Chapter 59

Not much had changed inside the semi-dungeon, except that the walls were darker from the lack of sun outside, and the area had a round shape instead of rectangular. Leon glanced at the mini-map at the bottom corner of his vision, where all four of them were displayed as dots. But the map only showed those and the wall behind them, nothing in front.

“Do you think the layout of this place has changed?” Leon asked, walking forward.

“It changes every season,” Finn said and snorted. “What did you expect? Everything staying the same, always?”

He shrugged. “I’ve only been here for a couple of months. I honestly don’t know what to expect, and you don’t either, since you apparently didn’t go out much during the last rain season.”

“I know more than you,” he said, letting go of Ava and walking faster. He passed Leon and went into a corridor at the end of the round room and then took a turn to the right. Ava hurried after, while Leon and Hert sighed.

“I thought today went better than before,” Hert said, “but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stomach him.”

Leon didn’t answer. He agreed, but maybe today was a sign that the man could change if he wanted to. But he’d been more placid, and that seemed to be because of Ava. They definitely had something going on between them, and Leon hoped it would help rather than hinder the group. If this was an attempt for Finn and Ava to get him more accepted by Leon and Hert, it would be in vain. His actions had already gone too far for them to feel safe around him, so leveling up more than to level 10 with him was a no-go. Unless Ava somehow changed him; she had a way to stroke his ego that seemed to affect him deeper than Finn himself might realize.

“Pew!” Finn shouted, and Leon came around the corner just in time to see a pumpkin smash onto the floor, its vines collapsing under it. The yellow level 9 haunted pumpkin tag disappeared as the vegetable shattered into pixels. Finn stepped toward the small pile in the center of the small, circular room, but stopped midway.

He gestured for Leon to approach. “Come on, pick ‘em up.”

“I’ll take the coins, but you can take the other things,” Leon said. “I’m out of storage space.”

“Told ya,” Finn said, grabbing the vine on the floor. He nodded and continued, and this time, Leon kept even steps with him. Ava and Hert followed suit.

They passed four rooms, meeting no creatures at all, and even tracked back into another corridor to try to find anything. The mini-map filled out with the passages as they walked, showing the new labyrinthine layout. Leon thought out a thanks for the function’s existence, because if they ventured much further it would have been difficult to find their way out again.

Leon stopped when they entered the next room and took an extra look around it. Empty. “Where are the monsters? Even if the grasshoppers only were one or two in a room, we’ve only stumbled across a single pumpkin so far.”

“They’re gonna come,” Finn said. He cleared his throat. “Sometime soon.” Finn winced. “Goddamn it. The air’s poisoned here as well.” He took out an antidote and chugged it down.

“Can we turn back?” Ava asked. “I’m getting tired.”

Finn stared at her as he finished the bottle, probably thinking of the coins he’d just lost. But he didn’t utter a word about it.

“You don’t spend fatigue on anything,” Hert said. “How could you be tired?”

“How can you not be, after staring at the same room over and over again?” Ava snapped. “It’s boring.”

“You don’t even face the monsters we come across. You hide behind me.”

“Stop it, you two,” Leon said. “We all have different roles in the party. Let’s not dig into each other because of it. Ava’s not supposed to fight.”

Hert pursed his lips, but said nothing more.

“Leon’s correct, for once.” Finn seemed tense, but he tried making his voice uncaring. “Ava shouldn’t have to fight, and should be protected at all times, and that’s your role, Hert. If anyone should get the blame for what happened to her earlier, it’s you for not fulfilling your role as the tank.”

Leon drew in a deep breath. They’d gone through the first few hours without much squabbling, but he had a feeling that it would start getting worse soon. “Let’s look through two more rooms, and if we can’t find any monsters, let’s leave it for today and try again tomorrow.”

“I used a potion, and soon enough you need to do it too,” Finn said. “Why would I be the only one losing money on this?”

“Did you expect meeting no monsters when we entered the dungeon?” Leon asked. “Me neither.” He looked at the mini-map. His sense didn’t send out any warning signals, but this couldn’t be normal. “Something’s off.”

“Damn straight,” Finn said.

“You don’t think that the beasts in here transformed into a king that’s lurking somewhere?” Hert asked, suddenly nervous.

“No.” Leon continued into the corridor at the left of the room. “We took out all the grasshoppers the last time we were in here, so there’s no chance.”

“We also met the pumpkin,” Ava said.

“Sure, but the forest still had a king, even though it had the new monsters as well.”

Leon slowed his steps and held up a hand as they came toward a bend. “I think I hear something.”

Finn walked forward, but stopped at Leon’s arm. They both leaned to look around the corner and saw three monsters in the room. Two scarecrows and a pumpkin. If they hadn’t looked so out of place, standing still in the middle of the room, they could have passed as decorations, especially since they didn’t have any tags over their heads.

“Are they alive?” Ava whispered close to Leon’s ear. “They don’t have any levels.”

“I think so,” Leon said.

“They do,” Finn said. “Pumpkin and the scarecrow without the scythe are level 14, while the one with is level 15.”

“How do you know?” Leon asked. “Those are the highest levels we’ve seen here.”

Finn tapped his temple. “Scout, remember? I see tags.”

“I thought that was for in-animate objects?”

“Nah, man. It’s for everything except—” Finn’s answer cut short as the monsters in the room burst into flames.

Leon snapped his head back, wondering if this was the new skill for the monsters.

“Let’s go!” Finn readied an arrow and sent it flying into the room.

Before it hit the scarecrow, the monsters disappeared.

“Fuck!” a voice swore.

In front of them was a group of three people, two looking in chock at the third, who had an arrow sticking out of his arm.

“The fuck you do that for?” the lone, somewhat heavy woman in the group asked, bending over to look at the short, shot man’s arm.

She wore a long blue robe, and her blond hair sat in a ponytail. The short man also wore a robe, in red, and he had a shaved head and a round, puffy face. The tall, muscular man had short-cut dark blond hair and wore a brown tunic with a metal slab covering the front. He wielded a shield and an iron club. He walked to the injured man, grabbed the arrow shaft, and pulled it out with a swift motion. The short man screamed. Leon recognized the muscular one from somewhere, but he couldn’t place him.

“Sorry, sorry.” Finn put his bow away and raised his hands. “We attacked the monsters, and…”

“You could have killed him,” the woman said.

“I seriously doubt that,” the big man answered.

“No one’s talking to you,” she snapped. She turned to the red-robed man. “Do you need a healing potion?”

He shook his head.

The dark blond man approached their party, and Leon stepped forward. “Sorry about my teammate. We’ve only met a single pumpkin monster since coming in here, so we wanted to take them out.” Leon shook his head. “We thought the flames might be their new thing.”

The big man stopped. “You took out the pumpkin?”

“I did that, my friend,” Finn said, pointing at himself with his thumbs. “I do basically all the work in this team, and with one arrow, it was gone! Poof!” He put his hands on his waist and let out a chuckle. “You must have missed that one when clearing the dungeon. You’re welcome.”

“You little…” The man took three long strides and hauled Finn up by his collar. Finn stared at him with wide eyes, his face looking extra pale in contrast with his black hair.

“What?” Finn croaked.

Leon stepped forward. “I apologize if he did something to upset you. I’ll take responsibility, since I’m the party leader.”

The woman walked toward them, holding hands with the injured man. “You’ve cost us hours of work! Mana!” She gestured to the man by her side. “You hurt one of us!”

“Please,” Leon said to the brute, “Let him go, and we can talk about this. We won’t solve anything while we threaten one another.”

The big man scoffed. “Like you could threaten us.”

“I don’t want to, but I think we can. We’re level 9, but I’m guessing you’re level 10 or above, since one of you got harmed by Finn’s arrow. Correct?”

The man clenched his fist tighter, but then let go. Finn fell onto the floor, gasping. Ava sprinted to him and held his face in her hands. They got barely a glance from the other group, as their focus shifted to Leon.

“We could just kill you, to prove your lie,” the woman hissed, and a water orb spun into existence in her hand.

Leon nodded, thinking of what to do. “You could try, but I’m pretty sure the noob-title would cancel the effect.”

She threw the orb at him, and it splashed onto his chest. Except for giving him a small shove, it splashed harmlessly against his chest, making his tunic wet. The woman grimaced.

“You bastards!” Hert said, storming forward, hammer raised. “You tried to kill him!”

Leon stretched out an arm to stop his friend. He halted just behind him. The woman clenched her fist, breathing heavy. Loss of mana, or raising fatigue?

“Fine. Whatever.” She glanced at Hert, standing ready with his hammer and shield. “Just wanted to check. If he lied, it would have been his own fault that he died.”

Hert snarled.

Leon clenched his weapons, his heart thumping in his chest, and he gripped them harder to keep the shaking from showing. “Could you please explain why we upset you? Except for the errant arrow?”

The woman stopped in front of Leon and glared at Hert for a moment before meeting his eyes. They were a dusky brown, lit up by anger. “Do you know what a haunting spirit is?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“No. I’m pretty new to this world. None of us have fought in this season before, either.”

“Well…” She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “You mark a monster, kill all the other ones in the semi-dungeon, and the spirits amass in the marked one. When you’ve killed everything, the mark makes it evolve into a haunting spirit. You take that one down, gather its essence, and,” she snapped her fingers, “that’s 1500 coins in your pocket. That’s what you’ve cost us.” She let on a sickly sweet smile. “Do you still claim responsibility for your member’s action?”

Hert swore behind him, and Ava and Finn looked pale.

Leon sucked in a breath and forced himself to stand still. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

The tank chuckled. “You’re sorry?” He took a step toward Leon, who readied himself for anything to come, but trying to keep his neutral expression. He reminded himself that these people couldn’t hurt him. Not yet, anyway. The blond man pushed him, and even though it made Leon take a step back, he regained his balance immediately. “Sorry doesn’t cut it, bub.”

“I understand where you’re coming from, but this is something you can’t blame us for.”

“What?” the woman spat. “Do you know how many—”

“You can’t expect to be alone for a full day in a dungeon,” Leon said. “That’s impossible to predict, since you can’t block anyone from entering. If you really wanted this to go smoothly, why not mark a monster further in, so there’s a smaller chance that another group kills it? Or leave someone to guard it?”

“You’re still at fault,” she hissed. “And you should pay for it. You’ve wasted our time.”

Leon subtly motioned for his party to back away, in case things went south. He gripped the handle of his dagger differently and held up his index finger. “One, we didn’t know what you were doing, and since you didn’t let anyone know, you can’t hold us accountable for it. That’s on you.” He raised another finger. “Two, you did this without any safeguards, ensuring that it would be a success. We’ve been here the last couple of days, taking out grasshoppers. If you’d come here at all before the season shift, you could have planned for this, or maybe talked to us about going into the dungeon at different times.” Leon glanced at his mini-map, where he saw two dots walking through the rooms leading to the exit, and held up his ring finger. “Third, you say this as if you have earned no experience or money from the kills themselves. So, to quote your own words, it’s your own fault that you failed.” He knew he shouldn’t have said the last part as soon as it popped out of his mouth.

“That’s not what I said,” the woman growled. Another water orb formed in her hand.

Leon instinctively started to raise his weapons, but stopped. From how the group looked at him, they’d registered the movement. “Do you want me to change it to your original, that it’s your own fault that you died?” Leon put the weapons to his sides. “I truly don’t want that, but I’d say we have a better chance of survival since there are no more monsters, and you can’t harm us. We…” Leon trailed off, not wanting to follow through. “We can, possibly, work something out.”

The tank’s face had grown somber, the red-clad man’s face paler, and the woman clenched her hand, letting the water spray out between her fingers. Leon held his breath as he waited for their response, the air tense.

“You still—” The woman’s voice cut short as the brute slapped her over her back.

“He got us good,” he said, and he laughed. It wasn’t a joyous laugh, by any means, but one that comes from someone realizing a stale-mate.

Leon looked on, still feeling cautious.

The woman snarled at the man. “He should still—”

The red-robed one took her hand, making the water stop running from her fingers. “He’s right, honey. This failure is on us, not them. I said that something like this could happen, and that we should prepare for it. We didn’t.”

The woman bristled, this time at him. “So you say it’s my fault?”

“No, it’s the fault of all of us.” The man shrugged. “I could have pressed harder to do that, but I didn’t. And here we are. But as the man here said, we still gained experience and coin. More than enough for both the fee and the mark. We’ll just have to try another time.”

Leon watched the exchange, surprised that it had actually gone so well, despite what happened. He was glad that Ava and Finn had almost reached the exit, because he could imagine Finn spouting off something unnecessary that would have made the situation turn into something nasty.

“All the same,” the woman said, still huffed up, “you should pay for your party member, shooting his arm.” She gestured toward the mage. “That’s something you definitely had something to do with. We’ll let the spirit thing slide.” She raised a finger. “But if something like this happens again when you’ve reached level 10… your words can’t help you.”

Leon nodded. At least she didn’t see it as a vendetta. “It was an accident, but it caused trouble all the same. What about the cost of a health potion?”

“I think we’ve been here for long enough,” the brute said, putting his shield and club away. “I’m out.”

The woman glared at him. “We paid you to stay with us!”

“Not to listen to all of this chatter. Besides, the bonus is gone. There’s no reason for me to stay. Ciao.” The man raised a hand in goodbye and walked past Leon and Hert, seeming to measure them with his gaze. Then he continued his stroll down the corridor and disappeared from view.

“Mercenary fuck,” the woman swore. “Should have known he wouldn’t stay.”

“We did,” the red-robed man said. “As soon as the job was done.”

The woman pursed her lips, sighed, and answered Leon’s question. “No. A health potion? That amount of coin won’t do.” She shook her head, returning to her previous emotions. “That’s too easy. I can’t let you just stumble around, causing trouble without an extra thought, and then get away with no consequences.” She smiled and pointed at his backpack. “Empty it.”

Leon scoffed. “Sorry, but that’s not going to happen. I get that you feel like you’re owed more than for the bodily harm we actually caused your party, but I could choose to just walk out of here.” He knew that he walked a thin line; had been, ever since he felt forced to convince them through threats of force that they had no chance of killing them, but he just couldn’t give up all the loot they had gathered today.

“Well, that’s what we’re asking for,” the woman said, also crossing her arms.

“Listen here, lady,” Hert said. “You have no real ground to stand on. It might be best to take what’s offered to you.”

If Leon emptied his inventory and they took what was inside, it would set both him and his party back quite a bit. Not enough for it to devastate them, but it would sting. If they couldn’t count on the sale of the items, they’d get about fifty coins each, leaving thirty after subtracting the cost of the antidotes. And what about Trouble? He could possibly fool the group into thinking that he had less in his bag than he did, since Hert had said that normal newcomers usually got 6 inventory slots in their holding item, but he had a feeling that it would be better to be honest, and to bargain. He had some points on his side.

“How dare you?” the woman said, stepping toward Hert. The other mage’s grasp on her hand hindered her from coming too much closer.

Leon cleared his throat, ignoring the movement. “What did you come here for, anyway? Was it only for the haunted spirit, or for something else, too?”

“Ingredients,” the red-robed man said, before the woman could shush him.

“Would some of those be enough of a payment?”

The fire mage raised his eyebrows toward the water mage, giving a slight nod.

“Fine,” the woman agreed. “That’s okay for the harm you caused. But you still wasted our—”

“Enough, Julia,” the red-robed one said. “He didn’t know, and we didn’t have the sense to ask people to stay away. That’s on us. Besides, they’re level 9, meaning they haven’t experienced anything yet.” The man stepped forward. “I apologize for my wife’s… indiscretion with the water attack. You’ll see how it is once you come up in levels and start meeting people in the wild. It will be hard to trust anyone.”

Leon nodded, slowly. “Thanks. I hope I’ll get through without hurting anyone, though.”

“That’s foolish,” the woman said. “This world is nothing but friends backstabbing friends. The only ones you can trust are your soulbonds.”

The man nodded.

“Since you’re a higher level, I’m going to assume you don’t intend to go into the tutorial… swamp.”

“Well, we sometimes do when this season comes around, but it’s a slog,” the man said. “So if you’re willing to part with some ingredients from there, we’d be happy to take some as an apology and leave it at that.” He shot his wife a pointed look.

“Would we?” the woman asked. “I think—”

Leon resisted the urge to rub his temples. “How do you want them?”

The woman scoffed and pointed at her feet. “Pull the items out and put them by my feet.”

Leon opened the inventory and pulled out a few frog parts; some legs, eyes, and wart-clusters. Not too many, but enough that it stung a little. It formed a decent pile on the floor.

Hert raised an eyebrow and nodded to his satchel, and Leon shook his head.

“Thanks,” the man said, bending to pick up the ingredients. He lifted everything with a smile and they disappeared into his bag.

The woman kneaded her eyebrows. “Seriously?”

Leon gave a slight nod. “Well, then. We’ll be off. Sorry again.”

“You better be,” the woman said. As Leon walked away and turned a corner, he heard her mutter, “Could have pressed him for more, you know,” and the man sighed, very deeply.

*****

Leon pondered the encounter on his and Hert’s way back to the entrance, thinking about how he could have handled it better. There was probably a way where he could have left them without having lost anything, but that might have left them with enemies down the line. Could he have dealt with the situation without issuing threats? Possibly, but not likely, considering the rage the other group had felt; not only because their treasure disappeared at the finish line, but that someone else attacked them. Someone who could have killed that man if things turned to the worst. Leon, Hert and Ava wouldn’t be level 9 forever.

He was glad that the other group didn’t know that Finn was level 12; it could have gotten tricky real fast. Their noob-titles really served them well. He looked at his hands. They still shook, and he clenched them around his weapons. His 40% left to level 10 had been his saving grace today. And every day, that number grew smaller.

As he came out of his thought, he stopped. He had a notification floating in front of him.

“Well done,” Hert said, his eyes slightly unfocused. He patted Leon on his back.

Congratulations! New Skill Tree Branch Unlocked

Through handling disputes between party members or between party members and others, and through dealing with many situations as someone would in a leader position, you have unlocked a new skill branch in the leader skill tree.

New Leader Skill Branch unlocked: Will

Through making judgments that were accepted by others and showing qualities befitting a leader, you have unlocked a new skill tree branch. Since you have now unlocked three leader type skills, this will be your primary skill tree.

A second box stood under the first.

Congratulations! Skill Tree Upgraded

Since you have proved yourself worthy of unlocking another branch, your skill tree has been upgraded to its second tier.

This unlock has given you a new, passive status under your newly unlocked branch: Charisma.

Charisma: 1

First time information:

Charisma is influenced by a large set of behaviors. Your points reflects how well you influence people and can get them to do your bidding. As long as you get people to follow your path, in any way, be it through coaxing, threats, charm, or other means, your charisma will increase. If your attempts fail, your charisma will decrease. Making others follow your lead without your direct order to do so gives a greater potential to gain a point, while force lessens it. Unlike your base statuses, you cannot place points into passive statuses.

Higher points in charisma can result in NPCs and monsters behaving differently toward you.

Leon scanned the text one more time. Was he actually a leader? He had never aimed to be one, but since this was the third time he’d unlocked something like it, the game must think so. He wasn’t sure he agreed.

“Finn’s bound to get angry over this,” Hert said with a chuckle. “Wasn’t it his plan to show you as an incompetent leader today?”

“Yeah.” Leon sighed. “But it doesn’t really matter in the long run. He won’t be in our party for too much longer, unless today repeats itself over and over and he changes. Quickly.” He turned his head to Hert. “Thanks for stepping in back there and stopping when I asked. I just wanted the conflict to end without bloodshed or future repercussions. I know they can’t hurt us, but…” Leon sighed. “They made me feel like players could be an actual threat for the first time.”

Hert raised his eyebrows. “Finn didn’t do that to you? Anyway, no problem. I think we’ve proved that we two can trust each other. It’s time that I do the things you’ve done for me, too.”

“Oddly enough, I only thought of Finn being able to harm us, not actually kill us. Not really.”

Hert nodded. “Finn’s Finn, that’s true. And you’re right that he doesn’t seem like a killer. If he was, he’d probably be dead by now.” He stroked his beard. “I don’t know if you remember, but I met with several murderers throughout my career. If someone like Finn would kill someone, it would be by accident, or by real rage.”

“You think his shots on me were some kind of show, then?”

Hert shrugged. “Possibly. He could attack you with no real consequences, until you reminded him that it could end badly for him, even with us. Maybe he even did it to soothe his rage toward another player who’s too powerful for him.”

Now, that was a thought. But it would still be too risky to keep going with Finn after they’d leveled up. If the attacks had been just for show, it had shot him in the foot.

Leon and Hert exited the dungeon, and met Finn and Ava. They stood just to the side of the entrance, not saying much.

“What happened?” Ava asked. Finn had his jaw clenched, staring at Leon, but he didn’t say a word.

Leon nodded for them to follow him toward the city. Better get Finn out of sight before the mages came out. He didn’t see the mercenary anywhere, so that was a relief.

On the way back to the city, Hert explained the exchange between Leon and the other group. Leon’s mind seemed to bounce back and forth, only remembering pieces of the interaction.

“You gave up our stuff?” Finn said, pushing Leon’s back. “Who gave you the right to—”

Hert pushed Finn back. “Would you rather see us kill them? Or them getting a grudge and come after us when we’ve leveled up?” He pushed Finn’s shoulders. “If Leon hadn’t created a way for you to back off and they aimed an attack at you, what do you think would have happened? Would they have settled with a few ingredients, or would they take out their frustration on you?”

“He gets it,” Ava blurted. “Don’t you, Finn?”

“Of course he doesn’t!” Hert flung his arms wide. “How old are you, 30? And he still reacts to his emotions alone, with no forethought.”

“I always plan ahead!” Finn shouted. “I just don’t want to lose money because of something so stupid as an accident. And so what if they wanted to battle it out? A mercenary stays for the pay, so he would have left. You guys would only need to kill the mages, and that’s easy because you can’t get hurt.”

Leon turned toward them. “So we should have killed them to save what, 60 coins?”

“And a future enemy!” Finn spat. “You don’t know how it is in Hightown, man. There it’s the law of the jungle. People can decide to kill you just for looking at them strange.” He snorted. “You guys are weak, so if you were smart, you would stay at level 9, and never leave Belows for Bellwater.”

So, he used their party to level up too, with as little risk as possible? So both Leon’s group and Finn were taking advantage of one another? Why, in that case, had Finn sabotaged his chances so many times?

“Why didn’t you stay at level 9, then?” Hert asked.

Finn’s face grew redder. “Because this is a fucking game, man! I thought you should get stronger, because that’s the way things go! Money, fame…” He glanced over at Ava. “But now that I’ve lost the title, I’m a sitting goose. I can’t stay still. Get stronger or die.”

Leon raised his eyebrows. This might have been the only time where Finn was serious and actually truthful.

“Let’s go sell that fucking loot,” Finn muttered, pushing his way to the front.