Sora had left the restaurant after telling Blossom and LeeLee to be ready to go to the dungeon on Frost Peak Mountain when it opens tomorrow. Sora had to begin work on his outpost, along with finding potential party members to go into the dungeon with. Drazi and Angel still had their own guild to worry about so he didn’t bother asking them to join him. He started to look through his guild roster to find a good healer, since that role was the most important one. The guild only had five healers at the moment so his choices were very limited, he decided on a level 37 healer. The player went by the name of ‘Athenes’ and was the highest level healer the guild had. Sora needed to message Athenes to see if the player would want to go.

“I need a healer for the dungeon tomorrow on Frost Peak Mountain, are you interested?”

“Really?! Yes yes, please let me go!”

“Great, then be ready tomorrow. I’m still looking for another player to deal damage, if you have anybody in mind then please let me know.”

“My brother is also in the guild, I’ll ask him if he wants to go.”

“That’s alright, I’ll personally invite him. What’s his username?”

“Alright, his username is ‘Nobunaga’.”

Sora laughed a bit as he heard the name, he must have been a fan of samurais. Sora quickly found the name and messaged him. He was a level 39 warrior and had tied with the spot for strongest member in the guild under Sora, Blossom, and LeeLee.

“Your sister recommended inviting you to join our party for the dungeon tomorrow. Would you be interested?”

“I just heard from my sister, if she is going then I will also go.”

“Alright, I’ll message you tomorrow when we are all ready.”

Sora had formed his first official guild dungeoneering party of ‘Phoenix Rising’, it left him with a sense of satisfaction as he went towards the auction house. Sora wanted to try and sell his Beginner Mana Potion Recipe today since the path to Frost Peak Mountain would be open for everyone tomorrow. He withdrew the recipe from his bank and put it up for auction with a one day period of time, along with the rare bow he had gotten in the chasm. News of the recipe traveled to every influential guild leader in The Eastern Legion and the price had started to skyrocket off of just the first few bids. Sora had been setting all his auctions to real money for the moment since gold has yet to cycle throughout the market. The beginning of the game is almost always dominated by rich players who could just buy the best gear. Sora would start to auction off items for gold when it has started to spread into the server more. Sora bought some health potions while he was at the auction house and left to go towards his outpost in Frost Peak Mountain.

…..

Sora was currently looking at the empty cavern that he owned. The chasm that split the cavern in half was once again filling with corrupted creatures but they wouldn’t cause any problems for the outpost. Sora needed to prioritize what he should build first, since he only had enough gold to build a few facilities. The first thing he did was purchased a large wall that would separate the chasm and the outpost itself. This would allow him to set up a tax on entering the chasm. The wall was purchased and Sora could see it slowly being built right in front of him. He set the tax to 1 silver per person and let the wall build the rest of the way.

The wall was made from wood and only had one entrance which was a shabby looking gate, located where the narrow path leading down the chasm is at. The gate didn’t look very impressive but it could be upgraded later. For now the gate was only built to serve its purpose. The next thing Sora bought was a general store. The store wouldn’t bring in any profit for Sora but it would be a convenience for players who wanted to buy and sell things but were too far away from Var. The shop was situated near the wall to give easy access to players who were going in and out of the chasm. Just these two basic projects had cost him 100 gold, luckily that amount of money would be made back within a few days once players start coming towards this area. Sora started to put other key building up in his outpost to be convenient for the player. He added an inn that had a restaurant on the bottom floor, a basic blacksmith that would be able to repair items, a courtyard where players could meet up to sell things or from parties, and he even sacrificed the rest of his 250 gold to purchase a Statue of Helara that only revived you if you died within the chasm.

Sora had used up almost every bit of gold he had, creating a very small outpost. Sora had a bitter smile as he looked at his shabby outpost. He kept telling himself that it was worth the investment to help cope with the pain of losing all his money.

Sora still had a long time until he would be going into the dungeon and decided to use his remaining time to do some scouting in the chasm to test out the EXP rate and explore new areas. He was happy to see that the EXP rate was still the same as it had been when he first came through, meaning that it was definitely worth it to pay the tax to come through here. Sora didn’t go into any of the caves along the side of the chasm last time so he decided to do so now. The first few caves didn't have anything of use and only served as a home to some corrupt creatures. When Sora went into the fourth cave he had found a small vein of Frost Iron Ore, meaning the value of his territory just jumped up by quite a bit. The vein was small but it wouldn’t have any problem supplying a couple miners for an entire day.

Sora continued going into caves and was down to just three more before he would reach the end of the chasm. Sora entered the middle cave first and saw what seemed to be an underground spring of water. The spring was very warm on one side and very cold on the other side, divided by a strip of rock that went across the entire body of water. The warm side was very shallow and didn’t seem to have any fish swimming within it, the best he could do with this is maybe advertise it as a hot springs. The cold side was much deeper and fish could be seen swimming within it. Sora finished his inspection and went to the next cave, expecting to find nothing.

When Sora entered the cave he noticed that the air was getting warmer and warmer the further he went in. After walking into an opening he was hit with a surge of heat, catching him off guard. The cave opened up to a cavern that had flames all around a figure located in the middle. The figure had a human shaped body but was wreathed in flames that would occasionally jump off.

Level 45 -Kindra, The Lost Flame-

Sora couldn't fight the boss alone, so he left it there as he exited the cave. He returned to the chasm and decided that he would bring the group down here to fight the boss before the dungeon opened. The last cave didn’t have anything except corrupted creatures, he left the cave and headed to where he had fought the crystal.

As Sora entered he saw Gzarna examining one of the shards of the black crystal that had made up the armor and sword of the crystal knight he fought. She squinted her eyes as some of her strands of hair turned silver. The black crystal didn’t have any response as a silver energy enveloped it. Gzarna had a confused look as her hair returned to its black color.

“Ethereal, you said you destroyed a purple crystal?”

“That’s right.”

“Interesting… This black crystal was used by the purple one?”

“Yes, it formed armor and a weapon using the black crystal. Is something wrong with the crystal?”

“Right, it seems that the black crystal is not inherently corrupted and contains its own type of energy. If my guess is correct, the corrupt crystal had destroyed the black crystal that was originally here. Then it used the shattered remains of the black crystal to form a weapon for itself.”

“Will this cause any problems?”

“Well the life force in this black crystal will now be able to reappear, meaning it will eventually from back together. If my guess is correct then the energy which this crystal uses is shadow energy, which is inherently aggressive. You should warn those that come down here that they might have to fight a strong opponent.”

Although the explanation sounded grim, it was a blessing for Sora. This meant that his chasm now had another boss that would appear. Sora simply acknowledged what Gzarna said before returning to the chasm. The land that he had gotten not only had a good EXP source, he had also found out that it had Frost Iron Ore, a hot springs, a fishing area, and two bosses. Sora had hit a jackpot with the land he had gotten. Sora started to kill off corrupted creatures while he waits for the dungeon to open.

Sora noticed that the corrupted creatures had a very low chance of being enchanted. After killing them for an entire day he had only seen one enchanted creature, which was a Vicious one. He had gained a level while grinding the creatures, successfully hitting level 44 and raising his Constitution a bit more. He would keep raising it until he hit 100 Constitution, then work on another stat. It was now only a couple hours before the dungeon would open up so Sora messaged all of his party members, gathering them to do a test run on the boss within his chasm. He made sure to talk to Veradon, who was much happier now that his soldiers were safe and the corruption was now under control. Veradon readily agreed to let members of Soras guild pass through the blockade set up by his soldiers.

…..

Blossom and LeeLee were the first to arrive. When the two girls entered the outpost they were surprised to see all the new structures and facilities. They started to walk around and look at each building before finding Sora at the blacksmith, repairing his gear.

“Hey mister fisherman, would it be possible to have your own house in a territory you own?”

“Technically yes, but nobody would really want that since it didn’t have much use. The cost for just a decent sized tent would be 50 gold, so you can imagine what an actual house would cost.”

“Hmmm, maybe if I become super rich in the future.”

Sora and the two girls talked as they were waiting for the other two party members to arrive. After a small wait two new faces appeared in the cavern. One person was a girl who had short brown hair that barely went to her shoulders. She seemed average but her attitude was very bubbly as she looked at the outpost with a curious look on her face. The person next to her was very tall and muscular, with long black hair that was in a ponytail. He looked like a samurai and even walked with the same attitude as one. He seemed disinterested in the outpost and only let out a small smile as he looked at the girl who was next to him. The two players went towards the blacksmith since they saw a few people gathered there. Sora measured them as they walked towards them, not disappointed with what he saw. The girl was very innocent and didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, she seemed like someone who hasn’t been tainted by the filth that the world has. Sora figured she was overprotected and sheltered from such things since she walked in such a carefree way. As Sora saw the man who looked like a samurai he had somewhat understood how the girl ended up being so carefree. His guess was that Athenes, the bubbly girl with short hair, was the younger sister of Nobunaga, the man who looked like a samurai. The man had a very cold and distant look in his eyes but there was no bad intent behind it. He simply didn't care about much and only seemed to have a small glint in his eyes when Sora had been measuring his little sister. Sora didn’t doubt that Nobunaga had been protecting his little sister from the filth of the world since she was born.

Sora was impressed by LeeLee, who had been the one to pick out these two players. Most people wouldn’t let Nobunaga join because of his suspicious looks but LeeLee was able to discern his real attitude while observing his interactions with his sister. Sora praised LeeLee in his mind as the two new people came to the front of him.

“Are you Ethereal?”

“I am, I’m guessing you’re Athenes and Nobunaga?”

“That’s us!”

“Pleasure to meet you, guild leader.”

Nobunaga even gave such formal greetings to other players, he really did seem like a dignified person.

“We will be making a stop at a boss that I found down below us, within a chasm. I have been clearing out the enemies before we all met up so it should be clear all the way to the boss room. If you need anything then speak up now before we go.”

“...”

“Alright, we will be heading off now then.”