As they came over the top of one of the many small hills in the zone, they spotted him. Daniel was firing arrows at a wolf 20 feet in front of him. His own wolf tanking for him.

Ethan stopped in his tracks. He began to feel the rage building again. Are you kidding me? He rolled a Ranger again!? Did Daniel really think that we were just going to pretend that wipe never happened?

“Did you know he got the same class as before?” Ethan turned to Leah who had a sudden nervous look on her face.

“He… he told me when I messaged him.” Leah said as she looked down at her feet, not making eye contact, “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a heads up.”

Ethan watched Daniel as they approached. He was attacking his targets quickly, but his accuracy was terrible. If it weren’t for his pet, the wolves would have killed him and he’d be starting over. Again.

He is absolutely terrible at playing a Ranger. Why does the game keep giving it to him? I really hope he isn’t this bad at whatever crafting class he takes. If he is, we're extra screwed. Ethan let his thoughts distract him from the walk with Leah.

“HEY!” Leah’s voice rang out across the field. She could have messaged him in party chat, but Ethan wasn’t currently in her group so the yelling was for his benefit. Better Ethan knew Daniel was about to meet them than he just showed up.

Daniel swung his bow across his back and jogged over to them, his wolf trotting slightly ahead of him. Ethan noticed that he was wearing similar armor to Tae-Won, but in browns and greens instead of grey. It was supposed to me more “natural”. Like Druids, the Ranger Archetype was themed strongly around nature.

“Look, man, I’m really sorry about what happened with the dragon…” Daniel’s voice was nasally as he tried to preemptively apologize and hopefully calm down his guild leader. “I really thought I had my pet on passive for the first one and then in the boss’ room, I just choked. I am so-”

“Stop.” Ethan cut him off quickly, just hearing the excuses was starting to make him angry again. His voice got louder and his tone more rapid. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care. Do you even realize how far back you set us? Forget about just the leveling, forget about just how close we finally were to being able to get into the Raid Clan. We had been at the top of ranked Scout Groups. We got the last 5 Dungeons mapped before anyone else, as a guild our reputation was only getting higher. And now we’re literally back at nothing. Because of you.”

Ethan punctuated his statement by stabbing his finger in the air at Daniel. Once it had started, he hadn’t been able to stop what he wanted to say. Leah was looking at him with a mix of shock and fear. Daniel just looked afraid.

I need to calm it down, this isn’t how I wanted this conversation to go. What’s going on with me today? Ethan took a deep breath, trying to regain the emotional control he’d spent years working on.

“The truth is, Daniel, there isn’t a place for you in our group anymore. I’m not kicking you from the guild, but we aren’t taking you in anymore dungeons. This was the final straw.”

Daniel’s face went pale, the game did a great job of mimicking human facial expressions. Right now, his was showing fear, shame, embarrassment and shock.

“Wh.. what am I going to do? Be completely solo?” He stuttered in disbelief. If he couldn’t group with his friends, Daniel would never advance enough to actually be able to do anything worthwhile in game.

“We have a solution.”Leah sad, stepping forward and taking the attention into herself. Ethan hoped she would do a better job of explaining the plan than he’d had been.

“One that keeps you in the guild, lets you progress, and when we get back to the point of applying to join the Raid Clan, you should be able to join with us.”

She worded that perfectly, Ethan though, She gave him just enough hope to keep him on the hook and maybe go along with our plan. I may not be too happy with him right now, but we need everyone in the game if anyone is going to get home.

Leah explained, in detail, what she, Ethan, Tae-Won and David had discussed. She outlined for what reasons they had come to this decision, why they thought it was best, and how the guild as a whole would help Daniel progress. Throughout her entire spiel, he remained passive. He had looked ashamed at first, but the more Leah talked the more blank his face became.

What is he thinking? He understands this is best for him and the guild, right?

“But what if I don’t want to?” Daniel’s response left Ethan dumbstruck. He couldn’t think of anything to say, he’d expected Daniel to be hesitant about the whole idea. But the sheer refusal in his voice left Ethan seeing red.

Luckily, Leah responded first.

“Alright, Daniel you want to play it like that? You refuse and you’re done. Ethan kicks you from the guild for starters. Then, when David gets back to Startesgarde he makes sure that Arianna understands who exactly was the problem in the dungeon. Do you think anyone will want you?.”

“I…” Daniel took Leah’s pause as an opportunity to speak up.

“Oh I wasn’t fucking done! I have spent years defending you. Years, Daniel. You’ve caused problems in every guild, in every game we’ve played but I’ve stuck up for you. I’ve had to leave groups of people I really enjoyed playing with because of you. You have been so lucky Ethan has put up with your shit, you don’t even know. But I’ll tell you this, I’m done. I told Ethan to kick you. It was him who came up with this idea. So you need to be on your knees thanking him for this final chance he’s given you, or accept that you’re going to die alone in this game.” Leah was furious, her red curls flew wildly as she became more animated. Streaks of green energy started forming down her arms.

Ethan had never seen her this mad before. She was usually so calm and composed. His guild was small, but he always thought they complimented each other. Leah was the calm one that would keep what few arguments that arose from getting out of hand. But right now, Ethan would admit he was a little scared of her.

Daniel looked like he was about to piss himself in fear.

“Ooookay, let’s all take a deep breath and calm down.” For the first time since respawning, Ethan was being the level headed one.

“Daniel, I don’t want to kick you out. I won’t sugar coat it, you’re the reason we’re all back on these planes. And everyone is pissed at you. But you have this one chance to redeem yourself.” Ethan put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder and swiped his hand in the air. “So what’s it going to be: you taking the Leap, or am I hitting confirm on kicking you?”

Daniel looked back and forth between his guild mates. Leah was still glaring at him, her arms crossed over her chest and her lips pursed together so tight her mouth was just a sharp line. Ethan’s jaw was set as he stared at the nervous Ranger. His right hand on Daniel’s shoulder and his left hovering over an invisible command prompt. To everyone present time seemed to slow down, the few seconds of the exchange lasting an hour.

Daniel swallowed his nerves, looked down at his feet and finally spoke.

“I’ll take the Leap.”

“Good choice.” Ethan nodded at the thoroughly cowed man in front of him. “I want you to get blacksmith or enchanter”

Leah just continued glaring at him. Her face had softened a little, but she was still angry.

“One question, how am I going to get to Startegarde? From what I’ve heard, you still have to do all the same intro quests and I won’t be able to really kill anything.” Daniel was looking concerned about the prospect of having to quest by himself.

“Leah is going to escort you. She’ll make sure you pick the right class and you get to town safely.” Ethan gestured at the Druid, she still hadn’t stopped looking pissed but she nodded at Ethan.

Daniel just nodded and turned to walk towards the cliffs. He didn’t look happy about having to spend two days with the woman who had just berated him, he hoped she would calm down while he was respawning.

When he was safely out of earshot, Ethan looked at Leah.

“You okay?” He hadn’t seen Leah get that mad regularly, and this time was worse than he’d ever seen before.

“I will be. I’m just tired of him taking advantage of me.” She sighed as she unloaded on her guild leader. “I’ve been letting him just be him and it isn’t helping anyone. I’m sorry, I know you were worried about me and Tae-Won leaving if you kicked him. I want you to know that I’m with you. I just want to get home.”

Ethan pulled her in for a close hug. Leah was like a sister to him. He’d carefully built a group that he could rely on for anything, his guild was his family in this world. He just wanted to protect them and get them all out of this prison of a game.

“Thank you, K.”

Leah broke away and smiled at him, his use of her nickname went back to a previous game they’d played together. In The Tower, people went by real names since it wasn’t uncommon to know someone by many different classes. By calling her “K” he reminded her of how long they'd been playing with each other.

“What about you? You seemed out of it since you respawned.” Leah now looked concerned for him. His hair trigger rage had been noticed.

“I don’t know, I’ve just been feeling ‘madder’. Like, my emotions have been out of control since I revived. I tried for so long to keep it down, but today it’s coming back. And stronger.” Ethan had been wondering if anyone else realized he was feeling uncontrolled. Apparently, at least Leah had.

Leah looked at him for a moment before laughing and smacking herself in the forehead.

“You rolled Fighter, didn’t you?” A grin spilt her face as she laughed.

“Yeah, what about it?” Ethan was confused by her outburst.

“It’s the Rage system. I completely forgot about it.” Leah shook her head in disbelief that she didn’t realize what was going on.

Whatever she was about to say next was interrupted by Daniel fading back into place. He was wearing white cloth robes and had a mace.

“Fuck, Cleric.” Was all he said before turning and running back to the cliff.

Leah started again like nothing had happened.

“Fighters use their rage to power their attacks, their mana is limited. For a week after he spawned last time, Tae-Won was awful to be around. It was like being with someone who had a broken hair trigger. He just snapped about everything before he realized what was up.” Leah laughed at the memory of her usually incredibly sweet and compassionate husband being angry. “It was like he was PMSing for a week.”

“How did he get through it?” Ethan didn’t remember Tae-Won having the uncontrollable emotions he was currently going through. If he had found a way to harness this rage, Ethan could too.

“I think there was a quest, part of the Fighter quest line to pick a class. I don’t remember exactly. You’ll have to ask him.” She gripped his shoulder attempting to comfort him.

Daniel materialized again before sprinting away.

“You okay to keep an eye on him?” Ethan nodded in the direction of the running idiot.

“Of course. I don’t mind knocking some more sense into him if he gets too annoying.” Leah seemed chipper at the thought of finally being able to take out some frustration on her friend.

“Cool, then I’m going to take off. I don’t wantto get too far behind.”

He hugged Leah again as Daniel reappeared.

“Fuck, Cleric again?”