“No Change. You are on the best path for you!” Tuk said, beaming. “You hear that? Ah! The recognition! The validation!”

“I got the same thing,” Cen said.

“To me, it said I was on the only path that was right for me,” Mul said, frowning, clearly unsure about what that meant.

“I picked no change too,” Nar said. He felt light. Like he had made the right decision.

“I got a new boon that is going to help us in every single fight,” Kur said.

“Alright! Alright! You don’t all have to pull my pile at the same time!” Tuk said. “Damn! A person can’t even feel validated around here.”

“Well done, Tuk,” Jul said.

Nar stared at her. They all did.

“Thank you! That’s what I’m… Wait! Was that sarcasm?”

Jul smiled bashfully and looked down at her lap, where all four of her hands twisted and fidgeted.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Mul said, grinning. “What a day to be alive!”

“Don’t stare so hard,” Cen breathed at him. “You’ll scare her!”

But Jul seemed to be fine. She looked up, and smiled at Nar, and Nar smiled back.

There really is hope. Crystal, don’t fuck this up. Whatever you do, at least this, don’t take from her.

Other than Kur, none of the others had so far taken any class changes. Jul hadn’t commented on hers, and no one had asked. Viy had muttered something about “Piece of shit System!” and they had all left it at that. That left only Gad.

Kur had spoken to her, and she had received his advice. Then he had left her to make her decision. Once in a while, Nar caught her glancing at Tun, who was still embroiled in a now heavy discussion amongst his party.

“I wonder what her options are,” Jul said, following Nar’s gaze.

“Yeah, me too,” he said.

Nar knew Gad wanted to be a tank. It would have surprised him less if Mul decided to become a support class, than it would if Gad decided she didn’t want to be a tank anymore. What he wondered about was what sort of tank she wanted to be.

In that exact moment, Gad happened to look his way. She found him staring at him and frowned. But then, her shoulders eased. She shook her head and closed her eyes. Then she got up, and walked towards him.

“Erm… Hi?” Nar said, when the towering figure stopped before him, making him crane his neck back to see her face.

“Thank you, Nar.”

“I-What? Why?”

“For helping me with my decision.”

“But, I-I didn’t do anything.”

Gad smiled at him. “On the contrary. You’ve done more than enough.”

“Okay… Hmmm, you’re welcome?”

Gad rumbled a low chuckle and looked at the party.

“I’ve made my choice. I have changed my class. I am now a [Shield Warrior 1]. I’ve also sort of gained three new skills. My [Warrior’s Presence] has been upgraded into [Shield Call]. It’s basically the same thing, but now, it has two charges, so I can use two taunts at once. And the cooldown has been reduced to thirty seconds!”

They gaped at her for a split moment, then, they erupted in cheers.

“Woah! That’s amazing!” Kur shouted. “Crystal, that’s really good!”

Gad nodded, and her beaming smile told them how happy and proud she was with her choice.

“My second skill is actually something called a passive skill,” she said, and Nar felt the little drip of a new piece of foreign knowledge spreading through his mind, looking for a spot for itself. “I’m sure you guy got the gist of it. My passive skill is called [Threatening Hits]. It basically just makes my hits cause a small amount of aggro to build up, without me having to do anything. It will drain my stamina every time I fight, stopping if I go below 25%. But it will really help me with keeping my aggro, which you all know it's been something of a joke.”

A smattering of laughter met her words.

“And lastly, my [Warrior’s Stand 2] has been upgraded to [Shield Barricade]. It basically just means that I’m tougher for 10 seconds, and can take on way more punishment. It has a 5-minute cool down though, so I have to use it sparingly.”

Kur nodded at the new information he received.

“It all sounds amazing,” Kur said. “Are you happy with your choice?”

Gad smiled. “I’m just heading deeper into the tank role. Just like I’ve always wanted to.”

“Fucking awesome!” Mul said, clapping his hands once. “Happy for you!”

Gad blinked at the lengos, clearly either unsure she had heard correctly or waiting for a punchline.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Thank you, Mul,” she said, slowly, when it was clear that Mul had spoken from the heart. “I really appreciate it. And I appreciate all of you putting up with my subpar tanking. From now on, it will be different! I promise!”

“There’s nothing wrong with your tanking!” Nar said, beating everyone else to it.

His thoughts were still echoed by everyone else, all at once, in a loud jumble. Even Jul voiced her displeasure and disagreement. Even Viy.

“You’re outstanding, Gad. Never doubt that,” Viy said, quietly, after everyone had realized they’d spoken on top of each other.

Her voice was barely audible, but her eyes seemed more focused than they had in a good while.

“Thank you. And I won’t.”

Viy nodded once. Then her eyes glazed over and she was gone back inside her own mind.

“Alright,” Kur said, gathering their attention. “Now that everyone has made their decision, and before it gets too late, I have one more thing to tell you all!”

Nar frowned at the grinning party leader.

“What now?” Mul muttered, staring at Kur with suspicion.

“Oh, come on! Why are you staring at me like that! It’s a good thing! I unlocked our party view!”

Silence met his words, and his smile faltered. He had been clearly expecting a much better reaction.

“The… Party view?” he said again.

“What’s that?” Cen asked.

“Uh…” Kur made, rubbing his chin. “I thought the data package thingy would’ve told you all about it.”

“Nothing here,” Gad said.

Nar shook his head.

“Hmmm. Ok. I see. Uh, well, it's pretty simple really, though it's also incredibly amazing!” Kur said, speaking quickly, his eyes sparkling in the dim yellow light. “So, one of my biggest problems managing this party, as I’ve told you many times before, is that I have no idea about you guys' statuses…”

“No way!” Tuk breathed. “You can see it now?”

Kur grinned. “Even better. From tomorrow onwards, we will all be able to see each other’s statuses!”

“Damn!” Mul shouted, glancing at his sister.

“That’s amazing!” Cen said.

“Whoop-whoop!” Tuk said. “That’s insane!”

Nar grinned at Kur, and the party leader’s smile widened even more, threatening to spill from his face.

“And there’s more!”

“More?” Tuk asked, leaning forward.

“Yes! Besides seeing each other's HP, stamina and status effects, we will also be able to send signals through the party view!”

“Uh?” Mul said.

“I’ll explain,” Kur said, raising a hand to prevent further questions. “So, from tomorrow onwards, alongside our status display in our UIs, we will also have the ability to display our party view as well. This will display the status of everyone in the party, though you can also choose to filter which party members you want to have visible. Anyways, each party member will be represented by a round image called a portrait, which will have our faces on it.”

“Wow…” Jul whispered.

“Yes. And, we’ll be able to communicate through the party view, by making our own portraits flash.”

“Flash?” Mul asked. “That’s it?”

“Yes! We can make it flash. However, if we assign numbers, or codes to these flashes…”

“We’ll be able to communicate with each other!” Gad said, her eyes widening. “Even if we’re not together?”

“Yes! Apparently, it has no distance limitation!”

Nar’s eyebrows reached for his hair, as he considered the implications.

“It’s amazing,” Nar said. “We could even talk to each other when we need to be quiet.”

“Exactly,” Kur said, nodding. “We can’t talk per se, but I can always issue orders, even if for some reason we can’t speak. And if we get separated, we will at least be able to pass messages to each other.”

“And what will those be?” Tuk asked.

“Well, I’m not sure yet. I have some ideas, but I need to have a proper think about them. Obviously, the more we can say, the better, but I don’t want us getting confused by too many messages. It could be disastrous during an emergency. So, it will have to be a small set of crucial messages, tied to simple signals.”

“Hmm. That makes sense,” Gad said. “I agree with that.”

“Yes. So, we’ll slowly start thinking about, and eventually, we’ll have our set of signals, through which we’ll be able to communicate!”

The party replied to Kur with a chorus of silent nods.

“Between your boon, Gad’s new skills, and the party view, it looks like our party has really leveled up!” Tuk said.

Kur chuckled. “Yes, we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

“Let’s not talk about that, please,” Mul muttered.

The party burst into laughter.

“Alright, before we wrap up, let’s talk about Row’s offer. Any thoughts?”

“No,” Mul said.

“No thoughts or is no the answer?” Tuk asked for all of them.

“No is the answer. Can’t trust them. Can’t trust anybody.”

“That’s a bit grim,” Tuk said, scratching his head. “But I can’t really argue against it. They’re nice, and I like them. But, you know, they aren’t us…”

“We would always worry,” Cen said. “Are they really with us, or will they abandon us when things go wrong?”

“Besides,” Gad said. “I don’t know if our styles would work well together. I’m not even sure if you and her would work well together, for that matter.”

They all sneaked looks at the other party, still arguing about each other’s class options.

“Yeah, I thought the same to be honest,” Kur said. “Everything you’ve just said. It would be easier though. I can’t argue with that. Can you?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Gad said. “The System could simply adjust the difficulty to our increased numbers.”

“There’s that too… But I think we’ve made up our minds. We are the party. We’ve been handling it just fine.”

“Just barely, you mean?” Mul asked. He was smiling though.

“Whatever! Anyways, I’ll tell Row tomorrow. We started this with just us, and we will end it with just us.”

“Ugh! That sounds so bad,” Tuk said. “Like we’re doomed to fail! Just say we started together and we will finish it together!”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Kur asked, genuinely confused.

“No! Not even close!”

Cen raised a hand. “I agree with Tuk.”

Nar raised his hand too, and so did Jul.

“What? Why are you raising your hands? We’re not discussing this!”

Their laughter was light and easy, just like their decision. Hopefully, they wouldn’t regret it.

“You guys are way too active! Pipe down and get to sleep! We’re leaving in four hours!” Kur shouted.

A chorus of booos met the announcement.

“Shut up and go to sleep!”

Still chuckling, Nar took out a pile of [Climber’s Shirt]s to make his usual pillow. Before he leaned down though, he caught Tuk staring out into the void.

The lights that had shone over the bridge had been turned off. However, for some reason, the lights on the other side had been left on. The way they had come from shone at them through the dark distance, looking as though it was floating in the nothing.

It made Nar almost doubt he had come from there at all. To think that everything had been a dream, or a nightmare. A very long nightmare.

Why is it showing us that side? Nar wondered. He doubted that anything was done by accident.

Was it trying to show them that there was no way back from this point onward? No, that was ridiculous. Once you stepped out of the cubeplant as a Climber, you could never go back. So then, what was it? Was it just trying to evoke some nostalgia for them? Or make them realize just how far they were from everything they had ever known?

Nar did not know, but at that moment, even thoughts of his dad seemed far. So far away. Rather than the distance, the memories felt like a dream of a different life that wasn’t even his.

With a sigh, Nar lay down.

However, as he did, he caught another glimpse of Tuk’s face. He couldn’t help but think there was an emptiness in his eyes now.

He had laughed and joked and been his usual bright self, and Nar had thought that maybe Tuk had bounced off it.

But had he?

What had happened had clearly shaken him, and no one had seen it. Only Nar. If anyone was to say anything, it was him.

But, should he say something? And what could he even say?

In the end, Tuk lay down to sleep, and Nar let the matter rest.

He would keep an eye on the trugger, he decided. If he didn’t seem well, then Nar would speak to him.

Yes… That’s what I’ll do.

And with that, he put it out of his mind, and closed his eyes.