Don rushed the enemy front, his team deflecting any attack aimed at them. Hovering overhead, Sen set off a spell that shrouded the battlefield in a dense fog.

“Start looting,” Harriet yelled as she chugged down a mana potion.

Hundred of pouches scattered the dirt floor, some the size of tennis balls while others were larger than a bowling ball. An assortment of weapons and items dotted the field, most of them generic leveling gear that was worth less than their weight stashed in the inventory. Hovering my hand over one of the pouches, the item vanished as a notification popped up in the corner of my UI.

System: You have received 734 credit

Scampering over to an area where Kain had evaporated several players, I ran my hand across the dirt floor picking up as many pouches as possible. Along with the credit, I went out of my way to grab as many potions as possible, some of them being worth quite a bit as I recalled the pricing guide when I last worked at Xuxan.

“Two minutes,” Cassius said, his voice echoing from the cameras across the foggy landscape.

Seeing a few generic low-level items within my level range, I picked them up making sure to have enough storage space just in case I ran across anything worth looting. Stumbling my way through the barely visible surrounding I came across a bright green gem the size of a billiard ball. Stowing it in my pouch, I kept searching the floor before Don's voice reverberated across the field.

“Retreat,” he yelled taking precise steps back from the enemies' front line as they let off waves of attacks into the obscuring fog.

Having a moment of reprieve as the frontline shield bearers brunt a majority of the attacks, everyone made a mad dash down the cliff charging the front door like a pack of rampaging animals. Running back, my pace slowed as I watch my stamina bar dropped past zero, the coloring of the bar going from its normal yellow to a bright blinking red. My breath came in shallow bursts as I hobbled towards the safety of the inn that was still a good distance away.

“Move it,” Don yelled as he slid down the cliff, several spells flying past his head like a fireworks show.

Don held out his shield, the outer rim glowing an incandescent orange, as he charged at me. Shield bash was the last thing I heard before a sharp pain radiated across my back. My health, which was full, was making its way quickly down to zero. The door of the inn was approaching closer and closer as I held out my hands in a failed attempt to cling onto anything. Gliding past the door, my body went full force into the wooden podium, the edge of which dug deep into my sides.

System: You may not participate in PVP battle while in a safe zone

“Fuck,” I yelled, arching my back like an old man as the pain slowly receded.

“If you thought that hurt, trying getting hit my one of Kain’s attacks.”

“I mean you deserve it for swinging that sword around like an idiot,” Kain added.

Laying down on the hard wooden floor, I took in shallow ragged breaths as I felt the cold floor ease the pain in my back. The pain dissipated after a few minutes as my health fully regenerated. Looking into the dining hall, I could see everyone crowded around the four large windows facing out towards the ridge. Pulling myself off the floor, I made my way over to one of the tables where I pulled out a chair. Setting it above the table, I took a couple of relaxed breaths as I took a seat and stared out the window. The fog which loomed across the ridge slowly dissipated, the enemy holding their weapons in the air in triumph as they yelled out in victory.

“There it is,” Cassius said, his daggers weaving back and forth between his fingers like a kids toy. The chorus of screams and shrieks resonated across the night sky like an untuned organ as the reaper made its way across the battlefield. The enemy evaporated like a cup of water in a furnace. As the high ranking corps died to the monster, several items exploded from their bodies like a pinata. The items scattered across the floor, some of them sparking with a bright purple shimmer as others shot out a golden beat that went up ten feet denoting that they were legendary items. The items didn't last long though, the fire that ran across the field destroyed any items it touched, turning them into a spray of particles that scattered across the floor.

“Boss look, that guy just dropped a Tethered Soul,” Kyle said, pointing to a shield with a dark and blue haze around it.

“I could have really used that,” Don said, shaking his head.

“Alright everyone, time to total our loot,” Cassius said, sitting at a corner table with a large wooden chest next to him. “Any item that is rare or higher deposit them here. Any credits obtained in the battle will go to Harriet.”

Taking my queue in line, I rummage through my bag sorting all the items by rarity. Common, common, common, uncommon, I murmured as I scrolled down the list. Getting to the very end, there was only one item that was noted as being rare, the green gem.

“You're next,” the woman behind me said nudging me in the shoulders.

“Sorry,” I replied, taking the few steps towards the table.

“How did you fair, get any kills?” Cassius asked, not looking up from a UI screen.

“One, but I had regen.”

“Yeah, you can thank Harriet, she made sure to spread all the healer out evenly.”

Taking the green orb out of the bag, I place it on the table.

“Nope, don't want it,” Cassius said, placing the orb back into my hands.

“What is it?”

“It’s a reset orb, it returns all your skill points so you can respec them, but the downside is that you lose all your exp and go back down to level one.”

“What’s that point of that?”

“It’s mainly for crafting. Sometimes a new recipe or a new ingredient gets discovered, many players respec so they can craft the newest and hottest items.”

“Guess I’ll hold on to it then.” Taking a side step, I stood in front of Harriet who was busy tallying the amounts of credits. Opening my system menu, I scrolled down the system logs counting up all the credit I had picked up. A notification popped up on my hood as I place my hand over the small wooden box.

“No need,” Harriet said. “How much did you have?”

“A little short of three thousand.”

“That should be fine, go ahead and renew your subscription.”

“Alright, anything else I should be doing with the money?”

“Were looking at a few upgrade paths for this building, go ahead and keep it somewhere safe until Sen and Cassius decide what to do with the remaining amount.”

“Okay,” I said, taking a sidestep as I hurried out of the way, not wanting to keep everyone waiting.

Taking a seat near the back of the bar, I watched as the UI timer slowly ticked towards midnight. Getting up I was ready to call it a night before a loud clang came from Cassius.

“I have the breakdown, In total, we have around eighty thousand credits. We have several rare items that will go up for auction tomorrow when everyone has revived. Harriet has attached a sheet on the quest board. On the sheet will be your name and the number of points awarded to you by the automated check system for the last battle. These points will be unique to tomorrow’s bidding and will not overlap with any point from your respective guilds. The bidding will last until midnight tomorrow and will be a blind bid. The only restriction I have regarding the bid is that you may only win three items. If you win more than three items, you may only choose three and the item will be given to the person with the next highest bid. All of the guild leaders have also decided to give Kain the first three picks of items without bids due to the number of points he has accumulated.”

“How is that fair?” a woman in a tight green leather suit said, her hands raised from the back of the tavern.

“If we took everyone points and combines it together Kain would still have about one and a half more than that, so unless you want to bid against him I would say this is an easy compromise. Harriet do you want to add anything to this?”

“Yes, I want everyone to get a full night's rest, we will be seeing a larger force tomorrow so be prepared to fight. I have news that the other guilds have fully prepared their gear and plan to breakthrough tomorrow as well. This place will be flooded with several different guilds so please don't start anything. Do any of the other guild leaders have any input?”

With a loud creak, Don got up from his chair and raised a mug. “I would just like to acknowledge everyone for their fine fighting today. We did have a handful of casualties, but we were up against a pretty large opposition. As Harriet said, we will be seeing another group of corps tomorrow and this time expect them to be a minimum of level ninety. It’s not going to be an easy fight, but I say bring it.”

Raising his mug, Don let out a large shout as he slammed down the remaining drink. Everyone in the tavern let out a yell as they proceeded to do the same.

“Alright everyone you're dismissed,” Harriet said.

The whole tavern made a mad dashed towards the quest board each one trying to open the UI sheet. Moving to the back of the crowed I stood there waiting for the ruckus to die down.

“How many kills did you get?” Rachel asked, coming up next to me.

“Only one, how about you?”

“None. I was in the backline with Harriet and the other healers for most of the fight.

Moving up to the board, I place my hands over the paper as a list of names popped up in my UI. Finding my name I followed it across the page. “Forty-seven points. ”

“Hah, I got you beat by a mile,” Rachel remarked. “I got three thousand and eleven.”

“How? You didn't even kill anyone.”

“You get point for anything you do on the battlefield not just for killing. While you were waving your stick around, I was busy healing a bunch of people.”

“Yeah,” I acknowledge, scratching the back of my head. “I would have died if it was not for the healer.”