New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***Level 50 Dungeon, Bowels Of The Earth***

Khalor was currently standing in front of the treasure chest of the first boss, in the dungeon he was running. He was panting heavily as he sat in front of the chest.

“That was too close for comfort. Seems like the monsters at this level are smart enough to understand the principle of the summoner and summoned creature.”

His body was currently recovering from some heavy wounds that the boss he had slain had inflicted on him. The monster had rapidly understood who was controlling the undead and Khalor had ended up in a tight spot.

Even though his never-ending army of undead kept the boss monster mostly at bay, it still managed to slip through them occasionally, dealing a great deal of damage directly to him.

Khalor wasn’t a tank, and any hit he took was potentially mortal. Of course, his class allowed him some latitude, in terms of death, but that didn’t mean he could allow himself to die so easily.

This boss monster had given him a run for his money, but his objective was still attained. Laying behind him, looking at Khalor intently, was a half-zombified flame wyvern.

It was looking at Khalor with mixed emotions, ranging between hatred and reverence. But its brain kept it from lunging at the man that had just slain it.

ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm

“Don’t worry. Even if you hate me, I’ll treat you well. And soon enough, you will get to vent a bit of that anger from dying.”

Khalor finished resting and stood up. When he looked at his level, he smiled a bit.

‘Level forty-seven. I’m catching back to that brat. Soon I’ll be ahead again.’

As he remembered why he needed to rush through his levelling process, his face became gloomy.

‘That fucking gnome. I will have his life if he ruins everything again.’

Khalor went back to his dungeon crawl, anger pushing him to kill everything in his way faster, as if his ass were on fire.

***Back to the Bastion***

Athena had just come back from her scouting. She had to skip many zones, since the monsters in there were so numerous, they would have caught her.

But all the information she gave to I’die painted out a pretty decent map. Even if some zones were still a mystery, including the zone where Athena presumed the boss was, the group was lucky with the info they had.

Some information was better than none.

Phoenix looked at the map with scrutiny. She was planning the shortest and most efficient route to the boss, while making sure they killed everything on the way there.

She had already discussed their assigned positions and roles with everyone. She even stepped on her jealousy and talked to Morticia, to have a better idea of what her new class did.

Morticia explained that her new class allowed her to charm her enemies with higher chances of success, meaning she could turn enemies into temporary allies.

This would be incredibly useful in those places where the monsters were aplenty. Even if Phoenix hated the way Morticia looked at her man, she couldn’t discard her usefulness in the raid to come.

As for the other player she didn’t know, his class was pretty straightforward. Gunslingers pointed their guns and shot.

Be it one gun, or many, a pistol or a rifle, the concept remained the same. They were pure damage dealers.

Although their party had a disproportionate amount of DPS versus the two other roles, she knew they would be fine. Silent and I’die had already proved their mettle as healers, and Gulnur was an outstanding tank.

Astaroth wasn’t even to be worried about, since his skills made him a monster in his own right. As tanky as a tank, as lethal as a DPS, and his passive health regen on his wolf form meant he needed little healing.

Phoenix giggled to herself, remembering that Astaroth was practically a one-man team. Just as a certain Necromancer, they both knew.

It was a shame Khalor had refused to come. This operation would have been a breeze with him there, adding a numbers advantage to their side.

Phoenix finally decided on the path they would take, drawing it on the map. She clapped her hands, gathering the attention of all the surrounding players.

“Alright! Let’s get this done quickly. Our leader has a certain gnome he wants to teach a lesson to.”

She started explaining her primary plan to everyone, and the players nodded when given specific instructions. She sometimes added in some contingency plans for certain situations, making sure they always had a way out.

It was better to be safe than sorry. It took her over half an hour to make sure everyone understood their role. But once she was done, they were ready.

They got into position, taking a kind of sandwich formation, as they stood before the iron gate that closed the walls. Astaroth walked to the side, pulling a lever that activated a hidden mechanism.

The gate started slowly sliding upward, with a metal-on-stone screech. It wasn’t long before the gate was completely retracted.

The party slowly walked inside, keeping all their senses peeled. An ambush at the entrance would be terrible, but the chances were low.

As the last of the back line crossed the gate, a roar suddenly echoed through the skies.

*RROOAARR!!!*

Immediately after the roar was silenced, a notification popped on everyone’s interface.

*Ding!*

*Surprise Event!*

*The Zone Boss has felt trespassers in its domain. It has alerted all of its underlings, and is now ready to drive the intruders back. Get ready!*

Everyone had the same thought.

‘Shit!’

The ground started rumbling under everyone’s feet, and the vibration caused whatever was holding the gate up to break, sending it crashing back down.

The entire group was now stuck inside the walls, with a horde of monsters on their way to eat them.

“Fuck! This just turned into a wave defence!” Gulnur shouted.

“Don’t panic! We have a plan for this. Everyone! Switch to defensive positions. I’die, form some walls to our sides. We need to funnel enemies to our front lines!” Phoenix commanded.

“On it!”

“Gale, switch to the front line! Death, support him so he never gets surrounded.”

“Aye aye!”

“Yes, boss lady!”

“Get ready, here they come!” Athena shouted, her eyes fixed forward, as she nocked an arrow.

“Astaroth! Raise some hell!”

“With pleasure! AWWOOOO!!!!!”

Astaroth melded with White, dashing out of the defensive position they were building.

Chaos ensued.