The Camp

The boss room is empty as I enter it once again. Well, empty of living things. The Wraith Knight we fought is still a pile of bones on the ground, and the area still bears marks of where I fought Lancer and the Guardian.
But, nothing in here is trying to kill me which is a huge positive.
Retainer, who must have jumped through the door, slides in next to me.
“Were you trying to look cool?” I sigh.
“Depends,” She looks around. “Did I look cool?”
“You slid too far, so not that cool.”
“What do you know about cool, old man?” She pokes her tongue at me.
“Old man? I’m twenty six.”
She completely ignores me as she makes her way over to the exit door.
I can’t believe it, after everything that has happened, we’ve made it back here, still alive and kicking.
“Wait.” Retainer stops me.
“What is it?” I look around the room, trying to find what she’s warning me about.
“Maybe we should talk about what we’re going to do on the next floor.”
She raises a good point. Floor one is basically just a combat tutorial, while Floor two you get introduced to more mechanics like roaming enemies, status effects, a more variable boos enemy pool as well. But all these things we have already encountered on our challenge mode floor. But there is one thing we haven’t encountered.
“The other Parties.” I voice my thoughts out loud.
“Yeah, what if they’ve already met up with another party, and because of those two, what if this new party thinks you’re an enemy?” She raises a valid concern.
“I’m sure that a talk will be all most people will need to see we’re not the enemy.”
“What?” She stares at me, her eyes wide.
Also, I don’t know what reason they're going to give the others, so it also depends on that.

“Woah, it’s so wide open.” Retainer exclaims as she looks around the second floor.
We’ve just come through the door from the Boss room, and what greets us is the view of a floor that seems to stretch out forever.
Floor two, type D. The Plains. A wide open expanse of a floor, No cramped rooms or corners here, easy to spot enemies, but easy to be spotted yourself.
But, there is something odd, and incredibly out of place currently right in front of us.
We both stare at it for a second, confused.
“Um, that’s a sign right?” Retainer asks.
“I do believe so.”
We both reach out at the same time and feel the cool metal surface.
That is one hundred percent, just a road sign, which points to our right.
What is this sign even pointing to? Well, written in big letters in a hideously bright colour, is a single word.
Camp.
This floor is notorious for being incredibly hard for finding your way, but for some reason, standing right in front of us is a sign.
“It’s an ability of Captain,” I tell her.
“What a dumb ability.”
“Just don’t say that to her face, Captain players are very touchy about how good their character is.”
“What do you mean?” She tilts her head.
“We’re following the sign.” I start walking in the direction it’s pointing.

“Are we almost there?” Retainer whines.
To be fair, we’ve been walking for almost an hour now, following the occasional sign that pops up, making sure we’re still on the right track.
The enemies we’ve encountered on this floor so far have given us no issues. A few Goblins and Kobalds roam in small groups, while even the occasional Ogre wasn’t even a challenge.
It’s just a simple task of taking aggro while Retainer takes them out.
The downside is, we’ve spent a long time here, and it’s starting to get dark. Well, darker.
If we don’t find shelter or a camp soon, harder enemies will start coming out.
“I smell something… burning.” Retainer stops, and sniffs the air.
Assassin and Reaper get huge buffs to their natural perception, so it’s a given she’ll be alert to things like this.
“Big or small?” I ask.
“Small, like a…”
“Campfire.” we both exclaim.
She looks around, then points just off to the side of where we were originally walking.
“That way.”

After another thirty minutes of walking and fighting we finally see it. A large camp has been set up, one side covered by some rubble of a decaying structure. Tents, a campfire, and quite a few people walking around.
“What a huge party.” Retainer whispers.
We’re currently hiding a distance away in some rubble, deciding to watch for a bit.
“It’s not actually a party.” I tell her. “Captain is like a summoner, so all those people you see down there are most likely just soldiers she summoned.”
“Even that one?” She points to the campfire, a single person sitting by it.
No way, that can’t be.
Priestess is sitting on her own poking the campfire with a stick. Even from this distance I can tell she isn’t a summon.
“Can you see any of the others?” I ask as Retainer scans the camp.
“No, only her. But I can’t see inside any of the tents, so there might be more.”
“I’m going down there. I need to find out.”
“But what if something happens?”
She’s right, walking in there and getting into a fight is not something I would win.
“Use your stealth, go invisible. Follow me down, and if it starts to look dicey, I trust you.”
She looks at me for a few moments before nodding and fading away into the darkness.
No one notices me as I approach the camp, it’s larger than I thought it was, multiple tents cover the area, and as soon as I get close a message tells me I’ve entered a safe zone.
Captain really has a useful ability, being able to create a camp and safe zone whenever she wants.
The first person to even notice me is Priestess, and that’s only because I sit right next to her at the campfire.
“You!” She sputters out, her voice more mature than I thought it would be.
“Been a while, hasn’t it?” I try to break the ice.
“Don’t move!” A voice tells me.
Thick french accent, woman, twenty guards suddenly surrounding me.
“Ah, you must be captain.” I even catch sight of Ranger mixed in with the archers pointing arrows at me.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you sneaking into my camp? To my safe zone?” She walks in front of me, the uniform she wears offers little in the way of protection, but to her it’s all about its meaning. The Tricorne on her head makes her seem taller, but even with it, she’s still the height of Priestess.
“So, you thought you’d just waltz in here and what? Finish the job?” She draws her sword and points it at my neck. “Health means nothing to a fatal wound.”
“Want to test that theory?”
Retainer suddenly materialises, her dagger pressed against Captain’s throat.
“Who?” Captain is so shocked she can barely speak.
“Let’s all put our weapons down, and talk about this like adults, okay?”
Surprisingly it’s Priestess who suggests this.
“After what this man did, you want to talk to him?” Captain sputters out, the dagger still to her throat.
“We’ll even go first.” I nod at Retainer and she reluctantly withdraws her dagger.