Dimitri lowered Noah with surprising gentleness, as if he were placing something precious back where it belonged. Despite the blood trickling down his shoulder and the torn skin along his arm, Noah straightened up like nothing had happened.
Not perfect—far from it—but still standing. Still grinning.
The battlefield settled into a strange quiet. The corpses of the wolves—those small but monstrous things they'd just fought off—began to shimmer.
Slowly, without a sound, their bodies dissolved into a swirl of blue particles. They drifted upward like ash caught in a breeze, vanishing into the sky as if they'd never existed.
All that remained were the spoils. Four neatly curled gray pelts lay on the ground, untouched and oddly pristine, as if the fight that just happened hadn't left a single mark on them.
Noah stared at the loot and stretched his sore neck.
The pelts rustled slightly in the breeze, almost like they were waiting to be picked up.
[Common: Wolf Pelt.]
Noah stared down at the thick layer of fur stretched across the flattened grass, one brow slowly arching. The pelt was already clean—no blood, no flesh, no mess. Just soft fur lying there like it had been carefully prepared by an invisible hand.
"Huh. Auto-skinned loot. Gotta love game physics."
His gaze shifted across the scattered bundles on the ground. Four in total, laid out like a neat offering from the defeated beasts. He did a quick mental split, tapping his fingers like he was punching numbers on an invisible calculator.
"Four wolf pelts. Two each. Easy math."
Dimitri stepped beside him with the calm of someone who'd seen this a few times before. His eyes weren't even focused on the same spot, yet he crouched down and reached into what looked like empty air.
"No, my friend. Those four little pelts? All yours. I already have mine."
His hands closed around nothing—then something. With the ease of plucking apples from a tree, Dimitri lifted a bundle that shimmered into view only when he touched it.
The wolf pelts bloomed into reality, appearing in his arms as if the game had finally decided to catch up with what he already knew.
[When you're in a party and take down a monster or boss, each member gets their own share of the loot—personal, invisible, and impossible to swipe. Only you can see yours, only you can touch it. A simple system to keep greedy hands away. Normally, you'd dump it in your inventory to keep it safe... but, well, you kind of don't have one right now.]
Noah leaned forward with zero hesitation, a casual grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Guess I'm calling dibs on all of it, then."
[The bonus loot you've got? It's not just fluff. NPCs will pay for it. Or you could toss it into a player-run shop. Someone out there might need what you just scored, especially if they can't grind it anymore.]
Noah scooped up the pelt with a satisfied nod, like he'd just found extra fries at the bottom of the bag.
"Alright, message received. Cash it or stash it. Got it."
Noah and Dimitri stepped out from the quiet stretch where the wolves had spawned, leaving behind the remnants of battle.
Their pace was unhurried as they followed the path that cut across the wide grassland. It was calm here, the kind of peace coded into the world—a designated safe zone where nothing could lunge at them from the shadows.
The path curved gently, marked only by the light wear of passing footsteps and the occasional shimmer of system boundaries.
Wind brushed through the grass, soft and easy, carrying distant voices from other players scattered across the area.
They eventually reached a spot where the land opened up a little wider, and a couple of rounded stones sat like forgotten furniture. Without a word, they both settled down, letting the weight of combat roll off their shoulders.
Around them, other players came and went—some chatting, some trading, others sprinting off toward the next bit of adventure. It was a little world in motion, a bubble of rest before the next quest began.
Noah leaned back slightly, eyes half-lidded as he watched it all. The faint red tint that had clung to the edge of his vision was slowly fading.
His health bar was creeping upward, each tick bringing with it a low warmth that melted the ache from his muscles. The cuts and scrapes across his body dulled, then shrank, until they were no more than faint memories.
Dimitri sat with his hands resting on his knees, eyes drifting toward the open plains ahead where the wind tugged at the tall grass and the digital sky stretched far and soft above them.
"Isn't it beautiful? This world. The way the breeze hums through the grass, the buzz of players chasing dreams, creatures prowling just beyond sight, and that tiny idea… that maybe something brighter is waiting for us tomorrow."
Noah flicked a small pebble off the edge of the stone with the tip of his boot, watching it skip once on the ground before disappearing into the grass.
"All I'm hearing is the background track of panic. Players shrieking as they're getting deleted by boars or bees or whatever else this place cooked up. And tomorrow? Yeah, pretty sure it's just more pain but in a slightly different font."
Dimitri chuckled, leaning back as though Noah had just told a joke worth gold.
"You really are funny, my friend. Your humor—it's good. Very good."
"I wasn't joking, though."
Dimitri fell quiet for a beat. The edges of his lips curved gently, his smile easy and warm, as if he were recalling a memory that had aged well.
"Back in my motherland, I was a mechanic. Wrenches, engines, the whole thing. It wasn't flashy, but I liked it. There's something nice about fixing things. Simple life, simple joy."
Noah tilted his head slightly, one brow raised, studying him with half-amused suspicion.
"Honestly? I had you pegged as a guy who'd casually admit to owning half the Russian underground."
Dimitri laughed under his breath, his shoulders shaking faintly.
"You, my friend... what were you doing back on Earth?"
Noah leaned back, as if preparing to deliver something grand, but the words that followed were anything but.
"I'm a pro gamer. League of Legends. Five versus five, rage in the chat, and the endless dance of climbing the ranked ladder."
He paused, then gave a small shrug.
"It's a living. Kind of."
Dimitri clasped his hands together, as if he were holding a treasure no one else could see.
"I love that game. Full of joy. So many positive people. They shout a lot, yes, but you can feel the passion."
Noah blinked slowly, turning his head like he was trying to figure out if Dimitri was joking or just on another wavelength entirely.
"Yeah... pretty sure we were playing entirely different versions. Yours must've come with a filter that replaces insults with compliments."
Dimitri simply nodded, as if Noah's words only reinforced his point.
"Everything is what it is how you perceive it, my friend. If you look for the good, you will find it. Even in places filled with fire and chaos."
Noah leaned forward, elbows resting lazily on his knees.
"So... how'd you end up in this never-ending carnival of pain they so poetically named Endless Dungeon?"
Dimitri's gaze drifted upward, like he was watching an old reel of memory roll past the clouds.
"It was a faithful day. I was under the hood of a car, fixing something small. Nothing special. Then—bam—it got slammed into me. Just like that. No warning. Only the sound of metal and then... silence."
Noah squinted, his mouth quirking as if trying to decide if he should be impressed or horrified.
"The hell? I just got a shiny notification after clearing a dungeon level in my game. Tapped it without thinking through. Boom—new dimension. No dying, no drama. Just a pop-up."
Dimitri let out a soft breath, half a chuckle, half a sigh.
"Then you are lucky, my friend. Every player I have met here—same story as mine. Accidents, sudden ends... and then they wake up here. It is not easy to let go of life so fast. One moment you're living it, the next you're just... somewhere else."
He smiled, the kind that didn't need to be bright to feel sincere.
"But it's not all bad. When I opened my eyes in this world, the first thing I saw was her—my guide. Titania. She welcomed me like an old friend I didn't know I missed."
Noah's eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the faintly glowing orb drifting beside Dimitri's neck.
The tiny light pulsed gently, its presence calm and almost soothing—like a firefly that had learned how to meditate. It floated in lazy circles, as if it had all the time in the world and no real destination.
He pointed a thumb at it, his tone dry as dust.
"Wow. You got a floating mood lamp with the personality of an angel. Meanwhile, I got stuck with a sarcastic lightbulb that throws shade like it's her full-time job."
[Excuse you?]
Dimitri laughed softly, the sound mellow and steady.
"They say the guides reflect something about the player. Their ideal companion, hidden deep in the heart. Personality, voice, presence—it's not random. It is chosen."
Noah stared blankly at the tiny glowing presence behind him.
"So what you're telling me is that, deep inside, I chose the one with attitude issues and a superiority complex. Yeah, no. I think the system glitched out when I spawned."
Dimitri smiled at Noah, his eyes crinkling with the warmth of someone who had weathered many winters and still believed in spring.
"My dear friend, there is reason you were given this guide. Maybe today the meaning hides, like sun behind cloud… but one day, it will come to you—like warm light after long winter. You will see, and your heart will know."