“Are you sure this is OK?” Jason asked nervously as Winston opened the front door of his house. Jason had at least grabbed a pillow and his toothbrush before coming along but he looked very uncomfortable. His face didn’t help the look.

“I told you it’s fine.”Winston said dismissively as he stepped into his living room. His mom was in the kitchen laying those weird lasagna noodles on top of a pan full of meat, sauce, and other vegetables.

“Hey Winston, it’ll be a bit on supper. Oh, hi Jason. Haven’t seen you in a while. It’s been months since Winston had anyone over but his girlfriend. Thought he’d abandoned all his male friends.” She said with a smile.

“Not quite that bad Mrs. S.” Jason said wryly. “But the two can be rather sickening when they’re together.”

“The trials of young love.” Winston’s mom said. “It’s going to be a bit on dinner. Lasagna takes forever to cook and I got started late.”

“I told Jason he could crash here this weekend. Is that alright?” Winston asked a bit belatedly.

“That’s fine. He can have the couch, or sleep in Josh’s room I suppose. He probably won’t be home at all until Monday.” Winston’s mom continued.

Winston nodded and the two headed up to his room and Jason grabbed a seat on Winston’s bed while Winston collapsed into his rickety old computer chair and let out a sigh. “I really need a car. It takes way too long to walk from your house.”

“Well buy one, your rich now.” Jason said as he pressed his fingers against his split lip and winced slightly.

“I keep telling you guys I’m not rich. I just have a decent amount of gold and I’m going to spend a lot of it once I’m done with this stupid quest.” Winston said sourly. “Speaking of which, when are you leaving Kishish to meet up with the rest of us?”

Jason thought about that for a minute. A few days? Three at least. It’ll take me that long to chop down all those trees you planted.

“I thought they burnt all those down.” Winston asked.

“Naaaa.. Just you fruit trees, and your house. They left the saplings, which was great for me. Been chopping down one a day for two weeks.” Jason said smugly.

“Grats for you… Wonder why I never got a tree farming skill though.” Winston mused aloud. “Maybe a distance thing?”

“Or the game just doesn’t recognize tree farming as actual farming.” Jason said. “Maybe it’s under forestry or something.”

“Possible I guess. Seems a bit of a stretch though. The game’s usually good about that sort of thing.” Winston said. “There are a lot of skills that overlap and the game usually lets it slide. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll just have to test it out again later.”

“So we just gonna sit around all night or you wanna play something?” Jason asked. “I mean we could braid each others hair or something, but playing games seems like a better plan.”

Winston laughed. “Alright, I’ll go hop on Josh’s computer and we can play some LOTA. Haven't dusted off my support skills in a while. Need to see if I’ve still got it.”

It turned out he didn’t have it.

***********************************

“BWHAHAHAHHA. I can’t believe you flashed in a straight line and still got hit by that ult. You could have just walked side-ways and avoided it completely. Then that fight in the river. HAHAHAHAHHA. Oh God, I’m dying.” Jason laughed harder and Winston sighed as he swung his pickaxe again.

They’d played LOTA late into the night and although they’d won most of their games the last one had been a calamity. Winston had played terribly and his whole team and been screaming at him while Jason was laughing his head off. The next day he’d used Josh’s system to log into otherworld while Jason had used the system in his room. Now they were voice chatting while Winstion mined and Jason chopped down trees.

Winston’s mining skill had gotten to Beginner V, but he wasn’t going to spend a point on it, so his progress wasn’t as fast as it could have been and there was a lot of rock to move. It was likely worth a decent bit of money bit without his trusty wagon driver around he had no way to move it. Instead he’d talked to Sarah and she’d sent over a few people with a wagon to haul it back to her guild. Winston had gotten a few hundred gold out of the deal but it was hardly enough to worry about.

“Well, you weren't doing so hot with that little trick against Sky-Assasin. You tried to get cute and he got away and killed Ice-Maiden.” Winston shot back.

“That wasn’t my fault.” Jason shot back, but Winston hung up the call before he could make excuses. Winston didn’t want to hear it and he had his own work to do.

The sun was high in the sky when his pick finally broke through the layer of stone and into the darkness below. He peered into the hole but couldn’t see much through the small gap. Winston had been mining for hours and his back and arms ached. He really had been letting himself go a bit in game. An orchard just wasn’t as physically demanding as a wheat farm and his last level up had shown that. Hopefully when he reached level 17 for the third time he’d get a better bonus.

He logged off to get some lunch and talk with Jason then logged back on to continue his excavation. It took a while to make a whole big enough to pass though. He was short but rather stout and Bog was even wider. It was well into the evening when he’d hollowed out a hole wide enough to go down but he decided to wait until tomorrow.

He messaged Jason and logged out to play some more LOTA.

After another night of being thrashed by college kids Winston was glad to get back into otherworld. The first thing he noticed was Bog. She was pacing around restlessly and seemed to be wounded. Some of her feathers were out of place and one section of her back had bloodstains.

She rushed over to him as soon as he stood up. He examined her wounds but with no real healing spells he didn’t have any way to help her. He should have bought some healing potions. What was the use of having a bunch of money if he never bought anything useful with it.

“What happened girl?” He asked her as he hugged her. She gave him a reproachful squawk before walking a few steps away and pointing to something on the ground with her beak. The bottom of the quarry was rock, but a layer of dust made tracks stand out. Bog’s tracks were three pronged but the middle prong was a good deal longer than the others. This track was tri-pronged as well, but the toes were wider and more evenly sized. They were also a good deal smaller than Bog’s massive feet.

[Identification Failed]

Winston snorted. Of course his identification failed. He didn’t have tracking or dungeoneering or any of the skills needed for that sort of thing. The tracks were a mess and he couldn’t follow them. There had obviously been a fight and that had complicated things but it didn’t take much brain power to guess that the monsters had come out of the hole in the ground he’d made.

He pulled out his staff and willed his faith into it. Without using it for anything it drained away slowly but it did make the staff light up. Which was all he needed it for. He had a ton of FP and could keep his staff lit-up for hours without issue.

“Common Bog. Let’s see where this rabbit hole goes.” Winston said as he ducked through the hole he’d made and into a wider tunnel behind it. The tunnel was only packed earth but wide and surprisingly smooth. It obviously wasn’t natural but he’d expected something much less uniform.

He could see markings on the floor but the dirt was too hard and dry to leave real tracks. He knew there were monster of some sort down here and his light would make it easy to be spotted.

He met his first enemies by accident. The tunnel bent sharply to the right and as they rounded the corner his light illuminated a small alcove off the main path with three creatures inside. They were around four-feet tall with reptilian features and burning red eyes. Kobold’s, Winston thought as he spotted them. That explained the footprints.

His mental musings slowed his reaction time and Bog and the kobolds were already fighting by the time he thought to do anything. Faith poured from his staff as he formed armor around her. The swirling light made it nearly impossible to see what was going on in the pitch black tunnel as the shapes and shadows shifted wildly.

A kobold swiped a slaw at Winston and he parried it clumsily with his staff before sending a gout of fire into the creatures face. It didn’t hurt the creature but the heat and light made it stagger backwards. Winston used the opening to jab the end of his staff into the kobolds stomach.

There was an ugly crack and a wheezing sound as Bog stomped on a downed Kobold. Winston went after the one who’d attacked him, beating it around the head with his staff as it tried to defend itself. The last kobold seemed to have had enough and it turned and ran into the darkened tunnel. Bog finished off her victim then came for Winstons. Soon the pair were in silence again, breathing hard and looking down at the copper coins and various curio’s that had dropped.

None were very valuable so Winsotn shoved them all in his pack. Then he looked into the black hallway and sighed. There was no way he was going to be able to explore this on his own. He didn’t have the skills and he didn’t even know what he was looking for. Bog was the only real combat power he had and if they ran into four or five kobolds they’d be in trouble. It was time to call in the cavalry.

*********

It took a day for Josh and his buddies to show up. Winston had texted Josh about the tunnels and asked for his help the night before, but they hadn’t arrived until later Sunday night, which had pushed off the expedition until Monday night. Josh’s football buddies hadn’t been happy but they were all 18. Which meant the game’s time limits didn’t apply to them.

The weather had turned while Winston had waited for his backup. The sunny skies had clouded over and a light rain soaked everything. Luckily he didn’t have to stay outside for long and as soon as Josh and his buddies had shown up, Winston had lead them all underground.

“You sure the dungeon is down here? Rob, the barbarian asked as their group walked down the tunnel.

“No.” Winston said honestly. “I mean, I’m sure these tunnels connect to the dungeon somewhere but it could be a mile from here, or twenty miles from here. These tunnels might lead us right to it, or around in circles for days.” Winston said.

“Well aren't you a ray of sunshine.” Said Kyle, another of Josh’s friends.

“That’s my little bro for you. He’s 17, but acts like he’d 60.” Josh teased from where he stood near the front of the line. They were walking in single file and had already clashed with a few groups of kobolds. However, with their numbers and levels the fights were easy.

The group continued on and the tunnels slowly sloped downward. They came to a few forks and picked the routes that would lead them towards the center of the zone. They walked for nearly four hours, fighting off larger and larger groups of kobolds before they came to a stone door. It was covered in runes but the magic had long since worn out. The kobold hadn’t bothered trying to move the massive door. Instead they’d just tunneled around it. A smaller and rougher tunnel opened on the wall next to the door and turned sharply.

Winston walked up to the door to examine it more closely and his interface pinged.

[Secret Dungeon Found!]

[The Lost City Of Tezem]

[The Yawnshu people were once the only sentient race that lived on the continent that is now the West Empire. They built massive underground cities and once numbered in the millions. However, over time they came into contact with the evil races of underworld. Those creatures who lived miles below the surface in perpetual darkness and paid homage to the darkest and foulest of Gods. The Yawnshu were excellent artisans but poor warriors. Their civilization was subjected and weakened over time until they were all but exterminated in a war with the dwemer.

The City of Tezem was one of the last to fall but now is nothing more than a city for kobolds.]

“Finally. I found it.” Winston said with a sigh. Being given a quest with nothing to go on hadn’t been fun. Now he at least knew where he needed to look. He just had to go in, clear the dungeon and he’d be all ready for his class advancement. Then he could start setting up his new farm and get back to doing what he did best. “This is it guys, but we should wait until tomorrow. I doubt this dungeon will be something we can get done in a day.

“Kevin, set up camp. We’ll have to back-track a bit. If we can’t here we’ll definitely get killed by Kobolds when we log out.” Josh said, decisively. “We can meet up here again after school tomorrow.”

The group backtracked a solid mile before picking one of the alcoves some kobolds had been stationed in. Then Kevin started to sit up camp. It was a rather fascinating process to watch. He set up tents, paying special attention to their arrangement, as well as adding a few trip-wires, and other minor traps. It all seemed fairly useless to Winston, but Kevin explained that all the little details added up. The higher quality you could push the camp to, the less likely mobs would discover it. It also provided more buffs.

Winston that in mind, Winston took a few chunks of the stone he’d mined and imbued them with his faith before sitting them around the camp. He didn’t know what good it would do, but he was curious to see. He climbed into a tent and logged out to go see what Jason was up to.