"So what's the plan?" Jeff fell to the hard, cold earthen ground next to the campfire in exaggerated exhaustion when he finished building their home for the night. "I hate dealing with invisible beasts."

  "You seemed to do fine with the hairy head though," Zoe suggested.

  "That's cause it was simple. It approached only when we looked away, and it approached in a direct, straight line. I can't keep track of an actual enemy that's genuinely trying to fight that I can't see. Best I can do is just blanket the dungeon in sinkholes, but that's not very practical." Jeff sighed. "Trust me."

  "Yup." Tom agreed. "That is not an option anymore. You can see them though, Zoe? Try the buff, maybe it will let us see them at least somewhat."

  Zoe hesitated. She still didn't know what it was letting them see. Even trying to scry herself, she wasn't able to see anything unusual. Mark of the Beholder just let them see some other facet of her that she wasn't aware of.

  The real concerning part of it was that Mark of the Beholder would almost certainly not be unique in that. There would be other classes, with other skills and bonuses that would see the same facet of her being. Other people she met may have even see that part of her, without her ever even knowing it existed.

  On the other hand, not using it here would be throwing away a perfectly good dungeon. Almost any dungeon that was known publicly, Zoe had already cleared just for the Trailblazer stat points. There was a very real chance that since Zoe didn't know about it, nobody else had cleared it yet. Or at least not in a while.

  There was potential for the rewards to be immense. Especially for Tom and Jeff — neither of which had the Trailblazer feat for themselves. And all for some paranoia about whatever they were seeing?

  Zoe's magic flared as her mana settled in around Tom's eyes.

  "Huh." Tom grimaced. "There's a lot more than I thought there would be. Can you see their levels?" He leaned forward, trying to reach any of the creatures with his Identify.

  Zoe shook her head. "Too far away. I could try teleporting in and get a quick Identify off?" She suggested.

  "You think it'd be safe?" Tom questioned. "You're extremely impressive for your level, but you are still very low level now."

  "Eh." Zoe shrugged. "Probably safe. I'll just be in and out, real quick. Oh. Actually, no. I can't do that, because I don't have the ability to see them without Scrying. And I can't identify through Scrying. One of you two would have to go in. Actually, hold on." Zoe realized the problem she'd just wandered onto.

  "I'm not going to be able to see these things at all in there when we go in tomorrow. I can't cast that buff on myself, and I can't be doing much else while I'm scrying. Hmm." Zoe bit her lip. "Well for tonight, I can teleport one of you two in there and then out really quick if either of you want to volunteer?"

  "You sure you can do it quick enough?" Jeff asked. "I don't wanna be stranded in there because your mana ran out."

  "Yeah, it'll be fine. Well, maybe it won't be. But if I can't get you out, then we'd probably just die tomorrow anyway." Zoe shrugged. "Risk of delving into unknown dungeons."

  "Send me in." Tom said. "Teleport me out the instant I make any movement."

  "Sure." Zoe agreed. "You ready?"

  "Yup." Tom said, vanishing a moment later as Zoe's mana wrapped around him and shunted him through space.

  Zoe watched him, unblinking, a few dozen feet away past the entrance of the dungeon. He stayed motionless for a brief moment and then his muscles tensed as he tried to leap to the side. Before his feet left the ground, Zoe's mana ripped him away and brought him back to their camp.

  "Gods above." Tom took a deep breath. "They're quick."

  "Did you get their level?" Zoe asked.

  "Six twelve, six classes." Tom said. "Six. Twelve." He repeated.

  "Would you have dodged whatever was happening, if I didn't rip you away first?" Zoe asked.

  Tom hummed in thought for a second. "Probably. I think so. There was only the one there at the time, though. There's dozens of them just pacing up and down, I would not be able to run away from more than one of them. Maybe two. Not without help."

  Zoe pushed mana through her Scrying skill and looked back to the dungeon. The guards were well armoured, with pristine weapons. Swords, greataxes. Massive tower shields and gnarly spiked maces. None had anything resembling a bow, however. No crossbows, no longbows. Just brutal melee efficiency.

  "We could try picking them off from above. I could form a platform, you could launch your arrows down at them?" Zoe suggested. "I'm not sure if they have any range attacks. At least not these ones that we can see."

  Tom's eyes looked across the towering steps in front of them. "There could be some hidden in the tower. If I were setting up a tower like this, I wouldn't have the archers manning the stairs. They'd be up above, in hides."

  "That's a good point. Either of you two want to try baiting out an attack?" Zoe chuckled. "If we can confirm they don't have any ranged attacks, then we can take them out from above and see how long they take to reform themselves. Might be possible to work our way through the tower without much risk."

  "What are the chances this dungeon has never been cleared before?" Tom asked. "You've probably done every dungeon you've heard of, right?"

  Zoe nodded.

  "So this one's either secret, or new. And considering it's not all that far from Foizo realistically, my bet is on new." Tom continued. "It's dangerous, but it's the best chance we've had in a while for getting the Trailblazer feat."

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  "It's not unrealistic, but while I'm still so weakened it's definitely going to be very dangerous." Zoe added.

  "I'll do it," Jeff offered. "Just give me the buff too so I can see them."

  Mana surged towards Jeff's eyes and he flinched away from looking at Zoe.

  "Ready?" Zoe asked.

  "Uhhh, so walk me through this again?" Jeff asked. "You're teleporting me up there," he pointed above the stairs leading up to the tower. "Floating in the sky. I just attack them, and see if I get attacked back?"

  "Yup." Zoe said. "You sure you're alright with this?"

  "We can find another dungeon," Tom suggested. "This one seems pretty bad."

  "I can take one hit. At least. You'll definitely get me out before I get hit again?" Jeff looked to Zoe. "Definitely, definitely?"

  "Ideally I'll get you out before you get hit, but I can't promise anything. We don't know what the dungeon can do yet." Zoe said. "Sorry. I wish I could promise you safety, but even if I hadn't just looped I couldn't do that. It's a new dungeon to me."

  "Send us both." Tom suggested. "I'll pick them off from above, Jeff can defend me from a hit and I can dodge while you get us out."

  "You sure?" Zoe asked.

  Tom nodded. "Good with you Jeff?"

  Jeff sighed. "Yup."

  "Okay, all ready to go?" Zoe asked.

  When both of the men nodded, her mana flared outwards. Both of the men teleported to above the stairs, on a platform of Earth that Zoe was struggling to maintain at such a distance with her limited mana.

  She'd become quite efficient with her mana usage in her years. Excess earth stripped away where it wasn't necessary leaving a precarious looking yet perfectly stable platform that formed itself around their movements.

  But at such an extreme distance, efficiency only got her so far. She needed to balance Meditation and the extreme cost of Earth Manipulation with watching their every movement carefully so she could rip them away if anything happened.

  "SINKHOOOOOOOOOOOLE!" Jeff's voice echoed from the distance. The earthen platform they stood on grew, spikes of dirt forming around the edges as some of the strain Zoe felt lessened. Thick, dense spikes of earth formed in front of the platform, hovering between them and the distant tower.

  Tom drew his bow and launched arrow after arrow at the seeming empty stairs below. They exploded on the invisible forms below, wrapping them in ice and vines or buffeting them with sharp gales.

  A dense packet of mana shot out from the tower. And then another, and another. Even invisible, the incredible amount of mana contained within the projectiles made them clear as mud to Zoe's eyes.

  The earthen platform dissolved as Zoe released her hold over it, each of the spikes that had embedded within them for support tumbling to the ground below. A moment later, Zoe's mana wrapped around the two men and Teleported them back to their camp.

  Dozens of the dense mana projectiles exploded against the dungeon's boundary, lighting up the night with specs of colourful mana like fireworks against the night sky.

  Jeff and Tom both collapsed next to the fire, taking deep panting breaths.

  "Could you have defended against them?" Tom looked to Jeff.

  Jeff dug his hands into the ground below, relishing in the feeling of the cold earth. "One. Maybe two of them. There were dozens, though."

  "What were they?" Zoe asked.

  "Arrows. They have archers manning the tower." Tom pointed to the distant tower. "Dozens, at least. Or maybe anti air enchantments. But whatever it is, they shot arrows at us."

  "They looked like mana blasts to me. Powerful ones." Zoe said. "I could see them fine."

  The sun began to set, so the three put out the fire and moved into the hole Jeff had dug.

  "Can we handle it?" Tom asked. "My arrows looked like they were having an effect. If we could avoid the arrows long enough, I think I could take them out."

  "How long would it take you to recover from defending against one of them?" Zoe looked to Jeff in the pitch darkness.

  "A few seconds." Jeff answered.

  "How many arrows would you need to use to kill one of the guards below?" Zoe turned to Tom.

  "A hundred, two maybe? It's hard to know with this skill. Could be one if I get lucky. On average I think it'd be quite a few shots to take out one of them. But they might have some kind of healing skill at lower life, too." Tom answered.

  Zoe nodded. "Then I think I have an idea that might work."

  The following days were spent practicing, racing across the wilderness as they committed the plan to muscle memory. Each movement they made, every step they took planned and intentional.

  Finally, they felt ready to tackle the dungeon. The initial goal was just to get Zoe to her next class, or maybe two. With such high level monsters to fight, as long as she was assisting the fights, her level would skyrocket well into the low hundreds. With some luck, let alone just two beholder classes she may even be able to get her third beholder class in just a few short weeks.

  The three stood outside the dungeon. Tom and Jeff looked to Zoe and nodded. She took a breath, and mana flared from her, teleporting the three above one of the wandering guards' patrol paths. Earth wrapped around the three of them, holding them close together with just enough earth to not plummet to the danger below.

  Tom drew his bow and launched arrow after arrow at the guard below. Each one exploded in different effects, flames, corrosive pools of acid, tendrils of shadows, volleys of arrows.

  Zoe blanked out everything around her. She ignored the mana surging within Jeff, the barrage of noise from below where Tom's arrows were impacting. Her mana regeneration flew as she focused on Meditation, staring into the distance at the tower, waiting for the faintest blast of mana.

  It didn't take long before the barrage began, and the three's practice coordination flew into action. Zoe's mana surged, shoving the earth that surrounded them into flight as they dodged and weaved through the incoming arrows. Powerful blasts of mana rushed past them, the closest of which blocked by towering spikes of earth raised from Jeff's magic.

  Minutes drew on like hours as Tom continued firing arrow after arrow, and Zoe's eyes strained to keep track of the now hundreds of invisible arrows flying their way. Her mana pushed the earthen forms through the tightest gaps left in their wake, hovering in a chaotic path above what Zoe imagined to be a very angry looking armoured guard below them.

  "GO!" Tom shouted.

  Zoe's mana flared, wrapping the three in her Teleport and ripping them through space to back outside the dungeon. The blinding light in the sky from the constant barrage of arrows exploding against the dungeon boundary died down a moment later.

  "Did you kill it?" Jeff asked between panting breaths.

  Tom nodded. "I got one." Tom looked just above Zoe's head. "Seven levels from just that one for you? Wow."

  "I got a level too," Jeff added. "Cap's probably pretty far away, though. Once you get some classes under your belt, do you think you can help me loop?" Jeff looked to Zoe.

  Zoe nodded. "Sure. At least out of the lower levels. First I need to get those classes though. You two think you can handle more of that?" Zoe asked.

  "At once? No." Jeff shook his head with vigour. "Absolutely not. One at a time, and even that was beginning to push it. I feel like I just tripped into a sinkhole."

  "Yeah. I need a few minutes to get my bearings again. That was intense. How long was that?" He looked to the sun far above. "Hasn't even moved, really."

  "Felt like forever, to me. We'll take a few minutes and then head back in then?" Zoe suggested, then checked her level. She knew what she'd be at — she was thirty nine before they entered and she was more than capable of simple math. But she still liked to see it.

  Level forty six. Almost at her self imposed threshold for her next class cap. She pushed the system to show her all of the available class options for her next class.

  *Ding* The following classes are available;

  "Ooh!" Zoe exclaimed. "Actually I have my next class available now. Which one should I take first?"

  "Unseen is probably best for the valleys, but it won't help in the dungeon." Tom said.

  "Blinding or Corporal, then." Zoe hummed. "Blinding might let me see them myself at least."

  "No sinkhole beholder?" Jeff asked. "There should be."

  Zoe chuckled. "Nope. I'm gonna take Blinding."

  *Ding* You have unlocked the Blinding Beholder class. Your body and soul will be adjusted to accommodate the change.

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