A Hidden Questline

The wolves chased after the lightly armored knight through the woods. The sound of growling and fangs snapping could be heard through the speakers as the scene unfolded upon the computer screen in a dark room. The knight turned and placed his back against the wall then used a skill that taunted all the nearby wolves and kept their attention on him while his partner dashed around and finished them with ease thanks to the combination of illusion spells and swordplay. Devi gave a praise emote to Sin as the battle finished and they collected their spoils of gold and materials.

Darien stared at the screen a moment then rubbed his eyes. He had been level grinding with Sin for the last two hours, the pair had succeeded in two more contracts from the Royal Dragons over the course of the day. One had been for exterminating a large group of wolves that had spawned near their village and the other was escorting log cutter NPC's to do their work for an hour.

"They really have grown a lot in just a day." He stretched and decided he would grab some food before continuing. He wanted to get Sin to level twenty-five by tonight so he can get another advancement in his class. The way that NPC's level and players level seem to be a bit different. They gained experience points at a slower rate than players but also had more class advancements available to them that players didn't. "kind of jealous." Darien muttered to himself as he hit the timer on the microwave with his finger.

"Breakfast burrito, snack of champions." Darien laughed to himself as he sat back down at his desk after the microwave had finished. He dug in and started going through his inventory. "They traded me a lot of good resources for the work I did. Even scored a bunch of gear for a mage." This got him thinking, maybe he could try his hand at recruiting? He was branching out from some of his comfort zones with the start of the new game so far. Why not add more to that list? He paid the gold and typed up a quick help wanted add for his mercenary group and posted it on the public forum while he had his character auto craft leather from the pelts he had. "Good thing I picked up a crafting skill." He muttered and bit into the burrito again. It wasn't the best tasting thing with it's reheated eggs and peppers but it would be enough to quell his hunger until he felt like making a meal.

Once the post was up and his crafting was finished he thought he would head over to the village owned by the Royal Dragons to see about selling the leathers to their crafting players. Adding Sin back to his party, they began the trek through the forest. He arrived in about a half hour as he had taken the time to grind out more materials from monsters in the forest.

"Devi! Welcome back!" One of the nearby players greeted him as he walked through the gates of the town. He was a player who had put most of his points into crafting skills.

"Fin, how are you doing?" Darien typed out as he brought up a trading menu. "Got some leathers for you if you want them? Also grabbed some monster materials if you need them, usual price?" Darien had become comfortable talking with a select few from the Royal Dragons' guild. He had set up usual prices among their markets within the last day he had played and was already a major contributor to their guild. He had yet to meet the leader though.

"Doing well, I wouldn't mind taking them off your hands but I'm a little low on gold at the moment as we had to upgrade the town hall today. I do have something else you might be interested if you still want to trade that stuff? Some information on a new shrine that spawned in just south of here." Fin used a sweat emote as he apologized about the gold.

"A shrine? The new lore events they added in the game?" He remembered skimming about them on the forum just that morning and immediately became excited. "You guys haven't cleared it yet? Not to be stingy but I don't want to trade this stuff for something that's already been cleared."

"We haven't cleared it yet as we have been concentrating on upgrading ourselves to found a nation. Our leader said I could trade the information for supplies if I needed it as long as they didn't belong to any rival guilds." He shrugged and added a few gold pieces to the transaction and attempted to accept it.

Darien used an agreement emote and accepted as well. "That information is worth it to me then. If I head south from here I should reach it right? Do you have the map coordinates just in case? I'm not too clear on using the map just yet."

He sent a PM (private message) of the coordinates that was just an hour travel or so south of the village. 'The distances for this game are one thing I can't stand sometimes.' He thought to himself as he thanked Fin once again before marching off towards the south exit. He noted the gates and walls around the town were also recently upgraded. "They are really moving quickly. I wonder how many people they have online at the same time." He wondered to himself while having his character auto-walk towards the point on the map. "Maybe I should invest in a mount." Darien groaned as he got up from his chair. "I'll do that cleaning finally while I wait..."

An hour into sorting through dusty boxes and old photos, Darien hears a ding from his computer indicating that his character has reached the designated zone. He quickly lowered the map and took a look around the area. Both he and Sin were outside the entrance to a partially collapsed temple. The stone structure looked as though it had been embedded into the nearby rock formation and while some pillars and areas looked ragged and broken down, the entrance was fully intact.

Darien excitedly entered the building and was informed that he entered a unique instance zone.

The words faded from the screen and it left Darien wondering what made it unique? Before the update, that notification normally led to rare gear or a unique skill that could only be acquired once or very rarely. He had heard about a few who had unlocked unique classes through these kinds of areas in the past. His excitement got the better of Darien as he continued to explore the ruins.

He found a unique item labeled "Archmage's diary" if he was able to find someone with a master rank in history then he could get the book translated but 'mastering' a skill in the old version of the the game was hard, let alone the amount of time one would need to play.

"I can only imagine what it would take to master an ability now." The young man muttered to himself while leaning closer to the screen. His own stats were coming along nicely but his skills were going up even slower than they used to at this level.

"I have a bad feeling about this next room." A chat bubble appeared above Sin as the pair got closer to a large door near the end of the ruins.

-NPC Sin has gained the unique skill: Danger Sense-

"An NPC can gain unique skills as well now?!" Darien choked on his own spit as he stared at the screen. His excitement grew when he used an acknowledge emote to Sin who then gained happiness.

The door opened slowly as Darien's character pressed against it, the inside of the room lit up as the torches lit themselves one by one around the massive domed room. Within the center of the room was a medium sized egg shaped stone.

-Old Incubation Chamber-

An alert indicated he had entered a boss room just as the door slammed shut behind him and Sin.

"What have I gotten myself into" Darien said aloud as he prepared himself for a fight.