(33) Weak Cowards

"It sounds like Zefyre wants to retire." This was the first thing that came out of Kraton's mouth after hearing the tale. The second thing that came out was: "Betas sound cool"

"Mhmm" Lysine seemed absorbed in the tale herself, she couldn't decide whether to believe it, or just pass it off as a myth made by some random bored beings. There was no solid evidence on the Creators, Betas or Defects, however she too felt the longing in Zefyre's voice, maybe he had been to the Utopia once before.

"How many Betas are there?" Kraton's voice woke Lysine from her daze, she snapped back to reality after becoming aware that Kraton was looking at her expectantly.

"Ummm.. I think one for each major race that has some history,"

"Did your pack have one?"

Lysine's eyes suddenly went gloomy, but she covered it up and returned back to normal before Kraton could notice it this time. "I guess..." She paused in deep contemplation. "I remember a story my mother once told me. She said, that if I were to bring glory back to the Lamias and be on equal footing with at least the Demon race, then our ancestor might awaken and visit me in the night." Sorrow trembled through her voice as she recalled the sweet scenes before she was forsaken by her own pack. "I thought... she told me that story to help me sleep, I always had nightmares, terrible ones."

Though Kraton still had a million more questions, he held them back. Lysine's quieting voice held a weight of remorse and pain, so heavy that it also affected himself; making him refrain his thoughts and questions.

After a brief period of silence, Lysine spoke again but she seemed emotionless, "I'm going to rest, wake me up if you need help." and then she retired to the back of the room. Kraton watched her departing figure until it became hidden by the shadows.

...

The day finished quite quickly, by midday Lysine had recovered enough to vent some stress on the intruders, but something caught her attention. Everyone who entered the room seemed to be chatting, only half-heartedly commiting themselves to fight the two Bosses. In fact, even low-levelled humans came to get massacred. When they got killed, their wasn't dissatisfaction in their faces, but exclamations of shock and almost awe. "This hard? I doubt they will do it" one of the slain Warriors had exclaimed just before a curved dagger decapitited his head.

It seemed that there was an event, or a build-up to something outside. There also seemed to be some people declaring bets on times and/or accomplishments as they got slaughtered. Kraton didn't seem to care about tis, however Lysine, as a fromer Forest Boss, felt uneasy in her heart. She had witnessed times where whole populations migrated due to an event such as the appearance of a rare-elite hidden monsters - sometimes Bosses - that dropped much better loot than other monsters.

These rare monsters cursed their misfortune, whilst all the players praised their luck and fortune for discovering the poor old monster. These monsters were living goldmines, but this made most of them be used as bait, or forced to go into hiding until they somehow started dropping regular loot again.

Other times when people migrated was due to the opening of a city, or if their idol had appeared in a city. The latter was was more terrifying, sometimes hundreds of obsessed self-made disiples flocked to the area, a true nightmare for both the city and the monsters. Resources get swallowed up and fighting becomes frequent, in a day-by-day, even hour-by-hour basis. Whether it is a fight for Kills and kill-stealing, or a violent brawl to get a seat in a restaurant, no-one will be able to calm the maniacs down.

Their are normally only two types of people who benefit of this: scammers and Monsters that hid their power, waiting for an opportunity like this. However in a small town like Florid Boulevard, their were no scammers who could contend with the higher level players from other cities, and what Monster in this hardly developed region would hide their strength?

The first signs of a celebrity coming to an area would be the residents of the named city becoming much more active, in hopes they could be a 'tour guide', or give personal intelligence and tips to the star. This included raiding all the dungeons which the celebrity might visit in order to boast about what they know, as well as booking hotel rooms in advance so they might be able to recieve a reward (cough, autograph) in return to giving up their accomodation. If the celebrity hadn't pre-booked in time that was.

Lysine knew that the two of them were strong, yet just this thought alone didn't eliminate the possibility of the players from other cities and towns frombeing elites compared to the locals. If they lost thloads of battles in a short period, it would be a permanent stain on their battle records. At the same time, it could also present a chance of easy wins. However, with the high popularity of Ophid Crypt, it was more likely for high-level players to visit their dungeon.

Furthermore, the main problem of their dungeon was that the Boss Room had no guard. This meant that the 'Starry Corridor' was a free rest zone for the dungeon raiders. If they had an elite monster who didn't mind being alone (or someone the Bosses didn't care about), then it would force the parties to rest in the floor above; but fight off the swarm of Nagas, rest in the Starry Corridor; but be attacked by a respawning Elite Monster, or to enter the Boss Room. All of these options prevented the players from restoring their energy.

The problem was, their was no such Monster that either Bosses knew of, even the old Elite Goblin Guard was worse than the Gargoyles.

When the last party fell, Kraton collapsed in exhaustion. To him, all the players today were cowards, they ran around more than they attacked, some even started writing stuff in their notepads as they fled for their lives. Lysine, on the otherhand was more observant. One of the players had dropped a piece of parchment. She read through the messy lines of text and made a wierd face, it seemed that it was some sort of love letter to someone called 'Cel'. The first line of the letter almost made Lysine vomit.

"To my Dear CeCe, you are the pure reason of my life.", Like who in their right mind would be sad enough to devote their life to someone else through a letter. What made Lysine more bewildered, was that the letter said: "Though you have never seemed to see me, you are the only one who I see".

"Geez, what a stalker."

Before the letter could make her anymore queasy, Lysine chucked the letter into a random firepit that Kraton had left behind.