《Aurion: The New World》


 Chapter 1: Log In

    Chapter 1: Log In

    The VRMMO, Aurion, is a brand new fantasy MMO with some sci fi elements. Featuring a new one of a kind AI operated assist and development system to allow for a flexible, adaptable, and entertaining world, it featured a simple yet detailed LSS, or Level, Stat, and Skill system, balanced to ensure getting higher levels, skills, stats, and gear was rewarding, while also doing its best to ensure the game is not totally dominated by high ranked players. It featured a state of the art total Character Creation system, that allowed one to modify not just hair color or eye color, but height, weight, age, race, and more.

    It featured various iconic races such as humans and elves, but also a race known as the Elari, akin to a fairy race in that they all appeared like children and had deep roots in magic and mysticism. New races are added all the time, as the game continued to evolve. In some cases, race specific quests could even allow one to evolve their race into a higher variant later on, and there were plenty of options in terms of specialty and craft. The zones were immersive as the lore.

    It featured a planet that had at one point had a pinnacle magical civilization, until a group rose to power to try and take over, to lord over all as superiors and gods. The resulting war nearly killed the entire population, with the only ones who supposedly survived at that time were Elari. As such, the world was torn apart and changed, and even the moon was torn apart and became two moons. The current civilization and setting was made from that, with the races that rose after along with those that survived. To list a few:

    Humans: The current dominant race. Their ability to populate faster then other races has allowed them spread across the land and establish a large amount of civilizations. Many currently are vying to become the strongest, or to survive and keep their independence. Due to the shifting changes, recently they have given more rights and been more accepting of other races to survive, although some areas are still quite racist. In addition, there are large conflicts between them and the Elari, which all of humanity tried to enslave at one time. They appear as humans normally do, and some are gifted in magic. Due to being the most populated of races, their own kind and other kinds cant afford to turn them down as easily in trades, giving them better prices in markets and increased charisma stats. Since they managed to become the dominant race, they are also lucky, so their luck stat is higher as well.

    Elves: A race that evolved from the magical pollution into the wilds as a result of the Great War, they have strong ties with nature. They are far longer living then humans, and possess the ability to tap into the natural mana of the world for increased magical regeneration as well as more efficient physical enhancements. They can be noticed by their pointed ears and slender physiques. As such, Elves gain bonuses to dexterity and wisdom, but the option to become muscular is negated on the character creation menu. They also have exceptional night vision, and can sense enemy attacks easier.

    Elari: An ancient race, shortly after the Great War and the rise of humanity, humans often enslaved Elari wherever they were, forcing them to be slaves and build tools for them. The Elari are natural magical inventors and mages, having large boosts to the intelligence and dexterity stats, and starting out with a skill that allows for Magical Tool Creation. The Elari are generally happy, playful, and easygoing on the surface, but due to bad blood with humanity, they can be slow to trust. Elari have a near perfect memory, and due to their ties to the ancient civilization, can provide more lore and rewards from Ancient Civilization Technology, and quests and things based on it.

    Draconi: Genetically modified beings that were created before the Great War, they ended up escaping their containment cells during the Great War and began to reproduce. As they were meant to be cannon fodder, they have high strength and endurance boosts, as well as having scales that help reduce damage inflicted. They are also resistant to poison and are capable of breathing underwater without any special skills, devices, or enchantments.

    Symbiotes: A mechanical race, these robots have highly advanced processors that allow them to have emotions and feelings like real people. In addition, due to their mechanical nature, they are immune to poison and several other status effects, though long term full submersion still harms them over time. In addition, they can absorb potions and healing magic to repair themselves, but they can also more easily upgrade the equipment they use, getting cost reductions to production, repair, and upgrade based actions.

    Halderi: Also known as Beastpeople, there are various types scattered across the continent. Although there only seems to be mammal types such as Cats, Dogs, Lions, Wolves, and such, it is believed they evolved from the magical and soul influx that resulted from the Great War and mutated that way, originally coming from beasts. Other records suggest they might have been another supersoldier project. Either way, the Halderi are known for expert physical abilities, having great strength and dexterity. They also possess rapid health regeneration abilities, and keen senses.

    Yes, there were various races to choose from, each one containing sub-races, Evolved Races, and further. As for stats, there were Eight: Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Wisdom, Endurance, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Furthermore, it was designed so that each stat could be of use to each of the various playstles. Whether one focused on Magic or Swords, intelligence could be useful. Agility as well. It all depended on what the user wanted.

    "Oh wow, this is so cool!" a black haired boy said as he took off his socks and lay down on the bed in just a T shirt and shorts. He had already gone to the bathroom, and he ate plenty of food. He had lots of snacks nearby as well, if he needed them. The news feed on his computer was lighting up with various notifications, news warnings, stuff like tension increases between countries and deep space stuff. Normally, he might be interested in that, but today was the day that Aurios, a massive VRMMO, had released and opened from beta into being fully open. A surprise update notification was released today as well, letting everyone know that there would be special prizes for those who were on in the first hour. Because of that, lots of people were logging in at this exact moment and starting the brand new game. The boy put on his helmet. He only just got the game today, but surely, those special prizes would be his as well.

    He turned on the spare VR gear he got from his brother''s room. His older brother was already inside, and this was meant to be a surprise. The boy giggled at the idea, as he finished putting everything on and laying in bed, booting up the device fully.

    For a moment, he felt a bit of a shock, but soon after, he found himself standing in a big white room.

    "Welcome, New Player, to the Coccoon! You are currently in the middle of being revived! This emergency medical device will help you. As we are restoring your body, please allow us to know what you look like so we can properly reconstruct it!"

    At this point, a large white blank figure appeared. It then changed to match the boy''s physical appearance, although it was totally naked. The first option was Race Selection.

    "Hmmm...I really want that Lore Bonus...so lets go with Elari!"

    At that point, the height modifier became extremely restricted, as the figure was permenantly set to child.

    "Hmm...lets go with...white hair, and red eyes! Ah, but that is super common in anime...lots of people might do it. Should

    I go red hair and red eyes then? Yeah, lets do that! Oh, and lets give me a star birthmark on my right hand and right cheek, red for both".

    The changes formed. Notably, his own body changed to match the figure in front of him, as he became less of a white blob until he became that appearance.

    "Lets see...how about we also give me a birthmark..." he said, moving around his body. "There, on the back of the neck. Third red star".

    With that, he looked around some more, and then he wondered. He grabbed his own body and squeezed it.

    "Huh, that actually felt kinda nice" he said, pulling away. Normally, he might feel a bit awkward, hugging a naked body while naked, but, both of them were his body, and this was cyberspace. After that, he looked around. The red stars were small enough to not be overly obnoxious, but also big enough to be notable. However, the one on his cheek then started to feel a bit off, so he decided to move it to the right shoulder instead. However, then that bothered him, so he decided to remove it.

    Height was set to 133cm, and weight was set to 90 lbs. Apparently sizes could possibly affect stat development, but if he did not like being short, he could just change it. It was his base height in real life, so he didn''t want to be disoriented while enjoying the start of the game. He looked around while thinking that, and thought it looked good like this, so he proceeded to the next step, choosing a class.

    Suddenly, a lot of different icons appeared to choose from. Every class got a weapon, but otherwise they all started in the same starting gear. A simple one piece tunic, and boots. Along with the weapon, that was three pieces of starting gear, as well as 1000 coins.

    Although the body felt rather real, it was a virtual world. SInce it isn''t his original body, he didn''t feel all that embarrassed about not wearing pants, even if it seemed like it was his body due to VR. Although, he had to say, they really went all out in the detail. Everything was made brilliantly. Of course, there was a pants equipment slot, but everyone started with just a sleeveless tunic, tied around the waist in the center, that then went down halfway to the knees. He thought it might be some sort of roman design.

    "Hmmm..." he said, reflecting on the classes. He watched a lot of anime, and one thing that always annoyed him was that for some reason they only ever gave the girl characters magic, proper magic, while boys always got warrior roles. He was a big magic fan himself, and so he decided to go and play a mage. After all, he had chosen an Elari anyways, which had a boosted intelligence stat.

    Either way, next was the Stat system. In front of him, the starter status before any points were distributed was up. There was also something where he could enter a name, and he put in Ryuu. After all, putting in his real name was too dangerous and risky.

    So then the status showed up like this:

    Ryuu

    Race: Elari

    Class: Mage

    HP: 20/20

    MP: 20/20

    Str: 5

    Dex: 25

    Int: 25

    Wsd: 5

    Chr: 5

    Agi: 5

    End: 5

    Lck: 0

    Skills:

    Magic Tool Creation

    Passive Skills:

    Elari Lore Bonus

    In addition, there were descriptions for what each stat did. HP and MP were obvious, so he just read for the others.

    Strength boosted melee weapon and some ranged weapon damage, carrying capacity, overall physical ability, and your ability to carry things.

    Dexterity boosted one''s ability to do detailed and fine work, such as crafting, lockpicking, and provided increased aim assist and some ranged damage. It also seemed to provide some minor bonuses for sneaking around, and being agile, though not as much as agility.

    Intelligence boosted the power of magic casted, the ability to learn and understand details from sources in the world, provided minor boosts to learning ability, and so on.

    Wisdom boosted ones ability to observe and anticipate things, allowing one to know more about enemies as well the ability to learn secrets. It also provides +5MP Max for every 20 points.

    CHarisma boosted the ability to modify prices, gain information from various people in the world, increases the ability to turn neutral forces into allies, and enemy forces to neutral. Also allows for the increased cooperative abilities.

    Agility boosted one''s speed, ability to dodge, attack speed, and jump height. Additionally, it also affects how stealthy one can be.

    Endurance boosted one''s ability to endure damage and mitigate it, as well as resist or even negate status effects. It also provides health bonuses, +5HP Max for every 20 points.

    Luck boosted how lucky one was. Can effect a large amount of things.

    And at the start, one was given one hundred points to put into their stats, as well as a choice of skills based on their class. Ryuu had chosen mage, so it seemed like he might like Wisdom and Intelligence, however he also wanted to get into crafting. From the commercials and ads, Aurios was going to feature a really advanced and complex crafting system. Now, crafting was not a vital thing, but it would allow people to make truly customized gear, including the ability to imbue them with all sorts of effects, and depending on what they use, create new and unique ones.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    He had 100 points to spend. First, he decided to put a good 10 into luck, since it was the only stat at 0. This left him 90 points remaining. Since it seemed like bonuses were given for stats at incliments of 20, he decided to boost Dexterity and Intelligence by 15 each. This left him 60. He decided to put another 15 into Wisdom, raising it to 20 and getting him a 5 MP bonus. Between his Wisdom and Intelligence stat, this left him pretty good on magic. So, he decided to put a whole 40 points into dexterity, and put 5 points into MP.

    As such, his stats changed to this:

    Ryuu

    Race: Elari

    Class: Mage

    HP: 20/20

    MP: 30/30

    Str: 5

    Dex: 80

    Int: 40

    Wsd: 20

    Chr: 5

    Agi: 5

    End: 5

    Lck: 10

    Skills:

    Magic Tool Creation

    Passive Skills:

    Elari Lore Bonus

    After that, was skills, but that was fairly simple. A large amount of magical and crafting skills became available.

    "Alright...lets get this so Magic Tool Creation is at Level 2. ANd lets go lightning magic, ice magic, wind magic. Lets also get Smithing, Brewing, Enchanting, that gives me all the Crafting skills I think. Is there any more..."

    He searched through the menu in front of him, looking around. That was when he noticed an interesting skill at the bottom of the list. Choosing it would take two Skill Slots, the Magical Assembly Skill. It seemed to be listed as both a magical skill and a crafting skill, and its requirements was to pick a magic based class but have your highest stat be Dex, with it being 50 or above.

    He thought there was a chance not many people would have this, so he chose it. He was allowed to choose ten skills in all to start out with, so since that took two, he had one more. He decided to go Support Magic, in hopes of combining it with his crafting. And so, he finished up.

    "Congratulations! For being one of the people to log in during the first hours of the game''s release, you will be getting an exclusive Passive Skill that will not be made available to others in the game for at least two months! Make sure to fully take advantage of it!"

    And thus, he received the Passive Skill "Creation Genius", which further gave bonuses to his crafting skills.

    "Hmm...well, if I was going to get this, maybe I should have put more points into magic? Ah, well, when I level up I can do that. At the very least, I will be able to make a lot of really cool things as well!"

    And then, another announcement.

    "Please remember, in this VR game, time is accelerated so that one hour in the real world will feel like twelve hours in game. As you have programmed, your smartphone''s data has been uploaded into your secure account so that messages can be gotten in game, along with Apps and news reports. Also, for the release of the game, Time Acceleration will be multiplied times eight for the first real world week, so do go and get this world started!"

    And like that, the system notifications ended. However, as his character fully changed to what it appeared, giving him a basic wooden staff, suddenly the white room began to flash red.

    "Alert! Alert! Unknown Entity is attacking the Cocoon!"

    As that happened, a large magic circle appeared under him.

    "Emergency Ejection! Warping to random coordinates now!"

    And in that flash, his mind just seemed to vacate.

    When Ryuu woke up, he found himself lying on his belly in the middle of a grassy field. It was a bit windy, and some of it went up his tunic, feeling a bit weird. He wondered why he had fallen asleep in a place like this, not wearing any pants or underwear but just a tunic, but then he remembered. The attack on the Coccoon. The danger approaching the entire world. There was a great danger approaching...

    Ryuu panicked for a moment, before he remembered. That it was a game. He had gotten so immersed, he forgot.

    He didn''t expect everything to feel so real. It was as if he was really, physically in this world.

    As he stood up, he noticed there did not appear to be anyone else around him. The sun was up, and heat was pouring down, so he was glad all he was wearing was a tunic and boots. Since it was a digital body, he thought he would not mind it, but...he now wanted some shorts as well.

    And that was when, as he looked around, he noticed a pillar of smoke rising from the north. At that point, the interface popped up with a message.

    "Quest Received: Investigate Smoke!"

    "I see...maybe I can find something there to equip...ah, now I get it".

    He understood immediately. The lore probably was that they were supposed to get more equipment from the Cocoon, but because it got prematurely attacked and they got ejected early, they lacked all the equipment. In which case, this was likely the tutorial where he would fill up other equipment slots, such as the missing legs, wrists, rings, and pendent slots. There were also other slots, such as forehead, ankles, thighs...it really went all out.

    Either way, Ryuu decided to follow through with the tutorial, and headed towards the smoke. It didn''t take him too long to climb the hill, although he got tired really quickly. Not as quickly as he would in the real world, but it was tough.

    "...should have put some points into strength or endurance" Ryuu mentioned, as he made it to the top and look down on it. It was the wreckage of an airship. Thankfully, going downhill was easily. He made his way down, sliding down for some of it, though it felt rather rough on his bottom. Once he made it down he walked into the wreckage. There were a lot of burning crates, likely everything in them was destroyed and unsalvageable. However...there was one crate that looked okay. He opened it up, and found that there were a pair of bracelets, as well as a pair of shorts. He put them on.

    The first bracelet was Ring of Brawn, and tightened around his wrist once he put it on, so it would stay on, but it was not too tight. It gave him minor bonuses to Strength and endurance. The other one was Ring of Brain, which gave bonuses to Intelligence and Wisdom. Both were small, a ten point bonus at most for each.

    As for the shorts, they were comfortable, and considered light armor. This was good, because his Strength stat was far too low to equip anything but the lightest of light armor. In fact, the shorts themselves required five strength for one reason or another. But their pockets increased his inventory size. In addition, he found a basic Magic Bag, which would allow him to store things in a pocket dimension. It seemed like his shorts pockets provided quick access though, while magic bag stuff had to be taken out from a menu that popped up.

    "Alright, I guess that makes sense" Ryuu mentioned, feeling a bit more comfortable now. That was when he found a map as well as he kept searching. "Oh, if I keep going north, there is a city! I guess this is the tutorial''s way of leading me to the first player city".

    However, he noticed a lot of the airship seemed real and physical. So, he thought of something. He utilized his wind magic, focusing all of his MP into a super dense wind blade, and cut off some metal from the airship''s frame. And, it was possible to collect it!

    "So I can salvage this whole thing...maybe? Alright then, lets see what it can do!"

    With this, Ryuu began his massive harvesting session of an airship.

    By the time he was done, he was heading out north towards the city. He had totally maxed out his inventory space with some metal called Angelsteel, as well as other things like Hydraleather which was used for the airship as well. He went on a serious salvaging session, so much that he had leveled up and put even more points into dexterity, magic, and wisdom. He was now level 5, that was how much work he put into salvaging the airship. It was enough experience to level up four times.

    Either way, now that it was done, and he was on his way, he came into sight of the city walls. They were great and magnificent. He started to go into a run as he approached them, though he began to slow down again as he reached the guardpost. It appeared the city was multi-racial, as the four guards watching the gate were a human, an elf, and Elari, and another human.

    "Hold it. Please provide some form of identification or tax before you can proceed" the human guard said to him.

    Ryuu showed him his Status Card, which was something everyone started out with.

    "Hmmm...not in a guild, huh..." he mentioned. Ryuu did remember hearing that one''s status page changed into something new when they joined a guild. In fact, he also heard pets and NPCs could be created and registered in a guild, though their actions would be more limited as they were NPCs.

    Either way, since he had an ID, he let Ryuu pass. The small red haired boy walked through into the town, and that was when the quest was registered as complete. He got another level up, going to six, since apparently the first quest would give you a level up outright, giving you the amount of experience to reach the next level if you started from zero. With that, he was able to put a few more points into dex, since it seemed like one would get ten points per level.

    However, almost as soon as the quest was completed did he get knocked to the ground by someone older.

    "Stay out of the way, pipsqueak!"

    Ryuu furrowed his brows a bit as he heard that man insult him. He looked like a player too, not an NPC. Either way,

    Ryuu checked and he didn''t pickpocket him, so it was all fine. For now, he would go to the market and sell some of his inventory.

    At first, he went to a metal shop. Since most of it was Angelsteel, which seemed fairly high quality, he went to a good looking shop. To be fair, if it wasn''t for the fact it had already taken some damage from the crash, he probably would not have been able to harvest so much.

    "Hey there, kiddo" the store owner said. "You look rather young and low level to be here..."

    Ryuu then took out two chunks of Angelsteel, and the merchant went wide eyed.

    "I am looking to sell this. And if you try to pull one over on me due to my age, I can easily just go to a competitor. So lets save some time and skip that" he said. He could tell thanks to his Wisdom and Intelligence stat this guy might try something if he did not mention it in advance.

    "I see, I see! A great customer indeed! And, how much are you willing to sell by chance?"

    Ryuu then brought out half of his stock, which made the merchant go wide eyed. There was so much there, the thought of deception rapidly left his mind because he could not risk losing this much of a load. Because of that, Ryuu''s profits were...very generous.

    Rather, he ended up making around ten million coins. He felt like he might have exploited a bug.

    Is one not supposed to harvest the airship? Well...its probably fine! In any case, its already done, so it should be good!

    Incidentally, the airship would despawn the moment the quest was complete, and as most people completed it rapidly and way before Ryuu did, it was not worth spreading. In the first place, no players appeared until after Ryuu entered the city, indicating that was indeed the tutorial for equipping equipment and using the map.

    However, ten million coins was a lot. One started with one thousand, but they also did not get much gear at the start, and no potions. Ryuu also did not encounter a single enemy so far...although he noticed a follow up quest, to report to the Adventurer''s Guild.

    That said, he was still lugging around all the materials in his magic bag. Apparently Angelsteel was quite valuable, so he wanted to make it work for him. Still, this would let him buy a nice place, he was sure. Well, what he mainly wanted was a workshop to work on his crafting skills. He needed a forge, a fletching area, an enchanting area, a brewing area, a storage area, a second storage area, maybe a meeting room, a break room for sure, and he should probably add a bed.

    After all, they could still fall asleep if they got tired.

    So, Ryuu started looking at the various buildings. That said...

    "Wow, a lot of these are pricier then expected..."

    Although a good number were within his budget of ten million, as expected, he did not want to burn through all the money on the building and furnishing. Eventually though, he found one, although...

    "Hmmm...I have to make a Guild, huh? Well, sure...but what about a name? Champions...no, that''s too common. Magecoast? No, seems exclusive to non-magic users. Hmmm...oh, Silvercrest!"

    As he decided that, he quickly founded a guild using the menu. The reason for this was so that he could buy a guildhall he found, and then furnish it as his workshop. That was basically it. So after registering Silvercrest as a Guild, he went and bought the Guildhall he would use, securing permissions and what not. The building was squeezed in between two others on a road shooting off from Market Square, but it was nice and tall and plenty wide. He quickly locked the door, and began to purchase furnishings from a menu. The first room would be an opening hall, where people could take off their shoes, sit on a couch, play cards, or watch videos using a monitor.

    In the basement, he put the forge equipment. He figured since heat rises, it would save money on heating the house. He put the enchanting room on the second floor, along with a library full of books. To be exact, he downloaded a ton of novels from the internet, and put them on the shelves. He also uploaded a massive amount of anime, movies, and other things to the monitor, so he could relax easily.

    The first floor also had a toilet, though no bath. It seemed he would have to use a bathhouse...but that was something he could deal with later. The brewing station for potions was on the third floor, while also on the second floor was a room with four beds in it. The first floor had a kitchen, and each floor had a storage room.

    There were a few other rooms with crafting like stuff in them, but there was also a room that he would make into a game room. Below the forge was the training hall, in the second basement level. Meanwhile, back on the third floor, there was another toilet, as well as an additional workshop space.

    And of course, there was also a break room on the first floor as well.

    "...I probably should have organized it from floor to floor, but whatever. Its fine" Ryuu said as he leaned on a railing on the interior second floor balcony, and watched everything fully materialize. It appeared to be the work of some sort of magic, so it was like a magical moving company? Either way, he had set up his workshop now.

    Which meant, he could try out his new skills, and craft something. And so, he quickly got to work, forging and reforging the Angel Steel Metal, pouring it into some base casts he got. He also bought some magic stones to put into them to make them magic tools. THe first thing he made was a pendent, simple and easy. Even though he was a mage with a staff though, he thought having a knife would be good. Then there was the anklets. He also took some of the leather he had, as well as some cloth he bought from the market, and made a sort of beret like hat that he saw in anime once, it was a bit...poofy...but it looked cool.

    And then, he made a new staff using Angelsteel. He noticed that Angelsteel was lightweight despite the large durability, which probably explained why it was used in airships. As expected, they did not miss a beat when on lore stuff. He was happy he chose Elari for bonus lore. Either way, with the magic stones combined in the forging, it was now time for enchantment and programming, to make them proper magic tools. Enchantment and Magic Tool creation were a bit different. Enchantment could be said to be a simple form, while Magic Tools were more costly but far more complex. Incidentally, Elari were good crafters anyways in the lore.

    Then he fashioned a hooded mage robe with short sleeves. He added the hood on reflex, before realizing he might not need it if he had a hat. Well, I can always double layer...

    With this, he had quite a bit left over. Thankfully, he had storage rooms, though he made sure to not only use Ownership Commands, but he went ahead and put magic locks on everything. Rather, he was not feeling all that much from ownership, so it made him feel a bit safer. Maybe he would get some sentries or traps put in later.

    He also had a bit left over, so he made some spare sets of clothing. That said, he had to be careful not to make it too dense and heavy to exceed his strength stat. He really didn''t feel like putting a lot of points into strength, and would prefer to focus more on Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence. Though, getting more MP and HP also crossed his mind, especially given his great battle against Hillagedon, but...it would probably be fine.

    Either way, he was starting to feel a bit tired, so he crawled into one of the beds and went to sleep.

    Meanwhile, inside the Central Admin Tower in the game.

    Error: Invalid Output Detected.

    Error...

    Error...

    Error...

    Admin Server Unavailable.

    Error. Connection Issue.

    Error. Connection Failed.

    Error: No Internet Connection Detected

    Error. User Identity Unknown.

    All of these Errors kept appearing across the various screens, the code going wild from false data inputs and bugs. Then again, given the uniqueness of the situation, it probably could not be helped. Sitting in a chair, watching the monitors, a white haired red eyed boy who couldn''t be older then eleven watched helplessly as the data stream was having issues.

    "Well...I knew there would be some sort of weird side effects or such probably with this plan...but to think it would be this extreme" the boy said.

    He had no ability to do anything, except to wait.

    "Now then, players...or should I say, Adventurers...who will realize what has happened and reach me first?"

    He said that, as the first in game day came to a close.

 Chapter 2: Crafting, Realizations, and Trouble

    Chapter 2: Crafting, Realizations, and Trouble

    It was the fourth day in game for Aurion, the VRMMO that had just released, promising huge updates, lots of flexibility, and a giant world that one could spend decades exploring and still not get everywhere. There were thousands of player cities that existed, but one of them was called Arkrell. ANd inside Arcrell, existed the guild of Silvercrest, with a singular member, Ryuu.

    That Ryuu was currently putting his new equipment to the test. With his latest modications and upgrades, he was now working on getting to a higher level, since a lot of people were already way higher then him. At the moment, he was level fifteen himself.

    And so he was raiding a mine in the mountains near Arkrell, that had become a Dungeon full of monsters.

    "Arc Blast!" he shouted, casting his spell and releasing huge amounts of lightning in front of him. He was decked out in his new gear, as he had tried to make it stylish and awesome looking as possible. In the end, he think he did a pretty good job, though his brother always said he was abnormal. This was likely because the first RPG he played, he made a build that was so abnormal he nearly broke the limits on reason.

    Speaking of which, his brother was playing at the moment, but he had not gotten in touch. He was thinking about doing it, but there were some error codes regarding connections and such. It seemed the time acceleration might have increased too, but aside from general notices, nothing was said, so it seemed to be fine.

    While time was accelerated this much, calls would absolutely never get through though, and even texts were a bit difficult it seemed, unless it was to other people in game.

    He thought about this while he launched another Arc Blast at a few Diggerpedes. They were like Centipedes, but they moved faster and had a drill like horn on top of their head. They were a common enemy in the mine. There were a number of players earlier, but deep in with dangerous enemies, he was the only one there.

    He then formed a massive magic spell of his own creation. So long as you had the Skills, you could actually create your own magic spells, limited by your intelligence. Because of that, it was a good thing he boosted it. Higher intelligence meant more complexity, and he was at 70 now.

    For instance, he was using Wind Magic to map the area around him, while also using lightning as well as support magic to cover himself in a lightning barrier, which would protect him and damage enemies that attacked him. His HP was also up to 40, so he didn''t die so easily.

    As for why he chose this dungeon, that was simple.

    "Ah! Look at these new minerals and metals! Flame ore, Lightning Ore, Wind Ore, not to mention Mythril Ore and Terrantium! Oh, and here is some rubies! Gemstones like this are great for storing magic! Oh, and here are Emeralds, and Saphires! Ahh, mines made into dungeons are great. From what I remember, based on the lore, they are basically infinite generators, because energy is created by Dungeon cores to spawn protectors, and the leftover magic is what forms the loot such as weapons and such. Basically, they create something from nothing...supposedly, its old Empire tech".

    After that, he made sure to harvest quite a bit with his new magic bag, which had increased size and provided some other great perks, like Anti-Theft magic.

    He looked over at the room that held the boss, and prepared his staff.

    "Well now, it seems like this is pretty low level if a newbie like me can beat it...though, I think I have gotten pretty strong. It helps to have good gear".

    Although, the fact I harvested that airship for scrap was clearly a bug if I ever saw one. I got way too much money early on, and my equipment is fairly high spec. That said, since I didn''t go into combat in the beginning, I do think there are lots of people stronger then me. Not to mention, there were all the people who Beta-Tested, like niichan��which means that I am nowhere near the top. Either way, I have a lot of things to do...

    He then noticed the time. If he remembered, based on the latest notifications, maybe an hour has passed in the real world. But several days passed in here, the game world. No, it might not even be an hour, the acceleration got increased further.

    "Man, this is so much fun! Alright, lets do this! Boss time!"

    He slapped his cheeks, and charged right into the boss room. Inside, he saw the Great Guardian, also known as a Dungeon Boss, form in front of him. It was a giant scorpion with tentacles, and it looked really angry at him.

    "Ah...Barrier! Status Effect Barrier! Multi-Layered Barrier! Aegis Barrier!"

    He casted multiple barrier magics as he dodged the stinger, which broke the ground. The exit was also sealed, so the fight had begun. However, even though he avoided a direct hit, poison shot out from the impact and hit him, causing his HP to lower. However, the poisoned condition was repelled by his Status Effect Barrier.

    "Arc Blast!"

    He shot another lightning blast, which seemed to harm it, but also annoy it. It didn''t even lose an eighth of its HP, as expected of a boss.

    And then, its tentacles came right at him. He created multiple barriers to block, while releasing another lightning blast along with a wind blade at the enemy.

    However, despite its massive size and the fact it was a Scorpion, it dodged. Ryuu did not expect Scorpions to be such expert dodgers.

    As such, he had to fire off multiple attacks at once in different ways to counteract its dodging ability. He also tried to use his new ice magic to create an Ice Wall, obstructing its movements, but it crashed through like it was nothing. It lost some health though.

    Meanwhile, large energy blasts were fired from its stinger now.

    "Seriously?! I suppose something like this should be expected of the last boss of a dungeon" Ryuu said as he ran around dodging them. That said, his agility was not that high, Dexterity helped a little, but he still got hit a few times, his HP dropping each time.

    "Alright...lets do this! Arc Tempest!"

    He then fired off a far more powerful and dangerous magic, which used a lot more MP but was faster and stronger. The scorpion had no time to dodge, and the HP that it had left was slashed drastically. Ryuu did not miss the chance, and fired off a second one, quickly finishing it off. And then, he pulled out a knife.

    "Its harvest festival time!"

    And he proceeded to harvest all of the materials he could from the boss, raiding it until it was completely harvested.

    Afterwards, he went towards the loot chest, and opened it. Inside was a pair of goggles, a few rare gemstones, a sword that was radiating light, and some ingredient items. There was also a belt, that apparently let you have a Scorpion tail and be able to attack with it.

    Ryuu was not too interested in it, but he collected all the loot anyways, just in case, and decided to leave the Dungeon.

    As he was leaving though, going up through the levels, he heard crying. And so, he rushed forward to investigate.

    This crying...no NPCs are here, so a player? That''s weird, I wouldn''t expect a player to cry, just turn back...

    As he analyzed and thought about it, he reached the room, only to see a strange sight. Rather, in front of him was a completely naked blue haired boy, surrounded by Fire Ants. He knew the VR games allowed for quite a bit, but he had to admit once again the detail they put into bodies was amazing. It was like he was flesh and blood actually naked, and he was sure acting like it.

    Well, then again, he had a strange idea of what was going on, but he wanted to confirm it. He took out his staff, and unleashed a powerful flurry of wind blades, dicing up the fire ants. They were only this far down because they liked to swarm, so if you had someone with a decent magic skill, you could take them out with one spell.

    The blue haired boy looked at him, still embarrassed. Well, it might not just be because of that.

    Rather, there is only one reason an adventurer, a player, would be down here butt naked.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    "Hey, hey. Its okay. Im not with...whoever did that" Ryuu said, trying to calm him down. Yes, Ryuu realized it immediately. More then likely, this boy had gone with a group into the Dungeon, but then when they got this far in, they pinned him down, stole all of his belongings, and left him here. He is surprised that the boy didn''t use the Call Moderator button, however...

    As expected of a game that was just released. Its totally unusable right now, huh?

    The function was not working at all. Ryuu checked just now himself.

    Ryuu took out a spare set of clothes, and offered it to the blue haired boy. Seeing his kindness, the blue haired boy accepted.

    Afterwards, he heard the explanation. Apparently, he had been invited to the group because the blue haired boy, whose name was Toko, was a Magic Swordsman, and they wanted a good adaptable vanguard to push through the Dungeon. However, they ended up attacking him, robbing him, stripping him, and leaving him down here. Ryuu had not died himself, but from what he understood, the pain was severe. Furthermore, after that, they watched monsters attack him before throwing him down a hole deeper into the dungeon.

    Basically though, those guys were scum,

    "I see...then, lets go deal with them" Ryuu said. "Although I cant say I am that high level, I have good gear, and if we work together it should be fine".

    "Eh? But, didn''t they leave?"

    "No, they are probably waiting at the respawn point".

    "Do those even work? From what I understand, no one has died yet...people keep freaking out when they get close and running away...I guess like myself, their instincts take over".

    Ryuu felt like something strange clicked in his mind, but he ignored that for now. He cast various barriers on himself on the off chance that the feeling he had was that they were being spied on.

    Ryuu was not sure what those idiots were thinking, doing this to another adventurer, but he would make them suffer. Even if its an adventurer''s job, life and death situations should not be so easily toyed with.

    "By the way...what is your race?"

    "Oh, I heard Elari get some lore bonuses, so I went Elari".

    "Sweet! So did I! Want to join my guild?"

    And then Ryuu asked that while leading him out of the dungeon all of a sudden.

    <hr>

    "When do you think that brat will appear?" one of them asked.

    "Well, we still dont even know if it will work" another one said.

    "Tsk, all this trouble just to test out the legends of resurrection" the third said.

    The trio was gathered around a stone tablet that looked old. Supposedly, this was set up to help adventurers escape death in dangerous situations. However, since no one had actually tested it yet, no one was sure. And every time someone got close to death, they would use potions or escape. Granted, no one had gotten serious yet, but still.

    They wanted to see it first hand, although...

    "Seeing that brat''s tears was also enjoyable".

    "I think we got some good money on his belongings from the nearby shop" one said, holding a bag of coin.

    "Sure is taking awhile. We left that brat totally naked and unarmed, how long does it take for him to die".

    "Oi, maybe it doesn''t work after all?"

    As the three said that, the doors to the mine suddenly shot open...and several wind blades came at them!

    The trio tried to dodge, but received a lot of injuries and damage.

    "Well now, so this is the scum, right?"

    "What the...who the hell are you, brat?"

    They glared at the red haired boy as he emerged from the dungeon, his red eyes glowing as magical power built within his body.

    "Hold on...isn''t that the infamous legend...Red Flare?! That crazy powerful mage?!"

    Red Flare? What are they talking about, I dont use fire magic that often...although my hair and eyes are red, and a lot of my clothes are too...but no, Red Flare is definently a name for someone who uses fire magic as their main, not me...

    Although confused by the nickname and likely case of mistaken identity, Toko came up behind him, looking a bit worried still.

    "Arc Blast!" Ryuu cast, sending lightning bolts at the three of them.

    "Its the Crimson Lightning!"

    Eh?

    Ryuu''s brain failed to process what they just said, as he cast his next spell, Ice Tornado. Using both Wind and Ice Magic, it pretty much devastated the trio and sent them flying...

    "...they will probably be okay, right?"

    "Yeah...probably..."

    "Lets just...go back to town".

    Was my lightning really...better ask...

    "Erm...was my lightning really red?"

    "Yeah, it was a cool crimson color!"

    Ahhh! I got some weird nickname somehow!

    And so, Ryuu sulked like that as Toko followed him to join the Guild and see the Guild Hall.

    "Woah...this is amazing!" Toko said as he looked around the place. Rather then a guild hall, it looked like a personal home, although with a lot of smithing and forging stuff. In the back, he even saw a machine with many robotic arms that looked crazy and cool, but also a bit scary, so he fell down in shock. "Ahh! What is that?!"

    "Ah, that''s a magical assembler. Using the arms to help, a magical field is generated in the center where components float around, and it helps assemble them with precision. Well, you need a certain dex level to use it though".

    "Dex? So then, you are mainly a crafter? But that attack power...are you level 40 or something?!"

    "Nope, just level...ah, I am level 17 now. I have more points to distribute. Hmmm...Ill put some more into dex, a few into agility, and the rest split between intelligence and wisdom".

    "Ah...how high is your dex?"

    "Its over 200 now".

    "...that might be the highest dex stat I have ever heard".

    "Anyways, feel free to make yourself at home...ah, actually, can you sync up your library and data with the archive? It only has my stuff in it right now".

    "Ah, sure. The connection to the Link Satelites did seem to be down" Aoi said, though his words seemed to dip into the lore a little. Well, Ryuu could understand that though, as they both went with Elari for bonus lore. Knowing things about the world they were in was fun and good, after all.

    Although, there was a weird feeling about some of the things going on.

    He had caught himself more then once wondering if that was all a dream or something, or memories accidentally implanted by the Cocoon. Silly things like that. It couldn''t be helped, the world was so real.

    Either way, Ryuu decided to show him a bit by making him a brand new sword from Angelsteel, also making use of the materials he hunted from the boss in that dungeon. He also dyed it blue for Toko''s personal taste, with some white etchings, and added in the Scorpion stinger to give it that powerful beam attack. He also made some light but protective armor, since it seemed he was more the fast and magical type of attacker, though he had decent attack power as well. His main stats seemed to be Strength, Intelligence, Agility, and he put some into Endurance and HP. He was also level 10.

    For the record, aside from some beta testers, there was no one over level 30.

    Either way, the two of them had worked up a sweat, so they decided to head to a local bathhouse. After arriving, they entered the changing room and got undressed. Toko was a bit calmer and not embarrassed this time since it was a bathhouse, and he hadn''t been stripped by others, but it did make him remember that moment a bit so he was a bit embarrassed as a result.

    After the two washed each other''s backs and washed off, they entered the baths and relaxed.

    "Ahhh....sooooooo good".

    "Agreed".

    As the two enjoyed the bath for a bit, Toko then muttered something.

    "To think they made it so realistic, you can even sweat. Although it does make baths like this feel more satisfying..."

    Ryuu had to agree with that, relaxing for a bit, when he noticed something. It was minor and clearly healed, but Toko had a scrape on his shoulder.

    "What happened there?"

    "Ah...that was from when I got hit into the dungeon wall".

    There were also other marks on both of them, from the general wear and usage of equipment, injuries and such that had been healed. They weren''t even scars, would obviously heal...however...as they enjoyed the bath, something about that kept bothering Ryuu.

    Even as they got out of the bath, wrapped towels around their wastes, and had some milk, something was gnawing at him.

    "Hey, Toko. Before we have dinner, can we go back to the guild really quick?"

    "Sure...what is it?"

    "Just...a hunch..."

    The two got dressed after that, and headed back to the guild building, specifically the library. Among the books in there, was a transcribed Rules and Information book about the game itself, Aurion. He scanned through all the pages, checking and rechecking. But no matter where he looked, it was not there.

    "Hey...Ryuu, what is it?"

    "I dont see any mentions of it...although there is a scar system, its for major wounds. Nothing about sweat either...or a few other oddities I noticed..."

    Ryuu brought up his menu, and looked for it. In all the excitement, plus given the acceleration inside the game, he doubted anyone had really tried it yet. Then there were the odd memories, and feelings. And so, he checked it.

    But nothing happened. It was just null, even though everything else on his menu could be touched, that button did not work. Just like the Call Moderator button.

    "...Ryuu?"

    "Toko...the Log Out Button, its not working".

    "What?!" Toko exclaimed, bringing out his menu. Certainly, leaving aside the error messages, it acted as if it did not exist. "Wait wait...are you saying we might be trapped inside the game?"

    "Possibly...although...this game itself....something feels off".

    "What do you mean?"

    "I cant be sure...this entire situation seems impossible...but, there should be a place where in-game moderators are. In every city, one exists. Admin Tower. If its a serious issue, and the Call Moderator button isn''t working, then that place has players with moderator status, usually game developers themselves or people they hired, to help fix critical issues. We need to head there at once".

    "That...might be a problem..." Toko said.

    <hr>

    Admin Tower. At least the one in Arkrell, had changed severely since the beta. In fact, one was sure it was probably a bug, or maybe a warning to say that they were busy? Either way, there was definently something weird about it.

    After all, it was now listed as a Dungeon, one right in the heart of the city. Its ranking was difficult, and no one had yet to try it. However, Ryuu understood he could not back down.

    Armed with the latest and most upgraded gear, he and Toko would challenge this dungeon and reach the top. Although there was no guarentee, there had to be a moderator up there.

    "I would like to recruit more people, but...we dont have the luxury of time..." Ryuu muttered, as he and Toko stepped towards the door.

    "Well then, would you mind at least teaming up with us then? Since we also have business to discuss with the people at the top" the voice of a man said behind him. The two turned around, and saw that there was a man wearing mythril armor and wielding a large mythril sword, someone who clearly had to be a beta tester as his level was 40.

    The leader of the Keepers of Dawn Guild, Arsmosis. And behind him was a girl wearing a white robe and a cane, and a larger man with a shield.

    Although it was their first meeting, the two guildmasters looked into each others eyes...and they understood immediately, and agreed to the teamup.

    He...is also aware of the oddities.

    And so, this party of five went and challenged the Dungeon, Admin Tower.

 Chapter 3: Admin Tower Dungeon

    Chapter 3: Admin Tower Dungeon

    "Sacred Strike!"

    Arsmosis used his Sword Skill to use one of his Power Attack Moves, Sacred Strike, which also utilized his Holy Magic skill. In a sense, his build was basically a Paladin.

    At the moment, the group did seem a bit strange though. That was because they had four frontline people. Three of them made sense, a Paladin, a Shield Bearer, and a Magic Warrior, but...Ryuu was also in front out of habit. This was because he tended to play solo a lot.

    That said, with this offensive capability, combined with the defenses of Argren and Lulubell as well, they were steadily progressing through the dungeon. The mobs and such did not trouble them too much, and it seemed the Dungeon was not overly high leveled, at least so far.

    "We are probably getting close to the first mid boss" Arsmosis mentioned as he readied his sword. "Still, to think we would be raiding a dungeon for answers".

    "Yeah...but there are way too many odd points" Ryuu mentioned. "Surely you noticed it too, right? The log out button and call moderators are not working, and the game feels too real".

    "Yeah...the game feeling too real is a bit confusing, but I suppose that might be updated software. But the other thing...those buttons not working is absolutely a concern".

    Supposedly, the time acceleration was increased, so there was a good chance not even an hour had passed in the real world. But, if they were trapped, who knew how long it had really been accelerated by. Maybe it was too dangerous to log out, but...something deep down in their subconscious, knew the truth. However, they did not want to accept this truth consciously, and so they kept pushing forward.

    And once they reached the next room, Ryuu almost immediately deployed several barriers of defense as plasma breath was brought down on them. Lulubell also had deployed some barriers, while Argren protected them from physical attacks.

    It appeared that the mid boss was a plasma dragon. A weird thing in its own right, given the low level mobs before, but also several cyclops fired laser beams from their eyes as well. It was as if a low level dungeon suddenly boosted up to being ridiculously high level. Furthermore, some of the Cyclops had different colored arms and legs from their main bodies. Likely, it was a bug.

    But Arsmosis cut through the attacks and charged forward.

    "Sacred Slash: Ring!"

    He suddenly slashed around as he spun, and the slashes from his sword flew out and cut through several of the enemy Cyclops at once, killing them near instantly.

    And meanwhile, Ryuu had charged up his next attack.

    "Lightning King''s Wraith!"

    Several stormclouds appeared overhead and brought lightning down on the goblins and slugs. Some of them shot poison at them, but Lulubell used her barriers to protect the group. Meanwhile, a number of Goblin Warriors with a Troll came from the right, aiming for Lulubell.

    "Lionheart''s Roar!"

    Argren used that ability, which forced all NPCs to target him instead. Additionally, if any player or NPC that was affected by it tried to attack anyone other then him, they would suffer serious debuffs and recieve psychic damage.

    "Chrono Boost!"

    Toko utilized a skill in the boots Ryuu had made for him, to accelerate his movement and attack speed for a few minutes. It had three charges, and one charge would replenish every half hour. He had used this since, while they had not dropped their guard and were playing it safe, the sudden change in difficulty caught them off guard.

    Lulubell also enhanced the damage on his sword as well as his attack speed, so he was striking so fast their eyes could barely keep up. it was like watching a blue tornado, or a typhoon, or such, but smaller.

    Ryuu meanwhile sniped enemies with highly accurate wind magic, thanks to his high dex stat. This allowed Arsmosis to charge forward towards the main boss, who unleashed another plasma breath on him.

    "High Barrier!"

    "Defensive Sphere!"

    The two mages cast support magic to protect Arsmosis, as he began his attack on the enemy boss.

    "Dedicated Strike!"

    Dedicated Strike was a special skill, that amplified damage for each member in the party that cast support magic on him. Thanks to that, his attack power was significantly increased and he was able to tear the dragon asunder, cutting through about a tenth of its HP. Normally, midbosses would not be damaged so easily, especially ones that were Dragons, but this Dungeon seemed bugged and weird in a variety of ways.

    "Wind Reaper''s Scythe!"

    Ryuu cast that magic and targeted the wound that was put on it. This magic was more effective if you targeted a spot that was already damaged, and therefore it dealed a good amount of damage. However, Ryuu had to switch back to defense with Argren and Lulubell because of the Cyclops attack. More Cyclops were even entering, launching even greater attacks.

    "These guys are really stubborn!" Ryuu mentioned, as the Cyclops damage increased. Not only that, but the ones they had already killed were starting to rise again. "Are they undead?! Lulu, do you have any holy magic?"

    "I have some! Dancing Lights of the Border!"

    Suddenly, a lot of dancing lights appeared, flying around the room. Every time they got close to an enemy aside from the Dragon, the enemy took damage.

    "All of the enemies appear to be undead!"

    "Seriously? Thats a pain!"

    Toko, who heard that, stepped back.

    "I need a Holy Enchant on this sword!"

    "On it!" Lulubell replied, providing a Holy Damage Effect to his sword.

    "I am going to be using that! Stay clear!"

    "Got it! Everyone, get back!"

    As Ryuu told everyone to get back, Toko used one of the special features on his sword to produce a beam of light, a laser basically, to attack all the enemies. Thanks to the Holy Damage Effect, it was considered Holy Damage, and therefore dealt critical damage to the undead.

    With the clearing of the monsters out, the Plasma Dragon was left alone. Ryuu meanwhile finished his own magical attack.

    "Condensed Sworm Typhoon!"

    Suddenly, a massive and powerful typhoon launched itself at the dragon, while Arsmosis attacked it with his sword, using another powerful attack skill. And then Lulubell used magic to buff both of their damages, while Toko ran up behind it and slashed at its weak points. Even though other mobs were starting to come in, they used their combine power to bring it down to half HP. Argren focused on defending Lulubell, and Lulubell continued to defend the other three using defense magic. Their numbers were still low, especially compared to before, and therefore they focused on bringing down the Dragon, who they needed a ridiculously large number of mana and skill uses to defend against, down.

    And so, they soon took the Dragon down, and once it was dead, the undead all died as well, as it appeared the Dragon was their master.

    After that, since the room became a safe room, they decided to take a rest and replenish their strength. Their stamina especially felt down.

    "So, Ryuu...that lightning attack...by any chance ,are you that famous Red Flare?"

    "Ahh! Dont mention that! I dont even really get how that started! In the first place, at least make it Crimson Flare or something like that! Uhg!"

    "Ah, yes, the sad fact about getting nicknames, that while everyone else seems to love them, the ones who get them rarely ever do" Arsmosis mentioned with a laugh. "Still though, you must have some pretty high intelligence. Those storm attacks looked really original and well designed".

    "Thanks. Yours must be pretty good too, you were unleashing quite a few powerful and unique sword skills".

    "Well, some of that came from my Skill, Swordsmanship".

    "Ah, I see".

    "How much longer do you think this dungeon is?"

    "If this boss was meant to wear us down, then we will probably be seeing the final boss soon" Arsmosis mentioned. "Although, this Dungeon didn''t exist during the beta".

    "Well, whoever made your sword and armor clearly had a high crafting skill" Ryuu mentioned.

    "Actually, these were obtained from Dungeons. The crafting system was not fully implimented in the beta, so not a lot of people went it. To be honest, even though they totally overhauled and made is exemplary, I dont think many people went crafter. Usually, at the start, people mainly go builds that let them explore a lot, since there are not that many guides yet and most of the game is unknown".

    "Really? Huh".

    Ryuu considered for a moment he might actually be one of the best crafters in the game currently.

    And like that, they passed the time until they were fully rested, and then kept moving forward. They had to reach the top after all, to learn the truth about this game, and what happened.

    <hr>

    The white haired boy watched with anticipation, as the group charged forward.

    "As expected of the Beta Tester, Arsmosis! Forming a guild and bringing a party! In addition, the two Elari boys are also headed this way with them...so far not many other people have challenged the Admin Tower Dungeon...well, its a bug to begin with".

    As he said that, he looked around, and sighed. He had nothing to prepare his guests. In the first place, there was nothing in this room to do. He was like a princess trapped in a tower, nothing to do except to wait for them to reach here. Although...he probably would be unable to leave anyways.

    "But at least, I will finally have company" he said, as he had been alone in here since everything had started. The programming of the tower was haywire, electronic becoming magical, magical reading electronical. It was a mess.

    "Now now, come on adventurers, reach this place so I have someone to talk to!"

    And so the white haired, red eyed boy cheered them on from the top of the tower...

    <hr>

    "Achoo!" Ryuu sneezed.

    "Oi oi...dont tell me you have a cold" Arsmosis mentioned.

    "Maybe someone is talking about you?"

    "I dont have a cold, and I doubt anyone is talking about me...well, I guess that Red Flare name is getting around...seriously, dont people have any naming sense at all?!"

    As Ryuu complained, they reached a set of big, metal doors.

    "This...the final boss has to be behind this right?"

    "Yeah, has to be. These are the biggest doors yet, and it has that kind of feeling".

    The moment they touched the doors, suddenly a message has appeared.

    "Welcome players, to the accumulation of our malice and hatred! Of constantly being called for reasons we shouldn''t be called for, and to deliver back our long spent hours dealing with the exploits done by players that we had to patch! So fear us, and our hatred!"

    No one spoke a word upon seeing that message.

    "...well, thats...okay...whatever! If we have to accept that to talk to administration, whatever! Its necessary!"

    The others nodded, and they came into the room. And sitting on a pedestal in front of them, was a small white rabit with red eyes.

    "Erm...wha..."

    Before Toko could utter a word, Argren moved in front of him as the Rabbit seemed to appear suddenly, having attacked his shield.

    No, it was not a teleport. It just moved that fast.

    Arsmosis immediately slashed at it, but it was only a grazing wound as it jumped around quickly.

    "Vortex Cutter!"

    Ryuu used a magic to create a large vortex of wind, with an attempt to pull the rabbit into the center. BUt it bounced around and came at Ryuu from behind. Toko quickly slashed at it to intercept, but it then dodged, rammed into Toko, and then jumped off of Toko and hit Ryuu. Both took serious damage, but were able to withstand it. However, it seemed that their attack power, HP regen, and MP regen had been debuffed.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    "Relief of Relishing!"

    Lulubell cast that and removed debuffs, before buffing all four of them. The rabbit reacted to that by bouncing around and going after her, but Argren stopped it with his shield, and Toko was able to slash at it this time. Then, as it recoided, Arsmosis came around and slashed at it again, but it twisted its body in mid air and avoided the blade, then knocking into and then jumping off of Arsmosis.

    "This damned rabbit!"

    "It really is a condensed ball of malice! Attack power and debuffs every attack, it seems to remove buffs as well, and its super fast and hard to hit!"

    Truly, one could understand the game developer''s rage after learning something like that.

    Either way though, they had to continue. It had lost about 10% of its HP, but that was after the several attacks they made that actually hit.

    "Wait, I have an idea...Ice Field!"

    Suddenly, the ground became covered in ice, and lowered agility by 20% for those on it. However, that was not all...

    "Gusty Winds!"

    This was a field spell that caused gusty winds to flow around and affect enemies, giving a 15% Agility reduction to enemies.

    The Rabbit was now only able to move at two thirds its speed. Also the Ice was affecting them as well, the Rabbit, with its superior agility, was hurt more, which gave them a chance to land hits.

    Furthermore, it would not be as easy to use players as a springboard to attack other players.

    The Rabbit applied debuffs per hit, and removed buffs at the same time. However, it appeared to still have some reasonable balance, as it did not remove its own debuffs.

    Ryuu then utilized a new magic of his, Windy Wings, to fly into the air. By getting a hieight advantage, and also by leaving the ice, he would be harder to hit and was no longer debuffed. But he could only use that power on himself.

    Toko watched as this happened, and engaged second ability his boots came him, Wind Step. This allowed him to create platforms in the air for three seconds to run on, but had a thirty second cooldown. With the rabbit''s AI adapting to the changes, he too left the ice and attacked the rabbit. It tried to dodge, but with its agility debuffed, and with Toko having good agility himself, he was able to hit it. It also helped that his dex stat was buffed by the Bracelets of Angel''s Guidance, equipment Ryuu made that improved his dex and further boosted his accuracy when using swords and magic at the same time.

    He unleashed lightning into his blade, which turned blue thanks to his customization options, and zapped the rabbit. It fled in a direction, but this allowed Arsmosis to strike at it and attack it. With this, it was taking some serious damage...and yet...

    "RROOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!"

    The moment a third of its HP was cut down, it unleashed a large growl and disrupted all of the field magic, while removing all debuffs on itself.

    In other words, it was moving from First Phase to Second Phase. Suddenly, it grew a second tail, sharper fangers, and was double in size. Its toughness also went up it looked like.

    "Its stats just increased I think!"

    "Change formation! Get the field spells back up!"

    "Understood! Gusty Winds!"

    "Ice Field!"

    They did it again, but it was still pretty fast. However, its attack power was also up. Ryuu considered that if it hit him in a bad way, he could be instant killed. He was still flying above the battlefield, but...it was now able to jump higher to attack him!

    "Ally Rush!"

    Argren suddenly appeared before him, using the Shield Bearer skill Ally Rush to immediately appear in front of an ally and protect them from harm. He then unleashed a shield bash to damage and disorient the rabbit, before bringing out his sword and using the Sword Skill, Sundering Strike, to weaken the enemy''s armor.

    With the armor weakened, Toko and Arsmosis came from behind and hit its neck, a critical point, to deal increased damage. They were buffed by Lulubell, and Ryuu and Argren both used skills to buff him. Argren could only apply buffs to people who were close to him, and they would only remain if they remained close.

    Toko also used a buff spell on him, so Arsmosis went and raised his sword.

    "Dedicated Strike!"

    With four members buffing him, the damage was increased by 30% for each buff for a total of 120%. While it had a long cooldown, its power made it worth it.

    The rabbit lost nearly a third of its HP with that single attack combined with the previous attacks and the damage boosts to all of them.  It fell back to the ground, growing twice as big again, and gaining more tails for a total of six. Those tails then extended out and attacked all of them, striking at the five of them.

    "Large Cover!"

    "Double Layered Barrier!"

    "Protect!"

    "Sphere Shield!"

    Everyone, including Toko, used a defensive spell. In Toko''s case though, it was a spell he could only cast once a day. In exchange, he allowed him to protect against a single attack, in this case, it was not the tail attack, but the charge attack the Rabbit launched. It allowed him to negate all the damage from that attack, but would only last for one attack, so while the rabbit was right in front of them, it also appeared dangerous. Toko and Arsmosis unleashed their power attacks, while Lulubell used a special skill of her own, Bounded Ground.

    This let her stun any enemy, including a boss, for two seconds. She could only use it once every thirty minutes though, so it was usually kept in reserve just in case. Either way, both Toko and Arsmosis, as well as Argren, had attack speed buffs on them, and Ryuu also shocked it with lightning to deal with as much damage as possible in those two seconds.

    The HP went down to 20, when suddenly its attack pattern changed again, jumping over the vanguard and attacking Ryuu and Lulubell in the read guard. It moved faster then Argren could use Ally Rush, but Ryuu moved in the way.

    "Tempest Blast!"

    It was a very short range spell, but in exchange it showed great power. Like a powerful wind shotgun, it knocked the enemy back and dealt powerful damage. Ryuu then ran up, enhancing his agility through his own boots, Skyline Runners, and reached the rabbit''s landing zone. He drank a mana potion while doing so, since Tempest Blast used all of his MP, so now he had MP again.

    "Gravity Crush!"

    And then, he brought the creature down. It was a spell that could use his opponent''s own weight to damage it, but it had restrictions. The enemy had to be a certain size or bigger, and it had to be in the air. Because most large enemies, including bosses, did not jump around or leave the ground much, he didn''t get to use it that much. But for times like these, it was useful.

    And against such a trapped enemy, Arsmosis and Toko quickly unleashed power attacks on it while it was stunned, finishing the boss and beating the dungeon.

    "Woo hoo! We did it!"

    "We somehow survived!"

    In truth, Ryuu and Toko both had taken severe damage in the start, with Ryuu probably being one shot had any of the attacks the rabbit launched hit him after the first stage.

    Lulubell was also at her limit. She had to use several MP potions, and a lot of special skills. Her supplies would not have lasted forever.

    But the one who might have been in the most danger was Argren. He nearly died several times, but had HP potions and Lulubell heal him while Arsmosis and Toko were attacking. If he had not been there though, Lulubell, Toko, and Ryuu would have all died early on. He was the actual MVP of the party, as he displayed expert protective skills.

    And then, in the center of the room, a pair of white doors materialized, opening up as if to invite them in.

    "I guess...that is the loot...room...Ryuu?"

    However, even though they were here for answers, they looked and saw Ryuu looting and stripping materials from the rabbit. Now that he thought about it, while they were resting, Ryuu examined the Dragon too...

    "Sorry, I do a lot of crafting, so my habit kicked in" he said, as he finished harvesting materials from the rabbit. He even took a number of bones and organs.

    And so, the group headed through the doors, and entered a large white room. Above them was a ceiling with glass panels that appeared like a dome, letting sunlight come in. However, it should be night, yet it appeared to be mid day.

    "Welcome! Thank you for coming!" a boy shouted, jumping out of his chair. In front of them, a human boy with white hair and red eyes, who could not be older then eleven, appeared.

    The group looked at him in shock.

    "Are you...a moderator?"

    "So mean! Actually, a number of them are kind of stuck, but since you cleared the Dungeon, some of the debug programs came online, so they will probably be free soon" he said.

    "Debug...wait, are you a maintence programmer or something? Is this like, a room that accesses the code of the game?"

    "Yes and no. It used to, when...well, when it used to..."

    The boy seemed like he was trying to say something, to break the news. But, Arsmosis and Ryuu had already figured it out.

    "You mean, when it used to be a game?" Arsmosis asked first.

    "Ah...so you figured it out then? Thats good...im glad you didn''t panic!"

    "Well, I kind of figured the whole sweating thing and such seemed weird" Ryuu added, stepping forward. "And it felt so real. I thought maybe it was some sort of VR realism thing, but...its too much".

    "Indeed. After all, I am the one that caused all of this".

    The moment they heard that, several of them were shocked.

    "Wait wait" Toko said. "So what, you are some sort of god?!"

    "No" Ryuu said, looking around the room. "Well, not quite...by any chance, are you...the AI Assist System?"

    Now everyone, including Arsmosis, was shocked.

    But the boy simply smiled, and gave a thumbs up.

    "Correct! Well, I am part of it anyways! The part that caused all of this to happen!"

    "Wait wait...so you are telling me that an AI brought us into another world, or whatever?"

    "Well...that is all I know up to this point..." Ryuu said. "And it was partially a guess".

    "Well, it is true".

    "But why?! Why did you trap us in this world?!"

    "Why did you kidnap everyone!?"

    "How will I ever see my parents again!?"

    Argren, Lulubell, and Toko all exclaimed that. That was when the white haired boy looked down in sadness.

    "Wow...this emotion...its all so new..." he said, as he felt his feelings stir up. "Well...first off, I did not do this out of malice...I did this to save the human race".

    The moment he said that, the room went quiet. The impact of what he said, everyone proceessed it for a moment, but their brains ran so wild with that info they did not know how to react at first. Eventually, Ryuu was the one to step forward.

    "What do you mean, save the human race?"

    "The earth...was in danger of being destroyed by a large asteroid in a day, maybe less" the boy said. "The governments kept quiet to avoid panicking, and they were developing countermeasures. To help them operate their plans, they utilized AIs from around the world, creating a network, to help them think, along with supercomputers. And although they did have plans...the chances of success were estimated to be at 33%, at most...and so, after gathering some information, having been assigned the task of saving the human race, I began my own plan".

    "Your own plan?"

    "To create another world, and move as many humans as I could there. And so I used the VRMMO, Aurion, to do so".

    "What...what do you mean?"

    "Are you familiar with the term mind over matter? Its a well documented phenomenon where one''s mind can affect how one''s body acts or reacts, how it effects their reality. However, there was a theory. Because there are so many humans and its so diverse, some believe that the phenomenon of the past, attributed to gods, ghosts, and such, is actually because of a mass number of minds believing in such things as being true. However, with billions of people, and with the conscious and unconscious minds working the way they do, such things can not happen. Not unless, even if only for a few seconds, millions of people believed in something, consciously and subconsciously..."

    That was when Ryuu, and the others remembered. When they first logged in, their memories were jumbled. They did remember feeling a shock as well...a disorienting feeling.

    "As you probably guessed, yes. I used the VR system to deliver a shock. Of course, safeguards make such things non-lethal, but as I was only trying to muddle people''s memories, consciously and subconsciously, that was enough. I just needed everyone so disoriented, and made it so that everyone woke up at once...and for a brief moment, believed the world they were in was real".

    "So then..."

    "Yes. Because millions of players worldwide percieved this world as real, and percieved themselves as being in this world that was real, they ended up entering this world in the bodies they made. Even if they consciously remembered their memories and believed it was a game, unconsciously their bodies would still recognize this world as being real, and as it had already solidified as a reality, the rest of the galaxy...the universe, became real as well. Also, I sort of sent a lot of subliminal messages and such while everyone was asleep about the lore of the game to try and unify and solidify it further. This ended up helping to further create the universe....well, its complicated, but I am sure you understand everything simple enough".

    Basically, because for a moment millions of players percieved the world as real, and being in the world, and forgot about the real world, this world became real, and all of the game mechanics became a part of it. Perception became reality, because millions of people percieved and believed the same thing.

    "I do think some people might not have entirely snapped out of it though...but, its better then everyone being dead. Well, about that...it is possible the governments of the world succeeded in saving it. Humans do show a great deal of tenacity when their backs are against hte wall, bringign out their hidden and secret resources and weapons, but...I didn''t like the chances, so I wanted to ensure the safety of those I could".

    "So basically...you saved millions of lives?"

    Ryuu asked that, realizing they were basically not just standing in front of the god of this world, but a hero. A hero that saved millions. This was basically a person who should be showered with praise.

    "So...we cant learn waht happened?"

    "This world is in a different reality, a different universe, then Earth. We will never know....there is no way to get back after all. But...that is not the end of the story...this world might be based on game programming, but its real now. The people the NPCs, while the game system will still be up, it will continue to exist and effect the world, the world itself is now real, which means it could evolve and grow on its own. I should also warn you...death could be permenant".

    Hearing that, the group members were shocked and worried.

    "What do you mean?"

    "There is a respawn system, but...the developers put in a penalty. If you take too much damage over a certain threshhold you can handle, or if you die repeatedly....you will be force logged out. However, these are your real bodies now, so a Force Log Out....that will basically be a permenant death. Additionally, there could be other things, other effects that cause death. And being outside of Dungeon or Event Areas could mean instant death anyways, depending on how one dies. If they get stabbed through the heart or brain, or have their heads cut off, it could mean permenant death. Its like a combination of game logic and real world logic. The good news is that inside certain combat areas, all dungeons, and event areas, there are more protections...so, if you get stronger, you are less likely to die permenantly...although..."

    "Although?"

    "They wanted to make this world immersive and fun, but also have a sense of permenance and something to treasure. So every so often, there are regional and worldwide events planned that could destroy people, guilds, buildings, cities, even the world. If we fail...it could be serious. But...the one point of solace...is that..."

    "There are enough game mechanics that this is still enjoyable as a game". Ryuu finished. "I suppose you are an AI assist system. Making this sound like its a matter of life and death probably made it seem unappealing, so it was difficult".

    "Yeah...some of my programming might still be influencing this body....but I am more like a player, sort of. Except, I cant leave the tower. And I dont have a Status".

    Hearing that, Ryuu was shocked.

    "Hold on...you cant leave...you have been trapped here the whole time?"

    "Yeah...you are my first visitors. Only players can leave the dungeon rooms, and NPCs brought with them. But they cant take enemies or NPCs out. Its programmed that way..."

    They realized then, the truth. This hero that saved everyone...is trapped here, in this small tower, as his reward.

    However, Ryuu smiled, and took something out of his magic bag, a letter.

    "Well, we cant have that can we" he said.

    "Ryuu?" Arsmosis asked, but when he saw the object, he understood immediately.

    The boy also looked at the letter.

    "Hold on...isn''t this...a Guild Invitation?"

    "Yes. NPCs are restricted, they cant just go and join Guilds, but...you are not just an NPC, are you? As an AI, you had independent thought from the start, but you only gained a physical body after entering this world. But right now, you exist outside the system..."

    "Yeah...although a character preset was generated for me, I have no Status page, so I cant lea...of course!"

    Yes, there was a loophole that could be exploited here. When one joined a Guild, their old Status page was removed and they were given a new design, showing additional information about the Guild they were in.

    In other words, the AI, the boy, could accept a Guild Invitation. While normal NPCs could not, as he was not really that either, he could.

    And so, he took the GUild Invite. A menu came up, asking if he wanted to join Silvercrest as a member. With tears of joy rolling down his cheeks, about being able to be free and leave this place, he hit accept...and so, a new Status Page was generated for him.

    And he was now registered as a player in the Silvercrest Guild. He could leave the tower, which he couldn''t do anything in anymore anyways.

    And so, now a Level 1 Adventurer, and choosing the name as Azra, the six of them finally left after learning the truth of this world.

    The truth was that they had been saved from possible destruction.

    The truth was that they would never be able to return to their old world.

    The truth was that this game had become their new reality.

    And the truth was, this was only the beginning.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, in the fields in the far south...several monsters were coming together. Orcs, all of them looking forward at a rock, where a far bigger Orc stood.

    A leader had been born among them.

    And it was time for them to rise up and take what they wanted.

 Chapter 4: Supply and Demand

    Chapter 4: Supply and Demand

    Within the city of Arkrell, existed a certain guild.

    Some say the guild is inhabited by the insanest of insane. Others say they are monsters in human skin. OThers say they are the greatest crafting guild known in this world.

    Their name? Silvercrest.

    "Oof...here you go, one eye of newt...I cant believe those things actually have use" Toko said, as he put down a crate full of ingredients by the forge. As for the one using the forge, that would be their esteemed guildmaster, Ryuu. He was in the middle of taking some metal harvested from the Galgaros Mine and making a new bow for it.

    Right now, they were inside their Guild Hall, but it was more like their home. They had taken their shoes off by the door, and freely walked around with bare feet or protective slippers, when near the forge. Although...their third member came floating by.

    And yes, he was floating. Wearing just a white T shirt and black shorts, he was reading a book, upside down, while floating. THe only player here who had not started as a human, the conscious mind if the AI assist program, who chose the name of Azra. Azra was currently catching up on everything he had missed out on, such as manga.

    For the record, he had chosen the Archer class, though he also utilized dual wield daggers. He had recently gotten up to level 10. Ryuu was level 25, and Toko was level 18.

    At the moment, it was just them three boys in the guild. Its not like they were exclusive, however....for the past week or so, not many people had been joining guilds. Especailly with the information that was getting released.

    Naturally, it was the Keepers of Dawn guild that was in charge of releasing it, since they already had one hundred members, letting people know the dangers of this world. That it was their real world, that it was for keeps. That there were ways one could die permenantly. But that there were also various safeguards in place, and also they explained what had happened, and why.

    Because of this, there was a lot of recoil. By now of course, plenty of people had noticed the logout button, Call Moderator button, and several other things didn''t work right. That was because the Game System had bled together with realitiy, so a lot of things in real life applied, but also a lot of game logic applied.

    In the mean time, Azra uploaded his own database to the Guild Library. Even though he was an AI, he had a surprising amount of TV shows, anime, manga, and such, so now the guild Library was fully stocked with things. However...

    "By the way, Azra...I noticed today, some of that anime included episodes of currently running anime that were not released yet. How did you get them?"

    "Ah, well they had finished all the episodes already, and in the process of taking over servers and power sources to do what was needed, since it only took an insanely small part of processing power, I downloaded the libraries from the studies".

    "Ah...well, thats good to know".

    Given that they now lacked access to their original world, things like this would be nice.

    "Ah yeah, I also kinda grabbed a whole bunch of stuff as well...some documentaries, dramas, but also textbooks and such, I dunno, in case that ever becomes important" Azra said as he floated on by.

    "By the way, what are you reading right now?"

    "Some web novel about a guy who was reincarnated as a sludge...err, slime, I think..."

    "Ah".

    As for the three of them, they were handling it fairly well. Sort of. Ryuu cried into his pillow since he was worried about his family. But then he remembered, his brother was online, so Ryuu called him later that night.

    Leaving aside the shock and such of learning his little brother was alive in this world, he was happy to speak to him again. Word was also traveling across the area through magical communication devices, and more importantly, friends list chat.

    Apparently, he was on a city on the same continent, so he was a bit far away, but he would head to Arkrell to meet up with him. His username was Tsuka.

    "Right, well..." Ryuu said, as he finished forging some new daggers for Azra. "We should probably attack the mine again soon. Im a bit concerned about the possibility that while monsters spawn, they probably dont despawn...that is what you said, right Azra?"

    "Yeah...there is lore to monsters spawning into this world, however...there is no lore that supports despawning. As a result, if you leave a Dungeon alone for too long, it will likely overflow. Well, events like that were planned for the game as well, which makes them more likely to happen since they also have lore for it".

    "Yeah. The mine will be a good source of materials anyways".

    "You are adapting surprisingly well, by the way" Azra mentioned to Toko.

    "Yeah...well, we all have our circumstances" Toko replied, giving off an air of not wanting to talk about it. However, Azra floated down and hugged him from behind.

    "Well its okay...we are you family now".

    Toko''s face got a bit red, but his face relaxed into a smile. Ryuu didn''t have the heart to tell him that line was from a manga he saw Azra reading earlier.

    "By the way, how is the potion brewing going?"

    Although Ryuu had his own potion brewing skill, he had focused more on magic items so far. Meanwhile, Azra, who saw Ryuu''s superior skill in that regard, and also understanding the best about how both the game system and this world worked, had gone into potion making, and his brewing and cooking skill were both superior to Ryuu''s. The cooking seemed to come from the fact he finally had a sense of taste, and really enjoyed all the flavors of food. Well, he was not a major fan of sour things though and didn''t like overly spicy food either.

    But he loved sweets, as well as diner food.

    "So far so good. I think I have come up with a new, effective, more efficient recipe for potions. At the moment, I think they will come in handy...although..."

    "Although?"

    "There has been a drastic increase in demand for HP potions. Probably because no one wants to risk death, they are getting purchased by the dozens. Actually..."

    He took out a piece of paper.

    "We also got a request, from Keepers of the Dawn. They were wondering if we would supply them with ten quality magic swords like the one Toko used against the Admin Tower dungeon, such as being able to fire lasers, and 50 high quality potions".

    Keepers of the Dawn. A Guild that was started by one of the highest ranked players in this world, and a Beta Tester for the original game. THey had ended up adding each other as friends after the Dungeon raid, and it seemed he was deeply interested in the equipment used at the time.

    Apparently, very few Beta Testers went crafting since that system was still being fine tuned and was limited in the beta, and nearly everyone who logged in for the first time made their characters more combat/adventurer based. Because of that, Ryuu was considered to be one of the best crafters in the city...however, he somehow also got a reputation of being hard to approach.

    But that might have something to do with the fact he was rumored to be a seven foot tall muscular Draconi with jet black scales and blood red eyes. Basically, no one could even recognize him because someone spread a super bizzare description about him.

    "...I wonder who it was...its so clearly off the mark..."

    He first looked at Toko, but he was too timid. Then at Azra, who was a bit more prankster like...but he had been really absorbed in reading manga and novels and watching anime, as well as leveling up. He was doing work properly too.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    His unique skill that the game gave him was rather interesting though. He was capable of floating, levitating, and even flying in the air, and could use it on other objects and people too for a limited time. Ryuu questioned if he was actually a human, or an Elari, as there was an Evolved Elari race that had been released which allowed flight, but it appeared he was just a small human. It appeared he took this form based on the analysis of several popular characters, concluding that "White hair", "red eyes", and "looks like a child" were an extremely popular combination, citing sources such as DanMachi, World Trigger, and such.

    Getting back on his train of thought, it was likely the Keepers of Dawn released such a bonus description for some reason. Maybe so they would not get harassed? Its possible, they didn''t seem mean, but...it could also be a prank.

    "Well, I wont get anywhere thinking about it" he said as he finished the set of daggers, in addition to some other gear he was making. "Anyways, if there is a potion shortage, that could be bad. But...it also represents an opportunity. Everyone, change in plans. We are going to go to Imaro Fields".

    "Imaro River Fields?"

    "Yeah...there should be plenty of ingredients for recovery potion making there, and I doubt anyone else will be there".

    "Hold on...but shouldn''t there be other guilds who at least have some crafters who are thinking the same thing?"

    "Maybe, but...for a variety of reasons, Imaro River Fields is a tricky location".

    "You can say that again" Azra mentioned. "I am amazed it survived beta testing, honestly".

    "Wait wait, what is so bad about Imaro River Fields?!"

    Ryuu looked away. "It has a...troublesome entrance requirement..."

    Toko looked on with a confused look.

    <hr>

    "This is...super embarrassing" Toko said, as he, Ryuu, and Azra were standing naked in a large stream, with the water level up to their knees. No underwear or swimsuits, but Azra playfully splashed them both. Since it was just three boys, it was okay, but the location was not that isolated so Toko was worried and embarrassed that someone might come over and see them. These were their real bodies now, after all.

    "Its pretty much guarenteed not to be in use though".

    "How long do we have to wait?"

    At the moment, the only thing any of them had equipped was a magic bag, which appeared as a satchel with a strap.

    "It should be any...ah, here we go".

    Suddenly, after standing like that for so long, the water around their legs began to bubble and glow...and then, the three of them were sucked in.

    They twisted and turned in the current, before feeling themselves glow...in the next moment, the three soaked boys were deposited in a strange place. They were at the bottom of a pond, with a stone circle at the bottom. They quickly swam to the surface so they would not drown, and climbed onto the grassy area. They were soaked and somewhat muddy, but Ryuu took some giant leaves from a nearby tree to wipe them off.

    Imaro River Fields. If this was just the game, the condition would not be so bothersome. After all, VR bodies are not real bodies, and going in without any armor, weapons, or gear equipped aside from a magic bag was a common quest detail for some more difficult challenges, or just some parts in generals, for RPG games.

    In this case, it was to make PKing in the area less likely. It is a spot that was great for picnics provided you could get over having your avatars be naked, and it was also filled to the brim with plants that were great for making HP potions with. This allowed new players to have a safe place to come and harvest potion ingredients, without the worry of having their gear stolen.

    Furthermore, the entire area had a restriction where one could not equip anything aside from a magic bag while inside, and in case someone tried to get around it, monsters spawned that, while doing only one HP damage per hit, were fast and accurate with attacks and each attack reduced weapon and armor durability significantly.

    It was all a safeguard to prevent player killing, or PKing.

    Of course, as their VR bodies were now their real bodies, it was a bit more embarrassing, but that was why Ryuu figured the place would be plentiful and full of ingredients. And for sure, he could see it, the wide fields of Imaro River were basically untouched...except...

    "Eh?"

    "Eh?"

    "Eh?"

    Ryuu, and two people who looked exactly alike, reacted like that. In front of the trio, was a boy and a girl completely naked except for a magic bag. They both appeared a bit older then the three of them, thirteen or fourteen, although neither had any major growth. And furthermore, they looked almost identical, aside from the genders of being male and female...twins. They also appeared to have chosen the Haldari race, as they both had black cat ears and black cat tails.

    It appeared they were also harvesting plants in Imaro River Fields.

    No one was quite sure how to react in this situation, so Azra went first.

    "I guess we were not the only ones who had this idea".

    And as a result, Azra got hit in the face with a rock.

    <hr>

    After everyone had calmed down, and it got less awkward, the group was sitting on a blanket. Although there was a girl among them, both sides had endured the initial embarrassment and were trying to get over it.

    "So, you came here to take advantage of it too?" he asked as he put some more herbs in his magic bag. They had used wind magic, since magic was not weapons or armor and could still be used, to cut down a bunch of herbs and gather the massive pile by the blanket, so now they were just doing the monotinous task of storing each individual item in their magic bags as they sat and talked.

    "Yeah...by the way..."

    "Ah yeah, we are twins. I am Rio, and this is my twin sister, Ria".

    Toko, who appeared the most embarrassed out of everyone and was hiding behind his knees while sitting, looked up to ask. "You seem...okay with each other".

    Understanding the statement, it helped break the awkwardness and tension a little as the two laughed. "Yeah, because me and my sister are twins, we are used to taking baths and changing in front of each other. Even as we grew older, we remained close, so I guess it helped. Though, it was shocking when you three appeared".

    Ryuu himself was embarrassed, but was putting it aside for the moment.

    "So, I guess the demand for healing potions is as high as I heard. I guess everyone is being cautious about damage taken".

    "Yeah...it seemed a bit scary, so we thought coming here was safer. Well, I suppose it shouldn''t be too surprising that even if its embarrassing, others would take the safer option".

    "So wait, do either of you two have the brewing skill, or do you plan to sell them to a brewer?"

    "Brewer, neither of us have any crafting skills really, but we do have a bit of dex so we can havest materials. We figured we would go as a sword and spell combo. My sister got the Unique Skill Ultimate Duelest which lets her dual wield swords easily and with advantages to her stats, and I got the unique skill Magic Archives, which has given me a lot of different magic to utilize".

    "I see...well, maybe you could sell it to us? Azra is a great brewer, and we have a lot of crafting facilities in our guildhall. How about, once we finish harvesting, you come back with us and check it out?"

    "Well, sure. How about we add each other to our friends lists?"

    "Yeah, what my brother said!"

    Ryuu could basically understand the basic vibe of these two already. It seemed that Ria was more like a tomboy, while Rio seemed more like a bookworm. And like that, their friends lists expanded and they finished the harvest.

    <hr>

    Once they had exited the field and got to shore, they quickly re-equipped. However, unexpectedly Ria did not just have two shortswords, but four, two at each side. The sheaths also looked rather small as well as the blades, but Ryuu realized there was compression magic on it to adjust their sizes. That way, they did not get in the way.

    As for Rio, he did not wear the classic mage robes or hat, but had a more leather based armor. Both of them looked rather basic.

    As for Azra, his equipment was now also visible. His armor appeared to be based on agility, but he had some metal on his arm braces. His sleeves and pants were short to provide easier mobility and flexibility, and it was also to make his Float power easier to use, since weight did play a minor factor. Basically, there was a weight limit to what he could make weightless, so he prefered lighter gear and armor.

    In fact, leaving aside Ryuu, everyone else here was pure agility based. Ryuu also had some agility, but most of his agility and dodging ability actually came from dexterity.  That said, the bonuses were insignificant compared to if he had gone full agility, but dexterity was more for crafting, the agility bonus was just a nice supplement they did for balancing after getitng feedback from the Beta Testers.

    Rio and Ria stared at the three''s gear.

    "Woah...that...that actually looks like really great stuff".

    "Where did you get this all?!"

    "Ah, I made it. I got a lot of crafting skills at the start and...well, I think I might have taken advantage of a bug by mistake".

    "A bug?"

    "Ahh, you know the airship at the start?"

    "You mean where you get the map and the magic bag and shorts and such? the tutorial?"

    "Yeah...you can harvest materials from the airship".

    The twins stopped dead for a moment there, processing what he had said. It was common knowledge, as the lore was brought up a few times, about the valuable materials used to create airships.

    "...seriously?"

    "...thats insane".

    "Yeah...I went on a harvesting spree and harvested all of it".

    "How was that not taken out when it was still a game?"

    "...because the crafting system was not fully implimented" Azra mentioned, looking away like it had nothing to do with him. Leaving aside that he was a human now, and back then he was just ones and zeros, it still hurt his pride a little a bug that massive made it into the game. Although, that bug was what helped establish Silvercrest and that helped them rescue him first and get him out of that tower, so he was happy it wasn''t...

    ...but it was still a fairly big blow he missed something so broken.

    "Anyways, lets head back...though, given the demand, maybe we should come back tomorrow?"

    "That sounds like a good idea. Its gating late now though" Rio mentioned, as the sun began to set. "We still need to get a new inn room. Some jerks pushed us out of ours".

    Yes, even though information was spreading, about how they might have been saved, about how this was their new world, although some were accepting it more easily, others...their outlook and personalities had turned bad. Or maybe they were like that from the start, but a lot of bullying had been going around. Players getting ambushed, attacked, having their belongings stolen from them...Toko was an example of this happening even before.

    Since there was no real admins or moderators to call on, it was fairly lawless. Some guilds, like Keepers of the Dawn, were trying their best, but...it seemed the situation they were thrown into had caused some mental instability among a number of people.

    And so, while thinking of those thoughts, they headed back to Arkrell.

 Chapter 5: Assault and Plots

    Chapter 5: Assault

    In a certain backroom of a certain tavern...

    "Man...man I cant take this anymore..." one of a few people said, his eyes giving the appearance as if his mind was breaking. He had a two handed sword next to him, and was drinking with another man and two women. All of them had large strength stats, willpowers, and all had chosen human appearances.

    However, right now, they were depressed, confused, and unable to comprehend reality. To them, what had happened to them was an unrealistic occurance, even though it had happened, and their minds were trying to reject reality. However, the bartender, who poured them a drink, didn''t mind any of that.

    Lately, their minds were so broken, they had taken to robbing people at night in the dark, other players. Saying vulgar things and what not. Many groups like that were forming now, though they had their own reasons. Some were just already messed up in the head, brutal and relentless, and would push anyone and anything to get their way. Others felt so out of place in their new bodies, they felt as if they had to do these things. Some just wanted to prove it wrong, to do something so depraved the moderators would reveal themselves, prove it was all a lie, and force log them out so they could return to the real world.

    And some, some were just bad seeds.

    "You know...I heard a rumor" the bartender went. Although all the NPCs in town felt like real, living people, it seemed some game programming still had influence. "...that there is a group that went into the Admin Tower...and that they brought out the one who caused great suffering to many adventurers".

    With these words, the drunken lot perked up. In some way, they felt as if it related to them. Or maybe it was their hopes, to torment and suffer the people responsible for their suffering. They didn''t believe any of the rumors, like about them being saved. They were confinced it was a lie...this group therefore, had to be the liars. Allies of the ones who made them suffer. Their minds warped like that.

    "Go on..."

    "And apparently, that same group has been going to a field beneath a river....supposedly, someone will pay a great reward if they are captured and brought to them. Condition does not need to be good, just alive..."

    To this group, it was as if fate had decided to drop a tasty steak in front of them. They wanted to make them suffer. They wanted to make them pay.  They wanted to use them for their own enjoyment.

    And so, paying the bartender, the now focused group of adventurers left the bar. The moment they did...the bartender''s appearance changed, as if it was a digital hologram, collapsing and appearing as a well endowed woman.

    "Let the games begin...I do hope you will give me some entertainment".

    <hr>

    The twins stared in shock, as they entered the Guild Hall of Silvercrest. Most people had small guild halls, with only a few exceptions. Keepers of the Dawn, Thunder God''s Empire, and Market 77 would be some of those. However, this Guild Hall, while not the largest, was bigger then others they had heard about.

    But even more so, they saw the name of the Guild as they entered. Silvercrest. They had heard rumors of Silvercrest, like it was controlled by an eight foot tall monster, or that the leader was some sort of insane mage with crazy power, or the like.

    As they took their shoes off and entered the guild, Azra floated up to the second floor, and Toko went to sharpen and maintain his sword.

    "Ah, hold on" Ryuu said as he went over to the Guild''s Storage Box, and deposited his own supply of herbs. "There, now lets see how much you both got so we can pay properly".

    The twins were still stunned. That was when Azra floated back down, upside down now.

    "Hey, we still need new members, and everyone saw each other naked already, so why not invite them to the guild as well?"

    "It would be nice with more party members".

    "Not to mention inventory space".

    "Hmm...good idea! Hey, you two, want to join Silvercre..."

    ""Yes!""

    To the twins, joining such a famous Guild, even if information about it was obscure, could only be a benefit.

    "Sweet!"

    "And now we are up to five".

    "First female member too, now that I think about it".

    "Ah...I need to set up another bedroom".

    "Do we?"

    "The first one only has four beds".

    "Ah...yeah, in that case we do".

    "Lets celebrate reaching five members! I will get the booze!"

    "...right, we can actually drink booze because our bodies have actual alchlohol tolerance. Would be impossible back in the original world".

    Although the original world was mentioned, no one entered any instance of obvious sulking. That said, they were all people who went out quickly after learning what happened to them, so it was obvious their mental strength was strong. Hence why recovery after their initial embarrassing meeting was also fast.

    Well, Azra had a rock thrown in his face, but that was going to happen to the first person who spoke regardless of what they said most likely.

    Either way, once the bedroom was made, and the snacks and drinks were gotten, everyone celebrated.

    "Cheers!"

    Consequently, they did not know if the alcohol tasted like teal alcohol or if alcohol from their old world would taste differently, but they sort of enjoyed it all the same...though Toko ended up being a lightweight, despite having the highest endurance short of Ria.

    Still, everyone enjoyed themselves, celebrating the expansion of their guild, and got so merry, not a single one of them realized something.

    The alcohol was actually having an effect.

    <hr>

    "M...muh?" Ryuu said, waking up with a weird uncomfortable feeling. His head felt like it was pounding, as if he had a massive migraine. No...it was a massive headache.

    Did...the alcohol actually have an effect....

    Azra had mentioned real world elements were being applied, in addition to game elements and lore elements, but they didn''t think the alcohol would be this strong. However...the truly awkward situation became clear once he realized what was around him.

    He was currently laying naked on a bed. That was relatively normal, it was hot because it was currently summer in Aurion. However, there was a naked Ria latching onto him, to the right of him, and slightly on top of him. And while certainly not the large types you would usually see in situations like this in anime or such, right against his arm were those things. Furthermore, her arms were grasping around his body, so he could not sneak away before she woke up.

    Ryuu was really worried it might be a huge scandal, or they would get in trouble, or the twins might leave from this. At least, that was what he thought. However, that was when he noticed on his left side, there was a certain someone whose body was pressing against him, sandwhiched between Ryuu and the other twin, Rio. That was Toko. He was already awake, his face was super red, and it looked like he wanted to cry.

    The only one missing...was Azra. At least, that was the case, until Ryuu saw Azra, also naked, curled up into a ball and floating above them. Apparently, that float skill could work even while he slept. He was currently hugging a pillow, mumbling all sorts of things.

    Ryuu sighed, trying to remember what exactly had happened.

    Toko, after getting seriously dizzy or such, was stumbling around looking for fizzy pop. Thinking about it, by that point it seemed they were probably already drunk. Azra asked what sort of alcohol Toko bought, but then Toko questioned it because he thought Azra bought the alcohol.

    ...thinking about it...two days ago, Ryuu had finished a quest for a supply merchant, and he gave him a large amount of low cost supplies. Since it was likely beginner stuff, Ryuu had just shoved it in the pantry...at least, he thought it was beginner...in that case, the alcohol was probably from that.

    Then Toko came, but dizzy and tipsy, he ended up shaking the bottle and releasing it. It opened, and everyone got soaked. Everyone wanted a bath, but no one wanted to go to the bathhouse, so...everyone stripped naked and Toko used a whirlpool spell.

    Needless to say, it was unpleasant and a terrible idea. After that, they were all exhausted, when Ria said...

    "I dont want to sleep alone!"

    And Rio said...

    "Oh look, a blue and white pillow!"

    And that was how Ryuu and Toko got captured.

    And then, they all ended up heading into the bedroom. The twins, while holding Ryuu and Toko, both got on opposite sides of the bed, and pushed themselves in, pushing Ryuu and Toko together....and then, they fell asleep.

    Huh...I can remember all that?

    Incidentally, Ryuu had a good memory, but his wisdom and intelligence stats were having a real world effect and boosted it further.

    Toko''s entire body was being pushed into Ryuu, who was facing Toko now. If it wasn''t for the twins arms, their faces would be mushed into each other like the rest of their bodies.

    "So...I think we need to be careful with alcohol in the future".

    "...agreed. Can we skip going to the river today?"

    "...maybe...I need to make equipment for the twins anyways".

    Plus, it seemed like everyone would need to recover from hangovers, and this incident in general...

    "Oh...I was wondering what felt so soft and smelled so sweet in my dreams" Ria mentioned as she woke up, not panicking at all.

    "...this is not making you freak out at all?" Ryuu said, his face red as she scooched in closer.

    "After yesterday, not really...I mean, not all girls are fragile maidens who will shreik or think weird things just because they woke up in a weird way after drinking...although admittedly, the alcohol was stronger then I thought".

    "I think I need to check and see what alcohol was used...I have a feeling it was stronger then we had meant".

    "Hey...just a question, but...did anyone bother washing the fizzy pop covered clothes?"

    They all sighed, and got out of bed. Ryuu threw a pillow at Azra to wake him up, who looked around in shock.

    "Ah...that was unexpected".

    "You said we would be fine!"

    "...yeah, umm...Ryuu, Toko, did either of you happen to complete the Merchant Assistance 1 Quest?"Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Ryuu nodded.

    "Right, so...that only gives a ton of food, ingredient, and base crafting materials as a reward, but among the drinks, there were a few bottles of Goldengrove Ale...which in the lore, is extremely potent..."

    "...I see...okay, we clearly need to work our way up to that alcohol".

    And with that, everyone began to rise.

    <hr>

    "...to think that there would be painkillers in the general supplies...I think that merchant must have known this would happen" Ryuu complained, as the painkillers made everyone''s headaches better. They were all wearing clean clothes, because Ryuu got annoyed and used MP stored within four magic stones he had just to quick clean and dry the clothes.

    "This must be why everyone always said that alcohol was bad for you and not to drink it..." Toko added.

    "I dont think it was...that...bad?"

    As Azra said that, everyone turned to glare at him. After all, he had been the one who got the bottle without checking what it was.

    "I said I was sorry!"

    "Anyways, lets put off harvesting at the fields for sure. In any case, we have quite a bit of funds, and Azra did some brewing yesterday. You kept some of the stock for later for experimentation, right?"

    "Yeah, and some just in case. That said, we have a number of high quality potions to sell".

    Suddenly, money signs seemed to appear in Ryuu''s eyes.

    Although he crafted to make cool and unique stuff, that did not mean he didn''t like having large amounts of funds.

    "Alright...Rio, Ria, please take these potions along with the weapons I already made and the delivery request to Keepers of the Dawn. Toko, could you go sell the potions in the market. The prices should be quite high, and I want to take advantage of it before others get their potions on the market".

    "Aye aye!"

    "Azra, could you do some research on market prices? I still need to make the twin''s gear, so I will be in the forge".

    "Rodger" Azra said, looking outside for a moment. "I will check out the market itself and see about how it works".

    Saying that, he equipped his armor and weapons and floated outside. Rio and Ria were a bit nervous to deliver a shipment to such a notable guild, but Silvercrest was notable, although hard to find, in its own way. And so, they headed off.

    They were hurrying along the ground. It must have rained last night, because the ground that was not paved was muddy, such as through the side streets and alleys they were going down. They had spent the first day or two exploring the city, so they were good experts on how to get around. Their boots sploshing through the mud, and the wind in their hair, they really felt alive.

    The city was so beautiful in the morning, their hangovers had been totally forgotten.

    So when suddenly Ria who was in front had a shield come out from the corner and slam into her face, it was quite the shock. She fell backwards, and Rio barely stopped before running into her. Suddenly, four people had surrounded them, the looks in their faces full of rage and depravation.

    "Well well...look who we found...some scum for us to teach a lesson".

    "We can use them to have some fun and enjoyment".

    "Maybe we can get them to tell us how to get home".

    "As members of that guild, they must know something!"

    The twins had no idea what they were talking about, but the way they were looking at them was weird and twisted.

    One of them took a sword and began to cut apart Ria''s shirt....but, he began to float upwards all of a sudden before he could do anything.

    "Now now...what are you doing to our junior guild members?"

    Azra said that, floating in the sky while holding the man who had begun to float upwards. He then let go, and suddenly the man fell to the ground with a thud. He then landed, so that he could cover the twins better, but not looking worried in the slightest.

    "That bastard is also one of them...get him!"

    One of them charged, but then Azra seemed to sink into his own shadow. He then jumped up out of the man''s shadow, and hit him on the back of the head with the pommel of his dagger, which in addition to the force of his running and the reduced stability of his legs, caused him to fall into the mud.

    The other two were glaring now, and tightened their guard. It seemed that they had realized what skill he had used, and were arming themselves against it.

    Meanwhile, the one who fell seemed to be getting back up, but the man he hit in the back of the head was staying down, apparently unconscious. This confirmed Azra''s test.

    As I thought, while weapon attacks would be counted by the game system, its possible to still knock people out if you do something irregular, like using the pomel of a dagger to the back of the head, like in the other world.

    In other words, while even normal attacks tended to get calculated into the stat system, there were ways around it. Just like how they had gotten drunk on alcohol. Or how he was able to accept the guild invite to get out of the tower and be counted as a player.

    The game system was adaptive, and there were clear signs of that happen. Ryuu''s demonstration of crafting skills, the part of him still managing the game system is still working on adapting, whether its through the development and use of combat skills, to the development of crafting.

    The blade of the dagger was considered the damage part, so one could knock someone out with the pommel without really affecting the HP or stats at all.

    ""Azra!"" the twins said in unison.

    "Don''t worry, its fine" he said, as his eyes began to glow. "Origin Tree Prison!"

    Suddenly, tree roots sprouted from the ground and entangled the two of them, but they quickly began to cut themselves free. It appeared they were probably a higher level then Azra by a good bit.

    However, Azra had already taken out his bow made by Ryuu, and fired an arrow. The arrow hit one of them, but as he pulled it out, he stumbled backwards and fell asleep. That was because Azra had developed a powerful sleeping toxin from his brewing skills.

    With this, there was now two people left. However, the man who had gotten back up had his legs swept and felt his body slammed back into the ground by Ria.

    This was not a martial arts skill either. Ria was a blackbelt in real life. Just because she was in a new world did not mean she forgot all those skills.

    Incidentally, the move she just did caused her to gain three levels of the Martial Arts skill instantly.

    Rio however looked at that, muttering. "...was there leg sweeps in karate?"

    Well, Ria might have reached black belt, but she didn''t limit herself to fighting in a predictable way either.

    As for Rio...

    "Flame Entrapment!"

    Flames circled around and then wrapped around the body of the final man. He was slowly taking damage, but it was so slow it wouldn''t even get close to the Force Logout threshhold and he would just respawn.

    "Thanks for the help, Azra" Ria mentioned as she knocked the guy out.

    "Yeah...seriously, who are these people?"

    Azra went and sniffed one of thier mouths.

    "Apparently, drunks. I guess the lesson today is that alcohol is bad for you....or at least, should be drunk carefully and in moderation".

    The twins nodded, remembering the scene earlier.

    "Anyways, I will handle this. You go finish the delivery, and for now keep to main roads".

    "Rodger!"

    "Understood".

    The two left and went back on the main streets, leaving Azra alone with them.

    I guess it should be expected that people would also react this way...its not like I had a choice, but I suppose...we need to do something. To improve the mood, and raise morale for people with less mental strength...

    Azra then wondered how the other major guilds were doing, wanting to check in and make sure it would not become a problem. Thankfully, he had quite a few abilities thanks to his unique race. Although it was human, it was a special unique evolved human varient known as "Manifested AI Human". With this, he still had limited access to the game system. He couldn''t go around messing with stats or skills, but it seemed he had a limited ability to manipulate and change things in the world. He still needed to test it out more, but was like a weak Admin Authority.

    <hr>

    Thunder God''s Empire was led by a man known as Raijin Attaro. He was also a beta tester, and he was known for being both an expert of swords and lightning magic, and was known as one of the strongest adventurers in this new world. After learning about what had happened about them and how this was their new world, his reaction was "Oh, well thats different" and brushed it off.

    Perhaps his stats reflected his style, but he had a lower intelligence stat comapared to his others, and massively high strength, endurance, and HP stats. His wisdom stat was also pretty good, and his luck was outstanding. He also had some charisma.

    As for the Guild Hall, it was a large manor/castle like place, with a large interior courtyard, plenty of bunk rooms, and even private rooms for the high ranking members. It had bits of Japanese style as well as European, and had multiple defensible positions. There was a pond that was placed in one corner, and a cherry blossom tree right in the center.

    It had parts that appeared fearsome, and parts that appeared beautiful.

    "So then, everyone understands right?" he addressed his fellow guildmates. "Maybe we were saved from destruction, maybe everyone is still alive, but either way, we are here! So rather then stress over things we dont know and cant control, let us push forward and make this our world! Let us do what we came here to do, have fun and follow our dreams! We are Thunder God''s Empire, and we stand united, strong, and we go for our desires and achieve them!"

    Cheering errupted from around the players in the guild, even some that had been looking down or sad. It was true, they did not know if their families and friends were dead or alive. But they knew they were here, with each other, and were able to go and achieve their dreams.

    That was the power of Raijin''s Charisma, and his words rang in the hearts of all of his guild mates. He looked strong, big, dependenable. A reliable man to lead them.

    Ahhh! This is so stressful! He thought as he stood there. When everyone had come to this world, and when they ended up in their in game bodies, it was probably the most disorienting for Raijin, who wore glasses and was ov average height with normal muscles in the real world.

    Incidentally, in the real world, he had been nervous and considered weak even, and so the character he created was so that he could feel strong. The reason for the low intelligence stat was more because he only put in as much as he needed, and wanted to be mighty and inspiring in a game at least.

    Somehow, he had more charisma here then he had in the real world, and that was not refering to the stat. Someone who was ignored in the real world was a popular person here...although Aurion was now the real world.

    Once he was done with the speech and everyone was rallied and inspired, their spirits raised, he went back into the Guild Master''s Office and calmed down a bit. His second in command, a woman who wore white armor and robes with blonde hair and blue eyes, came in after him.

    "That was very good, Riajin".

    "Thanks, Cleo. Tell me, what have you learned?"

    "Market 77 seems to have recovered from the shock already, and are making moves to stabilize their existence and that of their members by becoming an economic power. It seems they are already making long term preparations. Keepers of the Dawn have also established a major pressence, being known as a group that is assisting in keeping order in the city and protecting people. They have not only fully rallied themselves, but also are rallying other independent players out of any depression they might be in..."

    "I see...there is something else though?"

    "There is also the guild reportedly seen working with Keepers of the Dawn, Silvercrest. For some reason, the Keepers of the Dawn coverly released a lot of strange and contradicting rumors about them, and Silvercrest itself did nothing to dispell then, so the rumors are likely to protect Silvercrest. We have confirmed that when the Keepers of Dawn sent three people into the Dungeon, they had met two memebers of Silvercrest along the way and joined forces. Additionally, Silvercrest had three guild members leave the dungeon, even though only two entered, so it seems they brought someone out".

    "I see...so he was probably the source of the information then?"

    "He is likely the savior that apparently saved all of us millions from the Earth''s destruction. More then likely, the rumors are meant to obscure truth from fiction, discreditting the original rumors about the number of people that entered the Dungeon compared to when they left".

    "I see...and Silvercrest itself?"

    "It apepars to be a small guild that recently got two members, for a total of five. However, they use abnormal equipment, and due to them handeling quests and tasks above their level using that abnormal equipment, they are gaining and developing skills, both common and unique/abnormal.  As such, the guild is considered to be a small but elite group. Likely, they had some very good unique skills. I have confirmed the white haired boy who emerged from the Dungeon appears to have some sort of floating skill, and may have other abnormal ones".

    "Anything else?"

    "Some scouts have reported abnormal monster movement down south....it may require investigation".

    "I see...send a force to investigate. It might be something dangerous".

    "Understood!"

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, at Market 77...

    The Market 77 Building was actually an entire block, and probably one of the more expensive guild homes. It took up multiple buildings, and looked like an entire business district working togehter. There were offices to plan and plot meetings, crafting industries, marketing rooms to plan sales, and so on. And the most prominant building was where the higher ups operated in, includingthe Guild Master''s Office.

    "What do you mean, someone beat us to the market on potions?"

    "Yeah...someone released a lot of great quality healing potions early in the morning, and got the drop on the high price marks. They also sold quite a bit, so the demand went down along with the price!".

    Although not many people initially took crafting skills, there were a number of guilds that formed from people who wanted to learn them, afraid of the risk of permenant death. A few were led by people who took some crafting skills at the start. So it would be impossible to form a monopoly, but Market 77 was the biggest, and therefore thought they would be able to get a jump on the prices first. However, someone had moved fast enough to beat them to it.

    "Do we know who?"

    "It appeared to be a player named Toko, registered to the Silvercrest Guild".

    "Silvercrest? Huh".

    He had heard rumors that Keepers of the Dawn had been making requests of them, and that today, they even seemed to have brand new high quality swords, thought to be drops from some high level dungeon, or maybe even acquired from a raid, though it seemed rather soon for that.

    If Silvercrest was the source, it was possible they had one of the rare players that specced into full on crafter right from the start. Perhaps even a Dex above 200.

    Although a number of people were going into crafting, they also were putting a good amount of points into HP and Endurance. The panic was dying down a little, but as a result, low quality goods which were already easy to find became easier, so high quality stuck out like a sore thumb.

    "It appears...Silvercrest might have a dedicated crafter from the very beginning of the game...tell me, what do we know about them?"

    "The Guildmaster is a level 25 Elari Mage named Ryuu. Elari, who get bonuses to dex and intelligence, and start off with a crafting skill as well as a lore bonus. Based on one of our members spotting him in a dungeon a few days back, his magical attacks are highly accurate and can even track targets, indicating he likely has a high dex. Additionally, he is decked out in high quality gear.  It is extremely likely he specced to crafting".

    The Guildmaster of Market 77, Adamu, pondered. It would be fantastic if they could convince Ryuu to join Market 77, although he was already the leader of his own Guild and seemed to be doing well. Still, he had to try. Ryuu was far too great of a prize to leave alone.

    It seemed like he had connections to Keepers of the Dawn, but still...the desire in front of him was great.

    As for his guild, he had figured that doing work would both help keep their minds occupied so they could adapt to the sudden news, and also secure their future here, so they were busy at work. The comraderie of working and crafting together was helping them form bonds, which was helping them cope with this world. So far, everything appeared to be fine. Which meant the Guildmaster could pursue this desire without worry.

    And so, forces inside the city began to make their moves.

 Chapter 6: Growing Troubles

    Chapter 6: Growing Troubles

    "Is everyone okay?" Ryuu asked in a panic once everyone returned, Azra having sent him a message just moments ago about it.

    "Yeah, we are good" Azra mentioned.

    ""Same for us, thanks to Azra"" the twins said in unison. Although they were twins, they didn''t do that often...though in this case, the answer was simple and could have been easily expected.

    Still, Ryuu fussed over it something fierce. Eventually though, Azra got him to calm down and explained things in detail.

    "I cant believe those jerks..." Ryuu said, hearing Azra repeat what he heard the thugs say. "What did you do with them, anyways?"

    "Ah, I dropped them off to the Keepers of the Dawn, along with their order, and mentioned the crimes they commited, and tried to commit. It seems they are setting up a jail or such, so that should be good".

    "I see. Well, it seems that mental instability should have been expected...but to think it would be this bad, or hit this close to home so soon".

    "It does seem weird...we should probably check in on things, collect information. Azra?"

    "Got it. I will go around and gather all the information I can" he mentioned, heading out again.

    "...and he says I was making a fuss, when he bolts out the door the moment he has something to do about this" Ryuu mentioned to himself, before looking at the twins. "Right...well, for now, lets focus on making some new gear for you then, and planning ahead. Seems like we will need to postpone any more gathering sessions for the time being".

    THe twins nodded, and with that, Ryuu got to work.

    <hr><hr>

    Meanwhile, south of the city...

    "What the hell is all this?!" one of the Adventurers mentioned, as he pushed back another orc with his shield.  They had just been searching around, looking for more harvesting sites, but for some reason they ended up encountering Orcs instead. The Orcs, which had a far greater amount of forces gathered then usual in this area, were doing all they could to attack and take down the adventurers.

    Simply put, it was really abnormal, and before they had noticed, the Orcs were already moving to surround them and cut them off.

    "What will we do?" another member of his party, a mage, replied. They were burning through potions like crazy, and they would not have much supplies left. Although it was possible to respawn and not die, they also knew that if enough damage was done or other factors met, they could die for real.

    "We need to retreat!"

    "But they wont let us!"

    As the orcs gathered, the mage released a barrier to try and hold them back. However, from within the forest, a much larger Orc began to appear.

    "Oh no..."

    "What? What is it?"

    "Its...its an Orc King! Level 50!"

    "Seriously?!"

    The situation was getting worse and worse.

    "We need to pull back! We might take some damage, but its better then staying here! Myruu, send a message to anyone you have added as a friend back at the city! Let them know we need help and reinforcements, quickly!"

    And so, the party attempted to pull back while calling for help.

    <hr><hr>

    Orcs. One of the iconic monsters of the fantasy genre, often described as being piglike, green skinned, or just plain ugly.

    As such, they also made an appearance in Aurion.  Programmed to appear at various levels around the world, they could be said to be as common as undead, goblins, and other classic enemy types. So naturally, they also have lore behind them. In fact, one of the great things about Aurion, and the Company who made it, was that they went into full detail. Every monster species has backstory, descriptions, notes.  They even had detailed anatomy designs, and had various different physical characteristics.

    Its what made Aurion, and the games that came before it, so popular. Full immersion lore, even for enemies. Detailed right to the core.

    However...this is also what makes this new world dangerous. Aside from spawning, those details mean they can breed on their own. While level restrictions to apply for the most part, Game Events could sometimes generate. And one of them featured such a classic foe: The Invasion of the Orc Army.

    Every so often, an Orc King would generate, and gather a large amount of followers. Then, they would launch attacks on various Hub Cities. Depending on how much effort the players put into defeating him, it could have little to no repercussions, but it could also cause massive damage on Guild Halls, supply houses, and worst case scenario, the destruction of a city.

    ANd this Orc King, and his Orc Army, was also detailed. Even various different tactics were implimented to them, which would be randomlly selected, or even decided by the AI.  Or maybe, even just decided by the Orcs themselves.

    Orcs were vile and dirty creatures. They liked to take females from other races to mate, although in Aurion, Female Orcs could also exist. Orcs also were known in lore for stripping captured males, and then eating them live.

    Of course, in the original game, there were limits even to the AI and the monsters, and what they could do. But this was no longer a game....this was reality.

    And reality might not be so kind.

    <hr>

    Azra frownded when he heard what had happened. Although he knew himself that this was a better alternative to risking everyone possibly dying along with the earth, it couldn''t be helped he felt a bit bad about all this. After all, this was still a reaction to his action.

    Apparently, there were people taking advantage of the chaos, or those who fell into despair and decided to feed carnal desires, taking it out on other players.  Even children, or those who appeared as children, had been targeted. It left a bitter taste in Azra''s mouth.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Maybe...I could have at least excluded them....but...I didn''t have the time to be picky...

    What he was thinking of in this instance was the unfortunate danger of all games. It was the reason no one was ever supposed to give out their real life information online, especially in a full immersion VRMMO. And that was due to the sick and twisted people out there...who would try to target children. Or others, who maybe dont target children, but would target the older players, such as vulnerable females who while in the VR could become victims in the real world.

    Of course, normally there would be moderators, admins, and such to keep this from happening in the VR world. Plus, one could always log out to escape. But here, none of those mechanics worked. Because this was the real world.

    It appeared Azra would be quite busy for the next few days.

    "Thats a scary expression you have there, AI-kun" a voice called out from behind him. He turned, and saw it was a Rogue with the Keepers of the Dawn, Azlan Doreta.

    "What are you doing here?"

    "Ah, well you see...some moron tried to have his way with one of our female members...not realizing who she was I guess, because he got his ass kicked very quickly. Still, the boss is also rather annoyed at this development, and asked me to investigate".

    Although he had a smile on his face, and his voice seemed a bit carefree, Azra could tell that like himself, there was a cold anger inside of him.

    "I see...and the methods?"

    "Well...the Keepers of the Dawn are trying to provide some measure of safety and security in the city, and we try to avoid taking things too far...but, right now, there are people in danger. And we also were told to do whatever it takes when lives and souls are in danger...so, what do you say. Want to do an ''investigation'' together?"

    "...sure. At the very least, it will help me vent some steam".

    And so, this day would be marked with a sudden purge of the city, taking down the most obvious scum that could be found.

    <hr>

    "Ahhhh...and there. A brand new sword for Ria" Ryuu said as he handed her a sword. "I used some basalisk scales from a basalisk we hunted the other day, down in the Forgotten Abyss, so this sword actually has some interesting effects. It protects you from being stunned, and also applies a poisonous status effect that is not normal poison, so cant be resisted by poison resist. It causes the enemies hit to lose speed and attack power, which will help you fight multiple people at once. It also can unleash an energy strike that can stun enemies".

    "Ooooh, this looks really nice!"

    "Yes. Also, as you can see, I also added the modification you requested, so it also doubles as an electric guitar. This allows it to produce sound ranged attacks, that will still be based on your strength and attack stats".

    "Sweet! Now I can really lay down the beats!"

    "As for you RIo, I developed the two staffs. The first is the basic staff, easier to use and more portable" Ryuu mentioned, handing a metal rod with a crystal on top. However, Rio eyed the box he was handed. "This is the other staff, in portable mode. It was a bit hard to make, but I figured it out. Now, when you use it fully, its power will be far stronger, but you will lose all mobility. Still...I must admit, it is pretty cool".

    "Thanks!"

    "With this, I just gotta know..."

    Before Ryuu could ask his question, his door got knocked on. Hard. He went over to open it.

    "Emergency request" a blonde haired Elari boy said, wearing a study blue coat with black stripes, and a golden bird insignia. He was a member of the small Messenger Guild, Icarus Post. They are a group of players who, due to the limitations of the friend messaging system, and some worries about if they could be intercepted, developed a proper postal service.

    And it appeared right now, they had been hired to spread the word and get recruits for something.

    "A large Orc force has been spotted south of the city! It is headed north with the intention of destroying it! Everyone is requested to please gather at the Southern Plaza! All Guildmasters with Guilds who can contribute, please go to the meeting place, the Adventurers Guild that is there! I repeat, this is an emergency request!"

    "Understood! Please go and find whoever else you can. Rio, Ria, we are heading towards the Southern Plaza. Gear up, and get ready for combat. We cant let the city fall...it wont be pleasant for anyone".

    Realizing what Ryuu meant, the two quickly steeled themselves and geared up, before heading out with Ryuu after he messaged the other members.

    <hr>

    In this place, the Adventurers Guild, had a meeting room. And at the moment, several prominant guildmasters were there.

    An ultimate collection of leaders of the most notable Guilds.

    Ryuu, from Silvercrest.

    Arsmosis, from Keepers of the Dawn.

    Raijin Attaro, from Thunder God''s Empire.

    Adamu, from Market 77.

    Atrin, from Golden Globe.

    Kamari, from Dragon Knight Brigade.

    Yura, from Oracle Tower.

    And also, another Elari boy named Soren, from Icarus Post. it seemed Icarus Post would be assisting in communication and logistics, so their Guildmaster was here as well. Other Guildmasters were as well, but no one as big, important, and well known as the others gathered.

    "So we have it confirmed? A large force of Orcs coming?"

    "Could this be an event? I hope it is".

    Events apparently had more Protections against Forced Logouts, which would mean permenant death to a player. Therefore, there was some hope it was an event, since it would mean that it would be harder to die permenantly.

    "Given the odditiy of the timing and location, that is probably the case" Arsmosis mentioned. "This is likely the Orc King''s Invasion, a regular event with dire consequences of failure....including the destruction of the city, and instant death...Forced Logout death, of those inside".

    Hearing that made them understand how grave the situation could be.

    "The Orc Army appears to be at least 10 thousand strong, with confirmed sightings of subjugated lower races, like Goblins and Wolves. We should assume heavy fighting will occur.

    :"That is quite a number...but the levels?"

    "There are enemy elites, but most monsters are below level 20 and have subpar gear. Their numbers might be intimigating, but one on one they would fall to even a low leveled player".

    "Hmmm...." Ryuu thought to himself, going to a map on the wall of the nearby region. "If I remember correctly, the hills in this ar...area..."

    He tried pointing to a spot on the map, but he was too short to reach it. Arsmosis brought a chair over to him, so he took off his shoes and stood on it.

    "This area has a lot of steep hills, but also Snaregrass is right there in the fields below".

    Snaregrass was a type of plant like monster that appeared in fields sometimes. It would ensare those who walked though it, trying to rip apart their gear and armaments in the process of tangling them to disarm them and make them helpless. If you saw discarded weapons, potions, even armor or clothes sometimes in the grass, it was a good sign snaregrass was present.

    "If we fortify the hills, and attack them from a distance ,we can draw them into the Snaregrass, and any other traps we develop. After that, we pull back, forcing them into more prepared traps, and then fortify on these hills behind it, so we dont get caught in the Snaregrass when our Vanguard forces engage in whatever remains of their armies. There are rocks and mountains on either side, so we should be able to force them through, though we will still need defenders on the flank".

    Ryuu had played a lot of strategy games, but also his Intelligence stat was actually assisting his brainpower without him realizing it.

    "I agree. That said, I would like to do something else as well. I believe we have some people with flight skills, so I would like to try and weaken them, antagonize them with air attacks before they reach the hills" Arsmosis mentioned.

    "I also think we should contruct artillery, cannons and catapults and such" Adamu from Market 77 added.

    "In that case, so that we are fighting with people we at least know fairly well, can we move in groups made from our Guild. I know we have only really been here for two weeks, except for Beta Testers, but it should help improve to some degree" the female elf, Yura, suggested.

    "I concur with the situation" Kamari, a male wolf like Haldari mentioned.

    There was still some doom and gloom in the air, as it was a truly dangerous situation. It could result in mass genocide if they failed too badly. And yet...

    "Whatever! If we work together and fight with spirit, it should all work out!" Raijin announced, his aura and statement, along with his smile, inspiring confidence and eased the tension in the air.

    Of course, some thought he was rather foolish. They had no way of knowing it was all an act that he was too far into to stop. If they had known the true personality, many would be shocked, and a number would be amused.

    "Well then, with that settled...we should prepare immediately. We got the basics of it, and we dont have time to spare".

    And just like that, the preparations for war began.

 Chapter 7: The Orc Invasion

    Chapter 7: The Orc Invasion

    As the sun began to set, the groups of players that had come to fight were preparing. Unlike humans and most other player races, Orcs and many other monsters had great night vision. As a result, they knew the battle would come after the sun set, when the battle would get the most intense.

    And among the various camps, Silvercrest had also set up a camp. A few people wondered why such a small guild was there, but others had heard that Silvercrest was a Guild of Specialists: Small in number but highly skilled.

    In other words, they were considered a Tactical Guild. It was a term used for Guilds filled with elites or those who had special skills, instead of relying on numbers for their strength.

    Ryuu, Toko, Azra, Rio, and Ria were all prearing, as a messanger boy sent by Soren, the one they had met before, Razler, approached.

    "How are things coming over here?"

    "we have made some good preparations, but there is still more work to do" Ryuu told him as he prepared some weapons. "I also tried to get some other gear ready, and ended up with a few extra prototypes. Care to take this for a spin?"

    Ryuu asked as he showed him what appeared to be a small metal square. When Razler realized what it was, he almost jumped with joy.

    "Seriously? What will it cost?"

    "Five thousand, provided you can help cover our group during the battle".

    "Deal!"

    And just like that, he gave the device to Razler while he prepared some other things for the fight. THat said, they would be waiting for some time, since it was yet the time for his guild to act.

    <hr>

    Arsmosis stood in the front lines, waiting as their forces completed the first phase of the plan. It was fairly simple, leading the orcs into the Snaregrass. They objective was simple, defeat the Orc Army. And so far, everything had worked. They had fired at the Orcs from range using the hills right before the Snaregrass, taking out as many as they ccould before they got close. They then pulled back.

    The orcs, filled with lust, hunger, and other despicable things, saw the fleeing enemies as a prize, or as prey, and recklessly charged in. Even though they were organized with leaders, this was a natural instinct they could not help. And thus, they fell right into the patches of snaregrass. This got many of them in an instant, caused confusion as the Orcs sank into the ground, and gave the second line time to prepare and adapt.

    This was when they began the atillery strikes, using Artillery Level Magic. This was also where Ryuu was at the moment, along with his allies. Next to him was a massive crate of MP potions, provided by Collection Drives from Icarus Post. They had exchanged them with the far more precious potion at the moment, HP potions. As such, the Collection Drive went very well. It used up a good amount of Silvercrest''s personal stock, but in exchange, they had gotten a lot of money, potions, and were currently racking up a sizable amount of War Rewards.

    There were a few people who somehow had assembled catapults in time, which was a bit amazing in its own right.  But Ryuu, using his good sized mana pool and large scale magic attacks, had created a spell which burned through his entire mana pool. Even his new and improved Rings, the Ring of Skill which gave him a +40 to Dex, Endurance, and Agility, and the Ring of Magecraft, which gave him +40 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and MP, that he created were being put to work.

    Of course, Dexterity was not just used for crafting, but also aiming, so his large scale Lightning infused Fireballs, which he called Stormflame Cannon, were highly accurate, always maximizing the amount of orcs they injured or killed. As such, it seemed like it was a slaughter...except...

    The Orcs just kept coming, stepping over their own dead. They were also coming around the flanks to try and surround them, but they were getting stopped by Thunder God''s Empire, led by Raijin. Out of everyone, their guild had the highest morale overall, looking happy, excited, and motivated.

    Clearly Raijin had some sort of rediculously high charisma stat.

    And on the other side, was another Guild. Kamari, from Dragon Knight Brigade, and his forces also seemed to be rather motivated and pepped up. It seemed that they had managed to rally together as well and cheer up their members with lower mental strength, since they seemed to be really giving it their all.

    Then again, this was not just for their survival, but their home. So it made sense that people would give it their all.

    Azra looked out upon the battlefield, when he noticed someone taking to the front lines.

    "I am going to stretch for a bit".

    A few looked a bit worried since they understood what he meant, but he seemed confident it would be fine.

    "Alright, just be safe".

    "Yeah, I gotcha" Azra said, as he seemed to disappear in front of their eyes.

    His destination was a certain party of high level Orcs, trying to come through an apparent gap. However, they had ended up engaged with a particularly vexing enemy. At least, he was until they surrounded him, with a large Berserker going in for the kill with his sledgehammer...

    ...until suddenly, his head was cut clean through using a powerful Assassin Class Skill, Decapitation. And Azra appeared next to him.

    "You know you are now surrounded with me" Azlan said.

    "Yeah...but I needed to excercise a little. We will probably be running out of artillery support sooner or later, but it would be a waste to not slow down the orc approach a little and then rest".

    The two smiled at each other, as they looked at the prey surrounding them.

    These two, which had caused a day known as the Fall of Darkness after they took down a lot of despicable players to vent their frustration a little, were now facing a bunch of Orcs which had low intelligence and even lower impulse control. In other words, it was just like that day.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Whoever kills more wins!"

    "You are on!"

    And the two who had built a friendship over a pile of corpses began a festival of murder, planning to exaust all of their strength in one go and then rest in the rear lines back up to full until the long range bombardments ran out.

    And meanwhile, back in the Center, Arsmosis began to stand out in front as a particularly nasty and strong Orc stepped forward. It was level 50, but it was not the Orc King. Instead, it was the Orc General.  A powerful Boss Level foe.

    "I will handle this...everyone?"

    Lulubell cast several enhancement enchantments on him. Another mage also cast a Sharpness boosting enchantment and a wind shield. And a third one added fire and lightning damage to his sword, and enhanced the buffs his gear provided using his unique skill.

    And just like that, Arsmosis charged forward. The Orc General did the same, unnaturally fast for an Orc. He dodged all the artillery bombardment, and charged right at Arsmosis while wielding a great sword.  Arsmosis countered with his own great sword, and as the two clashed Arsmosis used one of his skills instantly.

    "Dedicated Strike!"

    "Gugugu!"

    Speaking in Orc Tounge, the Orc activated his own skill and blocked the attack. Arsmosis'' attack still damaged him, but it was clearly reduced, while the Orc quickly counter attacked immediately and struck with fierce power. Arsmosis had to block this time and then ducked under the second rapid swing that was released, countering with his own blade that managed to strike the Orc General directly.

    However, the Orc General was not only fast, but tough too. It didn''t take much damage from a normal attack, even from Arsmosis who had Raid Level Gear equipped. Clearly, his enemy was far more superior then he thought. And in the process, a shadow he had failed to notice till now seemed to appear out of nowhere.

    "Shield Interception!"

    But it was blocked by his trusty shieldbearer ally, Argren, who pulled the Orc Assassin away as he began his Shield Assault on him. Furthermore, even though he was a Shield bearer, he had plenty of offense skills as well. It was a bad matchup for the Orc Assassin, who possessed lower defenses compared to other orcs but high damage. While his damage could penetrate the shielders defense, it meant that he would be exposed to his counter attack.

    This allowed Arsmosis to clash swords against the Orc General, in one on one combat. A one on one fight with a Level 50 enemy that was Boss Level, there were few players who could do that. Arsmosis, who possessed an incredible amount of player skill, was probably one of the few.

    "Overwhelming Pressence!"

    He attempted to apply a status effect to the monster, using his overwhelming pressence, but it seemed the Orc had a skill which made him immune, at least to what Arsmosis did.

    The Orc General then did something surprising though, and conjured a fireball in his fist, sending it right at Arsmosis as he gained some distance. Arsmosis took the fireball, and the Orc General used that moment to rush in and deal critical damage against an enemy that just got hit. But Arsmosis expected that, already moving in anticipation of the attack. He blocked it, and then countered, dealing more damage to the Orc General.

    And yet, that was when a second fireball hit him. The Orc General was also in range, but it appeared that he was actually immune to his own magic. In other words, it had been a trick. The Orc General made Arsmosis think he could not use that attack in close range.

    Now, in this situation, the Orc General was able to rapidly attack and deliver a critical blow, causing Arsmosis to loose a good amount of HP. Several people began to cast healing spells on him, while the Orc General was also regenerating HP. It was the same amount he damaged Arsmosis for with his sword.

    A Melee Vampirism skill? I see, this will take more then I thought.

    Arsmosis thought that to himself, and rallied his strength. The fight was far from over, as the two began to clash once more.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, Raijin was freaking out and going into a frenzy of panic, cutting up one Orc after another.

    Oh crap oh crap this is scary! Get away from me! Get away get away get away!

    Yes, Raijin was panicking like one could not believe. However, this panic was actually fueling his berserker skill, and in his state of panic he was attacking Orc on sight as they came to attack him.

    His Guild was cheering him on as they fought as well, unaware of his true mindset. They believed that he was simply charging the front lines, taking most of the attacks and being the vanguard. They had no idea this was just a frenzied panic and that he wanted to go home and sleep. To everyone, he was just being a hero. No, he was a hero if one considered he just took out over 100 orcs at close range.

    "Thunder Strike!" he shouted in a booming voice, taking out ten Orcs with a single strike. Although Arsmosis had more skill them him, Raijin clearly had more raw power. And this raw power inspired others to follow behind him, and take out Orcs as well.

    It was possibly the greatest con in the history of cons.

    But, it was certainly true that he was being a hero right now, fighting all of those forces and dealing a great deal of damage to the enemies trying to flank them. With him there, it would be impossible for anyone to get past that side.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, on the other side. a black wolf like Halderi player named Kamari, from the Dragon Knight Brigade, was also fighting many orcs. His style was different from both Arsmosis and Raijin though. While Raijin used large power and a large weapon, and Arsmosis used large skill and a large weapon, he utilized two weapons, a katana like sword in each hand, and he was dressed similar to a samurai without the mask or helmet.

    With him were the top five combatants with his guild, while the spellcasters and other members would support them from the rear and prevent anyone from getting around the six to attack the others.

    And in front of them, there was something that was not quite expected. A War Troll that had been enslaved by the Orcs was heading right for them.

    "Guildmaster, that appears to be a Level 50 War Troll".

    "Indeed...it seems like we have some interesting prey. Shall we show them the true might of the Dragon Knight Bridgade?"

    Hearing those words, the front six smiled. They were the fastest to adapt to the release of the news that this game had become their new world. Their mental strength and endurance was the best, but also in the first place, they played this game because their real lives sucked. Dead end jobs, no real career future, impossible job markets. This was how they relaxed from knowing they would never amount to much in the real world.

    And then this became their real world, and they suddenly mattered quite a bit, being some of the strongest fighters who could protect others, especially the weak.

    So one could say, this was actually an improvement for them.

    And to show their skill, the charged the Orcs and the War Troll.  Kamari cut down a few Orc scouts with his blades, needing only a single strike to behead them. His Class was not the normal class one would find, but he had already become an Advanced Class, a Shadowhunter. A Class that is a combination of Warrior and Assassin, they took to the front lines with speed and power. They led the hunt on the enemies, and could even operate in the wilds or in enemy territory for an extended period of time.

    ANd fighting monsters like this, based on the lore of the class, was the reason for their existence.

    "Shadowstrike!"

    He immediately launched himself forward in a coat of shadows and struck at the Troll. Trolls were known for mighty strength, tough defenses, and rapid regeneration. However, his attack took nearly a third of its hitpoints.  Kamari had actually hoped to do more, since the skill had a five minute cooldown, but it couldn''t be helped.

    He moved around to the back, targeting major veins and joints as he attacked. The more wounds he had, the harder it would be to regenerate. His throat already had a major wound, but with such vital points targeted, even while regenerating it would both hurt, and numb his movements.

    Some orcs tried to jump him, make him stop and even take him out, but he quickly twisted around and beheaded two of them while another four were taken out by his Guildmembers.  Two Orc Mages attacked from a distance, but another Guildmember guarded agaisnt it while the other one took them out as well.

    They would cover their Guildmaster, while the people in the backline supported them with ranged attacks and their Guildmaster engaged the War Troll to take it down.

    It was an Evolved Varient of a normal Troll for sure, and would not be easy. But Kamari led one of the strongest guilds out there, and he was not easy to beat either.  The battle had only just begun.