Chapter 3: The Guild Leader?!

*Hours Later*

Winner: Liam (90% HP)

Loser: Kuro (2% HP)

Liam is on a 30 Win Streak!

Rematch:

Liam: "Look at that….You finally got me down to 90% HP! You've improved from earlier. It's getting harder to read you while we fight. But you're still a ways away from ever taking me down. You sure you wanna keep going? We've been at this for hours and we need to be up and ready for tomorrow's boss fight.?"

?: "Yeah Kuro it's time to give it up!"

Kuro turns his head towards the voice to see Jirachi, Sumier and Ren all watching him. Kuro thinks to himself, "They've been here this whole time?!" Kuro then looks back at Liam who looks as though he's getting bored and says:

Kuro: "Well you go on ahead. I'm going to "explore" for a little bit."

Liam: "That's a load of bull….You just want to level up some more at a chance to beat me! Well that's not happening, hit the rematch button!"

?: "Liam, calm down! If he wants to get stronger, wouldn't that make it easier on us for the boss fight, and not only that, if we were to try our hand at an event?"

Kuro then sees a woman in a samurai outfit looking at Liam. Liam slowly turns to see her and says:

Liam: "S-Sorry about that Lisa! I just didn't want him to go and get himself killed."

Lisa: "That's a load of bull….You just don't want anybody to catch up to you in strength, isn't that right?"

Liam: "Ah- Yeah you got me there….*Scratches back of his head* But you are right Lisa, if we recruit more people that are like Kuro, then we might be able to actually take on an event and get usable rewards from them. That is, if we can somehow get first place….Stupid Knights of the Blood Oath…."

Lisa: "You're saying that as if we get top 5 every time."

Lisa then walks over to Kuro and looks at him from head to toe. She says "A Santa hat huh….Well not as weird as Jirachi's pumpkin head. Welcome to the team….Kuro right? As you've heard Liam, My name is Lisa, The Everlasting Warriors guild leader, And the second strongest on the team." Kuro thinks to himself, "Second strongest?! Never seen a guild with the sub leader being stronger than the actual leader. Nice change of pace." Lisa and Kuro shake hands and all of them start to head back to the guild room. Ren stops Kuro and says:

Ren: "Well what did I tell you? Fun right?"

Kuro: "You can't be serious….I just spent hours getting my ass kicked by a person whose strength stat is almost maxed out. You think I'm having fun?!"

Ren: "..."

Kuro: "I will admit though, joining this guild wasn't an entire loss. I've learned some new techniques from Liam and I might even get to see how this guild handles a boss fight."

Ren: "So is it fun or not fun being in a guild?"

Kuro: "It's tolerable…."

Ren: "..."

Ren: "Oh yeah! Care to tell me about Laughing Coffin?"

Kuro: "Not much to say about them really….From the information I've gained, which is not a lot, It's a PK guild, who looks to have given up on leaving this world, want to make it harder for us to leave, or just likes the fact that they can kill people with their only penalty being a red icon above their heads. Then again they could be everything I just said."

Ren: "Wait so you're telling me-"

Kuro: "That when you met them on floor 22, and traded for those drop rate potions, they wanted a rare fish or all of your fish, to craft some sort of status ailment weapon that could possibly kill everyone it touches? Ehhhh could be a possibility."

Ren: "What have I done?"

Kuro: "Don't worry Ren, if anything ever does happen, they'll have a spot just for you in their guild. Hell they might even give you a title, "The Black Market Trader, Ren, How does that sound?"

Ren: "Please don't make light of the subject."

Kuro: "Back to what I was saying though, Last time I heard of them was when the 20th floor was opened. Apparently some guy or girl, I can't really tell, was beaten almost to death by them. And they were holding some girls hostage as well. Bad day to try and be a hero I suppose. But that's me assuming that they were trying to save them."

Ren: "You said almost beaten to death?"

Kuro: "Yeah, thankfully from what I've heard, The Fuurinkazan Clan got involved along with Agil at just the right time. Whoever that person was, they sure are a lucky individual."

Ren: "Whose Agil?"

Kuro: "You'll find out one day, actually tomorrow, I assume that he's gonna be there."

The group make it back to the guild room, where everyone talks about the plans for the floor boss again. Liam asks if there are any questions:

Ren: "Yeah I got one….Why were we picked to be the guild to go in while everyone else takes a break?"

Lisa: "Well, This story never never gets old, if you could believe that. Liam was just grinding on the 40th floor one day and someone caught his eye. Some spiky haired guy asked him if his guild wanted to participate and Liam, being Liam, told him, his words not mine, "My guild will defeat it before you guys even have a chance of getting back in.""

Kuro: "Why the hell would he do that?"

Ren: "Yeah that was pretty stupid to say, no offense of course."

Liam: "I THOUGHT HE WOULD TAKE IT AS A JOKE!"

Sumier: "Pretty lame joke if you ask me."

Jirachi: "Not your finest moment in the sun, huh Liam?"

Liam: "Okay….We get it. But look at how this can turn out….We can live through this boss and our guild will shoot up to being one of the top guilds to rely on."

Kuro: "Or we could die and be known as the dumbest guild in the world to take on such a big task."

Lisa: "Exactly Kuro. (sigh) so thanks to Liam's ego, we are in this boat and now we gotta ride the wave to shore."

Ren: "Or we could just tell them Liam's ego got the best of him."

Lisa: "Too late for that now….Why do you think Liam was ecstatic when he saw that flyer? Besides I feel like our survival rate just went up a ton thanks to you two joining.

Ren: "What are you talking about? I just killed my first mob in years today!"

Kuro: "How much fun are you having Ren?"

Ren: "Shut up Kuro…."

Lisa: "Alright guys, Now to be as professional as we can be, I'm going to need everyone to be at the boss's doors as soon as the assault team is about to leave. So if I were to give you guys a time, it would be 12:00 pm. I don't need you guys being late, and that goes double for you new recruits."

Ren: "Well I guess this is it for us."

Kuro: "We'll be fine Ren. We just can't be late to this thing right? Sounds easy enough."

*The Next Day*

"I can't believe I'm late!" Kuro says to himself as he runs through the labyrinth. "How in the hell do I oversleep in a VR game?!" Kuro makes it to the boss door where all of the assault team is healing up and preparing outside. Kuro sees the door to the boss fight slowly closing and makes a run for it. While he's running, he can hear familiar voices as he passes by, saying his name. Kuro turns back and waves while running, saying "Can't talk now, We can catch up later!" Kuro runs in just in time as the door closes behind him. Kuro then hears Lisa yelling directly at him:

Lisa: "KUROOOOOOOOO! YOU'RE LATE!"

Kuro: "You don't have to tell me what I already know."

Lisa: "What was that?!"

Kuro: "I said let's fight this boss and put on a show!"

Lisa: "Put on a show?!"

Kuro: "ARE YOU GUYS READY?"

Nobody: "..."

Lisa: "ARE YOU GUYS READY?"

Everyone but Kuro: "YEEEEAAAAHHHH!"

Kuro: "(Sigh) Whatever, Let's do this!"

*Kuro's Pov*

The 40th Floor Boss….My first boss back. It was pretty strong for what it was….Never again though….Liam's ego is a problem and must be taken care of….By any means necessary.