Returning to the room with the corpse felt like a bad idea, but Ves explained that we had to backtrack a bit to reach the exit anyway, so a “little detour” wouldn’t make much of a difference. Still, I felt anxious to leave, and concerned about getting lost, so I picked up a rock and started scratching marks onto the walls to mark where we’d been.

  “It’s too bad the little ones aren’t worth anything.” Ves kicked one of the dead rats that I now knew Thia must have slashed on their way to fight the giant one. Some of its guts fell out as it slid along the ground and hit a stalagmite, and I could tell she immediately regretted kicking it.

  “Eh… carrying this tail’s bad enough as it is.” I had it slung over my shoulder so I didn’t have to touch it as much, and had already made a mental note to buy some gloves as soon as possible. “What are these things, anyway? We don’t have them where I’m from. Not exactly.”

  “No cave rats in your world?” Ves looked a little amused at this.

  “There are other kinds of rats, but most aren’t anywhere near this size. And none are NEARLY as big as the giant one.” I shook the tail for emphasis.

  “We’ve got other kinds of rats, too. Including the kind you’re talking about, it sounds like. Huh… so no cave rats or cave rat queens.” She scoffed. “What do new adventurers kill as part of their training? Kobolds?”

  “We don’t have those either, and we don’t really have adventurers. Not in any way that would seem familiar to you, I guess. No classes, no Goddess, no monsters apart from, y’know, other people.”

  Ves chewed on that concept for a moment. “Sounds kinda nice.”

  “Yeah, well… I’ll tell you more later. I need to learn a lot about this world first. But not too much all at once.” Despite the thrill of actually being in a fantastical new world, I had a feeling that my mind wouldn't be able to focus on an information overload.

  “Okay, sure.” The catgirl smirked and shook her head as if she were humoring me. “Our world is called ‘Fielende.’ We’re in the Treosett Empire. Do I need to slow down?”

  “I’ll just let that sink in for a minute.” We entered the chamber that connected to several passages. It was easy to remember which way I originally came from, because it was on the opposite side from where we now stood. Ves walked around and looked down some of the other tunnels. Her expression did not fill me with confidence.

  “Hmm… which was… oh, here it is!” She pointed down one of many dark passages. “There’s one of the rats we, I mean, Thia and I, killed on our way in.”

  Looking in the direction she was pointing, I couldn’t see anything but darkness beyond the range of her magical light, and told Ves as much. She gave me a smug grin. “Netharri, like me, can see very well with just a little bit of light.”

  I’m not extremely jealous or anything... “Nice. Cats are the same way back home, so that– oh wait, do you have cats here, too?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “Is it offensive to compare you to a cat?”

  Her ears twitched and her eyes narrowed subtly. “No. There’s a lot of similarities. As long as you remember that I’m not a cat or a human, okay?”

  I agreed, wondering what other things she had in common with cats, and showed her which way to go if she still wanted to find the corpse. I led the way this time, and told her I wanted to learn more about classes. Without trying to explain what role-playing games are, I told Ves my understanding of the concept: they were a way to classify people with various skills and talents, not unlike a job.

  “More or less. So what did you want to know?”

  “Does everyone get a class?”

  She lowered one ear in mild confusion. Or incredulity. “Do you know about classes or not?”

  “Eh, a lot of stuff from your world only exists in my world's fiction. I don't know how to explain it any better than that.” At least, not without taking a couple of days and sounding like an absolute dork.

  Ves sighed and shrugged. “Oh-kay. Uh, no, not everyone gets a class. Most don't. Maybe about… one in twenty people? Or thirty? I’m from a small village, and if anyone’s ever gone around and surveyed the rest of the Empire, I haven’t read their report.”

  “Fair enough. Well, how many different classes are there? I know there are Rogues,” I pointed to myself, then motioned to Ves. “As well as… Healers?”

  “‘Vitality Mage’, but yeah, most people just call us ‘Healers’. Um, well, there are some that are more common, like Defenders, Warriors, and Element Mages, but I’ve heard stories about really rare classes. Dunno if any of those are actually real, though.”

  Before I could ask anything else, we reached our destination. Although it had only been less than an hour since I jogged out of my world and into the cave wall, it felt like ages since I’d been back here.

  “There’s the body. So, uh, why did we have to go back here?” I had been so caught up in learning about this world that I forgot to ask why Ves wanted to see it.

  “If we can find some kind of identification, then we might be able to get a reward for returning it. Puts people’s minds at ease, and it’s hard enough to make money as a fledgling adventurer, so we gotta take any opportunity we can!”

  I crouched down next to the corpse. Guess this guy was a beginner Rogue, too. Shit, this really could have been me if things had gone slightly worse. Still could be, if I’m not careful. Since the body was laying face-down, I hesitantly touched its arm to roll it over. “Not sure what I’m looking for, but let’s see–”

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  The body hadn’t even finished rolling all the way over when I saw a cave rat sticking out of what was once the stomach. It seemed that I had interrupted its meal. I cursed in shock as it hissed and scratched at me.

  “Kill it! Kill it!” Ves scrambled backwards, nearly tripping on her robes again.

  I drew the dagger from my pocket in a fluid motion. The rat swiped its claws, and I moved my arm out of the way faster than I expected. Is this an effect of being a Rogue?

  Unfortunately, thinking about that instead of paying closer attention meant I was a split-second too late to avoid another swipe. The creature's claws nicked my arm. Frustrated, I retaliated with a flurry of slashes. The rat paused, and then blood oozed out from all over its disgusting body. It fell over, dead.

  Ves looked over my shoulder. “Not bad. Did it hurt you much?”

  “Not really.” Had it been able to reach any further, it probably would have done some serious damage. I held out my arm to show her.

  “Okay, good. If you needed healing, it would mean stopping the light spell for a bit. Oh, and lemme borrow your dagger for a second.”

  I held it out. “Okay. What for?”

  “Ugh, not that one. Your other dagger.”

  “This is the only one I’ve got.”

  Ves crossed her arms. “You already had that dagger when you attacked the cave rat queen. When someone is granted a class, they get a basic set of gear,” she waved her hands around her robes and my leather armor, “and a weapon, or focus.”

  I patted myself down and felt something on my right hip. Pulling back the cloak, I found a small sheathe, complete with dagger. “Huh. Hadn’t even had a chance to check out this new gear.” I removed the dagger and held it out to Ves, remembering at the last second to turn it so the blade faced away from her.

  Ves started to cut into the lower part of her robes. “Having to explain everything is a little annoying, but I guess it’s kinda nice feeling like the smartest person in the room.” She trimmed off two feet or so of cloth. It was uneven and she had to tear it in a couple places, but she seemed anxious to just get it done.

  “Stupid robes,” she muttered. “Now I gotta spend what little money I’ll earn on something functional.”

  My eyes were drawn to her legs. I could see the white (underneath all of the dirt) boots she wore, and just a hint of her legs above those before the remainder of the robes got in the way again. It really wasn’t much, but that almost made it sexier. Reminded me of the time I was in junior high and a friend’s older brother told me about what it was like growing up without the internet.

  Is this my life from now on? Living from glimpse to glimpse of a bit of leg?

  As Ves returned the dagger, she must have noticed that I was about to ask a question about that. “Let’s just find some identification and get outside, okay?”

  The gaping hole in the young man’s corpse was - to put it mildly - upsetting, but I gingerly checked his pouches and pockets. There were a couple of lockpicking tools, a tiny spool of thread, and a few other items that seemed appropriate for a new rogue to have. I wonder if any of these came with my armor, too. Finally, I found a small leather pouch with some coins.

  “Oh, yes!” Ves grinned widely. “How much did he have?”

  “How much does ‘stealing from corpses’ play into ‘adventuring’?”

  Her ears flattened again. I felt like that was going to become her default expression when talking to me. “Officially, it’s… frowned upon. If anyone found out, they might think that you killed the person you took it from. Then rumors spread…” She trailed off. “So we’ll just have to be really careful!”

  Now it was my turn to glare at her disapprovingly. Ves rolled her eyes and held out her hand. “Just give it to me. I gotta check something.”

  With slight hesitation, I tossed her the pouch. She looked through its contents and removed a single copper coin. “There we go! See, this one’s not a real coin.” Like I have any context for that. “It shows that he’s a member of a guild. Oh! I’ve heard of this guild! ‘Sterling Seekers’. No idea why one of their members would be way the hell out here, though. Or by himself.”

  “Sterling Seekers… you’d think their coin would at least be made of silver.” I pocketed the miscellaneous gear I had found so I could return it along with the coins. Seemed like the right thing to do.

  Ves scoffed. “If they did that, folks would sooner sell them than return them to the guild. All right. Let’s get outta here.”

  I got up and wiped my hands on my armor before looking down to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind. Other than the corpse, I only saw the cave rat that I had just killed, its blood seeping onto the ground. Good riddance.

  I did a double take. Something seemed off… but what?

  Ves was already stepping out of the chamber, but turned back to find me. “What now?”

  “Come here; I need the light.” Crouching down again, I inspected the rat’s blood. A small amount seemed be filling a faint scratching on the cave floor, but what was more interesting was that the scratching didn’t look natural or accidental. “Does this look like anything to you?”

  The catgirl - or netharri, as she had mentioned - sighed and stood next to me. I pointed out what I was seeing, and she looked it it with disinterest. But then her eyes widened, and she crouched down to get a better look. “Is that…”

  She placed one gloved hand onto some of the blood that had flowed onto the ground, then wiped it around the area with the scratching. The red stain revealed that it was part of a carving, like…

  “A rune?” Ves stared at it quizzically. “On the ground.”

  It was only the size of a coaster, and while it was somewhat crudely carved, it was undeniably an intentional design. “I take it that's unusual here, too?”

  Ves turned to face me. This was the closest we’d been, without me laying on the ground. She was truly a captivating woman. Under other circumstances, this kind of lighting in a quiet and private place like this could be just right for a special moment between two people. As it was, we were hunched over two corpses and she had a bloodstained glove. “A rune in a cave? Nah. A rune in this cave? Oh yeah. This place is pretty much just used to help new adventurers train. All of those other tunnels lead to dead ends. There's not much else here.”

  “What could it mean?”

  “...Not sure. Wish I knew more about runes.”

  I smirked. “Not even the smartest person in the room can figure it out?”

  She ignored that, but her ears twitched. “Might be worth looking into. But don't tell anyone. If it is something interesting, then the last thing we want is to draw a lot of attention.”

  I nodded. “I'll take your word for it.”

  We returned to the “junction chamber” without incident, and mostly in silence. It felt like it would be best to give Ves a break from the constant questions, and she seemed to be lost in thought. I used this time to check my own armor for any useful items, but didn’t find anything. Guess most people don’t get their class in the middle of a cave, and get to actually buy supplies before leaving town.

  I followed her down the passage she had pointed out earlier, and past a few more dead cave rats. Finally, around one last bend, we could see sunlight up ahead - an unmistakable exit. Cutting part of her robes seemed to give Ves enough confidence to lightly run towards the light. She turned back to me with a wide grin before stumbling over some loose rocks. “Shit! I’m fine.”

  Against my better judgment, I laughed out loud. She turned back long enough to stick out her tongue playfully, and continued towards the exit… going slightly slower.