It took two weeks for Elijah to finally recover to the standard that Rose felt comfortable clearing him to return to adventuring.

  Two long weeks worrying about whether they were alive or dead. He had to continue hoping, if not for himself then for his friends.

  Mara had let him know through Rose that Tom was still on the run. The Celestials, including Arturus, were trying to track him down. He was on the run, but Elijah had no doubt that he’d be back to torment him. It was only a matter of time.

  His team was quiet as they got ready to leave. Elijah would be stepping outside of the inn for the first time in weeks, his first time outside of the protection that Rose’s adventuring team had extended to him by their presence.

  During his sessions with Rose, it had come out that Elijah would be capable of logging them out as soon as he reached Celestial rank. He suggested that maybe their parties should adventure together. Being able to tackle higher-ranked dungeons with their help would net Elijah more experience in the long run.

  “My party is too scared to adventure, Elijah. Even if they weren’t, it would be harder to keep you and your party alive, especially in a large battle like many of the high-ranking dungeons become.”

  “What about you then? We could always use an experienced healer,” Elijah suggested.

  She shook her head. “You have one. Sasha is more experienced than you give her credit for. The addition of me to your team wouldn’t be wise. It would screw with the group dynamic you have going on, and it would ruin my neutrality in case you ever need my services to get your head on straight again.”

  She patted his shoulder and gave him a smile, though her face was sad. “You have a long road ahead of you before you reach Celestial. There are going to be bad days to go with the good. I don’t have any doubt that you’ll need me again.”

  She was right, and he also understood the unspoken truth. There were more people than just him who were dealing with severe trauma from their time trapped. She was working on setting up a makeshift clinic here in Klade. She wanted to be on hand in case anyone else needed the help that she had given him.

  Elijah summoned his Dragontooth Armor as he finished loading his inventory with the supplies that Nicholas and Benjamin had gathered from the market. His eyes met Kara’s for a moment. There was a glimmer of hope in those eyes, and he hated the pain he saw as he looked away. As a group, Sasha’s Babysitting Service exited the inn.

  He pulled open his stat menu as they headed towards the city gate. It had taken him nearly a week to decide where to allocate the points for the several levels he’d gained from his reward chest, but he was happy with his choices.

  [CHARACTER STATS]

  Name: Elijah

  Class: Reality Warper

  Level: 28 (10756 / 10824 XP)

  Health: 125 / 125

  Mana: 150 / 150

  Strength: 10 (Apprentice)

  Intelligence: 30 (Journeyman)

  Dexterity: 28 (Journeyman)

  Constitution: 25 (Journeyman)

  To top things off, his Reality Warp skill was now up to level twenty-two, which finally put it up into the Journeyman-tier, meaning he was no longer limited by having to touch his target.

  “So run us through what your plan is again, Elijah?” Nicholas asked.

  “There are four types of bosses,” Elijah responded. “Dungeon, Wandering, Raid, and World Bosses. When I was talking to Bo, I hoped that maybe there were lower-tier World Bosses that we might be able to deal with as a small group, but they don’t go below Master-tier. Even then we wouldn’t be able to handle it ourselves.”

  Bo nodded. “It’s designed that way for a reason. They give out a stupid amount of experience for a single enemy.”

  “So what then? Are we going after Raid Bosses?” Benjamin’s question was understandable, but Elijah didn’t think they were ready yet.

  “No, Raid bosses are still too much for us. We’d need a larger group,” Bo answered.

  “The plan at the moment is we’re going to go after some Dungeon Bosses. I’ve been sitting around not doing anything for the past few weeks and I need to get the rust knocked off. Then we’ll see about trying to knock out some Wandering Bosses.”

  Nicholas grunted, his wooden armor surrounding his body. “Alright, where are we going first then, Elijah?”

  “After everything went down, when we met at that low-level dungeon, I saw something interesting. It seems that it is linked to the ongoing Dragontooth storyline.”

  Bo stopped. “The Dragontooth storyline? Elijah, there is no ongoing Dragontooth storyline. Kole completed it when he gained his Celestial-tier class.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The rest of the group turned to face them both as Elijah squared off with Bo. Elijah would not let Bo tell him he was wrong about something that he’d been actively taking part in.

  He realized he was angry for no reason. Bo just didn’t know, and that was Elijah’s fault. He’d been secretive—too secretive—and now he had to correct that.

  ”He didn’t though, or at least not completely. He had to wait for someone else. Another class.”

  Bo’s eyebrows shot up. “What the heck are you talking about, Elijah? What other class?”

  “I wasn’t completely honest with you guys before. After our second attempt together at the Dragontooth King’s Abandoned Fort. My new spells aren’t based on my Reality Warper class.”

  Elijah summoned one of his scouts, having it sit on his outstretched hand. “I found a class tome, one of the scattered books after the bats attacked us. It was for a Celestial-tier class called ‘Dragontooth King’. My Reality Warper class absorbed it.”

  He tried to make it sound like it wasn’t a conscious choice for him. Like he hadn’t stolen loot from his friends.

  ”I’m sorry for keeping it a secret from you guys. I was worried you’d think I did it on purpose and kick me out of the party.”

  Nicholas shook his head and clapped his giant hand onto Elijah’s shoulder. “Before we really knew you, we may have. I don’t blame you, Elijah. We all know your class is glitched because of the developer module in your pod.”

  Elijah felt both relieved and embarrassed. His friends believed him—trusted him—and he had lied to them. Not completely, but enough that his heart hurt at his deception.

  ”Alright, so you’ve got this Celestial-tier class. Are you sure there is some kind of quest running alongside it?” Bo asked him.

  “Kole seems to think so. He and I talked a bit after Whir fell and before…” He couldn’t bring himself to say what had happened after, but his friends knew. “He told me we’d meet again when I go to claim the throne from the old king.”

  ”So, you said the dungeon we met at was connected, that’s where we’re going?” Benjamin asked.

  Elijah nodded. “Yeah, when I touched the portal it showed up on my menu as the Undying Library. Like the Acolyte mini-boss we fought inside the fort.”

  “You’re forgetting something, Elijah. That entire area was probably destroyed when Nethy was. Even if the portal is still active, it’s going to be at the bottom of the water-filled crater.” Sasha reminded the party. The way her eyes locked onto Elijah’s told him she hoped he had a plan.

  And he wasn’t about to let her down. He racked his brain trying to remember what he had seen before the events of the last month spiraled out of his control. As if his class was reminding him, it finally popped into his brain.

  “Library underscore undying underscore entrance,” he spoke, causing the entire group to raise their eyebrows. “That’s the teleport point that the portal at the actual dungeon entrance used. Once we exit the city and Bo can open a portal, I shouldn’t have any trouble getting us inside.”

  Almost as one, they turned and started rushing towards the gates of the city. They were all excited about getting back to the fun. The dungeon delving and fighting that they had all logged into the game for.

  “You know,” Bo shouted as he ran alongside Elijah. “I’m really sick of you breaking my game.”

  “Well,” Elijah responded, mimicking the same amused tone. “If you’d coded it correctly the first time, I wouldn’t be able to break it.”

  Nicholas caught Elijah as the disorientation of Benjamin’s teleport hit him. He’d really been hoping his own spell could lock onto the library, but when that failed he’d resigned himself to using the Mage’s spell.

  “Are you sure you put the code in right, Elijah?” Nicholas asked him, looking around the room.

  He looked around himself, seeing immediately what Nicholas meant. This place did not look like a library. It looked more like a catacomb. Rows upon rows of body-sized alcoves lined the walls of the room. The true horror was that most of the alcoves were full of bodies, but there were several that remained empty.

  “I’m fairly certain,” Elijah whispered, concerned about being too loud and waking up whatever guardians existed in this place before they were ready. “I checked it twice before you went through and then again before I came through.”

  “It is an ‘undying’ library, and the acolyte was some kind of skeleton. It makes sense that this place would be equally creepy.”

  [Quest Updated]

  The Library at the End

  Description: You have entered the place where no Dragontooth King before you has ever dared to go. The Undying Library. Find its secrets, destroy them, and take the next step towards cleansing the Blood Oath Throne.

  Elijah grunted as he received the quest update. “Yeah, we’re in the right place. I just got an update to a quest.”

  He looked up at Nicholas, whose eyes had glazed over. As he looked around, everyone’s eyes appeared to be unfocused and reading a menu.

  “Yeah, I just got a quest to help the ‘Dragontooth King’ to destroy this place and reclaim his throne,” Benjamin told him. The others all confirmed they had received the same quest. Except for Nicholas.

  “Nicholas?” Elijah asked the big man. “Everything okay?”

  He hesitated for a moment before looking down and nodding his head. “Yeah, I got the same quest.”

  There was something concerning in Nicholas’ voice, but Elijah couldn’t quite place what. He wasn’t going to pry though. Their party leader could have his secrets, especially considering Elijah also had so many of his own.

  Something shifted deep within the dungeon, catching Elijah’s attention. It wasn’t something he noticed through his usual human senses, or even his expanded Reality Awareness. Instead, it was the same instinctual sense he’d had before gaining the awareness perk.

  If nothing else, it was reassuring to know that was still active and usable, even if Elijah had no proper way of actively using it.

  “Something just shifted in the dungeon. We need to be careful,” Elijah told his friends as they all began slowly making their way towards the only exit out of the room.

  “Could it be the system AI making things easier for us? You said that it was rooting for you when it inhabited the Dryad,” Sasha suggested.

  Elijah was about to respond when Bo answered; he was more qualified to answer anyway. “The system has very little control over dungeons. That’s why they have their own controller AI core.”

  “Alright, let’s be cautious.” Nicholas’ armor sprouted over his head as he moved to the front of the party.

  Elijah’s instinctive sense still tingled with the aftereffects of the dungeon shifting. The dungeon had sensed something about them and modified itself while active. That scared Elijah; he knew immediate changes made like that were damaging to the Core’s very structure. And whatever it had changed almost certainly would not be good for them.