Chapter Seven #5
“Maybe it’s the same one?” I knew it wouldn’t be. “It’s over in Twisting Woods.”
“I can head there tomorrow, but we’re going to Forgotten Cemetery today.”
“Gotcha. Well, if ya head over tomorrow, I commissioned this girl the other day to go and get me some wood I can use for handles, but she ended up gettin’ scared and comin’ back here without any wood, so—”
“Supply the axe and I’ll be happy to get some wood for you.”
“Heh, of course. Drop by when you’re ready to go and I’ll have an axe for ya.”
It was one of the few different introduction quests to gathering in dungeons. Forgotten Cemetery didn’t have any gathering nodes that required tools, though, so I didn’t care about doing the quest first.
But that aside, my chores were done, so it was time to go dungeon diving.
“Ready to go?” I asked Rosie.
“The—the Forgotten Cemetery… is that—is that really where we’re going?”
“I know you’re not good with horror, but I need to run it for my plan, and I know you’re not going to let me go by myself.”
Rosie sighed. “It’s annoying how well you know me.”
“Hey, you know as much about my life as I know about yours. If anything, you probably know more about me than I know about you, so it’s your turn to tell me stories about your past next time we go on a date.”
“That—that wasn’t a date…”
“Don’t you think it’d be better if it was one?”
“… maybe it was a date…”
“Ea-sy.”
Rosie stomped on my foot which was absolutely deserved.
There were two plazas more important than any others to adventurers in the city.
Victory Plaza, which was where all dungeons led to after their successful completion, and Dungeon Plaza, which offered portals to all known, cleared dungeons. Dungeons that nobody ever completed before required actually traveling to them on foot, but we weren’t ready for those yet.
Dungeon Plaza was full of adventurers getting ready to head out for the day, merchants trying to sell last-minute supplies, and families who came to see their loved ones off.
“It feels like the start of a new adventure every time I come over here,” Rosie said.
I nodded in total agreement. “Right? You get it.” Then I noticed something that caught my attention. There was a woman missing an arm wishing some younger kids well before they left for a dungeon.
“You know,” I said, “I’ve seen characters in the game before who had missing limbs and scars, but I have no idea how that actually happens in a world with health as a stat.”
Rosie looked confused for a moment before saying, “Sometimes I forget you’re not from here.”
“You’ve played games, right? Think of all the little things that get glossed over since it’s not important to gameplay, and those are the things I don’t know.”
Rosie looked me straight in the eyes. “You… you know how to use a bathroom, right? Your world had toilets, right?”
“Of course I do. You stand on your hands and spin around while—”
“What kind of bathrooms did your world have?! What state did you leave my family’s bathroom in?!”
“I’m joking, I’m joking. Our bathrooms are the same.”
Rosie let out a relieved sigh. “Good, I was starting to worry I’d have to teach you how to use the bathroom.”
“My pride would insist on figuring that out myself, so don’t worry.”
“Anyways… uhh, the easiest way to put it is… so, as long as your HP is 50% or higher, you can kind of consider that a buffer. You’ll feel pain from getting hurt, but you won’t be in serious danger of anything.
Even having a sword stabbed into you won’t leave anything other than a cut that quickly heals.
Once you’re below 50% HP, things start leaving scars.
It’s usually the sign of a great tank or a great healer to see parties where nobody has scars.
But once you go below 20%, you’re in serious danger.
That’s how you see people lose their limbs. ”
“So, the lower your health, the more you’re at risk of actually suffering long-term consequences from taking damage.”
“Right.”
“Simple enough. Thanks for the explanation.”
“You don’t need to thank me for something like that.”
“If I’m thankful for something, it’s only right that I say thanks for it. You’ve been teaching me, so I’m thankful for you. Deal with it.”
Rosie’s ears twitched and her tail swished. She really was so easy to read. “You’re—you’re welcome.” Then she sighed. “No wonder you were always able to romance me.”
“Like I said, you had one of the easiest romance routes.”
“Did your world also have the saying about dead horses?”
“Yep. You can lead a dead horse to water, but you can’t beat it.”
“That—wh… wha…?”
I grabbed Rosie by her hand and led her over to the nearest available portal. Once there, a menu popped up to choose our destination. I realized I could scroll through it to figure out just how many dungeons had been cleared, but I could do that later. For now, I chose our destination.
The portal shifted in color and shape before settling down to reveal our chosen dungeon on the other side of it.
“Let’s get to it,” I said and stepped through.
[Entering Dungeon]
[Forgotten Cemetery]
[Recommended Levels: 4 – 9]