I woke up and looked at my phone: 6:04. I had to meet Paul at seven, so that gave me plenty of time to… wait no, I had forgotten I would need a weapon, and a shield too. That meant that I had to stop by the delvers guild and get rental weapons first. How long would that take? The Delvers Guild was about a twenty five minute walk, but who knew how long it would take to get a rental. I would need to run. I flew up the stairs, grabbing a granola bar for breakfast and another two. In case I needed them. I threw the bars in my new backpack and ran into the entry. I threw on my shoes, and ran out the door.

I got to the delvers guild fifteen minutes later, and found an unfamiliar receptionist, a girl a bit older than me with shoulder length brown hair. Ten minutes later I had a warhammer and a shield. The warhammer was the same as last time, coming with a belt loop that I put on so it sat on my right side. I grabbed a round shield with a boss to match my avatars, and it went on the side on the backpack with a little velcro strap that had been attached to it. Now I just had to wait another twenty five minutes for Paul… maybe I had overprepared, I could have made myself an actual breakfast with this much time, but I hadn’t been sure how long everything would take. Well at least now I know it only took a bit over half an hour to get ready. Not sure what else to do I entered the dungeon, as long as I avoided any monsters it should be fine, right?

I stepped into the dungeon, and it was just as grand as I remembered. I walked over to the primordial shrine and, not having anything better to do, swung my hammer around a bit, trying to get a feel for it and the shield. I stopped when my arms started burning a bit. I had plenty more to do today, I couldn’t exhaust myself before I even started.

Paul showed up fifteen minutes later. He had a sword hanging on his left hip that looked like it was made of a large mandible, with a slight sheen to it. I hadn’t seen something that was enchanted before, but I assumed thats what the shine was. Other than the sword Paul was wearing sparse armor made of bleaming black carapace. He had bracers, greaves, a pauldron I remembered from earlier, and a chestplate. He also had a small plastic crate in one hand.

“Ah, you're early, great. Follow me and we'll get climbing.” I had just had a horrible realization, something I hadn’t considered earlier. The samaras grew on the maple, the maple that stretched several hundred feet tall. Not only that, it also only had wasps up there. Unfortunately it was too late for me as Paul led me over the back of the tree. As we came around the side I noticed the tree had a natural ramp where the tree bulged out several feet, and an unnatural wood railing hammered in that didn’t make me feel any safer. Paul started casually walking up, and swallowing down my fear I followed after him, hugging the side of the tree. It wasn’t too late to turn back, no one would think any less of me if I didn't go up the tree. Oh, but I had bothered Paul into letting me tag along, I had to keep going. My vertigo was quickly joined by a burning in my legs, it wasn’t too steep, but that just meant that it was longer. Of course Paul didn’t even break a sweat, in fact he tried to start some small talk. I didn’t join in, just nodded along as he spoke, huffing and puffing as I went.

“You know, I’ve considered delving full time. It's an interesting prospect, but I think if I did I would probably burn out pretty fast, ya know.” I nodded along and he continued. “I don’t think I could be a dungeon guard either, spending days in the dungeon at a time. I always try to get out of the dungeon once my avatar runs out.” He kept talking for most of the walk, and paying attention to his words instead of my body’s protests made the walk feel a bit shorter. It still took around fifteen minutes to walk up the tree, but at least it wasn’t fifteen minutes of silence. When we got to the top of the ramp we took a short break, and I scarfed down one of my protein bars.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Alright Ethan” Paul turned to face me and paused. “You're not looking very good, are you good to keep going?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m good to go, no problem.” I wheezed. Why did I say that! I was not fine. My legs were dead, I was feeling a bit dizzy, and I think my head was… buzzing? I saw a large black and yellow form flying over. That wasn’t my head that's a wasp! No no, It’s fine I reassured myself, that's why I’m with Paul, so I am safe.

“Alright, this one's only tier one, you can probably take it with your avatar.” Drat. I wrestled with my shield, getting it from the side of my backpack onto my arm with some difficulty. I latched and made the motion of latching on a strap, only to realize my avatar didn’t have a strap anymore. Panicking, I reached for the avatar mentally, and I brushed up on it, closer than ever. I mentally reached for it, but it slipped away. The wasp was close now, and I tried miming grabbing my shield off my back. The idea got closer and I firmly grabbed on. My avatar manifested and I felt everything snap into focus as my legs stopped burning, my avatar taking the burden. My avatar's shield almost seemed to merge with my shield, the metal surface extra solid, while the teardrop spike that extended out still remained somewhat transparent. The wasp had almost reached me and I barely managed to grab my warhammer and raise my shield before it reached me It didn’t immediately attack, instead stopping four feet away and several feet above me. It wasn’t cute like the beetles, it was over three feet tall, with large black eyes and antenna drooping on its head… actually it wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t cute, but I wouldn't call it hideous or horrifying.

The wasp was keeping out of reach, and the way it was buzzing around made me suspect even if I could reach it it would easily dodge. It raised its stinger toward me, and I crouched a bit, getting a bit more of me behind the shield. I didn’t want to take the risk of being hit, even a single hit would poison me and unlike in a game I didn’t have some universal antidote. I was expecting it to lunge forward, but instead its stinger extended into a smooth black lance that crossed the four feet between us in a second and stabbed into my shield. The force of it’s lance pushed my shield back a bit, but it stayed intact. The wasp started to retract its stinger, and I did the first thing that came to mind, I hit the stinger with my hammer. It was and I didn’t manage to hit it as directly as I would have liked, but I heard a crack and the wasp recoiled back, managing to bring its stinger with it and retract it, but it was damaged.

The wasp buzzed a few meters, and then flew in for another attack. I held my shield between me and the stinger, praying that I hadn’t misjudged where the attack was going. Its stinger slammed into my shield again with a snap, the force of the attack had finished the job I had started, breaking the stinger. The wasp writhed in the air, and I knew this was the best chance I would get. I swung my warhammer into the wasp, knocking it to the ground and stunning it. I raised my hammer and swung down at the downed wasp, driving the spike through its head and finishing it off. I watched for a moment as it disintegrated, avoiding looking directly where I had struck it. I dismissed my avatar, and my legs resumed burning. My heart was still banging in my chest. That stinger had been way more dangerous than the beetles mandibles, and the threat of poison hadn’t helped.

“Not bad, now I hope you're ready for more, because the branches are full of them.” Once he finished talking Paul started walking along one of the thinner branches (which was still over ten feet thick) that had had railings added on both sides, and I crept along behind him, making sure not to get near either of the edges. Within a few minutes I heard buzzing again and I watched as another wasp (larger than the last one) buzzed into view. Why did I think this was a good Idea?