—Orion—

  The gravel crunched underfoot as the adventuring group delved further into the [Mountain Dungeon], most of them bantering to each other like children on a school bus. However, I was near the back, quietly listening to conversations I wasn’t able to fully understand.

  I looked a few metres to the left and stared downwards into the abyss. It was easy to imagine how it’d only take a slip for me to fall into the seemingly endless hole. The whole dungeon we were clearing out was inside a mountain—as the name would suggest—and the cave system that we were traversing was a giant internal crack in the stone's structure.

  The chasm, at least a few hundred metres tall, had the path we were walking about halfway up at the widest part. Along the path were the beasts we’d been assigned to hunt, the caves they inhabited all the way down the winding path spaced evenly all the way to the bottom of the chasm.

  I moved the torch in my hand over the edge, marvelling at how I still couldn’t see the bottom or the other side of the crack. I was tempted to kick a rock into the abyss, count the seconds it would take to hit the bottom and calculate the depth. But it didn’t take much forward thinking to realise how that would backfire—dangerous animals inhabited the depths of this place.

  The first expedition into this new world was the most fun I’d had in a while. Having this opportunity to see new creatures the landscapes and environments that never could’ve existed on Earth was fun. It was a pity that the purpose we’d been sent with was to kill them all.

  The city of the sun, or Solis as most call it, assigned us this task—or quest as many in my group kept on calling it—as a warm-up before anything more serious. It was a strange place, and a definite change of pace from the wildlife reserves I usually lived in. A more dangerous environment in the mostly untamed world of Brekun, at least when compared to earth. The priests made the distinction between the two worlds clear when we arrived.

  ‘Welcome Holy warriors to Solis, the city of the Sun, where we worship the one true God!’

  ‘Use your holy gift from the Sun god, the Path! To grow stronger!’

  ‘Go to the Mountain Dungeon, Defeat the Monsters and claim your reward at the bottom!’

  Their sermons did not matter that much in the end. I was here now, and there were bigger problems for me than memorising instructions.

  Casual conversation.

  I looked up from my spot at the back of the group, easily noticing the gap between me and the next person ahead of me. I wasn’t good when it came to talking, my social skills were more inclined towards… not being social.

  “Orion? What are you doing back here?” A cheery voice exclaimed coming from Becky, a happy-go-lucky priest who’d dedicated herself to being the party’s healer. Becky had taken to the whole getting summoned experience like a duck to water, cheerily swapping her jeans for priestly attire. She had curly blonde hair, brown eyes and a slightly chubby face—she looked more approachable than the rest.

  The priest uniform of the Sun god was both tighter and lighter than every monk, nun or priest outfit I’d ever seen before. A black skin tight suit covered her body from toes to neck, with cloth garments covering some of the chest and hips. Becky had said the reason for it being so ‘liberal’—as she called it—was for freedom of movement. But it left her open to the elements, making it unadvisable to camp and trek in, and just generally unsafe to fight in. Trying not to be awkward around the view of her body it gave me was my own issue though.

  “Hi Becky” I quietly answered, trying my best to add some cheer to it—but it still came out as flat as usual.

  “Nothing worth mentioning.”

  “Ah, come on, surely you’re thinking about something” Becky interrogated with her usual grin, which appears so often on her face in such a consistent way that it’s iconic. I looked up and tried to assemble an answer that would both satisfy her and get her to stop bothering me. It wasn’t that I disliked her, her energy was just overwhelming for me, making it exhausting to try to keep up.

  “Our situation I suppose.” I answered, Becky laughing—mockingly? No, nicely, in response.

  “I guess I can understand what you’re saying but, look around! We’re in a dungeon, fighting monsters with magical powers! Well, at least we are.” she joked, gesturing at my bow and hinting at my complete lack of magical attacks. I think I’m starting to become fed up with how much the whole group is enamoured with magic. Weapons like bows lacked many of flaws that the Sun god’s magic came with.

  “At least I know how to use this” I quietly explained, choosing an answer that I didn’t think would annoy her.

  “I mean it makes sense, but I wouldn’t have ever thought that you’d be the bow guy.” she half-joked, making a swinging-a-sword impression with her staff, it reminded me of a realisation I had not long after meeting them. I think that people tended to make sweeping assumptions about others the moment they meet them, based mostly on superficial traits that didn’t mean anything substantial.

  When we arrived, the Path—though everyone else calls it ‘The System’ for reasons I don’t understand—offered us classes, roles to play in both expeditions and daily life. I picked the one that seemed to fit me perfectly, Ranger. My daily life before coming here did revolve around a wildlife ranger’s duties. With the Path supplementing my original knowledge, my skills in tracking and archery grew much quicker than they could’ve without the Path's magic.

  But for everyone else it seemed like a strange choice, mostly because I was a tall man and well-built from my father’s lifestyle. And people, I’ve learnt, liked to assume I was a ‘heroic knight’ from my looks, putting the expectations of one on me as well.

  But as they got to know me that assumption changed.

  “You could still try out using a sword y’know, didn’t you say that the Ranger class does sword and the bow stuff?” Becky reasoned and I just shrugged in response. I have my strengths, and the heavily armoured knights on the front line don’t need somebody getting in the way while swinging around a sharp iron stick. I don’t have any illusions about being able to use a sword effectively without some kind of training, which I've never received.

  “I’m better at this” I said, adding a shrug to make sure that she knew I was dismissing her suggestions. At first, I thought she was being serious when she first suggested the idea of me using a sword a few weeks ago, but then I overheard her talking with some friends. They were talking about Lord of the Rings, calling me a ‘mysterious loner’ with a bow, and that a sword would complete the look. I don’t think they realised how much my basic senses had been boosted by my class skills.

  But did I really resemble Aragorn that much?

  At least Aragorn was a fictional character that I knew, Lord of the Rings was one of the few movies that my father had lying around, because he said that he liked the accuracy. It was something that I never really understood. How is a story with dragons, elves and orcs accurate?

  After my refusal, Becky and I fell into silence, Becky obviously trying to find something to talk about while I just stood there in silence like I usually do. I’ve given up on starting conversations, as far as I could people tell didn’t like how I started them.

  Most of my knowledge revolves around ‘how nutritious a hog’s heart is’ and ‘how to cover up your scent with mud and faeces’. Sharing that with other people doesn’t make them eager to respond, as I’ve learnt over the last couple of months. Most of them had an aversion to things they said were ‘dirty’, which was too vague a statement for me to understand without context.

  “Hey Ginny, How are you liking the caves so far?” Becky eventually called out to the knight in front of us, seemingly desperate for someone to talk to. She was a roughly as tall as I was—six feet—and an extra inch or two more than I had. She had vaguely eastern European features and short blonde hair, while it didn’t reach her ears, her fringe covered most of her forehead.

  “It’s annoyingly humid. And it’s Gin, not Ginny.” She complained, and I couldn’t blame her for it. There seemed to be a lot of water that leaked in from above, giving the whole cave a damp and humid climate. But compounding that for her was the full plate armour, six feet worth of interlocking steel plates that covered her from head to toe. It was thick enough that it’d make it hard for me to slip an arrowhead or blade through the weakest spot, if I gave it an earnest effort. It’s also heavy enough that she is by far the strongest member of the team because of it. She had to put most of her points in strength to be able to move nimbly in it.

  The combination of the two must be torturous—I do not envy anyone near her when we undress at the end of the day.

  “That must be irritating.” I commented, rationalising that her current experience must be somewhat similar to when I hiked through a tropical rainforest with a large backpack.

  “It’s pissing me off, I want to at least get a fight in. Get a good reason to be this sweaty that’s not just fucking walking.” She replied, to which I nodded in agreement. I enjoyed the walking, it gave me the time to take in the surrounding area, but I can understand being impatient to do something that you can contribute to.

  "Language!" Becky interjected, sounding insulted. Which did worry me for a moment before both her and Gin started laughing, leaving me confused and feeling left out of the conversation.

  “I don’t think that it’s that hot.” Another member of the party chimed in, I believed that he was an assassin of some sort, specialising in daggers. He had a short stature, brown eyes, pasty white skin and black hair, making his appearance unremarkable. Which I think is a good trait for an assassin. He wears light armour, mostly leather and padding, relying on mirage magic to compensate for the lack of protection while in a brawl. Though the armour was made to allow as much movement as possible, very similar to my current equipment.

  “That because you’re not wearing a hundred pounds of armour asshole.” She angrily replied, raising an armoured hand up to try and flick the assassin on the ear, but he deftly ducked out of the way.

  “Well, that sounds like a you problem.” He snidely pointed out, only annoying Gin even more as she tried to flick him again, but even ignoring the difference in armour he was much smaller and dexterous than the large knight. Though people often called her ‘a tank’ instead of knight, for reasons I don’t grasp.

  “Aww, look at them go.” Becky whispered to me, obviously understanding something that I didn’t and acting like they were children. I gave her a questioning look, wondering what about the situation she found so entertaining.

  “Never mind.” Becky sighed, still maintaining that same grin the whole time. The conversation died down after that. Becky then seemingly got bored with waiting for me to start another conversation and walked back up to the party’s main group to talk with others.

  I instead returned my attention to the world around me, wondering why we in particular had been brought to Brekun. I might be skilful in hunting, tracking, animal care, and archery, but not uniquely so, many others can out do me in all of those categories. The others in our group weren’t especially talented either, making it seem like we were picked at random. The biggest piece of evidence against that theory was that we were all extremely similar in age, all eighteen and within a month or two of each other.

  There was also the question of why Solis decided to summon people in the first place. It doesn’t make much sense for the Sun god to only make the Path only work for strangers from another land. Even less so to summon people from another world, who know nothing about this place with no particular reason to try and save it. Also, if the priests were to be trusted on their words, wouldn’t an omnipotent god be able to do whatever they want? Why get teenagers to do it? Was he just lazy?

  Even though it doesn’t make much sense, I’m not upset by the development. There’s not much for me to miss back home, and this world is filled with curiosities that fascinate me. Earlier today we encountered a snake. It was massive, at least twenty metres long, a metre in circumference at its widest section and it had a colouration I’d never seen before. A deep mossy green along the body and bloody red coating for the head.

  The most interesting thing about it was the paralysis, if you kept eye contact with it for longer than a second you'd find yourself unable to move. I did stare in its eyes for the sake of seeing how it feels to be ‘petrified’, and it was terrifying, a complete loss of mobility as it stares you down, taking its time to strike.

  It is notable how the ability can be used both with its ambush hunting strategies, and as a defence mechanism against larger predators than itself. But as it experienced earlier, when faced with a pack of predators, the ability to only paralyse one creature at a time becomes useless.

  “Everybody slow down and group around the front!” A voice from the front of the group called out, it took a few moments but I eventually remembered that his name was Elio.

  Elio’s class was Priest, specifically worshipping the Sun god. Made him very popular in Solis with the people there, while his abilities and capabilities are mostly a mystery to me—I have observed lots of fire and righteous judgement.

  The teenager himself was a high-school student from Italy, and from what other people have told me, looks evil. Some of the other members of the party tried to tell me that his face just gives off the ‘vibe’. Something to do with the blue eyes, blonde hair and ‘pretty boy’ aesthetic that he has. I’ve never met anyone that looked like him before, so I don’t really understand the assumption. Even if it was possible to look evil, I don’t have any idea what it has to do with a ‘Draco Malfoy’, whoever he was.

  He wore almost an exact copy of what Becky was wearing, a tight black bodysuit underneath some adorning cloth around the shoulders and waist, making it hard to know where to look. But while Becky’s uniform had gold lines around the edges of the white cloth, Elio’s was a deeper shade of red, showing the differing roles they took within the church of the Sun god. But the clothes did reveal to me that he needed to get more exercise in, he was thin around the arms and waist, some muscles or fat would increase his survivability by a significant margin.

  But thankfully the assumptions people made about Elio were quickly revealed to be wrong. He was… invested in this place, he cared about the people in our group, asked about their stories and what drove them. A genuinely good leader who’d kept some people from falling apart when we arrived here. This mismatch between looks and actions leading Becky to call him a ‘tsundere’? Another word I didn’t understand, and when I asked what they mean I got either weird looks or awkward, stammered explanations that make little sense.

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

  Elio had become the unanimously elected decision-maker/leader for the party even before we ever arrived in the [Mountain Dungeon]. He had a particular talent in managing the abilities of everyone else in the party, especially when it came to mixing the magical effects of multiple spells. His people skills are admirable, and something that I wished I could emulate. While I don’t know if he likes me, I still wanted him to lead, he’s obviously more talented in leadership than anyone else here.

  “Orion, come join the group, you need to hear this too.” Elio called out again, denying me my comfortable distance from the rest of them. I stepped up and looked at him from over the back of the group.

  “We seem to be around the halfway point of the dungeon, if the map is to be believed, and the next challenge is right down the road.” Elio began to explain, holding up a map in his hands. That piece of paper invalidated a lot of my experience and class skills as a ranger, because all of the possible threats are mapped out and this dungeon is extremely linear, with only one path to the bottom. Not much to explore or scout, but knowing the risks thoroughly made people safer, so I didn’t mind the invalidation of my role.

  “Like all of the previous encounters, the path is going to expand around the cave entrance, giving us plenty of room to group up and get into formation before entering. We will also be mixing up the formation a little bit, the previous fight got us some new skills we’ll be working around.

  The healers will be moving to the back, the new skill that Becky got allows for healing at a distance, and the damage dealers will be in middle now, and using every SAFE! Opportunity to strike at the mobs, no need to die a stupid death.” Elio planned out, making his plans very clear to everyone, and it sounds reliable to me.

  “Now, does everyone remember our rules of engagement?” Elio continued, everyone except for me groaning in annoyance.

  “First spot the enemy, secondly reveal that location to the rest of the party, thirdly use [Analysis] on it once you are in a safe position.” I recited, the addendum to the end of the third step being necessary after someone tried to read the Path prompt when an aggressive monster was running straight at them. They were fine after Becky got to them.

  “… Thank you Orion. Make sure to follow those three steps and then engage in formation. I do not want to have to deal with another... incident.” He finished up, the group dispersing as each individual member prepared their weapons, armour and other gear for the fight coming. But before I could string my bow, Elio pushed through the crowd and tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Did you want something?” I asked, he nodded and gestured for me to follow him. The two of us moved far away enough from the group to have a quiet and private conversation.

  “Heeey, I just wanted to have a conversation about your… position in the group, especially with that accident that happened yesterday.” Elio began to explain, reminding me of how I almost killed someone yesterday.

  I had a shot lined up against a strange goat ‘monster’ yesterday, it wasn’t monstrous in the slightest despite how often Elio call it one, it was just tall, two metres at the shoulder in fact. But as I released the arrow, another attacker jumped in to try and take advantage of the same opening that I did.

  It was too late for me stop and they couldn’t’ve known to dodge, and so they ended up with a metre long projectile through their forearm. It was agreed to in the end that it wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular as it was mostly a failure in teamwork and communication.

  “Yes, what about it?” I replied, Elio taking a deep breath before continuing.

  “Well, with both the ranged and melee damage dealers getting moved to the middle, it’s going to be a lot more, busy, around that area.”

  “And?”

  “Well, I’m worried about another ‘situation’ happening. Now I’m not saying it’s your fault!” he quickly added to his statement.

  “You never did?” I questioned quietly.

  “But it’s just that bows and arrows are a little more uncontrolled than magic! Us mages can control the projectile mid-air, and with the team-work being unreliable right now, I can’t afford any extra uncontrollable projectiles flying about.” He continued, ignoring my question while making a small fireball roll through his fingers like a coin.

  Didn't he also injure someone? I remember him setting somebody on fire a week ago, though I suppose that the victim didn’t get burned too badly.

  “We also need someone to protect the backline from threats, and I think that you’ll fulfil the role perfectly.”

  “That sounds okay.”

  “Look I know that you’re probably disappointed- Wait what?” He interrupted himself, seemingly surprised that I would agree with him. He was in charge, I don’t think it’d be responsible of me to argue with him.

  “If you want to change my position, that’s fine.”

  “Oh thank god, you seriously fine with this?” He asked again.

  “Yes? That’s what I just said.”

  “Sorry, it’s just the others would complain so much if I asked them to miss out on getting some experience.” He explained, and I nodded, completely understanding his statement.

  “Your reasons might not make much sense, but you’re in charge.” I explained to him.

  “My reasons don’t make much sense?”

  “Well, if you wanted protection for the backline wouldn’t it be more reasonable to use somebody with the ability to ward off attackers? My bow is only useful if I strike first, not reacting to threats.

  And is a bow and arrow that dangerous? Haven’t multiple people been burnt by-”

  “Nevermind, nevermind. I knew that one of you being reasonable was too damn good to be true.” He interrupted me, his disregard for my points annoying me, especially after he asked.

  Well... it sounded like he asked for reasons.

  “I can hear you.” I reminded him, his mutterings under his breath were something I don’t think he wanted me to be able to hear. My skill [Hunter’s senses] improves my hearing by too much to miss his quiet words.

  “I’ll see you again when we head in.” He ignored me with a sigh before walking off.

  Well, it’s not too big of an issue—it should be resolved soon by the sounds of it. I can wait to be helpful again. In the meantime it’s probably prudent to check what skills could be useful for the new role I’d been assigned.

  The panel that appeared before me was a sunset orange, words appearing on its surface. The black text that slowly shimmered into existence gave me a semi-suitable summarisation of my skills.

  System Windows!

  Hmm… My improved senses are the only thing I have that will be useful for my new role. While my level wasn’t above average for the group, my training had given me a head start when it came to my skill levels. Though most of them were simply passive improvements.

  I closed the Path screen and walked back to the group, everyone else was ready for the challenge and so was I.