The lamp burned out and went dark; Jay was in pitch darkness – then suddenly, the darkness disappeared and Jay found himself outside the dungeon with his three skeletons while the lamp had disappeared.

Looking around, Jay realised he was out of the dungeon again.

“Huh, a magic lamp.” Jay looked at his skeleton he named Lamp “I wonder if you can learn some magic someday..” he smiled slyly as he thought about his enemies having to fight a magic skeleton.

“Huh, pretty good dungeon. It was a little more environmentally hazardous than stink-rat marsh, with a slightly higher variety of monsters.. Oh, and that one trap…” A shiver went up Jay’s spine as he recalled that demonic-looking mirror.

“Though I didn’t reach the dungeon boss, I can always come back later. Hopefully it drops a unique item too.” Jay thought, looking at his coat.

“I wonder why no one else has this coat… maybe they just sell it for something better? Hmm, maybe I got it due to my class though, or perhaps it’s a special reward for being the first monster class to clear the dungeon…” Jay scratched his chin “Could it be the hidden quest?… well, I guess I’ll see if the next dungeon boss drops anything.”

It was dark at this point. Looking around at his skeletons, he wondered what to do with them before going back to town.

Jay knew he couldn’t bring the skeletons back to town so he had to make a decision._.

“Hmm, sending them back into the dungeon would be too risky, it’s a little too high level at the moment, and I don’t want to lose their blue bones.”

Jay didn’t want to desummon them either because he knew that each time he resummoned them, he would lose some residual bone mass, like with his bone daggers.

Knowing he needed more teeth, he decided to send them back to the stink-rat marsh.

“Come.” the skeletons line up before him, as he handed his old buckler to Lamp.

“You’re to enter the stink-rat marsh dungeon. Bring me back rat teeth. Avoid all humans. Do not kill anything outside of the dungeon.” Jay voiced his orders.

While the skeletons were semi-autonomous, he could still control them with his thoughts – though he found that voicing his orders seemed to give more power to his orders, making them clearer and to solidify his motives; it wasn’t that the skeletons would disobey, but more that they would gain a better understanding of what to do.

Since it was dark outside and the forest was dangerous at night, Jay made sure his minions followed him until he could see the torches and glowing orbs of the village. As he made his way through the forest, it was eerily quiet.

The moonlight cast a faint light over his surroundings, though it made Jay feel like the light was only on him and he was a beacon to target, however he made his way back to the village safely, while his skeletons slipped off into the darkness of the forest.

A guard spotted Jay as he approached the village but ignored him after Jay got closer, the guard realising he was human and not some monster tearing up the forest – the guards still hadn’t received the order to return to normal patrols yet, so they were still on high alert, though they hadn’t locked down the village as severely as Jay had thought.

“Huh, guess I didn’t need to sneak out” thought Jay, shaking his head at himself as he walked into the maze of houses which made up the village.

After arriving home, he ate the remainder of his rations before going to bed.

—

“Only one. I want to be on point tomorrow.”

“Sure, Kel. Want some water then?”

“Yes please” Kel smiled at Mark.

“Here ya go. Looking forward to tomorrow huh?” Mark said as he sat down at the table “Jay seems like a decent guy, I hope he looks out for us.” Half-smiling as he looked out the window of the snakeraven inn, Mark had a sip of his beer.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, even without him.” Kel replied, as she thought to herself “Mark sure doesn’t make eye contact very much…” she looked out the window to see what Mark was looking at.

“At first, it seemed like he didn’t really care, but now that I think about it, maybe he’s just a little bit damaged, perhaps from his past. I wonder what happened to him… nothing seems to be able to make him angry or annoyed…” Kel sipped her water, as she could only imagine what unfortunate event made Mark the way he was; even at his worst his attitude just made him seem disinterested and apathetic, while at his best, he smiled and joked to no end.

“I guess there’s some damage that can’t be healed.” Kel thought to herself as she drank down her water “I wonder how many people have just passed him off as being rude or something… poor guy”.

Kel was a deep thinker, and the deep thinking only added to her introverted ways, though Mark didn’t mind as he was just happy to have some company, and after doing a dungeon with her he felt like he had a friend he could possibly start to trust.

“Maybe soon we can find someone else to add to the party too.” Mark thought, thinking of Jay “Hmm, maybe not Jay. It seems like life is taking us in different directions.”

Mark finished his beer and ordered another, having Tamara serving him from the bar again before he returned to his table. Mark had been drinking before Tamara arrived there, so she wasn’t sure how much he had.

“We’ll be on the road soon, the day after tomorrow. Have you got everything sorted? Make sure you have a new pair of shoes, it’ll probably be a long walk.” Mark said, though looking at his glistening beer.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” she smiled back.

“Good. Hopefully we can get some extra gold after the dungeon tomorrow and buy some new items before we go.”

“Hopefully. I just want to level up and discover more abilities. Apparently everyone learns something at level five and level ten, and probably more later but that’s all I’ve heard for now.”

“Oh, awesome. Well let’s aim to hit level five before the escort comes in two days.” Mark nodded as he took a drink.

“Let’s do it.” Kel agreed, before looking at Mark quizzically “So you’re okay with telling Jay your class?”

“Eh, he’ll figure it out soon enough. It’s not like I’m trying to keep it a secret anyway. After all, I did tell him I’m in both the melee and manacraft classes.” Mark chuckled, “Maybe he just wasn’t paying attention.”

Kel laughed and shook her head “Maybe.”

“Well, it’s getting a little late. C’mon, I’ll walk you home.”

“Thanks. I’ll be okay for the last bit though” Kel pulled out her wand with a proud smile.

Mark stood up with a little wobble from the alcohol “Let’s go.”

—

Night time, in the middle of a dark evergreen forest a man in light leather armour stands on an old dirt path.

Breathing heavily, Alevo was covered in sweat and panting, with his hands on his knees he was trying to catch his breath.

“I’ve… I’ve got to keep running, got to get help… before it’s too late…” Alevo spits on the ground and starts jogging again towards Losla “I’ll have to run all night… or there won’t be anything left.”

He gritted his teeth and pushed on through the dark forest in the night.