Welcome Chosen

The words flashed across her screen, prompting her to select a character. Of the eight slots available she only had one character; a level 100 Guardian that she’d been playing for the last four years creatively named JiYeong. Using her actual name was a lot easier than trying to come up with anything else.

Equally creative was the way her character looked. She based the Guardian heavily on her own features: dark hair that curled around her shoulder blades, nearly black save for the subtle brown highlights. Eyes the color of rosewood. She remembered being shocked when she noticed she could choose options that weren't exclusively Western inspired. 

Her nose was long and the downward slant towards the tip was barely noticeable. The lower lip was fuller than the top, and had a faint cupid’s bow.

The one big difference between her Guardian and herself was the height. While she stood at barely 5’6”, her Guardian was the equivalent of six feet tall. 

It amazed JiYeong just how much detail she could put in creating the character. While it would never be an exact replica, it came pretty close.

Before the world was fully loaded the sounds of pinging reached her ears. They were all from Zaos, who had been hounding her nonstop to join his Guild since the day they met. She clicked through her quest log instead of replying to him right away, knowing it would only agitate him. 

There was a quest for a Faerie named Iridia that she must have accepted a while ago and never completed sitting towards the bottom of the log. It required JiYeong to gather some items in order to create some type of potion, she didn’t actually read the full request. Unless it was job related, she almost never did.

Another ping finally drew her attention to the chatbox.

Zaos: When are ye gonna join ma guild?

Zaos: JiYeong! Why are ye ignorin’ ma messages?

Zaos: After all we’ve been through and this is the thanks I get in return?

Zaos: I have a nice looking crystal with your name on it if you join ma guild. It’ll boost your strength +60

JiYeong: Okay first of all stop spamming me. Second of all, let’s try never? 

JiYeong: Or maybe when you learn to speak proper English.

Zaos: Well well lookie who it is! And I speak English just fine thank ye!

JiYeong: oh is that so? Alright then.

Zaos sent a Guild invite, which she immediately declined with a roll of her eyes. Despite telling Zaos countless times she wouldn't join his Guild he hadn't relented. Even though she'd asked why he seemed so adament about her joining, his only answer had been that Guild's provided better help than he could provide with her remaining a solo player. Four years ago that would have made more sense but JiYeong didn't see herself needing help now. At max level, there was very little in the game that proved to be an obstacle.

Still, Zaos persisted. It was admirable, if not just the slightest bit annoying.

JiYeong: Not a chance Z. I like not having a title attached to my name. Besides, what will the others say if I join your guild and not theirs?

Zaos: What others? Me an’ Lilia are the only two you play with.

JiYeong: Wow ouch.

Zaos: Though I s’pose yer right. Don’t want ya seemin’ like yer playin’ favorites. Howsabout we go run a dungeon then? Told some of the guildies I’d help em level up a bit today.

JiYeong: Ah which one? I need to get a few items for a quest I’m on and a couple of them are only found in a certain dungeon.

Zaos: Level?

JiYeong: 100, duh.

Zaos: Awright lets do that one first then. I’ll send you a party invite.

JiYeong: Sweet.

After accepting Zaos’s party invite she traveled to Azelport. The aquatic plant she was searching for was located in an underwater cavern. The plant was found at the very end of the Cavern, right before the final boss so she couldn’t just grab it and leave the dungeon.

Zaos loaded behind her and they headed for Syr Ocean.

JiYeong dove into the water first, swimming down to the entrance of the cave. When Zaos caught up they headed into the cave, swimming down until they reached the very bottom. There was a barely noticeable hole in the wall straight across from them. Once through they continued upwards, finally reaching a break in the water and then a ledge. She pulled herself up, watching as the words Caleneau Cavern flash onto the screen.

Zaos: You think we’ll be able to run this with just the two of us?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

JiYeong: Eh...theoretically.

Zaos: What do you mean theoretically?

JiYeong: Well its a max level dungeon and we’re max level players with the highest possible gear. I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine. Besides, I’m always stocked with potions if things get dicey and I have a very basic healing spell if need be.

Zaos: You better not let me die, Guardian.

JiYeong: Don’t steal aggro from me and you’ll be fine.

Zaos didn’t respond, instead his character doing a small dance emote followed by a thumbs up. She sighed. 

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been playing the game as long if not longer than she’d been. Dungeon mechanics were a pretty basic thing people learned early on in the game. Asking questions seemed pointless.

When Zaos didn’t move, JiYeong assumed because he was waiting for her to start, she began walking forward. 

Being a Guardian meant that she was always the leader in any party. She was in charge of keeping the attention of monsters so the rest of the party could focus on dealing damage or keeping the party healed up. It wasn’t a job anyone could do. 

Tank had not been JiYeong’s first choice. In previous game she had been a damage dealer, like Zaos was now. Over the years she’d learned that she absolutely did not have the patience to heal and didn’t like following tanks who couldn’t lead. It was always easier to just do it herself.

Caleneau Cavern was one of the first level one hundred dungeons players came across once they reached both level one hundred themselves and then also unlocked the specific part in the main story quest that required them to delve into its depths. It was pretty straightforward, and completely unworthy of Zaos’s concern.

So unworthy that it didn’t take them any time at all to reach the first handful of monsters. They were hidden in the shadows so JiYeong used Burst, a skill that allowed her character to move quickly. An electric green light emanated from her feet, illuminating the cavern around them. The downside was that it alerted the bat-type monsters to their presence, and they immediately attacked her. 

The attack didn’t last long, as Zaos used Arrow Shower, killing the bats almost instantly. Another thumbs up was the only communication from him.

They continued forward, quickly dispatching the rest of the bats in the beginning of the cave. They walked until they reached more water.

The next portion of the Cavern held similar bat-type monsters, but they were also faced with stronger frog monsters. They came up to JiYeong’s knee and had an unavoidable attack where they wrapped their tongues around the player and trap them there for a few seconds. It was amazingly disgusting and JiYeong was pretty sure she’d die a little if something like this were to ever happen in real life.

JiYeong: Get me out of here Z.

Zaos: Gotcha.

Zaos used the time to shoot them with poisoned arrows, inflicting small amounts of damage over time. It was a useful attack when fighting multiple higher level monsters, but it made quick work of killing the lower level frogs as well, releasing her from the tongue attack.

A treasure chest was found on the current floor of the cavern. Chests were often found in dungeons, but the rarity of the item always varied from something as common as a potion to a high level piece of gear. 

Zaos: What did you find?

JiYeong: Just some mushrooms. I’ll give them to Lilia later.

Eventually the third body of water was reached, and they were on the final floor. JiYeong knew the plant wasn’t in a chest, but she couldn’t remember seeing this particular plant before. It must have been in a part of the cavern she always skipped when going through this dungeon. Defeating every monster wasn’t completely necessary to get through any dungeon so, especially when she ran dungeons alone, she preferred to just kill what she had to in order to get through as quickly as possible. After all, it was always the items the boss dropped she was interested in.

Zaos: Think your plant might be over where those Murks are kinda just havin’ a powwow?

She looked at where Zaos was facing, a frown growing on her face. She skipped those monsters in particular, as there were a lot of them and if she gave it enough space they wouldn’t target her. Not that they were difficult to kill, it just never seemed worth JiYeong's time.

But they did look like they were huddled around some plants, and hovering her mouse over it told her they were the very plants she needed.

JiYeong: Bringing you along might have been a good idea.

Without waiting for a reply JiYeong once again used Burst to run to the group, this time running around the entirety of the group instead of just in front of them. This ensured she could target and hit each of them to have the aggression on her instead of Zaos. 

When it was clear to attack, Zaos used his Arrow Shower to be able to see each monster on his screen, and then used his Poisoned Arrows. The attack was much more useful this time around. Seeing as the Murks were much stronger monsters than the frogs, using Poisoned Arrows allowed Zaos to whittle the health of the non targeted Murks down while he focused on defeating a single one.

JiYeong also had a group attack she was able to use, a giant swing of the sword that she mostly used to make sure the monster's attention was on her at all times. It did a bit of damage as well, but as a Tank her job was not to deal damage but take it and make sure none of her party members were being hurt. 

The last remaining Murk was at ten percent health so she used Final Blow, a skill that finished off an enemy and only worked when their health was at less than twenty-five percent. 

The boss at the end of the dungeon was a Mutant Murk. Looking at her skill bar, JiYeong noticed that there was an attack she’d never seen before. It looked like a Magick attack, something that definitely shouldn’t have been on her bar as a non-Magick using Tank. 

But she was curious, so she decided to use it. JiYeong figured they’d gotten through this dungeon relatively easily and there wasn’t any chance of her losing aggression on the Murk or either of them dying.

It was called Shadow Ritual. When she clicked on it, her screen flickered for a moment. A swirl of shadows began at her character’s feet, and then moved to the Mutant Murk. The icon for paralysis appeared under its name. 

A splitting headache hit JiYeong as soon as the spell activated. 

She gasped, grasping her head. The pain forced her eyes closed and she scooted back from the computer as if distancing herself would lessen the pain.

It only lasted for a few seconds. When it ended, she opened her eyes to see the Mutant Murk was dead and several messages from Zaos.

Zaos: The hell was that?

Zaos: Yo JiYeong what the heck???

Zaos: Hello?????

She had no idea how to answer Zaos’s questions. The attack was still on her bar but was greyed out, preventing her from clicking on it. And hovering over it didn’t give her a description like the other attacks. 

JiYeong: I don’t know I’ve never seen that on my skill bar before. I just got a killer headache though so I couldn’t even see what it did.

Zaos: It pretty much one shot the boss. Does the description say anything about it?

JiYeong: There is no description. It’s just blank.

Zaos: Weird...lets finish up here. Maybe we can find out more about this new attack online or something.

JiYeong: Yeah maybe.

A rare gem that JiYeong had forgotten she needed for this quest as well dropped from the kill. It was Zaos who got the drop, but he didn’t need the gem, so she bribed him with some high level food.

Zaos: You could join my guild instead of giving me food.

JiYeong: Give me the gem, Zaos.

Zaos: Fine fine.

The exit opened and then they were back at the entrance of the Syr Ocean.