Chapter 11.

Leading the group to the dungeon, the stingy system struck again. The glittering purple portal had a large golden 5 shimmering in the centre. When they dismounted the wolves disappeared. It’d been fun while it lasted… and he already knew what would be coming.

“Why is there a 5 there? Is that how many times we can run it? There’s limits or something, right?”

Jin nodded at Shin

“It means only 5 people can enter at a time. We have 7 here, so two have to sit out”

He already knew who the two would be. Shin huffing 

“Why didn’t you say so before? Why can’t we all enter? We’re players, so why is this a problem?”

“I know as much as you do. We all came through at the same time. We don’t have a healer so you need to take the 5 strongest”

Shin wasn’t pleased

“You should have said so before. Rei, stay out here and wait with him. Make sure he doesn’t run off again. You can do that, can’t you?”

What? No. Jin had predicted he and Acshellis would be left out. Not him and Rei!

“Rei needs gear too”

“Then he should have thought about it earlier. I don’t trust you. You’ll probably sabotage us and take everything yourself”

“That’s not how this works”

“Says you. Rei, make sure he doesn’t leave. You. NPC, you make sure you make yourself useful. I don’t want any funny business from you. I don’t know why you’re hanging around us as it is”

Acshellis seemed to really like bowing as he bowed again

“I am but a helper to travellers. I will do my best to help those worthy of my help”

Jin felt warm all over again. He knew those words were for him and it was hard not to think about how he’d managed to snag such a hot and useful husband. If only he’d known dying would bring him here sooner. Still, it wasn’t the time to be blushing. Sitting down on the spot, he smiled past Shin at Acshellis

“I’ll wait right here”

Seeing he was sitting there, Rei sat down next to him. Everyone missed the pissed look on his husband’s face over how close they were. His husband was so cute when he was jealous. With them both sitting, Shin drew his two sided axe, his expression full of pleasure at leaving them behind to go kill things

“Stay there losers. We’ll show you how it’s done”

When the 5 of them had left, Jin got up and dusted himself off. Rei panicking

“Wait! Where are you going?! We said we’d wait here”

Rolling his eyes, Jin pointed to the massive oak. The spider den dungeon was in a burned barren, where regrowth had started popping up. The oak was singed, but it was also the tallest tree and biggest source of shade

“I’m going to sit in the shade rather than the sun. That’s all”

“Oh”

Walking over, Jin checked then sat down under the tree as he slung his backpack off and started rummaging. He wanted to understand how it linked to their inventories. It seemed like he could access both at the same level. The only difference was that some of what was in there was visible on the top, and not in a nice organised grid. Pulling out an apple, he rubbed it against his overalls and sat back. 5… 4… 3… 2…

“Hey! I thought you gave us all the food before”

Lazily looking to Rei, Rei scrambled to his feet and jogged over. Those pants had done marvels for his confidence 

“Don’t tell the others. I got this for free”

“Do you have any more?”

He did… and he wasn’t sharing

“No. The rest was breakfast”

“Oh”

“…”

With Rei standing there it was awkward, but he wasn’t going to tell him what to do. He was nice and kind, not like Shin who would always be an arsehole. After half a dozen long moments, Rei sat.

“…”

“…”

The silence felt ridiculous. Jin closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree. In his heart he was jealous he couldn’t go see what it was like in a dungeon first hand. This was his damn after life. Acshellis should be out here with him, not Rei.

“Jin… you don’t like us very much, do you?”

After all he’d done for them, Jin felt shocked to be called out. Opening his eyes, he looked at Rei

“What?”

“I… You don’t like us, do you?”

Hadn’t he been godly and merciful? 

“What’s not to like?”

Rei sighed

“Shin said… he said you shouldn’t be with us. He said you think you’re so much better than us. He said…”

Stupid Shin. Now the arsehole was threatening his plans. It was time to keep lying

“It’s fine. It’s not that I’m better, it’s only I’ve played the game longer. I was trying to be helpful. I’ll stop”

“It’s not that… Can’t you guys get on better? We’re all stuck here and you’re all always fighting”

They did argue, but that was natural when everyone else was stupider than him

“I get it. I won’t say anything else. You don’t need to worry. I was only doing the best I could”

“Okay… I would get it if you left”

“Do you want me to?”

“I don’t know. Like these pants… you had to know it would cause a fight”

Rei was projecting on him

“I saw them and they were your class. I wasn’t trying to start a fight. I thought they’d be happy you were covered up and you’d be happy you didn’t have to worry about showing us everything all the time”

“I am… if you really do have coins, you should hand them over to everyone else. We’re all in this together”

“I got the money doing a quest. It’s spent now”

“Oh”

Jin didn’t know if they could read the party chat and see what was being talked about. He had to protect himself

“I really spent it all, and the apple was free. I have everyone else the food I bought this morning. If everyone wants me gone I’ll go. Like I said, I’ve played this game a lot so was trying to be helpful”

Helpful to his own agenda, that was. Trying to calm himself back down Jin closed his eyes again. He could feel Rei staring at him. He knew Shin would kick him to the curb once he had some gold. That was how Shin was. If he couldn’t get the coolest and greatest things immediately, he’d give up and throw a tantrum. He’d thought it was funny until he realised that Shin would be actually mad about it.

“Argh! Argggggh! Argh!”

Jin’s eyes snapped open again. He hadn’t heard Haruto come out the dungeon, but he heard his yelling just fine. Getting to his feet, Jin ran over to him, Rei hot on his heals… for entirely different reasons. Kneeling down, Jin looked Haruto up and down

“What happened? Are you okay?!”

“Get it off! Get it off!”

Haruto was trying to wipe something off him that wasn’t there. He seemed as normal as when he’d walked into the portal not that long ago. Grabbing Haruto’s hand, he yelled at him

“Haruto! There’s nothing there! Snap out of it. We’re in a game!”

Snapping out of it, Haruto stopped, then blinked… then looked at himself as he sat up

“Oh fuck! Oh… fuck… thank fuck…”

Yeah. Yeah. He was happy to be alive

“Man, what happened?”

Haruto hunched over himself 

“The spiders. So many spiders. They trapped me… in a cocoon. I thought I was going to die. How did I get out here?”

He’d gotten out there probably because he’d died. The idiot didn’t know to struggle from the inside out. Wait. Wait… Haruto had died! He’d died and been kicked out. He hadn’t had to walk back to his body. Hello key point information! Wait… he was getting to excited

“How do you feel? How’s your vision? Do you feel alright?”

Haruto raised his head to glare at him

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Jin faked offence

“I’m trying to make sure you’re okay. Are you dizzy or anything? You suddenly appeared”

Haruto lowered his head again

“I’m a bit cold but I’m okay. No dizziness”

That wasn’t what he’d asked, yet he couldn’t push hard. Hopefully Haruto would bitch once the others came out 

“That’s good. So you guys got mobbed?”

“I don’t know. This massive spider started shooting webs. Like fucking shooting them. Really shooting them… then it was all dark and I was being crushed… then I was out here”

Jin nodded along, he was glad the 2 little idiots couldn’t feel his racing heart. He’d have to ask Acshellis if he’d tampered with the data by sending Haruto out, or if Haruto had really “died”. Letting go of his arm, Jin gently pressed 

“Now that you’re revived you can head back in if you’re up to it. You guys don’t have a healer in there so you need all the attack power you have”

Haruto paled further

“Go back?”

“Yeah. You usually run back after you die in dungeon or if you’re teleported out. Your health will be full again so you can go back and keep clearing the dungeon”

“I… I don’t want to go back in there. It’s scary. Why can’t we go to the Mage’s Tower and tell them everything?! Why do we have to be stuck here? I want to go back!”

Jin sighed

“I told you before that they’d probably arrest us and I wasn’t joking. We’re not native citizens. Our characters might be, but if we tell them all about our world they’re going to think we’re crazy. The only reason I said not to was because we all need to work together to figure things out and it’s safer to stay together. We don’t know the rules now we’re here. Seeing you’re the one who entered, Rei and I can’t. That’s why I said you can go back in there if you’re up to it and help keep the others safe too”

Haruto brought his knees up

“It’s just… I… I don’t know what I’m doing”

With Rei suspecting him, Jin pulled out his “godly aura”

“Do any of us? I played the game a lot, but you know what the game is like out there. I know places and quests and stuff, but that’s not actually doing them as a real person. I don’t mean to be pushy or seem like I know it all. I just want to keep everyone safe until we figure it all out, yeah? It’s why I thought questing would be good to figure ourselves out. I know I don’t want to die here without knowing everything”

Haruto nodded

“I get it. Should I go back in?”

“That’s up to you. The dungeon is only hard because no one can cast healing other than Seiichiro because he’s a cleric and they have some healing, or all healing, depending on how he set his skills. Again, that’s why I thought questing would be better. I don’t want the others to die in there”

Haruto seemed to believe him

“Alright. I’ll go back in. It’s… it’s so scary”

“Yeah. It’s our first time. Your first time. In a dungeon I mean. Everyone’s got to start somewhere”

“Okay. I’m going back in”

Jin and Rei helped Haruto back up. Jin smiling at him then giving him a shove forward

“You can tell them we haven’t left either. And think of the coins waiting at the end”

Watching Haruto skitter his way back through the portal, Jin watched the way he disappeared. It was another key point. He was learning so much that he felt giddy about it all. If they wiped it seemed they still lived.

Rei ruined his little moment 

“What are you smiling about?”

Caught, Jin forced a shrug and lowered his head, mumbling

“I thought it was pretty courageous to go back in after being so scared”

“Oh”

“Oh” was right. Thank god he was so charismatic and godly that Rei didn’t see through him as much as he’d feared. Now all he had to do was plan how to get Acshellis alone to ask him for all the details over what had happened in the dungeon.

***

“Drinks are on me!”

High off of clearing the dungeon, Shin picked the pub for the night and there was no dissuading him. Now he had coins, it’d gone right to his head. Their party causing chaos as Shin and Seiichiro loudly embellished their dungeon trip as if they weren’t scared in the slightest. Acshellis was invited, Shin slinging his arm over his shoulder and declaring he was a great guy.

If the others knew Acshellis the way he did, they wouldn’t have clung off him so casually. His husband seemed to be barely tolerating the 5 little idiots, and solely for his sake. Jin knew he was supposed to find it supportive, yet all it did was stir up memories of being outcast by the people he thought were his friends. He didn’t like the group liking his husband, he hated seeing him being touched, and he loathed his own feelings.

The best course was to drink. He paid for his own drinks, not wanting to owe a single thing to Shin. Shin who befriended his husband easily. Shin who got to inside the dungeon while he was left to wait. Shin who took away what should have been his chance to see a dungeon before everyone else. What about him? They wouldn’t have Acshellis if it wasn’t for him! They wouldn’t be safely at Silverledge City if it wasn’t for him! Why did he have to feel like this?!