I darted out the door, but Aerion beat me to it, bounding off into the snow ahead of me. Given how compacted the ground was from our earlier traversal, she made good time, while I, with larger, heavier gear, lagged a bit.

What had taken us almost an hour to hike up took barely five minutes on the way down.

In that time, the base had sent out another group of orcs, this time led by a few commanders. Our friend seemed to be unable to take these guys out instantly, and was currently fighting them off four to one.

He held his ground well, but even to my amateurish eye, I could tell his form wasn’t all that great. Whatever Boon or Blessing he had clearly compensated for his lack of skill, and if I had to guess, experience.

The guy had allowed the enemies to surround him, and was currently fending off strikes from several directions without even attempting to flee to a more advantageous position.

Thinking about it, he shouldn’t even be in this situation in the first place. Marching up to the Gate was reckless, even if he could take on the entire base.

What I really wanted was to interview this guy before making any decisions. If I felt like he had a screw loose, or was one of those types that was just impossible to work with, we’d go our separate ways. As Aerion said, though, he might not want to work with us, so it’d give him the chance to get to know us as well. Still, I was confident. Lending someone a hand wasn’t terrible as far as first impressions went.

The opportunity here was too good to pass up. If he was, as I thought, just green, we could fix that. His strength alone made up for that lack of experience, and once we taught him proper tactics and made him a functioning part of the party, he’d be devastating. At least for this dungeon, the three of us would make a potent force.

Which meant we needed to pull him out without the enemy taking notice. Ordinarily difficult, but if I was right, we stood a chance, and a good one at that.

I slid the final few steps and leaped into the fray, activating both [Light of the Fearless] and its counterpart.

The offensive strength this sword gave me was genuinely unfair. These commanders could end me with a strike or two, and for the first time, I had an attack that matched that lethality.

The first orc died without even knowing what hit him. He’d been facing the man we were trying to save, and completely missed my charge from behind. Light of the Fearless plunged into his back and out his stomach, and I must’ve hit his spinal cord, because the juggernaut went instantly limp.

That actually caused somewhat of a problem for me, since he subsequently fell to the ground, which made extracting my blade exceedingly difficult.

I was still struggling with that when another commander guy took notice and charged my way.

Thankfully, so did Aerion. Though she hadn’t activated [Reave] yet, her 33 points of Dominion made her plenty lethal, even without.

A slice of her sword to the man’s thigh, and another across his back, sent him reeling.

He recovered fast—faster than I would’ve thought possible, raising his arm to strike at Aerion. A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. She was in the wrong position to dodge, and Aerion carried no shield with which to defend.

But then… Then something neither of us could explain happened. The commander’s blow never came. His arm—in fact, his whole body—remained motionless, like it was frozen in place.

After what felt like an eternity, but must’ve only been a few seconds, he fell over backwards. Dead.

Both of us stared at the man, who grinned sheepishly. “Looked like you were in a sticky spot, friend. Thought I’d help you out!”

“Er, thanks,” Aerion replied, scratching her chin awkwardly. “But there’s still one left.”

“Right. We’d best hop to it then, yeah?”

She darted off, moving to engage the final opponent alongside the guy we were trying to save, but I didn’t join them.

Something about the way this guy spoke felt… off to me, and like an itch I couldn’t scratch, it bothered the hell out of me.

“Well, that’s that, innit?” the man said jovially after the final commander fell. “Many thanks to the both of you. I admit, I found myself in a bit of a bind there.”

Pushing my feelings to the back of my mind, I addressed the guy. “You’re a delver, aren’t you?”

“I am indeed,” he said. “The name’s Richard, by the way. Richard Rhodes.”

“Greg,” I said. “And the elf there’s my charge, Aerion.”

“Aerion and Greg. Well, your timing is just impeccable. Say, you wouldn’t happen to know a way into this place, would you? These monsters seem to keep pouring out of this gate, here.”

I glanced at Aerion.

Well, at least he’s not crazy.

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She returned my look with one that said, ‘Yeah, but he seems kinda odd?’

Or inexperienced. He honestly just struck me as a normal guy who’d wandered onto a battlefield. Which, of course, made no sense.

“That’s quite the power you’ve got there. You’re Blessed, I’m guessing?”

“Indeed I am!” Richard replied.

I nodded at Aerion, who nodded back.

“Actually, I’m—” He was interrupted by another group of monsters who just emerged from within the compound. “Better get ready.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” I said. “Unless you want to keep fighting endless hordes of these monsters, I suggest coming with us. We located a backdoor, about a quarter of the way up the mountain. If we hurry, we should be able to get there and get inside without their forces being any wiser.”

“That right?” Richard said, frowning at the mountain.

“Almost looks like the mountain scares you more than those monsters did,” I commented.

“Hmm? Oh, no. Just that I’m afraid I’m not much of an alpinist. Never did hit the gym as often as I’d have liked.”

“Uh, huh. Well, anyway. I’d suggest we make a move before the next wave arrives. There’s an alarm going off within the facility, and I’m guessing they’re mustering troops from wherever they can find them. Won’t be long before more show up, and in greater numbers.”

When Richard laughed, my confusion only grew deeper.

“Sorry, something funny?” I said, giving no hint as to my mental state.

“Oh, no, nothing at all. Lead the way, friend!”

----------------------------------------

Aerion dashed out front, and I brought up the rear, with Richard sandwiched in the middle. He was… Every bit as clumsy as I’d feared, failing to follow our hard-packed trail on more than one occasion, which landed him almost waist-deep in the snow.

He apologized profusely each time, huffing and puffing to catch up with Aerion afterward. I felt a little bad for the guy. He was keenly aware of just how outmatched he was in the physical fitness department, and by the curses he uttered every time, he looked like he hated himself for slowing us down.

All of this meant I got a good look at him on our way up. He was a late middle-aged wiry elf with a bit of a belly, which was honestly a bit of a shock. I’d just assumed all elves were as fit as Aerion. Guess not…

He was clean-shaven, with short cropped black hair, and not much muscle anywhere. His armor was an incredibly elaborate fabric, but one that wore like normal clothing rather than heavy gambeson. He wore a medium-sized rucksack on his back, which no doubt carried all of his supplies. Still, it couldn’t have been more than a week’s worth of food, if that.

Overall, he was just about as maladjusted to the current environment as someone could get, both in his choice of clothing and his personality. Then again, I couldn’t comment, given our own wardrobe. Clearly, none of us had expected this environment.

“I’m a Foundation-Rank Boonworthy,” I said, going with something plausible, yet nothing that would raise any eyebrows. “But Aerion over there is an Emergence-Rank Blessed.”

“That right?” Richard said, looking at Aerion, who was about fifteen feet in front of us. “I’m Foundation rank myself. Quite an impressive feat, especially for someone as young as yourself. I only wish my daughter could’ve met you. She’d have loved that. She’s quite the adventurer, that one.”

“You’ve got a daughter?” I asked.

Richard’s eyes lit up, downright beaming despite the exertion. “And a son! She’s eight and he’s nine.” He furrowed his brows, and the joy that was just there seemed to evaporate. “Reckon I just missed his birthday, in fact.”

“Oh… I’m sorry,” I said, lowering my gaze. “Cataclysm hasn’t been easy on anyone.”

“Yeah. Right,” Richard replied distractedly, like his mind was a million miles away.

Poor guy. I figured entering a dungeon like this was pretty similar to me being spirited away from my world. With the obvious exception of never being able to return, of course.

Richard couldn’t have known how long he’d be in here, away from his family. At least I had nothing to lose.

“How’d you get into the dungeon, anyway?” I asked. “Aerion and I had a hell of a time getting past the monsters guarding the gates.”

I glanced at my elven friend, who, despite being quite a ways ahead of us, had undoubtedly been listening to the entire conversation.

“Hmm? Oh, that was the easy bit,” Richard said, panting out the sentence. “Had a whole contingent of guards. Boonworthy and Blessed, the lot of them. Separated the moment we entered, though. A safety mechanism of sorts, or so I’m told. Been roaming around searching for them ever since, but my luck’s been awful rotten. It’s all gone pear shaped, if you ask me.”

I blanked for a moment. Pear shaped?

“Er, guards, huh?” I said, doing my best to cover up my momentary pause. “Couldn’t have come cheap.”

“Oh, I’m not privy to those affairs, I’m afraid,” Richard said, making his situation all the more confusing. Was he just some rich noble who happened to have a Blessing?

Something didn’t fit, though, and that itch from earlier came roaring back.

Before I could ask anything else, though, monsters came pouring out of the gate down below. We were now about three quarters of the way up—well outside the line of sight of anyone on the ground, unless they happened to look directly at us.

I just hoped none among them were good trackers. It wouldn’t take much of one to find our footprints, and then the jig would be up.

As it happened, I needn’t have worried. The monsters’ own footprints overwrote our own, and the orcs were left standing around, confused. Meanwhile, clouds had formed, and the snow had begun to fall. The wind was also starting to pick up, which made the journey even more arduous for Richard, but served to hide us from all prying eyes as well.

We reached the railing to the mid-mountain station right as Richard’s teeth started to chatter. With our enhanced Vitality, Aerion and I could stay out for a few more minutes, but if we hadn’t found our little secret entrance, we’d have been screwed.

We all piled into the warm room, shutting the heavy metal door behind us, and swiveling the wheel lock shut.

The alarm had been shut off at some point, leaving the three of us in the shipping container-sized control room as the wind howled outside.

We all just stood there for several moments, saying nothing to each other, before I broke the silence. But before I did, I had to put my suspicions to rest. Reaching into my pocket, I discreetly slipped my translator back into my Spatial Inventory.

“Well, Richard,” I said. “We’re in. The question is, would you like to join us for now? Or would you like to delve this dungeon on your own?”

“Well, that’s hardly a question, innit?” Richard replied in perfect English. “Nothing like good company! I’d love to team up, if you’ll have me.”

I stood there, blinking, refusing to accept what my brain was telling me.

Richard was no elf. He wasn’t Blessed, or even Boonworthy.

He was British.