Sometime after giving me the Warhead and me regaining myself, Axel had left the three of us alone and was patrolling around the room we’d arrived in. It was a large mostly empty cabin with rotting furniture and dilapidated walls. Spiderwebs decorated the rooftop, spiders concerningly absent. Everything about it screamed “forgotten.” Dust lined every surface, and simply moving brushed up the allergens. Had we been taken to a haunted house?

“The title’s pretty good,” he said as he neared us again.

It was very Axel of him to ignore what had happened post breakdown. It was also very Axel of him to not take the blame for it. Well, no one was really to blame for the root of my anxiety. Just bad luck. Taking a page out of Axel’s book I decided to ignore everything that had just occurred. Yeah, yeah, yeah, who cares about compartmentalising being bad for your mental health, Mrs. Brown.

I decided to check out the new title we’d all received.

Title: Student - Boosts all experience gain.

Holy shit, Axel wasn’t joking. This title was insane. The benefits of a permanent experience increase meant we had to do less to level up. As I thought about the levelling system, my menu screen loaded in and then expanded to reveal further information. Jesus christ, why didn’t it just tell us everything from the beginning? Though, I guessed infodumping was frowned upon in most games. Especially those without tutorials that you had to learn by doing.

On the new screen, underneath my current level was a progress bar with a few words below.

[______________________________]

0% completion towards next level

So nothing we had done had given us any experience. None of our training in the gym had counted even though we were using abilities. Not even entering the Dungeon had done anything. This system was really stingy with rewards. If practising didn’t give us experience it seemed like there was only defeating opponents. My stomach became a pit of tar. That meant we would have to… kill someone? Or something?

“Yeah, what an amazing title,” Jye said, sarcasm oozing.

Wren patted them on the back. “We get better experience gain.”

“My words stand.”

“Okay, it’s really good, yeah, but can we rewind for a second. How did you guys get here?”

I replayed the events in my head as I had seen them. The Gate appeared. I was thinking about entering, but then changed my mind. Axel volunteered us as tributes. At that moment, we had to have been at least a metre away from Wren and Jye. Axel wouldn’t have been able to drag them along too, unless he was lying about more than just his title. No, it couldn’t have been an ability. I would’ve heard the static. That meant something else had interfered.

“We went through the Gate…” Wren said, her brows pushed together in confusion.

Glad someone else was questioning this, I said, “Yeah, how did that happen?”

Jye scratched their jaw. “The second Axel tackled you through, a tentacle osmosised from the Gate and lunged toward us. Then we were here.”

“Must be a safeguard to ensure party members remain together,” Axel commented.

Then he poked the tip of his shoe through the crumbling remains of a wooden chair. His top lip curled in disgust. He was always a bit of a clean freak. “Looks like this place is empty and hasn’t been touched in a while.”

Despite me wanting to brush off what he'd just made happen, his reaction and calm behaviour rankled at me. I’d had a panic attack and he’d come out of it scot-free?

Pointing a justifiably angry finger at him, I said, “You… You stop talking. I’m angry at you.”

He looked like a cashier who was finishing up their shift only to realise a Karen was coming through with receipts in their hand. Was I just something he had to deal with? If I reflected on our relationship during the time we’d known each other, it made sense. He didn’t interact with me more than necessary unless I was in the path of some harm. Was me being in his party just an extension of that same thing? I guess maybe I felt that way towards him as well. Like a responsibility to remain his friend because of our parents.

Had our entire relationship been built on simply dealing with each other? God, that was too depressing to dwell on. My longest friendship was just two people bearing each other. How sad.

Jye cleared their throat. “I hate to interrupt whatever… this is, but shouldn’t we be doing something? Like what if someone else enters the Gate?”

The giant had a point. We had only been notified of the first people to enter each Gate, but since it hadn’t been them but Kimi who had cleared Dungeon 9, it meant that anyone could follow in after. But what were we meant to do in a dusty ass cabin? And better yet, how were we meant to get out?

“Something touched my leg!” Wren screeched.

She slapped at her legs in panic. All our eyes went to her feet, hoping to catch sight of whatever it was. There was nothing there. Her head snapped back and forth as she checked around her vicinity. Her eyes were wide and watery. The poor girl. She must’ve been imagining things. Man, this must be so scary for a ten-year-old. She spoke so maturely that I had started forgetting that she was only a kid.

Shaking her head, Wren said, “I swear. I swear there was something here.”

“Maybe it was some dust. We’ve been unsettling it with our entrance into here. Despite his appearance, Axel can sometimes be reliable. If he said the place is empty, it’s empty.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but I held a finger up. “Still not talking to you.”

Axel sighed. Yeah, now we were dealing with each other like we always did.

“What the fuck?!”

It was Jye this time. They’d squealed in a pitch I didn’t know they were capable of hitting. I spun around in time to see a shadow dash behind the broken down form of a bookshelf. Oh, shit. There was something else here.

I cast Axel an accusatory glare.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me,” he said.

Rolling my eyes, I gestured to the party to back off from the bookshelf. If the thing behind it was dangerous, it would be better for all of us to be further in range. Especially since Axel was the only frontline class we had right now. Without a word, they followed my silent command, stepping towards the front of the cabin.

Axel crept to the forefront of our group. This was similar to what we had practised in the gym. If he used [Ground Smash], we’d been able to stun whatever it was and maybe rush it. Damn, was shit about to get real?

The static of an ability being used zapped in my ears.

The floor did not shatter, to my disappointment. Which meant Axel had either activated [Intimidation] or [Thick Hide]. Annnd it also meant he’d immediately gone off plan. That’d figure.

Another tsss. He was using both of them? With the 10 mana cap of [Thick Hide], he’d only have 15 mana left, which drastically dropped the amount of [Ground Smash] he could use to only two times. To my left, Jye had drawn their knives. Though now that Axel was writing his own script they had no idea how to act. Standing behind them, Wren watched, her legs visibly quivering.

“Come out!” Axel shouted.

Was he trying to taunt it to reveal itself? It’d be safer than going in blind. But what if it didn’t understand English? What if it wasn’t intelligent enough to even comprehend communication?

My thoughts evaporated as the soft falls of footsteps sounded. From the shadows, a figure slowly approached. My heart was in my throat. Though it was hard to make it, it looked like… No, that’d be stupid. There’s no way what I was seeing was real.

Hiss!

A cat. There was a cat here. It looked like a common calico house cat. Its hackles were raised and its bright green eyes were wide in alarm. What the fuck was a cat doing in a Dungeon? Was it part of the experience? Were we meant to kill it? What kind of sick person would design this?

As it approached, I realised it was missing its tail. No. It had one, it was just shorter. It was a bobtail. It had been her favourite.

“Don’t go near it!” Axel shouted as he pulled the bat from his hip.

“Calm down. It’s just a cat.”

The cat came closer. Axel raised his bat. Wren clenched her eyes shut and Jye turned his cheek. What the fuck was wrong with everyone? Were they just going to…

“Stop!”

Axel ignored me, and the cat stopped moving. It’s back was arched in alarm, ears drawn back in fear, hackles raised.

“Axel,” I said in warning.

His grip on the bat tightened.

Fuck this.

It happened faster than we had practised in the gym. In an instant, [Channel] filled me with that river of limitless potential. Like a flame running through my veins. And then I borrowed from Axel. He’d never rescinded his consent.

Focusing my attention, I pushed the power down as I lifted my right foot. I kicked down. [Ground Smash] torpedoed through the movement, bursting into the floor of the cabin. Through the explosion, I heard multiple bursts of static. Wooden shrapnel went flying and the shockwaves knocked the rest of the party around. The dormant dust kicked up, blurring the room, masking everyone from my sight.

In the commotion, the cat fled with a yowl.

Axel fell to his knees. The bat tumbled out of his hand. Jye and Wren who’d been in range had to have been caught in the blast too. Through the dust I couldn’t make out if they’d been hurt badly. I hoped the damage was minimal. A throbbing migraine knifed into my brain.

My head felt like it was stuffed with wool, and as the dust settled a heaviness dragged down my limbs. My stamina was worryingly low.

“Lee…” Axel began as he pulled himself up.

Just Friends has earned 5 XP.

Oh, I guessed we didn’t have to kill things? I mean, technically our opponent had fled. So… we’d won this round of combat by default? My experience progression bar filled in slightly.

[|_____________________________]

2% completion towards next level

I did the mentals maths. So it was 250 XP for me to get to LVL 2. That was good to know.

Jye let out a groan of pain. Oh, fuck.