Chapter 68


    Twenty five yers cautiously entered the cave leading into the the mountain depths.


    The Devastators party were ragged and tired, and showed signs of recent hard-fought battle. They had lost a number of yers to respawn crossing the corrosiveke waters. yers that were not able to rejoin the party.


    A colorfully decked out yer moved up next to the tall Devastator that was leading the group.


    "Hey boss, what’s the n?"


    The heavy-te armored tank, ster, answered the oundish yer patiently, "We’re going to move forward cautiously, Mongo. We can’t afford to lose any more yers. We’re down to only one healer...not to mention one Beast-tamer." ster turned to look pointedly at the other yer.


    Beast-tamers, the main pet-summoning ss of the game, were known for their entric habits and proclivities. Those entricities, both real and imagined, were often the subject of jokes by other yers.


    But even for a Beast-tamer Mongo was odd. Instead of regr armor, Mongo wore animal pelts with shing colors and patterns. ws, fangs, and the odd skull or two adorned his eye-watering ensemble.


    ster continued, "And since we are talking about it, I need you to send one of your pets to scout ahead for us.".


    Mongol answered, "Aww, boss, I don’t wanna lose myst pet. Not before the otherse off cooldown and I can re-summon them."


    "I get that, but at least your pets can respawn. We can’t, not here in the Underworld. Do it," ster ordered again.


    Grumbling, the Beast-tamer summoned a vaporous ghost-wolf.


    The ghostly canid touched his spectral muzzle to Mongo’s hand in ritual greeting, and then loped down the tunnel in response to the Beast-master’s orders.


    The ghost-wolf returned shortly.


    "Garm says there’s nothing dangerous ahead," Mongo reported his pet’s findings.


    "Alright. Everyone stay in formation. Move in!" said ster.


    The yers quickly realized that the cave was lit by gems. The precious stones adorning the walls of the cave sparkled in their eyes, matching the greed in their hearts.


    One of the yers rushed over to a wall, a pickaxe appeared from his inventory and he swung the tool into the stone around one of the glowing diamonds. The pickaxe rebounded with a shower of sparks and a disappointing ng.


    "Damn, I’m a high level Miner. I should be able to mine these. What’s the deal?" said the Miner dejectedly.


    "There’s bound to be other stuff. Let’s just move faster. This is virgin territory. The only reason we aren’t drowning in good loot is we’re moving too damn slow."," a Dwarf yerined.


    "Rodrigue is right, let’s keep moving," urged Mongo.


    "No, we need to keep moving slow and careful, checking for traps as we go," said ster


    "We won’t get anything that way. I bet the other groups are rolling in loot!" Rodrigueined.


    "I’m not about to let anyone else get sent for respawn by rushing ahead blind and careless. Guild Ops organized the groups.. If you don’t like following orders, you can discuss that, and the chain ofmand, with the head of Ops when we get back. I’m sure Mr. Valentine will be very receptive to yourints."


    "Hell with it, Didrik had more balls than you do. Hells, it was you that got him killed back at theke. I’m not following a coward anywhere. Not anymore. Guys, this green-horn is just here for himself. He got everyone killed back at theke, and now he’s trying to keep us from doing what we came to do."


    ster’s face was red with anger, "Didrik ordered us to chase after the water serpents. Didrik and the rest would still be with us if we had made for shore instead of trying to fight monsters from row-boats.


    "Didrik ignored my advice. I disagreed with him, but I still followed his orders! I fought, risking respawn and expulsion from this raid, just like everyone else."


    "I didn’t see you’se doin’ any support’n, all I seen was you’se runnin’ away...green-horn," said a gruff-voiced Orc.


    "Guys, let’s take off." Rodrigue cajoled his buddies, "Come with me and I guarantee we will get amazing loot. Stay with this loser and you’re going to miss out. I heard a group that went farther into the underworld fought some big-ass monsters, farmed tons of EXP and got epic loot. They even dropped some of those Runes."


    ster wasn’t going to keep exining the same thing over and over to deaf ears.


    "I can’t make anyone stay if they choose to leave. So let’s just get this over with. Who’s staying with the guild party and who wants to strike out on their own?"


    ster didn’t believe anyone would follow a hot-head like Rodrigue, especially based on twisted truths and unconfirmed gossip. He was wrong.


    Twenty yers shuffled out and gathered around the Dwarf.


    "See ster, people know a real leader when they see him. You, on the other hand, just want to y it safe," Rodrigue gloated with his chest puffed up.


    "See ya back at the hall, losers!"


    The mutineers moved down the tunnel rapidly, leaving ster, Mongol, and three other yers who didn’t look sure they had made the right choice.


    "God damn it," cursed ster.


    "You should PM Ops to report and get orders," said Mongol.


    "The top-brass are preparing to fight off an invasion, this isn’t important enough for their attention right now. We’ll just keep going, slow and steady. Don’t touch anything before we check for traps and hidden tunnels."


    "Okay boss," said Mongol.


    The five yers moved forward slowly.


    ster hated being in charge. No one wanted to lead people that questioned every decision and ignored all reason andmon sense. He was just trying to finish the mission and keep everyone safe at the same time. But they wanted fame and recognition, screw the mission. And their own safety.


    ster was checking a conspicuous stctite that might be a deadfall when Mongo spoke up.


    "Ah, jeez, Rivera just bought it," Mongo swore.


    "What?" asked ster


    "Your HUD, man. The Priest, Rivera, he just died."


    ster looked at the party status window in his HUD and saw the gray icon of a dead party member.


    "There goes another one! Their health-bars are decreasing fast, they must be in a tough fight,"


    "A group of turtle-like creatures is attacking the party; level 350 and up," said the archer. He had two fingers to his temple, inmunication with one of the mutineers.


    "We help them. Move!" said ster. The group went from a slow cautious advance to a full sprint.


    In less than a minute they entered a small cavern finding the rest of their group in the middle of a serious scrum.


    "Fuck off! We got this, it’s our loot!" shouted Rodrigue.


    ster didn’t have time to argue with the idiot.


    ster charged in, unleashing a devastating [Piercing-Blow] with his giant two-handed sword.


    A surge of concussive force discharged from his sword, rocking and staggering the demon shell-back. The respite gave the Dwarf the opportunity to scurry behind his taller team-mates to escape from the turtle-snake’s attention.


    "Archers! Hang back, melees Tank the mob! Rotate out the guys with low HP to heal up, then rejoin the fight." ster charged in doing everything he could to increase his threat level and take the aggro from the other yers.But nothing worked. Either he just didn’t have enough damage for the monster to take note of him, or...


    "No point trying to leech agro, it has a random-target skill!" The Orc’s HP was in the red.


    ster cringed,


    ster called the shot, "Everyone Nuke the bastard! Use everything you have to bring it down now!"


    Every yer, regardless of their health status, channeled the strongest skill in their arsenal. The skills lit-off with multiple shes of colored light, bombarding the monster with damage and effects, a Hail Mary y.


    The monster activated an attack skill and Power-Rolled, aiming for the ranged yers in the backline.


    The archers triggered their dodge and movement skills, shooting continuously at the rolling doom, finally killing the monster.


    ster rounded on Rodrigue, "This is what happens when you split the party!"


    "We didn’t need your help. We were handling it just fine," said the Dwarf stubbornly.


    "You got seven yers killed. You all would have died before you brought that thing down," shouted ster.


    "Well we didn’t die. And we got some loot. But the drop-rate is terrible. Aren’t monsters supposed to drop their best loot on a first kill? We only got a rune. Seems shitty to me," the Dwarfined.


    "You should have called us when you first sighted the monsters, what if there were more than three? We can’t afford to make mistakes like this!" said ster.


    "Alright, everyone just chill," the Orc spoke up, "We got it. We need to stay together. ster is one of the highest leveled yers here, we need his DPS."


    "Whatever," Rodrigue grunted.


    The party advanced until they came to a river of magma with a bridge crossing it.


    "Let’s take it slow, this is obviously a perfect ce for an ambush," said ster approaching the river, oblivious to the danger hiding beneath the molten-rock flow.