So, chapter 1 was fairly well received. I'm glad you all liked it. Anyway, chapter 2. Enjoy if you can, and if you can't, I apologize.

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"Switch!" Rose cried as she jumped away from a level 5 mob called [Forest Wolf]. Crocea lunged forward with a [Shield Bash] sword tech, quickly following up a diagonal cut of his sword. He called for a switch and Rose jumped back in for a two hit sword combo, finishing it off with [Vertical], an overhead slash from top to bottom, lowering the mob's health to zero.

As the mob died in a wireframe explosion, Crocea collapsed into the grass. "How far till the next town? I'm exhausted."

Rose sat down with him, also feeling the fatigue in her bones. She swiped down for her menu, noting how it was already nearing midnight. She sighed. "It's still a few ways away. We should keep walking." She and Crocea stood and dusted themselves off before continuing on their way.

They had been traveling for over three hours at that point, killing every mob that got in their way. In that time, Rose had gained three levels, while Crocea gained two. At levels 10 and 8 respectively, they were fairly high leveled. Any enemy they might encounter in the area would be quite easy to face.

"I've unlocked another skill slot" Rose noted. "That makes three empty slots"

"Why don't you equip some skills?" Crocea suggested. "You could always switch them out once you get better ones"

Rose nodded, quietly wondering what skills she could possibly equip that would help her in their current situation. None came to mind. She shook her head. Of course she kept those slots empty. She didn't have any use of them yet. She sure wasn't going to waste her slots with skills she didn't need.

"Hey, I wonder if I should get the [Cooking] skill?" Crocea joked. "It'd be great if I could learn how to cook something from a video game" Rose almost believed he was serious.

She tilted her head curiously before bringing up her menu. The description for the [Cooking] skill made no mention of the actual process of using it. Maybe it had to be equipped first?

But a couple of flashing new skills were also at the bottom of her list that she didn't notice earlier. One in particular was actually pretty useful. [Detection], a skill that allows users to see far away and/or hidden enemies.

I forgot. This skill unlocks at level ten. She thought. I should equip it. It'd probably help with the lowered visibility range during night time. She tapped the skill icon and selected equip from the drop down menu. Suddenly the forest looked a whole lot brighter. Yup, this definitely helps. With a smile on her face, Rose closed her menu and continued walking.

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"Okay, Rose, what the heck is that…?" Crocea asked, voice filled with as much fear as his expression suggested.

"I don't know. This wasn't in the beta…" Rose paled she stared at the creature before her.

In front of them was a wolf. It was completely black, with glowing red eyes and teeth, and it stood about a head taller than Crocea. It's cursor was completely red, marking it as a hostile and very dangerous enemy. [Lesser Beowolf] Level 10, its status screen said.

That thing's strong enough to be a boss mob! What's it doing here? This forest is supposed to only have mobs between level 3 and 6, with the area boss being level 10! This makes no sense!

The mob pounced at Rose, with the redhead barely managing to jump out of the way. The mob made for another attack at Rose but was quite easily blocked by a [Shield Bash] by Crocea.

"We need to get out of here, that thing's too strong!" He said as he blocked another attack with his shield, his health going down by a sliver. "My defense isn't high enough for this. We need to run!"

"No, we can take it!" Rose said, lunging in with a [Horizontal], slashing at the creature's leg, following up with a [Slant], cutting diagonally at its back. The [Lesser Beowolf] slowly turned to face her. "It's switching targets! Hurry and attack!"

"I hope you're right about this!" Crocea jumped in with a [Vertical], once again hitting the creature's back. A good chunk of the health bar disappeared. "The back is a weak spot!" He shouted

The [Lesser Beowolf] seemed to crouch down, one arm extended behind it. Suddenly, it spun a full 360 degrees and hit both Rose and Crocea, dealing a considerable amount of damage – more to Rose than to Crocea due to his increased defense stat.

Rose glanced at her health bar. She had around 60 percent remaining. The mob they were fighting was at something around 40. She grit her teeth and forced herself to stand up. They could beat this thing. She knew it.

The mob was clobbering Crocea, who was still down, desperately trying to block the hits with his shield. His health was already turning yellow. Rose moved in and hacked wildly at the enemy's back, noting how quickly her sword flailing was lowering the thing's health.

The mob turned, sending Rose stumbling backward with a backhanded swing. It pounced again, this time actually connecting with the girl. She was knocked back several meters.

"Rose!" Crocea, now on his feet, charged at the mob with another [Shield Bash], followed by a [Slant], [Horizontal], and [Vertical], hitting in quick succession.

The mob exploded, dropping a relatively large amount of Lien, a couple of craft items, and a dagger, the [Lesser Beowolf Fang].

Crocea ran hurriedly towards his fallen teammate "Rose, oh gosh… um…" He said, panicking at how low her health was. "We should have bought potions. Oh man, this is very bad… Oh man oh man oh man OH MAN"

"Crocea?" Rose looked at him seriously. He returned the gaze with wide-eyed terror. "Chill" She said calmly. She maintained eye contact with the boy until his breathing stabilized. "Good"

Sitting up, she took a deep breath and looked around her. Red cursors were starting to surround them. They were still far away but they were definitely there. And they were closing in.

She cursed under her breath before she stood up. "Do you plan on using that item drop? If not, let me have it. A lighter weapon will probably help me make the most of my high agility stat."

Crocea shook his head and began scrolling through his menu. A notification screen appeared in front of Rose. [Crocea Mors] wishes to give you [Lesser Beowolf Fang] x1. Accept? Y / N. She tapped yes and equipped the dagger. Her short sword disappeared and the new weapon replaced it.

She looked around once more, grimly noting how much closer the red cursors were. She could vaguely see the shape of the mobs – they were all Beowolves.

"Crocea, unequip your shield. We need to run as fast as we can."

"What?"

"That thing wasn't a boss, it was a mook. There are more of them, and right now I don't think we can fight them."

Crocea paled. "More of them?"

"We need to move. Now!" Rose said before breaking into a jog.

"Hey, wait!" Crocea said, unequipping his shield and once again running full tilt just to keep up.

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It was a lucky break that the Beowolves didn't follow them up the tree.

Crescent Rose and Crocea Mors had been surrounded and were very likely to die had they not found a tree with low hanging branches that they could climb. The moment they rose a certain distance from the ground, all of the Beowolves suddenly stopped following them and began moving like there weren't any players in their detection range. It seemed that their programming didn't take into account the possibility of players climbing trees.

Eventually, all but one Beowolf returned to their spawn points and waited for another player to step into their detection radius.

"Why do you think that thing isn't moving?" Crocea whispered.

"How should I know? Maybe this place is its spawn point?" Rose said in annoyance.

It was one in the morning, she was exhausted, and all the adrenaline pumping through her system was probably the only thing keeping her awake. If she could just fall asleep while in the tree, she would, but the game wouldn't let her. You cannot fall asleep. There are enemies nearby.

"So… these Beowolves aren't in the beta?"

Rose sighed. "No. They're not. I never knew of an area this early in the game where the mobs changed based on the time of day. It happened later, but it was never something like… like this…" She shivered

"Still though, as scared as I am right now, I kinda like this surprise" She said with a chuckle. "Those things are like mini-bosses. If I remember correctly, the [Gate Boss] for this entire region is level 30. It normally takes two teams of six level 10 players to take it down safely. A person at level 30 can probably solo it, though." She eyed the Beowolf resting at the foot of the tree. "These Beowolves are level 10 and they go down pretty easily with just a team of two, but there are so many of them that it's probably a bad idea to even try fighting them. It's just so terrifying. It's awesome…"

"You know, Ruby, sometimes I wonder what goes in inside your head to make you think like that" Crocea said dryly.

"No IRL names!"

"Right, sorry, slip of the tongue…"

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"Okay, what if I equip the [Stealth] skill and use the [Back Stab] tech on it?" Rose suggested.

"Will that be enough to kill it, though?" Crocea asked, unhappy at how the conversation was going

"I don't know. But once it gets up to attack me, that's when you jump down behind it and hit it with a 4-skill combo like before." Rose said animatedly, mimicking the combo Crocea had used to kill the Beowolf earlier.

"Rose, it's too dangerous. I say we just wait it out and test my theory that these mobs disappear at sunrise."

"C'mon, Crocea. I really wanna kill that thing." Rose insisted. "Calculate how much damage we'll do if I back stab it and then you use your combo on it. It'll die, just know it"

The boy scowled, mentally running the numbers. Rose smiled. The boy was given a thinking puzzle, something she knew he'd enjoy. Besides, she already did the math. She knew she was right.

Her knife did 8-10 damage. The back was one of the [Lesser Beowolf]'s weak spots. Her attack would do double damage than she would normally do. [Back Stab] would again double her damage, and had a 40% chance of critical – critical hits also doubled damage – which meant she had a chance of doing, at best, 80 damage with a single attack.

However, the sword technique would lock her in the attack animation for at least a second, leaving her vulnerable to attack. That's where Crocea came in.

His [Bronze Short Sword] did 4-7 damage. Sword techniques usually did 50% more damage than just swinging the weapon, so his combo would be four hits to the back, dealing 44 damage.

That totaled to 124 damage – just four points over the total health of the mob.

"Okay, we have a 40 something percent chance of killing it before it manages to make a move." Crocea stated, which Rose smiled to. Then he continued, sounding stern "The other 60% is that it survives with a sliver of its health left, hits you while the both of us are still locked in our attack animations, and by the time I manage to counter attack, you've already died in an explosion of polygons."

Rose waved her hand dismissively at his argument. "This is just a video game. I'll respawn"

"Rose, don't you watch movies? You're trapped inside a video game. That's what everyone thinks. Then when someone dies and doesn't come back, they act all guilty and start becoming paranoid and start killing each other until the only one left has to face the last boss monster alone and finally escape the game"

Rose blinked. "What?"

Crocea sighed. "What I'm saying is: People might die if they are killed. Like actually die, not video game die."

"Are you sure it's not you who's paranoid right now?" Rose asked skeptically.

"Look, let's just put this into perspective right now: We can't log out, and suddenly we look like ourselves in real life. Don't you think that's strange? Maybe this isn't just some sort of glitch!? Maybe we're all in a death game and the very last [Gate Boss] is the mastermind behind all of this!?"

Rose looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Okay…" She said nervously. "Crocea…? You're scaring me…"

"And you're scaring me." Crocea countered. "I don't want to go down there and risk seeing my best friend get killed. And sure as hell, I don't want to risk myself getting killed either."

Rose frowned and looked at the [Lesser Beowolf] below them. She sighed. "I can't believe I'm listening to your crazy theory" She said, pouting.

"Oh, don't go guilt-tripping me, Rose" He pleaded. "Using those puppy eyes just isn't fair"

"Well, I can't help it if I'm cute, now can I?" Rose snapped before immediately regretting it. She looked away. "Sorry. I'm just frustrated. I used to be more powerful than this. I'd be able to take them on…" If I were still as powerful as I was in the beta, I could have cleared this entire forest all on my own. She thought bitterly.

Crocea perked up. He must have gotten an idea. "Okay, here's a compromise. I jump down first and attack it, then you [Back Stab] it," he said.

Rose blinked. "Huh… didn't think of that…" She nodded. "Okay let's do that"

Rose equipped the [Stealth] skill, Crocea equipped his kite shield, and they both drop down.

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After the success of their drop-down-from-a-tree strategy, they started using it as a way to keep moving towards the town while staying relatively safe. They would simply climb up a tree and wait for the mobs to disperse before jumping back down and continue walking. If there was a mob close by, they'd repeat the strategy they used to take down their second Beowolf. It was a grueling four hours, but eventually they reached the next town's safe zone.

It was, however, a very close call. As they neared the town, the trees became harder and harder to climb. By the time they reached the home stretch, there was no tree in sight, and over a dozen [Lesser Beowolves] were at their tail, only relenting when they passed the city gates.

The both collapsed onto the grass on the side of the cobble stone path, quietly thanking whatever God Remnant had that they got there alive.

Rose, with her [Detection] skill, took note of foot steps. Someone was approaching them. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up.

A girl with long white hair tied in a pony tail was walking towards them. Her pale skin, and cool demeanor gave her an aura of detached coldness, yet her eyes remained a fierce blue. Over her left eye seemed to be some sort of a scar. As she looked at them, her expression was almost… disappointed. Why was that?

"Glad to see someone made it out of that godforsaken forest." She muttered dryly. She knelt down and addressed them. "Did you two happen to see a girl in dark purple with long black hair and tall man wearing black with spiky brown hair?" She asked.

Rose shook her head.

"Oh… okay then" Her face grew sad for but a moment before it hardened into a stoic glare. "Well, you managed to survive. I talked to some of the NPCs. Apparently those things outside right now are called Grimm. They're basically just harder mobs that only appear when it's night time, between midnight and 6 am. The disappear by sunrise"

Rose heard Crocea chuckle, to which she groaned internally. She shot him an accusing look. What? You're not gonna say it? He leaned away with a look of surrender. Rost looked at him skeptically before looking away. Huh… So 'I told you so'? Okay then…

The white haired girl turned and began walking away. "Anyway, you two look exhausted. I'll show you to the inn. You can rest there for a few hours."

As the two stood to follow the girl, Rose couldn't help but ask, "why are you helping us…?"

The white haired girl stopped, not looking back. "I'm trying to be nice," she answered curtly, before continuing forward.

Rose glanced at Crocea, eye brows raised. What up with her? She was asking. The boy shrugged and began walking. Rose nodded quietly before following suit.

And so Crescent Rose and Crocea Mors followed the white haired player to the inn. As they walked, Rose looked at the girl's cursor. [Myrtenaster] Level 13, her status screen said.

Myrtenaster huh…? Rose thought. Why do I feel like I've heard that username before…?

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Well, this chapter is shorter than the previous one,. I'm still trying to work out the pacing for this. Please bear with me.

Anyway, Weiss has been introduced, though such a short scene probably won't be enough. There'll be more in the next chapter, I promise.
The Grimm are now in the story. Their implementation so far has been smooth. Since it's just the start of the game, they're still pretty dumb, but in the later areas, they should pose more of a threat

Anyway I'm still pretty hyped for this. Chances are high that you'll get another chapter next week. I hope you're all excited.