The group, or what was left of it, sat around the table. Moral was at an all time low. Yui was depressed and slumped in her chair. Miko looked somewhere between angry and worried, and Burin was sampling the new magical flask of rum. After downing a large gulp, he offered it towards Miko. She let out a sigh and tipped it back for a solid five seconds.

The small pile of items we looted from the pirate captain lay between us at the centre of the table. It made me wonder. Was that all the loot? From the way Yui was acting at the start, I was sure there was a spell book or something. Why else would she insinuate she would decide who received what item.

I reached out and looked over the items again. The robe was interesting, but the only reason I was interested in that was because I was very low on clothes, summonable attire non withstanding. It was nice to wear something without having to worry about tracking how long I have worn it for.

The sabre would likely go to Miko, the barrier it provides would be a great boon as tank. Even more so now the group’s healer cut tail and left. Talking about cut tails, the beastkin hooked tailwhip would have been something I would love to mess around with, if I was still interested in physical combat. The idea of snatching an opponent’s weapon and then flinging it back towards them seemed like a lot of fun.

The last item was the rum flask, which looked to be a toss up between Miko and Burin. They would probably fight over it. I realized that an item was missing, the magical compass. I checked under the bundle of cloth but couldn’t find anything.

Yui was staring down at the table still, her hair untied and draped around her. She was playing with something in her hands. The compass I assumed but couldn’t tell for sure due to it being obscured by her long dark hair.

“Is this everything?” I asked.

Yui looked up, a single eye peeking through a gap in her hair. “What?”

I laid the items out separately between us. “No spell book by chance? Or fancy eyepatch?”

She looked at the items in front of her for a moment before pulling her hair back. “Where is the compass?”

I pointed to her hands. “I thought you had it.”

“No. This is just a tower compass. I was wondering if we should just turn back.”

“Whoa, slow down there. Can we focus on what’s important please?”

She tilted her head as she looked at me.

I could tell she was still upset by Richard’s departure, so I made sure to speak slowly and clearly. “Is there any spell books or other loot that dropped? Like maybe a magical peg leg, a spell book, a cool shaped hat, or some kind of book of spells?”

She completely ignored my words and instead started rummaging around the items on the table.

“Where is it?” There was a slight panic to her voice.

“I knew it! There was one. This is all you have took out your storage, you must still have it.”

She glared at me. “No, you idiot! Where is the compass?” She turned to Miko and Burin. “Do either of you have it?”

They shook their heads.

Yui glared at me. “And you?”

“I don’t have the compass. I was asking about...”

“Shut up!” She slumped back into the chair. “Shit… He took it.”

“Richard did?” I let out a chuckle. “Smart.”

Yui snapped her head towards me and glared.

Taken aback by the emotion on her face I continued my thought. “If he was right that is. About you know, getting killed. That compass could be used to track him down fairly quickly on the next floor, especially since he took a mazer hole.”

She turned her gaze towards the table in front of her and slammed her fist down. “Baka!” In a whisper she added, “Why couldn’t you trust me?”

Miko brought down the rum flask loudly on the table. Burin winced and tried to wrestle it out of her hands.

“Burin, let go!”

“Blood and steel woman, yer gonna break it!”

Miko pushed Burin hard enough that he fell off his chair. With a satisfied smile she turned to Yui.

“Why didn’t Richard trust you? I think I know why. But it doesn’t matter since apparently, I’m not allowed to see items that drop from our group’s efforts.”

Yui’s hands clenched into fists, and she did not meet her eyes.

Miko took another swig from the flask. “It’s not like we have been friends for years or anything. Or that I have been a member of Ex-terra since I was born.”

“It was a map!” Yui blurted, looking at Miko with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry. You’re right…” She took a deep breath. “I was scared. Richard fled and I was worried you would too… I’m sorry.”

Miko stared at her for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Well as long as you know.” She reached over and offered Yui the flask. “Have a drink. Can’t do anything about Richard now.”

Burin climbed back to his feet and back on the chair. “Aye, we should be celebrating our survival of the climber hunting raid dungeon! So what if Richard left like a baby and took some magic compass? Just means loot will be easier to split between four of us.”

In reply, Yui took a large swig of the flask.

Miko reached over and took it once she started lowering it. “What kind of map?”

Yui shuddered and let out a breath. Since she either didn’t hear the question or was unable to answer, I responded instead.

“It could only be used once per day but showed a map of the current tower floor and marked locations the wielder wanted to see.”

“Shit!” Miko jumped to her feet and looked out into the direction the scroll was thrown. “Maybe we could still find it?”

“Forget it.” Yui stated. “Richard was right about one thing. That item goes beyond any mere magical weapon or armour. It would boost the power of any guild that held that item to unbelievable heights.”

“Aye.” Burin said softly. “Imagine all the rare resources you could find with such an item.” He let out a sigh. “Such a waste.”

Miko offered Burin the flask and he took a swig. “Empty?” He tossed the flask onto the table and turned to look at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Master Reigner!”

“Don’t you Master Reigner me! What are we doing anyway? Crying over spilt milk? We should be splitting up this loot and moving to the next floor.”

“Aw, don’t be like that. We just went through a life or death experience! I am mighty thirsty… Ye wouldn’t deny a dwarf a drink would ye?”

I just stared at him blankly.

He returned my gaze by lowering his head and looking up with sad puppy eyes.

“Don’t do that.” I glared down at him. After a moment a small smile broke out on my face. “You prick. Fine. But only one. Then we go.”

Conjuring a drink for everyone I placed the last of them down in front of Yui. “If the team leader agrees, that is.”

She took a sip from the conjured dark fizzy drink and looked around the table. Her eyes changed from sad to determined. “You’re right, we might have lost our healer with Richard, but with Burin we still have four members. We will continue to climb to floor ten. We will leave this desert, rest for the night, and then continue in the morning… I can only hope Richard makes it back to the tower safely.”

I nodded and held my glass up between us. “To continuing!”

Burin lifted his drink to clink against my own. “To gold!”

Miko joined in with her glass. “To friendship and Rum!”

Yui was the last to press her glass to the three of ours. “To friendship.”

Miko laughed. “Boo! That was mine!”

She went to try again but was interrupted by a fifth glass joining in.

“To sisters!” My shadow said merrily. The girls groaned, Burin looked to me and waggled his eyebrows, and I face palmed. My shadow would be perfect if it only talked less.

Floor six was dark and felt oppressive. We exited the mazer hole into a thick fog that blocked the sky and limited our vision to only a few metres. The ground was dry cracked grey earth that crumbled slightly underfoot. The place smelled like cold mud.

Yui made the decision to make camp and rest until morning. I was not particularly tired, but I could tell the others needed some rest. I used the opportunity to use my summon shelter spell and created a simple hollowed out cube. It took a large chunk of my mana but luckily, I had another spell to help with its recovery.

Instead of sleeping like the others, I sat outside and practiced my spell craft. As I cast my spells into the fog in front of me, I thought over the distribution of the loot. Surprisingly Burin was the one to receive the barrier sabre. I thought he was going to opt for the flask and stick with his hammer pick forever. Miko took the whip, much to the disappointment of my shadow. Apparently, he wanted to play around with it. Unfortunately for him, the only item I had any amount of interest in was the clothing.

My shadow ended up making a deal with Miko, helping her learn how to wield the weapon effectively in exchange for borrowing it on occasion. Yui took the flask since it was the only item left. Burin was disappointed but shrugged and commented “It’s fine. I got Reigner after all.” I was not sure what his meaning was and decided to just ignore the comment completely.

Surprisingly Burin asked my shadow for some pointers in melee instead of myself. When I asked why he stated that he had not seen me fight in melee while my shadow looked like an expert. Whatever, it left me with more time to practice my spell craft. It would have anyway, if my shadow did not insist I continue to rank up my weapon arts.

And so, I spent the hours alternating between spell crafting until my mana reached half, then weapon training until it was full again. As for what weapon I focused on… whips. My shadow made a promise to help Miko train but had no skill ranks in the skill. For some reason, despite containing my full knowledge and experiences, my shadow was limited by the rank of skills and spells.

+1 to Mana Marble’s Spell rank.

+1 to Summon Armour’s Spell rank.

+1 to Summon Sprite’s Spell rank.

+1 to Summon wall’s Spell rank.

+1 to Quicken’s Spell rank.

+3 to Sparkle’s Spell rank.

+11 to Whip’s Skill rank.

“Okay, now quickly resummon me.” My shadow stated. The dark fog around us was starting to slowly brighten with the rise of the sun.

Focusing on my shadow I cast sparkle and used the connection from the spell to dismiss him without having to touch. It still took some mental effort. I needed to practice more.

My health, stamina, and mana reduced by fifty percent as I materialized my shadow once again. It didn’t hurt, but it was not a pleasurable experience.

“Ohh good to be back… Oh wow, it’s like I’m updated with your memories... Damn… that was bad, huh?”

I sat myself down, back against the wall of the summoned shelter. “Yeah, it sucked. As does summoning you.”

“Such a baby.” My shadow chuffed as he inspected himself. “Damn I’m handsome. Hey, why is whips only at rank eleven?”

“It should be plenty enough to show her a few things.”

“You really suck. Just kill a few things with the whip. It would increase in rank much faster if you just stepped closer to creatures for a while.”

“Hah, do you really think a whipbolt would be effective?”

“Whipbolt? I’m saying to whip them!”

“Shut up and take the damn weapon.” I tossed the beastkin tail to my shadow. “Feels weird using part of a dungeon creature as a weapon.”

He caught it with one hand and gave it a practice flick. “Again.”

“What again?”

“It feels weird using part of a dungeon creature as a weapon, again.”

He smiled as the whip snapped through the air, creating a loud cracking noise despite there being a metal hook attached to the end.

“Would you stop doing that, you will wake the others.”

“Too late for that.” Murmured a sleepy looking Miko from the doorway. Her eyes widened at the sight of my shadow playing around with the whip.

She walked out of the shelter and towards my shadow. As she passed me, she ruffled my hair “What do you think? Is it good? I was thinking that since my class has a lot of bonuses for standing my ground, using that weapon will let me pull creatures into bashing range.”

My shadow nodded as he twisted and lashed out with the whip again. “I will have to test it in combat to be sure, but it feels nice. Shall we go over some of the basics?”

Burin came out next and sat down next to me. “Morning… I think.”

It was hard to tell exactly what the time of day was due to the thick fog surrounding us, but his guess was a safe bet as the fog was much darker a few hours ago.

“Not going to join in?” I gestured towards Miko and my shadow.

He let out a yawn. “Later. What I really need is some breakfast.”

“Is it always about food with you?”

He looked affronted. “What? I’m a growing boy! And everyone knows a growing dwarf needs a hearty breakfast.”

I looked over the dwarf. His face looked weathered, with few creases, and his brown beard reached down to his chest. I couldn’t see any grey in the hair, just some ornamental bits of metal. “Just how old are you?”

He scratched his chin and looked towards the others. “Hmm, I turned twenty seven just two span ago.”

“Two weeks ago. As in twenty days?” I let out a small chuckle. “I arrived just a few days after your birthday… Wow, twenty seven. You’re so young.”

“Yer saying I’m a Kid? What do ye know? Shut up and summon me some damned breakfast.”

“Damn, okay. Hit a sore spot, did I?” I handed him over a chicken wrap, the closest thing to breakfast food I could think to conjure, along with some coffee. “There is nothing wrong with being young.”

He angrily bit into the wrap and watched Miko practicing with the whip as he chewed. “And what about yerself? You don’t look much older.”

“Me?” I had to think for a moment. I was thirty two when I died on Earth. I then spent twenty seven years in the other world. At least’s what I was told the last time I asked, which was a while before I ended up here. That left me with my best estimation. “Hmm around sixty.”

Burin spat out a mouthful of food and stared at me. “Sixty? But ye’re…”

“So handsome? Charming?”

“Such an asshole.” He finished.

“What?” Now I felt affronted. “When have I been an asshole?”

“Ye stand at the back and just watch! Ye cast sparkle on anyone and everything when ye are bored. And ye’re in some kind of constant pissing match with your clone! Ye live and breath ass!”

“Hey my shadow starts it! He is the asshole. Besides… I give you food.” I said sourly.

“Fine… maybe not a complete ass then.” He lamented and took another bite.

A girlish laugh sounded behind us and we looked to see Yui standing in the doorway of the shelter. It was nice to see her smiling again. Ever since the team joined me at the Inn, she seemed too wound up.

“Good morning, Yui. Care for some breakfast?” I offered her a freshly conjured chicken wrap.

She nodded. “Actually. I was hoping we could have a talk.”

“Sure. Is this uh… popcorn related?”

“No, well yes and no. Sorry Burin, would you mind?”

Burn glanced between us before getting to his feet. “Sure, I was just about to join the others anyway.”

“Let them know that you have an hour to practice and then we are heading out.” Yui looked down at the dry ground, thought for a moment, and then sat down next to me and let out a sigh.

We sat like that for a moment, watching the others practice with their new weapons under the tutelage of my shadow.

“You don’t plan on staying with us, do you?” Yui stated matter of fact like. “I thought it was strange how you did so little and your shadow so much when it came to battle. Then after I learned about your past it all started to make sense. How you are so adept with every weapon you pick up yet so resistant to their use in combat. Your obsession with magic, and childlike joy seeing each floor in the tower.”

She took a deep breath and slowly released it. “It must have been horrible. Living in darkness for so long.”

Her hand reached out and grabbed my own. She gave it a gentle squeeze. “Grandfather did say that you were unlikely to stay with the group, but I was so hopeful seeing you... The first human in over a hundred years to arrive from Earth to Aruni… They say that the time between someone arriving from a planet indicates how strong their potential is… But you did not arrive from Earth… not directly anyway.”

She gave me a sad smile and rested her head on my shoulder. She was acting very differently since the departure of Richard. Part of me felt awkward at her familiarity, while another part felt joy at the casual touch. It reminded me of just how alone and isolated I had felt since leaving Earth.

“I was so happy to finally have a full team and allowed to move past the fifth floor, but I was also worried that you were too new to this world… Jace told me stories of his first days. About how clumsy, scared, and excited he was… so I decided to watch over you as closely as I could… Then you go and cause some trouble with the elves…”

I wanted to say that they were causing trouble for me, but she continued talking.

“And then I am told that you are not what you seem and that regardless of events we should still push towards floor ten with you. I thought my grandfather was crazy, with so much attention on you, why would he want us to stick with you. I thought for sure that you would bring trouble to the group.”

She looked out towards the others, Burin and Miko were currently in a mock duel against my shadow. Miko tried to catch my shadow with the whip, while Burin alternated between spellcraft and striking with his new sabre.

“And you did… but not in the way I thought you would.”

She let out a laugh. “I was so angry at you, seeing you and your shadow laughing and snacking at the back of the group while we struggled with the boss. I only realized last night that you were letting us push ourselves.”

I nodded. “For me, everything so far has been easy. But that doesn’t mean it has been boring. This world… this tower... it’s what I wished for back when I lived on Earth. Every floor a different environment with different creatures, dungeons, and people… Getting sucked up by a giant pirate ship that cruises over sand dunes? I mean how incredible is that?”

I realized that I was getting a bit too animated and calmed myself down. “Honesty, being with the group has been great. It allows me to enjoy the combat just as much as the world. Seeing you all working together and improving makes it exciting for me. Great thinking, blocking that hook with your body by the way… even if dodging it would have been the better choice.”

She barked out a laugh. “You think I wasn’t trying?”

“Anyway, the only thing stopping me from rushing forwards blindly like my shadow does is that I want to see you grow in strength… I do feel bad about the popcorn though… My shadow... well… never mind.”

She smiled and continued to hold on to my hand. “It was too soon for an item like that to appear before us… Richard had been with us a couple of months, but I guess that was not long enough to fully build trust.” She let out a sigh. “Now he is likely dead or running for his life in this fog cursed floor.”

I squeezed her hand. “You do know that his actions were no fault of your own, right? He panicked and made a sudden decision. It’s possible, now he has had time to reflect, that he will be waiting for us on the tenth floor.”

She nodded slowly. “I feel that I have dishonored my guild and my grandfather by letting the group fall apart. Miko and I will likely be sitting at floor ten for a while before finding a replacement healer and mage.”

“There is no dishonor in your actions. You chose to give up such a valuable item over the life of your comrades, that is admirable.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Maybe.”

Her smile turned more cheerful, and she got up to her feet. “With the bad, comes the good.” She offered her hand and pulled me to my feet. “Since you won’t be part of the team or under my care much longer, there is no need for me to hesitate.”

Before I could question her meaning, she moved close and kissed me. Her lips were soft and felt amazing against my own. I was conflicted, that kiss woke something inside of me. I could feel my blood raging, urging my primal instincts to take action. Part of me felt happy to have the affection of such a beautiful woman. Another part was screaming at me for enjoying it.

I’m sorry Sera…

After what felt like both an eternity and a second, she broke the kiss. She stepped back and let go of my hand. She gave me a wink before turning and walking towards the others.

She looked back over her shoulder. “Just wanted a taste before having the full course.”

I was stunned, my thoughts a mess. I could only watch as she sauntered away… After a moment I let out a sigh.

Of course, it was food she wanted.