Third and Seven made their way out of the magi guild and into the streets of Lum.

They had already messaged the situation to their team and they’d all agreed to meet up at the entrance to Lum. Apparently the NPCs had caused quite a stir as they began to walk through the streets in full battle gear and gather outside of Lum. Of course, that meant Attracting was nearby as well but Seven couldn’t guess where.

“MILLY.”

“ANA.” Seven spun around the moment she heard her friend shouting at the top of ‘his’ voice.

It turned out that her friend was actually right behind her. Third stepped to the side as IEatTortillas sprinted up to Seven and wrapped her in a bear hug. He noted that he couldn’t see Attracting with the sword user but he always turned up eventually. He would wait until that time to gather information.

He had a mission to give to TidalWave.

“There’s so much I have to tell you!” IEatTortillas didn’t spare a single second wasting time, pulling out a shiny sword from her inventory to show off.

“Oh my god.” Seven was wide-eyed as she spotted a tell-tale coloured gleam coming off of the weapon, “That’s a yellow ranked weapon!”

White, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and gold.

Seven had only ever seen a green ranked weapon at most. She personally had slain hundreds of mobs and only seen one or two blue drops that turned out to be blue ranked potions. She was incredibly happy for her friend.

“Quest after quest after quest.” IEatTortillas shot out words like a machine gun, “I thought I was travelling overseas with how much movement we were cramming in.”

“We?”

‘Oh right.’ Seven suddenly felt glum.

She forgot for a moment that her friend was travelling with Attracting. His final remark about her weight when he’d left the arena still stung.

She knew her entire team was sick of hearing his name by now. He’d made terrible impressions on all of them to the point that they hadn’t hesitated to reject his offer of quest cooperation. Right now Seven was the only one of them that considered him a friend, and she hadn’t even received an invitation. She still felt the sting from his constant comments about her. She’d heard more bad stuff about herself and her lack of skill from Attracting than from anyone she actually played with. That was the only thing keeping her from telling IEatTortillas about the quest and asking him to join them. Unfortunately, he would always bring along Attracting and that would cause a whole heap of problems.

“Milly?” IEatTortillas noticed the sudden change in Seven’s mood easily.

She practically wore it on her face.

“Nothing, nothing.” Seven’s expression brightened again as she plastered a smile on her face, “Let me see! Let me see.” She repeated herself.

She gestured for IEatTortillas to send her a copy of his stats and items. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of Attracting. Her teammates were already messaging each other in the team chat, coming up with plans of attack on how to deal with the quest before Attracting got there.

Archy was especially vocal as he was torn away from his arrow shopping.

“Okay but you’re going to be jealous.” IEatTortillas grinned proudly.

IEatTortillas: Level 35

Health: 151 (+45)

Mana: 20

Vitality: 53 (+6)

Strength: 71 (+30)

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Confidence: 9

Equipment:

Brass knuckles: +2 STR

Sword of Glory (Yellow): +15 STR, +10 HP

Lum Paladin Cape: +3 STR, +2 VIT

Steel Helmet: +6 HP

Steel chest armour: +10 HP, +2 DEF (locked due to lack of stat.)

Steel gloves: +4 HP

Greaves of Strength (Blue): +5 STR, +4 VIT

Boots of Glory (Yellow): +5 STR, +15 HP, +15% Movement speed

‘Good lord.’ Seven’s eyes widened at the sight.

She had never seen so many good items lumped together on a single person.

“You’re not messing with me are you?” She replied and her friend shook his head empathetically.

He was standing as proud as a peacock and Seven smiled. Her friend was like this both in real life and in the game. He didn’t change at all.

“Attracting has even better stuff than I do. Every single place we went had annoying guys to kill but the rewards were awesome. We even got a ton of gold and I think Andrew bought some property. It’s insane Milly. We still haven’t gotten an orange item or higher despite all we’ve done.”

“I haven’t even gotten a yellow one.” Seven allowed herself to be caught up in her friend's enthusiasm, “Damn you have so many great items. Try to remember me when you’re steamrolling players okay.”

“Haha.” IEatTortillas smiled as he was praised.

Honestly, he had nobody else to show this stuff off to. He had spent so much time partying with Attracting in areas that other players didn’t even dare to step into that he hadn’t even had the chance to meet anyone else. Travelling from area to area fighting non-stop and escaping death by the breadth of his teeth was tiring. So he’d been looking forward to seeing Seven and relaxing all week.

Then Attracting had pulled together this damn quest out of nowhere. Initially, he’d just wanted to hang out with Seven but then he’d been told about the potential rewards. Now he knew what he and Seven were definitely going to be doing, fighting monsters and kicking ass.

“Oh, by the way, we have this quest-”

“Ana.” A new voice called out from behind the lumbering hero.

Seven shifted to the side and Attracting popped up in her vision. She grimaced as she saw him and IEatTortillas frowned as well. Both of them didn’t appreciate the sudden interruption.

“Come and greet Milly you ungrateful lout.” She said.

“Hey.” Seven said to him as he walked nearer.

He wasn’t alone. He was followed by three other players that Seven could see had a confident air about them.

[Colt] [Gyro]

Two of them had their names on display and the third kept his hidden. She instantly took a step back to analyse them. It was a habit she’d picked up from writing so many journal entries on monsters and players.

The two with their names displayed struck her as competent without even having to see them fight. Colt gave off a vibe of a warrior or close fighting class despite having his weapons hidden. He was also eerily skinny and gaunt. Gyro was carrying a large bow in his hands. She couldn’t help but wonder how skilled these players were. First, it was her own team, then Dark Horse, and now these strangers.

She didn’t know Attracting to hang out with anyone except those rare players that had abilities beyond the average person. Each one had the same kind of atmosphere around them that her own team had.

Especially the archer.

“Oh, hey.” Attracting gave a nod towards her direction and continued to talk to his companions.

He didn’t even acknowledge Third although the rotund player was hiding back as he scanned the newcomers up and down. He knew that if they were both aiming for the same treasure then these were potential enemies.

They didn’t know how many other players had accepted Attracting’s offer.

“Bah.” IEatTortillas dismissed Attracting’s cold attitude.

He could see that Seven was being unusually quiet but he chalked it up to her being shy around strangers.

“Who are these guys by the way?” He hadn’t met them either.

“These fine gentlemen are with Colt’s Crew.” Attracting gestured to them and they waved hello, “They’ll be joining us for the quest.”

Third give a small nod towards the players.

“A very respectable organisation.” Third said, “I have heard almost all of your members are assassins in the games you play.

Seven almost jolted out of her skin. She had forgotten her teammate was standing behind her the entire time. Third was eyeing the three new players with interest.

-These players are probably comparable to Dark Horse in skill. Although I believe there are more than just three members. The others must be elsewhere.- Third sent her a private message, knowing she didn’t have much knowledge about the various gaming groups.

“Third.” Attracting’s eyes brightened, “Are you going to join us as well? We could definitely use the help of a powerhouse like yourself to secure our victory.”

Attracting clearly had a large amount of respect for Third, and Seven could understand it. The guy didn’t get into many duels compared to the rest of her team but when he did he put up a hell of a fight. TidalWave was the only player that stood a chance against him.

Colt’s Crew was similarly sizing up Third. They could tell just from his staff that he didn’t have an ordinary class, but they didn’t know what class he could have. The game was simply too new. Gyro seemed particularly interested and he tilted his head as he was clearly sending private messages the other members.

“Unfortunately our group has different plans this evening.” Third tapped his staff on the ground, “Although brief, this had been a very interesting meeting. We should head off.”

Third didn’t beat around the bush.

The truth was that he had wanted to leave the moment he saw IEatTortillas. They were both parties going for the same prize and he knew the longer he stayed, the more chance there was of Seven or himself slipping up. He didn’t want to risk the other groups suspecting something. He turned around and began to move towards the Lum entrance.

“Ah damn, he’s right.” Seven gave IEatTortillas a final hug and walked off

“Oh-” IEatTortillas still wanted to tell Seven about the quest but hesitated.

It seemed like her friend had other plans today.

-This Third guy is skilled.- Colt turned to Attracting and sent him a private message, -I think from the way they were acting that their quest will interact with ours. Perhaps even involve our groups fighting each other. Is the girl, Seven, equally as dangerous?-

Colt had managed to discern a lot within the short time they interacted.

He didn’t want to ask this out loud because he could see that IEatTortiallas was clearly friends with one of them. If these players were going to interfere in their quest then he wanted to know as much information as he could about them. He knew from the weapons and equipment that Third held that he was probably extremely dangerous. But it was the ring he saw on Seven’s finger that confused him. He hadn’t seen a similar item in the game. It was too early for accessories to become commonplace.

-She is nothing.- Attracting sent with certainty, -I doubt she knows how to wave her wand properly. She definitely isn’t someone that matters.-

Colt snorted at Attracting’s cold words but didn’t press the matter further. He trusted the priest’s mysterious skill of picking out skilled players from the crowd. He had even put him to the test and tried to get him to pinpoint another skilled group of players.

That had resulted in Dark Horse being outed to Colt’s Crew.

-However Third’s group… they are much more of a problem.- Attracting began to brood.

Each one of Third’s party members was an incredibly skilled player. He was in need of players to break through to the dragon’s treasure and defeat the boss if his plan failed. But he had only summoned the best players available. If something went wrong and they had to fight a boss monster they would, unfortunately, be in trouble if Third’s team joined in the fight.

Luckily he knew of a single piece of information that Third’s team did not. He had managed to contact a powerful group to help him in this endeavour.

The Knights of Magnolia.

He’d had to trick them a bit in order to gain their help, but they would be rewarded suitably once he got his hands on the cave. Luckily the only person who could stop them was Archy. Attracting was sure that the archer and Third would no longer be on the same team as each other. The two couldn’t stand each other.

He knew that group and Archy shared a bond that was far too strong to break. But even if the Knights of Magnolia betrayed him after they entered the cave he was sure that he wouldn’t have to fear them. Once he was there he would have the ability to fend off and win against an attack from hundreds of players no matter how many they brought. If they turned against him then he was sure he had the power to win.

They just had to help get him in there first.

He threw out all other unnecessary thoughts, and soon forgot entirely that he had just met up with Seven.

The girl in question was pestering Third for information on the potential enemies they had just encountered.

“Do you think that archer is as good as Grenda and Archy?” Seven felt Third would be better than her at judging their strengths, “He sure seemed the have the confidence of a strong person.”

By now she had seen enough strong players to notice that they each had a confident air about them that came from knowing that even without fancy items and armour they could still win a fight.

She felt respect for him by just being around him.

“Possibly. He will definitely be a pain to deal with if he takes the fight seriously. I have not heard of an archer being part of Colt’s Crew but if they allowed him in then it must mean he landed it because of his skill. It would not be farfetched to state that he could be as skilled as Archy.”

“Who’s as skilled as me?”

Third was thinking of how to use this information to their advantage when suddenly a familiar figure barreled into them. Archy was coming back from his shopping with a happy look on his face.

He had taken his time after receiving Attracting’s offer and was cuddling a quiver of shiny new arrows in his hands. But most noticeable of all was the bow on his back that seemed to glow red.

“We met up with some people called Colt’s Crew.” Seven explained as they all moved towards the entrance, “Hey what did you buy?”

“Colt’s Crew.” Archy’s face turned bland, “I’ve heard of them. Maybe.” Then he lifted his bow proudly, “I managed to unseal some of this thing! Oh hey, do you think I could beat TidalWave completely now?”

“Concentration of a goldfish.” Third smiled as he saw his teammates unfazed by the new enemies.

“If we meet them we meet them.” Archy shrugged, “And we meet them we kill them- oh god.”

Archy slapped his forehead and Seven and Third stared at him in confusion.

“My cousin is messaging me.” He explained to the duo.

“Oh, the loud one?” Seven’s curiosity grew, “The dwarf society? Hey, can you ask them if they’re only dwarves.”

Archy nodded, “One second- yes, they’re all dwarves at the moment, he smiled as Seven happily gestured at the confirmation, “Also he says he has a surprise for me. God, that’s never good news.”

Archy shuddered as he remembered some of the previous ‘surprises’ that his cousin Leo had pulled during their lives.

“Sometimes that guy really needs to learn how to think.”

“Shocking words coming from you. I shudder to think what’s going to happen when you see this surprise.” Third smirked.

“No way.” Archy resolutely refuted Thrid’s words, “There is no way I’m going to go near that crazy group. Those guys would blindly charge into a horde of monsters if Leo told them to. When he’s giving the orders you just have to think of a way to escape the incoming calamity.”

“Sort of like kamikaze dwarves.” Seven let out a giggle at the image that appeared in her mind.

She could see dozens of small figured yelling loudly as they smashed into something the size of a behemoth without a care in the world. It seemed like a fun way to play the game.

*Ahem* Third coughed lightly as they reached the Lum entrance, “I believe we have slightly more pressing matters to think about.”

“What’s to think about?” Archy shrugged, “Let’s just charge straight there.”

“I hate to admit it, but that’s not the worst plan I’ve heard.” Spark Joy’s voice floated towards them as she and Roxxy lay on the grass, “Take a look at them.”

“Oh?” Third’s eyes widened as he saw the group of people that were gathering outside of Lum.

He could see shimmering armour and splendid robes as the paladins and mages of Lum gathered together and prepared to charge into the Signet Woods with gusto. Even though all of them were NPCs there were a few players flitting around as well. None of the NPCs was too ridiculously high level, but they were leagues above what the current player base could muster up.

Flitting between the various NPCs were several players. Seven spotted the Dark Horse members and a few unknowns that were probably the remaining members of Colt’s Crew. Soon they were joined by Attracting and the remaining people he had gathered.

“I count two dozen NPCs and growing. Maybe about a dozen players or so.” Spark Joy watched the proceedings with interest, “Not a single tank among them.

“Amateurs.” Roxxy jokingly stated, “I don’t know about you guys but I think Archy is right. We’re not going to outrun them so we might have to get a head start.”

They didn’t really have to clash head-on with Attracting and his players. They just had to go in and out of the quest location before they arrived. The only problem was that they didn’t know how long it would take the others to leave.

“Hey,” Seven said to her team as she spotted Chaser and Grenda and waved at them. “Shouldn’t we invite the Dark Horse guys to join us? They seem pretty cool.”

Third and Roxxy shook their heads emphatically.

“They’ve already accepted Attracting’s offer. It would be rude to ask them to pull away now. Besides, we’ve only known them for a couple of hours. We’d be getting in the way of their rewards and reputation if we forced them to make a choice now.” Third was certain of this.

Roxxy giggled, “Also I think they’d rather take the chances of fighting against us for the quest reward instead of fighting against a small NPC army.”

“Oh.” Seven nodded absentmindedly, “Hey, where’s TidalWave?” Seven noticed that the warrior hadn’t made an appearance.

“Oh-oh-oh I bet he got lost in a shopping spree.” Roxxy poked her head up and eyed the Lum entrance.

“Actually he’s scouting out the Signet Woods.” Third had already received a confirmation message from TidalWave, “He’s testing that item we got when the quest changed.”

They each recalled the sudden appearance of a small orb. The Eye of Light, each one of them had received a single one in their inventories. It turned out that the item could be used to unveil the smog surrounding the inner ring of the woods. TidalWave had moved before them to test how well they worked. If they only let the team see a few more feet compared to normal then the items wouldn’t help that much. But it could still be used to avoid surprise Wilder attacks that would slow them down.

“I have bad news.” TidalWave appeared the moment they said his name and walked through the woods towards them.

He briefly eyed the expedition force appreciatively before turning back to his team with a grimace.

“The monster situation has changed a little.” He gestured for them to follow him, “It definitely looks interesting. Quite a sight.”

The team took one last look at the players and NPCs that had been gathered to fight before heading into the outer woods. From the speed of the other party’s movements, they knew they would have a few minutes at most before they set out for the inner ring.

TidalWave didn’t have to take them too far before they saw what he’d meant. With their eyes of light they could make out the figures of corrupted treants, dryads and wilders lining up and surrounding the entrance to the inner ring of the woods as far as their eyes could see. It was a crowd of creatures patiently waiting as though in meditation.

It was virtually a fortress made of pure manpower.

“Clearly the power of Attracting’s expedition force has caused them to make a drastic move.” Third eyed the wall of monsters with a glimmer of amusement, “We may use this to our advantage.”

“What?” Archy doubted his ears, “We can’t even break through that thing. There are at least a couple of hundred monsters there and I can’t even see behind them to tell if there are more.”

“Yes.” Third agreed, “But we are not their target. They are aiming for the expedition force.” He could already see the perfect plan forming in his head, “We will simply wait for their prey to arrive and then sneak in through the back while they are all fighting each other.”

“Slip in?...” Archy suddenly looked thoughtful, “Where do we go in? Obviously it can’t be straight through the front.”

“Over there.” TidalWave had scouted the entire area from head to toe over the past week, and now that he could actually see past the fog, he knew the perfect spot for their entry into the inner ring, “It’s a small tree-covered mountain that looks like it loops around the inner ring. We might have to take a bit of a detour but as long as we follow the cliffline we can avoid the major battle and maybe even make good time compared to the others being bogged down by monsters.”

They followed him further into the outer woods and away from Lum. Every inch of the inner ring’s entrance was covered head to toe in monsters. It was easy to imagine thousands of the things swarming over the NPCs and players that tried to force their way through to the dragon’s treasure.

“Definitely some detour.” Roxxy could tell it would take them a lot longer to reach their destination just based on the distance they had to travel to get here.

Soon they arrived at the start of the mountain. A cliff face covered in foliage and trees seemed to be carved into its side and the team scouted the location with their eyes. There were still monsters here but they were thinning in numbers. Clearly as soon as the fighting began near Lum these corrupted creatures would rush over to aid their brethren.

TidalWave breathed a small sigh of relief. He had only scouted the mountain while fighting wilders in the fog. Now he could see that it did in fact loop around the area like he was hoping it did.

“It’s perfect.” Spark Joy nodded her head as they arrived, “It’ll take longer but it doesn’t matter as long as the monsters move to hinder the other players. Considering the number of them we passed on the way here I don’t doubt we can be in and out quicker than the expedition force.”

Roxxy moved past them and began to view the entire mountain from head to toe, being careful not to move into the attack radius of the monsters. She brought her fingers up and made a square as though taking a picture and smiled.

“We should also be able to see the battle from up there.” Roxxy was quick to analyse the situation, “If something unexpected happens or if they blow past the monsters too quickly we can always adjust the plan to suit.”

The team agreed with her and settled down to wait. They knew that the corrupted entities had a habit of calling their brethren to help them in fights. If you fought against one group for too long then eventually it could turn into five, and then even more. They just needed to wait for the hundreds that were around the inner ring border to encounter the expedition force and call their allies to them.

The truth was that they were taking an awfully long detour here in order to avoid the mass of monsters that would swarm at the expedition force once it set off. They would gain a better vantage point to see everything but if anything went wrong they would be the last to reach the treasure.

*Clang.*

A single metallic sound rang out across the forest and the team’s ears perked up.

“There we go.”