Zenith Affinity

All of [Reality Check] was staring at the ‘world first’ notification after completing Zaphid Caverns. They were standing in the cavern next to the corpse of the Zaphid Queen when it happened.

Sky broke the silence, “Do you think that went to all players? Are we the first to complete a dungeon?”

Dark nodded, still staring off into the distance as he reread the announcement, “That definitely went out to everyone…at least the players.”

“Does that mean we are the first to complete a dungeon?” Atticus reiterated for Sky.

Zedra spoke up, “If it was a truly global message, then I haven’t seen any others like it so far. It wouldn’t surprise me, but this isn’t the closest or even easiest dungeon near Ostbury, which is surprising.”

“True, the Catacombs or whatever it’s called is the quickest, right?” Sky asked.

Zedra nodded, “But who knows the situation in Ostbury, it might be keeping people from adventuring within the town. I can almost guarantee that people know about the King’s future storyline. This being a real world now means we have no idea how conversations went when we left.”

“I am so curious to see what happened. Is there just a single storyline for each area? Or is it instanced like the game was?” Sky asked.

"I bet it's a singular storyline for each place now, instead of one for each person," Kesa said.

“We shouldn’t worry about that for now. Our goal still remains the same, and that is getting stronger. Zed, what does the loot look like?” Dark asked.

“Hmmm, something for Sky, something to sell, and a bunch of [Zero Affinity Ore]. Here, Sky,” Zedra said. He passed a strange-looking ring to her. It appeared to be a solid piece of the neon green lava formed into a crystalline ring. It was warm to the touch.

The ring almost pulsed with power as she equipped it, “Oooh, that is interesting. [Zaphid Queen’s Core Ring], kind of an intense name for such a low-level rare item. First jewelry drop right?”

“Definitely!” Kesa said. “So, what does it do?”

“It adds some damage in the form of that green lava to my spells, something called [Zaphid Corrosion], which I guess is that weird acid-lava stuff. Though I think it will be better for someone who uses afflictions instead of AoE bursts.”

“Also, maybe something for Zaria...a glaive-scythe thing, one of her front claws, [Zaphid Queen’s Talon]. Not sure why it only dropped one, but it is what it is,” Zedra said. “It has one enchantment upgrade slot, so maybe she will be convinced to drop the basic fire spear to use this.”

“They might also get it from killing the Queen in their instance, so who knows,” Sky said.

“How much ore did we get?” Dark asked.

“56 pieces of [Zero Affinity Ore],” Zedra said, noticing the question on Atticus’s face. “This is the metal we need for the ascension ritual at 25.”

“There should be more in the next room, as well as the [Teleportation Stone] to get back to the entrance,” Sky said.

Dark nodded and headed off to find the [Zero Affinity Ore] nodes in the next room. The rest of [Reality Check] followed along and waited for Dark to mine the nodes, eventually grabbing another 33 pieces of ore.

After mining, the group went up to the [Teleportation Stone], a cylindrical pillar that stood about 10 feet high. Interacting with it sent the entire group to the exit, appearing right outside the warbling gate with a flash of light.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Atticus took a deep breath and began to pull out a huge pot, along with bowls and spoons that he had prepared in Osten, “I suppose we should have some lunch while we wait for the [Flamesouls]?”

“That sounds great! What do you have?” Sky asked, her excitement potent at the warm meal.

“I was able to cut up one of those deer we had the other day, so we have a delicious venison and vegetable stew. In addition, I made a sort of bourguignon broth with red wine, onions, parsley, and a strange local herb they call Sun Basil. It has a fantastic spring-like flavor that sort of illuminates the distant flavors hidden within,” Atticus said. Popping the lid off let a huge cloud of delicious-smelling stew waft out. He ladled out enough that everyone had a full bowl and some bread to dip into it.

“My mouth is literally watering right now,” Sky said.

Atticus laughed, “I also picked up some rose potatoes and purple carrots in Osten before I made this, so it should be delightful. Let me know if you would like seconds. I was able to make enough for around 40-50 portions."

“Oh my word, Atticus…this is incredible,” Kesa said, taking her first few bites.

Sky had a bite and joined Kesa in a groan of delight, “Seriously, this is the best meal I have had since coming to this world.”

Dark and Zedra joined in as well, surprised by how hungry they were after nearly 6 hours of dungeon diving.

“We are lucky to have you as our chef. If you did nothing else, it would still be worth having you in our party,” Dark said.

“We wouldn't have been able to finish the dungeon without you at all, Atticus,” Zedra said sincerely. "Don't let these two make you feel like cooking is all you're worth."

Atticus’s feline face broke into a pleased grin, “You’re welcome. I said that cooking was my favorite thing, but having a whole new world of ingredients to discover is a dream come true...And being in this party is surprisingly fun...if scary at times.”

The party relaxed and took bets on how long it would take for the [Flamesouls] to complete the dungeon. After another 2 hours, another flash of light happened, and all 5 of the other party came stumbling out.

They looked tired and haggard, as if they had been working hard labor for an entire day. They had been in the dungeon for nearly 8 hours, and it showed.

The waiting members of [Reality Check] began to cheer and clap as they walked over to their makeshift camp, a place that seemed to prevent external mobs from spawning.

“Well, how did it go?” Sky asked as the party arrived.

Zaria nervously looked over to the two twins, Mia and Tia Hyabusa, who were holding each other like the other might be taken away in a sudden breeze. Zaria sighed, “It could have gone better, but we beat it regardless.”

Ar’Gen Lightfist, her distraught-looking brother, took a heavy seat on the ground near Dark and Kesa, “It seems that we found a bit more about how this world works…though it was the hard way.”

Zedra was also inspecting the twins curiously, but only raised a silver eyebrow as he waited for them to continue.

Asheera Flamesong pulled a blanket out and led the twins over to have a seat on it. She then began to play some soft harp tones, like a calming ambience, while still staring worriedly at the two ninjas.

Zaria finally decided to give a rundown, “We got through the Burrower with a bit of difficulty because of the mobs. You guys weren’t joking when you said we needed more AoE, and it definitely showed. The next two sponge-bosses just soaked up damage, but we have a lot of single-target damage, so they fell quite easily.”

Atticus decided that he would wait for the story to see if they were hungry before serving them stew, so Zaria continued her story.

“We got to Karne, which was a difficult enough fight, even though there weren’t many other mobs, we still struggled to do enough CC to stun him long enough for damage phases. We finally killed him, and just before moving on, we got the notification about you all completing the dungeon, and it gave us a second wind, you could say.” Zaria sighed and took a breath, once again glancing at the twins.

“But things started to hit the fan on the approach to the Queen. We just didn’t have the AoE to take down the mobs fast enough, so we never got a break before fighting her. It took long enough to even clear the field that we were taking damage from those weakening beetles…what were they called?”

Ar’Gen answered, “The Zaphid Pustule Beetles.”

“That’s right, those disgusting things,” Zaria picked back up. “And…well, Tia and Mia got caught trying to push one back to the Queen. We had been doing alright, but when they died, we freaked out and retreated. They respawned, but we had to wait a while before trying to cross that bridge again, just to let them mentally recover, you know?”

Asheera’s shy voice spoke up, “The beetles kept spawning after that, and we almost didn't make it until we leveled up to 16 and 17."

"Yeah, that climb would have been damn near impossible without AoE," Zedra said.

Sky walked over and kneeled, “Are you two alright?”

The twins were looking off into the distance as if watching a replay of their deaths and subsequent respawns over and over in their mind's eye. It seemed like they wouldn’t be themselves any time soon, even with Sky and Asheera trying to reassure them.

“Hmmm, I know what you need,” Sky suddenly said, breaking the silence with a surprisingly upbeat tone.

Everyone looked up at Sky, curious as to where her thought process was leading.

“Zedra, join me, alright?” Sky asked.

“Uh, what?”

“Mia and Tia Hyabusa!” Sky’s voice changed, now crashing through the makeshift camp with authority and challenge, “Zedra and I challenge you to a DUEL!”

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Asheera almost seemed offended, her graceful elven features going dark and angry, “You can’t be serious. They need to rest!”

“No, they don’t!” Sky said confidently. “When I was just a kid, I wanted to do a jump on my BMX bike like my friends could. They had been practicing and jumping their bikes for years already. I couldn’t understand how they easily flew through the air so confidently. Moving beyond that instinctual part of the brain that makes you want to stop doing something dangerous.

“It took me many months to first attempt the smallest of jumps, maybe only 5 feet tall, and with a slight lip on it. My friends would send it so hard off the jump, doing tail whips, and even flips through the air as easily as walking. But one day, I found my courage and decided that it was time I also sent it. That I learned what it took to go beyond my instinctual restraints, and fly through the air,” As Sky told her story, everyone began to pay rapt attention, even Mia and Tia.

“I went up the hill, out of sight of the jump, so I could get enough speed after turning the corner in the little L-shaped abandoned dirt lot that we turned into a BMX course. I don’t know what it was about that day, but I could feel it in the air, the knowledge that I was going to send that jump. I had tried so many times, but always slammed on the brakes before hitting the lip, even if I crashed because of it. But not that day. I went down the quick ramp to start, pushing on the uneven surface to gather more speed. I came around the corner perfectly, laying into the berm with no trouble.

“Before me was the mountain of a jump, looming tall over me as I approached. I knew that I had the speed, but just looking at its imposing figure, I felt like I would lose all my willpower just by approaching. But this time was different, I purposefully didn’t hold the brakes, I forced myself to just grab onto the handlebars and never reach out for the brakes, my hands turning purple with the strain. I hit the base of the jump and leaned back enough to take on the lip of the jump, just as my friends taught me to do.

“I left the ground like a jet being flung off an aircraft carrier. But I was leaning too far back; the lip had sent me up, not over. I didn’t have a chance to correct it. Every instinct in my mind was telling me that I had messed up, that there was no way out, but I pulled as hard as I could. I pulled the handlebars around so my bike turned with me. I had enough air, which felt like minutes while I was in the air. But I didn’t pull hard enough, I didn’t put enough force back to complete the full flip.

“My front tire struck the top of the landing like a crash test car hitting a wall. I went flying forward, smashing through my handlebars, and I ate dirt with tremendous force. I was leaning to the left a bit, and when my front tire hit, it pulled the handlebars out of my hand, and instinctively, I tried to brace myself to prevent the fall from being worse. But that was a bad move.

“My wrist snapped audibly, and my face and head impacted the packed dirt hard enough that I saw stars. I wasn’t completely stupid; however, I did wear my helmet. It broke the fall and broke from the fall at the same time. My legs were still tangled in the bike as it bounced over me once again, causing me to tumble a good 10 feet down the landing.

“My friends ran over and tried to help me, but they knew how this sort of thing works; they knew what had to be done. They said, “Sky, you need to get back on your bike and do it again. Do it right now….or you will never be the same.”

“I was so confused, couldn’t they see that I was injured and bleeding? My wrist broke, my helmet broke, my handlebars were bent, but they insisted. They said, “Sky, we have been where you are. If you don’t get up and get back on that bike, you will never jump again. You will never be a BMXer, no matter how hard you try or how much you practice.”

“It just didn’t make sense to me, and I refused.”

At this point, Mia and Tia were fully engrossed in Sky’s story. Tia spoke up, “What happened?”

“Simple, I never jumped again. They were right.”

The silence was potent as they soaked in those words.

“But we did fight again, we went back in and destroyed the Queen,” Mia protested.

“So what?” Sky said. “I know that when Zaria found you two, you were fighting with wide smiles on your faces, laughing at the prospect of just sparring together, am I right?”

Zaria nodded, “They were insane, I didn’t understand how they could be so skilled when we had only been in this world for just a few hours.”

Sky nodded, “Exactly. So here is the deal. You two versus Zedra and me. No skills, no spells, just weapons and fighting. If we can actually initiate a duel, then we choose the sparring option and do that."

“I don’t understand,” Tia said.

“It doesn’t matter, get up!” Sky said, unwavering in her resolve. Many people in both parties were worried, but Dark and Zedra had smiles on their faces. They knew what Sky was talking about, having gone through stuff like this before.

Zaria looked at her distraught twins, “I think you should do it.”

The twins looked at her in surprise.

“I am serious, Sky is right. You need to get back up before you end up wallowing in depression and anxiety. How are we supposed to go back in there and kick more ass if you might flinch just cause you got hit?”

Tia looked over to her sister, “I think we should do it, sis.”

Mia’s gaze snapped over to her sister, “What?”

“They seem serious, and we did love fighting; we can’t let something like this get us down!”

Mia sighed, but got up, nodding to her sister, “Alright, then, we fight.”

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

_______________________________________________________

Solara Sky and Zedra Stone have challenged Mia Hyabusa and Tia Hyabusa to a duel!

Sparring Mode Selected

Do you accept? Y/N.

_______________________________________________________

Mia and Tia were both in the Ninja class. It was very similar to the Rogue class that Zedra had, with a few key differences. It was much more acrobatic for starters, combining movement skills directly in combat, not only to dodge, but to either create or close gaps. They had more assassin-type specific abilities that favored striking quickly and doing quick bursts of damage, but also doing it from stealth. Fighting outright wasn’t to their advantage.

Both of them planned on attuning to the Shadow Affinity at level 25, but then Mia would go into Poison at level 50, while Tia would go into Fire. It would drastically change how their builds worked, emphasizing different abilities and combat styles with their attunements. But for now, they had similar abilities and movement skills.

As far as weapons went, Tia had a ninjato sword while Mia wielded two kunai daggers, and both likely had corresponding skills to match. The kunai were actually drops from the Zaphid Queen, a class-specific drop that randomly ended up in the [Flamesouls] party loot. They came as a set of two, and while they spun easily around a finger, it was because of the smooth inner carapace-like surface and not a ball bearing or anything mechanical of that sort. They were truly like miniature spines from the Queen.

Zedra pulled his two stiletto daggers out, and Sky spun her staff from her back into a guarded stance. As soon as the pop-up windows finished the countdown, Zedra and Mia rushed each other, dagger to dagger.

Tia came in with her sword, the shining ninjato reflecting the afternoon sun as it arced towards Sky.

The two dagger wielders immediately began a deadly dance of thrusting, parrying, and counterattacking. Not using skills for this fight was part of the requirements, or the fight would have heavily favored Sky with her explosive damage. With that being said, it wasn’t favoring the ninjas like they would have thought it should have.

Sky had explosive power with her staff, and not only was she taller and stronger than the two red-skinned Kambians on account of her racial bonuses, but she apparently had experience wielding a staff. At least her prowess with melee fighting seemed to imply that she had practice.

She blocked strike after strike, only for the other end of her staff to find purchase on the half-demon woman she was facing. The problem for Tia was that she was trying to fight someone who was both aware of her presence and had better reach.

That wasn’t how ninjas fought, regardless of what Hollywood has taught. Tia is meant to be a burst-damage-dealing assassin that comes from the shadows to do her deadly work, even more so than a rogue. Standing face to face with someone who was able to counter sword strikes was a terrible match-up, skills or not.

This was made worse by the surprisingly potent ability that Sky had to counter her attacks. Each time she lunged, swiped, or thrust forward, Sky would block and immediately swing the other end of the staff her way, like some sort of violent pendulum, hitting twice for each block.

“How are you this good with the staff?” Tia asked, out of breath after Sky slammed her staff into her gut.

Sky laughed, “I honestly don’t know, but it feels right.”

She did some kind of flourish and a feint, forcing Tia to try and parry a strike from the upper left, only for the other end of her staff to find an opening in her guard, this time hitting a clean shot to the ribs.

Tia grunted and stumbled back, holding her side, “Did you just do this to beat me up?”

Sky scoffed, “Come at me, I know you’re better than that!”

Tia growled and pulled an off-hand dagger out, this one specifically designed for parrying. It had a larger basket to protect the knuckles while being a fairly long, straight blade, something that on Earth would be called a main-gauche in French. It caught the next counter-attack, and Tia rolled around it, barely able to dodge Sky's retributive strike.

She got close and barely sliced Sky's off-hand arm, but she didn't even react to it besides increasing her fighting pace. She seemed to switch something that Tia couldn't parse.

It was like Sky had an entirely different style of combat that she just pulled out of thin air. Her strikes were shorter and quicker, forcing Tia to constantly move her parrying dagger to more awkward positions. The strikes were still hard enough that she had trouble parrying with her ninjato sword, as she only had one hand on it.

Sky advanced, stepping into her guard before she was capable of countering. She landed an attack to the unarmored shin, immediately followed by a strike to the forehead, staggering her. The combo didn’t end there as Sky adjusted her grip on the staff and struck with a straight jab as one would do with a spear, but it was directly to the face, causing blood to flow from Tia’s nose.

That was the final strike as Tia fell over backward, not getting up. Sky kept an eye on her while watching Zedra and Mia fight.

Zedra was keeping up with the more acrobatic Kambian in front of him, but it was clear he had the advantage. She had a strange style where she would slow the pace of combat, then immediately speed it up enough to draw a strike. It was working well, though Zedra was getting in his own stabs from counters and the lulls in combat.

Mia was more acrobatic, but Zedra was quicker. He could burst forward with speed, not using a skill, but rather just the innate dexterity and agility of a Dark Elf, enabling him to capitalize on any gaps. Their fight came to an end when Mia wanted to try and roll over a strike by Zedra, but it was a feint, and instead he lunged into her roll with two stilettos leading the way, finding purchase in her ribs.

Kesa and Ar’Gen wasted no time and started healing everyone immediately, having already worked on Sky and Tia for a while, while the other half of the fight finished. Their ministrations weren't needed, however, as the system fully healed them after declaring Sky and Zedra the winners of the sparring duel.

Sky was leaning on her staff, watching Mia and Tia like a hawk. Their demeanor changed a bit, but they still seemed depressed. When the two made eye contact with her, the fearless future guild leader smiled, “Ready to go again?”

This time, Tia looked over to her sister, a slight smile curving the edges of her lips, “We’re ready.”