Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

.

.

.

.

Bowson has logged in.

Bowson has updated their status: LF GUILD

.

.

Here’s the biggest stupid about Deep Dungeon Online.

There are a lot of stupid things about the game that grate on Amelia’s nerves. They’re just minor inconveniences. The inventory system is extremely cramped. It takes an insane amount of time to level up, but she can’t get mad about that apparently because the game is advertised as grindy and tedious and a huge waste of time. The forums have banned her from even talking about it. By that point, she feels like that should have been her sign to cut her losses and looked for a more decent game to spend her time on. 

The stupidest thing about Deep Dungeon Online is, she’s still playing it. 

It’s a community game and she finds that kind of nice despite not wanting anything to do with the community. It’s already divided enough as it is. With the difficult leveling curve, it’s hard for casuals to want to do anything in the game. Not to mention any content is barred from anyone without a guild. 

That may be the second stupidest thing about Deep Dungeon Online. The third is inventory management but she’s long moved through the stages of grief on that and just tosses any item she gets to the ground. 

It’s all trash anyway. The entire overworld is trash. It’s filled with little towns with little fetch quests, but it’s all tailored for the casual player. Crafters, builders, farmers, gatherers, fashionistas, the overworld is made for them. Amelia wouldn’t mind questing in the overworld, it’s pretty and scenic and the graphics aren’t half bad, and she does enjoy watching the fishing going on from time to time but-

The overworld only goes up to level 20. That’s not bad, not by a long shot. It takes over an hour just to level up once in this game and it’s from tedious, grueling fetch quests that don’t give much in rewards at all. Getting level twenty is the greatest achievement a casual player can get. 

The max level is 400. 

This game is called Deep Dungeon Online for a reason. An infuriating reason. It’s all about community and relationships. Only players in a guild can even enter the dungeons. Only the dungeons offer extreme amounts of armor and weapons. It’s crafting material galore, it’s so much leveling experience, it’d be fun. She’s watched videos of guilds conquering difficult bosses. She wants that. She wants that so much more than killing a thousand boars just for one level up. 

The problem? She’s not in a guild. She has no interest in it at all. This is probably her second sign to uninstall the game and just go enjoy a single-player game like she was meant to. Obviously, the online experience just wasn’t for her. 

Or, she can cheat. 

By cheating, she doesn’t mean hacking. The plan is actually extremely simple in Amelia’s head. There needs to be at least ten people to even form the guild. The maximum limit in a guild is forty people. It’s not bad numbers considering all forty of those people can waltz into any dungeon and it goes from a cramped nightmare into a subway station of pain and misery. She’d rather it just be her. 

Ten people. She thought about gathering these shmucks, maybe even paying them to fill the charter for her, and then kicking them out so she can just solo the dungeons herself. Except Deep Dungeon Online is aware of her schemes or maybe everyone and their mother has the same idea, but guilds will automatically disband if their numbers fall below ten players. 

Fuck, she thinks. 

Plan B is a little less simple. Ten people is a decent number, but they don’t need to be active players. The guild stays active no matter what as long as there are ten people signed into the guild. That’s good. All Amelia has to do is find a guild with inactive players that still has someone online she can bother to recruit her. 

Problem. 

Every guild that goes into the dungeons is full of active players. They’re called dungeon guilds for a reason. Even the smaller ones get filled up increasingly quickly. If they don’t, they usually end up disbanding into other guilds or reforming. It’s a constant process that Amelia would like not to be a part of. She wants a solid platform to stand on. She wants to dungeon crawl, not crawl through the overworld begging for a spot on a guild that might not even last a few days. 

So, casual guild. 

Those don’t fill up so fast. It’s not a type of guild that’s in heavy demand. The crafters of DDO are important to the community, but the appeal of the game is the dungeons. The guilds that don’t go dungeon diving are extremely boring in her opinion. If she wanted to play a crafting game she’d just load up Minecraft or some shit. 

Casual guilds, however, are more likely to be inactive. They’d have more than ten players but perhaps half, maybe even more will be inactive throughout the day. That’s good for Amelia. The less that bothers her, the better. She doesn’t want to get roped into activities. All she has to do is pretend she’s some casual looking for a casual guild into a guild that barely talks to one another. Casually. 

It’s a little more difficult than it looks. 

Casual guilds like to advertise themselves like hwo looking for friends to help me go flower picking xD and Amelia is flinching away from those posts with her heart hammering in her ears. Every guild has some method of marketing. It’s always the same pattern. 

Hunter Lovers is looking for casual players to fill its ranks, currently looking for carpenters and herbalists, accepting fishers but not needed. 

It’s at least nicer to look at than dungeon guild recruiters. 

CANNIBAL CRAWLERS LF SPR ARMS SWR ARMS STFF ARMS MUST SHOW WEAPON BEFORE ENTRY MUST HAVE COMPLETED Gold Gears QUEST NEED PRISMS MSG FOR DETAILS

Amelia would like to think she’s choosing the lesser evil here. 

The selections aren’t catching her eye. Every casual guild has at least fifteen members and it makes her antsy. That feels like too much. She’s tempted to give it a try, but it’s difficult to decide if she wants to be risky with a newly formed guild or not. If even one person drops from a new guild it’s all over and she would have to go back to guild hunting. 

And then she finds it. 

Hollow Life is looking for a new player to join our ranks. Submissions will be closed upon recruitment, seeking to train new player in new crafting/gathering arts to fit the guild needs. Guild is four months old and going strong! We want to expand our family, come join us today!

She hesitates over the word family. That didn’t sound like active players. It felt a little more serious. Was this a high-level crafting guild? She checks out the advertisement more closely. No, it’s a ten-player guild. Exactly ten players. They must be friends, she frets, it’s not for her. 

But it sounds like they just need a gopher. Amelia frowns at the recruitment. Ideally, if she wanted to, she can pretend she’s a noob looking to learn crafting and such. It’s not entirely wrong. She hasn’t touched crafting at all. She can have them teach her and while she’s pretending to be a casual, she can just… go dungeon like she wants to. It’s not like these people play this game all day, right? She can just test the waters. If she doesn’t like it, she can bail. Simple. 

.

.

Bowson: are you still recruiting new member?

Goomba: yah :3 want in?

Bowson: inv

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Hollow Life isn’t a prosperous guild. 

Thank god, Amelia thinks. 

There are ten members and not all of them are ever online at the same time. She glances over their names on the roster and, thankfully, doesn’t find anything upsetting about them. There’s some meager information in the guild information some cute short messages written by members, but the real kicker is the job board. 

Day by day, dozens of requests between each member, notices, anything. Amelia scans it over with interest. 

FauFau: I have leftover tomatoes from cooking if anyone wants them, msg me 

Neighbula: I have crafting potions! I sent some to goomba and mummers, I have some left over, if anyone wants some!

Crowny: I need silverwood, a few stacks please, if someone can get that for me while I’m out of town that’d be great. Any updates on the house?

Tako:  We’re halfway towards our goal of buying a house  _(:3」∠)_ Good job !

Goomba: Wooo! I call dibs on the first room!

FauFau: Are we going to do the festival event coming up? Should I put together a list for us?

Goomba: Yes yes yes yes lets goooooooooooo

… Amelia isn’t sure what to think. 

She closes the menu thoughtfully. She has an idea of who these people are now and it makes her nervous. There are expectations, or are there? Some members haven’t made posts on the board in months. She knows that doesn’t mean much. The board doesn’t show guild chat and other activities, only requests. 

The town she’s waiting at is called Hatch. It’s nondescript and boring, but it’s where the recruiter wanted to meet her. Amelia watches the players around her as they scurry to and fro. There’s bartering going on between the different guilds. All of them have their crafting equipment out. The murmur of the crowd makes her antsy. 

She had to prepare for this occasion. 

She’s masquerading as a noob and there was no hiding the thirteen levels she’d grinded for already. Hell, for the first few hours before she was supposed to meet this person she’d been out grinding more dumb fetch quests. Her armor was only marginally better than that of a level one, but it was still a noticeable difference. She had to go through the painful process of buying low-level armor to blend in. 

She didn’t like not holding her bow. 

Through the crowd, a shorter figure was making their way to her. Amelia watches them approach warily. White hair wasn’t exactly profound in a game that lets you choose every color of the rainbow. It’d hidden underneath a straw hat. She’s wearing a green coat on top of a rumpled, open-neck tunic. Her trousers were covered in blue patches. It screamed so low-level Amelia wanted to shrink into the ground and disappear. The shark tail was unique. 

“Hey.” The girl approaches her with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her pants. “Are you Bowson?” 

“Uh.” Dread was pooling in her tummy. “Uh, yeah. You’re… Goomba?”

Goomba was cracking a grin at her. She looked sickeningly delighted, “Yup. Goomba.” 

What a funny name, Amelia thinks wearily. Obvious she was getting a kick out of it too. The shark beckons to her with a grin. 

“Okay, newbie, let’s stop in the cafe and you can tell me all you know about video games.” 

Crap, Amelia grimaces as she follows. Just get in character. Newbie Bowson. So new. Noob of the noobs. Losertown. 

They take a booth in the back of the cafe. An NPC tries to approach them but Goomba swipes away the menu. She looks sheepish about it, “Sorry. I don’t have gold for this place.” 

“Uh, you think I would too?” Amelia fumbles. It’s not like she was well off either, but she’d at least been questing and selling the trash items she got. 

Goomba blinks at her, “Wow, this is crazy. This game has been out for like, six months now? Really?”

“Really really.”

“What made you decide to join anyway?” Goomba grins. “Was it the chocolate bar ad?”

Amelia had no idea what she was talking about. She says cautiously, “No I just picked it up. Uh, does there have to be a reason?”

“Nah.” Goomba sinks into her booth. She looks bored as she eyes Amelia. “I’m just trying to break the ice.”

Amelia frowns at her. She doesn’t know what else to say. There's a small stretch of awkward silence before Goomba pops her lips. She looks nervous too. 

“So uh, recruiting. Yeah.” Goomba clears her throat. “You wanna join Hollow Life?”

Amelia wants a hole to open up and eat her actually. She mumbles, “Uh, yeah. Is it complicated or something?”

“No, uh, not like that.” Goomba scratches the side of her nose. “We just need an active player who is online a lot, ya know? Some of our members are super busy.” 

Amelia feels like butterflies are rising in her chest. The fluttery feeling of hope has her perking up. Inactive members. 

Goomba continues stiltedly, “But we also didn’t want like, someone high level either.” 

Amelia’s butterflies freeze. 

“High level?” She echoes quietly. 

“Yeah.” Goomba scratches the back of her head. “We tried to recruit before but they just stayed for like, a few weeks, before they bailed. Got their crafting levels and flew the nest.”

Amelia doesn’t know what to say to that. Her stomach is turning. Half of her hopes the NPC will respawn so she can order something that drains her wallet and she can have a distraction from this awkward guilt trip. 

Goomba shrugs her shoulders, “So uh, gotta do some vetting now and a few extra rules I guess. We want someone we can keep, ya know?” She laughs shyly, “Is that weird?”

For an online game? Amelia stares at her and hopes it’s not as incredulous as she feels, It’s ambitious and wild. 

“I feel kinda put on the spot,” Amelia admits. 

Goomba waves her hands, “Don’t worry! Sorry, it’s a lot and if it doesn’t interest you, I’d rather nip it in the bud now, right?” She offers a half smile, unsure of herself but so genuine it kind of hurts to look at, “We’re really nice and welcoming, promise. We'll even teach you everything we want you to do.”

Amelia cracks a wry smile, “So I’m a gopher.” 

“Well, no, uh,” Goomba looks flustered, “That’s kinda harsh. We just need an extra helping hand around here.”

“Do you guys not play very often?” Amelia asks. 

“Not like that, uh, well.” Goomba exhales noisily. “Sorry. I’m not the best at this. I’m so not good at this.” 

“Uh, that’s okay.” 

Goomba peers at her curiously. Her lips twitch up, “...Okay. Well. We’re all kinda semi-active? It’s hard to explain. We got busy lives, ya know.”

Amelia purses her lips, “So you need an active member? How active?”

“Well, I’m not asking you to be online every day. I dunno man.” Goomba sinks in her spot. Her hat falls low onto her face. She looks like she’s pouting. “We just need something, okay? I ain’t askin’ for much here.” 

Amelia collects herself. This was sounding better for herself. She wouldn’t have free reign to be in the dungeon all the time, she surmises. She’d have to gauge how much work she’d have to do for the guild and how well she can balance that with all the dungeon diving she wants to do. And if she doesn’t like it… well, it’s an online game. There’s a block function. She can just block everyone in the guild and move on. It’d be easy to disappear into the player base. It was large enough that she doubted she’d be seen again. 

She ignores the twisty feeling in her gut. 

“Okay,” Amelia murmurs. “I’ll give it a shot.” 

Goomba smiles. It’s a small thing that doesn’t inspire a lot, “Cool. Lemme send you an invite.”

The window pulls up in front of Amelia’s face. It’s got a little signet. It’s a coat of arms with tentacles instead of swords wrapped around it and decorated with feathers. Amelia tilts her head. 

You have been invited to join Hollow Life.

Accept? Decline?

“I probably won’t be often all the time to introduce you to other members.” Goomba is saying. “It shouldn’t be a big deal right now. I mean, I’m just a fisher who helps around with carpentry, but that’s been kinda stagnating since we can’t do much without a place to put all our furniture, right?”

Amelia hums. She’s eying the options before her. Her heart is in her ears. 

Goomba looks at her and says, “So, uh, I don’t know what you have going on usually, but for now you can just chill out and get to know everyone, okay? Should be no problem.” 

“... Yeah. No problems.” 

.

.

Bowson has joined the guild Hollow Life. 

Goomba: Welcome!

Goomba: No one is online rn but

Goomba: you’ll meet them eventually. it be nbd promise. you’ll get along great. 

Bowson: thx

Goomba: :3 yw

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Bowson has logged in. 

Crowny: oh hello

Bowson: hi

Crowny: new person

Bowson: ?

Crowny: Welcome welcome good to have you everything is fine

Crowny: It’s very fine

Bowson: okay?

Crowny: It’s not fine. I need silverwood.

Bowson: uhhhhhhh dunno what to say

Crowny: meet me @ hatch in 15

Crowny: bring an axe

.

.

Amelia doesn’t want to go. 

She mulishly replaces her gear with her dupe gear. She wanted to actually start on the dungeons today. She was no longer barred by an irritating game system. Nothing was stopping her but this guild member. 

This was the reason she joined, she laments. She had to put on the clown nose she’d made for herself. This was her own grave. 

She waits impatiently. 

The murmur of Hatch was quieter this morning. The server time reflected her local time, a burning sunrise that bled pinks and bright golds across the sky. Amelia watches it tiredly. She had hoped rising early meant she’d beat any guild members from finding her. 

The tall broody woman approaching her is the exact opposite of what she wanted. She towers over everyone in the crowd. The click of her heels makes the hairs on the back of Amelia’s neck stand up. That can’t be… Amelia stares. She’s wearing fashionista equipment. A pretty chainmail skirt and mail armor with silver and blue trim. She’s wearing a blue shawl, translucent and shimmering in the sunlight. 

She looks nothing like a crafter. 

Crowny stops in front of her, the woman crossing her arms with an utterly neutral expression, “Are you Bowson?”

Amelia frowns, “... If I say yes, what will happen?”

Crowny blinks in surprise, “What? It’s not obvious?”

“This game doesn’t have PVP,” Amelia warns. 

Crowny’s expression goes flat, “I’m not here to kill you. I need help.”

“Okay?”

“Relax.” The woman gives her an amused look. “I’m not going to bite your head off. Goo- Goom-Go-” She gags, startling Amelia into nearly tripping over her own feet. “Goomba. Goomba told you everything, yes?”

“Sort of,” Amelia says cautiously. “I’m new to this.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. 

“Don’t worry, it’s simple. You brought an axe, right?”

Amelia doesn’t even want to look at the tool taking up precious space in her inventory. She mumbles, “Yeah.” 

“Good. I hope you like walking a bunch because we’re going cross country baby.” 

.

.

It wasn’t a very long trek. Amelia laments the lack of usable mounts in this game. The only form of travel is by foot. She’s glad Crowny’s height doesn’t make her faster or Amelia would have slammed her head into the ground twenty minutes ago. 

Crowny takes her into the forest. 

“So how much do you know about skills?” Crowny asks over her shoulder. 

“Uh.” Amelia had taken a glance at the screen before. Nearly two dozen skill levels had frightened her from ever looking at it again. “Not much.” 

“Well, today it’s all about carpentry,” Crowny says. “And right now, feller.” 

“What’s the difference?” 

“Carpentry is a crafting skill,” Crowny explains. “Depending on your level you can learn recipes and craft them. You open the carpentry menu through the skill page, can you see it?”

Amelia obliges. The menu is cutely decorated with little wood planks. The menu tells her she’s level one. She glances down at her experience bar for her character and reads level thirteen. 

“It’s a separate level from your character level,” Amelia murmurs. 

“Uh, yeah.” Crowny hangs back to look over her shoulder at her menu. Amelia bristles. Other players shouldn’t be able to see her screen. She knows that. It alarms her that Crowny is even doing this. 

“Uh?”

Crowny glances at her, “What? Don’t like me looking over your shoulder?”

“Personal space,” Amelia mutters. “It’s not like you can see my screen, right?”

“We’re in the same guild.” Crowny looks amused. “I can see every screen you pull up.” 

Amelia feels her stomach go cold. She keeps her expression as neutral as possible. Her inventory screen was hiding all her real armor. If Crowny really could see it, she’d be able to spot that right away. Shit, shit, I didn’t know about this. Crowny looming over her shoulder was making her neck break out into a sweat. 

“Anyway.” Crowny seemed unbothered. She points a finger down at the carpentry menu. The menu is sparse and barren. There are several starter recipes that everyone has but other than that it’s empty. “You’ll need to craft these recipes a lot to level up. They don’t sell very well either so in order to buy new recipes you gotta grind a lot. ” 

Amelia frowns, “Don’t recipes drop from monsters?”

“I mean, yeah.” Crowny leans away from her. She’s looking over the forest warily. “But generally we don’t want to fight monsters. It takes a lot of work to level up crafters. This is a hardcore game, remember? If your character dies, you lose all your levels in everything and have to start over with a fresh character. It’s just safer to not, ya know?” She scrutinizes Amelia. “You’re new right? Level one?” 

Amelia takes a small risk, “Level two actually.” She’s thirteen, but she blinked when she read it, obviously. That’s the excuse. 

Crowny blinks at her, “Oh, hey, that’s pretty good. I don’t remember how long it takes, isn’t it an hour?” 

“Just about, yeah.” 

“Look at you.” Crowny gives her a friendly little nudge. Amelia feels her lips twitch up. She’s forcing down the absurd urge to preen at this. Being praised for doing the bare minimum in the game feels weird. She can only imagine Crowny’s face if she found out the real level. “So you have a little bit of money saved, that’s good. Crafting will drain your wallet and forever keep it drained.”

“What level are you?”

“I’m level three.” Crowny tiredly rubs her face. “Only because Mummers, our hunter, she was out of town for a while and wasn’t getting recipe drops for us and I had to take over.”

Amelia perks up. She’s only a little excited at this prospect as it offers actual combat, but she’s not exactly leaping at the opportunity to kill low-level surface monsters. She’d rather be dungeon diving right now. She should get that on a shirt. 

Crowny hefts up an axe. It’s different than the default axe, Amelia notices. It’s definitely higher quality. Crowny stretches as she says, “So now we’re at the fun part. Feller is the gathering skill, of course, to cut down trees. The higher level the skill the better your chances are for getting higher quality logs.”

Amelia equips her own axe. She eyes the trees around her wearily, “Do we just start?” 

Crowny shrugs, “Yeah, pretty much. Do you need me to repeat everything?”

“No.” Amelia shudders at the idea. “No, uh, is there not like, a special area? No special trees?”

Crowny gestures around her, “There are different types of trees, but that literally only affects the type of wood you can make furniture out of. For bows and staves, it doesn’t matter.” 

Amelia blinks at that. She doesn’t have any weapon recipes, “Bows?”

“Yeah.” Crowny claps her hands, “Alright, you ready? All set?”

“I just start choppin’?”

“That’s right.” Crowny playfully snaps her fingers. “Chop chop.” 

It’s not a riveting job. Amelia migrates from tree to tree in a loop. She chops, she cuts one down, and she moves on to the next. She does this in a loop until the trees she cut respawn and she’s back at it again. She can see Crowny doing the same. Bored, she cuts the music of the game and puts on her own music. 

Crowny’s voice carries through one of her playlists, “So, read any good books?”

Amelia shoots an incredulous look at the carpenter. Crowny’s back is to her. There’s an awkward hunch to her shoulders as she chops down her tree. Amelia says slowly, “Uh, yes?” 

“Oh really?” Crowny glances over at her. “Anything you wanna share?”

“I read The Martian.” 

“That’s that space book that got made into a movie, right?” 

“Yeah.” Amelia exhales heavily as she swings her axe. “I haven’t watched the movie.” 

“Me either. Have you heard if it’s good?” 

“I mean, yeah, sorta.” Amelia pauses, unsure of herself suddenly. This was obviously an aim for small talk. It felt awkward and heavy. But Crowny was making a feeble attempt and Amelia felt she should put in the effort too even if all she wanted to do was listen to music, “Uh, do you really like carpentry in this game or something?”

“No, I hate it.” Crowny drawls. 

Amelia sputters, “Then why are you-”

“I’m joking.” There’s a small huff, a barely there laugh. Amelia’s ears hone in on the sound. It makes her next swing of the axe a little sloppy. “You can make tons of furniture in this game. I want to house decorate but, unfortunately, to even do that we need a house.” 

“How much is a house?”

“You don’t wanna know.” 

Amelia hums, “Ohhh, I’m guessing, one hundred thousand gold.” It’s an insane number. She doubts anyone would ever make that kind of money when quests only offer silver and copper rewards. 

Crowny laughs. It’s a bright noise. It has Amelia lowering the volume of her music, just a tad. Crowny says, “It’s ten thousand gold actually.” 

“For a house? Seriously?” 

“Well, there’s only a select amount of houses to buy. I guess they want seriously dedicated players to own one. It makes sense. Especially when a lot of guilds have forty people.” 

Amelia mutters, “Sounds stupid.” 

She can hear the smile in Crowny’s voice, “Well, we’re halfway towards that goal. We just keep selling our stuff and we’ll get our own place.” 

“What’s so special about it though? I mean, other than being able to place all the furniture you craft?” 

“Are you kidding?” Crowny drawls. “You can craft storage chests.” 

And suddenly, Amelia is hitting the trees a lot harder. Crowny must have noticed from the way she’s laughing. Inventory management sucks astronomically. It’s more than enough motivation to pull her through the hour she spends grinding wood with Crowny. 

.

.

Crowny sets up carpentry equipment. Amelia is part of a guild, she explains, and Amelia will be able to use any equipment of theirs. All the wood they’ve collected ends up on the table. Amelia stands in front of it, unsure of herself. Her hands hover over it uncertainly. 

Crowny reaches behind her to place her hands on top of Amelia’s. Amelia freezes. Crowny wasn’t exactly pressed against her back, but the complete lack of personal space was burning her head into flames. Crowny was tall. She was a hairline away from placing her chin on Amelia’s head. 

“Okay, now let me walk you through the steps,” Crowny mutters, entirely unaware of the position they’re in. “We need to turn these into planks. That should give you a few levels alone in carpentry.”

“Are we using your wood?” Amelia asks, her voice higher than she wants it to be.

Crowny murmurs, “Don’t need it. It’s better in your hands.” 

Amelia goes quiet. 

Crowny guides her hands. The process of making planks requires two logs. It halves their entire haul. Amelia frowns at this, but Crowny doesn’t dwell on it. She instructs her to make the easiest furniture to level up. She blinks and her entire inventory is filled with chairs. 

“What do I do with these?”

“Sell them,” Crowny says. “Unless you’re gonna decorate your room with chairs.” 

My room. Amelia can’t describe the funny feeling in her chest. Crowny’s hands guiding her through each craft makes her palms sweaty and her heart loud in her ears. They do this up until Amelia’s inventory is filled. Crowny leans away from her. 

“Alright. That’s all from me.” Crowny stretches. “Not a single silverwood. Just my luck.” 

“Silverwood?” Aemlia echoes. 

“It’s a rare find.” Crowny makes a circle with her finger. “All the wood up here is common quality. Silverwood is uncommon quality. It’s one step above it. It’s sleeker and nicer to look at, but its drop rate is so low.” Crowny sighs and drops her head back. “I want to make silverwood cabinets so badly.” 

Amelia cracks a wry smile, “Cabinets? Really? You sound like a grandma.” 

“Hey,” Crowny says dryly. It makes Amelia laugh. It’s a startling feeling to loosen up like this, to feel warmth in her chest and laugh with everything it has. My room is still echoing sweetly in her head. 

“Anyway.” Crowny steps back after she reclaims her equipment. “I’m off for now. You can keep going if you like. I got stuff to do.” 

Amelia feels a firework burst in her head. She’s holding back everything from booking it off to the dungeons right then and there. She offers a smile, “Thanks for hanging out.” 

“No, thank you.” Crowny opens her menu with a half smile. “Seriously. An extra pair of hands is going to help out tremendously. You have no idea.” 

Amelia doesn’t know what to say to that. She feels it, a mix of pride and guilt that leave her silent as she watches Crowny disappear before her. She stays there for a moment. It’s just her and this empty space and her stupid inventory filled with chairs. 

And leftover wood. 

Bows, She thinks. I can craft bows. I just need to find a recipe.

She doesn’t want to risk loitering around for another guild member to show up and steal her time. She bolts it for Hatch, plans forming in her head as she equips her high level armor. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Bowson has logged in. 

Bowson has changed their status: LF SILVERWOOD

.

.

This game is a hack. A joke. A hehe haha you want a bow? A bow you poor broke schmuck, a bow? It then has the audacity to sell the recipe of the very same bow she’s currently wielding. Amelia glares at it. The NPC is wearing a smile because it’s a mannequin, a puppet to the desires of the stupidest game in history. It’s demanding a whole twenty silver for this recipe, this recipe of a bow that she always has. The audacity. The nerve. 

Amelia buys the recipe. 

Nothing better turns up for her. She’s hesitant to approach the market. Other players barter and yell obscene stuff at each other all the time there. She doesn’t like the crowds. She also wants to be prepared. Having a better bow would just be, well, better. 

A silverwood bow recipe. 

It costs 30 gold. 

Bowson currently has 7. 

You’re joking. Amelia stares at it in abject horror. The bow itself is running for 50 gold and ain’t that just great? It’s no wonder crafters stick to their craft and don’t bother with this shit. It was expensive. 

She’s running out of time. She needs to start on the dungeon now or she’ll never know what’s inside at this rate. With her meager funds, she heads over to medicine. 

It was always a little daunting to look at the medicines this game offered. It’s a hardcore game, she knew that, but one would have to be really stupid to get killed by surface monsters. She’s never found a need for health potions. She could buy food and get the buffs that come with it, she supposes. The only thing the NPC sells is Bread and all it does is give her a 3% boost in health which- is awful. That’s hardly anything. 

She buys the bread. 

The medicines are another story that has her queasy and scared. There’s a lot. Aside from the insane price of a healing potion- 50 gold 50 gold 50 gold are you serious- there are bandages and herb fronds and other stuff that feels way in over her head. Cures bleeding effect, cures poison, removes curse, restores lost limb- this isn’t a video game anymore this is surgeon simulator. 

Amelia doesn’t buy any of that. 

She does end up unloading the rest of her chairs on the NPC in hopes that burying them alive will lower their god damn prices. She will ignore everyone staring at her as she does this. 

Besides, she needs the inventory space for this. 

.

.

The dungeon doesn’t stop her anymore.

It’s a large cave situated at the base of a hill. There are a lot of entrances to it scattered around the overworld. This one is the closest to Hatch. It’d be beneficial to her in the long run since it seemed Hollow Life keeps itself around that town. She doesn’t want to have to run across the map to get back and forth to where she needs to go. 

Usually, a thin translucent barrier keeps her out. When she approaches, it’s not there. The giddiness that surges up in her chest has her practically skipping into the mouth of the cave. She doesn’t have to step that far in before she’s confronted with a staircase down. She rubs her hands together. 

My legend begins, she thinks. 

Reaching the First Floor leaves her winded with excitement. She’s clutching her bow with jittery fingers. There’s an arrow notched at the ready. She wants to be careful. Right now, the dungeon is a cave. There’s moss growing up the sides of its walls and a few larger rocks situated around that could provide decent cover. She sneaks her way forward. This was a dungeon designed for many people. 

Her first enemy is a beetle. 

It’s a purple thing that hunkers low to the ground. It’s the size of a larger dog. It doesn’t move very fast. It skulks, each leg lifting up before another would follow. It’s not moving very far from its spot in the cave. There’s not exactly ample room to sneak around it either. 

That’s not the point. She’s drawing her bow. The point is loot. 

She aims down her arrow. The feathers brush her cheek and she exhales. The beetle has a hard rigid shell protecting it. She goes with the safe area to aim for- the head, always. She waits for the perfect moment. The perfect shot. 

I’ll take you out in one arrow, She thinks. 

When she lets it fly there’s a grim satisfaction in watching it land directly into the beetle’s head. The monster flinches, a scuttling noise coming from it as it rears back. It turns to face her. Amelia frowns. It wasn’t dead. There’s an arrow sticking directly out of its little beetle head and it’s charging right for her. 

Its HP was only down a sliver. 

You’re kidding. She hysterically backs up. Sure, she only has the default bow, but it surely can’t have that much health? There are not a whole lot of options for players to assemble in turns of weapons. Not at this level. 

The beetle isn’t fast. It’s likely the only reason she’s still alive as she backs away and lets loose another arrow. It goes too wide and scrapes off its shell. She doesn’t even see the HP bar twitch. What the heck!

Her third arrow hits the beetle again. It repeats the same animation of flinching away and rearing back like a startled horse. The HP bar drops another tiny sliver. Amelia is rapidly losing space between herself and the stairs. 

I don’t have room to run around this thing. She nervously draws an arrow as her heel touches the first step. What do I do? 

The beetle is coming for her. She is hesitant to let it touch her. She hasn’t any clue what sort of damage these things do. She doesn’t want to risk it, but maybe it’s low level? She’s been hit by the boars up top and while they do a decent amount of damage, she can survive a few hits. 

She risks it. An arrow finds its home in the beetle, the HP bar lowers a smidge, and the beetle rams itself into Amelia. 

Amelia shrieks. She’s thrown back onto the stairs, flailing to keep her bow in hand. She’s not so lucky with the arrow she has and loses it in the fall. Through bleary eyes, she watches in terror as her HP bar drops to half. 

Two hits. Amelia scrambles away from the beetle like a frightened rabbit. It’ll kill me in two hits. 

It thankfully isn’t taking the stairs. It’s perched where it rammed into her. Amelia grips the wall to help herself stand up. Her legs are shaking. She’s only one hit away from death. She doesn’t know what to do at all. 

This is such bullshit! She scowls, fighting back the frustrated tears gathering behind her eyes. What the heck kind of game makes it this difficult, huh? What am I supposed to do here? I don’t want to be a silly crafter!

Angrily, she notches another arrow and lets it fly at the beetle. She isn’t expecting anything to happen. Generally, when monsters can’t reach the player, games prevent the player from harming the monster in return. It’s to prevent gimmicky behavior. 

Amelia stares as its HP drops. 

She stares for a solid four seconds before slowly notching another arrow. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe she just blinked and she’d imagined that. Her heart hammers in her ears. There’s an absurd hope in her chest as she lets lose that arrow and watches as, again, its HP dips. 

It’s a hehe haha game. It’s a haha oh we’re so hardcore it’s so scary no one plays this game hehe and Amelia has killed a beetle. A dungeon beetle. It disappears in a puff of smoke and leaves behind a little goody bag. It looks innocuous for the adrenaline and fear and hope surging through her veins. 

[Scrarab Shell Sheild]

4 Defense

16 Bock

Amelia goes, “Huh.” 

She looks up at the ceiling for a while and then back down at the loot in her hand. She goes huh again, out loud. No one answers her. This was a good item, she thinks, she hasn’t looked at a lot of shields to know. It’s highlighted as uncommon quality. That’s the same quality as silverwood. So, it’s rare, right? She has no idea what to do. 

Actually, she muses, she has one idea. 

.

.

She’s careful about exploring the First Floor. Every step is gentle. Her HP is coming back minute by minute, but she’s not about to risk another hit just because she’d be able to survive it now with a few meager points left to save her life. She’s executing the most flawless plan any solo player can do. 

Gimmick it till she wins it. 

She’s killed five beetles using the stairs as safety. She doubts that’s intended in any way. It’s taking ages to kill them and her reserves of arrows are running extremely low. She was about to toss in the towel when, upon the fifth beetle's death, her character pings her that she’s hit level fourteen. 

What the hell, she stares in surprise, these things drop a massive amount of experience. 

It restores her health back to full. That’s all that matters for now. 

She’s getting little pieces of loot as she goes, precious things she hasn't much of a clue what to do with. She’s giddy again, a little tired, but happy. The twisting turns of the cave excite her. She’s ready to descend to the next level. She’ll need to fight the boss of this floor to do that. She isn’t sure she’s ready for such a thing, but she at least wants to see it. 

Instead, she finds a grotto. She pauses. Up till then, it’d been nothing but cave and moss. Now, it opened up. There’s a fake hole in the ceiling that she knows leads to nowhere. It sheds light down on this grassy room. There’s a small pond of murky water. Around this pond are small, dainty-looking trees. Amelia stares at them. They have a shininess to them that drives her closer. 

Curiosity has her equipping her axe. Curiosity has her striking at the first tree within reach. 

+ 1 [Silverwood]

“Oh my god,” Amelia says. She’s hitting the tree with more gusto, watching with wide eyes as her inventory is gifted log after log of this precious material. “Oh my god. ”

She clears out the trees. She feels breathless. She's gripping her axe so hard her palms ache. She’s at an impasse. She could continue exploring, but her inventory was crying. She wouldn’t be able to loot much more. Even if she did defeat the boss, she’d have to drop all this wood to even loot it.

Amelia stands there in the grotto for a solid minute. She’s at war with herself. There’s a part of her that wants to drop it all. It’s not useful to her, maybe. If she gets ahold of a silverwood bow recipe she can make that nicer quality weapon she’s craving. But she also may find something of a similar quality if she keeps going. She won’t have to spend money on a fool's errand if she can just loot it. 

But Crowny wants cabinets. 

They don’t even have a house yet. She draws up her inventory before her. Her finger selects the silverwood. It’s in her hand. She stares down at it. It’s a very precious material. It was on the First Floor. What else is down there, she wonders. What else is the dungeon hiding from crafters that dungeon guilds overprice to hell? 

Crowny wants cabinets. 

Insurance. Amelia decides. She’s unsure of herself as she pockets the wood again. It’d be too suspicious to drop the wood off all at once. They hacked at trees for an hour and didn’t get a single one. Now she’s going to present a few dozen on a platter? That’s too suspicious. She should just drop the majority of it here and continue on. 

Or… insurance. 

If she can supply one or two silverwood every once in a while, she thinks, this guild may find her useful enough to keep her around. That’s good. That was the reason they recruited her anyway. She hasn’t done anything to help aside from piggyback off of Crowny for a day. This will show them she’s gathering things while not actually gathering anything at all. 

She can dungeon to her heart's content. 

“Okay.” She takes a step back. She eyes the path going forward with longing before turning tail and running back the way she came. 

.

.

She decides to keep the shield. It’s taking up precious space, she knows, but she’s thinking about how vulnerable she is with a bow. Some extra defense, while she’s exploring, would be helpful. She can just use the money she gets from selling everything else to buy a sword or something. 

The NPC gives her 14 gold for everything.

Amelia stares. She has 21 gold now, a whopping 21 shiny gold pieces. She can…not buy a lot with that. But it’s telling of what’s actually in her grasp now. She can sell and get money now, actual money. She can buy potions in the future, that’s not a faraway dream. She can get that bow and she can damn well beat the first boss. 

But first, Bubba needs walkies. 

.

.

Bowson has made a post to the Job Board.

Bowson: @ crowny I got a silverwood for you while gathering today, msg me 

Bowson has logged out. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Bowson has logged in. 

FauFau: oh hi 

FauFau: nice to meet you bowson!

Bowson: hi 

FauFau: I saw your post you made

FauFau: crowny is going to be really happy

Goomba: im here too

Bowson: hey

Goomba: :3 

FauFau: are you free rn bowson?

Bowson: for a bit

FauFau: could you meet me @ hatch in 10? I want to give you something

FauFau: it wont be very long!!!!

Goomba: oh hey I wanna hang out too

Goomba: but im all the way in redwick (っ- ‸ – ς)

FauFau: oh well if you want to come along thats fine too

FauFau: what are you doing over there?

Goomba: im price sniping salmon rn do you still need fish oil??

FauFau: yes please

FauFau: i want so much i want to swim in it

Goomba: lather up

Bowson: ???????

FauFau: omg 

FauFau: im sorry

FauFau: is 10 from now okay?

Bowson: sure

.

.

Amelia thinks she’s getting too used to Hatch. 

It’s not a bad town to hang out in. It’s much more spacious than other towns in the overworld. She doesn’t exactly know where to hang out in Hatch while she waits so she parks herself by the cafe again. It’s located on the main street and just unobstructed enough that she’ll be spotted by passersby. She waits. 

Three players walk by her, a group, and head into the cafe. They’re talking amongst themselves, grinning excitedly as they dog into the doorway. The clinking of armor and thumping footsteps fades. The murmur of the crowd around her makes her sleepy. 

.

.

Bubba is barking. 

Amelia rubs her eyes and sits back in her chair. Her character is leaning boredly against the building. She glances at the time and figures she has a minute or two before FauFau shows up. She takes off her headphones and stretches. 

“Alright boy, real quick.” She promises. She stands up and laughs when her dog bolts it across the hardwood floor. He doesn’t quite have a grip and ends up drifting. It makes her laugh harder when he runs into the backdoor, his nose squishing against the glass. “Bubba! Calm down, you maniac.” 

She hooks him onto his leash and slides open the door. The yard is too small for him, she laments. She doesn’t have the time to take him on a walk just yet. She usually reserves that for late evenings when she’s sure the pavement won’t burn his paws. She glances up and finds the sky overcast. 

“Oh, that’s nice.” She muses. No sunlight meant no burning puppy paws. “We can take a long walk tonight, buddy.” 

He’s too busy chewing grass. She frowns, “Hey, stop it, you have food inside mister. Stop it. Bubba, drop it! Out of your mouth! Don’t run from me, mister, c’mere-!” 

.

.

Amelia blinks and finds her entire vision is filled with green. She reels, her head knocking back against the wall of the cafe. The woman in her face smiles and leans back from her. She looks pleased with herself.

“Sorry!” She’s laughing into her words, “I like scaring Goomba like that when she’s afk. Her reactions are always the best.” 

“Oh.” Amelia breathes. She’s relaxing and taking the woman in now that she’s not almost nose to nose with her. She’s wearing a flowery dress, a mix of pinks and greens flowered along the trim of it. She looked dainty and cute. It wasn’t the armor of a dungeon player. “FauFau?”

“Oh good, you’re Bowson.” FauFau nervously tucks her hair behind her ear. “I was afraid I was scaring some random player for a second, oh god, wouldn’t that have been embarrassing?” 

Amelia cracks a wry smile. There’s an endearing softness to FauFau’s humor that washes away her anxieties, “Maybe I should have pretended-”

“Oh, you wouldn’t.” FauFau gasps. She’s smiling despite the horror of it. “Oh, I would cry.” 

Amelia laughs. FauFau beams at her, “Well, now that you’re here, do you want to sit down somewhere real quick?” She tilts her head to the cafe in askance. 

Amelia opens her mouth. She remembers the adventurers and dreads to find them still inside. They looked rambunctious. She’d rather find a quieter spot. She feels absurdly protective of the quiet in FauFau’s voice. It’s rare to find between shitty mics and harsh, grating voices. “Maybe somewhere else?” 

“Oh.” FauFau titters. “We can just go out to the field, it’s okay.”

“That works.” 

.

.

The fields outside Hatch consist of two different varieties. 

The actual Feilds of Hatch is farmland. It’s where players crouch and sift through the dirt to harvest crops. Amelia doesn’t know the exact mechanics of it. She knows the respawns on it aren’t very fast and it leaves a lot of players patrolling the fields, trying to stake a claim on certain areas, fighting with everything in their lungs to yell away players who get too close to the areas they’re hunkering in for the time being. If she wants to hear a brand new insult, she’ll walk by the fields and listen to whatever argument catches her ears. 

FauFau isn’t taking her there. 

The fields around Hatch aren’t farmland. It’s flat grassland freckled with mountain flowers. There’s a hint of tundra ghosting through the hills. Amelia hasn’t a clue if that means anything to a gatherer. 

FauFau says, “It’s pretty important to us.” 

“The tundra?” 

“It’s where flowers bloom the most.” She smiles at Amelia, warm and content. “Each area kinda has different flowers. There’s a bit of overlap which is a little nice. I don’t have to travel so far to get what I need for potions.” 

Amelia perks up, “Potions? Like health potions?” 

“Yes, like health potions.” FauFau’s smile grows amused. “I like to think I’m the breadwinner of the family because of how much they sell for.” 

“The vendor sells them for fifty.” 

“We undercut the vendor,” FauFau says peacefully. Amelia feels like she should drop to her knees and invent a new religion regarding the green woman. “I try to, anyway. Every other guild has the same idea so it’s all about trying to wave down the adventurer who needs it the most and hoping they’ll buy it when you haggle.” 

Amelia can’t even imagine someone with a voice as soft as FauFau’s haggling. There’s a daunting if a little bit funny image in her head of some high geared sweaty player staring down his nose at this rose flower of a woman as she holds out a potion to sell. Amelia imagines if PVP were a thing, crafters would have been slaughtered like animals long ago. 

FauFau is talking, “Some other potions are still as important though. I supply everyone with crafting potions as often as I can.” 

“Crafting potions?” Amelia parrots. “That’s a thing?” 

“Oh god, I wish it wasn’t.” FauFau laughs meekly. “I can make crafting potions that offer a chance to make two items instead of one. Do you know what that means for someone trying to craft expensive armor?” 

Amelia inhales. Two silverwood bows. “That’s crazy.” 

“And not to mention, gathering potions.” FauFau shakes her head. “Oh, just imagine the juicy potion giving you two times your yield for five minutes. The chance of getting a rare and having it doubled. No one wants to pass that up.” 

Amelia looks at her with wary amusement, “You okay?” 

FauFau looks at her earnestly and with a playful twinkle in her eye, “I am going to die.” 

The quiet of her voice makes that line funnier than it actually is. Amelia snorts. She’s finding camaraderie with FauFau. Crowny had been awkward with good intentions. FauFau is a river flow of conversation, a pool of warmth. It was an odd find in video games. She liked it. 

FauFau abruptly stops by a nestling of flowers. She flutters to them like a moth to a flame with a quiet mutter of, “One moment please.” She crouches down to pick at them, humming as she does. Amelia watches her. It looks boring, she thinks, to pick at flowers like this all day. She always thought so. The way FauFau does it makes it feel like an art. A pretty girl nursing flowers from the earth and into her palms with a smile as comfortable as that- well. Amelia is almost jealous of the flowers. 

FauFau turns to her. She’s cradling yellow petals in her hands, “Do you want these?”

Amelia stares, “Uh, no, you can keep it.” 

“Are you sure? I just thought, since you haven’t dyed your armor yet-”

“Wait, you can dye stuff in this game?” 

FauFau giggles, “Oh no, I forgot you’re new. My bad, hold on.” She’s tucking the petals away and riffling through her inventory. Amelia tilts her head as a green salt shaker bottle appears in FauFau’s hand. “This is a dye. You can make it with flower petals and ink bottles.” 

“You can make that?” Amelia asks. 

FauFau smiles ruefully, “No, I haven’t had time to dabble in script. That’s a crafting skill that I, um, don’t really see use in.” 

“Script?” Amelia echoes. “What’s that?” 

“I don’t know,” FauFau says. “Mummers, she’s in our guild, she’s the only crafter for it. She’d be able to tell you more when she gets unbanned.” 

Amelia reels in surprise, “Unbanned?” 

FauFau is wringing her fingers through her hair. It looks like a nervous tic. She’s smiling despite this, “Oh, she may get into little…verbal spats with other players sometimes. She may have made one entire guild mad with her.” 

Amelia laughs helplessly, “Oh she’s one of those players?” 

“I wouldn’t say that.” FauFau draws her words out slowly. It doesn’t sound convincing in the slightest. She’s pulling out another potion before her. It’s a blue thing that swirls and glows with bright electric blues and softer, navy blues. FauFau grins at it, “This is a dexterity potion I made a long time ago.” 

Amelia eyes it and tries to hold back the part of her that wants to snatch it, “Aren’t you a crafter though? I thought you guys didn’t fight.” 

“Oh.” FauFau ducks her head shyly. “Well. It’s hard to explain. Here, actually, it may be better to show you. Do you see all the flowers around here? Try and pick a few. You don’t need a tool for it.” 

“Uh.” Amelia awkwardly looks around. “Okay?”

Amelia doesn’t know the first thing about flowers. She hesitantly steps through the grass. FauFau hovers beside her. She guides her away from any weeds or fake-looking flowers. She points out the shiny flowers, the ones that are just barely recognizable from other flowers as the kind that Amelia can pick. It’s a pretty patch of blue mountain flowers. Amelia crouches down, her hands fluttering in the air around them. She doesn’t want to mess this up.

Instead of dungeon diving, Amelia is digging into the dirt for flowers. She holds them tenderly. It’s not that grand of a find, she thinks, but she’s also thinking of her terrariums on the shelves of her room. She’s starting to think about making one with more flowers inside of it. 

She turns to FauFau and finds that she’s set up an alchemy station. It looks more like a sink standing awkwardly in the middle of the field. FauFau laughs at the incredulous look she sends to it. 

“I know,” FauFau sheepishly ducks her head, “I personally think the alchemy equipment looks so ridiculous.” 

Amelia smiles, “Why does it even look like that? It’s weird.” 

“I don’t know.” FauFau giggles. “Okay, here, come over here. I want to teach you how to make something with that.” 

Amelia obliges. FauFau doesn’t stand behind her like Crowny does. She moves to the other side of the sink, her hands clasped onto the rim and occasionally lifting up to point to where Amelia should look. Alchemy crafting is only a little different than carpentry. She needs bottles to even put stuff in. 

“You can use mine.” FauFau offers. She’s setting one down in the sink. “You have to buy them from vendors and it’s such a pain to have in your inventory all the time.” 

“Inventory,” Amelia grumbles. 

FauFau giggles, “Oh, it won’t be for long, just hold out. We can make it.” 

“Are you talking about the storage chests? Crowny mentioned we can make extra storage.” 

“Yes.” FauFau’s smile grows softer, wistful. “We can do so much with a home of our own. After we buy the initial house that is, uh, we can buy additional stuff to it. We can buy a greenhouse, oh, a basement for extra space. We can buy farm plots of our own. We can…” FauFau’s smile dims to a melancholic degree, “Oh, what I would give for a lab.” 

“A lab?” Amelia whispers. 

“Alchemy lab. It’s called a laboratory. I just…” FauFau fiddles with her dexterity potion. She regards it fondly. “I want to decorate it with plants and all my favorite potions. With an actual lab and greenhouse, I’ll be able to make three times the potions I already make. We’ll be swimming in it.” 

Amelia weakly jokes, “Lathered in it.” 

FauFau sputters a laugh, “Oh dear, oh no, we can’t have another Goomba. I don’t think Callamori will like it.” 

“Callamori?” Amelia snorts. “Did someone name themselves after the dish, really?” 

“I don’t know actually. You’ll have to ask her.” 

FauFau gestures to the bottle in the sink. Amelia hesitantly adds the blue flowers to it. FauFau instructs her to shake it. Amelia does. She feels like the world's worst bartender. She’s standing in the middle of nowhere in front of a sink and a pretty woman. She takes a screenshot while the potion brews. Her character looks stupid enough for it to make her smile. 

FauFau notices, “What? Am I doing something funny?”

“No.” Amelia sets the potion down. “Don’t mind me, I just thought of something.” 

“Okay.”

They both stare at the potion in the sink. FauFau glances up at her and back at it. The intent is clear. Hesitantly, Amelia takes it. Her menu tells her it’s a dexterity potion. Increases dexterity by two for five minutes. Amelia moves the potion from side to side. The neon blue colors inside mix and swirl. It’s fun to look at, she thinks. It’s a useful potion, at least for a little bit. She’d have to make a lot more. Any little bit will help in getting her through the dungeons. 

“You can name it.” FauFau points out. She’s sliding a piece of paper across the sink towards Amelia. “Here. Mummers gave me parchment to name items. It’s something script can do.” 

“No way.” Amelia’s heart beats happily. She can’t help the gleeful, “Just like Minecraft.”

“Oh my god.” 

Amelia laughs. She selects the parchment and drags it over the potion. A menu asks her what she would like to name it. She hesitates. It’s a pretty potion. It’s a useful one too. She doesn’t think a name matters when she’s going to end up using it, right? This is just for fun. 

She glances at the neon potion sitting in the sink. The colors glow, an ocean of blues swirling behind its glass. She wonders what other potions look like. At first glance, she wouldn’t even think of that as a dexterity potion. That looked more like a mana potion. It’s a strange concoction. 

FauFau is looking over the fields. She looks content, the breeze ruffling her hair and her eye shelf lidded. “When we get our own place, we can put your potions on display too. I think it’d be cute. Oh, everyone could have their own spot. It’d be so cute.” 

Amelia feels her will crumble. She types out a name and selects Accept. The potion disappears into her inventory. FauFau smiles at her.

“What’d you name it?” 

“Secret.” Amelia winks at her. “You’ll find out when I put it on the shelf, okay?” 

FauFau perks up. She claps her hands in delight. She doesn’t say anything, but the happiness radiating off her as she gathers her alchemy station is more than telling. Amelia feels satisfaction and pride despite feeling like she didn’t do much. 

“Oh,” FauFau flutters her hands, “I almost forgot your gift. I’m so clumsy today.” 

“You don’t have to.” 

“I wanted to.” FauFau smiles at her. She reaches forward and takes Amelia’s hands in her own. Amelia nearly jumps in surprise. The hand contact was surprising. Being trapped in front of that warm smile felt like she was being directly burned by the sun. Her breath was caught in her chest. “Besides, you’re being so cute, helping Crowny and now me. I wanted to give you something.” 

Amelia swallows dryly. Her words are getting lodged in her throat. It doesn’t help a pretty woman called her cute. That’s not helping at all. 

FauFau puts a potion in her hands. It’s a corked bottle of pinks and reds. It swirls warmly in Amelia’s hands. Her menu tells her it’s a healing potion. 

Amelia feels like she’s going to pass out. 

“You can’t-” Amelia tries, helplessly, overwhelmed. 

FauFau’s smile is different than her other smiles. It’s timid but earnest. “It’d going to be a while before you get used to all the monster areas. I know I accidentally ran into a few before. It’s scary, knowing you’ll lose all your levels if you run into just one high-level monster.”

That’s not a problem for me. Amelia wants to cry. You don’t need to coddle me, I know where all the monsters are, I’m lying through my teeth, you don’t have to-

“So,” FauFau shyly hides behind her bangs, “It’s a gift. If you’re ever in a pinch.”

“But the money,” Amelia protests feebly, “the guild house, it’s-”

“Oh, we’re still getting a house, don’t worry.” FauFau rubs her thumb over Amelia’s knuckles. The sincerity of it is crazy for Amelia. She’s never met someone as genuine as this. “I just, well, gosh it’s embarrassing.” FauFau laughs. “We don’t want to lose you.” 

Amelia lives alone with her dog. She has no remarkable friends to call upon and hasn’t for a while. Her throat feels dry. She cups the potion in her hands at a complete loss for words. A stranger had just said something too heartfelt for her. FauFau pulls away from her, satisfied. 

“Okay.” FauFau smiles at her. “Sorry, that took up a lot more time than I wanted it to. I get distracted easily.” 

Amelia feels herself say, “That’s okay.” She isn’t really there. She’d taken off her headphones to stop the ringing in her ears. She can hear FauFau’s voice faintly say something about gathering, about having to go back to another town for it. She went out of her way to Hatch, why? Did she know that’s where Bowson has been hanging out? Are they just going to Hatch because that’s where she’s been the most? 

Amelia wipes a hand over her eyes. She can see the guild chat moving. 

.

.

FauFau: okay we finished up!

FauFau: goombaaaaa 

Goomba: fauuuuufauuuuuu

Goomba: does bowson wanna come too?

Bowson: go where? 

FauFau: goomba is a fisher

FauFau: i like doing my work while I watch her fish 

Goomba: :#

Goomba: its not that exciting 

Goomba: but the more the merrier!

Bowson: ok

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Goomba: oh yeah fau if you see a black lotus can you get me one

FauFau: you will need to give me your kidney first

Goomba: fauuuuuuuuuuuu

Goomba: please i have fish oil

FauFau: do better

Goomba: ouuuuuguugh

Goomba: i can pay you 

FauFau: money is nothing to me

Goomba: DO YOU WANT A KISS??  AMSOOCH??

Bowson: wo

Goomba: bowson look away

FauFau: well, i only wanted you to say please, but that works too

Goomba: your a muppet and i hate you

.

.

Redwick isn’t starkly different from Hatch. The streets are more narrow and it’s located next to two dungeons instead of one. It’s bustling with a lot more players in a much more confined, shoulder-bumping space. Amelia doesn’t like it. 

“We don’t have to go in,” FauFau reassures her. She looks just as nervous about the town as Amelia is. “Goomba should be fishing out of town. It’s quieter.” 

“She has a spot?” 

“It’s her favorite one.” 

Amelia is quiet. She follows behind FauFau who, thankfully, doesn’t start up a lot of small talk on their way there. The town of Redwick disappears behind them as they enter a forest. Amelia idly takes in the different hues of wood around her. Crowny’s words about furniture feel like a virus in her head. 

They come upon a lake. Amelia pauses. The graphics for the water weren’t the best, but the beauty of it wasn’t on the animations of the shoreline. It was the roots dipping into the water, the trees bowing low until their branches brushed the surface. It’s the rocky beach and all kinds of weeds and muck mixed in with it. FauFau fretfully leaps from rock to rock. 

“I don’t want to get my shoes in it.” She says. 

Amelia smiles demurely. I can’t imagine FauFau handling the beetles in the dungeon at all. She follows at a slower pace. The mud doesn’t bother her that much. It’s not like she even plans on wearing the dupe armor all the time anyway. 

Goomba is sitting on the roots of an upturned tree. It’s facing away from the shore, each and every tendril of root dipping low into the water or arching into it. Goomba has found a high spot, her legs crossed and her tail wagging from side to side. In her lap is a fishing pole. Amelia can faintly make out the line cast into the lake. It takes her an extra second to find the duck bobber out there. 

“Goomba!” FauFau calls. She’s wobbling up the roots with a laugh. “We’re here!” 

Goomba looks over her shoulder. Her straw hat tips dangerously into her face and she reaches up to adjust it. She’s grinning as FauFau tries to climb up to her. 

“Hey, look who it is!” She yells. She looks up at Amelia. “Take a seat, cowboy, we got loads of ‘em.” 

Amelia is more than happy to koala her way up to one of the high branches. FauFau is clinging to her branch for dear life. Goomba’s tail occasionally hits her in the head. 

“Is this all you do?” Amelia asks. 

Goomba tosses her a droll look. “No, I play hacky sack too.” She snorts and leans back until she’s flat on her back. Her head ends up in FauFau’s lap. FauFau doesn’t mind, a fond smile written across her face as she reaches around the straw hat to scratch at Goomba’s hair. 

Amelia sits awkwardly on her branch. She feels like she’s wasting her time. 

Goomba pipes up, her voice heavy like a comfortable cat, “Yes, this is all I do. You can fish all kinds of treasure up, ya know? I just have a really piss poor chance of gettin’ it.” 

“Not true.” FauFau chimes. “You work so hard you turn up treasure more often than any other fisher I know.” 

“Fau, I’m the only fisher you know.” 

“See? You’re already a winner.” 

Amelia snorts. Goomba tosses her a withering look. She says, “You know what, Bowson? I think it’s a great job for you.” 

“Oh boy.” Amelia laughs. She can see where this is going. 

“Yeah, here.” Goomba is holding out her fishing pole. “Take it. You give it a whirl. I’m going to get up and stretch.” 

Amelia’s bravado flounders at that. She hesitantly takes the pole. The bobber is still out of the lake but now she’s hyper-aware of it. She doesn’t want to mess this up. This wasn’t her pole. She idly glances down at it and nearly falls off her perch. 

[Jester’s Rod of the Clown]

+1 Fishing Skill 

“Oh my god,” Amelia says. “The name of the pole-”

“Shut it.” Goomba is failing to hide a smile behind her hat. FauFau is laughing too. Goomba reaches up to tug at FauFau’s sleeve. “FauFau, you watch her for a second, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” FauFau says playfully. 

“Make sure no sea serpent sweeps her away.” 

Amelia frowns, “That’s not real.” 

Goomba doesn’t answer her. Her eyes are closed and she’s completely AFK. FauFau is trying to hide her giggles behind her hand. She’s glancing up at Amelia with sympathy and amusement. 

“Don’t worry,” FauFau says. “I don’t think you’ll catch fish very quickly with a low fishing skill.”

Amelia frowns over at the duck bobber. There’s a part of her that wants to catch something. The promise of treasure, even rare, makes her wish a little bit of that luck would come her way. Nothing of the sort happens and she sits back on her branch with a sigh. 

“Are you liking DDO?” FauFau asks. Her fingers are idly running through Goomba’s hair. Amelia watches that from the corner of her eye. The familiarity with which they treated each other felt strange. It wasn’t the type of friendships typical guilds would build. 

“It’s okay,” Amelia says. She feels like she’s reading a script. “I kinda wish it would toss me a bone or two.” 

“Didn’t you get silverwood the other day?” 

Amelia holds back a wince, “Oh, yeah, I guess it just didn’t hit that hard. I’m still new.”

FauFau smiles, “It’s okay. We’ll help you out.” 

Amelia pretends she’s focused on the bobber. She keeps her eyes there and nowhere else. FauFau starts humming as she kneads her hands through Goomba’s hair. She lowers her face down until she’s nearly nose to nose with her. 

When Goomba’s eyes open, she shrieks. 

“Oh my god!” She’s clinging to the branch beneath her like she’s on a kayak that’s about to turn over. “Oh my god, stop doing that! Why, why me?!”

FauFau laughs as she leans back, “Oh, it’s not just you, I got Bowson with that too.” 

“She did,” Amelia confirms. 

Goomba huffs. She reaches back to pinch FauFau’s side. The green woman flinches and yelps out, “I give, I give!”

Amelia is paying too much attention to them. Their relationship is weird, or maybe she just hasn’t interacted a lot with guilds enough to know how they work. This felt odd. For a guild of four months, she knows for certain she wouldn’t be cuddling it up with someone- well, she doesn’t know. She’s not sure anymore. 

Her fishing pole jerks in her hands. 

“What?” She whirls back and finds the lake unbothered, all but untouched. Her bobber is missing. “Oh shit!” 

“Reel it, Bowson!” Goomba yells. Amelia can hear the grin in her voice as she cups her hands over her mouth. “C’mon, put your back into it!” 

Amelia makes a show of it. Goomba’s shouting gets her to stand up, wobbling precariously on the branch as she reels it in. Goomba laughs, clapping to her and encouraging her. She can hear the smile in FauFau’s voice when she calls out don’t fall!

“You gotta lift the rod up more! Easy on the line, Bowson, you’re gonna break it!” 

“What?!”

“Don’t panic! Move your pole away from the direction the fish is tugging, you hear me? Not like that, your other left! That’s it!” The glee in Goomba’s voice sounds almost maniacal. “C’mon! Reel it in!” 

Amelia yanks on it. The lake splashes up at her heels. The duck bobber is what she sees first, the line jostling it into flying around her head. The next she sees is a small trout, a strip of pink down its flank. It’s flailing from her line. Amelia stares uncomprehendingly. 

Goomba is reaching out and taking it. Her tail is wagging as she works the hook out from its gills. 

“Hey, congrats,” Goomba says. She’s opening her menu and producing a tackle box. Amelia watches her in fascination. Goomba is riffling through it with purpose, her hands practiced as she winds up the line between her fingers and produces a different hook. At the same time, the fish is disappearing in her hands and into her inventory. “It’s a trout.” 

“Is that good?” Amelia asks. 

“Eh, it’s good for fish oil.” Goomba purses her lips as she works at the fishing line. She mutters, “FauFau, how much did you need again?” 

“A lot,” FauFau says solemnly. She’s smiling despite this. “You will have to ruin this ecosystem.”

“Oh no, not the virtual ecosystem.” Goomba drawls. “Who could prevent this?” 

“Well, it won’t be me.” FauFau pulls her knees up and winds her arms around them. She rests her cheek on her knees and closes her eyes. “I’m going to start on my plants, Goomba. You have fun.” 

Goomba makes a mournful noise, “Aw, Fau, okay. Have fun.”

“I’ll still be here, I just need to be a person again.” 

Goomba laughs. Amelia wants to comment. She wants to ask about these plants, but FauFau is obviously going AFK. This was matters outside the game that made her hesitate. When Goomba finishes, Amelia offers the pole back. Goomba looks at her keenly. 

“You sure you don’t want another go?” Goomba asks. 

Amelia mutters, “I wanna see you do it.” 

“Alright.” Goomba takes it, her fingers brushing Amelia’s as she settles the pole back into her lap. “Watch the master work her magic.” 

Amelia does. She watches Goomba cast her line out. She watches the way the girl leans back on one hand, her eyes half-lidded, the breeze tussling her hair. There’s peace and content to it. FauFau dozing behind her makes this softer. Idly, Amelia mutes the game music. She’s pulling a cooler playlist, the kind of music she typically uses for studying. 

The lake is calm. Amelia feels the pull to the dungeon. There’s still this errant feeling that she’s wasting her time. She’s surprised to find that she doesn’t like it. The restlessness in her bones makes her frown.

.

.

SuperGlueRys has logged in. 

SuperGlueRys: HiRys ! I’m onlineRys!

Goomba: gluuuuuue

SuperGlueRys: gooooooo

Goomba: :D

Goomba: glue we have a new person say hello

Bowson: hello

Goomba: no not you 

SuperGlueRys: Hiiiiiiii nice to meet you omg 

SuperGlueRys: when was the last time we had a new person

Goomba: glue we need 10 ppl to make the guild

Goomba: we can do math we have the technologaly

Bowson: technology

Goomba: go pound sand

SuperGlueRys: wait this is huge actually 

SuperGlueRys: welcome bowson!!!!

Goomba: our guild baby

Bowson: ??

Goomba: fau is here too she afk

SuperGlueRys: same tbh im only checking my mail rq before i gotta go 

SuperGlueRys: im HOPING my stuff sold 

Goomba: gl glue praying for u

SuperGlueRys: thank you your prays sustain me and fuel me

Goomba: ouuuuuuuuuuuu ← the sound of me praying

SuperGlueRys: im feeling it

.

.

“Glue is one of the farmers.” Goomba says. She’s sorting through her menu as she talks. “She’s not on very often though. One of the busy ones in the family.”

“Ah.” Amelia acknowledges. She’s watching the duck bobber out on the lake. It gives her something better to do then voerthink about this guild she has joined. She doesn’t want to think about the personal lives of these players. She can’t help it. 

Goomba reels in a few fish. She’s occupied with herself. Amelia leans back in her chair, her headphones heavy and her back aching. She stretches. Her phone sitting beside her computer reminds her she still has studying to get in before she has to make dinner. 

“I have to go soon.” She says to Goomba. “I’m going to double back to Hatch to get some stuff outa the way before I go.” 

Goomba glances at her, “Yeah? Look at you, already the go-getter.” 

Amelia flushes. She mumbles, “Well.” 

“I’m messing with you. Go on, shoo.” Goomba waves her hand at her. “FauFau will keep me company, don’t worry your pretty little head.” 

Amelia feels flustered. Her neck is warm as she hops down from the tree roots. She waves over her shoulder, too afraid of a farewell as she walks away. She can feel Goomba’s eyes boring a hole into the back of her head as she leaves the lake behind. 

.

.

Floor One is empty when she returns to it. Amelia had made sure her inventory was pristine as it can be for possible loot. The scarab shield rests on her back. She feels herself preen under its weight. A spoil of war. 

She passes the grotto. The absence of silverwood trees reminds her of the logs still sitting in her inventory. She ignores it. The lack of enemies has her tightening her grip on her bow. She doesn’t have a lot of time before she should log out. She never even went to Hatch. This would be her first time dungeon diving while two, no, three people were online. She felt anxious and jumpy. At any moment she was expecting guild chat to light up with accusations. There’s no way they know where she is. 

Where are the beetles? She wonders. 

Something red drips onto her shoulder. Amelia reels in surprise. She reaches up to touch it when another droplet lands on her wrist. She glances up. The ceiling is coated with a red liquid. It’s solidifying and breaking apart. It’s falling on her. 

A trap?! She balks. Her feet are trying to take her out of its range. She doesn’t manage it entirely. The red substance is dropping down onto her. The solid mass of gelatin is wrapping around her shoulders and constricting her chest. What the hell?!

Alarm screams in her head. Her HP is dipping, tick by tick, she’s losing point after point of precious life every moment she’s trapped in this. What even is this? She hysterically claws at it. It’s a slow process, way too slow, and she’s falling into panic as her HP drops to half. 

She’s worming around for her shield. When she grasps it, she makes a frantic effort to cut at the substance. It recoils when she smacks it with her shield. It’s living, she realizes in horror. She’s fighting a monster. 

Her HP is down to a fourth. 

“Let go!” She shrieks frantically. “Let go, let go!” 

Goomba is fishing right now. They’re online. Does the guild get a message when she dies? How crazy would that be? She leaves for Hatch and they get a message Bowson has been slain. Our guild baby. That should not make her emotional in the slightest. She feels dumb for even wanting to be emotional about it. 

She’s opening her inventory, frantic to find anything useful. She’s half tempted to dump her dupe gear on it and see if that will damage it in any capacity. Bashing at it with her shield isn’t killing it as fast as it's killing her. 

She grabs the health potion. 

Sorry, she thinks. She doesn’t know why. It felt too precious to use. She’s taking it anyway, downing it as she finally manages to break from the slime. Her health soars back up to full. The empty bottle returns to her inventory. Thank you. 

She draws her bow. The slime is moving towards her slowly, much slower than the beetles. When she takes a shot, it’s health barely even drops. But it’s slow. She counts her arrows in her head. She could manage it. She just needs to make every shot count. 

Time, she reminds herself. She’s panicked. She hopes they won’t pay too much attention to how much time she’s taking. She lets arrow after arrow soar into the gelatin. She gives it a wide berth. She doesn’t want to end up in its grasp again. She won’t make it out alive without another potion. 

It takes twenty minutes to kill it. 

The last arrow sends it flat to the floor. It looks like a sea urchin with how many of her arrows stick from it. The moment it goes flat, her character pings her that it has hit level 15. 

What? She hysterically grips her bow. That thing gave a whole level of experience? 

When it disappears into smoke, it leaves behind a loot bag. It’s the same as the beetles except it has a little gold ribbon tying the bag in place. Amelia stares at it uncomprehendingly. She knows that bag. She’s watched videos of guilds defeating great demons for that bag. 

It’s a boss loot bag. 

“You’re fucking joking.” She squeaks. “That was it?” 

She’s hesitant to even approach the bag. She treats it like a bomb, toeing at it and half expecting another slime to burst forth from the contents. Nothing happens. The bag opens and she’s gifted three things. 

+ 10 gold 

+ 1 Slime Mold 

+ 1 Slime King’s Boots

Amelia hasn’t a clue what to do with the mold. It’s a crafting material, she’s certain of that, but she doesn’t know enough to know what it’s even used for. The boots have her attention. She examines them in awe. 

[Slime King’s Boots]

+ 1 Strength

- Prevents Knockback

“No way.” Amelia breathes. She’s thinking about the beetle that bowled her over on the stairs. Will it stop any future slimes from getting onto her too? The excitement of that has her equipping them. She lifts her leg and absolutely delights when red goopy slime drips from the soles of the boots. The boots themselves are a darker red, almost brown, but they’re not the common quality she’s been wearing. They’re uncommon, the same as her scarab shield. 

“I’m a god.” She breathes. She spends about five minutes walking around the boss room and enjoying the muddy noises her boots make on the floor. “Oh my god, this is disgusting. I love it.” 

She looks ahead. Further passed this room she can make out the hint of stairs going downward. It excites her. The Second Floor was waiting. New things to explore, new loot, new monsters, a whole new boss. 

She needs more arrows, lots of them. She needs that silverwood bow. The damage she’s doing now is god awful. Once she has that, she can be a little more confident in conquering future monsters. Who knows if that stair gimmick will work further down? She needs to be ready. She can’t die this early on. 

The silverwood bow recipe is 30 gold. 

Bowson has 31. 

Let’s fucking go, she thinks. 

.

.

Bowson: sorry I went afk for dog

Goomba: omg dog 

FauFau: we were wondering about you!

Bowson: hi fau

FauFau: :) hii 

FauFau: got everything you need?

Bowson: yeah

Bowson: im good

Bowson: thank you Fau

Bowson: you helped alot

FauFau: aw np it was my pleasure

Goomba: what am i to you just say you hate me

Bowson: thaaaanak you goomb

Gomba: :#

FauFau: are you heading off?

Bowson: yeah

Bowson: thanks again

Bowson: really

FauFau: <3

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Playing during the day wasn’t going to work anymore. There was just no legroom around those that were active all the time sprinkled in with those just stopping by for a few minutes. The only times she has found a time when no one is online is early in the morning. The sun isn’t even up yet and she’s playing a freaking video game.

It’s not like she had any friends to hang out with anyway. Her social time was gaming time. She crafts herself a wonderful sivlerwood bow while enjoying tea and breakfast. It’s one of the best days of the week. 

[Silverwood Bow]

+ 30 Damage

+ 1 Dexterity 

“Nice.” Amelia breathes. She takes a screenshot of her character posing with her items. The scarab shell looks cool while she wields a sleek, silvery bow. Amelia happily gets up to put away her dishes. She forgets she had the game running when Bubba wants out. It’s only half an hour later that she remembers it's running and strolls over to log out. 

There are a few guild messages waiting for her. 

.

.

Crowny has logged in. 

Crowny: oh hello bowson

Crowny: did you know you can get married in this game

Crowny: im assuming your silence is stupified awe

Bowson: oh hi

Bowson: wait what about marriage

Crowny: oh nothing

Crowny: thank you for the silverwood

Bowson: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lol

Bowson: actually have a gift for you

Crowny: if its what i think it is 

Crowny: im bringing a ring

Bowson: maybe ill just mail it to you

Crowny: thats fair

.

.

The problem has come down to health and how much she has. 

Every level grants her extra HP. It’s not a lot of HP. There are potions that increase it, she’s found out. Scouring through the alchemy recipes on sale gave her an idea of what she could make. Right now, the only thing she could make was a dexterity potion. It’s useful but she wants health. She wants healing. 

She’d like to pay FauFau back someday. That’s sitting in the back of her head. Someday, she thinks. 

She begins her descent down to Floor Two. Even with her new weapon and a new stash of arrows, she’s cautious as she leaves the safety of the stairs to venture further into the floor. Her first obstacle has her pausing. It’s a door. Hesitantly, she places her ear against it. There’s a rustling noise inside. Monsters. Right. 

She’s quiet as she creaks open the door. There’s a campfire roaring in the center of this room. Three figures are crouched around it. Amelia pauses. She thinks they’re players at first until one of them stands up. The dog-like appearance of them, the hunch of their backs, and the long gaunt snouts clue her in. She’s dealing with kobolds. 

Every single one of them has a bow. 

Shit. She leans against the door. It’s her only source of protection against them, she figures. She has to be quiet and she has to take them out stealthily. She absolutely cannot take on all three at once. The beetles had been spaced out, but they’d been scary. Two hits would have killed her. These monsters would be tougher than those. She can only land on the assumption it’d take them less effort to kill her. 

Her throat feels dry. If it fails, she can just run for the stairs. 

The kobold closest to her is gifted an arrow in the back of the head. Amelia perks up as its HP dips. It’s nearly three times the amount of damage as her last bow. That buys her time. Her excitement dies with a strangled gasp. 

All three kobolds are turning to her with their bows drawn. Ugly snarls across their faces, menacing steps forward. Amelia yelps and closes the door. She isn’t a moment too soon as she hears three thumps against the wood. Can I…? She peeks behind the door to take another shot. It doesn’t hit the same one. 

She can time it. The kobolds only approach her when she’s out of their line of sight. This is good. She just has to time their shots. Once they fire at her, she closes the door, waits for the sound of the arrows hitting said door, and then repeats. It’s not a genius method, she figures. She’s only taken down one kobold and they’re rapidly closing in on her. 

Shit. They don’t look like they have melee weapons. She plays it risky and keeps firing from behind her door. She’s able to take down one more before the last is ripping the door open. Amelia scrambles away. She’s unsure what distance she can cover. The stairs are the only thing she can think of. She bolts it for them. She hears the creak of a bow behind her, the strings straining against an arrow and- 

She stumbles. Her HP drops down to a third. Heart in her ears, she sprints up the stairs. She doesn’t wait to see if the trick works. She makes it back up to the first floor before falling onto her knees. 

There’s an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. 

“Ow,” Amelia grumbles. She gingerly pries it away. It goes into her quiver, her only spoil from this hunt. It makes her scowl. She couldn’t be risky about going back down. One more arrow would put her to death. The dungeon diver in her wanted to be risky. There was loot waiting for her. She was so close to it. 

Amelia sprawls out on her back with a groan. “I need health.” She laments. “This sucks.” 

.

.

FauFau has logged in. 

Crowny: helooo

FauFau: hiiiiiii

FauFau: good morning

FauFau: im just dropping in to check the market 

Crowny: goomba taught you price sniping and youve never been the same

FauFau: im a woman of many needs 

FauFau: and i need mold 

Bowson: mold?

Crowny: slime mold

Crowny: its a dungeon drop

FauFau: its really expensive too 

FauFau: arent slimes like low level guys 

Crowny: idk 

Bowson: is it hard to get?

FauFau: apparently i dunno 

FauFau: i need 25 to make healing potions 

FauFau: ive been buying them but itd be a lot easier with the boots

Bowson: what boots

Crowny: slimy boots. Its a rare drop off one of the bosses

Crowny: only like, a few players ever get it

Crowny: so it goes for alot

Bowson: what do the boots do

FauFau: its kinda silly

FauFau: but it makes slime every time the player steps around 

FauFau: its like free slime mold 

FauFau: its so broken 

Crowny: i dont think ive ever seen a player wearing those 

Crowny: lemme google the drop rate 

FauFau: when i checked it said it was less then 1% 

Crowny: yup 

Bowson: wow 

Bowson: thats so crazy 

Bowson: haha

.

.

Amelia was feeling a little ill. 

The cool boots sitting in her inventory have her pacing in the fields outside Hatch. She can see where players are floundering to the rare flower spawn locations. There are about half a dozen prowling around it at all times, eyeing each other like caged tigers. She doesn’t want a part of that. She’s more than content to gather blue flowers to make her dinky little dexterity potions and not think about slime mold. 

What were the chances? They were just funny goopy boots, but now she’s holding onto something that can make the guild filthy rich. She paces without the boots on. She’d already tested them out and found that, yes, she can collect the slime that drips off the boots. Incredible. She has 14 slime molds and she’s afraid if she gathers anymore she’ll pass out. 

The silverwood was only being scratched at in her inventory. She’d been meticulous about what she sent to Crowny. One a day, maybe one every two days, but now she has slime mold. Could she do the same? What kind of lie could she even cook up to excuse her having slime mold? 

“The boots.” She murmurs. No, it wasn’t a good idea to expose she had them. The guild would want to take them from her and it’s hard enough to get items as it is. She frowns. That line of thinking was putting guilt in her tummy. She didn’t like it. She doesn’t want to feel guilty over keeping the loot she rightfully got. 

FauFau’s potion is a grim reminder and it has her groaning and crouching down into the flowers. She ducks her head between her knees. The silverwood had been fine, it’s just fucking furniture, that’s fine. The slime mold? The healing potions? The breadwinner that gets the guild their dream house? Amelia feels like she’s gonna be sick. 

Calm down, she breathes. Maybe they weren’t too pricy. She can do some basic math. Crowny thinks she’s out gathering wood for hours and getting her a rare silverwood. What can she sell from carpentry that’s enough gold to buy a slime mold? 

She checks the market. 

Slime mold, to some small relief, goes for a gold a piece. There are some extremely overpriced ones further down the market board, but the general asking price seems to be a gold with the highest stretching up to three. She checks how much furniture goes for and winces when it looks like it’d only turn up copper and silver. Shit. 

Well. It’s not like they know she has a silverwood bow, right? She’d been feigning indifference to combat this whole time. If Crowny ever caught sight of her crafting list and saw the silverwood bow receipe she may comment on it and, well, Amelia can lie like a dog. It was a random monster drop, she was clearing out boars so she can feller without a problem, it was just a drop, she doesn’t even want to waste silverwood on it. Oh, it could have been sold? That’s a shame, she didn’t know. 

Amelia feels her stomach roil. She rubs a hand down her face and sighs shakily. She had to be careful. She had to be extremely careful. 

What for? A small voice in her head cries. If they find out, you can just leave! 

That’s not the point. She needs this guild to dungeon dive otherwise it’s all moot. She squares her shoulders and sets her sight on Hatch. 

“Healing potions.” She murmurs. “I need the receipe.”

The recipe is 40 gold. 

Son of a bitch, she thinks earnestly. The one gold piece sitting in her wallet was wailing in misery. At least she had slime mold to sell, right? 

There are a lot of problems already with this plan. If she posts slime molds to the market in hopes of earning money, FauFau would very quickly notice the name the slime molds are under. She doesn’t think her heart can handle the idea of FauFau spending money on her own slime molds anyway. In Amelia’s head, they were already FauFau’s. She just had to get it to her as inconspicuously as possible. 

She didn’t want to barter. Talking with other players and haggling with them made her recoil with anxiety. She wasn’t built for that. It wasn’t something she wanted to do. 

Silverwood bows, however. Amelia has enough silverwood to craft a few of them. She frowns at the idea of wasting the silverwood, but she needed the gold. Besides, this was all theoretical wood anyway. Crowny doesn’t know she has it. It would also fit well with this new narrative that she’s working hard to sell things and buy slime molds for FauFau. What is she selling? Junk, anything, everything. She doesn’t have an excuse yet. She wishes she did. 

One by one, the silverwood logs disappear from her inventory. With her bag filled with bows, Amelia sets off for the market. 

.

.

A single silverwood bow runs for 50 gold. 

Amelia has three. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Healing potions require fish oil. 

Amelia wants nothing more than to uninstall this game. She’d like to pretend it doesn’t exist. Hell, she can pretend she died and they couldn’t find her, nope, she leaves this online game behind and no one would be the wiser. No more logging in ever again. 

Healing potions required 25 slime molds and 5 fish oil. 

“Who developed this game?” She asks aloud. Wellington is making a nest in her lap while she combs the internet for answers. The forums talk to her about the rarity of healing potions of dungeon drops- not very helpful when she can’t even get down there plausibly. Fish oil, thankfully, doesn’t go for a lot. It’s a silver a pop while purchasing the fish is even less money. 

So, it’s not really a problem, she thinks. It’s not like she’s short on gold anymore either. She just has to pace in circles for a few hours, acquire a heap ton of slime mold, make a bunch of potions, and she’s set to explore the rest of the dungeon. In theory anyway. 

She eyes the uninstall button longingly before clicking the play button. 

.

.

Bowson has logged in. 

Hakotaro: yoooooooooooo

Hakotaro: wassup hows it going !!!!

Bowson: hello 

Hakotaro: hi nice to meet you its a pleasure 

Hakotaro: did you need anything at all 

Hakotaro: goombs told me youre super new 

Hakotaro: i can send you gold 

Bowson: haha nty

Bowson: im good

Hakotaro: kaaaaaaaaay 

Hakotaro: if you need me ill be cookin

.

.

That was easy, Amelia thinks. She’s too used to being dragged away for guild-related activities that to find someone not immediately accosting her has her halting. This is her first time interacting with Hakotaro. They seem okay, she reasons. They keep to themself. 

Amelia likes that. She prowls through Hatch on a mission for the market board. Her wallet is still heavy with gold and she’d like to spoil herself a little. Dungeon drops are posted all the time. If she can find one piece of uncommon gear that’s not overpriced she’ll be a little more confident about her time down on the Second Floor. 

Out of morbid curiosity, she searches for slime boots. 

She quickly closes the tab when she spots numbers in the quadruple digits. Her knees feel like jello. She shakily does a broad search for a chest piece. It’s something else to focus on besides the precious item sitting in her inventory. 

Leatherworking exists in this game, she knows. Blacksmithing as well. A lot of the gear she first lays her eyes on are definitely low-level crafting creations. It’s only marginally better than what she’s wearing. It’s not worth the few gold pieces they’re asking for. She can do better. 

Amelia narrows down the search. She excludes common quality from the list and recoils when the price jumps from a few gold to nearly touching a hundred gold per piece. 

Yikes. Was this worth it? 

She’d debating over it as her guild chat lights up with new messages. 

.

.

Tako has logged in. 

Hakotaro: heeeyy hey hey wassuuup

Tako: wah

Bowson: helloo

Tako: hi bowson 

Tako: its nice to finally meet you

Bowson: nice to meet you 

Hakotaro: oh my gahh

Hakotaro: its been a week hasnt it

Tako: has it??

Hakotaro: we should catch up 

Hakotaro: hold on 

Hakotaro: bowson are still @ hatch? 

Bowson: yes 

Hakotaro: sweet wanna chill with us 

Hakotaro: i wanna meet youuuu

Tako: no pressure lol

Bowson: sure 

Hakotaro: sweet aight lets gooo

.

.

The cafe isn’t busy at this time. Amelia is thankful for this. She arrives late with purpose. She’s able to spot the two misfits in the corner booth with ease. The others have much larger quantities of adventurers at their tables. These two look decidedly Hollow Life. 

Crafting gear, Amelia laments, is hard to miss. 

“Oh hey.” The first one to greet her is a shock of red hair. Her pigtails are wild and unruly. She’s waving Amelia over with a grin. It’s eerily reminiscent to Gura, sharp teeth and all. “Bowson? Is that you?” 

“Hi.” Amelia greets. She walks over and pauses. The second girl isn’t as small as the redhead, but she’s dainty and frail looking. Long midnight hair drapes down onto the bench. The top of her head has two small flaps. 

“Hi.” The dainty girl smiles. She’s scooting over to offer room. “Here, come sit. I’m Tako, that’s also Tako.”

“Hey hey, I’m Hakotaro.” The redhead corrects dryly. “And I paid for everything here.”

Tako is laughing, “Oy, oy, nah nah nah, I paid for everything.” 

Amelia cracks a wry smile as she takes a seat. Tako is waving a hand to her, “I have a tab open. Order any food you like.” 

“She’d eat from the cafe but not what I make her,” Hakotaro complains. She gestures to the empty spot in front of her. “Open all the tabs you want! I ain’t orderin’ from here.”

“Uh.” Amelia hesitates to even open her menu for this. “Is it bad?”

“It’s not bad.” Tako says at the same time as Hakotaro saying, “It’s garbage!” 

“Look!” Hakotaro huffs. She’s opening her menu and turning it around to face Amelia. Amelia squints at it from across the table. It’s a list of items the cafe is serving. Under each food item on the list is a description of what sort of gifts it offers. The tea offers mana regeneration. Fresh bread offers a bit of health back but only while eating. There are a few higher-priced items on the list that have Amelia wincing. Despite having a heavier wallet, she wasn’t keen to spend it aimlessly. 

Hakotaro catches her looks and nods, “Right? It’s a sham! I can easily make this stuff, free of charge.” 

“Well.” Tako smiles mirthlessly. “Not right now anyway.” 

“I can make salads!” Hakotaro picks up a fork to wave it around dangerously. “FauFau helps me with that at least. A little bit. Glue is my only helper when it comes to getting the good ol’ greens.” 

Amelia purses her lips, “Are you guys farmers?”

“Hakotaro is.” Tako says. 

Hakotaro preens, “Das’ right. I’m out fighting for my life in those fields, don’t you know? I learned a new swear in German, this guy was so pissed with me.” 

Amelia gives an aborted laugh, “Wait, what?”

“The farm fields are camped to death by other players,” Tako explains. She looks amused as Hakotaro dramatically sinks into her spot. “Depending on when vegetables and herbs respawn, there may be a lot of players waiting on it too.” 

“All the time!” Hakotaro throws her hands up, “All the freaking time!”

“It’s not that bad.” 

Hakotaro points at Tako, “Tell that to Mummers.” 

Amelia blinks, “Is that how they got banned? The freaking farm fields?”

“The fields of death!” 

Tako laughs, “Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. To be fair, Mummers was egging them on.” 

Amelia is morbidly fascinated with this train of conversation. It’s a strange feeling, she realizes, and it’s not for another minute does she realize they’re gossiping. Amelia feels tilted off her axis. When was the last time she sat down with other girls and gossiped? She can’t recall in the back of her head. 

Hakotaro breaks her from her reverie with a groan, “It doesn’t even matter! Without Mummers, we’re all becoming vegans.” 

“What?” Amelia asks airily. 

Tako is giggling into her tea, “Mummers is our hunter. She’s also our leatherworker but there’s not really a huge use for it.” She peers at Hakotaro. “Doesn’t it make carpets?”

“I dunno.” 

“Wait, when you say hunter,” Amelia murmurs, “you mean… like combat?” 

She doesn’t miss how Tako grows quiet. Hakotaro folds her arms over the table with a frown, “Yeah. Mummers is the only one in our guild who does it, for some reason.” 

“Is that allowed?” Amelia asks, her voice raising a notch. 

“I mean,” Hakotaro deflates, “who wants to do that? You’ll lose all your levels if you die. Mummer’s has already died three times now, like, c’mon, dude. At some point, you gotta throw in the towel.” 

Three times. Amelia stares uncomprehendingly down at the table. “I mean… yeah, at that point, it should be a no-brainer.”

“I’ve told her I’ve already accepted my life as a vegan.” Haklotaro sniffs. “She can hunt boars for hours and it’d be great, actually, but nothing really matters unless I get my hands on dungeon materials.”

Amelia frowns, “Well if she really doesn’t care about her character, why not just send her down-”

“No.” Tako cuts in. She sounds small. Amelia glances at her. She has her head bowed, her hair curtaining off her expression from Amelia. “No, she likes her character. Don’t get us wrong. It’s a real pain for her to get back those leatherworker levels.” 

“Then why…?”

Hakotaro exhales noisily, “Why? I dunno. She’s insane. I don’t have the integrity to do that, but she is gathering meat for me and Glue so I can’t complain.” 

Tako brushes her hair behind her ear, “... I can’t help but feel bad. I feel like I’m part of the reason she’s still risking her life.” 

“Hey, that’s not true-”

“It kind of is.” Tako opens her menu. She’s taking out a staff from her inventory. The long stick takes up the entirety of their table. Amelia stares at it. She’d seen staff users before. It’s hard to be a magic user when the only way to learn spells is through spell recipes. They’re practically a crafting class all on their own. The staff comes with one basic spell and everything else has to be learned through rare drops or expensive vendors. 

Tako places the staff on the table with a weary frown, “In order to learn better spells, I need to be higher level. The only way to do that is through fighting monsters. Well, I really can’t fight monsters. With a staff and a limited mana pool, I’ll die really quickly. That’s why Mummers was helping me.” 

Amelia is caught up in the mention of combat. Her heart is hammering with hope, “Are spells that worth it?”

Hakotaro snorts, “Worth it, yo? Tako is the one making us money over here. She hit level five and learned this little health regeneration spell that some dungeon guilds will pay her for.” She’s grinning wickedly, “How many times have they offered to recruit you?”

Tako looks like she wants to be upset, but her lips are curving up into a reluctant smile, “Quite a few.” 

“See! Breadwinner, baby.” Hakotaro laughs. “But the real goal is level ten, right? That’s the good stuff.” 

“What kinda stuff?” Amelia asks. 

Tako blinks at her. She looks flustered for a moment, “Oh dear, I forgot you’re new. I got caught up in chatting I completely forgot.” She shakes her head. “At level ten, I’ll be able to learn a teleport spell.” 

Amelia stares at her. She echoes, “Telportation…?”

Hakotaro is downright cackling, “Ohh, yeah, it’s the good stuff. Not only will she make traveling over the overworld easy peasy lemon squeezy, man, but she can sell that magic to other players too.” She rubs her hands together. “Guild house here we come.” 

Tako smiles shyly, “That’s kind of far off, don’t you think? At this rate, I feel like we’ll get a house before I hit level ten.” 

“I can help.” Amelia blurts. 

They both stare at her. Amelia’s back straightens under their gazes. There’s an accusingly sharp note to it that makes it feel like she just dropped a swear word in front of them. 

Hakotaro says, “Nope. Nuh Uh. Crowny would kill me.” 

“What?” Amelia asks in bewilderment. 

“Listen, Mummers is my gatherer!” Hakotaro is back to waving her fork around. “You’re the newbie, okay? It’s dangerous to send you out and kill monsters. Besides, we have Mummers, we don’t need two guild members risking their necks. She’s already gonna give me and Glue grey hairs at this rate.”

“Sorry, Bowson.” Tako murmurs. She’s offering a smile that doesn’t do much to the annoyance simmering in Amelia’s tummy. “Hakotaro is right. I know you want to help, but we’d all prefer you alive rather than dead.” 

Amelia has a biting retort on her tongue. She’s not a newbie, she’s fought much more dangerous things, and she doesn’t need to be coddled. The affection underneath this was making her falter. A guild that cared so much for its new players was odd. Maybe she hadn’t seen enough guilds in action to ever notice it before. Were other guilds this protective of their new players? 

She drums her fingers on the table, “I’m not retracting my offer.”

“Das’ fine.” Hakotaro clicks her tongue. “I ain’t takin’ you up on it though. Crowny would literally kill me.” 

“Crowny doesn’t own me.” 

“Uh,” Hakotaro smiles at her like she’s a child, like she doesn’t understand. Amelia bristles. “Bowson, you gave that woman silverwood. You are one hundred percent Crowny’s gatherer now. If you wanna go kill dangerous stuff you gotta ask her.” 

She’s not my mom, Amelia grits her teeth. This felt absurd. Humiliation was starting to climb up her spine. 

Tako says soothingly, “We’re just careful. You’re level two, right? That’s good, you know a bit about combat. But…” She smiles ruefully, “We’re not a combat guild, Bowson.”

Amelia’s anger sputters and dies. She’s falling back into the black hole she made for herself. She joined a crafters guild, she reminds herself miserably, this is the grave she dug for herself. She crosses her arms and sighs.

“I’ll ask Crowny.” She says. Hakotaro looks at her with amusement but doesn’t rile her up again. Tako changes the topic delicately. They’re moving on to chatting about market board prices, about economic things that Amelia tunes out to stare at the staff on the table. She doesn’t know what to do. It’s making her frustrated. 

This is stupid, she thinks. I hate this game. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Bowson has logged in. 

Goomba: hiii

Bowson: goomb hi

Goomba: :# howsit going bowsoooon

Bowson: can you tell me where to buy a fishing pole

Goomba: :D

.

.

Amelia figures she can study while she fishes. 

She chews on a pencil as she alternates between the game tab and the tab involving all her study work. She has an entire medical textbook to comb through for the evening and the only thing to occupy her boredom is her character holding a fishing rod. She cranks the volume of the game to the max so she can hear the pull of the rod. It’s the only sign that she’ll have a fish on. She ends up losing a lot of hooks this way, but she’s not a huge fan of sitting around for hours like that. 

In between studying and tabbing in and out, she eventually finds someone sitting next to Bowson. 

It’s FauFau. 

Amelia pauses. She frantically scrolls through guild chat to find any messages she missed. She didn’t miss much. FauFau logged in ten minutes ago. Goomba greeted her. FauFau made no mention of anything else. The green lady is quiet beside her, her head leaning on Bowson’s shoulder. 

Amelia feels her heart throb. 

Quietly, she takes a screenshot of that. It’s of the lake, shining and iridescent. She has a little gator bobber out on the lake. Bowson and FauFau have their backs to the camera. It looks romantic and peaceful. Amelia saves it. There’s a happy trill in her chest as she goes back to studying. She can’t identify why it's there. 

.

.

She has half a dozen healing potions. 

Floor Two beckons to her and she answers the call readily. It’s not a long trek and it reminds her of how much time she’s been wasting. She’s only two floors down, barely even. She’s done nothing substantial. 

Her boots make funny noises and remind her, maybe a little substantial. 

With arrows notched at the ready, she quietly takes out the last kobold waiting for her down on the Second Floor. The door trick worked well. She’s able to finally claim the loot from the three kobolds. The first and second one only offers a few gold pieces each. She frowns at that, but takes a look at the third and finds an item waiting for her. 

[Kobold Knife] 

+ 2 Leatherworking Skill 

Amelia slowly tilts her head. It’s an uncommon item. It’s a crafting item, she recognizes, but it’s not one she’s familiar with. Amelia purses her lips. The only one she knows who can use this is currently banned. 

Or, her fingers close around the hilt with purpose, it’s for me. 

Each room on the Second Floor offers an array of kobolds. She uses the door trick to her advantage and a healing potion when she loses that advantage. She burns down three potions to clear the entire floor. She walks away with fifty more gold, a few more knives, and a new type of arrow that she toys with between her fingers. 

[Jagged Arrow] 

+ 5 damage 

+ Adds BLEED effect

“Bleeding.” Amelia echoes. She knows certain daggers offer the same kind of boost, but she didn’t know arrows could do that too. She’s only able to gather nine of them from the kobolds on the floor. She ultimately decides it’s for bosses. An extra source of damage for a large health pool would be useful. 

The boss at the end of the floor is a kobold. He looks big and brawny. A massive axe rests on his back. Amelia isn’t sure how well the door trick will work against him. 

Poorly, she finds. 

Amelia reels in surprise as the door lurches from impact. She’s frozen, unsure what to do. She’s given only a second to turn tail and bolt away before the boss is tearing the door into pieces. She lets loose arrows as she goes, heart hammering in her ears and wary of the slowly ticking away HP of the boss. 

He’s fast. The weight of his axe slows him down. When he hefts it up to attack he unleashes it in three rapid-fire brutal strikes. Amelia makes sure she’s not hit by any of them. The sheer size of it just screams bad news. She may have healing potions but they won’t do shit if she doesn’t have the health to take a blow. 

Retreat to the Second Floor. She decides. Get myself a safe distance. 

Except when she goes to open the last door, the very last door separating her from the stairs, she hears a clicking noise. She stares uncomprehendingly. The door isn’t budging. She gives it a nudge. It’s not moving at all. 

“What.” She breathes. She can hear the crash of the kobold behind her. She scampers out of its attack, mortified to find the door takes the hit without even suffering a scratch. “What!” 

The boss was still after her. Panicking, Amelia bolts it back to the way she came. She tries to give the boss a wide berth but his axe takes up just as much space as he does. When it flies overhead she hears a clang and her HP drop a sliver. 

What? She runs like a frightened deer back through the shattered remains of doorways. What hit me just now? Was that his axe? There’s no way it does that little damage. What was that?

She daringly slows her pace down. The axe nicks her again and hears the same clang. This time, she’s aware of what exactly the axe is hitting. 

The Scarab Sheild on her back. 

No way. She wants to draw it but she doesn’t have a secondary weapon to go with it. She’d only ever thought to rely on her bow. No way! That’s bullshit, what the heck! I could have been getting by so much easier!

The rest of the boss fight plays out like that. Amelia takes shots and when the boss gets too close, she turns her back and suffers a small blow for her risk. The shield on her back soaks the damage and she’s able to scamper off to gain more distance to repeat the process. She’s a turtle. She’s turtling the boss. 

When the boss dies another golden loot bag waits for her. 

+ 20 gold 

+ Kobold Harvesters Axe

+ Kobold King Battleaxe

Amelia frowns. It’s not spectacular. The battleaxe does some damage but it’s a two-handed weapon. She wasn’t a fan of that type of style. She’d probably end up selling it. The other axe, she finds, is a feller axe. 

[Kobold Harvesters Axe]

+ 2 Feller skill

“Oh yeah,” Amelia murmurs. “Crowny, you’re about to be bribed.” 

.

.

Later, Amelia will forget she’s logged in. 

She’d stepped away to walk Bubba and then afterwards got distracted with dinner. She was untabbed from the game. Whenever she passed by her computer it was open to her study guides. After dinner and a relaxing bath, she sits down and finds the game still running. 

She’d left Bowson in Hatch. As a precaution whenever she left the dungeon she always equipped her dupe gear. It made her frown, unhappy about not seeing all her cool collected items. Still, she thinks, Bowson does look kinda cool leaning against the cafe. 

Goomba is walking up to her. 

Amelia hovers her hand over the keyboard. She’s unsure if she wants to greet one of the guild members. She’s feeling spiteful, especially after being coddled like that. She beat the Second Floor. Her pride would not suffer it. 

Goomba leans against the building. She’s right beside Bowson and peering up at her. After a moment, she looks away. They’re like that, the two of them, just silently hanging out in front of the cafe. 

Why? Amelia frowns. Don’t you usually go fishing near Redwick? Why are you in Hatch? 

She wants to ask. She wants to return and see what’s new, but a part of her already knows that it’s going to be some crafting nonsense that will drag her away from dungeon diving. It’ll sink her deeper into the guild. They have their hooks in her and she’s struggling to avoid more. 

Goomba leans her head on her arm. 

Amelia murmurs, “What’s up?” 

Goomba startles, “Oh hey, welcome back.” 

“I left the game up.” 

“Oh, so you’re logging out?” 

Amelia makes an affirmative noise. She’s not feeling up for conversation. Goomba offers a wry smile, “Long day, champ?”

“Yeah.” 

“In real-life stuff?” 

Amelia falters. For once, something not game related was being brought before her. It felt like a courtesy not to ever talk about real-life things while in a video game. Were they that familiar with each other that they could talk about that now? 

Amelia shrugs. 

Goomba smiles demurely, “Hey, I know you don’t know us very well, but you can talk to us, well, me if you wanna. I don’t mind, honest. And you don’t have to.” Goomba huffs. “No pressure. I’m just throwin’ it out there.” 

Amelia feels some of that anger festering inside chip away. She murmurs, “Thanks.” 

“No prob.” Goomba glances at her. There’s a gleam of worry in her eyes that makes Amelia feel warmer. “Have a good night, Bowson.” 

“You too, Goomb.” She says and she means it. 

Goomba smiles. 

.

.

Crowny has logged in. 

Bowson: crowny

Crowny: hello

Crowny: oh hello bowson

Bowson: trade offer

Crowny: uh

Bowson: you give me permission to hunt monsters

Bowson: you receive axe and dont ask any questions

Crowny: uhhhhh

Crowny: whats this all about

Bowson: I want to help 

Crowny: yeah I get that

Crowny: youre our little hero

Bowson: what

Crowny: what kind of axe is it 

Bowson: +2

Crowny: what the fuck 

Crowny: how

Bowson: read trade offer

Crowny: HOW

Bowson: secret

Crowny: DID YOU SELL YOUR BODY

Bowson: maybe 

Crowny: BOWSON??? 

Bowson: do we have a deal 

Crowny: yes

.

.

The Kobold Battleaxe wins her over a hundred gold. 

Amelia takes a peek at spell recipes while she’s around. The teleportation spell runs for a thousand gold. Amelia glances at her current wallet. She has about a quarter of that. The entire thought process has her pausing and considering her actions. 

She can make infinite slime molds. Granted, she can’t go about selling them or any healing potions or risk FauFau finding her name on those listings. 

But if she haggles in the market, if she haggles with players face to face…

Amelia eyes the streets of Hatch with trepidation. Was she really about to step out of her comfort zone for some stupid game? It’s not like Tako wouldn’t have the money either. Didn’t they say they were halfway to obtaining a house? That’s a lot of gold. 

“At this rate, I feel like we’ll get a house before I hit level ten.” 

Amelia takes a deep breath and steps into the market. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Not for the first time, Amelia wonders what she’s getting herself into. 

She took two days off from the game to recover. Her social battery was drained and she’d rather focus on her studies than some dumb, ulcer-inducing game. Having to converse with other players was outrageously far from her comfort zone. She’s never doing it again. 

When she logs back in, there’s a teleportation spell recipe sitting in her inventory. 

“Bowson broke.” She says. She doesn’t even want to look at her wallet. She snacks on an orange while she moves Bowson away from the town. Her morning is spent combing through the Third Floor of the dungeon. It’s a floor filled with slime monsters. After the slime boss, she’s practically an expert on dealing with slimes. It doesn’t feel that monumental to loot slime molds when she can see a crumb trail of them behind her courtesy of her boots. The final boss is also a slime. It has spikes on it that it uses like a puffer fish. It spins towards her sometimes. She’s extremely proud of herself when she defeats it without having to use a single healing potion.

Bowson reaches level 16. 

Amelia celebrates by getting herself another orange. 

.

.

When they meet up at the cafe, Tako looks anxious. 

Amelia feels out of her element as well. She feels a burning weight on her shoulders in the form of a dumb little recipe sitting in her inventory. It’s the same feeling she gets when she has to hold her tongue about the slime molds. The boots. She’s not a fan of this feeling. 

Tako smiles at her, “You really didn’t have to.”

Amelia shrugs. She has her dupe armor on and it’s making her skin itch. “I wanted to help. If it makes you feel better, I’ll only be doing this until Mummers gets back.” 

“Still.” Tako brushes her hair behind her ear. “I mean, I appreciate it, but I won’t even be able to buy a teleport recipe at this rate.” 

“Hmm,” Amelia says. 

“I’d rather save the money for the house.” 

Amelia mutters, “Well, isn’t it still better to level up anyway?” 

“I dunno.” Tako leans against her staff. It almost looks like she’s hiding behind it. “It won’t be worth it at all if you end up dead.”

“Don’t you have a healing spell? Hakotaro mentioned that.”

Tako shakes her head, “It’s a regeneration spell. It’s slow. If you accidentally bite off more than you can chew, it won’t heal you fast enough to keep you alive.” 

“Ah,” Amelia says. “Then I won’t bite off more than I can chew.” Reluctantly, she thinks. At this point, she feels like she can take on multiple at once even in her dupe armor. She doesn’t want to let on she’s more experienced than she actually is. Newbie. Losertown. Ugh. 

Tako smiles helplessly, “I’ll warn you if you’re getting too close to dangerous areas.”

“That’d be great.” Amelia tries with every fiber in her being to sound genuine. “Thank you.” 

.

.

Maybe it wasn’t worth it. 

Amelia can’t tell why she thought this was a good idea. She can’t even remember why she was so eager to do this. Kill overworld monsters? With dupe armor, it creates a little bit of a challenge, but after the first half an hour of learning to dance around attacks, it becomes a pancake flip of ease. She thought it’d be exciting to fight with a sword and shield for once. 

Tako walks behind her, “I can pay for your arrows if you’d like.”

Amelia grimaces, “No, it’s okay. I’ll just use a sword. Saves money.” 

“Well.” Tako had long exhausted the its dangerous argument and they both knew it. “I was just surprised you didn’t use a bow.”

Amelia thinks tasting gravel would be better than the words on her tongue, “Yeah, bows really aren’t for me.” 

Tako laughs, “It’s the safest bet, but I guess it’s also kinda dangerous because you have to keep your distance or you’ll definitely be in a pinch.” 

“Yeah, true that.” 

Amelia idly notes the meat filling up her inventory. She murmurs, “Hakotaro and Glue need the material of these monsters, right?”

“Yeah. You don’t have a knife on you, do you?”

Amelia ignores the Kobold Knife in her inventory, “No.” 

Tako doesn’t seem surprised, “Well, if you get one, you can start leatherworking. It kinda…makes it slower, to be honest. You have to pause after every kill to skin it and it’s an extra few seconds.” 

“Is the fur useful?”

“It can be, I guess. It’s for making armor.” 

Amelia pauses at that. She glances over her shoulder at Tako. Tako blinks back at her, “Oh, well, it makes magical and crafting gear. That’s why it’s important to us.” 

“Not combat gear?” 

Tako smiles helplessly, “It does that too, I guess. It’s not very useful when everyone would rather have blacksmithing gear.” 

Amelia tilts her head at that, “Isn’t that for more like…tanky builds?”

“I guess?” Tako shrugs. “I don’t know how combat works very well.”

Amelia ponders this as they comb through the fields around Hatch. The respawn rate is pretty terrible, she thinks. They have to journey further out to find monsters to kill. Tako doesn’t seem keen on this. 

“It’s better to stay near town.” Tako murmurs. “Just in case.”

Amelia can’t help the exasperation in her tone, “In case of what? It’s been pretty easy.” 

“Well, it’s-”

The sound of swords clanging together distracts Amelia. She peers through the trees around her. There’s another adventurer group running through monsters. They’re killing them with extreme ease. Well, there are four of them. She purses her lips. The sudden bout of jealousy was unexpected. 

Tako follows her gaze and tenses, “Ah, it’s them.”

“Them?” Amelia parrots.

“Cannibal Crawlers,” Tako says. “They’re, well, they’re sort of the reason Mummers is banned.” 

Amelia blinks. She watches the adventurers more keenly. They’re mowing down everything in their path with ease. Dungeon players. Amelia frowns. Why the hell are they up here?

“Those are the players Mummers got in a fight with?”

“I wouldn’t say fight.” Tako smiles dryly. “There’s no PVP so… well, what happened was, they started stealing kills all around us. Mummers got upset and started doing the same to them.” Her smile fizzles. “Except their guild has forty members and when you get that many people to mass report someone…”

Amelia shifts on her feet. She’d never been exposed to guild conflict before. She knew it happened with dungeon guilds all the time. She wasn’t aware dungeon guilds even wanted to pick fights with crafting guilds. 

“What’s their deal?” Amelia mutters. “Don’t they have floors to clear or something?”

“Well, it’s hard to. The floors don’t offer a bunch of loot apparently.” Tako says. Amelia hums. She’s only cleared three floors and barely found enough gear for herself. “They have to rely on crafting guilds to make them better things. Cannibal Crawlers got fed up with spending gold and they’re just,” Tako exhales noisily, “they’re really trying to steal the market.”

Amelia meshes her lips into a thin line. She isn’t sure how to feel about that. The first thought in her head is sympathy. She doesn’t know if she should be sympathizing with a guild that Hollow Life doesn’t like, but she can relate to the idea of saving money. With how expensive teleportation is, she imagines dungeon guilds raking up massive debt. 

They’re kinda like me, Amelia grips her sword tightly. Wasting my time on crafting when I’d rather be dungeon diving. Except, they’re doing it to actually craft and I’m doing it to…

Why was she doing this? 

Tako’s voice carries over to her, “It’s better if we get out of this area. I don’t want to pick a fight.” 

“What?” Amelia asks. Her voice comes out harsher than she meant it to. 

Tako wraps her fingers around Amelia’s arm. The mage is glancing up at her knowingly, “C’mon. We did a lot today. We can take a break for a few and come back.” 

But it’s wasting time- Amelia takes a breath. She’s getting frustrated with herself. She reluctantly follows alongside Tako. She’s too deep in stewing in her thoughts, a maelstrom of why, why, why. She barely notices Tako is holding her hand now. 

“We can stop by the cafe.” Tako says. 

Amelia cracks a wry smile, “You’ll make Hakotaro mad.”

There’s a mischievous shine to Tako’s eyes, “Our secret.” 

The date at the cafe is nice. She chats with Tako while cradling a tea in hand. Tako talks about magic, about the spells anyone can learn, about the house purchase. She talks softly, but she tangents. Amelia thinks it's cute. 

“I do appreciate all you did today.” Tako smiles. “I may not have leveled up, but every little bit helps.”

Amelia imagines she won’t level for a while with the horrific amounts of monsters she’ll have to kill on the overworld, “It’s no problem.” 

When Tako gets up to leave, she bows her head to Amelia. Amelia wasn’t expecting that. She definitely wasn’t expecting the kiss to her cheek. She straightens in her seat. The affection was turning her head into smoke. 

“I’m gonna head off,” Tako says. “Thank you Bowson.”

“Uh, yeah.” Amelia stutters. “You’re welcome.”

Once Tako is gone, Amelia leaves Bowson to go splash water on her face. Frustration burns hotly under her skin. She looks in the mirror and scowls at herself. 

“It’s just a game.” She grumbles. “Seriously, get a grip.”

She has every intention to log out when she returns to her computer. She could use some cool-off time. That’d be the smart thing to do. 

Instead, she opens her inventory and equips the Kobold Knife.

.

.

Crowny has made a post to the Job Board

Crowny: cabinets have been made. can we make a house soon

Tako: @ crowny congratssss we’re getting there really slowly 

SuperGlueRys: @ tako I have some gold, its not a lot, but im donating to house fund

FauFau: @ tako I didnt do so good for sales… ill send you what I can 

Goomba: anyone want this rock I found

.

.

Amelia can’t even dungeon anymore. 

It’s not because she doesn’t want to or because her time has been consumed with Hollow Life. It’s because of her inventory. It’s filled with her dupe gear on top of all the crafting material she’s been hoarding. She gave up collecting slime mold. She just needs to pace in circles for that, there’s no point in even hoarding any of it. That doesn’t get rid of the meat in her bags. That doesn’t get rid of all the fur there too. 

Amelia would like more than anything to go after the Fourth Floor. 

Hollow Life needs a house, she rubs a hand down her face, I need a house. 

The storage sounded wonderful. It sounded so dearly wonderful. She could have all the free space she wanted to comb into the dungeon and find what she wanted. She could do so much. She wasn’t a fan of haggling and would rather avoid it, but if she could pawn off the healing potions she makes and make the money…

Tako would be suspicious. What excuse could she make that she got so much money so quickly? It was agonizing. She could do so much. Things would be so easy if she just- if she just told them-

Amelia closes the game.

.

.

Bowson has made a post to the Job Board.

Bowson: @ tako I wish I could help 

Tako: @ bowson you already are :)

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

“You know,” Hakotaro says, “it’s great you got all this.” 

Amelia peeks at her from around a grapevine. The farm fields of Hatch are packed with players moving their way around each plot. She sees the top of their head poke up occasionally. More than once she’s turned a corner too sharply and come face to face with a stranger. The jumpscare always gives her a scream. She’s only a little mollified to occasionally hear Hakotaro yelp from time to time. 

“I’m sensing a but, ” Amelia says. 

The bright red of Hakotaro’s hair bobs around the vineyards, “No buts, it’s great. It’s just, uh, well.” 

“There is totally a but.” 

Hakotaro groans, “Listen, I’m trying not to be ungrateful.” 

“She’s totally ungrateful.” A voice says from over the vines. 

“Glue, shut up.” 

“Why don’t you come over here and make me?” 

“So anyways,” Hakotaro says blasely, “you got us a whole bunch of meat right? It’s great. We can make crafting foods. Gathering foods. Gives us little buffs that help us gather faster or craft better, whatever. You get the point.” 

Amelia frowns, “I’m still sensing a but.” 

Hakotaro peeks around Amelia’s grapevine to see her. She looks apologetic, “ But me and Glue are high enough in our farming skill that… well, we need better quality stuff.” 

“It’s not going to waste!” Glue calls. She sounds further away as she moves down the aisle. “We’re still gonna make stuff with it.”

“It’s just, we’re not really getting the good, chunky skill levels from it like we used to.” Hakotaro smiles sheepishly. “It helped a little, but it’s not nearly what we need.” 

“What do you guys need?” Amelia asks.

“Eh, it’s not something-”

Glue shouts, “We need dungeon meat!” 

Another player nearby shouts back, “Fuck you!” 

“Hey!” Glue yells, “Who said that?! Say that to my face, where are you?!” 

Amelia listens to the shaking of leaves and angry footsteps. Hakotaro’s expression has fallen flat, “So anyway, yeah, we need foodstuff from the dungeon.” 

“I didn’t know food drops from the dungeon.” Amelia mumbles. She hadn’t come across anything of note yet. She had started chipping at Four Floor in her free time. It was a bunch of caterpillar monsters. It’s fine to deal with because they’re slow and can’t get to her before she’s unloaded her quiver into them. For the most part, they’ve been only dropping gold. 

Hakotaro places her elbow onto the vine stick. She sighs heavily, “Right, because it’s so rare. You gotta get lucky. There’s also like, a rumor I’m hearing, that secret NPC shops will appear in the dungeon occasionally and they’ll sell it too.” 

Amelia hasn’t heard of that. It makes her perk up, “NPC shops?” 

“Yeah.” Hakotaro stretches. She twirls a sickle in hand as she leans back on her heels, “Yeah, yeah. Sounds wonderful. It’s a faraway dream. God, can you imagine what we could do?” 

Amelia says slowly, carefully, “Why don’t you guys make a dungeon team?” 

Hakotaro gives her a long look, “What like…hire one?” 

“Yeah.” 

“That’s an idea that’s been tossed around.” Hakotaro looks upwards thoughtfully. “We’re saving for the house though. It might be something we look into after we’ve got that knocked outa the way. I heard about other crafting guilds doing it.” 

“Hiring a team?”

“Kinda? It’s more like they’re forming alliances with dungeon guilds.” Hakotaro makes a nauseated face, “There’s so much drama that happens though. Have you been on the forums?”

“No.”

“My god, stay clear of it. Save yourself the lost brain cells.” 

Amelia rubs her face tiredly, “Okay. Are we done here?”

“What, are you bored?” Hakotaro looks at her blankly, “If you’re bored, go yell at someone.” 

“What? Why would I do that?” 

“Because it’s fun. Look, Glue is doing it.” 

Amelia can see the top of Glue’s head farther away. She can hear whisps of yells and some other player retaliating. Another group was hurrying over to join the fray. 

“Is this seriously what you guys do all day?” 

Hakotaro gestures to the fields, “Listen, if you want to mindlessly monkey gather be my guest. You gotta get that blood flowing eventually.” 

Amelia avoids that minefield. It is funny to occasionally hear Glue shouting over the fields. The few words she catches leave her smiling to herself. 

.

.

The Fourth Floor boss is a caterpillar. 

At least at first it is. It’s the first time Amelia encounters a boss with two stages. It’s a caterpillar for the first stage. She’s had ample practice moving away from the slow thing and firing arrows at it. Once its health bar dropped to half, it cocooned itself. Amelia paused to stare at it. It lasts for three seconds. 

The cocoon broke apart. A large purple monarch was crawling out of it. Amelia notches an arrow. It’s cute. She waits for it to take flight. It flutters around, a bit of a hard target, but a pretty one. Amelia isn’t able to avoid it so cleanly. She can feel the scarab shell on her back suffering blow after blow. 

There’s golden dust falling from the ceiling. 

What? Amelia looks around wildly. There are spotty areas that the dust is falling from and very clear areas it isn’t. She ducks her way into a clear area, but the dust isn’t fading. She has only a moment a draw her shield before the boss is upon her again. It whams against her, over and over, slowly chipping at her HP. 

No choice. Amelia backs up into the golden cloud. She equips her dupe sword as she does, wincing at how little damage a single slash does to the butterfly. Ugh, I wish I could use my bow. 

And then she’s on the ground. Amelia blinks in surprise, her mouth parting in horror as she loses all functions in her body. There’s crackling static all along her limbs. The butterfly bears down on her. It gets one, unblocked hit in. Her health drops down to half. 

The static fades. Amelia rolls out of the cloud. It doesn’t stop the damage that’s been done. The static returns, golden electricity running up her arms that leaves her paralyzed. This time, her shield is left limply on top of her body. It absorbs the butterfly’s next blow. 

This is so dumb. Amelia begins to alternate. She swipes a few times between paralysis and then takes a health potion. I’m turtling again. She feels ridiculous, prone on the ground while a bug beats the shit out of her. Eventually, her last cut makes it, and the boss disappears into a puff of smoke. Amelia feels the breath knocked out of her as a loot bag lands on her shield. 

“Thanks.” She wheezes. 

She examines the loot with a weary eye. The forty gold was nice, she supposes. Healing potions weren’t a problem for her, but arrows ran up her expenses the further down she went into the dungeon. There was one other item that caught her eye. 

[Titania’s Grace] 

+ 50 damage

+ 4 to Dex

+ Chance to Paralyze on Hit 

It’s a sword. Amelia compares it to her dupe sword and nearly laughs. Her bow didn’t even do that much damage, let alone offer that much skill. She ends up having to drop some healing potions to make room for it in her inventory. It sucks, she thinks, but she can always make more super easily. It doesn’t stop her from feeling guilty about it. 

She holds it in her hand. The hilt has butterfly wings for a guard. She gives it a test swing but barely manages that before the electricity is running up her arms again. 

What, what-

Amelia flails as she falls onto the ground. Prone, she stares helplessly at where her sword landed. The paralysis doesn’t last for very long periods of time. She checks the debuff timer on her character. 

Six hours. 

“You’re joking.” Amelia hisses. “This is so stupid.” 

Amelia is ready to leave Bowson there and go run some errands. The dungeon floor has been cleared and she wouldn’t be in any danger. Nap time for Bowson, she thinks.

That was the plan anyway. 

.

.

Crowny: hey bowson

Bowson: crownster

Crowny: are you doin anything rn

Bowson: i’m gathering 

Crowny: oh? Where?

Bowson: i’m out by redwick 

Bowson: feller

Crowny: hey look at that

Crowny: i’m in redwick 

Crowny: you’re out in the spruce woods right?

Crowny: i’ll come help out 

Bowson: it’s fine 

Crowny: i’m trying to give you something

Bowson: ok 

.

.

Fuck, Amelia thinks. 

The run out of the dungeon is the most awkward, painful journey she’s ever experienced. Every thirty seconds Bowson trips over her own feet and ends up flat on her face as paralysis takes over. Amelia taps at her keyboard with more violence every time it happens. She barely remembers to equip her dupe armor. 

It takes her three times longer to run out. She’s halfway there when her guild chat lights up again. 

.

.

Crowny: where are you? 

Bowson: need your help 

Bowson: monster paralyzed me 

Crowny: what?

Bowson: chopping trees and a monster attacked me 

Bowson: just outside woods

.

.

She doesn’t know if she should be horrified or relieved when she sees the blue of Crowny’s hair appear between the trees. She has ten seconds left on her paralysis. From her spot on the ground, she watches Crowny approach. The woman looks wary, eyeing every tree with uncertainty. 

“How are you alive right now?” Crowny asks. 

Amelia offers a tight smile, “Another player saved me but didn’t stick around to help.” 

“What a jerk.” Crowny crouches beside her, amusement pulling at her lips. “Didn’t we tell you not to wander off from certain areas? You’re going to run into some strong monsters out here. Although, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one that can paralyze you.” 

“Me neither,” Amelia says. 

“Still.” Crowny nudges her shoulder with her hand. “How are you feelin’ champ?” 

“Like a million gold.” 

“Damn.” 

Amelia laughs weakly. Genuine relief is starting to fall over her as Crowny buys her story. Electricity races up her arms and keeps her grounded, unable to move. Crowny watches it all with fascination. 

“Wow, it really got you, huh.” She bends down. Amelia inhales in surprise as Crowny snakes an arm under her knees and around her shoulders. She's lifting Amelia up into a bridal carry. “Alright, stuckson, let’s go find FauFau. She should have a potion for you.” 

It takes a second for Amelia to respond. Crowny is tall. The unexpected escort was making her face warm. It was just friendly, she reassures herself. It still doesn’t stop her heart from hammering in her throat. 

There’s no Goomba at the lake today, but FauFau is there, perched on the roots and definitely focused on something else by the way her eyes are closed. When Crowny approaches, FauFau blinks to life. 

“Oh.” FauFau worriedly hops down. “I saw the guild chat, is she okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Amelia says. Her face feels extremely hot now. This felt like two worried mothers fretting over her. It was almost too much. “Crowny helped me out.” 

“I found her like this.” Crowny drawls. “Got any potions that cure paralysis?” 

FauFau looks concerned, “No, I don’t.” 

The thing about Hollow Life, Amelia is starting to realize, is they care, and they care. It’s in the way Crowny doesn’t set her down, not even once, not before FauFau helps her up the roots of the tree to lay her down properly. 

“Thanks, guys,” Amelia says. Her voice wavers with embarrassment. “I owe you one.” 

“Just don’t get in over your head, okay?” FauFau brushes her fingers through Amelia’s hair. There’s a fond gleam in her eye, “This is actually an opportunity.”

“For?”

“I’m working on things right now,” FauFau says. “But I’d like to play with your hair.” 

Crowny snorts, “She needs some sort of entertainment while she’s AFK.” 

Amelia thinks she’d rather be swallowed up by dirt. Crowny doesn't seem keen to let her return to gathering with the way she’s blocked off her escape. Amelia doesn’t think it’d be worth it if she drops to the ground every thirty seconds. She’s too exhausted to protest anyways. This was preferable then filling her mouth with lies. 

FauFau coaxed her to lay her head in her lap. Amelia feels tense and wary as the potion maker cards her hands through her hair. She’s helpless but she’s not, it’s an odd feeling. She’s being coddled and she doesn’t like it, but she likes it. She doesn’t know how to feel. 

“Are you going to stick around, Crowny?” FauFau asks. 

“I’ll chill.” Crowny’s voice comes from the other side of the log. Amelia imagines she’s leaning against it. “I need to start dinner anyway.” 

“Okay.” 

Amelia decides she’s had enough as well. She leaves Bowson there, safe in the arms of FauFau while she goes to get rid of the blush burning across her cheeks. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Amelia meets Hinotori. 

It’d been an uneventful week for her. Half of it she spent offline, focusing on her studies and griping about her work. The other half she spent clearing our Floor Five and Six. She’d finally found a peaceful area of time to play without anyone bothering her. There was an hour and a half window late at night that she could hop into. She had to be careful about it. If she logged on too early, whoever was up late would see her and want to hang out. If she logged on too late, the morning players would catch her. 

Night time was her peace and quiet. 

That’s what she thought, anyway. Amelia isn’t sure what time zones the other guild members are in. She’s started to figure it out with every piece of information she’s fed. It’s hard to remember who goes to bed when and such. It makes her feel like a detective. 

Floor Five is cleared without much suffering. It’s another slime level. The boss ends up being a magic sword, a floating weapon that she parries with for nearly half an hour. Every clash of their weapons chips away at its health. She didn’t get a sword from it, which she thought was lame. Floor Six was a bit of a doozy. It was completely void of monsters. 

Instead, it was filled with traps. 

Amelia is grateful her dexterity score is so high. She doubts Bowson would have made it out of the majority of the traps there. A pitfall trap nearly sent her to an early grave and the bear traps scattered around the floor made walking around nerve-wracking. More than once she found herself with a new ankle bracelet and having to use a health potion. The end of the floor didn’t have a boss, but instead a treasure chest waiting prettily before her. 

Amelia was smart. She took her butterfly sword and stabbed down into the chest. When it falls over into a bloody mess, its top parted like a mouth with razor-sharp teeth, she’s immensely satisfied with herself. 

“I play Dark Souls, bitch.” She says. She gives it a kick for good measure.

The loot bag gives her Mimic Teeth. Amelia figures that’s something for later and pockets it while she takes a quick peek at Floor Seven before heading offline. 

.

.

Hinotori has made a post to the Job Board

Hinotori: @ bowson need your help whenever you’re available

Bowson: @ Hinotori hi? What time? 

Hinotori: @ bowson hi :) 

Bowson: @ hinotori hi time please?

Hinotori: @ bowson lol idfk

.

.

“Hinotori?” Tako says. 

Amelia makes an affirmative in her throat. She’s stabbing a boar away from getting around her. She has it down to an art form at this point. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds for the monster to die. 

Tako hums from behind her, “She has sporadic hours. She’s a night owl, uh, for us anyway. It’s daytime for her when it’s nighttime for us.” 

“Really?” 

“Kinda, yeah. Hakotaro and Glue are closer to her timezone, but it’s hard to keep track of.” 

Amelia hums. She’s not overly concerned with it. She hears Tako giggle, “Callamori hangs out with her the most.”

“I think I’ve heard that name before.” 

“Those two are our late night players. Like…” Tako pantomimes an explosion with her hands, “Really late night.” 

Amelia looks at her with wry amusement, “What do they do?” 

“Hinotori is our blacksmith,” Tako says. “Callamori doesn’t like crafting at all. She goes out mining instead.”

“Is it that fun?” 

“About as fun as what we’re doing.” 

Amelia kicks a boar to the ground. She says, “I guess so.” 

They sit side by side in tall grass. The fields are barren of monsters. There’s not a sign of other players. They wait on respawns quietly, enjoying the sway of golden grass. Amelia peeks up at the sky. The graphics of this game weren’t anything to sniff at. It has her lying on her back with a sigh. 

Tako lays beside her. Her smile is eclipsed by flowing grass, “Bored?”

“Impatient.” 

“Mmh.” Tako looks up. Amelia follows her gaze to the clouds. It’s peaceful, she thinks. Late night playing the game and stuck underground fighting monsters have distracted her from pretty sights like these. There’s ambient music playing in her ear. It makes her blink heavily. 

“I remember when all of us were kids,” Tako murmurs, “and it was way long ago, wasn’t it? When stuff like this was brand new.” 

“Old age got you down?” Amelia jokes. 

Tako drawls, “Hey.” 

“I’m kidding. Please be my healer.” 

That makes Tako giggle, “I’m talking about years ago, ya know? Did you ever have an experience like that when you were a kid?” 

Amelia frowns, “I think you lost me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Video games. The internet.” 

“Oh.” Amelia makes a face. She bats away the grass tickling at her cheek. “I grew up on them too.” 

Tako exhales, “Anything ever like this?”

“DDO?”

“Like Hollow Life.” 

Amelia barks a laugh, “No, not in my life. Not even when I was a kid.” 

“I remember,” Tako recalls fondly, “always asking to use the PC. I was playing Song Tale at the time, did you ever play that MMO?”

“No, I played Coffin Quest.” 

Tako laughs, bright and loud, “Oh, that’s so old. They made a reboot of it recently didn’t they?” 

“Yeah, but it’s shit.” Amelia rolls her eyes, but she can’t stop smiling. “I started playing DDO because everyone on the internet was praising the hell out of it.” 

“A friend didn’t recommend it to you?” 

Amelia wants to laugh at that too, but she feels like that’d open a can of worms she wasn’t ready to open. She says, “Nah. What about you?” 

“Neighbula got me into it. She’s been playing for a while now.” 

“What’s she like to do?”

“Honestly? She just likes booting up the game for the music and to chat.” Tako says. When she doesn’t say more Amelia opens her mouth. There are pressing questions suddenly waiting to burst out of her chest. How was Hollow Life formed? How well did these people actually know each other? 

She closes her mouth. She looks back up at the sky and feels a stronger weight than ever before bearing down on her. 

Tako murmurs, “I think about how fun it used to be. These games used to be fun.” 

“You’re not having fun?” Amelia asks quietly. 

“I’m having fun when I’m with friends.” Tako tosses her a warm smile. “You’re fun to hang out with too.” 

Amelia looks away. She’s glad the grass is long enough to hide the warmth burning over her face. She hears Tako take a breath. 

“I sound old.” Tako laughs, a fragile note to it. “When we were younger, it wasn’t really trivial for us to gather hundreds and hundreds of stuff. It felt fun. We were living a fantasy.” 

“A fantasy.” Amelia echoes softly.

“Now when I play these games I know…more than I want to know. I know that all this material gathering is just a ploy to keep subscriptions going.” Tako exhales. “I know that I can easily look up on the web the fastest way to get something done. There are no secrets to find. DDO tried to be mysterious about how long the dungeons were, but within a week the whole community knew it was fifty.” 

Amelia listens. She glances over at Tako’s expression. She looks forlorn, far away, and years in the past. The nostalgia was tugging at Amelia’s heart. 

“Goals make it fun.” Amelia offers. “The house? I think that’s fun.” 

Tako giggles, “It is, isn’t it? There’s not a day someone won’t start fantasizing about all they’ll do once we get one.” 

“Imagine having your own room.” 

“Now that,” Tako says with amusement, “is something my child self can’t relate to.” 

Amelia laughs. 

.

.

It’s late at night when Hinotori asks to meet her. 

Amelia glances wearily at the time. Staying up till one in the morning wasn’t new, but she’d be pushing it if she started something now when she was just chilling out. She’d spent most of the day taking jabs at Floor Seven and helping Tako level up. She was tired. 

.

.

Hinotori: bowson !!!

Hinotori: are you @ Bromwich

Bowson: im @ redwick.

Hinotori: can you come to me?

.

.

Amelia sinks low in her chair. She feels miserable at the prospect. The agonizing ordeal of having to walk Bowson everywhere was already a hassle. Bromwich was the biggest city in the overworld. It had everything. It was huge. It was always busy no matter the time of day. 

It’d be a long walk and it’s late. 

.

.

Bowson: I’m about to go to bed

Hinotori: noo damn

Hinotori: I have gifts for you 

Hinotori: you wear leather right? 

Bowson: ya

Hinotori: drop by rq i promise itll be worth your time 

Bowson: fine

.

.

The lights of Bromwich are the first thing she sees. Amelia rubs her eyes. Her eyelids feel heavy. Looking at the lantern light from the city was hurting her head. The only thing she had on in her room was her desk lamp. 

Bromwich was a maze. 

She moves along the streets with slumped shoulders. There’s not enough energy in her to fight through the crowds. She can’t imagine this city in the daytime. There’s a cacophony of shouts and jeers through the players around her. Groups forming up and setting out, players stepping into shops, the taverns alit with activity. 

Amelia ducks down into the craftsman district. There’s an alchemist shop she passes and other such shop fronts. NPCs call out what they’re selling. There are players milling about, but more importantly, there are crafters set up along the street.

The nighttime bustle of the crowd spreads out to each crafter. Small amounts of players crowd around, bartering extensively from one to the next. Everyone looks harried. Amelia eyes them all drolly and walks passed without another look. 

She finds Hinotori at the peak of an alleyway. She has her crafter's station set up. An anvil stands before her, gallantly framed by a long metal workbench and a small, smoldering furnace. Hinotori herself is dressed up in a blacksmith's apron. Her hair is done back into a ponytail, the fiery orange of it drawing all attention to her as she hefts her hammer up and brings it down onto her workbench. There are metal plates stacked beside her and ingots aligned neatly. 

Amelia approaches, wary of the crowd Hinotori has gathered. 

“Oh!” Hinotori spots her immediately. Something crosses over her expression, but it’s gone before Amelia can decipher it. “Bowson! C’mere, around the other side.” 

Amelia awkwardly obliges. She’s glad for the instructions. Around the workbench and the furnace, she’s out of sight of the crowd and tucked into the alleyway. Hinotori peeks around to look at her. 

“This is my busy hour, sorry.” Hinotori smiles. “I made some things for you. Check it out, right there, behind the furnace.” 

Amelia glances down. There’s a set of armor waiting for her. Amelia immediately crouches down to have a better look. Currently, she has two sets of armor. Her dupe armor and her actual armor that she’s gained from questing around in the overworld. It wasn’t much better than her dupe armor. The difference was so small that on days her meager inventory space nearly annoyed her to tears she was tempted to just throw it away. 

Hinotori had made her leather armor. Amelia eyes it with fascination. It’s only a little better than her good armor. It gives her +1 to dexterity on every item. The armor value is higher. Both of these are things she didn’t have before. She feels bad about the boots but pockets them anyway. There’s a giddy part of her that can’t wait to be rid of nearly two sets of armor clogging her inventory. 

She peeks around the furnace to thank Hinotori. She pauses as she watches the woman talk with another player. She’s eager, laughing, and engaging them in friendly conversation. She’s drawing in a sale as she offers chainmail and is handed gold in return. Amelia watches it happen. She hasn’t a clue how to feel about this. She doesn’t even know Hinotori and she’d given her something grand. 

Hinotori had no idea how much this meant for her. 

Amelia opens her mouth. She wants to say thank you. She wants to ask questions, but Hinotori is already turning her head to her next customer. Amelia wilts. 

Quietly, she leaves down the alley. 

.

.

Amelia doesn’t get much sleep that night. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Bowson has logged in.

Hakotaro: lets gooooo

Bowson: hi

Neighbula: OMG

Neighbula: HIIII

Bowson: hiii

Neighbula: THERE ARE STRIPPERS IN HATCH

Hakotaro: wut 

Bowson: ????

Neighbula: THEYRE BEGGING FOR MONEY 

Neighbula: ITS LIKE A CIRCUS

SuperGlueRys: take screenshots for me pls

Hakotaro: hey??? why are you watching strippers???

Neighbula: i was afk drawing on my tablet and they started dancing on top of crafters

Hakotaro: ON TOP OF THEM

Neighbula: on top of crafters stations* loool

Hakotaro: new rule

Hakotaro: we stay away from hatch

SuperGlueRys: oh nooooo i bet bowson is there rn i guess i gotta go rescue her

Hakotaro: GLUE 

.

.

Amelia has never had to deal with the crazier side of players. 

She knows there are elitists, those are the types she’s more familiar with. She cringes up to her ears when she hears about the roleplayers in the community. When she steps out of the inn of Hatch and sees the central courtyard filled with players, she’s tempted to head back inside and work on her studies. She figures it’s a better way to lose years off her life than the amount of secondhand embarrassment she’ll suffer outside. 

Someone scoots up next to her. They’re trying not to laugh but failing as they nudge her shoulder, “There’s like a dozen of them.”

Amelia glances over. This is a fashionista, she recognizes. She’s wearing a pretty blue skirt that sparkles when she moves. She has on a blue shawl, her hair is done up into pigtails with different colored pearls as the hair ties, and she’s holding a lute. 

Amelia eyes the instrument with wide eyes. 

Neighbula grins at her, “It’s nice to meet you, Bowson! Tako told me all about you. She says you like combat a lot.” 

Amelia sputters, “I never told her that.” 

The girl shrugs, her smile never dimming in the slightest, “Well, it’s nice to meet you anyway! I don’t really play very often anymore so it’s nice to catch up every once in a while.” 

“You’re inactive?” Amelia asks. 

“More or less.” Neighbula cheerily strums at her lute. “I like mingling, everyone’s so weird.” 

“Is that all you do?”

Neighbula smiles at her, “Is that so bad?” 

Amelia looks pointedly out at the courtyard. There are a few obviously naked players running back and forth through the crowd. There are angry shouts and laughter rising over that area. She’s glad it’s crowded enough she can’t make out a thing. She wants to be further away. 

Neighbula giggles, “That’s a wild crowd. I don’t get near them either. I like hanging out in the taverns, ya know?”

“You’re a roleplayer?”

“Roleplayer is a bit of a stretch,” Neighbula says. “I just like playing music and other players will strike up a conversation with me. We’ll talk for hours about virtually nothing!” 

She says that with a smile, Amelia notes with dry amusement. She's glad the bard is turning around and moving away from the crowd. Amelia follows her with awkward steps. She doesn't know how to strike up a conversation that’s not about the game. 

Neighbula hums as she walks. Occasionally, she chirps out a hello to a random passerby. Sometimes, they say hello first. Amelia observes this with quiet wonder. Rarely if ever have other players gone out of their way to say hello to her. Neighbula was renowned around here, or maybe it was the aura of warmth that followed after her. Her smile was a comet, bright and exuberant no matter what. 

She buys Amelia an apple. 

Amelia holds it with a frown. Her inventory is still a colossal mess. She has three sets of armor clogging it up now. She had to get rid of two of them so she can just have Hinotori’s armor around. It was great, actually, that Hinotori had made it for her. The whole guild would be aware of her armor and she wouldn’t have to haul around dupe equipment. She wasn’t wholly lying anymore. 

She ignores the slime boots. She’s given up fighting with herself over that. 

Neighbula bites into her own apple, “Anyway, Hatch is a good spot to chit chat, but it’s small, ya know? Rural. I usually go to Bromwich for all the gossip and know-how.”

“Any cool drama?” Amelia asks. 

“I heard CC zenlossed on the forties,” Neighbula says. Amelia thinks she could have told her about frogs pioneering flying saucers and she’d be less confused. 

“Uh.” 

Neighbula blinks at her, “CC? Cannibal Crawlers?” 

Amelia grimaces, “Oh. Yeah, I got told about them.” 

“Yeah, Mummers gave them what for.” Neighbula laughs. “I heard about it down the grapevine. Other dungeon guilds, like Heavensfall and Worship, got nervous about it. All CC has to do is report people with all their players and they’ll cause a lot of problems.” 

Amelia grumbles, “This game has shit moderation. What do you mean they zenlossed?” 

“One of their dungeon groups,” Neighbula explains. “About, like, eight of them I think. They died in the dungeon, down in the forties.” 

“Ah.” 

“It’s a good thing none of us go dungeon diving.” Neighbula laughs. “I think if I had to start over like that, I'd quit and never come back.”

Amelia feels her stomach turn at that. She murmurs, “Mummers dies a lot.” 

“She doesn’t like it,” Neighbula says. Her smile looks fainter. “We’ve had really long conversations about it. She’s in like, the death throws of college right now and caring about an MMO is really low on priority.” 

Amelia can relate. She imagines it’s fine when they’re so low-level and barely accumulate skills as is. Using Mummers as a punching bag seems to fit, but she can see by Neighbula’s expression she isn’t happy about it. There’s more to it. Amelia doesn’t feel like it’s her place to ask. 

“I’m studying too,” Amelia says. It’s a weak offer, but one Neighbula takes happily. 

“Ohh, really? Whatcha studying for?” 

“Criminal justice.” 

Neighbula barks a laugh, “What? Seriously? That’s so scary, you’re gonna be a cop.” 

“A detective. ” Amelia smiles wryly. She hasn’t made any friends on campus to joke around like this. It felt nice. “Why are you nervous, huh? Should I be investigating where you got that lute?”

“Hey, Crowny made it for me fair and square.” Neighbula teasingly sticks her tongue out. “But that’s so cool! Our Bowson, a detective.” 

Our Bowson. Amelia’s chest feels lighter as she walks beside Neighbula. The bard is commandeering the conversation with ease. She talks about the songs she’s learned to play on the lute and all the tips she makes while at the tavern. 

“So it is roleplaying.” Amelia drawls. 

“Kind of, I guess,” Neighbula says. “I think Hinotori does more roleplaying when she has to haggle with other players all the time.” 

The reminder sours Amelia's mood. She’s never even properly met Hinotori and the girl had given her a massive gift. She didn’t know how to go about repaying that kindness either. She’s struggling as it is to find ways to help FauFau, Tako, and Crowny. She was out of her depth. 

And then an idea so absurd hits her that she has to lean back in her chair and go, “What the fuck.” 

Bubba grumbles at her from under her desk. She ignores him because now that she has the idea in her head, she can’t let it go. If Neighbula can make tip money just from playing music, then surely it can work the opposite way, no? Bowson is never in Bromwich, not even anywhere near it to be noticed or recognized. She’s only ever been there once. She knows when Hinotori is online now too. 

“Neighbula?” Amelia asks. 

“Hmm?” 

“Where can I buy a cloak?” 

.

.

Blue stares in bewilderment at the sight before him. 

There’s a grungy-looking player hunched over in front of an alleyway. A ratty cloak hides almost all their features. The guy is wearing overly large oven mitts and a fake mustache that’s so frizzy it’s hiding most of his lower face. The rat man is clutching a sack close to his chest. Despite all this, the most bewildering part about this character is the red boots dripping slime onto the ground. 

“Watoto has an offer.” The player in front of him says. Their voice is scratchy and painfully fake. 

Ah, Blue thinks, this is a roleplayer. 

“Uh, sure man,” Blue says. “Whatcha got for me?” 

“Watoto has gold. Watoto will give you gold.” The ratty man says. “Watoto is not welcome near crafters. Too smelly. Make a trade for Watoto and you can keep extra gold, yeah?” 

Blue can’t help the grin crawling up his face, “So let me get this straight. You want me to buy you something?” 

“That’d make Watoto happy, yes.” 

“And for helping you out, I’ll get a tip, right?” 

“Watoto has coin.” The man shakes the sack around like he's trying to hypnotize Blue. It was one of the more amusing confrontations Blue has had with roleplayers. 

Blue says, “Sure man, whatcha need me to buy?” 

Blue can’t see much of Watoto’s expression from underneath the mustache, but he can swear he saw a smile. 

.

.

Hinotori: you GUYS !!!!

Hinotori: ALL MY STUFF SOLD !!!

Tako: ?!?!?

Hakotaro: what???? really???? how???

Hinotori: idk a whole bunch of players started coming to my station today

Hinotori: did word get out about me or something?? 

Tako: were they new players?

Hinotori: thats the thing !!!!!!

Hinotori: im pretty sure like half of them werent !!!

Hakotaro: ooooo hinotori has secret admirers

Hinotori: :) 

Hinotori: i dont get what happened 

Hinotori: buuuuut i met :) my quota

Tako: gasps

Hakotaro: wooo congrats !!!!

Tako: wait a minute

Hakotaro: oh my god my heart just jumped into my throat

Hakotaro: tako?? speak to me

Tako: we can afford a house

Hakotaro: LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hintori: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Bowson: congrats guys!

Hakotaro: IM SO HAPPY I COULD CRY MAN 

Hakotaro: its my day off yo ill tell everyone the good news

Tako: ill set up a time on the job board 

Hinotori: is that place we were looking at still up for sale? 

Tako: ill have to check

Hakotaro: oh my gah im shaking 

Hakotaro: dibs on a window room

Tako: :) good work everyone. thank you hinotori 

Hinotori: hehehehehe 

Bowson: good work hinotori!

Bowson: thank you for the armor btw

Hinotori: HEHEHE your welcome

.

.

When Amelia logs off, she’s smiling so hard that her cheeks hurt. It’s been a while, she thinks, that she’s felt satisfied with her progress in DDO. Not even clearing her first dungeon floor has brought her this level of satisfaction. 

She sits there for a moment, staring up at her ceiling, giddiness bubbling in her chest.

I like this guild, she lets herself think. She lets herself adopt the thought and sticks it in her head. I really like this guild. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Tako has made a post to the Job Board. 

Tako: house purchased (つ▀¯▀)つ

Tako: setting up a time, will drop address when mummers comes online

Goomba: where is our bird. why is she gone.

Hakotaro: @ Goomba you forgot to cherish her

Goomba: @ Hakotaro im putting fleas in your bed

.

.

Amelia reaches level 25. 

The guild is buzzing with energy whenever they’re online, but the majority have fizzled for the time being. The long money grind was over and they were spending break time away from the game. Amelia was fine with this. The only ones ever online were Crowny and Tako. For a week, she does nothing but dungeon dive. 

The dungeon floors have begun to incorporate designs. She beats Floor Eight and when she goes down to Floor Nine, she’s surprised to find the entire makeup of the cavern has changed. Instead of a rock cave around her, it’s now bright sandstone. Every path is sandy and rough the walk around on. It slows her down. It’s particularly annoying to deal with when she finds out the whole floor is filled with hyenas. They’re fast, too fast to be hit with a bow. 

Her inventory space has been freed from dupe armor hell so now healing potions are a nonissue for her. A lot of danger the floors typically offer is nothing to her and the three dozen healing potions filling her bag to the brim. The only thing she had inside that was taking up room is her fake boots and dupe sword and shield. The armor Hinotori made for her is guild knowledge. It’s not something she has to hide. 

The relief of that feels like it’ll crush her. 

Floor Nine is where she encounters her first dungeon event. It’s an empty room on the floor. There are no hyenas ready to chase her down or ambush her. There’s an altar in the center of the room. The stone looks out of place in the sand. She can recognize it as an asset that’d belong on any floor in the dungeon. It has a use, obviously. 

She raises her shield and cautiously approaches. She’s seen too many traps at this point. She’s not being reckless, but curiosity drives her forward. When she gets close enough a window pops up before her. 

[Will you take the risk?]

“What?” She breathes. She’s eyeing the altar with suspicion. What kind of risk was involved here? She was almost tempted to leave it behind and keep exploring. After a moment of deliberation, she touches the window. For a few seconds, the window shakes. It leaves her tense with anticipation. 

When it rattles to a stop, the window is displaying one of her items. 

[Congradulations! Your Leather Gloves have become Leather Gloves of the Sun]

Amelia makes a face. She scrutinizes the gloves for changes. There are little stars embroidered on the hem, but it’s barely noticeable enough to be alarming. 

[Leather Gloves of the Sun] 

+ Emits Light

“Oh, well,” Amelia murmurs. “That’s not so bad.” 

The whole ordeal wasn’t extremely significant. She hasn’t been to a floor where darkness would be a problem, not yet anyway. The Floor Nine boss is a mummified hyena. With the sand impeding her steps, she’s not able to use her bow at all for the fight. Her supply of healing potions ends up gutted, but with her boots, it’s no real loss. 

Overall, a successful adventure.

.

.

Callamori has logged in. 

Bowson: hi

Callamori: heyyy hows it goin 

Callamori: sorry i havent been on at all 

Callamori: i saw you joined and i felt bad 

Bowson: its ok

Callamori: its nice to meet you tho

Bowson: nice to meet you 

Callamori: :D 

Callamori: youve been playing for awhile right?

Bowson: a bit

Callamori: are you liking the game so far? 

Bowson: yeah

Bowson: u?

Callamori: dude this game is so boring

Callamori: LOL

.

.

Amelia doesn’t understand a lot of the mechanics behind mining. 

When Callamori explains it to her, it feels too linear. Mining nodes pop up around hills, but the best place to go hunting for ore and minerals was in the mines. Not the dungeon. Amelia frowns at this. There was apparently no form of dungeon ore to find at all. 

Callamori had laughed at her expression, “Dude, it’s so fucked.”

“How deep do the mines go? Is it like, just another dungeon?” 

“Kinda,” Callamori says. She’s wearing a cowboy hat which fits in oddly with her armor. She doesn’t seem to overly care about her appearance. “There are no monsters in it, I mean unless you’re a freaking idiot.” 

Amelia tilts her head in askance. 

Callamori looks at her with amusement, “Do you want me to just show you?” 

“Sure.” 

The overworld has three separate quarries. The one closest to Hatch is the Sicklestone Quarry. It’s the one Callamori frequents the most. It’s also the least stressful one. 

“Fewer people here,” Callamori says. She’s tying her hair back into a ponytail as they approach the rocky hillside. Amelia takes it all in with fascination. She hadn’t bothered to explore any of the quarries when she found out there was nothing of value there. She wasn’t looking into mining anyway. 

The majority of it is decoration. The entrance of the quarry is a winding slope of rocky terrain descending down into a hole. It looks like a dungeon. The emptiness of it unsettles her. Callamori doesn’t look bothered. As they descend deeper, it becomes apparent there’s a severe lack of lighting. 

Her gloves are glowing. 

“Woah.” Callamori looks at her. “Neat trick.”

Dry-mouthed, Amelia says, “Uh thanks. Hinotori made it for me.” 

Callamori beams at her, “Aw, Tori did? She’s a big sweetie, isn’t she?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well, it’s better than what I have.” Callamori deadpans as she holds up a torch. It’s unlit and Callamori doesn’t look inclined to deal with it as she tosses it aside. “It only lasts a minute.” 

“How do you see?” Amelia asks. She feels like a wizard as she holds her hands out to guide them through the tunnels. It’s a funny feeling. 

“I use like, hundreds of torches just to go mining. It’s the most costly bullshit ever.” 

“Wow,” Amelia says. “Just like minecraft.” 

Callamori groans, “Okay. You just wiggle your fingers so I can see. I don’t wanna think about minecraft.” 

“So we back in the mine-” 

Callamori screams. 

.

.

Mining is actually stupid. 

Amelia stares blankly at the room before them. It’s one room. There are pathways going to other rooms, but it’s not one whole descending cavern. It’s a series of disjointed rooms and each room has three nodes. 

Only one of them gives ore. 

“The other two are traps,” Callamori explains. She’s leaning back on her heels, disinterested as she hefts a pickaxe over her shoulder. “One will summon a rock golem to wallop our asses and the other breaks your tool in an instant.” 

“You’re joking,” Amelia says. 

“I wish I was.” Callamori exhales noisily. “The rock golem is the messy part. It will actually kill you if you don’t run away.” 

“Okay, but breaking your tool too?” 

“No, that doesn’t break your tool. The other trap will break it and then you gotta make the walk of shame back to town to get another.” Callamori sniffs. “Or just be me and bring like five with you.” 

Amelia pointedly takes a step back. Callamori stares at her with amusement, “Wanna give it a try?” 

“Nah, I’m fine back here.”

Amelia watches Callamori approach the nodes. She looks indecisive for a moment. She strolls around them. Amelia half thinks she’s looking for a telltale sign until she catches her muttering a song to herself. She’s just randomly picking one. 

She chooses the one on the right. When Callamori brings her pickaxe down on it, it shatters in her grasp. Amelia feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. When all three nodes disappear and there’s nothing to show for it, Callamori looks over to toss her a flat look. 

“See?” Callamori drawls. “Just like minecraft.” 

The next room gives them ore. Callamori shows her it, unrefined bits of iron that she stuffs into her inventory. She doesn’t look impressed with her haul. Amelia hasn’t a clue what to feel about it. Each node changes in color and quantity. A node can range from copper to iron. There are other, rarer nodes, but it’s not something she sees. 

She sees the golem and understands. 

When Callamori brings her pickaxe down on a node, her pickaxe doesn’t break. The nodes disappear. Almost immediately, as if she knows, she’s booking it for Amelia. 

“Run.” She says shortly.

Amelia falters. In place of the nodes is a four-legged creature. It’s made out of stone but resembles to shape of a large cat. That’s not a fucking rock golem, Amelia panics, that’s a sphinx. 

Callamori grabs her by the shoulder and tugs at her. Amelia complies. She hears a grating noise behind them and the earthshaking footsteps as the creature gives chase. 

“Shit.” Callamori hisses. “Shit, we’re really far from the entrance.” 

“It’ll follow us all the way there?” Amelia asks, her voice jumping an octave higher. 

They have a small head start. They make it two rooms before Amelia is keenly aware of the thundering steps right at their heels. She makes a split-second decision. It’ll cost her time, but it’s better than dying in the goddamn quarry.

She risks a glance at the door. Callamori is gone. 

She equips her sword and shield. She whirls around, shield raised high and not a moment too soon. The blow from the sphinx sends her reeling. I don’t have my slime boots equipped, she laments. The force of the strike sends her stumbling into a wall. 

Amelia glances wearily at her health bar. 

She hadn’t even lost a single hit point. 

You’re joking. Amelia stares at the sphinx and tries not to laugh. It’s an overworld monster, she knows that, but it’s something to actually feel that power difference between them. Her shield soaked all that damage. She could stand here and get hit all day and not suffer for it. She didn’t like the idea of being tossed around though. 

She grips her sword and thrusts it into the golem. Her turtle technique works well against it, even if it upsets her balance with every hit. It’s a matter of carefully strafing around the golem so she doesn’t end up flying off her feet with every blow to her shield. Eventually, the golem topples to the ground in a plume of smoke. 

It leaves behind a loot bag. 

Curiously, Amelia opens it. Her inventory fills with gold ore. She slowly blinks at it. It was a sizable amount, much more than what Callamori had been mining through the nodes. She could understand the worth of gold, but in a form like this, she isn’t sure how useful it actually is. 

She looks up at the doorway. Callamori is there. She’s staring at Amelia. There isn’t shock or bewilderment there. It’s a neutral realization, one that makes Amelia’s stomach grow cold. 

“It dropped gold ore.” She belts out, anxiety screaming up her arms. She struggles with herself on how to address this. She was still wielding her weapons, her actual weapons, not her dupes. “Is that useful?” 

“Uh, yeah.” Callamori draws out carefully. She’s approaching with a wary eye. “... No one told me you dungeon dived.” 

Amelia has no idea how to respond. She works her mouth but the words won’t come to her. She’s afraid. It’s not like she hasn’t prepared for a moment like this. Somewhere in the back of her head, she knew, eventually, they’d know. At the same time, she didn’t think she’d grow attached to this guild. She doesn’t know a thing about Callamori or how she’d treat this. 

She blurts out, “I’ve been helping Tako.” 

“What?” Callamori is still looking at her. 

“She, uh, she needed levels. She wants to learn a teleportation spell. I, um, told her I occasionally, uh, get some people together and we go dungeon diving.” 

Callamori holds her gaze for a moment. Amelia feels like her bones want to squirm out of her skin. When Callamori looks away, she almost sighs with relief. 

“That sounds weird,” Callamori mutters. She’s getting distracted with the gold ore in Amelia’s hands. “But, I guess I’m not on often enough to know anything about that. I always miss all the fun stuff.” 

“How often are you online?” Amelia asks. She hopes the desperation in her voice isn’t so obvious. 

Callamori huffs, “Maybe like…one or twice every few weeks. I’m a real busy lady and video games kinda fall on the back burner.” 

“Oh.” Amelia lets those words comfort her. Her little lie wouldn’t spread if it was contained to just Callamori, right? “That sucks. What do you do?”

“Outside the game?” 

“Yeah.” 

“I’m a musician.” Callamori’s lips lift up into a crooked smile. “I’ll tell you all about it if you gimme that ore.” 

Amelia happily holds it out. She’s grateful for any distractions. “It’s all yours.” 

They leave the quarry behind. Amelia isn’t as excited about it as she thought. She’s regretting even bothering to come along. Her nerves felt jumpy. Callamori looked unbothered, but she knows now. One of them knows. 

She wasn’t bringing it up. Amelia doesn’t know if that makes her more nervous or if she’s relieved that Callamori doesn’t dwell on it. There had been a reaction. Callamori had definitely reacted to her weapons. Was it good? Was it bad? Amelia couldn’t tell. 

She plays it safe. It’s better to be safe about it. 

.

.

Hakotaro: MAYDAY MADAY

Hakotaro: ALL FORCES PREPARE FOR THE END

FauFau: whats going on???

SuperGlueRys: you sound insane 

Hakotaro: WE ARE IN GRAVE DANGER

FauFau: ???

Hakotaro: SHES COMING

Mummers has logged in. 

FauFau: OH

Hakotaro: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

SuperGlueRys: OUR BABY CAME HOME 

FauFau: mummers!!!!!!!

Mummers: hello 

Mummers: my account has a strike :D

Hakotaro: im so proud of you

Hakotaro: thank god youre safe

FauFau: im happy youre back we missed youuuuuuu

Bowson: hiiii

Mummers: oh hi 

Mummers: dont mind me 

Mummers: im advocating for pvp in bromwich again 

Hakotaro: oh my god please dont get banned again we literally just got you back

Mummers: im the voice of this revolution 

Mummers: i swear on my six alt accounts

Mummers: I will kill someone 

.

.

Amelia decides that’s enough gaming for one day. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

The house is two stories tall. 

There’s a stone staircase leading up to a pair of double doors. A small porch lays before the entrance. It’s empty, but Crowny had immediately started gesturing to that space the moment everyone had gathered before the building. 

“We can put a little table and a few chairs.” She’s saying, her voice thoughtful, but Amelia can feel she’s practically gushing about it. “I’m thinking if we craft some flower pots we can decorate the area around it, right?” 

“They should be blue,” FauFau says. She’s swooning over the house. Amelia can’t help but smile as she watches Goomba and Hakotaro press their bodies against the doors. They’re practically vibrating with excitement as they grip the door handles. 

“I’m getting up the stairs first,” Goomba says. “If there really is a master bedroom in there it’s so mine. I called dibs.” 

“You can call dibs all you want but I’ll be faster than you.” Hakotaro taunts. 

Glue is prancing up and down the stairs. There’s a giddiness about her that has her singing, her voice lilting over the group. Neighbula was laughing and playing a tune to the song. She’s sitting on the banister of the stairs, kicking her legs back and forth. Her song keeps getting broken up when she doubles over with laughter. Glue’s song is random and high-paced. It’s good, Amelia thinks, really good. 

Hinotori hovers beside her. She’s been quiet for a while, her hands clasped in front of her. There’s a restless excitement to the way she bounds on her heels. 

Amelia remembers the armor she’s wearing and murmurs, “Hi Hinotori.” 

Hinotori glances at her. There’s a twinkle in her eye, “Hi Bowson.” 

“We’re pretty far from the door.” Amelia points out. The two of them were hanging in the back of the group. They wouldn’t get dibs on any good rooms if there were any. 

Hinotori hums, “I wanted to stand next to you, is that okay?” 

Amelia shifts on her feet. She can feel her neck start to grow warm, “Uh, yeah. It’s fine.” 

Callamori joins them. It makes Amelia’s stomach turn, memories of the other day reminding her of the enchantment on her gloves. She’s not wearing her weapons, thankfully, but neither is anyone else. 

“Hey, Tori.” Callamori drawls. She looks exhausted. She’s rubbing her sleeve over her face as she says. “Did you get any sleep?”

“A few hours,” Hinotori says. “Let me guess, you didn’t get any sleep at all?” 

“It’s four in the morning.” Callamori drawls. “I just drank an energy drink.” 

Hinotori smiles wryly, “Really?” 

“Yeah, I’ll sleep tomorrow.” She pauses. “Today? It’s today. Sometime today.” 

Amelia asks, “Does that happen often?” 

“What, staying up late?” Callamori shoots her a crooked smile. “I’m a busy lady.” 

Hinotori shakes her head. She looks amused. Inside joke? Amelia purses her lips. She doesn’t have to dwell on that for very long. Tako is moving her way through the crowd. She’s handing keys to everyone. 

“No way.” Glue says. “Wait, this takes up an inventory spot? Are you joking?” 

“It’s a key that’s specifically tied to your character,” Tako explains. “When you choose a room, it’ll bind to that room, okay? Choose carefully, you can’t choose again.” 

When Tako hands her a key, Amelia holds it in her palm. There’s a dubious part of her that feels like she doesn’t deserve this. She really hasn’t been crafting or gathering, not unless someone drags her into it or she uses it to cover up her dungeon diving. The last time she cut down a tree was back when Crowny had taught her. The same applied to almost everyone else who had taught her anything. 

Hinotori dangles her own key around with a wide smile, “Hey, let’s get rooms next to each other.” 

“Us?” Callamori asks. 

“Yeah. Bowson too.” Hinotori turns to Amelia. “Unless someone else nabbed you first?” 

Amelia blinks. Something flutters in her chest. “No, uh, you’re the first.” 

“How about that.” Hinotori drawls. She looks pleased as she pockets her key. “Okay! Let’s explore together, it’ll be more fun that way.” 

Callamori says, “Sounds good to me. I was just gonna grab whatever and then log off.” 

“What? You’re not gonna stay around and celebrate?” 

“Oh, well.” Callamori blinks. There’s a flustered hue to her cheeks. “I mean, sure. I always love hanging out with you guys. I’ll stick around for a bit.” 

Hinotori beams at her. Amelia watches them in amusement. She feels the hush that falls over the crowd the moment Tako approaches the double doors. Hakotaro and Goomba reluctantly step aside. 

Tako looks like she’s trying hard not to laugh, “I didn’t do this all on my own, you know? You two can go first.” 

“We can go?” Goomba asks. She’s crouching low like a runner at a starting line. Hakotaro is doing the same. 

Tako lets that linger in the air for a moment. She lets them stew in tension before belting out cheerfully, “On your marks…” 

“Oh god.” Callamori laughs. 

Glue is racing up the stairs to crouch down as well. It’s an amusing sight. There’s a murmur of laughter through the rest of the guild. The excitement is pinched tightly in the air. It’s making Amelia restless, happy.

“Go!” Tako cries. Goomba flies through the door at record speed. Glue isn’t far behind her. Hakotaro stumbles, protests tumbling out of her mouth. 

“Where was get set?! Where?! Hey, hold on!” The redhead ducks into the house. 

One by one, the guild trickles in. Amelia is one of the last inside. The lobby of the guild is large. More pointedly, it’s empty of anything. Crowny is already pacing around it, her hand cupping her chin as she takes in the arches overhead. The sound of footsteps on the stone floor echoes loudly throughout the house. There’s a wooden staircase across the lobby that parts to the left and right. Amelia can hear loud thumping from up above. 

“Well, there they go.” Callamori drawls. She’s looking around with a low whistle. “Dang, Crownster, how are you gonna decorate this?” 

Crowny says, “With a lot of patience.”

“And me.” FauFau chirps.

“And her,” Crowny says. 

Beyond the lobby, there’s a kitchen. It’s a hooked countertop area, just shy of an open space likely meant for decorations like tables and chairs. It has three ovens. Amelia tilts her head at this. Each one she passes prompts her to add ingredients. It’s a whole list of assorted platters she could make. 

Hinotori follows behind her peacefully, “Oh wow, this is gorgeous. I wish my own kitchen looked like this.” 

Callamori crouches down to open one of the counter cabinets, “A shit ton of storage too. The girls will like this.” 

“Glue and Hakotaro?” 

“Yeah. I’m sure they’ll start freaking out later when they come down from room hunting.” 

There are two doors connected to the kitchen. One of them goes out to a connected building. It’s a greenhouse, entirely empty and way too humid for Amelia’s tastes. FauFau finds it and does a twirl into the room. She looks delighted. 

“We can grow our own plants here, oh gosh.” She gushes. “I want to set up an alchemy lab over here- oh, and right here, a few planters for dyes. It’s going to look so pretty.” 

The next door goes down to a basement level. It’s a cramped area that’s filled with kegs. When Callamori spots them, she perks up. 

“Oh hey.” She says. “We can make spirits with these, I think. We can make a bunch of sauces with these barrels too.” 

“I don’t think we can do much with them,” Hinotori says. “Doesn’t that require dungeon materials?” 

“Yeah.” Callamori stretches. “It’s nice to think about though.” 

Amelia stays quiet. 

On the other side of the house is a workshop. Hinotori finds her element there. There are half a dozen workbenches and other crafting stations in the shop. The multiple forges have her giddy. She’s hovering between each one, excited to start setting down her equipment. 

“Uh oh.” Callamori drawls. There’s a lazy smile on her face. “We’ve lost her.”

“I’ll just be a second!” Hinotori calls over her shoulder. With the way she’s upending her inventory on the floor, Amelia knows it’ll be much longer than that. She cracks a helpless smile. The way each of them expresses their delight in the house is giving her butterflies. 

“I’m gonna go up and find a room,” Amelia says. 

Callamori waves her off, “Yeah, go on. We’ll catch up.” 

Amelia ascends the stairs slowly. Where the stars intersect is a large window. From it, she can see Hatch off in the distance. It’s a scenic view of the fields stretching out around it to the woods framing the hillside. Amelia lingers for a moment to take it in. 

When she gets to the top of the stairs, she can hear rummaging and loud bangs around her. It’s a long hallway before her and a few doors are propped open. The first one she passes she can hear Glue singing. The next one is open just enough she can see Hakotaro eagerly unloading decorations from her inventory. It’s a strange assortment of items that are placed randomly. A few plushies, a monster trophy, and a large number of shelves. Amelia shakes her head and moves to the end of the hallway. 

Goomba’s door is wide open. She pokes her head in. 

The fisher is strolling around the room. She has her menu out. Every swipe of her finger changes the wallpapers around her. Amelia watches as she settles on a blue theme with little fish hooks decorated along the edges. 

Goomba looks over her shoulder at her. Her eyes a glittering as she says, “This is so freaking cool, dude. Did you get your room yet?” 

“Not yet.” 

“Tell me when you do, I wanna help you pick the colors.” 

Amelia laughs softly, “Okay.” 

It’s a giant loop on the second floor. There are rooms on the interior which don't have windows and rooms on the outside. Each one on the outside has a window. Thankfully, the majority of them are rooms on the outside of the hallway. There’s more than enough for everyone to have a window room. Amelia rounds the hallway and chooses a room overlooking the front of the house. It’s in the hallway opposite where the other three are. It puts her far away and she likes the vantage point. She can see who’s leaving or entering. 

She stands there for a moment. The room is spacey. She can picture in her head what’d look nice. She can put her bed against the corner (why would she need a bed?) and she can put an end table there, right between the bed and the window. A lamp can go there, or maybe she can put one of FauFau’s flowers (it’d do better as storage she knows this). Across the room, she can put a desk. Next to that maybe a table and she can put some rare fish she’ll catch while hanging out with Goomba (it’d be useless). The other corner can be chests for inventory space. Right by the door when she needs it. 

(Why was she trying so hard?) 

“Oh.” Crowny pokes her head in. She looks over the room with a critical eye. “You picked this one?” 

“Yeah,” Amelia says.

Crowny walks in. There’s an embarrassed hunch to her shoulders as she does. She’s pulling up her menu. Amelia watches her with mystified confusion. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen Crowny look so flustered. 

Crowny swipes at her menu. From her inventory, a silver cabinet appears in Amelia’s room. Amelia feels all the breath leave her lungs in a woosh. 

“Wait.” She says. Her throat feels tight. 

“This is technically yours.” Crowny drawls. “You helped gather a lot of silverwood for me. I can make more for myself some other time.” 

Amelia chokes out, “But it’s yours. ”

Crowny shyly looks away, “Yeah, well I’m giving it to you. You don’t have any decorations prepared, do you? You’ve been running around helping everyone. I assumed you didn’t have the time.” 

Amelia can’t find the words. The biggest reason she doesn’t have anything prepared is because of dungeon diving. She didn’t even prepare in the weeks coming up to this. She could have. She had chosen not to. 

“Crowny…” Amelia whispers. 

Crowny shrugs, “Hey, it’s no big deal. I can always make more.” She smiles as she backs away from her room. “Put it wherever you like. We’re happy to have you, Bowson.”

Amelia watches her close the door with her heart hammering in her ears. She feels like her head is stuffed with cotton. It’s just her in this room and a silver cabinet. 

.

.

Amelia gently sets down her headphones. Slowly, she draws her knees up to her chest. Curled up in her chair she waits out the storm of emotions roiling in her stomach. There’s pressure behind her eyes. It makes her feel gnarled. 

She sniffles. Bubba makes a grumbly noise under her desk. 

“It's okay buddy.” She says wetly. Her voice is muffled into her knees. “I’ll figure something out. I’ll tell them. I have to.” 

.

.

There’s a new person at her door. 

Amelia startles. She’d moved the cabinet to a space just below where she’ll want to put a bed. She doesn’t know how much space a bed usually takes. She makes guesses here. She also doesn’t feel very good. 

There’s a girl staring at her from her doorway. She has long brunette hair tied back into a ponytail. She’s wearing a patterned cloak with intricate animal designs along the rim. A cute bow ties it together. 

Mummers tilts her head at her. Her eyes are wide and doe-like. It feels like she’s looking right through Amelia. 

Amelia whispers, “Uh, hi. We haven’t met yet.” 

“No, we haven’t.” Mummers agrees. “Nice to meet you, Bowson.” 

“You’re Mummers?” 

Mummers nods slowly. She hasn’t taken her eyes off Amelia. It feels like her eyes are flaying her skin. It makes her antsy. Slowly, Mummers steps into her room. The door closes behind her with a click. It puts Amelia on edge. 

“Um…” Amelia can’t think of any reason why someone would be so serious with her, especially someone she doesn’t know. “Did you want this room?”

“No.” Mummers says simply. “I got the one next door.” 

Amelia doesn’t know how to feel about that. She stays quiet, waiting warily as Mummers continues to stare at her. The itchy feeling under her skin and all the raw emotions are making her nauseous. 

“Did you know,” Mummers says airly, “that you can mod this game?”

Amelia blinks, “Um. I heard about stuff like that but I don’t really use it. I don’t wanna get banned.” 

Mummers smiles, “Oh, don’t worry. The moderation is super bad in this game. You can use any mods you like as long as it isn’t cheating.” 

Amelia shrugs. It still didn’t interest her much. She hadn’t heard of any interesting mods. She remembers one exploit that became a bannable offense pretty early on. It turned the game brightness up to max, which accidentally turned out to be a clever way to spot traps in dungeons better. 

“I have a few installed.” Mummers says. “Like, it makes my dyes pastel. You can’t see it but I like it.” 

“Oh,” Amelia says awkwardly. “That’s nice.” 

“I also have a mod,” Mummers breathes, “that shows me other players levels.” 

Amelia stares. Mummers looks back at her. She’s not giving anything away, but the sheer intent behind her eyes makes Amelia feel like she’s being pried apart. She can barely breathe. 

“I was told you’re new.” Mummers says, a whimsy to her voice, “You haven’t been playing for long, right? A month at best?” 

Amelia’s mouth feels dry. She doesn’t speak. 

Mummers says, “I leveled for a month once, in the overworld. I’ve actually done it a few times. I die a lot. I think in that month I only scored, like, five to six levels.” 

She leans back on her heels. Amelia is acutely aware she’s blocking the exit. Mummers has barely blinked since she’s begun talking. She says, “So I’m really curious how you’re level twenty-five. If you’re a hacker, we’d definitely have to kick you out so the whole guild doesn’t get canned. We’d lose the house if you were exploiting things.” 

“I’m not,” Amelia says weakly. Exploiting felt like knives under her ribs. That’s what she was doing, though, isn’t it? She was exploiting this guild. “I’m not, I’ve been helping Tako level-”

“I did that too.” Mummers says. “I’ve always been doing that. Even then, a month on top of helping gather materials for everyone…” She smiles. “Well. It sounds pretty unbelievable.” 

She had just promised herself she’d tell. Amelia works her mouth. She can feel her hands trembling. She hadn't expected it so soon, not after Crowny’s gift. Not right after her resolution. She hadn’t had time to prepare. She was floundering. 

“I’m,” Amelia stutters, “I’m lying.” 

Mummers blinks at her, “What?” 

“I haven’t been crafting. Or gathering. I didn’t do any of that stuff.” Her words feel like acid in her mouth. “I’ve been dungeon diving this whole time.” 

“What?” Mummers repeats. She looks confused now. “With another guild or-?”

“Solo.” 

Mummers face falls flat, “Okay, I’m flaky, but I’m not stupid.” 

Wordlessly, Amelia pulls out her shield and sword. Mummers perks up, her eyes going wide as she takes in the scarab shell and the butterfly sword. Amelia is too afraid to equip the boots. She feels like it’d be less painful if she just threw herself out the window. 

Mummers eyes drop down to the floor, “... Oh.” 

“Don’t tell anyone.” Amelia blurts. She can feel panic thrumming wildly in her chest. Her own words sound absurd to her. She knew she had to tell everyone, but her heart was begging to give her more time. “I want to tell them, please, I was gonna, I’ve just been- it’s been-” 

“Woah.” Mummers whispers. Her expression is falling. “Wait, oh no. I made you cry.” 

Amelia reels in mortification. She hadn’t realized. Her vision was blurry but only now she can feel the wetness on her cheeks. Embarrassed, she quickly wipes them away. Why are you crying over this dumb game? Just log off. 

Mummers is staring at her. It’s not as unfriendly as before. “I don’t really get it, but I think I understand.” 

Amelia dares to have hope, “Yeah?” 

“I think if Crowny or Tako found out you haven’t been doing any crafting or that kinda stuff,” Mummers says slowly, “they’d probably be a little mad. We did say we were looking for someone who was interested in that stuff so… I think they’ll be mad you used it, but…” 

Amelia inhales shakily.

Mummers whispers, “Well, they’re really nice. They wouldn’t kick you from the guild. They like you a lot.” 

“You were just threatening me.” Amelia points out uneasily. 

“I thought you were a hacker.” Mummers says. She makes a face. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. I feel bad now.” 

Amelia shakes her head. The adrenaline was starting to leave her now that threats weren’t being aimed at her. She felt drained. 

“Are you still dungeon diving?” Mummers asks. 

Amelia grimaces. It’s enough of an answer for Mummers. The brunette nods, “Okay. Well, I mean, until you stop dungeon diving, I don’t really see improvement?” She shrugs. “I don't know what to tell you. Start crafting for real?” 

“Uh.” Amelia rubs a hand down her face. “I need to think.” 

“Okay.” Mummers says, not bothered by this. “I won’t say anything if you promise to say something later.” 

“I promise.” 

For the first time, Mummers smiles genuinely. She opens the door behind her as she says, “Well, welcome to Hollow Life, Bowson. Nice cabinet, by the way.” 

When she closes the door, Amelia logs out so fast she doesn’t even say goodbye in guild chat. She’ll be back later to avoid suspicion, but for now, she gets up out of her chair and goes to the bathroom to put her head under the sink faucet. The cold water helps. It cools down the burning, ugly feeling in her stomach. 

It’ll be okay. She closes her eyes tightly. Please, I need this to be okay. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Amelia has a lot to think about. 

She’s afraid to do anything. The afterparty celebration was brief for her. It was nice to sit around and watch in amusement as Crowny and FauFau argued over where to place a table or a couch. Callamori set out drinks for everyone and there was merriment and cheer in the air. 

Mummers meets her eye across the hall and Amelia’s mood would falter. 

She left early, citing a stomachache. She stayed off the game for the rest of the day. No matter what she did- studying, cleaning, shopping- her mind was cloudy with indecision. She told Mummers she’d stop dungeon diving. She didn’t want to stop. She already vowed to tell everyone, but did she really have to tell anyone if she stopped? They’d never know and everything could fold into normalcy. 

What was normal? 

Feller. Amelia reminds herself. Farming, I guess. Gathering herbs for FauFau. Fishing.

She didn’t want to do anything with her equipment. She earned it. She wasn’t getting rid of it, no, that was solidified in her mind from the get-go. They were too unique for her to get rid of. The slime boots especially she was too attached to. 

The next time she’s online, she spends the day away from the guild. It’s been a while since she decided to look at anything not dungeon diving related. Whenever she glanced at crafting materials it was with an air of frantic determination and no idea what she was doing. She takes it slow, step by step. 

Is this what I want to do? She asks herself. Is this how I want to play?

Carpentry is still dismal for her. There are chairs she can craft, but she frowns at the wood she can make them with. There are assorted forests throughout the overworld that offer different types of wood for her to work with. She’s curiously digging around for more information. 

Silverwood is dungeon material. That’s what the resource website said, but Amelia is aware it can drop in the overworld. She finds the little footnote at the bottom of the page that says so. Out of morbid curiosity, she’s looking over the other types of wood. Aside from the generic kind, there are two other uncommon quality logs not including Silverwood. Dustwood and Atomwood. 

Dustwood, according to the website, only appears in rare groves deeper than level twenty in the dungeon. Amelia makes a face at that. It doesn’t have a footnote telling her it drops in the overworld. It’s a disappointment that she doesn’t dwell on. 

Atomwood offers a different solution. 

Deep Dungeon Online has a vast plethora of quests in every town. There isn’t a clear-cut storyline or anything lore related in the game. There are quests out in the woods and quests in caves, dozens and dozens of NPCS, and lootable quest items. It takes a long time to level up, but should all of the overworld be exhausted of its potential, then a player could reasonable be level twenty. 

If they should still want to quest without a dungeon, or they just can’t find a guild, DDO offers daily quests. There are two varieties to tackle. One of them is for crafters and they offer a large haul of goods for the completion of it. The other is combat, which offers tons of experience instead. They are only available if she completes the entire overworld, which she hasn’t, she knows she hasn’t. 

But Atomwood has a chance of dropping from these quests, and in large quantities as well. Amelia nearly trips over her own feet when she reads that Slime Molds can also drop from these quests as well. 

It’s not dungeon diving. She thinks. It leaves a sour taste in her mouth. She wouldn’t be getting gear from these. Everything in the overworld was virtually unusable to her when she has much better armor and weapons. However, she’d still be leveling, although barely. She’d still be crafting, in a sense. It also helps Atomwood glows. 

“Oh,” Amelia mutters. She looks at images of it and all the different lamps and chandeliers that could be made with it. “Oh, that looks sick.”

But did she want to go through the hassle? 

Amelia purses her lips. The thought of leaving crosses her mind, but it makes her sick to her stomach. She likes it here. She’d made friends, loosely, however little video game friends were of value. She didn’t have anyone to talk to outside of the game and she wasn’t a people person. She was- 

Amelia puts her weapons in a chest in her room. 

.

.

Bowson: hey mummers? 

Mummers: oh hi 

Bowson: you help tako level right? 

Mummers: oh yeah i should get back to that 

Mummers: thanks for that btw 

Bowson: np 

Bowson: but i was looking up a faster way to level 

Bowson: if we do all the quests in the overworld we can unlock daily quests 

Mummers: what the heck is that 

Bowson: quests that offer more exp 

Mummers: :( but the quests dont give a lot of exp 

Bowson: daily quests give a lot of crafting mats tho 

Mummers: Hmmmm 

Mummers: just on the surface right?

Bowson: lol where else? 

Mummers: :D 

Mummers: deal 

.

.

“Atomwood?” Crowny asks. 

Amelia hums. Her room is empty and it’s bugging Crowny, enough that the woman is prowling around it with thinly veiled agitation. It’s amusing to Amelia. Her room does look kinda silly with a storage chest and a Silverwood cabinet being its only occupants. 

“It’s super rare, much rarer then Silverwood,” Amelia explains. “And it glows. It looks cool.”

Crowny crosses her arms, “Cooler than Silverwood?”

“I’m not dissing on Silverwood.” 

“You don’t like Silverwood.” Crowny accuses. 

Amelia laughs, “Okay, Crowny.” As if she could even talk about how much she adored her Silverwood bow. She’d worship the thing if she didn’t have to hide it in storage. 

Crowny huffs, “Well, fine. I see the appeal, I guess. I mean, you’re still leveling with Tako and I think with you helping Mummers out the risk of all of you dying won’t give us all a heart attack.” 

“With Mummers track record, I don’t see how you’re not used to it.” 

“Well, obviously we’d still worry.” Crowny rubs a hand down her face with a sigh. “It wasn’t a huge deal before if she died, it still sucked, but a guild needs ten members at the very least. If it drops below that, the guild disbands.” 

Amelia stares. 

Crowny looks at her knowingly, “Every time Mummers has died, the guild got disbanded. It was a bit of a hassle to regather everyone, but it wasn’t extremely terrible. Now though, if we drop below ten members, we lose the guild. You know what that means for the house right?” 

Amelia hisses, “Oh fuck.” 

She gets a smile from Crowny, “Well, if one of you dies, it won’t dismantle us, but if two of you or, ugh I hate even thinking about it, if all of you die- well, that’s just it then. We’d have to start all over.” 

“It won’t save?” Amelia asks. She knew this house was precious, but now the weight of it and the responsibility of it felt much heavier than before. “Jesus, this game sucks.” 

Crowny barks a laugh, “Well, just don’t die, okay? If you’re just going around questing you should be fine.” 

.

.

Mummers says, “I want to kill players.” 

Amelia scratches the back of her head awkwardly. Tako looks fondly exasperated as if this wasn’t the first time Mummers had declared violence. The air between Amelia and Mummers still felt stiff and tense. At any moment, Amelia was expecting a shoe to drop. Mummers seemed unbothered by these circumstances. 

The brunette was twirling a dagger in hand as they journeyed farther out. It was a hassle, an enormously tedious hassle to reach the farthest towns and get their quests. Hardly any players were here. It was better to be closer to Bromwich than so far away it takes nearly half an hour to get forward and back. Many of the player houses out here are vacated. 

“You like PVP?” Amelia asks. 

“I don’t like it.” Mummers says. “I just really hate Cannibal Crawlers.” 

Tako pipes up, “That’s the guild that keeps getting on our toes when we go gather fur and meat.” 

“Bastards.” Mummers mutters. 

Amelia remembers them. She hums, “And you use the furs for leatherworking? Don’t you die, like, all the time? Isn’t that just putting more risk on your crafting levels?”

“Stop being right.” Mummers says. She kicks her feet petulantly. 

Tako laughs, “Mummers does scribe work too.” 

“Scribe work.” Amelia echoes. 

Mummers turns to face them. She’s walking backward as she pulls up her menu in front of her face. With her tongue poking out in concentration, she retrieves a piece of paper. She holds it out to Amelia with a flick of her fingers. Amelia takes it. 

“FauFau told me you can name items with this,” Amelia says. “I named a potion with it before.” 

“Oh really?” Mummers trills. “Well, I can make paper like that and I can make inkwells.” 

“Yeah?” 

Mummers twirls around to face the road, “To make inkwells, I have to have animal blood and flower petals. FauFau usually gets me flowers, they’re very pretty. I gotta get the animal blood.” 

Amelia smiles dryly, “I know where you get the animal blood.” She considers the paper in her hand for a moment before dragging it over to her gloves. A familiar menu appears prompting her to enter a name. 

[Lightson Light’s Off] 

Tako, who Amelia didn’t realize was reading over her shoulder, inhales like she’s about to die. She starts coughing, her shoulders shaking with laughter as she fails to hide it behind her hands. Amelia feels her ears burn, but she can’t help but smile. 

Mummers continues talking as if Tako wasn’t wheezing, “For leatherworking, I need a bunch of hides, but it’s kinda useless. I can make rugs, I guess. Armor is cool too but I need a whole bunch of useless vendor crap. I just don’t deal with it very often.” 

“What kinda rugs?” Amelia asks. 

“Bear rugs, boar rugs, boring stuff.” Mummers drawls. “I heard some higher-leveled crafters can learn taxidermy but, I guess that’s only useful if you get a beast from a dungeon to mount on display.” 

Tako laughs quietly, “We can get a chicken on display.” 

“We already have Hinotori.” Mummers says peacefully. 

Amelia slowly blinks. The joke flies right over her head and nails Tako so hard she doubles over. Amused, Amelia pats Tako’s shoulder as she tries to recover from laughing. She’s thankful the town comes into view. She doesn’t want the conversation to steer close to dungeons. It felt like a mental minefield.

“On top of that,” Mummers says, “I can make dyes. Speaking of which-” She’s riffling through her inventory. She’s prancing back to walk beside Amelia as she starts handing Amelia yellow bottles of dye, one by one. Amelia reels in confusion, frantically trying to hold them as Mummers hands them to her. Eventually, it’s a race to throw them into her inventory as fast as possible. Mummers is giggling the whole time. 

“What the heck was that for?” Amelia demands. 

“FauFau wanted you to have them. She wanted to give it at the house party but you got sick.” Mummers says. “She’s been holding on to it for a while, apparently. I dunno. That’s yellow dye I can make with her flowers. Dye anything you want. Armor, weapons, furniture.”

Amelia feels awkward about it. She doesn’t know where she stands with Mummers and she can’t ask for clarification when Tako is listening in. She accepts the dyes with a mumbled thank you. Mummers smiles at her. It doesn’t feel as threatening as it usually does. 

“Well, since we’re gonna be questing for a while.” Mummers says. “We might as well look fashionable, right?”

Tako says, “Fashionson.” 

Amelia groans. Tako looks like a whole world has opened up to her. Mummers looks pleased, “Yup, that’s a great start. Let’s go!”

.

.

Goomba: GUYS

Goomba: CHECK THE NEWS RIGHT NOW 

Crowny: what news 

Crowny: my local news just tells me its freakin hot out 

Goomba: NOT LOCAL DINGUS

Goomba: GAMING NEWS 

Goomba: CHECK GAMING NEWS RIGHT NOW 

.

.

Amelia frowns and reaches over to grab her phone. She can see guild chat lighting up with a rapid amount of messages from the other members. It takes a while for her to pull up the web. She scrolls over the gaming news and nearly drops her phone when she reads the first headline. 

POPULAR HARDCORE MMO DEEP DUNGEON ONLINE ANNOUNCES NEW EXPANSION

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

The expansion is called Ancient Grottos. 

Amelia watches the trailer for it with her fingers tugging at her eyelids. It’s a bunch of flashy text and probably the worst graphics for a game announcement trailer she’s ever seen. It looks like a mobile game announcement. The comments are at least funny to look at. The one thing that’s gathering her attention is the release date. 

It’s six months away. 

Short, she acknowledges. She’s still banned from the forums so she can’t scour that for any fresh leaks. She scrolls through the internet until she finds articles explaining it in more detail. The current dungeon length was fifty floors. The expansion aimed to double that number, letting dungeons sit at one hundred floors in length. A new city was to be added at the fifty-floor mark. It’d offer player housing and advanced crafting halls. There were lots to look at. Leaked images revealed new architecture and blueprints. 

The trailer still sucked though. Amelia commented lmao on it before closing the tab. 

One thing that grabs her attention is the mention of an expansion event. On the day of the expansion release, monster events will bring dungeon divers back to the surface to fight waves of demons. Amelia squints at that. Yes, she read that right. Waves of demons. 

Wrong kind of DDO. She thinks. The next bit of information stops her short. The waves would target guild halls, it says, and these events will be released on the DDO website. Amelia tilts her head at that. 

Is it a signup system? Can guilds opt out? She doubts crafting guilds can survive getting mauled by demons, that’s for sure. The community wasn’t up in arms yet, but she can see questions littering every article. There wasn’t enough information. 

“I bet it’s signups.” She says. Bubba huffs from where’s head laid his head over her shoes. “Like, they wouldn’t make that mandatory, right? They’d massacre half the player base like that.” 

It obviously wasn’t something to stress about. She lets it be and loads up the game. 

.

.

Crowny: hello everyone

Crowny: we’re all going to die

Neighbula: :D

.

.

Mummers is laying on the ground. She’s groaning, making miserable noises into the grass. Amelia crouches beside her and makes sure her tantrum doesn’t end up with her head getting caved in by a wandering boar. 

“No PVP,” Amelia confirms solemnly. 

She gets a muffled wail in response. 

Amelia rests her chin in her palm. She watches Tako sit beside them, all her breath exploding out in a sigh as she reclines back on the grass. She lets her staff fall onto her face, her expression crumpling as a wooden cracking noise follows in its wake. The weapon rolls away and Tako sighs again, louder. 

Amelia smiles wryly, “Did you watch the trailer?” 

Tako looks at her tiredly, “I wish I hadn’t.” 

Mummers makes herself known again by rolling over. It’s knocking Amelia’s legs out from under her. Amelia flails her arms, all the breath in her lungs leaving her as she lands on Mummers. Amelia swears quietly. 

Mummers, now on her back and looking unbothered by Amelia’s weight, says, “I’m uninstalling this game.” 

“No you aren’t,” Tako says. 

“Ow,” Amelia says. 

Mummers nudges her with her elbow. Amelia nudges her back a little harder. They end up trying to tussle with just their elbow, knocking the joints together like a demented jousting match. Amelia can see Tako watching them in amusement from the corner of her eye. 

“Seriously though,” Tako mutters, “what happened to the production team?”

“I don’t even know who developed this game.” Mummers says. She’s tilting her head back to look at Tako. “Wasn’t there, like, that whole thing with the social media account?”

“Oh yeah,” Tako says. 

Amelia crosses her arms on top of Mummers stomach, “What thing? I wanna know.” 

“It was some post they made,” Tako says slowly. 

Mummers says, “Didn’t they delete right after too?” 

“Yeah.” Tako laughs weakly. “They made a, a kinda cheeky post? It was like, oh, I bet you guys want a mobile version of our game.” 

Amelia groans. She sinks miserably as far into the earth as she can. As it stands, all she ends up doing is eroding into Mummers arms. The leatherworker pets her like she’s a troubled dog. Tako laughs, rolling over onto her side to lean her cheek against her palm. 

“I’m guessing you two aren’t happy about the expansion.” 

Mummers says, “I won’t be happy ever. I’ll never experience happiness again.” 

Amelia says, “I’m good.” 

Mummers sharply jams her knee into Amelia’s stomach. Amelia wheezes and retaliates by digging her elbows into Mummers ribs. The leatherworker yelps like she’s been stabbed. The entire conflict is peacefully ignored by Tako. 

“I just,” Tako huffs, “I’m trying to wrap my head around it and I really don’t get what was even announced, right? Are they really just gonna add stuff to dungeons and call it good?” 

Amelia stays quiet. In a game centered around dungeons, there’s a part of her that wants to argue that it’s a good thing. It’s the same part of her that enjoys dungeon diving and wants to see what else is to explore. She’s starting to grasp the other side of the matter much better with her time in Hollow Life. If the details are to be believed, casual players were being forgotten. 

Mummers says quietly, “That’s dumb.”

“It’s dumb,” Amelia confirms softly. Mummers stops nudging her and Amelia would almost read that as approval. 

“And that stuff about the guilds…” Tako purses her lips. “I dunno. It sounds crazy.” 

“We’re all going to die.” Mummers says helpfully. “They’re going to slaughter us and use our characters for lore.” 

Amelia snorts. They all know this game has no lore. The way Tako exhales and presses her lips into a thin line catches Amelia’s attention. She ventures cautiously, “You don’t think they’ll actually do that, right? It’s way too absurd.” 

“I mean, obviously,” Tako says. “I really don’t think they will either.” 

Mummers says, “Should we bother leveling still?” 

Amelia blinks at that. She props herself up on her elbows to properly look at Mummers. Mummers returns her look, her brows furrowed, “They said they’d make the overworld easier, didn’t they?” 

“A few gaming articles said that.” Amelia says. “It’s nothing concrete.” She doesn’t mention how making the game easier sounded horrendously boring. She doesn’t think they’d share her sentiment. “Are we sure they aren’t gonna add anything up here?”

“The only thing that was mentioned was the guild invasions.” 

“Invade deez nuts.” Mummers grumbles. 

.

.

Amelia leans her back against the roots of the lake tree. She’s deciding on a name for it in her head since Goomba won’t do it. Amelia tilts her head to avoid the shark tail swinging back and forth above her. Goomba perches on one of the higher roots, her tongue poking out as she casts and reels. 

“I’ll be honest,” Goomba says. “I’m way too focused on decorating my room to care.” 

“How many trophies are you at?” Amelia asks. 

Goomba waves her hand down to her, “I’ll show you later. You saw my room last week, right?” 

“Yeah. You had, like, four aquariums.”

Goomba laughs under her breath. It sounds sinister to Amelia’s ears, “That’s right, I’m going to make Crowny cry, she’s going to be so upset when she looks at it and finds out I turned the whole thing into a big, giant fish fest.” 

“How many are you at now?” 

“You gotta see it later.” Goomba’s tail narrowly misses clipping her in the eye. “I’m hoping the new expansion gives me more fish.” 

“Don’t be too excited about that. There aren’t any details.” 

“Details, shmetails.” Goomba blows a raspberry into the air. “What about you, huh? You’ve been kinda scarce.” 

Amelia shifts on her feet. It’s been a few weeks since she held her sword or shield. She misses it and it was affecting her mood a little. Crafting and gathering were mindless tasks. It’s not her and it’s a struggle to reshape herself for it. Her crafting skills are looking better than zero, at least. 

“Crafting,” Amelia says, trying not to sound as tired as she is about it. 

“You still haven’t decorated your room.” 

“Hey,” Amelia says. “Chill out, it’s coming.” 

Goomba makes a noise, “Right, you want that rare wood. I thought it was crazy at first, but hey, if you three can beat the whole game and start those daily quests, that’d be like, huge.” 

Amelia is glad Goomba can’t see her. The absurd amount of pride Amelia feels from that has her hiding her face behind her hand. Her cheeks feel warm and she has to force down the stupid grin on her face. 

“Uh, yeah.” Amelia chokes out. “I just wanted to help.” 

“You’re always helping,” Goomba says warmly. “I rarely see you do anything for yourself, ya know? Spoil yourself some time, Bowson.” 

Amelia ignores the pit in her stomach that forms from that. She hasn’t dungeon dived in a while. She uses that thought to alleviate the guild. 

“Thanks.” She whispers. 

Goomba’s tail gives a happy wag. Amelia isn’t as quick this time to avoid getting a face full of fin. 

.

.

“In four months, we’re going to die,” Crowny says. Amelia thinks she could be a good actor one day if she keeps this up. Crowny is laying over the couch in her room, looking miserable but posing fabulously while she wallows. 

Crowny’s room is very neat. It’s got a section curtained off that Crowny won’t let her near and a little corner of cabinets. It has cute items and collectibles on display. The center of the room has a couch and a table. 

“This is my disassociating couch.” Crowny had introduced it without much enthusiasm. “It’s where I think about the expansion and cry.” 

“Can I have one?” Amelia asks. 

“Make your own.” 

Amelia decides the table will do. She sits cross-legged on top of it while Crowny lays on her back, using the couch as dramatically as she possibly can. It makes Amelia smile, amused by her antics. 

“There’s going to be an information stream happening in a week,” Amelia says. “Like, on their website, they’re gonna answer questions live.” 

“Oh good.” Crowny drawls. “I can’t wait to hear them tell me I’m going to die in real-time.” 

“Crowny, you’re not going to die.” 

“What else are they going to talk about? How much they hate us?” 

Amelia laughs, “Yeah, right before they unleash a demon army on us.” 

.

.

FauFau ushers her into the greenhouse with excited, fluttery hands. Her lab is complete and she’s showing it off, babbling left and right about the potions on the shelves. She takes Amelia to the back, where a shelf that’s bare of anything is. She looks at it and back at Bowson with expectant, warm eyes. 

Amelia offers a half smile, “I guess it can’t stay a secret forever.” 

She takes a potion from her inventory and places it on the shelf. 

[Nature’s Arrow] 

“Did you really?” FauFau laughs, brushing her bangs behind her ear shyly. “That was so long ago! Do I look like nature?” 

“You look pretty,” Amelia says simply and desperately tries not to fidget or stutter. “It felt kinda weird because that’s like, a low tier dexterity potion and it has a name like-”

“It’s super powerful?” FauFau giggles. “It’s super powerful to me.” 

“Thanks,” Amelia says, playful sarcasm wrapped in her words. “Take it in moderation.” 

“I don’t recall you ever using a bow, though.”

“Oh,” Amelia says softly. “Uh, I think I used one before, yeah. It’s been a while since then.” 

FauFau hums, “Well, you were new, that’s possible. You were so busy all the time too!” She smiles at Bowson, taking her hands into hers with delight, “I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad we’ve got more free time to hang out.” 

“Yeah,” Amelia says, holding back the emotions threatening to bubble up and spill over. “I’m glad too.” 

.

.

They’re all gathered in the guild hall. There’s a muttering of conversations and laughter around Amelia. She’s had to turn down the game volume just to be able to hear the stream. She has it open in a separate tab. She knows she left Bowson sitting on the couch. She takes a peek every now and then and smiles with amusement every time FauFau tries to scare her or anyone else tabbed out. 

“Oh my god.” Mummers voice echoes in her ears faintly. “They’re still talking about the extra dungeons.” 

“Bring out sammy!” Glue yells. “C’mon, bring out your fricked-up mascot!” 

“No, please, not the weird-looking cheese thing.” Hakotaro groans. “Wait, shut up, they’re talking about dungeon materials.” 

Amelia covers her mouth to muffle her laughter. Watching a development update live was usually boring and frustrating. To have her guildmates yelling and laughing in her ears was a novelty. She liked it. It was fun to hear one of the developers describe something and to hear Crowny make a noise like she was dying. 

“Did he just call carpentry woodworking?” Crowny exclaims. “Hello, do you even know what game you’re making, sir?” 

“Bring out sammy!” Glue yells. 

Goomba yells louder, “Bring out the cheese!” 

“Shut up!” Hakotaro shouts. 

Amelia laughs. She can tell FauFau is sitting next to her. She can hear her giggling in her ear. She briefly tabs back to the game to give her a friendly nudge. FauFau looks at her, her eyes shining with amusement. 

It’s nice. 

Tako was tabbed out on the couch across from them. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth was moving as she says, “You know, the more I look at this, the more I’m realizing they are literally just using microsoft powerpoint on the screen.” 

“Those transitions man.” Glue says. “Oh, my god, was that a star? That was a star transition.” 

“Are we in middle school?!” Hakotaro shrieks. 

Amelia looks around the guild hall. Crowny had decorated it well. There was a bit of flair to it for this event. Little ribbons and banners had been placed around the corners of the room. A fireplace was the centerpiece of it all, with three couches framing it. A coffee table sat in the middle, but Goomba had pushed it aside to lay down on the rug. Everyone else has claimed a spot on the couch or was leaning up against it. 

“Oh, here we go!” Neighbula chirps. She’s draping her arms over the couch behind Tako. “They’re talking about the demon invasion! Guys!” 

“Oh finally.” Callamori stirs to life from where she’s lying spread eagle on the floor. “I’ve had the stream muted for like, half an hour now.” 

Amelia tilts her head. The developers in her ear were describing the invasion event. They were trying to be vague about it, but the details that were spilling out had Amelia frowning. It was a mandatory event for all guilds that had a house, as the event will be targeting every purchased house in the overworld. The event was designed to bring dungeon divers back to the surface and encourage combat amongst the crafters. 

“What?” Someone says. Amelia can’t tell who it is. The whole guild hall has gone gravelly quiet. 

“What level would be required to survive these invasions?” One of the hosts asks. 

One of the developers answers, “Well, we’ve never exposed the level of monsters before, that’s not going to change. Minimum level to survive … I’d say, forty.” 

What? Amelia sits up in her chair. Her heart is hammering wildly in her ears. What? 

“That’s a high number.” The host comments. 

The developer laughs, “Just play the game. We want to encourage growth in the community. Having guilds be tailored to one thing isn’t what we want, we want all guilds to be a mixed bag. If guilds followed that rule, they’ll be fine.” 

“There’s well over hundreds of crafting guilds, how would they-” 

“The whole point of the game is to go into the dungeon, with your friends, and have a real good time. We want players to experience the new content down in the ancient grottos and crafters, they just need encouragement to do that.”

“Will there be consequences if they fail the event?”

“Well, we’ve designed it so that those that win will get new items and materials featured in the expansion. For those guilds that fail, and I don’t imagine there’d be a lot if they’re smart about it, they’d lose their guild hall and-”

“And muted,” Callamori says. 

Amelia does the same. She can see the stream still going, but she’ll have to watch the rest later. She looks back over the guild hall. There’s palpable tension in the air. Amelia can’t work her mouth to say anything. 

Tako opens her eyes across from her. She's staring down at her knees as she says, “So that’s it then.” 

“Wait, are they seriously-?” Hinotori bursts. She’s pacing behind the couches anxiously. “It’s two months away how the heck are we supposed to do all that in that time? We have to level up, right?” 

“Max overworld level is twenty.” Mummers says quietly. 

“What a pretentious thing to say, like for real,” Glue complains, “ Encourage crafters, really? This isn’t encouragement, this is like-”

Crowny groans loudly into her hands. The anger in the air fizzles for a moment, but Amelia can read the room. It’s sparking with tension and frustration. She pulls her knees up to her chest. Across the room, Mummers meets her eye. 

Mummers smiles grimly. Amelia returns it, feeling sick to her stomach. 

You were right. Mummers mouths to her. 

I didn’t want to be. Amelia mouths back. 

FauFau pipes up from beside her, “How can we get to level forty in two months?”

“What level are you guys?” Hakotaro asks. She’s glancing between Tako, Mummers and Amelia. Amelia straightens in her spot as the attention is focused on them. “You guys have been questing, what level?” 

Tako murmurs, “Fifteen.” 

Mummers says, “Thirteen.” 

Amelia hesitates before whispering, “Thirteen.” 

She doesn’t look up. She doesn’t think she could stand the look Mummers is giving her. The guild hall is quiet for a moment longer. They both know she’s level twenty-seven. Amelia feels her stomach twist. That number will only get higher the more they quest. There’s nothing she can do about it, she reasons.

It’s no big deal. Amelia thinks around the panic in her head. It’s not even high enough to matter anyway. 

Neighbula’s voice is soft underneath the biting air, “We can ask for help, maybe?” 

“Like ask a dungeon diving guild for help?” Crowny asks. “Who would do that? They have their own guild to protect.” 

“If they have a lot of high levels, it’d be trivial stuff, right?” Goomba says. She’s rising from the ground in a burst of energy and gesturing wildly around her. “They have loads of big players, they can spare a few, right? Hell, just one high level would help.” 

“That…” Tako breathes. “...that might just work.” 

“So, we contact a guild,” Crowny drawls, “and then, what, pay them to send us some of their dudes?”

Tako looks miserably at her, “Do we have a better option?” 

Amelia accidentally glances up. Mummers is looking at her unblinkingly. It feels like she’s pulling open Amelia’s skin with her eyes. She’s opening her mouth and Amelia is pleadingly shaking her head. 

Mummers closes her mouth. 

“Dungeon diving?” Callamori suggests. There’s a sarcastic note in her voice. 

“I could try and make us armor,” Hinotori says worriedly. She’s pacing fiercely, her mind running with her mouth. “Weapons, maybe, I don’t have a lot of materials, I’ve been making decorations, I didn’t think about-”

“Just make what you can, Tori,” Callamori says gently. “Seriously. You guys, this sucks real bad, but we can pull through.” 

“I don’t really want to dungeon dive,” Neighbula says. “I’ll lose all my stuff.” 

“You can store it in the guild,” Tako says weakly. 

“And all our crafting levels?” Crowny snorts. She’s standing up briskly, “Oh, never mind, they obviously don’t care for crafting anyway. We have work, and busy schedules, and we’re rarely all online at the same time. How can we even form a dungeon group like this?” 

“Not in two months,” Callamori says. “That’s like trying to make a dungeons and dragons group. We’d be able to do stuff, like, once a week. Not with the way I work. Me, Glue and Tori are all super busy, not to mention timezones.” 

Crowny claps her hands, “Well, good, that’s it then.” She turns and walks around the couch. FauFau is quickly scrambling after her, her voice too low of a murmur for Amelia to make out before they disappear into the kitchen. With harried energy about her, Hinotori is marching for the workshop. Nieghbula gives Tako a parting pat on the back before walking after their blacksmith. 

Callamori sighs, “Fuck.” 

“Yeah, you said it,” Goomba mutters. “I’m logging off, I don’t feel good.” 

“Take it easy, Goomba.” Tako whispers. She’s looking miserable in her spot on the couch. She looks small like that. 

“You too.” Goomba whispers before disappearing. 

The silence between the remaining member's grates on Amelia’s skin. She’s afraid to say anything. She wants to log off, but she feels like that’d be running. One by one, everyone announces their departure. A few minutes of silence punctuates between each disappearance until all that remains is Amelia and Mummers. 

Mummers sits next to her. She pulls her knees up to her chest, reminiscent of what Amelia is doing. 

“Sorry.” Amelia chokes out.

“I would have freaked out too.” Mummers says. “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t-” Amelia takes a sharp breath and closes her eyes. What am I going to do? Two months until an invasion of their home. Two months to get to level forty. Two months. What am I going to do? 

“Why me?” Amelia whispers hoarsely.

Mummers looks away, “...I’m not mad at you. I’m not holding it against you. I’m sorry, if you felt like I did, or that I was expecting something from you.” 

“What?” 

“You can solo the dungeon.” Mummers says. “You can survive it, alone.” 

Amelia tenses up, “You said to stop. I told you I’d stop.” 

“I did. You did. Yeah.” Mummers looks pained as she meets Amelia’s eye. “I’m not a very smart person, but if I stop you from dungeon diving when it has a chance to fix all this, I think that makes me guilty.” 

Amelia whispers, “It wouldn’t.” 

“I’d feel guilty anyway.” Mummers scoots across the distance between them. She nudges Amelia gently. It’s with a meek amount of playfulness, but it lifts some of the tension off Amelia’s shoulders. “I promise not to tell. I said I wouldn’t, I won’t.” 

“Why?” Amelia whispers. “I saw you almost did.” 

“Yeah, oops.” Mummers says. “I got scared. I thought you can help.” 

“But?” 

“If I told them,” Mummers says, “that’d be kinda a lot already, right? I don’t know if it was smart. I guess we’re both in trouble now.” 

Amelia smiles wryly, “Sorry to drag you into my problem.” 

“Well,” Mummers miserably leans her head against her knees, “I’m dragging you into our problem. It’s only fair.” 

“How are you dragging me into this? I’m a part of this guilt too.” Amelia says. “It’s my problem too.” 

Mummers smiles sadly, “You can solo the dungeon, anytime you want, without help.”

Amelia stares at her. 

Slowly, Mummers says, “You can dungeon alone. ”

“Oh,” Amelia says softly. The realization feels cold in her stomach. It’s not just an admittance of her abilities here. Mummers looks at her meaningfully. It’s as much permission as she’s ever going to get for this. There’s guilt between them now, guilt on both their shoulders. Mummers, for maybe sending her to her death. Amelia, for continuing her lie. 

“Okay,” Amelia whispers. 

“Okay?’ Mummers echoes. She looks nauseous. Amelia imagines she doesn’t look much better. 

She takes a breath and says, “Level forty, right? Easy.” 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Lava cracks along the walls. The cavern shakes and rumbles, every tremor bringing a stalagmite down. Amelia is quick. There’s a dexterity potion running hot in her veins. It gives her the boost she needs to slide underneath the massive tail crashing against her spot. She slashes at it with her sword. The scales of the snake reflect it back, fire eating up her arm and chipping at her hit points. 

Amelia turns her scarab shell in hand and raises it high. Two sword-length fangs are crashing against her shield. Her slime boots keep her steady. She can’t parry the monster for too long. The cavern is shaking and the ceiling is falling on top of her. 

The ground is splitting apart every twelfth second. She’s been counting it in her head. Every cycle takes a chunk away and replaces it with lava. Even standing near it starts eating at her hit points. It’s as good of a warning as any that if she falls into it, there’s no saving her. 

The snake rears its head back. Amelia tucks herself low, as small as she can go until she’s sure she’s all but hidden behind her shield. She feels the blast of heat that hits her. She cracks an eye open to watch the jet of flame around her. Her shield parts it before her, leaving her safe with nary a scratch. 

The snake heaves. As it does, it bows its head, leaving the small naked spot between its eyes exposed. Amelia takes a running leap. She’s angled this just right that one of the fallen stalagmites can be used as a boost. Her sword finds home in the snake's head, sinking deep until the snake trembles. 

The boss dies with a shriek and its customary puff of smoke. 

Amelia stumbles as she lands. She’s covered in ash and burns. For a moment, she crouches there, fighting to get her breath back. 

Amelia, as she sits in her chair, leans back and covers her face with her hands. She can feel them shaking. She lets loose an explosive sigh. Relief buzzes down her spine. Her palms feel sweaty. Once she’s gathered herself, she opens the loot bag. 

+ 100 gold 

+ Lava Fang

Amelia examines the fang. It’s a dagger. She doesn’t use daggers. It has a cool effect of lighting enemies on fire when struck, but her sword is still much better than this. In the end, she receives nothing but a cramped wrist for beating Floor Ten. 

“This game blows.” She says.

.

.

Tako has made a post to the Job Board. 

Tako: put a chest by the front door. use it for gold donations

.

.

Floor Eleven is a mushroom cavern. 

Large flat-top mushrooms litter the floor. Amelia has to be careful where she walks. The mushroom monsters on this floor are the same shape and size of them. They’re perfectly hidden up until she accidentally steps on one and they stab her in the foot. If it’s not a monster, it's a trap, a plume of poison springing out from under her that has her flailing and screaming. 

The purple and reds of the cavern wind down until she finds the boss room, a bright luminescent blue. It’s reflecting off the crystal surface of a floating gem. The gem, when Amelia steps into the room, springs to life. From its surface, bright beams of light burst from it. It doesn’t have any clear aim with the beams. After ten seconds, the beams gather in power. After twenty seconds, the beams burst into a bright blue fire. 

There are only a few safe spots from these explosions. Amelia spends the better part of twenty minutes chugging down health potions while blue flames lick at her shoulders. Once she finds these safe spots, where the beams won’t hit her and where the explosions won’t blast her hit points into oblivion, she focuses on chipping at the boss's health pool. It’s slow going, it always is. The further down she goes, the longer bosses take to die. Monsters take time. It takes up so much of her time. 

It takes her an hour to kill the gem. 

After it shatters and bursts and all the leftover shards turn to smoke, Amelia lays down on the floor. She stares up at the ceiling and its funny blue light. It’s exciting, she thinks, to be back in the dungeon. Not like this. She’s on a time crunch. She wasn’t leveling fast enough, not nearly enough. The days were ticking off one by one. The countdown to the expansion was hanging over her head. 

Amelia exhales. It rasps deep in her throat and makes her want to roll over and go to bed. Is this what burnout feels like? 

It’s just a game. She closes her eyes tightly. It’s literally just a game. She has studies to focus on, she needs to sleep, and she has errands to run. She runs that over in her head and slowly blinks. 

Well. Amelia thinks. Sleep is for the weak. 

.

.

Mummers: bowson are you still online

Bowson: ya

Mummers: i went to bed and you were online

Bowson: working 

Mummers: wanna call it a night? 

Bowson: soooooon 

Mummers: okaaaaay

Mummers: take it easy

Mummers: we’re gonna hire a guild so dont feel like you have to go crazy

Bowson: just being paranoid lol

Bowson: ill go to bed soon promise

Mummers: good!!

.

.

Floor Fourteen is a wasp nest. 

The walls, the floor, and even the ceiling drip with green ichor. It slows her down. It gives her a poisonous effect that lowers how much defense her armor gives her. Taking an antidote doesn’t fix it. It’s a floor-wide effect. 

Each wasp is fast. They aren’t large. They’re smaller monsters, nimble and dodgy enough that each of her strikes has to be timed just right. For the most part, she abandons her sword and shield to her inventory for this one. She stays quiet and crouches low to the ground. Her bow is her weapon and the wasp nests are her enemies. She shoots them down one at a time. It prevents them from sending out any wasps to her. Her quiver suffers for it. She holds her breath with every arrow she lets loose. 

When she beats the floor, she gets a poison effect on her character. Bewildered, Amelia checks it. It informs her that her attacks have a 50% chance of missing for the next six hours. 

“Fuck this game,” Amelia says emotionally. 

She logs off. 

.

.

Goomba: this is suuuuuuuuuch shit

Hakotaro: hows the guild hunting going? Really bad?

Goomba: BAD

Goomba: theyre charging reall money like actual real life money

SuperGlueRys: youre joking

Goomba: I wish I was 

Goomba: it doesnt help other crafting guilds are just biting the bullet here man!!!!

Goomba: we could have all been like

Goomba: collectively

Goomba: fuck you!

Goomba: but instead we’re like oh yes plz mister dungeon guild plz take my money 

Hakotaro: how much are they charging 

Goomba: way too much 

Goomba: PER PLAYER BTW 

SuperGlueRys: is it too late to become roleplayers

Neighbula: I think they already quit 

SuperGlueRys: oh this is true hell 

.

.

Amelia stays up late. 

She has her textbook balanced on her knee. The game is muted for her as her headphones, instead of playing monster growls and screams, are instead the voice of her professor as they go over a lecture. Amelia listens to it, her pencil between her teeth as she takes on Floor Nineteen. 

“Cerebral edema swelling and fluids inside the brain are-”

- capable of crushing the brain. Amelia jumps off a pillar to land on the next one. The boss room is an abyss, an empty gaping hole that leads down into an infinite nothing. One misstep and Amelia is dead. 

The brain is connected to the roof of the cavern. It’s purple in color and it has tentacles sprouting out from every side of it. They're pale, sickly-looking things that snap at her. In total, there are five of them. Two of them try to hit her. One of them tries to trip her. The other two try to grapple her. With her bow in hand, she hops from pillar to pillar, her focus split hundreds of ways. 

“-lasts from weeks to months-” 

-and may have neurological deficits that remain permanent. Amelia bobs her knee and jostles her textbook. The brain sends out a static burst every minute. Amelia imagines if she didn’t have her slime boots, it’d knock her off her pillar. As it stands, all she gets is a few hit points ticked off. The brain is turning into a pincushion the longer the fight goes on. 

Her lecture lasts an hour and a half. 

“Finish reading for chapters twelve and thirteen.” Her professor says. “We’ll have a quiz over it next week.” 

Amelia watches the brain drop from the ceiling and disappear below into the abyss. When it doesn’t come back up she bites down on her pencil hard enough that it snaps. 

.

.

Tako: you guys arent going to like this

Crowny: god please tell me you didnt pay real money

Tako: no

Tako: its somehow worse

Hakotaro: oh god be gentle i dont think i can take anymore bad news

Tako: we hired cannibal crawlers

Mummers: DO I MEAN NOTHING TO YOU

Goomba: LOOOOOL WHAT

FauFau: they were the only ones that were accepting gold T_T

Crowny: why did they even agree isnt that suspicious

Goomba: a little sus maybe

Tako: oh yeah for sure

Tako: but we have a week left 

SuperGlueRys: they posted the times on the website btw

SuperGlueRys: no sleep gang hahahaha

Goomba: guys do we want to just

Goomba: never mind

Tako: do you have an idea?

Goomba: it sounds dumb 

Goomba: i dont wanna do it

Goomba: but what if we just give up the house for this 

Goomba: we dont have to risk our lives 

Goomba: and we can save all our furniture 

Crowny: i thought about that

Crowny: but i do NOT want to spend thousands of gold again

SuperGlueRys: ditto 

Mummers: im uninstalling this game

Goomba: no your not

Tako: no youre not

Crowny: no your not

Mummers: >:(

.

.

The night before, Amelia spends it on Floor Twenty-Two. 

She sits cross-legged in the boss room. It’s empty, void of the giant spider she had to fight. It’s been empty for nearly an hour now. 

Am I dissociating? She wonders. She rubs her eyes, feeling tired and drained. She remembers when she was younger she stayed up for game releases. She begged to stay home for them. Game releases were looked forward to with bated breath. 

Now, she wants it to be over with. The sheer idea of an expansion at this point felt laughable and stupid. She looks at social media on her phone. It feels a bit better to see the community still seething over this. She feels less lonely, twenty-two floors below the surface, and far from anyone to talk to. 

Gradually, every post goes from anger to sadness. Messages of farewell, screenshots of the game, final send-offs. Guilds disbanding. Guilds saying goodbye to their houses. Pictures of desktops free from the DDO logo. A video of someone dramatically pressing the uninstall button. 

You got to hand it to them. A post says. They picked a hell of a way to kill their community. 

Amelia closes her eyes. Dead game, the words are uttered. Jokes that fall flat like nails into her head. It’s not the game anymore. She experienced dungeon diving and it was fun at first, but now it’s boring and the rewards are lacking. She’s lost the spirit to enjoy it. The joy of the game was from her guild. Every day was something different, someone new, someone who liked doing something they were passionate about. 

It wasn’t about fishing, it was about the way Goomba leans against her shoulder and laughs. It’s about the way FauFau covers Amelia’s eyes with her hands and giggles, telling her to guess who, and Amelia will pretend it’s someone completely different. 

It was about Glue and Hakotaro and fiery fun, making games out of something that never had any content to begin with. It was Neighbula singing in a tavern, surrounded by happy smiles and applause. It’s Crowny and her cabinet, a simple gift of a virtual thing that shouldn’t matter but it gnarls and twists in Amelia’s chest. It’s Hinotori and a gift to a complete stranger. Tako and her smile, grateful and happy. It’s Mummers, protective, awkward, but hovering by Amelia’s side, knowing and watchful and with a steady hand on her shoulder like she’s afraid Amelia might crumple into dust. It’s Callamori, who knows, but she’s gentle. After all, it’s all just a game. 

It’s Amelia and thirty-six levels. 

“It’s enough.” She breathes. There’s no one to listen to her as she lays down on Floor Twenty-Two and waits for midnight to fall. “It’ll be enough.” 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Amelia rubs her eyes. 

She’s on four hours of sleep. The expansion release was early her time. She’d gotten all her assignments done early and the exhaustion of melting her brain all at once was pulling her eyelids down. It doesn’t help that when she logged in she noticed her room was bathed in orange light. Frowning, Amelia peeks out her window. 

The sky was orange. 

It wasn’t sunset orange, no, it was a burning hellfire color. It made her stomach jump in nervousness. It shouldn’t be a problem to handle. She reminds herself that they paid the dungeon guild. They, probably, wouldn’t need her. She was just… a lost resort. 

Maybe it was sleep deprivation. Maybe it was something else. She’s not going at her own pace again. Mummers knows and Callamori half knows, but she wanted to go slowly, one by one. If she did it today, all of them would know. What would that be like? She dreads it. She’s not ready. 

You made a promise you would. 

“Just not today.” Amelia whispers. “Please, let it not be today.” 

.

.

She sits on the steps of the house. 

She can hear some of the guildmates inside. She doesn’t know if there’s final preparations going on or whatnot. Amelia has her arms crossed over her knees. On all four sides of the house, a red portal has blazed to life. Nothing was immediately happening, but with the deadline drawing down to half an hour left, she can feel the back of her neck sweating. The heat alone from the portals was making her nervous. 

They had only got enough gold to hire three players. That left one portal open and, logically, she knows that will end up being her portal. But will it actually? These players are really high level. They should be anyway. They know they have to defend a crafting guild and are aware they probably need to cover that empty spot. Right? 

Amelia’s knee bobs with her anxiety. 

Beside her, Crowny sits down. She does it with a long, agitated sigh. She’s leaning back on her palms as she does. Amelia glances at her and does a double take. 

“You’re wearing armor,” Amelia mutters. 

“Yup.” Crowny pokes at the chainmail she’s wearing with a dispassionate frown. “Hinotori made everyone some. It’s clunky but it may help us take a hit to get to safety. I dunno, I think a level forty will curb stomp us even with this armor.” 

Amelia laughs weakly, “Don’t sell yourself short. What are you? Level two?”

“Level three.” Crowny sniffs. “Okay, level thirteen. Guess you gotta throw yourself in front of me.” 

Amelia fixes the smile on her face. She turns back to the portal. She doesn’t think she could keep her wits about her if she kept looking at Crowny. The woman sighs. 

“You’ve been out here for twenty minutes now,” Crowny says. “I just had to talk Tako down so I’ll probably have to tell you too.” 

“Tell me what?” Amelia asks. 

“Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Crowny nudges her pointedly. Amelia glances at her. There’s a sharp look in Crowny’s eyes. “Seriously, we know the three of you are our highest levels, but these are level forties. You’d get just as badly killed as the rest of us if you tried to step in.” 

Amelia can’t help the dam bursting and her mouth running, “But the last portal-”

“I’m sure CC got it handled.” Crowny drawls. She’s reaching over to place her hand on Amelia’s head. She ruffles her hair. “The house will be fine. We’re all gonna hunker inside and wait it out. The whole thing only lasts half an hour.”

Amelia feels like it’ll be the longest half an hour of her life. She feels that guilt returning to her, churning her stomach and making her taste acid in the back of her throat. When Crowny nudges her again she gives a rough nod. 

Crowny murmurs, “C’mon, Bowson, get inside. Mummers has been by the window all morning.”

“Is she watching me?” 

“She looks scared out of her mind, yeah. Go on. Get inside.” 

Amelia hesitates. She moves stiffly, not sure if she even has the right to go back inside. Crowny is right behind her, herding her inside. She doesn’t really have a choice as the doors close behind her. Crowny gives her a parting pat on the shoulder. As soon as she’s gone, Mummers takes her place. 

“Hey.” Mummers whispers. There’s a wild look in her eye. Amelia imagines she doesn’t look much better. 

“Hey.” Amelia whispers back. Her heart isn’t in it. 

“Can’t sit still either?” 

Amelia mutely shakes her head. 

“Wanna pace by the door for the last fifteen minutes?” Mummers asks.

Amelia nods. 

Mummers nods back and Amelia thinks this is the best wavelength the two of them have ever been on.

.

.

There are five minutes left. 

“They said they’d get here ten minutes early.” Tako frets. She’s joined Mummers and Amelia in pacing. She wrings her wrists and glances out the window every second she has the chance. “Where are they? Can we dock their money if they arrive late?” 

“If they arrive late, aren’t we totally boned?” Callamori asks. She’s sprawled on the couch, her voice muffled by the helmet she has on. Hinotori is sitting beside her looking exhausted. Amelia doubts the woman has gotten any sleep, not just with the timezone difference, but in the way everyone in the guildhall is wearing shiny chainmail. 

“It starts right away, doesn’t it?” Neighbula is corralling Tako back to a couch. “Just calm down, they’ll show up. Their guild went right before ours, right? They might just be running late. They have to finish up their own invasion after all.” 

Tako exhales, “Right. You’re right.”

“Four minutes,” Crowny says. She’s leaning against the wall by a window. Her eyes are closed, but Amelia will catch when the woman glances out the window. She’s keeping a wary eye on the portal. Amelia also doesn’t think relaying the time is helping. The tension in the room is so thick she can barely breathe. 

“Are you two just gonna keep doing that?” Goomba asks. She’s squinting at where Mummers and Amelia are circling the door like vultures. Amelia thinks the mindlessness of it is actually helping her nerves. It feels silly to do. It’s something to occupy her brain other than the impending cataclysm right outside the door. 

“Yup.” Mummers says. Every time she passes Amelia she offers her hand for a high five. Amelia obliges every single time. “Gets the blood flowing.”

“You’re making me nervous.” 

Hinotori pipes up, “Did everyone get a weapon? I made a sword for everyone, I’ve got-” 

“We did.” FauFau soothes. She’s walking over to wrap an arm around Hinotori’s shoulders. “You did really great, thank you. Seriously, Hinotori, we all feel really safe.” 

“Did we make healing potions?” Glue asks. She’s digging through her bags behind the couch. Only her horns are visible. “I have one so I’m good, but does anyone else need one?” 

Half the room raises their hands. Amelia feels her nerves scream up her arms. She’s aware of how many she has in her bags. It’d be more than enough for this room, but she isn’t sure if she should. Would they ask questions? She could say she’s been making potions all month, but with what money? 

“I only have one extra.” FauFau murmurs. 

Rapid footsteps down the stairs catch everyone's attention. Hakotaro appears, frantically stuffing a sword into her bag as she hollers, “Dibs! I call dibs!” 

“Three minutes,” Crowny says. 

“Thanks, Crownster.” Callamori mumbles. “I can’t wait till you say two minutes. We can celebrate.” 

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Goomba says. 

When Crowny does announce the two-minute mark, the guild hall goes silent. Tako stands up, not moving from her spot but her eyes wide as they all look towards the door. Amelia stops and Mummers mirrors her, the both of them watching the door like hawks. 

“One minute.” Crowny’s voice is a whisper in the room. 

“They’re not coming.” Tako’s voice is gravely quiet. It feels like a shout in this silence. Amelia feels it all the way down her spine. She’s frozen as she looks at the door and hears the explosion of heat from the portals outside. The shouts of monsters reach her ears. 

“Everyone, upstairs!” Callamori barks. She’s scrambling up from her spot, her hand gripping Hinotori’s wrist as she pulls her along. “C’mon, get up! Go!”

“But the house-” Goomba cries. 

“Can we escape?” Neighbula asks. She’s looking around the windows like a deer caught in headlights. “Oh no, they’ve surrounded our everything.” 

Amelia dares to peek outside. Her stomach drops to her toes. She can only see the immediate portal in front of the house. They look like goatmen, ashy armored monsters with curled horns walking on hooved feet. They’re wielding giant battle axes. She spots different weapons mixed in with them. Daggers, bows, she even sees one with a warhorn. The sound of it reverberates throughout the house. It rattles her bones. 

My weapons are in my storage chest in my room. She swallows dryly. She can hear everyone scrambling up the stairs behind her. 

Mummers hasn’t moved. She’s eyeing the door hungrily, her eyes wide, her shoulders hitched up to her ears with tension and fear. Amelia doesn’t even realize she’s been holding her breath until she feels a hand on her shoulder. She jumps. 

It’s Crowny. She’s looking at the two of them critically, “C’mon. We need to get somewhere safe.”

“This house isn’t safe, Crowny.” Mummers says. 

“I know that. We all know that. We gotta do what we can.”

“Is there really not a back entrance or something?” Amelia asks desperately. “An underground tunnel?”

Crowny snorts, “That’d be pretty sick, not gonna lie, but we don’t have that. We’re gonna find the safest room we can and hunker down in there.” 

That won’t work. Amelia’s breath trembles in her chest. Maybe it works like dungeons? The doors are finicky in this game. They could cheese this whole event if the doors are unbreakable. She barely processes this thought before the window beside them shatters. Mummers jumped with a yell, her shoulder knocking against Amelia’s. Amelia stares with wide eyes at the torch that spirals in the air before knocking against the wall. It’s starting to catch on fire. 

“Hey!” Crowny shouts. “Hey, that’s unfair! Stop putting holes in my house!”

“The fire!” Mummers is scrambling across the room. Amelia has no idea how they’d even go about putting out a fire. From upstairs, she hears Callamori calling their names. Amelia moves to go help when the door jumps. 

It cracks and splinters. Amelia reels in horror. She can hear a clamor of armor outside the door. The howls of monsters just outside key her in on what’s happening. Wait, they’re actually breaking the door down! Shit! She springs back to the door and presses her shoulder against it. She doesn’t know how to fight against a pair of double doors breaking down. She draws her dupe sword from her inventory and jams it between the door handles. 

“You guys!” Callamori shouts. “What the fuck! Bowson, get back from there!” 

“They’re breaking in!” Amelia shouts back. Panic burns hot in her arms. When the door jumps, she almost loses her footing. She presses against it with all her might. She risks a glance over her shoulder. Mummers isn’t fairing well against the flames. She’d managed to put out the one torch by smacking it with her hand and stomping on it. Her arm is smoking as another torch smashes a window in the kitchen. On the other side of the house, Amelia can hear the windows of the workshop breaking. 

“Seriously, get up here!” Amelia can make out Callamori’s silhouette at the top of the stairs. The smoke is starting to obscure the first floor. There’s someone else besides her that Amelia can’t make out. 

Amelia breathes raggedly, “We…” We what? What can we even do? “We’ll hold them off for as long as we can!” 

“Like hell you are!” Callamori yells. 

Crowny appears beside her. Amelia nearly jumps out of her skin. The carpenter looks spooked, but she’s pushing up against the door as well and fighting alongside Amelia. Each jump of the door is a little easier to manage with Crowny’s shoulder to help her. Amelia smiles wryly. Crowny returns it. 

“Uh, well.” Crowny calls, her voice wobbly, “If we’re gonna die here, Mori, I’d rather some of us make it out alive.” 

“We’re all gonna make it out alive!” Callamori shouts. “I’m not asking again! I’m gonna come down there and drag you guys- Wait, Tako, what the hell!” 

Amelia gaze snaps back to the stairs. The figure beside Callamori is rushing down the stairs. Amelia can recognize Tako’s robes as she bolts around the staircase and runs for the workshop.

“I’ll try to put out these fires!” Tako shouts, her voice cracking from the smoke. “Keep an eye on the door!” 

“Seriously?!” 

Amelia laughs. She feels wild in her blood. An absurd hope hits her even as she smells burning wood and hears the groaning creak of their house as flames bite away at it. Crowny glances at her, smirking dryly as they both get pushed by the door. 

“This game is stupid,” Crowny says. 

“You should go,” Amelia says. She can hear the door splitting apart beneath them. She doubts it’ll hold much longer. “I can hold them off, I think I can get around them.” 

Crowny barks a laugh, “Okay, Bowson. I’m sure thirteen levels are gonna survive tremendously.” 

“Thirty-six actually,” Amelia says. 

Crowny snorts. Amelia doesn’t think that translated well when the door snaps ominously. She sees wood splinters falling over her shoulder. She was running out of time.

“Seriously,” Amelia says, panic and sleep deprivation running in her head so fast she can barely think. “I’m level thirty-six. I got this.” 

Crowny looks at her with thin annoyance, “And I’m not falling for that. I’m not going anywhere, Bowson.”

“No, you don’t understand-”

A force pushes her. A half shriek leaves her as the door gives way and careens her to the floor. The force of it hitting her knocks the breath out of her. He sees her hit points dip, but she doesn’t have time to worry about that. She’s frantically pushing it off her, her heart screaming up her throat as goatmen step into the hall. Two of them are bearing down on her, their axes raised high. 

Amelia uses the broken door as a shield, her arms trembling from the blows. Wait, Crowny- She glances over, panic beating fast in her chest. Crowny is woozily pushing the door off her. 

“Crowny, no don’t-!” Amelia shrieks. “The door, use the door!” 

“What?” Crowny wildly looks over at her. It’s a costly second. There’s a mess of demons around them, too many monsters rushing around them. Amelia can’t tell which one does it. She sees it in her peripheral vision as she desperately holds back weapons from cleaving her in two. Her arms are occupied. She can’t do a thing as she watches an axe fall down onto Crowny. 

Crowny recoils. 

Amelia yells, “Go out, run! Go!”

Crowny scrambles blindly to follow her orders. She’s not fast enough. There are too many. Amelia is frozen, flames dying her world in red as Crowny suffers one last blow. Her eyes are wide and her mouth parted to say something, but it never comes out. 

In a flash of blue, Crowny dies.

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Amelia is broken out of her stupor by a hoof kicking her jaw. 

There’s too much fire and not enough to walk through. Annoyingly, she finds, that the goatmen seem to be able to walk through fire without getting harmed. Her hit points were dropping tick by tick the longer she lay prone underneath the door. 

Crowny just-

She kicks her feet out. It offers her two measly seconds where the goatmen back off. She springs from her hiding spot. She’s too aware of what she has on her now. A few thousand gold, her armor Hinotori made for her, her enchanted gloves, and many healing potions. She’d prepared in advance for this but had she really? I need my weapons. 

She scrambles down between the legs of the demons. She doesn’t have her scarab shield and she suffers for it. Her armor takes most of the blows, but she feels it when an axe chips into her shoulder. She goes tumbling up the first few stairs, her balance lost and orientation of the building completely turned upside down. 

Callamori grabs her by her shoulders and drags her up the stairs. There are flames licking at her feet. Callamori’s eyes are wide. She’s muttering swears under her breath as she hogties Amelia up to the second floor. 

“Mummers-” Amelia chokes out, “Tako, they need-”

“No, fuck no, get up here, right this second.” There’s a deep, angry rasp to her voice. Amelia feels a bead of guilt, feels it start to fester in her chest. Crowny is- “I don’t care how high level you are, man, we can’t lose anyone.” 

“We just lost Crowny!” Amelia yelps. She grabs onto Callamori’s hands, tight around her shoulders and drawing her further back on the second floor. The flames hadn’t reached here yet. The walls were casting themselves in an ominous orange glow. The stomping of hooves down below made her panic. “They’ll die down there!” 

“I know that!” Callamori hisses. “But if I can grab at least one of you, I fucking will!” 

“Callamori, my room-!” 

“No, inside room. You have a window, you’re gonna get shot.” 

Amelia struggles. She’s not getting it and frustration has her elbowing at Callamori. Callamori grunts and slams her shoulder against a door. She shouts, “Let me in, I’ve got Bowson!” 

The door flies open. Hinotori is there, her expression severe and her eyes haunted. There’s a smidge of relief as she ushers the two of them into her room. There’s only Goomba and FauFau inside. FauFau is sitting on the bed, her hands fidgeting nervously with her armor. Goomba is tucked into the corner, a sword held awkwardly in her hands. She has a wildly frightened look in her eye. 

Hinotori is moving to close the door. Amelia struggles with renewed vigor, “Let me go, please, I can help! You’re not getting it, you-!”

“Will you quit it?” Callamori snaps. She’s unlatching one of her hands to try and snatch Amelia’s wrists together. Amelia, feeling spiteful, bites down on Callamori’s other hand. Callamori shrieks like she’s been stung by a bee. “Bowson, that’s nasty!” 

“Our house is burning, you two!” Hinotori places her hands on her hips. She gestures to the ajar door angrily, “If you wanna go out and die, be my guest!”

“But we can’t stay here,” FauFau says. “The fire is going to reach us.” 

“The house,” Gura moans from the corner. She’s shrinking miserably down to the floor, “We can’t leave the house.”

“We’re leaving this house.” Callamori declares. “I’ve got a plan but it’s going to be tricky.” 

Amelia pauses. She’s heaving angrily, every second ticking away in her head like a bad omen. She eyes the door. Her ears catch every stomp, every howl, every snap of wood. She’s waiting to hear a scream. She’s waiting with dread pooled tight into her stomach. The bead of guilt is starting to gnarl like tree roots down into every fiber of her being. 

“You have a plan…?” Hinotori repeats slowly. 

Amelia can hear the scowl in Callamori’s voice, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I don’t play this game for shit but I’m not a moron. I saw Bowson down there using the door as a shield. It was fending them off.” 

“The doors?” FauFau echoes. She’s perking up, her eyes wide, “Wait, that works? That’ll actually work?” 

“If we can bust down a bunch up here,” Callamori says, “we can like, slither our way down there in one big unit, right? Make a formation and skedaddle our way past all the demons and make it out safely.” 

Amelia feels the realization tumble into her, “Turtling.” 

“Yeah, like a turtle.” 

“Okay.” Hinotori claps her hands. “I can start dismantling. Goomba, can you go find Crowny, we’ll one hundred percent need her carpentry here.” 

Amelia is frozen. She can feel Callamori go rigid. Neither of them is moving. The utter stillness in the room stops Goomba in her tracks. 

“Guys?” Goomba hovers beside them warily, “Where’s Crowny?”

“Shit.” Callamori breathes. 

Amelia catches one tiny glimpse of Hinotori’s face. It’s her mouth parting in disbelief, horror in her expression, panic- Amelia uses Callamori’s distraction to her advantage. She’s elbowing her in the side and ducking down out of her arms. Callamori shrieks. 

“Bowson! What the hell-”

Amelia leaps out the door, the hair on the back of her neck rising when she feels Callamori’s hand brush through her hair. Almost, almost- “You guys, focus on the doors!” She shouts as she runs down the hallway. “I’ll hold them off!” 

“I’m gonna kill her, seriously, I’m gonna-! Goomba, no-! ” 

Amelia barges into her room. It’s all intact. The empty space greets her as does her window and the fantastic view of a burning orange portal in front of the house. It casts her room in a red glow. It feels like an omen. She avoids looking at the cabinet. She almost collapses onto her storage chest with relief. The slime boots are first, almost instinct at this point to equip them before anything else. Holding her silverwood bow in hand nearly makes her weep with joy. 

Titania’s Grace is back at her hip. Her scarab shield is a comforting weight on her back. She draws an arrow from her quiver and turns around. 

Goomba stares at her from the doorway. Amelia freezes. The howls of monsters below them fall into background noise. Goomba is looking at her and slowly blinking, processing. Amelia feels the words she needs to say clogged up in her throat. It’s not the time for it. There’s not enough time. She’s running out of time. 

“Goomb, we need-” She says. 

Goomba mutters, “I had a hunch.” 

Amelia stiffens. Her hands feel clammy as she grips her weapons, “... A hunch?”

“You disappeared a lot. You were online, but whenever I'd drop by Hatch, you weren’t there. I thought…” Goomba tilts her head down, her bangs falling low over her face, “I dunno. It feels stupid. I thought, oh, she’s probably making friends in the game like Neighbula does.” 

Amelia can’t muster up a single word. 

Goomba glances behind her. She looks nauseous at the sight, “... I guess I was kinda right. I didn’t think it’d be dungeon divers, since, ya know, you joined a freaking crafting guild.” Goomba backs away from the door. There’s a crash on the other side of the house. Amelia can hear Hinotori shouting. She wants to tell Goomba everything. Time is ticking. She doesn’t know, she doesn’t realize Amelia has done all this solo. Amelia swallows down those words. Not yet, now is not the time. 

“We need to go,” Amelia says, too afraid to raise her voice above a whisper. “I’ll explain everything later, I promise.” 

Goomba’s shoulders slump with defeat. She’s smiling wryly, “Hey, I’m not complaining. You’re gonna save our butts now, huh? Please tell me those fancy duds aren’t just for show.” 

Amelia returns the smile weakly, “Stay behind me.” 

.

.

It goes like this. 

Amelia takes up the helm of the turtle. She has her scarab shield out, the flame brushing against it harmlessly as she takes careful step by step down the stairs. They go in teams of two. Callamori and Hinotori are behind her, two doors held aloft in a triangle formation to box them in. Behind them, Neighbula and Hakotaro. FauFau and Glue would be bringing up the rear alongside Goomba. The plan was that Goomba would shout out to Tako or Mummers as they went down. It left the back of them exposed, but they couldn’t leave the other two behind. 

Every glance at her felt heavy. Hinotori had looked at her like she was someone she didn’t recognize. Callamori didn’t look surprised, but she had a grim shadow in her eye, a glint that understood but didn’t like it. Amelia had staved off any lingering eyes with a soft, “I’ll explain later, please.” 

They were giving her that at least. They were trusting her. She forges down the stairs, her shoulders squared and her shield raised high. The demons were rushing up to meet them as the flames climbed up the walls. The second floor was becoming compromised. She didn’t want to hang around and find out what happens when the house collapses on them. 

“Do you see them?” Callamori shouts. 

Amelia can’t see anything through the smoke. There are too many demons swarming them. She can hear the creaks and groans of the makeshift shields they have. It makes her heart thump against her ribs. She’s on a new time limit. She has to get them out of here before the durability of the shields break. 

When they get down to the first floor, everything goes wrong. 

Amelia hears a crash behind her. She freezes in her steps, her shield jerking in her hand as she wards off a battle axe to the face. She whips her head around as best as she can. Somewhere, their turtle was broken. She can’t see it but she can hear it. A door is splintering and breaking. She hears Glue shriek. 

“Run!” Someone yells. “Run, go, run!” 

“Wait,” Amelia tries to speak over the chaos. There are too many bodies around her. The demons are crowding them and her guildmates are making a push for the door. The turtle's head falls behind into its shell. Amelia is jostled in the midst of them. “Wait, guys, wait-!”

“Sheilds!” Hinotori cries. “Oh god, shields!” 

Amelia sees it in her peripheral. Glue had stumbled and fell. She was laying prone on her shield, frantically trying to heft it up before she ends up cleaved by a flying axe. Amelia flies to her side. The turtle was damned. They were split apart and swarmed. She raises her shield above her like an umbrella and crouches over Glue. 

Mismatched eyes glance up at her fearfully, “Oh, thanks.” 

Amelia winces as she feels her shield jostle from blow after blow, “Leave the door behind, we have to move.” 

“But Goomba-” 

Amelia follows where she’s looking. She feels her stomach twist when she notices Goomba a few feet behind them. There’s a goatman separating her from joining the disembodied turtle. They were falling behind, Amelia breathes. They needed to move or they’d be swarmed. She can’t defend both of them. Could she? She has only one shield. 

“Here.” Amelia hisses. She’s latching the shield onto Glue’s back. “Now go, run! Run!” 

Glue jumps like a startled deer. She’s stuttering out, “Wait, is that okay, what about-”

Amelia shoves her forward, “Go!” 

She doesn’t wait to see if Glue followers her orders. She’s turning and bolting for Goomba. It’s not good. There’s fire between them now, snapping and snarling at her feet as she rams her shoulder into the back of a goatman. Another one of the demons has its axe raised high. Goomba is backing away in panicked circles. 

“Over here!” Amelia yells. “Over here, over here!” 

Goomba looks at her. Amelia doesn’t wait. She’s sprinting across the space between them. She doesn’t even think about parrying the blade. She throws her arms over Gura and turns her back to the axe. 

Ouch, she thinks. Her hit points dip severely. She wouldn’t be able to keep taking punishment like this. But that’s not the point, she thinks, the point is-

“This way,” Amelia whispers shakily. She can feel Gura gripping her arms, wide blue eyes looking up at her as Amelia guides her towards the door. Another blow makes her stumble. She grips Goomba’s shoulder tightly. She takes a risky moment to open her inventory, calculating how many health potions she has and how many she can spare to get them to the door- 

Another blow. She can barely see her health bar. 

“Bowson?” Goomba whispers. “Sorry.” 

Amelia opens her mouth to reassure her. It’s fine, she probably deserves to have a complete character loss at this point. It’d probably be better than having the face the guild after this. It’s not what happens. Goomba shoves her and she goes tumbling out of the ring of goatmen around them. 

Wait, no, wait-

This is worse. It’s much worse to have Goomba giving her a smile, a fragile thing that she doesn’t look confident about. It’s fracturing like glass as an axe takes her down and turns her into nothing but a blue shimmer, until there’s nothing left of her. Amelia stares at the empty space. She can barely comprehend it. 

Around her, the goatmen stop. One by one, they’re turning into smoke. The fire disappears as if it’d never been there. The smoke fizzles up against the ceiling. The damage is still there. Amelia gets an eyeful of broken pillars and charred furniture. It’s the last glimpse she gets before the building around her fades. It’s turning translucent, a hazy illusion, one last glimpse of a home, before it’s nothing. Her knees meet dirt. There’s absolutely nothing. 

It’s just her and the empty spot where the guild used to be. 

“What happened?” She hears a scream behind her. Amelia can’t find it in her to look. The grass beneath her looks unreal. She can’t even believe it, there’s no way, why did she-

“Is Tako okay? Mummers?” Callamori calls out. “Bowson? Goomba? Guys, sound off!” 

She hears footsteps approaching. Frantic hands grip her by the shoulders. Her vision is filled with purple and worried blue eyes. 

“Bowson?” Tako’s face is pale, “You’re okay. What happened? Did we-”

“We lost Goomba.” Amelia whispers. “We lost the guild.”

“We what?” Neighbula’s voice is too quiet to pinpoint where it is. She can hear them around her, cautious footsteps as they take in the empty hill that once was something and is now nothing. My fault, Amelia acknowledges, a cold ugly ache in her chest making her want to puke. She can’t even find the courage to look up and meet them in the eye. 

She’s not the center of attention, thankfully. Tako is. She’s standing in the middle. She’s looking at everyone with grief. 

“We…” Tako’s voice cracks, “I really messed up. I trusted them, I shouldn’t have, I’m so sor-”

“Oh, I can’t do this,” Callamori says. Her voice is tight with anger. “I can’t hear this, I’m sorry, I’m out.” 

“Calli-” Hinotori says, but there’s silence and Amelia can only imagine the woman logged off. She doesn’t blame her. She’s sorely tempted to do the same. Silence folds around them, stagnant and heavy. 

Neighbula murmurs, “We should break. I think we need to recover, yeah? That was a whole thing. It wasn’t anyone's fault.” 

“I don’t know about that,” Hakotaro grumbles. 

Amelia doesn’t know if that’s directed at her. She flinches anyway, her guilt wrapping around her throat and stealing her voice away. She doesn’t think she’d want to defend herself even if she could. 

“We break.” Tako whispers. “... I don’t know if I’ll come back.” 

There’s a new silence that follows that. Amelia buries her face in her hands. Crowny and Goomba’s final moments were replaying rapidly in her head. Her fault, both times, always, this whole thing, it’s all her fault. 

“We just log out here,” FauFau says gently. “Goomba and Crowny will know to go to Hatch, but right here would be best. They’ll know where to go. We can wait for them here.” 

“If they even come back,” Hakotaro says. 

“Shut up.” Glue mutters sharply. “Seriously.” 

“Don’t tell me to-”

“Don’t fight,” FauFau begs. “Let’s just take a break. We’ll come back and we’ll talk. Is that okay?” 

Tako says, “Okay.” 

Amelia listens quietly. Glue mutters goodbye. Hakotaro leaves silently. One by one, they bid farewell. FauFau and Neighbula promise to be back. There’s almost a desperation to the way they do it. Hinotori hovers for a moment like she wants to do more, like she wants to take a bandaid and fix the whole situation. 

“Sorry, girls.” Hinotori whispers. “I thought the armor would help.” 

“You tried,” Tako says sadly. “It’s okay.”

“You did too.”

“It didn’t help.” Tako’s voice sounds muffled. Amelia risks a glance up to see her wiping her sleeve over her face. Tako sniffles. “Okay, I need to go. This is too much.” 

“Okay.” Hinotori whispers. “Take care everyone.” 

“Take care.” Mummers voice breaks through faintly. Amelia glances over at her. She's crouching nearby, utterly quiet, a phantom in their midst. It’s just Mummers and Bowson. Slowly, the leatherworker moves over to her side. In the smoking remains of this hill, they sit side by side. 

Mummers rasps out, “Now what?” 

Amelia buried her face into her knees. She doesn’t know. She hasn’t a clue what to do. She’s scared of the future. It feels like the final chapter. 

“It’s gone.” Mummers whispers. She has her menu out. She’s thumbing over to the guild page. It’s entirely blank on her screen. “... It’s all gone.” 

It’s the final straw. Amelia doesn’t log off, she doesn’t shut down the game, she doesn’t touch her computer at all as she gets up and marches over to her couch. She walks purposefully into it, her legs getting knocked out from under her. She falls face-first into the cushions. She takes in a big shaky breath and lets it out into a muffled scream. 

.

.

She doesn’t log off. She doesn’t feel like she deserves to. She caused this, kind of, she needed to fix it, somehow. She waits. She works on homework, does errands, she does everything while the game runs on her computer all hours of the day. Her computer whines from it. She ignores that. Every chance she has she’s glancing at where she left Bowson. 

As always, she’s completely alone. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

For three days nothing happens. 

At some points, the house respawns. It startles Amelia because in the same moment as a house suddenly appearing in a single frame she gets booted nearly twenty feet away. Her menu has pulled up a warning message. It tells her she doesn’t own this property. 

Amelia stares at it. It’s the same house. It’s a little bit of a relief that it is there, but as she thumbs over the menu, the price tag leaves her wincing. They have to recover all that gold all over again. 

Will they? 

Amelia dutifully waits outside the house. After three days without a sign of life, she starts taking trips to Hatch. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do with herself, but the cat is out of the bag. She starts putting slime mold on the market board. She starts putting healing potions too. It’ll help when they need to repurchase it. 

The dexterity potion she named is gone. Tako’s teleport scroll she got for her is also gone. Any loot she saved from the dungeon for whatever reason is all gone. That’s so lame.