A hard pounding on the door woke Ethan with a jolt. He could feel his heart racing and he panicked. He’d been deep asleep and to be woken so suddenly he wasn’t sure where he was or what was going on.

“Ethan!?” A familiar voice called at him through the solid wooden door. “You awake?”

“Y-yeah.” His entire body felt on edge, so deeply he’d been asleep. “What’s up?”

His eyes darted around the small bedroom as he tried to steady himself. His lips felt chapped and he wiped dried drool off his cheek.

How long was I asleep? He thought, still struggling to make sense of what was happening.

“Okay, Sam’s here and we’re ready for the meeting.” The voice called back to him, he finally realized it was David who was waking him up. “You coming?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah,” he paused, trying to shake the grogginess “I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Cool. We’re waiting on you.”

Ethan scrambled to get ready, strapping and lacing his armor on as quickly as he could. He was halfway out the door when he realized he’d forgotten his weapon. Frantically he searched his room for the missing axe. As he was about to lift his bed off the ground he remembered he’d stored it in his inventory before lunch.

Sighing, he motioned in the air to withdraw it but stopped. No one was expecting him to have such a powerful weapon at this level. If he went down stairs with it equipped, the frosty mist would be a dead give away to what he had. He smiled to himself as he left the axe in his bags.

After a quick stop to rinse his face, he descended the stairs. The fringes of his hair was still dripping water as he approached his friends and guild mates.

Their living area was arranged around a low table, three couches and a comfortable armchair completed the square. Usually, any spot was up for grabs but when they had meetings Ethan always ended up by himself in the chair.

He took his usual place and surveyed the group, noticing that everyone had upgraded as best they could in Grassmere.

David was immediately to his left sitting awkwardly. As a paladin, he wore polished plate armor that made him look even bigger. Ethen knew his posture was from the heavy metal making it hard to sit comfortably. A short sword lay on top of a wood and metal buckler in front of him, taking up most of the small table. Miguel sat next to him wearing the same white robe Ethan had seen him in earlier the day. His staff was resting between them and a Libram was in his lap.

Tae-Won was on the next couch with Leah. He wore tight grey and brown leathers that covered everything from his neck down except for his fingers. A belt of small throwing knives crossed his chest and Ethan could see the handles of daggers resting in his lap. She’d come across a brown sleeveless tunic and a woven skirt. Her arms were covered in faint green tattoos, a mark of nature magic that would flare brighter as she leveled and when she cast spells. Leather bracers covered her entire forearms but she wore no gloves. Ethan noticed she’d managed to find a pair of leather boots, probably her first purchase when she’d gotten into Grassmere.

Sam and Daniel, on the other hand, stood out though. Where everyone else wore muted colors, Sam immediately caught his eye in a jet black shirt and pants with a blood red sleeveless robe that he wore open. A curved dirk sat between him and Daniel as he idly browsed a large spell book. He had indeed gotten a haircut, opting to go clean shaven.

Daniel just looked casual. Simple leather pants and a cloth shirt and boots were all he wore. No weapon was anywhere near him. I guess that’s what a Blacksmith wears.

With the exception of Daniel, they looked like they were ready for a fight and not a meeting.

“About time you got he-OOF” Miguel started in a joking tone before David smacked him in the gut with a heavy gauntlet.

“Yeah, I overslept a little. Sorry about that.” Ethan apologized to his guild.

“Let’s just get into it though.” He looked around at his friends. “Anyone not make it to 10?”

He quickly scanned the group in front of him as they shook their heads. Even Daniel confirmed he was level 10.

“I hit 11.” Sam made a show of stretching his arms out arrogantly.

“Good for you Sam.” Ethan said quickly to cut off any sarcastic remarks that may have come from Miguel.

“What about gear?” He continued, going through their standard outline after any deaths. “You’re all looking spiffy, but has anyone checked the vault to see if there’s anything you can use?”

“I could use some jewelry, I didn’t come across any on the way here.” Leah spoke up. Nods and affirmations followed from everyone else.

“I figured as much, we’ll see what we’ve got and then round robin to divvy it out later. That does remind me though,” he paused and pulled his necklace out. “You guys know the very first quest, to collect a bunch of teeth?”

Everyone groaned as they recalled it.

“I managed to score a bonus follow up and got this from it.” He walked them through a rough outline of what he’d done. “So I’m going to be good on a neck piece for now.”

“Hopefully we won’t be back there ever again, short of being asked to by the raid clan, but that’s good to know.” Sam’s response sounded almost condescending.

What the hell is bothering him? Ethan thought to himself as he continued.

“Right, well, I just wanted to pass that along to you guys.” He’d expected his friends to be just a little more impressed...

“Wait, you don’t have a weapon on you.” Miguel commented exactly as Ethan had been hoping someone would. “You so embarrassed you didn’t even want to show us?”

“Oh right, I just forgot.” He tried to play up his theatrics as he withdrew his magic axe from his inventory.

As he held it straight out in front of him, everyone sat upright to gawk at it.

“How the fuck did you get that? Will you link it’s stats?” Tae-Won looked especially jealous, having just been a Fighter and not had anything that good to start with.

Ethan made some fairly complicated motions and everyone’s face stared directly in front of them as his axe’s stats appeared in their vision.

“Holy shit.” Miguel whispered in shock.

That’s more like it. Ethan was giddy inside at the looks on his friends' faces.

David turned back to him first.

“You obviously had a different experience than the rest of us.” He eyes Ethan appraisingly, “you hiding anything else

Ethan grinned and made a similar gesture as before, this time sending his spell to everyone.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Sam, obviously feeling superior to his leveling, was now blown out of the water by Ethan’s revelation. “How?”

“I killed the frog god.” Those four words sent everyone wild.

“How the fuck did you do that?”

“No fucking way!”

“You’re insane!”

Every spoke at once, and Ethan had to take a step back.

“Aren’t you the one who warned us all about it when we first got here?” Leah looked equally impressed and concerned. “Why’d you try to do it this time?”

“There is a very good reason:” he paused to make sure everyone was listening. “I forgot about it.”

They all looked at him in stunned silence for a heartbeat. Then in unison they all roared in laughter.

“You ‘forgot’ there was a giant frog down there?” Tears streamed down Miguel’s face as he laughed.

“Yeah, okay, I did.” Their laughter was causing his face to go red in embarrassment. “I wasn’t thinking about it and I took my time getting to the channelers. And by the time I got there it was too late and Ggoorgolax got summoned in.”

This made everyone laugh at him harder.

“You know what screw you guys. I have an awesome spell and an amazing axe.” He crossed his arms on his chest, hoping they’d calm down soon.

David calmed down first.

“That is pretty great. But,” he paused looking directly at Ethan. “You use that on a pull and I’m going to beat your ass.”

“Yeah, I almost didn’t take it for that reason actually, but it may still come in handy.” Ethan nodded his understanding. His spell, while powerful, could be a disaster if used wrong.

“Moving on, assholes, classes: where’s everyone’s heads at?” He looked around the room, already feeling like he had a good idea but wanting to get everyone on the same page.

“I’ll start, I’m not sure yet.” Ethan spoke before anyone else could. “DPS for sure, but I’m not sure which one yet. Fortunately, they both look similar enough that it doesn’t matter as much if I don’t decide today. It’s still a melee DPS spot.”

“That’s not entirely true.” Tae-Won spoke up.

“How do you mean?” Ethan was a little confused, the text read similarly on both.

“Well, weapons master is pure melee. No spells, and it just relies on pure damage. That’s what I was. Battle Shaman on the other hand, does use some spells. Mostly self buffs, but also has some elemental damage.” He paused in his explanation. “It actually pairs pretty well with a class with heavy buffs or debuffs. Like a Warlock Sorcerer or a Wildkin Druid.” He looked over at his wife.

“Which is what I’m going.” She said, to the surprise of no one.

“And I’m going Warlock.” Sam said from beside her.

“Interesting.” This was new information to Ethan. If one of his subclasses paired well with the other two, that put it higher into consideration. “Tae-Won, talk to me after this.”

“Will do. I’m going Asssination by the way.” He added and Ethan nodded in acknowledgment.

“I know you don’t like too much melee, so as appealing as Monk is, I’m going Holy.” Miguel had already said as much so Ethan just nodded.

“Tank.” David’s one word answer was enough.

“That just leaves Daniel.” Ethan turned to the remaining guild member.

“After what happened the other day,” he didn’t see any need to beat around the bush. “Daniel will no longer be joining us in groups.”

Ethan’s voice was stern as the room went silent.

“I want to be extremely clear.” He turned so he was facing Daniel, who looked to be trying to shrink into his seat. “This is a punishment.”

“Daniel, you nearly wiped our group with your pet and then did wipe us on the dungeon boss. We are here right now, starting over, directly because of you.” Ethan’s blue eyes pierced into Daniel as he cowered. Leah started to say something but Tae-Won placed a hand on her leg to stop her.

“I know.” Daniel’s voice was meek with shame as he stared at his feet.

“When we’re on scouting missions, you’ll get none of the gold the raid clan pays us. You’ll get no loot, no experience. You will however, get to stay in the guild.” Ethan paused to let that sink in. “Do you understand?”

“I do.” He looked up at Ethan and then at everyone else in the room. “Can I say something?”

Ethan nodded at him wordlessly.

“For whatever it means, and I know I fucked up. I know you’re all pissed at me, and I deserve it.” He stopped to take a breath. “I’m sorry.”

Solemnly, nearly everyone nodded their acceptance.

“You’re sorry!?” Rage caused Sam’s face to flush as he yelled and got to his feet. “You’re sorry? You cost us a month of work! You cost us thousands in gold and gear and you’re sorry!”

“You shouldn’t be here! This is beyond your fault! I don’t understand why all he’s getting—“

“Enough!” Ethan shouted to be heard over Sam’s angry yelling.

Sam instantly quieted and glared at both Ethan and Daniel before sitting back down.

“He’s still here because it’s my call. Not yours!” He could feel his own rage building, if he didn’t calm down it would be just like with the wolf when he’d first respawned.

Ethan took a deep breath before continuing.

“Daniel is still part of Disorder because when we all got here and formed this guild we swore we’d all work together to get home.” He looked at the faces of his friends who were trapped with him, “and now Daniel is going to help us by not being in the field with us. Yes, he’s a liability, we all know this. But he’s also one of us.”

“So now, instead of rolling a combat class, Daniel is going to be a Blacksmith.”

He waited, giving that time to sink in to everyone.

“To that end, everyone will need to pick up mining, if you haven’t already, and as a guild we will supply him with raw materials so he never has to leave Startesgarde.”

“And what exactly does that do for us? We still have to carry him through everything? And we’re a person down on top of it?” Sam was still seething.

“Think about it for a second Sam,” Leah interjected “yes, we’re providing his materials. But then anything he makes we can sell on the auction house. Any recipes we find, he will be able to use. No more selling them and then letting another smith profit off of us.”

“Exactly,” Ethan took back control of the conversation. “What’s more, when we apply to the raid clan, we’re coming in with seven capable raiders and a skilled blacksmith.”

Sam looked like he was focusing hard on what he’d just heard, but slowly his scowl fell away.

“His becoming a blacksmith only benefits the two of you who wear heavy armor. The rest of us get nothing.” His voice was low, but not as angry as it had been.

“Actually,” Daniel spoke up to defend himself for the first time. “I have thought about that. I can specialize in one of two areas: armor or weapons.”

He looked to Ethan for approval to continue, who nodded at him.

“If I take weapons, then everyone should be able to benefit more. And since you’re helping me with materials, there, of course, wouldn’t be any cost for me to make anything you wanted.”

When no one else stopped him, he continued.

“Weaponsmiths also make much stronger weapons that can take an extra enchanting slot.” He began to speak more animatedly. “So I can make much more powerful weapons than we could normally be able to get.”

Everyone, Ethan included, was shocked by this revelation. When they’d decided that this was the path forward for Daniel no one had actually realized what it meant. But to never need to worry about a weapon again for any of them was a big deal.

“I mean, that sounds amazing to me.” Miguel spoke first. “Will your weapons be magical or just stronger melee weapons?”

“Both.” Daniel actually looked proud at that statement. “Well, at first they’ll be weakly magical, but as I progress they’ll get stronger. On par with what drops off floor bosses. But more reliable because we won’t have to worry about RNG, just materials.”

“What do you need most right now?” Sam had finally calmed down enough and had positioned himself so he was reclining against the side of the couch looking at Daniel.

“Let me check.” Daniel swiped through his menus, finding the recipes he had access to as a low level blacksmith. “So it looks like just copper and tin for now, but I also have to find a Blacksmith NPC to apprentice under. And I can choose a specialization when I reach level 15, same as any other combat class.”

“How are you supposed to level? I know you hit 10 from questing with us, but you’re shit in a fight.” Tae-Won leaned back as he remembered carrying Daniel through the Planes of Aranor.

“Umm...” he swiped in the air through more invisible menus. “Okay, so it says here I’ll get experience based off crafting, I’ll get Blacksmith specific quests and I’ll get a bonus experience as I crafted higher quality and higher level gear.”

“So then tomorrow you need to find an NPC.” David stated.

“Correct.”

“Good, get on that early in the morning.” Ethan nodded at Daniel who looked to have regained some self respect. “Miguel, take a thousand gold from the bank and buy out enough copper and tin to get him started. Don’t get so much you mess up the supply though. We want to keep the prices low.”

“I can do that.” Miguel loved playing the auction house. His private gold reserves were probably higher than the entire guild’s combined, including the vault.

“Good. Moving on.” The discussion of Daniel’s new role had taken a lot longer than Ethan had realized.

“Leveling. What do we want to do?” He looked at the group in front of him. “We want to keep going solo, or do you want try something different?”

“I mean, when we level together, Leah and I usually get good experience from being in a group.” Tae-Won spoke up from the couch in front of him. “And we kill mobs much faster.”

“What does the raid clan do?” Miguel asked the group in general. “They tend to die regularly, but none of them ever seem to hurt for levels?”

“They power level in the Tower.” David responded and Ethan nodded in agreement. “They take a high level group for whoever they need to power level and start at the first floor.”

“Why couldn’t we try that?” Leah looked around to see what people thought of her suggestion.

“We could, but at our level we may only be able to clear the first four or five floors.” David considered what she was suggesting. “Anything after that, and we’re too low and adding to that we’re short a person. The Tower is tuned for large groups. It only scales down so far. That’s why we usually run with seven.”

Everyone was quiet as they considered what David had just said. The opportunity to level much faster than they had done was definitely appealing, but also would be harder with their smaller group.

“If that’s the route we want to take, then we need to start recruiting.” An exasperated groan came from nearly everyone around Ethan.

“Anyone know anybody who might work?” Ethan’s voice was hopeful that one of his friends might have any sort of lead.

Everyone else looked down at their feet, they tended to play almost exclusively together so none had many connections.

“Well shit.” He pursed his lips, not happy with what he was about to say. “Tomorrow I’ll post on the guild recruitment board. And then we’ll start interviewing.”

Another collective groan was his response.

“Anyone have anything else? That’s all I had to talk about.” He scanned the room once again, waiting for anyone to speak up.

“You cooking tonight?” Miguel looked excited at the prospect of Ethan preparing a meal. Whether that was because of his cooking prowess or desire to give Tara space, Ethan wasn’t sure.

“Not tonight.” He said, shaking his head. “We don’t have much to cook here tonight. But if you pick some stuff up I’ll make dinner tomorrow night.”

That wasn’t entirely true, David had stocked the kitchen decently. But he’d told Tara he was going to bring everyone to dinner that evening. He hadn’t told Miguel about his conversation with her after he’d left.

“Last thing though, we should take the next couple of days to rest here in town.” Sam scowled when he said this, and privately Ethan agreed with him. They needed to hurry to catch up, but the meeting had shown him there was a lot of work in Startesgarde before they could leave. Chief was recruiting and getting Daniel to a Blacksmith.

“Look through the vault, see if there’s anything you can use. Hit the auction house or vendors. Get geared as best we can for now and in two days we’ll head to the Tower.”