* * *

The next morning found Garnedell in a much better mood, and Garnedell this time joined Joe in his exercise routine. They then continued language learning over breakfast before returning to the dungeon quickly, not wanting to waste too much time on anything. Joe had run the numbers and it seemed that it would take him just around five days to hit level twenty; a much better timeframe that eased him a bit over his concern of finishing before his year was up. He was a bit concerned over his main stats: health and attack or defense, as all of them were a good ten to fifteen points behind his other stats. Maybe I need to open up the combat classes? Where are they?

Even before midmorning, Joe hit level fifteen, and now the grind would begin; just a little under one day per level. The end of the day had Joe reach sixteen and Garnedell made twelve. The next four days followed the same pattern and with Garnedell also able to kill sparks, this greatly sped up their time going through the rooms. They found themselves wiping out the sparks quite a bit faster than before, actually emptying out one side of the maze a couple hours after lunch. They ended up having to swap to the other side to find anymore, although the trip to the other dead end side of the maze was relatively quick.

One day as they crossed over the main path deeper into the dungeon, they came upon a small crowd of five people, although Joe realized quickly that they were split in two groups: one group of two battling desperately against three sparks and another group of three seeming to watch the two. The battling group seemed to be on the losing end while the watching group gave off the appearance people had when watching entertainment; all they were missing was some popcorn and soda. Huh… they seem a bit … too excited though!? Wait! Aren’t those two who we followed when we came in the dungeon the first time? The lizard couple? Joe turned back to the watching group as he’d already learned quite a bit about the first group.

As Joe was studying the watching group, the balance of power in the fight finally shifted and the young girl who’d been fighting only one of the sparks tripped while backing up. She fell onto her rear and scrambled away, her back soon pressing against the wall as she scrambled to escape. The young man with her yelled out in surprised fear and jumped forward, intercepting the third spark but was also soon hard pressed to protect himself from the branches of sparking lightening erupted from the core licking across his arms and causing him to spasm. He desperately tried to keep his form despite the paralyzing effects of electrocution.

Joe quickly turned to Garnedell and asked, “They need help?”

Garnedell quickly called out to the question but Joe noticed that even as he did so, the group of three watching became quite agitated, turning towards Garnedell and shouting at him, obviously unhappy with his offer but Garnedell ignored him as he translated the beleaguered boy’s anxious cries for help.

“Boy say yes! Yes, Zhoe!”

That was all Joe needed as he pulled out a spear for each hand and leapt to the side of the boy, stepping before the downed girl. He had no illusions that he could dual wield spears, but the sparks were so slow that Joe hoped he could at least hold off a spark each so the boy could focus on a single one, using the spears more as fighting sticks. The fight devolved into a pretty boring slugfest and Joe switched up his tactics by holding off the spark on his left with an infrequent slash of the spear as slashes seemed to be the best at disrupting and keeping the spark back. He then focused all his attacks on the rightmost spark and slaughtered it with a good five or six thrusts and slashes for each slash he gave to the left spark. He was originally quite focused on the fight, but he soon noticed that things were not well with the other group.

The group of three were simmering towards deep anger and Joe soon worried what might happen. Garnedell was trying his best, but was soon being overwhelmed by the emotions of the three. Joe took another two slashes to his right spark and three quick slashes to the left spark before he quickly dropped the wood spears and took two steps away from the sparks. He slipped his bow over his shoulder and had an arrow notched faster than the belligerent group seemed to expect and he aimed towards them as he took slow deliberate steps towards them hoping to keep just enough space away from the sparks slowly floating towards his back.

“Garnedell. Watch monster. Help me.”

Garnedell quickly nodded and turned to keep an eye on the two sparks while Joe began menacing the two men.

“I really don’t know what your problem is, and I can only think you guys are a bunch of utter assholes, but I really think you need to be moving on. Is that understood?”

The men quickly held their hands to the side or up and began stepping backwards although Joe really didn’t like the calculated looks that flickered through their eyes, two of them glancing towards each other with some knowing looks as one’s hand started inching towards his sword.

“Ah ah ah ah! You really, really don’t want to be doing that and now you’ve stepped firmly past minor annoyance into moronic idiots who want to hand your life over to me. So, let’s go ahead and do this. You have ten seconds to get gone and then I start maiming which will quickly shift to death if you guys still push things. Now get! Garnedell. Please translate.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Garnedell glanced towards him, some confusion showing in his face.

“Ah.. sorry Garnedell. Joe speak. Garnedell say. OK?”

Garnedell quickly nodded in understanding and Joe began his countdown.

“Joe count. Men run. Count finish, men die.”

Garnedell’s eyes rose a bit but Joe didn’t find any surprise in them, but actually a grim satisfaction seemed to flow through his face and suffuse his words as he translated for the men. The men seemed to be a bit taken aback as their glances quickly increased in frequency and Joe hardened his face.

“Ten. Nine.”

Garnedell translated and the men’s eye’s climbed foreheads and they steadied themselves. Joe felt a bit concerned when he saw the men seemed to be preparing for him when Garnedell quickly spoke to Joe.

“Zhoe. Monster.”

Joe undersood and took a step forward before continuing his countdown, “Eight. Seven. Six.”

The men hunkered down even more and Joe wondered if he’d made a bit of mistake since the men seemed determined to make this a fight. Garnedell translated his countdown but also spouted out another couple sentences. Whatever the boy said really seemed to unsettle the men as they began shifting, a subtle fear rising in their eyes.

“Zhoe. Show spear, sword, shield kata!”

Joe nodded and continued as he put away bow and arrow and flipped out his spear faster than the men could react, “Five. Four.”

His spear spun around torso and arm in the typical flashy move he’d learned when learning the staff. It slipped around his body, weaving fluidly even as Garnedell translated the next two numbers and before Garnedell said four, Joe had already sheathed the spear and slipped out a sword which he cut through the air with a few two handed flourishes and cuts. The sword slipped back into its sheath even as the shield slipped on his left arm and the rapier came to his right. Three flourishes and suddenly the bow was back in his hand, arrow notched and aim steady at the one with the spear.

“Three. Two.”

Even as Garnedell translated, the three men quickly turned and ran. As soon as Joe saw the men break, he’d already returned the arrow and sheathed his bow as he grabbed another two wood spears from Garnedell, leaping back to finish off the two sparks. Joe saw that the man had long finished off his and was working on the one he’d weakened the most. The one he’d kept push back from him was now uncomfortably close to his back as he brought the two spears to bear on it.

“Garnedell! Watch bad men.”

“Yes, Zhoe.”

Garnedell turned back to watch the men and Joe returned to slaughter the last spark. After a couple strikes, Joe asked if the men were gone, and Garnedell confirmed they had completely fled. Focusing on the last spark, it died quickly and Joe turned to see the young man and woman standing and looking towards them, apprehension in their stance and eyes. They hadn’t put up their weapons, although they didn’t hold any wary stance. Joe could feel their apprehension and nervous tension but chose to ignore it, caring for his weapons carefully before putting them away, wishing to ease the two young people. After Joe put away his weapons and stood to face them without moving, the two seemed to collapse slightly as their tension oozed down their body. When they seemed to have realized Joe’s good intentions, the girl grimaced and leaned against the wall, favoring her left leg. Joe considered going to her but wasn’t sure how they would take him coming closer and simply stayed in place. The two had a short conversation with Garnedell, and Joe was able to pick out words of thanks. But what followed was a bit too hard for Joe to catch, a bunch of new words and several unusual phrases that he seemed to have heard before but couldn’t remember from where. After a quick conversation, Garnedell turned to Joe, translating.

“They say thank you.”

Joe nodded and waved it away, “Say… um…” Joe struggled to think of some words Garnedell would know and finally had to settle with a generic, “OK!” accompanied by a big smile. Hope they understand everything’s good!

The two seemed to smile with some relief before continuing the conversation, a slight trepidation now echoing through how they held themselves. Garnedell spoke back and forth with them a few times and the way Garnedell was interacting, it almost seemed a bit ritualistic, somehow. The back and forth came to an end, and the fear that had left the two came back just as intensely as before as their eyes began flickering towards Joe. Joe felt some confusion come over him as he thought that they’d proven themselves more than enough. Realization didn’t come till Garnedell translated.

“Zhoe. What pay?”

“Huh?”

“Zhoe help. They pay Zhoe. What they pay?”

Joe’s eyebrows climbed through his hairline. Man! Repaying someone must be really important here. Nobody likes debt of any kind, I guess? But… well…

Joe was left in a bit of a quandary, uncertain what to say, but didn’t really want any payment, “No pay. Joe happy!” Joe punctuated the last sentence with a big smile and two thumbs up.

Garnedell smirked at Joe’s antics but turned back to the two and told them. Again? Maybe? Are the two trying to insist? The young couple became quite vehement in the argument with Garnedell and Joe could tell he was starting to get a bit frustrated with the two. After a bit more, Garnedell sighed and turned back to Joe.

“Zhoe help. They must pay Zhoe. They no go … They must pay Zhoe.”

Joe blinked for several moments, quite flabbergasted at his inability to give someone a favor. Why won’t they just accept a favor… huh! A favor! But how… hmm…

“Garnedell. They be Joe’s friends. OK?”

Garnedell looked at Joe with some confusion, trying to parse the English before recognition overcame Garnedell along with some short laughter.

Garnedell looked towards the other group and explained to the two that Joe wished for them to be his friends, and both mouths gaped in shock before a small smile came to the woman’s face and wide eyed wonder to the man’s. Shocked surprise seemed to be the theme of the conversation and the two seemed to finally be willing to accept Joe’s compromise. The two smiled with gratefulness and the conversation came to an end before the couple turned to leave. What surprised Joe was that they actually turned back towards the depths of the dungeon instead of planning to leave. Joe quickly called out to them, asking them to wait, confused by their actions.

“Wait. Garnedell? Where are they going? Um… Where they go?”

“They go fight!”

“Wait. Why?”

Garnedell shrugged and said nothing to that but Joe interrupted and called out to the couple, “Where are you going? Garnedell. Why they go?”

The couple stopped and looked back towards Garnedell in surprise and Joe prompted Garnedell to translate for him.

Garnedell’s translation surprised Joe, “They kill monsters.”

“Why!”

“They kill!”

Joe shook his head, “Why? She hurt! No go!”

“They must go.”

“Why?”

“They must kill. No kill… they… they… they die? They… no money.”