The two didn't go far, Lyonel just wanted enough distance from the camp that they wouldn't be overheard. He had some things to talk to the human about and he didn't need anyone else trying to listen in.

"Pebble, first, I would like to apologize. I was rude to you before and I'm sorry, you had done nothing to deserve that."

The hamster man's words calmed Alan's nerves. He had a brief moment where his brain was telling him that Lyonel had figured everything out. True, he was planning on revealing himself soon anyway, but it would be better if he made the reveal on his own, rather than them figuring it out. With a shrug, Alan tried to dismiss Lyonel's concern, even though he was happy for the apology.

"I feel like you have done far more for us than we have done for you. You may have noticed that we weren't exactly at a high point when we got you out of the village. However, since then, your meals and work here have done wonders for us. We were finally starting to feel like a real party, at least until that disaster in the last dungeon. Please just let me know if there is anything we can do for you."

Alan cocked his head to the side, as if thinking, before pointing at himself and then miming walking before pointing back at Lyonel.

"You want to go with us? We can't take you into a dungeon unless you're in a party with us, and you can't join one unless you have a quartz class."

That was what Lyonel had learned back in tier one, anyway. When they were first given time to experiment with parties at the start of the tutorial, that hadn't been an issue. At the time they had been in a large room filled with seats and his fellow Corellians. A sleek looking jaguar person in some kind of fancy clothes had been on a stage giving them all an introduction. When he told them to try out the party screens they had been able to join with as many people as they wanted around them.

It was a nice way to introduce the functionality and give them practice with it. As soon as the tutorial had officially started, however, they had found the interface locked out. Lyonel had gotten a message indicating he didn't have the required energy to form a party. Everyone had stuck together in groups anyway, but they weren't official parties as far as the Network was concerned. It wasn't until people started unlocking their classes that the system opened up again.

As a guard, Lyonel's protective instincts had led him to gathering a large group of his fellow beast people. Once he unlocked his first class, fighter, he had been able to include some of the others. He found he was now limited to only five in his party, but in addition he was only able to add those who had also unlocked a class.

Lyonel couldn't add him to their party, however, there was another option. "But maybe you could come with us if we weren't going to a dungeon. We have another quest to do, this one is clearing out a nest. Maybe we could bring you along. I have to warn you, it would be dangerous."

If Alan in fact did not have any classes, then it would most likely be far more than just dangerous. If this nest was anything like the one he had already cleared out, then trying to take on one of these creatures, let alone a group, without his stats and abilities would most likely be suicide. It was possible that with the right setup, plenty of time to plan, and a devious mind that he could kill a level five creature as a 'normal human', but it would be a serious challenge.

Before having his body upgraded by all of his classes, Alan had been a highly trained warrior, albeit one without his usual weapons. The level one and two beasts he had initially fought really weren't much of a challenge. Yes, he had a few classes by then, but that really hadn't been a factor. He had suffered some injuries, but that was mostly because of the risks he was willing to take to try out his new abilities.

If this had simply been a survival mission back on earth, that level of opponent wouldn't have even tested him. As the level increased, and more importantly the rarity, the danger grew exponentially. The level five hedgehog he had fought at the end of tier one would have been far beyond his means. As an epic creature its skin was more durable, able to ward off less powerful blows, and its water attacks would have torn him to shreds. However, due to his classes and stats it had instead been the reverse, he easily overpowered it and its attacks were nothing for him to worry about.

Lyonel might not realize how fragile a human serf truly was. If that was the case, he most likely didn't realize that bringing a normal 'Pebble' along was a major problem. Luckily for the hamster man, Alan would be able to watch out for himself. Also, Lyonel probably didn't plan on taking him into the fighting itself, but was most likely planning on letting him set up nearby.

This would mean time that Alan couldn't be pursuing his own agenda, but it would give him a chance to watch them fight. That was something he was still hoping to see. This all ran through his brain in less than two seconds as the Corellian kept talking.

"You won't be part of the actual fighting, of course. You can wait nearby and watch, and afterwards you can help us with the harvesting. Once we clear the whole nest you can also help us search it for any hidden treasures."

Lyonel wasn't doing a great job of selling it. It mostly sounded like he wanted 'Pebble' there to help with the grunt work. This didn't really bother Alan since he was not playing them true anyway, but he imagined that if he wasn't that he would have been offended again. To be fair, Lyonel also seemed to realize how lame his proposal was as he trailed off in embarrassment at the end.

Alan shrugged and gave a thumbs up. No point making the situation even more awkward by dragging this out. Sure, this was supposed to be a reward for him, which it really wasn't for 'Pebble', but it was fine for Alan. He would see what kind of combat skill they had, and as a small bonus he could work on his own harvesting skill as well.

Following Lyonel back into camp, he waited silently while the party leader laid out his plan. The group received it well, everyone most likely wanted to get the memory of their ignominious retreat out of their mind. Clearing a nest should also be a relatively simple task, at least if it was anything like the one he had done. Those creatures had been mostly around level five and six, which the Corellians should be able to handle since they were capable of clearing the town dungeon.

The boss may be more of a challenge, but if they could take out the equivalent of the hawk king, then again they should be fine. Alan was pretty sure it would play out similarly to how his own clear went. These creatures were called cavern dogs, so it was likely that they would also be in a cave. If Alan was lucky, one or two of the creatures would manage to get around the party and he could test himself against them.

This trip would take them almost to the edge of their zone's area. It was at the far end of the forest, which Alan had only seen from a distance. It seemed like the region should be rather hilly, but nothing too significant or mountainous. If it was a flat field they were crossing it probably would have taken them around three hours. Because of the actual terrain and trees, it ended up taking them the rest of the daylight. Without the mountains that separated the earlier tier zones, the true sunset was the only sunset now, and it had happened about ten minutes before. That meant there was still some light, but it was getting darker fast.

Part of the reason for the lengthier trip was collecting bounties. The Corellians had been so focused on their mission that Alan had to grab Gerry to get him to stop and harvest the first mushrooms. He would have done it himself, but they surely would have noticed and it might have raised suspicion. Besides, letting them do it themselves would improve their sense of worth and act as a team building exercise. Alan didn't really need the reward, but Elstree would benefit from the completions. They also took out a few random monsters they encountered. Nothing dangerous, the hardest was only an uncommon level five creature that looked like a snake with arms. Not legs, though, definitely arms, four of them.

When they were finally approaching the area, they sent Hector to check out what they were dealing with. It didn't take him long to find the cavern that was the site of the nest, and he soon returned with a preliminary report. Everything he saw was promising, which a more devious group might have taken as the first clue that things were not all as they seemed.

The scout gave his report. "There is a hill near here that has a large burrow in it, at least two meters across. I didn't get too close because I didn't want to spook them, but I did see several of the beasts go in and out."

"What do they look like?" Lyonel asked.

"Mostly they look like dogs. The heads are slightly longer and their eyes are a little bigger than you would expect, but otherwise, a regular dog. Well, a big dog, the smallest one I saw, was over a meter to his shoulders. The levels ranged from four to seven."

Samson jumped in at the next pause. "What's the rarity, and how big are the teeth?"

"They all showed as uncommon. The teeth didn't stand out to me, they looked like dog teeth."

This report really helped all of their confidence levels, and Alan had to agree. A strong dog can latch onto a person and even drag them to the ground, but that was usually against an unarmed human. When facing a person with a weapon, and wearing armor, a dog would be very limited in their effectiveness. It would take multiple beasts overwhelming the person to be a true threat. The numbers Hector had seen just weren't enough, even for the two melee types alone. The squishy mages might have been in more danger if they were solo, but they weren't. This was a whole party that would support each other and make sure no one person was mobbed.

The lack of light was going to be an issue for Gerry, so the plan was for Samson to cast a couple of light spells to brighten the combat area. Alan was given a place to wait that was just at the edge of what the spells should illuminate. The plan was for him to wait there where they thought he would be able to watch, but to stay far enough away from where they were fighting that he shouldn't draw the dogs' aggression.

Again, Alan had to question their decision making, but in all fairness, he had some background knowledge they did not. The first, and he was surprised that beast people wouldn't know this, but pack hunters like dogs would be attracted to weak prey, and Alan standing nearby, but all by himself, would be seen as a blood slathered treat dipped in peanut butter and there was little doubt some of the animals would focus on him.

The second piece of information wasn't shocking that they didn't know. Having done a nest himself, Alan was willing to bet that there were many more dogs in the cavern, and that when the fighting started, the melee fighters would find themselves having a hard time protecting their back rank mages. Also, Hector didn't seem to have a constitution or strength class, so he might struggle with staying in the front if there was a serious assault.

Stolen novel; please report.

The area they had lit up to act as their arena was about fifty meters away from the burrow. With the surrounding forest, there was enough cover between the two areas so that the dogs weren't immediately startled by the light which would likely cause them to attack, but Alan figured that they could notice something was up. Hector crossed the space between the chosen ground and the burrow, he was going to act as the bait to draw some of the beasts away for them to fight.

He made his way over with no trouble, and he used his bow to shoot one of the dogs. That was supposed to encourage the four others that were outside the entrance to chase after him. It did indeed get the cavern dogs' attention, but it turned out that they were already aware of the party's presence. They had sniffed out Hector when he scouted them earlier, and several of the beasts had followed the trail to spy on the planning group.

Unbeknownst to Lyonel and the rest, while they had been setting up their combat area and deciding on how best to engage the dogs, their 'prey' had been sneaking out of some of the other entrances to their underground lair, ones that Hector hadn't spotted. When the ferret man took out one of the lower leveled guards at the entrance, several packs of stronger and larger cavern dogs made their move.

Each of these packs was led by a level ten who had a lot of experience with hunting and fighting. That was a strange feature of the way the tutorial worked, because none of these dogs could be more than two months old, and yet when they were created they had been imprinted with years of muscle memory and combat experience. They used this to coordinate between the four hunting groups that had surrounded Lyonel and the rest.

In addition to the veteran in charge, each pack had five more fighters who ranged from level six to nine. When the cavern dog who had been shot by Hector released his death howl, the leaders gave the order and the packs dashed towards their targets. In the end, Alan's concerns about being singled out weren't an issue, he and the three Corellians were each the focus of a pack.

The beast people were quick enough to realize that the tables had been turned. What they had thought would be a controlled whittling down of the nest's numbers followed by a final run through the cavern to clear them out, had turned into a fight for their lives. With enemies coming from all directions, their formation split apart almost instantly. Gerry and Samson were close enough together, and smart enough, to go back to back. It might mean jostling each other as they cast, but it would prevent the dogs from being able to ambush them from behind.

Lyonel was on his own and far too busy to try and help the mages. He did manage to spare a sad glance at 'Pebble' and cried out for him to run. Alan could tell that he felt sorry for bringing the human and had no real hope that he would escape. Little did the hamster man realize that his continued survival was only going to be possible because he had brought the one-time busboy.

Seeing how wrong everything had gone, Alan knew there was no point in trying to hide his abilities. He might still leave some of what he was capable of as a reserve, but if he was going to make it out of this in one piece, and make sure the Corellians did as well, then he was going to have to reveal he was more than a serf.

Putting the gifted club back in his ring, Alan pulled out his spewn and pugio. This was going to be hot and close work, and he couldn't get bogged down on defense or the others would soon be overwhelmed. Instead of letting his dog pack come to him, Alan moved towards them. A few steps and he was only a couple of meters away.

One of the younger dogs let its battle lust get the better of it and it pushed off the ground, jumping through the air to try and rip Alan's throat out. His senses and reaction speed were easily able to let him adjust his path so that the flying ball of fur and teeth went harmlessly past him while he allowed his spewn to drag along its side, like an iceberg on an ocean liner, leaving a long deep cut that would cause the dog to bleed out in moments.

The veteran leading the pack did not take that well, but it was too experienced to be goaded into anything rash. A series of barks and yips managed to keep the others under control as well, and Alan found himself surrounded. The five dogs were snarling and snapping at him, but there was no fear in his heart. This level of foe wasn't a huge threat. Alan did regret that he hadn't had a chance to put on his armor or hide pants before the fight got started, though. He wasn't going to get through this without some injuries.

Waiting around wasn't an option as he saw that Lyonel was already being hard pressed. Samson and Gerry were actually holding their own, but they were no doubt burning through their mana. There was no sign of Hector yet, which was a little concerning. A feint by Alan at a level seven cavern dog got a level eight on the opposite side to try and attack his unprotected back. He was ready for it of course, and reversing his counterfeit attack, he spun around and sliced the top of its head off.

That was the end of the small pack's restraint, and they all tried to jump on him at once. Using his pugio to drive off a dog next to his kill, he used the gap to escape their collapsing circle. Once he was on the outside he used the nearest dog as a shield, preventing more than one or two of them from attacking at once. It took him less than thirty seconds to eliminate the rest of the smaller dogs, leaving the veteran as the last opponent.

Alan had escaped mostly unscathed, he had received a few small scratches, but his regeneration spell, which he thankfully did have time to cast, easily took care of them. The pack leader, however, was limping on one leg and had blood running down its side from a shallow puncture wound. Despite its injuries, Alan had to respect its commitment to taking out a threat to its home. That didn't prevent him from sending a pebble into its open mouth, detonating the stone before it swallowed it completely, and blowing its jaws apart. He needed to help the others, but he took a moment to finish off his respected opponent, not wanting to leave it to die in slow agony.

He had tried to keep tabs on what was happening while he dealt with his own opponents, but he had missed when Lyonel went down. All he saw of the party leader as a mass of dogs barking and biting at whatever was left of him. Alan didn't have much hope that he would be in time, but he hurried over to see if he could rescue the hamster man.

So absorbed were the dogs that they didn't even notice Alan's arrival. With his left hand he was stabbing into their chests, hoping to inflict lethal damage to their vitals. He could feel a subtle force directing his hand as he did so, no doubt it was his backstab and critical hit talents kicking in. His right hand was busy taking out the back legs of the animals he could reach. His spewn was powerful enough that it was slicing through the bones in their legs like they were tiny twigs. It was far faster to sweep across with his blade rather than stabbing and retracting, and while this didn't kill them, it left the dogs helpless for follow up attacks and stopped them from ravaging Lyonel.

Now that he had cleared off the dogpile, Alan could see that the tank underneath was still alive, but only barely. His armor had done a decent job of protecting his torso, but other parts of his body were missing chunks of flesh or were sliced open. His arms had been busy protecting his head and neck and had multiple bite and claw marks on them. There was also a shockingly large pool of blood underneath him.

Keeping a wary eye on the couple of cavern dogs that were still capable of attacking, Alan knelt down and placed his hand on Lyonel before sending two healing spells into him. With his current stats, and his talents, each casting was healing around thirty to forty health. He estimated that Lyonel was down at least two hundred points, probably more.

These health points didn't act like a video game, they weren't purely numbers. Instead they were more of a reflection of the overall state of the body. The amount his spell could heal was a measure of how much energy it had to repair damage, it wasn't simply changing a number on a sheet. However, the more significant an injury, the more energy was required to spend, so in effect it almost was acting like simply a number. He had talked to both Pixel and Tamee about this, but as neither was a healer, and they had a hard time explaining the distinction. It was just something they intuitively understood.

As a doctor, Alan knew that 'intuitive' understanding was usually based on a lot of misinformation. It was the collective learning of old wives tales and urban myths with varying sized grains of truth as their origin. He hoped one day to meet a true healer so that he could try and understand exactly how it worked. Alan's hope was that it would help him with upgrading and creating his own healing spells.

Whatever was happening between the healing energy and Lyonel's wounds, the effect of his spells was immediately evident. The larger chunks of flesh that were missing started to close and his arms started to look like limbs again instead of a roast beef sandwich. He could have done more, his mana had started the fight practically full, but he had an ability he had never gotten a chance to use for real. Unfortunately it required the willing acceptance of the target, and Alan didn't think the hamster man was aware enough to give that.

With the most life threatening injuries taken care of, he turned his attention to the remaining enemies from the second pack. The veteran leader was the first that he had stabbed with his pugio and it had received an almost instantly fatal injury. Still left were two of the stronger ones, and another two who were crawling on their two front feet, their hind legs having been severed.

They seemed wary of attacking the man who had just decimated their group in a matter of seconds, and Alan wasn't willing to wait for them to muster up the courage to attack. He took a large step forward to attack, but that movement proved to be too much and it sent the dogs running back into the darkness. Even with his high perception, it was difficult to see far into the night while standing in the ring of light. He didn't bother following, and instead put the wounded dogs that were whining in agony as they tried to crawl away out of their misery.

"Lyonel, try and get back on your feet. There may be more incoming." Was all that Alan said to the downed hamster man. Then he moved to help out Samson and Gerry.

The two had done well for themselves. Of the combined twelve beasts who had attacked them, there were only seven left, and mages didn't appear to be injured. However, it looked like they might be running low on mana as the speed of their castings had slowed way down. If there had been any more dogs in the attack, they most likely would have been overwhelmed at the start, but it looked like the Corellians were soon going to be left without their spells and then they would have to rely on their melee skills, such as they were.

Fortunately for them, that wasn't going to be an issue. Of the seven dogs left, two were the veterans of the groups, which together might have given Alan a challenge. The packs weren't in a single cohesive group however, they were scattered around the two beast people and had little attention for the outside world. He chose his targets and ran in.

First to die was the closest veteran. Alan had shifted his grip on his weapon and brought the mace side of the spewn down hard onto the dog's spine. It shattered several vertebrae, sending bits of bone flying through its torso, shredding its organs. What was meant to be a debilitating attack instead proved violently lethal. With a slight turn of his wrist Alan slashed through the neck of the next target, severing its snarling head and dropping it to the ground.

Rather than working his way around the animals, he dashed across the circle, and went for the beasts on the far side. These had a chance to see him coming, but it did them little good. His two targets were both lower levels, six and seven, and his speed compared to theirs gave them no chance. He drove the point of his dagger through the left one's eye and brought the heavy head of his spewn down on the second, shattering it's skull.

This brought the total number of attacker's down to three, one of which was the last veteran. That dog made the wise decision for the pack to disengage, but Alan wasn't going to allow that. Even as it started to bark out its commands, he was moving toward the larger enemy.

Alan shouted out an order to the mages. "Take out the little two, I've got the big one."

A dog is faster than a human, and since the leader was at the threshold of what would be considered opal for monsters, that should hold true in this case as well. However, this moment wasn't a matter of top speed, but relative speed. Alan was already sprinting at the dog and it was standing still, still facing him. By the time it turned and started to accelerate, Alan would be on it. This dog was savvy to that fact, and made the best choice it could.

Instead of trying to run away from him, the dog waited until the last moment and then tried to run past him. Unfortunately for the quick thinking beast, Alan was a veteran of combat as well. He was ready, and when it tried to leap past, on Alan's left side, he spun clockwise and brought his spewn around and smashed the back of the cavern dog as it almost made it past him. Its broken hindquarters gave out when it landed and he stabbed down, putting it out of its pain.

Samson had used an earth spear to take out his dog, while Gerry had crushed the other with a ball of water. By now Lyonel was on his feet and looking less dazed. All of the dogs here were dead, but there was still no sign of Hector. None of the three Corellians seemed to realize this however, as they were now staring at Alan with looks of disbelief. It looked like it was time to come clean.

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