There are many different words that you could use to describe Deepmine town, but at the end of the day, I think “dump” is probably the best one.

However, I like to think that we at least left it better off than we found it.

---

When the party was getting ready the next morning, I couldn’t help but tease Sam a bit.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty!” I cheerfully called to the exhausted [Sorceress].

She immediately stiffened but then relaxed with a mischievous look in her eye. “Oh, nicknames? Good idea! Let’s see, what was Megan’s nickname for you again?” she said with a thoughtful look on her face.

My eyes widened. “Truce?”

“A truce? For what?” she gasped. “But nicknames are so fun.”

After several minutes of pleading, while a confused party looked on, Sam relented.

Little sisters can be scary. I shuddered.

Either way, Sam was definitely doing better than the previous night. Either that or she just had her façade back in place. I wasn’t quite sure, but I didn’t get a chance to discuss it with her until that night.

“So, how are you holding up?” I asked her after the rest of the party headed to bed.

“I’m doing better,” she replied. “Still not used to my thoughts tripping over themselves every time I think something negative about myself.” She gave me a look. “And I’m assuming you aren’t going to take back the duel.”

I shook my head. “Nope. I don’t want to have to beat you up.”

She snickered. “Fair enough.”

We had a bit of an awkward pause there, so I followed up. “Have you talked with Garrett about the whole… Age thing?”

She deflated a bit. “No. You think I should?”

I shrugged. “Maybe? I thought just talking it out was good advice, but I have next to no actual relationship experience.”

“Did you not date anyone back on Earth?”

I paused and thought about it. “I don’t think so. If I did, I guess I don’t remember.”

“Oof,” she replied. “And then you get here and date Megan of all people.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you have against Megan?”

“Besides the fact that she’s a convicted thief?” Sam asked.

“I thought everyone kinda forgave her for that,” I said.

“Only because of the stupid prophecy. And even besides that, she’s antisocial and barely interacts with the party, she spends most of her time [Sneaking] around which is kinda shady, and her class is kinda useless.” She shook her head. “But why am I explaining this to you? I mean, you broke up with her, so you must understand her issues, right?”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Why does everyone keep thinking I broke up with her?”

Sam looked poleaxed. “Wait, wait, wait. She broke up with you?”

“Yes! What does everyone think the whole ‘I need to talk to Titus alone’ bit was back at the swamp?”

Sam thought back. “Wait… That beach! That was right after you almost died, wasn’t it?” She fumed. “Prophecy or no, she needs to go.”

I grabbed her arm before she could storm off and conduct a witch hunt right then and there. “Sam. It’s fine.” She almost pulled away from me. “Wait. Please. The prophecy said it needs all of us, right? It’s not worth risking that just over my feelings.”

Sam huffed and turned back. “Fine. Wait…” She gave me a scrutinizing look that turned into one of recognition. “You still like her, don’t you?”

Amount of experience being questioned and lying about the true nature of my class: A ton.

Amount of experience being questioned and lying about my love life: Zero.

“Wha-aa? No. Of course not!” I stammered.

She, of course, didn’t buy it for a second and groaned. “What do you even see in her?”

“Well, what do you even see in Garrett?” I shot back.

She didn’t even hesitate a beat. “He’s kind. He’s tall. He’s strong. He’s also incredibly hot.”

I snorted. “Hot, huh?”

Sam nodded. “The two saddest moments in this party’s time together were the passing of David Junior the first,” she gave a brief bow, “may he rest in peace,” she looked off into the distance, “and the day Garrett finally had enough perk points to be able to put on a shirt.”

“Wow,” I said with mock offense. “My near-death experiences don’t even rate?”

She shook her head. “You got better.” She gave a forlorn look off into the distance. “David Junior and those shredded abs have never been seen since.”

She kept it up for a full three seconds before both of us burst into laughter.

“I’m serious, though,” Sam said when we finally regained control of ourselves. “Why her?”

Sam made me start to second guess the feelings I had for our party’s [Thief], and I began to think through them. I didn’t get far. It turns out that I had a bunch of repressed emotions and memories that I would rather not think about, so I cut my introspection short. “I don’t know. I just like her, I guess?” I shrugged.

She just looked at me for a few seconds. “Well, no offense, but I think you have awful taste.”

We chatted a bit more after that, but soon enough, she headed off to bed.

After that final bit of drama, the rest of our trip through the newly named Starry Forest was uneventful. The party enjoyed catching up on their sleep since they didn’t need a watch, and I spent my extra time practicing kicks.

We also put in a lot of time trying to get Sam an achievement related to duels (after I ensured that she couldn’t set any more draw conditions), but I finally called it quits when she was up to 1000 wins. I figured (correctly) that if she didn’t get an achievement from that, there simply wasn’t one.

It was early morning, a few days later, when we were finally back in the wilderness zone. There were some mild complaints that a watch would be needed again, but they ended up being silenced when we crested a hill and saw our destination.

It was hardly a place that you could call impressive, but the majority of the time that we had spent in civilized lands had been in the most rural village of the Vir Kingdom.

We found ourselves looking across a small town off in the distance. It had a few sections with some closely packed houses, a cobblestone-paved central square with a dark-blue obelisk, an area that looked like a market district, and then a walled-off manor that sat by itself and looked a bit more… Opulent… than the rest of it.

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. “There it is! Deepmine Town. I hope we can get a map and some better transportation.”

“I’d settle for some more food. Our stock’s running low, and I’d hate to have to make dark wolf soup again,” Garrett replied.

Jake nodded with a grimace. “Yeah, we should get that too.”

“I’m also running low on arrows,” Emilia commented.

“Oh. Definitely need those then.”

“And I can’t wait to sleep in a bed again!” Sam added.

“We shouldn’t stay longer than…” Jake trailed off as Sam and Emilia gave him a look. He sighed. “Alright, I guess we can stock up and stay the night then.” He looked around at the party. “We can split up and then meet at whatever inn Sam finds for us to stay in?”

There was no dissent from the party, so Jake nodded.

“Alright, we’ll do that when we get to town.” He smirked. “Race you all there!”

He took off sprinting down the hill with me following behind him a second later. “Not fair!” I called out.

He didn’t reply, though I could imagine the grin on his face even though he was facing away from me.

After another second or two, Sam and Garrett joined in on the race. The rest of the party was… Not as enthusiastic.

However, I wasn’t worried about them. I was more concerned with trying to catch the [Hero] that had gotten a head start.

We both pushed ourselves as fast as we could go. However, I was neither gaining on him, nor losing him. Shouldn’t he be faster than me since he has 3 more levels? I tabled that thought because we were getting close to the start of the street, and I knew I was going to lose.

Then I had an idea. I planted a foot and did it immediately.

An [Air Strike]. 3 SP.

A [Summon Dave]. 50 MP.

The look on the [Hero’s] face when a slime blob careened into his ankles and forced him into a faceplant and tumble? Priceless.

I passed the tumbling savior of the world and made it to the street first.

System: Zone entered, Deepmine Town. Faction - Vir

“Hahahaha! You are too late [Hero]!” I said with my best over-the-top villain voice.

“You cheated!” Jake called back.

“Of course, [Hero]! Why should a demon play fair?”

Jake pulled out his sword, and my eyes widened. However, he responded with his own campy over-acting voice. “Then, have at thee vile fiend!”

He made a lazy chop at me that I easily dodged, and I internally breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s like I said, [Hero]. I have already won! First this Deepmine Town, and then the world!”

“Not if I defeat you with the power of friendship!” With that, Jake looked over at Garrett, who was standing there shaking his head.

I looked over there as well, and as I did, Jake lightly placed (you couldn’t really call it a thrust) his sword in between my left arm and my chest.

I looked down at the sword, then back up at Jake, and then I finally realized what he was going for. I clutched the blade to my side with my left arm and staggered backward.

“No! My one true weakness! Being stabbed with sharp objects!” I collapsed to the ground.

Sam finally arrived, holding two daves now, and stood next to Garrett. “You guys are dorks, you know that?”

We both grinned at her sheepishly and noticed that Garrett was still shaking his head. He pointed beyond us. “Sam’s right. You should also let your audience know that everything’s okay.”

“Audience?” Jake and I asked as we turned and looked at the frozen villagers standing a ways away, watching us.

“Uhh, everything’s fine, everyone! We were just.. practicing a play! Nothing to worry about here!” Jake called out as he retrieved his sword and put it away.

The crowd dispersed after that, and we waited for the rest of the party.

“So, the power of friendship is just a distraction so you can stab someone, eh?” I needled Jake.

He snorted. “First Deepmine Town, and then the world?”

“Touche.” We waited in silence for a bit, and I eventually looked over at Sam and her two daves. “Did you really need to collect the second one?” I asked.

“Well, someone just left this poor little guy sitting all alone,” she said while gesturing to the dave in her left hand. “So, of course, I had to rescue him.”

This could become a problem if she keeps collecting them. Sorry, Sam. One echoey snap later, and the dave in Sam’s left hand was gone.

“Noooo!” she cried out. “Davis Junior!” She glared at me.

I studiously ignored her until the rest of the party joined us.

With everyone there, we began walking into town and discussing what we were going to do. Sam and Lindsey were going to look for lodging. Emilia was heading to the market district to find arrows, so Garrett decided to join her and stock up on food.

Our discussion was interrupted, though, when a group of kids in ragged clothes ran into our party. Literally.

A few things immediately felt off to me. The first was that somehow exactly one kid ran into each of us. The second was that the kid who ran into me looked like he was going to pee himself in terror, but the delay in that reaction meant that it wasn’t actually my appearance that scared him.

In other words, it felt awfully familiar, and it only took me a second to remember where I had seen a similar scenario. Megan. In the tutorial. These little brats are [Stealing] from us! I was about to tear into them and alert the party when I got a closer look at them.

It wasn’t just their clothes that were ragged. They were dirty. They were far too thin. They also couldn’t have been older than Tim when he first came over.

My alert to the party died on my lips. I sighed, “Go on. Get out of here.”

The street urchin, or perhaps even [Street Urchin], didn’t need to be told twice and took off.

---

Jake had the worst of it. The kid that ran into him had latched onto his leg and refused to let go.

“Hey kid, can you please let go?” Jake lightly shook his leg, but the young boy kept clinging on. “Your friends have already left, okay? You should probably go catch up with them.”

The boy refused to say anything and just kept clutching Jake’s leg.

Jake looked over at Garrett for help, but Garrett just held up his hands in a helpless gesture.

Then all of a sudden, the boy let go and ran down a nearby alley.

“That was weird,” Jake said. He heard murmurs of agreement from the party and then noticed two notifications.

System: Titus has left the party

System: Megan has left the party

What? What are those two doing? Jake shook his head and noticed they were both nowhere to be found. “Anyone see where Titus and Megan took off to?” Everyone had been too distracted by Jake being under attack to notice, so he eventually just sighed. “Well, when they’re done fooling around, they’ll just have to find their way back on their own. Anyway, Andrew and Tim, unless you have something else you need to pick up, you can help me look for transportation or a map.”

“Unless this town has some form of magic shop, I do not believe I would find anything of interest to myself,” Tim replied.

Jake nodded. “Perfect. And we should have plenty of money to work with after all the monsters we’ve killed.” He flipped open his inventory to check and then froze. “FRICK!” The word he was going for was obviously not that one, but censoring was the least of his worries.

Jake sprinted over to the alley the kid had run down and then sprinted to its end. He looked left and right and didn’t see a sign of anyone. Jake yelled in frustration and decked the wall of a house next to him. Counting the tutorial, that was the second time he had allowed the Hero’s Sword to be stolen from him.

---

However, I hadn’t stuck around for any of that because the next thing I noticed after I let the kid go was that Megan was chasing after them in [Sneak]. I immediately followed after her.

What is she doing? It was a challenge keeping track of her even with [Detect], so I was thankful for the party letting me know where she was. Then I realized something. Wait! She’ll be able to tell that I’m following her!

I quickly dropped out of the party and then realized I might have made a mistake. First, it was now a lot harder to keep track of her. Second, if she was really doing something shady, then that means she would’ve dropped out of the party herself, so I didn’t need to. Third, we had made several twists and turns, and I didn’t exactly have the best sense of direction.

I’m all in now. I grimaced. I had no choice but to follow Megan as she followed the group of youngsters.

The group eventually stopped and looked like they were waiting for something. I think they traded some words, but I was too far away to tell what they were saying. A bit of a wait revealed the last member of their group, who came from a different direction and looked like he had been sprinting the entire way. They traded some more animated words that I wasn’t privy to, and then they looked around before ducking down yet another alley.

Megan and I followed along, and we both watched as they looked left and right before knocking on a door. I was too far away to hear the noise, but I made a mental note of the pattern. 3 knocks, 2 knocks, 3 knocks, and then a final knock.

The door opened, and the kids filed in. Megan also managed to sneak through at the last second before it closed.

I frowned. I went up to put my ear on the door since I wasn’t going to follow inside.

---

Megan wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing. She had known the kids were little thieves from the start of their incredibly obvious play. Why did she let them [Steal] from her, and why was she following after them?

If they have a hideout, I can obviously just liberate a bunch of the stuff they’ve stolen, right? She lied to herself as she followed the kids inside.

Two thugs were standing guard near the entrance, and Megan nearly ran into one of them as she dove to avoid the door being closed on her. She was surprised that wasn’t enough to give her away, but she didn’t worry about it too much. She just lightly brushed herself off and then kept watching.

The kids formed a line and walked up to the person who Megan internally had pegged as the leader. He had scars along his face and carried a wicked-looking whip with him.

One by one, the kids took the gold they had stolen from the party and dropped it into the bag. Until they reached the 8th one, who whispered something Megan couldn’t make out.

The leader whipped the boy, who flinched. “You were caught, and you still came back here!?” He hit the boy, and the boy cried out in pain.

Megan wasn’t sure how many people were in on this operation, but she was moments away from [Backstabbing] the man to death when they heard more knocks on the door.

Everyone paused at the first set of three, then a set of two, the second set of three. Then there was a pause. The guards and leader looked at each other, and one of the guards was moving to the door when the final knock came.

---

I was content listening in until I heard the crack of a whip and a child yelling in pain. I wasn’t sure what was beyond the door, but the fact that we were in a shady alley and children were being hurt inside meant I assumed the worst.

Thinking quickly, I started knocking on the door in the same sequence that the kid had done earlier. However, I paused before giving the final one.

I really hope the kids are out of the way.

For my final knock, I kicked the door in with an [Earth Strike].

As I entered the room, I tried to take in as much about it as I could.

My eyes passed over the door and the adult form struggling underneath it. They also glanced over another brute holding a shortsword. My eyes landed on the line of terrified children leading to a man holding a bag of gold and a wicked-looking whip. It was about there that my rational thoughts fled.

I quickly threw a [Fire Strike] empowered elbow into the sword-wielding thug that came from my side, and then I sprinted at the one holding the whip.

He panicked and tried to whip me. I let him hit me, wrapped the cord around my left arm, and pulled him to me. My fist collided with his face, and I sent him to the ground. Why was that one not empowered? Because I was beyond livid, and I wasn’t done with him yet.

I hauled him to his feet, punched him in the gut, and then picked him up by the throat. He was trembling in terror. “How does it feel to be the powerless one?” I snarled.

I slammed him into the wall, and he briefly cried out, “Guards!”

I was this close to activating wrath form or killing the man on the spot when I heard whimpering behind me. I turned and looked at the terrified group of kids who were huddled together and looking at me like I was a monster.

My anger fled, and I set the man back on the floor roughly.

Meanwhile, 4 more men poured in from the basement room, and they each pulled out short swords.

I rushed them, and my first thought was. They’re so slow. I dodged the first man’s slash and landed an uppercut on him that lifted him off his feet. The next two came at me simultaneously, and one attacked high while the other went low. I pressed the attack. I didn’t care about the damage coming my way and decked the right one in the face and hit the second with a kick that launched him across the room. And that was without an [Air Strike] tacked on.

The fourth man dropped his sword and surrendered, and I gave him a brief nod. However, a part of me was slightly worried. If they’re that weak… Did my [Fire Strike] kill the guy at the door?

I didn’t have long to worry about that, though.

“Not another move!” came a shout from behind me.

I momentarily regretted not killing the leader when I had the chance because he had the boy in a headlock with a knife pointed at his side.

I was initially the most confused about the placement of the knife since it wasn’t near anything vital, but then I had to shake that thought away. In Placeholder, everywhere was vital.

“He’s low on HP. You think he can survive this?” the leader called again. “Back down, or he gets it!”

I stood still and tried to think of a way out of the situation. Meanwhile, the 4 men I just fought regained their feet and their weapons, and the one under the door did as well.

I was stuck. I could easily take on everyone in the room, but the kids were sure to become casualties. I slowly raised my hands in surrender.

“That’s right!” the leader laughed. Then he suddenly froze.

The leader collapsed to the floor with a knife in his back as Megan appeared behind him.

I gave her a quick nod and then turned and glared at the men behind me. They all immediately dropped their weapons.

After that, Megan confiscated their weapons, gave a drop of health potion to the leader and the guy I [Fire Striked] (that one attack had in fact been enough to drop him to negatives), and we rounded them up while wondering what to do with them.

It didn’t help that the kids had seemingly got over their fear of me and were crowding and hanging off me.

“Are your horns real!?”

“Why do you have red eyes!?”

“How did you get so strong!? Can I become that strong?”

Meanwhile, I was terrified of moving around them because if the adults were that weak, that meant the kids had to have even less HP. It didn’t help matters that even my vague memories of Earth told me that I was definitely not good with kids.

“Please get down,” I softly asked one of the more adventurous ones that was climbing up the front of my body. He even ended up accidentally kicking me in the groin, and I winced before remembering that it didn’t actually matter.

Megan seemed content to just watch my misfortune even though I knew she could understand my silent pleas for help.

“Can we go get the others?” one of them finally asked.

That caught my attention. “Others?” I asked.

“Yeah! They’re downstairs!”

“Uhh, sure.” I sent another glare at the captured men. “Lead the way.”

They jumped to their feet and looked even more skittish than before.

I quickly found out why. The men lead us downstairs to a squalid prison. The moment I saw the conditions and the gaunt faces of the kids behind those bars, I almost snapped. If Megan hadn’t been there to place a calming hand on me, I would have undoubtedly gone into wrath form then and there.

We let the kids out, and I slowly drug the story out of the men that were present. If the kids hadn’t insisted on sticking around and clinging to me, it was also likely that I would have ended up beating the story out of them.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to try very hard to interrogate them because they were still absolutely terrified of me.

The information they gave me was piecemeal, but I eventually put the story together.

Deepmine was, as you could probably guess, a mining town. They had one of the most productive mines in all of Vir, in fact. However, that all changed when the adventurers were brought over. They talked about how the mine suddenly started having hordes of black spiders with poisonous bites that simply disappeared when you killed them.

I didn’t bother informing them that their mine had become a dungeon and just continued listening.

After their town’s most crucial industry became too dangerous, they started losing money. People were out of work, and the local [Lord] was doing nothing about it. Soon gangs began taking over. People who couldn’t pay “protection” were separated from their children and forced to work in the mines while the kids were put to work, thieving on the streets.

After listening to their story, I stuffed them in the very same cells that they had used on the kids. Yes, it was cramped. No, I didn’t care.

I somehow convinced the kids to leave Megan and me alone for a few minutes and head upstairs.

“Well, partner,” I whispered to her. “Want to take down a crime ring?”

“I’m not your partner,” she snapped. Her gaze hardened, but I could tell it wasn’t at me. “But yes, those scumbags all need to go down.”

We had a whispered discussion about what to do next and concluded that we would rather not involve the rest of the party. What we were planning on doing was probably 10 kinds of illegal, and we didn’t want to risk one of our party members insisting we go to the proper authorities.

However, our whispered discussion was interrupted when one of the kids opened the door to the basement and poked his head around. “Uh, Mister?” he said tentatively.

“Yes?” I asked.

Emboldened, he opened the door fully, and all the kids followed him back into the room. “You’re really strong. Can you please save our parents?”

I nodded. “Of course.” I had a thought. “What if I could even make the mine safe for your town again?”

His eyes widened. “You can do that!? Yes, please, mister!”

I was about to reply when I got a surprise.

System: Quest offered. “Save Deepmine Town!”

Quest details - A dungeon has made the town’s mines unsafe to work and caused a criminal underworld to take over. The youth of the town beg you to reclaim the mines and free everyone from the criminals

Reward: None

Decline/Failure: None

I squatted down to look the boy in the eye. “Of course.”

System: Quest Accepted

“However,” I continued. “I’ll need my other friends to help with the mines.”

One of the kids immediately went as white as a sheet.

“Something the matter?” I asked him.

“Your friend was the one with the fancy sword, right?”

I nodded. “Yup. I’d like one of you to find him and tell the party to meet up at the mines tonight. Think you’re up for it?”

“I can’t,” the kid replied and started trembling.

“Why not?”

He didn’t respond but instead pulled a very familiar sword out of his inventory. It was too heavy for him to hold correctly, and the point immediately fell to the floor before the rest of it phased out of his hand.

It clattered to the floor, and I stared at it for a few seconds. The kid was probably terrified of what I would do next, but I immediately bust up laughing. “Oh, [Hero]. You have to pay more attention, man,” I said with a shake of my head.

The kid was relieved that I wasn’t mad and volunteered to find Jake and give him a message from us. The message mostly boiled down to “have the party meet us at the mine tonight after you’re finished shopping.” We also gave the kid instructions for what to say in case Jake didn’t believe him. Primarily that “Titus said he found trouble again,” and that “Megan said the kid was just adding to his resume.” We set the meeting time for night because Megan and I knew we had a long day ahead of us.

After that, we had some of the kids go fetch the town guard, not that we were sticking around to see what they had to say.

I also sent Megan a quick party invite. We couldn’t rejoin the actual party, and we didn’t have Jake’s fancy perk that would let us communicate through it, but it allowed us to see each other’s resources and helped me know where she was when she was [Sneaking].

Then we took the leader out of the cell. His job was to show us their other holding cells, a job he agreed to a bit too readily. After that, we walked together with the thug held at knifepoint. Not that it would look like that to any observers since Megan was effectively invisible to them, but we barely encountered anyone in the slums that we were walking through anyway.

The man was much less concerned than I expected him to be, and I also caught him making gestures that he thought were subtle to some of the few people we saw. Either way, I knew we were almost certainly walking into a trap. However, given their showing earlier, I was hardly afraid of any type of trap they could throw at us.

Soon enough, we were there in another alley with another door and another sequence of knocks. The door opened, we followed him inside, and then it shut behind us.

Inside were around a dozen men armed with short swords and daggers. However, the one that caught my eye was a shirtless thug who was hefting a two-handed axe. The rat who was functioning as our guide immediately bolted for him, and he made it out of Megan’s reach before she could respond.

“Boss!” he called. “These two have been causing problems!”

The “boss” snorted. “You gone blind? That’s just one guy.” He looked at me, and recognition came to his face. “Wait… You’re that guy from the tutorial! The one that could only punch things!” He looked at his underling. “This guy’s been causing you problems? Ha! Don’t waste my time.”

An adventurer? This guy could actually be a problem. “[Identify],” I cast. Level 6. Really? I frowned. “You’re not much of a boss. Maybe more of a miniboss?”

The man scowled at that. “Big talk from someone who can’t even use a weapon.”

I shrugged. “Well, I won’t even need one for all of you.” I turned to the invisible woman next to me. “Watch the door, would you, Megan? I don’t want any of them getting away.”

“What are you waiting for?” the boss called out. “Get ‘im!”

The men all charged me at once, and I simply stood still as they all landed a stab or a slash on me. I nonchalantly opened my status. “Wow, almost a quarter of my health. Too bad it’s my turn now.”

I kicked one of the men across the room, grabbed another by the arm, and threw him bodily into two more. The others recovered and tried to attack again, but I maneuvered around them, so they were in each other’s way.

That was finally enough for the boss, or as I guessed the [Berserker], to get involved. He ran forward and gave a mighty two-handed strike that I easily sidestepped. Then, I grinned. I was finally against someone I could use skills on.

I peppered him with [Earth Strikes] and kicked one of the mooks behind me that tried to get me while I was distracted. The bit of stagger made the boss’ next swing even easier to dodge, and I went under it and hit him twice more.

The others were still coming at me from behind, so I dodged the next wild swing, maneuvered around behind the [Berserker], and [Air Strike] kicked him into his lackeys. I was on top of him before he could get up. I had my fist cocked back and ready for a [Fire Strike]. “Give up yet?”

The man was too terrified to respond, and his lackeys tried to make a break for it. They approached the door, and Megan chose that moment to come out of [Sneak]. She slashed one of them in the arm with her knife, and they jumped back from her like she was a ghost.

That was the end of their resistance, so we rounded them up.

We freed the captives that were in that place’s basement and once again locked the thugs up in their own cells.

However, that was only the start of a long day. By the time nightfall hit, we had gone on more than half a dozen raids. Fortunately, the remaining thugs swore up and down that that was the last of them. We also heard that the actual town guard was starting to round up the criminals and lock them up in a real prison, though I imagined they would be at capacity pretty soon.

I was just grateful that was over because Megan and I were both exhausted. From an SP standpoint, we both were still okay. We had made sure to take breaks throughout the day since nothing was more stupid than dying due to lack of stamina. However, seeing the conditions that all the people, especially the children, had been put in took its toll.

We made our way to the mines silently, and I was starting to regret trying to save an entire town in a single day.

I looked over at the weary [Thief] and said, “Thanks for your help, Megan. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She snorted. “You obviously could have. I barely had to fight.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have even thought to follow those kids without you, and I doubt any of that would have gone so smoothly. So, I mean it. Thank you.”

There was a pause for a few seconds, and then she replied softly. “You’re welcome.”

We walked a bit more in awkward silence before I spoke again. “So, are you still planning on stealing from the party after this is all over?”

She sighed. “Yes, Titus. That’s still the plan.”

I digested that for a bit. “Why?”

“Why?” Megan asked. “Because I’m a [Thief]. That’s what I do.”

I wasn’t buying it. “[Thieves] don’t help break up crime rings and save a town, but that’s what you just did today.”

“That’s different.”

“How is that different?”

“Because no kid should have to go through that!” she snapped at me.

Awkward silence descended for a bit before I broke it again. “After you steal from the party, then what?”

“I retire to a life of luxury,” she deadpanned.

I stopped, and she did too after a second. “I’m serious. I doubt your kleptomania will just go away, and you’ll also become infamous as the person that stole from the ‘saviors of the world.’ You think you’ll be able to retire after that? Won’t you be chased down? Where would you go that would accept you?”

“I’ll make it work,” she said tersely. “I made it work on Earth. I can make it work here.”

“Bull spit,” I said and winced at the censor. “Earth had billions of people, so of course you could hide. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I would maybe put Placeholder in the millions. Also, in case this didn’t get through to you, people will know it was you.”

She scowled. “Fine, then what would you do in my position?”

I was getting frustrated, and I raised my voice. “Actually, join the party!” I took a few calming breaths before continuing. “Look. AltSys gave you a once in a lifetime out to join the party with his fake prophecy. The party has tolerated you and even helped with your kleptomania. If you actually tried to get along with them, I bet you could actually find your place here.” I snorted. “Heck, I’m the freaking [Demon Lord], and I’ve found a place here.”

“You only have a place because you’ve lied about who you are,” she muttered.

“I’m going to tell them the truth,” I replied. She raised an eyebrow. “After the next dungeon, that way, they’ll know for sure I’m not a threat. I doubt they’ll be happy, but I’m sure I can win them over because they’re reasonable people.” I looked at her. “And more than that, they’re my friends.” I sighed. “And they could be your friends too if you stopped acting like such an antisocial asp.”

“I don’t need friends,” she snapped. “I don’t need friends, I don’t need a party, and I don’t need a partner.” She turned away from me and muttered, “I won’t be betrayed. Not again.”

“If you think anyone in the party would betray you, you’re the biggest idiot I know.”

She left my party, flipped me off (which was censored), and then walked away. “Good luck with the dungeon or whatever.”

I fumed but decided it wasn’t worth going after her. She didn’t typically contribute that much to dungeon clears anyway, so the party would be fine without her.

I made my way to the mines and saw the rest of the party waiting outside a locked gate.

“There you are, Titus!” Jake called out. “We were starting to wonder if you were going to show.”

“Yeah, sorry I’m late,” I replied.

“Megan not with you?”

I shook my head. “We had a long day. She needed a break.”

“Alright,” he replied. A few seconds later, I had a party invite, and I rejoined. “So, what are we doing here anyway?”

“The mine’s a dungeon. We’re clearing it.”

“This late at night?” Jake asked. I nodded. “Look, I’m grateful that you and Megan managed to get my sword back, but the gate’s locked.”

I [Earth Strike] kicked the gate open. “Look, I made a key.” I nodded my head in the direction of the mine. “Let’s go.” I walked towards the mine entrance while the party stood there stunned.

Jake ran after me first. “Titus! You can’t just break and enter!”

“Can, and did. If there’s a fine, send me the bill.” I sent a “follow” command to the rest of the party, and they looked back and forth at each other and then to Jake.

Jake eventually sighed. “Alright, why are you in such a hurry to clear this?”

“Short answer? The dungeon’s killing the town, and you don’t want to waste time on sidequests. If we clear it tonight, you all can get your beauty rest, and we can still leave tomorrow.”

Jake shook his head. “We can’t leave tomorrow. The only transport out of town is the carriages they use to transport the iron, and they said the next shipment won’t be ready for several days.”

That stopped me short. I sighed. “Well, we’re already here. Let’s just speedrun this dungeon and get it over with.”

I stepped inside the mines and was greeted with a message.

System: Zone entered, Deepmine Mines. Faction - Neutral

I convinced the party to go with more of an any% speedrun[1] than a 100% one, so we simply ran past enemies until we got to the boss. That ended up being the right call because all the spiders chasing us gave up as soon as we entered the boss room.

As for the boss itself? It was both the most terrifying one we’ve faced and the most anticlimactic.

It was a giant metal spider named “Iron Spider Matriarch,” and it constantly summoned smaller “iron spiderlings.” The spiderlings themselves were a problem because most of our physical damage couldn’t hurt them. It took a spell, an [Elemental Strike], or Jake’s attacks to take them down.

I was busy keeping the spiderlings off the party while Sam and Tim cleared a path for Jake to the boss.

I was once again disgusted by [Enhanced Party] because Sam was able to split her focus and help Jake and I both out. She was able to precisely target the spiderlings Jake or I needed the most help with, and we didn’t even have to worry about friendly fire because we both knew exactly where she was aiming.

So how was a boss that was literally made of metal anticlimactic?

Jake literally one-shot it.

He charged up his [Sunder], and I saw a third of his SP go down with a single thunderclap. At the same time, the boss’ HP bar went to empty.

I stood there staring at Jake for a moment, but my envy was interrupted by a spiderling that jumped on my shoulder and bit me.

I quickly crushed it with a [Fire Strike] and called out to Jake, “Have I mentioned that your class is BS?”

“Once or twice!” Jake called back.

We mopped up the remaining spiderlings, and Jake claimed the obelisk.

As he did, I got a system message.

System: Quest completed. “Save Deepmine Town!”

System: New Achievement. Quester. Class Perk Points Gained 1

I breathed a sigh of relief. What a long day.

[1] Any%/100% speedrun – Speedruns are when people compete to have the quickest time completing a game. Any% ones mean that you basically use any glitches possible to skip as much of the game as you can. 100% means that you have to complete the entire game.