4 hours and 12 minutes after

Alan Warden was kidnapped.

“We are not advancing at all,” Anastasia said through Party Chat while decapitating the closest zombie. From time to time, she would have to avoid a black mass forming behind her feet that tried to pull her down.

From her side of the battlefield, Bella had opted to use her shotgun exclusively. It was faster than her fire attacks and reloading it took less time than channeling spells, but no matter how many times she tried to shoot Housemaid Eliza, the numerous zombies were always in the way, being used as meat shields.

“They are stalling us,” Bella said. “At this rate, we won’t be able to support Master Alan. What should we do, sister?”

“Housemaid Eliora keeps respawning enemies as soon as we take them down. She’s the one that we should exterminate first. Do you know any AOE spells? Something to get rid of all the zombies in one move?”

“Yes. But it will drain all of my mana. Housemaid Eliza will surely target me before I can cast it.

“Do it. We need to advance at all costs. I’ll deal with anything they throw at us then.”

“Yes, sister Anastasia.”

Bella closed her eyes and focused mana around her body. “Major Fire Crafting…” She intoned while a magic circle materialized above her head, getting the attention of the horde. “They’re targeting me.”

“I got this,” Anastasia replied, applying mana to her sword.

A recording of a previous conversation with her master, Alan Warden, automatically played inside her digital mind.

* * *

“I’ve noticed that Amelia is teaching pyromancy to Bella. Sorry that I don’t have something useful to teach you besides craftsmanship.”

“It is important to maintain your gear at top condition, master. So I thank you for giving me a new job.”

“Job, huh? Is that how you see it? Well… It might not be that much, but I got you this. If you engrave it into a weapon, it’ll allow you to do basic elemental crafting, even if you’re not a witch. At least, that’s what Kristoff said. Just watch your mana usage while in combat.”

“Thanks, master.”

* * *

“Activating, Silver-tier Enchanted Sword,” Anastasia said, as the blue jewel engraved in the handle’s weapon glowed. “Ice Crafting.”

She made a quick slash in the air, and from the ground violently sprouted ice spikes, freezing and impaling every zombie in a 10-feet area. She then ran towards Bella, while drawing a straight line in the ground with the tip of the sword, from which a spiked ice barricade formed rapidly.

This crafted ice burst out uncontrollably and I do not have the mana to use it for long periods of time, but this will disrupt the enemy’s formation.

She reached Bella’s spot just in time, as the charging horde clashed against the newly formed defenses.

“It is done, Bella. Fire that spell.”

“Roger that.”

Anastasia held her position in case the agile Eliza attacked, but something caught her attention. The witch Eliora was moving her lips as if she was preparing a counterspell.

“Release Death!” Eliora chanted, and from the mouth of every single undead on the battlefield came out a black fog.

“Spitfire!” Bella finished casting. Balls of fire were shot at great speed from her magic circle, twenty in total. The explosions and the resulting fire destroyed every single corpse and forced Housemaid Eliora to protect herself with a mana-created force shield.

Meanwhile, indifferent to what was happening down below, a dark cloud concentrated and with a life of its own, traveled towards Anastasia, as it was an evil parasite.

“Ice crafting!” she cast, forming a spiked wall.

The dark cloud did not care about such defense. It circled it and engulfed Anastasia’s body.

A System message notified her she was being affected by the ‘Death Vision’ shadow spell.

A User would see horrific scenes. Illusions of their allies being brutally murdered or they could see their own death. But for an NPC, it showed error messages and disorienting visions of Anastasia having no legs.

“Sister Anastasia. Are you alright?” Bella asked as soon as her companion fell to her knees.

“Focus. Eliza will use the opportunity to attack you.”

“You’re right,” Bella replied, at the sight of the aforementioned boss jumping down from a tree.

Bella pulled out her shotgun, ready to blast her, but Eliza threw a knife. Bella pulled the trigger, and the flying weapon got deflected.

It used it as a distraction. She’s behind me, Bella thought, finding the enemy ready to strike. It’s okay, I can shoot again.

As Bella gave one step back to aim, her feet got stuck in something muddy, making her lose her balance. She had checked her surroundings first. She knew there was no such a thing as a puddle or a hole in the ground nearby. It was a shadow trap from Eliora.

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As a last resort, Bella used her forearm to block Eliza’s dagger to the heart. Both fell to the ground as blood stained Bella’s dress.

Eliza drew her dagger quickly and efficiently, ready to strike again, showing no emotion on her face.

“I’m sorry, Sister Anastasia, I--” Bella stopped talking privately, looking at Eliza, who remained still. The housemaid was holding her dagger aloft, and her gaze was concentrated on nothing. She then stood up and ran towards the shade of woods without finishing her job.

What happened? It’s as if she was called to retreat. Bella glanced at the other NPC Boss, who remained in her place, guarding the mansion.

“We aren’t done yet,” Eliora, the younger of the housemaids, cried, preparing another spell, just before a burst of fire impacted her.

“Sloochie, was that you?” Bella asked the little critter, who cried back.

“Ku-kyuuuh?!” Translation: “How about that?!”

Although the attack had only taken away 10% of Eliora’s HP, it had engulfed in flames. She extinguished them by surrounding her entire body with shadow crafting, but as soon as she regained vision of the battlefield, Anastasia was already charging forward.

“Eliminated,” Anastasia said, impaling her stomach.

“We won the fight…” Eliora said as blood came out of her mouth. “If it wasn’t for…”

“What are you talking about? We won,” Anastasia calmly replied before chopping her head off.

“What do you think happened, Sister Anastasia?” Bella asked, with Sloochie in her arms, as the body of the housemaid disintegrated.

“Kukyu. Ki-ki-kyu, ku-ki-kyu, Kyu.” Translation: “Yeah, that was weird. What would be more important to Eliza, that she even abandoned her sister?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Anastasia replied, putting away her sword and shield. “Our priority is to help Master Alan.”

“You’re right. Let’s enter!” Bella said, beaming as if the injury in her forearm did not bother her.

As they entered the mansion, running at full speed, Sloochie called their attention: “Kukyu, kyu-ki?” Translation: “Can I ask you a question, guys?”

“What is it, Sloochie?”

Sloochie: “If Alan or Amelia ordered you to leave your sister behind, would you do it?”

“Yes,” Anastasia and Bella replied at the same time.

* * *

**

*

“Solar Flare,” Amelia cast, melting another mansion with ease, enemies included. As soon as the System recognized she was ‘outside’ again, messages came flooding into her field of vision. “Fabio found Alan. Hmm… That hideous-looking NPC is being useful for once, huh?”

She spawned wings and took flight, having an eagle view of the entire area. She opened her map and found the correct mansion by using Fabio’s provided coordinates.

The one in the east. I sent Clara to the western mansion, and Ashley to the northwestern one. If they’re still inside, they haven’t seen Fabio’s message yet. Since Bella and Anastasia are confirming what Fabio said, they surely skipped the ones I assigned to them and ran to aid him… So I can safely discard two mansions, then.

Amelia reached out both hands, forming magic circles. “Major Fire Crafting, Dual-Casting Style, Exceptional Fire Cannon!”

The fire beams reached the targets in a couple of seconds and with a fiery deafening explosion and made the ground tremble. The fire could be seen from anywhere in Count Dylak’s domains.

I hate ridiculously long spell names, Amelia thought, before noticing that she had missed one of the mansions, and leveled the hill to its right instead. Whoops! N-nobody saw that, right? L-let’s try again…

* * *

**

*

“Seriously! All these luxuries are halting our progress! Instead of paying rent for this freaking place, we could buy better gear for our priestesses!”

“You’re thinking about the needs of the few instead of the many! This place is awesome! We have plenty of space, we can rest, we can hang out! A happy guilder is a happy adventurer!”

“But after all these failed raid attempts, do you think our guild is happy?! We need to address why we are dying so much! Soon, we won’t have the gold to pay for the next rent, you idiot!”

“Don’t worry, I paid six months in advance.”

“YOU WHAT?! We could have bought silver-tier staves for the priestess and some of the witches!”

“That again?! Just because you’re in charge of the mages doesn’t mean that you can ignore the rest of the guild’s problems, you know?! My warriors have been starving for a new weapon for weeks!”

“Y-y-you could have solved that issue by buying what they needed instead of paying that rent”

“Because I’ve already told you that paying for weapons in a game that gives them for free is stupid!”

“Only bosses drop rewards! And at this rate, we’ll end up gearing all of our members in like a year! You’re obsessed with the luck aspect of this game, instead of making steady progress!”

“That’s because we should have fun! Nothing beats the feeling of getting a super awesome rare weapon from a boss as if it were a piñata! You can’t get that awesomeness from the stupid NPC weaponsmith!”

“We’ve come full circle! Listen to me, we’re not well equipped to take on raid bosses! Your terrible leadership will be the downfall of this guild!”

“How dare you say when you’ve proven, time and time again, that you suck at fighting?!”

“A-and you should admit that the only reason you don’t accept men in our guild, it’s because you’re fulfilling some kind of lesbian wet dream!”

“At least I like actual human beings! Unlike you and your boyfriend NPC from that disgusting bar!”

“How did you…?”

“Afraid that a real-life man will dump you, huh?”

“Y-you know what?! I QUIT! Good luck with your stupid guild!”

“Fine! Go ahead and leave! I bet I won’t notice the absence of your glorified fireworks that you call spells!”

If Emily tried to speak to me the following day, I will never know. I left Iregorn that night and returned to the Eurola’s beginners area, where I could find some solace. People there did not exceed level 30, which made me believe it was full of people like me. Losers and cowards.

I wanted nothing more than to be a big fish in a small pond. That way, no one would mess with me. They would judge me as a failed guilder, yes, but at least they would do it behind my back.

That was fine for the next year and a half...

* * *

“Clara Dominguez, wake up. I have a favor to ask you.”

“Please, no, I need five more minutes…”

“Your friends have eliminated all the dungeon bosses. Only Count Dylak remains. When the time comes, this place will restart again, and I may not be able to speak with you again. So, pretty please?”

“Restart?” Clara whispered, noticing she was lying on the floor of a poorly lit room. Behind metal bars was a young woman looking down at her. Her platinum hair made her look like a ghostly apparition.

But why would a ghost dress as a maid? Wait…

Clara stopped squinting and let out a cry. Crawling as far as possible, she looked back, terrified at who seemed to be a past, dangerous enemy.

S-S-Serenity?! That gal that completely destroyed Unus Town?! What is she doing here?!

“Clara, I would like to trade with you,” the teen girl spoke softly. “You’re coming from the world outside of the Beginner’s Area, so you surely have some clothes to spare. Could you give them to me? In return, I’ll give you something of your choice from the dungeon’s loot pool.”

“Clothes?” Clara frowned, leaning forward.

If she is keeping me here captive, I suppose she won’t kill me in the meantime, right?

With that thought in mind, she got closer to examine her face. It’s not Serenity. But something tells me I’ve seen her before.

Clara concentrated on the few details at her disposition: The long, white hair side braid, the apparent age of the girl, and the lack of a name above her head.

“Confused?” the girl asked, half smiling. “We talked and drank tea together an hour ago. Remember?”

“But…” Clara shook her head slightly. “Why do you look older?”

“That’s easy to explain. I took Housemaid Eliza’s avatar for myself.”