“This floor is not doing you any favors. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you injured so frequently the entire time we’ve been together. You should have Samir discreetly analyze you.”

My stride stuttered as Night dropped that little piece of information my way. Fortunately, my class build allowed me more grace than the average ballerina, and I continued forward smoothly. “And what, pray tell, do you think she may find?”

Night ghosted in front of me, hopping to the next spongey patch of terrain. Looking back, her message sent some irritation up my spine. “Well, Kiaralongh has been eyeballing Chad, and the lion is always around conveniently healing you before we can process what is happening.”

“Seriously? C’mon, Night! The snake was Chad - though I shouldn’t have been hopping up and down like that; the Shambler was my dumb ass not pausing to think; and this last one is squarely on Mavrich. Besides, it was one peck on the nose. Don’t think I miss the jealousy mingled into your ‘concern.’ If you want me to be more affectionate with you, you just have to say so.”

Her hackles sprung up and a snarl ripped through the air, causing the rest of the party to ready weapons and search for the cause of Night’s outburst. She stalked up to me and blasted me with, “You conceited, self-involved, pompous breadmold! I’m jealous, rightly, that you unlocked a mind skill and a path there, not that you were affectionate with that damn cat! Not a single part of me is insecure about our connection or that we will Bond. I just need to keep your stupid ass alive long enough for it to happen. So get Analyzed and tell me what Samir finds.”

Totally floored, I stood rooted as she turned and stalked away. The party took the hint and continued on as well, with Mavrich eventually prompting me to keep walking. Keeping my bow ready so my thoughts could mull, I tried processing the most recent events. I could see my actions were brash, but they didn’t feel manipulated.

Ever since I woke up in this instance I had floated from event to event just going with the flow. I had some goals that I worked towards, a quest here or there, some items to acquire once I secured the funding. My ultimate purpose was to survive. I could see, on reflection, how my recent actions were not supportive of that purpose. Huh. Maybe I would get Samir to take a look. And apologize to Night for besmirching her honor.

Setting those thoughts aside, I focused on the scene in front of me. The temple came into view as we broke through a stand of mangroves. It was a tall rectangle of a building with a smattering of columns around it. Some columns were broken off with thick vines twisted around them, others still stood tall and proud in their dark marbled glory. The whole structure was half-submerged and crumbling to the elements. If I had to guess, the building could easily take half a day to cross - in its pristine state.

Rakshasa and Fergie, catching up to me, let me know that I had stopped moving forward. It felt like a good time to apply the buffs I could offer, so I did, firing off Ranger’s Stance, Hunter’s Sight and Hunter’s Steps in quick succession. I also switched to intentionally moving with Stealth active so I could maximize my usefulness in the next bit of our journey.

“The creatures Samir saved for you are up here. Move to the front so you can take care of them.”

Heeding Night’s instructions, I worked my way past the others on the narrow juts of drier land until I pulled even with Chad. He was fully blocking the path forward and was oblivious to my attempts to pass him quietly. Rolling my eyes at his entitlement, I slid into the moist environ and held back my disgust as I continued forward. I felt like an overstuffed toad lumbering along with my bow over my head and prayers guiding my feet to avoid leeches.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Once I was a few feet past the front guard position, I slipped into a stand of reeds and searched for the critters that Night had told me about. Feeling her slip into my sight, I expected her to weigh in scathingly about my ineptitude. Either she was getting slow or my tracking was getting better. I found the group of marsh turtles before she could point them out.

The group was wedged into a defensible position, and most were camouflaged from casual observation. I triggered Analyze and the return information was heartening. They were all level zero like me, and they had defensive class builds. It looked like there was one fighter, but no mages among them. Samir had done me a solid here.

Considering Night’s recent feedback, I pondered the best approach. The environment was too wet for me to plan to use fire against them—not that I had any worth mentioning. Their shells were too sturdy for me to break through in any reasonable time frame, and my archery skills were too low for me to finish off more than one that way. These just weren’t creatures I should be soloing. I backed down from the reeds and made my way back to Night.

“Hey, we should ask Chad to Taunt them out of the hole after I take the fighter down. From there I can get a few more. He should be fine until I whittle them down, right?” I cocked my head at her expectantly while removing some slimy marsh grass that had wrapped around my leg.

“That’s reasonable. They would just entrench more if Samir or I engaged them, and Kiaralongh would probably accidentally kill them while trying to assist you. Go ask him.”

Emboldened by the soundness of my plan, I walked up to Chad, who was waiting bored next to Engli. Before I fully arrived, he straightened up and eyed me with disdain. “Are you done yet? I swear if you make me stay in this swamp longer than necessary, I will be most put out.”

“Actually, I need you to help move this party along. I’m gonna take out the fighter of the bunch, then need you to Taunt and tank the rest.” I looked him up and down in my best impression of doubt. “If you can hold them.”

If his brisk stalking into the marsh was any indication, that made him enraged and flabbergasted. I quickly scrambled to take out the fighter. Thankfully, I had practiced taking out moving targets at the guild before this delve, as I had to shoot on the move. Chad braced and taunted the turtles before I was in range. The fighter of the bunch crashed into the muck with a couple of arrows as evidence that it wasn’t just a nap on his part from my ministrations.

Chad continuously banged on his shield with his mace and danced about to keep the turtles back successfully from gnawing off bits of him. Sighting their ungainly necks snapping at him, I slowly whittled down their number and my quiver. There wasn’t anything else soft enough exposed above the water line and their eyes were well protected by their brow ridges.

At some point Chad started taunting me while he Taunted them, and it got a little more chaotic as I stowed my bow and pulled Stabby out in a frenzy of unexplained anger. Clambering around in the muck, marsh grasses pulling down my agility, I desperately dodged gnashing beaks that snapped my way faster than I would have liked. Glad that Stabby and I were old friends, I thrust her squarely in the closest turtle’s mouth. I danced back from the enraged retaliatory blow while slightly grossed out by the papillae that Stabby raked against on the way out.

Switching to slashing also led to no concrete gains other than a latticework of future badass scars on the turtle's tough hide. Still enraged and being prodded verbally by Chad, I stowed stabby and pulled out a dagger for each hand. With what was supposed to be a fierce yell, I flung myself onto the turtle's back in an attempt to lodge my daggers into its brain. Instead, I assed over teacups into the swamp on the other side of the turtle. Coming back up for air, weeds sticking to my face in a slime-ridden embrace, I scrabbled back upright and assessed.

I couldn’t get purchase to stab them to death and Stabby wasn’t strong enough to break through. I had to use my bow. Determined to ignore Chad and end this as humanely as possible, I rearmed myself with my bow and picked off the antagonized turtles. It was amazing and anticlimactic in the end, but it got the job done. I sighed in relief as the last turtle crashed to the ground with a mud-splattered squelch.

I heard slow clapping and turned to see the rest of the party posted up a couple of feet away in various positions that made it clear they had been watching the entire time. Not missing the opportunity, I performed an ironic bow that jettisoned more muck out of my tunic and vambraces.

“If y’all can help me loot them and store the carcasses for later, we can move on.” If I had to loot these all myself we would leave a lot of lootables behind. Reev and Mavrich quickly alleviated that concern as they stored carcass after carcass in their various items of holding.

I hopped to it and quickly retrieved some of the more usable arrows for the next leg - the temple proper.