What bothered him most wasn’t that three strangers were playing chase with him in the dark—no, what bugged him was that whenever he fired off an Inspect on them, for one of them, all he got for his name was “Unknown,” along with his level, and skills.

  He’d inspected a lot of people.

  This was the first time he’d seen that which made him curious. Their levels, on the other hand, weren’t too crazy. The highest was at level 35, the guy who somehow managed to hide all of his information effectively—which meant if they were spies from Denny, this certainly wasn’t an attempt on his life.

  So he was left with curiosity. Colt led them deeper into the quiet sections of the small town—the dingy part of the buildings still under construction—the sort of place nobody wanted to be at night. And the perfect place for the inevitable confrontation. He picked out a nice dark spot and waited, hands in pockets.

  The three figures circled, wearing dark cloaks and darting about in the night. If not for all the recent training with Nate and the loose sense of movement his Edict commanded, maybe they would’ve stood a shot of—

  No, who was he kidding, they were bad at stealth.

  One of them walked down the street when the others snuck into their hidey position. The guy approached, his head held high, the dark cloak wrapping around his legs. He looked dignified, he looked shifty, he looked somewhere between trying to impress a new boss and trying to shank someone in an alley.

  “How are you hiding your status?” Colt said, deciding to cut to the chase.

  The guy almost stumbled.

  “It’s a useful trick.”

  “Uh—“

  “Come one. Actually, all of you come out. Let’s just do this. Are we trying to fight here? I found us a nice dark alley, I have a long day tomorrow, so if we’re going to go for it, then let’s get there already.” Colt said. Not sure if it was the booze, the Edicts, or the complete fear he could see on the guy’s face.

  “I—“

  Colt looked at one of the people in the shadows and gestured for him to come out. He looked to the leader, who sighed and gave a head bob.

  In short order, all three were in front of him.

  “What is this?”

  “We’ve seen you around New Nashville. You’re the leader of the new dungeon divers, right? The one who cleared the D-?” The guy in the lead asked; now that his allies were next to him, he got some of his swagger back. Stood wider, more confident. That’s because he probably didn’t know that a single slash of cut would halve all three of them where they stood.

  “Sure. We did. Why exactly are you following me around in the dark asking about that—and really, how are you hiding your Status?”

  The guys looked between one another.

  “We… We weren’t sure how to say this. Didn’t want the people knowing what we were talking about… But we’ve got friends outside of the walls. People that, uh, your Mayor isn’t a fan of.” The man said, wringing his hands and looking around. “You… You don’t answer to Denny, do you?”

  Colt snorted.

  So they were afraid he was a loyalist and wanted a backup in case he was one of Denny’s dogs. This was still a stupid setup for that anyway. He could say whatever he thought they wanted him to hear and then report them afterward—well. He saw their faces, but that was about it. No name to report. Still, kind of a dumb way to verify his status.

  “How do you know if I am or not?”

  “You don’t seem like it. We’ve been keeping an eye on you… You just train, not on his schedule. You’re new. Your group is strong… So we took our bet. See. Our friends on the outside… They got trapped in a dungeon. A D- dungeon,” The man continued.

  Ah.

  “We need help.” He summed up, seeing that Colt caught onto what he was laying down.

  Colt rubbed his eyes.

  “Why should I help you.”

  “I’d hoped for an act of human kindness—people are trapped in there. It has been three days.”

  Colt raised an eyebrow. Helping people sounded good, in theory. But he didn’t know these people, and he didn’t have the drive to get them out, especially with something as risky as a D- dungeon. They’d intended to be a whole letter grade less tomorrow for their dungeon.

  “You’re interested in this, aren’t you?” The man put a hand on his cloak, the black fabric like night in his hand. “It’s why you can’t see my name, class, or anything else.”

  Not true. I can still see your skills and level. But…

  Colt focused his eyes, this time looking at the black cloak he wore and nothing else.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ———

  Apprentice’s Concealment Cloak [Rare]

  Description: A cloak that hides the user’s name, class, and edicts. It becomes less effective the higher the observer's level in inspection. After level 75, it will no longer conceal the user’s class and edicts. After level 150, this will no longer work as their presence, in reality, is too strong for an item like this to conceal.

  *Inspect* (Intermediate) has gained a level!

  ———

  “Ah, there’s a limited time frame where this is useful,” Colt said.

  “You free my friends, and this is yours.” The guy insisted.

  “Your friends could be dead in there. You don’t know that I couldn’t just attack you right now and take it if I wanted it.”

  The guy gulped but kept his head up. “I’m not going to pretend that everyone is good. That everyone is good-hearted. But I don’t think most people will be willing to chop someone down for their cloak—not when they come up asking for help. Now, I don’t know if they’re still alive there. But I have faith. I gotta have faith. And it’s that faith that brought us here, asking for help in the first place. And it’s with that faith that I’m asking for you to do us this favor.”

  Colt looked at the three of them.

  “Alright. I’ll do this for you, but I have a deal; I want that cloak. Whether your friends are saved or not—it’s my reward for doing going through the dungeon. If they died in there, I will get revenge for your friends.”

  “Deal!”

  Colt held up a finger.

  “Second condition. Once you’ve gotten your friends out—once this dungeon is cleared; you be fleeing Nashville. Run from this town. If your friends have been warned by Denny before, they will not have much longer before he moves against them. We’re not talking about a sparing man here. So for your best chances of survival, run.”

  The man hesitated. The rest of the group looked among each other, before he reluctantly agreed to the price. Colt’s mind was already churning as he they made the deal.

  Next came the details. The location. What this group knew. All the little nitty bits of info that Colt needed to uphold his end of the bargain; they were to watch outside of the dungeon when Colt went in tomorrow. All the fun stuff.

  ———

  Coffee is life.

  Colt sipped his as they all gathered on the outskirts of the stadium—his entire dungeon diving group. Then, he laid out what happened last night. Making sure to underline the point that this dungeon would be another D- ranked one.

  And that he didn’t expect anyone else to follow him into it, and told them as much.

  “Help would be appreciated. I made this agreement, and if we don’t think we can handle it, then we can figure something else out.” Colt concluded.

  What he didn’t say is that he fully intended to enter, with the group or not. Since leaving Athena’s Games, he’d had an itch in his brain. A need to grow. And to grow fast. Working on skills was the foundation, but he could work harder. At this point, a D- dungeon felt right. And he was fine with that risk.

  With risks came rewards.

  “Well. I’m in.” Nate said, raising his own cup. “I’ll hone my edict. Level my skills. Maybe we’ll get something worthwhile.

  Sarah stared at hers. This morning, she’d given into the temptation that was coffee, and Colt knew sooner than later, she too would be full-board on the coffee train. The rest of them would fold too. Nick was an occasional drinker. Julia said she took tea and only tea. But she, too, would crumble the superior might that was the almighty bean juice.

  “I’m in,” Nick shrugged, “Ambitious. But we cleared another D- dungeon. We were weaker and less coordinated. So why not.”

  Julia stared at her staff. “Yep. Let’s do it.”

  Sarah was the last one, staring at her coffee. “How are you all so confident?” Her eyes ran over to Julia. “We almost died.”

  Colt winced at the memory. Seeing her after the second round was… Awful. After talking to Sarah about it afterward, she didn’t even recall the third round. She’d thought her life was over, only to suddenly find herself thrust in front of Athena. A victor.

  Julia shrugged. “We’re alive. It doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s all a game. The AI will adapt.”

  Sarah looked like she was about to attack her—Colt got in the way, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a soft smile. “Sarah, you don’t need to go. It’s fine to stay back, especially with what happened. We can go to a weaker dungeon later and grind out more levels.”

  “It’ll always be this way,” Sarah said, looking back down at her coffee. “It’ll always be like this. Another dungeon, another problem. It doesn’t end until it’s over, does it?”

  She sighed.

  “No, I’m going. I just need to adjust. The fear it’s—it’s right here. Right in my chest. That means I’ve got to work it out. I might not have an Edict like you guys, not yet. But I… I have to get strong too. If that’s the way we got to survive here, then that’s what it is.” She stared Colt in the eyes.

  “Well, I’m happy to hear that. It’ll be dangerous, but we’ll get through it.” Colt asserted.

  “I don’t have an Edict,” Julia piped up.

  Sarah scowled at her, “As for this dungeon, I’ve made friends with one of the scouts. They were going to escort us to an F- ranked today. I’ll ask them to take us here instead. They’ll take a look so we can be sure your info is as good as we think it is, and then we go in.’

  “Agreed.” Colt raised his coffee—to be met by Sarah’s and Nates, Nick pulled out a flask and clinked it against their cups with a smile.

  Like that, his group had pulled through.

  It was a short wait for the scout to arrive. A new girl Colt didn’t know with fading pink hair was cheerful and happy to divert from the known path, taking the directions Colt gave with ease. There was fog again this morning; actually, it had been that way more often than not in Nashville. Not at all common to the city, and increasing.

  Some product of the changes they’d seen?

  The trek to the destination went into thicker and thicker forests, becoming almost a thick dense wall of vegetation. A veritable jungle in the midst of Nashville, complete with ferns and thick vines. Houses and streets were lost to dirt and forest, until at long last, they broke through into a clearing.

  They arrived at the place.

  Colt stared at the twin pyramids on the structure, the roaming monsters outside of it. Small little velocoraptor-looking creatures—the Scout stared at them with wide eyes. “Whoa, level forties—“ she remarked as they roamed. A giant tree shot through the center of the big museum. The front of it spelled out the name in big green letters.

  Adventure Science Center.

  Colt cracked his knuckles as he looked at the tiny roaming dinos blocking them off from the dungeon. “We’ll clean up the dinosaurs. Then you’ll give us a peek at the dungeon.” He told their scout and shared a look with the rest of the group. They’d get some free experience before the dungeon.