“Zeke, is that you?” a voice I had not expected to hear interrupted my reading. I was in the arena in a box seat Kellnock had added. Players could these for a contribution of valuable materials to the dungeon. I personally had access to one because rank has its privileges. had been explaining the buffs I received for being a member, and they were more inclusive than I realized. But those thoughts fled my mind as my attention turned to the speaker.

A woman had just entered my box seat. Either Raven or Maxwell must have let her in. She wasn’t what my head told me to expect. She wasn’t even human, she was one of the female micilium. She had a large mushroom on the top of her head that was white with pale red spots. She wore what looked like simple starter gear.

As I looked at her face, however, my brain slowly caught up. “Jess?” I glanced down, assuring myself I was wearing my ring. “How…” I asked, stunned even as I rose.

There was a moment of tension that snapped as we both rushed at each other. I pulled her into a hug as she pulled me into one. “Max brought me here. I was able to create a character at the altar under your dungeon,” she said in my ear.

“I’m so sorry,” was all I could think to say, like an idiot, to my sister.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to come to you,” she said. We had been all each other had on Earth. I knew my death had left her hollow. So much so that she’d even left the in.

I could feel her tears falling on me. As I had more of a body, even though I wore the illusion ring I could still feel more than I ever could before. I was certain I would’ve cried if I could’ve at the time. I just closed my eyes and held my sister. Though it wasn’t her as I had known her, this was still my sister.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Maxwell and Raven looking in through the door. I smiled at them and nodded in thanks. There was no way I could express my gratitude. I would’ve never asked Maxwell to do this, I was too much of a coward.

When Jessica finally let go of me, she stepped back and looked at me. “You’re wearing the illusion ring, aren’t you?” I nodded. “Please take it off. I know what you look like, I’ve watched enough of Max’s streams.”

“Okay, if you’re sure,” I said, reaching for the ring.

She didn’t say anything else, so I pulled the ring off and the illusion disappeared. As my body reverted back to its default form, her expression changed slightly, but when she looked at my face she nodded. “You look more like yourself now than you do with the ring on. I mean, you look sick, but you look like the Ezekiel I grew up with.”

I snorted. “You mean I look like a corpse version of him anyways.”

“No,” Jessica shook her head. “Your corpse looked better.”

I stared at her in shock. She blinked in shock. “I can’t believe you said that,” I blurted out.

Jessica started laughing.

After a moment, I joined in. The laughter once started built on itself. Even in her game character the little snort when she laughed too hard resonated. The laugh had been a mixture of stress and happiness, especially a release of stress, and went on for several long minutes.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“So, you have been watching Maxwell’s stream, and know what I’ve been up to. Now, what have you been up to?”

“Well, Maxwell told you that I had moved cities, yes? As Providence would have it, I moved to the city were Max lived.” I nodded knowing that as well. “There I went to work for one of the larger banks and threw myself into work. Not a lot else, though it did payoff, I got a promotion.”

“That’s great,” I said. “What’s wrong though?” I could tell something was off by the way she said it.

“You mean other than I lost my brother and moved cities?” Jessica raised an eyebrow at me, at least what the micilium had for an eyebrow anyways.

“Umm… Yes, besides that.”

She let out a sigh. “Once Maxwell convinced me you were alive, I was confused and worried, then I began to question a lot of things. Like why was I using work as an excuse to not go see you? It kind of changed my perspective.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked her, and that led to a much more in depth conversation. Back on Earth, when it was just the two of us, she would often use me as a sounding board to work through her thoughts and I would do the same to her.

As we talked, the arena periodically had fights and sometimes we paused and watched. It was getting close to the end of the second month, which meant there was one of the monthly tournaments going on. I was beginning to get worried that I had received no news from Friar Brown. I had been grinding like crazy growing in levels at a rapid rate, as I was certain he would need my help soon. But nothing had shown up yet.

***

“Aaron, thanks for coming,” I said as he entered my box seat.

“Of course, Ezekiel, it’s no problem.” I shook his outstretched hand. I gestured for him to take a seat next to me as I returned to my seat.

Maxwell was on the other side of him, and Jessica sat beside me. “I have a favor to ask,” I said carefully.

My tone must’ve given away the seriousness of the situation, because Aaron’s easy demeanor changed. “What can I do for you?”

I glanced at Maxwell who nodded. We had both decided this was safe and probably the smartest move we could make. “Aaron, this is my sister, Jess,” I said, leaning back so I could gesture at Jessica. “She has recently started coming here and is new to this world, I was wondering if you would be able to take her under your wing so to speak. I would, or Maxwell would, but that would be complicated given our situation and station.”

Aaron looked at Jessica, she smiled back. “It would be very nice and helpful,” Jessica said. “I know the general mechanics from watching some streams, but actually being here is quite different.”

“Of course it is,” Aaron nodded. “Are you a micilium?”

“I am,” Jessica agreed. “Maxwell was able to get my spawn to be at an altar that’s underneath the dungeon and enabled me to use the micilium race.”

“There’s an altar under the dungeon?” Aaron asked in surprise, eyeing me. “That would’ve been nice to know.”

Jessica grew worried. “I’m sorry, Zeke, was that a secret?”

“It was.” I let out a long sigh. “They have their own altar now, and that one would be inconvenient to say the least.”

“Unless there’s easy access to it, you’re right,” Aaron agreed. “Why would you have created a character in this zone? It’s not exactly beginner friendly.”

“I warned her about that,” Maxwell said. “But it was more important to have her near Ezekiel than it was to have it be an easy zone.”

Aaron nodded in understanding. “I guess that does make sense. I will do what I can. We should be able to help you level in the area. What is the racial trait that you got for being micilium?”

“It’s called magical adaptation,” Jess explained. “I can adapt my body to different kinds of magic by absorbing it.”

“That’s a powerful trait,” Aaron said. “I’m guessing you pay for it with some other side effects. Probably affecting physical.”

Jessica nodded. “Max said I should be a caster-type.”

“That would fit you well,” Aaron agreed. “I think you should absorb some death magic so you’re resistant to the creatures in the marsh. Then we can go hunting and it will make you much tougher. Once you’re strong enough, we can enter the dungeon.” They continued to talk about plans for leveling Jessica quickly for several minutes.