Chapter 2 - A Wish Unfulfilled

Chapter 2: Part 1

(POV: Felrick)

Various members of the Guild "Cryptic" were assembled inside the War Room located in their base. It contained a magnificent oversized round table modeled from the tales of Arthurian legend, but also sported many partial maps projected along the walls into a more complete "super" map.

The large whiteboard in the front of the room had physical maps clipped to it. These physical maps were all made using the Cartography profession and among them was a vast assortment of recorded coordinates. The coords were educated guesses of locations the final boss room had the highest probability of being and were split into 2 lists. The first list was of coordinates that still needed to be searched, the latter of the two being already checked coords.

Poki Poki was responsible for checking the locations during her downtime during the treasury raids, leaving few coords left. She now stood, continuously casting [Ward of Observation] to location after location in hopes to find the final boss room. One after another, the locations were checked with no sign of the boss room.

Hours upon hours had been spent searching for the boss room with no luck. Felrick watched her speed through the list as the rest of the members selected points along the projected maps to check next. He compulsively glanced down looking at the timer. It was taking longer than he had expected to come across the boss room. Worry painted over his heart as it beat irregularly quickly.

"Did we spend too long gathering resources? Could I not see the forest for the trees?"

Felrick fought down the emotions of despair within himself, giving up hope wasn't exactly his forte. He could accomplish anything as long as he could envision an answer to the problems that arose. If he could see an answer, he could lead this group to do the unthinkable, but he just needed the opportunity. They needed to find the boss room, if not his countless hours of preparation and strategy would be wasted, and 'Gabe the III' will surely skip off into the sunset with that smile, that damn smile he flashes when he thinks he's won.

The Dragonborn Knight now determined to do whatever to see his dream become a reality, walked over to the group feeding Poki Poki coords.

"Poki, We need to go faster, is there nothing you can do to go faster?"

"I'm going as fast as I can, I'm checking a location every 8 seconds."

"If you stack more Haste and cooldown reduction gear… maybe even change your primary glyph, then I'm sure you can go even quicker."

"I have to actually look at the room, and inspect it. It won't do any good to go faster if I miss the door will it?"

"I understand…" Felrick said as he clenched his fist. "Okay then, trade me [Perception of Divinity] back, I'll do it."

Poki's shoulders and head dropped at the command, her face now staring into the floor.

"...kay…" she replied weakly.

Felrick sent the trade request, and although reluctant, she traded over the mentioned item.

Felrick now equipped with the item asked Poki Poki to cast one more [Ward of Observation] so he could copy it with his unique ability [Replica Virtuoso]. He only had 25 slots to hold replicated skills, abilities, and spells, but doing it himself would undoubtedly speed up the process.

Besides, he could just overwrite one of the abilities he copied from a guild member who is currently online and could rewrite it again once he was done. If it had been possible to disband a raid group party and cast the ability simultaneously he wouldn't have even needed Poki Poki in the first place.

Felrick wrote a quick macro which would replace the coords he had copied to the next one from his list after pasting it. With this tool now in his repertoire, he scanned through the plate classed gear which had haste and cooldown reduction properties picking out a full set to wear during this endeavor.

Now fully equipped for the job in mere minutes, he activated a silent [Orb of Observation] and a cavern landscape projected into his head. He scanned the surroundings then recast [Orb of Observation]. The macro having changed the coords during the last cast, a new similar yet different cavern surroundings appeared.

Images flooded into his brain one at a time. All his effort and determination pulled into a cold focus. He scanned each environment carefully with clockwork precision, yet still somehow maintained an unbelievable breakneck pace. Each new vision only lasted about 2-3 seconds each before he recast the spell.

Dekar watched as Felrick burned through coordinates faster than even he had expected. He knew well that Felrick was extremely talented, having once been a mentor figure for him in the competitive gaming world, but his skills and drive were on full display putting Poki Poki's effort to shame.

Dekar eyed Poki as she sat on the ground with her back leaned against the wall and her arms wrapped around her legs. Kashka was sitting beside her and they were whispering to each other but it didn't seem to change the magic casters gloomy disposition.

(POV: Kashka)

"Emmie, remember when my dad got fired from DekaStride corp and I was having a really hard time, but you had this crazy idea that I wanted nothing to do with?" Kashka whispered into Poki Poki's ear.

"Whe-when we spray painted the office buildings?" Poki asked in a lifeless quality.

"When we took back my dad's honor! You helped so I will help you take back your honor."

Poki sat up now more attentive.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's sneak out and spraypaint all over Felrick's treasured trophy box! It'll be like old times when we were in high school."

The idea seemed to connect with Poki Poki, yet she was hesitant to answer. Her eye's kept jumping between Felrick and Kashka until they both started giggling.

They walked out of the room together stringing together emoticons that reflected their devious desire as only Dekar seemed to have even noticed they left.

(POV: Dekar)

Dekar rotated his head, his glance now falling on Aster and Tom who sat with hunched backs, leaning in close to the whiteboard while they worked. Their seats were a couple of the numerous levitation cushions which were spread through the entire room. Speedily they chose new coords from the maps, adding them to the unchecked list. The list continued growing so Felrick could continue unimpeded until they found exactly what they were looking for.

Dekar was tapping a foot in a tuneful rhythm as he shifted his glance to the clock over the whiteboard.

[22:03:31]

Second by second passed, the deadline was approaching and even with Felrick's pace, there was a good chance that the boss room would stay undiscovered. Every tick of the clock bringing the end of the server closer and with it the chances of Felrick's dream slipping further and further out of reach.

The urgency that Felrick brought to the table when it came to how they conquered their tasks today had greatly surprised him. When it came to the usual guild activities, he executed and strategized well, but it always seemed that his drive and ambition were halfhearted at best. Today he had a mentality to him that reminded him of Felrick's former glory days.

A deep fire of desired burned in his heart. A well of hope to see Felrick at his best sparked this desire. When Felrick was at his best, he was the only worthy rival Dekar had, and their rivalry had always elevated himself. Like steel sharpening steel, Dekar grew from his experiences with this man. A towering wall to overcome. He had so many unique traits that every time he managed to pass him, with just a flash of inspiration Felrick rose back up into the wall before him.

This endless cycle happened rapidly when they had first become teammates and rivals, but after their long separation, the cycle slowed significantly. As even more time passed the cycle trickled off from occasional to hardly ever. The desire that had once burned as bright as the sun inside his rival was a ghost of its former glory. He still had sparks of greatness from time to time, but now he was a shell of the man he had once known.

The cause for this could be chalked up to several different reasons, but because Felrick hardly ever spoke of these personal matters with him he could only guess as to why. It could have been the controversy that caused Felrick to retire his pro career. It could have also been the alienation from his family after his retirement, or perhaps overuse of Cognitive Enhancers causing long-term mental fatigue. The possibilities that could have caused his fiery desire for improvement to dwindle were numerous, but what really mattered was right now. At this moment, Dekar could see it, the desire that had been lost exploded and consumed Felrick again. The single-minded pursuit of a goal moved Dekar's heart as he saw it.

His hands began to tremble with excitement. Maybe he was an idiot and instinct truly ruled him, but nothing could have made Dekar happier. His competitive engine revved when confronted with worthy rivals, and the greatest rival he ever had just reappeared. What could possibly have been better than this?

Strings of thoughts swirled through Dekar's head as he stood. His body felt like it was undergoing hot flashes.

"Perhaps Nick is right, and I am just a simple idiot. A true rivalry has always been what I want. If I think about it this way, Cognitive Enhancers are a blessing as I can sharpen myself against the best versions of the best… But in the end, reality is too cruel. Dependency is a weakness, and weakness is to be overcome."

"Dekar, are you alright?"

Woken from his trance with a jump, Dekar turned and stared at Steve who had managed to sneak behind him.

"I'm all sunshine and sparkles like your head." Dekar poked.

Steve rubbed his own bald Avatar's head while looking right at him. Steve produced the [Thumbs Up] Emote and Dekar did the same. They laughed for a moment. Dekar felt like Steve's laughter was extra enthusiastic, almost forced.

Well, how could it not be? "I'm sure that the incident is still fairly fresh to him. He'd probably need some time before he's at his best again."

Dekar would need to liven that man's spirits, after all, Steve believes a true man hides dark emotions from others… He could benefit from some laughs.

Dekar poked at Steve's forehead and could tell it was annoying him. Steve turned around to avoid it but Dekar wouldn't miss his chance. The Gnome body jumped up; the avatar's legs wrapping around Steve's abdomen and his hands rubbing the shiny dome that was his head.

The barbarian fought to get the Gnome off him, but unable to fight him off Dekar continued rubbing the bald man's head with remarks like "Lucky Lucky!" and "I'm raising our Karma totals."

Felrick gasped loudly drawing attention from the others in the room, the only one that didn't drop what they were doing was Dekar as he happily rubbed away at the naked head before him.

"Everyone! I believe I've found it!" Felrick Shouted.

(POV: Dekar)

A magnificent set of large doors with carvings on it is seen on a cavern wall. The vision on the Crystal Monitor was shown clearly to all that gathered around it. Felrick had already given Poki Poki back [Perception of Divinity] and she had already attempted to ping inside with an observation ward, however, was met with the game message "A mysterious force stops your magic from casting."

"Well, I guess we can assume it is the boss room. Maybe there's something inside it that negates world level items." Dekar said.

"Maybe... the boss has world level items." Aster said.

The group looked to him and pictured the grim thought in their mind. If the boss was stacked with world level items or had a world level item to negate others, it will be very hard to combat considering we are heavily dependent on them as a makeshift legion.

"The final dungeon itself was near unexplorable without large numbers of single targeted attack massers, and still everyone got shut down when enough world level enemies converged on their location… the boss, after all, will surely be worse." Felrick said.

"Well at least there isn't a world level enemy close to the door," Dekar said.

"I wonder how this door opens…" Kashka asked while eyeing the monitor.

Kashka begins pacing back and forth in place fidgeting at her lip with a hand.

"Tom, you have specialized linguistic professions, right? Can you make out anything from the door?" She asked.

"Let me just… zoom...zoom in… more… and- this looks like the dammoscript from that one Asgard dungeon. There's no public decryption of the text and I don't have or know anyone with the talent to read it," Tom stated.

"Damn… at the very least there doesn't appear to be any keyholes or complex contraptions needed to open the doors, in that sense we're lucky because we are woefully behind schedule." Felrick said.

Chapter 2: Part 2

(POV: Felrick)

Felrick had everyone now take a seat so they could discuss their battle formations, delegated specific roles to people, and also had Nick show off what he'd been working on, a master inventory list documenting their stores of items.

"I'm going to need to go pick up a few things still for preparation, but in the meantime, you all should look over this list and gear yourself according to your roles. Nick and Aster, make sure they don't use any of the Healer set's for the special mercenary NPCs."

The guild war room bustled with activity as the members crowded around the list in a discussion. Felrick turned his back to them and activated his [Eternal Portkey] to arrive at the entrance of the auction house. Two magnificent stone arms protruded from the ground, one on each side of the walkway. The arms stretched up and the hands laid flat side by side holding a stack of giant gold pieces.

The walkway was still crowded as many people walked in and out of the building. Felrick jogged along the path avoiding people having to stop and sidestep pedestrians quickly to continue. As he got closer to the Auctioneer NPCs, people were standing shoulder to shoulder and he made an effort to squeeze through small openings between people to get to one.

Felrick had reached an NPC and a console window popped up after interacting with it. He searched the auctions for revival items, healing items, mana restoration items, and whatever was 'Best in Slot' for useful consumables and gear on the auction house.

With little time left, all the auctions were bought up with the "buy it now" price instead of leaving a bid. It seemed that with time winding down, several people sold off their items cheaply as a means to relinquish the items of their own accord rather than never being able to see them because of their inability to log back in.

After he felt confident he had picked through the available items and got what they would need, Felrick darted out of the Auction Hall with haste. He followed the path he used to get in except hustling along the opposite side of the walkway to obey the understood foot traffic norms.

Now that they had the items and gear they would need for the raid, the last piece was to fill up the raid group. They would need to max out the capacity of 36 players. This would raise their probability of winning to the highest possible chances. He didn't trust many people, but regardless he had chosen to contact some acquaintances a few days prior to let them know they would be gunning for the Final Boss on their last day in an attempt to campaign for additional manpower and assistance.

Most people would have shrugged the statement off as just fantasmal dreams, but the former members of "Three Burning Eye's" knew better than to underestimate Felrick. He somehow always managed to pull off truly ridiculous ideas, and as such was dubbed "Man of Miracles."

Felrick opened up his Chat Interface and made a group chat with the 3 people who had responded in affirmative to the summons for the raid recruitment. After shooting them a message, Felrick walked to one of the many mailboxes outside the Auction House and sent all the purchased items 1 by 1 into the guild treasury with a tap each.

"I'm surprised they never implemented a highlight all feature so that this wouldn't be so time-consuming…"

(POV: Felrick)

A message alert pinged and Felrick saw the group chat had a response. There were only two more items to send to the treasury and then he could check their response. After sending away the final item, he took a deep breath and sighed. He felt his focus slipping and the smallest amount of fog seemed to bog down his mind.

"Now's not the time to replenish, I'll need to have the strongest effects when we go into battle, so I'll just wait a while longer…"

Felrick then read and replied to the group chat with the message "Sounds good, I'll be at the 'Gates of Trinity' in 15 minutes, I have some stops along the way."

Felrick then activated a master teleport scroll from his inventory and pasted the desired coords in. He arrived outside a guild base and moved to the registrar box to pick up the already rented mercenary NPC's. The sum of money to rent top class mercenary NPC's could make an average player's eyes pop out in a cartoonish fashion.

A top class mercenary NPC could fetch as much as a Divine Relic even stripped clean of equipment and items. Normally, Mercenary NPC's didn't come with items as if they died, the items would be left behind, thus the renters were typically responsible for gearing them.

This situation was no different.

Felrick picked up the rented NPC's and brought them back to the guild base with his guild ring. Afterward, he went to location after location to pick up all the rented NPC's he had picked out meticulously having already pre-rented in advance. After another 10 minutes passed, Felrick only had one more location to go - The base of Trinity.

His former guildmates all either scattered or quit, but one was a high ranking official in Trinity now, and several more had joined that guild as well. He appeared in front of the Gate's of Trinity and noticed 3 individuals lined up next to the gate.

"Yo - long time no see Man of Miracles."

"Ayyyyeee! How are you all doing?" Felrick boomed.

"Doing well considering we get to participate in another one of your loony schemes."

The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

The shortest man among them vanished and returned with 6 NPC's, all healers. Trinity was the best guild at tailor building the highest level Healer Mercenary NPC's. The programmed settings and combat behavior were more sophisticated than any counterparts and they had a World Level Item which provides a created Mercenary with a bonus passive ability upon creation.

They simply re-made the NPC over and over until they received the ability [Windspeaker's Blessing] which provided a shield for half the value of heals along with immunity to basic crowd control for 2 seconds after the shield breaks.

It was one of the most broken passive abilities in the game for the healer class, and could only be achieved by Healers with the [World Renaissance] class, a highly exclusive class for healers similar to that of World Champion, and World Disaster.

The amount of time it took to create these 6 healers, who all had this ability, took years. The chance of it happening was so abysmally low that winning the lottery in real life had similar statistical probability. The difference being that each attempt was free, and their guild had so many people that it was only eventual they would have hit the jackpot so many times.

Unlike passive abilities for the World Disaster and World Champion class, this ability was the most useful for mercenary NPCs, so all the other Mercenary NPCs with favorable abilities were often sold off to the highest bidder.

There was a limit to how many Mercenary NPCs could be out on loan at once, so once you have a very strong pool, selling off the others was only common sense.

"Well, here's the Healers. I think this is only the 3rd time all 6 have been rented out to the same people simultaneously."

"What you're not sticking around Sensenju?"

"I've gotta squeeze out a deuce. I'll be right back."

"You take like 30 minutes every time, you'll just meet up with us later, we don't have time to wait on you right Felrick?"

"Yeah, He can meet up after we are about to enter the dungeon."

"Great, thank god," Sessenju said.

The shortest man vanished and the remaining 3 men started cracking jokes at the vanished man's expense.

Felrick laughed heartily at a statement from Ragnarr and sent them the invite to the private com's server over Email. They got into the channel and Felrick used a [Gate] scroll to teleport outside his guild base.

The group leaped through the gate popping out in front of the Cryptic base. They walked to meet up with everyone so they could have a group meeting before jumping into the dungeon.

"Your still as paranoid as ever I see," Ragnarr said.

"I'm the only one whose main account isn't banned out of all of us."

"True…" Ragnarr grumbled.

This man, who was in a great position of power in Trinity while also being the tallest of the 3 walking together was named Ragnarr. He was an Undead Overlord General who often used the [Perfect Warrior] spell after summoning familiars. It was unlikely his playstyle changed, and Felrick assessed that he would be the greatest help of the three recruits in the final battle to come.

As they walked they chatted about their past and what they had been doing recently. The discussion turned towards reminiscing about Felrick's and Three Burning Eyes' past achievements leading to the event that any hardcore Yggdrasil player would have heard of.

"HAWHAWHAWHAW- heeeh, yeah. I think that might be my favorite memory of the whole game." the other Trinity member said.

"Me too! The Mercenary Magician Massacre felt so damn good. Even if I wasn't part of the Duplication glitch squad, being able to crush them by suicide nuking the guild base with endless copies of [Solitary Rapture] and never letting them leave their spawn was AWESOME." Ragnarr said.

(Notes: [Solitary Rapture] is a World Level Item that was a one time use. It called down a meteor which crashed into a large location that guaranteed death of everyone inside the location if they didn't have an ability to block the hit, or if they had a passive skill such as [Last Wind] which activated if an attack would kill you from over 2hp and would leave you at 1hp instead.)

"Oh, and we can't forget about the cries from them on the messageboards. I still have a screenshot saved. How dare them lead the alliance and force our disbandment, I only wish I could have seen their faces in person when they were slapping the keys ranting about it. Plus, all the ones we killed twice lost their World Disaster class… Well, at least until the servers were rolled back by the shitty Devs, but hey -We gave them one hell of a scare and an even worse beating. That oughta taught 'em for leading the alliance, hehe."

"I could have done without the perm ban though. I even had to exchange my terminal just to play again. Still worth it of course though."Ragnarr said.

"You could have simply spoofed your hardware serial numbers to evade the ban, no need to get a new terminal," Felrick said.

"Heh, so that's what you did eh? Yeah, I don't know about all that and I didn't think I'd ever need to, I just like gaming after all."

"Well knowing your options is still nice," Felrick said.

"True. changing out my terminal was a headache, but like I said it was worth it. Accepting the responsibility of your actions is a part of becoming an adult right? I guess in that right I might even have you beat, eh Felrick?"

"I believe there to be a significant difference in accepting responsibility for actions and ignoring potential solutions."

"Yeah, sounds like something you'd say. Well, just lead the way for us and let's do something amazing tonight. Yeah?"

Chapter 2: Part 3

(POV: Felrick)

"Alright, now that introductions are finished, here is our Raid group minus one. Get everything together, gear the NPC's, and let's head out." Felrick announced.

He rationed out the additional gear and consumables, helped fill the NPCs' inventories with consumables, and Aster and Felrick went into their programmed settings to change their tendency to use consumables from the standard 25% to now 98%.

They would use items nearly every chance they got. Items such as revival items, healing items, mana gems, enhancements and enchantment scrolls, ext…

Poki Poki opened a [Gate] portal and everyone lined up to enter. People and NPC's alike filed into the portal in an organized manner meeting each other on the other side. Felrick stood alone now staring into the swirling vortex that would take him to the last destination before the final dungeon.

Staring at the portal felt hypnotic and nostalgic. Even if he didn't like admitting it, he knew admitting to himself the pain that leaving this world behind would bring him was the healthy alternative of ignoring it and pretending.

The latter might be easier in the short term, but lying to yourself always had a price.

Felrick felt a tear run down his cheek, but after lifting his hand to pat his face he realized there was no moisture.

"Look at me, I'm a mess. I have to pull myself together so I can lead everyone… phew… calm…"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. The item around Felrick's wrist was beeping continuously until he silenced it with a tap.

"Seem's I'm finally out of time… So be it! We'll do it! We'll finish the game. I'll show Gabe the error of underestimating me. I'll hit him where it hurts, the pride of his invention, HA!"

He shook his head to regain his composure and focus, now looking back into the portal and jumped.

(POV: Dekar)

The entire raid group was all together. All 36 occupants were in the familiar desolate surroundings, The surroundings next to the insignificant dungeon entrance they would use to glitch into the final dungeon. The extra men were a bit confused as to why "here" but they waited patiently while the rest of the party seemed to enjoy being on the "Inside" of the meme this time around.

Felrick stepped forward and turned around facing the participants with the same stern look his Avatar had always worn.

"Everyone! This is the last break any of you will have until we enter the dungeon. If you need to take any Cognitive Enhancements or have anything that needs to be taken care of we will wait for 5 minutes. The clock starts… now!"

Members vanished among them.

Some of the members that logged out consisted of Aster, Kazuma, Poki Poki, Nick, Felrick, Kashka, Aster, etc…

Dekar after watching many people log out looked to Steve.

"What the hell is Nick doing? He doesn't even take Cognitive Enhancers! I guarantee he is hitting the bong right now." Dekar said.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Steve replied.

The fire inside his heart burned. Nick could very well cause the mission to fail. If that happens theirs a good chance of Felrick returning back to his inglorious and uninspired days. Dekar had finally seen life in his rival and it would be unacceptable if Nick ruined it with his idiocy.

Under normal conditions he would have been upset that so many of his companions were avid Adderxen B-22 consumers, and that Felrick had an even stronger concoction having access to the pharmaceutical industry through family ties. The world adopted an acceptance toward cognitive enhancement prescriptions after China made them mandatory for the working class during operational hours.

The explosion in productivity caused other national powers to dwindle by comparison. This event caused a revolution to create a basic Neuro-enhancement prescription which was affordable for the masses while still highly effective. The product which filled this demand was named Adderxen B-22.

The overuse of cognitive enhancements caused a great deal of damage to society until prescriptions were fine-tuned based on the individual and tolerance levels. Blood screening with handheld meters helped monitor that people stay within standardized ranges, but in the end, there is no escape to the eventual decomposition of mental fortitude over time.

Competitive pro careers are incredibly short in comparison to what they had once been. People often burn the candle at both ends causing a short productive burst of competitive brilliance ending in their eventual breakdown and ended career.

Such is the existence of professional sports and Esports today. A tragic whisper of its old greatness, with new talent peaking too quickly and ending even faster.

Conglomerate sponsor's love it because superstar's come and go and the scene always stays fresh with talent. They can afford to extort the masses.

"Steve… They all know that in the long run they are destroying themselves for more results today. Have we as a species lost our ability to be patient? To persevere?"

Steve looked at Dekar then quickly turned his shoulder away towards the remainder of people online.

"I believe that it was a necessary Evil. Look at Kazuma, could he even function normally without his prescription?" Steve asked honestly.

"Okay, so he has a more legitimate claim to it than most, but I can't help but think we would be better off without it."

"Who knows…" Steve said quietly.

Felrick reappeared quickly before anyone else, causing Dekar to rush over and deliver his objection.

"Nick will not be fit to carry out the Mission. He logged out with everyone else and is no doubt getting high. I recommend we find a replacement."

"We don't have time for a replacement. Besides, Nick always plays baked. His high tolerance makes it difficult to hinder his performance too much."

"I personally think we should exclude him on principal alone. What is one more mercenary NPC after all?"

Felrick looked like he was thinking of the situation when Nick appeared back online.

Dekar stomped over to him shouting "Dumbass Nick, you hit the bong didn't you?"

"Let's all for a second sing the bong song."

"It's not funny idiot! Your irresponsibility is jeopardizing the mission."

"Really? Says who, you? Dinka-ass Dekar who can't even win a chess game versus a novice?"

"This! Look Felrick, this is what I was talking about. He's a glaring risk we can't afford to take. Who knows what'll happen if we bring him along."

"Who knows? I know." Nick said.

"Yeah? And what do you know?" Dekar asked as a hand moved to a his hip.

"That you're an-nnn IDIOT - HA! You can't set me up for those!"

Silence fell after Nick's comment. Felrick put a hand on each of their shoulders as he stood between them.

"Seems like the same old Nick to me. We need to focus on the mission. Nick, Dekar, both of you need to pull yourselves together. We have to run into the dungeon like a well-oiled machine."

"Okay got it. I'll drop it." Dekar said.

Afterward, the final preparations like enhancements, chants, blessings, consumables, etc… were cast to buff the group and put themselves into their strongest base position while still having nearly all of their resources. Any mana expended was restored instantly with consumables to enter the dungeon in the freshest most adaptable state.

If they were wiped out during the raid then it was unlikely they could ever win because of the lack of time and resources to make another attempt. No amount of preparation and insight could be too much, the success of the collective depended heavily on the preparation before the boss, and execution during the Boss fight. If they would fail in either certainly their hopes would be crushed, and their goal would remain unfulfilled.

"Hey, Dekar I thought you don't like enhancements idiot? -hmm little change of mind, ehhm?"

"Not now Nick, I'm fighting not to strangle you."

"I feel you, I usually hit the bong so I don't strangle myself."

Dekar clenched a fist as he walked away. The heat in his temples began cooling as the distance between him and nick grew. Dekar was in group 2 of the formation and Nick stood in group 1.

For right now, neither of them needed to talk to each other. Dekar knew this as he broke away into his group.

"Poki Poki, let's see inside so we know what we're about to get into!" Felrick shouts.

Poki Poki used [Ward of Observation] along with [Crystal Monitor] to show the view of the dungeon room. There was a very large world level enemy in the room, but after discussion, they decide it's far enough from the door that they could make a run for it.

"What if the door is only able to be opened after defeating it… or perhaps even more of them, what if we need some sort of key?"

"The door doesn't appear to have any keyholes, but even if we need something, we can always turn on the sub-boss if we can't get in. This world level enemy seems very powerful and we need to conserve as many resources as we can for the boss room. If not…"

The rest understood what he meant, the surroundings became quiet for a moment as the gravity of importance weighed down their minds.

Tom skittered over to Felrick and whispered something in his ear. Felrick seemed to nod and Tom made a nod notion back then ran back to the 2nd group.

"Everyone, Dekar will say a few words before we enter the dungeon. Dekar?" Felrick said while nodding at him.

The Gnome Soldier waddled over next to Felrick and took a deep breath.

"First I'd like to propose a group activity. Steve, can you step forward?"

The Barbarian took a step forward with pride, even stopping to flex his arms in front of the crowd.

"I'd like to state that Steve's head is bewitched and grants wishes. Instantly after rubbing his head, Felrick found the final boss room. Our collective wish is to beat this game, and If we all rub his head I'm sure it will come true."

Steve stammered to protest against it, but people rushed in droves, pushing forward to rub the bewitched shiny dome. Steve didn't seem to be used to this kind of attention even pretending not to relish in it, but his emotions were far too transparent to be hidden.

After each and everyone rubbed his head, even Felrick, they stepped back into formations.

"Everyone, close your eyes for a moment and focus on my voice. We are a team capable of winning, forget any doubts and paint a picture of the victory in your head. We are victors together, so you are a victor! Believe in our potential, and use your imagination to reach your goals." Dekar shouted.

A small silence swept over the people as they each interpreted the words.

Steve started clapping and a round of applause sounded along with roars of the people filled with determination and excitement. He then made his way next to Dekar so that he could say his piece.

"After the door opens the mission cannot stop, and more importantly cannot FAIL! We have one opportunity to grasp our dreams, WHO IS READY!?" Steve asked.

The players among the crowd rose their weapons into the air and shouted their thunderous and unanimous battle cries full of conviction.

"Alright, then let's do this!"

Felrick, Aster, and Poki Poki broke formations walking over to the dungeon entrance. Ragnarr who was also in group 2 nudged Dekar. When Dekar looked to him the man produced a "?" emote. Understanding the confusion Dekar chuckled and responded with "Just wait and see. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it."

They miss-performed the glitch the first attempt and all landed outside the dungeon entrance again. Quickly without any words, they jumped into attempt 2 as the newcomers speculated on what was going on.

Poki Poki and Felrick landed outside the entrance again. Poki opened a [Gate] to Aster's coordinates and Felrick shout's "ALL IN! Let's go, let's go, LET'S GO!"

The Extra men heavily impressed by the feat but equally confused ran still inside their formations into the portal alongside the many Cryptic members and NPCs.

The Titanic world level enemy took notice of them immediately as if walking into the room caused an alarm. The Draconic Titan slammed its arms into the ground creating a pillar of solid minerals rising from where they had been standing.

"Split and regroup!"

The team quickly divided into mini groups breaking into sprints in an attempt to sidestep the rising pillars of minerals. Many even using low-cost mobility spells to expedite the process rushed forward toward the wall with the set of doors attached to it.

Dekar cast his [Frost Chains] which stabbed into the terrain allowing him to jump and pull himself along the chains. This strategy caused Dekar to reach the door first, followed by Aster who arrived just in front of a cluster and ran up the smooth wall completely perpendicular to the ground with ease landing on the platform for the doorway.

He had been a help distracting the enemy with his wild patterns of movement so that the slower people could catch up. Aster was after all the fastest pure ground unit in the group besides several of the guild's mounts.

This dungeon disallowed mounts from being ridden following the understood norm of typical dungeon instances.

Dekar pulled and pushed on the doors thrashing at it. The massive doors started some 10 meters up the wall and extended well over 100 meters up. Dekar who climbed up to the door leveraged all the strength he could muster, yet the door refused to budge.

The doors that stood seemed immovable and the rest of the members started to come to the same conclusion watching Dekar.

"Fuck it won't budge!"

Carvings and depictions of Ancient magic casters filled the door along with what appeared to be a modified version of hieroglyphics.

"We need a new plan!"

The cavern didn't seem to have a roof or ceiling at all, it seemed to extend endlessly overhead and someone would need to watch that they weren't flanked by air troops.

Tom continued to stare at the door while his companions turned with full attention to the Draconic Titan approaching. Felrick morphed into his dragon form while his weapon also morphed, changing into a gargantuan shield intercepting the fire attack and absorbing the blast.

The Draconic visage affixed to the shield swallowed the spell causing the shield to shine brightly with mystical energy.

"FELRICK! Wait, Felrick STOP!"

Tom pulled his hand off the door which had been feeling around as he took a step back.

"-Yeah?"

"Redirect the blow at the door, I think -"

-Without questioning the man Felrick launched a blast from his shield at the door with such speed it made Tom leap backward. Upon impact, the Hieroglyphs and carvings began shimmering with a blinding yet euphoric white light.

The crack where the doors met followed suit also emitting the same light. The beauty of the door captured Tom's heart. He stood in awe and appreciation as he let a whisper out under his breath. "Ancient… Magick?"

The Draconic Titan, now emitting a high pitched shriek, dropped to 4 legs, pulled back his wings, and charged at them like a bear. The ground quaking underfoot with each new step the creature took.

Poki Poki created a platform which raised them all up to the doors. Half the team shoved and heaved desperately at the doors as the rest took defensive positions looking straight into the eyes of the enemy.

The doors began to swing open of its own accord. Kazuma with eyes closed with focus was still leveraging his weight and strength into the swinging door, pushing with all the might he could muster.

Nick slapped his shoulder springing him back to the moment while pointing to the other door opening itself without further assistance.

"Heh! Idiot."

The Titan kicked off the ground, spreading its majestic wings, and with each flap got closer and closer to the open doorway.

"Quickly! all through, it's still coming!"

They all managed to step through but the Titanic beast was continuing its charge at an even more breakneck pace with no sign of slowing down.

"That bitch is still coming! We can't close the doors, EVERYONE, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

The tanks of the groups stepped forward to intercept the titan with steeled wills. The creature just seconds shy from bursting through the doorway, perhaps only a single flap of its wings from them.

"Till impact - 3..2..1!"

The Titanic beast crashed into some sort of invisible barrier denying entry through the wide-open doorway, the impact causing it to fall to the ground beneath with a loud and ambient crash.

"Wow… holy… my heartbeat is a little higher now."

"-Not nearly as high as me," Nick said.

"Intense! We managed to avoid fighting it… somehow. Yes! Lucky, lucky!"

"Positions! Positions!" shouted Felrick.

The group spread into two wedge battle formations while surveying the surroundings. The room was only slightly taller than the doors, but unlike the many of the other rooms, this room had a ceiling. Despite this, the room was still wide and expansive.

At the far end of the room, they noticed a tall throne extending over 50 meters into the sky. Sitting atop it was a figure obfuscated from the mix of light and darkness inside the room.

The walls and floor seemed to be made of a black crystalline structure. Leading up to the throne was a path illuminated with blue light being projected from the floor, and along that path walked a humanoid toward the throne at a brisk pace.

The group went to step forward but they were stopped after the figure that sat atop the throne lifted a hand producing a force field of some sort to be erected, preventing them from getting in.

"How do we get past the force field?"

"Someone try a [Gate]!"

"It's - It's not working damnit!"

Felrick focused majoritively on gathering intelligence, anything that would give them a competitive edge in the fight. They would surely need it.

Large rows of dusty and dirty mirrors affixed to the walls seemed suspicious. He made a mental note they likely had something to do with the fight to ensue. "I need more. Focus!"

Channeling now all his effort into surveying the surroundings, Felrick froze and ceased commanding the team.

Tom eyed Felrick gawking at the surroundings spurring him to take command until Felrick was fit to continue.

"[Scan] the two, gather as much Intel as you can, what do you see?"

"[Perfect Scan] uhmmhh… The figure in the Throne's name is 'Avatar of Creation and Cataclysm' but the rest of the data isn't registering, in fact, all the values are registering as question marks."

"-Any flavor text?"

"No! question marks as well!"

"What about the other one?" Tom asked pointing to the humanoid walking up the illuminated path.

The humanoid appeared to be a white-haired female garbed in gear specialized for the ninja or assassin class. Her equipped items all seemed to be top class, excluding a dull and dreary necklace of the two hanging from her neck.

Felrick continued staring past the barrier, his eyes affixed to a single point, the humanoid approaching the throne. Mesmerized by his former memories his eyes wouldn't look away no matter how many times he tried, even internalizing the meaninglessness behind the action.

"Mina Tashiro…" Felrick uttered beneath his breath.

"Just a moment- Yes this one worked… Wow."

"Well, what is it? Project it with a [Crystal Monitor] scroll please."

"[Crystal Monitor]!"

Mina Van Hiem Tashiro - Level 100 - Human.

Karma: -105

HP: 200

MP: 67

Phy. Atk.: 200

Phy. Def: 35

Agility: 200

Mag. Atk. 94

Mag. Def. 72

Resist: 100

Special: 100

Total: 1068

'An estranged wanderer destined to lose more than she finds.'

"Over 1k total level?!" someone asked in a gasp.

"-Look at her defense, we must have to protect her, she's likely the key to winning."

"Felrick! Orders?"

"What is… is this a joke?" asked Felrick.

"Hmm?-"

"-What do you mean?"

"Khaahumphh, Nevermind, Yes I… We need to find a way through the barrier."

The group nodded in agreement, while Felrick nodded to his own statement. This prompted several to try an assortment of spells and abilities to get through. Others broke formation and reached around the walls hoping to find a secret placed to let them pass.

"None of the mirrors along the wall were within the entrance of the room which they were confined in so they likely won't be useful now… hmm…"

The wanderer now nearly at the foot of the throne, lifted her head gazing at the figure atop the throne.

"That's far enough…" The figure in the throne projected with a booming voice. Echoes reverberated from the walls in a nearly endless loop of acoustics.

"Have you come to fear what you have created?" the loud female voice taunted through the echoes.

"The figure reached an arm into the air and simultaneously the echoes ceased.

"-What is this? It's going to start without us!" Steve said.

"Shh… Listen." Felrick commanded, his eyes still glued to the scene.

"Hahahahahah! It seems you've grown cocky in these 12 years. It must be because of 'that', correct?"

The mysterious Avatar figure made some sort of movement at the woman.

The raid group shot looks at each other in confusion. No other boss room in Yggdrasil had ever functioned in this way. They felt like they were missing something, perhaps something key.

"Cocky and Capable…" She brought a hand to a necklace which appeared to be of lesser quality than the rest of her equipment. "What of our deal monster?"

"Hooh!"

The Avatar vanished from the throne and appeared at its feet. As this happened, all the mirrors, which had been just caked in filth, all shot rays forth into clear orbs hanging from the ceiling causing them to glow continuously, bathing the room in light.

The figure now in much better view had several pronounced features. A half white and half black mask covered the face or its lack of. It's cloak fluttering and oozing as if it were between the state of solid and liquid. The figures ghastly aura was being projected into the air and was only intensifying every moment. The air producing a low hum as it became richer with energy.

A scepter made of clear crystal structure, materialized in his hand as he extended it overhead. Specks of black crystals being sucked from the walls, ceiling, and floors accumulated above the staff.

The specks meeting in a vortex above the raised staff producing a black gemstone which started the size of a small coin, but built into a more and more massive form.

Now almost the size of the Avatar itself, the gemstone was whacked by the staff in hand shattering it, causing black reflective shards to fall and rain onto the floor, but another form also fell from it towards the ground...

A lifeless black haired girl seemingly hidden in the center was pulled by what could be concluded as gravity to the hard ground, impacting it with an uncomfortable sounding thump.

The mirrors surrounding the room, now all crystal clear, were all tilted at varying angles allowing the spectacle to be seen much easier and from multiple angles for the restrained guildmates. Painted on several mirrors was the face of the humanoid girl they identified as Mina. Her face scrunched into a hateful snarl while her red irises shone brightly with the flames of rage and hatred.

"That NPC has facial expressions!" Dekar said nodding to himself.

"Oh? Good old Dekar-Sama, the observational skills of two human eyeballs." Nick said coyly.

"What's happening?!"

"Look, it's like their squaring off - It's like… well, a duel."

The two entities faced each other. Mina taking a stance like she was ready to start at any moment, but without a weapon equipped, or at the least visible. Her hand clenched around the lack-luster silver necklace swinging from her neck. "This scene looks quite odd…"

Both parties seemed to enjoy the game of chicken, waiting for the other to move first. A silence so pure, drowned the room as the pressure in the room escalated, it seemed his sense of hearing might be faulty. An eerie feeling rose from Felrick as he watched the scene unfolding beyond the barrier, the two figures in a stand-off, each in what looked to be a refusal to make the first move.

The Avatar lifted a gloved finger challenging her to approach by pulling it back and forth.

The Invitation answered in mere moments, a shimmering line appeared from beneath her feet and extended towards the Avatar. Her body erupted in lightning as her necklace burst with light which transmogrified into a masterly-crafted Katana. Her body jolted forward with no movement of her legs whatsoever.

The Avatar lifted his scepter sparking a rainbow of colors to stream from it. With a small a regal movement he brought the staff down and tapped the ground causing the earth to quake. The ground to the left and right of the Avatar crumbled and lurched until 2 world level enemies burst from it. With the appearance of new enemies, Mina paused for a moment, likely recalculating her moves as her eyes darted to and from the mirrors in her field of view.

"Two world level Enemies and the Final Boss!?"

"Against one single NPC…"

"At the same time?"

"We obviously made a mistake! We were tooo sloooow to enter the room!"

Common sense dictated that on average, a party with 36 players, all level 100, could take down a world level enemy. The scene produced even more confusion and hesitance from the guild members.

A single NPC could not take down 2 World level enemies simultaneously, especially not while also combating the main Boss which should reign supreme over all other bosses.

The party members looked at each other confused as to what exactly their role here was, and if they could even win.

Felrick felt unease and nausea in the pit of his stomach. All this preparation… and we were too slow to join the Final Battle...

The man transformed into his Dragon form raising his Hammer overhead. He swung it down with all the strength he could muster as he increased the size of his weapon to it's maximum 500%.

The swing carried all his desire, all his passion, all his regret, and all of his soul.

The hammer was caught by the barrier reversing the force and flinging Felrick backward into the door.

Dekar seeing this looked down to his weapon… I could try my trump card… but if I don't have it for the battle I'll be basically useless. The thoughts burning inside his head as he tightened his grip around the hilt of his World Level Item [Dusk and Dawn].

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Felrick screamed with ferocity as he jumped into the barrier but then rebounded backward.

Felrick looked down to a finger which wore a special ring named [Shooting Star]. It was one of the 3 copies that his guild now held. His only had 2 charges, but the use of one to get them past the barrier would be necessary. They couldn't leave the room through teleportation, and they couldn't walk back through the open doors as a force-field also prevented them from leaving.

The desperation inside Felrick reached critical mass. Felrick activated the ring showing a list of available wishes. He saw the one he wanted more than anything "I wish the Barrier was negated."

A harmonious hum rang out and light streamed from the ring as it attempted to grant the wish.

Tink tink tink. Small stars shot and streamed from the ring glittering in the air until a firm BOOOP noise sounded and all the ring's characteristics returned to normal.

"...Declined? HOW? WHY?!"

Felrick thrashed in frustration until finally dropping to his knees like his strings were cut. The sight was disparaging to the group as their proud leader was reduced to a whimpering and blundering idiot.

"Settle down! We need a clear head from you!"

Felrick pulled himself from the ground slowly as he took another stance like he wanted to ram the barrier again.

"FELRICK!"

The voice carried sorrow and worry, but it also carried a glimmer of hope.

Felrick snapped from his trance-like state. His desperation, fear, and anger dematerialized as if waking from a nightmare.

"It's a cinematic!" Aster shouted as he pointed to the two holes the World level Enemies popped out of. "I don't think we're supposed to be in there yet."

The words causing the group to spread out and crowd the barrier, pressed as close as they could to get the best view.

[Character Sheets]

#

Name: Felrick

Level: 100

Karma: -61

HP: 75

MP: 51

Atk: 85

Def: 92

Agility: 81

Sp. Atk: 78

Sp. Def: 83

Sp. Abil: 77

Resist: 85

Total Level: 707

...

Replica Virtuoso: 5

Spirit of Ancients: 5

Refined Art - Mana Manipulation: 5

Dragoncraft Saint: 10

Master of Chaos: 10

Weapon Alternator: 10

Dragonborn Knight: 15

Engineer: 3

?

?

#

Name: Prince Kazuma

Level: 100

Karma: 44

HP: 66

MP: 81

Atk: 30

Def: 47

Agility: 56

Sp. Atk: 79

Sp. Def: 77

Sp. Abil: 69

Resist: 75

Total Level: 580

...

Spellque Triple : 5

Resistance Nullifier: 5

Resourceless Casting: 5

Grand-master Magician: 5

Clearcast Flowstate: 5

Arcane Specializer: 10

Spellque Double: 10

Red Mage: 15

Enchanter: 11

Templar: 8

Illusionist: 1

?

?

#

[TL:DR Notes Section:]

Sorry for the delays everyone. As someone who recently had set out to accomplish my work on schedule, It's quite difficult and something to get used to. I really wanted to finish the Yggdrasil arc with this chapter but I just had too much text and ideas to fit into a single chapter and It became a chore to pull everything together.

Soooo... I split the chapter apart to tackle the lead up to the climax of the first Arc. I can't wait to spoil you all with chapter 3.

That being said, Leaving a Review and/or Message will be greatly appreciated. I hunger to improve, both the story and my skills. Any help the community would offer would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. I have a full time job, but I want to update as frequently as I can with still retaining the semblance of a life. Please understand if any delays come up.

I'd like to personally thank these individuals for leaving a review! Every review is born from effort, and I can't thank the community enough for spending that effort writing to me! Thanks everyone.

USERS:

Hybreed33

pwashington

Kamen Rider Evol

Demigoosebestboy

monsterhat

solarblaster

SteveTheBeast

Special thanks to user: Pterodactyl - for the outstanding review and engagement. Your effort stood head and shoulders above the rest and know that it was greatly appreciated.

[Estimated Chapter 3 release date: 10/20/2018]

(It's possible that I will release early, so keep your eyes peeled.)