“Most adventurers make their living off these dungeons. The monsters within them can provide excellent, if often deadly, training. Additionally, many important alchemy ingredients can be recovered from the slain monsters. And oftentimes, a new mine can be made from the now cleared dungeon.”— Dungeoneering: An Adventurer’s Guide

  Eric’s Forge, Firestone, Territories of Rielle. Day 02.

  Saiph pulled the pieces of his armor from his bag and placed them on the ground. He hadn’t realized just how scuffed and beaten they were until he could see every piece before him. There were chips in some of the plates and one of the gauntlets was missing its plating over the ring and pinky finger. The leather wrapping his hammer’s handle was coming undone and the head could definitely use a resurfacing to remove the nicks and chips it had acquired over time.

  Eric held each piece of the armor reverently, gently setting them into his cart. “Give us some time with your gear and we’ll have it good as new.”

  Fortunately Nix had the materials on hand to repair Saiph’s hammer and armor. His sword, Durendal’s Edge, was made of a far rarer material Nix did not have on hand. The sword still had most of its durability left as Saiph only used it when running his Scarlet BLade build, a tanking style based around the sword’s strong life drain enchantment.

  Lueur Rose went back to the village for supplies and Saiph went to forage for some useful alchemy ingredients. There had been plenty of plants surrounding the shop that gave off soft lights of a rainbow of colors, each of which determined that plant’s strongest alchemical effect.

  Saiph picked the flowers and dropped them into his bag of holding. The bag would auto sort the items and place them in the alchemy page on his inventory. It was a handy feature that made item sorting far easier.

  While gathering ingredients, Saiph made a call to his guild’s, North Remembers, guild leader, Permaphrost.

  “Saiph, you’re here, too? Didn’t see you online, figured you missed the boat.” Came Permaphrost’s deep voice.

  “Nah, menu trouble. You’re out of your mind if you thought I’d miss the chance to show you who’s the better tank in person.”

  Permaphrost gave a hearty laugh. “We ain’t gone on that raid yet. I’m sure the boys would love to have the second best tank come with us. You heading this way?”

  “Slowly, there’s something I need to look into first.” Saiph filled Permaphrost in on Riley’s account showing online.

  “That’s a level eighty zone. You want us to send some men your way?”

  “I’m doing this one ASAP, brother. Will-I-Am’s putting together a party. But I could use two favors from you.”

  “Ask away.”

  “Does the banking system still work?” Saiph had forgotten to ask Lueur Rose if she knew anything about that. Back in the game, items could be moved between guild castles and guardian cities near instantaneously through the vault system.

  “I believe so. I’ll double check. You needing some heavy equipment?”

  “Yeah, my good armor and whatever lesser potions we’ve got to spare. Can you have those sent to Orleana’s guild hall?”

  “Easy ‘nuff. What’s the other thing?”

  “There’s a girl here, Lueur Rose, she saved my life before I knew I could respawn. I’d like to give her a shot at joining the guild. Can you ask the council if they’ll give her an audition?”

  “I can, but you’re the guild’s leader. You have the authority to do that yourself.”

  “Do I? I’m not active anymore. I stepped down—”

  “The way I see it,” Permaphrost interrupted, “you might have been retired back on earth, but this, whatever it is, seems to see us as soldiers of a sort. And it looks like you’ve been recalled to active duty. That means, whether you want to or not, you’re back in charge. The council will agree.”

  Saiph had to fight back tears. He was the major reason his guild had taken off and he’d put in a lot of time and effort to make North Remembers the number one raid guild in Annwyn Online. It was his baby and he was glad to be back at the helm in a way he couldn’t quite explain.

  “Thank you, Perma,” was all Saiph could manage.

  “You’re welcome,” Permaphrost replied softly. “Now, tell me about this girl. What’s her build?”

  “Rogue-Assassin. Just changed her subclass, so it’ll be a while before she meets that req,” Saiph answered. The feeder clan for North Remembers, North Follows, required a minimum of level seventy-five in both your main and subclass in order to join.

  “There’s a lot of that going around,” Permaphrost said. “Another DPS, though? What we really need are support players, more now than ever. Bring her here when you’re done with the Riley situation. We’ll get a nutter run going to properly audition her.”

  The two continued to talk about more mundane things before ending their call. Saiph had learned that a full ninety percent of their guild had been online when they’d been brought here. Only one of the council members hadn’t been online.

  Saiph had gathered several bundles of a ragweed that made for a decent strength healing potion and several other flowers that affected mana regeneration. He took his earnings and headed back to the blacksmith’s shop.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The sound of forging could still be heard behind the building when Saiph returned, so he took a seat under a tree and began sharpening Durendal’s Edge with a whetstone.

  He hummed a soft lullaby as he worked. It was the same one Riley always warmed up with when she played the violin. A simple pattern, a short hm… hm-hm-hm that repeated itself, but could be extended by almost any combination.

  Lueur Rose returned a while later and sat down beside Saiph. “Got some food and an apothecary in town had lots of herbs for potions.”

  “You didn’t craft any, did you?”

  “Not yet, why?”

  “Because I likely have the highest alchemy skill out of all of us. Give me the ingredients and I can make some pretty strong brews.”

  “I doubt it! You do know rogues use poisons and other potions, right? Mine’s level seventy-three.” Her expression was so smug, Saiph wondered if she and Nix had spent all last night having a staring contest to see who could make the more grating expression.

  “And mine is maxed. And probably has been since before you even made your character.” Saiph laughed as Rose’s face fell. “Riley—Aria Aurora—was a Bard-Alchemist. I spent a lot of time learning alchemy from her. It was her favorite system in the game.”

  “Wait, Aria Aurora? Of Sonnet’s Little Helpers? That guild helped me when I was still a newbie! She’s your girlfriend? But she…” Rose trailed off.

  “Yeah. Two years ago. Car accident.” Saiph could feel the memory of that night surfacing. He forced it back. “I was usually on one of my alts when I partied with people. That’s probably why you never put it together. We helped a lot of people back then.”

  “Yeah, most parties didn’t let lowbies join them. Aria Aurora, though? I’m so sorry. I guess I see now why you’re in such a hurry to get to your guild castle.”

  “Yup. Someone’s using her account. I just wish they’d fucking answer me!” Saiph forced himself to slow his breathing. He reached for the empty space where his necklace usually lay. “Sorry. Here, let me see those alchemy ingredients you got.”

  Rose handed over the assortment she’d gathered from town. Saiph dumped the contents into his bag of holding, then opened his inventory.

  The alchemy tab showed an advanced view of his inventory, including the many different combinations he could make with his ingredients. The expanded crafting menu had a glow to it. Saiph clicked on it and a prompt appeared.

  Alert! The portable expanded crafting station is only available to Guardians who have attuned their Caer Fragment to their souls. As you have not yet completed this task, you will only be able to craft basic mixtures of the ingredients you have on hand, severely limiting potion quality.

  Saiph glanced at Rose. “Well, looks like you’re making the potions.”

  Rose cocked her head in question, “Why?”

  “I haven’t attuned my Caer Fragment yet.”

  “We can do it right now, I can take us to Vaeyderen.”

  “Nah. Call me sentimental, but I think I want Pallas’ Watch to be my first attuned place.” Saiph had actually intended to ask Rose to attune them, but now that he was going to Pallas’ Watch, Saiph definitely wanted that place to be first as it would appear first in his unlock order.

  Saiph took the ingredients from his bag of holding and dumped them into Rose’s bag. A moment later, her gaze went distant as she accessed her own inventory.

  Saiph wasn’t sure when and for how long he’d dozed off for, but something heavy dropped into his lap, startling him. He looked down to see his helmet staring back at him.

  “Of course while we’re hard at work fixing your gear, you guys are out here enjoying nap time,” Nix said, handing Rose her bow. “Come check out the rest of your armor, Saiph.”

  “You changed your subclass.” Saiph studied Nix’s status page, he didn’t have a subclass anymore, but his profession was called Arcane Blacksmith.

  “Yeah, when I went to the forge, I was told I had to change my subclass to a profession,” Nix replied.

  “Same thing happened to me when I went to recharge my gear. Basically forced me to change my Enchanting subclass into a profession or I couldn’t charge anything,” Rose added. “But wait, weren’t you a Blacksmith? What’s an Arcane Blacksmith?”

  “Since I’m a magic user, I got the option to become an Arcane Blacksmith. I can use Willpower in place of Strength for weapons that require a lot of it and I can use mana instead of Stamina. There’s some other changes, but those are the highlights,” Nix answered.

  “Gonna pick a new subclass?” Saiph asked.

  “Haven’t decided on one yet. I think necromancy might be my jam,” Nix shrugged. “But come on, we’re burning daylight.”

  Saiph followed Nix and Eric into the shop and found his armor on a mannequin. He placed a hand on the chestplate over his guild’s emblem and a message appeared asking if he’d like to equip the armor.

  Each piece disappeared from the mannequin and reappeared on Saiph. Ties and fasteners secured themselves of their own accord as they pulled the plating into position.

  Strength flowed into Saiph’s body as the armor’s enchantments gave their power back to him. Helmet in hand, he turned to his two companions. “We ready?”

  Eric handed each of them a pickaxe and an oil-lit lantern. “If you cannot clear the monster from the mine, at least bring back whatever firestone you can carry.”

  ***

  The mine was a ruin in and of itself. Foundations of old buildings, weathered and worn down to barely distinguishable piles of rocks surrounded the boarded up entrance. Signs whose words had faded with age had been placed around that entrance. From the scraps of words that could be pieced together, their message still came clear: Stay out. There is only death inside.

  “Well, that’s hardly welcoming.” Lueur Rose stepped back from examining one of the signs.

  Saiph grabbed his hammer, Mil’s Judgement, and broke through the wood and stone barrier. The air rushing out was stale and had an uncomfortable heat to it.

  The light of his lantern only penetrated a few feet before being swallowed by black. It wasn’t the black of darkness that slowly came on with distance, it was the kind of black that made Saiph feel as though he were looking directly into the remains of a collapsed star.

  “Tanks before supports,” Nix gestured to the entrance.

  Saiph rolled his eyes and took a step when Rose called out.

  “Shouldn’t we form a party first?”

  “Oh, Nix and I have had one going since we got here. Sorry, I’ll add you.” Saiph waited the several seconds it took for Rose to read through Saiph’s party leader skill bonuses.

  “Whoa, these buffs are insane! Fifty percent to party healing and damage? I need to lead more parties!”

  “I could let you level your party leader skill here, but then we’d lose the free respawn if we wipe.”

  That particular perk was a game changer. Not very useful outside of dungeons, where party members could fast travel back to each other as long as they were out of combat, it shined when one was in an instanced dungeon. That specific type of dungeon blocked most forms of fast travel outside of the safe zone within it.

  Saiph stepped into the cave and his entire body instantly locked up.