Despite Orion’s distinct lack of sleep, he couldn’t help but smile at the day’s beauty as the party left town.

The sun felt amazing on his skin, and the beautiful forest was dancing with small birds that flitted between the trees. A light breeze was swaying the surrounding branches and the tentacles dangling fromtheir heads.

“Might I say, your hat looks fetching in the morning light, Arika,” Honeypot said, glancing furtive looks her way.

“I don’t care how goofy I look, Honeypot. The healing effect is too good to take it off.”

“Goofy? I wouldn’t dare imply such a thing…”

Orion had only managed a few hours’ sleep before he was woken for the day, and he let out a yawn as the two bickered.

“Thanks for getting those health potions, Honeypot. I totally forgot to get some last night.”

“No problem, my glorious leader! Are you ready to tell us the tale of your exploits yet? I am dying to know how you got that title.”

He let out another yawn.

“I guess now is as good a time as any. It all started when I went into the store you sent me to…”

He regaled his party with the tale of the previous night, as best his sleep-deprived brain could.

Honeypot had many character failings, but as a listener he was attentive, asked questions, and gasped at all the correct moments.

“You just got the profession by helping? No secret scrolls? No eternal servitude? That almost seems unfair…”

Orion shrugged.

“Carl said it wasn’t normal—it was something to do with natural aptitude?”

“Unreal.” Arika shook her head, her hair and tentacles flowing with the movement. “We haven’t heard a whisper of professions or titles, and you go and get both of them in one night.”

“And to think, Arika,” Honeypot said, “If Felsteg hadn’t shown his true colors, you’d still be sidled up with that goon. Orion is way smarter. And cuter.”

“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t have to deal with you.”

Orion wondered if others had earned professions, but just hadn’t told anyone.

Everyone is likely keeping their cards close to their chest. I certainly won’t be yelling it from the rooftops…

It was hard to hide the title he earned if anyone inspected him, however—there was no option he could find to remove ‘the Alchemical’ listed after his name.

“Are you sure you’re not too exhausted, Orion?” Arika asked, looking at the obvious lack of sleep on his face and dragging him from his thoughts.

“I’ll be fine for a day—I have a feeling sleepless nights were a staple of my past life.”

“Would you like a sausage for energy?” Honeypot asked, profferring one.

“Maybe later, thanks…” He looked at his small friend with suspicion before giving his robe a pat down to make sure Honeypot hadn’t slipped him any meat while he wasn’t looking.

“I’ll take one.” Shadow held out his hand.

“Oh… you really want one? They’re not cooked if you were planning to eat it…”

“That’s fine. I’ll cook it later, and that’s one less sausage in your arsenal.”

Honeypot shrugged and handed over the sausage. He paused for a moment, looking contemplative.

“You know, it’s much less fun when someone asks for it.”

“Ohhh, is it now?” Shadow smiled. “Can I have another?”

“Well, maybe I already gave you another one.” Honeypot returned a much more wicked smile of his own. “Have you checked your pockets?”

Shadow spent the next few minutes checking the crevasses of his armor for stray sausages, much to the delight of the rest of the party. Unfortunately for Shadow, it was much harder to search a suit of armor than a loose robe. Even Arika, who was truly terrible at hiding her emotions, watched with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Shadow’s struggle and their amusement were cut short by what sounded like an explosion in the distance. Pulling up his map, Orion saw it was in the direction of the dungeon they marked yesterday and were currently traveling to.

They shared a worried look.

“Investigate?” Honeypot asked.

Orion nodded sharply.

“Scope it out in Stealth—we’ll follow behind.”

As they approached the dungeon, more-and-more explosions rocked the forest. The birds that were cheerfully dancing among the trees earlier were all fleeing in scores, eager to escape from the source of noise.

Honeypot appeared in font of them, dropping out of Stealth.

“There’s a party of adventurers at the entrance. I have no idea why, but they’re detonating explosives right on the opening, and they look generally disgruntled.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“They look disgruntled? I would be too if I ran into you in a forest,” Arika said.

“Arika, would you be serious for a single moment?” Honeypot smiled at her and rolled his eyes. “What’s the plan here, boss?”

Orion contemplated his options.

Although the only other party they had seen out of town were murderous pricks, he didn’t assume that every other group was kill-on-site. Even if it meant getting a slight advantage by taking other groups out, it could come back to bite his party in the long run if enemies sought revenge.

The most prudent move forward is to help other parties where necessary, or at the very least, not antagonize them…

“Based on everyone’s thought of Felsteg and rest of Hand of God, can I assume that you guys don’t want to murder every stranger we come across?”

They nodded in response.

“Good. I’m not entirely above using deceptive means to get us a leg up in this world, but I don’t want our advancement to be at the expense of anyone who hasn’t wronged us.”

“Should we turn back, then?” Shadow asked.

“Not at all. What do you make of their strength, Honeypot?”

“There’s three fellas launching explosives, one bloke standing around that’s obviously a tank, and a lady that’s a healer or Mage based on her gear. If I was a betting man—which again, I am—I’d say she’s their healer. They seem competent, but I have no doubt that you, our glorious leader, could come up with a plan to overcome them.”

“Anything else we need to know?” Orion asked.

“Oh, they had some defensive explosives scattered throughout the surrounding trees, but I went ahead and disabled them.”

“Alright. Let’s go see what they’re up to. You approach them in Stealth, Honeypot, and be ready to stun the healer if things go south. She’s our primary target. The rest of us will approach and introduce ourselves.”

Orion turned to Arika.

“If you see Honeypot stun the healer, give him a few moments to clear the area before you blow as many of them to hell as you can.”

“I’ll see what I can do." A vicious grin spread across her face. "If I’m lucky, Honeypot won’t be able to run out fast enough…”

Honeypot leveled a scowl at her.

“I swear to god, Arika. If you explode me, I will haunt you for the rest of my days, ascension be damned. You’ll be able to open up your own butcher with how many sausages you’ll be finding on your person.”

“There’s nothing to worry about.” She smiled with faux sweetness. “Just make sure you run fast, my dear teammate.”

Honeypot squinted at her a moment longer before disappearing off into the forest. The rest of the party followed in his wake, trying to keep their minds calm as they followed the sounds of explosions.

As they neared the dungeon, Orion kept glancing at his map to make sure they stayed on course, but it wasn’t hard with the cacophony of noise leading them on. He instructed the others to keep an eye out for explosives on the odd chance that Honeypot had missed one, but it appeared as though the Rogue-Priest was thorough in his endeavors.

Orion supposed that made sense, because Honeypot was always thorough when it came to messing with or ruining other people's days.

The trees became more and more sparse, and they gradually opened up into a clearing similar to the others they'd seen with dungeon or cave openings. Just as Orion caught sight of the dungeon entrance, he could see one figure standing beside it launch something by hand that exploded against the entrance.

He couldn’t keep himself from flinching at the resulting sound and blast that assaulted him, but it was nothing compared to the destruction that Arika had previously wrought in his presence.

As the dust cleared following the explosion, the entrance was completely undamaged. The man that launched the explosive was staring at the entrance like it had insulted his mother.

He walked up to it and started raining kicks, but his foot was colliding with something invisible. Faint blue shimmers ran across the entrance of the dungeon with every strike, and it looked as though there was some sort of force-field stopping the booted foot from passing the threshold.

Orion could clearly see all the members of the opposing party now.

There were three gruff looking ‘fellas,’ as Honeypot had put it, all dressed in leathers that were covered in blast marks and soot. The other man, a tank, was wearing plated armor similar to Shadow’s, but had a short sword at his side and a giant shield strapped to his back. He was leaning against a tree, unbothered by the blasts. The fifth member, the one Honeypot assumed was a healer, was a tall woman robed in white. She looked around, vigilantly scanning the trees.

The tall woman was extremely perceptive or had been alerted to their presence by an ability, because her eyes locked directly onto them. She got her party’s attention, and before long, they were all staring at Orion, Arika, and Shadow. The woman made a hand motion, signaling them to come closer. Seeing no apparent signs of hostility, Orion stepped further into the clearing with only a moment of hesitation. Arika and Shadow followed.

The two parties met in the middle, keeping a healthy distance between each other. They stood there in silence, both sides clearly assessing each other. Now that they were closer, it wasn’t so much that the woman was tall, but the other three men that made up the party were… tiny.

Is there a correlation between having an explosives class and being short and stocky?

The members of the other party were all feeling as tense as he was. They were attempting to appear calm, but their ‘relaxed’ positions had their hands resting close to their weapons.

The taller woman broke the silence.

“It’s impressive that you got rid of all the explosives we left in the forest in the direction you just came from without alerting us. You didn’t use that opportunity to attack us with your fourth and last teammate, who I believe is invisible, riiight…” She pointed over her left shoulder, where Orion saw nothing but open air. “… there. Seeing as he hasn’t stabbed me, can I assume that your goal isn’t to kill us and plunder out bodies?”

Orion nodded in response, trying to appear calm and collected.

“We have no desire for unnecessary conflict. What makes you think we only have one other party member, though?”

“The entire world got an announcement about your dungeon kill yesterday, Orion. With you, Arika, and Shadow standing here, that just leaves the illusive Honeypot unaccounted for. How did you do that, by the way? With only four members, too…”

A surge of panic coursed down Orion’s spine.

“How do you know my name? I didn’t feel you inspect me…”

“Ah, forgive me.” She gave an apologetic smile. “It’s an ability. I know it’s supposedly rude to do so, but I can’t turn it off, so…” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Not much I can do about it. My name is Fener.”

“Damn,” Honeypot said, who was now laying in the grass right beside the other party. “She’s good.”

The other members of Fener’s party hadn’t drawn the same conclusions that their leader had; at her declaration that Honeypot was invisible around them, they tensed up. At Honeypot’s reveal, they grabbed stocks of crossbows, slipped hands into pockets, and unsheathed weapons.

“Guys, really?” Fener said. “Did you listen to anything I just said? If they were going to attack us, they would have tried already.”

She turned to Orion.

“As I said, my name is Fener.”

She pointed at the tank.

“This is Seren, our meat-shield.”

The man waved, and she pointed at the three men with explosives.

“That’s Tallon, Vasen, and Vale, our damage dealers. And with me, our healer, we are the Bomb Squad.”

An apt party name, Orion thought.

He introduced the Malignant Miscreants, leaving out their actual classes just as she had.

The other party appeared to relax at the introductions, though they still looked around the clearing in an alert manner, especially Tallon, whose knuckles were white around the haft of an axe.

At some point, Honeypot had gone invisible again. Orion didn’t know why at first, but in retrospect, should have expected what came next.

“Boo!” Honeypot was beside Tallon, yelling directly into his ear.

A hand-axe flew for Honeypot’s chest.