Kai pointed violently at Mimay, shouting across the enormous chamber.
"I told you, Mimay! This is your fault!"
Mimay's pointy ears twitched nervously. "No, it's your fault!"
"You were supposed to configure the summoning crystal, you dummy!"
"Don't call me dummy, you… you wimpy!"
"You said what!?" Kai was infuriated, his face as red as a chilly.
Both of them kept clenching fists and pointing at each other, blaming and yelling. Erwin snorted, visibly fed up with that whole discussion.
Julian was still sitting on the pedestal, right in front of him a glass prism crystal. He picked it up and walked towards the yelling teenagers. They didn't look more than 16 years old.
"Hey, you two," said Julian, waving his hands, "calm down, relax."
"Quiet!" said the young boy, with smoke coming out of his ears. "Now you gimme that!"
Kai pulled the crystal off of Julian's hand and started examining it. "There must be something wrong with this crystal. It was supposed to summon the boss."
"I said I double checked it," said Mimay.
Astar inspected Julian. "This isn't the boss. He's just… a guy."
"Sorry for the childish behavior of my teammates, sir," said a soft calm voice amidst that chaos, "I go by the name of Erwin, and who would you be?"
"My name is Julian," he said, offering a handshake.
Erwin didn't understand that gesture. Julian's hand floated mid-air for a few embarrassing seconds before he retracted it.
"These are Kai, Mimay and Astar. We are adventurers."
"Adventurers? Aren't you just cosplayers?" He reached for Mimay's ear and tried taking them off as if they were fake. "You see, those are just plastic."
"Ouch! Let me go!"
Julian noticed too late the ears hadn't come off. By the time he released her, they were pulsing red. Mimay crossed her arms and let out a "Humpf!"
"Alright, adventurers, can you tell me where I am?" Julian asked.
"This is the tenth level of the Minerva's Ruin, a two star tier dungeon," said Erwin.
"And that crystal was supposed to summon the dungeon boss, the Killer Rat," Astar added.
"But it summoned… YOU!" Kai pointed at him angrily.
"Killer Rat…" Julian whispered to himself.
Julian took another good look around the chamber, then he checked his phone. No signal, and the GPS app was completely bananas. When he looked through his recent calls, he saw a name that had been previously mentioned.
"Mimay Cherrycheeks?"
"Oh, that's my full name." said Mimay, tilting her head.
"Well, it says here you called me 6 minutes ago."
"I told you. Mimay messed up the ritual!"
Erwin interrupted. "That does not matter now. We have to escort him out. Leaving him here feels… irresponsible on our end."
"Erwin is right," said Astar, "we better hurry back to the surface. The night will fall in a couple hours."
"Let's go, Julian. You don't wanna be left alone in a dark dungeon, do ya?" Said Kai.
Julian followed them, still confused about all that talk. One thing he knew for sure: he wasn't on Earth anymore. That seemed more like some sort of VRMMO, even though it looked too real to be just a game.
They walk along corridors and more corridors of cold brick walls. Alcoves along the walls were decorated with the statue of a woman wielding a spear and shield.
"Who's that?" asked Julian.
"That's Minerva," Mimay answered, "she is the goddess of wisdom and strategy."
"Ah, we have that one on Earth too."
"What is Earth?"
"It's the place I come from."
She giggled into her hand. "What a funny name! We are in the continent of Delulu."
'Delulu? For real? And you say Earth is a funny name, huh.' Julian thought.
They kept walking for almost one hour, going up some stairs every now and then.
"The dungeon is too quiet for my liking," said Erwin.
Kai nodded. "Facts. We've never been through so many levels without encountering monsters."
The way out was uneventful until that moment. A huge green ogre showed up from a corner, roaring and waving its spiked club. A rather intimidating sight.
The party assumed battle position, getting ready to engage. Then suddenly his eyes widened in despair, as if he had seen death before him. The monster took notice of Julian in the back, a figure that didn't look intimidating at all, but for that monster it was the creepiest thing ever, for some reason.
Before any of them could land and attack, the monster had already fled, running for his life.
They all blinked in total confusion.
Nothing else dared to show face after that. When leaving the dungeon, Mimay looked back only to see that same ogre crying in a fetal position in a corner. A huge question mark hovered above her head.
The night had fallen, so they decided to make camp and rest before continuing their journey.
"We're taking a break now, fellas," said Kai, stretching his arms, "tomorrow we reach Minerva City."
Mimay took her wooden staff and chanted a spell, materializing a tent ready for sleeping.
"Wow, that was quite impressive," said Julian, frowning, "can you teach me that?"
"That's called 'tent'," she said, "you have to be a level 10 white mage to learn that spell. I am level 12 as you can see."
Those words echoed through his mind for some time. He probably wouldn't like to become a white mage. That sounded too much like a supporting role, and he wasn't summoned to this magical world to be a healer. 'Come on, that is a once in a lifetime chance! I won't play the healer, sorry.'
They set a small fire, passing the rations around. Curiosity didn't take long to show itself.
Mimay was a little blonde girl, with pointy ears, a round nose and funny shoes. She wore a white tunic and wielded a wooden staff. She indeed had rosy cheeks as her name implied.
"So, what is your class, Julian?" She asked.
"I am a rat exterminator."
"Like a rat catcher?"
"Yeah, kind of."
"So you just kill rats?"
"That's it… and sometimes big rats." He said seriously.
Astar was a lean muscular woman, with short dark hair. Her staff was quite different from Mimay's, and her outfit was more of a fighter's, yet it just covered what was necessary.
"I am a level 17 magic knight," she said, "you can never rely on one thing only."
Erwin also had pointy ears, but way longer than Mimay's. His long blonde hair was tied up, and his skin was as pale as paper.
"I am a ranger. Level 17 too."
Kai was a nice person, despite his explosive personality. Red spiky hair, typical anime protagonist style. His chain mail and sword spoke for themselves.
"And I am the party's leader, of course! Level 19 Warrior, the muscle and the brain, the fighter and the strategist!"
He performed as he talked nonsense next to the bonfire.
"You're definitely not the brain," Astar provoked.
"Say that again and I'll make you into pieces!" He yelled, spitting the rations out.
Mimay laughed. "Well, I think that rat catcher isn't a real class. May I check your stats, Julian?"
He shrugged. "Go ahead."
She held her staff and said some incantations, casting a spell upon Julian.
"Scan!"
A blue-ish spell circle formed under his feet and a translucid screen popped up on top of his head.
Name: Julian
Title: Rat Killer
Class: Not Assigned
Level: 99
Total Exp: 8,910,450
Everyone stared at it in deep silence. Kai dropped his sword and rubbed his eyes. Even Erwin's eyes were wide in shock.
"Um, Mimay," stuttered Kai, "can you cast that spell again?"
The little girl repeated the whole process, and the stat screen showed up with the exact same info.
"Impossible…" Astar choked on air.
Julian looked up at the floating text above his head. "Oh, so it does count as combat."
*Thud!*
Mimay fainted.