"For most adventurers, especially long time partymates, exercising the same strategy over and over again isn't necessarily a bad thing. But there are ones that are inherently bad and should be immediately rectified." ~Stachie, Goddess of Loneliness and Isolation

"Should we go back and plan?"

Grace didn't really want to, if she had any choice. But Tayin's suggestion, and Ren's reaction made it clear that the two didn't want to risk it.

As far as Shallies' map went, there weren't any monsters left in this half of the island. Meaning that their only other way of improvement was to spar with each other under the Godkiller's guidance, and it didn't exactly feel proper to do so while inside an actual dungeon where they could level up.

Besides, if it was dangerous, Shallies would've stopped them…

"*I'll never ask you to take the easy route."

Sure, and she told us she wouldn't put us in a place that would probably be fatal…

Still, Grace couldn't help but think they were at a disadvantage with three Mini-Bosses. They couldn't even afford to Scan them at this time, should they opt for a surprise attack.

Maybe we can just Scan them first, then run for it if it's dangerous…

While she was busy thinking, the other two had turned to her with their heads tilted somewhat.

"Sorry, did you ask something?" she asked.

"I knew it!" Tayin hissed. "She doesn't want to go back."

"Don't you want to take your ascension first, Grace?" Ren asked. "We might have a better chance if you put all seven levels in your ascension. But again, we don't really want to rush you."

"What if I just invest four and raise it to fifty?" Grace replied. "I can get another Skill that way and put the remaining three into Mana Weaver, so I can get another Skill."

The two looked at each other.

"There's really nothing stopping us from retreating now, Grace," Tayin started. "We can just take a break and wait for you to figure out which ascension you want to take."

Grace sighed. She realized she was being unreasonable.

"Stachie, can you contact Shallies for us?"

Her System Console opened up to the Godkiller in the middle of a forest. She was on a tree branch, collecting some weird looking fruit.

"What's up?" she asked.

"We're done with the monsters on this side of the island," Grace started. "We're coming back to invest our Levels before we take on the Delve Gate."

"Sure," Shallies replied, dropping the weird fruits towards Valor'el. "I'll have dinner ready in a bit. Is that why you called?"

"Well…" Grace scratched her head. Her own partymates were confused as well.

"Well, what?"

"I was wondering if you can reward us with something enticing if we deal with the Delve Gate now, rather than tomorrow."

Shallies smirked. "You think ascending before dealing with them is cheating, don't you?"

"Not exactly," Grace admitted. "But I don't think I would feel like I deserve to do that."

Based on their reactions, Ren and Tayin didn't seem to agree.

"There's such a thing as over-discipline, Grace," Shallies said. "There's a reason why I allowed you to take your time with this dungeon."

The half-orc couldn't argue against that. But she couldn't just accept it, either. They had so much time left, and wasting it on sitting down to make decisions rather than progressing their levels seemed like an awful waste of the resource.

Shallies' audible sigh from the System Console pulled everyone's attention.

"Fine," the Godkiller began. "I'll reward each of you a Rare-rarity Class Equipment if you can defeat at least one of the Mini-Bosses today."

"Just one?" Tayin asked. "And we get a reward each?"

"Yes," Shallies replied. "There're no more rewards after that. I have to make it flexible at least, in case you guys actually bite off more than you can chew. Discuss it among yourselves. Either way, I'll have dinner ready before you return."

Without saying goodbye, the System Console closed.

[Shallies has temporarily set her communications to 'do-not-disturb', and will only be accessible in case of emergencies,] Stachie said.

"What do you think, Stachie?" Ren asked, curiously. "Should we go for the reward?"

[I wouldn't advise relying on my opinions for situations like this, Ren,] the System Assistant responded audibly. [If Shallies had told you to discuss this amongst yourselves, then that's also what I'll say to you.]

"You really don't want to go back, yet, huh?" Tayin said to Grace.

"Sorry," she said. "I know I'm being stubborn, but I want to prove that I'm the one who improved, not just because of my levels."

"It's fine," Ren said. "Since Shallies is around, she can help us in case we end up in danger."

Grace shook her head. "That's not going to happen. You saw what happened to me with the noldzwjak."

"Yeah, but Phey'lan predicted that and gave us some help. I'm sure Shallies knew about that as well."

"True, but without Shallies' Angel's Tear, I wouldn't be here. She said she didn't know when I would use it. She only gave it to me as a precaution, as an assurance in case of emergencies. She didn't intend for me to use it exactly in that situation.

"She told us that we're the ones who get to choose what we do. And that she won't be saving us in case we get ourselves killed. We shouldn't rely on her to help us, at least, not anymore than she already does."

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"She's got a point, Ren," Tayin said. "If we're doing this, we need to come up with a plan to isolate one of those three. If we can deal with one of the Mini-Boss easily, then I won't complain if we try to fight two at the same time. But three at the same time, I think, is pushing our luck a little too much!"

Grace nodded. "I'd much prefer that, yes."

"So how do we do it?"

That got the half-orc stuck. She stopped herself from shrugging. She was the one who forced this situation, and not even trying to come up with a plan would be too presumptuous. Still, knowing that didn't mean that she could come up with something right away. Even Tayin was struggling.

Ren, however, was sighing like the answer had been obvious from the beginning.

"Come on, guys," he started. "We've done this before."

"We did?" The two girls asked at the same time.

"Why are we doing this again!?" Tayin screamed as she ran for her life. Grace had given her Haste and even added her newly acquired Manaweave: Agility to provide her with some additional speed. But still, the halfling felt like she was losing ground.

Three large monsters were behind at her heels. One looked like a gigantic jaguar with wings. It hadn't had wings earlier, as far as Tayin was concerned. Now, it was making small flaps with each gait, giving it tremendous bursts of speed.

Another monster was like a drillbull, but with six legs and actual scales covering its slender body. Those legs, Tayin noticed, were probably thicker than her, even with both arms spread out side to side.

Does more legs mean faster speed? She had no time to ponder on such a question. All that mattered was that she was ahead of them. Especially the third one, because it was actually flying.

The third monster was a bat, or some type of bat. It could be a dragon, Tayin wasn't sure. It had been busy chasing Chippy, but Grace had commanded the phoenix to get out of the fight while taking the enemy's attention with a ranged Flametongue. Sure enough, it started chasing them.

Chasing Tayin, for some reason, more than Grace.

Out of desperation, the halfling lashed out with a prepared twin-cast Shooting Star. The rays of cosmic mana hit the two monsters on the ground straight in their faces, effectively halting their pursuit for a moment.

The half-orc also followed up with another ranged Flametongue, this time paired with Sharpen Blade. She sent the arc of sharp, burning mana towards the flying bat monster. It barely dodged in time, getting its webbed wing clipped. The thin membrane ripped and burned, causing the monster to falter in the air. It had enough intelligence to make its descent safely, but now it had no mobility whatsoever.

"We're taking that one!" Grace shouted.

"Alright!" Tayin agreed, panting. "Now throw me again!"

"I need to make sure I get their attention first," said the half-orc. "Keep running."

"Oh, my god!"

Desperate, Tayin tapped into her Focus and invoked Sight Step while on the run. Her breathing wasn't aligned with her words. Her mana-flow was a bit rushed. And her mana-channels were strained. Not to mention she couldn't decide exactly where to fix her eyes.

Naturally, the Spell fizzled.

"Dammit!"

Within that moment, the jaguar and the bull had regained ground. The jaguar even started sending needles from its tail, attempting to put holes in its prey, at the cost of its running speed. At the same time, the bull picked up the pace.

Tayin felt a shift, and it took her a moment to realize that Grace had turned, facing both Mini-Bosses at the same time.

"Grace!"

The two monsters pounced at the half-orc.

I got them into this mess, I have to take responsibility!

Grace had no chance of using Parry against these huge Mini-Bosses. At her current Skill Proficiency, she could only deflect projectiles and strikes from enemies that were around her same size.

Dodging was her only choice.

Fortunately, she had a maxed out Lightning Surge, on which she had accumulated from all the running, waiting to be unleashed. She met the monsters with a significant step, closing in on the bull while avoiding the jaguar, and unleashed the Skill.

The eruption shocked and effectively surprised the two monsters, creating an opening that Grace was now quite familiar with. This time around, she had Flametongue and Sharpen Blade already in effect, allowing her to use another Skill without spending too much time.

Her Mana-Edge +4 glowed with orange brilliance as Grace used her new Skill.

"Blade Flourish!"

Grace's set her slash in a complete rotation, manifesting four instances of sharpened mana to cleave in all cardinal directions, with all the active buffs combining with them. The arcs caught both monsters cleanly, tearing scales and muscle fibers, and spreading flames throughout their bodies.

Their roars, however, showed how little the attack had made them hesitate. That was, until two Flame Lances pierced their shoulders and erupted.

Grace had a moment to register what had happened when Tayin showed up in her field of vision. Then the next moment, the monsters were gone.

"Wha—?"

"Shh!" Tayin hissed, covering Grace's mouth. "Nice work out there. Ren should've lured the bat one away already."

The half-orc agreed, realizing that the two land monsters were still in sight behind them. Trees and other tall foliage provided her and the halfling a lot of cover, effectively making them undetectable.

They went the other way.

"I'm surprised you could bring someone along with Sight Step at Beginner," Grace said, trying to play cool the fact that she almost got too ahead of herself again.

"I figured it out when Shallies used it on us earlier," Tayin said, not noticing the half-orc's predicament. Or she was exercising her tactfulness. "It wasn't in the System's Skill description, so I figured I could replicate it at any proficiency. I just didn't know how until earlier."

"How?"

"Well, I basically tag you with a line of my own mana. Shallies does it so subtly and quickly, that it's almost impossible to notice. But I was looking for it when she suddenly appeared."

"Oh, that's neat."

"It does cost a hefty amount of mana, though," Tayin added. "Can you take point? Ren should be able to buy a bit of time. I need to recover some mana along the way."

"Sure thing."

Their plan was to lure all three monsters away from the Delve Gate, then have Ren cut off one of them just like what they had done with the herd of drillbull before. This time, however, Grace had made that opportunity easier for the Shield Knight.

The next move would be for him to lure it in the opposite direction of the other monsters and then take it on alone until they arrive. Despite what Tayin said, and despite how much Grace trusted Ren at this point, she didn't want to leave him alone for too long.

The halfling noticed this too. "I'm good to go."

The two ran. Before long, they arrived at the location they were supposed to find Ren. Instead, he wasn't there.

"Look out!"

Grace heard the Shield Knight yell from her side. She turned just in time to dodge him as he flew past her and Tayin.

"Ren!" the halfling yelled. "Are you alright?"

"Yep. I'm okay," Ren said, pushing himself off the ground. "What took you two so long?"

"Hard to get rid of two Mini-Bosses," Tayin replied. "Where's the bat one?"

"It was transforming."

"It's what?" Grace and Tayin asked at the same time.

Ren nodded towards the direction he came from. "It's over there. When I intercepted it, the damage to its wings was actually pretty significant. I managed to lure it, but it kept tumbling down. I saw an opportunity and thought I could kill it."

In a small clearing, past the cover of some thick bushes, was a diamond-shaped cocoon made out of leather. It looked as if a massive spider had produced leather for webbing, and wrapped the giant bat monster up for dinner.

Grace could feel the mana, though, swirling inside that cocoon. It was resulting in a certain pulse, rhythmically running throughout the outer shell.

"You tried to smash it?" Tayin asked after observing the same thing herself.

"Yeah."

"No wonder you went flying."

"Is that what it is?" This time, it was Grace and Ren who spoke at the same time.

"That cocoon has a reflective barrier around it. I bet that monster was biding its time with every bit of damage and injury it endured, so that it could send them all back to you. You're lucky we didn't hurt it much."

"How do we destroy it, then?" Grace asked. She was already thinking of their combined attack formation, but Tayin beat her to it.

"Nothing that we have might work," the halfling said. "Even the surprise attack we used against the noldzwjak won't be effective against it."

"But have upgrades and buffs this time," the half-orc reasoned.

"Sure, but I don't think it's wise to risk it. If we fail to even crack that defense, we'll eat the brunt of all our forces combined. Ren might survive, but I'm not so sure for us two."

"We can just prepare for when it hatches," Ren suggested. "The moment it comes out, we rain fire on it."

"I like that better," the halfling agreed.

This time, Grace didn't let her stubbornness get the better of her. They were already lucky to have isolated this monster on its own. And they were eventually going to fight it anyway.

"We should Scan it then," she said.

Ren made a gesture. "After you, then."

The half-orc realized this might be the first time she would be using Scan on a monster. And suddenly, she felt a sense of trepidation.

"Don't be so nervous," Tayin encouraged. "You can even try as much as you want, as long as that thing stays inside."

"It's not that hard," Grace said to herself. "Yeah. How hard can it be?"

After taking a deep breath, she used a Scan.

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