The Sacred Forest Dungeon was a truly magical place. Among the monsters and twisting trails lay ruins filled with valuable treasures and useful items. But most magical was the bounty of the land. The trees were broad-branched and supplied fruit; deer roamed through shaded meadows, nibbling at the ground cover; and one could drink directly from the streams, for they ran with fresh glacier melt. 

Today, the forest was calm, and Cleo lounged in her tree fort, listening. Birds of many feathers serenaded each other from the branches above, occasionally breaking out into dramatic skirmishes and screeching matches. It was only in safety that the birds would engage in these raucous activities, and so, for a moment, Cleo allowed herself to experience that elusive feeling: peace.

Birds flapped away as loud voices approached. Cleo peered downwards through a crack in wooden slats of the fort. Three humans, geared like adventurers, walked through the clearing below.

They were probably heroes grinding for EXP, or civilians trying to unlock their second character slot. Cleo remembered those days. Her hero identity had been the product of her also grinding to the requisite level—level 50. What a torment it had been, but the character slot that she unlocked had been an immense reward—at the time.

The trio paused beneath her. A man dressed in loose, casual clothes said, “Up there, I see a tree house! Perhaps there is some loot!”

A second man, armed with a bow and dressed in green hunting gear, answered, “Careful, there may be monsters or traps.”

The third, a man in brown robes, agreed, “He’s right Ben. Be careful.”

Cleo popped her head out the top and called down, “No loot here, go on.” It wasn’t entirely true, as she did have some so-called loot that she collected.

“Aw shucks,” said the second voice, “She’s beat us to it.”

Cleo decided not to argue with that.

“Want to join us?” asked the same man, raising his bow welcomingly. “We’re grinding EXP and looking for loot. It’s dangerous for a lady to be out here by herself. What level are ya?” He paused as he looked over her info bar, holding a pair of glasses to his face. Most heroes carried eyewear imbued with the ‘Scan’ spell, which allowed the user to see others’ name tags.

The other two men also scanned her, as was a normal greeting among heroes. They all looked surprised. “Level 99 civilian!” exclaimed the first voice, who she assumed was Ben. “I’ve not even got to that level as a hero, and I’ve never seen a civilian higher than 60 in my life!”

 She jumped down from her tree. “It’s just what happens when you kill a lot of monsters.”

“Yeah, but why as a civilian?” said the robed man. “Levels don’t make you stronger so there’s no point.”

“What are your names?” asked Cleo.

“Oh, we should have introduced ourselves earlier!” said the second man. “My name’s Tim, or Astral Arrow. Ranger class hero, if you hadn’t guessed. At your service Miss.” He bowed and smiled.

“Ben. Kicker’s the hero name. Fighter class.” Ben lazily kicked a leg forward.

“Hugo, or Toxic Pulse. Mage class.” Hugo said this as if the words were forced out of him.

“What’s your name?” asked Tim.

“Cleo.”

“What’s your hero name?” asked Ben.

“If you must know,” said Cleo, “I’m a mage.”

“You must be high profile if you’re level 99 as a civvie,” said Hugo. “I’m sure we could just look you up later.”

“And strong,” added Tim. He brought up his fists and shook them excitedly. “I could imagine you being Flame Blaster maybe. Perhaps Orion, though I always pictured Orion as a guy. I’ve always wanted to meet him!”

“I’m not Orion,” said Cleo, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

“Well, have fun,” said Tim. “Maybe we’ll catch you outside sometime?”

“Probably not,” she replied.

When the men left the area, she climbed back up to her tree and rummaged through the items that she had looted from ruins. Some of them were just plain old treasures that could be sold, but she mostly collected items that could be used or equipped for certain effects. She remembered one that might be useful… aha!

She pulled out a necklace with a concealing-hands shaped pendant. She popped it into her inventory to read the text:

No Disclosure (Unique) - Hides all information from scans. Effects only work for civilian class.

It was class-specific to civilians, so ordinarily useless, but maybe it would bring less attention to her level. She pulled it out of her inventory and donned it.

“Aaaaaargh!” The distant sound of screaming drew her attention. Cleo sighed and cast ‘Teleport’ in the general direction. She arrived at a somewhat gruesome scene. Tim and Hugo were attempting to pull Ben out of the mouth of a 2 meter tall tortoise. It was gray, and beautiful blue and purple crystals jutted out of its shell. Blood dripped out of the reptile’s mouth onto the grass.

“Cleo!” called Hugo. “Help us kill this thing. I bet you’re a powerful mage, right?”

“Get me out!” demanded Ben angrily, his legs trapped in the tortoise’s bulging throat. The shelled beast clamped down on him harder, and he shrieked as more blood exited his body.

“What did you do?” asked Cleo.

“What do you mean?” yelled Ben. “I’m being eaten alive by a monster! If you’re secretly a powerful hero, you should save me!”

“This isn’t a monster. Jeweled tortoises are passive mobs, so obviously you provoked it.”

Cleo examined the scene carefully. In the shadows behind the aggravated beast was the still body of a much smaller tortoise. If she had to guess, Ben had decided to kill it and steal the crystals, not realizing that the mother was nearby.

Unluckily for him, those peaceful tortoises had an insanely high defense, making them almost impossible to kill for any hero under level 100. They also had a low attack stat, which meant being caught in their jaws was a slow and painful death.

“Dammit, if you won’t help me…” growled Ben.

Cleo furrowed her orange brows, eyes hardened. “You and your greed got you into this situation. You’re a hero, get yourself out.”

Hugo snapped angrily, “A hero doesn’t stand by and allow someone to be eaten alive!”

Cleo snapped back, “A hero is only obliged to save civilians, not greedy fools like you. It’s a dungeon. Tons of people die here in this exact scenario. You guys look new, so I’ll tell you now, but it is a punishable offense to be so incompetent that you waste other heroes’ time. Fines start at 2000 credits.”

Hugo bared his teeth angrily. “Just do something! We’ll pay you whatever!”

Cleo eyed Tim. For all the ranger’s earlier friendliness, he now didn’t even look in her direction. He just silently continued his attempts to keep Ben from being sucked deeper into the reptile’s gullet. His face was pale, perhaps because he was watching his companion slowly die. She sighed. “Fine.”

She circled around the tortoise, moving with a slow and predictable gait. The tortoise turned, following her with its head. The movement elicited a pained groan from Ben, who cursed. It made a low hissing noise as she approached the small tortoise.

The child breathed weakly. Still alive, but it had suffered blows to its skull. Cleo bristled at the sight, but did not pause to gape. She lifted the youngling’s head and used a finger to pry its beak open. This elicited another hiss from the parent.

“Shut up fat girly. I’m helping you.” Cleo pulled out a metal flask and dripped the red contents into the small tortoise's beak. It was about the size of a melon, so a couple drops were plenty. Cleo jerked away as the creature snapped at her, drawing a small prick of blood from her fingertip. It lifted its head and ambled over to the larger beast.

The parent released Ben from its mouth and scooped up the youngling, tromping away through the brush. Ben groaned and stared up at the sky.

“Happy now?” asked Cleo.

“I actually thought you were gonna let him die,” said Tim. “Thank you.”

“I was considering it,” said Cleo flatly.

Hugo was red with anger, but he kept his mouth shut. Ben was in a similar state, but he was likely feeling the full wave of pain now that the threat had left the scene.

“You’ve got a huge wound in your belly,” remarked Cleo.

“I noticed,” growled Ben through grit teeth.

Tim pulled out a healing liquid of his own and gave it to Ben who sucked it up in large portions. It healed him quickly; it must have been expensive stuff.

Cleo stretched her arms. “You’re welcome, guys. Have a fun and exciting adventure.”

Ben angrily replied, “Fun and exciting your—”

Cleo teleported back to her tree house. She had a nap to get back to.