[Alex POV]

Right around the end of the raiding fun, when everyone wanted to head for bed, we made plans to meet up again at Jaxon’s. We invited Anne with us, since it seems she has become a staple member of our little clique. We decided that we would eat together around 11:30, chill till 2, and then head right back on to E.S.S. Tomorrow is a special day for all players of Endless Story Saga, tomorrow is the launch of the next expansion.

I casually woke around 9ish, feeling the bitter sting of a hang fogging up my head. I looked at the perpetrators, a stack of 4 Lokos, and felt disgusted that I actually downed them. Feeling around my nightstand for my trusty thermos of water, and gulped like a man dying of thirst. There is a special mode of living after a long day of manual labor in the Texas summer, or a hard night of alcohol that makes you especially desperate for the sweet liquor of life. You gulp it down with rivulets of fluid going down the side of your face, making your shirt wet. But you don’t care, because you need that water more than anything. That is how I was feeling after a night of 4 Lokos, which is why I hate them so much. I look through bleary eye holes, as my dad affectionately would call it “pissholes in the snow”, grasping my phone to look for any updates. I saw that the early risers of the group were already chatting in the group text room. I rise out of my bed, take a new set of clothes, and begin my day with a cold shower.

After a cool shower, I go to our kitchen to see that Michael is already up with Veronica and Kira in our Kitchen as well. Mildly shocked, but then I remembered that we invited them to pick up Anne with us since Anne lives in a Girls only dorm. We can’t exactly have 2 guys walk up there, and then casually walk out with a girl all the way to the square. I can already see the photos on Twitter and Faceback trying to paint us as criminals. So we invited Kira and Veronica to make her feel more comfortable walking with us, also to prevent Michael and I from being arrested. I saw that Michael has up our table full of breakfast items, and was currently frying some eggs.

“Morning Sunshine! Judging by the scowl on your face, you received some backlash from last night’s fun.” Michael said with an annoying smile, Michael is one of those lucky motherfuckers who doesn’t get hangovers.

“Hey Kira! Hey Veronica! Glad you guys could make it today, thanks for helping” I said groggily, ignoring Michael.

“Hey don’t ignore me! Especially since I am making breakfast for you!” Michael said, upset his remark was ignored.

I just showed him my middle finger, which he kindly responded back with his own. We both smiled and gave a little laugh. I sat on our table where Kira and Veronica were enjoying a small breakfast together. Kira saw that my hair was still wild from drying it out, and promptly made it her mission to fix it. Me being too hungover to mind anymore, just let her do what she wanted. I kinda felt like she was stroking my head, making me feel like a pet. Michael and Veronica just smiled at the sight of us, the really annoyingly bright smile that is usually followed by an equally annoying statement. I saw that the spread of food on the table included some southern biscuits, which I immediately grabbed along with blackberry jam. I filled my mug with a strong black tea, and began work on my revival from the land of hangover.

“You really don’t react well to alcohol, you were already starting to slur after the third Spire of Clockwork City.” Veronica said, poking a little fun at me.

“Yeah, you should probably not drink as much. You are so light, there would be no way you can handle the same stuff as Michael.” Kira scolded, but still having fun.

“Yeah I guess being fat would help in alcohol tolerance” I cheekily jabbed at Michael, who had just finished frying up eggs and sat down at the table.

“Ow, that was a little hurtful. Though I guess I deserve it for the 4 Lokos last night.” Michael responded, reminding me of last night’s misery.

We all continued our little round table of banter as we slowly ate a small meal. Life slowly came back to me after several rounds of breakfast. We discussed the plans for today some more, especially the details about the next expansion. This expansion is supposed to add a whole new continent, equal in size to the base game. They were reworking several classes, and added more jobs. For guilds like us, we already had several plans to exploit the new resources. Since the devs are always quiet about hard details, since the game is about discovering things yourself, all we can do is speculate and plan for each scenario. Each expansion is a scramble for all of the guilds to exploit the new resources, so proper planning is required if you don’t want to fall behind.

After about an hour and a half of speculating about the new expansion, the 4 of us start to head out and walk towards the dorms. These female-only dorms are on the opposite side of campus from the apartments we are located in, which means a good amount of walking. Since the school year has not started yet, the amount of foot traffic is still low. Though that doesn’t stop people with bikes or skateboards from blasting down the sidewalks with little care for other people. We walked around the various school buildings, making it feel like we were walking in a labyrinth of the school's design. Despite all of being well versed in the school’s secret shortcuts, it still took us 20 minutes to get to Anne’s dorm.

We shot a text to Anne, saying that we were all downstairs. Veronica and Kira offered to walk up to her dorm, but Michael and I had no confidence in our ability to stay cool around this dorm. Seriously, female-only dorm headmasters are scary as shit. 100% not recommended to try your luck against them, fellow men. The girls were slightly exasperated at our reluctance, but a reply text from Anne saying she was heading down soon made them let it go. We waited for about 5 more minutes before we finally saw someone who fits the description of Anne.

We see a 5 foot 6 inch white girl, with bright ginger hair cut into a bob cut. She is quite petite, with minimal feminine curves. Her frame is lanky, with thin long limbs and small feet and hands. She has bright green eyes, with bright freckles dotting her cute face. A curt frown turned into a blooming smile when she noticed us. Even though she said she was bullied for having an unfeminine appearance, I am struggling to see how anyone could mistake her for a boy. Maybe if she wore baggy clothes, and people only listened to her husky voice could I possibly envision it. If she were a character in E.S.S., I would probably describe her as a fae-folk. Like a fairy from irish folklore, that is the overall image I get from her cute and rather innocent appearance.

“Hey Everybody! It is nice to see everybody in person now! Thank you for coming to get me!” Anne called out to us, as she walked out of the building.

“Hey Anne! Did your roommate or Dorm Headmaster give you any trouble? It took you a bit to head on down.” Michael said, worried about accidentally getting her in trouble.

“Oh no I am fine, My roommate actually dropped out during Orientation, so I have the whole place to myself. Though the headmaster did stop me to ask if I knew you guys well. She seems super suspicious of you guys, but I was able to convince her you were ok.” said Anne, explaining her slight tardiness.

“I had some bad experiences with that old bag, Veronica and I got into a lot of heat that took forever to get rid of. She actually almost got me expelled, just for standing here waiting for my girlfriend.” Michael explained bitterly, clearly still holding a grudge.

“Well moving on from that, let's go and head out to the Square! Probably want to get there early so we can get the table ready for the group.” I said, trying to move past Michael’s anecdote of anguish.

We walked for the full 30 minutes to the square, feeling the August heat rising with each minute we walked. We found ourselves at the familiar mishmash of different periods of American culture, Anne seeing this place for the first time was absolutely dazzled. Whispers of “It is like I went back into time” followed by “How does a place like this exist in Texas?” leaking from her mouth. For a native like me, it is also satisfying for the newcomers to experience a side of Texas that was completely different from the stereotypes. Enjoying her cute little exclamations as we walked all the way to Jaxon’s, regretting a bit that I didn’t take a longer route there. We entered at around 11:00 o’clock, finally earlier than everyone else for a change.

“Sup Everybody! You sure are here pretty early Alex. Didn’t think I would ever see you in here before 12.” Jaxon called out with a laugh, smiled as he jabbed a little bit.

“We are bringing a new friend today, thought I better show a more reliable version of me this time around” I answered, revealing a new member of our group this time around.

“Ah that is who this person is! Nice to meet you my name is Jaxon, and this is my restaurant. Feel free to stop by anytime, this place will always welcome you.” Jaxon said, with a welcoming smile.

“Nice to meet you too! My name is Anne, glad I can be here!” Said Anne, being slightly nervous.

“Hey you are a member of Chronicle right? And not only that, Alex calls you friend. All friends of Alex are friends of mine ya hear? Don’t be so nervous, you can be yourself here” Jaxon smoothly replied, trying to get Anne to relax a bit.

“Also Kira. I thought you wanted today off? Or are you just here to hangout with Alex” Jaxon said with a knowing smile.

“I just wanted to be here with my friends, we are supposed to discuss our plans for the Expansion today after all” Kira replied back with a slight pout.

“Oh YEA! I forgot about that, I will probably join you guys for a sec to hear the plans. I will actually be playing tonight since my sous chef wants to try handling the kitchen for a night.” Jaxon said, finally getting some time off.

“Yo, It has been a while. Seems like the full gang is gonna be playing tonight! Too bad we can’t LAN up somewhere, I have been wanting to drink with you again Jaxon” Michael said.

“Oh don’t worry, I will definitely be drinking tonight. Been too long since I have enjoyed a proper beverage” Jaxon answered, planning a proper night off from work.

Jaxon went back to the kitchen, he is still there to work after all. All of us here to eat started to put a massive table together by putting 2 tables next to each other. We grabbed the chairs required and put them in their place. Right around the time we had finished the table, several members of our group began walking in. Blake followed by Peyton were the first to arrive, Rhyse and Tyler came next shortly after them. Jack, Rachel, and Armando followed after them completing the full list of people who should be arriving. With the full group assembled early, we were able to give our orders to the waitress together. And they were early to begin the plans for the new expansion, all excited for a new world to explore.

The new Expansion is called Colonists of the Lost Continent, with the general focus being about a brand new continent to claim. One of themes in the rather vague Dev streams is that guilds would be able to have claims of land to own and work, almost like chartering a colony. Another focus is that the Summoners are being reworked completely, since they are the least played offensive class. And they are also adding [Warlock] as a new base class, with a whole new litany of Jobs that spawn from it. The only piece of info we have on the new continent is that an unbelievable amount of playable races will also be added. Honestly, this expansion feels like it is making a whole new MMO, and the devs agreed that this is the most amount of content they ever added including launching the base game.

Perhaps I should also explain the Class and Job system. Classes are a “tree” that branches out into all of the different jobs that are related to the class. Like making a DnD character you choose Wizard as part of your character, from there you are given an [Apprentice Mage] to start with as your job. You then level your [Apprentice Mage] job until you can upgrade it to [Mage]. Depending on the spells you used, you can then choose from several elemental mages jobs like [Water Mage] or [Fire Mage] as the next upgrade. If you choose [Fire Mage] you could also upgrade to [Expert Fire Mage]. Or if you chose [Fire Mage] and [Water Mage] and leveled both you can move on to [Steam Mage]. Each job state gain, bonuses, and skills and spells differ. A [Fire Mage] has tons of fire based spells and bonus to fire damage. A [Steam Mage] has a smaller bonus to fire and water spells, but when using a steam spell adds up both of those bonuses to make a massive bonus to increased damage. Another Caveat is that Jobs and Classes both level separately.

A class is your overall Mastery over a whole tree of Jobs, while a Job is a tiny little branch of that “tree.” The highest level your Class can be after then next expansion is 150, while the highest level a job can be is 100. Each 10 levels of your Class, unlocks a whole new row of Branching jobs as well as bigger bonuses to stats, spell damage, and more spell slots if you are a wizard. So if you see a Level 150 Wizard with a level 20 Job, you should be absolutely terrified of facing him. While facing a level 20 Wizard with level 90 job is nowhere near as scary. The class level is the real indicator of the power of the character. However this is only the explanation for a purely offensive character who has not leveled and Productions classes, or Miscellaneous classes.

There are 3 Professions that can be equipped by a player. They are the Offensive Classes like Wizard or Fighter, Production Classes like Blacksmith or Miner, or the Miscellaneous classes like Charisma or Leadership. Since each character can only have 3 professions equipped, Most would choose 1 Offensive Class, 1 Production Class, and 1 Misc Class. Though you can also choose 3 Offensive Classes, or 2 productions classes and 1 offensive, or 2 Misc with 1 offensive. Productions classes are pretty much how they sound like, you build items to help level your job. While each completely leveled job adds levels to your Class level, thus allowing you more advanced jobs. Basically the same as the Offensive Class and jobs, only just a lot more grind with finding crafting materials. The Misc Classes are essentially roleplay classes with a couple of minor bonuses and abilities. The Charisma Class can have jobs like Diplomat, Merchant, Trader. They each have their minor functions, but the real reason to take them is the combinations it can create with offensive or production jobs.

One of the best features of this MMO and why new jobs are still being found all of the time, is the fact 2 jobs from 2 different classes can combine into one whole new job. These combination jobs require you to level both classes to unlock as well as other requirements depending on the jobs of course. But you can combine [Archer] and [Artificer] to make a [Gunslinger] job. These combo jobs are really difficult to master and level, but they can be unbelievably powerful. A [Knight] plus a [Commander] job makes a [Knight Commander] Job, which can then be upgraded to a [Knight Grandmaster] depending on how you leveled the jobs around it. This is the most complicated part of the game, it is also the reason why so many newbies have a tough time playing it. You can still play with the normal jobs like [Fire Mage], but it wouldn’t be as interesting as [Lava Mage] or [Fog Mage]. Also we haven’t even started on things like 3 combo jobs yet, but alas that would take too much to explain.

After discussing at length with the group about the many possible job possibilities, we began planning our tentative mission for the new Continent. One of the earliest things we wanted to snag was the rights for a large mine next to a river valley. This location is also next to the ocean we are crossing from, with a large barrier island that has created a perfect natural port. This is going to the location for our Colony, our second home base for staging long conquests and missions. Not every guild can afford a whole colony for themselves, on our server only the top 5 can realistically afford the expenses. The rest of the guilds will have to use the Colonies we build as a home base and a port for them to send the new resources back home. With a port comes tariffs, so making a powerful port city is a fantastic way taking mountains of money. The mine is especially important for us since we tend to lack ores for our crafters. We do technically have a mine that we won from a guild duel not too long ago, but it is so expensive to maintain and too dangerous for most npcs to work properly. It is a failure of a project, and nearly bankrupted the guild it belonged to before. If only I knew that before taking it from them, alas past mistakes are now in the past.

We have also commissioned tons of boats for this mission, since we have several [Shipwright] npcs and guild members we are sure to have more than we need. That will also be a future business in the new Continent, providing transport for cargo and selling ships on commissioned work as well. My goal is to build hundreds of business opportunities for the next generation to expand upon. This is how a guild will stand the test of time, and hopefully when Rachel is done as the guildmaster, Chronicle is the number 1 guild in the whole server. Of course that is how it is all planned, life has a way of turning all of your plans completely around. Not that I am complaining, failure and surprises is part of the fun of building an empire.

After several hours of planning, dreaming, and a little of bickering we finally killed enough time for the expansion to finally drop. All of our phones were sent a message from a companion app that the downloads were already starting on our computers. The time we waited for was finally happening, the beginning of a new era in Endless Story Saga. We started heading out after paying our bills, saying goodbye to Jaxon on the way out. We separated into our little groups from before while saying our goodbyes, of course knowing we will see each other online soon. Then we begin the 30 minute trek back to Anne's dorm, once again in the now afternoon Texas heat.

After we dropped Anne off, Kira and Veronica went their separate ways from us. Each heading to their awaiting PC, probably joining a group chat with the rest of the gang that showed up today. Michael and I walked back to our Apartment, surprisingly neither one of us wanted to pick anything up along the way. Usually Michael will pick up a crate of beer, but this time he wasn’t feeling it. He started saying he had a different feeling today that he couldn’t explain, maybe it was the enormous burger with the bucket of fries he had today as well but who I am to say. He continued to moan about his “feeling” for a while, but he finally stopped complaining after we reached the door to our home.

Michael and I have a special routine just for Expansion weekends. We take our computers out of our individual rooms, and put them on our dining table across from each other. We do this so we can create a LAN-like environment, because nothing beats gaming with a friend physically close by. There is something special about LANs, I think it has to do with seeing the excitement felt by the people close to you. Like playing couch co-op Halo with your friends from highschool, something about it just feels magical.

We finished our new setup, with our gaming rigs downloading the monster of an update. Even with the best internet speeds money can buy here, we would both be spending an hour waiting for the download to finish. We spent the time in a private conversation with each other, strangely being kind of real with each other. The type of discussion you can only have with a close sibling or your very best friend. Where we discuss our deepest fears and regrets, the hopes we have for the future, and remembering the times we had together. I wanted to voice my fear of change, how I felt the precious moments of our time together slipping by quickly. But Michael started talking about how he wanted to move in with Veronica once we both graduate, that they were finally taking it to the next step. I of course wished him the best and we agreed together that we would always be close friends. But I knew in my heart of hearts that we would drift away from each other, that all of the friends I made here were going to go away soon. It feels so tragic, spending 4 years building a large group of almost family, and then seeing it all go away. That is how you know you have become an adult, when you start saying “I wish I had more time”.

For a while we talked, just about anything we could think of. The school and the greedy ass administration, the prospects of our favorite football team winning the Super Bowl, surviving the scary adult world where money is everything, our parents that we forget to call, even the blasted Texas weather that has the audacity to be hot all the damn time. We talked about everything, everything except the game. As much as we love the game, I think we love our friendship more. I don’t know if I can say that about everybody in the guild, but I know I can say that about my friend Michael. The downloads were a few minutes away from completing, seeing to the end of our real conversation with each other. But before the conversation ended, I wanted to say one more thing to Michael. But he got up to get a cup of water from the Kitchen loudly belching as we walked there, which killed the serious mood we were in. Oh well, I still have 2 whole semesters to say it.

The update was finally downloaded, we entered in a voice chat with our friends, and then we logged on to a new world. I chose my [Summoner] once again, ready to try out a completely reworked class. I found myself in the same familiar building that I have come to call home in game. The Guild hall of Chronicle, the temple high in the sky. I saw that Michael has logged onto his [Forgemaster] Character, he was originally following me but decided to go with Veronica. I was in a rare moment of being alone for once, so I decided to walk towards the center of the temple once again. To gaze upon the treasure we hold most dear here.

I saw the wondrous pillar, the one covered in magically glowing runes that radiate power with its ambient light. I decided that I would open the archives on a whim, I figured I might as well look at the research we put into the [Hero] job. I clicked on it in-game, with my character pulling a large crystal tablet. He connected it to the pillar, and runes began to form upon the tablet like it was downloading the information. The copy completed, I removed it from the pillar and began to read the tablet. Clicking on each rune pulls up displays of text and images all relating to our precious research on the [Hero].

There was a name I didn’t recognise as the researcher, probably something we stole or won in a Guild Duel. I see that this person tried the Stats focused build, where you put the points you normally use on skills straight into the stats. He tried earning different Titles to see if anything would change, and he tried a couple of different Misc Jobs. Nothing really concrete here, just some things that are proven to not be the way to unlock it. I did promise Anne everything we know, but honestly it isn’t much. The path to finding the [Hero] job proves to be just as difficult as believed unfortunately.

I was busy looking in the records I downloaded, not really paying attention to anybody around me. All of the others were busy chatting away while they waited for everybody to log on. For once, the temple was a surprisingly noisy place, with everybody standing around. Usually they join up in the small town beneath our arches, but today is a special day afterall. The temple is a majestic place to meet up, plus it is impossible to get lost up here anyway. I decided to look up from the records to see a brilliant sunrise appear in the game, a dawn of a new era of E.S.S..

For some reason, I had a strange feeling build up inside of me. A kind of weird feeling that goes away when you focus on it, but reappears the moment you decide to ignore it. It feels familiar, like some distant memory of childhood that fragments of echos of whispers still remain. Like the memory is at the back of your head, but details disappear the moment you tried thinking of them. I looked up from my computer to see that Michael was not in front of his own pc. He was standing at the large window in the living room. I went up to him to ask what he was doing, but stopped when I saw him staring at something. I noticed that all of the hairs of his body was standing straight up, and his eyes didn’t even blink as he continued to stare. I tried to follow where he was looking at, but the moment I was about to track it down…

“DON'T LOOK,” Michael screamed while grabbing my Shoulder. His fingers gripped a steely strength, pain was exploding out from where he grabbed me, causing me to shriek a bit.

“WHAT THE HELL MAN! YOU ARE FUCKING HURTING ME!” I yelled back, prying his fingers off of my shoulder.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize how hard I was clenching. I was just scared…” Michael said apologetically, still not calming down despite the lowered volume on his voice.

“What did you see? What got you so worked up?” I said with a worried tone.

“Something, something was staring at us. I think it has been staring at us since we got home.” Michael said, placing an arm around like he needed to be comforted. Tears began to fall from his eyes, like tears from a terrified child.

“What was it? Do I need to call the police?” I said, confusion and fear breaking my voice.

“It-it was something..I DON'T KNOW...just it suddenly started smiling at me and when I looked away it was gone!” Michael said with sobs breaking his words. He started to lean on me, like he needed support or he would fall.

“I am going to call the police, If you let me go to my room for a sec I can grab my phone.” I said, clearly worried that something has frightened my friend this bad.

But out of nowhere, I had that bad feeling again. That strangely awful feeling that lingers in your gut. Like you can almost vomit, but you know if you tried you would only dry heave. Like that feeling you did something really wrong, and your parents are about to find out. This time however, I could pinpoint where I was getting that feeling from. It was coming from my darkened room, where my phone was supposed to be. I looked into my room, and I felt something else staring back at me. It was...something...else like my mind was preventing me from giving it a shape. Like my mind was preventing me from seeing, that it knows subconsciously that humans were never supposed to see it. I continued to stare, seeing an awful smiling forming on the indescribable black mass lurking in my room. I think I recognised that feeling now, It was Dread.