I wake early in the morning, just as dawn’s first light begins permeating through the thin fabric of our tent. Our– I spin over and find Chloe isn’t beside me. My heart races for a fraction of a second as worry seeps through me, before I remember that Chloe had the fourth and final watch shift. My concerns abated, I quickly change into a fresh daytime outfit and head out to start getting breakfast prepared.

  “Morning, sleepyhead!” Chloe says, smiling and giving me a small wave.

  “You’d be sleepy too if you had to wake up at midnight and stay awake until half past two.”

  Chloe sticks her tongue out at me. The nerve of this woman! She gets to sleep through the night, then has a full two hours to slowly and calmly wake up with the easiest of the four watch shifts, and now she’s teasing me because I volunteered for a less pleasant shift.

  She pats the seat next to her, which I gratefully accept. For a moment, neither of us says a word. We don’t have to. Our years of friendship, from acquaintances to besties and now blossoming into something new that’s both exciting and a little scary, allow us to communicate our feelings in nothing but gentle touches and different looks. Chloe leans in to kiss my cheek right as our quiet moment is interrupted by the sound of a zipper opening from the other tent. I expect Lindsey, but it’s actually Kristil who pops out to greet us.

  “So, you two really are?” she asks as she sits down.

  She’s got some bedhead and definitely still has a bit of grogginess to her as she lazily strolls up to a log on the other side of our nightly fire. But then again, I doubt I’m the epitome of fashion and style out here in the wilderness. Chloe is, as always, her silken brunette locks always flowing with that perfect, enrapturing sheen. I’d say it was some sort of advanced healer magic, except her hair was unnaturally smooth even before the System. Lady Luck indeed.

  “Yeah, we are,” I say. “As of a few days ago, at least.”

  “You two going to be okay? It’s not like the people living in this part of the States have ever been all that accepting of relationships that go against the norm.”

  “I figure the apocalypse is as good of an excuse as any to try to break down some lingering prejudices" I say. "Besides, it seems that the System has summoned a lot of gods and myths from the depths of human history. I figure at this rate that if anyone, man or deity, has any objection with us being a couple, they can express their displeasure in person.”

  Chloe laughs. “Yeah, you tell her, Sera!”

  I laugh as well.

  “You’ve fought a god?” Kristil asks.

  “Sort of. I mean, not really,” I stammer. “The boss of the dungeon the three of us fought called itself Oneiros, the Dreamer. Clearly a reference to Ancient Greek mythology. Earlier in the dungeon, we fought an animated suit of armor which called itself Armosi. I don’t think that’s a reference to any specific myth— at least not one I’m aware of— but I’ve at least heard of such creatures in stories, games, and the like.”

  “So you think we might have to fight the big gods?”

  “Or some facsimile of them created by the System.”

  “By the way,” Chloe asks, “Where is Lindsey?”

  “I dunno,” Kristil says. “I don’t think she ever came back to our tent last night. I’m sure she’s fine.”

  I nod. If there’s one among us who I trust to leap headfirst into danger and then emerge with her life and limbs intact, it’d be her. As far as I’m aware, that’s pretty much what her entire Skill-set is based upon. I almost pity the poor fool who challenges her to a fair fight, or worse, finds themself the target of a surprise attack from her bow.

  Speaking of the woman, she emerges not half a minute later, almost as though she heard our call and decided to answer. I hope that’s no indication that she’s secretly a devil of some sort.

  “Alright, glad to see you’re all awake and alert.” She looks at Kristil. “Mostly alert. In any case, I did a little scouting and I found the southern dungeon Stefan had spoken of. I know Sera has expressed interest in exploring more dungeons, but we’re going to talk through this decision as a team. Would you rather we continue our scouting of the surrounding area, or do a little dungeon diving today?”

  “I’d like to go to the dungeon as well,” Chloe says. “We need better weapons and armor if we’re to take on enemies further above our level.”

  “That’s my take as well,” I add. “Plus, there’s likely more glyph knowledge contained within that I can use to craft better gear.”

  “I’m not sure how I feel,” Kristil says. “On the one hand, I understand how more levels means we’re better prepared to face those Order assholes. But aren’t we taking unnecessary risks when there’s already such abominations here in the countryside?”

  “Not taking any risks is itself a risk,” I say, relying on my trusty catchphrase once more.

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  “Trite though Sera’s words may be sometimes, she does raise a good point,” Kristil says. “With that said, Kristil, if you have any strong objections.”

  “We’ll be able to retreat if we find we’re in over our head, right?”

  “The ones we’ve been to so far haven’t tried to stop us from doing so,” I say. “And I don’t think the dungeons want to kill us. Just challenge us and force us to get stronger.”

  “And your proof?”

  “The fact that the System didn’t wipe us out the day it arrived. If it wanted us all dead, it would have done so. If it wanted to trash our society and civilization and send us back to the Paleolithic, it would have done so, and we’d have no means to resist. Instead it gave us five days to adjust before the world shifted. That’s not the work of a benevolent System, but it is the work of a System that has machinations more subtle than ‘Kill All Humans’.”

  “Sera keeps saying that the System wants us to overcome its challenges,” Chloe says. “And I’m inclined to believe her about that. Her logic is sound and…” She trails off for a moment.

  I hesitate for a moment. Chloe and Lindsey both know about me and my past life. They’ve both trusted me to this point. I still don’t like the idea of being an unwilling test subject or soldier forced to operate at the president’s and army’s pleasure, but if Lindsey wanted to turn me in to her superiors, she would have done so already. After a deep breath to buy another second to overcome my lingering doubts, I share my secret.

  “I’ve experienced it before,” I say. “I don’t have most of my memories intact, but this isn’t my first life. I’m from another world, another universe, one that’s had the System for many thousands of years. Or some part of me is, at least. That world is like a high-tech fantasy and sci-fi world, far more advanced than Earth civilization. They did it all with the System’s power.”

  “Do you expect me to believe that?” Kristil asks.

  “I do,” Lindsey says. “The other day, when we were sparring, Sera managed to tap into a power far greater than either of our own. I can’t corroborate the rest of her story, but her having a past life in another world is as good of an explanation for that power as anything else.”

  “Fine. But we should get going soon.” Kristil stands up, shakes off her remnant fatigue, and heads over to her tent, where she starts gathering her belongings and packing everything up. “I don’t mind if we make a day trip out of this, but I’d rather this not turn into a multi-week excursion. I’m already starting to understand exactly what Sera means when she talks about the toilet being the most holy of all human inventions.”

  I chuckle.

  We head out after about half an hour of clean-up to begin the ten or so mile trek southeast to the dungeon entrance. Lindsey treats the trek as though it’s the easiest thing in the world. I’m handling the journey without too much difficulty, and Chloe is keeping pace as well, although her cheeks look a bit flushed. Might just be her thinking about me, though.

  In contrast, Kristil looks a bit winded, despite her protestations to the contrary. It’s pretty clear to all three of us that Kristil’s trying her hardest to keep up with us, even though she lacks the [Speed] and [Vitality] the three of us have, instead focusing far more heavily on [Mind] than even I have. None of us want to say anything that might discourage her, or otherwise give her a crisis of ego, and so Lindsey has ever so subtly slowed us down. Five minutes is a small price to pay to keep morale high as we enter the dungeon.

  No guards or other site staff the way there were back home. I can’t imagine the National Guard here is going to have a wildly different command structure, seeing we’re in the same state. This leaves several options. First, there’s been enough research conducted to conclusively demonstrate that monsters don’t, in fact, wander out of them. If so, the need for guards is no longer necessary, and

  Second, Red Clay City is much larger than our hometown. A greater area to patrol, coupled with the larger distance to a population center, mean they’ve had to retreat to positions further toward the heart of the city which they can better defend. And the third option is that some other force has gotten involved. Most likely the Order of the Wilds.

  And that invites its own questions. Were there bribes involved? Threats? Subterfuge from a cultist on the inside of the guard structure? Maybe even the governor or one of his top lieutenants, or a high-ranking legislative official? If this cult is receiving government backing through backdoor channels, that would be very, very bad.

  But that’s a problem for another time. For now, the dungeon awaits.

  Unlike the last dungeon, which was a cave that led underground, this one’s entrance is marks by a portal. I have to assume as much, since it looks not too dissimilar from the one that appeared after we defeated Oneiros. The entire portal superstructure is about fifteen feet tall and a comparable distance around at its widest point. It’s only maybe a foot or two thick, made of metal structures that wouldn’t have looked out of place back in the world of my original self.

  As for the actual portal, it is a thin, shimmering haze-like film that permeates the entire structure. If it has any thickness, it’s so small as to be negligible.

  A couple of preliminary tests reveal that I can stick our arm in without the rest of my body being sucked in or immediately attacked. Lindsey’s [Identify] detects no microscopic damage to my right arm, and Chloe’s [Heal] spell finds no purchase, which together convinces me of the other’s side’s safety, at least from immediate harm.

  “No trace of you from the other side of the portal,” Kristil says, confirming what I suspected before.

  I do notice an inscription on the front of the structure, written in the language of the System. I can’t read it perfectly, but I can get the gist of it from context. It is a dungeon, as we’d expect, though instead of being underground, it’s located on an island high in the sky. The standard inscriptions about ‘dungeon’ and ‘danger’ and ‘treasure’ apply, along with something I didn’t find in the South County Dungeon. A recommended level for clearing the dungeon: 31. And of the four of us, only Lindsey has reached that threshold.

  “Do we let this new information change our earlier decision?” I ask.

  “Absolutely not,” Kristil says. “If this is how those Order bastards have been gaining levels so quickly, then I’ll be damned if I don’t put myself through the same. Caroline demands vengeance.”

  No one else says anything to the contrary, and with held breath, the four of us step into the portal, ready for the challenges to come.