It took the group nearly a week to find a solution. Melding ruined a dozen suits of armor and three times that many wolf pelts. Whatever mixture of skills they needed. Or the order in which those skills must be applied was beyond all of them.

For now.

Instead, Trillia enlisted Ba'Shoon's help. Ba'Shoon, Marg, Amelia, and Malor found some hefty temporary enchantments that were resistant to dispelling using the icy chitin. It gave hefty bonuses against ice and acid but also a speed malus that the group would have to contend with.

Malor was most worried about the speed malus, seeing as their last challenge of the second-floor boss had nothing to do with acid when it concerned his injuries.

The group stood outside the dungeon, donning their armor. Trillia reached into a pouch and produced three small vials. "I worked with Marg to create these. Traded most of my copper trinkets away for the materials. They should increase your agility by thirty percent. Coupled with either Amelia or I using Astra's Agility, you should be well past your old agility, even with the ice enchantments on our armor."

Malor took one of the potions and nodded his thanks. The other potions went to Amelia and Layla. Frederick didn't seem to have a speed malus. Trillia really needed to pick his brain to see what he was actually capable of. Because for just an "armourer," he certainly had a wide array of skills.

Amelia rubbed her snout as she sighed heavily. "If we fail the boss this time. My vote is to level up outside on other creatures. Maybe even travel closer to the rift where the monsters have stronger traits."

Everyone voiced their agreement with that statement in one way or another. Trillia didn't blame them. They wanted progress just as badly as she did. "We could also go to D'Jamu and see how many more undead dungeons have risen. They'd be significantly more dangerous, but if there are hostile cores there, it could go a long way towards us leveling."

The group was far less ready to agree to that. Frederick had grown up hearing horror stories of undead dungeons. He seemed to have no real interest in visiting one.

The first floor went smoothly. Even Stibs and Paws barely gave the group pause. They quickly found themselves on the second floor with two icy abominations dead.

"Damn! That's what we should have done!" Fred's outburst caused the group to swivel and look towards him. The man was holding a piece of chitin, shaking his head. "We could have just made massive shields out of the chitin. Malor and Amelia use two-handed weapons, but both of you have one-handed variants. Trillia can still attack with her artifact bow. It would have given us something we could have used to block the acid."

Amelia carved off another piece of the chitin and inspected it. Malor motioned to the group. "So why don't we? Rules don't say we need to challenge the boss. Let's just spend a few hours clearing abominations. In fact, we could go so far as to level our resistance skills a few times. I know we'll get reduced skill experience since we aren't in any serious danger. But some is better than none."

Trillia looked around at the group. "Any objections?" The group seemed fine with the idea. Even Amelia, who had grown increasingly impatient with their lack of progress, was happy with an actual plan.

-=- Three MORE Days Later -=-

The group had what Alfred called a scutum. Another new word for Trillia to memorize. It referred to a large semi-cylindrical shield. Marg and Alfred instructed the group on how to make a shield wall with them and fight defensively. The acid would be an issue for their feet, but as long as their armor was enchanted with protection, the group should be fine.

As the group descended into the second floor again. Trillia couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship of the shield. The dark blue chitin overlapped and gave the shields an almost draconic-scale look. If they all held their shields at a slight angle, it looked like the group itself was a serpent.

They tested a shield wall against the regular abominations. Red River seemed interested in their new tactics as well and was happy to throw three of the things against them all at once.

To Trillia's surprise, the group didn't even take damage. The shields blocked all of their breath weapon effects, and to Trillia's surprise, she found fighting with a shield worked extremely well for her combat style. Sure, she couldn't cast spells or use her rapier. But she was still able to throw out a constant barrage of mana bolts over the top of the little shield wall they sometimes managed. She'd have to work with the family on other shield designs.

Amelia was giving her an odd look, and Trillia realized she had been staring at the shield, giggling. Trillia cleared her throat and looked at her friend. "I was just thinking, despite how good orcs are at combat and war. The humans seem to know an awful lot about it."

Fred laughed at that, slapping Trillia's back as he walked past to help carve up the three kills. "It's because humans don't get any boost to their stats. We just get increased experience and the ability to mentor people. We had to do something, or we'd get crushed by superior numbers."

That made sense.

The group stood before the barrier and did one last gear check to ensure everything was in proper order. Trillia raised her crossbow to the barrier. "Everyone ready?"

Malor raised a hand to stop her. As everyone turned to look at him, he called out. "Red River! Could you send Gobbinz to speak with us for a moment?" The others gave questioning glances, and he continued. "I don't want him to stop the fight. I instead want him to call out if a member of our party is downed. I know it's cheating, in a way. But I think it will help. I want us to learn to fight to the last. After all, in a normal dungeon, the enemies aren't going to stop."

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

Gobbinz popped out of a hole in the ceiling a few seconds later. "Father says he's okay with your plan. We'll have some healing brothers on hand. The rules will be that if you fall below five percent of your max health. You are considered dead for the purpose of this fight. Once we heal you, you are not allowed to assist your team in any way. That includes no shouting or information relay. Acceptable?"

The group nodded. Gobbinz wished them luck and vanished.

Trillia cleared the barrier. The second the barrier was down, two arrows came flying through the still-falling pieces. Layla's intercept with her new shield made the attack ineffective.

This time, the group didn't split up. Instead, they charged down together.

The indigo gem was raised. As Trillia prepared for the mist to roll in, a bellow from her side startled her.

"[Shatter Enchantment]!" Malor hurled a throwing hammer at the gem, and as the mist began to gather, a loud crack resounded in the arena. The mist vanished just as quickly as it appeared. The abomination glared at the minotaur, who whispered to the group. "I won't be able to use any of my skills for ten minutes. I'm just swinging a weapon and acting as a shield. I figure it's worth it if we have vision."

The group said nothing and pressed on.

As they drew closer to the creature's body, they saw the second hybrid slithering down from the hole in the ceiling. Most peculiar, however, was the abominations that began appearing from the walls and raking the rim. For some reason, Trillia had assumed it was the hybrid. Perhaps because of their first fight.

Most of the danger of the fight came from the ceiling hybrid. It would coil its body up and spring down at them. Each arm held a trident that the creature slammed forward in rapid succession. Malor and Layla focused on defending the group from the trident wielder's attacks. The hybrid in front of them spewed acid and arrows in their direction.

A few arrows got through and bit into flesh. But well-timed shields kept everything else at bay. Soon, the group was within striking range of the creature. The ceiling hybrid was having some difficulty, striking at the much smaller targets around its partner's bulk. Trillia had been unloading volleys the entire time, and as they got close, she dropped her shield.

Her right hand came up as more mana began flowing into her hand.

"[Armor Break]!" The sound of chitin smashing caused the group to glance at Layla, who had smashed through several layers of chitin.

"[Armor Break]!" Another weak spot was exposed. The hybrid began uncoiling to pull away when Malor charged forward, swinging an axe.

Frederick pulled some sort of large hooked weapon from his seemingly endless supply of weapons and slammed it into one of the weak spots created by Layla.

"[Metallicize Body]!" Trillia was caught off guard when Fred - including his armor and weapons - turned into a solid, steely color. As the creature tried to drag itself away, Fred's body held fast with the hook. Trillia glanced at the ground to see small tendrils of metal rooting him to the floor.

Trillia dug deep into the group's recent failures and her own troubled past. She felt [Orcish Fury] bubbling inside of her and happily released it. She watched as her stamina plummeted and her Wisdom skyrocketed. A thought came to her. She remembered being told that even if you didn't need to chant, doing so increased the power of your abilities.

"May the fury of the Infernal Bands scar body and soul, [Searing Rend]!"

As she swiped with her right hand in a claw-like fashion, she startled even herself. The temperature around her shot up forty degrees as black flames clung to the shattered and sliced hybrid's body. Trillia watched her stamina and mana plummet. Not that she'd notice the missing few thousand points of mana. She chanted again and again. Trillia was aware of Amelia and Malor using their own skills, having turned their focus toward the ceiling hybrid. Layla had managed to get to the ground hybrid's face. Despite her being the smallest member, she suddenly looked massive.

The one-handed mace looked like a child's toy in her hand as she smashed it into and completely through the chitinous armor of their enemy.

Trillia's vision blurred as her focus was lost. At some point, she had stopped shooting volleys, and the infernal call of searing rend consumed her mind.

She felt a heavy thud against her side and paid it no mind.

She watched as her health fell below zero.

And she paid it no mind.

She was vaguely aware of people calling out to her but paid them no mind.

Finally, she was yanked backward and smacked across the face with something hard and heavy. She felt her lip split open.

Blinking away the daze, she saw her right arm covered in a blue ichor. Most terrifying was the ephemeral outline of a demon's claw attached to her left arm, which was also covered in blue ichor. Ialu, who had taken to biting at the back of the ground hybrid during the fight, was now sitting on Trillia's chest, whimpering.

She saw Layla standing next to her with mace in hand, ready to apparently hit her again. Trillia blinked more of the dizziness away. The others had surrounded her, as had Gobbinz and several other healing goblins. As she tried to open her mouth to speak, she found herself unable. A glance at her resources showed her health just barely above zero and her stamina in the negatives. Her health rapidly depleting to refill her empty stamina.

In the next few breaths, she watched her mana reserves tank by a few hundred thousand and knew her many traits and skills were working overtime to keep her vaguely coherent and conscious. Amelia kneeled next to her. "That's something we'll have to discuss with someone more notable about. For now, we need to get her out of the dungeon and to Ba'Shoon. Ba'Shoon will hopefully know how to fix this. If not, Kismet will. Is it ok if we grab our rewards for clearing the second floor at another time?"

As Trillia's vision blurred again, she heard Gobbinz's voice with more than a little worry in it. "Yes, yes, that's fine. Just make sure she is ok. I'll have someone take your drops to that armor shop you're all working out of. Tell her I said you all did well when she comes around."

Trillia tried to speak and say she could hear them, but her body suddenly felt weightless, and she realized she was being carried. Layla's voice barely reached her through the darkness. "This happens when mortals channel too much power. Our bodies aren't made to channel so much mana all at once. It's believed that's why dragons grow so large. So that their bodies are accustomed to the amount of mana they produce and use. Trillia is no dragon. We need to stop pushing her to be our primary source of damage. It's not fair that we rely on her bottomless mana to win our fights."

Again, Trillia tried to speak and argue that she was happy to be of use, but no words came forth. She heard some more mumbling from the others and knew that tenacity was going to take its toll. She wouldn't be out for days, thanks to all of her traits propping her up, but she wasn't immune to its effects either.