“So Golden Lion really are down to three players.”

The warrior grinned at Pascal, Yanti, and Claire as his team fanned out around them. The five enemies were brandishing their weapons with glee as they eyed the French players hungrily. Earlier they’d read a forum post showing the two twins of the Golden Lion team out on vacation and worked out that if the twins weren’t in the team house, then Golden Lion was likely defending with three players. It was a risk they were willing to take for the potential glory of a victory against the professional team. Even if they weren’t at the pro stage each one considered themselves a skilled player in their own right.

“I have this.” Claire strode forward with confidence just as Yanti and Pascal were about the leap into action.

Pascal turned his head to her. “I don’t think-”

But Claire had already run off ahead of them and towards the enemy players. She had already memorised her enemy’s positions and had released control spheres all around them.

“Don’t worry,” Yanti gave him a confident smile. “She can do this.”

Yanti sent a silent look towards their cocky opponents. 'Fools. Claire is known as a master strategist for a reason.'

“Heh. You’re just a worse Jein.” The magi sent a funnel of flame towards Claire without hesitation. “Die for me.”

Claire dodged the incoming attack with ease and snapped her fingers, causing the arena to light up. “Light’s Judgement; Fire.”

The five players looked around them with grins. They had perfectly planned for this after watching the video of Claire’s fight online against Jein. They had the speed of the lights, the accuracy and everything else completely committed to memory.

[You have slain player: Jimbob]

[You have slain player: Lient]

[You have slain player...]

Claire watched with satisfaction as her attacks took every player that had challenged her team down in a hail of attacks. She could tell from the surprise on their faces that they had been expecting to be able to dodge every single shot whilst taking care of her but watching a video online was far different from experiencing the real thing. Even if they were extremely talented it would be difficult to dodge these shots the first time they saw them.

This had been the last of the three mandatory team matches. Until the twins got back the team didn’t want to risk taking on the extra challenges. Some powerful opponents had popped their heads up after seeing the forum's posts about their teammate's vacation.

“That takes care of that.” Claire walked back to Yanti and Pascal, who politely clapped at her performance. “What’s next on the agenda?”

****

“We’re probably going to encounter some heavy opposition until the twins get back.”

Pascal didn’t seem too worried about the potential risk to their team spot. He was confident that even if they lost as a team that they could win another spot without too much trouble. The only issue he had was that they might accidentally reveal their abilities to enemies. It was a blessing in disguise that Claire didn't have to hide anything.

“I agree.” Yanti nodded at Pascal’s words and turned to Claire. “Do you have any ideas on our potential enemies? Who should we be worrying about?”

The two together were part of the five strategic geniuses of France, but Claire was by far the most diligent team member with information gathering. Even if Yanti compiled the reports, Claire had the touch of genius that allowed her to see patterns that nobody else could. So Yanti usually used her as the first port of call in team tactic matters.

“I think Game Masters would be the most likely candidate to attack our team spot.” Claire lifted their respective papers and showed them the files on Marcus and Merry.

Those two players had been a pain in Claire’s ass since the moment they’d entered the virtual reality scene. Merry was bad enough, able to outmaneuver her strategies at the best of times and completely dominate her at the worst, but Claire also knew that the Game Masters also had someone else hidden. It was likely someone who analysed their opponents thoroughly just like Claire did. Luckily the Game Masters didn’t seem to be using their services as much lately.

“We’ve fought against these two long enough to know their MO. They’re probably planning on hitting someone big to get a head start in the game and on building their reputation. It wouldn't surprise me if we get challenged within the next couple of days. Either that or they hit Grand Thunder.”

The team had clashed with Marcus and Merry so many times throughout the years that it would surprise her if the other premier French team avoided a fight with them. The Game Masters had been gunning for the top French team spot for years and the only team standing in their way was Claire’s.

Now with guilds slowly forming it was their job to maintain their winning streak and head start or else these other teams would slowly encroach on their territories. Luckily the organisation left the management of the guild to other players and staff members so that Claire and her teammates could focus fully on getting stronger.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Pascal’s voice was calm but laced with certainty.

“Oh?” Yanti tilted her head towards Pascal but didn’t interrupt him.

“Sorry,” Pascal apologised. “But Game Masters have been acting strange since they appointed their new team captain. I used to fight with a couple of them all the time back in the day, but recently they’ve been avoiding contact with me. I’d say they’re going to hold back until the last minute to join the competition.”

Yanti and Claire took his argument in stride. It wasn’t rare for a team to change its tactics and personality so soon after changing team captains. The team entering Zodiac Online was a completely new Game Masters that they’d never encountered before, even if they had only changed one team members and some staff.

“Fine.” Claire nodded and then brought out another paper. “This is someone I’ve had my eye on for a while. Honestly, I think these guys will hit us in the competition.”

Yanti’s eyes grazed over the piece of paper Claire was emphasizing. “Attracting.”

She was familiar with the man. He’d sent their entire team letters of challenge before the competition was beginning and had then tanked the entire competition. She had personally killed him during one of the rounds.

Claire gave the paper to Pascal and confusion spread over his eyes. “Yes. I believe they’re going to use their city’s right to challenge any team to fight us in the first round.”

Claire could see that the news didn't faze Yanti at all. Despite the fact that she let Claire speak, Claire knew that Yanti had considered almost all the possibilities she had. No matter how they saw it, Attracting and his team had purposefully attempted to lose the competition and as a result had gained the ability to choose their opponent in the next portion of the competition. Yanti had suspected something similar would happen since the competition itself. The woman was a tactical genius of a different kind.

Both girls had reached the conclusion that Attracting was getting ready to take on a bigger opponent during the first round rather than running. But Pascal was a different matter.

For the first time since the meeting began, Pascal looked like he was about to disagree with her. “I’m not saying it’s not possible. But they’re the lowest-ranked team out of the entire competition. Why would they choose to fight us?”

“Because we’re the weaker team.” This time it was Yanti who answered. “Grand Thunder is definitely the best team to defeat if you want a good reputation, but we all know they’re on another level when it comes to teamwork. Ji-Woo and Jein can wipe out teams by themselves. We are a strong team, I wouldn’t hesitate to say we’re currently the second strongest in the game. But we are still lagging behind the Koreans. So if someone is ambitious enough to reach for the top, then logically we are the team to attack to get there.”

“So?” They hadn't convinced Pascal. “That means we should be the team that others will avoid. I’ve never heard of this guy but I doubt he has the balls to attack us, let alone his entire team agreeing with him.”

“Yes, that would be the case if it was a normal team.” Yanti pulled out the four other sheets with notes on the rest of Attracting’s team. “Let’s look at the facts. Their city team has definitely been attacked more than any other, yet they have accepted every duel and come out victorious. We even sent in a few of our spies to see what their team formations were. However, their players can defend against entire teams on their own. Something even we’d hesitate to do. This appears to be a grouping of extremely talented players that none of us have seen or heard of before.”

Pascal’s eyes flashed with curiosity and he pulled up the files to his side. “Are they a professional team? One that hasn’t publicly declared themselves?”

“I couldn’t find any evidence of it.” Claire shook her head as she answered him.

She’d been curious about that as well, but every shred of information she searched up seemed to hint that Attracting and his team were just ordinary, but very skilled, players. None of them had played professionally before but suddenly were coming out on top against all the players that challenged them.

“A priest? They’re not going to fight with a priest on their team are they?” Pascal looked at them in disbelief before letting out a slight cough as he saw Yanti smiling at him.

“Is there a problem with that?” Yanti's tone was serious as she held his gaze, but he could see she was just teasing him.

She was by far the least priestly priest he had ever seen in a virtual reality game. He even suspected that she was a warrior disguised as a priest, and the system had just given her the wrong abilities.

“You’re right, actually.” Claire had found it hard to believe as well. “But I’ve found some videos that suggest he’s actually the same as Yanti, just a priest in name but dedicated to battle.”

It wasn’t that priests were useless in Zodiac Online, on the contrary, they were vital in tackling dungeons and mobs. However, in player battles priests had fallen behind because of their lack of battle capability. It was fine to heal others but that meant nothing if your allies got taken down before the priest could heal them. There was the odd priest inside the other teams but for the most part, the player base was waiting for the second class advancements to provide them with dedicated priest classes that they could use in team battles.

Yanti and this Attracting person seemed to be exceptions to the rule.

“If he is skilled, then we can assume that any battle plan they devise will center on prolonged combat.” Yanti went over their files carefully. “Do you think they’ll win against us?”

“Win?” Pascal took a step back but didn’t outright reject the notion. “Claire?”

“If they challenged us, then I would assume they were confident enough to beat us.” Claire seemed hesitant to dismiss them outright. “I can’t say much more because we don’t know most of their skills.”

“But it’s the same for them.” Yanti smiled. “As long as they don’t know our abilities, they can’t prepare for our attacks or formations. Good.” She turned to Claire. “Anything else?”

“I’ll need more time to check out potential enemies. But I think I’ve found a dungeon that Pascal and I can clear.” Claire had spent the last week going from NPC to NPC hoping to find any clues to hidden areas or quests that would yield good rewards. “We’ll be heading to the area to check it out tonight.

“Great.” Yanti broke out into a grin. The prospect of rewards never failed to put a smile on her face. “Good luck you two.”

****

Greater accuracy. More speed. Better precision.

Claire watched the sky lighting up with rays of light as she mowed down mob after mob with her spells. Each creature was formed of stone and had no qualms about rushing through the rain of light to smash her into the ground.

In her mind, she was a thousand miles away from her enemies. She was replaying the moment she had fallen down and died in the placement matches repeatedly in her head. It was something that had distracted her for the entire week.

She deftly moved from side to side to avoid the golem as she riddled it with holes. She didn’t care whether she killed the golems; She only cared about hitting the spots she was aiming for. She knew that if she could improve herself all around, then she would never lose again in the same situation she had before.

But the event had left a small trauma in her heart that refused to go away.

There was an intensity in her practice that would cause others to stop and watch if they had been in the area. Within seconds she had cleared the entire area of golems and Claire eyed the huge door the monsters had been guarding.

A hidden dungeon.

“So this is what you were looking for.” A strong voice sounded out from beside her and she turned to face the newcomer. “Seems like it was well worth the journey.”

From thin air, Pascal appeared and he immediately began to walk towards the door. “A very good find.”

Pascal had been watching the entire display. He’d wanted to jump in and help Claire but lately, she’d been much more emphatic about completing certain tasks on her own. He knew the loss from the fight a week ago against the magi was still on her mind, so he let it go. It was better for her blow off steam when she needed to.

“What’s in here?” Pascal didn’t doubt that Claire had already done a thorough search of the area's lore.

Claire had never once forgotten to dive deep into a games true culture to uncover its secrets. People often thought that the key to gaining strong items and powers was through ordinary quests, but Claire knew it was exploration that netted the best rewards.

“A boss related to an ancient magi called Malagor,” Claire watched Pascal take out a dagger and tap it against the door to check for traps. “I doubt that the magi himself is going to be in here. Maybe a pet or some magical experiment gone wrong.”

“Should we wait for Yanti?” Pascal finally determined that nothing was keeping him from opening the door and pried it open, revealing a pitch-black passage riddled with glowing symbols.

He immediately jumped back and then sighed in relief as nothing hit him. He’d been an assassin in his former virtual reality game but for this one, he’d switched to the wizard class. It was a drastic change in play style but he’d alternated between the two types of classes ever since starting his career. In fact, Zodiac Online had given him a class that let him replicate both kinds of classes with only some slight limitations.

“We don’t need to. If those golems are any indication, we can handle this ourselves.” Claire shot a ray of light down the corridor, revealing nothing inside. “I think that there’ll be at least one yellow ranked weapon inside. And nobody should be strong enough to enter this area. Considering how many mobs and secret tunnels we had to wade through to get here I doubt anybody is going to stumble onto it by accident anytime soon.”

Pascal put an arm out in front of her to block her from walking inside. “Hang on.”

He shifted his hands and a long staff replaced the dagger. Within seconds the darkness of the corridor shimmered and shifted towards him in a long swirl of black particles. Then it slowly coalesced into the shape of a humanoid and began to move in front of the duo at Pascal’s command.

“Avoiding a trap?”

She trusted his battle instincts a lot more than her own. In planning and uncovering secrets, she was definitely the go-to for the team, but Pascal’s intuition was on another level when it came to danger.

“No. Just being cautious.” Pascal’s magical creation plodded along as though it was a real human.

[You have entered a hidden area: Map and communication are being restricted]

Claire and Pascal heard a grating sound behind them and swiveled around only to see the door closing behind them. It didn’t look like it would be as easy to open from the inside of the dungeon as it had been from the outside.

“I feel like it’s definitely a yellow ranked weapon.” Pascal looked down the passage curiously. “And it’s possible that we’ll find more than that down here.”

Claire looked at the humanoid-shaped darkness. “Drop your spell.”

Pascal’s avatar was sweating bullets as he maintained the spell. Claire knew that it was his most powerful ability when used correctly, but unfortunately, the design of the spell wasn't meant for these kinds of drawn-out explorations. It was a quick and deadly apparition used for split-second attacks. Even keeping it up for a few seconds drained his mana more than they wanted.

“So then.” Pascal’s spell dissipated into the air. “Where do we start?”

Claire could see the path branching out into different areas, each looking more ominous than the last. “This guy was an old magi that worshipped a dark lord according to the lore. He would even summon monsters to terrorise the local townsfolk.”

“Doesn’t sound like the worst guy we’ve met.” Pascal could recall quite a few hidden areas they’d explored that had been far worse than this one. “What was he doing on the Kyrgios continent?”

It wasn’t a secret that the warrior continent treated magi the worst of any others. At least, that was the lore that Zodiac Online had created. Pascal and Claire were rare exceptions to the player base in that they’d chosen to become magic users and also start on this continent, compared to the multitude of warriors that would undoubtedly spawn on it.

“I don’t know.” Claire’s eyes narrowed and she finally took the left-most path. “I assume we’ll find out at the end of the route. Or maybe it’ll be a chain quest.”

“Good.” Pascal liked a mystery.

They crossed down the path and the glow slowly turned into a faint purple light that simmered ominously through the surrounding air. They even caught faint whiffs of something metallic permeating the dungeon, and it appeared there were no monsters on patrol at all.

“A boss.” Pascal concluded quickly.

They shifted into a defensive stance as they moved further down the passage and soon enough they entered a huge room filled with torture tools. Bloodstains spattered across the walls and a single hulking figure carrying a butcher's knife stared down at them from the middle.

[Undead Grair; The Butcher. Level 51]

Claire grinned. She was stronger against undead monsters because of her light damage.

“It hasn’t noticed us. Let’s stay hidden and scope the area. I go left, you get the right.” Pascal brought out his staff and the tip began gathering the darkness and shadows from the surroundings.

“No.” Claire released her control spheres into the air. “I’ve got this.”

Without another word, she stepped into the air and her foot landed steadily on a golden platform that formed underneath it.

Aura Step.

“Claire!” Pascal’s shout caught the attention of the Butcher but he didn’t care.

She was already straight above it. Claire’s hand moved and the room lit up at her gesture, a dozen control spheres emitting a bright light and firing off rays towards the boss.

“I have this,” Claire repeated as she vaulted through the air.

With her automatic firing control spheres peppering its body with attacks and her own rays striking it, the Butcher didn’t stand a chance against her. She was a one-woman army that no monster could stop.

Pascal crossed his arms at the sight and sighed. He didn’t like being left out of the fight and even though he could easily jump in and aid her; It was clear that Claire wasn’t having any of it today.

Within minutes she reduced the Butcher to a badly destroyed torso, its arms, legs and everything else was completely obliterated by Claire’s strikes. She’d made sure that it wouldn’t die until she’d gotten rid of every target she could. With a final burst of light, she completely destroyed the boss’ remains and it left a shining green light of an item on the floor.

As Claire picked up the items Pascal cleared his throat and she looked over to him. “What’s up?”

“Let’s walk and talk.” Pascal’s eyes flickered towards the end of the room.

When Claire destroyed the boss, a door had suddenly blinked into existence, except that instead of regular iron or wood someone had carved it completely out of stone.

“Nice.” Claire perked up as she approached the door. “The boss didn’t drop anything to open it. There has to be a key somewhere, maybe a puzzle door?”

Pascal eyed the apparition carefully and smiled. “Yeah, probably.” Then he moved over to the various benches and torture tools. “So.”

“So?”

“What was that Claire?” Pascal’s voice slowly turned serious. “You jumped in there without even taking a second glance at the surroundings to see if there were any potential pitfalls or traps. Even if you can fly around the boss, there’s no reason to think that it couldn’t bring you down or even destroy you in an instant.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Claire nodded nonchalantly and continued to examine the door.

She’d spotted a few different holes that looked like they’d be able to hold something.

‘Possibly items found in the other passages?’ She memorised the shape and size of the holes just in case.

“Claire, you’re not listening.” Pascal turned to her and shook his head. “You’re taking that loss way too personally.”

“What?” Claire stopped in her tracks and with a sharp push, she brought herself face to face with Pascal. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fight you lost last week,” Pascal said grimly, but then motioned for her to follow him.

He’d seen the holes too and they didn’t need to waste time squabbling when they could talk and be figuring out the dungeon at the same time. Pascal brought his staff out and formed another humanoid that walked in front of them. So far the entire dungeon had been devoid of traps but he wasn’t willing to risk it.

Pascal’s expression softened as they walked through the darkened passages. “I care about how you’re feeling. But I’m not going to force you to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“Then why are we having this conversation?” Claire’s expression was even but her tone left no room to guess how she was feeling.

“Because I want you to be careful about how you do things.” Pascal finally spotted the door to another room and smiled. “I can understand wanting to improve yourself, but we’re a team. We are part of your strengths and you’re part of ours. We can’t just leave you behind when you’re clearly trying to improve. So I have an idea that I wanted to throw by you for after we do this dungeon, just to see if it's something you’re interested in.”

Pascal opened the door and peeped inside. It was all clear except for what looked like an undead magi shuffling from side to side. He turned to Claire and could see that she was waiting for him to finish his proposal.

“Let’s go on a book date.”

****

“A book date?”

Yanti's watched with interest as Claire curled up into a ball on the couch. The girl hadn't even tried to take the sole chair from Yanti. She was clearly deep in thought about what Pascal had said to her.

“A book date.” Claire nodded.

She had never heard of a book date, let alone gone on one. But Pascal had suddenly brought up the suggestion and it had been a complete surprise to her. Claire had faced hundreds of problems without an issue. Every time she encountered something new, she went through a simple process. With an unknown like this, she tried to first analyse it to death and then explore every nook and cranny of what might happen. It was what made her such an effective strategist. But the proposal had completely stumped her. Her next step was to get an equally intelligent mind to give her a different perspective on the situation.

So Yanti was her first port of call.

‘What the hell is a book date?’ Yanti was just as confused as Claire.

She’d had a boyfriend for years, but they both played video games for professional teams. He’d never taken on her a book date. But she didn’t want Claire to know that. The girl thought she was the end-all for all issues that involved guys.

“I assume it’s like a movie date.” Yanti kept a straight face as she pulled answers out of thin air. “But you go to bookstores instead.”

“Huh.” Claire’s face turned thoughtful.

‘I do like books.’ She smiled as she thought of the possibilities.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had been feeling a lot of stress lately. The loss during the placement matches had affected her more than she cared to admit. Maybe a book date was just what she needed to relieve some tension.

“And he wants to take you out today?” Yanti pressed Claire for details.

She wanted to know everything about what Pascal had said. His exact words, his intentions, and even his approach to asking. For professional reasons, of course.

Claire shook her head. “Next week. When we go to Greiche’s thing.”

Yanti tilted her head and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. “Ohh, a date in another country. Sounds romantic.”

"It does, doesn't it?" Claire's eyes clouded over as she began daydreaming about what they'd do. "Do you think he has a plan?"

"Not A chance," Yanti responded without a second of hesitation.

Claire nodded and laughed. There was no way Pascal had planned this out. He just wasn't that kind of person. She was willing to bet good money that he'd come up with the idea on the spot after seeing her fight the dungeon boss. But that was okay, because now that Claire knew what he wanted to do she was going to make sure that they couldn't possibly have a bad time.

"It's going to take a lot of planning, but I think we can do it." Yanti was having the same thoughts Claire was.

"Okay."

Claire brought out her laptop and began typing in locations near the hotel Greiche was hiring out for their team.

"Time to plan the perfect date."