Chpt. 5) Follow the scary lady

Ee created a gate made of shadows on the floor behind the podium and said, “Follow me through here, and if you don’t follow within the next,” she stopped and looked at the time, “five minutes then you will die,” Ee then hopped into the portal and fell through the floor.

Ford looked down at the clock, it read nine o’clock, then looked around at everyone and said, “Well, the quest underestimated her scariness. Also, I do think we should follow her.”

“Who made you the leader?” Farah argued and added, “Also, what makes you think she will kill us?”

“I think that because she doesn’t seem to be a person to make idle threats,” Ford said, gesturing to the corpses on the floor.

“Ye-ye’re probably rite,” Lilly said, voice shaking, “also I’d rather have my first death be with a figh’in’ chance, so I’m goin’ to go now,” She then turned and crept around the pool of blood on the floor and hopped into the portal.

Gimble stood and sat down, then stood again, then sat down. Morgan stood and cracked his neck and said, “I refuse to be outdone by an Elf,” as he followed her. Then Benet followed him without hesitation.

Ford walked over to Gimble and said in a soothing tone, “Hey, go on, I’ll be right behind you.”

Gimble nodded and stood, “Promise?” he asked.

Ford chuckled, “Promise.” Gimble walked over to the portal and worked his way into it; it was just big enough to fit him. Then Ford turned to Farah and said, “Well, you coming?”

Farah rolled her eyes, walked over to the portal, and stepped in. ‘Well, that’s everyone, and with three minutes to spare,’ she thought and hopped into the right side of the portal herself. She went through, and the darkness that enveloped her felt like cold water, then she felt a hard smack of stone as she landed sideways on her left shoulder in a pitch-black area she couldn’t see.

“Ow. What the fuck happened?” Ford groaned as she got up.

“Right, I forgot to mention,” Ee said as she lit a torch, revealing the rest of the party being crushed by Gimble, except for Farah, who was standing on top of them, ivory claws digging into his skin but not penetrating. “Since the portal was on the floor, you have to enter it correctly, or else,” she then gestured to the rest of the party, who were untangling themselves from each other.

“Gee, thanks for the heads up,” Ford said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome,” Ee responded.

Ford stood and helped the others up and said, “Alright, let’s go, oh scary woman.”

“We’re waiting for one more,” Ee responded a moment later.

Ford looked confused and then looked back at the portal, then back at Ee, “There was no one else there.”

“There was someone else there. You just couldn’t see them,” Ee said and waited a moment more. They waited two minutes, and two little beings flew through the portal’s top and landed on their faces on the floor in front of Ford. “Told you,” Ee said, a small, smug smile on her face.

The two beings stood and were about a meter tall and had red skin with black lines on their faces, like tattoos. They wore small black cloaks, goggles, and grey robes that allowed their long, red, pointed tails to stick out and whip around. Both the beings looked up, wincing as they rubbed around the little horns on their foreheads, and one of them had large eyes as violet as Fords while the other had large golden-yellow eyes.

The one with the golden eyes spoke; his voice sounded like he swallowed his tongue, “Ow, that hurt.”

The violet-eyed one responded in the same voice, “Agreed; she wasn’t kidding when she said that she’ll kill us.”

Ford backed up a step and said, “Who are you? What are you? How did she try to kill you?”

“That’s rude,” they both said simultaneously.

“But fair questions,” the golden-eyed one said.

“True,” the other agreed, “let me start. I am Mizu.”

“and I am Kii,” the golden-eyed one said, then they both bowed.

“We are twin imps of the demon race,” Kii and Mizu said simultaneously.

“I tried to kill you,” Ee cut in, “by dropping the church on your heads.”

“Isn’ tha’ a bit overkill,” Lilly said while backing away from the imp twins.

Ee shrugged, “Was no more complicated than blowing out a candle. Don’t worry about them; they’re friendly.”

“They’re demons,” Lilly complained.

“Yeah, we’re demons, not monsters,” Kii said.

“But-” Lilly started, then was interrupted by Ford.

“But nothing,” Ford sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “Look, we’re all in the same boat here, so instead of fighting each other, let's finish this quest and see where it goes.”

“Finally, speaking since,” Ee scoffed, “let’s go, my home is just down this hall,” she then started to walk down the hall and lead the way. Gimble fell to the back of the line because he took up most of the space in the tunnel and could barely stand in the small tunnel.

Lilly walked beside Ford and hesitantly mumbled, “Wha’ are we goin’ to do to get out of here?”

Ford mumbled back, “What can we do? You saw how she killed the priests. I’d rather not die.”

“The priests will revive in an hour. I’m not worried abou’ them,” Lilly mumbled, “I’m more worried abou’ us.”

“What do you mean revive. Dead is dead.”

“Everyone revives. The only reason someone wouldn’ revive is tha’ they don’ have a Grimoire and an offerin’ to the Gods of some kind. Both are needed to revive, and I’m sure priests have both.”

“Your friend is right, Elf,” Ee called back from the front, “Dead is dead now. So if someone dies now, they stay dead. The Gods turned off revives.”

Lilly paled and said, “W-wha’? Th-the Gods can’t do tha’.”

Ee scoffed, “They’re Gods, and they’re assholes. They can do whatever the hell they want,” Lilly started to stammer and was about to say something when Ee called back, “Okay, we’re here. Welcome to my home. Don’t make a mess,” then she snapped her fingers, and the sound resonated through the area, and it lit up with crystal lights.

The crystal lights lit up a long cylindrical catacomb with every surface filled with wood carvings of animals and monsters. The only carvings that looked like humans, or humanoid, were six carvings of the races that sat on one of the four pillars in the catacomb just above a hammock that Ee promptly hopped into and settled in. She tossed the torch that she was holding up, and it landed in the center of the room where a fire pit lay in the stone. Around the fire pit were seven stone seats, each marked with a word that said their race's name. Human, Elf, Half-ling, Giant, Drake, Dwarf, and Demon. One seat for each of them.

Ee pulled out a hand-sized wood stump and conjured a black blade, then started widdling as she said, “Take a seat and finish your introductions when you do that, then you’ll get the information on what’s happening and what’s going to happen next. Also, please sit in the seat of your respective race.”

Everyone hesitantly did as they were told. After a moment where the only sounds were that of the fire pit, and Ee’s widdling Ford spoke, “Okay,” and she turned toward the demon twins, “Why don’t you tell us a little more about yourselves and which one of you got the same Grimoire as the rest of us?”

“Well, that’s an easy story,” Kii said with a mischievous chuckle.

“We are demon imps,” Mizu continued, and they kept switching off.

“We are from a lovely long line of mischievous crooks,”

“thieves,”

“con people,”

“politicians,”

“you get the gist,”

“and we both have the Grimoire,”

“two bodies,”

“same soul,”

“one Grimoire,”

“We also have separate stamina,”

“and mana bars,”

Ford cut them off then, “For fucks sake, one of you speak at a time.”

The twins looked at each other, and Kii continued, “As we were saying, we share a soul but have separate stamina and mana bars. We share the same EXP bar and the same skills we will get through the Grimoires.”

Ford nodded, “So if you use the same skill like, say, a healing spell, you can cast it separately. What if one of you dies?”

“Well,” Mizu answered, and they both drew a finger across their throats, “same soul, same health bar, same stats, same skills. If one dies, we both die.”

Ford nodded again, “Good to know,” she said and leaned back in the chair to think. Then remembered that she still had to share her story. “I guess it’s my turn to tell my story,” Ford said and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees, then asked, “Where should I start?”

Farah spoke, “Start at the beginning.”

Ford rolled her eyes and said, “What an original comeback, but alright. I was born yesterday morning. I died the night before that. I met the God Tanashi; he’s an asshole. When we met, he explained the magic system and what he wanted me to do, and what we will get at the end of our overall quest. He then sent me here, and I got a brand new body,” she gestured to herself, “after that, I met some people, one of whom is Lilly, and then got my Grimoire now we’re here.”

Everyone was silent as they thought she would say it was a joke or that she had more to say. Then Morgan broke the silence, “Bullshit, you can’t possibly believe that we’ll take you at your word.”

“Well, if you're not going to take her word for it, take mine,” Tanashi’s childlike voice reverberated through the catacomb, and a screen-like image appeared over the firepit with Tanashi’s tattooed face on it.

Morgan cursed as he jumped at the appearance of Tanashi, “SHURMA'S BEARD!” he exclaimed.

“Oh yeah, she’s here too, say hi,” then the screen shook as though he was grabbing a camera and turning it to the goddess Shurma sitting on a throne of gems with an Elf on the right armrest. Shurma looked up at Tanashi and lazily waved while the Elf waved vigorously with a big smile on her face. “The other Goddess is Samael, Goddess of the Elves,” Tanashi explained and then showed all the other Gods and introduced them before going back to himself.

“So you can hear us?” Benet asked.

“We hear everyone, but it’s time to get down to business,” Tanashi said as he clapped his hands once, “As you all know. You have received a very special Grimoire because we have chosen you seven as our champions. I realize that there are technically eight of you, but we count souls, not bodies. We have chosen you to complete the quest of the seven dungeons on the seven worlds. For each dungeon you finish, you can ask us one question with its own rules and restrictions, which we’ll explain later when you complete a dungeon.

“When or if you finish all dungeons on all the worlds, you will be granted one wish, and it could be anything. You want to be rich; granted, you want to have a kingdom; granted. Also, revives are turned off for the quest duration and have been for the past twenty-four hours. As such, when someone dies, they stay dead. They will stay that way forever. You can wish for the deaths during the duration of the quests to be reversed, of course. Ther is another way to reverse it as well,” Tanashi paused for dramatic effect, “the inhabitants of every world have to kill you. If you die in the dungeon or someone else kills you, the deaths will not be reversed.”

Ford leaped up, “What?! You never told me that!”

“Would you have agreed to be my champion if I did?” Tanashi countered.

Ford clenched her fists and spoke through gritted teeth, “No, I wouldn’t have.”

“Exactly. Now, here are a couple of quick things for you to know. Us Gods have chosen Ford here to be the leader of this little group due to majority vote.”

A Goddess spoke off-screen, “Actually, it was with dice.”

“Which I won. Thank you, Samael, for clarifying,” Tanashi said, a little flustered.

“Your welcome,” Samael responded.

“Anyways,” Tanashi was glaring at the Goddess Samael as he continued, “we are also providing you with a small practice dungeon to get in a good rhythm together. Every five hours in that dungeon is one hour in the real world. Stat increases are slowed by seventy-five percent, and so is EXP, but you will still get good loot to start your journey, and this doesn’t apply to your soul stat. Oh, and before I forget, you are provided a knowledgeable guide on each world to help you. For Erath, you have Ee. Don’t piss her off. I will be notifying all the other worlds about what’s going on in two hours and start spawning in monsters. Any quick questions?”

“Do we all have six essences,” Ford said immediately.

“Yes, anybody else?”

“Will we die?” Ford asked.

“Probably, but that is up to you. Anything else?”

Everyone was silent when Benet started to speak, “I have-”

“Good, have a good time completing the quest,” Tanashi interrupted Benet and disappeared.

Ford dug her nails into her palms and sat down, hiding everyone’s faces behind the brim of her fedora. Then she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Lilly standing next to her with a brave smile, though she looked close to tears. Ford grabbed her and held it tight as she stood.

‘If there is a time to rally the troops, it is at their lowest,’ she thought as she stood and looked everyone in their eyes. As a quest completed, notification blinked in the upper left of her vision, then said, “This is a shitty quest. We’re outmanned, outclassed, and out-supplied. But we have two things that everyone else doesn’t have. We have a head start, and we have every skill in the book. I may have been chosen as your leader, but I never decided on being the leader. If you want to be the leader, we’ll put it to a vote right now and start our quest. If not, keep your peace,” everyone was silent, “Alright, I have a plan to survive, but I need to know everyone’s stats so we can have a proper assignment of abilities and classes.”

Ee spoke up from her hammock, “There’s some paper and pencil behind that pillar,” she said and pointed to the pillar at her feet.

Ford looked at Lilly and nodded to the pillar for her to get it. She did and brought back a clipboard and pencil to Ford, who sat down to start writing. “Who’s first,” she asked.

“Before we begin. What is your plan to survive?” Farah asked mockingly.

Ford took a deep breath, put down the pencil and clipboard, and said, “The best way I thought of to fight as a cohesive team is to have two fighters, two tanks, two healers, one ranged. I will be one of the fighters and lead from the front.”

Farah nodded, “It’s overly simple for my taste, but it should work in simple fights.”

“Such as dungeon bosses,” Ford interrupted, “but I didn’t know about the combined forces of seven worlds thing till you did. So when we come across fighting other races, we’ll have to improvise as we go.”

Benet scoffed, “That’s reassuring, but I don’t see any better plan as flexible as that one.”

“Alright,” Ford picked up the pencil and clipboard, “Shall we continue?”

Lilly was the first to answer, “I’ll go first. STR: ten; PER: eleven; END: eigh’; INT: twen’y-five; AGI: ten: CHR: nineteen; LUC: eigh’; WIS: twen’y; SOL: zero.”

Morgan was the next to speak, “My stats are STR: twenty-one; PER: fourteen; END: twenty-one; INT: twelve; AGI: fifteen; CHR: eight; LUC: ten; WIS: nine: SOL: zero.”

Benet spoke next, “My stats are STR: ten; PER: twenty; END: ten; INT: nineteen; AGI: twenty; CHR: eighteen; LUC: fifteen; WIS: eight; SOL: zero.”

Farah rolled her eyes and spoke, “Fine; my stats are STR: twenty-one; PER: eighteen; END: twenty-one; INT: eighteen; AGI: twenty; CHR: twelve; LUC: ten; WIS: twenty; SOL: zero.”

Kii spoke next, “Our stats are STR: ten; PER: twenty; END: ten; INT: twenty; AGI: eighteen; CHR: four; LUC: fifteen; WIS: nine; SOL: zero.”

Ford looked to Gimble, who looked nervous, “I still have to teach you how to read numbers, don’t I,” Ford said with a bit of sympathy in her voice.

“Don’t bother,” Ee said as she finished a detailed carving of a large bird, “I can tell you his stats. I already know everyone’s,” she explained, then sat up and looked at Gimble, “STR: thirty; PER: eight; END: thirty; INT: four; AGI: eight; CHR: four; LUC: five; WIS: one; SOL: zero.”

Gimble looked at Ford as though he was just told he was in trouble. She looked at him and said, “Well, at least I know who the strongest is,” and gave him a big smile which made him smile.

“What are your stats,” Farah asked, disdain clear in her voice.

“It is only fair,” Mizu added.

Ford sighed and said, “I’ll look now,” and she pulled up her stats screen.

Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler; Level: two. Abilities: STR: twenty-one; PER: fifteen; END: eighteen; INT: eighteen; AGI: twenty; CHR: twenty-one; LCK: twelve; WIS: twelve; SOL: ten.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred-five kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Skills: spear one/five, sword one/five, claymore one/five, knife combat one/five, comms one/five, crystal core five/five, weapon possession five/five.

HP: one-hundred ninety-eight; STM: one-thousand eight-hundred thirty-six; MN: fifteen-thousand six-hundred six; EXP: two-hundred/one-thousand one-hundred.

She then read off the stats, “STR: twenty-one; PER: fifteen; END: eighteen; INT: eighteen; AGI: twenty; CHR: twenty-one; LCK: twelve; WIS: twelve; SOL: ten. I’ve already put points into the knight class for fighting.”

Everyone nodded, and then Lilly asked, “Wha’ are you goin’ to have us be?”

Ford leaned back in the chair, looking at the paper she wrote all the stats on, then pointed to them and said, “Farah, put some points into the knight class. You and I will be fighters. Gimble and Morgan, you two put points into the paladin class; I’m pretty sure that’s the tank class anyways. You’ll be responsible for lessening the damage to everyone and getting Farah and I out of trouble. Kii and Mizu, choose something out of the archer class that will put give you good range; you’re responsible for hitting high damage areas on bosses and monsters. Lilly, put points into the healer class, something with high HP recovery. Benet, put points into the healer class as well, something with low HP recovery, also put points into the assassin skill tree. We’ll use your high agility to our advantage.”

“I suggest the shadow class,” Ee said, watching them plan from her perch, “It’s an assassin affliction class. Hard to master but worth the work.”

Ford nodded to her and continued, “Past that, we need people in other classes as well. Morgan, put some points into the blacksmith class as well. To help repair armor and weapons. Does anybody else have suggestions for classes we need?”

Lilly spoke up, “I’ll put some points into the Tamer class. Tha’ way, we can have animals on our side and act as lookouts for monsters or anybody lookin’ for us while we sleep.”

Morgan spoke next, “I think that the Giant, um, Gimble should put points into carrier-class to help carry anything we need.”

Benet raised a hand and said, “I’ll put some points into the Farmer class. It won’t be good in battle, but it’ll help harvest herbs we find along the way, so our food doesn’t taste like crap.”

“Good idea,” Ford said, “Wouldn’t want bad meals and go hungry, right?”

“No, we wouldn’t,” Benet chuckled.

Ford looked at Gimble, who was looking confused at his Grimoire, and she stood and walked over to him and said, “Here, I’ll help you out, buddy,” and so they got to work assigning points to the skills they needed to survive.

***

When they finished assigning points, it was nine-thirty; they had one hour forty minutes to train in the training dungeon before they had every person in the seven worlds after them. Ford turned to Ee, “Where is this training dungeon, and do you have any spare weapons by chance?”

Ee hopped down from her hammock and waved a hand behind the pillar with all the human and humanoid carvings, “There is a portal behind there that will bring you to the armory. Take what you need.”

Ford walked around the pillar and was closely followed by the other seven. The armory was this massive area of pure black; the only things you could see were the weapons that looked suspended in mid-air but were resting on racks made of darkness. ‘It’s like the armory from Matrix, but no guns and less cool,’ Ford thought as she walked over to a sword resting on a rack. The blade was a katana and was about a meter long, and the blade was rusted, but the edge was sharp. Ford took the katana and a couple of karambits hanging next to it. The karambit's were short blades, no more than six centimeters in length, and they had a sharp curve. Ford tied the sheath of her katana to her waist and put the two karambits on the cloth the katana was connected.

Ford turned and looked at everyone else; Lilly chose a staff made of some knarled root. Gimble picked a shield that was half his size and then picked up another one that was just as big as the first shield. Morgan picked a Shield the same size as him and a war hammer that he could wield with one hand and had a rusted head. Benet took a few throwing daggers and a short sword. Farah took two matchings short swords and tied them to her waist. Kii and Mizu took a pair of crossbows and bolts for them.

Looking at all of them choosing weapons, Ford couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. Which prompted Lilly to turn and look at her quizzically again, “Wha’ in the bloody hell is so funny?”

“We’re such a ragtag cluster fuck,” she started laughing. A second later, Morgan began to laugh a great booming laugh. Then Gimble began laughing too, then Benet and Lilly. Pretty soon, everyone was laughing at each other, except for Farah, who didn’t find it funny. Once everyone got themselves under control, Ford said, “Alright, let’s go into a dungeon.”

Everyone filled out of the armory and into the catacomb. Ee looked them up and down and said, “Good luck to you,” then waved a hand in the direction they entered the catacomb in, and a black portal in a stone archway opened.

Ford walked through the portal first and was greeted with a massive Mayan temple. At least it looked Mayan. The temple was made of grey stone and was covered in vines and rubble. There was a white light hovering over the temple, illuminating the forest in the area and the entrance to the temple.

The rest of the party followed quickly behind her and was greeted with the same site. “So,” Lilly said as she walked up next to Ford, “This is the trainin’ dungeon.”

“Yes, it is captain obvious,” Ford responded, then walked forward to look at the clearing in front of the dungeon. There were nothing but stumps and the entrance to the dungeon looming over the area. Ford turned to the rest of her party and thought about speaking through her comms skill, “Can everyone hear me?”

“Yes,” Morgan said out loud.

“Morgan, think what you want to say,” Ford explained through comms, “I’ll be maintaining the connection between us and using this to communicate in dungeons or fights from here on.”

Lilly used comms to say, “Tha’s a useful skill, but really creepy.”

“I heard that,” Ford said through comms, “Now that everyone is here, let’s put some quick levels on our soul stats.”

“Shouldn’t we complete the dungeon as fast as possible?” Farah complained.

“We have seven and a half hours to do this; let’s get the benefits from our soul and then get going.”

“I’d rather do it somewhere safer, is what I’m trying to say,” Farah said.

“I agree,” Benet added.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll be standing watch while you meditate,” Ford said.

“How do you m-meditate,” Gimble asked aloud, stumbling over the word, ‘meditate.’

Ford pursed her lips and said, “Gimble and I will be standing watch while you meditate.”

“How do ye form soul then,” Lilly asked as she sat down with her staff in her lap.

“That is easy,” Ford said, then cleared her thoughts, “get yourself into a meditative trance by taking deep breaths and clearing your mind, then focus on your memories, specifically those that give you an emotional response and follow them to your soul. Once there, feed it more emotional memories till it feels like there’s a big ball of soul. Once you have that, crush it into a small ball, or else it’ll dissipate, and you have to start over. Just a heads up, it’ll hurt when you get to the crushing part.”

Farah was already in a meditative trace when Ford finished the explanation, and Lilly followed soon after; then Morgan, Benet, Kii, and Mizu after her. Leaving just Gimble and Ford sitting alone with them. Ford quickly felt bored and turned to Gimble, who had pulled out his Grimoire and was trying to read his skills.

Ford thought that was a good idea and opened up her Yggdress system and went to the quest screen. Quest complete: Follow the scary lady: rewards; don’t die, information, two-hundred EXP.

New quest received. Quest: Fight for our amusement, peasant: the Gods have given you a quest to complete their seven dungeons; rewards: one wish. If you fail this quest, you will die. Time remaining to complete the quest twenty-five years. Starts in one hour thirty minutes. ‘There’s a time limit on the quest? That’s bullshit. But then again, we have to be motivated enough to complete the quests,’ she thought.

Ford then swiped to the Grimoire screen. Seven skill points are available. Select Class; Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast Master, Warrior. Labor selected. Select class; carrier, farmer, chef, builder, blacksmith, merchant. Carrier selected. Select route; void or speed. Void selected. Skill: void storage: carry anything within a pocket space you create; dimensions: one-by-ten grid; stackable; requirement: INT: fifteen, END: fifteen; cost: ten stamina per second per half meter; level: zero of five. Ford put two points into Void storage.

The description didn’t change except for the size. It changed from a half-meter to a meter and became a two-by-ten grid. Ford then went back and looked at the merchant class. Merchant selected. Select route: crafter, seller, bard. ‘Bard?’ she thought. Bard selected. Skill: empowering music: the music you play gives damage buffs to your party; plus fifty percent damage; requirement: CHR: twenty; cost: ten mana per second, ten stamina per second; level: zero of five.

Skill: record: record what you sing in your mind; any song recorded you will be able to sing; requirement: INT: fifteen, CHR: fifteen; cost: ten mana per second, ten stamina per second; level zero of five.

Ford shrugged and put a point into empowering music and record. ‘Probably a waste of points, but it might be fun,’ She thought as she closed the window with three points left. Having nothing left to do and time to kill, she drew her sword and swung it around a little to get used to the feel of it. Just that one point made the feel of the blade familiar somehow, as though she had always used it before. She hadn’t used a katana before, so putting a skill point into sword skills came in handy.

A notification appeared in the top left of her vision, and she opened it. Quest received: don’t touch me, you damned dirty lizard; protect your friends for a set amount of time; reward; one-hundred EXP, loot. Time remaining nine minutes fifty-nine seconds, ‘What? Why-,’ Fords thought was cut off by snapping twigs, and she snapped her head up with her sword at the ready.

“Gimble,” Ford said through comms, “get ready. We’re about to have some company.” Gimble shot up to his feet and fumbled for his shields in a panic, and looked around wildly. Ford took a deep breath and slowly looked around the clearing.

A shimmer of emerald scales emerged from both sides of the forests and what appeared was a disgusting bipedal lizard-like monster. It stood two meters tall and had large razor-sharp claws on its hands and feet, and it had an overly muscular body. Its cobra-like head had black eyes, and its mouth was full of fang-like teeth. Ford quickly counted the enemies, counting twenty of the lizardmen.

Ford exhaled, took another deep breath, and charged. She got to the first Lizardman and sliced his stomach open, spilling its guts and severing the aortic artery killing the lizard. Then she went to the next one cutting off its leg and decapitating it. Then she went to the next one, cutting it in two and then cutting the next one. Within a minute, she had killed ten of the lizardmen. Or so she thought.

When she turned around, the lizardmen were still alive except for the one she decapitated. The first one she had cut stood with its guts hanging out while another crawled around with no legs. The rest were in similar states of being and were still moving. Ford turned to Gimble to see how he was doing. He successfully knocked them away but quickly started to panic since the enemies wouldn’t stay down.

“Calm down, Gimble,” Ford said over comms, “You’re doing great. Just keep them away from our friends. I’ll take them down.”

“Okay,” Gimble said out loud, and he visibly calmed down as he yelled a war cry at the undying lizardmen.

‘Good job, Gimble. I’ll hurry up and help you,’ Ford thought, then she saw another wave of lizardmen shambled from the forest edge as the first wave was halfway to the group. She took another deep breath and felt the world slow around her, and then she bolted forward and decapitated the first nine lizards and then dismembered the next ten, cutting them into headless corpses.

“FRIEND!” Gimble yelled, and Ford ran past him and decapitated two lizards flying through the air as Gimble punched them with his shields. Then she got to work on the next eighteen. As she finished the last one, she felt pain shoot through her thigh as a new wave of lizards came and one bit her, bringing her HP down to one-hundred and fifty. This one was small, slender, and brown, and there were nine more like it on both sides. They ran for Gimble and Ford only.

Ford cursed and drove one of her karambits into the lizard's brain and pried its jaw off her. A blood drop flashed next to her HP bar, and it began to tick down two points per thirty seconds. She cursed again as another brown lizard jumped for her; she slid to the right and decapitated it with a downward stroke of her blade. Two another lizard hissed from behind her, and she ducked and slid under it as the lizard lunged over her. Before it could attack again, she lunged at it and cut its head in two, and it went limp. Ford saw the other two brown lizards be ripped apart by Gimble's incredible strength.

The other five brown lizards came from behind, and Ford yelled in comms, “BEHIND YOU!” Gimble turned, swinging his shield and sending three lunging lizards flying and grabbing the other two with his other hand. Ford ran forward as fast as she could, jumped, decapitated the two lizards in his hand, then went for the other three killing two of them and getting bitten on her arm by the third. She stabbed it in the brain like she did the other lizard that bit her and pried it off.

Once she did, she let her arm hang loosely by her side, and she looked up to see one of the green lizards approach Lilly and raise one of its claws to swipe at her. ‘No, you fucking don’t,’ she thought as she reached the lizard in a second and decapitated it, then cut the other nineteen lizards on both sides. She looked at her HP bar and saw the bleed effect disappeared, and she only had twenty-six health left. She then looked at the timer in the lower left of her vision that had three minutes left.

Booming footsteps echoed through the forest, and a massive red lizardman emerged from the forest. It was five meters tall and had glowing red eyes. ‘Of course, there’s a boss fight. Why wouldn’t there be? It’s not like I’m half dead or anything,’ Ford complained to herself. She looked to Gimble and asked through comms, “What’s your HP at?”

Gimble studdered and said, “H-high.” Ford nodded, figuring that meant his HP was primarily full.

“Okay, get its attention, and I’ll finish it,” Ford said. Gimble made another war cry and charged at the massive lizardman, body checking it and forcing it to stumble. ‘That’s one of the skills I had him choose, Force back. It only costs stamina, of which he has plenty. Good job, Gimble,’ She thought.

The red lizard man charged forward and swiped at Gimble, who blocked the swipes with his shields. Ford ran and came around to the back of the massive monster. She sliced the Achilles tendon on the legs of the monster and blood sprayed Ford, covering her in it. The monster roared and fell to its knees, bringing its head closer to Gimble. He took the opportunity to punch the monster knocking it down to the ground. Ford lunged and brought her sword down on the monster's neck.

Her blade went halfway through its neck and snapped on a vertebra in its neck. “Gimble, finish it,” Ford yelled, and Gimble lunged at the monster tossing his shields aside, digging his hands into the wound Ford made and started to pull the monster's head off. The lizard roared in pain and slashed Gimble's side, severing his external obliques. With a roar from both Gimble and the beast, Gimble ripped the monster's head off. The timer hit zero and disappeared.

Ford walked over to Gimble and collapsed against him, and he collapsed as well. Panting against his cold side, Ford patted his chest and spoke out loud, “Good job, big guy.”

“I am strong,” Gimble said, laying on his back and panting.

“WHA’ IN THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED!!” Lilly yelled as she woke from her meditative trance and looked at Ford and Gimble, covered in blood.

“Oh, hey,” Ford said, a little lethargic from the blood loss, “do you mind healing us? Then yelling at us after. Don’t worry. It’s worse than it looks.”

Lilly ran over and placed her hand on Ford's thigh, and the holes from the bite healed in a few seconds, then she healed Ford’s arm. Lilly then ran over to Gimble's side and healed him, and per our agreement, she started yelling at both of them, “Why would you fight by yer selves!? Ye could have woken us, and we could have helped? Wha’ if you died!?” Lilly started to sob at the end of her tirade, and Ford walked over and hugged her.

“It’s okay, we’re alive, and that’s what matters. If this ever happens again, I’ll be sure to wake you first,” Ford whispered into the Elf’s long ears.

Lilly chuckled through her sobs and said, “Wha’ would I do?”

“I don’t know. Beat Farah over the head with your staff and wake her?” Ford said, getting a laugh from Lilly. She hadn’t noticed how Lilly’s laughter sounded like a bird chirping.

“Who’s going to beat me over the head,” Farah said as she woke from her trance, and so did everyone else.

“Oh, nothing,” Ford said with a smile.

Then a notification flashed over her vision. Quest complete: rewards; one-hundred EXP, loot received. Then a bag of loot landed on everyone's head. It didn’t damage anyone at all, but it still hurt. “Ouch,” Ford said plainly, then a second bag struck her in the head since Lilly was still hugging her. Ford stepped away from the embrace, rubbing her head, and bent down to open the loot bag.

She dumped the contents onto the ground, and a mountain of green monster cores landed on the ground in front of her, and atop the pile was a chain necklace. Ford picked up the chain and received a notification. Common necklace; effect; cancels bleed effects. ‘Neat,’ Ford thought as she put the necklace on and opened a void space. She then shoveled the monster cores into it. A window opened, showing the monster cores in the first box of a two-by ten grid with the number thirty-five on them.

Ford turned to Gimble, dumping his bag out just like Ford. His bag only had two items. One was a large red monster core as big as a bowling ball and a helmet with horns on the side. Just the right size for Gimble. “What did you get?” Ford asked.

Gimble picked up the helmet and put it on, then he spoke, “Snotty helmet,” and then took it off to dump out the giant slime in it. Ford walked over and touched the helmet, making sure not to step in the slime. Item: Horned helmet of Guargen: effect increases the perception of its wearer by ten points.

“That is a good helmet,” Ford said, “clean it out and wear it. It’ll help you,” She then turned to everyone else, “What did you all get?”

“Just coins,” Morgan said with disappointment.

“We got paid,” Kii said with surprise.

“For doing nothing,” Mizu added with surprise.

“Best job ever,” Kii said.

Ford looked down at her blade. It had snapped near the hilt and was worthless at this point, so she tossed it and drew her karambits. Benet spoke and asked, “What are these things? Do you know?”

Ford looked up at him and thought a moment, “Umm, let me check,” she then pulled up her activity log, and a message popped up. Summery, yes or no. Ford selected yes, and she read, defeated thirty Lazerus beasts; plus sixty EXP; defeated eight Lazerus dashers; plus sixteen EXP; assisted defeat Lazerus Naga; plus twenty-five EXP. Ford looked at her EXP bar and read it was at four hundred and one out of one-thousand one-hundred. Then she looked at Benet and said, “They were Lazerus beasts, and the big one was a Lazerus Naga.”

“Great, we all know what nearly killed us now. Shall we get going,” Farah said and walked into the entrance of the dungeon.

Ford pursed her lips and said, “Well, you heard her. Let’s go.” Then walked into the dungeon, followed by everyone else.