It had been a week since The Catastrophe happened. A broad sense of confusion permeated throughout the new denizens of this world, but in just a few days, their confusion had turned into chaos. On the second day, someone ventured out and proceeded to get murdered by a giant boar. Luckily, they awoke a few minutes later in the Cathedral. It was at this time that the PKers knew that they could murder pretty much anything without repercussions. They took to outside of the city and murdered any unfortunate fool who ended up crossing paths with them. Their reign of terror quickly came to a close as the largest guild, the Kings, began to patrol the outside. Of course, the Kings said it was for safety, but in reality, it was because there was nothing else to do. Food tasted like wet crackers. Drinks tasted like wet crackers. Wet crackers tasted like soggy bread. It was a mess.

Though the Kings patrolled the wilderness outside, PKers still managed to evade many of these patrolling parties. Most People of the Land, fearful of the life, took chance of this somewhat peace and retreated to the town of Yeneva. Because of this, Landers had no more authority in Seven Hill. Only the odd merchant or stubborn old person remained in the city.

The Kings, being the largest guild in Seven Hall (and Western Europe, for that matter), quickly gained a good reputation of heroes among the lower level players. From this trust, they built up a pretty large following. They tried as hard as they could to prevent player boredom, but most attempts didn't quite work. Still, the other Adventurers were impressed by the amount of determination they put into said attempts. Most players applauded these efforts, as they were a nice diversion, even if it were only for a single hour. Still, most people followed what they said. They made for great leaders (for the time being).

Luckily, PKers were slowly stopping out on their own. Unluckily, this was because of pure boredom. The vast majority of people were bored. There were no flavour this world, both literally and figuratively. People left the town to hunt a few weak beasts down to get enough coins for food and bunk, then they did nothing for the rest of the day. Most conversation topics were burnt out within a few days. Most conversations went in a series of almost prerecorded messages, always repeating whenever people spoke. It was like a corporate hell.

None the less, a single guildmaster had a plan to stave off this boredom for the people.

---

Two figures stood outside of the central guildhall. To the front of them was a plaza. Unlike the overgrown appearance of the nearby areas, this plaza was well groomed and taken care of. Small metal gates surrounded properties while old metal streetlights would reveal the surrounding area at night. To the back of them was the central guildhouse, but more importantly, something that looked like a small wall covered in a large blanket.

One of the figures was what appeared to be a little girl, no more than 14 years old. Her armour was a rose-red, carefully made as if certain bits of it were cloth. Gold emblems were to be found around the armour, but the most prominent part about the emblems were the German flags placed just below her shoulder and on her weapons. The other figure was less distinguishable. His figure was shrouded by a thick layer of what appeared to be plate armour, but due to some error of the developers, the armour was classed as a chain armour. His armor was also a platinum-silver colour with simple golden outline. He wore a cape along with his armour. It appeared that, out of the two, he was the more sensible one.

"Think that this would actually work?" said the smaller figure. "Methinks it shalt." said the larger figure. It was at this point that anyone eavesdropping would learn that he didn't know anything about Shakespearean English and that the little girl was the sensible one. "Alright, everyone listen up!" The small figure viciously proclaimed. After a brief period of silence, she turned back to the other figure. "Kingsly, they aren't listening."

"Methinks they shalt, Charlotte." Kingsly spoke. "Please don't do what I think you're going to d-" "HEARKEN UNTO ME, MY BRETHREN!" "God dammit." "THOU ART TWIDDLING THINE THUMBS! HOWEVER, WE HATH FIGURED OUT A SOLUTION! MEETETH THE MISSION BOARD!" Kingsly exclaimed. He then turned to the cloth behind him and pulled it as hard as he could. The cloth didn't come off. He tried harder and harder, until... Riiiiiippppppppp, crack, thud. The cloth was torn and the wooden mission board's posts were broken in the process. A period of silence followed as Charlotte silently walked over and picked up the broken board. She then planted the board back into the ground, making it much lower than originally planned. Charlotte silently left, leaving Kingsly behind. "Goeth nuts." He said before chasing after Charlotte.

---

The outskirts of Seven Hill were quite dangerous. PK guilds, despite being few and far between, monitored this area. The overgrown trees covered the area. Visibility was difficult. The sun had been blocked by a maze of branches, preventing most light from touching the surface.

Behind a set of large trees appeared to be two People of the Land. One appeared to be a merchant. The other was cloaked and thus unknown to what they did. They began to speak with each other. Their conversation was short and quiet.

"Are you sure? They're violent..." Said the merchant.
"All the more reason to." The cloaked figure responded.
"But-"
"We need them."
"... I'll do my best..."

Without any further conversation, they both left. The cloaked figure sulked out of vision rather quickly. The merchant, however, was also lost in the thicket, but anyone watching could see his face dully illuminated by what little sun shined through the trees.

Jarvoff

Location: Seven Hills city

It could be worse, Jarv thought to himself. He could’ve ended up stuck on one of his unlevelled characters, with no money, equipment, or materials. He could’ve been logged on to a female character at the time of the Apocalypse. It could be worse. Jarv had been telling himself the same thing every day for almost a week now, ever since he’d woken up in Elder Tale. But no matter how many times he said it, he couldn’t shake this feeling of being stuck in the wrong place.

Of course, he was stuck in the wrong place. Elder Tale, suddenly real, with no apparent way to escape. He popped open the guild roster window again, as he had dozens of times before, hoping that somehow, a name besides his own would be highlighted. Still nothing of course. He sighed. Stuck in a video game on the wrong character, alone. Things could’ve been worse. But not much.

The problem was he didn’t really have any friends outside of Millenius. There were plenty of people on his friends list, people he’d run raids or dungeons with before, crafters he frequently traded with, and more than a few he barely remembered adding. None of them were actually friends though.

Really, he should’ve raided the guild bank and quit long ago. It wasn’t as if there was anyone else to complain, and without the guildmaster Truc on, Millenius was as good as dead. Jarv just couldn’t quite bring himself to leave it though, not after all they’d been through together. Still, he wasn’t completely blind to the reality of the situation. A new guild could wait, but he was going to need new allies.

He rose from his seated position without too much difficulty - his character’s height was close enough to his real height to not cause significant problems - and threw away the rest of his soggy cardboard flavored sandwich. Jarv holstered Balance of Judgement over his shoulder and winced slightly as the elaborate pommel poked him in the back of the head. The sword always had clipped with character models, which now meant that it poked him with irritating frequency.

Grumbling about crappy model design, Jarv set off towards the city gates. Most players had succumbed to the lethargic atmosphere creeping over the city, only killing enough boars to pay for food and lodging. But there were occasionally players - either brave or foolish - who ventured farther out into the wilderness to try and level or get some basic gear.

As he walked down the overgrown streets, Jarv absently noted people heading towards the plaza at the center of Seven Hills, but paid them no heed. He reached the gates and found himself alone. Without anything better to do, he unsheathed his sword, planted it in the ground in front of him and placed his hands on the pommel. He then activated a /pose command, automatically locking his body into that position so he could relax, even while appearing to stand vigilant. Then he settled down to wait.

Ox

Location: Seven Hills City, Mission Board

Ox looked at the mission board with mild interest. Yet another of the Kings' attempt at giving some meaning to the game. Well besides getting plenty of sleep and figuring out her gender crisis. She'd spent half the week considering whether she should hit on anyone, and if so a guy or a girl. Then given up and kept sleeping. However sleeping was only fun when it involved not doing anything else. She was in her dancing outfit of course because that was what she always wore unless she was fighting something, which gave people the misconception that she was some sort of dps class. Well that and the whole runes engraved on her forehead and very visible arms and legs marking her as a race of ritual. If this 'armor' didn't help her dancing so much and wasn't so comfortable... After the two who set up the mission board left and there was a good bit of murmuring Ox mentally shrugged and stepped up to have a look at the mission board. Maybe there were so cool rewards, of course it wasn't like Ox could do any super high level things anyway given she was only level 30 but still. Anything vaguely interesting on here?

(Collab)

Outskirts of Seven Hills
Two Girls, One Trap

It was so generic that Reisstan felt like deforming the terrain, but none of them were Sorcerers, nor would his anti-environment actions be unnoticed by those white knights patrolling around the place like a bunch of anti-fun moderators. The BDC, all three members, had been camping out in the woods for close to a week now, apparently ostracized from the general player population due to their past actions.

Sure, they stomped on the throats of Assassins in the past, and could be viewed as an elitist Guild who were racist (class-ist?) against ranged and heal-y bastards, but really?

Well, it didn’t matter in the end. Trophy-hunting was going to start up by the end of this day regardless.

“Guess this is going to be our graduation death battle then?” the pale Bard said, hopping off from one of the many generic old-growth trees that plagued the outskirts.

~

The dwarf Paladin spat on the ground as she rose from her squatting position, rolling her eyes as she hefted her halberd.

“Fucking mudak(asshole) weeaboo.” The loli smirked as she stepped forward, an uncharacteristically deep male Russian accent coming out of her mouth. “Guess we don’t have anything better to do for the moment. Can’t even go into town to get Swordsmithing mats. God damn Kings. Won’t even let me kill time by crafting.” The redheaded girl scowled.

The third member of the party sighed, throwing up her hands as she did so. A frying pan was in one of them; the exorcist of the party had been preparing food for the last ten minutes. “Not even that. We can’t even get to the house. That’s messed up. There are civil liberties, jeez.” Lamenting her fortune, she held up the pan again, now filled with eggs from the makeshift fire she’d set up.

“Now, did you want the cardboard eggs or the mush oatmeal?”

~

“I’ll just eat soggy bread. Though I guess they’d all be soggy bread, huh? You regret taking Cook subclass now, Ivy?” Reissten laughed at that overused joke, before rummaging through his own Bag of Holding and bring out something that at least looked like what it tasted like. “Makes me curious though, Intol. How do you even get <Tipsy> if your vodka is just water?”
~

“Fuck you.” Intolerance spat good-naturedly, smirking all the while. “I popped a bottle earlier. Didn’t even feel anything.” She groused, pulling another bottle of vodka out of her own Bag of Holding before starting to chug it down in one go. “See? Nothing but the stupid buff. At least before I could take a shot in real life every time I popped one of these in-game.”

Looking down at her creation distastefully, Ivy tossed the egg toward Reisstan before shotgunning the oatmeal. “Just you wait. I’m going to find some fucking recipe that won’t actually taste like stale crackers.” Making a putrid face, she stood up. “Well, what now?”

“Well, that’ll keep us occupied at least. God knows I could go for a steak and a Guinness. The one thing Britain does right with booze.” The dwarf said, staring at the ground for a moment. “I really want a fucking steak.”

~

Reissten made a face as Intol reminded him of ‘real’ food again. Not even bothering to dodge Ivy’s egg, even if he did sustain 4 points of damage from that ‘projectile weapon’, the Wolf Fang said, “Intol, can you not? Really hard to be content with bread if you talk about steak here.”

“And Ivy, we’re supposed to have our final in-Guild melee, remember? Winner takes all, before we start ganking some Kings?”

~

“Winner takes what? Everyone else’s ass? Because unlike you, I’m missing a fucking dick.” Intolerance snorted irreverently, shaking his head. “And yes, I checked.”

“Nice. Did you fap as well?”

“Go suck your mother’s cock.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Added the Exorcist, butting in between the two.

“I mean,” Reissten smirked, “Should be a very enjoyable situation for you, Intol. Swordsmithing should be very useful as well...”

“Yeah, to shove up your ass.” She twirled her halberd around, leveling the tip at Reissten. “And look at that. Now I’m motivated for your stupid deathmatch. Can we just go gank the Kings already? I’m pretty sure we’ve gotten more practice than them anyway.”

Ivy pointed at Intol with an idle hand. “This. What she said. I want my couch back.”

Reissten sidestepped Intol’s big stick. “If you want your couch back, you COULD just participate in this fight and kill yourself. You still have Seven Hills as your resurrection point, right?”

“Just because I’m an exorcist doesn’t mean I’m a pussy,” she countered.

“Seriously, this is stupid, Reissten. We’ve already practiced on each other enough. And god knows if one of us dies, they’re not getting their money back.”

“Man, you two suck,” Reissten said, sulking. “Fine, let’s go ganking or whatever. Doubt that the bigshots will be milling about at this point though.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe they’re too busy jerking each other off like the assholes they are,” Intolerance snarked as they proceeded to leave.

Ivy scoffed. “Oh boy. It’s like I’m on Reddit again.”

Lemonade was in awe. There was a beautiful Violin made using some new materials from the new expansion at a nice little shop alleyway shop in Seven Hill. Bone white with black strings with a matching bow and a small black rose painted on the belly. It was elegant and came with a free silver harmonica with a gold trim. Unfortunately for Lemonade it was a bit beyond his price range and he had to leave empty handed. Well now I have to make some money, or get equivalent materials and have one of my own made. Either or suits me just fine. Catching himself in a mirror on the way out Lemonade licked his thumb and wiped away some dirt that was on his cheek removing the dirt, leaving the Day of the Dead makeup unsullied and in perfect order as usual.

Stepping into the street Lemonade noticed a sad little girl One of the People of the Land, they seem so real now... sitting down next to her he tapped her shoulder and used his <Gardener's Joy> to start pulling flowers out of thin air. This astounded the girl and Lemonade's <Old Blue Eyes> further increased the girl's friendliness to him. Keen to put a smile on the little girl's face Lemonade started weaving his flowers into a crown. Making a bit of a show Lemonade pretended to put the crown on over his hat, acting shocked when it didn't fit, before placing it on the little girl's head. Standing up and making an elaborate bow

"Your Majesty, now that your mood has been lifted I shall be on my way" with that Lemonade walked off and down the streets.

Even after the week since the apocalypse Lemonade still had trouble navigating Seven Hills. He was also rather surprised to see that there were so few Bards in Seven Hills, he had only run across a few and most of them had been below level 30, occasionally the max level, but they were like a unicorn in his experience. He played mostly out of Meder City, there was a rather good Bard scene there and he could usually find a group to form a temporary party, but he had been in the middle of a tour of each city to see if the update had changed any of them significantly, new shops, landmarks, People of the Land, things like that.

Hell the reason Lemonade had such an affinity for Meder City was the fact he had won his Mariachi sub-class there. Now he was stranded in Seven Hills, but determined to make the best of the situation and if it came down to it he would even join a guild, as much as he disliked how they tended to shackle players to them with an iron leash.

His adverse position on Guild came from before the Calamity, they all used characters with pretty character models to act as advertising No one should have a monopoly on beauty, keeping it all to yourself is a crime against humanity! as such in this new world Lemonade had developed the bad habit of attempting to "liberate beauty" from guilds by telling them just that, which in turn often lead to the conclusion that he is confessing to them.
That last part often had mixed results, especially since Lemonade has a loose definition of beauty. One propositioned player asked him why he thought they were beautiful and he answered;

“Everyone makes music, I'm a Bard because I love music, and it denies music's very purpose to not be shared. I want you to share your music, it's very hard to do that when tied down to a guild”
As he wandered Lemonade stopped dead in his tracks. Spinning on his heel Lemonade saw there was a small crowd of People of the Land children following him. The little girl Lemonade called Your Majesty had been following him, and had brought some friends along.
"Well Your Majesty I see you have brought the rest of your Kingdom, now that we have a gathering what ever shall we do... Have a parade?" the little girl bit her lip obviously unsure what to say. "I wasn't joking Your Majesty, simply give the order and I will lead your crowd of youngsters down the main thoroughfare with my trumpet announcing your presence." the little girl nodded shyly "Very well, come along then!"

-One hour later-

"Are you ready to serve her Majesty lads?" looking up Lemonade saw the boys lining the balconies with baskets of flowers that came from <Gardener's Joy> ready to shower the street. "This would go a lot better if some of my mates from Meder City were here... oh well, no use crying over what could have been. All righty then, let's get started~" taking out his Phantasmal trumpet <Requiem for the Lost> Lemonade brought it to his lips and... a cheery tone resonated down the road and flower petals started to rain from the sky as Lemonade led a procession of children in a miniature royal parade <Old Blue Eyes> making certain that no People of the Land took major offence at the disruption.

Lorenzo was shocked like anyone else would have when they woke up realizing they were in their characters body. However the shock of it quickly passed for him when he realized that his character was who he always wanted to be, a gentleman at heart. After a few hours of just trying to get the idea of him being a butler through his head he proceeded to regain his poise. Everything went on as one would expect he was on the outskirts of the city buying something for his mistress when he first came online which was a relief since he doubt he would have lasted long outside the city at his current level.

Lorenzo or rather his name was silver now checked to see everything was in working order in terms of the screen and how he remembered the game, thankfully he still had his top hat along with his trusty longsword holstered to his side. Lorenzo was a gamer at heart in the real world so living out his days as a certain persona wasn't all that bad for him but it make him realize that if he stayed in this world to long he could kiss his degree goodbye. Right now though all that mattered was continuing to do what he was doing before he quickly checked his friends list and saw that he was glad that a few of his guild mates including his mistress was in the game as well which meant he still had a home to go to in this game.

Each day he woke up early put on his uniform and got his breakfast for the master and mistress. He went to the kitchen feeling like a horrible butler bringing his mistress what may as well be soggy crackers and water but what could he do, he wasn't a chief he was a butler and he heard that even some 90 level chiefs couldn't make this crap edible so he had to suck it up and do it. He went upstairs in the guild hall and knocked on the door to his guildmaster room before walking and putting the tray down, then bowing like a butler would before he left them alone. Doing that each day was what raised him up to his current butler level, yes silver is a butler but that's because silver wanted to prove that a man could be stylish and deadly hence why he is also an assassin, any butler worth their salt had to be able to protect their master/mistress when the time came. Once he delivered their food he groaned as he ate his own which again, tasted like crap. Then he would wait outside his mistress room until she called upon him. The nights were his to train and go out and level up but daytime was when he was a butler, not bad when you think about it...

"Red like roses brings me back to the place I rest..." Alec stretched his back and whiffed in the forest scent. Even after a week, it still felt completely unreal. The world of Elder Tale just felt so... alive. Alec would never known the difference, the birds chirrped as cheerfully as they did in the forests of Germany, the highlands were as beautiful and open as Scotland, and towns as pretty (and crowded more often than not) as France.

Of course, sights and smells weren't enough to keep people all too thrilled about being stuck in a video game. There was absolutely nothing to do, PKing had lost its luster a few days ago even if there were some trying to squeeze the fruit for all its juice. NPC quests were largely ignored as people just needed a few coins to feed and bed themselves for a day. Whatever living it was, it sure didn't feel alive.

"Alright you spindly bastard, time to head back. I've had my fun here." Alec jumped up onto the back of his spider mount and marched back to <Seven Hills>. The path back was empty, what few souls ventured on the road were turned back by the boy and his giant spider. It was scary, it smelled a bit sometimes and it was a bitch in a half to control, but at least it kept the PKers away. Giant spiders tend to make people not want to approach you it seems.

Passing through the gates, his mount parted the crowd with ease, not everyday you see a spider strolling down the street. Taking note of the large crowd around the message board.

"Time for you to leave old friend." And with that, Alec released his mount with a blow of its frozen whistle and headed over the board. Whole bunch of stupid , boring jobs and one that was going to get him killed. Letting his breath fall short with mild disappointment, he raised his chins and yelled, "Anyone need potions and/or a dodge tank paladin for the dungeon raid?!"

There was a large commotion in the plaza as many Adventurers from around Seven Hill converged to see the new Mission Board. The idea itself was originally suggested by Charlotte at some point in passing, but was quickly picked up and pushed forward by Renee in an attempt to bring new life and purpose to Seven Hill. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do as far as missions went - most of the Adventurers had lost their drive, and it made it somewhat difficult to find people who actually needed anything to be done, since there wasn't anything to be done in the world. Still, the concept was nice, and even some Landers had decided to take a look at the board, in addition to gawking at the Adventurers that surrounded it. Many of the Landers were also intrigued by one for the Adventurers leading a miniature parade, playing with the children. It definitely reassured them - the Adventurers didn't seem that bad at all.

With all the commotion and attention directed at the plaza, the outskirts of Seven Hill contrasted it. Where the plaza was loud and full of life, the outskirts of Seven Hill were tranquil and quiet - there was hardly anyone there. Perhaps that was a good thing, as it gave room for a single person to reach the plaza that much quicker.

A small figure dashed through the entrance gates of Seven Hill, passing an armoured man who appeared to be standing vigilantly for something. The small figure would have passed through, appearing as a blur... if they hadn't managed to trip on their own feet as they ran, hitting the ground with a thud.

"Ow..." The figure whimpered from the ground.

This small figure was none other than Copper, the Fox Tail Assassin-Courier of <Kings>. He was known for his specialized build which involved achieving unnecessarily high amounts of movement speed. It had little place in actual combat, but it was well suited for running around and delivering messages as his subclass did. It was also a fairly good build against monsters; after all, they can't kill you if they can't catch you. Unfortunately, it had become much more difficult to control his high movement speed post-catastrophe, and Copper was constantly tripping himself up, unable to handle his extreme speed like he would've been able to when Elder Tale was still a game.

Copper quickly rebounded from his fall, jumping back up onto his feet before setting off toward the plaza again. He even managed to leave a dust trail in his wake - another testament to how fast he actually moved. This time, his path went uninterrupted, and he only stopped when he had reached the most populated area at the moment - the plaza.

"Guys! Guys! GUYS!" Copper shouted, getting progressively louder with each word. Somehow, he was louder than the Adventurer crowd, and most of them had quietened down. This was actually commonplace - people did tend to listen when Copper was speaking. He was Seven Hills (only) herald, after all.

"We're being attacked! We're being attacked! Monster Legions are coming for us!"

With the utterance of Monster Legions, the Adventurer and Lander crowd was sent into a combination of commotion and confusion. Legion rank monsters didn't appear together. Did they mishear him?

"It's vampires! Vampires! They're coming to Seven Hill!"

If there was confusion before, then what came next couldn't even be described as such. Vampires were nocturnal. They only appeared during the night phase of Elder Tale; not to mention the fact that they were extremely uncommon even as Normal rank monsters, let alone Legion rank. Copper could visivbly see the collective disbelief of the public, but remained adamant of his claim.

"I saw it! If you don't believe me, then I'll show you!"

With that, Copper began his mad dash towards the gate from which he entered. Many of the Adventurers in the plaza followed him, while most of the Landers remained where they were, huddled in their social circles and groups, whispering about the claims Copper had just made. Meanwhile, the Adventurers that did follow him would quickly be led to the gate which Copper entered from.

---

Off in the horizon, one could see the green of the grass touched Elder Tale's blue sky. Of course, nobody was focused on the artistic beauty of Elder Tale's landscape at this very moment. They were focused on what could be seen on the horizon. True to Copper's claim, there were shapes on the horizon. Ghoulish visages of death tamed the overgrown fields. There were hundreds of figures logged upon the horizon. Trees around them began to rot. What trees did survive the deadly miasma were smashed down by gigantic figures of mutation and flesh. The larger ones seemed to be uncaring of the smaller figures, even to the point where the little ones were being crushed. They were hell bent on tearing the place up. The groups of Kings monitoring the perimeter of Seven Hill had returned to their guildhouse, looking to report the new-found danger and seek the guidance of their leader.

The figures advanced slowly, but what little groups couldn't manage to escape were easily crushed by overwhelming numbers. The figures managed to surround the forest, but even their miasma couldn't fully penetrate the thick woods. They were stuck, but were still cutting through. Though, why an extremely group of ghoulish figures was attacking was unknown. For the most part, they had been a simple buffer in a nearby raid. It appeared that for such a large attack, they would have had to be controlled by someone, or even, something.

---

The plaza had become near empty without the presence of Adventurers. Most of them had followed Copper. Only a few Adventurers remained, in addition to some Landers who were worried, and were seeking reassurance from each other. None of them would notice the three Adventurers stood atop one of the many tree-covered buildings.

"So cool! Let's hurry up and do what we came here for already and make him proud."

"...Okay."

"..."

Silver stood by his ladies door like a good butler would and ironically this was his way of gaining experience with his <butler> subclass. However their was yelling that Silver could hear in the distance and he could hear it pretty clearly so whoever was yelling must have had a subclass of <herald> hearing the words legionnaires and vampires made Silver shiver but it wasn't of fear it was excitement! He was a <butler> and as such Silver wasn't going to be on the front lines often and hearing these words meant that their was a horde of enemies going to come to him. As much as he didn't want to leave his mistress unattended going and attack the horde before it came meant she wouldn't have to worry about it herself.

Silver put the silver tray on a nearby table and he equipped his longsword, its chill on his hand made Silver feel safe. This was the best weapon silver had at his disposal and if he was lucky he just might get something better. He soon ran out of the guild hall and headed to the street he followed the voice of the <herald> that was yelling saying he would lead them to the vampires. Silver did as he asked and did his best to follow him, even though his agility was at the highest rank he still had trouble keeping up with the guy. At least he tripped over his own feet enough for Silver to keep up as he went towards the horizon where he could see the miasma in the distance...

Ox

Location: Seven Hills City, Mission Board

Ox looked at the oncoming vampire army with awe as they smashed though everything in their way. Why were they massing in such large numbers? Mobs never grouped outside of dungeons or raids to her knowledge, at least until now. Though she had to wonder what the point was, even if it was a coordinated attack, it wasn't like the players could be exterminated. Unless being killed by a vampire could somehow turn you into a thrall, but it had never happened before. Still it was better safe than sorry, however it was unlikely that many players would show up, after all, they wouldn't care if they got killed.

What a quandary, at worst she could wait for another player to get killed and see what happened. It wasn't very ethical though, especially for a tank class. "Alright folks you know the drill!" Ox shouted as she took her place at the front line. "Tanks to the front, melee dps behind, next support, next ranged dps." She didn't do her power-dance because it was super embarrassing and not needed so she simply activated her rune of warding and waited for the battle to start.

"Have I... finally awoken from the dream...?" Azure eyes slowly flutter open, a little hesitant to see the view above her. A sigh, the same old wooden ceiling of the inn the knight was staying in. This same hopeful thought recurred every morning since the Apocalypse. Though at this point, Eclair wasn't as shaken as when she had first awoken in Seven Hills city. Like every other adventurer who were brought here, the blonde was in a state of panic and disbelief of what had happened to them.

But a part of the adventure loving self of the French maiden was happy, she became the knight that she'd always admired. Here comes the down side, if she had become a knight herself, a devoted ally of justice, danger would trail not too far behind her. These conflicting feelings had caused Eclair to lock herself within the confines of the four walls of her room. This had been going on for too long, figuring that isolation from the outside world was not going to make things any better, the templar decided to take a walk and see how the other adventures were faring.

----

At a distance not too far from the inn, Eclair suddenly found herself in a rain of flower petals, a beautiful sight she had ever seen upon her arrival in this world. Laughter of children filled the streets and... a man leading the parade? It almost looked like a real life Tom the Pied Piper, except he didn't seem to have the intention of kidnapping or drowning them in a river. It was a pleasant scene to see, People of the Land witnessing it with smiles upon their faces, making Eclair feel warm in her heart. Their emotions almost felt real. Perhaps they were real, she couldn't say for sure.

A sudden announcement was heard throughout the streets, loud enough for the content of what he was saying to be clear. The smiles that were once upon the civilians' faces have now been replaced with an expression of fear. The laughter of children ceased, a number of them starting to weep. While Eclair, herself, had been quite shocked by the announcement, the heart of the knight within her couldn't stand to see the innocent civilians become hurt or be plagued by fear.

"People of the Land, please calm yourselves and listen!" Since Eclair didn't have a subclass like harold or any sort of authority over them, only a number of them had paused in their fear to listen. 'W-What am I doing? What can I even tell them in this situation...?!', the knight thought to herself with none of that panic visible upon her features. "At the current situation, we have no idea of how dreadful the situation may be. So please, stay locked and hidden indoors, but be prepared for evacuation at any moment." Her voice was bold and solemn but the voice within her shook with fear, uncertain if anybody would actually listen to her. Whether anybody did or not, Eclair turned towards the way the foxtail man ran and parted her lips to speak once more, "We, the Adventurers, will alert you if an evacuation will be necessary. Keep safe indoors until further notice, that is all." '...... Just what have I gotten myself into...'

----

Reality is harsh. Upon reaching the site where the vampires were spotted, Eclair's heart sank and fear took over her every being. It was slowly starting to show as her hands shook lightly as they held the longsword and the shield. A voice brought her back from her thoughts, "Tanks to the front, melee dps behind, next support, next ranged dps." There goes her cue to step up to the front, being a tank healer and all but could she really do this...? 'If this really is a dream, then please... Wake me up now.'

“Uwah, looks like the mobs beat us to it.”

Perched up on an old sycamore tree, Reissten used his right hand as a visor, shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare as he watched the vampiric horde coalesce before the city. Already, players were engaging the monsters, with variable amounts of success. In one week, it looked like most players had gotten used to killing goblins, and weren’t accustomed to the faster attack speeds of the ghouls. Well, there were a few that weren’t getting shat on, at least.

He landed on the grassy hill, before scratching his head.

“Well, wanna join good or evil?”

“I mean, it’s no fun if the Kings screw up because they’re too distracted by the monsters.” Intolerance sighed, drawing her halberd. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but let’s go help the Kings. And then call them out to a fight after.”

Tugging slightly at her ear, Ivy tilted her head. Vampire horde attack was not something you saw everyday, even if they were in a game. “Vampires? Kinky. Is that an event that I haven’t heard about?” If it was one, it was large scale. “Well, if we can’t get anything out of helping the vampires, then I say protect our own, hmm?”

“I mean, who knows, maybe it’d be better to be a henchman of some vampire lord when it comes to facilitating our player hunting.” But eh, the Vampire trait was a useless pain in the ass back when Elder Tale was a game, so chances are that it didn’t improve at all once everything went virtual reality. Flicking out his silver-steel spear, the boyish youth rolled his shoulders.

“Gonna bust out your Banish Undead spells, Ivy?”

“I wouldn’t be an exorcist without them.”

“Well, let’s go bail these idiots out, then. Think I saw two more just go down. God, have these morons just been jerking off all week or something?” Intolerance said, bracing her halberd in front of her as she prepared to charge.

“Christ, Intol, stop fantasizing about the King’s circlejerk.”

“Shut up and start stabbing.” She shot back as she rushed a vampire, starting to lay into it with repeated slashes of her halberd.

Oh ho, how butthurt. Brandishing the Valkyrie’s Flight, Reissten grinned as a howl escaped his being. Wolf ears slid out from his red headband and his fingernails sharpened into claws as strength surged through his body. With a powerful leap, the wolf boy bounded through the skies and drove his spear down the spine of a ghoul, activating Resonance Beat simultaneously, before tossing the squealing beast in Ivy’s direction.

“I’m activating Requiem and War Hymn! Keep moving, gu- I mean, girls!”
God dammit, Reisstan. Drawing her sword as the beast flew towards her, Ivy thrusted her weapon upwards to skewer the beast before letting the momentum of the enemy unsheath itself from her weapon.

“Dammit Reissten, don’t half-ass your work.”

A loud rumbling came from the central guildhall. Most people had already left to see the front gate. Without any warning, the doors of the guildhall flew out of their hinges and across the plaza. A tall and imposing woman stood where the doors used to be. She was significantly taller than most people. Besides that, she wore an extremely heavy set of armour that was just as imposing as she was. Despite her imposing silhouette, it appeared that she was trustworthy.

Kingsly and Charlotte ran back to the plaza. "Renee!" Charlotte yelled. Renee, the large figure, turned towards Charlotte. "This is bad. They're..." Charlotte stopped to take multiple deep breaths. "They're... The scouts say that they've surrounded the city..." She said, panting as she leaned over. Renee grinned to herself. "Well. Let's do this. Kingsly, plan?" Kingsly gave himself a few solemn seconds before speaking. "Scouts hath said the n'rth, east and south hast an amount of ghouls that is ere to come. The west is less maddening. We shalt defend the three and let one be." "Modern English, you sow's son." "...Lots north, east, and south. Less west. We'll protect the north, east and south with the help of the other combat guilds. The loose people can defend the west."

Renee nodded. "I'll take the north. Kingsly, you take the east. We'll get the bigger loose combat guilds to take the south. Charlotte, you help with the west." She said, placing her finger against her forehead as she contacted all of the guildmembers. "...Alright." "Aye." Renee then walked off towards the north end of the city to defend while Kingsly went east. Charlotte begrudgingly went west.



Upon reaching the west gate, Charlotte noticed the large rabble of people. "What are you guys doing? Make a party with some other nerds and go already!" She said. What she said was not unwarranted. With each passing second, the ghouls and vampires got closer, and as a result, dug in deeper. They solidified their defences with the broken and rotting trees. The ground of these trees were absurdly soft. It would be difficult to fight in each passing minute. Though, Charlotte didn't actually know this. She didn't want to wait.

Silver looked around seeing a few others coming in and so far they were all the tanks they could take the hits that Silver couldn't so he would need to use the switching strategy with them to avoid dying to fast. Silver quickly send a party request to the 3 of them <sent party requests to: Intolerance, Azure, and Ox> once the requests were sent silver took out his sword and realized he was really outclassed by these monsters. All of them were at least another 20 levels above him but that meant Silver needed to be extra careful. The weakest enemy he could attack was the <ghoul> they were the melee types so Silver had to be careful he would have to leave the other vampires to the big tanks and help when he could for now low level was the way to go.

Silver turned to the tanks in the front and said sorry im not a high level guys but ill do my best, im going after the ghouls and ill come back behind you to wait for my skill timer to go down. Assassin level 20 with a chilling longsword by the way. Be right back Silver said with a laugh and a grin, one of the things he loved about this was feeling the adrenaline of a fight that makes being a low level worth while. Silver took a drink from his EXP potion then he jumped over the 3 of them and went to the first ghoul. He crouched low and used <deadly dance> 1 strike, two strike, 3, all the way up to 6 strikes then his blade got its pale glow making the last 2 strikes critical hits. Silver jumped back before it could use its <brutal bite> and he used his <Assassination> move before quickly retreating behind the tanks to wait for his timer to go down...

Ox

Location: Seven Hills City, City Gates

Ox accepted the friend request and listened to Silver's plan intently, it seemed as good as any since no one else was speaking up. "Don't worry I'll cover you." Ox said confidently and tapped her chest lightly causing a rune to flicker into existence. That would ensure she could take a hit before putting her her <Cool Defense>, she was prepared to guard the assassin with any combinations of skills necessary. Between <Covering> and her taunts Ox was confident no one would the harm the squishy blade fighter. Of course then there was the matter that she was severely under leveled for this fight but hey, she should be able to take a couple hits right? At least more than the assassin. Hopefully. As long as they attacked the other tanks for the most part she'd be fine.

While the crowd of players were reacting in different manners at the sight of the large army of vampires, a red armored little girl stepped forward and shouted, "What are you guys doing? Make a party with some other nerds and go already!" Eclair nodded at this and scanned the area for any available party being formed. At a not too far distance, she eyed a party with the players Silver and Ox Ymoron, an <Assassin> and a <Guardian>, respectively. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to act as a healer support and extra tank (hopefully her <Divine Shield of Holy Knight> could be of use against these undead monsters) for them, <Party Join Request to: Silver>.

Eclair approached the two and unsheathed her <Longsword>, turning her gaze towards the group of <Ghouls> which were slowly coming towards them. "Mind me lending my assistance to you? I may not be much of an offense but I can offer defense and support to your party." Whether the party request was accepted or not, the templar charged forward and selected <Anchor Howl>. "Anchor Howl!" A bright green light emitted from the elf as the attention of the <Ghouls> turned towards her. She gulped slightly, her hands beginning to shake once more. One of them suddenly leaped towards Eclair, instinctively, she guarded with her shield yet taking a small amount of damage while being pushed back.

This gave the knight the opportunity she wanted, "Shield stun!" <Shield Stun> was activated as the shield that guarded her was pushed with a sudden force onto the <Ghoul>, causing it to stun for a short duration and giving the rest a chance to attack. "Now's the chance to attack!" Eclair shouted, her sword being swung towards the immobile monster.

@Eklispe@Amaterasu

Silver saw another party request to another fighter and he quickly accepted it before he kept his eye on his timer seeing his abilities were ready to be used again but he took a step back when the new arrival used <anchor howl>. Silver kept an eye on what she was doing knowing she would give him a follow up attack to use and just as he expected she stunned another ghoul, now it was silvers turn! Silver got into a low stance and again started up his <deadly dance> however his sword didn't get the pale aura meaning that it was a critical strike. Then Silver had only a few seconds before the <ghoul> would be free of stun. Silver then used <assassination> then he decided to use his big swig or miss attack. <aim for the heart> as Silver jumped up to attack and strike he realized the attack missed. Silver barley had enough time to jump back into rank before the <ghouls> stun wore off. nice work éclair I took out a good chunk of their health but my timer is being a pain. I need both you and Ox to keep them back and do some crow control. Ill let you know when my abilities are free to start a combo Silver informed them thinking that someone needed to take charge of the situation or they would all be sent to the cathedral...