The thirty fourth floor was a land of ice and snow. The houses around him were all made of wood. There were people in fur clothes walking about on the roads, but there were no street hawkers shouting out their wares, or the usual bustle of a city. This was a city of elves. Bon had not seen any humans yet.

Kill the Rageborn Bear

This vast expanse of frozen wasteland is filled with dangers, from both monsters as well as Mother Nature. The Rageborn Bear lives in this land, a berserk bear that kills anything that comes near it. Gather a group of players and eliminate the threat.

(Quest requires a party of at least four members)

Completion of this quest will give players access to the 35th floor

Rewards: 1 Epic Armor, 500Gold, 50,000 EXP Region Quest: Cultist Catastrophe Members of a mysterious cult are causing trouble to the players on this floor. Eliminate the cult. You will receive points for every cultist killed. Current points: 0

Rewards: Adjusted according to the number of points won.

The quests in the Tower did not give much information. Who were these cultists, and why did they have to be eliminated?

“Bon,” this time Bojana came from the same entrance portal as him. “This floor looks very depressing.”

“Yeah,” Bon gazed at the dark clouds in the sky. “Let’s finish this quickly.” Players were immune to temperature changes. Most of them had at least a 20% rating in their basic resistances which let them bear the warmth and cold of the climate. Bon’s advanced resistances were near 100%. He knew it was cold, but he couldn’t really feel it.

They walked towards a big hall, which was the tallest building in this small city. On the way, Bon asked a passerby about the Rageborn Bear.

“You’re heroes,” the elf grinned. “A new batch. You are welcome to our land.” It was nice to see a friendly elf, thought Bon. After the looks of disdain on the faces of the elves of the previous floor, Bon had realized that not everyone liked heroes.

“Thank you. Could you tell us where the Bear is?” asked Bojana.

“Head north, towards the Great Mountain for half a day. You will find a big underground tunnel. The bear lives in there.”

Bon scanned the location with his Mana Sense. There was no Boss mana signature there, but there were several elven and other ones. Why was this man lying. Could it be something related to this cult they were supposed to eliminate? Bon scanned the entire area, and found the Boss two days to the east of them.

“Bon,” Bojana shook his arm. “Why are you staring into space for so long. You’re scaring me.”

“How long was I staring?” asked Bon. He had lost track of time while looking for the Boss.

“Half an hour. I kept tugging at you, but you didn’t respond.”

“I was using my Mana Sense,” said Bon. “The people here are lying to us. We must be careful.”

“Do we go where he told us?” asked Bojana.

“Why not?” Bon laughed. “I doubt that any of their traps could hold us. I want to see what they’re up to. It might be related to the Region Quest.” He wasn’t really interested in the quest. He was just curious.

He asked a few more elves about the Bear. They all said the same thing – go north. They seemed a little too happy to see him, grinning themselves silly. Errel was the next to join them.

“There’s something strange about these elves,” he whispered to Bon and Bojana.

Bojana nodded. “Bon sensed it too. They’re lying to us about the Boss.”

“What do you find strange about them, Errel?” Bon asked.

“Their auras are all wrong. It’s hard to explain. It’s like their life force is not fully integrated with itself. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Bon thought silently to himself, while they waited for the others. Toby, Phil and Siobhan soon joined them. Bon quickly explained the situation to them.

“I say we go north,” he raised his hand. “I want to see what this is all about.”

“I do too,” Phil raised his hand.

“I’m cool with anything,” said Bojana. Siobhan and Toby nodded too. Only Errel seemed to be hesitant, but the majority had decided.

“Let’s stay in the city and wait for the other players,” Bon suggested. “It will be more interesting that way.”

This city didn’t have any inns, but they found an elf who allowed them to stay in his home. The elf kept to himself within the house, only calling them when it was time to eat. There was a strange black mark on his wrist. It was like a tattoo. Was he a cultist? Bon signaled for everyone to not eat. He took a morsel of bread and swallowed it. It wasn’t poisoned. He tried the other food as well. It was all safe to eat. Bon nodded, and the others dug in. The gravy was nice, and the bread was soft, but it couldn’t compare to the Tower’s food.

They bid each other good night after the meal, and went to sleep. Bon meditated, keeping half an ear open, just in case of an ambush. The next day, they wandered around the city. There was nothing much to do in this place, except walk around. Towards afternoon, Steve and his raiding party arrived. There were approximately three hundred people in his group now.

“Bon,” Steve said in surprise when he saw him. “You were here already?” Bon nodded. “So it was you who killed the boss before us. We had to wait a few hours before it respawned,” he said accusingly. “It would have been better if you just fought it with us.”

“My party will be quicker next time,” said Bon. “You won’t have to wait long for the next respawn. Can we join you for this raid?”

“Sure,” Steve said. “The more the better, and your party looks strong. This time we’re going directly for the Boss. There aren’t any side quests on this floor, and I don’t think the Region Quest is worth it. It’s not like we’re saving a kingdom this time, or anything important. I hate this floor already. I just want to leave.”

“Then let’s go,” Bon went back to join his friends.

The raiding party soon set off northwards.

“Siobhan,” said Bon, “Have you ever tried to cast magic without using the Tower’s guidance? With Mana Sense you can see and feel how the magic is supposed to be cast, right?”

“I’ve tried,” said Siobhan. “I can use Illuminate on my own. There is no cooldown when I do it that way, and I can change the brightness depending on how much mana I pour in. The other spells are too complex for me to even try.”

“Keep at it,” said Bon. “Learning to use magic on your own allows you to finely control your skills. As long as you have enough mana you can turn even a simple fireball into a spell of mass destruction.”

“I’ll try,” Siobhan said, with a determined tone in her voice.

The raiding party was a large group, so the journey took longer than expected. They made it to the tunnel by nightfall and decided to camp outside it, and enter in the morning. People sat around the fireplaces and began to eat and chat. Bon walked around the place, greeting a few familiar faces.

“How’s it going Thomas?” he asked a man. Thomas had been one of the first people to follow Steve.

“Hey, Bon,” Thomas grinned. “I’m a captain now. Everyone has to call me Captain Thomas.”

“Alright Mister Captain, how are things going in the group? Are Steve and Yuri still at it?”

“Yup,” Thomas stared in the distance where Steve was talking with a group of people. “Steve’s the leader this time. Yuri hasn’t given up on being leader, though most people are now siding with Steve. I think Yuri will finally give in after a few more floors.”

“That’s good,” said Bon.

“Yuri’s a great training instructor though. We’ve gotten a lot more organized since he joined us. Steve will probably give him a high position when the contest is decided.”

“He would make a good vice leader.”

“The vice leader position will probably go to Elizabeth,” Thomas predicted. “Steve’s not going to let an outsider take that job.”

“That’s too bad,” Bon smiled sadly. Power seemed to be getting to Steve’s head. With luck, something would happen to jolt Steve out of his massive ego trip. Earth needed people with his talents.

The next morning, Yuri organized everyone into squads while Steve placed them into formations.

“Let’s go,” Steve shouted, leading the way.

Bon’s party was placed near the middle. Errel had been getting strange looks for a while now. He was feeling a little uncomfortable. Bon gave him a robe with a hood that would cover his pointed ears. He only had legendary items in his inventory. He usually got rid of everything else. Errel seemed trustworthy enough to be given one. His actions in the last boss fight had really impressed him.

When they walked into a cavern the tunnels leading in and out suddenly rumbled and large stone boulders rolled out from God knows where and blocked their route.

“Blast it,” Steve said to Elizabeth.

She fired a stream of rainbow colored light at it, but nothing happened to the stone boulders. “It’s magic resistant,” she said.

“Fighters and rogues,” Steve shouted, “With high damage per second, come out and destroy these blockages.” Many people came forward. While they were hitting the boulders, a green gas began to flow in from holes in the ceiling.

“Poison,” said Bon. “Advanced grade 5.”

“What do we do?” asked Bojana.

“It won’t harm us, but it can knock us out. Let’s play along and see where this goes. Don’t worry. I won’t let them harm you.”

Steve and the others started hitting the boulders with everything they had once they noticed the poison, but it was no use. There was too little time. The poison soon spread, and people fell on the ground one after another. Bon pretended to get knocked out too. This was probably a cultist plot, which meant that everyone in the city was their accomplice.

The boulders rolled away after another ten minutes and elves came out to drag the players away. They piled them all on a big trolley and wheeled it to another large cavern. Bon used qi to see all this, while his eyes remained closed. Within the cavern there were many other players, all lying on the floor.

There was an IV drip attached to their wrists, and another large tube that was attached to the bottom of their spines. The large tube seemed to be collecting red beams of light. Bon looked at the light closely. This was pure life force. These elves had somehow managed to do what the Mother Tree did, transferring life force. Instead of getting the life force from nature, they were getting it from players. No wonder everyone in the city was in cahoots with the cult.

Bon got up and took out his guitar. He played a Lullaby, modifying it with mana and qi so that it would put all the cultists to sleep for hours. He pulled out the tubes and IV drips from the older players who had been captured. All of them were from the blue skinned alien race he had met on a previous floor. He used telekinesis to move the sleeping cultists into a neighboring cavern, and then he waited for everyone to wake up. He could use a modified Mass Cure, but then they would see it on their HUD as soon as they woke up. It took a few moments for the Mass Cure icon to disappear. It was better to just wait.

After an hour, Steve started waking up.

“Bon,” he said. “What happened? Where are we?”

“We were poisoned.”

“I know that. Why aren’t you affected? Where are the enemies?”

“I have high poison resistance which is why I woke up first. I think the cultists accidentally poisoned themselves in the next cavern. We were lucky.”

“We should kill them all before they wake up,” said Steve, looking through the tunnel to the next cavern. When Bon said nothing, Steve groaned. “Don’t tell me you want to give them a fair trial! They poisoned us and were obviously up to no good. Look at those blue skin aliens. They look shriveled up. We might have been like them if it wasn’t for Lady Luck.

Others were starting to wake up now. They were all disorientated and asked Steve what was going on. Steve quickly explained the situation.

“If we don’t kill them,” Steve said, “They’ll just keep doing this to the other players that come after us. Earth is depending on us heroes. Every one of us is a precious resource.” Steve glanced at Bon, “I say we kill them now in their sleep. We don’t need to listen to their side of it. It’s obvious what was going on. They’re extracting our energy or perhaps our mana from us.”

“Life force,” said Bon.

“Whatever it is, we know that we would be their prisoners for life if we hadn’t been lucky,” Steve continued. “The city people too, gave us wrong directions. They were complicit in this. We need to teach them a lesson.”

“Let’s not kill the city folk too,” said Bon. “They might have helped the cultists but their involvement was minimal.” The Tower would punish them if they touched anyone who wasn’t directly harming them or part of a quest. Steve probably knew that. He wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“We’ll just show them a grand display,” Steve laughed, equipping his sword. A white sword appeared in his hand. He walked into the other cavern and he stabbed the first cultist he saw through his heart. The other players hesitated in the beginning, but when Yuri joined Steve it was like a river dam had exploded. A huge number of players joined in the killing spree and within minutes the cultists were all dead. Climbing the Tower had slowly started to desensitize them to killing. They were also very angry.

Bon knew that he would need to get over his aversion for killing real living beings. There were evil people everywhere, and Earth’s 21st century justice system didn’t work in situations like these. Bon felt conflicted. He wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t been able to wake everyone up. If the lives of his friends were truly at risk he would feel no compunction in killing these elves. The problem was that he was too strong. There was nothing that could threaten him and those he protected in the Tower, so far at least. This might not always be true. He would not hesitate if they had to face true danger, he promised himself.

Region Quest completed With all the cultists dead, players are safe once again to move through this mini-world. Thank you for this service. You have 25,000 points Rewards: 5,000Gold, 20,000EXP

Bon supposed that he had gotten the points for putting all the cultists to sleep. The rewards were measly, considering the amount of mana he had to use this time. Mass Lullaby had drained about 3% of his mana pool.

“Pile up their bodies on the wheel trolley,” Steve said. “We’ll take them to town and hang some of them up on that City Hall.”

“Do we really need—” Bon started to say.

“Of course we need,” Steve shouted. “We need to show them that players can’t be messed with, whether they’re blue skin or human.”

“Speaking of which,” Yuri said, “What do we do with them,” he nodded towards the blue skinned Modeans who were beginning to wake up.

“They’re too weak to climb the Tower as they are now,” said Steve. “We’ll take them with us until we find more of their people.” Steve could be very cold hearted one second, and warm the next. He was a mercurial character. “Let’s go to the city, and find out where that Boss really is.”

It was slow going, since they were pushing ten trolleys filled with the corpses of the cultists. They reached the city on the evening of the next day. Elves ran to the side of the road, staring at their procession. None of them dared say a word.

“What is the meaning of this?” one elf asked, when the players began hanging the corpses on the walls of the city hall.

“You wanted to imprison and drain us,” Steve said, walking slowly towards the elf. “You and the cultists deserve the same fate, but I’m willing to forgive you. Remember our mercy. The next batch of heroes you mess with may not be as forgiving as us.”

“We only wanted to live,” the elf cried. “Who doesn’t want to live? Without the Mother Tree we are dying.”

“You want to live at the expense of other people’s lives?” Steve caught the man by his throat and flung him to the ground.

Steve caught another elf who was standing by the side. The elf looked very frightened. “Where’s the Boss?”

The man pointed in a direction. “Two days journey. It stays on top of a frozen lake.”

“Dump the rest of the dead bodies on the ground and let’s go,” Steve ordered. The players quickly did as he asked. Bon felt a little sick at how the events had played out. Hanging up corpses as a display of power made his stomach twist. It was a little extreme, but the city folk did need to be reined in.

Two days went by in a flash. The players were as cheerful as ever. They could get over anything as long as they stayed together. The Modeans were not as merry. They looked like they were in a perpetual daze. They hardly talked and ate very little. Some of them were too weak to walk and had to be carried by their fellow Modeans. Some human players helped them out as well.

They soon reached the boss’ lair, where a gigantic polar bear was walking on a frozen lake.

“Identify.”

BOSS Fluffles the Rageborn Bear HP 40,000/40,000 MP 5,000/5,000 Fluffles was once the pet of a giant named Nergal. When ordered to sacrifice itself for its master during a battle, Fluffles refused. It was tortured to death. Its soul, too filled with rage to pass on, found the body of an unborn bear and took possession of it. Thus, the demonic Rageborn Bear was born. Powers Ground Slam Slams the ground, stunning everyone in the vicinity Red Claws Each attack causes damage over time. This skill can stack twenty times Ice Prison Covers an area in ice freezing anyone within Angry Gaze Causes status ailment: Fear for ten seconds Berserk Increases attack damage and attack speed by 200%. Bloodlust Attack speed doubles against a marked target Level Playing Field Increase in level depending on the number of foes faced

“Everyone,” ordered Steve, “Let’s go with formation two. Get into your groups. Because of its Red Claws and Bloodlust, whoever is targeted will have to be very careful. We will have to constantly substitute the front line players. Timing this will be tricky. The good thing is, this boss is easier to kill for a large group than any of the others we have faced so far. Pay attention to its movement before it uses Ground Slam, and Icy Prison. Priests and bards, be ready to cure any Fear statuses.”

The players got into their formations like a well trained army. The front line fighters stood in neat lines, Paladins and fighters alternating with lancers, rogues and berserkers. Summoned creatures like stone golems with high HP and heavy armor, also waited near the front line fighters. They would rush in if there was a break in the formation. While their damage was substandard, they were much tankier. Mages, priests, gunslingers and archers, warlocks and summoners stayed at the back. They formed two circles around the bear, and the inner circle slowly closed in.

Fluffles stood no chance. The tanks easily distributed the damage among themselves, one line after another dispersing when they had used up all their mana and skills. Some people got affected by Frozen and Fear, but this did not slow down their onslaught. It was hard to coordinate three hundred players, especially within such a confined space, but Steve did it well, constantly shouting out orders. He seemed to know everyone’s names. When it looked like a line was about to break, Steve would rush in with Kara and Nia, and support it. Steve’s raiding party was like a juggernaut, and the helpless bear could do nothing except to be trampled to death. Bon and his party, followed their instructions and did quite a lot of damage to the bear. They were a lot stronger than the average player. People started noticing them. He would have to tell his friends to tone it down a little, the next time they fought in a large group.

You have killed (Boss) Rageborn Bear Quest ‘Kill the Rageborn Bear completed

Reward: 1x Gloves of Mielikki, 500 Gold, 50,000 EXP

They won the battle without any casualties.

The bear dropped some gold and an epic cloak. Bon and his party got their share of the loot in gold after the usual auction and then bade farewell to each other.

“Your party sure is something,” Steve said, just before he could enter. “It’s a pity you aren’t coming with us. We could really use you. I can give you some incentives.”

“No thanks,” said Bon. “We like to do things on our own most of the time. Thanks for letting us join in on this raid.”

Steve waved his hand. “No need for thanks. Let the others know about my offer. I’ll make it very lucrative, maybe even give each of you a piece of mythical armor.”

“I’ll let them know,” Bon said with a straight face, and entered the portal.