The Last Experience Point

It was strange how priorities could shift so radically so quickly. But life was like a balancing scale, and yesterday's inconvenience could easily become today's most pressing matter. Alex, having put off an important issue for far too long, ordered a delay to the upcoming meeting with the resistance leaders and instead pulled Kalana into a private conference room in Shadowfall Coast.

"Alex, what's wrong?" she asked as he gestured for her to sit, then joined her at a small table, whereupon he buried his face into his hands as the frustration began to mount. "Whoah, Alex. What happened?"

"I can't get in contact with him," he said.

"Who?"

"Your boyfriend."

Kalana cringed, and Alex knew right away that she understood more than she was letting on. "Where is he, Kalana? Please, just tell me."

As Alex braced himself for whatever she was about to say, he tried to remind himself that things, generally, had been moving in a positive direction. The last week, for example, had been incomparably more peaceful than the week prior. Things had changed for the better seemingly overnight following Queen Vayra outing Sir Vim Alazar for his role in the assassinations of various human resistance leaders.

At first, Alex had felt betrayed, and so too had High-Lord Besh. But, in the days and hours since, Alex had come to agree with the queen, as in his personal opinion, she'd acted with moral clarity, and Alex simply could not fault her for that. And so, with Vim Alazar having been given no choice but to stand down and order his guild's presence to be limited to the shoreline and the ports, peace was again becoming a reality in Shadowfall Coast. There had been a lessening of tension to such an extent that instances of violent confrontations had gone down more than 77% across all guilds.

Thanks to this, many of the highest-ranking guild members, including Alex's guild-leader, Kolorn Besh, had been able to leave Shadowfall Coast and return to other matters. Vim Alazar had also returned to Giant's Fall, and Queen Vayra had begun conducting affairs elsewhere as well. He and Kalana, however, continued to maintain a presence here every single day as they worked with the resistance leaders to end the violence for good.

As for Vim, the angry little man really didn't have much reason to hold a grudge. After all, in the eyes of the Royal Roses, the coastline here was all they'd ever truly cared about in the first place. The only reasons that the Royal Roses wanted to take part in peacekeeping operations in Shadowfall Coast were due to pride, anger, and a desire for revenge. But from a purely economic standpoint, the Royal Roses only cared about the ports. The actual city itself was immaterial to their guild, as it was the ports here that would soon be humanity's gateway to global trade once—or if relations could be restored.

And that was where Zach came in.

Zach had promised the global community that he would answer their questions. His ability, Doomsday Slash, had rocked the world, shattered windows, and frightened the entire globe. But if he presented himself before the various races as an earnest and sincere youth, and he answered their questions honestly, it would be a major step towards humanity being readmitted into global trade.

Ironically, we might even be closer to readmittance because of his actions, Alex thought. It's opened up an opportunity for us that didn't previously exist.

The only problem? He was nowhere to be found, and it'd gotten to the point that even Sir Alazar was freaking out about it. And so were the other guild leaders, too. Even Fiona Darkmae, who rarely got involved in these affairs, was on edge, as Faded Island stood to benefit tremendously from the export of cocoa beans to the rest of the globe.

"Please, just tell me where he is."

"Okay, so um, basically, he's looking for a new dungeon."

"A new dungeon?"

"Umm, I mean a dungeon nobody's ever found before."

As she began to explain the situation, Alex became ever more frustrated—to the extent it made it difficult for him to remain still in his seat. "Are you telling me he's walking aimlessly down a hallway that never ends?"

"Well…yeah. But Alex, don't forget he's doing all of this to help us fight the World Eater."

Alex shook his head. "Nothing will help us more than having the world united. You must understand this, Kalana. The sole and top priority for all of us right now should be to establish a working relationship with the rest of the world. This fanciful idea of finding tier-2 planets and going on adventures…it's not realistic. A handful of adventurers are not going to prevent doomsday. Only a concentrated global effort can."

"I don't agree," Kalana said. "I think it's gonna take both."

"But one is clearly more important than the other." Alex struggled to maintain his composure. His disappointment was immeasurable. "How soon will he be back?"

"I dunno. He said he'd only be gone two weeks 'cause he knows he needs to be back in time. He was actually really serious about that part, Alex. He knows he needs to be back."

"He does?" Alex exhaled slowly. "Well, if nothing else, that's at least a relief to hear."

"Yep. That's what he said, anyway. Two weeks. And it's already been 10 days since then, so we should hear from him soon, I bet."

Alex relaxed somewhat. "Okay. I'm slightly less worried now. Based on what you told me, it seems like Zach has been keeping this meeting in mind. Now that peace negotiations are proceeding smoothly and unhindered, this is the most pressing issue we face." He met her eyes. "So, Zach will be back in around four days, Kalana?"

She nodded. "Yep. Four days."

*******

Zach tried not to fret as the conversations droned on. "There's no fucking way I'm getting back in four days, is there?"

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Donovan barked out a laugh. "Probably not, but who gives a shit? I told you, kiddo, stop getting involved in Alex's bullshit."

"It's just that I promised Mr. Oren I would be available to address the global community regarding my—"

"Nobody cares!" about fifteen adventurers shouted at him all at once.

"Actually, I care," Jimmy said, speaking up. He looked around at the other adventurers, and then he pointed to Zach. "It's fucked up that ya'll wanna keep him from doing something so important, and as his friend, I'm just not gonna stand for it. Zach is right. We need to get this shit going."

At this, the other adventurers reacted with laughter rather than anger, especially Donovan, who saw right through Jimmy. In fact, all of them did, Zach included. It was so obvious what Jimmy was attempting to do.

"Jimmy, you are one hasty sonofabitch," Donovan said with a mirth-filled cackle. "Pretending like you care just because you're too impatient." Jimmy made a pained hiss as Donovan walked over to him and gave him one of his friendly "pats" on the back. "We'll start the raid when we're ready. Not a moment before. You'll live if you have to wait a few more minutes."

Jimmy made a Donovan-like grunt. "This is bullshit. I can't believe it's been a half-hour and we're still talking about how we're gonna kill an entrance mob." He raised his voice. "An entrance mob! I say I take over and lead the raid. Who's with me?"

As it turned out, the answer was nobody. "We love you, Jimmy," Zephyr said to him. "And everybody here recognizes your skills and knowledge. But we just got done surviving your last raid. Give us a bit of time before we lock in for another Jimmy-raid."

Jimmy glared at Zephyr. "I thought you and everybody said you were glad I pushed you to kill the boss."

"We were—and we are. But…" Zephyr shrugged. "That doesn't mean we don't need some time to mentally recover. I think I speak for most of us when I say that, having spent the last 10 days jogging down a hallway, we're just not up for a Jimmy-raid right now."

There were nods from everyone. Even Zach found himself nodding, and he was the one who actually needed everyone to hurry. Tyson was nodding as well, though in his case, Zach knew he wasn't up for a rushed or a patient raid, which he made very clear.

"I think we should turn around and head back and do a few months of research before pushing forward," he said. "Or a few years. Just to be sure it's safe."

Donovan's laughter became even louder and more boisterous. "I don't know how you and Jimmy became friends. One of you wants to run headfirst into any fire he sees, and the other is afraid to light his stove."

Tyson croaked. "All right, I confess! I'm afraid. Please don't make me fight mobs! I need more training."

"You're gonna get it," Reni said with a laugh. "Hands-on, too."

He moaned and sat down on the floor. "I'm going to die here, aren't I, Jimmy?"

"Of boredom, yeah." Jimmy sat down next to Tyson. And with that, Donovan got back to addressing them all. But first, everybody seemed to like Jimmy's idea of taking a seat, and so now, the narrow hallway was lined with rows upon rows of adventurers sitting side by side.

"All right, boys and girls, here's where we are right now," Donovan began. "Much as I can't fucking believe it, Zach was right. Angelica's inn really isn't endless. Clearly, there's something here. Now, we don't actually know what it is, but most of you—and me, too—are assuming it's gonna be a dungeon."

Donovan paused for a moment as if to ensure everyone was listening to him. "What we don't know is if we are the first adventurers ever to figure this out. Zach and Jimmy made clear that we have to be the first in history to get to Albion-4. But! Even if we ain't, it's always worth the effort to rediscover an unknown dungeon, so regardless of whatever awaits us, I just wanna say I'm proud of the two of them for pushing us to come here."

Donovan lifted his hand and pointed behind himself and over his shoulder. With the entire raid seated on the carpeted hallway floor, everyone was now able to see him.

"Behind me is an elite mob. Under normal circumstances, I'd be very cautious in how we approach the son of a bitch. But given our environment, we need to be really cautious. It doesn't take a genius to see we can't exactly all fight it at once. We're more likely to kill ourselves trying. And not to mention the hundreds of ways shit can go wrong here. If someone needs to retreat, what are they gonna do? Trample everyone behind them? What if it uses a big AOE? How's everyone gonna scatter?"

Donovan looked at several of them, but mostly, his gaze now lingered on Jimmy, who Zach could see tensing as Donovan continued to speak. It was almost as though he knew what Donovan was about to say.

"Now look, I get some of you are really anxious to get this going."

"You mean Jimmy," Rian called out. "You mean Jimmy is really anxious to start."

Donovan chuckled. "Yeah, okay. I know Jimmy is really anxious to get going. But there's no shame in us gaming this out more carefully." Donovan extended his hand and tapped his palm on the door to his immediate right. "We know the inn room numbers where this mob spawns. If we come back with more food, more supplies, and more healing stones, we can pull the mob into a room or use the extra rooms to give ourselves more space. And Jimmy, I know you were thinking that too, kiddo."

"Yeah, I was," Jimmy said, nodding. "But I was also thinking on how to get around that."

"And?"

Jimmy looked uncomfortable. "Well, I'm still figuring it out."

Zephyr, who was the only other adventurer standing upright, asked, "Jimmy, be honest with us. In your opinion, what is the intended way to fight this mob?" Jimmy responded by turning his head away and muttering something indiscernible, which caused numerous adventurers to laugh, including Zephyr. "Don't mumble it. Just say it."

"Donovan's right," he grumbled. "That's what I would'a done if I knew we would have to fight hallway shit. But wait. What happens if there are more than just this one? For all we know, the entire dungeon could be contained within this hallway. And until we actually get to the start of the dungeon itself, the Albion-4 gate isn't gonna spawn. Are we just gonna run back to Angelica's every time we find out there's more than we thought?"

"Actually, yes," Zephyr replied. "That's a big part of what the Explorers Brigade does. We AAM."

"AAM?" Jimmy asked.

"Advance and Map," Zephyr clarified. "We advance a bit, we map, and we slowly build out a knowledge base on how to proceed, however long it takes."

Jimmy nodded. "I feel you. But uh, what I do is I GSD: I get shit done. Tell 'em, Zach."

Why does he always put me in the middle of shit like this?

Zach decided to just be honest with Jimmy, as the exhaustion of doing otherwise required more energy than he felt he had right now. "I don't like the idea of fighting this thing unprepared in a hallway, Jimmy. It's an elite, and most of us won't be able to contribute."

"Okay, so Unleashed Phase that shit."

"That's not going to help. At level 0, it might not be enough to—"

"Boost it up."

"Jimmy, stop."

"Stop what?" Still seated, he pointed his staff at the mob. "Just ramp it up. We got stones and my buff. We'll just patch you up afterwards like last time."

Now, Zach became annoyed. "Jimmy, fuck off. I'm not going to have multiple miniature heart attacks just because you can't learn to be patient."

"Okay, and what about the World Eater?" Jimmy asked. "Is that gonna be patient?"

"The what?" numerous adventurers murmured to one another, which caused Donovan and Zephyr to groan while Zach slapped his own forehead in amazement. Olivir and Kolona merely chuckled amongst themselves.

"Jimmy, are you stupid? I can't believe you just said that."

"Said what?" he asked. Then his eyebrows rose as though he only first realized what he'd let slip. "Ahh, shit! That was an accident, I swear."

"What's he talking about?" Kesten asked. And so did Alixa, Maric, the Britethorns, Ishina, Ishina's father, Eldora, Reni, Emala, and just about every adventurer present.

"You basically have to tell them now, Jimmy," Rian said.

"Wait, even Rian knows?" Rono growled. "What's with this secret-keeping bullshit? Will someone please tell the rest of us what's going on?"

Zach, exhausted, made a low groan and lay back, as there was just enough space between him and Kolona to do so. He wanted no part of this conversation. He'd already had to have this conversation last week with Rian and Lienne. Let someone else deal with it.

Donovan and Zephyr seemed willing, and both began to explain together as Jimmy sat defiantly, clearly determined to press on even if everyone else quit. And if he did, Zach would obviously have to stay here with him.

Why was he so difficult?