The sudden light on the other side surprised me. But what surprised me the most was the other people also confusedly standing at the other entryways to the room.

[System Party Prompt: Would you like to join a party with these adventurers?]

[Accept or Decline]

I looked around at the others, four of us in total. I hit accept carefully, examining the others more carefully. They don’t look hostile, so I relaxed my guard a bit. The others also gazed into space in front of them, probably reading over the same message. Multiple names appeared at the top of my interface, health bars, and mana bars also. There were many new interface options, a party chat, a party buff list, and more. I would have inspected every nook and cranny of the new interface, but the labyrinth had other ideas.

Something fell from the incredibly tall ceiling, crashing onto a central marble plateau of the room. Someone screamed, and I hoped it wasn’t me. The creature was the shade of milky marble himself, a misshapen humanoid hulk like a clay sculpture made by a toddler. It stood above us, both due to its current position on the high ground, and its height being about eight feet tall. Its leather loincloth was about as high as my head from where I stood. It let out a loud groan like a dragon awakening from millennia of hibernation, and then lumbered toward a girl to my left. It had a name above its white head that said quite clearly: [Albino Ogre lv.5 HP: 100/100]. The name was colored in red, highlighting the creature’s hostile nature.

A black light flashed from inside her dark cloak as the girl the monster had targeted activated a skill. Nails the size of my forearm formed above the Ogre, dark as a moonless night, and they fell like a silent rain. Not a single one hit the creature, but it stopped its slow lumber toward her. The nails seemed to impale its shadow, crucifying its shadow in place. The monster didn’t even make a move, it was an ugly wax figure in an exquisite marble display. I circled the ogre from a safe distance and decided to analyze it.

[Albino Ogre (lv. 5)

HP: 100/100

Description: A rare genetically mutated Ogre that is white instead of his darker-skinned brethren. Doesn’t do anything different than a normal one. Hits hard.

Weaknesses: Mental Damage

Resistances: Electrical Damage, Blunt Damage, Frost Damage, Heat Damage, Projectile Damage, Blade Damage

AI Rank: D]

I heard a calm man’s voice projected into my mind via the party system, “Die foolish creature, “ He seethed. Kind edgy, I thought before I identified the speaker as the dark-skinned man to my right, wearing a menacing eye patch and brandishing a revolver at the creature. Okay, Very edgy I internally concluded. I heard multiple shots ring through the chamber, bells tolling with death. Looking toward the creature, one shot hit its malformed shoulder, two more missed by a mile. Its health dropped to 90/100. The party log showed all of the skills being used by my party, all of the skills that had been used, and all damage dealt with a target. It was a concise flow of information, and I proverbially tipped my hat to the developers for their efficiency.

At around that point I realized how useless I was to the rest of my party. I was standing there watching everyone else fight and struggle, and I hadn’t moved except to gain some information about the creature. Looks like some of my teammates had noticed too.

“Come one four eyes, pitch in where you can.” The guy with the eyepatch grumbled. I sighed and turned to where the majority of the action was going down. The midnight spikes driven into the Ogre’s shadow were disappearing into wisps of swirling black smoke. They wouldn’t hold it much longer, and our pale hunk of a friend was now visibly struggling against the shadowy bindings

“Alright, I’ve got the info. This guy is resistant to almost any kind of damage. Using types he is resistant to will probably yield diminished damage. It appears to be weak only mental attacks.” I could tell that I was using the party chat system, there were little fluctuating waves next to my name in the party list as I spoke representing my voice. I walked forward slowly, mostly circling the enemy. I didn’t see any way that my wimpy staff could deal any useful amounts of damage. The ogre had a pattern, so I watched him, trying to figure it out. It was slow, seemingly unable to hit anyone here, but it lunged when it got decently close. It didn’t seem to punch or strike with any kind of form, just lunging pathetically and grabbing the air toward his targets. It seemed to target whatever seemed the easiest to catch near him. I was watching it in fascination, trying to get an idea of the level an E classed AI would be at. Understanding this could be vital information when assessing my enemies-

My thoughts were interrupted by a huge portal opening high in the air, close to where the ceiling carved into the walls, and out fell a stone. At least it looked like a pebble, until it soundlessly fell toward the ground, gaining in size each second until it was the size of a truck. I could see intricate swirls and runic carvings etched into the surface of the boulder. It slammed down onto the enemy, instantly crushing it into thick ogre paste with a reverberating crunch like biting into a potato chip. For a long moment, everyone just stood and looked at where our foe used to be, stopped in its tracks as it had slowly lumbered toward the girl in the dark cloak. She was now splattered in digital blood, but it faded from her clothing and the floor as though an invisible janitor was cleaning up after us.

The only person whose jaw had been spared from scraping across the floor was the bright-eyed girl named Alixandra who had been charging a spell since the beginning of the battle. Her eyes were sparkling blue basins, and a maniacal smile was plastered below them.

“You’re welcome, everyone!” She gloated, her grin somehow widening further. The name hovering above her head was Alixandra, and she was level four.

[Your party has defeated an Albino Ogre!

+10 exp

+5 silver

Participation rating: 1/10]

The next thing I knew, Axel, the gunslinger, was in my face.

“We seriously got stuck with a loser like you? What the hell is your wimpy class anyway?” There was a hostility in his eye that made me quite uncomfortable. He was level five, I was level two.

“I-I’m an analyst,” I mumbled, my eyes fixated on my shoes.

“So what, you can help me file taxes or some shit? Fucking useless four eyes.” He crossed his arms. I am sure he would have spat at my feet if there was a way to do so in these avatars.I self consciously adjusted my newly acquired nerdy glasses.

“Now, don’t be so mean,” it was Alixandra, and I was now realizing that they were all practically gathered around me, “I am sure umm, eh, ‘archangel’ can be useful somehow,” Cassidy, the shadow-mage nodded emphatically next her.

“It’s Gabriel. And I will try to be helpful where I-”

“Enough talk, I want to get to the main game soon, and anyone who wants to join me can come now,” He spoke with confidence, but there was a waver, almost too small to notice.

[Special ability of ‘ Lbrex Spectacles’ activated

Suspicion Confirmed: The target, ‘Xx_Axel_xX’ lacks real confidence because he spent his previous life as a shut in]

This was by far the strongest message I had received. The amount of insight these glasses were giving me was… unnerving, yet tentatively accepted. But it gave me cause for concern, after all, what if other coils reveal personal information about the inner workings of my mind? That was a future Gabriel problem though. The others were leaving with Axel. Cassidy’s black hair swung as she turned to look at me with a neutral expression. I followed after the three toward the only door that one of us hadn’t emerged from, all kinds of questions swarming my mind. How can I be useful, where can we get food in this place, what is up with Axel? So much pent-up confusion. I didn’t like the suspense of not knowing things, of not being prepared for whatever was to come.

One of my questions was answered, the next room had a banquet of exquisite and delicious food, as well as four individual rooms with beds. A well-deserved rest stop, my last rest had been a collapse of exhaustion onto a stone floor. The meal was probably meant to be some kind of bonding experience between adventurers, but three of us sat in awkward silence, Axel sitting with his back to the wall in the corner, eating a chicken leg. Alixandra made a few feeble attempts at sparking conversation, but the introverted nature of Cassidy and my own dampened spirits dragging me to silent reflection, all attempts failed. Eventually, we made our separate ways to the rooms. We were all digital constructs that probably didn’t need sleep, but the game seemed to make us feel tired after too much time awake.

As I laid in bed, I felt pretty useless. I also felt restricted by responsibility in a way that I hadn’t been before. For the short time I had been here on my own, I only had to worry about my survival and helping myself. But now I could fail in the eyes of these people no matter how much I feel I succeeded. Maybe it was selfish, but I felt it was easier on my own. I won’t ditch them though, if not because I longed for some kind of company, then because I wanted the strength in numbers that would come from traveling with them.