"Da hell?" Cari suddenly woke up and looked around the temple he found himself in. The temple was lit by a weird crystal chandelier. The ground was covered in grass and stone, making it look very old. The stairs leading off the little stage he was sleeping on were cracked. There were no windows, just one large door. He looked over and saw a few of his friends asleep next to him. He used the wall to get up, then walked over to one of his friends.
"Ay, bro. Richard. Get up." Cari shook his friend until he woke up.
"Huh?" Richard slowly woke up and opened his eyes. He looked around and sat up. Richard was a tall, 6'4" teenager with trash memory, but he liked to learn. He was a cool dude though.
"Yo, where are we?" Richard looked around. Cari helped him up.
"I don't know." Cari walked over to another one of his friends, and Richard went to wake up their friend, who was a girl.
"Angel. Get up." Cari gently shook Angel awake.
"Like 10 more minutes..." Angel said, shooing Cari away.
"..." Cari raised his hand and smacked Angel's face!
Angel jumped up. "Ow! I'm up, you cluck!" Angel rubbed her now red cheek. "Where are we?" Angel was a heavy anime watcher like Cari. A goofy but honest person.
"Don't know. Place is weird though," Cari said, helping her up.
"Hey, Leslie. Wake up." Richard said as he shook Leslie awake.
"Richard...? What's going on?" Leslie wiped her eyes and looked around. Leslie was a positive girl with decently long hair.
"Have no clue." Richard helped her up.
"Hey, Osdy. Wake up." Angel shook Osdy awake.
"Hu? What's up?" Osdy wiped the drool from his mouth and fixed his glasses. Osdy was into disco music and loved The Terminator. A nice and goofy dude.
"Hey. Get up." Cari kicked Avery's leg. Another friend.
"Mmmh... Shit. My back hurts... What am I sleeping on... rocks?" Avery stretched his hands into the air. Avery tended to push off his problems and rarely finished what he started, but if you could tolerate him, he was alright to hang out with.
"You are. Look." Cari pointed at the rocks he was laying on.
"Da hell?" Avery looked around and realized he wasn't in his room.
"Everybody good?" Cari asked.
"No! Where are we!?" Avery shouted.
"Da hell I'm supposed to know? I just woke up like you, so calm your man tits." Cari responded.
"You're right..." Avery calmed down.
"Yeah. We all look fine." Richard said, dusting off his clothes.
"Alright then. That's good news." Cari looked around. "This place looks old."
"Are we dead?" Angel asked.
"I hope not," Leslie responded, a little concerned.
"I can't die. I'm too good." Richard's god complex was showing again.
"This place is weird. Let's get out of here." Richard hopped off the stage and walked over to the door. The group followed him.
Richard tried to push the door open. "This door is heavy, bro. How much does this weigh!?"
"Welp, everybody, let's try opening this bitch." Cari placed his hands on the door. Richard stood beside him and Avery got next to him, then Angel, then Osdy.
"On 3. 1, 2, 3!" They all pushed as hard as they could and the door started to open.
"Leslie! You can help!" Cari said, struggling.
"Oh! Sorry." She came over and started pushing with all she had.
The door slowly opened more and more until it was open enough for them all to slip through before it shut.
They all fell to the grassy ground, out of breath.
"Who made that door? They're trash!" Richard said, regaining his breath.
After they caught their breaths, they looked around and saw they were in the middle of a forest. It was summertime and the air was fresh.
"So we're in a forest? How?" Osdy said, standing up.
"Hold on," Cari said, then he started climbing the temple to the top to see if he could spot anything.
He scouted until—"Ay! A town over there! And some big-ass wall, A.O.T.-type shit over there!" Cari yelled down to them and pointed.
"Be careful climbing back down!" Osdy yelled.
Cari carefully climbed down, then said, "This way," and took the lead.
"So while we're walking, what does everybody remember before all this?" Cari asked.
"I remember all of us being in Discord," Richard responded.
"Yep, same here." Angel nodded.
"Same," Leslie said.
"Me as well," Osdy and Avery said at the same time.
"Same here." Cari nodded.
"And now we're suddenly in this different place. Anybody got their phones?" Cari asked, patting his pockets. Everybody did the same.
"Looks like all of us are out of luck as well. My hentai... it's all gone." Cari hunched over with sadness.
"THAT'S what you're sad about?" Leslie looked at Cari like he was dumb.
"Don't you judge me." Cari shot a look at her.
"I'm not." Leslie definitely was.
They walked until they reached the small village. It looked like they were living in the 1700s. The homes were small and worn, many leaning slightly like they'd been standing far longer than they should. Roofs were patched together with straw and tarps, and the wood was weathered and cracked. Some windows had no glass, only cloth or wooden shutters. The village had no cobblestone streets—only dirt paths marked by foot traffic and the wheels of old carts. Chickens and goats roamed freely, picking at whatever scraps they could find. The air carried the scent of smoke, soil, and something slightly metallic, like rust. It was obvious these people didn't have much, maybe even struggled day-to-day.
But despite the poverty, the villagers wore kind expressions. An elderly man with a cane smiled and nodded at them as they passed. A group of kids played with a stick and a ball of straw, their laughter genuine and free. People greeted each other warmly, sharing vegetables, helping fix fences, or just sitting on porches chatting. There was a softness in the way they moved and a kindness in their eyes that felt rare. Even in such modest conditions, the people here seemed genuinely happy, grounded by a strong sense of community.
"This place small as fuck. You said town." Avery complained.
"Who cares what I called it," Cari responded. "Why is this place something straight out of a history book?" Cari said to himself. "Let's ask somebody where we are." Cari walked over to a woman.
"Ay, excuse me?" Cari tried to get the woman's attention.
"Oh, hello there. You need something?" The woman was carrying a wooden bucket of water and had blonde hair.
"Me and my people are lost." Cari pointed to his antisocial friends, who were standing about 20 feet away. "What is this place?"
"This place is an elf village. The closest to the kingdom," the woman responded.
"Ay, fucking what?" Cari almost blurted out but managed to keep it in his head.
"...Are you by chance from the kingdom?" the woman asked. Her face looked worried.
"Nah. But you mean this whole place... is an elf village?" Cari just had to make sure he heard her right.
"Yes, that's what I said." As the woman spoke, her hair shifted slightly and Cari saw her pointed ear.
"This bitch looks like a real Zelda!!" Cari yelled in his head but stayed calm on the outside.
"I see. Thanks, bro." Cari turned and started walking back to his group.
"What'd she say?" Osdy asked.
"...This is a village of elves..." Cari whispered.
"Bro, what?" Richard said as everybody looked at Cari in confusion.
"She had pointy ears. And she said that this was a village of elves. I'm surprised she ain't got a big-ass bird following her!" Cari whispered loudly.
They all looked at Cari.
"You're saying, that is a real elf girl over there!?" Angel whispered.
"Yes. Bro. Play it cool everybody. And try not to do anything dumb. Let's go look around." They all got out of their suspicious-looking huddle.
They all started walking together, looking around and trying not to walk stiffly. Then suddenly they heard a loud horn!
They all looked like they were about to run, but then they heard a boy no older than sixteen running up behind them, yelling something. "The legendary temple has been opened!! The legendary temple has been opened!!"
Everybody started to gather around.
"The temple has been opened?!" a man said, rushing up to the boy. The boy nodded.
"You think they're talking about the temple we came out of?" Leslie leaned over and whispered.
"Yeah. It's time to go..." Angel whispered.
They all nodded, then tried to walk out of the village, but they were stopped.
"What are you guys doing!? The legendary temple has been open—" The man looked at all of them for a second.
"Are you guys from the kingdom?" the man asked.
They all just looked at each other.
"We are very busy, sir. Excuse us." Cari said like he was an important person.
"So you are from the kingdom. If that's true, then can you help us!? For this one time, we beg!" The man bowed deeply.
"The temple has opened! The powerful weapons that can end the war and help us wipe out the dark elves have come, but we cannot get them under control without the six legendary heroes. Can you please go and get the heroes from the kingdom? With how powerful your kingdom people are, you could get there faster." The man kept bowing.
"Don't bow to me, it's pissing me off. And we aren't from the kingdom. But as we said, we are busy, so see ya." Cari turned and quickly walked away following the dirt path that led out of the village.
Once they made it out of the village, they started a light jog until they got decently far away.
Suddenly they saw a girl running after them! She was fast!
"Heeeey!" The girl waved while she was running.
"Damn, she fast! No way we getting away from her. Richard, prepare your gender equality hands." Cari got ready to fight.
Richard and everybody else did too. Then just as it looked like the girl was about to run right through them, she stopped right in front of them.
"Are you guys heading to the kingdom too?" The girl with light green hair and green eyes asked them while running in place. She was also an elf.
They all just looked at each other, then relaxed.
"Um, yeah... We are taking our time though. You can go ahead." Cari smiled and rubbed his head.
"Oh. Alright! Then see ya!" The girl raced off.
"She's fucking fast!" Avery said in shock.
"So y'all trying to see what's up with this kingdom they keep talking about? It seems better than staying here and getting skewed by wolves. Or a giraffe that knows how to box or some shit." Cari was half joking.
"Yeah." They all agreed, then followed the path to the kingdom that had giant walls surrounding it.
"Damn. Donald Trump type beat," Richard said with his head tilted all the way back trying to look at the top of the wall.
"It's huge," Avery said.
"That's what she said," Angel replied.
"Shut up." They all responded at the same time.
They started walking toward the entrance and passed through without any problems.
"Yo! This like an anime!" Angel blurted out.
"You right! Maybe they got some sexy bunny girls." And just like that, Cari's head got lost in the clouds.
"Nah man, we got to find something better to do. We need info on this place." Richard said, snapping Cari back to reality.
"Yeah, we should be careful." Leslie agreed.
"Fine. Then what are we doing next?" Osdy asked.
"Uuuuuuuuh," Richard had no clue what to do.
"Hmm. Alright F.B.I.W.C. We know a good amount about anime. It's not much but it's what we have to go off of. Let's use knowledge from that. We could try to find a bar." Cari suggested.
"Why would we do that? And who said our group name was F.B.I.W.C?" Richard asked.
"Because in anime, there are bounties in bars, which means it'll be easy to find weak monsters that way. And we can figure out the power system of this place." Cari ignored the second question, hoping that Richard would forget.
"I guess. You didn't answer my second que—" Richard shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll ask somebody if they know where a place is that we can do bounties at." Cari walked up to a man just standing around doing nothing—also before Richard could say anything.
"Ay yo, you know any places for bounty hunting?" Cari asked the very muscular man.
"I'm standing right in front of it." He pointed at the sign that Cari could oddly understand.
"Oh. My bad. Ay yo, guys! Come on." Cari waved for them to come over.
As they walked in, the smell of booze and anger filled their noses. Don't even ask what anger smells like. There were people drinking, some picking fights, some just chilling and minding their business.
"Wow, this place is cool for some reason," Cari said as a guy got punched in the face and knocked out right in front of him. Cari casually stepped over the body.
"I'm gonna wait outside," Osdy said, shaking from seeing that guy get knocked out.
"Me too." Leslie followed him out.
"Cari, this seems like a bad idea," Richard said, trying to grab his shoulder.
"Hey, excuse me." Cari got the bartender's attention.
"What?" The female bartender said. She had brown hair and eyes.
"Where can I get bounties at?"
"The bounty board is right over there." She had a sarcastic tone.
"Thanks." Cari walked over to the board and started looking.
"Just as I thought. Ranked by letters. We'll start with an F rank." Cari picked one that had demon deers on it.
"Looks alright." Cari took the paper and was about to walk out when he bumped into a person on accident.
"Ah. My bad, G." Cari said, then tried to walk past. But the man stopped him.
"Where do you think you're going?" The man looked drunk, skinny, and in his 40s.
"Why does that matter to you?" Cari looked at Avery, Richard, and Angel.
"My body hurts because you bumped it. I think I need 10 silver for that." The man held out his hand.
Cari was getting irritated.
"No, you drunk, stank-breath, brain-dead bitch. If you want money, stop drinking and get a job." Cari looked the man in his eyes.
"You little—" As the man raised his hand up, Richard came up from the side and punched the man in the face, making his head spin!
"Don't let up!" Cari kicked the man in the back of the leg and made him fall to one knee, then Richard ran and kneed the man in the face, sending him to the ground! Cari stomped on the man's stomach a few times as hard as he could.
"Run these bitch-ass pockets," Cari said as he went into the man's pockets, and Richard went into the other.
"Bronze? I wonder how much this is. There are 15. Thanks for the money." Cari said, then walked out with everybody.
"Thanks for the backup, Richard." Cari said.
"It's whatever. Guy was giving off a weird vibe."
"What happened?" Leslie asked.
"This dude was trying to mess with Cari, so Richard ran up and punched him in the face! I wish I had my phone to record!" Angel responded.
"Did y'all help them?" Osdy asked Avery and Angel.
"I was going to help, but they looked like they alread—"
"No, they didn't. But don't say anything about it because you wouldn't have either," Cari said, cutting off Avery's excuses.
"We had that anyway, so it doesn't matter," Richard said.
"...Um, anyway, where are we walking to?" Angel asked.
"To fight a demon," Cari said casually.
They all stopped.
"What!" They all yelled at Cari.
"What? It's an F rank. It shouldn't be too bad... Maybe. If you guys are scared, you don't have to come."
"But we need, like, weapons first."
"Avery, I would love to see where this weapon money is," Cari responded.
"It—um..." Avery couldn't think of anything.
"I might be Black but I don't prefer to steal and make enemies. So if anybody too scared to fight, I'll be back at most by tomorrow. I'll meet you back at the bar." Cari started walking away.
"Ugh. Wait up!" Angel said, running up behind him.
"I need info on this world, so I'll go as well." Richard walked up behind them.
"I'm not doing that. I'll be waiting." Avery said, walking to the bar.
"Ay, guys, wait up!" Leslie said, running up behind Richard and them.
"I'll stay back too, I guess," Osdy said.
"Looks like it's just us four. Whatever—let's get this money!" Cari shouted, putting his fist in the air.
"Yessir!" Angel and Richard shouted.
See ya next time...