Dante FareFyre, Level 25, Floor 8.

"Ahh, now you're talking! Finally a challenge worthy of my forging prowess. It'll take a little while to find the materials for crafting a sword of that strength so you may want to come back in a couple of hours; I'll message you when it's done." With that Rapp left his store front and disappeared into his storeroom, leaving Dante alone in the shop. Well I guess I'll go walk around for a bit. Leaving the shop Dante felt a presence behind him and put his hand on the the handle of his sword out of habit only to feel to very soft hands cover his eyes. Oh it's Sona, she came and found me. He though, taking his hand away from his sword to reach up and hold onto her delicate hands.
"Guesssssss whooooo?" Sona whispered softly into Dante's ear before lightly breathing on his neck.
"I think it must be my most beautiful Sona." He acknowledged, pulling her around his body into his arms. Within that smooth movement he had manage to get a free hand to caress her face as she began blushing; their eye's meeting.

"The sword's not quite ready yet darling, so I'll have to come back here soon before we can go off to dinner." He said while looking deeply into her eyes and softly caressing her cheek.
Blushing, she replied. "T-that's fine handsome, shall we just walk around for a bit then?"
"Sure my love, lets go." Sona locked her arm with Dante's and starting clinging to him, her breasts snuggling around his arm, much to his pleasure. The couple proceeded to walk around the market place, flirting openly and getting sweets from a side store. While sharing cotton candy on a stick together Dante got the message. Beep Beep.

[New Message]
From: Rapp
Subject: IT'S DONE!!!
[Open][Ignore]

It's done, it's done! Come back instantly, you have to see it! This is my best piece of work yet, it'll last you easily until the 20th floor, most likely even to floor 30 or higher! The gleaming blue blade is glossed with frost gem extract giving it a wonderful shine and it'll be as swift as you could possibly want, plus the razor-sharp tip will really do wonders on boosting your Sword Skills. Just imagine your pretty purple flower dance but three times as fast and fifty times sharper! Plus it won't weigh you down at all with the super light-weight core and the handle should be a truly comfortable fit with the rare wood that it's made from, also making it twice as forceful with each blow! Anyway you'll see for yourself, just get here now!

"Well you just read that message? Are you going to come with me?" He asked, handing the cotton candy to her.
"I'll just come and wait out the front, I don't want to intrude on your business." She replied, taking another bite of the cotton candy. Nodding, the pair went arm in arm again and heading back to Raposa, sharing bites of cotton candy on the way.
"I'll just wait here for you." She said letting go and leaning against once of the maple trees.
"Okay darling, see you soon." He said to her, opening the door and entering the shop.

"CHECK IT OUT! LOOK LOOK LOOK! It's called The Twilight Blade!" An excited Rapp said, waving the freshly made sword.
"Oh it looks my style at least," Dante said grabbing the sword and inspecting it closer, "Let's see how strong it is?" Taking out his old sword and handing the new sword back to a confused Rapp. "Hold it horizontally." Rapp looked confused as he held the sword horizontally and nearly screamed when Dante suddenly hit it with his old sword.
"Oh it didn't break, let's trade now, hold this one now." Trading swords Rapp held the old sword horizontal and again Dante struck it. The sword shattered into pieces as the new sword cut through it effortlessly. "Oh this will work! Thank's heaps man," He quickly swiped in the air accepting Rapp's friend request, "I'll message you when I need a blacksmith, if you need help again also feel free to message me. See you later, thanks again." And with that, new sword in his possession turned and opened the door to an awaiting Sona who jumped into his arms. "We can go to dinner now darling. Bye Rapp!" The door closed as he finished his sentence. The couple then proceeded to walk towards a recommended restaurant, once again arm in arm with Sona clinging to him.


A few days later.

More and more players began congregating in front of the boss doors. Dante looked over the group, wondering if any of them knew of her special ability to cause people to stab themselves. There was a few group of players arguing with each other spread out and a few players playfully teasing each other, two different ends of the spectrum participating in the boss battle today. I hope the people arguing don't get in the road or get themselves killed because of their frustrations with each other. He though turning around and looking at the door. There was a few players he recognised near him that waved to him when they saw him. A few of the approached Dante to talk to him. After a quick chat he told them about her special ability and sent them off to spread it into the group as much as possible. After a minute they reconvened on him, telling of their success of telling other players about her ability. "Okay then, let's go my friends." Dante said, pushing the door open for all players. As the doors creaked opened, all players turned and faced it, ready to charge when the doors allowed them the room.

Group after group began flooding into the room, Dante in the lead with a few of the players that he was talking to early following him. "Remember, don't look into her eye's." He stated once again as they took up position in front of her, her snake hair hissing angrily as she gazed over all the players rushing into her sanctuary. The entirety of the players circled around Salathar, beginning their attacks. Dante's groups of elites all followed his lead, using their speed skills and sword arts in unity to do significant damage to her belly before jumping away as a group to dodge the snake hair. Signalling to the few players with him to go around her side they all quickly sprinted off to begin their next attack. They barraged her side again, Dante's purple trail following his new sword as it's significant power was showing off, taking off noticeably chunks of Salathar's health with each strike. Again they all jumped back, dodging the snakes hair only to hear a scream of horror.

Dante stopped, as his small group followed Salathar's line of sight to see a player they all recognised stabbing himself in the chest. He should have known about her ability! Damn it! Dante braced himself as the player stabbed himself one last time, smashing into thousands of data fragments. Some of the players who had been battling with Dante stepped back in shocked. "Don't let it dishearten you guys, you know not to look at her eyes. We have to beat her to save everyone from this world who provides for us." Most players now had stopped attacking and had all looked at the disappearing data fragments, looking in shock. This horrible boss, I'll destroy you for that. Activating his sonic leap sword skill, he dashed forward leaving behind his signature purple trail. Plunging his sword deeply into the snake's side he swept it out as she went to counter him with her hair, which he sliced in half with ease. Salathar's attention still wasn't on Dante, which confused him before he heard "Everyone get ready to attack!"

Looking in the direction of the voice he saw a girl stabbing herself, looking into Salathar's eye's. That is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever seen someone do. He thought as he commanded his small group to begin attacking. With his group now with him they began furiously slicing into Salathar, cutting off her hair now or taking the hit while trying instead of dodging. With the small group holding their own other players began joining in, quickly taking Salathar's attention away from the girl who feel to her knee's gasping. With their confidence now restored the players once again began attacking, with brave (idiotic) players taking turns falling under the spell. Taking less damage now as her attention on the spell only lasted about a quarter of the time it usually did with the amount of damage she was taking.

Ordering his group back Dante took in the battle again, seeing there was many players struggling with the tail and hair. "Okay guys, we are going to lock down the tail and hair, you three I want you to stab her tail and hold it from attacking people as good as possible. You come with me, we'll get her hair." Without hesitation the group agree and nodded, sprinting off to the side of Salathar to get to her tail. As they got around her they saw a few players had had the more or less the same idea and were trying to get rid of the tails threat as well. All five of them activated their Sonic Leap and stabbed their swords into her tail while another player ran down it on the other side, dagger buried deep. While three of his group stay and plunged their sword's deeper Dante pulled his sword out, in a slashing motion to do more damage and jumped onto her back, his wingman following soon behind. The pair now running up her back began slicing away the snake hair as it tried to attack them, doing a nice amount of damage. Salathar's health was in it's last bar as they approached her head. Activiting another sword art Dante sped to the lead, his sword taking down several of her snake hair in one swept as he closed in on her neck.

Reinhard Ossur- Floor 8, Level 22

The front lines. This is where Reinhard belonged. He had been working steadily for weeks now to get here. Despite all the peril that front liners faced, Reinhard felt a growing sense of belonging as he inched closer to the dungeon, following Elise closely. Each gave the other a challenge, and Reinhard wouldn't have it any other way. Elise had a competitive spirit. He liked that. Though he would admit it was quite strange to see another health bar in the corner of his HUD. It's vivid green matched his own. Hopefully it would stay that way. Reinhard had never truly partied with anyone, having remained quite the solo player since the beginning. His friends list was bare, having only a few people on the list with the majority being shopkeepers he returned to as a regular customer. Part of Reinhard liked Elise, from what he saw of her. She was a skilled player, having survived as long as she did, and she was a loyal friend to those in her party. He knew she had his back. Protecting her was the least he could do in return. Worst case, he will save her and she will owe him twice. Reinhard did save her friend…Krissu was it? Reinhard wondered how she was doing these days. Hopefully she was still alive, at least.

Reinhard knew when he reached the boss room. He could smell it. A lumbering, snake-like behemoth, the monstrosity loomed over the party of hopeful monster slayers, her face of twisted evil staring into their souls. Reinhard hid his sliver of fear that was deep within his heart. It was his first front line boss raid, and the reality that he could be unprepared becoming ever more apparent. Salathar was its name and its many life bar revealed itself soon enough. Despite the fear, a small bit of humor kept Reinhard grounded: She was nothing more than a Medusa rip off. It was a lame, dark joke but Reinhard's concentration needed all the help he could get.

Reinhard stood back, keeping his defenses up as he observed Salathar's fighting style. It was important to gauge how she moved and attacked, as well as any abilities that Reinhard was unaware of. She charged forward through a pack of players swiftly, barraging them with her snake like hair. She was quick, but her attacks seemed to lack range. What was interesting was her attacks were capable of hitting multiple targets at once. This made surrounding her almost pointless, since she could break an encircling strategy with relative ease. At least approaching her was easy. No range, no problem.

But then, Reinhard caught a glimpse of what Elise was eyeing with so much attention. A scrappy, skilled player was fighting the boss with some degree of success. However the tides of battle abruptly turned against him. While catching his breath, he looked into Salathar's eyes. The gaze of Salathar froze the player in place and with a presence as dark and sickening as Reinhard could imagine, hypnotized the player. With a ghastly look, the player grasped his sword tightly as he plunged the blade into his own chest repeatedly until his untimely demise. There was no stopping him, as his friends leapt into action pleading him to stop as he chipped away at his own health. Reinhard could swear he saw the player bat away his friends so he could continue to kill himself. When the final blow was struck, the player fell back, his face pale, his mouth agape as he stared into the ceiling, spending his final moments contemplating. Like everything else in this perverse world, he shattered into bits of data, glimmering in the dim lights of the dungeon. Exchanging glances was fatal. Something Reinhard had to keep in mind.

Reinhard wanted to deliberate with Elise to formulate a full proof strategy, but he was too late to the punch. She charged forward, avoiding eye contact (which meant she likely caught on to some of the things that Reinhard had learned), as she engaged Salathar in battle. All things considered, Elise did well. Reinhard watched as she blocked and dodged several attacks as she slashed away at the creature. Reinhard quietly cheered her on, but some anxiety filled his heart when he saw Elise's health drop to yellow.

Reinhard was going to leap into action, hoping to finish what Elise started, but other groups joined the fray. Many focused their attention on the tail, which was smart to say the least. The sweeping motion of the tail covered a lot of ground, and swatted away players around like flies. Removing the tail from the equation was necessary. The snake hair was also a problem, but he saw a number of players being led to take that out too.

But what was he doing? Nothing. He watched as the battle took place in front of him. He was a spectator at a sporting event, sitting in the front row, wondering why he wasn't competing. Wondering why he couldn't play with the big kids. Why am I watching? Why am I not fighting? What the hell am I doing?

Reinhard's eyes burned with anger. Anger at the boss. Anger at the others. Anger at himself. He had enough of waiting around. Salathar's health was nearly gone due to the focused attacks of the others. At the very least, Reinhard was hoping to redeem his cowardice. Reinhard drew his Arctic Blade in front of him, keeping the blade held tightly in his sword arm as he rushed Salathar head on.

Avoid eye contact. Dodge tail. High jump. Lob off snake hair with sword arts. Repeat.

It was a simple plan that he followed to a tee. Reinhard kept his eyes focused on the torso of Salathar, realizing any attacks would likely be telegraphed from any subtle motion of the creature's core. Salathar caught wind of Reinhard's bold charge and swung the tail widely knocking around a few players would attempt to butcher it earlier. It was a easy, nimble dodge for Reinhard. Not only did he expect it, the attack was slow at this point, as Salathar was on her last "legs" at this point. Reinhard mounted the tail of his opponent, slashing it twice as he used it as a boost to jump onto the back of Salathar, joining a few players in a crusade to bring the creature down like every other boss in this damn game.

Reinhard stood his ground on the back for the time being, burying his sword in the creatures back for support as he climbed higher and higher. Reinhard gained some solid footing, barely balancing his large frame on Salathar as she attacked with her serpent strands of hair, Reinhard took a few cheap shots as the hair surrounded him, snacking away on his health. He watched as his health was inching closer and closer to yellow, until Reinhard used a defensive sword art [Counter]. His blade had a bold glint to it as Reinhard as he slashed away the three hairs, doing a fair share of damage to the creature.

Powered by his anger, Reinhard decided to be shamelessly reckless. The next wave of attacks followed soon after, and Reinhard slashed away a few before grabbing one of the hairs. Using it as a rope, Reinhard used the hair to climb closer to the head, hearing the creature scream in frustration. Reinhard swatted away snake hair after snake hair as he approached, consuming the creatures attention. Soon enough, she would be bald as Reinhard would give her the closest hair cut he could manage if given the chance. As Reinhard neared her head, he made a daring leap to the top of Salathar's head, where he would focus his attacks on the eyes hoping to prevent her from hypnotizing any more players.

Fester and Rose
Rose pulled the nice shopkeeper aside, "Hey, we don't have any money you know." She said in a low voice, "Do you think we can make a deal?" She leaned in closer, "Me and Fester can go out and retrieve any item you need. Could be good for business." She pointed back to Fester, "His sword is as strong as my word." She held her hand out, "Do we have a deal?"

Fester looked around with the lowest of their party, "Soooooo, as a computer, what exactly are you programmed to do? I mean are you programmed to help players like us, or do you have a free will AI? The second one is cooler! Oh and do you know of a small child in the game? It seems weird she is here, in this world." The child was indeed still on his mind, maybe one day he'd come face to face with her and her NPC bodyguards.

Natsumi Aido - floor 8/Dovren - level 12

As Natsumi heard the price, she seemed to be a little sad. The Shopkeeper said 800 cor… she only had 740 cor… only if she hadn't give Daisuke all of her savings, she could've bought that sword 10 times if she hadn't!

Natsumi faced the shopkeeper with a determined look on her face. "i'm coming back for it…" she said to him. Natsumi then walked over to Kamui, wondering which sword he would take, he must have alot cor… i mean, look what he has been carrying around! Natsumi was sure alot players had bought stuff from him, esspecially teleport crystals were populair.

Kamui choose for the ice sword, good choice Natsumi thought, but didn't say it out loud. "nice choice." oh well… she thought she hadn't said it out loud.

Actually, the way Natsumi was dressed up, everyone could probely notice she had cleared alot of quests, she hoped it wouldn't give too much trouble later on. People might think she was in the beta test, or worse, they could think she's a beater.

Kamui Ozora: Level 4
Floor 8 - Dovren

Only 150 cor? Kamui has more then enough to buy that Ice Sword.



Kamui pays the clerk 150 cor & collects his new sword. What an amazing sword he has. He'll be able to freeze his enemies to death. Hopefully he won't fight foes too strong. Just training is fine.

Gear
-Equip
|_Ice Sword
-Remove

He turned to Fester, Rose & Natsumi. How many quests had he completed? Only two. Sad, right? Let's not dwell on the past right now. He could tell that Natsumi had completed a lot of quests. I mean, look at her. That isn't ordinary attire. Great, now Kamui was blushing. Then again, he always blushes, even now, so it doesn't bother him...much.

"So...where to again...?" he asked Fester & Rose. H had already forgotten where they were gonna train him. Hopefully some place safe- well, safe enough.

Fester and Rose
The shopkeeper smiled, "Why don't you just take them, and maybe pay me off another day? It is just a game you know."

Rose bowed graciously, "If it was only game I wouldn't be this fearful all the time." She said gravely. "I must thank you though, I can't stress how much this helps us." She walked to the group, "Guys we should go to floor 4 and train as much as possible for the next boss. If all goes well, and we grind enough, then you will participate in the next boss okay?" She pushed them out of the store. "Just wait out here for a bit."

The shopkeeper looked up from doing inventory, "Is there anything else? I can't give you too much you know!"

"No it isn't that, I'm just saying thank you. Fester and I will send or bring supplies whenever we can." She turned toward the door, and without turning around, "Hope to see you again."

Outside Fester was thinking to himself, mostly about his memory. Now that he thought about it, he had no memories of the first few days of the game. He couldn't help but wander if there was some magic or science behind it. Then his mind wandered to less deep things like what to kill, and who the last boss was. 'If we get to the next boss, I'm going to solo it! And then you guys can have the loot, because I'm just that nice to NPCs!" He said suddenly. "Lets get to floor 4!" He ran with his speed skill to the teleporter and jumped through. Rose was left with the lowbies.

"Well, I suppose we should go... I think he may have forgotten his fear of sand." She remembered the last time they were on the 4th floor, the first time they had actually done something as a group. "Watch out for sand worms and stay close to me when we get there, especially you Kamui."

Kamui Ozora: Level 4
Floor 8 - Dovren

There he, Fester, goes again with the whole NPC thing. Kamui decided against speaking up about it. No point in speaking against the hero, plus the fact that Kamui is shy about talking, as usual. When everyone was outside, Fester ran to the teleporter using speed. No way... Kamui was amazed that Fester had the speed skill, just like him. What else could he do? I already have the sword, & my shield is still pretty good. Why think about equipment right now?

Rose warns Kamui & Natsumi about the sand worms on floor 4, & to stay close to her when they arrive, specifically Kamui. Kamui nodded, knowing how much he still needed protection. Floor 4, Dysthaven, was a floor recommended to players of level 6-12. Kamui was level 4. He was having trouble thinking this through. Was it such a good idea? Would he survive?

Nobody survives in this game when your health depletes to 0.

This time, Kamui has help & protection if he gets into any trouble. Fester, Rose, Natsumi. They'll protect Kamui while he trains. Maybe then he can fend for himself. He would still want company, without the talking.

Kamui decided best not to show off his own speed skill, & just walked to the teleporter. He answered which destination he wanted to go, which would be Dysthaven. When he arrived, the first thing-or rather, person-he encountered was Fester, before looking at the rest of the place. Pretty sandy place if you asked me-er, Kamui. Didn't Rose say Fester was afraid of sand?

Natsumi Aido - floor 4/Dysthaven - level 12

Natsumi followed the others as they teleported to floor 4, it was funny to see how Fester used his Speed skill to get to the teleport fast, esspecially when Natsumi's skill is also speed, and cooking, she has really improved that over the month. That reminded her that she had some self-made sandwiches in her inventory. Hmmm… maybe she would give Kamui, Fester and Rose one later.

Natsumi told shouted her next destination and got teleported, once she came there she heard Rose saying that Natsumi and esspecially Kamui had to stay close to her. Kamui still seemed worried so Natsumi decided to relieve him a little. "Don't worry, if your HP bar reaches the yeellow zone, i'll immediately jump in front of you." Natsumi said to the boy who was taller than her. Nice move, Natsumi, do ond more thing and they'll think you're a beater… she thought as she started slayering some sand worms. She was actually really nervous, these worms were almost the same lvl as her, if she stopped paying attention then she'll certainly die.

Natsumi started thinking bout what Daisuke messaged her. He was in a guild now… Natsumi wasn't intending in joining one at all, she'll just level up and try to get in the front leads, maybe after that she'll join one. Natsumi then reminded herself to message him back, and that's what she did.

What she didn't know was that a sand worm was about to attack her, but she smashed her blade against it a few times and went back to messaging. Yup, Natsumi gets irritated when you hold her up from doing something.