Floor 1
December 4
Bladescape sat down hard in the safe zone in the labyrinth. She was surrounded by a bluish rock that had been carved out by pickaxes. At least by looks.
They had spent the morning fighting and gotten to the safe zone. Inside these predetermined zones, no damage could be done and monsters didn’t spawn. Just like the cities. It gave them a good respite from all the fighting. It was nasty in the labyrinth. If the safe zones didn’t exist, even more players would die. It was the only way to survive clearing the giant boss labyrinth and the bigger dungeons. Still, despite their work, they didn’t even know where the boss room was. No one did.
Bladescape looked up and saw that players were on the edge of her field of vision. In another two minutes they were at the safe zone. Their numbers were over 40. This was beyond a normal dungeon clearing team. They weren’t even stopping in the safe zone.
“What’s going on?” Thunderborne asked.
A massive player with dark skin stepped out of their group; bulky muscles with a goatee for the only hair on his head. With the way their real bodies were transposed into the game, he had to be that way in real life. On his back was a two handed axe.
“We are going to take on the first floor boss,” He said in a deep voice.
“What!” Astro exclaimed. “How do we get in on this?”
“We had a meeting yesterday. It was open to all players. At this point, its too late. We are already organized. Next time.”
Bladescape stood up. “Hey, I’m Bladescape, can we friend each other so we don’t miss Floor 2?”
“Sure. I’m Agil,’ He said as he accepted the friend request. “I’ll see you on the 2nd Floor.”
“Dang it!” Thunderborne spat. “We should be in on that!”
“Come on,” Bladescape said. “We need to get back to Tolbana.”
“Why?” Astro asked. “We should focus on grinding more XP.”
“Because as soon as they beat that boss and trigger the warp gate, we need to be onto Floor 2 and grinding there. We are barely getting anything out of the monsters here.”
“That’s a good idea,” Knightstar said standing up. “Its still early, so by the time they beat it, we will still have several hours to get XP on the new floor.”
“Let’s go,” Bladescape said, pulling the sword off her back. “Maybe Floor 2 will have a better sword for me. I’m ready for the two handed one, but I can’t get one better than this Anneal Blade.”
“YEAH!” AFCK exclaimed, jumping up with a bounce. She was still using a one handed axe too.
They packed up and headed back to Tolbana. Bladescape parked herself right in front of the teleport gate. She was going to wait until that gate was triggered for the main town on Floor 2. The others finished some things up and then joined her.
The big player, Agil, materialized at the gate in blue light.
“EVERYONE! THE FIRST FLOOR BOSS HAS BEEN BEATEN! FLOOR TWO IS UNLOCKED! THE NEW TOWN IS URBUS!”
Cheers went up all around, but Agil didn’t celebrate. He calmed the crowd with a hand up. “We lost one beating the boss. It came at a high price. We can do this, but we can’t do it alone, and we can’t forget their sacrifices. Only together can we beat this game!”
He stepped into the teleport gate. “Teleport, Town of Beginnings!”
Bladescape ran at the teleport gate her friends were right behind her. “Teleport, Urbus!”
Ubrus was a big city, excavated from the stone itself. Bladescape heard the somber oboe music of the floor. It was different than the orchestral string music of the first floor. Urbus itself was in a crater. Bladescape guessed the city was about 300 meters in diameter.
Thunderborne and Astro ran off to grab rooms and they caught up as Bladescape led their group of 11 out and onto the crater’s rim. It was on a plateau. The entire floor looked to be dotted with tabletop plateaus and at least one savanna.
“Okay,” Knightstar said. “The guidebook says its a lot of caves in these mountains and its main monster is oxes. Big ones. Strong ones.”
“Oh please,” Thunderborne scoffed. “We have BB. She can hold em.”
“In our teams we can take em,” Backbreaker said, with an enthusiastic arm swing. “Come on, y’all, lets go get em! All 11 of us!”
“Go Wondercolts!” Diemond said with a jump.
They charged out, down the side of the plateau. Bladescape was still in a party with Backbreaker, Astro, Doombunny, Lessa, and Kiefer. Lessa, Joltron, and Kiefer were working hard to raise their level. It was a bit of a slow down, but they were compensating quite well. The three of them were holding their own; no backing down.
THUNK!
“BACK OFF!” Backbreaker yelled as the ox rammed into her shield. She shoved it back and ruthlessly swung her hammer with a roar. It slammed into the ox’s head and blasted it into a thousand polygons.
“Wooh!” Backbreaker exclaimed wiping the nonexistent sweat from her brow. “That was a tough one.
“Nice job, BB,” Bladescape said with a smile and putting her hand on Backbreaker’s shoulder. “You are killing it. These guys targeting range is long. Without you, this would be very difficult.”
“Are you sure you are not part bull?” Kiefer asked. “You look like you enjoy enjoy locking horns with it.”
Backbreaker snorted. “I grew up on a farm. Mostly apples, but we had our fair share of chicken and cows. These suckers are not like the cows I know though, entirely. Still, I am stronger.”
“Umm, guys?” Doombunny said in her meek voice, trying to get their attention. “Excuse me.”
“I hope you are scoring a lot of XP for that shield of yours.”
“Umm, hello?”
“Enough y’all. Enough. Now what’s up, Sugarcube?”
“INCOMING!” Astro yelled.
They jumped apart and Backbreaker took the incoming beast on the shield, perfectly. Astro jumped in, activating Sonic Charge. Bladescape charged with Rage Spike. Doombunny might not have gotten the attention of the others, but she was relentless with Bite striking at the cow’s neck. Lessa switched with Astro and drove a Horizontal home. Kiefer switched with Doombunny and slashed his curved sword home with Reaver.
“RAAAAWWW!” Backbreaker yelled, breaking contact with the ox with a sidestep and then she ended the ox with a blow from Collision.
“It’s getting late,” Astro panted. “We can’t keep this up in the dark. We need to get back to safety.”
“Pack it in!” Bladescape yelled to their friends. “Let’s get dinner.”
It took them a while to climb all the way back up to the plateau. Everything was crowded in the city. It took a while to get dinner before they prepared for a good night.
Before they went to bed, Diemond called a meeting of the eight in the inn room she was sharing with AFCK, Bladescape, Doombunny, and Knightstar.
“Kiefer, Lessa, and Joltron have been working hard, and doing quite well.”
“Just say it, Rarity,” Bladescape smiled.
“They might be a bit behind us in levels, but I think we should offer them the chance to be in our guild. Whenever we get it formed.”
“What’s a few levels?” Backbreaker asked. “Right, y’all? They were mighty helpful. The six of us were crushing an ox in a single set of attacks. And they only just made level 7.”
“And nearing Level 8,” Knightstar added. “We are just shy from Level 11. Its not that much of a difference? Right Astro?”
“I’m the newest member to this group,” Astro shrugged. “So I’m not sure I am a valid voice. But speaking on game mechanics, they can be very beneficial to us. They won’t catch the most dedicated of us unless we coast, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to crush it alongside us. We are only talking a level or two.”
“We don’t need to make the choice now,” Bladescape pointed out. “Let’s just keep running with them, if they want, and see what happens when we get the chance to form our guild. We will build the friendship not just because of what they could do for us, but for friendship’s sake. To survive, we all need each other.”
Morning came too early for Bladescape. She went up to the edge of the crater and looked out over the Second Floor. It was beautiful as the orange sun shone through the slit between the Floors. Argus had done an amazing job with it’s creation. Without the death aspect, this game was beyond impressive.
Bladescape (SS): Lvl 10– One-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 10 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 10 – One-Handed Sword – Sprint – Agility
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 10 – Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry
AFCK (PP): Lvl 10 – One-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking
Diemond (R): Lvl 10 – Shield – Mace – Tailoring
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 10 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide
Astro (PS): Lvl 10 – Short Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce
Kiefer: Lvl 7 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – One-Handed Weapon Creation
Lessa: Lvl 7 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor
Joltron: Lvl 7 – One handed Axe – Shield – Light Metal Armor