It took her a bit longer than him, but clearly she hadn't forgotten about that person she had tried to swat like a fly months ago. That was surprising. Rafe had changed.

Rafe probably wouldn't recognize half the people he fought on the staircase in the tower if he met them in the multiverse. He wondered what that said about this girl. That she recognised him.

"Hey, I asked if you're alright?" the first girl said.

"Who…uh?" Rafe sputtered, trying to get himself back into the moment. "What? Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your help."

He was back to his senses by the end, so he hoped she noticed just how sincere his thanks was. It wasn't the least bit.

Yet the girl whipped around to face her friend. Her friend who was still staring wide eyed at Rafe. Their eyes were still the most colourful things Rafe ever saw. Very vivid and colourfully captivating. He wasn't sure if her eyes were wide or if that was just their natural look.

Jasmine from Aeon had smaller pupils, but she had pretty diluted Elemonoid blood.

"See? A blacksmith jumped in to help me when my own guard couldn't," the first girl, the one with the deep sea blue hair declared.

The second girl said nothing, instead continuing to eye Rafe like she was seeing a ghost. Rafe didn't want to, but he couldn't stop himself staring her down. In his mind, he was asking her to try what she'd done that day. He would have liked to see her try.

Helare, the first girl, looked between the two of them with a frown. Rafe noticed her, noticed how she was frowning. She was getting irritated. An attention seeker, perhaps? Rafe did not look away from the second girl though. He felt like he would be losing if he did.

"Hey…uh, do the two of you know each other?" Helare asked, not bothering to mask a little irritation.

The second girl looked away first. Looked towards her friend. Then as if on instinct looked back at Rafe, but not at his eyes. At the scar she had caused.

"Of course not. He's a human," she said.

"She just looked somewhat familiar," Rafe gritted out, though he did not look away from the girl. "Since you ladies are fine, I'd best be on my way," he said at last, turning away from them to try and escape before he was roped into some kind of conversation.

"So what if he is a human, Fi? And you, what do you mean you're leaving?" Helare demanded.

Rafe frowned at her, feeling annoyed, yet staying, out of politeness.

"I helped you, because you looked like you were in a bit of a pinch. Now I must be on my way," Rafe explained slowly.

"As if," the second girl, Fi apparently, said with a snort. "How did you get into this dungeon? Let alone this dungeon instance?"

Yeah, Rafe had no idea what she was talking about. What in the world was a dungeon instance? And that was exactly why he'd wanted to escape in the first place. It was highly unlikely these two were dungeon denizens. They were probably adventurers.

And Rafe did not know enough to be walking around without caution. He needed to be careful now he was not in the legacy trial.

"Yeah?" the first girl said with a frown. "It's not often we get people from other worlds here."

She was questioning him, but Rafe felt the girl wasn't the least bit wary of him. Was she naive, or did she know something he didn't? This was not how you treated a suspicious stranger. Especially if you were a girl that pretty.

Now that Rafe was thinking about pretty girls, the way she had thrown her hair when she turned to him. The way she was tilting her head. The tiny yet very noticeable pout she was forcing onto her lips. She was prettier than her murder-happy companion, that was for sure. And it seemed she wanted to woo him, for some reason. Only, Rafe fancied himself experienced enough now. He would probably fall for that kind of thing, but he wouldn't trust his feelings. They had caused him quite a few headaches in recent memory. Come to think of it, wasn't it because of a girl he had been on that road that night?

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"Ah, well…"

He applied his coordination stat to slow down the world, to give himself a few extra seconds to think. Even if it had been thirty years, Rafe was still an Earther. He'd watched his fair share of bad detective shows and films. He knew a few theories on how to bluff your way through an uncomfortable situation. Just sprinkle enough of the truth in there to make it believable.

"Well, you see…there was this portal. It came out of nowhere, and before I knew it, I was in this strange land."

"Oh? So you're lost? Poor guy. How about you—"

"By the gods, please tell me you didn't believe him, Helare!"

"What?" the blue haired girl turned to her friend, her tone somewhat sharp.

"What?! Don't what me! You can't simply overlook how suspicious his appearance here is. We need—"

"Lady Filoria Benhaven, you will watch your words!" Helare snapped. Somehow, Rafe found his hackles rising as well. "Surely you weren't just about to tell me what to do? Surely you hadn't forgotten your place?! Again!"

Rafe did not like the ensuing atmosphere. The two girls stared each other down. One impetuous. The other frozen with her mouth mid-motion. But she was not subservient. She was defiant even as she clamped her mouth shut and cleared her expression. She looked somewhere over her friend's shoulder when she responded. Rafe noticed she was fighting hard not to grit her teeth.

"I beg your pardon, princess," the girl, Filoria apparently, said, sending Rafe reeling internally.

A princess?! Oh, he was so out of there. He was out of there yesterday. There was no way he was getting involved with whatever roleplay these nuts had going on.

"This brave crafter saved our lives, Fi," the princess said with a sigh. "Why are you being so ungrateful?"

"Hey," Rafe broke in when he realised the other girl had no intention of replying. "It's totally fine. I saved your lives, you saved mine, we are even. I just want to find a way back home, so…"

"You will come with us, noble craftsman. As a way to repay you, I'll let you work at our camp."

It was the highest of privileges, Rafe was sure.

It was just not one for him. He needed not to get involved here. He only needed to finish his quest chain, after which he'd be allowed to return to Earth.

"What are you doing, Hela…I mean princess? As I've been saying, you cannot just —"

Rafe was full on rooting for the murder girl now. Sadly, the first girl seemed to be convinced of something, looking at Rafe with an assessing frown.

"I am in charge of this expedition, Fi. Me. What I say goes. All our hardwork is being squandered. With a blacksmith, we can process the ore ourselves and—"

"And what? He's only one man," the other girl said derisively.

"I will figure it out," Helare argued. "This is fate. You know how weird the dungeon has been lately. You've seen it yourself. Even that time you rashly killed an innocent person."

"Okay fine," Fi rushed in. "Fine, I killed someone," but her eyes were now once again focused on Rafe's scar with a frown. "And yes, perhaps the dungeon is sending portals to other worlds. All facts. All good possibilities. But you have to admit, this is a little rash. Even for you. What will your father say if—"

"He won't even read the report, will he?" Helare interrupted.

Rafe heard something there. A familiar longing, perhaps. She had asked like she was sure, but it seemed like she would really like to know the answer. Like she was really curious if her father would be interested.

"Maybe he won't," the other girl said, missing the hint entirely, "but it's still best not to get on the king's bad side."

That was not what she wanted to hear, Rafe wanted to shout.

Helare didn't respond for a time. She just stared at her friend, her expression unreadable. Then with a sigh, she turned to Rafe. Between turning and their eyes meeting, her expression turned into the most convincing smile Rafe had ever seen.

"Hey, you should come with us. I can assure you, we have experts who've been studying these new instant dungeons and rifts the system likes to throw around. Ahhh, you must be new to the system as well. If it is starting to use our dungeon as a traveling dungeon on other worlds, I'm sure the king would like to know. And you'll be rewarded handsomely. And I can also assure you it would be easier to find your way home working with us. Besides, I'm curious to see the insights of a Black smith that allowed you to cross the level fifty bottle neck."

Her smile got more charming with every word. She was obviously someone people hardly ever said no to. Too bad for her Rafe had no interest in playing whatever game she was playing just then.

But then that cursed thing reared its ugly head.

'Ding' New objective obtained.

Objective 3: Become a labourer for the better good.

Bonus objective: Raise your blacksmith skill to level one hundred.

It was probably terrible manners to curse in front of a princess. Rafe didn't care. He cursed. He cursed as loud as he could. In his head of course. It was all in his head. He didn't want to look deranged after all. Better discourteous than deranged.

"Fine then," Fi, the second girl, said. "Do what you want. Don't come to me when something goes wrong with your little project. Let's get the golem back to camp , shall we?"

Somehow, Rafe was going to be getting back to these girls' camp, wherever that was. His heart screamed reluctance, but he didn't see any other choices.

Also, he suddenly remembered the first time he'd ever seen them, they'd been with some weird giant of a man in monstrous armour. And that same man, it seemed, had been crushed by the horde of beasts as they came after the princess.

And he wasn't a man. Apparently, he was a golem.

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