Chapter 58: Chapter 56

The cove was dark and sprawling, lit solely by wavering flames of gentle braziers that flickered in the salty sea air. The nearby tunnel stretched deep into the lonely rock face; its treacherous depths threatening to steal away those who wandered too close unaware of the dangers that waited within.

Yuuji’s eyes scanned the surroundings as he steeled his heart, cautiously waiting for some unseen enemy to leap out at any moment. He had readied himself as best as possible, but now the time had finally arrived, the pressure was reaching a boiling point and he wasn’t sure if he was up to the task.

“Yuu~! Let’s go! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!!”
“Hold on, damn it!”

The voice of Ji-Hye [coffee mode] rang loudly in his ears, as she badgered him to rush forwards. They hadn’t made any effort to scout the area ahead, nor was he aware of how strong their opponents would be, and the lack of preparation weighed heavily on his shoulders.

There he stood, on the sandy beach under the starlit sky, as he took a deep breath.

{CherishedPrawn44: Lvl 15 Crusader}

His equipment durability had been refreshed, and his potions restocked. He’d checked his class skills thrice over to ensure their abilities were firmly locked in his brain, and his fingers traced the keyboard as he wordlessly ran routines inside his head-

“Yuu!! Go already!”

Sprinting past his heavily armoured champion was a tall, thin elf lady wearing a bunny suit, who began jumping up and down in the cave entrance like a hyperactive child. Her ethereal beauty was entirely mismatched with her outfit, and the expressionless face she held while bouncing playfully up and down made for a truly bizarre sight. To make matters worse, she began spinning around in circles rapidly as Ji-Hye’s voice called out in tandem, throwing his brain even further into disarray.

{x_s1byl_x: Lvl 19 Priest}

“Fine! If we end up being surrounded, don’t blame me!”
“Shoalbeard’s Cavern is easy easy easy! We could do it blindfolded, come on!”

  [x_s1byl_x]: EZEZEZEZ

A *Ping!* came through as she began spamming the party chat in her impatience, and he finally dashed forward to accompany her with exasperation.

Dragondeep Online.

The game had been released 4 years prior, but still held a colossal player base in the tens of millions. The Cataclysm had set humanity back considerably, but there was always going to be a need for entertainment, even in the darkest of times. Once the dust had settled and people were positioned in situations stable enough to accommodate it, they often turned to games such as these, and most of the games that had been popular in the before times were no longer running.

Dragondeep Online could connect people from all across the world, as they fought in a medieval-style world alongside friends and strangers alike, all in a grand quest to slay the evil dragon god… or something like that.

Under such advice as “Skip the cutscenes, you don’t need to know the story until the expansions!”, he had powered through the first levels of the renowned MMORPG to finally reach the point he could play with his girlfriend, though he had to admit he was somewhat lost on what the hell was happening and why they now needed to take down an infamous pirate hideout.

Breaching the entrance of the cave, he could see enemies in the distance. From the limited knowledge he had, he was apparently the ‘Tank’ of the group, expected to draw all the enemies into hitting him and sparing the weaker members of his team.

At least, in theory.

“Insignificant wretches, taste the power of my Fireball: II!”

*BOOM*

   Shoalbeard Reaver: “OI’! INTRUDERS!”
   Shoalbeard Scout: “Sound the alarm!”
   Shoalbeard Reaver becomes enraged!

A small ball of fire whizzed past his shoulder and exploded on the ground between both of the distant guards. Within moments, an alarm bell was ringing loudly, and in the depths, countless text boxes could be seen of various pirates preparing for battle.

“Kukuku. This is but a mere glimpse of mine true ability, be thankful the raging demon within me is sealed!”

{VERN1CH7UNG: Lvl 19 Warlock}

   VERN1CH7UNG points menacingly at Shoalbeard Scout.

Claire’s distinctive chuckle sounded within his headphones, as she taunted the NPCs who were simply performing their designated roles. Yuuji felt it was a little unnecessary to announce the name of her spell as it wasn’t particularly impressive, but it was likely just a habit from her high-level play, as she and Ji-Hye had reached max level in the game long ago.

Her character was a large anthropomorphic wolf - a fact that Yuuji was only aware of as the girl herself continuously pointed it out once they began playing, since it was extremely difficult to see what the in-game figure looked like underneath its thick black coat adorned with countless belts, chains and unnecessary buckles that led nowhere.

Regardless, her wolfman gestured towards the enemy with glee as a follow-up to her impromptu assault which wasn’t run past any of her party members.

“Yuu, hurry up and take aggro already!”
“M-My kin! I’m being approached! Quickly, assist me!”

With his well-laid plans of engagement now entirely out the window, he decided to give up and just began hitting keys on the keyboard randomly. It seemed to be working, as both enemies turned their attention to him - something that he would usually consider to be a very bad thing, but here it was his role, after all.

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The fight lasted only a few frantic seconds before both enemies froze up, and two blood-red arcs trailed through the air, causing them to collapse to the ground lifeless and fade away.

   [x_s1byl_x]: Waooooo nice excute xf!!
   XiaoFeng gives x_s1byl_x a thumbs up.

{XiaoFeng: Lvl 19 Rogue}

Rounding out their party of four was a randomer whom Ji-Hye had met online years prior. She said she’d never met them in person, nor had she ever cared to try, but they were a reliable static member of their raiding party and often joined them whenever there was a slot to fill.

To Yuuji, this type of character was one that appealed to him most - a shadowy knife in the darkness, slinking just out of sight until the moment came, before delivering a decisive blow. They wore tight-fitting leather armour with a hood and bandana, and though they were a little on the petite side, the glaring eyes that sat on the character’s face showed they weren’t someone to mess with.

   [CherishedPrawn44]: Thank you for your assistance, you are strong,.
   XiaoFeng nods at CherishedPrawn44.
   [CherishedPrawn44]: Sorry, I didn’t mean to add that comma there.

“Yuu~!! Stop typing already and let’s go! Those were just the first two mobs!”
“Humu. The flame within is aching to be unleashed, I must quell my beast blood with more combat.”
“Don’t rush me! They can’t hear us, so I want to compliment them properly for their ability!”

Once again, Ji-Hye’s bunny girl beauty was jumping in spasms at the tunnel corner before the next room. Claire’s character was beginning to emote beside her, and even she was beginning to get frustrated by their slow pace.

Yuuji clicked his tongue and ran towards them before engaging the next group of enemies. There were 4 in total this time, and even though he found it difficult to keep tabs on the ranged opponents, he performed his job well enough that they were able to get through without issue.

As he was just barely high enough level to meet the minimum requirement for the dungeon, the hits he took were heavy, and his damage was negligible. Contrasted with his 3 teammates who were all kitted out with the best equipment available and were restricted back down to the maximum level possible for the location, he likely wasn’t even needed for these smaller fights.

That was, until the first boss arrived.

At Ji-Hye’s recommendation, Yuuji picked the Crusader class to begin with. He had done the bare minimum for character customisation as he hadn’t the slightest clue what kind of individual he wanted to create, even using a website to generate a random name (which he now regretted).

Despite his character standing tall in bulky, heavy metal armour, he still only reached the waist of the behemoth that stood before them: a giant buffalo beastman wielding a fearsome axe. Atop his head was a red headscarf that was pierced by the creature’s horns, and a large gold tooth shimmered in its mouth as it grinned fiercely.

  <Blood-Oath Bjorn: Lvl 22>
  (Shoalbeard’s First Mate)

It was a ferocious enemy, an entire 7 levels above his own. A single hit from the titanic axe would surely cause a frightening amount of damage, and it would take lightning-fast reflexes to react to its every movement.

   [x_s1byl_x]: Bob (っ´ω`c)♡
   x_s1byl_x hugs Blood-Oath Bjorn.
   [VERN1CH7UNG]: Bob, I will not hold back this strength, not even for you!
   XiaoFeng waves at Blood-Oath Bjorn.
   VERN1CH7UNG beckons Blood-Oath Bjorn to bring it on.

His party members didn’t seem quite as fazed as he was.

   [CherishedPrawn44]: I’m engaging…

Yuuji sighed as he charged into the fight, regretting ever being worried at all. Even with the high amounts of damage he took, Ji-Hye would simply wave her carrot-themed wand and immediately heal him back to full health in a heartbeat. It was the first dungeon of the game after all, so it wasn’t too unexpected for the difficulty to be very forgiving for those new to the game like him.

   Blood-Oath Bjorn: Y’arr! Ye shall never make it to me captain, ye be dyin’ here wi’ me!
   Blood-Oath Bjorn becomes enraged!

The giant lifted his axe in painfully slow motion as Yuuji’s eyes glazed over. He continued pressing keys on his keyboard at random while he stared at the boss’s pitiful last efforts to stand against the group, and he wondered how the developers would have felt about a player dressed as a bunny girl giving a cute name to the ‘fierce’ boss they worked so hard on.

“Yuu?”
“Nnn, my kin, the attack is coming.”

Yuuji watched Bob with some pity in his eyes, recalling that he had no clue who this was even supposed to be. Perhaps there were hours of effort put into some detailed backstory for this character that he had skipped over as fast as possible, only to have him reduced to a punching bag in the path of his rush towards max level.

   XiaoFeng beckons CherishedPrawn44 over.
   XiaoFeng beckons CherishedPrawn44 over.
   XiaoFeng beckons CherishedPrawn44 over.

He decided once this was over, he’d spend some free time looking into the story of the game so that he could possibly give Bob the honour he deserved.

   Blood-Oath Bjorn: Now die!!
   CherishedPrawn44 has died.

Yuuji’s screen faded to grey, and he blinked in shock as his character collapsed to the ground lifelessly.

   Achievement Unlocked - ‘Till death do us part’
   <Died to Blood-Oath Bjorn’s final attack>
   Title Awarded - ‘Bob’s Best Friend’

“...Huh?”

As he returned back to reality, his friends on the call remained in stunned silence at the man who had stood in the insufferably telegraphed death radius for far too long, and died miserably.

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