David approached Ethan cautiously, he had seen the fight with the wolf. Ethan realized that from an outsider’s perspective, it wasn’t an epic clash of titans, it was just one guy killing a mob. Nothing to be that emotional over.

“You okay? You’ve got a little blood on your… most of you.” David gestured at the entirety of his friend’s body.

“Yeah, no I’m good.” Ethan wiped his tears with his uninjured arm, accidentally smearing more blood on his face. He tried to appear calm and casual, not wanting even his closest friend to know his emotional state at the moment. “Not all of it's mine.”

“Oh no, I got that from the mangled wolf carcass sitting next to you. Looks like you rolled Fighter this time.”

“Did I?” Ethan got to his feet and looked down at his respawned avatar’s body for the first time. He was wearing a leather battle harness that crossed his chest. Calling it a shirt would have been too generous. It was a pair of leather sleeves and a buckle that clasped mid chest. He had a worn, metal studded belt that held up a worn leather kilt. Attached to it was another throwing axe. Wrapped sandals that came up mid calf completed his look. His body was built for melee combat.

“Why don’t I have any chest hair? I feel like a prepubescent boy.” Ethan frowned at his bare chest.

“You don’t shave your chest IRL? All the cool kids do it.” David’s voice had a teasing tone to it.

“Please, David. I know the only razor you use is to shave your head to cover the fact you have only a few patches of thinning hair. I bet when we finally get out of here you’re going to have about five spots of grey curls. It’ll look like someone glued pubes to your scalp.”

David shook his shoulder length wavy brown hair response.

“Yeah, but here I have this glorious mane.”

Ethan laughed and pulled up his character screen for the first time.

Ethan

Archetype: Fighter

Class: (none)

Level 1

Experience: 5/100

HP: 19/25

Rage: 0/100

Mana: 50/50

Stamina: 100/100

Armor: 8

((Strength 16, Dexterity 12, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Spirit 6, Charisma 11))

Abilities Known:

Enrage

- enter a blind rage, strength increased by 2, constitution increased by 2, weapon damage increased by 50%, Generates 1 rage per second. Drains 5 stamina per second 5 minute cool down

Charge

- Charge at target opponent, deals 2 damage, target is stunned for 2 seconds, generates 5 rage. Cannot be used in combat.

Cleave

-swipe with a melee attack dealing 85% weapon damage to up to three targets in front of you. Cost: 5 rage

Equipment:

Weapon:

Battered Greataxe: two handed weapon. quality: poor. Damage 4-12

Throwing axe x2: damage 1-3 30ft range

Armor:

Head: (empty)

Back: Simple Hide Harness: +2 armor (poor)

Chest: (empty)

Shoulders: (empty)

Gloves: (empty)

Bracers: (empty)

Waist: Simple Hide Belt: +2 armor (poor)

Legs: Worn Leather kilt: +2 armor (poor)

Feet: Simple Sandals: +2 armor (poor)

Jewelry:

Necklace: (empty)

Ring: (empty)

Ring: (empty)

Ring: (empty)

Ring: (empty)

Earring: (empty)

Proficiencies:

Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields

1h Swords, 2h swords, 1h axes, 2h axes, 1h maces, 2h maces Staves, Spears, bows, crossbows, throwing weapons

His character screen was depressingly empty. Crappy starting gear, horrible stats, minimal skills. It didn’t matter if he leapt again to try to get better stats, every Archetype started with a similar stat block tailored to their roll. They would increase naturally as he leveled and he’d get a few extra points he could assign where he wanted. But the sight of his abysmal character sheet just hammered in his anger at having to reroll.

“Yeah, I’m definitely a Fighter. What did you end up with?” Ethan glanced over at David. He had a chainmail shirt that hung to his knees and leather pants. Attached to his belt was a dull sword and he had a shield peaking above his shoulders. “Paladin?”

“Obviously. You going to stay Fighter, or take The Leap?” David walked over to put his hand on Ethan’s bleeding arm. “I heal thee!”

A warm glow spread through his arm as flesh knit itself back together. Ethan’s health shot back up to full from David’s Healing Touch. Ethan flexed his now uninjured arm.

“You’re going to have to come up with something better to say.” He looked down at the dead wolf in front of him. He’d wanted to play Sorcerer again, but the violence from this first kill just felt, well, good. The thought both scared and exhilarated him. “I don’t know, I’ve never played one before. I’ll see what the rest of the guild is. You know me, I put the group first.”

“Speaking of which, how do you plan on handling the situation with Daniel?” This was the reason David had found Ethan instead of starting his own leveling.

“Honestly, I want to gkick him. He’s a liability and he’s holding us back.” The new but familiar feeling of rage was returning, Ethan quickly stamped it back down. The only thing close enough to attack was his friend and that wouldn’t be a good idea.

“As vindicating as that would be, it’s probably not the best option.” David’s voice was patronizing, but Ethan could tell he was also leading to a point. “If you kick Daniel, we’re more than likely going to lose Leah and Tae-Won too. Which puts us down three players and back at level 1. It would make our goal of joining the Raid Clan even farther off. Plus we lose a major source of income.”

David’s right. Ethan thought, Leah and Daniel go back farther than me and her. If she leaves, her husband will definitely follow. And with only a partial group we wouldn’t be able to keep scouting. The Raid Team pays too well for us to quit.

“You got a better idea?”

“Don’t I always?” David smirked at him. “The boon for clearing level 20 was Crafting Classes. Give Daniel the option of taking the Leap until he gets one. Let him know that he can stay in the guild, but he won’t be able to run dungeons with us.”

“Taking the Leap” or “the Dive” was what the community of players had started calling suicide for the purpose of getting a different class. Rerolling was completely random so it could take hours to get a preferred class. It was how Ethan had killed himself several times when he started to try out the different classes.

Crafters were uncommon. They were not combat classes, so most people tended to avoid them. The Tower may be a prison but it still had dragons to slay and glory to be found. Ethan mulled it over, if the entire guild picked up Gathering skills they could supplement Daniels leveling and hit him higher faster. They’d have more reliable access to gear. The benefit was definitely there. Another thought occurred to him.

“And the leadership of the Raid Clan would probably appreciate having a dedicated crafter to add to their ranks…”

A wry smile split David’s face. Ethan had come to the same realization he had.

“Exactly. We apply with decent gear, appropriate levels, a solid team, and a high level crafter, we’d look amazing to them as recruits.”

“Okay, but how do we make Daniel see our point? That this is the only option he has?”

“We’d need to get Leah on our side. I can’t imagine she’s too happy with him at the moment. But also, I have the footage from that encounter. It won’t be hard to show exactly what happened with the red dragon and then in the boss’ chamber. No one will want him after Arianna sees it.”

“So we put him in the corner, and then make him choose. Us or solo. Leah may not be happy at the choice, we better have Tae-Won there too.”

David nodded in agreement.

“It’s a good thing I already told them where we are and that we needed to talk.”

“David, I’m starting to think you’re coming for my position, I mean, who runs this guild?” Ethan’s indignation was mock, he may have been the leader but everyone acknowledged David as the unofficial number two. The truth was, Ethan relied heavily on David.

“Hey, good leaders surround themselves with smart people.” David grinned at his friend, “I don’t want your job though, too much other shit to have to deal with.”

“You’re an ass.” Ethan retorted. “I’m going to message Miguel and Sam real fast, see what classes they got while we wait here for Leah and Tae-Won get here.”

Ethan pulled up his in game message menu. A translucent screen and keyboard visible only to him appeared floating at eye and hand level. He quickly typed out a message. Since he wasn’t in a town he couldn’t send private messages, only the equivalent of an email. Hopefully Sam and Miguel would be paying attention and see it without much delay.

“Hey guys, well that fucking sucked. What classes did you guys roll? We need to figure out the new group comp. We’ll all meet up at the Guild Hall in Startegarde in two days time. Level 10 is the goal.

-Ethan”

The replies came quickly. Ethan didn’t even have time to get a sentence out before his message indicator began to glow.

“Yeah no shit. What the fucking hell was that? Please tell me we’re done with him!!!! I lost so much shit.

I got fucking Cleric, I hate healing. So if anyone else gets a healing class let me know ASAP so I can leap.

-Sam”

“Meh, it was bullshit, it happens. We’ll get past it. I got Cleric. What do you want me to do? Stay heals or get something else?

-Miguel”

Leah and Tae-Won had just appeared over the hill so Ethan quickly responded to both of them.

“We’re figuring out the right move about it. I’ll let you know in Startesgarde what the plan is.

Miguel got Cleric too, I don’t know about Leah and Tae-Won. You can leap, but I can’t promise you won’t have to heal.”

“Dude, you’re amazing. Sam rolled Cleric and was pissed. You know I love them sweet, sweet Miguel healz”

Tae-Won and Leah got to them not long after Ethan hit send.

“You guys good? Happy with your classes?” Ethan greeted both of them, this was a group of friends first. They came together for gaming, the leadership aspect wasn’t the funnest part to him. It was the shared success of getting a kill or doing something awesome that kept him from getting depressed. Having to manage a group of people wasn’t ever easy. Or fun.

“Yeah, I got Rogue this time.” Tae-Won pulled a pair of daggers from their sheaths and spun them around in his hands, dropping one. He wore a simple grey leather tunic and pants. Beginner gear always sucked.

“I’m a Druid again. Which is great because I love this class.” Leah’s starting gear was a brown cloth robe tied at the waist with what looked to be rope and she was barefoot. “Although I hate that Druids never start with shoes. I get that we’re supposed to be in touch with ‘nature’ and all that but rocks don’t feel good to step on.”

Tae-Won chuckled at his wife as he re-sheathed his dropped weapon. They’d met when Leah was teaching English in Seoul. Supposedly, they hadn’t started dating until after he was no longer her student, but Ethan had always suspected otherwise. When her contract had ended, she’d decided to stay in Seoul with him. Not something that would have happened if they’d only been dating a few weeks. Leah has invited Ethan to their wedding, but work had prevented him from going. And the fact that they’d gotten married in South Korea.

“Look guys, I’m just going to get straight to the point. I hate bullshitting around with stuff like this, we all have better things to do. It isn’t fun, we’re trapped here it is and I don’t want to drag it out.” Despite the words coming out of his mouth, Ethan was unconsciously stalling. He didn’t want to have this conversation, he just wanted to level. He took a deep breath and started again.

“What happened with the dragon, with both dragons, was unacceptable. We’ve tolerated Daniel’s fuck ups for too long. Now we’re a month behind where we were and starting over. Something has got to be done.”

“So why haven’t you kicked him yet? You’re absolutely right.” Leah’s response was surprisingly direct.

“Wait, what?” Ethan was shocked at what she said, he fully expected a fight, but Leah just told him to kick Daniel and Tae-Won was nodding in agreement.

“I said, you’re right. We all lost so much in that mess, and Daniel is to blame. So I ask again, why haven’t you kicked him out?” Leah May have been agreeing with him, but her tone of voice was also challenging.

Ethan was reminded of the fight he’d just had with the wolf. How angry he’d felt. The way he channeled that rage, but still got hurt.

“Because decisions made in anger usually come back to bite me in the ass. What happens if we kick him? He becomes just a waste of a player and someone else for the entire world to support. He won’t get in any group ever again.” Ethan started the selling speech he’d been rehearsing in his mind.

“We came up with another solution, one that puts us in a better place.” David spoke up for the first time since Tae-Won and Leah got there. “Ethan’s right, no group will have him. No guild will want him. He’ll have to solo and never get anywhere or sit in a city by himself. One less player helping everyone to get home.”

“We need to encourage Daniel to get a crafting Archetype. Either Blacksmith or Enchanter. We can help him get materials to level if we all take the same gathering professions so he’ll never be struggling. And then when we finally apply to the Raid Clan, we look even better.” Ethan spelled it out for them, just as he and David discussed.

Leah looked hesitant, Tae-Won quickly caught on and excitement showed in his face.

“Do you think he’ll agree? He knows he fucked up, but he may not realize how badly.” Leah wasn’t arguing against them, she was just trying to see it from Daniel's point of view.

“He will, because when we show the screenshots and video to the Coordinator she’s going to see what happened. She’ll see his pet pull the red dragon, and then him attacking the floor boss.” Ethan retook control of the conversation. “Plus, he’s going to hear it from you.”

Everyone looked shocked at him, Ethan always handled the problems. For him to delegate it to Leah was completely unexpected. Even David was surprised by this.

“I’ll be with you of course, but you have a closer connection to him. He’s going to be more receptive if you’re the one suggesting it, not me ordering it.” Ethan was smug in the inside, his group of friends knew him really well. He rarely got to surprise them like this. “And we’re going to do it now. No sense in getting levels in and then having to stop and do this in a couple of days. Let’s just rip the bandaid.”

Leah’s eyes went unfocused for a second and her hands swiped seemingly randomly in the air as she did something in her menus.

“He’s not far from here, I told him we’re coming to talk. He hasn’t responded to that message yet.” Her voice came out quietly, even though she agreed with the decision, Ethan could tell she wasn’t happy about what they were about to do.

“Let’s get this over with. You guys get leveling. I’ll see you in Startesgarde.” Ethan shook hands with both men before he and Leah started in Daniel’s direction.

Nothing was said as Leah led the way, she’d obviously invited Daniel to a group to get an exact location on him. Ethan was focused on what was about to happen. He really wanted to get into the grind. He hated being at this low level, it made his goals feel so much farther out of reach.