“You. You’re helping me.” I said to one of the many players stuck in town for their tutorial period. Four weeks in a city where they couldn’t escape. Not unlike what I was doing by pretending to be William Carver.

“Huh?” He responded.

“I need you to come with me.” The player even got a pop-up box. His system message should say something about improved relations with Old Man Carver and a chain quest.

“Mister Carver?”

“Come on. Let’s go.” I banged on the side of my chariot. Phil was at the helm. Even with my bad eyesight and I could see the orphan's eyes roll. Moments later our cart, still in day one of testing, started into action down the path to my designated meeting spot. Phil had been skeptical this contraption would even work but it did, and well.

The reward for inventing this device and putting it to use was even better. In a few weeks, after the other orders went through, the orphanage would have an entire chain of bicycles. Kids and bikes went together well even in fantasy land. I spent almost an hour this morning trying to explain how to pop a wheelie to the brash youth but so far the concept was lost. These things did weigh a bit more than standard bicycles.

In one of the crossroads of town there were three other players waiting.

“What the hell is this about?” The most vocal one was the wide hipped woman who had been beating a straw man for Peg. Her words were loud enough to carry across the street.

“I don’t know. I’m sure Mister Carver has a good reason.” The quiet younger female had been my first player, the trash picker.

“He better.” A younger male voice whispered through, this was my cow mooing would be assassin.

“He god damn well better or I’ll kick his sorry old computer ass.” The angry wide hipped woman had her arms crossed and looked even more pissed than usual.

“Good, you're all still here.” I said.

“What are we doing here?” Our new player asked.

“Awesome Jr. you’re the last one. Hopefully this will be enough.” There was a certain amount of phrasing required to get this out without forfeiting too many points. Sounding grumpy helped.

“Good lord. This is your latest pick?” Wide hip was a player named HotPants, which was hilarious to me but her name paled compared to the other boy. She wore mail gear and had adopted a strange motif of red and blonde.

The boy dressed in all black leather with two daggers tried to look aloft but his eyebrows were twitching in annoyance. He went by Shadow, and couldn’t be more stereotypical in his look or method of acting. It would take a good year or two in game for him to really pull off the intimidating over the top anime persona he wanted to be.

SweetPea was the younger woman. She was soft spoken and overly polite. A knitted hoodie was pulled down over one eye and long brown hair bunched up.

“Uhhh..” Awesome Jr. mumbled.

“Hi Adam.” SweetPea said with a faint smile.

“Oh. Is this your crush, Awesome?” I asked.

“Awesome's my father. I mean wait, no! She’s just a friend.” SweetPea was probably blushing too under that bundle she used to keep covered up. Kids today.

“Hah!” HotPants took time out of her normally angry attitude to laugh at the two children. My remark had lost me a point but was worth needling Awesome Jr. about.

“Good. Let's try this again.” I exclaimed.

“That other boy ran away as soon as he read the quest.” Shadow grumbled almost as well as Carver.

“He was a wuss.” HotPants exclaimed. She was busy eyeing everything nearby. The last two weeks in game had turned her already angry personality into one that seemed to look for pots to break.

“We don’t know that.”

“How do you do that whisper thing.” The older woman was poking her staff at Shadow with a raised eyebrow.

“What?” Shadow asked while pushing at the Bo’s end.

“The ‘I’ma big scary boy’ voice. Like Batman.”

“It’s not Batman.” The cow moo quest survivor said.

“You do kind of sound like Batman.” SweetPea responded just before pulling her hood down again.

This was worse than herding cats. I activated a few of Old Man Carver's skills just to talk over the crowd. [Intimidating Voice] and [Aura of Strength] had reductions due to an [Old Age] de-buff. It was enough to cut them off.

“Enough!”

“Yes sir, Mister Carver Sir!” Awesome Jr. was gazing off into the distance after performing an immediate solute. I just gave him a blink, the poor kid hadn’t even been talking. HotPants was outright laughing. SweetPea looked embarrassed. Even Shadow had face palmed.

“Anyway. One of you explain. I’m tired of trying.” I grumbled and ground my cane against the stone dirt.

“Can I go first? I want to get some more practice with this contraption while you all yack away like old hens.” Phil was chomping to be off and see what he could do with his new toy.

“Yes Phil.” The cheeky young boy was far too eager to test out this bike tour for money prospect. “Don’t try to sell that!”

“I know! Deal's a deal's, a deal, you old geezer!” The boy even jingled a bell I had installed. “I'll be back later!”

“Brat.” I muttered while grinding the cane. Phil had already vanished around some buildings.

“You made him a bike?” HotPants asked.

“Who knew, right? I wish I’d thought of it.” Shadow responded with a gravelly voice.

“Nah, if NPCs figure it out, players won’t get anywhere near the same rewards.”

I was really starting to go crazy. Dealing with people in real life was one thing. As Hal Pal’s companion I enjoyed a certain level of visibility. These jerks thought I was an NPC and just talked right over my head. When Continue saw fit to give me my own character, first thing would be hunting these players down and punching them in the face. At least Awesome Jr. was confused enough to not join in the banter. He was also the newest to this overall group. The others had hours of time while I had tried to find a fourth.

“Are you going to explain or not?” The game read my increased heart rate while marking the irritation with a status update.

“He looks unhappy.” SweetPea was too quietly demure for my tastes.

“So how are you doing Melissa?” SweetPea, or Melissa frowned at Awesome Jr for his casual usage of her name in a video game world. At least I assumed that was the reason for her frown.

“Melissa’s a better name than SweetPea, you should own that.” HotPants threw one arm over the younger girl.

“Guys the NPC is going to fail us all on the quest if someone doesn’t explain it.” For once I was grateful to Shadow, even if I had made him moo at a cow. Somehow the boy had fallen in with a Mercenary recruiting post. He already had a contract for employment once his introductory period was over.

“Fine! The robot here wants us to escort him through a Dungeon tonight.”

“There’s a Dungeon in town?” Awesome Jr. tried to catch up with HotPants abrupt explanation.

“Right? This place is crazy. My son says there’s always a few nearby, but the ones in town are typically event only.”

“You have a son?” Shadow sounded as confused as I felt. HotPants didn’t seem like the mother type.

“Little jerk doesn’t call often enough. He lives with his bastard father.” HotPants scowled. Her staff spun around and she started swinging at nothing. It was the same action I had seen her practice in the yard with Peg Hall. The motion was almost hypnotic.

“I hate him. Hate. Hate.”

SweetPea slid away from the sudden violence.

“And?” Awesome Jr. watched HotPants with a bit of worry on his face but managed not to step away. Unlike Shadow who seemed almost eager to jump into the path. Was the kid a battle junkie? Was such a thing real? In the virtual world it was very likely. Slight pain was nothing compared to the thrill of competition. There were entire Internet video feeds dedicated to people competing in ARC's spawned environments. Voices help me, players were clearly all crazy.

“It’s called the Maze of Midnight, which only opens at, you guessed it, midnight. I asked my friends who started here, they never heard of it.” Shadow while bobbing his head in time with HotPants swing.

“Are you willing to help escort me to the end?” I cut to the point.

“Uhhh…sure Mister Carver.” Awesome Jr. was reading a pop up box that had suddenly appeared. “But I don’t know if any of us are any good yet.”

“I’m sure I can carry you.” Shadow said.

“Carver said we need four people.”

“What skills do you have?”

“I’ve been working with an alchemist. Basic potions. Most of them explode.” Awesome Jr. responded absently. He was still reading through the quest notes.

“So ranged damage? You got any magic yet?” Shadow was asking the questions. Thank goodness they were sorting out the group mechanics and stuff. My understanding of the game had grown in leaps and bounds over these last three weeks. All of it was so focused on William Carver's day to day life that I missed how a player might do things.

“No. It’s too hard.”

“Right? They expect you to sense something that isn’t really there. Even the ARC isn’t that good.” Shadow suddenly lost some of the gravelly tone to his voice in annoyance.

“I wanted to play one of those cat races. The tails look pretty.” SweetPea said.

“Can you imagine trying to make it move? The thing has to be automatically controlled or something.” Awesome Jr. was completely into it now with the younger two. Even HotPants seemed to be listening. All of them were geeks I swear.

“Ha!” HotPants wasn’t laughing, she was swinging the staff even harder and building up a sweat. “You’re all idiots.”

SweetPea had said nothing but just frowned.

“Why now Ma’am?”

“Ma’am? Jesus, you little son of a bitch.” She frowned and put away the staff. Awesome Jr. had just committed an awesome social crime.

“Oh. Yeah you’re right HotPants.” SweetPea said.

“That’s so weird to call someone HotPants.”

“Like Shadow's any better?”

“Shadow the fifty second.” I muttered shaking my head. Honestly part of me wondered why there weren’t way more than that. With this many people playing Continue Online, in one world, doubling up on names was a given.

“Whatever.” Shadow didn’t hear my response and crossed his arms.

“We should just ask Mister Carver.” SweetPea looked excited.

“What?” Somehow two of them had come to a conclusion while I was completely oblivious. Social interactions in video games were far beyond my childhood. All the ARC software I had used were single player or movie renditions. This was just strange.

Voices. When I got to play this game on my own I might completely avoid other people. Except Beth, I would try to involve myself in whatever crazy event she had planned.

“Mister Carver, sir. Can you help us find skills that would make it through this dungeon?”

Actually that was a good idea. I took my time now, weighing out my own needs to complete the quest against Carver's personality. This group of players probably could use all the assistance available to survive.

“Fine. But there’s a time limit on my offer.”

“He didn’t mention a time limit before.”

“That’s bull crap.” HotPants said. Both hands stood on her hips and she tried to glare down at my hunched body. I looked back up with one eye and grumbled while chewing at the inside of my lip.

“It’s reality. Maybe you Travelers have eternity to goof around, but I don’t.” Joy! That one line had earned me a full percentage point, bringing me up to seventy seven. There was now a real cushion between me and failure, plus it affirmed that this was the right track for completion.

Being proactive was miles better than sitting around doing nothing. Finally, after weeks in game of barely shuffling along, I was making progress. I had to force myself to put everything in perspective. These last few weeks had focused on learning his history and personality. There was mild worth to it all but adventure was something completely different. Plus I was giving whoever had originally played William Carver a show. How many days were left on the Carver Countdown? Four? If we started now, how many nights could I spare, today, probably, tomorrow night then?

"Fine. I'll show you where anything is." What could I do if they abused this? Pull strings with Wyl? Would he kick players out of town for failing to come through? "You have until midnight tomorrow to get yourself sorted. After that, deal's off."

"Mister Carver Sir." SweetPea sounded hesitant but at least she spoke up. "What if we don't make it back by Midnight?"

"I go without you." Screw them. If these players didn't want to help an old man finish his dungeon, I would do it myself. I didn't really have time to waste.

"That doesn't seem like a good idea Mister Carver sir."

"No. Fool computer wants to get killed. He's just an old man, how is he going to kill anything?"

"You idiots, William Carver is a Legendary NPC. Don't you see the golden boarder?" Shadow said. I blinked, then scowled. Being checked out for my status felt dirty.

"Bah. Midnight, tomorrow."

"Is that midnight tonight, or midnight tomorrow night." Awesome Jr. asked with a stupefied look on his face. I wanted to beat him over the noggin with my cane but he would have to bend over quite a ways for my shoulder to get up high enough.

All that practice with a sword at Peg's only lasted a day at most. I had no clue what skills I might bring to the table. Even if this was a Beginner Dungeon I had to do something. Maps. Carver had maps and a cane. Books and tables and a pantry of preserved foods. Clothes were in dresser drawers. So far Continue hadn't given me any sign of a personal inventory with any legendary items or other gear.

"Midnight is midnight. You figure it out."

Awesome Jr. stared off into space reading something. The only messages I saw other people's interfaces were tied to quests and status updates. I couldn't see their entire character sheet without using the [Identification] skill. Even that was vague when it came to a lot of details. Luckily these players were newbies so they didn't have methods to obscure my prying.

"You talk. Figure out what you need from me to make this work. I said I'd help you, and I meant it. But I don't want to sit around here all day while you talk nonsense." I gave it my best cranky but fair tone.

WWCD? Motivate decisively. The more I dealt with being this man, the more he felt like a grumpy project leader. What did his employees need, what did he need as lead. Everything was an exchange towards a group goal of improvement. His only soft spot seemed to be the children.

"I don't need anything." Shadow said with his guff voice.

"Don't pass this up." SweetPea shook her head slowly. That knitted cap had almost swallowed her up.

"I want to learn to fight. That woman wouldn't let me try my skills against anything real." HotPants was probably talking about Peg hall.

"Fine."

“You can really get me someone to fight?”

“Probably. Let’s get you going while those others figure things out.” The others kept talking as they followed behind me. HotPants was kind enough to stop her constant stream of annoying angry babbling. Maybe she was actually looking forward to this.

More than once I had to completely ignore the player's offers of assistance. They didn’t like how slowed Old Man Carver meandered across town. We were headed for one of the guard posts near the main entrance and that took too long. I had to redirect this gaggle of idiots to their own needs more than once. At long last we made it to the guard post. It was basically a small wooden shelter that guards would use to hide from the sun or rest in public view. This was one of several such posts around the city of [Haven Valley].

“Wyl, are you here?” Luckily this was also the favored haunt of the guard captain Wyl. He tried to keep himself readily available near the entrance in case anything odd happened.

“Carver. What are you doing away from your post?”

“This is your idea of help?” HotPants was twitching. Her hands were one step away from pulling out the staff to start hitting things.

“Wyl. The lady here wants to fight something.”

“She’s a Traveler right?”

I nodded.

“And you expect me to take her on patrol?” Wyl was quick on the uptake. He also seemed a little dubious about the player's value.

I nodded again.

“I don’t know.” The guard captain said.

“I can’t even exit this stupid town! Every time I try the stupid computer blocks me!”

My eyebrow went up while looking at Wyl. He had likely run into this situation quite a few times, especially since he hung out near the main door.

“The Voices restrict Traveler abilities simply because you need time to understand our world. Plus there’s a matter of building up skills to survive the world outside.”

“I can defend myself just fine!”

Wyl’s eyes were tilted in concentration. Whatever programming guided the captain was checking for abilities. Those would be compared to some vague form of quest prerequisites. At least, that’s what I assumed was happening. In reality most people seemed to believe that getting into a fight was stupid. Here inside the machine people's looks and their abilities didn’t match up.

One player had recently made it to a Rank Three on the Archer path. He spent hours every day in front of a range operated by a training hall. In theory Rank Three was high for a newbie leaving town. Two was the average for those starting the combat path. There was an entire host of crafting ones, like Pie Master, that gauged things differently. Likely he would move on to another town via an escort if he needed to or make friends with a warrior in order to travel around serving as support.

“You might survive a quick tour, but you’d be dead weight in any serious assault.” Wyl said.

“I wouldn’t…”

“You would. You, beyond a doubt, would die over and over.” Wyl’s tone didn’t increase in volume. It was flat and sure. “Strange Traveler powers and blessings from the Voices aside, you would die on anything serious. You’re lucky I’m considering taking you to clear some wolves out of the Royal forest.”

I watched a box pop up in front of HotPants. She looked confused and upset at the same time.

“This will get me out of town? If I accept?”

“I have the authority to provide a temporary pass as long as you’re escorted.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?” HotPants growled.

“You probably didn’t ask the right people. Attitude doesn't get you far around here.” Wyl said without even a trace of a frown. He was unfazed by the bundle of anger.

“Will you be done by tomorrow?” My body was feeling the weight of today's excursions. Both hands used the cane as a third leg.

“I’ll send a squad on an overnight with her. It’ll be a good change for all of them.” The trademark smile was still mostly present on Wyl's face.

“Think you got someone who can keep her in line?” I lifted the cane in a halfhearted gesture towards HotPants. The other players were in the background arguing over something still. They had barely taken notice of our stop.

“Probably not. But if she steps too far out, she’ll die. The aggressive ones normally solve their own problems.”

“Mh.” I turn to HotPants and glare for a moment.

“If you die tomorrow, you won’t be able to recover in time. You best be careful.”

“As if I need a computer to be concerned for my well being.”

I shrugged in response. Her commentary against me was both amusing and annoying. Amusing because she thought I was a computer, but annoying for the same reason. My acting as William Carver had flaws, but he was a person too!

“Most Travelers find death unpleasant, you’ll learn soon enough.” Wyl said.

“Pain is a great teacher.” Old Man Carver's simulated heart attacks were enough to send me to my knees. I can’t imagine death felt any better. The only blessing would be if it was sudden and not lingering.

“Why does a video game have pain?” SweetPea was paying attention now.

“Because it’s awesome.” Awesome Jr. whispered.

“No pain, no gain.” Shadow affirmed. “Check out Stanford's study on the Pain Response and Learning in a Virtual Simulation.”

“Two hours from now I’ll send a group out. You get whatever you think you need together and be here in an hour thirty. We’ll need time to go over whatever supplies you missed.” Wyl was already issuing orders, which seemed to grind HotPants' gears something fierce. She suffered through in stride with a curt nod and charged off.

“See you tomorrow!” SweetPea gave an impressive yell for her personality. I shrugged and went over my mental map for other possible training locations.

“Got anything for more speed?” Shadow was busy pulling at pieces of his gear and frowning. His shirt seemed to be riding up under the overlay of armor.

“I thought you didn’t need anything.”

“I don’t. But I’ll take anything you’ve got.” The wanna be assassin growled at my snide remark.

“I know a man who's really good at teaching young cocky boys how to dress.” He would outfit the player in literal dresses with makeup and everything. There was nothing in my book against cross dressing but I imagine it was a surprise if revealed at the wrong moment.

He actually looked thoughtful for a moment. I sighed, the youngster probably thought it was a disguise art of some sort. He clearly seemed to be going the extra mile for his ninja image. I briefly compiled a list of possible skills needed for a Ninja Path, assuming there was such a thing. It seemed very like that there was.

“No, if we’re going into a dungeon, I need speed, or stealth. Both preferably.” Shadow was at least certain in what he wanted to take away form this game. Many players lacked the drive he displayed.

“Mh.” I hummed and pulled out the map. Skills that combined traits were harder to nail down on the map. Often times they required the players to actively combine tasks.

“You should follow the recruits around.” Wyl said.

“What? What do you mean?”

“New guards, I send them out on running laps around the town with their armor on. It helps build their endurance, especially for the ones bucking for a promotion to a knight squad.” Wyl's face shone with a smile. There was a glint of pride in his eyes. Carver's, my screen, popped up a message about Wyl's pride in his former students successes. There was even a count of how many former soldiers and Traveler trainees went onto to other occupations.

“That’s cruel.” SweetPea said.

“It’s effective, you should try it too little miss. Travelers should take advantage of everything they can.” The guard captain said.

“So you think I should follow a guard around?” Shadow turned the conversation back to his own personal needs. One hand fiddled with the dagger at his hip idly. I could see Wyl keeping an eye out but he didn’t seem too worried.

“Let’s make a game of it, you give the guard a short head start, then try to trail him without getting caught.”

“What do I get out of it?”

“You win, I’ll give you a handful of silver per person. You lose, and my trainee gets to stop their lap and come on back.”

“They’ll accept that?”

“It’s a big town.” Wyl said with a faint smile.

“I’m in. We doing this all night?” The would be assassin also looked pleased but for entirely selfish reasons.

“Night time patrols will change a little because of the risk, we’ll see how you do on the first few.” The captain shrugged. He didn’t seem overly worried either way. “I’ve got other ideas to keep it interesting if it’s too easy.”

“Awesome.”

“Awesome's my father.” Awesome Jr. was smiling too. How many times could he play that joke before becoming annoying?

“Shut up.” Shadow scowled for a moment, looking remarkably similar to HotPants level of anger. “Wyl right? Thanks for this, it sounds fun and like a good training method.”

“It’ll help my men learn a few skills too, spotting a trail is good for undercover work if any of them want to join a King's Inquisition.”

“What’s that?” Shadow asked.

“Wyl, I’m going to drag these other two onward. Thank you for your time.”

“Oh, right, here I am just gabbing away. Anytime Carver. You keep in good health.” Wyl didn’t seem done though. His mouth just kept right on running as he slowly came to our side of the guard post and put an arm on my shoulder.

“Me and the boy saw your posting, and the ladies in the temple are in a tizzy over your recent actions. I said to them, let an old man do what he wants with the twilight years. It’s what I’d want.”

I nodded.

“Let me die with a sword in my hand and a prayer on my lips. Not a whimper in my bed.” Wyl shook his head and looked sad for a moment. This became one of the few times I saw him without a smile of some sort.

“Sounds like a good plan.” The people in this world were lucky that way. In the real world we rarely had a warrior's way out. Modern medicine kept the old alive and feeble. Carver would want to go out with a bang, not a whisper. That’s exactly what William Carver, what I, would do.

“Hah! Carver, whatever you’ve cooked up, you give ‘em hell for me!”

“I will Wyl.” Saying that was almost a miniature tongue twister. Wyl went from hot to cold very quickly depending on who he was talking to. His minions, I mean lesser guards, were treated very different from an old war buddy.

At least I think that’s what our relationship was. The notes needed another review. This world had thrown some many bits of information at me that I was nearly drowning. Work tomorrow would suck simply because of the mundane nature in comparison.

Just a few more dominoes left. Then we would see where everything fell. Thank goodness the Voice of Gambling and his negative buff hadn’t impacted Old Man Carver's stats. Being this tired and walking around with nagging pain everywhere was enough of a punishment.

If I could use Carver's skills to the fullest, without negative side effects, then clearing this dungeon would be easy. Speaking of cake, where was the [Messenger's Pet]?

“Mister Carver sir.” SweetPea sounded demure again. It was annoying and sort of cute at the same time.

“What is it?” I grumbled.

“Do you have any suggestions for me?”

“Nope. You need to figure out what you want for yourself. Not me. No one is required to follow a path. You make a choice and work hard.” Not once had I forced any player to learn a skill, aside from whatever resulted from the introduction quests.

“I really only know cleaning though.” She sounded sad and pulled the hoodie down even more.

“Your meatloaf was really good, Melissa.”

“Thanks, Adam.”

“Maybe I should just leave you two alone.” Carver was very good at sounding grumpy, even if I personally felt like teasing people. It just came out that way.

“No, it’s okay Carver. We should try to do something to help make this better. None of the other players even tried to help you with the flier, so I feel kind of bad forcing you to figure out something on your own.”

I was completely stunned by Awesome Jr’s statement. While it was true that no one had really tried to help me, the fact that he felt guilt towards an NPC was almost overpowering. My rueful grin at his new pop up box was response enough. From this angle I could easily see the reputation with ‘William (Old Man) Carver’ increase and wasn’t even upset. Awesome Jr. had been serious about it.

I nodded again.

“Did you still want to learn magic?”

“I tried that, and failed.” His head actually dipped and hung in depression.

“Who did you talk to?”

“Shandra Tull, she was the one my quest chain led to.” SweetPea was looking at Awesome Jr. with one eyebrow high under her hood.

“Yeah. She was nice, and gave me a few books, but nothing really clicked.”

Shandra wasn’t actually a mage of any sort according to my notes. She was more of a hedge witch with a steep learning curve. I idly followed the markings all over town and found a few good starter methods for learning magic. Of course doing that made me feel like a dirty cheater with a personal walk through but I was also Old Man Carver, guide to the new and confused. The balance was strange.

“You might be missing something.” Teeth chewed on one lip in thought.

“Like what?”

“Mh. Not everything is as simple as learning abilities right away, not even for Travelers.” How should I explain a topic I barely understood? William Carver had no access to magic or any sort of alternate energy form. According to his skills everything went ‘swing the big sword, swing it some more, swing it harder and scream!’.

“Come on. Come.” We took another trip slowly. The sun was setting and I was getting extremely tired. Plus being out too late would get me in trouble with my progress bar. If this quest attempt failed I would need every point available.

“Need a ride, Geezer?” A bell from the bicycle dinged a few times as Phil navigated the metal device to a halt nearby.

“Phil. It’s about time.” I loaded myself into the cart's plush seating. Moments later I had a map out and was jabbing one finger at the meditation cave from earlier.

“Can you get us here?”

“I’m pretty beat. Maybe to the base of the hill here, but any further up? No. Not on this thing.” Phil was wearing a slight frown and both eyebrows creased together.

“That’s good enough.”

“Fine, but deal's a deal's a deal right? Bike's all ours after today?”

“As long as it stays with the orphanage.” I nodded.

“Of course geezer. The other kids wanted to ride around before lights out, figured we could take them on trips.” Phil was talking really fast. “Mylia wants to use it as a reward to those who help out.”

“You take her up on that.”

“Hah! If we had a few more of these then the older kids wouldn’t be worried about jobs.”

That, my dear Phil, was the entire plan. I wanted the orphan kids to have something to do for money while growing up, plus bikes were just cool for children.

“Seriously Mister Carver, I can’t believe you made a bicycle.”

“You Travelers aren’t the only ones with brains.” Phil shouted back at us. The cart was going entirely too fast for me, but Carver's body rode it out like it was a standard day.

Icons and text boxes for riding skills and safety checks appeared. More pluses and minuses from the state of our cart showed up. Phil's driving skills were even factored into it somewhere. Poor SweetPea and Awesome Jr. had no idea what to think. The girl clutched at her knitted hat and Awesome Jr. was almost a dog sticking his head out the window.

After a slew of bumps and awkwardly broken up conversations we arrived at the cave. This place was south of the town’s main gate. Close enough to be part of [Haven Valley] but very much out of the way.

“What are we out here for?”

I squinted through trees and brush up the hill. Phil was laying over the handle bars puffing in gasps of air. Poor boy had worked hard today. A routine involving morning stretches would help.

“Up there.” I lifted the cane and pointed towards a ledge.

“What’s up there?” Awesome Jr's neck looked funny being tilted so far back.

“A cave.” Dirt, rocks, some plants. I felt empathy for Williams abrasiveness when dealing with Travelers. Where had their adventurous spirit gone? Had it been bred out of humanity?

“Caves have bats.” He protested.

“It’s just bats.” SweetPea looked confused. Awesome Jr. was afraid of bats?

“They poop everywhere.” He said.

“Gross.”

“This cave has more than bats.” I didn’t even try to sound reassuring. Carver didn’t do reassuring! WWCD? Grump and shrug!

“Why go to it?”

“Go as deep as you can into the cave. Spend the entire night.” SweetPea went red, but not as red as Awesome Jr. I lowered my eyebrows in a level glare.

“It’s not a romantic date. It’s a place to train.” The two of them had that annoying young love glaze that turned everything lovey. It was best to put a halt to that right away.

“Will we learn magic?” She asked. Her mouth curled in an excited smile.

“You’ll learn something. What you take away is up to you.” One of my shoulders came up in a half shrug. The other was too stiff to move properly. Magic was one of the possible outcomes according to Carver's map. There were many others as well, each one a slightly different flavor.

“How come you never told us about this place?”

“You didn’t ask the right questions. No one ever does.” I didn’t ask James the right questions most of the time. It was more fun to treat our conversations as a lax chat rather than an interrogation. These would be the first players I guided to this cave since becoming Carver.

“I’m in, how about you Adam?”

“If you’re going.” Poor boy was still red faced. I smirked as they retreated into the distance. Surprisingly, sending them off together earned me a few more points on the progress bar.

Progress: 80%

“Come on Phil. I need to go home.”

“No can do Geezer, Mylia wanted you to drop by tonight.” Phil responded with half his normal cheek. He still looked winded. I sighed. Timing was never convenient. Not when it really mattered.

“You can take the slow route then.”