Chapter Two: The Aegis Temple

Arnes and Brenam walked down the rough forest path, the sun shone brightly through the trees, bathing their path in golden afternoon light. A group of fairies crossed the trail causing both adventurers to stop short, admiring the creatures. This was a place where magic was a necessity, and the mythical creatures they had read about their whole lives were a reality. Brenam let out a guttural growl, "Where are we going, we've been walking for hours." Arnes chuckled turning to look at Brenam,"have you ever heard of the Aegis temple?" This caused the tall Lizardman to perk up. "Yeah, I think every player has. It is the legendary level one temple that no one was ever able to find. Why do you ask?" The corner of Arnes' lips rose slightly.

"No way, you know where it is?" Brenam asked in disbelief. "Yup, I found a forum post by a user who claimed to be an ex-map developer for the world. I message him directly asking him about the location of this specific temple and he told me." "Are you sure this person is reliable? I mean he was just some guy on a forum somewhere, right?" Brenam asked, still in disbelief. "Cause if I find out I walked all this way for nothing, I'm gonna be pissed." Arnes chuckled beginning to walk again, "don't worry, I'm like ninety-nine percent sure it's right.....here.". He put his hand on a tree with what appeared to be a shield carved into its bark. The symbol began to glow with warm light and a rumbling noise pierce through the otherwise silent forest. "Voila." he said as a door of made of tree bark seemed to appear around the symbol, almost as if it had been there the entire time. Arnes walked up to the door pressing his hand against it, and once again, the shield began to glow just like moments before. The door began to slide open causing dust to fly into the air, as if the door hadn't been opened in centuries.

"Welcome to the Aegis Temple!" Arnes said, a massive smile spreading across his face. Cold air wafted from the temple entrance causing a chill to run down Brenams' spine. "Are you sure this is a good idea. I mean, if we die in there three times we're fucked." Arnes looked at him with a mixture of confidence and excitement of the unknown, "don't worry about it. It's only a Level One dungeon and the monsters we killed on the way here boosted our levels. We are Level Two and there are two of us."

Brenam seemed to relax a little at this thought. "Okay, but if I die in here, I'm coming straight from the Chapel and chopping your head off." "Deal" Arnes said before pulling his sword off his back. "Brenam, you lead the way, as the tank that would be the smartest move. I will be right behind you." The two players began the descent into the cold dark dungeon. There seemed to be a flickering orange light coming from a doorway at the bottom of a long set of crumbling, stone stairs. the crackling of a fire echoed from within the room.

As they pushed the door open, they both glanced around in amazement. Calling it a room almost felt like an injustice. The space was huge with a massive hearth burning at the center. There were archways of stone reaching up to the roof and interlacing on the ceiling, and there were broken pillars scattered around the cold stone floor. There was something at the other end of the room that caught Arnes attention. An ornate chest which appeared to be lined with gold sat against a cracked wall covered in dust. The latch was adorned with a red crystal and there was a slight glow emanating from it, as if to tempt any adventure who may stumble across it. Arnes crossed the room and bent down examining the chest. He ran his fingers along the top, feeling the wood that, though covered in dust and grime, seemed to be in perfect condition. "This is odd. This whole room feels like it's been here for centuries, but this chest seems to have just been placed here recently." He ran his hand across the red gem feeling it's inhuman warmth.

Right as his fingers grazed it, the fire in the center of the room turned blue. Arnes turned quickly, his body naturally moving into a battle stance. This felt odd to him as, once again, he had never even held a sword before. He held the blade up in front of him the sword giving off a cold sheen in the blue firelight. He glanced over at Brenam who had gotten into a battle stance himself. The Lizardman had his shield in front of him and his spear held pointing outwards as if ready to strike the second anyone came within range. Then a deafening rumbling sound echoed throughout the chamber. Dust fell from the ceiling as the open door was crushed by a stone wall dropping in front of the entrance. Arnes stood his ground but Brenam panicked starting to run towards the stone wall, presumably to find a way around it. "Stop!" Arnes shouted causing the other player to halt. "We knew this was gonna happen. Think about it, no MMORPG in history is just going to hand you a chest. This boss shouldn't be super strong since we are above the recommended Level. Just stand your ground and we will be fine. I need you to position yourself in front of me, when the enemy does appear we need to be re-", before he could finish his sentence he noticed a hand rising from the floor as if the floor was shaping itself into a giant humanoid figure.

Brenam was still rotating towards Arnes as this was happening but stopped the moment he saw what stood between them. The creature stood at least twenty feet tall. It appeared to be made of solid rock with two red gems for eyes. The gems looked very similar to the ones on the chest that was now behind Arnes, however these gems glowed much more menacingly.

Arnes felt his stomach rise into his throat. This thing was massive and he had no clue how to approach the fight at all. He had no ranged weapons, which meant targeting the head was out of the question. He could go for the feet, but this thing was made of solid stone and he wasn't even sure if his sword would be able to penetrate it at all. Then he thought of something, "Brenam, I have an idea, you're a Paladin class right. What is your subclass?" Arnes shouted above the rumbling. "Berserker, why?" Brenam yelled back. "Catch!" Arnes commanded throwing his sword towards Brenam, causing the tall adventurer to drop his shield in order to catch it. "You can duel wield and use the ability Rock Break because of your Berserker class, and your Paladin class should've given you the ability Smite at Level Two correct?". "Yeah, what about it?" the Lizardman grumbled still not catching on to the plan. Arnes pulled his bag off his shoulder placing it on the ground and opening it up. He pulled a line of rope out tying it to the pillar next to him. "Where the hell did you get that from!?" Brenam shouted across the room as the stone creature walked towards him, it's slow steps causing the entire room to tremble. "My main class is adventurer, one of the items that comes with this class is rope. It allows for easy dungeon exploration." Arnes explained as he finished tying the knot. He tugged on the rope twice making sure it was secure before he turned around. "On my signal, I want you to touch your foot to your shield and use Smite!". The boss swung at Brenam who blocked with both weapons causing him to stumble backwards. "But you handed me your sword, which activated my Berserker subclass. I can't use smite right now. That's a paladin skill." Brenam said in a mix of confusion and fear. "Do you trust me?" Arnes asked smiling confidently. "I guess..." Brenam said hesitantly, letting out a sigh. "So here's the plan, normally, in order to access a classes abilities before Level 10, you need to be touching the weapons that pertain to that class. Well, since we are in our normal bodies and not some game character avatar, this allows us to move differently. So I want you to place your foot on your shield which should be able to activate your Paladin ability at the same time as you have your Berserker ability active." "Understood!" Brenam said moving his foot near his shield in preparation." "Alright then, let's take this guy out and get whatever is in that chest." With that, Arnes took off at a full sprint towards the boss, who swung at him with a giant stone fist. However, right as the attack was about collide, Arnes slid, the fist barely going over his head making his hair ruffle in the wind. He ran a full circle around the boss ,tying the rope to another pillar, using the giants speed, or the lack thereof, against him. The stone giants legs were now tangled. "Use it now!" Arnes shouted, Brenam used smite by stepping on the shield, which allowed him to access his Paladin abilities, causing a bolt of holy light to come down on the giants head, making it stumble. The rope tightened around its legs making it trip and fall directly in front of the Paladin/Berserker. "Now use Rock Smash on its head!" Arnes shouted, knowing they had the giant right where they wanted it. The Lizardman brought his other foot down on the giants head causing pieces of stone to fly off in every direction. All of a sudden there was a bright blue light and the creature dissipated dropping a golden key on the ground. "Went exactly as planned." Arnes said breathing heavily as he walked over, picking up the hard earned key. "Now, let's see what we've got.". He said sliding the key into the keyhole.

He heard the satisfying click and slowly lifted the lid. Inside was a brown sack filled with gold coins and a shield. He passed the gold to Brenam who caught it and put it in his adventure bag. "Here." Brenam said sliding Arnes sword across the floor towards him. He grabbed it and slid the blade into its sheath before looking back down at the shield. It looked very basic. There didn't appear to be anything special about it. It was a simple metal shield with some sort of animal skin on the front. There was one thing that caught his attention though. When he examined the item, the name had a strange color. "That's odd." He exclaimed causing Brenam to turn his attention towards the boy. "What, is something weird?" He asked curiously. "When you get an item in the game, it's only supposed to be one of 4 colors right?" Brenam looked at him incredulously "of course, Grey for common, Green for Uncommon, Purple for Rare and Orange for Legendary, why do you ask?"

"Well, this shield is red." Arnes said racking his brain for a weapon rarity he had maybe forgotten. "Wait what! That doesn't make any sense. What is the item name?". Arnes glanced at the item name hovering above the shield, it caused him to chuckle. "It's called The Shield." Brenam looked at him for a minute, then down to the shield and then back up again. He let out a thundering laugh. "Are you kidding me? This shield has a unique rarity color, and they couldn't even bother to give it a good name?" Arnes went to the character menu and equipped the shield before strapping it on his arm. It was heavy, but just like the sword it felt extremely well balanced. "Alright, let's get outta hear before another stone bastard decides to show up." Brenam said picking his shield up off the ground and putting it, and the spear, on his back. "Okay." Arnes said, still fascinated by the shield that was now strapped to his arm. The two adventurers walked to the stone wall which began to slide open. They walked up the long flight of stairs, which gave way to an orange tinted sky. Right as they exited the dungeon the door slid shut and it sunk back into the tree, disappearing completely. Leaving only the symbol, for the next adventurer that may come across it. "I'm getting hungry." Brenam said looking at Arnes. He noticed it too. His stomach let out a huge growl, but not only that, he also felt a bit thirsty. He hadn't really been thinking much about eating or drinking as he had been so focused on the mission. "Alright big fella, lets go find ourselves somewhere to eat and sleep for the night." The boys continued walking down the forest path, talking to eachother about their first big win. They both knew what they had to do next, but first, they needed to get something to eat.