Chapter 124

“Everyone in this timeline and their guns,” Levi grumbled. “Is it so much to ask that they practice using the weapons that will be effective against the invasion that’s coming in just a few months? It’s not like we have unlimited time to train, here. Every encounter they solve using a gun instead of gaining experience fighting is another reason they’ll be unable to survive when it matters.”

Skarm didn’t respond, but nodded along with a decidedly neutral expression.

“Don’t tell me you want a gun.”

Skarm waved a hand as if to dismiss the thought, with great insincerity.

“Really? You too?”

Skarm shrugged.

“Drok,” Drok pointed out, helpfully.

“See? Drok’s with me here, we don’t need to waste time with guns.”

Skarm nodded along blandly.

“If Ward and Two were here, they’d agree with me.” They’d ridden in the car with Henry the dilo and the shadevines, all small enough to fit, while Skarm refused to be parted from Centoo now that they knew there was no need to keep close watch on Peter’s minions for unexpected betrayals.

Skarm shrugged.

“Well. Fine, you’re probably right that Two would want one, if only to show you up, but that’s just because he’s jealous.”

Skarm shrugged.

Becca padded over and batted at Levi’s belt.

“Now what.”

She batted his hand with her paw, pushing it toward the belt, then stared at him with a haughty look of disappointment.

“Oh!”

In his hurry to escape, and the later argument with Gordon, Levi had forgotten to inspect the treasure Becca had retrieved from the kalvex’s lair. He'd stuffed it in his belt and immediately started fighting.

“Thanks, good reminder.” He rubbed the back of her ears.

Becca began to purr and rubbed her head against his leg, then abruptly padded away, sat down, and stared at him.

“I’m going, I’m going. Miss Impatient.”

Levi fished the item out and stared down at it. Though they’d been forced to retreat, it hadn’t been a total loss.

It was a small pale orb, the size and shape of a power stone, connected by thin metal tracery to two clawed open metal brackets also linked to one another to form a triangle. The bracket section looked about the right size to fit dungeon tokens. He estimated it would take three tokens stacked together to fill in each side.

Convergence Array, Very Rare
Combines the powers of two elements to create a more powerful hybrid element.
Elements: 0/2

If he was understanding this correctly, it could be inserted into a weapon or armor like a normal power stone, but would combine two different powers. This wasn’t just rare, Levi had never even heard credible rumors of anything like this. There were always the ridiculous rumors, about people combining all ten elements and becoming superheroes or somesuch nonsense, but they were the sort of wishful make-believe that no one gave serious credit to.

Real element combining was done with augments, but the augment was always significantly weaker than the core power stone. You could add a Destruction augment to a Light Spear, and it would add extra corrosive damage, but not change its core nature. The base element always controlled the outcome. The reverse would be true of power upgrades in a weapon, which reshaped the form of the ability but not the element. A Destruction form of Beast Bite would carry elements of both, but the form was clearly defined entirely by the upgrade's element.

Both element combinations had the balance tipped firmly in one direction or another. He couldn't even imagine what a perfect blending of both would look like, since all the obvious combinations were already covered with existing options.

Which meant, unless he was wildly mistaken, hybrid elements would mean hybrid powers. Not a Beast Bite with a corrosion effect added or a Destructive Slash with a more jagged toothy impact form, but something entirely new.

He had to try it.

The only way to remove a power stone from an item was to shatter it completely, rendering it inert and useless, but he had more than enough Destruction tokens on hand, and he could bet that adding Destruction to… pretty much anything would only be an improvement. It would be worth sacrificing the stone currently in his sword.

He already had his sword out, ready to start start smashing things, when its common status reminded him of the stakes. It was a struggle, but he stopped and forced himself not to get ahead of things.

Though the temptation to amp up his Destructive Longsword was strong, he'd be better served saving the hybrid stone for something better. His current weapons couldn’t be upgraded very much and would end up obsolete before too many more months. He didn’t want to waste something this rare on a common sword from a low-level dungeon.

Reluctantly, he returned it to his storage belt for now with the other special items.

He couldn't wait to unlock crafting and have the chance to start making items worthy of all these upgrade items he was collecting. The hidden treasures he'd already collected alone would be enough to outfit someone in more rare gear than Levi had ever seen in one place, and that was before they went on a longer trip across the country.

Who knew what else they could find?

The trip became much lighter after that, dreaming up what items he could create with his special upgrade options was a much preferable pastime than grumbling to his minions.

“Do you think I should make you anything?” he asked Skarm. “You’ve got hands and everything.”

Skarm shrugged, patting the armor he’d appropriated from Ward.

“I know you’re fine right now, but once we get everyone leveling dungeons we’ll have to ramp up our power fast.”

Skarm gave a one-armed shrug like it didn’t matter to him either way.

When Levi reached Gayle’s neighborhood, new minions in tow, he caught more than a few odd looks from the neighbors. They may have been able to overlook his previous group, strange as it was, but now his group looked more like a circus performer's menagerie than anything that could be construed as normal.

Drok and Greg towered above the rest, Maggie left softened pavement in her wake, stone centipedes flanking the gremlins gossiping in their unintelligible squeaks...

Honestly, if Levi had seen this group coming, he'd have grabbed his swords and prepared for battle. His little team was starting to look seriously intimidating. Luckily, none of the neighbors were Awakened, so while they stared oddly at the parade of various-sized creatures parading past, they seemed more confused than terrified. More than one person went to wipe their glasses, or shook their head and turned away with a shrug.

Thank you, mana distortion. Weird nonsensical physics effect, but very useful in certain circumstances. Downright detrimental in others, like trying to prove your claims to having monsters, but everything in life was a tradeoff to one degree or another.

The moment they reached the house, Levi found Ward and Two standing in his way, arms crossed and clear anger on Ward’s face.

“What’s this about?” Levi asked. Skarm squeaked something at them imperiously from atop Centoo, and Ward squeaked back. Levi hadn’t noticed before, but Ward’s voice was notably deeper to go with his different physique.

Ward gestured, and Two turned and dragged something out from behind the fence. Gremlin Three’s body. Elmire something now, Levi supposed, not that it mattered.

“What? I can revive him right now, no need to be all huffy about it.”

Levi cast Revive, and Elmire sat up, stared around, then up at Ward. Ward huffed and gestured for Elmire to follow him, and they stalked away. Two raised his chin and glared up at Skarm defiantly. Skarm crossed his arms and stared him down. Two drew himself up, then turned his back on Levi and Skarm to follow Ward and Elmire.

“What was that all about?” Levi asked.

Skarm shrugged and waved a hand, indicating the group around them. Greg had immediately detached himself from their group and gone running to find Henry, leaving Levi with Becca, Maggie, the centipedes, Drok, and Skarm.

Of course, they were about to split their forces, so it wouldn't remain a single group for long.

Levi surveyed them, already disliking the necessity of dividing the group. He didn't want to send anyone away, wanted to watch them grow and help them evolve and foster an unstoppable army of monsters ready to face the demon wave and stand victorious.

Even for someone as used to stamina dragging as Levi, that last leg of the trip had been on the arduous side. While their initial trip out had been between dungeons generally around two to three hours apart, from the final dungeon back to Gold Beach had been five and a half hours by car, and closer to six and a half on foot.

"Come on, inside everyone." Levi herded them all into the fenced-in yard, at least providing some privacy from the gawking neighbors.

Then he lay down on the grass beside Becca, staring up at the evening sky and not thinking about how much he didn't want to attend another strategy meeting. Maggie laid down beside him, warm head resting on his chest, and he gingerly stroked her hot sleek scales.

The past two days had been amazing. Him and his family, dungeons to delve, monsters to tame, treasures to find. If every day could be like those days, they could cycle through dungeons steadily enough to level them up around them, and grow to be strong and capable when the portals showed up in October.

But the others were right. He couldn't save the world alone, and it would be stupid to try. He needed people like Laurence and Cassandra to spread the word so that not just a handful of people would be leveled and ready, but tens of thousands.

He just... wasn't cut out for this kind of thing. He was a warrior. A weapon. Point him at a problem to kill and he'd kill it. Talking to people had never been his thing. Now, even less so.

He was still lying there when Gayle stepped out, arms crossed, and glared down at him. “About time you got here. Everyone is waiting.”