"Three tasks," the raccoon said, "one prize! Earn enough tokens and the best rewards open up!"

Llewellyn looked resigned. He walked forward and got his tokens too.

I flipped one of the tokens between my fingers. "Fine. Where’s the toss game?"

The raccoon pointed to a stall just past the fountain. It was a very simple setup with bright hoops and little pegs shaped like towers and gates.

I jogged over and grabbed a few rings.

I thought this wouldn't be difficult, but…

The first one bounced off the peg and nearly clocked a kid chasing after a paper kite.

The second landed short.

Finally, the third skidded, wobbled, and somehow caught on the side of a peg.

Ha!

A triumphant little chime rang out overhead and one of my tokens lit up with gold light.

"One down!" the raccoon shouted brightly.

I turned, smug, only to see Llewellyn flick a single ring one-handed and land it dead center on the highest peg.

…Well.

"Showoff," I said.

Llewellyn didn’t dignify that with a response.

Next up: the lantern.

A small cluster of paper lanterns sat near another stall, all painted with festival symbols.

"Light one and send it flying," the raccoon merchant explained, bustling over. "Simple!"

I picked up a lantern carefully.

We needed to activate it with Magic apparently, but would Water work? That's all I could use.

I concentrated, willing a burst of my Magic into the lantern.

After a bit, it shivered and flared to life, lighting up with a golden glow under my hands. Then, with a soft whoosh, it lifted upward, joining the dozens already drifting into the bright blue sky.

Another of my tokens glowed.

Llewellyn, of course, just brushed his fingers over a lantern and sent it floating upward without blinking. 

Then, he turned to look at me.

"You’re still this weak? You didn’t buy anything?"

Huh? Could he tell from the lantern?

“Buy?”

"From the System Shop."

I paused. "There's a System Shop?"

Llewellyn pinched the bridge of his nose.

How had I not heard of it? How did no one ever mention it online? That didn't seem right.

"Open your interface. Then navigate to the Shop."

Well. I had no idea I could do this.

"Open interface?" I tried.

A window popped up, then separated into different panels, rearranging across my vision. Stats, Skills, Coins...

Huh.

"You should have gotten Coins for clearing the Guildford Distorted Realm," Llewellyn said. "Start with Attack stats, then Crit stats. If you can afford it, add Defense. Abilities levels might be locked or have restrictions—these often require some training or to pass a test. We don't have time for now, but you might want to explore that later. Just get your stats up. This town seems fine, but we'll have to face the final boss."

I seemed to have enough Coins to boost the stats he mentioned by around 20%. Was that enough?

"Don't overdo it," Llewellyn warned. "You can't overload your body, it has to adapt."

Fair enough. I wasn't even used to the buzzing of Magic in my body yet.

20% it is then—though that seemed rather low to me.

As soon as I clicked, a notification popped up.

[System Notification: Stat upgrades currently limited to one application every 10 days. Next eligibility: 10 days from now.]

I sighed. Of course. Because why make anything easy.

I finished upgrading while we crossed the plaza and reached the stall.

The raccoon clapped his paws together, thrilled.

"Last one!" he announced. "Catch the barrel!"

We both turned to watch the tiny barrel with legs dart between festival-goers.

"...Please tell me this isn't a race quest," I said.

As we reached it carefully from either side, trying to ambush it, the barrel immediately juked to the side and shot off like a demon, weaving through a group of kids carrying balloons.

I cursed under my breath and broke into a run.

The thing was fast as hell, skittering between carts, under stalls, doubling back just when I thought I had it cornered.

While I was sprinting after it, Llewellyn looked more like he was herding it, fast but without really rushing, adjusting every time it tried to slip away.

Which, honestly, shouldn't have worked so well—it was mildly infuriating.

I dove for it once—nearly caught a handle—and ended up against a crate of stuffed festival prizes.

Someone clapped politely.

Dignity bruised, I pushed myself up, and took off again.

After another few minutes of chasing, Llewellyn finally cornered it against a fountain ledge.

I lunged, wrapping both arms around the stupid thing, and hoisted it up like a confused toddler.

A triumphant chime echoed, then cheers.

The barrel went still in my arms, then slowly deflated into a neat pile of colorful ribbons.

I panted, trying to catch my breath, and blinked down at the mess. When I reached into my pocket, I found that the last of my tokens had lit up brightly.

Llewellyn was standing next to me, completely unbothered, checking his own token.

"Three," he said simply.

Fucking hell.

We walked back to the raccoon merchant, who clapped like we'd just saved the world.

"Congratulations!" he cried. "Three tasks complete—all tokens validated! Exchange them at the prize booth for your reward!"

I shoved the tokens into the waiting collection basket and was handed a bundle wrapped in bright festival paper tied with a cheerful blue ribbon.

I tugged the ribbon loose.

It was a bag of glazed nuts with a neatly folded scrap of parchment inside. The last fragment of the Dungeon Map.

Llewellyn took the last map piece and retrieved the other two from his coat, inching them closer until they sealed together.

Brilliant.

"Glazed nuts?" I asked, tilting the wrapper toward him.

Llewellyn grabbed some and we set off toward the fountain again, so we could study the map properly.

When we were both sitting down, we stared at it, frowning.

"Are they serious?!" I said. A bright line traced a path from Mondwyn Harbor outward, across the nearest floating fields, to a very obvious, very visible point marked simply: The Heart. "We would have found that anyway! Was all this necessary?"

Llewellyn folded the map again and rose to his feet.

"It had to be something," he said. "The System can stabilize a Knot into a Dungeon before it turns destructive and collapses into a Distorted Realm, but once it channels all that creative Magic, it has to do something with it. It's often towns, characters, environments, random quests… Most of the Knot’s Magic still compresses into a final boss, because the System can’t stop the destructive build-up completely. However, it still lessens the level of threat and gives us manageable spaces to move through rather than just fight monster after monster—or worse, the raw Elements as it's often the case in Distorted Realms."

It made sense. I was just surprised this was not all over the Internet.

I wondered how much of the System-related information was being filtered—and by whom. Maybe by the System itself?

"That's why you don't often bother with Dungeons," I guessed.

"There are many awakened people who can use Elemental Magic. Most of them can tackle a Dungeon, either alone or in teams, depending on the type and the final boss. The System can usually send them. Not many can tackle Distorted Realms, especially the complex ones. It makes more sense to save my energies for those."

He was not wrong.

However, that meant that we might not repeat this any time soon.

Damn.

This had been the most fun I had in a long time.

I lingered a moment longer, glancing back toward the town.

Festival music still floated through the air, warm and golden. A few kids splashed near the fountain, laughing. As we walked through the streets, we saw the baker we’d helped earlier standing on his shop’s doorstep, waving at us jovially.

I quickly snapped a few extra pictures. It was sad to think this was all going to vanish as soon as we destroyed the Dungeon. The System had said it had taken note of my preference for Mondwyn Harbor so it might include it in future Dungeons, but for that to happen we had to tackle other Dungeons first—and that might not happen any time soon.

I straightened, putting my phone away again.

These were ridiculous thoughts. Besides, maybe I could tackle a Dungeon on my own, every once in a while. It didn't seem that difficult.

"Let's go," I said.

We passed under the colorful banners one last time, Alberan leaning by the gates, chatting cheerfully with a pair of fox people.

Then, we were beyond the gates.

I eyed the narrow path ahead, leading towards the next floating island.

Around us, only rock and mist. Everything was quiet.