“We’ve got something that we’d like to say to you…” Mari said. The other two also looked up, slight smiles were on their faces. “But not yet! Can we all walk together for just a little bit?” She asked. Wasn’t that why I had come here in the first place?

Thoroughly disturbed by the heavy change in atmosphere I fell in line with my three traveling companions and together we trailed the caravan at a slight distance. My hand never left my Wolf’s Fang, my precious partner that had seen me through the hardest day in the game so far. Though it seemed like monsters instinctually didn’t hang around on the roads themselves there was no saying what may come popping up. And though Levin’s band of adventurers and their horse drawn carriages marched dutifully just a dozen meters ahead of us I still felt like I couldn’t trust anyone other than the sword at my side. Not even-

“So, Corian! Did that boss monster drop anythin’ good?” Dante said, leaning over from where he stood on the far left of our formation. For clarification, I was on the far right.

“Oh, shit!” I exclaimed, causing the blonde haired player to slap the palm of his hand into his forehead.

“You didn’t even check your loot??” He said, causing Mari and Willow to break out into a deep chuckle.

I opened my menu and went to my inventory. Let’s see… was there anything in here that was new? I hadn’t checked my inventory since we’d fought those giraffe monsters earlier and so it was flooded with random monster drops but sure enough…

“Huh...” I said, not even realizing I was speaking out loud. I poked the item that had appeared in my inventory and then hit “materialize” to bring it into the game world.

The large metal object materialized a few inches above my outstretched hand. The flash of it spawning prompted the three of them to get in close for a better look. I tried to grab the long metal handle, but it fell right through my fingers and was so heavy it threatened to drag me to the ground. I leapt back and it hit the road with a crash, kicking up dust.

“Holy shit!” Dante said, leaping back to prevent his toes from getting crushed by the falling weapon.

“Is that… an axe?” Mari asked, leaning over it. I nodded.

“Yep. According to it’s name it’s called the “Axe of the Minotaur King.”.” I said, crouching down and trying to lift it. Yep, no good.

“Well that’s useless.” Willow chimed in as I tapped on it and followed the prompts to return it directly to my inventory.

“Yeah. Well, it’s probably worth at least a bit of Gold.” I said with a shrug. I also wondered if there may be a way to melt it down into materials and make something more useable out of it… I’d have to talk to a crafter when we got to town.

“Hey, maybe you can pawn it off on old Fire Hair for all the money they brought with them on the trip!” Dante said, Willow reached over and punched him on the top of the head.

“And do you remember just who that “Fire Hair” saved six times over?” She chided. Dante deflated and offered no resistance as we picked up the pace to stay in sight of the back of the caravan.

“I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it… unless any of you have an interest in axes? Mari?” I asked, looking over to Mari who was standing to my left.

“W- Wha? Me? That’s a bit…” The image of Mari holding an axe the size of a tree made the three of us burst into laughing.

“Hey! I don’t think it would be that weird! Maybe it would make me look a little cool!” She said, grabbing a large stick off the ground and posing with it over her shoulder. That only made us laugh harder.

The caravan stopped about four hours after we had entered the forest to give the party a chance to eat dinner. One of the artisans traveling up to the next town was a chef and so the meal was surprisingly better than what we had packed away. I was thankful that they let us all eat with them. While we did have some food saved up I definitely wasn’t gonna turn down a free meal.

By this time of night the road was completely dark. The last wisps of golden light were sucked up by the treetops and the whole area plunged into darkness.

“Woooaah! Look at that!” Someone from the convoy said, standing up and pointing off the side of the road.

Immediately about ten people, myself included, stood and drew our swords, but after a minute we returned them to our sheaths and stared in slack-jawed silence.

Starting deep in the forest and moving slowly closer to our campsite, small dots of light began to flash in the distance. It took me a minute to register what I was seeing, but once I did I couldn’t look away.

“Fireflies!” Mari said, staring out as the forest floor began to shimmer with the light of a thousand little lightning bugs. They flew over the road and landed on trees, casting just the right amount of light to make it look like the stars had somehow descended into the forest so that we could still see them despite the thick canopy overhead.

The caravan took an extra thirty minutes to watch the sights before we decided to pack back up. Who knew how often we’d be able to see something this beautiful.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After a while, though, Rain stepped into the area we had been eating in.

“Alright! Listen up, everyone!” He said, standing on a log that had been felled to use as a bench. “I just got word from the advanced team, the town’s only an hour’s march from here!” As he made the announcement a roar of support came from the crowd. I couldn’t help but notice even Dante got up and cheered. It was good to see that his normal pep had returned after this afternoon.

The next town, huh… wonder what it’ll be like…

“Everyone pack up and get ready to move! It’s night time now so make sure to stay vigilant, we don’t know if the monster spawns change after dark!” Rain said, hurrying his guild mates along as they hoisted what they had taken out back into the last carriage.

I turned to go help them pack, but a voice kept me rooted in the middle of the path.

“Corian.” Mari said.

I turned to the side and stopped short. My three traveling partners had stopped as well and were now lined up across the road.

The sky had long since gone dark, but fireflies lit the road with a dim yellow light. The light caused shadows to dance across them and in the darkness they almost looked like ghosts.

“W-what’s up?” I asked. That pit returned to my stomach.

After a long pause, Dante stepped forward and took a deep breath.

“I’m so sorry!” He said, clapping his hands together and bowing his head. “Like seriously, incredibly sorry.”

“Eh?” I said, taking a step back. What was this about? “What’re you-“

“This afternoon I charged in without thinking and because of that all of you almost died! You and those guys from Levin, and Willow, all because I made a selfish choice!” He said.

“You did that to save those players…” I said. Dante shook his head.

“Yeah, I saw they were in a pinch and thought “oh neat, we can help them take that thing on and grab some exp and loot!” He said. His voice had gotten louder, and he wrung his hands together. “I didn’t even think that maybe they were runnin’ for a damn good reason.”

He let his hands fall to his side and looked at me with an expression I couldn’t really place.

“Even before the boss, though, it’s been painfully obvious. You’re super strong, man! I mean honestly, you’re somethin’ else. When you were fightin’ back there, and even when we were beatin’ up those giraffe monsters, you were doin stuff I didn’t even think was possible! It was like you always knew where to stand… always knew what to do… I could never do somethin’ like that.” He trailed off. Frustration. He was… frustrated.

“Dante, I-“

Willow stepped forward next. She shook her head from side to side and let out a sigh.

“To be honest, I couldn’t read the boss at all… I was completely lost in there. If you hadn’t called out when you did, and if Ascilla hadn’t shown up to block that attack… right now, I’d be dead.”

Willow’s face looked pained. Honestly when she was staring down the minotaur’s downward slash I couldn’t see a scenario where she’d survive. It was an absolute miracle that she was still standing here talking to me now, but…

“That wasn’t your fault.” I said.

“It’s… frustrating. I wanted to help… but all I did was get in the way and have to be saved over and over again. I can’t trust myself to freeze up the next time we’re in serious danger.” She said.

Finally, Mari stepped forward. “Corian! Thank you for everything you’ve done for us up to this point. Thanks to you this world doesn’t seem as scary any more.”

“I didn-“ I didn’t do anything. Why can’t you guys see that?

“Corian. Listen. We’re… not gonna move on. Once we take a night of rest in the new town, we’re planning on going back to Origin. We talked it through, and after that crazy boss fight we realized that we aren’t ready for the front line yet… But...

Mari looked down and clenched her fists by her side. She took a deep breath and one more big step forward.

“But one day… one day… we’re gonna catch right back up! So when that happens, can we maybe go on another adventure together, just like this one?” She said. Her smile was blinding, and the light from the fireflies dancing on the side of the road shone off of a single tear that fell down her pale cheek.

I stood in the clearing absolutely stunned. I didn’t have the words.

“Sorry for blindsiding you with this, I know it probably came a bit out of nowhere. It’s just…”

“You’re seriously way too good to be hangin’ around a bunch of rookies like us.” Dante interjected.

“At the end of the day, if we stuck with you, we’d either get killed or just hold you back.” Willow finished the thought.

“As we are, we’d just be a burden to ya!” Dante said. He wore a big smile but there was a pain in his expression that cut deep.

I never once thought of you guys as any sort of burden. The thought screamed in my head but I couldn’t form it into words.

“Even if we don’t come back, though… can… we still be friends?” Mari said. There was a sort of fear in her voice that broke my heart. That’s right. These three were people, too. They had hopes and wants and dreams and fears, just like anyone else.

How scared must they have been once that monster showed up? I remembered Willow’s stunned expression as the minotaur brought its axe down on her head. What was it like to survive what you thought would be your last moments alive…

Dante had run in, only to be powerlessly forced to the sidelines to watch as his long time friend was nearly crushed to death right before his eyes. Did he feel guilty for that? What would he have felt if his choice to save those players had led to Willow’s death.

Mari had watched it too, she was so nervous she couldn’t even cast a spell. In her most desperate moment she couldn’t even lift a finger to help her friend. How frustrating was that feeling?

That’s right. They were the normal ones. They were the ones that cared if they died. That felt scared and uncertain. Someone like me, who felt more alive here than I ever would on the other side, someone like me could never understand that fear. How could I have missed that. To me, this game was a blessing, but to them it was probably, no, it was definitely a prison…

I paused for a long time. I didn’t have the right to call them friends, we lived in two different worlds. But maybe, one day in the future…

“Of course.” I said. That caused all three to break into big smiles. Mari wiped her eyes with her sleeve as Willow and Dante passed by her. Willow slapped her on the back as she went and the three started moving forward.

“Good! I’ll hold you to that! But I fear our little chat has made us fall quite far behind our escort… so we should probably catch up.” She said.

“Ah crap! When did that happen!” Dante said, charging off down the road after the caravan that had disappeared

Ah... I felt a hot streak fall down my cheek as I watched the three of them run after the caravan. That’s right, we lived in two different worlds. That’s always how it’s been. But tonight I’d pretend just a little bit longer.

I’d better go catch up.

The carriages rolled over one last hill and broke into a small clearing cut out of the dense forest. There, spilling out a comfortable and welcoming warm golden light was a small town built into the forest. The first new town we’d seen since the start of the game what felt like forever ago. The town of Oaktree.