Chapter 0: Prologue
'Dark, cold, rough'.
Those were the only adjectives for the walls surrounding Zarien and his guild members.
'How long has it been since we entered this crappy dungeon?'
It was a genuine question. This was the main force of the Sky Shield Guild— one of the top 100 guilds in the Nexus, with almost 3,000 members and a tenth of them reaching their second advancement— and they're stuck in a freaking 4★ dungeon.
"Don't look so bummed out, Commander." Zarien heard a man's voice from behind him.
It was Leca, Sky Shield's Vice-Commander, a level 114 Hammer Knight, and Zarien's best friend since the start of Nexus.
Leca continued, "None of us expected this. To think both of the BOSS's protectors were Titanized, it's not something that ever happened in a normal [Mountain Golem's Abode]."
The Sky Shield Guild came in with its 60-man Party and while trying to reach the BOSS Room, they only lost 2. That was the lowest casualty count of any guilds' [Mountain Golem's Abode] raid. They were proud.
But maybe that proudness was their downfall.
The protectors of [Aje'Kol The Mountain Golem], the two [Silver Puppets], were Titanized!
A Titanized monster was one that didn't follow the game's set rules, meaning their stats were randomly higher or lower than normal, and they would have a new [Talent], which would sometimes give them the ~Poison~ attribute, ~Winged~ which gives them the ability to use [Fly], or maybe some other crazy, mind-bending ability.
One of the Silver Puppets had ~Soft~, making physical weapons 30% less effective, while the other had one of the worst [Talent]s ever.
~Cannon~. It turned melee attacks into powerful ranged shots.
"That damn ~Cannon~ [Silver Puppet]! It slaughtered most of our mages and archers with its long range attacks. I mean hell, I'd have accepted a ~Swift~ or even an ~Explosive~, but a ~Cannon~ in this godforsaken cave?!" Zarien ranted. He was the tank of the party and also its commander. it's understandable how frustrated he must be to feel helpless when his guild members were decimated.
The [Mountain Golem's Abode] dungeon was one with caves and cliffs. The narrow passageway and lack of ventilation meant limited evasive movements and Stamina for the 60-man party. It was supposed to be okay, but that dumb ~Cannon~ [Silver Puppet] collapsed the entrance of the cave.
With nowhere to run and hide, the Sky Shield Guild put up a last offence. And they won, albeit barely.
"It's only us 19 now, Commander." Leca laughed slightly at their misfortune. "And the only way to go out is to enter and kill [Aje'Kol].
That or.." his voice trailed off.
Death.
Unlike a certain evil villain, the designers of Nexus didn't make it so you die in real life if your character dies.
They made it worst.
Your character would have 3 lives, and after the third ends, the character and all the items on it perishes.
A Perma-Death game. No, worst. A fun, addicting Perma-Death game.
'I spent a year on this Level 122 Bono's Paladin. I'm even holding all my loots from the previous dungeon runs.' Zarien felt like crying.
Being the main force of Sky Shield, most of these people had only their last life left.
What made Nexus enjoyable to the 6 billion players that can afford it is you can make money from the game by selling your loot online. A 'streamer' was no longer looked upon as a failure, but a real occupation. Though unless your parents were really popular streamers, putting it on the school's entrance form would likely make you the joke of the year.
"Ha ha. nothing we can do about that now, can we 'Commander'~." the party's scout said.
"..." Zarien slightly rolled his eyes. Lola. Level 64 Archer. Lola was part of the main force not because she was good, but because she was Zarien's sister, and a beautiful idol to the guild members. She was so bad at Nexus that every few months you would see the Username Lola using different classes, meaning she used her 3 lives almost as fast as those natural-born speed-runners.
"Let's just end this and start fresh. we don't even have R-crystals to leave this dungeon." Zarien decided while speaking to the remaining members.
While they were getting ready to move, one of the few passages that were closed started to shake.
Boom, Boom, Booom!
A man came in, his fists covered in stones as big as a Knight's shield. He walked leisurely and didn't even seem to notice the Sky Shield Guild party's shocked gazes.
The heck?!
If the wall was that easy to break then they wouldn't have been in this dilemma would they? Nexus allowed destruction of certain objects, such as thin walls and so on, but this particular cave would require 20 1st Advancement Fire Mages blasting an [Arcane Bomb] at the wall for a few hours to break.
Since when were Bulldozers a class? Nobody told them??
"Wh-Who are you and how did you get here?" Zarien asked warily. The dungeon portal should've been long gone now, and besides their party members, no one else came in.
The man was startled and looked like he just realized there were people.
"O-oh.. I was.. lucky to enter at the last moment, b-but i got trapped and didn't manage to follow your group." the man stuttered. He answered the 'how' but avoided the 'who' question.
'Why are they still alive..' he sighed.
"You must be a Ranker to destroy that wall. is the [Feebles' Portal] there?" Zarien asked with a glint in his eyes. Maybe there's still hope for his Paladin!
'The portal? Oh, they must be thinking of giving up. damn I lost the way to the portal chasing that [Golden Brick] to the Treasure Room, or else the BOSS would've been mine to solo.' tears threatened to fall from the man's cheeks. But the man knew regret was two seconds ago. He shook his head.
"Oh.. Well I guess we'll all die to [Aje'Kol] then."
Zarien looked as if he was a naive boy that got dumped by his girlfriend even after hearing her say "I would never leave you for someone just because his rich." and immediately got left because he couldn't pay for her shopping spree.
"Where's the boss room?" the man enquired. The earth around the man's hands dropped to the floor. He seemed to want to leave the miserable company of this party as quickly as possible.
"Follow us, we'll bring you there. Maybe the boss already died of boredom waiting for us." Leca spoke.
....
"What the hell.."
"Is this a dream?"
The Sky Shield members were staring blankly in the city square. There were two ways to get there, either using an R-Crystal which teleports you to the nearest city, or entering the [Portal of Success] which opens after the BOSS died.
They came here with the latter.
"Lola, h-how long were we in there?" Zarien asked with a hint of doubt at what just happened.
Lola was still staring blankly. "We were stuck in the dungeon for about 2 hours." she said.
She looked around too make sure she was really alive. "W-we entered and left the BOSS Room.. in less than 2 minutes.."
....
The man followed the group to a giant door, something that would make anyone think 'this must be the BOSS Room'. Zarien took a deep breath before he pushed the door open, but not before making sure his team went into their position. Even if they were to die, they might as well die with a fight.
The man also took position in the back, in respect of not being in the same party and not wanting to ruin their planned positions.
The lanterns of the dark and vast BOSS Room suddenly lit, fully making the [Mountain Golem] visible.
'Are you freaking kidding me?!?!' Zarien was so irritated he just wanted to log out now— something impossible to do while in a dungeon.
"This is what I'm talking about." the newcomer's eyes, however, glowed like a Dwarf that found a Mithril mine.
besides the name [Aje'Kol The Mountain Golem] were very intimidating words.
~Twin~.
And yes, there it was. Two [Aje'Kol the Mountain Golem]s.
Without any warning the BOSS Golems rushed at them, their size doing nothing to slow their pace. In only a few seconds the BOSSes were in front of Zarien, ready to slam him with their gigantic fists.
Zarien immediately activated the Bono's Paladins Ultimate Ability, [Prayer of Everlasting] which grants the user 2 seconds of the •Immortality• buff.
A giant blue shield materialized above Zarien, blocking the fierce momentum of the Golems.
"Now!" He commanded, signaling the remaining archers, mages, and melee damage dealers to enter the fray. He may look scared, but Zarien is still the Commander of Sky Shield, and he can walk the talk.
'Not bad' the man was pretty impressed at their coordination and tactics. They really could've win against one [Aje'Kol The Mountain Golem] even with less than 20 people. Unfortunately, there were two.
While one Golem was getting attacked, the other one smashed the ground, causing stalactites to fall from the ceiling.
[Stalactite Rain]!
The party had to stop their attacks and dodge with whatever means necessary, as the stalactites that fell were as big as a truck, and this one wouldn't bring them to another world, just another new character.
As the party was trying their best to survive, they heard a slow voice speak as if sighing.
"Too slow, I have to cook dinner."
It came from the man who broke the walls. He was walking towards the Golems. The weak, stuttering, slow voice was no longer there, instead in its place was one of annoyance and haste.
Zarien's eyes widened. 'What the hell is he thinking?!" but before he could verbalize his thoughts, the scene in front of him shook his very core. He would remember the next two minutes for the rest of his life in the Nexus.
In the man's hand was a silver branch with a few golden leaves poking out here and there. It was as if the branch just fell off an oak tree.
"Summon, [Meteor Squirrels]!" the man said, and the branch combusted with white-hot flames. A squirrel the same size as the man was formed by the fire, and its eyes were shining golden.
Leca knew a few things about mages. The other Vice-Commander of Sky Shield Guild was a 2nd Advancement Flame Conjurer, and he was once told that one of the strongest fire spells was [Meteor] and only after getting their 3rd Class Advancement would one ever try to dream of using it. But here, Leca's eyes were about to leave their sockets, as he saw the squirrel materialize a giant acorn from its flames.
"[Meteor]!" the squirrel squeaked, lobbing it at the Golem attacking Zarien.
The acorn shot across the sky as if it were a real meteor, hitting the Golem in the blink of an eye and what was left was an ashen, charred golem, with only 30% of its original 300k health.
"Still not one-shotting things, Squeaky. I think I need to stop giving you those [Grade-A Sulphur Fruit]s, huh?" the man shook his head while looking at the burnt golem, almost ashamed.
"Keeekeek!" The squirrel was in tears of flame at its master's words. It turned to the Golems, seemingly blaming them for the reduction of its favorite lunch. A few more acorns were created and that was the last thing the ~Twin~ [Aje'Kol The Mountain Golem]s saw.
'A few words of threat always finishes the job.' the man smiled but hid it from his face. "Well done, Squeaky. You better continue getting stronger or else I'll sell you to a senile old man who's gonna use your branch as a scratching stick!"
"Keeeeekk!!" The squirrel cried before turning into ashes, unsummoned. The ashes flew in the air into the hand of the man before turning back into a silver branch, with not a leaf missing.
The man didn't spare a glance at the open jaws of the Sky Shield Guild and hastily ran to the chest. The chest was white as snow, while a glow of blue surrounded it.
"Hell yeah!" He was so happy he exclaimed outloud. He took the contents of the chest and went to the [Portal of Success] to leave, but he heard a girl's voice.
"C-can I know your name? I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to!" It was Lola, her face was blushing like she was speaking to her idol.
the man looked at her and smiled.
"I am Seed."