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The heat of the sun caused Takka to flinch ever so slightly. His current position in the mouth of a small cave was the best place for him to wait. With a step to the side, he pushed himself into the edge of the cave’s entrance. The first dungeon “The Dark Hollow” stood in front of him. A massive blinking box of text out front said clearly:

[b [i “The Dark Hollow is a level 6+ instance with a recommended party size of 3!” ]]

One quest remained until he could get out of the starting area and it was for the head of the boss at the end. He’d seen it first the night before but didn’t have the time to wait for a group. Today, he could wait for a while longer. A few hours had already passed with no one arriving. The line of shade from the cave had rescinded a bit with the sun’s rising. A small pebble dropping caused him to jolt in surprise, his eyes locking on it quickly.

A sigh of relief became audible as he realized his nerves were far too tense. With his right hand, he brought a menu up, looking at a bright menu that read: [i “Players Nearby:”] Most were greyed out because of being AFK but one name stuck out.

[b [i Vrysk, Level 45 ShadowBlade]],

[i “This dude has been here all day! I wonder what he wants?”] his nameplate was red which probably meant he was a Player Killer. He made several checks over the past few hours and always saw that character’s name. With an unsettling feeling, Takka’s left hand opened the game menu, scrolling all the way down the list and hovering over the [i “Logout”] button. Just as his hand moved to press the button, another name popped on to the list of nearby players. A cute [i bloop] noise echoed as the name

[b [i Ares, Level ?? Arcane Archer]]

[i “Woah! Why can’t I see that player’s level? It must be super high!” ] Takka’s eyes scanned the surrounding area once more. His mind was racing while he searched for this character. A building feeling of excitement fully consumed him as he took a single step forward. The wall of heat from the sun that made contact with him almost took his breath away. With a staggered fall, he plopped back onto the floor of the cave, landing on his rear. [i “Great race choice, dummy.”] A pout became visible for a moment as he questioned his choice in character.

With a slow scooting motion Takka pressed his back to the rocks of the cave’s entrance, the stones felt cool to the touch. A slow movement pulled his flask from the pockets on his robe. The water inside was much needed, the elf finishing a good amount of it on the first massive gulp. Small coughs and sputters erupted as he tried to catch his breath. [i “I’ll have to make a potion if I want to go back to town…”] his thoughts still rustled, albeit more nervously now that someone was approaching. ]

[Center [pic https://64.media.tumblr.com/bcaaf87f816a29aa3f38b342a9840800/aa3d269ae0ff450d-54/s500x750/819aac2730b6fd94be9b18f81795f2113577e974.png]]

[Font "Ms Gothic" [size11 [b [#E64176 "Good raid! Send me an add if you need help with those dungeons we were talking about~"]] Ares' hooded avatar waved goodbye to the random players she'd met during the raid she'd just hosted. The player was attempting to craft a high tier weapon for it's class perks-- meaning she was stuck doing raids and dungeons until she collected the correct amount of materials or questline consumables.

Ares pulled up her inventory and went to the crafting subcategory. [b [#E64176 "Alright looks like I have everything except one item..."]] She said to herself as the bright red [#faffff .] [b [#fa0000 Hollow's Treasure [#faffff .] (0/1)]] [#faffff .] stuck out like a sore thumb compared to all the green acquired items.

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Alright, cool back to the beginning. Ares thought to herself as she used a travel ticket to teleport herself to the beginning area. The town square was completely dead, Ares could remember when the game was brand new... This server specifically had been popular and the square was always filled with players trying to chat or form parties. She'd had so many friends on here once upon a time, now it felt like no one logged in as much as she did, even her veteran bestie got busy with work and life consistently. Now it was filled with grey AFK users who were probably 90% spam bots and silence.

Ares sighed when she managed to pull herself out of memories and back into the present. The cave's guidelines from her journal claimed it was a level 6 with 3 recommended players... She would be fine to clear that out by herself since Ares was now at least 10x stronger than this beginner quest. However... She was horrible with directions and found herself running around the immediate area of the cave for a good 2 minutes before finally finding the path that led to the mouth of the cave.

Upon arrival, she could see the avatar of an active user waiting at the foot of the cave. [b [#E64176 "Uh oh, are we stuck?"]] She playfully quipped, Ares pulled the hood of her armor back, two oversized rosey pink cat ears flopping out before perking up straight. Her inky black scleras contrasted against her bright matching eyes and her skin was a deep tan.

Ares offered the other user a friendly smile emote, pulling up her party log and clicking the "invite" button. [b [#E64176 "I need an item from this dungeon, do you wanna join? What's your class?"]] Ares could have easily just looked into his stats but she preferred to ask, some of the classes had subtypes players aspired for. He was a definitely low level, probably couldn't get enough exp. to take on the cave alone since the higher leveled enemies were far and few.

[center [pic http://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/8f/1c/618f1cc8de509138d44a37bfd5e3412f.gif]][B PS: HER USERNAME IS RED BC SHE HAS KILLED USERS TROLOLOL]