Chapter 1: Apotheosis
Silence reigned supreme. The thick mist permeating in the heart of the forest concealed to the untrained eye everything lying further than a few steps away. Dried grass and fallen leaves covered the uneven ground from which bare trees rose; the moon's silvery rays painted the world grey, evoking a faint sense of dread in those whom beheld it.
In this spectral landscape deprived of sound and colour, several large beasts stood still; their gazes lost in the all-embracing mist. Six in numbers, these large canines had the appearance of enormous grey wolves with an incredibly thick manes and overdeveloped frontal paws.
The place they were in was named "Oblivion forest", one of Yggdrasil's least frequented areas. Knowing the shortcut, one could easily skip the endless sea of trees, mist and random monsters, and just reach the entrance of the dungeon's second floor; most players did. There was nothing in there that couldn't be found elsewhere, and the place itself was more problems than it was worth it.
The visual was greatly reduced due to the densely packed trees and the ever-present mist, which made it difficult to see approaching threats. It was also hard to tell apart the variant monsters from their basic counterparts at a safe distance, which had cost the lives of several careless players.
As if that wasn't enough, trees, hills and rocks kept slowly changing position. The oblivion forest would constantly shift every non-magical landmark in order to make the players move toward its centre. Entering the map without a skilled ranger or a magic caster with the appropriate spells would be synonym to suicide. The ones that thought walking in a straight line was enough to get out had never left alive.
But what to most was but a bad feature, to others was opportunity. An undesirable map lacked competitors, leaving the entirety of its resources to the few that entered. One of such people was currently nearby, spying on the beasts while hidden behind a tree.
Wrapped in a pitch-black cloak that seemed to devour all light, he was concealing his face behind a pale featureless mask.
He analysed the pack. The beasts' figures matched in his mind a monster's called [Forest's bane]; all their features and patterns were instantly recalled. Their primary offensive constituted in a double slashing attack executed with their frontal paws, followed by a bite attack that would lead to a grapple. If one got trapped in their fangs he would quickly fall from the pack's combined attacks.
He kept studying them.
Small spots on their bodies shone faintly, highlighted by his class ability. [Detect weakness V] revealed a pattern different from the on he knew; they were variants, impossible to say which one at that distance, perhaps [Red forest's banes].
Below the cloak he raised his daggers. One had three thin blades, twirling together into a single spiral with an unevenly shaped crystalline rod encased within. The blade was about thirty centimetres long, made of an impossible metal resembling semi-transparent silver. The other weapon shared both size and material; it had a slightly curved one-edged blade meant for slashing and its guard was too small to be effective in protecting the hand.
The targets were stronger than usual, but still well within his abilities.
He triggered the power of his rings. [Greater invisibility] and [Silence] covered his body, concealing him in an arcane membrane. There were many other higher ranked spells a player could have used to evade the senses, but lower levelled spells imbued in high-tier items could be used repeatedly, and his other stealth skills were far beyond sufficient to make up for the quality gap.
He then activated his ability boosts on attack and speed, and while concealed by magical silence he chanted two of the few spells he knew.
"[Delayed perception field] [Image of calm]."
As his mana decreased he weaved two illusions around the pack. Once the forest's banes were entangled in his spells, he left the cover of the tree and dashed toward them.
He moved quickly, faster than they could react; he entered the field and raced toward the first beast's throat. The spiral blade found no resistance as it entered the creature's weak-spot. Before even fully retracting the blade he had stabbed again in the flank, piercing with his curved blade where the beast's heart would have been in the real world. He then moved the dagger toward the ground to aggravate the injury.
As the beast was dropping dead faster than it could perceive what had happened; he was already working on the second target. He rested the sharp edge of his curved blade on its throat and jumped to the other side, drawing a long and lethal line all around its neck.
He landed between two forest's banes. One of them had begun to move its head toward the first one he slew, he had to speed things up.
He simultaneously stabbed both monsters in the side, his blades piercing deep in their flesh. He then slashed upward with the curved blade and drew and arc beginning in one's body and ending in the back of the other creature, slaying the two of them in a single motion.
Normal forest's banes would have perished in a single hit but the red ones were considerably tougher, and his [Death attack] didn't work well on variants. Four were now eliminated, only two were left.
[Image of calm] was a powerful yet fragile illusion. Everyone whom was in the area at the moment of casting would be unable to perceive any meaningful change on the outside, but it was easy to disbelieve.
[Delayed perception field] on the other hand was a sure hit, only those with complete immunity to magic could fully escape its effect. Its targets would perceive everything five seconds after it happened, regardless of what senses they had at their disposal. Even if someone managed to disbelieve it immediately, the user would still have a five seconds advantage on the victim; to someone that had carefully worked on speed, agility and DPS, it was plenty of time to score a few free kills.
Using the two of them together would allow the former's weaknesses to be overcome by the latter, allowing him to practically do as he pleased until both were disbelieved; which appeared to be right about now. The last two beasts were turning toward him, locating his position through the scent regardless of greater invisibility and silence.
He wasn't proficient enough in illusions to win with them alone; he just made use of the ones granted by his racial ability to have an edge in fights. His assassination style was only enhanced by illusions, not based on them.
"[Conjure greater darkness]."
The area around him was instantly deprived of all light by the class skill he invoked, but the beasts kept moving forward in their charge toward him guided by the scent in the air.
He used the [Shadow meld IV] class ability and vanished in the mystical darkness; he then reappeared above the beast further away from where he was, stabbing it in the back with both daggers.
He flew through the darkness toward the remaining one, still racing toward where he was prior to teleporting within the shadow, and pierced it with the curved blade in his flank. Keeping the blade in the flesh, he flew around the creature drawing a long cut all over the monster's body. When he reached the front of the beast, it was no longer moving.
He landed not too far away and checked the area; it appeared there were no longer threats. The beasts were already vanishing into light while leaving behind their drops. Seeing the fight was over he dispelled the darkness in the area and disabled the rings' powers.
The hooded figure then moved toward what was left on the ground, six transparent spheres floating a few steps from the dirt and that many small crystals faintly glowing amongst the leaves.
The spheres vanished one by one as he lightly touched them with two fingers. The dark figure then brushed the leaves off the crystals with the back of his hand and picked them all up. He proceeded to carefully study the six objects in the palm of his hand.
Data crystals. The primary resource that over four fifths of every player's gear was built of. They could be found pretty much everywhere, but there was never enough to satisfy the players' endless hunger for better equipment.
Having found enough of the variety he was looking for, he grabbed the golden medallion concealed under his cloak and held it in front of him.
A pale light radiated out of it, constantly changing from shape to shape in an attempt to stabilise. After a few moments it morphed in the form of a demonic creature, looking directly at him.
A voice then came out of the small figure he held on his palm.
"Hi. Have you finished yet?"
He answered the question while raising his hand, showing the six small objects it held.
"Yes. I've got the last data crystals of magical defence. How are the others doing?"
The fiendish creature reassuringly showed his palm while keeping the other hand behind his back.
"They are about to finish. They'll all be here in ten minutes or so."
The hooded shadow nodded in approval.
"Very well. I'll be there in a few minutes."
The fiend nodded while putting an end to the conversation.
"Ok then. See you later."
After the light vanished from his hand he placed the medallion back under his cloak. Waving his hand in the empty space in front of him, he accessed the inventory and stored his newly acquired items within. The clock on the corner of the menu then attracted his attention.
23:04:35
There was little less than an hour before the end of the game.
He closed the interface and prepared to leave. Being late on the last day was the last thing he wanted.
He quickly took a look around to check if it was safe to use a fast-travel ability, something all players got used to do. It was more of a habit than anything else, but this time, rather than just taking a quick look and disappearing immediately after, he stopped. Something felt wrong.
Unable to picture exactly what felt out of place, he instinctively moved his hands close to his weapons' hilts and carefully analysed the space around him once more.
The trees appeared to be normal, constantly moving at an almost imperceptible pace. The ground wasn't abnormal either, but something had changed. It was the mist.
A very light breeze kept constantly blowing in the oblivion forest, but due to the map's ever-changing geography it was everything but stable. He was used in seeing it slowly change direction, but this time the change was more abrupt than he had ever seen.
There was also something else. It was as though the mist was brighter. Almost as if the water particles were reflecting…
An intense beam of light dashed out of the trees and shoot toward his head.
Unable to see the type or nature of the attack but still sensing it coming, the hooded shadow jumped to the side with all the speed his virtual body put at his disposal. While he was landing several meters from where he had been, he caught out of the corner of the eye the luminous attack passing through the now empty space, only to crash in a tree far behind him.
He wasn't allowed the time to try figuring out the attack's speed or power, as a second one was quick to follow. He had however managed to gauge the general direction from which he was being attacked, and as he faced that way he saw a small mass of pulsating light flying toward his head.
His defence stats were embarrassingly low and he couldn't take many hits, but he was all but defenceless in combat. With measured movements he shifted his balance and brought his head outside the projectile's trajectory. The gleaming bullet passed just a few centimetres from his face.
The vast majority humanoids shared a weakness to decapitation and other head injuries; a well-aimed hit could end a fight before it could even start. The head is however a small target to hit, and players with high levels of agility could easily move it outside the path of any attack they managed to spot. He knew he could avoid headshots with ease, and it seemed his attacker had figured it out as well. The next shot was aimed at the heart.
The attack came from a slightly different angle than the two before; his opponent must have begun to circle around him. He jumped backward to gain more room to manoeuvre and let the third beam fly past him, the fourth attack followed close behind and went dangerously close to where he was headed. It had been only a few seconds since the first shot was fired but his opponent was already starting to see through his evasion pattern.
As he was running backward, increasing the distance between him and the sniper's supposed location while looking for incoming attacks, he activated the powers of the rings and covered his body with an arcane membrane of invisibility and silence.
The fifth beam was coming, if he did nothing to significantly alter his trajectory it would pass straight through his heart.
He decided to jump, putting several meters between him and the ground.
Jumping in a fight was an unconventional move, with more disadvantages than merits; but how he moved when seen and when hidden were two completely different things, as if he were two distinct people. The former stressed efficiency, while the latter emphasised unpredictability. This switch in patterns gave him an edge in most combats, creating false assumptions and subverting adversary's expectations, but this wasn't going to be one of such fights.
The sixth attack still came for him as the ones that preceded it, as if all the steps taken to misdirect the opposition had been for nothing, catching him off guard while he had no way to maintain his balance.
With no other option available in such a short time frame, he crossed his arms in front of the chest to shield his body as well as he could.
Without any footing, the attack's force pushed him away like it were a battering ram, violently tossing his body against a tree.
Spinning uncontrollably in the air for a time that felt endless, he finally disastrously hit the ground and rolled in the dirt until his stomach slammed against a tree.
Basic survival instinct immediately rocketed all the way to the top of his mental priorities list, surpassing trivial questions such as how many HPs were left and how was there someone in the oblivion forest capable of spotting him with such precision. Without even bothering to get up, he crawled on the opposite side of the tree he had slammed against and leaned his back on it.
Now that he had cover from the sniper he was safe, at least for the next forty seconds. Maybe thirty.
He was facing an opponent that could accurately sense his position and follow his movements. He could attack him from far away with projectiles capable of taking him out in two shots or three, probably limited to rounds of six since there were no extra attacks after he was hit.
The two most pressing issues were that magical cover was insufficient and the attacks carried the light element, rendering his primary defensive techniques ineffective. Luckily the attacks lacked enough power to shatter through cover and could only move in a straight line, the likely cool-down period after the sixth hit was also a slight relief.
He was probably against a monster. Players wouldn't spend the last moments of the game camping in a remote server such as the oblivion forest; the ones that enjoyed harassing players would rather pick more frequented areas. That would also explain the lack of confusion even when he switched evasion pattern.
But regardless of whether his opponent was a thinking person or code moved by an AI, a single hit had caused overall damage for over a third of his HPs. A mistake could spell his death in a few seconds.
The masked figure moved his legs closer to his body to reduce as much as possible his exposed surface area. He then slowly moved toward the side of the three opposite to where he assumed the sniper to currently be.
He then moved one hand to the hilt of the spiral dagger, ready to draw it at any moment, while placing his other hand in a small rune-covered sack hanging down his belt. He grabbed something within, and when he pulled his hand out he was holding something that could only be described as fuming darkness.
With it, the hooded man quickly drew four V shaped symbols in front of him, floating in the air without dispersing in defiance of both gravity and wind. They quickly began to change, abandoning their shape while becoming more limpid. They then fell toward the ground, completing their transmutation and turning into large crows.
The four creatures were now looking at him, awaiting command from their summoner.
He quickly opened his inventory and took out all the crystals he had collected that day. He then placed his hand filled with the small stones close to the nearest crow and gave the vocal command.
"[Carry multiple items: Data crystal]"
The summoned bird quickly swallowed all the crystals in his hand in one fell swoop, returning in the waiting stance once it finished playing the animation.
"[Fly to location: Asgard map, Eryuentiu's flying castle. Find player: Azul Val Khan; if successful, dispel summon.]"
Upon hearing the command the crow turned away and spread open his wings, preparing himself to fly. Before it could leave the ground, the hooded man quietly casted a spell to conceal his messenger from the opponent.
"[Greater invisibility]."
As his mana points decreased even further, the crow vanished from view.
There was no way of saying whether his summoned monster could actually make it all the way to the base, but [Odin's crows] were far tougher than they looked and awfully good at dodging. He couldn't picture anyone on the last hour bothering to actively hunt it down.
Even though the first was gone, the remaining three still awaited orders.
"[Fly: Pattern 01C. Direction: 6. Range: 400]."
At his words, the crows swiftly left the ground and flew high above him; heading toward his best approximation of the sniper's location. As they disappeared between the moving trees and the mist, he activated the special ability of the "Odin's crows", [Share senses].
Windows with moving images of the surrounding area appeared in his field of view, one linked to each summon.
Having multiple eyes moving around the battlefield and sending him a constant steam of information gave him an edge in fights, but he couldn't stay idle while waiting for them to find his opponent. To gain the upper hand one must be proactive.
The first step was to find another cover, that tree couldn't protect him forever; he had to locate another spot.
He checked the surroundings. There wasn't much time left; the attacks would resume any moment now.
He managed to identify three suitable locations to hide behind. Two were trees, one close enough to the other, and the third a rock six meters behind him.
He breathed in deeply, trying to ease the tension. If he were to move he had to do it now, or later he would be under fire from an unseen opponent.
The cloaked shadow ran as fast as he could, the objective being the tree on the left, the nearest of the two; he hadn't even covered two meters that another beam of light arrived from his right.
He was able to clearly see it coming; the sniper had once more aimed for the head. He slightly slowed his pace, just enough to make the attack pass right in front of him.
He glimpsed at the screens and verified whether the crows were following the program of the 01C pattern; they were already heading toward the source of the enemy attacks. According to the mini-map they would converge not too far away from his position; the sniper's range was shorter than expected.
He sprinted onward and changed his objective to the tree on the right, the one closer to the newfound sniper's location; thus the best point from which to launch an offensive.
Before he could reach it the sniper had already adjusted his aim to match his speed, a second attack came flying toward him. He lowered his stance as much as he could without sacrificing speed and let the beam pass above him.
With a final jump, he landed close to the tree and took cover behind it.
His back now on the trunk, the hooded man once more looked at the windows relaying the crow's views. Mist and trees were all he could see; there was no trace of his assailant.
He grabbed his second blade and prepared for another change of cover. If the crows couldn't locate the sniper within the next twenty seconds he would have to charge toward the last known location and attack without any information, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the mist. Nothing of that sounded good.
He kept observing the screens while keeping an eye on his surroundings; nothing but the scenery could be seen. His summons weren't producing the results he had hoped for.
The seconds counted in his head were nearing his self-imposed deadline and he still was nowhere close to locate his opponent. He was just about to switch location when, after checking what the summons were seeing one last time, something finally appeared in the window of the second crow.
Someone was there. She had an undeveloped feminine body; if someone were to mistake her for a human, he would think of her as a ten years old child. Her skin was pale, in sharp contrast with the long dark hairs reaching all the way down to her knees.
Two large semi-transparent wings in the shape of maple leaves emerged from her back, keeping her feet off the ground.
A silvery crown adorned her head, the dark gem in it probably being a high opal. She was wearing a dark blue dress with a large skirt clearly longer than needed. Either a floral pattern or actual plants decorated everything she wore.
Six spheres of light were floating in circles around her back as she flew through the oblivion forest, skilfully avoiding the trees.
That description only matched with one possibility.
Fairy queen.
Even though it was the first time he met one and had never read anything about them beside appearance and level, it didn't mean he was unprepared.
Fairies as a species had resistance to non-magical weapons, which wasn't going to be a problem. They were fast and adept fliers, naturally gifted in magic and could cast a few tricky mind-affecting spells; nothing he couldn't take care of.
The real problem was her being around level ninety, meaning she also had access to the advanced fey traits. That unfortunately included [True seeing], making all the spells of his rings and racial illusory eye useless, as well as [Greater darkvision], taking away from him the easy path to close the fight.
He checked how much mana he had left. If he used the class skill [Conjure greater darkness] on an area that wide he ought to have enough to maintain it for about forty seconds, less if he used other mana-consuming skills. But as long as he could maintain it he could use all his class bonuses and abilities that worked only in absolute darkness, granting himself a considerable field advantage even if he couldn't directly affect the fairy's senses. Bringing the fight in the dark was his best tactical option.
The three crows were observing the fairy queen from multiple locations. She was still on the move and was too focused on him to mind the summons. Now was the time to strike.
[Conjure greater darkness].
The world around them was instantly voided of all light. His [Shadow eyes] ability automatically activated the moment darkness swallowed the area. All that was touched by darkness appeared clearer to him than if there had been light; it was the ultimate version of [Dark vision], perceiving through shadows and denying cover, though giving him only shapes without colour.
He saw the fairy queen had yet to react to the sudden change in the environment, and he would never give her the time to do so; he fought to kill before his targets could put up a fight. Enveloped by darkness, he activated his [Shadow meld IV] skill and teleported at the fairy's back.
Jabbing the spiral blade between her wings with deadly precision, all his bonuses kicked in at once as the blade penetrated her body. Then, without even the faintest sound, she fell on the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Or at least that was what was supposed to have happened; but when the tip of the blade touched her back, she turned ethereal in defiance of what he believed her to be capable of, negating the vast majority of the damage.
As if that wasn't enough, the moment she abandoned her material form the six luminous spheres floating around her slammed against each other, resulting in a massive explosion of light that eradicated trees and destroyed the section of the forest they were in.
He instinctively attempted to use the [Death shadow] class skill to protect himself by assuming ethereal form as well, mirroring the self-defence system used by his opponent, but the attack's light had dispelled his darkness and he was caught in the explosion regardless.
Unable to defend himself, he was blown away by the attack's power. His health was dropping at an alarming speed, diminishing at a rate that left him only with precious seconds to live. Even though he was flying uncontrollably inside a storm of broken trees, dirt and light, he instantly weighted the benefits and downsides of using a one-use-only cash item to get out of the current predicament alive; being on the last hour of the game was a solid enough argument to shatter the crystal on his wristband to trigger its power.
Once the beyond rare item he had never dared to use since he obtained it was in pieces around him, his HP bar immediately froze at less than a twentieth of its total; he had made it just in time. Even as he ruinously fell on the ground and tree logs rolled over him, not a single HP was lost.
Once the attack was finally over he then got back on his feet and looked at the aftermath of the explosion. In the crater there were nothing but ashes, himself and his opponent. Not a single shadow to make use of, not a single cover to hide behind, even the one-use-only legendary item he had as an emergency lifeline had already exhausted its effect.
The mist blown away by the explosion was already making its way back in the area, but for a brief moment he was finally able to see the now material fairy queen without his vision hindered by the fog. It was then that he at last realized his mistake.
She wasn't a normal fairy queen. She was the white variant.
That explained both the unusual attack pattern and the ethereal form skill. She was far stronger than he had initially estimated, and now he was left with just a third the mana and almost no Hp. That wasn't at all how he imagined his last fight of the game to go.
The white fairy queen had already reformed the six globes of light around her and was heading his way; she would finish him off once the distance between them was too little for him to dodge.
If he were to use a teleporting skill she would attack right away, killing him before he could complete the transfer. Illusions were useless and she was too far away for him to realistically cross the distance alive and engage her in melee. Between them there was nothing he could take cover behind and his [Odin's crows] had no fighting ability to speak of. Her explosion attack was also particularly difficult to deal with.
Normally there were multiple ways for assassins to deal with that kind of enemy, but most of them relied on the two things he didn't had; having prepared in advance for the fight and having the surprise factor. In the current situation, he couldn't defeat an opponent that was aware of his location.
His eyes went on the clock.
23:05:42
No other choices then, he couldn't waste time fighting against her. He had to use one of his best trump cards and overwhelm her through sheer power. He wasn't a fan of abilities with long cooldowns, but they were designed for situations like these.
[Midnight call]
23:45:23
"…Where the hell are you?"
Looking at the light shaped in the form of a demon on the medallion, he quietly listened to his furious guild master.
"Still in the oblivion forest."
He said it as calmly as possible, keeping his tone neutral and avoiding any comment that could anger his companion any further, but he got still shouted at.
"Are you kidding?! You were the first to finish, why are you still there?"
The hooded figure raised an intricately decorated silvery crown with his hand so that the demon could see it.
"There was a variant monster. I defeated it, but when it died she created a barrier around the area that doesn't allow the use of teleportation so… I'm stuck here."
The fiend on the medallion dramatically covered his eyes with his hand, only to then proceed to talk with a tired voice.
"Can you break it?"
Yes, but I just like to spend half an hour standing in a forest watching trees. He dismissed that thought and picked a less sarcastic answer.
"I'm working on it right now, however it's taking way longer than usual."
"How soon you'll be here?"
"Not so sure myself, but I'll keep working on it. Have you received my crow yet?"
The demon nodded.
"It has arrived a while ago, we have already started forging."
Don't bother waiting for me guys, it's not like I wanted to be here or anything. No, it was literally the last time he will be seeing most of these people; it's not worth it to make a scene. Better to let it go and end on a high note.
"Ok, keep going. I'll be there the moment I'm done here."
"Very well. See you later then."
"See you."
The demon-shaped light disappeared from the medallion, letting silence return in the forest.
He had been trapped there for over half an hour. The racial regeneration had already healed him back to full health and the mana had somewhat returned with time, but it didn't change that he was still stuck in the middle of the forest, alone, in the last day the server.
The crown dropped by the white fairy queen was quite the item. It granted a passive boost to detection and allowed to automatically track the location of up to three targets, with the only condition being visual contact with them at the moment of the activation. That at least explained how she was able to locate him through all the passive stealth skills he had.
Now it was his, but there weren't many things to be done with it in the remaining time of the server.
The [Greater detect weak spot] skill was taking way more than usual to identify the weak spots of the barrier. It worked accordingly with the level difference, the time spent observing the targets and to the number of times it had been used on a similar target before; but in this case there seemed to be a protection effect on the barrier itself, beside the fact he had rarely seen such barriers before.
In the time spent alone in the forest analysing the barrier's weak spots, his mind begun to wander. A quick recap of tomorrow's plans, some chores he hadn't time to finish, how he spent the last day in the game and, eventually, why was it shutting down.
It had never been actually explained why was it happening, but people had theories. The most likely one for him was that the game just couldn't work in the first place. The developers designed it so that the resources were limited and guilds could claim them. The strong guilds took all the bases, the high level terrains and the most powerful items; while the new players had no way to even try to compete.
This lead to a situation in which weak players wouldn't enjoy the game unless strong guilds invited them in, rare occurrence considering the tenacity veterans defended their secrets from each other.
This unbalanced system made new players give up on the game because stronger people were ruining the experience. And those same players would eventually end up stop playing for personal reasons later on.
Yggdrasil simply lost players faster than it could get them; leading to the game earning less money than what it was needed to maintain it.
It all ended because there weren't enough players. But, in all honesty, who could blame the new players for dropping such an unbelievably frustrating game? Frustration and depression were too often underestimated.
As his mind was spiralling into thoughts about increasingly random subjects, his skill finally detected a weak spot in the barrier. It was merely a small little point at the height of his knee, no larger than a finger, but for him it was more than enough.
He drew out the spiral blade and kneeled at the height of the spot; he then placed its point in the middle of the detected area and pushed with all his strength. The blade struggled to pierce through the barrier, but he managed to leave a small hole in it.
He quickly retracted the blade and used his racial ability [Gaseous form] to turn his body and all his equipment into mist. He swiftly flowed thought the small fissure before it could mend, and once on the other side he reassumed his solid form.
He looked at the clock.
23:58:23
He was late. He was extremely late.
He immediately conjured a wide shadow on the ground and used it to activate his best fast travel skill.
[Dark world portal]
He stepped without hesitation into the magical darkness and fell through the mystic hole he tore in the world.
He found himself in a world with no light. Using his [Shadow eyes] he could still see its shape; it was a world similar to the one he was previously in, though with neither life nor light.
It was the Dark world, a sub-map which he could take advantage of due to his [Dark world assassin] class. Thanks to the [Dark world portal] he could access it from any shadow big enough to let him pass through, and once inside he could leave it from any shadow in the main map. Combining the great mobility he had inside such darkness with the fact the world was scaled down, it was a powerful combination both in and out of combat.
Without wasting any second, he used the [Shadow meld IV] class skill and shifted toward the guild area.
23:58:45
Once there he looked for a portal that could lead him to the other side, but the closest to his destination was too small for him to pass though, he had to use another skill to enlarge it.
[Interplanar conjure greater darkness]
The portal in front of him grew bigger and larger, until it widened enough to let him pass through. As he looked on the other side, he saw the guild's main room.
23:59:59
He touched the portal.
00:00:00
And he passed through.