Legends of Orlea

Chapter 8

"Levels won't matter anymore. Items can be used by anyone, regardless of their level. However, the tag will stay the same no matter how much XP you gain. XP will still give you boosts every time you receive some, so still try to do so, or it will take away some of the amusement I'll have from this." And with that, he vanished.

Then Zirem felt something. His body shrank a bit, his hair went from a bright yellow to black, and it straightened out, lengthening, going down a bit lower than his eyes, which had become grayish black as well. This was his real appearance! Not the avatar he'd chosen when he'd started the game!

Zirem felt his stomach tighten. The whole world was spinning. His fist were clenched so hard his knuckle were beyond white, and his nails were digging in, drawing blood. Unable to speak, unable to move, unable to react, he was completely vulnerable.

But before anyone decided to go on a killing spree, he needed to get out of here. And fast. Shoving his way out of the crowd of paralyzed people,  he ran out of the town, sword ready, straight toward a gorilla. 

The man said XP made him stronger if he earned some, instead of leveling him up. So he ran through the gorillas, hitting them over and over, until he heard a scream from the town square. Some idiots were attacking the shocked crowd, hoping to get a few PKs, and hoping to stay alive and be one of the hundred to survive this deadly game.

Another way to survive was to go up the thousands of floors, but that seemed impossible. Rage boiling inside him, he decided to pay a visit to the player-killers. Each would pay for their rash actions, Zirem would make sure of that.

As he reached the town square, he beheld the bloodiest scene of his existence. Instead of bright glowing cuts, actual blood came, and there was pain, according to the screams. And worst of all was the amount of corpses littering the ground. 

Amidst the chaos, he found Cody and a few members of his guild fighting a few other players with high level weapons equipped. None of his guild would survive that. Zirem ran into the fray, cursing the stupidity of humans, almost feeling the smile of Domingo above them, watching the players 'creating space', as he called it.

Quickly reaching the guild of players, he rushed to their defence. The attacking players never stood a chance against him. As he fought, he noticed Cody's growing smile of relief. But it was replaced by grim determination as another low level player started attacking, quickly decimated by the sheer number of enemies he'd made.

With relief, Zirem noted that they didn't kill their target. That was good. As he engaged the other player, he noticed a party invitation from Cody. Pressing accept, he immediately resumed fighting.

His enemy was good, but his items were out-classed. He'd lose. Zirem pushed the player back, and knocked him out with the hilt of his sword. The player's HP descended below critical, almost to the end of the bar, but the guy remained alive. Good.

"Guys, run! We need to get up the floors, and we need to get stronger to do that! It won't happen unless we get out of this square to get XP!" Five people moved, following him, but the remaining six stayed behind, preferring to fight and be part of the surviving hundred, not believing that they could climb up all the floors in time.

So they were six. Six to run past the gorillas; they were too high of a level to do that, and six to get to the Undercrypt of Shiva the Destoyer. "We didn't manage to finish this dungeon on time," explained Cody hurriedly, adrenaline still coursing through him.

His real body was tall, and lanky, with brown hair, and blue eyes. He had a few freckles on his face, and his hair was also cut quite short. He'd gained a few levels, going from level 3 to level 11 in a little amount of time.