Brock

We all huddled together in the house sitting on the floor and leaning against the walls. It was pretty cramped.

Drake stood in the middle of it all. “Okay everyone. We need to settle the matter of our team name once and for all. I also want an update on how many daos you have all gotten?” Drake asked us all rotating around to look each of us in the eyes.

Kent was the first to speak. “I got 2 today so I now have a total of 3.” Kent told us.

Drake nodded. “Good. You should be able to finish the quest either tomorrow or the day after.” He looked at Emily. “How many did you get? I know you were meditating with Kent, so you should have gotten at least 1.” He mentioned offhandedly.

Emily smiled. “Yeah, I only got 1. But I am well on my way to getting my second 1.” She said quickly.

Drake nodded again and turned around. “Anyone else have updates?”

Minya shook her head. “I only meditated for about an hour so I didn’t get very close to revealing any of my daos. I will have to try to do it for a couple of hours tomorrow.” She told Drake.

Drake gave her a thumbs up. “Okay, I got another dao today so we are all in good shape. Now, on to the next topic. Our team name. Kent has some suggestions to make.” he gestured for Kent to stand.

Kent stood up. “I have been thinking about what we stand for and who we are individually. We are all from planet earth so I feel like our name should include that. We also are the only 6 people doing nightmare mode so I feel like our name should also include that.

“Putting all of this together I feel that our name should be either Nightmares of Earth. Nightmares from Earth, and finally, Earth’s Nightmares. The last one is not very good but I thought we should have at least 3 options.” Kent finished.

I smiled, some of those names sounded sick. My personal favorite was the Nightmares of Earth.

Kent sat back down and Drake took his place. “Do any of you have any doubts about these names?” He asked.

No one responded. “I’ll take that as a no.” Drake said.

Drake cleared his throat. “We will now have a blind vote. Please close your eyes and raise your hand for the name you want to vote for. I know it's something that people do in school but just deal with it.” Drake said.

I nodded and looked down.

Drake spoke. “If you want Nightmares from Earth, raise your hand.”

I kept my hand down and waited. After a brief pause Drake spoke again.

“Okay everyone, put your hands down. If you want to vote for Nightmares of Earth, raise your hand.”

I raised my hand high in the air and waited. After another brief pause, Drake once again spoke. “Okay. If you want to vote for Earth’s Nightmares raise your hand.

There was a short lapse of sound before he spoke again.

“Okay, all of the votes are in and we have a winner! The votes are as is. Earth’s Nightmares have 1 vote, Nightmares from Earth have 2 votes and Nightmares of Earth have 3. Nightmares of Earth is our new name!” He said cheerfully.

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Name sent.

Name processing…

Name processed.

Do you want your team name to be -Nightmares of Earth-? y/n

Drake breathed in looking around at us. I nodded trying to cheer him up. He clicked something and there was a whirring sound.

Thank you for the quick decision! As such you will be allotted one Guild token to be used after you have completed the tutorial. Don’t die!

I grumbled. Why did the AI have to be such a downer?

Suddenly I heard a howl. “Dang it! We talked for too long! The monsters are here!” I shouted.

Drake quickly took over the situation. “Everyone get into groups! Me and Kent, Minya and Brock and Layton and Emily. You know where to go!” He shouted running out the door.

I turned around and ran out the door. I was the slowest out of all of us but I still made good time by kicking off in large powerful leaps.

Minya arrived at the wall far before me and jumped off of the wall, going out of my field of vision.

I growled and leaped up, landing at the wall and pushing off again. Minya was fighting off a couple of wraiths but they were all but ineffective against her. She was blitzing in and out slashing with her daggers and leaving deep gouges in their sides.

I landed heavily next to one of the wraiths and swung out like my ax was a baseball bat, exploding the wraiths head.

I roared and triumphantly turned to kill more wraiths. As the night went on me and Minya killed many wraiths, werewolves, imps and other spawn of the night gaining 2 levels.

I was pleased with my progress and was looking forward to level 25. Good things usually happened around that time in video games. I shouldn’t be thinking of this as a video game though. That might get me killed.

As the sun started to rise over the island I walked back with Minya to the camp.

Today was a good day. Time to get some dao seeds. I cracked my knuckles in excitement.

When we got back though we were greeted with the most unpleasant sight. We had ventured over to the tree line while fighting monsters and so we couldn’t tell what was going on with the others.

It was chaos. The house was burning, one of the walls was torn down and there was a massive horse with flame running down its sides like lava. Kent was unconscious at its hofs and Emlily was trying to heal him from a distance while Layton shot arrows at the horse but it wasn’t doing anything. Drake was nowhere to be seen.

I scanned it to see what had so thoroughly destroyed our base.

Final Boss: The Night-Mare

Lvl: 49

I gulped. That thing was double our level. Not only that, it was the final boss. There was no way we could take that thing.

I turned to Minya. “You have to save Kent. I will try to distract the Night-Mare while you get him. Go!” I yelled the last word and jumped with all my might at the boss. I swung my ax in a two handed grip to make the most devastating strike I could do. The horse snorted and suddenly I found myself underwater.

I choked trying to find my sense of direction. I couldn’t see what way went up! I looked around and saw dim light straight up. I hoped for the best and swam straight up, trying to find air. For a few painful seconds I swam up trying to reach the surface. It was too much I wouldn't make it...

I broke the surface and gasped, gulping down the delicious air. I looked around and saw the beach a couple hundred yards away. I took another deep breath and started to swim frantically to the shore. My arms felt heavy and weak. It was not a feeling I was accustomed to.

I reached the shore and collapsed on the beach. The sand felt so soft, it made me want to just curl up and fall asleep...

I jolted up and looked around. Where was everyone?

No, that wasn’t the right question.

Where was I?

Brock's Stat Sheet

Brock M. Smith Level: 24 (F-Grade) Race: Human-Giant Bloodline: Human 13 pints, Giant 1 pint Class: Smasher Stats: Body: 266 Mind: 42 Spirit: 98 Traits: Evolution(Human),Giants Body(Giant) Skills: Heavy Combat(Giant+Human), Smash(Giant) Spells: Weak Rapid Growth, Weak Giants Shout Path: Path of Indomitable Strength Dao: Dao Seed of True Strength