Harsh winds smoothly glided across the few areas of Raine’s exposed skin. The air was just the right thinness, making breathing a pleasurable struggle that reminded him he was alive. He closed his eyes, basking in the freedom of gliding through the open skies without a care. Strapped to his back was a device he paid too much for, considering he would eventually make them himself for a fraction the cost.

[Gromglenn Premium Skydrifter - Marvelous Gold: Activate outside of combat to glide from a high elevation. Premium version is equipped with textile obfuscation, sound canceling, wind harnessing, and enhanced durability. Creator is not responsible for device failures that result in prolonged screaming before sudden death. (Durability 199/200)]

The first thing Raine did after activating the skydrifter was cut and edit the vodcast he took of the dungeon. He made sure to exclude his weapon swapping and the mysterious footwork SolemnRiver used. It was obviously an advanced technique of the Phoenix Clan and if they knew he had it, he would be dead within the week. Sure, ZionLine was impossible to hack, and his avatar looked nothing like his real self, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the right investigator with the use of unlimited funds.

After making sure he was the first to post a guide, he perused his notifications and equipped his newest title.

[Title: Sky Catcher - upgradeable - bonus 50% Superiority and Attunement when defeating monsters above your level]

This title is insane! But how did we get that world first? There should be plenty of class five, internal force masters, and maybe a few external force masters in ZL already. Not one of them decided to clear the first dungeon on nightmare? Oh!

It took all of five seconds on the forums to find a post from a day ago (8 hours outside ZionLine) about a player named Rakka getting the world first for completing a nightmare dungeon solo. Raine knew a few stories about the man’s exploits. Whether they were fact or fiction was irrelevant as he eventually became a sixth tier god and ruler of another continent.

That’s what I thought. Damn. With a solo clear, I bet he got the next upgrade of the title, or the one after that. No point thinking about it. I have my own advantages and there’s plenty more waiting for me. Now that I’m not stuck in an office designing an engine. From today on, it's full speed ahead!

Raine’s interface buzzed with the notification of a friend request from SolemnRiver. Realizing he never left the party, he immediately dropped out. Shrugging, he accepted the request. He had no intention of interacting with her again, but the future had already changed and there was no telling if they would be friends or enemies once his guild was up and running.

The moment he accepted, she tried to call him. Raine rejected the communication, assuming she was upset over him not charging for the dungeon guide, or splitting the profits with her. Since he couldn’t charge for anything posted on the ZionLine’s forums, and posting elsewhere could be easily tracked, that wasn’t going to happen.

At least after this I won’t need to post any more freebies. Alaric’s renown is solid now. Once I’m ready to start my guild, I should have plenty of applicants.

She tried calling again, bringing a smile to his lips. With a few quick taps in his interface, he sent her a direct message, “What? I’m busy.”

Her answer came seconds later, “I have a business proposition for you.”

Someone of her background? That could be lucrative, but getting further involved with the wealthiest, and most dangerous clan on the continent...

Raine carefully weighed the pros and cons, then realized he could use this to solve an issue he was going to run into all too soon, “I'm listening.”

“Not here, call me when you're free.”

Important enough that she doesn't want a written record? Interesting.

“Okay, I should have time in a few days,” Raine punched in his response and before he could close his interface, she responded.

“...”

He rolled his eyes, “I have a quest. I won't have access to communications after this until I’m done.”

“Okay. Three days.”

Talerra Tafell aka SolemnRiver

“You're really going to forgive him just like that?” FierceFire exhaled sharply through flared nostrils.

Talerra was still fuming, especially after he rudely refused her calls, “No. Definitely not. He did remove my ghost step from the video, so he's not a complete fool. Besides, you saw what he's capable of. If he joins the competition, he could be a powerful dark horse.”

FierceFire froze mid step, then shook her head sharply, “You don't even know if he'll be allowed to enter! This guy is bad news. We shouldn’t have anything to do with him after this. Unless we happen to run into him again. Then we should definitely repay his kindness.”

Talerra ignored her best friend’s outburst, “He’ll be permitted to join. There's no way he’s too old. A senior would never act the way he did.”

“Maybe not the ones you know,” FierceFire grumbled as she stomped down the tunnel to the start of the dungeon.

Talerra was quick to give chase, her tone dismissive and tinged with a malicious undertone, “It’s true he damaged my reputation. All I have to do is make sure he pays me back five fold for what he’s done. When grandfather notices me turning a weakness into a strength, that can only work in my favor.”

Raine KongRu

Raine chuckled evilly, looking forward to utilizing the unwitting girl’s resources for his own gain. The sound never reached the nearby great eagles, absorbed by the bubble surrounding him and the large drifter strapped to his back. His flight was smooth, the air currents around him absorbed and utilized to maintain lift. He still steadily lost altitude, though significantly less than he would have riding one of the cheaper, lower grade variants of the device. No matter its efficiency, its range was insufficient to bring him all the way to his goal in one shot, far from it.

The colored skylanes around him—sections in the high sky that allow for faster aerial travel—were lit up in his HUD. The lane he was currently in shifted from bright green to light blue and his speed dropped nearly in half. He adjusted his angle into a newly lit green section nearby, making sure to maintain course toward the nearest uplift—an updraft against a cliff face that would restore most of his elevation.

If he were to have any chance of completing the witch’s insane quest on time, he needed to stay in the green lanes and hit five more lift zones before reaching the halfway point. Then, he had a long climb ahead to get high enough for the final stretch.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

[Unique Chain Quest: Fall of the Tyrants]

[Locate the entrance to the Mystic Lands of Korahn’s Legacy: (14 hours remaining)]

[Warning: Failure to progress this quest will result in your soul being dominated by the Great Witch Zoarra. Quest may not be abandoned]

Since he was going to be flying for a while, Raine accessed his message box, his scalp sliding back at seeing over four hundred messages from the engineers at Frontier. He responded to only the first, letting them know he wasn’t at all interested in giving them more details until they paid him. He sent a message to Richtor, letting him know he was free to talk. Then, he pulled up the unedited recording of the dungeon and closely examined SolemnRiver’s mysterious footwork.

After slowing down the VRVod and adjusting his viewing angle, he frowned. The blurred shifting of her weight from front to back and front again in rapid succession was now clear, but it was sloppy in a way that was hard to put his finger on. Realization struck that the technique was designed to utilize internal force in the real world. Since ZionLine used attributes instead, which provided a more consistent boost to speed and power, her steps didn’t function correctly.

During the thirty years of his past life, there were countless real life martial techniques that had been adjusted to function in ZionLine. His current martial path was a well-compiled mishmash of traditional styles that had long since been adjusted for attributes by the time he learned it. But in this timeline, none of that happened yet.

The moment he had the thought, A flicker of excitement churned in his chest and he couldn’t breathe. The flicker quickly ignited into a bonfire that set his heartbeat racing. Had he attempted to copy techniques outside his old master’s teachings, he would have been executed. CronGate did not take lightly to those under their control attempting to grow beyond their station.

Those chains no longer shackled him. Thirty years of slavery had ingrained ways of thinking into his brain that blinded him. Now, for the first time, he realized just how big of an advantage he could have over the martials.

The years it took for masters to become acquainted with ZionLine and evolve their techniques was something he could skip entirely. There was no one alive who understood more clearly the differences between internal force and attributes. Even better, as content updates made incremental changes to ZionLine, the fundamentals of skill usage and controlling avatars would evolve. Then, the martials would have to start all over again, while he knew in advance the best ways to start training now.

Raine closed his eyes tight, visualizing several adjustments to SolemnRiver’s steps to account for attributes. Within seconds, he could clearly picture how to drastically improve his use of heavy two-handed weapons. The way she spun to overcome the Attack Speed detriment of her axe was only the beginning. With this as a solid baseline, he imagined multiple ways to further advance the technique with a little practice.

Considering who her Great-grandfather was, it was a certainty that the steps SolemnRiver used were only the initial stages of a much more advanced series of footwork.

Lineage is a steep mountain to overcome. That’s fine. I’ll keep stealing from them and adjusting what they know to work in ZL.

For the first time since awakening in the past, a path to overcome the Old Monsters lurking at the top of the world’s food chain was taking shape. With jittery energy zinging through his fingers, Raine sent a quick message to Morty, asking him to compile clips of any VRVods that contained what looked like martial techniques.

Such things were beyond Raine’s ability to find himself. Martial families guarded them with zealous fanaticism, willing to murder entire cities to keep the secrets to their power. After all, it was the top martials who ruled the world. Passing out techniques, and especially the methods to improve the body beyond normal comprehension, was the same as distributing loaded cannons.

Morty’s response came at a speed only an AI could achieve, and was in the form of a link to a pair of new arms that would cost two million a piece. Raine sent him an emoji that let him know in no uncertain terms that he would pay for exactly one middle finger of one arm.

Raine searched that same site, finding a pair of arms for half the cost with only two less features. He sent them to Morty and the AI responded with the beginnings of a list of cut VRVods. Raine dove in, his thoughts focused to a knife’s edge as he picked at the scant details of the edited-out techniques: a foot planted at a specific angle, the distance between knuckles prior to an attack, the way a shoulder was lowered before the next frame showed the martial ten meters away. There was little to go on, but it was a start.

His personal style had always revolved around hand-to-hand combat, but with the dream of running a powerful guild, he would need to absorb much more to best guide his future underlings. Besides, he was going to be stuck with the cursed ring for a while. There was no reason not to learn techniques for each weapon as best he could.

An hour later, shortly after Raine reached his second lift zone, Richtor finally responded. Raine answered the call to find his brother’s face covered in sweat and splashed with blood. His breaths were rapid and his voice strained, “I-I don’t know what to do. We’re in so much trouble.”

Richtor KongRu

- One hour ago -

“Behind you!” Richtor shouted as a man-sized spider exploded from the ground. Its trap was perfectly placed at the side of the canyon, and it even waited for three of them to walk directly over it before springing into action.

In a spray of dirt, it launched at KevinsBakon who was caught completely by surprise. Six of its long arms—tipped with barbed claws—wrapped around their tank from behind. He had just enough time to turn slightly, sending claws aimed for his heart skittering across his chest plates. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to raise his shield and activate Block so he took full damage from the higher level beast. [-112]

Richtor threw a Mend at him while jumping to the side, giving space for the others to close range. [+65] His accuracy, and the quantity of health restored by his skill had come a long way in the last few days. The same was true for all of them, yet still they couldn’t match the Raine from their memories.

Kevin released a pained moan, his eyes wide as hooked barbs sank into his flesh. Still, he crossed his arms over the beast’s legs to hold it fast, planted his feet, and turned to face the wall; giving the party access to the spider’s back.

Deloralicious arrived first with a Lunge. Her spear led the way, digging deep into its back and eliciting a high-pitched screech. TwistedReligion’s Blast arrived a moment later, melting the base of a leg. Sizzling, and the aroma of cooked meat filled their noses as his spell dug deep into hardened carapace. Milkdud was last, jumping high and dropping onto its upper abdomen. He wrapped an arm around its narrow pedicel and worked his dagger in deep before splitting the creature in half for critical damage.

The abdomen fell away with a wet splosh, taking him to the ground where he quickly rolled to his feet. His back was to the group as he watched the walls with Far Sight, “Five more coming.”

“Pull back,” Richtor spoke softly as Deloralicious stabbed twice more in quick succession, finishing off the wounded beast. He sent another Mend at Kevin, topping him off at the hefty price of a third of his remaining Celestial Power. Raine had been right when he said healing was hard; the party quickly realized it was in fact impossible to keep a tank alive if they were foolish enough to trade blows with even lower level enemies.

With well-rehearsed coordination, they fled from the middle section of the canyon—the furthest they had managed to come so far. They were level eight now. The ambushing and warrior spiders they were fighting came in either level eight or nine variants. They were quick and powerful, with tangling webs and the potential for massive waves of reinforcements if the group was too loud. Thankfully, they also had low health and died quickly, especially if the group managed to get the drop on them.

It was for that reason the entire group took Stealth for their second general skill. They weren’t very good at it, but it allowed them to move deeper into the canyon and level much more safely. The skill was far from perfect, and heavily relied on the user’s ability to control their avatar.

Once activated, it worked with the caster's desire to move to a specific point in view, guiding their movements the entire way. Richtor associated it to a dance instructor with their fingers on your back or arm, steering your movements without forcing them. If you so much as twitched away from that shepherding, the skill instantly failed and started a two minute cooldown. Worse, it steadily drained Discipline the entire time it was in use.

Only Deloralicious had managed any real proficiency with it. She even managed to stay stealthed their entire trip into the canyon this time. Keeping up their practice, they entered Stealth after rounding a corner and breaking line of sight with the five warrior spiders on their tail.

They snuck by dozens of level five spiders, moving slowly at timed intervals to specific points they now knew by heart. After surpassing them by two levels, the beasts no longer gave SP, and their loot drop rate plunged like a whore’s neckline (as Milkdud so elegantly put it) making it far more efficient to sneak past.

Which was the only reason they weren’t caught completely by surprise when two groups of players rounded another bend ahead of them. Each wore at least one piece of orange clothing or armor. They held varying weapons, and were more interested in pushing deeper into the canyon than fighting every spider.

Despite their levels showing as five and six, TwistedReligion flinched at the first sighting of other humans in days, breaking his Stealth. The group of ten stared at his crouched form for a whole two seconds before one of them yelled, “Enemy sighted! Attack!”