Zenith Affinity

Atticus had focused on upgrading [Shocking Field] with most of his skill points, just as the rest of the party guided him to do. At level 7, the next modifying skill point he spent unlocked the ability [Extended Field], which doubled the size of [Shocking Field] to 10 square meters.

Being a sorcerer with the role of enhancer enabled the rest of his party to punch above their weight. That ability would be the bread and butter of his kit all the way to the endgame.

The group of nearly 20 goblins was rushing behind a fleeing Zedra when the [Shocking Field] landed on them. It fully covered the rocky tunnel [Reality Check] found themselves in, unleashing the stunning effect along with applying [Vulnerability] and increased damage from non-lightning sources.

"I am changing my class to rabbit!" Zedra yelled as he ran past.

Sky laughed, casting her new spell, [Sun Bringer]. A star formed above her staff, a molten ball of fire, and she threw it into the group of stunned Goblins like she was lobbing a beach ball.

The star landed with a splash of fire and light, while [Flare Shots] began to rapidly launch out of the star in every direction until it smashed into the back row of Goblins. Each tine of curving solar energy added stacks of [Searing Light] in preparation for Sky to drop the [Searing Blast] finisher.

Just as that happened, the Overseer Goblin, the sub-boss that guarded the tunnels below the goblin fort they were raiding, shot his bow and yelled in fear as Dark Hero came crashing with the momentum of a train. He used his new level 7 ability called [Dark Charger], letting him magically charge forward at obscene speed while stunning anything dumb enough to get in his way.

The Overseer didn't have time to line up another shot as Zedra appeared from his [Veil of Shadows] using his level 7 [Evasive Vault] ability to quickly move while unseen. He didn't get to use [Opportunity Strike] since it only worked on targets that had been CC'd, but he still had the element of surprise. His dagger found unprotected flesh on the exposed neck, ending any sort of response before it could begin with critical strikes.

Kesa sent a [Healing Wave] across the field to where Dark was, knocking back goblins and healing friendlies. She finally put to use her own level 7 ability, [Healing Waters], which did several things. It was a passive buff to all water-based healing abilities as well as changing her basic [Mana Shot] attack, turning it into [Aqua Slash], which damages enemies and heals allies.

Her healing wave of water passed through the remains of Sky's [Sun Bringer] like it wasn't there, ignoring any heat that came with it. She then followed it up with [Cleansing Rain], removing the [Disease] and [Poison] afflictions the shaman goblins in the back had put on the melee fighters.

The battle was a series of beautiful responses to the planned ambush as the goblins did all they could to stop [Reality Check].

Their efforts were not enough.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Zaria was having the time of her life. She had designed a gorgeous celestial with pearlescent white hair, golden eyes, and chocolate skin. She went full Valkyrie for her class this server reset, and couldn't help the smile on her face as she appeared in her new body.

It was incredible, she was actually here! She couldn’t be sure if she was dreaming or not, but everything just felt so right that if it was a dream, then she never wanted to wake up.

Standing in that starting square while that stupid King babbled on was annoying, but she ignored him and pulled her spear from her back. Immediately, she felt different steps she could take. Different attack patterns, disarming strikes, and finishing blows all raced through her mind.

A wave of excitement and belonging crashed into her mind in ways she had never felt before. This was real, and this was what she needed.

"Sis? That you?" A worried but surprisingly deep male voice said, though its pace was rather slow.

She snapped her head over and recognized her little brother's character. The handsome young dwarf was dressed like the priest of some earthly dwarven deity with simple brown robes under his blonde beard.

'Ar'Gen Lightfist, Cleric' was above his dwarven head.

Zaria Flamesoul smiled, "Oh yes...a whole new me."

“It’s good to see you standing,” Ar’Gen said.

Zaria’s smile grew, if that was possible. This was the first time she had been standing in years. Now that she had an incredible new body, she could feel her legs and feet. She squatted and jumped, curled her toes, and kicked out as if she were the ruler of Sparta.

"Brother, I think this is the best thing that has ever happened to me," Zaria said.

Her dwarven brother smiled at her, and they hugged before heading out of the crowded square. On the way out, Zaria found kambian ninjas that looked like twins, sparring with huge smiles on their faces. Zaria invited both of them to join their party, recognizing the happiness at the enhanced movement and power their new bodies allowed for.

Mia and Tia Hyabusa were kambians. A race that is half-devil and half-human. They get bonuses to physical and flame affinities as part of their racial enhancements, and it seemed that both of these sisters had chosen ninja as a class option. Mia and Tia were both exceptionally skilled at fighting out of the gates by Zaria’s discerning eye, and she knew exactly how to fit them into her future party.

That made four members for the [Flamesouls], after her own name: Zaria Flamesoul.

The party of four eventually found a beautiful elven bard, named Asheera Flamesong, who matched Zaria’s need for more fire perfectly. She was playing music on her harp to a bunch of spiders as they burned to death, a smoldering hymn. Each delicate plucking of her harp caused each of the many enemies to be immolated, as she gracefully danced around their attacks.

The final piece to their party joined up, and on they went.

Things were going great as they came up on level 5, more power and abilities that suited their party perfectly, with Zaria as the front line. Traveling to the west for what felt like hours, the party hunted goblins and their ugly pets as they searched for larger prey. That was when the huge goblin fort entered their radar.

Crossing level 6 happened as they took down the outer sentries to the fort. No skill points at that level, but the added attributes were nice.

"Alright, [Flamesouls]! We are hitting this gate!"

Ar'Gen spoke up, "Uhh, sis...we can't break down that gate. It’s huge!"

"Hmmm, Mia -Tia, you said you can scale the wall?" Zaria had somehow turned their names into one word as she questioned them.

Both ninja-girls nodded, and Tia spoke up, "We need a minute to get up there unseen, though..."

"No problem, go now, and we will follow as soon as you open the gate from the other side. Does that sound good?"

Asheera spoke up, "Sooo...I should hold off on the buffs until we actually enter combat?"

"Yeah, or just before the ninjas open it!" Zaria said.

Asheera nodded seriously, but still played a few notes.

It was then that they heard it.

'FWWOOOSHHHH'

Flames and light were coming from within the fort, and the tiny cracks made it look like a second sun was on the other side.

"What the hell? Tia, now!" Zaria yelled.

Tia had stopped as they climbed, but quickly disappeared over the wall in one of her shadow-flame abilities.

Goblins dying and elemental abilities were causing all sorts of strange reflections and sounds from the other side of the solid wooden gate. Zaria stood with frustration as a fight seemed to take place without them.

An amount of time passed until the huge gate opened up, only for another party to be standing over the corpse of the Hobgoblin boss.

"Dammit..." Zaria said as she made eye contact with another Celestial with very similar golden eyes.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Sky looked back at the other celestial with the purest white hair she had ever seen. Fire danced in her matching golden eyes. "Well, it seems we have company."

"How the hell did you guys get in here so fast? This place looked untouched!" The other celestial said.

Sky looked over to Zedra, who just raised his eyebrow, "Uhhh, you are supposed to attack this fort from the caves underneath..."

"What? Says who?"

There were a pair of twins that had to be kambiens or something similar with reddish-tan skin who giggled, and one of them spoke, "Zaria, we told you about the secret entrance."

"You didn't know where it was!" Zaria argued.

The other twin was also amused by Zaria's anger and said, "You wouldn't let us search for it!"

There was a dwarf dressed in cleric robes who also laughed, "Sis...it wasn't like they didn't tell you that, you have to admit."

"Tsch, whatever!" Zaria said, clearly frustrated.

Zedra examined the dropped loot and thought about it for a second. He walked over and whispered to Sky, "Hey, one of the looting items is a Flame-attuned spear that is perfect for a Valkyrie. Let's get them to join our guild!"

"Good idea! Though I don’t think bribing is a good way to start." Sky whispered back.

Zedra shook his head as he passed the spear to Sky, "Zaria, was it?"

"Yeah! And we are the [Flamesouls]."

Sky nodded, "[Reality Check]. So, Zaria, I am Solara Sky, but everyone just calls me Sky. This is Zedra, our Party leader. I have a proposition for you, if you are interested."

"It's a bit early for that, don't you think?" Zaria said with a stupid smirk on her face.

The cleric named Ar'Gen Lightfist slapped her on the arm.

"Ow! Hey..."

"Be serious," Ar'Gen said.

"Alright, what is your proposition, then?"

"Right, I give you this Flame-attuned spear, but then when you are done with it, you let me have the enchantment?"

"Uhhh, does that mean you will be able to make better ones in the future?"

"Better enchantments, yes, but Dark here is our smith."

Zaria glanced at the rest of their party and nodded, "Alright. Is that it?"

"Well, you should also join our guild!" Sky asked happily.

Zaria and the rest of her [Flamesouls] looked at each other curiously, "Join your guild? Like an adventuring guild?"

"This is more based around players, and in this world, the organization you are thinking of is called the Adventure Association. Have you ever played Zenith before?" Sky asked curiously. She managed to make the question not seem condescending.

Zaria nodded, "My little brother here convinced me to play, and we made characters last night, but I have played before. Oh, this is-"

Her little brother, not only in age but also in size, spoke up, "Ar'Gen Lightfist, Cleric."

"Not flamefist?" Sky asked with a laugh.

He audibly rolled his eyes with a sigh, "I didn't think she would just blurt out her own character's surname for the party name."

All of [Reality Check] glanced at Dark Hero with eyebrows raised.

He dutifully ignored the attention, finding the fort's walls all too interesting.

"Anyway, I have quite a few hours in the game, and you say you're starting a guild?" Ar'Gen asked.

"Absolutely! We are going to the Crystal City at level 40 to acquire our guild hall. We just have to get there first,” Sky said.

Zedra continued, “Plus, the Crystal City becomes an endgame destination during the 3rd or 4th expansion. If we get the main guild hall, we can be one of the top guilds in the game, or I guess in the world now.”

"Are we actually going to be in here that long?" Zaria asked. “Long enough to achieve all of that?”

"I hope so," Sky started, "We are in a new world with bodies we designed, cured from all of our diseases, injuries, and pains. This is a second chance to go out and be who and what we want to be. This is a second chance at life!”

Sky’s words caused a bout of contemplative silence amongst the listeners in the ruined fort.

Ar'gen’s eyebrows were raised as he too thought about the future, "Hmmm, wait a second. The whole second half of the game starts and operates from Crystal City?! What are the chances of you making it there first? Surely other people have thought about going there."

"Not so much the second half of the game, but one of the later expansions," Sky said.

“Fourth expansion, Sky,” Dark provided.

She nodded in thanks.

Zedra spoke up, "Well, we figure that most people are going to go for a guild hall in Ostbury because it will be the easiest to gain guild reputation points. The fastest leveling people probably won't go to Crystal City, because there will be a bunch more travel time. We will also need mounts before we make the journey, or it will take twice as long."

Dark spoke up, “Also, you can go to the Dread Lands at 35, and if you do that with a guild, you are going to head to Rifthold, which is a super popular leveling path."

"And Rifthold has 10 standard, 5 medium, 2 major, and 1 grand-sized guild halls, while Crystal City only has 4 standard and one grand-sized guild hall, which is the one we want," Sky said.

Zedra spoke up, "But we think with the changes, as this is a real world now, we should be able to just go there and start the regional quests at level 50 to build reputation. If what we heard from Revalore is right, then the first players there will be the ones to start the former individual area quests."

Both parties nodded at that logic, and Zaria asked, “What do you mean when you say grand-sized guild hall?”

“It’s the largest size. They go from standard to medium, then major, then grand, but every city that has guild halls has a different configuration. If we get the grand one, it can eventually sustain a thousand-person guild!” Zedra said.

"We can power rush through dungeons to get to level 40 and pick up mounts for those who still need them at Prism Watch to cross the Prismatic Sea and get to Crystal City. We should have enough gold to afford saddles, training, and basic mounts by then. We get there and either do the story or get enough rep in the city to purchase the Guild Hall," Sky explained.

Dark Hero nodded, "And we still have enough Tier 3 and 4 zones in damn near each direction from the Crystal City. I mean, this is perfect for a guild with the right size."

Zaria looked to her brother, who shrugged. "One sec!" She yelled and went into a huddle with the rest of her party.

They whispered for a minute or so and then popped back around, "Alright, we will join you, guild, on a few conditions..."

Sky raised an eyebrow, "What do you need?"

Zaria smiled, "I want to be the Guild's Primary Leatherworker! And Tia wants to be an alchemist, and my brother also wants to be a crafter of some sort, too."

Ar'Gen sighed, "I want to be a Refiner, do you have one of those yet?"

Sky smiled, "No, we do not. But Kesa here is already our Alchemist."

Kesa looked to the right-most ninja twin with ‘Tia Hyabusa, Ninja’ over her head and asked, "Wait, are you going into Oils?"

Tia nodded and smiled, "That's right! Poisons and such are all under oils." Her words were clipped and as sharp as her daggers, but not threatening.

"Right, then it's fine, I am specializing in Flasks, so no worries. I would still like to be the Guild's Alchemist, though," Kesa said. Tia nodded, not really wanting the responsibility.

The one with 'Asheera Flamesong, Bard' above her head looked confused and asked, "What does it mean to be the 'Guild's Alchemist' versus a normal one?"

Sky spoke up, "We will have spots for a single person to sit in each craft to act as representatives of our guild. For instance, if another guild or a person wants to hire us for enchanting, they would be able to request a writ for our Enchanter that they could then take and do the work on behalf of the guild. Or if we joined a contest, which does happen, we would submit the representative for whatever craft that happened to be showcased. It offers more experience in the form of more work, but also more recognition as a representative of our guild."

"It also implies that the guild crafter would have a priority for guild funding over others, but that isn't a huge deal," Zedra said.

"It's fine, I would rather not be a face to the guild anyway...I am a ninja after all," Tia said, getting into a fighting stance next to her sister.

"Perfect. Zaria, you would be an officer and the guild's leatherworker, with Ar'Gen being the guild's refiner. Dark Hero here will be the smith, Kesa the alchemist, Zedra the tailor, me the enchanter, and Atticus here will be our cook! Sky said, nearly running out of breath after her list.

"I prefer Chef!" Atticus said nervously.

"Our chef!" Sky corrected.

"That is a lot to process, but sure, we are in!" Zaria said, then remembered, "Oh, let me introduce you to the rest of us. You met my bro here, but the twins are Mia and Tia. And this pretty elf is Asheera, our bard."

Asheera smiled and nodded at them.

Mia and Tia both waved at the same time with their right hands and said, "Hi!"

"It is great to meet you all! I introduced myself and Zedra, but this is Dark Hero, Kesa, and Atticus," Sky said.

Greetings were exchanged amongst the newly acquainted parties, and ideas of where to go were thrown around.

"Right then, I say we rush to 15 by hitting that next valley over and so on until we hit Zaphid Caverns. We will farm that for a few days until we reach level 24. Then go to the closest crafting place, Osten, I think, and get what we need to hit tier 2!" Sky said.

"We should definitely go to Osten,” Zedra agreed. “They have crafting stations and the nearest Ascension Hall. We hit Tier 2, then go south for our first Tier 2 area. The Willowgrim Marsh."

"Actually, before that, we need to go back to Ostbury and start recruiting as well as get our guild formed," Dark said.

Sky was going to speak, but Zaria raised her hands, "Alright, we get it, you’re super nerds. Did you get that, Ar'Gen?"

"Yeah, we were on a path similar to that, but I am not sure about dungeons. We were just going to sweep these valleys until we hit 24," Ar'Gen said.

"The Zaphied Caverns will be the first opportunity to get attunement stuff and make some serious gold," Zedra said.

“What do you mean by attunement stuff?” Atticus asked.

“It’s called [Zero Affinity Ore], dungeon-specific loot that is needed for tier ascension rituals. Don’t worry about that for now. We need to focus on getting to the Zaphid Caverns first!” Dark explained.

Ar'Gen's face grew serious as he thought about Zedra’s statement, "Is it still a game?"

Sky exchanged glances with Zedra, "I hope not."

Zaria's attention was drawn to those words, though she seemed curious instead of challenging, "You hope not?"

Sky had a serious look on her face for once, as she made eye contact with her fellow celestial, "I want this to be my reality so bad that it hurts. Whatever happens here, I feel like we will have the power to be more than just a face in the crowd. Like our presence in this world actually matters. There are so many more options in life, and all of us have a fresh opportunity to seize whatever dream we wish. Hell yeah, I want to stay here. All we have to do is get strong."

Kesa agreed, speaking up right after, "Think about what we can do here! We will be able to fly, teleport, and so much more. I hate working in an office, doing shit jobs for people who make more money and do less work. Screw that!"

Dark Hero was next, "They are right! I mean, we just beat down some huge enemies and gained more power by leveling up, not to mention the loot. Look, you guys are obviously driven to be out this far from Ostbury already, so join us! We can get strong together!"

"We are in! We didn't have more than a basic direction on where to kill stuff anyway, so we could use the direction. I also don't want to wake up in my old body either. I mean, look at me, I am absolutely gorgeous!" Zaria said, her dark skin contrasting beautifully with her pearlescent white hair and golden eyes.

Ar'Gen just facepalmed at his sister's antics. A few laughs were had, but the truth was also spoken...they would get powerful together.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

The two parties, [Reality Check] and the [Flamesouls], set out to the northwest, taking them back down into the valley that they had entered to get to the fort they had taken down. Both parties began to clear the valley of monsters one mob at a time until nothing stood against them.

Using slightly different tactics, they routed monster spawns and searched out elite mobs for nearly 5 more hours, which brought the first day in this new world to a close.

Sunset brought a myriad of colors, many of which blended and worked together to paint a landscape of orange, pink, purple, and blue. Night fell as rations were passed out for those who didn’t have them.

The night wasn't dark, but seemed to glow with the ambient and elemental energies in the air, making their campfire only one among many light sources. The parties had broken up into a few groups, some sitting around the campfire and others showing off skills in the next clearing over.

At some point, Dark Hero, Atticus, and the kambien sisters ran off laughing, weapons in hand.

Sky made eye contact with Kesa, who just shook her head.

"What happened?" Sky asked.

"They realized that the terrain is permanently destructible..." Kesa said, her unimpressed voice causing a few laughs.

"Oh, should we stop them?" Sky asked.

Zedra popped up, "It's fine, they are chopping up some dead tree. No harm done."

"Did you follow them?" Kesa asked.

"I did," Zedra laughed.

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you guys about how much we need for our guild hall, or at least just to purchase it," Sky said.

Zedra nodded, knowing how much went into it just as much as Sky did. Over the past 10 years, Sky and Zedra alone had paid to upgrade no less than 4 mid-tier guild halls between them on different servers. A tough grind regardless of how it’s done.

"If we get the primary guild hall in the Crystal City, we are looking at a grand tier guild hall. It will cost around 500 gold, if not more," Sky said.

Zedra nodded, "Easily, and even if that is right, that would just be the initial cost. To upgrade the guild hall to its full potential, we will have to grind resources for weeks, on top of hiring staff in the city. When this was a game, it was someone from the city who helped to unlock and hire building crews, so we can probably expect that again."

"So, it is 500 gold to acquire it, then way more to upgrade it?" Zaria asked.

"500 gold to buy the guild hall. Of course, we will have to be a 50-person guild already, which is a 100 gold fee to even start the guild," Sky said. "About 1000 gold to get everything started within and to purchase the beginnings of what we will need. After that, we can distribute the rooms and stuff which are individually upgradable...but don't worry about that for now."

"And you guys are planning on doing that, how?" Zaria asked.

"To start with, we make a crafting chain. All of us will funnel resources through Sky for enchantment, and then we will sell them," Zedra said. “Then, when people start hitting tier 2, we flood the market with the Tier 2 Affinity Attunement discs. If we corner the market, then we will make an obscene amount of moolah.”

"How so?" Al'Gren pushed.

"We funnel all of our enchantments into the main affinities like fire and lightning and do basic Affinity Attunement Discs, and I guarantee that a majority of people will buy them asap instead of hiring an Enchanter and a Smith to make it," Zedra explained. "Then, when people start bringing writs to our guild for upgrades, we charge them the extra crafting fees like some corporate entity trying to min/max profits."

"Everyone is going to go nuts once they start hitting level 24 and need the discs to progress into the next tier," Sky said. "Most people aren't in parties and will be solo or duo players. It makes finding dungeon groups hard enough without this being a real-world scenario."

Ar'Gen asked, "Alright, well, how do you know which ones will make the most money?"

"It's all about knowing the most common affinities in the game!" Zedra said, his rogue-ish smile flashing. "The most common ones are physical, fire, and lightning."

"Oof, that's like 2 out of 3 for you, eh sis?" Ar'Gen teased.

"Shut up! They are strong affinities!" Zaria said.

"They are the most popular for a reason. Don't let it worry you. If anything, it just means that gearing will be easier and we will buy any excess essence materials in those affinities,” Zedra said while gesturing at her new fire spear. “Not to mention basic affinity damage-enhancing enchantments like Zaria's new spear, will be extremely desired. Those sorts of things fly off the shelves until we get into higher tiers.”

"I see..." Zaria said, holding her spear protectively.

"As soon as we hit 24, we craft our faces off for like a week, and ascend to tier 2. Then we get out to that swamp place or whatever and keep grinding," Dark said.

"You are doing potions, aren't you?" Ar'Gen asked Kesa.

"Mhm, flasks will be my end goal, but yes, I will be making a bunch of potions and stuff. Hopefully, we will get an herbalist in the Guild."

"Oooh, what does it take to be an herbalist?" Mia said, popping up from the shadows.

"Whoa!” Kesa jumped as Mia was suddenly standing next to her, “Sorry, uhh, I can show you to the NPC who can teach you the profession. It's right next to the alchemist one! But there are two aspects, which are harvesting and growing, and they can be done in the guild hall, and you can make a decent amount of money."

"We should head back to Osten in the morning anyway," Zedra said. "We are out of food, and we should buy or make some basic harvesting stuff."

They had gone through all sorts of rations as the [Flamesouls] hadn’t brought any.

"I don't know, the more we fight, the better I say!" Zaria said.

Mia agreed, "It would be nice to get our professions.”

"Right, how long will this trip take?" Zaria asked.

"Ehhh, maybe a few hours walking, judging by how things have been going so far," Sky said.

Zedra nodded at that, "Once we hit the road, it will be smooth sailing." He reached up and swatted at some floating mote of light. They looked like little glowing wisps, but were motes of ambient elemental mana manifesting in the visible spectrum.

"Alright, my brother here was saying something about flying mounts. Is that a thing? Is there a pegasus that I could get?" Zaria asked.

Sky and Zedra both nodded, but she allowed him to speak first, "Absolutely, there is. And since you are a celestial, you can get the celestial pegasus mount, but not until flying mounts are unlocked at level 75. That being said, when we make it to the Fourth Heaven expansion, you can get [Herolos, the King of the Pegasi] as a mount if we beat the faction raid."

"Whaaaat?! I hope this is foreshadowing, cause that sounds epic as hell!" Zaria said, bubbling with excitement.

"You can also get the other one, [Zafferria, Fallen Queen of the Pegasi], who is the fallen celestial version. But you have to do a bunch of weird things to spawn her as a world boss. It's like this whole quest chain we can worry about in a few years," Sky said.

Ar'Gen's dwarven form started to chuckle, "In a few years...I hope you are right, Ms. Sky. A few years in this world would be the least I could hope for."

Everyone smiled at that, and Sky replied, "Well, cheers to a few years of Zenith World!"

"CHEERS!"