The day of the treasure hunt event has finally arrived. The usually quiet Luna Nova main tower is now packed with students. Some teachers are also here, with Professor Ursula at the centre of attention as she explains the event, going on great lengths about their details of the rules of the game.

Just as I thought she won't stop, she flicks her wand and a purple light flashes from it and the gate that leads to the labyrinth begins to unlock. The whole building shudders and dust begins to litter from the ceilings as the heavy and aged locks slide against the similarly aged gate. After a lengthy period of uncomfortable shuddering, the gates are finally fully unlocked and slide open.

To make sure the entry isn't too packed and to lessen 'unhealthy' competition during the hunt, the Professor decided queue the entry to the labyrinth. She implements intervals between groups in their entries.

"So, you're alone after all", I hear Diana's voice, it takes me out of my thoughts.

I look to her and say, devoid of any excitement, "Compensation in the form of more points per treasure, yay?"

"You'll do fine on your own, perhaps being alone means fewer burdens and more flexibility in your decisions—there won't be any arguing for you with your teammates—that ought to save some time".

I've yet to think of it that way—I've so far only seen going solo into the labyrinth as a weakness—leave it to Diana to think things as thoroughly as that.

"Or perhaps if that idea doesn't appeal to you, maybe you can informally team up with another team".

My mind and eye wander for a second. I look back to her and ask, "What's your queue, then?"

Diana says nothing and replies by showing the small piece of paper in her hand.

"That won't be possible for the two of us", she says.

That's too bad. If I were to team up with her my victory would've been guaranteed.

I scratch the back of my head, saying, "Oh well, I think I'm fine with missing Hannah's company".

From somewhere in the crowd, I could hear a distinct voice calling out. "I can freaking hear you!" I hear Hannah shout.

I close my mouth. I didn't know she would've heard that. I didn't say anything else after that, but my expression must've told enough for Diana to read my mind.

"Don't fret too much about her", Diana says. "After all, the trouble that happened between you two really set her off the wrong way".

"She should thank me, though. I thought I helped get rid of the golem?"

"You did fix the problem, one you caused in the first place".

I sigh meekly, "Even you, Diana?"

"Forgive me if I seem to take sides, but I was there since the beginning. You are the one that started it all with your murderous cat golem".

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean she can keep antagonizing me 24/7 ever since!"

Diana's expression eases, a part I don't often see in the Pride of Luna Nova. There's a delay to her next words, short but recognizable. She says, "Don't take it to heart. Hannah warms up slowly to new people".

I delay my next answer as well. While Diana perhaps does that because she's thinking of what to say, I'm more so on how to say it.

"Much slower to people like me, I guess", I say without looking at Diana.

The statement seems to either gone over her pretty head or she decided to ignore it, either way, Diana continues without any recognizable pause. "You two just had a rocky beginning, that's all. I'm sure that once you two know each other better, you two will be fine".

A loud static voice, one that sounds like it came from a speaker, cuts through the room, drowning Diana's voice. It's the professor's. "Party number 3 please step in front of the gate".

An uncomfortable feeling emerges in the pit of my stomach—it came before I even realize what it means. Days ago, I never thought much about the labyrinth, only so far as its information and history to prepare myself for it. But standing here, in front of the large ominous gate that leads to the place I read and heard so much about, I realize that I'll soon have the chance to experience those stories myself. It doesn't help that I've no team to back me up. In this crowded room I feel alone. As more students continue being called, one by one, I feel my confidence gradually declining.

"I'll see you later, then?" were Diana's goodbye when her team's called.

Diana steps through the gates without any hesitation, Hannah and Barbara however, walk more rigidly compared to her friend. Their backs straightened, they try to mimic Diana's confidence but they fall short. They must be trying to hide their nervousness from the crowd of onlookers.

The things they do to keep their image, I guess.

However, it's not just Hannah and Barbara that seems anxious of the adventure, just as there're those who're excited at the prospect of adventure, there're some who knows the troubles they entail. But still surprisingly, one girl in particular shows no time to think of the latter.

"You seem pretty well excited", I say to Akko. She turns to me and is practically shoving her face to mine.

"How could I not? This is the perfect moment for me to shine!"

Hello, personal space? Do you as a concept exist in this girl's head?

Beside her, Sucy smirks. "Because everything you cast ends up as lethal explosions?"

The pale witch is the oddest among all. While Akko's excitement is uncommon, it's still sensible to some extent—I can't lie that there's fun found in the treasure hunt's concept. Sucy however seems as indifferent as she's always been; no trace of worry or excitement at all in her features in this otherwise extraordinary day in school.

"It's like a bad copy of an RPG", is what she tells me when I confront her about this.

"Wonder what we'll find there…" Akko remarks dreamily, lost in her world of imagination. "I hope we run into giant monsters so I can beat it! That way I'll show my true strengths and show Diana!"

Is she bitter? Is she still bitter after what happened to the golem and Diana's part in it? Not exactly I believe. The two doesn't see eye to eye even before then, much less now after the golem incident—it was just another pebble to add to the mountain of rocks—she's just this way when it's about Diana.

Now, however annoying an excited Akko could be, I'll take it any day instead of a downtrodden Akko. Today's adventure into the labyrinth had done wonders in lifting Akko's spirits up—she'd been down ever since the whole golem shenanigans—her wholesome excitement today feels like a warm welcome.

It seems that those negative energy turned into a positive excitement in this event that's bound to have some violence in it, it will act as a place for Akko to vent out her anger and at the same time compete with Diana—I've yet to decide whether that's a good thing or not.

On the other side of things, Lotte doesn't share her friend's enthusiasm or indifference. Among them, she's the one who shows the most normal feelings.

"I'd rather we not run into anything", she says timidly. She's the sensible one as always.

"What about you? What's your team's queue?" Akko asks me, and soon the spotlight of the conversation shifts to me.

Just then I'm reminded of the façade I've been unconsciously putting up. It's grown amusing how she's yet to figure it out. I don't want to tell them about the truth right now.

"Oh, they're over there, somewhere~", I answer offhandedly. "We're at 16".

"Heeh, we're at 30", Lotte remarks. "That's still far away".

While Lotte seems relieved at the lengthy number, Akko shows the opposite. She puffs her cheeks and crosses her arms and turns her back towards her pale teammate. "No thanks to Sucy, she's the one that drew the lottery!"

Sucy just shrugs.

"Number 13, please step in front" the professor's voice, amplified by her magic megaphone, reaches our ears.

After that, I leave the three, preferring to spend my minutes before departure alone to think, not before Akko says her goodbye, of course.

"I'll return with a Vorpal sword!" she said with a grin.

Her enthusiasm is infectious, it almost makes my worry of being terribly maimed or mortally wounded by a labyrinth monster in a poor twist of fate disappear completely.

"How're you holding up?"

Michelle's voice takes me out of my thoughts, one consisting of plans that, the longer I think about it, the less confident I become. I turn and found her already beside me, looking to the open gates and the witches going through it just as I was.

"Whatever my answer, I'm pretty sure it'll be different once I step through that gate".

"Scared?" she asks, she proceeds without waiting as if she knew my answer already. "You could be worse, you could be trying to put up a tough guy façade and not let the fear take you".

I wince at that remark. All honesty, that idea did cross my mind at least once.

At one glance, she seems to know just exactly what's in my mind. Michelle says, "Just remember: don't overwhelm yourself with sophisticated spells…"

"The simplest, mundane spells work best", I complete her sentence in remembrance. Michelle nods in approval.

"This might sound counterintuitive, but in combat, to think less is more; the more you burden your mind with lots of things—tactics, complex spells and combinations—the more indecisive your moves will be. The less you have on your mind, the more streamlined your way of thinking will be, and consequently, your actions. You're alone this time, which means you can't risk being slow; you won't have anyone to back you up. You have to be on your wits all the time and be decisive always".

I pause. My eyes search the ground as I take all her advices in. When I finally turn to Michelle and open my mouth, Professor Ursula's voice interrupts me, "Number 15, please step forward and into the labyrinth".

"Timing. Just a moment too late and I wouldn't be able to remind you all this". Michelle straightens her back and says, "Better get going then, before all the good treasures are taken".

"I'd rather be more worried on getting myself out alive first than the treasures", I tell Michelle warily.

When I turn to Michelle, I already found her walking away. She waves a hand back and says offhandedly, "Don't look for me in the crowd when you're out, I'm not even supposed to be here right now".

I raise a brow. "So you're here just to see me go?"

"I'm just here to remind you that if you don't come back with any winning treasures then you shouldn't come back at all".

I chuckle at that, and I definitely can't lie that now I'm in better spirit. The instant switch from being the best teacher in the world to the worst in a matter of seconds is what makes Michelle, Michelle.

Holding my piece of paper, I turn around and we go our separate ways.

—

The corridors are cold, dark, and unpleasant. The only thing that guides me is the faint light from my torch. I'd imagine it would look odd for a wizard to not rely on his magic but a torch to light his way, but I know why I chose to do this: I'm never confident in my reserve of magic, so to waste it for a spell that a simple alternative could overcome would be foolish. And perhaps the feeling of holding something so firm and sure would settle my mind better in this dark place, more than to rely on something I don't find reliable at all to begin with. Or perhaps, this wizard chooses this item just for the sake of its novelty; he always liked reading stories about adventures, and he always wanted to pretend to be one and to explore dungeons while holding an old torch to guide his way.

Along the way, I found a corridor that ends with a large wooden double door. The walk there is a climb, with numerous stairs leading up to the door. The intricate carvings on the door indicate that this has to be of some importance.

It was locked, but a simple spell, not of opening locks but breaking them, was sufficient. By the time I'm done, the doors locks are but a heap of red hot metal on the cold cobblestone floor.

I know I'd get a lecture from Michelle if she were to see me doing this, she'd tell me that I need to master the lock picking spell already and not blow locks up just to open them.

I reach to push the door but hear something from the other side, it made me stop to hear what it is.

It's muffled, but it's a human voice. I'm just as surprised hearing it as I am when someone opens the door from the other side.

"You can just knock, you know?"

I stop and look at the person in front of me from head to toe.

She is covered in armour, literally covered from head to toe with medieval armour pieces: iron breastplates, leather breeches, and a rusted full helm to top it off. The only way I knew it's a she is from her feminine, if not muffled voice. On her right hand is a halberd that stands taller than her figure.

"Can I help you?" she asks, her impatient voice muffled by the full helm.

"Um… who are you?"

"I'm a guard!" she says, as if it's the most obvious thing.

The impatient guardswoman has the door opened only slightly. I couldn't see anything past her. She further lowers her halberd closer into my view, emphasizing her statement.

"A guard of what, exactly?"

"Of the adventurer's guild, of course!" she says, again, as if it's very obvious.

"Adventurer's guild?" I ask. It's at that time I realize there're voices, human voices, coming from inside the room and that we're not alone.

The guard finally steps aside, revealing a bizarre sight I didn't expect to find in a place as decrepit as this labyrinth. Inside is a wide room with tall ceilings supported by stone pillars, well-lit by numerous sconces adorning the cobblestone walls and candles on the old expensive wooden furniture. Even more bizarre still is the heap of treasures gathered at the centre of the room, surrounded by similarly armed and armoured guards. They're outnumbered, however, by the students in the room, reaching 30 in numbers. Some of them are currently discussing about the treasures near them.

"No… this one won't reach 10 points", one girl mumbles to herself as she inspects a glowing necklace.

"Do I look good with this?" Another asks, brandishing a copper sword.

"Don't get too attached", her friend remarks, "You're not supposed to keep the treasure, even if that thing, I bet, only strikes 8 points".

The rest of the students are peculiarly on a queue that ends in a wooden table, situated behind it is a black haired girl with thick black glasses, she wears a nametag that spells 'Gaëlle'. The queuing witches all carry treasures, while Gaëlle busily writes into a thick ledger, a quill and ink besides it and a wooden box filled with treasure on the other. She would occasionally, only very occasionally look up from her writing. Most of the times, she'd just converse with her patrons without looking up. Two girls, fully dressed in uniform medieval armour, stands on guard besides Gaëlle. All of these guards must've found those armours in abundance somewhere in the labyrinth.

"10 points for that, but I heard they're easy to find at level 2, so I don't know if the price will change", she says, eyes fixed on her ledger as another queuing student brings her treasure forward.

I noticed the queue, but I didn't realize that all this time I've been standing in it. I just realized that I may look like a patron to Gaëlle since as soon as the last one is finished, she calls for the next and I'm pushed forward by the patrons behind me.

"Um… what's going on?"

Gaëlle looks up to me for a brief moment. "Cataloguing, exchanging, cooperating. Do you have items you'd like to add into the pile?"

I blink numerous times. I look to the pile of treasures on the box next to her and notice it's been increasing. "I thought this is about treasure hunting? Why are they placing their treasures here?"

"As I said, we're trying to smooth our treasure hunting experience by… let's say, providing aid".

Gaëlle puts her quill aside and pauses her writing to address me properly. She entwines her hands together and leans on the table, giving off an aura of professionalism.

"Me and my teammates are aware that some girls are... inept in combat magic, so we offer this form of cooperation: we find teams who lack in combat ability to protect them in their treasure hunt, with the price that the protector will gain a good portion of whatever treasures they found, which means that the bigger amount of protector the client wishes to have, the more protection they'll receive at the expense that they'll have to split more treasures. And in the end, both the protector and the protected will have to pay us an amount of tax in return".

"This is a guild, a legitimate adventurer's guild!" I exclaim, surprising the two armed guards beside the girl. "You're offering hired blades to students now?"

"We also have spears, bows, and wands", Gaëlle says without humour. She fixes her glasses. "No one loses anything. The treasure divide is just, as far as we're concerned. Everyone wins".

This is incredible. Not half an hour has passed and they've successfully established a profitable and promising business down in a seemingly deserted underground labyrinth.

Gaëlle clears her throat and leans on the desk by her elbows. She continues, "Now I don't know your abilities, but if you're interested in participating as an adventurer, you can go to the mission board right over there. You can grab what you want and best for your capacity and head out and make some profits".

I look to where the girl is gesturing and see the board on the end of the room with various papers pinned to them, and in them, written various job requests and dungeon raid invitations.

Sucy's mistaken—this isn't like an RPG, this is an RPG.

I feel sort of excited now, more than I was at the beginning of this event. Now that my safety is somewhat assured, I've a chance to actually enjoy this experience and not fret over my safety 24/7.

Knowing I've wasted a lot of time for Gaëlle and the witches waiting in line, I thank her and leave her to take a look at the mission board.

I skip the job requests. I'm not confident enough to be a protector to a group who can't protect themselves and look to the list of protectors instead, hoping to find a promising group that can help me in my RPG adventure. Treasure splitting be dashed, the idea of roaming an unknown labyrinth now with teammates makes my worries disappear and replaced with the excitement of comradeship and glory. That excitement is doubled at the thought that I'd find Diana's name on the board—she's one of the little amount of people I've known so far in this school, and add the fact that she's well versed with magic, she seems like a dream teammate to have. Unfortunately, further skimming shows no sign of her or her friends' names there. I soon notice that I couldn't find Akko's name either.

It's quite a shame—I don't really want to team up with strangers. If it's up to this, I'd have to pick one that seems most promising.

One poster in particular catches my attention, it reads: 'party of protectors looking for someone to protect: we've got the brains, the brawns, and the skills!'

Interested, I grab the paper and pull it off the wall. As soon as I did, a train horn attached on top of the board whistles. Acting as an alarm, it attracts the attention of those I've summoned. Almost immediately, I hear rushed footsteps coming from the crowd of students and what comes out is unexpected.

It's a short little girl, carrying a large backpack that seems just too big for her figure, and on her hands is what appears to be a crossbow, though heavily modified with modules and machineries that it no longer looks conventional. She has long, navy blue hair that reaches down to her waist and is tied into a ponytail with a big red ribbon. She has a lightly tanned skin and her eyes are teal in colour and they're gleaming with excitement. Her sash colour is green. She stops right in front of me and stands in perfect attention, curiously not saying a word and just stares at me.

"Wait, Cons, goddammit! It's hard to run after you in a crowd, man!" a voice calls out somewhere in the crowd. I turn to the source and see another girl, this one much taller, coming out of the crowd.

The first thing I notice when I see this girl is her playful green eyes. That's saying something about her considering her wild, red hair is what I suppose most people would notice first. Compared to the previous girl, her inventory is quite simple, consisting only of a long sword and its scabbard strapped securely on her waist by a similar green sash.

Behind her another girl follows. She's slightly shorter than the last. She has long pink hair that reaches as far as her waist and tied into two braids with red ribbons. She has a chubby physique, and carries with her a snack bag that she occasionally reaches into and eats. Her inventory is as simple as the last one—only consisting of a pair of leather gauntlets. I'm beginning to believe that among the three, the short one is the most enthusiastic of this adventuring thing.

The red haired girl's eyes meet mine and I immediately tense up as she throws a friendly smile my way.

I know that smile. It's the smile extroverts has when they see a new person and they intend to, as their personality suggest them, be friendly with them as fast as possible. Stay away, please.

Thankfully, the red haired girl's attempt is halted when the short girl holds up her hands and gives her a grumpy look. The former returns the expression with a sigh.

"Is this really necessary, Constanze?"

The girl named Constanze seems quite insistent and only replies with a series of eager nods.

The red haired girl quickly steps back in line and fumbles over a piece of paper. She reads it, "Umm… we of the Warriors of the Tripartite Alliance welcome you to our humble cooperation. With this, we promise to take you, traveller, to your destination and goal with honesty and bravery, salute!"

And like so, the girls salute me. The short one is the most enthusiastic in this as she's the quickest and most perfect in forming her salute, followed closely by the pink haired one, while the red haired one is quite overwhelmed with this formality and is fumbling with her salute.

The red haired girl scratches the back of her head. "Sorry man, looks like Constanze's pretty excited with this whole adventuring guild thing".

I say, "Whatever you three are doing, please, don't stop".

"A customer who's not freaked out by this", the red haired girl whistles. "I don't know if I should be happy or worried".

The red haired girl shakes her head and her posture soon eases. "Anyway, I guess a proper introduction is in order. I'm Amanda O'Neill, the secret fifth knight of Gwyn, lord of Cinder, at your service".

"Knight?"

"It's my assigned class", the red haired girl, Amanda, answers.

"Class", I repeat in apprehension and run a hand across my face, still not grasping this weird timeline I'm in. I look to the rest and ask, "And you two? What are you two supposed to be?"

Despite addressing the short one first, it's curiously the pink haired one that first responds. "Monk Jasminka of the northern Norgan mountains, school of the Eye of Heaven", she says, and true to her character, she does a light bow.

"Wait, are Jasminka and Amanda your real names or just a role play?"

"Both", Amanda and Jasminka answer at the same time, the latter serving it up with a smile.

"Moving on", Amanda announces and she pats the short one's back, as if she's a merchant displaying her wares. She says, "We have engineer Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger of Altdorf, of the Empire of Men—she may not look like much, but she'll be our carry".

At her introduction, Constanze's basically jumping up and down in excitement. Her oversized bag's contents clinking at her every movement.

That's such a creative role play name, got to be honest.

"I take it you're into RPGs?" I ask Constanze but curiously gain a response from Amanda instead.

"You've no idea".

Amanda leans close to me and whispers. "She wanted to be a bard but we didn't allow her, she's pretty sensitive about it and is still pretty upset when anyone mentions it so don't mention it anywhere near her".

"Not a bard, got it".

Next, the three girls looks at me in expectance, and I soon realize what this means. So I straighten my back and say, "Jericho Franklin Jr., apprentice wizard of the Witch King's domain of the eastern lake kingdom of Morea, at your service".

I bow in dignity, concluding my introduction.

The party is formed: the knight, the monk, the engineer, and the wizard. Together, they begin their journey through the perilous labyrinth. With the world against them, they can only succeed in believing in each other as they set out to acquire gold, glory, and perhaps a little bit of gospel.

—

It's been days, no, weeks, months. Aah, I've no idea anymore.

The unending darkness of the catacombs makes it impossible to tell time.

Days felt like seconds, weeks felt like days, and months felt like weeks.

I feel like my sanity is slipping.

Our party goes on for what felt like forever without good respite. Food is running low, scarce ever since we lost them in an ambush of kobolds after we crossed, cursed thrice be that bridge's name, Wet Crossing. Our camping equipment was also lost in another raid, and any day after that we spent resting on the cold and hard floors of the catacombs. It's not often I'd hear sobbing in the middle of the night as my teammates try to force themselves to sleep but I couldn't blame them—I too feel like sobbing every night.

Firewood is running low. Our light is dimming, both figuratively and literally.

Eventually we arrive in a vast hallway, too vast for any flame made by man to see. Old chandeliers hang on the vast ceilings above, waiting for a flame that will never come again. There are unnumbered corridors along the hall's walls, narrow and dark. It would be unwise to tread through them, as each seems too identical to the previous. And then, just when we thought all was quiet, it came! A terrible monster, a towering being of no flesh, its body hollow and naught of nothing but bones. It has no eyes, but the abyss like darkness of where it should've been pierces our very beings. Thick metal armour, dented and rusted, with arrows stuck to it, protects its torso, and upon its skeletal hands it carries a blade of iron, rusted and aged by all the blood it's tasted during its life and death.

We panicked—none of us are prepared enough to face this monstrosity, let alone the legions of lesser skeletons that follow it.

Our party ran and ran, but despair is faster than our feet and we soon found ourselves surrounded by death. An army of sword and spear—skeletons have arisen from their graves and stop our retreat. We will go no further.

I shout to my teammates, 'get out, push forth and let me distract them!' and they obeyed, not a single trace of hesitation as they try their best to plow through the enemies to escape.

I stay, holding my wand in front of me and preparing to give my all. Though fear grips my heart, I cannot fail my friends, and that thought alone is enough to make me stand tall. Closing my eyes, I start the incantations. "Iacta, Inflamatare, Sagitarii…"

"Leeeeeeeroooooooooy!"

The next thing I know, our knight throws herself into the hordes of skeletons and gives them a throughout beating with her sword. Following closely behind her is our monk. She rushes in and puts a huge dent on the towering skeleton's breastplate with her bare hands. The recreation of Asterix and Obelix's defence against Roman legionnaires almost makes me not notice the recreation of Doom 1993 somewhere behind me. Our engineer, armed with her repeater crossbow, fires an unrelenting barrage at the skeletons that surrounds our rear side. The bolts fly true to their marks, shredding their rusted armour and aged bones, decimating the bulk of the skeletal forces in a single volley.

"Take that, and that!" our knight cries as it goes on to beat the fallen skeletons—now laying on the ground at her mercy—to bone meal with her sword. Monk, keeping up with the spirit, puts another good damage on the towering skeleton's kneecaps with her own kneecaps, breaking the iron knee guard its wearing like its IKEA, while our engineer keeps emptying her mags at the legions of skeletons on our rear.

Meanwhile, I take in a long, deep breath and shouts. "STOP RUINING MY IMMERSION!"

A cohort of skeletal spearmen suddenly comes out of their hiding. They flank our position and have us surrounded. With my party overwhelmed at their ends, it's come to me to handle this one.

I prepare some spells I've known to be effective in ambush situations such as this. I just need to focus and remember what my deceased master told me when it comes to ambushes, I have to…

"For the Lord of Cinder!" Amanda screams and throws herself to the ambushing skeletons. Shields splintered, spears broken, and skeleton heads roll as the skeleton spearmen are felled by her mighty blade.

"Goddammit Amanda!" I shout at her. "Stop roleplaying and breaking my immersion!"

"I can't hear you over the sound of my victory!"

I throw my wand on the floor and scream, "God dammit!"

Meanwhile, an explosion goes off in another part of the room. I see Constanze rushing into the blazing fray, an aftermath of one of her explosives, and finish off the disoriented skeletons. Without a care Constanze continues her rampage, shooting down so many mobs of enemies it would put Doomguy to shame.

I run a hand through my face, "Constanze, we're supposed to hunt treasures, not putting monsters into extinction!"

I hear a click coming out of Constanze's repeater crossbow and realize that it has run out of bolts. Despite not being on the receiving end, I felt a momentary relief at the respite from slaughter.

Only to see it immediately resumed, when she pulls out another weapon.

The deafening noise of gunshots fills my ears, I see Constanze obliterating the skeletons with her new weapon: a submachine gun, she took down a cohort of skeletons with just one mag. Their armours pierced like butter and their shields reduced to splinters against the almighty power of 21st century armament.

"This is a medieval fantasy! Guns do not exist, Constanze!"

A small figure of metal walks up to me, one of Constanze's many unorthodox inventions I was introduced to not late in the adventure. The Stanbot looks up to me and begins to produce static sounds—like a radio searching for its frequency—before settling for one audible. It says, "The future is now, old man".

In another corner of the fight, Jasminka had made a humongous ball from the fallen skeletons and rolls it towards one of the narrow corridors surrounding the room. The skeletons in there have no escape and they're all crushed by the skeleton snowball.

I desperately try to find a way I could contribute, but every time one stray skeletal survivor comes close to my range, it's either hacked to pieces by Amanda's sword, blown into smithereens by Constanze's rounds, or pummelled into dust by Jasminka's bare fists before I could even pronounce my spells.

Seeing their imminent defeat, the skeletons retreat through the many corridors connecting to this wide room. The towering skeleton, its torso busted and knees weak, are among those in retreat.

Constanze's Stanbot walks up beside me, again, a static voice winds until it stops to one audible one. It says, in a particularly thick Japanese accent, "My lord, a glorious victory will soon be yours!"

"They're running away", I sigh with relieve. "At least we can stop the killing now and move on".

I notice Constanze crouching next to me, a new large weapon in hand, rocket launcher of some sort taller than her body. She has the weapon trained at the fleeting form of the towering skeleton and its skeleton deserters.

"If you care about my mental wellbeing, please don't fire that thing".

And Constanze fires away regardless. The click of the trigger is the last thing I hear before a projectile flies out of the weapon. It makes a whistling noise as it sails through the air, leaving a faint trail of tracer-like green light.

It's peaceful for a moment—the moment of quiet peace situated between after firing the weapon and waiting for it to hit its target.

The next thing I see is the light first, bright and blinding from the explosion. Second, the deafening sound the blast creates, the echo chamber the room is makes it a thousand times worse. The whole room shudders at the explosion. I could feel it in my core. After the light's settled, I can no longer see the retreating skeletons, the towering one included, they're all disintegrated to kingdom come, murdered by the blast.

The battle is concluded. I slump down on the floor, feeling exhausted more than anyone despite being the least participating member in the fight. The girls surround and raise their weapons high to the air, cheering all the way.

Meanwhile, I lay on the ground, whimpering, "My immersion…"

—

The door to the guild room opens and we're greeted by the same guard from earlier. "Welcome!" she greets, voice muffled by her helmet. "Did you have a great time adventuring?"

Among the four, only I don't wear the same satisfied smile returning here. "Awful. We found a secret door after we cleared a room and these three decided to open it by force instead of solving the puzzle like any sane person would do".

"You took too long solving it!" Amanda whines.

I glare at her and make a pinching gesture with my fingers. "This close! This was how close I am to solving it until you decided to hack at the door".

"It was still too long!"

"It was literally only 10 seconds into the puzzle did you run out of patience".

"It was fun breaking it down in one hit, though", Jasminka beams as she rubs her right hand, the very same hand that caved in breastplates and collapsed the firm door.

Annoyed, I turn to Jasminka but immediately find my words stop on my throat. Try as I might, I can't be upset with this one—she's too much of a positive bundle of bread to be mad at—she somewhat reminds me of Lotte in that she's very pleasantly mannered, kind, and is generally the kind of person you can't be upset with in the first place. Amanda is very lucky that she's part of her team else I would've lost my temper way back.

"That's… yeah, that was nice, Jasminka", I tell the girl, which only serves to make her smile wider. At this point, I admit that the last vestiges of my temper have died down with the smile.

"I mean, it's not like we didn't get good loot after that", Amanda adds.

I look to my share of loot: a couple of gold coins and goblets alongside a peculiar loot that doesn't shine like the others; a traditional sling, a weapon of old before the bow and arrow took dominion of the ancient battlefields. Amanda mentioned this could worth some points on the merit that it's, and I'm quoting, 'super ancient and is actually a weapon of legend', but before I hear the same from Gaëlle, I won't have high expectations of this one.

I say, "If I find out you're lying about this thing…"

"Dude, trust me, that thing's a legendary weapon!" Amanda says, unable to hide her laughter.

A commotion from inside the room puts a stop to our conversation. The guild is noisy on its own right, but even from here, we knew immediately that something was up. We enter and find Gaëlle standing atop a stool in the centre of the room, seemingly trying to settle a commotion, her two bodyguards standing nearby on guard, outnumbered by the loud crowd of agitated adventurers that surrounds them.

"I lost my treasure!"

"Where's the sword?"

"My precious! Where's my precious?!"

Gaëlle tries to maintain order by convincing the distraught adventurers that she and the guards have the situation under control, but the lack of clear explanation from her slowly turns the adventurers into doubt. One by one, they begin to suspect foul play.

"Someone must've taken it!" one student cries and the message spreads like a ripple, more and more people found the idea to be appealing, what began as murmurs and silent nods has now turned to loud accusations.

The commotion was quick to turn into an inquisition, and the outnumbered guards have no choice but to stand by and watch as the students go around checking each other's inventory for the stolen goods. It's inevitable that we get dragged into this.

"Hey! We just got here!" Amanda indignantly says, smacking away the armoured hand of a guard.

"Very well", the armoured person agrees. We were relieved to know we won't be part of this confusion, but the guard then gestures towards me and says, to our great surprises. "But he wasn't".

I point to myself. "Me? I've been away as well!"

"That's most preposterous!" the guard exclaims. "We've spotted you in the room since the beginning!"

Amanda comes into my defence. Remaining indignant, she says, "What are you talking about? He was with us. We're in the same party!"

Unfortunate for us, some adventurers have caught wind of our conversation and decide to jump in.

"Y-yeah! I notice he's stayed in the room the longest!"

"He didn't leave at all!"

"Stayed in the room he did, didn't make me suspicious at first but he does now!"

The rest of the adventurers joins in as well, and with them, more and more claims that I have stayed the longest in this room. A mob was quick to form around me and my party, at this rate, I'm sure things will get out of hand real soon.

"We went on a job together, I can vouch for him. We're in the same party!" Amanda exclaims, but the crowd ignores her.

Our party is cornered, and the mob starts to raise their weapons in protest, some swords, some bows, and some torches.

It was in this dire moment do Gaëlle show up, she pushes through to crowd and places herself between us and them, held on her hands is a piece of paper. "I have document that proves his participation in the party. They checked out half an hour ago".

Gaëlle had expected the document to satisfyingly deny the mob's claims, but she's proven to be wrong. The mob's already too invested in my guilt and they won't let a simple piece of paper deter their thirst for justice.

"It could be faked!"

"Maybe he sneaked back in, who knows? I mean, the guards here aren't the brightest!" another says, and one of the guards close to her immediately clutches her chest. She looks hurt.

Gaëlle herself realizes violence will break out if this continues, and if the document, something she thought would've eased the tension, fails to subdue the mob, she has no idea what to do next.

"Throw him off a cliff!" one adventurer suggests with a cry.

"Hang him by the gallows!" another follows.

"Cut his fingers off!" the next says, brandishing a large scimitar.

"Hang him by the gallows then throw him off a cliff, then go down there, grab him again, and cut off his fingers". One witch dressed as a pirate proposes, she gives me a quick glance before adding, "And give him a haircut while you're at it, he looks like a girl".

"Enough, enough!" Gaëlle cries and attention returns to her once again. "It seems that the best course of action now is to secure all suspects for further questioning, but they'll be innocent until proven guilty!" she cries, emphasizing the last point heavily.

The mob cheers, they're at least content with the current conclusion. I sink further behind my party, but they can no longer provide any safety for me. The guards come with their handcuffs and keys to the cell where I'll reside while waiting for my final verdict.

"We'll vouch for you", Amanda says patting my back, and Jasminka gives me a too enthusiastic thumbs up.

—

Who would've known that I'd end up in a jail cell? One day I'm exploring dungeons and hunting treasures, and the next I'm a convicted thief, left to rot in a jail cell on the back end of a god forsaken guild room. I feel like locked away from the world, outcast and ignored by those who imprisoned me, whose busy commotions still echo through these old walls. Life goes on for them, I guess. They're content now that I'm here, isolated in this dark, humid, and uncomfortable cell.

It's been days, and the room's unbearable condition makes it last like years. The beds are made of uneven stones, rats chitter and patter along the room freely, water leaks from the mossy ceilings, its drops are continuous and rhythmic, and I feel it costs me my sanity to hear them for too long.

As the cold water drips onto my forehead, I start to question my entire life, and how it leads me to this moment. Perhaps, a change in one decision or another in my life might've saved me from this miserable fate. Aaah…. How I miss the taste of warm bread and good milk, I could just taste it already… dancing in my—

"Hey, you!" a voice from the corner of the room beckons, and I bite my tongue at the sudden interruption of my narration. I turn to find a girl, a natural brunette wearing a dirty blond wig. She sits on an old wooden bench, her wrists and ankles red, indicating she'd been tied up some moments ago.

"You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there", she says and gestures to the corner across me.

I found the thief sitting on another stone bed across me, she says, "Damn you Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along, empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I would've stolen that horse and be on my way to Hammerfell".

The thief then looks at me. "You there, you and i shouldn't be here—it's the Stormcloaks the empire wants".

The blonde wigged girl shakes her head. "We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief",

An armoured guard, presumably the one I've seen before (it's hard to tell, they're terribly identical in attire), shouts from outside the cell. "Shut up back there!"

At this exchange, I look beside me to confirm my fear. There, a girl sits, wearing an expensive if not dirty noble clothing, seemingly ancient Nordic. And her most prominent accessory: the white cloth that gags her mouth.

I turn to the guard and grab the iron bars. "Just end me".

Hearing this, the girl with the wig takes it off and breaks her character. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not the spirit, why are you so sour?"

I breathe out an exasperated sigh. "If you haven't noticed, I'm in a cell. We're, in a cell".

"I chose to be in the cell", the thief says with a carefree shrug, her muffled friend nods and speaks indiscernibly through the gag.

I was about to ask why but something soon crosses my mind, and I'm almost afraid to ask. "Did you all… deliberately make yourselves suspicious just so you can get in this cell and role play this?"

They all nod at me.

I slam my face on the cold stone wall. "Kill me".

Attention, All Epic Gamers: OMG, the author is such a nerd, Gamers really should rise up. So many references in this chapter, can you name all of them? The first five readers who guess correctly will win amazing prizes, all you need to do to receive them is put your credit card info, three digits in the back, in the review down below. You have to be quick, or else Croix will finish the dream fuel spirit and the world will be in peril!