I.T. typed away rhythmically, enjoying the rapid, satisfying clack noises his mechanical keyboard provided. Some people were annoyed by the sound of such keystrokes, but to him, the noise was oddly satisfying - an echo of his nearly constant efforts to improve, a sonic reminder of how much he’d accomplished. It also helped drown out the distant sounds of screaming that were rapidly growing closer.

“The door is unlocked, Cyrus,” he called to the panicking man babbling outside his door, “same as always. Now, if you’d be so kind as to calm the actual fuck down so I can understand what it is that has you so panicked…” He spun his revolving chair to face the door as the red haired man burst through it, his skin even paler than usual.

“Didn’t you see?!” he half shouted.

“See what?” I.T. wasn’t used to being in the dark, and the panicked man’s choice to start a presumably important conversation with a question had him in a bad mood almost instantly.

“The error! The system found a critical error in the first dungeon!”

Inovar took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose just below his glasses. “Cy,” he said calmly, “last I checked, you were in charge of the dungeons. All of them.”

“Well-”

“If you don’t explain how the hell this involves me in the next 5 seconds,” I.T. said, speaking over the man without even bothering to raise his voice, “ I’m going to physically throw you out of my room and get back to work that actually matters.”

It was an empty threat. Between the two of them, Cyrus was easily the more physically imposing, having a good 30 pounds of muscle and half a foot of height on the irate programmer - but it had the intended effect. Cyrus snapped out of his panic, stomped over to I.T.’s keyboard, and pulled up a live view of the Forgotten Temple Ruins.

Inovar swallowed hard as he stared at the massive crater that had once been a Dungeon.

“... Ok, two things. First, I can admit when I’m wrong, and that right there is in fact my problem. Sorry about that. I’ll update the system to notify everyone of critical failures from now on.”

Cyrus looked at his oldest friend as if he’d grown a second head. “The way you phrased that makes me terrified to hear the second part.”

“That’s probably because we both know what caused this.” I.T.’s voice was calm and steady, but his hands were already flying across the keyboard. “My second statement isn’t about that, though. At least, not directly.” He brought up the dungeon record, scowling for a moment as he realized how few attempts there had been to clear it. Had they really hidden it that well? “We can’t play fair when the enemy cheats.”

Cyrus nodded slowly, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Say it!” the red haired man-child said eagerly as he caught on. “Sayitsayitsayitsayitsayitsayit!”

Inovar smirked. He’d forgotten how infectious Cyrus' enthusiasm could be. He melodramatically slammed down on the enter key, bringing up a wide array of statistics.

“We wrote the rules, Cy. If these little bastards are gonna just ignore them, I’d say it's time we break a few ourselves.”

As the pain faded, Ether found himself feeling oddly weightless. He opened his eyes to find himself floating through a green tinted void, with the occasional brightly colored leaf drifting past him. Like him, the leaves weren’t falling, but rather slowly floating, as if suspended in water. His mind felt strange somehow. It was as if his thoughts were both completely clear, and oddly clouded, like a dim and distant dream. He was sure he should be panicking, or in pain, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember why.

Then, he saw the increasingly familiar swirl of colored light and flower petals that had accompanied most of his log-ins.

You’ve been revived by the world tree.

Your party failed to complete the Forgotten Temple Ruins.

You’ve been awarded 24% of the stored experience for the attempt.

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 10!

1 available stat point.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the ability to choose a Class!

Congratulations! You’ve reached the true start of your journey.

Like a baby bird that’s finally grown all it’s feathers, it’s time for you to leave the nest!

In this case, the nest is the Valley.

Get out.

Timer until teleportation to the edge of the Valley: 30 minutes

The sudden barrage of notifications left Ether dazed for a moment as he tried to process everything. They’d… lost? What happened? He’d been so sure the boss fight was over, and then…

Ether tried not to scream, clutching at his miraculously mended chest as all the memories of his battle abruptly returned to him. He’d died. He’d died, and now he was back in the town square of Alfam.

Something felt wrong. How had he managed to forget his own death? Why had the memories abruptly returned now?

He absentmindedly confirmed that he hadn’t lost any of his equipment when he respawned, staring up at the massive, bizarre flower that adorned the root of Yggdrasil. As he was watching a shimmering light appeared in the middle of the flower, which quickly closed up to form a sort of petal cocoon for a moment before abruptly opening again.

Perseus slowly drifted to the ground, blinking dumbly. “Well, FUCK!” He shouted, startling some of the passersby as he landed. “We lost!”

“We still leveled,” Ether replied dumbly, looking back and forth between his friend and the unreasonably sized flower. “Is that whole thing with the flower typical, or…”

Perseus glanced at him in confusion for a moment before nodding. “Oh yeah, you’ve never actually watched someone respawn or log in before, have you? We come out of the giant root flower things, yeah. Nice light show, but totally unnecessary. Speaking of unnecessary, changing the dungeon was smart, but adding a whole second boss? What a dick move! I mean, yeah, we thrashed the first one pretty easily, but I’m me, so I kinda expected that.” He stopped ranting when he noticed Ether’s hand shaking.

“You… ok, man?” he asked cautiously. “Dying in this game is a real trip. If you need a minute -”

“I’ll be fine,” Ether said firmly, not meeting the [Rogue]’s eyes as he spoke. “I just… I need to think about things other than having my heart ripped out for a minute. Like… like picking my class!”

Perseus scowled, but didn’t push the matter. He hadn’t been in the mood to talk much after his first death, either. Instead, he chose to play along, saying “Lemme guess - you’ve already made a list?”

“Mage or Spellblade,” Ether replied with a nod as a second flash of light and accompanying thud signaled Shar’s arrival.

“Have I got a story for you,” she said as she stumbled to her feet with a groan.

“Story later,” Perseus insisted, staring at Ether intensely. “Class time!”

Ether rolled his eyes. “I’m just gonna pick Spellblade, it’s not a big…deal?”

“And that was a question because…?” the [Rogue] prompted.

“I… don’t have those options available.”

Perseus scowled. “What? Basically everyone has those options available! You just need to know at least one spell and one skill! How the hell can you not have it unlocked?”

“I think you’re misunderstanding,” the party leader replied calmly. “I don’t have any of the normal options available. In fact, I only have one, and I’ve never seen it on any of the online lists.”

Soulblade

A student of swords, spells, and the souls that guide them.

+4 Dexterity

+4 Strength

+4 Willpower

+4 Vitality

+1 Free Stat point per level past 10

Improve 1 Spell and 1 Skill upon Gaining Class

Unlock Soul Skill: [Manifest Soul]

Perseus’ eyes were wide with awe as Ether finished reading the description aloud. “Take it,” he said quietly. “Take it right now. No, wait, see if there’s a screenshot function, take a picture, THEN take it. This is…” he shook his head and took a deep breath. “You found a hidden class,” he said with a huge smile. “Bonus stats and unlocking your personal skill 15 levels early?! That’s insane!”

“Would now be a good time to mention that I upgraded my class?” Shar asked as Ether confirmed his choice.

“WHAT?!”

While the [Inferno Chef] explained what had happened after the [Rogue]’s death, Ether examined his latest skills.

Congratulations!

You are now a Soulblade.

You’ve learned the secrets of the deepest form of magic, Soul Manipulation!

Analyzing soul.

Analysis complete. Affinity: Storm

[Shock] Upgraded into [Stormbolt]

[Reflect Projectile lvl 2] Upgraded into [Vortex Barrier]

[Storm Slash] Benefits from upgraded component skills.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked your soul skill!

At level…

10?

Anyway.

You’ve unlocked the unique Soul Skill: [Manifest Soul]!

You gain more than simple EXP from slaying your opponents.

When enough of the same enemy has been defeated, you may Manifest one of their skills.

Be warned - a Manifested skill can only be used a few times before it fades away.

Recharge these uses by slaying more of the creatures that use the skill in question

“- and the spell description says it just keeps burning whatever it targets until it’s ‘fully cooked’,” Shar concluded, “so that should be the end of that.”

“I hope so,” Perseus grumbled. “That was one freaky monster. It even tried to steal your name, dude!” He nodded to Ether, who’d barely even heard what they were talking about, engrossed as he was in the description of his new skill. “What?”

“I said the fucking Demon called itself Diros,” the [Rogue] said with a scowl. “Weird, right?”

“Why would that be weird?” Ether asked, genuinely confused.

Perseus blinked. “Because… that’s part of your name?” he said slowly, his friend’s confusion only compounding his own.

“No it’s not.”

Ether’s party simply stared at him for a moment.

“The fuck do you mean?!” Perseus shouted. “You’ve used the same stupid name on every character in every game since we were twelve!”

“Yeah,” the new [Soulblade] said with a frown, “Ether.”

“Ether Diros.”

“Preeeeety sure it was just Ether.”

Perseus’ yellow eyes narrowed. “You’re just fucking with me, right? Dude, this ain’t funny.”

“And I’m NOT KIDDING!” Ether was starting to get frustrated. Why was his friend being such an ass about this? The name was always just Ether. Every time. …Right?

“To be clear, I’m on your side, Perseus,” Shar said, frowning at her now open menu, “but… check your friends list.”

The now nervous [Rogue] opened his menu - and froze.

Friends:

Sharlette

Ether $̸̢̢̧̡̘̞̗͚͎̱͉͍̲̾͐͗̚͜͜͝!̵̛̜̫̂̊̾͊̄͗͌͊̚͠͝^̵̝̉̽͌̔͊̀̽)̴̧̡̤̠̠̼͔̬̹̺͚̲͎͛̋̀̓̐̔͂̾̀́͜%̷̳̲͖̝̯̯̲̹̙͎͍͔̪̉͊͘͜͝

Violet

Even as he watched, the glitchy, distorted symbols faded away into nothing.

What in the hell was going on?