It was a tense morning, despite how genuinely nice it was outside. Birds chirp and sing in the crisp morning air, sky clear of clouds and the sunrise was not yet complete, painting the eastern sky in a hue of yellow and orange.

  Fleur wants to fly so badly, but she didn’t particularly want to be executed. She huffs in frustration, leaning over so the hood she wears covers her face. Sage guides the three from tree to tree, all four covered in a camo cloak each. Dave admires the pattern on the cloaks as they sneak into the cover of the next tree.

  “I have the feeling Alteresa isn’t going to be the only dungeon I visit.” Dave mumbles to himself, just to get shushed by Sage.

  “If they catch us, you three are getting your heads cut off.” Sage carefully looks up, watching a bored harpy above them yawn. “Then my wings are getting cut off and delivered to the queen.” Maribelle gently rubs her neck with her right wing, unsettled while Fleur narrows her eyes.

  “I knew it, the queen of harpies really is using our feathers to replace her own.” Sage trips once the sentence registers, drawing the attention of the harpy directly above them. She lands on the tree above them, staring at the ground around them. She tiredly scans the land around her, unwilling to land on the ground and instead looks through the branches and leaves at the green grass and dirt. She pauses at movement, eyes focused unknowingly at Maribelle. The four lie on the ground, cloaks spread out in hopes they aren’t spotted. Their observer eventually loses interest as she watches an ant crawling over what she assumes is some patches of grass. With an uninterested mumble about bugs she takes back to the sky.

  The four are gone as soon as they can. Fleur brushes the dirt off her wings as they sneak to another of the large trees. “Ok.” Sage finally speaks up, “Now we are out of hearing of the main group. The Harpy Queen does not use harpy feathers for herself.”

  “It’s been like thirty minutes since I said that.” Fleur incredulously responds, taking a moment to straighten her tail feathers. “I call bullshit on that, however. She definitely does.”

  “Totally.” Maribelle backs her half-sister up. “Right, Dave?” She looks at him, a smile on her face while he looks between the three arguing.

  Sage turns on her heel to behold the three, quickly looking past them to the guards they passed, none of which were looking in their direction. “Listen here, you little shits,”

  “I’m taller than you.” Fleur injects into the conversation.

  “Little. Shits.” Sage glares at Fleur, who happily glares back. “The Harpy Queen is a lot of things.” Fleur once again interrupts.

  “Lets see: a traitor to harpies, a maniac who hides behind her walls and castle, known assassin sender, wealth hoarder and steals the feathers of others to replace her own.”

  “Don’t forget her hating broth!” Maribelle happily adds her own detail, just for Fleur to nod at her.

  Sage just turns around, almost stomping off. “You morons are helpless. I just hope sending you three to fight that homunculus is a good idea.”

  “I thought we were going to fight the feathercaster that showed up for a moment.” Dave gulps, thinking of the webbing they had seen just half a week ago. “Which one is easier?”

  Sage speaks before the other two can make their minds up “Breeze changed her mind. With the party originally sent MIA, or KIA, along with the Feathercaster apparently gone she wants the imminent threat gone.” They walk underneath another tree. “Almost there. It’s just a straight thirty minute flight. The guards will be gone in a few hours so take your time and just fly back in. Get him that good gear. If I’m paired with you lot, I want the best I’m going to get.”

  The sight of red, slightly broken bricks was a gorgeous sight for sore eyes. With the sun directly overhead the group had arrived, worn out but ready for lunch and a dungeon crawl. Fleur chuckles at Dave’s wording when he expresses the sentiment. “Yeah, even someone who can crawl can complete it.”

  “Don’t jinx it.” Dave chuckles, opening his inventory, then clicking through some of the menus. “Is it usually this,” Dave looks around the entrance, not quite bothering with the building itself, “busy?”

  “Usually it's four times as busy.” Maribelle smiles. “One day a year after all, harpies from all over have traveled here.”

  A ginormous camp had been set up two hundred tents large, with a huge plaza in front of the entrance. Harpies sold gear, food and other amenities for inflated prices. Dave lightened up at a man in the crowd, with light purple armour coating him head to toe, his visor pulled up to show white skin with yellow eyes. A faint aura surrounded him, but harpies practically clung to him. Before he could introduce himself to the other man, he strode with purpose to the entrance itself, waving to the girls.

  “A fucking elevator?” Dave was bewildered by what he saw once he got a proper view. A group of five elevators stood in the wall in the plaza, white tiling which seemed sanitised gave it a futuristic look compared to everything he had witnessed so far, despite being just a modern business elevator. Three lights above each elevator showed if it was occupied. “Everyone gets done with this dungeon despite only having five spots in a day?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “More around the back. Normally the entire building is surrounded with the camp and festive activities.” Fleur weaves between tents, waving to some harpies, some who laugh at seeing her. “I’ve got more than just a dagger this time.” This sarcastic comment earns a laugh from four harpies together, who had previously been arguing around a map. “It’s on a stick.” She taps Dave’s spear with her wing, the laughs becoming uproarious. When they're out of view she turns to Dave. “They made a bet I’d come back with something new. I didn’t and they lost over three hundred COL, isn’t that right, Maribelle?” The two look at her, who simply smiles.

  “I quite enjoyed that nice expensive meal and dress I bought.”

  “Didn’t even buy me anything.” Fleur raises an eyebrow.

  “You got to start at level three and get a nice bow, that's something.” Maribelle dismisses her complaint, the two smiling.

  Dave looks between the two, unsure what they meant by something new, but leaving it at that.

  “Go everybody! Rewards await! Go go everybody! Alteresa waits!” Dave’s jaw drops at the sight in the plaza. Clad in yellow tube tops and skirts, with their hair in ponytails and pigtails, seven harpies energetically dance on a stage. They kick out and toss each other high in a routine that Dave recognises somewhat.

  “Cheerleaders? Here?” He blushes when one of the girls notices him, blowing a kiss.

  Fleur’s mood is ruined.

  “Yeah.” Maribelle waves to the girls. “Wandering band of cheerleaders who get paid to liven up a party, or festival like this. A few men created this whole thing in the first year after the Death Aurora. Really gotten popular since.

  “And the bad rhyme? They literally rhymed ‘await’ with ‘wait’.”

  “Bad songwriter.” Fleur deadpans.

  Maribelle looks to the elevators, noting the lights above were all red. “They’re all taken, I’ll check the other side. Be back in five!” She takes to the sky, still slightly shaky but able to keep in the air. She sails over the building while Dave looks at the wall he can see.

  “That is one long wall.” Modern brick and mortar stands as stark contrast to the world around it, just a warehouse in the middle of a field. “The dungeon is in this building?”

  “Actually, no.” Fleur guides Dave to the right, towards a bunch of stalls selling an assortment of gear and items. “It takes you below the building. We don’t actually know what's inside it. Dungeon walls are immune to everything we’ve thrown at it so far. We suspect there's a secret path to the upper levels above ground, but nothing promising.” She looks at Dave with a smile. “When we do discover it, This place will have half of harpykind here, and plenty of chaos. Speaking of, let's buy you some cheap Alteresan gear.”

  The two weave through the stalls, Fleur keeping an eye and ear out for anything of value, just to end up at one stall with a silver banner and harpy idly manning it. Dave bops his head to a beat Fleur couldn’t hear while she keeps her eyes locked on a pair of boots. She wouldn’t claim to know if they would fit him, but she happily brought it. The harpy looks confused when the boots disappear from her countertop, but still idly mumbles her thanks, before spotting Dave. Her head slips from her wings, slamming on the tabletop before raising, a new bruise forming in the middle of her forehead. “That's the fourth man I’ve seen today! Say, uhh,” She pauses, Fleur already guessing what the blush and gazes mean, “I’ve been interested in raising,” She doesn’t get any further when Fleur starts to walk away, her wing against his front to help move him.

  “First thing you need is a bath.”

  Maribelle came into view again a few minutes later, spotting Fleur and Dave sitting near the elevators chatting. She lands in front of them on one foot, the other holding a pair of bracers. “Boom! I found some cheap bracers! Better have Dave use them then it being scrapped for alteresan metal scraps, even if skyforged is significantly better. Out of budget.” Fleur and Maribelle eagerly watch Dave slide the greenish metal over his hands, Silica not having been able to give him gloves just yet. They rest over his wrists and the three sigh over how it’s clearly just a little too big.

  “It’s even got a silky inside layer.” Dave laments as he stores the bracers into his inventory. Fleur watches the green square mesh over the item as it fades away. “What if I equip it from my inventory?”

  “It’ll still be big.” Maribelle shyly rubs her neck. “It was only twenty COL. No need to try to make me feel better. It’s kind of you to try, holy fuck it works.” Maribelle’s jaw drops as the mesh reappears, this time the bracers fit perfectly. “How?” She lightly presses her wing against the metal, curious. “No strap or anything to alter the metal. This menu stuff is overpowered!”

  Dave smiles, before opening his inventory. “I can actually do this for any of us three. My tunic can be changed to fit any one of us three. I noticed it last night.”

  The three jump at a voice directed at them, a muscular harpy in a simple dress down to her knees. “You three, There's a slot available for the dungeon and nobody is taking it. I’ve done mine. Just been sitting unused for two minutes.” The three jump to feet and talons, walking over to the elevators. Fleur stretches as the three walk to the elevator.

  “This is surreal.” Dave steps in first, looking at the standard tiling used and the glass sides. “This looks just like a regular glass elevator.”

  “Is that what this is called?” Fleur steps in next, with Maribelle close behind. “Elevator. That's actually a fun word to say.” Maribelle tries saying elevator, before agreeing. The doors start to close, Fleur slides down the wall to a sitting position when someone breaks through the small crowd cheering them on, amber feathers slip through the door in a sprint and slam into the glass on the other side as the doors fully close. There's a stunned silence as the harpy falls to the ground in a slight daze. A miko dress of turquoise blue with a large wooden staff on her back. Dave looks her over as she slowly sits up, just to jump when the elevator jumps to life and starts to descend.

  “That is slow.” Dave’s words manage to get the stunned party to start yelling at the new harpy in their dungeon run.

  “What the fuck! If you want to run the dungeon find a party instead of just hijacking ours! This is to level him, not a regular run! Gods fucking damn it!” Fleur angrily throws out a wing, glaring daggers at the harpy on the floor.

  The harpies outside of the elevator watch in surprise and anger as the four disappear under the earth. One turns to the muscular harpy slowly. “Fifty COL says that the amber bird gets murked by the greenhead.”