Grim sat down. Well it would be more accurate to say, he plopped down. After a grueling grind and a few achievements, he had finally hit level 20. Unfortunately, he didn’t hit it first but also not last. That honor had gone to Helios because surprise surprise fighting people as a healer isn’t easy. Grim looked at his achievement briefly. He had 2 achievements for hitting levels 10 and 20 that rewarded 10 and 20 bonus stat points respectively, as well as a different achievement.

Slime massacre

Kill 1000 slimes

Well at least this isn’t Boston -JONAS

Reward: +10% damage to slimes

“Well that explains why the last few slimes on the grind died so easily” Grim said to himself. Then he stood up. Having finally hit level 20 while being stuck in a zone where the strongest monsters were about level 5 was exasperating, but he was finally ready to use the global teleport waystone to teleport to the human continent. Grim then walked up to Karit, who was standing in the town center.

“Hello Karit, I am ready to leave Nogoth for the human lands” Grim said to the old draconian.

“Ah well done young one, but beware, if you plan to head towards Trawor, that is, the human continent, you should remember that the humans are very xenophobic, and very arrogant. Expect a lot of bluster”

“Thank you elder” Grim bowed, “how do I teleport there?”

“Simply step on the waystone and focus your energy, you will be able to teleport after that” Karit said, “Now off with you, you have adventures to get to!”

Grim took the hint, stepping on the waystone. Immediately, a GUI (Guided User Interface) popped up, asking him where he wanted to go. Grim selected Trawor, and was engulfed in a blinding light. When the light cleared, Grim found himself in a grassy area. Upon looking around he noticed that he was standing in a big ornate stone circle, that reminded him of a stereotypical D&D summoning circle (I don’t care if it’s not D&D, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN). In front of him were some players hanging out, including his friends.

“Hey Grim! Glad you finally got your ass over here” BeoWulf said as Grim approached the group. “Helios is on his way, he hit level 20 even after you did”.

“I mean, grinding level 5s to level 20 is very annoying and very very tedious.” Grim gave BeoWulf a hard glance.

“You dumbass, did you actually bother venturing out? There’s a ton of higher level mobs if you actually bother wandering outside of the safety of your walls.” Armageddon finally spoke up. He was wearing a slave collar, and when Grim focused on him, it showed him as property of Prizrak.

Grim shook his head and then looked at Prizrak, “Goddammit, I knew something was off. Anyway, Prizrak, I assume you’re gonna be the owner of Geddon, so he doesn’t get murdered or arrested for being a demon in a xenophobic land?”

Prizrak just nodded, before suddenly teleporting behind Grim and trying to stab him. Grim’s gamer instincts saved him from the stab, and he rolled away, straight into a weak fireball from Armageddon.

“AH FUCK. I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE KIDDING” Grim yelled after spitting out the ash that had mysteriously appeared in his mouth.

“We were, and then we weren’t after you were so late” Armageddon laughed. “Also we got an achievement for it... and the reward is 10 infamy. Cool!”

Grim shook his head, and was about to shoot Armageddon when Helios ran up to them. “Hey guys! Sorry I’m late! I got caught up turning in some quests”

The group exchanged greetings with Helios, before the five of them set out towards the capital and main town of the human city. As they walked they chatted, and after only about an hour, the group came to the city gates, where some guards were conversing with anyone who entered. As the group approached, one of the guards shouted at them.

“Halt! State the reason 5 inhumans, one of which is a demonspawn are attempting to enter the glorious capital city Highmore?” the guard asked them with a suspicious glare. While Helios politely conversed with the guard to allow them entrance to the city, Grim scanned the walls, making sure no itchy trigger fingers were being pointed at them. Helios eventually got access into the city, and the group walked inside. Prizrak pointed out a map, and the five of them walked over to it. Grim pointed out the tavern, and the group walked over to the tavern.

Coming over the tavern the group was greeted by a horde of other players, all sitting drinking and eating. On the wall was a job board, with a few quests that could be taken by players. However, when the group walked through the door, all eyes turned on them. While there were plenty of races in the bar, most of the groups that were around were of the same race, so such a diverse group did bring some stares. In fact, a group of three humans stood up, and sauntered over to Grim, who was standing as the leader of the group.

“Well well well, look what we have here” The leader of the humans, a mustached man who appeared to be a warrior, drawled out. “Some more inhumans, tainting our town, and these ones don't even try to resemble the dominant race”

“Well well, look what we have here. A guy who got fed up with being a Neo-Nazi in the real world and decided to be one in this one instead” Grim replied cooly. The man made a very angry look, and went to draw his sword, but Grim simply looked at him and said “None of that now” before activating his dragon’s lung skill, and breathing a debilitating frost breath onto all three humans. When the skill finished, the men were frozen in thin blocks of ice, which were already melting.

“What the fuck was that Grim?!” Helios asked amazed. “You can breathe ice?”

“I can breathe all the elements” Grim replied, “I just can’t control which ones. Now then, shall we go see what quests are available to us? I’m sure we all want to get to level 30, and get out subclasses. There are supposedly unique ones that aren’t like anything we’ve seen in other games, so let's get to grinding.”

With those words the party walked over to the job board, looking for work to do, and for interesting quests that might lead to a chain or something else.