In the eastern quadrant of the city brooded a great crater of rubble and dust. Only two years ago it had been 30 square miles of dense cityscape. The other side was obscured by the oranges and browns of pollution and gusts of restless dust. When it rained, the crater became a pit of mud and rock that one could sink into. On a dry day, the wind would carry the powder into the city to scourge the eyes of the living.

Erected around the crater was a sleek wall, a memorial on which was carved the exhaustive list of names of those who were lost in the fight against evil. Sometimes Cleo visited the wall and traced some of the freshly chiseled names, reading them quietly to herself as if she were doing them some great favor. Other times she just sat on top of it and gazed into the nothingness.

Two years had passed since the meteor had hit, destroying D. Evil and his gang, but the details of the event were still unpublicized. The general media consensus was that D. Evil had summoned the meteor as a last ditch effort to kill his nemesis Liberty Warrior. How wrong they were.

Now it was hot out, but the air was still and the crater seemed almost peaceful. Cleo sat there as Hero Arbiter, overlooking the terrible depression.

“Lose someone here?” Misery sat down next to her.

“Are you still tracking me?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said.

“Waste of mana.”

“Well maybe if you killed more heroes you would level up and unlock the ‘Refresh’ skill,” said Misery. “Wanna join my crew?”

“I already said no.”

“You said you’d think about it.”

“I’ve thought about it,” she said. “I work best alone.”

“Well you’d work even better with my crew. C’mon we’re really great. Sometimes when we’re not terrorizing heroes we throw pizza parties.”

Harbiter stood up. Misery did too. Before she could teleport away, Misery placed a finger on her arm, and in milliseconds they were both in an alley.

“Why are you following me?”

“I’m not following you. I just happen to be going the same way.”

Making the conscious effort not to reply, Harbiter walked out of the alley. Around the block was the NPC shopping district. The NPC area was a curious place, walled in on all sides by skyscrapers. The ground was cobbled and the stalls were wooden carts. Sheaths of fabric covered the walkways, giving it an indoor outdoor feel.

The government at some point had tried to renovate it, but discovered that every night the area reset and building on it was futile. It was also a no-combat zone; skills and spells simply did not work. This included the scanning spell on Harbiter’s mask, and thus the crowd of humans did not have name tags above their heads.

Harbiter wandered the stalls, tailed by Misery, perusing the hovering holographic menus which floated next to the shop NPCs. Some of the NPCs greeted her with a line of dialogue, which they repeated to Misery after she passed.

“Ho adventurer! Welcome to the one stop spell shop!” greeted a shopkeep.

Harbiter swiped through the menu. She didn’t tap anything to read descriptions. Just seeing the item icons was enough information to tell her what they were. This was the sixth spell shop she had visited, and she had not yet made any purchases.

At the seventh shop, she stopped at an image. She tapped this one. “I would like to purchase this please.”

“I am sorry, you must be at least level twenty to buy that,” replied the NPC shopkeeper.

“When do you cycle your stock?”

“Tonight at midnight.”

Misery butt in. “Sounds like it’s time to do some dungeon diving. Or hero-slaying. Whichever you fancy.”

“I’m guessing you will happen to also be doing whichever I choose?”

“You know me too well.”

Harbiter grabbed his shoulder and they teleported.

 

---

 

They appeared in a blue-meadowed forest. The trees were taller than skyscrapers. The bark was pale like bones, and the leaves were blue like sapphire. There was a moment of calm as Misery admired his surroundings, but then the ground shook. Misery could see the large form of a humanoid turning to them. It had great horns protruding from its head, and it dragged a club.

“This is the Cerulean Forest Dungeon. We’re going to kill the boss,” said his garbled companion.

“Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself?” asked Misery. “I mean I hate to sound like Justice Fist, but you don’t have any attack skills.”

“You do. I sent you a party invite.”

Misery opened his menu inbox, and indeed, a party invite had just arrived. “So you’re just gonna let me kill it and leech off my EXP?”

“You follow me around; I put you to work.”

Misery shrugged and accepted the invite. “I guess that’s fair.”

The earth shook more violently now. The boss had gotten closer. Harbiter jumped into a tree, and Misery did the same. There was no point being under the creature’s feet where they could be stepped on. Its head was just under the canopy. Being a creature of magnitude, it appeared to move slowly, but he could feel the power from its footsteps. Its nametag read:

Cerulean Forest Guardian, Lvl 90

It reached towards Harbiter’s tree, but they jumped onto its back. Misery watched as they pulled out their knife and began to stab into its skin. Surely that couldn’t be much more than a snail bite to the dungeon boss! The giant reached back and tried to sweep Harbiter off, but they jumped into another tree. Misery leapt to them. “Do you have a plan other than hoping I kill it?”

“Last time I killed one of these it took me five days. I was hoping you might speed up the process.”

Misery leaned back in surprise. “You killed one of these? How are you only level 18? Is this the only thing you’ve killed?”

Harbiter shrugged. “Not quite.”

Their tree fell as the giant smashed his club into where they had been sitting. They both leapt away, and reconvened at another tree. Misery held out his hand. “Give me your knife.”

“Why?” they asked.

“I’m not going to keep it forever.” Harbiter handed him the knife. He focused on it, and the blade grew longer and curled slightly. He handed it back. “I gave it a temporary upgrade. Spent a pretty damn expensive support spell on it too, so, you know. Don’t waste my credits.”

Harbiter spent a few seconds examining it before jumping back at the giant. This time its thick skin parted more easily—though only slightly. They returned to the tree. 

“Is that the extent of your assistance?” asked Harbiter. “You realize I’m meant to be the support member.”

“Consider this your interview to join my crew.”

“I could just teleport away and leave you here.”

That would be inconvenient. Misery started dumping items from his inventory on the ground below. The items appeared to be ejected from his chest. Knives, stones, twigs, more twigs, sticks.

“Why do you have so many sticks?” asked Harbiter.

“Don’t judge. It’s a bit of a sticking point for me.” Did they smile behind that mask of theirs? He thought he saw it shift slightly. 

Harbiter darted to another tree as the one they had been conversing on was brutally destroyed. Misery dropped down between the legs of the hulking creature. The loud sound of splintering wood filled the air, then a deafening crash as the tree fell to the ground.

He cast his unique skill, ‘Nucleus.’ The items levitated from the ground and began to circle him, forming a sphere of whipping blades and sticks about 15 feet in diameter (that’s 5 meters for those of you who insist on using actually good units of measurement). They abraded the monster’s gray legs, leaving patches of raw skin. Its health bar ticked downwards almost negligibly.

“Great!” Misery shouted to his new bestie. “I’m giving it a free exfoliation treatment. I hope it fucking lands on me when it dies in ten years!” Gosh, if he’d known they’d be fighting a giant, he would have curated his inventory better. He darted away from an incoming stomp.

A curved knife slammed into the grass beside  him, missing him by a hair. It shook, then levitated and joined the fray of items.

“Is that your only weapon?” Misery shouted.

Harbiter reached into their chest and pulled out another knife, identical to the previous one, though unenhanced. It whizzed past his cheek, landing in a tree before dislodging joining the fray.

“I like this strategy,” said Harbiter. They pulled out more knives, embedding them into the ground around Misery, only narrowly missing him each time. It did help, the legs of the beast were bloodying, and its health bar drained ever so slightly faster.

“You have good aim!” he shouted. “I really appreciate that about you!”

“Thanks.”

“So what now?” he asked.

“Keep up the dodging,” they said from above. “You’re doing great.”

Some support. 

 

They returned to the market late at night, Misery panting from exhaustion, completely drained of mana. Harbiter had leveled up to 21, and even Misery had gone up one level, now at 74. Harbiter walked up to the NPC shopkeep. “I’d like this spell please.”

“What is that?” asked Misery, tapping on it and squinting at the description.

Guiding light - summons a medium light spirit that stays by your side for one day, or until dismissed.

“We killed that for that?”

“Useful.” Harbiter hummed happily.

“That will be 30 credits,” said the shopkeeper.

“He’s paying,” said Harbiter, nodding towards Misery.

“Excuse me?” he asked, taking a step back.

“I teleported you over 800 miles in the past 3 days. If I was a taxi, I would be charging you much more than 30 credits, not to mention a convenience fee for speed of service.”

“Fine,” grumbled Misery. He bought the stupid spell with his stupid credits and tossed it to Harbiter. It was a glassy orange orb, the size of an apple. They focused on it and it disappeared in a puff of smoke. It would appear in their spell roster, and, like all spells, it could only be used one time.

The two stood there silently for a moment.

“So,” said Misery. “You? Me? Partners?”

“What about your crew?”

“My what? Oh yeah. I’m my crew.”

Harbiter contemplated that for a long moment, then said, “You’re pretty strong.”

They reached a hand out. It was calloused and scarred, as if it had suffered many years of intense labor. None of the cuts were fresh, but they looked like painful hands to have. Misery removed a glove and took it in his, feeling the rough gouges on their warm, tanned skin.

They blinked back to the memorial wall. Harbiter pulled their hand out of his grasp and snaked it into their pocket. They gave him a strange look, then sat down and looked over the crater, just like they had sat when he approached them.

“You’re a woman aren’t you,” he said.

Harbiter gave him a backwards glance. “I am.”

He sat next to her and looked out at the great dusty expanse. It was a black inky void in the dark of the night. “What does it mean to you?” he asked.

“Betrayal,” Harbiter replied, voice bitter.