Rayna paused at another fork in the path. There were those strange markings again. One path was marked with a bent ‘r’ and the other with an upside down ‘g’. A large symbol was painted in the center of the fork, but Rayna couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

The markings glowed with magic, but as far as Rayna could tell, they didn’t serve any purpose except for giving directions to people that get stuck down in the tunnels.

Of course, directions were useless if you couldn’t read them.

Rayna had been following the ‘r’ path for the most part, mainly because the direction she had just come from was marked with the upside down ‘g’.

The System map was useless. It didn’t show the tunnel system at all, only the terrain above, and the red dots indicating monsters on the map didn’t differentiate between the tunnels and the surface.

In fact, Rayna hadn’t felt a single monster since going into the tunnels.

Phira hadn’t been able to walk with Rayna long due to the daily time limit, but Rayna still felt better knowing that she would be back come sunrise.

Rayna’s stomach growled and she pulled one of her rations out of her Soul Realm, eyeing it with distaste.

She was out of stew.

Rayna hadn’t had a chance to restock due to the hasty flight from the inn and she was kicking herself for not asking Din about it before she left.

Wait, wasn’t I supposed to unlock a store at Level 25?

Rayna opened her Menu, and sure enough, the Essence Store had been added to the list.

“Please have food,” Rayna said aloud, leaning against the wall.

Welcome to the Essence Store! When a player absorbs more Essence than their body can handle, the leftover Essence is siphoned off by the System to help with energy management. In return, the player receives Essence Points (EP) that can be redeemed for various rewards in the Essence Store.

Some items in the Essence Store have a limit per person based on availability, and prices will vary based on the number of items currently available in the store, with rarer items costing more than common ones. If you would like to request a specific item, please contact the Administrator.

Rayna frowned. She better not get any random messages from players complaining about bugs in the System. She hadn’t received any so far. Were they being sent to Ronari instead?

After the initial welcome message, Rayna was shown a list of items that the System had for sale.

The list was pretty much useless.

There were millions—maybe billions—of items to choose from; literally pages upon pages of things for sale, but Rayna couldn’t find any sort of organizational system. There was a pair of pants listed right next to a spell book, and the next item after that was a garden tool.

Nothing was sorted into categories or even labeled with some sort of searchable tag.

There has to be a way to search…

What item are you searching for?

“Oh, right! The Liaisons!” Rayna shook her head. “I’m looking for food. Something cheap that tastes decent.”

Please use an item name for your query.

That could complicate things. Did she have to use the Emberian name for things? Or could she just say some English food names and the System would find something similar for her?

“Caram?” Rayna tried, naming the dish she and Nali had eaten earlier that day.

There are no results for ‘caram’ in the Essence Store. Please try another query.

“All right, how about apple?”

There are no results for ‘apple’ in the Essence Store. Please try another query.

“Stew?”

There are 3,300,388,493 results for ‘stew’. Would you like to narrow your search?

“Beef stew.”

There are no results for ‘beef stew’ in the Essence Store. Please try another query.

Rayna growled in frustration. “Go back to stew. Give me the first ten results.”

Showing the first ten results for ‘stew’.

1. Mena Stew

2. Casskew Stew

3. Ennak Stew

4. Brass Stew Pot

5. Linna Stew

6. Pilla Stew

7. Ywone Stew

8. Jess Stew

9. Lind Stew

10. Eld Stew

They were supposedly all stew—with the exception of the brass stew pot—but Rayna had no way of knowing what ingredients went into making the dishes.

Rayna had a little over a hundred thousand Essence Points thanks to a huge burst of Essence that she received upon completing the dungeon.

“How much is the Casskew Stew?” Rayna asked, picking something that sounded similar to something she knew. She didn’t really like cashews, though…

Casskew Stew (130,299 available) — 10,000 EP

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

“Ten thousand points? Seriously?”

That was the equivalent of a Level 50 Forest Gecko! If she bought food like this, she would go broke in no time!

“Is there a cheaper option?”

Pickleberry Stew [19,394,982 available] — 100 EP

Pickleberry didn’t sound very tasty, but it was a more reasonable price at least.

She bought one and a piping hot bowl of stew appeared in the tunnel next to her. She picked it up, sniffing its contents.

Rayna wrinkled her nose. The stew had been aptly named. The contents smelled sour, but it didn’t smell bad, exactly, just different.

The soup didn’t seem to come with a spoon, so Rayna pulled one of hers out of her Soul Realm and took a bite of the stew.

Pickleberry stew tasted much better than it smelled. The sour soup was strong, but whoever made it mixed spices in to add more complexity to the flavors. Vegetable chunks that had been cooked to perfection added a pleasant chunkiness to the soup that made it even more enjoyable.

Rayna bought ten more and placed them in her Soul Realm for later. That solved her food problem for a while. Even if she got sick of the stew, she could find something else in the store that was within her budget.

She finished the soup while browsing through the store.

The search system was clunky at best. If she looked for the word spellbook, she was given everything from cleaning spells to nuclear bomb level explosion spells. If she tried narrowing her search, it came up with no results.

To make matters worse, the quality was inconsistent. Rayna had pulled out a second bowl of pickleberry stew, intending to browse a little longer, only to find that this bowl was not only cold, but it also didn’t have vegetables or any spices to balance out the strong vinegar taste. Checking her other soups, she found only half of them were palatable.

Frustrated, Rayna threw all of the stew back in her Soul Realm and closed the store. She would have to be careful not to buy something too expensive, or she might waste all of her points on a dud item.

Rayna wandered for another hour, turning in the ‘r’ direction every time she came to a fork in the road. She paused when she came to an intersection with three roads, all of them marked with words instead of symbols.

The left path was marked ‘central cavern’, the right path was marked ‘dead end’ and the path across from Rayna was marked ‘out’.

She checked the path she had come from. It was marked ‘dead end’.

If I can suddenly read the symbols, does that mean…

Someone sneezed, the sound echoing down the rightmost path.

Rayna turned and sprinted down the passage, following the sound of Shela’s sneeze. The passage went further than Rayna expected and as she ran, something seemed off to her.

it shouldn’t have been close enough to translate the writing. Rayna’s range was only ten feet or so. What was going on?

Shela appeared in the path ahead of Rayna.

Rayna skidded to a stop, activating her Night Vision skill. Shela didn’t look right. Her skin was darker, almost black, and her hair glowed blue in the dark of the tunnel.

She almost looked like a—

“Rayna?”

Rayna whipped around, finding Shela—the normal Shela, no dark skin or glowing hair—standing behind her. Rayna turned back to the tunnel, but the other Shela was gone.

“Are you okay?” Shela asked, putting a gentle hand on Rayna’s shoulder.

Rayna shook her head. “Forget that! How are you okay? I saw the tunnel collapsing, dirt coming down and then I tripped—are the others okay, too? What’s going on?”

Shela pulled Rayna into a hug which was not what she needed right now.

Rayna pulled out of the hug, backing up several steps. “Personal bubble, damn it!” She shook her head. “I didn’t mean to leave you all behind, but the tunnel and the portal and—”

To Rayna’s frustration, she started crying again.

“They’re fine,” Shela assured her. “The tunnel didn’t collapse. You’re just hittin’ the plateau is all. Did your parents ever tell you about it?”

Rayna frowned, wiping her eyes. “What is that, some kind of magical puberty?”

Just what Rayna needed: hormones.

“No, not like that,” Shela said. “It means you’re evolvin’. It tends to mess with people’s heads. I’ve got folks lookin’ for us. Let’s just stay put for now, all right?”

Evolving? Was that like Class ascension? Nali never mentioned it.

“Look, I don’t really know what you’re talking about,” Rayna said. “But I’m not waiting for some rescue. Can we just—?”

Shela started speaking before Rayna was finished. “You don’t know about the plateau? Where are your parents? They should have told you somethin’ at least?”

Rayna took a deep breath. “I’m from the tutorial, remember? My parents died a long time ago and they certainly didn’t know anything about plateaus or magical puberty or whatever.”

Shela shook her head. “I thought that was… You really mean it, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Rayna had a lot less trouble convincing Nali that she was from the tutorial. In fact, Nali had come to the conclusion on her own.

Shela had seemed more open minded.

“I see…” Shela said slowly. “I’m sorry, Rayna. I shoulda been slower to jump to conclusions. We can start walkin’ if that’ll make you feel better, but we aren’t likely to find our way outta these tunnels. It’s a maze down here.”

“We can just follow the markings on the walls,” Rayna said. “Central cavern, out, dead end; everything’s pretty clearly marked.”

“You can read them?” Shela asked, surprised. “I thought you were from the tutorial.”

“I can read them the same way I’m talking to you.”

Shela lifted her eyebrows. “Empathic translation. That’s a rare one. Umm… sure. Let’s go then. Do you mind if I call my friends first?”

Shela pulled out a scry glass—Rayna had seen Nali use it once—and activated a spell.

The glass glowed slightly, then went out.

Shela frowned and tried again.

“No signal?” Rayna asked.

Shela nodded, putting the glass back in her Inventory. “I’ll just have to wait until we get out.”

Rayna nodded. “Then why don’t we—”

An explosion rocked the tunnel. Rayna lost her balance and slammed into the wall, looking in the direction it had come from.

“Hey, are you okay?” Shela asked, her voice worried.

“What the heck is that?!” Rayna pointed at the approaching figure.

A lion, black as coal, approached them slowly down the tunnel. His paws were the size of small dinner plates, and he barely fit in the tunnel at all. His eyes glowed red and his mane was made out of pure flames. It flickered as he walked, casting odd shadows on the wall.

Shela shook her head. “Rayna, look at me. You’re hallucinatin’, all right? There is nothin’ there. We need to get you out of the tunnels before—Achoo!—anything else happens.”

Rayna couldn’t take her eyes off of the lion. She was hallucinating? It didn’t look like a hallucination.

The lion stopped several feet from them, staring directly at Rayna.

She moved away from the wall, taking a step toward the creature. If it was a hallucination, it couldn’t hurt her, right?

The animal opened its mouth and roared.

Rayna clapped her hands over her ears, backing up a step.

“It’s not real!” Shela insisted.

“I’m not sticking around to find out,” Rayna snapped. She grabbed Shela’s hand, not willing to leave someone behind again, and ran down the tunnel.

The lion followed, somehow matching their pace despite his leisurely walk. He let out a growl every time Rayna looked back, as if urging her to keep going.

“Go away!” Rayna shouted, pushing herself to run faster. She skidded to a stop as the way was blocked by a group of players leading several canine creatures.

“Shela?” the man in the front said. “What’s going on?”

“She’s—” The rest of her sentence was drowned out by another roar from the fiery lion.

“Everyone out, now!” Rayna shouted, running along the wall to pass the group.

The people seemed confused, but the next moment, their canines started howling in terror and running alongside Rayna.

Rayna made it to the tunnel exit, not stopping until she was clear of the entrance. The dogs kept running but Rayna turned to make sure everyone got out.

They caught up with her, surrounding Rayna and asking her if she was all right.

Rayna pushed them off and looked into the tunnel. One man was lagging behind, his walking stick clicking as he hobbled through the tunnel.

“Come on!” Rayna yelled. “He’s right behind you!”

“It’s not real!” Shela insisted again. “Elder Lona is in no danger.”

The lion paused just behind the elder, his eyes glowing brighter.

His growl reverberated through the tunnel and this time, Shela reacted, turning furrowed brows in the direction of the sound.

“That doesn’t sound good,” one of the men commented.

Elder Lona’s eyes widened, and he sped up, running full tilt toward them. “Get away from the opening!”

Rayna was dragged backwards and she barely caught sight of the lion as it opened its mouth to roar again.

This roar shook the mountain so hard that Rayna lost her footing. She fell sideways, her head striking a rock.

The world went black.

* * *

Shela rushed to heal Rayna’s injury. It wasn’t serious, which was a relief. She looked up just in time to see Elder Lona thrown off of his feet and toward the cave entrance.

For the briefest moment, Shela could have sworn she saw a pair of glowing red eyes in the darkness, but the tunnel caved in, blocking the passage from view.

Elder Lona landed outside, scraped and bruised, but alive.

He healed himself, shaking his head to get the dust and rubble out of his hair.

“I assume this is your lost Initial,” he said, nodding at the unconscious Rayna. “She just saved our lives, it would seem.”

“What happened?” Jelin asked, frowning at the pile of rubble where the entrance used to be.

“Likely a natural gas leak caught fire,” Elder Lona said. “It happens every few decades, but the mountain usually recovers in time.”

“The mountain… recovers?” Jelin repeated.

“Never you mind. We need to set a general warning to stay away from the panic portals for the time being.”

Shela didn’t really understand what Elder Lona was talking about, but she suspected this was one of the community’s secrets that she wasn’t Lerian enough to understand. Sometimes she wished she could have that cursed word on her name tag just so she could understand what was going on.

“Why isn’t she waking up?” Walla asked.

Rayna didn’t stir, but she didn’t seem to be in pain either.

“I suspect she’s hitting the transformation stage,” Elder Lona said. “She may sleep for an hour or a decade. Every Lerian is different. It would have gone smoother if we had been able to explain a few things before she passed out, but there’s nothing we can do now.

“Come on. There’s a small village on the other side of this mountain. Let’s get her warmed up and comfortable for now, and we can discuss finding her family before she wakes.”

Jelin picked Rayna up and followed Elder Lona as he started walking North.

A flash of movement caught Shela’s eye, and she turned just in time to see a man in a black cloak running full tilt down the mountain, an Ursinix chasing after him. The vicious white bears were somehow not classified as monsters, despite their tendency to attack anything that moved.

What was someone doing on the mountain? It wasn’t very hospitable. That was why they chose it for hiding in the first place, or so Elder Lona always said.

She turned to ask the Elder about it, but he was already several yards away and moving fast.

Shela sprinted to catch up, resolving to talk to him about it later, after she’d had a chance to investigate a little more.