“Hup!” Ascilla brought her axe up from the ground and caught a diving rat square on the stomach, knocking it up into the air.

I swung my sword out in a diagonal slash as the rat fell in front of me, carving up one side of its body and then spun my sword over my head bringing it down to complete a Cross Slash carving an X shape into its body.

It dissolved into golden dust before it hit the ground. I let out a long breath and sheathed my sword.

[You have received six Rat Talons]

[You have received twelve Rat Pelts]

[You have received one Golden Rat Whisker]

[You have received three Minor Healing Potions]

[You have received 317 Gold]

[Skill Points Awarded]

It had been four hours since we left the safe room at the start of the dungeon. We’d wandered through what felt like endless twists turns and dead ends fighting all manner of rat-like enemies.

Some of them were able to crawl across the ceiling and walls, some were able to fly, some were able to use basic weapons and armors, a few of them even used magic…

At first they only came at us in packs of five to ten, but after a while they grew in number to the point were we were now fighting close to forty of them before we got a chance to rest. What I wouldn’t do for just a couple strong enemies instead…

The only saving grace was that most of them died in one or two clean hits, so as long as we didn’t let ourselves get surrounded there wasn’t a ton of danger.

The first time rats with crossbows and magic showed up we had a bit of a scare, but we were able to break through and take them down before our health had whittled down too much. The fact that the rats in this dungeon had a low chance to drop healing items definitely helped on that front. We’d been taking damage steadily as we’d been fighting but it wasn’t anything that short pauses between fights and some healing potions couldn’t handle.

Of course, if too many rats got around us there was a good chance we’d be in serious trouble, but so far they’d only come from one direction at once.

What really surprised me, though, was Ascilla herself. For how brash and in-your-face she seemed, the way that she fought could be described in one word… attentive.

As soon as I’d throw out a skill, she’d position out of the way to give me space. As soon as my cooldowns came back up, I’d find that the monsters were conveniently placed back in my range. If I wound up with a wall at my back, the monsters would be led back into the hall. If new enemies showed up, they would always find themselves in between Ascilla and I.

It was like she was a conductor, and the fight was the orchestra. It made fighting feel so effortless it was almost frustrating.

In the few times we’d crossed each other up, she was the first to apologize and after something happened the same thing would never happen again. It was startling just how easy this girl made fighting. In my decade of experience I’d never met a tank as good as she was.

After finishing yet another pack of rats, these ones being the armed and armored variety, we found ourselves leaning back against the cool cave wall.

“Ugh. Can’t we just find the boss already?” Ascilla said. I hung my head.

It seemed like once we finished monsters off no more of them would appear for at least a short time, and so after each group we took a moment to rest, but honestly this was getting ridiculous.

Normally in games like this dungeons could be cleared in fifteen to twenty minutes… at most maybe an hour for really tough ones. Four hours of clearing the tunnels of rats without so much as a boss or end in sight, though? This was starting to get exhausting…

We’d briefly discussed going back to the safe room and resting for a bit, but Ascilla had brought up the possibility that going back to the safe room may respawn all of the rats we’d already killed, and while we knew which paths led to dead ends now, neither of us were particularly interested in going through all of them again.

And so we made the call, keep pushing forward until we found either another safe room, or a room that we could easily defend in case more monsters spawned after a while. That was two hours ago…

“What kind of sadist designed this shit?” I asked, we’d stopped in front of yet another fork in the road.

Ascilla chuckled dryly. “Dunno, but I’m betting on the small path.” She said, pointing to the narrower of the two tunnels. I shrugged. We’d decided that at each fork in the road we’d switch who got to pick which way we’d go. So far, neither of us had proven particularly good at avoiding dead ends and traps, but one thing stayed fairly consistent. The narrower tunnels seemed to connect sections of the maze and so they rarely had more than a couple of small enemies in them, where the larger tunnels usually had big rats with better weapons and thus harder fights.

“How’s your weapon?” I asked. She opened her menu.

“Seven.” She said, referring to her weapons durability. My new sword had a maximum durability that was so high I wouldn’t have to worry unless this place took days to clear, but Ascilla’s axe had been made in Origin and she’d already used it to fight the boss in the Golden Fields and now kill all of these rats. It would be bad if it were to break while we were still down here, as there really wasn’t much we could do to just find her another one. In the middle of my thoughts I saw a speck of light in the distance.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Tch! Down!” Ascilla yelled, dropping into a split and pushing her torso to the ground. I leaned back so far I thought I’d fall, just as I did, a streak of orange flame far larger than any we’d encountered so far shot over my head.

“Something’s coming!” Ascilla said, pushing herself to her feet and throwing her axe in front of herself to guard from an incoming attack. A moment later, a large mace came and impacted the handle of her weapon, pushing her back.

It took my eyes a second to adjust from the light of the spell, but when they did they were greeted by the largest rat we’d seen. It was large enough to take up the whole tunnel, an it was holding a large shield and mace.

It was slowly driving Ascilla back, and even though she was blocking its blows and getting some attacks in, her HP was slowly ticking down.

What was worse, in the distance I saw a faint glow getting brighter and brighter. Whatever had cast that fire spell must be loading up another. If Ascilla took a direct spell attack then we’d be in real trouble.

I fired off a Static, causing the large monster to freeze with its mace held high, allowing Ascilla to get a good slash across its stomach and leap backwards before it regained control. She dove back in and was fighting it to a standstill. The monster had lost about half of its hp, and Ascilla had lost about one third.

After another brutal exchange of blows Ascilla slid back and looked over her shoulder.

“Hit this thing with your dash attack! Switch with me!” Ascilla called. That was a logical idea, but the problem was…

“This tunnel’s narrow as hell!” I said. There was no way that I could get around her and still keep my skill on target.

“Shut up, trust me, and do it!” She said. Fine. I lowered my body and leveled my blade at Ascilla’s back, trusting that she would get out of the way in time. In front of her, the large rat lifted a large mace up above his head. I clicked my tongue.

I launched off of the ground and as I flew through the air I watched as Ascilla jumped straight up with all her strength. She flipped over in the air and I passed directly under her, the sound of metal hitting metal echoed in the cave as Ascilla’s axe was dragged up into the air and it slammed into the mace, cancelling the rat’s attack.

The rat slid backwards and I stepped in front unleashing the first part of Cross Slash but the monster was able to bring its large shield up just in time to block it. My wrists stung as my blade was deflected off of the shield and my skill was cancelled.

Using all the strength I had I reversed the grip on my sword and slid it between the shield and the monster’s body. As I did, I felt a skill begin to activate. I was glad that it did, it was my first time using it, after all. My one handed sword skill Buckler Break activated and I wrenched my blade forward, pulling the shield away from the rat and leaving its chest open for a direct attack. Unfortunately the move had also left me exposed to its own mace attack coming at me from above.

“Dodge!” I heard Ascilla call from behind me, I used all my strength to pull myself to the side and watched as a slab of iron on a stick flew inches past my head and impacted the rat in the chest, reducing the last pixels of its HP and crumbling it to dust. I didn’t wait for Ascilla to catch up or retrieve her axe, instead I focussed all of my energy towards the rat spell caster who was drawing a complex glyph in the air in front of it. That was a bigger spell than I’d ever seen a rat cast… maybe a big enough spell to fill the whole tunnel with an attack….

“Like hell!” I yelled, throwing my sword. It spun through the air and the rat’s spell flashed to life, but just as it did the sword split the symbol in half, causing the magic to detonate in a firey explosion. My sword spit out golden particles as it sunk itself into the rats throat. As the spell detonated, the heat wave threatened to knock me off my feet and I heard Ascilla grunt behind me as the hot air streamed past. After a moment, though, the hallway returned to quiet darkness.

Taking a few more steps forward, I realized that the once narrow hallway now expanded out into a much taller tunnel.

It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust from the bright flash of fire from the rat’s failed spell, but as soon as they did a smile crept onto my face. In front of us was a familiar set of stone double doors. It was nearly identical to the ones that we’d seen in the wolf temple.

Ascilla caught up to me and smirked. “Finally!”

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

Rain found himself following the green haired knight through the twisting paths of the town. He had left almost as soon as he’d arrived, and so each turn brought a new sensation of mystery as he lost his bearings in the maze-like layout of houses and buildings.

The knight did not speak. He simply walked purposefully forward, as if he were walking through his own back yard. Rain didn’t fail to notice the people in green cloaks hiding in alleys and following on their tail. He didn’t sense any intent to fight, but he was painfully aware that he was being watched.

Eventually, the road that they were on curled upwards and broke into a small patch of trees. Visible just through the branches was a large one story house.

The knight approached the building and opened the door, holding it for Rain as he stepped through.

The entrance itself looked to be some sort of coat room. Standing by a door on the far side was a man in a white robe with a comically receding hairline.

“I fear our time has run out. We have no more time to gather allies, Sir Atras. The time to fight back against this injustice has come.” The robed man said. The green haired knight nodded and pushed past Rain looking forward

“You had questions? Allow me to give you answers.” He said, pushing into the room.

The room beyond the entrance was large and rectangular. A stage had been built into the floor and a large stained glass window dominated the back wall. It was a familiar building. A church of some sort he was sure.

What really took him by surprise, however, wasn’t what was in the room, but who.

Inside the building were not just more knights and green cloaked NPCs… but about fifty players… Most of them were in groups, chatting with each other or watching the knights with bated breath… given how few people had made the jump to the next town he’d bet that close to a third of the high end active players in this area had shown up here… but why? Some sort of quest? He was certain that fifty people wouldn’t have taken that flyer, so was this something else?

While he was lost in thought, the room had settled and eleven figures had climbed onto the stage. At the front was the man in the white robe. Behind him, forming a line, were ten knights all clad in steel armor.

“I thank you, humble adventurers, for joining us in our most dire of hours. As many of you now are aware, the protections afforded to this, our haven in the woods, are unraveling. A corruption has seeped into the forest, and left unchecked, it could spell doom for all who call this forest home.” The white robed man said. He took a deep breath and a step backwards.

“Sir Atras, please tell us what you have seen.” The white robed man said, motioning for the green haired knight to take the stage.

“Unfortunately, these woods are in grave danger…”