Jake woke up in bed, which would be normal if he wasn’t cross legged in front of his laptop on top of his blanket. How had he fallen asleep like this? What was he doing? He had just finished a jog and was going to settle down to watch a video or two when… the sky tore open. At that moment something started scratching at the door. Jake hopped out of bed, looking for a weapon and settling for his metal water bottle. He cracked the door open- and immediately god bowled over by an excited fuzzy yellow missile. With effort Jake got up from under the over excited golden retriever and gave her a few pets. What had Ms. Wiggles so excited to see him? Usually the pupper was happy to see people, but the only time he could think of her being this excited was when he got back from a vacation without her. What was happening? Jake walked over to his window where he had seen the tear, and though there was no sign of a tear he did make out something else marrying the sky, a massive canopy that ended several blocks away covering a fair bit of the sky.
“Alright wiggles, I’m not sure what is going on, but the giant tree is the best place we have to start, so let's get going.”
Jake grabbed his sneakers and a large kitchen knife, and with weapon in hand and wiggles at side he set off to figure out what was going on.
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Jake stood at a cliff at the end of the road, before him stretched the giant maple tree in a vast grassy field, and in the distance were around a dozen people around a large door set in the tree. It took some work but Jake carefully made his way down the cliff followed by wiggles.
“Someone really needs to build a staircase there.” Jake muttered to himself as he finished descending, and then he and wiggles went to meet the crowd. One person came to meet him, a small blond who one upped his knife with an actual broadsword sheathed on her left waist.
“Hey, we ah, don’t. Dang it…” She turned back to the crowd and dashed back, and after a moment of discussion a new person came forward, a bulky guy with a large branch over his shoulder.
“Sorry about that, Ann’s great at planning and fighting but speaking in public isn't her strong suit.” Jake looked around, there were barely 12 people here. The large fellow continued
“Anyways we all showed up yesterday, the tree is bigger on the inside and full of giant beetles and wasps, and killing them gives you these things you can use to become stronger. We were planning on exploring it more when the sky tore open again and white things floated out. We were preparing for the worst, but now I think that the white things were more people.” Jake took a moment to run through what was said, and then nodded.
“Alright, cool, how dangerous are the beetles, because I wouldn’t mind superpowers.”
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Jake sighed, no one had returned Sunday and Ethan wasn’t back yet. He could only pray that more people would return in the future. It was probably for the best, Ethan would not enjoy the current lack of infrastructure.
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Jake was hunting hornets, he needed them for the next tier of his avatar, but they were much rarer than beetles and far more deadly. He spied one descending and followed, finally, he hadn’t seen one for- he spotted the wasps prey, it wasn’t another beetle, it was a person. He was standing unsteadily on the ground, barely standing, and his avatar flickered out of existence as he barely dodged an attack. The hornet attacked again and he barely managed to jump the side, landing in a heap on the ground. As the wasp prepared the killing blow Jake felt his avatar overlap over him, covering him in armor and giving him the strength he needed.
“Raahhh.” Jake shouted as he leapt forward squeezing every ounce of power his avatar had, and his spear pierced through the wasp like it wasn’t there. With another shout Jake swung his spear into the ground, and the wasp came with it. The next day Jake wasn’t hunting wasps for the loot, he was hunting them to keep others safe, and when Ann formed the dungeon guard he was the first one to join..
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Jake had found something no one else had, the hidden shrine. No one could see it when he pointed it out to them, but he knew he wasn’t just imagining it because now he had a second avatar. The dungeon’s second layer was long and winding, and bringing people back up was harder with how far the exit was from the second level, they needed somewhere to take people closer to the second layer. Jake had been spending a knot of time in the dungeon, but what else could he do, no one could clear out monsters as well as he could with his second avatar.
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Jake stabbed his spear into a stag beetle the size of a moped with a flash of his avatar, and then with another flash he hurled it toward Ann who cleaved it in two with a slash. She had found the hidden shrine too, but it was somewhere entirely different for her, and when she showed it to him he just saw a dead end that was completely solid for him, it looked like everyone had to find the hidden shrine for themselves. Jake helped the injured delver they had just saved to the dungeon guard outpost to help him rest and once he was safe went back out, the dungeon wouldn’t guard itself.
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Year three and still no sign of his old friends and family, but the ONRR had finished developing a system for finding newly returned, and Jake had set up alerts for his parents and friend, now it was only a matter of time. Putting that aside for now this year the dungeon hadn’t gained a layer. After clearing out all marked threats the dungeon guard reopened the dungeon to the public, and Jake got started on bringing his avatar to the next level.
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I hate the new layer Jake thought to himself as he pulled his legs free from the sappy glue covering his feet. A rumble warned him a leach was coming and right on cue a maw too large for its body emerged from the wall and latched onto his armored arm. Jake smashed his arm into the wall to dislodge the leach and then stomped to finish it off. Another spray of glue informed him another termite was attacking, and with a grunt he hurled his spear toward the insect, piercing clean through it and ending its assault. Up ahead a bulky form crawled closer, a foe Jake was unfamiliar with. At least it looked bulky, Jake could use a punching bag. Jake dodged to the side as a familiar stinger shot out, punching into the wall, and Jake grinned, wasps were his specialty.
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On Sunday morning Jake emerged from the dungeon covered in dirt and sap. He needed a shower and he was so tired he didn’t notice when his phone buzzed with a new notification
[ONRR: Ethan Wood has returned]