“Well Ah Eke, it all started when I went to buy some equipment at the general store…”

As Jinyang described what happened up until that moment, an incredulous Eke opened up their stat windows and was shocked. All three had better Defence scores than he did, as well as higher luck. Though the rest of his stats were better than theirs due to his class bonuses and levels, the fact that a level 9 could be better than his character in any attribute was a stunning revelation. With those stats, it was little wonder that they could survive crossing into the new lands.

“So chief, you are here to find this pyramid?”

“Yep Ah Eke, that is the mission, though there is no actual quest for it. It is more of an adventure…”

“A likely lucrative one to be sure, for the three of you to come to this wilderness.”

“Eke-san, that’s the general idea. How lucrative will depend on how things go, nyaa.”

“Perhaps I can help you there. I can ask the villagers and elder about this pyramid. The warriors of this village have roamed far and will know much about the area around us.”

“Ah Eke, that would be a great help. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you keep calling me chief?”

After breaking into a big smile, Eke explained.

“It is respect given, my friend. My people care very much about titles and honours. You could easily find a Dr Chief Sir so and so. Titles are like collectable status symbols. I do not ascribe to this practise but honouring my friends is important to me.”

“Err.. Well thanks Ah Eke, I’m feeling very honoured right now. Anyway, since you are now one of us, feel free to use the troll to practise as well.”

“Ah my friend, I would not do that. To beat up a helpless creature like that goes against my way.”

“Suit yourself Eke-san, it’s just a computer generated thing anyway.”

GimmeGirls had still not gotten over Eke not only having had a very expensive consumable in his possession but also actually using it and thus getting to the area before he did. In short, he was still jealous.

"Well that's fine Ah Eke, no reason to argue over something so minor. However now that you're on the team, we'll need to each do our part."

"That is not a problem my friend. My life has been full of the needs of duty. As I have the most health, I will be the vanguard."

"That's great Ah Eke. It’s always so much easier to speak with people who are not clueless. There’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask. How did you get your class? I don’t think it’s a class from the base game."

“I think it is a class that came with the expansion chief. What happened was…”

Eke explained that he had bought an existing account off an auction site. The class was originally a fighter and Eke had originally wanted to travel to the areas holding the African themed content in the expansion. He had asked in an online forum and someone had told him, probably to troll him, that he could use the Wings of Icarus to reach the new areas but instead of the African content, he had instead found the South American areas. He had arrived right when the village was under attack from some sort of serpent men. With his greater levels and powerful equipment, he had driven them off almost singlehandedly. As a reward, the warriors of the village inducted him as an honorary member of their clan and gave him the chance to learn their secrets. When he accepted, the system informed him of his class change.

Jinyang was excited as showing a new class and its abilities in his review would be a major scoring point. He asked detailed questions on the abilities of the class and its effects, gathering as much information as he could. The fact that you could switch classes despite “Nahual Warrior” not being a hidden class was also important but not totally unexpected.

In the pre-expansion base game, a player could not switch from a basic class like ranger to another basic class like the mage class at whim. Only when the player found a hidden class or were given a chance to make a class change as a quest reward was it possible. Given that Royal road had been around for years, making the expansion only fully enjoyable by a new character would isolate their existing player base. This would mean that characters would also need to be given a method to switch to a regular class found in the expansion and it seemed that making sure you had sufficient familiarity and friendship with the NPCs was one of the ways.

As GimmePower finished checking the troll's bonds and securing the bound creature to a post used for hitching horses, he walked over.

"So hyung, is Eke-ssi all updated?"

"Yes and he's volunteered to take the point position. You'll be behind him then Ah Girls and I’ll hold the back in case something attacks from the rear."

GimmePower nodded. As the team member with the second most health, backing up Eke was a logical choice. GimmeGirls had the least health of the four so placing him in the middle was also rational.

“My friends, how do you have so much time to play this game? I have noticed that you rarely log out while you were exploring the jungle.”

At his question, the three of them froze. Eke had not known but to the societies where the three were from, asking that was the equivalent to asking a person you just met on how much money he made every month, after all there was a good possibility that one or more was unemployed or was in a awkward situation such as being a school dropout or delinquent in real life. Eke, coming from a wealthy family had not considered that.

“Ah Eke, come let us take a walk…”

As Jinyang and Eke walked towards the village’s borders, he explained the concept of ‘face’. It was not a foreign concept to Eke and almost all societies had a similar notion for it, though not many societies would have an actual term and such widespread acknowledgement of it. After Eke had been suitably chastened, they returned.

“My friends, I was not aware that it would be…”

“Ah Eke-ssi, it is fine, let us talk of other matters…”

"Money-san, the wagon nyaa?"

"Oh yes, Ah Pow, Ah Eke, we'll need to get the wagon down from the cave to carry the troll. Ah Girls and I already talked about it."

The underlying hint was that it was now 2 votes already decided and GimmePower instantly understood that going against those 2 votes would have him carrying the troll. This was what Jinyang had planned as he knew his two team mates would inevitably come to that conclusion, as long as they thought that the other person had already supported his proposal. If he had discussed it without having convinced either one, his proposal would have been instantly shot down as the two would gang up and likely appoint him to carry the troll.

“Ahh... good idea hyung…The cart will be useful and with Eke-ssi around it will be much easier and less risky to carry it down from such a high place.”

GimmePower was no novice either. Since he could find no way to escape having to carry the cart down, the next course of action was to push the majority of the responsibility to someone else, namely Eke. Plus it made the change from his initial reason of why he refused to carry the cart down perfectly rational by highlighting the extra manpower.

“Cart, chief? Ah you mentioned you came in a cart… So it must be at the cave where you climbed down from…”

Eke was showing dangerous signs of intellect with his ability to join the dots from what he had heard of the journey from Jinyang and that would necessitate greater care in wording their suggestions. Jinyang elevated him another step up in his own mental gauge of his team members.

“Yes Ah Eke, it’s still at the cave, if the mule hasn’t been eaten yet. We’ll need to get it down to carry the troll so none of us are overly encumbered when combat starts.”

“But chief, the surrounding areas are mostly jungle, would your cart not be obstructed by the vines and creepers?”

It was a weak point in Jinyang’s plan and Eke had pointed it out rather quickly. The real reason Jinyang wanted the cart brought down was because he wanted to walk less. Actually he wanted to avoid walking at all and just sit on the cart. To do that he was well prepared to set fire to the entire jungle to burn all out all the vegetation impeding his way if necessary. It was hard to see Eke going along with that though, especially since any large fire would probably consume the village as well and Eke seemed rather fond of the villagers, so he had to change tack.

“Well Ah Eke, I’m expecting that there will be trails that can be used. We will need to use a machete to clear out some of the more overgrown areas but I’m confident that the advantages reaped will be much more than the effort we need to make.”

Which was all lies and half-truths. Since they had no idea there was any civilization in the area when they arrived, there was no way that Jinyang had expected trails or anything other than just jungle. Though it was true that he felt that the advantages of him being able to sit rather than walk was great, such an advantage would only work if the effort of chopping away the undergrowth was done by someone else (Eke) and of course said person chopping the plants (Eke) would not get to enjoy the advantage of sitting around in the cart.

“Hmm, chief, you may have a point though we would need a schedule of who would be on machete duty.”

Jinyang again raised Eke a step in his mental evaluation as Eke had been very quick in putting the chore as a team responsibility. Eke was now only a step behind GimmePower and GimmeGirls in his assessment but to Jinyang, he had a critical weak point, mainly being his obstinate attitude towards honour and duty. Having GimmePower and GimmeGirls help out in chopping the jungle flora was not a problem as long as he was not in that list. This meant he needed a nice sounding excuse.

“Ah Eke, I would help but I’m the only one with the Teamster skill and will have to guide the cart so I guess it will have to be the three of you but Ah Girls has the least strength and stamina so he probably won’t be of much help…”

Jinyang had received harsh lessons in how to make sure things went your way when he was a kid and wanted to use the children’s playground facilities while other older (and bigger) children were around. The first lesson he had learnt was this. Always drag someone in and share some of the advantages with them so you have someone who will probably back you up or at least be left holding the bag when you make a run for it.

“Yes Eke-san, Money-san is right, I have so much less strength than you and nowhere near your stamina and so even though I would love to help, it would be difficult nyaa”

“…Yes your stats do seem to be less than ideal for this my friend. It seems it will be the both of us Sir Power.”

“Well Eke-ssi, it looks that way. But I do not have your class ability of using less stamina for any actions so it would be difficult….”

“…I understand, I will take twelve hours and you take six hours. Do you find that acceptable my friend?”

“Well it’s going to be tough for me Eke-ssi, but I think I can do it.”

If it was anyone else other than those three, he or she would probably feel some guilt about heaping most of the work to Eke whose sense of duty due to his character’s greater levels and physical stats had driven him to accept most of the responsibility. However with the three of them, guilt was not something that had arisen. GimmePower was already planning on taking over Eke during periods of travel through any places that had less undergrowth or even better yet, no undergrowth. To GimmeGirls, the discussion was over and done and he was already planning his training methodology for stat raising. Jinyang rationalised the result as helping Eke see the error of his ‘naïve’ ways bit by bit and to free him from the chains of duty and honour.

As they were more familiar with the jungle and the surrounding area now, reaching the cave was easily done even with the looming darkness of the night. The mule was, somewhat surprisingly, still alive and the cart was untouched. With Eke’s help or rather him having done the entire job of transporting the cart and mule to the jungle floor by himself while the other three carried a bale of hay, an empty barrel and a sack containing playing cards and coins respectively, they trudged back to the village with of course Eke clearing the way.

Once they were done, GimmePower made a supper of mushroom and berry salad with a side dish of pan-fried mushrooms with diced berries and a desert of berry juice with mushroom umbrellas. After supper activities included the three hammering the troll as much as they could with a weapon in each hand, on the assumption more strikes meant faster stat growth while Eke was actually trying to advance the quest by going around talking to those still awake and attempting to find information on the pyramid’s location.

A rooster crowed as dawn arrived. With a glance at each other, the three stopped their attacks and GimmePower settled into making a breakfast of mushroom patties with berries. It was a natural extension of their arms treaty as if the other two continued bashing the troll, they would get an unfair advantage and the only response would be for GimmePower to not make any food and continue training as well. With the new addition of machete duty, this would of course extend to the times that GimmePower would be on duty.

During breakfast, Eke joined them explaining what he had found out. There was a pyramid that matched their description to the southwest of the village. It was known as both a holy and a cursed place. It was held as holy because the pyramid had been used as a temple to the deity Kisin who had the power of death. It was also known as a cursed place for those who attempted to enter the pyramid rarely returned and of those who did none lived more than a few days before death came for them.

As they made their plans, unknown to the four, they were being observed by three dark clad men.

“So that’s them eh? That path they made from the tunnel must have been for their wagon. I thought we would be the first here after we ganked that begger.”

“So, should we kill them boss? We’s got the murder mark anyway.”

“Yo birdbrain, tell you what, you go there and attack the entire village by yourself. The boss and I will wait here for you.”

“Who’s the hell you calling birdbrain, weiner boy?”

“Hey you two, zip up and shut up. We don’t do anything first. That native looks like a high level. We’ll follow for now. Quietly!”

“Ok boss, no problem.”

“Hey asslick, he said to do it quietly. Yoush understands engrish?”

As the tallest of the three, the one who had been called the boss face palmed, the other two began their verbal spat in earnest.

Oblivious to the group following them with ill intent, Jinyang and his team started moving in a south-westerly direction. With the reins in one hand and a mace in the other, Jinyang was bashing and kicking the troll while driving the cart. He had no fear of gaining the Unarmed Mastery skill since his slots were already full. GimmePower and GimmeGirls were both more careful, using on weapon strikes while beating up the tied monster. Eke was walking in front of the cart and doing his assigned task with focus if not passion.

It was not long before Jinyang experienced first-hand the dangers of the jungle as a snake dropped onto the cart from an overhanging tree branch. Throwing aside the reins, he picked it up before the others could be endangered. Attaching the snake to his arm, Jinyang picked the reins back up and continued bashing the troll. This led to a mad scramble for snakes as all three started grabbing snakes every time they saw one in a nearby tree and make sure that the snakes had been firmly attached to their limbs using the snake's fangs. Eke had not noticed it as he was focused on his job of clearing the road until it was time for lunch. By that time, each of the three had a dozen snakes big and small hanging from their arms, legs and shoulders. The sight was enough to make Eke reconsider his evaluation of the sanity of his team mates. By the time they reached the pyramid at sunset, the three were covered with snakes, each having over thirty on their bodies. They were still bashing the troll even while using their Combat Bandaging skill when the damage from the poison of the snakes grew too much.

The mule stopped in front of the main entrance into the pyramid without Jinyang needing to command it. In fact most of the time, he had held the reins limply in his hand purely for show, allowing the mule to walk as it wished. Since Eke was chopping the vegetation in front of it, it had simply followed Eke, meaning that Eke was actually the real pilot. Getting off from the cart, the three snake infested players checked that their treasures (mule, cart and troll) were secure before joining Eke at the doorway.

“My friends… the snakes?”

“Don’t worry Ah Eke, we won’t die that easily! Let’s go, adventure and treasure awaits!”

Eke quietly waited for the three to enter before silently facepalming. He took a deep breath before entering as well.

Further away from the pyramid, a conversation ensued.

“Boss they’s going in. We kill them now?”

“Oooo Asswhooper’s going to kill someone. Oooo”

“Yeah you’s envy my character name. I get that buttface. At least it’s better than you’s”

“Oh please, only people who actually played a fantasy RPG knows how well my name matches.”

“Yeah, the dork one really matches you.”

“It’s ‘The Dark One’ numbskull.”

“Will you two just… SHUT UP! Arrr!”

“Sorry boss.”

“Well he started it.”

“Okay whoever started it, I don’t care. It ends now. Kapeesh?”

“Ok boss.”

“Ok… but he started it.”

“Whatever. We follow them and see if we can get anything. Those three covering themselves in snake corpses may be doing some sort of spell so don’t touch the wagon or the stuff in it in case it’s trapped or cursed.”

Deeper in the pyramid, with the light from his lantern, Jinyang could see that the walls of the entry tunnel was filled with carvings, all of which were of people dying in various ways. That lent an eerie feeling to the area even as he repositioned some of the snakes hanging on his left arm to his left shoulder to bandage himself. They had expected pits opening up at their feet or arrows shooting from holes in the walls but nothing happened. So in relative peace with no damage taken other than self-inflicted poison damage, they reached an intersection with two doors. One door was a solid looking wooden door while the other was a golden door.

“Chief, which one do you think we should go?”

“Well Ah Eke, I have no idea either, it’s going to have to come down to a vote.”

“Hyung, I say we go for the gold door. It’s a *gold* door.”

“Power-san, most of those fairytale stories has the hero choosing the plain door because the greatest treasures are always plain and common looking nyaa.”

“So Sir Girls, you’re choosing the wooden door?”

“Definitely no nyaa. Those are just stories to trick small children to accept their sucky life. Better to have a gold door in your hands than hope to get some non-existent treasure. So gold door for me nyaa.”

Eke had thought GimmeGirls would choose the wooden door as he too had always believed that the simple things in life was a great treasure. He had hoped for too much.

“Well Ah Eke, gold door it is. Let’s take it off its hinges first.”

Jinyang had already chosen the gold door in his mind so with 3 votes, Eke’s choice would not change the final result. The strength of the three though was insufficient for pulling the door out or even damage it though it opened easily enough and even when Eke helped, their combined strength was still not enough.

“Damn it, our gold door!”

“Hyung, don’t be too sad. Life is like saeongjima.”

“Saeongjima?”

“The translator failed? I meant it is like the horse of an old man living on the borders, hyung. It’s to say that life’s ups and downs are unpredictable. There’s a story that…”

“Ah Pow, I think I get it. There’s a similar proverb in my country. Anyway although it’s a waste, we’ll just have to leave the door here.”

“My friends, it is just a door. The real treasure is the adventure behind it!”

GimmeGirls waited for Eke to go through the door and out of earshot before he complained.

“Just a door he said. It’s just a door if you don’t need to make money in game because you got tons in real life…”

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