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Once the sun rose, JohnWillStab, Alex and Jordan got onto Raz's cart, they sat on what little space was left on the cart, their feet dangling over the edge.

"So, you three heading down south for anything specific?" Raz asked not taking his eyes off the horizon before him.

"I don't know if I should tell him about the whole war thing... what if he'd turn on us?" thought John.

"No, we're just a travelling circus," JohnWillStab replied.

"A circus!? Seriously?!" Alex thought, upset at the comparison.

Jordan lit a cigarette.

"Yeah, you should see her throwing knives," Jordan said gesturing towards John.

"Oh, that's nothing, I love the way you can hit projectiles with your fire!" JohnWillStab exclaimed.

They turned to Alex.

"And Alex is just our clown, he talks to the sword sometimes," John replied.

"Like hell I do! You know Thal is alive and well!" Alex exclaimed.

"He's very dedicated." Jordan laughed.

"Haha! You sure are energetic!" Raz exclaimed.

"You could say that!" JohnWillStab replied.

"So, what are you guys delivering to the south-west anyway?" asked John.

"Perishable items, that's why they're covered in cloth - even a single ray of sunlight will make them useless, so please be careful," Raz explained.

"I see."

The journey continued for a long while, JohnWillStab, Alex and Jordan chatted about the imaginary circus.

"When we make it big, you think we should set up permanently?" asked John.

"Please, as soon as I make the gold, I'll be a great hero! All the women will fall at my mere mention!" Alex exclaimed.

"As if!" Jordan laughed.

"Alright, alright, we'll do a seasonal thing, for... two months a year we'll keep the circus open - that'll leave you some time for heroing!" JohnWillStab exclaimed.

"I guess that could work..." Alex sighed.

"Why am I even getting so invested in this?!" Alex thought.

"Because you're a fucking clown..." Thal replied.

"Shut it! I'll really throw you out in the desert!" Alex threatened.

"I'm bound to your soul, remember?" Thal replied.

"Shut up you rusty piece of crap!" Alex exclaimed tossing the sword out into the distance only for it to appear in his hand moments later.

"Haha, told you..."

"Is your friend... alright?" Raz asked.

In the distance, a large building came into view, it looked like an Aztec pyramid, though it was placed in the desert, it had a large gate which stood wide-open.

"An ogre temple..." Raz noted.

"We'll stop there, the birds need to rest a while," he exclaimed.

"They really don't like me... It's like every time I'm around they spaz out..." John thought looking at the bird who stared off into space behind him intensly.

JohnWillStab reached into his pocket, pulling out a bottle of water, he felt the eyes of no less than three people watching him intently.

"They thought I'm drawing a weapon."

He took a long sip of water before placing the bottle back in his pocket.

"You people really seem on edge," JohnWillStab remarked.

"Well, it is quite dangerous travelling around these parts... you never know who's your ally and who's your enemy..." Raz replied.

"I'm starting to see what John meant when he said Raz was giving off funny vibes..." Alex thought.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Let me see..." Thal focused in on Raz's soul,

"He isn't lying about anything at the moment... If you ask him something I might be able to catch him on a lie..." Thal offered.

"Hey, so are you guys merchants or something?" Alex asked.

Raz looked back to Alex, "Oh, that's right! We never got properly introduced, I'm Raz, we do a lot of travelling and trading so I like to call myself a merchant." he laughed.

"He dodged the question..." Thal said.

"I see, I'm Alex, just a traveller looking to have some fun." he laughed.

JohnWillStab looked at the distant ruin.

When the carts reached the pyramid, JohnWillStab jumped off and stretched out a bit.

"Alright, I'll go see what's in the pyramid," he said.

JohnWillStab made his way towards the Pyramid.

Upon closer inspection, JohnWillStab was able to see the desert temple had four entrances, each one opposite another, in the centre was a large, square pit with stairs leading down into a sandy crypt.

JohnWillStab peaked his head out of the pyramid and or temple thing.

"Hey, how long do we have before we get back to travelling?" he asked.

Raz scratched his chin.

"I say we have about an hour," he replied.

"Alright, I'll go explore the dungeon some," he said cracking his knuckles.

"Be careful, these things are always filled with traps!" called out Alex.

"I'll go with him, just in case." exclaimed one of the cloaked people, they had pale skin, though it displayed visible sunburn.

From their cloak, they pulled out a long scimitar, it had a large guard made of what looked like gold, but probably wasn't.

"Are you sure, you don't have to," JohnWillStab assured the cloaked and masked figure.

"Aw sweet, a scimitar!" John exclaimed looking at the blade.

"What class are you? Sword? Or is there a special scimitar class?" asked John.

"It doesn't matter," he replied.

"Eh? I guess you're right." John said awkwardly.

John moved down the sandstone steps leading into the bottom crypt.

"This place is kind of creepy, right?" John said looking at the various skeletons around him.

They were partially bandaged and placed into human-shaped holes in the walls.

"..." the scimitar person remained quiet.

"So, do you have any abilities, yet?" asked John.

"Why do you ask?"

"I haven't been able to use any skill other than knife-throw and a shadow-step once... though it never worked again." John sighed.

"So you're a dagger class?" asked the masked person.

"Right," John replied.

"Well, if you want to use a spell, you just have to be confident you can use it, for example, the rapier-class heart-pierce is a lever thirty skill, but I'm only level ten."

"I see!" JohnWillStab suddenly felt a sharp pain as the scimitar buried through his shirt, his flesh, his hearth and out the other side.

"Take that Eropire scum!" exclaimed the scimitar person as JohnWillStab slid off his blade and onto the ground.

The masked man turned to leave only to see JohnWillStab standing and blocking his path.

"Gee, thanks for the tutorial on spell casting, shadow step really is a cool ability!" John exclaimed.

"How?" the man took a step back standing in the puddle of dark blood that left John's torso moments ago, the wound already stopped bleeding.

"What are you?!" demanded the scimitar person taking a step back.

"Now, as thankful as I am for you sharing this knowledge with me, I'm not so thankful about the damaged clothes..." he replied.

A quiet rattle could be heard from behind John.

He turned around and saw one of the bandaged skeletons standing, clacking its teeth, the bones were old, blackened in places and looked extremely brittle.

"Oh shit! A skeleton!" JohnWillStab took a step back as the skeleton moved in to take a closer look at him.

JohnWillStab stood there, his heart was beating fast (if he had a heart that is.)

"A-a-a-a monster!" cried the scimitar person.

The skeleton extended a hand towards JohnWillStab.

"Oh man, you don't know how great it is to see another undead! It's been so long!" exclaimed the skeleton, the voice an echo coming from the vague direction of his skull.

"Yeah, I know what you mean!" John laughed before returning the handshake.

"So what's your name?" asked John.

"Oh, I'm Steve, I drew the short straw when it came to the whole ritual sacrifice thing and I was put on eternal cleaning duty, you know how it is." he sighed.

"Oh, I bet that sucks..." John said genuinely feeling bad for the skeleton.

"No, no - it's really nothing. I only wake up when there's an intruder and I scare them off." he shrugged.

"Still, do you get... like, holidays?" asked John.

"No, not exactly..." replied the skeleton scratching his head.

"Man, as an undead I feel bad for you, look - I have some connections in a small demon town half a day in that direction, you tell them the guy from Arlepia sent you - I bet they'll let you stay and relax a bit," John said patting the skeleton on his shoulder-bones.

"I... I dunno... I guess I basically stopped cleaning the temple a few hundred years ago..." Steve said pointing to some massive cobwebs and the piled-up sand in the corners.

"Man, I totally understand..." JohnWillStab sat down on the ground, pressing his back against the wall of the crypt.

"We just got isekaid here, and that guy just stabbed me..." JohnWillStab pointed to the scimitar man who was still sitting in the corner, with eyes clenched hard enough to burst a blood vessel.

"Oh, isekaid? So it's that time already?" the skeleton put a hand over it's jaw-bone and gasped.

"Oh my, how the time flew."

The skeleton looked around and back to his feet.

"Oh, oh my! I'm so sorry!" he took a step back and reached into his him-shaped hole from which he pulled out an old, washed-out robe and put it on.

"I didn't mean to be indecent," he said apologetically.

"Oh, no worries, I'm a man - there was a screwup when I got isekaid." John assured him.

"Oh, that's a relief. Wait, you said that man stabbed you!?" asked the skeleton looking over to the scimitar man who was slowly crawling past them and towards the stairs.

"Yeah, I don't know what his deal was," John shrugged.

"Here, let me fix you up." offered the skeleton, he extended his hand and a yellow mist formed around his palm, it was gold in colour.

The mist wriggled its way into the wound, John could feel the warmth of the sand-like particles healing his wound from within.

"Waoh! That was amazing!" John exclaimed.

"Oh, it was nothing, I can sew your shirt back up too if you want." offered the skeleton.

"Oh, I really shouldn't - you've already had to get up because of me!" JohnWillStab said.

"Don't say that, I didn't have a visitor in... in... in millennia!" said the skeleton.

He reached into his him-shaped hole and pulled out two foldable chairs.

He opened one up for John and one for himself.

He then pulled out a sewing kit.

"Knitting and sewing was my hobby for as long as I can remember, I use the spider webs to produce really strong thread or yarn."

JohnWillStab handed him the black coat and the skeleton sewed it up in no time.

"Oh, man!" John pulled on the area where the hole once was.

"This is even stronger than the coat itself!" John exclaimed.

"Aww, well - spider silk is very strong!" he exclaimed.

"Speaking of, can I get you anything? Tea, coffee?" asked the skeleton.

"You guys have coffee here?" asked John.

"In theory, it was designed as an offering, but I go and get myself some every now and then." laughed the skeleton.

He pulled out two sand-stone tea-cups and a kettle.

"I'm using sand-magic to keep it warm you see," he explained pouring a stream of warm coffee into the cup.

"We don't have any milk, but I have some sugar if you want." offered the skeleton.

"Two teaspoons of sugar than, if you could."

"Of course!" Steve proceeded to sweeten John's coffee and then his own.

The skeleton added five spoons of sugar into his one.

"You must really like it sweet!" laughed John.

"Well, it's a little bad for the teeth, but what the heck!" Steve laughed.

A long tendril of sand dragged the scimitar person back to them.

The two talked about more undead-business before John looked towards the stairs out.

"What should we do about him?" asked the skeleton.

"Oh, that's right! I'll go drag him outside, we're heading south-west you see." John explained.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't realise I was holding you up!" exclaimed the skeleton.

"Oh no, don't worry!" John assured him.

The skeleton scratched his head.

"Oh, could you please wait one second?" he asked as he moved towards his hole.

"Sure," John replied.

Moments later, Steve returned with a basket covered in a cloth.

"What's this?" asked John.

"I'm sure travelling through the desert is a pain, so I packed some food for you!" he explained.

"Really? Thanks, man!"

JohnWillStab grabbed the scimitar person by the collar and dragged him upstairs.

"I'll be back sometime! Don't forget me!" JohnWillStab called back.

"Really? That's great! I'll make some coconut cheesecake!" exclaimed the skeleton.

"I'll be looking forward to it!" exclaimed John.

He moved up the stairs, dragging the scimitar person behind him.

"Hey, you're finally back! We were getting worried!" Jordan exclaimed standing near the steps.

"Did you find any treasure?" asked Alex.

John turned towards Alex.

"I found the treasure of friendship," he replied.

"...so no gold?" asked Alex disappointed.