The Ancients World

{krialer, please let me know if you want an NPC or player named after you. You are the top donater this month and now its time for your reward. You have until the 31st of march to reply to this.}

I walk beside my sister as the rest of our family is right behind us, we are making our way to the marker on the map. The closer we get to the marker the thicker the crowd is getting, I can see where the dungeon will be spawning and I also see many hardcore players getting ready for when it opens. We slowly make our way through the crowd and to the front, we are behind what looks to be a party, different dungeons have different requirements. This one might have a limit of 10 per party, massive dungeons that are both hard to beat and powerful have very high limits. Even guilds lose more than they gain while dealing with the stronger types. No one knows what this one will be, but with the current level of the player base it shouldn't be to hard. I wouldn't be surprised if these hardcore parties finished it faster then I could solo, a group of hardcore players coordination is just that good.

[World-wide Announcement: Dungeons are now open to the players on the player continent! Best of luck to you all!]

My thoughts are interrupted by an announcement from the system. Out of no where a bright light exits the subway entrance where the dungeon is supposed to be. Once the light fades everyone sees that there is now a barrier from letting anyone in, I wonder what happened to the players in the subway. They either died and respawned or were teleported out. Everyone begins to squint their eyes and wear faces of confusion, fear, and curiosity. I hear my sister mumble something. She must have inspected it as well. Whatever the information is it might not be good. I should also inspect the dungeon myself, I look over the men in front of me and use my inspect skill. I now understand people reactions, and I also agree with them.

[Ancient Subway (Dungeon)]

[Level req: None]

[Party limit: 15]

[Description: An old underground transportation station for a large number of people. Since its abandonment many dark dwelling monsters have made it home.]

[Clear conditions: Kill the boss]

[Possible Rewards: ???]

Now why would a subway that was not old or in a run down state before the event be called Ancient Subway. Was there some sort of time displacement when we were sucked through the portal? This is another mystery, I cant see the logic in this other then some sort of time manipulation. Perhaps that's why the people who turned to dust did just that, they aged so fast nothing was left but dust. This is the best theory I can come up with, it also makes a connection to why people are getting younger. Both are related to time, but have unknown causes and answers. The party limit is slightly higher then I would've expected, this isn't going to cater to the low levels. My family just barely scratches above level 14, so this will be a little hard on them. The hardcore party in front of us is short 5 members, its stronger then what they were expecting as well. They were here first and that means its their right to go.

I watch the leader of the group enter with his party, I start to walk up with my family right behind me. "I'll protect you guys, but you will also have to get kills yourselves. I'll invite you all to a party right now. Be careful in there and don't be scared." I open my player interface and invite them, I have to use people in proximity since the friends list still doesn't work. They all accept pretty fast. "It might get claustrophobic or extremely dark in there, but don't be scared. Marcus, when it gets to dark in some areas use some fire magic to light it up for us." He nods his head yes slowly. I walk up to the entrance and put my hand on it, I get a prompt to enter and I press enter. I'm surrounded by light and transported in, once on the other side of the barrier I look around on the stairs descending into the subway and see my family. We all made it in okay, I look outside the barrier and I see players still looking in. I wave my hand at them, but none acknowledge it.

Interesting, I look towards my family and they are waiting for me to lead the way. "Well sweetie, I hope this plan of yours works." I give a reassuring nod and walk down the stairs before my family. I draw my blade just in case. Both mom and dad draw their weapons as well. There are keeping Marcus between them for safety. Hailey follows suit and does the same as the rest of us, I make it to the bottom of the stairs and look around. There are cracks in the ceiling where light is coming through in places, the cracks are rather huge. I walk up to one and look at it, I can easily jump out of it if I wanted to. So I try just that, I launch myself at the opening and I hit a barrier hard. "Be careful sweetie!!!" My mother is adamant on not being reckless, this must be apart of the environment down here. Cracks this big would have been seen by the players, and there was none around the entrance we just came through. Its like we are in a sperate dimension, but not. If we truly were then I wouldn't have seen the players on the other side.

They couldn't see me though, all this doesn't make any sense. Its like that old vintage show called the twightzone. "We have light for now, I can see more cracks down both tunnels so no need for magic yet. Be ready though Marcus. I don't know what could happen." The objective of this dungeon is to kill the boss for the clear, but this isn't going to be as simple as that. These rails and tunnels go on for miles, and the boss can be anywhere in this entire network. The first thing I should do is look for signs of a boss, like scratches on the walls or a path it regularly takes. "We'll start on the left path, and see if we can run into anything that might tell us where the boss is or where its going. Look for anything that might not fit the environment, it could be a clue." They nod their heads and we start to make our way down the left tunnel.

As we walk the cracks are lighting the path very nicely. We are walking in the middle of the tracks, and from what I can see everything looks normal. At least how it should look. We eventually reach another platform about a quarter mile down the current track we are using. I get up on the loading platform and look around, my attention is drawn to a terminal that looks very out of place. "Is that what you mean by out of place..." My sister catches on fast, I nod my head yes and slowly approach the machine. I don't remember these being in the subways growing up, so that means it was put here. "What are you going to do with it..." My sister is right behind me as my fingers reach for the keyboard. If I can find out what this thing is it might help us in some way. By finding the boss or by answering questions I need answered. I start it up and see a bunch of alien looking code, but after a second it transforms into a readable language.

[<Lore station>]

[<Press enter to read more about this location>]

This is a lore terminal, I've never seen anything like it. It might be able to provide us with a clue to anything we don't know. I press enter and it just starts unleashing line after line of information about this subway system. Access points, other platforms, and administration. It also has a map of the entire place, it makes me wonder why this was put here. From what I can tell its only for this specific location, and while not very helpful I have some guesses on where the boss could be now. I continue to watch and read the lines of information looking for anything that might help us. Its actually telling me about its history while it was still on earth, and after those lines of code it stops. Seems like it has nothing else to give, talk about disappointing. At least I have places of interest where the boss might be hiding.

I stop messing with the terminal and Hailey takes my spot and starts to read herself. I walk over to my parents as she is busy looking at the lore herself. "The best place I can think of looking is administration. I know which path to follow to get to there, so just follow me." I look back to my sister and she is still reading, I guess liking lore is another thing we share. "Lets go Hailey, I want to get the custom reward for us before anyone else gets their hands on it." She hears me and stops her reading and heads over to us. We start back on the rail system and begin making our way to administration, but after just a couple minutes of walking I can hear growling in front of us. That's a good indication we are heading in the right direction. I look to the rest of my family and they can tell to. This is now going to become a fight instead of a long walk, and this tight space doesn't make it easy.