" Hey Wellyn, since this is pretty heavy and all. Do you mind if I just keep it here?"

  Lance asked with a wide smile, he felt powerless when trying to lift the large wok.

  " Sure. This way to the kitchen. Bring it." He said pointing to the wok. A part of Lance felt that he enjoyed watching him suffer.

  Lance leaned over the counter to grab the wok by its edges. Only just as he was about to grab them he noticed the sharp edges would likely cut him fairly easily. The edges were honed to a sheer point, as if on purpose. Grabbing it by anything but the handle would likely mean getting cut. Even reaching under the circumference of the wok was too large, and like putting a knife to your throat. Lance bit his lip and grabbed the handle slowly sliding it off the counter and then to the floor. A loud thud vibrated the floor for a quick second, Wellyn just stood there smirking at Lance.

  " Come on ladd pick it up, get it off the ground and I'll give ya a cup of slime soda on the house."

  Lance looked at him angrily, the weight of the wok had to be at the equivalent of a hundred fifty to two hundred pounds. Lance began to wonder how this made its way out of a dungeon, or perhaps the person got lucky with opening at their Legacy space. Either way Lance believed he released someone of a burden by making the purchase. He began to drag it behind the counter ever more thankful that it was at least round. Once back there he followed behind Wellyn to a door he was always curious about, what he assumed to be Wellyn's room, which as he entered now understood to be a kitchen. Looking around the room he further understood why it had yet to be put to any use. It was empty. There was a large table in its center, two walls adorned with bare shelving, a few barrels lined one wall and the wall furthest back from the door was home to a lone stone oven. The oven was made of large cobblestones held together by mortar. Its squared shape was uncanny as if modeled after your average modern day stove. The front face of it had a large metal door that opened horizontal, it was wide open and the inside was full of ash. The top of the stove had four open hand sized holes that looked directly inside the oven as if the center of the oven was its main source of heat. Lance, now heaving trying to catch his breath, gave the stove a good once over and looked up at Wellyn who was smiling with a thumbs up.

  " Well put it on top, you're almost there. Can't use it on the floor." Wellyn gave Lance a hearty slap on the tricep with a wink.

  Lance looked at him red in the face. Muttering under his breath he began to try and lift the wok. After trying a few times with different angles he felt himself getting a bit lightheaded and sat down. Wellyn burst into laughter.

  " Alright, you gave it your best shot. Try again tomorrow."

  Lance looked up at Wellyn clearly upset and confused. " What the hell, I saw you pick up the box like it was nothing, you can't just put it on the stove for me?"

  " Hmmm. No" Wellyn turned around to leave the room.

  " What? Hey, what's your problem?"

  Wellyn continued to walk out without saying a word. The darkness of the room shared a silence with his leave, teaching Lance another hard lesson. " I have to earn it huh. Should have never broken my other fucking pan. Damn.. didn't tell me about this fuckin room..." Lance muttered in anger tossing the handle to the side and then kicking the pan only to stub his toe and hop around infuriated. The red glow of his eyes in the darkness glistened with tears. Eventually he calmed down and walked back into the bar area. " Hey so what the heck Wellyn? Why didn't you tell me about the kitchen or help me with the pan. You tell me things but only when I ask otherwise you're just silent!"

  Wellyn had been whistling a gentle tune and didn't even look at Lance. He just continued his dishes, which somehow had accumulated. Leaving Lance to stand there upset and without answers. For a solid minute Lance stood around waiting for something to be said. He gave up and went back to his lockbox.

  After looking through everything he grabbed out the belongings he wanted to take on his next attempt at the first floor. He took off his leather jerkin and Cloak and placed them in the chest, all he had on was his pants and boots. He grabbed his axe and knife putting each on opposite hips. He grabbed the shoddy makeshift backpack that he now realized began to stink of rot. Inside he had two sticks that were once goblin spears but now we're broken, and the large slime core. Lance emptied the bag and then discarded the materials in a trashcan. He looked back at Wellyn with a grumpy face, the barkeep had yet to turn around and kept doing his dishes. Lance then looked at the goblin ears and his experience gems. All of the ears also now seemed to have a peculiar stench to them. " Shit... everything is spoiled.." Lance threw it all away. He vowed to use his materials sooner. The only thing that he could use in the future was the slime core which was like a rock, with a jellied core. Lance felt a bit stupid, part of him wanted to think that materials wouldn't spoil here but apparently they would and that meant storage and long term use became all the more important. Lance made a mental note to look into knowing how to make jerky or a proper way to store meats long term, but for now he would make sure to cook everything and eat his gems. Lance held the small gems in his hand. He thought about bringing them in but remembered he couldn't. Lance went back to the counter and grabbed the book to load into the dungeon. After signing his name he noticed the queue began. And again after a few minutes of waiting five lights lit up.

  " Yes! Hard mode player's. Now I have to figure out why the difficulty was so different." Lance looked himself over. The axe and knife on his hips, the goblin stone in his pocket, pants and boots, no shirt and a sack on his head. " Damnit I forgot about this thing. People are gonna freak out... wait." Lance looked at Wellyn's back one more time. " Wellyn what can you tell me about my curse? "

  Wellyn stopped scrubbing his dishes and dropped them into the sink. He put his hand on the railing of the sink then turned around. He stepped closer to Lance expressionless and then looked him in the eyes. " Fear. Only Fear. What you have should have died long ago. Yet somehow here it is. You've got the worst luck I've ever seen, kid. You better come to terms with whatever deal you made, and make right by them."

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Lance looked at him puzzled. He spoke in a way that he couldn't even tell if it was at him or to the mask. When he spoke his eyes darted and scanned over his face in deep examination. " So... Nothing then? The heck is that supposed to mean Wellyn. Being kind of not helpful today dude. Yesterday you were an open book." A moment later his que popped. Lance looked at Wellyn who just stood there and then went back to his dishes. Lance walked to his door entrance. He looked over at Wellyn who was just scrubbing away and then stepped through.

  After Lance entered Wellyn muttered coldly under his breath. " Poor thing. Damned crows..."

  .......

  " Reilly, how many gems do you have?"

  Courage said standing over the corpses of three dead goblins.

  Reilly stepped out from behind a pillar of stone, she now wore an elegant leaf green colored set of robes with dark black wisps drawn across the fabric. Her staff was now in her left hand while she wielded the Goblin longsword in her main hand. She tucked away the blade onto her hip and reached into her breast. Pulling out her hand and counting she then responded. " 6 And the big one for Lance back in my loading space. Are you sure you don't want me to hold those for you guys?"

  Valora looked over, she was wearing a small backpack, the only new addition to her attire. " No please, it's okay, let me feel useful to some degree. Plus we all just have to wait until Lance meets up again then we should give him our shares, we wouldn't have made it if he didn't stall for us. Not to mention... He made us look so cool!!" Valora said, grabbing her cheeks, blushing clearly giddy. Reilly turned away for a second, biting her lip.

  " Well... *Ahem* Let's get moving girls. If we can ambush some more this will become a very fruitful day." Courage grabbed the whistle hanging on a string around his neck. He looked down on it with bright eyes, twiddling it between his fingers.

  Reilly took a step forward and cut off their ears and tongues. She didn't need to explain why, the others were familiar with the reasoning. The trio began to creep along the cobbled stone pathway towards a far off light in the distance. A wall of wooden logs with a large gate wide open stared at the group. All of them felt their blood boiling, ready to fight at any moment. Valora and Courage held their respective blades at the ready. The group was surprised with this floor. The darkness was lighter and every so often they could see a hole in the cave roof with a beam of light shining through, the surface was close.

  Lance stepped through his portal looking around. A group of two came from one door and another two individuals came from two more. The room here accommodates the doors by being round. Once again a torch had been present for each entrance. Lance grabbed his and put it out in the dirt and stepped forward. The party members all gathered up with one another. After a moment everyone's stare had fallen upon Lance, no one had yet to speak. Lance then broke the

  silence. " Yes I'm a person. Sorry it's just my class"

  The couple that came through a female duo both sighed in relief. The other two were males of which one of them spoke up. " Shitty luck man. Gonna be hard to find a girlfriend looking like that." He looked over at the ladies and winked.

  " Ew, out of your league, stinky."

  " Yea stop, you might as well wear a sack as well. Besides he's got a nice body"

  The man looked over at Lance, his mouth wide open, clearly embarrassed. " Sorry I didn't... damn"

  Lance wanted to walk into the darkness, putting the group out of his mind, he didn't care if they followed, he didn't care if they wanted to flirt. He just wanted gains. Gacha, gems, or loot. He was over being stuck on this level. A group of people who were all wearing noob clothing didn't even matter to him. All of them but one. One old man in the back of the group who hadn't spoken. He seemed to be in a basic garment, but he had a large warhammer on his back. Lance had noticed him, the two of them locked eyes as if acknowledging each other. Lance turned towards the cave, and he and the older man both started to walk in.

  " Hey wait up you're just gonna walk into the darkness!" The insulting youth ran to catch up with Lance. The girls picked up their pace.

  " No, I was waiting for you to stop fawning over the ladies and to get in gear. If you're not ready to fight, at least hold the torch." Lance said, looking back at the man. Lance was certain the guy had to be in his early twenties, older than him, but he was labeled a douchebag by Lance immediately and as such Lance showed little respect.

  " Haha right .. Look I'm sorry about calling out your mask thing or whatever. If that's a class thing my bad.. I'm a Dancer class! I have these disks see! By the way names Garrett." He then held up a chakram that he pulled from his hip.

  " Alright Garrett, Call me Sack. You guys ready to fight? Let's get the bats out the way" Lance spat out the first name he could think of. He blushed as soon as the word came out of his mouth, luckily no one could see it. " Sack... what a name" he sighed internally.

  The girls both stepped forward as if to pause Lance. One of them then spoke. " Uh hi Sack.. What do you mean the bats? Fight? There's nothing here. Also my name is Claire. And this is Angela"

  Lance's glowing eyes rolled in his socket.

  " Claire and Angela, cool. Nice to meet you. Yes the bats, I'm gonna yell and then they should come. They are usually around the starting area.”

  At this moment the elder gentleman stepped forward to interject. " It's not bats, it's going to be spiders. Look there"

  He pointed beyond the group at the edge of the light. Staring intensely the group began to make up the outlines of a large web in the center of which a small figure bound in silk was rolled up.

  " Ahhh hellll nahhh I don't do bugs dawg. " Garrett's figure disappeared.

  Everyone then received a notice

  " Attention - Party member has logged out You may leave the instance without penalty. Continuing will not lower difficulty.".

  " Haha oh my goodness. What a pussy, Claire I can't believe he even hit on you."

  " I know it's seriously gross."

  Lance clenched his jaw. " I've already had enough of these dumb bit.. " He thoughts were interrupted by the elderly man stepping forward, extending his hand.

  " King. Nice to meet you. You need some water. Your voice sounds dry. Also, are you ready?" He said pointing to the webs in the distance.

  Lance looked over at the ladies, who at this point drew their weapons. One held a rapier, the other a pair of yo-yos. Lance sighed. "Sack. It's just my voice, anyway yeah let's do it."