The city had a massive adventuring guild. It was in the very center of the city, the second-tallest building. Fred went inside, and there were so many people too.

He went towards the counter and told them he was looking for someone to team up with. The receptionist simply smiled and told him to look around. It was not an unusual place to make new friends.

Fred found a wooden chair to sit on. It was in a nice spot, too; he could see people leaving and entering the building. But as soon as he started looking at people through the menu, he felt intimidated. There were so many people with ranks of D and C. The groups of people had the same rank; there was little diversity within the group.

Minutes turned into an hour, and he did not spot a single person with the same rank as him. But as he was about to lose hope, he suddenly spotted a group of three enter the building. They were all ranked F. Two men and one woman! Without any wait, he rushed towards them and smiled uncomfortably.

"I am looking for a party," Fred explained to himself.

"That was quick. We are looking for a carry. Wanna join us?" A thin looking man smiled.

Fred glowed with happiness. He nodded, and they went outside.

"Well, let me introduce ourselves. I am Bjorn, the thief, the midlaner. The cute lady is Augustė; she's our support and an occasional bard. The pudgy man is Karl; he's the tank, the offlaner." Bjorn spoke up rather confidently. Karl sighed. He clearly did not like such labels for himself.

"I am Fred. Just Fred."

"Well, can you swing a sword?"

"Indeed, I can." Fred took out a sword from his backpack and performed a light arc in front of them.

"Wow, a sword skill. That's so beautiful." The team was seemingly convinced of Fred's aptitude. Their amazement felt genuine, with not a hint of deceit.

"What about you? Do you have any cool skills?" Fred asked.

"Cool? No. All three of us have the same two skills. One is useless; the other one is not as impressive." Bjorn continued the conversation.

He then placed his finger into the air, and a tiny, bright ball of light appeared above his finger. Same warm white light as the 'Light Arc'. The tiny, bright ball flew into the air and circled around his head like some kind of insect.

"It's called the Firefly. Illuminates dark places, which is quite useful. The other skill, let me cast it."

Fred stared at the guy, but seemingly nothing changed. He tilted his head.

"Look at my feet." Bjorn gave a hint. Fred followed the hint and, for a split second, saw a small glowing circle beneath Bjorn's feet.

"It's called Light Step. The description is cryptic and says it makes your step so sturdy that it can hold a mountain. But none of us have any idea what it really means or how to use it. It only lasts a split second too, so useless at avoiding traps or anything like that." Bjorn explained.

"Maybe you can avoid fall damage; what if you activate it the last second before ground?" Fred guessed.

"Haha, great guess. That was my first guess as well. Tried it. I managed to cast it in the middle of the fall. I broke both of my legs, and a second later I still died from the fall damage."

"Ouch." Fred sighed.

"Honestly, I would rather have your skill."

Fred was surprised; he got this skill from the first town. Those guys should have been there. Did they somehow miss the rat quest? Moreover, how did they all find each other?

"Well, it's in the quest, in the tutorial town. We can quick travel; you have to fight some rats to get it."

"Rats?! What the hell? No, I don't want it anymore." The entire party twitched at the mere mention of the rats.

"It can't be worse than slime." The woman jumped into the conservation.

"Nope, rats are worse. Anyway, you're the only one with a sword, so it would not be useful for us. And hey, if we do find a need for it, we know how to get it." Bjorn disagreed.

"So what now? Any immediate plans?" Fred decided not to argue too much.

"The dungeons around here are all C and D ranked, and you need to be ranked E to enter those. So it would be nice to get rank E." The woman explained.

"I know just the right place for that. But it requires teamwork!" Fred glowed, happy to be useful.

"Well, we are a team now, right?" The party smiled at Fred, and pretty much everyone said that in unison.

A moment later, Fred received a bunch of notifications. He was now friends with all of them!

—

"The place is within an hour of walking from here."

"Oh, that's nothing. We spent four days getting here." Augustė replied.

"Wait, don't tell me you walked here."

"Yep, we did. We skipped the tutorial town and went right into the wilderness. I found a few dungeons along the way. How do you think we got our skills?"

"Hey, imagine our surprise when we came to this city. It's so huge!" Karl finally broke the silence, too. "What about you?"

Fred nodded; he somewhat understood everything.

"I, uhm, kind of hitchhiked my way here. So it did not take long. Is there anything I missed?"

"Besides one useful skill? Quite a bit. There's a few player camps right along the road. All the newbies who are trying to figure out the game. They did explain the basics to us too. Did you know you can reset health points, hunger, and tiredness by simply logging out?"

"Yep, I figured." Fred smiled.

Fred took the opportunity to check their delta variables. They all had minus four, while Fred's remained the same as the other day. Initially, Fred started playing earlier, but then he got a better idea.

"Actually, for how long have you played? I mean, in real time?"

"About 6 hours." Bjorn replied after a pause.

"So it is your first day?"

"Yep!"

"That's awesome! You also all started at the same time?"

"We actually played a lot of different games together. For almost a decade! We finally saved up money, and now we're here. It's a strange game, but we're having fun! We never met in real life; we used voice chat in other games, so we knew how each of us sounded, but it was still quite awkward to see and play in our own bodies. It was certainly a unique experience. How do you feel?" The girl replied.

"Cheated, honestly. I came here because I saw catgirls on the poster, and yet I haven't seen a single one!" Fred joked.

"Hehehe, a fellow catgirl enthusiast!" She smiled smugly. "I fell for it too."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Eventually, they reached the entrance of the dungeon. The party inspected the surroundings for a minute, then all four entered the dungeon.

"My shoes are wet; it sucks." The thief complained nearly immediately. The rest nodded. It was simply unavoidable.

They reached the big door with a torch.

"So, uhm, behind this door there's a maze; we need to find the opposite side. We need to carry and stay within the radius of this torch, or else ghosts will attack us. You cannot see the ground, so you need to be careful not to trip." Fred explained, remembering his past experience.

"Pretty clear then." The thief announced this and firmly picked up the torch. "Our general rule is that if one of us dies, we all die. If you see someone logout, you logout immediately as well."

Fred nodded and opened the door, and they went inside.

"Hey thief, can you give me my notebook? A pen too?" The girl asked.

The tank carefully picked up the torch; the thief looked into his backpack and finally gave the girl what she was asking for. A small, black notebook with a pen. Once the backpack was securely on his shoulders, he took back the torch.

Karl walked in front; Fred stuck and did not let go of the left wall; in the middle was the thief with the torch, and on the other side was the girl, drawing something in the notebook.

Everyone's steps were slow and careful. Fred felt somewhat secure and confident. Karl warned every time there was a hole or an exposed root. This party felt so professional compared to his last one. The maze was different, but nevertheless, Fred soon opened the large door to the treasure room.

"This is the treasure room, right?" Augustė asked.

"I think so."

"Ok, let's not go in just yet and explore the dungeon." She insisted.

Fred was not sure about the reasons, but he nodded. They continued exploring, and half an hour later, they reached the entrance.

"Heh, just as I thought." Augustė smiled brightly and showed everyone her drawing. It was the chart of the maze. She mapped out a circle, with an entrance at one and a throne room in the other. However, the area in the circle was dark.

"The area in the middle is hidden. It is not reachable by tracing the left or right wall. Sneaky but not unexpected." She added.

Fred felt excited; he loved this team already. They then explored the middle area and found another strange door. It was smaller than the other doors in this dungeon. The door had no handle either. Pushing did not work, and there was no way to pull it either.

The group did not know how to open it. They continued on and mapped out the entire dungeon. They found no levels or anything alike. Finally, they returned to the door.

"It is likely a riddle." Thief said. "It's a beginner's dungeon, so it should be something simple. Any ideas?"

Fred shook his head.

"Actually, Fred said there are ghosts, but I haven't seen a single one. Did you lie about ghosts, or are they invisible?" The tank turned to Fred.

"They are real; I saw my friend freeze." Fred explained, and Karl nodded.

Then, quickly, Karl raised his finger and created a light firefly. It illuminated the place and, for a few seconds, blinded the players.

"Just as I thought, ghosts are invisible in the torch's light. But I can see a few now." Karl continued.

Fred was frozen. It was scary. He really saw the ghosts. There were a lot of them. They floated about five meters away from the torch. Their shapes and faces were blurry; some were humanoid, and some were animal-like.

"Oh, hey, a riddle." Karl distracted Fred, and Fred turned back to face the door.

In a different light, a set of words appeared written on the door:

> "I have pointy ears, and my touch is gentle. I do not need to speak to cast magic. Who am I?"

Fred memorized the riddle, and the girl wrote it down.

"The answer is an elf, right?" Fred guessed without much thought.

"Elf!" The tank shouted at the door. Then he turned around and smiled as if nothing had happened. "Well, apparently not."

The group had no intention of giving up, however.

"Let's think. This world follows the physics of our world; there is no magic. I have not seen a single person or a monster with a mana bar. But there's a suspiciously empty space below the health bar on the menu. So maybe that's a future feature?" Thief explained.

"We are in a dungeon, however. Dungeons do not necessarily follow the physics of the real world." He added, unsure where to take his line of thought.

"They don't?" Fred, curious, inquired; it was new to him.

"Nope. Dungeons run their own set of rules, and those rules can be anything. High ranking dungeons do have magic in them, or so I heard. Dragons too." He explained, then came to the door and shouted 'dragon' to it.

Fred smiled; he had no idea how the word 'dragon' fit the riddle in any way. Fred then thought to himself and tried to remember everything he knew about the game. He remembered the online forum, and the forum banner contained…

"A catgirl!" Fred said to the door.

Nothing happened, however. Fred sighed. Well, he was defeated and out of guesses.

"It fits, actually." The only girl in their team spoke.

"We are assuming the door can hear. The riddle does mention a touch." The thief continued, and suddenly Fred got a strange idea.

He moved to the door, bent his fingers into a cat pose, and gently pushed on the door. And suddenly, very suddenly, a bright red magical circle appeared in front of Fred. With his two 'paws' in the very center of it. A second later, another large magical circle appeared; it was dark purple. However, the door did not open.

"It's a warning." The thief explained.

"Come, let me try it." Augustė asked and gave her notebook to Karl.

Fred pulled back; the circles disappeared and reappeared once the girl touched the door. She pushed on the door again, the red circle disappeared, the purple one exploded in brightness, and the door began to open… Everyone froze in place.

"Nyaa?!" Augustė tried to say something.

Her hands and body changed too. Instead of hands, she now had round, fluffy paws. Her pointy ears perked up, and a long tail extended down to the water. As the tail touched the water, she pulled it up immediately and held it upwards from there on. She seemed to have no issue controlling it. Her clothes changed completely too; she was now wearing an adorable maid dress with a fitting headdress, too.

"Heh, here's your catgirl." Bjorn commented.

"Here's our dungeon magic too." Karl added, teasingly.

"Nyaa!!" Augustė tried speaking once again, but simply could not.

Fred was silent and secretly jealous, too.

"Can I touch your ears?" The thief asked, and the catgirl nodded. Fred used the opportunity too. The ears were so incredibly fluffy; they went warm and were very real. She was surprised by it all, so her ears were perked up. But she could twitch and move them too.

She then tried to paw into the thin air; her tail looked frustrated.

"No menu?" The thief guessed.

"Nyaa!" The catgirl confirmed.

She then raised her leg. She had no shoes, but her paw was wet too. It did not look very comfortable.

"Ok, let's get out of this wet place, then figure out what to do." The thief instructed them, and they went inside the secret room.

Catgirl shook her head and went through the door. She paid the price; she wanted to know what was inside. The torchbearer and the rest of the group followed her inside.

The room was small, and the walls were reinforced with wooden planks. The floor was made out of wood, although there was plenty of sand and dried dirt on top of it.

There was a weather paper note hanging on the wall. The note said "meow meow meow…" and was unreadable to anyone but the catgirl. The catgirl's eyes jumped from word to word, as if she could really read it.

"Can you read it?" The thief asked, and the catgirl nodded.

Fred continued to look around, occasionally peeking at the adorable catgirl. The room was really tiny and contained nothing besides that note. He sighed. Part of him expected to find some secret treasure. Then again, maybe seeing the adorable catgirl was that treasure too.

"Is it the core room?" Karl asked the catgirl.

She simply nodded. Karl and the thief sighed, as if the treasure had been taken away from them.

"A core room?" Fred then asked.

"Yup, we found a few of those before. There were no chests or rewards, but some did contain a bit of lore. I think these rooms were somehow used to create the dungeons, but now their purpose is simply an Easter egg for players to find." Karl continued.

The catgirl finished reading the text only she could read and walked outside. They finally went into the throne room. Fred, the only one with free hands, opened the chest, and a warm white light swallowed the entire room in an instant.

The party found themselves at the entrance. Their feet were dry, and all of them had feet too. Augustė was back to her old self. She was no longer a catgirl, and her clothes were reset too. She was trying to touch her kitty ear, but it was simply not there.

"I did not get to touch it myself." She sighed.

"Shall we go back?" Fred inquired.

"Nah, maybe, but not today. While a catgirl, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life as a pawsy catgirl, but now that I know it was only temporary, it kind of lost its charm. Plus, the wet tail feels truly awful." She explained with a wink.

"Here is your notebook." Karl gave it back to her.

Without any wait, Augustė scribbled something down. It was clear she was collecting lore text, and this one was no exception.

"What did it say?" Fred asked.

"I don't remember it word for word. I actually don't remember any words, only the meaning. Here, read, this is the best I remember." Augustė showed him the notebook.

The entry read:

> The creator of the dungeon had a cat who protected him through his entire childhood. He grew up; the cat died of old age, but his feelings for the cat stayed on for decades to come and served as an inspiration for this and many other dungeons.

Fred found it to be incredibly beautiful. She closed the notebook, and it was time to move on.

Fred quickly checked on everyone. Everyone seemed to be exactly like they were before. Same health, same names. Only the title has changed; it now said 'Adventurer (Rank E)'.

"I think this is it, Fred. Time for us to finally get some sleep." Bjorn added, and the rest of the group nodded.

Fred understood. It was their first day. He knew they were completely overwhelmed by everything. Fred nodded as a confirmation.

"Let's meet tomorrow at 17:15 at the guild, and let's continue this adventure together." He added.

"Can we make it to 18:00? I need time to get from work." Fred fixed the time.

"Oh, sure, I understand. Six it is then."

"Great. But feel free to play without me." Fred added, feeling a bit guilty.

"Why? You're friendly, and we do need a carry after all. I took a day off to play today, but I have work too. We all do. Extra 45 minutes simply mean we get to have a dinner in between. Beats playing hungry." The girl explained.

Bjorn nodded too.

"Agreed then." Fred happily accepted.

Fred briefly recalled his colleague's offer, but this team was simply better. More fun and more fitting.

"Bye~" Bjorn finally said. He was the first to disappear.

The rest of the group, including Fred, soon followed. They were all spent, both emotionally and physically.