“Well, I vote for challenge number two!” Germane said. “It would be the fastest way to kill these three monsters and would save us a ton of time.”

“Man,” Sivlander said as he looked at the description of challenge 3. Those who might be watching from afar. That was referring to Draco, wasn’t it? A player who picked the third option would be showing that he had what it takes to become a professional player. It was incredibly tempting.

“You thinking about that third one?” Trefor asked as he walked next to Sivlander. Trefor had been one of Sivlander’s longtime allies in the game and they both had the same ambition to go pro.

“If I could pull that off, Draco would have to go looking for me, right? They’d probably be knocking at my door in real life tomorrow if I could kill those three monsters by myself AND kill the Wyrm.”

“That sounds a little ambitious,” Trefor said. “The clock is ticking, man. You’re the leader so you can pick whatever you want but if you die in the arena, it’ll just be the three of us against the Wyrm, and let’s face it. Without your leadership, we probably won’t stand a chance.”

“Yeah,” Sivlander said as he looked at his crew. They were all expectantly waiting for him to make a decision. He knew they would back him up with whatever he chose. This could be his moment to go for glory and try to earn Draco’s favor, but if he died now, it would leave his team high and dry. It would be better to think about them than himself. He had all the time in the world to impress Draco with his skills. He wouldn’t screw over his friends just to enrich himself. Did he have a chance of killing three monsters alone? Maybe, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Not when they all had a mission,

“Alright,” Sivlander said as he moved his hand up to push Challenge 2. “Let’s save time by killing all of these mean bastards at the same time!”

“Sweet deal!” Germane shouted as he readied his weapon.

“Oh, I was kind of hoping to watch you kill them by yourself,” Samir said. “If anyone could do it, you can.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence,” Sivlander replied as the ground began to rumble, “but I’m here for my crew; not to be a glory hound.”

Three large holes appeared in the side of the area walls and out from the holes emerged three large beasts. The first was a tiger creature with the tail of a scorpion. It was a fearsome Manticore, equipped with a poison that was so strong that a single stab from its stinger would make most players grow very weak.

The second beast to emerge from the hole in the center was a large cyclops with a gigantic spiked club in its hand. It roared angrily and thumped its club against the ground, shaking the earth with each hit.

And nothing emerged from the third hole.

“Aw crap! It’s probably invisible!” Samir said as he looked all around him in a panic. He reached down and scooped up some sand on the ground and began to throw it around him in the hopes of seeing something.

“Can’t you dispel invisibility?” Sivlander asked as the creatures began to advance towards his team. They had gathered in the center and were ready for battle but the invisible creature made him a little too nervous. The Ogre and Manticores as teammates would be hard enough to fight.

“No, I don’t have that kind of spell,” Samir said.

“Well stop throwing sand and focus on what you can see. Germane, stand by the caster and make sure he doesn’t get stabbed by some invisible monstrosity.”

“Got it, boss!” Germane said as he rushed alongside Samir and held his shield up high.

“I’ll take out the Ogre, haha!” Trefor shouted as he rushed up to face against the giant creature. It stood almost 12-feet tall but the paladin didn’t seem to display any kind of fear in facing such a foe.

The Ogre roared and brought his club down hard but Trefor was able to roll out of the way, with the word Dodge hovering above him. Despite being a paladin and wearing plate mail, Trefor had taken a bunch of skills that would enable him to be agile in such armor. With a quick slash, he cut the side of the gigantic Ogre’s hamstring. The words Injury ½ speed hovered above the giant as it roared in agony.

Sivlander turned his attention to the Manticore that was slowly approaching him. It was snarling and its body was low to the ground, preparing for a pounce attack. This Manticore was entirely like a tiger except for the fact that it was almost twice as a large as a regular tiger, as well as the stinger that was curled and ready to strike. Sivlander wasn’t much for dodging, but with a poison attack, he quickly made sure that his dodge skills were active.

The beast snarled but Sivlander resisted the urge to move first. He gripped his weapon with both hands and tensed his muscles, readying to strike. The beast was also waiting for the right moment. They both waited, staring fiercely at one another. One wrong move and it would be poison city for Sivlander but if he played his cards right he could potentially hack the Manticore’s claws off in a single blow.

The Manticore lurched forward and Sivlander was able to dodge out of the way, slipping to the right to avoid the pounce attack. As he dodged to the right, he spun around as hard as he could, generating enough momentum to give even more power to his sword, and as he spun, he slashed against the monster’s tail.

Severed appeared above Sivlander’s sword as the large, black scorpion tail fell to the ground, thrashing and flopping.

“Yes!” Sivlander triumphantly shouted as he turned to face the Manticore. It was hissing angrily and Sivlander could see that while he did deal a serious blow, it still had 500 hit points. The tiger creature leapt at Sivlander and this time he wasn’t as deft. The claws sank into his body as he shouted “arrgh” at the top of his lungs.

100 damage hovered above Sivlander’s head. That wasn’t very good at all. In all of the chaos, Sivlander’s health hadn’t increased much and now he was down to 150 points left. Why did he have to be so conservative on his health potions? Others would accuse him of being an item hoarder and he was beginning to think that they were right.

“It is invisible!” Germane shouted. As Sivlander tried to push the snarling and slashing tiger off of him, he glanced over to see Germane’s shield sparking as he held it up, apparently resisting invisible blows. Samir was trying to throw sand but it wasn’t working.

“Samir, stop trying to throw sand and use a freaking spell to help me out!” Sivlander yelled as the tiger tried to pry its jaws around his head. Fortunately, Sivlander’s helmet stopped the creature from chomping down on the head and breaking his skull wide open.

“Okay, okay, uh…” Samir said as he rushed up behind the Manticore. He held his hands out and shouted “Prismatic Beam!” A bolt of rainbow-colored energy sailed from his fingers and crashed into the back of the Manticore.

The Manticore immediately began to convulse and thrash, falling over to the side, twitching as if electricity was pulsing through it.

“Wow, nice spell. What does it do?” Sivlander asked as he stood up and grabbed his weapon that once again he had dropped on the ground. Next time he had the chance, he would take the Fierce Grip ability, preventing him from dropping his weapon no matter what.

“It’s a random effect. I was hoping it would turn him into stone.”

Even though the Manticore was convulsing, it wasn’t taking any damage. Sivlander rushed over to where it was trying to stand and quickly delivered a fierce blow to the beast. It roared in rage as the words 200 damage floated above its head. Regardless of the damage, the Manticore was able to recover and charged right at Sivlander.

Sivlander managed to dodge out of the way again. The creature was slightly slowed from the electricity, making it easier to get out of the way.

“Ahhhh!” Samir shouted as the Manticore charged right at him. Sivlander had neglected to realize that the Manticore would be trying to kill his favorite caster.

Sivlander wanted to rush to his ally’s aid but he was too far and a four-legged tiger was way faster than a hulking warrior.

Samir held up his hands and shouted “Repel!” A powerful wave of energy burst out from his fingertips as the Manticore leapt to devour him. The energy knocked the tiger back but it wasn’t strong enough to knock the monster down. Germane leapt in front of the Tiger, holding his shield up high. He had extended it into a tower shield again and was swinging his warhammer wildly at thin air. The Manticore roared and slashed a claw at the shield but Germane held firm.

Sivlander glanced over to see that Trefor was still fighting against the Ogre. Both were looking beaten and bloody from the fight. Fortunately, as a paladin, Trefor would be able to heal his wounds from the battle so Sivlander wasn’t worried. Keeping the wizard alive was the top priority right now.

“Alright, there’s got to be some way to see that invisible freaking monster!” Germane shouted as he shoved the Manticore away with his shield. Samir was moving away from the fight and waving his hands, casting some kind of important spell.

Sivlander flanked the Manticore and stabbed his sword into the leg of the monster, dealing 100 more points of damage. The beast roared and spun around, ready to fight against him.

“Come on, foul beast!” Sivlander shouted as he thrust his sword at the creature again. The combat adrenaline was flowing pretty strong at this point and Van the player could feel his actual heartbeat hammering away. This was why he loved playing video games, especially this one. Even though he was sitting in his small one-bedroom apartment in the crappy side of town, he didn’t feel like he was there. In the heat of battle, he felt as if he were in an underground arena, battling for the opportunity to save the world from a terrible Wyrm. Even though it was all virtual and fake, his heart was still hammering. This was better than real because it was more than real.

“Graaahhhh!” Sivlander shouted as he slammed his sword down hard as the Manticore charged at him again. The sword crashed down hard into the side of the tiger beast’s arm, sinking deeply into the body of the beast. The monster moaned and slumped over to the side, dead from the attack.

“Nice!” Germane said as he kept his shield up. Once again, it was sparking from the invisible attack. Sivlander glanced over to see that Samir was casting fire spells at the Ogre while Trefor was kneeling, praying for healing. The Ogre was limping toward Samir, but the wizard was able to back up, distracting the monster long enough for Trefor’s health bar to climb back up to half health.

Sivlander turned his attention to the invisible monster. He rushed forward to where Germane was standing. Even though it seemed there was nothing in front of Germane, Sivlander knew better and chose to swing his sword hard, slashing against something. No words appeared, however, but Sivlander knew that his blow had connected hard.

“Blood!” Germane said as he pointed to the ground. There were a few droplets of blood on the ground and they were slowly moving away from Sivlander, the blood trail indicating that the creature was moving behind him. Sivlander turned just in time to block a blow with his sword. There was a loud ping as something steel struck against his weapon.

Sivlander swung back but hit nothing but air.

“Come on, we don’t have time for this game of hide and seek!” Sivlander said as he glanced at the ground, searching for more drops of blood. Germane was behind him, pressing his back against Siv’s. As long as they stood back to back the creature couldn’t get the drop on either of them.

“There!” Germane said, pointing to the right of Sivlander. With a mighty heave, the warrior swung his great sword at midair and struck something again. The words Hit faintly appeared in front of them and then vanished quickly into thin air.

Sivlander glanced at his sword to see that there were traces of blood on his sword, but most interestingly enough, the sword was slowly turning invisible as the blood ran against the weapon.

“Weird,” Sivlander said. “I think this creature’s blood is making my weapon invisible.”

“I wonder if you can see an invisible creature if you are invisible,” Germane said. “Hey! Samir, quit playing with your Ogre and turn me invisible!”

“Yes, let’s waste more of the wizard’s magic!” Samir said as he jogged away from the Ogre that was still limping after him. Trefor had fully healed and was charging the monster again. In a few minutes, the only threat left would be the invisible creature.

Samir approach Germane and raised his hands. “Become like the wind! Because you can’t see the wind!” Samir shouted as he cast the invisibility spell on Germane.

“You don’t have to clarify what being like the wind means,” Germane said as he faded from view. There was a pause and Germane shouted “Behind you, Van!”

“It’s Sivlander!” Van replied as he spun around to block another attack. The words Blocked appeared over his head, but like the attack words, they faded into thin air.

“Hey, my bright idea worked!” Germane shouted. “I can see the creature! It’s got scythes for arms and looks really pissed off at us. It’s at 900 health!”

“900 health?” Sivlander and Samir shouted at the same time. “That’s insane!”

“Wait, I’m sorry. I misread it; it has 90 left,” Germane said. There was the sound of clinking and clanging, but Sivlander couldn’t see what was happening. A few moments later, Germane reappeared in front of the group.

“Turns out that thing was incredibly easy to kill when you could see it!” he said proudly.

“Huzaah!” Trefor shouted. Everyone turned to see the giant ogre fall to the ground with a loud thump as the words Dead floated above its head.

“We did it! We killed all three at the same time!” Samir said. “Now that was a feat worthy of being repeated any time we go to a bar.”

“True that!” Germane said as he high-fived the wizard.

The Queen stood from her seat and began to clap for the four heroes. “Congratulations, champions. You have not only impressed me by defeating our fiercest beasts but you have also shown that you are worthy of a reward for choosing the harder road.” She bowed down to them. As she bowed, a large treasure chest began to surface in the middle of the room.

“After you have chosen your treasures, you must take the large hole in the middle of the wall. Be warned, for when you choose to drop through this hole, you will be walking into the terrible chambers of the dark cultists who worship the Wyrm. They will want to test your loyalty, but in truth they are looking for a sacrifice. Do not allow yourselves to become Wyrm food, my friends.”

“Score, free treasure!” Germane shouted as he rushed up to the chest. He popped it open and glanced down. A look of disappointment came across his face. “It’s just a stupid bracelet.”

“That’s it?” Sivlander said as he walked up to investigate. Indeed there was a solitary bracelet sitting at the bottom of the chest. It was less of a bracelet and more of a large string with some beads attached to it.

“Is that what I think it is?” Samir said as he bent over and looked at the bracelet. “Haha!” he shouted as he grabbed it and held it up as if it were some kind of rare artifact. “It is! This, my friends, is a Legendary Keeper. When wearing it, a magic wielder can store his magic points in the bracelet and use them at a later time. This means that I can basically have double the magic points. Do you know how rare these items are?”

“Rare enough to warrant being the only freaking item in a chest,” Trefor grumbled.

“They are one of the rarest wizard items in the game. They go for millions of gold pieces on the open market and some people would actually pay real money to buy these on the black markets,” Samir said. “The chances of getting an item like this is literally 1 in a million. The random generators make this almost impossible to find.”

“Well, looks like Christmas has come early for you,” Sivlander said, “and if it makes you more powerful, I’m all for you having it. Come on; let’s get moving so we can find that evil death cult.”