Rifu wasted no time gathering a large rucksack overflowing with tools, an oversized pit helmet, and a small brass scepter. She shouted and waved furiously to Shelby as she hurried deeper into the ring of tents surrounding camp, "Quickly, this way."

  The grad students whispered and laughed among themselves, but still gave Shelby bleary-eyed smiles and waves as she walked past them towards the frantic Rifu. The rear of the camp opened into a system of caverns that penetrated deep into the hills rising above. The slopes in the areas crusted over with layered rock formations that alternated between sandy red and bone white. Shelby ducked under some pudgy stalactites and spotted Rifu darting between rocks as they headed deeper into the cavern.

  Before they got very far, the soft purple starglow that illuminated everything outside began to grow dim, and Rifu slapped her bag down onto the stone floor, pulled out a fist sized gem and snapped it into a metal socket on her oversized helmet. After she tapped it with her scepter, it began to glow a bright white. Shelby held her hand up in front of her face as Rifu addressed her, "I only have one of these so stay close."

  In response, AIDAN floated up a few inches and the fire inside of him flared up, adding to the light cast off the gem and making the small cave tunnel much easier to see in. Shelby caught Rifu scanning AIDAN with a wide smile before she jerked her head away and turned back to scamper down the cave.

  They passed through an increasingly narrow rock tunnel into an area with a high ceiling that had hundreds of buildings in various states of disrepair arranged in a loose grid around cobblestone streets. The area was tiered, with each row of houses being about a yard higher than those nearer the front of the cavern, and a wide river flowed down through the center of the town. Shelby stuck her foot into the water and then jumped back. It was ice cold. She could see tiny pale minnows darting around in the slow current, snapping at tiny flecks of glowing blue algae.

  As it stretched away from them, the ceiling was so high that neither Rifu nor AIDAN’s light reached it, and the entire area seemed to stretch back more than one hundred yards, at least. The buildings farther away seemed to be in better shape than the lower rows. At first Shelby thought they must be primitive buildings, but the most intact one she could see had intricate stonework and the remnants of a paneled wooden door that could have been taken from a modern castle in the real world. Rifu caught her examining the door, "Excellent craftsmanship, isn't it? This was a secret village of an ancient Daizi monarchy."

  "Why was it a secret?"

  Rifu vibrated in place, "No one knows! Isn’t it so exciting."

  They only had to walk one tier into the ancient village before Rifu stopped Shelby and pointed down the row of houses at a pile of stones. The stones slowly spun around a soft light that was floating about a foot off the ground. The mouse whispered, "There's an Earth Spirit."

  Before Shelby could even retrieve her shield, Rifu swung her scepter through the air in the spirit's direction. A gallon of water popped into existence over the spirit as an undulating sphere, then suddenly shrunk and jetted downwards, shoving the creature to the floor, and causing a white '5' to float away from it. Before the water had time to spill away from the creature, another torrent of liquid pushed against the spirit from its left, causing a few of its stones to tumble to the floor, and finally, a crack of blue-white light pulsed in the center of the loose mass of rocks and a ragged crystal of ice snapped into existence, scattering it completely. A red '20' jumped away from the light and the many stones stopped stirring and sat motionless on the floor. All that in two seconds, Shelby took a step back from Rifu.

  Rifu sneered at the rocks, "Stop interrupting my research, foul thing."

  Shelby was starting to think that the mouse really did just need a distraction, since her magic was almost three times stronger than Shelby's identity skill. With nothing left to do, Shelby gave Rifu a trio of claps.

  Rifu slid her scepter into a loop on her jacket and took a bow, "Pretty incredible, isn't it?"

  "It is!" Shelby agreed, but she noticed that she didn't receive any experience for the battle, brief as it was. She tapped AIDAN and whispered to the orb, "I didn't get anything for that fight."

  AIDAN, who seemed to have figured out the concept of being quiet, replied, "That is because you are not in a party with Ms. Rifu."

  "Why are you calling her miss?"

  "I apologize... doctor Rifu."

  "That wasn't what I meant. Forget it, how do I form a party?"

  "To party with an inhabitant of the world, you need to ask to become [Confidants]. I believe Ms. Plin explained this to you."

  "MS. PLIN?" Shelby hissed, which caught Rifu's attention.

  "What are you two tittle-tattling about back there?" she demanded.

  "J-just... asking about parties. Do you think we could form one, since we need to coordinate and fight the golem?" Shelby asked, hoping not to miss out on any more credit.

  Rifu looked slightly displeased, "You know, adventurers usually offer Obligations for that honor. But... it's not as if you could possibly have an Obligation that would interest me, and you are helping me."

  Shelby looked hopeful, but Rifu continued, "On the other hand, you haven't actually done anything yet. I'd hate to become Confidants with a bootless do-nothing and forever have my reputation tarnished."

  Shelby slumped, "Is it really that big of a deal?"

  Rifu harumphed, "Of course it is, I don't want you calling on me at every hour of the day begging me for things like 'Rifu please slay that dragon!' and 'Rifu please reverse my ancient curse!' I'm busy! I have ruins to examine!"

  AIDAN helpfully added to Rifu's tirade, "Confidants do in fact become linked to you in a semi-permanent way, unless your relationship becomes Unfriendly or worse, and you can attempt to call on them for assistance. There are restrictions, but it can be useful to become Confidants with a variety of people."

  Rifu nodded to herself, "Exactly, I won't just attach myself to anyone. 'Adventurer, prove thyself,' as they say."

  Shelby didn't want to encourage any more ranting on Rifu's part, so she didn't inquire about who 'they' were, but instead made an offer, "Okay, how about I slay some of the Earth Spirits?"

  Rifu wriggled, thinking on it, "Hmmm, we do need to slay them to get the golem to appear, and I don't want to waste too much mana on the appetizers... fine, fine, we'll split up and handle the spirits. Five each! AND…" the mouse threw up her hands before Shelby could agree, "I get to spend time with the orb!"

  "His name is AIDAN, and I need him to see!" Shelby refused, stepping in front of AIDAN defensively.

  "You can have my hat! You realize that being a Confidant with the amazing, wonderful Rifu-ra-Trin is a once in a ten-million-year opportunity, don't you? You'll only be away from your orb for a couple of minutes anyways!" Rifu gesticulated with an increasing fervor as she argued her point.

  "Fine! But only if he's okay with it too."

  "I am more than okay with it; I want to see Dr. Rifu's magic in further detail." AIDAN said with an enthusiastic lilt.

  Shelby looked hurt, what about my magic, AIDAN... but she relented and reached out, taking Rifu's pit helmet off her head and shooing AIDAN towards the mouse, who was bouncing in place. The helmet fits really well.

  What the heck...

  Shelby's mana immediately increased from 28 to 136, but she didn't notice any changes to how smart she felt. Game stuff, again. She also received a quest upon donning the hat.

  Her quest tracker updated too, blinking in the corner of her vision, and she winced. She forgot to turn in her old quests at the camp.

  She nearly asked Rifu to return to camp so she could get her bonuses, but the mouse had already walked away with AIDAN. Shelby jumped as she heard a series of crashes in the distance. Better make this quick then, my bonuses are fading by the second…

  Shelby jogged in the opposite direction of the increasingly violent explosions and made her way towards a set of deteriorating buildings. The buildings had built-in brick planters and wide patios, and the remains of what might have been a set of tables and chairs were crumpled against a low wall. A trio of Earth Spirits wandered about the area, stopping every few yards to collect some loose stones, which they drew into their orbit with thin transparent orange tendrils that extended from their faintly glowing cores. And, just as often, a stone would tumble off of one and clatter away down the ancient street. Shelby shook her head. Spirits are so strange.

  She waited for a spirit to stray from the pack a good distance before she ran up to it and slapped it with her shield. The force of the blow vibrated against her hand with so much force that she felt a wave of numbness run up her arm. The spirit took 2 damage. Were they resistant to being attacked? I would know if I had my or- AIDAN with me. The spirit shook angrily and then spun, whipping a line of pebbles embedded in an orange strand towards Shelby. She ducked under her shield and the stones bounced off harmlessly. They must not do a ton of damage, at least. She danced around it for a moment to make sure it accumulated damage from the thorns, which stretched out and disappeared from view inside the mess of rocks, waiting until it had accumulated 20 damage, 22 with her attack, then ran backwards down the cavern. The spirit was faster than a resinling, but still very slow. Luckily, the 10 extra damage from the tether exploding was enough to finish it off, meaning that her instinct was right, and it had around 30 health.

  This was going to take a long time with just Snarling, but they aren't doing any damage, so maybe I just needed to get in some quick swings like I did with fruit rats. She approached one of the other two spirits and swung twice, one swing scattered some pebbles through the air and dealt 3 damage, and the other knocked aside a larger stone for 4. Not amazing... I need something like 8 to 10 hits to kill one spirit, Shelby though, but she still had 6 seconds on her cooldown and the spirit was noticeably slower to attack with its stones scattered. She blocked a sluggish overhead whip and then struck two more times. The glow from the core flared up on the first hit, which was a 2, and then her shield scratched against an exposed, fist-sized glimmering orange crystal at the center of the spirit for 8. A-ha! A weakness! Shelby hit again, ducking under a horizontal swipe, and was slightly too slow to hit the core as rocks flew up from the ground to encrust the crystal. She knocked them aside with a quick slap, then jabbed, striking for 7 and causing the core to drain of color and fall to the floor. Interesting!

  She whirled on the third spirit, and though her cooldown was back online, she focused on quickly clearing away the core with quick blows. In her haste, she ignored a strike across her back and her mind swam with a cascade of damage messages. 3,1,2,2,3,1 all came in at once. She flinched back in shock. Did every rock on the spirits whip deal damage?

  She backed off and let the tether finish it off, rubbing the strip of buzzing skin the lash had left on her shoulder and back. Awful little creatures... but just two to go. She climbed up on a pile of rubble and spotted a couple of glowing spirits two tiers above her, flickering in between collapsed pillars and walls. She scurried up and sighted the closest of the two. She struck a balance between clearing away rocks and avoiding damage, although a stray pebble did catch her on the ankle after a wild attack and made her stumble backwards. She was lucky, because after a moment of violent shaking while the creature hovered around 2 health, it suddenly exploded. Shelby caught the least of the explosion of rocks to her hands as she raised them defensively, but she would have taken more damage if she had been standing in front of the blast. The explosion killed the creature itself, leaving a cloud of orange dust floating slowly to the ground.

  The fight with the final spirit felt right. She quickly closed in on it and delivered two quick blows, exposing a glimpse of the core, then she blocked a wide attack and rolled into a thrust before the monster could shield itself again. She danced back to avoid a string of rocks and then lunged back in after it whiffed the attack, getting in another two exposing strikes. As it started rattling and prepared to explode, she ducked behind her shield and a rain of stones scattered across the floor, leaving her unharmed. I'm getting pretty good at dealing with monsters!

  Shelby headed back the way she came, and she could feel a slight vibration as she stopped in the central street of the underground village, trying to find any sign of Rifu and AIDAN. She thought she saw a flicker of orange fire at the end of a well-preserved alleyway and jogged down, finding Rifu sitting cross legged and chatting animatedly with AIDAN.

  "What do you mean you can't share that information with me? Who better to share it with?"

  "As I said, I am an assistant created for the sole purpose of helping Ms. Shelby."

  Shelby strode towards them casually, "So you're calling me miss behind my back now? AIDAN, we have to work on your manners, specifically we need to worsen them."

  Rifu sighed at the sight of Shelby, "You're already done? I barely learned anything. Go kill five more!"

  Shelby shook her head, "Nuh uh, you have to validate my quest."

  Rifu took one last hungry look at AIDAN, then stood, "Fine fine, he won't tell me very much anyways. Say, why don't you ask some questions about the Thorncrown Dynasty, oh, or the Seven Sages of Ancient Pharas! Ah, wait, ask him about the Starfall King! He has to answer you, right?"

  "Uhh, actually… I don't know if he does. Do you have to answer me, AIDAN?"

  "I am not required to, and I would like to learn about those subjects for myself before accessing my database entries on them."

  "See? He doesn't know anything about the crown of the seven kings."

  "Bah!" Rifu cried out and kicked over a pile of rocks, and then kneeled and carefully rearranged them back into their original positions, "You're at least my 10th most infuriating assistants. Take your silly Obligation and use it right away. Don't try to go sell it to my students! They already ask me so, so many questions. It's never ending."

  These quest descriptions are getting kind of sassy. Is Rifu the one writing them?

  Shelby removed the item and held it out as Rifu continued to whine, “And don’t use this to summon me for any old world-saving quest. I will say no if there aren’t at least some ruins. At the very least I need to see some pottery fragments!”

  For some reason Shelby pictured the Obligation as a big golden coin, but when it appeared in her palm it was instead a tiny purple star that floated in a sphere containing a sea of stars. Shelby stared at it as it rotated and flared periodically, tuning out Rifu’s words. The cavern seemed to vibrate more and more as she watched it. Rifu cleared her throat, "As wonderful as my star may be, we’re expecting company, and it was you who insisted upon this. Get on with it."

  Shelby snapped out of her trance and focused intently on the star. It shrank down and then sank into her palm. She felt a shiver run up her arm and into her spine.

  Before she finished reading the prompt, another popped up in front of it.

  Yes, Shelby thought, and a portrait of Rifu pushing her thick glasses up her nose appeared above Shelby's health bar, with a pair of small red and blue bars of her own. Rifu hopped up and snatched her pit helm from Shelby's head, and the oversized hat appeared on the portrait too. Huh!