They ran.
No one dared look back.
Even as their lungs burned, they kept running.
“Soul Echoes… they’re the first… evolution—remember?” Lucia said, panting.
Val nodded as she kept pace. “Yeah, I remember.”
Lucia swallowed. “If they lure someone—a Soul Mimic can potentially hear it.”
She didn’t need to say anything else.
Soul Echoes didn’t just hope for an evolution, they actively encouraged it.
Luring in people and Soul Mimics alike—trying to cause death—just to evolve?!
That’s beyond fucked!
Mina and Amarisse didn’t respond.
The looks on their faces told Val everything she needed to know.
They were scared.
In what took hours to carefully tread through, was reduced to minutes as they backtracked.
“We’re close to the exit!” Val yelled.
“We need to tell the guards!” Lucia yelled back. “Soul Echoes are dangerous. Anyone entering should be told!”
Val slid around the corner that led to the slope upwards.
It was clear, so she ushered her party past before following behind them.
“Great first delve, right?!” she asked, laughing.
“How can you be laughing right now?” Lucia asked, incredulously.
Amarisse was already laughing along, while Mina looked between the two of them confused.
Val snickered. “The dungeon definitely doesn’t like us!”
Finally, those same large iron doors were just ahead of them.
It was time to leave.
Groaning, Amarisse and Val pushed the doors open.
All four of them rushed out into the light, panting with hands on their knees.
“Are you okay?!” asked one of the guards. “Do we need to fetch a healer?!”
“N—No…” Lucia said, wheezing. “There’s a Soul Echo… down there. We ran… just in case.”
Two more guards rushed up, water-skins in hand. “Here, drink some water. Take a minute to breathe.”
He looked down into the abyss. “Then tell me what happened, I need to know so I can report it to the guild.”
Val coughed after drinking too much water too fast. “Report it to the guild? Why?”
The guard looked at her, confused.
“Soul Echoes are dangerous—they shouldn’t be on floor one.”
Val laughed.
This caused even more confused looks.
“Bramble Rats, Root Stalkers, Ember—fucking—fang wolves, and a Soul Echo. Fuck me this delve was rough.”
The guards shared looks of shock, eyes wide. “You were down there for at most a few hours! You’re telling me you fought all of that in that time?!”
Val nodded, pouring water over her head. “Yup, five rats, two stalkers, three wolves, and the echo.”
The guard balked. “And you’re fucking level ones?! What the fuck did you do to piss the dungeon off?!”
Val stood abruptly, confused. “Wait, that’s not normal?”
What started as a simple warning turned into a whole thing.
Val, Mina, Amarisse, and Lucia were now sitting in a guild debriefing room.
According to the guards, these rooms weren’t a punishment. They were meant for the guild to record unusual phenomena and debrief parties who might’ve witnessed unusual things within the dungeon.
“How fucking long do we have to wait?” Val asked.
Lucia was sitting on her right, her hands glowing green as she finished healing Val’s side. “Stop fussing. This is apparently a big deal, especially on floor one.”
Mina leaned back in her chair, sighing. “But I’m so sweaty and nasty… I wanna bathe already!”
Amarisse chuckled as she continued to remove her armor. “I’m not sitting in my gear while they play politics behind closed doors.”
Just then, the door opened.
“Well, Ms. Trunelle, these doors just so happen to be quite thin.”
Amarisse froze, a blush creeping onto her face. “S—sorry.”
A thin human man took a seat across the table from them.
He had on a set of large rounded glasses. His face was sharp, features tight with focus as he flipped through a thick ledger. Dark black hair was slicked back into a small pony-tail.
Lucia continued to heal, even though an official was in the room.
“Do you mind?” he asked, looking at her.
Lucia nodded. “I do. She’s hurt, and I’m her healer, it’s what I do.”
The man scowled, then started writing. “Very well then. Ms. Trunelle, would you like to start?”
Amarisse shook her head. “Nope. Let Lucia or Val handle it. If there’s anything I wanna add, I’ll do it.”
The thin man pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing heavily. “Cooperation would be much appreciated ladies.”
Val smirked. “I told the guards everything, why not ask them?”
The door behind them slammed shut, then a click could be heard.
“You are not leaving until we hear what happened and what you saw.”
Val sighed. “Don’t threaten us. We’re all new to this and being shoved into a room with some stuck up asshole is a bit more than what we expected.”
She leaned back, arms crossed as Lucia continued healing.
The man scowled again opening his mouth to speak.
“Ah ah ah—I’ll tell you what happened so we can go home,” Val cut in.
She didn’t give him a chance to reply.
“We entered the dungeon like anyone else would. First a group of Bramble Rats, nothing too hard. We were a bit worried at first, seeing as this was our first time fighting in the dungeon. But as a group we handled them well enough. No injuries, and nothing beyond what we expected. We grabbed some of their tails, wanting to see if they had any value.”
Amarisse nodded. “It was easier than we expected. I think we got confident after that.”
Lucia cut in. “Maybe a bit too confident.”
Val shrugged. “Possibly. Anyways. We continued on and ran into a duo of Root Stalkers. One wrapped up Lucia, while one got me. Honestly, they weren’t all that dangerous since we reacted quickly. I even have one of their stones.”
As the man continued writing, Val pulled the translucent green stone out.
“That’s worth a little bit,” he said. “Not rare by any means, or unusual.”
Val put it away and continued. “Then those fucking wolves.”
The man looked over the top of his glasses. “Emberfang I presume?”
Amarisse slammed her hand on the table. “Fuckers actually got Val too, that’s what Lucia is healing.”
Lucia sighed. “I can heal the wound, but there’s going to be scarring left behind.”
Val chuckled. “That’s fine. Women like scars, right? Anyways, where was I?”
“You were telling him how we just bumped into the wolves,” Mina said, pouting.
Val nodded. “Right. Three of them came at us. I’d like to think we handled them well enough, but I got sloppy. Nothing beyond a few fireballs and this scratch though.”
The man nodded. “And then you heard the Soul Echo, right?”
Val furrowed her brow. “If you knew that already, then what’s the point of this?”
Lucia smacked Val lightly on the leg. “Just tell him what happened so we can leave.”
Val rolled her eyes. “We heard a woman calling for help, so we ran in that direction. It went silent for a few minutes before yelling again.”
Amarisse shivered. “Lucia was the first one to see it.”
Val nodded. “She pointed it out. I can still hear the echoes of it calling for help… god it sounded creepy as fuck.”
The man spent a few more seconds writing before looking up. “Anything else?”
Val and Amarisse both shook their head.
“Nope, we just ran,” Amarisse said.
“Hauled ass—more like,” Val corrected.
He wrote down a few more things before standing. “Thank you for your… cooperation. You may leave when you’re ready.”
Val stood, making Lucia huff. “That’s it? You just ask a bunch of questions, we tell you everything, and you don’t tell us a damn thing?”
He ignored her as he walked through the door.
She scowled. “Fucking asshole.”
Amarisse elbowed her. “Thin doors, remember?”
Val rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get out of here.”
The girls left the room and headed back down two flights of stairs to the lobby.
As they stepped onto the floor and turned the bottom of the banister, they froze.
Sprinkled throughout the crowd, were multiple people looking at them. Some stared, others whispered to people next to them.
Mina hid behind Val, clutching her side.
Amarisse just grinned and looked around.
Val and Lucia shared a look.
“Great,” Val muttered. “We’ve made some waves.”
The girls were standing at a counter deeper within the guild now.
“Not the most impressive haul, but for a first delve it’s above expectations.”
A cute woman with long elven ears was sitting behind the counter. Long raven hair tied back in a ponytail, a few strands already loose. She was wearing the same clothing other employees of the guild were.
“Your best finds are the Emberfang skulls and the Stalker gem.”
Val had no clue what any of it was worth.
“How much?” Lucia asked.
Mina and Amarisse leaned in, excitement palpable.
The woman flicked a few lenses on her multi-lens glasses before speaking. “The tails aren’t completely worthless. I’ll give you one tack for each.”
She set them to the side. “As for the Root Stalker Gem? Four marks, since it has magical essence.”
Only after gently placing the “gem” within a small box did she continue. “Now, the adult Emberfang Wolf parts.”
Val raised an eyebrow. “How did you know it’s an adult?”
The woman scoffed. “The size of the skull and its canines are the biggest giveaways.”
She rolled the skull over, checking it as she continued. “The vials of ash will get you three tacks each. The claws have some minor alchemical value so we can give you four for each one as well.”
She rolled the skull back over and flipped her lenses up. “The skulls are in good shape. No direct hits to them, even though its the easiest way to kill them.”
The group paled as they exchanged glances.
The woman started laughing. “Fucking rookies. You had no clue destroying the skull was the easiest way to kill them, did you?”
Each of them shook their heads.
“Well you got lucky then. Since you didn’t damage them, I’ll give you a little extra. Three marks each. Just keep in mind they are the weak-spot for the future.”
After setting aside all of the parts, the woman turned and approached a safe in the back. Clicking sounds could be heard as she started putting in the combination.
A few minutes later she set a small pouch on the counter. “Alright, so in full we are paying you 13 Marks and 6 Tacks for everything.”
No one reached for the pouch at first.
When Val finally did, the woman asked a question. “So, how many delves did it take to gather those?”
Val tied the pouch to her waistband as she answered. “Only one. We were in there for a few hours.”
When she looked up, the woman wore a shocked expression. “Wow. You must be the group who ran into almost a dozen enemies on your first delve. That’s… unheard of. Dungeon must really hate you four.”
That final line stuck with the girls as they found a table to discuss their first delve.
There was a lot to talk about.
The air around them felt heavy, even though they should’ve been celebrating a successful first delve.
“Let’s start off with dividing what we earned,” Val suggested.
After laying the coin out for everyone, they started splitting it.
Everyone would get three Marks to start with.
“How did we want to divide the rest of it?” Amarisse asked.
Mina looked over the remaining coin. “It’s going to be kinda hard to do that, right?”
Lucia nodded. “It is, since there’s no easy way to divide it as is.”
Val snapped her finger with a smile, catching all of their attention. “Party fund.”
Amarisse raised an eyebrow. “Party fund?”
Val nodded. “Yep. A fund for us as a group. When we go into a dungeon and need something to help the party as a whole, we use the party fund. That way none of us have to dip into our personal funds to do it.”
“I like it,” Mina said. “We can always add to it from our personal fund too, right?”
Lucia chimed in. “That’s actually an excellent idea. I think it would be fair for any four of us to add to the fund if we wanted as well. As such, I want to add another Mark to it for now.”
At this moment, the party fund was minimal, but it was a start.
“Now that we’ve settled the coin… we need to discuss our delve,” Lucia said, expression pensive.
“Why do I get the feeling you think it didn’t go well?” Amariss asked, crossing her arms.
Mina leaned forward. “What? It went so good!”
Val could see it in Lucia’s gaze. “Go ahead, tell us what’s bothering you.”
Lucia sighed and shifted in her seat. “We need another party member.”
This revelation was news to the rest of the girls.
“We did great down there!” Amarisse yelled. “You heard what everyone else said! We fought more than what is considered normal and the only injury was Val getting swiped near the end. How can you say we need another member? We are good with the four of us!”
Lucia slammed her hands on the table. “I was practically powerless as I watched you fight!”
Everyone froze, surprised by the outburst.
“I couldn’t run out in the open to heal Val right away. If I did, I would’ve likely been killed… or gotten one of you killed.” She adjusted her chair and sat back down. “I can’t change my class. I’m already stuck with being a Channeler. But we need someone who can do damage from the back line with me. Ideally someone good with tactics, or can at least learn quick enough.”
Val felt both bothered and understanding.
On one hand, she didn’t think they needed anyone else. Like Amarisse said, they’d handled a rougher first delve than the majority experienced.
On the other, she understood why Lucia likely felt so powerless. Maybe having someone who could stand next to her would give her an outlet during fights.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt to look for another person,” Val finally said. “But how do we do that? Is there a board we post on?”
Mina answered this time. “We can post on the party board. That’s how I knew about the big group meeting the day we met you.”
Lucia brought out a piece of paper and started writing down on it. “I’ll make the posting simple. Ideally we find someone who can be a strong back line fighter.”
“And if we don’t?” Val asked.
Lucia sighed. “Then we will keep going until we do. I’d say we put off delving again tomorrow, give it some time for someone to possibly see our post.”
Val was walking home now.
After posting their ad for a new party member, prioritizing mages and marksman, they decided to go home.
This gave Val ample time to be alone with her thoughts.
She didn’t want to stop adventuring after finally getting her first taste. Yeah, she got hurt, but it wasn’t that serious. Lucia was able to easily heal it, and it didn’t diminish the burning desire to keep pushing.
“Hopefully we find someone soon.”
Val continued walking along the stone street.
Then it hit her.
“Where the fuck am I going to store my armor?” she muttered. “I can’t go home wearing it! If anyone sees me, I’m screwed!”
The armor she could possibly hide, but not the tall ass halberd. There wasn’t anywhere she could store her gear either. Maybe she could’ve asked one of the girls to keep it at their place, but they were gone.
Val had no clue where any of them lived.
She spent the better part of five minutes trying to figure something out.
In the end, her only choice was sneaking inside and rushing upstairs. It was the only option that had a chance in hell of working.
When she finally approached the front porch of her house she froze.
Light was already bleeding from the windows. The soft glow was comforting yet crushing at the same time.
Everyone was home, and dinner would be soon.
It was now or never.
Val walked to the front door and grabbed the handle.
“This is such a terrible idea…” she muttered.
Slowly she opened the door and peeked around the edge.
No one was in the foyer.
I might have a chance!
Quickly she slipped inside turning to close the door as softly as she could.
“Sweetheart… what are you wearing?”
Fuck