Sally was being kept in the long-term medical tent that Freja had ordered set up earlier that day. In the wake of the Adventure Society building collapsing, her administrative duties had quadrupled as she had to organise an entire branch and have temporary quarters built for it.

My heart beat fast in my chest as I ducked under the khaki-coloured flap and entered the tent. The interior reminded me of something out of a history textbook about Florence Nightingale.

Robed healers scuttled around an array of beds like ants serving a queen. Adventurers and civilians alike lay prone in various states of distress.

Two catonid children sat against the back of the tent, leaning against the thick, cold fabric as they hugged and wept quietly. A woman, who I can only assume was their mother, moaned softly from a stretcher placed a few feet in front of them, she had a gaping hole in her abdomen and two healers cast spells of bright green light into the wound.

The only thing that was missing was the smells of cordite and antiseptic permeating the air and clinging to my nostril hairs. With those exceptions, the tent reeked of aftermath of battle.

Amidst the healers were a few adventurers who seemed to be acting as nurses or assistants. They brought food and water to the victims, wiped sweat from the brows of healers whose hands were busy casting spells, and generally organised the layout of the medical bay.

It was organised anarchy and I couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the suffering that was all around me, permeating the atmosphere with an almost physical presence.

Freja hurried through the calamitous battlefield hospital and no one got in her way. People seemed to move around her almost subconsciously and I wondered if it was an aura control trick she was using.

More likely they’re all terrified of pissing her off… and who could blame them.

Hidden behind a makeshift privacy screen at the back was Sally. As we skirted around it I saw her laid in her bed. Her breathing was laboured and she looked truly awful.

Her eyes were black and her veins were visible all over her face. It was truly a distressing sight as my stomach chose that time to learn acrobatics and I felt my face tighten.

“How are you doing Sal?” Panda said in the best bedside voice he could muster, which wasn’t great.

“What have I told you about calling me Sal, Furball?” She said, cracking a smile which looked more like a grimace.

Though her words were the same as ever, her voice cracked as she spoke. She sounded weak. She wasn’t supposed to sound like that.

“How long you in for?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied, “the healers say I took soul damage and that’s why I’m not healing as fast as I should do.”

“That’s because you pushed yourself way past your limits,” Freja said, irritation leaking into her voice. “They say your mana count was in the minuses. Luckily for you, I was passing by.”

“At least I’m not dead,” Sally said quietly.

“Wait, I thought using too much mana made people dumb, like that time with Jamie in the palm tree jungle?” I asked.

“I think you’re referring to mana brain and that is simply the warning sign that you’re pushing too hard,” Freja replied, folding her arms. “Mana is linked to the intelligence stat so naturally if you use it all up then your intelligence lowers until you’ve recovered some mana. This went way beyond that, pushing your limits so far that you go past that point and into the minus numbers is dangerous. Frankly, you’re lucky you weren’t rendered completely catatonic,” she looked at Sally with a harsh stare and the catonid glared back defiantly.

Hysterical mana, I thought, I’ve heard about that before. It’s like Celestia’s version of when mums can lift cars off their children in extreme circumstances back on Earth. It’s dangerous, really, really dangerous.

“How can you be mad at me for surviving?” Sally retorted, “would you rather I’d have let a building crush me?”

“No it’s just…” Freja replied in a softened tone, “never mind, just focus on your healing.” She patted Sally’s leg through the blanket but refused to look at her.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“We can wait here as long as you need us to Sal-” I began but she cut me off.

“No you can’t, Gonads. I was never a part of your team to begin with and you have a mission to complete. Lucas trusted you to see it through, so that’s what you’re gonna do.”

“But-”

“No buts,” she interrupted, sitting up slightly with a wince. “I’ll catch up with you when I’m all healed up – and who knows how long that could take. You just need to focus on getting to Castalor and levelling up like crazy along the way. It’s a whole different world in the capital.”

“I hit phase three earlier.”

“Good, that should make things simpler for you. Getting to phase four is a grind but that’s all it is. In a way it’s much simpler than getting to phase three, you just need to kill lots of strong monsters. You’d better be silver rank by the time I get there.”

“Then you better be gold,” I replied, forcing a smile.

“You bet I will,” she said, flashing me a genuine fangy grin and holding out her hand. “In fact, I’m practically gold already, I’ll be a jade soul when we next see each other, mark my words.”

Grabbing her forearm we shook once as she gripped mine. I’d seen enough action movies to know that was better than a handshake. After a cathartic moment, she yanked me in close.

“Train your team,” she whispered quietly in my ear. “Castalor is a dangerous place, even the monsters around there are intense. Teamwork… it’s the one thing that’s always held me back from hitting gold, it’s not easy finding people you can trust – not as an adventurer at least. You have good people around you, and they need a strong leader.”

She let go and I stumbled backwards a step, steadying myself and nodding towards her. My mind made up.

***

The team and I left in a sombre mood. Bell barely said a word, which was rare for her. After leaving the medical tent Freja walked us to the city gate.

It was like a ghost town as we trekked through streets that, only the other day, were full of lively protestors and people going about their business.

Freja explained that her people had cleared this part of town but portside and the central areas were lost entirely to the new communist regime.

Sullen-looking adventurers trickled past us, battered, bruised and, in some more severe cases, wearing broken armour. Despite the atmosphere, each one of them saluted Freja as she passed, with a clenched fist over their hearts.

“We were never taught that salute,” I said.

“It’s a sign of respect left over from the old regime, this organisation used to be closer to a military outfit,” she explained, “now though, they’ve moved to a more business minded structure, but those of us who were here before the change still remember that the first duty of any Adventurer is to protect the people.”

“So saluting is acknowledging that duty?”

“Exactly, these days it’s less about their respect for me as Director and more a way for them to express their commitment to original doctrine.”

“Why did it change?” I asked as my eyes washed over the ragged adventurers.

“Everything changes Kaleb, someone new comes in and reinvents the wheel. I’m sure you’ll be able to ask him all about it when you get to Castalor.”

“I didn’t know the Castalorian director was the leader of the entire society,” Bell said, perking up slightly as we talked.

“He’s not,” Freja replied, and from the finality in her voice I assumed that she didn’t want to speak further on the matter.

The Cali Port adventurers would definitely have a lot of work ahead of them in the coming months. I felt bad leaving, but Freja and Sally were right. We didn’t come here to play hero to a place that likely hated us.

We had a mission and I intended to complete it. Maybe once I was stronger I could come back and help these people, but right now I was just one man – one relatively low ranked man at that.

I needed to get stronger.

Story of my life, I thought and clenched my fists.

As we walked outside of the gates the terrain caught me by surprise. Cali Port seemed to be surrounded inland by a swampy jungle. The air was muggy and humid and with the exception of a single main road leading into the trees, it was nothing but thick foliage.

“Your reward, as promised,” Freja said, gesturing to something large and covered with a tarp.

A thin, young man stood proudly in front of it. He saluted her as we approached.

“D-director,” he stuttered, “as per your orders, no one has approached the package.”

“Thanks, you’re dismissed,” she said with a single wave of her hand. “Go get yourself a hot meal, we move into occupied territory tonight.”

The young man ran back into town without hesitation and Freja wiped the back of her hand across her forehead.

“You see what I have to work with here?” She grumbled, “kids and noobs, the lot of them.”

“What happened to the more experienced adventurers?” I asked.

“Most of them are still out on contract, the ones you saw passing earlier are the only mid rankers I have.”

“That kid saluted you though.”

“Probably something he picked up from the others, he arrived here as they were mopping up the communists who had taken the gate. It’s good they taught him it; I just hope he understands the meaning. Commitment to a cause is a powerful thing, just look at those idiots lynching people in town.”

“Where are the rest of your experienced members? Surely Cali Port has some gold rankers,” I said.

“We do, but they’re not here right now. It’s normal for bronze rankers and above to take longer contracts that can take them way out of town. Cali Port isn’t exactly a big branch to begin with… hell, adventuring isn’t the profession it used to be either.

“Once upon a time you’d walk into a society building and it’d be full of life. You couldn’t move for all the members. Now though… well let’s just say sign ups aren’t what they used to be and the more experienced guys are in the capital. That’s where the money is.

“I’m sure you’ll meet plenty of them when you get there. Just make sure you don’t look any of them in the eyes.” She chuckled at something which was clearly an in-joke that I didn’t get.

As we spoke, Bell and Panda strolled up to our reward and together they removed the tarp obscuring our new mobile base.

With a demure flourish, the tarp was whipped off revealing a bright orange VW Camper.

“Yup, I didn’t expect anything less,” I groaned.