"So you still haven't found the others?" asked John.

They were back to sitting at the inn once more.

"No, we have just discovered the intricacies of using the friends-list now after all..." Bonifacius replied.

"I wanted to contact Crown, but I think it's because both of us had each other blocked when this was a game that we can't use the friend's list."

"I tried contacting Foxly but it didn't work, for some reason, some old man kept picking up and saying Foxly's busy at the moment."

Bromy once again looked across the table and saw the blue-haired man sitting and eyeing the group.

Seeing that he was clearly distracted, Curstl followed Bromy's gaze and found the blue-haired man now looking at her.

"Are you feeling alright, Bromy?" she asked.

"Yup..." he replied not breaking eye contact with the man.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" asked the blue-haired man breaking the silence.

"I was going to ask the same thing, why the hell are you looking at me like that?" asked Bromy.

The blue-haired man stood up accompanied by his tree allies and stomped over to their table.

"Your crest, you're re-making the jGuardians? Seriously?! Why!?" demanded the man.

"My, you look familiar..." Curstl said squinting at him.

The blue-haired man looked so pissed he could pop a blood vessel.

"I'm Atwoz, the one who almost destroyed your faction a few weeks back!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, the guys who barely managed to enter our base and lost half of their men on Olivionion." he laughed pointing to Olivionion who just casually raised his arm as a greeting.

Atwoz's eyes widened in horror as he saw the familiar face of Olivionion.

"Don't worry, though - I don't work for her anymore," he assured him.

"What?" Atwoz and Curstl demanded in unison.

"Yeah, I left the area of organised sadism in exchange for organic sadism, I'll wander around, kill some people, go a day without killing anyone, go on a killing spree, terrorise a small ship, go camping in the mountains, y'know..." he said crossing his arms behind his head.

"Yeah, forcing yourself to be murderous twenty-four-seven is impossible nowadays..." Bromy agreed.

"Right? Like, when you have the edge of a sixteen-year-old you can pull it off, but as you get older you're less about the kill-count and more about the slaughter..." Olivionion nodded.

"What makes you think Curstl is in any way a qualified leader?!" demanded Atwoz.

"Oh, she is not qualified..." Bromy replied.

"Yeah, she arrested my friends before," John agreed.

"Thal doesn't like her," Alex shrugged.

"Hmmm...." Revenberry hmm'd aggressively thinking about everything she did to piss her off.

"Indeed, she is manipulative and probably beyond help!" Bonifacius replied.

Jordan didn't weigh in since he didn't really know her.

"Aww, it's so sweet you people have so many memories of me!" Curstl exclaimed completely missing the point.

Even more flustered Atwoz demanded once more "Then why help her?!" he demanded pointing at Curstl.

"This world may resemble a game in many ways, I think we should make use of the mechanics to lead the best lives we can, filled with thrills and adventure for those who seek them out!" Bonifacius began.

"But, by allowing petty grudges over past in-game mistakes and arguments, we are honestly impacting the livelihoods of real people!" he continued.

Atwoz scoffed, "I came here because I hoped the tank and healer of the guild most affected by Curstl would know better than to trust her... looks like I was wrong,"

Atwoz turned towards the door and gestured for his allies to follow.

"Well, that was pointless..." Curstl exclaimed taking a sip of the piss-booze.

"I didn't expect Bonifacius of all people to defend Curstl's guild..." thought Bromy as he gulped down the rest of his booze.

"So, back to the original question, how do we get to level forty as quickly as possible? Like in a week?" asked John.

Everyone went silent, Bromy still had his pint pressed onto his lips as the booze poured down on the floor slowly.

"I suggested raids, that's why we're organising the raid next week," Olivionion said breaking the silence.

"Reaching level forty in a week is not easy... perhaps it may not even be possible... but I think raids and dungeons are our best bet..." Bonifacius replied.

"I see! Well, that's why I wanted to meet up in front of the dig-site, I thought we should run the dungeon and get some XP!" John exclaimed.

"I see... but thou does realise there is a minimum level to enter, thou must be at least level five..." Bonifacius explained.

"Yeah, we could grind some boars and level you up if you need, I guess I could use a level or two," Bromy shrugged.

Alex, Jordan and John looked at each other and back to the apologetic looking Bonifacius.

"I'm level twenty-four..." John replied tapping on his right hand and showing them his level.

"Same..." both Alex and Jordan said in unison.

"..."

"..."

Everyone remained silent.

"I... we went questing for a while... and then the whole Ajuan thing happened..." John replied.

"Speaking of, I know where to go in Ajuan to get some great cheesecake, but that's kind of unrelated," John shrugged.

"What level are you guys?" asked John.

"...Ten..." Bromy replied.

"Nine..." said Bonifacius.

"Seven..." Revenberry explained.

"Twelve," Curstl replied.

"Twenty-one," Olivionion explained.

"So, I think it's safe to say we all meet the level requirement!" John laughed.

Bonifacius wiped a single stray tear, "They grow up so fast..." he thought.

"A little over a month ago, JohnWillStab, the undead with the worst class combination came upon Bonifacius."

"From the boars of boar hill to the first dungeon, to fighting the jGuardians, to the Alexander things only escalated, the sentient NPCs, John mind-controlling the continent..."

"We broke into his house, tore his dick off, eventually he escaped and got shot..."

Bonifacius thought about their journey

Meanwhile, Bromy's thought-pattern was a bit different.

"He ran into my island-home made a sea-zombie apocalypse on said home-island, made me go through a swamp just to settle down in a desert, then made my babysit his army of NPCs while he went off to do his edgy world-takeover thing..."

"When we first met, he tried to ruin my game, I was a bit salty about that but I think it's fair to say I may have been in the wrong..." thought Alex.

"YOU WERE!" Thal exclaimed.

"But then he gave me food, we went from rescuing ghosts to liberating towns and eventually taking down pseudo-governments." thought Alex.

"He was an asshole at first, tricking me into thinking he's a woman and whatnot, he didn't want to leave the game, and that pissed me off... but I guess he isn't that bad... edgy at worst..." thought Jordan.

"He took over the continent... that's about all I know about him..." thought Curstl.

"Who the fuck is this guy anyway?" thought Revenberry.

"Why is everything on the menu eggs?" thought Olivionion.