Aerion glowered as she scrambled back to her feet and stomped off, but I couldn't deal with that right now.

  Activating [Snap], I sprinted over to where Aerion had dropped Rogar and Philip off.

  “How’s he looking?” I asked, kneeling beside the injured blacksmith.

  “He’ll pull through just fine,” Richard said. “Philip’s canteen was enough to heal his face, and I poured Rogar’s down his throat. He’s resting now.”

  I let out a breath. This was my fuckup. Before I could say something, though, Richard cut me off.

  “Not your fault, Greg. I think I speak for all of us when I say you’ve done more than we could’ve imagined. Doubt any of us thought we’d survive, let alone defeat that thing,” Richard said, jerking his chin at the fallen dragon.

  “Hear hear,” Philip said. “Thought I was a goner, to be honest.”

  “Just doing what we can. Right, Aerion?”

  The elf was either too far to hear, or chose to ignore me.

  I sighed when she didn’t turn around.

  “The hell did I do now?”

  “Pretty obvious, innit?” Richard said, sidling up beside me.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. “Sure, maybe I shouldn’t have said that about her being a bullet, but I didn't mean anything by it! Things didn’t use to be like this, y'know. Between us, I mean.”

  I glanced back at the corpse of the Obsidian Dragon. The beast that was supposed to be the Trial Guardian had randomly shown up on the fifth floor. I had so many questions. Questions best answered by a pointy-eared elf. An elf who was currently peeved at me for no reason I could understand.

  “Greg… Friend,” Richard said. “Have you never been in love?”

  My cheeks flushed. “Obviously. I’m not—No!”

  “You sure?”

  “I...” I paused and sighed. I’d felt it several times already, hadn't I? That hot, tingly feeling in the chest. The racing of the heart. The random thoughts… The coconut bikinis.

  Okay, well, maybe not that last one. Fuck you Cosmo. But as immature as that bastard was, he hadn’t sparked anything new. I’d felt this before. It wasn't like I was entirely oblivious. Just, things weren't that simple.

  “So maybe I do have a thing for Aerion,” I muttered, barely loud enough for Richard to hear. “But so what? It takes two to tango, yeah? And she clearly doesn’t like me.”

  “Oh?” Richard asked, an amused smirk plastered across his face. It pissed me off a lot more than I thought it would, for some reason. “And what makes you say that?”

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it? She likes Eskil. Big, strong guy. Proposed to her already.”

  God, I hated that guy.

  Richard shook his head. “Mate, afraid I’m gonna have to burst your bubble. She’s waiting for you to confess.”

  I snorted. “Uh, huh. And this is just a VR experiment by artificially intelligent machines to make the masses think they live in some utopia when they’re really just unwitting batteries for the superintelligence.”

  Richard gave me a concerned glance. “Tell me you just made that up.”

  “I didn’t, but don’t worry. We’re not there. Yet. Just the plot of one of the best movies of all time.”

  “Thank god. What movie?”

  “The Matrix. 1999. Check it out when you get there. That reality won’t happen for another fifty years or so in my timeline. Well beyond your time.”

  “I dunno know if I ought to be relieved or terrified.”

  “Probably both,” I said with a wry smile.

  Richard shook his head. “Talking to you is like flirting with the devil. But… Ah yes. Flirting. Let’s talk about that more, shall we?”

  I groaned. I’d hoped the talk of machine overlords displacing humanity as the number one intelligence on the planet would make my friend forget about our original conversation. Apparently not.

  “What does it matter?”

  “It matters, Greg, because she’s head over heels for you!”

  “Yeah, right. Plain as day she likes that guy. Said so herself.”

  Richard frowned. “That a fact?”

  “It is. He's a Champion. He's strong. Maybe handsome, even if he is an asshole. I can see why she'd fall for a guy like that.”

  “Mate, I'm quite certain she rejected that proposal. Nothing I saw gave me any indication she has feelings for Dominion's Champion. And if it's the Champion bit, you're worried about, well...” Richard trailed off as he glanced at Philip, but I got the message.

  You're a Champion, too.

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Was that really how Aerion felt? I honestly didn't know. Besides, that was all moot, anyway. This wasn't as simple as mutual affection. There were other issues at play here. Issues that couldn't just be solved by talking about it.

  Richard sighed. “Do I have to spell it out for you? Christ, you’re as dense as a rock. Alright, so have you ever noticed when she—”

  The ominous sounds of shouts and yells coming from the other end of the cavern stopped Richard.

  Aerion’s ears stood on end, and all signs of her previous sulky behavior vanished as she rushed back to Philip and the unconscious Rogar.

  “Maybe we have this conversation once we’re on the sixth floor?” I said, remembering to walk over to the dragon’s corpse to grab its soul crystal.

  “Reckon so,” Richard replied. “Same as usual?”

  “Time to boogie,” I said, crouching down.

  “No worries, Greg. I got your back!”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  As we trucked up the stairs, I used the downtime to go over my latest gains, which were not insignificant.

  Congratulations! Grace has increased from 54 to 58 (Max: 74)

  Congratulations! Basecrest City Guard Suit [Uncommon]’s ability [Snap] has leveled up from Foundation - 8 to Foundation - MAX!

  Congratulations! Blessing [Initializer] has leveled up from Divergence - 0 to Divergence - 1. Maximum Essence increased from 370 to 410. Current Utilization: 355/410.

  Finally. It was the first Blessing levelup of the Trial. The monsters here just didn’t yield enough experience at my level to do a whole lot. Still, between the dart that had been destroyed in the previous fight and my levelup, I finally had more of an Essence buffer now. Maybe even enough to initialize Aurora.

  Aerion had seen some good gains as well, with her Vigor, Grace, and Dominion all seeing good gains. Her Dominion now maxed out at 59 points. She’d also leveled from E - 6 to E - 7, netting her an additional 10 free stats.

  As for the dragon's soul crystal, it was identical to before.

  Soul Crystal (Obsidian Dragon) [Uncommon]

  A Soul Crystal from an Obsidian Dragon. A valuable trinket! Good luck finding a use for it. May have additional, unknown uses.

  Grade: Emergence

  Abilities:

  — Obsidian Dragonfire: Imbues the strength of the black flames of a Trial Guardian. Caution: VERY HOT!

  Stats:

  — Vigor: + 5

  — Wisdom: + 30

  — Grace: + 20

  — Cunning: + 5

  — Dominion: + 35

  At my current stat levels, it wasn't an amazing boost, but it wasn't quite useless either. Especially if I forged another weapon with it like I did Light of the Fearless.

  We made it up the stairs and into the next Sanctuary room without issue. The moment we did, each of us damn near collapsed. Those of us who were still conscious, anyway. Rogar hadn’t yet recovered, so we dunked him into the fountain’s pool of healing liquid and called it good. As I’d learned firsthand, it was impossible to drown in those things. Rogar might not appreciate waking up sputtering and coughing, but he’d live.

  For my part, I sat down heavily in the bed of grass, and let myself fall onto my back. Before I knew it, my eyes slid shut, and I was asleep.

  I awoke with a startle to find a certain elf drooling over my breastplate, snoring softly. She must’ve fallen over at some point. I looked up to find Richard and Philip smiling wryly at me from across the Sanctuary chamber.

  Well, shit. As gently as I could, I extricated myself from being Aerion’s pillow, then stood up and dusted off my armor. Not gently enough, unfortunately. Aerion had always been a light sleeper, and so she awoke almost as soon as I’d slipped out. I opened my mouth, but unsure what to say, I closed it again. She gave me a somber glance before bringing her knees to her chest and burying her face, curling up like a ball.

  “Must’ve… uh, been as tired as I was, ha,” I said as I walked over to them, smoothly playing off our awkward exchange. When their smirks grew wryer, though, I realized my acting skills must’ve left something to be desired.

  “How’s Rogar?” I asked, deftly switching topics.

  Richard rolled his eyes, while Philip cleared his throat. Okay, so maybe not as deftly as I’d thought.

  “Rogar is, well…”

  I followed Philip’s gaze to the loudly snoring blacksmith, drooling in a corner of the Sanctuary.

  “Looks like he’s doing just fine.”

  “Woke up cursing in the fountain,” Philip said, chuckling. “He’s just resting now.”

  “Alright, I’d say we’ve earned ourselves a break,” I said, eyeing the sanctuary. This one was pretty similar to the previous ones with the mini forest, fountain, and fruits and vegetables—with the notable exception of floor to ceiling windows spanning one entire wall. Windows that looked out into an inky black abyss.

  This floor held a lot of memories for Aerion and me. Some good, some not so good. The innumerable times we nearly died, the harrowing submarine ascent… Emma’s failed rescue. Okay, most weren't good.

  I glanced at Aerion, who stared forlornly into the darkness. I wondered if we’d come across the Sanctuary room we dug Emma’s grave in. Was it still there? Or would it have been wiped when the Sanctuary reset?

  My thoughts moved on, but Aerion's clearly hadn’t.

  “You’d best have a chat, Greg,” Richard said. “She needs you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Told you about Emma’s death, did she?”

  “Emma?” Richard asked, raising his brow. “Can’t say she did. But it’s plain as day that she’s not right at the moment. I daresay you’re the only one among us who can help.”

  Our conversation from earlier popped into my head. “You mean, because she, uh, y’know… I dunno, Richard. I don’t see it.”

  Richard sighed, while Philip chuckled.

  “Plain as day,” Richard repeated. “She’s head over heels, mate.”

  I glanced at Philip, who nodded, giving me a wry smile. “I’d say it’s pretty obvious. Well, obvious to anyone not in love, I suppose. That’s the way these things go. Ah, youth. I miss those days.”

  Philip was staring at Aerion, though it looked like his eyes were a million miles away. It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess where.

  “I almost forgot you knew she's a girl,” I muttered.

  Philip shrugged. “I'd have figured it out eventually, even if you hadn't told me back when we trained together. Got to hand it to her, though, she knows how to work a disguise. Just that, well, it’s tough to stay in character every minute of every day. The way she moves, the intonation of her words... The way she interacts with you. Wouldn't have taken long to put two and two together, regardless.”

  I glanced at Rogar, but Philip shook his head. “Dense as a lead brick, that one. I daresay she’d have to tell him outright for him to notice.”

  “That makes sense,” I replied. “But still… Aerion likes me? Really? Always thought she didn’t care about things like this.”

  “Whatever do you mean?” Philip asked. “While it’s not my business to meddle in such affairs, she’s clearly of courting age, yes?”

  “Well, sure, but—I mean, we’re fighting a battle for the fate of the world, for crying out loud. We’re in the middle of a monster-filled den right now, and that isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Any of us could be dead tomorrow. Hardly the sort of environment to be thinking about romantic feelings.”

  And her life is literally in the palm of my hands, I didn't say. Maybe less so after I had Cosmo get rid of my ability to Uninitialize her, but still. How the hell was I supposed to reconcile that?

  “And what of it?” Richard asked, oblivious to my internal monologue. “Is that not precisely the time to forge strong bonds? As you said, none of us know what God has in store for us. Carpe Diem. Seize the day!”

  I frowned. “Sure, that all sounds well and good. All the stories of soldiers going off to war after proposing, to give them a reason to stay alive and come back home, safe and sound. Never got behind that, though. Yeah, the ones who come back make for incredible stories, but you and I both know there are plenty who never do. Plenty who make their new wives widows. I refuse to do that. To anyone. Let alone someone I care about.”

  “Think you’re a little off there, Greg,” Philip muttered.

  I was about to argue when he raised his hands. “Not that I don’t understand where you’re coming from. I do. Seen it myself. Just… This situation’s a bit different, don’t you think?”

  “How’s that?”

  “You’re both risking your lives against the Cataclysm. Not like she’s staying home safe while you go out and fight, yes? She could make the same argument you just made.”

  “That’s even worse, isn’t it?” I said. “If I were to go down in the middle of a fight, or vice versa, the emotional impact would be so much worse. And in the middle of a fight, that could be lethal.”

  Of course, that concern might have been moot, at least in the case of me dying. It was very possible Aerion’s life was linked to mine, seeing how the System considered her a living weapon. Which was, of course, the whole reason I was so hesitant about all this. Not a topic I could very well bring up with present company.

  “Besides, if she's that into me, why hasn't she said anything?”

  Philip and Richard exchanged glances. “You're not from around here, Greg,” Richard said, probably for Philip's benefit. “But the culture's quite a bit different in these parts. Isn't that right, Philip?"

  Philip nodded. “Rather unconventional for the fairer sex to initiate. That's triply so for elven society, what little I've heard of it. They tend to be sticklers for this sort of thing.”

  I didn't reply. Clearly, I had a lot to think about. A whole swamp of emotions to wade through. Whatever my feelings for Aerion, whatever she thought about me, I wouldn’t do anything until I was sure that any changes in our relationship dynamic would result in something better, not worse. We had a great thing going right now, after all. For the first time in my life, I had someone I trusted implicitly. Who had my back, and who I got along with better than anyone I could remember.

  That was special. Precious, even.

  That didn’t mean I couldn’t do anything for my friend, though. Aerion missed Emma. What kind of friend was I if I couldn’t even be there for her?