Chapter 1

Vesta tightly clenched her fist. Flames licked up her arm and around her neck. Her energy was low, all of their energies were low, and two of her team were out of the count already. The five of them were on the final boss in the Tower of the Broken. It was one of the not only most difficult missions they had run, but one of the oddest.

The final boss was an ancient goddess of elements and the projected loot was off the charts. Ithormal the goddess of elements held out a massive six-foot sword that had a blade forged of ice.

“Countless have tried to defeat me and you are no different! You will fall like all of those before.” The ten-foot-tall woman proclaimed clenching her fist. She lifted her arm and a pillar of stone shot up from the ground.

One of Vesta’s team, Spark, was sent flying through the air. He smashed into the ceiling breaking a few chucks of stone free. His body fell to the ground with a thud. He quickly rolled from left to right to keep from being hit with the falling stone.

“I can see that you are nearing defeat!” Vesta said as she took a step forward. She needed ten more energy before she could use her plasma blast.

“I don’t think you have much more in you there lady, aye?” Silence said walking up to stand next to Vesta. His powers were based in shadow, so he waited for a clear moment to vanish for a sneak attack.

“I’m done with this fight! Let’s finish this!” Spark said with bright blue lightning arching out of his eyes.

The moment came. Vesta’s energy level was finally high enough for her to make her move. She used plasma blast. Large balls of energy began to form in front of her outstretched palms. Once the appropriate amount of energy had built an eight-inch-thick beam of plasma rocketed out from her hands and slammed into a shield of water that shot up from the ground. The resulting steam filled the room.

Silence smiled and vanished into a plumb of smoke that appeared mixing in with the steam. Vesta yelled as the plasma flowed out of her body trying to push past the shield. Spark ignited a massive bolt of energy that smashed into the same point as the plasma.

When the lightning made contact the resulting explosion sent everyone flying in all directions. Vesta smashed into a wall. She groaned as she looked over to see Spark tumbling to a stop a few feet away.

He groaned in pain and started to push himself up off the ground. Vesta used the wall to pull herself up. She smiled when she looked over and saw that the fight was over.

Silence was standing on top of Ithormal with his daggers hilt deep in her chest. She was not moving a muscle. Silence pulled the blade out with a grunt.

“Nice move.” Vesta said with a smile walking up to the scene.

“Thanks, couldn’t have done it without your steam.” Silence said. He activated the blades of his daggers singeing off all of the blood. With a swift movement his blades were returned to their sheaths.

“Let’s have a look at this loot.” Spark said. As he walked up to the body he limped. Smoke billowed off of a singe on his back.

-You’ve completed a Mission!

-Tower of the Broken

-You were the first to defeat Ithormal The Goddess of the Elements.

-21,140xp (10% Bonus)

-You were awarded (5) Items, you have elected to auto-minimize these notifications.

-+230 Heroic Points

-+200 Hero Tier Points

“Damn.” Silence said solemnly. They had never seen an experience screen like that. They were the first people to make it through the Tower of the Broken.

“I know, this is ridiculous.” Vesta said going through the screen a few times to be sure what she was seeing was right.

The three walked over to a chest that had appeared in a bright flash of light behind where the boss had been standing. Vesta knelt down and touched the pad on the locking mechanism. A chime played loudly in the room. Bright lights and a hissing sound issued from the seams of the box as it lifted up and tilted back. Countless needles, or credit chips, were layered from the bottom to the point that they were almost spilling out over the top edge of the container.

-Needles 1,840x

-Total Value: 894,691t

-Your Share: 223,672.75t

-Deposit in personal account?

-Yes | No

Vesta nearly started to drool from the payout of the needles. She feverishly accepted the money and watched as if flowed almost endlessly into her bank account. She wondered what they next group would get but suspected that it wouldn’t be nearly as high. They were the first to defeat her after all.

“Alright, so what are you butt nuggets doing the rest of the night?” Spark asked.

“Have you ever wondered why it seems like we don’t want you around?” Vesta asked putting a hand on her hip. She dismissed the notifications on her HUD.

“Dude, what is wrong with you?” Silence asked shaking his head.

“Alright, well I guess I’ll take my leave.” Spark said with a bow. He pulled out a small cylinder device, cracked it in half, and vanished into thin air.

“Thank god.” Vesta huffed, “Really, why do we keep him around?”

“He’s Deona’s brother, and he is a pretty decent Electro-kinetic.” Silence said ever trying to play the good guy.

“Oh shoot!” Vesta said remembering their downed friends. She ran over to where their bodies waited for revival.

Vesta removed two serums from her inventory and jammed the first into Deona’s neck. With a loud gasp for air she sat up straight and grabbed her side where a long icicle had impaled her.

“That’s probably going to smart for a minute.” Vesta said. The ice was gone, and the wound was rapidly healing but it was still there in her mind. She reached over and stuck her last friend in the neck.

Zonos sat bolt upright and began to scream bloody murder. He started rolling and patting himself. Vesta had forgotten that he was downed when he caught on fire. She stopped him.

“Dude, you’re fine. The fire is out, and you are healed.” She said.

“Oh my god this is too real!” He said still trying to pat himself out at random spots.

“I love it.” Vesta smiled.

“Yeah you hardly ever take damage. What are you six levels higher than us?” Deona asked standing up. She stretched out the weird feeling of the pain in her side the best that she could.

“Ten actually.” Vesta corrected. She held up two fingers in a piece sign.

“No need to be a show off.” Deona said with a sigh.

“I don’t try it just kind of happens naturally.” Vesta said.

Zonos stood up. He had developed something of a nervous twitch from the fire. The four of them walked back over to the body that was sprawled out on the stone floor.

“Sorry we didn’t revive you sooner.” Vesta said.

“It’s cool. We had to go through that weird limbo thing since we were grouped up. It’s odd how it won’t let you choose to just respawn.” Deona said with a shrug.

“We were just discussing what we were going to do for the rest of the night.” Silence said.

“I’ve got a test in the morning, so I think I’m going to book it.” Zonos said with a particularly violent twitch.

“Yeah, the hubby wants to get breakfast. So, I should get to bed.” Deona said.

“See you guys tomorrow?” Vesta asked.

“Sure thing.” Zonos said with nod.

Deona and Zonos both teleported out of the mission area to log off.

“I guess that just leaves us.” Vesta said. She had been hinting to Silence that she wanted to spend more alone time with him, but in a typical guy fashion he wasn’t picking up on it or he didn’t care. Vesta didn’t know.

“Actually, I have to swing by Axiscore to turn in a mission, then I’ve got to bounce. I got some stuff going on. My sister is supposed to be coming into town tonight.” Silence said making a hissing sound.

“Oh, that’s cool.” Vesta deflated a little bit, “I guess I’ll turn in some dailies and head back to HQ. I’ve got some crafting that I want to work on anyway.” She lied.

“Awesome. See you tomorrow.” Silence said.

“Bye.” She waved as he vanished.

She stood alone over the body of the huge woman. It was the hardest the team had worked for a goal. They had felt in sync while it was going down, but now that it was over Vesta felt alone. The same way that she felt when she would log off of the game.

That was the main reason that she was ten levels ahead of everyone else. She would rather be in game than in the real world. There just wasn’t anything for here out there. She pulled a jump stick out of her inventory and with a long sigh she cracked it. The world around her dissolved into blackness.

~//~

Vesta really had nothing to do in town. She turned in an older mission that netted her a few hundred thread and a tiny seven hundred experience points. She completed the mission without thinking about it and normally would have just abandoned it since it was so low level compared to her.

Hiventhorn Manor came into view as she traveled in a Coin, an automated car that was like an autonomous taxi service, towards the Headquarters. Hiventhorn had cost the group ten million thread, but they scraped together and bought it regardless of the price. She alone had earned seventy percent of the money, but the others did the best that they could to pitch in for the final total.

Deep underground their headquarters was hidden under Hiventhorn. The car stopped near the front door and allowed her to exit. She tapped a small panel on the side of the door and was charged for the ride. She sighed and walked up the front steps to the main door.

Inside there was a hidden elevator under the massive grand staircase. Anyone who was allowed access could say the key word and the stairs would flatten becoming a door that would allow for entry into the elevator. Vesta road the elevator down into their proverbial Batcave.

The main room was a large open area with monitors lining the walls and a grand table situated in the center of the room. Vesta dropped onto the center chair and kicked her feet up onto the table. She touched a screen in the table and turned on the new with no volume. She then proceeded to zone out for an undetermined amount of time.

~//~

Vesta jumped a little when she woke. She caught the edge of the table with her foot to keep from falling over in the chair. Looking around she had no clue what time it was or how long she had been asleep. The room had grown dim and there was a chill in the air. She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms.

“Increase the temperature by two degrees.” She said. The building was equipped with a very powerful and sophisticated automation system.

“Yes ma’am.” The calm male voice replied.

Her head was killing her. It was like someone drove a hot railroad tie into her skull. She figured that it was because she fell asleep in the game. Deciding that it was time to stop fighting the inevitable. She opened the character management system so that she could log out for the night. She wouldn’t be gone long, just enough to get a night’s sleep then she would log back in.

Vesta immediately thought that something was wrong when she examined the window that opened.

- #FT&BRSAS3nfjf [email protected]#%@#%^&^%$GFDDV

[email protected]%#@$%*%D0

-#$%@#[email protected]#$%

-QRQ#$%#$%^@

[email protected]#$%@#$%@#$%^&&*

[email protected]#$^&&**#$%[email protected]$%

“What the hell is going on?!” She demanded loudly.

A loud noise scared her, and she jumped up from the chair. Spark sat up knocking down a pyramid of cans that he was sleeping under. He looked around with sleep on his face and scratched his head.

“No, not you.” Vesta said with very loud sigh.