevere. They weren’t even fighting classes, so I told them to stay back, but they wanted to go. Well, Filipe was a Mage, but he didn’t dare cast spells,” Gustavo said, a faint smile on his face as he looked inward, probably remembering his friends.

“Do you know if there are any more groups down here?”

“A crazy woman is around here somewhere,” Aleksy said. “On her own, never stopping or coming back up. Perhaps she died."

"I think I know her. She's not dead."

"I’ve seen a few other groups, but I’m not sure who's here now,” Gustavo added, reaching out a hand. Aleksy pulled him to his feet, and the two of them thanked him again before heading back to the stairs, apparently done for the day.

Eli followed the pair back. People had died. It was inevitable, of course. Still, he had been able to push the idea of death out of his mind, even after seeing the wooden planks marking a person’s passing. Everyone was held back by the lack of ways to heal themselves. In games, most groups would need a dedicated healer to beat more difficult content, but not so much when just leveling up. This place was like a game in many ways, but not all. In a game, death was not permanent. He'd seen nothing that suggested that was true for this place. People would need more ways of staying self. They couldn't all lack ways to heal themselves.

Eli: Cruella, do Mages have any sort of self-healing?

Cruella: Not exactly. There’s a Mana Shield. Makes you lose mana and not health if something hits you. I think some sub-classes get barriers and stuff, but not Enchanter. There's always the Leecher talent. Gives you health when you hit stuff, but it doesn't work for me.

Eli: Why not?

Cruella: It's just for physical damage. Physical damage is boring.

Eli: Amy. What about you? Any self-healing skills?

Amy: Nope, but I have Rufus.

Eli: Rufus?

Amy: Yeah. He has a Heal skill. It doesn't give much, but it does up regeneration by quite a bit. Also, I rarely lose health since my pets do all the fighting for me.

Samantha: I have Heal.

Simon: My heal is just self-cast now.

Eli: Hey guys. Coming to the dungeon?

Samantha: OK.

Eli: What about Sasha?

Sasha: Depends on what familiar I use. One of them has a skill that heals me.

Eli: Familiar? What class are you?

Sasha: Beastmaster.

Samantha: You get pets too?

Sasha: Can't tame anything, but I summon a familiar.

Eli: A lot of the people down here in the dungeon are very vulnerable.

Amy: Their levels are low. You should power-level them.

Eli: I can only do that with seven people at a time. There’s like a hundred down here. They better ways of healing themselves.

Samantha: Force them to pick healer at level 10.

Eli: That would probably not be such a bad thing. Not forcing them, I mean, but more people picking Healer.

He came upon the large group of people talking with Aleksy and Gustavo. Not everyone had followed him down, but there were a good twenty people down there. The small group who’d been fighting lizardlings when he descended still waited around too.

Eli raised his hands over his head, waving them back and forth to get everyone's attention. “Listen up, people. I just wanted to say that I hope everyone here is picking defensive skills as well as self-healing if they are available to them.”

“That's what the deep state wants you to do!” someone shouted from the back of the group. “We want to get stronger!”

“At level 5," Eli held up his hands, showing five fingers, “everyone gets to pick a Talent. Then you get to pick another at level 10, 15, and so on. I highly suggest you pick either Executioner, which gives you health and mana with each monster you kill, or Leecher, which allows you to drain HP each time you strike someone. Also, there’s an argument to be made about picking Healer as a multi-class option once you reach level 10. Being able to heal yourself and others will, as I’m sure you know, be a great boon. The safer you are, the more sustainability you get, which leads to more experience. Alright?”

“Thanks for the condescending speech, asshole,” a female voice muttered from somewhere in the middle of the group.

“You’re welcome,” Eli shouted back. “Also, why are there so many non-fighting classes here? You have other ways to level up.”

Helen shrugged. “Well, I didn’t want to miss out.”

“Miss out on what?” Eli asked.

“The loot,” she admitted. “Tinkering is boring. I picked the wrong class.”

“Can we change class?” someone asked.

“Not as far as I know,” Eli replied. “Has anyone heard anything?” There was a quiet murmur. “Then I suspect we’re stuck like this.”

Just to make sure, Eli messaged Zack.

Eli: You haven’t made any reset class potions or anything, have you?

Zack: Nope.

“I think we’re stuck with the classes we’ve chosen, at least for now,” Eli said. “I highly suggest non-combat classes leave the dungeon. The goblins want to take tinkers back to their city to learn from them. I suggest you go with them.”

Helen shuddered. “I don’t like goblins.”

Luca, the rogue from the small party, raised his hand. “Yeah?”

“I have a skill that makes me regenerate health a lot quicker when I’m in stealth. You think I should pick that one? Thought it sounded weak and boring when.”

“That is a good example of a skill you probably should pick, yeah,” Eli said, dumping a mix of weapons, armors and shields on the ground, loot he’d received from the many skeleton warriors beneath the church. “Put this stuff on,” he said. “You need better defense, more health, and a way to heal yourself.”

As the group of people rummaged through the loot, Eli kept talking, keeping his voice loud so everyone would hear him over the clattering of weapons and armor being taken and equipped.

"There are far too many people here to keep going as one group with these hallways. I'll be taking a party of 7 with me and help you level up quickly. Four mages and three martial classes. Any volunteers?"

All Mages, Fighters, and Rogues raised their hands. The sole Barbarian in the group, not one of those from outside, kept his hand up as well.

"Every mage who comes with me must multi-class into Healer at level ten. All of you, no matter class, must help others level after that."

A few put their hands down, but there were still plenty of people willing to fill his party.

Eli: I'm leaving the party for a little while to help some people level up. Need to get the ball rolling here.

Amy: See you in a while.

Simon: I'll help out when I get there.

Samantha: Blech.

Eli left Ravenous Barbarians and created a new party, inviting people.

Agnes. Human. Level 6 Mage (Cold Mage).

Yvonne. Human. Level 5 Mage (Affliction).

Hikari. Human. Level 5 Mage (Conjurer).

Widelene. Human. Level 4 Mage (Lightning Mage).

Lenoardo. Human. Level 6 Fighter (Swordsman).

Luca. Human. Level 6 Rogue.

Trent. Human. Level 4 Barbarian.

With that, Eli had his party. These 7 would be the start of something big, if everything that followed went according to plan. More healers. People helping people. Creating cohesion in this large group of former co-workers. In a sense, this felt like a great first step.