“Ugh! Why did I break it!” Zeke threw his fists onto the cold stone brick wall. “What am I supposed to fight with, now that my guitar is gone?”

“Well I guess there’s no worrying about it anyways.” Zeke said as he slid down the catacombs wall and sat down onto the floor. “We’re probably just gonna have to lay low for a bit here anyways , right Astral?” Looking for a response, Zeke turned his head towards the girl, who was laying down.

“Oh. She’s asleep.” Zeke sighed. “She did take most of the injuries during the fight anyways, she deserves it.”

At the moment, the two adventurers were holed up in a dead end hallway near the entrance of the Mindel catacombs. The underground crypt was dark, awfully quiet and smelled of sewage. Nevertheless, it served as an effective hiding place. Only the occasional low level rat could be found here, so the catacombs were about as safe as Zeke and Astral were going to get.

“Man, I really shouldn’t have broken that guitar.” Filled with feelings of defeat, Zeke repeatedly sulked. “What am I supposed to do now, punch monsters? I barely do any damage to begin with. Hell, Astral has pretty much carried me this entire time.” Zeke took a step back and sighed. “At least we beat Setna and now she’s here with us.”

——————-

“So what are we supposed to do with her?” Zeke asked. “We can’t just leave her.”

“I really couldn’t care less about that traitor, she could die and become a revenant or whatever and I’d be happy.” Astral responded.

“Well… okay. But what if she has useful information or something?” Zeke propped Astral on his shoulder and began to help her over to the catacombs entrance. “She could tell us why she backstabbed us and what the hell is going on.”

“I guess that’s a fair point. The more we know the better.”

“Definitely , maybe she’ll be able to help us find a way to log off from SeraphStar.”

“That being said, once she tells us what’s going on, I’m killing her.” Astral walked into the catacombs and began looking for somewhere to rest.

“Sure, okay.” Zeke carried Setna’s unconscious body, into the catacombs.

—————-

“They're both out, so I guess it’s just me now.” Zeke stood up and began walking down the hallway. “Might as well take a stroll, while I’m here.”

The Mindel catacombs serve a dual purpose as a burial ground and as a sewer system. Some corridors contain long stretches of green fluid, and others hold ornate graves and coffins. Outside of useful game lore though, the catacombs are really just a forgotten dungeon few players ever visit. It’s not mandatory to complete it and the monsters drop little experience. Grognak’s dungeon made more sense as a place for players to explore early game.

“Oh shit!” A rat emerged from a crack within the stone wall, startling Zeke. “Oh god, what do I do?” He began to panic.

The rat slowly walked in a circle then encroached upon Zeke. As it grew closer, he suddenly jerked forward.

“Eat this!” Zeke punched the rat directly in its face. The monster squealed and squirmed it’s way back into the wall and out of sight.

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“I wasn’t even able to one shot a level one rat.” Zeke shrugged. “I’m level twenty one, I should’ve been able to do it. Welp, I reckon I’ve gotta get stronger. There's no other way we’re gonna be able to escape this game if I’m struggling to a monster like that.”

“Did you say escape?” An unknown voice called from behind Zeke.

“What!? Who’s there?”

——————-

“Oh! Seer, I was looking for you.” A middle aged woman wearing a long black dress pushed her way through a crowd of high schoolers to reach a short blonde boy. “Here are your test results from the SAT.” She handed the boy a couple papers, then ran off looking for someone else.

“Oh thank you miss.” Seer, a small shy boy responded. He wore a blue and black hoodie and ripped jeans. He slouched and limped everywhere he went. This created a very unwelcoming demeanor for Seer. Very few of his fellow classmates talked to him much, and for that matter he was alright with it, as school still managed the second most comfortable place for Seer in his life.

Seer tossed the papers into his mess of a backpack and began the journey back home. He rode public transit and the route took him about thirty minutes to make it to his house in the suburbs. All throughout this trek, his stomach growled. Seer punched his gut repeatedly to hold back the hunger.

Finally, the boy arrived at his home, a lopsided small red brick house overshadowed by the bigger homes surrounding it. Despite that, Seer trotted up through the lawn of dead grass and pushed past the broken door into his home.

“Don’t give me that bullshit Derrick! You say that every goddamn time! I’m sick of it!” A blonde haired woman wearing a blouse and blue panties shouted.

“Mom’s drinking again.” Seer muttered and began walking to his room.

“You never fucking satisfy me!” Seer’s Mother, Faith slammed her hands onto her husband's chest. “Stand up for yourself for once! All you do is work and work, then come home empty handed! You’re making barely any money Derrick, and now your wife is living in a shithole!” Tears began to well up in Faith’s eyes.

“Honey, I didn’t mean to…” Derrick, a brown haired man in his thirties wearing a ragged business suit began to caress his wife’s bob cut hair.

“Don’t give me that shit again!” She slapped his hand away.

Seer paused and slowly crept his way over to his door. “She hasn’t noticed me, yet.” He stepped over piles of dirty clothes and empty pizza boxes to reach his door, coincidently the only door that actually worked in the house. He carefully turned the knob and pushed the door open.

“Where the fuck, do you think you’re going!?” Seer’s Mother yelled across the room.

The boy froze, unsure of what to do. Faith jumped over a damaged couch and landed behind her son.

“The school sent me an email…” She began to explain.

“I…” Seer swiftly darted into his room and attempted to slam the door behind him. Unfortunately, Faith threw her hand inside and pried open the door. She grabbed her son from the top of his hair, dragged him out of his room, then lifted him in the air.

“They sent me a copy of your test scores from the SAT.” She let go of her son and he slammed onto the ground below. “You got a fucking composite score of seven ten! Seven fucking ten!” She yelled.

Seer lowered his head in defeat and stared at the ground.

Tears appeared in Faith’s eyes. “How are you supposed to support your mother like this?” She quickly wiped them away, sighed and walked into the kitchen. She returned with a beer bottle in her hands and slumped down onto the couch. “Oh! And don’t worry about dinner, because you won’t be having any!”

This was a common occurrence for Seer. He would be left with an immense feeling of anger and dissatisfaction after being scolded when he came home. His mother was ruthless and he hated it. Furious, it enraged him down to his core. However, what always kept him from lashing out was his father.

When Seer would look at his father, his feelings of anger would quickly be replaced with a more melancholy emotion. His father was powerless to do anything to stop Faith. In the end, he would just shake his head and cry himself to sleep. This left Seer with dissatisfaction every single day. In the end, there was only one thing that was keeping Seer happy.

After having withstood Faith’s outbreak, he slowly creeped into his room and shut the door behind him. He walked over, turned on his monitor and booted up his PC. Blue light filled the dark room and Seer began entering his login credentials.

Throughout it all, there was one thing that kept Seer sane, and that was SeraphStar. When he was in the virtual world, no longer could people look down on him or mock him. Instead he was someone people looked up to and held in high regards. He was a hero.

—————-

“Do I make myself clear?!” Drimrock stood within a large plaza in the center of town, speaking to a large group of a few hundred players. All of them sat on the ground and stared at the tiles on the floor in silence. A few members of the guild patrolled the hostages and kept them in line for Drimrock’s speech.

The hulking Warlord, stomped into the crowd and dragged out a low-level black haired female mage. “Where the hell are you hiding him?” Drimrock’s breath formed bubbles on the woman’s face.

“I don’t know…” She muttered.

“Bullshit!” Drimrock shouted and dropped the girl to the ground. “As a matter of fact, I know that you all have a little hideout within this ransack of town, and you’re hiding him away from me, because you think you’ll get something out of it! You think he’ll save you!”

“Well, I got some news…” Drimrock reached behind him and pulled out a larger double sided battle axe and decapitated the woman.

“Now I don’t like to repeat myself, so listen close.” He roared at the ongoing crowd “This city, Garoh, is now mine! I’m going to tear this city apart if I have too!”