Just as I walked out, I realized that I had no idea where to start looking for a weapon shop. I turned back and reentered the bar.

“I actually have no idea where a weapon shop is,” I said with a smile on my face, “Do mind helping me?”
Everybody in the bar burst out in laughter. After awhile a laughing, the bartender said, “Take a right, go four blocks then turn left and go three blocks. It should be right there. It’s called Carmen’s Weaponry, the best smith in town, he is. Although, since the game just got released, the equipment you will get from him won’t be grade A material, it’s very basic stuff. It’ll suffice for fighting low level enemies.”
“Thank you,” I replied, “I’ll make sure to come back and visit every once in a while. See ya!”
The usual commotion of the bar resumed as I walked out. Following his directions, I went right and continued straight for four blocks. After two minutes of walking, I reached the end of the first block. Only then did I realized how large this town was. The town stretched for miles in front of me and behind me it stretched even further. Traveling is going to be a pain, I thought.
I continued for another seven minutes until I finally reached the end of the fourth block. I then turned left and continued forward. I noticed that the streets were very busy. Hundreds of people wandering the streets. So the game was this popular upon release, I thought. The number of people I saw terrified me. Literally hundreds and that was just on this one street. There were tons of streets in this town. The amount of people that there would be if there were this many on each street would be in the thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. The number brought a sinking feeling to my stomach.
After three blocks, I saw a huge sign, promoting a shop called Carmen’s Weaponry. So this must be the place, I thought. I walked into the building underneath the sign. As I opened the door, I was greeted a very friendly voice.
“Hello and welcome to Carmen’s Weaponry. How may I be at your service?”
  “I was looking for a weapon. Could you help me find one?”
“Of course, what is your class?”
“I’m a swordsman,” I replied, opening my menu to double check.
“Follow me.” I followed the man over to one of the racks, which was full of single-handed blades. “Do you prefer to wield short, long, or medium blades?”
I pondered the question. Short blades like daggers would hardly be able to be of much use in a fight and longer blades would be hard to handle and swig with much efficiency. “Medium,” I decided. They were practical for most cases and they were easy to control.
             After a bit of thinking, the man grabbed a sword. It's handle was dark purple and was riveted so it was easy to grip. The blade was medium sized and reflected the light brilliantly as it was brought underneath the rays of the sun shining through the window. It also had a guard, which was great. If I could describe the sword in one word,  it would be masterpiece.
          “Here, swing it a few times to check its balance,” The shopkeeper suggested to me. As instructed, I grabbed the sword from him and gave it a few test swings.
          It was perfect. I could already feel myself getting used to the sword after just a few test test swings. In no time it would feel like an extension of myself. “I love it,” I excitedly told the shopkeeper.
           “Well, that was quick,” The shopkeeper said, surprised, “I rarely have any customers who find a sword so quickly. Are you sure this is the sword you want?”
         “100 percent sure,” I stated with full confidence.
          “All right then, that'll be 10,000 gold.”
          “Ten thousand!!!” I yelled, completely blown away by the price. I had completely forgotten about costs. For some reason I thought I could just stroll in here and grab a sword, no cost included. I didn't even think about currency in this game. Is ten thousand even a large amount of money? I only freaked out because it sounded like a ridiculous amount of money. But maybe it could actually pretty cheap.
          “What? You don't have that much?” The shopkeeper asked, “You've spent that much already?”
         “What do you mean already?”
         “You get 25,000 gold at the start of the game. Since the game just got released, you'd have to be a money spending addict to have already spent all of that.”
          Hearing that brought a smile to my face. I opened my menu and part of my profile was a section called Gold. Right next to that was the number 25,000. I haven't spent a single piece of gold since I logged on.
         “Oh, sorry, I must’ve missed the gold section when I looked at my menu,” I told the shopkeeper, feeling stupid for completely forgetting about costs when coming to buy a weapon.
        “It's no problem. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. You'd be surprised how many people come to a shop expecting to get free stuff.” The shopkeeper seemed annoyed by the thought of how many people have done that. I laughed, only imaging the hilariously large number of people that could've done the same thing as him.
         “Well, I should better buy this, now, shouldn't I?”
        “Yeah, you should.” He turned around and poked the air in front of the sword, probably accessing his menu to sell the sword. After he stopped poking the air, a menu appeared in front of me. It said:

        Would you like to purchase this item?
Cost: 10,000g
Yes     No

I tapped Yes and the menu disappeared. I opened my menu and checked my gold. It went down to 15,000. I checked my items and there was my sword. Upon tapping the sword, the options of Equip, Drop, and Sell appeared. I tapped Equip and on my back popped a sword sheath and in that sheath was the sword.
         “Now hurry up and get out my shop,” The shopkeeper ushered in a joking manner.
         “Alright, thanks for the help, Hbye!” The shopkeeper waved bye as I walked out of the shop. As I stepped out the door I thought, Now,  what am I going to do? I didn’t think this far ahead, I have a sword, and now what? My stomach answered that for me as it growled at me. Perhaps I should get a bite to eat, I thought.
          A while later I walked out of the bazaar with a satisfied stomach. It was getting dark outside so I decided to go look for an inn. I wandered the streets for a while until I found an inn that was a least slightly tidy. Once I found one, I ordered a room and plopped myself onto my bed.
         I opened my menu to check how much gold I had left. 10,000. One meal and a place to sleep costs 5,000 gold. I'm going to have to budget my money, I thought, And find a way to earn money. I could only last another day at this  rate. I had to do something to earn money. But I was too tired to do any more thinking. I lied down, closed my eyes, and fell into a good night’s sleep.
  When I awoke I picked my sword, bought some breakfast, and was on my way to get some experience - and some money along with that. Well, at least I wanted to. I had no idea where any low level enemies could be. I walked back into the inn and asked for some directions.
“They should be anywhere on the outskirts of town,” the innkeeper said, “They range from levels 1-5.”
“Thanks for the information.”
“No problem. Just remember to be careful. If you die, you’re done for.”
          Waving goodbye, I walked out the door and was on my way to the outskirts of town. After just a glance down the road I immediately wanted to find another way to collect money. The road looked to be at least five miles until it reached the outside of the town. There was no way I was going to walk all that way and back.There must be another way to travel, I thought, desperate not to walk 10 miles everyday.
        “Horse and carriage rides!” I heard a man calling in the distance, “100 gold each!”
            “Speak of the devil,” I mumbled. I wandered over to the man and asked, “Hey, you said you were selling carriage rides?”
           “Yes, would you like a ride?”
          “Yeah, I need to get to the outside of the town.”
          “Sure can do. I’ll need 100 gold first, though.”
          “Of course, here you go.” I opened my menu, selected Gold, and selected Deposit. A small bag popped up in my hand, quite heavy for its size.
          “All right then, follow me.” I followed him as he lead the to his carriage. He hopped up into the driver’s seat and I hopped into the passenger seat.
          “Are you all set back there?” He called to me.
         “Yeah. Let's get goin’!” I called back to him with a cheerful attitude. He shook the reins and we were on our way to the outskirts of town.
        After about an hour the driver said, “Alright, this is your stop.” I looked out of the carriage and outside was a huge field, larger than the entire city. Out far in the distance - and I mean far - I could see bridges leading to entire separate land masses, those being just about the size of the town. So those must be the zones, I thought. Who expects us to clear fifty areas of that size without dying! Talk about impossible.
          I stepped out of the carriage, said bye to the driver, and turned toward the vast field before me. It was time to go fight some monsters.
          Scanning the landscape, I saw a variety of species of monsters. There were hogs, goblins, frogs, and plenty others. I looked for one all by itself, and I preferred to not fight a frog yet since they are very agile.
            After awhile of scanning, my eyes stumbled upon a hog all by itself. I moved toward it. Thankfully, the monsters were pretty spread out so it was easy to approach the hog without getting detected by any other monsters. The hog was nearly looking right at me when I got near it so I had to retreat and circle around to its backside. I was able to get to 15 feet behind it and, in fear of getting caught and losing the advantage of surprise, I decided to go in for the attack.
          I charged at the hog, quickly closing the distance between us. The hog started to turn around as I made it to 5 feet away. It wasn't able to turn around all the way when I landed a thrust right into its side. It lost about 25 percent of its health from it. The hog was flinched slightly and then, reacting quickly, it gave me a strong headbutt, sending me flying three feet away from it
While I was stunned from the attack, the hog came charging at me. I only realized that it was coming at me when it was too late. It hit me square in the face, sending me flying yet again.
          This time, I didn't stay on the ground for long. Immediately, I recovered and was back on my feet. The hog was already preparing yet another attack. I waited for its charge.
            The hog came charging, again, and this time I was ready for it. At the last moment, I dodged out of the way and swung at its flank. The hog was still in a charge after that attack so I chased after it. Once it stopped its charge, it was able to attack for a few seconds so I used that time to my advantage. I relentlessly attacked the hog, stroke after stroke. Before it was able to completely turn around it exploded into a bunch of shiny particles. The hog was dead.
A giant text appeared in front of me saying Level Up. I checked my stats and, sure enough, I was now level 2. I only just realized how exhausted I was from the fight. My health dropped to about 75 percent over the course of the battle. I wouldn't be able to fight even five a day at this rate. I didn’t have anything to heal with, either. I decided not to worry about it too much. If I was low on health, then I would go back to the town. Simple as that.
I went out and searched for another hog since I already had experience with fighting hogs so it would probably be the easiest enemy to fight. I searched around for one all by itself but couldn’t find any. There were plenty of doubles, though, and they were going to have to suffice. I carefully approached the duo, already with a plan in mind. I was going to attract one away from the other so I didn’t have to fight two at a time. To do so, I had picked up a few rocks to throw at it to get its attention. Of course, that would take away the advantage of surprise, but it was better than fighting two at a time.
Once I was in a range where I was confident that I could hit the hog, I chucked the rock at it. I missed by a long shot. Well, at least some things translate from the real world, I thought. I didn't pay attention to where the rock landed, and I only realized where it landed when I heard rapid-paced footsteps. I looked back toward its direction and realized how much I messed up. The second hog, the one I was trying to separate the other hog from, was chasing after me. And, to make matters worse, the other hog noticed it was chasing after me and joined the chase. Great, I thought, sarcastically, Just what I wanted. A two against one fight.
I got into my ready position, prepared to hop to the side and give one of the hogs a nice cut to the side. When the lead hog got close, I hopped to the side and swung down onto it. Turning to face the other hog, I was hit with a fierce headbutt. This one was definitely a higher level than the one I previously fought, I thought. I was sent flying back, and before I could even recover, I hit by yet another headbutt, and was sent flying back, yet again.
This time I got up in time to dodge the hogs’ double attack. Seeing an opening, I gave them a relentless series of strokes. Unlike when I fought the other hog, these didn’t die after the attack. The hogs barely even flinched from the attack. Immediately after I finished the flurry of strokes, one hog charged at me. I was able to dodge it just in time, and I hit it with another swing to the side. I looked back to where the other hog was. I wasn’t there. Panicking, I swung around to search for it and was met with another tackle and was thrown back. I quickly got up, despite the pain I was in. My health was at about one third. I had to end this quick.
The hogs came at me with another dual charge. I dodged it and quickly and hurried over to their backsides since they would be vulnerable after the charge. Once they finished their charge, I gave them another relentless attack. I saw one explode into the death particles. The other one quickly charged at me and I was unable to dodge and was sent flying away. When I looked ahead, the hog was already charging at me. I didn't have time to get up and jump out of the way. My health was down to about twenty percent. There was a chance that I would survive the attack, but I didn’t want to take any chances. In complete fear, I reacted quickly and jabbed my sword out in front of me as a last defense.
I waited a second as my head was turned away and my sword poking out in front of me. I slowly turned my head back, realizing that I didn’t feel the pain of getting tackled by a hog. THe sword was poking out in front of me, but with nothing on its end. Surrounding the sword were none other than death particles. The hog was dead. Big letters popped up in front of me saying Level Up. I smiled and collapsed in exhaustion. Who thought fighting hogs could be so difficult?
I felt like I was fighting master swordsmen with how exhausted I was and how hard I tried to beat them. And these were only low level hogs. For not the first time, and definitely not the last, I thought, How do they expect us to beat this? To do the impossible?
I lied there for a few more minutes until I thought that I should get back before another monster finds me. Struggling, I got up and started on my way.
          

It took me about twice as long to make it back to the town than it did to travel to the hogs’ position. Once I got into town, I tiredly walked over to the nearest person to me and asked where the nearest horse and carriage was. They seems concerned by my condition and hastily answered, offering to help me get there.
        “I'm fine,” I told him.
        “Are you sure?  It's not out of my way at all to help,” He insisted, worried about me.
      “I'm sure. It's only just down the road, anyways. I can make it without any assistance.”
       “If you insist,” He complied. I made my way over to the horse and carriage, not quite staggering but very close. Once I got there I bought a ride to the nearest inn. The ride only took a few minutes and when it was my stop I jumped out of the carriage. Surprisingly, I didn't stagger as I jumped out. My condition seemed to be magically getting better, even after such a short period of time. I checked my menu and I saw that my health had increased by about ten percent. So there is regeneration, too, I thought.
        Even though I was regenerating, that didn’t mean my energy was replenishing. I was still as tired as I was right after defeating the hogs. I walked into the inn, purchased a room, plopped myself onto my bed, and fell right asleep.
     

        I continued this routine for another month. The amount of times my health dropped to below 25 percent was difficult to count. I had to go to the smithery to repair my sword a total of three times. Hogs we're becoming to be easier and easier to defeat. After I was confident enough, I experimented with fighting other monsters like goblins and frogs. They were both more difficult than hogs, with goblins being the most difficult of the two.
       My daily savings got great and greater, with me defeating more enemies everyday. The last day my profit was 647 gold. That day I defeated eleven hogs, five frogs, and three goblins. That's a lot of gold, enough to for someone to live off of for four days. The most monumental part was my level change. In just one month, my level increased from level 2 to level 18! The enemies I was fighting started to barely give me any experience. If I kept fighting here, it would take another eight months to reach level 30.
         I decided that, instead of fighting here for forever, I should find another place to gather experience and money. I asked the innkeeper about higher level areas, but he just responded with, “I've only heard of the outskirts of town. Sorry.”
        My next idea was the cheap place I ate at everyday. I asked the person at the register but, yet again, they responded with, “Not that I've heard of. You don't really have people wanting to go to more advanced areas, especially this early after the release.”
         My next idea was to ask at this town’s bazaar. It was fairly obvious where it was. While most of the town wasn’t very busy, there was an area that was bustling with activity. If the bazaar was going to be anywhere, it was going to be around there, I thought. I approached the crowd and realized that there was one specific place that was extra crowded. I walked toward it, wondering what all the commotion was about. Pushing through the crowd, II made it to the, where I could actually see what was going on. There were two people having a duel. They were trained fighters, by the looks of it, and they were going all out, seeming like they intended to kill each other.
The dueling rules are simple: In the menu, there is an option called Duel. If you select that and select a person, a message will be sent to the saying This person wants to duel with you. Do you accept? If they choose no, then no duel will occur, but if they choose yes, a one minute countdown begins to warn people to clear the area. After the countdown is up, they are allowed to attack each other, but if they hit anybody not involved with the duel, then they won’t take damage. The duelers fight until one fighter is down to 25 percent of their health. The duelers’ healths are restored after the duel is complete. The winner gets bragging rights or whatever they bet on before the match began. The loser gets humiliation or loses whatever they bet on before the match.
This looked like a even match. They were neck-and-neck. Each of their healths were at about 60 percent and neither of them seemed to have the upper hand. There levels were also really high. One of them was level twenty and the other was level nineteen. They were both amazing fighters, fighting super quickly and being able to block every attack of the attacker. One would fiercely attack with a series of complex and quick strokes, seemingly impossible to react quick enough to block every one of the attacks. Despite it seeming impossible, the other person was able to block everyone and then immediately follow it up with their own series of complex and quick strokes. Now I just realized how bad I actually was at sword fighting. While I’m out fighting hogs and frogs, the good people are fighting each other, getting plenty of experience fighting strong foes.
Their match continued for a very long time, only one hit getting in every few minutes. They stayed even for the entire match until it got to both of them at thirty percent. Instead of continuing the pattern they had been following for nearly the entire time, they broke up and started circling each other. They realized that the person who got the next hit in would win, so they were being extra cautious. They eyed each other carefully, looking for an opportunity to lunge for the final hit. I saw nothing happen to any of them, but apparently something did. One of them launched himself at lightning speed toward the other person with his sword thrusted out in front of him.
Faster than I could see, the other used the attack as an opening to attack. He countered the thrust and gave the other person a strong downward stroke. That was game. The winner waved his hand around, smiling at the huge crowd around him. Then he reached down to help the loser up and said congratulated him on his great performance. They didn’t get much rest time before the crowd started to come in and crowd the winner. Sadly, nobody went over to the loser. I walked over toward the loser and congratulated him.
“Hey, that was an amazing battle. It was really close. You did great.”
“Thanks…,” He let the note trail off for a while, probably checking my profile for a name. His eyes then suddenly went wide and stared at the screen in front of him.
“You level…” He said in amazement, “And your not part of guild. You’ve been solo and yet you’re already level 18! How do you do it? Tell me your secrets!” I had no idea what he was talking about. He was the one that was a higher level than me. If anybody had secrets about leveling up, it was going be him.
“Umm...I don’t know what you mean. You’re the one that’s a higher level than me. I should be asking you that.”
“What do you mean? You’re not in a guild and you don’t have any friends. You’re a solo player and yet you are already level 18! That is incredible!” He seemed rather excited to have bumped into me, although I didn't really see what do be excited about.
“I’m still confused. You’re a higher level than me and your the one that’s amazed by my levels?’
“Oh, so I guess you don’t know,” He said, making me wonder what it was that I didn't know, “If you are in a guild you get a ten percent experience boost. It may not seem like much but it makes a huge difference. Also, if you go out farming for experience with friends you can take out a lot more enemies in a day, giving you more experience in a day's work. SInce you aren’t part of guild and you don’t have any friends, that means that all by yourself you have made it to level 18 in just a month’s time. That is quite the achievement. I’ve never seen anyone who has achieved that.”
Here I was, thinking I was terrible compared to these guys and then I was getting complimented by one of them, saying he was impressed by me. Then the idea about guilds popped up into my head.
“Do you know of any guilds that I could possibly join?” I asked him.
“Yeah, there already a lot of guilds. The most notable ones are Dragon Fang and The Knights of Freedom. I could help get into one of them. I am part of The Knights of Freedom. So is my friend over there.” He gestured toward the person who just beat him in the duel.
A guild, I thought, it sounds like a nice place to be. There would be lots of people that are passionate about freeing everyone from the game and I would have a place to stay at every night, other than the inn,
“I’m in,” I said with confidence, “Could you me the way later?”
“I can show you the way now,” He said, cheerfully, “It’s not like I have a whole crowd of people waiting for me, now, is it?”
I laughed at how he could say something like that with such humor. He was probably happy that he wasn’t being bombarded by a giant crowd of people, though. He started off away from the market and I followed suit. I couldn’t wait to get to the guild. I was so excited.
“Here we are,” He called to me, “The Knights of Freedom.” The building was huge, very few could compare to it. It was a three story building with plenty of windows to look from. It was intricately designed with many decorations. I followed him into the building and got a look at the inside. It was nothing like the outside. There were tables strewn about with many people at each table. The people were crazy and everybody of age had a cup of beer in their hand, spilling it every once in a while as they moved around.
He brought me up the stairs and to a much more peaceful and well kept area. He brought me down the hall and stopped at one of the many doors.
Knock, Knock. “May we come in?”
“Yeah, come on in,” A friendly voice replied. He opened the door and within the room was a massive amount of paper on a desk.
“Hey, how’s goin’, Gray?” I heard the voice, but I didn’t see anybody. It sounded like it was right in front of me. “I heard about your duel. You two always seem to impress me.”
“Thank you master,” The person that brought me here replied. I assumed his name was Gray. He bowed really low after saying that. Like really low. I looked down in the direction he bowed toward and I was surprised by what I found. He was a midget, making it only up my hips. This guy is the master?!, I thought, totally surprised, How old is he? His height says he’s five but his face says he’s a grown adult!
He must’ve caught me giving him a surprised look because he asked, “Is there a problem, kid? Do I have something on my face?”
“No, no, it’s nothing. Everything is fine,” I rushed to reply, not wanting to offend him.
“Are you sure? That look you gave me suggested otherwise.”
“I’m sure. There is nothing wrong.”
He turned toward Gray and asked, “So, what brings you to my living quarters?”
“I have brought somebody that is interested in joining the guild,” He gestured toward me, “His name is ____.”
The master looked inquisitively at me. “Well, you must be worth something since Gray bothered to bring you here. So, since it seems that Gray is okay with you joining, them I’m okay with it, too. I’m going to skip to entering trial for you. You can thank Gray for that.”
I was surprised that it was so easy to join one of the best guilds. I thought that it would’ve been very difficult to get in or a certain high ranked requirement but I guess all I had to do was say hi. “Thank you, Gray.”
Gray nodded to that we turned our attention toward the guild master. “Now, if could help me dig through all of this paperwork to find the guild registration forms, that we be a lot of help. And Gray, you can go get a rest, you look tired.”
As Gray walked out of the room, the guild master turned toward me. “Stop standing there. It’s time to go mining for forms!” And at that note, I was stuck digging for hours.
I found the form after a painful amount of time and I was registered as an official member of The Knights of Freedom. After that, I was exhausted so I went into my assigned room and took a nice, long nap.
           I woke up, excited for the day ahead of me. I got out of the room and walked downstairs. The same commotion as yesterday was going on. I only now just realized that I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I don’t really know what I expected. I’ve joined the guild, and now what? I searched the area for anything of interest. A board caught my eye. It had a bunch of papers on it. They were all quests with rewards. The rewards ranged from 500 gold to 3,000 gold. I should probably do some of these at one point, I thought.
Next to the board was another board with more papers on it. It seemed to be posted with upcoming events within the guild. One caught my eye. It read, First raid battle ever! Come join the teams to help free everyone from this game! There was a sign up sheet at the bottom of the paper. There were about 25 people signed up. I recognized Gray’s name on the sheet. I signed the paper. Now all I have to do is wait for the day of the raid, I thought, I can’t wait!
Now that I had that done, I still had no idea what I was going to do until then. As though he was reading my mind, somebody walked up and said, “Hey, you’re a pretty high level. But you ain’t lookin’ the part of a hero. You should go buy some cool clothing to make you look more hero like.”
“That’s a great idea,” I replied. I realized that he was right. I was still wearing the beginner’s clothing, which was the lowest quality clothing available. “Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem. I like to see the guild that I’m in look like it has a bunch amazing heroes.”
I walked out of the guild and was on my way to go shopping. There was no specific place to go shopping. Stores were just scattered around the town. I stumbled upon one shop and looked around. Nothing looked cool. I found another one. Still nothing. I searched store after store and still couldn’t find anything. Where is everybody’s sense of fashion, I wondered.
I kept walking down the street and found another store. It was decorated with miniature dragon statues and looked cool overall. This has to be the place, I thought. I walked in and looked around. I searched the first half of the store. Nothing. I started to lose hope as I continued with nothing to be found. When I thought there was nothing in the store, I laid my eyes on the one. It was a white cloak adorned with gold-colored trimming and it went with just black pants. It may not have sounded that cool, but I loved it. Grabbing the cloak and pants, I brought it to the counter and purchased them. I hurried back to the guild, excited to try it on.
Once I made it to the guild, I hurried into my room and tried it on. It was perfect. I looked even better when worn than when it was hanging. I looked like a hero.
Knock, knock. “Come on in,” I called to whoever was knocking at the door.
Gray emerged from the door. “I wanted to talk to you but you came in such a hurry.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I really couldn’t wait to try this on. Do you like it?”
“It looks great. Makes you look a lot more like a hero. Anyways, I saw your name on the raid sheet.”
“Oh yeah,” I remembered signing up just before I left to go shopping, “I wanted to help everybody escape from here and I saw it as the perfect opportunity.”
“You don’t know anything about the raid, though, do you?”
“Yeah…” I let it trail off, avoiding eye contact with Gray. I signed up for something that I had no knowledge about. Not the smartest thing to do.
“Just what I thought,” Gray said, “Well then, why don’t I fill you in on the details?”
My eyes lit up at the mention. I really wanted to know about the raid, the opportunity to help be the hero, to free everybody. “Yes, please do,” I said excitedly.
“This is a raid on the first zone, as you already knew. The monsters in the zone range from levels 10 to 16 that we have so far seen. The raid consists of currently 30 people, which is plenty. We will be separated into teams of six. We get to choose who we are with for the teams. The raid will be held a week from now and we are having two meetings before then. They are two days from now and five days from now. You got all that?”
“Umm...I think...hopefully.” I actually only got the part about it being a week from now and there are teams.
“Great. Now, I just have more question for you.”
“And that is?” I asked, gesturing toward him to ask the question.
“Will you be part of my team?” Gray asked.
I gave a quick and simple reply, “Why of course. It’s not like I know anybody else in the guild.”
“True,” Gray replied, not making me feel any better about how lonely I was.
We stood there awkwardly for a few moments until I asked, “So, what is there to do until the raid?”
“Well, it’d be nice if our team got to know each other better and got used to fighting with each other.”
“Well then it's settled, we’re going hunting!” I said excitedly.
          “Do you even know who’s on the team?” Gray asked.
          “Me and you, of course,” I said simply.
         Gray had this look of Oh my gosh, this kid and I realized that I did something, but I had no idea what it was. “I did have in mind four other people to include in our team of six.”
         I then realized what I did. In his explanation, he said that there were six people in a team and I just thought that a team was two or more people. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.”
         “Are you sure you forgot about that or did you just not pay attention when I explained everything?” He saw right through me. I felt guilty and gave a frown.
        “Anyways,” Gray said, “How about you meet these people?” I turned my frown upside down and happily replied, “Yeah!”
        He took me downstairs and over to one of the tables. There was nobody drinking at this table, I noticed, unlike most of the tables. They all looked over as we approached.
        One of them asked, “Hey, Gray. Have you found the other person for our team yet?” He was very well built with trace of a beard on his chin. He looked to be around his early twenties.
        “Yup. He’s right here,” Gray replied as he gestured to me. “Everybody, this is Roy.”
        “Hi. I'm Karel,” Said the person who asked the question.
         “Hi. I’m Harry.” This person was about as tall as me. He had blonde hair and no facial hair. He didn’t look to have much muscle.
“Hi. I’m Evanlyn.” This one a little bit taller than Harry. She had long, blonde hair and looked to be in her mid twenties and was very skinny.
“And I’m George.” The last one was a giant. I thought that Karel was well built but this guy was even more so. He had a bit of brown hair on his head and no facial hair. He was already starting to scare me.
“It’s very nice to meet all of you,” I said. I stood there for a bit, not knowing what else to say.
After a while, Karel said, “Well, don’t just stand there. C’mon, take a seat, it’s time we got to know you. At that note I sat down and started to talk with them. We talked for hours on end, and they would’ve kept talking, too, but I was getting I was getting tired so I said bye and went to my room and took a nap.
On the next day we went out on a hunt together and got used to each other. I found out about everybody’s roles in battle. George was the tank, Evanlyn, Karel, and Gray were the attackers, and Harry was the supporter. I worked as an attacker with Evanlyn, Karel, and Gray. George would attract all of the monsters and keep their attention kept on him while Evanlyn, Karel, Gray, and I would attack them. Harry would stay behind us, away from any monsters, healing us, giving us stat boosts, and debuffing the monsters. I thought we were a great team.
The next day I went out shopping for more clothes. I needed something to wear everyday. One great thing about this game was that clothes never get dirty so you could wear the same thing every day. But I wanted something special for fighting and something that I wear every day. I found some average clothes, a plain black t-shirt and some jeans to go with it. Having found what I came to get, I went back to the guild and was met with an angry group of people.
“How could you forget about the meeting! I told you about it and you said you had it, didn’t you!” Gray wasn’t the slightest bit happy with me.
“Yeah, that meeting was very important. We got placed into one of the farther back teams because of you! We were labeled 3rd! 3rd!” Karel wasn’t happy, either.
I didn’t remember Gray ever saying anything about there being a meeting. Did he say it when he told me everything about the raid? I only heard part of what he said, and the meeting was not one of them.
“Oops,” I said, pushing it off like a small matter, “I forgot about it.”
“This is not just an oops matter. You are going to make it up tonight and three days from now.” Karel was confusing me.
“What? What do you mean tonight and three days from now?”
“There will be another meeting three days from now. And, as for tonight, you’re gonna buy us dinner,” Karel said that with a smile on his face. At that moment, I knew my wallet was going to hurt.
That night, I spent a total of 5,000 gold. What a bunch of pigs, I thought, The one time they don’ts have to pay and they eat the entire kitchen. We trained together for the next two days, getting even better as a team. Then it was the day of the meeting. I wasn’t going to forget this time, due to me not wanting to go broke any time soon. Gray didn’t want me missing it, either, since when I woke up, he was standing right in front of me, ready to make sure I didn’t forget this time.
“There’s a meeting today. 12 o’clock sharp. Be there or be broke,” Gray said, without the slightest amount of humor in his voice.
“What time is it now?” I asked.
“10 o’clock.”
Gray walked out of the room and I got up, got my fighting cloak on, and was ready to go to the meeting. But I still had to wait for another two hours until it started.
Just before two hours was up, I hurried over to meeting area, only to find everybody looking at me, disappointed.
“You’re nearly late,” Karel said.
“We’ve been waiting for half an hour,” said Harry.
“And I even reminded you two hours ago about the meeting,” Gray said, angrily. He looked more angry than disappointed, and he was definitely the scariest person on the team.
“Hello everybody and welcome to the raid conference!” We looked over toward the voice. The guild master was upon the stage. “Now, is everybody here today?” Everybody looked toward our team. Gray stared me down, looking like he wanted me to say something.
“I think so!” I called. Everybody burst out laughing.
The guild master continued on with the introduction and went on to the description and our plan of attack. We were going to go through the dungeon as an upside down V formation. We would have the tanking team in front, two of the main attacking teams in the back, the supporting team somewhere between there, and the other attacking team in the leftover spot. Once we got to the boss, one team would split from the group, acting as a flanking team. They would be the bulk of the attack and the center of the strategy and if they were wiped then the raid would be a failure. The tanking team would take the lead with the other two attacking teams following behind them. The supporting team would support all of the other teams during the battle, staying back to avoid damage.
We then went outside of the town and practiced fighting together. We had the attacking teams switch spots to see where they would best fit. We were labeled with numbers to assign where we would be. Those numbers also stood for our rank. We were labeled number 2. We were just barely beaten by the other team and was amazing, but everyone kept blaming it on me, saying that they didn’t want an absence on the flanking team.
When the practicing was done, we went over the plan of attack again and then went to sleep, since it was already late. The next day we just lounged around, doing nothing, waiting for the next day, when the raid would take place. The day felt like an entire week, moving so slowly that I thought the sun itself had stopped moving. When the day was finally coming to an end, I went to sleep, hyped for the day to come.
I woke up with, yet again, Gray waiting by my bedside.
“I was making sure you wouldn’t forget to come to the main event,” He said.
“You’re never going to let me off of that, are you?” I asked, already knowing the answer he was going to give me.
“Nope,” He said simply, with a smile, “Never.”
I sighed. “What time is it?”
“9:30. You’re gonna be late.”
I hurriedly got up as Gray walked out of the room to let me change. It started at 10 o’clock and I had to make it to the zone by then. I changed into my battle clothes and rushed out of the room.
“C’mon, Gray. We’re gonna be late!” I called to him as I ran down the hall and down the stairs.
“Hey, wait up!” He called and chased after me. I ran out the door and toward the nearest horse and carriage. Before I could make it there, Gray caught up to me and grabbed me by the collar of my cloak.
“Don’t just run off like that without even thinking!” He yelled at me,
“What do you mean?” I asked, “We need to get there and the fastest way is the carriage.”
“No, it’s not. You can teleport to zones.”
I felt stupid. The amount of mess ups I have been doing lately has been embarrassingly large. “Oh. Exactly how do we do that?”
“Follow me.” He lead me back to the guild and over to a wall with a bunch of selectable options. They looked to eb every single zone. There was only one of them unlocked, which was the first zone. Gray tapped the first zone option and he disappeared. I followed suit and I was brought to a completely different area, and a bunch of disappointed eyes.
“What a surprise,” Evanlyn said sarcastically.
“You’ve nearly done it again,” said George.
Everybody else was looking at me with disappointed glares, even though they probably should’ve expected this. “So, now that everybody is here,” said the guild master, “We can finally go on this long awaited raid. Now, I don’t much more needs to be said other than let’s go!”
On that note, everybody got into the upside down v formation and charged into the zone. The raid had begun.
We moved forward for a while without any monsters attacking us. We knew exactly where we were going and the best path to take to get there, thanks to the scouts that assessed the zone beforehand. After about 15 minutes of walking, we finally heard a monster. Everybody averted their gaze toward the direction of the sound as they kept advancing. Then it popped out of the corner. There were three goblins, all level 11. It would be no problem for us to take out.
Still staying in formation, we advanced toward the trio. The back teams, which included my team, kept watch of the back as we weren’t facing ahead anymore, leaving the back open to attack. I heard some commotion toward the front as they fought the goblins. It was over in a few seconds. There was no spotting of any more enemies for a while as we continued on our way to the boss.
After a while, we encountered a group of four goblins and three wolves. Haven’t seen any of those before, I thought. The attacking team closer to the front of the formation and the tanking team took care of them with ease. There was still no commotion toward the back of the formation. Ugh, I thought, Why does the back have to be so boring?
As if to read my thoughts, a slime fell from the ceiling and onto Karel’s head. Reacting quickly, I jabbed at the slime, carefully avoiding Karel.
“Where did that come from?!” Karel complained. He looked up at the ceiling of the cave and the rest of us followed suit. The sight brought fear to my face. It was covered with slimes, more than I could count, and they were all right above us. I looked around and saw that this was the only area where slimes were on the ceiling.
“It seems we might’ve stumbled upon a slime nest,” I stated.
The guild master, in the main attacking group, yelled, “Run! Get away from here as quick as possible!”
Immediately, it started to rain slimes, probably because they were scared by the guildmaster’s yell. Without a second thought, everybody starting running away from the nesting grounds. People were getting hit by slimes all around me and people were rushing over to help them, sometimes getting a slime on their own face in the process. Watching the ceiling as I ran, I noticed that we were nearly out of the nesting grounds. I looked around me and saw Karel, Evanlyn, Harry, and George all still running. But no Gray.
I looked back to see Gray running around, helping everybody that was hit by a slime. That kindness is going to get him killed someday, I thought. I ran back to grab him.
“Gray!” I called, “C’mon! You’re going to get killed if you keep this up!”
“No!” He called back to me, “I’m going to save as many people as I can!” He ran off toward another person that was hit by a slime and cut it off of their face and sent them on their way. I hurried over and caught up to him.
“Well, don’t go saving people without me,” I said with a smile. He smiled back and we ran off to find more people in need of help. I managed to save five people before the place was getting crowded with slimes.
I won’t be able to make it back myself at this rate, I thought.
“Gray!” I called. I looked around and saw that he was already on it, running to the safe area where everybody was gathered.
I hurried over toward the group, avoiding the slimes as best I could as I made my way over there. My health managed to drop about 25 percent after the whole attack.
“Man, you guys are crazy,” said Karel when we made it back. “I thought you were certainly going to die.”
“But, hey,” said the guild master. “You two managed to save a total of 15 people. Half of our team would’ve been wiped out if it weren’t for you two. I’m very proud.”
“How many casualties?” Gray asked.
“We’re missing three people,” the guild master replied. “Two from the healing team and one from the flanking team. We’re going to need somebody to fill in the gap in the flanking team. Gray, would you please?”
“I would be delighted with the honor,” replied Gray. He gave a bow, the same really low bow he gave when he introduced me to him.
The guild master turned around toward everybody else and called, “Alright everybody! It’s not the time to just stand around, now, is it? We’ve still got a zone to clear!”
Everybody cheered. It amazed me how the guild master could get everybody, so pumped just like that.
          We continued on our way, keeping the same formation. We encountered a few small groups of enemies, nothing of any difficulty. Before we knew it, we made it to the boss room.
         The entranceway was a huge door, covered in a variety of jewels.
         “Is everybody ready?” The guild master asked.
        Everybody nodded yes.
        “Then let’s go!” Everybody charged forward, barging through the door. Without hesitation, the tanking team took the lead and the flanking team snuck off, heading toward their position.
       The boss was huge. It had somewhat of a humanoid form, standing on two feet and with two arms. The rest of it couldn’t really be described with a certain animal. It had a shorter version of an alligators nose, teeth like a tiger, and a tail like a salamander. It also had a huge long sword to match it’s size. The sword was a bright shade of red, looking like it could burst up in flames at any moment.
Despite how scary it looked, we neared it, tanks in front, attacking teams behind them, and supporters behind them. It took a moment for the boss to realize that we had entered the room. He turned around to be faced with a sword that slashed his face. In this game, there were no wounds. There were weak spots, but if the boss was hit there, there would be no blood or cuts. The only evidence that it was hit was the drop of its health.
      The two attacking teams joined in, the defence teams holding its attention to the best of their ability. Its attacks were strong and had a long range. He mainly attacking using side strokes, which was bad because if the defense team wasn’t there it could take us all out with just a few swings.
          We took down a good quarter of its health with very few injuries. I saw the flanking team out of the corner of my eye. They were almost in position.
          This has been surprisingly easy for a boss fight, I thought. Right after I finished that thought, the boss brought its sword down straight to the ground. It felt like a magnitude nine earthquake had just occurred. Everybody fell over from the attack, including the flanking team. The boss used this as an opening and sent a side stroke at us, low enough to hit every one of us.
         This is what happens when you jinx something, I thought, thinking that I was done for. I closed my eyes, ready for the blow that was bound to ensue.
         There was a loud crash of metal against metal. I opened my eyes and toward the noise. One of the members from the defense team was blocking the attack from the boss.
       “I can't hold this much longer!” He shouted, “Hurry up and stop lazing around!”
        Motivated by his heroic act, everybody hurried to their feet and back out of the blade’s range. Once everybody was out of the way, he jumped and let the sword go. It swung clear underneath him and he was left unscathed, but maybe a bit exhausted.
       Everybody charged in, not giving the boss any chance to recover. This time, though, the boss wasn't giving in to attack so easily. It hacked and slashed, hitting a few people before we got it down to a third of its health.
       Something suddenly clicked in the boss as it dropped to one third of its health. It went from a sloppy, uncoordinated attack pattern to strong, organized, and relentless. People started to fall back all around me. He was now hitting someone with almost every single swing.
       After just under a minute, there were only three people left on the attack. C’mon, I thought desperately, where are you, Gray? We kind of need some help right now. I watched as somebody else was thrown back and was forced to retreat. Only two people left. The only reason I didn’t retreat was because I had to keep the boss’s attention on me so he didn't spot the flanking team and completely ruin the raid.
         The boss swung again. The other person was forced to fall back. It was just me. I had to stall for the flanking team, all by myself. Knowing its attention would veer away from me if I didn't do anything, I was forced to charge in for an attack. 
         The boss swung his sword toward me. I ducked, feeling the breeze of the blade passing above my head just mere inches away from hitting me. I kept advancing toward it, closing the distance very quickly. 30 feet. 20 feet.
         It sent another attack at me, this time it was nearly impossible to dodge it in time. I swung my sword over in the direction of the attack and was met with an immensely strong hit. The impact made my entire body want to fly away into the wall but, somehow, I kept my ground.
          I managed to push the sword out of my way so I could get out of its path. I continued to get closer to the target. 15 feet. 10 feet. I was no longer within range of the boss’s long sword. The bad thing about a long sword was when somebody got in close, you can't defend yourself very well.
         I pulled back my sword and prepared a high-powered thrust aimed at its stomach. The boss tried to turn around so I wouldn't hit its weak spot. Trying to beat it I shoved my sword forward toward its stomach. Right before I hit it, I heard a loud noise. It sounded like something hitting something really hard. I stopped dead in my tracks, with my sword mere inches away from the boss’s stomach, wondering what that noise could’ve been, thinking that the flanking team had finally arrived.
        The boss, though, didn’t stop to check the noise. Its top priority was me at the moment. It continued its turn around and smacked me with its tail, sending me flying back 20 feet. That dropped my health by about 25 percent, leaving me with about 65 percent of my health.
        I got up and looked over at where the noise earlier had come from. I saw three people laying on the ground, looking like they were close to death. There were two other people staring in horror at what happened to their party and the rest of the raid team. And there was one person who was defending those five. That person was Gray.
        Somehow, the flanking team had been decimated. There were no enemies in the room besides the boss, so how? I had its attention the whole time. Stop it, I told myself, there’s no time to worry about stuff like that. You have to help Gray.
        I hurried over toward the back of the boss, where we could attack it from both sides, making it hard for it to defend against both of us. Once I made it there I immediately started hacking at it. Its health was lowering painfully slow since we only had two people attacking it.
       I stood there, hacking and slashing for a while, just slowly lowering its health while Gray defended the other five members of the flanking team. And what a great job the flanking team did, I thought sarcastically.
       The boss’s health dropped to about a sixth when it finally had enough. I dealing enough damage to attract it to me. Well, at least I'm giving Gray a break, I thought.
        Thinking that defending its attacks was going to be straight forward, I stood ready for a few easy deflects. Man, was I wrong. Once it started its attack, I couldn’t keep up. I fended off most of them but some scratched me. Not enough to knock me back but enough to do a significant amount of damage.
        After about 30 seconds of this, the boss turned back to Gray. But this time, it also had another idea. As it turned around, it swung its tail at me. I wasn't paying attention, I was just received that I could get a break. Due to me not paying attention, I was met with a tail to the face, sending me flying yet again.
       With a little bit of trouble, I got back up, ready to come at the boss yet again. I chased over to the boss but it didn't want do deal with me or anybody else anymore.
      The boss raised its sword, pointing it to the sky, or roof, rather. Then something that I should've expected happened. The sword burst into flames, sending a wave of fear across everybody in the room.
      “We can't do this,” I heard, “It's impossible.” Cries of doubt and fear came from the whole crowd. The only person who seemed to have faith that we could win was Gray, who took the time that the boss turned its sword on fire as an opening, attacking at its wide open stomach.
       Its health was dropping much more rapidly than when I was attacking it and I thought that Gray might even finish off the boss before it even gets to use its fire blade. Man, was I wrong again. When the boss was down to less than ten percent, it swung its sword downward in Gray’s direction, sending an explosion of fire in a huge radius.
         The boss turned around. Shouldn't Gray be keeping his attention, I thought, he should target him until something else deal more damage than him or if he is… I let the thought trail off, not wanting to think about what might've happened to Gray. He's perfectly fine, I soothed myself, just a little hurt from the explosion. The boss only thinks that he's dead.
         Busy thinking about what could've happened to Gray, I didn't notice the boss prepare to swing its sword down to the ground. I only realized it when I was shaken off my feet. I looked over toward the boss and saw my life flash before my eyes.
          Hurtling toward me was a wall of fire, so large that it was impossible to avoid. It's going to hit everybody behind me, too, I thought. The raid had failed and some of the greatest fighters in the game were going to die because of it.
         Accepting my fate, I stared right into the wall of fire as it approached ever so quickly. This is where my road ends, I thought, and I can't even save anybody to make me leave in style.
         Then, out of nowhere, the fire disappeared, looking like it had been pushed away by some wind.
        “It's not the best idea to just sit around when a wall of fire is speeding at you, now is it?” The same person who had defended everybody from one of the boss’s attacks earlier was standing there with his sword in hand. Man, he's strong, I thought, able to put out a flame with the swing of a sword. Wait, is that even possible?
         Everybody that had recovered enough to fight again stood up and charged at the boss. I saw Gray back on his feet, defending the rest of the flanking team again. The other that were just standing there earlier were now on the floor, unable to get up after getting hit by the explosion. Gray looked like he could collapse at any moment, his clothes were covered in holes and had areas where they were charred.
         The boss was starting to over power Gray and I hurried over to help him. Once I got close enough to see his health, I sped up with how dire the situation was. Gray’s health was left at just a sliver. One more hit from the boss and he was dead.
         I was almost to Gray when the boss prepared a strong attack. I hurried my pace to as I could manage. He's too weak, I thought, The impact will be too much for him to handle and he’ll be thrown back and killed.
        15 feet. 10 feet. The boss was just about to swing the swing.
        5 feet. The boss started the swing. I had less than a second to make it to Gray and deflect the attack. I mustered all of my strength and ran as fast as I possibly could. This was going to be the closest call of my life. Every step mattered. One slight falter and Gray was dead.
        I wasn't going to be able to get in a full defence. If I could somehow deflect the oncoming blade then I would be able to save Gray. Desperately, I dived into the course of the sword and tried to push the attack away.
        I pulled it off. The boss’s sword was thrown off course and missed Gray by mere inches. The boss didn't wait a second for its follow up attack. It brought its flaming sword down upon me and I managed to catch it with my sword.
       I was stuck hold it while Gray was underneath me, too exhausted to move. I had the lives of six people in my hands right now. I had to hold the sword.
         The boss was incredibly strong and the flames didn't help, either. I was just barely managing to hold it and wouldn't be able to hold it for much long. Maybe ten more seconds and I would give in. But that was all we needed.
          Everybody else had finally made it to the boss and were chipping away at its health, making it drop like crazy. It was already down to a sliver after only five seconds of them attacking. We had this in the bag.
         I could barely hold the sword for much longer when the force of the attack suddenly stopped. The boss then burst into death particles. We won. The first zone had been cleared.
        “We did it!” I heard, “It's down!” The cheers of everybody filled the cave.
         I fell back, exhausted. Finally, I thought, a break.
         “You were astounding,” I heard. I turned my head toward the voice to find Karel, “I'm glad Gray found you and recruited you on the team.”
           “Nah, it wasn't that amazing. I just got lucky. You should be telling Gray how amazing he was. He defended the flanking team the whole time.”
          Karel turned his head toward Gray and jumped once he saw his health.
         “Oh my gosh! Hey, healers, could we get some help over here!”
         One healer ran over here to help out Gray and the rest of the flanking team. They all needed a good heal.
         “There you are!” I heard somebody yell, “You were amazing! You should've seen yourself. You were like pow pow and boom.”
         I turned to see Harry, Evanlyn, and George approaching. I was happy to find out that they were all safe.
         “Guys, seriously, it wasn't that amazing. I just got really lucky, that's all.”
         “Are you kidding me, man?” Harry said, “You were a total boss out there. So was Gray, too. You guys owned the battlefield.”
         I gave up trying to tell them that it wasn't as amazing as it looked. I just wanted to lay back and relax after all this fighting. I was exhausted. I closed my eyes and took a nice nap.
        I woke up to Gray standing next to me, something I should've been used to by now.
        “You were reckless,” He complained.
        “Like you’re one to talk,” I replied.
        “Yeah, you're probably right. Oh, yeah, thanks for saving my life.”
        “No problem,” I replied.
        “Oh really,” He countered, “I imagine it being a ways out of your way and quite difficult to make it to me in time.”
        “Yeah, I guess it was a huge problem.”
        “Anyways,” Gray said, “There’s a party being held for our victory. It starts at ten.”
        I looked over to the clock and it said 10:08.
       “And you're late,” Gray finished.
       I hurriedly ran downstairs and was met with a unified chorus.
        “You're late,” Everybody said as one, “Just as expected.”