Damn it! Damn it!

I ran quickly through the early morning streets.

The stores around me were just starting to open up so the main road was mostly empty. Other than me, the store owners that were setting up, and the other adventurers there wasn't much in the way for me to get there on time.

I could already hear Chase lecturing me. I didn’t need to imagine it, I’d hear it soon anyway.

It wasn't odd for me to have woken up late. This morning was a bit different than the rest though. I woke up calmly and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, only to realize my stupid alarm clock never went off.

That's what you get for buying a secondhand clock with a wonky magic circle.

I ran into the shadow of the tower and looked up at it looming over me. I could never get used to the sight of the tower climbing up into the sky so high if there was a top it faded in the distance.

I was broke and mostly inexperienced when I first moved here a few years ago. Things went pretty well for me. I joined a small guild that only had one party to start, now we have enough members to form three if we wanted to. We cleared out low-rank dungeons and did a few requests from the material mines. It was a nice, easy life.

I came out of the shadows and saw my party waiting outside the guild hall.

Chase, my party leader, and our archer sighed heavily as I finally stopped in front of them.

Chase was a tall and built for archery. His arms were long, and his shoulders were solid. His hair was dark brown, his eyes a greenish blue. His bow was slung on his back.

His hand slid down his face after he hit himself.

Lukon, our mage, glared at me.

"Oi! Why are you late again?"

I laughed embarrassed, rubbing the back of my head.

Overly attractive people could be hard to look at sometimes. His long, dark, curly hair was tied back, mostly neat. A few strands were loose, but they sat too perfectly to be considered an accident. His emerald green eyes were almost demanding a proper answer.

"Sorry about that."

Lyra and Valera were supporting each other through laughs.

Lyra and Valera are both muscle-brained tall girls each with their own battle scars.

Lyra, our tank, was larger than Valera. She had her long sword strapped to her back, the harness like a back pack. The straps went over each of her shoulders. Her previously long red hair (she accidentally set it on fire in the last dungeon) was now cut almost to her scalp.

Armor wise she wasn’t too much of a fan. She said it got in the way when she was fighting. So she just wore a regular shirt, generally cheap since she’d get it covered in blood on each mission. And at this point she should replace her pants, they didn’t seem to fit her muscles anymore.

Valera had long straight black hair with bangs that sat above her eyes. Her armor was simple as well. She was a swordsman from her village and thought armor was too heavy. Her sword, which was her baby, was strapped at her side. The pants she always wore never made any sense to me. They were wide at the thighs and tight almost immediately after her knees. For someone who hated the weight of armor, her pants didn’t seem to support that.

Both of them generally annoyed Lukon since they refused armor. He ended up having to heal them more than he wanted to need to.

Lyra grinned at Lukon.

"Isn't it obvious? He didn't set his alarm clock."

Valera caught her breath between laughs.

"Didn't? I think he just slept through it. Remember that one dungeon we went in? He slept through a fight when our camp was overtaken by goblins?"

I heard a slap from Chase, another facepalm, as he turned away from us.

"Let's just get going, we're keeping the other party waiting."

I tilted my head confused.

"Other party?"

Lukon pulled me along by the front of my shirt and we started walking down the street.

"Yeah, the guild master just told us that the ranking of the dungeon went from a mid-rank E to a high E rank. Another guild offered to work together on it, so we're going in with them."

I felt Lukon's hand tense slightly before letting go of my shirt.

Lyra's posture collapsed with a moan and she started dragging her feet in front of me.

"I really hate working with other guilds, they always think of weird ways to split the rewards."

I looked over at Lukon but couldn't really tell what he was thinking by the look on his face, like normal. He fiddled with his staff before looking back at me.

"Quartz, just make sure you stay away from them, there's always the chance that they're merc."

I smiled awkwardly at him, giving a thumbs up.

Mercs or mercenaries were adventurers like us, but they would often do their best to get a better payout, no matter what. It would be horrible luck if they ended up being that.

I heard a chuckle and turned my head to see Valera's head face forward again.

"We just need to stick together and get through it."