"I filed Jen's withdrawal this morning," Claire said quietly to Ian as they walked up to the portal. "She messaged me that she was going to take a few days off, and Wanda is staying with her."

"Good," he replied. "She sent me a text telling me to level my ass off before our tournament starts next week. There are apparently just over four thousand parties that signed up to participate in the mid-tier."

"Yeah, we are also going to do a mass elimination round," Tram said, overhearing Ian as he got closer. "Only 512 parties will make it past the first round. We'll be dropped into a dungeon level with roughly an eighth of the participants, and the battle will end once there are only 64 parties left."

"It's going to be a battle royale-style mass elimination round," Ashlyn added. "We don't have to be first, but we need to be at least 64th, so let's get into this new dungeon. Ian, Claire, and Lana have their cool new armor, and we need to find some of the ore that drops in here to upgrade muscle boy's tin suit."

"It is magisteel, but it doesn't look nearly as cool as the wolf hide armor you three have now," Tram said.

Ian looked over at Claire and Lana, who were wearing the same type of armor he was. It was much more form-fitting than the mass-produced stuff that was available on the market. The crafted armor auto-adjusted to fit the user and was incredibly durable while still being flexible. It wasn't something Ian could really wrap his mind around. When he asked Ruth how it worked, she just looked at him like he was stupid and informed him in no uncertain terms that her husband was quite literally crafting using literal magic.

The armor was the dark gray of the normal wolfmen with silver fur from the Fang Patriarch around the collar and shoulders. Ian thought it looked far too much like fantasy armor in video games, but it also protected better than anything he had ever worn before. When they tested it, Jason couldn't get his sword to slash through the chest piece without utilizing a skill.

While his armor was a normal armor suit, the girls both had battle skirts, and their armor was a bit lighter. Their sets were designed to boost mana regeneration and intelligence, while his was set up for agility and stamina regeneration.

"Psh, we are going to need you in a heavy metal set, so you scare away all the boys because we girls are looking so pretty now," Ashlyn said, giving him a grin as Mara huffed. "Of course, I was counting you too, don't get snippy. Your fur is even nicer than theirs."

"Let's get inside," Ian said with a laugh.

As they walked through the portal, a sight that could only be described as a battleground came into view. They were just inside the entrance of a small cave, looking out at an ash covered expanse. All the trees and grass had been burned from the edge of the cave all the way to the walls of the keep that sat in the middle of the zone. It was made of dark stone with a broken drawbridge that was perpetually open with random fires burning on the walls.

"Alright," Claire said. "Mortis Clutch isn't going to be a walk in the park. Unlike most dungeons, this one has two competing factions. We're early compared to most adventurers, so we will have a chance to get a handle on things before we have to start competing for spawns.

"On one side, we have the greenskins from our old fantasy stories. They look nothing like the real Orcen races who also dive the dungeons on their home worlds. Instead, these are overly muscled creatures with bald heads and sharp tusks coming out of their overextended jaws. Nearly every one of them will be green or yellow, and they are all physically intimidating.

"The other faction is comprised of a type of undead monster called ghouls. They are semi-intelligent creatures that can use scent to hunt down their prey. They are loud, aggressive, and tend to swarm when engaged. Unlike the greenskins, who will attack with weapons, ghouls tear their enemies apart using their extremely sharp claws and teeth. They are occasionally backed up by necromancers that could easily be mistaken for humans, though they are also undead monsters."

"What's in the castle?" Ash said, looking at the keep.

"Death," Claire said with a finality that made it clear she wasn't joking. "None of us are going in there because there is an undead dragon that's over level four thousand. All the monsters out here are between 1,750 and 2,575. We also probably aren't going into the camps today, so we won't deal with anything over level two thousand."

"Is it really going to be safe in here?" Lana asked. "Some of them will be over a thousand levels higher than us."

"It should be," Ian said. "But we're going to pick off some of the easier ones first so we can ease ourselves back into fighting harder monsters before we do anything crazy.

Claire nodded in agreement. "As long as we don't get swarmed, we should be fine."

Tram pulled out his sword and shield as he walked out of the cave. As he took his first step, the ash from the battlefield flung into the air only to get pulled away on the wind. Everyone fell into formation behind him as Ashlyn opened a portal for Spot and Socks to join Mara.

It didn't take them long to encounter their first enemies. Still within a minute's walk of the portal, the group heard a sound that caused them all to stop. As they listened, they heard deep grunts followed by braying laughter coming from the other side of the rise they were approaching.

Three green creatures wearing wooden planks held together by leather straps came up over the hill in front of them. As soon as the first monster saw them, it roared and charged, followed a moment later by the other two.

"Greenskin Warrior—Level 1,851," Claire called as she analyzed them. "They don't have any inherent resistances or weaknesses."

The one in the back sprouted an arrow in its thigh and fell with a roar, leaving two more running at them with their hand axes. Ian moved to grab the second one as Tram charged the first when it was within half a dozen paces. The speed they were both going left a very loud crunch when he brought his shield forward onto the creature's arm.

Ian brought his spear around and slammed it into his target's unprotected abdomen with magic soul active. As it screamed in pain, its eyes turned red, and it swung its axe horizontally at Ian's head. Ducking, Ian took a step back before jabbing back at the creature, but this time he aimed for the chest.

It rotated to the side, letting his spear slash deep into the wooden armor, severing it and leaving a shallow cut across the now visible chest. It retaliated by swinging its axe at him, causing him to jump back just in time to feel the air from the swing hit him in the face. As he backed up, he saw the creature holding the wound in its abdomen as it stared at him in fury before it suddenly stopped to stabilize itself. As it suddenly began to sway, the creature closed its eyes and seemed to be having trouble holding its axe.

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Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 500 levels higher than yourself. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 6 levels. You have achieved level 1033. You have been awarded 180 skill points!

Ian began to relax, only to panic when he realized his mistake. Ducking, the axe zipped right through the space where his head had just been. Before he could do anything further, he found himself flipping in the air with a sharp pain in his side. Hitting the ground, he rolled three times before jumping back to his feet to see his opponent still moving towards him.

Bracing himself to dodge the next swing, the creature suddenly seized as an ice shard erupted from its chest. It looked down at the arm-length icicle before collapsing on the ground.

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 500 levels higher than yourself. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 6 levels. You have achieved level 1039. You have been awarded 180 skill points!

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 500 levels higher than yourself. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 5 levels. You have achieved level 1044. You have been awarded 150 skill points!

Ian blinked before looking over to see Mara standing on top of the corpse of the last one with a blood-covered muzzle. Spot and Socks had hit the one Tram had engaged, allowing it to be quickly subdued.

"These guys are more of a challenge than anything we've faced so far," Tram said, rotating his shoulder on his shield side. "Even with the stats bonus, I think I would have a hard time holding more than one of them. They hit really hard."

"I've got your heals," Lana said as a green glow covered Tram for a moment. "Just focus on minimizing the damage, and I will do my best to keep you alive."

Ian got hit with a heal a moment later and was amazed as the throbbing in his side slowly disappeared.

"Hey, dumb ass, don't let them kick you," Ashlyn called out giving him a glare.

"They frenzy when they receive heavy injuries," Claire added for clarification. "I didn't realize it would let them ignore fatal wounds that didn't instantly kill them. Ian split the stomach wide open and shredded its insides. Any other intelligent monster would have laid down and died from the pain."

"I honestly thought the first notification was for mine," Ian admitted. "It was stumbling, and I thought it was dropping. Really stupid mistake that damn near cost me my scalp. Thanks for the assist, Nia, and the heal, Lana."

Claire looted the monsters, and everyone continued moving. The second battle with the greenskins went much better for Ian, as roots ripped themselves out of the ground and grabbed the warrior he was fighting. He was able to quickly dart in and get his spear into its neck while it was attempting to free itself from the vines. With magic soul, the head nearly popped off when he severed the spine.

The quick kill allowed him to move to help Tram, as he was dealing with two of them. Ian could tell his friend was having a hard time keeping up with the monsters, but one of them went down as Spot and Socks jumped it from behind. With their last evolution, all three of the prowlers were almost as tall at the shoulder as Ashlyn, and they had filled out accordingly. With claws over four inches in length, they were starting to become serious killing machines.

Focusing in on the one still attacking Tram, Ian's spear dug deep into the creature from behind, once again severing the spine with the magical blade from his skill. The creature dropped like a puppet with its strings cut as Mara and Ashlyn finished off the last one.

"The crowd control was a success," Lana exclaimed. "It won't hold them for long, but it will give you enough time to deal with at least one."

"We really need to start working together like that," Claire said. "We are all starting to come into our skills, but we don't have the years of team building most of the other teams do at this point in their careers. So, while we are stronger, we need time to really learn how to fight with each other."

"True," Ian agreed. "When the group from Threshold came to my rescue, they were completely in sync with each other. It will take us a while, but I'm sure we will get there.

"We should also probably look into weapons trainers and whatnot. If we can get some extra training during the times we aren't in the dungeon, it could go a long way towards making us better."

"I'm also about to start teaching classes," Ashlyn reminded the team. "So, we may have to slow down a bit at times."

"Definitely need to look into scheduling you when we get back," Claire said as she finished looting the corpses. "I could probably set you up to teach all kinds of courses—actually, remind me when we get back, and we can make a list of what you want to teach. Then I can go through and get you a list of the prerequisites you will need to finish."

Ashlyn opened her mouth to speak when a guttural screech cut her off. Everyone instantly dropped into ready positions as the screech was echoed by at least half a dozen more.

"Don't charge them when they come over the hill," Selenia ordered with a large, feral grin. "I've been waiting to try something for a little while now."

As Ian watched, gray-skinned humanoids came up over the top of the hill. The first thing he noticed was how their skin was pulled taut across their bodies and didn't move in the natural manner of a living creature. It appeared more like leather pulled tight across the creature's frame with muscles slithering underneath. Their faces were gaunt with black eyes and an oversized mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. There were only two holes where the nose should have been, and they didn't have any ears or hair. Their arms were longer, and they used them to help them run while leaning forward, giving them an inhuman gait as they closed the distance. As they brought their hands forward as they ran, the long claws on each finger made it quite clear that they didn't need any additional weapons.

As the last one came over the hill, the area between Ian and the charging monsters suddenly flashed, leaving giant sharp icicles embedded in the ground erupting up like a spiked wall towards the enemies. With the ground now covered in ice, the creatures didn't have a chance to stop and crashed directly into the frozen spike wall.

"Get them!" Selenia growled as both of her hands glowed blue—maintaining the spell.

Moving forward, the group fell onto the impaled creatures that were struggling to pull themselves free of the spikes. Ian quickly activated his magic soul and stabbed three of the seven creatures in the skull, killing them instantly.

He ignored the notifications and turned to see Tram ramming his short sword through the eye of the last creature. The second the last notification hit, Selenia let out a sigh of relief and began laughing.

"That takes a good chunk of my mana, but you can't argue with the results," she said, giving everyone a genuine smile.

"I told you it would be amazing," Ashlyn said, giving her friend a hug. "Having crowd control is going to be huge, especially when you unlock your next capacity upgrade and can cast them back-to-back."

"I didn't even realize you had a spell like that," Ian said from where he was guarding Claire as she looted.

"It's something I've been working on in the training room," Selenia admitted. "I was originally worried about it because Mara, Spot, and Socks tend to be flankers, and I don't want to accidentally block them."

The prowlers all came up and nudged Selenia, who began giving them all scritches behind their ears.

"How long will it take you to be able to cast that again?" Ian asked, realizing they had gained more levels from the seven ghouls than a single set of greenskin warriors.

"About six minutes. The majority of my points have gone into mana regeneration, and my mana capacity is really low by comparison. Most mages at this level try to conserve their mana, but with your help, I've been able to go the opposite direction with my setup. I feel much more useful this way than just being used for emergencies and powerful monsters."

"It took us a while to look it all up, but I'm glad to see all of our planning is working out," Claire said, getting a warm smile from Selenia.

"I honestly didn't even think about it like that," Lana chimed in. "I've been going pretty evenly between the two, but I haven't looked to see which way would be the best."

"You need a larger pool than me," Selenia replied. "When we need healing, we may need a bunch of it all at once. I can only cast a couple of large spells, then I'm stuck either standing back or switching to smaller spells and pace myself."

"Alright!" Claire said as she looted the second-to-last creature. "We just got the first dark iron fragment. We need something like eighty more of them for Jimmy to make Tram's new armor set."

"Well, let's see if we can't find a new pack of ghouls. Depending on how quick we can get them, we may have to come up with a second strategy," Ian said as Claire looted the last one. "They should be to the East."

"Hell yeah," Tram said as he moved to the front. "Daddy needs some new shoes!"

Lana looked over at Ian and rolled her eyes, though he noticed the twinkle in her gaze and the hint of a smile on her lips. Chuckling, he fell into formation as they followed Tram.

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