“We’re fourth in the queue,” Break said, walking back from the reception desk. Saddling his chair closer to Gedeon, Break gave him a quick nudge of his shoulder. “So, what’s your game plan? You rushing the end game dungeon, or maybe you're going to find the first world boss.”

“I’m not sure if you know this, but everyone starts at level one. It’s pretty standard for any closed beta.”

“Wait, why is that?” Trent asked.

“It’s so the developers can test out the full range of content, otherwise, all you have is fully geared character running endgame dungeon for the next six months. While it might be lucrative, endgame dungeon only comprise of like one to two percent all of the new content the expansion has to offer.”

“Yeah, makes sense. How are you so well informed?” Trent asked.

“This is not my first beta. Do you remember the last expansion ten years ago called Metal of Eternity?”

“No, I would have only been about eleven at the time,” Trent said, shaking his head.

“Well, I was invited by a friend to join the beta. After hitting it big with a few rare items, we decided to pool our resources and open a company. I am of course referring to EDE, and the person who invited me to the beta was Damien.”

“I don’t want to be rude, but ten years ago? You don't look past twenty,”Break said.

“I’m actually 36.”

“Their is no way your 36, you don’t look past 24,” Emmy said, feeling just a bit jealous.

“Money can buy a lot of things, which include a fitness plan, a dietician, and an overall better living condition,” Gedeon remarked.

“Since we're on the topic of money, how long until we get transferred out funds?” Break interjected.

Gedeon swiped at his band, a list of documents panned out in front of him. Pressing his fingers over the contract, he skimmed the words making sure the amount and time of transfer. “It says to transfer the money when we get into the game, but I don't mind doing it now since we're about to head in any way, but the amount might be off. Rachel can you confirm the amount on the document,” Gedeon said, pointing his band over to the girl sitting next to him.

“Sure,” Rachel said, pressing a few buttons on her own band. “No, it seems two hundred thousand is the right amount.”

“Is there a problem?” Trent asked.

Gedeon sat back in his chair, the feeling of nostalgia hit him like a brick. “Looks like he got you too.”

“What do you mean?” Trent said.

“How much do you think one of these keys sell for?”

“Around six hundred thousand,” Break answered.

“How did you get six hundred thousand?”

“The live auction house, of course.”

“Ahh, that was your first mistake,” Gedeon said, shaking his head.

“Your next mistake was not checking who the seller and buyers were.” Gedeon tapped on the live auction house, a list of recently sold items popped up. Pressing the search bar, he tapped in the name of the keys. He placed his hands in front of Break, the listing of a few dozen keys scrolled down the list, pointing at a specific sale, he asked: “Tell me who the seller and buyer are for this key.”

“It says the seller is Prakten, and the buyer is Marleno.”

“No, don’t look at the names, look at the clan they represent,” Gedeon said, pointing at the clan symbol underneath. “The seller is representing Seventh Mine, and the buyer is representing Undercity Delvers. You might not know this, but both of those clan represent one large company that mine and sell ore.”

“What does this have to do the key?” Break inquired.

“What’s the main focus for a company?” Gedeon asked.

“Uhh… making money?”

“That’s right. Now, what is the best way to let the public know your company is doing well?”

“By uhh… making a lot of money,” Break said.

“No, stocks,” Gedeon remarked.

“Ok, I'm following you, but I’m still trying to figure out how the keys are involved,” Break said

“If I was a large company and wanted to let my investors know I was about to come into a tremendous amount of money, what better way than to publicly trade a key within the company. So what your seeing here, are keys being traded within many companies for publicity, the actual prices of these key are in the range of two million.”

“Wait so we were cheated out of an even larger fortune?” Break alleged.

“Don’t take it like that, Damien, while being a hell of a dealer, is a good guy at heart. How else did you think he got an EDE board member to agree to this?”

“Your a board member?” Trent asked. “I thought he just chose a bunch of high ranking players to run the expansion.”

“Technically you're not wrong, but who else would you send to a beta than one of the board members. Granted I would rather be at home watching someone else do this, but it’s a small price for the favor that I owed him, and don’t ask,” Gedeon firmly added.

“Even if we didn't get more money, two hundred is still a lot,” Emmy said.

“Yes, your correct, the three of you could take your cut and live a long and happy life, but once you enter that pod, you're going to be on another level of finance.”

“How so?” Emmy asked.

“How much does a basic potion cost?”

“Between five to ten credits,” Break answered.

“How much do you think a potion is going to cost in the beta?”

“I'm guessing maybe twenty credit,” Break said with a bit of hesitation.

“A bit higher,” Gedeon said, stretching his hands apart.

“A hundred?”

“Don’t be absurd, a hundred credit is outrageous,” Trent said, shaking his head.

“No, you're close,” Gedeon said. “A basic potion will cost you a ten thousand credit.”

The three sat there silently, pondering the answer to a question which seemed so trivial. “Ok I’ll bite, why are potions ten thousand?” Emmy said.

“When you enter the beta, the people you're playing with are not your average players, you're going to be playing and competing against some of the richest people on the planet. If anything you guys are the odd ones out, granted there might be a handful of other lucky players who got their hands on a beta key, but out of that handfull, how many chose to not take a large payout.

“Damien never gave us an offer for a large payout,” Trent said.

“Damien is a smart man, he probably knew you guys were set on going to the expansion the minute you walked into his office, and besides, Damien is something else when it comes to money. I bet-”

Gedeon was cut off by a smooth female voice echoing through the main hall’s PA system. “Emmy, Break, Trent, Gedeon, Rachel, Maya, please report to the AW Beta room.”

“That’s us,” Trent said.

“One sec,” Gedeon said, opening his trade window to Emmy. “Just so I don’t have to worry about it, I'm transferring you the money now.”

The group walked into the assigned room and was immediately bombarded by workers in white lab coats. “Standard procedure guys,” Diya said, walking out from the back of the crowd.

“What is this about?” Trent said with two different probes sticking out of his mouth and ear.

“Health evaluations, we’re just running some quick base test to make sure you guys are in tip top condition for the new pods.”

After an intense five minutes of mock coughing and measurements, the group was seated in their pods. The lid closed, the humm of the machine generated a soothing white noise as a voice echoed. “Can everybody hear me?” Diya asked from the built-in intercom. A collective of yeses echoed back letting Diya know everything was working as it should. “Alright guys good luck, and remember this room is open twenty-four hours a day seven days a week if at anytime you not feeling well, let one of the recipients known, other than that good luck.”A flash of light engulfed the group as they were all transported into the game.

Trent stood at the base of a bulky stone building in the middle of town, a large clock hung across the face letting the group know it was a couple hour past noon. A large winding cobblestone path circled around an inner courtyard of a crystal statue leading out in four different directions. Around the city stood hoards of players, some in luxurious armors and robes. Under the statue, depicting a mage’s book, stood a celestial portal glimmering with the dark vibrant hue of space. Moving closer, Trent heard a low pitch thumb along with a view of a rogue flying across the town. The rouge skidded along the rocky path, taking minor amounts of damage, before being halted by one of the many buildings encircling the courtyard.

“On my mark,” a fully armored knight yelled, soaring above the town at the max height, limit by his mount, a griffin, can achieve. The knight summoned a long sharp spear, letting the other five companions know the plan had been engaged. Jumping off the griffin the man darted down towards the portal, arms stretched out, grasping onto the spear like a falling missile. Along with three other knights, two mages drop drown from the sky casting an array of spells which fused around the knight making a crystalline shell around his form. Three other knight jump from their griffin each one falling into a straight pattern. The first knight veered towards the main knight, closing the gap, he grabbed onto the main knight's foot. The second knight quickly followed the same action, grabbing onto the first knight’s foot with a reheard action. With the third knight locking himself into place behind the second knight, the four-man formation readied themselves as one of the mages floated towards them with a worried look. “Avarisu,” the mage cast causing a burst of wind to engulf the knights, rocketing them towards the ground even faster. “Boost,” the knight at the end yelled, the group of them hurling to the ground at an even faster pace. The knight let go causing the other knight to take the same action, boosting and then departing from the main knight like a three-stage rocket. The main knight plummet towards the portal faster than a thief spotting an unguarded coin purse. Hitting the portal he was slowly stopped by what seemed like a magnetic force. Inching closer, the knight reached out, the tip of his spear almost touching the edge of the portal before being blasted back towards the sky at the speed of light. The crowded around the city cheered as the other party member fell from the sky, each one hitting the ground with a large red X, denoting they had died.

“What the?” Trent let out, genuinely puzzled by the unnatural display.

“Wow,” Gedeon let out. “One of the better attempts I’ve seen at getting into the beta. Absurdity aside, you guys ready?”

“Yeah,” the three let out in unison.

The group stepped out in front of the crowd tittering at the edge of the portal, a line perfectly indicated the zone, of which, anyone who did not have a key would be ejected. With an air of confident, the group took a step past the line, walking towards the portal. The crowd muttered as the group made their way past the onlookers. Many camera icons popped up on some of the users indicating they had started recording. Trent touched the portal, a mixture of heat and cold wrapped around his body before a prompt popped in front of him.

System: Entering the beta (Aether Wind) will reset all skills and levels. Please note, all item not equipped will be placed in a temporary cache until the beta ends, or the players decided to leaves the beta. All legendary item will be removed upon this point and placed in the temporary cache. Please make sure all necessary gear is equipped before continuing.

Trent vision faded out to white as he, again, appeared in an unknown location. Scanning the horizon, he saw an ocean of purple grass the stretched to the edge of his vision. Dotting the landscape where small puddles gleaming with a vibrant blue hue. Towards the middle of the many puddles lay a large pond. Around the pond stood a grove of varying trees, each one bearing unique colored fruit. Running up to the closest tree, Break documented his findings, making records of the tree color, height, and many other unneeded details. Reaching up to touch one of the fruit, a loud voice coming from Gedeon told him to stop.

“Before you do anything rash, let’s remake the part, the last thing I want is to be dragged into some unnecessary battle,” Gedeon remarked.

Emmy opens the party interface and saw that they had, in fact, been reset back to level one. Pressing on the disband button, each member got a prompt letting them know the party had been removed. With the party interface still open, Emmy remade the party.

“Interesting,” Gedeon said, remaking his party.

“What? Is there something different with the party interface?” Emmy asked.

“No, remember when Diya said they added the new pod function to many of the existing game systems.”

“Yeah,” Emmy said.

“I just invited both members to my party without even touching the interface.”

“That is interesting,” Emmy said, disbanding the party once again. She looked over at the big oaf who was starting at a tree like it was his first born child, she mentally thought about sending him a party request. A few seconds later, the UI popped up to the top left of her vision letting her know Break had accepted. Turning to Trent she studied his face with a feign of disinterest, enamored by his reassuring smile, she thought about sending him a party request.

System: You have initiated the in-game marriage system. Would you like to send the player [Trent] a marriage proposal?

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Emmy spurted, pressing the decline button.

“Something wrong,” Trent asked, looking at Emmy flustered face.

“Nothing, just a minor bug of some sort.”

A squeal laugh came from the EDE girl, “Must have been one heck of a bug.” Gedeon let out a small chuckle before walking off in the opposite direction.

Emmy sighed before opening the party UI and manually adding Trent to the group. Trent looked at the party icon of Emmy and Break and saw, for some unknown reason, Break had jumped ahead two levels.

“Guys check this out,” Break yelled, his mouth covered in a mess of greens and yellows syrup. “You get experience for eating the fruit,” taking another large bite. “It also tastes like a fruit salad,” handing a fruit over to Trent. Emmy grabbed the fruit away from Trent, eyeing it suspiciously.

“We don’t even know what these are, let alone be eating them,” Emmy said, throwing the fruit to the floor.

“Hey, these are key resources, we can’t let them go to waste,” Break noted, laying the fruit in his inventory. “Let’s pick them all before other people get here.” After a few minutes of harvesting, Break had picked clean one of the trees standing over the water. Emmy attempted to climb one of the trees, but with her skills reset, it made the task more difficult than it should have been. Trent wandered around the pond which stretched roughly twenty yards across. Looking back at his party, he noticed a curious sight. The trees vibrated, each one flowing back and forth. Examining each tree closer he saw the ripple of heat fade across his vision, the outline of each tree blurring into each other like a dazzle of zebras. Shaking his head, Trent tried to lock his vision back towards his party but by was blocked by the number of trees impairing his view.

“Run,” Trent yelled, his hands waved above his head. Emmy and Break both looked at Trent like he had just seen a ghost. “Run, run out of the circle,” Trent yelled again, this time pulling out his new longsword. Emmy, without hesitation, grabbed Break by the scruff of his leather armor and pulled the large man towards Trent.

“What going on,” Break asked, balls of fruit still in his hands.

“It’s an area boss,” Trent said pointing to the large red skull hanging above the grove of trees.

Break stood in front of Trent, taking careful notes of the action. “I see the boss symbol, but where is the boss?” The ground shook just as Break finished his question. The water drain from the pond as a large dark face appeared underneath. The monster leaped out of the ground, with the weight and size of three school buses, the gigantic alligator like monster slam back down causing the floor to ripple.

“What do we do?” Trent asked, pulling out his longsword.

“We fight it,” Emmy replied, also pulling out her longbow.

“What the,” Break said, as he looked at the obscure looking bow. The bow was an amalgamation of three other bows twisted together, giving it the shape of a rope. Examining it closer, Break opened the bows information screen.

Name: Torrent

Type: Longbow

Rarity: Elite

Dexterity: +4

Skills: Salvo (Quickly fire a barrage of five arrows)

Passive: Splint (Every fifth arrow will split into two arrows)

Taking aimed, Emmy used her Salvo and let loose a spray of six arrows that rushed towards the hulking monster. The beast dove down towards the sea of grass as the arrows drew close, avoiding every shot. One of the arrows attached itself to the trees, bring up the monster’s name and life bar.

Name: Vectrasole

Level: 25

Rank: Boss

Health: 100%

The monster leaped out toward the group, its jaws wide open, ready to swallow the group whole. Break manifested his shield, with a reposition of the party, he blocks the monster charge.

System: Knockback avoided.

System: Rooted (Morass)

The monster’s head, which was ten time the size of Break, was stopped, unable to move forward. Trent saw the opportunity and ran up to the monster, plunging his longsword down on the large beast.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 98%

The monster dove once again, this time, winding across the large divot where the pond once sat.

“I knew this shield was a good choice,” Break scuff, looking over to Trent.

“That’s good and all, but my attack barely did any damage,” Trent said.

The group huddled together, back to back as they kept track of the rustling grove of trees. The monster opens its wide jaw once again as it sped across the field. Break jumped in front of the party but was swatted away by one of the trees as the monster submerged right before hitting the shield. Quickly doing a u-turn the monster dashed towards Trent, the zigzag movement, paired with the dazzle of the winding trees, made it impossible to track the head of the beast. Ascending above Trent, the beast gripped his fleshy body, dragging him along the distant plain.

Name: Break

Health: 86%

Emmy’s mind went into overdrive as she saw Tren’s health bar rapidly dip to under 20%. Dashing closer the monster, she took careful aim, and let loose another Salvo of arrow, depleting her mana to 50%. The monster roared in pain as one of the arrows struck the side of its cheeks. Trent was sent flying, landing close to Break, who was still recovering from the shock of being hurled forty yards by a rogue tree.

Name: Trent

Health: 3%

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 97%

Emmy sprinted towards Trent and Break, watching the beast make another turn towards the adventurers. Break stood up, shield held out, charged towards the beast. Jumping with every muscle in his body, he willed his spear to appear, slamming it down on the monster’s head with full force. He clung tight to the thrashing beast as it wiped back and forth. Trent, who was at 3% of his life, trudged towards the flailing beast.

“One more hit and you're dead,” Emmy yelled, pulling Trent to the backline. The monster attempted to plunge once again but was stopped by Break’s spear gouging the front of its face.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 94%

The monster whip back and forth, hoping to knock Break off. “It can’t dive,” Break yelled, hanging on for dear life. Emmy ran up to the beast, blasting it point blank with a Salvo of arrows, each one hitting its mark. Many of the trees shriveled as the beast's health started to fade. Some of the fruit started to fall, each one hitting the floor with a rubber ball consistency.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 83%

“Keep shooting it, I don't know how much longer I can hold on,“ Break said, his spear beginning to loosen.

Trent disregarding Emmy’s warning, ran up to the beast and hacked away at the side of its rough face. Emmy kept a close eye on Trent as she blasted even more arrow, not stopping until her mana ran dry. After an extensive thirty seconds of hacking and slashing, the monster chucked Break off like an unwanted mosquito. Submerging once again, the monster wound around the party like a shark watching its prey.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 78%

“We got this, just a bit more and we should be able to kill it,” Trent said optimistically.

“I’m not sure, im at-,” Emmy was cut off as the monster took a lunge towards the group, each one diving in a different direction to avoid the snapping jaw. “As I said, you're literally one attack from dying, and I’m at zero mana.”

“Break, any plans?” Trent asked.

“Uh,” Break let out, slamming up against the monster with his shield. “By any chance, you guys picked up any healing potions?”

“They were all removed when we entered,” Trent said, opening his inventory.

Break open his inventory and saw that his hoard of items had been removed, and the only thing remaining was the few stacks of fruit he had picked beforehand. “Why didn't I think of this?” Break said. “Trent, Emmy, what's the best thing about being level one?”

“Having no skills?” Emmy said sarcastically.

Break open his inventory and pulled out two of the fruit he had stashed away. “Eat these,” Break said, handing Trent and Emmy a fruit.

After a long second, Emmy and Trent finally put two and two together before taking a large bite of the fruit.

System: New ingredient discovered (Valren Palm)

System: 250 bonus experience received

Emmy and Trent instantly jumped to level three, refilling their health and mana back to full. “This is great,” Trent said. “Think we can finish this thing off?”

“Without a doubt,” Break agreed.

The beast bounded towards the huddled group, the trees on its back toppling over like unstable dominoes. Break took the initiative and held his shield out, bracing himself for another bash. The monster let out a roar, its mouth gaping with dagger-like teeth. Break held onto his spear tightly, waiting for the perfect moment before chucking it towards the monster. The spear sailed towards its target, embedding itself into one of the monster’s nostril.

“Score,” Break said, charging at the beast with relentless force. Break aimed for the end of his spear, slamming it even further into the monster. Trent made a wide arc to the monster right, getting a firm grip on the leather skin, he hoisted himself up onto the monster’s back. He plunged his longsword down where he saw the mire of trees once stood, slicing many large gouges into the monster.

“Watch your head,” Emmy yelled, as she let loose a rain of arrows that collided into the monster hide, bringing its health dangerously low.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 47%

The beast started to roll, ejecting Trent and Break from its back. Leaping out of the ground, the beast attempted to dive but was hastily stopped by Break hurling his body over the massive creature.

“Oh no you don't,” Break hollard.

Emmy felt a tingle move along her fingers, pulling the bow further back, she let loose a shot that blasted so forcefully it caused the air around her to compress. The arrow slammed into the beast, ripping through the tough leather skin like a slab of room temperature butter.

Name: Vectrasole

Health: 12%

“The hell was that,” Trent said, his vision still refocusing from the aftershock. Trent saw the large hole that Emmy’s arrow had just made. Taking his chance, he jabbed his sword towards the gaping hole into the monster fleshy interior. Letting out one more roar, the monster slumped down, its body beginning to fade into the ground leaving behind one large loot bag.

The party stood next to the fading beast, each one gasping from the long and arduous fight. Emmy walked over to Break and gave him a glare of contempt before kicking his battered body. “I told you not to eat the fruit.”

System: You have gained a level total level 4

System: You have gained a level total level 5

.

.

.

System: You have gained a level total level 14