"One hundred and two…" Claira mumbled, then finally looked at him, "You are a S-rank… from this dungeon… how?"

Blake shrugged as he couldn’t make sense of it, Block thought about it and then spoke, "could be death-breach theory, it would explain why we all got stronger when you take into account the trainer's skill." He said to himself then noticed all of them staring at him, with the demand for explanation on their faces, "Death-breach theory is a relatively new idea coined by a mage called Willicer Masiam."

"The archmagi-king of Qandira?" Asked Claira.

"Yeah, that one." Block said with a nod and then continued his explanation, "He suggested that when you nearly die your power rank will jump to help you overcome the challenge in the future. He based his idea on a phenomenon that happened a few times with adventurers in his kingdom. An adventurer team would dive into a dungeon however, something unexpected happens, like the treasure guard on the first floor, but they would come back out, most time missing more than a few members, with luck, more than one comes back, but they had seen so much that they retired straight away even after seeing the massive boost. He thinks that when you overcome a certain death allows someone to overcome the limitations of the human race and reach past power ranks of seventy. It does track though with what we went through on the first floor, i mean, Jessica was basically in death's grasp, Claira, you were down and bleeding out, and Blake, you were in worse condition than Jessica before you used all of your powers. "

The other three nodded along, and then exchanged a glance, before Jessica spoke, "That does make sense, I feel like my healing magic got stronger."

“Yeah, this tracks too, because if I had to guess the three of us are likely B-rankers now.” Block said out loud.

Jessica looks around before looking to the team, “So, we are already powerful, but for us to use this skill to our advantage we would have to have Blake take teams into dungeons, and then they will see how weird he is.” she says with a shake of her head.

“So, why don’t we have him be a supervisor, he will watch and step in if they run into trouble.” Claira said after her.

“Yeah, he is basically a bodyguard, and you will need to go anyway.” Block said, “As team leader and later mercenary chief you need to know your troops.”

Gatting Claira shuddered in shock, as she realized that Block was right.

“Ok, looks like we are close to the bottom, so what do we have to deal with on this floor.” Blake says as he lands on the eleventh floor, and looks around, “Also it is not a maze, this looks like an entry room.”

Claira looks around and pulls out the book, and finds the right page, “ok, found it …” She looks over the map, “Yeah, looks like a group of rooms, we need the right door after this then left, then forward, and right again to get to the treasure room.” she closes the book and slides it into her bag, “this floor has dark kobolds like the floor before, but there is a chance for a golem to show up. Also, we are going to have to fight our way through each room.” she readied her staff.

Jessica lifts her staff up to a ready, “Right, I'll use my spells now then to have us ready.” She holds out her hand “Holy Guardian, Power Boost, Magic Boost.”

Blake grips his halberd and casts his buffs too, “Holy Shield, Holy Ward, Holy Blessing, Holy Bastion.” and notes the stunned looks from all of them. “What?”

Jessica stares a bit starstruck then shakes her head before she speaks, “Holy bastion is a grand level holy magic, and normally needs a clergy of fifty to cast. It is considered one of the greatest forms of defense buffs anyone can have.”

“Yeah, well your magic boost cuts my cost for upkeep in half, but I can’t keep this up so let’s go” Blake says back and smiles.

Their battles to the treasure room were easy, but as they took a look inside, only to see three golems standing around the large treasure pile, Block had to grab and hold Claira back from rushing in. Blake took a closer look, then dismissed his buffs, walked away from the door, sat down, and found a snack, making the trio look at him.

But he looked up at them, munched on a slice of dried meat then spoke “I need a break and so do you guys, we can handle one easy, but did you take a good look at those golems.”

The three look back into the room, and then Claira lets out a gasp, “They aren’t clay, they are iron.”

“Bingo, they are not the clay ones we can kill with one solid hit,” Blake said before taking a second bite, “Now, I don’t know how strong iron golems are compared to clay golems. But I need a break, as I can feel that I need a bit to recover my magic power as it is low.”

The three nod and walk over sitting down and finding their snacks, then Claira looks to Blake, “About Winry, you said you had a plan yesterday, what is it?”

Blake nodded and finished his dried meat, “I am going to start by offering her a place in our team and to be our friend, then I plan to tell her she will get a fair and equal share of the loot, and lastly that we want her because we have our reasons, and she can learn them by joining us.” he said and leaned back on his arms.

“That would work…” Jessica starts while she spaces out a bit, “But their Leader will start complaining that you are talking to her, and the rest of her team will egg him on.”

“And he will likely issue a challenge to Claira if you don’t back down.” Block says after.

“Why me, Blake is the one who will be starting this, and not me.” Claira says back but they turn to Blake as he giggles.

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“Yeah, I figured that, and I will tell him that he can’t as he is not worthy of Claira’s time, and if he wants to challenge us he can challenge me,” Blake says and leans forward resting on his knees, “as per the challenge rule of the guild, I’ll demand that they release Winry and reimburse her for her equal share of any rewards they had gotten, and if I lose we will give up on gaining her as a teammate.” he gave the biggest smile of premeditated glee at his plan.

“They wouldn’t believe that I am not worth his time, The guild is run on the strong lead, they will not believe that you follow me.” Claira said.

“Yes, but that is the point, if you show off your rank when we return, they will believe it, as they all know my rank, but now they will see that you three have improved a lot.” Blake said calmly, then shifted a bit to his side, “That's why when I give my statement, they will think that I may not have been as powerful or skilled as my rank suggests, and he will likely think that it is an easy win. Which we all know it wouldn’t be.”

“Devious, I love it,” Block says, “helgan, I’ll even belittle you a bit when we come back.”

“You know Blake, I would start to think you aren’t evil,” Jessica says with a short smile that turns sour “Then I see you make plans to lie and cheat people to your benefit.”

“Yeah, this is a plan to trick not only Winry’s team but most of the Guild.” Claira says.

“That is the second desired effect of the plan, we need your name to spread, we want the rumors to say that the team Raven’s Wing is a hard team that has different standards, which will confuse more people over why we care about a classless, and then some more may approach us on their own volition.” Blake says with confidence in his ideas, “That way we will get not just strong classes but also classes with no combat power, who we will make them into a support and logistics core. Their role will be to make and prepare gear for the combat teams while also securing our supplies, key elements to an army of any size.”

“So, this is us finding someone we can trust to lead our support staff. But then what do you want to do with the sixth spots on our core team?” Claira asked as she started to think over the plan.

Blake looked to Block, “I was going to suggest we make a scout core and set up a spy and information system with Block as the secret head of it, but publicly it will be a mage, so those outside the core circle will think it a magic-focused group.”

The three nodded at the idea, and then Claira looked up and recapped their plan “So, I will be the magic user core, Jessica will lead the healer core, Block will handle the close combat core, Blake you will be in charge, and the training of the defense core, Winry, if we can get her, we will try to set up as the support and logistics core, and the sixth will be our recon core. Sounds good so far. Any objections to the setup for the mercenary company?” she looked around.

Jessica shifted a bit and hummed in thought, “The sixth, do we want a classless too, or do we need someone that can use magic?” She asked while glancing about.

Block and Claira shrug while they look at Blake, he lets out a sigh, “No, they don’t, as I think getting Winry a class will already turn some heads, but we can write that off as a fluke if we do it twice in a short time, it will get more people looking at us, so not necessary. Why? do you know someone?” he answers her.

“Umm well yes but there is an issue…” Jessica answers sheepishly.

“What is it?” Blake asked back.

“They just turned ten, and while they can join as children and be an adventurer, the rest of the guild will get… unhappy with his class. It is a mage, but their class is not one people look favorably on.” She says back.

“Jessica, are you talking about her right?” Claira asked. And got a nod from Jessica.

“Stop, if they are ten, I feel a bit weird adding them to the group or taking them into a dungeon.” Blake said, then gestured an open hand to Jessica, “But fill us in and we can all make a joint decision over whether we should let them in or not.”

Jessica smiled at him and cleared her throat, “So, in the orphanage that my temple handles there is a child named Sarena, She is a Fox-kin and was abandoned by her parents at the orphanage right after she turned six, She is smart and quick, moreover, she has a great amount of intuition.” she starts then falters, taking a deep breath, “ But she got the class of beast sorceress, and now she is basically hated by the other children and she is really lonely, what's worse is that the nuns that run the orphanage had started making her go out and work to get them the money to support her, as she is not an acceptable class in this nation.”

Blake looks to Block with a clear look of confusion, making the tall man sigh, “Beast sorceress is a class that only beast folk have, however, they are hated in human nations because it was Beast sorceresses that held the human nations back during the past five wars, they are the main military force and backbones of the three beast folk nations. They are powerful and use magic to boost their already formidable physical power, moreover, they can do the magic on allies, making them a powerful assist on the battlefield, however, they are also seen as a danger as there are rumors that they can turn people into beasts.”

“But anyone with a true understanding of classes would know that a beast sorceress can’t do that, that is the area of a transmutationist,” Claira interjects “The beast sorceress can just boost their allies by imparting the power of beast they have defeated, it's a powerful magic but they have to eat the monster, so we would need to go on a few hunting missions.”

“That is a second issue, she hasn’t been given much meat, all she gets is eggs if she manages to get five copper the day before. She is basically very underpowered and a bit under the health she should be at right now…” Jessica says and draws inward, while the others do the same.

“Well, I get that meat is important, but eggs are a good substitute for a good while. We can easily feed her back up to good condition, and we can get a few hunting missions that are near the dungeons we want to hit. We need to take Winry too if we can rank her up too, she will need to be higher ranked so she can handle her own protection.” Blake said while nodding. “Plus, with our current formation the two of them can stay close to the back to stay out of the fight, however…” He looks up and sighs. “I don’t like the fact she is ten, in my world children that are ten are cherished and protected, and I don’t know if I can stomach the idea of taking her into a dungeon, or on a hunt.”

“Blake, you do understand that in this world most people start working at the age of six as apprentices, and they normally keep working until they are sixteen,” Claira says with a comforting tone, “She is ten and she is already working somewhere in the town, while I don’t know much, I can guess that she is finding terrible jobs that would have her doing things that the townfolk just don’t want to do. Or worse she is working in one of the brothels as a guide for guests, most of whom are likely to eye her when she grows older or attack her. Moreover, as a beast folk and a beast sorceress, she will likely be enslaved if she shows any kind of beauty soon. I would much rather have her dive a dungeon with us than see her suffer anymore.”

[fucking can’t argue with that…] Blake sucks his teeth and shoot a short glare at Claira, before inhaling deep and calming down. “I guess you are right, can’t let that happen, and if I had to guess, she may choose to work in a brothel overstaying in the orphanage in a few years, especially if they feed her right. Fine, but we are going to make sure she is outfitted to get out even if it is without us. And we will have to get her trained in weapon use too.”

They look at each other and nod. Before Blake sighs and stands up, offering a hand to Jessica, as they get ready to tackle the three iron golems.

“What is the plan?” Jessica asks while stepping up next to Blake and looking to Claira.

“Same as normal, Blake tanks, me and Block do damage, and you keep us alive with spells and buffs. The issue is iron golems have both magic and physical resistance, so in this fight, we will need to think a bit outside the standard attack pattern. Block, Blake, any ideas?” Claira says as she dusts off her robes.

Block shakes his head.

[Iron golems are a bitch, we can’t do a lot because of the damage resistance, and we need to not draw out this fight, we want to head back today too so we need to clear this floor and the next fast.] Blake scratches his chin while thinking it over, oblivious to his team watching him closely. [maybe if I could activate my indomitable, but I don’t think that will happen, and I don’t think there is much I can do, it's not like I can break down their armor…] Blake’s eyes widen at the idea [i have sunder, that would work right?] He looks to his left hand and holds it out, “Open rank” he orders and reads over the sunder ability, before smiling wide. “I think we got this, but it's tricky, and it will take a bit of time to pull off.”

The three look at him and smile as they are ready to hear his plan.

“Ok, so I have the skill Sunder, with it I may be able to crack their armor, and set them up for more damage, I don’t know how many times I will need to use it before we can take one down, but I have to be careful, as I can use it maybe ten times while saving a bit of energy for Heavy Guard.” Blake says then closes his stats window.

“So, how do we give you that time?” Block asked as he tried to think up some ideas.

“Magic, from Jessica and Claira, if you two focus on keeping two of the golems trapped, Block and I can hopefully kill one before you need a break, then I’ll heavy guard to get them both on me, and we work on down then the other, with luck, I should be ok, but you both will need to same over half your magic for the second part of the fight. If you want Claira, you can keep your one pined until he is the only one left, but that may drain all your magic.” Blake says back, glancing at each of them, before they all nod and turn to the door, weapons ready.