‘The Dragon Gauntlet?’ Zen stands up and moves slightly away from the Minotaur, ‘Is the Gauntlet here? In the game Midnight City always hosts the Dragon Gauntlet but this is definitely not Midnight City. I don’t even know where I am now.’

The Dragon Gauntlet is a monthly event in Legacy that involves players to create or join parties to compete in multiple games in return winning a legendary prize that originates from a dragon like dragon scale armor. There are 4 rounds with each round eliminating players until there is only one group left.

The Minotaur belts out a mix of a roar and laugh, ‘How does an NPC not know where they are?? And don’t make me repeat myself, I am going to the Dragon Gauntlet and you’re joining me.’

‘An NPC?’ Zen stops himself from saying anything else, ‘He definitely was teleported here too if he knows what an NPC is. If he finds out I’m a real person, he might kill me and I’m too weak to fight off another bunny let alone a minotaur’

Zen clears his throat, ‘Well thank you for telling me about the Gauntlet, but I’m sure you don’t need me all I can offer is my somewhat strength and you’re probably stronger than me, so I’ll leave.’

He starts moving towards the log cabins. A large golden circle appears and encompasses Zen on the ground as 5 rabbits appear from thin air.

Zen looks back to the Minotaur as the same gold light is around his hand, ‘You should learn your place NPC.’

His fist tightens as he looks as at the towering Minotaur, ‘A wizard who can summon…. That explains why there was only one A.R. in this giant area.’

‘I can’t win.’, Zen throws his hands up in defeat.

‘That’s more like it.’ The Minotaur puts his hand down making the rabbits and golden ring disappear. ‘I saw how you fought my rabbit; your quick thinking and strength is not bad and definitely can come in use to me.’

The Minotaur sits down and tosses Zen a bright green food that is very similar in looks to an apple but has no stem and is rounder.

The surrounds glow a bright orange as the sun begins to set, the light shines throughout the whole area and reflecting off some dew on the grass.

Zen hesitantly bites into the fruit, but quickly munches on it as he didn’t realize how hungry he was, ‘This is fruit is so savory and has the taste of meat. Is it good or am I hungry? I can’t stop eating it.’

Zen, still standing, looks at the Minotaur, ‘Do you really want to win the Gauntlet so badly you’re willing recruit someone you just met?’

The Minotaur looks straight ahead at the sunset, ‘Shut up NPC, I didn’t recruit you, I am using you. I have to win and that’s it.’

‘My name isn’t NPC, call me…’ Zen pauses, ‘Call me Kurama.’

‘HAHAHAHAHAHA, that name is worse than NPC.’ The Minotaur rolls on the ground laughing with his eyes watering.

After a few seconds of laughing the Minotaur sits up and clears his throat, ‘I. Am. Paan the Great Summoner and Leader of the Strong.’

Zen looks down at Paan and gives a big fake smile, ‘Let’s win together.’

Paan appears delighted by the sentence as he lays down on his back, ‘The Dragon Gauntlet was two days ago so we got a month til the next one. Treehaven is only half a day trip from Midnight City, so we’ll head out in the morning.’

He closes his eyes as a giant golden circle appears again that surrounds both him and Zen and one of the rabbits appear that hops around the edge of the circle as if guarding it.

*SNOREEEE* *SNOOREEE*

Paan starts snoring loudly, leaving Zen standing there by himself with the sun now completely gone and the there is a stillness in the air as everything is silent.

‘Even if that A.R. was a summon there was blood, and I could feel its pulse. Is this a game or some sick joke? I have these skills and Paan could summon creatures so the magic is real, what will happen to me if I die?’

Stolen story; please report.

Plagued with thoughts, Zen pulls out his Traveler’s Stone and whispers, ‘Sunny0121’

The Stone glows and dims after a few seconds with a loud robotic voice:

‘Person Not Found’

Zen jumps at the sudden loudness and looks over to Paan who is still snoring, unbothered by sound.

He sighs and goes back to whispering names to the Stone

Zen spent hours saying variations of names to the Traveler’s Stone not wanting to sleep with the Minotaur and wanting to find out Tsuna’s ‘Player Name’. Zen only slept for about three hours until the sunrise woke him up.

Paan stretches and yawns as he looks at his rabbit guard hopping around and turns to see Zen awake just looking off until the distance,

‘Let’s go Kurama. Midnight City is a straight shot if we go north’, he points in the direction of the dirt path.

‘What are we going to do in the months’ time til the next Gauntlet?’ Zen dusts himself off and makes his way towards Paan as he walks out.

‘I have a place….’ Paan stops himself, ‘Why aren’t you taking your weapon?’ He points to the rusted axe on the ground.

Zen laughs, ‘I have these bad boys.’ He waves his fist in the air

The Minotaur looked confused obviously wanting to ask more questions, but he shrugs it off, ‘Hurry up, if you give me any damn problems, I’ll personally send you to hell.’

Paan and Zen walk in silence for 2 hours, all was quiet with nothing open fields and trees spread out with some people walking down the same path or near it. There was a group of dragonkin (People with draconic descent) kids playing some sort of game.

The kids look up at Paan and start giggling as they surround him talking to him and asking questions. He smiled and started talking and laughing with the kids.

10 minutes pass, Paan and Zen break away from the kids and go back to the path with another hour of no words.

‘He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy but when he’s silent it’s too intimidating.’ Zen takes a deep breath and asks,

‘How do you start a party? Is it written or like a legally binding statement?’

Paan snickers, ‘Stupid NPC. Party Invite’

The bright blue screen that showed Zen’s skills appeared in front of Zen reading:

Party Invitation:

Do you want to join Paan’s Party?

Yes No

Zen is surprised by the screen but wonders what this blue screen applies to. He reaches out to touch ‘Yes’ but is stopped by Paan.

‘I don’t want to be associated with an NPC until I absolutely have to so wait until the day of the Gauntlet.’

Zen rolled his but nodded as he tapped on the ‘No’ option and the blue screen disappears.

A few minutes pass and in the clearing the civilization of what can be assumed to be Midnight City is within eyesight. The city was basked in shadows because there is a giant cliff that oversees the area whose flat edge is big enough to constantly keep Midnight City in darkness hence the name.

Midnight City compensates with having giant buildings surrounding a Guild Hall that’s directly in the middle of the city. There are streetlights everywhere and almost every building has lights hanging on them. There is a giant lamppost right next to the Guild Hall that is powered by Midnight City’s wizards that houses the ‘main city light’ that gives an artificial sun to the city and without it, the place would be significantly darker.

Zen and Paan approach the city gates to be met with a long line of people also trying to get into the city.

‘This must be people from the real world trying to go somewhere familiar. I’m basically in the same boat.’ Zen thinks to himself as he looks at all the panicked and worried faces of the crowd.

‘Stop pushing me I was in front! Get back!’

A giant green orc, wearing full chain mail armor and holding a Warhammer, pushes a small elf girl that is wearing brown robes and a metal necklace with a symbol on it to the ground.

The orc reaches for his Warhammer that is strapped to his back.

Orcs and elves are different options that players of Legacy can choose to play as with each having their own innate benefits. Orcs are giant green humanoid looking creatures who have a giant underbite with two tusks that stick out. Orcs have more stamina at base levels than other creatures and can increase its strength when carrying items and weapons which make them good for players to stay in the front line and carry the team’s supplies.

Elves are usually skinny fair-skinned creatures that are spotted easily with their pointy ears and lightly colored eyes like light blue or light green. Elves have a high Charisma score when starting off which allows them to get information and even items from NPC with less interactions. Most players who choose elves become wizards or bards.

‘YOU DUMBASS! Don’t you realize we are all here for the same thing why are you pulling your weapon?’ Zen grits his teeth as he makes his way to the orc with his eyes screaming hatred.

Paan puts his hand up to stop Zen and he points upward.

In the sky, about 20 feet up, there is a giant golden ring circling above that Zen instantly recognizes as Paan’s handiwork.

Blue orb-like creatures fell from the ring as the landed in front of the girl like a pile protecting her. There was also a small bright orange bird that fluttered in slowly and landed on the orc’s shoulder.

The bird looks around and opens its beak and:

*CHIIIIRRP*

As soon as the bird lets out its call a massive lightning bolt from the clouds above come surging straight towards the orc.

*Krackabooommm*

The lightning strikes down leaving him charred and burned with electricity sparking around him.

The orc’s eyes roll to the back of his head for only mere seconds as his pupils reappear.