The map had opened up a lot now. There was no more guessing what the signs represented.

  I was looking at what could only be described as a satellite map from Earth. However, at the top, it read "Desolation Forest."

  We were all atop a mountain. The sea was to the east, a lake sat to the northwest, and to the south, there were only forests with a few streams here and there. A good portion of the eastern middle of the map was the mountain range we'd climbed since leaving the beach on Shard Drop Day.

  I figured something like this would happen again soon—though I hadn't expected the whole forest to become infested with dungeons.They were marked by a skull now, instead of the rectangular shape from before.

  Above each skull were ranking indicators. I could read F1, F2, and F0, but nothing below that.

  The closest ones to us were all near the mountain's edge—one from each rank.

  Besides the dungeons, I noticed seven cities scattered around the map. They were all close to the edges and marked with a small building, showing they’d been conquered.

  It didn’t display the names of the city owners or their composition, only that they were functioning.

  I wondered if everyone in Desolation Forest had found a town for themselves—or if they'd died.

  There was a chance some had survived in the forest, even after the hell of the sixth and seventh days, so we had to be ready to see new faces in the coming days.

  “I’ll see you soon, crafter,” I told the alien as I moved away from the station and toward the town’s border.

  My party followed closely, and I noticed more people trailing behind.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw Mila and her closest companions—Adriano and John—with a few from Matt’s old party, plus a lot of myriads, split into two separate groups.

  “Are you going to the dungeons too?” I asked. They nodded.

  “Only one party can enter them, as far as I know,” I explained. “We intend to go to the F0 one, right, guys?”

  My friends nodded without protest, the idea of me making decisions for them becoming more and more natural as the days passed.

  We were in the same boat. An immense challenge lay ahead, and it was victory or death—so we'd get as strong as possible, not shying away from danger.

  Others would survive by hiding, staying completely sneaky, and relying on survival. We'd get strong enough to make the challenges easier.

  Everyone had that ingrained in them already, and apparently the city folks understood it too.

  "Can I join you?" the teenager asked, stepping forward with a shy expression on his face.

  "Sorry, kid. We're not taking someone new into an F0 dungeon. The last one we entered was hell. If you died, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night," I said. I meant it—there was no need to bring a kid with us, even if he'd survived this whole time.

  "We'll tackle the F2 just fine, won't we, John?" Adriano asked, messing with the kid’s hair. John smiled widely. "This guy here survived inside the forest alone for three days until we found him."

  "Damn, you got a camouflage skill, John?" I asked, only half-feigning my impression.

  "No, just lucky, I guess."

  Adriano snorted and smiled, pointing at the kid with his thumb. "He's just humble, sir. This little guy's a killer. I saw him take down one of those cockroaches. Vicious things."

  "Yeah? I don't blame him. I killed one of them with a jaguar."

  That seemed to throw them off, and I decided not to explain—just for the fun of letting them imagine the scene.

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  "If everything turns out well, we’ll see each other later today, okay? There are some things about the town we need to discuss. An assembly would be nice."

  Everyone nodded, and we headed toward the F0 dungeon. That’s when I heard someone calling my name.

  I turned to see Mila walking toward me, a smile on her face as she asked me to wait.

  "Anything wrong?" I asked her.

  "No, not at all. Actually, things are good here—except for the sun."

  Damn, she was right. The place was hot as hell, with no shade except for what the houses provided. The only thing keeping us from dying of heat was the cool breeze coming from the sea. That was one of the things I'd bring up during the assembly.

  "That's great to hear. Anything I can do? We want to tackle this as soon as possible," I explained, not wanting to be rude.

  "I just wanted you to know that I used to work as a psychologist in the past, and what you had to do yesterday can be... traumatic. We can talk if you want."

  She looked almost embarrassed by the proposition, but I thought it rather sweet.

  "I'm fine, really. I’ve got things I need to work on—everyone does, I guess—but I bet you'll find more people in need than me," I told her, and she didn’t seem to believe me. But I went on,

  "Adriano's homesick, missing his family and probably hiding it. That boy John wants to prove himself at all costs for some reason, and he had to be alone for three days in the forest. I bet you'll find other people to help."

  I wanted to throw Elk's name into the mix since I actually thought the Arahaktar needed help dealing with what happened to him, but he was close by.

  "All right," she sighed and wished me good luck as we waved goodbye and turned toward the dungeon

  "What is a psychologist?" Tress asked.

  "Someone who studies the mind and helps people deal with mental illness," I explained.

  "Like a shaman," Tress said.

  "Or a dragon priest," Elk added.

  "I guess so," I shrugged.

  "You guys have names for everything. It just doesn't make sense," Elk said, sounding a little frustrated.

  "I bet you all have strange words too. We just don't interact much with the others from your races," Marry added—and she was right

  I’d noticed Tress hadn’t spent much time with her tribe and wondered why, but hadn’t found the right moment to ask. This felt like the best one.

  “So, why didn’t you seek your tribe yesterday or today?” I asked, and she remained stoic.

  “I have a duty to you—all of you. I’ll talk more with them when we get back.”

  She looked down for a second, as if debating whether to say more, but eventually decided to continue.

  “I told you there are myriads more prone to violence and conflict, right? We try not to be like them, but some things don’t change. The elder you met—he’s a nice man, but I don’t agree with everything he does for the tribe, nor all his interpretations of what the Faceless commands. Being here with you, and having the bond, frees me from the hierarchy.”

  “Can he be a problem?” I asked automatically.

  “No, nothing like that. He’ll probably bow to you your whole life for saving us, even if it didn’t match all the criteria for a bond. I just don’t want to be led by him. He decided to bring all the warriors from the village here and left behind those who couldn’t come. I told him he should instruct a few warriors to stay and help the elders and children in case they needed anything. He refused, using seniority as his argument. He also believed it was a call from the Faceless and that I should’ve stayed as well—but the wind told me to come. Directly.”

  “I see,” I told her, understanding exactly what type of person the elder was.

  And I disagreed with her—he could be a problem the moment he believed anything I did wasn’t best for the whole city. If he decided to remain here, it might become an issue.

  As the silence stretched, I opened my city menu to check a few things and decided to share what I’d learned. I’d taken a good look at the menu last night. Even with most of it locked and unusable, it was good to know the options existed.

  I told them about the options to build instant walls, fountains, surveillance towers, even lakes and restaurants. That made Marry really excited—apparently, she was really into life sim games, which I didn’t expect.

  “Right, so what I understand is that we won’t be thrown back to back into different towers. This thing of going into dungeons, shard drops, and city relationships will also be frequent. So, I guess we need to be careful about how we share this information and how we spend money. Right now, we’ve got a protective veil over the city, but that won’t last forever.”

  They nodded, agreeing in silence as I watched them descending the mountain, and I could almost see the gears in their brains turning.

  We walked for half an hour in silence—the good kind of silence, the one that confirmed our friendship was truly solid. That’s when we arrived at the edge of the dungeon.

  It was nestled inside the forest, so we only saw it once we reached the border. Before I could be tempted by the trees’ shadows, I was surprised by a black dome above, at least ninety feet from one end to the other.

  The dome wasn’t taller than the tree canopies, but clearly, there were no trees inside it. I was surprised we hadn’t seen it from above, but maybe that was intentional—part of the show.

  As soon as I laid eyes on it, the messages appeared:

  Boss Dungeon - Rank F0 – Defeat Blazing Minotaur to earn rewards.