Might as Well

Dodging through the enormous mass of monsters all rushing at them and at the city, while making sure they kept together, was a rather big task. Not to mention the magical and non-magical attacks flying all over the place, be they launched by the city guards or the numerous players on the wall.

They had to dodge all sorts of elemental-natured attacks as they rained down on the monsters, burning, freezing, or even dicing them all up in an effort to gather as many experience points as possible. Sam found it hard to determine which attacks were accidentally aimed in their direction and which were purposefully sent their way to slow them down, or even take them out.

The team had to rely on Sam’s and Clarissa’s shielding, though Sam would freely admit that his piddly Shadow Shield paled in contrast to Clarissa’s shields. Thankfully, she had focused on learning many supporting skills, which included a giant shield that sprung up around them, encircling the team and protecting them as half-globe made of hexagons.

Sam had seen the shield used previously when some kind of mosquito monsters besieged them in the marsh and knew they were good enough to protect them. After all, everyone knew that hexagons were the best-a-gons!

Cutting through a group of mad sheep, their fur bristling with acidic-looking liquids, he looked around.

Dan was in his element, as in everything was on fire, and he was flexing with his club held in front of him. Katie was, for once, silently swinging her buzzing greatsword, decapitating dozens of monsters with one swing of her weapon. Sam was almost blinded by the light that seemed to be enveloping her. ‘Probably some kind of berserker passive… The more she kills, the stronger it is…’ Sam mused, then he turned his attention toward Clarissa.

The healer was continuously walking towards their goal in the middle of the group, staff held by two hands and her face showing how intensely she was concentrating.

“You alright?” he called out, rather loudly to make sure she heard him over the cavalcade of noises.

She glanced at him and nodded, then for a moment with one hand let go of the staff and made a simple gesture. The gesture meant that she was around seventy-five percent with her mana. And, seeing as thanks to their team not requiring much healing, Sam judged that she would be able to hold until they reached the giant tree.

Answering with a gesture of his own, meaning ‘hold’, then he waited until he received an affirmative answer and with a satisfied nod, he reached for his own mana and renewed his attempt to cull the seemingly never-ending horde of monsters rampaging around them.

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful if one didn’t count that they were continuously fighting for their lives. After the horde of mad sheep, covered in a liquid that was definitely acid, as demonstrated when Katie simply kicked one of them at a nearby player who decided to be sneaky and try to killsteal. The poor guy simply melted into the ground as the sheep exploded on him.

Then came the now familiar Rock Bears, eyes ablaze with rage, ready to tear them apart. Having learned from when he was beset by them back in the mountains, Dan instantly unleashed a hail of white-hot Fire Spears at their weak points.

Then came slithering several types of snakes, with a few of them sporting thick scales that required bigger effort to cut through, some of them small but numerous, swarming their intended target only to burn up in the almost permanent fire field that Dan maintained.

Sam was rather thankful that over the last few in-game days, he took the time to give all of his teammates a few lessons on Mana Control, thus increasing their capabilities with mana, which translated into increased mana regeneration.

The team continued their trek towards the great tree, while overhead the sky pulsed with the multicolored material that showed up after the sky literally broke. The other holes also began dropping globs of technicolor materials, which Sam knew would become some of the biggest dungeons. And if someone was paying attention to these, then they would have a head-start on discovering them.

Thankfully, before he left, he made sure Lucy would have someone keeping an eye out for them. Dodging a swipe from another Rock Bear, almost fully covered by craggy stone, he leaned back a little, then stepped aside as the monster slammed down after the swipe didn’t connect and quickly struck out with his sword, which he had covered with wind mana shaped into a bigger sword around it, at the soft belly of the beast.

He didn’t have time to watch it fall, as mountain goats of all things began rushing them with a giant battle bleat echoing around them. Their horns were unnaturally big, shone with black light, and carried with them a sort of repelling force. This was made very clear, as Sam and his team watched the monsters rush for them, going through the crowded battlefield like a snowplow through freshly fallen snow.

And while watching the Shield-Head Goats throwing people up in the air was amusing, they still would have to take care of them. Which was rather hard from the front. Sam looked around, looking for inspiration, and after a second, he realized what they had to do.

“Kitten!”

The girl finished the Rock Bear that she was, for some reason cutting up into pieces, and turned towards him. Sam could see the manic grin on her face even through her faceplate.

He leaned forward, interweaved his fingers, and looked at her. “Jump!” While tilting his head towards the approaching group of angry goats. Katie glanced between him and the monsters, then nodded and in the same motion launched forward, sprinting fast at Sam. At the last moment, she stepped into Sam’s hands, jumping upwards as he launched her even higher.

For a moment, the berserker girl hung in the air, then she began to spin around, turning into a blender while aiming downwards. She slammed into the middle of charging goats, throwing them all around and naturally breaking their momentum.

The next few seconds were rather bloody…

After taking care of the last group of monsters, with Sam bemoaning their loot-less existence, they continued towards the tree that started looking rather large. In actuality, Shield-Head Goats were rather rare, usually found in areas that had a high concentration of magnetic ores. Bucks’ horn was a rather useful material that could be used to craft excellent shields thanks to their repelling properties.

Thankfully soon they were through the hardest part: getting through the crowd.

Near the tree, which was surrounded by giant roots coming up from the ground, acting as a sort of wall that protected the portal, there were fewer and fewer monsters. And those that they could see were much stronger than the common rabble.

Giant wolves were prowling around the root wall, not joining the fight. Rock Bears the size of small hills stood around, simply soaking up any errant magic or physical projectile that went near the wall. Giant snakes slithered around, occasionally snacking on one of the smaller monsters that weren’t fast enough to join the rushing crowd.

There were many monsters, small and big, filling the space, but curiously there was a small corridor, directly leading toward the only gap in the root wall.

‘So, the boss of the area wants to have snacks, but doesn’t want to leave their area… Good to know…’ he mused as he took in the scene.

Throwing a few looks at the others, Sam saw that everybody was raring to go, so he nodded and pointed toward the gap while making a sign that all of them could see.

The sign meant one simple thing: boss fight in the next area.

Clarissa looked determined and gripped her shining staff even harder with one hand while drinking a mana potion. Dan simply flexed, his bare upper body glistening with sweat, while Katie began hopping from one foot to another in excitement.

Looking back at the battlefield, Sam saw that other groups weren’t far from them. Hell, there were even monster groups that changed direction and looked ready to tear them apart. Though, honestly, he was more afraid of the player groups.

Nodding to himself, he gave the signal and his team began sprinting through the corridor that was left open for anyone stupid enough to step inside the walled-off area. The giant monsters that would count as mini-bosses snapped and growled at them, but none of them even moved an appendage to stop them.

Within seconds they stepped through the threshold, and for a long moment, there was only silence, the walls made of jumbled-up tree roots cutting off the sound of the battle behind them. Glancing back, he saw that as soon as they entered, several monsters, notably giant Rock Bears moved to prevent anyone from entering.

It was an interesting and organic approach to game design. Their behavior made perfect sense. The monster inside the wall was strong enough to command them, but for some reason didn’t want to leave the area, thus they made sure that the prey would get to them, and when the prey entered, they would move to prevent its escape.

Otherwise, they entered the boss arena, and they could only escape if they defeated the boss monsters or went back the way they came in, while also defeating the mini-bosses.

All in all, the result was them inside the area surrounded by the tangled roots of the giant tree. In front of them an area littered with corpses artfully piled up high, with several giant skeletons of different monsters interspersed between them. And on the other end was the swirling portal, pulsing and strobing rhythmically.

It took him barely a second to take all this in before the boss appeared.

THUD!

There was a great gust of wind that stirred up the dust in the area, then they heard a few powerful wing beats, and then they had to brace themselves as the wind buffeted past them, clearing out the dust cloud and revealing the very wyvern that appeared when the first fracture broke the sky.

It stood on its two hind legs, its wings spread out in a threatening manner and then it let out an ear-bursting screech, then it fixed its two beady eyes on the team. Its dark green scales gleamed in the light of the pulsating portal as it stared menacingly at them. He was pretty sure that only magic allowed it to stay so upright without beating its wings.

Sam took a small step forward and spoke up in a whisper.

“I will distract it, ignore everything else, and head to the portal.”

“Got it!”

“Yes!”

Clarissa just nodded, holding her staff in a death grip.

Sam took a deep breath, then before the monster posturing in front of them could do anything, he activated Shadow Burst, then with a small Earth Wall bursting up under him, he launched himself straight next to the wyvern's head, directing his jump with the Wind Movement skill.

The wyvern had barely a moment to comprehend what had happened before his sword flashed out, enveloped by both mana and wind-natured mana, sharpened to the extreme, and cut into the monster’s head with a mighty swing.

It let out another earth-shattering screech, and Sam saw his Mana Shield drop for being so close to the noise, as it basically counted as a sonic attack.

Sadly, the wyvern was an actual boss, so the cut, no matter how overpowered it was compared to regular players, still only managed to cause a small wound on the monster’s scaled hide.

Fortunately, it wasn’t his goal to kill the beast. With the number of people heading to the same place, the fight would turn into a bloody free-for-all between all the guilds and other players, hoping to get the loot that would never come.

He moved forward, sliding down on the wyvern’s back as it snapped at him, then with a powerful jump launched himself off the monster as if its tail was a ramp, just in time for the wyvern to turn around. It snapped at him again its mouth full of sharp teeth that wanted nothing more than to tear Sam apart.

With a quick burst of wind mana, he moved to the other side of the head and delivered another slash. The wyvern, now fully bursting with rage, the mana almost shimmering around it in a red haze, turned once again, its powerful jaws attempting to devour Sam.

And while he played a very dangerous game of catch with the wyvern, always keeping just out of reach and close enough to the ground that it wouldn’t try to fly, the others ran around the fight, heading straight for the portal.

For another few seconds, he played keep away, then as the rest of the team was a step away from stepping through the portal, he gathered mana into his hand and with a brief burst, turned it into a light ball right into the face of the wyvern.

Ignoring its painful screech, he used Wind Movement, plus a nice helping of a burst of wind, to rocket towards the portal.

He landed right next to the others, but he didn’t stop using the momentum gained from his brief flight. He held his arms out and basically pulled the others through the portal, catching them in a gentle clothesline.

There was a brief burst of intense mana around him, but it instantly subsided, and Sam found himself on the wooden ground, lying on Dan’s muscled back while the others groaned under him.

“Get off me, you oaf!”

“Huh, that feels soft!”

“Puffball, no!”

The next minute was spent untangling themselves and making sure everything followed them through the portal. Clarissa glared at Dan, who was looking everywhere but at the angry healer, and Katie was lecturing the unrepentant-looking Puffball about not using claws on friends.

Sam took a quick look around the area where they found themselves. It was as if they were inside a termite-created hole in the tree. A small corridor, wall, ground, and roof made of wood, crisscrossed with thin veins of the same multicolored light that they had seen in the hole in the sky and with a slight dusting of soil everywhere. Lighting was provided with glowing lichen up high.

Then came the notification screens.

[Congratulations, you and your team were the first to enter a fracture!]

[You gained the title, Fracture Diver!]

[Fracture Diver: You dove head-first into the unknown. It was either very brave or suicidal. Gain +1% experience points in fractures as well as a 1% increased chance for better drops.]

The title wasn't anything to write home about, but at least Sam could comfort himself with the knowledge that the game didn't give out super powerful titles for firsts.

[New quest acquired!]

[Topping the tree!]

[You stepped through the portal and found yourself in a mysterious place. Explore it and look for a way to close the portal and save the city of Ironwood.]

[Time Limit: As long as the gates hold]

[Penalty: Death, Loss of property]

[Reward: ???]

[Hidden Bonus: ???]

Sam waited for everyone to finish with the reading, then spoke up.

“Ready?”

Clarissa nodded resolutely, while Katie and Dan exclaimed excitedly.

“Sure thing, boss!” yelled Dan in his Deep voice, posing with his club. “I’m really fired up!”

Katie simply squealed. “Let’s kill the beasties!”

Sam answered with his own excited grin, and after a quick check of his equipment, he began walking in the only direction he could.

They had a dungeon to conquer!