The dungeon was fairly cliche. A cave in a thick forest filled with monsters. Often types of hostile wildlife and goblins. The forest wasn’t far from town but no one tried going very far into it because the whole area had a difficulty curve with an overhang. There were only a few people that could survive in the harsh conditions and even thrive in it. Two of these players stood in a small clearing. One was wearing damaged plate armour one of the legs was painted a dull green. The other was wearing a grey cloak that covered them completely hiding her face in shadows. They stood over corpse of a giant wolf and it’s rider. The wolf had been cut in half, while the rider had a small knife sticking out of its neck

“so you're like a roguish type?”asked Goodman the one dressed in plate.

“yeah that's what I'm going for,” said cloaked and hooded girl.

The two stood in silence over the recently killed giant wolf.

“I'm doing like warrior tank thing,” said Goodman.

“I can see.”

“I think we could help each other out.”

The girl stood still and examined the man in front of her he wore a low grade of plate mail but even that was leaps and bounds ahead of what most people had. It looked like he had started dyeing it green but ran out after doing most of one leg. A tank would be useful she decided

“alright,” she said.

Goodman have a big toothy grin “names Goodman,” he said opening a menu with a gesture.

“Red,” said the girl. A moment after a party invitation appeared in front of her. She hit accept.

“if that wolf is any indicated we'll have this done before tea,” Goodman said still grinning. There was a glint in his eye and Red got a pretty good idea of why his armour was far ahead of anyone else's

                        *** 

Goodman roared and charged forward his companion nowhere to be seen the three wolf goblin riders shouted and growled back and leap forward. Goodman blocked one with his shield and forced the other one away with a swing if his sword the third never got close a throwing dagger had appeared in Its throat the goblin toppled of the wolf and died the wolf free of its rider bolted away into the tunnels the first rider had been stunned from the shield blow and was stumbling about so Goodman switched targets to the second he swung his bastard sword in a vertical arc severing the wolf's head then reversed his grip on his sword and swung upwards cleaving the goblin in two as he turned he saw the first wolf recover and prepare to pounce Goodman was still in a locked state after his two hit combo and couldn't move. A shadow dropped from the ceiling onto the back of the wolf and the goblin riding it quickly found a knife buried in Its back. The goblin fell to the side and Red grabbed the wolf's fur while it bucked and jumped. She manages to sink her knife into it's side but the shift in her weight gave the wolf the opportunity to throw her off. She flew at the wall and landed heavily while the wolf darted away.

Goodman laughed, “you all right? That was quite a show.”

Red pulled herself up Goodman could see a smile under the shadow of her hood.

“I got a skill,” she said.

Goodmans eyebrows went up, “What is it?”

Red made a gesture and a menu appeared in front of her, “beast riding” she said.

“what's the description?”

“beast riding one, some beasts may let you ride them. Some may not,” She read.

“well that's good to know,” Goodman made a mental note to hop on the next monster he thought could handle the weight of his armour.

They trotted further into the dungeon and the wide space there were in gradually narrowed to tunnel with a tall and dripping roof. It was dark but not pitch black and both Goodman and Red were hoping for a night vision skill and so didn’t light a torch. They walked slowly, their footsteps echoing with the dripping.

    “So how’d you get the plate?” asked Red her voice bounced around the tunnel.

    Goodman Grinned, “that would be telling,” He said.

    “Come on it’s not like I’m going to switch roles. I’ll tell you about the thieves guild.”

    “There's a thieves guild?” Goodman looked down at her, all he could see was a shadow silhouette but he heard her smile.

    “Ah, ah, you first.” she said.

    “Alright. Well you know those skeletons? In that crypt mini dungeon.”

    “Yeah,” Red remembered the quest that took you too it. It started as a simple fetch quest to go and get a ring from a crypt in the town graveyard. But ended in the slaying of a mini boss called the gravekeeper. It was a level 7 area, which was currently the player average so the place was packed with people. Both Red and Goodman were several levels higher having risked the woods for more exp.

    “Well, those crypt guard skeletons are wearing broken up plate armour,” said Goodman.

    “Yeah, but it doesn’t drop off them.”

    “No but you can take it off the bodies and still get it.”

    Red’s eyebrows went up and she thought about the implication. If that could be taken off them then likely anything could be taken of anything before it despawned. Armour, weapons, skin, meat. There were probably countless skills to be had from this information. “So that’s where you got the armour?” She asked.

    “Not exactly.  The item I took of them was called ‘broken plate’ and it didn’t even count as armour I couldn’t equip it unless I held it in my hand.”

    “So what? You got it repaired?”

    “Yeah Once I had a couple sets of the stuff, I took it all to a npc blacksmith and asked if he could repair it. But he said he couldn’t.”

    Red nodded, “you used the custom forge feature to make a blueprint right?”

    Goodman laughed and it echoed loudly down the tunnel, “I did and had him make it. And it came out as this,” he banged a fist on this chest and the metal clanged, “patchwork plate it's called, even though the grade is low it's better than the chain that most warrior types are using.”

A roar echoed down the tunnel followed by a rumble. Goodman had already drawn his sword and was holding his shield out in front. He stood in the middle of the pathway and took up most of the space.

Red jumped up onto his shoulders and then jumped again. She dug a metal claw, her own custom forge design, into the cave roof and pulled herself up so she could cling to the ceiling.

Out of the dark came a large rock with other rocks attached to it.

    “Stone Golem,” Red called from her spot on the ceiling.

    “Weakness?” asked Goodman.

    “Blunt damage and probably earth magic if that exists.”

    The Golem charged Goodman and he activated the skill unmoveable, the golem hit the shield with one big fist and pebbles and rock dust flew of it. Goodman took a swing with his sword but it bounced right off. He swore “what’s the plan then?” he said.

the golem threw a second punch which dented Goodmans Shield. Red stuck to the ceiling chewing her lip. Normally against a heavily armoured opponent she could dart around and cut at the chinks in the armour. Rocks didn’t have chinks.

    “Hit it with the shield,” she called down. Goodman slammed the front of his shield into the Golem it staggered back and grunted. Then Grabbed the edges of the shield and pulled. Goodman jerked forward but his feet didn’t actually move. The two started a tug and war match for the shield, thanks to unmoveable Goodman could hold his own. Roughly 5 seconds had passed since he had used the skill.

    “What now?” Grunted Goodman.

    Red watched them yank the shield around it had started bending where the Golem Gripped it. A drop of water landed on Her wrist, then she noticed how wet her claw arm had gotten. There must be a pool above the tunnel.

    An idea sprang to her mind, she called down to Goodman, “How long does unmoveable have left?”

    “About 10 seconds,” he called.

    Red secured her grip on the ceiling with her free hand and feet. Then she pulled the claw out and slammed it back in. the crack she made got marginally bigger and more water started to drip. Then she did it again, and again each time more and more water fell from the crack. After the fourth hit there was a constant stream of water coming from the ceiling, and the claw was so jammed right in there. The area around the crack she had made had started dripping and cracking too. Red slipped her arm out the claw and thread a rope through grip. Then she jumped from where she was hanging just above the monster to behind Goodman. She hopped up onto his back and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, just as the was torn apart by on final pull from the Golem. Red help the rope out for Goodman and said, “Pull this.”

Goodman Grabbed the rope and pulled. The ceiling of the tunnel gave way completely.

    A shower of rocked fell first on the Golem and it roared in pain. Then came the water. A torrent of it poured from the roof filling the tunnel with noise. The water Fell and rapidly flowed down the tunnel in both directions. Thanks to unmoveable Goodman stayed rooted to the spot and he grabbed Red’s arms around his neck to hold her there. The water hit them hard, but the Golem didn’t have any kind of self root so it was picked up by the current and shoved hard against the walls of the cave as it was taken by the water. At it’s peak the water went above the duos heads and they spend a second wondering if they would drown. But the water level quickly dropped and dropped. Unmovable wore off and Goodman had to brace himself against the walls of to stop from being pushed around.

    When the water had stopped flowing from the ceiling and the water level dropped to puddles, Red dropped of goodman and stretched her arms out.

    “That went okay,” she said.

    Goodman was panting but grinned, “that’s one way to put it,” he said.

    The two checked their notifications and saw they had received exp for the Golems death.

    “Hope there not another one of those,” he said. He pulled the bent and ruined shield of his arm and tossed it to one side.

“Yeah, that could have been bad,” Red said.

    “Did you know the water would work?”

    “nope.”

They looked back up the tunnel and Red wondered if they should head back. As if reading her mind Goodman slapped her on the back and said, “Come on, we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could beat the boss.”

    “If that Fella was any indicator it’s going to be a tough one. We didn’t even find out what it was called.”

    “Lost Stone Golem,” said Goodman, “Got an insight off when we were wresting with the shield.”

    “Lost Stone Golem,” repeated Red, “if the boss is a bigger one we’ll have to do something big to take it down.”

    “I’m sure we’ll think of something,” said Goodman, “let’s keep moving.”

    The duo ventured further into the depths, their footsteps echoing and splashing in the dark.

    The Tunnel gradually came out into a Huge cavern, there was a small wooden catwalk leading round the edge and the pair slowly made their way over. Goodman went in front since if the rickety catwalk could hold his weight it could hold Reds. The catwalks went around the edge of the caven and descended slowly. Neither had gotten any kind of night vision skill and so Goodman had lit a torch. He held it in one hand and his sword in the other. Red walked a short distance behind him just outside the circle of light. They walked like this for sometime. Slowly descending into the pit.

    “You never told me about the thieves,” Goodman said, he didn’t turn his head to look back at her, but his voice echoed in the huge open space.

    “It was part of a tutorial quest. The theory is if you started sneaking about and building agility. The thieves guild come and find you, and they teach you some basic skills.”

    Goodman nodded, “I was asked to join the city guard, but turned them down. That was probably the same thing but for us muscle types.”

    “That would make sense.”

    “So how’s the quests go?”

    “Oh I had to pickpocket some people, and break into some places. Got lockpicking and quick hands. They also taught me some dagger stuff. Why didn’t you join the city guard?”

    “It sounded boring. They said they would have me on actual guard duty standing around town and stuff. I wanted to get to leveling fast so I told them no.”

    “Seemed to work out for you then.”

    Red saw the back of Goodman's head bob up and down as he nodded, “Your quests didn’t slow you down at all?”

    “Me and a couple other abandoned the quest line. There was one where we had to sign up to the guild and we didn't want too. They hate us now which is sort of annoying.”

    “Kinda makes sense though. What are the the others that didn't join up doing now?”

    “We formed our own loose band. Some of them are calling us ‘the league of unaffiliated thieves.’”

    “Doesn’t really roll of the tongue does it,” Goodman stopped at a small alcove in the cavern wall and turned to face Red.

    “Nope,” said Red stepping into the torch light, “we making camp?”

    Goodman nodded yeah, it’s probably getting late. I’m getting the tired debuff. Are you not?”

    “Not yet. I slept through the mornings so I can keep awake at night.”

    “Right,” said goodman, “Roguish type.”

    “Red gave him a sideways look as she hopped up into the alcove and began fiddling with a menu, a sleeping roll and mat appeared on the floor in front of her, “we doing watches?” she said.

    Goodman looked up and down the catwalk, one rose into darkness the other descended into it, the only sound was the dripping of water and the echo of their voices. “I think we could get away with a nap, and reach the bottom when we wake up.”

    Red shrugged, “alright,” she said, “better get tucked in then.”

    Goodman pulled up his own menu and materials his own sleeping roll and mat, he also unequipped his heavy armour, he was wearing simple clothes underneath, the kind everyone was wearing when they spawned for the first time in town. The two settled down into a light sleep. Goodman snored and Red covered her head with her bag.

They were woken by the creaking of the catwalks They spared a moment to look at each other. Red wriggled out of her bag without any trouble while Goodman had to roll a few times. The footsteps here closer and they could hear heavy panting and something heavy dragging along the wood. Clump, clump drag. Clump, clump drag. Red glared at Goodman as he struggled with his sleeping bag. She grabbed her daggers and a stood in the shadows by the entrance to the alcove.

Clump, clump, drag. Clump, clump, drag. Goodman rolled and grunted. Red hissed at him and he glared back. But stopped moving. He mouthed something but Red couldn’t make it out in the dark. She turned back towards the entrance just as the figure came into view. She moved fast and without thinking jamming one dagger into the figures belly then yanking it out. Before the figure could so much as grunt she kicked it off the side of the catwalk. It let out a wail as it fell spinning away into the darkness.

    Goodman came up behind her, “what was it?”

    “A dwarf I think.”

    “I’m not sure it was hostile.”

    Red frowned, then shrugged, “hardly matters now.”

    They stepped out on the catwalk and Goodman lit a torch. The dwarf had been dragging what looked like a metal coffin. The edge of lid was silver then while the rest was black, it a silver eagle motif across the front of it. As Red leaned in she saw the lid was not nailed down and reached down to lift it.    

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    “Wait,” said Goodman he drew his sword and held it ready, then nodded at her.

    Red wrapped her fingers beneath the lid and hauled the lid up. The lid flipped back and Red ducked back behind Goodman redrawing her daggers and taking a low stance. Goodman started to swing down, but then saw what was in the coffin, heads, about 15 decapitated heads. He let his sword go down and turned up his nose at the smell of rotting flesh.

    “Gross,” he said, “why did they put this in?”

    “That one's got no eyes,” said Red pointing to the head of a brunette woman whose eyes had been gouged out leaving dried bloody holes.

    Goodman gagged, “what are you doing? Don’t get closer,” he said as Red moved towards the coffin sheathing her daggers and reaching in.

    “There might be something good in here,” she said.

    “If there was anything to be had it would have been on the guy you kicked off over the edge.”

    Red was digging around in the heads “bring the light over,” she said.

    Goodman took a step closer, “This is the worst.”

    “You decapitated a wolf earlier, and then cut the rider in half.”

    “I didn’t dig around in the guts afterwards,”

    “You did a bit, for the loot.” Red picked up one of the heads by the hair and waggled it up and down causing the jaw to open and close, “hu, hu, hu, hu,” she spoke in a comically deep voice, “why you so squeamish Goodman.”

    “Oh, God what's wrong with you?” he said.

    Red shrugged. “It’s not real,” she tossed the head into the pit, “none of this is real, it's just a game.” She looked back into the coffin and half heartedly poked around. “I don’t think there’s anything in here,” she said, “let’s go see what's at the bottom of this pit.”

    Goodman nodded, “one second,” he picked up the lid of the Coffin and laid it out on in the alcove, then handed Red the torch. Then he took a leather strap and two nails from his inventory. Using the pommel of his sword as a hammer, he attached the strap to the Coffin lid and held it up li. It looked somewhat like a tower shield.

    “Is it any good?” asked Red.

    Goodman focused on the shield and then read the text that appeared next to it, “makeshift coffin lid shield, not great, but it’ll do.”

    “That’s what it says?”

    “That’s what it says.”

    “Neat,” Red turned and started down the catwalk, “come on, ten gold says the heads were food for whatever’s down there.”

    “Yeah, alright,” said goodman following her down into the dark.

    They walked for another 20 minutes round the catwalk before they got to the bottom. They stayed a short ways up and Red tossed the torch down onto the floor it spun in the air tossing sparks out into the blackness, before bouncing once and coming to rest. It cast a circle of light showing the floor was some kind of patterned black marble. From where they were standing they could make out the patterns weren’t painted on but were small groves in the marbles surface. It looked like an intricate series of spirals, gradually leading inward to the centre of the room.

    They moved slowly towards the bottom of the catwalk, when Red held out her hand to stop them. She squinted and on the opposite side of the torch light she saw a dark shape emerged. It was roughly 11 foot tall, and bulky, one arm looked like a tree trunk and it carried a huge bone club, the other arm was smaller but still overly muscled, it’s fingers ended in long serrated claws. It walked somewhat like a gorilla on two thick but short legs, and using the club like a walking stick. A chest like two barrels turned into a fat neck, on which sat an ugly and misshapen head. A crooked snout filled with sharp teeth that stuck out in all directions, and small black balls for eyes. Red used her insight skill, ‘Mog the Head Eater.’

    “Damnit,” whispered Goodman behind her who had done his own check.

    Red smiled but didn’t say anything. The two waited and watched as Mog tentatively stepped towards the torch, as the monster got closer to the fire they realised it was dragging something. A metal chest was tied to it’s smaller arm by a chain.

    The duo shared a look, and Goodman nodded. He hefted his coffin shield and stepped past Red and onto the black marble. Red wrapped her cloak around herself and disappeared into the shadows at the side of the arena.

    Goodman walked slowly holding the shield up in front of him and his bastard sword in the other hand. There was nothing special about the blade and it was likely his sword and shield that had been letting him down during his time in the forest. He stepped into the torch light circle, Mogs head snapped up and he growled it was an, oddly shrill sound. Goodman tightened his grip on his shield and hoped Red and he had understood each other.

    Red watched from the shadows as the fight started. Mog leaped forward and Goodman hopped back, Mog made a shock wave when he landed. It likely would have knocked Goodman back if he had been hit. The monster then swung the Bone club at Goodman’s head, who almost casually ducked underneath and swung his sword in a  wide arc, which hit just under the armpit, Mod Bellowed and swung his clawed arm, the chain attached to it went tight, slowing the swing and giving Goodman time to raise his shield. The fight continued in a similar fashion, with Goodman dodging the club and blocking the claws, and sneaking a hit when he could.

    Red crept forward, confident that Mog wouldn’t spot her now that Goodman had his attention. She moved slowly watching the chest get yanked about as Mog swung his clawed arm. She positioned herself where the chest would land next and waited. It landed a short distance from her and she ran quietly to it pulling out a lockpick. Goodman spotted her and stepped away from the monster so it would have to swing the club to hit him, and stopping Mog from yanking the chest about with his claw attacks. Red set to work jamming the lockpick in and trying to feel out the lock. Her time spent doing the thieves guild questline had caused her to level the skill several times but the lock must have been a high level because she wasn’t able to pick it and her pick broke trying. She pulled out another and stuck it in the lock to try again. It was at this time that Mog roared and did a lunging attack at Goodman, the chest Yanked away from Red breaking the second lockpick. Goodman barely managed to dodge the attack much of the causal grace he had showed at the beginning of the fight had given way to short quick dodges and attacks his health had been gradually dropping throughout the fight.

    Red ducked towards the chest again sticking a third lockpick in it. After about 15 seconds Mog did a huge double handed overhead swing with the club yanking the chest forward and breaking the lockpick again. Godman dived out the way off the attack landing heavily on his front.

    “Bollocks to this” muttered Red, she ran over and hopped onto the chest lid pulled out a throwing knife and shouted, “Hey ugly,” she threw the knife which hit just behind below The creature's neck. Mog Roared and swung the club back over his head to hit Red, but she dived away at the last second, causing Mog to hit the top of the chest and break the lid.

    Goodman rolled got to his feet and shouted, “couldn’t pick it?” he hefted his sword and swung down hitting Mog’s thigh, who screamed again and spun with it’s claw outstretched, Goodman rose his shield, the chain went tight as the claw hit Goodman pulling the chest and causing its contents to fly out across the room. Goodman was thrown backwards and Mogs claws shredded the shield into 3 parts. Goodman took a heavy hit to his HP as he landed taking him deep into yellow.

    Red frantically tried to gather up what should could from the chest and stuff it into her bag. Several of the items had been potions which had shattered when they landed leaving various coloured pools of liquid across the black floor. Red grabbed a pair of boots, several bags that jangled when she picked them up, something large heavy and smooth,. She was about to get to the next item a small metal tube when Mog turned and swung his clawed hand, the swing came a lot quicker now and the when the chain went taut this time the chest flew up into and swung in a wide arc after the claw. Red dropped to the ground narrowly avoiding the claws, but as she got up again the chain caught her in the chest throwing her back and taking the wind out of her. Her health dropped from full right through yellow and into red and as she landed she got several debuffs indicating broken or cracked bones, she took a second and focused on them, and text appeared, ‘Broken rib, broken rib, cracked rib, speed lowered’. “Fuck,” she mutted. She rolled over noticing the dull sensations and restricted movement the broken bones gave her. Mog was doing his gorilla walk towards her chain dragging behind. The fight with Goodman hadn’t slowed him down at all and she doubted they had even taken a 5th of his health. Red pulled herself up and found she couldn’t stand completely upright, it felt like there something pushing her into a hunched position. Mog stopped and brought his club back over his head.

    Goodman charged from the other side of the room yelling, he had abandoned the shield and held his sword in two hands. Mog turned in time to see to him coming and began to shift his weight but was too slow. Goodman drove the sword up to the hilt into Mogs upper thigh the blade came out the otherside glinting red in the dim torch light. Mog screamed, Goodman yanked his sword out at an angle and ducked as the claw came round to him. Mogs swing was wild and it with its injured leg it was thrown of balance Goodman Grabbed the chain as it went past and yanked on it pulling Mog completely of its feet. He then jammed his sword through the links in the chain and into the floor pinning it there.

    “Let’s go,” he shouted and ran towards the Catwalk. Red ran as best she could after him but the debuff was still active and it was more a limping gait than a run. They both made it to the catwalk when Mog found its feet, it bellowed then started to run after them when the chain went taut and he was yanked to a stop. Mog bellowed again as it watched the duo retreat back up into the cavern.

    They didn’t stop running till they reached the alcove they had napped in. Where they sat down panting. They sat like that for a while in the dark listening to their breathing then Goodman lit another torch “that was pretty stupid.” he said

    Red grinned one arm was wrapped around her chest. “Which part?”

    Goodman laughed and shook his head, “well come on, what was the treasure?”

    Red tipped out her bag on the ground between them now there as actual light she could see that the heavy object was a round steel shield.

    “Phew,” said Goodman picking it up, “now if only he dropped a sword and I would have broken even.”

    “You lost two shield here, remember.”

    Goodman snorted, “we shouldn't worry about the details, one shield in one shield out,” he dug into his bag, “I got this some stuff too.” he said and pulled out another two bags and the the metal tube.

    The two went through the loot opening all the bags and looking at the items. A lot of it was Gold pieces about 475 of them which they split evenly. In some of the bags were rings, 3 of which were ‘Rings of Night Vision’ and one was a ‘Ring of swimming.’ the boots were called old soldier boots they were made from hard leather and had a steel toe. The description said they would lower the strength requirement for all other equip armour. Between the two of them they decided that Goodman would get a Ring of Night Vision, the shield and the boots. While Red would get the other two Rings of Night Vision and the Ring of Swimming.

    When they opened the metal tube they found an item called ‘Mysterious scroll’ on the scroll was various arcane symbols and writing in a language neither of them recognised. The description only read ‘a mysterious scroll, someone of high intelligence may be able to read it.”

The two agreed that they would find ‘someone of high intelligence’ to get the item appraised before they decided what they would do with it. The loot had been split up and a short rest later the two walked back up the catwalk. Goodman had, had a minor healing potion on him which had helped with Reds ribs, the debuff now said, ‘Temporally healed bones, speed slightly reduced.” the temporary Health points the potion provided were slowly ticking away but they would last until they got back into the woods at least.

The tunnel was still waterlogged and no monsters appeared till they reached the cave entrance, where they were attacked by a single goblin scout. Goodman used his new shield to block the damage and stun it while Red dropped out of a tree behind it and stabbed it in the back. As they cleaned up they heard people coming. Goodman stepped forward shield raised and Red hopped back up into the canopy. Out of the trees came a group of 8 people all dressed in shiny silver chainmail. Goodman sighed and let out a breath and said, “it’s alright, their players,” Red dropped out of the tree but stayed behind Goodman with her cloak over her head. 

    “It’s the silver knights,” he said, “they're a high level bunch,” He paused, “not as good as us though,”

    Before Red could reply, the lead Knight stepped forward, “Goodman isn’t it?”

    “That’s right,” said Goodman.

    “We’re the silver knights, first High level Guild in the game, you’ve probably heard about us.”

    “Nope,” said Goodman.

    “Really?” the knight frowned, “we the only people to complete the final quest in the guards chain.”

    “Not ringing a bell.” Goodman heard Red stifle a laugh behind him.

    The knight stared at him still frowning. “Alright then,” he said, after a short pause “who’s the Rouge?”

    Red stepped out , her cloak wrapped around her concealing her entire body, “just a friend,” she said.

    The knight said nothing waiting for more, when none came Goodman coughed into his hand, “who might you be then?” he said.

    “Dune,” he replied, “I’m in charge of this expedition.”

    “Like the sand hill?” asked Red.

    “Yeah, so what?”

    “Nothin’ it’s fine.”

    Dune opened his mouth to reply but Goodman got in first, “what expedition?” he asked.

    Dune looked at Red then turned back to Goodman, “we are going to be the first group to tackle a dungeon.”

    “Oh,” Goodman coughed again, “well good luck,” he said.

    “Is there a dungeon round here?” asked Red, “we’ve been hunting Goblins and bears and stuff.”

    “There is,” Dune said, “now if you excuse us, we need to stay on schedule.”

    “Of course,” said Goodman. The two groups stayed staring at each other for a few moments. Then Goodman cleared his throat, “we’ll be off then,” he said.

    “Alright,” said Dune.

    “It’s just normally when someone says excuse me they’re the ones to leave.”

    “Not in this case,” said Dune through gritted teeth.

    Goodman and Red started walking away, and Red said, “Bye Dune,” she chuckled quietly after she said his name.

    “It’s my favorite book,” Dune almost shouted.

    “It’s a Good book,” Red nodded, and then before anything else could be said she and Goodman disappeared into the trees.

    “Man are they going to be pissed,” said Red when they had gotten out of earshot.

    “Maybe the chest will respawn, we didn’t kill him.”

    Red laughed, “you know it won’t.”

    Dune watched the two go, his anger simmering he turned to the group, “did any of you see Goodmans sword?” he was met with a chorus of nos and shaking heads.

    “Maybe it broke?” said someone.

    Dune nodded, “Maybe.” he said.