Tara, Bethany, Audrey, Arniya, and Lucy were staying at an inn just inside the outer walls of the city. Actually, calling it an inn was probably too generous, they had an 8 foot by 12 foot closet for all five of them, it was a good thing the plan wasn't to sleep there that night. It was the middle of the night, probably 2am or so, and Audrey was invisible on the first floor of the building, Lucy was on the roof, Bethany was guarding the only door to their room from the outside, and Tara was at the one window. They were expecting retaliation from the guys at the tavern, so far everything was calm, so calm that Arinya was asleep.
Suddenly Arinya jumped up, from being asleep to standing so fast that Tara was impressed, especially since it didn't make any noise. "Someone is watching us," She said in a whisper.
"Probably listening as well," Tara whispered back. She spun several different scenarios in her mind but couldn't come up with anything so she sent a message to Audrey that someone was out there, watching and listening.
After twenty minutes of nothing happening and no sign of who was watching them or why, Tara gathered them in the room and told them to not talk using messages and hand signals for Arinya. She decided to put on a show for whoever was listening.
"We have failed our lord's mission," She said loudly to all of them, "I am just as guilty as you all are. We will have one more chance in the morning, but then we must return home. We will rest and start at dawn, and this time failure is not an option."
While they looked a little puzzled, Bethany understood and decided to join in, "Don't worry, we will surely not fail him tomorrow." She was unable to keep a straight face so she just looked at the floor. They all laid down to sleep but using messages they were able to keep at least one of them awake just in case.
The next morning, they were all up and ready to move as soon as the sun came out. They took their time getting ready and going outside. However, as soon as they all had their feet in the dirt, they split up, Tara stayed still, Bethany and Arinya went west along the inside of the outer wall, and Lucy went north with an invisible Audrey following her. They were walking fast but not running or drawing attention to themselves in any obvious way. After the others were out of sight a woman walked up to Tara but stayed ten or so feet away.
"Why are you in the city?" the woman asked.
"You want me to tell you secrets? And you haven't even introduced yourself, that feels rude."
"You shouldn't be here, your lord is troublesome, you…" The woman said, starting off haughty and self-important, but stopping dead when an axe landed in her foot. She had not seen Tara draw the axe, or throw anything, it all happened too fast. Even though the injury was small, only cutting a little into her little toe, it was still upsetting to not have seen anything. Surprising Tara, she did not show any pain or fear.
"Forgive me, but I am not allowed to give my real name, but you can call me whatever name you like."
"I think," Tara paused, used her time skill again and put another axe in the same foot, but different toe while also recalling the first axe. She cancelled the skill and kept talking, but made sure the gap in her speech was noticeable. "I'll call you toes."
Again not showing any kind of response, the woman answered, "I apologize for my words, but I must ask again, why are you in The City of Ghosts?"
Without giving a response, Tara turned and started walking away, recalling her axe. The woman followed but kept her distance. Tara went up to a light jog and ran right out of the city to the south, the woman followed for a while but stopped after they were a good distance from the city. It did not make Tara feel good to have to hurt her, even though it didn't seem like it hurt her much. She felt like a bully and was getting a little disgusted with herself, and she really wanted to go home and rest. There were so many people in that city that it was overwhelming, Eli had made them a bit of a sore subject with the locals, which was made worse by propaganda and rumors about him.
Of course, Eli wouldn't care much about those rumors, or even how they affected her, he just wasn't built that way. He would do what he thought was right and not let anyone get in the way of it. She admired that about him in principle, but in reality, it was a pain in the ass and it made her job harder. He was keeping them safe and making them stronger but how much did she really owe him for that, she thought to herself as her run home became a walk of contemplation. She loved him, and she was happy, but she felt like everything in this new world wanted to change her. To put her in a box she didn't want to be in, she could fight monsters all day, but she was not happy about having to confront people, especially if it could be avoided.
When Bethany and Arinya caught up to her, she filled them in on what had happened with Toes, then she asked them the question that had been on her mind. "How much do you think we are changing because of this new world and the system?"
"Like how our lives are changing, our personalities, or just a general question?" Arinya asked, while Bethany looked contemplative.
"Answer however you like, I'm just a little lost right now, thinking about who I am becoming. I felt like a bully when dealing with that woman and I didn't like it." Tara said while looking at the ground while she was walking at a slow pace even by pre-system standards.
"I feel like I'm a participant in the world now, before all this I was just a person on the far end of the world. I mean my family was important where we lived, but not to anyone else, and I wasn't even important to my family members being one of the younger generations. But now the world is out there for the taking. Every time I get stronger I feel like I am grabbing a bigger piece of it."
"Hmm," was all Tara seemed to be able to respond with while nodding in understanding.
"I haven't changed much at all," Bethany said, "I was always status driven, climbing the corporate ladder and such. Now that ladder is one of real power, and I find it exhilarating everyday that I'm literally breathing in power with every breath, getting stronger with every moment. I feel like there isn't an end to it and I want to spend every day chasing that unknowable, unreachable peak, and climbing on top of it." Bethany explained her feelings in a very overly dramatic and animated way while winking at Tara for the last part.
"I just need an anchor, something to ground me," Tara said, "or I feel that in a matter of months I won't recognize myself. Hell, I barely recognize myself now." She said that last part while touching the scar on her cheek.
"You need to get your head in the game, everything is happening so quickly and I don't think it's going to slow down for a while yet. If it helps, my anchor is my nanny growing up. The things she used to say to me when I felt unloved by my busy parents gave me perspective and hope." Bethany said as she placed a hand on Tara's shoulder.
"I get that," Arinya said, "I wasn't allowed to watch much TV or use the internet very often, but growing up I was allowed books. I loved reading about ancient roman and greek mythology, the gods were so powerful but essentially people. They made mistakes and had desires just like humans. It made me realize that to make sense of something you have put a piece of yourself into it." Arinya looked sheepish and wasn't sure if she had overexplained. There was silence for a moment and she was starting to panic, which Bethany noticed and broke the silence to save her.
"That was a long way of saying that you think keeping perspective is what could help." Bethany said while smiling at her.
"Thanks you two, can you wait here for the others, I need time alone to think." Tara said while not looking up. They nodded and stopped walking, waiting for Lucy and Audrey to catch up.
****************
It had now been two days of almost non-stop fighting for the four men down by the volcano, Eli continued to fight separately from the other three but stayed close enough that he could run over to help or they could run to him, whichever was needed. They would take breaks together and discuss tactics and teamwork improvements and opportunities. On the second day Eli even asked for advice from each of them on his Tara/Bethany issues, but none of them would help saying that they refused to take sides. He decided to take his confusion out on the next monster which chained into four monsters when it wasn't helping. He really needed to know what he was supposed to do, what the 'right' thing to do was and how he should do it.
The good news was that at the end of the second day, he had gained two levels, giving his group more room to grow. The bad news was that they needed to head back, everyone was tired and some of their gear was too damaged for self repair to work any longer. They packed everything up and decided to try using Eli's blink for the group again. Surprising even Eli, it worked, the blink folded space so he was able to borrow power from their home at the end of the cast as they connected. However, it was a much more unpleasant trip and all four of them were on their hands and knees dry-heaving and trying to keep their balance. Even Eli was down for a few seconds before he recovered enough to stand.
"You boys look terrible," Tara said, "you should probably get up before the others see you."
Eli was shakily back to his feet and decided to pretend it didn't happen to him, "Yeah guys, get up, you're embarrassing me." he said loud enough for anyone staying in their small town to hear.
"What's embarrassing?" Bethany yelled from her hut, clearing running over to see what was going on.
The three on the ground, still not able to get up, were shooting knives through their eyes at Eli who just looked at them in mock disappointment. Tara had seen the whole thing, and also noticed that the fountain was damaged, this time it was worse than when they had come back from their trip. Eli was shaking his head to make it seem even worse for them, but he was clearly still recovering himself. The spell had reacted differently when it pulled chaos magic from his node, it felt more system assisted than previous uses. This was worrying because it implied that, either it would have failed without the system's help, or the system wanted to peek at his magic.
Those were more thoughts for later when he had Bethany to help him, it was odd to him how fast he felt like he needed her help for that kind of thing after she helped him once. Granted it was a lot of help and it worked very well, but it still felt like more system interference because of how reliant on it he seemed to think he was. Again, he pushed those thoughts aside, he needed to think about this dungeon, he was leaving in five days and after his fights near the volcano, he wasn't sure bringing anyone was a good idea. The difficulty was going to be higher than he thought, but he needed his people to be stronger so he didn't feel like he needed to be around all the time.