Blackrock Mountain

As he started on the road that led around the town. The rest happily followed suit. "So where is the entrance to the mountain?" May asked as she walked a bit faster to keep pace with Draven's long strides. Not far roughly 20 miles from here southwest I'm not entirely sure it's an entrance to the mountain but with how many elementals are out there I'm assuming there's a source of heat attracting them that leads inside. 20 miles! That's going to take us days just to walk there! Draven stopped in his tracks he forgot everyone besides him was super slow. He could reach there in like 20 minutes without breaking a sweat even faster if he traveled along the shadow of the mountain but they can't do that…

System you have any ideas? Draven pleaded.

<Beep! User could apply Wind magic to make an object fly and transport them like that it would cost a great deal of mana however the time spent in meditation far outweigh traveling. "Great Idea!" Draven shouted out loud. "Uhmm what's idea?" Celine asked cocking her head side confused. Feeling bit embarrassed just pretended didn't happen said "We will there!" "WHAAAT!" They all cried surprise. took second think what form be best maybe bus or something but end, he made large rectangle earth was big enough for everyone stand on with railings grab onto. "Okay, aboard S.S. Flying Brick," laughing. < p>

Ross looked a bit scared towards Greg "he's not serious is he?" Greg didn't have an answer and just stepped on the rectangle. "Please tell me he's not serious Greg!" He cried out. "Stop being a scaredy cat and get on the flying brick," Celine called out. Ross reluctantly stepped onto the platform and held onto the rails tightly "Okay let's go!" Draven yelled as he aimed towards the mountain and with great force used wind magic to shoot them across the sky. Draven knew it would cost significantly less mana to fall through the sky rather than have constant wind magic controlling it not to mention this was way more fun. Everyone started screaming as they were launched into the air including Draven but he did it more for the fun of it. When he felt they were starting to descend he would launch them again to keep the momentum going. All the girls at this point were clutching Draven wherever they could they figured if anyone was going to keep them alive it was going to be him.

After 10 minutes of flying through the air, they had gotten pretty close to the entrance and Draven decided to let them fall at this point he surrounded the entire platform with wind magic and slowed down their descent allowing them to softly land on the ground. Everyone stumbled off the platform as fast as they could. Ross was kissing the ground while both May and Jennifer were sprawled on the ground breathing heavily. Greg was the only one who seemed okay, and Celine was the only one who seemed to really enjoy it. Rebecca was the only one to puke.

"Maybe on the way back I'll build some seats and go a bit slower," Draven said feeling a bit guilty. "Yes please seats and slower." Rebecca coughed out while trying to do her best to keep as much of her breakfast inside of her. Draven created a bowl of earth and filled it with water so Rebecca could clean up and apologized to her again. He then sat down and meditated to replenish his magic. That method only used up a quarter of his tank so he was good to go in less than 10 minutes.

After everyone had recovered from the near-death experience they started heading towards the entrance to the mountain. Like Draven said there was a large group of fire elementals ranging from level 9 to level 13. Alright, do you guys remember what I said when dealing with elementals on the way to town? Draven asked everyone. May was the first to respond "You can only kill them if you destroy their core." "That's right." Draven said now I'm going to kill all of them and leave the weakest for you all to deal with to get some practice in." Draven announced as he stood up and calmly walked a bit closer. Instead of wasting mana being flashy with water spears water bullets would be the most efficient way to deal with them. He pointed his finger and aimed for the glowing orb inside the elemental closest to him and fired a streak of blue water that raced across the terrain and pierced through the core of the elemental and its fire died out.

Congratulations the User has killed level 11 Fire elemental.

"System please ignore all kill notifications unless the death of the creature isn't obvious.

<Beep! Notification parameters set.>

Draven then started to rapidly fire water bullets as if he were mowing down the fire elementals like some mob gangster in a movie. Rebecca turned to Ross "You still think you can catch up to him." She asked with a smug look on her face. "I can sure try!" He said without losing any of his determination but even he was surprised by what Draven could do without breaking a sweat. This made Rebecca smile. He was a meathead but an honest and dedicated meathead. The elementals were quickly dispatched and as promised Draven left a level 9 Elemental for them to kill which had been lobbing fire balls at him the entire time.

"Okay, you guys are up," Draven said. "Come up with a strategy and break its core." They all got up feeling confident that if something went wrong Draven was there to save the day so they went all out. Rebecca Started shooting arrows that would burn to a crisp before they got anywhere near the core. "My arrows won't work they burn up before I can do any damage." She called out Greg was in front of the Elemental as he tried slashing through its body with his sword but the elemental wasn't dumb his slash was far too slow so the elemental shifted the core to prevent any damage. "It can move its core!" He called out as he quickly jumped back to avoid being swiped by its flaming hand. "They have good communication." Draven thought as he noticed that they would call out anything they learned about the creature as soon as soon as it was discovered. Jennifer threw a fireball as well but it had no effect. "It's immune to Fire," she called out. While all this was going on Celine had gotten into place and tossed out a throwing knife undetected the knife entered its body and scratched the core before falling through the creature. The elemental immediately turned around and started throwing its fireball towards Celine. "SHIT!" She yelled as she started running away dodging the fireballs as best, she could. "I think I hurt it but it's really mad at me now" she yelled while still running. Greg activated a taunt skill and was able to draw the attention of the elemental back onto him, Ross was waiting for this as he took over the spot behind the elemental and swung his large two-handed sword hoping to cleave the core in two.

Bang! The sword lodged itself into the core it was heavily damaged but with a screech, the elemental was still alive now wildly thrashing at Ross. Taking this opportunity Greg swung his sword as well seeing Ross had the core locked in place it had nowhere to go and attacked it from the other side. Bang! Klank! The sword smashed into the core and cut through to the other side slamming into Ross's sword. The flames went out and the elemental was defeated. "WE DID IT!" Greg Screamed out as the guys high-fived while the girls cheered. May healed the light burns on Greg's hands as the flames licked them when he went in deeper for the kill. But other than that no one was hurt.

Draven was thoroughly impressed they worked together as a team, made smart decisions, and called out what they discovered in real time. They reminded him of people he used to raid within the game. "I've decided I'm going to level you guys up and join the party," Draven said smiling. That is if you guys will have me he asked seriously. He knew that once the gap level gap between them decreased they would be great assets to him in the near future, Dude we should be the ones asking to join you. You are on a whole different planet compared to us. Greg laughed. I am now but in the next few days, I'll have you guys at my level. And then we will be equals so I won't look down on you guys for being weak now as that will change soon.

Greg looked at him and was flabbergasted. Everyone in the village and now the town thinks of him as some kind of Superman that we better stay on good terms with, or he will turn bad like the orb hunters did. But Draven was actually a really cool guy who didn't look down on anyone. All the girls screamed Yes! Draven is a part of our Party! Ross walked up to Draven with a stern look. "Under one condition." "Which is?" Draven asked confused. "No matter how strong we get I know you will always be stronger. I want you to be the leader, so we are joining your party not the other way around." It hurt his pride to say it but he would have felt even worse to pretend that he was stronger by being the registered leader of their party. "I'm okay with that if everyone else is?" Draven asked. "Well Duh." Celine said, "Who else was going to be the leader other than you?" "Okay, but I suck at names so you guys come up with a name." He was adamant about that so far every name he came up with for anything had something to do with the game he realized now how much he let it influence his life. It was like it was his only reference point to anything.

"Sounds good." they all agreed and officially became party members. "So now that we are party members why are you so fixated on getting inside the mountain is there something inside that you wanna get that we don't know about?" Ross asked. "Well, not really. You see this world is very similar to a game I used to play and the majority of raids and largest dungeons were always in a large cave or inside a mountain. So I figured if there was a way in I should check it out. Greg's eyes began to sparkle. "Are you talking about World of Battlecraft?" Draven nodded "I knew it! I also noticed a lot of similarities. I mean there is a lot that is different as well but the essence of the game is here for sure. Even most of the professions have the same name." Greg exclaimed. "That is why I decided to be a Warrior Tank. Since the tank, although took the most hits they were also the most needed position and therefore got the most loot." Greg said as he announced his life strategy.

"Draven laughed hearing this. "I didn't think anyone else besides me was crazy enough to make big decisions of what to do here based on their knowledge of the game. But I will admit it has served me well. Which is why I want to check the mountain out." Greg nodded his head vigorously as he looked at Draven like a long-lost brother. "So with the fire elementals guarding the entrance are you looking for Blackrock Mountain?"

"Well, I don't think we will walk into a replica of it but I was hoping for something like it. I mean for it to be a replica we would have to run into a bunch of Black Iron Dwarfs. And so far, I've only come across one monster that had any resemblance to a humanoid. So, I doubt we will walk into a mountain filled with a civilization of intelligent dwarfs. I have seen Naga though Draven had to admit so I guess anything is possible." Draven said while shrugging his shoulders. "Woah you've seen Naga's?" Greg's eyes were wide in shock. "Yeah In the lake a couple miles in the forest from Novice Village that's where I got all the XP Orbs to level everyone up," Draven explained.

"Do you two nerds need a room?" Celine said rolling her eyes. "Hey, being a nerd got me this far," Draven said laughing. "By the way who came up with calling out information as soon as you notice something about a monster?" They all pointed to Greg. "Well, him being a nerd got you this far as well. That is a raiding tactic for when you encounter something for the first time we call out whatever information we can find. There are real-world applications to what we learned from the game." He said as he began walking towards the cave. Greg proudly walked beside Draven feeling vindicated for all the years he spent playing the game. "Finally someone that understands." he thought.

Draven took the lead as the cave got narrower and had Greg in the far back with Ross second to last followed by Rebecca then Jennifer and then Celine. Other than a few smaller elementals that Draven took care of right away no other creatures were present and the cave began to get narrower still. They were now walking sideways to move forward until Draven reached the end. There was a wall that was made from dried lava. "Well, I guess that's as far as it goes," Celine said. "Thank God I'm sweating balls," Ross said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Hold on" Draven called out as he raised his hand and used earth magic to crumple the wall in front of him and as he did an opening was made and a large gust of air came rushing out from within the opening.

Draven started laughing like a maniac.

Everyone welcome to Blackrock Mountain!

He said walking in. Draven stood in a huge chasm within the mountain lava could be seen flowing down various walls. It was very hot but nothing Draven being part Dragon couldn't handle. Greg had to shove his way forward as everyone was awestruck looking around the vast interior of the mountain. "Move I've waited all my life to see Blackrock Mountain!" Finally, Greg made it through the opening and he couldn't believe his eyes he was truly inside the mountain. He knew of course it wasn't actually Blackrock Mountain. But, he was sure this was as close to it as he was ever going to get.

There were passageways leading in all kinds of directions and elementals that seemed to patrol up and down certain areas. In the distance, you could even hear someone hammering away as if they were forging something. Different creatures relating to fire walked alongside the elementals such as large Canines with fur made of fire. Draven was even able to see a large Lava Golem standing in a pool of lava unmoving. "Greg," Draven called out quietly. "Yeah?" He answered questioningly. "I swear if I see a Black Iron dwarf I'm going to freak out." Draven was practically shaking from excitement. "That's like all that's missing here if you look higher up there are even buildings made of stone that lead to who knows where," Greg said excitedly but wasn't Blackrock Mountain one of the endgame dungeons before one reached max level and started raiding? Greg had a point so Draven scanned many of the Monsters and his eyes went wide when he saw their levels.

Fire Elemental Lord

Level 35

Health 25000

Mana 20000

Bal'Rock

Level 39 (Elite)

Health 75000

Mana 45000

"Everyone get out now!" Draven whispered with the most serious expression he could muster as he started grabbing the girls by the arm and leading them back out the opening.

"Ow! What's going on?" Celine said. "Shhhh these guys are super strong we are not ready for this place yet," Draven said. "How bad could it be Draven?" Ross said, "I just watch you mow down a bunch of those guys outside." He continued not understanding their dilemma. "Ross look at me any one of these guys in here can eat me for breakfast please get out." Once Draven said he had no chance of beating them no one hesitated and left the dungeon. Draven used earth magic to seal the opening shut. He then made his way back outside to the others. "Oh man, thank god no one aggroed a mob that would have been a disaster," Draven said.

"Okay, we know this place is here which means once we level up we come back and raid the place and get rich," Draven said with an evil grin. Everyone nodded in excitement "Well on that note I got you a present." Celine said to Draven. "What do you mean a present" Draven asked looking over to her and she had a large gemstone in her hand. "I went invisible and found this in a statue."

Draven naturally scanned it.

<One 3 of the Cores a minion Bal'roc>

"Oh SHIT!" Draven yelled out. Everyone get back to the platform we are leaving now! Everyone started running yelling "What's going on what did Celine do?" Jennifer asked. She took a core from one of the minions of the boss," Draven answered. "Well doesn't that mean she killed it? Greg wondered out loud. "Not if that minion has a total of three Cores," Draven explained.

"OH FUCK RUN RUN RUN!" Greg screamed out.

ROOOOAR! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!