A city built on a hill, and shaped like a mountain. The highest buildings were in the centre, while the smallest ones were at the edge. No wall surrounded this city because it was surrounded by vibrant green mountains and steep hills on one side, and the sea on the other. The only way to get in or out was through a single passage in between the mountains. Alakai knew the city of Malystare well, yet right now he couldn't believe he was seeing it in front of him. The last thing he remembered was blacking out while playing the same game this city came from. But he was there himself, in the flesh, for real. "No way..." The man mumbled, looking around, looking at himself, then rubbing his eyes and doing the same all over again. "This must be a dream..." He slapped himself against his face as hard as he could, yet the only thing he felt was a slight sting. "Unreal...this doesn't feel like a dream..." Luckily for him, Alakai had always been able to think things through rationally. And this was no exception.

Right now the man was standing in the cathedral of the city. A respawn area. At first he was alone. But then suddenly something flashed behind him. Another person had just spawned there as well! "What? Where am I?!" The person behind him exclaimed. He turned around, recognizing the character as a Bard. He couldn't give the man much explanation though. "I thought it was impossible for something like this to happen. But...I think this is the world in Elder Tale. Look around you. This looks like Malystare doesn't it?" But that was about all Alakai wanted to explain. He had no time to deal with other people panicking. Even if there was a small chance that this all was really happening, he wanted to at least be prepared for that. And since Elder Tale was an mmorpg, your level and gear could make or break you in a world like this.

"Let's see..." If this was really a game world, surely there were ways to open your inventory or some such right? He pressed his index finger foward, but nothing happened. "Guess it doesn't work the way I imagined it, if at all..." He started walking again, trying to think of other ways to see inventory or any kind of menu. "Inventory?" Suddenly a window popped up in front of him, which made him fall back in shock. "Holy shit it really worked!" He thought to himself as he stared wide-eyed at the window. "Well...uh...let's see..." Nothing but the basic monk's clothes was equipped at the moment, but his inventory had several items.

-Novice's lunchbox, heal 50 hp and mana per second for 10 seconds, removes 'hunger' and 'thirst' effect. x5
-Claw bracers, basic monk weapon, +20 attack.
-Free pre-order voucher for a horse.
-Wraith's ring, +10% all stats, usable up until level 20. (Special beta event item.)

"I even have my pre-order and beta event items..." He though as he idly walked towards the city square. Here and there some other players, or, adventurers, were running be him. They were probably panicking or trying to find a way out. But Alakai wasn't paying attention to them. His mind was racing to figure out if wherever this was, was indeed like the game, and where it differed. Not everything a game did could be translated to real life, or the other way around, after all. "Guess that means I'm keeping my advantage, even here. Plus ten percent all stats will help me survive a lot better. Wait...does it even work?" He decided to point his finger again, and this time it did work. A new window popped up, asking which action he wanted to take. He pressed on equip, and immediately he could feel that this definitely had an effect. It was a very odd and unfamiliar feeling though. "I think I could get used to this kind of world..." He mused with a slight grin.

Next up, though, he would have to make a plan. First he had to find out if there were more game-mechanics like the inventory. "Character screen, Menu, skills, abilities-" They all didn't work so far, though right now his mind was just wandering to random things, not paying much attention. He couldn't help but think of his ingame friends, wondering if this had happened to any of them as well. "-friends--" And pling! A friends list popped up. "Wait...does that mean-- I can check--" He quickly looked at the window, using his finger to scroll through the list. So far, none of them were online it seemed...

“No stop!” The sound of a female shrieking in panic rung through the streets. Sitting up quickly Kali found herself on the street in a familiar setting. She had woken from a bad dream, at least that was she thought it had been but somehow it felt like she had found herself in another dream. Forcing herself to stand she immediately recognized the familiar buildings, they were buildings in the city of Malystare… this had been her last log out point. At least that was what she last remembered from last night. With a heavy groan she lifted her hand and shook her head, she had passed out last night on the table. She had been exhausted after work but insisted on playing since she was behind a few levels. Still now she was in game she figured it’d be best to level up now!

She needed to leave the city grounds towards the field where some low level monsters were, she had been grinding for a bit but it was difficult. She had mistakenly chosen a pure healing class, meaning that levelling along took a lot longer. Without wasting another second she dashed away from the main city square only to bump into another player. The impact resulted in her falling back onto her bottom as she gasped out with surprise. That had hurt, the cobblestone ground wasn’t exactly the most comfortable spot to land over. The person in front looked flustered, warrior class she assumed by the way he was dressed. “Holy shit you’re an elf! Oh god, so you really do lose your identity,” the warrior claimed as he shook his head. Kali however was a tad bit confused over what he was talking about. Of course she was an elf it was the race she had selected. “You’re an elf too, or did you randomize your character?” Kali asked as she rubbed her bottom trying to relieve the pain. However the warrior in front of her shook his head. “You don’t get it do you! We’re in the game! All of us! This isn’t possible, I can’t log out!” He shouted as Kali noticed a few others dashing by her in a rush to get somewhere. She raised a brow and her lips parted ready to ask another question but the man in front of her had disappeared.

“How preposterous, just go to your settings dimwit,” she whispered before glancing around. It took her a minute to release that she had no buttons to click on, there was no ‘I’ for inventory or ‘M’ for Map. All there was her staff in her right hand. She took see the levels of others around her, but other than that it was clear. Her heart sunk as she immediately began to worry. Surely it had to be a dream, there was no way for a game to physically suck someone into it. “Inventory!” She shouted only for it to pop up in her face as she screamed and fell back from shock. Placing her heart over her beating heart she tried to calm herself as she called out for Settings however nothing appeared. So she repeated the action, practically shouting settings which seemed to have caught the attention of a few because they started doing it. With a frustrated growl she recalled up her inventory and recognized the items she had in there. She had her old starter robe which she had planned on selling but had forgotten. A Mana potions and a ring. With a sigh she closed it and continued her way towards the exit, her hand touched the buildings occasionally feeling how real they were. Others continued to panic which she couldn’t blame, still she thought that in due time she would be woken up by her alarm for work.

Till then she had plans on making the most of this. Her staff was boring she needed another four more levels until she could select a subclass and get rid of this old staff. With a new goal in mind she left the large gates in hopes of fighting against those rabid rabbits. “So what was that skill called again?” She whispered to herself as she tapped the top of her staff against her chin.

And there, at the bottom of the list, one single person was online. "Holy shit, even friends lists work...does that mean--" He pressed on Kali's name, and a window popped up saying 'Telepathy activated', before disappearing again. Telepathy was the game's way of explaining voice chat over long distances. But now he didn't have a mic... "Uh, hello? Kali? I guess you're in here as well... I'm trying out telepathy...can you hear me?" An answer came indeed, and in his head no less! Like they were using real telepathy right now. "Holy shit...this is so awesome." He muttered, forgetting for a moment that telepathy transferred all voice, since he didn't have a way to mute a microphone. "Let's meet up...I don't know if we can still resurrect like in the game, and you're online and a healer, so..." At the very least she could keep him alive while he did the fighting. In a best case scenario her resurrection would also work, since it was a spell and not a general game mechanic in Elder Tale. It would give them an advantage if they stuck together in any case. Plus Alakai had never been a social person in real life. Talking to a player now gave too much of a 'real life' fibe, so he would prefer doing this with someone he knew. "I'll be at the weapons and armor shop I showed you last week."

As he talked, the monk was headed for the local weapons and and armor shops, which were right next to each other. He still had starting gear. But luckily he also had 500 gold left from the hardcore mob grinding he had done. Since he was a beta tester, he had already picked out a spot to grind some high value items to get some quick gold, get better gear, and try to boost himself ahead of anyone that wasn't in the beta. That money came in handy now. And the plan he had set out for himself in the beta might still work as well. Though it depended on if npc's still gave quests. If not, things would be significantly slower, even if that was the same for everyone. Most people around him were still too shocked or terrified of the unfamiliar to act though. Which could give him even more of an advantage. It gave Kali an advantage as well if she wanted to party. But she seemed like a player with good intentions, so he didn't mind her trying to rise with him to the top if they could get along for a longer time.

“So how does this work. Usually I press 1 for this. Number 1!” She shouted as she pointed her staff at the rabbit, but that had no effect. “Skill 1?” she spoke but again had no reaction. “Okay okay maybe the name of the skill does it?” She probably looked crazy talking to myself, but it was a mystery. She had no mouse, no keyboard so commands were strange. “Smite?” she said the skill of the name though it sounded more of a question. Immediately the rabbit snarled as he dashed towards her. “No! Hey stop! Ow! Quit it. Smite!” Kali began cursing as the rabbit scratched and kicked. It was enraged with her trying to attack it, but after a few minutes she managed to kill the fearsome creature. Sitting on the grass she was healing herself from the damage surprised that it had actually hurt.

Soon enough she heard a voice in her head one that was familiar. Immediately she opened her friend list and saw that it was Alakai contacting her. “Hey!” she practically shouted unsure if he would hear her without a mic. “Yeah! I can hear you! I know right?! I look totally weird shouting, but no mic!” She exclaimed before laughing. She agreed with meeting up, she could ask him some questions about what was going on and having a monk fight while she healed in the back was a lot easier than smiting consistently. “I’ll see you there.” She replied before picking up her staff as she began her journey towards back towards the city. She reached the shop within ten minutes though she felt herself sweating from the heat. The robe wasn't really much to her liking, but she needed it for the stats it provided her at the moment. She knew at later levels the gear would look a lot different, plus she was hoping that there was a chance she could design it. She soon caught sight of him and patted him on the back as she grinned, “I’m surprised you aren't panicking like the others,” she mentioned before glancing around the shop. She didn't need any armor at the moment since she was happy with what she but there was the issue of not having any money. She wondered if he wanted to buy anything, she was still quite a low level and she only had 200 gold on her she was saving up for a new staff since the spell power was relatively weak.

(The shop actually also sells cloth. It's still considered 'armor' in terms of item qualifications, and these shops only have some basic low level gear. So no special shops. Later on, each type of armor will have it's own shop and such.)

First the weapon shop. He entered a bit cautiously, feeling self-conscious as if walking into a real store. But the blacksmith greeted him warmly just like he had always done in the game. "Mornin' Adventurer! Here for a new weapon?" Alakai almost sighed of relief and put up a smile. "Yea. I saved up some gold, and I have this old pair of claws. It They might not be worth much, but..." He actually kind of felt guilty now, selling old, slightly banged up claws to this man. "Sure, no problem! So fist weapons right?" The blacksmith spoke, walking to one of his cabinets and opening it, revealing 3 different sets of fist weapons. "Beside claws, I have a katar-type, and some metal-reinforced gloves. Don't let the gloves' appearance fool ya though, they have some magic lingering on them." "Let me see the gloves." Alakai mused. As soon as he had them in his hands a status window popped up.

Reinforced gloves, +10 attack (+25 bonus), +2 agility.

"A new beginner item, with magic on it no less. It's stats look good." Alakai mused. "Stats? What are those?" Alakai looked up, surprised that the blacksmith asked an out-of-character question. "Ah...uhm...well, I...we...we adventurers have devised a special ranking system to determine if something is better or worse than what we already use, I guess?" "Sounds complicated... Anyway, I can give you 20 gold for the claws, the katar is 75 gold, and the gloves are 200. Which one would you like?" The gloves were expensive. He didn't want to spend all of his gold right away, considering how he might actually need food and a place to live in this world. But still, those stats were awesome. "I'll take the gloves then." "Very well, adventurer, here you go." They exchanged items and gold, and off Alakai went to the shop next door.

Just as he was browsing the racks for monk's outfits he was tapped on the shoulder. He jumped a little but quickly regained composure. "I could say the same for you. You seem quite accepting of it all as well. Guess we have that in common?" The man returned his gaze to the outfits, and finally decided on something really simple. A beige and brown overcoat with hood, together with loose-fitting pants held up by a belt. It didn't give any extra stats, but looked better than the standard monastery-like outfit monks wore. "I guess this'll do... And now I lastly need my signature had back. Well, from when I was in the beta at least." He turned around, headed for the hat stands, and picked out a rather odd looking hat. Like a brown version of those hats mineworkers wore in in the industrial age. He brought them all to the counter, paid for them, and tried equipping it. "Inventory." Nothing happened. "Er..." He frowned, looked at the shopkeep, then at Kali, and then around the shop. "Be right back." He spoke, heading to what looked like fitting rooms. There he manually put everything on, and came out again two minutes later. "Guess not everything works the same any more..." He mused, nodding for Kali to follow outside again.

"So ah...where to start..." He thought out loud, looking around before looking at Kali. And only now he noticed that a totally hot elf girl was standing right next to him. He quickly pushed that thought away, feeling his cheeks warm up a little, and thought of what to say. "I'm guessing you know just as much as me...You suddenly woke up in this world as well, right? I've heard several other people that it happened to as well. And...trying to think about what exactly happened seems impossible at the moment. So I thought...why not assume the worst case scenario of being stuck here, take advantage of the confusion, and get a head start on everyone else? I mean, I know some great leveling spots from the beta, and I assume they still exist. But going alone might be dangerous for anyone, so...I thought I'd ask you." Damn this was awkward. This situation reminded him of that one time he as a highschool nerd had to talk to the most popular girl of his class about an assignment. "Come on...get yourself together. You're 25 now, act like it!" He thought to himself as he awaited her answer.

((Ahh okay I corrected it, my bad. ))

Kali wasn’t too surprised that he was startled by her, he had always appeared to be a reserved quiet person. Though his words strongly reminded her of their situation, it seemed like he was pleased with the situation. She however wasn’t entirely sure if she was okay with their situation, she was still slowly coming to terms of this actually being real considering the amount of pain she felt from that rabbit. If this was real then she figured it would be best to find a way out eventually, but till then they might as well train so that they could get ahead of the others. She stood there with a grin as she watched him pick out a hat. Still she found it amusing that he felt the need to go into the fitting rooms. With a wide grin she watched him enter the fitting rooms whilst she kept the shop keeper company.

Once he was done she followed him back outside stretching her arms out as she kept her eyes fixed on him. “Yes that’s what happened, I’m having a little of trouble believing it myself because well it seems a little surreal doesn’t it? I ran into this guy earlier and he well was pretty panicked, told me about being stuck here, but if we really are stuck here then you have a great point. I think we ought to start levelling, but I’ll be frank I have little damage so it’d probably be best if I just you know hang around behind and heal you?” she suggested though it was probably the obvious selection. “Oh yeah.. I went out to the fields earlier and well it kind of hurts when they attack you.” She added with a frown, it hadn’t hurt too much but she wasn’t really sure if the pain would be worse if they were fighting a much more larger monster. Then again he was a monk so he was built to take damage. “Maybe we could go to higher levels since I can provide you with heals?” They would gain levels faster but still she didn’t want to risk dying since she was unsure of what would happen to them.

"That was the plan." Alakai spoke. "Since we're still close to each other in level we can just form a party and share the experience. And I've specifically designed my character for efficient solo leveling. Alone I could probably already make it. Combined with your healing we can definitely take on something higher. I know a perfect level 17 cave. I've been thinking of testing something out once I became level 17 and gained better gear, but together we can go right now. There's a spider cave with a miniboss at the end, and a quest npc that will give you a cloth armor with a +5% damage reduction enchant on it. Most people skipped it in the beta as the cave is a bit away from the normal quest lines. But considering that we don't know if we can die in this world, it would be safe to get extra defences. Especially as two cloth-wearing classes."

Alakai walked towards the gate, though took a left turn just before they reached it. There were stables set up for purchasing or renting mounts. Luckily, he had a voucher. "Hello, sir." He spoke politely. "Welcome adventurer! Care to rent a beast of burden?" Alakai shook his head. "I have this voucher, and was wondering if it's still eligible." The man took the voucher and looked it over, then nodded. "It sure is! You're one lucky guy, to receive such a gift from the Feline elder herself." Alakai raised a brow, but didn't comment. "So what kind of horse do I get for this?" "Any of the ones in the left pen. Go and pick one out. I'll saddle it up for you if you want." Alakar's eyes widened as he saw what kind of mount he would be getting. Those weren't horses, those were friggin' panthers! He had heard rumours of the unlockable epic mount, and he was getting a lesser version of such an awesome beast to ride on? They looked kind of dangerous though... "Is it safe?" He asked cautiously. "Not to worry, I have something for that. This whistle." The man handed Alakai a whistle. "As long as you have this, you can call him from anywhere, and he will listen to you. Though they are a breed of non-aggressive panthers. Taking a deep breath Alakai walked up to the fence, already knowing which one he wanted. A dark brown and light brown spotted one, looking somewhat like a leopard. In the game, he would have gone for the flashiest one. But now he felt like camouflage would do them better.

And as the stable hand said, as soon as Alakai called for the one he wanted, the panther came. It was let out of it's cage, saddled up, and brought back to the two waiting adventurers. "Here you go, good luck on your journey!" It was easy to get up on his new mount, as it wasn't as high as a horse. Then he extended a hand to Kali as well. "Seems there's enough room for two. And this way we'll get there twice as fast." He had seen his tiger's stats already. Speed: 25 mph, Stamina: 350 points. 100 points amounted to an hour in the game, so that probably hadn't changed. The stats were no better than the horse you could buy for 1500 gold, but no one had that kind of cash yet. So that was another advantage they would have over people that didn't pre-order.

Kali nodded with agreement, he appeared to be fine with levelling up on his own so honestly he was doing her a favour by partying up with her. A level 17 cave was way beyond her but it would boost her up to level 15 in a few hours. At least that’s what she hoped for, plus with the gold she could probably buy the new staff she wanted. She gently pulled her hair back tying it up high in a pony tail. She had short hair in real it was just so much easier to maintain but she had always been fond of long hair hence why she decided on such an appearance, but she was beginning to regret it now that she could physically feel the heat of this world. “Cloth armor sounds good, seriously hope it isn’t as thick as this one, you have no idea how tempted I am to actually take this rotten old thing off,” she grumbled knowing that she needed the stats it offered currently.

She followed closely as they approached the stables, her eyes widened when he entered and she was beyond shocked that he actually had the gold for a mount. She had checked how much they were and knew that it would take a long while for her to collect that amount of gold. Her questions however went answered when she heard him mention a voucher. Realizing that those who pre-ordered would have gotten a few things, she unfortunately hadn’t pre-ordered. She wasn’t planning to play such a game until she saw how good the graphics looked. She got hooked the moment she installed it and couldn’t stop herself from playing. She followed Alakai only to gasp when she saw the creature. She was aware that they even had dragon mounts but those were extremely rare, they could only be collected through secret quests. Still a panther wasn’t too bad, they seemed trained, at least she hoped they were. She watched them saddle up the mount before watching Kali closely as he got up on his mount. Grabbing his hand she easily pulled herself up behind him feeling giddy about it. She called up her inventory and stored her staff so that she could have her hands free. It was the first time she was riding an animal a panther especially. Wrapping her arms around him she smiled, “let’s go. Let’s see just how fast it can go,” She mentioned letting him know that she was ready for them to move. When the creature began moving she immediately noticed how quickly they were travelling, She felt her body bounce as the mount's powerful hind legs pushed off the ground.

And off they were, the cat's powerful legs speeding them forward and right out of the gate. "Too bad this game works with a fog system for the map. But I know the general direction where we need to go. And once I see the surroundings I'll remember." Riding such a fearsome beast was actually quite easy. And that while he had never ridden a horse before. Even bikes took him quite long. Yet now it felt like it came natural to him. "This is awesome! Barely any faster than a bike, but still! I've always wanted to try this in real life!" The man exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement.

First came a large forest. Luckily this place was relatively safe for them. The monsters were only level 7 to 12, they usually stayed away from the paths, and they could never catch up to a running tiger. The cat gracefully jumped over any roots and rocks that were in their way. So it only took about 30 minutes to cross the 8 kilometres of forest they had to cross. When they got to the other side Alakai let his cat slow down a bit The land changed into farmland and fields with some low mountains and a few farms in the distance. "To think it only took me 3 minutes to cross the same area in the game. I guess the distance is like it would be in real life now. I'm really glad I got him now. I should probably think of a name for him..." He shrugged, then steered towards the farms in the distance. "It'll take another half hour or so before we're there I think."

They actually arrived a bit sooner than expected. As expected, villagers were here as well. Just about one family for each of the 5 farms, give or take a child. Though Alakai didn't stop, as their destination was just beyond the village in the mountains. "So about this cave..." He spoke as he headed up a secluded mountain path. "In the game, it was full of spiders. As in, spiders ranging from two to four feet tall. I have no problem with spiders but...I just thought I'd warn you."

The wind felt great as Kali watched the beautiful scenery whizz by them. The loved how stunning the hills looked knowing that when the sun set it would give them a good view, perhaps she could suggest they come and see the view once the sun was going to set. “Yeah but it’s fun though, we’ll know the area long before the others! And with your mount we’ll get to places really quickly. We really will get ahead compared to the rest,” she mentioned before laughing at the excitement he displayed. It was a little odd that he actually wanted to try riding an actual panther, she wouldn’t even think about it out of fear of getting attacked. Then again it was probably natural one would feel curious over riding such a creature which was only made possible through the game.

She was in awe with the forest, it wasn’t too thick but it homed quite a few interesting creatures. This was the area she would probably be training in if it weren't for Alakai. “A name huh? As long as it isn’t lame like Kitty or Kat. Oh god those are really bad names,” she laughed. Once they had reached she found herself a little hesitant about entering the dark cave. He had warned her about the spiders but she hadn’t thought that the cave would be dark. “Um well do we have some sort of flashlight or light? I’m kind of worried about not being able to see, or is the cave lit by the crystals inside?” she questioned. Some caves were lit by gems or crystals that resided with the cave. "Wait we should party up first. It'll help with my passive," she explained before quickly inviting him to her party. Once she could see his stats she placed a symbol over him prioritizing him as her main target for heals.

((Sorry it double posted.))

"Oh right, the cleric passive. Had forgotten about that. Don't worry about light, as there should be a box of torches just inside. This cave is meant to be a blind labyrinth, where you get a torch at the start for a small circle of visibility around you. Also, to be honest, I don't know much about cleric, so how about we give each other a quick description of the skills we have? Right now I have brawl rank 2. Basically it's a series of attacks during which that enemy can't retaliate. I can also choose to switch targets mid-combo. I also have a skill called flowing water, at rank 1. I'll get 50% evasion and -50% attack damage for 15 seconds. Basically, it's like when you see people dodge attacks like a pro in martial arts movies. And lastly I have a passive called Meditation rank 1. I regenerate 4 health per second instead of 1. It's almost level up too, so I'll get 6 health a second instead. I wonder if I actually have to meditate for that..." It was almost strange to be talking about this world like it was still a game, referencing 'real life'. But so far nothing about this place seemed like a dream, so wasn't 'this' world kind of their real world at the moment?

Once Kali had explained her skills it was time to go. Alakai headed in first. He was getting more nervous as they went, though he wouldn't get scared. So far, nothing pointed to this world not working like the game. So there was a high possibility that they could resurrect. Plus he had a healer behind him now, which reassured him a lot. They were like total newbies again though. As as soon as the man had stepped inside, a meter tall spider jumped off of the ceiling right in front of him. "Yeargh!" Alakai exclaimed, throwing a punch at the creature mostly out of reflex. The spider was pushed backwards a little bit, and made a sound that probably resembled screaming. And his punch had felt...powerful. Stronger than he had ever felt in real life. Too dazed from the feeling Alakai didn't notice the spider retaliating almost immediately though. Ad it bit him right in the side, spreading a damaging poison into his body. Spiders did little damage, but their poison was the problem. 28 damage per second for 10 seconds. Combined with the spider's attacks, one spider could bring him down to a third of his health already. And there were quite a few more to come.

"Argh! Shit that stings!" Alakai grumbled, being fully focused again. "Don't heal me yet, wait until my health drops below 1000 from the poison--ugh." He did say that, but poison wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling. Still, they had to consider Kali's mana, as mana regeneration was slow, and they couldn't really rest much in the cave. Another attack from the spider. And this time Alakai dodged just barely. "Time to turn the tides stupid beast!" He exclaimed, followed up by one of his skills. "Let's do this. Brawl!" Alakai had no idea how this worked. How did you use skills anyway? But he had gathered at least that calling out it's name had effect. Did the same work for physical attacks he had no knowledge of? Even so he charged right at the spider. And without having to think about it, his body naturally started doing what it was supposed to do. A leg sweep to unbalance, followed by two swift punches to it's body, and finishing with 6 punches and kicks that went so fast even Alakai could barely keep up with what was going on. And he was the one doing the attack! And down the spider went, it's legs giving way as it fell to the ground. "Wow...I can't believe...I just did that..." He muttered, dazed at his own 'skills' for a moment. Though then he remembered to quickly check his status. 931/1280 hp and 455/480 mana left. Still 2 seconds on the poison left. His estimates had been pretty accurate it seemed.

Kali nodded in agreement, she didn’t know much of the monk either so it was a good idea to share their skills so that she could have expectations of him and measure her heals and mana accordingly. “Well mine isn’t too complicated really. My passives are mostly spell related, mana rengenation increases when I’m in a party by 20%, my intelligence increases by 10% along with my spell power and spell crit. Um If I’m engaged in fights then my spell power and heals increase up by 16%. Most of my active abilities are heals really. Heal one unit or units within an area. I can also bring you back from the dead even in combat but the CD is fairly long. The other stuff is good against spell powered monsters, it’s reflective stuff so if they hit you with a spell the amount they hit you for heals you up by 200% of that damage. I also have a cleanser spell for removing curses and poisons.” She explained while playing with her staff. He gave a curt nod showing that he understood her before he headed inside. Honestly she hated caves where the light only showed their location, as they got deeper the light from the exit dimmed and she stuck close to Alakai.

Kali let out a blood curdling scream when something fell from the roof, she had expected them to be on the ground but it made sense that they were on the ceiling. Still it didn’t do much to ease her worries. Immediately Alakai got into battle punching the creature rather quickly. The moment he was bit she could see an icon besides his name showing that he was affected by poison which would deal damage over time to him. Lifting her staff up she got herself ready to heal him but was stopped in the process when he told her not to. She nodded and watched him knowing she wouldn’t be much help besides healing; these creatures didn’t have any spell damage so there was no point casting any spells over him. The moment he killed the spider she waved her staff causing it glow as the poison lifted off his body. Even though he had a few seconds of it she wanted to test it out since the spell was inactive most of the time unless someone was cursed or poisoned. She could remove the poison during his fights and heal him when his life got too low. Lifting her staff she focused on healing him and surprisingly her staff had read her mind as Alakai glowed for a brief moment, his life shooting back up to 1128. “Well my heals can only do 200 every 4 seconds so we can’t fight too many spiders at once,” she mentioned to him. Levelling would go a lot faster if he just ran about and collected the spiders but she wouldn’t be able to heal the amount of damage for him to tank and kill. They would have to do this slowly much to her dislike.

“Geez I had a heart attack when that one dropped, seriously. Worse part is how dark they are.” She grumbled knowing that she’d have to be careful. She couldn’t have a spider on her otherwise she’d die quickly. If a spider managed a crit and had its poison on her she’d drop dead immediately. They were much a higher level than her which was normal. “Hey Alakai do you have any form of threat? Or taunt. I’m worried about getting attacked,” she expressed her concern about the issue.

"So a maximum of two spiders at once, and after that we would need a break as well. Well, there's not many of these large ones here, but the smaller ones come in groups of two to four. And four smaller ones do about the same damage as one large spider." He thought out loud. Alakai had always been into theorycrafting. Basically using the numbers to calculate the optimum path to take, skills to use, stats to assign, and other such things. It was a lot harder to think on the fly, rather than spend an evening calculating. But at least he felt he was better at it than the average player.

The man moved to the box he had mentioned before, not finding it surprising any more that there was indeed a box full of torches standing near the entrance. So much was already pretty much the same as the game, so why not this? Once he had lit it with one of the torches at the entrance he walked back and gave Kali's question a quick thought. "Well, no, not yet. But according to my calculations, if you basically get 200 threat per 4 seconds at most, there shouldn't be a problem. If we have to fight a group I can just divide my attacks as evenly as possible, and nothing will come after you. Had you been the same level it would have been a different story though. Once I hit level 20 I can get my threat skill. By that time I think you'll be level...17 at least, since you still level up faster and get a difficulty bonus."

Alakai held the torch out for Kali, as he had to keep his hands free. "It seems the torches in this world provide us with more visibility than the ones in the game, so that's a plus. But you'll have to hold on to it, seeing as I need both hands to fight." An assassin or sorcerer had an advantage in this cave, as they used weapons in one hand. But luckily they were in a party right now.

Kali watched him light a torch. “Wow, you’re pretty good with calculations that’ll really come in handy,” she mentioned knowing that she was poor with numbers. Still she found gaming a great outlet for her and it helped that it was enjoyable. “Well it’s good as long as they stay away from me I can heal you in peace.” She added before reaching to hold the torch for him. She could still cast her spells with one hand so it was best that she hold the light. “That’s no problem,” she assured before walking along with him though it didn’t take too long for them to attract attention.

The light helped show them a spider dashing across the floor towards him. The moment it got close enough it took a bite into Alakai but Kali immediately got to work at removing the poison. Hopefully her heals would get a lot stronger as she levelled up and they would be able to take more of these spiders. Though honestly she was beginning to dislike just how ugly they looked, they looked scary with their little red glowing eyes. “Hey do you think we’ll have to spend nights here? We’ll probably need a place to stay,” she added out of curiosity though she was pretty sure it was best to let him focus. Still one spider wasn't much of a threat in her opinion.

Kali watched him light a torch. “Wow, you’re pretty good with calculations that’ll really come in handy,” she mentioned knowing that she was poor with numbers. Still she found gaming a great outlet for her and it helped that it was enjoyable. “Well it’s good as long as they stay away from me I can heal you in peace.” She added before reaching to hold the torch for him. She could still cast her spells with one hand so it was best that she hold the light. “That’s no problem,” she assured before walking along with him though it didn’t take too long for them to attract attention.

The light helped show them a spider dashing across the floor towards him. The moment it got close enough it took a bite into Alakai but Kali immediately got to work at removing the poison. Hopefully her heals would get a lot stronger as she leveled up and they would be able to take more of these spiders. Though honestly she was beginning to dislike just how ugly they looked, they looked scary with their little red glowing eyes. “Hey do you think we’ll have to spend nights here? We’ll probably need a place to stay,” she added out of curiosity though she was pretty sure it was best to let him focus.

They continued on for a bit, and once again a spider attacked them. This time a small one. Or rather...two small ones, as another one suddenly jumped down from the ceiling! One managed to bite Alakai right away as he was fending off the one that had come from the ceiling. "Ugh disgusting things! Leave us alone already!" Alakai exclaimed as he pummelled them both a few times. They dropped pretty quickly since these were just smaller ones. These spiders were relatively easy in the game, even if they were level 17. And in most mmorpg's you could handle enemies of 2 to even 4 levels higher. You were, however, given penalties. Right now it was -5% damage, evasion and hit chance. Still manageable. Kali was mostly here to make things go faster and to be sure he didn't die. As he didn't want to take that chance. Though he didn't mind helping her out a little either. People that were friendly like her deserved more than a fighting chance in a world like this, in his opinion. So they could keep the ones intent on harm at bay. As that would most likely become a reality soon enough.

"Let's see..." He mused at her question. "In the game I ran through this place in 20 minutes tops at level 18, without a party and only one short break. Judging by how it was still light outside when we arrived here, I think we can conclude that the game's 2 hour day cycle has been scaled up. So that would take us...about 5 hours. So we'll be able to exit again well before the sun goes down. Actually, I plan to stay around this area until tomorrow, grinding quests, and if those don't exist, grinding monsters instead. I aim to get to level 18 by tomorrow, then head back to the starting town and buy better equipment. I should have some items to sell or use by then as well. So...ah...you're free to join me if you want. Not just to be my pocket healer of course! I mean, it's nice to have a healer in this world, and things would go a lot faster for me. I can't deny that my top priority is to get myself stronger right now, but I don't mind doing that together with someone. And since...you know, we already partied together and such." Now he felt awkward. Being confident was easy when it was an avatar on screen. Now that he was here himself though...

"Anyway, think about it. Let's continue for the time being. It'll be hard work, but the pay off will be worth it." The hardest part of the dungeon was yet to come. Here, spiders weren't that frequent yet. But the population would slowly increase until 3 or 4 small spiders at every corner would be normal. Not to mention the miniboss at the end. Luckily there were only 8 large spiders on the way there, mostly separate from each other.

(How about we skip ahead just a bit? Like, say, half-way, and jump in again at the fight just before they arrive at a safe area.)

Kali kept watch from the back ensuring that he was healed whenever his health dropped below 1 thousand. She couldn’t help but smile when she watched the creatures flip onto their backs when they were killed. Still the poison did quite a bit so she made sure to remove the poison. She was picking up experience a lot faster compared to the rabbits and had hit level 12 after he killed four of them. Of course he wasn’t leveling up yet since he was already a much higher level than her.

“You aren’t planning on resting?” she questioned him with wide eyes. The idea of training consistently until the next day was a good one considering how he would get ahead a lot faster but she wasn’t sure if they wouldn’t feel exhaustion. If they were really in this world and if they really did feel pain then wouldn’t eating become necessary along with sleep? Still she wasn’t sure about this and knew that they would find out tonight. “I don’t mind following if you well don’t mind me. Not very strong but my heals should be able to help you sustain in fights longer,” she replied with a wide grin. “I can get new gear too! And experience is really good over here so I should be able to catch up to your level hopefully,” she stated with excitement.

They continued on slaying down spiders ruthlessly and collecting whatever they had. Kali had collected 16 hairy spider legs much to her dislike she figured they could be worth something. Every little thing counted when you were a low level and a new staff would do them both good. “I need to rest, Alakai,” she called out, her mana was mostly depleted and she didn’t have anything to have it refilled. Plus she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt tired from fighting. A rest would be nice.

Just like in the game, enemies disappeared after 15 seconds in a burst of sparkly energy. And just like in the game, every time they beat one there was something laying beside it on the ground. Kali had picked up the most common item so far, and Alakai grabbed all the gold and kept it separate. They had only gathered 200 gold or so, but it was still enough. And the spider legs...well, surely a shop would buy them. Though after just about two hours both of them were starting to get tired. Alakai didn't show it much. He didn't want to show it but he was having too much fun to think of how tired he was. He did agree that they should rest, though they had to push just a little bit further.

"We can't just yet. There is a small safe zone just up ahead. We should go there so I can start a camp fire and see if crafting still works as well. I actually took the cooking sub-class, so I'm pretty sure I can make some food with some spider legs and a mana regenerating tea with some of the...ingredients I managed to pick up." She probably didn't want to know what was in said tea. As it was made from a special species of fungus and water. The fungus grew in pretty much every cave so he had picked up some along the way.

The next fight happened only moments later. And this time it was a little different. This wasn't the end of the dungeon yet, but this was just before a safe zone. And though in the beta it hadn't been like this, there were three large spiders guarding that area now. Apparently they had stumbled upon one of the cave's spider nests... "Oh shit...this isn't good." Alakai whispered as he looked around the corner. "I'm glad my tanking passive ranked up during that last fight. It's not a lot, but going from four hp a sec to seven definitely helps. For this fight, better stay back a bit. And don't cleanse poison until I have all three poisons on me okay? I'll run in first and draw their attention. You come after me as soon as all three are close to me." He thought a bit more, wondering how they could increase their chances of beating all three right now. "I have an idea too. Monks are quick, so this might work. Once I almost have the second one down, tell me if you have enough mana for another heal or not. If not, I'll start kiting the third so you can regenerate just a little bit for another heal." It was a pretty standard tactic for some raids in mmorpg's. When a group was too large to handle, all you could do was kite or use crowd control. But they didn't have the latter. And usually you did kiting with a second tank. So he hoped this would work.

"Here I go!" The man stormed into the larger area, and immediately attacked one of the spiders as he ran past it. A basic attack, but enough to get a bit of aggro. The other two spiders turned, glared at Alakai, then charged at him as well. Now it was finally time to use his cooldown. One large spider took about 7 seconds, so he hoped to finish 1 off in the 15 seconds his skill lasted. "Brawl!" His fists and legs exploded into a whirlwind around him again, doing about 100 damage on each enemy. He immediately followed that up with a second brawl, to increase his threat enough so Kali wouldn't get aggro. Luckily during the last hour or so he had been able to train his dodging skills. It was hard getting used to how your body almost seemed to move automatically when you wanted to do something. But he was getting used to it by now. The spiders attacked as well, and now every two or three attacks Alakai managed to dodge one of them. "Flowing water." He then spoke, his entire demeanour suddenly changing to what looked like either giving up, or complete tranquility. His movements suddenly lost their strength. And as if by magic, he instead started blocking and deflecting attacks like a martial arts master from an action movie.

By now, Kali was probably already casting to remove the poisons on him. It was weird that he had gotten used to the feeling of the poison. Maybe because you didn't feel nearly as much pain in this world as they were used to. The feeling actually kind of resembled sore muscles after manual labour. Still though, the poisons had to be removed. Being killed aside, the man could feel that the lower his health went, the more pain his body felt overall. It seemed that that hadn't changed from the real world. The more wounds you sustained, the more pain you were in. So it was now a test of his will to fight through the pain and Kali's mana holding out.

Kali gave him a curt nod as she pocketed another pair of spider legs. It was rather unsettling considering how furry they were and she could have sworn one or two them twitched even after the main body was gone. Thankfully they were stored in her inventory, whenever she placed something in her pockets they disappeared and went straight to her inventory which of course made it a lot easier compared to physically calling her inventory to open and placing it inside. The mention of the safe zone was good, she needed to take a rest so that her mana could fully restore, he didn’t appear tired at all though. She was excited to take up tailor as her sub class as that would allow her to make her own clothing though of course before she could she would have to ensure that she levelled that up to a high level so the cloth she made would actually be beneficial to her stat wise. She would have to sign up whenever they went back so perhaps tomorrow after she hit level 15. “Food and tea sounds great I wonder what the food tastes like here, would it be similar to our food back at home?” She wondered out loud.

Though before they could get to the safe zone she noticed three spiders on the ground. Usually they were on the walls or the ceilings but these seemed to be guarding something. They were larger too, which probably meant more powerful than the others. She nodded in agreement to Alakai knowing that three was pushing it. She understood his tactics completely and quickly nodded to show that she understood. It was going to be a little hard but she was sure that she could handle it. She had half her mana and once they were engaged it would go up faster, hopefully she’d have enough for that heal. She watched him dash towarded the three as he immediately whacked one of it. The spider immediately went aggro with him along with the other two so she kept an eye on his stats. Once they were engrossed with him she cleansed all three’s poison off him to reduce the damage but the moment she had done so one had returned a lot faster than the normal spiders. This was bad she would have to either amp up her heals or cleanse him again which would result in lesser heals. “This is bad, oh this is bad.” She murmured to himself as all three poisons were back on him now. “Alakai! You need to start kiting the second one! The poison! It comes back too quickly for me to cleanse!” She shouted out of panic as she healed him back up to 1,000 but it was quickly going down and her cooldowns were far too long for her liking. She again cleansed the poison off him but within a few seconds he was affected by it again.

“Alakai I don’t have the cooldowns to keep up with this,” she said the moment the first one finally dropped. The other two however were relentless, the damage was reduced now that one of them was dead but she didn’t have the mana for the third spider now. Was he going to die? She feared for him wondering if they should run, she wasn’t sure of this whole life thing worked but if he were to die here because of her? She wasn’t ready for that, he was half way through the second spider when she finally ran out of mana. "I'm out of mana!" She shouted to him her voice filled with alarm.