Once Alex left the Commander's office, he checked up on his stats.
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NameAlexPrimary ClassDark Shadow Beginner level 6Health8435Mana3500Level9Health Regen/3Sec300Mana Regen/3Sec50Strength345Agility256Wisdom320Intelligence235Stamina523Vitality234Dexterity40Agility264Accuracy78Bonues+30% to all stats at night
70% less visible at night
+10% damage from all Shadow-based weapons or spells
10% more damage from Light-based attacks
10% less visible in the shadows
20% more mana
Shadow spells cost 40% less
Alex’s stats were far beyond a normal person’s stats. He would probably be your average level 100. However, his skills were not as strong as his stats.
Alex moved to exit the base, when he overheard 3 people talking about a recent infestation of light mice.
Alex stopped and listened to them speaking, while wondering, “How can light rats be harmful?”
The soldiers continued to speak, saying how the rats were 20% more potent to Shadow-based creatures and have been terrorizing the populace.They were asking each other if they wanted to join the extermination force.
Alex took the initiative, and looked around to find who was leading the expedition to the lair of the light rats. He saw Gwenden standing next to an officer, who was ranked higher than him, on a stage. He heard an announcement for the light mice extermination:
[Any soldier on base, please report to Officer Mark if you want to be part of the force to exterminate the light mice. He will be in the main lobby]
Alex walked over to the stage and then asked the officer:
“I would like to join the extermination quest”
Mark looked him over and asked:
“Are you even suited for the task.”
Gwenden moved to his defence and said:
“I personally trained him, and I vouch for his skill.”
Mark looked back at him and opened his mouth:
“So you’re the rumoured Alex. Very well, considering Gwenden’s high expectations of you. You will join us in this dangerous quest.”
Alex was thankful, and bowed to Officer Mark, before heading off to join the others who would be attacking the light mice lair with him.
After a couple more hours, soldiers joined the extermination force and a few other players. Alex met with some of the other beginner Shadow Beings of different classes. There was; John the Dark Sniper, Jack the Invisible Blade, Henry the Trickster and a female who only said that her name was Irene. Each of them didn’t opt for the special trait, and instead change their appearance.
Alex talked to them and got to know how they became their class. After hearing his class, they were rather shocked, because they had all tried to become a Dark Shadow, but failed. All of them tried, but they were all rejected by an old man, who promptly beat them up on the spot because they “looked weak”.
Alex partied with Jack, John, Henry and Irene, so when they finally set off for the lair, they would share the exp gain.
The extermination force was warped there by the force, that had gone there in advance,and had set up a warp point, while they waited for the main force to come in.
The warp brought a strange sensation to Alex, and once they warped into the lair, they had to recover all of their mana, because the warp, due to being a technological instead of magical transport, was unable to send mana points across the transport.
All of them prepared their weapons, and advanced into the lair. The first mouse that they saw could not be considered a mouse.
It had a giant body and shone a bright white light. Alex felt the weak rays of light attacking him, but he shrugged them off, having raised his light resistance a bit in the sun chamber. He estimated the level of the mouse to be around level 90.
The main force moved to cover, while the close combat assassins melded into the dark areas of the room,got behind the mouse, and waited.
Alex dove behind a rock closer to the mouse than John, and started to fire at the rat with his USP.45. His hands were steady, and each shot hit the mouse. The streams of darkness coming from the higher-level NPC’s were affecting the light being more than Alex’s beginner regular bullets. The mouse screeched in pain as it was attacked by a heavy rain of bullets, punching through it.
The light emitting from the mouse got stronger,started to form rays, and attacked the members of the main force.
While the mouse was distracted attacking the main force, Jack watched as the mouse formed rays to attack the main force. He started to think about how to get to the mouse, as the rays emitting from the mouse would blow his shadow cover away.
He swiftly moved behind the mouse, pulled out a wire from his wrists, and wrapped it around the mouse’s neck, strangling the mouse, and giving the main force time to counterattack.
John saw his brother go up close, and then in the brief moment that the mouse paused, he shot multiple Shadow bullets into the eye of the mouse.
Each of his shots did critical damage, and with the extra damage against light in the cave, the main force quickly finished it off.
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As each of the players were at low levels, due to having gone through a training program, they gained a lot of exp from helping in killing the higher-leveled creature, but not enough for leveling.
The extermination force moved carefully through the lair, under the command of Mark and Gwenden.
They would always engage the mice in areas they found suitable. First, they would lure it into being surrounded, and then launch a heavy attack on the mice.
Irene brought out a missile launcher, leaving all of the guys stunned on how she could have carried it without movement penalties.
The hunting continued for a couple more days, and they saw less and less of the mice with each passing day.
Eventually Mark came across the light mice nest ,and as soon as he entered, he was ambushed and carried away.
His cries for help did nothing for him, as 5 mice blocked the doorway, and the extermination force took cover.
The mice immediately started to fire off rays at the exposed extermination force. Of the hundreds of people that were there, immediately after the initial attack, only 120-something people were able to take cover.
Alex and his party all managed to stay together, and were talking about what to do.
Henry: “What should we do? Our commander was taken away.”
Jack: “ Maybe we should run away.”
Alex: “That would be the best choice of action.”
John: “But if we leave, we won’t get any rewards, and leaving at this point is considered deserting.”
Irene: “So our only choice is to fight, hmmm.”
Alex: “All of the commanding officers have been taken out.”
As the group was talking, one by one, the rest of the extermination force was taken out.
By the time they finished their conversation, only 57 of them remained to fight against the light mice.
The group came to a decision, and called all of the other people to retreat.
Once they reached a safe place, Alex moved up to speak,
“We are all here to serve our race.Though now we are at a disadvantage, we must persevere and break through, so we can return home. Abandoning now will only get us killed by our own comrades in the future, so if we manage to win now, we can return back heroes.”
The listeners were touched by the speech, and all vouched that they would see this to the end.
Afterwards, they grouped up and marched back into the main nest of the mice.
They created a small fortified base at the entrance, and when they finished, Jack moved deeper inside to lure out the mice.
Jack stood in the deeper parts of the base. He looked over his shoulder multiple times to make sure the others were still in sight. He deactivated his shadow cloak, and immediately, a mouse appeared in front of him. And as he looked around, he saw that he was surrounded.
Jack used a short distance teleport in the direction of the base, and started to use his high AGI stats to run, while keeping the mice on his tail.
Behind him were not 5 mice, but 10. John saw his brother running back chased by a large number of mice. He prepared his sniper rifle, and loaded in his 10 special Shadow bullets.
John aimed at the mice carefully, and fired his L1911 at the chasing mice.
Where his bullets struck, a hole opened up in the mice, and they crouched down, golden blood pouring out of them.
John then stopped, and lied down. His health was now below 300 points.
John’s class wasn’t actually a Shadow Sniper, but rather, a Blood Shadow Sniper. His special class skills used up his health points instead of mana, and would reduce his vitality by 5, each time he fired a Blood Shadow Bullet.
Alex saw John lie down, and on his HUD, his health bar looked like a tiny speck. He ordered some of the people to move his body so he wouldn’t die, and loaded his guns as well, but with a different than regular, kind of ammunition.
Jack turned around and saw 10 mice vanish into thin air, but they were immediately replaced by twice the number of mice. He was almost at the base, but the mice started to fire light rays at him. His defence was immediately torn apart, and he was blown all the way back into the base.
Where Jack flew in through, there was a large gaping hole in the construct, and the mice concentrated their fire on the inside.
The burning rays of light hit Jack, and they were barely stopped by the dark hole that appeared and absorbed all of the light.
The NPCs had created it,and they recreated the hole with some advanced abilities. The people involved in the recreation however, ran out of mana, and had to meditate to recover.
Alex joined the rest of the main shooters in shooting at the mice with his Desert Eagle.
The mice came charging at them, and 5 were constantly shooting light rays at them, making it harder to shoot at the ones charging into the base.
Eventually, the mice got into the base and started to kill everyone. After the initial attack, everyone had scattered, leaving the players to combat the rest of the mice.
Jack and John were incapacitated, and Henry wasn’t a frontal fighting type. This left Irene and Alex to fight the 100-something mice. Henry used a hiding skill and disappeared from sight, only to be caught up into a wide range attack from the mice. Henry reappeared, and landed next to John and Jack.
Irene used her Missile Launcher to fire off an AOE missile at the mice, dropping the whole group’s hp by 10%, but then they focused on her and meet the same fate as Henry.
Alex was still firing at the mice with his bullets. Each of the bullets sank into the mice, and Alex used the move he had been saving up. Each bullet blew up within the mic,e and the ones who did have a bullet blow up inside of them, were paralyzed for 30 minutes. Alex was now left with 30 mice to fight.
He activated his Shadow blade and prepared to fight.