The countless stream of purple and an earthquake that continued to get louder and louder came rushing down to the town. At this point, there were only a few players including Lyndis who actually saw this since everyone else escaped into hiding already.

Invasion Event has started

A massive number of Giant Purple Rabbits are coming this way. Defend the town else try to survive.

When that message appeared, Lyndis snapped out of shock and immediately considered what she wanted to do.

“Damn, not going to die here!” she shouted leaping to the side of a building and pulling herself up to the roof to get out of the way as the Giant Purple Rabbits which were each the size of a large bear each charge through.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

The sounds of too many things happening caused Lyndis to be dizzy as she felt something hit her back all of a sudden and her falling off the roof to the gap in between the buildings, small enough she was safe.

You took 10 damage

“Ow!” she complained looking around to see who dared knock her off the building like that until she saw purple rapidly rushing forth from the roof as well.

Lyndis paled seeing this realising how close she was to dying just then.

And another remainder that she was weak and couldn't do anything to even try and stop this.

“....”

She had to get stronger, no matter what.

xXx

Shadow had just saved Lyndis' life there...and he was immediately regretting it.

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNNNNN!!!!”

He immediately activated 'Boost', 'Burst Speed' and any other skills that would allow him to escape. Splitting his body to form several more clones that numbered a dozen which was straining him in doing so, each of them leaped to escape in some way.

But most were destroyed immediately as the Giant Purple Rabbits went for him viciously.

What he did not know was using 'Boost' was a bad idea. Simply put that 'Boost' allowed Eden's powers to flow in him making those Giant Purple Rabbits think Shadow was Eden who nearly wiped them out again.

As such it was no surprise that Shadow was soon caught up to with the Giant Purple Rabbit's rage increasing their stats several times and pounded him to death.

You have dead

This message only continued to mock him even later on.

xXx

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Lyndis could feel the buildings that were literally separating her from life and death being hit and broken down bit by bit. She could feel death coming sooner and sooner due to this. There were simply too many enemies even if most of them skimped around the town rather than through it.

Either way, most of the population in the town was dead. And so was she if she could not get out of here.

“Damnit, this isn't how I wanted to die...even if it's in a bloody game” she cursed still seeing the purple stream out of the cracks of her small protective space. If the walls were a bit tighter, she was sure she would have died out there.

And she wondered if her luck falling in here was good or not? Several minutes...or did an hour pass already that this attack happened and there was still signs of no end.

“....”

But then there was silence. For the first time since this invasion attack, there was actually silence.

“What's going on?” she wondered moving bit by bit through the tight opening she was in to see the outside. What she saw...could not be unseen.

The town was...ruined, if you could even call it that. Buildings were...trampled into pieces and ruins were too. The walls were gone, the people were dead and here she was looking at the two walls that miraculously survived for her to live.

“....”

Looking around, there seemed to be no one alive if she counted humans and other humanoid races. But there were some living creatures around, not the kind she wanted to see and the kind she liked in fact.

“That's...”

She looked to see a Giant Purple Rabbit that seemed to have stayed back. It was oddly dirty and was covered in....blood holding...a human corpse....eating it...

If things did not set in right now, it did at this moment. The town was more or less destroyed, she did nothing to protect it though it was impossible for her to even foolishly consider that but right now, she had the power to stop what was happening in front of her.

She drew the new swords that she brought and charged straight at the Giant Purple Rabbit without thinking about it.

“YOU BASTARRRRD!!!”

She sword was like a line of light in her eyes as she leaped and cut off the arm of the enemy that was almost as large as her in one go.

“Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!”

With a rapid series of attacks, she almost killed the beast. However she wanted to punish it even more, and what better way to do so at full strength.

“BOOST!” she shouted allowing the power in the 'Mark' she had to flow through her body.

Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double

Effects of the 'Mark of the Lion' is now active. 'Genesis Flame' is now active.

However like what happened with Shadow before, though she did not know it, this was a big mistake since a certain someone was the Giant Purple Rabbit species, eternal enemy. As Lyndis' body started to be covered in flames due to the effects of 'Genesis Flame', the natural instincts of the Giant Purple Rabbit flared up as well increasing it just as strong.

BANG!

A large fist from the once near dead Giant Purple Rabbit smashed Lyndis away from it with surprising power.

You took 214 damage

However the creature no matter how angry or powered up it was was still much lower levelled than Lyndis dealing on a fraction of her total health even with a surprise attack. Lyndis landed on her feet thankfully since she leaped back when she felt something wrong and immediately went to charge in at the Giant Purple Rabbit again.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Several strikes later and the Giant Purple Rabbit was back to it's near death state and this time, it had no power to defend itself as Lyndis finished it off.

You have gained experience

Though she was happy to gain any experience at any time, she was not happy about the circumstances around it.

“....What now?” she wondered.

xXx

Elsewhere...the legion of Giant Purple Rabbits whom were about to attack another town all stopped at once feeling something behind them as their instinct alerted them to it. The presence of an eternal enemy that is.

However they had sensed this before and killed it.

Therefore it did not take long for them to leave believing that their senses were wrong for a moment and thus sparing Lyndis from death ironic as it was.

However some were still in that area she they had expected for it to be dealt with either way if there was something left of there.

xXx

“Aggh!”

Peter heard a scream coming from the capsule that Ian was in. It seemed that he had just died though he would not comment on it since dying in game no matter what reason was irritating for any person to go through.

Plus Peter had a good idea on why he had just died judging from what was being said on the screen in front of him and the others that were with him with the exception of Maria who had locked herself in her room and was either ignoring them or was in game.

Really, almost a month passed, well a week in reality passed since 'that' incident and she was nowhere near ready to talk about it.

Peter sighed seeing the state of his comrade and sighed again thinking of the time it would take to recover the same level of teamwork between them all. But right now he was more interested in this 'Invasion' of some forth.

“More news on the recent emergency that the Kingdom had place on the sighting of the Giant Purple Rabbit species” said a reporter that looked like a model, “The outbreak had been reported to come from in between the areas of the central and western continent. Players in that area are advised to take care of the colour purple from a distance.”

“Wow this person must think everyone is really dumb” Hina blurted out, she was sitting as far away from Peter as possible when making that comment.

Nether, Peter, Grace or Mark responded to her as they were focusing on the words the reporter was saying which left Ian who just came in to hear those words.

“What she said is the right thing you know” said Ian stepping into the room with his words only now alerting the rest of them of his presence.

Hina hid her surprise of him appearing out of nowhere since she thought he was still stal-following Maria around in game though she did have to ask, “What do you mean?”

“I died just then due to those Giant Purple Rabbits though Maria seemed to be lucky enough to survive I think” said Ian before saying, “There were roughly a few thousand of those Giant Purple Rabbits rushing in a wave at the town I was in. Even I couldn't escape from them; their power, speed and even viciousness are high.”

“....”

The four looked at Ian with some surprise since he in game was the fastest of them all and if he couldn't escape...

“How did Maria survive then if you died?” asked Peter the question that was on everyone's minds right now.

Ian shrugged and said, “Pushed her into a gap between buildings before she was about to face that wave of enemies head on.”

Several people sighed for many reasons. Hina even let out, “That idiot is still the same” though was grinning a bit which she did not notice.

“I hope she is okay...after well let's say she was not in a good state after...” said Grace in worry. Right now she was 14 years old, though always the youngest of the group and somehow more mature than Maria who was suppose to have 17 right now, a year off being an adult along with Hina.

Meanwhile Ian and Peter were both adults, 18 years of age and the oldest of them all. However both of them took on different roles in the group as the role models of everyone else. If Peter was the light then Ian was the shadow which was kinda ironic.

Either way, they all focus on the next words of the reporter since they were the most important.

“The Kingdom has responded to the situation with this outbreak of Giant Purple Rabbits, with the Emperor issuing a mission to all Independent Guilds in the area to wipe them out. Other Guilds and players can get a quest to do so as well. The Guild Quest in question is ranked B and Quest is ranked A” the reporter said.

“Well it looks like we got another Guild Quest again though this may be a good thing” said Peter with Hina nodding in agreement.

“Why?” asked Ian.

“The other B rank Guild Quest we have is the one with Little Droplet which me and Hina are working on” said Peter in a calm tone near emotionless, “However due to recent events their tracks are covered and we may not be able to get them by the time the year ends in game.”

“Which means this is a way to complete those guild orders we have at least” said Hina, “Besides reaching level 300. I think most of us are a quarter there already as long as we train quickly enough.”

“Hey what about me who has to keep an eye out for a constantly PMSing comrade?” asked Ian pointing to himself.

“Deal with it!” snapped Hina not liking how he referred to Maria though she was the first to leave taking almost everyone else with her since they were worried about her state of mind.

“Looks like another person is-” before Ian could finish that sentence, Hina already moved to attack him.

Grab!

However at the same moment, Peter grabbed onto Hina's arm and pulled her to him to prevent her from attack Ian, especially since they were out of the game. Hina sent a glare at Peter who raised an eyebrow in response to which Ian smirked as well.

Ignoring the glances he was getting, Peter proceeded to talk about something the others did not want to. Basically more training.

“All of us including Maria who isn't here is at the level 220 or a bit higher point right?” he asked with the others here nodding their head like sheep without thinking about it much. Peter nodded back to them and remembered that they needed to get to the level 300 point by the end of 11 more months in game.

“You know how we need to get to level 300 by around 11 months in game? Don't focus on that too much. Focus more on gaining some new skills and spells while you can. I have a feeling that we need more skills that are useful to survive better since Eden and the others have been pretty tame to us for a long time” said Peter.

“Tame?!” Ian retorted, “Months of torture they call training along with the other crap we went through was tame?!” he snapped at the end.

“....”

A gruesomely bad silence came before Peter unfortunately nodded and said, “From what they talked about in their stories, I have a feeling that we need more than we have to survive in the Guild....”

“....”

Everyone present thought about the incident with the Demons and Demon King and still thought they had no more chance of surviving that again now than back then when they were significantly weaker.

“He has a point” pointed out Hina saying, “I think what we lack the most right now is a proper set of defence based skills aside from Raven. I mean I know there is this 'Mana Shield' spell that is basic to learn but with many levels of power and variants but none of us have it which is kinda sad. Plus I think there may be more to those 'Circulation' skills we got from Alena then said. If any of you guys figure something out with that skill then contact the rest of us, even Maria on what you found.”

Peter then looked at Ian and said, “Meet up with Maria in game and train with her” in a blunt tone that left little to none to negotiate.

“What?!” Ian immediately rampaged in shock and rage that Peter was forcing him to do this, “Why the hell do I have to train with that-”

“Because I told you so” said Peter in a cold tone. Any warm in Peter's eyes left them when he said this in a commanding tone as he explained, “Both of you have a much higher chance to survive if you train with each other, plus everyone else is in pairs already so you have no choice.”

Ian raised his eyebrow and asked, “And if I don't?”

“Then you probably will be weaker than the rest of us along with Maria when it comes to it” Peter closed his eyes and then added, “I'm not forcing you to” Everyone else in the room thought differently, “But fighting alone may have some benefits but unless you are an all round character that can heal, fighting with Maria is the best option.”

“....”

Ian thought about it and it made sense to some extent but still said, “I doubt Maria will let me immediately.”

“Then bother her until you can” said Peter as if that was an easy thing. Maria shut herself off to everyone else right now and it would take a long time until she opened up...well it would maybe take him a month or so if he didn't blab his mouth which is unlikely to be honest.

With that, Peter looked at the clock on the wall and said, “We need to get to class” remembering that those three guildmasters of theirs are literally threatening them to go to class now and it was unwise to oppose them.

“What about Maria?” asked Serena as the voice of concern right now. Peter simply shook his head and said, “Don't bother, it'll take too long to even try to get her to talk to one of us, especially me.”

With that, the five went to class where the teacher, who was suppose to be Eden right now was mysteriously not there and was replaced by video of him talking instead.

xXx

“Hmm?” Eden looked over to the projection of the classroom he was supposed to be teaching in but instead recorded the lesson instead while in game. He noticed that Maria was not there and figured that would happen.

“Well not my fault she doesn't follow the rules. I'll punish her later” he muttered while drawing his attention onto the damn magic circle he was working on which he redrew once again.

“This is going to be a long 6 months....but I only have bloody 5 months to do this now” he cursed seeing that he needed to fix it up to that deadline.

xXx

Lyndis still in game was struggling more than ever since the effects of 'Boost' she found was not worth it with the extra aggression from these Giant Purple Rabbits whenever she used it. Plus her stamina and mana levels dropped quite a bit when she used it over long periods of time.

However she still gripped her sword, which was frankly something she took from the blacksmithing store that was around her level, well at least level 200 compared to the other weapons she had on her since the place was destroyed and the store guy, dead. She felt sorry that he died but frankly life was going to be more difficult with her moping about stuff and having sub-par weapons to use.

For a swords-woman like herself, the sword came first and it didn't help that her defence wasn't that great compared to the heavy hitters and tanks with full plated armour everywhere. Even though her armour was half plated, the defence potential compared to full plate was really too much to look at and much much more expensive as well.

“....”

She continued to look around in this ruined town and found a place to lay low, at least to not get caught at the open and looked at the message she got.

Kingdom Guild Quest Alert

A wave of Giant Purple Rabbits have been seen in certain areas of the Western Continent and see to be spreading from locations southwards from the point of origin. It is highly recommended that players to not face this wave alone and group up. Else all other Independent Guilds are hereby ordered to stop this purple wave as much as possible and eliminate it. It is essential that players cooperate with each other to take care of this.

Guild Quest Rank: B

Reward: Gold and Experience based on number of kills of Giant Purple Rabbits

Current number of kills: 7

Looking at this message, she figured that the kills she got before the whole purple wave incident which she and the rest of the town was a victim was did not count. She let out a sigh thinking of the slight advantage she could have gotten with those previous kills.

However out of instinct she asked, “Hey Sai-” and immediately stopped herself in the middle of it shaming herself by even thinking, or rather not thinking of what she was doing. Sain was not here, she should hate Sain but with time all she could think of was that she was wrong and Sain was right.

That shame, the embarrassment of apologising to him was not something she want to even think about. She had much more pride than that. Right now she didn't want to see anyone and risk it, not even the others that left with her.

“I wonder what they were doing...” she muttered before turning to find another stray Giant Purple Rabbits out in the open. With a small grin as she felt some excitement in fighting until some people she knew cough Raven cough, she went and stood a good distance from the enemy to let it spot her, to attack her and to fight her.

“Grrr...” The Giant Purple Rabbit that she remembered to be as large as a bear and several times more vicious and power looked at her like she was prey.

She drew the sword she had and let a second sword hang on her. Remembering what happened with one of the other battles, she knew it was important to have a second or even third weapon on her. Unfortunately, her unarmed combat skills were not as good as Serena's nor did she had the mana to spare to attack at range as well like Miriel or Sain-damn she had to stop thinking about him right now. Guilt was not getting her anywhere.

Pound!

Lyndis dodged the first punch but it nicked her and decreased her health either way. With a flash of her wrist, her sword made a moderate cut on the arm of the Giant Purple Rabbit before she rolled backwards to dodged a second strike and a third and a fourth and so on until she had to shout:

“Flame Strike!”

A burst of flame from her hand hit the arm of the Giant Purple Rabbit that was to attack her and burnt it quite well since fur was good to burn she found. However this only increased the aggression levels of this particular enemy, not that she blamed it since being burnt like that was quite painful. Anyhow, she dodged another set of attacks that were becoming easier to read since she fought it's kind enough to see a pattern and went fought with a standard hit and run tactic which often involved her shooting flames in how many directions when she could.

It took her another 10 painfully stressful minutes for her to take down the beast in question which made her wonder what level it was since the ones that were only around level 150 were easy enough but the ones she faced after the 'purple wave' were a bit stronger than the standard ones...which was probably why that message plus that order from the Kingdom on the Guild Quest stated for only the strong ones to fight since from what she could tell, one Giant Purple Rabbit was quite strong for the average player and when they swarm at you...she did not even want to think about it.

With the battle done, she looked at the message that said that she gained such experience and noticed a good gain despite her being a bit over level 220 right now. And with another sigh since there was so much to think about with only her to actually think of it, she checked her skill window.

Skill Window

- Sword Mastery Intermediate 3 (22/100)

- Katana Mastery Beginner level 2 (0/100)

- Fire Manipulation Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (58/100)

- Fire Blood Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 6 (28/100)

- Bandaging Intermediate Level 3 (42/100)

- Sword Dance Intermediate Level 1 (211/3000)

- Power Strike Intermediate level 2 (1440/2600)

- Speed Strike Intermediate level 2 (1470/2600)

- Power Stance Intermediate level 2 (1460/2600)

- Speed Stance Intermediate level 1 (1310/2400)

- Precision Stance Intermediate level 1 (1355/2400)

- Pocket Fireball Beginner level 6 (154/900)

- Flame Strike Intermediate Level 1 (1523/2400)

- Burning Touch Intermediate Level 1 (822/2500)

- Fire Blade Intermediate level 4 (873/3000)

- Life Burn Beginner level 7 (410/1100)

- Fire Bomb Intermediate Level 2 (513/2600)

- Flame Coating Intermediate Level 1 (1238/2500)

- Dragon Dance Art (Proficiency: Low)

- Battle Buff Beginner level 4 (0/100)

- Fire Dance Beginner level 2 (0/100)

While most of her skills were in the intermediate levels due to Sain...she guessed she could think of him without much regret and other complicated emotions, none of her skills were in the advance level though only Shadow did and that was with the 'stealth' skill which he frankly got almost to the intermediate level in the same day he got it for what she knew.

Sword and Katana mastery needed to go up but it would naturally grow as she fought either way. Both these skills stacked with each other when she was using her Katana which was almost broken and reminded her that she needed to find a blacksmith to fix it. Most of her skills were at a fair level like the power and speed strike which at the intermediate level upped her damage or speed by 100% instead of 50% of the beginner level. Likewise it was the same with the three stances skills she had as well.

Otherwise there were all those fire based skills that she used though not as much as she first thought she would that were at a good level and used in a number of ways though limited in flexibility compared to 'Genesis Flame' that allowed her to use any type of fire skill though the drain is much higher.

In all, Lyndis was certainly not at the bottom of the pack but not at the top either. For all she knew, she was in the upper middle class of players at her level though in reality she was in the middle upper class of players her level though barely touching the middle point of players overall. There was only so much that pure skill could do against stats, experience and well...more skills.

And without anyone to speak to, she continued to just think to herself rather than actually talk. It had only been a month and she was becoming anti-social quite quickly now.

“Now....where to go” she wondered aloud as there was no one else around thinking of what to do now.

She could for starters follow the 'purple wave' though she rather not face that wave of death when it heads to her. She made a mental note to go the opposite direction...no to the east instead since to the north would probably be wasted for a while. Second, she would need to find another town with a blacksmith or a city to go to but there were no nearby cities aside from 'that' one which she did not want to go to. Third was that she needed to find a place to train...a dungeon in the level 250 range would do.

“Damn this is annoying to think about. How the hell do Sain and Miriel deal with this?” she asked herself not knowing that she was focusing less on her 'hatred' to Sain and more to on what she needed to do now.

Unlike other games, you made no maps unless you brought one and could actually use it as a proper map. This made it so that unless you wanted to get lost, you needed to learn to navigate around and learn directions even in a general way. Thankfully, Lyndis had good enough instincts on directions that she shouldn't be too bad off even in a relatively new area. She already knew that this area was the standard generally flat forest lands.

Looking at the sun for directions, she went to the east where she hoped to find another town.

xXx

Meanwhile at the same time or rather after class which meant only most of the day passed in game, Serena and Raven got back into the game along with Sain and Miriel though they were at different locations and didn't intend to meet up for now or for a while. Shadow was naturally still out since he died and needed to wait a while longer to get back in.

“So...what should we do now?” asked Serena to Raven though he didn't say anything she continued on as if he talked, “I guess we need to find a place like a dungeon and fight...there are monsters here but the spawn rate is so bad that it's just better to find a dungeon to hunt in first.”

Raven nodded and Serena sighed seeing no differences in his attitude and said, “Why can't you speak like a normal person? I'm quite tired of trying to tell what you want from your body itself...” while crouching down a bit. Even though it had only been a month and a bit since...well they started to train together, Serena was still not used to being the only one to speak.

“....”

Seeing that Raven was in no way going to speak unless he had to, Serena simply made a note on where they were going to train, a dungeon which had some high levelled werewolves over level 200 which was nearby.

“Hopefully it won't feel like I'm speaking to a wall later...” she muttered as she led the way with Raven following her like a silent guardian.

xXx

“What the bloody hell...” muttered Lyndis looking around and swearing to whatever deity that was nearby that she saw that same tree seven times now...

A week passed since her decision to head to the east making it the 4th year, 1st month and 1st week since she started the game, don't ask since Sain reminded her for his calculations on progress too much that she unconsciously knew by now.

And she was hopelessly lost.

Remember when this Lyndis thought that it would be a good idea to head just to the east and hoped to find a town to get to? She was wrong, deadly wrong in fact for even thinking about that without getting even a hint on where she was going to.

It also did not help that she entered some strange forest and a message appeared which she immediately ignored and went on like a lost puppy into danger. The name of this place was called the Cursed Forest of Leaves otherwise nicknamed as simply 'the damn place I want to burn down' by her. It also did not help that this place was literally like a dungeon itself with high spawn rates for skeletons, zombies and ghosts that she could only could kill with fire.

Right now, she made it to this half ruined church that looked haunted...and probably was given her and the others in the group she currently identified with since a month ago in getting into these kinds of situations. Seriously, of all the places she could find herself into, it had to be a place that was more than likely to be haunted leaving her to fight some series of battles in a life and death situation.

Thinking of this, Lyndis said, “Meh...might as well get onto it then” while walking into the ruined church looking around to see if something or anything would spring up to attack her. So far...noth-

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Holy son of a bitch in a cracker! Fire Bomb!” Lyndis shouted with her head already getting dizzy from the scream, throwing a ball of fire into the ruined church and slamming the door in.

BOOM!

“....”

With even greater caution this time...Lyndis opened the door hoping that nothing will scre-

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“...Fire Bomb.”

A series of actions that were the same as before occurred.

BOOM!

Before Lyndis opened the same door again and be proclaimed insane since she took the same action three times in a row without doing anything else, she moved to see if there was some other way to get in....which did not involve injury to her ears.

She chuckled a bit thinking of what would happen if Shadow was here with his hearing abilities, Lyndis suspected that he would literally take damage from the level of sound itself though she was a bit lonely without his constant string of insults for some reason. Piece and quiet was one thing but complete silence was another which she did not like at all. Patrolling around the place, she noticed there was strangely no way to get into the place aside from that threat to eardrums.

“....I don't like this at all.”

However without a choice here, she kicked down the door to the entrance to the ruined church bracing herself to another scream.

“Well that wa-”

Something moved at high speed towards her head...

“SHIT!”

Lyndis narrowly dropped herself onto the ground to dodge that attack which she identified as an arrow trap of some sort...before she opened the door half way and got the scream and now kicking the door down she got an arrow shot at her. With a sigh, she looked around the inside of the ruined church and found two distinctive scorch marks from her earlier two attacks.

“Well nothing seems to be here...” she muttered entering the place to get a closer look to find the door close on her with a click.

Looking at the door in question, she tried opening it, kicking it and even throwing flames at the wooden thing but nothing worked causing her to swear, “Shit...” seeing that there was no way out...literally now. Cursing her luck and the fact she entered the place, she walked down to the alter which had this strange red button....

“I know I shouldn't touch this obvious trap trigger....but who can resist a big red button?”

The next second, a trap door open from underneath her as she screamed to no one in particular, “I regret nothing!”

Several minutes and eventually hours later with Lyndis and a tunnel ride that would make most people vomit out their lunch within a few seconds.

You have entered the Lab of a Forgotten Cursed Priest

“Ow....my butt hurts...the hell is this?” she wondered scrolling down the informations he was getting from the game not noticing that there were shadows moving about...

This place is a lab that was created hundreds of years ago by a priest that was studying incurable diseases in order to cure them. Beckoned by this attempt to help others, a God gave the priest the power to manipulate life to a small extent in order to help the effort. Soon, following this, the attempt to cure others became a desire for immortality and eventually kidnapping of countless and experimentations to create monsters. Due to this, the forest area around this lab was cursed with life being drained from it...

Spawn has been set in the Ruined Church, you cannot leave until you completed this dungeon

“So...another lab with creepy monsters....again. Great. Wonderful. And I'm literally forced here now. What is the worse that could happen? ”

As if plot demanded it, her question was answered in a rather extreme way.

Blob Blob Blob....

A massive lump of...slime? Meat? Flesh? She did not know but it was the size of a extremely fat...well overweight...fat is the right word right now person. It looked like one of those creatures in one of those old games about four survivors in a zombie apocalypse setting that...exploded.

And upon seeing Lyndis who was only a good 10 metres away from her and the corner where it appeared....BOOM! A large amount of...whatever it was made of, spattered all over the place and including onto her as well.

“Yuck! I hate exploding things!” she screamed in irony as she has a skill that was pretty much throwing a flaming bomb. However she did not have time to think as there was a stampede of creatures heading her way in large numbers.

“What the hell?!” She turned and ran...from a horde of zombies and at the same time throwing those 'Fire Bombs' of hers at them as much as possible.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

After some time where the numbers were down to the point she could take them on without resorting to a massive amount of explosions, she found that each of these zombies were actually moderately strong and were about level 200 in strength....and with their numbers and without her resorting to 'Boost' once again, she would have died in seconds. This caused her to have cold sweat thinking of how easily she could have died then with her massive destruction based fire skills.

“Now that I think about it...I really need some crowd controlling skills....”

Looking around the room she was in, there was a distinct smell of burnt flesh which she was still not used to. In fact, she figured the moment she was used to such a smell was the moment she needed to be checked out for physiological help. Thankfully she was not at that point....yet.

With a sigh, she checked the number of swords she had and could use. They numbered to only 10 which was not bad but with time this number would decrease to the point she needed to repair them all which would be a few silver coins each which she currently did not have compared to before since she only had a few gold coins left. Basically for someone at her level, having only a few gold coins means near bankrupt...it did not help that most of her gold was with the others since she could not be 'trusted' with it. Aside from that, all the money she gained from hunting went to repairing her gear and to be saved up to buy new gear in an endless loop of needing more and more money...basically she was poor as hell and she knew it.

“Well...” she looked around to see that there were no more enemies around, “At least I can rela-AGHHH!!”

All of a sudden, something was shot out and wrapped around her neck along with dragging her back from behind. Lyndis naturally grabbed the thing that was wrapped around her neck and dropped her sword in the process. With a look back, she saw this strange creature with really long arms and a mouth full of fangs. She really did not want to be bitten by that thing.

“F-Flame Coating.”

With those words, her arms were covered in flames with the skill causing burn damage to whatever she was touching. She also made sure that the skill in question also activated around her neck as well. In a manner of 5 seconds, the arms that wrapped around her neck burnt/melted away leaving a bad smell in the air.

Rolling away from the thing trying to bit her and near her sword, Lyndis shouted, “Flame Strike!” throwing the attack right in the face of the thing in question. Naturally as whatever it was, it was classified as some sort of zombie creature. And zombie creatures burnt quite well and quickly.

In a manner of 3 seconds of more 'Flame Strikes', the thing died leaving nothing behind...though this may be a good thing since she rather not think of what disgusting things she would need to pick up if they actually dropped anything.

“Hmm?”

However fate and luck were not on her side as she spotted something on the ground where the creature was.

Picking it up, she looked at it and wondered, “Why does this look like a shotgun?”

xXx

3 Weeks later with Sain and Miriel, they had finally reached the level 230 point after raiding several dungeons that were around level 250+ with only the two of them, well three or four if you count the wolf summon Luna in there as well.

Speaking of Luna, Miriel looked over to see that Luna had doubled in size and now looked more like a boss wolf monster than a unusual one. It was now up to her shoulder in height and she was pretty sure it...well since Luna was technically was of both genders.

From what both Sain and Luna (tried in this case) told her, Bright Luna was now split into two entities in one body. 'Bright' which was the white wolf which held the element of light in it and was good at direct physical damage and 'Luna' which was the black wolf which held the element of dark in it and was good at range attacks with that strange shadow like skill it it. 'Bright' was the male while 'Luna' was female which was fine with her since she spent more time with 'Luna' either way.

Both of them were the same size as before when split into two, perhaps a bit larger but when combined into the black and white wolf form, it was what she saw right now. This Luna (since she rather called it with its everlasting nickname rather than the full name), was the size of a horse...and she didn't doubt it wouldn't grow even more with time.

Honestly if this was what happened when Luna reached level 200, what would happen when it reached level 300 or more?

“Miriel. Luna. Enemies up ahead, there are seven of them though regular monsters. Set up your 'Mana Shield' Miriel and cast a 'Fortified Shield' on me as well and split into two again Luna” ordered Sain.

Miriel looked over to see that Sain had changed in appearance...well by a bit. Now, he had an eye-patch over the right eye that could not longer see. When she asked, he simply said that it would be easier to control his enemies when they believe that his right side was weaker than his left.

Nodding to the command, Miriel chanted, “Mana Shield” along with Sain who had the same spell learnt as well.

“Fortified Shield” she further took the time to chant as well giving Sain an extra layer of defence as well.

A near transparent bubble shaped like an oval vertically formed around both of them. Her sight blurred a bit when the shield came up but its effects were more than worth it for all mages.

Mana Shield Beginner level 5

One of the basic skills that a mage can get after a certain point in their skills. This is one of the most basic and most used defence skills that a mage can have to protect oneself. By gathering mana into the air and forming a protecting sphere around oneself, attacks are deflected away to a certain extent allowing the caster to dodge further attacks or attack during that time. There are however, many variation of this skill and this one is one of the more basic forms capable of only creating one sphere of protection at a time which can absorb damage and nothing more.

Shield Health: 2500

Mana Cost: 100

Thankfully for both of them, this was one of the instant cast type spells that were weak in power but quick in casting. Due to this, Sain had practise on recasting the spell when it broke and went further in levelling the spell than her. She believed that Sain had the spell to the Beginner Level 8 point already and was nearing the Intermediate Level though it was naturally quick to level since it was one of the weaker basic spells you could get.

Miriel silently thought of Sain as a workaholic but decided to focus on the upcoming battle. Luna had already split itself into it's two forms and Luna went to protect her while Bright went to fight with Sain.

She looked ahead and the enemy were simply seven hobgoblins that were around ¾ the size of an average human. She would not even need to use some of her more powerful spells for this.

However spells were still spells and she didn't want to make a habit of not using them and underestimating others when she thought they were weak. As such, she casted one of the other spells she learnt during these two months with Sain who rather focused on levelling his skills and spells first.

“Demonic Turnover!” she chanted for 3 seconds and immediately seeing the effects already. The hobgoblins looked around like they spent a week on a rocky ship in a storm and started to tip over the place. This was one of her rare, few and effective illusion based spells she had and the only one as well since she found that illusion spells cost quite a bit to buy and learn.

Seeing the opportunity, Sain and Bright charged in and attacked with spears and fangs. The first two hobgoblins unable to balance properly died quickly while the other five started to attack them. Luna shot out those black shadow spike things from her tail to the hobgoblins, not enough to kill them but enough to distract them.

“Burst Strike!” Sain shouted moving in one direction and stabbing and blasting another hobgoblin away with a single strike.

With three hobgoblins attacking Sain now since Bright was taking care of the other one that remained as much as possible, Miriel chanted, “Shriek!”

Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

A piercing sound (to the hobgoblins), resounded in this almost narrow corridor and caused the hobgoblins to drop their weapons which were short swords and shields onto the ground while gasping for their ears. Ever since the spell went to the Intermediate level, she noticed that it was more effective in areas that reflected sounds easily and something caused more stun time and damage to certain foes that had good hearing.

Bats at one point literally dropped dead when she used this spell in a cave though a giant Bat Boss came out as a result which Sain thankfully was glad for since it was part of a quest they were on to kill it.

With another few seconds, Sain had already using his spear again along with some magic killed the rest of the hobgoblins with Bright and Luna supporting him in some way.

Sain looked over to her causing her to blush a bit due to the attention and that gaze....and immediately asked in a cold tone, “Any more enemies around?”

“....” With a sigh, she tapped her staff onto the ground activating another skill she had.

Echo Locating Intermediate Level 1

An interesting skill that uses sounds and vibrations on the ground to detect anything that is moving around in a certain radius around the user. This also allows the caster to detect the layout of the place he or she is in currently as well to a certain extent and may reveal traps or hidden devices.

Sometimes she wondered if it was right to learn this skill even if it was useful. Ever since she did, all Sain had asked from her while in a dungeon which was more often than she liked, of where the enemy were and which paths they could take.

“There's...three groups around us. The one with the most numbers...around a dozen is to our 7 o’clock in about 30 metres away” she replied with her eyes closed to 'see' better. She opened them to see the crazed look on Sain's face at times when he thought she wasn't looking which seeked battle and blood.

Miriel wondered again on why Sain looked good with that face and how the hell did she fall for him again.

She made another mental note on asking for some therapy for Sain later on. He was slowly becoming dangerously...anxious and cold recently.

xXx

Walking down the street filled with a number of refugees with Serena, Raven looked to see that the town in question they got to was unusually filled with...injured people with dead eyes. Not dead themselves but their spirit had been crushed quite a bit. It was the same eyes he saw himself with previously in the past when the worst happened...not that he would speak about that time to anyone.

“Raven, can you help up carry these people to a better place for me to heal?” asked Serena though it was more like an order than anything else.

She looked around and placed her palm on one of the more injured people that was slowly bleeding out even with bandages covering most of his body and started to heal him. Aside from gaining the 'Mana Shield' spell like Sain and Miriel in this pass month, Serena had also gained some other spells as well. One of them was an attack spell called 'Wood Spike' that fired a moderately powerful piece of wood which increased the higher levelled the spell was and turned it into a machine gun like spell and the second was the healing spell 'Healing Palm' that was used more to treat injuries than heal a person.

From what Serena told him, the spell was designed to heal injures but as a side effect of course, it healed health as well though the ratio was quite bad but enough to sustain a bleeding person until the spell could heal them enough that they weren't in danger of dying.

Without much of a word of complaint or a word itself, Raven easy picked up a patient and placed him near where Serena can coordinate her efforts in saving enough people. There were at least two dozen or more people doing the same as Serena but the number of people who needed to be healed was too much for anyone to take another glance before heading off to carry the healed and those who need to be healed.

“....”

Raven continued this cycle for a couple of hours and noticed that he was getting some strange glances, most likely due to his appearance. It was an unusual sight for someone to have two shields equipped on him and adding on the halberd and the fact that he was carrying people to be healed, it was no big brainier that Raven would be noticed.

Not that anyone else could not help but to stare at Serena as well. A young girl that is barely in her teens in her unusual outfit was enough to get some heads to turn, mostly looking at her equipment. However Raven doubted that anyone would be stupid enough to try to take her equipment from her-

“Hey little missy there!” some idiot shouted in the top of his voice with two others.

Oh how Raven hated how things seem to turn bad when he thinks otherwise. As an act of instinct, Raven moved in between Serena who promptly ignored the three who were staring at her and the three ragged looking people who looked more like bandits than anything else. Raven noticed their equipment were mismatched and they already had a beaten look on them.

He wondered how strong or weak they were even if it seemed that they were not at full power. Either way, Raven was itching a bit to test...some of his more extreme skills he acquired recently in the two months of travel with Serena. Out of everyone in the group that was split up right now, he had the least number of skills after Shadow.

Activating 'Knight Presence' causing the three people along with some others in the area looking at what was happening, Raven in his rare act of speaking aside from saying skill names ordered, “Leave.”

After a moment, the first idiot with his two goons laughed and said, “OH this is great! A little boy playing Knight! Why won't you donate some of your stuff for the big guys to use instead” while drawing his sword with the two others who had similar expressions on their faces while everyone else either looked shocked or prepared to interfere even if they were injured.

Raven's face didn't even register any sights that he was listening as he turned to see what Serena wanted to do...when the guy swung his sword at him when his back was turned.

BANG!

In the next instant, the guy was kicked by Raven and was sent flying a bit to his two goons metres away.

'Full Body Speed Burst'.

Along with two other skills he gained recently, this one was the most powerful, most difficult to use and the most dangerous on both sides. For a fraction of a second, his body would go on overdrive and unleash it's full power without restraint meaning he becomes several times faster like what Shadow does with his 'Burst Speed' skill but without mana costs. The side effects his that his body will ache after using it and causing his performance to decrease when overusing it, not that a single use would affect him that much.

“Bastard! Kill him!” the man shouted getting up and charging with his two goons at the same time. Raven mentally sighed seeing how...slow and dull they were.

“Tower Slam...”

The large Tower Shield equipped on his left arm was slammed down on it's bottom causing a great shake of the ground as the three enemies were momentarily stunned and put off balanced. Rushing forward, Raven pushed one of the three, he wasn't sure which one it was away from the other two and when they were all in range but far enough they wouldn't get killed he simply stated, “Full Circle Cyclone Slash” holding his halberd which was glowing a yellow light.

Slash!

Raven spun away in high speed once and caused an alarming large cut on all three at the side which wasn't enough to kill them but enough to stop them. He turned to look at a sighing Serena who said, “Great, more work to do” before using her 'Grow Roots' spell to drag them to her to heal instead of asking him to carry them to her.

Naturally to cause them more pain than anything else...

xXx

A month later...

“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Lyndis while pointing her sword at said person. That said person shook his head seeing this and pushed his long black hair that was shoulder length now from his eyes and looked at her.

“Why I got stuck with babysitting you. Didn't help that it took me a month to track you down even with gaining a tracking skill” said the person.

“....”

Leaving his words in the air for a while, Lyndis asked, “Your spawn was set to that Ruined Church place as well wasn't it?”

“Yep...”

With both of them sighing at the same time, Lyndis muttered, “Welcome to the group Shadow....you'll need all the luck you can here.”

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9200~

- I'm Back! After so many bloody weeks, a full month in fact, I finally have time to write! Whoo! Now I'm crying thinking of all the content I still have left to finish this series...

- Anyway if anyone noticed, at some point the writing style changed a bit which is basically me taking a very large break before writing the rest of the chapter. I'm not sure if this is good or not but trying to change one's writing style is quite painful to think about.

- Anyway I decided to change some things in the plot as well since this was mainly going to be every MC facing the invasion but I decided not. Trying to remember what I wanted to write a month ago is hard...plus I started to renew my efforts on the collab thing with Ninnin but both of us have other commitments and assignments to do at the same time...