The learning of Anna’s ability truly flipped the tables in a way I had never considered when I’d purchased it. Not only could I be in two places at once, it meant that I basically had a free life to expend at my convenience. In this game of death around every corner, the advantage was incomparable. And it was completely recastable, though the cooldown was quite lengthy.

  I could see why the ability had cost 900 credits.

  After climbing down from the perch I’d taken as Mirror, I aligned and overlaid my real vision with Mirror’s to pinpoint Tam’s [Track] tag, and then headed in her direction. I’d be walking into the village as Mirror to perform the role akin to that of a bomb sniffing robot dog.

  Since the rest of the party had requested Tam keep her distance (to her disagreement of “I can take care of myself, damnit!”), she’d tucked herself into the hollowed out nook of a tree trunk some distance away and had been waiting for confirmation of Mirror’s approach. While that happened, with Axel guiding me, since the two audio visual inputs were dizzying, we continued our recon in the opposite direction.

  As it wasn’t clear how large the Dungeon was, it was more than possible there might be another village out here. Nabu’s Dungeon had seemed endless, and based on the map we’d seen from Anon123, Bia’s Dungeon had been quite substantial too; at least the size of a small island.

  Therefore, it was critical that we gather as much information as we could. It was one of the things we were always sorely lacking when it came to combat. I was very much of the belief that information was power. In fact, I still despised that we’d never learned how Adrien had discovered so much about us. It had to have been a trait or a title—something we couldn’t purchase after his death.

  As we walked, Tam described the creatures in the village to us: hip height and scaly but standing on two legs. She mentioned there were around twenty that she saw down the front gate, but there were shanties that might hide more. Were these our opponents? It was possible the Dungeon clear was another extermination of the species.

  Did you hear that? Axel asked, his hand in mine tightening.

  I immediately cast [Locate].

  Repressing a groan of nausea, I announced to Axel, Scanning.

  Across the other side of the forest, I continued walking Mirror toward Tam’s red dot. Since my visions overlapped, and it was my original body that had tagged Tam, it was difficult to tell how close Mirror was getting to her, not to mention the combining floors of the vastly separate patches of forest were swimming messily at both my pairs of feet. If I wasn’t careful, one of me would slip.

  As if noticing my trepidation, Axel stopped walking and I did too, though I trudged Mirror on, dodging an errant low hanging branch, the movement almost echoed in my own body.

  The blue radar pulsed out beyond us, revealing Axel’s form by my side, and I caught movement at the very edge of its range. [Locate] didn’t ping anything non-living.

  We weren’t alone out here.

  My heart rate jumped, and in a knee-jerk reaction I didn’t know I had in me, I flung my remaining tag slot onto the foreign figure as it darted out of [Locate’s] radius, just in time for [Track] to cling to the flicker of a humanlike silhouette, seeding itself into the stranger’s chest. Thankfully, it was an on sight skill and not a touch activated one like Wren’s [Healing Hand]. Whether or not they noticed us or the tag, the target began barrelling away, the orange sphere drastically shrinking in mere seconds. Damn it. They were fast. Possibly even quicker than Axel on a good day.

  The reality of the situation finally settled on my shoulder as I breathed in.

  Part of me had been expecting this. It was why we’d taken such ridiculous anti-discovery precautions. Whilst the enemies created by the Dungeons were likely what we had to clear, it was other players that I feared most. No. That was a lie. I was scared of how easy it was to take lives. And how hard it was on us to lose them.

  Anything? Axel asked, unable to see what I’d just done.

  I explained what’d happened, keeping an eye on the tag, extending the same description to the others too. Though they weighed in with their thoughts, there was only one thing we really could do while Tam and mirror me investigated the lizard village.

  We had to follow the orange tracker.

  Be careful, Wren said.

  Having had to abandon the radar Mirror was meant to be providing them, I found myself worried, my stomach tight. I’d managed to snag one person, but who knows how many more there could be in here? Anyone else in this Dungeon was likely just as unhinged as us. Or worse, stronger. Maybe they were LVL 6. That would put their combat experience leagues ahead of us, if not their attributes and thus mana and stamina. At the very least, the orange ball tracker was hurtling in the opposite direction to Wren, Gigi, and Jye. It gave me some semblance of peace.

  I added, Stay alert, though I knew the warning was pointless since it would change nothing of what they were already doing.

  Aye-aye, captain.

  I have considered the best position for a [Light Barrier] to initiate an immediate blind should the situation call for it. Rest assured, you may proceed without concern.

  Gigi’s words did little to relieve me, though I appreciated them nonetheless.

  Is your better half here yet, sunshine?

  During our conversation, I’d kept marching as Mirror, forcing myself to triangulate where Mirror was based on where Tam was and where Mirror and I had come from. The smear of the forest, green and brown and dark, didn’t help. Add to that, juggling walking in two different bodies at two different times in two different places, and, frankly, I was impressed I hadn’t thrown up yet.

  I think I’m about halfway there.

  Toddle on, then, babes.

  Onward? Axel asked me.

  I squeezed his hand. Onward.

  Now leading him, I continued after the dot of orange in the distance, closing in on Tam as Mirror at the same time.

  I’m near, I announced to the cutthroat.

  You wanna ring the doorbell while you’re stomping about, Dumbo?

  I’d like to see you pilot two bodies at once, I hissed back.

  Tam’s feline form twined around Mirror’s feet, and I blinked, staring at my own as they stepped ahead. Fuck. My actions were beginning to overlap. Maybe this was what happened when you tried to control both yourself and the aide at the same time.

  I’d only done a short trial run back at base, and whilst I’d emptied my stomach, it had been doable. Both Mirror and I had been able to co-act. But I’d been performing as me and it for much longer now.

  Let’s go, I said, my main pair of eyes still locked onto the growing orange marker.

  Quieter than I thought possible, Tam began to creep forward, haunches slinking, moving between the shadows of trees to remain obscured. As Mirror, I followed her, trying my damned hardest to be silent, and through the treeline, we drew closer and closer to the village Tam had reported on. A subdued breeze blew past us, sending a shiver down my spine and brushing the hair from the nape of my neck.

  Briefly, I wondered when the last time I’d had my hair cut had been. I’d never grown it this long before. It was easy enough to maintain my shitty excuse for facial hair since it grew patchy and slowly, but hairstyles were an entirely different matter. The only person in the party who still looked put together was Axel these days. It explained his extended time in the bathrooms that I may or may not have turned a blind eye to. There were some perks to dating the party leader.

  Pushing the thought to the back of my mind for once we cleared the Dungeon, I refocused as Tam came to a stop, staring forward.

  And this is where I’m drawing my “any closer and I cark it” line. They'll sniff me out past here.

  I followed her gaze. The village barricade was a dingy wooden thing, planked and spiked walls surrounding it on all sides; the type of fantasy town you might expect from a lesser developed race like forest ogres or something. Just as she had warned, the first thing I was greeted with was an assortment of human heads speared onto pikes, the poles rammed up bloody throats, each point pierced right through skull and protruding from a crown. Their expressions ranged from despair to cold acceptance.

  It didn’t matter how many times I saw corpses, each time it was as awful as the last.

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  What about Mirror? Will they smell me? I asked Tam, swallowing back the bile, trying to look past the dead and ignore the flashes of my own families’ faces projected onto the dismembered heads.

  Tam's small nose quivered as she sniffed the air near me and then shook her head.

  Not unless you’re teabagging them. This thing is almost stenchless.

  For that I was grateful. I’d never had the best sense of smell, so perhaps because my clone was based on my own observations, I’d simply messed up my own scent.

  Charitably, I think you could say no one in Just Friends smelled good. We were showering once every three days and keeping them to five minutes, at that. Still, if I genuinely wanted to fool others with it in the future, that was something I’d have to correct. I needed to work on smell-o-vision. I had never considered just how much of a visual learner I was. First the issues with illusioning silence, now I was struggling with conjuring the olfactory!

  From where Mirror was crouching, I stared hard past the open wooden gates set up behind the “decorations.” It gnawed at me not to be able to cast [Locate]. Without knowing how much further I could push Mirror with abilities, it was a risk I couldn’t take. Unfortunately, Mirror had no mana and stamina gauges. Assuming it had even half as much mine would probably be too generous. Since it was already maintaining [Cloak] and [Legerdemain], not to mention having summoned all those [Shield Walls] around Wren and Gigi, using [Locate] might nudge it that bit too far.

  Much movement lately?

  Tam's feline eyes narrowed in thought. Mostly just trundlin’ about.

  From where we were, I could only just see a handful of the creatures. The number Tam had previously noted had cleared the gate, possibly returning to their shacks. Several remained, guarding the dirt entry, sharpened spears in hand. That they wore no armor made me think of Xanthe, though these lizards were smaller by half. Were their species related?

  Shit, was that racist?

  I took a breath and began to approach the village, shifting focus to my real body and the growing orange marker. It looked like the target had stopped moving, whoever they were, and we were gaining on them. After I shared this with the party, Axel prepared himself, saying he’d drawn his sword in his left hand. A strange and directionless appreciation of us having oppositely dominant hands flitted through me.

  What an absolutely cringe thing to think.

  I was losing it.

  I’d reached the front gate, which was open, and slipped inside, careful to not draw too close to the scattering of lizardfolk guarding it. As I did so, a system announcement sounded in my ears.

  ~Dungeon Clear Available: Balance the Dungeon~

  What now?

  That was so damn vague. Not only that, how did we balance a goddamn forest? Were the lizardfolk throwing off the biome’s ecosystem? Killing them would probably work, if that were the case. Or would that force a reset, since it’d ruin the balance more? Then, there was the person that the orange tracker was attached to, who Axel and I were approaching. Did other players count toward clearing the Dungeon? Did we have to “balance” them too?

  Did you all get the notification? I asked, walking further into the lizard village, analysing the structures and counting the population.

  They hadn’t noticed me yet, but some of their tails had begun to twitch, agitated. Front-facing eyes, a glowing green, flicked too and fro. I had a feeling they’d begun to sense Mirror, even if they couldn’t see or smell it. Still, with no risk, I journeyed further in, hoping to discover if they had any hidden advanced weaponry. As far as I could see, the species seemed to favor melee, with their sentries wielding spears. It matched the pikes out front too.

  Yeah, sure, I got the notification, because I always get the notifications, replied a deadpan Jye.

  It’s looking like we gotta nuke the forest, bigfoot, Tam supplied.

  Balance it, actually, Axel corrected.

  This is a very odd clear assignment. I have never had one such as this.

  That definitely didn’t fill me with confidence. If Gigi had survived until xir wish was granted, that meant xe’d had to have been through dozens of Dungeons. So either this was a Deity that Gigi had never come across before or they’d changed their approach. Neither option was particularly thrilling to consider.

  Try not to do what you do best and get people killed, Makris snarked.

  Man, he really did hate me. Not to mention, I hadn’t gotten anyone killed yet. Except for the people we’d killed. That did include Carrie… Hmm. Okay, maybe he had a point.

  Lee, Axel began, privately, I’m going to let go.

  I frowned as the blond released my hand, his presence vanishing from my side. Immediately an anxiety unfurled in my stomach, but I stamped it down as much as I could. He’d be fine. Out of all of us, Axel would probably take care of himself the best.

  The orange sphere we’d gone after was around the size of a cricket ball now and at an elevated position. Had the person climbed a tree? I dropped [Echolate] to get a clearer visual of our surroundings. Unsurprisingly, the forest flew up into view in grid lines of blue, thick trunks around us in all directions. Pulsing further, the ability reached our target, giving me the first clear look of their form.

  It wasn’t human at all.

  I’d misjudged based on the general shape, since they were the right height and width. But with what looked like wings instead of arms, the thing that’d fled from us was closer to a harpy; half bird, half human. Well, this could be good news. Perhaps we were meant to balance the two species. Maybe an even number of each?

  I was about to inform the others as [Echolate] spread to the very edges of its reach. It stopped my thoughts in their tracks. Behind the harpy looked to be an army of similar looking creatures, all perched along the lip of what I could only describe as a huge nest, the limbs of ancient branches twisted and twined together to form an upside-down dome.

  The worst part of all was that from where they sat, they were all pointing beaked faces in my and Axel’s direction. The ability faded, leaving me to stare slack jawed up at the canopy. They knew we were here. Whether by detecting us through other means than sight, their gazes had been locked onto us. Why had they led us here? Why hadn’t they attacked?

  I think we’re compromised, I announced to the others.

  As I said that, the slitted noses of the lizardfolk near Mirror flared. They must’ve finally caught wind of my scent. Knowing this wasn’t my body and that I wouldn’t feel its pain didn’t make the danger any less tangible. I’d broken the link, dismissed Mirror, when it’d gotten shocked by Adrien. But I wasn’t done in the village yet; I hadn’t checked inside the shacks.

  Before I could think, one of the lizardfolk thrust their spear into what should’ve looked like empty air to them. But it punctured straight through Mirror’s chest, caving my ribs in. I threw up a hand, clutching at my real body, the visceral sight of blood pooling from Mirror’s injury overlaying onto my own.

  Oh, this sucked.

  Blinking as my body collapsed, knees folding, trying to capture any last bits of information from the village and the lizardfolk, I glimpsed for a moment a large form, goatlike yellow eyes, looming over the town’s walls. It had to be enormous to stand over the barricades the reptiles had built.

  What in the fuck was that?

  Red sputtered out from my lips, and I knew Mirror wouldn’t last any longer.

  I dropped the puppet strings, and the relief of having only one sight immediately eased the soup my mind had become. Okay, maybe it was too mentally taxing to be Mirror and me for too long. But the advantage it gave was far too high to not use this way in the future.

  Mirror’s down. And I saw something. Something huge. Tam, can you—

  Oh, fucking ay, dandelion. It’s eating them!

  Confused, I turned to Tam’s red track. What is it?

  If she responded, I didn’t hear it. Instead, Axel cut through. I’m attacking.

  What?!

  What’s going on? asked Wren, alarmed.

  Fucked if I knew!

  The hiss of an ability nearby fizzled, and in the distance, I saw a harpy tumble from its tree, crashing into the forest floor, its bright rainbow feathers flashing, followed by several others. Their forms were limp as they crumpled. I recognised the effect, the image of loose limbs sickeningly familiar, this same ability having nearly stolen Axel.

  [Drain].

  So much for treating his life more carefully.

  Axel had snuck away, somehow crept up onto the harpies and into their nest, and drained them. All this without any warning. Fuck, he really was the worst sometimes.

  Uh, mayday, mayday, bro. We’re being hella swarmed by… catboys? There was genuine conflict in Jye’s thoughts. Level with me. Is it wrong to be a little bit turned—

  Gigi cut them off. I am activating [Light Barrier]. Jye, Wren, prepare yourselves.

  I spun about, the influx of events almost too much to keep up with, trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. There were at least four species of creatures in the Dungeon, other players notwithstanding. How the hell did we balance this? Did we make peace between them? Declare a monarch? As these thoughts flew through my head, from where Wren’s purple tag dot shone, a pop of golden light gleamed, and I heard its accompanying tsss. Axel must’ve still been nearby, somewhere he could theoretically see me for his trait to have continued affecting me.

  Frustration flared inside me. Honestly, what had been the point in us acting so conservative? It'd all gone up in the air, just like that! What little knowledge we’d gathered had been completely obliterated by the chaos unravelling. At the very least, we could get an idea of our opponents—if they were our opponents…

  How did it always end up like this?

  XP and a small amount of credits alerted in the back of my head. The harpies that’d tumbled from the nest, life sucked out of them from Axel, must’ve finally passed.

  I sighed. The best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that jazz, I guess.

  You might want to start running, Axel said.

  Why?

  I didn’t get them all.

  I fucking hate you.

  Taking a deep breath, I began to sprint back to where Jye, Wren, Gigi, and Tam were facing horrors unknown. It felt like I was either running or crying these days. My frustration with the turn of events was threatening to turn this particular one into a combo deal.

  Just what the hell were we supposed to be doing in this Dungeon?

  I heard the whip of boots on leaves, the kicked up wind of an invisible Axel passing me blowing into my eyes. As I blinked to clear them, the orange dot grew larger. Behind it, a flock of harpies followed, beady eyes trained on me.

  Everyone, regroup on the hut.