Mik had to jump in front of Sofia, holding her back from rushing the new groups entering the cave.

  “Whoa whoa! Do you know them?” he asked, struggling to hold her back.

  “Know them?! Those are my attendants!” she growled, gnashing her teeth, “The ones that left me for dead!”

  Madaline got up and walked over to the two.

  “What is going on you two?”

  Mik spoke up first, not sure if they could trust anyone here for now.

  “Nothing, Sofia is just tired and thought she saw someone else.”

  “I did not-”

  Sofia tried to shout in outburst again but Mik pced his hand over her mouth to stop her, even with the threat of BB and Panda growling by her side at him.

  “Don’t say a word. We don’t know who we can trust. What if they side with your attendants on what happened?” he whispered to her, “It’s their word against yours right now and we need to survive this first. Best case they don’t want to stir up anything right now either and they keep their mouths shut.”

  Sofia’s eyes shifted into a leer, Mik removing his hand so she could speak.

  “You expect me to work alongside those traitors?!”

  “For now, yes. We don’t have a choice. You said it yourself, we have a flood to deal with and possibly more than two roaming bosses.”

  Sofia’s body stiffened before turning around to sit down begrudgingly, her two companions following her.

  “You sure she’s alright?” Madaline asked again.

  “She’s just tired,” he reassured, then motioned to the cave entrance, “What are we going to do about them?”

  Madaline turned in the same direction, “Well we have to share the cave for now. We’re all stuck in the same boat. Might as well say hi.”

  They both walked to the entering groups, the people still out of breath and outside Sofia’s attendants, they were bruised and bloody.

  “What happened to you guys?” Mik asked, not feeling particurly friendly.

  “What does it look like you little prick?” a man in a torn cloak and leather armor snapped, “We got jumped by a flood of monsters headed by a roaming boss.”

  One of Sofia’s attendants, the man, Dominick, sneered at the man, shouting, “You are supposed to be an F-Rank Climber! How could you let this happen?! Those monsters should be fodder to you!”

  The man got up scowling distastefully, “It would have been fine if you followed my instructions! But your noble high horsed little prick of a shit for brains decided to run! And run right into more of those roaming bosses! Even if I am F-Rank I can’t handle three hundred fucking monsters at once!”

  “Three hundred you say,” Borik chimed in, “That doesn’t bode well for us now does it.”

  Mik gave him a dubious look, “You don’t seem concerned.”

  Borik shook his head, “We're in the cave now d. The rescue teams know this little slice of the rock is the halfway marker. Ya see that wee entrance there,” he pointed to the entrance letting the only source of light in.

  Mik nodded as if it was obvious.

  “Do ya think three hundred monsters can fit through that small ass, ass end? Cause I don’t and might I point out I have a shield, and a mighty fine one at that. As long as we keep the entrance safe we’ll be fine.”

  Borik looked over the newcomers, “Any ya nits a healer?”

  The groups all shook their heads.

  “Donkey grapes!” Borik spat, “Buncha useless…” he began muttering, walking away in a rant.

  The other members of the group that entered, a total of ten more people, introduced themselves. However they didn’t provide their levels or csses like Mik expected them to in this situation.

  They needed to survive together and cooperate but it seemed everyone here assumed they would for certain, meaning they would not give up information they didn’t have to.

  “So who’s going to be in charge? We need to set up who’s going to guard the entrance. Don’t think Mr. Ray of Sunshine over there is going to be able to do it alone.”

  The man who was reprimanded at the beginning spoke up, Fin.

  Mik watched him closely. If what Sofia said was true, this man might have had a hand in Sofia being left behind. And him being an F-Rank made it even more precarious for them if they decided to press the issue of her surviving the attempt on her life.

  “What, do you think it will be you? After everything?” Dominick sneered, “It should be either I or Sasha, we have the most standing here.”

  “Standing ain’t worth a nats dick out here in the dungeon green horn,” Borik bellowed a ugh, “I’ll take the lead since I’ll be manning that entrance the most. Lest one of ya are a tank and wanna relieve me?”

  Most of the people present shook their heads, happy to have a tank css hold the entrance while they were allowed to rest.

  “The Family of Westeria will hear of this, I assure you,” Sasha finally spoke up, backing Dominick.

  “Ay you can file a compint right up your arse ss. Brunwick Family aren’t afraid of some low E-Rank Nobles from some failing house. Everyone in every bar knows from the guild city to the coast knows that bsted head of yours is dyin’. So don’t be throwin’ around idle threats, less my hammer find the side of your pretty little head.”

  Sasha gave a look like she had never heard something so brash in her entire life while Madaline shook her head behind Borik.

  That’s interesting… Mik thought.

  The discussion proceeded smoothly after that. Everyone agreed on Borik leading the defense of the cave until they were able to overcome whatever was outside or a rescue team from the guild found them. However long that would take.

  Afterward, Mik went to the cave entrance walking up to Borik and Grace who were on duty first.

  “Is Brunwick Family a rge family?” Mik asked.

  Borik raised a brow looking over his shoulder, “No, not particurly.”

  “Then why are you not afraid of the Westeria Family, aren’t they are somewhat rge? They hold their own city after all.”

  Borik bellowed a ugh, “Lad, you think that backwater city is rge? You haven’t seen the King’s city. Even the capital is rger than Westeria.”

  “But it's the capital? Shouldn’t it be the rgest and most illustrious?” Mik questioned.

  “Mare is the capital because it heads the operations for the Tower and the guild,” Grace added in a soft tone, taking over the conversation, “It’s given what is needed to maintain order and control over the Tower’s entrance and the Climbers who come and go, but that is all. It is a good pce to find work, get recruited to a new recmation town, or a new Family, but not much else. If you wanted to trade you might get lucky buying something from a naive Climber, it is possible too.”

  This was something the Guild’s books didn’t mention. Mik had very limited knowledge of the world outside of the Tower and Westeria. He had heard about the recmation towns in the books and even pnned on obtaining one some day if he was able to increase his rank to high enough. But he was surprised to hear the capital city of Mare being spoken of as nothing special.

  Borik spoke up again, “C-Rank is average d. And that Westeria you are so fond of only has one C-Rank Climber. Brunwick has more. If it came to a war, Westeria wouldn’t have a smoldering pile of shit’s chance.”

  Mik chuckled, “Then why didn’t you start with saying your Family name?”

  Borik waved him off, “Bah! Prissy nobles and their showing off. I’m here for the fight d! The glorious fight!”

  Borik pointed his hammer, spotting another group in the distance.

  “Looks like we found one! Rock and stone!”

  Mik pced his hand over his eyes to shield him from the light. With a closer look he could see the newest group was being chased. And by a rge number of monsters headed by one much bigger than the others.

  “And it looks like they brought a roaming boss with em,” Borik said coldly.