Author's Note: Here we are again! Thanks for reading the story, it makes me want to keep going with it. On another note, I will try to lengthen the chapters as I had realized while writing it that they could be much longer if only I start writing them earlier in the week than usual rather than just before the deadline, something that seems to keep happening all the time. -,-

So here are the answers for some of the questions in reviews and the single private message that I got. For now Dorea is the only one who has access to the game, YGGDRASIL and the gamer system, it might change, it might not, for now at least she it the only one.

Thanks for seeing that I had mucked up a little with the design of the wings, i.e. writing colors of it differently in different chapters, they are gonna be tendrils of light that angels in Diablo III had they will be black and white tendrils of light that make up the wings, at least for now as the looks of an avatar might change along with their racial class upgrades.

A person asked me to describe Rhea's avatar, in-game character, and I said it was average looking. This isn't related to her looks in real life, the game characters in YGGDRASIL start as average looking for their races and it is in their player's hands to customize them to be either beautiful, ugly, or leave them as is. The horns of Nephalem race are 10 cm stubby horns, similar to those in Elfen Lied, due to how they are growing out of Nephalem's head they just look small, I mean if one compared horns on Albedo, from Overlord anime, to those on Lucy, Elfen Lied, then you can see what I mean by small.

Lastly the time line. I will probably do a slight by play year by year, at least for now. I am truly not hundred percent sure how it will go later but for now it will be year by year. We shall see how it goes and go from there. Hopefully I answered most, if not all, of the questions.

Enjoy the read! :3

Chapter: 5 Dungeon

Jack looked on his party, a tad disgruntled, and cursed that he hadn't been able to convenience at least one more friend of his to play YGGDRASIL.

He remembered, clear as a day, when the first advertisements of the game had come around, he was instantly hooked on them. The idea of the game was inviting and tempting enough that even he, who had stopped playing games for the past three years due to his job, pre-ordered both the game and the head-set for it.

He had also got three of his friends to at least try the game with him, something that proved to be a boon, as Jack had chosen a bow and arrow for his trainee weapon and working alone would have been as hard as it would be long.

Yet for all his foresight, he realized a moment ago that he should've been more adamant on getting his friends, both old and new, to play with him as he was stuck near the entrance of the first small dungeon, looking for another member to reach player party number cap.

He had wanted to keep his party friends only but in the end he grudgingly posted in the chat that he had one spot available as his friends seemed more than a little adamant at making sure they survive the dungeon.

Not that he blamed them for it, it didn't take them long to persuade Jack that going into the first, no matter how small, dungeon was a stupid move when one takes into account the death penalty this early in the game.

While leveling seemed to go fast in the game, something that he approved of seeing as he never liked the never ending grind to enter the end stages of the games he used to play, the penalty reflected the apparent ease of gaining experience by it's cost of five levels.

Seeing as they were only level 5 so far, that would put them at zero experience at level one, something that no one within the group was particularly happy to experience, no matter how great the game seemed at the moment.

When one also takes into account that the game only started less than few hours ago and everyone was trying their best to put themselves above others in the race to grab as many levels and equipment as possible, Jack agreed easily when his friends had asked to find the remaining member of their party from the throng of players.

A slight pinging noise had distracted him from his thoughts as he saw a request to enter his party. A quick look after he had agreed showed the player to be level five named Rhea, he inwardly nodded at that tidbit of information as the level of the was something that he would not budge for.

They might be looking for a party member to enter the dungeon but that is all the more reason for them to carry their own weight. If they were unable to even get to the level necessary to gain the quest that leads to the small dungeon, then it would be best if they stay back near the first town and grind the many repeatable quests that are available there.

"Hello." said the mystery player, Jack for a moment was surprised when the voice party chat, that he set up as the only chat option, had resounded with a crisp and clear voice that clearly was both young and feminine.

"Hi, so the party is here for the dungeon, you do know that right?" asked Lewis, Jack's best friend, not that Jack could blame poor Lewis, there had been already an instance that a new player had just randomly tried to enter their party because it was one of the few user interactive things inside the chat.

"Yes, I have to clear the dungeon for a quest I got in the town." said Rhea.

"Good, good. Then meet us by the entrance, now that we are on the same party you can see our names outlined in blue above our heads, if you didn't know already." said Jack, while the information is easy to find out by oneself or by reading the chat log, it was still something that many solo players didn't know about.

"Cool, thanks for that, hadn't been in a party before. Oh, I can see you already." she said before her avatar had entered their sight.

While at first glance there wasn't anything wrong with the girl's avatar, a more detailed look caused Jack to find something that he was extremely unhappy about.

The small horns that adorned the her head were a dead giveaway towards the race's alignment in the grand scale of things and while Jack wasn't too hung up about the heteromorphic races, he was leery of accepting any people that would enjoy playing as a monster. Sure, he could find some fun by role playing as a hero or even a king but he had to draw a line when his appearance became too alien, more so in this partial dive game.

He didn't even want to think about the possible player killers that had slowly cropped up that seemed intent on killing only the heteromorphic race players and their reaction to his team playing with one.

"Uhh... this is awkward. Listen Rhea, sorry about this but a friend of our had just became level five and we would like to do the dungeon with him. I'm real sorry about that." said Jack, his tone remorseful, something that he had picked up due to his job that involved heavily interacting with customers.

"It's fine. I'll just find another party then. Have fun." said Rhea, though he could hear a slightly disappointed undercurrent to her voice.

Once the extra player left the party, the discussion sprung up.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Lewis, slightly disbelieving.

"I would prefer not to take any chances, at least for now, this early in the game." said Jack, his voice rebuked any attempts to prove him otherwise.

"Well, it's not like there aren't any more parties around, Lewis. I'm sure she will find another soon." said Mark.

"I guess. It still felt like a shitty move." grumbled Lewis.

"I know." admitted Jack.

A quick flick through the system and the request for addition to the team went back on the chat and Jack & co. waited for another applicant. Jack inwardly praying for a human-like raced avatar this time, if only to avoid the rather awkward talk with his friends that will most likely surface if he were to turn another heteromorphic player away.

/

Rhea looked on at the party that had just kicked her out and had to bite back a sigh. The four human-like race avatars that the players in this particular group had made her taste bitter in her mouth.

It seemed that the achievement had done more than a little in regards to screwing her over. Sure the limited races that could only be used by beta testers and premium players were a nice touch but they didn't seem to balance out the cons that she was already experiencing.

Sadly, the group that had just kicked her out wasn't the first one she had tried to enter. In fact this was the third group that sported human races along with demi-human races that had kicked her out once they had seen the horns that her avatar was sporting.

Dorea couldn't honestly say that she was expecting it. She didn't even count on her race being a problem while dungeon crawling with other people. Sure, she had thought that people would start hunting heteromorphic players, both for fun and experience that they would give seeing as the player killer penalty doesn't apply to them, she should've realized the chance that people would distance themselves from parties of inhuman races in fear of being labeled as targets to the Pkers too.

Besides the bitterness, she also felt anger. While she wasn't optimistic in her chances for an easy game, what with being from another time and space and having no friends that started the game that could help her in any shape or form, she still had thought that at least she would've had a chance at the beginning of the game before people started to shift their gears which would cause the Pker's population to swell greatly.

So, instead of grabbing at any party that was looking for players to fill in their missing ranks, Rhea looked around the dungeon's clearing and looked for a group of in-humans that were together. It didn't take her long to spot them, really they in fact were standing out in a way that Rhea wasn't sure if it was in positive or negative light.

Luckily it was a group of four and if her luck was good then they were looking for another player to add to their group.

A brown liquid, slightly animated to move around in place even when the player wasn't moving, the typical slime. A dwarf sized imp, it's skin red with stubs for horns, a lizard's tail and leathery bat wings. The third player obviously chose a rather deformed monster race. Standing at two and a half meter tall, it's skin gray and flaky, it's body made overly bulky with a large maw filled with dagger like teeth and dark holes for eyes. The last player had chosen the horror-like brain eater, pale white skin, it's body two meters in size, it's two legs hunched like that of the rear legs of a dog and yet able to keep it's spindly body upright. It's fingers long and spider like, making them look unnatural and scary and yet it's main feature was it's head. The head of the brain eater, instead of any sort of human like qualities had tentacles dropping from it, two eyes and a maw of needle like teeth that would make many man shudder in real life.

A quick glance at their equipment showed that they too were unable to gain any sort of better weapons or armors of any kind seeing as Rhea could see the tattered clothes and trainee weapons they possessed, bar the slime that Dorea had yet to see how it was able to wield any sort of armor or weapon but she quickly dismissed the thought, most likely the race had it's own unique equipment system. It wouldn't do for one race to be greatly disadvantaged.

She made a beeline towards the group before trying to invite herself in. That action seemed to startle the leader of the group, the slime of the party before her request was accepted.

"Hi, sorry to bother you guys but I was wondering if you wanted to do the dungeon together. It seems people around here don't really like monster players for one reason or another." asked Rhea, quickly before anyone could ask a question.

"Yeah, we were actually waiting for another player to join us, in fact I was about to refresh our request inside the chat. Imagine my surprise that any human or demi-human race player would leave the party once they seen our races." chortled the slime, his voice low and baritone.

"Great, you don't know how much this means to me, I'm Rhea." said Dorea, shooting a happy face emoticon that floated inside a white box by her head that was only seen by the party's players.

"Augustus." introduced the slime.

"Arctucus." said the imp, Rhea would place his age due to his voice at around twenties, it was calm and crisp, right to the point.

"Hi, I'm Venus! You have no idea how nice it is to see a fellow girl in the game!" chirped the brain eater, making Rhea double take at the image gap between the horror flick monster and the bubbly voice on the player behind it.

"Smash." grunted out the large ugly monster, this time Dorea could say with certainty that the voice matched the monster as it had an almost gravely feel to it, as if someone was grinding stones together in it's background.

"Great, now that we are introduced to one another let's enter the dungeon, I'm told that every party gets a separate dungeon once they enter the cave so there shouldn't be any problems for us in regards to other players." said Augustus as they started to move towards the entrance.

"So Rhea, do you have any idea how you want to play and gear your character already or are you making it up as you go?" asked Venus curiously.

"Well... I know that I want to at least somehow specialize in magic but for now I don't have any concrete idea on how to go about it. What about you guys?" answered Rhea.

"Ah! Well brain eaters like my avatar have some interesting bonuses towards intelligence gathering and magic, so I'll probably gear towards something like that." said Venus, her ever-happy tone making Rhea wonder if the positive emotions were ever present with the other girl in the party.

"Slimes are rather resistant to pretty much everything, something that I heard only increases with their racial class upgrades if a player wishes to go down that road. It was because of that, that I had made this character, I wanted to be a tank, you see." answered Augustus.

"I wanted to role play a little, you know how this game is supposed to be highly customizable? Well, I want to go with the demon/devil lore and try to build my imp around that. It seems like a fun idea and what are games if not things that you do for fun?" answered Arctucus.

"Berserker." grunted out the last team member.

/

Quirinus Quirrell sat at the staff table in the great hall, watching as the first years were brought trough the large wooden doors of the castle. The tables of four houses housing the students that were quietly whispering to one another.

If one were to look at Quirinus, they would most likely see a scared and pathetic man. They wouldn't be wrong about that.

He had been average in school, his grades just enough to pass his exams before he had taken to teaching the Muggle Studies class, content to spend his days inside the castle that contained so many of his dreams as a child studying here before they were mercilessly crushed by reality of the Wizarding World.

But even if people can't see it, things had changed for the now professor of Defense Against The Dark Arts. Just last year, he had taken a sabbatical away from school, even it's halls, glided with dreams of past, slowly became monotone and he had wanted a change of scenery.

So he traveled the world, first going to Albania where he found his new master.

Just thinking of his strong master caused a shiver of slight fear to tingle down his back as Lord Voldemort was a great and powerful wizard, a dark one but still a great and powerful one. At first his lord and master had thought to use a powerful ritual to gain his body back and continue with his cause but once rumors of a powerful artifact, known as Sorceror's Stone, had surfaced, Lord Voldemort had promptly changed his goal seeing as while the ritual would have given him a body back, it would not be a perfect one unless he uses many expensive and exotic ingredients, something that would cause both him and his master to appear from shadows and that was something his lord didn't wish for.

So instead he had tracked down the stone's location, Quirinus gnashed his teeth behind his scared persona as he recalled that he and his master traveled all around the world chasing the dead ends from gossips about the stone's location only to realize that the stone was inside one of the vaults of the Gringotts bank.

As he was scouting the defenses of the bank, he was also pleasantly surprised that he was able to get within a close proximity to the Boy-Who-Lived, a shudder went through him at the pain and hatred he had felt from his master when Quirinus had shaken hands with the boy and had to stop himself from killing the defenseless obstruction lest he loses the chance at gaining the stone.

He had penetrated, the impenetrable bank, weaving past the goblin enforcers as well as the bank tellers, one never knows what any goblin will do once they realize someone is trying to rob them, he almost got caught at the next obstacle, the mining cart went through a waterfall of truth, a truly marvelous piece of enchantment if only it wasn't in the way. The waterfall, as it's name implies, causes any magic that it's water falls on to become null and void.

He had been just about to reapply the disillusionment charm when another cart sped towards the exit, Quirinus couldn't be sure but he swore that the goblin escorting both Hagrid and Harry bloody Potter smirked at him as he was knocked back in his haste to get away from the rails, you never know with the bloody goblins.

The next set of defenses would have made many interlopers to admit defeat. Enchanted iron doors that could only be opened by a specific goblin, it's magical signature something that is unique to every items in being, enchanted to withstand any damage. The room behind the door sealed shut with no escape but the door.

Quirinus wasn't the least bit ashamed that if he were to be there alone, then in most likely case he would've gave up at that point, disappointing his master. Yet his lord was always with him, guiding him in the dark, whispering the solutions to his problems into his ear.

He moved with purpose, his every move instructed by his lord, his magic strong due to the intent behind his actions. He had entered the room after two hours of continuous wand weaving, his core almost depleted. Yet he knew that if his lord were to be the one who cast the spell, he would not have had as much trouble as him.

Quirinus was an average wizard but an excellent follower.

He entered the cave behind the enchanted doors, both him and his lord awaiting the prize for his strenuous activities, the lighting within forcing him to move into the middle of the room where Quirrell thought the prize would be.

But instead of the stone that he and his lord had come for, Quirrell had found three snarling dragons, they were washed out of their color, most likely due to the darkness that the room provided, numerous scars upon their bodies, their eyes milky without any sight.

Quirinus cursed the bloody goblins, his knuckles white at the tight grip he had over the goblet before he forced himself to relax through the particularly vicious memory as he used all of his magic and advice of his great master to escape, albeit grievously injured, from the bank that seemed intent on taking him down the bloodiest way possible.

He had to resort to drinking unicorn blood, something that when forcefully taken without the consent of the animal cursed it's drinker into a life of pain and unlife. Now he had to regularly prey upon the creatures lest the curse causes him to be unable to move at all as his body withers increasing in pain yet his soul and mind stay in his decaying body.

It was a vicious cycle that seemed to have no end and yet his lord had once more in his infinite wisdom saw to it that he would be rewarded once he give him the stone.

The Philosopher's Stone, the known pinnacle of alchemy, a transmuted artifact that can give eternal life and cure any wound. If only Quirinus give the stone to his master, he was assured that he would be cured for his loyalty of the foul curse that plagued him so.

A lower wizard would have thoughts of taking the stone for himself, thinking that with it he would easily overcome his lord and have all the benefits of the artifact for himself.

But Quinirus was an nothing but an excellent subordinate.

He will serve his master faithfully, to the best of his abilities.

He will gain the stone that was taken from the goblin bank, just minutes before he had entered it, something that still caused him a great deal of hatred and anger, and he will give the stone to his master.

And once his master is fully himself once more, the people of wizarding world will tremble underneath his lord's feet and he will be there standing behind him, enjoying the benefits of his hard work and dedication.

Thinking of the image of his future, once all the work was done, Quirell couldn't help but let a smile break out unto his face.

He couldn't wait.

/

"Rhea! Get the one that escaped!" shouted Augustus, which Rhea found rather unnecessary as she moved her avatar in between the incoming goblin, that unlike it's forest counterpart near the beginner town was clad in a leather armor and had an iron sword in it's grasp rather than with a loincloth and a stick, and the back line of their party that consisted of Venus, the brain eater, and Arctucus, the imp.

Once the goblin was in range, Dorea swung her sword sideways, cleaving into it and followed it by [Chaos Claw]. The charging goblin met the attack like a mad berserker but the combined attack of both her sword and skill caused it to stumble back for a few moments, disengaging it from it's reckless charge.

That was when skills and spells flew over her and impacted the goblin in front of her, depleting it's health completely as it turned ash gray and slumped onto the floor.

A quick glance at both Augustus and Smash showed that they had finished dealing with the other armored goblin as well.

"Good job guys. If the mini-map is anything to go by then we will most likely be able to finish the dungeon soon." announced Augustus, getting nods all around.

Rhea gave a quick glance at the slime, or more specifically inside it's body, where it's equipment resided.

Curious of the equipment system for non-humanoid in shape monsters, that while were inhuman in appearance and size, still were able to condone to the regular equipment scheme of head, face, body, three pieces of jewellery apart from one's rings, underclothing, arms, hands, left and right rings, waist, legs and feet.

The slime race instead of those slots that equipment could be put in had slots for forty rings, something that was mind boggling at first but once you realize that slimes as a general rule are very damage resistance, whether it be physical or magical due to their specializations, make the notion of armor much easier to discard. On the other hand rings can have multiple increases to one's basic stats, making them much more flexible in that department.

Augustus had told Rhea when she had asked that unlike everyone from humanoid looking races who started with trainee equipment, he had gained two rings that were select-able in their bonuses and he geared both of them for defense, both magical and physical.

"That's good, I would prefer to finish this dungeon, while the mobs inside are much harder than the ones that players had so far encountered during quests and are nicer to fight against, they are rather annoying to deal with." muttered Arctucus.

While Rhea didn't say anything to that, she too had to agree with the imp of the group. The dungeon that they had fought in, while the first and most likely the easiest of them all still was harder than the fights that she had to fight so far. The goblins ,unlike their barely armed counterparts outside, possessed good enough equipment to stall a single player for a while and their groups consisted from at least two to five monsters within a single group. If the monsters were only in twos or threes then it wouldn't be much of a deal but once there are five enemies then a single mistake can easily topple the shaky party.

She couldn't blame her or others about not being the best at fighting together, this group was made just to deal with the dungeon and hadn't had the chance to play with one another before making it hard for others to predict what the players in the group would do in specific instances which sometimes caused more than a little friction.

Thankfully the dungeon seemed to be soon finished as the next room seemed much more bigger. The stone, that was usually grayish green due to moss and other plants that grew inside the dungeon, this room, or maybe a throne room, was devoid of any plants that would stick in between the stone tiles that littered every inch of the room.

On the other side of the room stood a throne, made from what looked like gold due to it's colour and shine that was given by the torches that hung on the walls. Sitting on the throne was a goblin but unlike it's counterparts that the party had the pleasure of engaging against, this goblin stood at a height of one meter and sixty centimeters, clad in what looked like a plated armor, with a wooden shield and iron sword. The skin that showed through the gaps on the armor was dark green in colour and it's eyes were yellow, eerily glowing due to the lighting of the throne room.

By either side of the throne, stood two goblins that they had the pleasure of facing against, equipped with leather armor and a single sword, their height making them look like children of the overly large goblin rather than it's subordinates.

"So.. how are we gonna do this?" asked Rhea, content to, at least for now, stay far away from the goblin juggernaut on the other side of the room.

"The boss looks rather tough, what with all that armor and the shield, we should go for the old age strategy and kill the not as dangerous armored goblins first and then we can worry about the boss of the dungeon. What do you think?" asked Augustus.

"Well it's not like there is any better way to do this." muttered Venus, her bubbly voice gaining a serious edge.

"Yes, that should work." said Arctucus.

"I'm fine with it." answered Rhea, while Smash grunted in agreement.

"Then we will proceed, I'll distract the overly large goblin for as long as possible but try your best to finish your goblins off as fast as possible, I'm not sure just how long I'll be able to hold on." said Augustus, muttering the last part but everyone heard him and caused them to tense slightly in preparation to finishing off their goblins as fast as possible.

A/N: So what do you think? Questions? Complaints?