Yay! Fun new chapter! I never have anything to say! Woo and yay! OK, this is getting ridiculous. Just read it. I'm really not insane. If I were in a straightjaket could I be writing this? NO!

CHAPTER 4

WAVEMASTER

It was Friday the next day, and Kite woke up early as he normally did on school days. But at school, he couldn't get his mind off of The World! It was like a disease, slowly infecting his mind and body so that he couldn't break away from it. That day, at lunch, he ate withhis friends,Hao, Rumiko, and Shikito.

"I finally played The World last night," Kite told them. "It's great."

"Really? Awesome!" said Hao excitedly. "We should adventure together today after school!"

"Yeah!" said Rumiko. "That would be fun!"

"What class are you?" asked Shikito.

"Wavemaster," Kite told them.

"Cool!" said Rumiko.

"What are you guys again?" Kite asked.

"I'm a Long Arm," said Hao.

"I'm a Heavy Axeman," said Rumiko.

"I'm a Heavy Blade," said Shikito.

"Have you made any friends online yet?" Rumiko asked him.

"Yeah," said Kite. "Their names are Michoru, Suzaku, Magora, Akazu, and Mimiru."

"Whoa, wait a sec!" said Shikito. "You know a person named Mimiru?"

"Yeah," Kite replied.

"The Mimiru?" Shikito continued. "The one who cleared Lambda Calmina Caldericala Altar?"

"Um, I think so," said Kite doubtfully. "She's a Heavy Blade, and she's got dark skin and brown hair. If you want, I can introduce you when we get online tonight."

"Yes!" Shikito said. "I'd love to meet Mimiru!"

"Ok," said Kite. "I'll see what I can do."

That night, Kite turned on his computer and checked his mail. He had a message from Mimiru.

Dear Kite,

I'd really like to meet you in Theta, Rejecting Oblivious Wavemaster. There's something I want you to see.

Mimiru

That worked out nicely, he thought. I can just bring all of my friends to this dungeon, and we can meet Mimiru.

He logged in, and saw three characters standing by the Chaos Gate. One was a boy with long black hair and a spear in his hand. One was a girl with red hair tied in a ponytail and an axe in her hand. The last was a boy who was heavily armored and had a sword in his hand.

"Hao! Rumiko! Shikito!" Kite was so glad to see them. "Wow! Your characters are impressive. Anyway, I've got to go to this dungeon, Theta, Rejecting Oblivious Wavemaster. Mimiru e-mailed me and said she wanted to meet me there."

"I'm up for it!" said Shikito.

"Ok, I can't actually access Theta Server yet, so someone else has to be the party leader," said Kite. "What about you, Hao? Do you want to be party leader?"

"I guess so," said Hao. "We're off!"

And so they warped. A message came up, saying:

ThetaServer

Highland City Dun Loireag

"Wow, this place is great," said Kite. The city was set on a high mountain, with frozen mountain air and wooden planks connecting the several plateaus that made up the town.

"No time to gape, my friend," said Shikito. "We've got to go."

"Theta, Rejecting Oblivious Wavemaster!" said Hao, and they were off.

They arrived in a grassland field, where they were quickly attacked by a rock-like thing called a Statue Menhir.

"Holy crap! What the hell is that?" Kite asked frantically.

"It's an electric monster," Hao told him. "Skills!"

"Ani Tornado!" cried Rumiko. Her axe glowed with the essence of darkness, and she held it out, spinning three times.

"Hirameki!" called Shikito. The sword glowed green with the power of wood and he slashed horizontally twice in different directions, then spun once and slashed downward.

"Vak Repulse!" screamed Hao. The spear glowed with the power of fire, and he spun the spear in his hand, then rotated the spear around his body.

The Statue Menhir died quickly. Hao probably could have defeated the creature with just one normal attack,

but Kite didn't say so. He decided to let them enjoy the victory.

Suddenly, Kite glowed yellow. Yellow beams swirled all around him.

"What's going on?" he asked them.

"Calm down dude," said Hao. "You're leveling up."

"So I'm Level 2 now?" Kite confirmed."Whoa, hold on a sec," said Rumiko quickly. "You mean to tell me that

you're on Theta Server and you hadn't even reached Level 2 by the time you got there? That was

a huge mistake! You won't be able to defend yourself here. We'll have to protect you; we're all Level 20."

"Well, excuse me," Kite said under his breath. "I wasn't aware that I was going to be such a burden."

Kite was a little bit angry at them. Rumiko had basically said, "You are so weak. You're not even fit to adventure with us. Why don't you go and level up for a while and come back when you can actually help us as opposed to just standing around vacuuming up the EXP?"

But eventually, he forgave them. The way he thought about it, his survival depended on it.

"Do we really have to clear the field?" Kite asked them. "I'm afraid I'm gonna die."

"It's ok," said Shikito. "I've got a Thunder Torque. I'll cast Rip Maen on you if you die."

"But I've got other friends online," Kite continued. "And I don't want to be a much higher level than them. That would be unfair to them."

"It just means you can show off to them," said Hao. "Look, you can go wait for us in the dungeon. We're going to stay here and clear out the field."

Though he didn't want to wait in the dungeon alone, he would rather be there than on the field. So he found the dungeon entrance and walked in.

When he entered the dungeon, there was a girl in pink with bright orange hair standing in the doorway to the next room.

"Hi," she said. "I'm A-20. Mimiru asked me to come and tell you where to meet her. She said she wants you to come to the bottom of the dungeon, where the Gott Statue is. She told me to take you there, since you're still only Level 1."

"Level 2!" he corrected her.

"Oh, sorry," she said. "I feel like an oaf. (> )"

"That's all right," said Kite. "We've never even met before, so how could you have known? Anyway, lets go meet Mimiru. And if you don't mind, I'd like to avoid as many portals as possible, if that's ok."

"Sure," said A-20. "I'll use a Fairy's Orb."

The first room had a portal, containing a Mummy Scissors.

"Let's go!" said A-20. "We're not in a party, so none of us can use Chat Commands. But you've got an Iron Rod, right? Use your earth magic. I'll hang back and heal, because I don't."

"Gan Rom!" Kite screamed, and the tornado with rocks surrounded the Mummy Scissors, causing an Elemental Hit. About 210 of its 420 HP was drained by this attack. That made the mummy angry. Kite looked fearfully at the long, iron blades attached to the mummy's knuckles, and was reminded of Sora. Even though he knew that he couldn't be hurt in this game, he still thought that the "claws" tearing through his flesh wouldbe painful.

Suddenly, he was terrified. He wanted to get out of this dungeon, no matter what it took. He used a Sprite Ocarina (an item used to escape to the field when in the middle of the dungeon) but nothing happened.

"It won't work, you baka!" cried A-20. "You can't use a Sprite Ocarina when you're in a battle! Now concentrate on magic."

"Gan Rom!" he said weakly, his knees wobbling uncontrollably. This time the spell didn't cause an elemental hit, and he was angry. He cast the spell again, but it barely hit at all. The Mummy Scissors was continuously closing in on him.

The creature didn't say anything, but as soon as it got close enough to him, it used an attack that was like Saber Dance only the blades were glowing green. He screamed.

"Repth!" A-20 cried, and he was healed. He still felt stunned, though, and the Mummy Scissors was about to attack again.

"Oh, for goodness sake!" said A-20. She ran forward and shoved one of her two swords into the mummy's stomach. It turned gray and disappeared.

"Thank you," said Kite breathlessly.

"It was nothing," said A-20. "But in the future, try not to clam up like that. You'll get yourself killed."

"All right," said Kite.

"What made you freak out?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Kite. "I just saw those claw things and got scared. I was afraid that if it attacked me I would be hurt."

"You can't be hurt in this world, remember?" she said, patting him on the shoulder.

But for some reason, he felt her hand touch him.

They continued on, and as they entered the next room, A-20 warned that there would be a magic portal in the next room.

"If you don't fight," she said, "you won't gain any experience. So you just don't move, and heal yourself if you get hit, all right?"

Kite nodded nervously. They entered the next room, which was like a long hallway, and the magic portal opened. Two Mummy Scissors wandered out. A-20 rushed forward.

"Tiger Claws!" she said, holding her swords out. She jumped in the air and spun around several times, slicing both monsters in several places. They both died.

"There," she said. "You OK?"

"Yeah," said Kite. He really wasn't OK, he felt really sick.

They entered the next room and a magic portal opened. Out popped a creature that looked like a floating pumpkin with a cape and two swords.

"That's a Pumpkin King! They have a Physical Tolerance! Knight's Bane!" A-20 exclaimed. The monster's tolerance was gone, and so she ran forward to deal with it.

"Lightning Rage!" she screamed, and held out her swords. They became electrified, and she jumped into the air, spinning many times. She landed and cross slashed both her swords, then jumped into the air on her side, and spun around even more, finally finishing by cross slashing again, killing the beast. She suddenly leveled up, and a blue treasure chest appeared. She took a Fortune Wire and poked it into the lock. There was a small click, and the chest turned a normal color. She opened it and pulled out a pair of blue boots.

"Awesome!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Sea Greaves!"

She put the boots on and they melded with her character data.

There were no monsters in the next two rooms, but the third, a long hallway, had a magic portal in the center, as well as a chest. A-20 opened the chest.

"Cool," she said. "A Greencall scroll."

They ran towards the portal and a large, lizard-esque creature jumped out.

"King Snakoid!" said A-20, with a strange tone in her voice that was a combination of fear and excitement. "I'll take care of this in no time! LaRue Zot!"

A huge star of ice with thousands of stalagmites of frozen water burst out from the ground under the King Snakoid. It scored an elemental hit. Then the star exploded, causing even more damage. But the Snakoid didn't die, so A-20 cast the spell again, and this time, the creature perished.

"Wow," said Kite. "That spell was awesome!"

"Yeah," she said, "but it took a huge bite out of my SP. Mage's Soul!"

Her SP recharged, and they walked forward into the next room. It contained the stairs to the next room. They walked down and in the next two rooms they saw nothing, but when they went into the room after that, a portal opened. A large yellow snake came out.

"Orochi!" said A-20. "They're weak to Wood! Greencall!" she pulled out a scroll and opened it. It had a beautiful painting of a strange creature on it. The painting started glowing green, and a real version of it came out of the scroll and floated over A-20's head! A large, complicated design within a circle appeared under the Orochi, and there was an explosion, and the Orochi died. They ran into the next room.

Mimiru was waiting there for them, along with a strange Wavemaster.

"Hi, Kite!" said Mimiru. "Did you make it here OK?"

"Yeah," said Kite.

"Alright, I'll leave you guys alone now," said A-20, and she pulled out a Sprite Ocarina and disappeared.

"So what did you want to show me?" Kite asked Mimiru.

"Well, I wanted to introduce you to my friend," said Mimiru, pointing to the Wavemaster. "This is my friend, Tsukasa."

"Hi," Kite said nervously. He gave Tsukasa his member address.

"So this is your friend?" asked Tsukasa. "I'm unimpressed. It looks like a rip off of my character design."

Kite felt very angry after hearing this, but tried not to show it.

"So why did you want me to come here, Mimiru?" Kite asked her.

"Well, I just wanted you guys to meet. Maybe we could go to a dungeon sometime."

"That sounds like fun," said Kite.

"Tsukasa, give him your member address," said Mimiru."What if I don't want to?" asked Tsukasa defiantly.

"Just do it!" she said angrily.

"Fine," said Tsukasa. He gave Kite his member address, then used a Sprite Ocarina and left.

"Sorry he was kind of rude, Kite," said Mimiru.

"Don't worry about it," said Kite. "I'll work on him. He seems like a nice enough person."

"He is," said Mimiru. "You've just got to get to know him."

With that she left. Kite was about to leave as well, when Rumiko, Shikito and Hao entered the room.

"Where's Mimiru?" asked Hao.

"Um..." Kite said, trying to think of an excuse. "Well, you see, we had to meet here, and after the meeting, she left, so..."

"I can't believe it!" said Shikito angrily.

"It's OK, you guys," said Kite. "I'll just invite you all to a party sometime. You'll meet her, don't worry."

They all left and returned to Root Town, and then while his friends logged out Kite warped to Mac Anu.

Isn't Shikito obsessed? By the way, the keyword, Lambda Calmina Caldericala Altar was what A-20 called the area in the Japanese thing with subtitles, so don't be annoying about that!