“You’re a hell of a raid leader.” Ascilla said. She sat across from me with one leg lazily folded over the other. Her axe was leaning against the seat to her left and her arms were neatly folded behind her head as she leaned her back against the wall.

We were sitting in the back of a covered carriage being pulled along the main road. Apparently I hadn’t realized just how lucky we’d gotten. Levin’s expansion caravan heading to the next town just happened to be passing by right when we needed them most. Talk about a twist of fate.

I shrugged, which caused her to make a sour face.

“I got Nell to spill the beans about you.” She said, making my eyebrow twitch involuntarily. Oh boy…

“She told me that you used to be the best. Also heard you were responsible for the strategies that beat the first five floors of ID in record pace.” Oh god, Nell… what did you go telling this girl…

“I’d believed her before, but after seeing you in action I’m starting to think she sold you short.” Ascilla said. For someone who was praising me, her eyes were just as sharp and calculating as ever and there was no hint of emotion in her voice.

“Yeah, well. That was a long time ago.” I said with a sigh. If I’d known that this was what she wanted to discuss when she told me she needed to talk after we’d gotten back to the road I’d have tried harder to blow her off.

Ascilla stared at me for a few minutes before crossing her arms in a huff. “I still don’t like it.” She said. “Nell wouldn’t even tell me what happened. That means you’re hiding something.” Her tone beggared no argument but I just shook my head.

“If you’re curious enough to want to figure it out, Fenix would be glad to tell you the whole story.” He was the reason I’d left, after all…

“Huh?” She said, clearly tacking on a “why the hell would I ask that guy when you’re right here?” With the look in her eyes. I decided to attempt to change the subject.

“Where is that asshole, anyways. Why’s it just the two of you all the way out here?” I’d meant her and Rain, who’d seemed to be the only ones who had

Ascilla let out a long sigh. “Cuz there’s another town to the south. Nell, Fenix, and Mort all went down that way to scout things out, and Rain and I got north town duty.” She said.

That was all well and good but… wasn’t that really stupid?

“What’s the point of sending a healer and 2 dps players south, and both of your tanks north?” I asked, trying to parse any sort of logic in their plan. Ascilla just scoffed.

“Because Fenix, that’s why. If you’re curious enough to want to figure it out, that asshole would be glad to tell you the whole story.” She said with a snide grin. Touche

“So we do have something in common.” I said. She smirked

“Not a fan?” I asked. Ascilla leaned forwards and shook her head.

“Hell no, are you kidding me? Dude’s so far up his own ass he lives in his own stomach.” She said. That got a laugh out of me, though it did raise one question…

“So all that talk I heard about you being “poached” to join Levin from another guild?” I asked.

“Ha! Poached my ass. My old group was planning on taking a break and I wanted to play with Nell again. Those were the only reasons I agreed to join their team. Though people seemed to get some crazy ideas after the announcement.” She said with a sigh.

I could imagine. Knowing Fenix he probably went on some sort of media tirade about how he had “Secured one of the best players in the game!” And how he was the mastermind behind acquiring new talent. It wouldn’t be the first time that I’d seen him do something like that.

“My condolences…” I said with a smirk. Ascilla shook her head and leaned back against the side of the carriage again.

The conversation from there turned back to the boss and Ascilla filled in the blanks that I had been missing at the time. Specifically the time between when the trio had left and the whole raid team had arrived.

It turned out that as soon as Ascilla had heard the cries for help she’d raced off towards the battle, delegating the organization of reinforcements to Rain.

Originally, Rain was just going to form two parties of eight and charge the hill, but once he’d heard it was a boss monster and not just some over leveled field mob, he spent extra time digging through the caravan’s stores of crafted gear to make sure the people coming to help were as geared as possible. It was only when Mari, Dante, and Willow, had showed up later and filled him in that Ascilla and I were the only ones fighting the boss that he immediately sprung into action.

According to Ascilla, he felt pretty bad about making us wait. Apparently he’d assumed that the three people who came up to them at the start were only a small part of a large expedition force, or that they’d retreated to let a bigger group take on the monster. It turned out he was right about their retreat, but had never considered that they’d been saved by such a small team.

I didn’t blame the guy, and from the way she was talking, neither did Ascilla. All was well that ended well. Though even I had to admit that was way too close for comfort.

It also turned out that the results of that boss fight were a lot more grim than we’d initially expected… The three players that had broken out of the forest had originally been in a party of six. Even after all that fighting and running for their lives they had only brought the boss’s health down by five percent, and three of them had died in the process.

I didn’t want to sound like I was talking down on them, though. The truth was probably that they had prioritized running away over standing and fighting. If they’d turned around and faced the boss head on in a last ditch struggle there was a chance they could have done much more damage before eventually being wiped out, but a much lower chance of them either getting away or finding help.

Even Ascilla and I, two of the higher leveled players in the game, people who had spent the time to upgrade our gear, needed help from sixteen members of Levin’s elite squad equipped with the best armor they could equip, to safely bring it down. Had we not gotten that backup there’s a good chance one or both of us would have died.

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“So, back to what we were talking about before~” Ascilla said with a dangerous inflection. I clicked my tongue hoping that she had been sidetracked enough to forget about that.

“Like I said, all that’s just stuff that happened in the past.” I said with a shrug.

“No shit, sherlock. I’m not asking if something happened, I’m asking. What. The hell. Happened!” She said, leaning forward to stare me down. This girl really didn’t know anything about personal space.

“I-“

“What’s goin’ back here?” A deep but jovial baritone voice called as a large man stepped up into the back of the carriage. Ascilla turned to face him and clicked her tongue before throwing herself back into her seat.

The way he awkwardly had to hunch over because his armor, and really just his whole avatar, was just way too damn big pegged him as Rain. The other of Levin’s officers that had been on the trip.

He walked a few feet before sitting down on the same side of the carriage as Ascilla and removing his armor. Of course he would have to do that, given the fact he was wearing Super Heavy Plate armor. Though even without the entire tank built around him the player himself was still plenty imposing.

Rain stared at me for a moment with stern eyes before cracking into a smile “Thanks for saving our asses back in that fight.”

I waved my hand in front of my face. “No, no, it’s really nothing. If you guys hadn’t shown up to help we would have been dead for sure.” I said. The last thing I wanted was for a bunch of the front line players to think I was some sort of hero just because I happened to get in a lucky shot that killed the boss.

Rain looked pretty startled at my humility for some reason, but his smile only got bigger. “That wasn’t the only thing I had to thank you for.”

He lowered his head. “Thank you for saving my sister.”

“Eh?!” I said, in unison with Ascilla who turned her neck to the side so fast I thought it would break.

“S… sister?” I asked. At first I thought he meant Ascilla, or maybe one of the other raid members that were almost squished by a rock… both guesses were wrong by a shocking margin

“Yeah. The tall one with the white hair, Willow. She’s my sister.” He said. My brain was working so fast I was expecting steam to vent from my ears.

“Eeehhhhhh!? This time I was alone in my shock, but once again couldn’t hold in my response.

“You’re… willow’s brother?” I asked. Still not entirely believing the words that had just come out of his mouth.

Rain smiled and shrugged. “I was more than a little surprised when she came running over that hill begging us for help. I don’t think she even realized who I was at first.”

“Huh... small world… but if that’s the case…” I started, not realizing that I was thinking out loud.

“Why aren’t we playing together?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. It was a fair question but generally there was a pretty strict rule of online games where you absolutely did not ask people about their real life circumstances.

I felt pretty awkward for a second, but Rain didn’t seem bothered at all and continued explaining.

“We never were super close on the other side, the only thing we really have in common is that we both play way too many DIVE games. And so when we signed up she marched right up to me and said “If you even so much as act like you know me I’ll never forgive you!” And so we’ve been playing as strangers ever since.” The man said. He looked to the side and out of a small window carved into the wall.

The thought of willow ever saying something that animated made my head spin. Normally she was a very monotone personality… though I guess she did have moments when she acted a little softer than she appeared.

“Of course, with everything that had happened I’d tried to find her… you know, after the dream… but I didn’t have any luck. The “Add friend” feature only works when you’re looking at someone, so unless I found her out there in the sea of people…

“Given her looks that hardly sounds improbable…” I said. This got a laugh out of him.

“Yeah, we both have a penchant for sticking out like sore thumbs, huh? Either way, this time around it was a pretty good stroke of luck. I was glad to see that she was alright, and I’m glad that she’s found some good friends to keep her company. So once again… thanks.” He nodded to me and I stared back awkwardly.

“Really, I didn’t do much. If you wanted to thank anyone, it would be the others.” I said. In reality it was honest. At the end of the day, as much as we got along, originally I’d only come on as a guide just to get them to the next town. Huh, did that mean that once we’d gotten to where we were going that would be it for my adventures with them?

“I don’t have the guts to embarrass her in front of her friends like that.” He said, his cheeks turning only slightly red.

“Never took you to be a doting older brother.” Ascilla said with a laugh. Rain scowled at her which only made her laugh harder.

After recovering from Ascilla’s scathing comment, Rain turned back to me. “Well. That was half the reason I wanted to meet with you. As for the other reason…”

Oh boy, here we go…

“Corian. I’ll cut straight to it. Would you consider joining us?”

I took a deep breath and composed myself. I looked the gigantic tank in the eyes and shook my head.

“Sorry, man. I’m not interested in joining a top-end guild.” I said. It was my honest opinion. Even if my end goal was the same as everyone else’s, to beat the game and get back to the real world in one piece, I still couldn’t bring myself to…

“But-“ Rain had started to say, but Ascilla cut him off.

“Don’t bother, big man. I already asked him. Begged on my hands and knees even! He’s not interested in the guild. His reasons are good enough, so let’s just leave it at that.” It took every fiber of my being to hide my shock.

Rain sat in silence for a minute. He seemed like he was thinking of another argument, but eventually he let out a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders.

“Right. That’s disappointing, but it’s not like I can blame you, and if you have your reasons pushing any farther would just be rude. Well, while we’re in the next town if you need anything from Levin please let us know. We owe you our lives.” He said.

“That’s pretty weird coming from the guy who heroically led an army down a hill to save us…” I said. He gave me a wane smile.

I knew what he was trying to say… If I hadn’t killed the boss by the lucky chance of a good sword throw, half of the expedition could have been killed.

The boss would have died right after either way, but it was still too close for comfort. Still. The last thing that I wanted to do was make Rain feel like he owed me anything. Ascilla too for that matter.

“At the end of the day, all of us just did what we could in an unlucky situation. If you ever need backup, feel free to let me know.” I replied. Rain smiled and flicked open his menu. A ping clued me in as to why. I pulled open my menu and sure enough I had a friend request waiting for me.

I hit accept as Rain shuffled over to the back of the wagon and leapt out.

“Likewise.” He called from behind us, before disappearing into the crowd.

A second ping came only a moment later from Ascilla. When I looked at her she gave me a stern expression and turned away. Something told me that she’d be grilling me for weeks… or at least until the frontier teams moved on again and left me in peace.

I accepted the invitation as well and stood up. “Thanks for the ride. I’m gonna go make sure the rest of my party’s okay, though.” I said.

Ascilla flicked her menu closed but never took her eyes off the window as I moved to the back of the wagon and jumped off.

As I jumped out of the lead wagon and stepped off to the side a whole host of players walking alongside the convoy waved and cheered. Some even thanked me, which honestly was more uncomfortable than it was gratifying…

“You saved our asses out there!”

“You’re crazy!”

“Nice assist!”

Stuff like that. The recovered members of the parties that had joined us were escorting the caravan with weapons drawn.

Their logic was obvious. If there was one boss monster roaming around above ground, then there was a chance that another one would be lurking somewhere in the woods.

After their close run in with death, none of them seemed to want to be the one slacking off on guard duty.

I left them to it and walked against the traffic making my way to the end of the caravan. My destination was the very end of the line where a familiar trio of players were walking side by side. They all looked pretty downtrodden and didn’t look up until after I was already pretty close.

“Yo!” I said, rejoining Dante, Willow, and Mari. They all shuffled nervously. Well that wasn’t the “welcome back!” I was expecting.

“Corian, we’ve all got something to say.” Mari said, looking at me with a pained expression on her face.