Level 3: Secrets

XXXXX smirked, "I found Ace," he said while letting out a dark chuckle, "Then you know what to do, we'll stick to the plan....also I want to see Ace's death," "Sure thing..." 'If you're even alive,' XXXXX thought. "Level three is about to start," "Well then, you may go and ensure you kill him," "Oh I will," XXXXX said.

**Meanwhile**

"Wait a minute," I said, "Yeah?" "There are only one hundred ruby potions and one hundred and sixteen crystal potions.....they didn't divide the number of potions equally, every team that has the ruby potion already has an upper hand unlike the ones with a crystal potion." I said, "Well let's just see what we end up with."

Suddenly wrapped up bottles appeared in our hands. We couldn't see each other's potion when we unwrapped the bottle, "Well....that's just great," Akemi said.

Akemi and I ended up with a crystal potion.

I bit my lip in frustration, looks like we have a 48% chance of passing and to top that all off we have a ton of players so only half or less would make it to level ten.

A portal opened in front of us, on the top there was a hologram //EMERALD REALM PORTAL// Akemi and I went inside.

The emerald realm was....brown, and there were no emeralds, not even a single source of a crystal nor a player in sight. It was just us.

If there were no players then how would we end up with a ruby potion?

"Do we have a time limit?" I asked, "No, in this level there is no time limit however, people spend their whole lives here.....this may be the third level but it's one of the toughest," Akemi said.

Akemi and I continued walking, suddenly he stopped, "What's wrong?" I asked, "I hear the crumbling of rocks," Akemi said, "Rocks? But there aren't any players in this area..." I said. The sound of crumbling grew louder and louder then it hit me. I stopped and punched the wall, the wall started cracking, I kicked it and it crumbled. I saw emeralds everywhere.

"Well what do you know, we were inside a volcano," Akemi said, "Volcano?" "Yes, the emerald volcano, normally a volcano has lava inside it but this one has a protective boundary...both of us were inside that boundary, if you break the boundary.....you see the emerald realm," "So wait...we weren't actually inside the emerald realm?" "No not exactly, that was just a boundary and a way to cause conflict and confusion between players." Akemi said.

We walked inside the emerald realm, it was surrounded by emeralds. Spotting players and fighting them would be hard, especially when the sun goes down.

"Akemi lets split up," I said, "Why?" "It'll be faster but it'll be more dangerous," "If we're splitting up take this," Akemi said while holding out a white pendant, "And what is this for?" "Incase both of us face enemies who we aren't able to fight. To use this infuse your shadow into the little crack on the side of the pendant, I'll get a signal and I'll be teleported from wherever I am to your side." "And what if you are in any danger?" I asked, Akemi smirked, "Worry about yourself not to mention those people that we met earlier their after you. If I'm in any trouble I'll be able to teleport to you."

That was that. Akemi and I split up.

I walked around the place for a little while.

Suddenly I heard something, the leaves rustled, 'A human or an animal? Should I attack?' I thought. I chose to attack, I made a large ball of fire and I was about to throw it at the bush until a boy stepped out.

"Wait! Don't attack," he said "Huh?" I said in confusion, "I'm Yoshi and I won't harm you," "I-" "You must be startled huh," Yoshi said, "More like weirded out but ok," I mumbled. "Did you say something?" "No, nice to meet you, Yoshi."

Yoshi had green eyes and blue hair, he wore a white robe and had three swords attached to the robe, his green eyes looked suspicious.

I noticed that Yoshi had a ruby potion, well I guess should take it when he drops his guard.

I wasn't going to get too friendly with this guy as I knew that there were people looking for me and he could be one of them. In this game TRUST NO ONE that's what I learnt.

"Well for one thing I know, this place isn't ordinary," Yoshi said, "How so?" "Every six years exactly at midnight this forest is covered with blood and legend says that the ruby goddess comes down and chooses a sacrifice," "For what?" Yoshi sniggered, "For the summoning ritual," He said, "Summoning?" "Of the nine tailed kitsune," Yoshi said.

I froze, the nine tailed kitsune, all the memories started rushing through my head. It was painful, the scenes kept on replaying in my head I couldn't take it anymore, it felt I was going...…..insane-

**Meanwhile**

"So the nine tailed kitsunes summoning huh, well lucky us we're looking for that boy and so are you m'lady," XXXXX said, "Good," said a figure from the darkness, "We'll meet soon Ace very soon," the figure said while smiling like a psycho.

"M'lady he is getting out of hand," "The boy?" "No, the boss" "Kill him, he's of no use to us, you did well as a spy XXXXX," XXXXX hummed.

"Besides XXXXX the more blood the better," "Yes m'lady."

**Meanwhile**

It felt like I was going insane, anger, hate and vengeance. Those feelings were bottling up inside of me.

Mist was surrounding us.

I felt Yoshi's hand on my shoulder, "Calm down," I looked at him with fury in my eyes, "Hey um are you ok?" Yoshi asked. Suddenly Akemi came running and separated me and Yoshi, "DON'T YOU DARE!" Akemi yelled, "Smart fox, however next time I won't run away," Yoshi said while disappearing into the mist.

I passed out.