Today's Earth date: March 3, 1992

I got a letter today that broke my heart. I guess she's been feeling the same distance I was and decided it wasn't worth it.

I'm hurt by it, but I need to move on and focus on my work. I want to leave this part of the world behind as soon as we can.

I'm not sure I could ever set foot in that city again.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

***

Wayne debated escorting Kenny back to Mudsville by himself, but Armond insisted they travel as a party. Random encounters were too common, and with the way trouble seemed to follow Wayne, Armond didn't want him facing any of it alone.

Vanilli stayed behind to monitor Kryss' condition, but the rest of the party loaded into the wagon and ventured back into the Cuts.

Kenny rode up front with Wayne. Shortly after they entered the rainforest, she nudged him and asked why he was being so quiet.

"A lot on my mind, I guess."

"Any of those thoughts about me or you only think' about Hero stuff?" she asked.

"You're a part of them."

"Well, I know that face, so let me take it easy on you," Kenny said. "I had a good time, but I don't want nothin' serious, especially not with a man who's probably leavin' the continent soon."

"I was worried I'd hurt your feelings."

"I know you've got the pretty-boy body, but we're both adults up here." Kenny pointed to her head. "If I wanted somethin' more, I'm capable of askin' for it. A girl can be independent too, you know?"

"You're right, but thank you for saying so."

"Doesn't mean you can't come knockin' if you're in the Cuts feelin' lonely."

Wayne felt a great deal of tension trickle out of his body. He was more stressed about managing the conclusion of his time with Kenny than he realized. The way she handled it, though, made him think that the majority of that stress was self-inflicted. He should have tried being a grown-up about it from the start.

***

With Mudsville's proximity to Iomallach, the wagon pulled into town just before sundown. Wayne anticipated spending a quiet night there and heading back in the morning, but instead of drinking games and fried iguana, the party found that Mudsville was in crisis.

Nine homes on the east side of town had been smashed down to their stilts and many of the adjacent structures were damaged, some so much so that they weren't salvageable.

The two boys the Zeroes rescued from manacondas before visit greeted the party and explained the latest developments.

"We ain't ever seen monsters like them before," the older boy said. He spat a thick brown glob of chew into the bushes. "They ate the Macadoos and the Crinkins. Busted right through the walls and gobbled them up. Then the paladin showed up, told us all to hide, and kicked the shit out of 'em. Chased them into the jungle."

"When was this?" Wayne asked.

"Last night."

"It's already too dark to follow him tonight," Fergus said to Wayne.

Wayne nodded. He wanted to track down the paladin that moment, but Fergus was right. Running through the Cuts in the dark wasn't a good plan.

So Wayne helped Kenny get her gear out of the wagon.

When Wayne dropped her off at her home, Kenny didn't belabor the goodbye. She gave him a deep kiss, smiled, and slapped him on the butt. She was inside with her door closed before the stinging in his cheeks had subsided.

The wagon was abandoned when Wayne returned to camp. None of his party members were in sight, nor did he see their green dots anywhere on his HUD.

"Where'd you go?" Wayne asked.

"Get on the train," Fergus answered.

When Wayne triggered Board, he got a notification asking if he wanted to change the Mudsville station location, which included a note that Fergus had set a location one hour and seventeen minutes ago. Wayne left it as it was and stepped into the passenger car.

The car had two cabins with two bunk beds in each. Both doors were open, but Wayne found only Fergus in the car. He reclined on one of the lower bunks and read a book.

"I drew the short straw," Fergus said when Wayne entered, looking confused. "The rest of the party is back at the house."

"Huh?"

"Walk to the end of the train, and you'll see what I mean."

Fergus went back to reading, and Wayne did as his friend suggested. When he opened the car door to enter Cold Goods Storage, he saw that the door they left open for Vanilli at the Blackwell estate was still active. He walked through it with no issue. A few steps later, he joined Sammy, Armond, and Margo in the Blackwell kitchen.

"You okay?" Margo asked. "It makes you feel pretty strange, huh?"

Wayne nodded. "Where's Hector?"

"Taking a bath," Armond answered. "We've already run this gauntlet for ourselves, so let me spare you some suffering. Yes, this is really the Blackwell estate. Scared the piss out of Billium when we showed back up, actually. Yes, we somehow shortcutted a day's long wagon ride to get back here. And yes, we can go back to Mudsville just fine. No issues."

"Wow."

"Only drawback is leaving one of the cars hanging open like that," Fergus said, appearing behind Wayne. The Zero Hero jumped. "Sorry about that. Just wanted to grab a bottle of wine."

Fergus picked a bottle from the collection in the pantry and left the kitchen. He returned a moment later, liberating a wine glass, and left again.

"Well, we're heading out first thing, so everyone be in Mudsville at sunup."

"You got it, boss," Armond said.

***

Picking up the trail of the paladin and his monster quarry was simple to do. No member of that encounter made any attempt to cover their tracks, leaving a meandering path of destruction in their wake.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The party followed it east out of Mudsville, everyone wearing full chainmail in spite of the heat. Wayne was grateful he did after just a few minutes. He backed into a hidden coral growth when he held a branch up to let Margo through. Otherwise, the hike was uneventful.

They followed the trail in silence for several hours, and Probe had yet to pick up anything red, blue, or yellow.

"How would we even camp out here?" Fergus said, looking at the obvious lack of open forest floor. There was not enough space for a campfire let alone a bedroll.

"Pick a tree and lean on it," Armond said, plainly. When he saw Fergus staring at him, he said, "I'm serious. I've been on plenty of marches where a camp wasn't an option. Everyone finds a tree and sleeps sitting up."

"And that makes you feel rested?"

Armond laughed. "Definitely not, but it's better than marching all night."

Wayne didn't admit it, but his enthusiasm for camping in that manner was equal to Fergus'. Camping in the rainforest was already an uncomfortable, sticky affair. He had no desire to rough it more than they already were.

Which made him smile to himself. A second ago, "roughing it" at camp meant a clean passenger car with a short interdimensional walk to a noble's home and all of its amenities.

"We need to stick with the trail," Wayne said. "Any time someone can't identify a monster, my mind goes to fleshmancy. That's a bit paranoid, I know, but between that and this paladin character, we have to see this through."

"Just let me complain," Fergus said. "You should know my process by now."

"You're right. You're right. Let it all out."

"Thank you."

"Got a… green?" Wayne said, puzzling over his map. Only his party had ever shown up as green. "No, I don't know what that means."

The party proceeded with caution, nearing one of the cliff faces that bordered the Cuts on the eastmost end of the forest. The dot seemed to be pacing. It moved up and down the line representing the cliffs, pausing at random moments only to continue walking again. No other dots were in sight, so barring monsters with the rogue class, there was no visible danger.

Wayne shouted to announce themselves and approached.

"I am a friend!" the voice called back.

When the party reached the green dot, having to get within a few feet of him on account of the plantlife, Wayne cocked his head.

The man who called himself a paladin wore battered platemail and carried a chipped longsword. The whole right side of his body was covered in the pale brown crust of dried mud. His blonde hair was in tangles, and his beard grew thick, like a shipwreck survivor might grow were they marooned on an island for weeks.

"Luke?" Wayne asked.

"Wayne?! What are you doing all the way out here?"

In Wayne's mind, his party adventuring through the Cuts made more sense than an aging Laszlo impersonator, but he answered anyway. "Heard about a paladin saving Mudsville twice over and followed your trail."

"Damn. I knew that had to be Mudsville. Can I borrow some water? Please?"

"I'm sorry?" Wayne handed over his waterskin.

"I've been lost for days. I wanted to catch up with you in Iomallach but got turned around and… I thought I recognized that town but didn't have time to talk to anyone. Had to save the day and everything."

"Sounds like you did a few circles in the jungle."

"Must have, but now that you're here, we can finish the quest."

"Quest?" Wayne asked. "You mean the monsters?"

"Exactly!"

"Can we take a beat? Why did you want to catch up with us, and the more important question, where did you learn to fight? Folks in Mudsville talked about you like you weren't human."

Luke held up his arm. A silver bracelet cuffed his right wrist. "Mom said you left us this," he said. "She gave it to me, and I was putzing around and put it on. I didn't think it would do anything. She wore it and nothing happened."

"But for you?"

"What does the Diary of the Gods look like?"

"If you're asking, you can probably see it. Should be a set of menu options in a sort of floating box that only you can see."

Nodding, Luke's focus softened. Wayne knew that face as someone reading their system.

"What do the little symbols mean?"

"Which symbols?"

"They're spread all over the place. Covers up a few words even."

Fergus stepped forward and nudged Wayne aside to make room. "Are you saying you put on a boon meant for the Chosen Paladin and got system access?"

"Yes."

"What level are you?"

"I'm uhh… level 64."

Fergus blinked rapidly. "I'm sorry. Can you repeat that?"

"I think it says level 64. Am I looking in the right place?"

Swallowing, Fergus asked, "May I hear your stats?"

Written out like a stat menu, Luke's stats looked like the following:

Hero: Luke the Paladin

Level: 64

HP: 1229

STR: 87

AGI: 49

VIT: 44

LCK: 33

Wayne cursed.

Fergus tried to ignore his scholar friend and continued, "Does your menu have an option for Spells or Skills?"

Luke shook his head. "I can only look at my stats and see that my class is paladin. There is a word that starts with an S on my menu, but I can't get it to work. The rest of it's covered in those weird symbols. Why are you both looking at me like that?"

Wayne gestured for Fergus to go ahead.

"You are already aware how unusual it is for you to have Diary access," he began. "In addition to that, no Chosen Hero has ever been able to advance beyond level 50, yet your system unlocked at 64."

"Yeah, it's all pretty surreal."

Fergus glanced at Wayne. "My working hypothesis is that equipping the boon connected you to your father's Diary somehow. Granted, that hypothesis is based on thirty seconds of research, but the timeline for levels that high could only match a Chosen Hero. Getting the class paladin when your father had the same class is the other big clue."

"Are you saying this Diary isn't mine?"

Scratching his head, Fergus replied, "Diary ownership is an interesting idea, given the circumstances, but that line of questioning is too philosophical to answer here and now."

"I mean, did I take the Diary away from my father?"

"I'd say that's unlikely," Wayne offered. "In my world, if information is stored a certain way, two people can access one 'Diary' and both get the benefits."

Wayne didn't mention that the analogy he had in mind was Netflix account sharing, but that wasn't important right now.

"Your access to the rewards of high levels is already confirmed," Fergus said. "Have you noticed yourself gaining experience points without doing anything?"

"I'm not sure."

"If your experience points go up without an action from you, that would tell me your father was alive and that you're sharing the same Diary. It's also possible that your father has passed or is simply inactive, so your experience points not moving isn't definitive proof of anything."

Luke's eyes seemed to sparkle at the thought of being tethered to his father's Diary. That was probably the closest he had ever felt to him, Wayne realized.

"We can show you the way to Iomallach, if you want," Wayne proposed.

"That'd be great, but I can't go anywhere until I kill these sons of a bitches."

"We can help with that," Wayne said. "What are we looking for?"

"I can show you the trail. It's like they ran up the cliff side somehow because the tracks just end."

Wayne and the Zeroes followed Luke a few dozen yards south. Though he had been lost in the jungle, he seemed fine navigating with a landmark to orient himself with. That made Wayne grateful for his HUD map, yet again. He navigated almost entirely from that pixel rendering instead of what he actually saw, especially in places like the Cuts.

Luke pointed Wayne to the monster tracks, but he hadn't needed to. The monsters' claws left deep gouges in the mud that were plain to see.

"See? They get here and just stop."

"Margo?" Wayne asked.

The rogue stepped to the front of the party. "There's a door here."

"I checked," Luke said. "Didn't find anything."

"Margo's not wrong about these things," Wayne said. He looked to the rogue, "Dwarvish?"

"Yep."

"They won't expect us to open the door," Wayne explained, addressing the whole of the party, which included Luke. "So let's talk tactics and get our heads straight before we bust in."

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