“So, nobody’s been summoned since this began?” I asked.

“Correct. We’ve documented that a few people were summoned at the start of this, but after the number of these mini dungeons was over ten, it was like the switch was flipped and the summonings were all cut off.

“Why don’t we leave one dungeon in place, guard it against creatures coming out, then all of us could go back to normal lives,” I asked.

“We can’t, there’s more than a few of you who would love for this to whole summoned being thing to end, but the rest do not. On top of that, these dungeons continuously grow in strength. What happens when a year from now, the dungeon is spitting out monsters that our weapons can’t handle?” Agent Lopez said.

He was right, the risk was too high to leave a dungeon open. I’d just have to work myself out of my current status in another manner. It was possible, the information broker on the first tier of city proved that., but it was going to take time and hard work. For now, I needed to help eliminate the threat to everyone that the dungeons represented.

“Is there anything else about these remaining dungeons that you can tell us?” Marie asked.

“About the only other thing is something that’s a bit odd. It probably doesn’t apply to these dungeons, but I wanted to share everything we’ve found about the others. Three of the dungeons that were cleared had multiple factions inside,” Lopez said.

“That’s not too weird, inside ours, the kobolds and camel spiders were battling each other. If they’d worked together, I don’t think things would have gone as well for us,” I said.

“True, but in each of three dungeons I mentioned, one of the factions was friendly. In one, the boss was the head of the friendly faction, and with our help, they cleared out all the hostiles. Once the hostiles were cleared out, the dungeon vanished like the others, despite the boss still being alive,” Lopez said.

“I suppose that since we’ve lost people in the remaining dungeons, we can’t expect a friendly greeting,” I asked.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t get my hopes up on that. For now, you’d best plan on going in with guns blazing. I suppose with you guys, its spells and abilities blazing, not guns,” Lopez said.

“How soon until we go to clear the dungeons?” I asked.

“Any time now, the analysts are working on optimizing the team structures. Everyone that’s been involved in clearing the other dungeons has volunteered so we should have a good mix to work with,” Lopez added.

We waited inside the hotel, Marie sent Julio back to Refuge to gather up fresh clothing and personal items for us, and Lopez arranged for us to have rooms in the hotel to rest in. The analysts said they needed a couple of hours, but things stretched on. At some point, the hotel staff set up a buffet in the conference room, and after eating and taking a shower, I crashed out in my room.

I was woken by a call on the room phone, it was Lopez telling me to head down to the conference room. The nap had been one of those that was just long enough to make you feel even more tired than you had felt before you slept. Everyone else looked about like I felt. Fighting for your life can wear you out like nothing else. I had much more respect for soldiers who were stuck in combat for extended periods of time.

“The results are in, and from your Refuge group, we’ll be taking Marie and Rico. You’ll be joining the team heading to the Georgia dungeon. We have an aircraft waiting for you, and we need to leave as soon as you’re ready. Every minute we wait gives the dungeon time to get stronger,” Lopez said.

“If time was so critical, why did you analysts waste so much of it? They’ve obviously made more than a few errors on who they’re taking along,” Elliot complained in a mocking tone. Not being chosen must have been a blow to his ego, and he was back to his old tricks.

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“The teams needed to be fine-tuned if they were going to have a chance to survive, and by your attitude, they made the right choice by not picking you,” Lopez said harshly, a bit of his old military demeanor coming through.

“Who are we teaming up with? I asked.

“There’re two summoned beings with warrior and tank type classes. James Hallen from another Refuge location, and Melissa Davies from one of the Grimslade teams. Marie, you’ll provide trap detection and illusion support, while Rico’s summons will give us extra numbers and flexibility. Another two from Grimslade, a healer named Nicholas James, and a force mage named Eliza Lynn will round out your group,” Lopez advised.

“What tier and rank are they?” I asked.

“Everyone is at least tier one, rank six, and most are close to two. One of the tanks, James, just hit tier two, rank one and is a monster. You’ll have time to go over everyone’s dossier on the flight. Now, if there isn’t any other pressing business, we need to get moving,” Lopez said.

The ride to the airport was quick, and we didn’t have to go through the normal screening process. I guess if you’re guests of the government and are helping to take on a threat to the nation, you didn’t have to take off your shoes and walk through the metal detector. The plane was one of those fancy private jets, which I’d always wanted to ride on. It would have been a much better experience if I was heading to a vacation, but I was possibly heading to a violent death, so that took some of the shine off of it.

While on the four-hour flight to Macon Georgia, Marie and I read up on who our new team was, and what they could do. There wasn’t a whole lot of detail offered, just the basics on each team member. Marie and I knew how to work together, and I hoped we wouldn’t have any problems with the others. When I voiced my concerns, Marie tried to reassure me in that mom-like manner that she had perfected.

“Don’t worry, Rico, their analysts wouldn’t have grouped us if there were going to be personality conflicts. We’re all on the same team, trying to accomplish the same goal. We kill the dungeon boss, and we’re done. Take some time to read up on the others and we can discuss before we land,” Marie offered. I took her advice, going through each dossier, surprised to see both our dossiers were included in the packet.

James Hallen, Wall Warrior, tier 2, rank 1.

James’ class focuses on creating walls of magical force around him and his allies. These walls deal damage to any foe that strikes them, and the magic forming them also makes enemies more likely to focus their attacks on James. A former bodybuilder, James can wear extremely heavy armor, a suit which he is able to bring back and forth to Earth. His main weapon is a spiked shield he wields in one hand, and a long spear in the other. Despite having a limited number of melee skills, his main damage output comes from enemies hitting his barriers and damaging themselves.

Melissa Davies, Blood Reaper, tier 1, rank 8.

Melissa’s class focuses on health regeneration and stealing life from her opponents. As she takes damage in combat, her strength, agility, and constitution grow. With each blow she strikes, some of the enemy’s lifeforce is siphoned off. Wearing light armor, Melissa prefers to wield two weapons that she can bring back and forth from Earth. In one hand she uses a punch dagger, and in the other, a clawed glove.

Nicholas James, Aura Mage, tier 1, rank 7.

Nicholas activates and maintains auras that protect and heal his allies or damage his enemies. While the auras continuously drain a small amount of mana while active, Nicholas can force additional mana into them to boost the healing and damage rates.

Eliza Lynn, Force Mage, tier 1, rank 6.

Eliza can manipulate raw mana to use as a weapon or a shield. Certain force-based spells, such as magic missile are enhanced by her class and their mana cost is reduced. This force magic can be shaped by the mage to take on various forms to deal with a variety of threats.

Marie Dumont, Illusion Mage, tier 1, rank 7.

Marie can create illusions that are able to attack any foe that believes in their existence. She can also detect hidden traps and dangers within a small radius around her. If any traps are based on illusion magic, she can disarm them and absorb a portion of the mana used to create them.

Rico Kline, Foe Summoner, tier 1, rank 7.

Rico’s class allows him to summon a limited number of creatures taken from a pool of those he has fought against and defeated. In addition to summoning his minions, he also has spells and abilities that increase their power.

“They didn’t give a lot of detail, but I suppose that’s a good thing since our information is also in their system,” I said, still not quite sure I wanted every detail of my abilities out there for the government and others to see.

“Not a bad party overall, what do you think?” Marie asked.

“We should do fine, with the variety of classes and skills, I think we have most of the potential dangers covered. I would love to have some time with the others to work out our tactics, but I think we’re going to be too pressed for time to do much of htat,” I said as the pilot announced we were on our final landing approach. Once on the ground, we would meet up with the rest of the team and do what we could to destroy the dungeon.