The wooden floorboards of the Edgewater Guild creaked beneath their boots as the group made their way toward the double doors. The wolf quest scroll was tucked under Bell's arm, and everyone looked eager to get started.

They had their directions, their objective, and—for once—a moment of forward momentum.

That lasted exactly twelve seconds.

"Oi, you! Yeah, you lot!"

The call rang out across the guildhall with the unmistakable tone of someone looking for trouble. Zane stopped mid-step. Tarni groaned audibly. The rest of the room fell quiet, eyes drifting toward the source.

They turned to see a group of five adventurers standing near the quest board, arms crossed, eyes sharp. The one who'd spoken was massive—built like a rugby prop who'd been crossbred with a stone wall. He wore rough-spun chainmail that looked like it had seen years of dents and a chipped greatsword slung across his back. His eyes zeroed in on Zane.

"That's some sweet gear you've got," the man said with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Especially that shield. I'd love to hear how you got it."

Zane stepped forward automatically, raising his shield just slightly and letting his hand rest casually on the machete strapped to his hip. Kai, without being told, slipped into the middle of the group like they'd practised during the goblin hunts. Bell was already checking the angles for the nearest cover, and Lily casually shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet.

Tarni groaned again, louder this time, and stepped between Zane and the stranger with both palms raised.

"Alright, calm your tits, mate," Tarni said. "No one's looking to start anything."

The other adventurers tensed, as if waiting for a signal from their muscle-bound leader. He stared at Tarni for a moment before giving a short, rough chuckle.

"Relax. Just curious," the big man said. But the way his eyes lingered on Zane's shield said something else entirely. "Didn't mean to ruffle feathers."

"Sure," Tarni muttered. "You might want to work on your tone, though. You sound like you're about to start a pub brawl, not small talk."

The tension hung for a moment longer, but then the group at the board turned away, pretending to scan the remaining quests.

Zane didn't lower his shield until they were out the door.

The air outside, smelling of the town and its people, was a welcome change, the sun still rising to its apex. They followed the cobblestone road toward the Gate, passing the last of the stores and stone houses.

After a few minutes, Zane broke the silence.

"Well… that could've gone worse."

"You say that every time, and it's always true—but not by much," Tarni replied.

"They were sizing us up," Kai added. "That wasn't curiosity. That was... inventory envy."

"Let them look," Bell said. "Anyone who needs to posture like that isn't half as dangerous as they want people to believe."

Lily chuckled. "Still. Good practice. We slipped into formation without even blinking."

The group fell silent as they approached the gate.

The gate creaked behind them as they stepped beyond Edgewater's walls, the guards giving them a final nod as the heavy wooden doors shut once more. A well-trodden dirt road stretched ahead, winding gently between flower-dappled fields and tall, swaying grass. A lazy breeze rolled over the hills, warm and fragrant with wild thyme and something faintly sweet Zane couldn't quite place.

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It was a good day to be alive. Which, given recent events, wasn't something any of them took for granted.

With the tension of the guild hall slowly bleeding out of their shoulders, the group walked in companionable silence for several minutes, the rhythmic crunch of boots on dirt the only sound.

Kai was the first to break it. "I can't believe this is a regular thing."

Zane glanced sideways. "What thing? The quest?"

"All of it," Kai said, gesturing around at the peaceful countryside like it personally offended him. "Wolves. Quests. Magic. Whole other worlds with dungeons in them. I mean, I thought maybe this was all just happening to us, but the Guildmaster made it sound like this is routine."

"Hundreds of worlds," Bell said, adjusting her grip on the scroll they'd been given. "That's what Horace said, right? Hundreds have had a System show up."

"And every one of them sends a group here," Lily added. "Like a... a first day of school orientation, but with more swords and less cafeteria food."

"Except we didn't get that orientation," Tarni pointed out, brushing a blade of grass from his pant leg. "No cafeteria, no friendly advisor, no 'Welcome to the multiverse, please collect your complimentary starter potion at the door.' Just a goblin chief trying to stab us in the Eye and a Black cube that wants to murder us."

"That's the part that keeps bugging me," Kai said. "The other groups the Guildmaster talked to—they all started this part on the first floor of their dungeon. Not the fourth. And they got thirty days. We got twenty-four hours. That's not just unfair. That's…"

"Suspicious?" Zane offered.

"Deliberate," Bell said firmly. "It's like our System wants us moving fast. No breathing room."

Lily snorted. "Our system seems to have SAS. The messages are more like a personal trainer's attitude. 'You're not leveling fast enough, maggot!'"

"Don't forget," Tarni said, "those other groups were just doing beginner quests, walking injured dogs or chasing off angry chickens or something. We were fighting for our lives from the start. That goblin chief had, what, a two-dozen underlings? And a system given Name?"

"Eye-stabber," Zane muttered grimly. "Still can't believe that fat bastard got a name."

"Properly earned it too," Kai added with a shudder.

Zane slowed his pace a little, the road curving past a low stone wall half-consumed by moss. He looked around at the peaceful fields, trying to reconcile the pastoral calm with the absolute chaos they'd been dropped into since this all began.

"Horace said the other groups spent time in this beginner's zone—this world—doing simple quests, getting guidance from the guild, slowly building up to level five."

"Meanwhile," Bell said, "we had to conquer our way here. Just to unlock this place."

"And now," Lily added, "we have less than twenty-four hours to get to level nine or… what? The System slaps a fail sticker on our heads?"

"I don't think it'll let us fail," Zane said quietly. "I think if we don't hit the goal, it'll throw us into something worse. Like it's testing us. Seeing if we can survive under pressure."

There was a thoughtful silence at that.

"Maybe we're not a test," Kai offered. "Maybe we're a prototype. A different kind of induction. Fast-track adventurers. Cut the fat, throw them into the deep end."

Tarni chuckled darkly. "Great. We're the beta testers of a cosmic MMORPG."

"Sounds about right," Lily muttered. "Well, we do seem to get early access bonuses. You know, with our…" She raised her fingers to make exaggerated air quotes. "'Crazy Strong Titles,' as the Guildmaster so delicately put it."

"I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead by now if we didn't have our titles," Kai added, his tone flat and matter-of-fact.

No one argued. A collective nod moved through the group like a ripple.

Zane glanced at each of them in turn—Tarni with his casually confident smirk, Bell scanning the horizon like she expected trouble at any moment, Lily walking backward again just to be weird, and Kai adjusting the straps on his backpack like he was still trying to make the gear feel real.

They didn't ask for any of this. But they were still here.

"Titles," Zane said quietly. "Luck. Or something else. Doesn't matter. We're not dead. Let's keep it that way."

The group kept walking, the distant cry of a hawk overhead drawing their eyes briefly to the sky.

The group fell quiet again, the wind picking up and tugging at cloaks and loose sleeves. The sun hung high and bright overhead, and the fields ahead of them stretched on, green and gold and full of hidden threats.

Zane looked back over his shoulder at the town walls, just barely visible through the grass and flowers behind them. Thinking would have been nice to start here, everyone at level 1. But if we did, would he have been able to save Bell?

Kai broke Zane's dark thoughts by asking.

"…So what's the plan if the wolves can talk?"

Tarni immediately responded, "Challenge the alpha to a dance-off. Obviously."

"Oh god," Bell groaned. "Please don't."

"Too late. Already practicing my moves."

Zane chuckled, tightening the straps on his shield. Silently thanking the system that everything had gone the way it had, and whatever the System threw at them next, they'd face it like always—together.

And hopefully, this time, with fewer stab wounds.

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