The first day of the poaching event commenced earlier today. It started 12 a.m. when almost everybody should've prepared to sleep but a system message woke almost everyone up to summon them in every town's gathering hall. Drake and I was still outside the Newbie Land Castle when the system message popped up. we separated our ways before entering the castle. He told me that he needs to take care of something before going in. We almost forgot to add ourselves in our friend list. Luckily, I remembered before I lost him in the vast number of people entering the castle that time.

It's already 5:00 a.m. when Yvette and I decided to start finding a place for us to start our business. We left Newbie Land and reached Red Sand Village and headed a little bit South East for us to reserve a good spot. Yvette is already level 50 so she won't have a problem killing monsters here since they are already in level 40++. I gained few levels in my two days vacation that my mentors gave me. I really wanted to use those time to rest but thinking about what Jack said about that war, I can't just ease myself. I need to get stronger fast. I feel excited and nervous of what Jack has to offer with me. I wish it would be like an epic battle that the whole game would remember. But hey, there are far too many strong characters in-game and it's only a one in a million chance for me to be included in the event that I had in mind. There's no harm in dreaming to be in it anyway. 

Arriving at the spot, we were already too late because there are also a lot of people waiting for the event there. We tried to find a more remote place but Yvette told me that some monsters spawn in the area won't really give us anything good for use. Yvette remembered something about Red Sand Village and it was its only dungeon, Red Sand Labyrinth.

Dungeons are zones where monsters are far more stronger than monsters that roam these lands. They also give better gold, drops but they move quite more complicated than normal monsters. In a dungeon, there's always floors for the players to finish and each floor has its own floor boss. At the end of the dungeon, the players needs to defeat the Gate Guardian or the last boss of the dungeon for them to finish it. It is always a pain in the ass to fight Gate Guardians. Normally, they are bigger, faster and meaner but the profits will be good. Gate Guardians have Epic items in them.

The rarity of the items goes like this: Normal, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and last but not the least, Godly. These are the rarities of the tems that can be acquired through hunting and killing monsters or rewards from quests. Some of them can be crafted and some of them can only be acquired through hunting specific monsters to have them. Crafting these items normally would need some parts of the monster itself. It is automatically dropped whenever a player kills one. This makes crafting rare to godly items a little bit harder than looting itself. With skilled hands, blacksmith builds can add some stats when they craft items. This makes the items that are crafted far more superior than looting them.

"We should try entering this dungeon." Yvette suggested. "It's always fun to enter dungeons with smaller group because we can kill steal the bosses and acquire the loots for ourselves."

I really like the idea that she's telling me but escaping the crowd is the problem. Though, we can use diversions but there would be far too many people for us to evade. The only way to escape a dungeon is to use Stone of Home or dying. Stone of home is an item that teleports the player to a town that he or she is currently signed in to. The last town that I have signed in to is Newbie Land but Yvette signed in earlier in Red San Village. If ever our soon-to-be-pursuers get out of the dungeon, she will be outnumbered. Even if she's good at fighting, sheer number of people can beat her. Quantity over quality.

"We should just check other places out." I replied. I saw her raise her left eyebrow. 

"Look, we can't escape without dying or using Stone of Home. Neither of that would unite us. If I die, I would resurrect in Newbie Land, or even if I use Stone of Home. It's already 6:30 a.m., if we go back to Red Sand Village for me to sign in, it would take us another hour to get here."

She nodded and we tried to find a good place to start. Luckily, we found a small forest that we could hunt in but I saw the fear in Yvette's eyes. I remembered what happened to her the last time we entered a forest. I dragged her away from it and got contented on a random place beside the mountain near the next village. Monsters here are 30++ so it wouldn't be a problem for both of us. And, there's a sign saying that this place is the spawn point of an area boss that would mean a good deal for us.

"This is a good place." I broke the silence. "An area boss spawn point is better than taking our chances in a dungeon, don't you think?"

Yvette looked annoyed but I just ignored her. Exactly 7:30 a.m., the monsters started to spawn around us. No other players reached this area yet that's why it's really a good deal for us. I can finally get a bit of fortune from this event.

"Seems like you're moving a bit slow this morning, Yvette." I told her while we were clearing the wabe of monsters that surrounded us. "Do you really like to be in a dungeon that much?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. I just can't figure out these girls. One moment, they're like kitty cuddlies then, they'd ignore you for no reason. I just brushed it off and earned my keep. I've always been better in killing monsters than understanding people. Suddenly, I heard her voice with an embarrassed tone in it. She looked cute while she talked.

"It's not like that I love being in one." She said. "It would've been my first one, alone with a man."

So it's also her first time. And what's with the emphasis of me being a man. Does she like being with girls instead? Maybe I should get Tia to play with her. I just find it funny that she gets too embarrassed whenever she admits something.

After a while of enjoying our people free area, something unexpected happened. FaustVII came out from the trees near our area. Yvette's eyes widened and her whole body frozen. I, on the other hand, did not feal fear, I felt anger. I want to pay him back for what he did with Yvette. But to my surprise, he spoke before attacking us.

"Ohh, you again." He said while fixing his top hat. "I really want you to be my friend so, let's not fight."

I can't believe that. Whenever I look into his eyes, all I see is death. He is the epitome of death and decay. I would never get used to something like that. I want to poke those eyes out of their sockets.

"Or, you can fight me and if you win, I'll give you something." He continued. I knew it. He still wants to kill us. "But if I win, you'll have to fight her necromonger side the next time we meet."

My teeth grinded and my hands grew sweaty out of anger. There would be no Tia to save us this time. But I got stronger to defend myself now. I won't expect Yvette to fight because of her trauma to this guy. I wonder how can I attack him. I wonder what skills he has. 

"Don't worry, as I've said before, this won't hurt.. much" He raised his hands and threw lots of scrolls mid air. One by one, necromongers started appearing from the scrolls and fell on the ground. All of them had stithes. Some are monsters and some are players. There are more players than monsters. This guy is psycho! "I had to stitch them because I couldn't help myself to decapitate some limbs before using my skill for me to be able to revive them."

"You're sick." I replied with all the mockery that I could pull out of me. "After them, you're next!"

I charged without thinking. My anger got the better of me. One by one, his pets pounced on me. I used my weapon to deflect and retaliate. I managed to kill some before I got hit from the back by a player turned zombie.

Necromonger Rage!

FaustVII activated one of his skills. All of his pets' eyes turned red and drooled while looking at me. It looks like I'm going to be their breakfast. I looked at Yvette and saw that she's still frozen in shock. I won't be able to rely any help from her now. We need to run. I was searching for a gap with the circle that the necromongers formed around me when someone pounced from the bushes and slashed some of the necromongers at my back. It was Tedros and he doesn't look too happy. I won't be able to handle these two especially when Yvette is in that condition.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Don't worry, boy." Tedros said. "I'm not here for you. I'd help."

I was surprised. I thought that my death count would rise again. I already had died couple of times while practicing with Tia. She really looked like that she's enjoying it whenever she gets a chance to kill. She would throw lots of high level spells at me and I had to dodge. She transforms into a monster whenever she does that. Girls here are scary.

"Don't dawdle, boy!" Tedros shouted, waking me up from my day dreaming. "We have an army against us."

"Sorry about that!" I replied.

"I'll take the body." He said. "You take the head off!"

Tedros suddenly charged. He wasn't wielding a shield so I was puzzled on how he would defend himself but it wasn't my problem now. I have to kill FaustVII to end this zombie apocalypse. Normally, the skill activated would be nullified when the user dies so I hope that the zombies would die if I kill him.

I had to dodge and attack just to reach FaustVII. Some of his necromongers are now focusing on Tedros. He really meant it when he said he'll take care of the body. Now my problem is reduced to one, killing this guy.

"Didn't you know?" FaustVII mocked. "Necromancers are mages too!"

Circle of Fire!

A large fire surrounded us both and excluded us from Tedros against the necromongers. He threw another scroll in the air. I won't take any chances of that thing coming out of the scroll anymore. I charged at him and used Doppleganger. But even before my decoy reached hin, a large skeletal arm crushed it. I was now looking at a skeletal corpse of a giant. I think it was 10 feet tall. It won't be able to move fast but it can cover a huge ground for FaustVII.

I felt despair, the giant moves quicker than I expected it would. Tedros was also surprised because he was almost crushed by its foot when it stomped. I was searching for FaustVII but then he wasn't there. He was already on the right shoulder of the giant. How can I reach him there?!

Zephyrous blessing! Death Trail!

It was Yvette holding a large bow. The handle in the middle of the bow's body covers the hand of the user by a tiger's head figure. The bow itself has the color of gold and the arrows she's using are dripping with poison. She let out a trail of arrows, five to be exact. It looked like a large arrow because of the arrows being so close to each other's tail. She used Dash Step after each attack and circled the giant. While shooting FaustVII with Death Trail skill.

The giant managed to deflect some of it but some of it pierced through FaustVII's body. I don't want to fight Yvette now. After all, she's an All Trade. She didn't stop until FaustVII fell from the giant's shoulder. Before he reached the ground, I immediately gave the killing blow.

"Here's your change, asshole!" I shouted as I swung my sword horizontally in an arc taking out his head from his body. All the necromongers crumbled into pieces then reduced into ashes the moment FaustVII turned into tiny little pieces.

A system message appeared at my screen telling me that I got some items from FaustVII. I got skill scrolls, his double breasted suit, and the scroll to summon the giant skeleton. I don't know if it's my lucky day but I hit the jackpot! 15 skill scrolls! All of them are for necromancy. I know, Yvette wouldn't like the idea but this is jackpot for me! It was boring to kill mobs, sell loots just for me to buy some skill scrolls or train with them. This is free! To think that I'd learn necromancy this fast.

After that fight, Tedros joined our party and enjoyed the area with us, killing lots of monsters and looting some items. But our adventure for the day wasn't finished yet. I hoped it was because I'm excited to play with my new suit and skill scrolls. The area boss spawned near the mountain and saw us as its first target.

Like the monsters spawning in this area, the area boss was a huge Goblin. The boss was 8 feet tall and wielding a huge talwar. Its eyes were burning red, it had razor sharp yellow teeth and huge pointy ears. Its head was unproportioned with its body. It was far bigger than it should be. The boss had a red turban with weird patterns weaved on it. I always admire the developers and designers for these monsters. I mean, just look at them. They look weirdly cute!

"Can we take it?" I asked both of them.

They both nodded and got into position. Tedros is our vanguard, Yvette would be the rear and I would be the one to attack the openings. Since I don't have archery skills yet, I had to be the melee assassin and Yvette would be the marksman. With Tedros's tenacity, he would be able to tank this mob for us.

Tedros charged first to acquire the boss's aggro, Yvette let out some volley of arrows for the damage over time. I was in wait for the monster's vitals. I need to do this smoothly. In this game, attacks and damages of the vital points gives more damage since this game is almost realistic. 

Tedros managed to lure the Goblin boss and take its guard off of its neck. He ran straight through the boss's right side, having it to attack him with its talwar with its right hand. Yvette, on the other hand, hit its left shoulder with poison tipped arrows to paralyze it. Its neck is wide open! I took my chance and pounced towards it.

Piercing Thrust!

My blade hit its target having the boss stagger backwards. Tedros didn't waste any second, he immediately ran through its legs and sliced both of them. Yvette hit its head with volley of arrows resulting to its death. I wished that I had alresdy learned my necromancy skills. Maybe I would've made this boss my necromonger. With it, I can cover much places in such small period of time!

We got some drops from the boss. Tedros got its talwar, Yvette got its turban but I got items that are needed to make a weapon out of that boss. I guess I'm a bit lucky today. I don't want this day to end yet! I have to kill some more!

Having a lot of energy in me, I immediately killed some monsters around us, I wanted more but my in-game body won't let me. My energy was almost depleted. Yvette and Tedros laughed together when I told them that I can't move fast.

"Having a fight with that high level guy and this boss would really deplete your energy." Tedros said. It was as if he's friendly now. "I still have 50% but I don't want it depleted for now."

"Me too." Yvette agreed. "Let's head back town to rest. Are you coming with us, Tedros?"

Tedros nodded. "But first, I want to settle the score with you, Tobi."

I felt nervous. With my current energy, I would be a sitting duck while he enjoys tearing me limb from limb. But what he said next surprised me.

"Your friend, Drake, told me that you are a good man." Tedros said. "He said that I should befriend you. I maybe a bit hot headed sometimes, but I can manage it with people like you. Especially, having a beautiful girl like Yvette by my side."

My jaw dropped. What the fuck? Is he hitting with one of my hare-- friends? Oh well, not that I have a say in that. Tedros and Yvette really goes well together anyway. But why do I feel a bit of pinch in my heart? Is it really okay for me to see Yvette with this guy? I mean, he tried to kill me but he helped me today. I don't know what to think anymore.

"I guess, we'll be in a party now!" Yvette said.

This sucks, I thought she liked me, we even kissed. Is it really just the heat of battle that time? A friendly kiss? A worried kiss? Life sucks!