by E A Hooper
“I’ll explain when we get everyone together,” Vincent replied. “So, you still think I can’t take on the Elder Gods?”
“Not alone,” she said. “I don’t even know if you could solo them at max level.”
“They’re really that strong? That just makes me even more excited to fight them. Although I’m more worried about reaching the final world.”
“You’ll have to defeat the Elder Gods first,” Juniper told him. “The last world has some kind of dimensional weirdness around it. To reach it, you need the Six Blessings. You get one for each Elder God you defeat, at least according to the NPCs and their vague legends. Once you beat all six, you can reach the final world from this Jump Gate.”
“It’s really that close?” Vincent questioned, staring at the sky above. His eyes settled on the shimmering sphere at the very top of the World-Tree. It had been hidden from his view when he was on the Challenge World, but from Panthos, he could clearly make it out. When his eyes tried to trace the outline of the world, he noticed a rainbow of color surrounding it. “Wow, that’s really it?”
“Yeah, that’s Xenith. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it. It feels so close, doesn’t it? We’ve all traveled across so many worlds to get here, and it’s just out of our reach. After being here a few decades, everyone was starting to feel like it might as well be a thousand worlds away—at least until we heard you were back. After you rejoined the guild, things have become a bit more optimistic around here.”
As they approached the building complex, groups of other players came from different directions to join them. Vincent recognized familiar faces like Big Keanu, Mayfield May, Keith the Bold, and Blade-Master Lloyd. There were also some people he didn’t recognize. When he Scanned them, he saw many had the Overseer subclass, which meant they were developers that had worked on ARKUS. Vincent recalled the stories—ones that almost seemed like old legends by that point—of the developers that had been trapped in Edgelight since the update first began.
One by one, the familiar faces approached Vincent to shake his hand, hug him, or just to talk as they followed the hallway to the main auditorium.
“You wouldn’t believe how much my daughter and your friends miss you,” Lloyd told Vincent as they walked down the aisles. “Xan and Quinn went to explore some strange world, but I’m sure they’ll hurry back as soon as they find out that you’re here.”
The developer Keith looked around the auditorium, then approached Vincent and the others. “Uh, no one’s seen Jim yet, have they?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” Juniper replied, glancing across the room.
“I thought that might be the case,” Keith said. “He’s been running the Arkgrave repeatedly ever since he saw Vincent rejoin. I haven’t heard from him in a few days, so I think he might’ve died down there.”
“Maybe,” Juniper said. “We’ll just have to hold this meeting without him.”
Vincent sighed. “I had hoped to get everyone together. What I have to say will be a little shocking, and I don’t want to retell this story to every single person in the guild.”
“I mean, Jim might be alive,” Juniper replied. “If he ran out of supplies, he might be resting at the end of the Arkgrave. Vince could probably run down there and check. Have you seen how strong he is, Keith?”
Vincent could feel the frequencies of Scan touching him as Keith looked over his stats with his jaw hanging open.
“But… but how?” Keith asked.
“He’ll explain later,” Juniper said, pulling Vincent away.
The girl quickened her pace and led Vincent to a backdoor. They walked toward the Jump Gate, and then Juniper pointed at the stone steps that started near the platform but went downward instead of up to the top. “The Arkgrave was a secret dungeon we found below this gate. It’s kind of an interesting boss-rush thing. You had those in your old games, right?”
Vincent nodded. “I’ve done plenty of boss rushes in my time. What bosses exactly?”
“That’s what makes it interesting,” Juniper started. “The bosses are random ones you’ve seen before. They’re teleported to this dungeon from their home world. Each floor is an instance that separates all players from one another. However, the bottom floor is a little garden. Every time someone beats the boss, there’s these items called Candy Apples that appear.”
“I’ve seen those before,” Vincent said. “That’s part of how I leveled up so much. You’re saying you can farm them down there?”
“You can in theory,” she explained. “However, it takes a ton of resources to finish the boss rush by yourself. Only a few people in our guild have ever completed it all the way. I’m honestly surprised to hear that Jim has been completing it over and over again. That’s probably why the armory was so low this week. He’s pulling all our equipment and potions to run it as many times as he can.”
Vincent had touched the nearest daiglass plateau and gathered items as Juniper explained everything to him. “You think he’s using Checkpoint Crystals?” he asked, glancing at his hefty collection of crystals.
“Those don’t work in instances,” Juniper explained. “That’s the biggest problem with facing the Elder Gods. Our guild still has a few hundred Checkpoint Crystals from Royal Quests, but we’re saving them. I assume you picked up a few to get here, right?”
“A ‘few’ is a bit of an understatement,” Vincent said, smiling.
“Jesus Christ, I can’t wait to hear this story of yours.”
“While I’m gone, take these to Keith. He can use them for alchemy.”
Vincent poured stacks of items crystals onto the ground containing gild bars. In total, he dumped twenty thousand 100-piece bars and forty thousand 50-piece ones. As Juniper stared at the piles of gild bars in shock, Vincent hurried down the staircase with a grin on his face.
The stairs curved downward in a spiral that became narrower toward the bottom. Vincent guessed he was right below the center of the Jump Gate when he found the fog wall that revealed the entrance into Arkgrave.
He stepped through the fog, and then was plunged into darkness.
Chapter 14
Vincent caught himself with Zero Field, but when he looked up the entrance had vanished. He glided down until his feet touched an invisible floor, and then a gray light appeared to form a grid below him. The lines made an invisible platform that seemed to extend endlessly, and the darkness above turned to a bluish color similar to a twilight sky.
Light flickered some distance in front of him, and globules of magic and color took the form of the first boss Vincent had ever seen in the game: Gazal the Forest Lord. The majestic beast raised his head at the sight of Vincent, and his crystalline horns shimmered with light. A shockwave flew through the air, but the Ranger slapped the spell aside, causing it to explode on the grid.
Vincent sprinted forward at superhuman speed before Gazal could attack again. He grabbed the World Boss’s horns, then snapped the boss’s neck with little effort. Gazal crumpled into dust, but he left no items behind as he died.
The floor disappeared below Vincent’s feet, but that time he let himself freely fall. He noticed himself slowing right before landing on the next floor. As gray lines formed an endless landscape, a flash of color shaped into the trunk of a large tree. Branches grew into long claws, and the tree bark split open to form a mouth and eyes.
Which boss was this? Vincent wondered, Scanning it.
Highrel of the Thousand Acres (World Boss) – Monster Class: B | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: One In-Game Week | Personality: Grumpy
Oh yeah, I think Quinn and I took down this guy during our first few years of adventuring. Dang, I’ve beaten so many bosses I don’t even remember them all at this point.
Highrel stretched out his branches and wrapped them around Vincent while he was deep in thought, but the Ranger flexed his arms and tore from the boss’s grip. As the tree opened his mouth to release a mana attack, Vincent struck first with Voidfire.
&
nbsp; Black flames burned the tree into its roots, and the ground fell away once again. Vincent kept himself suspended long enough to restore his mana, then dropped to the next floor. Lights appeared, tangling and twisting to form Rayazar the Drinker. The strange enemy, which looked like a cross between a mosquito and a dragon, had been the first mid-tier World Boss his team had faced. Vincent remembered her well.
At least she can’t engorge herself on world magic this time.
Vincent hit Rayazar with a Voidfire before she could react, disintegrating everything but her outstretched limbs and wings. Her remains turned to dust, and the floor vanished just as quickly as it had formed.
After refilling his mana, Vincent let Zero Field dissipate, and he dropped to the next level. He watched and waited while the light formed into a twisted yet angelic figure. Pidge the Fallen stared around the empty plane, his mouth hanging open with confusion. Then his mask focused on Vincent, and he released a high-pitched scream. A hint of world magic surged through his veins, causing his muscles to bulge with power.
“Oh, you remember me?” Vincent questioned. “Wait, so you’re the real one and not just some kind of copy?”
Without answering, Pidge sped toward Vincent with an outstretched hand. The Ranger caught the arm, snapped it, then tossed the diseased-looking angel into the grid. Pidge rolled to his feet and snarled before diving at Vincent again. That time, Vincent hit him with Voidfire and watched him fade in the flames.
Maybe I should’ve mentioned Reddy to him. That would’ve made for an interesting conversation. Then again, he seems a little too wild to reason with right now.
Vincent replenished his mana before dropping to the next floor. To his surprise, the light formed into the shape of a mountainous figure made of worms. Thirteen skulls appeared, circling above the horrendous form.
“Friend! Friend! We meet again!” the skulls cackled together.
“Marquis!” Vincent said in surprise. “I hate to admit it, but I sort of miss you and your twisted dungeon.”
“This’ll be such fun!” one of the floating skulls said.
“If only my mimics were here,” another skull added.
“You won’t win either way,” a third chimed in.
“Sadly, I have people waiting for me,” Vincent told the monstrosity. “Otherwise, I might’ve taken it easy on you.”
Vincent cast Greater Voidfire, and the mountain of worms burned away in moments.
One surviving skull retreated from black fires, then turned to Vincent. “That sure was something, friend!” the skull said. It started to cackle with nervous laughter, but then Vincent shattered it with a punch.
The ground disappeared below Vincent’s feet, but he remained hovering in place and drank more ethers.
I see what Juniper meant about this dungeon taking up resources. I’m basically just spamming my best attacks and burning through potions. If I didn’t have Zero Field to give me a break between each level, this would be a lot more difficult, even at my level. I wonder what boss is next though? Maybe Kozzix? I think that was the first World Boss I beat after taking down Lucas. Ooh, Lorinetta would be a fun one. Flyff would be annoying, but I should be able to one-shot him now.
Vincent dropped to the next level, and globules of light flew from every direction. The lights formed into a massive creature that towered high above the landscape. With his thin shape, the boss might’ve fit in with the titan-sized skeletons Vincent had seen on the ash-colored world. That boss, however, had taut skin that covered the oversized eye on his chest.
Woah, it’s Rethin! I didn’t think the boss rush would throw anything like him at me.
The skin over Rethin’s chest flexed until it ripped, revealing the giant eye that normally stayed hidden until players pushed him to his limits. The pupil focused on Vincent, then started charging Vaporize.
Vincent hit Rethin first, Power Launching Voidfire into the giant eye. The Ranger paused, thinking that might’ve killed the boss, but even as a torrent of blood poured from the gaping chunk of flesh missing from the eye, Rethin finished charging his attack. The wave of mana flew at high speed, but Vincent launched himself upward equally fast with Zero Field. Despite the power of the attack, it didn’t seem capable of breaking the grid.
Vincent gathered another Voidfire in his hand, then struck Rethin once more. That time, the towering monstrosity collapsed into a mountain of dust. As the gray plane vanished, the dust seemed to disappear with it.
“Got him!” Vincent cheered, still floating in the air.
It’s crazy how easy it is to beat Rethin now. It took my team years of training and preparation to defeat him the first time. I guess that shows how far we’ve come—especially Jim if he’s down here. Good on him for tackling so many bosses by himself.
After downing more ethers, Vincent dropped to the next level. That time, the lights formed into a tall, slender monster with an almost-human shape. Her skin appeared to be made of green chitin, however, and her face was insect-like. Six wings sprouted from her back, and two long blades of mana stretched from her metallic armbands.
“Lorinetta!” Vincent said. “Another cool surprise. It took me a while to best you by myself, didn’t it?”
Lorinetta sped toward Vincent, swiping her blade, but the Ranger grabbed and stopped the edge mid-swing.
“Arkgrave must order bosses based on when I beat them and not their strength,” Vincent noted. “Otherwise, you’d have gone before Rethin—no offense.”
A giggle sounded from the boss, but then Vincent incinerated the top half of her body with Voidfire. Instead of dying, however, Lorinetta’s remains compressed, forming into a much smaller and faster version of her. Vincent had struggled to hit her in that form a long time ago, but with Power Launch, the fairy-like boss couldn’t even blink before another Voidfire consumed her.
On the next level, Vincent fought twin bosses that he barely remembered from his years as the Wanderer. Since the creatures had towering, spindly bodies that required striking multiple glowing joints to kill, he cast two Black Cinders, then used the Tempest Upgrade to direct the embers at their weak spots.
He one-shot the next few bosses with Voidfire, but when he came up against Cryark, the huge skeleton boss that he had a fifty-fifty record trying to fight, he used Black Cinder once again. Last time they’d fought, Cryark’s completed form had slammed him through a few trees before murdering him with hundreds of bone spikes, but this time Vincent dodged everything the boss could throw at him. After smashing the last orb that held Cryark together, the boss crumbled and Vincent prepared before moving on to the next floor.
With the bosses growing stronger, Vincent started to rely more on Greater Voidfire. With that spell, he was able to one-shot Jho’ron of the Infinite Freeze, Eosin the Serene, and a Bright-Walker.
When he landed on the next level, he prepared to cast Greater Voidfire again, but then an unfamiliar devil appeared. The monster’s eyes widened when he saw Vincent, and the creature pointed a finger and snarled at him.
“Uh, have we met?” Vincent questioned.
The devil slumped his shoulders in response. He used his hands to act out the scene of a battle, showing a person running over platforms, and then spread his fingers apart in a fake explosion. The devil even made a sound effect with his mouth.
“I’m sorry, I’ve fought a lot of bosses,” Vincent replied. “A lot of devils too.”
The devil pointed at his own eye and then down at his chest.
“Fine, I’ll Scan you,” Vincent said, using the spell.
Lemm the Fiery (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: B+ | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: None (Only spawns under certain conditions) | Personality: Brash
“Lemm?” Vincent said, thinking. “Oh, Lemm! I remember now.”
The devil snarled and slapped himself on the forehead in frustration.
“Sorry, I didn’t even think you were a boss. You just seemed like one of Noah’s lackeys.”
Lemm grumbled as he po
inted from Vincent to himself, and then he made another fake explosion with his hands.
“Oh yeah, you killed us both with an explosion,” Vincent said. “After I knocked you into a trench, right? Come on, man. That was over a hundred years ago. Who cares?”
Lemm snarled and started making more hand motions, but then Vincent fired Void Gun. The devil dipped to the side, narrowly avoiding the black bolt. Before the monster could cast a spell in response, the Ranger equipped Endless Edge, closed the gap between them, and decapitated Lemm.
Before crumbling to dust, the devil’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, but Vincent wasn’t sure if that was a sarcastic gesture or just death overtaking him.
When Vincent landed on the next floor, the grid shaped itself into a valley full of holes. Even before the gargantuan, malformed queen of the hell ants burst from the ground, Vincent knew Narak was going to be his next challenge. Her bulbous shape hung over the side of the pit, spewing rivers of acid across the terrain even though Vincent had repositioned himself in the air.
Vincent hit Narak in the head with Greater Voidfire, then watched the top half of her gargantuan body melt into nothing. He wondered if that attack could kill a boss with her incredible durability, but as she crumbled into dust he got his answer.
“Damn, I’m overpowered!” Vincent said, grinning with delight.
As he floated and refilled his mana, he tried to think of what bosses might be left to face. The only ones that came to mind were the ones from the Challenge World and Cryasal.
I wouldn’t mind taking on Silpher and the others one more time. Although fighting them all back to back might be tough.
Vincent dropped to the next floor and watched the light manifest into another boss. It took him a few seconds to recognize the muscular devil in black armor. Even though they’d spent decades together, Vincent had only seen Izrid in person once, during a quest to retake Sinners’ City from the Nightmare Court.
