CHAPTER 5

Maria walked along with Kevin in tow. As they all went into the next room. Each player was suddenly grabbed by an unknown force and thrown into a random spot. Before anyone could act a forcefield separated the group into three. Maria was by herself, so was Kevin, and lastly Cory, Brad, and Samantha were as well. A message popped up in front of all five. If you want to escape, you have to defeat all the ads the message read. Maria then heard a voice. “Well look who I caught in my little trap.” Said the voice. “Oh Maria, when will you ever learn that trying to save everyone is fruitless.” Said the harsh voice. “You should have come and joined me but now look at you trapped.” Said the voice. “Let’s see you get out of this pickle.” Said the voice. She tried to pry apart her forcefield but it was no use. Maria tried to contact her Valkyrie but couldn’t see it anywhere. “Oh Maria, so helpless, I unsummoned your Valkyrie.” Said the voice. “A true healer doesn’t need summons to help others.” Said the voice again. “Since your little pet is so weak, let me take care of him first.” Said the voice. Suddenly. Three hobgoblins appeared in Kevin’s part of the room. He was quickly overwhelmed. Maria had to cast a healing spell after healing spell on Kevin. He managed to beat the hobgoblins with help from her teammate’s advice. “Pity he lived.” Said the voice. “in that case…” It said.

Without warning all five of them were fighting for their lives. Cory quickly started taking aggro in the room he was in. Maria was casting healing spells in overdrive now. She was facing off against Lycanthropes. Cory was struck in the arm with a poison debuff. The Tar Slime they were facing was known for killing players fast with poison. Maria was so focused on Kevin trying to keep him alive. She didn’t notice Cory fall to the floor unconscious. Brad and Samantha yelled at Maria. She quickly turned towards Cory in horror. She quickly casted CLEANSED BLESSING on him (The spell negates all debuffs and wakes up a player). He was quickly back in the fight. Maria had finally killed all the Lycanthropes with just melee attacks from her staff.

She was so caught up in healing her main team mates and fighting, she completely forgot about Kevin. She heard a loud scream come from Kevin. Kevin was facing more hobgoblins. Maria froze in horror as she saw a sword sticking where his heart was. Kevin fell over face first into a pool of his own blood and dead. A message popped up. Player Kevin has died. “Muhahah, looks like Maria’s little pet died.” Laughed the voice. Maria frozen in panic, forgot about her other teammates who were soon overtaken by the Tar Slime. First Cory fell, then Brad, and then Samantha. Maria stood in total shock she had lost her nerve. All the spawns and forcefields in the room disappeared leaving only Maria with her dead teammates. A shadowy figure materialized before Maria. She looked in shock to see who had did her team mates in.

It was Chris. Chris had tried to recruit her into Shadow Corps. She declined the offer and Chris swore he would make her life miserable in the game if it was the last thing he did. “Looks like I finally won Maria. “Your team is dead, now I will take on the HQ.” laughed Chris. Maria fell to her knees crying. Suddenly, Maria froze as did the room. A message appeared in front of her. It said. Maria has neither passed nor failed the test. No reward will be given, or a penalty will be applied. She suddenly found herself back in the room with group…

CORY POV

Cory walked pasted the exit of the first room and into a tunnel of light as he stepped out. He heard a roar of applause. As Cory exited the tunnel, he found himself inside an open arena in a coliseum. “Ladies and gentlemen, the final fight of The Dungeon Dwellers GO Tank Championship is now underway.” A voice said over a loudspeaker. “It will be Cory against Johnny. Cory stepped out into the open arena. Across the arena in the opposite corner was Johnny, who was Cory’s biggest rival. The two always fought for the number one spot. Cory could never beat him in the PvP Tank Championship.

Things will be different this time, thought Cory. Cory and [TANK 2] took their starting spots. The timer began to count down from 5 to start fighting. 5-4-3-2-1-FIGHT a message said. Both players took off after each and began to duel it out. The fighting lasted for around 3 minutes before Cory was able to get an opening. He was able to knock free Johnny’s sword out of his hands. Johnny tried to go for his sword, but Cory knocked him over with the butt of his sword and face-planted Johnny on the ground. With Johnny weaponless and grounded Cory had won the tournament.

“And for the first time Cory is your new champion”, said a voice over the loudspeaker. The crowd roared with applause. Cory received a message that contained a trophy for winning the tournament, as well as a diamond chest. Cory was very excited. He took poses with his trophy in front of other gamers. He waited to open up the diamond chest back in his private inventory space. As he opened the chest a message popped up stating “you have failed the test.”

Cory looked at the message in confusion. There was nothing in the diamond chest. Just a display message telling him he had failed. Angry he tried to hit the chest but before he could attempt at hitting anything his body froze.

Just a split second later, his vision went white, and was able to move again. Cory was back with his group in another room…

SAMATHA’S POV

Samantha walked past the exit of the first room and walked into another room that was the size of a boss’s room. The room was made of stone and shaped in the form of an octagon. On each of the walls was a stone archway. In the center of the room was a pillar. Samantha stood frozen in place as she entered the room. “I’m not ready for this”, she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by an announcement. “Looks like Samantha is out of it,” a voice said. “Can she beat all the Lycanthropes in under five minutes to beat a new record?” The voice said again. “All Samantha has to due to start is touch the center pillar.” She slowly walked up to the pillar and touched it. “And we are off folks”, said the voice. Samantha heard loud applause and cheering. The eight archway pillars filled with light and mobs started pouring out by the dozens, Samantha began to slaughter every lycanthrope that appeared. She was hellbent on beating the time record. The Lycanthropes kept surging at her. The beasts had high agility and were immune to magic attacks. By the four-minute mark, there were only about half a dozen left. [GPS 2] was covered in her blood and had multiple cut wounds.

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“Maria can heal this later,” she thought to herself. She kept pelting the remaining group with arrows. The last Lycanthrope fell with an arrow to the knee. She then shot it in the heart. The clock stopped at 4:50:432.

“And there we go folks, Samantha has set a new record.” A voice said. There were applause and cheers from the crowd and fans alike. She went to try and find Maria to heal her wounds. Before she could pull up her friend list and check to call for her. The world around her froze including her. A message appeared saying. You have failed the test. Then Samantha’s vision went white and she found herself in another room with the others…

BRAD’S POV

Brad walked past the exit of the first room and up to a door. As he stepped up the door, he noticed a timer counting down. Brad immediately had an idea of what was going on. He was the final boss of the final dungeon for the speed runs of normal dungeons at rD. He wanted so badly to beat the time record more than anything. He only had a minute to kill the final boss. Rushing into the final room with no time to spare. Brad began an assault on a Red Dragon. He quickly killed the ads it spawned. The dragon could only spawn five goblins at rE and three ogres at rD. Brad kept up his assault on the Red Dragon. He eventually overwhelmed the Red Dragon and was able to kill the boss in under 50 seconds. A message appeared in front of Brad. “Total time: 4:50:55:345.” “I’ve done it,” Brad said out loud. He began to celebrate but was cut short when the room froze with him. Another message appeared. You have failed the test. Suddenly, Brad’s vision went white, and found himself back in another room with the other players.

KEVIN’S POV

Kevin was walking next to Maria as they exited the first room. The Valkyrie was also with them. They walk into the next room and Kevin is suddenly approached by Cory, “Good job back there” Cory praises him. “Um, thanks”, he stammered. Brad and Samantha then came over to congratulate him as well. They began to chat with him more and Kevin began to feel overwhelmed. “Why are they being so nice to me suddenly, “he thought”. He stared over at Maria for an explanation. She just raised an eyebrow. “Well look who has become mister popular”. She said in a friendly, joking tone. Kevin was getting too confused now. Instead of focusing on clearing the room the group had now become fixated on Kevin. “Shouldn’t we be trying to clear the room”. He said. “We’ll get to that in a bit.” Said Cory. “Right now, we want to get to know our new friend better”. He said with a smile. He was soon getting bombarded with questions from Maria’s teammates. “What are your favorite activities?” Asked Brad. What are your favorite hobbies?” Asked Samantha.

The questions just kept coming as he tried to respond. Something made Kevin get the idea something was wrong. Everyone is acting nicer to him. Kevin ended up having to get away from them and ran for Maria. He felt more relaxed by Maria’s side. “They’re starting to get on my nerves.” He said anxiously to Maria. “Oh, don’t be such a party pooper,” she said as she pushed him back toward her teammates. As her teammates caught him. He began to panic. He looked over at the Valkyrie for help. The Valkyrie sent Kevin a mental message just then. “Maria and her teammates aren’t registering in the area,” the valkyrie told him. “WHAT”? Kevin yelled back in his head. “They seem to be some sort of illusions.” The Valkyrie replied. “How can you tell and more importantly why didn’t you tell me sooner?” The Valkyrie signed, “my task as a summons is to protect you or come to your aid when you need it, or I need to intervene.” Since there weren’t any threats in the area, I was just on guard. But when you asked for help is when my duty as a summon activated looking for any signs of any suspicious threats. That is when I realized the others were just illusions.” Kevin was still struggling with Maria’s teammates as they were now tossing him up in the air and catching him.

“What do we do”. He asked the Valkyrie. “From my past experiences with my master. Defeating the illusions should break the illusion.” Stated the Valkyrie. “Worth a shot.” he suggested. “I never thought I was going to need to use this ability.” He thought. Maria had given him an ultimate escape ability that she told him to use in absolute last emergencies. It honestly wasn’t the best plan since he could get injured in the process. As Maria’s teammates were messing with him, he faked crying out in pain. He already told the Valkyrie of his plan so as not to come over to check on him as he might get caught up in the plan. Maria ran over asking what was wrong. He told her he still thought he might have sand in his lungs from the las fight. Maria stood over him as she wanted to make sure he was fine. Her teammates helped him up to his feet. Kevin stood there pretending to cough more. They all circled around him asking if he was alright.

Then Kevin made his move. He pulled a flashing object from his inventory and smashed it on the ground. Suddenly a powerful shockwave rippled the room, illusion, and all in a blinding white light. All Kevin could hear were the screams of Maria and her teammates. “I hope those were just illusions and not the real ones,” he thought. As the white light began to dissolve. Kevin began to lose consciousness…

Kevin heard shouting. He heard three angry voices with another one worried tone. Kevin slowly began to open his eyes. His vision was fuzzy. He had a terrible headache. He reached his hand over on top of his head and moaned. “Had fun spoiling everyone’s dreams.” He heard a voice say in disgust. “I knew bringing him along was a bad idea.” Another voice said. Kevin sat up and saw Maria by his side. She was fast a work healing him. “Gave me quite the scare,” she said. He looked up at her teammates who were in a bad mood staring at Kevin. Before they could say more insults.

A dungeon message appeared. “Congratulations, Kevin on beating “the will room”. You can now claim your prize. A chest appeared before him. The chest was made from diamond, The other players gasped in reaction. “What,” he asked. “You have no clue what that chest contains.” Replied Cory. “Getting a diamond chest is like the holy grail of chest drops.” Replied Brad. “It grants the user their most desired item of choice.” Replied Maria. Kevin opened the chest and pulled out a one-handed sword. He looked at the sword on the item screen. It read “The Slayer”. The description read “The sword of legend that has a 1% chance of an instant kill.”

Maria’s and her teammates whistled in awe. Another message appeared in front of the players. Maria has no loss or gain since player conditions were not met but had not failed. Cory, Brad, and Samantha will have an applied debuff penalty for failing to meet the conditions of the will room. Maria’s teammates looked in shock and suddenly their status screens appeared. All their stats were cut by half as the debuff penalty. They got over the shock and headed for the next room.