Some jackets and prison wear cloth hung to one side of the ground floor.

The attraction train lingered, parked to the left. There were other vehicles along with some wooden and metal casings. The ground floor looked like the combination of a warehouse and a garage.

"You are set to lose your harem, kid," the prisoner said, noting the group behind me.

‘Frogs can only dream of harems or commitment,’ I thought. I lobbed a grenade to the third stack of goods I could see in a row. I tapped Nina and whispered in her ear. I faced the prisoners. "You sound jealous," I told the speaker. "You ain’t got children?"

"Well, I do," said one prisoner. The other prisoners looked at him. "And you?" An explosion occurred. Nina materialized bubbles of water behind the prisoners. The guy who had the lead on heading towards the explosion stopped.

"That’s a distraction, John," said the prisoner beside him.

The knight went forth. She trapped the first prisoner inside a Russian doll. If I remembered correctly, the name for it was the Matryoshka doll. The knight hid her expressions behind a visor. The Shaolin monk produced a pike from her inventory. She slung the pike at the incoming prisoners. Rather than prisoners, they looked like guards in disguise. They were organized.

I said as much to Nina.

Nina trapped one guard with an orb of water the size of a barrel. I came forward and electrocuted the water. The man fell to the ground. I dragged him to a corner. I took out electric chains from my inventory. I took a piece of tape from my pocket and put it on the man’s mouth.

The guard trapped in the matryoshka box exploded it with flames. On the other hand, Maria summoned a kangaroo. It went for the man on the left.

The Shaolin monk flung her pikes at the remaining guard, standing close to the knight.

I heard the sound of a crash against the gate. I listened closely. It sounded like a battering ram. The gate exploded off its hinges. There was a bull. It was massive, with red eyes. The bull backtracked, before charging half-across the train. The train swerved to the left.

"The dragon-hunters came!" Nina said.

I looked at the intruder. That was a bull – a damn massive one.

"How did these guys know this place?" I asked, looking at David changing back into his human form.

"I kept providing updates on my position, until the train disappeared into the alley."

"That was a good move," I said. "A pretty good one."

"Not a bad compliment, but a pretty bad one, actually," Nina said, self-contented.

I contemplated her words. "Perhaps, I would have heard something different," I said.

"You might as well dream about it," Nina yawned.

Darius blasted guns at the prisoners. One of the guards managed to put up an ice barrier in front of him. The other two guards fell down, unconscious. The knight materialized a matryoshka box under the guard’s barrier. She expanded it, and fragmented the guard’s shield, until the box poked out, forming chinks in the guard’s barrier.

The Shaolin monk pierced her pike into the protruding matryoshka box. She produced another pike, and did the same to it.

This process continued, until a shockwave staggered her. The Shaolin monk waited. The knight increased the thickness of her matryoshka binding by adding more layers to it. Another matryoshka box was positioned into the thick layer, inclined.

The knight swept her hand to the left, as if drawing a curtain. The matryoshka box opened, its head conveniently detached from its door. The knight charged forward and struck her claymore into the doll’s head. Her body shined. The dolls vibrated, increasing in volume.

Chunks of wood fell to the ground as the ice barrier struggled to cut through them. "Get me out of here, you bitch! I’m suffocating."

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The knight left a deliberate hole, to which she pointed. The ice barrier was still maintained. I took out a lighter and lit it. I approached the guard. "Doesn’t work," the knight said. A shot fired into the circle. Darius approached the guard, firing more shots.

"This spot is stronger than ever," Darius commented.

The knight retrieved her claymore. "User Command: Dispel," she said. She brought the double-handed sword to bear down on the guard’s shield. The matryoshka dolls cracked like leaves, and faded. The ice shattered. The sword cleaved into the guard’s shoulder and got stuck.

"Shit! I’ll kill you!" His barrier crumbled into bits. "Remember that!" The Shaolin monk pierced the left side of his haunches with her pike.

The guard surrounded himself with a blizzard. The Shaolin monk dug to the left of the guard’s flesh. The pike got frosted. Her fingers got numb. Realizing her loss of energy, the monk backed off. The knight resonated her claymore, wedging into the guard’s bones. It resisted the frost with dry coatings of wood insulating its exposed parts.

"Enough! Enough! You’ll kill me! The guard begged, dropping to his knees. He held off the brunt of the claymore with bleeding hands.

Darius shot the guard. He slumped forward. "Remove your claymore," Darius said. The knight obliged. "You must be angry," he said, taking a step back. Darius walked forward to Nina. "What happened?"

"I rescued them, as I told you I would," Nina said.

Darius frowned. "And you, Ashen. What brought you here, so early?"

"The opportunity," I said. "I could use some finesse."

"For sure, For sure," Darius said. "You almost got captured." He looked at Maria, healing the guard.

"Looks like you’ve got competition," Nina whispered at me.

"I did not have jelly beans for breakfast," I said.

"What?" Nina said.

"I did not have breakfast today," I said.

"Oh, I see," Nina supplied. She looked sideways, her teeth clenched with bemusement. "You will get some food when we get out. I know just the right place for that," she said. "By the way, what was your playtime like in real-life?"

"With chain quests for one or two hours, I would say, easily above four hours, for specific days," I said. Hunting for in-game currency made for a different effect.

"I see. Sounds like a good range to me, not to be over-indulgent," Nina said.

"You got that," I said. I headed to Darius. "We gotta make a move. You don’t want things to get more chaotic with what’s up there," I said. Feet shuffled behind us. "Speaking of them," I said aloud, then commented. "Here they are."

Prisoners looked at Darius and the lot. "You should worry about completing your undertaken quest then," Darius said. A drone ducked from under the entrance. "We are in legitimate ground." David stacked stone walls against the staircase.

"They are covenant outlaws, Darius!" David said, inspecting one prisoner. "We might be in trouble without backup."

"Alright, I’ll make the call." Darius tapped his interface. I could see a translucent rectangular film in front of him. "I wonder how they got here," Darius mused. "Right behind some financial institutes."

I took Maria out of the premises; we boarded the barebone bike, got through the steep ascent, and turned around the corner. Once we were on the street, I received a notification.

Regional Quest completed

Congratulations on completing your first quest!

Maria Fitzgerald has been rescued.

Reward

15,000 utils

Initial Quest Outline:

Maria Fitzgerald of the Covenant of the Holy Mother has been kidnapped. Assist her?

Chosen: [Yes]

[Level up]

You are now level 8. Congratulations on this achievement!

Experience Points

400 + 241/309 → 332/339

*Enter [Covenant Quests] menu to complete its first quest.

My first mission was complete.

I smiled. I made a mark on the map. We traveled onward, till the living quarters for the Covenant of the Holy Mother in The Great City. Maria went to the gate’s security woman. She came back. I stiffened slightly. "Don’t be uneasy, Ashen spines. I’m a human, in flesh and bone. In this aspect, I deserve as much respect as you do. Goodbye."

"Sure. I feel good too. Goodbye, Maria," I said.

I set for the dark tunnel again. I considered my options for after that. There was still food on the plan.