Chapter Two: Into the depths.

...

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Shit!” He screamed.

It had been a few minutes now since he’d begun to fall and although he was slowly becoming accustomed to the descent—he wasn’t so accustomed that he could stop screaming.

....

“Aaaa...aaah….ah! Fuuuu...”

A few minutes later his voice still echoed within the depths of the chasm, although parts of it were lost to the rushing wind; however, his voice seemed to be growing weaker as he calmed down...

Capra was never fond of heights. He had very few experiences with high places and he wanted to keep it that way. Setting up camp on that boulder was out of character for him, but knowing he could respawn if he fell had helped him make the decision.

Not too far from Capra the [Elder Ent] was also falling. Occasionally it would get close enough to the chasm walls to try and hold on, but ultimately it only left long marks on the walls and barely slowed its descent. It tumbled madly, and its roars never ceased.

The force with which it flayed its arms left Capra with no doubt that he’d easily be swatted into oblivion if they grew any closer; however, he contemplated that that might be preferable to falling to his death.

The beast was large and it glowed a mix of Blue and Green— which were the only things that allowed Capra to make out its shape within the darkness of the chasm.

On closer inspection Capra noticed that the [Elder Ent] itself didn’t actually glow much, it was the [Blue Moon Moss] and other plant life attached to its body that emitted light.

“How the hell did I miss this thing.” Capra thought.

He’d been in the forest for about a day, but a creature the size of the [Elder Ent] could be spotted easily from a mile away, and yet he hadn’t.

He remembered the trio that chased the [Elder Ent] to the chasm.

“Did they trigger it? Was it a zone boss?” he mused.

Zone bosses would spawn periodically when certain conditions were met, but the [Elder Ent] seemed far too large to be an ordinary zone boss. Not that it mattered, they’d both probably be dead soon anyways.

A few minutes passed by in silence.

Capra had been waiting patiently for his death, but it had yet to come. He was so bored that he considered attempting an [Enchant] on a piece of [Blue Moon Rabbit Hide], but he thought better of it.

At the start of their descent Capra had been rather fearful of the [Elder Ent], but now watching the elder ent had become a sort of way to pass the time.

“When will we land?” He pondered as he stared down into darkness.

“Is it a glitch in the system.” He wondered. “Do I need to call a GM?”

In the end Capra decided to keep waiting, but by now his boredom had reached an extreme level.

“I wonder if I can kill the [Elder Ent] before we hit the ground.” He pondered.

“Might as well try.”

Capra began chanting [Chaos Bolt].

1.5 seconds passed and a [Chaos Bolt] flew directly at the [Elder Ent], it slammed into the behemoth... then fizzled.

“Wha.. Seriously?”

Seeing as the first [Chaos Bolt] was a dud, Capra tried again.

He began chanting and then fired off another [Chaos Bolt]... but once again the [Chaos Bolt] slammed into the [Elder Ent]... and fizzled.

“What level is this thing?” Capra shouted.

He was beginning to wonder if the fall would be enough to kill the [Elder Ent], but then he remembered that he wasn’t even level one yet, and the level difference made the zone boss way too powerful for him to so much as tickle it; however, now he was determined to hurt it, his pride was at stake.

“Chaos Bolt!” He cast, and the bolt flew straight at the [Elder Ent]’s head but the beast hardly noticed the [Chaos Bolt] despite it being right in front of its eyes. It just stared at Capra, curious as to what the little ant was doing.

“Chaos Bolt!”

“Chaos Bolt!”

“Chaos Bolt!”

Capra kept trying until eventually he cast nine chaos bolts, with no result; however, he still had enough mana for one more bolt.

“Chaos Bolt!” He shouted… and this time the bolt flew straight at the [Elder Ent]’s eye.

System Notification: [Chaos Bolt] inflicts 1 air damage.

“Ha!” Capra laughed… but the following notification froze the smile on his face.

System Notification: [Chaos Bolt] has triggered a status effect of type: air. [Chaos Bolt] causes [Elder Ent] to begin [Levitating].

The [Elder Ent] suddenly stopped falling, it didn’t seem at all concerned about the 1 point of damage that Capra had dealt to its eyeball— it was just confused.

[Levitate] was a spell that could cause a target to slowly rise up from ground, and despite the [Elder Ent]’s size it was affected the same way anybody else would be. Meanwhile Capra continued falling.

Capra was falling fast enough that in a matter of seconds the [Elder Ent] became but a spot in his vision.

“Graah!” He shouted. Few people wanted to die alone, and Capra was no exception. It was thanks to the [Elder Ent] that Capra got into this mess, so he had been looking forward to its demise but now… now he had set it free.

…

The [Elder Ent] watched Capra’s fading figure, blinking its large eyes as it contemplated its new found circumstances, but it quickly put him out of its mind. It was stable in the air now, and rising steadily, but it didn’t know for how long that would persist. It quickly latched onto the nearby wall of a chasm– nearly breaking off a large chunk of rock in the process– and then it sent roots burrowing from its toes and its fingertips into the wall’s surface.

This quickly paid off. The [Levitate] status effect wouldn’t normally last very long, and this was especially true against a zone boss.

The [Elder Ent]’s weight came back, and soon it was holding on for dear life... but fortunately it had firm footing now, so it began to climb its way back up the chasm— only pausing to cast one final glance at the bottom of the Abyss.

...

System Notification: +100 Karma.

This was the second time Capra had seen that notification. He remembered seeing it after saving Romeo, but he never thought much about it until now.

It wasn’t that he was unfamiliar with the concept of karma, but it just so happened that the forums said it was a useless stat that you got for being nice to NPCs —so Capra never paid it much attention... however Capra knew that saving an NPC could net Karma points, and he was sure he hadn’t been particularly friendly towards the [Elder Ent]... so that only left one alternative.

The realization then dawned on Capra that the [Elder Ent] would most likely live, and that he was its benefactor.

“...”

He was speechless.

…

Back in the forest Byron, Melissa, and Rickart had gone back to killing Ents. The guild had wanted to kill the [Elder Ent] to obtain its heart, but seeing as that was no longer an option they had commanded them to continue to kill enough ents to make a substitute. For what purpose? Well, that’s a question for the guilds.

“Shit! They’re grouping! Run away!” Someone yelled.

Ever since the [Elder Ent] had spawned— and then subsequently gone on its chasm diving adventure, the ents in the forest had become much more aggressive. Normally – but with a few exceptions –, the ents were neutral creatures, so if you left them alone, they’d leave you alone. But now they were grouping up and actively attempting to chase adventurers out of the forest, which made the guild’s request to gather ent hearts that much harder to complete.

“Rickart block them off! Byron keep heals on Rickart!”

It hadn’t been long since the [Elder Ent] fell into the chasm, maybe only an hour or so, but things had become hectic in the forest very quickly.

Blue Moon Forest was a popular hunting area for new players spawning in Blue Moon City, granted the forest surrounded the entire city… so it wasn’t really popular by choice, but still, the forest supported a host of monsters up to level 15, so players just needed to be aware of where they were going so that they could avoid any mobs that were too powerful for them.

The ents were at the top of the food chain in the forest, sitting at a comfortable level 15 with a few weaker ents going as low as level 12 —but no lower. Normally these ents were confined to an area of their own and since they were normally neutral players would often pass through that area to get to others, but now the ents were attacking wantonly and leaving their zone.

Groups of low level players found themselves being ambushed and killed by ents, and soon a reign of terror enveloped Blue Moon Forest.

...

Back in the chasm Capra resigned himself to his fate. He hated that the [Elder Ent] would live, but he tried to look on the bright side of things… at least he got some karma…

“Damnit!” He shouted, apparently unable to keep watch of the brighter side of things for more than a few seconds.

He looked at his hand. The hand that had shot the [Chaos Bolt], and for a second he wished he could curse it… but then another thought struck him.

“Wait… I can see my hand.”

Capra had been looking up in the direction he fell from, but now he turned around. The chasm should have been pure darkness, but he could see his hand now, so light had to be coming in from somewhere, fortunately that somewhere was rather easy to spot.

A few hundred meters below Capra could see faint lights.

“Huh... I guess there is a light at the end of the tunnel…” He thought, but it didn’t matter. His time had come.

He closed his eyes and prayed, “Please don’t let it be lava. Please don’t let it be lava.” Then he turned around and waited, and waited…

Although his eyes were closed he could see the presence of lights flashing on his eyelids, illuminating his world— but death didn’t come.

“What?”

He was impatient, so Capra opened his eyes. Above him he saw a ceiling full of glowing gems that lit up the world like the night sky. He was in an extraordinarily large underground chamber and the crack in the ceiling above him was apparently the entrance.

Large bats flew through the sky and Capra nearly crashed into one as he fell, but the bats were smart enough to steer clear of the rapidly falling human. He thought he saw something green on the back of one of the bats… but he didn’t really have the time to focus on that.

As interesting as the world around him was Capra just hoped that he would land somewhere soft, but as he turned around to look below him all he saw was brown in his immediate trajectory.

“Well.. shit.”

Capra guarded his face and prepared for impact.