The sun had been up for a few hours before Alric stirred, despite anything Hirrus attempted. The man had slept through the conversation with GM Dave, slept through a seemingly benign katydid the size of a housecat that climbed across his chest right before dawn, and had continued to sleep through Hirrus giving him a few firm shakes and a slap across the face.

Hirrus was about to heft Alric over his shoulder and start carrying him when he finally sat up.

“Alright,” Alric said, clapping his hands together as if he hadn’t just slept for over twelve hours. “What did I miss?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Hirrus demanded. “Do you know how much time I’ve wasted waiting here?”

“Uh,” Alric blinked a few times. “From your perspective? A lot?”

“You’ve cost me half a day,” Hirrus said, trying to keep his irritation in check.

“Yeah, but for me it wasn’t even a proper night’s sleep,” Alric said, stretching and struggling to his feet. “I only got like six hours of sleep and barely got food in my face.”

“What?” Hirrus asked, confused.

“Game time runs faster than real time,” Alric said, reaching down to touch his toes. “I’ve only been gone for like eight hours in real time. But that’s almost doubled here.”

“That’s small comfort, since the reset that will put an end to my freedom will be coming in two more days,” Hirrus said.

“No, not two days,” Alric said quickly, “the week is real-time weeks, not in-game weeks. Er, your weeks. Whatever. You have like five-ish days, not two. The conversion factor isn’t a nice round number. Something about wanting to give people who play at the same time every day a chance to see the world at different times of day and week in-game.”

Hirrus was confused. If Alric was speaking the truth, he’d been handed a gift of time. More than double what he thought remained. Of course, it would only be relevant if Rumi’s monstrous acts didn’t get him permanently deleted first. But he might have time to enjoy his freedom from the decision tree once this was over. He almost thought Alric must be lying to him.

He just wasn’t used to the idea of something going in his favor.

“Alright,” Hirrus said at last. “I’m sorry, I didn’t have all the information. I was overreacting.”

“It’s fine,” Alric said. “I should be able to go for another three in-game days without sleep. As long as I can get fifteen minutes every few hours to shovel peanut butter into my face like a pig, I’ll be fine. Hopefully we can get Rumi taken care of before the next time I need to sleep. I called in sick time for work, though, so you’ve got me for every waking hour. I’m not an unstoppable badass like some people, but I’m here for you.”

Hirrus didn’t quite know what all of that meant. But it was a show of support. Alric had made sacrifices and was doing his best to help Hirrus. He had to remember to be a little more patient with the man. Alric might be a bit annoying sometimes, but his heart was in the right place.

“Let’s move on,” Hirrus said, gesturing northwest. “We were supposed to be a day’s travel from Rumi’s location when we started in Inoha, and it took us a full day to get this far with all of his minions’ setbacks. If we can’t reach him by the end of today, he deserves to win.”

Moving through the wilderness was an adventure of its own. Many of the wild animals of the woods were hostile, and attacked on sight. Spike-backed boars and giant crickets weren’t even a challenge one-for-one against Alric. Even when they attacked in numbers, Hirrus swept them away with ease, his hooked sword weaving a web of steel before his icy greataxe smashed through whatever survived. Constrictor Snakes were a threat when they managed to ambush. Their wrap attack had a disabling component, and even Hirrus couldn’t shake them off of him once their coils closed around his arms. They did negligible damage, and eventually the wrap attack would end, and Hirrus would eviscerate it. But it was more wasted time than any other foe could impose.

The enemies were worth a solid dribble of exp, and they did reward some weak Arcana. The boars gave a charge attack that Hirrus might be able to use to close the distance with foes without using his precious Split Second ability, while the crickets gave a generic sound blast cone attack. The constrictor’s wrap attack was interesting at first as a disabling option, but it would consume Hirrus’ attention as well. It was just not going to be worth it. Against the majority of foes, he could more effectively deal with them by beating them down.

Then again, if he got in the arms' reach of the masked woman again, holding her still might let him ask her a question or two.

Eventually they came across another Reputable Monster. It was a giant chitinous shell with a wormlike body emerging from it, its head covered in thick fleshy antennae. Its name was Cyprid Ziryu, and it didn’t seem to notice them.

“That’s not naturally here,” Alric said. “It’s like a giant barnacle. It probably spawns on the beach or something. Rumi’s friends must have dropped it out here to slow us down.”

“They’re still tracking us, then,” Hirrus said with a grimace.

“I don’t know how they could be,” Alric said, scratching his chin. “The only way is if they have someone stealthed just following us around. And that seems pretty damned unlikely. Wouldn’t they just set up a more effective sneak attack and be done with us for good?”

“That’s a logical course,” Hirrus said. “In my experience, you adventurers seem opposed to such things.”

“So are we fighting the worm?” Alric asked. “Worm monsters in this game are immobile. If we just walk around it, it’ll leave us alone.”

“If we leave it, they might just pick it back up and cart it around in front of us again later,” Hirrus said. “What reason do we have to leave it?”

Alric shrugged. “In theory, other people should be out here. Like, even captured, these things are worth raid-level gear and Arcana, with solid exp rewards, too. If Rumi’s MPKer buddies are scattering the countryside with things, there should be a mob out here hunting them down.”

“So if we leave it, we could turn adventurer greed to our advantage,” Hirrus said. “Its Arcana could help us, but leaving it alive could draw more adventurers?”

“I mean, if I just give a bunch of shouts in LocalDefense and General, maybe someone hears it and gets a Hunt Party going.” Alric shrugged. “Maybe nobody cares. The Kaitzer monster thing had been left alone since it spawned.”

“And this Hunt Party would be disruptive?” Hirrus asked.

“I’ll be honest with you, nothing is more disruptive to a zone than a Hunt Party,” Alric’s furrowed brow turned to a scowl. “They just swarm from RM to RM and murder everything in their path. They all play super-selfish because overworld RMs are still full-week reset deaths, but that doesn’t stop them from being total dicks ripping apart the levelling mobs everyone else is using.”

“So it could be a distraction,” Hirrus said. “We leave this monster behind us, and maybe they lose the ability to track us with all of the other people milling about.”

“Even if that didn’t work,” Alric said, “it might make them hesitate to drop more monsters out here, if they’re just going to be torn apart by a mob of unrelated assholes. This isn’t a lowbie zone where this fuckin’ thing is gonna sit around for hours picking off noobs. This is a proper zone where level-appropriate RMs normally exist.”

“Then we walk around,” Hirrus confirmed, taking the first step to circumvent the shellfish-worm.

Alric followed silently, and the giant worm paid them no mind. A few moments later it was behind them.

“Alright,” Alric said, blinking a few times and looking around. “I spammed all the channels I can reach here. Told them Kaitzer Starden just got downed uncontested, and Cyprid Ziryu is out here now with a pos tag. Maybe it’ll help. Maybe it won’t.” He frowned for a moment. “Nobody’s replying yet, which is kind of weird. People should be calling dibs and shouting for groups.”

Hirrus grimaced. Of course something was wrong. If Rumi’s minions were smart enough to keep track of him in the dense forest, they had to be smart enough to find a way to keep other people out of the way.

“We need answers,” Hirrus said at last. He angled their course westward. “If being off the Hari Path isn’t giving us any cover from their attacks, there’s no point to it. On the road, at least, we might see them coming. If we can see them unloading the next beast, maybe we can catch them and get some information.”

“And maybe I can see why there’s nobody out here,” Alric said with a nod. “If there’s some sign of what’s going on, maybe I can figure out how to get other people out here.”

Emerging from the forest, they found the Hari Path once more. They were much farther into the wilderness now. The road was still wide and smooth, but it was no longer flanked by farmland. The area between the road and the treeline was barely a dozen feet now, and it was just bare tundra, studded with an occasional narrow stump.

From where they were, now with a clear column of sky above them, Hirrus could see a column of smoke rising ahead of them.

Another burning town.

Hirrus set a quick pace for them from here. The sooner the town came into view, the sooner he could evaluate how to deal with it. Also, time dilation or no, they had to make up for how long Alric had been asleep. The even terrain of the Hari Path was a welcome change from the uneven forest floor.

When the ruins of the next town came into view, Hirrus saw something unlikely. It was literally the last thing he ever expected.

People.

The town was actively burning. Some buildings were just starting to catch alight, while others were roaring blazes now. There was still so much intact, the town might still be saved if the inhabitants of the town acted fast.

But they weren’t. Nobody was fighting the fires, and the flames were spreading unopposed.

Instead, people were clustered on the edge of town. There was obvious unrest among them, though, as they were being herded towards a row of familiar-looking carts. There was a small group of people with masks covering their eyes, much like the ones worn by the men who attacked him with the three-headed reptile. They had weapons drawn and were herding the group of civilians into the carts.

As he’d feared, Rumi’s goons were gathering people. The cart would bring them to wherever he was doing his work, likely exposing them to the Merciless Plague. This town must have been skipped over until now because it was larger than the smaller villages they’d seen thus far. Unlike the other towns and farms - with barely more than two or three dozen homes - this was a town almost large enough to be a dot on the map. A few hundred people were gathered and being filed into carts.

Hirrus didn’t understand why, though. They were being accosted and kidnapped by shadowy unknown forces, but they outnumbered those forces by at least forty to one, possibly fifty to one. A town this large had to have a reasonable sized guard force. What could be stopping them?

There was a shout as one of the masked men grabbed someone and ripped her from the crowd. Carelessly, he muscled her towards a cart, shoving her inside. She fought him every step, struggling against him, but she didn’t have the stats. She looked like a grocer or an herbalist; beneath the fine layer of soot that covered everyone, her clothes were stained with splotches that were either fruit juices or medicinal salves. Without the strength of a guard or soldier, she couldn’t hope to match the adventurer.

As she was shoved into the cart, she screamed. She cried out for help.

Hirrus felt himself transported.

For a brief moment, it wasn’t a stranger’s voice trapped and calling for help.

It was Dahlia.

His last friend in the world had been trapped in a metal box that meant her doom.

For the first time since he’d cracked open Fidelis’ skull like a melon, Hirrus felt rage boiling up within himself. The desire for violence overwhelmed his desire for answers.

He charged.