Dungeon Hunter: Act I

Approach

In an awkward silence, Jye had helped me as we set up a makeshift med bay for Axel and Wren. We'd barely spoken since I'd lashed out at them during the chaos. It burdened my conscience, but as we worked I couldn't find the words to apologise or explain my reaction. It had been ugly directionless anger that had turned Jye into collateral. I'd have to address it later, unfortunately. I simply didn't have the mental bandwidth to get into it now.

When I'd examined Axel's wound, it had healed over. The scarring was ugly, jagged and raised, but definitely closed. I was worried about any internal damage that he had suffered, but there'd be no way to check that. Hopefully whatever passive healing we had would fix that. It was worrying how much empty faith I was putting in things lately.

Wren slept well. Axel and I took turns in guarding the resting part of the group. Though I doubt either of us got much sleep. The events of the past day seemed to replay in my mind without pause. Axel had almost died. I'd almost killed him. Just to save a fucking cat. Chrissie shouldn't affect me so much anymore.

Why was I so weak?

Trying to distract myself from my thoughts, I summoned the status window and was pouring over the different windows we could access. It seemed like every time something new happened another screen would appear. But it also appeared as though the windows reacted to our understanding of events. Maybe if I spent time studying them and thinking about it any way I could, I'd be able to learn more about it. It was better than dwelling on my guilt, at the very least.

It was while doing this that I realised Wren's class had changed.

She was no longer listed as a Scourge in our party list, but was instead a Synergist. It explained her ability to heal. But how had she swapped classes? Did she have some sort of trait that let her lie about her class? An ability? If she did have that ability, what good would it do? Unless... Perhaps she was anticipating future opponents who would read one's status windows? It wasn't too far-fetched, especially in RPGs. Was Wren truly thinking that far ahead? It wouldn't have been surprising from Axel, since he seemed so switched on, but from a young girl... She had to be hiding more than just her ability to supposedly change classes. Especially with the sudden change in her vernacular.

The system we all were supposedly in seemed less than perfect. Jye's stats were bugged, Wren might have access to two classes. If this was just two out of the four of us, that meant it was possible 50 percent of humanity on Earth had just as messed up statuses. I could imagine the Steam reviews now. Overwhelming negative. One of my friends loaded in and couldn't read their own status screen! Completely unbalanced character creation randomizer. No tutorial. No explanation for how to even win the game. 0/10. IGN would probably still have given it four stars.

"Your sister is gone, huh?" Jye said.

The voice startled me as I had thought they were asleep. It was my turn on watch, to check on Wren and Axel as they recovered. But sleeping right now felt impossible for me and it must've been the case for Jye too. We were in a strange place, with strange people doing strange things. There was no way sleep would easily come.

"Yeah. Her name was Chris." I smiled, remembering her cute scowl. "She hated that it was so boyish. Demanded we call her Chrissie."

They rolled to their side, propping their head up on a bent arm. "Did she... pass away when the Gates appeared?"

I shook my head. "No, it was ages ago now. She was about the same age as Wren, actually." I paused, ready to defend myself against an attack on my lapse of judgement, but it seemed none was forthcoming. Still feeling a need to justify my actions, I said, "It's not the only reason I asked Wren to join our party, but it's a big one."