“First time seeing it?” Lucas asked.

Dylan nodded. “What happened?”

A long sigh quietly accompanied the slight shaking of the thin boy’s head. Wisps of dusty blond hair dislodged themselves to shroud his eyes. “It was a mess.” He took a step forward, moving to stand next to Dylan. Keeping his hands inside the pockets of his oversized coat, Lucas turned toward the empty space left in the bar’s wake.

He was silent.

For a moment the two just stood there. Dylan had just begun wondering if the four words were all the answer he’d get when the boy’s muted voice continued.

“At first, we didn’t know what was going on. The ground shook, and everyone thought it was an earthquake. But it was short; things didn’t seem too bad, you know?” A desolate chuckle escaped along with the question. “When people started to file outside to see what’d happened, that’s when everyone started to panic.”

Dylan watched Lucas’s gaze follow a path from what would have been the inside of the bar to where its door had once stood before tilting his head back and looking up.

“I almost thought the sky was about to fall. All those cracks.”

Images of the town’s failing protective cover came unbidden to Dylan’s mind.

“When we all realized…when the dungeon break happened,” Lucas shook his head. “It was chaos.”

Dylan watched the boy close his eyes, waiting for him to find his words.

“Some wanted to go back inside; some wanted to go home. A few ran for the wall. Off-duty guard, I think. And a few just ran.” Another pause. “Our group all made it outside before the rush began, but you remember how packed the place was, right? It was practically a stampede there…here.”

“What’d you all do?”

“Hah,” Lucas let out a short huff. “Couldn’t do much of anything. Like I said, we made it outside, but that was just barely. With all the push and pull, the best we could do was keep our feet.”

The boy kicked at the dirt marking the border between road and newly-vacant lot. Then he kicked at it again.

“When we were finally able to move, at least half the bar was empty, but most of those left seemed to want to stay. Barricade the doors and windows, then hide in the cellar.” Lucas snorted. “A lot of good that does if something can just knock the entire building down.”

A harder kick scuffed deep into the earth. Large clods of dirt scattered across the air before raining back on the barren ground.

There was a moment of silence after the pattering stopped.

“Sorry.” The boy hunched his shoulders. “Still getting used to the new stats.”

It was an excuse. Stats didn’t work that way. It may take time to fully acclimate to the new changes in their bodies, but there was an instinctual level of control that prevented them from misjudging their own strength. But Dylan only said, “It’s fine.”

“Anyway,” Lucas sighed, “I’m getting ahead of myself.” He looked back up and away from the empty site. “The five of us were split on what to do. Me, Miles, and Hazel wanted to head for the center of town. Aaron and—” the boy forced out a cough, covering what sounded like the beginning of a sob, “Aaron and Kyle…they wanted to stay.”

Dylan felt his pulse rise into to his ears, mind filling in unwanted details.

After another forced cough, Lucas continued, “We tried to convince them to come with us, but they wouldn’t listen. The sky was crumbling above us, and they wouldn’t listen. But there just wasn’t any more time. So, we left.”

Dylan didn’t know who moved first, but the two started walking. Slowly moving away from where Mitchell’s had once stood. They turned toward the city wall. Dylan knew he was probably going further from the center of town than his father wanted, but even still, he kept pace with the thin boy beside him.

“We grouped up with a pair of out-of-town adventuring teams to head to the training ground across from the school. We were hoping the protective cover that the guard sometimes uses for combat demonstrations was still working.” Lucas looked up. “You know, that thing may be old, but it’s not something we reverse engineered like the one over the town. It’s a genuine, System-made product that came out of one of the Boon Wars.” His head shook. “But you know that. Of course, you know that. Your dad’s in the guard.” The boy took a breath. “And now I’m rambling.”

“It’s okay,” Dylan said.

They took a few steps in silence. “The rest is what you’d expect. Monsters. Fighting. And then, when we were about a street away from the school, the Tutorial started. The three of us disappeared, off to get the keys we needed to embark on our exciting new lives.” Lucas’s voice was flat. “I’m a Ranger now, by the way.”

“Congratulations.”

Lucas nodded. “All three of us made it back. Miles is a Manatech Engineer. Got what he always wanted. And Hazel’s an Archer.” The boy laughed, a trace a genuine mirth creeping across his features. “She’s a bit peeved right now. Not the Gunner she’d hoped for, so she’ll have a harder time finding an excuse to play with the heavier manatech weaponry. Archer was the closest she could get.” A smile twitched its way into existence. “It’s probably for the best. Where did she think she’d find the money for her gear if she was a Gunner? Good guns are expensive as shit.”

As they shuffled forward, Dylan found the buildings around him begin to thin out. In the rubble, he began to notice more empty lots that looked like the one they’d just left.

Lucas followed his eyes and said, “Anything too damaged to repair is being leveled. Priority for anything closer to the wall because of safety or defense planning or something. And for anything that housed too many casualties for…other reasons.”

Dylan couldn’t help but glance back at the empty lot they’d just left.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He heard another sigh from beside him. “Aaron and Kyle went to the cellar with everyone else. Thought they had a solid barricade and that they’d be safe with their numbers if things went bad. There were still some pretty decent fighters left. With the cellar’s entrance as a choke point and with supplies all around, they figured they could hold out for as long as they needed. I could get the logic; it’s one of the reasons I didn’t push too hard when arguing to leave.” Lucas paused and looked away to the wall. “But a clay bear somehow got away from the guards.”

Dylan winced.

Welves may be the most common monsters in Fairbasin’s dungeon, but the wolf-like creatures were far from being alone. Clay bears were solitary beasts, but because they were spawned in an environment dominated by pack animals, they needed to be strong to survive. And they were. They were large, had physical power typically approaching the high end of tier two, and rounded out their skillset with the ability to wield simple but effective earth magic.

Lucas’s words about the building being knocked down became more visceral in Dylan’s mind.

“By the time help caught up, it was too late.” The boy’s voice continued. “The thing didn’t go through a single door. From what I’ve heard, it smashed its way through one of the walls and then directly collapsed the floor to get at the cellar. There weren’t many left alive after the guard finished dealing with it. Most had either been crushed or mauled.”

Dylan didn’t have words.

“Tutorial started before it all happened, so Aaron got out. But Kyle…” This time, Lucas couldn’t hold back and let out a sob. “Kyle was still seventeen. The Tutorial came too soon; we were all supposed to be in the same group, but Kyle was still seventeen.”

Dylan didn’t need to hear more to know what had happened or to know how much it had hurt Lucas. Although he’d been trying to keep a mental distance between himself and his peers for a while now, that didn’t mean he’d been unfamiliar with who they were. Fairbasin wasn’t a big place, and being classmates had meant they’d all essentially grown up together.

Lucas had treated Kyle like a little brother. If Dylan remembered correctly, the two had been neighbors. Born about half a year apart, Lucas had taken on a kind of protector role with Kyle by the time they’d started school. They hadn’t been the kind of friends who’d spend all of their time together; they’d shared a deep but quiet connection.

Dylan could feel the shadow of how his own brother had treated him before leaving for the capital in the way Lucas had gotten along with Kyle.

He didn’t know how he’d feel if Eric were gone; he didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t know how he could or if he even should try to comfort Lucas, but he felt like he needed to say something. “I know this doesn’t help, but if the Tutorial hadn’t come when it did, more of us would be gone. Alyssa and I would be gone. Aaron would be gone. And who knows how many others.”

“I know.” The voice was quiet, but the response was quick. “It’s all I can think about. If it hadn’t happened when it did, I’d have joined Kyle.”

Dylan turned to look at the boy next to him.

“I kind of glossed over some of the details about our escape earlier.” Lucas walked while looking at his feet. “Mitchell’s may have been a deathtrap in the end, but because our group was completely exposed, the monsters that made it into town targeted people like us first.”

“What happened?”

“A small pack of welves led by one of the burly-looking humanoid ones.” The boys voice got smaller. “Normally the adventurers we were with could have handled everything, but they kept trying to protect us. A few of them died, and in the melee, I got hurt. Bad. I think I was bleeding out.” He shook his head. “Some of my thoughts from before being pulled into the Tutorial are fuzzy.”

The two stepped past a collapsed building and then stopped. In front of them, there was no more rubble. All that was left were the empty, newly-leveled patches of earth and beyond them, the wall.

“If the Tutorial hadn’t healed me, I’d be dead.” A gentle breeze floated across the pair. “Kyle wouldn’t want that. Nobody who we lost would.”

Dylan’s eyes scanned the area and found more people in front of him than he’d seen since returning. Everyone was moving with purpose. Manning or repairing the wall. Carrying supplies. Relaying messages.

When he'd chosen the direction to walk after leaving his house, he’d braced himself to see the worst of the damage the town had suffered. And he had. From cracks to complete collapse. From ruins to the empty spaces that were somehow worse. Dylan had seen what had become of his home.

His original plan was to now continue his survey of the town by going to see all that was left closer to the heart of Fairbasin. He reasoned that walking back to the center of town could only show him things getting better. How people were persevering. But seeing the scene in front of him made that feel less necessary.

It was life. More than a hundred people were working to protect everyone behind them, and Dylan knew that this must have happening at key positions all around the wall’s nearly ten-mile circumference.

To his left, Dylan saw large piles of bodies. Monsters killed by the town’s defenders.

People were working to help sort and organize the creatures’ remains by species and level of development. Welves, from their weakest wolf-like state to the more advanced humanoid versions, were stacked in the hundreds. Smaller piles of other creatures dotted either side. Dylan even found a few clay bears lumped together.

Fairbasin may have lost a lot, but it was still capable of fighting back.

While he watched, he saw a woman carrying a creature that looked like a cross between a large bat and some kind of bird of prey. He was too far away to make out the exact details, but he didn’t think it was one he recognized from his lessons about the dungeon.

Maybe it’s not a dungeon monster, just something caught up in the chaos, Dylan pondered. Or maybe it’s new. A dungeon monster mutated by the break.

As if noticing his stare, the woman looked over. After a moment, she smiled and waved. Dylan was surprised. He didn’t know her. But then he realized she wasn’t looking at him; she was waving at Lucas.

He turned, question on his face.

“She’s one the adventurers who helped escort us that night.” Lucas mumbled. “Two members of her team died to save us; I’m not sure how to face her.”

Dylan thought for a moment. “I’ve never been all that great with people,” he answered, “so I don’t really know what to tell you. But you mentioned how nobody who we lost would want you dead; just remember that. They saved you because they wanted you to live. Be grateful, do your best to live your life, and if you have a chance in the future, repay the favor. And if you don’t have the chance, pay it forward.”

“Thank you for the generic platitudes.” Lucas rolled his eyes.

“Hey, like I said, this isn’t my strong suit, but generic platitudes exist for a reason.”

“Because people are lazy and don’t want to address real problems?”

“That, and because there’s often at least some truth to be found in them.”

“Think that if you want.” Lucas turned his head to the woman before glancing back. “I’m gonna see if there’s anything over there I can help with. Coming?”

Dylan nodded at the sun slowly approaching the horizon. “Can’t. I’ve been out longer than I expected. My dad should be back soon, and I don’t want to worry him.”

“Suit yourself.” Lucas started walking away, giving a wave without looking back. “Later.”

“Later.”

After watching Lucas leave, Dylan began to make his way home.

Hearing Lucas’s account of the dungeon break and seeing the damage to the town, he realized that despite everything he’d been through, he was luckier than most.

He’d lost people he knew and places he’d frequented, but he hadn’t lost anyone he’d truly loved. They were all still safe. He felt bad about what had happened to the town, relief that his family hadn’t been hurt, and a separate sense of guilt for feeling each of the two emotions.

Who was he to feel bad when he still had so much? Who was he to feel relief when the town was devastated?

A need to do something welled up inside of him. He wanted to help, but he didn’t know where to start. If he weren't afraid of worrying his father by staying out for too long, he would have joined Lucas. But was organizing monster corpses really the best way he could support the people around him?

He was already planning on having a talk with his father about the details of his class and what had happened in the Tutorial after dinner; he wondered if he could use that as a jumping off point for ideas about what he should do next.