Stiffening in shock at hearing another voice for the first time in… Oh gods, how long had it been? Spinning quickly to look towards where it came from, I did a quick double take.

Stepping out of the edge of the mists, was a man. I think. At first, I thought he was simply incredibly short. He couldn’t have stood much higher than four feet. Wrapped in dark clothes, but not so dark they stood out, he was holding one hand up towards me. From what small amounts of skin I could see, he was gray. As in, actually the color gray. It took me an awkward few seconds of staring for my brain to supply the word I was looking for; Dwarf.

“Uh... Wait, what?“ I said, oh so intelligently. After his hand lowered slightly and his head tilted slightly, I realized I had spoken in English. Making a conscious effort to speak in what was called, Aethrum Common, I tried again. “I’m sorry, what?”

The dwarven, AS IN AN ACTUAL DWARF, man blinked for a moment. “If you could unsummon the sword, we have some questions for you,” he thrust his thumb over his shoulder, and I could just barely make out the figures of others in the mist. Unlike the first however, they appeared closer to human sized.

I knew that I shouldn’t just trust anyone I met in this world, but I simply couldn’t continue on the way I had if I had another option. I still hadn’t eaten or drank anything in close to five days, and I suspected that my class lowering my need for those things was the only reason that wasn’t affecting me worse than it was.

Nodding and moving slowly, I let the sword disappear. “Alright, fair enough. None of you draw weapons on me and I won’t on you, sound good?” I might not have any choice but to try to talk with them, but if I could get at least some assurances, that would be better than none.

The dark-clothed man considered for a moment before nodding, “Alright, that’s a deal.” He gestured to the others in the mist to come forward. As they did, I could feel my eyes widened and I fought hard to keep my jaw from dropping.

A dwarf, while strange and exciting to me, wasn’t actually that unusual. People with dwarfism back on Earth were actually roughly the same size if I remembered correctly. He might definitely be more solidly built than the average human, but that wasn’t too strange either. Two of the three people emerging from the mist on the other hand, were entirely and utterly alien to me.

With reptilian, scaled skin, the two were actually somewhat taller than me. One had a darker green tint to his scales, and was definitely a warrior. Covered in what I knew to be a type of studded leather armor, he also had an intimidatingly large sword at his waist.

Next to that one, was an incredibly similar looking one. I couldn’t tell why, but they both looked as though they’d be men. The second one had lighter green scales, but only in comparison. He on the other hand, had on what looked to be thin leathers and some type of overcloak. Instead of a sword, he held a tall white wood staff in his right… claw. They had claws. Alright then.

In fact, I was so busy looking over the two, my mind shot back to some of the fantasy books I’d read to supply me with a name, lizardfolk, that I barely even noticed the third individual who came out of the mist.

In fact, I almost missed her because of how completely normal she looked compared to everything. While the dark leathers and hilts of knives sticking out everywhere was definitely unusual, it was nothing compared to the crazy shit I’d slowly gotten used to. She had a mask on, covering her face up to just below the eyes, her hair was bound tight and I was pretty sure it was long, but simply tucked beneath her outermost layer of covering. She looked stunningly ordinary.

“I uh.. Hello?” I said slowly, not wanting to draw attention to me being so shocked to see them. When they simply glanced at each other in confusion, I realized again I’d lapsed back into English. If only there was a way to toggle the skill on or something…

The very instant I thought that, I felt something in that internal flow of power, shift. A moment later, I could tell I had somehow done that very thing.

I almost spoke aloud to myself, having somehow gotten into the habit over the past few days. Instead, I forced myself to repeat my greeting, “Hello?” I waved hesitantly at the group of four. I almost went to identify them before realizing they were too far away for it. Identify has an annoyingly short range…

The two lizardfolk raised a hand in greeting, and the woman merely nodded to me. I turned my attention back to the dwarf, who seemed to be the spokesperson for the group. “You all don’t happen to have names do you? I’m Alex.”

The tightly bundled dwarf seemed to smile slightly, “I’m Devos, the two lizardfolk are Raruk and Verus,” he pointed to the warrior and what I assumed to be mage in turn, “the bundle of dark clothes that insists it’s a human is Alissina.” I couldn’t help but smile slightly as she glared at Devos’ back for a moment. She really was almost completely covered in dark clothes and armor after all, it was almost impossible to tell she was human if not for the ears and visible parts of her face.

What followed the introduction was an incredibly awkward minute of us staring at each other, neither quite knowing what to say. Eventually I said, “Umm.. You said you had questions for me?” They almost seemed startled for a moment before Devos nodded.

“Yes, yes, sorry. You uh.. Look a bit strange I’m afraid.. And you don’t seem to have any travel pack with you.”

I automatically looked down at myself. While I’d just grown used to ignoring the state of my clothes because I couldn’t really do anything about it, I realized again just how utterly destroyed they were. My clothes were dark with residue and stains from my time in the swamp, not to mention blood. The tears and rips were from the wounds I’d taken. I did indeed, I admitted to myself, look pretty terrible.

I used the short time I inspected myself again to desperately try to think of a cover story. In the end, I just couldn’t. Anything I thought of would need me to know at least something about the world, and I just didn’t. If they asked me where I was from, I was instantly screwed. This is a really bad idea. Instead, I told the truth.

“So… You are so not going to believe me… But I have no idea where I am or what’s happening.” I tried to smile convincingly at them, but I felt it probably fell somewhat short.

Devos just slowly lifted one eyebrow, whie Alissina narrowed her eyes. Raruk and Verus just looked at each other before looking back at me. After a long moment, Devos spoke again. “What do you mean you don’t know where you are or what’s happening..?” He spoke slowly as though trying to understand a difficult math problem and doing the equations in his head.

Nodding solemnly, I replied, “Ah well.. I sort of just… Woke up, over in a swamp that way,” I gestured towards the vague direction I came from, “Kinda just got up and started heading this way because… Seemed as good a way to go as any.” I kept a close eye on their expressions as I spoke. Raruk and Verus remained impossible to read, but Devos and Alissina had the look of people with one question answered and a dozen more suddenly available.

“I’ve mostly been just hoping to run into people at some point, like you!” I gestured at them with a smile. A long, long moment passed before Devos slowly raised his arm to point in the direction I’d come from.

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“You came from, over there?”

“Ah.. yes.” I confirmed after taking a moment to double check with the sun’s position in the sky.

His eyebrows drew together intensely, “We found a skeleton a little bit back that was all but cut in half..?” I nodded slowly.

“Ah yes well, that was probably me. My sword helps quite a bit with dealing with skeletons,” to support my statement, I gestured as though holding my sword. As I did, I noticed Devos and Alissina’s hands twitch towards their weapons for a moment.

Another long moment passed before Devos spoke, “Roughly how many did you run into on the way here..?”

The question surprised me, and I actually had to take a moment to think about it. “Huh, well. Probably around, thirty? Forty at the most… Why?” Seeing his face go pale, I suddenly had a thought. Oh god, please don’t let these people worship the skeletons or something! Oh god, that would be bad!

The other three were looking towards Devos as he asked another question, “And you didn’t run into anything more powerful than the regular skeletons? Nothing close to the wight?” I shook my head, trying to figure out what he could be getting at.

“Ah shit. This is bad, this is really, really bad…” He quickly glanced around the ring of mist-cleared space. As he saw now just my own, but the other three’s confused faces as well, he cursed again before explaining.

“There should have been hundreds of skeletons in that direction, not to mention he,” Devos gestured at me, “should have run into something stronger! At least a Skeleton Knight! If he didn’t, then one of two things happened. Either one of the stronger groups moved through, and since I didn’t hear anything about that I doubt it. Or,” he paused with a grim expression, “Or a Skeletal Lord is moving through, gathering up the skeletons into their army…”

While that sounded bad, I only realized the seriousness of his words when looking at the other three’s expressions. Alissina’s eyes immediately hardened and she started checking her daggers. Raruk drew in a sharp breath and his hand shot to his sword's handle. A faint hint of chill emanated from Verus, a slight layer of frost creeping over his staff as he started looking around quickly.

Devos continued, “We have to get back and report this immediately, the city can’t afford to be taken by surprise by a Skeletal Lord... “ He glanced at me for a moment, “I can’t pretend to have any idea what might have happened to you, or whatever, but I’ll be damned if I leave anyone here who might be able to help with this. If nothing else, you’ve proven you can deal with skeletons alone and we’ll need that in spades. Will you come with us?”

I glanced back at the spire, remembering how my previous plan of just keep going had worked out. To be fair, this doesn’t necessarily seem much better.. But at least there’s people. And hey, I was technically sent here as a ‘hero’. Looking back at Devos, I nodded. “I’ll come with. Can’t really afford not to really..”

Noticing Alissina’s questioning glance, I elaborated. “I uh.. Haven’t eaten or drank anything in almost five days. I’m getting a bit desperate..”

Devos had been muttering to himself but he froze as he heard me speak. Looking up slowly, he met my eyes. “You haven’t eaten or drank… in five days..?”

“Well, almost five. But basically, yes.”

He blinked, almost owlishly. “How the unholy hell did you fight and kill the wight then? It should have ripped you to little pieces if you fought it while hungry and thirsty, in addition to just flat out under leveled.” His voice was utterly calm, as those he was still wrapping his head around it.

I scratched the back of my neck, trying to ignore the gnawing hunger now that we were talking about food. “I think my particular magic is just very effective against it,” shrugging, I didn’t notice the excited look Verus gave me at the mention of magic. “I can’t imagine undead or shadow creatures enjoy light magics. And uh, my class helps out with how much I need food and water… So that helps…”

I could admit to not knowing much about this world, but I needed to learn. From the either carefully blank looks or the expressions of sharpened interest, I could tell that a class lowering your need for food, water, and sleep was probably either rare or powerful. While I couldn’t be sure, I didn’t want to reveal that my class was specifically solar based.

It wasn’t that I mistrusted these four, it was just that I didn’t know. At the moment, my biggest weakness was simply that I didn’t know anything about the world. I didn’t know if there was some way for that knowledge to be used against me, even accidentally. Until I knew more, I decided just to be careful.

Devos grunted, “Sounds useful,” He shook his head slightly before gesturing for me to come closer. “Come on, you’re coming with us now, we’re heading back to Typhal.” As I walked closer, I could see the other three looking me over more closely. It took me a moment to realize they were actually identifying me, I quickly did the same.

Mage - Level 33

Warrior - Level 31

Rogue - Level 28

Ranger - Level 79

I looked over Verus, Raruk, and Alissina without pause, taking in that they were close to me in level with only Alissina below thirty. When I identified Devos, I thought it was a mistake at first. When I used the skill again and got the same result, I froze for a brief moment.

Holy shit… I didn’t think he was level seventy-nine… What the hell…

Looking back at Raruk, I could see a slight curl to his mouth. After a short moment, I decided to ask. “Uh.. Why are you so much higher leveled..?” I looked directly at him as I asked. After a short moment, I could see Raruk’s mouth curl upwards slightly, while Verus’ frowned.

Verus responded a few seconds later, “Hmm.. You really aren’t from here..” Hearing that I shrugged and nodded slightly. “We’re,” Verus gestured to himself with Raruk and Alissina, “rather new adventurers. These fields provide decent experience, but have the occasional higher level threat like that wight.” He jerked his head towards the spire. “That’s why new groups like ours have guides sent with us, like Devos here. They’re higher leveled and have a lot of experience in the area.”

Slowly, I nodded. Before I could ask another question, Devos snorted. “Whatever, we need to get moving back to Typhal. Come on, lets go,” without anything else further, he began to slowly head past and away from the spire. I hesitated as the other three started moving to follow. After a seconds wait, I hurried to catch up.

It was an odd feeling, moving through the now familiar mists with people. I was so used to traveling alone that I found the multiple sets of footsteps loud. That was, until a moment later when I felt an expanding bubble of energy expand over us and the sound of our passage fell away, softened into almost nothing.

After a few minutes of walking, Alissina dropped back a few steps to be next to me. She held out what was unmistakably a water flask. Looking at it, knowing what was inside it, I could feel my thirst clawing at my throat. I only barely managed to get out, “N- no thank you.. I’d just drink it all…” I tried to swallow but my throat was so dry so suddenly it got stuck.

She shook it towards me again, “Verus has ice magic. He can refill it, go ahead.” Hearing that, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I tried to not snatch it away too quickly, but I couldn’t tell if I’d succeeded or not. All I knew was that a moment later, sweet blessed water was raining down. I gulped desperately at it, wanting nothing more than that right then. I knew in that moment, I’d never take food and water for granted again.

It took me a moment or two to realize it when it was all gone. My lips trembled as I pulled the flask down and away. I looked down and I could feel my face warm as I realized what I must have looked like, drinking so desperately from the water flask. Tentatively, I held the flask back out to her, “Thanks.. And uh.. Sorry about that..”

She took it back before responding, “Don’t apologize. I’d be worse if I’d gone so long myself.” After that she spoke no more and I didn’t either. I didn’t have anything I could think of to say, or needed to. Not right then. Right then, I was wholly focused on staying with their group.

It had already been late in the day when we’d first encountered one another, so it was only an hour and a half later that Devos stopped. Turning back towards us, “Alright, we stop here for the night. As much as we might want to rush all the way forward, we just might run into something truly dangerous. And if we do that while exhausted..”

That made perfect sense to me, and apparently to the others as well. Even if Raruk seemed a little too interested in the possibility of running into something dangerous. Without much further being said, They all began to take off their packs and separate bedrolls. Growing somewhat anxious and feeling oddly separated, I simply stood off to the side and watched the mists.

A minute later, Devos noticed. Straightening and turning to face me, a small smile crossed his face at my awkward standing. “Oh come on, come on. Don’t just stand there, join us,” he gestured to the small circle they’d set up with their packs and bedrolls.

With more than a little anxiousness, I stepped in and slowly sat down. I glanced around at them all, “So.. I’ll admit I have some questions..”

Verus chuckled, a deeper more powerful sound than it would have been in a human. “So do we, so do we…”