Serenity lay on his back, looking at the false sky through the branches of a tree. He knew this was the most artificial environment he’d ever been in, but it didn’t seem that way. The sky was blue, with only wisps of clouds lit by the false sun.

Serenity closed his eyes. It reminded him of the first picnic he’d had with Rissa. A beautiful spring day with barely a cloud in the sky … that day had been a little chilly. He’d cuddled close to Rissa to help her stay warm.

That was the day everything changed for him. It wasn’t the first time everything changed - and it definitely wasn’t the last - but it was the day he stopped looking for something and started finding it.

With Rissa.

Only Rissa wasn’t his anymore. Had never been his. She’d been Thomas’s, and for all that he had Thomas’s memories, he wasn’t Thomas. Not anymore.

Not since the last time everything changed. When he woke up with the added memories of a man who’d conquered everything and regretted much of it, then saved Rissa’s life only to have Order’s Voice start the Tutorial. It was all connected; Rissa’s death had been the Final Reaper’s first regret, after all.

When Rissa died … he’d become Vengeance. He’d studied Death magic to bring her back, thinking that was how it worked.

He’d been wrong, but no one had asked why he studied it. It was a decent affinity, after all. He’d started at what … 30 or so? He couldn’t recall. He’d immersed himself in Death for so long, increased his affinity, gained it as first a Concept then an Aspect … that was later. Early on … early on it had been different. He’d been so lost in his rage.

Vengeance hadn’t wanted to be a primary caster - he’d wanted to smash things, not learn difficult precise incantations. When it came time to select a Path, he chose DeathKnight. It fit him well, and became the basis for his future. DeathKnight was a Death-based melee tank. Vengeance used Death magic to reinforce his armor and cause afflictions with his weapons. He’d kept the Death-based part for his entire life, but he’d continued to learn, adding weapons and magic. As a hybrid weapons and magic user, he’d always taken longer to Tier up than others, but at least he’d never gotten stuck. He’d never been the best at anything except surviving.

Apparently surviving long enough was all that was needed to outlast everyone else, if they kept attacking you.

In some sense, Serenity needed to repeat part of the Path - he had no interest in focusing on one thing. At the same time, he didn’t want to take the same Path. It was too … selfish. Too focused on only himself surviving when that wasn’t what he wanted. Starting as a melee tank - a protector - felt right, and it was something he knew how to do. He just had to make protection instead of survival his focus.

He wished he could pick a Path other than Human. Maybe he’d start with that weaponmaster Path Kerr had mentioned … or maybe he’d go for an affinity - not death. One class wouldn’t set him in stone - the early Paths were a good time to experiment and find what you liked - but he didn’t want to start with death. Not again.

Maybe -

“Wake up, sleepyhead.” Rissa’s voice?

Serenity’s eyes snapped open and he sat up. Rissa was standing in front of him, smiling.

He reminded himself he needed to speak in the deeper voice he’d picked to not remind her quite so much of Thomas.

“Rissa? I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

“First dungeon delve? Not a chance I’m missing that. Especially not if it’s connected to the final Tutorial reward.”

Serenity struggled to find something to say. “So … uh … did you choose a Path?”

Rissa smiled. She seemed confident. Serenity hoped that was a good thing. “It’s called Time Heals All. The general concept seems to be increased natural healing and resource recovery, but it has a direct heal. The instant heal isn’t as good as a pure healing Path, but the boosted recovery should handle that. Maybe even give us the ability to fight longer. The capstone means that my healing erases scars. It’s not much, but I’m hoping it gives me something better in a future Path. You?”

Serenity nodded. That was as good a guess as he’d be able to make, he wasn’t a specialist in Healing paths after all - wait, she wanted to know his Path?

Maybe that had been a bad question.

“I, uh. I don’t have one yet. I have a problem. I can’t take one.” Serenity didn’t want to say why. Admitting he was a monster - a chimera - whatever he was - wasn’t something he wanted to say to his girlfriend. Former girlfriend.

He’d trust her with his life; that wasn’t the problem. He didn’t want to drive her farther away.

Fortunately, the moment was interrupted by Echo’s hail. “Hey you two! No lovey-dovey stuff! We need to prep for the Dungeon! Woo!” Echo pumped her fist into the sky.

She was such a goofball sometimes.

[Dungeon Party Initiated]

Serenity - (No Current Path) - Melee Tank, Self Healing

~~~~~~Moira (Follower) - Human - Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - The Sound of Silence - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Shielding Sword - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time Heals All - Healing, Melee Damage

Nightwitch - The Stars Shine Down - Ranged Damage (Magic), AoE

Doyle - Lost in Shadow - Scout, Ranged and Melee Damage

Liuyedao - Swordmaster - Melee Damage

[Recommended party size is 4. Rewards will be reduced and difficulty will be increased for parties above the recommended size.]

[Current party size: 7]

[All party members meet entry requirements for early Dungeon entry]

[Enter dungeon with current party?]

Serenity looked over the list. It was interesting that only Liuyedao and Moira had chosen a “common” first Path; everyone else had picked something that looked customized for their personality. He had no idea if that was normal for the Tutorial or not; DeathKnight was the one he’d picked last time, and while it was a little unusual - probably similar to Lancaster’s Shielding Sword or Doyle’s Lost in Shadow - it was not nearly as odd as The Stars Shine Down or The Sound of Silence.

Some dungeons would display more information than others. This one seemed to be on the ‘more information’ side, since it listed the Path and a suggested role or roles. Well, it was a training dungeon.

He wasn’t sure why Moira’s name seemed to be indented under his. What made her a “follower”? Was she somehow being counted as part of his power rather than separately? Was that why it was only counting 7 people instead of 8?

They’d already decided that they’d do the first few levels in an oversized group, to see what was there. There wasn’t yet a second healer qualified for the dungeon; as soon as there was, they planned to split into two groups for the “greater rewards”. They could have already split - Serenity could heal himself and there were people in town who were making Poor-grade healing potions - but Rissa had said she wanted to be in Serenity’s group.

That gave Serenity hope. If she wanted to be around him now, maybe -

“No Path? I’d assumed you had one that gave lots of attributes. And a self heal. Maybe some kind of last chance to live thing too. Considering.” Nightwitch’s voice knocked Serenity out of his reverie. “Spill.”

“Uh - “

Serenity knew he really should have come up with an explanation. He really didn’t want to explain being half-monster, but his mind froze on that and he couldn’t think of a better explanation.

“Hey, Serenity. Want me to handle this?” Echo’s voice whispered in his ear, even though she wasn’t anywhere near him.

Sound magic. Had to be.

He muttered “yes” under his breath, hoping she’d hear it.

“Don’t want to admit your problems, huh?” Echo playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Seriously, Serenity, you’re the one who told us we had to share what we could do with the party!”

“I did!”

Echo snorted. “Well, if you won’t share the rest of it, I’ll have to.” She turned to Nightwitch. “He’s not entirely human. Same thing that makes him strong is making it tough for him to get his first Path. And he doesn’t want to talk about it. Wasn’t easy to get that out of him.”

Nightwitch laughed. “But of course you did.”

Echo knew everything about everyone. Serenity didn’t understand how she did it, but she did.

“Not entirely human. So - crossbreed of some sort? What’s the other half?” Doyle wasn’t exactly the sensitive sort.

Serenity glanced at Rissa, then flushed and looked down. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Hah! Well, doesn’t matter. I win anyway.” Doyle turned to Nightwitch. “Pay up!”

As Nightwitch handed over a handful of monster cores, Serenity watched in amazement. “You two had a bet about me?”

Doyle grinned as he tucked the cores into his bag. “Yep. Nightwitch thought it was a Path. I thought you were just different.” He paused and looked at Nightwitch. “I had an advantage. I knew people back home that were special, too. Not the same as you, but,” he shrugged, “in their own way. Nice people, helpful if you help them, my family’s been friends with theirs for generations. Not something you talk about with others, ya know? Maybe they can pretend it’s just a Path, now.”

Serenity knew there were undead on Earth, like any other planet. Undead were simply more common after the Order came. From what Doyle was saying, it sounded like undead weren’t the only anomalies Earth had. Vengeance had never looked into anything else, so Serenity didn’t know about them.

He wondered how many anomalies were normal for a newly integrated planet. To some degree, probably all of it. Well, maybe not that much; Serenity - Vengeance - had never found out all of the reasons the various Great Factions came to Earth, after all. It was entirely possible there were people he'd never heard of that were part of the reason.

Rissa's foresight flashes seemed unusual, but there were enough stories of foresight of some sort to know she wasn't alone. Thomas had been fairly ordinary, but Serenity figured he counted as an anomaly now. As far as he knew, none of his new friends were strange enough to count.

It didn't matter right now.

Serenity touched the door and agreed to the party. It was time to get things started!