Finally setting out on an adventure, I started to think once again. I was quite relieved, given everything that had happened. I knew that back home, we had enough people that I wouldn’t need to concern myself with their safety. James was safe again, and the most pressing matter in Austin Texas was the wolves coming up from the south end of town, though the wolves had a limited territory. I could explore without concern, now. Well, I guess I should be a little bit concerned about my safety, and about the oncoming attack from dark forces beyond the scope of any mortal, but why worry about them when I could do absolutely nothing to stop them?

It was a clear day, and the air felt cool and crisp on my skin. It was a very mild winter this year, and spring had come very early. I wasn’t complaining. It took me only 20 minutes flying at full speed to see my old house below. My car was still parked right outside, exactly where I left it. The area of woods I had cleared stood out from the air, so pinpointing the house was much easier than I assumed.

I landed by the front door and stuck my key into the lock, but for some reason, the door was already unlocked. Someone had been here, and I only had one key to this house. I had given it to no one else. I decided to do a perimeter sweep of the house, walking all the way around it to check and see if anything was out of order, or any of the windows were broken into.

After making a full circuit, I could tell that no one had broken any of the windows, but that the back door was unlocked as well. There was also a fresh bag of garbage in the trash can on the side of the garage, so it was clear that someone was living in the house. I decided to carefully enter in the front. It was doubtful that someone could damage me fast enough to be a problem at this stage, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

Slowly and carefully, I opened the front door. Making full use of quiet movement, I made my way into the house. The air conditioner was running, and the kitchen was clean, but there was a pot with soapy water sitting in the sink. I continued into the house but stopped when I reached the living room. There, sleeping on the couch, was a young girl. She was probably around 13 or 14 based on her appearance, and she looked like she was probably superhuman, as I saw no beastkin, monster, or magic race traits on her. She had a nice face, with tanned skin and wavy brown hair about a foot long. I could hear the gentle rhythm of her breathing from where I stood. I decided to quietly search the rest of the house for someone else, but it seemed like the girl was here all alone.

How should I tackle this? It was obvious she was just living here. The place was nice and kept clean. I kept the house because it was sentimental, it was completely paid off, and selling it seemed like a waste. I didn’t mind that someone was squatting in my house. It was basically the apocalypse, after all, so I could be forgiving. That didn’t mean I liked the idea of someone living in mom’s and my sanctuary.

Thinking about it, I decided that I would need to wake her gently. There was no telling what her powers were, and I wanted to be sure that the house was fine. I tried to make a habit of always keeping a couple of Cindy’s warding papers on me, and I was going to apply them here anyway, so I might as well do it before she woke up just in case.

Moving into the kitchen, I grabbed a glue stick out of the supply drawer and pasted the warding paper on the wall of the hallway entrance. With a quiet whoosh, a wave of magic swept over the walls of the house, fortifying them from damage. That should keep the building from easily being destroyed by rank 1 abilities, in particular fire and impact, as those were Cindy’s specialties.

With that done, it was time to wake the girl. I entered the living room and sat down on a reclining chair right next to the couch. Bringing my tail around, I used the soft feathers on the end to tickle her nose. After a bit, she started squirming, eventually slapping her face in annoyance. Hah. It must have felt like a bug. I quietly sat in my chair, waiting for her to notice that she wasn’t alone. As I watched, her eyes opened, and she let out a loud yawn. Very slowly, she stood, kicking off the blanket she was using. She reached over to the end table between us and grabbed a pair of black-framed glasses, putting them on. Somehow, she still managed to not see me. This girl was not a morning person, that much was clear. Getting a bit impatient, I looked over at her, and loudly cleared my throat.

Hearing my exclamation, she looked over at me, visibly jumping back in surprise.

As her eyes widened, she stammered out, “W-w-w-w-who are you?? I don’t have anything valuable here!”

Well, that was a lie. There were definitely valuable things here, thank you very much. I have nice things. Rude.

Not wanting to scare her anymore, I asked, “I’m just going to be straight with you. I’m not here to rob or hurt you or anything, so you don’t need to worry. I just want to know, why are you in my house?”

After a second, I could see her eyes widen in recognition.

“Are you… Ms. Gale, maybe?”

“Well, yeah. Call me Vic, though. Everyone does. I’m guessing you know my name from the stuff in the house. How long have you been here? How did you get in, anyway? How did you even find this place, to begin with?”

Nodding, she said, “Y-yes. My name is Ashley. I’ve been here for five days so far. I picked the lock to get in because I didn’t want to break a window. It might be weird, but… I saw this place in a dream and was told to come here… He said it would be okay, and that the owner could help me. Are you… angry?”

A dream telling someone something important, and bringing them into my house? If this wasn’t the intervention of one of the members of the pantheon, I didn’t know what was. It kind of annoyed me that some god decided that they could use my house though.

“No, I don’t mind you being here. Which member of the pantheon decided to get you to come here?”

She seemed to panic a bit, but quickly spat out, “Mr. Zald! He said that if you helped me, he would ‘owe you one’.”

As soon as she said that, I felt an alert ding into my mind, and I brought up the menu to check it.

Alert!

You have received a request from Zald, the god of magic, knowledge, and improvement.

If you allow the follower of Zald to shelter in your residence, you will receive the following reward; a legendary crafting recipe for light armor using storm paraelemental eggshell.

Well, that was a relief. I was glad it wasn't one of the evil gods and was one I had run into before. It was also proof she wasn’t lying. As to Zald's request, I didn't particularly mind as I wasn't actively using the space, and she was living here for a week already. If she wanted to trash the place it would be trashed. I would set some ground rules, then come back and check on her again after exploring for a while. I wanted to get out there and adventure and the idea of babysitting a stranger right now seemed very unpleasant. Born Warrior was starting to act up, and I desperately wanted to find a monster to beat up. I guess three days without fighting was my limit.

Sighing, I said, “Look, this might be a bit weird, but I’m in a bit of a rush right now so I’ll leave you here. I’ll be back in a few days though. I’m sure you’re a nice person, but I had plans for the day already that I don’t want to miss. I don’t know who you are, or anything about you, and some god just decided to make you show up at my house.”

As I spoke, she started to tear up. Damn. I guess she thought that I was going to kick her out, or something. Of course there’s a reason she’s here alone, and it’s probably nothing good. I should get someone to come down and stay with her, or at least come down and visit. It would only take 20 minutes or so to head back home and report anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I raised my hands and reassured her, “Its fine if you stay here. I just want to lay down some ground rules before I leave.

Treat the place right, please, and lock up at night to stay safe. Try not to mess with any of my mom’s stuff. You can sleep in the bedroom to the left down the hall if you want so you don’t need to crash on the couch, but stay out of the master bedroom. The garage is full of supplies as well, so I don’t mind if you use them or whatever. When I’m back, we can talk more about you and what you need. Oh, and make sure not to remove the paper on the wall in the entryway. It’s a ward to protect the house.

I’m going to get a friend to stop by and check on you to see how you’re doing later, so don’t be afraid if another girl with pink hair shows up. Is that fine?”

She nodded, and I headed out, preparing to go back to the damn guildhall. Again. This adventure was already starting out weird and annoying. I missed cell phones.

As I walked to the door, she called out to me, “Wait!”

I stopped and turned, looking at her as the fidgeted.

“Vic, I just wanted to say… thank you. Thanks for letting me stay at your house… you… you didn’t need to, and you did anyway. You are so nice, and…”

As she talked, she started to cry again. Sighing once more, I went and hugged her while she wept, trying to comfort her. Eventually, she calmed down, and I felt comfortable to talk again. I felt a bit bad leaving her here alone, but I couldn't stand being cooped up any longer.

“Are you going to be okay alone for a while longer? I didn’t say before, but I’m going to be exploring the area to the east of here looking for settlements, dungeons, and ruins. My friends are setting up an adventurer’s guild, like in the stories, and they need some scouting information. I can take you to the city to stay with them, if you want.”

She quickly shook her head and looked afraid when I suggested leaving. That was peculiar.

“Why can’t you leave? What’s going on?”

Hesitatingly, she responded, “Do I… really need to tell you?”

I thought about it for a bit and realized that it didn’t matter if I knew why she was here. The situation would be the same regardless, and I would still let her stay at my house.

“Well, I’d rather know, but it's fine if you want to keep it a secret, I guess. It wouldn’t change much either way.”

She nodded again but remained silent, steadfastly refusing to give me any details. Whatever. At that, I decided to leave her. She would be fine here for a while, and I was more than ready to go hunting.

I took to the skies again and flew right back to the guildhall. Cindy was surprised to see me, and when I told her about the kid in my house, she was even more shocked. She promised to fly over and check on her that afternoon, and it was settled. I was finally ready to go again. Fingers crossed, nothing else strange would happen. Considering my track record up to this point, I didn’t have high hopes though.

Yet another 20 minutes later, and I was back, flying over the Dripping Springs area. From the sky looking down, the displacement of the land was very obvious. It looked like irregular shapes had been crammed in all over the countryside. Little bits of plain or forest making much too straight lines, making it stand out just enough for me to notice.

I was currently following one of the major roads heading towards Dripping Springs. It was still possible as I could see it from the sky, but the road itself has now spread around to such a degree that the only way one could get from place to place was to build a new road altogether. That wasn’t a problem for me though, as flight had made traveling on the ground almost completely useless.

I was reaching a more populated part of the area, which had recently been built into a small country suburb. The houses were scattered about in strange locations now, but the whole area was still walled off by a stone brick fence, which offered some protection from the outside. The people within the subdivision seemed to be doing fine as well. I saw several clotheslines strung out, and the occasional person walking about. As I circled the subdivision, I saw someone look up and notice me. I stopped, hovering in the air, and gave them a wave. Using some scrap paper to take note of the location, I continued on my way.

I was very surprised that I hadn’t noticed any monsters yet aside from the occasional giant deer or squirrel, but it was most likely they were all hiding under tree cover. I was most disappointed that I hadn’t managed to spot a ruin yet, but I guess they couldn’t be all that common. If they were, what was the point of exploring?

I was now flying over Dripping Springs proper. Like Austin, the small town hadn’t been shuffled about when the world expanded, though it was several dozens of miles further from the city than it used to be. I could tell that they didn’t yet have the power back on, but that the people were doing fine here. They were walking about, going from store to store, and there were rudimentary defenses set up, walling the city off from the outside world. Once again, it didn’t seem like they needed my intervention. After noting the location down, I continued my exploration, flying north.

This time, though, it didn’t take long to find something interesting. As I soared over a dense patch of forest, I looked down, and just barely managed to see the flash of a piece of metal. It seemed so out of place for the location that I immediately decided to see what it was.

Slowly descending in a spiraling motion, I drifted through a small hole in the dense canopy, and landed face to face with a massive spider. Well, a statue of a spider, but it was still very startling. The statue was made of white marble, but the bulbous eight eyes on the front looked like they were made of the now-familiar bronze metal, kangor. It seemed to be a type of orb-weaver as its abdomen was very large compared to the rest of the spider. The fangs carved on the front of the statue looked fierce, and it seemed as if the statue could jump at me at any time. Carefully, I grabbed a few sticks and chucked them at the stone arachnid while standing a safe distance away, but it didn’t move at all. If this wasn’t a sign of a ruin or dungeon, I don’t know what would be.

Behind me, there was a long trail winding off into the forest. The trail passed right by the statue and continued. The trees around me were tall, gnarled, and dark, in a way that was very uncommon for this part of the country. They managed to block out almost all sunlight, leaving the area gloomy and strange. It was a simple coincidence that I noticed the gleaming bronze metal, but I was glad that I did.

Heading south, towards town, I could see the forest canopy thin and become much more welcoming. North, though, it seemed like it would just get even darker. Creating a ball of lightning to use as a light source, I started walking along the path. Every 50 feet or so I would find another spider statue, completely identical to the first one I saw. I did my best to not become complacent, though, as I was aware that at any moment a trap could spring on me. I wasn’t scared of spiders, but the idea of being surprise attacked by a giant bug did not appeal to me. I continued down the path, taking note of every statue I saw.

After the tenth spider statue, I found myself in a long rectangular clearing. It stretched around 80 feet and had a floor made of the same white marble as the spider statues. The sky above the clearing was covered in a thick layer of web, but there were no spiders to be seen. At least, not in the web. At the very end of the clearing there was a large rock, and in the side of the rock was a big double door carved from marble. On the way to the door, six spider statues were forming an honor guard. There were three on each side, identical to the ones that I’d seen along the path.

Carefully, I decided to approach the cave to see what It was. First though, I took a few rocks and chucked them along the path. Then I threw a rock at each statue in turn, listening to the sound that it made. They all sounded identical to the ones I had encountered already, so it was safe to say that either these statues were all spiders, the spiders could turn to stone, or they were just creepy statues.

Standing in front of the door, I could now read the carvings made into the otherwise perfectly smooth marble surface.

II

Temple of the Orb Weaver Queen

4-5 people

Neat. Okay, so obviously this was a rank 2 dungeon called Temple of the Orb Weaver Queen, and it required 4-5 people. It was a shame, but I was worried that it would be a bit out of my league, and I wanted to be careful about my first dungeon. It was annoying, but I guess it wasn’t fated to be this time. Maybe later, spider dungeon.

Sighing, I reached out my hand and patted the door. With a flash, my vision went dark.

Oops. Should’ve seen that one coming.