“Spark!” Pern said, and small worm-like lights danced in her palm.

“I told you. That armor’s no good even if it’s mythril. Your blacksmith must’ve been some kind of deviant.”

CLACK!

She swung her sword against the boulders and some different sparks began to fly.

“Oh, but my blacksmith was an odd duck too,” Rick said. “Maybe there’s some kind of cultural problem, there. Good person. Awful sense of humor. Glad I’m not like that, right?”

CLACK!

“I’ve got a good sense of humor and I’m awful smart. After that heavy rainfall, it was obvious that there’d be some rock slide, though I can’t explain that “fwoom.” Want to come up with a nice way to thank me for saving you?”

CLACK!

“I’m kidding. There’s more pressing things to smash, like that boulder there. Take out your frustrations on that big guy.”

CLACK!

“We could run out of air in this closed cave,” Rick said. “After a few years, here our lungs would deflate… our lips would turn blue… then both of our brain cells would die. But to be honest, I’m more concerned about food and water.”

CLACK!

“The Crystal Caves are complicated, and Constance had our only map. We won’t find a way to escape just by luck; we might not even find the Kitsune Village.”

CLACK!

“In conclusion, we’re probably trapped here to die.”

…clack.

Pern gave up chopping at the piled-up rocks. She’d made some chips and scratches, but behind that boulder was another boulder, and behind that another large stone… even if she managed to obliterate all of them, another avalanche might take place and kill them for real.

They could ignore the seal and walk deeper into the cave. But beyond the antechamber was not just one passage but three, each lit by glowing crystals that rose from roof and floor. Then the three passages branched to another three, which branched into another three, which branched into innumerable ways to get lost.

And if one followed those passageways, one might eventually meet certain dangerous groups of “gourmands”… those monsters that craved a specific kind of meat.

Pern sat down and sighed. She herself was hungry. But Pern could ignore that hunger! As long as she craved success, she could ignore anything.

She looked at the slumped young man beside her.

“You were watching over me Rick. And I’m grateful. But—was it all of me? A particular part of me? Be honest.”

He shrugged.

That wasn’t a no. Maybe she had seduced him.

“Rick. I want you to complete this quest.”

“Okay,” Rick said.

“And do your best.”

“Okay,” Rick agreed.

“And make me a five star meal with azerjaput and scrumptapan.”

“Okay,” Rick said.

“Those words don’t mean anything! It’s meaningless! Those words, this whole conversation, it’s all meaningless!

“I don’t get it Rick. You’re obviously competent, but you do what you like, when you like it. And if I can’t predict something as basic as whether you’ll try to clear a quest or quit it, how do you think that makes me feel?”

Rick let her outburst echo in the cave. He glanced her up and down—he was looking at Pern now—but he ultimately shook his head.

Then tilted it, listening. He strolled to a large stone in the middle of the passage, stood on it, and gave her a reply.

“Argghhhhhhhhhhhhh!’” He shouted.

“Rick, what—”

“Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Pern folded her arms. She tiptoed, raised herself up next to him, and screamed back: “AGGGGHHHHHHH!”

It was a raw, rough, primal cry. Their voices intermingled and tore through underground. “Ah, that… that didn’t really make me feel better at all.”

Their cries reached the ears of some small creatures, and roused them—as well as those of predators on the prowl. They pawed forward. They crawled forward. They winged close in the air. Glowing eyes specked the dark where the three cavern branches converged: all those in the cave that craved human flesh.

“On the other hand, I get the feeling that a lot of monsters are soon going to be feeling a whole lot worse.” Pern drew her sword, and from the first cave came a pack of direwolves.

They were dogs, yes, but it would be a mistake to call them that. They were huge, and their fangs hung from spit-streaked mouths like wet white stalactites.

From the third cave came a pitter-pattering of legs. Then eyes, in sets of eight—sleek cold eyes like inset gems. Their mandibles twitched and chittered, and their massive oval hindquarters were raised as threats. These were the direspiders, hungry and furred.

Nothing emerged from the middle cave. Just a sound, a quiet flutter that could easily be ignored. “Right!” Pern claimed. And Rick attacked the mobs streaming from the left cave.

The direwolves had arranged themselves in a semi-circle; there were about twenty-five total in sizes ranging from Large Doberman to Monstrous. The Monstrous one sat ahead of the pack; it must have been their leader.

Rick charged the Alpha Wolf, pulling his fist back as he prepared to strike. The Alpha smiled and opened its jaw, waiting to clamp on the “finger food” that was so kindly delivering itself to him. Rick switched from fist to forearm and rammed the length against the Alpha’s ribs instead.

“W-oof!”

The Wolf went down.

The Beta leapt at Rick’s throat, and Rick stepped back, grabbed its stomach, and swung it into a glowing crystal stalagmite that gored it. The other hounds growled and backed off, and Rick collected the two monster cores and some bone-and-wolfmeat loot.

Meanwhile, Pern dealt with the cluster of direspiders from the other cave. They seemed peculiarly happy to see her, as they chittered with their chelicerae; they knew she’d make a delicious meal.

“Try laughing at this!”

Cut, cut, hack, hack, slash, slash, hack. Faster than one could say those words, the first spider’s limbs were separated from its body. Pern finished it off with a final cut to the thorax.

“My arm hurts.” Pern complained. “Nine cuts work just fine… but I think we can do better than that.”

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Fwip!

She dissected the next spider with a single spiraled blow. “Good. But slaying two spiders isn’t enough; I’m far too frustrated. More! I demand more!”

With the next slash she cut eight spiders, all in a line. The remaining spiders spat white, sticky, threads at their spunky target and Pern ducked and weaved through the strands.

More wolves and spiders arrived, lured by the prospect of fresh, blood-warm meals. Each passage became a chokepoint, Rick with his the wolves on the left, and Pern with her spider friends on the right.

Hit, hit, cut, cut, shock, shock, strike. The direwolves dropped bones and wolfmeat, while the Dire Spiders dropped web-fluid sacs. There was little time to collect them, but the loot marked the swarms they slayed like little graves as their conquests began to pile up.

Pern could try using her Thunder S to try and fell all their foes in one glorious strike. But such an effort would almost certainly melt her sword, and she quietly doubted whether she really could kill everything. Her sword crackled—and the wolves and spiders hesitated.

“They’re afraid!” She called.

Rick tensed.

“We’re winning! Keep moving, Rickhead!”

“No, it’s not that—!”

In the middle passage—the quiet flutter turned into a gale-like roar.

Out flew swarms of direbats, each human-sized with blade-like fangs and claws. They blotted out the ceiling with their wide wings, and the glowing crystals that flickered in and out of view made it seem as though Rick and Pern fought under a starry sky.

“Huhuhu… hahahaha! Perfect! More enemies on which to practice my skills…” Pern retreated quickly to where the three caves met, and Rick joined her.

“Those monsters won’t be the last,” Rick said. “But like you said, you’ll be fine.”

“I’m fine, huh? I’m fine!?”

A spider shot another web from the darkness. Pern dodged it and traced it with a fingertip —a damp line leading to a vulnerable spinneret.

“Thunder!” She shouted, and electricity pulsed through the spiderwire til the creature died. “I’m mad Rick. You want to know why I’m mad?” Pern asked. “No, I’ll tell you why— “

She slashed through bats like they were fireworks. One touch of her sword, and they turned into various colors. Red. Black. Brown. They’d burst and disappear. Pern had a look of wild happiness.

“On every quest, there’s always a number of skills that might be necessary. But I’ll always win out as long as I can prepare.

“If I need instinct, I can train. If I need power, I can buy strong, sturdy, weapons. If I need knowledge, I can carefully study and prepare. But you, Rick—why won’t you tell me what I can do for you, other than fail with you?””

The bats, spiders and wolves converged in a flurry of gray fur. Rick struck a wolf so hard that it flew into one behind it, which crumpled into the one behind that, and then a whole line of dogs collapsed like four-legged dominoes. He blew on his fist.

“Imagine,” Rick said. “A girl prances and preens in front of you, not cause she likes you or that she likes doing it, but just cause she thinks that’s what the other person wants. Pretty ugly, right? Pretty horrible, right? What kind of person would I have to be to want that?”

“Rick—”

“You’re an S-Rank Adventurer. That’s who you are. Don’t worry about pleasing an E-Rank leech like me.”

Pern no longer used her sword for slashing. Thunder constantly coursed from it instead, electrifying any who dared come close. Rick and Pern bumped into one another, and then backed against the rocks that sealed the cave.

“Rick, I’m not an S-Rank. Not really,” said Pern. “I’m just someone who wants to really understand someone and have them understand me, too… and for some reason, Rick, I thought that person might be you.”

The spiders, wolves, and bats fought amongst themselves to determine who would claim the prey. It gave the two a moment to breathe, but only just—the wolves drove back the spiders with their agility, pounced at the bats with their claws, then gathered as a pack to attack.

“Then come close, Pern. I’ll show you a secret,” Rick said. He drew a table knife that he had filched from the Four-Leaf Inn. “Use Thunder.”

“What?” Pern scoffed. “No ordinary Adventurer can direct Thunder through a weapon. There’s only one Adventurer active with that Thunder skill and I’m her. Rick, even if you have Thunder Resistance S, I’m not using it on you! You’ll die!”

And yet—much like everything else to do with Rick, Pern was no longer in control. She had been bitten by spiders, she had been clawed at by wolves and rats.

And while she fought with grace, her Quick Step B was no shield. It tired her, and in the face of so many enemies she had simply exchanged deadly wounds for non-lethal ones.

She didn’t understand Rick, she didn’t trust him, and she never wanted to work with him again. But even still. Even so.

Pern wrapped her arms around him. Rick held the dagger, and Pern had her sword.

To Pern, channeling Thunder was like damming up a wave. She could build up power anywhere in her body, but when she released it she didn’t know how it would flow—not without a weapon to aim it with.

At the last moment, Pern breathed. She calmly took the sword, and Rick’s hands, and cried:

“RAGNAROK!”

THUNDER RESISTANCE S [ACTIVE]

Thunder coursed not just from her sword, but from Rick’s blade too. Two separate lines split and cracked into different caves, and as it touched the monsters it scorched them black.

Bats dropped from the air. Spiders limbs fell from their bodies. Wolves whined and retreated, fur singed. And Pern was pantingwhen it was finally done.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

“Ha…. ha… ha…” Rick breathed. Pern collapsed onto Rick, then stumbled into another cave wall. Rick slid down beside her.

He had a bloody wound across his shoulder, and his knife was completely melted, but other than that he seemed fine. As fine as one could be after a battle like that.

“Rick. How’d you know that would work?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then, how did that work? That shouldn’t have worked!” Pern said. She crawled up to him, and touched her forehead against his.

>Information Resistance S [down]

>Thunder Resistance S [active]

>Prevent lasting damage from most lightning and electric attacks

>Inventory [active]

>Infinite storage for monster loot; but can heavily drain mana.

>Stored: Spider-sacs x10, Wolf Bones x57, Wolfmeat x25, Bat Core x40, Spider Core x30, Wolf Core x75.

>Fire Resistance S [info]

>Stop damage from all but the most intense flames

>Water Resistance S [info]

>Repel water and prevent drowning

>Earth Resistance S [info]

>Repel dirt and avoid falling rocks.

>Phys Resistance C [info]

>Stop minor injuries and resist blunt force trauma.

>Empty [error]

>null

“Empty…” She tilted her head, though they remained connected. “Null? Rick, what in the Goddess—”

“I’m the Failure Adventurer. I like pretty girls and I like drinking. That should be very easy to understand.”

They sat together in the dark for a long time. They could hear the water drip off rocks. Tk. Tk. Tk. A scraping, a shuffling enmeshed itself in the tks.

“We can collect more wolfmeat for food, and drink water from the spider-sacs if we need to,” Pern said.

Tk. Tk. Tk.

“You drew them here for us to eat… ah, geez. Ah, Rick. What a crazy guy.”

Tk. Tk. Tk.

“Do you really like pretty women, Rick?”

“I do. Present company excluded.”

Tkshh. Tkshh. Tkshh.

Pern’s Rapid Regeneration C set to work. It repaired her wounds, but didn’t fix the tension that lay between them.

“Rick,” Pern coughed. “This is… embarrassing… to say… but… when it comes to certain… questionable things….

“I might… have been trying to use you. Like a dog… or a horse. I should respect that you have your own reasons for adventuring… or choosing not to…

“But also I think it’s wrong of you not to give me a chance to understand you.“

Rick half nodded, half-shook his head.

“But I also want to say… when it comes to certain… questionable things… you don’t… you really… need to… um…

“I think… at the start… it was to get you to do what I wanted… but at a certain point… I think… it might have been.. that … I didn’t… like it… but I didn’t… hate… doing those things… either way… so… don’t worry…”

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to pretend.”

Pern’s breathing hitched; she shrugged and arc’d her back.

Something clattered on the cave floor. It was too dark to see beyond shadows, and Pern pressed a wide metal plate into Rick’s hands. No, a wide mythril plate.

“Pern. What is this? What kind of mentor are you?”

It fell from him. and she picked it up and refitted the chestplate.

“All resistance, no defense. That’s Rick. At least I understand that much about you…. have you ever thought you might not fully understand me?”

Tkshh. Tkshh. Tkshh.

Tk sh, sh, sh, shuffle shuffle, shuff.

She rose.

Pern flicked her wrist, and cast a crackling sphere that pushed the darkness away. Goblins had arrived, drawn by the noise from the fight.

“Back me up, Rick,” Pern said.