“Now that we’re all gathered here, it’s time to start prepping,” announced Tryston.

Before Tryston was able to get into the details of the first floor boss we figured it would be a wiser decision to return to Primum. We were brought to the Aincrad Vanguard’s main council room to take part in their battle strategy planning.

It was a large room, dimly lit by the fireplace off to the side and a few candles scattered around, with a long table placed in the centre. At the head of the table stood Tryston, still fully equipped in his armour, and down the sides of the table was a decline in ranking. First were the head captains of the numerous Vanguard squadrons, which lead to the grouping of the sergeants after that. Just about the furthest away as you could be from the head of the table sat Zak and I, accompanied by a band of sell-swords.

“Are you sure the scouts gathered as much information as possible?” asked Treyhax.

“Yes, I personally made sure of it,” said Tryston. “The boss’s lair is located in the mountainous northwest region. There is a dungeon called ‘The Limitless Caves’ which leads deep into the mountains right to the floor boss. The advance team cleared out the main bulk of goblins inhabiting the cave system, so travelling there should be relatively risk free.”

“What type of monster is it?” asked a squad captain.

“The main boss is an extremely large mountain troll, by the name of Jötunn, The Troll King, who wields a massive spiked club. He is a rather unintelligent creature and has a clumsy yet extremely powerful attack pattern. He also is accompanied by three monsters titled “Lesser Trolls” who are equipped with a variety of weapons and are much stronger than the average monster, requiring the attention of a full party for safety purposes.”

“How did we get such detailed information, sir?” asked another captain.

“The information came at a cost… The cost of three scouts’ lives.” said Tryston through gritting teeth while clenching his fists.

The atmosphere of the room grew extremely dim as we all bowed our heads in respect for our fallen comrades. After a few seconds, Tryston broke the silence. “It was a shame that our brothers had to die to get this information for us, but it would be an even greater shame to let their deaths be in vain. Thanks to those brave men, we will be able to take our first steps towards defeating this death game. Defeating this boss and clearing this floor will inspire those who haven’t yet fought to get in the fight, and those who have been fighting to fight even harder.”

The grim atmosphere quickly returned to an enthusiastic one, spirits and morale lifted.

“So what is the plan?” asked Treyhax.

“Currently four of our six squads are prepared for this type of battle; Alpha, Bravo, Echo, and Foxtrot. Charlie Squad led the advance party and are currently undermanned and not in the proper state of mind to be in such a high pressure situation, whereas Delta Squad currently has three new recruits ill-fit for this battle.”

“All due respect, sir, but there’s no way Swipe and I can be out of this fight,” said Treyhax eagerly.

“I completely agree with you, Captain, which is why you’ll have three temporary substitutions for this battle. You are already familiar with Kathrall and Zak so I will have them accompany Delta Squad for this mission, along with a mercenary from the contracting guild Greed. I’m sure this set up shouldn’t be too difficult for you to work with?”

“No sir, that is more than adequate.”

“Hey wait a minute, don’t we have any say in this?” interrupted Zak. “You can’t just volunteer us to risk our lives!”

“While it wasn’t the proper way to say it, Zak has a point. We should have at least been consulted about this beforehand, Tryston,” I added.

“Of course I would have preferred to do that, but the timing didn’t exactly call for it.”

“Well what’s in it for us if we go riskin’ our necks for you?” asked Zak.

“In return for your services, along with whatever loot and EXP you will receive during the battle, we’re prepared to offer you one weapon type of your choosing, crafted by our finest blacksmiths and even enhanced to a rating of +5.”

"Are you serious?” I asked.

The way enhancing weapons worked was that they could be upgraded on a scale of +1 to +8 by a blacksmith, but each enhancement costed a fair bit of money since the blacksmith needed high quality resources. Getting a weapon that was more than half-way to full enhancement and was a weapon you could actually use was one hell of a reward.

“I’m dead serious, Kathrall.”

I looked over at Zak and before I can even say anything he was rapidly nodding his head with a huge smile on his face. I turned back to face Tryston, my face as stern and expressionless as his.

“I guess that means we’re in. We’ll fight alongside you all.”

“Good. Now picking up where I left off, the parties who will be focusing on Jötunn are Alpha, Bravo, and Echo Squad. You three squads will attack in rotation of having one party drawing aggro from the boss while the other two attack it from the rear. Once your health bars get depleted to 50 percent switch out for the next party to start tanking. Delta and Foxtrot Squad, along with two other mercenary squads, will be tasked with taking down the Lesser Trolls. A basic attack pattern of switching should be able to eliminate the Lesser Trolls quickly, so when you do clear your monster go help the other squads finish off their Lesser Trolls. The main boss attack force should be able to hold out long enough for you all to clear your targets and regroup on Jötunn. Once we regroup, the combined seven parties should be able to easily overwhelm him, leading us to victory.”

I sat there in silence thinking about hypotheticals and what-ifs. “What if he has a hidden ability which doesn’t come into play until he’s reaching fatal HP?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, that information at this moment in time is unattainable, but that is the likely scenario. Like with the sub-boss you faced off against and the other reported sub-bosses that have been defeated, nearing death they bring out a special power.”

The quiet room which was echoing Tryston’s words ignited into a room full of concerned whispers.

“I wonder what his power will be.”

“Won’t many of us die?”

“We’re never going to get out of this game, are we?”

The atmosphere of the mood quickly changed from that of hope to despair.

“I know it’s risky and we can’t be sure it’ll work,” interrupted Tryston, silencing the concerned chatter. “But if we don’t give it our all right here and now, then we definitely will be trapped in this game and will never get to see our families again. I’m not going to let that happen, I’m not going to roll over and submit to this world and neither should any of you. Whether we die in a blinding light of pixels or as wrinkled old men, we are going to die. I say we die with weapon in hand, fuelled by determination to not be defeated lying down. The opportunity is here, all we have to do is seize it!”

“OORAH!” The room of soldiers erupted, thunderous cheers and chants echoed throughout the entire headquarters.

“Glad to have you all on board, but save the celebrations for when we’re having cups of ale in the second floor tavern,” said Tryston, grinning. “We’ll meet at the North City Gate at 06:45 tomorrow morning and will depart for the dungeon via Corridor Crystal at 07:00, so get a good night’s sleep and don’t be late. Dismissed.”

“You ready to get out of here?” I said, turning my head to Zak.

“Of course, although I doubt I’ll be getting any sleep. This fight is going to be epic!”

“I’m sure it will be, but don’t let your guard down for a second. Kulz took us by surprise and nearly defeated us and he was only a sub-boss for a quest. This main boss to get off the entire floor is going to be on a completely different level.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, don’t worry! There isn’t anything my axe can’t cut down!” he replied, extending a fist out to me.

“Some things never change.” I sighed, meeting his fist with mine.

“Sorry to interrupt, but you two need to come with us for a second.” I turned around to see Treyhax and Swipe hovering over our shoulders.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I need you two to come with me to explain to Tryston what we saw, how that girl you knew was turned into an undead type monster.”

“Good, that’s been weighing heavily on me since we encountered it. Maybe talking to Tryston will give me some closure.”

“I know what you mean, it just flat out gives me the creeps,” said Zak.

Zak and I stood up to as we prepared ourselves to address Tryston.

“What if he doesn’t believe you?” asked Swipe.

“Then I guess the matter would be left dead, but I really hope he keeps an open mind.” I replied as I stood up to join the two.

The four of us walked towards Tryston, Treyhax and I leading the way.

“Sir, if you have a moment to spare we need to talk to you about something we encountered during the fight with Kulz,” said Treyhax.

Tryston looked at us, puzzled. “Alright, you have my attention. What’s the problem Captain?”

Treyhax looked around the room, between the lower authority guild members and the mercenaries there were few who could be trusted with information this huge. “It’s really best we discuss this in private.”

“Hmm, follow me to my office if that’s the case. I was heading there to overview our strategy one last time anyways.”

Tryston led us out the door into the proceeding hallway. The halls of this place were like that of a royal castle. A red carpet resting on top the limestone floor and generic paintings dimly lit in candlelight decorated the hallway. After a few turns and a couple minutes of walking we arrived at a room with a large wooden door. Tryston raised his hand to the door, generating a menu, and pressing the unlock button.

Click

Tryston pushed the door open and gestured his arm for us to enter. Treyhax led the way followed by Swipe, Zak, and myself. Inside the room was a lone desk riddled with documents, several bookshelves—although I doubted you could read anything on them—and a window overlooking Primum. Tryston closed the door and after hearing another assuring click that the door was locked, proceeded past us and sat down at his desk, resting his hands on his chin.

“So, what’s troubling you, Treyhax? You’ve seemed a little off since I found you this afternoon.”

“It’s best if I let Kathrall do the explaining here.”

Tryston turned his gaze to me. “Oh, really now? Well then, Kathrall, what is it you have to say?”

“Ahem. I’m not entirely sure how to explain this or whether you’ll believe me, but just know that every detail I’m telling you is the absolute truth of what I know. One of the additional monsters that Kulz spawned, a Forsaken Villager, it was a girl I knew.”

Tryston’s eyes widened as his hands dropped from his chin to his desk. “You knew her? What exactly do you mean by that?”

“It’s just like I told Trey and the others, her name was Marielle and she belonged to a guild called ‘The Iron Dawn’ that I did a couple quests with one day. When we were sneaking through the houses of that village I saw a photograph of her in one of the houses and I guess she must’ve been living there before it was taken over by Kulz.”

“And you’re absolutely positive it was her?”

“I couldn’t exactly tell because of the decayed and missing flesh, but she was wearing the same clothing and armour, as well as having the same hair. Their guild leader and I kept up with each other, giving hints and tips about quests and farming areas around the place. He had told me they took up residence in a nearby NPC village, but shortly afterwards I lost communication with him and just assumed he perished in dungeon.”

SLAM!

Tryston struck down on the top of his desk, prompting an Indestructible window to float above the table.

“That’s got to be some sick joke,” he said as he got out of his chair. “First we’re tossed into a death game, but now we’ve got to worry about being turned into some psycho monster’s dummy?”

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I can’t quite figure out what it means,” I said.

“Actually, I’ve come up with my own interpretation of how it works, although I have no facts to prove it,” said Treyhax.

“What have you come up with?” asked Tryston.

“Well the way I see it is that our bodies, our virtual bodies that is, are nothing more than code written by programmers. The customization screen we all go through at the start of character creation is nothing more than us manipulating the coding of our virtual bodies to what we want it to be. Maybe with undead type monsters like the Forsaken Villagers they just re-use the coding of deceased players to make for a more ‘dramatic’ monster. As sick and twisted as it may seem to create drama out of the deaths of players, all the drama in Aincrad is dramatic in that sick and twisted fashion. Maybe that’s why the creators did this, just to satisfy their god complexes to the point of actually becoming a god, albeit in a virtual world.”

“You know, that doesn’t sound impossible,” I said.

“Kath is right, it all meshes together well enough,” added Swipe.

“Who else have you four told about this?” said Tryston, interrupting me.

“Nobody, sir,” said Treyhax. “We knew this information was confidential until we briefed you on the situation.”

“That was a wise decision, Captain. I’m ordering you four to take a vow of silence right here, right now.”

“Hey wait a minute!” interrupted Zak. “You don’t think these people need to know about that? That’s some serious bullshit if you ask me.”

“Are you stupid?” said Swipe. “Think about the widespread panic that would cause, people worrying about becoming some code zombie or even stumbling upon a loved one in a dungeon. It would be demoralizing.”

“That’s exactly right Swipe,” added Tryston. “If the general population hears of this it’ll be bad for the advancing to new floors, not to mention the fact we have to fight the first floor boss tomorrow. We can’t risk anything when it comes to that.”

Zak clenched his teeth and shot his head away with a look of disgust on his face.

“I know it may seem like the unethical thing to do, but Tryston is right,” I said, trying to reassure Zak, but he continued to stare blankly away from us. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep this information to ourselves for the time being.”

"And of course you know we will, sir,” said Treyhax.

“Good, thank you all. I know it isn’t something easy, but it’s for the greater good. If that is all we had to discuss then I’ll see you four tomorrow morning.”

Treyhax and Swipe shot their hands up and gave a quick salute before turning around and leading us out of the headquarters.

“Thank you guys for cooperating so easily, I know it’s not something you want to do,” said Treyhax as we approached the exit gate of the property. “It’s not something I want to do either, but in the long run I’m sure it’ll prove to be the right thing to do.”

“No need to thank us, we’re on the same page,” I said. “Right Zak?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “All I know is that you all better bring your A-game tomorrow so I don’t have to do all the work.”

“Oh please,” interrupted Swipe. “Where would you be without us? Just another one of Kulz’s victims.”

“Speaking of tomorrow, do we know who the fifth member of our party is Trey?” I asked.

“Yeah, Tryston messaged me his details shortly before the meeting. His name is Garrett; he’s a Scythe user so he’ll be bringing more damage to our group.”

“So that just leaves me to take the hits then?” I asked.

“Yes, but that is how our party is designed. You’re going to be taking all the hits, but the four of us attacking the Lesser Troll should be able to take it out before you take anything close to fatal damage.”

“Yeah, I see what you’re saying. The battle plan in general seems well thought out.”

“Give the credit to our leader and our strategists.”

“We’ll give them all the credit they deserve after we beat the damn thing,” said Zak.

We all let out a slight chuckle, even Swipe managed to crack a grin.

“It’s getting late, so we’ll take our leave now to make sure we get a full night’s sleep,” I said. “See you guys tomorrow.”

I turned around and strolled through the entrance gate, shortly followed by Zak.

“So are you excited for tomorrow?” asked Zak.

“I’m not so sure ‘excited’ is the word I’d use.”

“C’mon man, we’re going to be loaded after this. I bet I’ll be the one who gets the last hit on the boss!” Zak flashed me wide smile and a thumbs up.

“Actions speak louder than words; make sure you can keep up with them.”

The two of us laughed it off and proceeded to the same inn we stayed in the night before, had a quick bite to eat, and then went to bed. Alone with my thoughts, my mind was racing all over the place. What is the truth to this world? Was that even Marielle? Are we going to be okay tomorrow? The questions never seemed to have an end. All I knew was we had to succeed tomorrow, not just for the sake of us fighting the boss, but for the sake of all of us fighting this cruel world.