Besides a slightly overgrown garden and lawn Jake's house was just like I remembered. The modest one story house was painted light blue. In the large driveway to the right of the door there was a rusty pickup with a pile of something under a tarp. Entering the house I found it too was almost exactly like I remembered. There was a small entry room with a shoe rack with a few dozen shoes. Despite having two less people in his family than him Jake's family had always had more shoes. I never understood why they needed so many shoes. We took off our shoes and moved into the house proper, allowing Wiggles to dash into the room from behind us. The living room was just like I remembered other than the thin layer of dust barely visible. There was a coffee table in the living room with a few dishes on it, a disco ball hanging in one corner, and finally a small peach couch and big plush chair that matched each other (other than a large red patch sewed into the right side of the couch). I followed Jake past a dining room and kitchen that looked about the same as I remembered them (though I spied a few samaras laying on the gray countertop on the far side of the room). We passed the bathroom and then turned to go down to the basement, where Jake flipped the first the lights on as we were entering. The rest of the house had been lit by the sun through the open windows, but the basement didn’t have any windows. We walked down to the hall and then entered a room I was quite familiar with, the chill room. It was a medium room with several beanbags pushed against one side and on the other a large TV on a cabinet with several game systems inside. Jake brushed some dust from a beanbag and took a seat. After a moment hesitation I followed his lead, leaving us both comfortably seated and facing each other,. Wiggles bounced in after me, laying across the remaining two bags with a happy pant. She was so big that after taking up two entire beanbags she still managed to lay her head in Jakes lap. The way she sprawled out made me give a short chuckle, and Jake laughed too. After we were both done Jake resumed the conversation with a question.
“Alright, what do you want to talk about?” I wasn’t sure at first. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but after a moment of thinking I decided to just start simple.
“How’ve you been?” Jake grinned.
“Amazing, I’ve missed my parents, and I’ve been waiting forever to see you again, But other than that it's been great. Before the dungeon I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, something to help people, but other than that, no idea. Now with the dungeon I have something I can do, and I’m really good at it. People know and like me, and I can’t count how many people I’ve helped save, and with my avatar it feels like I’m a superhero.”
I smiled, happy to see my friend happy.
“How do avatars work exactly? I saw one at the orientation, but it didn’t really explain much. He just kinda put on a helmet and grew.” Jake smiled in response, and then suddenly there was a sleek black figure in his place. They were covered head to toe in black chitin, and in his hand was a spear with a long blade at its head made of the same black material. I flinched back, and the figure laughed, turning back into Jake in the blink of an eye, still laughing as Wiggles did a little happy dance and nuzzled Jake for pets.
“Woah, I was not ready for that. What does your second avatar look like?” I asked, and Jake summoned just the spear, prompting Wiggles to droop down a moment like the drama queen she was.
“This is my second avatar, it's pretty dangerous on its own, but it really gets a chance to shine when I pair it with an enchanted dungeon crafted weapon. With that combination I can take on anything the dungeon can throw at me easily.” I was a bit surprised by this.
“I didn’t realize avatars didn’t have to be armor.”
“Yeah, they can be nearly anything as long as it sticks near you, a weapon, armor, clothing, a cool magic aura, and more. Not to mention there is so much more to avatars than just what they look like. On that note, you should probably try to get your avatar sooner than later. Do you have time to start forming your avatar soon?” I was caught off guard by Jake's question, and it took me a moment to answer.
“Probably what exactly does that entail?” I finally asked. Jake wasted no time answering.
“Well first you would have to get enough origin shards to make an orb. I already have a couple of different attunements and aspects combined into orbs, so hopefully you’ll like one of those, but if not we’ll have to do some farming. Then once you have one you would go to the primordial shrine and start on the process. Its pretty easy to make adjustments to your avatar in the early stages, so you can experiment if you’re not sure what you want.”
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As I was preparing to answer my phone dinged, and Jake let me pull it out.
[ONRR: if you could meet us at your home we have several things to discuss.]
“It's the ONRR, they are done checking my house, sorry.” I apologetically explained to Jake.
“No problem, need a ride?” I thought about that for a moment. Did I want Jake to see my house in the state it was? Well he would see it sooner or later, better to get it over with sooner than later.
“Sure, I wouldn’t mind one, but just so you know, the house is pretty bad.”
“Alright cool I’ll go start up the- Wait, oh I just remembered something important! I have a surprise for you that could help, follow me.” and with that Jake raced out the room, leaving me to follow at a slightly more sedate pace, unsure what to expect. I found him standing in front of the garage door, a massive grin on his face.
“A few days after returning I noticed something in the road, and I took it here to keep it safe.” and he opened the door to reveal a little tan toyota only slightly covered in dust. It was my car.
“I haven’t touched it since I parked it here so it most likely has an issue or two, but it's intact and unstolen.”
“Wha- how?“I didn’t know what to say. I had already accepted the fact that my car was probably long gone but here it was, stolen by my best friend so it would be safe.
“Well it had the keys in the ignition, but it was in park and turned off, so I turned it on and drove it home.”
“Thank you so much, I had given up hope of finding it again.”
“It's no problem, that being said it’ll probably be faster to take my car, it almost certainly needs some maintenance.” I thanked Jake a few more times, and then we were off. We arrived at my home in a few minutes to find several people standing outside of the house. Most of them were around 20-30, but the lady in charge looked closer to 50, she had an ipad in hand and was marking a few things down on it. I got out of the car and Jake followed, staring up at the house.
“How in the world did that happen?” his shock evident. I was about to answer when the lady addressed us.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, are you Ethan?” she asked, pointing to me. I nodded. To my surprise she abruptly changed gears, her voice filling with empathy.
“Oh you poor thing, you’ve been sleeping in here all week?”
“um, yes, is that an issue?” I said nervously.
“Of course not, I’m just so sorry that this happened, your home is a perfect example of why we made the ONRR, we are planning on doing a full repair, free of charge.”
“Oh great!” I said, and then just how big that was hit me, I hadn’t really though about what I expected, but this was far more than I had thought..
“Wait, full repair, free! I don’t… how?” I said, sure I had misunderstood, but the lady just smiled.
“Of course, I know it sounds too good to be true, but we are fully capable of it. You’ve been gone a while, but labor is much easier and safer with even a first tier avatar, and we have hundreds of tier 3 and higher volunteers willing to help with projects just like this.” Now I really was crying.
“Thank you so much. I, I didn’t expect this in even my best case scenario.” I was choking up, and I knew I must have looked pathetic, but the lady showed no judgment, and Jake was smiling ear to ear..
“There is one thing though. The work needed is extensive, you won't be able to stay in the building while it's being repaired.” Well that was to be expected, I thought. I would have to find an apartment to stay at but- Jake spoke up, interrupting my thoughts.
“Well I have nothing but room.” I turned toward my best friend, my body unsure how to handle any further surprise and happiness. I didn’t know how much weight I had been carrying until all of it was ripped away from me in a matter of minutes. My car, my house, and now Jake's offer. I was just overwhelmed. After a few minutes to compose myself I properly accepted Jake's offer. I didn’t have anything to salvage from home, so I tried to compose myself and got talking to the lady, who said her name was Beth. After hashing out the details for a bit about what was going to happen with the house and how long it would likely take (2 months), Jake and I hopped in the car and returned to his house. I offered to sleep on the couch but Jake let me use his parents room. It was still abandoned, and if they were here they would want me to use it. He was right, they would want me to be in a proper bed if one was available. So much had happened so fast it felt like it should be later, but when I checked my phone it was still only noon.