Beep beep, beep beep. Beep beep, beep beep.

I began flailing my arms in the air as if I was trying to smack down on an alarm clock near my bed. When I finally gained my consciousness I could see the alarm clock I set blinking and beeping in front of me. I rolled my legs over my bed and sat up so I could open the window and turn off this annoying beeping. Almost immediately after, I heard some loud footsteps outside my door.

CRASH! Suddenly my door flew open and Zak’s body flopped into the room, falling on the ground.

“Get up, Kath! It’s time to kick Kulz’s ass!” Zak said, excited. He was already fully equipped with his armour and had his axe in his hands. It’s a good thing the walls were indestructible or else he probably would have chopped his way in.

“Give me a second, I’m not even dressed yet. Go wait in the diner downstairs, I’ll meet you there for breakfast.”

“Alright, but if you take too long I’m eating without you!” Zak got up and left the room we rented. It was my first time renting a room with someone and I never knew how big the two-bedroom rooms were. Not only did we each get our own bedrooms but we also had a relatively nice sized living room to hangout in. It was a good feeling knowing that someone liked you enough to share a room with.

I got up from my bed and opened up my inventory menu. One by one I began equipping my armour pieces. Piece after piece appeared out of thin air onto my body and I was ready to go.

As I was about to leave the inn room I took one last glance at the place where I spent my first night with my first friend.

I headed downstairs to the by-day diner and right in a window booth I could see Zak waiting there very impatiently. It was fairly dead in here this early in the morning, but when the place opens up the tavern at night it can get very hectic.

“Hurry up, Kath! I’m starving!” yelled Zak upon seeing me. I quickly walked over and took a seat on the opposite side of the booth.

“Settle down, we only have time for a light snack anyways.” I told Zak. “The Aincrad Vanguard usually sends out their squads pretty early to get a full day’s worth of grinding.”

“Fine then, I’ll get something to go.” Zak said, unimpressed. “So, how do you plan on asking these guys for help anyways? I don’t think ‘Hey remember that one time I saved you? Time to pay me back.’ is going to work.”

“I’m going to share the quest with them and once they realize there is a good chance at getting some strong gear they’ll want to join.”

“I just hope they don’t take anything good away from me.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine.”

The NPC waitress came over to our table, it was weird how they acted exactly the same as a normal person would.

“Can I take your order please?”

“Two crepes to-go, please!” replied Zak enthusiastically. The waitress wrote on a notepad she had in her hand and proceeded to walk back into the kitchen. I wondered if there’s even anything on that notepad.

A moment later she came back out with two freshly wrapped crepes with a delicious cream filling. “Here you go guys, have a great day!” As we were handed the crepes I could hear the sounds of a cash register opening, signalling that money had been taken from our inventories.

“Alright, let’s get going.” I said to Zak.

“Okay okay”

We left the diner and entered the streets of Primum for what felt like the millionth time. The streets weren’t too bad considering it was early in the morning; the most we could see was shop owners opening their stores.

“Where's the Aincrad Vanguard’s Guild Headquarters located?” asked Zak.

“It’s near the town hall. They’re the only guild to have accumulated enough money to purchase a headquarters, so they made sure to take the nicest spot.”

“Makes sense. Let’s head out.”

We started walking through the marketplace and would occasionally get hassled by a merchant selling the ‘next big thing’, be it a new mineral found for smithing or even just a new kind of food. It was always a new experience when you walked through these streets and it was honestly quite refreshing to know that just because you’re trapped inside a game, it didn't mean everything was always going to be the same. After about 15 minutes of wandering around with Zak we entered the downtown district.

“So who are these guys we’re meeting?” Zak asked.

“The first person is the Captain, Treyhax. The other person is his Lieutenant, Swipe. They’re both speed based fighters. The two of them would make us look like turtles if we were to PvP them.”

“I couldn’t imagine having a build like that… One hit from a monster would be a huge chunk of your HP.”

“Well when you’re as fast as these guys, it’s not often that you get hit. Anyways, we’re approaching their HQ. It’s just around this corner.”

“Okay cool. Let’s go meet these guys.”

We turned the corner and there it was in all its glory: The Aincrad Vanguard Headquarters. It wasn’t much bigger than an inn, but considering no other guild was even close to affording a headquarters yet, the Aincrad Vanguard was extremely far ahead.

“This is it.” I told Zak as I stopped in front of the building.

“Wow! Could you imagine this place being your home?”

“It’s not just a home, ya know? They also deal with all of their guild business here. Anything from forming new alliances to recruitment is done here.” I started walking towards the door of the building and was stopped by a red window that appeared in front of my face.

PRIVATE PROPERTY – AINCRAD VANGUARD

PRIVELEGES – INSUFFICIENT

REQUEST ENTRANCE?

YES | NO

I lifted a hand and pressed YES. The window transferred over to a screen requesting me to type in the username of the member I wished to contact. I typed in the name Treyhax. After a few moments a new screen appeared in front of me, this time it was green.

ENTRY PERMISSION GRANTED

I looked over at Zak and nodded for him to follow me inside. I could hear Zak jumping in excitement behind me, what a loser. I opened the door and we walked into their lounge. It was a fairly big lounge; it had several couches for seating, pieces of artwork and guild emblems on the walls, and a blazing fire place.

I could see Treyhax across the room standing by the fire place. He was wearing very light and compact armour and had a metal shoulder plate on his left shoulder. Strapped across his back was his glaive. Beside him was Swipe; he was wearing his brown leather armour and had his single longsword sheathed on his hip. The two of them were leaning against the wall, staring us down.

As I started walking across the room to greet them they also began walking towards us. Eventually we met in the middle of the room.

“Long time no see, Kathrall,” said Treyhax. “What can we do for you?”

“Let’s sit down,” I answered. “this might take a while.”

Trey nodded towards one of the tables set up in the lounge and lead us there. I got right to business. “This is my friend Zak. To try and make a long story short, we’ve stumbled across a new sub-boss quest. After working on a quest called The Forsaken Village we were given info on the sub-boss Kulz. He’s a witch doctor so I’m assuming he’ll be using some sort of undead trickery to summon up a handful of mobs.”

“So you want our help?” Treyhax interrupted.

“We’re not mercenaries, you know?” said Swipe. “We’re not ungrateful for how you saved our lives, but we have levelling quotas to make and a squadron to lead.”

“Yes I know that, bu-”

“Well the loot and experience from this quest is gonna be a hell of a lot more than you going out and killing random weak mobs!” Zak interrupted.

Swipe looked away, not convinced, but I could see that Treyhax had some interest in what we were talking about. “Go on, Kathrall. I’m listening.” He said.

“What my friend is trying to say is that this is a great opportunity for you guys to not only get a big chunk of experience, but also a chance at getting stronger weapons.”

“How can we guarantee that we’ll get new weapons?” asked Treyhax.

“It’s simple, look at the quest rewards for what the quest I’m about to share with you.” After operating through my menu to my quest log, I sent the quest to Treyhax. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped slightly.

“’Rewards: 4000 Col and 375 EXP,” Treyhax read aloud.

“Are you sure, Trey?” Swipe asked. “Don’t joke around like that.” Treyhax just sat there looking at the screen.

Regular quests you would fulfill up until this point had a significant difference in reward value. The previous sub-boss quest that I did with another party only rewarded us with around 1500 Col and a lot less experience.

“So, what’s the verdict here guys?” I asked. “That sum of money can easily get you a new weapon or some new armour, especially with the discount towards your blacksmith guild members. Do you want to help us or not?”

“I only do what my captain says. If he says we’re not doing it, then we don’t, if he says we are doing it, we do.” Swipe said as he looked over to Treyhax waiting for him to say something.

Treyhax still sat there staring at the screen, motionless. “You really know how to bargain a person.” he said, grinning. He lifted his hand a clicked the Accept icon. “You have our help.”

I stood up and the rest followed. I reached out to shake Treyhax’s hand. He reached for mine and we gave each other a firm shake. I would have gone to shake Swipe’s hand as well, but I wasn't sure how he’d react to it.

I opened up my menu again and this time invited both Treyhax and Swipe to the party. In an instant they joined and our group doubled in size.

“Well then, let’s go kick that monster's ass!” Zak said enthusiastically with a smile on his face.

“Is he always like this?” asked Swipe.

“Hahaha, you better believe it!” Zak chirped back. Swipe looked like he was in pain.

“Alright then, time to go?” Treyhax asked me.

“Yeah, grab anything you might need and meet us at the northern city gates by noon.” I gave them both a nod. “Alright Zak, let’s go prep for today.”

“You got it, buddy.”

Zak and I turned around to leave. He looked over at me as we left the building, “Can those guys really help us? They didn’t look very tough; they’re barely wearing any armour.”

“Don’t worry, Zak, there’s more to them than meets the eye.”