SLAM. Ding!

Daily Quest: Massacre

Enter an Instant Dungeon were creatures attack in waves. Kill them all. Return by nightfall.

+1000 Exp

+Rare Item

Accept Decline

John shrugged and hit accept. If the Developer is giving it to me, they must believe that I can do it. He stretched and put on a pair of boxers and a pair of basketball shorts, not wanting a repeat of the day before. He walked downstairs and started cooking breakfast: a simple scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.

New Skill: Craft level 1

Your mana flows from your heart into your hands, guiding them to manifest your thoughts more perfectly.

-10 mana

+1-10 common items

John chuckled at the new skill. That’s going to be fun to grind. He served two plates just as his mother was walking downstairs.

“Wow, John. That looks delicious. Since when do you cook?”

“I’ve been bored all day and watching the food channel on tv so I thought I’d try something simple to thank you for all you do for me.”

She sat down and began to eat. She moaned appreciatively.

“It’s delicious.”

She said when she finished savoring her first bite. She continued digging in as John started washing the pots and pans he had gotten dirty while cooking. She finished with a satisfied sigh.

“That was a wonderful meal, honey. I hope you keep learning new things. Maybe one day you can cook us a nice dinner.”

She glanced at the clock and her eyes widened.

“Oh, I’m late. By honey!”

She rushed out of the house and left John alone with his plate of food. He looked at it. He wasn’t hungry. He took a bite. It tasted okay at best. John shook his head and sighed.

She’s too nice to me sometimes.

Not one to waste food, though, John ate it all. He looked at his hp/mp bars.

2x hp regen 8hrs

2x hp regen 8hrs

He nodded in satisfaction.

Now to find a wave dungeon… Later. Ignis could use some training.

John walked into the garage, and cast Call Summon. Ignis appeared on the floor in front of him. John smiled and held a pair of fireballs. Ignis sensed his intent and lowered herself into a battle-ready position. They circled each other, studying each other’s movements. John flicked his left wrist and Ignis jumped towards where she though the fireball would fly, but the fireball in John’s right hand flew at her instead. Ignis growled in frustration as she had to change direction and bit into the fireball. John let loose a barrage of four more fireballs, in quick succession and far apart. Ignis reached all of them with acrobatic ease. John’s smile grew into a grin as he saw Ignis’s improved anticipation of attacks. One last test. John began throwing fireballs that he knew were impossibly far apart for Ignis’s body and agility. She growled ever more ferociously and let loose flames from her mouth, hitting each fireball with precision and accuracy. John sat with a proud smile.

Good job, Ignis.

Ignis pranced around the garage, happy with the praise of her master. John steadied his breathing and cast sparks, wondering how they would look. His hands were enveloped in webs of red electricity, crackling with energy. Ignis stopped her victory lap and tilted her head at John, slowly walking towards him. John stopped casting sparks. They dissipated into his skin. John cast bolt, already pretty sure what it would look like. A sphere of red lightning emerged from his fingertips, making the hair on his arms stand on end. Ignis was deeply interested in John’s new powers. John was a bit worried that Ignis would try to eat the electricity like the fireballs, but was sure that she could take the damage easily if she did. And of course, she did. One déjà vu inducing explosion later, John sat up and looked for Ignis. She stood where she was standing before, her head tilted to the other side. Sparks arced up and down her flaming body, like his aura. John cast observe. Ignis had a new status effect.

Flame Body(passive): +10% damage on all attacks

Sparky(passive): +10% agility, 50% damage taken from electric attacks

John fell back into a laying position and laughed a bit hysterically… A bit.

This is all so trippy. How did I end up in this? I didn’t sign up for this Beta. There has to be a better answer than just chance.

Ignis nuzzled into John, purring.

Foxes purr? Whatever. I have to find a place to complete my daily quest… … … After a few minutes of fox cuddles.

---

It was noon. A young woman stepped out of a subway station Downtown. She walked down the street with purpose and determination, her head held high. Her long black hair was tied back in a braid that reached to her wide hips. Her piercing hazel eyes shone with eagerness and slight anxiety. An intuitive person might think she was on her way to a date. She was following a trail. His trail. The faint traces of his powerful aura. She was eager to meet him. His existence gave her purpose. She was determined to find him and make him hers. She was worried that she would lose his trail. She turned off the street and into an alley. The trail went up the side of a building. She frowned.

---

Half past noon. Just south of the Lower East Side. Edge of the Thundering Timberland. John had never understood why they were called that. It wasn’t like there were always thunderstorms over the forest or something cool like that. He shrugged and walked in. If his theory was correct, he should walk into a barrier soon enough.

This is really unreliable. I need to figure out how to make one for myself. This could take forev-

John walked into solid air. He sighed and cast Call Summon. Ignis appeared in a ball of flame and electricity, burning a few bushes.

Ding!

John looked up. There was a giant info box floating in the air with a timer on it.

Wave: 1

Enemies Remaining: 15/15

Time until next wave: 4:57 minutes

15 enemies? How strong are they?

There was a rustling in the bushes. No. The rustling WAS the bushes. John cast observe.

Level 1 Bush Rats

Weak mob mentality creatures. First line of defense of forested areas. Will throw themselves at enemies with no regard for their lives.

The bushes started to dash at John, squeaking and rustling. John cast fireball and threw one at one of the rats. It was incinerated with a last squeak.

+1 Exp.

John grinned. He cast flames and started mowing the lawn.

---

Wave 9

Enemies Remaining: 2/450

Time until next wave: 10:27 minutes

John and Ignis were exterminators. With each blow, a rat died. With each wave of flames, a dozen rats died. Ignis tore into the ranks of the enemy; her flaming teeth ripping rats apart, her fiery paws incinerating all that dared come into her path. John stood right under the timer, in the center of the battle. His Gamer’s Spirit had taken over, calculating when was the perfect time to cast fireball and how long he could keep flames burning. Every now and then he would run out of mana and have to parkour dodge the mindless tackles of the rats. He had taken a total of 203 damage, and dealt a total of 4,078 damage. He had burned away swaths of animated bushes with flames, now level 5, and incinerated groups of up to six at a time with fireball, now level 3. Ignis was now level 6, and could unleash devastating (at least to the rats) electric breath attacks. She finished off the last two rats and stood by her master’s side, now as tall as his chest.

She’s tall enough to ride now. I wonder if she would be okay with that.

John meditated the last ten minutes, filling up his mana and health bars.

BONG

The usually calm ding that signaled the next round was replaced by a gong.

Boss fight

Enemies remaining: 1/1

Time until next wave: deathmatch

John squared his shoulders. He was ready for this. He cast observe and looked around him. He saw nothing new. He narrowed his eyes and continued scanning. Ignis raised her snout and sniffed the air. Her electric fur crackled intensely.

Vines shot down from above, wrapping around John and yanking him upwards. They tried to take Ignis as well, but burned under the intense heat. John was thrust into a new arena, one whose floor was made of the branches of the canopy. As one would imagine, there were many holes in the floor. Luckily for John, parkour was made for just this type of terrain. He stood tall, balancing on a particularly thick branch. This arena was larger than the one on the forest floor, with no real marked edges. John didn’t dare look down, but he could hear Ignis fighting off the vines that tried to bring her up. John cast observe and looked around again. This time he looked up as well, determined not to fall for the same trick twice.

A smart choice, because right above him was a Dryad riding a panther, leaping silently from branch to branch. The Dryad was the same brown as the bark of the forest around her, and the panther looked skinless. It was green and made of vines woven together to look like muscles, contracting and relaxing as it gracefully wove through the canopy. The Dryad was armed with a spear and a round shield made of bark.

Level 10 Dryad (Mounted)

Guardian of the Forest, Cavalry Warrior who has been trained to think on the battlefield. Mainly hit and run tactics. Both the Dryad and its mount are capable of fighting independently if one is to die.

Needless to say, John was glad to finally be challenged. He watched the Dryad’s movements, analyzing how she moved and predicting where she will be next. He cast fireball, and the Dryad’s movements drastically changed. They became more erratic, fearful. Evasive maneuvers. John sighed and started chasing the Dryad.

It was a bluff, and John had fallen for it. As soon as John got close to her, the panther did a 180 and the Dryad stabbed at him with her spear. He dodged it with a cartwheel onto another branch and shot a fireball at her. With inhuman speed, she raised her shield and the wooden thing absorbed his fire. His Gamer’s Spirit kept him from getting too freaked out by that as he dropped from the crouching position he had landed in. He held on to the branch he was on with one hand and swung to another as he cast flames at the panther. The panther yowled in pain and darted away.

20 dmg

John steadied himself on his new branch and watched the Dryad circle around for another charge. He cast fireball and aimed at the panther. He shot three in quick succession, aiming for its legs and head. Only one shot hit its mark. The panther saw them coming and dodged one, and the Dryad blocked the other with her shield.

40 dmg

The Dryad came into range of her spear and started her attack. John dodged a full blow by doing a backflip that kicked the spear away, but still was grazed by the tip.

-10 hp

His kick unbalanced the Dryad, and John took the opportunity to throw a fireball. It hit her before she could raise her shield.

40 dmg

She hissed in pain and the panther kept running past John. He looked around for a defensible position in the arena. There weren’t any. He took a deep breath and looked to the Dryad again. She was circling for another charge. He checked his mana. 140/165. He readied two more fireballs.

The Dryad drew nearer. He was in range of her spear. She stabbed at him. He slid under her thrust and slapped the panther with the fireballs. She slapped him in the face with the butt of the spear as he slid by.

Surprise Crit! 100 dmg

Surprise Crit! 100 dmg

-22 hp

The panther yowled in pain and started to burn, the flames spreading from where John had hit it. The Dryad screeched and leapt from her burning mount. She arced in a majestic trajectory landing on a branch farther than John would have guessed possible. She was breathing heavily. John leapt from branch to branch, slowly spiraling upwards. The Dryad was kneeling on her branch, seemingly praying for her fallen comrade. John reached a high point and readied two fireballs. He fired them at her and readied two more, watching his mana bar. The fireballs were about to hit when the Dryad leapt out of the way. They exploded into the branch where she just was and the resulting cloud of smoke camouflaged her movements. John scanned the battle field for her. Left, right, up, down. She was nowhere in sight. John glanced at the timer. The battle was still going on.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. John dropped from the branch he was on and onto the one below it. The Dryad’s spear stuck out of the tree where John had been a few seconds ago. She growled in annoyance and lunged out of where she had been hiding with rapid spear strikes. John triple backflipped away from her onslaught, receiving two cuts.

-25 hp

He dropped from the final branch he landed on and swung back towards the Dryad. He was directly under her as he charged up a double dose of sparks and let loose. The red lightning shot from his hands with ferocious speed and struck the Dryad.

Surprise Crit! 20 dmg

10 dmg

10 dmg

10 dmg

She shrieked and fell from her branch, flying past John towards the ground where Ignis was still battling the vines that tried to bring her up to the canopy. The vines tried to catch her, but Ignis stopped them. She hit the ground with a sickening crunch.