"Days off are so nice; you can sit and relax, you don't have to worry about the responsibilities of your occupation, and you don't have to worry about seeing anyone from work. Usually…”

  Matthew looked across the table at Dekker and Caden, who had interjected themselves to his table where he was having breakfast. He had been told there was no mission today since James had gone into the aperture with the other Tier ones. After they had told him, they ordered food and sat across from him. "So… why are you guys still here?"

  Dekker looked at him oddly as if he should already know the answer. "Welllll," he drawled out the last part of the word. I thought we could go shopping together. James recommended it, and I was going shopping anyway, so you all should join."

  Matthew looked to Caden for help with the situation, and after some consideration, Caden said, "What a great idea! I'm happy you are joining us, Matthew."

  He felt tired even though the day had just begun; Matthew finished his meal and followed them to the market.

  Dekker was right about the market having more items. Each proprietor had full shelves and greedy eyes. They hollered out to everyone their wares and their "Best" prices.

  Caden and Matthew followed Dekker around as he went shop to shop, eventually coming to the front of a large building. The building had two large display windows. The whole building was made of dark wood with red embellishment around the windows and door.

  Walking in, Matthew felt out of place. A red carpet led up to a counter, and polished wood floors led off to shelves of armor and weapons. Each piece had its own display cabinet. The shop felt expensive.

  A man in a butler suit and a fantastic mustache approached them and said in a fine voice, "Good morning, chaps. My name is Herald. Please look to your heart's content. If you need help with anything, all you must do is ask." The man in front of them bowed slightly and walked behind the counter, pulling out a large book as he did so.

  Dekker walked over to the cloak section. The cloaks didn't look like much; each one seemed to be a darker color. Muted greens, blues, and grays lined the wall. Although they didn't look like much, Dekker stared in awe as he muttered.

  "This one has sneak; this one causes confusion; oh, oh, this one gives the backstab ability." Matthew tried to ask a few times what that meant, but after failing to grab his attention, he turned to ask Caden.

  Caden was gone as well. Matthew sighed and walked up to Herald. "Hey, Herald, I still don't fully understand everything here. Could you explain what my friend is mumbling about? He is saying something about the cloaks having skills."

  The butler gave him a perfect smile and pulled out a cane, he explained. "When a craft person gets one of their crafting skills high enough, they can add abilities to their creations; on lower levels, it varies wildly."

  He paused, handing Matthew the cane. Power seemed to flow through it, and Matthew could feel a warm tingle coming from it. The cane started sputtering a golden light. Herald continued, "As the craft person increases their skill, they can lower the pool of abilities to do more of what they want."

  Matthew felt his heart quicken as he got excited. "That is so cool," he said. "So I could shoot a fireball just from having the right weapon?"

  Herald gave him a sad smile. "Active abilities are much easier to add, so you are much more likely to find a sword with a small fire affinity than one that could shoot fire. If you look hard enough, they do exist. But they are usually prohibitively expensive."

  Matthew's excitement died somewhat; Herald, seeing this, pointed his attention to the part of the store with weapons. "Why don't you browse what we have in stock? I promise you won't be disappointed."

  He decided to take the butler up on his offer and walked toward the part of the building that was reserved for weapons.

  Matthew could recognize about half of the weapons. Some were obvious, like bows, swords, spears, and knives, but some were alien to him, like poles with disks on the ends.

  Walking to the sword collection, Matthew could hear a slight buzzing sound. The sound was coming from a glass box that held a sword with what looked like blue sparks coming off it. He touched the glass, and an arc of electricity reached out to the other side. Matthew could feel a slight tingling on his hand.

  Matthew broke his gaze from the sword and looked at the price,

  7 gold

  Tier 1 weapon

  He immediately backed up and into Herald, who had appeared behind him, "Sorry," Matthew said, surprised, but the man ignored it and said.

  "This sword is beautiful; I bought it a long time ago; it is probably one of the most expensive tier 1 weapons you will find; it has an activated ability of lightning strike, so it is incredibly rare, but like I said, incredibly expensive due to its rarity."

  Matthew nodded, looking back at the sword's blue hue. "It really is beautiful, but I'm still tier 0."

  Herald gave a sad smile, seemingly to the sword, and asked Matthew to follow him. He led him to a corner of the shop with five swords. He said, "Most people only use a free adventurer's sword until tier 1, so not many people buy them, with one exception."

  His eyebrows raised. "With the exception of living weapons. These weapons grow with you; with your abilities, they are usually failed weapons that turn out like this."

  Matthew thought a weapon that grew in power with you would be ideal and didn't see a negative, so he asked, "That sounds great. Is there a catch?"

  The butler picked up one of the swords, and as soon as he did, it grew a dark aura. The sword almost seemed to drip shadows, but he quickly placed it back down and said, "These blades are dangerous; I can't recommend them. "He then walked back to the counter.

  Matthew walked up to the shelf holding the five weapons. He picked up one. It felt right. He could feel a small amount of power from the blade, but it also felt distant. "It's almost like my own abilities," he thought.

  He focused on the first blade, and a warning popped up.

  Warning: This blade will bind itself to you. Once you equip it, you can not use a different weapon until your next tier.

  Curious, Matthew asked. "What happens if I equip a different one?"

  Apparently, Karen, or whoever controlled the text, wanted to give answers today since a new box popped up:

  You would lose an ability.

  He looked at the price,

  3 iron

  Tier 0 weapon

  Warning: Growing weapon.

  Matthew didn't even know what his ability was or if it was helpful, so he felt little to no connection to it, but a growing weapon, that would prove useful. He looked over each of them. Five different swords, all with varying lengths and designs. One seemed so thin it looked like it would snap, one had curved ends like a cutlass, and one blade had a sharp and dull side like a Katana.

  Matthew felt like he was losing control of everything and that buying this would allow him to catch back a strand of reality that was slipping from his grasp. He decided to buy one. He picked the most normal-looking blade out of the 5. It had a two-and-a-half-foot double-sided blade. It wasn't perfectly normal itself, though. The blade didn't taper off but just stopped as if someone cut through the tapered end.

  "I'll take this." He said, bringing the sword to the counter.

  Herald stared at him before bluntly saying, "3 iron coins." Matthew nodded, handing over the money. He swallowed the worry growing in his throat.

  Matthew then purchased the blade and walked outside, waiting for the others to finish. He reexamined the blade.

  Failed experiment

  Tier 0 weapon

  Type: growing weapon

  Would you like to bind this weapon

  Yes, No

  He held the sword in his hand tightly. Matthew felt he had some control over his life, so he quickly clicked Yes.

  A weird feeling washed over him. It felt like the excitement you feel when you find something that was long lost. He felt a warm longing for the blade, as if it were a puzzle piece that fit into him perfectly. "I messed up, didn't I?" Too worried to tell the others, he stored the blade in his inventory, feeling as it turned to dust in his hand.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  It was a few more minutes before the others came out of the shop. Dekker arrived with a new cloak on—the dark gray one he had seen. "Matthew, look what I got!" Dekker excitedly said. I had enough to buy a tier 1 cloak that has the backstab ability. I'm not tier 1 yet, so it won't do anything for now, but doesn't it look cool?"

  It did, in fact, look cool. The dark gray might have looked plain, but the black stitching seemed to perfectly complement the cloak. Matthew nodded and watched as Caden walked out of the store.

  Caden held what looked like leather gear. He walked up to Matthew and did not meet his eyes. "Words don't speak louder than action. Please accept this as proof of my apology the other day."

  The gear had a bow on it, and Matthew felt a pang of sadness as he looked at the gift. His family used to do that for birthdays before everything, before the world decided it needed to tear his life apart. Matthew gave a weak smile.

  Dekker kept looking back and forth between them until Matthew muttered, "Th-thanks… that is really awesome of you."

  They stood awkwardly for a moment as Dekker continued looking back and forth. Eventually, Caden got tired of that and glared at him. "If you don't stop being annoying, I will do something else I will have to apologize for."

  Dekker stopped and laughed. Matthew laughed; Caden stood there looking affronted but eventually, with a crack in his stoic appearance, joined in. With tears in their eyes, Dekker said, "Sorry, Caden. How about we go see if they will let us go on a low-level quest together?"

  As they left the shop, Matthew couldn't shake the feeling that he'd been thrown into this world without a chance to breathe. Just this morning, he'd hoped for a day off, and now he was heading into battle with a new, unpredictable weapon.

  The guild was dead. Matthew could see a few people in line for the government side, but only two people were on the Adventurer's side. They walked up to the counter, Caden speaking. "Angie, we want to go on a quest."

  Angie was writing furiously, but she glanced at Caden before continuing to jot stuff down. This time, she babbled as she did so: "So do many others. Listen, I'm swamped right now. You are all tier 0, so unless you have a trained adventurer with you, you're not going anywhere."

  Caden walked closer to the desk, but Dekker put a hand on his shoulder before taking up the conversation. "Is there anyone like that still in town?"

  Angie paused, writing for just a moment before saying. "Anyone that is tier 1 has gone to the collapsing world, you know this. Although." She paused, tapping on her chin. "There is a tier 0 like you guys who had finished their training already. But..."

  She stopped writing, contemplating whether to tell them the next part or not. Deciding, she leaned in close and whispered, "He has seniority and would be your team leader for this mission. Let me warn you, he is very... Careful... He has failed a lot of missions because he doesn't feel like he can win a fight. That is a large reason why he is still tier 0."

  Matthew wondered if it was worth it, but Caden shrugged and said, "That will work. Where is he?"

  Angie pointed toward the posters where a well-dressed man was mulling over them.

  Caden immediately walked over; Dekker gave Matthew a worried glance and followed. As they approached, Matthew saw that the man wore pristine armor similar to Caden's. The armor looked like a thin layer of metal; it shined a red light and glimmered as if shined daily.

  At the last second, Dekker stepped in front of Caden and held out his hand, saying, "Hi, I'm Dekker. We are still in training and wanted to go on a quest. The issue is that everyone who usually trains us is in the collapsing world right now. We were wondering if you could be our party leader on a quest."

  The man was short, a little above Matthew's shoulder, but he looked confident. He responded, "Unfortunately, everyone gone makes too much sense. They all are rushing to get stronger. How many of them do you think will die? How many of them overestimate how strong they are?"

  No one said anything, so he continued. "I am not like them. I never risk my party or me in any fight. I'm not 100% sure we can win."

  Caden pushed Dekker out of the way. "It is almost midday. If you don't want to go, just say so.."

  The man looked at Dekker's hand, still outstretched for a few moments, before shaking it, "I'm Gustavo."

  Eventually, after deciding to go on a quest, they equipped their new gear and took a wagon out of Phinard. After leaving the city, Gustavo asked, "What are your abilities?"

  Caden spoke up first. "Exchange; it allows me to transfer my stamina to power."

  Dekker was next. "Mine is called Backstab; it grants me much more damage against unaware enemies."

  Matthew looked at his ability (Memento) and thought. "I don't even know what it is. I hate not knowing, and this is something that is supposed to help me? What if it is bad?"

  Matthew almost hoped his weapon would make his ability disappear, but he tried to sound happy as he explained. "Mine says it is called Memento. It is an activated ability, but I don't really know what it does yet."

  Gustavo looked at him disappointed. "Why didn't you ask the guild?"

  Matthew felt even worse. "They told me they had no description. All I know is I can select a weapon in my inventory, giving the weapon a golden glow around it."

  When Matthew explained this, he wondered if he should try using his ability on his new weapon; opening his inventory, he selected to use his ability on the failed experiment. Immediately, he noticed the broken blade's gold border slowly starting to fade. A new border around his new sword appeared.

  He looked at his inventory for a long time. The new border was a different color—green. He pulled out the blade and unsheathed it. "It looks the same," he said out loud. He noticed that everyone was staring at him, so he explained what had happened.

  Everyone sat there in silence until Dekker voiced his confusion. "How curious! It didn't say anything other than the option to use it on the blade?" Matthew shook his head, Dekker continuing. "You may need to wait until you use it in battle and see if you notice a difference."

  Gustavo waited until Dekker had finished and explained his own ability. "Mine is light. It heals people I touch at its lowest level, but after getting it to level 5, I can now heal from a short distance."

  He scribbled a few notes down before explaining his plan: "Ok, Caden will be the tank. Matthew, you will be on the front line next to Caden. Dekker, you will backstab the enemies and try to break up their force, and I will support you with my bow.

  The enemy we will be fighting are called Dwarves. They are small creatures that usually attack with clubs and sometimes sharpened sticks. Caden, try to draw their attention. Matthew, attack the ones that come for Caden. Dekker, I need you to take any chance you can to take them out. I will attack from the back with my bow.

  These monsters have a bewitching ability that will stun you for 5 seconds, so if you see them take off their hoods, look away. Half a second should be enough. They have to put their hoods back on to avoid the sun damaging their fragile bodies. If anyone gets hurt, I will heal them."

  To everyone's dismay, Gustavo constantly reviewed their items and plans after devising the battle plan. Thankfully, it was only a few minutes before they spotted them.

  Finally, spotting the large group of Dwarves, Caden said, "We can handle that."

  Gustavo only glanced in that direction before continuing down the road. "Too many," he said. They each exchanged glances, hoping they hadn't wasted their time.

  Caden looked like he couldn't handle hearing the plan for a fifth time. He seemed incredibly relieved when he was the first to spot a new group and yelled, "I see them! Stop the wagon!"

  Gustavo counted them. "Two, three, four of them, we should be able to handle that." He stopped the wagon.

  As soon as it stopped, Caden jumped off the back. The drop was only 5 feet, but he had a lot of gear on. Matthew took the ladder and walked up beside the not-moving Caden. "Are you ok?" Matthew asked.

  Caden groaned more than spoke words: "I'm...Fine." His excitement returned quickly, and as it did, he started marching toward the Dwarves.

  As he approached, he yelled, "I can't tell who would be shorter: these guys or my grandma! Well, I can tell you that at least my grandma is not as ugly!"

  Matthew repressed a laugh as the monsters spun. Their eyes filled with anger. They let out a high-pitched scratching sound and charged. Caden got into position in front; next was Matthew.

  The monsters held sharp sticks; they looked like spears.

  The little creatures charged.

  He felt weak in the knees at the idea of fighting such creatures. Three of them were almost in range, but the fourth was hanging back.

  Matthew's eyes were drawn to it.

  The Dwarf's hands reached up.

  Everything slowed as he realized, "It's removing its hood!"

  He turned.

  Matthew waited an agonizing second.

  He turned back.

  A shock shot through him. Caden hadn't looked away; he was frozen.

  He felt his mind go blank.

  Matthew stepped forward, standing in line with Caden.

  Pulling out his sword, he held it in front of him. "I can't defeat them all."

  Shakily, at first, He swung.

  It connected, a green ooze shooting from the monster's arm.

  He glanced at Caden. "Hasn't it been 5 seconds yet?"

  The ones in front of him jumped back as an arrow struck one of them in the arm.

  In the distance, he could see Dekker sneaking up behind the one in the back.

  Matthew placed his sword between him and the enemies again.

  The monsters raged; they roared and charged straight at him.

  The fear mounted. Matthew felt frozen, too.

  The closest monster stabbed toward his gut.

  "Am I going to die?"

  Time was up.

  Caden swung his heavy blade.

  A spray of green ooze later, two Dwarves were gone,

  Only the injured one remained.

  Matthew held his sword tightly and stepped toward the creature,

  It was cowering, shaking, and holding its arm to where ooze was coming out. The clothes had been torn, so the skin was exposed to the sun, and it seemed to be bubbling and blistering.

  He took one more step toward the monster and put his weight into the swing. The sword sliced across the front of the monster, causing it to fall backward heavily; it did not get back up.

  A few seconds went by; his chest was heavy; Matthew realized he had been holding his breath; he finally let it out and almost fell over as a pop-up appeared.

  Yippee! You have leveled up!

  Then a new one replaced it.

  Dwarf X4 defeated

  4 total (1) Milestones gained

  You are now level 3

  2 more levels are needed till Awakening.

  Matthew watched as everyone else focused on the air before them as if looking at their own screens and thought, "I wonder if I only gained 1 milestone because it splits it evenly."

  Matthew frowned. "Memento didn't seem to do anything this time either. I'm glad I chose this sword; my ability seems useless."

  He then looked down at his ooze-covered sword, and his frown deepened. He knelt down, about to wipe it off on the grass, but Caden stopped him. "What are you doing? Never mind that. Put it in your inventory. It will separate the gore from the sword."

  He did so, and a new icon appeared. It was green and shaped like a blob. He clicked it, and the blob appeared in front of him. It fell to the ground, making a wet splotching sound as it hit.

  Caden put a hand on his waist and said, "I would have had them, but thanks for the support."

  Matthew smiled. "It is the least I can do after you got me this armor." He had thought the armor was going to be too hot, but it seemed to have good ventilation where it mattered, and it moved with him effortlessly as if made for him.

  Gustavo gathered them together and had a small after-battle meeting on the way back. "Not a scratch. Nice job, everyone. Caden, try to be more aware in the future. Dekker, that monster spotted you at the last moment, so you lost your bonus damage. Be more careful. Matthew. Nice job, but we could work on your form; it felt like you were just flailing your sword around."

  He looked down, embarrassed; that was exactly what he was doing.

  After returning, they thanked Gustavo and collected their money. Matthew earned another 5 iron coins for the quest. They convinced Gustavo to fight with them until James returned, and then they went their separate ways, ready for more exciting battles.