First they walked down a dark, moist hallway. Then they battled in a room resembling the inside of a rotting coffin. All of this just to kill one boss, gain loot and gold, and struggle for a better future.

As they exit through the bone-covered archway from the previous room, the group found themselves walking on a path at the bottom a moldy ravine.

Flanking them are high walls of stone, covered in centuries-old mold. The felt warmer now, but that didn't ease the tension.

Aphmau put her hand on her nose. "Ugh, it smells down here."

Fart just let out a laugh. "You think it stinks here? You should see the lair of the Gaping Dragon, that place reeks!" He gave the meif'wa a playful pat on the back before his look became grim at the memories in the Beta. "...And very acidic." He shuddered at the memory.

"Gaping what?" Rune joined in the conversation, startling Fart again as she seemed to appear out of nowhere. Alexis and Penny just listened, gaining any information about this world since they're inexperienced players.

"Imagine a giant reptilian beast, longer than anything you've seen." Fart started to explain as Reed continued to take the lead. "Bending it's thick, scaly back far enough where its crocodile head could touch its long, barbed tail; puffing out its chest, opening and revealing thousands of spike-like teeth and undigested food. Waddling around in a place filthier than the sewers, as it constantly releases the contents of its bowels all over the area."

"Eww," Aphmau cringed as Rune's dark skin turned a bit pale. Everyone else, except Reed and Fart, couldn't believe such a monster existed. "That's the Gaping Dragon?"

"Yep!" Fart said casually, but seeing everyone's disturbed face, except for Reed, the Sentinel coughed into his hand. "My point is: don't worry about the smell. At least we're not getting poisoned by it."

"Poisoned?" Talia scoffed. "How can a smell poison you?"

"That's because the feces of the Gaping Dragon is very potent." Reed spoke up from ahead, who stopped at a ledge at the end of the path. "The smell alone is toxic, touching it could be lethal."

"Yo dude," Fart ran up to his friend, who looked a bit tense than his normally calm demeanor. "What's the hold up?"

"That." Reed pointed down, and threw the torch down as it become nothing more than a speck of illumination in a deep, dark pit. "I hate these types of areas."

"Pfft, you're afraid of the dark?" Berry mocked as Fart pulled out another torch. "I thought you fought worse in the Abyss."

"How did you think I developed the fear?" Reed asked rhetorically, not really caring about Berry's pitiful attempt to insult him.

Fart saw the mold hugging the walls of the ledge, not noticing Berry's glare at Reed. "...I think we can climb down," Fart gave the mold a sturdy tug to confirm its strength before kneeling down at the end of the ledge to look down. "Or we can jump down, but either way we wouldn't be able to see down there."

"It's okay," Aphmau stepped up and pulled out her fire wand- basically a thin branch with a small ball of common red resin on top. "I got this!" She said with a bit of smugness in her voice. "[Illuminate]!"

Fart looked at the glowing ball of light forming and floating at the tip of Aphmau's wand. Nodding with a small smile. "Whoa, dude, not bad- wait, is that fire wand?!"

The ball exploded, blinding the Sentinel in a flash of combustion. "AAAAHH!" Fart screamed as his vision was gone, stumbling around before falling off the edge. "I-take-it-back-you-really-suck-at-magiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic...!" His quick voice faded as he fell into the darkness below, with the torch.

Aphmau held her wand awkwardly in the dark as everyone was stunned.

"Aphmau!" Rune shouted at her friend as Penny quickly pulled out a spare torch. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't mean to!" Aphmau defended childishly. "The sun was in my eye!"

"We're in a underground ravine!" Alexis shouted. "There is no sun!"

"Hey, no one asked you!" The meif'wa countered.

Talia snickered. "Who knew cats were bad at magic?" Berry laughed at that, much to Aphmau's frustration.

"Fart! Fart, are you okay?" Penny called over the ledge with the spare torch. No response. She turned towards Reed, watching everyone else argue with each other. "Is he going to be okay?"

"..." Reed placed his crystal-covered hand on his sheath, and the other grasped the hilt of his sword. He walked towards Aphmau, casting a glance at Talia and Berry, never missing the duo's smiles at Fart's misfortune.

"Um, Reed?" Aphmau asked as the ronin approached her. "What are you doing?"

Reed took in a deep breath. "[Quick Draw]."

[Quick Draw](15) – 5000 SP: Quickly draw, and then sheathe, your blade to do a single attack that does (10 x Ronin level)% more damage.

A blur passed and faint click could be heard as Reed sheathed his sword; a second later, Aphmau felt sludge drip all over her from behind.

"Ew!" Aphmau screeched, looking at the sludge, feeling it ooze over her scalp and dripping down her face before turning around. "What the heck is this-?"

Everyone froze at what they saw: a silhouette resembling the Skeleton Rouge, its shredded skin smoother than a newborn child and blacker than the night sky. The dark weapons it held were nothing more than darkness like the rest of its equipment and body. The monster let out a faint cry as cracks originated from the large vertical mark in its forehead; the stab wound from Reed's [Quick Strike] caused the wound to spew red ichor everywhere as it fell on its face before fading away into motes of light.

"W-What was that?" Rune nervously asked before her marigold eyes widen in terror. "Is it ghost; it's a ghost isn't it?!"

"Calm down." Reed sighed in his monotone voice. "It's just a Black Phantom."

"And that would be?" Alexis gestured for him to elaborate, as everyone looked at Reed to explain, but he picked up the loot that dropped.

"I'll tell you later," He said as he placed the loot in a small bag before tying the rope that loops through the bag, around his waist. "But now, we got to get Fart."

Aphmau flicked her arms, loping off bits of the sludge on her body. "You could have given me a heads-up!" She grumbled. "Now I'm covered in sludge...!"

"Hey, I saved you." Reed reminded as he walked away towards the edge, pulling out another magic torch dangling from hip, holding it in the grip of his left arm where he has his crystal gauntlet equipped. "Something like that can kill you in one hit, Aphmau."

Aphmau wiped the ichor off of her, frustration tainting her responses. "I could have taken it on with magic!" Aphmau waved around her fire wand. "I got this, remember?"

"That wouldn't have done anything, just like earlier." Reed lectured. "You used fire affinity wand to turn an illumination spell into a fire spell; you need to learn basic magic, otherwise you're going to hurt more than help."

"I can take care of myself, Reed!" Aphmau yelled.

Reed looked over his shoulder, and gave her a cold stare and pulled out his sword again with his right hand. "Then you better learn magic before showing it off." Reed's sword scrapped against the ground, sending sparks into the air. "[Dancing Lights]."

The sparks froze in the air before expanding into orbs of light, floating and following Reed. Talia looked stunned at the action. "How did you do that without any resin?"

"My gauntlet helped," Reed walked towards the sturdy mold hugging the walls of the ravine that lead down into the dark below. "And I studied the mechanics of the spell before modifying it."

And with that Reed didn't say anything else, much to everyone's disappointment. Keeping secrets and tricks was the reason why he's so far ahead of everyone else. Reed and the rest of the group started to climb down, leaving the fuming meif'wa and the half-breed dryad alone.

Rune placed a hand on Aphmau's shoulder, a friendly attempt to calm her down. "Aphmau, he's got a point."

Aphmau let out a defeated sigh. "I know..."Aphmau sat on the ground, her back against the moldy wall, feeling annoyed once again at the black ichor oozing on her back. "I just wish didn't lecture me; I'm not a child!"

Rune sat down next to her friend. "And I wish you didn't set me on fire that one time when we went to fight that wolf with Simon." Rune smiled at that memory. "Remember?"

"I do," Aphmau let out another sigh. "Looks like Simon was right about me: I should've learned how to use magic before showing off."

Rune's marigold eyes had a distant look. "...Did Reed's comment make you remind of Simon?"

"Yeah..." Aphmau buried her face into her hands, hiding her tears. "Rune, why did I snap at Simon? He was just trying to tell me the truth!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay," The thief gave her a side-hug. "We were all stressed out at the time, and..." Rune had a sad look on her face. "... and I yelled at him too, before ditching him."

"That doesn't excuse me for yelling at him," Aphmau sobbed. "I thought I was getting better at magic, but I'm still a mess! And... and we drove him away, Rune, and we can't even find him."

----------

Reed felt the ground crunch under him, as he was the first to reach the bottom of the large pit. He didn't need light to see what was under him; he recognized the stench. "Fart!" Reed shouted in the dark, trying to keep himself calm at the suffocating darkness. "Where are you?"

Reed was on guard as memories from the Abyss surfaced. He remembers the constant silence and lightless world that is completely alien to reality itself. Every sentient being in the Abyss was reduced to the basic form of existence.

These beings were a humanoid blackness, framed by the white fog of their damned souls; intangible, with high resistances to all forms of damage as they can phase through solid matter.

Reed can picture them now; drifting, haunting, silent, ranging in size from a baby to an adult. Ready pop out when he least expects it, twisting and stretching and warping while leaving bits off itself behind.

A second later, he felt relief as the orbs of light from his [Dancing Lights] skill finally caught up to him. Everyone else that followed him halted as a few let out a shocked scream at the revealing sight.

The light from the orbs showed thousands of skeletons at the bottom of the pit; they're standing in a mass grave. Containing adults to children size bones that have been haphazardly tossed down here without care, scattering the remains as they have formed a solid surface to easily walk on.

Reed looked up at the group, frozen in horror at the mass grave. "You don't want to be up there for long." He warned in his monotone voice. He continued to walk forward, casually stepping on the skeletal remains to find his friend. "A lot of people died trying cheat through this room."

Penny called out to the veteran gamer. "Reed, wait!" She called at as the orbs of light followed a departing ronin. "Don't go!"

The found themselves in the dark again as Reed's [Dancing Lights] spell can be seen in the distance. Alexis let out a sigh. "Damn it..." she muttered before jumping down.

The crunching that followed confirmed her landing. "Just jump!" Alexis shouted, even Reed stopped to turn around when he heard the clacking. "It's fine down here! The fall damage isn't much either!"

Reed ran back when he heard the clacking getting louder. "Get down, now!"

"Yeah right!" Berry scoffed, despite him shaking as he clings to the mold. "I'm not going down there-!"

Reed and Alexis watched as Berry, Talia, and Penny fall down into the mass grave. Taking fall damage as the bones from they impacted on started to wrap around them.

"W-What's going on?!" Penny panicked as she, Talia, and Berry, struggled against the restraints.

Reed and Alexis ran up to the restrained trio. "This is what happens when you stay up there for too long!" Reed lectured as he handed Penny some green resin. "Listen to me, because of you three, you summoned extra enemies."

"What enemies?" Talia couldn't even move her head as she struggled to reach for the emergency white resin in her pocket.

The clacking is constant now. Reed and Alexis looked where three undead creatures landed in front of the path ahead, blocking them from advancing as the large, spiked metal wheels that are diagonally tangled through their rotting bones caused them to hunch over.

"Skeleton Wheels." Reed revealed, standing up to face them. A hunched, skeleton limped forward from behind the Skeleton Wheels. "And a level 40 Skeleton Wizard."

"You got to be kidding me," Alexis couldn't believe the sight before her, using the passive Adventure ability to see that the Skeleton Wheels are level 60! "How are we supposed to beat these things?"

"Hey-Hey!" Berry shouted, wiggling as the bones that wrapped around him held tighter. "Get us out of here!"

"It doesn't work that way!" Reed and Alexis got into a fighting stance as the Skeleton Wizard pulled out a skull, grasping its bony fingers by the rusty chain that loops through the skull's eyeholes. "That penalty can only be removed after the Skeleton Wizard dies."

They watched as the Skeleton Wheel twitched before black ichor erupted out of its mouth, wriggling like worms around its skeletal frame before tightening around it. The Skeleton Wheel turned into a Black Phantom, raising its level to 120!

Reed reached into the bag around his waist before giving it to Alexis. "Listen, those Skeleton Wheel's mainly target the people who clung to the moldy wall for too long." He held the torch in front of him. "I'll hold them off."

Alexis dumped the equipment out of the bag. "What are we going to do?" She asked, quickly putting on the items, having no time to admire the high ratings of the equipment. "How are we going to get out of this?"

"I need you to guard the trio, but I'm going to quit the Raid Party," Reed announced, much to everyone's confusion. "I have a special skill that boosts my regeneration for my HP, SP, and MP. I'm going to take advantage of that and fight them head-on."

"There's no such skill like that!" Talia didn't believe a word of it. "You're lying!"

Alexis shot a glare at the restrained magic user. "Will you just shut it!" She then looked at Reed, ignoring Talia's glare at her. "Do you really have a skill like that?"

Reed nodded. "I do." He said as he mentally called up the pop-up for the Raid Party to quit. "I got it as a reward with my Unique Class when my crew beat the Beta."

Reed pulled up the passive skill to double-check.

[Path of the Ronin] (15) – 0 SP: When not in a Raid Party, your HP, SP, MP, regeneration increases by (Ronin Level x Player Level)%.

His current level is 65, multiply that by 15, and he gets a 975% regeneration rate. The ronin watched his body take on a faint red, green, and blue aura constantly overlapping his body.

"Woah..." Alexis watch with awe as Reed sprinted towards the enemies faster than her [Blink] skill.

"Hey!" Berry shouted, snapping her out of it as he, Talia, and Penny continue to resist the bone restraints. "A little help?!"

"..." Alexis made sure she's wearing her new cloak and ring, and making sure she's gripping the new dagger she acquired.

Seeing that stronger enemies outnumber her, Alexis knew what to do. Berry, Talia, and Penny, gasped as Alexis ran to the mold wall and climbed away, leaving them behind.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've been having writer's block on this chapter, and I got inspired and decided  to add guns and enemies from an online game I used to play. And for the OC's, if your If-Thens do help you perform great against the boss, then I'll consider letting you have a gun. But be warned, they have a huge requirement and penalty.

Anyways, I'm also thinking about making these chapters longer, since there is so much dialogue and fighting and skills.