The air in the quaint wooden house grew a little chillier. Although, that could be because Wolf had left the back door open. All eyes were on our newest recruit, waiting for her to do something. Maybe explode. At this stage, I wouldn’t discount anything.
“What do you want me to reply?” she asked. Her eyes had left their unfocused state and were looking at me, so I knew she wasn’t secretly typing.
I drummed my fingertips on my leg as I exhaled. “Who are they?”
“Hand-off group for once we captured you. Drent was going to update them. That’s the shark-person who has a lot more holes in his head than usual.” Tanya raised an eyebrow.
Even though I had just put my hat back on, I removed it to place on my lap, while my fingers ran through my hair. Still a little long - I’d have to ask one of my troupe for a cut eventually… but which one?
“Our sleep was interrupted by a zombie attack, and we have fought against three other Parties, and a troll.” I added that last one for effect, even if it wasn’t that much effort. “What do you suggest we do about this?”
A bit of an ask to put her on the spot this early, but it served a dual purpose. Well, a trifecta of purposes if I took my exhaustion as truth—which it was. Another opportunity for her to prove her switched allegiance wasn’t weightless, but also a test to see how she thought. If I was putting her in the ‘manager’ box, she’d need to show me she was able to function in that role and guide our efforts when we were rough around the edges.
She clucked her tongue and made the point of removing her breastplate fully now. Although her black dress wasn’t particularly combat-worthy, it was rather plain and—surprising to me—padded underneath. Catching my intrigue, she grimaced.
“Lady thought I’d fit the theme better in a dress. Can finally switch to something more practical…” her eyes went between us all again. “Unless there’s a different uniform requirement here?”
I shook my head. “Wear whatever makes you most comfortable.” My hand went out to gesture for her to get back to the matter at hand.
“Best thing to do is kill them,” she said. Her stoic and calm expression was refreshing. With that attitude, she’d fit right in with us. “I’ll give them a half truth. Tell them you captured me and are trying to get information out of me.”
My head nodded slowly. “Bring them to this location and ambush them?”
“At night would be best,” she agreed. “If they think you’re asleep, they’ll be less apprehensive about attacking.”
I gave Ren a glance, and she gave a brief nod in return.
We liked that plan. Killing off another Party of Crimson Shadows where we weren’t on the back foot for a change was worth losing a bit of our sleeping time.
Tanya cupped her chin and looked down at the floor. “I know their levels and rough classes, too. This area has decent terrain for an ambush, but we’d want to move on after, just in case they let any other groups know they were coming here.”
“Sleeping in the dungeon is still a possibility,” Quinn said, leaning against the wall as he rubbed at his eyepatch. “It means traveling in the dark, but it will be safe once we arrive.”
Wolf lifted his face from his meal-in-progress, tongue lapping around his mouth. “I could eat,” he said.
“Sounds good to me, then.” I clapped my hands together. “Time to take the fight back to them. Oh, what level were you, Tanya?”
“Fifteen,” she replied. “You all are too?”
“Eleven, but Quinn is Fourteen.”
Tanya looked a little surprised to hear that answer. “Only Eleven? How long have you been here?”
“Couple of weeks for us,” I gestured to Ren, ignoring the fact that she had spent three months in misery on the starter island. “We sped through things and came to the second area at Eight.”
“That’s… actually quite efficient.” The woman shrugged. “Shouldn’t take you long to get to the Fifteen cap then, we can plan tomorrow?”
Ren furrowed her brow. “Level Cap was Twenty, I thought?”
“In the wider world, sure, but…” Tanya trailed off as she looked between us. “Of course, you haven’t been here long enough, so you might not know. There’s been a barrier preventing access to the third area, and you need to do some Quest that way to get higher than Fifteen.”
That opened up a whole casket of questions, wriggling around like dirtied worms. Where to even begin? We had avoided what little lore the world had tried to push our way, and filled our brains with our own heroic Quest to rid the System of the Lady. For certain definitions of heroic, anyway.
“Why is there a barrier?” Ren asked, her normal scowl comfortably back on her face.
“And who put it there?” Quinn added, saving me the hardship of doing the deed myself.
“To answer… who…” She flexed her fingers as she thought. “The King and Queen, I believe.”
I raised my eyebrows. “They are Players with actual control or part of the System?”
Tanya pulled a face. “As far as I know, it’s something like that. I was here after the barrier went up. The reason for it… well, I’ve been told it’s because of the Lady in Red.”
My brain was two steps behind still. That information made sense for why no higher level players had come through and gotten rid of her. It didn’t make total sense, however. “She’s only been causing trouble for a couple of weeks, though?”
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A shrug was the response. “I don’t have the full picture, I’m afraid. Someone told me that PvP wasn’t enabled at some point - but something changed. As luck would have it… one of the chaps paying us a visit later might know some more on it.”
I nodded slowly. More of the full picture had been revealed, even if it wasn’t quite perfect. “Alright…” I glanced again at Ren to make sure she was onboard. Seemed that way. “Make arrangements, Tanya. I’ll need a report on what we’re going to be up against.”
“Of course.” Her eyes unfocused as she went to put the plan into action.
Or at least, I hoped so. There was still the chance she could be double crossing us. Set us up for something even worse than a single Party ambush. It wasn’t very likely, though. Not being under their corrupting influence put her a few intellect points over the others, and she was probably exhausted dealing with the violent halfwits.
I mean, we were a little better than that. Maybe.
Ren stood up and placed her hand on my shoulder briefly as she passed. “Anyone else for coffee?”
Tanya almost leaped from her chair with how she shuffled to focus on the elf. “You have coffee? Should have said from the start, that’s reason enough to join you lot.” Without a chance for anyone else to reply, a mug was already in her hand at the ready.
I smiled and settled into some form of comfort. We’d need to keep an eye on her still, but the woman seemed almost happy to be among us. Appearances could be deceiving - I of all people should know this… but it was nice to meet someone who didn’t want to run away, call me an asshole, or split my head open.
The piercing whistle of the kettle drew my attention to the kitchen, where I could see Ren leaning against one of the counters with her arms crossed. Despite her scowl at the group of mugs now ready to receive the magical liquid, she seemed relatively relaxed. It put my mind at ease, as the times where we were both wrong about something were few and far between.
Wolf had somehow managed to finish off his bounty of food and immediately decided to have a nap right in the middle of the open-plan kitchen. Quinn appeared to be focused on something in his STAR menus, and I wondered if having one eye made the process more awkward. Probably.
“It is done,” Tanya said, drawing my attention back to her. “Group of five coming at one in the morning.”
I heard Ren groan as she poured the hot water. Another night of terrible sleep.
“They’re not suspicious that you can reply to them?”
“Not particularly.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s much that can stop Chat messages unless I was unconscious. Plus, they’re the Crimson.”
They were. I nodded. The sun was starting to set now, so we still had a few hours to make our plans. Although I had kept a poker face, I felt the same way about the lack of sleep as Ren did. Still, I turned and smiled as she came to pass me a mug of coffee.
“It’s a struggle to get this stuff,” Tanya said, nodding her head in thanks at the elf as she received her own. “Especially as an outlaw.”
I sat and enjoyed the warmth of the cup for a moment. It probably wouldn’t keep me as awake as I would like, and resting in the Dungeon didn’t seem that comfortable either. In a time of relative safety, the groups of us could split off into different houses. Live like normal people, if even for one night. Part of me just wanted to focus on the relationship with Ren and not have to deal with all this violent bullshit, but… I needed them both, in some way.
Tanya blew the steam from her drink and then tilted her head. “I told them you were holding me in this house, so perhaps we should make arrangements to not be here.”
“Alright.” A grin slowly rose up on my face as I raised my voice. “Everyone gather round. We have a show to put on.”
----------------------------------------
“Trickster,” Ren whined, an uncharacteristic sound coming from her. The end of her bow jabbed into my side as she tried to get my focus.
It was night time now, and we lay on the grass under the dark sky. After going through our plan a couple of times and spending more time with Tanya and Quinn, things seemed more… normal. While the fixer had emotions clear on display, our new Party member just seemed to be very… pragmatic and straightforward. Her singular focus was getting back home, and some time spent chatting about things from our past world had tied her to our cause greater than any threat could.
Not that we could promise to send her back, but she had come to the agreement that the Lady had no clue either. Certainly this mysterious King and Queen might have answers if anyone did. Not that I expect there to be a way to return to Earth, given that-
My right eye twitched as I was jabbed again. “Yes, moonflower?”
“I love you,” she whispered, her bright blue eyes picking up the moonlight.
Any tension washed away in seeing her expression. “I love you too. You grow more ridiculous by the day.” I thought we had reached the ceiling of her emotional expression, but it seemed the nighttime had to be a step above at all times.
“It’s not ridiculous to state the truth,” she said with a huff, before turning her gaze back to the center of the small village. While she didn’t scowl, I saw the business-like seriousness return to her. Her feelings aside, she was still the same Ren underneath.
We had made the pact that our relations wouldn’t hinder our goal. Something she had agreed to with a pout, but she was fully onboard. Already accepted that love was an invitation for tragedy, we still needed to be cautious that we didn’t stumble into worse through our distracted sensibilities.
But then, that’s why we were laying in thick grass under the cover of darkness, instead of in a soft bed under the cover of… well, just a blanket, I supposed.
That our plan had involved us being paired together was just coincidence.
Slightly out of the village on a small mound that could barely be considered a hill, we had a slight height advantage while still being able to see the front area of four of the houses. The ruined one we almost died in. The nicer one we had rested in. The two others who were now part of our plan.
“I’m sorry,” she said, even as my mind had moved on. “Been a very straining day. I’m rather eager to live a life of those good times, and I’ve started putting the cart before the horse.”
“If only we could be so gluttonous and satiated with what we desire as Wolf often is,” I replied.
She looked back at me and smiled. “One day, trickster.”
A beep of my Chat brought me away from saying anything further to the elf, and after shuffling whatever Fiona had said out of the way, I brought up the message from Tanya.
[Tanya: They have updated me. ETA 10m]
[Max: Understood.]
I switched to the Party Chat we had now included her in.
[Max: Ten minutes. Prepare.]
[Quinn: Ok^]
[Wolf: o]
[Tanya: In position, at your command.]
[Ren: Ready.]
Closed everything down and looked back at the elf. Her eyes were trained back on the dark village, only illuminated by the lanterns we had left as decoys in the house. The shadow of the corpse Wolf hadn’t chewed up sitting in a chair near the window across the dirt and dull grass. I’d save my own prodding for post-battle.
It was a simple reverse-ambush. Assuming Tanya wasn’t screwing us over—a prospect that seemed less likely by the hour—we’d wait for them to assail the house before springing our own traps on the group hoping to catch us sleeping.
She had advised to try to keep the more knowledgeable Shadow alive if we wanted to ask questions about the third area. A frogman who was a type of arcane knight. Heavy armor and some spells. More trouble than it sounded worth - to try to incapacitate rather than just outright kill - but I said we’d see what we could do.
Quinn and Tanya were in the closest building to our right, on the top floor to send out supporting skills through the windows. Wolf was in the house further away, but still on the right. Ready to repeat his entrance that we used in the first village in the second area. Our trap was in the closet left, while the ruined building was further left. With Ren beside me we could quickly rain down powerful ranged attacks, and having a good view of the stage would allow me to dip in and out where I was most needed.
Any looming excitement was jostled from my overworking brain by the jab of the bow end again. In raising an eyebrow, expecting more soft words, I caught the sharp glare in Ren’s eyes as she gestured out to the darkened road.
Two small orbs of light bobbed closer, before being snuffed out.
Curtain was about to rise.