“Adventurers Guild? Groups? Teamwork? Bah! That’s just a scam to have other people leech your hard-earned experience. Solo is the way to go!”

  - Thomas Belray, Rogue, Last Words.

  Willow

  Willow picked her way among the mushrooms sprouting from the vibrant moss growing on the damp brick of the sewer and hopped over the water el, keeping her eyes on the dark nooks and side tunnels. The nervous chatter from the newly formed raid group filtered up to her, letting her know they’d finished with the st Kobold she had brought them.

  She turhe er, catg signs of movement ier and the telltale glow of a root trap off to the side. The entrao the chamber with the powerful Kobold boss loomed darkly at the end of the tunnel. Willow drew her bow, aiming at the dirty green slime lurking below the surprisingly water. She was no longer being embarrassed by her tears, but every time she thought of the Guildmaster and her harsh assessment, she felt a burning in her cheeks and a thiess ihroat. Why she hadn’t been kicked out of the guild, she had no idea. She was level nine already – one of the highest in the guild – but she was by far the weakest oeam. Half her skills y dormant, still at level one, because she had been uo find a good beast for her Ritual of Bonding.

  I o find a beast panion… Without the cooperation of a beast, she would remain half a css. The problem was the forest had been ed by blight and all the natural beasts had been turned into undead. In theory, her ritual was capable of breaking a monster from the clutches of a dungeon and inviting a fresh soul into it, but that would require finding a beast dungeon somewhere – and who knew how long that would take? She sighed, eyeing the Toxic Slimes that hauled themselves out of the water el to pursue her. Why did it have to be Kobolds and Slimes? oblins. Or Zombies.

  Willow sprinted back to the approag team with her slimes blobbing along behihe strategy discussion at the guild had been quite eye-opening. Aiden’s group had discovered several things that she hadn’t even noticed – for example, that only two of the oozes, the biggest blue ones, were lio the boss. The rest could be pulled separately – something she hadn’t even thought to try. As the weakest damage dealer, they had assighat job to her.

  She grimaced at the thoughts of charity – pity. The group killed the slimes so quickly that Willow barely had time to pause.

  “It’s clear to the entrance,” she said.

  “Ok, let’s form up and review the pn,” Aiden said.

  Willow listened patiently while Aiden summarized a vastly more plex pn than the ohey had tried the first time around, her heart beginning to race. The most subtle nuances of the pn had been hard-won through painful experience, and everyone k. Chatter faded as tension rose to fill the tunnel.

  “You ready?” Flynn whispered. He was a slightly chubby guy with a boyish-looking face, and he would be her partner for most of the fight.

  “Yup,” Willow said, gng at the brown-robed earth mage putting on a brave face – his fake fidence marred by the white knuckles of the hand that gripped his pin wooden staff. He had suggested summoning some rock walls for her as she kited the Fire Mage. Her job would be to keep the deadly mage busy, and it rahat she couldn’t everusted to do that by herself – even if she khat was irrational. She forced a smile at Flynn, but his suddeurn grin lit his face banishing all signs of ay – and, surprisingly, lifted her spirits.

  “Let’s kie Kobold butt,” he decred.

  Despite her despondency, she snorted.

  “Willow, you pull the slimes when you’re ready?” Aiden asked.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to do it?” Willow asked, gng at Kaitlyn – the other archer in their group. She grimaced. Her insecurities had betrayed her again. We have a pn.

  “I’m worried my lightning arrows will aggro the whole room,” Kaitlyn said. “You’re the better choice.”

  “Ok,” Willow said. She crept forward to the entrand sed the room, pig out the highly camoufged water-affinity oozes lurking in the sewer el. A little of her fideurned. She nocked an arrow and drew, sighting carefully before releasing her shot. It flew out into the room with a quiet swoosh, pierg the water and the slime crawlih the surface. The monster surged out of the el, spshing water across the damp brick as it slithered up and onto the nd. Willow ducked bato the tunnel as a high-speed bolt of water took a chip of brick out of the wall, and she sprinted for Havok, luring the ooze into the retive safety of the tunnel.

  The tiny Goblin lit an array of holy magic buffs, turning himself into a bea of light in the dark tunnel, and charged the ining Brine Ooze. The dull wet spt of ented wood striking ooze sighat Willow was free. They don’t need my damage. Leaving it to them, she headed back to the boss room, searg out the ooze, relieved to find the Kobolds still standing there in the back of the chamber.

  The pulls all went smoothly and, in a few mihe room was cleared of everything she could split. “That’s the st one,” Willow said as the blue ooze popped. She eyed it closely as Seth raised it as a zombie.

  “Ok, buff up,” Aiden said. “Havok will pull the boss and tank the rogue. Braden, go in sed and pull the warrior off him.”

  Havok and Braden nodded in turn. The tanking decision had been made, Willow recalled, entirely due to Havok having enough wisdom to resist the warrior’s taunt. At least in theory, he should be able to keep the rogue under trol. Also, the pte-cd Goblin’s css was far more ied in the deferait than Braden’s, and Teagan had been hopeful that would mitigate the ridiculous damage the rogue dished out.

  “Willow and Flynn will take care of the mage for the first part of the fight while everyone else kills the healer. After the healer is down, the kill order is mage, then rogue, and finally the warrior,” Aiden tinued.

  That was the tricky part, Willow would have to make sure she didn’t get hit by the fireballs. Healing was expected to be hard, so she had made certain to stock up oh potions from the alchemy shop, Pretty Powerful Potions, he guild.

  “Havok will mainly focus on healing the tanks, and Teagan will heal everyone. Did I miss anything?” Aiden cluded.

  “Don’t stand in the poison?” Willow said. “I left an arrow with a red ribbon in the ter of all the poison traps on this side of the el.”

  “That’s clever,” Aiden said.

  “If you ’t be strong, at least be useful, right?” Willow answered, but her attempted joke fell ft, getting only a quiet chuckle from Flynn and a hesitant smile from Seth.

  “Aah, yes, thanks,” Aiden said. “Ok, get ready.”

  “ I get Amplify Damage on the mage if you have time?” Willow asked quietly as the tanks readied their shields. It was an amazing curse, and with it, she could be certain to keep the mage’s attention even after the entire group sed to it.

  “Yup, no problem,” Seth answered. Some of the members of Aiden’s group were spicuously keeping their distance from the neancer and his fresh army of zombies and skeletons, but Willow liked him – he was dependable and pretty friendly.

  “Ok, Havok, get us started.”

  The small green Goblin, bzing with the light of his holy magic, stepped through the entryway and into the room. The rest of the group filed in behind him, taking their positions, and as soon as the formation was set, Havok charged. He shot across the moss-covered room in a blur of high-speed movement. Right behind him, Braden followed with a simir charge skill, and the Kobold warrior’s sword cshed against his shield as he shouted the arm. Every Kobold immediately sprang into a.

  The moment the Fire Mage paused to summon an angry red ball of fme, Willow let her arrow fly. Ued amid the suddeion of chaos and noise, her arrow struck the mage, burying itself in his left shoulder, and drawing an angry yip of pain. His head snapped around, and hateful reptilian eyes locked on her. Willow fled, making for the far er of the chamber as new fire sprang from the monster’s fearsome talons. She leapt the water el and dodged the poison trap, gng back at the red gre of fire and angry eyes trained on her.

  Uh… Flynn? Any time now… she thought, even her inner voice growing shrill with rising panic. There was no cover anywhere and she was a sitting duck if that Fireball came her way. She loosed a sed arrow but missed.

  The sewer brick creaked and then splintered, sh her with dust and rubble as a massive wall of stone burst from the ground. Aah, thank you! She dove for cover as the roiling ball of fme shot out toward her. Even behind the rock wall, the powerful cussion shook her to the core and a vast wave of fme surged past on both sides, scorg her skin and singeing her hair.

  Willow popped her head out from behind her cover and loosed another arrow, sending it flying across the chaos of the battlefield to strike the mage in the leg. The instant it hit, she could tell Seth had remembered the curse – the Kobold screeched and stumbled before the Acolyte healed him. But that wasn’t her problem – all she had to do was keep it fag the er and the fireballs ing her way allowing the rest of the team to do their jobs.

  Another creaking and splintering of rock told her there was a sed rock wall behind her, and she turned and sprinted again, keepiamina flowing through Fleet Footed so that she could reach cover in time. She caught the high-speed fsh of fme and dove for the ground as the Firebolt scorched past her ear. She rolled up onto her feet and fired an arrow, dug behind the rock wall without even waiting to verify the hit.

  She caught a quick glimpse of the flickering freic chaos of the battlefield. Pressed up against the far wall of the chamber, wreathed in holy magic, the little Goblin faced off against the high-speed dagger strikes of the vicious, bck-scaled rogue – Willow could hear the rapid g of steel against pte even from where she crouched. Standing side-by-side with him, Braden tahe giant Kobold warrior, defleg powerful blows of the vicious bone sword with his already battered shield, taking advantage of the healing fire of Havok’s secrated ground at his feet.

  Dead ter in the chamber, the beleaguered Kobold Acolyte was being mobbed by a massive melee of skeletons and zombies, interspersed with the cle members of their raid. The blinding white of Aiden’s ice bdes shone brightly amid the undead, while the air shimmered as Devan’s Wind Cutter dagger strikes danced among them.

  Willow couldn’t keep track of all the details, but it was enough to tell her things were more or less going acc to pn. She ducked behind the rock wall and put her fingers in her ears right as a fresh Fireball detonated against her cover. From the pain and ringing in her ears, she wasn’t quite certain her fingers had even helped, but at least Flynn’s rock walls were remarkably effective barriers against the explosive fire.

  Might not have much hair left after this… with a wild yell, she sprinted back to the other rock wall, firing an arrow on the way. She gri the sight of her arrow striking home, burying itself in his ribs, leaving only the fletgs jutting out from the crimson robes. In the background, the crack of rocks flying into things with wet thuds, the loud reports and fshes of lightning, and the g of steel were overid with the shrill unholy scream of Seth’s Votile Wraith. As she lined up another shot, she saw the Wraith flying through the Fire Mage’s chest, drawing a pained howl from the monster.

  Clever, she thought. It was the only monster without any allies near it, it had Amplify Damage on it, and the Wraith’s distra of her target was already creating bigger windows of time for her to shoot and dodge. She mao get off two shots before sprinting off to the rock wall, leaving the mage approag the now vacated one.

  Willow popped out and fired again, barely dodging a Firebolt as she tinued her deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the furious Fire Mage. The rest of the battle faded into the background as the crashes and shouts blended into an i buzz of was just her and the mage, and if she made a mistake, she would be badly hurt, if not killed. She found herself grinning maniacally as she ducked and dodged between the rock walls, always barely a step ahead of the explosions. Always vigint for any ges to the mage’s routine. Firebolt. Firebolt. Fireball, duck! She darted sideways just in time, wing as the skin on her neck began to blister.

  Suddenly, the shouting grew closer, and, when she popped her head around the wall to fire, she saw the frost-gleaming swords sshing through the crimson robes as Aiden charged the mage. A heavy barrage of lightning arrows hit it squarely in the chest and Willow’s eyes wide the powerful dispy of Kaitlyn’s lightning archery. Willoed off another arrow, careful not to hit her teammates, and ducked behind cover, catg a glimpse of Devan appearing from nowhere with her daggers flying. A gruesome shower of Kobold blood sprayed into the air.

  They got the healer! Her gook in the crumpled body of the Kobold Acolyte lying beside the sewer el and realized she had missed the chime of it dying. For the first time sihey had tried this boss, excitement and hope began to rise within her heart.

  Don’t mess it up, she told herself, but the bination of her arrows ah’s Amplify Damage curse had so badly ahe mage, that she tio draw all its fire while dodgiween the walls of stone. Not even the full power of the raid unleashed at it could shake its focus.

  It took perhaps five or six minutes before an anticipated explosion of fme failed to materialize, and instead, she heard the beautiful sound of a chime in her mind. She poked her head out cautiously, and sure enough, the deadly Fire Mage y in a bloody, battered heap on the damp ground while the entire raid sprinted for the far wall to er and tackle the ing rogue.

  She took a deep breath and emerged from cover, joining the small group ed damage dealers. “Thanks,” she o Flynn.

  “No problem,” he smiled. “Good work!”

  “Yeah, the cat-on-hot-bricks teique was great, right?” she grinned back.

  There was only a sirap belg poison off to the side, but nobody was standing in it. Teagan fired a green beam of healing into the pair of tanks while downing a freshly crafted potion Basil handed her. She wore an intense expression of pure focus, but it was different than before. Willow studied her friend for a moment. No panic this time. Preparation, preparation, and preparation – the Guildmaster was right. We just didn’t listen.

  Willow smiled and nocked an arrow to her b. The rogue was solidly locked down by Havok, and Willow didn’t have to move an inch for the entire five mi took for their group to whittle down his strength until the kill chime finally sounded. But it was a further ten minutes of stant attack before the warrior finally dropped, and Willow was running low on arrows and stamina by the end.

  We really uimated this fight, she thought. So badly…

  The incredibly durable warrior finally colpsed with a chime and a crash of heavy armainst brick, and Willow walked over and slumped down beside Teagan, both spent. She smiled at her friend and got an exhausted grin iurn.

  It barely felt real. She even opened her notifications to double-check.

  Yroup has defeated Acolyte – Kobold – level 10.Yroup has defeated Fire Mage – Kobold – level 10.Yroup has defeated Dagger Rogue – Kobold – level 10.Yroup has defeated Warrior – Kobold – level 10.

  Beast Tamer has reached level 12 (+3).+30 attribute points.

  cussive Shot has reached level 9.Marksmanship has reached level 10 (+2).Fleet Footed has reached level 6

  Identify has reached level 5.

  Css skill slot unlocked.New skills are avaible for Beast Tamer.…

  Willow’s mind’s eye gzed over. While the others were chattiedly about the battle, and the above-average quality of the items the Kobolds had worn, Willow simply stared at the notifications, barely seeing most of them.

  Three levels…

  I did it. She was officially a bronze-rank adventurer. Her notifications tinued chiming as her css offered her choices for her first css skill unlock. I wonder what -

  “Hey! Beast Tamer!”

  The loud shout from the other archer, Kaitlyn, cut across the jubince of the raid. Willed inside. Here it es… Criticism of her abilities, her css, and her limited role and performan the battle. This was where they would decide she was weak enough that she didn’t deserve a cut of the loot that they had earned as a team.

  But the biting words and critical gres didn’t… arrive? The tall girl stood over a hole at the far end of the chamber, staring ily at something below her feet. She gnced back at Willow and urgently gestured her over, with a look of … excitement?

  Willow cmbered to her feet up, still half-expeg hostility and criticism, but whe to Kaitlyn, the irl gri her and poihere iral staircase made of glowing transparent golden magic that hovered in the air leading downward into a cavern.

  “Didn’t you say your ritual works on dungeon spawn?”

  “It ,” Willow said. Of course, that was all theoretical given she’d never had the opportunity to try it. “But it’s harder, the literature says it requires time to invite a new soul to repce the dun –”

  “That’s a beast, will it work for you?” Kaitlyn said, interrupting her and pointing down into the darkness below.

  Willow frow her in fusioing her eyes follow the dire she pointed. And from deep in the darkness a pair of emerald-green eyes gleamed back at her. Electricity seemed to jolt up through her spine, causing her scalp to prickle as if it were trying to tear itself loose.

  Timber Wolf – Wolf – level 12

  Willow identified it twice, just to be sure. Her voice cracked as she yelped, “Teagan! Help?”

  “What?” Teagan excimed, armed and sprinting across the chamber to join her.

  “Don’t attack it, please?” Willow asked, turning to Kaitlyn. “I might get hurt in the process, please just heal me, no attag.”

  I’ll definitely get hurt. She gulped as she stared at the enormous dark shape of the Timber Wolf. This was her ce. It had to be.

  Both the girls nodded, and Willow darted dowairs as fast as she could. She was eling her Ritual of Bonding skill before she even reached the bottom of the stairs. Please, please, please work!

  The wolf howled and charged immediately, its heavy jaws g down on her arm and thrashing bad forth savagely. But Willow just gritted her teeth against the pain, adamantly refusing to budge. She would not lose focus. A beam of green nced down from above, healing her wounds even as the fangs cerated her arm.

  This was what her css was, what she was. She could not – would not – give in. Besides, the wolf was geous and powerful, and she dared to hope.

  She struggled with her ritual while an immense pressure built in her mind like an unseen magical tug-of-war – herself against the wolf. She fed it more and more of her mana. The wolf growled, lunging low and snapping its jaws shut on her calf. Pain blossomed as the fangs tore a k out of the muscle and she staggered, hamstrung, fighting for sciousness. If she passed out, she would probably die. Worse, she might lose her ce.

  “Willow!” Teagan shouted.

  “Wait!”

  “She alright?” Havok worried.

  “I’m fine!”

  “Fi gettien!” someone shouted. “Get her out of there!”

  “No!”

  She fought on and on. Suddenly, the pressure from her ritual caused something to snap, and the wolf went wild, growling and tearing at the arms she brought up to protect herself. But she refused to attack it, simply blog and defending herself against the vicious teeth while she pressed more of her mana into her ritual spell.

  “Wait!” she called out, sensing Kaitlyn nog her bow. She simply g on tic, while the wolf savaged her in a one-sided dispy of violence.

  “Yoing to die!” Kaitlyn yelled.

  “Don’t shoot it!” Willow shouted.

  “Willow, you’ve got this!” Teagan screamed. “e on!”

  Her mouth made a rasping groan she barely reized as her own.

  Without warning, the wolf backed off, and crouched down, growling deep in its throat.

  Your Ritual of Bonding has ensouled Timber Wolf.

  The crazy look in its eyes faded and Willow sensed a sudden innod curiosity trig through her ritual magic. She met its gaze and tried to send thoughts of kindness, sharing, exploration, and growing together – all her hopes and dreams buogether into a messy mishmash of emotions. The very essence of herself.

  “Please… I want to meet you,” she sent to the brand-new soul inhabiting the wolf before her.

  The wolf lowered its head and finally stopped growling. Willow, trembling so violently she had to ch her teeth lest she chip them, reached out her hand towards the beautiful creature a smell her. A few moments ter, she retrieved a piece of jerky from the pouch at her belt and offered the snack to the wolf. It s it and looked at her for a moment, but then it took the and ate it. The wolf suddenly sat up, startling her, but it simply licked her face with its enormous tongue.

  Timber Wolf has accepted your panion pact.

  There was a sudden rush as her mind ected with the wolf. She could see what the wolf saw, and smell what she smelled. She could taste her own tears as the wolf licked her face again. She sank to the ground and hugged the enormous creature who was suddenly the most beautiful thing in her world.

  “Willow? Are you alright?” Teagan asked.

  “I’m… Teagan, her name is Cami!” Willow cried.

  The team’s cheers ebbed and flowed in her hearing as she struggled to e to terms with her emotions.

  Aliandra Your Kobold Warrior has beeed.

  Ali let her awareness return fully to her body, releasing the sight and senses of her minions through which she had been watg the se.

  “They won,” she said – to the obvious relief of her friends.

  “Nobody died?” asked.

  “Nope,” she firmed. “And they all reached at least level ten.” Vivian was going to be ecstatic – ten novices had ehat chamber and e out alive as bronze-ranked adventurers. Even Basil ah had reached ten.

  “Bronze rank means they take jobs now,” said. “That will be a huge step for the guild. I will go talk to Vivian about it if we’re doh Elvish grammar for today. She will be overjoyed.”

  “I think we let the new bronze ranks break the news,” Ali said. “They ear.”

  “Aah, true,” he said.

  He seems very ied in the guild. He had always been ied, but the quiet half-elf seemed different somehow – ever since he had his hair cut and he had dohe Pathfinder cloak. He was right though; this ged a lot for the guild. Bronze ra that they were strong enough now to take the zombie kill quests and help up the disaster Alexander Gray had unleashed upoire region. Good for the guild and for the town, but it would also provide abundant opportunities for them to level up and earn money.

  Lira just sipped oea, watg everyoh a serene curiosity and calm, and Ryn was lost to the world immersed in the grammar books Ali had copied earlier.

  “You didn’t pay that much attention to the novices before,” Ali said. Vivian had done much to restore their broken trust, but their retionship was cordial rather than friendly. There had to be a different reason.

  “Lyeold me to help Vivian tutor them on strategy as part of my own training,” he answered with a grimace. But Ali k was his disfort with speaking in front of people and not a reluce to help them.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” she said – and it was. had a mind for strategy and an intuitive grasp of skills and how they ied. She could also see it helping him get out of his shell a bit and develop more fiden his own abilities. Questing on his own without Mato, joining the Pathfinders and this ask his mentor had set him seemed to be encing him to find himself a little more.

  “True,” said. “I just wish it didn’t require lectures.”

  “It’s probably a good time to take a break from nguage lessons, too,” she said. They had been w on grammar for the better part of the m awo eager students were getting tired.

  She reflected on the enter she had just witnessed. In order to let them gain full experience for the fight, Ali had not observed from within the chamber, so she had only a peripheral awareness of the strategy they had used, but she trusted Vivian to set them right. She had had to tent herself with the sharp snapping of her mana as the Kobolds died o a time in the order she would have expected.

  It had been nerve-wrag to wait without seeing, hoping she wouldn’t see a kill notification for one of the eager novices. But her fears that her first boss would be the death trap that destroyed all her guildmates hadn’t e to pass – but by the number of levels some of them had earned, it had been hard fought.

  And that se at the end…

  When her reservation holding the Timber Wolf snapped and it went berserk trying to kill Willow, Ali had very nearly interveo save her. Willow’s impassioned cry to her friends, begging them to hold back, had been the only thing that had stayed Ali’s hand.

  The sensation of Willow’s ritual spell slipping into her Timber Wolf had been skin-crawlingly uny, and something had repced her mana bond to the monster. She just wished she had had a minion with mana sight nearby to see what had happened . I o talk to her about this ter, she thought, meeting Lira’s eyes. And I o see that wolf with my own senses.

  Lira had beeain Ali’s minions were merely extensions of her mana, and therefore her will. But that wolf… What is it? I’m sure it’s not a dungeon spawn anymore.

  And then, there were Willow’s tears of joy as the wolf accepted her… well, Ali would be lying if she tried to pretend that she hadn’t shed a few sympathetic tears herself.

  Ali took a deep breath and switched focus to a different topic – ohat she could do something about. She opened Domain Mastery and looked at her enhanced monsters list. It was a short list taining only one monster.

  Kobold WarriorDomain Enha: Raid.Status: Dead.Domain: Respawn. Recharge: 5 hours 58 minutes.

  Ali shared the details with everyone. So, it does seem to work, she thought. In six hours, all signs indicated that her domain would resummon her Kobold boss and it would be ready for anht.

  “A six-hour respawn is nice,” said, noting it in his book. “This expins a lot. Remember that pack of wolves that respawned on top of us?”

  “How could I fet?” Ali said. She had been the oing dirt that day.

  “I wonder if all dungeons have the same recharge timer?” mused. “I suppose it might depend on aptitudes and specializations. Are there advas that reduce your respawn timer?”

  He’d begun to ramble as he specuted, and Ali had no definitive answers for him. At least at this point – maybe she would unlo adva like that iure. “I’ll e with you when you go up to town,” she decided. “I o resummoher mohey killed in the sewer.” She also hadn’t checked orash her Kobolds had collected in a couple of days, and it would be the perfect opportunity to i her former wolf.

  “Are you going to use that domain respawn ability on all the trash monsters in the sewer?” asked. “It would save you the chore of respawning them all manually.”

  “If it increases the reservation cost, I ’t afford it,” she answered, still worried about her mana. It was certainly worth expl given that she had only tried the raid enha so far. It was always frustratiing abilities with long recharge timers.

  “I’m pretty sure the description didn’t say it increased the cost. e o’s go test it,” said, getting to his feet. After saying goodbye to Lira and Ryn, the two of them flew to the Kobold warrior’s chamber together.

  The boss chamber looked like a disaster se. Giant scorch marks marred the walls and floors, leaving wide stretches of bed moss and burnt mushrooms. Several massive sbs of dark gray basalt jutted out of the ground on one side of the chamber and the corpses of her four Kobolds and several Brine Oozes y strewn about. All the equipment she had made for them was gone, presumably looted by the raid fear upgrades or to be sold for expenses.

  “I hope the gear respawns too,” she said, but she had a feeling that it might – she could tell the domain imprint was quite extensive. Ever since her Grimoire had added ization, her monsters were summoned with semi-random gear they were capable of using and she expected either that or the exact same gear to be respawned. None of her traps had beeroyed and they had simply reset on their own as usual.

  “Looks like they marked the traps with this,” said, pulling up a snapped arrow with a red ribbon attached to the end.

  “Clever,” Ali said, beginning the chore of ing up and destrug the corpses. Ugh, what remains of them, she thought, realizing their skeletons were missing. At least, based on her experiences with the Ruins of Dal’mohra, she guessed that removing the corpses wouldn’t affect the respawn effect. Seth must have been busy here.

  “They must have kited the Fire Mage,” said, examining the scorched rock walls. “Someone ran around here dodging Fireballs until they killed the healer.”

  He’s reading this room like a book. It seemed like a good strategy to Ali, at least from what she’d seen of ’s ability to kite. But the rock walls were ugly and burnt. First, she added this variant of basalt to her imprint, and then she used the magic of her Grimoire and Domain Mastery in tao reshape the remainder, growing the rock walls into thick symmetrical pilrs that reached the ceiling before transmuting them to marble.

  “That looks nice,” said. “That will provide some cover – it should make the fight just a little easier for teams without earth mages.”

  With her Grimoire open, she resummohe Brine Oozes that were missing or turned into nasty puddles over by the door, and then picked one for her experiment.

  Choose Domain Enha Level: Domain, Boss, or Raid.

  “Domain,” she thought, making her sele.

  Domain Respalied to Brine Ooze.

  Ali waited, but there were no additional notifications, and her reservation remained unged. Curious, she opened her Domain Mastery and checked her minions on the list.

  Kobold WarriorDomain Enha: RaidStatus: DeadDomain: Respawn. Recharge: 5 hours 36 minutesBrine OozeDomain Enha: DomainStatus: AliveDomain: Respawn. Recharge: 2 hours

  “It works,” Ali said, once again sharing the details with . “And it didn’t cost ara.”

  “Two hours,” said. “That’s eveer.”

  “I’m not sure if it’s because the enha is weaker, or if it’s just drawing less on the domain itself,” Ali mused.

  “Isn’t that the same thing?”

  “I doly know,” Ali said – but she could see the domain mana had far less load on it than when her boss walked in this chamber.

  “At least you use it ohing,” observed.

  “The only disadvantage is that they are limited in how far they move from where I attach them,” Ali said.

  But I don’t have to resummon them all the time. She smiled, realizing just how much time this ability was going to save her.

  “Why don’t you finish up here,” said. “I’ll go take care of things at the guild.”

  “Ok,” Ali said, calling a few higher-level minions to join her as guards. vanished into the darkness, leavio her task, and she set to it with enthusiasm, resummoning all the sin monsters aowing the respawn buff on every st one.

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