Berla’s human cane looked at me expectantly. Having been told that I fought beasts in the past, as well as that the guards respected me for it, his question didn’t come as too much of a surprise. They were supposedly having a hard time with the dungeon, and if there were barely any magic users around, every one could make a difference. Of course he would inquire on whether I could help them, even if I lost my memories. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t have any intention of risking my life. I opened my mouth to tell him as much, but then remembered Hayla’s words.

“It’s basically the reason you have them under control.”

Snapping my lips shut, my eyes wandered down to his waist, a sword dangling from it. Is saying no a good idea?

If I was seen as the leader, and the only reason they respected me were these battles I had fought, what would happen if I refused here? I had no frame of reference for what people might do. If it was survival of the fittest in this town, was there a chance that he might strike me down where I stood? Maybe someone would see it as a chance to get rid of me, on their path to take over. In that case, it would be better to put on a bit of an act.

My eyes wandering over to glance at my arms, I thought about the scripts on them. If bad came to worst, there were a few I understood how to use just from reading them. They weren’t overly complicated, it was just risky. My mind made up, I responded.

“I understand that you have a challenging dungeon to deal with. I still have my Calling, but I would prefer not to jump into the fray immediately.”

They both seemed surprised. “You know about dungeons?” he asked.

“I do. It’s probably a rather high level one, isn’t it?”

“High level?” he asked, confused.

They don’t know about this either?

“There are glowing stones set into the arch, right?” I said. “They denote the dungeon’s difficulty level.”

“May I ask what else you know?”

Hm... This isn’t bad. If they don’t know anything, I can be of value without needing to fight.

“Well, monsters live inside and keep spawning until the portal is closed, potentially at increasingly alarming rates.”

The guard looked at me with hopeful eyes. “And how do you do that?”

“You defeat the boss in its lair,” I said, thinking, Obviously.

“The long path...” he said, quietly realizing something. “Maybe that’s where it leads. Berla! We should bring him—”

“Yeah,” she interrupted. “Tomar, can you come to the dungeon entrance with us? The captain needs to hear this, and whatever else you can tell us. Would that be okay?”

She appeared to be sad, but at least she was still talking to me, and going to the gate to tell their commander was a reasonable request—as long as I didn’t have to venture inside.

“That should be fine,” I responded, and when I looked to Hayla for confirmation, she nodded as well.

“Thank you,” Berla said. “Let’s hurry then.”

The two turned around and led the way, with Hayla and me following a couple steps behind them. It seemed like they were trying to keep some distance, and they quickly started whispering to each other. I also noticed an occasional glance at us. Trying to figure out whether this was a problem, I turned to Hayla.

“Who is her guard?” I asked quietly.

“His name is Bren. He’s the son of the captain and he’s working for you and Lilly.”

“Is that so...”

If he was my guard, and he wasn’t there when I woke up, I had to assume that everyone available had been called to the dungeon. This presumably included Berla, who was dressed in an agent’s outfit, though her handicap confused me. I couldn’t see her bare leg, but she didn’t act like she lost it recently.

“Is your cousin fighting as well?”

“She is, but usually she has walking aids to move around on her own. Basically a big stick on each side.”

“Crutches? And she can fight like that? Huh.”

I wanted to say that it’s impressive, but I couldn’t even picture what it would look like. Was she swinging them around? Use one to keep balance and use her free hand for a weapon? I did know that Fighters were stronger and more agile than your typical human, so maybe she would be able to do things I couldn’t imagine. I also saw a problem that was just waiting to be fixed, however.

Hm... A leg severed above the knee... That’s tricky. You could easily attach a fake leg to allow her to walk, but she might actually be faster and more flexible on crutches. To bring back full functionality, you would need to restore the function of the knee... Moving around an object might be possible, but how could I... Hm. Hm. Hm...

“Do you remember anything about Berla?” Hayla asked, disturbing my thoughts.

Realizing that I was staring at her cousin again I quickly waved her off. “No, I was just wondering what it looks like when she fights. It must be difficult.”

“I guess. Though she is very nimble on those crutches.”

With quick steps we mostly followed them in silence from there.

***

When we left the front door of the temple, I finally got to see a different part of town. Looking around the huge main square, surrounded by buildings, and with long streets leading away from it, I felt silly to have thought I might be in some tiny village. Actually, even the word town felt somewhat small for what I saw. I might have instinctively called it a city instead. This point was driven home when he headed north and passed what felt like entire acres of farming fields within the town walls.

We walked a little while until we arrived at the northern gates, which appeared to start opening automatically as we approached. It became apparent almost immediately that someone had spotted us in advance and given notice, however.

“Tomar!” a girl shouted down from a tower atop the wall. A grin on her face, she was leaning out a window and waved at me. “Welcome to the party!”

I waved back a little awkwardly. The lighting wasn’t optimal, but I was fairly sure that I didn’t recognize her. Though I was starting to wonder about all the women I was seemingly acquainted with. This observation was relativized when the gate fully opened and the gazes of dozens of mostly male guards fell on me.

“Tomar!”

“He’s here!”

“We can finish this in an instant now!”

Maybe coming here wasn’t such a great idea...

They were scattered around a makeshift camp, erected between the town gate and the dungeon entrance, about a hundred meters away. At a height of about six meters, it towered over the tents and barricades. Lighted up by nearby torches, I could see the black structure, but my eyes were drawn to the glowing gems in the upper part of the arch.

Five... Ten... Fifteen... “Level twenty...” I murmured.

We made our way through the camp, towards the dungeon. Most of the guards appeared dead tired or were battered up, but quite a few of them still picked themselves up and followed after us.

Again, I noticed an inconsistency between reality and what my mind told me. I saw dozens of guards, and there were presumably quite a few more. Given their numbers, I felt like they shouldn’t be struggling this much with a level twenty dungeon. I hoped to remember something soon. Not knowing whether these presumed facts were true was quite irritating.

Arriving at the space in front of the barricade, my focus shifted from the gate to three beings sitting on the ground nearby. A little girl, a large wolf, and an older man with a commanding presence, which was diminished a little by the girl lying and drooling on his leg, while he petted the animal. Though both of them were peculiar in their own right, the wolf very much looking like a beast and the girl having an aura that suggested she had awakened.

The captain immediately noticed Berla and Bren approaching.

“Berla!” he hissed. “Don’t you dare to leave me alone with him again, he tried to bite me in his sleep!”

“You’re overreacting. He doesn’t bite, he nibbles. And he stops when you pet him.”

“I don’t care what you call it! This was the first and last time!”

“Sorry about that. But I have good news,” she said and gestured behind herself.

His view obstructed by the two Fighters, he hadn’t noticed us right away, but his gaze shifted past them at her sign, and our eyes met.

“Ah. Finally awake, are we?” he said and I nodded.

He was about to say something else when Berla approached him with Bren’s help and crouched down, whispering into his ear. A frown forming on his face, he first glanced at all the guards behind us before focusing on me once more.

“Tomar, you know how this thing works?” he asked after she was done, looking towards the dungeon.

I wondered what she told him that necessitated confidentiality. My dungeon knowledge evidentiality wasn’t it, as he openly asked about it straight away. The only other thing that came to mind at that moment was my situation. If she was keeping it secret, but explained it to him, she might’ve trusted him. More interestingly though, we hadn’t discussed this. Had she picked up that I was being careful about what I told people?

Trying to determine what everybody else is thinking and who I can trust based on subtle clues is kind of exhausting.

Regardless, I affirmed that I had information that was new to them and explained everything that came to mind. After all, it wouldn’t have been in my best interest if they failed to clear the dungeon. It appeared that they didn’t know much about them before today, but they naturally figured out a few things on their own, such as being able to enter them. This was actually necessary, because the portal wouldn’t disappear until the boss was killed, and the only alternative to going in would be to wait for it to come out. Not an option one should choose.

They also didn’t know anything about levels, and I had to explain that level twenty wasn’t very high. The monsters would not be weak by any means, but it could have been much worse.

Realization on why they had trouble set in when Captain Grym told me more about their approach. They were carefully pushing the beasts back in a controlled manner, rotating squads in and out, so as to minimize fatigue. It seemed like a sensible strategie, but the amount of enemies in a dungeon correlated with the amount of people entering it. If you kept on sending people in, you would be faced with a near infinite stream of monsters.

After learning about this, he appeared rather frustrated. “It would’ve been better to push on with a few elite squads then... The exact opposite of our protocol.” He carefully laid the girl onto the ground and stood up. Unlike the wolf, she didn’t even wake up when he started loudly cursing the decisions he had made. “Damn it! To think that we fought for half a day and just made more of them appear in the process!”

Pacing up and down, he seemed to be rethinking their plan of attack, when a scream erupted from the direction of the dungeon portal.

“Everybody! Run! A big one is coming!”

A single guard had exited the dungeon and was staggering towards the camp, as the lights on the gate changed from red to purple.

Oh fuck...