“Is that good?” Clayton waited until the others had picked up their rings, which looked identical. “One point in all stat and defense?”

  “I’d say so. The defense itself is about as good as the armor you are wearing.” Grace slipped her ring over her finger. “The stats are less important, but they make you better than a percent stronger.”

  “The stats come in handy,” Tom said. “Saves me from putting points in Wisdom.”

  “Same. I put some points in Wisdom earlier,” Alvin said. “There’s a formula I got out of a book. A smith needs to fuel his smithing with something.”

  Alvin walked to the crumbled remains of the monster and scooped up several handfuls of the crystal, letting it disappear into the team’s storage.

  “That should be enough to keep me going for a while.”

  “You don’t need more?” Clayton motioned around the room. “There’s plenty.”

  “I already got more than a month’s worth. If we survive that long, I’ll find something better.”

  “Speaking of.” Tom brought his shield over and laid it on the ground. “Anything you can do for this?”

  “I…” Alvin looked over the shield. “Yes. Just give me a few minutes.”

  As the team slowly mended back to fighting strength, Alvin worked. He freed up almost as much space in the team’s storage as he had filled a moment ago just pulling out charcoal. He dug a shallow hole in the ground, dumped the charcoal in, and lit it with a small, clearly magical stone he pulled from his pocket.

  “The coals will be ready in a few minutes.” Alvin carefully placed the shield over the heat and leaned back. “After that, it won’t take long. What’s the plan?”

  “Once we are healed up? There’s still plenty of day left.” Clayton twirled the tip of his spear in the air, much more controlled in the motion than he could have managed the day before. “I was thinking we’d get some revenge on the Chronales.”

  —

  After Alvin had patched up Tom’s shield, they crept carefully the way they had come until they reached the exit to the crack in the cliff-face. Tom was inspecting his shield the entire way, seemingly impressed with the work.

  “I thought it would take longer than that. The smith nearest to us would have taken a whole day to do this. Maybe longer.”

  “Field repairs are faster,” Alvin said. “And worse. Each of those patches is slightly weaker than the shield. I’d need a permanent forge and a few hours to repair it back to full strength.”

  “Is it that big of a difference?”

  “Not yet. But it adds up. Ten more fights like the one we had, and you’ll notice the difference.”

  “Let’s try to avoid that,” Clayton said. “There’s loot everywhere, right? That’s what they say about this world. That it’s fresh every day. Let’s find some shields. Weapons. Anything we can.”

  “Hear, hear,” Grace said, twirling her new ring. She was getting the most benefit of anyone from it, given that her class wouldn’t allow armor that wasn’t cloth. “A ring like this would be rare, back home. To get it on the first day here is amazing.”

  “I get the feeling we’ll need a lot more than this to survive long-term. Keep your eyes open.” Clayton’s danger sense suddenly spiked as the grass beyond the cliff started to bend down in a dozen different places. “What do you think, Tom? Can we fight twelve?”

  “Yes,” Tom said. “We are twice as strong as before, remember? That matters more than you think. Grace isn’t the only one with new tricks.”

  Clayton and Tom moved to the front as the blacksmith readied his hammer behind them. The Chronales seemed to converge into a tighter formation of two or three overlapping lines, moving faster and faster until they finally broke the grass-line as a group, snarling and brave in their greater numbers.

  Grace put a stop to that unearned confidence right away, lighting up Scorching Flare after Scorching Flare in their midst. She had a few seconds of cooldown between each one, and according to her back-of-the-envelope math could only hold enough magic to shoot out five or so blasts before she’d be relying on her regeneration to supply the next.

  Those five or so blasts still did quite a bit. She focused them all on three targets, hitting each of them once then going back through the group. The activation took a moment, meaning that the Chronales should have been able to minimize the damage by dodging or flinching back. Charging, they didn’t have the same option. Each of them flinched as they ran directly into the blasts, in effect plunging their own faces into blinding fire.

  It didn’t kill any of them, but the three she had focused on were completely disabled by the damage. That left nine, all still in formation and just as determined to rip the team limb from limb.

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  “My turn, I guess.” Tom lowered his stance and propped his shield up with both arms and his body. “Charge of the Ram.”

  With the Chronales almost on them, range was not an issue. Tom surged forward with the speed of an Olympic swimmer and the weight of a bulldozer. The two Chronales in the front got the worst of it, and Clayton heard bones crack as they flew to the sides, squealing in terror. The remaining six were less effected, with injuries ranging from solid hits to mere bruises. All of them were off balance, though.

  My turn. Finally.

  Clayton jumped forward. He didn’t have any new skills, but was hoping that he could keep up with the others anyway. As he closed on the off-balance pack of monsters, his spear sprung to life like it had its own mind in his hands. He had the spearhead through the first two monsters before he came to terms with just how fast he was now. The remaining Chronales attacked him as viciously as their states would allow, but another two were down before they had a chance to get inside the prime range of his spear.

  Alvin struck then, with what speed he could muster. With beasts like the Chronales, it still helped. The monsters saw the sledgehammer coming and treated it with mindless respect, scattering around the heavy-looking swing. Breaking ranks like that was a mistake. The next thing the Chronales saw after that was a secondary barrage of Scorching Flares, knocking two more of the animals dizzy as Clayton continued his onslaught. He saw Tom return to a defensive stance in front of the others and let himself go, tearing loose on the survivors of the pack.

  The Chronales didn’t last long, especially since their time warp skill seemed to be less effective than before.

  “The restriction’s gone. I got another level from that!” Tom whooped. “Anyone else?”

  Clayton had as well. It was amazing how quick the progress was here compared to the small fry dungeons he had been allowed to challenge as part of his initial training. Every level was harder to get than the last, and he was sure the pace couldn’t keep up. Even so, it was an addictive feeling being stronger and stronger.

  Clayton decided to leave his strength, vitality and wisdom alone for the moment. Right now, getting hit felt a lot worse than not hitting quite as hard as he’d like. If he wasn’t getting passive points in strength every level, he might bolster it more. As it was, he wanted to lean into the primary function of his class as hard as he could for a while.

  “That was pretty good. I was thinking we could just stay here a while.” Clayton closed out his leveling window, disappointed but not shocked the animals hadn’t dropped any loot. “If we could get another ten levels this way, it would be great. Even if it took weeks.”

  “Something tells me we won’t have that option,” Grace said. “At least not in the way you think. Look.”

  Clayton turned around and felt his mind flee him for just a moment. Where the vast prairie had been, there was now a boundless ocean starting mere feet from him, stretching to the horizon. The red, sun-reflective waters were lapping gently at the shoreline a few steps from him like they had always been there, innocently pretending they weren't an unusual occurrence at all.

  “Well, that’s going to take some getting used to.” Alvin bent down and touched the water. “It’s warm, just like the waters at home are.”

  “You lived by the ocean?”

  “That was the only place you could live, Clayton. My world is one of islands and vast waters. The kind of endless ground you people seem used to is… unsettling for me.”

  “Well, maybe we can stay by the ocean for a bit. If there’s something to hunt, something we can handle, then…”

  The hope died on his lips as the ocean exploded for hundreds of feet on every side of them, water replaced by scales the size of a car linked together on a monster so big that its sheer size meant they had no chance of defeating it.

  “Run!” Grace had grabbed Alvin’s arm and was dragging him back towards the cliff. “Run now!”

  The beast rose higher and higher out of the water, then roared. The sound of it was so loud that the cliff itself began to crack and crumble, letting huge boulders fall. They impacted the ground all around them as the group ran back towards the crack, leaving huge craters where they landed. None of them, not even Tom, could have survived a direct hit from one.

  The King of the Shallows regarded his escaping prey and seemed to consider the idea unacceptable. Its height was suddenly converted to energy as the top half of its body slammed downwards, generating an impossibly loud howl as it cut through the air towards them. Clayton was taking up the rear, his precognitive powers completely quiet even with the threat visible before him.

  Levels. There’s no way of knowing how many levels this thing has, but it’s enough to make my powers useless.

  Clayton made it to the crack with a few seconds to spare, but that didn’t make him feel any better about his chances. With something that big, the cliff face itself was in danger. He felt and heard the impact when the serpent hit the wall. The whole world shook and trembled as the tunnel started to break apart behind them.

  “Keep going! It’s all coming down,” Alvin screamed. He knew the most about rocks, Clayton figured. “Just keep running as far as you can.”

  It was a minute before the collapse started, a minute of running as fast as their legs would take them. They covered miles, taking any tunnel that looked like it led even a small amount further into the cliff. When the rocks finally stopped falling, they were far, far beyond where they had found the crystal cave the last time.

  They were lost now. Completely and totally lost in the belly of a mountain that might stop existing at any moment.