Still feeling some of the effects from the desperate struggle to stay alive in the middle of a throng of dwarves, Luke followed Nate deeper into the dungeon, heading for the outpost.

  "Do you think the dwarves attacked now because the portal opened?" Nate asked.

  Luke had thought about that very same question, but he still wasn’t sure. "Or the portal opened because the dwarves were planning an attack."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I don’t know," Luke said, glancing up to the cave’s ceiling, where someone had summoned a globe of light that chased most of the darkness away. "It’s just a feeling."

  "A good feeling?"

  "Time will tell, I think, but there’s more behind all this than just random chance."

  In the distance, near the gate into the outpost, someone waved.

  Nate wriggled his eyebrows. "Who’s the girl?"

  "My sister."

  "Oh."

  "Yup," Luke said, waving back to Milla, who’d just spotted them and was walking over. "Hey-"

  Milla punched his shoulder. Hard. "Ouph!"

  "Why are you being such an idiot?" Milla asked before turning to give Nate a smile. "Hi!"

  Luke rubbed his shoulder. "What?"

  "What?" She narrowed her eyes. "Maybe walking into an unknown dungeon with just the two of you, then following a bunch of unknown humans into an unknown village, then staying to fight against unknown monsters. Unknown, unknown, unknown! You’re a healer, little brother!"

  "She’s not wrong," Nate said.

  Milla gestured toward Nate. "Listen to your handsome tank friend!"

  "Fine," Luke said. "Sorry."

  "And?"

  "I won’t go into another dungeon without more people!"

  She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. "Good!"

  "Worked out fine, though," Luke muttered.

  "What?"

  "Nothing," he grumbled.

  Milla shook her head. "That’s what I thought."

  In a not-so-subtle attempt to change the topic, Luke nodded toward the outpost. "What’s happening in there?"

  "The dwarves retreated to wherever they came from. That little stunt of yours seemed to take the fight right out of them."

  "What of the defenders?" Luke asked.

  "A lot of them are dead. Nymh is talking with their leader right now. I’m heading over there too, just wanted to make sure you were alright."

  "Nymh?" Luke asked.

  "Party leader."

  "Right."

  Milla stepped forward, and Luke winced, expecting another punch. Instead, she gave him a quick hug. "Be careful, little brother." After that, she turned and walked off, waving without looking back. "Don’t make me punch you again!"

  Once she had disappeared into that building in the center of the outpost, Nate turned to Luke with a shit-eating grin. "She called me handsome."

  "Shut up."

  That just made him chuckle, but then he turned back to the main building. "Don’t you want to head inside, too?"

  "Nah," Luke said. "Let the government stooges deal with diplomacy. We should find the others and get a head start. We have a communication gem to find."

  They walked through the outpost, and Luke picked up corpses as they went, dropping an assortment of chairs and other crap from his inventory to make room.

  "Wanted to say thanks again," Nate said.

  Luke dumped a table from the Flesh Golem room. "Once is enough. Healers gonna heal."

  "Yeah, sure, but still," Nate said, trailing off as he watched Luke’s macabre progress. "Sorry, but what the hell are you doing collecting the dead?"

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  "Money and credits, mostly credits. I’m running out, and there are some real treasures in the Integrated shop."

  "You’re… selling them?"

  "I will once we’re out of here. The monsters all have a few credits on them, and I’m sure the light gem things will be worth something."

  Nate bent down at the waist and touched a dead dwarf, taking its corpse into his inventory. Looking a little pale, he grabbed the next one too. "This is a little disturbing."

  "Pragmatic," Luke corrected.

  "More credits does sound kind of nice."

  They approached the hole in the wall on the eastern side and saw Mateo standing right next to it, arm resting on what was left of a log, leaning through.

  "Mateo!" Luke said as they approached.

  "Ah!" Mateo said, turning and raising his free hand in the air. "Recovered already?"

  "I’ll be fine. Mateo, this is Nate, our new tank. Nate, Mateo, our fearless spear-wielder-guy."

  "We met going into the portal," Nate said. "The others too."

  "Indeed, we did! The others are just beyond this poor, broken-down fortification. Shall we go?"

  Luke drew in a deep breath, looked over his shoulder at the building Halsem had entered earlier, where Milla was now conferring with what remained of the human defenders in the outpost, then shrugged and turned back. "Sure, let’s go."

  The rest of the group stood around outside the wall, looking deeper into the cave, surrounded by a bunch of other Integrated who'd joined in.

  "Luke!" Kirk came walking up.

  "Kirk," Luke said, shaking his hand. "Looks like you took care of the dwarves."

  "There were a lot of them, but they broke and ran."

  "So why are you standing around here?" Luke asked.

  Kirk gestured to the area ahead of them, now lit up by another small sun near the ceiling. Three large tunnels, three different directions. "The dwarves ran down all three of them, but we're trying to decide which one to take."

  Mateo pointed with his spear to the path in the middle. "We shall charge head-on!"

  "Guess we'll take the middle one," Luke said.

  Kirk nodded. "My party will go left then."

  "I'll take right."

  Luke turned. "Milla. Finished with Halsem?"

  A group of people spread out around her as Milla began handing out small gems, like the ones the defenders used for their spear tips. "Put this in your inventories. We can use them to talk while we're down here."

  "Really?" Luke asked, taking one and putting it into his inventory.

  Milla: "Yes, really."

  Luke: "Whoa. Like a chat."

  Nymh: "Hello."

  Luke: "Hi."

  Luke inspected the gathering of people around his sister. They were quite the bunch. A good mix of melee, magic, and support, as far as he could tell. Nymh winked at him. She was a tall and wide woman who looked like a football player, grunt soldier, or perhaps a rough security guard, complete with a broken nose and a slit through her bushy eyebrows. The woman exuded competence. Just the kind of person he wanted to lead his sister's party.

  Milla. Bloomcaller. Level 8.

  Nymh. Sentinel. Level 8.

  Lasse. Engineer. Level 7.

  Tom. Pyroneer. Level 8.

  Danielle. Shifter. Level 7.

  Adam. Soothsayer. Level 7.

  "Did you learn anything from Halsem?" Luke asked, talking out loud so those who didn't receive gems could hear.

  Nymh stepped up next to Milla and spoke in a no-nonsense, rough voice. "They were trapped down here due to a cave-in some years ago, but have continued delivering these gemstones up to the surface, and have received supplies through some sort of elevator shaft too narrow for humans. Their fighting with the dwarves has intensified in the last few months due to the humans discovering a large deposit near the dwarven territory. They mined it in a hurry. The dwarves didn't like that."

  "Do they know anything about who the dwarves are?" Luke asked. "Red eyes and sharp teeth don't describe the dwarves I've heard of."

  "Evil!" Mateo shouted from off to the side, where he was talking to Penny and the others.

  "The humans down here don't know anything about them or where they're from," Milla said. "I was thinking maybe it would be best to evacuate these people."

  "We are not bringing any living things back through the portal. You know our orders," Nymh said.

  Milla sighed and shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

  "Maybe we could help them with the cave-in?" Nate suggested.

  Nymh gave him a long look, then pursed her lips and nodded, turning back to her party. "Lasse. You stay behind and take a look at the cave-in. We'll bring that Reaver with us."

  "Curtis?" Luke asked.

  Nymh waved Lasse away with some more instructions, then turned back to Luke. "He seemed competent enough. You probably wouldn't be here without him."

  "You're not wrong about that," Luke agreed.

  "On that subject, are you sure you're a healer?" Nymh asked Luke.

  "What do you mean?"

  She glanced over at Milla and chuckled. "What you did in the middle of all those dwarves didn't look very healer-like to me. Quite the opposite, actually."

  "I'm a healer," Luke said.

  She gave him a long look, then shrugged. "If you say so."

  "Do we have people guarding the portal?" Kirk asked, and everyone turned to look at him.

  "Our employer is standing guard outside and will use an item to block the portal if any monsters make their way through, and there are several non-combat Integrated just inside the dungeon. We should be fine," Nymh said.

  "So that's it then. We can head out," Luke said.

  "Three tunnels and three parties," Milla said, wriggling her eyebrows. "Almost sounds like a competition."

  "There are far more than three parties here, Milla," Nymh said.

  "Yeah, I know, but still."

  Nymh gave her a weak smile. "But I suppose a little healthy competition won't hurt."

  Hannah, the Vesper with frightening control of shadows, walked up, holding up a light gem between two fingers. "Am I missing something, or don't we already have what we're supposed to be looking for?"

  "Afraid not," Milla said. "The humans down here have found some of these specific, smaller gemstones when locked in battle with the dwarves. They think these were once part of a larger stone."

  "That is the stone we are after," Nymh said.

  Kirk flashed a smile and then turned to jog toward the left tunnel, his party following close behind. He shouted over his shoulder. "We'll be the ones to bring the communication gem back!"

  Milla and Luke shared a look, then broke and ran. Luke for the center tunnel, and Milla for the rightmost one, their parties following close behind, swearing at both of them, shouting about how stupid they were. Healers weren't supposed to be at the front, if they were to be believed.

  "Good luck, little brother," Milla shouted, laughing so loud it echoed off the bare stone walls of the cavern.

  Author Artemis for the advance review. As promised, here's a bonus chapter!

  Bonus chapters for advanced reviews (1/5).