“Lily, I think you might mean you can give extra experience if we are in a party.” Anika paused, turning to Nilendi, “Parties are a thing, right? Like, grouping up?”

  “You can party with me any time, Anika.” Panu winked at her, and she chose to ignore him.

  “Of course,” Nilendi replied. “You can formalize a party by thinking ‘party’ while looking at another person. They will have the option to accept or decline. Otherwise, ‘party’ will pull up your party status.”

  “Oh man, I really liked the idea of a dungeon party,” Philip interjected.

  “Me too,” Lily sighed dejectedly.

  Anika immediately thought “party” and received another translucent window.

  Nilendi barely acknowledged the interruptions and continued. “Upon entering a dungeon, combat options become available, including the ability to see your own health and mana bar. Outside of a dungeon, you will only see health and mana alerts as opposed to a permanent window. The ambient magic concentration in the dungeon zones allows for more advanced status reporting.”

  Morigan interrupted, “Enough with basic magic education. You’ve already kidnapped me - don’t torture me with useless magic lessons that anyone should have learned ages ago. You want us to save your little world from the big bad dungeons, I demand adequate compensation, attendants, travel…”

  Morigan continued to list all the things she required as a Princess before she would deign to be the world’s “hero.” Anika tuned her out. She had magic powers, allegedly powerful ones, since Nilendi told them their ritual spell was supposed to summon “the magicians with the most potential power” of the generation. She mulled the situation over in her mind, like she would the facts of a puzzle game she had to figure out. They had some kind of out-of-control dungeons that were gaining power faster than their citizens could defeat them, and several dungeons were almost too powerful to be defeated. She wasn’t quite sure she understood how that worked – but it seemed like the dungeons gathered magic over time, and then expended magic to generate creatures. If dungeon monsters were defeated regularly, the strength of the dungeon didn’t increase. But if the creatures were not defeated, the dungeon was able to coalesce more power and use it to summon stronger creatures and hazardous magic effects. Something was causing the dungeons to gain more magic now, and not enough was being expended to prevent “hazardous magic effects”... Nilendi spoke about things “erupting into chaos”. Definitely something to avoid.

  Based on her brief introduction to magic and level, it seemed like it would take a long time before she was powerful enough to really be useful here. Did she even want to be useful? She was just a junior in college, spending her time on computer science, statistics, and video games. Her skills were in spreadsheets, algorithms, and puzzles. She’d never really been an athlete… she’d tried a year of martial arts as a kid, but wasn’t exactly Bruce Lee. She might be able to punch someone without hurting herself in the process, and that was about it. In high school she’d tried out for the Lacrosse team because some of her friends thought it would be fun, but she didn’t make it on the team and barely managed to avoid embarrassing herself at the tryouts. She decided to stick to video games after that. Starcraft was much more fun, and she was way better at it.

  On the other hand, this was pretty much like being zapped into Everquest, and she’d always been pretty good at MMOs. She power-leveled in every game and was a total min-maxer, doing her best to optimize every stat, item, and spell to be more powerful. Some of those same techniques would apply to this fantasy setting, right? It sounded a lot more fun than a life of spreadsheets, even if she did love a well organized and properly formatted table. She probably should find out if healing and resurrection were a thing though… hardcore mode was great in a game but sounded significantly more stressful when it was her own permadeath, not a character. That probably wasn’t going to be relevant anytime soon, considering her level and lack of magical knowledge.

  At some point, Nilendi must have shut Morigan up, as Nilendi was again speaking. Anika quickly turned her attention to what she was saying.

  “We have prepared support personnel in addition to the gifts, though we assume you will be working together as a party…” Nilendi was immediately interrupted by Morigan.

  “Absolutely not. I’m not going to party up with some weak water mage who doesn’t even know anything! Besides, I’m far too high level to associate with someone who is only level 5.”

  “That’s ok,” Anika replied, “I think I’ll be just fine on my own. I don’t need anyone to bog me down.”

  “And she has me!” Lily jumped in. “But maybe we should have some people in the party because of my ability…”

  “Oh, Epona and I will go with you!” Philip exclaimed. “I can like, totally help you out and we can be like Team Awesome Animal with Epona and Lily.”

  Anika was about to refuse, not really wanting anyone’s charity, even a nice guy like Philip, but Lily had a good point. Her ability gave a buff in a party, and if she was bringing it up, maybe it didn’t apply when it was only the two of them alone in a party. They may need someone who wasn’t a ‘companion’ to trigger the experience bonus. She did need the bonus XP if she wanted to power level, and her own abilities seemed pretty lackluster right now. She was fairly confident more would be gained through experience, and that meant she may need to take advantage of Philip to gain experience early on. Besides, having a higher level person power-level a lower level character was usually one of the most effective ways to gain fast experience in games… she remembered her friend talking about running Freehold hundreds of times in World of Warcraft to gain levels, and she’d similarly power leveled friends herself in Diablo.

  “Yeah, Philip, we can party. That sounds like a good idea.” Anika agreed.

  “How cute, dumb and dumber are going to party,” Morigan sneered.

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  Anika was about to reply when Zola surprised her by speaking.

  “It is unbecoming of a Princess to treat others with such disrespect. On my world, we are disciplined in mind and voice.” Zola’s stoic tone was bitingly cold. “I am too far above the water mage for it to be safe for her to travel with me, and I will not travel with one who shows others disrespect. I will journey alone to discover the source of the dungeon’s growing power.”

  “Well…” Panu drawled, while Morigan sputtered at Zola’s reprimand. “I’ll go with the Princess. Seems my charming personality may be just what she needs.” Panu grinned, “What do you say Princess, fancy a fire mage?”

  “I certainly don’t want to do all the work myself!” Morigan sounded indignant, as if she hadn’t just insulted her way out of being in everyone’s party. “Fire isn’t as powerful as Air, but I suppose you would be useful for doing damage. I accept you into my entourage.”

  Panu rolled his eyes while Morigan wasn’t looking and flashed a smile at Anika. Anika silently wished him the best of luck dealing with such a spoiled brat. She wondered if she actually knew how to use her powers or if she had just been dragged along while others farmed experience for her. She didn’t seem like the type to raise a finger.

  “This is… not as we anticipated.” Nilendi attempted to regain control of the summoned heroes after they split into three parties. “We will have to work to find additional support personnel.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Anika said. “You can give everyone to the Princess. Just tell us where to go and how to get supplies. We’ll move faster alone."

  “I like this plan!” Lily said. “I can help find dungeons and we can level super-fast!”

  “Maybe we need, like, a map or something. But I think Epona can carry us, right Epona,” Philip turned to look at the pegasus. After a moment, he smiled a goofy grin Anika would expect to see on a cartoon character, “Yeah! Epona will fly us everywhere we need to go! She is the best horse!”

  Anika could see the pegasus droop her head towards the ground, as if she was trying to facepalm… Anika was pretty sure if Philip was a D&D character, he’d have a -3 Intellect modifier at best. But he seemed nice, and she’d rather a dumb, nice guy than Morigan any day. He had big Kronk energy, which could prove entertaining… or tiresome. Either way, she was doing way too much peopling right now, and going off to a dungeon with a talking capybara, a friendly farm boy, and a mythical pegasus sounded way more appealing than dealing with everyone else in the room.

  “So… when can we get to a dungeon?” Anika asked

  ----------

  From their Pantheon, Water turned to Air, “Yikes, you have a real winner there in your hero. Didn’t you bother to check her titles before you summoned her?”

  Air stared at Water, “Of course I looked at her titles! I thought being the 10th princess in line would make her more likely to want to make her way in a new world and use her background to be a leader! It doesn’t exactly show a personality briefing next to their aptitude rating. At least mine is level 20, unlike yours.”

  “She had a 3.2 aptitude!” Water retorted, “I’ve never even seen one that high! I admit I didn’t bother to look at anything past the rating… but I had to know what someone with that kind of power would be like!”

  Earth nodded along, “Exactly, magical power is most important for dealing with our rampant dungeon power issues. Water and I chose the highest aptitudes we could get.”

  Fire laughed, “And look what that got you, Earth. But at least you didn’t take someone from that weird mercenary planet like Aether did.”

  Aether looked calmly at Fire, “The planet is known for reliable training and excellent skill. Many other gods recommended someone from that planet. Their levels far exceed others with similar aptitude and they adapt quickly to other worlds.”

  ----------

  After hours in those stone rooms with Nilendi, the rest of the priests, and the other summoned “heroes,” Anika was thrilled to be in her assigned room alone with Lily. They had been shown to a small bedchamber with wooden floors, smooth stone walls painted a light blue, and a gently sloping ceiling of slightly rough natural stone. A dark blue rug lay next to a fluffy, four post bed about the size of a queen back home. A fabric canopy intended to encase the bed and keep the heat in on cold nights hung tied back to the posts. While she hadn’t yet been outside to see her new world, she was told it was the warm season, so there was no fire in the small hearth across from the bed. On the back wall was a small dresser and mirror, while nearer the door was an armchair and small table near the hearth. Lily had plopped down on the fluffy carpet as Anika fell into a plush white armchair in the corner. She was mentally exhausted by far too much time with people and conversation today, yet her mind was still racing with the implications of everything that had happened.

  Suddenly feeling like she had a headache coming on, Anika groaned and rested her head on her hand as she leaned left onto the arm of the chair. Lily stood and came over to her, nuzzling her leg before attempting to jump into Anika’s lap, a feat that was only really possible because Lily was not yet a full size, adult capybara. Anika pulled her up when Lily only managed to get her nose to knee level. She was about the size of a 6-month-old kitten right now. Anika wondered if she would grow as she leveled or grow with time… or maybe she would just always be an adorable baby sized magical capybara. If she did grow, how big would she get? Anika wasn’t the greatest at biology, but she vaguely recalled watching a TikTok video about how capybara could become over 150 pounds – she wasn’t sure she could survive having something the size of a St. Bernard jump in her lap if Lily grew to that size.

  “What’s wrong, Anika,” Lily asked, sounding worried.

  “Nothing…. It’s just… it’s been a really long day. All this… being yanked through some strange ritual, being thrust into a body that’s a mix of a Na’vi and a mermaid, having magic… I mean, I’m having a conversation right now with a talking capybara! Am I going crazy? Did I actually have an accident and now I’m in a coma having freaky morphine induced dreams?!” Anika managed to stop her only slightly deranged ramble and took a few deep breaths. At least magical portals were a far better way to get to another world than being hit by truck-kun. “Sorry… this is just so weird. There is no magic in my world. This is the stuff of video games! I’ve never done anything like fighting in dungeons for real! How am I going to survive!?” The last sentence rose in pitch with barely contained panic.

  Lily nuzzled her, “I’m here to help you! I don’t know about your world… but I know a lot about Etalen. I can guide you and we will be fine!”

  Anika allowed Lily to calm her down rather than allowing herself to hyperventilate.

  “I know you will,” Anika gave Lily a hug. “I can sense the… what did they call it… Anima bond? And I know you want to help. It’s still a lot, even with you to help me. And I feel a bond to you but I only just met you. I don’t know anything about you either… were you also teleported here? I guess that would be strange too.” Anika sighed.

  “I’m not sure I know a lot about me either,” Lily said, tentatively. “And I don’t really know how I know things. Well, I know the gods gave me a lot of knowledge so I could be your guide, but it’s like a lot of things were thrust into my head and it’s all a big jumble I can’t sort out yet. I’m not sure who I was before… or if I even was someone before. What I know is blurred and mixed in with what the gods granted. Was I just created by the gods? Or was I something else too, like you were? I don’t know if I will ever figure that out…” Lily seemed a bit downcast at that.

  “I guess both of us are going to be learning a lot about ourselves. Maybe that’s a good thing, since we can learn together and help each other when we make mistakes. I’m surprised I haven’t tripped and fallen flat on my face in this slightly too tall and slightly too skinny body, though I’m sure that’s the least of my problems right now,” Anika gave a nervous, slightly forced laugh.

  “If you trip, I’ll catch you!” Lily exclaimed.

  “Uhh… I’m not sure that’s a good idea Lily. I’m like… a lot bigger than you and I think I would squish you. And I don’t want to squish you even if you look soft and fuzzy like my throw pillows back home.” Anika laughed.

  “No, I don’t need to catch you like that,” Lily giggled, a strange half snorting, half squealing sound that was somehow delightful, “I can use my magic!”

  “Wait, what kind of magic do you have that you can catch me?!”