Dark had arrived at the next town, with the girl that Night had wanted him to kill. Also some time will pass this chapter.
Chapter 4 Online
I had finally arrived. I had just walked in through the gates of the fourth city a few seconds ago, still carrying the girl on my back. I hadn't stopped even once on my way here, in fear that Marks would send someone after me, so I was exhausted and it felt like my body was going to give out at anytime. As I walked through the town a few players were looking at us in concern. Their looks were understandable, One player who looked completely exhausted carrying another who is apparently wounded. I kept walking trying to find an inn when two other players, one male and one female, in about their 20's came and started walking beside me.
"What happened to you two?" The man asked.
"We were attacked...by a Pk-er Guild."
"That's horrible!" The female said.
"We're both still alive. That's what matters."
"Did you happen to get the name of the guild that did this to you?"
"Yeah it was Legi-no wait that was the fake name. The name was Demise."
"Well at least you two are well. How many of them did this to you both?" the male asked
"Well, she was already weakened, but there was only one that did this."
"Yeah. I guess you ran him off right?"
I shook my head "Don't tell anyone, but I killed him..."
"You mean you killed another player?" The female asked me.
"It was either him, or both of us."
"You made the right choice." she assured me
I finally found the inn. "I'm going to go and rest a little. See ya." They both said bye and then they walked off."
I walked into an inn and payed the higher price of 20 gold. I opened the door to the room. I put her on the bed and covered her and I fall on the couch and was asleep instantly.
I opened my eyes and sat up, My body was still tired, and sore from Night's blade arrow, or whatever he called it. I checked the time and it was about 5pm, I had only been asleep for 2 or 3 hours at most. I looked over at the girl and she was still sleeping, I wasn't about to leave her alone, she might wake up and wonder where she is. I opened my menu and opened my inventory. I tapped the Expired Light. It appeared in my hand.
"Why didn't I get rid of this yet." I examined it again checking for details that I had missed before and a message popped-up, it read "Congratulations your examining skill leveled up." I just looked at it for a moment "...I didn't even know that skill existed..." I hit okay and that message disappeared. I looked down at the dagger again then a envelope appeared in front of me. "What is this?" I hesitated a moment and then tapped it and it opened revealing a private message addressed to me.
To DarkBlade.
I must say I am pretty surprised...you managed to kill Night, and escape before anyone could notice. You have betrayed our guild and killed one of our members, the full force of the Pk-er guild Demise will now be upon you. You will know what it is like to have a whole Guild your enemy. Always be prepared, or you might find yourself with a knife in your back one day
From, Marks.
"Well...this is just great...Now I have a whole guild as an enemy...I just wanted to get through this game alive, now that will be a huge challenge. I need a real party of people that won't betray me."
"That whole guild is after you?" I jumped as I heard the voice, I turned around quickly and saw the girl was awake.
I placed a hand over my heart "Well, good to you see you up, next time try not to scare me." I smile and I tap the okay button for Marks message.
She smiled back "Where are we by the way?"
"I carried you to the last town on the first floor."
"That's a long way from where we were..."
"Yes it was, so do you remember what happened before you passed out?"
"Not much..."
"Well what do you remember?"
"I remember that you killed that guild member."
"Do you remember anything after the fight?"
"Only that I told you I was a beast tamer."
"You also told me Night killed your beast and destroyed your bow."
"Yeah...he attacked me out of nowhere and my beast tried protecting me..." She seemed really upset about it.
"Are you feeling all right by the way?"
"My wounds still hurt, but I'm fine."
"I have something for you, if you want it." I open my inventory and take out the lizard arrows and the boss lizard's bow.
She looked at the "I don't want to use weapons that he was using..."
"I'm the one that obtained the items...I just gave them to him, thinking he was my friend. Now I am offering them to you as a friend."
"Really? Isn't that bow a rare item though?"
"Yeah it is. But I have no need for it, I use swords, not bows."
"I guess I'll accept them then." She walked over and picked them up, and she equipped the bow and the quiver of lizard arrows.
"Also if you want me too, I'll help you find a new beast to tame tomorrow."
"Would you really help me like that?"
"Of course I will. I am partly to blame for getting you attacked, if I hadn't decided to take their test, you wouldn't have been attacked."
"You were tricked, I heard you talking to him during the battle."
"You heard that? Yeah I was tricked, and now I'm their target."
"I just realized I haven't told you my name, "It's Lea."
"Mine is DarkBlade, but just call me Dark."
She smiles. "Hey Dark, I heard you say you need a party that won't betray you right?"
"Yes, I did say that."
"Then can I be one of the members of it?"
"If you want to then sure."
"Yay!" She jumps up in happiness "Ouch." Her body isn't healed completely.
"Get some more rest. Tomorrow we will get you a new beast and hopefully find a few good items."
She nodded "Okay. I can't wait until tomorrow." She got back into the bed and closed her eyes. I looked out the window and hoped no member from Demise will attack anytime soon, at this point, I was trapped too. I was in the last town of the first floor and I can't access the second floor until the boss is beaten...They will know where to find me. I kicked that thought from my mind then I opened the manual trying to find something about enchanting, or at least that is what Night called his weapons. I found a short passage about "Enchanting can be done by crafting or finding a gem from a monster or from a chest, when the gem is put into the weapon or armor, it can not be removed, if the armor is destroyed, the gem is also destroyed. If a player with an enchanted weapon is killed, they will drop the weapon but the gem will be gone." So you can find enchanting gems. This game has so many things I never knew about. I guess I should rest to, my body could use it.
I awake and I sit up on the couch.
"Good morning Dark!"
I turned and I saw Lea on the bed looking through a book "Good morning. What are you looking through?"
"It's a monster book. It shows all tamable monsters that can appear on the first floor."
"Have you found any that interest you yet?"
"Not really, but I'm hoping I'll find one soon."
"Well, I'm going to go and check to see if the shops here have anything worth buying and if I can sell some stuff. Are you going to wait here?"
"Yeah, I'll wait."
"All right, I'll be back in a bit."
I leave the inn and look around the town, like always there are a few players out this early. I start walking around look for a shop to sell some items to. As I walk by a stall, the man behind calls to me
"Hey, you there boy."
I look around confirming he is talking to me. "Yes?"
"I do things differently then others, if you bring me an item I am interested in I will trade you one of my items for it."
"Okay...I'm not sure I have anything you might want." I open my inventory "Let's see. I have a tough hide, 1 boar tusk, 1 boar fur and a golden horn."
"A golden horn? What type of item is that?" I tap it and show it to him. He takes it and looks at it "If I offered you 200 gold and a pair of shoes that increase your agility, would I be able to get you to part with this?"
"I'm not sure. I know it is gold, but who knows what I could do with it. Do you have anything that can help a beast tamer?"
"One moment." he starts searching through his stuff "Will you accept if I throw in these gloves that increase a person's taming skill?"
"If you include that along with the gold and the shoes, then yes."
"All right, then it's a deal." He puts the gloves and the shoes on the table and then he gets the money and hands it to me "There you go enjoy."
"I will." I put the items in my inventory and I walk to the town's armory. The shopkeeper asks me
"What are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for some leg armor, I have a shield and scale jacket, but nothing to protect my legs."
"Wait a moment." He looks at me then he looks at my shield "Are you DarkBlade?"
"Yeah, why?"
He smiled "My friend told me what you managed to do, and he also told me to show you exactly what you are looking for." He walks behind the counter and pulls out a piece of leg armor, covered in scales "This is the last part of the lizard scale armor set, if you put all the pieces on, you get a set bonus."
I look at it then check the stats "It will give me another 5 defence and, the set bonus for the lizard set is?"
"For the lizard set, the bonus is poison resistance."
"All right, how much is it?"
"75 Gold."
I take out the money "Here you go, and can I also buy a few potions."
"They are 2 gold each."
"I'll take 10 then." I hand him the 20 gold and I put the potions in my inventory.
I head back to the inn.
I come in the room and Lea, is still looking at the book.
"Anything yet?"
She nods "In the mountains near this town there is a monster, it's a mountain wolf, and it is level 6."
"Level 6. That's not that bad." I send Lea the party invite now. She accepted and I saw she was level 4, "Your only a level 4 right now?"
"Yeah, I haven't been able to train much."
"Well we'll make sure you get more experience now. By the way, here." I threw the gloves and the boots onto the bed "The gloves make taming monsters easier and the boot's increase your agility."
"Where did you get these?"
"I traded someone for them."
"Thanks, these will help."
"So the mountain wolf, are you sure that's the one you want?"
"Yes. It's the monster I want to tame."
"Okay, then we should eat before we head out."
We quickly ate at a restaurant, and then we headed for the mountains. There was a path leading into them so we followed that. I used my advanced hearing and observation, to detect any monsters or players that could be around, so far I hadn't heard/see anything.
"It might be a bit of trouble finding a certain monster, won't it?" Lea asked.
"It might, we just have to look in the right spot."
"Where would a wolf want to be?"
"I would say near the top of the mountain, but that is only a guess."
"Then let's head to the top and check to see if we can find it."
I heard something, and looked up, there was some type of bird above us. I watched it and saw it was about the size of an eagle. It was flying over us, then it suddenly changed direction and landed right in front of us. It's feathers were red and it's eyes were black as night, it stayed there unmoving, staring at us.
I saw it's bar "Blood Crow, Level 10. The same as the boss lizard."
"It's pretty strong, Dark."
"I know, but I took down a level 10 before, get your bow ready." I drew my sword and shield.
Lea took her bow into her hands "Okay."
The bird was still sitting there unmoving. I took a step towards it and it spread it's wings then flew me.
I blocked the Crow's talons with my shield, and I tried to cut it but it moved to quickly. I ran and tried to cut it again but it flew out of my reach. I've never fought a flying enemy before, so I was inexperienced in fighting them. Lea had got an arrow in her bow and shot at the bird, the arrow cut it's leg a little but it took no notice. It was still flying around, making it really difficult to hit, after a few minutes it landed, I made my way towards it slowly and hoping to hit it. It spread it's wings again and instead of flying, feathers shot from them, I rolled out of the way and the feathers hit a rock, I looked and saw that the feathers were as sharp as blades, there were cracks along the rock where they had hit it.
"That could have been bad..." I stood up and turned to the bird, it was in the air again, I focused energy into my sword, and it finished quickly this time "Cutting Edge!" I shot the wave at the bird and I managed to hit it out of the air. It's hp bar went down to half, it obviously didn't have as much defence as the boss lizard. It flew into the air again and flew away trying to escape. Lea got another arrow ready and shot up at it, the arrow only nicked it's wing, but it still seemed to damage it because it was struggling to stay in the air, then it suddenly fell, and burst.
"What happened there?" I asked clearly confused.
"I shot a poison arrow at it." Lea told me.
"That would explain why it died quickly. Good job." I looked at the spot where it fell and noticed there was no drops "That's a first. A monster not dropping any items."
"Guess we were unlucky right?"
"Seems so...ready to continue?"
"Yeah."
We continue looking and I once again started concentrating on looking for anything that could lead us to a mountain wolf, and once again I wasn't getting anything.
"Are you sure this mountain is where it would appear?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Do you want to see the book?"
"No. I trust you."
We were close to the top of the mountain when Lea pointed and told me to look. I looked at where she was pointing and I saw a brown furred wolf.
"Is that it?"
She smiled "That's it." The wolf was walking in the direction away from us.
"How do you tame it?"
"I need to be close to it." She took a couple steps forward. The floor started moving. I ran beside her.
"Something's coming. Be careful." Parts of the floor were slowly rising up and taking shape. I looked around and noticed that we were surrounded by the shapes, we had to fight our way through. The floor stopped moving and the rocky shapes started moving. I looked and saw they had bars now.
"Lesser Earth Golem, level 3."
Lea looked around "We're surrounded, we have no choice but to fight."
"I know. Don't use the poison arrows, these things are make of earth, so they won't be effected by the poison."
"I don't think normal arrows will have much of an effect either."
"Maybe...but you can still try them." The golems were moving slowly towards us. I ran to the one right in front of me and slashed and it burst.
"These things are pretty weak." I said turning and defeating another one "But they have us outnumbered."
Lea shot an arrow at one and it did a good amount of damage "Yeah, it will take a lot of work to defeat them."
"Yeah." I rose my sword "Nature's Blessing!" Both mine and Lea's weapons, and armor, and my shield starting glowing a pale green.
"What did you do?"
"This is one of my skills, it increases our attack speed, attack power, and our psychical defence."
She smiled "Good thinking." She turned and shot another golem. I slashed another one too, these things didn't even get a chance to attack me, they waited too long and then I finish them in one hit. Thanks to my skill I could move much fast and I took out 5 of them in about 10 seconds, but they seemed to be never ending. I moved back near Lea.
"We can't fight them all, we'll be exhausted plus we have to catch up to the wolf."
"Then what can we do?"
"I'm going to open an escape route. Get ready to run." I focused my energy and, and when it was done I shot the wave through a bunch of golems.
"Lea, this way!" Lea turned and ran and I followed behind.
We had gotten away from the golems and were now catching our breath.
"A level 10 bird and now a huge group of level 3s...I didn't expect this mountain to be like this." I said
"M-me either."
"We'll safe. For now anyway. Where did that wolf even get to?"
"It must be ahead of us, I mean we did get held back quite a bit by the golems."
"That is true. Then let's keep going and hope we catch up to the wolf."
We kept walking and it didn't take long, we walked for 5 minutes and we saw the wolf again and this time we were right at the top of the mountain and it was lying down inside a small cave.
"Finally. Lea go and tame it and then we can head back to town."
"Okay." She walked over to the cave and the wolf rose it's head and watched her, not angrily but calmly.
"The wolf won't attack, I hope."
"Looks like he was right." A voice said from behind me.
I didn't bother turning around "Who was right about what?"
"He was right about you being near this town, DarkBlade!"
That concerned me a bit. I turned and saw a man standing there "And who might you be?"
"I am a member of the Guild, Demise!"
"...And why are you here?"
"Don't play dumb, you know I am here to kill you!"
"I was hoping I was wrong." I said placing my hand on my sword.
"You betrayed the guild. You will pay for that."
"How did I betray you? I never even joined it. Your whole guild is just looking for a reason to try and get revenge on me."
"You killed a member and you were taking a test to join, you were trying to join and then killed your adviser."
"Either way. So, Marks is already sending others after me?"
"Of course. If he waited to send people, more floors will become available for you to hide on and you will become stronger then you are at the moment. We have to get rid of you now."
"Well, I'm sorry to tell you, I'm in no mood to deal with you. If you insist on fighting me I'll kill you without hesitation."
"You don't scare me kid!" He pulled out an Expired Light out of a hidden sheath "This dagger, our guild's symbol, will be the weapon that take you down!"
I draw my sword and prepare my shield "We'll see."
"Dark!?" Lea called, seeing me ready for battle against this guy.
"Focus on taming the wolf, I'll fight this guy!" She turned back to the wolf.
I rose my sword up "Nature's Blessing!" My equipment started glowing.
"Starting the battle off right away with a skill, fine by me." He moved his dagger through the air "Dark Embrace!" His dagger got covered by a black glow.
"A black glow? What does that do?"
"You're see for yourself."
"Like I said before, I'm not in the mood you fight you right now so." I focused energy into my sword "Cutting Edge!" I shot the wave at him and he easy dodged it.
"Such a basic skill, is that really the best you can do?"
"So you can block a skill but how good are you at close range combat?" I ran towards him and swing my sword down, his dagger holds it back.
"How can a dagger hold back my sword?"
"Can't you see, it's because you aren't skilled enough!" He pushed my sword away and stabbed his dagger into my shoulder. I jumped back and looked at my cut. It wasn't a very deep cut, so I would be okay for now or so I thought, a black glow went around my cut.
"What the!?"
"Dark Embrace takes effect."
"What does this do?" I shouted at him
"It won't damage you like poison. But any wound caused by a weapon effected by Dark Embrace cannot be healed, and therefore no hp from the wound can be healed!"
"Wait..." I look at my hp bar "So you're saying that the hp I have lost now can't be healed at all?"
He smiled "Exactly. Which also means if I fight you only using this weapon, you can't heal any damage!"
"If I defeat you and destroy the weapon, the effect will wear off, won't it?"
"If I were to be beaten then yes, the effect would wear off. Too bad you won't have a chance to defeat me."
I pointed my sword at him "Try saying that again after this."
"Another skill?"
"Dragon's Flame!" My sword was surrounded in flames and I appeared in front of him, but my sword had missed!
"Once again your skill misses." He cut down my shoulder, I tried to stab him but he moved. My wound got surrounded by the black glow again "Another effected cut, what are you going to do now?"
Either of my skills have worked, I still have the blessing's effects, but what can I do? I ran at him again and swung my sword down again. He stopped it with his dagger again as well.
"Do you not learn from your mistakes?"
I start focusing my energy "It's not that, but I realized something when I was fighting Night."
He pushed my sword away and went to stop my other shoulder "And that would be?"
I stopped him with my shield "I can use my skills while fighting, as long as I don't get distracted! Cutting Edge!" At this range I couldn't miss. I shot the wave right at and the blast knocked me back far. I rolled on the ground and then jumped to my feet. I saw that had damaged me as well and my health was at half. I looked at the smoke my attack created and I saw a silhouette of the man, he was still standing. When the smoke cleared I saw he was still standing but across his chest was a big gash.
"Point blank, Cutting Edge...What a reckless move that was...But now I will take you down with one of my skills." He pointed his daggers tip towards the sky "Strike Of The Sky!" Storm clouds suddenly appeared over me.
"W-what is this?"
"This is where you die!" A blot of lighting shoots down from the sky and I can't move fast enough. I feel something hit me to the ground and I hear the man shout in pain. I open my eyes and see Lea had pushed me down. I also see the mountain wolf we had been tracking had ran to the man and had bitten his hand that was holding the dagger.
"Thanks Lea. So you managed to tame it."
"Yeah. It wasn't that hard, even when I was a lower level then it."
The man kicked the wolf and sent it back about a foot "So you want to die with him, girl? So be it!" He pointed his dagger to the sky again "Strike of the-Ow!" The wolf had bitten his hand again, and this time it had sunk it's teeth into his skin.
"Get off me you dirty Creature!" He kicked the wolf in the side, and the wolf responded by biting even harder.
"Lea, now's are chance, get your bow ready." I got up and ran behind him and Lea aimed the bow directly at him, the wolf jumped back as well.
"You're surrounded. Surrender this instant and we will let you live."
"I...will...not...SURRENDER!" He turned to me and went to stab me, I dropped my shield and rose my hand to stop his knife. He stabbed right through my hand. I grabbed his hand so he wouldn't be able to move out of the way of the next attack.
"It's over now. Lea shot!"
Lea let go of the bow string and an arrow flew through the air and stabbed him right in the back. He staggered back a few steps.
"Lizard poison arrows. Dying by this poison is extremely painful, but it is quick. But I will have to finish you off,so Lea's marker doesn't change color, but first I think you should see this" I pick up his dagger, which is no longer glowing and I snap the blade right off. "Now, you can die." I rise my sword and I bring it down right into his heart. He burst into pixels, and in his place was a ring. I picked it up and tossed it to Lea.
"Without your help, I would have died. So you keep it." The warning message about my marker changing appeared. I ignored it and just tapped the okay button. I walked over to her wolf, I pet it's head "And I guess you helped to." it just looked back at me.
"I named him Rocky. Since that is like the region here."
"And our party size increases to 3." I looked around the area. "You know this could be a good place to start your training. How about everyday we come here and train, and every night we return to the town. We can do this until the first floor boss is either found, and we can help or until the boss is defeated. Sound good?"
"That sounds like a good plan."
Rocky let out a bark in agreement.
Now it would take too long to go through all the training in detail and everything, so just like the anime did at the end of the first episode I am going to skip some time and give you the main points of what happened
Me, Lea and Rocky continued to go to the mountains everyday for a month, I disbanded the party so she would get all of the experience from fighting and I let her do most of the fighting, only stepping in when needed. No other members from Demise attacked me either, seemed Marks was done underestimating me and was giving me, along with the other guild members time to get stronger. One night after a month of training me and Lea ,who were now both level 10, were heading to the inn, when I noticed a group of people entering a round, roofless building, in the town square, my guess was that it was a meeting hall. (Just so everyone is aware of the time. Dark and Lea stayed on the mountain overnight and at this time it was around noon.)
"We should check this out."
"It could be important." Lea agreed.
We walked into the room where the players were waiting. Me and Lea sat down on the stone seats and waited. A guy got in front of everyone.
"Everyone, I have some good news, the door to this floor's boss has been found!"
Chapter 4 Offline
