James jerked awake, in a sweat. He'd been dreaming about his family running from a phoenix while he ran to save them. But just before he arrived, there was a massive explosion and he had been jolted awake. He looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. He hadn't paid much attention the night before, and the tent was pretty spartan anyway. The beds, really just cots, were up against both walls of the small tent. There were six of them. Then there were two small stools and a little desk opposite the entrance. That was it.

James sat up. He was still devastated from the news about his village, but it did seem a bit easier to handle after a good night's rest. Plus, he now had something to aim his feelings towards. He needed to make the dungeon pay. This group of adventurers was probably his best chance. The man from the night before, Marcus, had mentioned taking James to the fort, which sounded promising.

James thought about his current situation. What do I have available? The list wasn't long. He currently had a tattered shirt, his pants, socks, shoes, and his compass. Out of those, his compass was definitely the most valuable, but still not super helpful right now. He also remembered Marcus mentioning they'd found some money, and implying that it would belong to James. It was probably mostly the village emergency fund, a bit of cash the chief held in case of a bad growing year to buy some additional food. Every family contributed to the fund every year, and they'd had quite a few good years in a row, so there might be a decent bit of money in there.

James then made a list of his goals. His big goal was to repay the dungeon that wiped out his village. His shorter term goals included finding somewhere to stay, becoming an adventurer, and finding some source of income. He knew many adventurers eventually made a decent bit of money from diving in dungeons, but to start out was usually very hard. Most adventurers would be sponsored by a village or town, where the village or town paid for a lot of the costs up front and then the adventurer gave part of the loot from the dungeons to the village or town in return. Still, James’s village was too small to sponsor an adventurer, it wasn't a cheap undertaking. So he didn't think there'd be enough money for him to become an adventurer, but he had to find a way. His final goal was to discover the other abilities of his compass, but he didn't really know how to go about that.

He knew the final step was to make plans. Long term, become an adventurer, level up his abilities, figure out which dungeon was responsible and destroy it the way it destroyed his village. Shorter term, he needed to get equipment and learn about how to get into the adventurer’s guild. This probably involved asking some questions of the people in this camp, and learning about the different kinds of adventurer so he could discover what he wanted to do. His stomach rumbled. He realized it had been a few days since he'd had anything more substantial than berries or a bit of jerky to eat. He smiled slightly. First things first, find something to eat. He remembered one of his mother's sayings, and could almost hear her voice in his head. "There's no problem an empty stomach can't make worse."

He got off the cot and walked out the front flap. He squinted as the morning sun got in his eyes. The sun was barely over the horizon, and the air was still a bit brisk. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed a small fire off to one side. It had a few seats around it. He went and sat down by the fire as he looked around. He realized he actually hadn't been in close proximity with many adventurers, and he watched them as they bustled around. He noticed a few things many of them had in common. There seemed to be 4 groups.

The first group wore heavy armor and carried large weapons. They were generally large men or women with bulging muscles. They walked around like the massive armor they wore was as light as feathers, and the few he saw practicing with their weapons swung hammers and battleaxes like they were twigs.

The second group wore far less armor and mostly carried knives. They moved a lot like James remembered his father moving when stalking a deer, but it seemed almost instinctual. They slipped from shadow to shadow, completely silent. He didn't see many of them practicing. He eventually realized that was the point.

The third group also wore light armor. They carried bows or other ranged weapons like that. They were nimble, but not quite as much as the second group. The ones he saw practicing were launching arrows into targets from various distances. Having used a bow a good bit himself, he watched this group closely. Eventually he noticed some of the best ones managing shots that should have been impossible. He remembered rumors he'd heard that adventurers could do things a normal person never could, no matter how much they practiced. Some people made fun of them for it, but most understood how hard most adventurers practiced. Just this morning he'd hardly seen anyone sitting and relaxing. If they weren't doing something useful, they were practicing with their weapons.

The one exception was the final group. This group again wore only light armor. They carried no weapons, though many carried staffs. They mostly sat and read while the other groups would practice with their weapons, and at first James thought they were just less motivated than the others. Then he saw one cast a bolt of fire into a firepit and he realized they were the magic users. Once he was looking for it, he noticed many of them murmuring with their books, and he realized they were memorizing different spells. As he watched this group he remembered the bonus his compass had for fire spells. Perhaps he could become a magic user, since he already had a powerful item related to it.

As James sat there thinking about what he might want to do, he noticed something else the adventurers had in common. They each carried a small pouch on their person somewhere. This wasn't too unusual, but James noticed something different about these pouches. They were clearly magical. He saw an adventurer put his massive war hammer into a bag the same size as James' palm. He looked around and noticed adventurers putting things of all sizes into pouches far too small to hold them. They were clearly bags of holding. James had seen bags of holding before, of course. Many large merchant guilds used bags of holding to transport goods. Still, James definitely hadn't seen this many magic items in one place before. There was a reason starting out as an adventurer was so expensive.

He watched the adventurers for a while longer, still enraptured by the bags of holding. He saw a man guarding the front gate put a massive maul into the pouch while his replacement pulled out a Morningstar. The man just getting off guard duty walked towards the fire James was sitting at, and James was surprised when he realized he recognized the man. It was Steven, the man from the day before. As Steven saw James, he waved and turned slightly. James realized he'd actually been heading toward the tent. As Steven approached the fire, he called out. "James! I assumed you'd still be asleep! Have you been sitting there alone for long?" He looked around. "We adventurers are more social when we're at the fort. We're all a little on edge right now."

Steven sat down as James shook his head. "No, I've only been sitting here for a little while." He looked around too. "Everyone does seem a bit tense." He realized that what he'd originally thought was high work ethic was actually them being too tense to sit still. He noticed the magic users looking up from their books, unable to focus. The people practicing with weapons never worked themselves too hard, staying ready. "Why is everyone so tense?"

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Steven relaxed in his seat, although James noticed even he still wasn't too relaxed. "A couple of reasons. First, we are looking at the results of a dungeon monster attack. Those same monsters could attack us at any point. The reason so many of us were brought was in case it was a trap, designed to draw us out of the fort. Which is the second reason. We all want to get back as soon as we can to help defend the fort, we don't like leaving them short-handed. Finally, the dungeon monsters are becoming more and more bold. Only one other time have they destroyed a village, and there are defenses that are supposed to have kept it from ever happening again. The fact that they failed has everyone a bit on edge."

James nodded. Then his stomach let out a growl. Steven belted out a laugh. "Now there's a problem I know how to solve! Follow me!" He got up and started walking, James following behind. He wove a path through a few tents before they emerged at a small clearing with some tables and chairs. In the middle of the clearing was a woman stirring a large pot over a fire. When James smelled the scent wafting off the pot, his stomach growled even louder.

The cook looked up and chucked. "Now there's the sound every chef loves to hear! Have a seat, you two, and I'll have something over in just a moment."

James and Steven sat down and within a minute there was a bowl of steaming stew and a large roll in front of each of them. James dug in, famished. Before he knew it, the bowl in front of him was empty, the roll was gone, and his stomach was complaining for a new reason. He let out a massive sigh of contentment, matched by Steven. "What was that?" James' mother was a great cook, but this was still one of the best meals he'd eaten. Some of that may have been how hungry he was, but still.

Steven chuckled. "No idea! They make it using whatever people find in the area, along with a few spices they bring with them. It's always delicious, but I've stopped asking what it's made from."

James was still curious, so he waited until the chef walked by. "That was delicious! What was it?"

She smiled. "The stew is a hedgehog and some plants somebody found, the rolls are made from flour we brought with us, and filled with jelly made from pigs' feet."

James stared as she walked away. He'd liked the filling! Steven laughed and smacked James on the back. "Like I said, I don't even ask. Annabella is one of the best cooks around, but she uses some strange ingredients. I once had a delicious soup. Delicious, that is, until I discovered it was slug soup. That kind of ruined it for me." James stared, incredulous. Steven laughed again. "Like I said though, it's always delicious!"

James just shook his head in disbelief. Still, he couldn't argue that it wasn't delicious.

Steven stood up to leave, and James followed suit. Then he realized he didn't have any way to pay for the meal. "Uh, I just realized I don't have any money." He'd heard of people doing dishes for meals, maybe he could do that here?

Annabella and Steven laughed. Steven reassured James. "Don't worry, while we're out on guild business like this the guild covers the food. You're fine." James glanced at Annabelle to make sure. She nodded and waved him away, still chuckling.

"How about you help me take down my tent? We're leaving today, and I'm in charge of storing the tent." Steven started walking again.

James followed. "Sounds good to me." He didn't have anything better to do. He followed Steven for a few steps before Steven stopped abruptly and face-palmed. James barely stopped himself before running into him. Steven looked at James and smiled. "Or how about first, we go get you some new clothes." James was about to bring up the point about him not having any money, but Steven interrupted him. "Don't worry about money, remember we said we found some in the remains of your village."

James did remember Marcus mentioning that, although he didn't know how much he had. Then he realized that no matter how little he had he would have to get some clothes, so he nodded and followed Steven to get some clothes.

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After getting some clothes and helping Steven pack up the tent (which was made far easier with the help of a bag of holding), James was sitting next to a fire again. The camp had been taken down surprisingly quickly, and it was almost time for them to head out again. Everyone was bustling around getting the last few things done. James didn't have anything else to pack up, so he was sitting and waiting, when someone walked up to him. He looked up. It was Marcus, the man from the night before!

Marcus sat down on one of the other seats. "Hello James, I have a choice for you to make, and some advice for the choice. We're going to be leaving pretty quick, and I assume you'd like to come with us?" James nodded. "That means you have a choice. You would have just about enough time to go look at your village right now, and it's up to you. However, my advice is to not, let the image of how it was before remain in your mind as the way it looked. Still, it's up to you."

James sat for a moment and thought. At first he wanted to go get one last look at his village. But then he thought about what Marcus had said. It wouldn't really be getting a last look at his village, according to what he'd heard there was nothing left. He thought for another second. He actually wanted to look closer to the ashes of his house, he might find something that survived to keep as a last reminder. After all, the fire couldn't have destroyed everything. "I'd like to go, perhaps I can find something in the wreckage of my home."

Marcus smiled. "I actually thought of that. I have an ability to find things of value. Usually I use it in dungeons to find hidden treasures, but I used it in the wreckage of your old house. We got everything of value we could find in the whole village, but I kept the stuff from your house separate. That was actually the main thing we've been doing while here. To see that there were no survivors only took a little while. We collected the things we could from the village for the last while."

James thought for another second. If that was true, he didn't have any other reason to go look at the remains. "I guess then I'll take your advice and remember it the way it used to be."

Marcus smiled. "Good. I think it'll be better that way." As he walked away his smile faded slightly. I wish that's what I'd done.

James sat there by the fire for a while longer, thinking about his home, which he was soon to leave forever. Eventually Steven walked up to him. "Hey. How you doing?"

James looked at him. "Not too bad, all things considered."

Steven smiled sadly. "Bad question. Anyway, we're getting ready to leave. I'm driving one of the wagons today, but most people are walking. Do you want to ride with me, or walk?"

James thought about it for a second. Walking sounded kind of nice, but he also wanted to get to know Steven better. And he'd had enough time alone with his thoughts during the past few hours. He smiled at Steven. "I'll ride with you, if you don't mind."

Steven smiled. "I don't mind in the slightest. This way."