Liam pushed open the heavy wooden door, and it let out a loud, creaking groan as if the house itself were reluctantly welcoming them inside. The moment they stepped in, a thick layer of dust swirled in the air, catching the light that seeped in through the narrow, dirt-streaked windows. The scent of aged wood, faint smoke from the fireplace, and something slightly damp filled their noses.
"Well… it's not as bad as I thought," Eleanor murmured, stepping forward and glancing around.
The main room was spacious, surprisingly so. A large, slightly worn-out couch sat near the center, accompanied by an old wooden table that looked like it had seen better days. A stone fireplace dominated the far side of the room, its surface blackened from years of use. The walls, though aged, were still sturdy, and the wooden beams overhead added a rustic charm.
Marcus walked past the others, tapping his fingers against the furniture. "Yeah, could've been worse. At least we're not walking into a rotting shack." He turned toward Liam and smirked. "Guess I really did get us a good deal."
Jason scoffed. "You didn't do shit. If we left things up to you, we'd still be out there arguing over five bronze."
Marcus shot him a glare. "Listen, negotiations are an art. You wouldn't understand."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "You mean bullshitting? Yeah, you're a master at that."
Marcus placed a hand over his chest, feigning offense. "Wow. No appreciation for my talents."
Liam ignored their bickering and moved deeper into the house. "Let's check the rest of the place out."
They made their way through the house, examining each section carefully. The kitchen, though small, had a decent stone stove, some wooden cabinets, and a narrow counter. There were even a few rusted pots and pans left behind, though none of them seemed usable. The floors creaked with every step, but overall, everything was intact.
"Not bad," Eleanor remarked as she ran a hand along the counter, wiping away a layer of dust.
Sophia peeked into one of the cabinets and coughed when a fresh wave of dust assaulted her face. "Ugh. We're gonna need to clean all this up."
Jason leaned against the doorway, smirking. "Good thing we have you for that."
Sophia narrowed her eyes at him. "Excuse me?"
Jason raised his hands in surrender. "I meant we need to clean it up. All of us."
Liam moved past them, heading toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms. "Let's check the rooms before we start worrying about cleaning."
There were three rooms in total, each with a wooden door that creaked just as loudly as the front door when opened. The first room had a single bed with a thin, dusty mattress, a wooden dresser, and a small table in the corner. The second was similar, though the bedframe was slightly larger. The third room was slightly bigger than the rest, featuring two beds instead of one.
Marcus whistled as he stepped into the largest room. "Well, well, looks like we found the VIP suite." He threw himself onto one of the beds, immediately regretting it as a cloud of dust exploded into the air.
He sat up, coughing violently. "Holy shit! It's like inhaling a fucking sandstorm!"
Eleanor shook her head. "That's what you get for throwing yourself onto a bed that hasn't been cleaned in god knows how long."
Marcus waved a hand dismissively. "Still better than sleeping outside."
Sophia crossed her arms. "Alright, so how are we splitting the rooms?"
The group fell silent for a moment, glancing at each other as they mentally calculated the best arrangement.
"Three rooms, five of us," Liam murmured, rubbing his chin. "We'll have to double up somewhere."
Marcus immediately pointed at the largest room. "Dibs."
Sophia snorted. "That's not how this works."
Jason smirked. "Yeah, no way we're letting you take the best room just because you called dibs like a child."
Marcus scowled. "Alright, fine. Then let's decide this like adults—with a proper argument."
Liam sighed. "Let's just figure this out without fighting, alright?"
And with that, the discussion about who would sleep where began.
Liam glanced at everyone, taking control of the conversation before it spiraled into another pointless argument.
"Alright, listen up," he said, crossing his arms. "We're going to sort this out without bickering like children. Since we have two girls in the group, it only makes sense that they share a room of their choice."
Sophia nodded in agreement, already eyeing the second room. Eleanor simply shrugged, not particularly caring where she slept as long as it had a bed.
"Now, that leaves us three guys," Liam continued, looking at Marcus and Jason. "One of us will take the smaller room, while the other two will share the biggest one."
Before anyone else could speak, Sophia smirked and quickly pointed toward the biggest room. "We'll take this one."
Marcus groaned loudly. "Oh, come on—that's the best room! It's a waste to give it to you two when I—"
Sophia shot him a glare. "Say one more word and you're sleeping outside."
Marcus shut his mouth instantly, grumbling under his breath. Jason, who had been leaning against the doorway, finally spoke.
"I'll take the first room." He shrugged. "I'd rather sleep alone anyway."
Liam smirked. "Alright, that settles it. That means Marcus and I are sharing the last room."
Marcus let out an exaggerated sigh before giving Liam a playful tug on the arm. "Guess I'm stuck with my ol' pal. Though, between you and me, I still think I deserve the biggest room."
Liam rolled his eyes. "Stop being greedy, Marcus."
Marcus scoffed but didn't argue further. He threw his hands in the air as if accepting defeat and whistled as he walked off toward their room. Jason, already uninterested in any further conversation, slipped into his own room without another word. Sophia and Eleanor exchanged glances before heading to theirs, shutting the door behind them.
Liam stretched his arms, feeling the weight of exhaustion finally catching up to him. It had been a long day, but they weren't done yet.
"Alright," he muttered to himself, "time to clean this place up."
What followed was an exhausting couple of hours of cleaning.
Sophia and Eleanor focused on their room first, dusting off the old furniture and wiping down every surface they could find. Sophia coughed as another cloud of dust rose from the bed. "Jesus, it's like this place hasn't been touched in a century."
Eleanor, wiping down the dresser, smirked. "Could be worse. At least there aren't any rats."
Sophia shot her a look. "If you jinx us, I swear—"
Meanwhile, in the smallest room, Jason worked in silence. Unlike the others, he wasn't complaining—he just wanted to get it over with. He wiped the floor with an old rag he found, muttering under his breath when he discovered a suspicious stain near the bed.
Liam and Marcus, on the other hand, were having a much harder time.
"Marcus, stop being useless and help with cleaning" Liam grunted as he moved an old, heavy chest to the side of the room.
Marcus, sitting on the bed with his arms behind his head, smirked. "I am helping. I'm making sure the bed doesn't fly away."
Liam shot him a look of pure irritation. "Get up."
Marcus sighed dramatically before finally standing. "Fine, fine. But just so you know, I was totally comfortable."
Together, they started cleaning. They lifted up the rug in the room sending another wave of dust into the air. Marcus coughed violently, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Goddammit! This dust is gonna kill me before any monster does."
Liam chuckled. "Good. One less headache to deal with."
The cleaning continued well into the evening. By the time they were done, the house—while still old—felt a lot more livable. The floors were mostly dust-free, the beds had been dusted off, and the furniture wiped down. They had even managed to air out the rooms, letting the stale smell fade away.
Marcus flopped onto his now-clean bed with a groan. "I swear, I've never worked this hard in my life."
Sophia, walking past their doorway, snorted. "That's because you're lazy."
Marcus didn't even argue. He just waved a hand in dismissal.
Liam, standing near the fireplace, exhaled deeply. "At least it's done."
The house was theirs now, and for the first time since they arrived in this strange world, it actually felt like they had a place to call home.
Liam leaned against the fireplace, arms crossed, his expression serious as he looked at the others. "Alright, now that we've got a roof over our heads, we need to talk about something important—how to get stronger. We need to level up if we want to unlock the next mission."
Sophia, sitting on the edge of the cleaned-up couch, nodded. "Yeah, but how exactly are we going to do that? We don't even know what the best way to gain experience is."
Marcus stretched his arms behind his head, smirking. "Simple. We go out there and pick fights. I say we find some bandits, beat the crap out of them, and take whatever loot they have."
Jason, who had been quietly leaning against the wall, shook his head. "That's reckless. If we don't know their strength, we could end up dead before we even gain a level."
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Marcus shot back.
Eleanor tapped her fingers on the wooden table. "We need a plan. Random fights won't cut it. We should figure out a systematic way to train. Maybe there's a guild or an adventurer's hall where we can get quests suited to our current level."
Liam nodded in agreement. "That's actually a good point. A guild might offer us beginner-level quests—things we can handle without getting killed."
Marcus groaned. "Ugh, so we're gonna be running errands for some NPCs instead of fighting? That's boring as hell."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "It's better than dying on the first real fight we pick. We don't even know what level the enemies around here are."
Liam pushed off the fireplace and looked at the group. "Alright, here's what we'll do—first thing tomorrow, we head into the city and start looking for a guild or some kind of training area. If we don't find anything useful, then we'll consider Marcus's dumb plan of picking fights."
Marcus grinned. "See? My dumb plans always end up being the backup plan."
Eleanor sighed. "That's not something to be proud of."
Jason, who had been quiet for most of the conversation, finally spoke again. "We also need to keep an eye on our stats. If we find a way to train specific attributes, we should take it. If we want to be effective in combat, we can't just level up blindly—we need to be smart about what we improve."
Liam nodded. "Good point. For now, we rest. Tomorrow, we start figuring this out."
The group fell silent for a moment, each of them thinking about the challenges ahead. They had a long road before them, but at least now, they had a plan.