Mally stared at the entrance of the dungeon. It was set in a hill, made of rough hewn stone, and they knew the further they got down, the more dangerous the creatures would get. This was a relatively simple mission, for the first level. They had to kill and collect a few scorpions. Not the scorpions of their childhood, oh no. These scorpions were as big as a small dog, and were a delicacy amongst the upper class. They were a little worried Tuna would get stung, but it only paralyzed you. He could carry her out if push came to shove.

With a sigh, he walked into the dungeon and looked around. It was quiet and still, and they ventured further down, drawing their sword as their lantern lit up the halls. These were man-made, but as you got further down, it all became a complex cave system. They had upgraded their map to include a map of the dungeon, so they weren’t too bothered by it, but still.

It was hitting summer now. Fall was ending, but the hallway was cool and damp. There were mana torches up, speaking to the wealth of the guild, but those would go away as soon as they hit the first level. Tuna walked alongside them, and they looked around in silence. There was a wind blowing through the tunnel, and they didn’t like it, because it was hot.

“Alright, Tuna, let’s go,” they murmured as they walked down the hall, headed for the stairs. The mana torches faded away as they walked down the stairs, their lantern providing the only light, and they wished they had someone that had some form of light magic. That would make things easier.

They walked down the wet, slick stairs, Tuna padding alongside them, and looked around. They had to gather five scorpions. That wasn’t all that much, but they traveled solo and tried to kill each other or mate the second they ran into each other. So, this would take some time. They would probably be stuck at B rank for ten, twelve days.

They hit the first tunnel and drew their sword, the rasp ringing around the cavern, and looked around. It was quiet and still, and there were no monsters to be seen. They may have to kill something else on their way down, and they weren’t looking forward to that.

The first level was populated with lizards, snakes, and all other manners of creepy crawlies. They thought of the dungeon in Darven. Marcus went there often to get out his ‘aggression’. They pushed away memories of their asshole of a brother as they continued on, sword drawn and at the ready. It was quiet, with only them inside, but they could hear people talking in the distance. They would probably run into a lot of adventuring parties down here. Their mind went back to the conversation they had with Daisy, and they repressed a shiver. Hopefully, no one would take offense to them.

They continued on, passing glowing mushrooms growing on the cave wall, luminous and deadly-looking. They were poisonous, if they recalled from their self-education on the topic of mushrooms. Not for eating, but if you boiled them and dried them, they were a decent hallucinogenic. What were they called, again? Ah, they couldn’t remember.

Their foot nearly slipped, and they cursed quietly as they righted themself.

“What was that?” asked a girl’s high voice, and Mally came around the corner to face Lily and her team.

“Just me,” Mally replied as Lily clung to her staff as if her life depended on it.

“Oh!” she said. “It’s just you.”

“Yep. Me,” Mally replied, and she glanced nervously at Tuna.

“Well… Nice to officially meet you,” she said as the large men that had assigned themselves as her uncles stared at Mally in silence. “You’re Mally, right?”

“Yes,” Mally replied. “And you’re Lily.”

“I am!” she said nervously, and one of the burly guard dogs stepped forward.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked gruffly, and Mally stared at him as they considered being a problem. Ah, it wasn’t worth it.

“Looking for scorpions,” they replied, and walked past them. “See ya.”

“Wait!” Lily called as the four men exchanged bewildered looks. “Where are you going?”

“To hunt scorpions,” Mally bit out as all of the men stared at them with hard expressions. Well, they didn’t have to like Mally.

“Alone?” Lily asked with a tremor in her voice, and Mally resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“Yes. Alone,” he replied, and turned down the tunnel, heading out of the back of it and towards the exit.

“You don’t have to go alone! It’s your first B rank mission!” Lily called after him, and he kept walking. “Mally, wait! It’s dangerous down here!”

“I will survive,” Mally assured her, irritation ticking up, because couldn’t she read the room? Her bodyguards did not want Mally there. “You should worry about yourself.”

“Hey, don’t talk to Lily like that,” one of the men snapped. “She’s just worried about you. You’re suicidal.”

“I’m not suicidal,” Mally called. “I’m confiden---”

There was a low hiss in the cavern, and Mally reacted before they even realized what they were doing. They dodged to the side, and there was the shatter of teeth as the massive snake’s teeth landed on the ground. Before they even could fully react, Lily screamed, and Mally whirled and cut its head off. Its tail wiggled, and then it slumped to the ground, dead.

“See?” Mally asked. “Fine.”

With that, they turned and continued off down the tunnel, Tuna sneaking a quick bite out of its flesh before she rushed after Mally. Honestly, that dog was so food motivated. Mally walked along, ignoring their disbelieving stares on their back. Why did no one trust them to handle business? Seriously, it was getting annoying.

They continued on through the caverns, and wondered what quest they were going to take next. They had picked the scorpions because they were relatively easy to carry with them, and they would need a party to carry out the bigger creatures. Dammit, why did they leave that serpent? That was worth four platinum, but they couldn’t risk taking out their spatial bag in front of the others. They didn’t trust them.

Whatever. Let them take it. Mally wasn’t hurting for money.

They continued on, and there was a clicking in the darkness. They spun around, looking around, and a scorpion lunged at them. Finally. They stabbed it right through the head, and it died with a squeal of pain, and they picked it up and put it in their pack. One out of five. They could do this. This was easy.

They turned and continued down the tunnel, Tuna padding alongside them, and they looked down at the wolf.

“It doesn’t bother me,” they said after a pause, and Tuna looked up at him. “If people don’t like me, that’s fine.”

It wasn’t like they came here to make friends. Friends were dangerous. Their body… They really should have just been an herbalist instead. Less chance of getting found out that way. They could regenerate limbs. That was a problem. That was a huge problem. They just…

They didn’t think this through, really, but they also didn’t have the personality to work in a customer service focused area.

Oh, well. In thirty years, they would retire and go run a tea shop. That would be nice. They wouldn’t have to worry about anything once they hit SSS rank. If they hit SSS rank. They might putter around S rank for a while, give Daisy time to catch up to them. She would probably get stuck at B rank, and they would have to help her get unstuck. Which was annoying, but it was fine. They didn’t mind Daisy.

They walked in silence through the cavern as their mind drifted. Why didn’t people like them? Had they been too unfriendly, or was it something else? They didn’t know. They probably should know, but people had never been their strong suit. They struggled with them on a good day. Pleasing everyone just wasn’t possible, so they had to---

There was a low hiss in the darkness, and they reacted before they even realized what they were doing, lashing out with their spores for mycelium to explode within the creature’s throat. The lizard choked and a tail lashed out, and their blade swished, cutting it off at the root. It thumped to the ground, and the lizard thrashed on the ground, unable to breathe, and they watched as it slowly died.

Maybe there was something wrong with them, they thought. There was no rush of blood to their head, no sense that it was wrong of them to kill something that just wanted to live and protect its territory, but there was a sense that they didn’t care enough.

Maybe it was the autism. Maybe it was something else. They didn’t know. It felt a little weird and uncomfortable to blame it on the autism. Like they were doing something wrong.

With a sigh, they opened the spatial bag, and sucked the dead lizard into it. That was six platinum, and they didn’t even have to share it with anyone. Nice.

They continued on down the tunnel, the lantern swinging in their grasp, and looked around. At this rate, they were never going to find the scorpions. They were running into anything but the scorpions, and they would be down here for a bit. Maybe two days. There was a lot of ground to cover.

They had rations for three days, at least. With a sigh, they continued down the sloped tunnel. They had made sure to pack extra jerky for Tuna, but she could just eat monsters. They could kill creatures for her.

They continued on for a long time by themself, seeing no scorpions whatsoever. They liked to hide in the crevices and outcropping, so they made sure to check all of them before they continued on. The scorpions were rare, which is why they assumed this job was paying so well. Seven platinum, and they had the lizard, as well. It was the size of a Great Dane, so they should be able to haul it back on Rat’s back, and the spatial bag preserved it, so it wouldn’t rot. They might kill something else on the way back out. They hated to waste food, but they couldn’t take too much with them.

They headed through the myriad of tunnels along the route they had memorized, and they finally reached the large cavern where three fires were burning merrily. There were three separate adventuring parties in here, and they decided it was time for a break. They sat down and dug around in their pack for jerky for Tuna and bread and cheese for themself, and adventuring parties glanced at Mally, their expressions hard and judgmental. Mally ignored that as they fed Tuna the bites of jerky from their hand. She gobbled them down, and they idly checked her ribs. There was more fat on them now, but they were still prominent. That was a problem.

With a sigh, they sat back against the cave wall and bit down on their bread and cheese open faced sandwich. One adventuring party was whispering, arguing amongst themselves, before a young guy got up from the group and approached them.

“Wait, David, no!” one of them hissed, and Mally eyed him warily as he drew near.

“Would you like to join us?” he asked bluntly. “For a meal, I mean. I see you’re just eating rations. We have stewed lizard.”

Mally blinked up at him, not expecting that. He stared at them expectantly, and Mally coughed.

“That’s okay,” they said, because they could tell that about half of the party didn’t want them there. “I have my own food.”

“You can come over. I promise we’ll be nice,” he said, and Mally eyed him. He was about early twenties, with brown hair in a rats nest on his head, clear blue eyes, and freckles. He looked friendly, but they knew not to trust that.

“It’s okay,” they insisted. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“You won’t be,” he said, and Mally hesitated. They didn’t really want to, but… “We have some leftover meat we don’t know what to do with, so we figured we could feed it to your wolf.”

Oh. That was why. They didn’t want to waste food. Mally paused before they stood, and Tuna stood with them, looking at them expectantly.

“Alright,” they said, hating themself for it, and approached the campfire with David just in front of them. Some of them shifted over, and Mally sat down. Tuna laid down and propped her head in Mally’s lap, and Mally looked at the assembled group.

There was a girl with a staff lying beside her, mounted with a mana stone, a young man with a massive axe to the side of him, and David, who had a spear next to him. They all looked to be in their early twenties. Mally had seen them around the guildhall, but they had never spoken to them.

“I’m David, that’s Alyssa, and that’s Michael,” David said and gestured to each of them in turn. “And you’re… Mally, right?”

“Yeah. I’m Mally, and this is Tuna,” Mally said, and David passed over a bowl of raw meat for Tuna. Mally looked down at it, letting their spores investigate it. It wasn’t poisoned, and they set it down for Tuna to eat. She came to her feet and lowered her head to start eating, and Mally crossed their legs under themself.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mally. How old are you?” David asked as Alyssa stared at Mally with suspicious eyes.

“Uhm… fifteen,” they replied, and David blinked.

“Oh…” he said faintly as Alyssa’s brows furrowed. “I thought you were older with a baby face.”

“Well, I’m not,” Mally replied, and David shifted in discomfort.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. “Everyone dislikes you, but I didn’t know you were a kid.”

Mally was silent, processing that for a moment. What did it matter he was a kid? What?

“That’s fine,” Mally finally said. “People are allowed to dislike me.”

“No, it’s not okay. You haven’t been invited to any parties or anything,” David said, and that was true, but it wasn’t like Mally was actively seeking out parties. They mostly kept to themself. “We should be looking after you. Do your parents know you’re adventuring? Are you from town?”

“Er… No,” Mally replied. “My parents and I don’t talk. Anymore.”

David looked horrified, and Michael just looked concerned. Mally shifted in discomfort, and Alyssa loudly blew out a sigh.

“Here,” she said and thrusted a bowl of stew at Mally. “Eat.”

Mally slowly took the bowl and stared down at it. It didn’t smell as good as Martin’s cooking, but food was food. They weren’t going to be picky.

“Ah…” they said quietly, and took a bite of it. It was pretty good. A bit gamey, but good.

“Do you want to join our party?” David blurted, and Mally blinked at him.

“Ah… I’m already promised to someone else,” they said awkwardly just as Michael snapped, “David!”

“Oh, Daisy?” David asked and brightened up significantly. “I thought she was friends with you. Then, that’s fine then.”

He looked relieved, and Mally had no idea what was going on. Oh, well. They were getting fed. They couldn’t complain. But… Why was everyone acting so weird?