Chapter Three: Crashing Down

[Middle Barrens: Levels 11-15]

The Barrens was exactly what the package said on the tin. The place was an empty sight, a hot and windy desolate zone where varying shades of brown dominated the landscape. For some reason, the sun in the barrens felt much hotter compared to the other zones. West thought that these could be the devs' way of hammering up the 'desert' feel of the place. But he was not liking any of it. Sure the perspiring he's doing has all been virtual, but it felt terrible nonetheless. It's just like real life. Guess being too immersive has its cons at times. Good thing he managed to snag a quick purchase of a cowboy hat before they headed here. West had to snap away from his little train of thought when another mob spawned in front of him.

It was another rock golem. It towered above West by a few feet but he wasn't fazed by it. Its rocky exterior might be tougher to penetrate compared to other mobs but their mobility balanced out their advantages. And what West meant by this was that they move extremely slow, which made them ideal for target shooting. And he has been way too happy to unleash his new gunslinger skill on them for the entire morning.

The "knee shot" is the second skill that all gunslingers possess. It's an attack that automatically aims for their targets' well, knees, dealing damage while also slowing them down for a short period of time. West has been having a blast casting this skill on these golems because it only made their movements much more hilariously slower than usual. And when the golems had fallen from such fate due to West's attacks, he then rained lead on them. They never stood a chance.

Once the moving pile of rocks finally disintegrated into a cloud of cubes, West blew the smoke coming out from his gun. "Beat ya to it." He said as he looked at Ludwig.

[Gunslinger] WWest Lvl. 7

[Warrior] _LUDWIG_ Lvl. 11

Thanks to Ludwig's semi-encyclopedic knowledge of Ysteria's nook and crannies for grinding, both of them made decent progress. West had to wonder how all those players were doing, their levels were sure to gather attention when they get back to town.

"Yeah." Ludwig said as he laughed softly.

"Here comes another one." West said as he spotted another golem roaming near them. He quickly reloaded his gun and aimed at it.

"You go handle that while I go take care of that one." Ludwig said as he gestured his broadsword at the sand serpent that slithered its way toward him.

"On it." West said as he spent no time casting knee shot on his golem foe. And when the pile of rock began to slow down, West decided to inflict more damage to it by casting his third skill, the "head shot." The head shot was the gunslinger's third skill that aims down at their target's heads, dealing damage while also stunning them for a few seconds. This was the perfect support skill in West's opinion as it provides their tank allies in a party sufficient time to strike down their foe when they're dazed. And as bonus, it also automatically cancels whatever skill the enemy was casting when it's cast on them, even if that skill was an ultimate.

When the golem was slowed and stunned, West delivered the killing blow with the six-shot barrage. The golem exploded into cubes right after. West took pleasure at the sight of his fallen enemy. Sure it was overkill, but it was satisfying overkill. And it was pretty fun.

West turned to look at Ludwig. His friend was not faring bad either. Both he and the serpent dashed towards one another. And when the serpentine mob got close and bared its fangs, Ludwig went in for the skill and cut its head in half with a single lethal slash. West had to sometimes admire the warrior class in this game. They do so much by exerting little to no effort, or did Ludwig just make those feats look effortless? He shrugged the thought away and proceeded to reload his pistol. When the sand serpent finally died and turned into cubes, West's body glowed again. He just reached another level.

[Gunslinger] WWest Lvl. 8

[Warrior] _LUDWIG_ Lvl. 11

"Hey," West gestured to Ludwig. "I got to another level."

"Level eight, right?" Ludwig said as he set down his sword on the ground. It made a clanking sound as it hit the dirt.

"Yeah."

"Good, good." Ludwig replied as he opened his UI to check the chat windows again.

"Browsing chat for info again?" West said as he flashed Ludwig a knowing smile.

"Something like that." Answered Ludwig, his eyes were still fixed on the chat window.

A mischievous grin formed on West's face. "You know…last night, I happened to see a player in global bragging about the fact that he already reached level thirty."

Ludwig instantly closed his UI along with the chat and looked with a shocked expression. "No way, really?" There was genuine fear in his voice.

West answered with a hearty laugh and rested a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm just messing with you. You should see your face!" He laughed even harder.

Ludwig gave West a rather unimpressed look. "Very funny."

"Come on." West said as his laughter slowly died down. "Let's go check out that cave that the people talked about in the tavern! With you and me charging up the place, it'll only take a minute!"

"Actually," Ludwig said as he opened his UI again. "Do you mind going there by yourself this time? I remembered that I have some urgent business to attend to."

"Sure." West replied, he sounded a bit disappointed. "I heard the mobs there are pretty weak anyway."

"I'll see you at the tavern later." Ludwig said as he toggled for the fast travel function in his UI. After he selected the location in the game world that he wished to travel to, his body transformed into several beams of light and shot up to the sky.

"Yeah, see ya." West said as he watched his friend leave the zone he was in. He then walked in the direction of the cave to do some solo grinding.

A couple of hours later, West was back in the Grassburrow's only tavern again. His incursion into the cave was an easy but taxing feat. The mobs there were quite manageable but still could overwhelm you when you get a little bit careless. Thankfully, most of the mob types there was melee oriented so West was having a decent time dealing with them. They give quite an amount of gold and exp too. He only spent a couple hours inside the cave but he already raised himself up another level. And not to forget the loot. The drops there were terrific. He figured that if he'd grind gold there for an entire week, then he'd never have to worry about money in this game anymore. He was sitting at the table closest to the exit and a tavern waitress was already standing there tending to his order.

"And two cold mugs of ale." West finished his order to the waitress. The girl responded with a brief smile and nod and headed straight to the kitchen. Once everything was in order, West leaned on the back of his seat to relax. He had to sit back up though when he saw Ludwig enter the premises. Guy's just in time.

"Took you quite a while." West said to Ludwig as he took a seat. "Yo!" West was surprised when he saw what was written above Ludwig's head.

[Warrior] _LUDWIG_ Lvl. 16

"You got several levels higher?" Amazed at what his friend did during the short amount of time he disappeared.

"I see you've levelled up too." Ludwig replied. He then opened his UI to check his chat.

"But not as fast you!" West shot back. "In the short moment that we got separated, you progressed for like a day's worth of levelling! How'd you do that, man?"

Ludwig shrugged in response. "I just happened to pass by a special event on the way here."

"Dude." West raised a brow, interested. "What kind of event gives away tons of exp like that?"

"The special kind." Ludwig answered plainly as he looked back at West before returning to his chat.

West leaned back on his chair and let out a miffed sigh. "Well, call me if another one of those events pops up. I'd kill for those kind of gains."

"Sure thing." Ludwig's eyes narrowed as he continued to scroll down his chat window. He turned to look at West with a slightly brightened expression. "What a coincidence. There's one happening right now."

"Really!?" West brought himself forward in an exaggerated manner. Where?"

"In the Redskirts." Ludwig said as he continued reading his chat.

"Hang on, let me check my map." West said as he opened his UI and fiddled with the map section. "Well, this sucks." A look of irritation and disappointment brewed on his face. "That zone is for players who already reached level sixteen. I'm nowhere near that yet. The mobs there would easily kick my ass."

"Don't worry." Ludwig waved off what West said as he closed his UI. "Crowds of players will flock to the zone anyway so getting attacked by mobs won't be a problem at all."

West let out an assured hum. "Good to know. So what are we doing at that special event?"

Ludwig's face broke into a grin. "We will be slaying a special mob."

"Nice!" West sounded quite eager on the prospects of this endeavor. "Maybe with this event, I can finally unlock my ultimate by slaying this mob."

"You definitely would." Ludwig agreed. "In fact, we should go there now or else we won't make it for the group slaughter!"

"But I haven't explored that zone yet." West pointed out the area on his map. "It's still marked as locked on my map."

"There's a solution for that." Ludwig answered. "It's a very neat trick, I'll teleport there ahead of you and you can just use the 'go to' feature on your friends list and follow me there. This bypass is proven and tested. Just ask all the people in global."

"But what about our food?" West said in a whining tone. "I just ordered."

Ludwig casually tossed a pouch of coins on their table. It made satisfying clinking noises as it hit the wooden surface. "Never mind that. Let's move out!" Ludwig quickly opened his UI and activated his fast travel function, he immediately turned into beams of light that launched themselves up through the tavern's ceiling.

With a shrug, West followed Ludwig's instructions and opened his UI as well. He selected the friends list section, picked Ludwig's name and activated the 'go to' command. After pressing the button, he could see his body transforming into beams of light just like Ludwig a moment ago. His vision suddenly turned all white and he could feel himself flying at super-fast speeds. It's like warp travel, West thought to himself, but for individual use. He should use this function more often, backtracking in this game could get boring at times.

It only took West mere seconds to get to where Ludwig was. He has arrived at the Redskirts, a zone he has not explored before. The place looked more desolate than the barrens, with the color red dominating every inch of space in the area, hence the name. At least the weather was cooler here, unlike the barrens. He couldn't see the sun at all in this place. The sky seemed to perpetually be covered with dusty orange clouds, giving the place a hazy afternoon look. This was an empty, solemn place, the kind of place where empires die.

West looked around the area, there was nobody there. Well, save for the guys that were standing alongside Ludwig, a rogue and a merchant. They were the only people there. He checked out their usernames and levels.

[Warrior] _LUDWIG_ Lvl. 16

[Ranger] DoubleTap Lvl. 16

[Merchant] C-Bastion Lvl. 16

West looked at Ludwig, obviously confused. "Did we arrive earlier than expected?"

Ludwig grinned darkly at West. "No. We got here just in time."

"Where's the crowd?" West asked, he was getting more and more confused as each second passed by.

"You're looking at it." Ludwig said. He was still grinning.

West raised a brow. "And the special mob?"

"We're looking at it."

"Huh?" West scratched his head, they've completely lost him. "I don't understand."

"You're the special mob, idiot." Ludwig said, his tone of pure mockery. "And we're going to kill you." The other players laughed.

"Why?" West asked Ludwig, there was a hint of fear in his voice.

"For the exp, dumbass." Ludwig rolled his eyes at West's denseness. "How do you think we raised our levels so high in such a short amount of time, huh?"

"You were player killing?" West was taken aback. That thought was already lurking behind his head but he was in constant denial about it because he did not expect that Ludwig would be that kind of person. This revelation shocked him to the point of his body going stiff a little. There's just no way! Ludwig was his friend! Or was he?

"Hey, we have a detective here!" Ludwig said as he looked at the others. He doubled down on his mocking tone and sounded even more condescending. "Give him a round of applause for figuring it out, guys!"

The other two players followed what Ludwig said and played along. They both gave West sarcastic applause.

"No, it can't be…" West said as he slowly backed away from Ludwig and the others. "Y-you're just messing with me, right?" West's mind was in full-blown denial at this point. There's just no way he could take the things that were coming straight towards him head-on.

"Nope." Ludwig responded coldly. "This ain't April Fools. Now keep still while I stab you with my sword."

"I-I thought we were friends!" West cried out at Ludwig. His tone was full of desperation. There was this still tiny feeling inside of him that kept hoping that this was all just one big joke. And if he kept on hoping that it would come, then maybe it would come!

"Friends?" Ludwig appeared amused. "With you?" He then produced a loud, guttural laugh. "Nah, you're just cattle to me, a nobody. The whole time we've been together? Yeah, that was just me fattening you up. To be honest. I wouldn't even bother with you if I wasn't looking for a player to raise. You just happened to be the bird that came down on my sights."

"This is horrible." West said in a low voice. He was deeply hurt. "You're horrible."

"You call it horrible, I call it being clever." Ludwig shot back. "Got any last words?"

"Yeah." A sharp look suddenly formed on West's face. "I have something to say." He whipped out his gun as fast as he could and aimed it at Ludwig. "Eat shi-"

But Ludwig was already one step ahead of him and swiftly stabbed his chest before his finger could ever touch the trigger.

West's last vision before everything went black was an image of a sadistic Ludwig surrounded by a mist of glowing cubes that were leaving his body.