Well, putting that last question aside, things got interesting in the next few days for us. What do you mean, Sean?

So, you know that kind of awkward moment when your parents find out about something and then make you sheepishly explain it? Yeah. Not fun. Especially when it's the kind of finding out where they find out you have a significant-other. Not because it's bad, but because they have waaay too much fun with the interrogation. And my parents loved that interrogation.

I'll skip the details. Let's just say that it ended up with phone-calls and an arrangement to meet at a local mall on a Saturday. Boy was that an interesting day.

Around 11:30 or so, we went out to the mall. Rachel and her mom met us at the food court. There were greetings, her older brother Joshua showed up after a few minutes and there was more greetings, and then we sat down while Joshua went to get a couple pizzas. He seemed like a nice guy.

Rachel's mother was the kind of woman you'd expect to see when you hear the word “diplomat”, which, of course, she was. Her brother gave off the classic greaser vibe, and he was definitely less reserved.

Of course, my own mother was nearly the same. My dad? He's generally laid back in any sort of situation--yes, even while interrogating his only son about relationship developments. The conversations kind of started off a bit awkwardly, with me and Rachel giving each other subtle glances of apology or amusement as it began, but when the pizzas arrived with Joshua things smoothed out a bit and we got rolling.

Long story short, Mrs. Danes was actually thrilled that her daughter had gotten off to such a good start in this town and at school, even if it had taken her completely by surprise. And my parents said more or less the same thing. There was approval, there were jokes (boy did we just... love... the jokes), and there was congratulating and an informal toasting of the Danes and Daniels' first meeting. After that it wound down a bit, and Rachel and I were left to hang out at the mall for a while. Oh, Joshua hung around the mall as well. Not with us though. The two of us meandered around and eventually ended up at an ice-cream shop to share a treat together.

We looked like something out of one of those films, a bowl of vanilla ice-cream with chocolate syrup and cherries adorning it between us as we relished our treat -- and the fact that we were together on what was more or less a first actual date.

“That went well.” Rachel suddenly remarked.

“I guess so.” I shrugged.

“You don't think?”

“Eh, I mean, I do think; just, still processing it.” I amended with a small smile, which she returned.

“Gotcha.” she nodded. There was silence for a moment. “Your dad seems nice; but your mom seems about the same as mine. Kind of...” she trailed off, a bemused look on her face.

“Strict? Business-y? Over-formal?” I returned with a wry grin.

“That. Those.” she said, pointing her spoon at me before returning to the ice-cream.

“Which is why I wish this world was the virtual one some days... to log out of it and be an adventurer instead of logging out of the adventurer to be a high school student.” I sighed, and she nodded sympathetically.

“I get that. It is really addicting... but I like this you more than the other you, you know.” she added with a wink.

“I know.” I smiled back.

“And you like this me more than Ariana?” Rachel continued, a sly smile on her face.

“I do.” I told her softly. I could feel my cheeks coloring. Hers did also, but the smile never left her face. I wish I could see that forever, I thought to myself.

“Yo, kiddos!” a voice said, and then something about slapped itself down next to our ice-cream. It was a copy of Molek. I looked up at the source of the voice, Joshua Danes, who had a victorious smile upon his face.

“You're kidding. That over-priced junk store actually had one?” I said in disbelief as Rachel picked it up with a grin of her own to look at it.

“Yep! Never opened, never used; but I know what you mean, eh? Still, they've got a lot more than you think.” he said with a chuckle.

“Thanks, Joshy!” Rachel said to him with a smile as she gently waved the box around and set it back down.

“No probs, Rachy!” he said to her, flashing a V-sign. “Don't stay too long; unless of course it's a movie. I'm sure the old lady'll be fine with that.”

“I know.” she told him with a nod.

“And... dunno what to tell you... except be good to my little sister and make sure she gets home safe... or I'll make the Slaughterer from Level Five look pleasant!” he said to me with a fierce grin, and Rachel gave him a scolding look, but I returned his grin with a fiendish smirk.

“Slaughterer's nothing to the Vile King of Archnold'n; but I'll have her back safer than the smithy's goat!” I told him in reply, and he laughed, patting me on the shoulder as Rachel gave us both a blank but interested look.

“Right then! My job's done; have fun--oh, Ray-ray! Dad said he'll be--” he started to say but then she cut him off.

“I know, I don't care.” she said with a dissatisfied look.

“At least he stays in one place,” her brother shrugged, a helpless grin on his face.

“I know. I just--”

“I get it. You're still mad.” he said, placing a hand on her. “I'm heading back to my own home for a while, but I'll be around come Christmas or so. He might be too. Just think about it.” he added, patting her on the shoulder before he headed out.

I didn't say anything, and Rachel didn't either. We finished our treat, and then she took my hand and squeezed it tightly. I gave her a smile; she smiled back sadly. I gently squeezed back, and she let out a sigh.

“It's not a perfect family... and I might be mad at him for a long time...” she said to me softly.

“I can't imagine. But I'll be here for you whenever you need.” I said to her, and the smile grew brighter.

“I know.” Rachel told me.

After that, we didn't go and see a movie. We browsed a bookstore for several hours, looking at various stories in the fiction and fantasy section. There wasn't too much beyond what both of us already had that piqued our interest, but then we happened to wander over to a different section, and we found a few copies of a book that caught our attention at once. It was a guide to Panarena Fantasy Online.

“Heh...?” I said with amazement as we both picked it up to examine it.

“Not that I don't want to try the one Joshua found, but I think this one is definitely our go-to.” Rachel smiled.

“True.” I said as we scanned the pages. “This is nuts... all sorts of guides and things--ahh, no dungeon guides!” I frowned.

“Couldn't be that easy,” Rachel sighed.

“That's true, but you'd think some of the more basic dungeons would--oh, I see... they have them for the higher ranked dungeons in PvP areas and the borderland between Harmonia and Onyxus.”

“Hmm... that makes sense... but then these aren't dungeons, are they?” she asked me, and I looked again.

“Ahh--no, they're not. They're world-bosses.” I remarked with amazement.

“Whew!”

“You got that right.”

“Deadly?”

“In any game.”

“Beatable?”

“Not without a lot of effort from a lot of players.” I said to her, and she made a sour face.

“Boo! I wanted to duo one.” she said with disappointment.

“Even we have our limits,” I said with a faint laugh.

“May-be!” she said. “Let's buy this; we can share it!”

“Eh, you can keep it. Books are more your thing, right? I like learning from experience when it comes to games.” I said as I pulled out my wallet.

“Hmm... but I'll let you borrow it sometime, just because.” she told me with a smirk.

“Okay.” I replied with a grin. We--I--bought the book, and then we left the mall and bused home, parting at a stop near her house before it continued on to one near mine. And so ended that little adventure-slash-date.

Now, I sad we had our limits, and that was true. But in the intervening days between our first escapade at the Grotto of the Twin Dragons and now, which was Sunday night by the way, the two of us had racked up a reputation: in recognition of that first feat and as a reference to the color of our gear, we were called the Silvernight Twins.

It had been a little over two weeks since our first meeting; we had rapidly advanced in level to forty-five, and we remained around the Aldholt region to continue exploring and gathering up mats and stuff for crafting, which we were just getting into. At school we had become pretty well known as a thing--except for the fact of one obnoxiously shaped jock who, well... let me just say that Sunday night in Panarena was a joy, while Monday morning...

***

I had just gotten to my locker after Ty and I split for the morning, and was sorting through my books when all of a sudden--bam!--the sound of a fist connecting with and shutting my locker door resounded in my ears like a cannon blast.

With a sigh I looked to my right. There before me he stood, tall, dark, and ugly, the star quarterback of the seniors, Justin Shrivers. His face--his entire head really--looked like an orangutan's, especially the demented smile he enjoyed projecting. He was doing so now.

“Don't you have a pile of bananas or something to pick at?” I asked him, and his smile immediately vanished. He hated it when people referred to his obviously ape-like features.

“Don't get smart with me, twerp.” he retorted.

“It's not hard to do with your grade-average.” I quickly shot back. Someone sniggered at those words.

“What'd you say, punk?” he said as he leaned down towards me.

“How can you be deaf with those ears? Don't you pick up sonar or space aliens with them or something?” I said, and his face turned bright angry red as our little audience started reacting with exclamations of either awe or quickly running away.

“Why, you--”

“Shrivers!” Mr. Jones called, and the lanky ape came to attention.

“Sir!” he responded.

“Get to class!” the older man said, and the quarterback reluctantly did so. The homeroom teacher shook his head, and then returned to the classroom just as Rachel turned up and put a hand on me as I opened my locker again.

“Trouble?” she asked me with a funny look.

“I mean...” I shrugged, and she gently smiled.

“I get it.” she said as she opened her own locker; we sorted our things and headed on inside. Academically speaking, we had been doing pretty well in school. Socially speaking... Rachel was doing better than I was.

She had made friends with a girl a year ahead of us in our World Cultures class, Elisabeth James. The green-eyed blonde girl had been coming over to join us for our lunch breaks, which I guess made me a friend also? Associate? Well, she didn't hate me anyway. She thought we were cute. Which is better than a certain other person's opinion. But enough of that.

Classes passed us by in the usual manner; were we learning things? Yes. Were we enthusiastic about it? Not all of it. Were we glad when lunch finally came along? You betcha. And, as was becoming usual, Elisabeth or Ellie as she often preferred came over to sit with us while most of the class went out to lunch. Our usual friendly greetings were exchanged, and as was quickly becoming normal with our newfound friend, she jumped right into topic. Today's topic was -- well.

“So have either of you played that VR-game, Panarena Fantasy?” she asked. I don't know how I maintained a straight face, but I did; Rachel on the other hand lit up at once.

“I have! I love it there; you play?” she asked in return, and Ellie gave her a high five.

“I do! I was one of the beta-testers, and I got to keep my character and skills and stuff when the game went live.” the older girl told us.

“Wow!” Rachel commented.

No, really, wow -- that's super cool, I thought to myself.

“Yeah; I'm not the only one, though. There's a lot of B.T.'s still around from what I can tell. So how new are you to the game? Or have you acclimated yet?” Elisabeth said with a wink.

“I think w--I've settled in well enough.” Rachel returned, quickly correcting herself before our friend noticed.

I guess she wants to keep me a secret, I thought with bemusement.

“Oh? Settled, huh? Don't tell me you have a house already!” the other girl wondered.

“My game-partner and I got one in a quest near Aldholt.” Rachel replied.

“Game-partner? Not Sean?” Ellie asked with a mischievous grin.

“We do things in real life.” Rachel said with a smile as she looked over at me, and I gave a smile back.

“True... wait a minute, quest? House? Aldholt?” the older girl remarked, and suddenly her eyes widened, and a great smile came to her face. “You're--! O-M-G, I'm sitting next to one of the Silvernight Twins!” she continued in an excited whisper, and Rachel affected a wry grin.

“Ah-heh... I guess that's what they call us...” she said with a semi-forced laugh.

“Girl, you and your partner are something else. I would so team up with you.”

“We'd like that! We were thinking about forming a larger group to do more dungeons and stuff anyway.”

“Great! Oh, by the way, I play a sorta-tank who does better crafting than tanking. I like making gear and weapons and stuff.”

“Nice! We were actually hoping to run into a crafter like that for when we need to upgrade our gear.” Rachel said.

“Well you happened upon the right woman for the job!” Ellie said with a beaming grin. “I'll send you details after school and we can meet up in game later tonight.”

“Got it!” Rachel agreed.

“That is, if you don't get flattened or kidnapped by that neanderthal.” Ellie said again, looking over to me this time.

“What?” I wondered.

“Justin Shrivers? The QB? Boy, you better watch out. I know you've been in this school as long as I have, but I've known Justin longer. He's up to something.” she told me.

“If he tries anything, all I have to do is not respond, and the school will deal with him.” I shrugged.

“Riiight... let's ignore the fact that his father bribes the Board to keep his son around in this school despite his crass behavior and terrible grades.” the older girl said to me.

“Doesn't change the gist of the plan. And if enough of the teachers and faculty band together against him, he's out.” I returned, and she conceded with a shrug of her own.

“I guess that's one way of looking hopeful.” she quipped. “Just be careful.” she added in a more serious tone.

“He will.” Rachel said for me, taking my hand. We smiled at each other, and Ellie rolled her eyes. We continued on to lighter topics after that, and when lunch was over we went to get our afternoon books for the next round of classes.

World Cultures passed by quickly; the teacher hinted that we would be getting a big assignment soon. Then Theater came along; our drama teacher had a list of plays and musicals up on the board. Apparently they were candidates for the spring performance that was part of our school tradition--and part of our grade in this class as well. The one that stood out was “You and I, Us and Them,” a lighthearted reinvention of that ubiquitously timeless romance play by the Bard of England.

Why do I feel like that's going to be the one...? I thought to myself with a cringe as class started, but I was soon jolted out of it to focus on the more immediate topic of the day. And when that period was over we then went through our foreign language class, and then went to pack up for the day. We were practically out the door when I felt a familiar flick on my head.

“Yo, come on, bus, now. That Shrivers guy is lookin' for you.” Ty said to me as he breezed past.

“Right,” I replied in an automatic way.

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“I'll see you in Panarena later -- or for homework!” Rachel told me, and after a quick hug we separated to head for our respective buses.

Not much to say about the bus ride home. And ditto for the homework, although Rachel and I have been talking to each other with video-chat for our Chinese assignments. Sometimes for math, but mostly for Chinese. Dinner came and went, and then after polishing off my homework a bit I was finally free to head into that wonderful world of Panarena.

***

As soon as I logged in I found Ariana, or Ari as she lets me shorten it, geared up and near the door of Cloverbell. We shared a hug and then she started giving me the details.

“So her game-name is 'Elizasmith', and she wants to meet us at a tavern in a small town west of Aldholt City.” she told me, and I nodded.

“Gotcha; that'd probably be Noondale...” I said as I looked at the map to confirm.

“I think so, yes.” Ari nodded. “Should take a couple hours to get to. Horray for time acceleration!”

“Like really,” I agreed. It was mentioned before, but every real hour is four hours in Panarena. Like actually four hours of perceived time. The technology of the Dream Machine is very literal that way; somehow they replicated the way real dreams happen in a short amount of time. But anyway.

So we headed out the door, locked up our estate (not that anyone could actually break in or anything--coded game rules make it impossible), and began heading on our way to Noondale. It was just after noon in the world of Panarena, and pretty cloudy. Not rainy-cloudy, just cloudy, with blue sky and the sun shining through at intervals.

“Really though... it'd be nice to live in this sort of place for a while, instead of the big city...” I remarked softly as we walked along the worn dirt path lined with stone that permeated the region as one of its major routes. Rachel nodded in agreement, taking my hand in hers. I clasped her hand back, and we smiled at each other, picking up our pace a bit.

As we made our way through the alternating meads, meadows, and forests of the Aldholt, passing by farms and steadings of both NPCs and the occasional player-owned estate like ours, we encountered very few people on the road. It seemed to be a slow day for Panarena traffic. Or maybe it was what I had seen on a forum earlier: outlaw guilds, players who wanted to live dangerously, outside the more lawful adventurer experience. Were even the NPCs here so intelligent that they would also avoid routes and places haunted by outlaw-players?

“Not many people around,” Ari noted as we passed by a more densely forested area.

“Nope.” I returned somewhat absently. Further in the distance I noticed a sign indicating a dungeon of some sort; I think it said 'Serenade Hollow'. “That's not a trap or anything,” I said with a wry expression, and Ari looked over at me and then over towards the sign I was still staring at.

“Aw! But it sounds so pleasant!” she remarked.

“A lot of things do,” I said with a goofy grin as we came to a split in the road and turned left for Noondale. “There was something in Void Crisis called the Singing Tree; it was an endgame boss from one of the expansions that tried to lull you to sleep and finish you off.” I told her, and she looked pretty aghast about that.

“Sheesh!” she quipped.

“Right?” I agreed.

“Oh! That reminds me though; she said something about wanting to try out a dungeon tonight so we could see how well we work together.” Ari then told me, and I mulled it over a bit.

“Well, not quite the classic party, but we could pull through.” I said.

“Oh?”

“In most multiplayer and MMO games, a good and basic party has a tank, the beefed up distraction; a damage-dealer, self-explanatory; and a healer--also pretty obvious.”

“And most bigger parties more or less follow that sort of guideline?” she asked me.

“Right. Some might have more damage or more tanks, or even more healers; some might have people for crowd-control or combat-support. But they all basically work the same way: one part distraction, one part damage, and one part keeping the others alive.” I told her.

“So the reason everyone thinks we're so awesome...” she began with a subtle grin.

“Is because the two of us break those norms.” I grinned back.

We continued talking about the various ways a party of players could form up and do things together, and before we knew it we were looking at an outdoor tavern somewhat near the center of the little hamlet called Noondale.

At a certain table, a female player rose up. She was a tall Nordian in heavy leather-backed steel armor, with the same blonde hair as our friend Ellie from school and the same warm yet mischievous expression. Elizasmith waved us over, and we made our way towards us. She gave us a funny look, and we suddenly remembered that the two of us were holding hands. Ari let go and smiled sheepishly.

“I get lost easily!” she said, but Elizasmith only shrugged.

“No worries. It is a huge world,” she remarked as we all sat down. “Nice to see you two really are tight, though! Hope I can join in without being too much of a third wheel,” she added.

“We were just talking about how nice it would be to start getting at least a party going for in-game activities,” I said.

“Not quite what I'd expected from someone named Lana Windstrider... at least, if you're the same Lana from Age of Hyperborea, the infamous lone femme-fatale assassin.” she said to me with a knowing grin.

“Hah... yeah... that's probably me,” I remarked.

“Lana Windrider, who beat me in that infamous Year Four Tournament Champion's Arena by just barely evading my last attack on your HP?” she continued, the grin growing stronger on her face. This time I looked at her with a dumbstruck expression for a minute before snapping my fingers.

“You're Deathangel12! Daang it, you had me on the ropes! If I hadn't had that rare dagger set you'd have gotten me for sure!” I told her, and she laughed.

“Good to know we're going to be friends in this game!” she said, reaching out a hand, which I took as a smile came to my own face, and we shook hands.

“For sure!” I told her.

“By the way, you can call me Ellie like you do in real, or Lizzy.” she added, and we nodded back. “So anyway! Now that we all know each other, let's talk about this thing I want to do,” Ellie continued. “So, I don't know if you quite know this yet, but this game has a few different kind of dungeons. The one I'm interested in is a crafting dungeon; it has all sorts of materials like metals and precious stones that I'd like to use for my crafting. Thing is, no one's ever completed it, and there's not a lot of info on it from those who did go in--except that they got wiped out in short order.”

“Of course,” I remarked to myself.

“Sounds like a challenge!” Ariana said eagerly. “We're good at challenges, right Lana?” she said to me, and I had to nod.

“True!” I smiled back.

“That's what I like to hear, girlfriends!” Ellie said with a great smile.

“What's the name of the dungeon?” I asked her.

“Right! Where is it... it was close by, too...” she mused as she pulled out the map.

Wait... no way... right? Right? No way it's that one, I suddenly thought to myself.

“Oh! Here it is. Serenade Hollow.” she announced.

“Oh wow, we passed by that on our way here!” Ari said.

“Nice! So you know the way to get there,” our new friend returned.

“Mm-hm!” Ari smiled.

Snap. Snap snap snap.

“Ah--ahh, yeah, I guess we did pass that one...” I remarked.

“Hesitant already?” Ellie wondered with surprise.

“I mean, with that name and knowing that it's a special kind of dungeon that no one's completed...” I said with a wry grin.

“Oh, hon, I know it's a trap.” our Nordian comrade said to us with a nod.

“Then let's see what we can see!” I then said, and with that we added Ellie to the party and made our way back to the dangerous place with the pretty name.

After another hour of walking, we found our way back to the sign and then to the dungeon itself. Above the entrance, which was sealed by a stone door, there was a carved relief in the shape of a trident with a medusa-like creature holding it.

“There's a hint,” I said as we caught sight of it.

“Possibly,” Ellie agreed.

“Head in?” Ariana asked as we reached the door.

“Let's head on in!” the other girl nodded. We placed our hands on the dungeon door, and it let us in before shutting ominously behind us. “You're good on time, right?” she asked us.

“We should be,” Ari said. “It's only about eight-fifty for real, right?”

“Hmm... yep!” I said. “We have at least an hour and a half of real time; so about five or six hours Panarena-time.”

“Responsible! I like it.” Ellie remarked. “All-righty, let's see what's in here...” she said, pulling out a massive halberd and equipping it. The two of us equipped our own weapons, and we set off into the winding caverns.

Along the walls there grew luminous mosses and mushrooms that had a green-blue or yellow-green luminescence to them. They illuminated some pretty colors in the passages, the twinkling of gems or a trace of some sort of ore lining the walls. The passages themselves were a touch damp, and some of them were filled with ankle-deep water. In addition to our fighting skills, our gathering skills had also levelled up quite nicely, so we were able to help our new party member gather up some of the materials she wanted and some that we also wanted.

It wasn't until we had finished with the first floor of the dungeon and gotten down to the second that we encountered any sort of monsters.

Now this is a semi-typical trope in some games; lull the player into a false sense of security by having nothing around for a good while and then suddenly dial things up to eleven. Well, in this case, more like seven. But still. There they sat before us, five sirens, none of them wielding weapons, singing their hearts out to try and place some sort of status effect on us as we held our weapons at the ready -- or so I surmised that's what was supposed to happen.

But nothing was happening to us.

Eh? wait a minute...

“Let's see here...” I said as I brought up a menu to examine the attack. “Siren's Call: places a negative modifier on the Charisma and Luck stats; this effect is nullified if the player... is female...” I read, and a grin came to our faces.

“So the reason this dungeon was never completed...” Ellie said as she stepped forward confidently.

“Is because all the others who tried it were probably mostly if not all guys,” Ari smirked. “And if any girls were with them, they got wiped out by sheer numbers.”

“Lucky us, making this sort of party!” I said with a cheeky grin.

“Go, team, go!” Ellie then called out, and we charged into the Sirens with a will as Ari backed us up with magic. We made short work of our adversaries, and collected our winnings.

From that point on, we practically plowed through the dungeon, our confidence bolstered by the fact that we were immune to the monsters' more potent attacks. Oh sure, there were all sorts of other things in the dungeon to bother us also; there were giant crabs scuttling around, serpentine creatures slithering about, bats flapping this way and that, and a couple of water-sprites that gave Ellie and I trouble in particular--but Ari made short work of these.

It was when we got down to the fourth level of the dungeon that it pulled another prank on us. The denizens starting coming up out of nowhere; one moment we were walking by a solid rock wall (or so we thought) and then the next moment the wall would disintegrate and there would be a tiny horde of creatures attacking us. This, of course, put us on our guard, and Ari and I started using our special skills to see ahead and avoid any more traps.

Mine was Shadow Vision; hers was Mystic Vision. Technically speaking, hers was slightly better because it could be paired with her Seeing Eye skill to gaze around at an area, but mine had the advantage of “color-coding” friends and foes. Between the two of us, we were able to avoid a lot of traps in the dungeon -- which, by the way, got bigger as we got deeper in -- and in a few cases we even managed to turn the traps on the denizens themselves.

This, by the way, is one of a gamer's favorite things to do in these kinds of games. I mean who doesn't enjoy taking a trap that someone set for you and turning it on the one who set the trap?

We cleared the fourth floor of the dungeon like this at a slower pace, and then we came to the fifth, which continued with the traps but with a twist. There were some that neither Ari nor I could detect. That made things interesting again. Well, not that they weren't before, but, you know.

“You sure you don't see any sort of hint?” Ellie asked us as we scanned the wide room that now opened up before us. We had just fended off several attacks while collecting materials, and the three of us were getting a little goofy on account of it.

“Nothing.” I said.

“Nope...” Ari said hesitantly.

“I've never seen this sort of mechanic in a game before... it's kinda neat,” I added.

“And super annoying--mostly because our time is running out!” Ellie pointed out.

“True...” I agreed. We had half an hour of real-time left. That was two hours, but still. We'd gotten seriously hampered and slowed by the monsters in this dungeon. “Ahh--” I then started, seeing something else in my field of Shadow Vision. It was the faint outline of a door. “I didn't know I could see doors with this skill; wait... that's not just any door, that's the boss door... oh, I get it now, I can see just that kind of door.” I mused aloud.

“Boss door dead ahead?” Ellie said as she knelt down with us.

“Practically.” I nodded.

“I see it too... I don't like it. There's got to be something waiting for us to cross...” Ari remarked, and I grinned.

“See? You're getting the hang of it.” I told her.

“Or we could be overthinking it and there really is nothing until we get inside the boss chamber.” Ellie said. “Anyway, the good part about this game is that we can open the door as long as nothing has hit us ten seconds before we touch it. The way our characters are we can probably make it even if there is something out there.”

“That's true.” I agreed.

“If both of you think so I guess that means I shouldn't worry so much,” Ariana said with a faint smile.

“We're running out of inventory space and carry weight anyway; let's rush to the boss room and save our last few slots for whatever drops we get in there.” I added, and Ellie nodded.

“Let's do it!” she said. The three of us got into position for a sprint, and I held up my hand for a countdown; as soon as I brought it down, we burst across the wide open cavern and booked it towards the door. In the next few seconds we heard the now-familiar sound of walls cracking.

Ah, snap!

“We can make it!” I said as we kept charging. Out of the corner of my eye to the right, I could see a medusa-type creature with a bow.

Snaaaap-p-p-p!

“He-yah!” Ellie called out as she drew her halberd, spun around, and thumped it onto the ground. The cavern shook, and the monsters held position or were stunned. Thurian Stomp; a guardian skill that stuns or wards off monsters for five seconds. “Go, go, go!” she cried out.

Four seconds...

Three seconds...

Two...

One...

The medusa-archer picked up its bow again and nocked an arrow. Ariana then used one of her skills, Improved Storm Wards, shielding us from any impact. Three more seconds to the door. The arrow came hurtling towards us, along with several others. Out of sheer desperation I lunged for the door, and the other two lunged for me. They just managed to grab on to me as I touched the door, and the three of us were transported into the boss chamber just as the arrows were about to hit us. I assume they fell to the ground uselessly and that the creatures who had shot them were now retiring to their haunts. But we were far from out of danger.

***

After we collected ourselves and caught our breath, we took a look around us. It was a wide-open cavern not unlike the one we had just left, but here there was water that seemed to get deeper as you got further in; it seemed about waist-height on myself and Ariana. On the far side there were two chests.

“Two chests? Nice!” Ellie remarked happily.

“Yes, but where's the boss?” I wondered. I wasn't completely ignorant of crafting dungeons; typically the boss had some sort of ironic or deadly twist related to the dungeon or the materials within it. Which meant that most likely, the monster-boss guarding this trove of stuff we were hoping to get would be...

“You mean that thing rising up out of the water?” Ariana pointed with her staff. Out of the darkness arose the shape of a great siren monster with tentacles for hair; unlike its lesser compatriots in the dungeon, it wore a helm and heavy armor, and it had a wicked looking trident in its hands. Several lesser sirens came to its aid, along with a few water-sprites and some lake-serpents.

“Sn-nap!” I remarked. Ellie gave me a curious look. I remembered then that I had used that particular exclamation as myself in school quite a bit when she was around. Cover, Sean, cover...

“Here they come!” Ariana warned.

“We'll take out the smaller ones and then focus on the boss!” I said.

“Got it!” Ellie said, using Guardian's Challenge to draw their attention while Ariana warded us with defensive skills and prepared one of the few healing spells she had.

Meanwhile, I activated one of my new favorite skills: Shadow-world. It made me invisible, granted movement bonus and immunity from all attacks, and let me execute attacks faster for a minute. Within moments I had sliced and diced several of the minions surrounding the boss, while Ariana's healing spell activated to keep our health up as they charged into us. Elizasmith, by the way, was no slouch with that halberd. That thing flew around like it was a dang whip, and she was uncannily precise with it.

Before too long, the boss was the only thing left. It was exactly what we had hoped for--except it ended up with another twist. See, we attacked that thing over and over several times after downing its minions, only to find that we had done practically no damage.

“No way!” Ellie shouted when she saw its unmoving health bar.

“Heh...?” I wondered in amazement.

“Regroup!” Ari called out, and we backed up towards her as the monster held its trident at the ready.

“I forgot to mention something about this dungeon,” Ellie told us. “Well, crafting dungeons in general, that is. We could have saved our progress and exited earlier; but since we're in the boss room, if we die, it resets, and I'm sure we don't have time to get through all of these things all over again.” she told us with an apologetic grin.

“Go big or go home?” I remarked.

“Pretty much.” she said, and I brought up the boss monster's health and status bar.

“Ho-ly... 'When this creature is the last one standing, its block, parry, and evasion go up to ninety-nine percent for the remainder of the fight, and its immunity rating goes up to ninety-percent'...” I read, and she let out a whistle.

“That explains it.”

“Yikes!” Ari remarked.

“We can do this, though...” I said with more confidence than I actually felt. “Do you have Relentless Rage and Onslaught?” I asked Ellie, who nodded. “Queue them up in that order; Ari, get ready with your damage-over-time attacks. I'm gonna use Shadow-world again!”

“Gotcha!”

“Okay, partner!” they replied.

“Lizzy, go!” I said, and the Nordian halberd-wielder charged in with her skills as Ariana let fly her most potent DoT attacks, while I entered Shadow-world once more and executed Thousand Needle Strike, Nightstalker's Dagger, and Holy Crescent Flash. Its health bar began to go down slowly but surely. Ellie and I continued hammering it, and Ariana's attacks piled on the hurt.

The beautiful (magical?) thing about a mage or wizard's DoTs is that they increase in potency each time they get used. That was a real bonus to our situation right now. And then a minute passed; my bonus damage ended, Ellie's skills went on cooldown, and Ariana's spells had gotten to the highest level of damage-over-time that they could at our levels.

“Dang it! Not enough!” I said. Our enemy's health bar was at ten percent; it was still falling, but it was queuing up a regeneration spell to restore its life.

“Storm King Mode: Dragon's Breath!” Ariana then called out.

Wait, what? When the heck did you-- my brain started to say internally, but then Ellie and I both had to jump out of the way as the spell went off, interrupting the regeneration spell and incinerating the last ten percent of the monster's health. I watched in genuine awe, and Ellie sat back with a smile on her face as the thing disintegrated with a wailing shriek.

“Whew! Nicely done!” she said to Ariana when the battle was over, and gave her a high five. I gave her one as well, and we went over to check out our winnings. There was gear in one chest, and there were crafting-mats in the others. “All right, you take the gear, I'll take the mats!” our Nordian friend said to us.

“Deal!” Ari replied, and I nodded.

“Fair enough, though it's mostly jewellery; we can sort it and split it later.” I remarked.

“True! I'll come over to your place tomorrow and we can do that then. Have to pack up my current rat-hole tonight first.” Ellie said as she deposited the crafting cache in her inventory. Ari and I split the other one, and with that we exited the dungeon via a portal that appeared upon the demise of the boss.

We looked back at the dungeon with an almost fond look on our faces; the clear-flag had been raised. It would stay there for twenty-four real hours and then reset. The three of us exchanged high-fives again, and then split for the night, Ellie to pack up her home, and the two of us to Cloverbell. We deposited our earnings in safe places around the house after getting back, and then relaxed for a few minutes.

“We'll have to make room for her.” Ariana noted.

“True; and we'll have to organize our crafting stuff better.”

“That too.” she agreed, and then we went quiet for a moment. “Think she'll find out about you?” she then wondered with a wink.

“Eh, dunno. It's... not impossible.”

“I don't think she'd really mind, considering who she lives with.”

“Ahh--that's true...” I remarked. Elisabeth James' family has a few members with identity issues, if you take my meaning. Not that I'm one to talk...

“Well, knowing her, she'll probably enjoy it even more than I do...” Ari mused aloud.

“That doesn't comfort me...” I returned.

“I didn't say it would.” she quipped back, kissing my cheek. “Let's head off for the night; we can organize stuff tomorrow.”

“Let's do that.” I agreed, wrapping her up in a hug before we logged out for the night. I woke up in the real world, only to fall asleep again moments later. The last thought in my head that night was that I still couldn't figure out when or how Ariana had gotten that last big attack.