New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth went back to the task at hand as he closed his skill window.

The two boys in the hole looked at him, grinning, without understanding. Was he happy at being able to control his skill?

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He started looking inside the hole, which was now brightly lit. He could see the rock surface of the walls better now, and what he saw fascinated him.

There were runes etched across the whole pit, in a spiraling fashion, that went from the bottom to the top. He couldn’t discern if they were letters or pictograms, since he couldn’t understand any of them.

He looked on in awe until the dwarf snapped him back to reality.

“Excuse me, mister. But could you help us out, instead of looking at the walls?” The dwarf asked.

Astaroth looked at him incredulously. Was he not interested in the carvings?

Was it just him who was feeling like a child on Christmas morning? This was probably what he had been looking for, for over an hour!

“What is your name, small guy?” Astaroth asked.

“Hey! I’m a dwarf! Not a small guy!” The dwarf rebuked, raising his hammer to Astaroth.

“Yeah, yeah. Po-ta-to po-tah-to.” Astaroth responded, waving his hand dismissively.

“What’s your name, dwarf guy?” He then asked.

The dwarf puffed his cheeks, as they became red with anger, but still answered.

“My name is Gulnur Deepshield!” He said.

“All right then, Gulnur, I’die. Do none of you recognize the etchings on the walls?” Astaroth asked both of them.

“No.” They both responded, simultaneously.

Astaroth nodded his head in understanding. He then stood up and stretched.

“What are you doing, mister?” I’die asked, seeing him do some calisthenics.

“If I’m not wrong, the spot you two fell in is a secret door.” Astaroth started explaining, still stretching.

“And it probably leads to a secret zone under this one.” He added.

As he was stretching, he saw another two silhouettes at the edge of the woods. He looked at them from the corner of his eye, but they didn’t seem intent on attacking him.

He had guessed they had probably been there for a bit.

“Come out and join me, if you’re curious.” He said out loud, keeping up his exercise.

The two silhouettes walked out of the wood, a good distance apart from each other. They walked towards Astaroth while monitoring each other.

Both of the silhouettes were of women. One looked like a human, and the other was a familiar person.

When they reached a safe distance from him, a red-haired human woman talked to him first. The other he already recognized.

“We heard what you just said. But is it true?” She asked him.

“Politeness dictates you state your name before questioning someone, missus.” Astaroth replied, half-jokingly.

His intention here was to learn the names of those he was dealing with. Knowledge was power, after all.

“My name is Phoenix.” The redhead replied, turning her head to the other woman.

“My name is Athena Woodland.” The Elven woman, with hair of gold, said.

“Athena?!” I’die’s voice came from the pit.

“I’die?!” The Elven woman responded, dropping all pretense of cautiousness, and running to the pit, right next to Astaroth.

“Athena! You found me!” I’die said, almost in tears.

“Please keep the heartwarming reunion for later people. Time is a resource that is scarce.” Astaroth said, his eyes on his interface.

The number of eliminated players had just reached over two hundred, meaning time was running out. He needed to be quick.

He directly melded with White, before crouching low. He cast some wind under his feet, ready to use propel on himself.

The red-haired woman, Phoenix, watched in astonishment. It was rare to see a player use both a spell and a trait from the Beastmaster class.

She was wondering what class the man was playing. But she couldn’t just ask him, either.

The Elven archer looked at him in mistrust, as she knew he could kill them all with that form. But what he said next caused her eyes to widen.

“Step aside from the hole, unless you want to fall in when I punch through it!” Astaroth yelled, before jumping.

The term jumping here might have been an understatement. Using propel, plus his strength stat boosted so much, Astaroth launched into the air.

He reached an impressive height of sixty meters before he fell back down. He pulled out his war axe, enchanting it with magic, layer after layer, producing a mirage that was much larger.

As he fell, he brought the axe up in a strike position, waiting for the perfect moment. To any bystander seeing this, Astaroth looked like a war god, falling from the heavens right now.

‘I hope this works.’ He thought as he plummeted towards the vine cover.

He passed right through it, rapidly reaching above the floor of the pit. The two captives had already skedaddled to the edges of the walls, making sure they didn’t get hit.

“BREAK!” Astaroth shouted, as he swung down his axe with significant force and momentum.

When the two objects impacted, it produced a resounding noise of metal on rock before the floor began cracking. The floor cracked everywhere before giving way.

The ground collapsed and fell into a pit even deeper, black like the abyss. Astaroth laughed like a madman, as he fell, along with the two young men.

The elf boy and the dwarven kid started yelling as the ground beneath their feet vanished. Gravity rapidly took hold of them, and they dropped into the darkness.

The two women still on the surface panicked as they saw the ground break.

“I’die!” Athena yelled, before throwing herself into the abyss.

“God damn idiot!” Phoenix shouted, looking at all of them disappear from view.

Of course, she couldn’t let them possibly find something sweet without her. The appeal was too great.

So she gritted her teeth, cursed, and then took the plunge. She soon disappeared into the abyss, too.