Second chapter! La la la la la! Sorry about that. Anyway, if you didn't like the last chapter, things get more interesting here.

CHAPTER 2

THE GIRL IN WHITE

They arrived in a sunny, bright grassland. A few rocks sat on the ground here and there, and the dungeon entrance stood right in front of them.

"Well, this is dull," said Michoru. "There's nothing here but a staircase and some talking plants!"

"Those are grunty foods," said Akazu. "You use them to raise these little things called grunties once you reach Theta Server and beyond. They're supposed to look like pigs, but I've obviously never seen one myself. Once they're full grown you can ride them around on the fields of areas. We should take them. This kind of grunty food is called a Mandragora."

They each took a Mandragora.

"Where do we go next?" Suzaku asked. "My map is completely empty except for the dungeon entrance and a weird water drop thing."

"We need a Fairy's Orb," said Magora. "But we didn't have any money so we couldn't buy them."

"Aren't Wavemasters supposed to have some special skill which has the same effect as a Fairy's Orb?" Michoru asked Kite, looking at his staff.

"Yeah," he said. He raised his staff and then thrust it into the ground again, creating a shockwave. All of the sudden, four large yellow dots appeared on their field maps.

"The magic portals," said Suzaku. "Let's go get some Experience Points, shall we?"

And with that, he set of for the nearest portal. The rest followed. When they finally reached it, a small Goblin popped out.

"Everyone, Skills!" Kite shouted, and the party followed. They ran for the monster, but Michoru was the first one there.

"Crack Beat!" she shouted, jumping in the air, and bringing her sword down onto the Goblin with incredible force, slicing it in half and killing it instantly. They each gained 60 EXP from the battle. They went to the next portal, and out came another Goblin. But this time things went a bit differently. Before he even called out a chat command, Kite held his staff above his head.

"Gan Zot!" he called, and slammed the head of the staff onto the ground. A small crack in the earth followed from his position all the way to the Goblin. Once the crack reached the monster, several stone columns rose from the earth and struck the Goblin from below, causing death. Again, 60 EXP was assigned to each player.

At the next portal, another Goblin appeared. This time, Kite figured that his party had enough strength to defeat it without using skills. So they all charged and struck the creature with their weapons. Even Kite, the Wavemaster, joined the melee combat. But right before it was killed, the Goblin struck. It cut through Akazu's arm, then again into his gut.

"Akazu!" Kite yelled. "It's all right! I can heal you! Repth!"

Akazu's health was fully restored, and he ran into the battle and sliced the monster in half.

"I'm sorry I let that happen, Akazu," said Kite. "I should have put the party on Skills. Anyway, at least we know to always do that in the future. I hope you're not too mad at me."

"No," said Akazu. "I'll forgive you. It wasn't even your fault. It was all because of that Goblin."

"But I did screw up by not setting the party to Skills," said Kite.

"Oh, quit blaming yourself!" Akazu bursted out. "It pisses me off! What happened wasn't your fault, so stop telling yourself it was!"

And with that, Akazu turned away and strode to the next portal. The portal contained yet another Goblin, and after this portal was activated, a screen came up, saying, "ALL FIELD PORTALS OPEN".

"Skills!" Kite called. "I'll cover with healing!"

This time, Magora was the first to the portal.

"Triple Doom!" she called, and jumped into the air. When she towered high over the Goblin's head, she spun her spear around her body, then brought it down onto the Goblin. The Goblin's colorless body fell to the ground.

"Well, we've cleared the field of all portals," said Michoru. "What do we do now?"

"How about we go to the Spring of Myst?" Suzaku suggested. Everyone stared blankly at him.

"You know, the water drop thing I mentioned earlier?"

This piece of information didn't help the situation.

"Well, while I was installing the game, I decided to read the guide that came with it. There was a small section near the back about these things called Springs of Myst. When you go up to them, you can throw in a weapon or piece of armor and then this guy called Monsieur will pop out. He'll ask you if you've lost a Golden Axe or a Silver Axe. If you say neither, then he'll either upgrade or weaken the equipment, depending on the weather in the field. This place is partly cloudy, so if we throw a weapon in, then it'll be strengthened by two levels!"

"That sounds great," said Akazu. "But we each only have one weapon. It won't let us throw it in. Let's just go to the dungeon and hope we find some weapons there."

So they all descended the steps into the dungeon.

They arrived in a man-made underground stone cave. It was cold.

"Hey, guys," said Kite. "Don't you think it's strange that we can feel cold down here? I mean, this game is only virtual. We shouldn't feel anything."

"CC Corp probably just added this as a feature a while ago," said Magora, "you know, to be more realistic."

Kite figured she was probably right, but he still felt uneasy. They walked through the door to the first room. There, they saw a girl in white walking through the room, looking lost.

"Um, hello?" Akazu called out to her. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," said the girl.

"Are you wounded? I can heal you, if you want," said Kite.

"I don't need healing," said the girl. "But there is something you need to do."

"What?" asked Michoru.

Suddenly, a large figure appeared in behind the girl. He was extremely tall, and humanoid, but there was something different about him. First of all, his legs didn't bend. They had no knees. And also, he had a ring around his head. Then the strangest of all was that where all of his joints were, there was just air! All of his limbs were just floating! There was no connection! The figure held out his left hand, and a blue and green form appeared around his wrist. It grew larger and larger, until it snapped forward and several dark blue beams shot out and flew toward the girl. But the colors on the screen were suddenly inverted, and everything froze. No one could move. The figure and the girl vanished.

"You guys, I really think we should leave," said Kite. "That wasn't a natural occurrence. We should get out of here as fast as we can."

"You're just scared," said Suzaku. "We're going to stay here."

"Why are we stuck with the most stubborn person in The World?" Michoru asked them.

"I wish I knew," said Magora. But nonetheless, they walked down the corridor, to where it forked. They took a right, coming into a room that was empty except for a small chest containing a Speed Charm, which they gave to Akazu because he couldn't cast magic. They went the other direction, coming to a magic portal. Out came five Deadly Moths.

"Skills!" Kite called out.

"Crack Beat!" screamed Michoru, jumping into the air and taking a huge chunk out of her moth's HP.

"Triple Doom!" said Magora, jumping and bringing the spear down onto the moth.

"Axel Pain!" screeched Akazu. He held his axe above his head and then spun once, bring down the axe onto the moth, which killed it.

"Saber Dance!" cried Suzaku, slashing horizontallytwice with his two swords and then slashing diagonally upward, finishing by spinning and slashing forward. The moth no longer flew.

"Gan Zot!" shouted Kite. The columns rose again, but the moth didn't die. Because he didn't have any more SP, he let the rest of the party finish the moth. They gained an overall 300 EXP from the battle. In the next room, there was nothing but a staircase leading deeper into the dungeon. They ran through the first door, though they found nothing. The room had three other exits, so they took the west one first. There was a portal, but it was only two Deadly Moths and one Goblin.

"Alright, here's the plan! Magora and Akazu, you take one of the moths! Michoru and Suzaku, you take the other moth! I already know that my magic isn't powerful enough to kill a moth in one shot, so I'll get the Goblin and then after that I'll heal! Let's go!"

The party did as they were told. Kite's Iron Rod gave him the Gan Rom skill, so he used that to save SP, because Gan Zot used twice as much SP as Gan Rom.

"Gan Rom!" he called out, and a wind began to blow as he moved his staff. The wind spun in a circle and became a tornado. The tornado was so strong that it pulled rocks out of the ground, which then all struck the Goblin, who died quickly. Kite then watched his party members, ready to use Repth at any time.

His friends attacks were missing frequently, probably because the moths were flying. One of the moths struck Magora.

"Repth!"

Magora was back on her feet and striking the monster continually. Eventually, the moths died, but it took a while. They opened the treasure chest at the end of the room, and found a Resurrect, which Kite took because he would be doing the most healing. They went to the passage across from them, and inside found a portal, but it just contained a chest, which hid a Mage's Soul, which was also given to Kite.

Finally, they went to the last passage in the cross-shaped room. There was a large stone statue floating behind a chest.

"The Gott Statue..." said Magora dreamily. "I never imagined it would be so beautiful..."

She walked over and opened the chest. Inside were five pieces of Yellow Candy. They each took one, when the screen flashed and made a buzzing noise. They were suddenly teleported to a place they had never been before. They were standing on a stone platform, and the sky above them was green. The girl appeared.

"Please, take this," she said to them, handing them a book. "I need you to have this. It's incredibly important that you get this. You will need it."

A red wand with a cross on the head appeared behind her, and her arms were thrust out to the sides and it looked like she couldn't move. The strange creature appeared again, and it raised its hand. The same strange, glowing presence appeared, and grew larger, then popped out with the blue beams flying forward.

"Wait!" Kite called out to her. "What's your name?"

"My name is..." the girl began, "Aura."

The girl was bound, so the beams struck through her, and a yellow glow surrounded her. She screamed, then vanished.

The creature aimed his hand at the others this time, but before the presence even appeared, a tall woman wearing white teleported into the area.

"Hello," she said. "You should be glad that I was watching this area and saw you enter. Now, let's take care of him shall we?"

"We can't fight that thing!" Michoru protested. "We're only level one!"

"Really," said the woman. "Then there's only one thing to do."

She raised her wand.

"Run!" she said, and they teleported out of the area.

Was that to cliche? Just telling you, this is not a knockoff of .hack/infection. It is quite different. You need to see how the story unfolds though. So stick around! And review!