Quivercess, whose real name was Nicole, put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. She was with Luds and Wharton, and they were hiding in Healer Gula's store for a reason unknown to her. For sure it was something stupid. "Who are you snooping on, Luds?" She tried to climb out of the store's burrow but Luds headed her off.

"Snooping?" He looked around and shrugged. "I don't see anyone snooping. Wharton, do you see some snooping action going on?"

Wharton looked at Nic. She glowered at him. He flinched. "Luds, bro. Normally, I'd back you up here. But I don't know the context of your whole bit here, so I'm not sure what my stance is going to be."

"Just the usual agree-with-me stance," Luds said. "Scratch that, we're trying another route." He gave Nic an innocent smile. "How are you doing, Nic? We're just having a grand old, relaxing time here in this shop, staying out of the harsh sun. No one is snooping on anything. Skincare is the goal, protecting ourselves from the dangerous ultraviolet rays and—"

"We're on a mountain of ice," she dryly replied. "It's not hot, like, at all."

"Aha! Got you!" Luds triumphantly said. "I wasn't saying it's hot here. I'm saying that ultraviolet rays are harmful."

“I don't think radiation is a problem for us," said Wharton, raising his arm to examine the charcoal-like skin of Mardukryons.

"The higher the altitude, the harsher the sun's rays because—"

"Okay, whatever you say," Nic interrupted the stream of rubbish coming out of Lud's mouth. "Anyway, was that Megan out there by the Sigil NPC? What is it this time, Luds? You forced us to gather today to practice for the Great Hunt, but then you're going off somewhere else?"

Luds craned his head over the cabinets filled with medicine to check what was going on outside. Then he said, "Firstly, I didn't force you guys to gather." He held up a finger at Nic but didn't turn around to look at her.

"Yes, you did."

"I just mentioned, repeatedly, that the Great Hunt is coming up, and other teams are already practicing. But what about our party? Now that Jensen's team has quit—oh, there’s still Cheeseman, but his party doesn't count—we have a chance at the ranks to get higher rewards."

"Not 'force' then," Nic said, pushing his wagging finger away. Why does he always get so crazy when it comes to this game? He was several times less insufferable in literally any other situation. "You heavily implied that we should practice. Can also say passive-aggressively hinted that we should practice. Bottom line is we're here because of you."

Luds looked over his shoulder and gave her a grin. "That's not the same as forcing. You were free not to come here. Going to be hard to practice without the complete team though."

"Wait? I could've just not come?" said Wharton. "What the hell? I was supposed to watch Rocketball League today."

"And I thank you for being here. Even Marcus is attending despite being busy with his new baby."

"Man, I'll just watch it later. I'm gonna get pissed if some dickwad spoils the result to me."

Luds held up two fingers. "Secondly—"

"What 'secondly'?" Nic asked.

"The 'firstly' was to clarify that I was simply…encouraging…all of you to log in today," Luds said gesturing to all of them with arms held wide. "And the 'secondly' is about me not 'going off somewhere else', as you accused me. We have team practice, so I'll be here with you guys."

"I feel like there's a continuation to this."

"You're right, there's more," he said. "We have practice, that's set, that's confirmed. Buuuut, since Marcus told us he needs ten more minutes to put his kids to bed, and Baby and Miko are still in the auction house trying to see if they can win that Relic Shard—"

"The drop from Rabisu Peak?" Wharton asked? "I saw Chimichangaro heading over there. No way they're going to win it with that whale around."

"—we still have ten minutes of free time," Luds finished.

Nic folded her arms and questioned him, "Ten minutes you'll use snooping on Kezo's party?"

"Not 'snooping' on them. I just want to find out what they're up to."

"That's the same thing."

"Semantics, semantics," he said as he climbed out of Healer Gula's store and back on the street outside. "Come, I want to see where wand girl is going."

"Her name is Megan," Nic said as she and Wharton followed Luds down the street. She had talked to her a few times before, just a short chat whenever they passed each other in the village. She didn't know much about her other than she was nice and friendly. "And she's probably heading to the Chief's Lodge." She halted walking, holding out her hand to also stop Wharton. "Just wait a second here, are you bothering them?"

"Bothering? Me?" Luds acted with exaggerated shock. "I'm not bothering anyone. The truth of it is that I'm trying to be helpful to others. I saw Kezo's team practice yesterday and I, very graciously, used my time and expertise to help them."

"I bet seeing Kezo's party practice was the reason you thought of our group doing the same thing." Nic placed her hands on her hips. "And what is this 'help' that you speak of, hmm?"

"They were trying to fight the Living Statue yesterday," Luds empathically said. "It's the boss of the Silent Plaza. You know that large Mardukryon statue that's moving? It has vines sticking out of it?" He waved his hands mimicking the vines as he answered Nic's quizzical look.

She had heard of it but hadn't tried fighting it before. She was usually with her party, and they mostly breezed through the Silent Plaza area, not bothering with the boss or mini-bosses there. "And what's the problem with that? Let them do their own thing."

"The problem," he replied, "is that they're too weak to—"

“That’s hardly your problem. Don’t discourage—”

"No, no! Listen, just let me explain. I'm not discouraging them; I don't do that to people. All I do is to—"

"—make them face reality," Nice completed his sentence. This was his usual excuse. “My point stands. It’s hardly your problem.”

"To be fair," Wharton said, "Kezo's party, with that lineup and levels, shouldn't be able to take on the Living Statue."

"Exactly!" Luds pointed at Wharton. "See? He agrees with me." He then went on to explain the hurdles that Kezo's party couldn't overcome, specifically the lack of an actual tank for the boss. "They kept on dying and dying! Just think about it, Nic. You don't want the new guy to quit, right? He's probably just going with them because he couldn't find any other party. But what if he died a bunch of times because Kezo insists on taking on a boss they couldn't handle? He’s going to get discouraged. And I’m preventing that from happening. I’m not the one discouraging them."

Nic was sure Luds meant well...most of the time. It was just how it acts that was out of sync with his intentions—and his default mindset of looking down on anyone doing the ‘wrong thing’ in his eyes. And hearing his explanation, she was starting to believe him.

A new player like Herald shouldn't be facing that boss. He likely hadn’t even completed the questline for getting past the tunnels, and yet he was already fighting a boss at the Silent Plaza. He might really quit as a Mardukryon if he was overwhelmed or discouraged because of the difficulty. Relenting, she said to Luds, "So what were you planning to do?"

"We'll check if they're still trying to fight the Living Statue," Luds said. "I've noticed that their party members have kept on spawning in front of the Chief's Lodge. They're continually dying to something they can't beat. And if they're doing something stupid—ehem, unwise rather—I'll them so. That's all. I'm a nice guy, aren't I?"

Megan hurriedly said, "Thank you!" to the merchant Mardukryon NPC selling Sigil Totems before running off to the Chief's Lodge.

Oops, I did it again. She instinctively looked over her shoulder. There were no players nearby. If Nitana had heard her saying 'thank you' to an NPC again, she wouldn't hear the end of the teasing.

Herald had told them over and over, every time they died and returned to the boss area, that they should immediately run back to the battle after they were resurrected in the village.

However, Megan wanted to check if anyone else had just died so they could warp together. She heard Kezo mention he was running out of Sigil Totems for the Nixigaunt warp because he forgot to buy more earlier. She also wasn't if Nitana had enough Totems to continue warping.

A player had just appeared in front of the Chief's Lodge. He wore a familiar spiky red armor and carried two big swords.

"Kezo!" Megan said as she trotted up to him. "You died too?"

"Yeah," he said. "The boss used a new move. I should've backed off. But I was thinking I should stick to it and do as much damage as possible to kill it before its next power-up. I'm not sure if we can handle more."

"Do you still have Sigil Totems?"

"A couple. I'm going to buy—"

"I already did." Megan initiated a trade with him to transfer ten of the item to him. "There, I hope that's enough."

There was a flash of light followed by someone yelling, "I fucking died!" It was Nitana who showed up right next to them. "What are you guys still doing here? Herald is all alone back there!" She held up a Sigil Totem and warped them all back to the Nixigaunt warp point before they could say anything.

The moment they materialized in front of the massive tree carved into a Nixigaunt, they all galloped back to the Silent Plaza. Thankfully, the monsters in this area weren't aggressive, so they were able to run without any distractions.

"I hope he doesn't die," Megan said. They were so close to beating the boss, and they had put in so much work that she didn't want it all to go to waste. I shouldn't have taken my sweet time at the NPC! She should've rushed back so that Herald wouldn't be alone with Kezo and Nitana dying after her.

Explosions and roars reverberated through the trees as they neared the boss area. They couldn't see the boss area yet, but the noises made them feel relieved that the battle was continuing.

No one was talking, but Megan knew that they were all thinking the same thing.

Kezo began to cast his buffs as he ran. Megan and Nitana followed suit. The path opened up to the plaza.

"We're here, Herald!" Megan shouted as they all stampeded forward to aid their level twelve teammate who was trying, and inexplicably succeeding, to survive a level fifty-eight boss monster.