10:37am, The Nineteenth Day

For the first time in two weeks we laid eyes on another party of players.

The lanky boy in the front was the obvious leader, given by how he directed the others with his sword. As I watched, he shouted something to a feminine shape in a purple cloak on the left and she responded instantly, narrowly dodging the axe of the golem they fought.

The golem’s weapon crashed into the ground with each swing, sending shockwaves even I could feel from my perch on a rock ledge fifty meters away. After one such swing, the purple robed scout darted up the golem’s arm and jumped, her sword glowing white. She plunged her sword down into the golem’s head with a loud clang before jumping gracefully down to the ground below. The golem reeled backwards from the strike, stunned, and the yellow robed mage of the party aimed his staff at its center.

An orange flame shot out from the back of the formation, a weak puff of flame spiralling through the air after it. It landed squarely in the center of the golem, causing it to groan as its hit points were reduced to zero. The body then fell to the floor and lay still for a second until it finally split into white cubes, after which they collapsed onto the floor and popped like blown bubbles.

This was no ordinary group. The trust they placed in their leader seemed to be nothing less than absolute with how quickly they followed his orders. Making this more obvious was the fact that they had even gotten this far into the dungeon, a journey of several hours at the least. I wouldn’t imagine any ill-prepared groups would have the raw strength or bad luck to get as far as here, though I knew it was definitely possible. My partner and I fell in the latter category, living proof of that.

I hadn’t really paid much attention to the parties forming up in the town square of Paelgard once the entrance ceremony had completed, much to my current regret. Those I had come across had obviously been pick up groups, or ‘pug’s, which were always sloppy affairs in the beginning. These three had to have worked together for much longer, and were perhaps friends in real life, or a guild transferred from another similar game.

I nudged Artel to my right, and her short black hair bobbed up as she scooted up to get a better look. She nodded excitedly, as if to say: “Let’s go introduce ourselves!”, causing me to let loose a soft sigh.

Despite our unintended exile from Paelgard society, I was still loath to make myself known to them. A part of me had grown close to the silence that the dungeon had brought since we had gotten trapped. To the frequent life and death combats and the careful preparation and strategies Artel and I could do almost without speaking now. The thought of slinking away and finding our own way out still seemed very tempting…

I shook my head to dispel the thought. At the very least, I had to ask them for directions out of the dungeon. Even beyond that, we needed some information about Paelgard. After all we hadn’t been in town since launch, and they almost definitely had more information about the situation than we could have found isolated out here in the dungeon. Artel would probably introduce herself to them herself if I didn’t anyway.

I peered back into my telescope at the position, but almost instantly jumped backwards with a small yelp. The leader and the mage had been staring directly at my position, as if they knew I was there. I hurriedly pushed Artel’s head down when she tried to peak over the cliff and flattened myself against the rock.

Logically I knew that it wasn’t likely that they saw me, not with my current abilities. I was hiding under the stealth skill, which I had managed to upgrade to level 15 already, which meant that they would need at least level 15 in the discovery skill to spot me. From what I’ve observed so far, skills leveled at just about the same rate unless you never used it. This meaning, of course, that getting to level 15 in the discovery skill would take weeks of constant use.

Chiding myself for my foolishness, I ran a hand through my black hair and peeked carefully over the loose stones in front of me once again. Looking through the telescope to find them again, I felt a finger tap my shoulder, accompanied by an inquisitive whisper behind me.

“What’cha doing?”

…

“You didn’t need to scream so loudly, I wasn’t gonna do anything to ya.”

The purple cloaked ranger, whose name was apparently Kyoura, passed me a biscuit and a cup of tea. Her expression seemed to be fixed at eternally smug, and her brown hair was short as if hastily trimmed.

“You didn’t need to sneak up on me. What would you have done if I had stabbed you?” I replied a little bitterly.

I couldn’t really be angry, however, as she’d offered some of her party’s food and drink as an apology, and I could never be angry at someone handing me a biscuit. Especially considering the circumstances.

“You probably wouldn’t’ have hit her anyway, not with your one-handed skill.”

I shot a quick glare at Artel to shut her up, but she simply fell into a cascade of giggles, causing our three new acquaintances to stare at us strangely.

It had been disappointing to learn that they were just as lost as we were in this labyrinth of stone. Their leader- a young and slender fellow named Svite- had led them into this place in order to collect a bounty on the boss at the end, but had neglected to bring a map -much like us.

Unlike us; however, they had only come into the Stonepit Cavern last night, and were much better equipped than we were with potions, weapons, and food from Paelgard. Glancing sorely at my empty messenger bag I found that I couldn’t even remember the sour taste of health potions anymore, let alone the glint of polished blades.

Forget potions and armour, I’d forgotten the taste of actual food. As might be expected from a duo whose greatest culinary achievements was buttered toast, we had completely neglected the cooking skill to equip only combat and dungeoneering skills. I had been unfortunately confident that my partner and I could finish the dungeon in the absurdly long time period of two weeks, so our rations had run out eventually. To save ourselves from starvation we had been recently forced to start eating the extremely bitter animation cores that dropped from the golems...

I was roused from my anguish by Svite’s voice.

“Nevermind that. How long have you been here? Do you still have rations stored?”

I shook my head. “We ran out of rations ages ago.”

“Mostly due to a certain somebody and his snacking habits.” Artel muttered as she chewed on her biscuit.

“Imprisoned in a dungeon while imprisoned in a game.” Kyoura chuckled. “How are ya still alive though? You can starve in this game, right?”

I looked over at Svite. His small, angled face bore a look of confusion at my state. His blonde hair was short and brushed to one side, not blocking his green eyes. He wore a simple gray long coat with a fur lined hood, noticeably distinct from the standard Paelgard white version. A slightly ajar flat officer style cap sat on his head. Like just about everyone at this stage in the game, he wore no metal armor, his only obvious armament being the Silver Straight Sword hanging on the right side of his hip.

I munched on my biscuit in silence.

“It hasn’t been easy. We ran out of food a week ago, and let's just say that stabbing solid rock isn’t particularly great for weapon durability.”

My main weapon, and the one I had a skill equipped for, the long spear, had broken after some fighting earlier in the dungeon.

Although I had originally brought the dagger along to collect monster drops, I had quickly found that there was a skill requirement to use it on the hardened golems and had thrown it into my inventory. I had been forced to resort to it after my other weapons broke, but strangely enough I actually found myself liking it more and more. I wouldn’t switch to it permanently however- the short range ended up making every fight a painful exercise in dodging.

Kyoura spoke up.

“Then how come ya haven’t bit the dust yet? I’ve been keeping a look out, but I haven’t spotted more than the rare berry vine.”

“Might as well tell them.” Artel said. I nodded in agreement before turning back to their confused expressions.

“There are… certain foodstuffs in the dungeon.”

“Ya didn’t eat shit, did ya?.” Kyoura shivered. “I didn’t even know the golems did that.”

“Never thought it could come to that.” Svite added with a sarcastic shake of his head.

“No, god no!” I quickly replied, slightly disgusted. “The golem’s drop animation cores are edible. Barely.”

“Might as well be shit for how much they are worth.” Artel added thoughtfully.

Svite tilted his head. “You said animation cores? Aren’t those just slips of paper?”

Remembering our soggy, bitter ‘meal’ this morning, I changed the subject.

“Can I ask you guys a favour?” Without pausing for an answer I continued. “Let us join up with your party, at least until we find the exit.”

With my new reunion with real food, there was really no other option available to me. Despite my prior thoughts against joining up with others, even these soggy biscuits had reminded me of the real value of comradeship: leeching off their meals. I didn’t think they’d say no either, not after hearing our account of the dungeon and the valuable mapping experience we were sure to have. And as a bonus I was sure that fighting the boss would be leagues easier with a five person party rather than their normal three.

Svite looked a little surprised before breaking out into a laugh.

“I was going to ask you the same thing actually!” He turned to his companions democratically. “What about you two? Are you fine with that?”

The tall, yellow robed mage stopped feeding the campfire and looked me over. Finally able to see under his hood, I found that his avatar had short white hair and the same fierce green eyes as the others, which made me wonder if they had decided upon that before character creation. His protruding eyebrows and stern expression made me think he designed his character to look vaguely eastern european.

“I have no issue with you joining up, but only if you can pull your weight.” He looked more sharply down at me. “What level are your skills? I only hope your combat skills are higher than your stealth.”

That's definitely an accent. Russian maybe? It was rare to find someone from that part of the world in an US game in this day and age due to the politics surrounding it. It did lend him a vaguely more intimidating air however, making me wonder if he was faking it.

“Stealth 15, Polearms 6, One-Handed 10, Acrobatics 10 and finally, Glyphwork 14. Stealth, Polearms, and Glyphwork are equipped.”

I listed out my skills, the corners of my mouth briefly twitching into a smile when I got to the last one. Skills worked on a level up by heavy use system, with a great emphasis on ‘heavy’ due to the time dilation. I had worked hard to level up each and every skill, even putting myself in danger at a few points to do so. The only skill I didn’t mention was my level four Cooking skill, one I earned entirely through trying to find ways to cook paper.

“My skills are roughly the same as his, just sub glyphwork for ranging.” Artel said.

The wizard’s face stayed unreadable.

“You didn’t pick up any constitution skills?”

“I have glyphwork for that.” I said simply, steadying my unease. It wasn’t a constitution skill per-say and didn't actually raise my health like a normal constitution skill, but it did help keep me alive in fights.

He raised an eyebrow at that.

“Isn’t glyphwork is a support skill?”

I guess you're not wrong to worry about that. In the beta Glyphwork was known primarily for its rune-making tree, which could only buff weapons and armour. The other half of its abilities offered short term buffs or effects called glyphs, most of which seemed too weak to most players to use. It was possible to make it work however, as a primary skill to support yourself in combat.

“I use the Air Ward and Trap Glyph extensively.” Seeing his increasingly doubtful face I stopped and shrugged. ”You’ll have to just believe me when I say I have an effective defense for myself.”

“Then I see no problem with adding you.”

Finally, we all turned to Kyoura for her opinion. A touch flustered, she looked from Svite to the mage to me before giving an exasperated sigh.

“Fine. We can’t very well just leave you here anyway. ” She tilted her head to the side. “Even if you do have a shit-eating grin.”

I sighed at that.

With that Svite extended his hand to me. “Welcome to the party then.” He began to extend a hand before stopping. “What did you say your name was?”

I grasped his hand and shook it.

“The username’s Honsol, though you can call me Hans.” I said. “It’s nice to join you, and even nicer to meet your fresh food.”

“And my name’s Artel.” Artel added.

“And that should wrap up introductions.” Svite’s eyes twinkled in anticipation. “Let's talk strategy.”

…

Artel and I tried to lead them around monsters, owing to our large amount of experience in the dungeon, but it was only around an hour before we found ourselves in our first unavoidable combat encounter in a dark tunnel. Upon sighting the monster too late to avoid aggro, Svite nodded at me and we both approached it first, him in front with his sword and me behind with my dagger. A flash of purple and white danced at the edge of my vision as Artel and Kyoura darted off to the flank.

The golem stood between two and three meters in height, with four massive arms protruding from its considerable girth. I knew they were made of a grayish stone, but this one looked almost black in the dim light of the dungeon. In its squarish head a single onyx gleamed, and a small crack in the rock below that whistled out three clicks upon sighting us approaching.

“Three clicks, that’s a charging overhead.” I said without removing my gaze from the monster.

After a quick glance, Svite strode forward and drew his form into a confident stance with both hands holding his sword above his head. By holding it like that, there would be almost no delay when he activated the One-Handed ability [Waterfall], meaning he was probably planning on parrying the coming blow. By releasing that ability into the path of golem’s fist, there was a significant chance of canceling out the golem’s attack, and perhaps even stunning it if the parry was perfect.

I wonder how many times he’s done this already. I thought as I crouched down into my own stance, with my dagger held slightly behind me. Unlike Svite, I didn’t actually have the One-Handed skill equipped, so I couldn’t make use of its effects or abilities. It didn’t hurt to practice the moves for when I did however, so I did it anyway.

Suddenly, the golem kicked into motion, charging almost unnaturally quickly for its size towards Svite. Notedly, Svite didn’t flinch or even move in the face of that force, and continued to stand stoically still. That meant that he’d either fought the four armed variety before or simply had a steel spine, either of which was a reassuring answer. It had taken myself quite a while to get used to their whistling telegraphs and frighteningly damaging moves.

Svite’s sword began to glow a soft blue as he readied a skill in response to the coming charge. Once the golem was mere feet away Svite moved, unleashing a practiced swing straight into the path of the golem’s stone fists. They collided with a sharp ringing, and the golem and Svite were both forced back a few feet away from each other. Due to our proximity, I saw his health bar lose a few pixels of green.

Not wasting time exchanging congratulations, the mage behind us instantly loosed a [Flare] into the golem’s chest, the puff of orange flame flying right over my head as I approached. The golem silently stumbled backwards as Kyoura and Artel both leaped into the air to deliver piercing skills right to its head, dropping its hp past the seventy-five percent mark. As I watched how quickly they damaged it I had to curse myself once again for leaving Paelgard without a larger party.

The golem wouldn’t go down that easily of course, but his attacks were heavily telegraphed beforehand. Even if you didn’t know the clicking code it roared, the sight of the rock monster raising all its arms above its head definitely betrayed its intentions. All of us jumped backwards to safety as it slammed its powerful arms into the floor, cracking it.

Soon after Svite and I stepped up to grab its attention once again, with me moving to the creatures left. Focusing its stony gaze on me and charging forth, it clicked twice to indicate a sweeping attack from the side, causing me to frown. This was its most difficult move to parry or dodge, since it had a tendency to break through anything that wasn’t a shield. It was also the start of a damaging combo which would leave a player dangerously close to death if it all hit.

Concentrating on the charging golem’s fists, I leveled my dagger in the air. Seconds before it reached me I saw its fists flash briefly as it started the punch, and I responded by marking out a glyph in the air as if I was holding a sparkler. The letter flashed immediately with a small burst of sparks, and an extremely faint purple triangle just inches tall and wide appeared in front of me.

“Hans...” Svite shouted from behind me, a tinge of fear creeping into his voice.

Ignoring him, I immediately began marking another different glyph in the air behind the glowing triangle. Before I could finish it however the golem collided with the glyph, resulting in a resounding thud that echoed throughout the circular cavern. Air blasted my face, throwing my hood off my head, but I wasn’t harmed. As the golem’s fist bounced gently backwards, the purple ward disappeared and I finished my second glyph behind it.

Still stunned, the golem stood in front of this new rune as it blazed to life, glowing with a brilliant orange. Exactly one second later the glowing letter exploded on the side opposite me as if it were an explosive claymore, blasting the stone guardian back with a boom. Watching as the golem’s health ticked down another eight percent, I leapt backwards to reset. Looking behind me I could see Svite and the mage stunned into silence, enamored with my reckless glyphwork. Faking a sigh, I pointed my weapon at the recovering golem and shouted at them.

“Well come on, you guys are wasting a perfectly good stun!”