I decided to take the lead in order to take some pressure off of Ves, and because I was excited to see what I could do with my class. Ves already knew to stay at a distance, whenever possible, only moving closer to me if I would otherwise be out of her line-of-sight. She couldn’t stay too far back, however, because I still needed some torchlight to see. It was a tricky balance.

  The main thing I was worried about was getting surprised by another rat, and most likely getting injured in the process. Even though Ves could heal me, my preference was to avoid the pain of the attack and the pain of her magic altogether. That’s what made me remember how my senses had felt heightened the first time I left the cave. I hadn’t felt anything like that in Perrenbrook, making me wonder if I had subconsciously “activated” a Rogue feature when I was concerned about danger.

  That wouldn’t be good enough. If I really did have enhanced senses to some degree, that would be especially useful in situations in which I didn’t expect any kind of trouble. I had to figure out a way to tap into this, somehow.

  Unfortunately, clearing my mind and trying to focus was not even close to being one of my strong suits. Instead of trying to think about nothing, I tried to think about everything: the feel of the cave wall, the smell of the musty air, and the… absolute lack of sound.

  I suddenly felt a presence close to me, but far too late to do anything about it. It’s a good thing that it was only Ves, placing a hand on my shoulder.

  “What’s going on? Why’d you stop?”

  I hadn’t even realized that I’d stopped moving. After explaining what I was doing to Ves, she crossed her arms and gave me a half-hearted smile. “A Rogue who can’t focus. Maybe you were sent here so we could form a party of adventurers with the wrong classes.”

  “Well… maybe you’re onto something. That voice in my head - uh, the Goddess - told me something like ‘my bonds will be my strength’.”

  One of Ves’s ears lowered and she slightly cocked her head. “What? She doesn’t say anything like that.”

  It’s not unusual for me to misremember things, but this was recent enough and unique enough that it still stood out in my mind. I told Ves as much, and she asked me to repeat what the Goddess had said when she granted me my class.

  “Okay, now I’m on the spot, and I’m not going to remember it word-for-word, but it went like: ‘For your deeds, you’ll be granted the ‘Rogue’ class. Um, learn and use your skills well, help those in need, and… oh, right that which is wrong.’ Then she said the part about ‘Your bonds will be your strength, and you, theirs.’ And then as I was trying to process all that, she said something about how I’ve given myself a second chance.”

  Ves was looking at me like I was crazy, and sighed. “Okay, I only believe you because everything about you has been weird.”

  I crossed my arms. “What’s weird about it?”

  “The Goddess has never said most of that stuff. All I heard was ‘For your deeds, you will be granted the ‘Vitality Mage’ class. Learn and use your skills well.’ As far as I know, that’s all anyone hears from the Goddess when they get a class.”

  That was information that I didn’t know what to do with. “...Huh. Maybe it’s because I’m from another world? Like, I needed some extra guidance?”

  Ves shook her head gently. “No idea. Weird or not, you’re a special guy, I guess. Maybe you should join a guild.”

  I smirked at Ves, which felt great, considering how often she had been doing it to me. “We haven’t even found a single rat today and you’re already trying to get rid of me?”

  Her other ear flattened, as did her expression. “Yeah, okay. Just saying that you might excel with proper training and resources, since the Goddess loves you so much.”

  That still didn’t make me want to join the Seekers, or any other guild, but I wasn’t ready to tell Ves that it was largely because of what Thia had told me. “I still think you had it right: we have to help each other. That’s what the Goddess was telling me. With everything that’s happened, I’m not about to assume that this is all just because of random chance.”

  Ves’s expression softened a bit, and she just looked at me for a few seconds. “Okay, are we going to train, or what? I feel like an idiot having another conversation in this damn cave.”

  Grinning, I turned back around and slowly made my way further down the tunnel. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Ves seemed kind of jealous of the attention I was getting from the Goddess, the Seekers… hell, maybe even Mrs. Zurax. Combine that with how great she looked in her new outfit, and I was finding myself drawn to her more and more.

  There was a faint squeal coming from farther down the tunnel, and I stopped in my tracks. “Did you hear that?”

  Ves moved closer. “No. What was it?”

  “I think there’s a rat ahead. I’m going to see if I can sneak up closer.”

  The last time I moved with any kind of stealth was probably when sneaking out of my bedroom to get a midnight snack as a kid. Just like I did back then, I started moving as slowly as possible. It seemed effective: I wasn’t making any noise, but it was also excruciatingly slow. There was a good chance that the rat would be long gone (or worse, notice me) before I got to it.

  I’ve killed a couple of these things already. Ves has got my back. This is the time to experiment.

  I picked up the pace a bit, and still wasn’t making any kind of sound. Even as I continued increasing my speed, my movement remained silent. It seemed that this was another part of the Rogue class. Ves gets to use healing magic, and I get to move without making a sound.

  It hit me that I hadn’t drawn my daggers yet. I did so, a little too fast, nearly dropping them. Catching my breath, I motioned for Ves to move up closer so I could make my way around the next bend.

  As the torchlight got closer to me, I started to make out a vague shape not too far ahead of me, just around the bend. It was definitely a cave rat. I held up my hand to stop Ves, then waved it a few times to have her take a step or two back. I couldn’t see her face, but I hoped she wasn’t too annoyed.

  I crouched down and stepped quietly towards the rat, which still hadn’t noticed me. It seemed to be cleaning itself, and less aware of its surroundings. This was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to miss. Holding my breath, I thrust a dagger into its back… and killed it instantly.

  I exhaled. “Oh shit.”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Ves, also crouching down, moved up right behind me. “What happened?”

  “I one-shotted it. I mean, killed it with one stab.”

  “Well, yeah. Sneak attacks are your bread and butter.”

  That matched what I knew about Rogues, but it was weird to experience it in real life. “Not a bad start. Wonder if there are any more nearby.” I continued around the bend to check.

  This part opened up into the junction chamber. I whispered for Ves to hold out the torch a little more so that I could get a somewhat better look into the chamber, then quickly had her pull it back. I was really missing my phone at this point.

  During that brief glimpse, I didn’t notice any rats, so I closed my eyes and made another attempt at focusing on my hearing. Naturally, my attention wandered, but I managed to just barely make out a scratching noise coming from my right. There were a couple of passages in that direction, but I was reasonably sure that it was coming from the one furthest to my right.

  I hadn’t been down this tunnel yet, but remembered Ves saying that most of these passages were dead ends. On one hand, it meant it would be harder for the rat to escape. On the other, it meant that the rat might be more likely to turn around and notice me before I could attack.

  After holding up a hand to let Ves know she should stay back, I held up my daggers and crept through the chamber. The stress of the situation helped me focus, and I could feel my senses “opening up” in a way. It was nice to have this ability at all, but it felt like it would take a lot more practice to have it active whenever I wanted.

  As I got closer, I could hear more scratching sounds and faint squeaks, confirming that I was headed towards the correct passage. Unfortunately, by this point, I couldn’t see anything. Something told me that even if I became some kind of master Rogue, my heightened senses wouldn’t be the same as having darkvision. In situations like this, the best I could do was make an educated guess.

  Just like before, I thrust out a dagger… but this time, I didn’t make contact. The rat didn’t make any moves or noises, so it seemed that I had another chance. I thrust once more, in a different direction, but still only struck air.

  Now I was getting frustrated. I thrust both daggers repeatedly in front of me, and soon felt one of them hit something. This was followed by a screech, and then the rat leapt at my face and latched on while furiously biting me.

  The shock of this happening was almost worse than the pain itself… at first. I yelled as I tried to pry it off, but the rat only dug its claws deeper into my flesh. It felt like the rat had completely chewed off my nose and its jagged teeth were too close to my eyes.

  I was worried about accidentally stabbing myself, but it was clear that this thing was going to do a lot more to me if I didn’t kill it soon. Trying to angle the daggers away from me as much as possible, I stabbed at the rat monster until its horrid noises came to a shuddering stop. Its claws were still stuck in my face.

  “Jesus FUCK-” Blood was pouring down my face and into my mouth. I fell over as I tried to spit out as much as I could.

  There was a sudden burst of light, and the rat was knocked off of my face, its claws tearing out of my skin. Before I could even process what was happening, more light filled my vision. The pain quickly faded away, and when the light faded, I could see Ves standing in front of me.

  Concern filled her beautiful face. She cautiously reached out to touch my nose, and I gasped reflexively. Surprisingly, my nose seemed to be there again, and her touch didn’t hurt.

  “Jeremy, are you okay?!”

  “I… think so. It doesn’t hurt anymore. Hey, it doesn’t hurt!” I pulled her into a hug, which Ves only allowed for a couple of seconds before pulling away.

  “If you hug me every time I heal you, we’ll never get anything done.”

  “No, Ves, it doesn’t hurt! I mean, your magic! I didn’t feel anything!”

  Ves blinked. “Wait, what? Really??”

  “That was amazing! Holy shit. That little bastard really got me.”

  “Uh, yeah, how the hell did that happen?”

  It would have been nice to come up with a good excuse, but I could only admit that I messed up. I expected Ves to tell me how stupid it was to put myself into a situation like that, but she looked relieved.

  “We need to be more careful. I think we need to risk having more light so you can actually see. If that means you can’t sneak attack, then we’ll just have to face them head-on.”

  I agreed, but didn’t like the idea of fighting like that, if I could help it. We decided to move on before multiple rats converged on us. Soon we encountered another rat, and even with Ves keeping herself and the torch a bit closer, it didn’t seem to notice my presence. I was able to get in another one-hit kill.

  “Do these rats have bad eyesight? I thought it would have noticed the light for sure.”

  Ves looked embarrassed. “Maybe…? All I’ve ever heard is how weak they are compared to other monsters. Never thought to ask about anything else.”

  I was just glad that we found out sooner, rather than later.

  Ves kept the torch closer to me as we moved deeper into the cave. While in the passage that led directly to the chamber where we fought the cave rat queen, I was able to easily hear the sounds of at least a few rats. I quietly informed Ves, and began sneaking ahead.

  Two of the rats were at the enormous queen’s corpse, and appeared to be eating it. There were already huge parts of the body that had already been fed upon. Didn’t think that thing could look or smell any worse. At least they’re distracted. It looked like there were bits of bone scattered throughout the chamber, as well.

  I could also spot a third rat further back in the cave, and it appeared to be sleeping. The occasional squeak confirmed that it was still alive, in any case.

  Without making a sound, I approached the first two rats. I was feeling pretty confident at this point, and used both of my daggers to kill them at the same time. Then I crept over towards the third one, but when I was just a couple of feet away, I heard a muffled crunch beneath me. I must have stepped on a bone fragment or something, but I didn’t understand why it had suddenly made a sound.

  Even though it wasn’t loud, it was enough to alert the cave rat. Its beady eyes opened as it hissed at me, sending specks of drool into the air. The creature lunged at me, but I moved my arm in front of me just in time. Its jaws latched onto my arm and I stabbed it repeatedly with my other hand.

  Once it was dead, I pried it off of me, and drop-kicked it as far as I could. Ves rushed into the chamber.

  “Oh damn, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, that wasn’t nearly as bad as before. Would you mind healing me, though?”

  Ves nodded, and focused on her spell. Once it kicked in, the increasingly-familiar pain of the healing magic filled my arm, but it only took a few seconds to heal the minor wound.

  “Ah, shit. Hey, your spell is hurting me again. Why didn’t it hurt last time? That was a lot more healing, too.”

  Ves shrugged. “Hell if I know.”

  I thought about this for a moment. “You blasted the rat off of my face with a spell, then healed me right after. I wonder if it didn’t hurt because you were acting without really thinking too hard about it.”

  “Huh, could be. Kinda hard to intentionally do stuff without thinking about it, though.”

  “Tell me about it. I’m still trying to figure out how this basic Rogue stuff works. I think I’m making some progress, though.”

  “Yeah! The stealth and sneak attacks are super useful. We gotta figure out how to handle the times when you get noticed and attacked, though. If we keep going, monsters are only going to get tougher.”

  She was right, of course. Having Ves heal me up was insanely helpful, but if a monster was especially strong - or just got lucky - I could die. Maybe she’d be able to heal that eventually, but at the time, I doubted that was an option.

  Ves looked over at the rat I’d kicked. “How did that one notice you, anyway?”

  “Not sure. I was sneaking up to it, and then it was like my stealth just… wore off… oh. I bet I can only do it for so long each time.” A lot of stuff in Fielende, at least stuff related to the various classes, seemed to operate on a sort of “game logic”. Having a stealth ability on a timer made perfect sense when I thought about it like that. I wouldn’t be able to just stay quiet forever without having to take breaks. I’d been using stealth frequently in the cave today, so I knew whatever cooldown it had couldn’t have been long, at least.

  I explained my theory to Ves as best as I could without mentioning games, but she seemed to get what I was talking about. She crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

  “Okay, so there’s a limit to how much you can sneak around at once. I was wondering if we could fight something big, like the rat queen, and have you strike, sneak around it, strike again, and so on, without getting hit.”

  “Yeah, definitely not. Rogues aren’t typically known for taking a lot of hits. Uh, at least, from what I understand.”

  Ves sighed. “We’re going to need another party member before long, aren’t we?”

  That made sense - there was a reason why people formed adventuring parties, after all. We needed someone who could withstand more attacks… maybe someone who could keep the enemy focused on them, instead of me, or Ves.

  We need a tank.

  With that realization, the choice became obvious… but it wasn’t going to be easy.

  We need Thia.