A young man walked out of the potion shop onto the busy dirt road, his features obscured by a black cloak wrapped around him. The people on the street paid him no attention. If someone had looked his way, they would notice a bright smile on his face barely visible under his hood.

'I actually got invited to a dungeon, how great is this?'

Brax Tomlin was one of 4 billion users to play the world's most popular virtual reality massive multiplayer online game (VRMMO). The game had been out for a year and a half when Brax decided to login for the first time and try his hand at the game which had been in the headlines everyday.

'Evolution', the game, had turned into a full-time job for millions of people. Shortly after its release the other games on the market quietly disappeared. No one else could compete with a game that transcended ordinary life.

'Source Creations', the developers of 'Evolution', introduced a game that was more vibrant than everyday life. Their advancement in the full dive system, lead to people being able to enjoy playing virtual reality games for extended periods of time.

Ever since Brax had created his warlock character, Lucan Quilldrake, he played 16 hours a day. From 5 in the afternoon till 9 in the morning. The best part was that 16 hours in real life was almost 3 days in the game. 'Evolution' used standard time, 24 hours in a day, 60 second in a minute and so on. Source Creation's advancements in neural linking made all this possible and let players truly devote themselves to their lives in the game.

Lucan had been leveling in 'Evolution' for 9 months now, making it to level 85. The rankers and professional players were up to level 160 but that didn't discourage him. He hadn't been playing as long as them and then there was the fact that his class leveled slower than everyone else.

When a new player joins 'Evolution', they get to create their own character. They go through the whole deal and pick a class, assign stat points and what not. Originally 'Evolution' received a lot of grief from having only one playable race, human. But it was soon discovered that freedom in 'Evolution' far exceeded anyone's estimations.

Through playing the game you could change your race later as well as change your class and create something unique to yourself. On the opening day of the game there may have been 7 million warriors but today they had each evolved into their own unique characters.

Out of the 150 starting combat classes, warlock was the least played. Compared to other spell casters they had only half the mana and raw power, however, where priests and mages can only wear cloth armor, warlocks can wear leather as well as having a bit more health than the other casters. To make up for the lack of mana, warlocks are generally given special abilities from their patron. These special abilities may be magical but they were not counted as spells. None of these are the reason warlocks are the least played class.

When Brax was creating his character, he found that over 90% of the Patrons he could seek out to grant him power were evil beings. Like most people, he wasn't interested in making a pact with a devil or a demon. After going through the list of patrons for over an hour he finally came across one that would suit him.

Raze, considered to be one of the false gods, a neutral existence that stood at the supreme height of being a warlock. Wielding his power wouldn't automatically make priest and paladins go against you. The only catch was, Raze only gave power for experience. Other classes would get rewards every 5 or 10 levels, anything from new skills, to passive abilities. These rewards lasted till level 100 and gave the players a foundation to build their characters on.

When Lucan became a warlock, he received only a single gift from his patron, a slide bar in the warlock tab of his character page. He could slide it anywhere from 0% to 100%. Currently it was set at 15%. Whenever he received experience, 15% would be taken and given to Raze. In the character interface menu, he had a slow building count of the experience points he had given up.

He could take these points and spend them on different skill and abilities. If he had the points to spend, he was capable of learning anything his patron was willing to teach. Aside from this meaning he would take longer to level than everyone else, it meant he would have unparalleled freedom in his characters growth.

Unfortunately, the players of 'Evolution' were rarely willing to party with a warlock. Too many evil warlocks are required to sacrifice people to their patrons. In the first year of the game there were countless stories of people who joined into a party with warlocks to later be led to their deaths and made into sacrifices. The result was that most people wouldn't party up with a warlock unless they knew the person. This made things more difficult for Lucan, a loner who didn't make friends very easily.

Today was different. A group he had traded supplies to a few times sent him a message this morning. Their fifth player dropped out and they needed one more for a dungeon they were running this afternoon. Lucan quickly replied and he was sent the details of the meet up.

Lucan quickly finished his quest to hunt wolves and headed back to town. After restocking his bag with potions and bandages he went towards the transfer point (An inner-plane teleportation system). He would have to pay 50 silver to reach his destination. It was over half of his entire funds, but it was a chance to go into a dungeon, and if things went well, he may be able to join them again in the future. After a moment of hesitation, he paid the money and disappeared.

A second later he stepped into the city of Garth, a city on the edge of the Black Steel Mountain range.

"Hey Lucan, over here!" A tall druid named Goldbear waved him over. "This is the guy I was telling you about." The druid said to the people standing with him.

[Goldbear has invited you to a party]

Lucan accepted and hurried over.

"Are you sure this guy can help us?" Asked a knight in blue steel armor.

Lucan checked the party menu and found the four players were all between level 92-95.

"Ignore him Lucan, you already know Shinny, our priest, Hikaro is a knight and Cracked Teapot is a lightning mage."

"It's nice to meet you." Lucan said awkwardly while rubbing the back of his head.

"If you have anymore direwolf teeth to sell, please send me a message." Shinny said while nodding towards him.

"I am all out right now, but you will be my first call if I find more."

"Bear told us you have a high level intimidate spell. Is that true?" Cracked Teapot asked.

"Yeah its one of my five spells. It comes in handy a lot."

"What? You only have five spells?" Cracked Teapot asked with a ridicule laced tone.

"We need someone with a strong intimidation spell, why are you whining?" Shinny asked.

"Whatever, don't slow us down."

"Come on." Goldbear said. "Let's rent some horses and head to the Mine of Despair." The large druid said while putting his arm around Lucan and heading towards the town gates.

At the stable Lucan paid 20 silver for a horse whistle that would last 24 hours. He blew the whistle and a horse appeared before him, already equipped with a saddle and ready to ride. Even though he had less than 2 silver left in his pocket, if he did well in the dungeon, he could earn his money back and more.

On horseback they arrived at the entrance to the mine. The other players dismounted and blew their whistles, unsummoning their mounts. Lucan followed suit.

"Not many players come to this dungeon, since there are others closer to town that give more experience at the same level, but shinny needs the boots that drop on the last boss here. So even if we clear it, we may be trying a few more times."

"That's fine with me. This is my first dungeon, so I will follow your lead."

"Where did you find this guy?" Hikaro sneered.

"Would it kill you to be nice to our guest?" Shinny sighed as she rubbed her head.

"We still have to travel through the mine to reach the entrance of the dungeon. If anyone dies before we reach the dungeon, you're going back to the graveyard in Garth and will have to ride all the way back here. Let's work together. I will lead the way. Hikaro, you protect the rear. Lucan and Cracked will stay on either side of Shinny, protect her at all costs. Without healing, we will die that much faster."

The group of five began their descent into the mine. They came across a few earth elementals on their journey. Even though they were level 100, the combined effort of five people turned them into rubble.

Lucan had already gained half a level as they were nearing the entrance of the dungeon. The group was walking down a winding tunnel when Goldbear motioned them to silently stop. They could hear 2 voices conversing around the corner. Lucan didn't understand the language.

Goldbear motioned for them to back up. They retreated until it was far enough away to talk without alerting the enemy.

"Why are their people in the guard house, shouldn't they be on the other side of the bridge?" Shinny asked. Goldbear nodded.

"Once a week there will be a forward guard. It is just our bad luck." Hirako said. "We will have to defeat them without alerting the dwarf overseer on the other side of the bridge."

"Do you know how many there are?" Goldbear asked.

Hirako shook his head. "2-8."

"Maybe I can help." Lucan said.