The pitter-patter of rain serenaded Icarus’ rude entrance to the surface world.

As if through some divine mercy, the thick rain clouds blocked enough of the sun for Icarus to not die the moment his battered self stumbled out of the damaged airship.

Once the badly hurt man made his way out of the oh-so-familiar maze of tunnels and corridors of the airship he helped design, he left through the same door another prince to escape the vessel.

He felt the cool, fresh air and the smell of petrichor as he practically collapsed to the bleached rock below him.

Limply, he rolled over to his back, looking up to the never-ending barrage of rain.

It wasn’t some picturesque field of flowers or even a grassy hill, it was a dusty wasteland with nothing except some guild base, uprooted by the curious mole that was the airship.

“It’s wetter than I would have imagined…” he remarked, staring off to the sky.

A cry of horror could be heard as the visibly wounded John collapsed to the ground outside a self-crafted exit from the ship.

His gaze was fixated not on Icarus nor an ally, but their guild base.

“NO!” he screeched into the empty desert.

His voice echoes through the sandy flats.

“Jordan’s brother was still in there!” Alex exclaimed.

“He could have been killed!”

John shook his head.

“This is no time for wishful thinking!” he replied, collapsing to the ground, limply.

The other L.F.T.O members slowly left the bowels of the ship, one after another, a knocked-out Curstl with them.

If he had even the tiniest bit more strength left in him after all this, Icarus might have rushed to help his friend, but if anything, he was now in worse shape.

And so, the group had once again reached the surface, it did cost them a home though.

The next few days were hectic to say the least, Icarus was brought back to the jGuardian HQ where plans for the future were made.

No longer able to hide the existence of the underground from the surface and vice versa, Curstl got in contact with Kevin and hired him to fixed the whole underground-people-turn-to-dust-in-sunlight problem.

Naturally, countless groups raced to the underground, some hoped to find some hidden dungeon, some hoped for some ultra-rare minerals or herbs to spawn.

Soon after that, TradeRash, the money-centric guild offered to construct proper infrastructure around the hole, creating a cylindrical tower moving from the underground to the surface, inside, several elevators allowed for the movement of goods and people.

It was essentially a vertical toll road.

As an upside, a load of shops and businesses opened up around the entrance, creating something of a town in the “lost coat”.

Next, JohnWillStab finally finalized his plan with XPhaxX, despite getting distracted every single volume, JohnWillStab was planning on a cross-continental railroad, allowing for quick, safe passage around Arlepia, naturally, building the railroads and the train itself would be an issue in and of itself, but that was something Icarus offered to help with, compared to making an airship, a train was a piece of cake.

As expected, Kevin managed to come up with a temporary solution for the “vampire-syndrome”.

A simple application of a fire-resistance potion would solve the issue for up to an hour, however, if the user ran out of potions or died and respawned, they would lose those effects, as such, a decision was made that enchanted items should be used – such as rings, necklaces or even clothes.

As long as one item carried the “fire resistance” buff, not to be mistaken with the “fire resilience” buff, the user would not only not die from sunlight, but also find themselves quite cold.

Within four days of the L.F.T.O base being destroyed, the underground people were technically able to leave as long as they had about one-hundred gold to spare for the enchantment and another one-gold to use the TradeRash elevator, naturally, they could also take the stairs for free.

For comparison, the average monster underground dropped between fifty-copper and one silver.

That was when JohnWillStab decided to take upon himself the task to create a “player handbook” – a small booklet explaining basic concepts such as the friend-menu, spells, the existence of the underground as well as some information about the jGuardian railroad system and several advertisements for the jGuardian drinks.

Sadly, any money the group earned from the drinks was immediately put towards finding a new guild base.

Together with what they already had, the L.F.T.O members moved to a large base in Glumington.

It was a bit smaller, while everybody got a room like before, there was no large dedicated storage area, and the basement went to Bromy for his lab.

It was, as expected, a downgrade – as an upside, John managed to salvage the plants from the garden, moving them to their new, smaller garden.

The home was three stories tall, with a shingled roof.

A metal fence surrounded the small, overgrown yard outside the front door.

The first floor had a kitchen, living room and a spiral staircase leading up and down.

One week following the group’s return from the underground, groups of underground people could be seen exploring the surface, many were players from Earth, isekaid into the underground much to their confusion.

Life returned to more-or-less normal at the L.F.T.O base.

JohnWillStab, the Thief and Alex were playing a board game, funopoli.

Revenberry read over John’s guide book, getting more and more distraught by every spelling error she found.

“Remember, you must be close enough to see an person you wish to send a fiend request.”

She stared at the sentence in horror.

The human-form Thal and Pedecree stood in the kitchen over a pot of bubbling curry sauce.

Thal had discovered a new interest in the world of cooking ever since leaving the underground.

Bromy worked in the basement, stitching thing together as he always did.

Regrettably, Jordan’s brother managed to find their home despite their best effort, like one of those stories where a person’s cat tracked them down across half of Europe.

Foxly was drinking his sorrows away, he took the fact they were literally broke pretty badly.

♛ was busy trying to teach her ducks tricks.

She learned how to make them lay down and sleep, she just didn’t manage to make them do it on command yet.

That’s when a knock came on the door.

“I shall check who it is!” Bonifacius exclaimed, stepping towards the door.

He opened it revealing a human a head shorter than Bonifacius.

He had long, pitch-black hair and wore a black coat with white, fur lining.

His skin was pale and freckled.

“Greetings, stranger! What brings thou here?” Bonifacius asked.

The stranger smiled as he looked Bonifacius up and down.

“I’m looking for somebody.” He began.

“You wouldn’t happen to be him…?” he asked.

He leaned in.

“Bonifacius?”

Bonifacius nodded uncertainly.

The stranger smiled.

“Don’t you remember me?!” he laughed, faking heartbreak.

He slipped his hand into his over-sized pockets before letting out an excited laugh, he spread his hands unintentionally revealing his black undershirt and butterfly knife.

“It’s me! Zachary!” he exclaimed.

His eyes wandered over to the shabby home.

“When I heard by ex-teacher was a tank in some important guild, I was sceptical.” He admitted bashfully.

Bonifacius stared at the man before him in complete shock, he did, by all means, remember Zachary.

“I only came to find you, because I wanted to patch things up!” he exclaimed with a genuine look Bonifacius couldn’t name.

“Hey, Bonifacius! Pedecree said the food is done!” Bromy called out.

He walked up to Bonifacius, seeing the black-haired stranger at the door.

Zachary looked at Bromy before giving him a polite smile.

“Hello!” he said with a wave of his hand which still remained in his pocket.

Bromy squinted, turning to look to Bonifacius who now wore something akin to a confused smile.

“Who’s that?” he asked.

Bonifacius gestured towards Zachary.

“Tis Zachary… thou may remember him…”

After a second of recollection, Bromy’s face turned white, remembering exactly who Bonifacius meant.

“Oh no…”