“Let's go adventuring!” Frank cried as they ran across the grasslands.

“Will you let it go!” Heather yelled.

“That thing bit one of your skeletons on two!” Quinny cried.

“Thank goodness we had them, or it would have gone straight for one of us,” Frank said.

“I thought you two didn’t mind dying?” Heather gasped.

“We still lose a little experience from it even with your stone,” he said. “Not to mention, nobody likes to die.”

“You told me to feed myself to a carrion worm!” she scolded.

“And if you had, you would have gotten your panel back sooner!” he replied.

“And when Moon stole it, the goblins wouldn't have come to help!”

“Are you two dating?” Quinny asked? “Because you sound like it!”

“What? No!” Heather snapped. “We’re just friends!”

They ran down a hill as they heard another roar.

“I think it's done chewing your skeletons into powder,” Frank said.

“At least they slowed it down,” Heather panted.

They crested the next hill and came to a dead stop. Before them stretching across the field was a line of color waving and weaving as it passed.

“Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” Heather groaned.

“Nillacs,” Frank sighed.

They looked behind them and saw the lizard creature coming it’s scissor mouth wide so they could see the jagged teeth inside.

“What do we do?” Quinny asked.

“Respawn, I guess,” Frank said.

Heather shook her head and ran to the right, running along the line of Nillacs. Frank and Quinny followed and ran as fast as they could.

The beast veered to run after them closing the gap and bellowing with a rumbling sound.

“Were never going to outrun that!” Frank said.

Heather looked over her shoulder and sighed. “Keep running. I have an idea.”

“What are you going to do?” He asked.

Heather didn't respond; she veered left and headed for the line of killer puff balls.

She shouted when she got close, and dozens of big cute eyes turned her way as the air filled with hissing.

She screamed and ran back, heading for Quinny and Frank with a wave of colored death pursuing her. As she caught back up, she dragged the line of Nillacs with her.

“Are you trying to make sure we die?” Frank asked.

“Just wait!” Heather snapped.

A moment later, there was a suddenly bellowing roar followed by a chorus of hissing. They all glanced over to see the lizard, and the nillacs had met in there pursuit of the three.

“The Nillacs are attacking it!” Frank cried.

“Thank goodness!” Heather sighed, not daring to slow in her run.

“We have to get out of sight still,” Frank said. “Or they will come after us when they are done with that thing.”

Heather nodded and looked far ahead.

“I see trees on some hills ahead.”

“Head for those then,” Frank panted.

“We can’t run forever,” Quinny said. “I will run out of stamina soon.”

“We just need to get far enough ahead that they can’t see us,” Frank replied between pants.

“I thought you two didn't need to breathe,” Heather wheezed. “How can you be out of breath.”

“It's the stamina mechanic,” he replied. “You can only run for so long before you get tired and have to stop. It doesn't care if you can breathe or not.”

They ran for another minute before Heather felt like her lungs were going to burst.

“Ok, I need to stop,” she panted as she slowed to walk.

Frank and Quinny joined her in slowing. They looked over their shoulders to see the nillac battle still raging as they swarmed the lizard.

“Just keep walking,” he said. “We should be far enough now that they won't come after us.”

“Well, we had an adventure,” Heather laughed.

“We nearly got bitten in half,” Frank replied. “We should have stayed in the graveyard.”

“How are we going to level if we sit in the graveyard all day?” Heather asked. “We need to do more adventuring if we want to grow.”

“Have we done enough running for today?” he asked. “I just leveled in it.”

“So did I,” Quinny laughed.

“You can level in running?” Heather said with a raised brow.

Ding!- [Running skill +1 (11)]

Heather jumped as she heard her alert in her head.

“I hate that ding!” she growled.

“You leveled too?” Quinny asked.

Heather nodded and leaned on her scythe.

“I am surprised you can run so fast in a dress,” Frank pointed out.

“I was motivated,” Heather panted.

They kept walking as a line of trees and hills grew on the horizon.

“We can turn left and head for the stream in a minute,” Frank suggested.

“But we haven’t found anything yet,” Heather argued.

“We nearly lost experience not gained it,” Frank pointed out. “And we won’t have your skeletons to slow down the next thing that tries to eat us.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Quinny laughed as they argued and tried not to look at either of them.

Heather and Frank glared at her, and Heather let out a sigh.

“Why don't we walk to the trees. What harm is in that?”

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “We have no idea what’s out there.”

“Please,” Heather asked.

Frank didn't answer, and Heather turned to Quinny.

“What do you want to do?”

Quinny stopped smirking a minute to think about it.

“I would love to level up one more time. I am so close to level three.”

Frank sighed and pointed to the distant trees. “We go to the trees and no further.”

“Fine, just to the trees,” Heather agreed.

Frank grumbled as he led the way with Heather and Quinny walking behind.

For the next twenty minutes, they walked with the line of green hills growing larger and larger. Overhead the sun suddenly moved to its noon position and baked the ground in golden rays.

“This is why I am wearing a hat,” Heather said.

“The blue doesn’t look good with the yellow,” Frank pointed out.

She smacked his arm and then shook her hand.

“Ow! Your skin is like stone,” she grumbled.

“It’s natural armor. Ghouls are fairly tough.”

“I can improve my armor when I reach fifth level,” Quinny said.

“Your race can wear armor, can't you?” Frank asked.

“I can if we want. I can wear anything a humanoid of the same size can provided our class doesn't have armor restrictions.”

“I kind of envy that you have such a light dress,” Heather added. “This skirt has three layers.” She accentuated her point by flaring her dress out to show the two white layers underneath.

“It looks good on you, though,” Frank said without looked back.

Heather looked up at him with a smile.

“You think so?”

He nodded and gave her a glance. “You are pretty in a dress.”

Quinny started to snicker, and Heather swatted her.

“Hey!” Quinny remarked.

“You don’t have armored skin yet,” Heather scolded before going back to her outfit. “It's funny. I like wearing dresses like this, but women never wear them in the real world.”

“I always thought they were too heavy and hard to sit in,” Quinny said.

“I suppose they are, but they feel right. I don't know why I like wearing them.”

“They show off your figure well,” Quinny replied. “And they accentuate your hips and chest.”

Heather looked down at the outfit and sighed. “Am I so petty that all I care about is looking pretty?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Frank asked.

Heather looked at him with a smirk. “Look at you. You didn’t care about looking pretty. You just cared about playing the game the way you wanted.”

“I also know if I get tired of this, I can reset and change,” he said. “I am not trapped like this.”

Heather nodded. “I still feel petty if the only reason I like these dresses is because I look pretty in them.”

“You have to wear something,” Frank said. “You may as well wear something that highlights what you are.”

Quinny snickered again as Heather went silent.

“Frank!” she snapped. “Are you saying you think I am pretty?”

He glanced at her nervously and shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know. I guess you are; I think Quinny is pretty too.”

“Thank you,” Quinny said with a smile. She leaned over and bumped Heather with her hip to wake her up.

Heather felt flushed as she walked with Quinny glancing at her and snickering.

Eventually, they walked over a gentle hill, and the forest was now close enough that they could make out the trees. They could also make out a gray spike that rose above the trees on a hill.

“Is that a building?” Quinny asked.

“It’s a tower of some kind,” Frank said.

“Like my tower?” Heather asked.

Frank put a hand to his forehead to block the sun out. “It's a round tower, and I think I see a wall. It's probably an old fort or keep.”

“We should go explore it,” Heather suggested.

Frank looked as Heather and Quinny stood side by side, giving him the big eyes while Heather chewed on a lip.

“You two are awful,” he sighed. “Fine, we can go explore the fort, but if anything dangerous is there, we are running.”

“Yay!” Quinny cried as they started walking.

“I wonder if somebody lives there,” Heather said as they approached.

“I think I read there were some random world spawned buildings,” Frank said. “Ruins and such.”

“I read that too,” Quinny said. “The world even spawns dungeons and mines randomly.”

“So, it might be empty?” Heather asked.

Frank shook his head. “If the world spawned it, then it will have world spawned monsters in it.”

“Oh,” Heather replied as she tightened her grip on her scythe. “This could be dangerous.”

“As dangerous as walking blindly into the wild,” Frank said. “People tend to stay near the spawn points because the monsters there are lower level.”

“This is less than a day's journey from a spawn, though,” Heather said. “Surely, this can't be too dangerous then.”

He shrugged as they got close enough to see into the trees.

“Lot's of old trees,” Quinny said. “But, my forest is darker.”

“I don’t see a path in,” Frank added as he looked up and down.

“The trees are far enough apart. Let’s just walk through them,” Heather suggested.

Frank nodded and took the lead. He walked between the trunks and then waived to them to catch up.

“I can’t see the tower from down here,” Heather said.

“It's on the hill just ahead of us. There must be a ramp or stairway up to it,” he replied.

“It’s too bad there wasn’t a forest like this near the graveyard. I could have blended my forest with it,” Quinny said.

“Let's find the hill and see if we can get up it,” Frank said as he plowed a path through the dense underbrush.

Twigs snapped, and birds called as they picked their way through. Heather's dress snagged on the brambles and branches that poked out, forcing her to stop and carefully free herself. In a few cases, she became frustrated and swung her scythe to cut a wider path. Eventually, as they got deeper in, the forest became dark enough that the ground cover was mostly ferns. This made passage and vision easier as Frank spotted the hill.

“It's really steep,” Quinny remarked as they looked up it. “But, I can see a wall at the top.”

“There must be a proper way up,” he said as he looked around. “Let’s walk around it and see if we find anything.”

They wandered around the base of the hill to the right following a shallow gully. The gully slowly got wider and deeper until after several long minutes of walking; it disappeared into a cave. The entrance was round and over ten feet tall. A tiny stream of water flowed down the gully and int the cave carrying with it fallen leaves and twigs.

“So there is a cave too,” Quinny said as they looked into the dark opening.

“I wonder if this leads up?” Frank said.

“It looks like it slopes down,” Heather remarked as she leaned to look inside.

“Should we go see what’s inside?” Quinny asked.

Frank looked up at the hill and then down into the cave in the hillside.

“It makes sense that the tower has underground rooms. One of them might connect to the cave. If we want to get up there, we probably need to go in.”

Heather blinked a few times and stepped back. “But its pitch black in there. How will we see?”

Frank and Quinny exchanged looks as Heather sighed.

“Right, you two can see in the dark.” She shook her head and felt useless. “But, I can't.”

“Are you sure?” Frank asked. “You did level to four, did you look at your updated powers?”

Heather looked down at the tattoo on her wrists and rubbed her hand over it.

“No, not yet. I was going to do it after I picked my third class.”

Frank folded his arms and nodded with his head to her wrist. “I know some classes can cast spells that allow them to make light or see in the dark. See if you have anything.”

Heather rubbed at her wrist, and the light of her panel floated over her arm. She tapped at the air and pulled up her powers, scrolling down to level four.

“I have something called Grave blight, and something else called…” She sighed. “spectral sight.”

Frank smirked, showing more of his gruesome teeth.

“I am so terrible at this,” Heather said with a palm to her face.

“You’re not a gamer. Every gamer’s first instinct when they level is to check their new powers. You will figure it out in time.”

“What is grave blight?” Quinny asked.

Heather looked at the description. “Inflict an area with a disease that causes ten damage per turn the target is inside of it.”

“An area of effect spell,” Quinny said.

“Let’s focus on the cave and go inside,” Frank said. “Figure out how to cast your spectral sight.

Heather tapped through her spells and pulled up spectral sight. “I just need to say the words while touching the person I want to give the sight too.”

She went through her chant while touching her forehead, and her eyes began to glow with a faint blue light.

“That looks creepy,” Quinny laughed.

Heather looked around, blinking as the world around her took on a more muted color palate.

“This makes everything look washed out,” She said.

“Can you see into the cave?” Frank asked.

She turned to the cave and looked into the gloom, easily able to see the tunnel beyond.

“I can see just fine,” she said.

“Then let's go inside,” Frank said.

They took a step and heard a sudden roar from back in the forest.

“That thing survived the nillacs?” Heather cried.

“It might be something else,” Frank said.

“Whatever it is, I would feel safer in the cave,” Quinny insisted.

With a firm glance to one another, they stepped into the cave and hoped for the best.