Pierto was feeling uncomfortable. Ever since losing Ayuna, Afilada had been like a woman possessed. He had thought she was driven before, but now they rarely even had time to catch their breath.

  Dungeon after dungeon, she pushed them to finish as many as possible. The loot was good and the quest rewards were great, but it was taking a toll on them. No one had been seriously injured yet, but there had been plenty of close calls.

  Pierto himself was now sporting a scar from his left ear to his chin. He had picked it up from a fight with a type of netherbeast whose claws were coated in a strange kind of mana. No one had been able to identify it, but the energy from it had been resistant to Sabi’s attempts to heal. She assured him that eventually he should be able to have it fixed, she just didn’t know the appropriate spell yet.

  It wasn’t just the danger. They now slept once every three or four days if they were lucky. Their bodies didn’t need as much sleep as before the Network, but with the pace they were running, they needed more than they were getting.

  Food was another issue. Afilada had them eating what would barely be considered gruel. And it wasn’t because that’s all there was. There was a whole group in their army whose sole job was to cook. She felt that eating actual edible food would make them soft.

  Bathing had also become an unneeded luxury. Not only was his thick fur filthy, but the dirt and stink had penetrated to his actual skin. Fighting the urge to itch was a form of mental torture. He longed to submerge himself in a giant tub and just go to town with a brush. His glorious leader seemed to think bathing in the blood of your enemies was good enough.

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  As bad as it was for Pierto, Forto, and Sabi, it was worse for their newest member. Gaso was another cat person, just like Afilada. He was slimmer and shorter than she was, though, and his fur was a dark orange color. He had three classes and served as their scout.

  If Pierto was being objective, the new guy wasn’t as good as Ayuna, but he didn’t know if anyone could be. Gaso wasn’t bad, he was at least as good as the two other replacements they had before him. Afilada had kicked the first one out after only a couple of dungeon runs, and the second one only made it partway through one quest before Afilada was ready to tear him apart herself.

  The announcement about the next tier had come earlier in the day, and it only seemed to drive Afilada harder. Her name was at the top of the leaderboard, with Sabi being number two, but she acted like there was ever a doubt about who was going to win the chance to move on to tier three.

  Ever since reaching opal with all of his classes, Pierto had noticed how much slower he was leveling compared to his quartz classes. This seemed to be the norm, as the others in the group complained of similar problems. Afilada, instead, took it as a challenge and had managed to push her Gale Blade class to fifty percent.

  Pierto’s fear was that something had broken inside of her when Ayuna had died. No one had said anything, but the rest of their party had noticed how much that loss affected her. The reaction clearly baffled Forto, to him their leader was Juggernaut. Unstoppable and unfeeling. Sabi and Pierto both knew that there was more to her than that, but they were also surprised at the depth of her reaction.

  Whatever happiness she had managed previously, was gone. No longer was she the affable but demanding taskmaster. Now she was simply The Boss. Pierto would still follow her anywhere, but he feared that instead of growing stronger, she was growing brittle. Only time would tell.