About two minutes after I left the outpost, a notification popped up.

[Congratulations to Misfits Guild for vanquishing an optional encounter. Bonus rewards are being calculated.

You are the third group to take down one of the bonus bosses.

Reward earned: Fifty thousand XP per combatant.

Two hundred and fifty thousand soul coins.

Electricity resistance crafting materials to be delivered to outpost.

Recipe: enhanced elemental resistance potion.

Recipe: enhanced cleansing potion.

Recipe: enhanced elemental damage buff potion.

Recipe: enhanced armor affects kit: Water resistance

Recipe: enhanced armor affects kit: Electric resistance

Recipe: enhanced armor affects kit: Water damage buff.

Recipe: enhanced armor affects kit: Electricity damage buff. ]

"That was a fantastic set of rewards," I wondered if there were any more bosses that we could quickly hunt down and take out. I'd have to ask Dwight what the new recipes did, but I suspected we would find them very useful in the coming days. That XP boost was incredible too. It took me two-thirds of the way through level nine and ought to be good for several levels of experience for our less-ranked people.

[Bonus reward. One skill seed per combatant who dealt, took, or healed damage during the fight to be delivered to the guild leader.]

And that could very well be even better. We had gotten very few skill drops since phase one. Now we'd have a treasure trove to help outfit our new allies.

[Optional quest begun: Escort the captive Rusalka back to their home and sister.

Reward: Hidden Reward.

Reward: 100% bonus XP gain for the next two weeks.

Reward: one bonus skill per combatant.]

And now the system was really falling all over itself to reward us. This was awesome. I grinned. I was nearly back to the bathhouse. Sage would be beside herself at the thought of getting a new skill.

[Warning, this quest has a penalty for failure.

Failure penalty: No member of Misfits Guild may enter the castle for two days after the doors open.

Quest must be approved by half of the combatants who participated in the boss takedown.]

Okay. That was slightly worrying. Anytime we had had a quest during phase one, it had given great rewards. I didn't recall seeing any kind of negative penalty to it. A two-day delay would put us way behind everyone else. Was that worth the reward?

Everyone accept it, Grandpa said through chat. I did, and a moment later, the quest text disappeared. Then another announcement popped up.

[This is a zone-wide announcement. Misfits Guild is attempting a bonus objective. Should they succeed, they will be rewarded. Should they fail, those who stopped them will receive a reward in their place.]

Oh crap. So the system was screwing with us.

Juana sent frantically, What just happened? We got a notification here. Everyone's going to be on you.

I didn't answer her. Instead, picking up my pace and sprinting through the woods toward Podaga's clearing. We had not seen any messages like this in the last day, even though the system said two other bosses had been taken down. Maybe the others hadn't received a follow-up quest or hadn't bothered to accept it.

By the time I got back to the clearing, Grandpa was already busy organizing things. The three captive Rusalka had emerged from the bathhouse, long white dresses dripping water and dark hair plastered against their heads. They were barefoot, which I hoped wouldn't be an issue.

"Alright, Shad," Grandpa was saying, "you’re part of our scouting and mobile kill squad. We don't want to waste any more time than we have to. Everyone on the map is probably converging on us right now. It's about a mile back to the Rusalkas’ pond cross-country. Let’s move and hope we can stay ahead of the rush.”

One of the Rusalki drifted toward us. "You are taking us home to our sister?" she asked.

"That's the idea, ma'am." I tipped my hat to her. "Just stick with us and we'll get you home."

"Then we shall set off at once," she said and began walking along the little stream leading out of Podaga's bathhouse.

I groaned to myself. An escort quest. Great. "Ma'am, the quickest way is here.” I pointed off into the woods.

She turned to me, her luminous eyes liquid and pleading. "We cannot stray so far from the water," she said. "Our feet must remain damp or we are done for."

Sage groaned. "How about we give you boots full of water?"

The Rusalki and her sisters began following the stream.

"Get that drone in the air," Grandpa told Jones. "Scout the creek. Figure out how far it is to the Rusalka pond and where the likely ambushes are. We're going to have to hope that nobody here knows they're stuck on the water or this will be way too easy for anyone who wants to stop us. Shad. Bob. Annie. Lara. Hester." He looked around, pointing. "Frank and Will. All of you head that way. Take one of the healers with you."

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The two girls I had met at Mama Grace's diner earlier were standing right by me. They giggled. I probably had a funny look on my face. "Which of you two can keep up with us and heal under stress?"

Lauren pointed at her blonde friend. "Macy's the one you want." They giggled again.

I wasn't so sure about this but nodded. "Alright, Macy. You're with us. Let's go. Team Ragtag Redux, move out."

As we set off along the stream, I kept watching my mini-map for any enemies while I quickly pulled up the ability lists of our new miners. They were all three level 4, which considering how much XP everyone had just gotten probably meant they'd been level 2 at best a minute ago. That meant they had more than likely spent most of the last year as lotus eaters. Hester was a Non-Ironic Beat Poet, and Will was a Firefighter. At least he had some straightforward abilities. All Hester’s were described in iambic pentameter.

Well, they were what I had to work with. At least they all had their starting abilities, even if they hadn't gained many skills or abilities in the time since. "Anyone who's got any sort of camouflage detection, keep it going and yell if you spot anything,” I said. I kept my own enhanced minimap up, watching for enemy dots. I didn’t always see through camouflage, but anyone else I’d see a quarter mile out.

I wished I had Jones, but I understood why Grandpa was keeping him. He would be able to help camouflage our group. Plus, it was hard to fly the drone and fight at the same time.

"It's not a matter of if someone comes, it's when," I told them as we raced along the stream, stooping under overhanging branches. Hester tripped on a root and Annie helped her up.

Will kept up with me easily. He shot me a quick grin. “This is fun. Really, really fun. I should have come out of hiding months ago.”

“Glad to have you along now.” Now that we’ve gotten the death penalty removed and it’s all fun and games. I still remembered Phase One, where death was permanent and one wrong move might get me or my sister killed. But that was behind us now. I focused on the task at hand.

Grandpa sent me a private message. I'm having the Grignarian squad sweep around to our south, toward where we think several of the other outposts are located. They should give us warning, and I've told them to ambush anyone they see coming for us.

Roger.

It's not that I think they're going to backstab us now, Grandpa added, but I can't be sure. Hopefully anyone who sees them will attack on sight and give us that much warning, at least.

Yeah, they do seem to be pretty universally hated, I agreed.

We had made it about 300 yards downstream when Hester spoke up. "Someone up ahead. I've got them on [Pierce the Veil]. You should see them in a sec here.”

I checked the ability description. Yup, that was the one that said “A rhyme and a riddle, a cunning decree/Reveals hidden foes, with poet's decree”. I got a B- in English my senior year, so I wasn’t an expert, but that seemed like pretty awful poetry to me.

Not the critical thing right now. As the red dots appeared, I threw up a hand. Most of the team stopped right away, though Macy kept on until she walked into the back of Bob. “There's eight of them. Spread out," I shouted as the red dots appeared on my map. "Frank, remember how we handled the Quetzalcoatlus?”

“Got you, partner.”

I activated Fastest Gun in the West and charged at the approaching group. As soon as I was close enough, I threw a Call 'em Out and yelled for Frank.

He hit his Emergency Responder ability, and with a disorienting switch, I found myself 50 feet back with a nice taunt on all of our enemies.

I ran a little farther before turning. They were eight of them, and four had pursued me right into the middle of our group. Bob threw Lost in Translation, confounding their abilities to work together. I hit the closest one to me with a Barrage and then targeted the farthest off, who was standing just behind three others. They were orcs, but not firebrand. The four farthest off all had guns.

I used Trick Shot to send a Scatter Round at the farthest. This was a new toy Dwight and Sage had made me. The bullet would fragment on impact, seek out the nearest targets, and impart a short-duration fear which, depending on how well they resisted, would either have them trembling in their boots or running for cover. It was an incredibly expensive round, and one of the few that apparently worked better on miners than on NPCs. This was my first chance to use it, and I was delighted as it quickly scattered the rear guard.

Then I dove in toward the four that had gotten themselves in the middle of my group. Meanwhile, Frank had one of the farther ones Restrained. I decided to trust his instincts and focus on the closest set. Hester was laying down a quick beat, her [Sonic Sonnet] ability, which further disoriented the orcs while dealing sonic damage. Lara was throwing her orange grenades around merrily.

The close-in orcs all carried vibrating, glowing swords, so as soon as I got in range, I hit [Never Bring a Knife to a Gunfight] and they dropped their weapons. That trick shouldn't work on any group of miners more than once, but it seemed like our opponents weren't sharing any information with each other.

I followed up with a Trick Shot to one orc's wrist. I had a set of bullets that did a significant amount of localized damage rather than the more generic chipping away at a health pool, and this one blew his wrist off as he was reaching for his sword. Will screamed and ran in, wielding a fireman’s axe and smashing the orc I had just disabled in the head.

The next orc over had drawn a knife. He stabbed Will’s exposed back. Will only had 60 HP. He probably hadn't had time to distribute his new stat points. I winced as half his health was gone in one hit.

"Get him up!" I yelled to Macy, who extended a hand and pulled a baton from her inventory. She had been wearing a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt at Mama Grace's restaurant, but she had changed at some point.

Now she had a short blue skirt with ruffles and an athletic top with a panther face in blue on it. I hadn't pulled up her profile before, since I had been trying to see what kind of offensive abilities Hester and Will had to work with, but it was pretty clear Macy was a cheerleader.

A beam of sparkling blue and white balls flew out of her baton toward the injured man, exploding as they hit him. Not balls, I realized. Pom-poms.

Sometimes the reality engine's specialized classes were a little silly. But then again, here I was running around a southern European forest in an outfit that would make Wyatt Earp feel embarrassed.

I shot the nearest orc a few more times. My team took some damage, but we had interrupted the ambushers before they had a chance to get in position.

We had six of them down before the last two managed to reclaim their weapons and take up a back-to-back defensive position. They cut down Will and almost killed Bob. Macy's pom-pom barrage saved my translator friend just in time.

I delivered a final headshot to the last orc. As the body sparkled and vanished, I sent a message to Grandpa.

It's clear for now. Keep coming.

We couldn't pause if we wanted to, Grandpa said grimly. Once these gals got started, they won't stop. They're following the stream. I can see you from here, Shad. Get moving.

I swore, gathered up what was left of my team, and started off again.

The Grignarians reported in. We have encountered the Akazan. Fifteen of them. We are accounting for ourselves. It took me a minute to remember that the dwarves had referred to themselves at the party by that name. I also remembered how much they had hated the Grignarians. Hopefully this was a grudge match that would occupy some time, but if there were two groups on us, there were probably more.

I kept up my pace. The Rusalkas’ pond appeared through the trees. We were almost there.

I pinged my map and groaned, sending word back to Grandpa at once. There's a whole bunch grouped up ahead of us. They've had time to dig in. At least fourteen. We're going to have to face them. They're right between us and the lake.

Got another group on our tail, Grandpa reported. Don't know if they're coordinated or just lucky.

Send me who you can spare, I said.

A minute later, six more miners, including Sage, popped in. I knew most of them already. Jack and Esma waved hello. I hadn’t seen them since the big Phase One fight that had seen Misfits triumph over Major Waters. I pulled up what the newcomers could do, just as Juana sent me a quick message.

We've got a plan for you, Shad.

Am I going to like it?

You won't hate it, she replied, which I did not think was a particularly good sign.

“You’ve got about thirty seconds before I go in myself."

Arjun's sending everyone the details, she said. A quick set of bullet points flashed up in my list.

I hope he's sending everyone else less.

You've got the overview. They just know what they need to do. Good luck, she said.