It was a new day and Obi rolled off his bed and into his wheelchair. It was a perfect Sunday with cool winds and a clear sky. Dern was getting Sara ready as she wanted to go to the park to play. They all had breakfast together and Dern took Sara out.

Obi went through the normal Dive procedures and headed straight into EtA. He was planning to do a little bit of training before the meeting to loosen himself up. Coincidentally, he found Cole near the Desert Trader with a stack of old gear on the table. He walked up to Cole and tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey, Cole! Funny seeing you here, great Warden. I thought you were supposed to be in Sylis, doing a few contracts. What are you still doing in Cylvador? You won't be able to train easily in the forests."

"You see, Obi. I need a challenge. I just reached level 80, and you know what that means. I'm not a Warden anymore, you call me a Warlord now. Watch me."

Cole pulled out his regular sword, the one he carried all the time, and Obi just stared.

"What's different?"

"You still haven't seen it. Now look."

Cole pulled out a previously invisible second sword and waved it around with his left hand. He twirled them around and took a stance.

"That is cool, but can you do anything with it?"

"You want to see? Come to the training ground."

Cole leaped skywards, nearly reaching 50 feet in height, and landed straight in front of the training ground.

"Showoff," Obi muttered to himself, and he trudged over to the ground while loosening himself up for the fight.

He found Cole smirking at him while leaning against a wooden wall. They went over to the Gatekeeper and asked for a pass to the ground.

Gatekeeper: Welcome to the training ground. Would you like to proceed?

Cole responded with, "For the two of us please."

Gatekeeper: Very well then, enter and train. Your items and gear have been kept as a backup, your status and profile will be reverted when you exit the grounds again. 20 credits will be deducted from you.

The gate lifted and the two were led into a transparent dome. They stood at opposite sides and waited for the center wall to be lifted. Cole gave a signal and a countdown began.

Obi prepared himself by readying his shield and checking his equipped gems. As soon as the wall vanished, he ran along the edge with his back always towards the curved wall. Cole whipped out his two swords, and then seemed to reconsider. He put away one of his swords and pulled out a dagger.

He slowly closed the gap with Cole, barreling straight for the thin, toned Warlord. While sprinting, Obi looked away for a second to check his health and mana. He saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and involuntarily raised his shield.

*Twang*

He saw a dagger poking out of his shied and was startled. Cole wasn't a ranged class, he had always been Melee. Obi slowed down and took a look at Cole. He just waved another dagger and threw it. Obi dodged it and started to think more strategically. By the time he had reached Cole, he had formulated a plan.

Cole approached him with his two swords and swung at Obi with one. He used his shield to block and brought out his sword as well. They exchanged blows for a bit, and Obi realized that Cole was very proficient with his second sword, though he did notice that using a second sword required Cole to use up a little bit of mana to keep the sword steady and block attacks.

Obi used his shield to go on complete defense while he charged mana into it. Using a lot of his stored mana, he used his [Triplet Shield] ability. His shield glowed gold and created two duplicates that surrounded him from all sides. They rotated around him to protect all sides and gave him the freedom to let go of his shield and focus more on his sword.

He checked his mana bar and it showed him that he had barely enough to use his new sword ability. Once again, Obi channeled mana into his sword and activated his Mythical [Double Swing] ability. He led into a massive swing that phased in and out of Cole, heavily damaging him. He didn't release the momentum, instead, he spun against his 3 shields and carried all his force into his [Mighty Cut] ability.

Cole swung back with unnatural speed and blocked the heavy attack with both his swords. They both pressed forward, but with Obi not being a sword main, Cole won the struggle and pushed Obi down, twirling his main sword and stabbing down with mana concentrated at the tip of the sword.

The attack struck one of the shields and cracked. The two golden mirages merged back into the large shield and it fell to Obi's side. They both stopped and faced each other once again. Picking up his shield, Obi took up a battle stance.

"Oh, I'm finished. You saw my new abilities? You unlock so much more power at level 80!"

Obi relaxed and sheathed his sword.

"How'd you throw those daggers? You're a melee class right?"

"That's the kind of power you get when you level up a class. You're at level 79, and I want to see what you turn into!"

"Alright, let's go fight something then—OH SHIT! I have a meeting with some people who're interested in joining the team."

Obi checked the time, it was 2:05.

"I've gotta run, wanna tag along?"

"Sure, I'm also gonna be in the team anyway, so it won't hurt to know who's on it."

They used the spawn teleport to instantaneously travel to Fern Forest.

Obi looked around for a bit while Cole fiddled with his rucksack. After he was finished, they both headed towards the Shedee tree, one that towered above the rest of the forest, and was the Forest King's Daughter's home. She occasionally had quests, but not very important ones. Today, barely anyone had bothered to hang around.

The group stuck out like a sore thumb, one with shimmering blue and green armor and lithe figure, another with some kind of Dancer's attire, and the last with a long beard and grey heavy armor with a hand cannon over his shoulder.

The two approached the group and sized them up. The girl in the Dancer's costume spoke up first.

"So you're Obi, huh? And you are?"

"I'm Cole. I'll be the other Leader for this team."

Obi looked at the ragtag bunch and sighed.

"Alright, everyone introduce themselves. I'll start. My name is Obi Allestein and I'm a level 79 ShieldWielder. For all of you who don't know, that's basically the equivalent of an offensive tank. I've had experience in this game from Alpha stage, so I know a lot about it. You next, Cole."

Cole looked to him and nodded. He unsheathed both his swords for dramatic effect and began.

"My name is Cole Magnus. I'm a level 80 Warlord, and I've been playing for the same length of time as Obi. I can fight very well, and I have a whole slew of abilities from melee to ranged."

The Dancer spoke up next. The one on the right, who Obi suspected to be Emily, was unnaturally quiet. He glanced at her before he turned to the Dancer and urged her to continue.

"My name is Melissa Cennt. I'm an Aquatic Coryphée, and that means I can buff people by dancing. My real profession is being a Ballerina, so this fits me very well. I've been playing for round about half a year."

Melissa ended by twirling about. The man with the hand cannon spoke. He had a very rough and deep voice, like he smoked frequently, and been through tough times.

"Tug here. Tug Himmer. Ah was battlin' in the Megapolis war. Rough times, them. I'm a tough, heavy hitter, can summat trust my big guns o'er here. Put me through anything, ah'll always be by yer side. Ah'm a level 70 Gunslinger. Pack a punch, I can!"

Tug lifted his Hand Cannon and took aim at a tree. He blasted the trunk, and birds flew out from the trees. Great aim, and an even greater hole in the deadwood tree.

"My name's Emily Evergreen. I'm a cross-class, and I decided to go for Assassin and Elementalist. I can throw down some good spells, and if you need me to, I can sneak up on targets. I'm very quick and very fast. Since I'm an Elementalist as well, I can use all kinds of spells, and work in all kinds of environments. I've been playing since Beta, and I'm currently at level 78."

Obi shifted and knew that there was something off about Emily. He shook it off and proceeded.

"Alright. To check, we have a Shieldwielder, a Warlord, a Coryphee, a Gunslinger, and a versatile cross-class. That means we have a Tank, a Warrior, Ranged, Support, and Utility. Exactly what we need for a full team."

"Yeah!"

"Great!"

"Perfect!"

Emily was the only one who had not responded. She just stared at Obi as they locked eyes. Obi shook his head and thought of it as nothing.

"We're gonna have to train hard if we want to go up against the Guilds. Especially WarMongers and Celerities. Everyone go get whatever you need. Meet you back here, same spot in 30 minutes. Let's do some training."

Everyone headed back over to the teleport and went to their respective cities. Cole and Obi stood looking at each other.

"Time to get you to level 80, my friend."

Obi looked at Cole and materialized his shield. A smile slowly spread across his face.