“Finally,” Lucius said. He appeared from Vivi’s core with a grin on his face. “Let’s launch the hunt right now! The boss is ours!”

  The Hollows looked like they wanted to roll their eyes. Aang let out a laugh. “Defeating the main dungeon is a long term goal. Three major obstacles block us from simply walking in and defeating it.”

  “One issue must be the boss’s difficulty,” Alisa said. “Even the Elder Gnoll is already difficult enough that all of the Stewards must gather to defeat it. The main boss carries far more ether than the gnoll mineshaft combined.”

  “Do we even know what the main boss is?” Rohan asked.

  “No,” Ven said. “Aang and I visited the main path once. The way down has skeletons, liches, anything that’s made of bones. We’re guessing the main boss is a skeletal monster of sorts.”

  “We didn’t get deep before the monsters became overwhelming,” Aang said. “The main path is on another level compared to the rest of the dungeon. We will struggle just to clear a path to the boss. If we manage to get there, we’ll have to fight the boss blindly without knowing its attacks or weaknesses.”

  Ven and Henry were writing on a blueprint and a piece of parchmen. “So the first problem,” Ven said. “Growing strong enough to defeat the boss in the first place. Solutions?”

  “Runeswords!” Lucius said.

  Aang nodded. “Crush-based swords to mimic bludgeoning weapons will turn skeletons into simple foes. Runeswords are our main improvement in strength. Additionally, every fighting member will require at least one powerful skill.”

  “What skills do you have?” Vivi asked. “Alisa has a discharge skill, combined with a gravity pull.”

  “Alisa’s skill is the most powerful skill we currently wield,” Aang said. “Our two other useful skills are a summon skeleton, and a common ascension skill. All of our other skills are very situational and considered mostly useless. We can assess them later.”

  “An ascension skill?” Lucius asked, tail wagging. “Seriously?”

  “The skill is literally called basic ascension,” Ven said. “It raises the wielder’s maximum limit by five hundred wisps. A ten percent increase. It offers an advantage, but not a significant one. Aang and Rohan have been taking turns wielding that one. For the Ember Golem, Aang had it active.”

  “I see,” Vivi said. Aang had emitted a powerful presence during the fight. Though, Vivi wouldn’t have guessed that was due to a skill. Aang was powerful, but he didn't compare to the stronger ether hunters in Paradise. Veronica Lifeweaver would have toyed with Aang, just as she did with Vivi.

  “This cycle, we will defeat the Elder Gnoll,” Aang said. “We will brew it with the potions, and we will gain another skill.”

  Lydi spoke with her eyes pointing at her potions. “The Elder Gnoll is difficult enough after freshly respawning. Feeding it a potion might cause another disaster.”

  “If we can’t defeat a fully brewed Elder Gnoll, the dream of clearing the dungeon is a long way off,” Aang said. “Our main goal for this cycle is to get used to Vivi’s new runeswords, and to cleanly defeat the Elder Gnoll. Whether it drops a skill or not, we will gain practice, growing stronger in the process.”

  “Agreed,” Rohan said. “Vivi will need time to practice as well. She’s not ready for a serious boss fight.”

  “Growing stronger is the easy problem,” Ven said. “Aang said we have two more major issues to deal with. What are the real problems we face?”

  “The second problem is our escape path,” Aang said. “After the main dungeon is cleared, nimrods will notice monsters are no longer respawning. The Stewards will feel that the boss’s ether is missing. It’s possible they sense a fight happening in case the boss's ether leaks outside the arena. Our escape needs to happen immediately and perfectly cleanly.”

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  “We could cover the boss room’s entrance with nothing runes to dissuade ether from escaping,” Rensfig said from his comfy corner spot. “A curtain of sorts could work. It wouldn’t stop all ether from oozing out, but it would help.”

  “A good idea,” Aang said. “I suggest you start building that right now.”

  Nothing runes… Vivi thought. Nothing was different from a nix rune, or from any traditional rune. Nothing didn’t empower ether with powers. Rather, a nothing rune worked in reverse, calming down active ether.

  Rensfig sighed. “I’m a retired runesmith anyway. Crafting curtains is the next best thing.”

  “It’s an important job, Rensfig,” Aang said. “And it will fix one part of our problem. Ven, I presume I can leave planning an escape to you.”

  “Looks like we have nobody else,” Ven said. “With Vivi’s swords, we could simply cut a hole in the wall and get out that way. If we want to be really crazy, we could dig crawl space from the dungeon up to the surface of the fourth level, but that would take multiple cycles, if not years. I doubt it will be plausible.”

  “I will leave the details to you,” Aang said. “We are still in the ideas phase. It’s hard to execute anything this cycle.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Ven said. “That leaves us with your third problem.”

  “Yes,” Aang said. “Clearing the dungeon will make us international criminals. Our third problem relates to that. If we are to clear the dungeon, we need to do it without being caught. We need to frame someone. Living as Zand-escapees is bad enough. But building a life as a wanted criminal for clearing the dungeon will be close to impossible.”

  “A distraction event of sorts will need to be organized, then,” Ven said.

  “We could fake our deaths maybe?” Alisa asked.

  “Even that would leave us as the main suspects,” Ven said. “Zand has near perfect records of its nimrods. I suspect less than five nimrods are currently alive without being tracked through collection days. Escapees are practically none. Our deaths would have to be faked absolutely perfectly. That’s far harder to execute than stories make you believe. Causing a mass nimrod escape alongside would be far easier. Even that is impossibly difficult. A mass death event could help, but I would like to avoid killing innocents for our plan.”

  “I wouldn’t mind framing the blue-cloaks,” Alisa said. She leaned back and rested her head on her hands.

  “The blue-cloaks are still people,” Aang said. “They have a lot of evil nimrods in their ranks, but so does the Union.”

  “I disagree,” Alisa said. “The blue-cloaks are the only gang who regularly test the extent of Zand’s fourth rule. Andre encourages the behavior. I wouldn’t mind ruining their lives.”

  “So my job is to plan an escape,” Ven said, “and to frame Andre and the blue-cloaks for clearing the boss. While also somehow removing our names from the watch-list.”

  Aang looked troubled. “Can you do it?”

  Ven sighed. “I’ll talk to Grenall about it.”

  “Don’t mention the extent of things,” Aang said. “If Grenall gets caught, he will be tortured. Information will spread.”

  “It’s hard to talk around the plan, while I’m supposed to be planning with him,” Ven said. “I’ll see what we can do. No promises.”

  The room fell silent for a moment. Everyone was thinking. Vivi waited for someone to speak. The Hollows knew Zand far better than she did. Vivi excelled at crafting runeswords. She was there to craft swords, not form plans.

  She did have one idea, however.

  “What if we frame the Stewards themselves?” Vivi said.

  The demons lifted their heads, turning to her.

  “We know where their communication devices are,” Vivi said. “What if we sneak in and tell higher ups that there’s an emergency. We’ll say that Uundref and Wheryn killed the boss, taking its loot with them. Then we kidnap the two Stewards, bringing them outside Zand and thus making it look like they committed the crime.”

  Everyone thought for a moment. Ven was the first to respond. He grinned. “That’s a crazy idea. But it sounds surprisingly possible.”

  “That’s exactly the type of plan I’d expect Vivi to come up with,” Rohan said with a sigh.

  “I like the idea,” Aang said. “Execution will be difficult. Ven, as always, we will leave the intricate details to you. Figure out whether Vivi’s idea is possible and inform us of your findings.”

  “Will do,” Ven said.

  “The rest of us,” Aang said. “Our job this cycle is to defeat the Elder Gnoll. Lydi, finalize the potions and make sure everything is working well. Vivi will continue smithing more blades. We would benefit greatly from at least two more crush-based weapons. Alisa’s daggers could be upgraded to inside-carving as well.”

  Vivi lowered her head. “I would be honored to upgrade them.”

  She was afraid Aang would hold another speech about how she should accept payments for her work, but luckily, her leader seemed more focused on completing their goals. “Additionally, you will continue practicing with Alisa and Rohan. The schedule won’t be as strict, but try to practice as much as you can.”

  “Yes,” Vivi said. “I’d like to practice right away so that I don’t grow rusty. It has been a while since I fought monsters.”

  Aang nodded. “We will brew the Elder Gnoll for ten more days. Until then, get to work.”

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