The First Stage

It has been 25 days since this game of death began, and now clearing even the first stage seemed impossible. We already lost about four thousand players in this game, and we are nowhere close to find our way to the next stage. The underground dungeon's entrance though has been found but we still just manage to go round and round in the dungeon with no clues of the Stage Master.

The clearers, a group of players who constantly pushed the front lines, i.e. who explored the unknown regions are mapped them; were stationed in Alwen, a small city near the entrance of the dungeon. Everyday meetings were organized to discuss the future strategy, but no use even after mapping 70% of the dungeon we were no close to find the Stage Master's chamber.

Liza and I got another invitation for strategic meeting; I was avoiding all sorts of these meetings till now. However, it was written that the meeting was crucial in order to complete the stage. Reluctantly, I agreed to join. The meeting was held in a large open air auditorium like structure. The central figure in the meeting was a knight-like player. I saw around and the whole auditorium was brimming with all sorts of players, a total of 52 including us. Just as he was about to start…

"Heeeey!" a voice roared from within the auditorium. A guy with a short stature and blue hair stood up from the audience and marched towards the make-shift stage. "Before we continue, I think there are a few people who owe us an apology." "Are you referring to the former beta testers, David?" The knight asked without a change of expression.

The guy named David twitched his brow and continued, "Yeah! Those guys ran away just as the game of began leaving all others behind. They quickly got through profitable quests and hunting grounds, leveled up heavily and didn't care about the lads left behind. I do know that in this crowd there must 3 – 5 testers here, we ought to take them out in the open and strip them of their dor and equipment and distribute it amongst the ones fighting the master."

Everyone was whispering amongst themselves, it seemed like the whole meeting is going to turn against the beta testers. I wasn't a beta tester myself, but I did share one thing common with them; the knowledge of events during beta tests. The friend of mine who was a tester (Honestly, I don't know if he played the retail version or not) used to give me videos of the day's game play which I used to watch. The reason I asked him to give me a copy of this game is because I was really fascinated by the game play.

"If you'd like it then I would like to say something." A guy sitting in the front row got up and said, "The guy's name is Neetto. You are proposing that all former beta testers are the reason that four thousand players have died. Am I clear about that?" That guy's built was no doubt Strength-Agility based. Neetto's character really outmatched David's, who could only nod in affirmative. "Then who would be considered responsible for the deaths of nearly a thousand beta testers? The only thing that differentiates former testers from us is their knowledge, but some former testers are distributing their knowledge through the Arcadian Guide. So there is nothing really, that makes you inferior to the testers; only if you want to consider yourself."

The knight stepped forward and said, "The information regarding the farms, their dangers etc. were already out in the open. If someone failed to analyze the depth and seriousness of the situation, it's their fault not of former testers. I hope David's concerns were addressed to the fullest, I invite anyone who has any concerns or issues please come forth now." No one came out and the two moved to their respective places.

"My name is Arthur and I welcome you all to this strategic meeting. Last day, a group has declared that they found the entrance to the Stage Master's room. So, let's see what the guide has to say –

The first stage master is a goblin. Its name is Gribble the Goblin Giant. He has no armor protection and uses a hammer along with a shield. When its HP turns red, it regains 50% again and changes the weapon to an estoc. The giant is surrounded by other little goblins that spawn at every two minutes. The giant has 4 full HP bars, which can regenerate if attack is paused for more than 2 mins.

So basically, the strategy is to attack hard and fast and simultaneously take out all the supporting goblins. Let's defeat the Stage Master and tell everyone here that this game is beatable."

The assault on the Stage master was decided after 2 days. The days were basically to scout and learn about the Master and buy the necessary equipment. However, I and Liza already had strong enough equipment for this stage. So, we decided to take up some quests. To our surprise, the area behind the dungeon was unexplored; so we decided to explore the unmapped area and found a hidden quest giving NPC. As we interacted with the NPC, we found out that it was a quest series called 'The Master Quest'. I wondered, "Guess no one bothered to take it up" and hit the accept button.

The quest series though time consuming was not a tough one. The last quest asked us to save an old goblin from the minions of the Stage Master. As we did it, killing 6 goblin minions who were trying to kill the old goblin; the old one gave us crucial information regarding the Stage Master. The Stage Master used to be the most powerful goblin ever and once challenged that anyone in group or one-on-one could never defeat him, and if someone was close to he would change the weapon to a Shamshir (a Persian One-Handed Curved Sword) and slash him with the sword and more powerful minions.

I didn't know what to do with the information, I considered telling everyone but dropped the idea as others might see the guide as fake and the friction between former testers and the players may increase further. I kept the information to myself and we took all the rewards, leveling up. I grew to Level 13 and Liza to Level 12; we later noticed the date being Dram 27, 0001 4:45 pm.

We raced to the southern outskirts of Alwen, where we were renting an NPC's house for 100 dor a week. It was a little expensive than the inns, which charged 70 dor a week but it was okay for the facilities they provided. We went in with our dinner, cheap brown bread with some fresh milk cream. We ate it; its taste was like eating bread made of oats along with milk cream. Anyways it made us feel full, though the food eaten here has got nothing to do with our real bodies.

The next day, the raid at the Master Chamber was initiated. The raid group of 52 members had five full sized groups and a small group of 2. Out of the 5 full teams, 2 were tanks wearing heavy metal armor with shields and mostly hammer–class weapons; 1 was attackers wearing light armors and equipped with spears, swords and staffs; 1 was supporter unit having variety of weapons and the last ones were ranged support mostly archers along with 2 tanks to prevent enemies from lurking near them.

The strategy was simple, the tanks soaked up the damage while the attackers and ranged support units hit the Master from close and long ranges respectively. The supporter unit killed the spawned goblins around the master. We weren't given any particular duty though, but we already decided our roles. Liza would attack the Master from long range but another direction while I would attack it on its supposed weak point, i.e. the heart and kidney locations in a body.

The Stage Master's room was right in front of us. The big hall room had strange orange tint in the atmosphere, Arthur shouted, "Everyone take your positions and keep all necessary healing items handy." As the raiders took formations, a green giant began taking shape in front of us. Finally, the identification cursor appeared on top of it its name was Gribble the Goblin Giant. "It is just like what was told in the guide. Everyone watch out for area attacks, and charge!!!"

The whole raid team plunged upon the Stage Master; everything was going according to plan. 30 minutes passed and the third HP bar was 0. The fourth bar, due to some reason was already red; the SM threw away its hammer and shield towards us, the forwards evaded the attacks but some archers were hit by it, sending their HP bar to red.

Suddenly, Arthur came forward and ordered, "Stand-by! I will finish this one by a weapon art now." He held his One-Handed spear just above the head and initiated a weapon art, then came the worst thing ever imagined, the SM jumped high, going upto 20 feet high and drew his second weapon, not an estoc but a shamshir. The blade glowed bright showing the initiation of a weapon art, it was the Curved High as the system identified it. The blade landed straight on Arthur and a shockwave came by stunning everyone, followed by a stomp attack. The Archers hit earlier, didn't survive the waves and their body disintegrated into countless fragments. Meanwhile, the goblin regained the third full HP bar as our attacks were halted for nearly 5 mins out of shock and terror.

All our HP's were yellow while Arthur had only 1% health remaining. The giant turned around for another art, this time it was Reamer another curved sword weapon art. 'I'll have to do something, anything.' I kept murmuring to myself and jumped and readied a weapon art Level Slash aiming for the goblin's ears. My art connected just in the last moment to save Arthur. I landed a critical hit and the Giant's HP bar lost health by 35%. "Get him out of here." I yelled, initiating another weapon art Erected Slash. The Giant was stunned and I hit him with another flurry of slashes exterminating another 50% of the health.

Liza fired a weapon art Arrow Rain dropping his HP by another 10%. Suddenly, the monster gave out a roar and emerged around 2 dozen goblin minions. The old man already gave us information regarding this, and everyone became busy fighting the minions. I shouted "Liza thunder rain" and she initiated another weapon art Stun Arrow Rain aiming towards the minions and fired. All the minions fighting there were stunned for a good 1 minute, enough for the players to finish them off. However in the mean time, the giant recovered 50% of its health.

The SM again jumped high and initiated another weapon art; I didn't look at the system identification and went for an upward normal thrust attack assuming a Curved High. Suddenly mid-air the monster turned and hit me with a Reamer instead, caught hold of me and threw me on Liza. My HP dropped piteously and dropped to red, I opened my eyes and saw the monster right in front of me ready for a simple slash attack. I only had cloth armor, the lightest and weakest armor in the game, so a simple slash would be enough to whittle down my HP to 0.

It hung the sword high and was about to slash out, when it gave and large roar and fell back. A curved blade user came in front passing down a small glass bottle filled with green liquid, "Yo! Recover your HP while we handle the giant." And giving me smile charged on the monster with his group. Only 10% of the monster's health was remaining when the attacking members were stunned by a stomp attack. The monster initiated a weapon art 360 Reamer to attack the stunned players.

"No! You are now dead!" we shouted. Liza stunned the monster with Stun Arrow Rain, while I initiated the Erected Slash for a final time. Both attacks hit in conjunction but we neither got a critical hit nor full 1 minute stun. As the art completed I initiated the Incline to finish the monster off.

A cheer of joy swelled in our ranks, as we had cleared our first stage, not to mention a full nine hundred ninety-nine stages were left in front of us. The 52-head raid group now had 45-heads up in cheer.

Suddenly, a voice came out from behind, "How did you know that the SM was going to use a shamshir instead of an estoc?" "Why did you hide this fact from us? Why did you hoard this information?" On came an onslaught of questions. I didn't know what to answer. Someone accused, "You must be one of those beta testers? You hoarded the information so that you can monopolize on it. You are the reason that seven of us died in this battle."

I had enough, though Arthur was trying to do some damage control but it seemed to have no end. Giving a carefree smile I started, "Nopes! You are all wrong. I wasn't in the beta tests, but someone I knew was. He gave me AR videos of beta tests till the 20th stage. That's why I know how to get some rare, precious and informative quests. During a similar quest yesterday, I got the information that the SM will be using a shamshir instead of an estoc, and even that he will summon those helpers; that's why we were ready for the ambush with stun arrows."

"I don't think there is any reason for you to compare me with those innocent testers; they did tell you everything that happened in the beta. This one did use an estoc in the beta, but it's not new to find changed or balanced enemies in the retail version." An archer came out of the group, "You…you are the reason why my group was wiped out." Neetto came out in my defense, "And he is the reason that my group was saved from that last attack."

This was going way bitter than I imagined, I had no idea what should I do. David came forward, "You may not be a beta tester, you are worse than them. I used to think that the testers were just the creeps who left us there to die while they leveled up and became stronger, but now I think that you are way worse. You are a cheater! A rogue player, who doesn't care about the consequences of his actions."

This was the final nail in the coffin; I lost my cool and shouted, "You don't even know that out of all the deaths, nearly 40% were former beta testers. Yes, I am different than them; you know why because the day Shua declared the opening of this game, I didn't wonder for another second before leaving the City of Starting. I didn't care whether I lived in this game or died, I didn't just wanted to be called a coward. You can say that I am a rogue swordsman, a hoarder of information who does not like to share the information he attains."

Saying this I turned my menu and equipped the Final Attack Bonus I received. It was a deep dark blue coat of cloth named The Sky Dragon's Coat; it had an added bonus defense of +3. It was a full length coat, getting from my shoulder to my ankles and beyond. I turned around and asked, "I am going to walk the invisible bridge across to the next stage, and it's a bit of a hike so you can wait in the town unless transportation begins."

Without looking for a response, I turned around and walked towards the door beyond which was the bridge. The scenery was so striking, that I still lack the words to describe it. Endless sky on all sides, I knew that no matter what I won't fall off the bridge yet it came to my mind to just stay there. The sun was bright yet there was no heat or anything, cool breeze was flowing and I walked the entirety of the distance, reaching the next stage which looked more like grassland.

Monsters do not spawn unless the transportation gate is activated manually in the nearest city. I trekked till the transportation gate in the main city of the second stage, Unala. Liza was quietly following me the whole time, she asked me, "Whatever you said in the SM's room. Was it true?" I nodded in affirmative and replied, "Yes, it was half true, I did conceal the information, I knew the weak points and I knew what attacks it can perform. But I chose not to reveal them as it would have widened the cliff between them and the beta testers."