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MK

A pop-up appeared.

NEW QUEST: DEFEAT SIXTEEN LVL15 FIRE-BREATHING MONKEYS
DIFFICULTY: * * * * * *
PRIZES: 12 GOLD, 500 EXP, 10 COAL
ACCEPT DENY ASK LATER

     MK pressed ASK LATER. He would certainly do that quest later, but not now. He was busy looking for a partner. He decided to look in the human city, and walked there.

-Later-

MK zoomed in on the girl, and scanned her. The girl, Klisifure was a level 14 Payer Character. Lower then him. He thought.

She seems like the best person, all of the others are either idiots or PKs. MK jumped out of the tree. He balanced himself and brushed off the dirt that had flown onto his clothes. He held out his hand.

"MK."

Klisifure

A male jumped beside her, as she was just about to greet the human player. He offered her a hand, introducing himself as 'MK'. A Mini-Ent, a few levels higher than her own. He must have been part of the front lines. However, there was an air around him that boiled of over-confidence, as such the way that he dropped by her so smoothly.

Instead of shaking his hand, Klisifure lifted her right hand while turning, in a half wave, her face turning over and head tiling, and smirked at the male.

"Oh, hello. What might you want from me?"

Ashely

Ashely smiled, "I'd love to join! Oh! But isn't my level too low? I asked to join some other guild, but they wouldn't let me in because my level wasn't high enough."

Ashely

"That sounds nice! Well then, since I'm going to be your new guild member, my name is Ashely. What's yours?"

Ashely

"Nice to meet you too!" Ashely said shaking Luke's hand. "So, what do guilds do?"

Ashely

"Three," Ashely admitted sheepishly,"but I think I'm starting to get the hang of this game."

Ashely

"Thanks, Luke!" Ashely started to look for the man her new friend had described. She spotted the leader in a corner talking to some scared looking players. "Excuse me," she said walking up to Dawson, "Are you Dawson? I would like to join this guild and was told I should talk to him."

"Why, yes I am! What's your name?"

"My name's Ashely."

"Nice to meet you Ashely! What level are you and what's your experience with fighting?"

"I'm level 3, and I generally fight the lesser monsters like the zombie cats that so frequently appear in this town. I haven't picked up the courage to fight a boss yet, though."

"Have you ever dealt with a PK?"

"No! I can't stand them!"

Dawson smiled, "Me neither! Well, I don't see any problem in you joining. You are certainly more experienced then some of our newest members. Welcome to the Musketeer Guild!"

"Thank you!!!" Ashely exclaimed excitedly. "I won't let you down!" She rushed off to tell Luke the good news.

Nathan

After restocking ammo, potions, and basic supplies from the NPC shop in the suburb, Nathan was ready to get away from all these people and into the wilderness, where he was at home. He was ready it was time to face the dreaded dungeon of the malicious turkey god. Lesser players would have become weak at the knees at the mere mention of this horrifying dungeon, but Nathan, as usual, was full of so many conflicting emotions that they cancelled each other out. So he was just walking and trying to come up with more clever Shakespearean banter, in case he ever needed a dramatic fight scene.

Nathan charged into the dungeon entrance, which he had discovered a couple of days ago in the woods. It only permitted level 10+ players to enter. From experience with other games, Nathan knew that lower-level dungeons like this one were likely to have large mobs of uncoordinated monsters, so he equipped his AOE skill in addition to his standard lightning bolt attack. Charging in with a shout, the malicious turkey minions began their attack.
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Nathan stood outside the entrance to the boss room, which was rather obviously proclaimed by the large golden plaque of a fire-breathing turkey. Since his last healing potion, he'd lost about a quarter of his health, and he watched the red bar slowly crawl upward again. He also pulled out one of the boosting potions he'd bought; for a few minutes his rate of fire would be increased. Nathan gulped it down and charged in. The level 20 Malicious Turkey God turned to observe this intruder, and Nathan took the opportunity to blast it with several lightning-imbued crossbow bolts. Almost no damage was dealt. The boss roared loudly, and an crowd of minions suddenly appeared around it with a pop. The turkeys, while slow-moving and low-damaging, took quite a while to kill because of their high hp stat. Nathan decided that for now, he would ignore the minions and continue to hammer away at the boss.
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The pair of level 13 players charged into the boss room, and Nathan backed off. He'd endured a few minion hordes and really needed to apply a couple of bandages. Besides, the boss was at about half health, which meant that Nathan had already dealt enough damage to guarantee loot for himself. The game was friendly about that; weak players couldn't steal the loot from the strong players that did the work. If the Turkey God died right now, his share of loot would appear only to him. Nathan watched as the two level 13 players pushed the monster down to about 1/8 of a health bar, until one collapsed. Apparently, the minion rush was too much for him, and he'd forgotten to drink a potion. His friend rushed over to see what had happened; if perhaps he could no longer stand or was unconscious, but no such luck. His health was zero.

Nathan decided that enough waiting was enough and  charged in. Neither of the level 13 players were fighting right now, and the boss was recovering health every second. Nathan began firing barrage after barrage of bolts, reloading with one hand and gulping a potion with the other, blasting lightning into the Turkey's wounds where he would be most sensitive. The other level 13, the girl, joined in, shooting a jet of water at the turkey's body. A water elf, then. The liquid met lightning, and the surface of the Turkey's entire body glowed blue.

Boss Kill

The combined attack had been enough to destroy the remainder of the Turkey's health, and Nathan turned to the girl. She had rushed to her dead friend again, sobbing, the moment of clarity long gone.

"J-J-Jeremy, my boyfriend...He... he said we would win this game and get out of here t-t-together... he said he was g-going to make sure w-we were b-b-both Safe... and now he's d-d-dead..." The girl's short speech ended, and her sobs redoubled over the boy's body. Nathan considered killing her then, but... he stopped. He didn't know why, but it was just wrong to kill someone like this. Besides, she probably wasn't one of THEM.

"W-why does this have to happen? Why does that stupid game control everything? WHY?"

Nathan was about to say something clever, but suddenly all of his clever Shakespearean banter lines flew right out of head. He drew a blank, trying to think of something, anything, he could say to make this girl feel better, and the only thing that came to mind was: Hamlet. Quietly, since he'd never directly quoted Shakespeare's tragedies to somebody else before, he started speaking.

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time?"

"Um... what? Is that Shakespeare?"

But Nathan had already turned away to pick up his loot and leave.

"Hey, wait! You aren't just going to leave me here, are you?"

But Nathan was already gone.
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Outside the dungeon, the window appeared to Nathan.
Decisive Blow Dealt to the Malicious Turkey God and Turkey Minions! Rewards:

Levels Up: You are now level 18.
103 Gold, 391 silver.
Leather Armor Level 20.
Rare Item: Dagger: Turkey Leg of Pure Evil.
This rare Turkey Leg-shaped dagger drops only from the Malicious Turkey God. A dud item, it is rare but incredibly weak (about 1/4 as strong as the standard level 1 dagger). Damage=10-15.

Nathan was pretty impressed. A rare dagger, while worthless, could possibly be sold to a rich collector. And now he was only one level lower than the highest player, who was currently level 19. Not bad at all.