{-Llewel-}

“Come on, Zetai,” the woman’s companion hissed. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the guy we’re looking for…”

Myr frowned. “Llewel, what did you do?”

“It wasn’t me!” he quickly defended. “I swear it wasn’t me, you’ve got the wrong guy!”

The woman was not convinced in the slightest. “So did I or did I not see you run away from Fininri after stealing something from his shop?”

“Yes, but—”

“You’re the guy I’m looking for,” she decided without a second thought. “You’re gonna hand over what you stole from the Shopkeeper.”

“Myr-Myr, get behind me,” Llewel instructed calmly. “If she wants a fight, then I guess we’ll have to give one.”

The woman’s companion stood between them. “I’m all for randomly attacking people as much as the next guy but, uh, do you think we can talk this out first? Or at least know the names of the people we’re fighting..?” He took their collective silence as a yes. “Alright. I’m Reynneak, and that’s Zetai. It’s her first time playing the game and she’s… enthusiastic about it.”

“You know less about this place than I do,” she muttered. “I want to get to the fun parts, but we’ve been looking all day for the thief and now he’s right there.”

Llewel chose not to repeat himself and ignored her. “I’m Llewel and this is my twin, Myr.”

Zetai smirked, drawing her sword. “Well, no hard feelings, but you have something I want, so I hope you’re willing to lose.”

He took out his daggers and Myr followed. “You know you aren’t any better than we are, right?”

“I guess we’re doing this…” Reynneak sighed. He pulled out a small rune. “Which one of us is going—”

Zetai took the initiative, lunging towards Llewel. There was nothing he could do but let it happen; that’s how combat worked here. He didn’t lose too much HP, though. Reynneak went next, proving to be the one with the better strategy when he went to hit Myr.

The twins attacked in near unison, each hitting one of their opponents. In round two, Zetai’s sword disappeared after she attacked.

“It’s still our turn!” she said quickly before giving a nervous glance at Reynneak. “So… you got anything that could fix that..?”

“Why are you never prepared?” He shook his head. “I told you to take two of them, they go by a lot quicker than you’d think they do if you’re not paying attention.”

“I didn’t think I’d need it! You should be able to do something on your own. You could kill those slimes in one hit!”

“They have zero RES, Zetai, of course I can kill them in one hit! They’re meant to be EXP fodder!” It seemed like they were quickly forgetting that they were in a fight at all. “These guys are like us. I don’t think they’re meant to be fought at all, or at least not without a good challenge.”

“You could always give up and leave us alone,” Llewel remarked. “I’d appreciate that.”

Zetai glared at him before turning back to Reynneak. “Do you have some [Heal Potion]s, then..? So maybe we’ll be able to outlast them?”

“You were supposed to be the one to buy them!” He paused and opened up his Inventory. It was all empty. “We don’t even have anything so then we can. Look, let’s just forfeit this battle and go find the person we’re actually supposed to be fighting.” He glanced at the twins. “Your turn.”

“Make it quick,” Zetai grumbled.

Llewel happily took the chance to get it over with. Since they couldn’t die in cities, the battle was over once their HP got to one.

He put his dagger away again. “Wishing you hadn’t messed with us?”

They couldn’t say anything before a menu appeared in front of him. He jumped back, thinking it was something bad until he read it over.

[Level Up: Llewel Beithana

LVL: 1 -> 2

HP: 18 +2

ATK: 10 +2

MAG: 7 +1

DEF: 10 +0

RES 9 +0

No new skills acquired.]

“Aw, where’s my level up..?” Myr pouted. “I did just as much as you did…”

“We were beaten by someone on level one,” Zetai moaned. “Aren’t I glad no one’s around to see that…” She paused. “Wait, if you got a level up, does that mean you’re another player?”

Llewel, without a second thought, fervently shook his head. “Of course not!”

“I thought you said that normal NPCs didn’t get level ups,” Reynneak pointed out in a hushed voice, leaning closer to Zetai.

“But then that means they have to be one of the story quest companions,” Zetai said like she’d forgotten the twins were there. “I don’t remember seeing them at all when I watched my brother play the game.”

“Couldn’t there be, like, temporary companions that aren’t plot important..?”

“No, because I’d know about those too.”

“What if they’re temporary companions for the co-op mode? That could explain why they’re here and not in the main story.”

“Those don’t exist. Well, the companions exist in co-op, but we’re also able to make parties with other players so we don’t need the help of temporary companions. It’s actually way easier in co-op since the combat seems better suited for four or more people than for mostly one…”

“Why don’t you see if they know anything?”

“Hey, that’s actually a good idea!” Zetai brought her attention to the twins. “Are you temporary story companions?”

“Um… no?” Llewel felt like he should’ve been able to come up with a definitive, yes-or-no answer. But he had no idea what to say, really. His head said no; of course they weren’t, they’d hardly interacted with any players before now, and it wasn’t like Myr hadn’t sometimes tried seeking them out. There was something else, though… a deeper part of him, a hidden place by his heart, that wanted to say yes. With the dilemma came a series of thoughts he didn’t understand, and a glance in Myr’s direction proved she thought the same.

He decided to brush away the uncertainty by repeating, with more confidence, “No.”

“I think it might be time to apologize,” Reynneak said. “I mean, no matter who they are, if they get EXP, they’re probably not the people that we need to find.”

Zetai chose to largely ignore him. “I’m watching you two. Just because you don’t look like you’re anyone we need to think about, I’m still going to keep an eye on you. Don’t you dare to make any trouble while I’m around.”

“I really doubt they’re going to try anything…”

“Oh, shut up.” She grabbed the edge of Reynneak’s cloak and tried to pull him away with it; the only reason it worked was because he begrudgingly followed her.

Llewel watched as they walked away and, once they were out of sight, sighed. “Do you still want to see what quests are left?”

Myr shook her head slowly. “I think I’ve had enough for one day… my head is starting to hurt…”

“Then let’s go back home. Maybe we’ll be able to get something if we get up early tomorrow.”

He led the way back to their home, a trip that was made in silence. They didn’t say anything until Myr had taken the medicine and was curled up in her corner—honestly, before she spoke, he assumed she’d gone asleep.

“Do you think we’re going to see them again..?” she mumbled, barely loud enough for him to hear her.

“I hope not,” he responded honestly. “They’re like all the other players; they take what they want, believe what they want, and definitely don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I’ll be happy to know they completed their quest and never return to Nafrius.”

“I know we didn’t really have a good first impression… but don’t you think it might be good to actually try to make friends with some of them?” She pulled the blanket a little closer to her. “I mean, if they’re the ones with all of the coins and supplies… wouldn’t it make sense to try to tag along with a few of them?”

He was quiet for a minute, unwilling to admit that she had a point. “It’s better if we’re alone. We don’t have to rely on anyone else to help us. We can depend on each other, but we don’t know how much we can trust the players. In fact, from what I’ve seen, we can’t trust the players.”

“Can you at least consider it? No one’s ever tried to do anything like that to us before.”

“That’s because it’s not worth risking. Even if we did, those two? She forgot to buy another sword before it ran out of uses, and she didn’t bring another one with her. They didn’t have [Heal Potion]s. They didn’t even have a [Smoke Cluster] to use to flee, and Fininri hands them out to practically everyone who walks in his store!”

“Well, with your over-organized way of things, that won’t be a problem. They’ll share their resources and, in return, we can contribute our strength and your brain to keep us all from dying.”

“No. It’s not happening.” Though it may take them a lot longer… he didn’t want to trust people he only saw the worst parts of. More than that, he didn’t think he was ready to leave Nafrius yet. He’d gotten used to the predictability and familiarity of this place, so the thought of leaving it… he wanted to leave—of course he did—but he needed to prepare himself for it.

He wasn’t ready, not yet, for what might lie beyond the boundary of comfort.

And he’d never been ready for the secrets they uncovered once they passed that border.