Chpt. 7) The end of peace

As they entered the third room, Ford looked at her EXP bar reading eight hundred and sixty of one-thousand one-hundred, then she looked around the room. The third room had a rainforest-type climate, and some giant trees and bushes fanned out over the central area. The air around the room was humid and hot; it made it hard for Ford to breathe easily.

“This is going to suck,” Ford complained as she stood in the room.

Farah scoffed, “Ha, can’t handle the heat?”

“No. No, I can’t,” Ford panted through deep breaths.

“Ha, this is nothing for me,” Farah scoffed again and took a deep breath in, “This feels like home.”

“Well, good for you,” Ford chortled, “I guess you won’t mind being the one to do most of the fighting.”

Lilly stepped in to stop the argument, “Let’s not argue before we find out wha’ we’re fightin’.”

Ford sighed and said, “Fine, let’s get this over with so we can leave.”

They all walked to the center of the room, and on the far side of the room, an HP bar popped up, and above the bar was the name Baba Naga. ‘Baba Naga? Is that a bad pun?!’ Ford thought as she read the name of the monster.

Ford spoke over comms, “Okay, I think this will be a boss fight, and this is most likely the last room of the practice dungeon. Lilly, do you know anything about Nagas?”

“Nagas are a shape-shiftin’ serpent tha’ can be a scaley human or a giant serpent tha’ can swallow Gimble whole. As for the ti’le, ‘Baba,’ I don’ know anythin’,” Lilly said calmly.

“I know what the name means,” Ford said, “‘Baba Naga’ is a play on words. It’s based on Baba Yaga from my world. She makes nightmares and uses webs to capture and eat people; she prefers to eat babies alive.”

“I though’ ye said there were no monsters in yer world,” Lilly said in a panic.

“There aren’t. There are only myths,” Ford defended.

“Why all the arguing,” a calm voice said in all their heads, “I don’t like you arguing. It ruinsssss the meat.”

Everyone immediately circled up around Lilly and looked around the jungle room to find Baba Naga's hiding spot. A green and purple smoke slowly rose from the ground and rested around their feet as it slowly rose. “Farah, have you spotted it?” Ford asked, trying to stay calm.

Farah was silent for a moment and said, “It’s above us.”

“That’sss no fun,” Baba Naga said as she dropped to the ground in the middle of the group, forcing them to scatter. Ford looked at the monster that attacked and had to suppress the urge to run. It was a massive snake four meters tall and wide and, judging from its coiled body, at least twenty meters long with green and purple scales. The head of the snake looked like an old hag with a wort on her nose and stringy hair. She looked at Ford and gave her a monstrously wide and fanged smile.

Ford drew her sword and the Willful dagger. She charged the sword with three hundred mana and threw the dagger up. Baba Naga tracked the blade with her eyes; as she did, Ford made three quick slashes with her sword using light, dark, and fire. The light struck Baba Naga across the eyes, blinding her and making her scream in pain; the dark blade struck her gaping maw, severing it; the fire blade impacted the scales below her head, doing no damage and igniting the gasses below Baba Naga.

Ford summand her dagger to her hand, and it obeyed, landing hilt first into her right hand a second later. She then threw the dagger aiming for Baba Naga’s gaping maw. Baba Naga saw the blade coming and was ready for it. She fell backward, letting the dagger fly past her. As the dagger disappeared behind the massive snake, Ford summoned the dagger again a smiled as the blade passed through the serpent in a spray of blood.

‘That was easy. Even if I didn’t behead her, she had to have lost a ton of health and will die soon,’ Ford thought, then looked at the HP bar on the far side of the dungeon room. It barely moved at all and was at ninety-eight percent at least. Then she felt a pain in her stomach as Baba Naga slammed her tail into Ford’s gut, sending her flying into a tree and knocking the air out of her body.

She collapsed to the ground, gasping, and looked at her HP. It had fallen to fifty points. She had just barely survived the impact. “FARAH DRAW HER ATTENTION,” Ford yelled over comms as she got air into her lungs. Then she added, “Benet, Morgan, I need healing and protection for a minute.”

“Understood,” they all said, and Morgan was the first to her side and was closely followed by Benet, who cast a quick healing spell that only brought her HP up to one twenty-five.

“I need more HP than that,” Ford said when she read her HP.

“I can’t go any higher. You have a broken rib, and you can’t get HP until that is fixed,” Benet explained quickly.

“Oh, ssssoundsss like your leader isss in trouble,” Baba Naga said as she dodged the slashes Farah made at her, “whatever will that healer of yoursss do?”

The sarcasm in the serpent's voice made alarms blare in Ford's head as she looked around for Lilly. she was nowhere to be seen. “LILLY,” Ford yelled in comms as she looked. There was no answer.

Morgan spoke up as he looked back at Ford, “I don’t think she got out of the way of Baba Naga in time. She might still be underneath the snake.”

“Or in its coil,” Ford said, “Gimble, we need you here.”

Ford heard Gimble's thundering feet as the serpent said, “My, my, aren’t you a ssssmart one. You’d better hurry then. Elvessss tasssste delicioussss.”

‘She can hear our conversation over comms, which might be a problem. We’ll work with it, though, and work around it,’ Ford thought as Gimble ran up beside her.

Farah spoke over comms, “I could use a hand here.”

“On it,” Ford responded, then looked at Gimble and spoke aloud as fast as she could, “Gimble, take Morgan and throw him on my mark. When you’re close to Baba Naga, Morgan hit her as many times as possible and in as many directions as possible. Use your hammer’s ability when you get away one way or another.”

“I don’t think this is a good plan,” Morgan said.

“It’s not,” Ford responded and dashed forward. Her rib shot pain threw her body with every step, but she ignored it and jumped up the snake's body to get at its head. Baba Naga saw her coming while Farah came from the other side. The serpent pulled herself back as Ford and Farah came into striking range.

Farah looked surprised by this, but Ford expected it and sheathed her sword as she tackled Farah and threw her backward. “Now!” Ford yelled over comms, and Baba Naga’s eyes widened as she looked at the Dwarf wielding his massive war hammer and striking her body with enough force to make her body come off the ground after each strike.

Baba Naga screamed in pain and uncoiled her body to strike Morgan's shield and launch him far enough to impact the wall. The hardy Dwarf landed on his feet with only a few bruises, but it still looked like it hurt.

“Benet, get her!” Ford said as she landed on the other side of the serpent, then added, “Morgan, now!”

Benet darted forward his natural speed, allowing him to close the distance to Lilly; Ford couldn’t see her past the serpent's long body. Morgan's hammer sparked, and the double impact activated. Baba Naga’s body contorted, shook, launched into the air, and hit the ground simultaneously.

Benet darted underneath Baba Naga with Lilly in his arms as she rose off the ground. He brought her straight to Ford and layed her at Ford's feet. The Elfs' beautiful red and white dress was burnt black and had holes, revealing the burnt skin underneath. Her hair was charred and burnt on one side, while the other was covered in soot. Her eyes were rolled up into her head, and she looked like she was gasping for air.

“She got lucky,” Benet said as he started casting healing spells on her, “a second longer, and she would have died. How did she get this way, though; I don’t know.”

Ford gritted her teeth and clenched her fists; she knew how Lilly got this bad, “Did you heal the poison in her?” Ford asked.

“Yes, I just did. How did you-” Benet said but was cut off as Ford continued.

“Twins, where are you?” Ford asked over comms, then added, “keep it vague.”

“We’re safe,” one of them said.

“Do you have a clear shot?” Ford asked.

“Yes, why?” one of the twins asked.

“When I tell you to shoot a fire arrow at the poison gas, do it. Heard?”

“Heard,” the twins repeated back.

Baba Naga stopped being thrown around and coiled herself back around the middle of the room. Ford turned toward Farah and spoke aloud, “Let’s go,” Farah nodded in response, and as they ran forward, Ford pointed to the right and went left; Farah went right. Ford spared a glance at Baba Naga’s HP and saw it was down to eighty percent.

Baba Naga swung her tail at Ford and jumped up, just barely making it over the tail. When she landed, she spoke over comms to taunt Baba Naga, “Is that all you got, you oversized worm. Where’s that famous poison of yours? What are you too stupid to talk about killing us now?” Baba Naga fixed its gaze on Ford and closed its hanging jaw, the flesh barely keeping it on mending itself. Then the serpent sprayed poison gas from its mouth at Ford, and she jumped back, doing her best to avoid it. “Now!” she yelled; a fire arrow came from behind Ford and went straight into Baba Naga’s mouth.

The gas ignited, and Ford could see the serpent's body expand as the explosion traveled down her body. Ford didn’t let Baba Naga have a chance to recuperate as she yelled at Farah, “BEHEAD HER!” Ford rushed in and jumped up the side of the twisting serpent and went straight for its neck. Farah reached the neck first and brought her blades down upon it. The blades went halfway through the monster's neck before snapping on a vertebra. Ford brought her sword down on the monster's neck at the same time as Farah and channeled three hundred mana and three dark blades as she severed the serpent's head clean off.

Then the body writhed and threw Ford and Farah off, landing on the ground next to Lilly and Benet. Ford could feel her right ankle snap as she landed, and a scream escaped her lips as her HP went down to one hundred. Ford looked at Baba Naga’s HP and saw it went down to fifty percent. The serpent’s body dissolved, leaving nothing behind, and in the center of the room was an old hag with the head of the snake.

“HOW DARE YOU BEHEAD ME!!” Baba Naga yelled, “HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE ME!!”

Ford rolled her eyes and spoke over comms so Baba Naga could hear, “Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, Baba Naga. Morgan, Gimble, Farah shut her up.”

The three of them came crashing in and attacked the hag. Gimble reached her first and smacked her with his shield. She was lifted off the ground and sent flying toward Farah, who grabbed Baba Naga’s face with her clawed foot and slammed her to the ground. Morgan reached her, and Farah jumped aside as he brought his mighty hammer down on her swinging it with all his might as fast as possible.

Then Baba Naga grabbed the hammer as it came down, and she threw Morgan away with one hand and stood in the process. She hissed, and poison gas spilled from her mouth surrounding her. The twins took advantage of that and shot a fire arrow at the plumb of poison, igniting it. When the smoke cleared, Baba Naga was gone, and everyone looked around to find her. Ford drew her dagger, got to her left knee, then said, “Morgan, activate your double impact.”

The gems on Morgan's hammer activated, and the HP bar for Baba Naga went down to fifteen percent, but she didn’t reveal herself. Ford looked at Farah, and she shook her head. Then the purple and green gas instantly filled the room, and Ford couldn’t see anything. She looked around frantically, then spoke over chat again, “Is everyone okay and in the same spot?”

Everyone confirmed that they were alright, then Benet spoke, “This gas doesn’t seem to be made of poison. Probably just meant to obscure our vision.”

“I can only see about a meter around me,” Farah said.

“Same here,” Ford and Benet confirmed.

A shadow passed through the corner of Ford’s vision, and she looked only to see nothing there. Then another shadow went through her vision and another. She never moved her feet to look at the shadow and just moved her head. Ford then took mental note of where everyone was and judged the distances between everyone and considering how thick the smoke is, any of them would get lost in it. Ford took the Willful dagger by the blade in her right hand; doing some quick mental math, she aimed two degrees to her left and thirty-five degrees up. Figuring that is about where Farah might be.

Then the shadow came at her from that very spot; she threw the dagger, and the shadow dodged with inhuman speed and went behind Ford, grabbed her by the throat, and lifted her with one hand. She fought the urge to grab the hand holding her up and instead reached for her Karambits. The shadow made two quick strikes to her wrists as she drew them, dislocating them. If she weren’t being strangled, she would have screamed as her HP went down to eighty.

“Did you really think,” Baba Naga said as she removed the shadow around her, “that your throwing knife trick would work twice?”

Ford spoke through chat so Baba Naga could hear, “Who said that knife was meant for you,” she said and summoned her dagger back. She could feel resistance from the summoning, and Farah came out from the smoke being pulled by the dagger. Ford stopped the summoning, and Farah plunged the dagger into Baba Naga’s aortic artery. As the snake woman screamed, Farah pulled the knife out, plunged it into her throat, and beheaded her again.

Baba Naga went limp, and Ford landed on her bad ankle, and pain shot up her leg as she collapsed, her HP dropping to seventy. As she lay there, she looked back at Baba Naga’s health bar, which had finally hit zero. Baba Naga’s body fell to the floor and turned to dust, unlike all the rest of the monster bodies.

“How did you know?” Farah asked.

Ford answered through gritted teeth, “Well, everyone was still in the same position when the gas filled the room, and I have an excellent special memory. So I just had to do some quick guessing math and-”

“That isn’t what I mean,” Farah cut her off, then said, “How did you know I wouldn’t take the opportunity to kill you and lead everyone myself.”

Ford made a pained chuckle and said, “That’s easy. I didn’t know. I just trusted that you would have my back.”

Farah stared at Ford for a moment and said nothing, then the dagger left her hand and re-appeared in Ford’s sheath. Before Farah could say anything, Lilly sat up, rubbing her head and groaning. “Wha’ happened?” Lilly asked, then saw Ford laying on the ground a crumpled mess, and she raced over to heal her. Then Lilly asked, “Wha’ in the bloody hell happened to you?”

“It’s a long story,” Ford said as she felt her bones painlessly re-align and re-form back together. When Lilly finished healing her, she sat up and embraced Lilly, catching her off guard.

“Wha’-” Lilly started but was cut off by Ford.

“I am so sorry,” Ford said as tears started to roll down her face, “I wasn’t paying attention and underestimated our opponent and overestimated our abilities. That led to me being careless, and I didn’t watch everyone. As a result, I nearly killed you,” Ford started to sob into Lilly’s shoulder, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Lilly hugged Ford back and spoke into her ear, “It’s alrigh’. I’m fine now. Don’ blame yerself for every mistake; even if ye make one, ye can learn from it and never make it again.”

“Mistakes in battle can only be made once!” Ford snapped, still sobbing into Lilly’s shoulder, “If anybody dies, that’s it. We’re gone.”

“Enough of this,” Lilly snapped back, making Ford raise her head and look into Lilly’s sky blue eyes. Her glasses were missing a lens, and one of the temples was missing on the right side. Lilly cupped Ford’s face and said, “Mistakes were made today. No one got killed. Learn from these mistakes and never let them happen again. Got it?”

Ford took a sniffling breath and nodded, then she stood, whipping her eyes, and looked around. Everyone gathered around and looked at them with teary eyes, except Farah, Gimble, and Benet. Farah didn’t care about the exchange and looked up for the loot bags; Gimble didn’t understand what was happening, and Benet was holding his stubbled chin contemplating something. Then a perverted smile spread across his face; while he was distracted, Ford walked over and kicked his face, breaking his nose.

“Don’t ask what that was for because you know why,” Ford said, putting one hand on her hips and pointing at him. He nodded then Lilly walked over to him and healed his nose.

“Loot,” Farah called, and Ford jumped backward, trying to dodge her bag. Everyone avoided their bag except for Gimble, who never noticed. Ford’s loot bag never dropped; she stood up straight, and then the bag fell, landing on her head.

Ford cursed and dumped the bag onto the ground. A black orb hit the ground and a coin with the white king and queen from a chessboard on either side. A notification flashed in the corner of Ford’s vision, and she looked up at the EXP bar and read, zero of one-thousand two-hundred ten. ‘Level up and loot. If the outcome had ended poorly, it wouldn’t have been worth it,’ Ford thought grimly. She then picked up the black orb and read the notification that popped up.

Item: Tanashi’s tungsten steel hat; quality: Legendary; effect: a highly durable helmet that can shapeshift to the user's preference; effect: plus ten INT, WIS, PER; effect: indestructible. Ford couldn’t hold back her excitement, “LEGENDARY HELMET!!!!” she yelled. She then thought of turning it into a new Fedora, and it changed into a completely black version of the one she had in the last room. Once it altered, she flourished it and put it on her head; she could feel the instant increase in her stats, and it felt great. Then she smelled Gimble's snotty armor, and it wasn’t great anymore.

“Gimble, buddy. When we get out of here, we need to give you a bath,” Ford said, covering her nose. Gimble lifted his left arm and smelled it; even he recoiled from the smell. He was quickly distracted by the loot bag falling off his head.

“What does your helmet do,” the twins asked simultaneously behind Ford. She turned around and saw they were chilling in a tree, completely relaxed as they opened their bags.

Ford smiled smugly, “It adds plus ten points to intelligence, wisdom, and perception. It also shapeshifts into any form I want and is indestructible.”

“That was the most detailed explanation you’ve given us about your equipment yet,” Kii noted.

Ford thought for a moment and said, “True,” then added, “What did everyone else get?”

Lilly spoke first, “I got an epic quali’y staff of healing tha’ lets me cast high-level healing spells from a distance of fifteen me’ers and protects me from damage with a shield for a short time. The shield cooldown is twen’y minutes, though, and costs three thousand mana which I can store in the staff or when I need it. I also got new glasses,” she said while holding up a pair of glasses precisely like her old ones.

“Nice, how long does the shield last?” Ford asked.

“It only lasts one minute,” Lilly said, a little disappointed.

“Well, the healing is at least useful. Here I’ll store your current staff,” Ford said and opened up a one-meter hole to put away Lilly’s staff. She looked down at the old gnarled root and put it into Ford’s void storage.

Benet was the next to speak, “Well, I too got a legendary weapon. The vanishing dagger it’s bonded to my hand. It will allow me to teleport to the dagger at a minimum distance of two meters and costs one hundred mana peruse with no cool down,” a smug smile spread across Benet's face as he threw the dagger at a tree when the dagger was close to the tree he teleported. He reappeared, holding the dagger, then slammed into the tree, back first.

Everyone started laughing at him; even Farah gave a little chuckle. “What did you get, Farah?”

“Legendary martial art boots. Gives plus ten strength and agility,” Farah said. Then she held up a pair of silver orbs and touched them to her feet. The metal melted and wrapped itself around her feet and up to the first bend in her legs; the metal allowed her claws to move un-impeded with the full range of motion.

Morgan hesitantly spoke next, “I have an epic helmet that gives plus five wisdom and a warning when someone is attacking my blind spot, but I think Gimble needs some consoling.”

“Why’s that?” Ford asked, then Gimble started crying loudly in frustration.

“I DON’T WANT SNOTTY CLOTHES!!!” Gimble yelled.

Ford walked over to the big guy and looked at his new gear. Item: snotty grieves; quality: common; effect: become harder to grab due to a constant supply of mucus from the grieves. Ford patted Gimble on the leg then spoke in comms so that she could be heard over his cries, “Hey, buddy, you don’t have to keep those grieves.”

Gimble took a few sniffling breathes and asked, “R-r-really?”

“Really. Just throw them away. You don’t need them,” Ford confirmed. Then Gimble turned around and threw the grieves as hard as he could, and they impacted the far was with a sickening smack.

Ford turned to the twins and said, “What did you get?”

“Epic bow,” Kii said, “can change into any launcher type weapon, whatever that means, costs two hundred mana per shift.”

“Let me see it?” Ford said, and Kii dropped down and handed the bow to Ford. Item: Versatile launcher; quality: epic; effect: can be made into any launcher type weapon; effect: can be used in various situations; requirements: imagination; cost: ten mana per shot, two hundred mana per shift. Ford used two hundred mana and imagined a bolt action fifty caliber collapsible sniper rifle.

The bow shifted into the sniper rifle Ford was imagining; it was a meter and a half long and had a scope with times four to twenty zoom and an effective range of eighteen hundred meters. Ford had to fight the urge to keep this gorgeous piece of work as she pulled on a lever collapsing the sniper rifle in half, and handed it back to Kii.

Mizu dropped down and gawked at the sniper rifle in his brother's hands, “What is that?” he asked.

“It is a work of art. It is a bolt action fifty caliber collapsible sniper rifle with times four to twenty zoom and an effective range of eighteen hundred meters. Use it well,” Ford said as Mizu shifted his bow into the sniper rifle.

“The other thing we got was a pair of rare goggles. Allows us to see four times further judge distances and wind speed, but they’re nothing compared to this beauty,” Mizu said as he looked at the sniper.

“Those goggles are a perfect pairing for the sniper rifle since all those factors into the shot you have to take. Just be sure to adjust the site accordingly,” Ford said.

“How do you adjust the sites?” Kii asked.

“The dials of the right adjust elevation, on the top adjusts wind speed, on the left is the zoom,” Ford explained.

“As interesting as this is,” Farah interrupted, “but what are these coins for?” she asked, pointing at the coins on the floor.

Ford shrugged and picked up the one she dropped. Item: question coin; quality: legendary; effect: ask your god one question. Ford raised her eyebrows and said, “It lets us ask a question of our god.”

“How do ye activa’e it?” Lilly asked, examining her coin; her coin had a white bishop on both sides, one with a white background and the other black.

Ford thought for a moment and said, “There’s a song slash saying in my world, and it goes, ‘toss a coin to your witcher,’” then Ford balanced the coin on her right thumb and flipped it into the air. The world warped, and she was surrounded by darkness, and the only thing she could see was her own body.

“It’s about time you got here,” an all too familiar child-like voice said from behind her. She turned around to see Tanashi sitting crosslegged on his throne of games, then he said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Ask your question. We have all the time in the worlds.”

Ford sighed, “God damn it.”

“That’s why I made beavers.”

***

Ford walked back and forth on the invisible floor, thinking long and hard about the question she wanted to ask. “Soooo,” Tanashi said, “You’ve been pacing for what would be an hour on Erath. Do you want some suggestions for questions? Do you want to know if you have a shot with Lilly? Or do you want to know about Max?” then he gave an over exasperated gasp, “Don’t tell me you want to know about Gimble?”

Ford stopped and looked at him, “Wha-no, I don’t want to know any of that.”

“Good cause I don’t know the answer,” he said with a shrug.

“Then why- know what, never mind. I’m still waiting for you to explain the rules you mentioned about asking the questions,” Ford said, continuing to pace.

“Oh, that’s right,” Tanashi said, then sat up straight, holding up three fingers, “First rule, you can’t ask about the future. You’d only get a vague guess because we don’t know. The second rule is that you can’t ask about someone’s fate or what is in their minds. That violates the first rule and a person's free will, with which we can’t interfere. The third rule is that you can’t ask about what other people are currently doing, where they are, what they will do, or if someone may or may not threaten you. Doing so violates the first and second rules, and we won’t answer.”

Ford rolled her eyes and said, “It’s good to know that you have God's three rules of omnipotence to guide the questions.”

“I just call them the three laws of Godliness, but that sounds a lot better, I will admit,” Tanashi admitted.

Ford chuckled a little, then started to think aloud, “To get our wishes, we have to complete all seven dungeons on all seven worlds. When we finish a dungeon, we get to ask one question for a total of forty-nine questions, this one making fifty. The only way we lose is by dying. The only way things are reset to before the game begins is if one of the seven races manages to kill us. You’ve given us a guide or companion of sorts, and she knows a lot and will tell us anything we want to know. Mostly about Grimoires, magic, and where to go. If she is also a companion given to us by the Gods, she must also have been told to take care of us. This most likely means she will have supplies and will help us train, but since the dungeons or races will have to kill us, she won’t help us in fights, and we have to win ourselves.”

Tanashi listened to this rambling with a broad smile and said to himself, “I knew you were clever.”

Ford flinched and looked at him, ‘I must have figured everything out, and that was a sly way of confirming it. Or he is an idiot and didn’t think I could hear him, though it’s probably the former. I need to ask the perfect question,’ she thought, then realized something. She looked at Tanashi and asked, “What will happen when we don’t play your game?”

Tanashi perked up, and his smile became inhumanly wide, then he asked, “What do you mean precisely?”

Ford took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts, “There is a timer for completing the quest you’ve given us. It starts at twenty-five years. That’s a long time for my race and probably a few others. Long enough to disappear and never be seen again. So what happens when we decide we don’t want to play your dungeon game and instead want just to hide? What happens when that timer runs out?”

Tanashi slowly started to chuckle; then the chuckle became a small laugh; then the laughter became hysterical as he answered, “HAHAHA, Isn’t it obvious? Failure means death. You fail to complete the dungeons by running out of time or quitting and letting the time run out. Then the six other Gods and I will start the game all over. By wiping out all the races, again. You weren’t the first to try and quit by surviving, and you won’t be the last. However, you were the first to ask that particular question,” Tanashi laughed again as Ford felt panic well up inside her.

Ford took a few deep breaths, focused the panic into her soul, and filled herself with rage. She clenched her fists, “You’re a monster, not a God,” she said with all her pent-up anger.

“Maybe,” Tanashi said, recovering from his laughter, “but no one will know, and no one will care. Also, so that you know, you can change your hat’s color and texture without compromising its durability. Have fun in our dungeons,” his voice took on a sinister air when he said the last part. With a flick of Tanashi’s wrist, Ford was warped back to the dungeon in the spot she was standing.

Lilly yelped as Ford appeared and looked concerned, “Are you okay?” she asked.

Ford dug her nails into her palm and said, “I’m fine. Let’s go,” she then walked past her group, and a door opened under where Baba Naga’s HP bar had been. Ford turned and walked toward it.

“Wai’,” Lilly called out and asked, “we flipped our coins and talked to our Gods. Wha’ did yer’s say to make ye so angry?”

Ford chuckled to herself and looked over her shoulder at Lilly as she said, “If we win, we get a wish. If we die in a dungeon or get killed by one of the seven races, everything is reset to when the game started, minus us. If we let the twenty-five-year timer run out,” Ford turned away and bit her lip, “then every living being on all the worlds die,” Ford continued walking and went through the door, bringing her back to the beginning of the dungeon. Ford then took off her fedora and saw she must have subconsciously changed it to the ruby red cloth fedora she was had.

Ford looked at the time in the bottom of her vision and saw they had only been there an hour in real-world time, so they had gone through the dungeon in five hours. They spent most of the time walking and resting between rooms, so it made sense. Ford sat down and opened her Yggdras system, preparing for the next fights.

EXP threshold reached, level up to level three; six ability points are available, six skill points are available. Ford put the six ability points into intelligence since it will help her think further ahead. Her stats screen now read. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler; Level: three. Abilities: STR: twenty-one; PER: fifteen plus ten; END: eighteen; INT: twenty-four plus ten; AGI: twenty; CHR: twenty-one: LCK: twelve; WIS: twelve plus ten; 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, Void storage two/five, empowering music one/five, record one/five.

HP: one-hundred ninety-eight; STM: one-thousand eight-hundred thirty-six; MN: twenty-nine-thousand one-hundred thirty-one; EXP: zero/one-thousand two-hundred ten. Ford thought about her regeneration rates and adding them to the stats screen. They appeared a second later at the bottom and read; STM recharge: thirty-nine per second; MN recharge: fifty-eight per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent.

Ford opened up her Grimoire screen and read; you have nine un-used skill points. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beastmaster, Warrior. Warrior selected. Select classes: CQB, Paladin, Knight. Knight selected. Select route: soldier, commander. Soldier selected. Skills: spear, sword, claymore.

New skills acquired: fatal slash: create a wave of energy imbued with any combination of essences; range: ten meters; cost: one-hundred mana; level zero of one.

Skill: long strike: dash forward five meters to attack an enemy; cost: two-hundred stamina, one-hundred mana; level zero of five.

Ford put one point into long strike, fatal slash, and sword skills; then went into CQB and put a point into hand-to-hand combat, ignoring the new skills. She then went back and opened up the healer class. Healer selected. Select route; combat medic, savior. Savior selected. Skill: bone repair; repair bones in ten minutes; requirements: INT: fifteen; cost: ten mana per second; level one of five.

Skill: cure: cure-all poisons; requirements: INT: twenty; cost: five hundred mana; level zero of one.

Skill: mend flesh: put flesh, tendons, and nerves back to gather in ten minutes, stop bleeding effects; requirements: INT: fifteen; cost: ten mana per second; level zero of five.

Skill: absolute heal: cast repair bones, cure, and mend flesh simultaneously; requirements: skills: repair bones, cure, mend flesh, INT: twenty-five; cost: five hundred mana plus X mana per second; level zero of one.

Ford put one point into each healing spell, leaving her with one point left. She decided to hold on to it, closed the Yggdras system, and found Gimble sitting in front of her cross-legged and trying to read his Grimoire. “Hey, big guy,” Ford said with a weary voice.

Gimble looked up and showed her his Grimoire and said, “Don’t know what abilities to get.”

Ford gave a weak chuckle, and her stomach rumbled as she realized she hadn’t eaten that day. She clutched her stomach and said, “Put the points into intelligence and try to get it up to ten. Meanwhile, save your skill points; you should have twelve now.”

Gimble nodded, and his eyes glazed over as he allocated the two ability points into intelligence. Then a bowl was thrust in front of Ford's face by Farah; Ford could smell the stew in the bowl, and she took it greedily. Farah sat next to Ford and silently ate her stew. After a moment of silence, Farah spoke her voice only loud enough for Ford or the twins to hear, “So if we win, we kill innocent people one way or another; we lose, we die; we quit everyone dies. Doesn’t sound like an entertaining game.”

Ford couldn’t find the urge to laugh and instead finished her stew before answering, “That is why we have to win. We may kill people who don’t deserve it along the way, but we can wish for anything. So even if we kill people, one of us can use our wish to bring them back.” Farah nodded along, and Ford looked at her to see that the helmet she had been wearing had become an intricate webbing in her horns. As though it had become a hair ornament. Then a thought acquired to Ford, “Wait, who made this stew?”

“I did,” a voice said from behind Ford. She turned and saw Ee was standing there over a large cauldron of stew.

Ford stood up, walked over to her, and said, “I have a few questions.”

“I have a few answers, maybe, put the bowls over there,” she said, then pointed to a stump behind her where there was already a massive empty bowl, clearly meant for Gimble.

Ford put the bowl into the other and turned to ask her questions, “Okay, where are the dungeons? What does the Grimoire progression mean? Also, how do we level up soul faster?”

Ee nodded and said, “Good questions. The dungeons are scattered worldwide; the first is in a nearby mountain we’ll discuss later. We will also discuss Grimoire's progression later after getting more monster cores, which we will discuss later. As for leveling your soul, I need more information. When your try to move your soul, what does it feel like?”

Ford thought for a moment and said, “Like trying to push a boulder uphill after it had been half-buried.”

“There’s your problem,” Ee said, pointing a long wooden spoon at Ford, “You made your soul a solid object; you’ll need to melt it down now and let it flow through you directly, which takes a long time. Judging from your description, you need to melt rocks, and since it’s a solid object within you now and you can’t mentally melt it. There are only two ways of leveling your soul.”

“Which is?” Ford asked impatiently.

Ee rolled her eyes and said, “You need to either break your soul into millions of little chunks and use those one at a time, which takes years. Or you need to heat your body specifically through physical activity. No bathing in a hot spring or sunbathing in a desert.”

Ford narrowed her eyes and asked, “What kind of physical activity?”

Ee shrugged, “Anything to get your body temperature to feverish levels. So fighting, for example, carrying heavy things a long distance, and so on. It will still take years, but you’ll save like ten years or so compared to breaking it apart.”

“Great,” Ford said and put her hands on her hips. Then her stomach rumbled in unison with Gimble, whose stomach was louder. Ford walked over and grabbed her bowl closely, followed by Gimble. She then returned to Ee and asked a little sheepish, “May I have some more, please.”

Ee put a spoon full into her bowl and emptied the rest into Gimble's bowl, then said, “This will be the one time I cook for you; feel free to use my equipment. Just ask first,” and with a snap of her fingers the cauldron disappeared in shadow. Ford enjoyed every bite of the stew as everyone else sat around her.

When she finished the stew, she also set the bowl down, and it disappeared into shadows. “Wha’ are we goin’ to do?” Lilly asked, sitting next to Ford.

Ford looked at her and then looked at everyone else, who all had different expressions of hopelessness. Ford stood up, walked a few steps forward, turned, looked each of them in the eyes, and said, “You want to know what to do? Well, isn’t it obvious? We will fight and win those wishes to make this game stop for good. It’s not my best speech, but you get the point.” She gave them a wry smile and waved for them to follow her out of the pocket practice dungeon. Everyone in the group got a glimmer of hope in their eyes as they rose and followed Ford.