Mar watched her mother warily while lurking within the group. The woman had figured out that she could find Mar with her life sense and was now much harder to hide from. That was why Mar was currently standing much closer than she would have preferred to the others and keeping almost frantic track of them to avoid getting bumped into.

  They were preparing to go out on a scouting mission and Mar was going with them. Her mother didn't like that, of course, and was now nearby trying to catch her. There were ten of them going. A handful of Wilson's goons, a few brave casters that weren't spoiled by the Mana Well, Herself and Bradley. Oh, and Sandra… "That bitch."

  Wilson hadn't wanted Bradley to go, saying he was too valuable as a defensive measure to risk. "What does that make the rest of us?" But Bradley wasn't content with hiding behind the walls. "He's brave…" Mar blushed at her thoughts and double checked her invisibility. "Stupid Bradley!" He was trying to be brave, but… it was still fun to startle him and watch him vanish into the ground like a whack-a-mole. He was getting really good at it in fact. She giggled and then clamped her mouth shut when someone turned to look.

  "Jake got into Bradley's head…" Mar thought once she'd composed herself. He'd gotten a few people to step up and Alejandro had moved into the role when Jake left. Speaking of Alejandro… he was approaching them now, decked out in his gear. He wasn't coming with them but he wore his armor and weapons at all times now. Everyone did. Ever since the night that they didn't get another attack. "Two weeks… I think?" It was a lot harder to keep track of the days now. The worst part was the waiting. The knowledge that at any moment an army of monsters could appear and come swarming over the walls.

  Mar looked up at the walls in question. Unlimited Mana and Bradley's dedication had built it up to nearly three stories tall. "Maybe a bit excessive?" Though to be fair, some people could already jump that high… which made the whole wall seem somewhat of a moot point. Mar just wished that she had Skills that needed Mana like that. She could have made more progress…

  "I'll be going as well." Mar felt her heart sink when she heard those words in a voice she knew too well. "Damn it!" She just couldn't get away from her. "Stop embarrassing me!"

  "Saira." Alejandro was smiling. "Of course."

  "Remember. You only need to find out what is there and then head back," he said loudly to the rest of them. "Watch each other's backs and you'll be fine." He said something else more quietly and she couldn't hear him from her hiding spot.

  They left him behind and headed outside the wall. Wilson said that his Fort menu was telling him there were resources to the south and Mar had joined up with the other volunteers to go find out what it was. Not that she was feeling particularly brave or helpful, she just really wanted to get out of the base and go somewhere, anywhere!

  She could go out at any time if she wanted but, it was still scary to go wandering around out there… She'd seen giant animals and monsters from the walls, some would just go running past at full speed. Yea, she could be invisible but that didn't mean she couldn't get stepped on. If she found one of those out in the wild, she'd prefer someone she could stand behind. Someone like Alejandro… or Mark, another person that could stop almost anything with his shield.

  The irony was not lost on her that she wanted to hide from everyone while simultaneously wanting to be a part of the group. She watched the others walking ahead of her, they were alert and nervous but still talked to each other, laughed with each other. Mar wanted that. She wasn't a loner, despite what everyone probably thought. Even the Class that she allegedly had the most affinity for agreed. She just got very nervous when people looked at her… Or talked to her. "Status."

  Status

  Name: Mary Mehta

  Race: [Human](E Rank)

  Traits: [Ghost]

  Titles: [Lonely Watcher]

  Class: [Shy Child(Apprentice IV)](Epic)

  Class Skills: [Don't Look At Me(Apprentice VIII)](Epic) [Don't Hear Me(Initiate III)](Epic)

  Attributes:

  Strength: 40

  Vitality: 38

  Dexterity 48

  Perception 40

  Intelligence 34

  Willpower 35

  Non Class Skills: [Sneak Attack(Initiate IV)](Common) [Knife Fighting(Initiate VIII)](Common)

  Buffs:

  Debuffs:

  "I'm not a child…" It was the same thought she had every time she looked at her status. "And titles don't count." Jake had told her that her Class was great and could probably Evolve into something even better… eventually. Some kind of assassin maybe… Mar brushed her hands against her pants, as if trying to rub something off.

  Jake had tried to teach her Stealth and whether it was her invisibility or just ineptitude, it hadn't worked. It was sad. She hadn't been able to gain a stealth skill and had taken the quieting skill right before the old man Lee gave her the boots. Mar looked down at them… of course she was invisible and couldn't see them. The boots had been made by someone in the garage out of some animal pelt and were very comfortable. The old man had then put some magic on them and now she could stomp over dry twigs without a sound. "I should have got the smell Skill." She thought again, for the hundredth time.

  They had to walk across the freeway to reach the area they were going to explore but the overpass had one support missing and a large crack down the middle, so they took the low ground. A few wrecked and abandoned cars were still on the road, all of them far more rusted and decayed than seemed right for the amount of time that had passed, but otherwise it was quiet.

  On the other side, once they climbed up the embankment, were the remains of an apartment complex. It had been under construction and nearing completion but now it was a field of rubble around a massive pit. Mar shivered as she looked closer at the pit. Either something had crashed down from the sky, and nobody had mentioned seeing anything, or something had come up from below…

  She moved closer to Bradley, he would know if something was underground, probably. He was barefoot because he claimed it helped him 'feel the earth', whatever that meant, and because it helped him regen faster. He must have gotten something from his Class to toughen his feet… There were stickers everywhere here.

  They skirted around the destroyed complex and headed further south, into the rolling hills and closer to the Mexico border fence. Everyone got quieter the further from home they went. Mar saw her mother glancing her way more than once.

  "I think that's it," Mar said quietly when they finally stopped.

  "Probably," Bradley agreed.

  Both of them waited for the rest of the team to catch up before approaching the object of their attention. It was a cave. Not a normal cave that you might see anywhere that such things appeared, but a very unnatural looking 'cave'. A hillside that looked like it had been sheared off and then something new had been added. That was the only way Mar could think to describe it.

  Pale stone jutted from the brown sandy hillside and framed the opening that led into the darkness beyond. Spikes of crude iron, at least that's what she guessed it was, stood out in small clusters along the face of the opening. It really looked out of place…

  "That dark cloud is getting closer," Bradley said, he was looking into the sky.

  Mar followed his gaze, the uneasy feeling returning at the sight. "Yea…"

  The others finished assembling and Mark, their de facto leader, stepped slowly towards the entrance, his shield held protectively ahead. As soon as he stepped onto the pale stone, he stopped. "We found it." Mar, curious, stepped closer until she could touch the out of place rock.

  Resource Lair (Iron)

  "That's it?" She felt like there should be more information but nothing else came up.

  "Should we check it out?" Bradley asked.

  "Yes," Mark said.

  "No," her mother said at the same time. "we found it, that's enough."

  "Wilson wants to know what is inside," Mark said and hefted his shield. "We will check." He gestured at the other of Wilson's guards. They had all gotten some kind of Class or Buff from Wilson, something related to him being the 'Commander', at least from what she'd heard.

  Her mother chimed in again. "I sense life inside, so I suspect fighting will be required, but we should really head back for now… That cloud is not right." Everyone else looked up now, at the cloud drifting ever closer.

  "We'll be quick." Mark said as he stuck a glowing symbol onto his shield and pointed it into the cave. It illuminated a normal looking rocky tunnel. The others affixed their own lights and the five of them moved cautiously inside the yawning maw. Mar followed behind.

  "Mar…" her mother called and Mar stiffened. "...be careful." She tried to stomp after the others but her silent footsteps made it impossible. "Stop trying to tell me what to do!"

  A few paces into the dark and the magic lights revealed more metallic looking clumps on the walls. One of the others reached for the metal. "Is this what we want?" He murmured and Mar thought she felt Mana move. She opened her mouth to warn them but it was too late.

  Before the man could touch the metal, it sank back into the wall and the stone around where it had been bulged outward. A loud sound of grinding stone accompanied the figure that seemed to move out of the wall. It was vaguely humanoid and stood maybe seven feet tall, its head almost brushing the ceiling. A club like arm swung down at the others and Mark caught it on his shield.

  He was pushed across the tunnel and crashed into the opposite side. The boom of stone against metal almost drowned out another grinding sound from behind her and Mar spun to see the creature step free of the wall and towards her. She moved to the side and was alarmed when it turned to face her new position. "They can see me!" She drew her knives and then jumped back when it swung a rocky limb at her. The monster missed her but slammed against the ground in an explosion of stone shards. Mar cried out at the stinging pain as her invisibility flickered under the assault. "How did it see me?"

  The monster took a stumbling step towards her as something crashed against its back and then it spun around to face the cave entrance. "Bradley!" She leapt forwards and slammed both of her daggers into the things back. It felt like she'd punched a rock, which she had… sort of. The blades sank into the thing like it wasn't there though and she dragged them down its back as it started to spin around.

  "Down!" Mark shouted behind her and Mar dropped into a crouch. A blade swung over her head and the monster was split in half. It froze for a moment and then crumbled into gravel on the floor. "That's it?"

  "Mar, what did I say about telling people when you are nearby?" Mark said.

  Mar froze and her invisibility covered her again. "Sorry," she said.

  "If you hadn't appeared when you attacked…"

  Mar flinched at his words and the memory of the sword effortlessly cutting through stone. "Sorry..."

  Mark sighed and bent down where the monster had fallen. He stood up with a small black clump of ore. "I think we can leave now."

  "No Cores?" Mar asked.

  "Doesn't look like it. Just iron, I think?" He held the ore up in front of the light on his shield as he studied it. Mar had no idea what iron ore looked like and could only shrug. Not that anyone could see it…

  "What do you think Bradley?" Mark asked and Mar jumped when the earth mage walked past her.

  "Stupid sneaky Bradley!" His bare feet made no sound on the stone floor.

  "It's metal," Bradley said. "that's about all I can tell." He held a hand out and the gravely remains of the monster floated up from the floor and coalesced into a ball. "They just turn into normal earth…" Bradley held the now shiny sphere of earth in his hand and looked down the tunnel. "Resource Lair… it's basically an iron mine but instead of mining, we have to kill the monsters?"

  "Seems that way," Mark agreed.

  "There is a problem." Saira said and Mar jumped in surprise, not having heard her approach. "That dark cloud is full of flying monsters. Can we hide in here?"

  Mar slipped past her and the others to go and see for herself. Her mother was probably just being a drama queen. It had been a pleasant trip, so far at least. Not much action until the end but still… A faint noise was growing in her ears. "It sounds like rain…" She stepped outside and looked at the cloud to the west. It seemed a bit low for a cloud and she squinted at the dust cloud underneath it. "Doesn't look like rain…" She thought there was something moving up and down from the cloud to the ground but couldn't see more than tiny specks. She took a few steps to try and get a better look.

  A buzzing sound from overhead prompted her to look up. "A fly…" She wasn't particularly bothered by the sight and realized that she couldn't remember seeing any flies for a while now. Then it got bigger and Mar realized that it was not actually tiny but rather still far away. It grew in her vision and she felt a very bad feeling growing as her eyes jumped to the dark cloud and back.

  Something dripped on her arm and Mar saw her invisibility flicker. Her leather bracer had a wet spot on it and the symbol in the leather was glowing brightly. "Is it raining?" She touched the wet spot and immediately regretted it when the tip of her finger melted down to the bone!

  Mar was screaming in agony, when a fly the size of a basketball landed a few feet away. Something dripped from its face and the ground underneath it started smoking. "No!" A roaring pitter patter sound was growing behind her and Mar managed to look up from her finger to the wall of acid rain that was descending on her. The cave mouth vanished behind that wall and she saw her mother's horrified screaming face peering out. "I'm sorry mom." She closed her eyes just before the rain hit.

  Mar didn't have time to scream when the burning started, then something heavy crashed into her and she fell down, down, down into the dark and everything went wonderfully silent.

  "I need more…"

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  "...low on Mana…"

  "...move more that way!"

  "...I'm trying to…"

  Voices intruded into the peaceful darkness and brought pain with them. Mar groaned, unable to muster the strength to scream, then a soothing warmth washed over her and she fell back into the dark.

  She was surprised when she woke up. It was dark and smelled like dirt mixed with… things. Mar sat up slowly, cautiously, but all she could see were faint glowing points of light like stars in the night sky. Upon closer inspection she realized that the stars were glowing symbols. "The enchanted gear…" Her whole body felt raw. "How did I survive?" Her body also felt strangely cold… her hands froze and the symbols on her armor vanished as she reactivated her invisibility. "Why am I naked!"

  She wasn't really naked, just mostly. It felt like all of her armor had survived but her clothes were gone. Completely gone. She ran a hand over her head and the other strange sensation turned out to be that her hair was also almost completely gone. Though she did feel a faint fuzz.

  Mar almost screamed again when her hand brushed against warm flesh that was not her own. "Where is my damn light?" She was breathing hard and fished around in the narrow pocket of her breast plate. Light flared from the small piece of metal that she pulled out and the symbol that was far too bright for her eyes on it.

  She didn't look at it though, her eyes were locked on the person lying next to her. "How did you…" Her mother still had some small pieces of armor, but not enough, her exposed skin looked terrible. She was covered in blisters and had oozing holes in her flesh. Mar reached out a trembling hand and touched her mother's neck. Tears of relief slid down her face when she felt the pulse pounding away under her fingers. "We need to find some…"

  Her eyes slid from her mother to the other form lying nearby, whereupon they widened as she blushed furiously and looked away. "Bradley saved us…" He apparently didn't have any enchanted armor…

  She looked at the stone all around them. Bradley must have dragged them all underground to escape from the acid. She couldn't see any openings and the space they were in wasn't very big… Mar tried to keep her breathing calm even as she started wondering how long they had been in here and how much oxygen people still needed.

  Regardless, they needed to get out and find some plants so her mother could heal herself. She needed to wake up Bradley. She was trying not to look at him and reaching out to nudge him awake when…

  Alert! You have been Conscripted into the Small Dungeon: [Fight at the Fence]

  Invaders are coming! Join with your allies and prepare your defenses! Fight!

  Rewards will be granted based on Contributions to the Defense or the Assault once the Invaders have been Defeated or Driven Out or when all Defenders are Defeated.

  "Aah…" Bradley bolted upright screaming and Mar instinctively clapped a hand over his mouth.

  "Quiet!" she hissed and his eyes focused on her.

  "Mar? You're okay!" He smiled as his eyes slid down from her face and then widened as his face turned red.

  Mar realized abruptly that her invisibility had been broken when she touched him and she leapt away with a shriek.

  "Sorry Mar." Bradley was bright red in the light of the Magic symbol lying on the floor, then his eyes fell on her mother and he inhaled sharply. "Is she…"

  "She's alive," Mar said. "but we need to get her to some plants… and I don't see any air holes in here."

  "Give me a moment." Bradley closed his eyes and placed his hands against the stone. A moment later one side of the space expanded and lengthened away from them, sloping upwards slightly. "I can't really tell where plants are but I think there might be some this way."

  "Okay…" Mar said quietly from the corner she was crouched in. "Thank you Bradley."

  "Sure. No problem." He was blushing again as he picked up his weird stone staff and symbols started glowing up and down the length of it. There was a click of breaking stone and her mother started sliding on a thin sheet of rock up the new tunnel. Bradley got to his feet, picked up the light and walked ahead of the sliding platform. She saw that he had somehow wrapped some dirt around his waist into a kind of stone skirt.

  "That can't be comfortable." It left his upper body bare and she finally noticed that he also sported a lot of burns… Mar also noticed that he was looking very chiseled. She blushed. It was no big deal… Lots of people looked like that nowadays, between the daily workouts and magic rocks that make them all more fit. Not that she was sneaking around spying on people, she wasn't a pervert. She just sometimes, accidentally, saw things she shouldn't… "Can you make me one of those?" Mar asked while pointing at his rocky clothes, forgetting that he couldn't see her.

  He must have understood though because he nodded, his exposed skin still a bit pink. "I could but it would really hurt to wear… my earth shape lets it move with me, somewhat."

  "Oh…"

  "But…" He gestured to her mother and a thin shell of rock grew up over her motionless body in an arch. It didn't touch her but did provide her with some modesty. "I can do that at least."

  "Thanks." Mar said. "What about the Dungeon?"

  Bradley stopped at the end of his new tunnel and put his hand against the wall. "I don't know." He sighed. "Small Dungeon… I think we must have left the Fort area."

  "How far did we go?" Mar asked in surprise.

  "I honestly don't know. It was mostly a mad dash to get out from under the rain and find plants that hadn't already been dissolved. I'm not even sure which way we went…"

  "It said fence, so maybe the border fence?"

  "Could be… that's not too bad." Bradley said after pushing the stone tunnel out ahead of them. "We weren't that far from it before."

  "What about the others?" Mar said quietly.

  "They were still inside when Saira dove outside after you."

  "Thanks again…" He just ducked his head and kept walking ahead of her.

  They kept moving down the growing tunnel until Bradley abruptly stopped with his hand against the wall. "That's new…"

  "What?" Mar asked.

  "The edge," Bradley said and stepped to the side. "See for yourself."

  Mar stepped around him and touched the wall.

  [Dungeon Perimeter] No Dungeon Entities may cross until All Invaders or Defenders are Defeated.

  "So we're trapped."

  Bradley nodded. "Seems that way."

  "Can you get us to the surface?" Mar pointed uselessly at her mother. "We should surround her with as many plants as possible… Or, can you bring the plants down here?"

  "Yea… but give me a sec." The ground under his feet lifted up until he rested a hand against the ceiling of the tunnel. He stayed that way for a while until finally shaking his head. "I can't detect anything. At least nothing moving on the ground…" He flipped the small metal plate over and the light almost vanished, leaving only a thin line around the edge. The rock above parted a moment later and daylight shone down through a tiny crack. The crack widened and he started rising higher, towards the opening.

  "Wait!" Mar hissed. "Let me look."

  He stopped for a moment and then shuffled to the side, away from the opening. "Good idea."

  Mar took his place and he added a ladder into the wall that she could use to climb higher. She stuck her head out and saw… nothing. Well not nothing, but nothing that stood out. Just desert grass and shrubbery, much more of it than usual and much more vibrant, but that was normal now. She climbed back down and relayed her findings, or lack thereof. "Can you get her up into the grass? Maybe build some walls first?"

  A short while later Bradley had her mother laying among the prickly grasses, with another layer of earth and more flora overhead. A perfect hiding place. Unfortunately she couldn't tell if the plants were doing much if anything to help.

  "We need to get back to another healer… we need to get out of this Dungeon." Her hands went to her waist and her daggers… and met only bare skin. "Shit." Her enchanted armor had survived, so her weapons had probably survived as well. The sheaths and belt though… Her knives were probably buried underground somewhere out reach now. "Bradley, can you make me some knives?"

  "I… Yea I can. But we should wait for your mom to wake up before…"

  "She needs a healer! We can't…" Mar closed her mouth with an effort of will. "I'm…"

  Bradley held out two knife shaped stones. "These won't be nearly as good as what you had. Not without Lee's enchants."

  She took the knives and her invisibility flickered again. Bradley glanced away, only slightly pink this time. "Be careful out there Mar. You're mom…" She bristled but he continued before she could say anything. "I know you have some problems, but… She didn't even hesitate, she just dove after you."

  Mar swallowed a lump in her throat.

  "I don't know many people who would do that." He said and then whispered, almost under his breath. "My mom wouldn't have…"

  "You must have gone out right after her," Mar said softly.

  "I won't be afraid anymore," Bradley said with conviction as he looked towards her, at least where he thought she was based on the fact that he could sense her feet on the ground.

  "Thank you… for saving her, us, and I will be careful," Mar said. "I'm going to try and see what we're dealing with and then ideally you could make a cave or pit trap and we can just lure the monsters into it and either bury them or crush them."

  "That's… that's not a bad idea," Bradley mused. "I'll get started on it while you scout. If you come back with something chasing you and see a big cave mouth, run inside."

  "I'll do that, but…"

  "I'll stay right here with her." Bradley said. "Don't rush too much, I'll need time to create something and I don't think your mom is in immediate danger. Her heartbeat is strong and she isn't bleeding. I think she is just drained." Mar didn't share his optimism, her mother should be pitching a fit right about now. But she wasn't…

  "It's my fault." She had wanted to go outside and see for herself… "I'll be slow." Mar said and started crawling out of the small hole he opened in their cover. Mar stood up outside and the first thing she did was look up. "Nothing." The sky was clear blue with a few fluffy white clouds. She flexed her toes in the sun-warmed dirt. "My new shoes… gone just like that." She had shin guards, wrist guards, a chest piece and two knives, nothing else. It felt extremely wrong to be walking about in such a state and if it wasn't for her invisibility, Mar didn't think she would be able to do it. She really didn't want to have to fight like this either…

  She would need to be slow and very careful. Mar activated her [Don't Hear Me] and also started channeling it and her [Don't Look At Me], to lower any chance of detection. She started moving in a slow crouch. "Please don't step on a sticker."

  With both Skills active and channeled her Mana began to ever so slowly decline. But it didn't become an issue because she found the monsters in only a few minutes. They were hiding under a short desert tree, Mar didn't know what it was called, and they were in a circle with eyes in every direction. And they looked like dogs… like Dobermans to be precise. Tiny Dobermans, standing upright at maybe three feet, and wearing clothes… There were six of them that she could see, until she got a glimpse into the middle of the group and spotted two more. They looked like puppies… "Why would the monsters have babies with them?"

  Mar didn't know what to make of the situation and she crouched unmoving as she studied the enemy. They all wore clothes, no armor that she could tell, even the little ones had clothes. The 'adults' all held a small knife in one hand. Or was it a paw? A few also held a small glowing bottle in the other hand.

  Mar didn't make the connection with dogs and smell until one of them suddenly started sniffing loudly and growling to the others. "Damn!" She took slow and careful steps to the side as she tried to feel which way the wind was blowing.

  She had only gone a few steps when one of the dogs stepped forward from the others and barked. "Hello? Can you understand me?"

  Mar was dumbfounded. "They can talk! And in English!"

  "Are you sentient? We do not wish to fight!" It barked some more and Mar realized that there was no way its mouth was making the English words. "It must be magic. But why? Is it a trick to lure me out? And why would they come here if not to fight?" She was sure it had to be a trick and kept moving, though now she wanted to get back to Bradley and get his opinion.

  Another of them barked and yipped, this time with no English overlay. The first one barked again. "We don't need to be enemies!" It slowly and obviously set down its knife and the glowing bottle on the ground. It lifted its now empty hands and spread them wide. "We have goods that can be traded, and…" It glanced back at the others. "We are willing to discuss terms for our surrender if necessary… but we need to know if you are Sentients."

  Mar was frozen in place, trying to breath as quietly as possible. Those glowing bottles… could they be potions? That could very well be a thing now. Healing potions. "If I can get one for her…" She decided to risk talking to them. Partially because it looked like while they had smelled her, they still didn't know where she was, and also because of an interesting effect her Skill had.

  "Do you have healing potions?" Her voice came from random directions all around her as she spoke, making it sound like she was in multiple places at once or moving very rapidly between words.

  "We do!" The dog barked. "Do you require healing?"

  "Shit! Did I just tip them off that we have wounded?"

  The creature reached into a bag and pulled out another glowing bottle, this one a deep red. "Here it is."

  "How do I know that is a healing potion?" she thought. "How do I know that is what you say?"

  The dog's head was turning and tilting as her words echoed from multiple directions. "I will demonstrate." It barked and slowly picked up its knife. It held up the paw and drew a red line down the pale, hairless flesh of its palm with the blade. Then it tossed the blade away and pulled out the potion again. "Very good quality!" It popped a cork and poured a few drops of the potion over its hand. "Can be used as a topical or ingested for more serious injuries." It tilted its head back and poured almost half of the liquid down its throat. "First ones free." It recorked the bottle and held it up along with the now healed hand.

  Mar thought about it for a moment. It could still be a trick… but it seemed like a rather convoluted plot… "Toss it over here!" she finally called and let her invisibility drop for a second. As soon as the creature saw her she was once again invisible and took a step to the side, just in case. The bottle was thrown and Mar caught it nervously, half expecting it to explode. It didn't and it also vanished when she caught it with a flicker.

  "Don't move," she told the creature.

  "Of course," it said, sounding cheerful.

  That just made her more nervous and Mar moved further away and behind another thick bush. She drew a knife across her arm while watching them and wincing. Then she ducked down and dropped her invisibility to see what happened as she dripped the potion onto her fresh wound. It felt warm and not unpleasant as the liquid seemed to vanish into the wound, leaving smooth unbroken flesh. "It does work!"

  Mar disappeared again and stood up. The monsters were still in place, they hadn't moved. "Wait here. If this works as claimed, then we will discuss terms," Mar said.

  "As you wish." The dog-like creature bowed slightly towards her and backed up closer to the rest.

  Mar almost sprinted back, only going slow enough to watch her step, though her feet had been feeling way more resilient than she had expected. "Must be the stats."

  Bradley was waiting when she ran inside. "Did you…"

  "Watch the door!" She let her invisibility drop for a moment to show him the potion. "I got a healing potion." Bradley, to his credit, didn't ask too many questions. He pulled the stone shell back and left her alone.

  Mar carefully dripped a single drop onto one of the worse holes in her mother's flesh and it almost disappeared completely! She slowly and steadily worked on her mother until she couldn't find any more wounds. Mar was about to try pouring some down her throat, when her eyes fluttered open.

  "Mother?" Mar couldn't keep her voice from breaking as her invisibility dropped.

  Her mother didn't hesitate and Mar was wrapped up in her arms before she could react. "I… I…"

  "It's okay. You're okay." Mar felt her mother's tears on her shoulder even as her own ran freely.

  After a while the tears dried up and her mother held up the almost empty potion. "Where did you get this?"

  Mar told her about the dog people and she immediately insisted on going to speak with them.

  "But you're naked!" Mar protested.

  "You think that will bother them?"

  Mar tried another tack. "Bradley is out there."

  "Oh he already saw everything."

  "What?" Mar exclaimed. "You didn't!"

  Her mother laughed at her expression and shook her head. "I meant while we were saving you. Before we lost the light. I'm sure he got an eyeful but he is too young for me. In fact… he is about your age isn't he?"

  Mar rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the blush and vanished while her mother laughed. She pulled off the armor and handed it over. "You can at least wear this."

  "Very well. I am just so happy that you are well." Mar endured another hug once her mother had gotten 'dressed'. It was a good hug. Something about almost dying really made hugs better.

  They joined Bradley outside and he gaped far too long at her mother. "Stop staring!" Mar shouted while her mother laughed.

  Bradley turned away, now bright red himself. "I… I was just glad to see you healed…"

  "You saved Mar's life as well as my own, Bradley. I am eternally grateful and in your debt."

  "No… no problem," he said while refusing to look at her.

  When they approached the dog creatures again, they all started barking and yipping at each other. Mar was worried that something had changed and gripped her remaining stone knife tightly as she started channeling her Skills. The one who she'd spoken to before stepped forward. At least she was pretty sure it was the same one.

  "Are you a Runic?" It spoke to Bradley while staring at his staff full of glowing symbols. They were all staring at it in fact.

  "No?" Bradley just looked confused.

  "The one who made that?" It pointed at the staff. "Is that one a Runic?"

  "I… I'm not sure." Bradley glanced back at them and she and her mother shrugged. Though he couldn't see Mar. Which was a good thing!

  "I don't think he ever mentioned his Class, but I have heard him call these Runes." Bradley hefted the staff.

  There was a lot more yipping, growling and barking. Then the leader spoke again. "If you will allow us to meet the Runic then we are prepared to surrender."

  "I… think that would be okay?" Bradley glanced at them again, silently begging for help, but her mother only nodded at him. "We would need to take some precautions though."

  "That won't be necessary. You'll understand in a moment." He barked at the others and then they all howled together, with only his howl coming through in English. "We Surrender."

  Congratulations! The Dungeon Invaders have been Defeated or Driven Out. Dungeon Defense Successful. Victory!

  Area Protected from All Dungeon Incursion Varieties for a duration of (5)(Local Hours)

  All Regeneration(Environment, Resource, and Individual) +5%

  Recover. Rebuild. Rearm. Prepare to Defend The Dungeon.

  Your Contributions to the Defense have Earned you:

  +1 All Base Attributes

  Earn Greater Contributions to earn Greater Rewards.

  Enemy has Surrendered! As the Victors You may Choose the [Surrender] Debuff Duration.

  Mar focused on [Surrender].

  -90% Effect of All Attributes

  "That would make things safer, I guess." They choose four hours for the debuff and the creatures, who she learned called themselves Anubi, seemed happy enough with it as they headed back north. Her mother healed Bradley up the rest of the way and then walked ahead of him with her bare ass showing! Mar couldn't believe her mother and even tried dropping her invisibility while walking next to her to see her reaction but her own mother only laughed and winked at her!

  "Who are you?" Mar demanded. "And what did you do with my mother!"

  "I'm alive! You are alive!" She pulled Mar into a side hug. "I am happy!"

  Mar had to channel her Skill to keep it from flickering too much. "Did that potion make you drunk?" Bradley had to walk with his head turned and spent the trip chatting with the Anubi leader.

  Arriving at the wasteland left by the flies sobered them all up and visions of what might have happened back at the base had them all walking faster. They passed the Resourse cave and it had tracks leading out and towards the base at least… though they couldn't say how many.