Chapter 56

Leon woke early the next morning, wondering if the season had already shifted, or if it would take some time. Considering the rush innkeeper Crag had when he went to the council yesterday, it must have happened quickly. He had said little when he came back, just that he wanted to make sure everything was prepared, so both Leon and Red had been left to wonder what would happen. She’d lived through all season shifts before, except the rainy one. She’d mostly remained in the city than going outside, because each of the four special seasons brought different difficulties to deal with.

Leon listened. He thought he heard rain on the roof. The windows looked clean, so it must come from up north. He wondered what the rain would mean for the environment in the forest and the wheat field. He jumped out of the bed and patted Trouble’s head.

“You ready to head out?”

She sat up in a fluid motion, then shook her head and looked expectantly at Leon. He opened his inventory and let her inside. Then he ventured downstairs, thinking about how the meeting with the wolf king hadn’t scared her enough to hesitate going out to fight again. That was a little worrying.

Crag stood behind the bar and greeted Leon quickly before heading down to the kitchen to grab his breakfast. Leon looked around. The place was completely empty. It wasn’t unusual for this time of the day, but somehow, the inn felt more desolate.

“Here you go, boy,” Crag said, making Leon turn around. The old man pushed a bowl of porridge forward. Leon looked toward his usual spot, at a table close to the window, and nothing seemed to have changed outside except the weather. He sat down by the bar and pulled his breakfast closer.

“Thanks. By the way, I’ve been wondering what the commotion was about all this. Looking out the window, it seems like nothing has changed.”

Crag chuckled. “I think you’ll understand why people might have gotten stressed up about it yesterday when you head outside the city.”

Leon lifted the spoon and blew on the contents. “So what’s so special about a season shift? Do the monsters change, like in your dungeon?”

Crag nodded. “The monsters change everywhere, but only the monsters in a closed dungeon, like mine, change the day before.” Crag picked up an already clean glass and started scrubbing it. “That’s why I have to run to the council when I see a shift in my dungeon, since it’s the closest one.”

“So, how are the semi-dungeons and open dungeons affected?” Leon asked.

“They also switch monsters, but the old ones still need to be cleared out.”

Leon stared at the ceiling, thinking. “And the game makes that a singular task by forming monsters into kings of their race?”

Crag’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked away from the glass. “Oh, look at you. Where did you learn that?”

“We met one yesterday,” Leon said after swallowing a bite. “A wolf king that we had to flee from.”

“Understandable. A king’s tag shows the strongest monster in it, but its actual strength is three times that.”

Leon coughed. The level 6 king they met had the strength of a level 18 monster?

“Do they ever just… disappear? After a week or something?” Maybe he should stay out of the forest for a while, and do most fighting with his party.

Crag blew out air through pursed lips. “One would think so, since they aren’t in their element anymore, but they don’t disappear until a month into the new season. In some seasons, that’s close to the end, and in this one, half of the season will have passed.”

Leon groaned inwards. “Does that mean that if we go into the forest now, we could run into the wolf king each time, until a month has passed?”

Crag scratched at his cheek. “It’s possible. Someone has to take them down, but they don’t respawn. But they also only keep to the area where they became the king, so unless you go strolling over there, it’s unlikely.”

Crag continued. “Kings are created from monsters that have similar levels. Usually, they span over three levels. So the tutorial forest will have two kings; one level three, and one level six. In the closed dungeon and in semi-dungeons, the monsters will gather and attack as a horde instead. No king will form in them from the season shift. But as you noticed with the rats, some kings can form without the system prompting them to do so.”

Leon nodded and put his spoon down. “Thanks. So what can we expect to meet now that the season has shifted?”

“Lad, you’ll come to see all that the rain season brings for yourself. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it for you.” Crag chuckled. “But it might be wise to buy a ring against poison, or a few bottles of general antidote before you go out on a hunt. And tell your Cleric that she can unlock the same as a skill. It’s the only season where she can learn it naturally, instead of through schooling.”

Leon glanced up at his balance. “If I buy them, I’m not sure I have enough to stay here for much longer. Depending on if we can fight these new monsters.”

Crag shrugged. “If you can’t come up with your rent in coins, I’m sure we can figure something out for you.”

Leon looked at him. “The system allows that?”

Crag chuckled. “The system might rule over the base game and how it works, but overall, we who live here have a lot that we can decide on. Not too unfairly, though.”

Leon nodded, and then his mind flashed back to Margaret, and his unfair ban from the Drowned Goblin. He wondered if she’d suffered any consequences from that, or if she’d slipped under the radar. In hindsight, Leon was actually pretty happy about the change it had caused. This place might not look as nice, but it was cheaper, and the innkeeper had less... explosive emotions. And as a bonus, he accepted Trouble for who she was.

Crag announced that he was going into the kitchen to set a new barrel of something to brew, and Leon nodded. He sat, stirring the rest of the porridge in his bowl. Leon was happy he hadn’t run into Finn today. It would have been a sour start of the morning to have an argument. He wondered if he still was mad about the loot. They had shared it equally in the end, but Finn had seemed very unhappy with it.

Leon headed out the door. As he walked down the stairs, he saw the rain fall, but the drops didn’t seem to hit him. He knew he shouldn’t complain about it, but wasn’t the point of raining that it made things wet? He smiled. Maybe Red would think about his suggestion if they wouldn’t get wet from it. It also wouldn’t make his run miserable, meaning he could still focus on his training. He’d set the alarm early today, so he could do his run before meeting up with Hert, and maybe the others.

Leon stepped down on the cobblestones, and for a moment, he felt out of balance. He lifted his foot to look at his shoe, wondering if he’d worn them out. They hadn’t lasted long in that case, since he’d bought them just after leaving the tower. He couldn’t see any major damage. Leon put his foot down again with a frown, but decided not to think more of it. Instead, he started running past the square and into the alley leading to the crafting fountain and the Drowned Goblin. The feeling of being mildly lopsided didn’t leave him until he passed Hert’s Smithery, but then he noticed it more as he continued down the road to the Slums. He felt like he ran faster than normal. What was going on?

The rain pouring down around him gathered into small streams, running along the street behind him and somehow sought their way to the nearest gutter. Had the streets had gutters before? They were as deep as his shin bone and as broad as his hand, with multiple shallower inlets. He frowned and followed the closest one with his gaze, then he got pulled back by someone grabbing his shirt.

“Whoa, there,” Gerald said. “Road’s closed til nine.”

Leon turned his head to look at the guard, frowning. “Mornin’. Why is the road closed?”

Gerald pointed at the arch leading into the Slums. Leon peered past it and saw what he would have spotted if he wasn’t so focused on what laid just beside his feet.

“Well, if you can’t see it, I’d worry about your eyes.” Gerald let him go. “But it’s bound to be confusing for someone who hasn’t experienced the rain season, streets tilting and all.”

Tilting? So that’s what he’d felt. Leon stared in front of him, and he was glad Gerald had stopped him when he did. A foot from the arch leading into the Slums, it looked like someone had sawed around and plucked out the whole cobbled street. The path just ended, leading into a vast darkness below. The buildings on the sides seemed to have gained floors, going down as far as he could see. Did the hole ever end?

“Why?” Leon asked.

“Why, what? Why is the road closed?” Gerald raised an eyebrow.

“Why has the Slums been... groped out? Why do the streets tilt? Is it even possible to leave the city?”

Gerald shrugged. “It’s complicated, but you could sum it down to this. Every city area from Belcor to here would get flooded if we didn’t have this system. To prevent a whole city from becoming nonfunctional, the streets get tilted, and the barrier, which looks like a normal street and whatnot during all other seasons, gets disabled so the water has somewhere to go.” Gerald pointed behind Leon and drew a half-circle toward the hole. “There will soon be a bridge here, leading to the Slums.” He gestured a straight line from the right side to the left. “Then there will be passages going to both gates, the portal, and into the other side of the city.”

“Where are the Scabs supposed to go?” Leon wondered, thinking about what the guard had told him yesterday.

“Well, they get a warning in time if we get a warning in time,” Gerald said. “They rush to their living quarters and will be trapped inside throughout the season.”

“So if they don’t get a warning, they’ll fall to the bottom immediately?” Leon said, incredulous. “How can it be so cruel? And how are the Scabs supposed to live an entire season with nothing?”

Gerald shrugged. “The barrier doesn’t disappear directly, per se, but it gets lowered quickly. It’s the system warning those on it that it will disappear. Sometimes they aren’t fast enough to get off in time.” He sighed. “I don’t know if I would call it cruel, because the Scabs go into hibernation and wake up when the barrier is back in place. They aren’t suffering. The same doesn’t hold true for the other parts of the city, where players and shops are. Those are deemed vital, which is why this is the solution they go with.”

“They?” Leon asked.

“The council. They send requests to the system on behalf of the city.”

Leon nodded slowly. He didn’t agree with what he saw, but maybe this was a make-the-best-out-of-the-worst-situation type of thing. “So when do the bridges come? I don’t see anyone working to get them in place, and it sounds like a major job.”

“System’s building them right now, starting at the city entrances,” Gerald said, nodding to the hole. “It takes some time, though.”

“Thanks.” Leon stared one more time at the hole filling the place he’d run through each day for two months, not knowing that he’d ran on a barrier. The thought gave him chills. What if the barrier somehow failed? Though, if it had held for twenty-some years, it was unlikely something like that would happen once the barrier got raised again. Leon sighed and headed for the crafting fountain to wait for Hert and the others.

What would he do about his quest? He shook his head as he climbed the slope. It wouldn’t matter too much, he concluded. The last time he’d gotten up to the roof to hand out coins, he’d quickly run out of them. He’d just hoard until the next time, no problem. He just needed to remember not to buy too much new equipment.

Leon sat down on the edge of the basin, waiting to feel the wetness seep into his pants. It seemed like the water avoided him as a whole. He chuckled. That would make this time more pleasant than he’d dared hope for. He’d wait here for the group, and then they could go en masse to the general store at the night market square to buy the antidotes. If they didn’t go together, Finn would surely claim he forgot to buy them and would try to leech from him. Besides, Hert and Ava likely wanted some too.

As he waited, he looked around. Now that he knew about the tilting streets, he noticed it on the buildings, too. New, gray foundation, darkened from moist or lack of exposure to the sun, showed more toward the slanting side, while the rest remained untouched. Weirdly enough, the stones in the street seemed to flow with the tilt instead of having their corners pop up here and there. Like someone had just straightened a mat instead of actually shifting stone. Leon frowned. What if all the streets were some kind of barrier?

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“Hey,” Hert called from his door. “Come over here.”

Leon glanced toward the smith. Time had really flown by. “What’s up?”

Hert looked upwards, without sticking his head out further. “You wanna get soaked? Where’s your umbrella, or whatever you shielded yourself with?”

“Come out here, and you’ll see,” Leon said, feeling good about being the one with more information for once.

“Nah, I think I’ll just stay inside. Come, I’ll make us something to drink.”

“Come on!” Leon laughed. “It will be worth it, I promise.”

Hert sighed and closed the door. A minute later, he came out, holding his shield over his head. He also had a tunic wrapped around him like a scarf. He jogged over to Leon, who couldn’t help but to laugh.

“What?” Hert spat. “What’s so damn funny? Come inside before we get drenched.”

“Stretch your hand out,” Leon said. “Into the rain.”

Hert frowned, but did as he asked, poking out two fingers from under his improvised umbrella. Then his eyes widened. He looked from the hand, to Leon, to the hand again. He turned his palm to the sky. The drops divided half an inch above it and slid to the sides. “What the...”

“Worth it?” Leon asked.

Hert lowered the shield from above his head and felt the surface. “It’s dry.”

“Yup.”

He leaned back, his face aimed toward the clouds above, stretching his arms out. Then he looked at Leon. “How?”

Leon shrugged. “I’m just happy it works.”

“So you guys decided to meet without us?” Ava said, coming toward them from the inn. She didn’t react to the rain at all, but stormed out of the inn with Finn at her heels.

“You didn’t give us much of a choice, did you?” Hert said. “Finn just tromped away from there, and you followed.”

“Shh!” she hissed. Then she turned toward Leon with a decisive step. “So, what are we doing today?”

Leon frowned and leaned to look behind Ava’s shoulder. Was Finn still sleeping? Had he rented a bed at the Drowned Goblin? He doubted Margaret would have let them sleep in the same room, at least not in Ava’s.

“I thought we’d start off with going to the shop,” Leon said, nodding toward the street behind him. “To get potions.”

“Potions?” Hert asked.

“Well,” Finn finally said and stepped forward. “You can buy them, since you’re apparently the leader for today.”

Ava bit her lip, and her face flushed red.

“As I’ve told you before, Finn,” Leon said, making his tone sharp, “we don’t have a group leader. It’s group decisions or nothing.”

“You mean like the loot yesterday?” Finn stepped forward. “Yes, that was truly a unanimous decision. No one protested.”

Leon massaged his temples. “Hert, me, and Ava. That’s a majority.”

Ava shot a quick glance at Finn and bit her lip even harder.

Finn stared at Leon, and Leon raised his eyebrows.

“Let’s have a leader for today!” Ava chirped, jumping in between them. “That’s what we said. Finn agreed to let you lead today, Leon, to see how you do.”

Let him lead? Ava and her schemes. Leon looked at her for a few seconds, trying to gauge her thoughts. What did she want from Finn? What did Finn want from her? The last one seemed quite simple, considering he tried to flirt with Red, and always tried to impress Ava. But the first one was tricky. Why did she want Finn in the party so badly? Was it because he gave her more than she knew she deserved? Or that he gave her what she thought she deserved?

“Well? What do we do, leader?” Finn moved forward.

“We go to the store, then we head into the woods once the bridge has opened up,” Leon said, trying to keep his tone casual. There had to be a reason to why Finn had agreed to these terms, and Ava must have set them. He was a simple person, so maybe he thought Leon would show himself to be a poor leader. Probably Ava’s idea. What would be more tolerable? To prove him right, or to prove him wrong? Wrong, most likely. It would make him grumble, sure, but he preferred that over gloating. Besides, he needed to make sure everyone was kept as safe as could be.

“Bridge?” Ava asked.

“They’re building a bridge over the Slums,” Leon said. “I thought you knew that, since you’ve lived there and all.”

“There hasn’t been a rain season since I got here,” Ava said, looking toward the road leading to the arch. “Why would they build a bridge?” She cleared her throat, spun to clutch Finn’s arm, and continued with a higher-pitched voice. “I’m sure you know, Finnekins!”

Leon raised an eyebrow toward Hert, who repeated the gesture.

“Of course,” Finn said, straightening up. “They’re flooding the Slums.”

“What?” Ava and Hert said simultaneously.

“You’re joking.” Ava giggled and pulled on Finn’s arm. Then she looked at Leon. “Right?”

“The guards asked us to warn the Scabs yesterday,” Leon said. “Apparently, they go inside and hibernate until it’s all over. The Slums have changed completely.”

“Curious,” Hert said, looking down the street. “Is that why we should get health potions as well?”

“Antidote, actually.” Leon nodded for them to walk. “This season is apparently ripe with poisonous creatures. Since sleep doesn’t cure it, we’ll need to make sure we’re on the safe side.”

“Poison?” Ava squeaked. “My heal can’t cure that!”

“Yeah,” Leon said, glancing down. He’d walked these streets so many times before, and now that they had shifted, it felt weird. He hoped he’d get used to it sooner rather than later. He spoke over his shoulder. “Crag said that you could develop a skill for that during this season. He didn’t say how, though.”

“Yeah, it’s true.” Finn nodded. “It’s totally possible.”

“How?” Ava looked up at Finn, her eyes shining.

Finn scratched at his neck. “I think it’s better if you find it out along the way. I’ve heard that will make it more powerful.”

Ava grimaced, but a split-second later, her smile returned. Leon looked forward again, shaking his head.

“He just doesn’t know,” Hert grumbled.

After a short while, they got to the square and continued up to the shop.

Leon stopped in front of the door. “How many do you think we need?”

“At least two per person,” Finn said. “You probably don’t have space in your inventory for that since yesterday, so if you buy them, I can carry them.”

Leon stared at him. “Dream on. Each of us buys our own antidotes. And we divided everything yesterday, remember?”

“What a fine leader you are,” Finn sneered. “Can’t even care for his own.”

“I’m sure you have enough coins to cover all the expenses with the loot you took the day before yesterday. You could show your group some goodwill, something that’s been sorely lacking since you joined us, and pay for the potions. Otherwise, I can just deduct the cost of them from your share today, and we’ll call it even.” Leon gave him a smile. “How about it?”

Finn stood quiet and unsmiling. His face reddened.

“Cut you a better deal, then,” Leon said. “I’ll buy my own potions. You can pay for Ava if you wish, but you owe Hert that much. Buy the potions for him and you, and I’ll let what happened the day before yesterday slide.”

Finn’s nostrils flared, but then, as if something hit him over the head, he nodded and stomped into the shop.

“Wow.” Hert stepped forward and peered through the window. “How did you make him do that?”

“He’s between a rock and a hard place, and he knows it.” Leon sighed. “He needs to learn that he can’t mess around with us. We might just want him for the boost, but I don’t want to fear a knife in the back every time I turn, which is why I’m hard on this. Teamwork is what’s needed, at least until we reach level ten. We need to keep things fair, otherwise everything will fall.”

“He’s actually doing the work though,” Ava said. “But I know you’re right, Leon. It wasn’t nice of him to shoot you with an arrow.”

“Thrice,” Hert added.

“Twice,” Ava hissed. “The first one was an accident!”

“Was it though? And didn’t you think all of them were accidents?”

Ava puffed up her cheeks and stared at him.

“Sweetie, you might think that looks cute, but it doesn’t. Especially on you.”

Leon decided not to butt in. They’d been in each other’s company for thirty minutes today, and all this bickering had already happened. His energy would likely not run out because of fighting against monsters today, but because of fights within the group.

Finn came out and held two bottles out to Ava, and two to Hert. Both accepted them. He tilted his head toward Leon, making his black hair cover half his face. “Happy now?”

“Great,” Leon said, clapping his hands once. He smiled. “I’ll head in and purchase mine, then we can start our walk toward the Slums. We will probably need to wait for a little while, but hopefully, we can soon cross the bridge.”

Leon turned toward the store and walked inside. He was happy with the outcome. He hadn’t doubted that Finn would buy Ava potions, but it surprised him somewhat that he’d given Hert two bottles, too. The tank had deserved them, and more, considering the coins they must have raked in on the hunt where Hert and Leon got nothing. It was definitely a start.

“Hi,” the shopkeeper said. She leaned her elbows on the counter before her, and the bracelets shimmered in the light. “I guess you’re here because of the season shift?”

“Yes,” Leon said, striding forward. “I want to buy antidotes.”

“Here you go.” She snapped her fingers and the purchase window popped up. There were two item types in there. The potion, and the ring. The ring would cost him seven hundred coins, while the bottles cost ten coins a piece, stacking up to nine times. Leon bought two and watched as his balance sank. He really hoped that they could fight some monsters today; he had enough for a week’s rent excluding food, but he didn’t know how many potions he’d end up needing. Maybe he should have saved some coins instead of giving it all to the Scabs, but that was before he knew a new season would come. He nodded to the woman in thanks and headed out the door. The three outside looked at him, waiting.

“Let’s go.”

Leon led the way back to the Drowned Goblin and continued down the road beside Hert’s shop. They stopped as they reached the arch to the Slums. Ava stepped forward and gaped at the change, and Hert followed her.

“Damn,” Hert said, looking from the completed bridge to the gaping hole under it.

The bridge was broad enough for three people to walk shoulder to shoulder and had the shape of a tube. The whole thing was made of glass, except for the floor, which seemed to be made of metal meshed into a grated pattern, allowing air inside, and letting potential rain out. The roof of the bridge connected to the arch and angled upward with stairs, which then flattened out several feet up from where they stood.

A high, picketed iron fence rose as they watched, following the edge of the hole, and continued along all walls. They eventually reached above the rooftops, where they settled.

“I could have been…” Ava said, looking at the hole. “I could have been there.”

“What are you talking about?” Finn asked. “You never go into the Slums if it’s not just passing through.”

Ava didn’t answer, just stood where she was.

Leon walked forward with Hert and Finn. They reached the first steps, and Leon looked down. He’d never had a problem with heights, but this hole made him understand those who did. The hole seemed to continue 50 stories down, ending with some metal pipes at the bottom. The pipes must be pretty damn huge, Leon thought as he followed them with his gaze. Then he noticed the buildings. As he’d thought before, the buildings had gotten taller, but throughout all the length, leading to the bottom, there were neither doors nor windows. There must be solid rock all the way down.

“Why does it look like this?” Hert asked, pressing his forehead to the glass. His eyes scanned the view, side to side.

“To prevent flooding,” Leon said. He wondered what the tank had been doing during the rain seasons he’d lived through. After having been here for some years, it was very unlikely he’d never experienced one. Had he just sat huddled inside his shop? It wasn’t unlikely, considering his reaction to the rain.

Leon saw a lot of water already spilling into the hole from the gutter he’d noticed earlier. It stopped short a foot into the hole and let the water fall. Considering the amount of rain that showered the city, Leon could kind of understand why there was a need for this hole to exist, but it still didn’t make it a good solution.

“Should we get going?” Leon turned to Ava, who still hadn’t passed the arch, and raised his eyebrows. She nodded.

Leon climbed the stairs, got onto the flat part of the bridge, and continued forward until he reached the square where he could see the general store below. There, he got a clearer view of the Slums. As he’d thought before; it was like someone had cut the street along the buildings and removed it. The hole went on with smooth lines, meaning that some houses still had a small amount of ground outside the front step, just enough to stand on, if they wanted to, but it was severely limited because of the iron bars.

Just to the side, the tube had an opening leading into the center area. It went straight forward, and he guessed it led to the other entrance to the Slums, the portal to the tower and the other exit out of the city, making the whole thing look like a weird ‘H’ with an extra line to the side from above. Leon wondered how the tower portal would work now that the entrance was below the bridge. Not that he needed to worry about it. He leaned against the glass and looked North, up the city. The rain made everything outside blurred, but he could actually see a part of the black tower above the buildings. His goal.

“It’s pretty cool, actually.” Hert came to a stop beside Leon. “But if you haven’t looked down, I’m going to warn against it. Made my stomach turn a bit.”

Leon chuckled. “Yeah.” He looked behind Hert. “Where’s Ava and Finn?”

“Taking their sweet time.” Hert crossed his arms and leaned on the glass. “What do you expect to happen today? What’s our goal?”

“Mainly to fight some of these new monsters, to see what we can expect to meet throughout the season.” Leon nodded downward. “We’ll also need to get some rings that protect against poison down the line, so I just want to warn you to not spend too much until you get it. It’s 700 coins.”

Hert whistled. “That’s a hefty sum. Isn’t it better to spend it on potions? I mean, I have a few hundred saved up, but it feels like a waste to spend coins on that.”

“Depends on how much you want to hunt,” Leon said. “Yesterday, the wolves in the forest gathered into a wolf king, and if someone doesn’t defeat it, it’s going to disappear in a month. That means that the season is at least that long, but from how Crag said it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it lasted for two months or longer.”

“Hmm,” Hert muttered. “And the potions were...”

“Ten coins a piece.”

“Say we need to use two potions each day, then that would mean that the ring is worth it if it lasts for over 35 days. That would be 700 coins either way.”

“Or we might not use potions at all some days,” Leon said. “All the same, I think it’s going to be worth buying it; if nothing else, we wouldn’t have to go to the shop for new ones once every few days.”

“Fair point.” Hert sighed. “Where the hell are they?”

“Should we go look for them?” Leon asked.

“Why? It’s not like they can get lost.”

Finally, the two missing team members came into view, with Ava in the front, on her hands and knees. Finn followed close behind, wearing a bored expression. A memory sprang into Leon’s mind, of when they had gone into the cave under the massive tree. Before they got chased out of there, they’d climbed up to a branch, and Ava had said she wouldn’t go out on it. He thought that she’d gotten a grip on her fear since she’d gained some levels in climbing, but then again, this might have been overkill.

Leon started toward her, and Hert followed.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Leon crouched and stretched out a hand. “The bridge and everything surrounding it is very secure.”

Ava glanced up at him. “But it’s see-through, meaning it can be broken, right?”

“I think the system has made it impossible. Didn’t you see the fences? And this glass is incredibly thick. The system wouldn’t want to risk any player’s accidental death.” Leon motioned at her hand with his. “You can do it. Just trust me for now, and you’ll see there’s nothing to fear.”

Finn snorted. “Right, that’s why they made it out of glass instead of something else, like iron. Glass can always break.”

Ava squeezed Leon’s hand tight, and he pulled her up. She clung to his arm.

“No,” Leon said. “It looks like glass, but I think it’s a barrier, just like the street was. It’s probably as easy to break through the street as it is to break through this tube.”

“What makes you sound so sure?” Finn crossed his arms.

“Because this game is all about making players stronger. That’s why we gain skills, why we gain levels, why the system warns us when we do something that might prove harmful. Everything here is skewed in the player’s favor. This bridge shouldn’t be any different.”

For a second, Finn looked surprised and like the cogs in his mind finally had rattled along. Then he noticed his slip-up and covered it with a smile. “I knew that. I didn’t want to make Ava feel like I dismissed her fears, because that’s totally mean. Like you did just now.”

Ava frowned and opened her eyes to look at Leon, and then at Finn. “It feels better now, actually.” As Finn’s face reddened, she added, “But I think I’d feel much better if someone guided me across. At least the first few times.”

Finn stomped forward and ripped Ava from her grip around Leon’s arm. “I’ll do that.”

“Great.” Leon nodded. “Let’s go, then.”