Amelia left the putrid and shattered Broken Ring, heading into the gray and dull Workers' Ring. While waiting at a stoplight, she retrieved her phone and noticed three missed calls from the same number. Returning the call, she didn't have to wait long for someone to answer on the other end.

“Amelia?” a voice came through with a tone of uncertainty and frustration.

“Hey, Elina,” Amelia sang, “Sorry I missed your calls earlier.”

“You didn’t miss my calls!” Elina charged, irritated, “You denied them! The last time I called, I heard it ring twice before you rejected me. I texted you too. What have you been up to?”

“You know, just hanging out. I met this boy and you know how things go.” Through her car speakers, Amelia heard a pop song that had come out when she first started college and immediately turned up the radio. She mouthed the words of the song as her head bobbed up and down.

“A boy?” Elina echoed, confusion filling her voice. “But you don’t date at all…”

“You know him.”

“I do?”

“Yea, Lush.”

“Lush?”

“You know, Lucian. Oh, yea. I forgot only I call him Lush.”

The phone became quiet.

“Elina?” Amelia prompted.

“…So, you met him,” Elina finally responded.

Amelia became animated, her favorite part of the song playing as she said, “Yea, we hit it off. I call him Lush and he calls me Melly. It’s funny. We gave each other nicknames almost right away.” She looked at herself in the rearview mirror and began acting out the song’s lyrics. She followed along with the song’s words and said in sync with them, “I know I shouldn’t say it, but I think he’s hot!”

“…”

Hearing Elina pause again caused a mischievous smile to grow on Amelia’s face. “Elina, you still there…?” she prodded.

“Yea,” Elina answered. Coldness had crept into her voice. “It’s still pretty early. Did you run into him in a Monster Gate or…?”

“No,” Amelia answered, looking in the mirror and rubbing down brow hairs that were out of place, “I was with him at his place. You know the one even if you don’t—ugly building from the 2020’s on its last legs, typical Broken Ring stuff.”

“That’s weird. It sounds almost as if you guys spent the night together. What did you guys do…?” An edge had hardened in Elina’s tone.

“What else would a boy and girl do together when they’re alone?”

“You’re a whore.”

“Elina!” Amelia sputtered, utterly shocked. No answer came. Elina had hung up. Amelia wasted no time and called her back. Getting through, Amelia said right away, “Elina, don’t hang up.”

Elina’s cold voice spat, “I hate you. You were supposed to be my best friend.”

“I was just kidding! We didn’t do anything. As your current best friend, I wanted to meet your old best friend and taunt him a bit. Jesus, Elina. You know I would never do something like that to you.”

“…So, nothing happened?”

“No!”

“Amelia, you play around way too much,” Elina exasperated.

“I’m sorry,” Amelia apologized, “I wouldn’t have said that if I knew you were going to get so angry.”

“Why are you doing this to me then? Is this funny to you? Is it fun to mess around with someone from my past?”

“I told you we didn’t do anything! It’s just…” Amelia bit her lip. She turned down the radio and finally came clean with her intentions. “Dammit, Elina. I just want you to leave that asshole.”

“What?” Elina asked, confused, “Do you mean Marcus?”

“I hate him and I hate how he treats you like a piece of meat. Please, leave him. I don’t like when he’s around and I don’t like how he affects you.”

“Oh, Amelia. He’s fine. You just have to get to know him.”

They went back and forth for an hour, with Amelia eventually conceding that her attempts to change Elina's love life were in vain. Marcus was in their lives to stay.

Amelia’s thoughts journeyed back to when she first met Elina.

By a twist of fate, they had both been near the city's front gates when Elina's magic accidentally struck Amelia. Elina, newly Anointed at the time, struggled to control her newfound powers. Guards assigned to protect Amelia initially moved to eliminate the perceived threat to her safety, but Amelia intervened. She not only prevented them from taking action but also confronted the authorities who arrived to apprehend Elina. This was a critical situation as Amelia, the daughter of an influential figure, had been harmed, and any mishandling of the incident could have led to severe repercussions.

Amelia's gaze drifted to a scar on her arm—a constant reminder of the day their friendship had taken root. Back then, she could never have imagined the extraordinary lengths she would go to in order to protect Elina, nor could she have foreseen the unbreakable bond that had since formed between them. This scar, etched into her skin like a symbol of their shared journey, served as a testament to her unwavering determination to keep Elina safe.

Amelia had only met him once, but she was convinced that Lucian was a better match for Elina than Marcus. When she looked at Marcus, she saw an egomaniac and a horned up baboon. In Lucian, she saw potential. The fact that Elina still harbored lingering feelings for him only convinced her further that she was on the right track.

“Fine then, you win,” Amelia acquiesced, though her surrender was merely the start of something, “Sorry again, Elina.”

“Thanks for understanding, Amelia. And I’m sorry for calling you a whore,” Elina responded with a hint of bashfulness.

“Sure, sure. Oh, by the way, I got Lush's number. So, if you ever need anything from him, just let me know!” Amelia laughed obnoxiously before abruptly ending the call.

Alone in her room, Elina stood enveloped in the warm light of the sun streaming through her bedroom windows, lost in thought.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Hmm,” Elina murmured to herself, contemplating, “She referred to him as ‘Lush’ again...”

***

Lucian departed from the city, venturing deep into the desolate Wasteland. Eerie figures stirred within forsaken structures, scattering hastily at the thunderous rumble of Lucian's engine. Creatures resembling tree-root zombies, crawling on all fours, lunged forward in pursuit. Lucian yanked his cowboy hat lower over his brow, pressing onward until the relentless fiends were forced to relent.

He continued his journey until the luminous presence of a Monster Gate came into view—a blue one. Hours of relentless searching for a green gate, an indicator of a Low Threat Level, had been unsuccessful. His only recourse was to settle for what he could find.

Vehicles were already parked around the area, most likely belonging to Scavs. It was an abandoned construction site, a relic of the initial, unsuccessful rebuilding efforts after the Monster Invasion of 2030. Lucian parked his vehicle, tossed his cowboy hat onto the dashboard, and stepped out of the car, his tool belt loaded with Gatetech equipment. A breeze blew over him, chilling his skin, and an exposed feeling, like nakedness, overcame him. Bereft of armor or weaponry, he found himself lacking any means of protection.

The blue glow of the gate felt all the more threatening up close—a Moderate Threat Level gate, the sort that had claimed the lives of many untested and unprepared Base Anointed like himself.

“I’ll just grab something I can sell and come right out,” Lucian assured himself nervously as he fazed through the whirling energy and entered the Monster Gate.

***

“My feet hurt!” a whiny voice complained.

The whining emanated from a young woman with black pigtails, dressed in a martial arts gi. She followed in the steps of a chubby man clad in leather armor, a skull pin on his chest with words that read, “Wasted Souls.” The chubby man was in his thirties and his armor had been designed to mimic SWAT gear.

They were journeying through a dense forest with a canopy only allowing streams of sunlight in at a time, the emerald leaves above rustling in uncanny harmony with the distant roars and growls of the hidden creatures lurking amidst the trees. The air bore down upon them, dense and saturated with the scent of damp moss and the essence of the untamed, verdant wilderness that encircled them.

The young woman with black pigtails, her gi slightly disheveled from their relentless trek, pouted and whimpered having walked longer than she ever had to in her entire life. Beside her, the chubby man, sweat drenching his clothes beneath his leather armor, kept a steady eye out for whatever otherworldly beast would be thrown at them next.

“Walking is a part of the job," the chubby man replied, his eyes scanning their surroundings vigilantly. Curly-haired with a bulbous nose, his droopy yet experienced eyes spoke of eleven years in the mercenary trade. Throughout their journey, he struggled to maintain patience with the hapless girl.

“Why don't you carry me, William?” the young woman pouted. Despite her taller stature, she retained traces of youthful baby fat. Her doe-like dark blue eyes held an unexpected naivety within the confines of the Monster Gate, while her lips seemed perpetually pursed.

“That’s not what mercenaries do…” the chubby man, William, responded warily.

“Ugh!” the young woman groaned. “This forest is too big and there are way too many monsters here.”

William looked over his shoulder at his client, a young newly Anointed named Penelope, as she threw a tantrum at having tripped over the sixth tree root today. She was an amateur Scav who had hired him to keep her safe while she explored Wild Gates in the Wasteland. Like most new Anointed, she did not want to buy the rights to a New DC gate from the guilds or corporations who owned most of them, given that they always charged an exorbitant price. Also, she didn’t want to get a Warden license, her reasons her own.

“Heads up,” William warned seeing a rustle in bushes ahead of them.

“More monsters…?” the young woman, Penelope, cried out in dismay. “That’s the fourth one in the last ten minutes!”

A goblin, short, green skinned, and pointed eared hopped out of a bush dressed in a loincloth. Drool dripped from its sparsely toothed mouth as it stared hungrily at Penelope.

“Kill it!” Penelope shouted, getting behind William.

“Hey, don’t hold onto me,” William barked with Penelope clutching him from behind. Arms pinned back by her, he could do nothing as the goblin conjured Aura around its fist and landed a punch on his stubble covered jaw. The chubby mercenary fell backward and on top of Penelope.

“William, you’re heavy!”

“This is the last time I take work from an amateur Scav…”

The goblin snickered as it licked its green lips, ready to bite off flesh and feed. However, a dagger suddenly appeared on its forehead. Its slimy yellow eyes rolled to the back of its head as it fell dead onto the forest floor.

“William, you did it!” Penelope cheered, hugging the mercenary tightly.

William irritably shrugged her off and retrieved his blade from the goblin corpse. He had been able to toss the dagger with a flick of his wrist, despite having his arms restrained. His deft throwing skill derived from Combat Art – [Basic Dagger] and being a speed type Anointed.

“Penelope, you dumb…” William began in anger but had to hold back as Penelope’s eyes began to become emotional.

“Say it,” she challenged, “Like the others in my life, call me stupid. Call me good-for-nothing!” Her confronting words did not match the sniveling mess her face was turning into. All her facial muscles were visibly strained in holding back tears.

Penelope was a young woman from a hard working family who lived in the Heart Rings of New DC, Level E. Like others who lived in Level E, they weren’t free from monetary issues. If someone wanted to find those too rich to have problems, they’d have to look at the Heart Rings Level A. That was where the richest and most influential people could be found, not to mention the very center of New DC, the New Capitol—the New National Mall where the politicians conducted official affairs. They were loaded as well.

Now, not being wealthy enough to live without working, Penelope’s family wanted her to pitch in paying for the family house. The only problem was that she wasn’t good at anything. She suffered the verbal abuse of employers hounding her for her inefficiencies, only to return to receive the same judgment from her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins—anybody who knew her.

However, what those who gave up on her didn’t know was that she recently became an Anointed. As soon as she saw the Master System, she knew what to do: become great at it. That was the reason why she didn’t want to tell her family as she was going to surprise them, show them how much of a winner she really was. But Penelope needed training. She needed to go into Monster Gates.

Still feeling hurt, she kept her watery stare on the chubby mercenary. She had hired him because of the reputable company he worked for. His patience had been a Godsend for her, especially considering her repeated blunders. But now it seemed he had enough of her. Like her family, he would now judge her to be worthless.

With hesitation, William rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, making up something, “I was going to say, you dumbfounded me there for a second. We ended up okay though.” He wiped off the blood leaking from his mouth.

“Oh. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I’m such a ditz.” Relief washed over Penelope like an ocean wave. She couldn't imagine how she would fare without the mercenary. Her reliance on him in this fantastical pocket-dimension was undeniable; she felt like she would be lost without him.

Opposite her, William couldn't stop himself from sighing. He'd been sighing since they got here.

This was William's dilemma. Penelope's was too innocent. An innocence that elicited frustration, yet at the same time, pity. Upon entering the Monster Gate, Penelope's insatiable curiosity had nearly led to their deaths. Her first impulsive move involved reaching for honey from a hive guarded by rat-sized bees, triggering a furious swarm that forced them to make a desperate plunge into a nearby lake. In that very lake, Penelope's fixation on a lily, drifting on the water and anchored to a purple crocodile's head lurking below, nearly lured them to a gruesome end.

The breaking point came when Penelope decided to snatch monster bear cubs, prompting a colossal mama bear, as large as a minivan, to chase them through the dense forest. It was only then that William contemplated quitting. Still, despite her dangerous antics, Penelope reminded William of a sister he had failed to protect from monsters during his powerless childhood, before he became an Anointed. His laid-back demeanor allowed him to let go of most things from the past, but that particular memory haunted him, making it agonizingly difficult for him to abandon Penelope.

“Can you carry me now?” she asked, her voice tinged with hope as she looked at the mercenary with pleading eyes.

William let out an exasperated breath, answering her, “If you’re going to be an Anointed that attacks Monster Gates, then you’re going to have to put up with things like walking.”

“Fine then…”

Suddenly, a white glow streaked toward them. The source was a goblin, scuttling rapidly in their direction. It was using the same haphazard attack they had been running into since entering the forest. Though weak, this special attack with Aura allowed these stout monsters to amplify their attacks.

“Watch out, Penelope!” William's warning pierced the air as the goblin closed in on her, its malevolent intent evident. He wasn't sure if he could reach her in time to prevent her from getting hit.

Panicking, Penelope attempted to employ her basic Anointed Combat Art techniques but missed her mark entirely. The vivid white glow of the goblin's impending strike reflected in her wide, startled eyes as it approached fast, threatening to land a devastating blow.