Giving up his search for party members Sparks decided to try the snakes again, this time he would be prepared. Walking confidently out the east gate, past the pheasants - he could smell their fear. They weren't afraid.

Stepping out of the grass, he found a dirt lot. eyeing the surroundings he found something that would come in handy. Large boulders were hovering around above the lot, it wasn't any bug or glitch, there would be things that could not be explained in this world - and this was one of them. Smiling he used flash step up onto the rocks, holding tight he found his balance looking down at the tunnel snakes traveling toward him. Some erupted from the ground underneath the rock smashing into it. To no avail the rock did not budge, instead the snake's health fell. Grinning wildly he could see some other players noticing him up on the rock, jealous.

Shimmers of electricity expanded from his fingertips as he hit numerous snakes, some were falling as he kept shocking them.

Waiting for more to appear Sparks scrolled through his display looking curiously at everything it had to offer. Something was blinking.. A party invite? Smiling he clicked accept. "Sure why not."

"Can you guys hear me? Hello? is this thing on?"
he spoke into team chat, it was almost like a telephone conversation. Waiting for a reply he continued to shock the snakes.

The guy was sitting on a floating rock and shooting snakes. And he accepted the invite anyway, so he was basically power-leveling them at the moment. "Yeah, I hear you. Smart place to be." Braden cast Daeris a sideways glance. "Nice find. I'm gonna call him Biri-Biri. Should we just stand here and watch?" He would never be content with that, though, and the grin he flashed the elf conveyed as much. His arms had had a brief chance to rest, so he felt like he could go on--a sentiment he wouldn't share in a few minutes, he knew, but he was stubborn enough to continue anyway. Braden pulled his Fowl Sword from its sheath as he evaluated the battlefield.

Any nearby snakes had swarmed to Biri-Biri. The dozen beneath him were slowly losing health, still launching themselves up at the small mage, bouncing off his stone perch, and burrowing into the ground again. Chips of the boulder were dropping down after each impact, so it was only a matter of time before the thing cracked. And Biri-Biri wouldn't have enough mana to kill all the snakes--to kill any if he kept spreading damage out like he was. So the first step right now was to lure some snakes away. But only one or two.

"Think you can hit one on the edge? If you pull more than three it'll hurt. Five would probably kill us." He asked Daeris aloud, rather than using the team chat. The worry was probably unfounded; Biri-Biri had already injured them all, so only the one Daeris shot should turn on them. Theoretically. His gaze remained fixed on the scene ahead of him, trying to pick out the pattern among the snakes for when and where they would emerge.

“First why Biri-Biri? Second, what’s the point of playing the game if you’re just watching? Thirdly help me get on top of those floating rocks. They will provide and excellent spot for me to fire my arrows.” stated Daeris as she ran towards the floating rocks. It look like they wouldn’t have a chance to go the bank and deposit their gold, thus if they died they would lose a large portion of their gold. Guess they would have to go to the bank after this quest.

“Since their moving and they are pretty small, not to mention they have a weird shape it will be hard to hit them but I will give it a shot. Also is there anything stopping you from using a bow or a musket? Sure you may not have special abilities but it could prove to be useful, such as a situation like this. Now give me a boost so I can get on top of his floating rock.” said Daeris as she waited for Braden to help her get on top of a rock. Although she didn’t need his help to climb the rock it would certainly make it a lot faster.

Once she was on top of the rock she fired an arrow one of the snakes at the edge but due to their size it missed. She followed up with a shadow arrow but it miss as well. “You know what they say, third time the charm.” said Daeris as she fired another arrow, this time it hit the snake, gathering its attention as well as three others. She quickly fired another arrow, trying to weaken the snakes to make sure Braden could easily finish it off.

"Weeeeeeeeeeee! Nahnahnahnahnah! Catch me if you can!" Mercury was having way too much fun kiting level one and two enemies. The mage was weaving through the woods, egg held high above his head to attract the attention of every pheasant in sight. A flash off to his right made him change course to see what was happening. He burst into a clearing -- not slowing on account of the mob of angry birds hot on his tail -- and saw a few players taking on quite a few...

"Snakes!" Mercury dove without hesitation into the mass of snakes, either not seeing or not caring (or just being stupid and not thinking) about the players attacking said snakes. The snakes were so focused on the attacking players, and the magician's entrance had been so sudden, that they barely noticed him as he slipped through their seething mass of scaled bodies. They certainly noticed the buffet line of pheasants that followed though, and suddenly snakes and pheasants were all jumbled together in one huge noisy cesspit of fun.

One snake, and Mercury would swear that it was the same one that killed him, took notice of the nimble mage and shot towards him headfirst. "Time's Backhand!" Mercury shot straight up off the ground, and the snake hit nothing but air. Unfortunately, Mercury's aim had been slightly terrible, and he was left hanging, literally, clinging to his sword's hilt, the blade impaled a few inches into a floating rock. His predicament looked comically like he was holding onto a big balloon. The mage didn't seem to mind just "hanging out" though. He waved energetically to the sparky guy who was standing atop the rock a few feet away. "Hiya! Whatcha doin'?" He couldn't tell if he could be heard over the cacophony of dying pheasants and ravenous snakes, so Mercury tried yelling it.

Braden sheathed his sword long enough to cup his hands as a foothold and launch Daeris up, then pulled it out again. He was about to join in the fray when it got a lot larger. He hesitated a moment, but the war between snakes and pheasants was raging and they wouldn't get any experience for monsters killing each other. Time to start cutting.

"Biri-Biri, keep your lightning focused on that side." The last thing Braden wanted while cutting through snakes and pheasants was friendly lightning striking his sword. "Daeris, keep an eye on your ammo and tell me when you're below twenty. And see if that kid wants to join." He'd be a handful without a doubt, but the kid was doing well. He was testing what the game would do, pushing past the limits other games had baked into players' minds.

Sparks hopped closer to Mercury grabbing his cloth pulling him onto a more stable part of the rock. The spot that he was on collapsing to the ground smashing into it with force leaving a small crater, nothing was left of the rock. "Careful" He mumbled as he shot cover fire to the players in range killing snakes as they fell, He was ignoring the rewards for now, as well as the experience he was gaining. Sliding part of his hud forward he checked the kill count on Tunnel Snakes, [9] He had not been doing bad for himself so far. Charging his next strike he overlooked the dirt lot trying to find a good mob to attack. Getting the attention of his teammates he pointed towards one of the snakes, "Their weak spot is close to their tails." The electrical surge in his hand started depleting his health as he launched it toward four tunnel snakes killing the first one on impact with a critical while only cutting the other three's health in half. "If you hit that spot it is almost always a critical."

Sitting down on the rock he switched through his display to reap the rewards he got so far.

[53 exp, Level up! 40 gold, Health wine, Normal boots[lv5] Ring of precision[Lv5] - Unique (+10 accuracy .25% critical damage) ]

He was now level 5, so the boots he could wear, but the ring was of no use to him, a bracelet would be more use to him at this point. Looking at Mercury he offered the Ring, "If you can wear this, you should it might be of more use to you, it deals extra damage than a beginning ring also it has additional attributes."

Looking onward he measured his next move. Drinking a mana potion he waited.

Covered in gore, Joseph continued slashing at the pack of snakes, almost dead. He jumped back, whipping out a health potion, restoring himself to a decent amount. One left... he thought, wincing in pain. Realism was fun. Until you got severe cuts. At that point, it was just an adrenaline activator. No time to think, he threw his dagger at the snake, slicing its digital brain cleanly across the center, not a pixel off. How the hell did he do that? Staring at his own hands, he knew that he couldn't just throw a knife randomly and hit his target absolutely perfectly. Who cared, truthfully? What mattered was that he did do it. "VC: Screenshot image, time: negative ten seconds. VC: Abort command: previous. VC: Record kill, last." However he did it, it was getting saved in all its 4320p glory.

He walked over, retrieving his humming dagger. Checking his HUD, he looked at his kill statistics. [Pheasant: 14, Tunnel Snake: 19] Oh, come on. One short? That was going to be fixed soon. Telltale rumble beginning almost immediately, just as he was closing the screen. A toothy maw drilled out of the ground less than an inch from his toes, uprooting bits of ground under his foot, and his cloak, heavy as it was, literally going straight out the opposite of what gravity said it should. This wasn't a normal tunnel snake... This was thrice his size, towering above his head. [Tunnel Snake {L10}] Holy snap! Level ten? But there was a crucial weakness that he could see: It couldn't move fast except for coming out of the ground. That could be seen by anyone. He ran up yelling, "Poison Edge!" in a cliched anime manner. Did saying it even matter? This game relied mostly on thought based interaction, so he didn't think so. Nonetheless, it still looked pretty cool. Slashing at the beast's hide several times, it reared back, and slammed down like an enormous, scaly whip. With the cloak on, he couldn't dodge the thick body, not to mention the still dangerous shock wave, and was left at the least HP he'd ever seen besides zero. Still, he should have his sneak ability. He crept into the tall grass and drank a health potion. Then another. This thing was more than he could handle. Running away, he spotted some other players killing snakes. "Hey!," he yelled, "Could I join you guys?"

Mercury took the ring from the sparkly man and put it on. "I'm so sorry, but... I just don't think you're my type." Turning suddenly serious, the mage stood up tall, sheathed sword held to the sky, and let out an echoing voice. "BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!" He smirked at his fellow magical girl. "Time's Arena!" A brilliant red magic circle spread out in the sky above his arm, and Mercury let himself fall backwards off of the floating rock. A bubble of slowed time enveloped the area as he fell into the mass of seething bodies below. Easily visible in slowed time to those outside, the magician wrapped his arms around the head of one of the snakes, and another magical circle appeared momentarily before him and the snake were sent flying out of the side of the bubble.

Mercury had it out for this snake in particular. This snake had killed him, and no one killed him and lived! In reality, this snake wasn't even the same one he had identified moments earlier as his killer, but Mercury wasn't exactly one to sweat the details. Riding the powerful serpent like a mechanical bull, his sheathed sword through its mouth like a bridle, Mercury was hanging on with all of his meager strength. "Don't worry, I got this one! Whoa, bad hiss bad!" The mage was almost thrown off as the snake headbutted the ground, but held on. "Yup, all good," he mumbled as he readjusted his grip around the snake's thick head.

The thought of running ammo had never come across to her. She checked her inventory and saw she had capacity for 50 arrows while only having 32 left. “I’m currently at 32.” she said as she then fired another arrow, hitting a snake in the body. She then sent a whisper to Braden. “There is no way I’m teaming up with that kid. He’s going to get us all killed.” said Daeris as she then watch mage yell something about power and greyskull. She attempted to ignore him and kept firing arrows at the snakes.

Just as Daeris began to get her focus back another player showed up asking if he could join. Was there some kind of broadcast telling every single player to come to their location? As she wondered whether to accept the new player who had ask she saw the mage now riding the snake like a bull. Perhaps a party had a limit of four players. “Sure thing new guy, you’re in.” said Daeris as she sent an invite to the player who had just appeared. She fired another arrow, killing a snake which leveled her up to 5. “Give me a minute guys, I need to check my new skills.” said Daeris as she check her skills and equipment.

"Thanks. Playing alone gets boring sometimes. He looks like he'd never get bored, though," Joseph said, glancing at the blue haired player. Flipping a knife out of his sleeve with a flourish- Something that he found was actually more fun than it looked- he ran at the pack of snakes, not yelling, but thinking Poison Edge! He wasn't quite sure how it would look, especially to some random people. And he was pretty sure that yelling out attacks was- In every instance, anime or otherwise- unnecessary. Sure enough, the snake he hit seemed to take damage past the first hit, withering away soon enough. He jumped away as another would have bit him. After a while, these got pretty predictable, it seemed. Stabbing the aforementioned beast in its glinting eye, he jumped back to regenerate some health and close the notifications that had popped up with every kill, mostly XP and gold.

Braden paused a moment to glare up at the elf, but a leaping snake forced his attention back to his blade. As soon as his counter reached twenty--not too long thanks to the number of teammates, but still not soon enough for him--Braden pulled himself out of the fight and ran back to town, dismissing himself from the party as he went.

Ducking past the guards, Braden made his way to Aven. "I'm done," he declared, still sulking.

"You finished already? Thank you so much! You will forever be welcome here in Birth Village. I hope that will teach those snakes a lesson." A small notification appeared: [400 gold, 2 minor health potions, Scaled Tunic - level 5 Unique] "Talk to me if you wish to teleport to Twin City, the main city of Haven."

Before Braden could say yes, a shout from a short distance behind him pulled his attention. "Wait! Wait for me!"

Braden turned to see who was coming. A human girl with long, brown twin-tails was waving her arm at him. A small, black creature rested on her other shoulder--she was some sort of summoner class, apparently. She stopped right beside him, panting a little from the sprint. "Hi! I'm Marta! Can I come with you?" His expression must have betrayed his skepticism because she pressed on hurriedly. "My last group broke up after the snakes. Please? I promise I'm good, and Poca is great for support!"

"Poca?"

"Him," Marta clarified, pointing to the small creature riding her shoulder. Braden wasn't sure what kind of monster it was--it was like a teddy bear, but with enormous ears and a flat, fanged face.

Braden stared at her for another long moment, during which time she began to fidget nervously. "Fine," Braden finally agreed, sending her an invite.

"Woohoo! Thank you! I'm Marta! What's your name?" Braden raised his eyebrows, then turned away. "Oh, come on! It's nicer to introduce yourself instead of just letting me read it."

"Braden."

"Okay! That's more like-!" Braden vanished before she could finish. Marta glared at the space he had once been standing in, then spoke with Aven to follow after him.

--Server Down--
Please be patient while we resolve the issue.

Joshua growled and pulled his headset off. He pulled himself off his bed, his muscles groaning in protest, and worked his way toward hid desk. Flipping his laptop open and calling up Chrome, Joshua checked Haven's website. There was a brief apology stating that unexpected technical issues had arisen and the servers would go back online at the same time tomorrow. As could be expected, a river of flame had opened up. Not as bad as one might expect, though; based on his own aching body, Joshua guessed that two thirds of the players hadn't even made it to their computers yet. Joshua was peeved, too, but complaining wouldn't do anything more than antagonize the staff. He almost pitied the idiots that posted enraged insults. Almost.

There wasn't anything more for him to do today, then. Joshua stood, forcing his protesting joints to move, and headed outside his small dorm room. He needed to stretch his muscles out. He made a mental note to do the same before logging in again tomorrow.

Mercury walked up to Aven confidently, then abruptly turned to stare directly away from him. Whispering loudly out of the corner of his mouth, the mage said, "Psst, I heard you've got the goods for me."

Aven stared blankly at the strange boy for a moment before it registered that he must be attempting to collect the quest reward. What was wrong with all these player characters?

...

"Booyah mother fu***rs, I pulled a friggin' Buster Blade!" More than a few players looked to see the odd boy waving a ridiculously gigantic sword in the air. Sure, it was purely a vanity item and would break if ever actually used, but they didn't need to know that. Mercury ran around the town a few times with his new sword before returning to Aven and immediately equipping his other quest reward. Gone was the fool, gone was the boy. The being that appeared where Mercury had been stading seconds ago was unlike anything ever seen my player or NPC in the world of Haven.

"I... AM... INVINCIBLE!" Mercury stood in the center of town, his form obscured by black flames of energy. He swung his sword around to dissapate the smoke of his new armor. Armor? "What is this shit!?" The mage glared accusingly at the NPC. Mercury's new armor left nothing to the imagination; all it was was a small piece of black cloth to cover, well.. his piece, and a string across his chest. Around his neck was a necklace with a single round gem of bright pink. He was practically naked!

"What the hell is this!? I mean, come on! Is.. is this a ball gag!? And this," Mercury ripped off the tiny top. "Is this supposed to cover something!? Don't even get me started on the bottom, because I'm not even going to look down until you change me back!"

Aven looked more than a little flustered. "I-I'm sorry sir. I seem to have given you the female magician's battle armor. Let me correct that this moment."

Mercury silenced the failure of an NPC with a slap. "No! I demand compensation. Give me the highest level cape and hat you have and I won't sue the dev that wrote you!" The boy could be quite forceful when need be.

Covered with a large cape and a hat hiding the rest of him, Mercury made his way back to the snake clearing to gather materials. Five minutes and a few hundred snake scales later, Marcury spread his arms wide, throwing the cape open and revealing his handiwork. What had been a piece of string and a mockery of a thong had been transformed into a beautiful snakeskin two piece, the ball gag remade into a diamond-shaped pendant of emerald scales. It was still for the wrong gender, but screw the rules, he was a magician!

"Now to flaunt my creativi-

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Connection Lost

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In a dark room, location unknown, a lone voice can be heard, calling out, saying...

"BIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!"