Change of Plans

  “Okay, change of plans!” Hazel declared while clapping her hands together. “We explore the city on foot and wait until it's nighttime for us to have Nycteris fly us around to get a better layout of the land.”

  “Fine with me,” Astrid nodded. “Seeing things from ground level might be better since we can see everything up close compared to in the sky.”

  Due to their recent discovery of Nycteris’s aversion to sunlight because of his vampiric trait, the player duo decided to postpone their flying session until nighttime, when the Nightwing was capable of assisting them properly.

  Walking over to the Familiar, Hazel crouched down and softly stared at him. She placed her hand on his head, lightly petting him like a dog that wasn’t feeling well. She wore a kind and sympathetic smile; one that showed that she deeply cared about Nycteris and didn’t want him to strain himself.

  “Alright, big guy, until it’s nighttime, I'm going to de-summon you, alright? If we left you here, we might be too far away for you to come and rescue us when the sun goes down. This way, when the time comes, you’ll be with us when I summon you back, okay?”

  The Nightwing sluggishly raised his head to stare at his master. His crimson eyes looked distant and almost clouded. It looked like the fatigue was slowly getting to him. Hazel could tell that it wouldn’t be long before he ended up falling asleep until it became nighttime.

  Nycteris then softly nestled his head against Hazel’s hand, letting out a low purr-like screech. Hazel struggled to hold back the urge to vigorously pet the Nightwing like a doting pet owner. Right now, she had bigger fish to fry, and she couldn’t waste much time.

  Taking a moment to assure Nycteris that she would bring him back, the witch then proceeded to try and de-summon her familiar. She never tried it before, but the panels from when she first summoned the Nightwing stated that she could summon or de-summon him at will.

  Hopefully, that meant all she needed to do was focus on de-summoning him instead of having to make a magic circle to use as a base or catalyst.

  Taking a deep breath, Hazel closed her eyes and focused on canceling her summon. For a brief moment, her chest flared intensely, as if it became a blazing stove. She could practically feel the heat emanating through her ribs before the sensation faded away right after.

  Then, out of nowhere, a purple magic circle materialized under Nycteris. While Hazel and Astrid were startled by the sudden appearance, both of them inching back in response, the Nightwing simply lay there, as if expecting this.

  Nycteris then gave one last look at his master, looking a bit glum. “See...you...soon.”

  Hazel faltered, feeling her chest ache uncomfortably. It reminded her of when she had to say goodbye to an old friend of hers whom she had known for a long time because they were moving away. It made her...depressed.

  But that didn’t mean this would be the last time Hazel and Nycteris would see each other again. She was only de-summoning him so they wouldn't be separated. She knew that and yet couldn’t push away the aching sensation in her chest.

  But Hazel did her best to act strong and gave her Summon a confident smile. “Yeah, bud. See you soon too. Very soon.”

  After exchanging their temporary farewells, a purple beam of light erupted from the magic circle, engulfing the Familiar whole. A loud roar from the light assaulted Hazel and Astrid’s ears, forcing the duo to cover them to block out some of the noise.

  The beam remained for a few seconds before it abruptly stopped. When the light disappeared, the Nightwing was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that remained was the magic circle that took Nycteris away. The circle was no longer glowing like before and sizzled, possibly from the effects of the light beam.

  Hazel stood there for a moment as if taking in her familiar’s absence. As she did, Astrid walked over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder.

  “Are you alright?” The dark elf asked, clearly concerned.

  Hazel took a moment to give a reply as if struggling to form her words. “Y-yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine.”

  Hazel was, in fact, not fine, but she couldn’t let Astrid worry over her like that. The dark elf had more pressing issues right now. She couldn’t burden her partner more with her emotions.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Astrid started at the Witch for a moment, clearly knowing that she wasn’t telling the truth. However, instead of saying anything, she simply let out a sigh and pulled her hand away.

  “Alright, then. If you say so,” The dark elf said with a shrug before turning around and making her way over to the exit. “Let’s get moving, then. We still have plenty of sunlight, so we should take advantage while we can.”

  Hazel, while calming her nerves, nodded in response before following behind the dark elf. “Right. Let’s start exploring Portland.”

  With their business in the coffee shop finished the two players left the building and took in the current state of Hazel’s hometown. And much like before...it was very different from what she remembered.

  Not only was the city eerily quiet, with not even the sound of a few car alarms blaring in the distance, but the current state of Portland looked just as baffling.

  The entire street they strolled on was destroyed with large and long cracks spanning across the entire road. It was like an Earthquake just happened, but ten times worse.

  Glancing around, Hazel noticed that a lot of the buildings around her were partly destroyed with half of its structure completely missing. There were even some dangerously leaning to the side like the tower of Pisa.

  Aside from the massive cracks spider-webbing across the entire street, there were also dozens of cars scattered around them. Some were flipped over, others were obliterated beyond repair, leaving remnants of the vehicles all over the place.

  But what caught Hazel’s attention was the occasional street quite literally sprouting out of the cracks. It was such a bizarre sight that the witch couldn’t help but stare at the various trees emerging from the crevices.

  “Geez,” Hazel muttered with astonishment. “Portland had seen better days.”

  “I’m assuming that the rest of our world will likely be like this as well. It’s even a miracle that there are even buildings left standing from the planetary merging.”

  Calling their current situation a miracle seemed appropriate regarding what they were facing right now. Not only did they have to deal with their world’s merging, but also the source behind it; that being the System that teleported Hazel and Astrid to the Tutorial Dungeon.

  Hazel knew that the Tutorial they went through was just the start, and once the rest of the residents from both worlds returned home if they survived, the System was bound to start something else. And a part of her dreaded the potential hell she and Astrid were bound to face in the future.

  The two players continued to walk down the desolate street of Portland, with no noise other than the eerie wind accompanying them. It began to remind them, especially Hazel, about their days back in the Tutorial Dungeon. Specifically, her time in the Town and City Island with the streets that were either completely devoid of life or overrun with Fractured humans.

  “Despite being home, it feels like we’re still in the Dungeon...” Hazel noted grimly, keeping her Astral Eye trained on their surroundings, darting around and keeping an eye out for any danger.

  “Considering what our current surroundings are like, that much is inevitable. That and the fact that we spend a whole month in that hell hole, doing our best to survive.”

  “Especially during the beginning...I nearly died so many times that I’m amazed that I survived for so long.”

  Despite her initial journey in the Dungeon being almost a month ago, Hazel could still remember the hell she went through when she was first dumped in there as if it was yesterday. There were so many things that nearly killed her back then. From the Dire Wolf to the Fractured humans, to the Fractured classes, to even the Fractured Cyclops.

  There was also the Fractured Dire wolf pack plus the Alpha that accompanied them. But despite all of those monsters attempting to kill her, she still managed to come out on top. And continued to do so until she finally left that accursed dungeon. That and she got a lot stronger in the process.

  It was thanks to those near-death experiences that Hazel was able to grow and become what she was today. A Witch with curse spells and a vampire bat familiar. Even though she was enduring almost thirty days of the RPG-like, somehow, a part of her still couldn’t wrap her head around all of it.

  “Do you think we’ll run into any survivors of the Tutorial Dungeons?” Hazel asked while walking alongside Astrid.

  “Technically, we did,” she noted. “Those Orcs that tried to kill us.”

  “Ah, right...”

  Remembering the Orcs, Hazel got her answer about finding survivors. So, if the Orcs managed to survive, then there were likely humans that survived and completed their tutorials as well.

  And since those Orcs were on their merged world before they were, that meant they completed one of the other objectives excluding the thirty-day one. Though, if that was the case, then why were their stats so low?

  Maybe it was because they were being carried? Either that or their tutorial difficulty wasn’t as pressing as Hazel and Astrid’s. Either way, after witnessing the Orc players, Hazel was certain that there were human players out there as well.

  And hopefully, her mother and brother were part of it. However, that would also mean Hazel would be the last one to complete her tutorial, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  Putting that thought aside for now, she and Astrid continued to explore the city, moving from block to block while scanning their surroundings. They came across a couple of shops and other buildings that caught their eye. Mainly the fact that a lot of them were nearly collapsed, leaning to one side to the point where they could tip over, or something else incredibly baffling to see firsthand.

  Then they soon came across something that caught their attention. Especially Astrids.

  “Is that...?”

  “Yeah...” Astrid muttered with a somewhat stunned expression. “I think it is.”

  While walking around, the two players soon stumbled upon a rather unique building. One that wasn’t and couldn’t have been from Hazel’s world. It was a house. But not just any house you would find in a suburban residence. This house...was medieval and gave off a very old appearance despite the lack of withering bricks and whatnot.

  That could only mean one thing. This house...was from Astrid’s world. Which meant they stumbled upon their first sample of Astrid’s planet mixed in with Hazel’s world.