After walking around in the market I noticed a crowd gathering close to one of the traveling merchants. A slave trader.

Of course they’d be excited, slave traders aren’t very common around these lower class areas, slaves are a luxury in Rintiya.

The variety was impressive, Dune Gliding Dwarfs, Peak Hawks, Headahalf Dogs, and a lesser species creature, Snowflake; I hate those fairies, how are they even alive outside of a winter region?

All of the creatures seemed very scared and sad, I guess you can’t really choose your lot in life sometimes. Somehow, just a little bit, I feel like I can understand it. My chest felt a bit heavy for some reason.

***

2 hours had passed, the air was still just as humid and gross, the sun was still in the middle of the sky, nothing really changed, but I guess it’s time to go.

I walked into the inn and there they were, my middle aged acquaintance and 2 other… men? their bulging muscles would make it seem that way if not for the eccentric appearance...

“With confident strides the scared man arrived, it was all just a show, yet the show goes on.” Jake said, smirking at me.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, old man?”

With a wave of his hand he just blew me off, claiming I’ll understand at some point, what a weirdo.

“Ready to go?” He took a sip of his beer and stood up, placing a hand on the shoulder of the creature to his left.

It looked like a man, I think? It had pink hair, very long eyelashes, and an expression I can’t even explain.

“This is George, you might be thinking, why does he look like that, to that I say… good question. George is a good friend of mine, we been huntin’ together for 15 years now, I trust him with my life.” He slapped George’s shoulder as the guy chugged down his entire glass of beer before getting up to greet me with a handshake.

“Hoho, Lifesy-boyo, welcome to the crew!” He sent a wink my way and squeezed my hand really tightly, fuck it hurt.

“And this one here is George’s twin brother - Viktor.” Basically looked the same as the other guy, just brown hair instead of pink.

This one too, winked seductively, or at least I think that was the purpose here.

“H-Hi, I’m Lifes, I’ll be joining you on this expedition.”

“Hihihi, we heard as much, boya, glad to have a sweetie pie like you with us, right, Georji?!” Viktor Stood up suddenly and punched the table really hard while grinning.

“Awooooga! Absolutely true Vikky! Real eye candy too.” George jumped in place and hugged Viktor, winking at me again.

“Don’t mind them, they’re a bit… eccentric.” To say the least… I didn’t really know what to think to be honest.

“Hoho, HO! Let’s go already Jakey, I’m ecstatic! Pfahhh” He struck a strange pose showing off his bulging muscles while making a weird expression.

The entire inn was looking at us, laughing. Firsts, give me strength to get through this. I just need a way into the capital.

“On a road unknown, march, march, march and yet again keep marching, for you will find all you seek as you learn the road. Off we go fellas!” I still have no idea what this old man is saying. These guys are all out of their minds.

I felt my stomach aching in anticipation as we set off, this is exciting!

This detour, it feels important.

George’s seal was apparently a Container, how convenient, he can place things inside of an invisible container that only he can access. All of our luggage was placed inside.

On our way there, Jake gave me 2 daggers as I couldn’t get any before we left.

“The weapon is the warrior’s heart, don’t lose it.” He said. Not exactly a warrior, but sure.

The closer we got to the entrance, the less civilized the area around us seemed.

I guess since this is a newly found dungeon, they haven’t really gotten the chance to organize things here.

Of course this whole journey wouldn’t be complete without some cliche encounter. Took around an hour of travel, but here we are.

“Halt, if you wish to continue, you have to pay the toll!” Just like an adventure book.

Some rooster-head person with crooked teeth stood in front of our carriage.

“Jakey, seems like we’re getting robbed by this ugly munchkin.”

Rooster-head smirked as he heard that.

“Quick on the uptake, freakshow, give us all yar stuff or you die, aye?”

George, who was the one driving, pointed at the guy, smiled and said “Bye bye ugly-puff”.

His nail suddenly popped out of his finger and flew straight into the guy’s forehead.

There was a loud metallic thud and rooster-head just stood there, smiling as he deflected the nail with his small knife.

Stolen story; please report.

“*sigh* Prepare for battle… guess.” Jake announced as he jumped out of the cart and pulled out his flail

Following him was Viktor who had an enormous 2 handed sword.

“I counted 7 of them, 2 archers, 4 close-range fighters and 1 guy without a weapon… So maybe some type of long-range seal?” I noted and nocked an arrow. We probably want to take out the archers first.

Since they’re standing on the hills, there’s no way for me to use my seal from this angle.

“Lifesy-boyo, you follow Jake’s orders, don’t do things alone!”

Tch. I fucking hate when inferior fighters try and tell me what to do.

“It’s fine, just focus on getting the other 4, I’ll take out the archers.”

I took a deep breath, everything slowed down around me. I felt extremely calm.

The sounds around me were jumbled, it was all irrelevant now.

With an arrow nocked and my vision locked on the archer to our south, I held my breath and let go of the string, the arrow whisked through the air, everything around it was a blur, all of the brushes and the grass, the hill and the 2 people underneath it running towards us, I felt the heat striking my head as it started pounding, the dry, still air made my throat burn. My focus waned.

“...oyo?! Can you hear me Lifesy-boyo?” a sudden sense of dread filled me, as I came back to my senses, what was that? What happened?

I looked behind me and saw George, holding his huge shield as a gigantic bald-monkey of a man slammed down against it with a large warhammer. When did he get here?

“Y-yes… Wh-.” my confusion was cut short by an arrow scratching my neck.

“No time for that, kid, can you take out the Seal user?” Jake pointed at a tree behind the group of bandits to our north. His flail was now on fire; though it seemed to be his doing?

If there's darkness, there’s a way. Although it is risky to use my Seal in front of other people and I hated the idea of following his instructions, I guess that’s our best option for now.

Resolute to finish things quickly, I responded with a nod and slowly started sinking into the cart’s shadow while looking towards the guy under the tree.

It took less than a second and my dagger was sticking through the other side of the cloaked man’s throat.

As he fell to the floor with streaks of blood running down his neck, my brain started pounding again, there it is, it’s this thing again, I have to stay calm, I have to stay here. I heard their voices again. I felt their gaze, even seen their silhouette, maybe?

Focusing on the vague sounds of fighting helped me distract myself from the accursed reminder of my past wrongs. Or is it something different? The headache went away after the guy stopped moving.

“Sonva fuckin’ bitch. Marcus, he killed Marcus!” The 2 warriors started towards me with a frantic run, but I was already back at our cart, now I can kill the 2 archers easily.

It wasn’t much of a challenge, nobody can match me in a battle of marksmanship after all. Their party went into disarray, Jake and the twins were stronger than expected too and so everything ended just as quick as it started.

But what is this, why can’t I get rid of this feeling, why can’t I stop shaking, my heart is about to explode, my stomach is trying to jump out of my throat, what is going on?

“Not bad, ki-, hey kid are you alright?” Jake’s words reached me but I couldn’t focus enough to respond.

He was taking on the ugly rooster head from before, but it looks like it wasn’t much of a fight. Rooster head was now roasted chicken.

George’s huge shield pushed back the warhammer of our remaining enemy and Viktor took advantage of this opening, stabbing through the heart of this big ball of muscles.

As I was watching the fighting between my companions and the rest of the bandits, I realized both George and Viktor got hit by arrows while I was busy with the Seal user. An overwhelming sensation filled me again… I don’t like being with other people.

“Hoho, should we chase the other 2, Jakey?” George asked while searching the body of his enemy for any spoils.

“No point, let’s just continue into the dungeon. They done for anyway.”

His attention was then turned to my pathetic display of weakness, I couldn’t hold it in anymore, overwhelmed by emotions and intense sensations my eyes welled up and the food from my launch, launched itself out.

“I don’t know what is going on, but I think I’m fine.” I told him in between heaves.

“Sure… This expedition is going to be ripe with those types of encounters most likely, be it monsters from the dungeons or bandits looking to take advantage of the fact that this a new dungeon without no oversight from the military. We shouldn't waste energy on pointless fights. Are you sure you can do this though?” My nod wasn’t really convincing, but that was all I could muster right now.

Man that sucks… I think I’ve grown allergic to killing people.

“Hey kid are you using a ‘fake’ Seal?” His question really surprised me.

“Wha- How did you know that?” I asked.

“You see, the reason we explore dungeons is, Seals research. Not a lot of people know that but, ‘fakes’ have a big side effect on their users, it has to do with what they call ‘Normativity’.” He explained in a fit of passion.

Normativity? dungeons and Seals?

Confusion was probably written all over my face as I was trying to piece things together, eventually just resorting to ask more questions. “What do you mean by that? I’ve never heard that word before, also what do you mean by exploring dungeons to research Seals?”

Jake said he doesn’t want to waste too much time so he’ll explain more as we go, but generally speaking, this entire world that we live in, seems to be affected by the power of what we know as Seals and ‘fakes’ like me suffer side effects when using our powers.

With that, we continued down the non-existant path towards the dungeon.

We soon came across a big array of rocks. There were a lot of wolves' bodies spread inside of the arrangement. Next to it was a… cave? It looked like a cave that was made by a bunch of retarded people.

“And so it presented itself, it was glory, glory and knowledge. Glory that only awaits the strong and the brave. Knowledge that only awaits the curious and pure-hearted.” Jake blurted another strange line.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s with all the random quotes?”

“Haha, Lifes, have you ever seen a play in the theater?” *sigh*, sorry for asking.

“Take that as a no, just try to think how remarkable it is that random plays that have nothing to do with the situations you run into, can give you so much insight into what said situation might entail.” I hate to admit it but it is an interesting idea.

“Whatever, can we go in already?”

“Hihi! YES, Let’s go Georji!”

“I’m so excited Vikky!”

“Ahh… sure, let’s go, you guys are boring.” Jake concluded.

Jake led the way as he said we’re going to try to reach as far as we can, if we can map the entire dungeon, we’re sure to get a hefty reward from the army.

“By the way kid, what was the ‘Seal dissipation’ for this Marcus guy? It seemed to be some type of a psychological effect.”

“Oh right, I completely forgot about it, I think it said ‘Thou shant exude malice’, probably a barrier to prevent evil intent.”

All 3 just nodded and stood still for 10 seconds, it was a tradition to pay attention and speak out a dissipated Seal for the last time after the user died.

But now it was time for the real adventure.

I wonder how a dungeon looks on the inside, this is exciting!