“Are you… okay?" The leader of a four person group stopped to ask as they made their way down the dungeon. His eyes narrowed through the thin metal helmet as he looked at Zoe.

  “Hmm? Oh, yeah. Yeah I’m fine, just working on something here.” Zoe stood up and stretched, shoving the trio of goblins that had been slamming their wooden clubs against her suit of wood aside with a blast of wind. They screeched at her, their ugly maws dripping with drool and bits of flesh from the meal they’d eaten earlier in the day.

  “You sure?” The woman in the back asked, waving her gnarled wooden staff ahead of her with a slight pulse of mana rushing around the tip.

  “Yeah, yeah. Totally fine.” Zoe waved her hand. “Like I said, just working on some more class requirements. Actually, you all happen to want some help? I bet the system would like if I let things hit me while you attacked them.”

  The group looked at each other with concerned faces, a wave of curiosity and confusion smashing into Zoe’s Empathy. The leader at the front shrugged, looking back at their group. “You think it’s alright?”

  “I can’t see a problem with taking a break, personally.” A deep, rumbling voice echoed from a heavy suit of metal armour.

  “Could be fun,” the woman at the back said, eyeing the goblins behind Zoe struggling against the constant gale forcing them away.

  The last person shrugged. “I don’t mind either way.” She said, pulling her bow from her back and holding it to her side.

  “Guess you’re gonna come get abused with us then.” The leader laughed. “I’m Keff.”

  “Zoe.” Zoe said. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Mally,” The mage said. “If you need help healing just let me know.”

  “I’ll hop in if you’re in a pinch. We can handle ourselves down here.” The one in heavy armour said. “I’m Higgins.”

  “I’m Tia. I can see pretty well down here if you want me to keep an eye out for anything.” The last member said.

  “Nope, I think I’ll be alright. Actually I’m a pretty capable healer as well so if you need anything just let me know. Honestly, I don’t want to brag but I’m only here because this dungeon can’t really hurt me and I want to get some achievements and maybe a feat for my sixth class, so just do your thing and don’t worry too much about me.”

  Keff shook his head. “You can never be too careful. Tia, keep calling out anything approaching us. Higgins, let Zoe take the aggression if she wants it but don’t stray too far. Mally, keep your healing up on everybody.”

  The party nodded, and Zoe took a moment to identify them all. Each one was around one twenty — Higgins being the highest at one twenty six. Keff was the lowest at level one nineteen, but also the only one with a dark blue marking indicating they had their fifth class already.

  Competent, Zoe concluded. Organized well enough, and depending on how powerful of a healer Mally was and how much damage Higgins was capable of soaking up without danger, might even be capable of taking on the boss of the dungeon on their own despite the level difference.

  “We’re heading down to the flooded village, you been there yet?” Keff asked as the group sauntered down through the dungeon.

  “I’ve cleared this dungeon a few times, I’m good anywhere. Except the slime village.” Zoe shuddered, thinking about her last experience with the slimes. “If you really wanna go there I can try and help out, but I’d rather avoid it if we can.”

  Tia laughed. “Bad experience?"

  “Mhm. When I was going for my sixth class, I let one of them touch my foot just to see what it would do. They’re so gross.” Zoe said. “So gross!”

  “What happened?" Higgins asked.

  “They didn’t care about my armour at all. Or it didn’t feel like they did anyway. May as well have just been covering my foot in this disgusting goop. It didn’t really hurt but it was so hard to get off. My cleaning spell didn’t work, even scraping at it with my magic did nothing. I had to summon my spatula and scrape it off. And then I had to go buy another spatula!

  “And it’s not like a spatula is expensive, but I didn’t have a return trip for another week so I had to cook with daggers again. Which also isn’t really all that bad, but it’s the principle of it. They ruined my spatula.” Zoe ranted.

  “You stumbled on one of the anti magic slimes then?" Mally leaned forward to ask.

  “Anti magic slimes?” Zoe asked.

  “They’re one of the slime types. On the rarer end, but not that unusual. They’re not all that dangerous, but their slime eats your magic.” Keff explained.

  “Huh. So I just happened to try my luck with a rare variety of slime I guess. That’s stupid.” Zoe shook her head.

  Tia laughed. “They’re not that rare. If we went down there now we’d probably find a couple of them.”

  Zoe nodded. “So I didn’t win the lottery of suffering this time at least. That’s nice.”

  Higgins chuckled. “You win the lottery of suffering before?”

  “Something like that, I guess. One time as a kid, I was at school and the teacher made us pull straws to decide on something, but she wouldn’t tell us what it was. I kinda, maybe cheated and took the biggest straw for myself.” Zoe said.

  “Let me guess, your reward turned out to not be so much of a reward?" Keff asked.

  Zoe shook her head. “Nope. Winner got to clean the mess we left behind in the kitchen while everybody else went outside to play that game where you throw a big tarp up and then sit down inside of it while it falls down on you. Do you know how much of a mess fifteen seven year olds make when they’re all trying to bake a cake for their very first time?”

  “That’s your lottery of suffering?" Keff rose an eyebrow.

  “Well there’s other stuff too but I’m not trying to bring the mood down, alright? Also looking back on it now, you know what? That was actually super messed up by that teacher. It could have been a great time to learn to work together and to respect each other and help each other out and instead it became a haha laugh at Zoe the maid moment." Zoe grimaced.

  “Teacher didn’t have a cleaning skill? That seems irresponsible for somebody who’d be working with so many children.” Tia asked.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Ah, no. Cleaning magic wasn’t widely used back home. We did all our cleaning by hand, mostly.” Zoe said.

  “Sounds tedious.” Higgins said.

  “And dirty.” Keff added. “I clean my armour by hand every now and then, I find the experience cathartic. But it never gets as clean as when I use my skill.”

  “That’s true.” Mally said. “I’ve never had a cleaning skill personally. I met Keff before I moved out and never ended up having a need to replace one of my first class skills with it. But sometimes you go off for a few days and it gets real messy.”

  “The smell’s the worst part, I think.” Keff said. “Whenever I come home there’s just this odd smell. Dingy and mildewy. It’s not awful, but it’s just always there, everywhere. Things might look nice, might feel nice. But they never smell right, for some reason.”

  “That’s just cause I don’t do much cleaning, actually. I did at first, but it was so much work and it never really worked out. And then you’re only gone for a couple of days anyway so I kinda just gave up and tried to keep things somewhat tidy at least.” Mally said.

  Keff laughed. “Dammit, Mal. You’re making me look like a fool.”

  “Group ahead.” Tia said, with the vibe around the party shifting as they all squinted to look further down the dungeon.

  “Number?" Keff asked.

  “Five.” Tia answered.

  “Hurt?" Keff asked.

  Tia shook her head. “Don’t think so. Defeated, but I don’t see anybody limping.”

  “They look fine to me. Definitely look upset though.” Zoe added.

  “You can see that far?" Keff asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I’ve got good senses.” Zoe shrugged. “There’s five, they’re talking about uhh,” Zoe paused and tilted her head to try and listen in. “Their plans for next time. Don’t seem too downtrodden to me.”

  “You can even hear them?" Tia asked.

  “Like I said. Good senses.” Zoe repeated.

  “Damn, that’s impressive.” Tia said. “You mind if I ask how you got that? Seems really useful.”

  Zoe chuckled. “I don’t think you’d be able to get mine. But my friend got a class with similar bonuses because of her passion for cats. You could try taking care of some cats for a while.”

  Tia shook her head, kicking some rocks down the dungeon slope. “Nah, I’ve heard about those ones. But everybody I’ve met who has one is always so attached to their pets. And that’s great for them, but I don’t really want to get that attached. And I don’t think I’d be able to get those classes without it. At least not a good one. You sure I couldn’t get the one you have? I’m willing to put up with a lot.”

  “Sorry,” Zoe said. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of it, it’s just kind of a part of how I was raised, I guess. You just wouldn’t be able to qualify.”

  “Like the Prins to the north?" Higgins asked.

  “Prins?" Zoe questioned.

  “They’re a tribe far to the north with some pretty messed up rituals they do to their kids. Good first classes, but I’ve never met a Prin who didn’t seem at least a little off because of it.” Keff chuckled. “Kinda like you, I guess.”

  “We’re here.” Tia nodded towards the deep lake set in the side of the dungeon. Tall buildings poked out of the water, with waves crashing up against the stone structures. Rubble filled the bottom of the lake, creating pockets of air that bubbled to the surface and casting dark shadows that helped obscure the humanoid fish that darted from hide to hide.

  “You’re up, Zoe. You have any skills to draw aggression?” Keff asked.

  “Nope. Kinda what I’m trying to get out of this, actually.” Zoe said.

  “Then get in the water and make some noise.” Higgins said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Zoe strolled up to the edge of the water and summoned a suit of frosty armour around her body, dipping her legs into the lake. Dozens of tiny pellets of rock formed around her, shooting off and splashing in the water around her.

  She felt the water surge as the creatures that lurked below raced towards her. A crashing tidal wave grew on the surface as the creatures plowed through to the surface, and the group behind Zoe braced.

  Tia nocked an arrow that began to glow with a blue-green light as she stared at the approaching torrent. Higgins summoned a massive axe that towered over him and slammed it down into the ground, sending ripples through the earth. Keff drew his sword and summoned a small round metal shield as he stood next to Higgins. And mana surged from the tip of Mally’s staff, washing out a faint pink light over the party.

  *Ding* You are within Maladin’s [Healing Light]. Increased health regeneration.

  The first wave of creatures lurched from the water, clashing their gnarly teeth together as they soared through the sky at Zoe. Tia loosed her arrow and it soared into the pack with vines whipping out, digging into the kloggons and splattering their purple blood into the lake. The arrow slammed into the water, digging into the ground below and pulling the vine — and the kloggons it had dug into, back down into the water.

  An explosion of earth ruptured from the muddy ground around Zoe’s feet, blasting the beasts with gravel and mud as Higgins slammed his enormous axe into the ground in front of him, knocking the rest of the initial wave of them back down into the water.

  The next group that launched from the water were blocked by a rising wall of ice as Mally waved her staff. They slammed into the wall, fangs digging into the frost as they piled onto each other. Keff launched from Higgins’ back and slammed into the wall, toppling it over with a massive crash as much of the wave threatening to slam into Zoe was repelled by the impact.

  A pillar of ice caught Keff as he landed back in the water and pushed him back to the ground as the remaining beasts reached out with their grotesque curled claws.

  “Good. Keep it up.” He said as he landed.

  A few of the kloggons that made it past the groups assault grabbed onto Zoe’s legs below the water and tried to drag her down, scraping their claws and fangs against her frost armour. No sooner than she kicked them aside, were each of them impaled by an arrow glowing with a dim green light which each burst into a cluster of vines that wrapped around the kloggons, dragging them back down into the water and rending them apart.

  The hours passed, with the group repeating the process several times as the creatures were recreated at the bottom of the lake. Zoe found herself moving further and further into the lake with each attempt to allow more of the kloggons to make it to her. The group optimized their rotation as they went, allowing the initial barrage of the beasts to clump up as they attacked Zoe before she Cosmic Leaped away and let the group bombard them with their attacks.

  “Well that was enjoyable.” Keff said as they finished off the last remaining kloggon of the final bunch.

  “Yeah, it was nice to meet you, Zoe.” Mally said.

  “You too. Hit me up sometime if you want to do this again, I’m sure the system’s loving it so I’m all for it.” Zoe said.

  Tia giggled. “I think we will then. Where can we send you a message?"

  Zoe summoned a notebook and scribbled down her current address on it, then handed it to Tia. “Here. Come stop by sometime. My friend lives with me and we have cats, by the way.”

  “Oh, the one with the cat class?" Tia asked.

  “The very one.” Zoe answered.

  “You think she’d mind if I asked her some questions?" Tia asked.

  “Probably not. Definitely not if you bring some cat toys.” Zoe said.

  Tia laughed. “I’ll do that then. Thanks.”

  “Yeah, see you all around then. This was fun.” Zoe said.

  The group said their goodbyes and headed back up the dungeon as Zoe sat down in the water to lure more over. This time, without letting them die, she giggled to herself.

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