"So Charlie, you've been into one of these tunnels before?" Fetter asked.

"Yeah." Charlie pointed at a tunnel next to a few distinct-looking bushes, "That one."

Fetter was thinking as he rubbed his chin, "What'd you find if you don't mind me asking?"

"Midgets. Small filthy-looking people but more... savage"

After finishing graves for the dead, they were now sitting down in front of a tunnel. All seventeen of the group were here.

Someone named Donny explained to everyone that this was a strategical meeting, but really we were just chatting.

There were many tunnels to choose from. The tunnels encircled the entire dome. Appearing as random holes on the dome. There were even tunnels you couldn't reach because they were so high up. Just one of them, Charlie or rather— Brian thought— could lead to his death.

—Brian wasn't fond of dying just yet.

"Oh, like goblins then?" Crocker asked.

'What's a goblin?' Brian's mind went back from the clouds. Before remembering that one episode in Sword Art Online.

"Yeah, something like that. They weren't green though." Charlie finally responded.

"Interesting," Donny remarked.

He had yet to see the horrors, Brian thought.

"Did you also find that while you were inside?" Crocker casually pointed at his frilly old armor. He was unusually thin for his age.

"Yeah, I did," Charlie said.

"Status," Fetter said and a screen showed up.

Although he flipped the screen quickly, Brian was able to see that this Fetter was already Lvl.4 (He somewhat these things when other people were playing with it, they found him a bit creepy). Now that, was interesting.

"I also got something like that when I completed a quest." Fetter pulled a hood made out of the mouth of a boar. It had a cape on it too "Gives me extra stats for strength. Who knows. Might be useful."

Fetter clicked on a few other things on his screen, before swiping it out of existence. Then, he looked at Brian with a more serious-looking face, "You went there to find food, right? Did you go in with anyone else?"

"No, I went in alone," Brian said.

"Why?"

"Because people are stupid." It was his genuine thoughts.

"Heh, well you're pretty straightforward, aren' you? Charlie." Fetter chuckled. He nodded at him, "That's not a bad thing though."

When Brian said stupid, other students glanced at him with weird looks. He was already standing out with that spunky old armor of his. Oh, well.

"Could you tell me more about the system?" Brian asked. He'd always been curious about it but never got the chance to ask.

"Why don't you give Brian a crash course, Donny," Fetter said as he gazed at the tunnel's darkness. Thinking about something.

"Sure," Donny answered, "So there' basically three windows you can choose from the status screen. The Status, The Quests, and Personal Belongings."

"Why is it called The Quests?" Brian asked.

"Dunno, Charlie. I'm not one who made it." Donny shrugged, "But anyway, everything' pretty simple and explanatory. You can put things in your Personal Belongings, just like how Fet did it just now." He pointed at the redhead.

"The Quests is basically where you get these random missions— or quests really— and you get rewards as well as these Attribute Points."

"And, believe us when we say it, but—" A student with beard stubbles said, "You get pretty strong from this stuff."

He smacked Brian's shoulder while he was at it, "The name's Denver, fella. You have guts coming here and all, but I've never seen you around before."

"I'm not exactly the most active person out there," Brian said as he looked at a black-haired girl sitting beside Crocker in surprise. Why is she here?

"Alright, pipe down Denver." Donny coughed, "Anyway, we use Attribute Points to up our stats. You know? Just like games. I'm sure you've played a few, right?"

"Not really," Brian shook his head.

"Well, you basically get attributes, right?" Crocker held his hands up, "You got eight on the screen. And that's Strength, Endurance, Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"And that's you're basic crash course in status." Donny sighed, "I'd say it's pretty good that they only have eight attributes. It's not too much, but not too little either."

"You play games, Donny?" Brian asked. He didn't look like the kind of person to play games. Wait, right. Everyone played games these days.

"Uhuh, I used to play MMO while I was a kid," Donny smiled.

"Alright, everyone!" Fetter yelled as he stood up, "We'll be entering tunnels now!"

Fetter's squad of volunteers began rising from the ground. They were a bit nervous and maybe a little too excited. Except for that one girl, everyone else were boys.

'That's Cindy, right?' Brian squinted his eyes a little as he looked at her, 'She's still alive? I don't remember seeing her with Kayl and other girls.'

"When you see those things coming at you, don't panic! They're fast, and they can shoot lasers out of their eyes." Everyone looked at him with troubled looks, "I'm kidding. Loosen up a bit."

"Remember, this is not a game. No matter how much you feel like this is a game, keep telling yourself that it isn'. If your Red Bar goes to zero." Fetter pointed at something to his left, "You can die in there."

'Holy shit, this is like Sword Art Online!' Brian's eyes sparkled for a moment when he caught unto what Fetter was talking about, 'No, Brian. Don't do that. You know better than anyone not to fuck around.'

He calmed his mind down, his face had that empty look again.

"Alright, any questions before we head in?"

Someone raised their hand, "Is there anything we need to know about boars?"

"They're fierce. If they so much as see you, they'll charge at you with their horns. So far, it hasn' been hard for me. Just use your shields." Fetter said as he summoned his shield (As though it was a que, everyone started summoning their weapons).

"Are there any lights in there?" Brian asked. For good measure.

"They seem to turn on by themselves. It's like magic, really." Fetter said. Odd, that goblin area didn't seem to have any, "Anyone else?"

Another raised his hand, "Why aren' we eating first before we head out? Aren' you all..." His stomach rumbled like drums, "Starving?"

"Because there are other people that need that food," Fetter spoke with a gentle smile, "It's also not enough for everyone. That's why we're getting more for them."

The group was moved by his words. Now, they were more resolved to help Fetter. Even with their empty bellies, no one complained.

"Everyone's all good now right?" Fetter asked. Since everyone was quiet, he just nodded.

"Alright, follow me." Fetter turned around and stepped into the tunnel. His boar cape swirling as he did.

The moment he walked into the entrance, dim torches began the brightening the dark shaft. It wasn't much, but Brian thought it was better than complete darkness.

The group stared at them with awe and wonder.

Magic, we all seemed to think. Without saying anything, we followed Fetter into the tunnel.

----------------------------------------

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Space suddenly distorted around them as the light from the tunnels disappeared. Yellow light had replaced everything. We were more than alarmed, to say the least.

But luckily, we had a guide with us.

"Don't worry, it's just some weird magic blocking the light from the dome. Remember how everything looked dark in here?" Fetter said, "It's all... out of this world really."

We arrived at the lair of the boars. The place alight with magical torches stuck around the chamber. Burning yellow fire made the place feel warm, if not a bit too cozy.

What was weird about this part of the cave, however, was how there was a flying island in the middle of everything. And circling around it were floating stairs made out of rocks. The chamber was like a dome.

Roots came out of the small island. A small crimson lake surrounded the plot of land, just below the flying island. Like the forest, this chamber was filled with grasses. But strangely, they were red instead of green.

Even stranger, there didn't seem to be any boars and it was all quiet.

"That's weird..." Fetter's brows furrowed, "...last time I was here, the grasses weren't red..."

"Fellas, I have a bad feeling about this," Denver said as he got serious.

Donny whispered to Fetter's ear, "Rule Number One in horror films, we leave if someone says that they have a bad feeling." But Fetter kept mumbling to himself.

"Hey, Fetter. You ok?" Crocker asked. Seeing their leader just mumbling to himself, the other students grew anxious.

"...but why aren't there anything pigs here? This doesn't make any sense, they were just here..." Slowly, Fetter was getting lost in his thoughts. His face becoming more and more confused.

"...and was that red lake always there?" Fetter glanced at the lake and gasped.

"EVERYONE GET BACK!" Fetter screamed with all his voice, "SOMETHING'S WRONG!!!"

"Huh? what's wrong, Fett—"

"JUST GET BACK!!!" He shouted.

"W—We can't!!!" Someone from the back shouted at him, "It—It's not letting us pass through! It won't budge!"

The young man pushed and kicked, but nothing happened. It was like an invisible wall barred their exit, "No! Fuck!"

"EVERYONE MOVE AWAY!!!"

The air felt hot on our skin. The grasses around us started burning fire. Every breath became harder to take. As soon as we saw what was happening to him, we no longer delayed.

Something emerged on Fetter's forehead. It was a small bulge but too big of a deal for us to not notice. We watched with dread. The bulge unfolded, revealing an eye.

"Fireball!"

A ball of blazing flames appeared on Fetter's hands and was shot out. It was as quick as an arrow. Brian could barely even see it dart through.

—But the flame was suddenly eaten. Eaten.

No one knew what it was. We were all as stiff as stone.

Black as night, It had the face of a twisted man. Only its long, furry neck emerged from the darkness, yet we felt fear. The monster gulped the fire as an arm appeared from the darkness.

"Ssssshhh..." It hushed with its finger.

The monster continued to stare at us as it returned to the darkness. Nothing happened after that.

"..." We were all speechless.

Maybe it was way back from seeing his dead classmates or killing those midgets, but something inside Brian's head wanted to explode. He didn't know what it was, but he was losing his calm.

Wasn't he just going to kill a few pigs? What the fuck was that?!

Brian's breathing was ragged. This is madness! If it hadn't before, then all sense of logic was now thrown out of the window.

"Oink! Oink!" Huh?

The noise didn't escape our ears. We turned around to see what it was.

A boar's head was staring at us from the flying island. It looked just like any other boar. Except for the fact that it was red. There wasn't really anything different about—

"HWWEEEEEEIIIIIRRRGGGHHH!!!"

A bellowing cry reverberated through the chambers. It shook everyone's bodies and rattled our bones. Even the grass trembled in fright.

The boar stood up. Like a man. Its body was crammed with wiry muscles. The pig was humongous. Three meters tall. With six arms, all stuffed with brawn. It was looked just like a minotaur, but worse.

"I—I shouldn't have come..." A student stammered.

"We're gonna die..." Another student sank to the ground

"No, I don't wanna die..." Donny muttered as he pissed his pants.

"FIREBALL!!!"

Fetter ignored them and launched a fireball at the creature. It missed. Only causing it to infuriate the monster even more. Our faces sank.