Melia paced back and forth. By her count, it had been nearly 10 hours since her team entered the dungeon. 9 hours, 48 minutes, 53 seconds. She cursed her new body and its ability to recall information perfectly, which always seemed to pop up when she really didn’t want it.

  The dungeon wasn’t that long. It was a beginner dungeon, made to breeze through. She’d done it in less than 30 minutes, but she wasn’t dumb enough to compare anyone else to herself.

  Logically, she knew her team was young. Inexperienced. Prone more toward caution than taking risks.

  Which was a good thing as far as she was concerned.

  But she couldn’t stop pacing and wringing her hands, especially after checking moments ago and finding one of their chatgems was destroyed.

  Did somebody die? Oh no, somebody died. Who died? Do I need to rush to the nearest chapel?

  Melia had just made up her mind to go visit the local graveyard to see if one of her teammates was lying naked in a ditch or something, and was just about to march out of the small cave when a disturbance caught her eye.

  A rift formed, a swirling drain in reverse as it grew from a pinpoint into a portal large enough for two people to walk through side by side.

  And, to her extreme relief, four people emerged.

  She drank in their forms greedily as they stumbled forward, looking like they’d been through the wringer.

  The wringer, the washer, and the entire cleaning crew.

  Which was actually a bad metaphor, since they were absolutely filthy.

  And then Melia’s eyes fell onto Alastair’s arm, wrapped in bandages and tilted slightly the wrong way, and her worries came flooding back in.

  “You’re hurt!” she squawked, rushing toward them. Alastair’s nerves must’ve still been on edge, because he turned, noticing movement, and instantly raised his shield to protect his team.

  Good on him, but Melia, already flying through the air to latch onto one of them, splatted against his shield instead.

  “Oof,” was all she said, but she clung to it, refusing to let go. When the expected attack never came, Alastair lowered his shield cautiously and…stared in disbelief at the gnome hanging off it.

  “Bwa ha ha!” Jessica roared in laughter, walking over and prying the gnome off and transferring her into a hug. Melia was feeling extra clingy and didn’t want to let go.

  “You’re hurt,” she repeated, somewhere between accusatory and nervous. Jessica sighed.

  “All things considered, this is nothing.”

  “Eh?”

  “You should have seen Ellesea after she blew herself up before we patched her up.”

  “Ehhh?!”

  Melia turned to look at Ellesea and froze.

  “Your hair!” she screeched. The [Mage] almost looked insulted.

  “That’s the first thing you say?!”

  Melia had the decency to look abashed. She quickly shook herself back to her senses.

  “We need to get you to a healer, now,” Melia declared. Her tone brooked no argument, but Jessica wasn’t moving. Since Melia was still in her arms, she wasn’t moving either.

  “Give us a moment, will you?” she said, not unkindly. She sounded exhausted and Melia felt anxious again.

  “I’m sorry,” she began, but Jessica laughed.

  “Oh, don’t be. Coming back to somebody waiting for us after a successful mission is always welcome. I’d rather have you worry over us than have nothing at all.”

  “Really,” Y’cennia piped up. “I’m usually the one waiting. This is nice. I don’t know if I could get used to dungeons, but this is nice.”

  “So…so…it went well?” Melia asked hopefully as Jessica sat down and transferred her to her lap. Melia was a boundless ball of energy and started bouncing impatiently.

  “As well as could be expected,” Alastair groaned and sat down on a rock. “That was a mistake. I don’t think I can get back up.”

  “I could carry you?” Melia instantly offered, only to get several blank looks in return.

  “I forgot,” Alastair laughed, “You probably could. Thank you, but no. I have a little energy left in me. I’d like to retain what little dignity I still have, thanks.”

  “So…tell me?”

  ?

  And they did. Jessica was the main orator, and Melia secretly thought Jessica was more of a [Bard] than she was. It started with their accidental ambush of bats, which was a classic for any first-time players entering the dungeon, and it sounded like a train wreck the entire way down.

  If the developers could hear them tell the tale, they’d be laughing their butts off.

  How they managed to engage Splinter, who was actually one of the tougher bosses in the dungeon, but then declined to fight the turtles. Leo, Don, Mikey, and Ralph would live to see another day.

  As expected, the fact that they had no healer gave them problems, but creative use of real-life mechanics saw them through. Melia would never have thought of using a potion bandolier herself…though she’d never need one, since her potion was self-refilling.

  And she’d never really need that, either, if she were honest.

  The fight against the octopus-thing sounded thrilling, and Melia found herself wishing the world had some sort of replay function, like the game had. It was mostly used by streamers who integrated their OBS with the game, but technically, anybody could record and save footage of playtime if they took the steps to set it up.

  Melia never had; she didn’t have anybody to share it with. By the end, she felt her time in the game was closer to real life than her time outside of it, and, while not boring, it didn’t seem as exciting as what streamers made their gameplay into.

  Perhaps she should have, so her family could have something to remember her by.

  Melia shook away those thoughts before they could get any darker. Her new team was beat up, not beaten.

  The fight with Copperpot went quicker than she expected. Most groups failed the first time since most people didn’t bother to look up dungeon mechanics before a fight. They went in guns blazing, thinking everything was a simple dps rush, burning the boss down as fast as possible while the tank held agro.

  It was not.

  But, since this was real life, Melia supposed people needed to be more attentive to their surroundings.

  The story of how they beat Mr. Smite sent Melia to the floor laughing. Poor Mr. Smite. He couldn’t improvise a cannon strike. When she recovered enough to roll over, she got up and wandered over to Ellesea and examined her hair.

  The damage could have been much, much worse.

  If Y’cennia hadn’t been able to make a normal [Healing Potion] before, Ellesea likely would have died.

  The [Mage] apologized profusely for destroying the chatgem, but Melia brushed away her worries with a wave of her hand. She was much more worried about getting her hair regrown, Alastair’s arm set correctly, and Y’cennia’s stomach looked at for any remaining splinters of rock.

  Strangely, Jessica seemed to come out entirely uninjured. Exhausted, yes, but uninjured.

  “What do you expect?” Jessica said grandly. “I’m a [Hunter].”

  “You just [Feigned Death] and let somebody else take aggro, didn’t you,” Melia accused through squinted eyes. Jessica fidgeted.

  “Enough about that!” Melia let it go. “We need to get you all looked at. Are you good to move now?”

  “I think so,” Alastair sighed, “But how do we get there? Where are we, even? Where is this?”

  It occurred to Melia that she hadn’t let them regain their bearings at all, having ambushed them at the exit.

  Come to think of it, waiting at the exit portal for people to leave a dungeon could be seen as a very dastardly thing, and Jessica explained that it was frowned upon by the guild for those exact reasons. People could wait for a party to return, presumably at their weakest, and rob them. Such things happened in the past, and still happened occasionally, but people who tried to do that were seldom successful and were punished ruthlessly. Guards were stationed at the exits of more well-known dungeons, which the [Boondocks] was most certainly not.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  As for how they were going to get back to Hammerfall, Melia had to exercise extreme self-control. She was quickly losing the battle of hiding her true self from her teammates. She realized she trusted them completely, and most of her fears about showing her true self to them were gone.

  But wounded and tired as they were right there, taking a ride on the back of a giant dragon probably wasn’t the smartest move.

  Instead, Melia left them with soft cushions and blankets for them to sit on and wrap themselves in while she left to go find a carriage.

  They gave her blank stares as she pulled out what were essentially bean bags, oversized throw pillows, and velvet-like blankets. She had the decency to scurry away while being judged.

  It took nearly an hour for Melia to return with a carriage willing to trundle out into the middle of nowhere. The first place she looked didn’t have a driver willing to go past Old Town, and the second didn’t want to travel into the wilderness with a bizarre gnome.

  His tune changed instantly when he saw what Melia was willing to pay.

  Despite his obvious greed, the driver was professional and didn’t ask any questions when Melia gave him vague, nearly play-by-play instructions on how to get back to her teammates. He was intensely curious when they stopped in front of a small cave on the coast, and nearly opened his mouth to ask far too many personal questions when the rest of her team came out. Another gold coin sealed his lips and Melia could practically see the daydreams he was envisioning with his sudden windfall of riches.

  It took only a few minutes to load everybody into the carriage, and once they were all safely on board and headed to Hammerfall, they finally relaxed.

  ?

  Alastair, Ellesea, and Y’cennia all fell asleep. That left Jessica as the only target of Melia’s burning curiosity.

  “Honestly, we’re fine,” Jessica told her for the fifth time. She rolled her eyes and let Melia [Inspect] her however many times she needed to feel satisfied. The gnome had once again sprouted horns and a tail and Jessica wondered if it was some sort of draconic coping mechanism.

  …That she even considered it in the first place was a testament to how thoroughly entrenched Melia had become in their lives.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go straight back to the abbey?” Melia asked.

  “No, we need to stop by the guild.”

  After her initial freak out over the state of her team, Melia asked what their next steps were. She was thinking in the very short term, regarding where they wanted to be taken to get looked at and rest up, as they were in no condition to go out again today.

  That’s when Alastair reported that they needed to go to Hammerfall first and foremost to check in with the guild. He explained that with how badly the dungeon shook them up, with how hurt they got, and how damaged their gear was, they couldn’t finish the quests they originally set out to complete. If they went to the guild right away, it was possible they could cancel the quests without risking a mark of abandonment, avoiding penalties on their records as well as a fine.

  That was when Melia brought up how she was bored and completed the quests for them, showcasing several dozen jellyfish stingers and perfectly harvested plants. Alastair, wisely, decided that was a future-him problem and promptly fell asleep in the carriage.

  Jessica explained that while technically they wouldn’t be able to submit the items and try to claim a reward for themselves, the proof was there that the quest was complete. In theory, the reward and penalties should cancel each other out, and they’d just walk away as if they never took it in the first place. Granted that the guild was feeling cooperative, of course.

  ?

  “Yes, things do seem to be in order….”

  The receptionist, who was the same lady Melia dealt with during the intake for the Call to Arms, was very reluctant to process [Sunrise]’s quests. As Jessica said, the party themselves (from the guild’s perspective) did not complete the requests. It just so happened that, coincidentally, certain items of proof for said requests came into the party’s possession by an acquaintance totally unrelated to the guild.

  By the letter of the law, the group failed to complete the quests, but by the spirit, far more had been done than was asked for and the effects of such…thorough completion would be far-reaching and long-lasting. Many older people would find more comfortable nights with the increase of herbal remedies, and the mines along the coast could continue to be profitable without worry of sudden invasion.

  The guild was not so subtle in its attempts to woo Melia into joining their ranks, going so far as trying to dangle giving [Sunrise] the promised rewards if she signed up.

  For a paltry dozen silver, Melia was not swayed.

  ?

  All things told, the trip to Hammerfall was over quickly. As stated, their goal was to simply inform the guild of their inability to complete the quests they accepted and also report their findings of the dungeon, which was of great interest to the town. Since it had been known about in the past and simply forgotten, not actually newly discovered, the reward was lesser but they received a sort of finder’s fee. Five whole gold per person, which woke the party right up, giving them enough fuel to sit down and record everything they experienced. A guild representative would accompany a higher-ranked team in the next few days to confirm their report and decide how best to utilize this newfound asset to the kingdom.

  Once again, [Sunrise] found itself aboard a carriage bound for another several-hour-long ride, but this time, they were too amped to fall asleep. Not that they weren’t tired. Alastair in particular was bone weary, but the nap earlier, as well as how stiff and uncomfortable his body was, simply wouldn’t let him fall back asleep.

  Yet more proof, if it was needed, that they needed to see a healer. Thankfully the abbey was full of them.

  “This does change things a bit,” Alastair sighed. “Those quests were supposed to last us all week. Now, not only are we down work, meaning we won’t get paid, we’ve got to rest up and heal. Nothing productive is going to get done.”

  “But you did just get 20 gold,” Melia countered.

  “True,” Jessica nodded, “Which is fantastic and will go a long way to repairing our equipment and replenishing supplies, but we’re also missing out on experience.”

  “And the buff,” Ellesea moaned. “It only has a few days left.”

  Five days had passed since Midsummer kicked off with the Fire Festival, and only two days remained on their exotic buff. To most of the group, excluding Y’cennia, it felt wasted.

  “I can give you another one later,” Melia assured her, “The important part right now is that you’re safe.”

  “True.”

  “So what can we expect from the abbey?” Melia asked. “Will they heal you? Have one of the [Priests] take a look at your wounds?”

  “Oh, most likely,” Jessica smirked, “They’ll be very thorough. They won’t even charge us a lot, barely a pittance, all things considered.”

  “But…?” Melia asked, noticing the pause.

  “But while our bodies can heal, our armor can’t,” Jessica scowled. “I got off lucky. A trip to a [Leatherworker] is all I need, but Al’s going to need a whole new set of armor, and Elsie’s robes got torn up.”

  Jessica cringed as she looked at the singed and frayed robes on the [Mage]. Ellesea was alive, so technically her “armor” did its job, but repairing magical gear was not cheap. If they wanted it done right, at a respectable [Tailor], they’d need every copper of their 20 gold discovery reward.

  “I can fix that, no problem.”

  Jessica stared down at Melia. The bouncing gnome had an earnest, eager look on her face, and Jessica forced herself to remember the piles and piles of fabric stored in her vault.

  “But that brings up a good point,” Melia plowed on, as if she didn’t gloss over having yet another class that normally took decades to master. “What’s everybody’s goal here?”

  “What do you mean?” Alastair tilted his head.

  “I mean, what do you all hope to get out of this party? What are your long-term goals and dreams?”

  “You mean, where do I see myself in five years? That sort of question?” Jessica asked. “I’ll be honest, most of the time, we’re just trying to make it to next week.”

  “But obviously you have some sort of ambition,” Melia said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have become adventurers. Ellesea wouldn’t be taking advanced classes while studying to be a [Mage], and didn’t you say you were trying to evolve your class into a [Ranger]?”

  “Yeah,” Jessica said wistfully. “I am.”

  And some days, that goal felt very far away indeed.

  “Why?”

  It took Jessica a moment to register the question. “Why?” was a common phrase spouted by the children so often, she learned to tune it out. Even when she didn’t, it was rarely a serious question they genuinely desired an answer to.

  That couldn’t be said for Melia. She looked absolutely invested.

  “Why what?”

  “Why do you want to be a [Ranger]?”

  “What do you mean, ‘why?’ It’s a class. You get stronger, you evolve.” Jessica paused, smiling evilly as she turned the question back on the gnome.

  “Why’d you become a [Warrior]?”

  She expected to stump Melia, but once again she underestimated her.

  “Oh, that’s easy,” Melia instantly replied. “I love huge swords.”

  Four heads in the carriage slowly turned toward her.

  “What? That’s my reason, I’m not going to lie about it. Reasons don’t have to make sense. They don’t have to be grand and heroic either. But, like it or not, everybody has a reason for their class, even if it’s not a good one.”

  “I…want to be an arcane [Mage],” Ellesea began slowly, “Because I’m fascinated by the secrets of magic and how they subtly influence our daily lives. Frost, fire, elemental…they’re magic, yes, but their purposes lie elsewhere, not in the fundamentals of our world.”

  “And, I assume, someday you want to be an Archmage? Do you plan on adventuring forever? Do you want to be more of a warmage? Honed in battle? Or something more…academic?”

  “I don’t see myself fighting forever,” she chuckled. “I don’t think any of us do. I suppose I want to settle down eventually. Find a teaching position, maybe a mentor role of my own, likely after years and years of research.”

  “And we’ll get you there,” Melia nodded earnestly. She turned to Alastair.

  “[Paladin]?” she asked.

  “I’ve always found solace in my faith,” he said easily. It wasn’t even a question. “The Light has always guided me, and I’ll let it use me to guide others.”

  “Will you be a traveling missionary? Or whatever it’s called?”

  Alastair found it comforting that Melia did not judge him for his beliefs. So often, he was met with scorn or the tired acceptance of rolled eyes.

  “Hmm, no, probably not. Though I don’t think a life in the seminary is right for me either. I don’t have the temperament to be a scholar, not to mention the intellect.”

  “Don’t count yourself out,” Melia earnestly shook her head. “If that’s what you want, take it slow. You have time. They say: a hard-working idiot will out-perform a lazy genius, 9 times out of 10. And you’re no idiot.”

  Alastair turned to stare out the window, absorbed in his thoughts.

  Y’cennia’s goals were easy, as they were already well known and mapped out. She wanted to become a Grandmaster [Alchemist], quite the lofty goal, and Melia set her up with a path to follow. Not all of it would be as fast as her first few days. She was level 302 now, gaining a surprising two levels in the dungeon despite doing very little. But the system rewarded effort, and she was not coasting by. The next hundred levels would not be so easy to achieve.

  “I…don’t think I’ve ever sat down and given it any serious thought,” Jessica finally admitted. “I just know that at some point, I had a goal to work towards, and that goal was becoming a [Ranger].”

  “I suppose that can happen too,” Melia conceded. “Do you at least like the class?”

  “I don’t know?” Jessica shrugged. “It’s not like I get a preview of what it does before I have it.”

  She paused to seriously consider.

  “My role in the team has always been scout. I do damage, sure, but Ellesea takes the brunt of that role and I’m more of added security. There’s nothing wrong with that, I get it, not everybody is going to be at the top of the charts or whatever, but I suppose, now that you mention it, I’ve always simply…gone with the flow.”

  “And…if that role wasn’t something forced upon you?” Melia asked, but quickly clarified. “I mean, if you didn’t have to worry about filling a role, and you could be anything you wanted, but this was what you got stuck with, would you regret it?”

  Jessica said nothing but turned to stare out the window.

  “Listen,” Alastair leaned forward awkwardly to whisper in Melia’s ear, “We aren’t forcing anybody to-….”

  “Oh, I know you aren’t,” she quickly shook her head. “And I’m not accusing anybody of forcing somebody into a class or a role they didn’t want to take. But I am saying that you have me now. And I can help you walk whatever path you want.”

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