At the edge of two zones, the Daybreak guild strolled across a land known as the White Wastes. At the border of two zones, the weather refused to stay stagnant. Taking one step to the right, Gray could see the inkling of snowfall. To the left would end that icy glare and would replace snowflakes with the blades of grass that danced along the wayward wind of the Dakli Steppe.

Gray walked behind Melody as she continued along this border.

One step right. One step left. Snow. Wind. Ice. Grass. Occasionally a common mob called the frozen warrior would consider the party that was underleveled by 23 levels. These mobs were brawlers with fur capes that hung from their shoulders. The saliva hanging from their mouth was frozen and formed icicles on their chins. They would swing an axe over their shoulders and scowl. Waiting for the underleveled parry to step a little too close. The Daybreak guild was in this precarious zone because Jericho asked to meet them, so they could fight their first world boss.

The promise of loot and a fun fight was enough for the three of them.

“I heard that’s the endgame area. I love snowy areas in games,” Melody said. “Damn we gotta reach cap.”

“NPC say the Steppe is pretty cold as well. We just can’t feel it,” Akira added.

Melody saw a berserker, dressed in a turtleneck and with a pompadour, farming mobs with a dancer and an elementalist.

“We’ll get there,” Gray glanced at Melody staring at the level 50 trio. He tried interacting with the sphere of water that Rachel gave him. The odd item_not_found. He could hold the sphere in his hands and toss it around, but it didn’t respond to anything.

“Hey Gray, what’s that ball that you’re throwing around?” Melody asked. They were turning onto a hill. They were no longer bouncing between weather conditions and were fully on the path towards the White Waste.

“It’s strange,” Gray threw it downhill. It rolled down like a normal ball, but then it burst into pieces of light and reappeared in Gray’s inventory. “Akira, you remember that Dryad that rezzed you.”

“Hmm. Yeah, Rachel.”

“She gave me this item. The thing is that I think it’s bugged. Its name is item_not_found.”

“Why,” Melody leaned forward and looked at the sphere when Gray took it out of his inventory again. Melody titled her head a couple times before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and taking the sphere. She held it in her hands. It shattered and went back to Gray. “Alright, be like that water ball.”

“There’s s a weird border around the item that I’ve haven’t seen on other items,” Gray explained as they reached the top of the hill. The White Waste welcomed them with a tower-sized rusted sword on the horizon. The field of snow was only broken up by an artic beach. It was the ocean beyond the cold sea breeze that seated the giant sword and some mountains. “It’s like a turquoise color.”

“Oh hey, it’s an iceboar,” Akira said. “Apparently in-lore they taste really good. Man, we gotta search for the codex in this area once we’re high-enough level.”

“I still want that cool armor,” Melody remembered.

Gray put the item_not_found away when he saw several players convening near the beachside. The waves crashed against a cliffside as players stood at opposing sides. What Gray noticed was that all the players were at level cap. It was about a dozen level 50s. It looked almost like there was going to be a showdown.

Behind Gray, Melody and Akira inched their way towards the iceboar. The creature had tusk made of some hardened ice. Its fur was painted with snowfall, so it looked like the boar had a black and white fur pattern.

Melody stepped over an invisible line. An invisible line that allowed the giant iceboar in the distance to take aggro. The boar puffed up some air and scraped the snow on the ground with its hoof.

“I wonder if that’s a party in the distance. Maybe their planning to farm mobs? I bet a lot of endgame crafting materials are found here. It would be cool to speed level, but mobs that are too high don’t give you too much xp. Oh hey, Is that Jericho?” Gray spoke to himself.

“Run,” Melody said.

Akira sheathed his bow and ran down the hill.

“Huh?” Gray turned around saw the level 49 iceboar immediately reduce his health to zero. The world went the same color as his name, and he next saw himself back in Willowtown. Signifying that the whole party died. He heard Melody scream, and she popped up right next to him. Akira was third. He was waving his hands bracing for the attack when he appeared next to his party.

“Haha,” Gray chuckled. “That’s that we get for going into an endgame area.”

“Our money,” Melody fell to her knees and hit the stone floor with her hand. “Reviving cost sooo much money, man.”

The Daybreak guild made their way back to the White Waste. This time, they chose to wait on the Dakli Steppe. Jericho came down from the same hill that they took earlier. An iceboar made an appearance and literally looked down on them. Reminding them that they weren’t ready.

“How is it going guys?” Jericho joined the party after Melody invited him.

“That iceboar owes us a 50 gold each,” Melody mumbled.

“We’re fine,” Gray responded.

“Good,” Jericho smirked. “Cause today, you guys are gonna do some content.”

“What’s the name of the world boss?” Gray followed Jericho.

“I would assume Gralados,” Akira guessed.

“Correct,” Jericho said. “Did you cheat?”

“He’s mentioned in some side quest.”

“Wow, I never read side quests. I just skipped the dialogue and did it for exp and money,” Jericho stopped in a giant empty field of grass. The only landmark that Gray could pick out was a stone obelisk. Gray approached the obelisk and saw the names of several players. At the end of the list, he saw Jericho’s own name.

“What’s this?”

“An obelisk of recognitions,” Jericho leaned on the obelisk. “Whenever a world boss, encounter or raid is cleared for the first time on a server, the players who were present have their names written in the obelisk.”

“That’s super cool,” Melody said.

“Then you must have been there when Gralados was first cleared. That must have been an experience.”

“It was, but he wasn’t that hard to be honest. You can just keep throwing bodies at him.”

“Still aren’t four players a little small for a world boss?” Melody asked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“They’ll be here very soon,” Jericho feigned checking his watch. Gray knew something was wrong because when he turned his head, his framerate dropped. For a moment, rather than the game world Gray could see the glass visor and his ceiling behind it. After another moment, Gray was back in Elrin.

In front of them was an army of players. Gray tried to count, but his framerate dropped a second time. He decided to just look away from the crowd.

The rain started. It went from a clear day to a dramatic storm. A red sigil appeared on the ground. A void bled over the sigil until claws tore through the darkness and the gripped the sides of the earth. Old Gralados was clocking in for his world boss duties. The demo0n appeared with his fashionable skirt of bones and tusk. The demon had a broken jaw that constantly needed to be pushed into place. The demon had a pinkish skin that reminded Gray of undercooked meat.

“Oh shit. This is gonna be crazy!” Melody drew her sword and shield.

“Time to avenge Joshua,” Akira referenced some side quest that Gray didn’t recognize, but nevertheless he got ready as well. The army of players charged at the world boss and Gralados roared when he took his first point of damage. A sea of damage numbers exploded over his head. As more players attacked, Gray’s framerate tanked. His hardware couldn’t handle being close to the players and the boss throwing out all sorts of particle effects. Gray clutched his head in the game and closed his eyes. The sound was turning into some synthesized soup. He was getting a headache.

Gray kept returning to his bedroom as his GECKO II tried its best.

Gray turned the other way and ran as far as he could. He was thinking of moving his character, but he would only see his character move every five seconds. After making enough distance, Gray’s framerate went back to normal. The world was moving normally, and he could see the army of players in the distance. Their attacks and effects were able to be seen, but not in the same detail that they show up when someone’s directly in front of them.

He saw a blond elf running towards him. He didn’t realize it was Melody until she made it within 100 feet.

“What happened? Do you need to go do something?” Melody asked.

“I need to lower my settings,” Gray said.

“Damn. What headset do you have?”

“GECKO II…” Gray lowered the setting making everything look worse, but he wanted to be present in the fight, but now everything seemed to be smoother. He hoped that it meant that he could at least help in the fight without being thrown into a chaos of slideshows and magic sound files.

Melody and Gray ran back to the front lines and Gray took count of the situation.

They were getting smoked.

The boss would cleave an entire dozen players with a single attack and all of them would drop to the ground. The healers that survived attacks were running around trying to revive other healers to help with a wagon-full batch of dead players. Unfortunately, the attacks just kept coming. Gralados was summoning demonic bats that regurgitated fire at the players not targeted by the big man himself.

Gray saw a bard shaking a player who started watching a show on their headset the moment they died. The good news about the players dying was that Gray’s framerate was also improved.

Gray gave a damage buff to the Jericho. The duelist jumped into the air and slashed Gralados. Jericho then sidestepped one of Gralados’ telegraphed attacks and got underneath him. Gray took Melody by the hand and ran to Jericho. Some other players started to pile underneath.

Gralados dug his hands into the ground and smashed a crowd with a chunk of stone. One of these was Akira who was trying to shoot down one of the pesky bats. It instantly downed all the players that weren’t beneath the boss. Jericho sprinted back to the front. Gray and Melody followed him automatically.

Behind them, Gralados sat down on the ground. Instantly crushing any player that decided to stay underneath him.

“Melody, let’s swap aggro.” Jericho said.

“Uh, Okay!” Melody took aggro.

“If you know the mechanics, why aren’t you calling them out?” Gray passed some of his mana to a healer so that they can resurrect a few players. Then he put meadow underneath Melody.

“I’m bad at that kind of stuff. I just do it,” Jericho said. Gralados raised his arm. “Let me try. You gotta move left!”

Gray moved to the left, but saw that Jericho moved left and then north towards Gralados. Gralados slapped his arm on the ground and Gray dodged it since he was on the left. Once Gralados finished his first attack, he dragged his arm in arc. Gray lost half of his health from the follow up.

Jericho walked back to his spot and swapped aggro with Melody again.

“What kind of shotcall was that?” Gray threw a lightning bolt at a bat. Akira caught up to them.

“Does he actually know the fight?” Akira asked.

“I know it. I know it. Move away from him.” Jericho ordered. Gray watched the duelist very closely. He did move away, but he also to moved the right of Gralados.

“Out then to the right!” Gray shouted. Gralados roared and then punched the arena with his left arm. From then on, Gray spent the rest of the fight playing a game of charades with Jericho. Gray was even picking up on the mechanics that kept repeating and could rely on his own memory. Gralados would always slam his arm on the ground after the mechanics that involved him sitting on the ground.

More and more players were surviving, and they were able to take down the world boss after ten minutes of most of them screaming about how annoying the bats were. Gralados got kicked back into his portal. Akira ran up to it as the demon was fading away. At first, Gray thought he wanted to get loot, but then Akira ran past the chest and just stared at the sigil that spawned the world boss.

“What’s up?” Gray asked.

“Nothing the sigil just looked interesting. Let’s get our loot.”

Jericho got his loot. It was a pair of level 27 tank boots that he gave to Melody.

“All my stuff is level 50.”

“Oh thanks,” Melody opened her loot up and got a chest piece. Akira got a new bow that looked like it was made from bones.

“Good stats, but I think I’ll sculpt it to make it look like my old bow.”

Gray opened the loot chest, and he did not receive a piece of armor or gloves. He got a bag.

An empty bag.

“…” Gray held the bag in his hands. The rest of the Daybreak members and Jericho stared at him. Gray spiked it into the dirt. It burst into pieces of light. It reappeared in his inventory. He noticed there was another item in his inventory called aethervial, but he ignored it. The bag’s name was Bag of Zephyr. It even had a unique description.

Legendary Item: A simple leather bag that was once enchanted by Wizard Lemon. It holds a thousand winds and has seen use by many who want to touch the sky for but a moment.

Action: This item boosts the user into the air with a cooldown of sixty-seconds.

“A legendary item?” Gray used it. The bag opened and shot him up 30 feet into the air before he fell back and died of fall damage.

“Damn, you got a legendary item!”

“Of, course the guy that left at the beginning of the fight got the good shit.”

“It just throws you up into the air. That’s kinda lame. I heard that there’s one that’s like a rocket-powered….”

Other players started murmuring. A curious healer came by and brought him back to life. A few players crowded around as Gray stood back up.

“What’s the cooldown on the effect?”

“What’s the name?”

“Does anyone know the drop chance for it?”

“All right. All right,” Melody stood in front of Gray. “This ain’t a show.”

The Daybreak guild and Jericho walked away from the crowd. Most of the players left by the time that Galador had died and the few that were interested in the legendary item started to disperse. After they were a bit ways away, Akira spoke up.

“So, what’s a legendary item?” Akira stopped.

“There are several rarity types in this game. Commons, uncommon, rare, and legendaries. Legendaries are special because they’re not always a normal piece of equipment, but instead is an item that can have a crazy unique effect. Like shooting you up into the air,” Jericho explained.

“Do you have a legendary?” Gray asked.

“Nah,” Jericho shook his head. “Some of my guildmates got some, but not me. They’re worth a lot of money on the player market as well. Some people are there will even buy yours because their collectors.”

“How much money?” The was a dragon’s hoard amount of gold in Melody’s eyes.

“I’ll keep it,” Gray said. “It’s Daybreak’s first legendary. One of many.”

“That’s a nice attitude. I say that I did my job as mentor today. Got my boy, a legendary. Now please bow to your sensei,” Jericho did a bow. Akira, Melody, and Gray turned around to talk amongst themselves.

“Maybe we can find a way to hang it up in the guild house,” Melody said.

“Kinda weird to have a bag of air on the wall,” Akira responded.

“What ya’ll need to do is get to level cap,” Jericho crossed his arm. “There’s plenty of content coming and a lot of it is gonna be for max level. There’s gonna even be stuff that has nothing to do with raiding.”

“I mean we’re already halfway there,” Gray said.

“I took me three and a half days to get to cap. You three have been playing a lot and still your level 27.”

“It’s no rush,” Akira said. “Taking it slow helps us steadily get codexes.”

“Sure…”

“We’ll get there Jericho,” Gray patted Jericho’s shoulder. Gray had to stop himself from saying Harry.

“You especially,” Jericho poked Gray’s rib. Not that Gray would feel it, but it was the gesture that counted. “You’re shotcalling was pretty good. Especially since you had to pick up the fight fresh.”

“It’s not like I’m gonna join your guild.”

“The offers still open….”

“No,” Gray said. “I already told you. Fresh start.”

“Fine. Fine,” Jericho turned the Akira and Melody. “I gotta head out. You guys keep on picking every flower and reading every book. I’ll see you guys later.”

The Daybreak guild said their goodbyes to Jericho and went on their own path to do some quest. As they walked together, Gray checked his inventory one more time. He decided to check another special item in his inventory. In his inventory, both item_not_found and Bag of Zephyrs had the same turquoise border.