Cassis sat at the dining table with a steaming cup of coffee, letting the heat warm his hands. He had already prepared breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon, toast with various spreads. He debated whether to wake Arianna or let her sleep. She had seemed exhausted last night. Eating well would help, but sleep mattered too.

A door slammed upstairs and saved him from indecision. She was awake.

When Arianna came down, she still looked tired, rubbing at her eyes and yawning. He pushed her cup and plate toward her; once she was there, he began eating his own. The small, steady ritual of breakfast felt like a fragile normality in a world that kept reminding them how little of normal life remained.

After a few quiet minutes he could tell when she was fully awake. "You made breakfast again. Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," he answered. He rose early by habit. In the other timeline daylight was safer than night. That was when the worst beasts had come out to hunt. There had been no choice but to make every hour of daylight count.

After they finished, Arianna insisted on washing the dishes. She said something about fair distribution of work; he shrugged and let her. He liked cooking, mostly. He did not like washing up. He leaned against the counter and watched her move. Small domestic things felt like talismans against the chaos outside.

They talked about trivialities until Arianna inhaled sharply and changed tone. "I need to tell you something."

He had a bad feeling. When she started like that, it rarely meant something small. He gestured for her to continue.

"Faith called me yesterday."

He nodded. He had heard. He'd given the two women privacy. He was glad Arianna had a friend, but there was still a knot of unease in him whenever Faith was mentioned. He couldn't trust her fully.

"She's worried about Bryce," Arianna went on. "Her father is high up in the military." The knof of unease grew. The woman was well connected with Bryce, but her father was even higher up and could influence who went into an E-rank dungeon.

He found it suspicious. It was also suspiciously well timed that she had been Bryce's assistant when they had gone there to train the soldiers. But he kept it in. He had no proof anything, and Arianna would just call him paranoid again.

Arianna, oblivious to his inner thoughts, continued on. "He promised Faith she could go into the E-rank dungeon with Bryce if she reached level twenty. So she asked if she could join us on a levelling run."

Cassis felt more dread sink into his chest. Someone who could become an enemy, who had ties to Bryce—no. He had been willing to level their people, to take risks to protect the community, but letting Faith into their party carried a different weight.

"No way," he said bluntly. "What if she supports Bryce if he does the slave collars again?"

Arianna bristled on her friend's behalf. "She'd never do that!" Then, softer, she added, "I hesitated too. But Bryce didn't seem like such a monster when I met him. Maybe something happened to him in the other timeline to make him what he was. From what Faith told me—thanks to Faith, I know a lot—he has no family except Faith and his only friend was her mother. If something happened to Faith, what if he… snapped?"

Cassis's first instinct was to dismiss it. Bryce had seemed deranged on television in other timelines, yes. He'd seen the angry, power-hungry persona. But the Bryce he met here had been disciplined, quiet, preferring work behind the scenes. People could be warped by trauma.

Cassis understood that better than most, aware of the rage that lived inside him, just waiting to be let out again. He also knew how easy it was to put on a mask. He couldn't know which Bryce was real.

Arianna continued, eyes earnest. "So I think we should strengthen Faith so she survives. Even if Bryce goes off the deep end, maybe she can help keep him in check."

Her plan had merit. Faith was already close to Bryce, family actually. Still, Cassis wanted to be cautious. His original solution was simple and final: kill Bryce in the E-rank dungeon. He saw only risk in trusting a man who had done terrible things in the other timeline.

Arianna saw the expression on his face. "You still want to kill him," she said.

"We can't risk it," he answered. "He might be a good man who was warped, or he might be pretending. In the other timeline, he did terrible things. It's our duty to stop that if he becomes that man here."

Arianna sighed. "I can't follow that. Killing monsters is one things, but murdering a person, especially for something he hasn't done yet, isn't something I can do. I can't."

He understood. She didn't know the horror of the slave collars, of what they did to a person. He tried to explain it without letting his voice harden into the image of the past that sometimes rose in him.

"You don't know what it's like to be collared," he said.

Arianna shot him a stubborn look. "Neither do you."

She was right. He'd never gotten caught, had never had to wear the collar. "I don't fully, either, but I heard stories. Even isolated as I was back then, slaves were common knowledge. The reports all told the same information. The collars stop you from accessing mana. They can stop movement. Only the master's commands let you move or use your abilities. The slave can't lie to the master, can't strike them. It's like they are a marionette and their master holds the strings. The only ways to be free are for the master to free you, or for the master to die."

Arianna paled and clutched her necklace. "So they have no autonomy at all?"

"None," he said quietly.

She looked at him then, eyes full of that impossible idealism he'd always loved and found infuriating in equal measure. "Still, I can't do it," she said.

He sighed and tried for a compromise. "Then we watch Bryce first. Observe him in the dungeon. The boss fight is the safest place to have him die, anyway. We have time until then. If he's as dangerous as in the other timeline, we act. Until then, we watch."

Arianna brightened and hugged him, taking his arm as if he had agreed to her entirely. He'd not given in. He only needed time to show her the reality. He let the warmth of the hug settle, because she needed that reassurance.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Then I'll tell Faith she can join me on the next levelling run," she said. "Maybe a few more, so she can reach boss-fight level. We have more properly levelled people now."

She scrunched up her nose but also smiled. "Luke and Nadine want to go on runs with others from the Awakener Bureau. They said they needed to take responsibility for their positions. So they'll take dungeons in and around Vallendale."

She looked slightly troubled but also determined. "And we need to clear more dungeons. Too many have already broken. We'll need to split up for the dungeon bosses, too."

Cassis felt the worry rise again. Splitting up invited risk. Still, with their team's experience, F-rank bosses were not the challenge they once had been. "If we level those who want to fight up to twenty, we can try the boss fights separately," he agreed. It was a plan, imperfect and cautious; it let him sleep at least a little easier.

He watched Arianna's face while she spoke. Determination poured off her like heat. She would protect their neighbourhood, her new family, until there was nothing left to defend. He wanted to stand with her, to be her shield and the one who made the hard decisions but he also had to respect her limits, her growth. She needed to be strong, and she was. But to become the leader their community needed, she had to fight on her own.

He hugged her again. "You're right." Then he kissed the top of her head. "Don't get hurt too badly."

Cassis sighed as he let the dizziness of the gate pass through him. Another dungeon. Another team to level.

He'd been in charge of his team for days, or weeks, depending on whether he counted the time spent inside the dungeons or the days that had passed outside. The lines blurred more with every run.

The makeup of his team changed depending on the purpose of the dungeon run. This time, it was a levelling run again. That meant he had his mother and Liam with him, as well as Josh, who had already reached level 17 and kept asking Arianna to teach him whenever their teams had downtime together. Janice was there too, level 15 now and growing stronger by the day.

And then there was Camden's grandfather, Angus.

The old man had surprised Cassis when he'd shown up to his first levelling run carrying a massive axe. He'd struggled to hold it back then, but he hadn't let go of it once, and he'd used it to fell every enemy in his path, or well, every enemy Cassis had brought him at first. With every level he gained, he'd grown stronger, younger, swinging that axe with increasing skill and confidence. He'd chosen the Warrior class and was already level 12.

This was Cassis' levelling team, and today, they had four new level 1s to bring up. They were the last ones in their community. Cassis was glad for it. He appreciated that their community was growing and people were starting to contribute.

Like Mrs Walters who had gained the profession cook, or Mrs Tchekova who had made her hobby of sewing and knitting for her children and grandchildren into her new profession seamstress.

He'd asked her if she wanted them to bring her family in, too. But she'd told him sadly that they were living on the other side of the world and had no way to travel right now with the gates breaking and the travel routes becoming more and more unstable.

Then there was the formerly elderly Yukimura couple. They mostly had their hands full looking after their granddaughter Hana and hadn't found any profession yet, but they were helping Samuel with the paperwork and stocking up their community with different goods.

He couldn't forget Alice and David Miller, the newlywed couple who had just moved into the neighbourhood shortly before the first wave had hit. They were both around his and Arianna's age and they wanted to keep fighting.

Ayra, Ben's mother, actually knew a lot about chemistry as a beautician and was helping Janice figure out how to become an alchemist. Now they might have two alchemists, which would work out well as they might take different paths.

Janice was also splitting her time between gaining the alchemist profession and helping his father build a wall around their neighbourhood. She'd immediately taken the earthen mage class when she'd heard that she could help that way. She wasn't cut out to be a fighter, but she wanted to contribute in her own way.

Meanwhile, Arianna had gone for a dungeon clear with Helen, Elena, Benny, Joseph, Camden, Rohan, Ben's father, Michael, Thomas, and Faith. The fox had gone with her too; she usually joined whichever team was running a dungeon clear.

Thomas wasn't a fighter, but he had insisted on joining many runs, and her team had been one person short with his father concentrating on the wall. So she'd taken him. Cassis hoped it would work out.

He also didn't quite know how Faith was doing since whenever he and Arianna had downtime in between dungeon runs, they slept, ate and rested. There wasn't really time for talking. It was exhausting, and he was glad that it was already the tenth day of the dungeon-breaking timeline.

These would be his and Arianna's last runs. They needed to be well rested for the E-rank dungeon after all.

Those who went with Arianna this time had already reached level 20 but still needed more experience fighting dungeon bosses. They didn't yet have enough people to clear two dungeons at once, but they could finally manage one levelling run and one clearing run simultaneously.

Some of Arianna's group would switch to his team next time for a boss fight. It all depended on who else among their levelled survivors managed to get to level 20.

Cassis hadn't taken Ben up on his request yet, but he knew he'd have to soon. It was better for the boy to fight a boss under controlled, relatively safe circumstances with his team.

He didn't mind Janice and her brothers fighting anymore, either. Janice was two years older than Ben, and Michael and Thomas were the same age, but Ben just seemed younger, with his nerdy excitement and enthusiasm.

Still, Cassis hadn't forgotten that when they'd first met, Ben had already risked his life to protect his sister and even gone out from shelter to save more people. There was strength in him that went beyond levels.

Cassis turned his gaze to the people he'd be levelling this time: Minato, the son-in-law of the Yukimura couple; Gabriel Gilleaux and his ex-wife Clara; and their fourteen-year-old son, Louis.

Louis was unlucky to already be fourteen, just old enough not to be considered a dependent by the system. Still, Cassis was glad Gabriel had convinced Clara to come to the neighbourhood. The mother and son duo had suffered badly during the first wave, fighting their way to safety and somehow reaching level 4 on their own. It couldn't have been easy.

Clara was fierce, fiery, even, while Gabriel was her calm opposite. But together, they worked well, especially when it came to their son.

This group consisted of the last four to level. Then everyone would at least be level 10. Well, almost everyone. Samuel was the only one to remain level 1. After all this dungeon business, Cassis and Arianna would have to figure out how to level him when he couldn't even walk.

Bringing his thoughts into order, Cassis gave everyone a few minutes to adjust to the new dungeon. It was a forest this time, called Nuvim. At least it was a forest. The last one had been a swamp, and the one before that, another maze of tunnels.

He'd take trees and sunlight over mud and darkness any day.

Soon, their groups would be able to tackle boss fights without him and Arianna. They had to, otherwise some dungeons in their surrounding areas would break. But that was the price they had to pay to be in peak condition for the E-rank gate in a few days.

They could afford a few F-rank dungeon breaks. People would die, but most would survive. But an E-rank dungeon breaking? That would be a disaster.

For now, he and Arianna had continued working separately. It was safer for the teams that way. The others agreed too. Helen had even said that having just one of them in a group felt like a safety blanket. She wasn't wrong.

Both teams had access to the healing potions Arianna had bought through him and her. They were faster and more effective than normal healing spells, especially Josh's. Though, to be fair, if Cassis hadn't been spoiled by Arianna's magic, he would have thought the boy quite talented.

Other healers weren't nearly as proficient, but Arianna outshone them all.

Still, Cassis was glad to have Josh, and glad that the boy wanted to keep fighting. Most healers were peaceful by nature, not the monster-killing type. Josh stayed in the backline, healing efficiently from there, which Cassis considered exactly how a proper healer should behave.

Not like Arianna.

Her healing was chaotic, fighting, defending, supporting all at once, but she wasn't just a healer anymore. She'd become a real warrior, one who specialised in defending others.

When everyone was ready, Cassis gave the signal to move out.

They'd begin with exploration and levelling. Soon, their teams would have to handle these runs alone. He hoped they were ready for it.

After these two respective runs, they'd have to travel to the E-rank dungeon.

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