Chapter 37) Find your own path. Or, Best two out of three.

Terri didn't waste any more time opening the other two portals she had access to, not even making another set of alcoves for them but instead popping them up in each corner of the room before I could warn her that she couldn’t send them away again.

I did tell her after the first one new one appeared, as well as telling her. “But you can move them, then make new Strata to fill in the front of an alcove and cover up the top to hide the ones you don’t want out. I’m not sure if you can really hide them from the Management, but at least you can try.”

Who knows, if someone other than this O'Sailor guy shows up, she could claim they had always been there and hidden away.

The first new Portal Terri made was called the Village of Athermar and "It's in a valley riddled with a maze of caves filled with monsters and traps you have to work your way through it to escape.”

Joyce slowly nodded. "So the village sounds like it might be safe, let's call that plan B but better than the lighthouse place."

The last portal led to what the Panel called Jotipolis, which was a city of giants that you had to survive in for a hundred days. The Trainee seems a little more interested in that one, “At least that sounds like more of something for a Rouge. Stay out of sight, steal food, kill a hundred days leveling up skills instead of fighting for my life.”

I added in, “If you do have to fight, you can pick up a long stick and a short one to get ten points for unlocking [ Staff ] and [ Club ], even just throwing a rock hard enough to kill something will unlock [ Throwing ].”

She nodded at me in approval. “So what do you think Tex? What’s my best choice here?”

I drifted back a bit, suddenly feeling put on the spot. “Let me think.”

What I thought was that Terri should take the form of a Goblin and go check out the Village and get some information before going off to get killed in either the caves or by the hand of someone willing to kill a little green guy on their request. Or would her goblin be a little green girl?

Then she could go check the giant's place and resurrect herself back here to tell Joyce what was on the other side. And everyone else that came along after her.

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I wanted to do that back in my Dungeons, but I didn’t want to get stuck in one of the other portals and miss my chance to catch up and help Matt and Drew once more time.

But then if I was on the other side of a gate when O'sailor showed up, maybe he would skip past me, maybe even permanently.

Heck, he visited Terri, right next to me, so he either skipped me on his way to her or after her.

Conflict Avoidance for the Win!

But… I had already put Terri at risk of getting into trouble, so should I put her in a spot where she had to risk getting into worse trouble by taking a body and shooting a gate out of guilt, or should I let Joyce go into a gate blind?

What’s the right thing to do here?

Joyce stepped up close to me and mimed knocking on me with her fist. “Hello, Tex. Are you in there?”

I jerked back. “Careful, these guys give off electric shocks. And they might do them on contact.”

She stepped back, looking a little alarmed. “Sorry. Got it, but I still want to hear what you think.”

I sighed. “No matter what I say. I’m going to screw one of you over, and neither of you deserve that. So what do I do here? Flip a coin. I don’t have one, or a flipper to flip with.”

Joyce set her hands on her hips and turned to Terri. “You did the thing with the gates, but I think you got more to make up for. Take the hit.”

Terri muttered. “Fine. I’m in, not because I owe you or anyone else little girl. But because Allysiara gave me a choice to do this or take another job at random. I choose this and I’m responsible for doing what I can for everyone who comes through here.”

I explained. Terri dipped down. "Well, at least I get to see a new place."

With that, she summoned another Will O wisp. Which immediately began attacking Joyce.

“Ow!” She jumped back from an electric shock. “What the Heck! Terri!”

The other guide shouted back “Sorry! I didn’t think!”

I shouted back, “Dismiss it! Tell the Panel.” As I tried to shoot electricity at it, and failed since I had no clue how to do that. And it probably wouldn't have worked since the other Wisp was shooting electricity and probably couldn't get hurt by it.

The Wisp vanished just before Joyce unlocked [ Dagger ] by swiping at it, and after some explanation, the two of us left the room as Terri gave it another try.

Several minutes later she reappeared. “The Village is filled up with a dozen or so people from other dungeons, some of them are from Earth, but there are a bunch of little guys that don’t speak English that were there first. They have to go into the cave to feed everyone, and getting to tenth level or a hundred deaths is supposed to let them get out of the valley. I’ll try the giant city now.”

It took her a little bit longer this time.”

"One of the giants yelled at me and shot a burst of something out of its finger at me. You start off in a big tunnel that is a disused drain that feeds into a sewer. The giants are several stories tall, and someone left a message in the tunnel saying they would come back and check on the arrival portal every now and then… and to beware of the giant since they eat people.”

Joyce got a disgusted look on her face. “Village it is. I going to go grab the extra stuff Tex was talking about.”

Then she ran off.

I turned to Terri. “I’m sorry…” Then tried to figure out how to say that I was sorry she had been put in this situation, but I was not sorry I had stopped her from inadvertently continuing to screw people over.

She stopped me “No, I got it. But… I think I’m giving people the best choices they can make now, and the ability to choose. Now get out of here before I get into even worse trouble.”

I bobbed at her in agreement and flew off.