“Are you okay?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah,” Lumen said. “Just not used to getting hit in the face. The spinejack doesn’t reach there, so I’ve not felt a lot of pain there. It hurts more than I expected it to.” He shook his head. “But it’s fine. I’ll get used to it. Hey Dr. Aubrey!” Lumen said, turning to her with a pained smile. “You didn’t mention the goblin king was a mage.”

“I didn’t know he was,” Aubrey said, scrunching her face in confusion.

“Yeah,” Lumen said. “At about half HP, he jumped back and started throwing ice orbs of some kind. One of them caught me in the face before I realized what was going on. He was pretty predictable after that, though.”

“That’s what happens when you get complacent,” Mia said, smiling slyly.

“Oh, shut it,” Lumen said. Kyle could tell from his expression he was enjoying the ribbing. “You’d have gotten hit in the face too if you had aggro, like a good front line’s supposed to.”

“I’m an assassin, not a tank. Not like it’s my job to cover for an archer who’s too lazy to dodge.” Mia was complaining as usual, but there was something different about her demeanor. She was smiling.

She respected Lumen, Kyle thought. Like a peer. He wasn’t somebody that needed to be shepherded along.

“Okay, Okay, fine. We’ll find you a tank, ‘kay? Somebody that’ll…” Lumen trailed off as Mason approached from the far end of the room. “I mean…”, Lumen stammered. He started awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

“How’s the crystal?” Mason asked.

“Unguarded,” Mia said, smirking.

“We’ve not touched it yet,” said Lumen. “It made sense to have other people around as we level up.”

Mason nodded, and walked past them up the tunnel without another word.

“What’s with him? He’s acting cranky,” asked Mia.

“I’d be too if I were at a third HP,” Kyle said.

Mia’s good humor evaporated, and her familiar eye-roll returned. “Hey dwarf lady. Got any healers in your group?”

“I wish,” Aubrey said. “A couple of us are acolytes, myself included, but our help menus say we need to find ‘holy sites’ to learn spells. We’ve got no clue how to do that.”

“Well, can’t be helped.” Mia shrugged, then turned to follow Mason. The rest of the group started walking as well.

They arrived at the crystal, floating at the center of a rough-hewn circular room. The chamber was bathed with a soft blue glow from the crystal. Crudely constructed wicker and wood furniture lined the sides of the rooms, hinting at the goblin’s prior occupation. No goblin bodies remained; Lumen and Mia must have already taken their stuff. Two chests, somewhat out of place and obviously meant to be noticed, sat open and empty in the back of the room.

“What was in those?” Aubrey asked. “We never dared open them; we were nervous it would change the way the goblins acted.”

“Not much,” Mia said. “Silver. A couple of steel weapons. A scroll, I guess? Can’t read it. Some pots.”

“What’s pottery used for in this game?” Aubrey asked.

“She mean potions,” Kyle said.

Mia sighed.

“Healing potions, you mean? Give one to Mason,” Aubrey said. “He’s in the most pain right now.”

“No,” Mia said fiercely. “This is the only time we’ve found restoratives. These are for combat healing only. We’re not going to waste these just because Mason’s acting like a baby.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Mason said, cutting off an objection from Aubrey. “Keep them. I’ll live.” His eyes stayed narrowed, though.

“Can I touch the crystal first?” Lumen asked, eying the crystal excitedly. “We fought the goblins, after all.”

* * *

At last, it was Kyle’s turn, and he entered the blue glowing spirit-form menu. He was first given a choice of stat to level up. Kyle realized he might be acting like a bit of a pansy, but he took resilience again and breathed a sigh of relief as the pain immediately subsided.

Next, he was given the option to either pick a new skill or upgrade one of his existing skills. That gave him pause for thought.

There were plenty of skills the town was missing. He knew of at least a half-dozen skills they already lamented lacking. But on the other hand, they were building a city, and cities were formed around the concept of division of labor. It made sense to specialize, right? So maybe he should just keep upgrading spellcraft?

But then, if Aubrey’s group was any indication, the people arriving at the city might already have a level or two under their belts when they arrive. That was a problem. Kyle assumed there must be a way to unlearn skills and reallocate their levels, but he certainly didn’t know what it was. And until they discovered such a way (assuming it existed) new arrivals would be locked into whatever they thought was a useful skill at the time. They might not be able to have a specialist in every role.

So Kyle looked at the list again, this time trying to think of what might be useful, but would be overlooked by an eager new player. If he had to prioritize, what would be his fourth choice be? His fifth? What would he be willing to put skill points in “when he got around to it,” but not before?

He found a likely candidate and picked it.

* * *

Kyle lost his footing again as he landed, falling to his knees and grinning.

“So what’d you take?” asked Lumen, helping him to his feet.

“Cartography,” Kyle said, beaming mischievously.

“Map making?” Mia said, narrowing her eyes. “Of all the useless…”

“Don’t laugh, Mia,” Kyle said. “I’ve got a minimap now.” He pointed to his upper-right, where a small overhead silhouette map of the cave now floated in his interface.

Mia’s eyes went wide. “No —-, really!?”