Zaos: Hey hey guys! What’s up?

JiYeong: Oh look who decided to come online.

Lilia: We’re about to do Whisper of the Perished Swamp. Want to join us?

Zaos: Why? That’s such a low.

level dungeon.

JiYeong: I need it for a quest.

You comin’ or not?

Zaos: Yeah, just let me add Kit and Kiera to the party. I told them I’d help them level up today.

Despite the low level, the beginning of the dungeon could be deceptively easy for those who are brand new to the game. It was bright and inviting, and the early monsters were mostly non-aggressive forest critters and deer.

The deeper they went into the forest the darker it got, and the more swampy it became. JiYeong had never stepped foot in an actual swamp so she couldn’t say definitively that she knew what it’d smell like. Lilia certainly complained enough like she knew first hand, though.

Perished Swamp had little bugs swarming around. A single misstep would land them inside the thick water. Which wouldn’t have been too bad, if it didn’t cause a status debuff that made their movement slower. Eventually they got deep enough that Kit had to use a small flash spell to light the way.

Every so often she paused to harvest a few berries and leaves from some of the bushes, combining them in her inventory as she did. Whenever enough of one object was combined it created a basket, and one basket is what she needed for the berries, at least.

A slight rustling from a nearby bush failed to catch her attention. Instead JiYeong walked over to a different bush, harvesting leaves from it before they moved on to.

The rustling grew more pronounced and then a slightly higher level monster than what they'd been fighting appeared in front of her. It startled her, forcing JiYeong to cancel her action and draw her weapon. This dungeon was low enough that she hadn’t done it in a very long time. Though JiYeong wasn’t worried about being hurt by the sudden attack she had forgotten the monster was even there.

To make sure she kept aggro, and so it wouldn’t go after the weaker members of the party, JiYeong allowed it to attack her. The damage barely phased her health bar.

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JiYeong: I’m trying not to hit it so I don’t kill it right away. Y'all can handle this, right?

The Archer, Kiera, was a ranged attack class, meaning she didn’t have to be close up in order to attack. Even though Archer’s didn’t have the strength a melee class such as Guardian’s had, the distance allowed them to focus purely on attacking. They didn’t have to worry about getting hit in the process. Beneficial when it came to attacking minions, or the lower level monsters while the tank or leader kept focus on the strongest monster.

Mage’s were similar in that they were a range class. As a Mage, Kit didn’t have very much defense or attack, but his Magick attack was much higher, as was his magical defense. In general Mage’s did much more damage using spells than any other class.

The downside to that was they often needed time to cast their spells, and they needed protecting during such times as they were defenseless. Interruptions would force them to start the incantation over again.

Zaos: Of course

Zaos: Kiera, use Arrow Shower on the Bear, Kit use Flame Ring. We can trap it this way and kill it much faster.

She stepped back as the other two moved to follow Zaos' instructions. Despite being such lower levels, they were good in their classes and followed Zaos' lead very well.

If she were more inclined to joining guilds, Zaos’ would definitely be her first choice. Despite the stupid name, they were one of the most coherent and put together guilds JiYeong had seen in in her years of online playing, and she was sure that if they were to get bigger, Zaos would be able to keep control of things and it wouldn’t fall apart like other guilds.

Collected berries safe in her inventory, JiYeong used one of her weaker Slash attacks once Blue and Kit had the Giant Bear trapped. Zaos sent his pet Wolf to attack so he wouldn’t kill the Giant Bear too quickly.

Surprisingly enough, Shadow Ritual became usable again. She hesitated to use it, the headache immediately coming to mind when she saw the icon. But curiosity got the better of her and she clicked on it.

That proved to be a mistake. JiYeong’s head once again exploded in a fury of pain, and she squeezed her eyes shut, cursing. Twice couldn’t be a coincidence, but she couldn’t reason why using a Magick attack in the game would trigger such a numbing headache.

It lasted longer this time. The pain seemed to travel from her head down to her chest, and JiYeong struggled to suck in a breath.

A bell sound indicating Lilia’s use of a healing spell reached her ears, and suddenly the pain was gone, as if it were never here to begin with. Naturally, there were messages from the party.

Kit: Woah I’ve never seen that before.

Kiera: I didn’t even know

Guardians could use magick like that.

Lilia: JiYeong where did that even come from?

Zaos: Again? Why would you use it again?

Lilia: What do you mean again?

Once again she didn’t have an answer for any of them.

JiYeong: I don’t know.

Lilia: ...let’s go to Farron. Talk more there.

Zaos: Good idea.

Kit and Kiera levelled up from the kill, a flash of light and a subsequent swirl of gold and petals swirled around the two.

A good thing too, since that was one of the reasons for doing Whisper of the Perished Swamp in the first place.

JiYeong grabbed the rest of the materials she needed for the quest, making sure they were secure in her inventory before leaving the dungeon.