"That's basically the fundamentals of an adventurer. The courage to constantly face your fears." ~Shallies Mythernal

Shallies exchanged her unenchanted boots with a Flying Speedy Manaweave Boots +9. In combination with her Vanishing Rejuvenating Manaweave Coat of Quick Casting +9, she hastily flew north of El'doron Kingdom while keeping herself invisible.

It didn't take her long to track down Grace. Her Guiding Star Perk, Celestial Navigation, not only allowed her to pinpoint landmarks exactly, but it also kept track of every person who possessed her buffs.

As expected, the half-orc wasn't in good condition. She hid underneath the roots of a tree next to the portal of the dungeon. She had concealed herself well. If not for the Star Shine buff, which was currently inside her Badge, Shallies would've taken all evening trying to find her.

The problem now was how to approach. There were a lot of possible reasons and situations for this sort of thing to happen. All of them not good. All of them, still, shouldn't have happened in a beginner dungeon.

Shallies turned around and observed the portal. It looked standard for the most part. A tear in space with a dark outline and a swirling void in the middle. More difficult dungeons would be surrounded by more intricate details on the portal. If her experience remained correct, most of the monsters inside this dungeon—the outer section, at least—would only be low-rank monsters of up to Level 15.

But despite this assumption, Grace looked pretty shaken. She was shivering, suddenly jerking her head up and around, looking for potential danger. Then she would suddenly clutch her head down while remaining desperately hidden before repeating the same cycle all over again.

Nowhere near fear jerks…

[Grace is suffering from the Fear Condition,] Stachie concluded for her.

"No monster inside that dungeon should be capable of that."

Even the deepest section of a beginner dungeon wouldn't contain boss monsters capable of inflicting Fear. Worse, those capable of it would be far stronger than any Advanced Adventurer.

The situation looked bleak, but something else was odd. Shallies landed a safe distance from Grace before pulling away her hood.

"Grace," she called out.

The young adventurer froze on the spot before curling into a ball, trying to make herself smaller.

"Grace, it's me. Shallies," she tried again. "I won't hurt you."

There was no response. The half-orc desperately wanted to hide.

Shallies approached slowly. The Fear Condition ate at the sense of reasoning directly. It could turn every hope into a nightmare. A feeling of isolation that every adventurer had to go through at one point or another in their fleeting careers. It was just too early for Grace, in this case.

She expected the young adventurer to lash out in self-preservation.

The Mana-Edge +3 in her hand sprung to life, just before Shallies could make physical contact. Grace grunted as she pounced, all manner of training and poise a Spell Sword should have had completely turning to dust. She was all force and desperation. Eyes crazed with the determination to survive whatever nightmarish hallucination she was suffering from.

The semi-retired Godkiller effortlessly twisted out of the way, guiding Grace's momentum back to the ground with a single arm movement. She sat on top of her in that same motion. Applying just enough pressure on her wrist caused the young adventurer to let go of her weapon. Without a mana source to feed from, the Mana-Edge's concentrated blade of mana quickly dissipated.

Grace struggled with all her might as she cried out in panic. Strength coming from her orcish blood caused Shallies to bounce violently up in the air, but she always found the right angle to stay on top. She stayed there, wrestling against someone who was at least a head taller than her, hands with a firm grip on wrists, while all her flimsy weight was pressed as much as it could be on the half-orc's stomach.

Shallies' words couldn't reach the young adventurer, so she fought against her struggling until the half-orc's crazed eyes slowly, but surely regained clarity.

Grace stopped, eyes blinking away the tears in exchange for recognition.

"Shallies?" she asked as she stopped struggling. "How?"

"It's me," Shallies confirmed in a soft voice without releasing the half-orc. "You're okay. You're fine now. You're safe. Do you understand, Grace?"

"I'm…" Grace breathed and relaxed completely. She nodded. "Yes. I'm safe."

This time, Shallies let go and pulled the young adventurer to sit up. She waited for Grace to regain her bearings, for her brain to catch up and recall everything that had happened.

The half-orc twisted and looked around until she found the portal. Then more tears squeezed out of her eyes. She started crying. Without a second thought, she summoned her Mana-Edge into her hands using her flimsy mana-control and started for the portal.

Shallies stepped in front and stopped her.

"Calm down," she said, pushing the half-orc back to sit on the ground. There was almost no resistance.

"I need to get their Badges, Shallies," Grace cried. "It's my duty as an adventurer!"

The half-orc held her inactive weapon with shaking hands. She tried to stand again, but Shallies had her locked down by the shoulders.

"I said, calm down first, Grace." She stared the half-orc directly in the eyes. "They're not dead. You hear me? We can still get them out, but I need you to pull yourself together first."

"Not dead?" Grace cried even more. "But I saw them… They told me to run!"

"I gave them their own buffs yesterday," Shallies explained while continuously pinning down the half-orc. "They're still active. That means they're still alive. They might just be captured or they might be hiding. They didn't ask you to call for help?"

Grace shook her head. "I don't know. It all happened too fast. All I knew is that I had to get away as fast as possible."

"It's the Fear Condition, Grace. It plays tricks on your brain, confuses you, makes you see things. You're not at fault. We can get them back."

"We?"

Shallies understood how the world worked. An adventurer who abandoned her first quest would essentially have a dead career. It didn't matter what had happened inside the dungeon, how it had cheated against the known standard. If Grace returned without finishing her quest and with two dead veterans, there would be no future for her as an adventurer.

Cruel as it was for a teenager, this was the reality of their world. People like Grace, regardless of where they came from, or what riches they were brought up with, had to undergo this same baptism.

The semi-retired Godkiller stood and offered a hand with a confident smile. "You can shrug it off, can't you?"

The dungeon interior was standard enough. The outer section, at the very least, depicted the environmental structure that it had spawned in. A forest. This one, however, had a fake sky.

It was bleaker compared to the outside, no clouds, and the blue was dull. It also had its own day-night cycle, which was conveniently the opposite of the outside world. Stachie diligently kept track of the time in the background like she had always done in the past.

Not too far, Shallies spotted the camp Grace and the rest had set up. It lacked any strategic defenses, but there was no need for them in an open forest with nothing but low-level monsters.

Supposedly.

As proof, the monsters stalking near the camp—now that it had been completely abandoned for some time—scurried away at Shallies' presence. Her Level 66 Guiding Star was too much for them. Even though it was classified as a Support Combat Class, it made no difference for these low-level monsters. A hulking Level 13 Brute Ape, stalking atop one of the far away trees, made eye contact with her. It vanished a second later.

It was exactly as she had expected inside a beginner dungeon. All the more reason for her to question what exactly had happened to Grace and her party. Based on the half-orc's reaction, it didn't seem that Ben and Marisa had had any nefarious intentions. Shallies had enough experience to be a good judge of character, and she had judged the two veterans as good eggs. She had been wrong before, however.

Still, there was no point in asking the half-orc. The Fear Condition had rendered her recent memories unreliable. It was so severe that she had been convinced her hallucinations were real. In fact, this was another problem Shallies had to sort out; help Grace re-establish her confidence.

If the young adventurer had been a few levels higher, this task might've taken less effort. Depending on the path they wanted to take, Spell Swords could invest on their Focus Attribute a little earlier and a little more. This would help them cultivate a better mental state and resistance against mental-based Conditions like Fear.

Too late for that…

The task now was to track where Ben and Marisa could be hiding. Not exactly difficult to do now that Celestial Navigation could guide Shallies towards them. It was currently pointing into the deeper parts of the dungeon.

"That's well beyond the scope of your quest," she mumbled, but the half-orc's currently heightened sensitivity caught her words.

"Where are they?" she asked, voice still shivering.

Shallies quickly explained the situation. "They're not very far, but they're at a section deeper from where we're standing. In there, our enemies are twice your level at the very least."

The fear on Grace's face was apparent. The Condition had long since left her, but the lingering effects of it still remained. Adventurers however, at least those that deserved to be called one, didn't take this career because it was easy. Quests, dungeon delves, tower climbs, these things could easily take a life, and almost nothing would ever go according to plan.

To be an adventurer was to be in the company of fear, self-doubt, and constant struggle. At least, that was half of it.

The half-orc recognized the implications from Shallies' warning, and yet, she didn't ask to leave or wait. Hands and knees shaking, voice whimpering, she still stood her ground and did what any sensible adventurer would do in this situation.

"Please help me save them."

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Shallies smiled. Twenty millennia and still people like Grace easily brought her to tears. She made sure to hide it.

Courage, glory, and strength. The other half of an adventurer.

"Send me a party invite," Shallies said. It essentially brought the half-orc back to life. Back to the smiling Grace she was familiar with.

[Shallies, I went ahead and accepted Grace's invite.]

"Great. Now let's go track them down."

"I thought, you said, we'll track them down?" Grace said. She wasn't sure if she was complaining or not. She wasn't sure of anything at all recently.

How did Shallies get here so fast? was only one of the few questions she had kept to herself.

To be fair, she had lost her sense of time. For all she knew, hours could've gone by. Asking her this now, however, felt too out of place.

"We're not taking our time," Shallies clarified. Short and calculated were her movements. Steps that could easily contradict her statement. "We're just being cautious."

The small Chef led the way, stopping at some trees and bushes and noting down a few things to herself. It looked more like she was surveying the flora for potential ingredients rather than rushing to save Ben and Marisa. Grace couldn't exactly complain.

"Where's Apple?" she asked instead, trying to start a conversation.

"She's asleep," Shallies replied before coming to a complete stop. She gestured a signal to crouch under the bushes while doing it herself. A second signal to quietly approach, and a third to avoid speaking.

Grace followed as instructed and was rewarded by a puzzling sight.

Trees were settling in place, slowly moving up dirt to dig their roots in, while smaller roots packed up the broken ground to remove signs of movement. Black goo oozed from their trunks, which slowly dissolved now that they had stopped moving. A few seconds later, they were indistinguishable from the rest of the surrounding trees.

Out of fear, Grace looked at the tree nearest her, looking for signs of movement. She was stepping on a small root. Her heart raced from the realization. It could wrap around her ankles and pull her to the ground, crushing the air out of her lungs before completely breaking her bones, and then grinding them to dust. All of her innards squeezed out—

Shallies' hand broke her out of the morbid scene.

"You're okay," she whispered as quietly as the wind. "We're in the deeper section now. The forest won't let us leave until we kill these treants. You'll be the vanguard, I'll be support. You understand?"

Grace couldn't respond. Surely even the limited offensive Skills of a Guiding Star should be enough, right?

As if reading her thoughts, Shallies spoke. "I'm here to help. Not to take the lead. You'll be fine, Grace. If you can't embrace your fear, you can never break out of it. I'll support you, but you're the one who can pull yourself out of this."

She sounds like Dad… And the reminder hit her hard. She had people in town to return to. People expecting her triumph. She remembered Ben and Marisa, who had come out of their retirement to give her a helping hand. Even Shallies, who she only just met, had given her gifts to provide her with the perfect start.

Grace felt a chain snap. Her shoulders fell. Not because of despair, but because the tension, the fear, that had been gripping her up until now had released its hold. She felt relaxed.

This was how she expected her quest to start. To be plunged first on the fray, with the veterans guiding her and providing cover. It was okay to make mistakes, okay to let loose, because someone has got her back. The enemies might be twice her level, but they weren't impossible opponents.

Shallies was right. It wasn't as if the fear was entirely gone. She had to learn to embrace it, to accept that if she let her imagination paralyze her into inaction, that would be the end of it all. Grace focused on that realization, bringing herself into a calm while being surrounded by the storm.

Just one step. Just one slash. Just one kill. Start with just one.

"Yes," Grace said, nodding with confidence, shaky as it was. Smile, just like she had smiled throughout her entire life, throughout all her struggles. "I'll take point."

Shallies returned the smile before pulling her hood up. She vanished instantly, inadvertently returning the fear of being alone around Grace once again. But before she even felt the shivers, the small Chef's tap on her shoulder provided her more confidence.

"You're not alone," Shallies whispered. "Just fight as hard as you can."

Grace stepped out of hiding, unleashing the blade of her Mana-Edge +3. She flourished it around, testing out her grip as she twirled the hilt around her fingers. The blade made out of her concentrated mana whirled with intensity, releasing a dangerous hum as it cut through the air.

The trees didn't respond, confident that they'd hidden themselves well.

That was perfect as far as Grace was concerned. One kill was all she needed, a confirmation that her efforts weren't in vain. If any of these treants were happy to provide it to her on a silver platter, she would happily take it.

But Grace didn't take herself for someone so incredibly naive. As soon as she attacked, the treant lashed out. It moved far quicker than its earlier lethargic movements. The young adventurer had expected retaliation from the beginning.

"Shine!" she commanded, summoning her Star Shine. The boost in stats allowed her to quickly dodge and retaliate. Ten stats for each of her Attributes amounted to more than twice her level, allowing her to match the monster on equal footing.

Grace's Mana-Edge +3 sliced off a whipping branch like it was made of butter, igniting the rest of the treant's wound in yellow flame. It reared and unleashed a deep, menacing roar, pushing back the adventurer. The ground shook as four more treants, all taller and larger than the first, joined the fight.

Her additional stats might've been a pseudo-increase in her levels, but fighting five at once was pushing it. She held her ground, placing her trust in Shallies.

"Haste!" Grace invoked, investing her mana to activate the Skill just as the treants sent vines and branches towards her.

The half-orc dashed forwards in a blur, closing in on the wounded treant while ducking underneath all the incoming branches and vines. A stray almost caught her, ripping a strand of her raven hair. She paid it no mind and slashed at the enemy.

The strike barely cleaved through the treant's trunk. Lumbering as it was, its jerky movements added a layer of difficulty in hitting it. Grace poised again, spinning away as the others lashed out at her. She carried the momentum for another strike. This time, however, she saw something different.

A small star glinted, pointing at a treant's body part. A branch that was carelessly extended. Grace realized it as a weak spot and aimed for it. She struck true with a reversed slash.

The branch ignited as it was severed and the star exploded into rays of light that peppered holes into the monster. More stars twinkled as more weak spots presented themselves. Grace, sped up with Haste, made quick work of them.

The treant fell to the ground, lifeless. It happened in slow-motion. The half-orc had a moment of triumph, a confirmation that her efforts and training could work in the real world, before a second treant came falling in her direction. She lifted her hand in defense, her moment of carelessness leaving her not much else.

Then a beam of starry light eradicated the treant's upper half out of nowhere. What was left fell, missing Grace by mere inches.

The young adventurer gathered herself and fought off the three remaining treants. All the while, she appreciated the power behind the Guiding Star Class. Shallies basically walked her through where and when to strike, and protected her whenever she made a mistake.

[You have attained a Level. You are now a Spell Sword Level 12. You have 1 Skill point and 1 Attribute point available.]

Grace dismissed the System message, deciding to look at everything later. It was always best to make sure they were completely safe before managing Levels and Skills. She couldn't contain her joy any longer, however.

Shallies appeared, already looting one of the treants.

"You did great," she said while carving off something from the treant's chest. "How are you feeling?"

Grace assessed herself. Her heart was still racing, pumping while she drew air to recover. But she was ecstatic.

"I can't believe we did all that!"

"Well, you better. For you, this is just the beginning." Shallies pulled out something that looked like the heart of the treant and presented it to her. "Your loot."

It was diamond-shaped, covered in black goo that Grace assumed was the monster's blood. Though reluctant, she accepted it.

[Obtained: Loot Source - Treant (Level 22).]

An option to open the Loot Source presented itself. Grace took the prompt which rewarded her with 93 bits and an unidentified enhancement gem. She shuffled around with glee. Her first reward. Her first, hard-earned bits. All for herself.

No. For the entire party!

Shallies went to loot the rest of the treants. The one, which she had completely disintegrated the upper half of, manifested a Loot Source near its corpse. She gave them all to Grace.

"But what about your share?" she asked.

"Veteran adventurers always give all the Loot Sources to the new one's first adventure. I expect you to do the same whenever you start guiding someone." The small Chef shook her head. She looked like one of those fancy dolls that kept moving their heads in a certain rhythm. Grace made sure not to tell her that.

[Total Loot Source: 493 bits, 2 unidentified enhancement gems.]

Kill monsters, take their Loot Sources, and move to the next part of the quest. For most adventurers, that would be it. But Shallies was doing something else.

"What are you doing?" Grace asked. The small Chef was cutting off branches of the treant.

"Not all, but some monsters provide more than just Loot Sources. Some parts of these treants are still alive," she explained. "Especially these branches. If you plant them in mana-rich soil, they produce a harvestable herb that I can use for my recipes. Pretty sure treants of this level could provide me with ingredients for a Food Buff recipe. I'll need a Farmer to help me out, though. Do you want some?"

Grace was quick to put up her hands in order to decline. "Please, take them all. You'll have more use with them than I will."

"You can sell them, you know?" Shallies offered. "These are pretty common loot, but it's in high demand. Alchemists can grind these directly for a base component in their health potions. You can probably find someone in the Adventurer's Guild looking for a lot of these. Take half. You deserve it. Just make sure to find the right prices, and don't get scammed."

[Obtained: 9 Treant Life-Branch]

Grace stored the Treant Life-Branches inside her Class Inventory. Though she was reluctant to accept them, her adventurer studies had taught her not to decline situations like these. They were rare, and only people that were much better off than herself could make such an offer, with the expectation that it would be passed forward when it was her turn.

"You need a break?" Shallies asked. "It's common practice to take a short rest after an encounter, but we're on an invisible clock here."

Grace understood. Regardless of how much more powerful Shallies was when compared to her, the responsibility of leadership still lay on her shoulders. The looting time had been enough for her to catch her breath. She had suffered no damage because of the Guiding Star's amazing support, and she only used her Skill once.

"Let me allocate my Attribute Point first," she concluded. "We don't need to take a rest. I can check my Skills later."

Shallies simply nodded.

Grace opened up her System Console before turning back to her companion. "Do you have any suggestions? Which Attribute should I invest first?"

This time, Shallies shrugged. "It's your Class."

Somehow, Grace had expected her small companion to give a non-answer. She already knew where she wanted to invest in the first place, she was just simply curious.

[Attributes allocated.] [Strength: +0, Total: 5] [Agility: +0, Total: 8] [Constitution: +0, Total: 10] [Mana-Affinity: +1, Total: 7] [Focus: +0, Total: 7]

Satisfied, Grace finalized her attribution. She almost had no need for Strength since her Mana-Edge and her Mana-based Skills all benefited from her Mana-Affinity Attribute, unlike those of the physical-based Classes. She kept the attribution pretty close to each other for now, since she was still unsure which advancement path she wanted to take.

"Here, drink this," Shallies said, tossing a metal vial with a blue jewel ornament. A mana potion. Grace drank it without reservation, rejuvenating her mana pool to full capacity. As she returned the vial, she noticed that the Guiding Star didn't take one for herself.

"All good?" Shallies asked.

"Yes. Let's go."

For some reason, the rest of their trek was uneventful, save for the dropping temperature. Snow began to fall. Grace and Shallies paid it no mind. Weather inside the dungeon was chaotic. She was just thankful it wasn't raining instead.

The forest eventually opened to a clearing with a gate to the ruins of what seemed to be manmade structures of old. White stone walls had collapsed, revealing an empty interior, save for a few metallic armors and the remains of ruined statues.

The gate itself was in complete tatters, as if something gigantic had forcefully ripped it off its hinges and crumpled it into a ball. A large claw had cleaved through pillars and walls, leaving marks on whatever was lucky enough to stay standing.

"They're inside," Shallies pointed out. But before they could proceed, the earth quaked, causing more of the ruins to collapse.

Grace felt her heart sink and she turned to her companion for confirmation.

"Don't worry, they're okay," Shallies said. She pointed towards the collapsing ruins. "That, however, isn't."

The first thing Grace saw were the scales glinting as it emerged from the dust. The large, blue serpentine eyes opened as the membrane protecting it pulled back. Its stare alone brought back her fears, slamming on her ten… twentyfold.

Grace collapsed on the ground as the head of a white dragon roared, causing the skies themselves to darken. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed, and a sudden blizzard made things difficult to see.

Her instincts screamed for her to run away, but the fear, compounded by hopelessness, had turned her legs to jelly. She awaited death. Memories of her family replayed quickly as her fleeting life flashed before her eyes—

"So much for a beginner dungeon…"

The half-orc blinked, finding an anchor to remain conscious. Her attention unreasonably left the white dragon and turned towards the smaller adventurer in front of her. Her white hair fluttered, almost imperceptible from the rushing snow, her glowing pink and blue highlights making it easy for her to point out.

"Grace," Shallies said while she turned slowly to face her. "Can you promise to keep a secret?"

The half-orc was confused. She wanted to run away, but the small Chef's confident smile was a contradiction to any instincts or reason out there. Dragons were the epitome of all. Beasts that answered to no one but the gods themselves. And yet, Shallies was unfazed.

Grace wanted to know how.

How can she smile in a situation like this?

"I can keep a secret," Grace said, through shivering cold and fear.

"You bet your life on that?"

"Yes. Yes, I swear on my life and honor." Grace knew the implications of that promise. Her orcish blood valued honor over life. Her human blood valued life over honor. Staking both was to stake her everything.

"Good girl. What you see from this point on, you keep to yourself." Shallies held out a hand. Mana swirled around her. Grace's sensitivity to mana instantly broke whatever she imagined was the limit for an adventurer.

The half-orc hurled, unable to comprehend such power. But she gathered herself through sheer determination. Whatever Shallies was doing, it was beyond what mortals could achieve. It was power beyond belief.

Divine Power.

Shallies' voice echoed throughout the dungeon.

"Stellar Engage."

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