The battle was going on the second hour when the injured rotation slowed. Things must be clearing out. We also had not seen a person respawn in quite some time. I was feeling anxious and worried about my friends. When ten minutes went by without someone returning from the other side, I asked one of the other healers to go in and look for the minotaur and scaled woman.

I kept myself busy by pulling needles free of a man who absolutely refused to go back onto the floor. His name was Edgar. He was in his mid thirties and from some other time. This was just too much for him. I did my best to soothe him, but my bedside manner was lacking. I was too distracted with watching for anyone to exit the tower.

I almost jumped for joy at the sight of the big, hairy, bull’s head that slipped through the black stone. Ok, I did jump for joy at the sight of him and squealed a little bit, too. In record speed for me, I was jumping at Clint to hug him. Just behind him, was a very beat up looking Jun. I passed along a heal before I hugged her as well. She wasn’t enthused with the hug, probably due to the needles I aided in poking again.

“I’m so glad you’re both ok!” I ushered them to a place where we had pulled chairs from the inn for those needing a break. I grabbed them both a cup of coffee. “How is it looking in there?”

“There are only a few stray ones left. We figured the.. Noobs?” he looked down at Jun for confirmation, she gave him a nod, “should pick them off to get experience. Now that their pollen isn’t causin’ problems, it is safe for anyone t’ go in.”

“In short, we kicked ass.” Jun said, sipping on her coffee.

She looked around and admired the set up while I cast a on Clint. There were some tables set up for people to lay on that were severely injured, three different areas that some helpers, who refused to fight, would direct people to based on the severity of their damage. I had a few runners who would fetch fresh water and clean bandages for those who came out bleeding and continuing to lose health.

“You got, like, a clinic here. We heard you were healing people so quick that they didn’t even get to rest before going back.” Jun grinned at me. “I can’t imagine the size of the bills they are going to get from you. No health insurance in the afterlife.”

“A clinic might be the first building that gets built if I had any say in it. I just need the money.” I sat down next to them, realizing how tired I also was.

“With as much money as we made on those Blight, we have to be half way there.” Jun said, jingling her bag.

“Oh! That’s right, you don’t even know the half of it. I gave you items from the chest, but not the money. Let’s go get some food and divi up this horde of wealth I have been holding onto.” I patted the very stuffed looking coin purse. I was excited to show them what I had found in the boss’ chest. We had to defeat the boss again for them to get to the second floor, so we were going to get double what I had.

Dinner was delicious. I was so starved, my stomach was talking for me as I ordered food from the NPC. I sat down with my food and put the pouch on the table. As I ate, I drew out the 13 copper coins I had from before. Jun helped me figure out what amount of coins were from my share of the monster slaying they did. It was a nice discovery to find out that one could earn money from monsters while safe in New Beginnings.

After my money was separated, we had 36 gold coins, 162 silver coins, and 48 copper coins. Jun’s eyes glittered and Clint managed to whistle with his bovine maw.

“And that we’ll get that again.” I said as I started to divide it between us.

“I’m opening the chest next time. I call it.” Jun said as she scooped her share into her drawstring bag. I laughed and agreed.

“Y’all don’t think we should pool some of this and start us a buildin’ for when Alice can start makin’ stuff with all these flowers? I know it was a joke, earlier, but a clinic or pharmacy would be a money makin’ idea.” Clint said. He had left his money out on the table and was holding his bowl of stew.

“It might be a good investment, but I don’t know the cost or how to make anything yet. I feel selfish asking for some of your money to make a shop, even if it is co-owned.” I admitted. I wanted it, I wanted that shop badly. I wanted something that I could do to support my party and avoid a lot of the fighting without feeling guilty. If I could stay in New Beginnings, reap the rewards of them killing things, and earn us more money and standing with others through a shop, I would be on cloud nine.

“I’ll so pitch in. We got to be first, though, or it won’t be as great. You always hear about the oldest pharmacy in a town, but never the second oldest.” Jun said, finally digging into her food and absently pulling needles from her clothing.

“You have a point. There are also some other things that I got. This potion that I haven’t identified yet, it looks kind of iffy. And then this stuff.” I pulled out the stein, the ring, and the pair of boots. “I don’t know if any of this has any special properties, but here it is.”

“Aw, sweet! New boots. Clearly mine, you two barn animals don’t need them.” Jun plucked them from the table.

“Fair point. Would you like the mug or the ring, Clint? The ring may have something magical it does, well, so could the mug. The ring probably will be more helpful more often.” I mused out loud.

“I’ve always wanted a fancy german beer stein. My grandfather had one he used an’ I always dreamed of havin’ one of my own.” Clint lifted the mug and opened the lid to look inside. He traced the images of the circus bears and seemed really pleased. It was touching and felt like a very private moment that I shouldn’t have noticed so I looked away at the simple gold band that was left for me.

“The last thing is a scroll I got for being the first person to make it to the second floor.” I laid it on the table, the wax seal still in place.

“What’s it for?” Jun asked through a mouthful of food.

“It can be traded for a secret or aid from the Nothing.” I said quietly, not wanting others to know so there wouldn’t be everyone rushing to find the stairs down.

“No shit?” Jun could barely keep her voice down as she stood to get a closer look at the scroll. “What should we use it for?”

“We should hold onto it. Never know when we’ll get in the next bind. Some help or knowledge would be mighty handy.” Clint suggested and I nodded in agreement. I tried to pass the scroll off to him and he shook his head. “You should keep it. You are the brains of this outfit. You’ll know when to use it and it is yours. You were the first down.”

I hesitated for a moment, but knew he was right. It was going to be hard to accept that all the time, but I was trying.

“So, what’s next?” Jun asked after her food was gone.

“We get you both down to the second floor. You should see it! It is beautiful with miles of flower fields and a great big volcano.” I said as I dug into my own food.

“More flowers to try and collect. Sounds like money to me.” She jingled her pouch.

“I wonder if we need to stash our things in our rooms. I kept everything when I died.” I said, tapping my fork to my bottom lip.

“You died?!” Clint and Jun said at the same time.

“I did to convince everyone to go to war, though it was more to convince that one party we had a run in with to fight.” I said with a cringe.

“That was dumb.” Jun said, had I not known her the way I did, I would have been very offended. She wasn’t wrong, but it was a harsh statement.

“Yeah, I know, I know. Hindsight and all that. At least I know what it is like.” I gave a weak smile.

Both of them gave me sympathetic looks for a moment before looking away. The memory I had to relive was bad, but it wasn’t my worst one. I wondered what they had to face. I knew better than to ask, though. It was beyond personal and though we were friends, I wouldn’t tell anyone what I had experienced.

“Anyways, I think we should sleep in a comfortable bed and then beat the boss. Once in one day is enough, right?” I stretched.

“I couldn’t again if I wanted to. I’m out of rushin’.” Clint said and sounded suddenly very tired, as if he had been keeping up appearances until just then.

“Rest, Clint, you earned it. You saved the whole town. If anyone deserves a good night’s sleep, it’s you and Jun.”

“That’s what our party name should be! Town Heroes.” She got out her book and flipped to our party page. I did the same to see her change the name to Town Heroes.

“I learned something about the party system, too. I almost forgot to tell you. We can write messages to each other on this page. That way, if we get split up, we can still keep in touch.”

“Woah, awesome.” Jun asked a million questions about how it worked, notifications, and more. I did not have many answers to her questions and she decided to test things out herself. She was oddly full of energy for someone who beat a boss, slayed monsters all afternoon, and ended up with a large number of needles in her backside.

I shook my head at her enthusiasm and rose. “I need to get to bed. All that healing has me exhausted. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Clint stood up as well, his loot stuffed in his bag. “Goodnight, Jun.”

Jun just waved at us as we walked towards the stairs.

“I’m so sorry you died, Alice. I didn’t want that for you.” Clint said softly, looking at the floor.

“It wasn’t your fault. I should have been smarter and not let bad people talk me into doing dumb things. Lesson learned, I hope.” I placed my hand on his arm and gave him a warm smile. “You can’t protect everyone, sometimes we get hurt to help us grow, right?”

He nodded. “Right. I still don’t like it, but yer right. Goodnight, Alice.”

The next morning, I hesitated to go down stairs. I didn’t want to be without my party and put myself in a situation where I would be manipulated again by someone without my interest at heart. I had some resolve to not allow that to happen, but I didn’t trust myself yet. I had lived my life pandering to someone who actively tried to destroy me, it isn’t something one can just give up.

While I waited for time to pass and the sun to rise a little farther, I separated the flowers that we had collected. I tied the ones we knew in little bundles using some braided grass. None of the plants had started to wilt or decay, even the bouquet I made from those we had found to be useless for crafting was full of life as it sat on the tiny table in the window. An unnatural life, just like this afterlife. I pulled one petal off a flower and placed it on the table before heading downstairs.

Clint and Jun were waiting for me. Jun burst into an overwhelming amount of information on how the party system worked as far as she could tell. On the very same page, one could look up other parties, their members, and their levels. A player could request to join a party and we had 27 requests from yesterday. Anyone could add someone or remove someone from a party until a party leader was selected by majority vote. The majority of our small party had already voted me as party leader before I left my room.

I pinched the bridge of my nose as my spoon mixed sugar into my porridge. “What if I don’t want to be the leader?”

“Too bad, so sad, we want you to be.” Jun gave her trademark sly grin. “ Clint and I felt like it would help you feel better when you have to make choices to know that we want you to make those choices.”

“Democracy has spoken.” Clint interjected before going back to nursing his coffee silently.

“Entrapment.” I muttered, but smiled. Both of these beautiful people were those that I tied myself to impulsively and I couldn’t have been more lucky. Our friendships were still budding, we had known each other only a handful of days, but I would put my afterlife on the line for them. They would be worth going through the respawning process. No question.

“I also found out that if you’re in a guild, you can share any information. A guild requires five things: at least five members, a building, an item that can be found on the fifth floor, 500 gold, and at least one person who’s got a profession.” Jun listed off everything on her fingers. “We could skip the shop and go right for guild. There’s no rule against charging guild dues or application fees, it would totally pay for itself in, like, a month. Then we get a shop.”

“Money ain’t that important, though.” We turned to Clint. “Y’all are thinkin’ about things like we were still alive. We jus’ need to get down on floor 100.”

“Fair point. Money will help with that, but what we really need is information, help, and stronger gear. A shop really isn’t as important as I first thought.” Sheepishly, I pushed my undesirable porridge aside. “I really wanted it to avoid having to go back into the floors anyways. I can’t do that, though, I have a party to lead.”

We made plans for taking down the boss again as Clint finished his coffee. It was going to take them a couple hours to get to the boss area. I did not want to be caught up in a battle with others by arriving on the first floor before my own party. No one else that we knew of had found the boss, but it wasn’t all that hidden. The plan was for me to enter after two hours and find a good vantage point in the maze to hide and cast my healing from. My skill had increased, but my overall level was the same as when I left the first floor. I earned coin from my party’s kills, but not the experience meaning there was some kind of proximity limit on that. I was going to be much more squishy than even Jun due to being two levels behind them.

I walked with the two to the black tower to see them off. There were a few people mulling around the center of town. I recognized most of them as those who were too afraid to enter the first floor when we were battling the Blight. They wouldn’t make eye contact with people and kept to themselves. Poor broken souls.

“Our guild should help people get started and work through the fear of battle. You know, enough to be full players rather than stuck in New Beginnings.” I said as we descended the stairs.

“We can’t protect everyone.” Clint repeated my words from last night at me.

“Fair. I don’t like it, though.” I shot back with a smile. “But those who want the help, we can at least offer a way to start. Many of these people don’t know where to start. Some are from a time like you where there was nothing like this.”

“It’s somethin’ to think about.” He wasn’t going to commit to anything yet, I couldn’t blame him.

We had several more floors and had to find two more reliable people, not to mention all the money it would take to build a building and the straight cost for starting a guild. Maybe I just plan too much. I was also ready to commit to a potion shop less than 24 hours ago.

Jun fist bumped me before entering the tower. Clint patted my head and disappeared. I sighed, alone again.