"I have informed the others about the friend's menu!" Bonifacius exclaimed, he had called Pedecree moments earlier to let them know where they are.

They agreed to meet up in Grimwood soon.

"It would seem that they are also in a group consisting of Pedecree, Crown, the Thief and Foxly, though Foxly went missing a day earlier," he explained.

"So, together that's the whole group back together!" John exclaimed.

"Except for Foxly..."

The group made their way through the forest of Grimwood to the dig site.

"Indeed! Let's make haste into what could be the first dungeon-run of this world!" Bonifacius exclaimed.

Inside the dungeon, everything looked different to the in-game one, while the room layout looked the same, things were overgrown and the floor was partially flooded. 

The dirty water stunk of mould and rat piss.

Dirty, moss-coated bricks covered the sides.

"This place seemed more... hygenic when we were here in-game..." John remarked.

"Indeed, alas tis an abandoned archaeological site, it serves to dig up the remains of a city that once stood above Grimwood," Bonifacius exclaimed.

"Lies!" Bromy called out.

Bonifacius let out a sigh.

"Bromy, there is evidence!" Bonifacius replied.

"The records say otherwise!" Bromy exclaimed.

"What are they arguing about?" asked John.

Alex and Jordan shrugged while Curstl spoke up.

"This is my time to shine!" she thought.

"In the game's lore, the ancient humans lived as nomads, travelling where the world was safer," she explained.

"Now, in the records, the word "Settled" is used for places where they moved to, Grimwood is the only zone in question where the word "Visited" was used," she explained.

Bonifacius turned to Curstl before crossing his arms.

"True, but alas, there are ruins here, and besides, that would make this zone the only one "visited" by the ancients!" Bonifacius exclaimed.

"Well, according to Reggielard, who might I remind you is the archaeologist class, tablets were found in each zone giving the exact dates of when they moved in and left the game!" Bromy exclaimed.

"Granted the format was all broken and nobody could decrypt what time period "BI" is, but still." Bromy thought.

"Besides, the time between their stay in Greatpark and their stay in the rolling plain left them... like fifty years to settle in Grimwood," Bromy argued.

"Thou are ignoring the fact that a portion of them might have remained in the land after the others move on," Bonifacius exclaimed.

"Furthermore, their bones are different, the ones south had webbed feet... which... for some reason became bones? I don't know... the game wasn't perfect..."

"The ones in Greatpark were the tallest, but one or two skeletons found in Grimwood were just a mix of all kinds," Bromy shrugged.

Jordan looked away from the argument and turned to John.

"Are they actually arguing about fictional archaeology...?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Well, it's a lot less fictional now..." John replied.

Suddenly from the side came a loud splash, a crypt fiend, a small bipedal creature, with a gremlin-like face, white or brown fur and dark, almost black skin.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

In its hand, it held an improvised dagger.

"A crypt fiend?" John exclaimed as he kicked it causing it to fly across the room and into a wall where it left a massive bloodstain.

John looked back to his party who all shrugged.

"It was... weaker than expected..." he remarked.

"Indeed..." Bonifacius agreed.

They continued further down the tunnel, cutting through some of the vines before suddenly feeling a massive stone door shut behind them.

They spun around and confirmed their suspicions.

"We're locked in!" Curstl exclaimed.

A red rune appeared on the door as they felt their hands tingle, their levels were fluctuating before being adjusted to twenty, all the enemies were also around level twenty.

A sound of rustling came from before them, the crypt fiend stood up, its stature increased to just below the size of a human, its muscles bulging, its eyes gave off a white light as steam escaped its panting maw.

It let out a roar as it charged at the one in the front, John.

Before it hit him, Bonifacius launched forward like a bullet, smashing his shield into the monster and knocking it back a bit, only for it to dig its claws into the ground and resist Bonifacius.

"What the-?!" with one hand it swiped at him with a closed fist which visibly dented his armour and sent him flying back, but not knocking him off his feet.

"So this is the strength of a level twenty crypt fiend..." Bonifacius remarked.

From behind JohnWillStab used the manoeuvre to appear behind the monster, he buried his dagger in the monster but its rock-hard muscles resisted his blade.

Effortlessly, the monster performed a backwards headbutt causing John to fall to the ground.

With a bolt of flames, Jordan hit the creature causing its greasy fur to ignite.

The monster wailed as its white fur turned black, amidst its panic it turned its attention to Jordan,

"Oh no..." he said as the monster began charging at him, flailing its arms and screeching.

Before it was able to hit Jordan, Curstl appeared before the best, plunging her spear through its rock-like muscles and bones as if he was made of butter.

John got off the ground.

"Damn, that was impressive!" he exclaimed.

"Well, armour-piercing is the speciality of the lancer!" Curstl replied.

"Alright! Perhaps we should divide into groups lest we get surrounded!" Bonifacius suggested.

"Good idea..." John remarked.

"Let's see... Bony, Bromy, Jordan, Alex, Curstl, Revenberry, Olivionion and me..."

"How about group A, Bony, Curstl and Alex. Essentially our close-range tank and DPS mix."

"Group B, Bromy, Revenberry and Jordan, the caster DPS group and a healer."

"Group C, Olivionion and me, aka the support group, keeping group B safe."

John proposed his layout.

"Splendid planning, JohnWillStab!" Bonifacius exclaimed.

"Sound about right... though ideally, we'd want a separate close-range DPS group and some AOE groups..." Bromy said.

"I can't believe I'm actually going into some murder-dungeon!" Revenberry cried, 

"WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE DRAGGING ME HERE?!" she demanded.

"You're the one who wanted to come..." Bromy replied.

"THAT'S BECAUSE ALEX SAID I SHOULD!" she replied.

"I thought it'd be fun!" Alex exclaimed apologetically.

"Like a date... except bloodier and we might die!" he exclaimed, his expression slowly giving away his doubts.

"That makes perfect sense, yes." Curstl nodded whilst holding one Bonifacius' arm as he desperately tried to get her off.

"Get off me wench!" he exclaimed.

"Don't be that way! Isn't this the best way to bury the hatchet? Come on!" she pleaded.

Suddenly from all around them, a black sludge began to take shape, from cracks in the ground and from the ceiling.

They took on a vaguely humanoid shape, no eyes but giant beak-like heads with square teeth that looked sharp enough to sever limbs.

They wore armour made of what looked like ceramic tiles and marble, the only thing holding them together and preventing them from pouring onto the floor.

"Crimmbeaks?! Weren't they level forty enemies?!" exclaimed Bonifacius as one of them opened its mouth and from inside poured black tendrils serenaded by the high-pitched screeching produced within the creature.

Bromy slowly walked up to John and patted him on the shoulder before lighting a cigarette, "Well, strategist, strategise ..." his words were accompanied by a laugh as the monster began shuffling towards them.

"Group A focus on killing the ones in front of us, I have a feeling they aren't going to stop spawning any time soon!"

"Group B follow A. Bromy, you should conserve your mana, Jordan and Revenberry, keep the ones behind us in check, don't waste your mana trying to kill them all!"

"Group C... ehhh... kill the Crimmbeaks, I guess." John shrugged.

Slowly, group A progressed forward, it was like cutting into the rock of a mountain with a spoon, Curstl ploughed down through up to three enemies at a time, while Bonifacius and Alex struggled to fight them one-on-one.

Olivionion was appearing behind enemy after enemy, his blades struggling to defeat the monsters, from the looks of it he was breaking the armour with the back of his dagger.

JohnWillStab tried doing the same, he smashed the bottom of his blade on the armour of the monster before using manoeuvre.

Olivionion noticed this and let out a sigh.

"Undead, don't use manoeuvre like that, use shadow-step!" he exclaimed.

"What's the difference?!" John asked planting a kick to one of the plates and successfully shattering it.

"Good, my boosted strength makes the fist class even better!" he thought.

"Shadowstep doesn't have a cooldown and lets you specify the location, but it can't be used to teleport you somewhere bright! It costs some stamina, but an undead shouldn't struggle with that!"

Olivionion demonstrated the ability as he pulled his dagger back and appeared behind one of the monsters, that same instant he smashed it and shadow-stepped again, he continued this dance with the monsters, each time one would turn to hit him, he would gracefully dodge the attack or shadowstep out of the way before slicing at him.

JohnWillStab tried the same trick, with nothing except a quick distortion of light which looked as if the wall bulged for a second before returning to normal John appeared beside a monster, he sliced at it, cracking its armour and causing it to spill out onto the ground.

He looked back and saw one of the monsters mid-swing and about to hit him, he wanted to shadow-step behind him and in the air, he wanted to use to extra momentum to pierce his armour.

With another temporary distortion, John appeared elsewhere, but this time he was shocked to see he was standing atop his enemy.

"What the?!" he exclaimed as he improvided a quick hit to its back armour, shattering it.

"You can't shadowstep into the air! Did you even read the description in the game?!" Olivionion demanded,

Meanwhile, Jordan and Revenberry were casting their magic, Jordan's increased magic stat allowed him to shoot more condensed bolts of fire that had no trouble melting metal, somehow, he knew this spell was called a fire-bolt.

His fire-bolt flew into the enemy, it left a molten hole in the armour plate and even charred some of the monster solid.

Revenberry pointed her short-staff at the enemy.

"Please work, please work, please work..." she repeated in her mind as a stream of super pressurised water shot out, slicing the armour into bits.

A terrified voice called out from behind the enemy, JohnWillStab was also cut with the water and now had a cylinder of removable John-flesh in his torso.

"Could you watch out a bit, please?" he pleaded.

"Oh my god! Sorry!" she exclaimed. 

They continued pushing their way through the dungeon, Group A in the front, B in the middle and C in the back.

They formed an arrow shape before suddenly they reached a different point in the dungeon, a large open area that held what looked like a nest for there monsters, the floor tiles were completely shredded and attached to the black slime to give it shape.

black tendril spewed from each corner like webs.

Bones and corpses hung suspended in the slime.

"Bodies?" asked Bromy seeing them.

Thal spoke up, he was half-buried in one of the slime monsters.

"One of them is alive!" he exclaimed, "But it's not a player... or an NPC..." he added.