Myrin emerged from the jungle first, but had about ten monsters right on her tail and a basically-empty hit point bar. Kaldalis - and a handful of other adventurers who were coming and going around the town gate - helped her clean them up.

“Kinda irresponsible,” Kaldalis observed once the last geotops was down. “Dragging a bunch of enemies with you at every turn.”

“Coulda been worse,” Myrin chirped with a big smile. “I had twenty others that leashed on the way here.”

“There’s probably better options for overland travel, though,” Kaldalis said, crossing his arms.

“Oh definitely,” Myrin agreed. “But Aggressive has practically no cooldown and the speed boost is insane with the multiplier. It just needs a target. I did beat the others here, after all.”

“And you need perfect play,” Kaldalis said, gesturing towards her HP bar. It had partially refilled now, but when she’d arrived she had exactly two hit points left. “And help when you reach your destination.”

Myrin nodded, but in a jovial way that said she didn’t give a shit about her HP. “Yeah, but the HP cost rounds down.” Myrin joined Kaldalis as they went back to the gate to wait for the others. “Once I get below three HP, the cost is rounded down to zero. Just need to charge mobs one after the other.”

He debated trying to make her see how that wasn’t a good thing, but just decided to drop it.

The pair only waited only a minute more before Courbois emerged from the treeline, with Reno only a few seconds behind. Reno got her dash cooldown up again during the run and managed to just barely beat Courbois through the clearing between the treeline and the town wall.

“Ha!” Reno said, sagging against the wall and gasping for breath. “A winner is me.”

“Congrats on your bronze medal,” Myrin said with a grin.

“Fuck you,” Reno said, catching her breath quickly. “You cheated somehow.”

“Spear imba,” Kaldalis said, “not gonna disagree there. I just get to ignore everything and fly.” He gestured down at Myrin. “And this one showed up with no hit points and a dozen monsters chasing close behind.”

“I don’t think it’s imbalanced,” Courbois said when she caught up. She didn’t seem quite as exhausted as Reno, but her chest was still heaving as she caught her breath. “It's a variance of application. Augmented Jump is gonna be shit in combat, but it’s great overland. Dash is obviously the best combat mobility even without the Augment, but it’s a little bit slower over long distances.”

“Bullshit,” Reno said. “Beat you, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but I fucked up and let you catch up.” Courbois laughed. “If I’d been burning Augment on cooldown, I’d have been a mile ahead instead of just barely behind.”

“How was the staff?” Kaldalis asked, genuinely interested.

“It’s unreal,” Courbois said, drawing her weapon and giving a gentle whirl. “Baseline Acrobatics lets me move around obstacles with ease, but Augmented? I literally pass through vines and brush like a mist. It more than makes up for the slower speed multiplier compared to Dash.” She put her weapon away. “Staff seems to be the balance between overland and in-combat, if you ask me. Not the best for either, but not useless for either.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Myrin said, turning her nose up. “I got here first - after Kaldalis - and I get to move faster in combat in the only direction that matters. Greatsword clearly best sword.”

Kaldalis rolled his eyes. “If you all are done, I’m gonna get some fishing in. Getting to level fourteen means that I need to get my skill capped again.”

“Ooh,” Reno said, “I can cap my cooking now, too. I got a bunch of shellfish parts from the dungeon that should get me the rest of the way there.”

“I should catch up on my fishing, too,” Myrin grumbled.

“Sooner is better,” Kaldalis said, gesturing towards the beach with a jerk of his head. “Once Balrim and Ess get back here, we’re probably going to be making our next plans.”

Courbois and Reno broke away and headed to the crafting center as Kaldalis and Myrin headed to the beach. The floating dock was still in an unsound state, so they had to fish from the shore if they wanted to be safe.

Kaldalis tossed his line in the ocean, and tried to concentrate on fishing. Now that he was no longer distracted by the dungeon, he wanted to avoid thinking too hard about what responsibilities might arise next. He found himself envying Myrin, who seemed perfectly content to go with the flow, taking very little responsibility for what went on in the world around her.

“So what’s eating you?” Myrin asked as their first casts vanished into the ocean.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re grumpy,” Myrin observed.

“And you have to ask why?” Kaldalis said, more harshly than he intended.

Myrin pursed her lips, but didn’t disagree. After Kaldalis didn’t say anything for a long moment, she supplied the reason for her own confirmation. “Voker.”

“Yeah.”

Something caught Kaldalis’s line, and he focused on reeling the fish in instead of worrying about what he was going to say next. Another Pale Perch on his count improved his mood, even if it didn’t do anything to help the situation.

“He just doesn’t seem to care,” Kaldalis said, once his line was back out. “That’s what bothers me the most.”

Myrin made a grunt of acknowledgement but something caught her line. He fell silent to let her focus on the minigame. After a minute, she produced another Pale Perch. She tossed it to him immediately.

“Everyone knows he almost got us all killed,” Myrin said as she cast her line back out. “Along with the other assholes. Sure, it sucks that we didn’t get to build the World First dynasty Balrim wanted, but at least we won’t go down in history as the fuckers who nearly destroyed Panbu because we couldn’t keep it in our pants for more than a few hours.”

“He doesn’t care, though,” Kaldalis said, gesturing angrily with a free hand. “That’s the whole problem. He knows he brought us to the brink of disaster. He knows everyone thinks he’s a douche. But he has zero fucking remorse. Not even the slightest hint of wanting to curb that recklessness.”

“The same recklessness that cost us Haldir,” Myrin said quietly.

They both fell silent and stewed on that for a long time. Myrin caught two fish and Kaldalis reeled in three before they spoke again.

“You turned it all around, though,” Myrin said. Kaldalis was glad for the change in topic. Even the extended silence wasn’t helping take his mind off of what Voker had done. “Panbu is a town, and we didn’t have to sit on our hands for three weeks. All our usual activities are back on the menu.”

“I just wish I weren’t out of the loop here,” Kaldalis admitted. He held up his free hand and counted out on his fingers. “Garyung took my advice to heart and has been too busy handling shit himself to talk to me, and I ran through all my goodwill with the Panbu council getting the upgrade done. Maybe Kensah and Demriv might like me enough to get my foot back in the door on their next steps, but I think I’m out in the cold now.”

“Not entirely in the cold,” Myrin said with a smirk. “You have your sailor friend, right?”

Kaldalis tried to suppress his embarrassment, but his cheeks heated up from indigo to a deep purple in a second.

Myrin’s smirk didn’t leave her face, but at least she didn’t burst out laughing at him.

“I just don’t know what to do next,” Kaldalis continued, hoping he could keep the discussion from turning towards Heluna. “I want to push the plotline forward out here, but what’s the next step? Another town that nobody wants to bankroll? Another Infernal Horde base that nobody is ready to attack? A third dungeon when only ten people have run the second?”

“You’ve got the run of the whole island,” Myrin said with a shrug. “You could go anywhere with a handful of potions, your Jump cooldown, and Nyxlas’ Augment.”

“Maybe,” Kaldalis said. “But why? Just to run around? See what’s out there?” He shook his head. “If that progresses the plot, it’ll be like uncovering the dungeon early. It’ll thrust overleveled enemies at us without warning, putting everyone’s lives in danger.”

Myrin shrugged. A fish caught her line, and apparently had a significant fight to it, nearly yanking her out into the water. Kaldalis almost dropped his own rod to help her, but she got her footing quickly, focused on reeling in her catch. He kept an eye on her in case it gave another big pull, but the physical might of a DPS class seemed to give her an advantage, just like being a tank gave him significantly more stamina.

Kaldalis was distracted by another catch of his own while she finished reeling in hers. It was an easier fish, and so he devoted his brainpower to considering what might push the plot forward. There was no obvious next step. The only thing he could think was that it would be a couple of days before Cerh’s reinforcements arrived. He could spend some time trying to cozy up to the council again. Demriv had given him eyes in a way that made him uncomfortable, but if establishing friendly contact with her could get him in on whatever the Kingdom of Zara was doing next.

He was so concerned with trying to figure out how to chat up Demriv in a way that wouldn’t get him in trouble with Heluna that he didn’t notice the messenger behind him until he finished reeling in the fish.

“Kaldalis?” the kid asked. They were a very short yellow-scaled Talsar, clearly too young to be an adventurer.

“Yeah,” Kaldalis said, tentatively putting his fishing rod away. “What’s up?”

“Message for you,” the kid said, holding out a sealed envelope. “Right from Garyung’s hands to yours.”

Kaldalis looked over and saw that there was a longboat pulled up on the sand on the other side of the rickety dock, a single sailor leaning against the prow, watching the messenger. Apparently the message had been so important that they hadn’t waited to load up a boat with supplies, or even other passengers. Considering how close the sun was getting to the horizon, his curiosity started to turn to concern.

“Thanks, kid,” Kaldalis said, accepting the letter. He reached into his purse and flicked the kid a four-crescent coin.

The kid snatched it out of the air with a serrated-toothed grin. “Thanks, sir!” he chirped, bolting away for Panbu before Kaldalis could change his mind about the sizable tip.

Kaldalis examined the letter. On the front of the envelope there were clear instructions in sloppy writing that it was to be delivered personally to Kaldalis, and not to change hands before being received.

“Whatcha got?” Myrin said, shoving the giant fish she’d caught into her inventory.

“I’ve got mail,” Kaldalis said, flipping the envelope back over and breaking the seal. “From Garyung.”

“What’s it say?” she asked, putting her own fishing rod away.

He opened the envelope, finding a neatly tri-folded sheet of paper inside. Unfolding it revealed that the page was blank, but for a single four-letter word.

“Help.”