《Manor on Server Seven》 Chapter 1 Opening the door to the back room which read, ¡°Employees only,¡± I made my way to the set of shelves shelf which held racks of high tier potions. Taking a half dozen health and mana potions along with a few strength and dexterity, I placed them in a wooden crate filled with hay. Carrying it out to the front desk I pulled up my UI screen along with a system receipt before handing the crate over to the man covered in a dark robe with an intricate trimming of a staff. Nice guild crest, I told him before grabbing the small chip the size of a credit card which read 247 credits. Taking a seat on the small wooden stool, I looked over to see another man, his attire, a basic brown tunic along with a trainer''s long sword, gave away he was a total newbie. ¡°You need help with anything?¡± I asked, walking up the bewildered man staring at sets of lamps and rope. ¡°Umm¡­ yeah, I¡¯m looking for a pickaxe.¡± ¡°Do you also need smithing items as well?¡± ¡°Yeah, I just obtain got the smith profession, so I wanted to start grinding away in the mines for some ore,¡± the man said in excitement. ¡°Try the Xuxan on server four, they have all the supplies you will ever need for mining and forging.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you sell them here?¡± ¡°We sometimes do, but since we''re on server one we usually get a lot of foot traffic that comes in to sell items. Our inventory is pretty maxed out at this point and we only keep items that have a fast restock rate like potions. Anything that does not sell within the end of the day gets transferred over to our other stores with different specialization. Our store does offer an app that can help you find any item you''re looking for, and it also comes with the ability to search our inventory.¡± ¡°Wow, that seems useful. How do I get it?¡± Opening another UI screen, I placed terms of service agreement in front of him. ¡°I need you to agree to this.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Just your basic TSA, this lets the app edit your map and give you directional arrows to help you find any of our other thousands of stores.¡° ¡°Oh, makes sense,¡± the man said pressing the accept button. ¡°What¡¯s this thing under my map?¡± ¡°That¡¯s our banner, it lets you know when stuff goes on sale.¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty helpful. Looks like you were right, they have all the stuff I need on server four. Thanks for the help,¡± the man said vanishing from view. Terry came up behind me and slammed his fist to the back of my shoulder. ¡°How the hell do you do it? That¡¯s like what, the third person you go to install that crap. You must be rolling in commission credits.¡± A somber ring beeped in my head as I scanned the corner of my UI. The server time just hit midnight letting me know my shift just ended. ¡°I¡¯m done with my shift, what about you?¡± ¡°I still got a few hours, I was late to clock in yesterday so I''m trying to make up the hours.¡± ¡°You better watch your time, they might fire you for being late too many times.¡± ¡°Yeah, whatever, you heading straight to bed?¡± ¡°No, I''m going to go grab a bite, I haven''t eaten in three days.¡± ¡°Three days, how are you not dead?¡± Terry exclaimed. ¡°I haven¡¯t been moving much. There are no events running, so we only get a couple of people coming in to resupply for dungeons or the occasional noob. I¡¯ve been pretty much just sitting behind the counter.¡± ¡°What about restocking?¡± ¡°You know how Misa and Shu like to flirt with each other?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± Terry said, with one eyebrow raised. ¡°They make frequent trips to the storage room if you get my drift. They also grab items to restock before leaving so the manager expects nothing. Pretty much leaves me sitting here all day doing nothing.¡± ¡°Lucky punk,¡± Terry said with a smug on his face. ¡°Enjoy your meal.¡± Taking a step out into the cold cobblestone road funneling towards the center of town. I followed the sets of low burning lanterns essential to the town as they acted as warding beacon against wandering monsters. A notification popped up in my inbox letting me know my hours have been officially registered within Xuxan general store¡¯s logs. System: A deposit of 84 credits has been deposited to your in-game account from account [Xuxan accounting]. In the middle of town stood a small water fountain with a statue of a long forgotten knight, the feature worn away with time. Different colored shops surrounded the fountain as well as the four roads branching out towards the outskirts of town. Most of the buildings were closed as I headed down a small narrow path between Grant''s Apothecary and the Silver locket Armory. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted down the small alleyway, making my mouth salivate. Taking a sharp right turn, a small almost hidden store with a pink and green striped awning sat snug between the backs of three other buildings. Stepping up to the open glass counter, I rang a small bell which chimed with a musical echo. ¡°I¡¯ll be right out,¡± a voice said from the back of the room. A slender elven girl strode up to the front counter and gazed at me with a death stare. ¡°What the hell,¡± she said, crossing her arms. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I haven''t seen you in three days, and you come walking in like nothing. You had me worried, I thought you had been deleted.¡± ¡°Sorry Rachel, but it will take a lot more than going hungry for me to get deleted. Can I get my usual.¡± ¡°Sure thing,¡± Rachel replied, going into the back room and taking out a large brown paper bag.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Handing me the bag, I materialized a two credit chip and handed it to Rachel. Taking out a piece of bread, I chomped down on the cold stale almost brick-like consistency on the baguette. My energy bar rose back up to thirty percent letting me know I wasn''t at risk of dying due to fatigue. ¡°I added something extra for you, it¡¯s one of our new recipes the shop is testing.¡± ¡°You shouldn''t have,¡± I scolded her. ¡°Too late, you already paid for it, and besides it¡¯s a test batch, we were going to delete it either way. It¡¯s better than the day old stuff your eating, and it comes with a minor dexterity buff.¡± ¡°No thanks,¡± I chuckle. If I started loading the shaves faster, my boss will expect me to be doing it that fast all the time. ¡°Or worse, you might get a promotion,¡± Rachel added. ¡°More work with the same amount of pay, I¡¯ll pass.¡± Taking another bite into the crusty bread, I made my back towards the store. Taking a left just one block from the store I entered a small rundown building on the edge of town. Inside the builder was a long narrow hallway with two doors on the left and right side with an additional door to the back. Entering the back left door, I walked into a cramped six by eight room. In the back, almost taking up half my room, was my straw bed which I had, over time, padded with animal feathers. I hopped onto my bed, being careful not to damage its durability, and open my UI showing the twenty thousand credits I had saved up over my four years of working. Tapping on a large red flashing dot on my notification I read the system warning that popped up every month. System: Your subscription ends in 2 days 6 hours 14 minutes. System: Would you like to renew your subscription? Pressing the large floating yes in my UI, the payment of 653 credits was taken from my account. System: Your [tier one basic subscription] has been renewed. For most people playing Grand World, a subscription to them means the ability to log into the game. For me, a subscription is my literal livelihood. That''s because those people have a body to return to every time they log off. For me and the many other hundreds of thousands of wandering NBP non-body-players, we don¡¯t have that luxury. Everyone has a story of how they lost their body, either through misfortune, a bad gamble, or they just needed the extra credits, my story is the same as everyone else. When I was fourteen, my parents were in a bind, not being able to pay back a loan, they did what any parents living in the slums would do; they sold my body. Selling a body is simple and quick. First, all you need to do is get someone to purchase a body, a simple task when you''re selling a young, youthful body. Then they put you in a VR pod, press a few buttons and bam, they evict your mind into whatever server that could be a host. For me, I was thrown into the Neural Hub, a main-lobby of sorts where people could switch between different games. Entering the hub, I immediately saw a red flashing dot to the top right corner of my vision. Focusing on the dot, a message appeared in front of me. System: Thank you for joining the Neural Hub. System: Your 30-day trial has started. 30 days, 30 days is all I had before the hub would delete me from its server. I was in a full panic to where I sat on a small white bench and cried for a good few hours. During that time, thousands and thousands of people would walk past me not giving me a second glance, and why should they. This type of thing happens every day, I¡¯m not the first nor will I be the last person that will be evicted from their body. Getting up from the bench, I walked down the pristine white lobby looking at the many portals that lead to different games. I need to make money, and I need to make it fast, I told myself, clenching my hand into a tight fist of anger. Getting up, I walked around the lobby looking at all the different portals leading to all sorts of different and unique games. Some portals had maybe one or two people going in and out, others had long ever-growing queues. Getting in one of the longer lines, I asked the person in front of me why this line was so long. ¡°This is Bulletstorm, the Hub¡¯s newest game. Everyone is migrating their account over because they want a chance at winning the top prize.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the top prize.¡± ¡°Couple million credits.¡± ¡°Wow, does it cost anything to play?¡± ¡°No, it''s free, but they have the extended bundle. I''m getting the savage killer bundle, it comes with a fantastic arsenal of guns along with a few revives.¡± ¡°How much is that?¡± ¡°1200 credits. Ha, by the look on your face I say maybe too pricey for you, they have cheaper bundles like the arm¡¯s dealer which only run for 400 credits.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to know,¡± I said, keep a straight face. Entering the game, a large banner showcasing a series of bundles greeted me along with a customized avatar feature. Scanning back and forth on the bundle page, I notice a tiny almost invisible skip button that would almost be impossible to find if you weren''t specifically looking for it. Going to the avatar page, I clicked on the first preset they had and accepted my options. The screen then did a quick cut, my body materialized between a muddy smoldering trench. In my hand was a basic pistol, along with a four or five extra clips holstered to my side. Following the roaring crowd of players, I made my way across a barren smoldering landscape pocked with explosive shells. What do I do, I shouted? ¡°Shoot the aliens,¡± a gruff-looking man said wielding a mini-gun. A large eruption shook the floor, a monster the size of a school bus popped out, its teeth dripping with green ooze. Raising my hand, I let loose a burst of twelve bullets before a click of an empty chamber was heard. The monster crawling out of the grown with its six spider-like legs stomping across the floor, trampling everyone in its way. Falling back, I saw an automatic rifle on the floor someone had dropped their weapon after their body had been disintegrated by a large ball of acidic slime. Picking it up, I tried to look for cover. The monster charged the battlefield thrashing its monstrous black tail across the field. Diving towards the floor, I saw a battalion of players rush the monster, some brandishing rocket launchers while others had an electrically charged rifles. Rallying with the other players, I made my way across the field holding down the trigger as every bullet flew towards the monstrous beast. The monster dove, leaving a giant hole. A group of player ran towards the hole, throwing in a handful of explosive trying to lure the beast back out. The field again rumbled large cracks formed around the edge of the hole quickly traveling outwards. I was frantically trying to figure out what the hell was going on before the floor collapsed taking thousands of players into a dark pit. All the player huddled in groups making sure they could not be ambushed from behind. I did the same, finding a huddle of twenty other players. I could hear the screech of the monster reverberating across the large cavern shaking me down to my bone almost to the point where my knees locked. System: You have been affected by [fear] System: Your movement speed is reduced by 30% The monster slammed out from the side of the cavern, charging at us like an angry rhino. The other player let loose a flurry of bullets trying keeping the monster at bay. All of a sudden, another identical monster came charging at us from the other direction. Unlike some of the other players, I was able to scramble out of the way. ¡°We¡¯re done for,¡± a man who was laying next to me said, his face dripping with sweat. ¡°What, why?¡± I asked, getting back up. ¡°We¡¯re in a nest, and by the looks of it, these are just the small workers.¡± I could hear the screech of more monsters coming from every direction. ¡°What now?¡± I shouted in hysteria. ¡°Restart,¡± the man said, firing a bullet into his head. No, I told myself, looking for a way out. Several hundred, even thousands of monsters poured into the cavern, each one spewing green acidic spit across the floor block the exit for many players. Throwing the assault rifle away as it had run out of bullets, I picked up the camo printed electric rifle the man had left. Taking aim at one of the beasts, I pulled the trigger hitting it in the back of the head. The monster whirled around in a frenzy searching for the source of the blast. Its eye, red and focusing, it glared at me like a lion stalking its prey. I run back, but a spew of green acid blocked my path. The monster slowly trudges up its mouth filled with large spiky teeth. Holding down the trigger, I tried to let loose another electrical arc from the weapon. System: Charge [67%] I gasped in a large gulp of air as my eyes fluttered open into the white shine of the hub. Another red dot blinked in my vision, as I focused in on it, it said. System: 28 days 16 hours 34 minutes Fuck, I screamed, I had lost a whole day after my death. I need to find another way to make credits. Chapter 2 Pacing back and forth between the white almost marble-like flooring, I notice at the entrance of each portal was a billboard. Each billboard was themed base on the type of game they represented. The one outside Bulletstorm was shaped to look like a rusty airplane door while the one beside to it looked like a hollow screen made to represent the game Space Admiral. My eyes were drawn to a particular billboard, this one made of basic wood and iron nails. History was my favorite subject in school and seeing something that looked like it was ripped out of an eighteenth-century town really drew me in. Walking up to the board, my UI was bombarded with an array of different banners and signs. Focusing on the banners, I notice that a majority of them were sales ad or players looking to sell their material in bulk quantity. Some banners had a different unique logo on them, one with swords others with wands and staffs. Pressing on one of the logos, a large recruitment page popped up, listing out the requirement for joining this particular guild. System: Guild [Mandolin] System: Level 80+ System: Raid Time 1600ST Swiping the banner aside, I scrolled the board some more looking for anything that could make me money. After twenty minutes of searching, I came along a green and white banner with minimal print. System: Xuxan Inc. is hiring. System: Position: Retail Sales Associate. System: No previous work history needed. System: Pay Rate: 8C/H Grabbing the contact info at the bottom, I wrote a small message letting them know I was interested in the position. No less than ten minutes later a reply was sent to my inbox letting me know they were ready to give me an interview. Attached to the note was a small square shape disk with a key embroidered on the side. Hovering over the item it showed me a set of weird numbers along with a use button. Pressing the button, my vision blurred for a moment before I was transferred into a large lobby filled with people in suits and blazers. A woman sitting behind a large semicircular table ushered me closer. ¡°Are you here for an interview?¡± ¡°Y-y-yes.¡± ¡°Good, hop on that telepad over there,¡± pointing towards a yellowish circular portal, ¡°and I¡¯ll send you up to the recruitment floor.¡± With a nod, I made my way over to the pad. The lady pressed a few buttons and my vision went blurry once more before appearing in a much smaller room. A blonde hair man dressed in a well-crafted pinstriped suit held his arm out towards an office chair. Opening his UI screen he scrolled through a series of different files. ¡°Hello, my name is Jim, nice to meet you. I see you''re looking to join our sales team,¡± Jim said in a low rumbling voice. ¡°We have quite a few open positions right now, what time are you available to work?¡± ¡°Um¡­ anytime?¡± I replied questionably. ¡°Is that so. Do you have any previous work history?¡± ¡°No, but the ad said I didn''t need any.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we just ask that to see if we need to assign you a work associate. So was there a specific game you wanted to work at?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Opening another UI, the man showed me a list of games, each one with different sets of numbers next to them. ¡°We have about seven different games right now that have open positions, If you''re not looking for any, in particular, I can just assign you an open slot.¡± ¡°Um¡­ maybe nothing with guns.¡± ¡°Well that eliminates a majority of the list,¡± Jim said swiping away at the games. ¡°Your left with two option, I have a racing sim and a hack and slash RPG.¡± I didn''t have to think long before choosing the second option. ¡°Grand Wold, not a new game, but pretty popular with good player retention. You have any knowledge of RPGs?¡± ¡°I use to play a single player game while I was in school, Dragon Scrolls 17.¡± ¡°Ah, a long-running franchise,¡± Jim nodded. ¡°Look like we''re all set then, I¡¯ll send some documents over to the managers running our Grand Wold division, are you able to start tomorrow?¡± ¡°I could start today of that¡¯s an option.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that before we get the papers ready, but I can send you over to the store where you will be working. You might not be able to work yet, but you could make your avatar and be able to meet some of your work associates.¡± ¡°Yeah, that sounds good.¡± ¡°Sid, Sid, hey Sid,¡± A voice rang out in my head. Opening my eyes, I looked over at the pounding wooden door. ¡°What is it?¡± I said, opening the door. Jenny, one of the co-worker ran into the room, her eyes wide open. ¡°Terry just got deleted.¡± ¡°What?¡± I said in a faint confusion. ¡°What does that even mean.¡± ¡°It means what it means, I don¡¯t know why but it just happened.¡± ¡°He¡¯s not stupid, he has been working here longer than anyone I know, there is no way he forgot to pay his subscription,¡± I said rushing out the door with Jenny following close. ¡°Where was he last?¡± ¡°Doing an inventory check.¡± Barging in through the back room, I saw four other employees along with Greg, our manager. ¡°Guys I¡¯ll deal with it, you guys get back to work,¡± Greg said. ¡°Greg, what happened?¡± I said. ¡°Not sure what to tell you, looks like Terry got deleted.¡± ¡°Why, why was he deleted?¡± I yelled.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°That a strike,¡± Greg said. ¡°I''m going to need you to calm down or I''m going to give you another strike.¡± ¡°Strike? Strikes, who the fuck cares about strikes, someone was just deleted.¡± ¡°That¡¯s two. Now I advise you to leave the shop and cool your head before you do something you might regret later. I know you''re angry, but this type of thing happens every day.¡± ¡°Fuck you, Greg,¡± I said flipping him the bird. ¡°That¡¯s it, you''re done,¡± Greg shouted, his eye furrowing. Opening his UI, he pressed a series of buttons. My vision became blurry as my body warped outside the building. Running back, I was blasted back by an invisible force sending me tumbling across the cobblestone. System: You have been blacklisted from entering this property. Fuck, I shouted once more. After ten minutes of pacing outside the shop, I made my way towards the edge of town. Running out of the east side gate, I followed a narrow footpath. After another ten minutes of running, a red flashing indicator light popped up on my UI. System: Warning: Energy below 5%. Slowing down, I began to briskly walk towards the sound of crashing water. Sliding down a steep incline, I came upon a wide-open creek with rapidly flowing water. Opening my inventory, I extracted the brown paper bag of pastries. Munching down at the now even harder piece of bread, my energy replenished at a sluggish pace. Traversing up and down the edge of the water, I collected small stones the size of my first. Stacking them up into a small mound, I found a long piece of driftwood and placed it in the center. Setting the remaining half load on the altar I closed my eyes hoping that maybe this was all just a bad dream. But I knew better, as an NBC we don¡¯t dream we don''t even feel the passage of time. A low reverberation shook my body as a giant frog bear hybrid creature came storming in my direction from the other side of the creek. I scanned the creature attempting to get more details. System: Creature: Brogen System: Type: ??? System: Level: ??? Above the creature was a large red skull indicating that it was way beyond my level, but that didn''t say much as I was only level 7. Scrambling up the side of the slope, I attempted to make my way out of the embankment. Splash, a wet sticky substance slammed into my back and drip down my side. Taking another step, I quickly toppled over from the wet slimy substance encompassing my feet. Looking over, I could see the monster haunch down aiming its slimy gaze in my direction. With a deafening boom, the monster lunged high into the air, its muscular legs launching it across the twenty-meter gap. Not wanting to get squished, I rolled into the only directed left, the flowing water. My body trembled as the freezing water carried me off north of town. The monster finding an easier meal of the bread stopped pursuing me. The water picked up sending me into a cascade of thrashing waves and rocks. Trying to find my bearing, I snatched at an adjacent log. With a might crash, the log slammed into a large rock, breaking into three separate pieces. Still hanging onto one of the larger pieces, I kicked my feet, steering me toward the crest of the embankment. Almost reaching the side, my body was shotgunned by several pieces of wood. Opening my eyes, I woke up on the side of the bank in a dark woody area. Opening my UI, I was assaulted by a series of different warning lights. System: Warning: Health below 5% System: Warning: Energy below 5% System: You are [Wounded] System: Your movement speed is reduced by 50%, System: Your natural healing decreased by 100% System: You are [Bleeding] You will take 1% of your maximum health as damage every hour. I can¡¯t die in this place, all my items will be dropped including all my credits. Pulling out the remaining bread, a slice of strawberry tart, I bit down on the creamy confection. System: Health: 23% System: Energy 46% System: Dexterity +4 (6H) That¡¯s two problems temporarily solved, but I need to do something about this bleeding debuff. Pulling out a small guide that was sold in the store, I open the pages retaining to basic herbalism. Quickly skimming through the recipes, I found one that was able to cure bleeding. Reading through the list of ingredients, I was pleasantly surprised. I knew all the items were easily available around these areas due to the high amount of the stuff the store had taken in from wondering adventures. The thickly overgrown grass at the edge of the shallow water rustled putting me on guard. Crouching down near a set of large heaping of boulders, I peered out wonder what monster I would have to deal with next. The water glowed with a faint blue hue as a glowing fish swam passed the thick reed. Whoah, I gasped, not believing my luck, a Luminaria. This is an extremely rare fish that can only be caught using a specialized rod and bait along with having an extremely high fishing proficiency. They only come out at night, and can be¡­ I stopped mid-thought as I open my UI. It was 10 pm, that means I was passed out for more than ten hours. This is the worse, monsters become more aggressive at night meaning I need to find a place to hunker down and stay out of sight. Shaking my head, I focused back on the glowing fish. From what I remember from the store¡¯s sales log, less than a dozen of these have ever been sold to the store. I¡¯m not exactly sure what they are used for, but by the looks of it, I might have a chance to obtain one. The fish moved closer and closer to my location, snapping its large mouth at the small bugs that gathered to its glowing light. I stood atop the rocks ready to pounce on the fish but was halted as it advanced closer and closer. It was no ordinary size Luminaria, this thing was massive. The Luminarias I observed coming into the shop were miniature, one to two feet at most, compared to this hulking goliath. This thing was about two meters long with a mouth so wide it could swallow me in one gulp. How could a Luminaria even get this big? Maybe adventures found this place so boring they decided it wasn¡¯t even worth their time to visit, or maybe this could be an unexplored zone. The fish shook its body churning the bottom of the muddy floor exposing a series of different smaller fish and shellfish. It then thrashed its body, sending an array of smaller fish scattering into the bank. The Luminaria proceeded to trudge its way towards the shore and gulp down the paralyzed fish. It''s now or never, I muttered, hunching down on all fours. With a prayer, I sprang upon the fish, wrapping my whole body around its enormous frame. The Luminaria swung me back and forth trying to get its body back into the water. Digging my heel into the mud, I gripped onto the gill and pushed forwards trying to get the Luminaria fully out of the water. Putting one foot in front of the other, I did not want to give the fish an inch. The large fish whipped its tail trying to knock me off balance. Bending my knees, I hunched down like an immovable rock letting the fish tire itself out. After about an hour the fish was noticeably weaker. With one large push, I was able to strand the fish onto the shore of the pond. A series of notification flashed in front of me sending me into a rollercoaster of emotion. System: Warning: Energy below 5% System: Warning: Health below 5% System: Congratulation: You have earned the title [Beginner] System: Congratulation: You have earned the title [Novice] System: Congratulation: You have earned the title [Master] System: Congratulation: You have earned the title [Grand Master] System: Congratulation: You have earned the title [Wise Old Fisherman] System: Congratulation: Your [Luminaria] has been posted to the leaderboard at position [1] System: Congratulation: You have reached level [8] System: Congratulation: You have reached level [9] System: Congratulation: You have reached level [10] System: Energy 100% System: Health 100% Oh man, with all these levels, I''m back up to full health and energy. A screen suddenly popped up on the Luminaria asking me if I wanted to put it into storage. Of course, I shouted pressing the yes button. I was ecstatic even though the fish took up more than ninety percent of my inventory weight. Pressing on the fish, a series of number jumped at me. System: Item: Luminaria System: Type: Fish System: Weight: 287pnd System: Time: 2 days 23 hours 54 minutes Scratching my head at why there would be an info timer, I pressed the small information button next to the data. System: Time: Indicate the date in which the [Luminaria] will stay alive while stored in the inventory Hmm, that¡¯s not good, I need to get this thing back to town before it dies. Chapter 3 Pitching my back against a thicket of trees, I open my character screen to check on my status. Looking at my health, I was surprised to see that it along with my energy had been fully replenished by the level up. Next to my health were the bleeding and wounded debuff that surprisingly did not get removed. Between the two debuffs, I need to cure wounded first. Having a 50% movement speed penalty is way too big of a detriment especially if I run into another monster like that Brogen. Retrieving the guide from my inventory, I flipped near the back of the book pertaining to buffs and debuffs. Reading the entry on wounded I was discouraged. The only way to cure this debuff was to have healing magic, bandages, or let the debuff resolve it¡¯s timmer. Pressing on the blood icon next to my health, a timmer showed up. System: 5 hours 13 minutes 27 seconds Five hours is not too bad, but what in the world? Pressing on the icon a few more time, I notice that the numbers were not ticking down. Scratching my head, I reopen the guide to see if maybe I missed some minor details. Rereading the short four sentence description I was in total confusion. Nothing, maybe its a bug. The only other thing I can do now is to seek out the ingredients to make the staunching potion to cure my bleeding. Looking at the list, all I needed were five remy leaves, two sage moss, and a lily bulb. Well what do you know, I smirked, ripping a series of moss off the tree next to me. System: Item obtained 8 [sage moss] Happy with my take, I pushed myself off the tree and headed over to the pond. With a cautious step, I headed toward a patch of lily pads a few meters from the edge. Placing my hand below one of the lilies, I followed the stem until it reached the shallow floor. With a hard tug, I pulled, but the bulb refused to budge. This is a stubborn one. Letting go, I grabbed onto another set of roots. With another tug, a bulb the size of a baseball popped out into my hands without any resistance. System: Item obtained 1 [lily bulb] Why was this one so easy? Going back to the previous lily, I grabbed the series of stems with both hands this time, submerging most of my body into the murky water. With a firm footing, I yanked at the stem but was sent hurling as my foot gave way the muddy floor. Not one to be discouraged, I marched back. Taking a few precautions, I wrapped the long stem around my hand. Placing my feet on some gravel, I made some minor pulls checking to see if my footing was stable. Feeling good about the outcome, I jerked with all my might. A loud plop sound could be heard as I was once again sent hurling across the water. A series of delicate yellow light dance across the surface. An orangish glowing light pierced my eyes as I gazed at the weird object lying at the edge of the water bobbing up and down. Reaching out my hand, I grasped at the light, wondering what the hell I was doing. System: Item obtained 1 [Starlife seed] What is this, I pondered. Pressing at the weird looking orb of light in my inventory, a strange description popped up. System: Name: Starlife Seed System: Rarity: Mythic System: Type: Ingredient System: Description: A seed imbued with the remnant of a falling star. First the fish and now this, what kind of place is this? A small ring buzzed in my head almost giving me a heart attack. System: Server Time: 0000 Midnight, I''m in real trouble now. Monsters become more aggressive during this time and will actively chase down players. Heading back to the grove of trees, I actively search the area for any remy leaves. The sound of gnashing teeth and loud footsteps put me on alert. Evading behind a bush, I could see a band of monsters roaming along the opposite side of the bank. Zooming in on the monsters I was unable to read their names due to the obscure darkness but was able to observe a red skull above each of their heads. Nope, it¡¯s my time to go. With silent steps, I cautiously made my way out of the opposite end of the bush hoping that none of the monsters would notice me. Running as fast as the debuff would let me, I made it a good twenty yard before I heard the sound of screeching overhead. Turning in the direction of the sound, I could see a huge figure diving toward my general direction. Choosing a random bush, I dove in. The figure of the monster grew bigger and bigger, it¡¯s size dwarfing any monster I had ever witnessed. As the monster approached the area, I zoomed in on it hoping to identify the beast. System: Creature: Wyvern System: Type: ??? System: Level: ??? Clutching to my side, I held my breath as the monster neared. The trees sway back and forth in a melodic rhythm as each wingbeat of the monster sent a torrent of air slamming into the ground. With crimson red eyes, it scanned the area hopefully not looking for me. With a burst of energy, it slammed down grabbing at a hog the size of a car. Grasping it with both feet, It carried the hog into the air. Diving down again, the wyvern flung the large beast at the floor with a loud thud. Lading next to me the seismic shock send me hurling out of the bush. Imminently spotting me, the wyvern ignored the hog and dove in my direction, both feet out like crane arms. Diving towards the nearest tree, the monster grasped at the trunk. With a single wing beat, It plucked the tree off its root and sent me flying like a pencil. System: Health: 47% Scrambling to my feet, I was stunned by the amount of damage I had taken. Hobbling to the next tree, I smelled a weird odor that you could only be described as soap. Looking back the monster was high in the air, its mouth fully open. The sky became brighter and brighter as a bright blue light emerged from the monster''s mouth. The sound of thousands of breaking twigs filled the sky as the monster let loose a thunderous blast. Taking a sharp right turn, I felt the swelling heat behind me.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. System: Health: 8% Not looking back, I continued to run periodically making slight turns. The sky brightens again giving me a good view of my surroundings. Quickly scanning the horizon, I saw what looked like a wooden lodge. Pivoting on my feet, I made a sharp left, as an arc of lightning struck the location I was previously running towards. Making it to the door, I jostled the knob but was met by a prompt. System: Building 114-125 System: Unaffiliated System: Would you like to view the building. Rapidly pressing the yes button, a click could be heard as the door open. Rushing inside, I slammed the door behind me. In front of me was a small reception desk along with a series of passages leading into other rooms. Looking out the window, I could see the wyvern hovering in front of the building, its eyes gleaming a wicked red. I¡¯m safe for now, I huffed. System: Energy: 11% Without any lanterns that things going to be hovering around the building until I come out. Not giving it a second thought I decided to scour the building to see if there were any items. Taking the entrance to the right, I walked into a massive empty room a hundred feet in length and sixty feet wide. In the back of the room are a series of multiple doors leading into smaller rooms. Peeking into each one, I saw the same thing, bare rooms. What is all this, I muttered, walking into one of the larger back rooms. A prompt popped up on my hood. System: Would you like to preview preset options for this room? Pressing yes, another prompt open, this one listing out sets of different room layouts. System: Kitchen Storage Bedroom partition Picking the first option, the room glowed with a faint light as a series of different ghostly objects floated in front of me. What is all this, reaching my hands out towards a series of ghostly pots and pans. Like a misty vapor, my hands past through the ethereal objects. Backtracking, I made my way back towards the reception desk. This time, taking the left entrance, Instantly turning right, I was greeted by a set of stairs. Going up, I could see a wide balcony peering over the vast empty room I was previously in. To the right was a group of doors leading to what I guess would guess to be bedrooms. Quick entering each room, I could see that they were all unfurnished with not even the smallest inkling of an item. Leaning over the railing I contemplated my next move as I watched the wyvern floating overhead. Walking back down the stairs, I notice a box sitting flush with the wall. On the box was an icon of a letter. Pressing the box, I prompt came up asking me if I would like to send or receive messages. I hardly ever use the mailbox as the only messages I received were by corporate informing us of certain changes to policies or added features to the store. Knowing all too well that I must have received a termination letter by now, I pressed the receive button. The hell, I screamed as several messages crammed themselves into my inbox each one making an audible ping. A backlog of the ping rang a few times every second sending me into madness as I open my UI and turned off the feature. Looking at the icon of an envelope, a number under it, which read 1k+, flashed in bright red. Pressing the icon, I open my inbox wondering what in the world this was all about. Inbox: DevianKM4 | Lumi local? Inbox: Sarchcaster | Dude where? Inbox: JianTheSpear | Hello, my name is Jian, I would like to¡­ Inbox: SeriesSuit | Price? Inbox: 3Krexen3 | Congrats, that a huge catch Inbox: Orzevhan| Orzevhan has sent you an invitation to join Guild [P1rate Cruze] A majority of the messages were about my Luminaria, while others were wanting me to join their guild. I scrolled down the list for ten minutes, but all the titles looked the same. Looking at the top corner of my inbox, I notice that there was a filter button. Pressing it, a system prompt popped up. System: Please upgrade to a [tier 2 standard subscription] to use this feature. Of course. Why would I ever think they would give basic users this option. How much is it, I pondered, pressing the checkout button. System: [Tier 2 standard subscription] monthly 1348 credits System: Upgrade from your current subscription of [Tier 1 basic subscription] 621 credit Was it worth it? This cost twice as much as a regular subscription just so I could use a sort feature. Hmm¡­ what other benefits does a standard sub give me, pressing on a drop-down arrow? System: [Tier 2 standard subscription] Guild affiliation Party subsystem Bank access Regional trading post Hub messaging Use of the sort/filter feature for your inventory and inbox Custom map markers Not much, for an extra 600 credit, I think I¡¯ll sort my messages by hand. Swinging the subscription panel off my UI, I reopen my inbox and was once again bombarded by more incoming messages. Pressing the scroll down button, a wave of text passed my vision. After a few minutes of scrolling, I was nowhere near the bottom of the screen. Fuck it, I screamed, opening the subscription page. Pressing the purchase button, I large chunk of credits vanished leaving me at nineteen thousand. Initiating the sort feature, I place a filter on all messages that had to do with the word Luminaria, fish, or guild. My inbox, which was not free of all random messages was cut down tremendously. I was left with about a hundred messages which were a lot easier to sort individually. Taking my time scrolling through each message, I notice that some of them were incomprehensible gibberish while others were random ads. What is this even for, I pondered, pressing on one of the ads. A woman dressed in what could only be described as ¡°top tier¡± armor seductively walked towards the screen. ¡°I need some help killing a dragon, come help me at...¡± Closing the video, I sent it to the trash bin. Scrolling to the very bottom, I saw a message titled ¡°TERMINATION¡±. Figures, I mumbled, pressing the letter. I was presented with a range of well-worded paragraph summing up the idea that I had been fired and not welcome at any Xuxan¡¯s branch of business. Giving it a shrug, I threw the message in the trash bin, hopefully not having to hear from them again. A message just above the termination letter caught my eyes. It was sent by Ter3.minus, Terry¡¯s gamertag. Inbox: Ter3.minus | Yo Sup Sid. I¡¯m taking a big gamble sending this to you before my final escape as I know you never check your messages. As you may know, I have been working at Xuxan for a long time. You''re probably wondering, how long? While my avatar might look youthful and agile, on the inside I have been growing more and more distant of this lifestyle. I have been working at Xuxan for the last forty years and that not counting the fact that I was in my forties when I decide to forsake my body. That¡¯s right I¡¯m over eighty years old and tired of living this life, that is why I plan to delete myself from the server. I know that you might find this selfish and unreasonable, but just know that this is something I¡¯m doing for myself and in no way should affect you. I remember the first time you entered our Xuxan four years ago, you were a cheery happy go lucky kid with the ambition of doing something with his life. But as the years past, that ambition has dwindled like a fading star. Attached to this letter is the remain of all my credits. I want you to do something better with your life or at the very least eat something that not stale bread. You have the will and determination of a fighter and the cunning of a shrew. I want you to take that drive and do something big. Your coworker, mentor, friend, and family, Terry. System: A deposit of 568k credits has been deposited to your in-game account from player [Ter3.minus]. Chapter 4 Oh crap, I forgot all about Rachel. Opening the filter system, I initiated the search function to look for her username. After the thirty-second scan of my inbox, a list of different messages appeared. Inbox: BreadLoafer| What is going on? Inbox: BreadLoafer| Hello? Inbox: BreadLoafer| Hey With a bit of hesitation, I pressed on the oldest message. Inbox: BreadLoafer| Hey I heard what happened with Terry and the store. I came looking for you at the apartment, but they said you never came back. Come visit me first thing. She must be worried, I did just randomly run off without telling anyone. Scratching my head, I pressed on the other two messages. Inbox: BreadLoafer| Hello? I¡¯ve scoured the whole town looking for you, and no one has seen you the entire day. If something¡¯s wrong, let me know. Inbox: BreadLoafer| What is going on? Your name was just broadcasted across the server for a fish or something, I''m not sure. I¡¯m really lost, please message me back asap so I know you''re ok. I placed my finger on the reply button but stop short wondering what I should reply with. Hey, I almost got killed twice, but I¡¯m ok. I¡¯m now stuck in a building in the middle of nowhere with a wyvern outside waiting to eat me. Mmm¡­ maybe not that. Taking a stroll across the large empty hall, I thought about what to write but was interrupted by a system message. System: Your view time will expire in 5 minutes, would you like to purchase the property I don¡¯t have that type of money, even with Terry¡¯s gift, a building like this would probably cost a few million. Taking in a deep breath I press the continue button on the prompt, ready for the building to kick me out. What, I gasped, this place is only 437k, that¡¯s absurd. Why is this building so cheap? Oh yeah, looking at the Wyvern looming outside. Who wants to own a building surrounded by huge dangerous monsters? Beep, another message enter my inbox passing through my filters. Rachel again. Better see what she messaged me this time. Inbox: BreadLoafer| Anyone home? I''m going to be sending a message every hour just to make sure you haven''t been deleted. She¡¯s totally serious, I sighed. Clicking the reply button next to the letter, I responded, letting her know I was okay and not to worry. Going back to the prompt, I hovered my hand over the yes button. Closing my eyes, I thought about Terry¡¯s letter. Well, Terry, you wanted me to do something big, so let go big. System: Thank you for your purchase. System: Dear user, this building has been identified as a stand-alone and must be designated a server. Would you like to make your current server [server 1] your main designation? What? Having never bought a building before, I was wondering what all this meant. I pressed on the info tag near the top of the UI panel hoping that maybe I could get more details. System: A building designated as a stand-alone will have identical copies placed in each server. All parties entering the building will be transported into an external hub placed within the specified server. Whoah, I gasped. Only town halls or official buildings have this type of privilege. Which server to choose from? Most buildings of this importance set themselves up on server one, but that¡¯s boring. Opening the dropdown menu I scrolled through the available set of eighteen servers. Maybe I¡¯ll just use eighteen, that¡¯s way off the path. No, that¡¯s a lame reason to choose a server. Oh, I snapped. I¡¯m so dumb, this has to, of course, be setup on server seven. I mean the only reason I was able to find this place was through dumb luck, and seven was also Terry¡¯s favorite number. Here¡¯s to you my friend as I thumb the UI screen. An assortment of rattles rolled along the wooden floor as the building finalized its initialization. A wide array of screen popped up on my UI some filled with charts and number I was unable to make heads or tails off. System: Building 114-125 setup has completed System: Would you like to set a name for Building 114-125 Uh¡­ As I was thinking of a name, a ringing jostled me out of my thoughts. A UI screen popped up in the middle of my vision asking me If I would like to take a call. System: Incoming direct message from [BreadLoafer] Pressing the accept call, another prompt asked me If I wanted to use the face to face option. Again, pressing the yes button, a blue panel popped in my view showing Rachels face. ¡°Where are you?¡± Rachel asked in a not so polite tone. ¡°To be honest with you, I have no idea.¡± ¡°What do you mean? You¡¯re obviously in a hub, how else would you be receiving a direct call. Also, when did you get a standard account.¡± ¡°Wait, how do you have a standard account?¡± ¡°Didn''t I tell you my job pays more than yours?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I didn''t think you got paid that much,¡± I furrowed my eyebrows. ¡°Well, unlike your previous job, mine pays me based on my cooking level. Wait, you''re deflecting the question. Where are you?¡± ¡°As I said, I have no idea,¡± I said, throwing my hands out at the screen. ¡°You''re in a hub, go ask the owner, they should know,¡± Rachel rebutted, the volume of her voice rising as she paced out each word. ¡°You know what, I''ll do that right now.¡± I mockingly paced around the large empty hall for a few seconds before calling out my name. ¡°Hey Sid, do you know where I am?¡± Turning to the right, I said back, ¡°Yeah man, you''re in I don¡¯t know.¡± Turning left, I replied, ¡°Thanks man, you were a great help.¡± ¡°Wait, are you telling me you own a hub?¡± Rachel asked with a puzzled look. ¡°It¡¯s a long story but yeah.¡± ¡°Wait, so what are you even doing?¡± ¡°I was choosing a name for the place before you called me. Also, there is a wyvern outside waiting to rip me to shreds.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Rachel crossed her arms, giving me a look of mock disdain. ¡°Just tell me what happened from the beginning.¡± Taking a few minutes, I recanted the story, trying my best to not leave out any details. ¡°Uh-huh, so after you got the fish, you found a magic seed from the sky, and that seed summoned a dragon. Running away from the dragon, you found an abandoned building that was incredibly cheap and so you just bought it with the money Terry gave you. Am I getting that right?¡± ¡°Close enough,¡± I shrugged. ¡°What the fuck,¡± she shouted, emphasizing each word. ¡°That was the stupidest story I have ever heard. I thought we were friends.¡± ¡°We are, just let me...¡± ¡°Apparently not,¡± she said cutting me off. ¡°Wait, wait, I have proof.¡± Opening my bag, I pressed the view button next to the fish rendering a 3D image of it in front of me. Turning the chat screen around, I showed Rachel the Luminaria, its bright body lighting the large room like a blue-tinted sun. ¡°Wow,¡± Rachel gasped, her hands held over her mouth. ¡°What about the star seed thing?¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t lying about that either,¡± I told her while rendering the object in my hand. Looking sheepish, Rachel stared at the floor. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it,¡± I told her. It¡¯s a farfetched story, not even I would believe it without proof. ¡°So, what¡¯s your next plan?¡± ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not sure. The first thing I need to do is find out exactly where I am.¡± ¡°Give me a second,¡± Rachel said, pressing her fingers towards the screen. A map popped up taking a fourth of the chat screen. ¡°This is a map I purchased from a cartographer a while back, the details are not perfect, but it should be good enough to find your location.¡± Rachel placed her hand on the screen and drew a small circle. ¡°This is Amrah. This is the creek you said you ran towards. If you follow it, it continues for a while until hit mergest with a river and heads out towards the sea. So you must be somewhere between these two points.¡± ¡°What about a pond or a lake, that¡¯s where I woke up after hitting the rapids.¡± ¡°That''s right the rapids. This must be it,¡± Rachel said, pointing to a white zigzag line towards the end of the creek. ¡°That eliminates two-fifth of the search location, but I don''t see any ponds or lakes on the map.¡± ¡°Maybe they added one during an update.¡± ¡°That¡¯s stupid. The developers don''t add terrain, they just expand the base, everything else is generated by the game, including all the monsters. The only thing developers add by hand are the event dungeons and monsters.¡± ¡°Wait, that¡¯s another clue. What is the average level range for wyvern?¡± I asked. ¡°Depends, what color was it.¡± I turned the video UI around once more, this time showing the huge wyvern floating outside the building. ¡°Why is it so big?¡± ¡°What do you mean, it¡¯s a wyvern, what size are they suppose to be.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen wyvern in videos before and they are never that big. Hold one, I got someone that might be able to help. Do you mind if I add someone to chat.¡± ¡°Uhh¡­ I guess not.¡± Pressing a few buttons the screen split into four partitions, one for the map, Rachel, her invite, and a chat box. ¡°Yo, waddup waddup waddup.¡± a man in a demon mask said. ¡°Sup Rachel, what you be needing.¡± ¡°Kyle, take off the mask.¡± ¡°What, I just got it from the Blood Blossom dungeon. It hella nice with my samurai set,¡± he said, zooming the camera out to show off his armor. ¡°Sorry Sid,¡± Rachel said, closing Kyle¡¯s feed. ¡°I¡¯ll get someone else.¡± A ring came back up on the screen as Kyle rejoin the call. ¡°Yo Rachel, chill. I¡¯ll take off the mask. So, what you be needin that you be calling me¡­,¡± looking to the corner of his UI, ¡° at two in the morning.¡± ¡°Oh please,¡± Rachel smirked. ¡°I know you¡¯re a night owl. Never mind, I need you to help me identify a monster.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Kyle said, scratching the back of his head. Taking my screen, I turn it back around towards the wyvern. ¡°Holy shit, that things huge.¡± ¡°I know right,¡± Rachel said in excitement. ¡°So what is it?¡± I asked. ¡°One sec, Rachel can I invite someone to the call?¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡°My guild leader.¡± ¡°Sid,¡± Rachel said raising an eyebrow. ¡°Yeah, sure,¡± I replied. ¡°Don, Don, hey Don, you fucker.¡± ¡°What, Kyle,¡± a voice in the background screamed. ¡°I¡¯m going to send you a call invite, I got something to show you.¡± ¡°Fine, but if it¡¯s another one of those dragon humping videos, I''m going to gut you until next week.¡± A man with a stout complexion popped up on the screen, his face marked with a set of dwarven tribal tattoos. ¡°Holy shit, what is that,¡± the man said, his face getting closer to the screen. ¡°Dude, gross, just use the zoom function,¡± Kyle said, putting his hand out blocking a portion of the screen. ¡°What the fuck is this?¡± Don asked. ¡°It¡¯s a live feed from one of Rachel¡¯s friends.¡± ¡°Can someone tell me what this is already,¡± Rachel said, her head shaking back and forth with impatience. ¡°Well, that¡¯s obviously a wyvern,¡± Don said. ¡°Yeah, we figured that much out, why is it so big?¡± Rachel asked. Don let out a low rumble as he sat down on a large wooden chair. ¡°Kyle, go get Minesa in the alchemy lab, she should have the answer.¡± ¡°Uhhh¡­ or I can just call her.¡± ¡°No, bring her to the meeting room, also get Vencer and G.J.¡± ¡°Wait, we¡¯re adding more people,¡± I said turning the camera back around. ¡°Just a few more,¡± Don said, putting his feet up on a large granite table. ¡°It¡¯s fine Sid, these players are very skilled and should be able to help figure out what¡¯s going on,¡± Rachel said. ¡°Fine,¡± I said. After several minutes an entourage of people join the call. Minesa, a girl dressed in a fine silk green robe studied the monster as the other two men, Vencer and G.J. proceeded to shout like school girls over how large the monster was. ¡°Okay boss,¡± Minesa said, her screen packed with different panels and sliders. ¡°So here is a normal wyvern,¡± pulling up a screenshot, ¡°now this is of a dire wyvern,¡± pulling up another screenshot. ¡°The dire is about one point five to two time the size of the normal one.¡± Looking at the heads bobbing up and down, she proceeded with the next slide. ¡°Now this is an elder wyvern, these can be up to three times the size and are generally above level one hundred.¡± ¡°Is this getting anyone else hard?¡± Kyle said. ¡°Shut up,¡± Don, Vencer and G.J. said in unison. Pulling up a blurry screenshot, Minesa pointed at the large monster in the photo. ¡°Don, do you remember that bounty guild Riverseer had last year.¡± ¡°Of course I do, we were cheated out of that contract,¡± Don said in a scowl. ¡°Do you remember what they were hunting?¡± ¡°Yeah, an elder wyvern.¡± ¡°Yes, this is the only screenshot I have of it, and I had to pay a spotter good money for it.¡± Placing a virtual ruler over one of the players on the photos, Minesa counted out the notches and made a note next to one of the players. Doing the same to the Wyvern she placed a significantly larger number over the massive beast. ¡°Anyone know who this player is?¡± ¡°Grund,¡± Vencer answered in a soft but precise voice. ¡°No one else wears blue heavy armor with gold filigree in their guild.¡± ¡°What race is he?¡± ¡°Dwarf,¡± Vencer answered. ¡°Don, what the average height of a dwarf.¡± ¡°Just because I''m a dwarf doesn''t mean I would know the average height of a dwarf.¡± ¡°How tall are you?¡± Minesa said, rolling her eyes. Don open his UI screen and scoured his player page. ¡°Four, six.¡± Crunching a few numbers Minesa¡¯s eyes bulge. ¡°What is it?¡± Don asked. ¡°By my calculation, this thing is only six times the size. The one on the video feed is double the size of the elder wyvern.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Rachel asked. ¡°This means we''re looking at the first documented ancient wyvern in the game. A monster has to live over three years to get that big.¡± ¡°How does a wyvern get that big without anyone noticing,¡± Rachel asked ¡°I might have an answer to that as well,¡± Minesa said, pulling out a set of old records. ¡°Who here remembers the typo riot that happened three years ago.¡± Everyone raised their hand except me. ¡°I don''t know what that is.¡± ¡°Have you been livin undah a rock,¡± G.J. said in a heavy Australian accent. ¡°Yes,¡± Rachel answered. ¡°He lives and eats like a hermit.¡± Placing a block of text over the screen, Minesa pointed at a particular line. ¡°This is the update notes from three years ago. This line right here stated that the developers added in six additional regions, but only five were ever found. People started to riot on the forums asking the developers if this was a typo. The developers never replied back to any of the posts causing a bunch of veteran player go insane at the thought of a lost region. A chorus of squeaks could be heard across the meeting room as Don, G.J., and Vencer all jumped out of their chairs as they pieced together Minesa¡¯s story. Chapter 5 System: You have been affected by [bleed] System: Health: 7% ¡°Guys by any chance we can hurry this along, I¡¯m literally dying over here?¡± I asked, looking at the three sitting across from me. ¡°Setting something up like this usually takes weeks,¡± Vencer said. ¡°Don is rushing it, but it might take a few ho...¡± Before Vencer could complete his sentence the door burst open as Don and a woman strode in. ¡°So who am I coaching?¡± The woman asked. ¡°Right here,¡± Don said pointing to me on the screen. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked. ¡°Sid, I like you to meet Harriet. She is my wife and the guild leader of DeNovo. I brought her in today as your contract lawyer.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± I asked in confusion. ¡°Why do I need a lawyer also If she is your wife, why is she in another guild?¡± ¡°We''re dealing with something that we can''t take on alone, so I called in some veterans players to help. To make sure everything goes smoothly Harriet here will help plan and coordinate the contract. Also, It¡¯s a long story, but we had these two guilds before we met. We had the idea of merging the two, but we run each guild so differently that she thinks her military operation would be ruined if it got anywhere near my rabble-rousers.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, Sid,¡± Harriet said, striding up to Don. ¡°I don¡¯t have much time before the others arrive so I''m going to make this quick. There is really only one rule you need to follow and that is to shut the fuck up. I don¡¯t want you to say or do anything unless I instruct you too, is that clear?¡± ¡°Y-y-yes,¡± I said reluctantly. ¡°Is this really necessary,¡± Rachel chimed in. Whipping her head around, Harriet stared at Rachel like an angry rhino ready to charge. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Oh, this is Rachel, one of Sid¡¯s friends,¡± Don said trying to calm Harriet down. ¡°Rachel, let me ask you, how much do you have saved up? A few hundred thousand?¡± ¡°Enough,¡± she replied. ¡°Well, the people walking through those doors have enough fuck you money that they could pay to have a bounty contract out on you for an entire year and not even notice a dent in their income. Does that seems like something you would enjoy?¡± ¡°No,¡± Rachel said in a whispered voice. ¡°Good, now I need you to follow the advice I gave Sid and shut the fuck up.¡± ¡°How do you want to split?¡± Harriet asked Don. ¡°Well between our two guilds and the other four I invited, we could do ten percent each and the remaining forty goes to Sid.¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable, are you set to that amount?¡± ¡°You''re the lawyer honey, anything you put on the table should be fine.¡± ¡°They¡¯re here,¡± G.J. said, rushing in the room. ¡°That was fast,¡± Don said. ¡°Yeah, I told them it was a once in a lifetime contract and anyone not on time would be excluded from the meeting,¡± Harriet said, moving a few documents back and forth from her UI. Three people walked into the room, two female and a male, each one wearing distinctive attire with different guild symbols. A man in dark red armor took a seat at the opposite end of the table where my screen had been placed. ¡°Been a while since we got together,¡± the man said. ¡°Indeed it has,¡± another man said, spinning a set of daggers behind him. ¡°Shit,¡± the man in red yelled reaching for his weapon. ¡°Fucking Cassius, when did you get here?¡± ¡°The same time as you,¡± Cassius replied. ¡°Come take a seat,¡± Harriet said. ¡°No thanks, I prefer standing.¡± ¡°Stand somewhere else, I hate it when you do that sneaky shit.¡± ¡°Just take a seat Cassius so we can start the meeting already,¡± a woman in a dark purple robe said, her staff floating beside her as she took a seat.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Fine,¡± Cassius said, leaning back on the chair. ¡°Okay, we''re all here, what is this about?¡± the woman asked. ¡°I have called an emergency meeting because I have an urgent slayer contract that needs to be completed.¡± ¡°Oh no,¡± the man in red said. ¡°I¡¯m not bidding for a contract.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong Kain, afraid you''re going to get the short end of the straw again?¡± Cassius said, pushing the chair to its absolute limit of tilting. ¡°This is not an individual contract, but for all of you.¡± ¡°Ha, what monster would take the likes of all of us to take down? I¡¯ll have you know that I beat the Barel Raid yesterday solo,¡± Kain said. ¡°Before I tell you the target, I need everyone to sign an NDA. Signing the NDA does not lock you into taking the quest, and you may leave at any time after signing. Another thing I want to mention is the rate for the contract. While this amount is not set in stone, I will be very unwilling to budge. Anyone who does not find this amount suitable may leave. ¡°What is it like twenty each?¡± Cassius remarked. ¡°No, its ten,¡± Harriet replied. ¡°That¡¯s pretty low, but still within reason,¡± Cassius said. ¡°You¡¯ve been pretty silent over there Sen, what do you think?¡± Peering up from a book, a girl in a golden scaled hoodie glared at Cassius over the table. Like a bored cat, her eyes fell back down to the tome in her hands. ¡°Very insightful, Melina what about you?¡± ¡°Ten percent is not bad, are you sure you''re not willing to negotiate?¡± Melina said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Harriet said. ¡°I might have made a slight error with the amount. It¡¯s not ten percent each, it¡¯s ten percent between the four of you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous,¡± Kain let out. ¡°Honey, don''t you think that a bit extreme,¡± Don said in a muted tone. Without giving him a glace, Harriet gripped her hands into a tight fist. ¡°Yeah¡­ no, nevermind,¡± Don mumbled, taking a step back. ¡°Hmm...,¡± Cassius hummed, almost falling out of his chair. Pulling himself towards the table, he plunged the dagger into the wooden surface. ¡°Oh, looks like you have Cassius¡¯s attention. It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen him so serious,¡± Kain said. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± Melina asked. ¡°Two point five percent is an outrageous number to be offering each of us. Harriet knows our premiums but has still offered us rates only a noob would take. So they have either found an etherial mine or this is a scam in the making, and knowing Harriet, I¡¯m thinking it¡¯s the former. The sound of jostling metal could be heard from across the room as Kain¡¯s legs bounced up and down. The eyes of the room turned towards him as he gripped the end of his sword holstered to his side. ¡°What?¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had a good challenge.¡± ¡°Couldn''t hurt to know what the target is,¡± Melina said, her fingers pressed against the contract. ¡°Sure,¡± the other agreed, placing their fingers over the UI. ¡°Good,¡± Harriet said, saving the documents to her storage. ¡°Since we have that settled with I can now show you the target.¡± Giving me a sly nod, I waved the camera towards the monster fluttering outside the building. The room grew dead silent as the four players gaped at the glowing screen. The silence was shattered by the sound of a book slamming closed as Sen darted up to the screen. ¡°Wow,¡± she let out. ¡°What level is it?¡± ¡°We''re not sure exactly, but our best estimate would be between five and eight hundred,¡± Harriet answered. ¡°F-f-f-five,¡± Kain stuttered. ¡°Please excuse me.¡± A black bar came over his face with the words away imprinted across. ¡°Babe, babe, cancel my doctor appointment today,¡± could be heard echoing through Kain¡¯s mouth. After a series of hoots and hollers, the black bar disappeared as Kain stretched his arms over his head. ¡°Sorry about that, had to go use the bathroom.¡± ¡°Uh¡­ yeah, sure,¡± Harriet said, as the table held a slight giggle. ¡°I still want to negotiate the amount,¡± Melina said. ¡°You can have my cut just as long as I¡¯m the one who gets the final blow,¡± Kain said. ¡°Be that as it may, I think we should get a bigger cut.¡± ¡°The amount is fair because what I¡¯m going to tell you next will really change your opinion.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Melina said with a confused look? ¡°Before I tell you, I have another set of NDAs to pass out, this one is a bit harsher than the last.¡± Quickly skimming through the pages, Sen stared hard at a single paragraph. ¡°We have to forfeit our guild bank as well as all account items,¡± Sen said aloud. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit much,¡± Melina said. ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± Harriet said, her arms crossed waiting for everyone to sign the form. ¡°Here,¡± Kain said, swiping the form back to Harriet. ¡°I¡¯m already on board with killing this thing, but if there is a second part, it must be twice as juicy.¡± ¡°I don''t know,¡± Melina said. ¡°This is quite a big risk to take.¡± ¡°If you do sign the agreement and don''t like the second part, you are free to leave, but trust me, you''re going to like what you hear.¡± ¡°If Kains in then I guess I''m in too,¡± Cassius said, twirling his daggers. ¡°Yeah me too,¡± Sen said. ¡°I''m interested in knowing the loot table for that thing.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Melina said, sending the NDA agreement back to Harriet. ¡°So what¡¯s this amazing second part?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the location of the monster. Does anyone remember the typo riot that happened three years ago?¡± ¡°No,¡± Kain said, his eyes bulging at that sentence. ¡°Are you telling me this kid found the lost region?¡± ¡°Honestly, we''re not a hundred percent sure, but it''s very likely¡± Harriet replied. ¡°So where is the gate to the region?¡± Kain asked. ¡°We''re not sure, but we have it narrowed down to a small area.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not following? How do you not know where the gate is?¡± Sen said. ¡°Uh¡­ I was kinda unconscious when it happened,¡± I replied. ¡°So we just need to find this portal and kill the wyvern sounds easy enough. Where do I sign?¡± Kain said. ¡°This is the final form,¡± Harriet said, placing a document sheet over the table. Placing her thumb over the bottom portion of the document her signature appeared. Making room for the other to sign, Don, Kain, Melina, Cassius, and Sen all placed their signature at the bottom. ¡°Since your not here to sign off on the document, do you trust Rachel enough to be your co-signer?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine.¡± Rachel with a large grin over her face walked up to the table and placed her thumb over the document. ¡°Before I sign, I want to say something.¡± ¡°And that is?¡± Harriet asked. ¡°This is just between Sid and me, but I want to work at your inn.¡± ¡°Uhh¡­ sure, but what about your job now?¡± ¡°Making bread is fun and all, but Terry was right, I don¡¯t want to be making bread all my life, and this is way more exciting.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with it, but just know I have no idea what I''m doing,¡± I said. ¡°You have an hour, to assemble a team with the appropriate supplies and meet in the city of Amrah.¡± Chapter 6 The small village of Amrah was bombarded as waves of players warp into the town. In the middle of town was a makeshift bazaar set up to sell anything a player could want or need for running a world boss, raid, or even an all-out PVP war. A slew of news reporter stood at the town¡¯s perimeter aiming their camera towards the group of thirty or so odd players bunched up at the edge of town. ¡°Melina, Melina,¡± one of the reporters shouted with a large floating sign above her head which read ¡°Daily ARchive.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Rachel asked. ¡°Reporters,¡± Don said loading a cart full of iron bolts. ¡°Why are they here?¡± ¡°A noob saw us and probably told every streaming channel that would give him credits. I''m sure they are just curious about why there are so many high ranking players in the middle of nowhere.¡± ¡°What are we going to do about this? We can''t just let them follow us.¡± ¡°This happens quite often, we have a plan set out for this type of situation,¡± Harriet said. ¡°Once Cassius gets back with the cake, we will start the operation.¡± ¡°Hi Melina, I¡¯m Cassey with the Daily ARchive. Can you tell me and our thousands of viewers what is happening here?¡± ¡°Nothing really, we are all here to exchange items, share raid stories, just a small get together.¡± ¡°Oh, C''mon, I know that''s a load of pixels. You want us to believe that you''re all here to have a picnic,¡± Cassey said, pointing to a jaunty Kain who was sitting in the back crafting a literal cart load of iron bolts. ¡°Yes,¡± Melina said, a sly grin stretching across her face. ¡°Melina,¡± a suited warrior said, running up to her form the group. Without a bit of hesitation, Cassey sent one of the small camera orbs flying overhead, its lens zooming in on the man. ¡°Cassius is back and he brought the cake.¡± ¡°Oh, what kind did he bring?¡± Melina asked. ¡°Chocolate.¡± ¡°Fantastic, that my favorite,¡± Melina said, clasping her hands. With a flick of her wrist, a small bolt of electricity shot out, arcing towards the small floating camera like a lightning rod. ¡°Hey, that cost me a fortune,¡± Cassie shouted. ¡°All¡¯s fair once you''re outside the safety zone,¡± Melina replied, pointing to the faint glowing line surrounding the town. With a wave, she made her way back to the group, heading towards Cassius. ¡°Fill me in, what did you find.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a cliche but it¡¯s behind a waterfall,¡± Cassius said. ¡°If it was that obvious wouldn''t someone have found by now?¡± Kain said. ¡°There are still thousands and thousands of player searching for it, you can¡¯t tell me it¡¯s just behind a waterfall.¡± ¡°Well, your right. It not just behind a waterfall, it¡¯s behind a waterfall in the water.¡± ¡°What?¡± Don, Kain, and Melina all said in unison. ¡°Yeah, a few of my guys died several times traversing it, but it''s definitely there. Once you hit the rapids, you go straight down following a heavy current, after getting ejected about a thousand meters down, you have to swim towards a huge waterfall flowing upwards. I haven''t made it pass, but I did a quick scry and there is definitely something big behind the waterfall. Also, not to bury the lead or anything, but if you don''t make it across you will either die of drowning or being eaten. ¡°Eaten by what, small fishes?¡± Kain said, stowing his sword for a trident. ¡°No, a leviathan, one with a black skull over its head.¡± ¡°Describe it to me,¡± Sen said, running up to Cassius. ¡°Uh¡­ It was big and had red eyes.¡± ¡°She said to describe the monster no my mother in law,¡± Kain said with a slight chuckle. ¡°How big was it? Did it have a back fin?¡± Sen berated, her hoodie glimmering in the early morning sun. ¡°I was too enamored by its giant teeth to notice any of that. Why are you so interested in this monster anyway?¡± ¡°Have you forgotten that every portal during the expansion was guarded by a unique world boss.¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Cassis said scratching the back of his head. ¡°They were all weak though, not even worth the time.¡± ¡°Well let me propose a question, do you think world bosses level up like regular monsters?¡± ¡°Huh¡­, I honestly don''t know?¡± ¡°Are you telling me that thing could be over a thousand levels?¡± Melina chimed in. ¡°Quite possibly, but I won''t know until I see it for myself.¡± ¡°Is everyone ready to go?¡± Harriet asked, making her round across the small camp. ¡°What do we do about the carts?¡± Kain asked. ¡°Leave them, take what you carry in your inventory. From the information Cassius relaid, not all of us will make it through the barrier. Sen I want you to stick with Rachel, you''re the only one with high enough mana regen to keep a stable barrier for two people. For the rest of us, make sure you drink your water breathing potion. I have divided everyone into six teams, stay within communication range and do whatever your group leader says.¡± ¡°Yo, I''m not in a roster,¡± Kyle said, raiding his hand. ¡°Since Rachel is joining us, I had to push you out of Sen group to make room for her. Just pretend you are your own group leader and stay with the team.¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± Kyle said, giving her a salute. Sen and the five other members in each group all cast the same spell as a shimmering wave of light drifted across the group like a nice breeze. ¡°What was that?¡± Rachel asked looking to Sen. ¡°Glimmer, it''s a spell that cast an illusion of us for a few minutes. ¡°Sixteen,¡± Harriet shouted as the glimmering wave cascaded over the group. With a precise and simultaneous response, everyone in the raid opened their UI and scrolled down to server sixteen. Like the fading wind, the group all vanished leaving only the glimmer illusion. Sen, being the first to arrive by mere seconds started to cast a spell causing a moderately sized bubble to surround the area. ¡°Invisibility up.¡± Melina and her team followed Sen up by casting a buff, this one granting everyone the ability to fly for a short duration. ¡°We have ten minutes,¡± she said, downing a mana potion.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°I have updated everyone''s map, It should only take eight minutes to get to the destination,¡± Cassius said, already jolting towards the marked location. ¡°Don¡¯t let go,¡± Rachel said, grasping tightly onto Sen¡¯s hand. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone, but I don''t cope too well with heights.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Sen reassured. ¡°Look were already here,¡± pointing towards the river. With one hand, Sen began casting a spell. A force bubble formed around the two as they lowered towards the water. With a resounding splash, the bubble submerged, giving them the full view of what looked like an underwater whirlpool. ¡°We''re supposed to go into that?¡± Kain said. ¡°What, you chicken?¡± Cassius remarked as his team entered first. Each member was thrown into a long winding funnel leading them deeper and deeper into an unknown depth. Like a pinball machine, they were all eject into a large vast ocean with no sense of direction. ¡°Lights,¡± Cassius yelled, as everyone pulled out a small orb, gave it a slight smack, and threw it in a random direction. The multitude of the small orb cracked and radiated a bright yellow light giving the group vision of a giant underwater waterfall the size of a skyscraper. The waterfall, which flows upwards, ejected anything that got within a fifty-foot radius dragging it along with the current. ¡°Your six,¡± Don yelled, swimming towards the waterfall. The sound of gnashing of teeth could be heard as a large monster swam past, its red eyes reflecting off the orb¡¯s light. A bubbling noise reverberated across the water as the monster opened its large snake-like mouth. Like a hurricane, the monster let loose a concentrated burst of water blasting two of Don¡¯s crew into oblivion and scattering several other members, some of which floated too close to the waterfall and was sent flying upwards. ¡°Five down,¡± Don shouted, looking at the raid party screen. ¡°I¡¯ll try to pull aggro.¡± Bringing out a spear, Don hurled it at the beast, aiming for one of its large glowing eyes. The Leviathan, moving like a jet, easily dodged the toothpick and dove down towards the dark abyss. Coming up, the beast whipped its tail causing the water to rapidly spin forming a giant whirlpool. Three members instantly died as they were pulled into the massively rotating death trap. ¡°Pillar of flame,¡± Melina yelled, pulling out her staff. A huge surge of fire erupted in the middle of the whirlpool which swiftly evaporated the surrounding water causing a huge air bubble to form. The rapid collapse of the bubble caused a large explosion that ripples across each player pulling them back and forth. The Leviathan, after being hit by the massive shockwave, writhed back and forth before curling up into a tight ball. ¡°It¡¯s stun,¡± Kain yelled, swimming towards the enormous beast at full force. Holding firm to his trident, an electrical arc forming across the three prongs, he slammed it into the monster¡¯s side. With a dull thud, the weapon bounced off its thick hide like hitting a rock with a twig. Without giving it a second thought, Kain let go of the trident and pulled out a Spear that was twice his size. Kicking off the monster¡¯s scales, he drifted back twenty feet before gripping the spear with both hands. The spear burned a bright red as tiny bubbles formed around the edge, the water instantly evaporating as it made contact with the heated metal. With another push, Kain plunged the molten spear into the monster¡¯s hide, jamming it between two scales. An explosion blasted out from between the scales as the monster let out a deathly roar. System: You have identified the monster System: Creature: Grand Leviathan System: Type: World Boss System: Level: ??? ¡°I got agro,¡± Kain yelled, as a health bar popped up at the top of everyone¡¯s UI. ¡°I was right,¡± Sen said, still concentrating on the force bubble surrounding Rachel and herself. ¡°Where the damage?¡± Kain said, looking at the health bar. ¡°Mate, you got it down to ninety-nine,¡± GJ replied. System: [Great Leviathan] Health: 99% ¡°Fuck me dead, that things got auto,¡± G.J. added. ¡°What?¡± Kain shouted in confusion. ¡°It¡¯s got auto regen, and it back up to full,¡± Don replied. System: [Great Leviathan] Health: 100% The monster, unfurling from the stun, let out another roar causing everyone to be affected by fear. Giving Kain a death glare, the monster grasped at the lance in its mouth. With the sound of cracking metal, the lance shattered into large chunks. System: [Midgar¡¯s Lace] durability 0 System: [Midgar¡¯s Lace] has been destroyed ¡°Fuuuuuck,¡± Kain yelled, unable to move due to the fear. ¡°That was one of my favorite legendary weapons.¡± The Leviathan, swimming back away from the group, charged at Kain like a derailed locomotive. ¡°Guardian¡¯s Heart,¡± Don yelled debuffing the group from fear. ¡°Stack Guardian¡¯s shield on Kain.¡± Don, as well as four other members, all started chanting as a bright crystalized bubble formed around Kain. ¡°Brace for impact.¡± Before getting close to Kain, the monster made a quick u-turn, lashing its large tail at him like a whip. Upon impact, nothing happened, the lack of a reaction giving everyone a moment of confusion. The pause which was brief was broken as Kain was sent flying back, the force of the attack breaking the stacks of Guardian¡¯s shield surrounding him. Kain flew past the several members in an instant. Reaching out his hand out, he was unable to grab onto anyone as he was sent careening into the waterfall. The monster, not giving anyone a second to process, swam in a large circular pattern creating an even larger whirlpool, this one the size of a soccer field. Like pieces of litter, everyone was pulled into the swirling vortex. ¡°Fountain of the Goddess,¡± Harriet yelled, watching the mass of life bar quick dwindle. Her, as well as the other healers, were quickly running out of mana as the whirlpool drained everyone of their health. ¡°I got twenty seconds worth of mana left.¡± Cassius, shadow stepping next to the monster, threw a grappling hook at it. Catching one of the scales, he pulled himself towards the rampaging beast. With his dark obsidian dagger, he jammed it in between the scales of the monster while keeping a tight grip with his other hand. System: Unable to poison the [Grand Leviathan] ¡°It''s got poison immunity,¡± Cassius shouted. ¡°Noted,¡± Sen answered, forcing Rachel to down her sixth healing potion. ¡°I''m not feeling so good,¡± Rachel said, feeling the first signs of potion poisoning. Stowing the obsidian dagger, Cassius pulled out a glass dagger, the interior of which arced with lighting. Like with the first dagger, he plunged it into the beast waiting for the dagger¡¯s effect to take hold. System: Unable to paralyze the [Grand Leviathan] With the sleight of hand, another dagger fell onto the monster, thing one made of a hazy fog like exterior. The blade, which oozed smoke like a cascading show, slid under the monster scale like a parasitic virus. The monster stopped its circular swimming as it swayed its body back and forth like a worm strung on a metal hook. ¡°What did you do?¡± Sen asked. ¡°Blind,¡± Cassius replied, jumping off the monster. ¡°Guys, can you hear me?¡± A voice said, echoing across the water. ¡°Kain, you still alive?¡± Cassius shouted. ¡°Why would I not be? It¡¯s going to take a lot more than a fish to kill me.¡± ¡°I mean you did have a stack of bubbles on you.¡± ¡°Cut the chatter, Kain where are you?¡± Harriet said, attempting to down a mana potion. ¡°I¡¯m on the other side, and man, are you guy in for a surprise.¡± ¡°How did you get back there?¡± ¡°The fish, It threw me so hard I just passed through it.¡± ¡°We got about twenty more seconds before the debuff fades, anyone got ideas.¡± ¡°Yeah, I got one,¡± Kain said, letting out a loud huff. A two-handed axe came tumbling out of the waterfall, the rope behind it immediately catching the current and sending the whole thing floating upwards. With another shadow step, Cassius grabbed at the end of the hilt. ¡°Unholy might,¡± Don shouted, as a red glow enveloped him and several other people swimming towards Cassius. With a chain line forming, the group desperately swam downwards fighting the heavy current. ¡°How the hell are you holding it on your side,¡± Cassius said. ¡°I¡¯m not, I''ve tied it to something. Just grab on and let the current take you, I''ll pull you guys in.¡± Everyone promptly grabbed onto the rope, Don, as well as several other strong individuals took the area closer towards the waterfall. ¡°Ready,¡± Don yelled, as he stopped swimming, the current grabbing onto the group like a piece of seaweed. Slowly, Kain hoisted in the group, Don being the first one through. ¡°Whoah.¡± ¡°Yeah, no time, help me pull.¡± Don, shaking his head, grabbed the end of the rope. With another cast of Unholy Might, the two pulled through several other, who after a short glance at the gate, join in the line. Sen, being the last to go through, gazed at the two apartment sized statue in the shape of a mermaid, but was knocked out of her amazement as Rachel let loose a deep and guttural belch. ¡°I¡¯m.. I¡¯m not feeling,¡± Rachel began to say as a thick purple haze of vomit ejected from her mouth. ¡°Eww,¡± Sen said, dragging Rachel lifeless body away from her own cesspool of puke. ¡°What the hell,¡± Cassius yelled. ¡°Can it,¡± Sen said, bring Rachel towards Harriet. ¡°Can you do anything?¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I kinda forced her to drink about twenty max potions.¡± ¡°Jeez, are you trying to kill her,¡± Cassius said. ¡°You know the limit for that is eight, and that''s with a high constitution.¡± ¡°You have to keep in mind she has less than a tenth of our life pool and all those attacks do quite a lot of damage over time. My Arcane Sphere can only block so much of that damage.¡± Opening up Rachel''s status screen, Harriet gave Sen a slow shake of the head. ¡°The only thing keeping her from dying is my regen aura, Once that runs out she will succumb to the potion poisoning.¡± ¡°What''s the big deal, just let her die,¡± Cassius said. ¡°No,¡± Sen quickly replied. ¡°Harriet, can you maintain the regen?¡± ¡°Not really, the amount of Mana that would take would have me downing mana potion just as fast.¡± ¡°How about until we reach the inn?¡± ¡°Sure, but I won''t be casting anything for a while and we only have two healers left.¡± ¡°None of us are in shape to be fighting another monster like that,¡± Melina said. ¡°We should rush to the inn, rest and regroup for the night and tackle the wyvern tomorrow.¡± Walking into the portal, the once strong thirty seven man raid party was cut down to measly thirteenth, one of them being an unconscious Rachel. Chapter 7 Running across the slick grass, Cassius slid down an embankment keeping his legs out in front of him. Reaching the bottom he kicked off the side, making a lunge roll forwards giving him the maximum distance as a large bolt of lightning crackled behind him. Chunks of dirt, grass, and rocks flew overhead as he focused his gaze on a grove of trees in the distance. With a push of his feet, he quickly turned into a shadow leaving a puff of mist. Appearing behind one of the trees, he popped one of the health potions he had stashed on his belt and chugged it down, making sure his health never dipped below fifty percent. The bolt didn''t even hit him, and he is already down to sixty percent,¡± Don said, watching him weave the wyvern back and forth. ¡°How long do you think he can kite it?¡± Kain said, itching to join the fray. ¡°Bet you a thousand credits he dies within ten minutes,¡± Kyle said. ¡°You''re on.¡± Don, looking over at the two, shook his head. ¡°How the hell you were able to survive the Leviathan while G.J. and Vencer both died, I will never know.¡± ¡°I got skillz to pay the billz, yo.¡± ¡°Are you sure I can''t just gut him?¡± Harriet asked. ¡°Honey, for the fifth time, no. Just bare with him, he might be a bag of bricks in the head, but he can handle himself in a fight. Besides we''re already down to less than half the group.¡± System: You have been affected by [bleed] System: Health: 1% Starting at the large wooden beams that crisscrossed the ceiling, I watched as my health bar dipped down to one percent. With a woosh, one of the iron chandeliers swayed back and forth, the iron chains holding it up creaking with every movement. What the hell was that? Taking a look outside the large window, I saw the wyvern moving away from the building as it directed its wrath on another target. It must be hungry. Keeping my eyes trained on the large beast I notice a person running across the ridge line of the far off hill, the bright morning sun behind him obscuring any details. With a puff of smoke, the person disappeared leaving the monster bewildered. To the east of the large hill was the pond I had floated out off, along with what looked like a small blob of shadows. That must be them. Rushing outside the door, I started shouting trying to get their attention. ¡°Over there,¡± Kain shouted pointing towards the large wooden building. The group picked up their pace while also keeping their heads low as not to attract the wyvern¡¯s notice. A loud rustling could be heard behind one of the many bushes dotting the vast open terrain. Hoofbeats reverberated, getting louder and louder as a tremendous boar-like creature the size of a car came stumbling out. Two metallic horn stretched four feet out in front of it, each out vertically flat and shaped like a large meat cleaver. Kain, being in the front of the group, met the monster head first, ramming his large broad shoulder into the snout of the beast, taking care to avoid the sharp horns. ¡°I got this,¡± pulling a standard broadsword out from his inventory and driving it deep within the monster''s'' face. System: Creature: Blade Swine System: Type: Normal System: Level: 149 Taking a step back the monster lowered its head, the sword like horns aiming directly at Kain. Charging forward, the horn made contact with Kain¡¯s armor. The sound of a ripping metal could be heard as the blades lodge themselves into Kain, each one dealing thirty percent of his life bar. ¡°That things seven levels higher than you,¡± Don said, rushing up behind Kain. Grabbing onto Kain¡¯s shoulder, Don ripped him back, unlodging him from monster¡¯s grasp. ¡°Keep moving, I¡¯ll keep him occupied.¡± Holding up his shield, Don slammed into the monster, sending it into a short daze. ¡°Fat chance, I wasn¡¯t able to kill the Leviathan, and Cassius has the wyvern all to himself. I am at least going to tear this thing in half. Stowing the sword, Kain pulled out a flail. At the end was not a generic spiky metal ball, but a freezing chunk of ice. Waving it around above his head to give it momentum, he slammed it down on the monster making sure that the block of ice made contact with the ends of the horns. With every strike of the flail, the horn was encased in a thin sheet of ice. On the fourth hit, a loud shattering noise could be heard as the horn snaped, the blade falling to the floor with a loud thud. Rushing in behind Don, Kyle jumped over him, using his dwarven frame as a springboard. Lading on the writhing monster, Kyle pulled out a sword and slammed it into the boar¡¯s large muscular back. The monster let out a large howl as it thrashed back and forth trying to get the unwanted pest off its back. ¡°This is what they mean when they say everything is bigger in Texas,¡± Kyle shouted, putting one hand above his head like a cowboy. Kain, taking the opening, slammed his flail into the other horn. A bolt of lightning cascaded close to the group as the wyvern flew across. Jumping next to Melina, Cassius held out a dagger and threw it towards the wyvern trying to regain its attention. ¡°The hell are you guys doing?¡± ¡°Kain wants to kill something,¡± Melina said, pointing to the mock rodeo show. ¡°Kain, choose another time to have a power trip, I¡¯m having a hard time as it is keeping this thing at bay.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Kain said, grabbing the end of his flail with both hands. Pressing one of his feet forwards, he charged the flail, dumping a massive amount of his stamina into the next attack. The block of ice at the end expanded growing larger and larger as a sea of frozen fog dripped down. With a heavy swing, a large crack reverberated as the block of ice let loose scatterings of frozen ice chip with the impact. The boar toppled over with a thud as its feet swayed back and forth in a stupor. ¡°Let¡¯s go before we get roasted,¡± Kyle said, pulling the sword out of the monsters back and pointing it towards the Wyvern who was making a u-turn back towards the group. The group ran as fast as they could as the wyvern got closer, its mouth opened for another blast of lighting. About fifty meters from the door, a guttural snarling sound could be heard as the light bolt ripped across the boar''s body. Opening its large talon, the wyvern latched onto the boar, dragging its bloody carcass into the air. Throwing the bloody chunk of meat up into the sky, the wyvern gobbled it up like a piece of popcorn. ¡°Keep running,¡± Harriet said, grabbing Rachel feet to help Sen move faster. Rocketing through the door, I greeted each member making sure no one was left outside. ¡°Here,¡± Harriet said, handing me two potions. Walking into the large dining hall, she laid down on the wooden floor taking in a deep breath. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°A staunch and max potion. Drink it or your going to die in about fourteen minutes.¡± Heading her advice, I popped open the bottle and started to chug. Looking over at the girl with a weird looking golden hoodie, I notice Rachel draped across her back. ¡°Hey is she okay?¡± ¡°No, not really. She has potion poisoning and the only thing keeping her alive is that woman sprawled out on the floor,¡± Melina said. ¡°Is there anything I can do?¡± ¡°No, the only way to get rid of potion poisoning is either waiting out the timmer or dying.¡± ¡°How long does it last?¡± ¡°With this many stacks probably about three days.¡± ¡°Three days? How are we going to keep her alive that long?¡± ¡°Short answer, we don''t. She has about another thirty minutes before Harriet runs out of mana, after that the poison ticker kicks in and she will die within a few minutes.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡±There has to be a third option,¡± I said pacing about the room. ¡°I mean if we had a statue to the gods we could bind her to this area, but crafting one take tons and tons of resources.¡± ¡°Like what.¡± ¡°Don, what do you need to make a revive point?¡± ¡°Um¡­ let''s see,¡± Don said opening a large binder. Firstly a statue can only be placed within a regional influence of a server building, which this inn meets. Next is the cost. It depends on the deity, but the amount ranged from between three and four units of marble. After that, you will need to get a celestial stone, sunstone, moonstone, something to that matter depending on the deities alignment. The last thing is an offering that will satisfy the chosen god. ¡°What kind of offering?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I know for Vendor, the god of wealth and prosperity, you have to offer stacks of rare ore or legendary weapons. I have also heard that since he is a dwarven god, you could also get away with offering barrels of fine wines and ales. Vek-sen, the god of shadows and the watcher of the night is also pretty fond of gold. Cassius, don''t you have a shrine to him in your guild hall? ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s pretty low key. Instead of building the statue out of marble, I made it out of gold.¡± ¡°How is that low key?¡± Melina asked. ¡°That¡¯s the joke,¡± Cassis said, giving her a smirk. ¡°Okay yeah, so all I need is some marble, a celestial stone, and an offering, that doesn''t seem that hard to get.¡± ¡°Keep in mind that it takes a player almost an hour worth of cutting to get a slab of marble. It takes a hundred marbles to make one stack, and each stack is extremely heavy. Kain and Don are probably the only two here that could even carry a stack and that''s with them having nothing equipped and no items in their inventor,¡± Melina said, doing some quick calculations. ¡°I mean you could buy it second hand, but the supply is so low, it''s impossible to get four to five stack within a month let alone a day. Keep in mind that not even counting the five to ten maxed out artisan you''re going to need to carve the statue.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget the celestial stone, those things have less than a hundredth of a percent to drop from a celestial dungeon,¡± Kain said. ¡°He would know,¡± Cassius quick added. ¡°He¡¯s probably done that dungeon like ten thousand times by now.¡± ¡°I might have something that could work for that,¡± I said opening my inventory. Pulling out the Starlife Seed, I presented it towards the group. Sen, with Rachel dangling off her back, ran up to me gazing at the glowing seed in my hand. ¡°No,¡± she said in amazement. ¡°Didn''t you tell me the developers removed that from the game?¡± Melina asked. ¡°Yeah, they stopped showing up like three years ago. But him having one now makes total sense.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not following,¡± Melina said. ¡°It was two years right after the last few were used up. You message me asking why they stopped spawning. I told you that the dev either removed them for being too strong, or they changed the timers of the spawn rate. ¡°Yeah it was a strong item, but they only worked a tenth of the time, and that still does explain why he has one now.¡± ¡°Well in the second part of our conversation I theorized that the Starlife Seed could only spawn one at a time.¡± ¡°Ahh...¡± Melina said in a slow and understand tone. ¡°So the Starlife Seed spawned in the undiscovered area making it impossible, until now, for someone to find it.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Sen said. ¡°Uh¡­ So what does this thing do?¡± ¡°It¡¯s basically a shortcut to make a goddess statue, but instead of a statue its a tree,¡± Melina answered. ¡°Okay, cool, how does it work?¡± ¡°First you need to plant it.¡± ¡°Any advice on where I should plant it?¡± ¡°Why not right here?¡± Cassius pointed, his feet dangling off the second story balcony. ¡°You have a pretty open floor plan, why not just place it right in the middle.¡± ¡°Can I do that?¡± I looked at the two women curiously. ¡°Yeah, just open your building UI screen and go to the tab that says floor layout,¡± Melina said. Doing what I was told, I open the menu and pressed on the icon of a hammer. My UI went all crazy as the building turned shades of green and red. Focusing on the middle of the room, a sub window open up asking if I wanted to edit the room. Pressing yes, a series of other sub menu drop down asking me what I wanted to change about it. ¡°What do I press?¡± ¡°Harriet, how do you plant something in a zoned building?¡± Melina asked. ¡°Harriet, hey.¡± Walking over to the woman laid out on the floor, she got up to her face and was bombarded with a puff of warm air. ¡°She¡¯s passed out.¡± ¡°Oh, she probably really tired,¡± Don said. ¡°She¡¯s usually not a night player, so she probably hasn''t slept for over thirty hours. I¡¯m going to go put her to bed.¡± ¡°Wait, what about Rachel?¡± Sen said. I¡¯ll leave Harriet¡¯s character logged in, but the system will auto kick her in about ten minutes, that should give us about fifteen minutes total which should be enough to try to get this plan going. Be back in five.¡± Don face lit up with a dark screen as a black bar scrolled across his face letting everyone know he was away. ¡°Use the edit button,¡± Sen said, coming up next to me. ¡°Do you see an option to add a planter?¡± ¡°Yeah, it cost a hundred credits and two stacks of wood.¡± ¡°Kain, you have any leftover wood?¡± ¡°I do, but I need them to craft more bolts.¡± ¡°Well this is more important,¡± Sen said, giving him a glare. ¡°Alright, alright, no need to give me those eyes,¡± Kain said. ¡°I get that enough from my wife.¡± Walking over to me, he initiated a trade, putting several stacks of logs in the screen. Thanking him profusely, I look back at the icon of the planter and notice that it had turned green. Clicking on the button I was hit by a ghostly image of the planter, its location moving around the room as it followed my vision. Zooming in towards the middle of the floor, I pressed the accept button. The wood was instantly removed from my inventory as the wooden planter magically assembling itself in front of me. ¡°No,¡± Sen said in a soft but stern voice, her hands reaching out towards the planter. ¡°What,¡± I said, looking back at her. ¡°Did I build the wrong one?¡± ¡°No you idiot,¡± Cassius said. ¡°It¡¯s crooked. That¡¯s one of Sen¡¯s pet peeved.¡± ¡°So what do I do?¡± ¡°Go back in the menu and press the edit button.¡± Going back in the menu, I place my gaze over the planter which gave off a yellow outline. Pressing the edit button, the ghostly image of the planter reappeared. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°You see the image of a grid near the bottom of the UI?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said pressing the button. The planter immediate snapped onto the square, its alignment shifting making itself parallel to the walls. Hitting the save icon the planter snapped into place. Taking the few steps up to the wooden box, I opened my inventory, placing the Starlife seed in my hand. Dropping it over the mound of dirt, a notification popped up. System: Would you like to plan [Starlife seed]? Pressing the yes button, the seed disappeared from my hand. ¡°Back up,¡± Melina shouted. Taking her advice, I took a few steps back as a tiny sprout of a plant emerged. Sounds of snapping could be heard as the wooden crate budge back and forth the side bulging out making it look like a lopsided barrel. With a resounding crack, shards of wood splintered across the room before vanishing. Roots that were over a foot thick rammed themselves into the floor, each one getting bigger and bigger until a sturdy base form. The trunk of the tree shot up hitting the wooden ceiling before shattering it all together. The top of the tree kept climbing higher and higher before the roof sealed itself back up blocking any view of the tree. After a few minutes, I had a tree in the middle of my inn that had a circumference of almost sixteen feet. ¡°What the hell?¡± I shouted looking at the large tree that just made a large hole in my building. ¡°Uhh...¡± Cassius said scratching the back of his head. ¡°Melina, were they always this big?¡± ¡°No, they usually get about ten feet high, but this thing is absurd.¡± ¡°I was right,¡± Sen shouted. ¡°About what?¡± Melina asked. ¡°I told you the tree¡¯s height depended on how long it stayed in the ground gathering energy. A bloop echoed across the room as Harriet avatar slowly faded. ¡°We need to hurry,¡± Sen said, watching Rachels health starting to dip. ¡°Okay, Okay, what do I do now?¡± ¡°Go up to the tree and make an offering,¡± Melina said. ¡°A god will answer based on what offering is made.¡± ¡°Can I offer anything?¡± ¡°Yeah, it''s usually a formality to summon a specific god, but pretty much any item will do.¡± Going up to the giant tree, I place my hand over its rough outer bark. System: Would you like to make an offering? Pressing yes, a small box appeared in my UI. Opening my own inventory, I hovered over my credit, pressing a small pouch icon at the bottom. System: How many credits would you like to deposit? Entering a one, I proceeded to add several zeros. This is stupid. Removing the credit from the box, I looked through my inventory, ahh maybe this will do. Pressing on the player''s handbook, I place it inside the box. Fuck it, I might as well go all out. Taking the book out of the box, I hovered over the Luminaria, placing it in the box, I slammed the accept button. The giant fish dropped down in front of the tree, its bright blue aura lighting up the room like a fluorescent bulb. ¡°The hell?¡± Kain and Cassius said in unison. ¡°Is that a Luminaria,¡± Melina said, her eyes glazed over with its pure blue light. ¡°Take this,¡± Sen said, dropping Rachel unconscious body in front of me. Opening her UI, she threw a small orb in the sky, its lens focusing on the giant fish. ¡°How did you...¡± she tried to say before a rumbling shook the room. The fish started to float, its tail wagging back and forth as the offering was accepted. The trunk of the tree unfurled, the interior twisting out making a spherical gap as the many wooden columns spiraled around. The Luminaria floated towards the middle of the spherical gap as a haze of dark fog swallowed the fish. Small dots of floating light appeared, their crystalline pattern resembling the night sky swirled within the interior of darkness. The Luminaria swam back and forth within the large darken space its skin becoming almost a translucent white before it disappeared within the galactic mist. With a low rumble, the Luminaria darted out of the bubble, its skin now the same darken pattern of the night sky. It floated about the room, its fins leaving behind a beautiful trail of a night sky that shimmered as small stars appeared and disappeared all within a few seconds. ¡°What the hell, ¡±Don shouted, coming back online. Chapter 8 Stretching her hands over her head, Rachel let out a long yawn. Pulling a soft down pillow over her face, she placed it in a particular direction as to block out the sliver of light passing through the curtains. Making a heavy effort to get out of bed, she turned her body ninety degrees while pushing her legs out of the blanket. Staying in the position for ten minutes, she felt the cold grasp of chill take hold as she slithered her feet back into the comforting hold of the blanket. Closing her eyes, she slowly dosed back to sleep all her cares and worries melting off of her like a popsicle on a summer''s day. A sudden bombardment of cooked meats and stew hit her nose as she lifted her body off the bed. Licking her lips, she could feel that her lips were chapped denoting that her hunger bar must be low. Opening her stats, she was surprised to see that her hunger bar had dipped all the way down to three percent. ¡°You awake,¡± I said in a soft tone, as I made a small crack in the door. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said in a tired voice. Nudging the door fully open with my foot, I carefully maneuvered the platter of food towards the cupboard sitting next to the bed. Being extra careful with the wooden stein I was holding under the platter, I placed it next to the trays, making sure not to spill any. Reaching into my makeshift leather apron I had made with the extra scraps of leather Kain gave me, I pulled out a small wooden spoon from the front left side pocket. ¡°Did you make this?¡± Rachel asked, observing the crooked edges. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m learning a bunch of new crafting skills,¡± I told her closing the door as the sound from the bar was quite loud. Taking a sip from the cup, Rachel was caught off guard as the salty brine hit her lips. ¡°Is this broth?¡± ¡°It was that or an ale,¡± I told her, scratching the back of my head. ¡°Kain, Cassius, and Don don''t believe in water, so that''s the only other option. ¡°Thanks,¡± she said, picking up the bowl of stew. ¡°I guess you made the bowls as well.¡± Giving me a warm smile, she proceeded to take small sips of the thick stew. ¡°Mmmm.¡± Grasping the spoon, she jammed it into one of the pieces of potatoes, taking large chunks out of it like a ravenous carnivore. Putting down the spoon, she dove for the large piece of meat that looked like a turkey leg, it''s dripping juices covering the platter. ¡°Mmm,¡± she hummed again, taking a large bite out of the drumstick. ¡°You like it?¡± I asked her. ¡°Yeah¡± it''s really, really good.¡± ¡°Thank,¡± I told her, my face feeling turning a deep red. ¡°You made this?¡± ¡°Yeah, took me a few tries l, but I think I finally got it to taste appetizing. You should have seen the first few, they were like salt sticks.¡± ¡°Wait, how long have I been out,¡± Rachel asked. ¡°Four days going on five,¡± I told her pointing out the window, the moon starting to hover over the horizon. ¡°What?¡± She said in a blur of confusion. ¡°Why was I out for so long?¡± I recanted the story, letting her know the crazy event that took place while trying to keep her alive. ¡°... and that''s when we woke you up. You were still really groggy, but we were able to bind you to the inn. Several minutes after that you died and resurrected a day later. What was weird was that even though the damage from the potion poisoning stopped, you were still affected by the side effects. You were vomiting all over the place so we put you to bed, and you were pretty much passed out after that.¡± Getting up, Rachel rushed passed me, heading towards the door. Pushing it open, she was greeted by a boisterous sound of laughter and idle conversations. Striding up to the balcony she could see the large Luminaria floating about the room, it''s fins putting out a distinctive shadowy pattern. Holding her hands out as the fish swam right next to the balcony, she felt it''s slick yet warm skin drape across her fingers, the dots of lights glittering as they dance back and forth. ¡°Wow,¡± she said in utter amazement. ¡°Which god did you summon?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ someone name Celestine. The guild leaders were pretty surprised because she is well known, but no one has yet been able to summon her as a shrine. They told me she is the god of the heavenly bodies, safe passage, and luck. I¡¯m not sure what all that entails, but I¡¯m just glad someone answered.¡± Taking out a torch and lighting it, I handed one to Rachel. ¡°What is this for?¡± ¡°It¡¯s getting dark and since you want to work here, help me light sconces,¡± I told her, pointing to the metal torches hanging from the walls. ¡°I¡¯ll take the bottom, you take all the one up here, there should only be about ten or so.¡± ¡°Did you make those too?¡± ¡°No, Don made them, they are too high of a crafting level for me at the moment.¡± ¡°So where are the Guild leader now?¡± ¡°Light the sconces first and I¡¯ll take you to them.¡± After about fifteen minutes of running around the inn, I met Rachel on the first floor near the bar. ¡°Hey Sid, you still looking for more leather?¡± One of the patrons asked, downing his mug of ale. ¡°Yeah, but not right now, can you get back to me in the morning?¡± ¡°Yeah, no problem.¡± Walking to the right side of the bar next to the open stage, I stood outside of a door marked ¡°Private¡±. Giving it three quick knocks, the door slowly open as G.J. took a quick peek out the door. ¡°Hey G.J., can Rachel and I come in?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, hey Rachel, I see you''re finally up.¡± Fully opening the door, I could see Don, Harriet, and Melina all standing around a table yelling at each other. ¡°That¡¯s the reason why I need to come in last, If it uses fear, I can follow up with Guardian''s Heart,¡± Don said. ¡°But what about its gale strike, if blows away half the team and they are out of the fight for a good minute,¡± Maline rebutted. ¡°Sen and her group should be able to cover that, we have to worry more about its thunder breath, that thing...¡± Harriet tried to say before I gave another set of knocks near the door. ¡°Hey guy, Just want to let you know Rachel back up.¡± ¡°Come in, come in,¡± Don said, grabbing one of the chairs that were pushed to the side of the room. ¡°Here Rachel, how are you feeling?¡± ¡°I¡¯m doing a lot better. Where is everyone else?¡± ¡°Kain, Cassius, and Sen are back at the portal trying to pull the third group through.¡± ¡°What?¡± Rachel said in confusion. ¡°On the day you died, we tried going after the wyvern. With only twelve of us, we didn''t even stand a chance. It wiped half of us out with one lightning strike and then picked us off one by one. We are now dragging more people across the portal to bolster our party,¡± Melina said, scrolling across her UI. ¡°Speak of the devil, I just got the signal from our watch,¡± Harriet said. ¡°Takes one to know one,¡± Melina said with a slight chuckle. Gearing up, the group walked out of the small room into the boisterous tavern. ¡°Fumes, Bvat, Slog, you''re with us, everyone else is on backup,¡± Don shouted, his order turning the room into a full on boot camp. The three players instant put down their ale and hustled towards the party, each one geared and ready to go.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Can we join?¡± Rachel asked, breaking the moment of silence. Harriet gave Don a shrug as he motioned to her for an answer. ¡°Sure, but keep in the back and follows any orders given.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Rachel said, grasping my arms and pulling me towards the group A girl with short cut hair enter the room, above her head were cat ears that wiggled back and forth. Her eyes gleamed with a bright yellow tint as she approached us. ¡°I just got the signal,¡± she said. ¡°They are unable to make it through the east side, there are about four or five monsters currently in that area and they don''t have the resources to take on that many. They are going to try to take the ridge to the west, but I haven''t gotten any signal what they want to do after that.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± Harriet said. ¡°We''re heading out now, keep us posted.¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± the girl said walking out the door. As she walked away I could see a very unusual bow strapped to her back, its bowstring gleaming with a smooth metallic gleam. Exiting the Inn, I could see the girl¡¯s eyes focused on me as she ran towards the group. With a bounding leap, she soared above us, her tail brushing lightly against my face. Grabbing onto the second story balcony, she made another leap this time onto the roof. Pacing towards the tree coming out of the roof, she began to quickly climb making it to the top of the two hundred meter tree in less than a minute. ¡°Who is that?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s Myre, She¡¯s in Cassius¡¯ guild,¡± Don answered. Mummering some words under his breath, Don let out a radiant light that enveloped the party. An icon popped up above everyone name, showing a symbol of a shield. Don again casting another spell, made another icon pop up, this one also a shield but with a noticeable blue outline. Melina, following up Don, cast her own set of spells. The icon of an eye popped up as well as a set of boots. A flash of light suddenly obscured my vision as a wave of green washed over the landscape. Everything was now covered in a bright green outline making it so much easier to see in the dark. Don, being in front, ran towards a scattering of brushes. After a few seconds, he gave a signal, letting us know that the area was safe and we could follow. This continued another six more time until I was able to see small amounts of movement at the edge of the ridge. ¡°I think I see them,¡± I whispered, pointing to the faint amount of movement. Melina cast a baseball size orb in her hands that had a very dim glow, almost like a burnt out light bulb. Throwing the orb, it moved in a slow wavy pattern almost like a perfect sine wave. After a minute, the orb reached the area we last saw the movement before hitting a tree and vanishing. A few moments later, a small feather drifted down from the hill, its golden metallic sheen gleaming off the light of the moon. ¡°That¡¯s them,¡± Don said, heading to the next bush. Coming up next to him, I could visibly see Kain¡¯s outline, his hulking figure hard to miss. ¡°Hey,¡± Cassius said, his voice whispering in my ear like a warm breeze. ¡°Fucking, fuck,¡± I screamed silently. ¡°You scared the shit out of me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the idea. We pulled through nine more people, half of them were badly injured by the Leviathan and were out of healing. We need to get them to the inn as...¡± Cassius tried to say before being interrupted by a red shaft of light coming from the inn. ¡°Hide,¡± Melisa whispered, making a motion to everybody to keep their heads down. The sound of hooves could be heard as several monsters raced across the open landscape. Keeping still for what seems like forever, the sound of the beating footsteps became distant. ¡°Where''s the okay sign?¡± Kain said? ¡°I don''t know,¡± Don replied. ¡°I''m going to go ahead.¡± Taking a step out of the scraggly bush, A red signal fire shot out. ¡°She wants us to stay put. Anyone have eyes on the threat?¡± Boom, boom, boom. Three shots back to back, the first two being red and the last one a bright fluorescent purple. ¡°What the hell does that mean?¡± Kain asked, looking to Cassius. ¡°One red means enemy, two means dangerous enemy. Purple means emergency, but we rarely use that color because of how ambiguous it is.¡± ¡°What kind of emergency?¡± Harriet asked. ¡°I don''t know. That''s the reason we rarely use it.¡± The sound of large beating wings could be heard as everyone in the group looked up simultaneously. The wyvern, gliding over us, open its mouth, and electrical current traveling across its body. ¡°Fuck,¡± Don yelled, holding his shield straight up. ¡°Brace yourself.¡± Boom, boom, boom. Another three set of arrows shot up from the inn as the beam of electrical lighting exited the monster¡¯s mouth. ¡°What?¡± Kain said, following the beam¡¯s projectile. ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± Harriet said, watching three purple arrow light up the sky. ¡°What does three emergency mean?¡± ¡°Really, really, bad news,¡± Cassius answered with a shrug. The wyvern flew high in the air, with a sudden stop, it turned its nose down and dove towards the ground. The wyvern disappeared as it flew behind the ridge. ¡°Go now,¡± Harriet shouted, pointing the injured members towards the inn. ¡°Whatever is coming we should be able to hold it.¡± A screech blasted out from behind the ridge of the wyvern took flight. Instead of coming down for another attack, the monster kept flying leaving the area. Boom, boom, boom. More purple arrow sprayed the skies this time in rapid succession. ¡°Rachel, Sid, follow the others,¡± Harriet said, pulling a staff, the top of which held a white crystal with rainbow translucent hue, from her inventory. Grabbing Rachel by the hand, I dragged her as hard as I could, but she would not budge. ¡°Rachel let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°I want to see what it is,¡± she said not budging. ¡°No, we need to go.¡± ¡°Sen, can I stay,¡± Rachel asked in a sweet voice. ¡°Um¡­ sure,¡± Sen replied as she cast a series of buffs on the group. ¡°See, we¡¯ll be fine, Sen will take care of us.¡± I could barely make out the green outline of a monster making its way across the hill. If it was not for the buff Melina put on me, the monster would almost be invisible, Its body covered by a tattered cloak of darkness. Surrounding the monster were lines of heat, almost like its body was covered in an invisible flame. In its right hand, it held a scythe, an old wooden stick almost to the point of rotting connecting to a long curved blade at the end. ¡°Is that a lich?¡± Cassius said, his tone more serious than ever. ¡°No, that¡¯s a reaper,¡± Sen answered, her voice quivering ever so slightly. ¡°We need to go,¡± Don said. ¡°Hell no,¡± Kain shouted. ¡°This thing looks like it got a sack full of legendary items.¡± Pulling out a spear, he aimed it towards the monster. ¡°What the hell are you doing,¡± Melina said. ¡°I¡¯m going to charge it.¡± ¡°Are you stupid.¡± Heading her no mind, Kain¡¯s body began to glow a deep tint of red as his arms, legs, and back swelled with a muscular tone. With a blur, he charged at the monster with unimaginable speed, closing the large gap in mere seconds. The spear hit the monster with the sound of tearing cloth. The monster rose its left hand summoning a dark circular ring of flames that surrounded Kain. ¡°What an idiot,¡± Melina reiterated, rushing up towards Kain. Holding up her staff, she shot out a ball of radiating light which lit up the sky for a few seconds. The monster recoiling from the light and took a few steps back. Holding up its scythe, it took a wide swing. Kain held up his lance ready to block the attack, but the blade slid right through him as well as Melina not doing any amount of damage. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I shouted again, grabbing at Rachel¡¯s arm. ¡°No way, this is getting good,¡± She said grabbing my arm and pulling me closer to the action. Turning its head towards us as we got closer, the reaper form became a fuzzy haze as it phased out of existence. ¡°Look out,¡± Don shouted, as the monster appeared behind us. A ball of iridescent light formed around us as Sen jumped in front, her wand casting a wall of thick glass. Slamming his mace against his shield, the sound of large banging drums could be heard as Don made his way behind the monster. ¡°I got aggro¡± Picking up momentum as Kain rushed down the hill, he slammed into the monster with another heavy hit, his spear gouging through the monster like a piece of cheese. The monster, unable to go for Kain, swung his scythe towards Don. As Don readied his shield, the scythe made the same motion passing through him as it did for Kain and Melina. Immediately follow the swing, the monster let loose from its hand a flurry of small flaming balls of fire. Instead of flying towards Don, the balls flew around the reaper, each one traveling in a random motion making them harder to dodge. Jumping back from the flames, Kain stowed his lance and pulled out a longbow, the grip of which was covered in a thick leather hide. An arrow appeared in his hand, this one thicker and longer than a normal arrow. At the end was not your usual cutting blade, but a large thick metal ball. Drawing the bow, the string began to glow red like his body, after a few seconds of charging, Kain let loose, the energy transferring from the string into the arrow. The heavy metal ball rammed into the side of the monster with a heavy thud as the sound of cracking bones could be heard as the monster staggered back and forth. ¡°Crit,¡± Kain shouted. Slamming the end of the staff to the floor, a wave of fire erupted sending everyone flying backward. Small gouts of flame appear randomly around the reaper as it began casting a spell at Kain. A wall of bones sprouted behind crashing into him like a tidal wave and bringing him closer towards the reaper. Another wall of bones appeared this one heading towards the front of Kain ready to turn him into a bone sandwich. Kain''s health immediately dropped down to ten percent as he attempted to get back up. ¡°Fountain of the Goddess,¡± Harriet yelled, dodging the several gouts of fire erupting from the floor. ¡°Over here,¡± Sen said, trying to guide the group towards a flat open field. Don, immediately knowing the plan, made a wide arc around the monster and headed towards Sen while banging on his shield trying to provoke the monster. Whirling around the reaper made a swing at Don but missed hitting Harriet who was too focused on dodging the attack. Phasing out once more, the monster appeared next to Don. ¡°Gotcha,¡± she said as a magical binding circle erupted from the floor. With a loud cackle, the monster slammed its scythe towards the floor, this time a large skull appearing above Kain, Melina, Don, and Harriet. The four instantly dropped to the floor, their body skidding down the hill. Gouts of fire, now having fewer targets, erupted under Sen. There were only milliseconds in between each blast making it impossible for Sen to dodge every attack. Eventually, her stamina ran out, as several gouts erupted under her bringing her health to zero. The bubble around Rachel and I immediately dissipated as the passive fire scorched our body killing us just as fast. Chapter 9 ¡°Leave me alone,¡± I said, looking down from the balcony while whittling away at a wooden bowl. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Sid if this is about the money, I can totally pay you back whatever you lost,¡± Rachel replied. ¡°How do you plan to do that?¡± ¡°I just need to go back to the mainland and withdraw from a bank, I have plenty...¡± ¡°How do you plan to go back to the mainland?¡± I said, cutting her off. ¡°We just need too...¡± Rachel grew quiet as she contemplated her options. ¡°Can¡¯t we just take the waterfall back up?¡± ¡°Anyone trapped in the waterfall dies before they make it to the top. I presume that the only way back to the mainland would be to kill the Leviathan, and I don''t think that¡¯s happening anytime soon.¡± ¡°Aren''t you going to get more money once they kill the wyvern? Did you need it urgently?¡± ¡°Yeah, this building has a monthly tax and it¡¯s not cheap.¡± ¡°What tax?¡± Rachel said in confusion. ¡°I have to pay a monthly tax for this building and it about a hundred thousand.¡± ¡°What do you mean a hundred thousand? Didn''t you buy this place for four hundred?¡± ¡°Initially the tax was sixty thousand, but with the addition of the shrine, it bumped up to a hundred. I was confused about why it was so high so I asked Harriet. She did some zone lookup and told me that this building was sold to me under the price predetermined by the game system three years ago. One the purchase was completed the zone was then updated to the current market value and the price was inflated to meet today''s rates which valued this building to be somewhere in the millions.¡± Rachel hunched over, her hand held against her feet as she fell down towards the wooden floor. ¡°Fuck, I screwed you over royally.¡± ¡°You don''t even know the half of it,¡± I said in a half-hearted chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m going to lose the inn and then we''re both going to die.¡± ¡°What do you mean die?¡± ¡°I don''t have money to pay for the month¡¯s subscription.¡± Rachel got up and glared at me like I was a rock. ¡°Are you an idiot,¡± Rachel yelled, getting up from the floor. ¡°You had all that money and you only paid for one month?¡± ¡°What are you getting at?¡± ¡°You know they give you the option to buy your subscription in bulk right. I buy mine in one-year intervals so I don''t have to go through the hassle of doing every month and the rates are cheaper that way as well.¡± ¡°Dammit,¡± I yelled. ¡°Now I feel like an idiot.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have a plan B?¡± ¡°Plan A was to not die, and that was going pretty smoothly until...¡± ¡°Yes, you don''t have to hover your death over me, I get it.¡± ¡°Have you tried asking any of the guild leaders?¡± ¡°I would but most of them are not online. Kain was dragged out of the house by his wife to go to the doctor when she found out he had died and was locked out of the game for two days which is a pretty rare occasion. Don and Harriet are doing date night while Melina is currently traveling abroad.¡± ¡°What about Sen and Cassius?¡± ¡°Cassius is over there,¡± I said, pointing towards the bar where a bunch people sat drinking and discussing some plans. ¡°Sen is in room two sleeping.¡± ¡°Sleeping?¡± Rachel said in confusion. ¡°She¡¯s an NBC like us.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ So why don''t you try asking Cassius or Sen for the money? ¡°I tried, no one brought any money because there was no reason to do so. The only way to get money across would be to have it ferried from the mainland, but Harriet told me that due to the uncertainty of it making it across the waterfall, any amount that is lost I would still need to reimburse.¡± ¡°What does that even mean?¡± ¡°Well If I wanted a hundred thousand, the safest way for any of the guild leader to do that would be to load five people with twenty thousand. Let''s say three of them died to the Leviathan, only forty thousand gets to me, I still have to repay the full hundred thousand.¡± ¡°That sounds stupid.¡± ¡°Honesty, coming from a corporate point of view, it sounds quite reasonable. I''ve been with Xuxan and they would always do this type of dealing with farmers.¡± ¡°Then what about the money from the drake?¡± ¡°I already asked about that. Harriet told me that they would need more time to get more people and resources across the barrier. They might take more than the required month, so at this point, I''m just waiting for them to get back to see what other plans they might have.¡± ¡°That might take a few days, what do you plan to do in the meantime?¡± ¡±Do the same thing I have been doing for the last week, make utensils and level up my cooking.¡± ¡°Why are you even making food in the first place? You''re not at a high enough level to where your food could grant buffs.¡± ¡°That the same thing I told Cassius when I laid out rations for everyone to eat. He went on a whole speech about how I need to learn how to make food because if the only thing I''m feeding the group is stale crackers then I¡¯m going to have a bad time. He went on about how I need to keep the groups moral up and the easiest way to do that is to make food. I headed his advice and started to learn how to cook and that pretty the whole story.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Hmm¡­ never thought of it that way,¡± Rachel pondered. What level are you in cooking anyway?¡° ¡°Nine, but I only need a hair more experience to hit ten.¡± ¡°Oh, let me help you with that then, it¡¯s the least I can do.¡± ¡°I have the perfect job for you,¡± I said walking down the stairs. ¡°I was able to get enough wood and metal from Kain to build part of the kitchen, It has a decent stove as well as an oven.¡± ¡°Ooo, sounds fancy, what do you want me to make?¡± ¡°Bread,¡± I told her, not giving away a bit of hesitation. ¡°Your joking right?¡± Rachel said, almost tripping down the stairs. Walking past the bar, I open the wooden door to the kitchen. ¡°If only?¡± I said, holding the door open. Pacing up to the brick oven, I pulled a few logs from my inventory and jammed it towards the back. Throwing in a small amount of hay, I grabbed a small flint and steel from the side table. Rubbing the two pieces together sparks flew hitting the hay immediately catching and setting the whole thing ablaze. ¡°Where are your pots and pans?¡± Rachel said opening the many draws and cupboards. ¡°We don''t have any crafter, so I don''t have any..¡± ¡°So how have you been cooking?¡± ¡°Taking out a large metal buckler shield, I place it in the oven, the metal immediately heating up as the fire swelled. ¡°Are you serious?¡± Rachel asked, looking at me like I had just dug through the trash for a meal. ¡°I have to make do with what I have, and besides it''s not too bad, the shield is over level ninety so it has crazy high durability and look here,¡± opening the shield¡¯s status screen, I pointed towards a small line of text.¡±This shield has basic fire resistance. I asked Sen to add this for me, now the shield will never get so hot that it will burn the food.¡± ¡°That¡¯s stup¡­,¡± Rachel tried to say before she cut herself off. ¡°You know, that kinda genius. Since regular cooking utensils were classified as general equipment you were never able to add an enchantment to them, but cooking with real equipment might have some benefits.¡± ¡°I know, isn''t that amazing.¡± ¡°So where are the ingredients?¡± ¡°Over there,¡± I said, pointing towards a wooden cupboard. Opening the door, Rachel was presented with a list of several items. ¡°I see we have flour, but not much else.¡± ¡°What do you need to make bread?¡± ¡°I can make a basic flatbread with just flour and water but it''s going to be bland and tacky. With some yeast, I can get the bread to rise so it won''t be so flat, and with some salt and sugar it won''t taste so bland, but I can always experiment with any other ingredients if we get any.¡± ¡°Hey, Sid you here,¡± a woman said coming in through the door. She wore a dark brown almost black leather armor that hugged her body. The armor had several different layers that moved and flexed with each step but gave off no sound. Behind her was a large metal crossbow that was folded in a way to give it a slim profile. Walking up to the counter she opened her inventory and produce several chunks of meat as well as a few bags of grains. Pulling up a chair, she took a seat watching as Sid heated the cooking hearth. ¡°What¡¯s for dinner?¡± ¡°Sorry Aladay, but it''s going to be more stew.¡± ¡°Again? It has been stew for the last weeks. Don¡¯t you know how to make anything other than stew?¡± ¡°No, not really,¡± I said. ¡°But I have Rachel to help and she can make bread and stuff.¡± ¡°Bread and stuff,¡± Aladay repeated in an almost inquisitive tone. I hope its better than the crappy ration we were eating for the first week, that stuff tastes like dried cement.¡± Rummaging through the sacks, Rachel took in the smell and feel of the few different grains. ¡°Where did you get this?¡± ¡°There is a field across the ridge, once you get across you can find them in abundance. They make great ambush points since they grow to about eight feet tall.¡± ¡°Can you get more tonight?¡± ¡°Nope, Harriet put a restriction on what time we¡¯re allowed to leave the inn. Once it hits eleven server time, were locked in until six.¡± ¡°Why didn''t I get this memo?¡± I asked. ¡°Because you never leave the inn.¡± ¡°Hm¡­ fair point. Why is the restriction in place?¡± ¡°The Reaper. If you thought the wyvern was hard, that thing is near indestructible.¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing it only comes out at night?¡± ¡°Yeah, if you ask Cassius he should have the track map.¡± ¡°A what?¡± I asked. ¡°When a boss monster shows up, they usually have a preset route. While it¡¯s not always the same, you can usually guess their next location by gathering enough data points. Once this is all complied we call this a monster¡¯s track map. A track map can usually tell you a monster¡¯s favorite hunting spot and the place they go to rest.¡± ¡°That''s awesome, how do I get a copy?¡± ¡°A thorough track map can cost quite a bit, but since we''re the only one tracking it I¡¯m sure if you ask Cassius he would be glad to set you up with a track list of all the monsters we¡¯ve encountered so far.¡± ¡°Could you take me to the spot tomorrow?¡± Rachel chimed in, feeling a bit anxious. ¡°Why are you in such a rush to get a few grains, this is the real prize right here,¡± Aladay said slapping the hunk of meat set out on the table. ¡°Because these grains are of some crazy high quality. Not to put you down or anything, but have you ever notice why Sid has been able to cook the editable stew with almost no cooking experience?¡± ¡°Um¡­ is it because I''m just a good cook,¡± I rebutted. ¡°No, its because the ingredients are such high quality that small mistakes go unnoticed. Take this meat for instance,¡± Rachel said, opening its status screen. ¡°Out of all these cuts of meat, none of them are lower than A class.¡± ¡°Meaning what?¡± I asked. ¡°Meaning anything you make with them will, for the most part, turn out edible. Meat like this is very rare to come by in the wild and must be bought through player farmed cattle.¡± ¡°You may not be able to see the benefits yet, but with grain this tier, I could make bread with some outrageous stat boost.¡± ¡°So why can¡¯t you do it with meat?¡± Aladay said. ¡°It¡¯s because my profession is a baker, once you hit level twenty in a profession you have to choose a subclass.¡± ¡°I know, I know, you don''t have to give me the whole spiel about classes. I just never knew cooking had its own subclass.¡± ¡°Why don''t you make something now?¡± Aladay said. If you make something that half-decent I''m sure you will have many players lining up to grab more ingredients for you. ¡°It won''t be too good since I have limited ingredients, but at least its something different to the stew.¡± After an hour of cooking, I came out with several shield worth of stew, each one still bubbling as I place them across the bar. ¡°It¡¯s ready,¡± I shouted, looking at the several patrons talking to each other around circular tables. ¡°Me first,¡± Aladay said, rushing up to the bar. Grabbing a wooden bowl, I scooped a large portion of the stew along with a very thinned out flatbread Rachel had made. ¡°Rachel is still tweaking with a few recipes in the back, but she told me that this should taste half decent.¡± ¡°I''ll be the judge of that,¡± Aladay said, ripping the bread to bite size stripes and smearing it across the bowl of stew. ¡°Holy shit, that¡¯s so good.¡± ¡°Move out of the way,¡± a man with large rippling muscle said as he impatiently stood behind her. ¡°Oops, sorry Rodrick,¡± Aladay said turning around and handing him one of the strips of bread. Grabbing it, he slid it across the thick stew and sucked it in his mouth making an audible wet slurping noise. ¡°What the...¡± Rodrick began to sputter. ¡°It¡¯s good right?¡± Aladay asked. ¡°No, not that.¡± Opening his stats screen he turned it around to show Aladay. System: Intelligence increased by 23% System: Duration 5h 59m ¡°Pfffft, what the hell, that¡¯s hilarious. Hey Cassius, come over here and take a look at this.¡± Getting up from a table near the back of the bar, he walked over towards the group. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Look,¡± Aladay said pointing to the screen. Cassius started at it for a good five seconds before turning his head away. Keeping an arm to his mouth, he tried to keep a stoic face before letting out a burst of muffled laughter. ¡°What your intelligence at now? Twelve?¡± ¡°No¡­ I have¡­ 43. What about you Aladay, last time I checked all your points were put into dex.¡± Opening her logs Aladay looked at her intelligence and notice that it had stayed the same. With a frown, she opened her logs wondering why she was not granted the boost. System: Movement speed increased by 31% System: Duration 5h 54m ¡°Holy shit,¡± Aladay said pointing to her stat window. ¡°Cassius, what''s your movement speed?¡± ¡°Two fifty six, Why?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯m faster than you.¡± Chapter 10 "Get set, go." A bright burst of light flashed in the air as Sen fire a small spark from her wand. Cassius immediately using one of his skills he warped sending him a hundred feet closer to the goal. Zooming in on one of the shadows cast by the many small shrubs, he immediately used another skill that blinked his body sending it zigzagging from one shadow to another. With a few steps, he made it to the end point touching the tree with the tips of his fingers. Turning around he prepared his next set of skills to make it back towards the finish line making sure to put Aladay in her place. Another set of sparks erupted as Sen walked over to Aladay. "Winner, Aladay." "How the hell did you make it back so fast?" Cassius said casually walking back to the starting line. ¡°You may have a bunch of blinks, but I can multi-dash." "Yeah, but last time I checked dashes can only take you fifty feet. How the hell did you manage to be twice as fast as me." "C''mon, you can''t expect me to give away all my secrets. I won fair and square and Sen is her to vouch for me." "Fine, fine, but I''m getting my title back," Cassius said opening his UI screen. Pulling up a notebook of names he scrolled down to his name and removed a hundred guild points, going next to Aladay''s name he added the point with a slow and head shaking movement." "Hell yeah," Aladay said. "So how many points do you have left?" "Three," Cassius said begrudgingly. "What are guild points?" I whispered over to Sen. "They are an arbitrary point system set up by guild to claim item drops. You gain them by running guild raids or guild events." "But how do they work?" "Mmm, let''s say you have a raid with two healers. At the end of the raid, a rare healing staff drops. Only one of the healer can claim it, so they bid on the drop with their points." "Ahh, that''s pretty cool, what happens if none bids on it?" "It depends on the guild, for mine we put it up for a guild-wide bid, if by the end of forty-eight hours and no one has bid on it, we sell it and split the amount evenly amongst the original raid members." "What if someone bids one point to claim an item so they get all the money?" "It''s possible, but keep in mind that guild points are finite.¡± Grabbing the last remaining bowl on the counter, I place them in the sink. ¡°Meeting in ten minutes,¡± I told Rachel as I walked past her. ¡°Did Melina get back?¡± ¡°Yeah, She logged back in about half an hour ago and has been chatting with Kain and Cassius. Harriet and Don are getting the meeting room ready and said they had a couple of ideas to present.¡± ¡°Yo, they are starting it early,¡± Kyle said opening the door to the kitchen. With a shrug, I made a quick motion over to Rach who was still washing the remaining bowl. ¡°Take a seat,¡± Harriet motion, pulling out a few documents. ¡°Good to see everyone back after that fiasco.¡± ¡°Please don''t remind me, the wife had me go to seven checkups even though I told her I was fine,¡± Kain said. ¡°When¡¯s the last time you ate something that was not spewing blood?¡± Cassius remarked. ¡°Save the chatter for later, I have a lot of information to go through,¡± Harriet said with a stern look. ¡°The biggest problem we have right now is the inn. Sid has about one more week before it goes up for auction.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see what the problem is?¡± Kain said. ¡°I can just buy it.¡± ¡°How much do you think this place cost?¡± ¡°Cheap as dirt, there has been no development and Sid said he paid four large for it so with inflation my guess is forty mil.¡± ¡°Melina, can you share the information you recently acquired?¡± Harriet asked. Taking a stand, Melina opened a large blackboard that appeared on the wall behind her. Typing out a few buttons, a slew of numbers appeared on the board along with several complicated math equations. ¡°To get to the gist of it, your partially right. Using the standard economic model the price for this building should be forty million. I say should, but the actual amount is way off.¡± ¡°By how much?¡± ¡°Six hundred and forty-four million.¡± The room fell quiet as everyone looked about the room. Kain opened his mouth to say something but immediately stopped himself. Placing his hands under his chin, he rubbed it contemplating the number that was presented to him. ¡°What?¡± Don let out. ¡°Yo, your pad be hella poppin,¡± Kyle said, his head halfway through the meeting room door.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Myre, please escort Mr. Kyle out of the room.¡± The girl with the cat ear appeared behind Kyle as she grasped the back of his tunic and dragged him out of the room. ¡°Oh, hey sexy¡­ oww, ow, ok, ok oww fucking ow.¡± Turning back to Melina, Kain stared at the equation on the board. After several attempts to do the math in his head, he felt a twinge of a headache forming as the numbers all floated in a giant twister of confusion. ¡°I have a question,¡± Sen said, giving her hand a slight raise. ¡°I see two anomalies in the question, the first one is about the amount of tax Sid has to pay.¡± ¡°I already know where you''re getting at,¡± Melinda answered. ¡°And yes the rate is locked for him at the time of purchase.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± I asked. ¡°According to the current tax rates in the game the amount you would need to pay to own this inn should be around seven million a month, but the game has not adjusted your monthly tax like we previously thought.¡± ¡°Then I keep getting the same number and it¡¯s completely wrong,¡± Sen replied. Taking her finger, Melina drew a number on the board. With her other hand, she hid the number looking over to Sen. ¡°What¡¯s the number?¡± ¡°Um¡­ Seventeen twenty-one.¡± Removing her hand, Melina showed that exact number. ¡°What happened during seventeen twenty-one?¡± Kain asked, whispering over to Don. ¡°Hell if I know, history was my worst subject.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a date, it¡¯s a multiplier,¡± Melinda said. ¡°This multiplier has two implication if Sen and I have both come to the same conclusion.¡± ¡°Uh.. and that is?¡± Kain replied. ¡°There is something dangerous lurking in these waters.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still not following.¡± ¡°How did you get to your forty million estimates.¡± ¡°Easy, Sid said he paid four hundred for this place, with inflation that comes to about four million. Taking the average level of this place, I¡¯m guessing a hundred or so, I added a ten ex multiplier.¡± ¡°You''re actually really close, but there is one outlier in that equation. In your head your thinking that the average monster level is one hundred, but if you work back from my given estimate you will get a completely different number.¡± Blinking a few times Kain pulled down a calculator app from his UI screen. Taking the large number he plugged it in. Working back from the large number he came to the same number Sen and Melina had both gotten. Crossing his arms he leaned back onto the chair. ¡°Huh...¡± ¡°I so fucking out of the loop, what the hell is everyone staring at?¡± Cassius remarked. ¡°Melina please break down the equation for everyone at the table,¡± Harriet said. ¡°Part one is fairly simple. Take the base that was paid, four hundred thousand, and adjust it for inflation so four million. The second part is a lot harder and requires a bit more work so I''m going to just dumb it down. Cassius how many unique monsters have we encountered in this area.¡± Opening his UI screen, Cassius opens a log book and began counting down the list. ¡°I have thirty-two counting the reaper.¡± ¡°That¡¯s within our margin so far. Most region will have about seventy to a hundred unique monster, but since we have yet to explore any of the dungeons, we will round it to eighty-five. At this point, it¡¯s a bit of a guess but we can say that most monster in the dungeon is around level five hundred not including the bosses. With the bosses, we will say they have an average level of a thousand.¡± ¡°Holy shit,¡± Cassius let out. ¡°We''re not even getting to the good part yet,¡± Melina replied. ¡°So if you add them all together you should have maybe an average level of this place being about four hundred, divide that by ten and you get the area level multiplier which if our math is correct should give us a hundred and sixty million.¡± ¡°Okay, I''m following, where the other half a billion coming from?¡± ¡°It¡¯s coming from the same level multiplier. What would you say if I told you that there was one or maybe several monsters that are five to ten time stronger than the reaper.¡± ¡°How much stronger?¡± ¡°More than four thousand levels higher than the reaper.¡± ¡°Do we know what it is?¡± ¡°No, and at this point its a discussion we have to talk about in the future because that¡¯s not our main priority of this meeting,¡± Harriet said. ¡°Then what is it?¡± Cassius said. ¡°Unless anyone has half a billion lying around, we can¡¯t let this building go into default. Our main goal today is to find a way to get a hundred thousand.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy, lets just mule across the amount we need,¡± Kain answered. ¡°It¡¯s doable, but that going to be very costly long term. I currently have two options, one, get more guilds to join us, or two, we go public with the area.¡± ¡°I don''t like either of those plans,¡± Kain said. ¡°At the end of the day, Sid gets the final vote.¡± The room grew quiet as they all looked at me waiting for me to say anything. ¡°Well¡­ um¡­ Honestly, I¡¯m not too sure. Our biggest problem right now is the Leviathan. If we kill it, that would make resource transportation a lot easier. But as we all know, that thing is scary as fuck. If we were to get more guilds to join us, how many do you think it would take to kill it?¡± ¡°I was actually thinking about this,¡± Cassius chimed in. ¡°It would take maybe the top twenty or so guild, but that¡¯s only if the monster has no tricks. We could just spam it with enough damage to kill it.¡± ¡°Are you counting the corp guilds?¡± Sen asked. ¡°No, they are too inconsistent.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a corp guild?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s short for a corporate guild,¡± Kain answered. ¡°They are large guild made up of mostly low-level employees. What they lack in power they have in quantity and funds. They usually have the same plan for every fight, throw enough people at it until it dies.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that the same idea Cassius just suggested.¡± ¡°Kinda,¡± he said. ¡°But we''re going to be more organized.¡± ¡°Why are we not going public?¡± Rachel said. ¡°I don¡¯t see what the downside to that would be.¡± ¡°We would have every guild including the corporate one invading the area,¡± Kain answered. ¡°Yeah, but your missing one big thing.¡± ¡°And what is that.¡± ¡°Even if they kill the Leviathan, there is no way they could stay in this area for more than a few hours before they run out of resources. They would either die to one of the larger creatures or they would need to head back to the mainland. Sid is the one holding all the cards.¡± ¡°She¡¯s got a very good point,¡± Don said. ¡°I¡¯m lost again.¡± ¡°You own the inn, so that means you can set up a restriction of who can enter. And the best part is that you also own the waypoint. No one can bind themselves to this place unless you permit them too.¡± ¡°I think Rachel just solved his money problems,¡± Harriet added. ¡°You could charge very highly to rent out room here and you can even add a binding fee to use the waypoint.¡± ¡°What can I charge?¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to you.¡± ¡°Okay, I like this idea. Is there anything else we need to cover?¡± ¡°How do we plan to go public with this idea?¡± Sen asked. ¡°Why don''t we just put out a video,¡± Don answered. ¡°Or, better idea,¡± Melina said. ¡°Why don''t we make all the news channels bid for it. Chapter 11 ¡°How much did they pay?¡± Cassius said, sitting in the corner of the pub next to me. ¡°Three hundred and Forty-seven thousand along with the stipulation that any new information we plan to publicly release for the next week goes through them first.¡± ¡°Thank you for joining us at the Daily ARchive, I¡¯m Cassey and next to me we have the talented and ever so lovely Melina,¡± Cassey said in her guild¡¯s head office with a holographic depiction of Melina sitting next to her. ¡°Melina, we have heard from many of the larger guilds that you and many of the top tier guilds have been missing from the raids for about a month now. There has been some speculation going around about what¡¯s going on, but I want to hear from the source itself.¡± ¡°Well Cassey,¡± Melina started, waving her long hair across the screen. ¡°We have been on somewhat of an adventure. It¡¯s been a hard month of fighting and looting, but today we feel that this is something we should share with the community.¡± ¡°Before you tell us,¡± Cassey interrupted. ¡°Let¡¯s hear a word from our sponsors.¡± The floating cameras blinked out as they rearrange themselves around the office. Cassey got up and headed towards a small booth. With a flick of her fingers, her red burgundy blazer transformed into a stylish neon blue robe with black trim tracking across the edge of the robe. Several people walked about the room as they moved different sets of props turning the sensible white spaced room into a luxurious mansion background. Cassey sat down on a white leather chair that replaced the swivel chair she has previously occupied. ¡°Looks expensive,¡± Melina commented, noticing the chair was crafted out of dragonhide. ¡°Our channel goes big,¡± she said, while her eyes scanned a series of notes in front of her. Before we go live again, anything you want to feed me in on? Any info I get ahead of time would make this interview go a lot smoother.¡± ¡°Trust me, any info I give you will only make you feel stressed out. Let me take the flow and your boss over there,¡± pointing towards a man with a well-tailored dark suit, ¡°should be very happy with the influx of viewers you''re going to get.¡± ¡°How do you know he¡¯s the boss.¡± ¡°Oh please, I¡¯m not the head of my guild just for my looks. That suit cost more than a house and anyone who can stand in one place and point at people give themselves away immediately as someone important.¡± ¡°Live in three,¡± a man said his hands waving back and forth putting the cameras back into position. ¡°Welcome back viewers and thank for joining us here at the Daily ARchive. Melina, you were telling us that you found something amazing, what details can you give regarding that info.¡± ¡°Well... ¡± Melina began before being nudged in the back. ¡°What is that?¡± Cassey shouted pointing to the large fishing hovering behind Melina. Getting up Melina motion one of her transmission cameras switching it from static to auto-follow mode. Walking behind the Luminaria, she placed her hands over the head of the fish like it was a dog. Giving it a quick rub, she gently pushed it off sending it swimming back towards the dark void in the middle of the tree. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry about that,¡± Melina started. ¡°That was just Celestine¡¯s familiar coming to say hi.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that tree?¡± Cassey asked, trying to force Melina¡¯s camera to tilt up a few more degrees. ¡°This thing?¡± Melina said, obliging the camera to move up. ¡°This is a shrine to Celestine. Don¡¯t worry about it, just pretend its a background prop.¡± ¡°A background prop? Melina, you want me along with our several,¡± aching her head towards the side to look at a small box, ¡°two million viewers to pretend a shrine to Celestine is a background prop. Do you know how many paladins would kill to be favored by Celestine.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure quite a few,¡± Melina answered. ¡°More than quite a few,¡± Cassey replied. A lough coughing sound could be heard coming from the back of the room. A man with a large UI screen that read ¡°Break in 3.¡± Shaking herself out of her stupor, Cassey look Melina in the eyes. ¡°I have had a few reports come in telling me that you guys have found a new dungeon. Is that true?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s partially true. I¡¯m not sure how to elegantly say this, so I¡¯m just going to say it. We found the lost sixth region.¡± The room was silent, as every person stared at Melina with wide eyes and even wider mouths. A small beep could be heard coming from the counter every time an additional ten thousand people join the stream. Beep, beep, beep, the sound became more rapid as the counter jumped from two million up to six million viewers within a span of thirty seconds. ¡°Now a word from our sponsor,¡± Cassey said, her words cutting through the silence like a paladin''s astral ray through a miasmic fog. ¡°This is nuts,¡± Cassey exclaimed watching the counter as it passed the seven million mark. ¡°Already another commercial break,¡± Melina said. ¡°It¡¯s only been like two minutes.¡± ¡°The producer wants to run as many as possible to make back the money we lost, and besides, this gives me a bit of breathing room.¡± A man who was previously pointed out by Melina walked up to the two, his stride calming yet powerful as he stood next to Cassey. ¡°Melina, this is J.J. Aaron the founder and CEO of the Daily ARchive.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you,¡± J.J. said, holding out his hands. Catching his mistake he withdrew watching as Melina incorporeal form fuzzed. ¡°Sorry, force of habit. I just got a message from Cassius regarding a website server expansion.¡± "Yes, we will be hosting a file on your site, and will need a private host for it as well as a transaction server." "You plan to sell something?" "In a way, yes." Waving his hands, J.J. brought up a UI panel. Scrolling down a list he pressed a name. "You have Davis," the man said, his hand clicking on the keyboard.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Davis, I need you to set up a private host server for our friends here." "Sure thing, what kinda web service do you need and how much bandwidth should I allocate to it." "Set it up as a default store along with a secure fund transfer. Also, make sure you put plenty of adds on the page." "That''s easy enough, what about bandwidth?" ¡°All of it, also purchase ten¡­ no make than twenty times more bandwidth for the site.¡± ¡°Sure thing boss, let me contact our host. How long do you want it for?¡± ¡°Let''s make it a week, that should be enough for the initial wave.¡± ¡°Ooo,¡± Davis said sipping air through his teeth. ¡°They are quoting me roughly two million.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± J.J. said sending Davis a small cube of data. ¡°Go ahead and charge it to my direct account.¡± With a few more clicks, Davis completed the transaction sending J.J. as well as Melina the key for editing the website. ¡°Anything else boss?¡± ¡°Not right now, but keep an eye out on the site and let me know if anything needs to be done once we get more players.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll keep an analytics tab open for it,¡± Davis said his screen closing. ¡°Here you go,¡± Melina said waving at a person off-screen. Walking up next to her, Cassius grabbed the key and made his way off camera. ¡°Should be done in a minute,¡± he said in almost a whisper. ¡°Back on the air in ten.¡± Sitting back down in her seat Cassey added a few last-minute questions down on her notes. ¡°Air in three, two...¡± ¡°Welcome back everyone, I see we have gotten quite a few more people watching today. Melina, you have just announced to us that you have found the lost region. Do you plan to publicly release the location of the area and how to get there?¡± ¡°Nice segway,¡± Melina said with a smirk. Opening her UI Melina brought up a map of Amrah. With a flick of her fingers, a small dot appeared on the map marking the entrance of the gate. ¡°No need for screenshots, this will all be public knowledge soon enough. We have compiled all the information you will ever need for this area. This information as been composed by Cassius and his guild, Ledger.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Cassey started. ¡°I know very well how good ledger is at compiling information, but the information they compile comes at a very steep cost. Is this information going to be somewhat limited to only players that are near the top one percent?¡± ¡°Good thing you asked,¡± Malina replied. ¡°What would you value this information to be worth?¡± ¡°I¡¯m honestly not too sure, but I¡¯ll just ballpark and say somewhere in the range of a hundred thousand.¡± ¡°No quiet, we are looking in the range of several million, but don''t be discouraged. Where not here to money gouge the player, we want everyone to be able to access the new content, or old, however, you look at it. We''re not charging you a hundred thousand, or even a thousand, we are going to be selling this information for just a hundred credit, and yes you heard me right a hundred credits,¡± Maline said with a flourish, sending out a link bubble that floated above her.¡± The man who was operating the camera held out another note on his UI screen. Taking a glance, Cassey made a nodding gesture and pushed open a UI screen. ¡°Melina, we have a bunch of people calling in wanting to ask questions, would it be alright if I put a few of them though?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± With a press of a few buttons, Cassey UI lit up with a list of several players, their names continuously scrolling down in a blur as the amount of caller grew larger and larger. Reaching out her fingers she pressed on one of the names. The button grew a bright green as a muffled sound echoes across the room. ¡°You''re with the Daily ARchive, can you introduce yourself and state your question?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ am I on?¡± a man stated on the other line. ¡°Yes,¡± Cassey replied. ¡°Um¡­ yeah, my screen name is Sevenlinkservos with the guild Larkandark, and my question is, even though the information your selling is downright free, why do we even need to buy it if the gate location is going to be publicly available?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good question Seven,¡± Melina said. ¡°Even though the gate location is going to be public knowledge getting to it is not going to be a cakewalk. Let me give you some of the video sources we have included in the data package.¡± Melina brought up her UI screen, it''s dark blurry background giving way that the screen was not playing. A muffled noise came from what seemed to be behind the screen yelling ¡°your six.¡± The screen quickly turned around as several large sharp teeth came charging at the camera like a stray locomotive. The large serpentine beast let loose a torrent of water sending camera floating backward. The camera shook and sputtered before it made several quick turns showing the monster as well as a large waterfall. The screen stuttered and dissipated as the orb made its way closer and closer to the waterfall. ¡°What was that?¡± Cassey said with her mouth wide open. ¡°That was the gate guardian Grand Leviathan. We have estimated the monsters level to be above five hundred. It¡¯s one hell of a deterrent to anyone wanting to get to the gate, but we have added a few tricks to make it a bit easier to get across.¡± More names scrolled across Cassey¡¯s call list as she attempted to press on one of the tabs. ¡°Your one with the Daily Archive.¡± ¡°Oh sweet, I got though, shout out to my guild Rose4Gold. My name is DarentheSlayer and my question is, what is stopping you from killing the leviathan?¡± ¡°The Leviathan is on a scale that we have yet to amass enough resources to defeat. We, of course, put the challenge out to any guild that wants to take it on for yourself. For everyone else, we have made a somewhat comprehensible way to get pass the Leviathan. We don''t guarantee that it¡¯s a full proof so make sure to keep any unbound items in the bank.¡± ¡°We have just enough time for one more question,¡± Cassey said pressing another name at random. ¡°Hi my name is 4Runner and my question is, has anyone in your party or the party of the other guilds your currently with realigned a paladin over to the goddess Celestine. If yes, what new ability does she give you?¡± A woman asked. ¡°That information is currently private and as I¡¯m not the owner of the bind point I am unable to discuss the matter.¡± A new slurry of names stormed Cassey UI as she closed it out. Taking a deep breath Cassey stared into one of the cameras. ¡°That is all the time we have for today folks, please join us back tomorrow where we will reveal any new information about the current situation. This is Cassey singing out from the Daily Archive,¡± she finished with a rehearsed voice. ¡°Great job,¡± J.J. said, coming over and giving Cassey a firm handshake. Keeping a firm hold onto his hand Cassey wretched him forward giving him a hug, ¡°You have to let me go.¡± ¡°What?¡± J.J said in confusion. ¡°You have to let me go to the new area, how else am I going to get all the new up-to-date information?¡± ¡°Who¡¯s going to do all the reporting in the newsroom?¡± ¡°Greg,¡± Cassey said pointing to the man working the cameras. ¡°What, me?¡± Greg said in a confused tone. ¡°I have no idea how to report, I just do cameras.¡± ¡°It¡¯s easy Greg, you just read off the UI prompt. Now that we have that settled, can I go?¡± Cassey said turning back to J.J. J.J. scratched his head and walked over to Melina. ¡°I know this was not part of our contract, but if I send her over would you look after her for me? She¡¯s an NBC and I would feel kinda bad putting her in such a high-level area.¡± Pacing over to Melina''s projector-camera I hunched down so that J.J. could see me. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Sid, while I can¡¯t personally agree to Cassey¡¯s safety I can guarantee her a safe place to live while she is here, I just have a small request.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± J.J. said. ¡°I just need a few small items, none of them expensive maybe a hundred or two hundred credit max,¡± I said, sending him a list of items. ¡°Done,¡± he replied, not even opening the list. ¡°You can go,¡± J.J. said. ¡°Just don¡¯t go with the first wave of people, they are bound to make a bunch of mistakes that the second or third wave of people will pick up on.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± she said with a grin stretching across her face. A low grumble sounded across J.J. face as a call screen popped up. Pressing the accept button, Davis popped up on the screen. ¡°Sir, we already made twenty thousand off the ad revenues...¡± ¡°I thought it would be more,¡± J.J. interrupted. ¡°We made twenty thousand in the first five minutes before the site crashed. I''m working to get it back up, but we don''t have enough resources to keep it sustained.¡± ¡°How much more bandwidth do we need?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a bandwidth problem we are being attacked.¡± ¡°A DDOS?¡± J.J. said. ¡°Yeah, the page is being denied, I¡¯ve traced it back to the source and its coming from a bunch of corps.¡± Chapter 12 ¡°How¡¯s it looking?¡± I asked, handing Melina rations of bread that were stored in the back cupboard. ¡°They finally got it back up and running, but we''re not sure how big of an impact eight hours will be. If anything the first and even second waves heading through the gate should mostly be corps, but that¡¯s not a bad thing.¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°They''re going to throw bodies at it,¡± Cassius said, saddling up to Melina. ¡°Cameras are set up, we should be receiving a live feed in a few minutes. Corps usually hire just about anyone that can hold a weapon, most of them have never been in a raid party let alone a raid group. A bunch of them, I''m guessing more than eighty percent will die to the Leviathan.¡± ¡°What about the other twenty?¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing another ten will die to environmental hazards and the rest who make it past the gate will either make it to the inn by tonight or be killed by the night spawns. It takes a full party of us to take down one of the random encounters, how do you think an untrain battalion is going to fair.¡± A light buzz echoes across the room, as the camera¡¯s transmission lit up. ¡°This is Aladay on camera three, I spotted the first group. We have about ten thousand players heading down, ninety percent of them are corps, the other looks to be some of the mid-tier guilds. I have no sight on the Leviathan yet.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised, I would have thought all the high ranking guild would be rushing to get here as soon as possible.¡± ¡°No, they are smarter than that,¡± Cassius said. ¡°They know that if they charge in right now, it''s going to be a cluster fuck. They are biding their time planning and making sure they have as little casualties as possible.¡± ¡°Leviathan spotted,¡± Aladay said in a muffled voice. ¡°I have harpooners incoming.¡± Players dressed in a low-level gear all swam towards the waterfall with increasing urgency. A spray of harpoons splashed towards the waterfall as each one penetrated the flowing current. Like a whip, everyone had their harpoon gun ripped out of their hands while others who had tied the rope to themselves were dragged up like pieces of debris in a hurricane. ¡°I specifically wrote down that harpoons guns don''t work,¡± Cassius said, shaking his head at the camera. The Leviathan swam towards the group of players, its jaw open, swallowing up anyone in its path. Upper management who wore a more elaborate attire shouted out orders as the monster dove down into the dark abyss. Bursts of magical attack followed the monster, their illuminating glow fizzled as they disappeared upon reaching their max range. Like clockwork players tossed out nets each one flashed with a faint red glow. The monster shot out from their left, this time speeding towards them like a crazed hyena. Many of the nets made contact with the monster each one dangling off the fins and spikes around its face like pieces of string. The nets, however, were too small to have any effect at slowing down the large behemoth, that was until the small cores on each lit up with a blue electrical glow causing the monster to writhe in pain. ¡°At least they got that part right,¡± Cassius remarked. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. Opening the guide, Cassius pointed to a small icon next to the monster. ¡°See this lighting symbol?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Next to it are two plusses, which means the monster is extremely susceptible to lightning damage and paralysis.¡± ¡°Full attack,¡± one of the corps yelled her armor distinguishing her as a high ranking player within her company. All the corps swam towards the monster with a variety of different weapons in hand. An array of sparks of electrical flashes carved at the monster as it thrashed back and forth. Next to the monster¡¯s head was the paralysis icon, the number next to it stacking until it hit the max limit of nine hundred and ninety-nine. ¡°Oh that''s smart, they''re going to stun lock it,¡± Melina said, watching the thousands of players swarm the monster. System: [Great Leviathan] Health: 96% ¡°Look at that, they are keeping up with its regen,¡± Cassius remarked. In the back, members of the upper management surrounded themselves with protection auras. Lining themselves up with the waterfall, they had several members hit them with high impact attacks. Flying past the waterfall each one hit the pillar-like a deflated balloon. ¡°Myre on camera four, I have confirmation of breach,¡± she said hiding behind the head of statues. Setting up rope lines, one of the players tied it to himself. ¡°Aura still good for another minute,¡± he said bracing himself for another attack. Blasting out of the waterfall he was received by hundreds of players each one grabbing the rope and swimming downwards against the pull of the water. System: [Great Leviathan] Health: 92% ¡°Dam, they are really doing it,¡± Cassius said. ¡°Too bad Kain is not here, he would have loved to see this.¡± ¡°Where is Kain?¡± I asked. ¡°He¡¯s with one of the scout teams.¡± ¡°This is Kyle on Camera five, I see six people past the gate all of them corp.¡± One of the corp removed an item from her inventory and place it on the ground. A small golden square base held aloft a purple diamond rhombus the top of which held a small flat disk. Poking at it, the woman shook her head. ¡°What is she doing?¡± ¡°It''s a transmission pylon, she''s trying to see if she can make contact without using a HUB. Until the Leviathan is dead it¡¯s going to be pretty useless,¡± Cassius said. ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°The Leviathan is the gate boss, it¡¯s like a physical barrier that separates all connection from the mainland. Once you destroy the guardian the game generates a new passage that will make it easier for people to communicate within the region.¡± System: [Great Leviathan] Health: 80% ¡°We have a problem,¡± Aladay said pointing the camera towards the monster. The Leviathan¡¯s body grew a deep red as its face contorted in anger. ¡°Aladay, do whatever it takes to keep the camera on the monster,¡± Cassius said.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Yeah, no prob¡­,¡± Aladay started to say before the camera cut out. ¡°Shit, Myre I need updates, can you see anything?¡± ¡°No, I can¡¯t see anything past the waterfall. If you want I blink the camera over.¡± ¡°No, I don''t want to lose another one. Just keep a tally on anyone making it past the falls.¡± ¡°As of now, I have a count of 26 corp group making it past the gate.¡± ¡°So about a hundred and fifty people.¡± ¡°This is ridge team,¡± Kain¡¯s voice blurted from one of the cameras. ¡°I have visual sight of about sixty.¡± ¡°Is Sen still with you?¡± Melina asked. ¡°No, she¡¯s with camera nine over at swamp.¡± ¡°Base to swamp can you hear me.¡± ¡°Harriet here, no visual.¡± ¡°Harriet I need you to meet you Ridge team, we have all duds.¡± ¡°Cassius you want to stay at base and keep the comms running.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± he said with a slight reluctance. ¡°Let''s go,¡± Melina said pointing to me. Before I could get a word in, Melina was already out the door, here staff held firmly in her hands. Casting her flight spell we hovered past the long span of sparse grassland that separated the inn from the ridge. Landing down just behind the center division Melina threw up her own small camera. ¡°Camera ten active.¡± ¡°Yeah, give me a second to arrange you,¡± Cassius said. ¡°Over here,¡± Don said, his voice a small rumble. Melina walked towards an open field, her staff held out as if waiting for a monster to jump out. Like a flash, she disappeared putting myself in a bit of a daze. ¡°Keep up,¡± Melina said, her head sticking out of an ethereal shimmer. Pacing myself towards her direction I passed through a bubble-like barrier. I was immediately surrounded by the smell of cooked meats along with small tables and stools made from sections of a fallen tree. Standing in the middle was Sen, her wand held out as she concentrated on a spell. Next to Sen was Harriet, Don, and Kain who was grinding his weapon with a whetstone. Opting to not take a seat on the wooden post, Melina stood next to Sen her UI open giving everyone small details regarding the plan. Sitting down on the open seat, I looked at everyone, their faces scrunched up with excitement. ¡°I want you to take the left flank with Don, and Kain, keep it to a minimum.¡± ¡°No promises,¡± Kain replied, the table in front of him stacked with an abundance of different weapons. ¡°So what are we...¡± I started to ask before the sound of a flare popped at the edge of the ridge. ¡°Sid, get ready,¡± Melina said grabbing a long sword off of Kain¡¯s table and tossing it to me. ¡° Avoid the nicer looking ones and stab them in the heart, you will crit more often.¡± ¡°What?¡± I protested before the shimmer of light around us fell. The bright sun dug into my eyes as I held my hands up blocking a majority of its rays as it slowly dipped past the tree line. ¡°That way,¡± Don said, grabbing me my shoulder and spinning me around towards the ridge¡¯s incline. Panicking I paced my running trying to keep up with everyone around me. Sen hovering next to me murmured a spell as four ethereal fists materialized behind her. Each fist was imbued with a different element, one was engulfed in a blaze of fire, another was a crumbling boulder, the one next to that was made of bone-chilling ice and the last one which was almost see-through was made of a light purple fog. Pointing her wand forwards the fist rocketed past her setting off a series of explosions, each one erupting in its different elemental attunement. Unable to keep my footing, I tripped on a small rock that jutted out from the ground. Looking up I saw a mace the size of my head come whirling at me like a soccer ball. Before making impact the thump of firebolt slammed the front of the man wielding the weapon. The man jerked back his motion curving the weapon away from my head barely missing it by an inch. ¡°Bruh, stop sucking like a noob,¡± Kyle said, giving me an arm. Patting me on the back, he dashed off, his ire set on another enemy. The sound of metal on metal could be heard as Kain charged at a pack of players wielding his spear to cover a majority of his body like a shield. Charging a line through most of the grunts he was stopped by two high-level corps, each one having multiple bubbles of protection around them. Twitching his fingers the spear disappeared and in its place was a large claymore. Grabbing it with both hands he made wide swing trying to whittle down the enemy shields. One of the corps switched to a sword and shield parrying many of Kain¡¯s attacks. The other corp held a small dagger which she stabbed at Kain every time he was parried putting multiple stacks of poison on him. Silver streak arrows tore through the enemy backline as Myre ran past the underside of the ridge making quick work of their healers. A man in a white and gold robe sent out pulsing orbs of light each one bounding in a zigzag direction making their motion hard to read. Dodging the orbs, Myre set off another volley of arrows before feeling her body grow stiff. ¡°Gotcha bitch,¡± a woman in an identical white and gold robe said, here hands grasping towards Myre keeping the binding spell in place. A blast of icicles the size of bricks shotgun Myre taking chunks of her health. Multiple different spells followed up quickly taking her remaining life and sending her to respawn. Looking up, I could see Melina and Sen both darting back and forth between other mages like a dog fight. Spell and arrow rained down on them as they set off large scale blast towards the middle of the enemy pack. With the sword in my hand, I charged at a man whose whole attire was a dull leather brown. Aiming for his midsection the sword pierced him like a piece of butter. Yeah, I mumbled to myself before getting smacked with a shield to the back of my neck. Keeping my hand in front of my face, I could feel the hard thud of his mace slamming against my chest, each one sending a shock through my system. Holding out the sword, I panicked jabbed at his shoulder hoping to make contact. I could hear and feel each hit as the man purposely stabbed himself as he relentlessly attacked me. After what seemed like forever the man stopped, his body fading as he dropped to the floor. Looking at my health I could see that it was quickly regening like the attack never even hit me. Pushing myself up off the ground, I aimed my sight on a new potential enemy, this one wielding a bow. Rushing at her as I did for the last person I held out my sword keeping it tighter to my body. With a heavy stab, I pushed back, not wanting her to have an attack of opportunity I made a side step to her flank. With another thrust, the sound of a sharp metal rang across my head denoting that I had made a critical hit. The woman spun around with her bow swiping at me with the front end. Having no real use in close combat she dropped it and brought out her secondary weapon, two hand crossbows. With another swing of the sword, the blade past though her, her form wavering like a mist. A coursing pain ran its way through my back as several notifications popped up next to my name. System: You have been affected by [Poison]. System: You have been affected by [Bleeding] System: You have been affected by [Blight] System: You have been affected by [Slow] Darting my eyes over to my health I could see that with just those two arrows she had brought me down to thirty percent. My health bar stopped regenerating its movement reversed as it quick ticked down to zero. Another attack slammed against my back, the shattering of glass could be heard as a cool liquid poured across my body. All the debuff icon instantly disappeared as I watched my health ticking back up. Pushing my eyes back up from the fuzzy floor, I made a quick scan of the horizon as my vision snapped towards the same person that had shot me. She was twenty yards in front of me, her body obfuscated by a grove of trees. Her hands jutted out behind the wooden barrier as she let loose another set of arrows. With a bounding leap, I jumped towards a cropping of bushes that was barely tall enough to cover my knees. The spray of skittering dirt and rocks landed towards my side as Racked slid next to me. ¡°Looks like your not faring too well,¡± she said pulling out an item from her inventory. ¡°I got one person, so I¡¯ll take that as a win.¡± Rachel pulled out an orbicular glass-bottled which was the size of an orange, its content sloshing around as the liquid swirled in hues of green and reds. Holding out her hand like she was planning to hand me the bottle, she hurled it against my chest, the content seeping into my skin like a hot press. System: Health 100% Flying overhead, Melina was swarmed, their tactics changing as they, instead of hurling spell at her, threw their bodies trying to drag her down to the ground. With the precision of a hummingbird, she nimbly dodged the corps reaching out at her. Following up behind her were bright darting missiles which illuminated the fading sky as they zoomed towards the corps sending them crashing to the ground. A low rumble echoed across the horizon as I peeked up behind the small shrubs. Don, as well as other members of his guild, marched in unison their shield held out keeping everyone within a fifty-meter radius engaged. Kain savagely ripped across the field like a starving wolfpack his claymore strikes landing with deadly precision. The sun slid its last sliver of light below the horizon as shots of light sparked the sky from the inn. ¡°Bag it,¡± Cassius said, his voice emanating from the cameras dotting the battlefield. Chapter 13 Don rushed the enemy front, his team deflecting any attack aimed at them. Hovering overhead, Sen set off a spell that shrouded the battlefield in a dense fog. ¡°Start looting,¡± Harriet yelled as she chugged down a mana potion. Hundred of pouches scattered the dirt floor, some the size of tennis balls while others were larger than a bowling ball. An assortment of weapons and items dotted the field, most of them generic leveling gear that was worth less than their weight stashed in the inventory. Hovering my hand over one of the pouches, the item vanished as a notification popped up in the corner of my UI. System: You have received 734 credit Scampering over to an area where Kain had evaporated several players, I ran my hand across the dirt floor picking up as many pouches as possible. Along with the credit, I went out of my way to grab as many potions as possible, some of them being worth quite a bit as I recalled the pricing guide when I last worked at Xuxan. ¡°Two minutes,¡± Cassius said, his voice echoing from the cameras across the foggy landscape. Seeing a few generic low-level items within my level range, I picked them up making sure to have enough storage space just in case I ran across anything worth looting. Stumbling my way through the barely visible surrounding I came across a bright green gem the size of a billiard ball. Stowing it in my pouch, I kept searching the floor before Don''s voice reverberated across the field. ¡°Retreat,¡± he yelled taking precise steps back from the enemies'' front line as they let off waves of attacks into the obscuring fog. Having a moment of reprieve as the frontline shield bearers brunt a majority of the attacks, everyone made a mad dash down the cliff charging the front door like a pack of rampaging animals. Running back, my pace slowed as I watch my stamina bar dropped past zero, the coloring of the bar going from its normal yellow to a bright blinking red. My breath came in shallow bursts as I hobbled towards the safety of the inn that was still a good distance away. ¡°Move it,¡± Don yelled as he slid down the cliff, several spells flying past his head like a fireworks show. Don held out his shield, the outer rim glowing an incandescent orange, as he charged at me. Shield bash was the last thing I heard before a sharp pain radiated across my back. My health, which was full, was making its way quickly down to zero. The door of the inn was approaching closer and closer as I held out my hands in a failed attempt to cling onto anything. Gliding past the door, my body went full force into the wooden podium, the edge of which dug deep into my sides. System: You may not participate in PVP battle while in a safe zone ¡°Fuck,¡± I yelled, arching my back like an old man as the pain slowly receded. ¡°If you thought that hurt, trying getting hit my one of Kain¡¯s attacks.¡± ¡°I mean you deserve it for swinging that sword around like an idiot,¡± Kain added. Laying down on the hard wooden floor, I took in shallow ragged breaths as I felt the cold floor ease the pain in my back. The pain dissipated after a few minutes as my health fully regenerated. Looking into the dining hall, I could see everyone crowded around the four large windows facing out towards the ridge. Pulling myself off the floor, I made my way over to one of the tables where I pulled out a chair. Setting it above the table, I took a couple of relaxed breaths as I took a seat and stared out the window. The fog which loomed across the ridge slowly dissipated, the enemy holding their weapons in the air in triumph as they yelled out in victory. ¡°There it is,¡± Cassius said, his daggers weaving back and forth between his fingers like a kids toy. The chorus of screams and shrieks resonated across the night sky like an untuned organ as the reaper made its way across the battlefield. The enemy evaporated like a cup of water in a furnace. As the high ranking corps died to the monster, several items exploded from their bodies like a pinata. The items scattered across the floor, some of them sparking with a bright purple shimmer as others shot out a golden beat that went up ten feet denoting that they were legendary items. The items didn''t last long though, the fire that ran across the field destroyed any items it touched, turning them into a spray of particles that scattered across the floor.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Boss look, that guy just dropped a Tethered Soul,¡± Kyle said, pointing to a shield with a dark and blue haze around it. ¡°I could have really used that,¡± Don said, shaking his head. ¡°Alright everyone, time to total our loot,¡± Cassius said, sitting at a corner table with a large wooden chest next to him. ¡°Any item that is rare or higher deposit them here. Any credits obtained in the battle will go to Harriet.¡± Taking my queue in line, I rummage through my bag sorting all the items by rarity. Common, common, common, uncommon, I murmured as I scrolled down the list. Getting to the very end, there was only one item that was noted as being rare, the green gem. ¡°You''re next,¡± the woman behind me said nudging me in the shoulders. ¡°Sorry,¡± I replied, taking the few steps towards the table. ¡°How did you fair, get any kills?¡± Cassius asked, not looking up from a UI screen. ¡°One, but I had regen.¡± ¡°Yeah, you can thank Harriet, she made sure to spread all the healer out evenly.¡± Taking the green orb out of the bag, I place it on the table. ¡°Nope, don''t want it,¡± Cassius said, placing the orb back into my hands. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a reset orb, it returns all your skill points so you can respec them, but the downside is that you lose all your exp and go back down to level one.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that point of that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s mainly for crafting. Sometimes a new recipe or a new ingredient gets discovered, many players respec so they can craft the newest and hottest items.¡± ¡°Guess I¡¯ll hold on to it then.¡± Taking a side step, I stood in front of Harriet who was busy tallying the amounts of credits. Opening my system menu, I scrolled down the system logs counting up all the credit I had picked up. A notification popped up on my hood as I place my hand over the small wooden box. ¡°No need,¡± Harriet said. ¡°How much did you have?¡± ¡°A little short of three thousand.¡± ¡°That should be fine, go ahead and renew your subscription.¡± ¡°Alright, anything else I should be doing with the money?¡± ¡°Were looking at a few upgrade paths for this building, go ahead and keep it somewhere safe until Sen and Cassius decide what to do with the remaining amount.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I said, taking a sidestep as I hurried out of the way, not wanting to keep everyone waiting. Taking a seat near the back of the bar, I watched as the UI timer slowly ticked towards midnight. Getting up I was ready to call it a night before a loud clang came from Cassius. ¡°I have the breakdown, In total, we have around eighty thousand credits. We have several rare items that will go up for auction tomorrow when everyone has revived. Harriet has attached a sheet on the quest board. On the sheet will be your name and the number of points awarded to you by the automated check system for the last battle. These points will be unique to tomorrow¡¯s bidding and will not overlap with any point from your respective guilds. The bidding will last until midnight tomorrow and will be a blind bid. The only restriction I have regarding the bid is that you may only win three items. If you win more than three items, you may only choose three and the item will be given to the person with the next highest bid. All of the guild leaders have also decided to give Kain the first three picks of items without bids due to the number of points he has accumulated.¡± ¡°How is that fair?¡± a woman in a tight green leather suit said, her hands raised from the back of the tavern. ¡°If we took everyone points and combines it together Kain would still have about one and a half more than that, so unless you want to bid against him I would say this is an easy compromise. Harriet do you want to add anything to this?¡± ¡°Yes, I want everyone to get a full night''s rest, we will be seeing a larger force tomorrow so be prepared to fight. I have news that the other guilds have fully prepared their gear and plan to breakthrough tomorrow as well. This place will be flooded with several different guilds so please don''t start anything. Do any of the other guild leaders have any input?¡± With a loud creak, Don got up from his chair and raised a mug. ¡°I would just like to acknowledge everyone for their fine fighting today. We did have a handful of casualties, but we were up against a pretty large opposition. As Harriet said, we will be seeing another group of corps tomorrow and this time expect them to be a minimum of level ninety. It¡¯s not going to be an easy fight, but I say bring it.¡± Raising his mug, Don let out a large shout as he slammed down the remaining drink. Everyone in the tavern let out a yell as they proceeded to do the same. ¡°Alright everyone you''re dismissed,¡± Harriet said. The whole tavern made a mad dashed towards the quest board each one trying to open the UI sheet. Moving to the back of the crowed I stood there waiting for the ruckus to die down. ¡°How many kills did you get?¡± Rachel asked, coming up next to me. ¡°Only one, how about you?¡± ¡°None. I was in the backline with Harriet and the other healers for most of the fight. Moving up to the board, I place my hands over the paper as a list of names popped up in my UI. Finding my name I followed it across the page. ¡°Forty-seven points. ¡± ¡°Hah, I got you beat by a mile,¡± Rachel remarked. ¡°I got three thousand and eleven.¡± ¡°How? You didn''t even kill anyone.¡± ¡°You get point for anything you do on the battlefield not just for killing. While you were waving your stick around, I was busy healing a bunch of people.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I acknowledge, scratching the back of my head. ¡°I would have died if it was not for the healer.¡±