Within the party there were 6 people, including Nix. The other 5 were called Ash, Hawk, Diablo, Sentinel, and Larry. Ash was the only girl in the group, and she was a mage. A fire mage, to be specific. Hawk and Larry were both ranged, but they differed completely in style – Hawk preferred to be a scout and sniper, while Larry liked assassinating from any distance. Diablo was a fighter preferring dual longswords, and Sentinel was a fighter with a focus on defense – a tank. Nix himself seemed to be an assassin; his only visible weapons were his daggers. What he said was cryptic, if not ridiculous: “If you go only by what you see, you are correct. If you go only by what you think and what you see, you are incorrect.” He seemed to just be trying to look cool. The effect was completely ruined, however weak it was in the first place, by Ash bringing her hand down in a chopping motion on his forehead.

“So, who’s the newbie?” Hawk asked, to which Relictus promptly introduced himself. “I just started playing, my name is Relictus. It’s nice to meet you,” he said, reaching out his hand. In response to this, Hawk promptly shook it, rather hard. A few seconds later, he was still shaking it. “Ehm…” Relictus mumbled, feeling rather awkward. “Oh, right, right! Sorry about that, forgot to stop shaking your hand.” He mumbled a bit, feeling awkward at forgetting such an intrinsic part of shaking one's hand, as Relictus wondered how he even got there.

Once introductions were over, all continued as was ‘normal’ for them: a shout-fest of people trying to get a word in, which evolved to the point of being completely unintelligible and similarly disruptive. As it got to this point, the bartender hit his very solid fist on the wooden countertop, causing a cracking sound and a loud bang powerful enough to shut the entire group up.

“So, I assume we’re all on the same page. Dungeon crawling it is?” In response to this, the entire group sans Relictus shouted, “Yeah!” quite cheerfully, except for Frank, who instead shouted, “Money!” It was understandable just how excited they were, as they were highly enthusiastic about this game, but they seemed to still not know their limits, as they were only around level 20 each after 3 days of the game being out. Their growth rate was unprecedented, but not inconceivable, and they neglected social interaction due to their lust for power.

After they had another round or two of ale, they headed out for a place only they knew, according to Nix. As they walked, Relictus was especially excited. He ran circles around the group as they walked, he pranced around like a majestic, magical deer- no, that’s a story for another time. He took in the fresh air and the untamed atmosphere as they walked through the plains of tall grass. He never got to experience this kind of freedom even before being locked up in that glorified prison.

Eventually, their surroundings dimmed. As they spent so much time, the golden disc that was the sun plummeted in the sky, reaching the horizon as its color transformed into a bright scarlet, a deep crimson, and finally faded from view as the spectacular light show of the sky’s colors faded from red to finally settle at a dusk purple. As Relictus admired all of this with great awe, the rest of the group chuckled at just how childish his reactions were.

Hawk pulled a stick, one with a silhouette that looked exactly like a club, and pointed it at Ash. Ash took a moment to notice, then jumped a bit when she realized there was a wooden stick 3 inches from her face. Sighing as she saw the man behind it, she snapped her fingers and a spark jumped from the source of the sound and onto the stick. It was simply a single spark, but it was enough, as the stick quickly became a torch, largely due to the small inferno burning away at the end of it.

With the torch now illuminating the way, the group made it to their destination – a stairwell. They were surrounded by titanic trees; the leaves of all hues collected on the ground in anticipation of the icy winter to come. The rest of the group stepped down on the cold, solid rock and disappeared into the dark earth. Behind them, Relictus followed suit, hoping not to be left behind in the dark, miles from town, at level 1, with beginner’s equipment, alone. If he died, he would have to spend an entire week in game (a day in real time) on that hospital bed, and he would never let that happen to himself. The less time in that living hell, the better.

They descended for what seemed like hours, passing the same dull gray brick, but as they went further, its hue began to darken, and eventually, the bricks were an ominous pitch-black that was not quite dull, but seemed to suck the light from Hawk’s torch. He didn’t notice, but around the group, the tunnel began growing larger, wider. Before they knew it, the group had arrived at a fork – they could choose left, right, or forward. In the end, they decided to split up. Each party was given a torch, and sent their own way. Hawk and Sentinel went left, while Ash and Diablo went right. The remaining Relictus, Nix, and Larry went straight. They all decided that they would meet up back at the fork whenever they came upon an obstacle they could not overcome by their own means. Surely, someone in the other parties could pick up their slack – that was their idea, and it wasn’t that bad.

Left Party

Sure enough, after only a few minutes of travel down the tunnels, they found themselves at a trap. They could see the pressure plate, it was quite obvious and right in front of them, but neither was small enough to bypass it in the small tunnel that encroached on them.

“Hey…” Hawk pondered for a few moments.

“What?” Sentinel responded, curious.

“Step on it.” Hawk proposed ever so eloquently.

“No! You do it.” Sentinel politely declined.

“Dude, you got this.”

“No I don’t.”

“It’s fine, just step on the plate.”

“Nothing’s fine right now!”

The conversation evolved decayed into a scuffle, and the two pushed and pulled at each other as they tried to get the other one to push the button.

“…Oh.” Hawk placed his regretful gaze upon the ground, and then his partner, on whose jacket collar he was yanking. Both of them had a foot on the plate.

“God dammit, Hawk.” Sentinel glared at his rather foolish counterpart. It occurred to neither of them that they could move out of the way of the singular dart that had flown out of the wall and straight towards them.

“Ow.” Hawk said, as the dart pierced his neck, just behind his jaw. Immediately, his HP bar appeared in the corner of his vision and dropped by 8%, and the status effect PARALYSIS was applied. He immediately saw why, and so did Sentinel.

“. . . Oh shi-” Hawk nearly completed his sentence as he watched the gigantic brick hurtling towards them at unnatural speed. As if in slow motion, the brick cast itself across Hawk’s face, and the spinning momentum that created caused it to fly straight into Sentinel’s face. Hawk lost 40% HP from that alone, but Sentinel hadn’t even lost 10%.

“See? This is what happens. This is what happens.” Sentinel reprimanded Hawk for his antics. And, in that same position, they fell into the hole that opened below them, into the cold, dark unknown.

Right Party

Diablo ruthlessly slaughtered every enemy before him with his sturdily forged twin steel longswords. He boasted a nearly insane grin as his eyes, pupils shrunk to the size of a pin, witnessed the scene of carnage; the blades ripping the bodies of the goblins open, slicing their flesh, tearing their sinew, and forcefully ripping their souls from their bodies. Ash could only sigh as Diablo fell into his usual bloodlust, firing off the occasional firebolt towards the goblins that tried to flank him.

As they tore through hordes of enemies, they advanced slowly, and surely enough, they found a reward, fruits of their labor. Diablo immediately ran over to try to open it, and managed to do so, but immediately closed it once he realized nothing was inside it, and then realized he was hanging by just his grip over a deep, pitch-black pit. Ash attempted to grab his hand and save him from such a cruel fate, but being a mage, she had the physical strength of a child. She hardly made it ten seconds before being dragged down with Diablo into the pit of doom.

Front Party

Their journey was uneventful. One might say, “too uneventful.” They took stairs downward, and that was it. They didn’t find enemies, traps, anything. Larry tried to make some small talk.

“Um…” Larry started, his eloquent speech bewildering his two companions, showing him to be truly peerless.

“What? Need a bathroom break?” Nix teased, but he was really quite nervous. The laugh that he let out was not a humorous one.

“It’s not that, I can deal with that later, it’s just-“Wait, you actually do?”” Larry couldn’t finish his sentence as his incredulous leader questioned him.

“Yeah, so…?” He proceeded cautiously, to avoid upsetting Nix. Nix was scary when he was mad.

However, Nix just shrugged it off as they proceeded, Relictus silently following behind. Their torch was almost half-burned out by this point. Before they new it, the tunnel widened into a dimly lit, but nevertheless lit, room. Within, there were 6 lit torches held by sconces, not nearly enough for the size of the room. The atmosphere within was oppressively cold, even more so than it was in the tight hallways of the dungeon. From the ceiling hung two large cages, almost like oversized hanging birdcages. As they stepped 5 paces into the room, more candles lit up around the room, illuminating the walls, and the friends inside the cages on the ceiling, and the large, ominous humanoid beast figure sitting upon the over-decorated throne that just screamed dark lord.

Wait, ominous humanoid beast figure? Friends in cages? Relictus did a double-take, and found that they were in a most disadvantageous condition, but next to him, Nix was absolutely fuming. His dark, yet discolored hair seemed like it would burst into flame at any minute and birth a demon nobody would cross. He pulled his daggers from their home at his hip, and he only now saw their designs. In his left hand was an ornate, silver-gold dagger inlaid with diamonds and sapphires, it seemed like a ceremonial weapon if anything. However, the aura it gave off was nothing to take lightly. In his left hand was a wicked, black blade that seemed to give off a cloud of crimson-black miasma. Relictus couldn’t decide on whether its appearance was that of a dark, yet hot ember, or a bloodied piece of a dark energy almost like death itself.

The figure on the throne stood.

Suddenly, Relictus got a notification.

Your party has challenged a boss!

M’arrzath the Wicked: Level 80 Boss

Author's Notes

Spoiler : Here's Chapter 2! This one took me a few hours to write, as it was just over 1.4k words, but it got done! I want to do another 3-5 chapters today (Independence Day wooo!) just because I want to make sure the story is comprehensible for anyone and everyone to read and 'enjoy.' Everything will be explained in time. c:<