Orion turned to see a mountain of a man that was clad in plate mail with a giant, two-handed sword slung over his back. Startled, he instantly focused on the stranger, seeing that his name was Shadow.

The man jerked almost imperceptibly as he felt Orion’s accidental focusing. Orion cursed internally.

“I heard that you guys were looking for more members,” Shadow said, looking hopeful and ignoring Orion’s transgression. “My last party disbanded, and I’m looking to join another.”

“W-we are.” Orion looked up at the tower of a man. “Sorry about inspecting your name. It’s sort of reflexive.”

“It’s no problem!” Shadow waved his concern away. “So, are you interested in me joining?”

“We’re not opposed, but I think we should talk first.” Orion tried his best to ignore the blossoming anxiety that came from talking to the giant of a man before him. “Why did your last party disband, if you don’t mind me asking? And what is your class?”

“Well, to be honest, my party didn’t actually disband.” He rubbed the back of his head, hesitant to continue. “It was more—”

A derisive laugh cut Shadow off, clearly projected in their direction. Two people stood there, a short man with a sneer, and another, larger man with a placid look on his face.

“Good luck if you’re thinking of taking this moron on. He’s the sole reason we aren’t the highest level party in this entire world. And you, Shadow, trying to join newbies? Pathetic. Learn to play your class, then maybe we’ll take you back.” He turned and left with an exaggerated laugh.

The larger man with a placid face looked at Shadow with what could almost be called empathy, then turned and followed the other.

“Alright, what was that?” Arika asked.

Shadow sighed and shook his head. “That’s my old party. Half of them, anyway. The dickhead speaking was Akano. The guy following him was Treyu.”

“What an asshole,” she said.

“He’s not entirely wrong, though…”

“What do you mean?” Orion asked. “What exactly happened between you guys?”

“We had a falling out over party roles. My class is Warrior, and I have two abilities, both of which are at level two—Hilt Smash and Vicious Blow. Hilt Smash is an ability with a twenty-second cooldown that does no damage but interrupts enemy casts, also locking them out of casting for ten seconds afterwards. Vicious blow is an overhead swing with my sword that does massive damage on a ten-second cool—”

“Hi, Shadow!” Honeypot offered his hand for Shadow to shake. “Nice to see you again!”

“Uhhh, hello…” Shadow shook Honeypot’s hand reflexively. “I don’t recall ever meeting you…”

“Oh, of course, my mistake. Forget it, that’s not important.” Honeypot waved his own words away. “I’m Honeypot. Can I assume it was it your role that your old party disagreed on?”

“It… it was, yes.” Shadow winced, as if admitting so caused him physical pain. “They wanted me to act as a tank. They kept saying my class and interrupt ability made me perfect to be a tank, but I said from the start that I was only interested in being a DPS class.”

“DPS?” Arika asked, not understanding the terminology.

“Short for damage per second,” Orion said. “A damage dealer, essentially.”

Shadow nodded.

“I can’t think of anything worse than being a tank. The Creator claimed the System makes a perfect judgment of who you are in order to determine your class, but I can’t help but feel that it got something wrong with me. I want to be a Rogue like you, Honeypot; sneaking from the shadows; landing devastating blows; cutting the throats of my enemies before they even know I’m there.

“I want to be a meticulous and thoughtful fighter that waits for the perfect time to join combat. The idea of being hit by things for fun sounds horrible, and I don’t want to be just another brainless meat-shield that soaks up damage. Is that… a problem for you guys?”

“The rest sounds good,” Honeypot said, “but I’m not a Rogue.”

“Oh. What are you?” Shadow asked, clearly thrown off.

“My—”

“Mysterious!” Arika imitated Honeypot’s signature finger-wiggle, causing Orion to chortle.

Honeypot shot them both a dirty look. “Don’t mind them, Shadow. They both just died, and are still recovering from the trauma, as I’m sure you can tell. Addled brains and all that. So, anyway, judging by your story, you were nothing but transparent, and your party were being a bag of dicks, is that about it?”

“Well, yeah, but our party did need a tank. If I’d been willing to swap, it would have—”

“Nope.” Honeypot shook his head. “Not your fault. Your leader should have recruited a tank if he needed one. Pressuring you to swap after accepting you as a DPS is what my grand-mama would call a dick move.”

“Yep.” Orion nodded. “Total dick move.”

“See?” Honeypot said. “We’ll totally have you in our party.” He turned to Orion. “You don’t have a problem with that, right, glorious-and-supreme leader?”

“What makes me the leader? We all have to decide, don’t we?”

“Other than the fact that you’re literally the leader of the party we’re in, and that you’re clearly the analytical, thinky type? Don’t stand there and pretend you haven't already thought of five situations where you can use your Portal ability to send Shadow directly behind an enemy for a Vicious Blow to the back, head, and or neck.”

Shadow grabbed Orion by the shoulders and stared at him, the strength of his grip and the look in his eyes both sending a jolt of worry down Orion’s spine.

“Is that true? You can teleport me behind enemies?”

“I’d be sent with you, but yes, I can use my ability Portal to teleport other party members with me.”

Just as fast as he had grabbed Orion, Shadow let go and dropped to his knees. He raised his eyes to meet Orion’s confused gaze.

“Please… let me adventure with you. I’m begging you. Wanting to play my class differently may be odd, but I’m otherwise a reliable party member.” His eyes widened as something appeared to occur to him. “F—food! I think I was a chef on Earth, because I love cooking! Proper meals would be a help when you’re out adventuring, wouldn’t it? I’d be happy to handle all the cooking for you guys!”

Orion smiled at the warrior’s sincerity. “You don’t need to beg, Shadow. I think you’d be a great addition to our party.”

“All sorts of meals! Hearty ones, refreshing ones, fruit—” Shadow’s head snapped up. “Y-you mean it? You think I’d be a great addition?”

“Yeah, of course. We could use all—”

Shadow sprung to his feet, letting out a thunderous laugh. He swept all three of them up in his arms, easily able to handle their weight with what must have been an impressive Strength stat.

Orion invited Shadow to the party, and Shadow’s laugh grew even louder as he accepted.

“Fantastic! Thank you so much! I won’t let you guys down!”

“I, for one,” Honeypot managed to squeeze out, “wouldn’t mind if you let me down.”

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“O—oh, sorry.” He set them down with a sheepish expression. “I was just so happy, my bad.”

“It’s fine,” Orion said. “There’s something you probably need to know, though…”

Shadow looked up, pausing his awkward effort to fix Honeypot’s ruffled hood.

“What is it?”

“We may or may not have a band of psychopaths hunting us down as of tomorrow morning.” Honeypot finished smoothing out his own hood.

“What?” Shadow looked between them. “Why?”

“It’s a long story,” Orion said. “The bullet-point summary is that we didn’t start it, but kind of got the last laugh. They’re probably pissed, and will likely be gunning for us when their player-killer lockout expires.”

“They’re definitely pissed.” Honeypot gave Shadow a mischievous smile. “And I can unequivocally say that we did, in fact, get the last laugh.”

“Oh, they killed you guys?” Shadow asked. “I’m not worried about something like that, especially if they started it. Let them come. I’ll stab them in the back before they know I even exist.” He grinned almost maniacally at Orion. “Especially with the help of your portals.”

Honeypot clapped Shadow on the shoulder. “You and I are going to get along.”

Orion smiled as he watched the two.

“Now all we need is one more member.”

“Should be a piece of cake!” Honeypot said.

They moved around the square, approaching people standing or walking by themselves.

A white-haired man in his thirties scoffed as soon as Orion introduced himself and the rest of the party.

“So you guys got stuck with the Warrior-Rogue, huh? Thanks, but no thanks.”

He shot a look at Shadow, shook his head, and walked away.

“Uh,” Orion said, “do you know that guy?”

“Never met him.” He let out a deep sigh. “I guess Akano has been telling people about me…”

“Don’t worry about it, buddy.” Honeypot put a consoling hand on his shoulder. “Anyone stupid enough to believe that nonsense would be a shitty teammate, anyway. We don’t need ‘em.”

Shadow nodded, but looked morose.

The next person they found was a middle-aged woman with very healer-looking garb.

“My last party was trash,” she said, with too much pride. “They were all useless, and we died, so I left.”

Orion raised an eyebrow, seeing the red flag of blaming others flying high.

I should give her a chance anyway… she might prove useful…

“What was your name?”

“I’m Pura.” The woman’s back straightened at the chance to talk about herself. “What are your names?”

“I’m Orion, and this is Arika, Honeypot, and Shadow.” He pointed to each person in question as he spoke.

At Shadow’s name, the annoying smile melted off her face.

“Shadow? Yeah, no. I’d never join a party with a person like that. I’ve already heard how useless he is.”

Orion’s eye twitched as he fought the desire to lash out.

“Thanks for your time—”

“But!” she cut in. “If you kick him, I’d be happy to join. You all look like damage dealers, so if we could just find a tank—”

“Fuck off, lady,” Honeypot said around a mouthful of sausage.

The smug smile she’d readopted fell away once more, and her eyes widened.

“Excuse me?”

Arika’s upper-lip twitched, unable to hide her disapproval.

“He said fuck off, lady. Stop breathing our air.”

Honeypot laughed, spitting sausage over the street and the healer.

“Arika! How indecent!”

“And you?” she asked Orion. “Do you think he’s a better choice than me?

Fresh out of patience, Orion shook his head.

“I think the party has spoken, Pura.” He made a shooing gesture with one hand. “Fuck off.”

Honeypot made a choking noise as he went to take another bite of sausage.

“Orion! You too?”

Pura’s mouth dropped open, and she took a sharp intake of breath.

“The idiot you chose over me is going to get you all eaten by monsters, anyway. I’ll be telling everyone how you treated me.”

Pura marched away to the nearest group like a Karen looking for a manager, immediately talking over the group’s conversation and pointing back towards Orion.

Three heads turned to look where she was pointing, and Honeypot waved his half-eaten sausage in greeting, a smile of beatific pride on his face.

“Maybe she’s right…” Shadow said, voice soft. “I’m essentially poison at this point. You might have a better chance of filling up your party without me…”

Honeypot put the hand not holding a sausage on Shadow’s shoulder.

“Mate, forget it. That lady was an A-grade bitch.”

Arika shook her head.

“I’d rather rejoin my last party than listen to her talk a moment longer.”

Would we be better off without him?

A small part of Orion recognized Shadow might be hurting their chances of getting a party of five, but the rest of him immediately dismissed it.

I’d never be okay with kicking someone just because of what other people say.

Every fiber of his being railed at being pressured to do something he didn’t want to.

Shadow feels like he fits, even if it gives us an off-meta party composition.

“Shadow,” he said, “you’re one of us. We’re not kicking you out just because your old party spread rumors about you.”

“Besides!” Honeypot gave Shadow a wolfish grin. “I seem to recall the Creator saying we get increased rewards for adventuring without a group of five. That means extra loot, baby!”

“Thanks, guys…”

Shadow somehow seemed small, and Orion could tell the words had gotten to him.

Looking at the waning sunlight, and seeing Pura pointing their way with another group, Orion made a decision.

“Let’s pack it up for today. It’s getting late, and we’ll need to leave Valbrand early tomorrow to make sure we don’t run into Felsteg and the rest of Hand of God.”

“You’re sure you don’t want me to leave? It’s really not a big deal—”

“Nope.” Orion interrupted. “You’re with us. We can always find another member later.”

“Thank god.” Shadow breathed a sigh of relief. “I really want to adventure with you guys.”

Orion smiled at the admission.

“The feeling is mutual. Now, does anyone know how we organize a place to stay? Tonight seems lovely and all, but I’d rather spend it indoors than out on the street.”

Shadow grabbed something from his inventory and held out a set of keys.

“The place my old party stayed in was under my name.”

“See?” Honeypot slapped him on the shoulder. “What would we do without you in the party? You’re already paying for yourself!”

“Speaking of paying,” Shadow said, eying Orion and Arika’s starter gear, “do you guys want to buy some equipment before we head out tomorrow? I know a guy, and we can walk past the market on the way…”

Orion and Arika both winced.

“We both lost our gold when we respawned…” Orion patted his empty pockets. “We don’t have money for dinner, let alone equipment.”

“I can sort dinner. I promised to cook delicious food if you let me join, right?” Shadow smiled, most of his positivity returned. “I have enough gold to buy equipment for you guys as well.”

“Same!” Honeypot pulled out a small bulging sac and wiggled it around. “I’m happy to shout some gear!”

Orion raised an eyebrow at the sound of coins coming from the sac.

“Where did you get so much gold? I thought you said you’ve been hanging around town?”

“I have been.” Honeypot shrugged. “It’s related to my class.”

“Which is?” Arika demanded. “And if you say ‘mysterious,’ I will blow you up where you stand.”

Honeypot grinned at her, not saying anything.

“I think I hate you,” she said, but Orion noted the corner of her lip threatening to smile.

Shadow led them past to the markets, which were empty of any merchants.

“No worries,” he said. “We’ll just have to swing by in the morning.”

He led them on towards the building he’d rented with his previous party.

As the sun set and darkness spread throughout the city, something beautiful happened.

Spherical lamps atop ornate poles that he’d barely noticed before became lit—the miraculous contraptions somehow lighting themselves and bathing the streets with an enchanting orange glow.

Orion stood and stared at one of the flames, the dancing of the heat-source within drawing him in.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Arika said from beside him.

“They are…” He looked around at the other lamps, finding it odd how much light came from each glass sphere.

The orange glow on the cobble-stone street and the medieval-looking buildings presented a stunning scene.

Orion turned to look at her, seeing the same look of awe in her eyes that he had been feeling.

“We really are in a new world, aren’t we?”

“We are,” she agreed.

“Hey!” Honeypot yelled from down the street where he stood with Shadow. “What are you two, moths? They’re just lamps!”

Orion smiled, and Arika rolled her eyes. They both walked to catch up to their teammates.

After ten minutes, they arrived at a rustic-looking building, and Shadow let them in.

There were enough rooms for all of them, each of which had a bathroom, an adjoining shower, and a bed. In the center of the lower floor was a communal space that included a kitchen, dining area, and three long, decorative sofas to lounge in.

Orion stared suspiciously at the fantasy-setting sofas.

He tentatively sat down.

Despite Shadow’s urging that they were comfortable, he expected to find them stuffed with straw or something of the like. He was pleasantly surprised to sink into feather-filled cushions. Honeypot and Arika joined him, clearly just as pleased to be proved wrong as he was.

Shadow headed straight for the kitchen, and despite everyone’s offer, insisted on making the food while they relaxed.

“Are you sure, Shadow?” Arika asked for what must have been the fourth time. “I’m happy to help, really.”

“I’m sure.” Shadow reached and grabbed a chopping board from a cupboard. “I honestly enjoy it. It makes me feel at peace.”

“I’m kind of jealous,” Honeypot leaned back into his luxurious seat. “The idea of cooking seems like a whole thing to me. I wish I enjoyed it like you do.”

“You’re jealous of me? I’d happily trade my love for cooking to be a rogue like you. I can’t think of anything better than being invisible and sneaking up on my enemies. It just seems so… me, you know?” He paused chopping ingredients as he pondered something. “I wonder if the Creator would allow us to swap things like that?”

Honeypot waved the statement away with a lazy hand movement as the sound of Shadow’s dexterous chopping resumed. “It wouldn’t work, anyway. I’m not a rogue.”

“Are you ever going to tell us what you are?” Orion asked.

“If I wasn’t so comfy right now,” Arika said, “I just might beat the answer out of you.”

“I suppose now that we’re alone, I can let you in on my grand secret. We’re party members, and soon-to-be friends, after all.”

Honeypot leaned forward.

“Are you sure you want to know, though? Such knowledge, once learned, may not be unlearned. The cat cannot go back in the bag, Pandora cannot be forced back into the box, the bell may not be unrung, the—”

“Oh. My. God!” Arika flung her head back as she groaned loudly. “Just tell us!”

“Alright, alright!” He leaned forward “I…”

They all looked at him. He leaned in more, shooting conspiratorial glances around the room.

“Am…”

Orion and Arika subconsciously leaned forward, drawn in.

Shadow stopped chopping, attention focused entirely on Honeypot.

“I am…”

He took a deep breath, looking at them all in turn.

“… not a rogue!”