Hmmm?

Novus slowly opened his eyes and frowned. Pulling up his minimap, Novus noticed a new addition, thanks to his Divine Sense.

Somethings approaching. Is that what the black dot represents? It feels like a creature.

Another scan later, and Novus was scrunching his brows. Unconsciously, his crawling pace went from snail-like to a professional army crawler.

Why is it heading towards me?

Unfortunately, Novus didn’t have much time to question things. The black dot travelled fast; within moments, Novus heard a voice.

“Mother! Father!”

A magical, young voice echoed through the tunnel, and soon, Novus saw the voice’s origin. It was a twin-tailed purple fox.

A kitsune?

The purple fox lurched to a stop and looked at Novus with confusion. Then, as if realizing who he was, it yelled at him.

“Murderer!”

What?

The purple fox raced at Novus, which made him think on his feet. Or rather, on his stomach. He was still crawling in a space with barely any room, which wasn’t the best for battles.

So, Novus threw his torch at the fox.

“Die!”

The purple fox screamed as it phased through the flickering flame of the torch and went for Novus’ face.

Novus’ teeth clenched as he felt the sting of claws against his blocking forearm and then the sudden weariness that drooped that arm to his side.

Shit, it’s got venom.

Novus felt the weariness begin to spread through his body. His Crimson Aura flared up in response and battled against the venom the best it could, but it couldn’t stop it once it got to Novus’ heart.

Novus’ eyes wearily shut as the purple fox leaped for another bite. This time, at the face.

The fangs were nearly at Novus’ nose when a strange azure light flickered before Novus. It flashed, and the purple fox spun into glittering lights that funnelled into Novus’ forehead.

As mysteriously and abruptly as it showed up, the azure light was gone, and only the soft flickering flames of the abandoned torch lit the tunnel.

Snap!

Favur’s teeth closed as she finished forming from glittering lights.

But why weren’t her teeth sinking into the soft flesh of that terrible human?

Favur’s eyes glowed as they adjusted to the low light conditions. She looked around, and a flood of fear entered her.

Where am I?

The soft sounds of water falling drop by drop echoed throughout the grey stone cave. Stalagmites circled downwards and let loose their watery contents on the pools of water gathering below.

Favur whizzed around the area.

No, not here. Not there either. Ahh! Where is it? Where is the exit!?

Panicking at the new environment, Favur explored the area in record time.

There’s just this.

Favur looked ahead and saw a giant tunnel.

Creak.

“Ah!”

Favur hid behind one of the stalagmites at the old, chain-link sound.

The noise continued every time Favur got close to the giant tunnel, which made her reluctant to go anywhere nearby. But there were no other exits or entrances. So, after much hesitation, Favur finally decided to float inside the tunnel.

At the very least, this strange area still let her fly.

Creak. Creak.

Favur’s tails twitched at each creak. At a moment’s notice, she was ready to escape back to the area where she first started.

Creak. Creak!

The creak sounded close now, and Favur’s body was on high alert as she double-scanned everything in the tunnel thrice. That was why she noticed a faint azure glow. Favur slowly hovered above an icon of what looked like lips. Faintly curved and overlapping at the ends.

Favur looked closer.

Creak!

“AH!”

Favur lost her flying balance and stumbled out of the air.

Thud!

Favur raced off the ground and back into the sky after a few scrambling motions and eyed the azure markings. Yes, there were more now.

Like a never-ending loop, the markings endlessly repeated themselves as they left a ‘please follow this line towards your destination’ marking.

Favur didn’t trust it.

Favur went back to the area from before. Or at least, she tried.

Oh no.

Favur looked at the wall of grey stone that she swore wasn’t there before. She sniffed at it, scratched at it, and futilely tried to phase through it. But whatever material the stone was made from wouldn’t let her safety dreams come true.

Favur reluctantly looked behind her at the markings, still saying, ‘let us guide you this way, please.’

Grrrr.

Favur continued down the tunnel.

…

On and on, she snaked sideways and down the tunnel as she finally found what she considered the end.

Creak! Creak! Creak!

It was an underground pool of clear azure water. The stalagmites were like leaking hoses as azure water fell into the pool, yet the water level never fell or rose.

Wobble.

A clear wave spread out from the middle of the pool.

Is that a ball?

Favur strained her sight.

No, it’s wrapped in something.

Wobble!

This time, a wave tall enough to elicit a crashing wave rose to the grey stone shore.

An awful feeling began to bubble up inside Favur. A feeling that proved true.

Creak! CREAK!

WOBBLE!

Favur dove into the air as a wave the height of three people crashed onto the grey stone shore. In response, the markings that Favur had followed began to glow with a similar azure blue colour. This time, not faintly. And this time, there were a lot more markings.

The grey stone revealed markings everywhere. On stalagmites, on the floor, on the walls. Then, all at once, the impervious grey stone broke.

CREAK! CREAK! CREAK!

Chains the size of a person’s wrist broke free from the grey stone and wildly thrashed against the area. Their destination was one: the ball of chains trying to breach the middle of the pool.

Get away!!

Favur dashed through the air, weaving as closely from chain to chain as she could. Yet, they seemed endless. Not to mention, she had to avoid falling stones too.

In one particularly harrowing escape, Favur’s tails knocked against a chain and sent her spiralling towards the azure water.

No!

Splash!

Favur quickly dove out of the water, only to be pulled back in. Her head twirled backwards as she gasped for air.

One of the chains was wrapped around her tails, pulling her down fast.

Favur choked as she bit at the chain. The flood of foreign water made her lightheaded, and she ended up biting herself instead of the unbreakable chain.

You have been inflicted with an instance of the Sealing skill. You have been envenomed by the Sleeping Bite skill.

No!

Favur felt her hind leg, where she had accidentally bitten herself, go numb.

She thrashed against the chain, which had started to glow with strange esoteric markings. But, they held firm and continued to pull Favur deeper and deeper underwater.

Bubble. Bubble. Bubble…

Above water, all one could see were the remnants of stalagmites dissolving in the azure water, a shaking ball of chains that gradually sunk back down, and the petered-out bubbles from Favur’s descent.

Creak. Creak.

Creak.

Avalan was a bit special of a beginner island.

Among the many beginner islands, there existed tens of thousands of beasts. Of those beasts, there existed beast kings, or mutated versions, that were extremely fit.

Survival of the fittest made these creatures excel in their environment.

With such power came an origin name for each of them. One bestowed upon them by a chance encounter, story, or the system itself.

These few were called Named Monsters.

And it would likely take an entire party of fully-fledged adventurers to make it out alive after battling them.

For the glory of the island inhabitants, any party capable of killing one of these unique monsters would have their fame broadcasted across their entire island.

Again, Avalan was a bit special in this regard.

Regional Announcement! The player -???- has defeated the named monster Lesser Kitsune, Favur and been rewarded!

A player with wacky green hair complained to his friend.

“Really!? I’m out here battling Shield Snails, and someone is out there soloing minibosses?”

With a laughing point, his blue-mohawked friend teased him.

“That’s because each time we go out to hunt, you try to get a taunting skill and waste a bunch of time.”

The blue-mohawk friend raised his sword and shield and pretended to be like the green-haired player.

“Come get some of this, ya slow bastards!”

The blue-mohawk friend ducked a fist and was ready to dodge a second until another message appeared.

Regional Announcement! The player -Cain- and his party have defeated the named monster Vampire Raccoon, Irage and been rewarded!

The two players didn’t even have time to gawk as another message came rolling in.

Regional Announcement! The player -???- has defeated the named monster Wind Wolf, Zen and been rewarded!

“[email protected]!!#$%@!”

“Language! You talk with your mother like that?”

The green-haired player turned beet red before releasing it all in insult form.

“Says you! I’ve heard your mom, and she—”

Ding!

Suddenly, the two players’ eyes went dull.

“Ah, that’s Anthony on chat. He says—oh my goodness. Dude!”

“DUDE!”

Both players looked at each other with glee in their eyes.

“Cain and the Calamity Devils Guild are recruiting for a raid on THIS island!’

Ding!

This time, the green-haired player beat his friend to the latest gossip.

“Hercules announced the recreation of the Olympian Guild!”

The green-haired player shivered with excitement at the prospect. Meanwhile, unwilling to be outdone, the blue-mohawk player smiled triumphantly.

“Did you hear? Hercules’ island is one big coliseum! He’s even gotten the attention of the island’s Legendary NPC!”

The green-haired player was skeptical and a little ashamed that he hadn’t found out that information yet.

“I thought that was just a rumour. I haven’t even heard of any Legendary NPCs on this island. Some islands don’t even have NPCs at all!”

The blue-mohawk player walked over to his friend and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, your sources seem outdated, so let me update you on the latest news. I’ve got some private information from a friend….”

The blue-mohawk player led his green-haired friend around town as nearby players gossiped just like them—each one excited at the undercurrents of the many rising stars.