After the demon wave, several days passed during which the monster activity was relatively quiet.

Dave had jumped over his shadow and started working on his Mana flow practices with Bixby. There were lots of times he wanted to quit, but he was making real progress. Not just was the connection to his inner Mana channels coming easier to him every passing day, he also felt more at peace somehow.

Dave found it hard to explain. It wasn’t really a shift in his perspective or thinking, nor had his worries become less. It was just that he felt somehow more capable to deal with things. His training went by easier, which also isn’t to say that he didn’t still work his ass off, but he just felt more intuned with his body. And therefore with anything around him really.

Even Bixby praised him for his fast progress.

“You’ve become a lot more adapted in just this last week Dave,” Bixby said while they were making their way back to the camp after practice.

Dave had found some time after his usual training to get after it with Bixby. It was still before he would meet with Mira, which could be one of the reasons for his lifted mood.

“Thanks. I also feel a lot stronger,” Dave said. “I can almost feel the second rank.”

Bxiby chuckled drily. “I said you’re making progress, but that doesn’t mean you can run before you can properly walk.”

That soured Dave’s mood somewhat, but he had expected an answer along those lines.

Dave was nervously fidgeting with his fingers while staring at the campfire flickering ahead of him.

The whole group sat surrounding the flame, they were all nervous. The situation was pretty tense. Since the weird demon wave, the waves had been even harder than usual. While Max had gotten injured during the demon wave, it was only slightly. Or at least relatively lightly. His burn marks had been nothing to scoff at, and would’ve potential crippled him for life in the old world. Fortunately they didn’t live in the old world anymore. So he had been fine to walk around only a day later, with no major hindrances.

On the flip side, they hadn’t even needed to activate Grace Period that day, which while sounding like a pleasant surprise on the surface, highlighted just in how much danger Max had been.

The next two waves had been even harder. So now they sat together to discuss the topic they had tried to avoid for as long as possible.

“Maybe two more,” Ryland said while taking a hefty bite out a vegetable that looked remarkably similar to a potato but tasted almost like chicken.

Sarah frowned at him. “Could you maybe wait with eating until we’re done here?”

“Why wait until it’s cold?” Rlyand said defensively.

But after Sarah threw him an icy glance, he nodded sheepishly and put his food away.

Following the exchange, Max shook his head amused. “Listen, the last wave may not have been that strong, but we should still start thinking about when and how we will rush the spawner.”

“You call that easy?” Sam snorted.

Indeed the last wave had been rather annoying. It had consisted of what looked like humans made out of steel. They were slightly shorter than Dave, but their bodies were solid. Thankfully not quite as solid as steel though, so while they were able to pierce their skin, it had been quite the ordeal.

Thankfully the last monster wave didn’t come in huge numbers but it the monsters were deceptively strong. Strong enough that Dave hadn’t been able to fight more than two of the steel mans at one.

He had jokingly called them silver surfers, because of their uncanny resemblance, although they thankfully weren’t half as strong as the comic book character. In fact they also hadn’t been the smartest foe they had faced, so with a few maneuvers to distract them, the group had been able to split up the handful of steel mans long enough to finish the job on them.

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Their injuries had been rather small, only a few bruises and a broken bone or two, but the fight had dragged on for an eternity. Due to their hardness it had been difficult to decisively dispose of them, but they had managed in the end. Still with having taken them almost two hours it had been the longest engagement they have had so far.

“Dude compared to the golem they were childs play to deal with.” Max said.

Sam sighed and shrugged. “Can’t argue with that. I had to work overshifts for two days after your golem injuries.”

“See, what if the next wave, or the wave after will be a boss wave again?” Max argued.

“It should still be quite a while until the next boss wave,” Bixby said “Although one can never be sure.”

“Well, then there’s no sense in predicting now, is there?” Sarah said her voice still on edge.

Hearing the sharpness of her voice, Dave decided to jump in. “Why don’t we focus on how we rush the spawner first?”

“That’s a good idea.” Ryland said, nodding and rubbing the leftover vegetable grease out of his face with the back of his hand.

“So? We just go there, find the spawner and destroy it, no?” Sam said.

“Well it will be a lot more dangerous than that.” Bixby said. “The generated monsters will be the thickest around the spawner, so we will definetly have to fight.”

“How many will there be?” Sarah asked.

“it’s hard to say, but at least twice as much as make their way over here for a wave.”

“Twice as much?” Sarah said shocked. “Can we even deal with that?”

Sarah and Sam paled at that. Dave looked over and saw Mira looking remarkably calm. She had been a little withdrawn lately, and Dave was worried. She had stayed silent during most of their discussion, only nodding along. But that wasn’t what made Dave worried about her. It was the fact how she closed off during their last few walks, something she hadn’t done before. Unsure if it was fear or resolve that kept her quiet now, and worried about whatever else might be up, Dave made a mental note to speak with her later.

“Well that’s why we should go sooner rather than later,” Bixby said calmly. “As Max said, we have a good amount of Mana Shards right now, the chances are good that we could get enough loot from the spawner to be able to purchase our transportation token on the way back.”

“It will be dangerous won’t it?” Sarah asked.

Max turned to look at her. “What hasn’t been dangerous since we’ve been here?”

She returned his look and simply nodded.

“So when do we go then?” Sam asked.

“Why not now?” Max raised his eyebrow.

The question quieted everybody for a second, because while they all knew what they had been discussing, it hadn’t been totally real before they had a concrete timeline.

Then Bixby spoke up again. “I don’t think going now would be wise, we don’t even know where exactly the spawner is. I say we use the next wave or two to collect some data, and try to find the way to the spawner. Then we wait for one or two more waves, wait until a monster wave has the type of monster that plays into our strengths.”

“If it’s one of the demon types or similar again, that’s perfect. If it’s multiple of these almost undestroyable golems, not so much.”

They kept going back and forth a while after that. There was understandable nervousness, it would definitely be their hardest battle according to Bixby.

Dave himself was a little scared. More than a little actually. For all the things he had seen and faced so far, it was still quite a shock to go on what sounds like a suicide mission.

Part of him was relieved he could still feel that way. Relieved that he still was normal. However there was also this smaller, quieter part in him. The part of him that was excited. The part that he had slowly cultivated and grown, like a delicate flower in a greenhouse. He had grown it by facing battles, by chasing challenges and by embracing his desire to get stronger.

Because as dangerous as the mission might be, it was also a way to grow. There was lots of experience to be had, lots of monsters to kill. But the thing that really made Dave’s heart tick; there was a chance they would encounter one of the elite Nodefoxes again.

According to Bixby, the chance was there, yet hopefully not high. In his estimation they all together wouldn’t be enough to deal with Sukanst or any other second rank Nodefox that could come after them. He made it clear that the main objective would be to simply run, if they encountered any strong foe like that.

And even though Dave knew he was right, he didn’t want to believe it. It has been three months since Sukanst, the light beam throwing Nodefox, had almost devastated their camp and killed his friends, seriously injuring Dave in the process.

Another month before that, a not so different thing happened at the riverbend, where Dave faced off against Marekiel and one of his disciples. Back then Dave also had been not match for either of them, and he knew he would still be no match for Marekiel. But the feeling of helplessness had festered so long in Dave, that he was sick of it.

Instead of fearing their strong enemies. Instead of worrying and hoping they wouldn’t be chased by a second rank Nodefox. Dave instead cultivated that small part of him again. The part that saw the challenge, that wanted to prove itself and grew even stronger.

That part of Dave was looking for danger like a moth looking for light.

The decision was reached pretty quickly. Bixby’s suggestion had made a lot of sense. So they decided to use the next wave to scout around a little, and then wait for the next wave to decide if the monsters were fitting for them.

No matter what kind of monster they would face, they would have to go during the next three waves.