"Bonifacius: Fear not, friend. I am almost at your position!"

The message came to JohnWillStab through the private message window.

John could see Bonifacius’ map-indicator moving very quickly.

"JohnWIllStab: How the f*#k are you moving that fast?!"

Before Bonifacius could type his response John saw him literally running towards them from inside of a forest, his character was covered in the blood of low-level creatures he ran across, though this time he wasn't wearing his armour and was instead wearing a full set of boar-hide armour.

Pandors’ character spun around, his character’s face reflected the shock any normal person would feel under those circumstances.

"Pandors_T_T: Who the f!#k is that?!"

"Olivionion: Judging from their speed and armour type it's a swordsman..."

The armour Bonifacius was wearing now turned to the usual steel, even with the armour he was able to keep up with the cart.

The cart didn’t slow down as the AFK driver was out for a piss.

"Bonifacius: Are you the ones who arrested my ally?"

Bonifacius’ character didn’t seem phased by the fact he was sprinting after a full-speed cart.

Pandors’ character immediately sat up and pushed past Olivionion, sanding on the edge of the cart.

"Pandors_T_T: Your "ally" is an infamous hacker."

In a private chat window, Olivionion texted Pandors_T_T,

"Olivionion: Yo, boss isn't that the platinum knight armour?"

"Pandors_T_T: Looks like it, he's probably a raider."

"Olivionion: Isn't it like... really rare?"

"Pandors_T_T: Look, that's not relevant."

Back in local chat...

"Bonifacius: I can assure you they are not the cheater! I have spent the last few hours slaying swine with them!"

"Olivionion:…”

"Olivionion: Why are you talking like that?"

"JohnWillStab: you'll get used to it..."

"Pandors_T_T: Shut up or we'll mute you!"

Around the group moved the dark, gloomy trees of Grimwood, beside them the river that cut through the zone and led directly into the rolling plains.

The tense atmosphere was suddenly pierced by a delayed comment from the cart driver.

"Pedecree: Oh man, if it isn't the bonehead tank!"

Seeing the comment and less-than-agreeable nickname appear in chat, Bonifacius turned to face Pedecree.

"Bonifacius: Dogmeat?! Is that you!?"

Pedecree played the /nod emote.

"Pedecree: And you stopped writing like an inbred Shakespeare!"

"Bonifacius: Indeed - I was blessed with advice from a fellow player of the roles!"

Bonifacius was still running, he was just casually keeping up with the full-speed cart.

"Olivionion: you know him?" Olivionion turned to face Pedecree.

Pandors played the /stomp emote, kicking the wooden cart.

"Pandors_T_T: Stop talking to the enemy!"

"Pedecree: He's no enemy - Bony is too straight-laced to lie about something like this."

Bonifacius played the /squint emote, judging Pedecree’s company with his cold stare.

"Bonifacius: I see thou has gotten involved with the guardian dogs?"

"Pandors_T_T: Hey!"

Pedecree played the /laugh emote.

"Pedecree: They're not that bad, and it was about two months ago, y’know, second chances and whatnot, that said I'm just the cart guy, officially I'm in the FoodGuild_.”

Pandors was throwing a mini-tantrum in the chat as the two comrades spoke.

"Pandors_T_T: Stop ignoring me!"

"Bonifacius: So you are finally using that cooking profession for something!"

Bonifacius recalled the days Pedecree spent running raids and dungeons in search of rare food-drops and recipes.

From the meats of Kearudown, the fruits of Arlepia to the Spices of Ajuan.

In order to become the max-level chef, one had to complete a complex quest-line, they had to search the entire world to find the perfect ingredients for a meal that could be valued in millions of gold coins.

"Pedecree: Yeah well I spend a few years levelling my cooking, glad to say it makes me a good bit of money nowadays!"

Pedecree opened his bag seeing the five-thousand gold, enough to buy more supplies and get his armour repaired.

"Bonifacius: I'm glad to hear that! What about the others from the guild?"

Bonifacius was filled with a sudden nostalgic feeling at the mention of their old guild.

"Pandors_T_T: I'm going to arrest both of you..."

"Pedecree: I've only kept in contact with Rose and Bookly, but I think most left and joined the pvp guilds..."

"Pedecree: Curstl runs the jGuardians, so I guess you could say I’ve had some contact with her…”

Bonifacius decided he didn’t want to delve deeper into any conversation that involved her.

"Bonifacius: And Bromy?"

"Pedecree: I haven’t kept contact since the goat incident, but he most likely locked up in some room, writing books on the biology of slimes or something."

He played another /laugh emote as the cart moved over a bump in the road, tossing JohnWillStab’s loose body up into the air before falling back down.

Seeing the body of his ally, Bonifacius suddenly remembered the reason he was running after this cart.

"Bonifacius: Ah - sorry, this is my companion, JohnWillStab - they just joined today!"

"JohnWillStab: It’s cool, no rush T

"Pedecree: An undead? So you finally found someone to quest with..."

The way Pedecree spoke made JohnWillStab think Bonifacius was trying to get people to do the starter quests with him for a while.

"Bonifacius: Indeed!"

The conversation got interrupted by a flash and a loud bang sound effect, Pandors_T_T finally snapped and shot Bonifacius with a long wooden rifle with gold where the metal parts.

The bullet that hit Bonifacius ricocheted off his armour, flying off into the distance, hopefully hitting a random player at some point.

"Bonifacius: Quite the uncivilized introduction!"

Warning Shot A level 65 ability allowing the user to shoot someone for 1% of their damage, roleplay aside it can be used to aggro enemies you don't want to kill.

Olivionion shook his head in disapproval as he saw the lack of any sort of would or blood.

"Olivionion: Should have killed him, boss..."

Pandors sighed.

"Pandors_T_T: I'm not losing honour points because of this one suicidal guy!"

Bonifacius observed the four players on the cart, he knew John was both immobile and also on his side.

He was fairly certain Pedecree would remain neutral, however he didn’t want to put him in an awkward situation, thus he didn’t exclude him from his calculation.

"Bonifacius: It would be a gamble to fight thee - but if I must..."

"Olivionion: Go ahead! I'm from the #1 pvp guild on the server!"

"Bonifacius: I do not display my achievements like you! I may speak through actions however..."

Bonifacius grabs a hold of his blade

His character did in fact grab his sword and shield.

Pedecree sent a private message to Pandors_T_T.

"Pedecree : I'm pretty sure you two won't be able to take him down, if I were you I'd get at least a third person."

"Pandors_T_T: We'll see."

Pedecree didn’t want his precious cart getting damaged, not to mention being forced to pick between Curstl’s jGuardians and Bonifacius again.

"Pedecree : More importantly I'm not sure if your guild would appreciate you making an enemy of one of the top ten players before the collapse..."

"Pandors_T_T: ?"

"Pedecree : I tried to give you a hint earlier, the bonehead tank, he was the #1 tank on the server back when the guild Bossphobic was around."

Back in local chat...

Pandors looked at his stats screen, he knew that as a ranged DPS he was the perfect match for a slow tank, however he was far from the elite himself.

Pandors breathed a sigh of defeat.

"Pandors_T_T: Fine, we'll make sure that if your friend is innocent they'll be portalled back to the town."

The cart continued to move as the chat went quiet.

Bonifacius wasn’t sure of he could trust the jGuardians, not to mention their leader.

Curstl was the kind of person to exploit the server rules in plain sight for the sake of her goals.

Regardless, Bonifacius couldn’t doom JohnWillStab to a jGuardian trial.

"Bonifacius: Fine… then I demand to come with you to ensure a fair trial!"

Olivionion turned to face Pandors, a look of confusion and disappointment perfectly displayed with the /what emote.

"Olivionion: Yo, what the hell, boss?!"

Pandors sighed.

"Pandors_T_T: I have received some... info on our foe..."

Olivionion proceeded to turn his character to face Pedecree and stare at him silently.

"Pedecree : What?!"

"Olivionion: The hell'd you tell him!?"

"Pandors_T_T: Shut up both of you, we're not killing random players for no reason! If you want to tag along then get on the cart!"

Olivionion played the /boo emote.

"Olivionion: Boo…“

His character nodded.

"Bonifacius: With pleasure!"

"JohnWillStab: ...I'm confused..."

The group consisting of Pedecree, Olivionion, Pandors_T_T, JohnWillStab and Bonifacius continued down the dirt road.

A wooden bridge separated the gloomy forest from a bright field of tall, golden grass and gentle hills that rolled like sand dunes, with not a tree in sight, instead the occasional jungle of bushes made a home for the tall bird-like creatures which wandered the zone, playing the /eat animation which looked like the bird pecking at the ground when they came close to the many small ponds that themselves were homes to many creatures such as at large, leathery creatures that resembled six-legged hippos with patches of grass or moss growing on their back.

JohnWillStab observed the zone, compared to Grimwood it looked like the generic fantasy setting.

"JohnWillStab: What is this zone?"

"Pandors_T_T: The golden plains! Truly a great area - full of rare items too!"

In the distance, large cliffs stood, some towers, ancient remains of a player base long abandoned stood like a monument to a once-populated zone.

"Olivionion: And a great place to gang up on low levels... since this isn't considered a starter zone there is no real penalty..."

He gestured to the piles of skeletons that lined the road.

"Olivionion: Ooh, that one’s my doing!"

Olivionion pointed to the skeleton of a human missing both arms and with a skull that was split in half.

"Pedecree : You pvpers really are despicable" Pedecree laughed.

He didn’t really mean it, PVP was as basic as regular combat in MMOs, granted some people took it to asshole-level previously unknown, hunting level-ones, setting explosive traps in starter zones and even waiting at popular quest-location to kill questing players, then waiting at their corpse, forcing them to respawn back in town and have to walk all the way back to where they died, hoping the player-killer was gone.

"Pandors_T_T: It may look nice, but even the bugs in this zone would tear the undead to bits, they're level 20."

Olivionion played the /thumbs up emote.

"Olivionion: Why not test that theory? :D"

Bonifacius replied with another thumbs-up.

"Bonifacius: Perhaps you'd choose to go first, Olivionion?"

"JohnWillStab: I’m good on the cart, I’ve come to like it!

JohnWillStab typed frantically.

"Pedecree: Glad to hear it!"

Pedecree took his comment as a complement, he took great pride in his cart-skills.

"Olivionion: Why don't you join me, Bony?"

It took Olivionion precisely ten minutes to come up with a new nickname for Bonifacius.

The tension on the cart grew as they part moved across the sunny zone, the grass decals waves in the breeze and the cart rode over the cobblestone road.

In the distance, JohnWillStab spotted a small pond disappear into the ground and reappear moments later.

"Pandors_T_T: I haven't levelled my leatherworking since level 20, don't make me [email protected]!king skin you two alive, because it WILL hurt!"

"Bonifacius: Tis your companion who started this exchange!"

"Olivionion: Dumb#$s..."

A loud explosion could be heard as the explosion spell effect played, unlike most spell effects which were 2D images/particle displayed in a 3D shape to form a circle of fire for example, the explosion spell was a 3D model accompanied by 2D particle.

The cart was replaced with a model looking like a pile of broken wood as all of the characters were thrown out from the cart and into the surrounding fields.

"Bonifacius: Who cast the explosion spell!?"

"Pandors_T_T: It's a trap!"

"Celerious: SUCK IT [email protected]!"

They were a wolfkin wearing heavy looking iron armour, chains and belts covered their bodies.

In her hand was a relatively small mace - however, it did glow a pale green colour.

Celerious flips them off

Celerious did /rude.

"RedPancake: That's what they get for being weak!"

Said the ogre, he wore an overcoat above short brown trousers and a white blouse, in their hand a rapier.

"Mufinski: Don't celebrate yet - they wore armour, lot of health!"

The harpy said, she wore cloth robes and held a bow - the bow itself emitted red light and fire particle.

"Olivionion: Do you know how rare carts are?"

"Celerious: S#!t, he's alive, kill him!"

With a puff of smoke, Olivionion appeared behind Celerious's character - Backstep the ability teleports you behind an opponent.

Olivionion used Pistol Shot and with a small flintlock pistol shot Celerious killing them instantly.

"Olivionion: If I killed her with one shot she must've been under level 40 - too bad..."

An arrow flew at Olivionion from Mufinski as RedPancake started casting a lightning spell.

Olivionion cast Pistol Shot at RedPancake causing them to fall to the ground - as the arrow was about to hit him it vanished.

"Mufinski: What the hell did you do!? Cheater!"

"Olivionion: lol, calling me a cheater, judging by your level I guess you didn't know who you're attacking..."

"Olivionion: Tell me, do you know the dagger class' level 90 ability?"

"Mufinski: Who the [email protected] plays dagger class?! No! I don't!"

Olivionion started walking towards Mufinski with a sinister grin.

"Olivionion: It's projectile evasion... basically I can dodge any projectile every ten seconds..."

A shot rang out in the distance as Olivionion exploded into a mess of blood particles as his body fell to the ground limply.

"Cabage_san: Get sniped, [email protected]!"

In the far distance stood an undead wearing a robe and hood - in his hands a massive, long, metal rifle with a green glass sight.

From the nearby bushes walked out a wolfman dressed in robes and holding a book in his hand, he rushed in and picked up Celerious and placed her next to RedPancake before casting a spell which bathed them both in a sphere of white light. Golden rays of light showered them before they both returned to life.

The healer quickly returned into the bushes.

"Celerious: not so tough now, are you!? You're a higher level than expected but our sniper is max level!"

Meanwhile in the bushes near where the explosion happened…

In a private group chat...

"Pandors_T_T: That [email protected]!king [email protected]!ard!"

"Pedecree: From the looks of it they were trying to trap early level 20s..."

"Pandors_T_T: Yeah well I'm about to go demonstrate karma in action to them..."

Bonifacius turned to his temportary-ally.

"Bonifacius: Indeed, but don't forget they have a level 100 sniper!"

"Pandors_T_T: Yeah, well he can't snipe all 3 of us!"

"Pedecree: Multishot is a level thirty-four spell..."

"Bonifacius: Indeed, I was about to say that!"

Pandors breathed a sigh in real life.

"Pandors_T_T: How do you people know this?!"

"Pedecree: Our old raid guild was pretty... demanding."

"Celerious: Come out, cowards! If the dagger survived than so should the armoured guy!"

"Bonifacius: Tell me, Pandors - do they teach you dogs tactics?"

"Pandors_T_T: Don't call us dogs! and yes - they do!"

"Pedecree: The justice boys always have those stupid tactics drills - I don't get it, but it helps them feel in character."

"Pandors_T_T: Don't call us justice boys either!"

"Bonifacius: Whatever the case may be, I have a plan!"

"Celerious: Fine, Mufin - toss a bomb into the bushes!"

"Mufinski: Alright"

Before they could do anything Bonifacius jumped out from the bushes using Master Charge launching Mufinski away into the distance, their body limply falling into a pool of water, instantly after that he cast Defence Stance.

The animation of three, translucent blue shields orbiting around him played he took on shot after shot from Cabage_san, each time a shot was fired one of the shields would move in to block it and crack a little.

"Celerious: There you are! But it looks like you were the only survivor!"

Meanwhile, from the bushes, Pedecree was casting Synthesis amunition to create slingshot ammo.

Cabage_san kept firing at Bonifacius before realising he wasn't doing anything else - he was clearly the distraction.

"Cabage_san : That son of a [email protected] is a decoy!"

"Bonifacius: HAHA! And what pray tell might I be a decoy for?"

Cabage_san looked at the shield realising Bonifacius was facing him, he used the shield animation to track down his direction, the shields cracked where the bullet came from.

Cabage_san put the rifle away as he began to run away when he was suddenly sniped himself causing his head to explode into green blood particles (seeing as he was a stage-5 decomposition undead)

"Pandors_T_T: We have snipers too, [email protected]!ole!"

Celerious charged in, smashing her mace into Bonifacius to no avail, the green light was an enchantment, though it seemed to have no effect on him.

In a second Celerious was hit with a barrage of flaming pebbles from Pedecree's slingshot, giving her not only the burning effect but also causing their character to play the panicked animation as she dropped her weapon.

The healer wolfkin from before rushed out of the woods casting a healing spell on her only to explode into blood particles and meaty chunks as Pandors_T_T sniped him too.

Realising the situation Celerious admitted defeat playing the /surrender emote.

"Celerious: Alright STOP! We surrender - it's not worth the honour point loss..."

"Pandors_T_T: good..."

Olivionion's character stood up.

"Pandors_T_T: The hell, it hasn't been 10 minutes yet?!"

"Olivionion: I played feign death - though it was a close one :P"

The two members of the JGuardians and Pedecree rounded up the five "criminals" and loaded them onto a re-summoned cart.

"Pedecree: you're lucky I carry a repair kit on me..."

"Bonifacius: Now that the bandits are dealt with we may continue..."

"Pedecree: Well, it might be difficult to fit them onto the cart... isn't that right, Pandors?"

"Pandors_T_T: I guess, can't risk the cart breaking under the weight of their stuff... guess the hacker and his roleplaying buddy got away during the explosion..."

He gestured to the cart.

He said walking away from the group and getting onto the cart.

"Olivionion: ..."

Olivionion looked at the man with an expression of disgust.

"Olivionion: pu$!y..."

"Pandors_T_T: SHUT UP IT'S THE CART!"

He gestured to the cart more aggressively.

"Bonifacius: You have my gratitude rifleman, in that case, let's head back JohnWIllStab!"

"Olivionion: ..."

"Pandors_T_T: ..."

"Bonifacius: JohnWIllStab?"

"JohnWIllStab: I was waiting for a good moment to tell you guys... I'm kind of stuck..."

"Bonifacius: Stuck how?"

"JohnWIllStab: I landed on a tree... and there are about ten angry hippo monsters trying to eat me T_T"

The cart sped off leaving behind dust particle as they hurried with the five bandits aboard.

Bonifacius cracks his knuckles

"Bonifacius: I'M ON MY WAY, FRIEND!"