Dawn filled the bothy with light and surrounded it with the sounds of birdsong. Liam woke from a dream in which he’d crossed the summit of a mountain and realised he was happy. There was freedom in what he was doing here. His parents would never understand why he wasn’t attending college and was likely to fail First Year. Even worse, they’d be terribly upset with the fact he’d taken Aengus out of school before his Leaving Cert. And they probably wouldn’t be too impressed that his close companion was demon. Despite these weights in his mind, overall, Liam felt as though filled with light as golden as that coming in the windows. They had a place to stay, plenty of food, a warm climate, and, best of all, an opportunity to level fast. The crocodiles the previous night had provided enough EXP to bring him to Level 12.

After a breakfast of pancakes, they tidied up the bothy and did another run through the crocodiles, followed by a walk along a shallow river until they reached the nearest of the ruins, a gatehouse that stood alone, with no trace of the walls that must have once joined it. There Liam saw their first group of lizard-like warriors. The island of Olamanth had been overrun by a tribe of lizard people and to make progress inland towards the more significant ruins of the ancient empire, their small group was going to have to battle through a lot of these mobs. Humanoid, most no taller than Liam’s shoulders, the lizard people had yellow reptilian skin, marked with thick jagged lines of black, making them wasp-like in appearance. And they gathered in groups of up to ten. At the base of the tower were one such group.

Since the lizard warrior’s levels ranged from 10 to 14, potentially such an encounter would be fatal. Still, they had a method for isolating individuals who they could defeat relatively easily.

‘Ready?’ asked Aengus.

‘Ready,’ Kate replied.

‘Ready.’

Ready.

Even though Liam had watched the tactic a hundred times, he still suffered anxiety as Aengus strode forward until with an uncanny ripple of head movements, the lizard warriors looked up. A leap into the air, a repositioning of their spears, and they charged to attack. Within seconds of his having approached them, a lethal train of mobs was chasing his brother.

Down to the ground went Aengus, using his Still Heart skill, and… thank heavens, the pack of lizard spearmen stopped. One by one, they turned away until there were just three left. Then Aengus stood up. Kate and Lord Azanth respectively stunned and froze the remaining monsters, while Liam blasted away with magic missile. In less than two minutes the three lizard warriors were dead, dropping a light green soul stone and a bloodstone necklace worth about ten Euro on eBay.

A repeat of exactly the same tactics had the same result. The final group of four lizard warriors, they split into pairs. In less than ten minutes and using only about thirty-percent of his mana pool, an enemy that could have overwhelmed them was entirely defeated. With a feeling of comradeship and deep satisfaction, Liam looked at Kate (wiping her forehead, looking flushed in her mage robes), Aengus (sitting on a rock, studying a beetle) and Lord Azanth (a thick yellow circle inside opaque plastic). They made a good team.

On they went, following a path toward the higher ground of the interior of the island. Kate had sketched the map from the visitor book and the route was easy to identify. Since they had no other particular location to aim for, the building with mosaics sounded as good as any to Liam.

Group after group of lizard warriors were split up and destroyed, until it was time for a mana recovery. In the shade of a plinth that no longer had any sign of the statue it may have once supported, Liam sat with Aengus on his left and Kate on his right.

‘This is the life,’ said Aengus with a big grin. ‘My class will be doing maths right about now.’

Liam felt a twinge in his chest. ‘I wish you wouldn’t say things like that. You are missing out on your education. You should have a good knowledge of maths.’

‘If I need to know anything, I’ll learn it. In the meantime, levelling is more important. I’m nearly at ten, which will bring Ki Shock Wave and Still Heart up to level three. And at the rate we are collecting soul stones, I’ll be at level four in those skills by the end of the day.’

They had decided to go all in on the importance of Aengus being able to split pull, which meant all the soul stones were earmarked for him. His brother needed 30 soul stones to fill a display and earn his second star, mostly light greens, but they also needed to get six dark greens and two light blues.

‘When’s your birthday?’ asked Kate, looking past Liam to his brother.

‘January thirteenth.’

‘Two months. Then you can legally leave school.’

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘Good point. Not that anyone can make me go in the meantime.’

Liam put his head in his hands. ‘Mum and Dad are never going to forgive me.’

Aengus just laughed and patted Liam on the back. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll have no problem getting a job.’

The Promethean heat which fuels my skills does burn. Let us to battle return.

‘Lord Azanth is on full mana and ready to go again.’

‘Come on so,’ said Kate and, waving away a dragonfly, she stepped into the sunshine.

***

The sun was low by the time they came back in sight of their bothy. Frustratingly, the density of the lizard warriors, along with the occasional monstrous snake or bird, meant that progress towards the palace with the mosaic had been less rapid than Liam had anticipated. Hopefully, he thought, the respawn rate on the mobs was slow enough that they wouldn’t have to clear them all again on the following day. On the plus side, they had been in battles all day, as often as their mana allowed. Aengus was now level 10, which unlocked level 3 for each of his skills. Liam himself was nearing level 13 and the drops had been good. Aengus had collected more than forty soul stones. He would need all his extra greens to trade for a light blue one in order to get his next star.

‘Did we leave a fire going?’ asked Kate.

‘We did not,’ replied Liam. That morning he had put the fire out after making tea; he remembered that very distinctly.

‘Then why is there smoke coming from the chimney?’

She was right, a pale cord of white flowed upwards from the cottage.

Aengus dropped his voice to a whisper, ‘Someone must be inside.’

‘I can smell food. Bacon.’ Kate looked pleased, excited even. Liam on the other hand wasn’t at all pleased. Out here there was no law, no protection. When parties of Adventurers met in the planes, they usually respected each other and often helped each other. But there were robbers and killers around. The problem was that all the planes outside the Plane of Life allowed for PVP combat; a high level party would have no difficulty killing them all.

‘What are you thinking?’ Aengus was looking over at Liam.

‘Same as you, probably.’

‘Take off your ring and hide Lord Azanth and the wand.’

The ring could go in his pocket, the Tupperware box under his shirt, and the wand he tucked into his belt at his spine. Liam then looked around at the cover provided by trees and bushes. ‘We don’t have to go to the bothy. We can camp away from here and try to forage our food.’

Her expression sombre now, Kate moved up to the cover of the trunk of a palm tree.

There are two humans, their presence I sense. More powerful than us and therefore not to be approached. But let me to within three metres close, and it is possible that some of their thoughts will be disclosed.

‘What about bringing Lord Azanth to the walls of the bothy?’ Liam asked Aengus, who was the obvious candidate for sneaking quietly across the sand. ‘He might be able to pick up their conversation with Telepathy.’

‘I can do that. The windows don’t cover all the angles of approach from the beach.’

‘Here.’ Liam pulled the cord holding the Tupperware case over his head and passed it to his brother. ‘Careful.’

Slowly, patiently, Aengus circled around the bothy, moving all the way to where the sea was regularly colouring the light sand a dark brown. Then, at a crouch, Liam’s brother walked up to the wooden walls. Once settled at a corner of the bothy, Aengus gave Liam and Kate the thumbs up.

For a while, nothing changed. Perhaps the sky grew a little darker. The wind picked up. Inland, a bird began to hoot. Liam mimed a shrug. Aengus just shook his head. And then the bothy door swung open and a woman holding a plate stepped out. She was clearly a warrior, wearing armour that reminded Liam of a samurai, although the sword at her side was straight, not curved. From the silver in her hair the woman was in her 40s or 50s.

Saying something, the warrior half turned and then a man came out, clean shaven but with heavy features: his dark eyebrows making him look hawkish. This man was also dressed in armour, plates on top of chainmail, and he was also holding a plate. They walked to a cluster of rocks and sat facing the setting sun, eating their meal.

Again, Liam mimed a shrug and again Aengus, who was on the far side of the bothy shook his head. When Liam looked at Kate, she also shrugged. It was difficult to know what to do. Really, they ought to come forward, otherwise it was they who would seem to be robbers or player killers.

‘Hello there!’ Liam stepped out from the tree, heart pounding.

The two figures both turned and – with care because of their food – stood up. Neither seemed unduly alarmed, which was encouraging. As he passed her tree, Kate fell in step beside him.

‘I’m Liam; we’re also staying at the bothy.’

‘Hello,’ said the woman; her accent was American, or perhaps Canadian. ‘I’m Patricia. We saw there was someone here already. Three of you, right?’

Liam looked over at Aengus, who straightened and came around the side of the bothy so the strangers could see him.

‘Aengus,’ said his younger brother. ‘A monk.’

‘This is Daniel,’ the woman gestured to her companion, who gave a slight nod. There was something unwelcoming about the man’s expression. ‘We weren’t expecting any other Adventurers. It’s so out of the way.’

‘Well, there is the rumoured treasure,’ Liam wanted to give a plausible reason for their presence, but his words had an unexpected effect. The two strangers immediately looked at each other and the man’s frown deepened.

After a pause that was far too long, the woman looked at her plate. ‘I’m afraid that’s the last of our bacon. Hard tack from here on. With some fruits from the island perhaps.’

‘There’s plenty of crocodile meat,’ said Kate cheerfully. ‘And it’s not bad when thoroughly pan fried.’ If she was dissembling, Kate was performing brilliantly. Having gotten to know her over the last few weeks though, Liam believed that she was genuinely relaxed around these people. He was far from relaxed and briskly walked up to within three metres of Aengus.

Anything?

When the person before me is much higher level than I, then only if they are willing can I hear them.

So nothing?

My intuition is rarely wrong and it tells me they have secrets and they are unhappy to see you.

But are they violent? Are we in danger?

My advice would be to part ways as soon as possible.