After lunch the party of Corellians sat sullenly around camp. The only seats they had were the large boulders scattered around the crack that was their secure base. Alan took the opportunity to clean the lunch dishes. After a few moments of watching, Lyonel joined him, grabbing a plate off the stack and scrubbing it off before dunking it in the water barrel and scrubbing it again.

Seeing their leader helping out prodded the others into helping as well. They made short work of everything and set the dishes out to dry on the rocks. Alan didn't want them to lapse back into brooding, so he tried to give them a task. Pointing at the much smaller than it used to be pile of sticks and logs that was their firewood, he then pointed out into the forest.

"I think Pebble wants more firewood. Come on guys, if we want him to keep cooking, we're going to have to keep him supplied." Lyonel instructed in a subdued voice.

The rest of the party muttered their agreement, but Alan put a hand on Samson as the rabbit man started to leave. Alan gently grabbed the rabbit man's furry hand and placed it on the magical stone wall by the entrance. He then broke off a piece on the top to show how brittle it was. The earth mage understood right away. Without his mana to reinforce the barriers, they tended to break down rather quickly.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll work on fixing up the walls here." Samson told the others.

The other three nodded and made to set out, but paused when they noticed the human following them out.

"Pebble, are you sure you want to come with us?" Asked Lyonel.

Alan nodded enthusiastically.

Hector voiced his agreement. "It should be fine, we're not going far and as long as we keep him in sight nothing should happen."

And so Alan was finally free of the camp while the party was around. The three beast people split up and started gathering wood. Alan's purpose in getting the party moving around was twofold. The first was to get them active again to keep them from spiraling into depression. Their retreat from the dungeon seemed to hit them hard, and just as their morale was improving after losing their former leader, too.

The second reason was that it gave him a chance to 'talk' to each of them separately. He had things to do, and the sooner he could make a final decision on this group the better. He found his thoughts returning to his house back in tier two and all of the things he had left there. He knew that his friend Two Socks would keep everything safe, but he would feel much better if he could see it for himself. It would also be nice to see how the wolf was doing. That couldn't happen until he settled matters here, the second tier area was blocked by the tutorial until someone won the contest for the village.

Getting the mayor to work with him shouldn't be a problem, but dealing with Chrisly and the Bodarian's would be much easier if he had Lyonel's party supporting him. However, he needed to make sure they wouldn't be a liability instead of an asset. He was better off dealing with things alone rather than relying on a tool that was brittle, broken, or actively working against him.

The first member of the group he decided to work on was Gerry. He was the most isolated at the moment, both geographically and emotionally. Everyone else in the party really seemed to resent that he had such an easy time of it during their failed raid. The giraffe man appeared upbeat, but Alan could tell that it was at least partially a facade.

Picking up a few sticks on the way, Alan approached the water mage. Tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention, he gestured at the giraffe man's heart and then his mouth, before bringing his finger back to point at his own ear. Gerry just looked at him confusedly, so Alan brought his hand back up and snapped his fingers and thumb together like Pacman.

"Oh, you wanna talk?" That got a nod.

"What would you like to talk about?" Alan pointed at him and then gestured from Gerry's head to his feet. Then he shrugged.

"Anything, huh? Well, this seems like it might be a one-sided conversation," the mage smiled at that, " But sure. I'm really worried about Lyonel. He's had to bear all the responsibility since Vesper got himself killed, and now I think he blames himself for our failure in the dungeon."

It seemed that they were going to dive right into the heavy stuff, that was fine with Alan. He gestured for Gerry to go on as they both gathered more branches. In this older seeming forest they weren't just small sticks, some of these were as big around as his bicep.

"We weren't really a party for that long. Vesper put the group together just a short while before this new area opened up. He was certainly powerful, but he wasn't a great leader. Lyonel used to be a guard back on our planet, and we ended up relying on him to cover for Vesper's failings. Then, when he died, we naturally turned to Lyonel to take over. I'm not sure he was ready, though. Our planet is covered in dangerous wilderness with only small areas around our settlement being deemed 'safe' for most people.

"It was the guards like Lyonel who maintained that safety, but they were a rather independent lot. The danger wasn't from large hordes of enemies, but from small packs or larger solitary predators, so they didn't need to work together much. I can tell he is unsure of his qualifications to lead us, but there isn't really anyone else and he really is doing a decent job. If it wasn't for him, I think we all would have given up and separated days ago."

Alan had sensed when he first ran away from the village with them that they were a fragile group. He also agreed that Lyonel was an okay leader. He was no Aragorn, or even Faramir, but he was thoughtful and was trying his best. It was hard to ask for more. Alan had gained some useful information, but now he wanted to know more about Gerry himself. He nodded his head at the end of the mage's words and then shrugged and pointed at him.

"Me? Well, I'm doing okay. Back home I was simply a shopkeeper. Then I come here and now I can do magic! The last tier was kinda rough, though. Those of us who weren't in the guard lived very peaceful and sheltered lives, and the majority didn't handle the transition to this lifestyle very well. I caught some lucky breaks early so I felt like I was doing okay, and then when the leaderboard happened I was surprised how high I was placed. That gave me a lot of confidence, so I was a little excited when tier three opened up. I thought that we would be contenders and I could prove my worth, but now I just wanna go back to how it was before."

Alan pointed at the ground and then gestured with both hands all around him.

Gerry smiled, "No, not before this whole thing. This might be wrong to say, considering how many of my people have already died, but life back on Corell was kinda boring. But here, exploring dungeons and fighting monsters with my party, that's been exhilarating. Honestly, I wish we could have stayed in tier two forever."

Alan did his best to look empathetic and once again gave Gerry a pat on his back. He was happy with everything he had heard. At least this Corellian was no longer all that worried about the larger competition, he was just looking for a good and easy life with friends and excitement. If the giraffe man could help Alan out first, he would gladly help make sure his wish came true.

"Thanks, Pebble, it felt good to get some of that off my chest. You want to tell me about yourself?"

With a self-deprecating smile, Alan shrugged helplessly and mimed for Gerry to put his pile on top of his. He then wrapped his arms around the wooden burden and carried the whole thing back to camp. Once there he dropped it off near the existing pile and made his way over to Samson. He watched the earth mage work for a while.

Rather than recreating the walls entirely, the rabbit man was trying to reinforce them. He would move his furry hands along the stone, trying to sense where the greatest weakness was. He would then direct his mana into the wall through these spots. Not only would this reinforce all of the surrounding wall, but it also turned what had been a soft spot into one of the strongest portions of the stone. It was a smart move to reinforce what was already there rather than making new ones.

It surely would have been easier to simply make new walls, but they would soon fade as these would. However, it seemed that when he summoned the walls, some of what was left behind became normal stone. Much of the mass returned to being simply energy, which is why the whole thing became brittle, but some of it became true rock. By now reinforcing that rock with more magic, it would leave the existing stone in place, and some of the new magical additions would end up becoming real as well. After enough sessions of this process, the stone walls around the camp would become quite solid and real. This was a fascinating side to mana and magic that Alan had never considered. It also gave him ideas for the future.

After finishing one section of the layered walls, Samson noticed 'Pebble' watching him.

"Pretty cool isn't it? Imagine what I could have done with this back on Corell. Most of our cities had wooden walls, the environment was too dangerous for smaller communities to try and run a quarry."

Alan gave him a thumbs up sign and then mimed Pacman again.

Samson had always been good at reading his gestures. "What would you like to talk about?"

This time Alan only gave a shrug, Samson already seemed in the talking mood and he wanted to see where it led.

"Well, I'll try to hold up my end of the conversation as long as you hold up yours." This was delivered with a smirk and Alan met it with a wry grimace. How many times was he going to hear this joke?

"Do you know what I did before the tutorial? I was a scribe. Paper and ink, scratching away at books and ledgers all day. I would see letters and numbers dancing on the backs of my eyelids. It was a good job that paid well, but it was boring. Soooo boring."

Alan waved his hand at Samson to continue.

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"At first I thought the tutorial was some kind of fever dream from absorbing ink through my skin for too long. But then when I realized it was actually happening, I thought it was the answer to my prayers for excitement. All my previous work was good for something too, my intelligence stat ended up being quite high when I got here. Imagine my chagrin when the first class I got was a constitution one. Rather than using it myself, I found a bear woman who gladly traded me her mage stone for it. They were both rare quality, but the woman I traded it to used it for her first class. I had worked out the numbers already and knew I should wait, but sadly many of our people didn't do the same. A lot of uncommon and rare stones were wasted."

With a wince, Alan understood how these people had crippled themselves. With eight dungeons and a hundred people receiving rare stones from each, almost a thousand people in each zone should be able to get at least three classes. However, because of the peculiar way these things worked, the rare stones they got, which were most likely the first they earned, would have to be the last stone they used. By absorbing them right away they had limited themselves to just two classes.

Because of the way stats interacted with each other, this would greatly hobble their strength. Take Samson for instance. He had a mage class, which relied on mana. From things he had heard, he knew that the rabbit man did not have a healing class, which would have improved his wisdom. This meant that his mana pool would also be smaller than someone like Alan who had both. He had already run into some items that would help alleviate this problem, but there was no real cure.

These people who had limited themselves to just two classes would be in even more trouble. Unless they were very lucky, there was little chance that the two would synergize with each other, meaning they would be able to do a couple of things okay, but nothing well or even great. And all of this was just the disadvantage based on stats. It didn't even consider the effect of talents and class abilities. Once again Alan remembered how Tamee had described him as having a silver spoon. Having all eight classes was an incredible blessing.

Samson continued to talk while Alan's thoughts wandered. "That bear woman I traded with, Kora, joined me in my first party. Most people had formed groups immediately after arriving, but I had always been a loner. It was only after seeing how hard it was to find anyone willing to trade with me that I realized I needed to find others to work with. Kora seemed to be a kindred spirit. Over the next few days we found others who were looking for a party. Some were like us, natural introverts who now understood that they needed friends, but there were others who had already lost the rest of their parties or been kicked out.

"You see, when the monsters started spawning, people started dying. Even a relatively simple ironspine lizard became a fearsome beast with the Network's tweaks. When the level two and three creatures showed up, even a party of five could quickly be overwhelmed."

Alan listened to Samson describe some of these encounters, and he realized that he had been lucky in another way. All of the monsters he ran into in tier one seemed to be based on animals from Earth, and it seemed like North America specifically. Other than a few exceptions, like bears and pumas, most of the creatures just weren't that dangerous. That meant that even with the Network's boosts, they hadn't really been a threat to Alan.

The creatures from Samson's world, on the other hand, were fearsome enough that their entire population lived in relatively isolated enclaves. Anyone traveling between them did so in large and heavily protected caravans. When these already scary beasts then got added bonuses from the tutorial they became quite a significant threat. Alan was curious how he would have fared against them. The expression steel sharpens steel was a favorite of his drill instructors, however, because of how passive most of the Corellians were, it was more a case of steel cutting through butter for them.

Samson had a far off look as he talked about his experiences in the previous tiers, but then he refocused on the world around him. "I know that the rest of the party is trying to salvage our situation and win through this challenge, but I'm ready to settle down. I've seen what excitement is, and I'm ready to go back to boring. Well, mostly boring. It would be nice to find someone to share it with. For a little while I thought Kora might be that someone, despite our racial incompatibility, but she didn't make it long in tier two."

The rabbit person felt silent at this revelation, and Alan could see tears in his eyes. He simply stood next to him for a little bit, offering him company through his grief. He finally rested his hand on one of the mage's furry shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze. It seemed to bring Samson back to the present.

"Well, that's enough out of me. I'm not usually so talkative. Books don't talk back, you know. Come to think of it, neither do you!" This last was delivered with a small smile.

With a wave, Alan left him to continue his work, while he left camp to find another person to talk to. He found Hector chopping up a small tree with a hatchet. They had learned about not cutting down live trees, and instead Hector had found one that had died for some reason. The wood was fairly resilient and it was taking him a while to get through it. If it was really that dense it should make for some good firewood.

Hector had already cut off several sections of the tree and his fur was damp with sweat. When he noticed Alan's approach, he set his hatchet down and decided to take a break. Instead of standing with the ferret man, Alan bent down and scooped up the hatchet. Hector's eyes momentarily widened in surprise, but he didn't say anything as Alan knelt and started chopping.

"Thanks Pebble. That's a tough tree to cut."

Alan paused for a moment to make a bowing gesture with his hand starting near his forehead.

"You'd think I would be used to this, it's what I did before all this." Hector commented.

As much as it appeared that the party got along, today not included, it sure seemed like they were loath to talk about things with each other. At least things of their past or future. Thinking back, most of their discussions did seem to center around plans for the day or post fight breakdowns. They had only been together for a little over a week, so maybe they didn't feel comfortable yet.

Choosing to play the mute was definitely paying dividends now. Even though Alan was a recent addition to the group, and still an outsider, it seemed that his non-vocal status made him a good sounding board.

"I wasn't a guard or anything, but I would go out into the surrounding forest and cut down trees for new buildings. It was always nerve wracking being outside the walls, but I was doing a vital service. Now I have all these new powers and here I am still cutting up trees, and not doing a great job at it either, apparently."

Hector looked down at 'Pebble' as he tore into the previously impervious wood. Whereas the rabbit man had needed to hack and hack to make any progress, each sure stroke of the silent human sent chips flying.

"Sometimes I feel like an imposter. Lyonel was born to be an adventurer, taking the fight to the enemy, defending those he is sworn to protect, and exploring the mysterious depths. Gerry geeks out over magic, he couldn't be happier with our new life. Samson is so quick to be negative, but he too has a drive to succeed. Me, I'm just trying to do my best to keep them all from realizing how scared I am.

"Something they don't tell you about high perception, you can see and feel everything better. That means you can see the blade coming at you, see how it gets closer and closer before slicing through your flesh. Then you can feel as the microscopically jagged edge of the blade rips apart your muscle fibers. And with my focus it slows everything down so I can make sure to experience every excruciating part of that."

Alan felt for Hector. The scout had lucked into three stats that perfectly synergized with each other, which was supposed to be a good thing. Dexterity and focus combined to allow his body to move at a fast enough rate to keep up with everything his heightened senses could tell him. Alan of course also had those stats working for him, so he knew just what the scout was talking about. Alan also had a high intelligence to go with that. That stat seemed to improve his memory, which meant that he could still remember exactly what it felt like to have his brain cut in half. Hector wasn't wrong when he mentioned how that was a secret downside.

"Although, as scared as I feel, there's also a part of me that loves it. Sure, it sucks when you get hit, but when you manage to avoid the arrow flying toward your chest, tracking it as the blade barely cuts through the outer layer of your armor, leaving the flesh underneath whole, it's a heady feeling. Does that make me crazy? I'm terrified and thrilled all at the same time."

Alan paused his chopping to lock eyes with Hector. He gave him one firm headshake and then resumed his work on the tree. He was almost done with the last cut.

"Thanks, it feels good to talk about this stuff. I've been too worried about sharing this with anyone. I was afraid they'd kick me out or something if they knew how I really felt. Well at least I know you won't go blabbing to anyone about this." The last was delivered with a wink.

With the tree finally dismembered, Alan stacked several of the logs onto Hector's waiting arms and then picked up the rest himself. As they made their way back to the camp, he pondered everything he had learned. Each of them had felt they were unequal to the tasks before them. He understood that this was a common feeling for people to have, and if he was their therapist he would have a slew of ways to reassure them.

However, this was not a problem that he himself was having. Experience had taught Alan that he was equal to this task. He wasn't Rambo or Chief Ryback, although come to think of it, he was a cook. Anyway, he knew his worth, and this Network tutorial was the perfect scenario for him. If he was being honest, he was enjoying himself in a way he hadn't for a long time. He deeply regretted the loss of life that had no doubt taken place already, but Alan hadn't been the cause of that, he was focusing on preventing an even greater death toll.

He still had to talk with Lyonel, but it seemed like this group was exactly what he was looking for. They weren't the best fighters, their morale wasn't great, and he couldn't stop thinking that they all needed a shave, but he could make it work with them. They clearly had given up on winning for their planet, they simply wanted a chance to live and settle down. Alan was going to fight till the bitter end, but it would take help and allies. Right now these Corellians were disposable troops for him. Not in the sense that he didn't care if they died, of course, but that after he got their help, they could stay here and live their best lives, while Alan moved on to whatever challenge the next tier brought.

He was already planning on how best to use them to help bring down the other two adventuring teams. He was planning on having the most fun with Chrisly's group. What to do with them had been a conundrum for a while, because Alan had learned that Chrisly had a family behind him. For some reason (Tamee had tried to explain it to him, but it just made his head hurt) Chrisly and the rest of his party were the only ones who he had to deal with now, but the rest of his family would be waiting in later tiers.

It would be better for him if they weren't baying for his blood from the start. He needed a way to take the brat out of the situation while not making the rest of the family his sworn enemies. It would be tricky, but that's why Alan got paid the big bucks.

The Bodarians were a more straightforward problem. He still kept an open mind about them having a chance to join with him, but from what he had seen on his own and heard from the Corellians, it didn't sound like they played well with others. If that was indeed the case, then he would simply have to take them off the board.

It was only a short walk back to camp from where Hector had cut down the tree and they soon reached the site. They dropped off the logs and turned to find Lyonel and Gerry coming back as well. The hamster man was dragging a huge fagot behind him. He had used some rope to tie all the wood he had collected into one big bundle. Gerry was carrying a more traditional armload full, but it was also his second trip back.

Samson was already sitting by the cook fire, feeding it some of the old firewood. He had a smile on his face, something that was not a common sight. Looking around Alan noticed that everyone seemed to be in higher spirits than before. Maybe he was a better therapist than he thought.

Lyonel also sensed a change in his compatriots and that was enough to cheer him up as well. He also inspected the work they had accomplished. It had been less than half an hour, but there was now a huge pile of sticks and even some nice logs for the fire, and he could tell the walls at the front of camp were much more solid than when they had left. This had been a good bit of exercise and he was glad that Pebble had suggested it. Although there was something that was still bothering the hamster man.

Congratulating everyone on their work, Lyonel made his way over to their camp follower and in a quiet voice said, "We need to talk." He then proceeded to lead 'Pebble' out of the camp.

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