There were more than a few stalls here, selling everything from rings to swords to what looked like a crude flintlock. One of the stalls had an anvil and a lit forge with an orange-hot piece of metal inside. A few people were milling about in the area.

  Eric asked around for Kaila and was quickly pointed to a stall near the edge of the artificer's sector. A young, dark-skinned, woman presumably named Kaila with a disinterested expression was sitting behind a modest collection of weapons. Axes, maces, clubs. A few spears displayed point down in a wooden bucket.

  "How can I help you?" She looked bored. Her words slurred together slightly, Eric couldn't tell whether it was due to

  "Is your name Kaila?" He asked the greasy-smeared woman.

  "That's me." She perked up slightly at the mention of her name. "Have anything you're looking for?"

  "I have something to sell. Marshall sent me." He said, pulling out the zombie creature's bone. Eric wasn't particularly well versed in anatomy, so he had no idea what kind of bone it could be. It was dark brown in color and surprisingly heavy. He hefted the bone's weight in his hands before handing it over.

  "Have you got this identified?" She asked. She turned away from Eric and brought out a small loupe to investigate the bone. She banged it against the hard stone floor a couple times.

  "No. It came from a leaky zombie."

  "A resurrected?"

  "As far as I could tell." Hearing this, she felt its weight in her hands a couple times before replying.

  "I'll give you 4 triangles for it." She offered, finally taking her eyes of the item.

  "I was thinking closer to 4 yellows." Eric scoffed at the paltry offer

  "You're insane, I'll do 1 at most."

  "4."

  "I don't think you understand how negotiation works." Kaila's eyes narrowed.

  "I think you shouldn't be insulting my intelligence over a few coins." Eric was fully annoyed at this point, and about ready to snatch back his bone and find someone else to do business with.

  "I'll do 2 yellows a--" Eric's anger flared up a moment at the impertinent trader before she rapidly changed course. "N-No, hold on. It was 2 yellows and one of these weapons! Look, this warhammer is great! It's enchanted! It dropped on one of the lower floors, the 5th level, even!"

  "You're giving me a 5th level weapon in exchange for two yellow coins? Why would I believe that?" Eric was perplexed at the offer. He could see the weapon there behind the trader. It had runes spiraling down the haft, as well as a few circular designs carved into the metal of the head.

  "It's a little defective, sure but I'm sure you could trade it for something better! Look, it stores away neatly!" She grabbed a leather-wrapped segment of the warhammer's haft, and it erupted in a flash of crimson light. When the light subsided, Kaila was holding on to a short leather rod, approximately the size of a carrot.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "A little defective?" Eric replied, simply. This was not the time to be impressed by theatrics.

  "Ok. Look, I don't have a lot of money right now. I just made a huge deal for some raw resources, and I don't have enough money to make it back to the 5th floor through the portal system." Kaila explained her situation plainly. "I bought the weapon for a suspiciously great price off a passing warrior, but I had it identified and it was practically useless!"

  "How is any of that my problem?"

  "W-Well... Um." Kaila stopped to think for a moment. "Can you do me a favor? I promise I won't make you regret it. I'll give you the two yellows I have, and in a few days. I'll make a new weapon with your drop and sell it, and you can have half the profits!"

  Eric sighed, Kaila's pleading eyes made her look pathetic. "Fine, I'll use your hammer as collateral. If you don't pay me back, I'll come give Marshall a piece of my mind."

  "Thank you! You won't regret it!" Kaila dug through a small leather pouch attached to her hip, retrieving two yellow rectangles, which she pushed into Eric's hands.

  Eric left, but not before getting as much information about where he could find her later.

  The habitation area of Origin was mostly a collection of tents. Permanent buildings were difficult to erect when the dungeon floor and walls were impenetrable, so most of the 'buildings' around here were really tents.

  Along the way in, Eric spied someone familiar, along with a few other people that he hadn't met before. When they caught sight of Eric, they excitedly waved at them. The young boy that didn't talk that Eric had encountered before was standing there with an adult, as well as the girl that they had rescued together. She had seemingly recovered from the poisoning.

  The rest of the people turned to look at him, and Eric decided it would be less awkward to simply approach and introduce himself. The three of them had been transported to the dungeon together. The adult's name was Greg, and he was a gym teacher at the school the two kids had been from. The girl’s name was Megan, and the non-verbal kid's name was Simon. He had apparently been non-verbal from birth but seemed mostly normal otherwise.

  They were both approximately 16, while Greg was older than Eric, in his 30s.

  "Why weren't you with them, fighting the zombie?" Eric asked Greg, who had been conspicuously absent from the battle before.

  "We had just appeared in the dungeon, the... 5 of us." Greg began, a look of remorse crossing his face. "Before we even got to catch our bearings, that thing attacked us. It attacked all of us on the way, but it seemed intensely focused on Megan." Greg gestured at the girl, wrapped in a blanket probably provided by the infirmary.

  "Lindsay tried to stop it, but was injured really badly, Simon and Meg ran as fast as they could down the hallway and the monster chased after them." Greg continued, "but I was focused on stopping the bleeding and didn't notice that they had gone until it was too late."

  Eric sensed a streak of cowardice in the man. It didn't seem to him like that was the entire story, but cowardice was the name of the game in the dungeon. Avoiding fights was what kept you alive, but still. He looked down at the two kids who had been dragged down into the dungeon, unprepared to face the harsh realities of the world.

  "You said there were 5 of you, there were the three of you, and this 'Lindsay' character. Who was the fifth?" Eric asked, plainly.

  "Simon's half-brother, Robert." Greg stated. "He ran as soon as the monster arrived. We haven't seen him. We asked the gate guards to let us know when he appeared, but we couldn't keep exploring once you three managed to take it down."

  Eric nodded. If this Robert hadn't participated in killing the monster, then he wouldn't have been freed when it died, meaning he still needed to kill a monster in order to be freed from the tutorial floor.

  "I hope you find him." Greg nodded. All three looked worried, seemingly harboring no ill will toward his abandonment. They all recognized he was probably the smartest out of all of them.

  Eric bowed out of the conversation, telling them he would meet up with them the next day to talk, and figure things out. He was still confused about where the zombie creature had come from. According to his manual, the monster should only appear on the 3rd floor and below, but the monster had appeared on the tutorial floor.

  How had this happened? Eric pondered while he set down his tent he had bought at the concierge in the vendor's quarter. Once he finished, he sat down and started writing in his journal.