The mazelike cavern on the far side of the Gloom Spider cave opened into a final wide antechamber of smooth stone. It held only an arched doorway with stairs leading down and a small sign.

  “Stairs to Plateau Dungeon level 2.”

  Nice. My first dungeon had been short and brutal, and had always felt a bit incomplete. Dungeons were supposed to have levels. I didn’t descend, though. I’d already gotten so much out of this dungeon. More than I’d hoped for. Why not share the lower levels with my team?

  So I turned and headed for the exit. Part of me hated to think of Ruby, Tomas, Jane, and Steve delving into unknown dangers with me, but they had to level up too. Having to hunt alone so much of the first stage had really sucked. I couldn’t ignore this chance to hunt with them.

  When I stepped outside onto the long plain, the sky was already growing bright with pre-dawn light.

  “How long was I out after Fulvia beat me almost to death?”

  “You were mostly dead all night,” Cyrus responded in the voice of Fezzik from the Princess Bride movie, then added in his normal voice, “Why? Do you think you could have won 2 levels in that much time any other way?”

  “Probably not. I just hate feeling like I’ve wasted time.”

  His voice changed again as he said, “So do all who enter the game, but that is not up to them to decide. All you can do is decide how best to use the time you have been given.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “Nice twist to a Gandalf quote.”

  “He would have made a great contestant.”

  “I wish we had a Gandalf with us.” Although, I hadn’t seen any of those weird moths he always used for summoning the giant eagles. Maybe he could sweet-talk some of the baseball-sized bugs I’d swallowed riding Switchblade.

  “Who says you don’t? Anyone can seize the power to win the game. Some of you are already distinguishing yourselves. Important figures are taking note, and will be watching far more closely soon.”

  “I’ll take your word on that.” Not that he would tell me any specifics, but at least it sounded like I’d eventually get some. I broke into a run, heading back toward town, but Cyrus’s voice boomed like thunder across the skies.

  “Congratulations, contestants from Earth! Well done. You’ve survived the first stage with courage, creativity, and a welcome reduction in screaming after day one. All the local denizens of stage 2 are eager to meet you.”

  “And eat our faces,” I mumbled.

  Cyrus ignored the comment. “You will have 7 days to defeat the bosses of stage 2. Some of you have been clever enough to ferret out who they are already. Good job. To ascend to the third stage you must reach at least level 25 and select a class. Some of you are already doing great, but to those who have slowed your progression, you’ve been warned.”

  I’d hoped we only had to reach level 20, but I wasn’t surprised. Level 25 was another milestone level. If our milestone levels followed what I’d seen in monsters, we’d have to reach level 50 before we could ascend to the final stage. I had a lot of work to do.

  I ran faster, ignoring the monsters I sensed nearby. We’d hunt them all when we returned. Hopefully the werewolves would be dormant during the day, but I still kept a careful eye out for them. I expected to get yanked into another vision of Marisara showcasing her powers again, but got nothing.

  I fully expected Alpha or a pack of werewolves to intercept me and remained fully alert, ready to fight or run for my life at every second.

  Amazingly, I made it back to Midmount Vale without any noteworthy encounters. The town had been transformed overnight. The magical defensive barrier was reinforced almost all the way around by solid stone walls nearly 20 feet tall and 10 feet thick. Rising above everything in the center of town was an actual medieval castle.

  I slowed to stare. That was an awesome sight. I’d always wanted to visit Europe and visit some of the famous castles. Now we had one. Made of an unusual purplish stone, the three-story central keep looked solid, with thick walls and thin arrow-slit windows. It was huge, each wall running about 200 feet, while half-finished taller towers rose from each corner. Now that was some impressive work for a single night. Magical construction was just awesome.

  The heavy closed gates inset into the town wall were made of thick timbers, banded with iron. They looked solid enough to stop a tank. Several people stood atop the wall near the closed gate, keeping watch.

  I waved and jumped, vaulting all the way up onto the wall. Some of the guards exclaimed in surprise, but it wasn’t that hard. I’d been able to jump over a dozen feet within a couple days of starting. Now with my enhanced stats and my jump height boosted 20% by my Scaled Wam tunic, jumping up the wall in a single bound didn’t even strain me.

  Maybe they just hadn’t tested the limits of their stats yet. Like Cyrus had told me when I got my first title, the stat increases gave us the potential for vast improvement. If we didn’t push ourselves to leverage that potential, the stats didn’t mean nearly as much.

  Did that mean even as a tier-0 baby human, they might end up with less than 100% effectiveness in their stats? Did they have to work to push that effectiveness higher, maybe in a less-intense way than I had to? That was a scary thought. I’d check with Ruby and Steve about it.

  The wall looked super impressive, but werewolves could jump even higher than me. It wouldn’t slow them, not by itself. I did sense the original magical defensive barrier rising higher, as well as other powers flowing over my skin. The builders had worked in additional defensive spells too. Good plan.

  As I scanned the wall, I also noticed wider sections with large wooden contraptions that looked an awful lot like catapults and giant crossbow ballista. So the town also had physical defenses too. That was cool, and I bet they fired something a lot more powerful than big rocks or giant arrows. If they got something like Switchblade’s Shattercore Ballista that could fire exploding energy bolts, they could unleash some devastation among the pack when it returned.

  The big guy I’d seen once with the Halo power armor clomped closer, pushing up his visor to reveal a surprisingly young face. The guy was probably close to my age, but he looked too small to fit in that suit. His cheeks were covered in scruffy wisps of an attempted beard, and he smiled nervously at me.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Emile Coulon. Baby human level 16. Team Halo.”

  “Lucas, right?” he asked in a squeaky voice, as if he hadn’t yet realized he’d grown out of his teens.

  “That’s right.”

  “I saw you fighting the Alpha. Dude! That was sick. I thought you were dead.”

  “It was a close call.”

  A woman wearing a black jumpsuit and black overcoat from team Matrix said, “I’ll notify the city council.”

  “Thanks. Tell them I’ll stop by the town hall later. I have important news.”

  “They’re in the castle,” she said.

  Figured. I headed for the inside edge of the wall, but Emile raised his armor-clad arm and followed quickly. “Um, Lucas, how do you do that?”

  “What?”

  “Fight the werewolves. I mean, you barely have any armor but you flew over the whole clearing, fighting him toe to toe even when he drove his claws into your chest.”

  “You saw all that?”

  He tapped the side of his helmet. “Upgraded visor.”

  “Sweet upgrade. Nice. We have to fight, right?”

  He leaned closer. “Didn’t it hurt?”

  I laughed. “Of course it hurt. You saw. He nearly ripped me in half before I broke free.”

  Emile shuddered, going pale. “I . . . I don’t think I could have done that.”

  I rapped a knuckle on his armored shoulder. “Not with this awesome armor. I bet you plow through monsters like a tank.”

  He smiled weakly. “Not really.”

  “Why not?” With that armor, I could have sailed through some of the fights that had nearly killed me. Good reminder that I needed better armor.

  Emile swallowed, looking a bit green. “I’m not, I mean I prefer more of a support role.”

  I shrugged. “Okay. Are you going to trade your armor with a melee fighter for a bow or something?”

  “Of course not,” Emile laughed a bit shrilly. “I need the protection.”

  “Sure. Good luck, buddy.”

  I jumped off the wall and headed into town, but the odd conversation kept playing through my mind. That power suit might be more of a curse than a blessing for Emile. The poor guy clearly wasn’t going to leverage the awesome gear he’d gotten, but wasn’t willing to commit to a different build. Not a recipe for success.

  I pushed Emile’s self-inflicted predicament out of my mind when I spotted Ruby’s Base Camp tent. It felt so good to return so soon instead of spending days alone grinding. Grinning, I swept the tent flap aside and stepped in.

  The interior lighting was set low and Ruby stood across the tent at the kitchen counter with a big mug of coffee in her hand. Her thick, red hair hung loose and was still mussed from sleep, and she wore a medieval-looking blue nightgown gathered at her slender waist. It was a lot more modest than the Ruby Roundhouse outfit she wore during the day, but the softer, feminine outfit looked fantastic on her.

  “Lucas!” she exclaimed, putting down her coffee and rushing across the tent to give me a big hug.

  I let her. We were teammates after all. She smelled like flowers and the outdoors, and tension drained away from me at her touch. Because we were good friends.

  “What happened? Your text didn’t tell me anything,” she said when she stepped back after holding the hug maybe a bit too long. She was such a caring person.

  “It’s been a long night. I have a lot to tell.”

  “So do I!” she beamed with sudden joy, and her smile lit up the tent. “Lucas, I got my class!”

  “Whoa!” I focused a bit harder to trigger Identify.

  “Ruby Lopez. Baby human level 25. Team Jumanji. Class: Bomb Squad EMT.”

  “That sounds fantastic. Tell me about it.” I gestured at the chairs of the living area.

  She took a step that way, then paused and flushed. “Give me a minute to get dressed. You should knock on Steve’s tent. He’ll want to tell you about his class too.”

  “Steve leveled up too?”

  “And he found a way to solve one of your other problems,” she said with a mischievous smile.

  “Okay.” I slipped out and headed for Steve’s tent next door. I would have just marched inside, but she’d said to knock. That wasn’t really possible with a fabric-sided tent, so I clapped loudly.

  “Who is it?” The voice calling from inside was not Steve’s. It was Susan’s.

  “It’s Lucas.”

  Steve shouted in surprise and a few seconds later, Susan flung open the tent flap. The beautiful blond woman had shed her maroon dress for the first time I’d ever seen and wore one of Steve’s shirts. It hung loose on her torso and reached her bare thighs, showing off her shapely legs. Her thick, blond hair hung loose and was tangled enough that she probably hadn’t just been sleeping.

  “Lucas, you’re safe!” She stepped forward and gave me a hug, but didn’t launch into my arms and try sucking my lips off my face. She wore some kind of lilac perfume.

  “I made it,” I agreed as Steve joined Susan in the doorway.

  He wore a pair of pants, but no shirt and looked like he’d just leaped out of bed. Leveling up had really packed on muscle and sculpted his torso. He could have gotten a job as a cover model for a men’s health magazine easy. He grinned and waved as he slid an arm around Susan’s narrow waist. She leaned into him.

  “Made it like a boss,” Steve laughed. “You couldn’t just take on the entire pack alone, but had to Peter Pan across the sky duking it out with the Alpha in front of everyone. He was ticked when you disappeared, by the way.”

  Susan added, “What happened? The Alpha took off into the woods and the rest of the pack followed. We thought they were hunting you down.”

  “They tried, but it gets complicated from there.”

  “Thanks for leading them away,” Steve said.

  I smiled, but it felt a bit awkward chatting with them only half dressed. I was thrilled Susan had found a new target for her amours, but did Steve know what he was getting into?

  “Steve saved my life,” Susan said, her voice a purr as she melted closer to him.

  He smiled happily. “One of the werewolves ripped her up pretty bad. I was happy to help.”

  “Good job. I’m glad you’re okay, Susan.” I hadn’t noticed her among the wounded. She was making that a bad habit. I gestured back at Ruby’s tent. “We’re going to discuss what we’ve all been through last night. Thought you’d want to join.”

  “Of course. I’ll be right there.” He paused and added, “Unless you want me to take a while.”

  “Just get dressed. See you, Susan.”

  Back in Ruby’s tent, I figured out how to get the drink dispenser to give me some coffee. Then I relaxed in one of the overstuffed chairs with one of Paul’s chocolate-coated donuts, my bare feet up on the little coffee table. We could have moved to my castle, but I didn’t want to. It had been a long night and Ruby’s tent still felt more like home.

  Ruby emerged a moment later wearing her normal Jumanji barely-modest outfit. I studied my coffee while she grabbed a cup of her own and dropped into a chair, facing me. She’d wrangled her hair into a French braid and her face glowed, as if she’d just washed it. She stared meaningfully at my donut.

  “Want one?”

  “Absolutely. Jelly-filled, if you have one.”

  Perfect. The jelly-filled were not my favorite. Better if she ate them.

  “So tell me about your Bomb Squad EMT class.”

  She beamed. “I got a bunch of good choices, but I think this one’s the best. It edged out Ninja Wetnurse by a bit.”

  I nearly choked on my donut. I really wanted to ask more about that crazy class name, but resisted the urge. When I recovered, I managed to say, “Yeah, sounds like a good one.”

  “My second permanent spell is called Chain Rope.”

  She shoved the rest of her donut into her mouth to free up one hand, then flung that hand to the side. A golden chain shot across the tent and sealed to her partially-open bedroom door. She gave it a tug, and it pulled the door closed before disappearing.

  “That is so cool.”

  “I know, right? I can manipulate my chains out to 5 times my Dexterity in feet. They can wrap around targets and pull them with 3 times my Strength.”

  “Wow.”

  “It’ll be a great way to yank people fighting on the front lines out of harm’s way so I can heal them.”

  Not what I was thinking, but totally valid. “What kind of class spells did you get?”

  “My class is a hybrid Crafter/Tracker/Healer class. The first class spell summons a fully-stocked magical med kit. It’s got tons of good stuff, including all the potions you’d expect, plus resuscitation and even limb regrowth potions, and a bunch of other stuff.”

  “That’s incredible.”

  She shifted her chair closer in her excitement. “I got a spell called SOS. It helps me know the direction to find someone I’ve designated as the target. It’s also got a passive mode that helps me feel when someone needs my help.”

  “Tracking and Healing combo. I like it.”

  “My third active class spell is Potion Replicate. Each day, I can make up to 3 copies of as many different potions as the spell has levels. Started at level 3!”

  I whistled softly. “That could be a lifesaver. How many potions do you have?” I had a ton I could share with her. That spell alone could make Ruby a one-woman wrecking machine if she got a wide enough variety of potions and leveled it up enough to replicate a bunch of them daily.

  “I have a lot. I’ve been trading with a lot of people, plus I bet there’ll be a ton of options at the system store.”

  “What store?”