Author's Note: Sorry about the time it took to post it up here. I've been busy with college, and haven't been able to even sleep much. Anyway, just a few things that you should know.

1: I haven't figured out all of the game mechanics yet, bear with me please on that. Let me know if some of the things seem off though in regards to some of the game mechanics I do mention though.

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Wahshi POV

“YOU HAVE FAILED!!”

The words rang out like a gong, echoing in our ears and reverberating throughout the forest. We all looked around, searching for the owner of the voice that had said that.

Scanning the area, I didn’t see anyone that could’ve have said anything. The only things around us were a lot of plants, vines and trees.

A LOT of trees now that I think about it.

‘There’s something not right here.’ I mused. ‘Were there always this many trees around us?’

Yes, it was a forest. I knew that, and it was completely obvious. But looking around, I realized that the number of trees around us was ridiculous!

Huge trees surrounded us on all sides, without even an inch of space between them! Vines hung down from their branches in thick ropes and the grass had grown 3 feet tall where it neared the trees!

The thing that tipped me off that something was wrong was the most glaring fact. We were suddenly in another clearing!

‘Sh*t!’ I cursed in my head. The other things might have been coincidences, but the fact that we were in a clearing sealed the deal for me. Why? BECAUSE WE WEREN’T IN ONE A FEW MOMENTS AGO!

It was completely obvious. Whatever or whoever had done all this had us completely surrounded. We were in a clearing with nothing to use for cover, with no rough terrain, rocks or trees in the clearing that we could make use of.

All of our paths to escape were gone. Huge trees surround us on all sides, with no space in between them. ‘If I hadn’t been convinced before that there’s trouble, I am now. There’s no way that’s natural.’

We wouldn’t even have the chance to worry about that though, if we couldn’t even get past the grass that was half our height. The expression “blades of grass” didn’t seem like just an expression with this particular species of grass. Even though they swayed just like normal grass would, parts of them were rigid looked sharper than Zhang’s sword.

That, and the fact that there was no wind to make the grass sway clued me in to the fact that going into the midst of that was not a good idea. Even if it did turn out to be normal grass that had grown tall, it was big enough that thinking monsters might appear there might not just be my paranoia.

Mysterious, dangerous surroundings? Check.

All paths of escape? Check.

Mysterious, loud booming voice? Check.

All of this info flooded my brain in only a few seconds, and it didn’t look like it was going to be an easy fight for those three. Especially since I’m here, and they’ll at the very least try to make sure I don’t die.

None of this was looking like something I can even remotely handle. But if something’s trying to take me down, I’m taking one of whatever it is, with me.

My eyes darted around, and it looked like no one was paying attention to me.

Good.

I wasn’t sure what it would look like to them if I accessed any player abilities, but I didn’t want to risk it. On the off-chance that doing something like that could be recognized by other people, it was better to do everything as discreet as possible.

Calling up the [inventory] with my mind, I quickly took stock of what I had. There really wasn’t much.

1 iron dagger. 10 copper pieces. 5 pieces of stale bread.

‘It’ll be obvious that I’m not an NPC if I just pull a weapon from thin air.’

Closing the window with less than a thought, I noticed that Alexa was looking my way. Bending down, I pretended to grab a weapon from my boot. What actually happened was that I was mentally equipping the iron dagger from my inventory, sheath and all. ‘That should be enough to keep up appearances. I guess I should be thankful that my original boots somehow escaped being torn apart when I was thrown around by Misa’s spell earlier in the first layer. It’d be hard to explain how I’d gotten a dagger into my boots if it was something that Zhang had loaned me.’

Unsheathing the knife, I made sure to get ready. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Alexa wasn’t looking my way any longer. The others still hadn’t even given me a second glace.

Good.

It was better this way. Just in case I slipped up, having no one look my way to see it would definitely be a good thing.

The echoes from the words that had rang out like a gong earlier had finally died off. There was only an eerie silence which added to the tension that we were all facing.

The air was humid, no sunshine came from above. No breeze came through the trees to brush off the sweat that accumulating on our faces, since there were no gaps in between the trees. Whatever light had made it through the branches of the trees and into the clearing, was more than enough for us to see though. It made it easy for us to see our enemies when they grew from the trees, separating themselves from the trunks with a CRACK like the sound of a thick branch breaking in half.

Numerous beings came out from the trees, and although we could clearly see that they were there, we only saw their features after they walked through the blades of grass half as tall as a full grown man.

Two types of enemies appeared. One of them seemed to be men, dressed in dark brown cloaks with hoods that covered their faces. They were tall and skinny, easily managing to be 7 feet tall, but they didn’t seem to have a lot of muscle on them. They didn’t walk closer towards us. They glided gracefully instead. Although the hems of their cloaks reached the ground, their graceful movements made it seem like their feet weren’t even touching the ground.

Walking out of the grass and appearing next to them were what I could only describe as living trees in human form. Wood made up their entire body, and they had curves at the hips and the chest. Their hair was actually a dense matting of leaves, and their eyes glowed a soft, angry green. If trees had a gender, I’d definitely say that they looked like women. They didn’t step gracefully like their counterparts. No, they strode towards us with pride. Each step that they took made a small tremor, and when they all took a step forward it shook the ground that we were standing on. They definitely looked strong.

We were surrounded on all sides by them. They stood side-by-side while we backed up and formed a circle together.

A quick glance to either side told me that Misa and Zhang didn’t think this would be easy either. They had serious expressions on their faces, and they had tight grips on their weapons. Since we were in somewhat of a circle, with Zhang and Misa being on my left and right, it meant that Alexa literally had my back. I felt a sense of ease at that. I felt like I could trust her, at least more than the other two.

This definitely wasn’t going to be easy though.

Misa POV

‘Sh*t!’

It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw all those things coming out from the trees.

‘What the h*ll is wrong with this stupid game?!’

They just kept coming out from the trees, more and more of them as time passed. Normally I’d be happy that there were so many, especially ones like that since they looked like they were my specialty. But COME ON! This much was too freaking ridiculous!

I reached out to Zhang mentally.

‘Zhang. Stats. NOW!’

I couldn’t be sure that we’d have a chance of winning if what he said agreed with what I thought he’d say.

‘Druid of the Wilds, Guardian of the 2nd Layer, Average Level 290. Dryad of the Boundary, Guardian of the 2nd Layer, Average Level 280.’

I could feel the blood drain from my face when I heard that. Sweat gathered on my forehead, and there was a creak from my staff. My hand had turned white from holding my staff so tightly.

THESE THINGS WERE MORE THAN 60 LEVELS ABOVE US!!!

No way. There was no way. I couldn’t accept it. I WON’T DIE!! I haven’t died once since I started this game, and there was no way that I was going to do that now!

‘You better have a way out of this Zhang, or I swear to god that I’m going to KILL you for this.’ I told him over the [party chat].

For once, he didn’t actually have anything to say back to me.

‘Zhang? Zhang?! DAMN IT, IF YOU WON’T DO ANYTHING, I WILL!!’

I looked over at the Druids and Dryads that had appeared in the clearing with us, trying to count how many there already were. There weren’t any more popping out of those damn trees, and whatever else they were, I was a Sun Mage and they were things that popped out of plants. There was no way that they’d be able to take us down easy with me here.

Looking around us though, I could feel something sink inside me as the number of monsters that I had counted grew higher and higher.

’10…20….40….70….SH*T, I’m not even going to count any higher than that!’

Bitterly, I glanced over at Zhang. This was all his fault! The last time we went through this forest, we managed to get halfway through with the route we used. But this time, he wanted more a challenge! Said something about “more risk, more reward” in that annoying, know-it-all voice of his.

We could’ve just stuck to the route we used last time, but nooo. Zhang wanted to be the big macho idiot and prove that he could get us through the forest this time by taking the trail that led directly through the center of the forest!

Looking back out over the enemies, I suddenly had a thought. ‘Why the h*ll haven’t they done anything yet?!’

As if they’d heard what I thought, 2 separate, loud voices rang out one after the other.

“VIOLENT ONES! YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED AND FOUND UNWORTHY!!”

“SURRENDER AND DIE!!!”

One of the living, mini trees had spoken first, and one of the floating men in robes had spoken right afterwards.

I heard Alexa make her confusion known. “Wait, shouldn’t it be surrender or die?!”

“NO!!”

They bellowed in unison.

As if that were some kind of signal, all of the Dryads started charging towards us, their steps shaking the ground badly enough that I could see the NPC fall to the ground, unable to keep his balance. I probably would’ve fallen down too, if my Strength hadn’t been high enough for me to force my body to stay upright.

At the same time, all of the Druids that were floating beside where the Dryads had been, had started chanting. The sound of all of those voices made the air vibrate, as their partners, the Dryads, came rushing at us.

I knew that whatever they were doing wouldn’t be good. I also knew that we wouldn’t have time to worry about it if we didn’t survive the wave of living trees that were trying to kill us. Luckily, we were together in a small circle, so only 10-12 of them could attack us at one time.

“Alexa! Acid Ash!”

“Got it. Everybody get down!”

Zhang and I immediately dropped to the ground, as Alexa spun in a circle. Small glints of silver flew through the air and hit the legs of all the enemies that were closest to us in an entire circle. At the same time, I’d already started chanting the words to a spell.

The small silvery needles that Alexa threw at the legs of the monsters that were coming for us were covered in an acid that we found in the “stomach” of an Alpha Slime. They were slimes that had evolved into human-like creatures. They lost almost everything that made them slimes, but the acid they used to dissolve their victims grew to terrifying levels. That, and the fact that they could then level up a lot easier and learn skills like other NPC’s made them scarier than most monsters.

Because of the usefulness of their acid though, they were one of those monsters that you knew were worth the risk of dying though. The acid wouldn’t dissolve anything non-living, so it could easily coat practically any weapon. Anything organic that touched it though, would straight-away just evaporate.

The monsters that had been hit by the needles had already begun stumbling and falling down to the ground. This was still a game, even if everything about it was pretty realistic. Since they were many levels higher than we were, the acid was less effective and took longer to work. Lucky for us, Alpha Slime Acid was a Grade S type of acid, so as long as the thing you were using it on wasn’t 100+ levels above you, it would still have some effect.

“AAAAAAAH!!” The Dryads that were hit by it let out an inhuman shriek. Parts of their legs were already turning into mist as they fell towards the ground, the affected areas smoking with a green vapor. Their friends behind them couldn’t react fast enough, and they either ran them over or tripped and fell on top of them, making a small wall that kept growing as the unlucky ones that were behind them weren’t able to stop themselves from stampeding into their comrades.

Since their friends became the barrier that was protecting us from more of them rushing in, I was able to stand up without worrying that something was going to crash into me. My lips formed the last words of the only other Sun Mage spell I’d learned before I’d been disowned as a student. “—and let there be light. [SOLAR FLARE]!!”

Flames spread out from under my feet in a giant circle, rushing past the four of us and going as far as the Druids were floating. Where it touched, everything turned into a whole new landscape, but something that was never meant to be seen in the entire world. The ground transformed into something that looked like the surface of the sun!

It started to shake, and everyone fell over this time. Only the Druids that kept on floating in the air were unaffected, as they continued their mysterious chanting. Everyone else and the Dryads had already fallen flat to the ground. The rumbling became more centralized, and the earth around the center of the shaking bent upwards, like something was going to come bursting out of the ground. I already knew what was going to come next.

“EVERYBODY CLOSE YOUR EYES!!” I yelled as I shut my eyes hard, my head as close to the ground as I could make it, with my arms covering it.

‘Zhang, if you didn’t listen to me this time, it’s your own fault!’ That was the only thought left in my head when the ground between us and the wall of Dryads erupted.

The other Dryads and Druids screamed as the light from the flare of a sun was seared into their eyes. The ones that were stacked into a wall near it had no chance at all. There was only a hideously loud shrieking, before everything fell silent as the light faded and the ground turned back to normal.

The Dryads that had collapsed and made a protective shield against their own kind had been too close to the eruption. Their eyes had been completely burned out, leaving nothing but empty, black, smoking sockets.

That was mine and Alexa’s strongest combo. Acid Ash. She used acid coated needles to make the enemies drop, unable to move. I used [Solar Flare]’s immense light to bake them alive through their eyes once they couldn’t do anything but stare. There was a reason why I could count on one hand the number of times we’d used that combo though. And it wasn’t just because the acid that Alexa used for it was practically impossible to find.

SOLAR FLARE (RANK C)

A spell modified from the original Sun Mage spell [Sun Spot]. The area turns into a surface akin to the sun, and an eruption of light equivalent to the light of an explosion on the sun is released. REQUIRES: SUN MAGE CLASS, USES: 80% OF ALL MANA, WITH A MINIMUM OF 4,500 MANA NEEDED• Any who look at the light will be Blinded for 15 seconds

• Within 10 feet, those who stare at the light will be burned from through their eyes, receiving 20,000 damage every 2 seconds, for 10 seconds

• Usage of this spell will anger the Patron Spirit of the Sun Mages, resulting in the CURSE OF THE SUN SPIRIT, and anything else he deems a necessary punishment

I glanced over at my mana gauge. It had been completely full just seconds ago, and then had dropped down to 20% in less time than it took to snap your fingers. I wish that was the only thing that was bad about it.

My eyes flickered back to the system notices that had popped up in front of me.

MANDATE OF HEAVEN:You have abused the powers given to you which were meant for enlightenment. The Patron Spirit of the Sun Mages views you in disfavor.

• All Sun Mage abilities have been sealed for 7 days

• Maximum Mana has been permanently decreased by 5%

• Your Mana Gauge has been depleted by 80%

This is not your 1st violation of your oaths. In light of this, the Patron Spirit of the Sun Mages has cursed you and issues a final warning. Continued abuse of Sun Mage abilities will result in the WRATH OF THE SUN SPIRIT.

CURSE OF THE SUN SPIRITThe Sun Spirit has been wrongfully represented! As such, he views this battle with disfavor. NONE MAY PROFIT FROM THIS BATTLE!!

• No Experience or Items will be gained from this fight

• Any who die from this fight will permanently lose 1 random skill

My class was originally only supposed to provide support to other people. That’s what I swore to the Patron Spirit of the Sun Mages when I first became a Sun Mage. Of course, I was completely lying through my teeth. Sun Mages were the most powerful type of fire mages in my eyes. Why the hell should we only support other people? We should be out there doing what we want, and fighting whoever we want!

But the Spirit that gave the first Sun Mage his powers only did it with that condition. When I first used [Solar Flare] to kill, I was practically laughing my a** off at the power it had! I’d changed the original spell, [Sun Spot], which was originally only meant to turn the surroundings into something similar to the Sun, so that we gain “enlightenment”, into something that could kill almost anything that was close to the center. You can’t imagine how great I felt then. Until the system notice popped up.

MANDATE OF HEAVEN.

A special type of system notice that only pops up whenever the governing powers of the world, the Spirits, decide to get up off their a**es and do something.

But even with all that power, when I looked around I could only feel hopeless. That’s because at most, only around 15 of them had died! The rest were still clutching their eyes in agony from the light.

I knew that because of the huge differences in our levels, I wouldn’t kill them all. The only ones that would die would probably be the ones closest to us when I used the skill. But COME ON!! I didn’t even manage to kill a quarter of them!!

It felt like it had been a few minutes, maybe even 10 since they’d started charging at us. But actually, it’d only been a few seconds! The ground shook for the 2nd time in a row, and I could feel the blood drain from my face when I realized that the Druids had stopped chanting half-way through their spell since they were blinded by the flare of light.

‘Oh SH*T!’ When somebody that uses a spell is interrupted halfway through, the spell backfires and creates a magical backlash that ends up doing completely random things! It might not sound that dangerous, but tell that to one of the guys who trained with me under my teacher. He’d meant to start a campfire, but got distracted and cut the spell short. The magical backlash that happened caused fire to start inside his organs!

From the sound of the rumbling, it didn’t seem like the Druids would be the only ones on the receiving end of the backlash either.

The ground EXPLODED and dirt went flying everywhere! Huge tree roots flew up from the ground, each one as thick as a person. They went on a rampage, slamming themselves down everywhere, leaving only flattened material behind.

A shadow went over me and I looked up to see one heading my way. I smiled wryly.

‘So in the end, this is as far as I could get, huh? GODDAMMIT, why couldn’t I have found that b*stard and killed him before I died in this game?!’

I closed my eyes in reluctant acceptance of the end, and an image of that smirking, cocky b*stard that ruined my life ended up in my head. I could feel dark flames burn in my heart at the thought of him, and my sadistic side kicked in as I tried to imagine him in the worst possible torture scenes. It wasn’t to be though. Not if I died here. I’d already promised myself that if I died once here, I’d give up on making him pay.

‘I guess in the end I wasn’t strong enough.’ I thought bitterly to myself.

There was a loud YELL and a CRACK, followed by the sound of something cutting through, and a big CRASH.

Opening my eyes, I saw the world’s biggest idiot standing in front of me with a smile.

“Yo, Misa. Somebody call for a knight-in-shining-armor to rescue his lovely princess?” He teased with a shit-eating grin.

The part of the tree root that had been about to hit me had been cut off, flying just a little bit past me after Zhang had cut it off. He stood there with a giant 2-handed broadsword, a paw mark on the back of his hand fading.

I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks and I turned my head away so he couldn’t see me blush. “Who the f*ck needed your help you big idiot?” I muttered.

His grin only got wider when he heard that, but otherwise he said nothing.

Seeing him back to normal got my competitive spirit back up. ‘There is no way that I’m going to lose to this guy!’

‘We can still win this.’ That was what rang through my mind as I stood back up.

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Author's Note:

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