“Well, I’m not a pirate. I pointed to both my feet. “Arrr… I don’t have the peg leg for it matey.” Dang… that sounded cringe.

  Dori looked confused now, too. Then she grinned. “You have a translation power or item. Well, you should know they don’t do very well with expressions which are heavily dependent upon shared culture. So, I’m not sure what having a wooden foot would have to do with being a dungeon pirate.”

  I laughed at that. Maybe it was the stress of the past day or the hours of fighting monsters, but for some reason the entire scene struck me as hilarious. I laughed and laughed and went on long enough that the three of them started giving each other looks, which suggested they wondered if I was okay.

  “I’m sorry, you’ll have to forgive me. This is my first time off of my world.”

  “First dungeon run… oh how I remember mine. That sweet double XP bonus, but you’ve done well to reach level 10 if this was your first dungeon. The boss might have been a problem for you, though. This dungeon is skewed. The regular monsters are easier than the dungeon level, and the boss is a challenge for his level. It should take a party of five level 10s to take out the boss.”

  “But you were going to do it with just the three of you?”

  ‘Yep, we paid for this week’s slot. Then we get here and find out that someone was already in the dungeon. I was fit to explode, but the dungeon interface said there was only one person inside. That didn’t make any sense, so we decided to come check it out,” Dori replied.

  Nevin grumbled unhappily, “I didn’t want to, because it seemed likely if someone was soloing the dungeon then they’d probably be near the level cap, but I was outvoted.”

  Dori said, “Look, you’re in our dungeon during the time that we paid to use this spot. From the look of you, I doubt you can compensate us for that. You also likely can’t kill the boss on your own. Your HP and especially your Mana are higher than what I would have expected from a level 10, like by a lot, but even then you’re going to need help. So, are you willing to be straight with us?”

  I thought about it for a minute. Most of the characters I read about in this sort of situation always kept their origin a secret. It was always the same even in superhero movies. They got to keep an aura of mystery, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought I could pull that off. Especially if my wooden leg joke was anything to go by. The only reason they hadn’t attacked yet for stealing their dungeon slot, even if I did it inadvertently, was probably because of Adorably Harmless. That strange ability was definitely coming through.

  “Okay, fine. I’m a Forerunner. I already told you this is my first time off of my world.”

  Dori seemed to relax and Crag got all excited as he asked, “You know what this means?”

  Nevin groaned, “Don’t get started on that. We just met him.”

  Now I was even more lost. “Uh, what’s he mean?”

  Dori smiled. “Forerunners are seen differently all over the multiverse. Some hate them as though they were responsible for worlds being destroyed or turned into dungeons. Others are jealous of all the gifts they have. And then there are some like Crag who are a bit of a fanboy. He thinks that anyone lucky enough to party with a Forerunner is destined for greatness.”

  I paused for a second as I wondered how it was that the translator power could handle the term ‘fanboy’ but couldn’t manage my pirate joke, lame as it was.

  “What about you, Dori?”

  “Oh, stop flexing that ability. I don’t know what it is, but I keep getting the urge to come up and pinch your cheeks. You just look so cute.” Then she shook her head. “Ugh… see what I mean. You shouldn’t use abilities that affect your teammates.”

  “It’s been keeping me alive, so far, so you’ll have to pardon me if I don’t turn it off till I feel a bit more secure.”

  She snorted. “Reasonable, I suppose. So, we need to make back the 1000 credits that I paid for this slot. If whatever loot we get exceeds that, then we’ll give you an even share.”

  There was a sensation… it was hard to describe, more a gut feeling. But as I smiled, I instinctively knew that the immediate threat was over. They still might stab me in the back later, but for now, they were more curious than upset. Of course, I had no idea how much a 1000 credits was.

  “1000 credits, that sounds like a lot.”

  “Yeah, it is. We’ve been saving for a while. Why do you think Anwich is able to be so well developed despite being on a E grade world?”

  I shrugged, “Couldn’t say. I haven’t been there yet, but I’m supposed to go there after this. Maybe you should take me there.”

  She looked at me oddly like she was trying to check me for nefarious intent. “You can tag along with us. I can’t prove you’re a Forerunner, but that seems more plausible than a pirate now. And we’re guild registered so we don’t go around killing just anyone.”

  “I should clarify that I’m not technically a Forerunner yet, I’m a candidate to become one.”

  Before Dori could say anything, Crag burst out, “Oh yes, we’re part of his origin story. This is gonna be so exciting.”

  Chapter 13- The Joy of Teamwork

  Nevin and Dori shared a look with one another, which spoke both to their teamwork as well as to their amusement with their third companion.

  The slender mage said, “I hate to be the voice of reason… again, but are we sure we should do this? We had planned on me charming some of the lesser monsters to use against the boss. Our new friend here has taken that off the table, though.”

  Dori sighed. “You know we can’t not try. It took us forever to save up for this. We don’t have corporate backers and can’t afford this setback.”

  “We can’t afford to die either,” Nevin replied. His tone was dry without being cutting.

  “Uh, excuse the noob here, but why should the three of you have any trouble with a level 10 boss? I know it’s probably stronger than a normal level ten by a good margin, but you three out-level it by a good margin.”

  “It’s just that it isn’t the best match up for us. Nevin is focused on trying to become a charm specialist when he evolves his class, but this boss is immune to mental effects. Our plan had been for him to charm half a dozen of the monsters in the dungeon and then to use them as fodder so that Crag and I could deal damage.

  “Crag is fine as a tank but if he has to straight up tank it, then he’d need a dedicated healer, while Nevin only has one healing spell and I can’t deal enough damage to take it down quickly enough. There’s a reason this dungeon is so valuable. The boss is only level 10, but he drops a large amount of loot—including credits, crafting items, and gear—sometimes up to rare quality.”

  I nodded along, trying to understand. The words made sense, that wasn’t the issue at all. The thing for me was trying to shift my mindset from that of a gamer to someone living the game. Risk was one thing. In a game it might cost you time if you died, but when the lives of not just you, but the people fighting with you were in the balance, there was weight to these decisions.

  “I have a healing spell and I could drop my stealth ability and gain another active ability which provides healing.”

  Dori looked at her teammates. Crag had a big grin on his face and started to speak, but she cut him off, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Origin story. Okay. Can you tell us a bit more about your build and then we’ll share the same? Actually, never mind that. Will you share your status sheet with us if we share ours?”

  “Wait so, you’re offering to show me yours if I show you mine?” I couldn’t help myself. The grin on my face showed how amused I was with myself.

  “That’s what I just said…” Her words faded away as she groaned. Crag and Nevin were laughing. “Men are all overgrown children.”

  In the end, we all shared our status sheets. They were largely what I expected. If I read Dori’s build correctly, she was a close range combatant. Her specialization was in dealing burst damage more so than stealth, although she had a spell of invisibility. Crag had a taunt ability to grab attention, a couple of passives which seemed designed to mitigate damage and some spells which added elemental damage or allowed his physical attacks to harm enemies they might not otherwise be able to handle.

  Nevin’s build was the most interesting to me, and not just because his Mind stat was his primary attribute, which was similar to mine. He along with the others had three active and passive abilities like I did, although his choices were more unified in their suitability for a mage. He’d focused on lowering mana costs or penetrating resistances. Then he had four spells. One was a monster charm, one a healing spell, one a direct damage of some type and the other one to mesmerize enemies including people, apparently.

  The only odd thing that hit me was that my stats were overall higher than theirs, despite the fact that they were close to double my level. They found my skills fascinating and half a dozen times Crag kept reminding everyone how excited he was to be teaming up with a Forerunner.

  I’d remind him that I was just a candidate, but he’d only say that was even better. Dori asked Nevin, “Do all Forerunners have stats like that?’”

  The mage shrugged. “I’m not sure. I can’t see his titles or traits, so it could have something to do with those. As far as I know, Forerunners only got 2 free stats per level rather than only getting the 2 stat points per class shard.”

  “Wait, so you all only get 8 stat points per level?”

  “Yeah, that’s normal for a basic class. It goes up slightly with common, and uncommon. I don’t really know about rare or higher classes, but I assume it keeps going up. Those people keep their secrets to themselves though,” Dori said.

  Crag asked, “How many stat points do you get for a level?”

  I thought about it for a second. Secrets saved lives… sometimes… other times they just built up tension. I was going to leave this world after my quest here was completed. I just needed to decide if I wanted to risk trusting them while I was here. In the end, my awareness of my ignorance won out.

  “I have a title that doubles the stat points I gain from leveling, so I get twenty points per level.”

  Crag laughed. Nevin seemed lost in thought and Dori let out a low whistle before saying, “Maybe he can help us.”

  With their recommendations, I made a couple of changes. They assured me that Adorably Harmless wouldn’t work on the boss, but since I didn’t have another passive ability to slot into it, I left it. Then I switched out Stealth in favor of Healing Touch. I hadn’t planned to be a healer, but here I was. At least I didn’t have to join some holy order. In fact, it sounded like there weren’t as many broad, universal religious orders as I might have expected. Based upon their descriptions, such things were often limited to a single planet. Reading between the lines the adventurers couldn’t say that there weren’t gods—just that they didn’t know.

  Switching out abilities proved to be much easier than switching out spells, so Nevin was stuck with two spells that wouldn’t help at all. It was agreed that I would use Levitation to keep myself as far out of the fight as possible while using Healing Grace on Crag or any of the others that needed it and saving Healing Touch for myself if I got hit. If it looked like I had extra mana, I was supposed to use Mage Missile but only after my passive had built up a good amount.

  They warned me that the boss could launch its spikes so if I caught its attention, I would be far from safe. The more I heard about this fight, the more I realized I would have been dead before I even realized what was going on.

  Once we were all ready, we moved into place. I took up my position right outside the boss’ chamber. I could see it lying there on the ground curled up. It had to be as large as a pony, certainly much bigger than any of the others. It also gave off an ominous feeling that was hard to shake.

  You have resisted Boss Fear.

  Hmm… the name of that debuff made it seem like it was pretty common. I guess I was glad that my build automatically put points into Will. I watched as Crag charged into the room. His massive hammer was raised. At first, I thought he was going to hit the monster before it even knew he was there, but then it spun impossibly quick. Its lips were drawn, teeth glinting and tails flared menacingly as it snarled in warning.

  That didn’t deter the big man, instead he landed a blow from his hammer on the fox. I saw it cut in and the creature’s gaunt skin was stained with red blood. But he wasn’t the only one to attack. A moment later, a lance of fire blasted out from Nevin and struck the creature just as it was about to bite down on Crag.

  The firebolt knocked it off, just enough, that Crag was able to step back out of the way without being bitten. His hammer was powerful, but it was two handed and kept him from using a shield, or from making rapid strikes in close quarters. I wondered how that would work for a tank, but figured I’d find out.

  The monster was moving though, and Crag had to back-pedal as he kept moving the monster around the circular den. Fire bolts blasted out from Nevin every few seconds and I began to hope that the fight was going to end before it even got seriously started.

  After the third blast, the large spined fox turned from Crag towards the opening. I hadn’t yet used Mage Missile, but the boss was clearly now targeting Nevin. I groaned. Things never went well when the mage stole agro from the tank. But I shouldn’t have doubted them. Crag knew his business.

  The boss turning from him allowed him to use his hammer as something other than a makeshift shield. He yelled, and I assumed he was triggering his attack ability, Heavy Blow. It was the single target attack he had as compared to the other one, Sweeping Strike I believe, which was clearly for multiple opponents.

  The boss howled, and I saw it take a heavy blow to its back leg, which caused it to crumple over before quickly springing back up. All of its attention was focused on Crag again. My mind raced as I wondered how agro worked in the real world. Was it universal, or did it vary from monster to monster? The latter seemed more likely.

  The boss vented its fury on Crag, who groaned as it bit into one of his arms. He hammered at its head, but using only one arm made the attacks much less potent. I cast Healing Grace on him despite the fact that the monster was still biting him. The wounds healed even as it was attacking, but then Dori made her appearance.

  Her hand axes moved like lightning. I might have been used to rogues using daggers, but she showed me that stereotype wasn’t a requirement. She ripped its side wide open, shredding it with slice after slice. Her attacks didn’t seem to penetrate as deeply as Crag’s heavier blows, but they left multiple deep slash wounds and blood dripping down from the creature’s side.

  Dori’s attacks distracted the beast enough for Crag to free his arm, but just when I thought it was going to turn on him, I felt a surge of power coming out of Crag. For just an instant, I hated him. I hated him worse than brussels sprouts, worse than used car salesmen, worse than reality tv stars, and even more—the cancer which took my dad.

  Then it passed, and I knew that was the effect of one of his two taunt skills. It was crazy knowing that I was protected by being part of his group, but the fox didn’t share any such protection. It was infuriated and attacked him harder than ever.

  That freed up Dori to attack once more, without any delay. I cast another Healing Grace on Crag and watched as his wounds healed before I fired off a Mage Missile. We had waited ten minutes before beginning the battle so that my Immobile Passive could increase the damage by 50%. It was now up to 55% so when the flash of silver shot off my hands it actually penetrated the monster's side and left a deep bloody wound.

  The fight was going about as good as I could have hoped for, but then a humming sound started to fill the air. Nevin was next to me as he said, “This is probably the second phase we told you about.”

  I tried to flatten myself as close to the wall and hoped that their information was correct.

  Inside the room, Dori called out, “Duck.”

  Interlude 1- A Disturbance in the …

  A few miles away in the small city of Anwich, the mayor, Grazo Nitrin was busy listening to complaints from a pair of prominent members of the town.

  “As I’ve already said, they won the bid for this week’s clearing slot. It isn’t my fault that none of you were here to bid and drive it up further. They struck me as rather poor adventurers, but perhaps they scouted out the right week to make the bid. The rules are here to be followed, not for your personal benefit,” Grazo said.

  The taller being in the chair on the left side of the deck was clearly not a native. He was a good two feet taller and lacked their blue skin. Instead, he was covered in a rocky hide. “You’d do well to remember who we represent instead of trying to give advantages to some scruffy locals.”