After holding up his fist for a little while, waiting for the cult twins to join in, Nash let his hand drop and shrugged. "Classes then? I mean, that has to be on the list, yeah?"

  "It is," Priyah said. "I'm a Shepherd."

  Luke's eyes shot to her. "A what?"

  "Shepherd?" she said, the answer coming out more like a question.

  "Fallen Shepherd?"

  She shook her head. "No. Just Shepherd."

  "Oh," Luke said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Good. That's good."

  Nash gave him a look but didn't comment. "Priyah, was it? Yeah? What can you do? I mean, you don't go around herding sheep, right?"

  Her cheeks flushed red, and she shook her head, adjusting her glasses. "No. It's a control-type of class. I've only ever been in the Tutorial Dungeon, but I can sort of take over monsters, I guess?"

  "What's your level?" Luke asked.

  "Four."

  Four. If the others were around that level as well, that meant his own level would be greater than all of theirs combined. Not a great starting point, but if they worked together, they might build toward something good. Also, Luke had no intention of only doing dungeon runs for the guild, even if it sounded like they'd be pretty busy, at least for a while.

  "We'll make sure you level up," Luke said. "I'm a healer. The class is called Lifeweaver. The range isn't great, but I can heal almost anything. Even stuff outside of dungeons."

  Nash let out a loud laugh. "We all know who you are, mate."

  "You do?"

  Priyah nodded. "You've been on the news. In Toledo?"

  "Right," Luke said. "Forgot about that."

  "Saw you on TikTok," Sam murmured.

  Tom shifted in his seat. "Saw you in a dungeon. The one with the Hollows? You killed a bunch of cops."

  "No, no," Luke said, holding up a finger. "They were Hollows. Not cops."

  "Fame can go to your head, so just make sure it doesn't go to yours, eh?" Nash said, throwing up horns with both hands for some reason.

  "Uh, sure."

  "I can heal as well. A little."

  Everyone turned to look at Mas. It was the first time he'd spoken, and his accent was even thicker than Sam's. More Nordic than Eastern European, Luke thought. Nash gestured for him to go on.

  "I take mana and HP, and the stamina. I store it. I give it."

  "Class name is Conduit," Sam added. "I have same class."

  "You're both Conduits?" Luke asked.

  They gave a curt nod in perfect unison.

  "Badass!" Nash shouted. "And perfect for our group! You can just give me a ton of resources and I'll tank everything forever!"

  "So we have three healers in this group?" Priyah asked, with a furrow in her brow, like she didn't like the sound of that.

  "Overkill," Tom grunted.

  "We not healer," Mas said. "Conduit."

  Sam put her hand on Mas's arm. "More damage focus. They try split us up, but we refuse."

  "Refuse," Mas agreed.

  "I'm sure it'll be great," Nash said.

  Tom raised a large, calloused hand. "I'm a Warrior. I hit things hard. Simple. Level 7."

  "Cool, cool, cool," Nash said, looking around the room and nodding. "Quite the party, eh! We need a name!"

  "A name?" Priyah asked.

  Luke pointed to Nash. "What about you?"

  "Me?" he asked, pointing at his own chest.

  "Your class."

  Nash threw up double metal-horns again and stuck out his tongue before answering. "Iron Saint! Level 7!"

  "Cool," Luke said.

  "Right?" Nash said and nodded with enough force to make his long hair fall forward over his face.

  "We shouldn't have to waste time training," Tom grunted. "Better if they send us to dungeons."

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  Luke had reached out the moment he made it to Chicago and found a single portal open, but other Integrated had dealt with it at this point, because it was no longer open.

  "As the party leader, I'll petition the lieutenants!" Nash declared. "With Mr. Famous over here," he pointed at Luke, "They should let us rock out right away! Right?"

  "Yes," Sam said.

  Tom nodded. "Agreed."

  "Fine by me," Luke said.

  Priyah looked around, a hint of apprehension in those large, dark eyes. "O-ok."

  "Great!" Nash yelled. "Band practice is adjourned for today! See you tomorrow!" His eyes widened, and he raised a finger, his mouth forming a small circle, like he'd just struck gold. "The Band! Perfect party name! So metal!" He raised his hand. "All in favor?!"

  No one seemed to share his enthusiasm, but they all raised their hands. There was no need to have a party name at all, but it would take far too much energy to dissuade Nash of the idea.

  Their party leader raised his hands to the ceiling, threw up horns, and shouted, "The Band!"

  With that, they collected folders with information from another guild member waiting by the exit, received invitations to join in their interfaces, and went their separate ways after accepting.

  Making his way back home, he perused the interface, found a separate guild chat, a long, long list of members and their internal rank in the guild, with Luke and every other new initiate down at the bottom with 0 points, and even the different parties, their names, and their designated tasks. There it was. The Band (Training). Nash had been quick in setting that up.

  The guild chat was a never-ceasing stream of messages that he soon found a way to mute. Having all that text scroll past his eyes all day, every day, would drive Luke mad within a week. Continuing on, deciding to walk home since he still had a little time before Milla would pick him up, Luke checked in with Dot.

  Luke: "Hey, Dot. How's the healing going?"

  Dot: "Hi, Luke. I'm setting up a website and some social media accounts to reach people I can heal. How are you doing after everything?"

  Luke: "Good, I think. Relian being gone is a relief, but it's been a strange day."

  Dot: "Strange how?"

  Luke: "Well, I was almost thrown in prison by the FBI, then traveled between Pittsburgh and Chicago in a millisecond, going through metal, and then spent the rest of the day joining a guild."

  Dot: "Integrated Solutions Group?"

  Luke: "That's right."

  Dot: "They approached me, too."

  Luke: "Figured they would. Did you join? I didn't have much of a choice."

  Dot: "What do you mean?"

  Luke: "The guildmaster is an old friend, sort of, and he helped me with the whole going to prison thing."

  Dot: "Oh. About joining, I haven't decided yet. Having an income would be nice, and they won't make me go into dungeons. They'd even supply me with people to heal, so I wouldn't need all that online stuff."

  Luke: "I can sense a 'but' coming."

  Dot: "Well, sort of. There's nothing wrong, not really, but I get a strange sense from the guild, like maybe there's more to it than it seems. Can't put my finger on it, but I've been getting these hunches lately."

  Luke: "Might be a Lifeweaver thing. There's definitely something more to the guild. Alan is a good guy, I'm pretty sure, but he's not the sort of person who does things out of the goodness of his heart."

  Dot: "I can see that. I'll let you know what I decide. I have some patients coming now. Time to level up!"

  Luke: "Talk to you later."

  It was a nice day out. Not too warm and with a gentle breeze to take the edge off. Walking along, he messaged Mateo, Penny, Hannah, and Ken, as well as a couple of other people he'd met in dungeons, just to see what they were up to and if they needed help with anything. Liza's girlfriend, the one with the headaches, was getting worse, so he promised they'd meet up soon so he could take a look at her. The influencer wanted a repeat session, and he gave her a noncommittal answer, unsure if he wanted to be part of any more viral videos.

  Thinking of Hiroki and how they'd parted ways, along with the uselessness of staff fighting, Luke checked the Integrated shop and found something that might solve the problems he'd faced. Purchasing the weapon for almost eight thousand credits, he brought it out into his hand.

  "Ouf," Luke grunted, surprised by the weight of it.

  Tempered Quarterstaff.

  Holding it in both hands, Luke tested a stance and a thrust after making sure no people were around. The weight of the staff made it tip forward, and once it lost its balance, Luke teetered forward, unable to stop the metal from clanking against the pavement.

  "Heavy," he said to no one, a grin spreading across his face. The metal was dull gray, almost like some random pipe you might find lying around a construction site, but it was much heavier. This thing wouldn't break the first time he slammed it into some monster, if he could even swing it, that was.

  "Aw yeah," he muttered to himself. "This is it."

  Excited, he messaged Hiroki.

  Luke: "Hey! How are you doing? Back in Chicago? I've found an answer to my staff problem, if you're up for more classes!"

  Even as he reached the apartment, Hiroki still hadn't answered. Shrugging it off as the guy being busy, Luke threw off his clothes and headed for the shower. Clad in his usual T-shirt, shorts, and open hoodie, he sat down on his bed. There was still some time to kill before his sister would come pick him up for dinner with their parents.

  A nudge from his interface made Luke look. Smudge wanted out. There was no message saying this, but that was the sense he got from looking at the pet menu. Allowing him to emerge, Smudge appeared out of thin air on the bed in front of Luke. The little critter turned around, taking in its surroundings. Luke got the sense it wasn't impressed.

  "Well, it's not like I'm here a lot or anything," Luke said, shaking his head. "And you live in my inventory, kind of." Not getting much of a reaction, he reached forward to pet the thing. "What are you anyway?"

  Rather than allow Luke petting it, the darkness reached out and clamped down on his fingers.

  "Ow!" Luke yelped, pulling the hand back.

  Smudge didn't let go, not even after Luke waved his hand around, shouting at it. "Don't! Bad Smudge!"

  A powerful flick of the wrist pried the little bastard off and flung it at the wall. It turned into a puddle and dribbled down the wall. Smudge ended up on the floor in a sad-looking little pile of nothingness. The pet interface pulled Luke's attention again, and he saw the hunger notification again.

  "Right, you're hungry."

  It shuddered in anticipation.

  "That doesn't mean it's OK to bite!"

  He wasn't sure how, but Smudge looked ashamed, like the scolding worked.

  Shaking his head, Luke sighed. "What do you even eat?"

  Checking the Integrated shop again, he found different types of pet food, but none of them seemed to interest the little void-creature. Unsure what to expect, Luke brought out a monster corpse he still hadn't sold. Smudge approached it with interest, much to Luke's dismay. He didn't want to feed corpses to his pet. That was a little too ghastly.

  Smudge climbed onto the corpse's chest and spread out, then pulled back with a jerk, as if pissed off. Luke got the sense that the pet was reproachful. How he read all these complex emotions into a blob of pure nothingness, he didn't know, but he did.

  "You looked interested at first, but then something was wrong with it?" Luke asked, thinking. After a while, he narrowed his eyes. "It wasn't this thing you were after, was it?"

  As he spoke, Luke withdrew a monster core from his inventory.