Joint Event

"Wait, what will you be doing while Lin and I gather information on Genesis? I don't think it'd be very wise of you just to sit around and wait for us," said Laura as she crossed her arms.

Nico nodded. "I'll be participating in an event," he responded.

"Aren't those dangerous? The game would spawn countless mobs at you and you had to survive. Is that what you want?"

"You're right. The chances of me dying are high. But... I need to get stronger. I've gotten comfortable with just hunting monsters my way. I'll be encountering more and more enemies like Genesis, people who are way stronger than I am. So... I'd like to be able to protect the two of you as well as myself," Nico answered with a determined expression.

Laura blushed slightly and furrowed her brows in frustration. "Don't go saying shit like that! Gross!"

"Oh, Nico~! I didn't know that's how you felt!" Lindsey exclaimed as she hugged Nico and smiled widely. "You can try to hide it all you want, but you care about us, don't you?"

Nico scratched his cheek and sighed. "Shut up..."

***

Bright and early in the morning, the group prepared themselves for their departure. While Lindsey and Laura would return to Genesis, seemingly with nowhere else to go, Nico would join an event and increase his stats, undergoing a gruesome training in the process.

As Nico was about to leave, Lindsey gently tapped him on his shoulder, allowing him to turn his body and face her.

"I wanted to give you this before you left," she said as she handed Nico a black gas mask with red highlights and an intricately detailed design.

Nico held it and scanned the stats on the mask, his eyes widening as he displayed his shock.

{ Twilight Veil (Rank A+ }

"This is an A+ rank item! When'd you get this?!" Nico shouted.

"Hehe, I haven't just been increasing my stats. I got that item when I killed a monster. It wasn't to my liking in terms of style, totally not photogenic. So, I figured I'd give it to you when the time was right," Lindsey replied as she pressed her index fingers against each other. "Do you... like it...?"

Nico smiled softly. "Yeah... I love it... But, you do know that this boosts your growth, right? Are you sure you want me to-"

"No arguments," Lindsey quickly cut him off. "If I didn't want you to have it, I wouldn't have given it to you. So, go ahead and keep it. I have no use for it."

Nico sighed. "Thank you... I'll be sure to repay you sometime soon."

Lindsey nodded. "Sure thing..."

"... I should... get going now..." Nico said as he put the mask on, along with his hood up, and left the room.

Leaving the girls alone in the room, Laura approached Lindsey and looked at her facial expression. Her cheeks were rosy and she had a sweet smile on her face, while her eyes were fixed on the door.

She sighed and poked Lindsey on her cheek. "Don't tell me you like the guy."

"So what if I do?" Lindsey pouted. "... He says he'll repay me, but he has no idea that I'm forever indebted to him. He made me feel strong, allowing me to grow in turn. So yea... I like Nico."

Laura couldn't help but smile and shrug. "Just don't get too attached. He could croak at any minute, you know?"

"That's not funny!"

A few minutes passed and Nico arrived at the location where the event would take place. He stood in front of a holographic screen that stretched as far as the eye could see, displaying a message written "Tower of Poseidon" on the front.

Nico took a deep breath and shook his hands slightly. Then, he stepped through the hologram, allowing the system of the game to lock him inside. He then approached a cave entrance and stepped through the other side, where he found other players waiting.

A small number of the 19 people Nico found there had cold expressions on their faces, each of them focused and locked on the upcoming event. As soon as he walked in though, everyone only glanced at him before turning away.

Then, bells chimed and a feminine but systematic voice spoke up, one matching the same vocals as the system the players used.

{ Welcome to The Tower of Poseidon! Now that 20 players have joined, we will begin to explain the rules!

The tower has a total of 10 levels, each floor hiding monsters of different ranking. Of course, this means the higher you ascend, the stronger the monsters and the higher their numbers will be.

After successfully ascending to the next floor, players will be given the option to exit the event along with the rewards they have earned. If they choose to stay, their rewards will get doubled and so on.

The top 3 players that will reach the highest floor will each receive great prizes!

1st place: (100% stat increase, æ100,000 coins, new awakened ability, new awakened weapon)

2nd place: (50% stat increase, æ75,000 coins, newly awakened ability)

3rd place: (30% stat increase, æ50,000 coins, newly awakened weapon)

When players are ready, simply step through the border! }

'The rules don't say anything about the players themselves, so I suppose all we have to do is ascend the tower, and we'll be out of here. But, we're also allowed to leave whenever we complete a floor. I'm curious as to how that works...' Nico said to himself.

But, before he could ask the system a few questions, the players had already begun filing through the border, stepping into the first floor. He sighed and then followed behind them, emerging on the other side.

The first floor was a literal dungeon with spacious halls, cells and cracked cobblestone walls filled with moss. There were torches on either end of the hallway, providing a light source as the group walked straight.

Nico kept glancing around and noticed that the torch eyes feature was disabled, meaning that the system had purposefully shut it off, hence why there were torches on the wall instead.

'Suspicious...'

After a few hours of walking, the group decided to take a break. A player with brown hair and black eyes collapsed dramatically onto the ground and sighed heavily. "Man, I'm beat! This feels like an endless hallway!" he complained.

"We've been walking for about 3 hours, and we still haven't made any turns or encountered any monsters," a woman with short blonde hair and blue eyes responded as she crossed her arms. "Also, I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but we can't see without these torches on the wall."

"Y-Yeah, I picked up on it t-too..." a short girl with black hair tied into French braids, wearing glasses and purple eyes responded. "What d-do you think it means...?"

"Does it matter?" a man with a muscular build, red hair and amber-coloured eyes retorted.

"It does," the blonde woman responded. "If we don't know what we're going to be facing, we'll be jumping inside a lion's den."

Nico rubbed his chin and began thinking. 'They haven't even noticed, but the torches on the walls are slowly reducing... The system has monsters that thrive in the dark. The further we go, the darker it'll become.'

"Don't you think you're being paranoid?" the muscular man inquired.

"I don't care. I won't allow myself to die because of your carelessness," the blonde woman replied as she closed her eyes.

"Maybe we should take a breather," the man with the brown hair said as he smiled softly. "How about we introduce ourselves? The name's Jax."

"... Sophia..." the blonde responded.

"Victor," the muscular man responded.

"V-Veronica," the girl with the French braids responded as she smiled softly.

Once the other players introduced themselves, they all turned and looked at Nico, who was the only one left. He didn't want to give out his real name or his Gamertag. Since he locked his profile, he would be fine, but he at least had to give them a name.

"Nico," he answered honestly.

"Great," Jax said as he smiled and stood up. "Now that that's out of the way, let's talk strategy. Victor, as draining as this sounds, we need to have a plan. So, let's discuss all we've learnt so far, okay?"

"Whatever," Victor responded as he crossed his arms.

"Right. Firstly, the hall is a one-way path with no turns, which could mean that we're going in circles," said Sophia. "At least, that's what I thought, until I noticed the number of torches on the wall."

"What about them?" Jax asked.

"They're decreasing in numbers and also light. The further we go in, the darker it'll become," said Sophia. "And, because we have no light source of our own, we're most likely going to get killed by some unknown force."

"So, the best case s-scenario would be to narrow d-down the monsters that work well in the dark... I'm not p-particularly a hunter, so, I'm not certain..." Veronica said.

"Monsters that thrive in the dark would most likely be nocturnal nightkin, such as wendigos, ghouls, skeletons, etcetera," said Nico. "The best way to take care of them is with a swift attack."

"Yeah, but we still don't know what we're facing," said Sophia.

"Not anymore, apparently..." said Jax as he smiled nervously and pointed behind Sophia.

She turned her head and her eyes slightly widened. "No way..."

Slowly, the torches on the wall turned off, seemingly being blown out like birthday candles. One by one, they turned off. As the players turned around, they noticed the same thing happening behind them.

A cold wind followed, sending chills to a few players as only two torches on either wall remained. They all took attack stances, Nico pulling out his Voided Xiphos in the process. Then, he conjured up a flame on the blade. When he did, he felt a deathly and piercing gaze fall upon him, sending chills down his spine.

Red eyes poker through the darkness, and with them, hoarse and unholy shrieks followed.