Had the cloaked grand sorcerer been present, the puffin master and the Chan king would have been demolished within seconds. Both of them didn't know that during his spare time, the cross curser would train in high-level dungeons to collect rare items and rack up on experience points, resulting in nonstop increasing levels in competition with the King of the North.

Since the cross curser was left off to his medical studies tonight, however, PuffinMaster0624 and KingChan were free to roam the lands of Hetalia Fantasiato their hearts' content.

"Good thing your brother's not here, eh, Ice?" Leon spoke off screen in the real world. There was little point in hosting a private chat server since their users were in the same room. It made things quite convenient for cooperative play.

"He's probably off studying," Emil spoke with relief in his voice. His brother would have given him a tongue lashing if he found out he was playing in the middle of the term. "Where should we go first?"

"There's a dungeon not too far from here we can get stuff in," Leon told him, leading the way through the forest and finding any trolls lurking through the trees. Being a merchant class, Leon's character technically wasn't very strong, but he had heta boosts and more frequent item drops which made him part of the wealthiest classes in the game. As a result, his character used high-powered items that overpowered his basic status elements to the point where he didn't need to worry about his base strength.

Emil, however, chose to be a training battle mage. His class was supposed to be skilled in all categories ranging from physical combat to magical, and he would be well-versed in alchemic spells and conjuration—if only he was at a higher level. Thanks to Lukas and Mathias killing all the monsters back in their high school days, Emil's character hadn't even had the chance to upgrade his class level. He was still a journeyman. Hopefully a little grinding for levels with Leon would fix all of that.

"Stay close, like sixteen tiles, so the bracelets work," Leon instructed Emil. "It took me, like, forever to find a matching pair of those experience bracelets, so don't go dying on me, okay?"

The lesser experienced of the two had never experienced death before, and suspected Leon hadn't either. However, Leon was more versed in the game, so he knew its ropes and tricks.

"What happens when you die?"

"They made it so you, like, essentially lose all the items you collected outside of your last inn save spot. Plus you lose, like, half your heta. It's super unforgiving, so don't die."

"Okay." Easier said than done. On the mini map, Emil could already see red dots indicated monsters arriving. They were barely thirteen tiles into the dungeon and already they were being bombarded with enemies. "Leon, are you sure you can take them?"

"It's okay, Ice. Watch. Oh, step back, wouldja?"

PuffinMaster0624 stepped back and watched as KingChan pulled out a fancy-looking grenade and threw it in the center of the hoard. The item proceeded to explode in a shower of electrical sparks that did massive damage to the circle of enemies. In less than ten seconds, every single monster was dead. Emil gained five levels.

"Oh…" So this was what he had been denied of when his brother and Mathias killed the monsters for him. Perhaps after a few hours, he could actually beuseful.

"C'mon, if we beat this dungeon, we'll get this item that has something like a hundred attack power and two hundred magic."

That sounded useful to Emil. His basic mage scythe only had twenty attack and ten magic. Having a weapon like that would be considerably more useful to him over Leon, seeing as how Leon's main weapon of choice were knives.

"Do you think I could have it when we're done?" he timidly asked as they blew through another wave of monsters.

To his shock, Leon laughed at him. "Ice, your class is too low. You can't equip it even if you had one. You're so behind."

Emil lowered his eyes to his level bar. He had already gained another three levels. Meanwhile, Leon was somewhere around ninety whatever. These monsters were quick pickings to him.

"…Do you care that I'm so behind?"

"What?" Leon was busy attacking a large dungeon troll. This variety had green crystal spikes on its back that indicated a higher level. Mathias had fought some of these before.

Emil swallowed. "I mean, you can be doing other stuff, but instead we're stuck here fighting monsters with me tagging along."

KingChan whittled the last troll's hit points to three thousand, still ten times as much as PuffinMaster0624 had, and yet he merely took out his daggers and stabbed the beast until it collapsed with a satisfying groan. Emil gained another two levels.

"It's not your fault Lukas and Mathias were babying you back then," Leon said, his eyes glued to his screen. He muttered, "We're going left here," before continuing on. "I was one of the first people to play this game when it came out, so it only makes sense that I'd be better than you, right?"

"Maybe?"

Leon smiled. "Besides, once we get you to a high enough level, you can do all the fighting for me. That way I won't have to waste all my heta on items anymore. See? It's a win-win."

"Ah."

The rest of the dungeon became cakewalk after Emil grew accustomed to Leon's pacing. Leon mentioned that while he normally ran through the dungeon to loot all of the items, they would be sweeping the entire place to gain some experience points. In addition to Leon memorizing all of the traps and hidden treasures, the entire expedition took less than an hour. Emil reached level twenty-five by the time they found the boss room.

"You're gonna wanna stay back for this one, Ice," Leon told his partner as they approached the final door. "So, like, this guy shoots poison and tries to grab you with his pincers." He checked Emil's screen. "You should have an antidote spell by now, so you're going to be my healer while I take care of this guy, okay?"

"Okay…? How will I know you're poisoned?" Before doing this, Lukas had casted anti-poison charms on their party, so he never knew what the status looked like.

"Green bubbles. You'll know when you see them. It'll make the fight go faster if you're there to heal me. Ready?"

Emil's fingers were resting on the hot keys. "Ready."

"Alright, then! Here we go!"

KingChan unlocked the door and opened it. A cutscene played out where a large scorpion-like creature came crawling from a blasted hole in the dungeon floor. Its shell was a shiny and chrome coat with green gas spewing from its intimidating mandible like mouth. It then reeled back its sharp tail and let out a shrill chitter that began the fight.

Immediately after the cutscene ended, the boss' tail came crashing down in front of the players.

"Back up!" Leon shouted and Emil obeyed. The master of puffins stepped out of the boss' reach just in time before it got stuck into the stone.

"Chance time!" KingChan cried as he threw forth a gathering of bombs, powders, debuffing items, and more. Somewhere in the fight, Emil noticed that he had some power-ups, too, meaning Leon must have thrown him some items.

Has he played cooperatively before? he wondered as he noticed the green bubbles shooting up on Leon's character. Just as poison was meant to do, it started to annihilate KingChan's hit points at an increasingly rapid rate.

"Heal!"

PuffinMaster0624 didn't need to be told twice. Emil pressed the hotkey and directed it to KingChan, upon which a blue light encased him and liberated him of the detrimental status condition.

"Thanks." KingChan then threw a yellow smoke bomb that stunned the monster in place. Little dizzy stars circled its horrendous head while its opponent whittled away at its health with firedust and bolting bombs.

All of a sudden, the beast's shell exploded off, revealing the soft and green glowing body underneath. Emil made a face as its appendages seemed to pulsate and squirm like the many legs that carried it. That was when the poison began to fly. In its final moments, it began to spit acid and green gas left and right throughout the room's layout. Emil was hit a few times, himself, and it was only through his hotkey setting that he was able to quickly access his healing spell and save him and Leon.

Whenever Leon's hit points would get to a certain number (Emil never figured out the exact threshold), he would snap at his partner to quickly hit him with a healing spell. While considerably higher in level than at the beginning, Emil's character did a pathetic job of restoring any hit points. Leon's hit points bar had around roughly eight thousand at maximum capacity. Because Emil still had to return to the town to upgrade his class level, his magic was still subpar—this and he still had a default mage scythe armed at the ready.

Leon never complained once, however. Even when the going seemed rough and his character's hit points bar turned yellow, he continued to press on and throw his items until his basic inventory ran dry.

Finally, after what must have been a good seven minutes, the boss' hit points reached zero, and the creature melted in a bubbling puddle of green acid and goo.

"Got him!" Leon beamed. "Good job, Ice!" He went for the item and looted the boss before taking them both outside with a warping stone. In a quick flash of light, they were outside of the dungeon and just a little ways toward the next town.

"You were good," Emil chuckled, relieved that they managed to get out of there alive.

His friend was still smiling. "That was way faster with two people. How many levels did you get from that last guy?"

Emil checked. "I was at level two before…"

"Yeesh."

"…and now I'm at level twenty-nine."

"Hey, not bad. See? It's pretty cool having someone with experience-sharing bracelets, huh?"

"I guess…"

"Let's get back to the town and save. We'll get your class upgraded, too."

"Okay."

The two set off in the direction of the nearest town located in between a vast field and the mining mountains where their dungeon was situated. There were a few monsters along the way, but with Leon leading the front, there was nothing Emil had to be worried about. As they got closer, his heart began to race. He was finally going to be allowed to upgrade his journeyman status. What would his brother think when he saw him with a better weapon and fancier gear?

Apparently it would only be speculation for now, because as they were nearing the village icon on the field map, another player came running by wielding what looked like…

"A microphone?"

Emil raised his eyebrows as the player came closer, but Leon was having a different set of reactions altogether.

"Shit! Fuck this guy!" he cursed and pushed against Emil's character. "Run, Ice!"

"Wh—Okay?" With little to no gear on him, PuffinMaster0624 was able to run away at top speed. However, also being a journeyman, his stamina was incredibly poor, so he only got so far before Leon, and soon the mysterious new player, caught up.

"Leon, I can't run anymore!" Emil cried, feeling helpless and fearful that this person was going to attack them and squander all of their time.

"Fucking camping-ass thief," Leon grumbled and began throwing a new set of items. These looked far more powerful than those he had used in the caves, sporting more sparkles and bigger explosion ranges. "Ice, we need to circle back into the town!"

"How?!" He was in a panic. The player was fast, and while he didn't seem to be attack, he didn't want to find out what that microphone weapon did when used.

Then, Leon ran up in the front and made a wide turn around the last explosion. "I stunned him! We've gotta keep moving! Stay behind me, Ice!"

Emil followed after him, looking at his mini map to see if the new player was chasing after them. A few times in the middle, they had to stop for his character's stamina to recharge. During those pauses, the player's green icon could be seen running for them again.

"Leon, he's catching up!"

The town's icon was within sight. All they had to do was enter it, and they would be safe from any player damage.

"We're almost there, Ice." He was trying to sound calm, but it was easier for one to be calm when his level was over ninety.

"My stamina…" Emil whimpered as the green bar went down again. He cursed his brother and Mathias for babysitting him all this time. If he died before reaching the town, then this entire playthrough would have been for nothing. He would have turned around and started shooting spells at the player, but not only was it in bad taste, he was sure he would barely make a scratch on him.

"Okay…" Leon was breathing hard in real life. "Ice, I'll stun him if he comes close. I'm going to give you a stamina potion. Tell me if he's coming. I'm going to open up my inventory."

Emil would have thought that it wouldn't require that much time to sift through his inventory screen to look for a stamina potion of all things, but as high-level merchant classes were concerned, not only were their rosters larger than most players', it was so rare that he would run out of stamina that he had to search deeper into his menu.

"Shit, where is it?" Leon frustratingly grumbled. "Ice, how are you doing on stamina?"

"Fine," he said. "I can almost—Now! Forget it! Leon, let's go!"

They began to sprint back towards the wall, and at this point, the player caught up to them holding his microphone. Around his character were glowing golden music notes that spun around him, and Emil noticed that his character was moving faster than before.

"Haste buff!" Leon snapped and prepared another stunning powder bomb. He chucked five of them behind him and continued to run. Again, the town icon was in view. Their hearts were racing. "Almost there, Ice! Tell me when you—"

"I'm out, Leon! I'm out!"

Leon immediately shuffled through his menus and began searching for the stamina potion once again. It wasn't the pink potion, nor was it the red one. Blue, purple…

"Got it!" He pulled out a green potion from his inventory and set the command to toss. "Ice, grab it and use it right now!"

"A-Ah…!" Emil fumbled with his keys and pressed the menu key. He was digging through his inventory and setting the potion to "Use" when suddenly a screen of red appeared and shot him out of his menu mode. "Leon!" His character had taken damage somehow. When he looked back, he saw that the microphone-wielding player had tossed a pebble at him.

"I missed! Fuck, hold on, Ice. Use it and run. Let me just…Fuck you! Stay still!"

His character had resorted to swinging with his daggers to distract the player while Emil went back into his inventory and successfully used the potion. He shouted to his friend that he was booking it back to the town and continued to run backwards as the other player attempted to maneuver around Leon.

"Stupid asshole…" Leon grumbled and ran after him. "Ice, keep going!"

Emil was almost there. The town was right in front of him. All he needed to do was find the entrance gate and enter through it to be safe from monsters and other players. "I'm almost…!" He held his breath. His heart was racing and his fingers trembled. The gate was right in front of him. He could see the "Enter" command popping up. Without a second's thought, he pushed the "Enter" key and made it safely within the town's loading screen. "Leon, I'm in!"

"Good…" He sounded relieved albeit a little pissed off. "I'm going in after you. Find the inn and save."

"Okay." Emil wasted no time heading for the inn icon and hitting the "Save" command. His character went inside the inn and went to sleep, prompting a save screen next.

Not a minute later, Leon came in after him and saved, too. When he woke up, Emil was waiting for him outside of the inn to upgrade his class.

"What was that?" Emil asked when they began walking to their destination.

"Some stupid bandit character," Leon snorted. "They camp out around the towns and look for players to loot their gear and XP."

Emil wrinkled his nose. That was a dirty way to play the game. "And what class was he?"

"That one new performer class. They use a bunch of buffs to make their characters super strong. On their own, they're pretty weak, though. I don't know what that guy was doing…" He fell into an uncomfortable silence as his brain began to turn its gears. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm gonna go after that guy."

Emil rolled his eyes. "It's not worth killing him. I thought you were going to watch me upgrade."

"No, I wasn't talking about killing him; I meant looking for him and sending him spam."

"Don't do that."

"I'm gonna do it."

"How will you even?"

"Cheng taught me. Just watch and learn—Wait. Let's get you better gear first."

KingChan led PuffinMaster0624 to the guilds where all of the classes and players came to upgrade their characters to higher base stats and weapon rosters. Since Emil was a battle mage, he went to the Magic Guild and sorted through his new selection of upgrades.

"You're going to want to upgrade your armor and weapons because your tier levels are shit," Leon guided him through. "Then choose the 'Assist Buff' because if you're helping me out, we both get boosts in our stats." He waited for Emil to click the options. "Now you wanna click on 'Beast Killer' so once you get strong enough, you'll get a bonus damage percentage when killing beast-class monsters."

Emil frowned. "This is complicated…"

"Yeah, I know. The merchant's class is just one straight line." He waited for Emil to hit the last one before exhausting his class upgrades. "Okay, you're all set. Let's go sell this loot and I'll buy you new stuff."

Emil smiled. "…Thanks, Leon."

"No problem."

Leon's face transformed from casual chill player to calculating and mischievous. He broke into the game's website and punched in a few commands into a program Emil knew nothing about and began to search for the player's name.

"Fucking 'Originator' was his name, right?" Leon asked Emil who had since logged off and was watching from his bed.

"I think so."

"What a shit name. Well, take a look at this. I'm going to find his username and get into his e-mail. I can even find his IP address and send a bunch of spam channels his way."

"Wow, Leon." Emil sounded unimpressed.

"He almost killed you, Ice."

"I know." He wrinkled his nose and tried to imagine what might have happened to Lukas had he killed them those weeks ago. "Remind me never to mess with your computer stuff."

"Gotcha." He looked up at Emil. "Ready to see me flood his computer?"

"I'm watching." He leaned over from his railing and saw Leon's propped up laptop screen.

Leon was snickering. "The best part is because we're using the school's Internet, it doesn't matter if they track us down."

"Sure." He watched as Leon theatrically pressed the "Enter" button on his keyboard and clapped his hands as a torrent bar began streaming what was supposedly spam and junky virus mail to the player's e-mail address. Emil was certain that the person behind the player could have easily ignored the messages, but then, he wasn't an expert on computers. He watched with uninterested eyes as Leon finished sending the spam and sat back on his bed.

"His computer is going to feel that," he smugly grinned. "I'm done. Are you gonna shower first?"

"No." Emil flopped on his pillow and buried his face into the covers. His puffin plushie toy tilted to its side. "I barely went outside today. I'm good. Going to sleep."

"Okay. I'll leave you alone." He closed his laptop, gathered his things, and headed for the bathroom. On his way out, he flicked the light switches off before shutting the door. Emil slept like a log. It was before midnight.