As night in the realm approached, the party retreated to the cleaned areas to make camp. With a group this size, three shifts were formed to ensure that everyone got enough sleep while those awake kept an eye out for any threats. Dallion, as having the lowest perception, was paired with Alera and the old man, while the rest were in pairs. The lieutenant was the only one who was to sleep the entire night.

Initially, Dallion didn’t see this as fair, but soon he found out that this was due to popular demand. No one wanted a party leader that was off, so during the party downtime, they were careful to ensure that as little as possible disturbed him.

“Want me to get Lux to sit about?” Dallion asked. “He’s pretty good as a torch.”

“Great. That will make all the nasties see us better,” Alera said.

“Right.”

Dallion felt ashamed. During his dagger test, he had specifically left the lantern given to him behind, and proceeded into the darkness for that specific reason. Yet, here he was now making the same rookie mistake. Rather, he wasn’t making that mistake, he was making an even more basic one—trying to impress the elites and in doing so, not thinking adequately.

I really need to level up, he thought. With luck, he’d deal with those flaws and start behaving more adequately.

“Everyone was a newbie once,” the old man said. “Don’t feel bad, but don’t expect too much slack, either. It is what it is.”

“Maybe I should have had a bit more training before tackling this,” Dallion admitted.

“Maybe. Or maybe the point was for March to see how well you can swim.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t know anything about the world item. Even the sphere items are a stretch. The low-level ones are easy, but the really serious ones… well, you saw what could happen there.”

“You mean all this is just a test?”

“Life itself is a test,” the old man said, at which Alera rolled her eyes. Dallion got the impression this wasn’t the first time the story had been told. “Venturing into the unknown prepares you for the unknown. Playing it safe prepares you for playing it safe. Do you know what so few item menders move to anything bigger?”

“That’s bullshit.” Alera hissed.

“There are exceptions, but even you have to admit there aren’t many.”

She was an improver, Nil explained. Top grade. Could do a dozen levels in a go. Merchants loved her for it, even the middle class. Then something happened, and she had to make a change.

What? Dallion asked instinctively.

That is her business, dear boy. As I said, the Icepickers are the place for people who are running from something or running towards something. Do you want people to learn about your own history?

Dallion had to agree. The whole reason he used the name Darude was to no longer be associated with his grandfather. That part of his past was best left unshared.

“What about you?” Dallion turned to the old man. “Did you choose to do this?”

“In a way. I used to be a guard a long while back.”

Dallion blinked. He didn’t expect that in the least. There was nothing in the old man’s appearance or behavior that suggested he could have been part of the city guard.

“I think it’s time everyone shut up,” Alera said, although it was she who had started the conversation. “I’ll scout about a bit, just to make sure.”

“Do your thing,” the old man replied with a nod.

“Want me to come with?” Dallion offered. If his music skills were to be trusted, there wasn’t anything threatening as far as the eye could see. Nox also didn’t sense any cracklings in the vicinity.

“I’m better on my own,” the woman replied. The emotions resonating in her made it clear she was telling the truth.

Moments later she set off, leading Dallion and the old man behind.

“Don’t worry about it. That’s the spark of youth. You lot feel as if everything is the end of the world and you’re the center of attention. Give it a while and you’ll find that there are other centers.”

Here’s a person who knows what he’s talking about, Nil agreed.

Why am I not surprised you’d agree with someone your age…

Dear boy, soon you’ll find out that everyone tends to stick to people their own age. Even the awakened.

That was a scary thought.

What was his name again? Dallion asked, uncomfortable to admit he had forgotten it. Come to think of it, had the old man introduced himself? Not everyone from the party had.

Most call him Serge, though as a running joke. The name he’s chosen for himself is Gray, in part due to his hair. Either of that would do.

People seem to be really big on nicknames, Dallion joked.

They have no choice. Once their name has been forgotten, even they can’t remember it,

Dallion didn’t expect such a dark turn. He had already met a person who had had his name forgotten—it was completely removed from everyone’s memory and all other instances it was mentioned. However, he thought that was a practice reserved only for the most serious offences. After all, neither Aspion, nor his grandfather had had their names forgotten; instead, they were banished to Dherma to remain there for the rest of their lives.

What did he do?

That is another of those things that is best left untold. It’s enough that it got him kicked out of the guard, wouldn’t you say?

Dallion had no answer. Part of him wanted to leave the matter alone, to pretend it never happened. However, deep down something told him that wasn’t wise. Despite everything he had learned, there were still a lot of things he didn’t know about this world, and the power of forgetting things was one of them.

A faint snap came from the distance. Dallion jumped to his feet, summoning his harpsisword.

“Easy,” the old man said. “If it’s anything serious, Alera will raise the alarm.”

“But what if something happens to her?”

“Then we’ll raise the alarm.”

As it turned out, the woman was fine. She had indeed come across a creature of some sort and dealt with it. The more alarming part as far as Dallion was concerned was that he hadn’t been able to sense it in the least. When he later asked Alera about it, she only responded that it wasn’t his concern.

With the start of the second shift, Dallion took his place near the camp and tried to get some sleep. His body level made it ignore the discomfort of the terrain, however, he still couldn’t sleep. Curiosity mixed with concern had him remain awake for close to an hour, before Gen got into a conversation with him that eventually made him doze off.

Alas, the sleep wasn’t accompanied by calm…

“Cool room, right?” Nick asked. “Best one on campus. You’re really lucky, you know.”

Nick was Dallion’s roommate. Similar to Dallion, he had arrived a week early to get the paperwork done and get settled in. He seemed like an okay guy, although he gave the distinct impression of being a rule bender if Dallion had ever seen one.

“We’ll see when the rest arrive.” Dallion said from his bunk. The room was slightly smaller than he would have liked, but in quite good condition. Also, Nick had already plugged in two game consoles for common use, as well as a rather powerful desktop. Personally, Dallion didn’t think he’d be playing that much, but an occasional game now and again wouldn’t hurt.

“Just gives us more time to party,” Nick laughed. “In fact, there’s one this evening. Want to join?”

“Sure.” Partying the first day? There was definitely a certain charm in that. “Where?”

“Not too far off. We can walk there. More importantly, we can crawl back quietly without causing too much trouble.”

“Sounds like you’ve done it before.”

“Me? Nah. Well, maybe once or twice. Got to take advantage of the last few days before studying starts. After that I’ll have to come up with excuses.”

“Right,” Dallion laughed and went to the window.

There was a serene quiet, especially with most of the faculty and student body not arrived yet for the start of the semester. Dallion could understand why someone would spend all their time partying—there was virtually nothing else to be done. Even the university library was closed. Not that he planned going there this early on.

Looking at the sky, though, Dallion noticed that the moon seemed larger than back home. Not only that, but she seemed to be surrounded by a faint blue glow.

“Under a blue moon,” Dallion said.

“Huh?” his roommate looked up from his bed.

“The moon’s blue tonight.”

“Seriously?” Nick jumped up and joined Dallion at the window. “Wow, you’re right. Let me get a few snapshots. This’ll be great on my insta.”

The chances of a phone capturing the moon in all its glory were quite small. Even with the new advancements in cameras, Dallion had yet to see a non-professional shot look good. Of course, there always was the chance of this being the first, so he took a step back as Nick started snapping photos.

“Doesn’t look blue, though,” Nick said while taking pictures. “I’d say it’s green.”

“Yeah, right.” Dallion took a glance out of the window. He had already prepared a jokey insult, but very much to his surprise it turned out that Nick was right. The blue glow Dallion would have sworn he’d seen moments ago was now replaced by a toxic green light, as if he was looking at a science fiction moon. “Weird,” Dallion said. He had never heard of there being a green moon.

“Man, this is going to be wicked!” Nick’s speech reverted to eighties slang. “People will dig this! Getting the green one is ultra-rare.”

“Dig?” Dallion smirked.

“Only the purple one is rarer, and that only happens once in a decade.”

“Purple moon?” Things were starting to make less and less sense. “What are you talking about?”

“You know.” Nick turned around and stared at Dallion. “The sixth and seventh moons. You don’t see those every day. Heck, you don’t see them every decade! Arriving here was definitely the luckiest thing that could have happened to you.”

Sixth and seventh moon? That made no sense at all. There was only one moon, and it certainly didn’t change color at random. And just to confirm it, Dallion took out his phone and did a quick google search on the topic. Very much to his surprise, the very first hit was a site talking about the seven moons and their colors. What was more, in one section there was reference to another moon—an eight hidden from all the rest, which had no color of its own and could never be seen except by the remaining seven moons.

Who’s writing this stuff? Dallion scrolled down to see the name of the author. Before he could, everything shook violently, taking him out of the dream.

“Dal.” Spike said. “Time to go.”

“Go?” Dallion blinked. It took him a few seconds to figure out where he was. This wasn’t the campus back on Earth; it was the realm of a house that needed cleaning.

It was all a dream? Dallion asked.

What was? Nil asked.

I thought I was somewhere else. Dallion carefully chose his words.

In that case, I would say that yes, it was a dream.

“You alright, kid?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, I’m just… I’m fine,” Dallion slowly stood up. “Where are we going?”

“We can wait for a while longer,” the lieutenant said. “Sleeping in an infested realm can have that effect at times. Give it a few minutes.”

“No, it’s fine. I just…” Dallion stopped. Above his head, almost made invisible by the rays of the morning sun, there were seven moons visible in the sky. “The purple moon,” he whispered.

“Yeah.” Spike glanced up. “I guess we’re lucky. It’s rare to see it. Maybe you’re our lucky charm.”

Dallion didn’t say a word. For some reason, he didn’t feel too lucky right now.