Bruce had decided, after some thought last night, that today should be a stone-dungeon day. Yesterday had been heat, aligned with Kael. Today he wanted foundational essence back into his soul-body, the depth-essence from the stone dungeon that had pushed him and the others across the F-to-E threshold. He wanted more of it, more layers of it, in the days between the threshold and whatever E-to-D breakthrough came next. And the stone dungeon was where the alpha rollers lived. He wanted another shot at an alpha kill.
Also, more practically, and Bruce admitted this only to himself, the stone dungeon was better ground for what he wanted to test today. The soul-script seals. He needed to try them in real combat. And the stone dungeon's shell-crab clusters gave him a wide test population of moderately durable targets to practice on without risking the party.
The B-rank guard at the stone portal was at her post.
