The group walked through the tall, thick oak gate with minimal trouble. The guard on duty had asked a simple series of questions when they approached, and it was noticeable just how annoyed Monty's group was at the delay.

"What is your business out of the city? How long will you be gone? How much trouble will you be expecting?" The man had asked, and Colin honestly thought they were simple questions.

Apparently, the rest of the group didn't think so. While Monty was answering the guards, the other members of his party were grumbling about this checkpoint. One member of the group pointed out that the design team wanted the game to be as realistic as possible and that they had achieved that. This guy was immediately shot down by the others that Colin didn't know the name of and counter-argued that this was a game, not reality. The Dev team should have made quicker passage possible so players wouldn't have to waste their free time on trivialities.

This really sounded like an argument that they'd had several times before, and Colin had nothing to add. But if he were to add in his two cents worth, he'd have to go with the realism angle over gaming. While the gaming element was vital since it was a game, having a fair amount of realism simply made Colin more comfortable here. If the guards had simply let them walk by without checking anything about this group, he'd probably be very suspicious.

As it was, Monty answered the questions, and they were allowed through without issue.

Monty led the party down the well-used dirt road that was surrounded on both sides by trees. They were several minutes away from the city wall when Colin asked, "I take it that the animals aren't far from here?"

"Yeah, It's only a couple minutes' walk from here. The animals have established their territory just a little bit that way, and we are simply getting closer before we go right for the mobs." Monty explained.

"I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with gaming terms. What is a mob?" Colin asked curiously.

"Oh, it simply means that it is a mobile monster or enemy. So if I say that there is a group of mobs headed this way, I mean…" Monty led, hoping Colin would finish. Sighing, Colin obliged, "enemies inbound."

"Correct, now turn right to get off the road, and we should be heading for the quest area," Monty informed him.

Colin turned off the road with the rest of them and immediately drew the daggers from his belt. He felt that he should probably be ready in case any of these creatures leaped out of the bushes or canopy at him.

The rest of the group scoffed at his readiness. They were walking so casually through these woods that Colin was honestly annoyed with their carefree attitude. "So, were you thinking of taking a rogue class of some kind, or do you just like knives?" The woman in the group asked curiously.

Shrugging, Colin answered, "I don't know. I haven't really paid much attention to this game before. I'm only playing because someone gifted me the system and insisted I play. I don't even know what classes are available to take or what the hell a subclass is either." The whole group stopped and looked at Colin. The woman was the one who broke the silence a second or three later, "wait. You don't know anything about the game, and you just… what? jumped in?"

"Well, yeah. It was either this or do the taxes." Colin said, trying to add the mirth back to the conversation.

"Yeah, good choice there. I would have made the same choice. So feel free to ask questions while we walk. We have a couple more minutes before we get to the target area." Monty said, giving Colin a smile.

"What are the class choices?" Colin asked immediately.

One of the men behind Colin, the man who'd triggered Colin's personal danger senses earlier, answered him. "There is the Warrior, Brawler, Rogue, Berserker, Priest, Druid, Mage, and Bard. There are the secret classes, Psychic and Clairvoyant, but only one trainer can train a player at a time. Even who can train them is considered super secret. I'd kill to become a Psychic."

"Clairvoyant," the woman said with a sigh. "I tried to find the class trainer with this character but could not find 'em in time to make it worth it." She grumped for a few seconds.

Colin mused about the classes for a moment and figured all were reasonably self-explanatory. McKenna had explained these sorts of classes to him when talking about tabletop games, so he assumed he had an idea what they could do. Only the Warrior, Rogue, and the Mage classes with bard being the fourth choice sounded interesting. He already knew how to fight and knew he could do it well. Warrior was good for that, and the Rogue would mesh well with his other real-life skills. Magic would be entertaining to learn, and Bards were always excellent support characters, according to McKenna.

"Yeah, either Warrior, Rogue, or maybe Mage," Colin answered the girl's earlier question. "What about subclasses?"

"That is simple enough. At level fifteen, you pick another class that will become your subclass. It is used to further specialize or branch out your character. To put it simply, classes start your build with subclasses making your build more unique." Mony said sagely.

"I see," Colin said, thinking. "How many ways are there to make your character stand out?"

"A lot," the woman answered simply. "In addition to classes, there are the skills and abilities you can learn that can make a build go immediately from cookie cutter to snowflake."

"Alright, what classes are you?" Colin inquired.

"I am a Warrior who subclassed into warrior again for the bonuses. This means I make a good tank for everyone," Monty said with a fierce grin.

"I'm a Warrior as well," the woman said. "but my subclass is Cleric. I'm hoping to become a blackguard eventually."

"Mage with the Mage subclass," the man that had remained silent this whole time grumbled.

And lastly, the man who made Colin wary said, "Rogue and Warrior. I opted to maximize damage output." He said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"In the long run," Monty said with a shrug. "It doesn't matter what class you become. Every single class, subclass, and skill has some use or application. So I wouldn't sweat what you choose in the end. Someone somewhere is looking for someone specific to help them. Who knows?"

"Indeed," Colin said in thought. If there really was a class and subclass for everything, then he might be smart to log off the game after this quest. Research was needed to find out which class combination he might want and see if one resonates with him. In the long run, he didn't want to be stuck with a class that he would hate and have wasted all that time for nothing. Especially since McKenna had paid extra for the Deluxe starter set. Oh, why would you pressure me into playing this expensive game?

His internal musings continued for another minute when the Rogue announced, "we just entered the mission area."

"We did?" Colin asked, confused. "how can you tell?"

"Its a skill of mine. Anyone can use a map to find their way, but with the geography and cartography skills and a map, it gives you access to a minimap. It is infinitely convenient," the Rogue explained. "If you get free time in-game, it would be worth it to learn."

"Ah. How do you learn skills?" Colin asked. Having played Dungeons and Dragons 7.2 edition with McKenna, Colin already had an idea of what skills could be and do.

From either trainer, reading about them in books, or improvise. The game's skill tracker can also help you learn skills you know in real life and translate them in-game," Monty said with a chuckle.

Smiling widely, Colin was suddenly happy that he wouldn't have to spend hours and hours training and learn skills that he knew in real life. Now he was gladder than ever that he'd picked the knives at the shop compared to a sword or ax. Colin could use both but was more intimately familiar with smaller blades. He wondered if this skill translator did more than weapons and fighting. Stealth, charms, and running were a few things he could do well in real life and was curious if they could translate over to the game.

Suddenly, the Rogue shushed the group and pointed ahead of them. "First animal incoming," he whispered.

"Let's see what you can do, newbie," Monty said, smiling.

Nodding, Colin stepped forward and waited for his first prey to appear.

The rustle of bushes ahead of the signaled the coming of the beast, and Colin was sure that he wouldn't have needed that warning. A few seconds later and… A spotted cat only a little larger than a house cat ran out of the bushes towards colin. He looked it over, appraising it for a quick second before being sure that he knew what it was.

The Lynx bound towards him with rage driving it, and Colin reacted instinctively. As it got within ten feet, Colin reached into his pouch of throwing knives and with quick precision, threw it at the cat. The blade impacted and sunk into the Lynx's forehead. The cat growled and whimpered in quick succession as its charge was brought to a sudden halt as the attack killed it instantly. You use a throwing knife against a Lynx and deal a critical hit! 4 x 2 = 8 damage You have killed a Lynx! You gain 20 Experience. 20/100 Experience to level 2 Mission Update. Kill 9 more intelligent Animals to complete the mission. System information: Due to your real-life experience with the Personal Blades skill, you have been awarded 2 levels in that skill and a 20% boost to future growth until the system recognizes a level that corresponds with your actual ability Congratulations! You have attained level 3 in the Personal Blades skill. +3% damage with all Personal Blades. +3% critical damage with all Personal Blades. +1.5% dodge rate. All four screens popped in front of Colin at roughly the same time, and it took a few seconds for him to recover from the sudden burst of information. After a few seconds to recover, he read through each window and dismissed each window as he read them. The most important ones were the ones that pertained to his Personal Blades skill. A plus twenty percent boost to skill increases felt pretty good, and the fact that he could do a little more damage with his weapons was fantastic. Also, he wondered how the boost to his dodge rate would manifest itself but decided not to ask the group. They already looked annoyed at him for taking the time to read through each of the pop-up screens carefully before moving on.

After he had finished going through them, Colin looked at the group and smiled apologetically at them. "Sorry for the wait. I've never played these kinds of games before, so I wanted to try and understand them," he told them, hoping they'd understand.

"Whatever, can we just move on? I wanna finish this quest with him before I grow senile," the Rogue said impatiently.

Monty gave the man a look and shook his head. Whatever that look said, the man nodded but scoffed at it all at the same time. The group leader then looked at Colin with a small smile, "sorry about that. He was just hoping to go to a different area today and not hang around. We're a little over-leveled for this area now," he explained. Then his smile widened as he changed topics, "you one shotted your first mob! That is incredible. Most people take a few tries just to get used to swinging a weapon around. Did your level jump?"

"Yeah, I jumped to level 3 in Personal Blades," Colin informed him.

Suddenly, all four sets of eyes locked onto him and seemed to appraise him differently. Especially the Rogue, who'd stopped making his sneering face and now looked just a little wary of Colin. Now, Colin wasn't a judge of what was normal in this game, but he could assume that his kind of jump wasn't usual.

"What?!" Colin asked them as the silence dragged on. "What are those looks for?"

"That is not a normal skill jump. A normal skill jump is to learn the skill instantly or maybe gain a second level as the system assesses your ability in that skill. But to go immediately to level three in a skill is just…" Monty said with no little bit of shock.

"Spooky," the quiet man finished for him.

"Yeah," he said in astonished agreement. Then he collected himself and went into a whole new mode that Colin hadn't seen yet, "hey DevilWalker. We're members of a guild in this game. Do you know what a guild is?" he asked with a little desperation in his voice.

"Yeah. Its an organization whose members are all skilled in one way or another." Colin answered with only a little bit of annoyance. It was obvious where this was going, and there was no way he'd say yes without research.

"That's right. We are members of the Krimson Spire Guild, and the Guild is always looking for talented members to join them. Krimson Spire is based here, out of AsterHold, and we have many things to entice new members. We can offer money and power-leveling, as well as access to guild discounts and information. This also includes access to guild members with special classes to help with special needs like crossing the ocean or going to the moon. We have people for that and can offer them to you. What do you say? Wanna talk to our recruiter for more info?" Monty said in a brief monologue that made Colin more disinterested than before.

"Are you sure that you aren't the recruitment officer for your guild?" Colin asked with a single raised eyebrow. This comment incited all three of the other party members to burst into sudden laughter and even brought the Rogue to the floor in rolling snorts. Then with a cough, Colin answered him, "let's just wait until after the mission is done, then we'll discuss this more. Okay?" he compromised before any problems arose. In real life, he could have taken all four of them at once, but here he wasn't sure. So Colin simply did not want to have them attack him for his outright refusal.

"Fair enough," Monty said with an embarrassed flush rolling over his face for a moment. That faded as quickly as it came, and he called the laughter to a halt. "Let's get this going then. This mission should not take long since the first one attacked us already. You want our help, or you think you got this?" Monty asked helpfully.

"Just watch my back for now," Colin told them. "I might need your help if an ambush happens."

"Oh, hardy har har. Let's get a move on before I die from your humor," the Rogue said dryly. With the Rogue leading them towards the center of the quest area, Colin successful fended off several more attacks from the quest animals. He'd killed a large owl, a wolf, a pair of stags, and an enraged badger in quick succession. The badger, in particular, was a pain to deal with. Both its strength and speed, combined with its claws, made it a very dangerous foe. Colin lost a quarter of his health fighting the thing but managed to gut it with both of his daggers soon after. Congratulations! You have killed an enraged Badger and have earned 40 Experience points You have gained 40 EXP and have 130/100 experience towards your next level. LEVEL UP! You are now Level 2 and now have 30/200 EXP needed to attain level 3. You have 5 unspent attribute points to spend. It is advised that you attain your class before you spend your points to ensure proper placement since all finalized choices are permanent. Just say LEVEL UP to access the appropriate menus Luckily, he learned three things from this experience. First was that leveling up healed all damage taken. And second, the system rewarded leveling up with a euphoric sensation that reminded Colin of the one time he'd won a bet and gotten a massage from McKenna. It was all tingly and made Colin feel refreshed. Third, he learned that the system was kind enough to inform him before making bad decisions.

For a moment, Colin considered going against the system's advice and leveling up his character, but prudence and caution was his nature. He dismissed the two notifications and kept walking forward past the badger when the Rogue caught his attention.

"DevilWalker?! Where are you going? We need to tell you about the last part of this quest," he said with a judgemental sneer.

Saying nothing, Colin turned around to face them, and Monty started talking. He did seem to do a lot of the talking for the group. "The last part of the fight is a little less straightforward. The animals will not be lying in wait to ambush us this time. This time they will be more coordinated like a weird little quasi-party. If I remember correctly and the Devs didn't change anything, there is a large boar that will charge and deal decent damage, a fox that can use low-level fire magic, and a crow with invisibility. Nothing too complicated since they're all still considered to be low-level creatures. The trick to the fight is to not let them surround you. If they do, you'll be in trouble, but otherwise, it's not complicated. The Boar's charge can be avoided quickly enough, the Fox's fire has less power but more range, and the crow turns visible when it attacks so you can find out where it is easy enough," Monty said helpfully.

Shrugging, Colin said, "yeah. It seems simple."

"Would you like help, or you still gonna try this solo?" the party leader asked.

"Just don't let me die out there. I'd rather not die on the first day and on my first quest," Colin told them with a smirk.

The whole party chuckled at Colin's comment, and Colin yet again started moving forward towards the center of the quest area. A minute later, Colin entered a small clearing maybe thirty or so feet wide with dirt showing more obviously through the grass in this area.

Across from him stood a big, hairy brown boar with its head tilted down as if ready to charge. A perfect specimen of a fox stood on the Boar's broad back, it's tail poised high and wary. Standing next to the Boar was the Crow, its sleek feathers and dark colors made it seem foreboding even if it just stood there... watching me.

It was odd that the quest had called these creatures' intelligent animals' and none of the others seemed more so than any other animals. These three, though? They looked like they were actually appraising me with the same kind of processes that I was using to gauge them.

"What are you waiting for?" the woman asked. "They're right there."

"I can see that, but they aren't attacking me either. Maybe I don't have to kill them. If I give them the chance to run, will they?" Colin asked.

"No idea, and it doesn't matter anyway." the Rogue said, annoyed. "They are the quest objective, and that means they must die. You cannot complete the quest if they don't."

"If you don't want to, we can do it for you," Monty said. "I can understand if you'd rather not kill these guys but-"

"Actually, I'd like to try and ask them to leave before I have to kill them. They seem smart… ish." he said hedging. There was no way to know for sure how smart these guys were, and he was hoping they'd understand him if he told them to flee. "Maybe they'd do it."

"If you want to," Monty said.

Nodding, Colin looked at the three animals and took a single step forward. The Fox let out a low growl at him, and the Boar seemed to growl at him in a visible warning. The Crow just seemed to stare at me intensely, oddly quiet compared to what Colin was expecting.

Not sure how to start, Colin just looked at the three animals before him, "hey guys. Would you please just go far away from here where humans won't go into your territory. It would be a shame if humans came and killed you for simply protecting an area that is yours."

The trio eyed Colin suspiciously for long moments. The seconds dragged on, and the three animals looked between each other and even made sounds between each other. Colin was getting the distinct impression that they were actually having a debate between themselves and that they were talking about him. The crow looked at him and glared for a moment, then looking back to its compatriots with a shake of its head.

Whatever they were saying, Colin was sure that the Crow wasn't on his side.

"Seriously? how long are we gonna wait for these things?" The Rogue asked in a whining tone.

"DevilWalker, how long are we gonna wait before you kill these things? They're just dumb animals and not people. They will just decide to attack you as they do to anyone. Just like they're code tells them. Remember that they are just enemy creatures and not thinking beings." Monty said definitively.

His words gave little doubt to what Colin was going to do after this quest was done. Even if this was just a game, everything he was seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and experiencing felt real. Hell, Colin could smell the fresh forest smell around them with just a hint of the Boar wafting around them. He was sure that this place wasn't his real world, but he was convinced that this place felt real enough too. So until the game did something out of place for the game, he planned to treat the world he was now in as real. Especially considering how these guys were asshats to everyone else.

"Just give them another minute," Colin told him. "I'm curious which way they'll go," he said to them as he watched the three animals continue their conversation.

Another minute later and all three animals faced me directly. The Crow looked me squarely in the eyes and gave me a small nod of the head. The Fox let out a little yelp as the Boar started to turn around as if to go.

The Crow extended its wings in preparation for its flight and cawed at Colin loudly. He wasn't sure why it did that, but the relaxed posture of the other two animals made it look like Colin had swayed them. He smiled as the Boar with its passenger turned to walk away without so much as a glance backward. The crow flapped its wings several times and took off. Its flight took it towards him, though it was gaining height fast as it started to leave.

That was until a shaft of shimmering, mostly transparent air flew past my head and impacted the Crow.

The spell that I assumed came from the quiet Aeromage had hit the Crow in its chest and seemed to pierce all the way through its diminutive form. The dark bird fell to the floor where it was hit, it's momentum being arrested by the impact of the magic. It died seconds later with a last pained cry.

"Shit," Colin growled as he looked at the Boar and Fox, who hadn't even left the clearing yet.

At the sound of the crow's last caw, both of the creatures froze in place. For a long two seconds, they looked like perfect statues of a comical duo that have never have been. Then the Fox shuffled around on the Boar's back and looked right at the downed Crow. It stared for a few seconds as the Boar turned around to look at the scene itself.

The Fox raised its muzzle to the air and let out a pained howl. Colin wasn't sure that these types of animals could physically cry, but he sure could believe that they were saddened by the death.

"What in the infinite abyss are you yelling about now, Fox," a man's voice called out annoyed. "I was sleeping off that party you threw last night. Whew, that was insa-" the man said, then cut off as he entered the clearing. The man before Colin was a big man standing maybe six feet tall with a body that could be explained as defined. His tanned skin was covered only by a simple dirty white cloth vest and matching britches. No shoes, no belt, and no hat covering his ashen shoulder-length hair that had an actual leafy twig stuck in it. His attention was on the Fox, who was yipping at him a few times in succession before he even turned to see the Crow's body on the ground.

"Oh, no. What have you done, Adventurers? He was about to leave you in peace, and you blast him with magic as he was ascending. If he'd died in normal combat, I might have been able to let this slide but now… I cannot let you leave this place without exacting retribution for this fallen creature. I am Leg, the Druid who was giving sanctuary to these creatures abandoned by their masters. Now, ready yourselves and attack when ready. Prove yourselves nobler than your previous action dictated." the man said, nearly spitting with anger at the end.

"Holy shit," the woman said. "He's real. The Guardian Druid is real. Guy's, We've found a secret boss," she said excitedly as she actually drew her weapon, a decent looking cavalry saber.

"I've heard of this guy over the forums, but only a few people have seen him and no one knew how to trigger his arrival. This is awesome," Monty said excitedly.

"Can we kill him now? I kind of want to kill him now," the Rogue said with a sadistic grin playing across his face. It was the first face that he'd seen across his face that wasn't boredom.

Colin didn't think that the Druid, whatever that meant in-game, would let any of them leave. He was practically fuming with rage that he was suppressing with whatever propriety or honor he had left. Unsure of how much power the Druid had, Colin looked behind him at the group and nodded at them, "you ready?"

Monty nodded, "yeah. He's a strong spell caster for this level, but he's not unbeatable for very low-level players. Some people have theorized that he's meant to punish players who get too cruel. Nobody knows for sure what spawns him."

"Enough talking," The Rogue spat. "Can we start now?"

"Go!" Monty announced, and the four of them sprinted past Colin in an attempt to get at the Druid.

The three of them covered the distance to the Druid in seconds, but it still wasn't fast enough. Leg pointed at the ground ahead of him and then immediately curled his hand into a claw. The grass under the charging quartet's feet lengthened and thickened into twisting vines that attempted to ensnare them.

All four stopped in their tracks, doubling over from the sudden loss of their momentum. Cursing, the four started to try and break or cut through the entanglements that bound them. "Dammit, we should have guessed he'd have a crowd-control spell. Can anyone get out?" Monty asked the group before his gaze fell on Colin. Having been the only one who hadn't moved, he was also the only one not caught up in the spell.

"DevilWalker, you hold him off until we get free," Monty ordered as he pulled and strained against the bonds. Slightly annoyed, Colin drew both of his daggers and jogged around the roughly ten feet area of the grasping vines. He kept his attention split between the attacking vines and the Druid, who was preparing another spell.

He looked at Colin as he circled around the continued spell and snarled as he approached. The Druid clenched his fists and thrust his arm out at him as some kind of energy shimmered and swirled around his fist. A second later, the energy coalesced into a shaft of hardened wind and flew towards Colin.

The spell flew, and Colin immediately dove to the left to avoid the spell and analyze its speed. The spell impacted and detonated behind Colin, and he took a second to look at the effects of the spell. Immediately, he decided that deflecting the spell was not an option.

Sprinting, Colin ducked low and charged at the Druid as he repeated the same air spell. He fired the spell twice more, and Colin managed to dive roll out of the way of the first.

The second impacted and detonated against Colin's left pectoral. You have been hit by the Air Bolt spell and have taken 24 points of wind damage. You have 86 out of 110 health remaining "Ow," Colin grunted as he kept finished the roll he'd started and kept advancing. The pain in his chest faded from mind-numbing to a dull ache that simply reminded him of the injury. It must have been a part of the system since he's received chest wounds before, and they simply didn't do that.

The Druid sneered as I got almost got within stabbing distance, and I went wide-eyed as a small fireball exploded in my face. you have been hit by Fox Fire and have taken 10 points of fire damage. You have 76 out of 110 health remaining Shit, Colin was starting to feel like the game was cheating. Not only did they have to contend with the Druid, but they had to fight the Fox and the Boar.

Colin took several leaping steps back to get a little distance from the trio and to reassess the situation for a second.

The Fox was now off the Boar's back and was growling at the group with its fur bristling and literally undulating with what Colin assumed was magic flowing around it. The Boar, on the other hand, was a few paces behind the Fox and looked like it was gearing up for a charge. Lastly, the Druid was preparing another of those shimmering bolt spells while taking a step or two farther back. It was the number one rule of using any ranged attack; Never let the enemy get close.

Well, that wasn't going to happen.

Colin loosened his grip on the dagger in his left hand and put the hilt of the second dagger into his teeth. With his right hand free, Colin pulled one of the knives out of their pouch. Ready, Colin waited a few seconds for the first attack to come and watched as the three coordinated their attacks.

The Boar charged, and the Fox gathered its fiery magic ball above its diminutive form. As the Boar approached, Colin braced himself as both an Air Bolt and the Fox Fire that were shot at him.

"I gotcha!" Monty announced as he stood in front of Colin. With his shield lifted, he took both spells with only a grunt, but the Boars charge never came. The quiet Aeromage had taken care of it quickly with some of his own air magic.

"Sorry, that took so long, DevilWalker. Those vines were a pain in the ass. Had to wait for the spell to wear off," he explained as he looked over his shield. A burst of fire against his shield made him duck back behind it before he took damage.

"Son of a bitch!" the Rogue shouted as another cast of the vines spell caught him in its grip. This time, he was the only one caught, and the woman ran around the viny area and raised a two-handed sword off to the side as she charged the Druid.

"I got him!" she yelled as she swung the sword.

"No, you don't," Colin muttered through the blade in his teeth as he watched the Druid's reactions.

The Druid pointed his arm at the woman, this time an emerald light spun around his arm as she charged the spell. With a flick of his wrist, the Druid flung the spell at her, and the crack of thunder followed. She was suddenly pushed back several feet with the force of the boom and was bleeding from her ears.

"Ouch," Colin said as he looked at the Druid. He was smirking at their, admittedly, feeble attempts to attack him and the Fox. "Got any plans?" Colin asked Monty.

"Unfortunately, no. Usually, we go with the slice and dice method of attack," he said with a shrug. "We don't usually get this locked down. Especially with a lower level boss."

For a second, Colin honestly considered just leaving them here to take these two on themselves. Especially since their Aeromage was the one who killed the Crow that caused this whole mess. If they had actually left it to him like Monty said they would, this would not have happened. But on the other hand, he did agree to group up with them, and that meant working together.

Letting out a sigh, Colin started to calm his breathing and readied himself for what he was about to do.

God, this was such a dumb move.

Crouching low to the ground, Colin readied himself like a sprinter at the track. He waited only a few seconds for both the Druid and the Fox to fire their respective spells before Colin took off like a dog chasing a car.

Immediately after breaking from Monty's cover, Colin threw the throwing knife in his hand at the Fox. He was hoping to knock it out of the fight quickly but was disappointed in his own aim. He missed its head and instead got its flank with a shallow hit. The blade didn't even stick in its hide.

But Colin didn't stop moving. He took the second dagger out of his mouth and ran towards the Druid and hoped his hail mary rush would let him get close. Within seconds, he'd accomplished his move and dove into a roll that stopped just past the Druid's position. Standing up, Colin drove both blades into the Druid's back and pulled the blades apart to widen the wound.

The Druid cried out in pain as the blades slid into him. Ignoring the cry wasn't hard, so Colin continued his beastly job by withdrawing the left dagger and plunging it into the base of the Druid's skull.

The cries silenced almost eerily quickly after that, and Colin could hear the Druid's final breath escape him as he died. For a split second, Colin wondered if this really was a game with how real everything felt.

Then his musing was interrupted by a slew of information screens. Congratulations! You have defeated Leg, the Guardian Druid! You have gained 200 experience points! Also, you gain a special drop for getting the final blow on the Secret Boss You have obtained the weapon augmentation; Crystal of learning! You have also gained ten CC for defeating the Boss You have attained 200 EXP and have 230/200 experience towards your next level. LEVEL UP! You are now Level 3 and now have 30/600 EXP needed to attain level 3. You have 10 unspent attribute points to spend. It is advised that you attain your class before you spend your points to ensure proper placement since all finalized choices are permanent. Just say LEVEL UP to access the appropriate menus. As he closed the information windows, a small octagonal crystal with swirling turquoise tendrils appeared in his hand. Smiling, he tried to open up a description window and was immediately disappointed. You lack the prerequisite skill and levels to identify this item's properties. Figures, but this was alright. Not only was he now Level 3, but he'd gotten more copper coins to hopefully get some armor when they got back to town. Again, he wanted to spend the attribute points to upgrade his abilities. Still, the lack of a class and information made him wait. He needed to know what other things these attributes scores meant and if they applied to anything else. Who knows what systems in the game he could exploit if he knew more before spending his points carelessly.

"Well, that was intense," Monty said with a chuckle as a screen appeared in front of him. Colin couldn't read his screen as it looked blank, but he figured that it was there to let other players know that they weren't just staring into space.

Suddenly, Monty's face changed and darkened. He looked at Colin with a stern expression before letting out a sigh and approaching while Colin cleaned his blades on the Druid's clothes. Looking around, Colin didn't find the Fox. Alive or dead. It must have escaped after the Druid died.

"DevilWalker, you did a good job to kill the Boss. You have skills, and I definitely want you in the Guild that I'm a member of, but…" he paused as if trying to find a different set of words. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to hand over that weapon augmentation. Guild rules say that I need to hand weapon augments over to the on-duty sergeant."

"But it was awarded to me. Why should I give it over?" Colin asked indignantly as he slid the crystal into his pant's pocket.

"I know," he said regretfully. "But the Guild by-laws state that since I, a member of the Guild, was the party leader, I have to hand over the weapon augment. Don't be difficult, DevilWalker. The Guild will compensate you for the market price of the item plus ten percent."

"No," Colin said absolutely. Not only did they never bring anything like this up earlier, but it sounded like Monty was trying to bully him out of his lunch money. He hated a lot of things in his real-life, but bullies were high up on this list. "It's mine, and I never agreed to give you anything that I got. Is that difficult to understand, or do I have to explain it better?"

"DevilWalker, give it to me now or-" Monty said, trying to give Colin another chance to concede to his demands. He really didn't want to hurt the new guy who could really bolster his position in the Guild for introducing new talent to its ranks.

"Seriously?! Stop trying to reason with him, Monty." The Rogue said with annoyance at the whole situation. "Let's just kill him and see if it drops from his corpse. Besides, I didn't get to do anything against the Boss, and I really need some stress relief," he said with a sadistic smile.

"Trust me," Colin said steadily. "Just let me leave, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble, Monty. I'd hate to kill you all."

"Bah! With your stats, that's unlikely," the Rogue sneered as he looked at Monty. "Seriously, dude, We can take him no sweat."

"Come on, Boss," The woman goaded. "We can take this low-level punk without a problem." Colin looked to the quiet Aeromancer and sighed when he saw him nod his head in agreement.

"Why can't you just walk away and not bully me into giving you my stuff? No one at your Guild should know that I have it, so why does it matter?"

"It's part of the in-game Guild mechanics. They probably already know that a member of our party has that crystal even if you aren't a member of the Guild. If we don't turn something in, then we'll get in trouble. So hand it over," Monty said one final time. This time, he didn't even try to hide the malice in his voice.

Colin shook his head and readied both of the daggers in his hands for the fight ahead of him.