The next day was spent in equal parts training and planning.

Camden's grandfather was preparing to make his proclamation about the experience-sharing bracelets. The old man hadn't wavered; he would still speak, presenting Camden, Liam, and two other bracelet-wearers as proof when they entered the dungeons to fight. Cassis and Arianna would add their voices with a supporting declaration.

Afterwards, Camden intended to bring his grandfather into their neighbourhood. No one objected. Cassis and Arianna also reached out to Ben and his family, offering them shelter. They accepted, moving into one of Samuel's houses with the option to buy it later if they chose to stay after the dungeon breaks.

The discussion of who would make up the first dungeon team was long and full of back-and-forth, but eventually settled: Cassis, Arianna, Danielle, Marcus, Helen, Nadine, Luke, Elena, Benjamin, and Joseph would enter as the first team.

Camden and Liam would not join the boss fights yet; their levelling pace was still behind. For now, they would enter dungeons only as part of the training and scouting groups.

When Cassis turned to Felicia and the fox, he wasn't sure what to expect. "Do you want to join us inside the dungeon?" he asked her, "and… can you even do that?"

The reply came not from Felicia, but from the system:

[Fox (E-rank) proposes a temporary companionship for a dungeon raid. Accept?]

Cassis blinked in surprise, then accepted. Immediately, a new awareness bloomed inside him, like the tether he felt to his party members. He exhaled through his nose, half amused. He really shouldn't be surprised anymore by anything that fox did.

The rest of the day, he dedicated to training, partly to focus his mind, partly for the practical necessity of sharpening his spells. He cycled through Flame Blast, Blazing Body, and Fire Lance, his weakest tools. Until now, he had prioritised mana saturation, which would strengthen his skills and spells, too, in the long run. But with the dungeon breaks coming fast, what he needed most was firepower, and he would get that by ranking up his spells.

By the time evening came, progress had been made. Blazing Body rose to Intermediate. Flame Blast finally reached Advanced, the rank he had it at in the other timeline. Even Fire Lance crept up to Beginner, though Cassis doubted he'd use it often. It cost too much mana and felt awkward to cast, especially with his current fighting style.

Arianna had been distant that morning, but she'd spent most of the day working at the merchant's factory to produce holy water. Conveniently, the merchant lived in Hallowford itself, so keeping him safe was part of their plan anyway. When she returned, she trained beside Cassis, refining her water spells.

Her Water Shield reached Master, now flexible enough to manifest anywhere on her body rather than only her arm. She explained she had used the same principle to rework her Water Barrier, which now allowed her to summon multiple barriers of different sizes and shapes, though they remained three-dimensional structures, spheres, cubes, domes, never flat walls. That spell climbed to Advanced.

She muttered to herself, "Just a little more… just a bit more…" but didn't explain what came next.

That night, they gathered to review the public's response to their proclamations. As expected, most were positive. Arianna could even see an uptick in the followers of Sapphire, bringing her to 721 followers.

Elena had posted the official message for their social media followers. And they had also put them on their website:

They supported justice for the children with bracelets and would hunt down anyone who stole one.

They would enter the dungeons in their area and wished luck to all who did the same.

They had a new product, Sapphire's Recovery Potion, with lottery distributions to be held by the Awakener Bureaus.

They would enter the sole E-rank gate on the cusp of breaking.

On their website awakeners entering dungeons could find some solid strategies for doing so as safely as possible.

Luke had already spoken to enough people to secure them the right to enter the E-rank dungeon. According to him it was well-received that they were willing to try clearing it. Cassis smiled grimly. There would be no trying. They would succeed.

Arianna also called Faith, delivering the news personally. Faith's voice trembled with gratitude. Cassis felt a small pang of guilt, knowing how painful the situation with Bryce must still be for her. But his plans for Bryce were necessary, for her sake as much as for everyone else's.

Even Bryce himself called that evening, his voice steady as he confirmed their participation.

Everything was falling into place.

That night, Arianna told him about her conversation with Timeless Waterfall. Cassis didn't like that she had revealed so much, about him returning, about her being from a different world. In his experience, deities, Arianna aside, were selfish creatures who viewed mortals as nothing more than flies. Even the virtuous ones were terrible. They wanted to help a group as a whole, but the individuals were not as important. He always thought them to be hypocritical.

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But what was done was done. He couldn't change what had happened, what she had revealed. Now he needed to deal with it. Still, he understood. He wouldn't have done the same, but he looked into her eyes and saw the crushing guilt she carried. She cared. That was why she felt guilty towards the people who would lose their lives. Because the ripples were his fault, from his wish to turn back time.

He comforted her. "It isn't your fault. You're a victim of my wish, just like these are the consequences of my wish. If anyone is at fault, it's me." He didn't feel at fault; he didn't feel any guilt. This new development, the accelerated dungeon timers, was clearly a consequence of his wish. He supposed he should feel bad. But if he hadn't turned back time, the people who might die now would have been dead anyway. He had given them a chance at survival; now it was up to them to take it. Sure, he had wanted more time to build up humanity, but in this, he and Timeless Waterfall were in agreement: survival wasn't guaranteed; it had to be earned.

And this time, people should be a lot better prepared than in the other timeline. He'd shared his knowledge freely on how to get strong, even without levelling past level 5. Now, people needed to take their fate into their own hands.

Many things now made sense. The glutton they had encountered during the first wave, and the frogman chief that was so very strong. He'd doubted himself, his own strength, but now he knew what had really happened.

Still, he did his best to comfort Arianna. He said quietly, "There's nothing we can change. We can only do our best now."

She nodded, still looking a little down but more determined than before. She cared, sometimes, maybe, a little too much. They hadn't spoken about Bryce again. Would she be able to handle it? Cassis wasn't sure. But he would do his best to convince her.

The next day, the group stood in front of the first dungeon, fully decked out in their protective gear. Most still wore the sets from Belaney Park, but the Morrisons and Bristols had needed new ones. Theirs had been torn to tatters in earlier battles. Their weapons, though, were the same ones Arianna had handed out back when they'd protected baby Jessica. Everyone still swore by them; good medieval-style weapons were hard to come by in this country.

Benny had already invited everyone except Cassis and Arianna into his party. The plan was to get the others to level 20 first; if Cassis and Arianna joined, they'd just soak up experience needlessly. Cassis checked the dungeon timer: 48:25:21. Two days remained, but if they wanted to clear as many dungeons as possible, they had to start now.

He was about to tell the group to enter when a voice called out.

"Wait!"

A woman in her early forties hurried toward them. Everyone turned. Benny's face lit up when he recognized her.

"Carol! What are you doing here?"

She gave him a bright smile. "Writing an article, of course. What you're about to do matters for all of Hallowford. People should see it in the papers. If you'd just let me take a quick photo…"

Cassis suppressed a sigh. He had never liked the spotlight, his survival had depended on being invisible. But this time was different. He had resolved to face things head-on. So, he agreed. The group posed in front of the gate, their defensive gear and weapons on display. Carol snapped her pictures, then wished them luck and headed off.

Finally, it was time. Cassis and Arianna went first, stepping through the gate to make sure the other side was secure.

The familiar disorientation hit him, and when it cleared, he stood in a vast desert. Sand stretched in every direction, nothing else in sight. Beside him, Arianna stumbled, still unsteady with the gate's effects. When she looked up and saw where they were, she groaned.

"A desert? I hate this dungeon already."

His mother agreed at once. "Yeah. And where are the monsters supposed to come from? Don't tell me they'll hide under the sand and jump out at us."

Cassis smirked. She knew exactly how monsters worked. When his mother caught his look, she groaned again, joined by the others.

Helen, however, smirked back at him. "Now that is a good way to work on our awareness. And I can practice stealth again. If I had to guess, these monsters will sense ground vibrations or use awareness themselves. Either way, this dungeon is going to do wonders for our skills and features."

Cassis nodded. As always, Aunt Helen understood.

Cassis started leading the group, while Arianna took the rear to prevent any ambushes. He wanted them to see firsthand what kind of monsters lurked in this dungeon before throwing themselves into real combat. After only a few steps, his awareness flared. Something was waiting beneath the sand.

He warned the group, and weapons were drawn at once. But before he could move in, his father stopped him.

"Stand back, son. We've got this. We'll get stronger."

Cassis hesitated, then gave a small nod as his mother, Benny, and Luke stepped to the front to form a defensive line.

His mother had advanced her class to Knight at level 10, gaining stronger protective abilities which was exactly why Arianna had given her a shield. Cassis knew the Knight class well. He'd had it in the other timeline. Luke, meanwhile, had chosen the Soldier class. Unlike the Knight, it didn't focus on protecting allies but on solo buffs and endurance. His choice made sense; it was the foundation for future evolutions fit to command armies. As the head of the Awakener Bureau he would have to do so in the future.

On the left flank, Helen had nearly vanished, her presence fading into the desert's heat shimmer. She was always quick to make use of her stealth. Nadine, standing farther back, drew her bow. She'd advanced into Sharpshooter, a class that not only increased her range but gave her a camouflage ability that made her harder to detect when still.

His father and Elena positioned themselves just behind the frontline. His father had taken the path of Earthen Mage, gaining a new protective spell, Earth Armour, along with stronger earth-based attacks. Joseph remained near the mages; as a simple Ranger, his reach was nowhere near Nadine's.

The warriors advanced slowly, tension in every step, until Luke's voice rang through the party chat.

"I can feel it. Dead ahead. Let's move closer and finish it."

Sand burst upward as a massive scorpion erupted from below, easily as tall as a pony and bearing two venomous tails that lashed out in an instant.

His mother intercepted one strike with her shield, blocking both herself and Benny, who was one of the weakest party members behind her. Luke deflected the other tail with ease, his sword steady. The frontline held the monster in place while the backline unleashed their attacks.

Bolts of fire and arrows made of wind rained down. Cassis noted his father sticking with Magic Missile; the scorpion was probably earth-aligned, so elemental counters were limited. Joseph, too, used only his normal arrows, as using Earth Arrow would only waste his mana. Still, the combined onslaught overwhelmed it, and with Helen joining the fight, backstabbing the monster, it quickly collapsed in the sand with a shrill screech.

The group cheered, excitement lighting their faces as the reality of their growth sank in.

But Cassis' awareness tingled again.

"More incoming," he said grimly.

Almost at the same time, Arianna's voice cut through the party chat.

"Behind us, too. Get ready!"

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