Staring into Lawrence’s warm brown eyes, I swallowed. His magic reached up, cleaning the blood as his newfound scar scabbed over. My face grew warm as I stared at his loving gaze, his promise echoing throughout my heart. He promised he’d never leave me. My mind whispered that to me again and again, repeating it over and over.
“I… I love you, Lawrence,” I said quietly, all the strength leaving me. I was on my knees, hands resting on the ground between my spread legs, eyes focused solely on his.
Lawrence grinned, his grin lopsided, the scar tugging his lips down, “I love you too, Blood. I’m so glad I met you.”
My lips twisted up, and an odd sort of hope filled me. Would… would he actually stay? I swallowed, embarrassed by my thoughts. I looked down, my face burning.
“Right, anyway, let’s go,” I said, sighing heavily, “Bye, Nadia.”
“Goodbye, human of Blood, human of Law Rends,” Nadia said quietly, her soft voice echoing around the giant room of the bigger-on-the-inside pyramid.
Turning, I walked off, gaze on the ground for a long moment. Then, recalling that I was in a dungeon and wasn’t safe, looked up and around.
“Today, we have another dungeon we have to get through—this one is well-known to the residents of California, as it appeared in a popular tourist spot right where the road had been, under a redwood. It’s a maze-like dungeon, and people are wary of diving into it due to how long it is. It has broken already, and we need to go in and try and prevent it from spewing more monsters as the military supports us from outside,” Lawrence explained, pulling out his large tablet, eyes focused on the glow of the screen, random sigils carved into the back, “The monsters are all extremely strong and hard to kill, the dungeon full of orcs, minotaurs, and other large, muscular humanoids.”
I nodded, “If it’s a long maze, we’ll have to hunt for food within. Contact the military before we leave and have them figure out which of the monsters are edible. I’m thinking minotaurs, since those are just humanoid bulls, right?”
Lawrence hummed, “Correct. It will take us about two hours to upload your newest video. The military has spoken to the people in charge of YouTube for us about not removing our videos, but the website one of our sponsors has granted us works as well. They even have editors working full-time to edit and clip parts of our delves…”
I glanced around at the sandy desert we were walking in, watching as the sun rose slowly. We’d be killed if we stayed too much longer—it grew to be about two hundred degrees in this dungeon once midday hit. What Lawrence said caught me by surprise, though.
“Sponsors?” I asked, turning to look at Lawrence.
The man wasn’t looking at me, focused on his tablet, eyes glowing a soft blue as arcane energy wrapped around the man, his messy mane-like hair floating around him. It was like he’d been electrocuted, his hair standing on end in many different directions.
“Yes,” Lawrence agreed as my attention had me look elsewhere. We were avoiding the monsters easily—the monsters all mostly ambush predators.
The only issue was that the sun was rising rapidly. Would we make it to the exit portal before the sun reached its peak? How long could humans survive in 200 degree weather without any humidity? Not long at all, I bet.
“Our sponsors are currently the Marines, the CIA, the current US President, the monarch of England, Interpol, and many, many individuals. One of our biggest sponsors is an anonymous patron who goes by the username Savant. This individual is the one that supplied us with the website and hired editors for us. They also wish to take a more administrative position for us, and said they would pay us 300,000 if we were to go to Brazil and take care of the various dungeon breaks that happened there.”
I hesitated at the mass amount of information. So someone was giving bounties for dungeon clears already?
“That’s a good idea. Setting bounties for clearing dungeons—we should do that. If the man really does have editors working, then they should be viewing this, right? So all I have to do is speak to set a bounty of our own?” I asked.
Lawrence hesitated, looking chagrined, “Please don’t spend our money carelessly.”
I shrugged, “I’m concerned about the dungeon break that happened in Australia. The monsters seem to be amphibious. They’ll soon reach New Zealand and spread further from there. I’ll pay whoever fights and defeats the dungeon and stops the break 50,000.”
Lawrence hesitated, looking surprised, “You…” He went through his notes, then looked up at me, not walking anymore.
Which was fair, we had time. We’d crested the hill to find that the dungeon portal out was just down the hill—we could slide down the sandy dunes.
“… You’re right,” Lawrence said softly, “The creatures—called Humpherphrogs—are spreading out and going into the oceans. If they’re not stopped there’s a great chance they’ll reach China and start mass-producing themselves in… seven months, based on the reports of their reproductive methods. They’re weak, though, why are you concerned about them?”
“They’re like screwflies and the creatures in that game, Aliens,” I commented, “They lay their eggs inside of people. It doesn’t matter how weak they are, stuff like that needs to be stopped as soon as possible, because the strongest of people can be killed from the inside, Law Rend.”
Lawrence sighed, “Nadia gets your name right…”
“We don’t get hers right, though, we can’t pronounce that shit,” I pointed out, “Think it’s spite?”
Lawrence hesitated, “I can pronounce her name…”
“And you call her Nadia instead of Na-Ne-Ni… instead of her name,” I managed, reaching out, “Have fun!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Hey, wait—“ Lawrence shrieked as I shoved him down.
I leapt forward with a laugh, sliding down the dune as Lawrence clung to his tablet, shrieking. Lawrence disappeared into the portal, and I, laughing, slid through it as well. We collided once we reached the outside, Lawrence covered in sand on the ground and me still giggling.
Lawrence groaned, pushing himself off, “This is a new suit!” He complained.
“And? We’re going to Brazil next after the minotaur dungeon—we’ll be rich,” I dismissed.
Lawrence sighed, hanging his head. Standing up, the man brushed himself off, frowning to himself. I stared at him for a long moment with a frown. He’d been looking really thin, lately. I didn’t really focus on how much money we had—I knew we were quickly running out—but Lawrence had to be worried about it, if he wasn’t eating as much.
“Maybe we can celebrate our promise with an all-you-can-eat,” I declared, raising a fist into the air.
“No,” Lawrence refused, running a hand through his hair before extending a hand, “Give me your SD Card, I’ll start uploading it now.”
I hesitated at the immediate and firm rejection. Slowly, I reached up, clicking the camera off and pulling the SD card out.
“You’re getting thin,” I pointed out.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that my caloric intake needs to be increased after I gained powers. I’m eating enough to be full, though, my stomach hasn’t grown in size. I’ll eat more once I’m finished—”
“Dude, you’re starving yourself,” I interrupted, handing him my SD card, “Eat more.”
“It’s fine.”
I swallowed at the dismissal, frustrated. I watched as Lawrence accepted my card and plugged it into his tablet. I glanced around at the desert we were in—we were in Death Valley, currently, Lawrence’s mother’s car parked a few miles away. Around us set up in tents was a military base, many men milling about.
Lawrence was getting really thin, I mused quietly. My frustration rose as I looked back at him, seeing his sunken in gaze and his hollow cheeks. If only I could force him to eat more…. I watched him eat, sometimes, and even outside of the sudden powers, he was eating too little for a normal human of his height. He was eating like he was still an accountant that spent the majority of his time sitting down, instead of eating like he worked out nigh-constantly in his new physically-demanding line of work.
But I couldn’t do anything. Even when I tried putting more on his plate, he just smiled and pushed it away. Like he wasn’t running on fumes already.
I shook my head, huffing. Lawrence glanced up as I crossed my arms, rolling his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine,” Lawrence dismissed—as if he knew more about it than I did. Which he didn’t.
I’d been homeless and struggled to keep my caloric count up, I knew exactly how much would kill someone because I watched some of my friends on the streets fucking die the same way Lawrence was! I needed to Awaken, I mused, fingers tightening on my forearms, arms crossed tightly as I stared at Lawrence with a frown.
If I didn’t, I’d have to watch another of my friends die. I’d have to watch him fall asleep and not wake up. I’d have to smell his piss and shit when I went to shake him awake. I’d have to realize that, once again, I was shaking a corpse that would never wake up again.
That was not acceptable.
“Great!” Lawrence sighed, putting his tablet away with much gusto, reaching out and interlinking his arm with mine, dragging me along despite my struggles, “Let’s go.”
I staggered for a moment before I started half-jogging, feet skittering across the ground as I let myself be pulled along.
“I’m being serious. You need to eat more. I don’t care if you get your calories in butter, you look like a skeleton,” I continued.
Lawrence sighed, walking faster, “It doesn’t matter. I’ve always been anorexic, I know I won’t die.”
“I’ve fucking watched people starve, Lawrence,” I refused sharply, “You’re dying right now. You need to eat!”
Lawrence looked annoyed, giving me an irate glance as he walked faster, looking back toward his car as he spoke, “Since when have you cared? You weren’t this insistent yesterday.”
“Yesterday it wasn’t easy to shove you down the sand hill,” I snapped, stopping, my feet sliding along the sand as Lawrence kept dragging me, “You’re growing weaker!”
Lawrence huffed, amused as he looked at me in the corner of his eyes, “Is that why you’re so insistent I eat? Can’t have your delving partner growing weak on you, can you?”
“That isn’t why I’m saying this!” I snapped, “Why are you so reluctant?! You need to eat, Lawrence!”
“And I am!” Lawrence rejected, voice higher-pitched and incredulous, “I’m eating just fine! 2000 calories a day, almost exactly—”
“That’s a resting amount!” I yelled vehemently, “With how much you work out you need much, much more!”
“I’m fine!” Lawrence yelled back, not dragging me forward as he turned to me, glaring down at me, “I don’t need you nitpicking my every action, Blood! I’m a grown adult, not some child you need to take care of!”
“If you’re not a child why are you acting like one!?” I asked, surprised and annoyed, “It’s not hard to fucking eat! Even if you fucking hate doing it, just shove food in, chew, and swallow! If you throw up just eat more!”
“It doesn’t work that way!” Lawrence argued, “I’ve tried, I can’t! So just leave it alone!”
“Just leave it alone,” I scoffed, laughing half-hysterically as I turned, hands resting on the sides of my helmet as I walked away, “Leave it alone? Leave it alone.”
A man with obsidian eyes and a gruff demeanor pulled me away from the starved corpse of my friend as I sobbed over her body. My words were jumbled and garbled as I cried, trying to refuse her death. The man kept dragging me away.
“Come on, come on. The police will blame us if we stick around—you don’t need to be kicked and tazed today.”
I sobbed further, clinging to him, “She, she can’t—she’s…”
“She’s dead,” The gruff man agreed, “She’s dead. If you stay, the injuries you’ll get will kill you, too. Come on. Leave her alone, now.”
“Yes!” Lawrence agreed with finality, breaking me from my thoughts. I turned, haunted, as I stared at Lawrence.
Leave it alone…
Leave…
I swallowed, walking silently to the car. Lawrence huffed out, following me. He slammed the door closed when he got in the driver’s seat, and soon we were driving toward the next dungeon.
Heroes were born from people who wouldn’t leave it alone. I refused to be called a hero by the masses if I couldn’t even save my own goddamned friend.
I needed to get an Awakening paper in this next dungeon—no matter the cost. We couldn’t just coast by and avoid the monsters, anymore.
No.
In this next dungeon, I would fight.