Labyrinth of Khiss

(Author's Note: Glad you are enjoying the fanfiction. If you guys feel inspired to draw some of these OC it would be the greatest gift I could get. It's my birthday today, so happy birthday to me.)

[6/25/2126 14:58:12]

In the center of the 3rd Zone, In the Outer Regions of Vanaheim.

A crowd of twenty demi-human and humanoid players gathered at the entrance of a large moss-covered dungeon gateway. It was an archway of cobblestone inscribed with different runes and inscriptions in Yggdrasil. Two rune archeologist class players were currently studying the ruins up close. They made rubbings of them onto different scrolls with charcoal items and had short conversations with each other about the contents of the other side of the dungeon.

The three top guilds of Vanaheim had all gathered at the entrance to the [Hidden dungeon: Labyrinth of Khiss]. Each of the players had excited looks on their faces as they discussed the adventure ahead of them. But if one looked closely, the large group of 30 players had kept to their respective guilds and didn't mingle much. Some of the players in each guild were even sizing up their fellow allies from other guilds, just to make sure that nobody would be backstabbing anyone, or if they did backstab someone it would be to their guild's advantage.

Most of these wary gazes were directed at the top members of [GiggleHeart]. They were [OhYouTouchMyTalala], [OhMyDingDingDong], [Dribbles], [TakeASeat], and [DeathTones] their guild leader. Especially towards [TakeASeat] as he was renowned for being an expert sword duelist. He was incredibly skilled and it was thought that he practiced sword skills in real life before Yggdrasil.

[OhYouTouchMyTalala] and [OhMyDingDingDong] were both Samurai classes and were twins in real life. People were watching them as they were fighting over which class was better, a Mana Samurai or a Qi Samurai combination.

[Dribbles] was just a weirdo and people watched him because he spoke strangely. He only spoke basketball jargon and he flailed around his body to maximize his body language. Some guessed his nerve gear had permanently damaged his brain when he first created his character, but these are just rumors.

DeathTones stepped forward and clapped his hands loudly, but some people still continued to talk despite that. He looked around annoyed that nobody paid attention.

"Traveling Foul, 3 shots!" [Dribbles] stepped up and yelled to quiet people down. And it worked... everyone was so confused they became quiet.

DeathTones left eyelid spasmed in annoyance but he quickly got over the awkward situation by clapping his hands again, refocusing everyone's attention on him. Everyone focused on him, his baggy eyes and tired-looking appearance of a dark magic caster were clearly apparent to everyone there.

"Glad I could get your attention. Now, I will explain how this works. A hidden dungeon is different than a natural dungeon. Once we enter, we will be locked in the dungeon dimension for 3 hours at minimum. It fits a maximum of 30 players for the raid and we cannot bring NPCs. I will give you 5 minutes to discuss these details with your guild. Afterward, we will start the raid." DeathTones ended his speech a bit curtly, before dragging Dribbles back to the GiggleHeart area.

'"Boss!"'

The two twins, OohYouTouchMyTalala and OohMyDingDingDong, said at the same time. They were both wood-elves and carried katanas on their hips. They were decked out in classic red samurai armor and they looked excited. OohYouTouchMyTalala looked at OohMyDingDingDong and give him a nod in go-ahead for him to be the one to ask the question. One might think that these two could actually read the mind of each other.

"Did you calculate our odds?" OohMyDingDingDong said with a big smile.

DeathTones looked at him and returned an arrogant smile.

"73%," DeathTones said.

Both the twin's eyes lit up at that. They were excited as their guild would be the first guild to clear a hidden dungeon in Yggdrasil. They wanted fame and achievement all to themselves, not to mention the chances for hidden class rewards.

The blue-haired high elf, Tonks, interrupted their conversation by walking up to DeathTones.

"Tones, let's start this soon. DemiDemi has more obligations to handle in Parnaust City. " She said while glancing at her in-game timer on the top right corner of her HUD.

DeathTones nodded and lead the raid group up to the runic gate that the archeologist players were studying.

"Activate the Portal." He commanded the two archeologist players. They nodded and began inscribing the missing ruins onto the gate. It only took a few minutes before they were finished and the gate hummed to life. A maroon-colored portal appeared in the gateway and a notification flashed on the player's HUDs.

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Notice:

[Hidden Dungeon: Labyrinth of Khiss] entrance has been repaired. The entrance will remain open for [00:14:59] longer before the repair ruins deteriorate.

*Hidden Dungeon is an instance type dungeon that can only be cleared once. Once you enter, you cannot leave the dungeon for a minimum of [3:00:00] time. You have been given notice.*

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The players closed the notices on their HUDs and entered the Dungeon. After 15 minutes, the portal closed and the surroundings once again returned to silence.

...

[6/25/2126 15:16:26]

In the Vanaheim Outer Regions, The Agarthan Tree, at the edge of the 2nd Zone.

Treech was sitting in a wooden chair inside his temporary residence on the branch of the Agarthan Tree. He was busy spending his Yggdrasil gold to summon a few pop monsters that he could. He was limited due to not being in a guild, but he could still summon them since he was in a clan. He realized the benefits of a group after reading a forum post about the benefits 1 month ago and ever since then, he has been on the lookout for a guild creation permit.

Sadly, it hasn't dropped and he was starting to wonder if the game would only allow it to drop when in a clan of 10 or more members. So he created a clan. It was called [Dark Reunion]. He called it that because he remembered a funny character from an anime in his childhood that always had a childish dream, he was fighting the evil organization of [Dark Reunion].

Treech figured it fit him well as a heteromorphic player. It seemed like the game really wanted to make this race the villain, so who was he to go against fate? He embraced it and thus the clan [Dark Reunion] was born. Ever since the creation of the [Dark Reunion] clan, nobody else joined. Vanaheim only had less than 30% of players in Vanaheim playing as Heteromorphic races and he rarely had a chance to meet any other heteromorphs. Although it was true that he could invite any player to his clan, regardless of race, he couldn't get past players trying to PK him for hidden classes if they were not heteromorphs.

"Is this what racism feels like?" Treech murmured to himself as he rubbed his tree branches above his shoulders. He shook his head to shake himself out of his thoughts. He opened his command menu that listed his summoned units under his control. His eyes gleamed at the familiar setup to his favorite game: [Total War: Warhammer IX]. He was quite happy to see Yggdrasil incorporate a way for strategy game players to play the game if they wanted.

Suddenly, he heard notice from his [Starlight Assassin] summon that was tailing the 3 guilds. It notified him that they had just entered the dungeon and the portal had closed. Treech felt his heart thump strongly once in excitement. It was time.

He stood up from the wooden chair. Starlight Prince was outside the house, writing inside a memoir book that was sold in the cash-item shop for 10$. It could record any thoughts someone would have. All they needed to do was type in their HUD and it would appear in the book. Some entrepreneurs took it a step further and copied/pasted old literary works from their world and resold them on Yggdrasil due to the expired copyright.

Prince looked up from his writings when he saw Treech exit the small building and enter the front garden.

"Sensei!" The blob bowed at 90 degrees as it floated up from the ground. He stashed his book away in his inventory. Treech nodded to him in response.

"Kid, do you want to learn something new?" Treech smiled.

Prince's blob body bounced in excitement. His moon rocks speeding up in orbit due to excitement.

"Yes, Sensei!" He replied with zeal.

"Then follow me." Treech cast the 9th Tier spell [Perfect Unknowable] spell on himself and Prince. They both faded out of existence and became completely undetectable. Their scent was masked and it came with a form of anti-divination and tracking magic on top of making the user invisible. Such was the power of a 9th Tier spell.

He then cast the 3rd Tier spell [Fly] on himself and flew down from the tree and over the [Goblin Swampforest]. Prince followed after him, in the same manner, and flew alongside him as they scouted over the area. The only reason that Prince could still see Treech's location was that Treech allowed him to. They could see goblins of varying evolutions scattered throughout the Swampforest from the gaps in-between the willow trees. This area had an average level of 25-30 and thankfully not many monsters would shoot them down if they flew over the area, nor could any of the monsters see past [Perfect Unknowable] with any special skills or talents.

But even with those assurances, Treech still flew as low to the trees as possible so that nobody would spot him from afar. It would affect his plans if someone saw him now, but he still needed to risk it by flying and heading to the center of the [Goblin Swampforest] as quickly as possible. He only had less than 3 hours time to take [Forth Rite City] now that the 3 most difficult factors of the upcoming battle were tied up inside a hidden dungeon. They would be trapped inside for a minimum of 3 hours.

12 minutes passed by as they finally reached their destination, a goblin fortress, [Fort Grees-Ood] in the center of the [Goblin Swampforest]. Prince's eyes shined as he watched both himself and his sensei, silently walk past all the Goblin Warrior guards and a few Goblin-Shamans that patrolled the center of the fortress. Golounds also patrolled the area along the area next to the Goblins Warriors. They were used as search dogs for finding intruders' scents in the fortress, in the case of an invisible intruder.

Unfortunately for them, [Perfect Unknowable] eliminated scent as well.

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[Race]: Golound

Level: 11

Hp: 24

Mp: 10

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========***++++***========

[Race]: High-Goblin

Level: 42

Hp: 43

Mp: 19

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They stepped passed the guards and slipped into the central throne room, where a tall and strong-looking goblin resided. It was a Goblin-Lord, a rare type Lord class monster that spawned after a Goblin Commander met the rank-up requirements. The Goblin-Lord was alone, looking over a crudely drawn map of the [Goblin Swampforest ] territory. It grumbled to itself quietly.

Treech took out a wand from his inventory and cast a spell. [Perfect Unknowable] was broken immediately as he began casting.

"Widen Magic: Domain of the silent"

A dome-like bubble expanded from the center of Treech and enveloped the room so that no sound would escape from it, alerting the surrounding goblin forces of his arrival.

The Goblin-Lord dropped the map in surprise but immediately shouted in goblin tongue to rally his forces outside the doors. However, no answer came other than Treech's next spell, cast from his wand.

"Triplet Extend Magic: Hold Species"

A purple aura snuggly wrapped around the Goblin-Lord as he failed to resist the spell attack. He sat there trying desperately to move, but he remained frozen.

"You can talk now." Treech put away his wand into his inventory and mentioned it to Prince, who had been silently writing and watching everything with intense focus.

"Sensei, what are we doing here?" He asked the question that had been bothering him. He thought that his teacher wanted to take [Forth Rite] city.

Treech took out one of his two [Shooting Star] rings and placed it on his finger. Prince's eyes widened when he saw the ring.

"Is that the [Shooting Star] ring from the Gachapon? " Prince mumbled to himself.

Treech then activated the ring. He was prepared to use one of its 3 uses to cast the super tier magic [Wish Upon A Star] to ensure the success of his plan. Even if others thought it was a waste, Treech didn't think so. It was just a medium to cast a super tier spell. The only great benefit it had to use the ring other than casting [Wish Upon A Star] himself, was that it didn't count against his daily super-tier spell cast limit. In his opinion, it was made to be used to win wars.

A massive cast array of over 11 magic circles appeared above Treech as he started the cast time of [Wish Upon A Star]. The entire area was enveloped by his active blue mana. It enveloped him in a ball and the time ticked by. The cast time for Super-Tier spells was abnormally long. The developers made it so that Super-Tier spell casters could easily be identified and targeted to prevent their casting. It was the ultimate telegraphed attack that was a high risk-high reward.

Thankfully, Treech and Prince were not in any danger of being interrupted, as the Goblin-Lord was both silenced and frozen for 3 minutes. It would only take a full minute to finish casting the spell.

Prince watched in awe as he witness for the first time, Super-Tier magic. The image of his sensei grew bigger in his heart and he felt a burning passion to one day, cast a Super-Tier spell exactly like him. The timer finished and the Super-Tier spell flashed, as Treech chose to sacrifice 40% of his current experience bar. Treech spoke his wish and said the spell casting command:

"I wish to dominate this Goblin-Lord for 2 hours time. "

"Super-Tier Magic: Wish Upon A Star" He shouted. The magic circle pulsed as it rolled a random counter to see if his wish would be accepted. The spell could still fail if the wish was too much.

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. The Goblin-Lord was released from his frozen state and he appeared in Treech's command menu on his HUD.

"Hahaha, Good!" Treech laughed. Everything was going according to plan.

(Author's Note: Kukuku all according to plan (Evil laugh) )