Soon after the game loaded, he found himself standing in the center of a rather busy central area with a large crowd of people standing around in one spot, most of them probably away from their keyboards. Various other people where idly chatting away in the center area, some others producing rather large text bubbles with an awful lot of “@” Symbols as people tried to get others attention on trade request. He smiled at this for he found it slightly humorous that The World had not changed a bit sense his absence. He looked up to the deep blue sky; he gave a faint smile and said aloud, “Like riding a bike.”

He walked aimlessly about the large central area, it always was a great place to eavesdrop on current info and news from the BBS. He knew this for he never used the BB a lot on his old account; he was never really fond of it. He smiled a bit taking an interest at some people talking about a velociraptor that had been lurking in an alley around Mac Anu. Apparently at first they attempted to take it on because they outnumbered it. But it was way to strong and it ended up killing them instantly! They had to restart from there last saves, that was fortunately from only an hour ago that day. A few others where laughing at the two pitiful victims and stating that they should have known not to fight the raptors because everyone knows raptors are immortal gods from the underworld come back to claim the souls of a thousand virgins, Ruin laughed silently at there antics and went about his business heading now toward the market strip.

He was getting ready to gear up for his very first adventure in The World. He spun around a corner and noticed a long strip of shops and vendors on his right hand side. The shops where being horded by newer players who where gearing up there characters and older players who could be seen selling off useless low level gear. He walked right up to the items shop and browsed about for some useful items, he came across a simple sprite ocarina. He looked at it, its shape and color; he had to have it. He looked over the price, and tossed some gold at the shop keep before walking off his new toy in hand.

He walked off from the shops and made his way calmly to the bridge that lead to the opposite side of the famous Mac Anu market distract, this is where the armor shops and the item bank was located. He knew this because of his mini map icons. He walked right passed them and headed right by the save bank as well. Ignoring all of them, as he went right for the Chaos Gate, a final corner separating him and his very first adventure here in The World, it had been to long since he seen the big blue gate that had been the foundation of so much fun and so much memories. He wanted to see it again.

He calmly turned that final corner and what he saw was the Mac Anu Chaos gate. It was a stunning view for him that just made him smile wide. It was this moment, among all things that made him realize how long it had been since he had been truly happy. He did not understand why he was happy, nor did he care to find out but he knew. He knew deep within him he was happy, and it felt good. He looked to the gate, and a strong feeling of anticipation started building in him. He forgot all things that seemed to matter so much for a moment, his life, his job. The only thing that mattered was he had something know, something to do, something to be good at, something to enjoy. He was so consumed; he did not hear the small clink of plastic as something fell from his pouch to the stone ground.

He swiftly skimmed over the keywords and then decided on a good sounding match for his new place of journey. He gave himself another nod of confirmation, both in game and out. His hands tapped at the keyboard and he put in the key words for his very first field.

“Beautiful Fantasy Battlefield….”

After a brief and rather odd loading screen he looked around his new location. He was now standing alone in the large open fields of the new, and rather stunning area that he had chosen. He loved it, the surrounding area was glowing with the moonlight from above as it peeked through the dotted clouds, from the clouds soft rain pattered down softly onto the grass making the ambient sound even more calming. This place was truly something he could learn to love, and he was a very fast learner. He noticed a building like symbol on his mini-map with a small red arrow pointing down. He looked at it a moment longer, then looked away to the sky above. This is truly what he missed, the scene that was The Worlds areas. He could never get tired of taking in the view, the lovely moonlight, and the soft rain. He smiled, and it felt good. The only words he could think to say where…

“I… I Missed this...”

The words escaped his lips and the sound traveled through his headset and into The World. He thought about his first dungeon adventure with his friends, and how they fought over that gott statue! They couldn’t decide on who would get it so they just left and went to level up. He thought about this, and decided sense there was no one around to fight for the gott statue he would work on his very first dungeon on his new character. Looking up into the rain a bit, he took in the view of the above ground once more before setting off for the dungeon.

As he walked a big yellow circle seemed to creep up on him and before he knew it a small goblin popped out and began to scream at him. He stopped for a moment, stunned a bit that he had been so careless as to miss a giant bright yellow floating circle, however he did. He gripped the hilt of his blade, anticipation growing within him as he took it from its holstered position and held it firmly behind him in a ready stance. His stance seemed sad, weak, and sloppy. A good act. It was for he was ready, wanting, and waiting for that moment. The goblin made its move.

It ran head on, screaming some goblin profanities as it charged him swinging a small worthless dagger, its small pathetic existence aggravating Ruin. It was ruining the area, the scenery was better without its obnoxious presence, so Ruin took it upon himself to fix it.

The goblin swung, smacking Ruin for about five damage and then ran away, a typical goblin tactic. Ruin took the hit, and just stood there, he was waiting for the blasted thing to come back, and of course it did stupidly run right into a massive swing of Ruin’s sword. The hit was hard and, he hit the thing for around fifteen damage, which was a rather small amount compared to what he could have done.

He grew tired of looking at the darn thing and after taking a glancing blow for two more damage he decided to test out his skill for the first time. He gripped his blade tighter now in his hands as he moved back into his ready stance. There was a brief pause, a moment in time that to ruin seemed to stop, and then he whispered softly.

“Death bringer.”

The two solemn words came silently from his mouth followed by a grim smile, it was a message to the goblin to state its soon coming demise as he swung a high over head slash, coming down on the head of the goblin smashing it into the earth, the attack was not done as Ruin then used his blade to lift himself from the ground pushing himself up into the air doing a full flip. He turned about, his knees bent as he now pulled the blade once more back over his head and readied for the final smash. “SHUT UP!” He yelled at the pitiful goblin that simply lay there and take a smashing blow that seemed to spilt the ground at the point of impact. The theatric blow hit for a massive amount of damage, nearly thirty total! As ruin backed away he smirked to himself as he had obviously won the fight.

He started to let his guard down when the goblin stood up again, screaming still in its rather annoying voice. A bead of sweat fell from Ruins forehead, aggregation growing. “I just want peace and silence.” He said to the game, he was sick of hearing this things annoying ranting! He was hit by another smashing blow this one hurt more doing a total of ten damage to Ruin who returned the favor with a one handed slash that spun him about, and smacked the goblin dead on for another twenty three damage, the goblin poofed into a cloud of data and digital death. “Finally, it’s gone.” He said to himself winning his first battle with Ruin.

He thought no more of it for a moment, and looked back to his mini-map. The small red arrow seemed to taunt him so he kept on, further he walked to the location of the dungeon. His mind thought back to the fight, and to the annoying ranting of the goblin. “Perhaps, they make it so aggregating that we have to kill them, or suffer loss of sanity as a being.” He said smiling to himself, his artistic mind appreciating the well-made world around him, everything was in place just where it needed to be The World was in perfect balance in his mind.

He looked off in the distance and there he saw it, a large stone building that was located in there very spot the red arrow had indicated, and between it and him was yet another yellow portal. He did a quick HP and SP check, HP was sitting at 55/70 and his SP was recovering bit by bit, right now at about 16/22. He gave a nod of confidence before saying to himself as he griped his blade “No problem.” He moved his character in front of the yellow circle; it spun a slight bit faster and then vanished before spawning a single mad grass. Ruin looked surprised at first before moving his blade to be behind him, his normal ready stance.

The mad grass made a rather cute sound before charging Ruin and slamming into him for two damage, a rather minimal amount. Ruin smiled and swung away with a downwards strike hitting for about twenty seven damage. The mad grass, driven downward by the hit could one wince and flinch trying to prepare for another attack, ruin gave another swing of the blade and it hit before the small grassy creature could react. A massive thirty two damage, the mad grass poofed similar to that of the goblin that Ruin had killed before it. Ruin blinked letting down his guard, the fight was a lot easier than he expected but then again he was only level one. “Simple,” He said with a pause as he looked up to the dark sky yet again, he liked it’s blue color for some reason, and watching the rain was rather soothing “,Enough.” His words drifted as he turned now toward the stone building. The dungeon entrance was nothing more than a large stone square, something simple and gray that stood alone atop a hill in the dark of night. Its dark entrance way blocked view of what was inside and Ruin just simply looked at it for some time waiting for something interesting to happen, but sadly nothing did…

Until...

Darleen had immediately crashed on her half-broken couch after getting home from her early morning shift at the waffle house. Her original intention had been to veg out watching horrible day time talk shows, but somehow the insane yelling of the audience and paternity test after paternity test had lulled the waffle cook to sleep.

Eventually, though, the show came to a close and was replaced by an equally horrible soap opera. There was something about triplets, two of whom were identical, while the third was harbouring a deep secret: a birthmark in the shape of a rhombus on his inner thigh. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the sudden shift of the past show’s loud bleeping noises to the slow, sombre, melodramatic music of the new soap opera was enough to make Darleen snap out of her sleep.

With a loud, definitely attractive, snort, Darleen woke up and half rolled off the sofa, front-side down. She was perplexed for a moment as she found herself with a mouthful of tattered cushion, but soon came to her senses and righted herself…and headed straight for the computer. Might as well trade one screen for another.

Rubbing her bleary eyes under the VR goggles with one hand, she logged into the ‘The World’ with the other, her eyes squinting as the intensely bright blue light of Mac Anu invaded her vision. As the burn began to subside, she started to examine her surroundings more earnestly. The capital city was becoming familiar to her by now, but not in boring way—at least not yet.

Still, the crowds that were swarming the city remained unfamiliar, even if the bridge and river were not. So, Fayre went to her go-to person: that awesome Mekky fellow. Proudly, she selected the command for flash mail and picked his member address as the recipient. She was learning! Woo! Before actually writing it, she took a look around her to get a better sense of where she was. The Chaos Gate was within sight; that would be an easy enough landmark.

She settled into wait for the blademaster to come find her. Thanks to her remaining sleepiness, her head automatically drifted down, pointing her gaze towards the ground. This turned out to be a good thing, as it meant she noticed when Ruin’s brand new item clattered onto the cobblestone road in front of her. While she caught a glance of the heavy blade as she bent down to pick up his abandoned sprite ocarina, she couldn’t spot him amongst the crowd by the time she righted herself.

“Well darnit. I don’t want to accidentally steal from some poor player. That’s the worst kind of stealin’, really.” She mused out loud to herself, turning the item around in her hands as she did so. Fayre hadn’t actually bought any particularly exciting items in the game yet, so this did at least provide her with an opportunity to check out what this MMO had to offer. But what kind of name was ‘sprite ocarina,’ anyway? Did it mean only little pixelated creatures could play it? Or, more likely, the game was referring to the fairy variety of sprites…which still didn’t make much sense, considering the game lacked the medieval fantasy quality of other MMOs.

Fayre began to anxiously chew on her lower lip. Should she stay and wait for Damek? She had already sent off the mail, after all, and didn’t want to seem unreliable. Or should she try to track down the new player and give him his item back? She didn’t want to come off as a thief, either. Indecision meant she defaulted to the first option, since she remained rooted to her spot. Awkwardly, she just stood there, holding the ocarina as far away from herself as she could, as if trying to prove she really wasn’t trying to steal it.

Dmitri jumped a bit as his computer made a fairly loud ‘ping!’ to be heard over his music into his headphones. Immediately he took the headphones off, the noise reminding him of a particularly loud wavemistress. He opened his email to see what all the commotion had been, and speak of the devil, it was a flashmail from Fayre herself. He couldn’t see what it said, just that he had a new mail in the game, and so, obedient as ever, Dmitri logged in, abandoning his bored surfing of the net.

He briefly scanned his inbox, and saw that he’d played right into Fayre’s hand. She just wanted a buddy to quest with. Well, it couldn’t turn out any worse than last time... right? He heaved a sigh and logged into ‘The World’ completely now, loading the MMO instead of just his inbox and the BB Boards.

Mac Anu was bright compared to Dmitri’s stuffy room, but his eyes soon adjusted and he looked around to see if his pudgy friend was anywhere in sight. Well, she wasn’t far off, though he was much closer to the Chaos Gate than she, the crowded area alight with people logging in and out, and heading on dungeon adventures. As he walked towards Fayre, he saw a player in quite a hurry. At a second glance, he watched as Fayre bent down to pick something up, and looked around hopefully for the player he’d just seen. She seemed to be content where she was, so Damek took off behind the other player. He was still a ways off, but as the other player, Ruin, approached the Chaos Gate, Damek made it out of the crowd. He had almost tapped the player on the shoulder, when he reached a decision.

“Beautiful Fantasy Battlefield….”

Damek’s hand reached straight through the air as the player vaporized. ‘Damn,’ immediately, he turned around, only to see Fayre, as goofy-looking as she was, holding the item out far in front of her like it smelled bad. “What are you doing?” Damek plucked the item from her hand and examined it. A sprite ocarina. He frowned, it had taken him a while to figure out what one of these was. In fact, he’d only recently bought it. Maybe that new player was someone’s second. But then why in the world would he have dropped it?

“Hold on to it, we will go to give it back. He will have to walk all the way back through the dungeon if we don’t. That is what this does,” he held it up and gave it back to Fayre. “I always thought that it was annoying to have to walk up all the way back through,” though his English was getting much better, Damek obviously had no flair for putting simple sentences together. He hastily added Fayre to his party and began to push back through the crowd, thinking of how they could locate the other player.

Once they reached the Chaos Gate, he had settled on an idea. Hopefully the other player wouldn’t be too far away. He repeated the keywords that he’d heard the other say, and soon enough, Damek and Fayre were off on another “rescue” mission.

The field was well lit for a night scene, but still fairly dark in comparison to the earlier city. Damek waited a moment for his eyes to adjust, in which time he realized the glowing white moon, and the soft patter of rain. All he could think was ‘Rain… again?’ but at least it wasn’t pouring like it had been last time. Quickly, he located the dungeon on the map and turned to Fayre. “He would go to the dungeon, so let’s go there,” he took off at a light run, knowing that however pudgy Fayre seemed, this game only had a feel for class. She’d be able to keep up with him just fine.

There were some monster portals in the distance, but Damek could only figure that the other player had cleared through them with ease. This was, after all, a low-leveled field. At least this new player had a sense of what he was doing. He was definitely succeeding far more than Damek or Fayre had on their first quest. Especially if they had been alone. The two had a clear, straight run to the dungeon. It was almost eerily easy, but that was the nature of following someone, he supposed. Then he saw a sign of life. Another portal, right at the dungeon entrance had burst. “Found you,” Damek turned to Fayre with a quick smile and sprinted the rest of the way. The game didn’t allow him to be much faster, but he might have been going too quick for Fayre now.

The battle was over by the time the two reached the other player. Damek slowed, hands up in case the heavyblade felt threatened. “Uh…” Damek frowned for a moment. He hadn’t realized until now how strange this would seem. “You... in... in Mac Anu... Dropped something,” his spell of nervousness had created quite a strange sentence, but he hoped that the heavyblade would understand his meaning, and that he and Fayre posed no threat.

Still staring blankly at the dungeon entrance he heard some people coming from behind, he froze. He thought in that single second of ten possible ways this could go wrong: They could have come after him to gank him, (Ganking is when higher level players kill lower level characters just for the fun of it.) or they could have possibly come to raid the dungeon, and he would have to leave. More through went through his mind and soon he came to a stop as words met his ears.

He turned his head, to let one blue eye peek out of his scarf and shaggy hair, his stance a bit tight, but relaxed at the same time, he worried that he would give a bad impression to the new people, he thought they where going to hate who he was. He did not know what he assumed such things, he could not shake the thoughts, such a negative theme running over him form all parts of his mind; he listened.

“You... in... in Mac Anu... Dropped something,”

A nervous voice came from behind him, one he did not recognize the voice, and he also saw a girl behind the male talking. He looked them over, a blade master, a wave master, and a heavy blade. He thought quickly about several good strategies he could pull into place and then shook the thought before responding, “I…Did, thank you for returning it to me.” His voice was calm and simple. It almost seemed robotic as he carefully put the words into place; everything was like that with him. Everything had to be planed, had to be in place for purpose. He thought swiftly again, and spun a question that seemed reasonable enough at this point.

“What, is your name?”

This was the final sentence to leave his mouth before doing a full turn to now face the duo. He forced a smile, trying to maintain a positive outlook, but failed and lost his happy composer. He went back to his normal blank and defeated look as he trailed his eyes off to the sky once more.

“I am not stealing this thingamajig, that’s what I’m doing.” Fayre snappily replied, annoyance creeping into her voice—though she was glowering at the object in her hands, not Damek, so presumably her frustration wasn’t being directed at the blademaster. Plus, any trace of anger immediately vanished from her face and tone when Damek nabbed the ocarina from her hands. Only he could be accused of thievery, now! But before she knew it, it was being pushed back onto her.

“Boo. Fine. I’ll carry it, then.” After a suspicious glance around, she snuck it into her pocket. Everyone else around them seemed to be too busy, or too apathetic, to care about whether she was stealing it or not. As for its intended use, Fayre made absolutely no comment. This was largely thanks her questing history; not once had she actually completed a proper adventure, and thus she had never needed to worry about getting back out of a dungeon. Dying had always taken care of that for her. But not this time! (…hopefully.)

With a click click here and a click click there, Fayre accepted the party invitation and set off at a trot after Damek as he headed towards the nearby Chaos Gate. Somehow, the little blademaster always seemed to be the one parting the crowd for the wavemistress, despite the different sizes of their avatars. “An’ away we go! Let’s hope for better luck this go ‘round, eh?” And then there was a gentle whoosh as both their avatars were whisked away to the field containing the sprite ocarina’s owner.

Fayre, too, seemed slightly dismayed as the new field loaded and the rain began to pelt at her exposed skin and conservative robe. “What, is every freakin’ place obsessed with rain these days? Geez. We could use some where I am in the real world, but I’ve had quite enough here, y’know?” She took a moment to flick off a few drops and do a quick little shake, sending raindrops flying off of her outfit. “Then again, least we’re actually able to hear each other this go-round.”

She nodded, agreeing with his decision to hot foot it the dungeon, and jogged after the blademaster as he again forged the way for the two of them. She took care not to slip on the shimmering grass, and she was indeed successful at staying on her feet; that was probably thanks to the considerable practice she’d been getting from previous adventures on slick fields. Fayre took care to avoid the shiny gold portals off to their left and right. She knew that, being a lower level than her pal, she’d set them off more easily, and she certainly didn’t want to get any farther behind Ruin than necessary. (Nor did she particularly want to be seen as a burden, especially since Damek continued to outlevel her. Fayre didn’t want to give him any reason to find a more level-suited questing mate.)

Speaking of levels, Damek and Fayre were in no position to gank Ruin, both thanks to their level and morals. They weren’t too much higher than him, after all. No doubt he’d be able to escape if they had any desire to try it out, and they certainly didn’t, considering their last ill-fated adventure.

Once they reached the entrance of the dungeon, Fayre greeted the heavy blade with a toothy smile. She gave a little wave with one hand and offered him his sprite ocarina with her other. “Yup, y’left this thingy behind. Figured you’d want it back, since ya can’t have all that much GP yet. Considerin’ your level, yeah?”

She too gave the three of them a quick look over, comparing class advantages/disadvantages and levels. “Ya ain’t plannin’ on doing a whole dungeon by yourself, are ya? I think the monsters get harder the farther down ya go in them, y’see.” A little too late, Fayre self-censored herself and tried to look more knowledgeable than she really was. “Er, I mean. I know they get harder, ‘cause I’ve been in all sorts of dungeons. If you name the type, I’ve been in it!” She was bluffing a little bit here, hoping that Ruin’s status as a newbie would ensure he wouldn’t know of any dungeon types to name.

“Ah, the name’s Fayre. You can call me…well, that. It’s short enough already, though I guess I’d answer to Fay.” After a polite bob of her head, she sent off her member address to Ruin as well as a party invitation. “Wanna hit up this place with us two, perhaps? Safety in numbers, they say! Er, not that two tough folks like Damek and I need protection, y’know. We’re watchin’ out for you, really.” As if to prove it, she cast a quick Repth spell over the heavyblade, replenishing the HP he’d lost in his earlier battles. “See? I’m real helpful.” She twirled her wand between her fingers a few time, attempting to prove her supreme skills. A quick flinch flashed over her face when she almost dropped it, but Fayre put on a hasty smile to cover up her surprised expression. What? Nothing suspicious to see here.

Luckily, the other player hadn’t struggled with Damek’s words as he’d feared. Rather, the other took the item, grateful to have it back. It was a small matter for Damek or Fayre to purchase an item like that, but he was still glad to see Fayre return it as they’d planned. Well, now that was done. Damek thought for a moment, it seemed odd to just leave now. They were on a field, they’d found a dungeon...

“Wanna hit up this place with us two, perhaps? Safety in numbers, they say! Er, not that two tough folks like Damek and I need protection, y’know. We’re watchin’ out for you, really.”

Well she’d taken the words right out of his mouth. As Fayre continued to prove her worth with a very showman-like attitude, Damek just looked on before introducing himself also. “I am Damek,” he gave a little bow to his head, and climbed up the steps towards the dungeon. “I hope it is not too pushy, but it would be fun to come with you on this quest.” Apparently Fayre was rubbing off on him, as Damek didn’t really seem to mind being pushy. He waved the heavyblade along, assuming the answer to be yes. After all, both he and Fayre had jumped at the chance to be assisted by a higher leveled player on their first quest, and if Fayre didn’t have someone else to talk to, she was just going to talk his ear off.

That, and it was raining. Virtual or not, who wants to sit out in the rain? So, the situation as it was, Damek walked into the dungeon, assuming the other two would follow.

The inside of the dungeon was roughly carved out, the walls almost fully formed out of stone. It was almost cave-like, with water dripping in from the ceiling, but was refined enough to show a clear, slender hallway. The walls seemed as if they were made by ancients, with bright pigmentation outlining foreign shapes on the walls. The place was interesting, that was for sure. The long passageway ended with a single door, but Damek decided to make their journey easier anyway. He released a Fairy’s Orb, and waited for the other two to enter, motioning them past him as the fairies searched the dungeon and provided them with a direct path to the next floor.

((OOC: So, the dungeon map is revealed, just wanted to make sure you caught that. There may be battles along the way, but no IC guesswork is required now.))

At first he listened, and then he stopped. The female was going on about something or other that he cared little for at the moment, he was enjoying the rain. He was not trying to shrug her off, in fact the company was very welcome but right now he just wanted to embrace what he loved…He heard some word’s that did seem to catch his ear ““Yup, y’left this thingy behind. Figured you’d want it back,” the sentence continued, but a screen popped up and he went into a quick trade, then he received his ocarina…He smiled. “Thanks...”, He said but nothing was heard by the two standing before him.…

At this moment he had yet to realize that his microphone had somehow become muted at one point or another. He looked at the wave master, the avatar used was simple, but in a good respectable way. Not simple like those who made ten characters a day and used the bland randomly generated avatars. A person could tell a lot about someone’s in game avatar. Sometimes even there whole game play style can be derived from a single detail in them. Ruin did not pay much attention at this point but gave a nod looking now to the blade master who had begun talking, they acted as if he was a complete and utter newbie. He was not offended.

The rain grew heavier, and the moon vanished behind some clouds now as Ruin moved his gaze to the sky once more before hearing the other speak, the male blade master had a very stylized approach to his avatar, he seemed to be mixing a modern look with the fantasy elements in the world. It worked for him too the goggles really did make a statement. The man spoke now, and ruin listened.

“I am Damek, I hope it is not too pushy, but it would be fun to come with you on this quest.”

Ruin gave a nod and replied, unheard of course. “Sure.” The weak reply was followed by a weaker smile as he changed his stance up from boredom. As Damek, the male blade master, walked by him he turned to follow his movements. The girl passing as well, he then looked away up to the sky one last time watching the rain. He liked the rain, in game and out and could not get enough of it.

Ruin turned back to the large stone entrance to his first dungeon. His first adventure, it would be something to remember. He stepped forth now into the dungeon and watched as the male released a fairy’s orb. Ruin smiled walking up stopping behind him checking the map. The map showed that there was five rooms in between them and the next floor, The hall way they where in not included.

He spoke again; this time of course like the others his words went unheard. “Not a very long walk,” He said almost disappointed at how quick it seemed like the whole thing was going to be. “Think we should look for treasure as well?” He spoke now, walking up to the side of Damek forcing a smile again.

While she was unable to hear his muted responses, Fayre did smile when Ruin accepted the trade and party invitation. As soon as Damek headed into the dungeon’s gaping entrance, she bustled in right after him, very happy to be getting out of the soaking rain. She did another obnoxious, dog-like shake once the new area loaded, sending water flying everywhere. Hopefully no one was close enough to get sprayed. That done, she was able to take a proper look around.

“Huh! Never been inside a cave dungeon before.” She shot a sidelong glance at the lowest-level member of their team and quickly added, “Which is real odd, considering how much experience I’ve had in this game.” She was directly contradicting her earlier claim of being in every type of dungeon before, but perhaps no one would notice that tiny detail.

“Say, which are the stalag..stalagmites? And which are the stala...stalaca...stalactites?” It took her a few tries, but she did manage to get those words out. “I can never remember what the one that sticks up is and what’s the one that sticks down.” She poked at one of the outcroppings with the butt of her wand, but it didn’t seem prepared to offer up an answer.

Fayre turned towards Ruin with her mouth open and ready to embark on another bout of rambling, but she closed it when she noticed the heavy blade’s was already moving about…except no words were coming out. She stopped and stared at him, hazarding a guess. “Hey Mekky, think our new pal is laggin’ or somethin’? It looks like his avatar is talkin’, but I don’t hear anythin’.” Except his character wasn’t hopping around in that odd way that was so typical of lag, so that couldn’t be it.

“RUIN. IF YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK, WE CANNOT HEAR YOU. UNDERSTAND?” Fayre was shouting as loud as she could, incorrectly assuming that if they couldn’t hear him, he couldn’t hear them. Lucky for her partners, the pretty glow of Damek’s fairy’s orb distracted her from her yelling mission. She would’ve chased right after the shiny item, if it hadn’t have made such a quick escape.

Speaking of shiny bright yellow things, the item had revealed there was a monster portal waiting for them in the next room. “Sweet! We gotta fight ahead of us, boys.” With an excited grin, she dashed ahead into the dark passageway, assuming the other two would follow her. The portal was close enough to the entrance that it spawned as soon as Fayre loaded there, revealing two goblins and a madgrass.

However, the three monsters simply stood there doing absolutely nothing, as the wavemistress had ducked behind one of the many giant rock outcroppings that populated the caves. What? She was a squishy class! It wasn’t cowardice so much as intelligence, really. And she would pop out as soon as her friends materialized in the room entrance, honest.

Damek had to stop himself from groaning at Fayre and her constant stream of speech. Really, if she hadn’t been his only friend in this game... well that wasn’t true. He enjoyed talkative company, it gave him a chance to keep quiet, but as it was, she just seemed to be spouting contradictory gibberish. Not to mention made up words. “Stalagmites”? “Stalactites”? What the hell where those?!

Damek hadn’t really been prepared for her next outburst though. He’d tried to tune her out after the whole made up words bit, but then something happened he couldn’t ignore. Fayre shouted at their other party member, and Damek couldn’t help but cringe. For a moment he was tempted to hit mute himself, but there was no point. She wouldn’t be loud forever. Hopefully.

Luckily the fairy’s orb had shut her up more or less, and the ringing in his ears was quick to subside. Finally, Ruin spoke as Fayre ran off into another room. Treasure? “I am not one for treasure,” Damek replied, not meaning to sound so diplomatic. He was more interested in being better in the game. Weapons seemed to mean little to him, though the occasional found item was never frowned upon. Levels, however, were the measure of a man in this game, as far as he was concerned. Damek began to realize this belief now. He got more respect in the root towns, less disgusted glances. Not that he wanted to do that to new players. In fact, it was the opposite. That was why he and Fayre had made a pact to help them. After all, no one wants to face the criticisms all level one players face.

In his musings, he had almost forgotten about Fayre off in the next room. He beckoned Ruin to come with him into the room, and the two entered. The monsters had already spawned, which left Damek to take Fayre for dead. When he opened his item menu to revive her though, she didn’t come up as such.

Confused, Damek was caught off guard when the monsters charged for himself and Ruin. Apparently the monsters didn’t know where she was either. However, a quick attack from the Mad Grass changed that. Damek jumped back to avoid the attack, falling right on top of the wavemistress, who had set herself up neatly in the smallest niche she could fit into in the floor. They needed to start recording the quests or something, for comic purposes. “Why are you down here?” Damek pulled himself up and went for the Mad Grass again.

“Rue Slash!” this time the hit was direct and quick. The monster, being a much lower level than his own, succumbed with only one more strike. However, it would take quite a while for his SP to recover. No matter though. Fayre should have been able to take care of one of the goblins at least (once she got up out of her hole), leaving Ruin with only one monster, if all went well, to battle.

((EDIT: For me making stupid typos.))

Ruin was aimlessly roaming about the main hallway now as he watched the frantic antics of the girl. His avatar held a rather serious expression but on the other side of that PC monitor was a wide grin as he watched her dart after things only to be distracted from her distraction by yet another simple distraction. He listened as the girl went on about Stalactites and Stalagmites. He remembered way back to, grade 6 almost where he learned about them, he thought about it a bit more and before he could speak on the subject a loud ear piercing noise came through the headset.

“RUIN. IF YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK, WE CANNOT HEAR YOU. UNDERSTAND?”

Ruin stopped, he looked at the girl, and then he sighed. His hand reached from the key board to his headset and he turned a switch allowing his voice to once again pass into the digital realm of The World. He simply ignore the fact that she may have hindered his hearing abilities and went right on to the very thought he left behind, only to be interrupted by Damek asking, pretty much the same question.

“Stalactites, are on the top. They hang tight to the ceiling so they do not fall. Stalagmites are on the floor. They hope one day they might reach the there buddies up above.” He said softly as he followed behind Damek.

He at first did not notice the fairies orb flutter by, no not until the female once again screeched out with more news of extreme loudness.

“Sweet! We gotta fight ahead of us, boys.”

Ruin waited a moment thinking for a second then stopped realizing that at such a low level the only real strategy is to smash things. “Easy.” He walked forth following behind Damek as the entered the next room and two Goblins and a Mad Grass burst out, he looked. More Goblins, he hated looking at them really. He lifted his blade and wasted no time what so ever. He watched Damek as he rushed into the Mad Grass handling it quite well and the girl just seemed to dance about excitedly like a cheerleader for now.

Ruin moved into where the goblins where and they both speed off into random directions, one right by Ruin. Ruin had already begun his skill and had brought down the first smash lighting up preparing for that stylish flip. “Death Bringer.” He said, as if having casual conversation.

At this point the thought crossed his mind that, he had voice activated skills off. So, why did he feel the need to say it aloud? He thought for a brief second and decided that it was the principle of the matter, that saying it adds no effect, nor does it help nor does it do anything useful. He just has to do it.

As the flip ended and his blade came crushing down on the Goblin he quickly turned shifted targets and let a horizontal slash cut through it as he looked now to see where his friends had gone.

Fayre was so focused on remaining as still and quiet as possible in her hiding spot that she failed to notice her teammates’ arrivals; she was unable to see either of them, since she was facing downwards, and she brushed off any noises she heard as belonging to the three monsters milling about the room. Only when Damek fell right on top of her did Fayre finally notice she was no longer the only player around.

She squeaked and rolled to the side, prepared to whack the unknown assailant on the head with her staff. Damek was left bruise-free, though, as Fayre realized in time that it was her old pal. “You shouldn’t sneak up on a person like that, buddy!” If you can call accidentally landing on someone sneaking. Now that she had her bearings again, she shot him a nasty look, as if her reasons for hiding should be perfectly obvious. “I’m a squishy class, silly! Think I can take many cutlasses to the face? Yeah, well, I can’t.”

Mentioning the word ‘cutlass’ seemed to jog Fayre’s memory, and she remembered that, oh right! There were monsters in here, weren’t there? They weren’t on the ceiling, though, which was what she was currently looking at, since she was lying on the ground face-up and all. With an unattractive grunt and a few false starts, she got herself back up onto her feet and turned to face what was left of the team’s enemies.

Damek had taken care of the Mad Grass with his watery blow by the time Fayre had her ducks in a row, so the blademaster got ignored in favour of her lower level teammate. Her eyebrows rose when Ruin performed that spiffy little flip as he attacked, though she reminded herself that it was thanks to the magic of game physics, rather than years of gymnastics training. Still. It was pretty cool. It was also a powerful blow—what else could you expect from a skill called Death Bringer?—but Fayre still wanted a nice piece of the action.

Whether it was necessary or not, she shot off a quick Vak Don—and yes, she shouted it too, whether it was necessary to or not. Flames shot out from her appropriately named Fire Wand and erupted around the Goblin who had not received the brunt of Ruin’s blow. A scream from the monster handily indicated that the flames had successfully taken hold on its greasy skin. As it neatly cut through the beast’s flesh, it also handily cut through its HP bar, draining it of whatever it had left. The Goblin’s scream only faded away after the flames reached its head, destroying any ability to speak. Only a meagre pile of ash was left in the spell’s wake, and even that soon disintegrated nothingness.

Well, that was one room down now. Fayre glanced at the corner of her screen, double checking the dungeon’s layout and monster portal positions. About three yellow dots were scattered around this floor, but they were all in siderooms that could be handily avoided by taking the direct path to the stairs. It wasn’t that Fayre was eager to avoid any fights; she just really wanted to get to the Gott Statue. (For once.)

Thus, she set off at a jog towards the exit to her left. Over her shoulder, she called back, “Follow me, boys! If ya want treasure, that is.” Whether they actually did follow her or not was up to them, but who doesn’t like finding shiny items? Well, perhaps players who were trying to make a statement about the overly materialistic nature of capitalist societies would avoid getting their hard-earned rewards at the end of a dungeon. But that would be rather stupid.

While Fayre might not be the best choice for a leader (not that the two had exactly chosen her anyway), it was hard to go wrong when following a well-marked map. Even with her frequent lack of common sense, it would be next to impossible for the wavemistress to get lost thanks to Damek’s handy dandy item.

Despite the clear path, though, she didn’t go barrelling through the next room that loaded. It was far too interesting to just zip through. Torches lined the ragged stone walls, casting light and shadows across the floor of the unusual room. What made it unusual? About ten or so statues dotted the cavern’s floor, each intricately carved and unique. Curiously, Fayre approached the one closest to her that seemed to depict some sort of fight scene between a long arm and a heavy axe. The insinuation of player versus player made the wavemistress shudder, as it brought a few unpleasant memories to the surface of her mind.

“What do you think these things are for, mates?” This was said without turning around, so Fayre didn’t really have a solid indicator of whether she was talking to mere air or her partymates as she intended.

Damek didn’t follow at first. He found himself wary of trusting the direction that the wavemistress had picked. It wasn’t long before he remembered about the map though. She had gone the right direction, who wouldn’t have? Well, maybe someone who didn’t understand maps. However, Fayre was not that kind of person, and Damek followed along, urging Ruin to follow as well if he hadn’t already been coming.

The room was a sight to behold. The ten sculptures depicted players doing a number of things. Damek looked up at the one Fayre had stopped at. He turned away though, and went to look at another. He didn’t seem to want to relive those recent memories either. Instead, he chose to look at the other statues, which were just as intricate, but not quite as frightening. They seemed to depict common activities in ‘The World’. There was a player speaking with a vendor, two players exchanging items, and the final was a large statue of a small group of players trying to take down what looked like a boss monster. What these statues were for, it was hard to tell, but they were quite interesting.

When Fayre spoke, Damek just shrugged, adding a dull “I’m not sure,” in case the others hadn’t been watching him. They were strange, and to just be in a room in an unknown field was strange too. Perhaps someone had put them here? Or perhaps a programmer had gotten bored with his usual program and created some more interesting portraits to use up his working hours. Damek rounded back to where Fayre stood, taking note of one more statue on his way. One player was pulling another by the wrist, and even though the players looked nothing like the pair, the roles were even reversed, it was a male heavyblade pulling a female twinblade along with him, he couldn’t help but think of the team he and Fayre made. It was one heck of a... dysfunctional team to say the least. But they made it work, and that’s what makes the game fun, right?

However, as far as he was concerned, there was no more reason to be marveling over this virtual stone. “We should continue,” his voice was soft, but in the silence of the room, it stood out as much as it needed to. Once again he took the role of leader, though why he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t much of a leader in his real life, but perhaps constantly directing the craziness of Fayre had given him a sort of authority in his mind. It wasn’t the kind of thing he’d want to say though. Especially to her. She wouldn’t appreciate that.

He passed through the next door, and the one after that, taking the group in tow (well, he hoped at least). The rooms remaining weren’t eventful at all, a few small rocks were littered around, and Damek even had to jump away from a skeleton, but all in all there wasn’t much more to look at. That was, until they came to the stairs. Not that there was anything fascinating about them, but they were heading off to a whole new section of the dungeon now.

In the first room on the second floor, Damek produced the same kind of orb as last time. It was best for saving time, especially when there were so many people involved. However, no matter how hard he looked on the map, as it came into being, he couldn’t find a staircase. Once the mp was complete, Damek scanned it over again. “We must be on the lowest floor,” he mused aloud. There were two different treasure chests on the map though. There was no way of telling which was which, and they both had a battle preceding them. For a moment, Damek almost led the way down the hall again, but stopped himself. Rather than turning to his old friend, he turned to Ruin. They’d all have a copy of the map now, and neither way would be ‘wrong’ from this standpoint. Besides, if Fayre could lead, anyone could.

“Which way should we go?” the question was simple, but it gave the new player a new opportunity. The quest would soon be over, and it would be best if he led for a moment, to have a feel for how it was done.