Far within the depths of the sunken continent, a palace of coral and marble stood, towering over the forests of kelp, fields of seagrass and the many villages laying around in the distance.

From the sea bed, the surface glistened like a dozen stars, the refractions partially visible on the white sand.

Within the castle sat the man, dressed in generic-looking robes, beside him an elegant table home to dozens of wine bottles.

A long, feathered tail replaced his legs, his face looking like that of a Fishman except for the fact his snout-like head shape.

Around this character sat a harem of nagas, fish-people and even some sea nymphs.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

His voice not distorted by them being underwater, his stare serious.

"The golem wasn't there," Arthur replied casually, he was hiding his irritation at being killed by Foxly less than ten minutes ago.

The fishman's eyes widened.

"What? You said-" he was interrupted by Arthur so dismissively asked: "Does it matter? In a few days, the entire world will be flooded,"

Despite not wearing any special gear Arthur was still surviving under the water.

The fishman himself wasn't sure how he did it.

"..." the fishman remained silent, he looked down and saw the thick, golden chains that bound him to his luxurious throne.

Arthur approached him.

"Look, all I need you to do is do what you were already going to do," Arthur sighed.

"We were going to do that in-game, just a large-scale troll, this is literally murder! We're literally flooding the entire world!" the fishman argued.

Arthur furrowed his brow.

"Don't over-estimate your worth, fish. You are all dead in my timeline and I can make that be the case again!" he threatened.

A small crack appeared on the fishman's cheek, a small swirl of blood flew out but he didn't react.

They looked at each other for a few more seconds.

Seeing the guild leader's nerves of steel, Arthur spoke up after a reluctant sigh...

"You really do have that something a guild-leader needs..."

A year before the isekai incident...

The legendary, number once guild on the server swam out into the middle of the sea discretely.

"Arascone: We finally found it! The raid of legend!"

"Osclo: Boss... it might just be nothing, a data-miner found a coral texture in the sea..."

Osclo wore light leather armour with metal plates, on his back was a spear and at his hip was a hatchet.

"Arascone: True, but it could also be the fabled raid!"

This character wore heavy red plate mail and had a massive sword on their back.

The group consisted of a dozen players, they were so legendary that they would solo dungeons and take forty-man raids down with just the twelve of them.

"Suildly: At last we have found our lair!" he played the /laugh emote.

"Arascone: Still rping I see?"

"Suildly: I know not what you mean by that, I simply wish to see the weaklings below me perish or become my playthings!"

They wore a long grey coat with black lining, a skull necklace, a black cape, a black mask... you get the drift, they were a total, absolute, edge lord.

"Arascone: Isn't the comically-evil schtick getting old?"

"Osclo: I will not let you lay a single finger upon the innocents of this world, Suildly! As heroes, it is our responsibility to do stuff..."

"Suildly: Is that an invitation to brawl, Osclo?! I shall show you my power of darkness!" he tossed a level five engineering toy that made purple sparks at Osclo's boat.

"Arascone: Guys, stop screwing around or you'll topple the boat!"

"Rarara: If I lose any honour points because of you r*#ards I'm done with this guild..."

A harpy with orange robes and an orange witch's hat hissed.

On her hip was a lamp, an offhand the double all light magic effects, on her back a staff.

The entire guild felt their FPS drop as into view loaded a million coral trees, forests of seaweed and under-water streams of different water currents.

Giant whales, jellyfish, turtles and uncountable fish littered the screen.

"Rarara: No wonder this zone we kept hidden... I can hear my computer's fans about to take off..."

"Suildly: Yes, an aura of instability permeates these waters... the perfect place for a guild base!" he played the /laugh emote.

"Suildly: I mean lair!"

Everyone went into the options menu and turned down the draw-distance for grass and particle effects bringing the zone to a comfortable, twenty FPS.

"Arascone: I just realised, someone could be listening in on us!"

"Arascone: Everyone, to the Vent*illo channel!"

"Rarara: Who the f#*k uses Vent*illo nowadays?!"

"Arascone: ...to the Dis*ord server?"

"Rarara: We've been banned from Dis*ord for crashing Club Pen*uin, remember...?"

"Arascone: ...to ... Sky*e?"

"Osclo: Hell no! I remember that horror movie!"

"Arascone: Guys..."

"Rarara: Hold on, I think my PC's fan is actually spinning so fast it's sucking my cables inside..."

"Osclo: Tape it!"

"Rarara: K..."

While Rarara was a woman in-game, he was actually a dude, he picked a girl based on the reasoning that "People will be a lot more likely to give me stuff, right?"

A few minutes later Rarara spoke in chat again.

"Rarara: Alright, I have good news... and not so good news..."

"Arascone: ?"

"Osclo: What are the good news?"

"Rarara: The computer is touching the desk again!"

"Osclo: And the bad news?"

"Rarara: My desk is no longer touching the ground."

"Suildly: Bul#*hit!"

"Rarara: No, I'm serious, I was paranoid about my PC frying since Australia is so hot... and... well... I installed like twelve massive fans."

"Arascone: I thought you were joking!"

"Rarara: Kevin told me to do it!"

"Arascone: DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM KEVIN!"

The chat went silent for a bit.

"Arascone: Rarara?"

"Rarara: IT'S MOVING!"

"Osclo: The computer?"

"Rarara: THE DESK BROKE THROUGH THE WINDOW!"

"Osclo: WTF?!"

"Arascone: WHAT THE F#*K!?"

"Suildly: HOW ARE YOU TYPING THEN!?"

"Rarara: I'M NOT LETTING GO OF THIS PC!"

"Rarara: I'M ROLLING DOWN THE ROAD WITH MY DESK LIKE VANE*SA CARLT*N IN THAT ONE SONG!"

"Rarara: EXCEPT INSTEAD OF A PIANO IT'S A COMPUTER DESK!"

Moments later, Rarara's disconnected.

"Osclo: ..."

"Arascone: ..."

"Suildly: ..."

"Arascone: Guess the power cord ran out..."

The guild continued in silence until the spotted the massive palace of marble and coral in the distance.

The game used fancy spacial algorithms to simulate a massive sea, in a sense, the map would get bigger or smaller for you depending on the region you entered.

This meant that Traveling in a straight line across two routes that were the same length on the map could take many times longer.

"Arascone: Alright, Gill, trade me the Gill potions!"

"Gyll: You know you said it wrong..."

"Arascone: Alright, Gill, trade me the Gyll potions!"

"Gyll: ...you think you're f*#king funny?"

Gyll traded the party a dozen gill potions each.

From their inventories, they drank the potions and jumped into the water, upon doing so they noticed it, the large, swirling vortex trapped withing a massive stone gateway.

"Arascone: A raid!"

Gyll was an unusual type of player, his classes were earth elemental-magic and as well as arcane.

Upon reaching level one-hundred he could sign up for a quest to gain the Geomancer auxiliary class.

Another example of such a class would be sword and healing or shield and healing, allowing you to gain the crusader auxiliary class.

They were rarely picked knowingly since a new player wouldn't go out of their way to research the intricacies of class choices.

Another one is the shadow element and any magic except for healing, this would lead to a quest allowing the player to become a witch.

These classes were commonly called match-classes and only gave the player five or so spells, this was to discourage players from picking two classes just to play as something else in the end-game.

The party consisting of eleven players sank to the seabed and made their way towards the portal...