The eyebrows on the two gilded men were so high they were meshing with their hairlines. One moment, they were being descended upon by a full party of assailants and the next, all of them had been dispatched of by a freckle-nosed girl and the boy she had wielded as a weapon for the first half of the fight.

"The fuck just happened?" Asked the first, bewildered.

"Everyone went aggro so fast," exhaled the second.

They exchanged glances, wordlessly checking with one another that her request was acceptable.

"Uh, yeah. Sure," one of them bumbled.

"As long as it's temporary," the other one agreed.

One was an elf, and the other a human. Both were male and modestly built, the elf slightly bulkier than the human.

"Many thanks for your aid. And who might you be?"

"Nikola." Nikola surveyed the area, and put her finger up in a 'just a minute' motion as she knelt down to gather the wet coins from the floor. Each one made a subdued clink as she added them to her pouch.

She checked behind her to see if anybody was being opportunistic and tiptoeing up with a weapon. Happily, nobody was lying in wait to stab her, but there were at least 15 bodies dotting the ground.

The air smelled like it did when she disassembled a body, times ten. She couldn't see a distinct difference in power or wealth between those who had and hadn't survived; perhaps they had been too meek, too trusting, too kind.

Their corpses started to dissipate in the gentle wind of the closed space.

"Nice job, Nikola," Luke started, flummoxed, "and it's cool to meet you two. Just to warn you, I'm criminally under-leveled; the Phase 1 version of me was allergic to pain. Luckily, Nikola is here to balance us out."

He made sure his back was to the wall and flicked up his menu. "What are your usernames so I can send you party invites?"

The elven one responded first. "PhoenixRisen. Just spelled phonetically, no spaces. Capital 'r' on 'Risen'."

"GigaGold," the golden-haired human said. His voice was especially deep, Nikola noted.

Luke got to work on sending out the invites.

Nikola stood. She scanned the rest of the room. Everything was painted red; a mass murder had just occurred, after all. Her very first one, and it had been riveting and horrifying. She wondered briefly if she should be feeling the sadness emotion, but she just felt relieved; the immediate threat had dissipated, for now. The other parties were focused on recovery, drinking potions and scraping the floor of any and all Coppers and Silvers.

At the very least, Luke's mother would already be getting a sum of money from what they had done. She would have to ask him about her later.

"Alright, we accepted your invite," GigaGold rumbled.

"My man, you're only Level 3 between the two of you? And you have the EXP Share set to 'Even'? You should set it to 'Lowest First' instead," Phoenix insisted.

"Are you sure? I wanted it to be fair, but I would be cool with it if you guys were."

"There's a difference between fair and suicidal," Phoenix assured him, "and it's distinctly possible that if you two hadn't stepped in, we might not be here to be in any party at all. So thank you." His armour made a faint clinking noise as he lowered his torso into a soft, polite bow.

The Awakened NPC almost smirked. She could get used to people bowing to her, but all she did on the outside was give one stiff, subdued nod.

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"Alright, it's set up," Luke said after shuffling some things around in the [Party] section.

"Excellent."

In the distance, Nikola could see one of the other groups starting to move on to the next room. "Perhaps we should proceed now. Do you think it is advantageous for us to race to be first?"

"If I may," injected Phoenix, "no. Second or third should be our goal; we'll be close to the front, yet there will always be somebody to take the fall first."

"And somebody's back will always be to us," Nikola agreed.

"Heh, true," Luke chuckled, "then our window to be second is closing fast. Let's move."

Luke tried not to step on anybody's blood as they began to move toward the exit.

Nikola did a tiny, private hop into a puddle as if it were a rain puddle, the viscous liquid barely rippling.

"While we are not yet in more danger, what are your 'Classes'?"

"I'm a Warrior and Phoenix is an Archer. Level 6."

"Again, if I may - you seem to be Level 1, according to the party screen. I don't mean to be rude, but how is it possible that you saved us?"

Nikola opened her mouth to respond, but Luke interjected hastily. "She's bugging out. We already sent a bug report, so don't worry about it too much. We're just taking advantage of it while we can."

Did he not want others to know she was an NPC? She wondered what the reason for his secrecy was, when anyone who watched her closely enough in a fight could see that she was using abilities the [Rogue] class probably didn't share.

She chanced a look over her shoulder, and the two Golden men were following obediently behind. Maybe he didn't truly consider them allies yet? They had declared their arrangement to be a temporary one.

An echoing gasp followed by a crunching thud bounced off the walls in the room ahead, and then another, putting an end to their conversation.

"Be on your guard," GigaGold muttered assertively, putting an arm out as if to protect his [Archer] friend.

As they approached the next room, they saw the reason for the sounds. Ahead of them was a vast, deep hole in the ground, and the only things bridging the gap were the tops of several pillars. People were bounding across, but two sprays of coloured squares were rising from the bottom of the pit when they entered, signaling that there were already at least two corpses down there.

The pillars were thick and sturdy, but they appeared glossy as well, boasting a glistening marble-like finish. They were just far apart enough that one would have to jump to get to the next.

Most everyone was behind them, and each and every one of them would have ample opportunity to shoot them down as they crossed.

"We should proceed in pairs," Nikola decided, "so if somebody falls, the other may be able to assist." The pillars were spaced in such a way that two pairs could cross at the same time.

"A worthy suggestion," Phoenix agreed, "and if we do so, I'd prefer to cross with Gold."

"Should both pairs cross at the same time, or should we hang back and protect you until you get to the other side?" Luke peered at how the room was laid out; there was solid flooring on the other end, and there were two trails of pillars on either side, so four paths in total. The two sets of two paths had a wide, open space between them. "It almost looks like it's set up so two teams can go at once, but it may be a shitty attempt to trick us into TPK'ing."

Phoenix looked between the under-leveled Warrior and their destination, placing his fingers across the stubble on his chin. "Again, you bring up a good point; since I am an Archer, would you mind terribly if we went first? It seems like a waste for us to wait on this end while you cross, since I can only do so much to protect you if I'm close-ranged."

"I would not mind." Nikola pressed herself up against the lip of the doorway, hiding away from anybody who had not yet entered.

They had their plan. Now, they just had to execute it perfectly.