With Dern watching, Obi slipped on his headset. As all the background noise faded away, he could hear Dern's faint voice telling him to be careful. His vision changed from black to horizontal streaks of silver.

*Ding*

A chime sounded in his head, and the streaks changed from silver to green. Obi lost all feeling to his limbs. He could see them, and move them in the virtual space, but there was no tactile response.

"Connection successfully acquired. Ready to proceed with Kernel Sync. Voice confirmation required."

The voice echoed all around him. It was his Dive Assistant, Emma, or that's what he called her.

"Hello Emma, confirm Kernel Sync. Hot Dive 2," Obi confirmed.

"Kernel Sync completed. Welcome, Obyn, diving to Eternal Awakening."

The streaks around him sped up and turned a light blue. A rushing sound filled his ears until the streaks became lines and then faded to a light blue that covered his vision completely. He shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, Obi was back at the spawn where he had logged out.

Obi took a deep breath and took a few steps. The decorations from his last dive were gone, replaced by a few stark trees and the normal orange bushes. The air was fresh and laced with the smell of cinnamon.

He was half an hour early to the meeting, so he walked down the cobbled path. Obi's eyes flitted around until he saw a nice place to sit down until he spotted a flat roof that was in a perfect position to catch the wind. He used his [Leap] ability to jump up and land on his knee.

Obi sat down and materialized his sack, spilling out the contents.

x2 [Starter Gems], x3 [Rare Gems], x1 [Mythical Gems]

Obi had found a mythical gem during his battle with the Golem. He had pocketed it to look at it later and now was his chance.

---

[Double Swing]

When a first attack swings through the air, another one can immediately be executed in the opposite direction, 'phasing' through the target.

DMG: 30 + 40, 10 minute recharge

---

Obi could not believe his eyes when he saw the gem. He had a [Stray's Broadsword] from a large quest he had done before. Though not impressive, it had two gem slots. Obi had only one gem for the sword and had been meaning to acquire one for a long time. Luck had it that he would find something so rare!

He examined his slots carefully and held the gem near the sword. Mythical gems had a purple-red aura around them. As he brought the gem closer, the shining jewel pulled itself into the sword and snapped into place.

A glowing aura formed around the broadsword as Obi held it up. He was about to re-sheath it when the gem glowed a bright white, blinding him for a few seconds. When the glowing stopped, Obi found that the two gems he had on the sword had a golden link connecting them. He realized that the two gems had fused together to create more powerful versions of each other.

Somehow, the two abilities had a way to link up to each other. Obi couldn't wait to use them in battle now.

"Hey! Are you done lounging up there? I ain't got time for wasting time!"

Cole had found him. Obi jumped down from the roof. He joined a personal chat with Cole.

"Hey, Cole! Why'd you bring me down here? Not another cat video, I hope," Obi jested.

"Oh, shut up. Have you looked at the Board recently?"

The Board referred to an in-game pinboard, where all announcements are made - reaching all over the vast map.

"No, why? I don't think anything popped up recently," Obi said while pulling up the Board. He projected it out, a light emanating from his chest.

Cole flicked by a few pins and found what he was looking for. He double-tapped the pin to make it larger.

"They've put up a tournament and it's been gathering some publicity. The winner gets any item of their choosing from the game, and also a special limited one-time-only reward. I have no hopes in us going that far, but maybe we'll aim for something good. It'll do us some good too."

Obi's eyes widened. He scrolled down, looking at the rewards. He noticed that it was a lot of resources for one tournament.

"You think that there's something else about this tournament? I feel like the devs are trying to change the balance of the game here. Remember my theories? How this game would have Phases, and we were in Phase 2, Phase 1 being Beta? I guess that this will lead to something big. Maybe a whole world relaunch or a transition into a new Phase. I'm looking at a HUGE update here."

"Keep all that aside, have you looked at the prizes? The top 3 teams get 1 Million credits... each!"

"But we don't have a team. We're not even in a guild!"

Obi sat down on the bench. This conversation had been a waste of time.

"C'mon Obi, I can find freelancers! We should try to get something out of this tournament! We can't waste an opportunity."

Obi nodded his head slowly.

"I'll post a call for people who are interested today. The tournament is a long way off, so we should start grinding too. Get each other to Level 100."

"That's my Obi!"