Two days and no Vampire attacks later, and the camp finally felt stable. Alongside the wall that circled two-thirds of the area around the Territory Heart, four buildings had been put up. The largest of the buildings had been set up for those with crafting professions, specifically the smiths, but also had room for the work areas other crafters required to utilize their profession properly. The other three buildings were shared lodging, one for the six women and the other two buildings split between the men. Not only was shared lodging faster to build, but it was also safer. No one would be resting alone or far away from help. They were made primarily of stone, like the wall, if for no other reason than mitigating the risk of Fish catching the whole camp on fire again. Only their roofs and some beds, since not everyone had Meditate, were made of wood by Mountain.

  Cyn had taken some of the downtime she had in the past few days to risk trying to add her objectives to her HUD. But since her goal was not constant awareness, and instead just wanting the ability to notice if things changed, only time would tell if it actually worked. At least nothing catastrophic happened immediately. She had also discovered, through prompting the ever-talkative Fish, that everyone’s dungeon so far had been different. Or rather, the first floor specifically had been drastically different for each party. All of them sounded easier to Cyn than what her party had gone through in the spider-infested mines. Juls and Geoff had started within sight of a friendly town, even.

  To Cyn’s ears, there was a problem in the fact that every other party seemed to have rushed themselves through the first two floors. She couldn’t blame them for wanting to get home as quickly as possible, even if she did not share the sentiment, but there was a very real chance they had lost out on a lot in the long run because their easier first floors had made it possible for them to rush. In contrast, Cyn was fairly sure that if her party tried to face the Illuminant Brood Queen before going to Cogtopia, they probably would have died.

  Overhearing Cyn talk about her party’s first floor, and her pondering aloud about the strange range of difficulty, led to Donovan asking her if she remembered what her compatibility was before she entered the class-choosing area at the start of adaptation. Because the archer had developed a very interesting theory after arriving on the third floor and meeting more people, thus noticing the same difficulty discrepancy.

  Cyn admitted she did not remember the exact number, but was pretty sure it was somewhere in the seventies. Wide-eyed, the archer quickly confirmed with her nearest party members that their numbers were also that high. Sam couldn’t remember his at all, but Hex claimed his had been eighty-three. Five higher than the previous highest compatibility, they found out. Nearly all of the people originally on this floor had had compatibility between thirty and sixty, with two exceptions. The mage from Donovan’s own party, now dead, had had compatibility in the low seventies, and the previous highest belonged to none other than Cirrus.

  Donovan’s theory was that the System put those who were more compatible into a more challenging first floor. Each party also seemed to have been selected to have similar compatibility numbers to each other, reinforcing the theory they had been tiered. Obviously, they had no way to prove it, but after listening to Donovan talk about it, and hearing tales of the differing first floors, Cyn felt it was pretty reasonable. Sam also expressed relief at the theory, and hoped it was true. He had a little sister, and the thought that she might have ended up in the same situations Sam found himself in had been worrying him.

  Once the wall was built and the camp seemed stable, the raid party split into three groups. The first group leaving camp for the day would be heading to the plains, mostly so that Cyn’s party could get a sense of how much work needed to be done to get everyone appropriately leveled up, how they worked together, and an idea of who needed more motivation. Scott had, naturally, taken the lead in the camp and no one had really stepped up to contest his decisions so far. Del’s entire party - consisting of Alphina the warrior, Irrab the guardian, Taesh the archer, and Del himself as the mage - would be heading out alongside Scott and Hex. Since their party was missing professions, it was agreed that they would be the first ones Scott and Hex would work with. The four had little to do if they were stuck sitting at camp, so it was important to make sure they were ready to venture out of their relative safe-zone and start gaining levels.

  Cyn was originally planning to go with them to the plains, until Cirrus approached her from the second group forming to head to the mine. “Hey, I think you should come with us instead. In case there is trouble, or a collapse.” Cyn barely avoided flinching at the attempted mental influence. It was far more subtle than what Scott did, or how the Cadaverous Puppet Bloom communicated, but it still felt like sandpaper. Just more like sandpaper lightly rubbed, instead of trying to vigorously polish her eardrums.

  She also only had a few heartbeats to come up with a response. While her own party knew she was immune, or at least resilient to, illusions, Cyn had not been entirely forthcoming with them about how powerful Mental Fortress was. The only thing that might reasonably explain her resistance otherwise was stats, since it was her will that allowed her to initially resist during the trial, but she simply did not know how it worked.

  “Sure...” She decided to pretend his attempted influence was successful, or at the very least that she had not noticed it, although she could not fake being thrilled with the idea. Cirrus didn’t seem bothered by Cyn’s slight hesitation to agree, just giving her a warm smile and reaching out with one hand. Resting the hand on her upper back, Cirrus attempted to guide her towards the second group. Nope. Cyn was not into that. She picked up her pace, pulling away from the rogue and shamelessly seeking shelter from unwanted touching between the giant teddy bear that was Sam and an over-excited Fish.

  Fish, of course, immediately slung one arm around Cyn’s shoulders to lean on the shorter woman. Still unwanted, but at least Fish did not give her the heebie-jeebies. With her and Cirrus joining this group, the latter giving Cyn a slightly strange look but not attempting to touch her again, they were ready to head out.

  Sam would obviously be a part of this group, since the Berserker was taking responsibility for making sure the supports were stable enough to prevent further collapse. Mountain had been glued to Sam’s side, the boy absorbing everything the man had to teach him like a sponge, and this trip would not change that. Geoff, one of the warriors, was also a smith. He would be coming along since he had been to the mine previously, and his profession allowed him to more easily identify and extract useful material from the ground. Juls, Fish, and Cirrus were joining for protection and to just make themselves as useful as possible. Everyone else would be staying at the camp to work on their professions, and protect the Territory Heart if necessary.

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  With everyone being ready, both groups set out just after sunrise. While the group going to the plains technically did not have to go very far, the mine was at least an hour away when sticking to the riverbank. It would be less for those who had high agility, but since they were going to stay together for safety the group had to move at the pace of the slowest person. And that person was Geoff, who was torturously slow. They could probably shorten the time a little by cutting through the forest, since the river curved some and was not a direct line to their destination, but most preferred to stick to the route they knew.

  At least Cyn did not feel totally averse to going to the mine with the second group. Her current goal was to interact with some of the creatures on this dungeon floor for Creature Handler experience, and supposedly there was some kind of tunneling creature that would harass anyone who tried to make use of the mine. But even more interesting was whatever Dana had seen moving in the lake. The only reason she had not volunteered to go to the mines initially was because Cirrus had joined before she got the chance to.

  They did not make it far from the camp when Cyn saw her first non-humanoid creature of the third floor. It looked like just a little, black bird, peering silently down at the party from the air and following their movements.

  Shadow Crow - Level 13

  A highly intelligent avian, known for living in flocks consisting of a variety of specialized subspecies.

  This subspecies is capable of shadow magic, and will often serve as a scout for its flock.

  Parts of this creature are edible.

  How many birds count as a flock? And if it’s a crow, wouldn’t it be called a murder, not a flock? Actually, after Hex’s experience with the bunny, I would rather call it a flock. Less ominous. The creature seemed to realize it was noticed, probably since she was just staring at it, and quickly dived deeper into the trees, vanishing. Clearing her throat to get the group’s attention, since most of them were wrapped up in idle chatter, Cyn quickly asked a question. “Know anything about the birds on this floor? I just saw one.”

  Everyone but Sam and Cyn immediately came to a stop and started looking around, with Juls, Geoff, and Mountain drawing their weapons. While their reaction was enough to tell Cyn what she needed to know, Juls answered her question as she and Sam also stopped. “I only know of two kinds, and they both are bad news. Was it a Crow?” The archer was nervously fiddling with a half-nocked arrow as she spoke, her gaze still flicking around their surroundings, and clearly on edge from the mere mention of a bird.

  She nodded quickly. “Shadow Crow. The description says it’s probably a scout for a flock. I assume they are aggressive?”

  “Sometimes, but I doubt they would attack us. Too many people, too many high levels between you, Cirrus, and Sam. It would be stupid, and the Crows aren’t stupid.” Fish was looking around just like everyone else, but seemed pretty relaxed about it. It was only Juls and Geoff that appeared genuinely nervous.

  Cirrus quickly agreed. “They haven’t actually killed anyone yet. They only seem to attack the already injured, and only if no one strong is close by. Smart enough to run... fly... from a fight they won’t win. We should be alright to keep moving.” Turning, the rogue gave Cyn a bright smile. “Good catch. I expect good eyes from the archers, not the mages.”

  Regardless of how Cirrus made her feel, Cyn was not able to stop herself from preening under the praise and smiling back. “Looking at critters is kind of the whole reason I am out here.” She paused a heartbeat, before realizing she had left out the other, arguably more important reason she was here. Cyn quickly added on, “And keeping people alive. Obviously.”

  Boisterous laughter from Sam and Mountain at her gaffe seemed to relax Juls and Geoff, and the group got moving again. Cirrus, unfortunately, immediately adjusted his pace to jog beside her. Trying to get away from him now would definitely cause an unnecessary scene, and, if Cyn was being honest, Cirrus had been nothing except nice to her. She couldn’t even count his instance of attempted mental manipulation, since she was guilty of doing something similar. She just wished she knew why the rogue made her so nervous.

  “The Crows attacked often in the first few days, and only once did someone catch sight of the Shadow Crow before the whole flock showed up. You must have pretty high mind or will. Maybe both?” Maybe she should be nervous, because Cirrus’s friendly observation and question felt like a clear phishing attempt. Not that she knew what he could even do with that information, since mind and will had been the stated primary stats for mage. She might have evolved, but mage was still the root of her class, and it wasn’t a stretch to think they were still her primary stats.

  “Yah, I do. Standard mage stats.” His expression, the same easy smile Cirrus seemed to wear all of the time, did not change at her vague answer. He just nodded, but since he seemed to be about to say something else, she quickly tried to change the subject. “Anyway, what’s this about a second kind of bad news bird?”

  “The Wind Roc. We would have noticed it if it was near, the creature is massive. It seems to spend most of its time out over the plains.” That was likely what Dana had seen during her scouting. Cyn had a flash of concern for the others, and it must have been clear on her face since Cirrus quickly added on, “I wouldn’t worry, I’ve been out there while the Roc is flying around and it never seemed to care.”

  “Like how the Vampires never attacked the camp?”

  His smile slipped. Cirrus didn’t have a response to that.