It was clear Serenity wasn’t going to convince them in a single talk; he needed something more than just his words and experience. “That’s not how we do things” was always a powerful opponent.

Serenity still didn’t think he’d be any more successful with the argument that there was probably something in the pit, since the dungeon was clearly trying to protect it. He didn’t think it would have succeeded earlier and it seemed even less likely now. They’d probably just assume he was trying to trick them into following his plan to kill the monsters.

If he’d thought it would work, he might have tried. Actually clearing out one of the highest-Tier levels would help significantly in preventing dungeon breaks. Since it wouldn’t, it was better to give up now and see if he could find a more convincing argument in the future.

It was too bad that the Tier Eight level was too deep for Serenity’s mostly Tier Four allies. Some were Tier Five; with preparation, Tier Four and Tier Fives should easily be able to handle the Tier Five area even without his help. They’d have to do it the safer long way, but it was clear that that was the “intended” method anyway. The sixth level wasn’t worth trying, with the lightning, and the eighth level was simply not plausible.

Serenity sighed and shook his head. “If you don’t believe me, there’s not much I can do. So how are we going to get across that mess? And are we going to stop for a rest here or wait til the other side?”

“This shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. There’s another cave on the other side; we can rest there and talk about plans,” Gabriel stated. “As for how we cross, we’ll all rope up. Only one person crossing at a time; that way, if they fall, the other three can keep them stable or catch them if they fall. Sometimes you can climb but sometimes you have to jump. Brace against the natural landscape; where there are trees, they’re stable. Rocky places will require spikes; we brought plenty. Normally, Naomi leads and Daryl is the rear anchor; I think it should be you and Daryl, since you’re the heaviest, but I’ll let you three decide. I’m not as strong, so I shouldn’t be the first or last on an island.”

“I keep telling you that strength doesn’t matter as much as you think it does,” Naomi interjected. “You’re strong enough to lift one of us if you need to, and the ropes help.”

Gabriel shook his head obstinately.

Serenity glanced between Naomi and Daryl. “The three of us can trade off? That way none of us gets as tired.”

Daryl grunted. “That’ll work.”

It not only worked, it worked well. The winds were fierce, but they meant there was little opportunity for monsters to attack from the air, and they stayed well away from any sheltered locations. The level ended up being an athletic challenge more than anything else.

Naomi slipped once when it was her turn to jump up and over a gap to another island. She made the jump, barely, but didn’t manage to get a good purchase on the wind-smoothed stone she was trying to jump to and was pulled off the new island by a gust. Serenity and Daryl easily caught her and pulled her to safety on the island they were on.

Gabriel, on the other hand, slipped frequently enough that Serenity could tell why he didn’t want to be the first across. It wasn’t because he wasn’t strong enough; instead, Gabriel’s problem was using the strength he had well. His reflexes seemed to make things worse when he started to fall, but once he knew it was hopeless he stopped thrashing and let his three companions pull him to safety each time.

It was bad enough that, roughly an hour in, they stopped to rig up a rope to guide Gabriel across some of the longer gaps, instead of just catching him when he fell. They probably should have done that from the beginning, but no one had thought it was necessary at first.

Naomi tested a knot on the rope harness she was setting up around Gabriel and frowned. “What’s going on, Gabriel? You’re not normally this bad. Not usually anywhere close.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought this would be easier, not harder, with the new enchantment.”

“You got something to boost your strength?” Serenity was seated with his back to one of the surprisingly large, straight trees. He hadn’t expected anything like them in a place with this sort of wind, which probably meant they were there for exactly what their group was using them for: secure places to tie ropes for safety. “How much practice have you had with it? Even small increases can throw you off if you’re not used to them, and this place is not forgiving of mistakes.”

“Not much,” Gabriel admitted. “But I’ve never had a problem before and the rest of the dungeon was fine.”

“Did you get an Agility increase to go with the strength increase?” Most people increased the three physical Attributes together, but some people preferred to be lopsided. Serenity had found that some imbalance was fine, but too much could limit the use of the higher boosts.

Gabriel frowned. “My problem was strength, I had a hard time lifting myself through the whole level. Once I got tired, I wasn’t always able to manage some of the later climbs and jumps.”

Serenity sighed. You’d think a Tier Nine would understand Attributes, but these weren’t the ones Gabriel was familiar with. “You’re short on Stamina, then, which comes from all three physical attributes and from time spent exercising to build ordinary stamina. And you’re probably short on Aginity, too, to help direct your Might increase. I’d take off the enchantment until we’re out of here and you have a chance to practice with it.”

Gabriel looked at his friends for support.

Naomi kept her eyes and hands on the ropes she was working with and didn’t say anything.

Daryl chuckled. “He has you there. It’s something either Naomi or I could have told you, too; why didn’t you check with us before buying an enchantment like that?”

“He did,” Naomi stated softly. “I told him to get Phys instead of Might if he could only get one. For a lot of people, it has a bigger impact on stamina, even though it doesn’t show in the numbers.”

Daryl shook his head. “Hmh. Your own fault then. It’d serve you right if we ended up carrying you instead of making you a harness to make the crossings easier.”

As it turned out, Daryl’s grumble was all too accurate; with the help of the harness, Gabriel lasted for most of the rest of the crossing, but Daryl or Serenity simply carried him across the last three jumps. It didn’t make anyone happy to have two people crossing at once, but with four people and good anchor points, it was manageable.

There was no debate about whether they’d all stop and rest once they reached the shelter on the other side of the crossing. While they could have left, Gabriel was already asleep and no one wanted to carry him.

Over breakfast, which probably held a significant serving of crow as well as the actual food, Gabriel brought up a topic Serenity had thought was closed. “I think we should go to the ninth level. Maybe even bring Naomi, as long as you agree to let us know the moment you have issues?”

Naomi chuckled. “Of course I will. I’m not you.”

“Oww.” Gabriel held a hand over his chest and acted like he’d been hurt by the comment. Serenity couldn’t tell if it was just the usual playing around or if there was something of the previous day coloring their antics. “No, really, I think we should try.”

“Naomi can’t make it through the level. Some Tier Nines can’t, and I’m not willing to try anyone lower than that. Not after last time.” Daryl tried to shoot down the idea immediately. His voice didn’t waver; instead, it became fierce for the last few words.

Gabriel nodded. “I’m not saying we do the whole level. Thing is, I remember where the shortcut is; it’s not very far in. Maybe half an hour to get there, then another half hour to cross the shortcut itself, then all we have to do is fight the Guardian.”

Serenity’s ears perked up at the word “Guardian”. Guardians showed up occasionally in dungeons, and while they could be very different from each other, they all had one important thing in common. They all had something to guard. Sometimes it was something that could be taken out of the dungeon, in which case the Guardian would lose the name and a good bit of its power, but most of the time it was something important in the dungeon. What they guarded could vary widely; Serenity had seen everything from a treasure vault to a cursed throne.

“Naomi should be able to manage that, and Serenity’s a Death Mage. I think he can find the shortcut. If Naomi starts to feel ill or he can’t, we can just turn back. You know it takes time to go from ill to hurt, and longer than that for anything permanent.” The term “anything permanent” had to include death, but Gabriel clearly avoided the word.

Daryl stared at Gabriel for a moment, then turned to look accusingly at Serenity. “Is this why you came? To see the ninth level? Did you put Gabe up to this?”

Serenity shook his head. “I assumed we wouldn’t get there, after what you said the first time it came up. When I heard about the dungeon - well, I guessed we’d be there to kill monsters and prevent a dungeon break.”

That was why he was here, after all. A dungeon break would be a Very Bad Thing; whatever rewards he might be able to gather in a single dungeon run simply weren’t worth the time when he had access to the Etherium tax for a planet.

“I may come back with some of my friends to do that and explore a bit, but I don’t think we’ll get past the fifth level. That lightning storm is something we’re not really prepared to handle.” If all of his friends had shield skills, that might be a different story, but they didn’t. Blaze, Ita, Raz and Rissa had a good chance of picking them up when they hit Tier Five, but it was unlikely that Kerr would and Serenity had no idea at all how Legion’s Path would work.

Daryl turned his gaze back on Gabriel. “Then where did you get the idea that this was a good thing to propose? Especially in front of an outsider? I shut you down the first time for a reason.”

Gabriel glared back at Daryl. “Zany’s gone. You know what’s here; you know we need it. Zany’s not going to let us in, so we have to try something else. Serenity-”

“That line of thinking got Eric killed. It’s not worth it, end of story.” Daryl turned his back on Gabriel.

“Eric got Eric killed.” Gabriel sounded frustrated. “We have to be careful, we don’t have to be stupid. Eric didn’t listen to us and he didn’t do what we told him to do. Naomi won’t do that. We’re also not going to try to conquer the level, we’re going to try to bypass it.”

Daryl walked out of the room they were in in the cave and into one of the passageways. Naomi started to follow him, but Gabriel stopped her. “Give him time to think. He needs it.”

Lillene

Gabriel probably should have brought this up before the last moment...

This chapter is not his finest moment for several reasons.