The First Master

Two and a half years have passed since this game of death began, and we had seen many developments in the game; some good and some bad. From the rise of 'The Rogue Swordsman' to fall of nearly seventeen thousand players, from the emergence of criminal players who won't mind killing you for dor and items to the shrinking rank of the clearers. Many players took up productive work opening up businesses, making equipment for the clearers etc while some enjoyed the life here by indulging in leisure activities like fishing, music etc.

The frontline now was at 100th stage and soon we would be fighting the first GM (Though Shua claimed that only he was the GM). However, it was stated in an interview by him that every 100th stage will have a GM as the stage master. It would be a perfect human player avatar.

It was Fibula 21, 0003 when the 99th stage's stage master was defeated by a full raid group of 60 players without any casualties. I too participated in the raid battle, but this time I was in a full group of 10 players. Many players created their guilds and many joined them. Liza had joined a guild named 'The Golden Knights' and rose to the rank of Senior Member.

Two days have passed, and almost 40% of the map was explored. I used to stay in my own house located in the 65th Stage, which was a hill station based stage and travelled back and forth to the front-line.

I travelled to the front-line that day and attended a strategic meeting held by the strongest guild that time 'Dragon-Oath Brigade'. The exploration team ran into some trouble with the giant sinkholes that were in The Misty Forests and had about a dozen players missing, who fell inside the sinkholes. The only note that didn't cause an outrage right there was the note that all of them were alive.

A search party of all high level players was organized to look up for the missing players. Though I refused to be a member, I agreed for an outside support. I was at level 105, at least 10 levels higher than anyone in the front lines.

We went with the exploration team to the place where they last saw the group of players. And then they all got divided into smaller teams who would go down the sinkholes one-by-one while I remained on the surface. I had an intuition that the sinkholes were more than a system trap, so I began wondering in the forest utilizing my Search ability to look around for something suspicious. My energy and ability didn't go to waste, as I soon found an NPC cursor in the search radius.

I rushed to the NPC; strangely enough it wasn't a quest giving NPC as it didn't have the silver (!) mark. I initiated an interaction with the NPC saying, "May I help you?" She bowed and replied, "If you seek the secrets of the divine depression then find a forecaster, who knows all, sees all and answers all?" It wasn't a quest anyway as neither my quest log was updated nor did the quest acceptance window appeared. I continued my search and suddenly realized that I was nearly at the brink of the Stage.

I sat down there, thinking 'what did she meant by that? Was it a quest or a suggestion? And where do I find this forecaster guy?' I wasn't in a safe zone so enjoying the scenery for long was not an option. I opened up my map and began to view it. The south part was from where we came, so going to that part was not an option. I was standing on the western side of the Stage and something was attracting me towards the northern area, which was still blackened out.

It would be totally foolish to venture in an unknown region alone. So I opened up my friends menu and typed, "Anyone up for an adventure now?" Out of my 5 friends, I got 2 thumbs up while others returned lame excuses. They were Neetto, the guy whom I met the first time during the first stage battle and Asrivast (I called him Asri as a friend), the guy who helped me solo in dangerous dungeons like those of Stage 33, 38 and 40. We set our meeting place in the main city of 100th stage Centro.

I reached the main square of Centro and found the two waiting. They had brought a few friends of theirs as well. We went inside an inn and rented out a meeting room. Asri asked, "What's the crazy adventure you mentioned about?" I replied and they all heard patiently, "You all know that some members of the exploration team went missing after they fell into some mysterious sinkholes." Everyone there nodded in agreement, some of them were present in the strategic meeting. "So a search party went to find them and we found out this."

I materialized a holographic map of the Stage and pointed towards the depression shown in the map. "These sinkholes seem more than any simple trap. An informative NPC gave an advice to find out a forecaster guy, who knows all, sees all and tells all. And…" pointing towards the blackened northern part "I got a strong gut sense that the guy we are looking for must be here."

There was utter silence, a friend of Neetto's spoke up, "You want us to explore the northern part for you." "I am not ordering you; you are free to leave if you want I won't have any objections." I replied simply. "Wait a sec… I think I know you. Um … You must be the fabled Rogue Swordsman." An unknown person from the group spoke up. I wasn't shocked, ever since we cleared the first stage; stories about a swordsman who went rogue and hoarded information about the stage masters to himself spread like a fire. This had even caused many information brokers to queue up in front of my home.

"Yes, I am. If you wish to abandon you may do it now, I assure you that no one present here will raise a voice if you do it now." I wasn't sure of what I was saying. "It's an honor to be in a group with you." He said and I manipulated a group creation window. Everyone accepted and we were a full 10 members:

1. Naperjet, Lv-105, 1-H Straight Sword, Cloth Armor

2. Neetto , Lv-90, Katana + Buckler, L. Metal Armor

3. Asrivast, Lv-94, 1-H Straight Sword, Leather Armor

4. Daniel, Lv-89, 2-H Battle Axe, L. Metal Armor

5. Andrew, Lv-93, Mace, H. Metal Armor

6. Rin, Lv-91, 1-H Rapier, Leather Armor

7. Joe, Lv-85, 2-H Assault Spear, H. Metal Armor

8. Beowulf, Lv-88, Valarie, L. Metal Armor

9. Achilles, Lv-72, Bow, Leather Armor

10. Mary, Lv-80, 2-H War Hammer, H. Metal Armor

We threaded off towards the northern part of the map, battling some fierce monsters and dodging some more sinkholes. After nearly an hour of walking and killing, we decided to have some rest. Utilizing Meditation ability to boost the Search, I scanned the nearby area upto 4 km, and got 3 NPC cursors on the far edge.

I rose, "Get ready! There are 3 NPC cursors nearby, one in the North, one in North East and another in North West." Achilles suggested, "Let's get to north one, if it's not the one we're looking for then we can split up for other two." His idea however, was overruled by vote and it was decided that we would proceed towards the North-East one and later proceed westwards. The trekking continued for another hour before we reached the designated NPC.

The NPC had a (!) mark but instead of Silver, it was golden. I initiated the quest and a window regarding transportation to a quest exclusive area appeared. I clicked OK and all of us were transported to another area. It was a war-zone area, "It reminds me of the 50th Stage." Beowulf sighed. Indeed, the 50th floor didn't give us a pleasurable experience. The Stage took 28 clearers' lives; the highest toll we paid at any stage ever since the beginning.

The quest was strategic one. In front of us, was the castle of Lord Melmaster; a tyrant whose fort was said to be impenetrable. The tasks given were simple, ambush the fort and hold it until re-enforcements arrived. "So, how do we proceed? My Search shows me the presence of nearly 50 guards just at the front door." We moved around the fort and found a person who just popped out of the ground. The person had an NPC cursor over him, so we initiated an interaction with him and he revealed some crucial information regarding the fort.

We moved towards the front entrance and prepared for the ambush. "It would have been better if we had a full raid group here" we sighed and initiated the ambush. The moment we hit the 'START' button, half of the stationed guards rushed to attack us. We divided into the formation strategized; the tanks took out the incoming guards, while the speed based attackers rushed inside to finish off the remaining guards. While Achilles gave ranged support to both groups.

We knew that since the fort was considered impenetrable, there must be a catch; something other than the sheer numbers of these guards. However, due to the split strategy we easily managed to overwhelm and kill the guards without anyone's HP going yellow. After healing ourselves, we moved forward now going inside the castle. However, something strange happened "It's not good." I murmured, "What's the matter?" Rin asked curiously. "My abilities don't work here." Everyone was shocked; our non-battle abilities like Search, and Hiding were not working in there.

However, as we had entered; the door behind us locked so we had no option other than to move on. Because the corridor was narrow, Achilles' bow was not much useful therefore; he had it switched with a dagger. We were ambushed thrice in the corridor but our use of area effective weapon arts made the ambushes worthless. We reached the throne room and were greeted by Lord Melmaster. The cursor over him showed that he was an enemy, but his strength was rather a mystery.

He spoke, "You are brave and strong enough to venture in my fort, though you knew that it was impenetrable. I appreciate it." We were speechless, yes the fort along with the castle was said to be impenetrable; yet we made it in very easily, except for the assault of 50 guards on the gate. "It couldn't be it, though we faced difficulty but a full sized raid could easily wipe out the defenses here. So why do they call it impenetrable?" I whispered, but didn't have to wait for an answer as in the very next moment; he challenged us for a full decisive duel.

"I challenge the strongest one of you for a full health duel, don't worry the priests here can revive anyone. If you lose, you'll have to be my soldiers and if you win…" I couldn't believe that the system that runs BWS can create so much complicated scenarios. Because I, the rogue swordsman was at higher level than anyone else; I was chosen to be the challenger.

Melmaster donned paladin armor, the best armor in whole BWS, that provided a strong defense along with great agility but as obvious a crazy amount of strength was required to equip it. He had a 2-Handed Great sword as weapon. I on the other hand had the weakest, yet fastest armor grade in BWS; cloth armor and my 1-Handed Long sword 'Sword of Xana' one that I got as a quest reward in 79th Stage.

The battle began with each of us standing out 10 yards away, weapons ready and trying to study the other's first attack. He lunged at me with incredible speed and slashed me with his sword. I dodged the attack and initiated a Vertical Rhombus, I got clear hit and his HP reduced by 10%. My sword was upgraded 20 times; 5 for durability, 10 for sharpness and 5 for heaviness.

He spun around and initiated a high output art Dual Vertical I stopped one with my sword only to be pushed around and got hit by the second swipe and my HP went down by 20%. At this rate, victory was impossible; I had to evade faster and hit harder. My cloth armor provided me excellent agility and I began to use it. The great sword is an awfully slow weapon but it hits like a truck, so evasion was the best tactic to be used.

I initiated another weapon art; this time the best one I had Hyper Vortex, an eight hit combination attack that never misses. Though he parried about half of the attacks, I got a critical hit in the last two and his HP flew in the yellow zone. He again tried to use the momentum imparted and readied the Storm Slash art, but I was ready to foil the attempt this time. I initiated Martial Arts skill called Flashing Fist, and hit him right in the chest; his weapon art cancelled and was stunned for a full one minute.

I had my chance, though the Hyper Vortex was under cool down, I slashed him multiple times and just as the stun duration was about to be over; I jumped and used the Erected Slash art. Though the damage was unimpressive, the stun duration changed into paralysis. It was now a clear victory; suddenly he hit me with the hilt of his sword just before the paralysis begun.

It was paralyzing venom of Level 8. "Oh my God!" came out of my mouth right before I slipped into paralysis. Level-8 paralysis lasted for usually 15-20 mins, about twice the time of my inflicted paralysis. Though I had antidote potions, but none of them were powerful enough to wholly cancel the venom. I used two Level 5 potions and my paralysis timer reduced to 10 mins, almost the time of his paralysis.

We both waited for the paralysis to end, but has mine timer still showed 50 secs, Melmaster got up and swung his sword. His paralysis was healed and I was still under the effect, however to my surprise he didn't attack me and simply waited for me to get up. My paralysis wore out and he asked, "Will you be able to go on?" The only words that came out of my mouth were, "Why didn't you attack me?" I wasn't expecting to get an answer but he spoke, "We decided on a fair one-on-one duel and it's against my honor to attack a helpless enemy."

This guy's programming was too much advanced for any NPC, field master or even the stage masters. Was he a real person playing in an account or did he have an AI system of his own. Anyways we had a duel to continue. This time he went first and initiated an Erected Slash, arts didn't classify to be of particular swords; they were broadly classified like Curved blade arts, Single Handed arts etc. Erected Slash came under the category of Straight Swords, so it wasn't a surprise that he can also use it. I was hit by the art, but evaded the stunning shockwave by jumping in the nick of time while it went under me.

But he didn't wait for a moment and initiated another art Nail and Hammer a 5-hit combination attack with four thrust\slash (depending on the weapon) and a hacking attack. By the time system recognized it and told me it was too late, I could not stop this one now. So, I had to parry it. I decided to use the Defensive Weapon art called Heavy Block. It had the maximum defensive stance other than shields, but had a heavy cost.

The Heavy Block utilized a back-hand grip using the entire fore-arm for support while the free hand supported the hilt. It meant that the incoming attack was absorbed by the flat edge rather than the blade, dealing more than twice the damage to the durability of the sword. "Just a little more" I murmured as the last slashing attack was hit. It was quite a relief that my sword stayed strong.

I evaded the last hacking attack and saw my proficiency with 1-H sword reach 2000. It unlocked another weapon art called Quad Circle. I initiated the new art and my sword shone golden. I spun 4 times in perfect circles each time growing closer and closer as he tried to parry. The last attack hit the hilt of the great sword shattering it and dealing the last blow, sending his HP into the red zone and the piercing damage depleting the remaining HP. Suddenly; a crack came out from the middle of the blade and grew larger and larger until it broke my sword 10 inches from the tip. It was good-bye.

As the other side of blade disappeared the piercing damage stopped leaving Melmaster's HP at 1%. The quest didn't say anything about killing him and since I disarmed him completely, I had won the duel. I sheathed my sword and looked at my HP bar; it was still at 15% meaning it didn't go red. Yet his skills and abilities were beyond charts, had he not stopped during my paralysis he sure could have defeated me.

Just as the duel came to a conclusion, with Melmaster saying, "You have won, you are now the lord of this castle; Lord Naperjet." We heard troops marching upon the castle, the quest log updated and now it said 'The reinforcements have arrived, talk to the proper person.' We didn't know who was it but a guess was about the commander of the re-enforcements.

We rushed out in the camps of the soldiers and asked them to allow us to meet their commander. But the soldiers simply refused, "We are here to conquer that fort. The commander is busy strategizing the conquest." We were baffled by the response and began wondering about 'the proper person'. Since the area was quest exclusive, we cannot leave the place until the quest is complete or forfeited.

"This quest has no end" Joe groaned in his harsh-bulky voice. We all nodded and out of curiosity, I opened my quest log and had a go through this quest. "This doesn't make sense, it's a castle defense quest and its name is 'Wavering Loyalties'. Now what are we supposed to…" Suddenly a thought ran up in my mind, "When our duel ended, didn't Melmaster say that I am now the lord of this castle." And everyone nodded, "So if these so-called reinforcements are here to conquer it, then…"

Andrew continued, "They have not come here to help us, but rather fight us. So the proper person now…must be the former lord of this castle." "Melmaster" we yelled and ran for the castle. Since, I was officially the lord of the castle; I gave out a common tower defensive command, "Maximum Fortifications" and all the gates of the fort were sealed and defensive structures armed. Melmaster was in the same room we had our duel.

I initiated a conversation by the phrase, 'What's going on?' Melmaster replied, "All the information about me being a tyrant was a propaganda used by the chieftain of Salvia. This fort is impenetrable but I never gave the command of maximum fortification. I knew that this propaganda would attract a lot of warriors so the defenses were kept a little more difficult according to the attacking side." I somehow knew that the information wasn't correct; a tyrant would never allow an opponent to heal completely from paralysis.

However, the initial logs hinted that the first quest was supposed to end with the death of Melmaster, since the duel was decided by disarming and surrender; the quest took a strange turn but may be the final outcome would be the same. The quest log updated and the next update was to defend against waves of attackers and prevent the fort from falling.

This part of the quest was especially a pain as I had no sword to fight with, my proficiency with other weapons other than 1-H Sword was 0 and raising them up here was out of question. So, it was decided that I would take charge of tower defenses, while other members of the group would fight along with the fort guards. We all moved to the strategy tower outside the main castle.

The enemy formations were clearly visible, nearly 2000 soldiers arranged into numerous battalions each having distinguished weapons, armors and numbers. "The whole army here must be divided into 3 parts – Foot guards, Ranged guards and my team. All traps and defense mechanisms will target enemy in moderate to close range while ranged guards will take down the soldiers stationed at the camps there. Foot guards shall be ready battle in case the wall is breached. My assault team will ambush the reinforcements of the first wave and will let them go once the wave is cleared; any questions?"

The assault began, first in came a mixed battalion of a score of tanks, with a hundred assaulters and fifty archers. The tanks took on the massive damage from the traps, while the assaulters attacked the blind spots and archers shot down the stationed guards. Because the guards had decent spawning rates due to maximum fortification, the backup was increasing exponentially. "Open the gates, half of Foot guards will fight the enemy." I ordered, the guards shouted 'Hail the lord' and commenced the assault.

Their back-up began moving just as the doors were opened, but we were ready. The assault group ambushed and held them for long enough for the guards to finish off the first wave. As it was done a retreat signal was fired, casualty on our side was not too much as most of our damage inflicted was in their camps, their numbers dwindled significantly as the strategy worked very well. In nearly five hours, the aggressors had only 10% strength left and all of them approached the fort.

Unfortunately, during the time our fort wall grew weak and could collapse anytime. The wave hit and the wall collapsed and moreover these were the strongest members of the attackers. Archers re-directed their focus on the attackers, but our casualties began to rise to the point that we were losing net guards. I manipulated my menu and wrote a message to the assault group, "Take out as many support archers and assaulters from behind. Retreat if HP falls below 40%."

It was a huge gamble I had played and I knew it. This could lead my entire assault group to be wiped out. But fortunately, archers didn't have much HP and were dispatched by single weapon art. Achilles fired Stun Arrow Rain and stunned all the enemies for 30 secs. We had our best ever chances, guards didn't use weapon arts and my team unleashed massive damage arts to take out the tanks from the front letting the guards finish the rest of them.

After a long eight hour battle, the fort was secured and the wall was restored. A ton of XP poured in as the quest was concluded causing everyone to level up thrice. "Now I see, how you level up so fast even after playing solo most of the time." Neetto joked and we all burst into laughter. "As for the rewards…" Melmaster took us inside the castle through various narrow passages to a locked room. He took out a key and unlocked the room saying, "This is why the Salvias were attacking us. It's guarded by an illusion charm you all may enter one-by-one and take any three items you like."

I volunteered to stay back, while everyone went inside the room one-by-one. Melmaster said, "I am really sorry for your sword. If you want you may get it repaired here." I replied frankly, "Please don't be sorry, my lord. I had put it through great pain and it would be better if I got it melted into some other armor or weapon." My turn came and I chose my things, a leather long coat called Night Sky Coat, a ring called The Ring of Levitation and a heater shield called The Silver Shield.

As I came out, Melmaster took me towards another room, which looked more like an armory. "It was good of you to not blame your weapon. You know well about the present state of your weapon. You may have any one of these weapons as your replacement." He said and I moved inside the inventory. I chose the one-handed long sword The Elvin King Sword.

Bidding farewell to Melmaster, we left the fort and returned to the original map. "We didn't bother to even see the time, I guess it is…" Asri was left open mouthed as he manipulated his menu to see the time. Worriedly, it was Rimes 10, 0003. "That damn quest took us 18 days. The clearers must be worried about us." We all took out the transportation crystals and shouted in chorus, 'Transport: Centro!'

White light surrounded us and we all appeared in the main square of the city. As we entered the city, our inboxes flooded with messages; though mine had the least, yet there were at least 50 messages. "Now what?" Everyone asked in chorus. "Well, well, well looks like you guys finally decided to show up." This voice was quite familiar; I turned around to find Liza right behind me, poking a small throwing knife into my armor.

"Where were you guys? It's not good manners for front line players to disappear without any word…" We were in the guild castle of The Golden Knights and Liza was in a full mood of lecturing us unless either was tired. "Hey! Hey! Hey! I don't think I deserve this lecture, I am neither in any guild nor I have any obligations for the clearers. Moreover, you guys think of me as just a nuisance." I said like a child making excuses of avoiding a lecture on moralities.

She gave a burning gaze that made me to sit down like a scolded child, "I didn't expect that answer from the highest ranking player of the game." The lecture on moral duties towards the innocent people stuck here given by Prof. Liza ended after a full hour. Seriously, I thought why the time now is so slow and there was so fast.

We got an update of whatever happened in the last 18 days. First, the GM's chamber was located and attacked thrice. Second, all the attacks failed. Third, the main front-line guild Dragon-Oath Brigade had collapsed after the death of its leader Kieta; effectively making The Golden Knights the main frontline guild. Finally, Heathway and Liza were raised a position upwards after the guild leader died at the hands of the GM.

I wanted to know more about the first GM, but I wasn't in a mood to have another lecture from Prof. Liza. So, instead I approached Heathway for info. I first met him about a year ago in a SM raid meeting. He was a man of steel nerves as I saw him holding off against the SM on his own for 20 mins without his HP going red. "I didn't participate in the raids till now and won't be participating in the near future GM raids." His reply came.

I was shocked; we always were on some good terms with each other and I never expected that he would turn away a raid. "The GM dons' cloth armor, is highly agility based and uses a two handed L-Type Assault Spear called Gungnir having infinite accuracy." Gungnir is the name of the spear used by Odin in Norse Mythology, it is said that if someone is called and later the spear is released, the spear will never miss the target. Even if not released, dodging the spear would be nearly impossible.

But there was a catch, Gungnir's accuracy may be infinite but it had modest DPS; meaning it can't kill even an archer in one hit, "I don't know why the attack failed?" I asked him. He replied, "Though its damage was modest, the GM's speed of attack and area effective arts overwhelmed many."

The next raid was supposed to go in 3 days and due to the previous occurrence, I was put on house arrest by the vote of the assault group. I looked at my new sword and wondered if I needed to change my equipment.

On the day of my battle, I took up the best and fastest pieces of equipment I had. What I knew from all the bits of the information I got; we need to outmaneuver the GM and hit him with maximum strength while trying to put in as much negative status effects as possible. The assault team went straight went through the now cleared dungeon and into the GM's chamber. The chamber was at least twice as large as the previous SM's room.

The strategy this time was formulated by me, and I took a measly amount of 30 players for the raid. 15 were archers, 14 were tanks and I was the main assaulter. The plan was simple; archers supported us time-to-time using stunning arts; while the rest of us soaked damage and attacked. As we readied our positions, the GM appeared in front of us. The name on his cursor appeared, "Odin the Lord of Battle".

There was only one HP bar, and given the difficulty levels we faced, the HP value must be enormous. But if it is really going to be based solely on Norse Mythology, my strategy would be the game's largest blunder. However, the GM didn't initiate an attack immediately and just stood there; probably thinking about our low numbers. According to the information I had, the previous assault team simply barged towards the GM and was utterly defeated.

I stepped forward, unable to decide if to initiate attack or let him attack first. Suddenly, he let out a roar, "Behold the glory of Odin!" Everyone blinked as if paralyzed. "Soldiers of man, Odin welcomes all of you to the palace of 'Asgard'. You must be blessed that you are going to Valhalla by the means of Gungnir." 'Hey! Who made this jerk a GM; he's no different from a normal NPC.' I nearly spilled out when I saw him flaunting the spear, ready to charge upon us. "Archers ready, continuous firing in groups of 5, inflict maximum negative status. All tanks charge."

The bloody battle began but the agility base of our strategy paid off, however with a price. By the time we got his HP to yellow, our tanks were red, while all archers got yellow. I had nearly 40% HP left. Suddenly, he said something that made me think that he may be someone more than NPC. He bellowed, "Poor soldiers, losing out their lives for an incompetent leader." Sure enough, leadership was not something I could say I possessed; but the risk I undertook in this raid seemed to be too much.

"All tanks and archers regroup and heal. I'll take care of this one." I knew that I might not last much long; sure I can manage to outmaneuver him for a while. My Ring of Levitation gave me a massive +5 boost to Agility and a +2 boost to Strength.

And the clash began, giving no time to let him throw the spear; I blocked every stab by my sword. Increasing my movement speed to the limit, my finally saw through the trick. Even if I defended every blow, I was losing a small amount of HP due to recoil. I had to get a distance, allow him to throw the spear somehow dodge it and give the final blow to him.

I jumped back maintaining a good distance of nearly 15 meters from him and shouted, "Archers on my mark!" A full fifteen bow strings were pulled at the same time and finally Odin called, "My Dear Gungnir kill away the leader of man." This was my chance, "Now!!!" I shouted and full 15 paralyzing arrows hit him the moment the spear was released.

"Oh no!" I gulped as I realized that our timing was late by a millisecond and the spear charged towards me. I tried to dodge the spear with every last bit of agility left, but it would continue to follow me no matter what. The tanks were already attacking the GM chipping away the HP while the archers were preparing for another paralysis attack but yet the HP reductions were not very good and it seemed we would take eternity to deplete the remaining 25% HP.

"Out of my way!!! Spear Incoming" I shouted while charging into the now paralyzed Odin and held him in front of me as a human shield. The Gungnir pierced through both of us draining out HP after initial burst at a continuous pace due to Continuous Piercing Damage (CPD). "Take out the GM before that guy's HP drops to 0. We have the responsibility to take him out of here alive." Someone amongst the tanks shouted. All the tanks began attacking with their lances and maces while I managed to slip out of the spear and looked at my HP. It was still at 11%, barely out of red.

Then Odin began moving, slowly taking out his spear; as I saw his HP was already at red probably at 6-7%. Without a second thinking, I unleashed the most powerful and accurate art Hyper Vortex, and began chipping out chunks of HP. The last hit went critical and the GM's HP was reduced by 0. As he disintegrated into countless fragments, all of the assault team members got countless items and even got leveled up twice. I got the Final Attack Bonus and then used potions to heal myself.

"Anyone volunteers to go upto the next stage and activate the transportation gate." I asked the assault team, which was too tired to move. "Guess we all need rest." Saying it we all laid down in the GM chamber and surprisingly we dozed off. After quite some time, a voice woke us up "It seems that we sent off some really lazy folks down here." It was the backup team led by Heathway and Liza who came down here worried after the transportation gate was not activated for more than 6 hours after we left.