"Are you sure this is the deepest you've been?" Welf asked as he bisected a falling dungeon lizard.
"I haven't reached the fifth floor yet. Why?" Bell responded as he cut through two goblins and a trio of kobolds with his new sword.
"It's just that you don't seem like a newbie. most new adventurers won't reach the fourth floor for about a month, and you've said you've been an adventurer for a week?" He said, keeping an eye for more mob spawns as the two make their way further into the dungeon.
"Three days, actually. As for my progression, it only makes sense that a player character progresses faster than the NPCs." Bell explained casually. Unlike Welf, who kept his head on a swivel, he strode forward with confidence knowing he would see any new mob spawns on his HUD. "Besides, we're on Easy mode."
"Player character, en pee seas, Easy? What are you talking about?" Welf asked in confusion as he watched Bell confidently stroll through the dungeon as if he knew there were no more monsters.
"Oh yeah, since you're in my party now, I suppose I should tell you. I can artificially change how easy or hard it is to fight monsters in the dungeon. Fighting on Easy means we get less exp through our falna, but we still make the same amount of valis from monster drops." He explained as he watched six red dots appear ahead of them on his mini-map. Pulling out his sword, Bell assumed a fighting position. Welf, seeing Bell do so, entered his own fighting stance.
"What about that other stuff with the player character and the en pee seas?" Welf asked as he saw five kobolds and a dungeon lizard begin to approach them.
"That mostly depends on the genre. In god's eye view rpgs, any character that can be recruited is sort of considered a player character, but for stuff like a fps, there is only a single pc." Bell explained to Welf. It was something to think about. He was playing in first person, which would imply he was the only pc, but he just had a feeling that Welf was more than those random npcs that littered the city.
"Bell, I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you can keep cutting through those monsters like you are then I don't really care if you speak nonsense." Welf said raising his giant sword above his head and mercilessly splitting a kobold in two.
Bell elected to ignore the insult instead marching through the dungeon. The two fought on killing dozens of monsters with ease. With that ease however, it was easy for the two to forget how much more difficult the fifth floor was in comparison to the fourth. Worse yet, Bell forgot a fundamental rule of gaming. Always be prepared for bullshit to happen.
Before he knew it Bell had seen an objective marker crawl up towards his party. Thinking back on it, Bell did realize that his quest hadn't updated when he first step foot onto the fifth floor, but instead it gave him a new waypoint. Curious as to what was so special about this one specific spot Bell immediately set a save point.
"Welf, stay here for a second. I have a bad feeling about this." He warned his new partner.
"What is there to worry about? The fifth floor may be harder than the fourth, but youre doing really well, and I'm here too." Welf tried to reassure.
Bell would like to believe Welf, but the second his icon on the mini-map touched the waypoint a deafening cry reverberated throughout the dungeons walls. Bell saw his quest suddenly change from Reach the Fifth Floor to simply Survive, with an optional objective Welf Survives. Speaking of whom, before Welf could even ask what was going on, a monsterous form appeared from around a corner. A furred beast twice the size of Bell, towering over even Welf. It looked as if the creature stared directly into Bell's soul, before lowering it's head and pointing it's intimidating horns at him.
Bell figured that the game would tell him to defeat the minotaur if such a fight was possible rather than say Survive. Bell hadn't considered fighting the thing for even a second. Not as he turned tail. Not as he ordered Welf to flee combat. Not as he ran past his ally. Not as the objective Welf Survives turned red and faded from his quest-log. Not even as he felt a large set of rough, furry fingers grasp his face from behind.
GAME OVER
The sensation of coming back was strange to say the least. Bell hadn't even really felt his death. One moment he was running away from the first boss of the game, the next he was looking towards his waypoint with Welf at his side. Bell had to take a moment to reflect on it all. The thing that confused him was that he was given the optional objective of saving Welf as well, but the minotaur outran them both.
"Are you alright Bell?" Welf asked drawing him out of his stupor.
"Welf, we need to leave. A minotaur is coming." Bell explained keeping an eye on the corridor, but too much time had passed. It seemed the boss would only spawn once he reached the waypoint.
"Bell you do know minotaurs only start showing up on the middle floors right?" Welf said with a frown.
"Let's just turn back." Bell dismissed, not wanting to argue with his party member. Unfortunately, Welf ignored his advice and continued forward.
"You can head back if you want, I'm going to-"
It was at that moment that Welf reached the waypoint and the minotaur spawned.
Bell didn't hesitate. As much as he didn't want to lose his companion, he needed to run. But running wasn't enough. It wasn't long before Welf Survives turned to red and he soon heard the thuds of the minotaur's hooves behind him.
Game Over
"AHHHH This is stupid!" Bell whined much to Welf's confusion. Running wasn't going to work, and Welf would insist on continuing, so Bell was left with only one option. Seeing as Bell was already one shot by the minotaur and he had already taken the exp gain penalty from dying he figured he may as well kick up the difficulty to Hell. Time to get good...
Bell died twenty-seven times before managing to even take the minotaurs health down by a tenth. He discovered that the best way to "fight" the minotaur wasn't actually to fight it himself, as he did no damage, but rather to get agro the boss and dodge it's attacks while Welf put out the damage. All in all it took a total of 112 attempts to have finally killed the minotaur AND make sure Welf survived. The two party members were not looking good once they had finished. Welf looked bad, but Bell had looked as if he hadn't slept in days, which given the amount of attempts made, wasn't entirely inaccurate to say.
"Are you alright?" An unfamiliar female voice said from above him. Seeing as Welf was unconscious and Bell was laying face first on the dungeon floor to exhausted to move, he was at the mercy of this new npc.
"Mmmphh." He groaned trying to say something, but finding himself unable to. Moments later he heard this mystery woman knell next to him and he felt something wet trickle down his back as his HP started to rise. A health potion? With renewed energy Bell slowly got up and looked toward this new person. It was a princess he found.
"I.. uuhh." Bell began, not even knowing what he could say to such a beautiful woman.
"You fought well... It was impressive." She said simply.
"Are you kidding Aiz? He didn't even do anything." A werewolf asked boredly. Aiz didn't respond to the newcomer verbally, but instead pouting at him before ignoring him entirely and turning back to Bell.
"Will you be able to return on your own?" She asked, to which Bell could only nod dumbly.
When Bell returned home that night Hestia had seen the exp penalty and yelled him all night.