Location: Wayfarer's Retreat -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

An incredulous look crossed his face. It was something he had dismissed out of hand, but now that he was watching Alja talk and move up close, it seemed less and less outlandish by the moment. Drunk assholes were a familiar commodity 'round the gas station and his home alike. There were more than a few instances when one of his siblings would come stumbling into the living room, sloshed out of their mind- it looked a lot like Alja did now. Damned if it made any sense, though.

"'M I gonna be okay, Graves?"

He took her by the shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The irony of it wasn't lost on him. "You're gonna be just fine, pal. Nothin's been done to you, you're just..." He paused a moment. "I get the feelin' you don't drink too much IRL. This is that. Now, I'unno why you're feelin' it in here, but I think I've got a fix for it."

With one hand he lifted up Alja's palm into his. With the other, he unsheathed just an inch of the greatsword hanging from his belt. Just enough that he could nick the tip of her finger. It was a cut he'd practiced a hundred times for diabetic strips, only piecing enough skin for a droplet of blood to slip out.

'Focus. Only pull out what's needed. Don't want her to hit me.' Graves turned his hand over, motioning toward the wound with a single finger. A tiny stream of oddly colored blood began to be coaxed out...

Location: Wayfarer's Retreat -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Alex flashed a quick thumbs up at Kazuki after Benkei finished assigning their team's roles for the raid. "Looks like I'm gonna be your bodyguard, man." He felt like giving him a slap on the back, but they hadn't been well acquainted enough for Alex to do that, so he settled for the awkward gesture.

Most of his raids had been done with the magic-heavy team compositions his brother's guild naturally produced, so it was reassuring to know his role was nothing out of the ordinary. On the contrary, the amount of tanks was galvanizing. Entering combat lacking tank support meant having to get good at not being swatted around. With teammates like his current ones, he'd be able to go all out with his arrows. He thought of all the movement and attack combinations he'd been taught in a similar fashion, with special attention given to the ones that were too risky to pull off without a distraction. Another ruckus in the hall snatched his attention, however.

"Someone's getting engaged in-game?! You can do that?!" he exclaimed, eyebrows stretching towards their limit. People took online relationships on this game pretty seriously with all the immersion it gave players, so it wasn't completely unbelievable that someone would take it a step further. But still... proposing in some dumb hall before a raid of all things?

"Hey, congratulations!" he said at last.

It had been an odd thing to do, but it was still cute. His teammates, too, paused their actions to admire the sight in similar ways, with one reaction in particular startling him.

"Huh, You all right there Kalie?" he asked. Her queenly veneer had slipped for a fraction of a moment in a way that was surprisingly endearing. No talk of darkness or shadows, just a simple appreciation. "It's good to take a break from roleplay every now and then you know," he said, suppressing a chuckle.

Location: Wayfarer’s Retreat -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

This was bad.

The sudden proposal was nice, in some roundabout way. Benkei was unaccustomed to romance, seeing as how his isolation in his everyday life meant that he had few friends and exactly zero confessions at high school. And marriage? Benkei’s thoughts on marriage were not rose-tinted. He’d watched throughout his childhood the breakdown of his parent’s marriage, and the toxic effect it had left on both himself and his older brother. To him, marriage was nothing more than a vehicle for more misery between two people. Part of him wondered if he was even capable of feeling or experiencing love. It didn’t matter, however, since he’d put so much of himself into the game. Who needed love and affection when you could get the respect of your peers. The reaction of the party to his plan at the same time made him feel...warm inside as if their respect for his plan gave him some semblance of acceptance from the group.

And then the women all got drunk.

“When the hell did they patch that in?” he grumbled, looking at Alja stumbling around like a comedy routine. He was too focused on strategy and combat to ever really get into the world like some roleplayers and had never drunk ale or anything of the sort in-game. Hell, he never even ate anything unless it had some effect to boost his effectiveness in battle.

So why was he suddenly hungry?

“I swear,” he muttered, “If the game designers decided to drop a survival update without publishing a dev letter about this, I’m going to break something,” he let Graves handle the woman. The older man seemed better at dealing with that. Benkei had no idea what to do at all with that.

“I hope everyone can sober up quickly. I doubt we’ll have the luxury of sleeping off a hangover when the dungeon awaits us.”

Location: Wayfarer's Retreat -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

A lot happened very quickly.

Seele was pleased with the group that was forming around them. Alja was a wonderful presence, Kazuki, for his quietness, seemed nice enough, as did his brother. Kalie was an…intriguing person, whose dedication to her character Seele could certainly respect, and Alex—an entirely new face to her, compared to the more infamous members who she didn’t know, but had at least heard of—was delightfully chipper. She couldn’t tell how experienced he was, but she’d try to keep an eye out for him in the dungeon, just in case.

The red-haired, drink-dumping tank finally joined them—Rael, apparently—and to her surprise, she started speaking Japanese. Seele blinked, unsure if she’d even heard correctly, but, no, she definitely had. Pariah generally filtered all speech into its common tongues, one would have to go out of their way to say something in their native language. It had been a while since Missy had spoken Japanese, and most of it had been conversations with her father growing up, or his colleagues. Seele made a note to remember that for later.

The surly swordsman, Graves, came over. She gave him a smile and when he held out his fist to her, she stared at it. Oh—duh. She made to bump knuckles with him when attentions suddenly shifted.

There was commotion across the Retreat, and Seele looked around a bit blindly at first until she saw that the stoic, authoritative woman, Luci, was an utter mess of smiles and tears and screams of joy. Seele couldn’t really hear them from where she was, but she saw Luci showing off her hand to her friends, and the beaming grin on Aaginim’s face, and was able to put two and two together.

“Ohmigosh! Guys! Guys! That’s so beautiful!” She squealed, clapping her hands and bouncing on the tips of her toes. Her oversized cap bobbed atop her head like a buoy at sea.

The excitement, at least for their group, was short-lived as Alja, who was so distinctly…vertical compared to the rest of them, became suddenly and somewhat alarmingly horizontal. Seele wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at first. Clumsiness? No, that seemed out of character. Maybe just a bit tipsy? That seemed to be the growing consensus.

Graves was the first at her side, which Seele found to be an endearing surprise. As with most people who put on rough faces online, he seemed to have a softness to him. Seele found the scant remains of her worries washing away. It seemed to her that, so long as their group stayed together, they could handle whatever challenges this dungeon presented.

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

There was something strange in the air, but most of the traveling wayfarers didn’t quite see it.

Rael and Graves were the first to notice that alcohol was having an effect, which upon moving to Alja’s aid Leaves called it a “weird glitch”. Glitches in the temporal network technology that supposedly created the simulation weren’t rare, but most of them were accustomed to issues with the console commands and they tended to never last long than an in-game hour. It was for that reason, as well as Aaginim’s own bliss at his engagement that they had set off once Alja had gotten her bearings thanks to Graves, though to be on the safe side some dried meat and fruit was purchased from the vendors in the wayfarer’s hall. Benkei had suggested the idea, admittedly weary and cautious of a survival patch.

It was strange as the two groups walked in formation behind one-another. The air felt… different.

Rael noticed it as her own intoxication began to wane in the humidity of the riverbed and in the shadow of the baking summer sun. It reminded her of summers in Okinawa. Atlas had remarked for the first time since they left that it was “Fucking Hot.” and as the group walked they did notice less immune to the effects of Aetheria’s weather like usual. The two groups just presumed it was part of the glitch, though they pressed on. Weather and Hunger wasn’t going to stop them from being the first ones to enter a dungeon and name it.

Rael had never got to name a dungeon before, though she doubted she’d get to. The honors usually went to the raid leader.

As they walked through the humid forest she had looked forward to him in his group, wondering what his inclination would be. She gripped her spear and braced it along her neck as she continued walking, though she made sure that the blade wouldn’t hit anyone. Benkei had placed her in the front of the pack and it earned him some respect from her so at the very least she’d be on her best behavior for the time being. Both of the groups soon came upon a clearing that looked like a typical monster zone, but it was empty.

The dungeon was still aways away, but even the Well of Salanir had zones like this where hordes of goblins and other things were ready for them. They usually started the fight by now. It was strange and she nearly said something before Luci remarked that it was strange how there still wasn’t any monsters or crazed lunatics. She explained how she had scouted with Leaves and that nothing had changed. For the more paranoid wayfarers it likely didn’t sit well with them. The World of Aetheria, at least within the game’s framework had never thrown curveballs or changed meta. It was a pretty straight magical simulation.

It was weirder when they came to the base of a moss-covered mountain where the dungeon had spawned into a greek-like opening. Still no monsters, like Leaves and Luci found it like.


Little did they know of the dangers that were lurking inside…
-

-

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

There were some comments as they entered.

The entryway had giant ancient murals painted on each wall, depicting a stereotypical group of heroes–a wizard, a knight, a ranger, and a cleric. On the west wall it saw the group of heroes fighting shadowy figures, walls of fire and lightning before meeting a strange goo-like creature; and on the right it depicted a bridgeless chasm with spike traps, totemic pillars, and a shadowy figure with red eyes. Both ended with a great shining key. It was foreboding and before either group could comment it appeared that goblins crawled out of vents at the top of the walls, armed with daggers.

The two groups swiftly dealt with the two swarms of goblins that came from each side of the wall.

It wasn’t anything too strange, but some members thought otherwise.


“Goblins and tiny holes. Never gets old.” Atlas commented in a dry monotone as he removed his sword from one of the creature's bodies.

What stood out to Rael as he did so was the smell. That wasn’t normal. Benkei had mentioned back in the hall about a survival patch and it was starting to seem like they were right, though with how weird the dungeon felt to the red-haired tank she wasn’t sure that was completely it. Mobs normally had no smell to wayfarers and dungeons usually had death mobs on the way to the entrance. Something wasn’t right, she just didn’t know what it was.

“It’s weird. Do you guys smell this?”

“It appears the devs have decided to make monsters even more disgusting.” Enos coughed, waving his hand like a fan. “Is it April Fools?”

“Christmas is in a week, so no.”

Rael pressed her tongue against her uppermost canines as she looked back to the mural, wiping goblin blood off her spear’s blade as she did so. “Looks like this dungeon has some traps. And a chasm.”

“Yeah… these look like walls of fire or something on this mural, too. Spikes. Could be a number of things.”

“Most of these dungeons are straightforward. They are throwing one of those weird survival dungeons at us? Guess we know why Alja was fuckin’ hammered.”

Rael looked at the brown-haired girl, Sif, and then at her own party member, Seele. It seems like this was a dungeon that was made for relying on supports rather than traditional healers and damage do-ers. A support-positive dungeon? The least populated role in the game? She was surprised, but at least they were warning them with murals.

“Guess the supports get to have fun today.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, guys, but looks like we ain’t staying together too long.” Siegried uttered as he and Aagnim stood at a door that they had pried open while everyone was cleaning their weapons of goblin’s blood and talking of their stench.

“Looks like this door splits off into two paths. One left, one right.” He looked back to Luci, “Let’s take left. I know you hate right turns.”

The swordsinger rolled her eyes as she looked to Benkei who approached the two other male tanks in earnest.

If he looked left and right, they appeared to be about the same in terms of corridors. Both were dimly lit, but that could be amended by a support with some kind of illumination ability. This is when he would probably realize the murals spoke of what each corridor led to. Which would each group be best for? What did he think?

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

What else was there to say? He was busy wiping off the blood from his sword; something he’d never had to do before. He looked back to the wall murals and back to Aag’s group. “It looks like your path will have more combat, but I believe your party will put out higher DPS.” They did have some high ranked DPS players, after all. “We have good agility and survivability with Rael and Graves on our team. I think whatever secrets behind these totems and a chasm can be figured out by my group.”

He turned back, before feeling something. A pang of worry, deep within his stomach. Why did it feel so...scary? It was just a dungeon. But the gore, the smells...this wasn’t a halloween or April Fool’s trick. This all felt...too realistic. Like someone had modded the game. Maybe in America violence of this level was fine...but not in Japan. Someone would lose their job over this.

“Look, whatever’s going on in the game...whatever the dev’s are pulling suddenly…” Benkei struggled with compassion to anyone beyond his brother, but these people actually believed in him. For the first time, Benkei felt a tinge of hope that maybe he could belong somewhere. “Something feels wrong abou...all of this. Be careful.”

He made his way facing the entryway into his group’s chosen path. He waved at Aag, Luci and the rest of their group. “We’ll see you on the other side!” He called, doing his best to smile. Ahead lay darkness and danger, the unknown of a brand new dungeon. Benkei’s heart began to pound rhythmically, just like every time his parents began to fight.

It will be over soon, he tried to convince himself.

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It had been a long, and unusually uncomfortable walk to get here as far as the weather was concerned, and once the raid had moved inside, things had only gotten…stranger. Seele wasn’t blind to patterns, and one was certainly forming here. Between Alja's inexplicable drunkenness, the stark humidity, and now this horrid odor, she couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. A glitch, certainly, but not one she’d encountered before, and from the wary looks spreading amidst the raid, she assumed it was a first for them as well.

An uneasiness was beginning to take root. Benkei was doing his best to soldier through it, and so Seele decided to do her part and share his resilience.

She waved farewell to the other group, finding a warm respite seeing Aaginim and Luci together. Then she turned her attentions back to her own team, and clapped her hands together.

“Eyes bright, everyone! Strange or not, there’s new content ahead. Aaginim’s counting on us to do our part, so just follow Benkei’s lead, watch each other’s backs, and everything will work out great!”

Seele believed her own enthusiasm. She sort of had to, as a support; sometimes people could get so down on themselves walking into unfamiliar territory, and it wouldn’t do for her new friends to be doubting themselves now.

She made her way to the lanky, quiet beanpole called Kazuki, nodding gently. She often sought out her fellow supports and healers before raids, especially new ones. Coordination was key to these sorts of things, and she didn’t want to be the cause of any potential problems.

“Hey, Kazuki!” she said. Her voice was a tinge quieter now, given they were in a dungeon and things could get…echoey, otherwise. Still, she kept her tone bubbly. “Looks like Benkei’s got me off in the flank with Graves, and pulling some add-duty. How are you with healing big groups? I was gonna try to stay close enough to throw a few buffs off your guys’ way, but if you’d like, I could probably focus on fortifying some of our squishies.”

She brought her fingers into the air, daintily-clawed rings poking at some invisible diagram in her head. “Alex might need some extra attention. And Kalie will probably be fine on her own so long as Rael and Benkei keep aggro, but I'm sure she'd appreciate a boost or two as well.” Seele blinked, shrugged, gave Kazuki a smile. “What do you think, though? Really, my job is to just make yours easier so you can keep our friends alive, so whatever would make you most comfortable, I’m good with!”

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It was one of the most dreadful walks she had to deal with; the heat was terrible. Her paranoia was going off hard because there were no monsters outside of the dungeon, but there were tons inside. Kalie had noticed some patterns that weren’t adding up, how the heck is so hot, one of her companions being drunk, and finally, the horrid stench. She cleaned her scythe blades, which was new to this whole thing, with her face looking utterly disgusted. It felt massively weird was happening, but she couldn’t put the finger on it. A Glitch wasn’t this bad, and they did some pretty funny stuff but not this dreadful. She thought it was a new expansion or some such that unlocked Survival mode or something else. ” Uhh, yeah, I smell this horrid smell, it’s about to make me barf...” Kalie responding to the ones who could smell what’s going on as well. She held her nose because that was a terrible smell.

It didn’t take too long for Enos to open his big mouth, and she rolled her eyes at what he said. April Fools, it wouldn’t be like this if she needed to barf because this shit is nasty. The monsters being dead and giving off a smell of death didn’t help either. It’s like Enos has a quip for every little thing going on or something. ’ Ugh, I wish Enos was dead… Because Damn, he isn’t funny, and he needs to stop undressing anyone else and me, especially.’ Kalie thought to herself with an intent look at Enos. After that, she stopped staring at him and tried to look away because it was dreadfully tiresome.

This is the first time Kalie ran into a dungeon with split paths; all the Pariah Online dungeons were straight forward enough like a game should be. She blinked a bit and tried to figure out a plan of attack until Benkei and Seele spoke up. ” I do agree, Benkei, there’s something fishy going on. I don’t know what, though.” Kalie said with a bit of annoyance in her voice. She looked at the one who talked about following Benkei’s lead, to which she giggled slightly. ” I do agree with what you said, Seele. We should be careful though, don’t want to do anything too reckless.” Kalie said with a smile. It showed something was a bit odd about her as if she had a second roleplaying persona or something.

In terms, when Benkei chooses the path that his party was going to go through, which Aag’s team didn’t choose, she would try to keep a better eye out. Kalie had a twinge of hope that they can get done with this dungeon and go back to the Wayfarer’s Retreat. When Benkei said something to Aag’s team, she decided to pipe up about it. ” I do hope you all do your best, Aag’s team. Also, Luci, good luck in marrying the goofball. He’s like one of those people you don’t want to lose.” Kalie said with a different demeanor than usual. She finally showed another side to her than just a dark edgie person, but it's only because of how happy she thought those two would become.

It’s something she developed on her own time in the Gloro Inquisitors, which would make some people have whiplash probably. Even though the primary thing Kalie is still Standoffish and doesn’t like anyone touching her still, multitasking personas. ’ I think I should’ve waited to show that… but like it matters. I couldn’t pass up embarrassing Luci and Aaginim. Now people know I have two RP personas… ugh, great.’ Kalie thought with a slight smirk on her face. She always has something to show off, even though she was still roleplaying as someone, a double-life noble, so to speak.

Kalie did hear Seele said about her being alright as long as Rael and Graves keeping up aggro, which she did smile. ” Yes, as long they do. I will be happy killing those monsters for the darkness. I would always like a boost in combat potential.” Kalie spoke to add to what Seele had said.

’ It couldn’t get any worse, I hope.’ Kalie thought in the back of her mind. She did hope everything that’s happening is nothing to worry about, but it's better to be safe than sorry in her case.

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

As the heat began to rise to unprecedented highs, Alex found himself visibly puzzled at the change in mechanics. Where another player would have kept their mouth shut out of a fear of looking inexperienced, the worry hadn't crossed his mind in the first place. "Man, this heat sucks. Don't tell me all the new raids are gonna have stuff like this to make it harder on us." His light armor was merciful at least. The tanks in their formation couldn't say the same. At the speed they were going, they were gonna get cooked like lobsters by the time they reached the entrance. Or at least, the speed he felt they were going. The heat was starting to make time feel heavier, he realized.

He was tempted to whistle a tune to pass the time. Of course, that would have been idiotic in any other raid, given the propensity this game had for sudden combat against monsters with names he needed help and roughly three tries to pronounce correctly. But this... was different. No rustling from within the undergrowth, no tracks left on the ground, nothing. Just the heat. God, the heat. It made the Canadian slightly homesick.

When they had at last reached the entrance of the dungeon, the odd sensations continued. Smells, this time. The naturally repulsive odor of a cave mixed with the eventual rot the second they finally entered combat. Alex was no stranger to the occasional hike in real life, so the discomfort did little to actually affect him from fighting. He was even piqued to a certain degree, wondering what other new technologies the game developers were going to try and showcase. The murals the two groups stumbled on only made the gears in his head spin faster.

A small grin crept through his face. Benkei picked the path with seemingly more traps than combat. When it came to the minutiae of combat and the metagame, Alex trailed behind the rest. But when it came to traversing obstacles, combining enhanced athleticism with wind powers granted him quite the potential for sneaking around.

As they walked, they talked in controlled voices. "Hmm, yeah," he said vaguely, in response to Seele. "I'm all offense and no defense, but these tanks can cover that part for me while I cover for Kazuki."

He raised his voice so the rest of the group could hear. "Hey, do you guys think this might be because of something like a tech demo?" he asked. "My brother's into tech stuff, and he says companies usually do them as a way of showing off what they can do with new technology. The weird smells and heat- this raid could be a way for them to show new updates off. On top of that those demos are always short, and we haven't really fought a lot of monsters. That could be what's going on."

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Foreboding hung in the air, heavy as smoke. Heat bore down from a code-built sun. Hunger rumbled in bellies that had never felt such a thing. The party of adventurers stood amidst a pile of would-be ambushers turned to corpses. Graves had waded into combat with the goblins the moment they'd appeared, throwing himself into their center to hack and slash away at their tiny, fragile bodies. Combat in Pariah brought on a rush like nothing else in the world. No other video game let him feel this way. It was over too soon, however, and he was left standing covered in gore that stunk far worse than he could've imagined.

He didn't pay it any mind. His attention was focused fully on what lay before him: a mural of some kind, depicting abstract images that must've had some kind of connection to the dungeon and what lay within. Hidden within it was doubtless information of great import-- a clue as to how to defeat its mechanisms, to conquer its bosses, to plant that ever so elusive 'world's first' flag. Graves gripped his chin with one hand, resting that arm's elbow across his second arm, wrapped 'round his torso. He squinted hard.

"I have no idea what the fuck I'm looking at."

His head rotated on a swivel over to the trio of backliners talking amongst each other about something less important. He cupped a hand 'round his mouth, and shouted over to them: "Hope you nerds are figurin' this out and not just jerkin' around!"

Satisfied that the brains of the operation would have this deciphered in no time, he turned on his heel and headed over to the main gate where most of the raid was gathered in waiting. There were a lotta people just standin' around, waiting to get into the action. It sounded like Benkei and Rael were discussing who'd take which half with Aaginim's team. Didn't much matter to Graves. There'd be things to kill either way they went. All this planning and strategizing and shit seemed like a waste of time.

There was other talk, though, that did concern him. At least a bit. Plenty of new mechanics seemed to be cropping up as the day went on. Alja getting drunk was the start of it, sure, but this heat? The rot of the dead? It had to be brand new. Like, within the hour or so they'd spent together new. Part of him was worried there'd be other, nastier surprises awaiting them. 'Doubt this circus can handle it.'

"I'm sure they'll be fiiine." Graves told Benkei. "All's we gotta worry about is gettin' these lowbies across the finish line," he said, jerking his thumb back at those not present. "You can handle that, right? Y'know, if we fail, ol' Aag's will put it all on you."

"No pressure or anything."

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“Mm.”

Sudden dungeons made sense to Rael, at the very least, in applicable game design. Pariah had been out in Japan for a little over a year and internationally almost ten months. That kind of time made it reasonable to add new content. Conventional games would increase level caps and add a slew of new dungeons and quests. While Pariah was a simulation, it was still designed with the same principles as your usual virtual MMO. But sudden patches? Weird changes? Things like that Rael could accept except for one thing: there had been no formal announcement. Wouldn’t an attendant show up to announce the game changes if it were done on purpose?

Rael mulled over the thought, shrugging as she moved past Kazuki and Seele who appeared to be having their own conversation.

“You think brown eyes can handle this?” She remarked casually to Benkei as she joined him as the main group went over their formation in lieu of the new information before setting off as Leaves gave Alja a cartoonish salute and Luci nodded to Kalie’s sentiment.

“I'm sure they'll be fiiine.”

Graves had moved forward, talking to the two of them. “All's we gotta worry about is gettin' these lowbies across the finish line, you can handle that, right? Y'know, if we fail, ol' Aag's will put it all on you. No pressure or anything.”

Right, the big moron was still with them. Rael had convienatly forgotten about him, though now she was more lucid she wasn’t thinking at a half-step and doing something dumb like almost apologizing for being strong in the face of the tall… muscular gaijin. She nearly grumbled as the thought crossed her mind again. She had to think straight. He wasn’t wrong though. If the dungeon didn’t work out the fault rested on the group leader and the tank. All of the rest were secondary. Not like Rael cared if Aaginim wanted to depend on her, anyway. She didn’t want a stupid guild invite. Player guilds were stupid, anyway. Rael had not needed one in her entire time of playing since the first week Pariah came out and she would not need one after this dungeon was dealt with, weird glitches or patches be damned.

She let out a ‘Tch’ from the click of her tongue before moving her free hand to her forehead as she peered down the right-side of the corridor. It was dimly lit by the natural lighting of the dungeon, but it wasn’t enough to get a complete tactical look at the secret tunnels and holes enemies could crawl out of. Support Dungeons were weird. They relied on tactical intelligence and guile. Combat intelligence was secondary. Brawn and Agility were secondary. Being cool was secondary. She wondered if it wouldn’t have been easier to follow Group A, but then again a Support Dungeon relied on switches and mechanisms. To get to the true treasure they probably needed to complete both corridors.

At least the treasure would be hers to hoard.

“Hn. We got anybody with light or fire magic? or am I going to have to light a torch here?”

Alja had said something behind her, about formations. Didn’t Benkei already go over this? Had she forgotten? Perhaps the alcohol and hot sun hadn’t done the tiny brain she had been born with any good. She didn’t respond, having no preference. Rael knew her role and that was to be at front, causing diversions, maintaining threat, and dealing moderate damage. That’s all she needed to know.

Rael did wonder about the question she asked Benkei, though. If they really had no utility illumination spells she wasn’t sure how her playstyle would be effective with a torch in one hand and a spear in the other. She was better with both hands on the ‘steering wheel’ so to speak. They could use lanterns as an alternative, but how much lantern oil did the party have? Was it enough to sustain lanterns throughout the whole run? She doubted it.

But she was already doubting a lot of things about this run…

Location: The Dungeon -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“Y’know, if we fail, ol’ Aag’s will put it all on you. No pressure of anything.”

“I know,” Benkei grumbled. “It’s not you I'm worried about.” He looked over to the...newbie squadron he’d put together. It was this group he had to watch. This dungeon was such an odd creation, seemingly focused more on support than actual DPS mechanics. That meant that they were going to rely on the weaker members of their team. Spreading out Graves and Rael was still a better idea than having them close to the party; if they started to argue it would distract them and leave them open for attack. Having the two constantly working instead of bickering was the only chance he had of the two actually working well right now.

Then Alja started gave her own idea of how she should play. Which of course, was counter-intuitive to his plan. She was a better tank, but they were already low on DPS, hence why he had her switch to DPS. Graves was the highest DPS player of the group, and used to solo content, having him take a flank alone would work well to his skillset. Rael’s attitude and skillset led her better to run point with the rest of the party giving her backline support and DPS, meaning her taking point in front was smart. Kalie was another high DPS player, but her playstyle was totally different than Graves; she would need the others to draw aggro so she could properly do her rotation.

“Graves, you move to the right flank then, Kalie, take the left flank ahead of Alja.” He turned to the tall woman. “I need you to play both roles today,” he said, trying to keep his voice as diplomatic as his teenage brain could. He was the leader but screaming about it would only get him labeled a brat, or a kid, or weak. And he hated any of those labels. “You’re our first and last line of defense for the main group when it comes to melee damage output, and we need to keep aggro on us to allow Graves and Kalie to do their best damage ahead of us.” Rael’s agility would keep her safe, and with his support tank magic and Seele’s support magic, they could serve to keep the defense up on the front line fighters.

“Hn. We got anybody with light or fire magic? Or am I going to have to light a torch here?”

Benkei blinked, realizing the party composition lacked fire. If they’d had Priscilica on their team, it’d be different. But here...multiple wind users, earth, lightning, ice, darkness… He closed his eyes and thought back to his science classes at school. “Does anyone have any tonic water materials? Seele, you cook, tonic water is a level three item, you wouldn’t happen to have any, would you?”

The idea was simple. Most tonic water contained a chemical named quinine, which if frozen by Alja’s magic, could absorb and emit ultraviolet light, which darkstones (a very common crafting material) emitted. It’s what made them so easy to mine since they tended to light up small caves. If they charged the frozen tonic water with the light from the darkstones, they’d be able to turn any weapon coated with Alja’s Tundra Glass into useable torches, eliminating the need to carry one in hand.

Benkei also reached into his bag, producing a small gold ring, holding it out to Rael. “It’s a torchring artifact. I use it when I can’t hold a torch and tank at the same time,” he remarked, “Since you’ll be taking point, it’d be best used by you.”

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Rael didn’t turn down items. In the past she had relished in “gifts” like this and convienantly forgotten to give them back after a dungeon was done and over with. However, Rael felt weird and given some of the circumstances for the first time she said something.

“No. You keep it.”

If Rael had the item on-hand, even with what Benkei was thinking about with tonic water, it would leave the back-end of the party without a primary source of light. Rael’s eyes were attuned to the darkness after spending days upon days traveling in the night with no source of light but the moon above. She wasn’t Kalie, who probably almost had cat-like vision in the dark, but she was competent at seeing things. Besides, she had some enchantments of her own—she didn’t need to use a torch. The runic ring around the end of her spear had lightning and light enchantments.

“That’d leave the backline susceptible to ambushes.” She looked above at the corridor, imagining the ceiling full of death spikes, “I’ve got a plan for the front.”

She placed her spear against the corridor wall and started messing with her belt before removing a vial of yellow liquid. Potion of Moonlight. She popped the cork and chugged it, before tossing the bottle aside, the sound of the glass hitting the stone floors echoing in the corridor. Her hand pressed against the wall near her and another weird thing happened. The taste of the potion made her gag. She frowned as her eyes flickered from Japanese brown to silver-white, ignoring the frustration of another aspect of the glitch.

Benkei and any other players of moderate experience would know about Moonlight Potions in what they did and what a person’s eyes looked like when consuming it. The dungeon lit up for Rael, but that wouldn’t be enough. The people beside her would need light sources to make up for it. She grabbed her spear from the wall and turned the runic plate on the end of the rod, her hand charging with lightning. Before the magic transferred into the inscribing and the runic plate began to glow and illuminate a decent amount of light. The combination wasn’t much, but it was something. Combined to the scientific fuckery Benkei was suggesting, maybe they’d be fine and people wouldn’t have to lug around torches.

Location: The Dungeon, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It happened Kalie couldn’t help but laugh and roll her eyes at Graves, with what he was doing at looking at a mural of the dungeon. She could see it much easier than him without squinting since she has a great vision in dark places, one of the quirks of being an assassin. ’ A Ray of Sunshine, that Graves is. Ha, ha, not.’ Kalie thought to herself with a smirk on her face. She felt the mural was telling them about future traps, etc., but it was a bit harder to understand since she usually used the dungeon guide mostly. It was a great help in raiding other dungeons to the finish, and it's the only way she completed those dungeons with her guild. What came out after his mouth afterward made her roll her eyes again. ’ All Brawn and no brains, it seems he is.’ Kalie thought with her trying to think. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, and it would be better not to be heavily annoyed by Graves or Rael.

Kalie took a second to have a slight realization, and all her dungeoneering happened because of guides. She opened her eyes wide and shivered down her spine with what that means, Rael is the best at this type of thing. ’ Uh oh, that’s terrifying… I can’t believe I have to rely on Rael of all people. If what I heard earlier is true, then that means she’s been playing this game longer than I have since the company who created this game is Japanese.’ Kalie thought with her entire body shivering slightly. She didn’t want to give Rael an ego boost at all, honestly.

It didn’t take too long for another to speak his concerns about what’s going on, which was Alex. Kalie had a nice looking smile on her face because it does make sense it would be a tech demo. She felt like it was the most logical explanation for now, even though the suspicion was still there. It took a bit for her to wait until after Alja to speak to Alex about the same subject she was going to speak about. It would be better not to step on any toes with her talking over them now, even if she wanted to slightly. ” I’ll go with your explanation, for now, Alex… but I am still uneasy about all this. Also, what? I am just trying to be considerate, I waited after Alja spoke to Alex...” Kalie spoke kindly to Alex. She blushed a bit because she’s not used to being considerate to other people’s feelings or not wanting to be talked over by her.

After the considerate act, Kalie heard their fearless leader talk to her about her position ahead of Alja on the left flank. ” Alright, Fearless Leader Benkei. I will do that thankfully, and I can see further distances than most people in this group.” Kalie spoke a bit informal to Benkei. She was one of the few people who listen to the team leader, which is ironic how she plays this game, by the way.

However, she did notice the potion that Rael drank after refusing Benkei’s gift. It was potion of moonlight, but how she reacted to drinking made Kalie have a slight shiver down her spine. ’ Oh great, these potions now have tastes? Uhhh, that’s not good.’ Kalie thought with her hand on her forehead. She couldn’t help but facepalm at this new development; what else effects do potions have now. It would be interesting to taste, but it wouldn’t be wise to use her potions now.

Kalie felt a shiver down her spine when Kazuki admitted this was his first time healing a new dungeon by himself. It caused her to stare at him a bit heavily, but a pyromaniac healer would be worse in this case. " Wait... what are you fucking kidding me? I do hope you can deal with the new mechanics without screwing up." Kalie said, a bit angry and slightly relieved. The latter was mostly the fact she didn't have to deal with Diana.

It is like she had to deal with a stupid dumb ass that was on purpose using offensive spells over her healing spells once upon a time. She was so frustrated; hopefully, Kazuki is much better than that dumb ass, which pissed her off, really. ” I'm sorry for yelling at you, Kazuki. Fireballs, all those freaking fireballs... with that dumb bitch of a healer in Gloro Inquisitors.” Kalie said with a slight bit of regret and annoyance in her tone. It showed Kalie had much baggage from the Gloro Inquisitors, but she tries to hide it, then she lets on.

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

As the group began dividing itself to discuss duties, things finally started to feel like normal. This was one of Seele’s favorite parts, getting to know her team’s strengths and weaknesses, figuring out where she could best fit in to help the others. Whether the challenges ahead were conventional or not, some level-headed planning and practicality would see them through.

Graves hollered some fun, good-natured banter their way, and she gave him a placating wave in return. But when Benkei came asking after…what was tonic water? She felt a little hiccup catch in her throat. Oh, oh no. He thought she could cook. She’d brought sandwiches to the Wayfarer’s Retreat and now her group leader thought she could cook.

Shoot.

“Ahm…aheh…well—” she started, but then Benkei’s attention turned to Rael, and the two discussed some sort of artifact. Rael turned him down, downed some sort of potion, and then did some spectacular work with her spear. Electric light emanated from the runes, and while it wasn’t perhaps enough on its own, it was better than the tonic water Seele didn’t have.

Kazuki spoke up again, a welcome change of thought. She was surprised to hear that this would be his first rodeo in a dungeon like this, but that was fine. Keeping Kazuki and Alex together would benefit them both, and splitting her focus between Graves and their backline wouldn’t be too difficult.

“Perfect! You two can watch each other’s backs, and I’ll do what I can to mitigate some of the damage you’ll have to heal. Alex, give me a great, big holler before you throw out your strongest attacks, alright? Oh, and Kazuki—”

Seele paused as the lanky healer produced a torch from his bags, and she audibly sighed with relief, hands clasped as if in a grateful prayer.

“Oof, you lifesaver. Anyway, if you know someone’s about to need major healing, just point’em out and I’ll try and throw some big defense-buffs their way. Hopefully that’ll make it a bit easier on you. And one more thing, both of you. If you feel a chain pulling you—”

She flicked her fingers, the ring-claws clinking faintly together. A thick, ghostly chain manifested from beneath her sleeve, wafting dim-violet light, then vanished in an instant.

“Don’t fight it. I know it’s not fun getting yanked around, so I promise it’ll only be for emergencies!”
…they’re not…coming…
Seele started a bit when Kalie spoke up. The girl was something of a shadow it seemed, but she supposed that was a given considering her role. Perhaps she had an affinity for the dark as well, or perhaps Seele wasn’t nearly as observant as she thought she was. Likely a combination of the two.

“Now now,” she said, a bit stern, but not unkindly. “Let’s focus on the enemies ahead. Experienced or not, with all of us working together, I’m sure there won’t be any reason to panic.”

Location: The Dungeon -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“No. You keep it.”

That was a shock to Benkei, and he nodded, sliding the ring onto his finger. As she used her magic and a potion to enhance her ability to see, he smirked. “Of course you’d think ahead like that. It’s why you’re one of the best.” No sarcasm, just an admittance that she was just that good. “I’ll help cover our rear in case we do get ambushed. That goblin tunnel from the entrance makes me wary of anything here.”

When Kazuki lit his own torch, Benkei moved back to the center of the group. “Kazuki, if you can cast and hold the torch, that would be helpful. I know Alex will be busy with his bow.” He trusted his brother, even if he wasn’t the kind of player to solo-heal new content. He’d been a rough taskmaster, but Kazuki always surprised him at how well he adapted. Even though Kazuki was more focused on the non-combat portions of Pariah, he’d actually done well in game.

Benkei was proud of his brother.

He turned back to the group. “Does anyone have any questions about our marching formation? Once we go in, there’s no turning back unless we have a full wipe. Keep your eyes open, and be prepared for anything in there. This looks like a tricky dungeon.”