Taylor Lynn was the first other party member to come online. Sarah was pretending like she didn’t exist.

“Hi,” Taylor Lynn said, watching Jay cooking crocodile buff meals.

“Hi,” he replied.

Sarah didn’t respond to the greeting, although Taylor Lynn wasn’t paying her much attention, anyway. Sarah didn’t even acknowledge the other woman’s existence. She forced her eyes to slide over wherever Taylor Lynn stood like they would over empty space. It was pretty impressive.

“Having an okay day so far?” Taylor Lynn asked Jay awkwardly. She didn’t seem to know how to talk to him, which was fair since he didn’t know how to speak to her, either.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jay muttered. Trying to put more effort into the conversation as he seared the crocodile steak, he continued louder. “We went to the alligator town. Picked up a couple of quests there. One of them might lead to one of the elite monsters. Like Scyllo.”

“That sounds neat,” Taylor Lynn agreed.

Jay nearly dropped the meal he was cooking. She said it sounded neat—the word was just so awkward. The term was something Jenny would use, but she’d at least be much more cheerful about it.

“Uh, yeah,” Jay confirmed. “Should help our leveling speeds.”

“Cool,” Taylor Lynn said. An awkward silence fell over the pair as Jay finished up his current unit of food and started on the next one. The only sounds to be heard were the sizzling pops of the meat cooking on Jay’s pan.

“So, anyway,” Taylor Lynn said, “I’ll be working on my Enchanting. You know, over there.”

She gestured to her crafting table. Jay didn’t know how to respond, leaving more silence. He nodded his head slightly to confirm he had heard. She dropped her head in defeat and turned to walk to her station. Even her body movements were awkward as she tenuously turned away, as though she didn’t want to.

When Ken and Jenny logged on, the twins immediately went to join Sarah. Casey popped on just a few minutes later. While Jay worked, he got the distinct impression that the small clique was talking about him. Casey was not sly and kept glancing at him every minute or two.

Jay was sure Sarah was telling them all about the awkwardness between himself and Taylor Lynn. Their meddling in proximity to his life annoyed him, but he couldn’t blame them too much. They were all in the same party, so it affected everyone. Jay had known telling his little sister could lead to gossiping amongst her friends.

And finally, Jay had to admit it would be amusing from an outside perspective. Besides, he was the one who had refused Taylor Lynn.

When Carlos logged on, the party reformed in the center of the camp. Jay passed out the crocodile meals as he caught everyone up on the events in the alligator town. Everyone listened attentively and seemed interested in the elite monster.

After the explanations, Carlos chimed in to start the planning session. “Do you think we could do a little grinding before we chase after this other elite? We are missing our second tank. I’d feel a little better with level forty abilities.”

“I could be the other tank,” Jay joked, knowing full well Scyllo had nearly killed him in two shots while he was shielded by Carlos’s protection spell.

“As amusing as that would be for me,” Sarah laughed, “I think he’s right. Let’s do it.”

“Everybody, let’s go!” Jenny cheered, a little too shrill in Jay’s ears.

Ken shot his sister a look of deep disappointment. “Jen, just… you know… okay?”

***

The party spent two full evenings grinding. The time fighting without needing to rush was deeply enjoyed by everyone. Sarah did her best to keep Taylor Lynn and Jay apart while the rest of the party was offline, citing an inability to bear the awkwardness.

The quest offered by Igno turned out to be repeatable and was a considerable boon toward their rates of experience. The first time it was completed, the quest rewarded 5,000 experience. After that, the quest dropped by 500 points for each completion. They fulfilled it so many times that they discovered 1,000 points was the minimum reward.

Their grinding sessions were peaceful since the crocodiles and other standard monsters were no real threat to a prepared, buffed party of players. The loot came in primarily crafting materials since the crocodiles didn’t drop much else of value. Ken took the materials appropriate for Blacksmithing. Everything else, especially the herbs and meat, went back into funding and fueling the buff machine.

Sarah and Jay spent every morning preparing for the following evening of grinding while discussing everything under the sun. Her favorite topic was filling in Jay on the opinions other people had about Taylor Lynn. He mostly just laughed it all off, though, in truth, he really wanted to stop talking about it after three days.

During their days of breezy grinding sessions, Jay had made plans through text messages to meet with Claire for their movie. His mind was still reeling over that future meeting. He couldn’t sort out what, if anything, to tell her about what Taylor Lynn had done.

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Everyone painlessly managed to surpass level 40. Jay himself ended up being level 42 since Casey was behind the overall level curve. There were some extraordinary new abilities floating around the party.

Jay’s level 40 ability was called Vital Strike. It used mp and required his previously acquired Vital Points ability to be active. The new ability had no cooldown and guaranteed a critical strike. The downside was that it necessitated a high level of skill. If he did not strike the creature in one of its vital points, the ability would deal reduced damage instead of being critical.

On the third day, boasting new level 40 abilities, the party agreed they were ready to hunt down the elite.

***

“I’m totally going to be ready to go any moment,” Sarah protested.

“Why aren’t you ready to go already?” Jay questioned. “We’re already five minutes past time. Your in-game clock broken? We could try to find you a watch; I have a compass.”

“Your sister is always making you late, too?” Ken asked. “Jenny makes me late all the time. Well, maybe not all the time. Whenever we go someplace, which is actually pretty rare.”

Jenny shrugged her shoulders. “I have way more makeup to do. You’re the one who went through a black eyeliner phase.”

“Why would you tell them about that?” Ken complained. “I was thirteen and liked skateboards.”

Sarah’s face lit up as she continued furiously manipulating her Alchemy table. “I’m really interested to hear more about this eyeliner phase. Do go on, Jenny.”

“Well, sure,” Jenny said brightly. “He thought skateboarding would be a good way to pick up girls. Once he started growing his hair out and making mom dye it black—”

Ken reacted by tackling his sister, forcing Carlos to step in and break them apart. Sarah was too busy laughing her face off while Jay smiled in amusement. Taylor Lynn wasn’t even paying attention to the ruckus, zoning out to somewhere else. Meanwhile, Casey was absolutely panicking at the outburst.

When all the commotion had died down, Ken’s face was in deep concentration as he searched for embarrassing stories to tell about Jenny.

Sarah continued her explanation of tardiness. “Anyway, I almost finished these potions I’ve been working on. We don’t want to end up running away like the cheerleader girls in horror movies whenever we fight those crocodile things. You know, like Jay did.”

“The game forced me to,” Jay argued.

“Uh huh,” Sarah said doubtfully. “These potions should protect us from fear for an hour. It’s a new recipe I’ve been working on using some rare Mercuran plants. Is Mercuran a word?”

“It is now,” Jenny offered. “We can make it a thing.”

“Coined it,” Sarah confirmed, disabling a bunch of the heating and cooling elements. She eyeballed the mixture, seeming satisfied with whatever she found. Using a ladle, she poured the potion into several vials.

“There’s enough for everyone to get two,” Sarah added, handing out the vials in pairs. The party gratefully accepted the potions. Jay inspected one of the items before adding it to his inventory.

System Message: Potion of Body Resilience. This potion offers the imbiber immunity from fear, sleep, and petrification effects.

“It’s more than just fear,” Jay pointed out. “Nice work, sis. But we really should get going. Who knows how big this thing’s cave is. There could be other monsters to fight through, too.”

“You’re just making assumptions,” Sarah argued. “Settle your horses. We don’t even know if it’s actually an elite. I need like two seconds to clean the equipment. Then we can go.”

“Come on, there’s a quest from that weird guy,” Jay said. “The whole thing screams elite.”

“Fine, it’s a good guess,” Sarah relented. The party struck up friendly conversational banter about the various days of each member. The time passed quickly.

Finally, Sarah said. “And we go.”

“Let’s go, everybody,” Jenny added. Ken opened his mouth to protest before realizing she hadn’t done the kid’s show thing again. She smirked at him, pleased with the successful fake-out.

The party walked in tight formation with Sarah and Jay in the front, the casters walking in the center, and Ken watching their backs in case of ambushing monsters. Walking next to Casey, her large dire wolf, Zenya, was on edge. The wolf sniffed the air suspiciously. Jay needed to be in the front to look for tracks and keep his eyes peeled for traps or hidden monsters.

The oasis was close to one of the swamp areas. The island changed drastically with a definitive line where the jungle turned into swampland. They had no problems finding the oasis. The trip through the wilderness was uneventful, which was in and of itself notable.

The situation felt instinctually off by the time they stood twenty feet away from the tunnel entrance.

“Does anyone else think it’s weird we didn’t find a single crocodile encounter along the way?” Sarah asked. “They’re usually running around the whole jungle.”

“They’re more active in the night hours, and there’s still sunlight right now,” Ken suggested. “We probably got fortunate. Or maybe they avoid this cave because of whatever lives here.”

“We could have Scales go in there and scout everything out,” Casey suggested. “I can always resummon him using the contract.”

“I think I should go scout instead,” Jay said. “No offense to Scales, but he can’t actually report back what he discovers. I can check it out and explain what I find.”

“Or I could,” Ken offered.

Thinking things over further, the creature had unknown powers if it was an elite. It could spot players easily, or the beast might have some way of sealing people inside the tunnels. Ultimately, it would be better if the whole party stuck together.

“Actually, we should probably stay close,” Jay said. “We’ll be much more ready if anything happens. We’ll all be a little off our game since we’ve gotten used to those easy fights.”

“Speak for yourself,” Sarah disagreed. “I’m always on the game.”

“Good one, dork,” Jay chuckled.

The party kept the same formation as they entered the tunnel. Jay couldn’t hear the sounds Olar had mentioned. The tunnel was eerily silent as the party descended. After a minute of creeping forward, the light from the tunnel’s mouth was completely gone.

“Do you think I should light something?” Jay asked. “I’m about to trip over my own feet.”

A chorus of assent came from the party, so he activated his last magical moss lamp. A dull green glow lit the surrounding area. The dirt in this tunnel was quite strange for a jungle. It was hard to see in the green light, but the earth surrounding the party had a red hue. The tunnel was structured with a slight down slope, leading deeper into the ground.

As they crept forward, the tunnel showed no signs of opening up. Strangely, the structure was nearly uniform. The size and shape of the tunnel remained consistent as they delved deeper. Five minutes later, they had only made it a few hundred feet into the cave since the party moved so slowly.

A strange liquid that was hard to identify slowly started pouring from the red dirt. Something like tiny pores opened up to spill the liquid into the tunnel. The flow rate increased rapidly as the party exchanged looks.

The substance moved like water but was challenging to identify in the green glow. The lamp washed out other colors, especially green that matched its light. Ken motioned for the group to return the way they had come.

And then the water started to burn.