After lunch, the rest of the day passed by pretty quickly. The only thing I really paid attention to was Chinese; everything else kind of got unintentionally ignored. Well, consciously, anyway; I somehow had notes and stuff written down. But anyway.

So then after school was over we made our way to the buses, as usual, and parted company in the real world for the day. Rachel and I would meet on video-call for homework, and then we would all be in Panarena later. It was really hard to wait, though. I felt like this little puzzle I had stumbled on had a bigger meaning to it. What was it?

“What in the hell's got in to you lately, squirrel?” Ty quipped as I sat down in our usual seat. “Runnin' all over the damn school like that dumb QB came back or something,” he said as he gave me a funny look.

“Ahh... jitters. Assignment jitters and stuff,” I remarked. Not a complete lie, anyway.

“Huh.” he returned in a somewhat unconvinced tone.

“What about you? You seem tired a lot, lately.” I returned.

“That game, man. Yo, you should get on. We got this player fight goin' on right now, it's something else, Dans. Not that I'd actually want to kill anyone for real,” he said as he lowered his voice, “But no one really dies there anyway, so I guess it don't matter. Still, it's probably the only place where we could finish that old fight of ours; been having lots of scrapes with the enemy players, ain't none of them got a damn brain for it except my guild people. And I guess a lot of our friends, too.”

“Oh?” I wondered aloud, trying to keep a straight face about it. “Sounds like my kind of place after all,” I then remarked.

“Still surprised you ain't there.”

“Who do you think is the best pla--ah, fighter there?”

That was close. Although maybe not really. I don't know. I'm overthinking it, I guess.

“Hrnn...” he replied thoughtfully. “I mean, our leader's pretty damn good; and a lot of those mage-players too. But the one I have my eye on is some wild chick and her girl squad; she's something else, Dans. She and her girls tore up some resource spot last night; damn enemy won't shut the hell up about it.”

W-wow... I'm a “wild chick”... heh... heh-heh... heh... ugh.

“That good, huh?”

“Haven't seen her fight myself; but I've seen her in person. Almost reminds me of--” he started, but then broke off. “Naw; now I'm just thinking too much about it.” he shook his head.

Reminds you of... who?

“Hmm.” I nodded back. The two of us fell silent after that, and the bus began moving off. Compared to this morning, the ride home passed by pretty quickly. Before I knew it I was back home and scurrying about to get things done before what was probably going to be a big night.

***

“Uuugghhh... like it's my fault the leaves keep falling down in the yard...” I grumbled as I logged in after dinner.

“You're raking leaves already?” Ariana's voice came to my ears.

“Ahh--you're ahead of me again,” I said as I spun around to greet her.

“About every third time or so,” she grinned, and we shared a hug. “You're still in the yukata by the way.”

“Heh?!” I looked down, and then quickly brought up my inventory to change. Once that was sorted the two of us sat down in the kitchen area of the estate. “I guess Andrea had more work than we guessed... now I feel kind of bad.” I said after a moment.

“She texted me before I logged in; she's actually having fun with it. I think she wants to go into cryptology and cryptography when she goes to college, so this isn't a waste of effort for her.” Ariana told me.

“Even if the code is lame as heck?” I remarked with a sarcastic grin.

“Even then.” Ari said, returning the look. “It is lame, isn't it? I would have gone for something more subtle.”

“We can actually use books and scrolls and stuff like that in this game; maybe we can develop a code for friends and stuff for secret messages.”

“That'd be fun!”

“It would. It's still bugging me, though... why was it so obvious?” I wondered. At that moment our other two guild-mates logged in.

“'Ey, lovebirds!” Lizzy said as she and Healina wandered in. “So, Heali, should we tell them what you found or save it since we'd have to repeat it anyway?”

“Oh right! I guess we should save it then; but I'll say this much. Your suspicions about it aren't for nothing; the Vale fight is a distraction, but let's save the rest for the others.” Healina told us, and we nodded back.

“Time to meet the gang!” I said as we headed out the door, using the wayport to head for Mount Fang.

Once we had all arrived at the Mountain Tigers' hall again, Healina explained what we had found. Basically, the Garth-Fire Alliance was committing a large force to the Vale of Bright Flowers, a resource heavy area that lay in the midst of three of our allied guild's territories; the Mountain Tigers, obviously, but also the Lightbrook Brigade further to the north at the southern edge of Woody Heights and Shieldwardens at the northwestern portion of Aldholt. Each of them had some vulnerable structures in the area, too, since it was a PvP zone in addition to being a resource area--something that game developers seem to enjoy doing.

“We overlooked this area because of our focus on griefing them in areas they consider closer to home; but they seem to be making a big show of it now,” Wildeye frowned.

“And that raid is just a distraction, right?” Jannie said as she looked over at us.

“For the most part, although they do intend on winning it also,” Healina nodded. “They'll have several elite teams running around in high risk areas for unique resource nodes also.”

“The other side of the coin.” Wildeye shrugged. “Well, let's not be slack in preparing them a welcome party. Let's also consider which of these nodes they would go after.”

“That's the thing,” Healina told us. “I got several names out of the coded messages, but only one corresponds to a place on the map; the rest of them are places I've never heard about, and Elizasmith doesn't know them either.”

“If a beta-tester hasn't heard of them they're probably just trying to make us over-plan. What's the confirmed place?” Magisteria asked.

“It should be this,” Healina pointed to a spot on the border between Varkstania and the Mountains of Night, “The Mountain of Wrathful Ice.”

“Hmm... I guess one of those brats is finally going after them,” Magisteria said as she and Wildeye exchanged a glance.

“Who knew personal ambitions were a part of their strategy?” Wildeye shrugged in a sarcastic manner.

“After what?” I wondered.

“There's a unique mineral up there crafters like me can use to create cold-resistant armors,” Lizzy said. “Thing is, there's wyverns up there, so you'd either need a party with high damage, or a really good tamer.” she said with a smug look at Healina.

“I just barely qualify on that count,” our Sea Elf said with a reluctant giggle.

“But you have the racial bonus too.” Lizzy poked her.

“That's true.” the other girl agreed.

“Who's going after them?” Ariana then asked.

“Either Angelfire or Angela,” Wildeye said, “Although if someone goes now there's a chance they would be able to get there before our enemy does.”

“Something's fishy about this, but if it's worth it we'll go ahead.” I replied.

“You're right, something is very suspicious about this whole affair; but what Lizzy forgot to mention is that the mineral, igerk'ruk, can also be used for weapons and high quality magic items. Whether things are suspicious or even if it's a trap, we should at least lock up their gathering it until this is all over.” Wildeye told us in reply.

“You're right.” I nodded.

“And since you and I both have good mining skills, and Healina is good at taming, I'd say we're the ones to go.” Lizzy chimed in again.

“What about the Vale?” I asked.

“We'll be fine as long as we put our plan into action--now!” Wildeye said to me with a goofy grin.

“Hurry, Lana, before those conniving wenches get there,” Jannie then added. That was too much. I gave a quick salute and the four of us headed out to let our friends begin their muster at the Vale of Bright Flowers.

“We'll have to set off from the wayport at that one spot--what was it called?” Lizzy pondered as we made our way to the one near the guild hall.

“Ahh...” I returned uncertainly. “I'm sure we'll see it on the map when it pops up.”

“Falcondale?” Ariana piped up.

“That's the one!” I nodded.

“And even then we'll have to fight a bit through that one area before the mountain itself.” Healina reminded us.

“I'm not worried about those things, I'm worried about the ones on the mountain.” I said in reply as we set foot on the wayport and scrolled around the map for the destination we wanted.

“They were all fifty or so, weren't they...” Ariana remembered with a bemused look in her eyes.

“Yep, they were.” Lizzy nodded. “Don't worry; we have a pretty standard party now with our little healer!” she beamed, putting an arm around Healina.

“I'll do my best,” the other girl said.

“Counting on it!” I said as I selected Falcondale, and with that we were whisked away to the next stage of our adventure.

Now, when we got there, we decided that we weren't actually going to fight the things in the scattered forests and dells that lay before our destination. We were betting on the fact that our enemy would be nearby, and because they would be nearby we came up with a tactic that, in fairness, wasn't really nice, but was pretty much always entertaining.

There's a thing some players do in certain MMOs where the monsters have an aggro-range (which is the distance at which they will attack along with the distance they will pursue you). You rush past them, rounding them all up, and then race around until you find another player or group to dump them on, and then you dart out of aggro-range, leaving the other party to flee or fight. A variation of this tactic is sometimes used in dungeons, where the monsters will simply run back to their fixed locations--sometimes.

We were kind of doing both. Either way, anyone following us would have a doozy of a time trying to keep on our tail. And so the four of us darted across the northern trails of the Mountains of Night, hoping that we were ahead of our enemies.

***

By the time we reached the foot of our mountain destination there was quite a train coming after us. The aggro-range died out just as we got there, and a literal horde of monsters ranging from Angered Sprites to Giants began stomping off in search of new targets. I watched with both fascination and expectancy as they slowly meandered into the distance, wondering if we had been followed or if they were ahead of us or if it was all a hoax to try and mess with us so that Garth could do something else.

“No one's being targeted, huh?” Ariana sighed as she used Mystic Vision to scan the area.

“Not that I can see,” Healina shook her head.

“Let's get going anyway; if they're ahead of us we'll know soon, and if no one's here that's just fine, too.” I said, and we began trudging up the mountain.

As Lizzy had said, there would be wyverns at the top; but along the ascending pathway there were vengeful ice-wraiths, a dire wolf or two, a very angry crystalline bear, and loads of snow gremlins. We fought our way through these as quickly as possible, depending on Healina alone for restoration and buffs in case of a player-ambush; it was when we were about halfway up that I suddenly noticed something behind us. Lizzy noticed it also, and gave me a nod.

“Ari, Heali, go on ahead of us for a bit; it looks like it's just gremlins for a while, so you should be fine.” I said to the other two.

“Got it!” Ari returned in a chipper tone.

“Will do!” Healina added.

“Now then,” I said as they scurried off and Lizzy came over, “How do we deal with these?” I mused, looking at the players below us. I could just make out a guild symbol by using a zoom-feature; it was Flamehearts.

“This game isn't like other games, as I'm sure you know by now--but I'm not sure you've grasped all the fun quite yet.” Lizzy said to me with a smirk.

“Hmm? What does that mean?” I asked her.

“We don't really have to fight them-fight them... we could start an avalanche to delay, trap, or even eliminate them.” she said to me, her smile growing bigger, and suddenly I understood yet again how revolutionary this game was.

“Whoa...!” I remarked as the thought took hold. “That'd be epic!”

“Right?”

“Can we do it?”

“Who do you think you're talking to?” Lizzy quipped as she gave me a shoulder-bump with her fist. She then raised her halberd and began preparing one of her moves.

That looks like a more wound-up Thurian Stomp, I thought to myself.

“Thundering Rage!” she then cried out, stamping her foot and the halberd into the ground so hard that it really did shake for a moment.

Piles of snow began breaking loose, along with a couple of really big rocks and boulders that had, until now, been sitting quietly. These began combining and melding with each other as they began descending the path, rolling downwards in an ever-increasing velocity. The players below us suddenly noticed this pile of death rolling swiftly towards them and began to panic.

“Heh. Too bad. See ya, Angelfire.” I shrugged as we heard screams coming up from below, heading off to rejoin Ari and Heali; Lizzy let out a satisfied snort at her handiwork, and then followed after me.

“Just a few more of those dumb gremlins and we'll be at the top.” she said as we reached the other two.

“Looks like there's another bear up there near the top as well,” Ariana pointed.

“I'll take care of him.” I said, slipping into Shadow Veil to dash ahead and attempt a one-hit assassination skill on the monster in question. That little plan went off without a hitch, and in a few minutes more we had all reached the top and begun our operation to mine the igerk'ruk.

Now when they say rare or unique resource deposits, they mean it in this game. Even so, there was a lot of nodes up here, some of them dangerously close to the wyverns, which seemed half-asleep or unconcerned with us for the moment. Lizzy and I had our work cut out for us, even with our mining skills as high as they were (both of us had Mining Ten, as high as you could technically go in the Aldholt Regions unless you were a no-life grinder. This, by the way, is someone who spends all their time doing one thing over and over -- but you probably got that).

We had pretty much finished up with the last node when we found company approaching yet again. Angelfire and five others who had seemingly survived or evaded our little surprise came clambering up, and boy did they look mad--except Angelfire, who looked almost smug.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Nice.” she said as both sides drew weapons. “Leave it to the beta-testers to know how to use everything in this game to their advantage."

“Even a third-rate sword-mage like you should have figured things out by now.” Lizzy quipped back. Her followers grew indignant, but Angelfire herself only smirked.

“I don't want to hear that from a third-rate tank like you.”

“It's because you're hearing it from me that you should be more ashamed of yourself.” our halberd-wielder grinned, pointing her weapon towards the other girl.

“Angelfire, let's just charge them and get it over with!”

“Yeah, stop wasting words on them, boss! We need to get revenge for the other seven the avalanche killed!” two of her allies said.

“Just a moment!” she said to them in an authoritative manner. “First, I want to congratulate them for falling into this trap!”

“So it was a trap, huh? Kind of stupid to leave it hanging on the forums...” I said, but her smile did not fade.

“You don't get it. We put it there purposefully, knowing that Wildeye would likely send the most elite team and guild on his side to come here. We put that post there for you to find so you four specifically would show up.” she said to us, and her friends laughed menacingly.

“Eh?” I wondered.

“This place is just a bonus; right now, we have the outlaw guilds adding to our forces at the Vale of Bright Flowers. All of the outlaw guilds in the Aldholt are now helping the Garth-Fire Alliance.” she told us triumphantly.

“Nrgh!” I bristled, thinking fast.

“Lana,” Ariana said to me, “Trust Wildeye. We need to stick to the plan.” she said.

The plan... the wyverns... wait, we were planning on just calming them if we ran into trouble... but maybe...!

“Lizzy!” I said. Right away she activated Thurian Stomp, rendering our enemies helpless for a few moments. “Shadow-world!” I called out then, racing over to take down the three lowest levels before they could do anything. Lizzy was on my heels to take down one herself, and Ariana snared the other two.

“Why you--!!” Angelfire spat angrily as the stun ended and she came back to life.

“Heali! The wyverns! Tame the wyverns!” I shouted back, and our Sea Elf hurriedly ran to do so. Meanwhile, Lizzy finished off her target and engaged Angelfire as I went to take down the two that Ari had bound up. They went down quickly, to my surprise; as the second one went down I noticed that Ariana had added a draining effect to one of her binding spells.

Again, remind me not to make you mad...!

One of Angelfire's skills suddenly blasted Lizzy backwards, and she went rolling for a few paces before she regained her footing. Our last remaining enemy tried to rush her, but I rushed them first, engaging them in a furious flurry that kept her on the defensive.

“I was hoping you would!” Angelfire said as we traded swift blows.

“What's your stake in this, anyway? I doubt you like that creep Garth any more than we do!” I said as I drove her back in a spiral path, hoping she was still arrogant enough to give out clues.

“It doesn't matter what my stake is--even with your defiance, Garth's plans will come to pass!”

No good, huh? Or did she just give out the biggest clue of all, I wonder? I could hear Healina finishing with her chants; I had to end this fight soon.

“Lana! Hurry up! We just got a message from Wildeye!” Ariana called over to me. I disengaged and retreated into Shadow Veil again.

“Where'd you go!?” Angelfire said angrily. I slipped around behind her and readied my daggers for a special skill.

“Crimson Heart Stinger!” I said as I thrust them into her avatar. She screamed like a dang banshee, and then went kapow. As soon as we confirmed they were all down, I went over to where Healina had managed to tame three wyverns. Three?! I thought to myself with awe.

“You and Ari are small enough for one; let's go!” Lizzy said as she mounted one and Healina got on the second. Ariana and I hopped on to the last one, and we directed our incidental mounts towards the Vale of Bright Flowers.

Skill Acquired: Airborne Mount Proficiency; Level One.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I said as I brushed aside the notification, only to find a second.

Attack Skills available in flight mode: Wyvern's Breath, Claw Strike, Bewildering Flap.

Ehh? Oh, *this* will be good!

The others had also noticed this little bonus, and we practiced the skills on a few creatures as we flew towards our allies. By the time we reached the Vale of Bright Flowers, the four of us on our three mounts had worked out a hasty but effective attack pattern with our new friends -- even if they were temporary.

The first thing I noticed was that, despite the truth of Angelfire's words about the outlaw guilds being here en masse, our allies were still holding their own. Wait a moment, where's Jannie and her guild? I wondered as I quickly scanned through the guild flags arrayed in the center of the battle. Deciding the answer could wait, I redirected our mount towards a group of enemy healers; Ari and I used our ranged attacks to panic them and then the wyvern finished them off with its special breath attack. Lizzy was doing the same, but Healina had landed already, using her skill to keep the wyvern attacking our enemies while she healed some of our friends.

“Lizzy, I can keep yours under control as well; get down here!” Healina called up to the Nordian smith, who jumped down and landed with a Thurian Stomp.

“That's gotta be difficult,” I remarked.

“I can handle this one, you take that one!” Ari said to me, and I nodded, readying myself for a jump.

“Here we go!” I said as I sprang off, landing on the other one just in time. The two of us split off and began wreaking havoc for our enemies around the battlefield. It was clear that we were not part of their plan, let alone the wyverns.

“As expected of the Silvernight Queens!” I heard Wildeye's voice cry out, followed by a hearty laugh. “Just a bit more, my friends, just a bit more!”

I continued flying around, letting my mount deal damage as I fired my bow and threw a couple of throwing knives at targets of my own. I had just gotten into a groove with it when I suddenly noticed a familiar sight: it was Tom Blackwood.

Tch! I thought with disgust, leaping down to face him one-on-one again. Someone from Words and Sorcery took control of the wyvern I had abandoned, using it to scatter another group of enemy reinforcements.

“You!!” Tom called out as he espied me.

“I shouldn't be surprised, but didn't you learn your lesson last time we met?”

“Hah! Garth told me to keep an eye out for you in particular, just in case you managed to come back; and I am pleased! If I humiliate you or any of your friends with defeat, when this conflict is won we will have our own unmarked territories for our guild!” he said to me.

So Garth really is just stupid. Got it.

“You think we'll let him win the war any more than we'll let you win the battle?” I retorted.

“Let's see!” he shouted, and then he rushed me with his new weapon, a deadly looking scimitar with a green light-effect on it.

“Lana! There's a paralysis and health-drain enchantment on that sword! Watch out!” Magisteria's voice called out to me.

“Tch! Garth!!” I spat angrily, one-hundred percent confident that ⸸SOVEREIGN⸸'s guild leader had given it to him as a bonus.

I focused on parrying and evading him for the first few moments of our fight. Some of his cronies tried to pile in and overwhelm me but Ariana and her wyvern swooped down just in time to scatter or eliminate them. He and I continued our fight without interruption, and Ari began chasing down those who had survived her initial attack.

At that moment, there came a sound of horns from the northwest. We paused briefly to look; there at the northwest passage entering the vale was Jannie and her guild, along with another guild that was comprised solely of Dwarves; Gears and Wheels had arrived from the Mountains of Heimgar to join in the fun.

“Jannie and MacYnduff are here! Let's finish this!” Timidator bellowed out. The Silver Tiger Pact rallied, and Tom Blackwood and I resumed our duel with a renewed frenzy.

“What a trick!” the outlaw leader seethed.

“You're one to talk!” I countered as I landed a blow on him with Nightstalker's Dagger. He swung at me with a horizontal slash, narrowly missing me as I did a weird sideways backflip to evade him. I jumped back up and we began exchanging blows again.

“I won't surrender!”

“Then we'll just send you back to your rezz-pad!”

“Hah!!” he bellowed back as he swung again; this time I maneuvered out of the way and used Thousand Needle Strike on his backside. The attack kept him immobilized for a few moments, and when it was over I used Crescent Flash on him before deftly jumping out of his range again.

On the other sides of the battlefield, our own alliance had nearly driven off or crushed the other attackers; the wyverns had been a huge advantage in that regard, to say nothing of Jannie and MacYnduff's arrival.

Seems as if Words and Sorcery had more healers than the Garth-Fire Alliance counted on, I thought to myself with a grin as I continued countering Blackwood's scimitar with my daggers. I should probably get a new weapon after this is all over... they're nice, but maybe a shortsword would handle things like this better--oop, no time for that!

It was obvious that Tom Blackwood had no real expertise with the scimitar; he had obviously bet all his stats and skills on retaining the two-hander that we had reclaimed for Timidator. But he still fought ferociously, even moreso than the first time we had fought. Another smile came to my face.

Let's shake him up a bit.

“You really think Garth will let you hold territory if you somehow beat me?” I said, and he blanched at the remark. “You're just disposable to him; once he gets what he wants he'll take that sword back and make sure you and your gang can't do anything in the Aldholt ever again.”

“He can try!” the reply came, along with another furious hail of blows.

The fighting had more or less wound down; he and I were practically the only ones left fighting. I readied myself to enter Shadow-world and finish him off, but just as I did he somehow managed to score a lucky hit on me; the paralysis effect took hold, and I saw my health bar start to go down rapidly as I fell to the ground.

“Lana!” Lizzy cried out as she ran over.

“Impairment: Movement!” Ariana's voice called out then, and Tom Blackwood was literally frozen. “Ice Queen's Wrath: Hell-blizzard!” she then added, and the outlaw leader was enveloped in a frenzied wintry squall, his health bar dropping more rapidly than my own. At that moment Healina began restoring my own health, but there was no one to help Tom. His bar went to zero, and he exploded into pixels as the storm dissipated.

“Nice... partner...” I managed to say. My health bar then stopped dropping, and Healina removed the paralysis effect.

“Whew!” she sighed in relief, and Lizzy gave her a hug.

“Good timing!” she said, and Healina smiled, blushing. Ariana enveloped me in her own embrace. Neither of us said anything, but all around us there was a chorus of cheering and clapping. The battle had been won.

***

The wyverns flew off back to their nest a few moments later, and then we began sorting out our loot and the resources we had gathered. Deciding to hold the player-item's for ransom, we divvied out the resources again and then most of us headed off to our respective halls or homes while the leaders--including us--returned to Mount Fang.

“Well, I call that a narrow escape.” Wildeye said in opening. “Good timing, my friend!” he said to MacYnduff, who nodded.

“We'll begin plotting out our siege operations tomorrow morning; that should give us more than enough time to get things going!” the Tundra Dwarf remarked with a clap of his hands.

“And with the outlaw guilds thoroughly thrashed and most of their special items in our possession, Garth's friends will start to think twice about all of this.” Jannie said with a smug grin.

“Including that scimitar, I hope?” Wildeye asked her.

“It's here,” Magisteria said, removing it from her inventory to place it on the table. “The Doom Crescent, player-made... this is made by Skeletor!” she suddenly remarked.

“That changes things,” Timidator said solemnly.

“I didn't know Fear The Reapers was down here.” Wildeye frowned. “Or perhaps they're new arrivals, like MacYnduff.”

“I'd bet on that.” the guild leader in question nodded. “We saw couriers from someone going into The Waste, west of our own region; FTR likes to haunt that area, apparently.”

“Leave it to Garth to find someone capable of opposing Hallow's Eve.” Magisteria shook her head.

Both guilds were made up of Renegade Vampires, Orcs, and Werefiends, in addition to magic users who adopted a necromancer, witch, warlock, or other dark-mage playing style. Deathscythe himself was a Vampire summoner who used a magical scythe, just as his name implied.

Renegade races, by the way, are races that, in the game-lore, are intended for one side of Panarena but used on the other. For example, if I had gone to Onyxus instead of Harmonia, I would be a Renegade Gael.

“They've shown us already how far they're willing to go; we need to find a way to resolve this conflict.” Jannie said, and the others nodded, including myself.

“But if he's this determined,” I then said, “He may keep a feud going for as long as he plays.”

“True.” Jannie agreed. “His ego would force him into it, if nothing else.”

“Let's keep a closer eye on movement within the Aldholt.” Deathscythe suggested.

“Yes, let's do that. Anyone for a Friday all-nighter?” Wildeye asked, and a few others clapped in affirmation.

“We have something to take care of before we get off for the night,” I said. “It was a good time--we'll see you tomorrow or so.” I added, and after farewells were exchanged we headed out of there for the night.

“What are we taking care of, chief?” Lizzy said as we got to the wayport.

“Let's do at least one real dungeon before we head out; something in Woody Heights, maybe.” I suggested.

“I getcha.” she smiled.

“Lizzy?” Healina wondered.

“Some honest game time.” Ariana answered for her with a smile, and our healer adopted a soft smile of her own.

“Yes. Let's do that.” she agreed.

I picked a random destination in Woody Heights, and away we went.

We ended up in a thick forest of pine and cedar trees, fighting off bears, a few wood-spriggans, and several will'o'wisps. Eventually we made our way to a cave that lay under the roots of an enormous tree; it was a dungeon labeled “Heart of the Forest”. The four of us exchanged nods, and headed on inside.

“I guess we'll see a lot of the same monsters inside, plus a couple odd ones out.” Lizzy remarked upon our entering in.

“Wouldn't surprise me; they might add some more incorporeal ones in here too, it has that kind of vibe.” I added.

“True,” Ariana agreed. “I bet the boss at least will be something along those lines -- or maybe it'll be a more animalistic type creature.”

“Or some weird combination.” Healina grinned.

“That'd be neat!” Ariana said enthusiastically.

“So what's bugging you, Lana? Or are you really just sick of--” Lizzy began, but I interrupted her.

“Don't say it. Please.” I asked her, and she softly smiled.

“Right! We're on our own for the evening!” she said as she drew out her halberd.

“No more sneaking and plotting for the night!” Healina remarked with delight as she took out her staff.

“No more outlaws or enemy players!” Ari added as she took out her own.

“Just us, and a whole lot of dungeon mobs!” I said with renewed vigor, taking out my daggers. “Let's go!”

***

As we suspected, most of the monsters inside this dungeon were similar to the ones in the region outside. With our team the way it was, very few of them gave us any sort of trouble; the incorporeal ones were a pain, but that's what mages are for.

What we also found were living tree roots that attacked us. It didn't take us long to figure out that these were most likely the roots of the tree outside. Which made sense. And it made the anticipation of the final boss all the more ominous. Ariana read some of the lore on the walls; apparently, the tree outside was once the king of all trees in Woody Heights. It had since been corrupted by some unknown fiend in the depths of the dungeon, which had then begun turning the monsters in the region against the simpler folk of the realm. We had inadvertently stumbled onto a field or landscape quest, one that you can randomly find outside of towns and such.

“What's the reward?” Lizzy wondered as Ariana read through the quest log. We all had it, of course, but Ari was the quickest at reading and analyzing things.

“It's a special charm that allows access to hidden dungeons with greater unique rewards,” she told us.

“Sounds cool!” Healina remarked with interest.

“See? Now this is gaming.” I said as we continued along the passage.

“It's definitely what I signed up for,” Healina nodded in agreement.

“Totally!” Ariana smiled.

“I vote Lana claims the charm as guild-master.” Lizzy then said.

“Seconded!” Healina remarked.

“It's share-all, so any of us can take it and then give it away later... but I feel like we should give it to you anyway.” Ariana added.

“Hmm... all right, if you're sure you don't want it; you or Heali might find some place to use it quicker than I can.” I replied.

“We're sure. And we'll just plan a run for that when it happens if we do.” Ariana returned.

“Settled!” Lizzy clapped her hands, and then we came to the boss door. “Right, let's see who's home...” she then said, and we pushed open the door.

The cavernous chamber before us had ankle-deep water; it was a small underground reservoir. A pale blue light from various fungi and another pale light of violet color from precious stones illuminated the area. There was an islet in the middle, and upon it stood a black-spriggan, its red eyes glaring out towards us and its limbs bristling in anticipation of battle. Over its head, the health and identification bar came into view.

“The Dark Corruption...” Healina read aloud.

“It might have roots for minions, and it may try entangling us as well, judging from the ones we've faced so far.” I noted.

“I'll have to be in its face.” Lizzy said.

“True.”

“I'll keep any minions at bay, and I'll try to see if I can counter any of its special attacks.” Ariana told us.

“That leaves me to do the healing!”

“And me to run around and stab the living daylights out of things.”

“Go, team, go!” Lizzy said, and we charged into battle.

It took us nearly an hour of Panarena time to destroy the boss, but we finally managed it. Wave after wave of minions kept pouring in from the sides, and there were several regenerations before we figured out how to interrupt them and keep the boss' health going down. We almost got taken out by a last-ditch attack several times when its health went under ten-percent, but each time Healina saved us at just the right moment, and at last the rest of us managed to launch a three-pronged assault that devastated the rest of its hitpoints. We claimed our rewards, and returned to Cloverbell.

***

After that fun battle, Lizzy and Healina logged out as usual, leaving Ari and me in the house. I was still frustrated with the player war, and I could tell she was also.

“Hey... you wanna meet up in the real world tomorrow? Go to a park or take a walk or something?” I asked her, and she looked at me with surprise before a big smile broke out across her face.

“Absolutely.” she replied, taking my hands.

“What time?”

“Let's try for ten-thirty or so? We can get lunch while we're out that way, too.”

“Okay. Ten-thirty.” I smiled back, and she reached over to kiss me. Our lips parted, and we wrapped each other in a hug.

“Good night!” she whispered.

“'Night.” I whispered to her in reply, and with that we logged off for the night.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I took off the Dream Machine; tomorrow would be a better day. As I fell asleep, that one nagging thought that had hit me earlier came back, but just like before it fizzled out before it made sense.

Never mind; whatever it is, it can probably wait.

Content with that, I slipped into blissful slumber.