Li walked across a rocky path shrouded in darkness and enclosed with a low roof of rocky stalact.i.tes that dripped with damp droplets. If Elden World were able to truly simulate the senses, then he figured the air would have been moist as well, heavy and stuffy within the depths of the Crawling Caves, so named for the annoying surplus of giant insects that skittered about.

He was in his elder leshen form, back when all it represented was just a character in a game, not something that would warp the very fabric of his mind.

"How the h.e.l.l have you spent ten hours here?" said Li as his skull-head gave an accusing nod to a longtime companion and guild member, //BEAST//.

"How else am I going to carry this guild in the arena tournaments? Everyone's so focused on growing stuff that n.o.body cares about getting stronger." She was a feli, her black furred ears twitching every so often and her feral eyes glinting yellow in the dark with the slit pupils dilated wide.

She was a fan of steampunk, so she dressed like the genre with a large, black overcoat, top hat, formal white blouse and leather pants with sleek, iron-studded boots. All of her articles of clothing gleamed with power, the s.h.i.+ning and complex sigils of Greater Runes visible upon them.

Her status bar hovered above her head. A full green bar indicated her health while a half-full blue bar indicated her mana. The white letters //BEAST// were perched atop the bars. And beside the username was written 'LVL100+', indicating that she, like Li, were players that were not only level 100, but also completed multiple cycles of the campaign and gained all the stats, items, and spells a.s.sociated with the task.

One of the strongest players of Arboretum and perhaps the strongest damage dealer.

//BEAST// withdrew her celestial tier Meteoric Crossbow from her back and equipped it with both hands. A necessary thing, too, as the crossbow was ma.s.sive. It was not made of wood, but an ethereal metal the color of the night sky, black and sprinkled with twinkling dots of light that mimicked stars.

Li took followed her and withdrew his own staff. A staff of blackened wood materialized at his hand. Or, more accurately, it was a long and thin stake far taller than Li. It was of crude design, as if roughly carved up, splinters and little strips of black wood shavings still clinging to its body.

"That thing is totally gross," said //BEAST// as she put up a vomiting emoji next to her username. "Have you ever thought about switching it out?"

Li looked up to the top of the staff. Impaled upon the stake was an oversized fetus of some unG.o.dly abomination. It rotting flesh was various shades of black and grey that seemed to perfectly embody decay.

The body was vaguely humanoid, but the creature's four limbs were spindly, branch-like things far too small for its round and chubby belly. Its fingers and toes ended in slithering little tentacles, each lined with inquisitive red eyes. The creature was still alive, and even as it was bound to the stake driven through its stomach, its rotund infant belly heaved up and down with rattling breaths.

It was around the size of a small man, but it managed to stay in a more compact form due to its curled-upposition, as if it was still resting in its mother's womb. Its head could've been mistaken for a human baby's were it not entirely covered with dozens of sets of mouths and eyes.

The creature was an Orphan of Shub-Niggurath. Li felt pride when he looked at the grotesque item because he saw it as his greatest pride – an acc.u.mulation of hundreds of hours of work. It was called the Black Beauty, and it was a celestial-cla.s.s staff forged from a Primal Shard obtained once every completion of the campaign and an ultrrare drop called the Dark Mother's Fetus derived from defeating the monstrously difficult new game+ boss Shub-Niggurath.

"I think it looks pretty cute, don't you think?" said Li as he teasingly waved the staff forward. The infant made gurgling, cooing sounds, as if reaching out for its mother.

//BEAST// recoiled backwards before laughing. "Well, it's a strong item, I'll give you that." She a.s.sumed a serious expression and pointed forwards, deeper into the dark of the cave. "Come on, I'll show you what I do here."

Li followed //BEAST// until they reached the edge of the path. Going further would lead to a deep drop into a ma.s.sive pit. Heat waves emanated upwards from the pit as the ground was cracked and almost molten. Atop this unstable earth were almost fifty wyrms all stretched out, their long necks and tails piling atop each other.

"A wyrm pit?" said Li. "What's so important about this?"

"Do you remember lore about dragons?" said //BEAST// as she aimed her crossbow down at the pit. A gleaming white arrow nocked with a mechanical click.

Li shrugged. "I do, but obviously not as much about plants and forest creatures. Dragons aren't exactly my area of expertise, and these aren't even real dragons. They're just wyrms."

//BEAST// nodded. "Yep, they're just wyrms, that's true, but dragons are an evolutionary species.

Wyrms evolve into drakes which evolve into dragons which can evolve into elder dragons. Supposedly, those evolutions can take place over a single lifetime. Like the boss Imugi – it's backstory reads that it started off as a wyrm, but through many fights and challenges, it evolved right up to being an elder dragon."

Li knew that //BEAST// was a ranger with specialties as a Beastmaster, Dragon Rider, and Blaster. "I think I get it. You want to try taming these guys to evolve them? But you know that n.o.body's ever seen a wyrm evolve into a drake, right? Some things are just, well, just lore."

//BEAST// smiled. "You and I both know that the devs like to add hidden mechanics based on tiny little tidbits they put in the lore. I'm no dummy – I've done my research. There are a few forum posts here and there where beginners killed a wyrm and then all of a sudden, it just turned into a dragon and killed them. When they tried to re-explore the area, it was gone. Of course, this was so rare that everyone thought they were lying and essentially told them to 'get good'."

"People post about crazy theories and made up experiences all the time."

"True, but I know I'm right, because I was one of those posters, back when the game started, and I was just a noob." //BEAST// readied her aim. "I've always wondered what it was like to tame one of those rare evolving wyrms. Maybe they have even higher-level caps than normal dragons."

She fired. The s.h.i.+ning white crossbow bolt spiraled in the air as it sailed down. As it sailed downwards, it left behind a trail of twinkling stars.

Li looked attentively. He never got tired of seeing the ma.s.sive contrast between the bolt's beauty and how destructive it was.

When the bolt slammed into the center of the wyrm nest, a colossal explosion of blinding white radiance emerged, completely covering all of the wyrms. Then, a rumbling crack echoed outward as the shockwave from the blast scaled the pit's walls, shaking off aged dust from the entirety of the cavern.

A mushroom cloud of smoke and stardust floated upwards. It was as if a meteor of divine punishment had slammed into this pit of lizards with heavenly might, and as the mushroom cloud faded, there were nothing but charred corpses with coins and drops floating above them.

Li figured this must have been pretty similar to how the dinosaurs went extinct.

"I don't see any of them reviving," said Li. "They look really dead to me."

//BEAST// shrugged and nocked another meteor bolt, waiting until the camp of monsters resp.a.w.ned. "Well, it's not a common occurrence. I've been here ten hours for a reason."

"Then why bring me?"

"Cause' I figured you were good luck." //BEAST// gave him a smile. "Things seem to go well with you around."

___________________________

For the first time since he had come to this new world, Li opened his mouth in surprise. At the end of the day with //BEAST//, they had never found that rare, elusive wyvern that could evolve beyond its level limitations.

But here it was.

Li watched through the shadowfly, his body tense. He was a distance away from the adventurers to prevent getting spotted, but he started to regret the decision when he saw that the fight was much harder than he antic.i.p.ated for them.

When they had slain the wyrm, he thought his job was done, but very evidently not.

The wyrm's decapitated head tried to snap at Vahid, but Jeanne saw this and punched it away, sending it rolling down the ravine. She collapsed to one knee, her strength drained, but the situation wasn't over.

The wyrm's headless body stood up. Its broken and shattered legs regenerated, the bones re-aligning as muscle, flesh, and scales regrew. Then, vertebrae shot out of the exposed base of its neck, growing rapidly until it formed the skeletal outline of an entirely new head.

But that wasn't the end of the grim situation. The wyrm's entire body shuddered and s.h.i.+fted as it mutated uncontrollably. It became larger, its scales turning red, and then black. As it bulked up, its slim neck remained the same size, seemingly too small for its bigger body, but quickly it became evident why.

Eight more heads sprouted outwards, covered in steaming amniotic fluids as their eyes opened just as hateful and active as the original head. The creature's burned and tattered wings sloughed off their damaged membranes and regrew tougher, stronger, and more importantly, larger – the wings of a fully fledged dragon.

The dragon's nine heads roared in a symphony of power, its now majestic wings stretched out to cover the sun.

All the adventurers started to scramble back.

Li recognized the creature. It was a Lerneas, a derivative of dragon inspired by the mythological hydra. A level 70 creature with poison far, far more potent than the venom wyrm and possessing immense regeneration so long as its nine heads were all intact.

This was a creature leagues upon leagues beyond the adventurers, and they would need his help.

_______________________________

Sylvie could not help but shake as she saw the hydra's wings blot out the sun. It was like a merciless sheen of darkness that snuffed out any light of hope they had to survive. She put out a halting step backwards, but her shaky muscles collapsed on her, and she fell on the hard earth, her grip loosing on her short sword.

What could she do anyway? The Lerneas was a creature of legend. The type drawn on storybooks and scrolls to explain why entire countries disappeared. It would take the might of legends to fight against. At the least, a team of platinum plates would have to miraculously appear just for them to have a hope of surviving.

But there was no such hope, and this was all because of her. She was the one to force Jeanne to pull the wyrm done, back when it was just a wyrm. She had given the order when she could have let the creature just escape. It was her fault.

With trembling lips, she closed her eyes. This was atonement for her sins.

Azhar roughly shoved her before pulling her up. He looked at her with fierce eyes, still alive and fighting. "Who the h.e.l.l gave you permission to die?"

Sylvie could not meet his stare. "This is my fault."

"That so? Then ya gotta stay alive so we can scold ya later." He pushed her away, towards the forest. "Now, run!"

Sylvie's legs tried their best to run. She turned her head back to try and see what was going on through welling tears.

Vahid had started to run as well, carrying Launcelot's body over his back. Everyone was running, the mages and rangers almost close to the forest cover, but she shook her head and grit her teeth. Even then, a Lerneas's poison breath ceased to be a cloud of noxious gas and more like an explosive stream of ma.s.s destruction just as capable of propelling forwards like dragon fire.

The moment the Lerneas used its dragon's breath, it would overtake everyone and anyone no matter how fast they ran.

The Lerneas had one of its heads swoop down and swallow the egg. The other eight opened their maws, wisps of blackish green smoke curling from their mouths. Green sparks started to ama.s.s at their open throats.

And yet, even then, even in the face of utter destruction –

Jeanne was there, standing tall and proud in front of the Lerneas. She had picked up Launcelot's s.h.i.+eld, and just like the s.h.i.+elder, had slammed the slab of metal in front of her.

Sylvie stopped. She had to save Jeanne. She couldn't let her die. She couldn't let the hero save her yet again. She reached a shaking arm towards Jeanne, knowing it was futile.

Azhar caught up to her and picked her weak body up, carrying her away.

"We can't run" Sylvie whispered. "She's going to die."

Azhar grimaced. "And if she does, she wouldn't want you to die with her."

The Lerneas glared at Jeanne before it directed its eight free heads towards her. The sparks had flowered into rippling fire, and then the heads roared, unleas.h.i.+ng eight streams of green flames equally toxic as they were burning.

Jeanne put her palms on the s.h.i.+eld. She had lost her staff, but she could still use the powerful s.h.i.+eld as a channeling tool. She closed her eyes in focus. "[Ma.s.s Protection]".

An enormous golden barrier welled up around her, and she furrowed her brows as she spread it out thin, spreading the defensive energy out from a concentrated sphere into a wall meant to protect everyone behind her.

The flames, so many of them, almost like a raging flood of fire, roared as they crashed into the golden wall.

For a moment, Sylvie closed her eyes as the sheer green brightness of the flames blinded her, and when she squinted to try and see, she couldn't help but try and reach out to Jeanne again.

The ground around Jeanne was starting to melt, turning from solid rock into molten mush webbed with green-infused cracks. Her armor had started to melt, the once beautiful sterling silver and platinum dripping into slag, no doubt burning her skin underneath. Her white cape caught fire, tearing into green cinders.

Cracks had started to form all around her barrier, and as little tongues of flame managed to lick through, they released noxious gases that swirled around the hero. Any plant-life in her vicinity wilted before straight up melting, all their structural proteins self-destructing.

Jeanne held up better, but not by much. Her heroic light had covered her entirely by this point, but it wasn't enough. Parts of her bare skin had started to blacken, rivulets of blood and melting flesh dripping onto the fiery ground. Her golden hair had started to blacken like a wilting sunflower, thinning before falling and catching fire.

Sylvie couldn't stand to see her friend die like this, melting into an unrecognizable puddle of blood, and all because of her. She looked away, and she could feel as Azhar carried her into the forest, his steps breaking apart deadened leaves and fallen branches.

They continued like this for a minute, reaching deep into the forest, away from the Lerneas.

Then the earth shook, forcing everyone to stop to regain their balance. Sylvie opened her eyes. Her senses were keen. She could tell the shaking had originated from the clearing. She spied all the other adventurers looking back as well, wondering what had happened.

Sylvie tore herself off from Azhar and started to stumble back to the clearing.

"Stop it, Sylv." Azhar put a hand on her shoulder.

She shook it off. "That wasn't a natural earthquake. Something happened. We need to go back and investigate. Jeanne might be alive still. She risked her life for all of us, don't you think we should face even a little bit of risk to see if she's okay?"

"You got a point bout' that. I'll go with you," said Azhar. He motioned to the rest of the adventurers around them. "But I don't think anyone else is gonna' come."

Sylvie met their eyes, and they were all thoroughly worn down and beaten, laced with fear. She was conscious that her own eyes likely looked the same, but she couldn't be like them. She had to be better.

She had to be like Jeanne, someone who always looked forwards, never back.

"That's fine. To them, Jeanne is just another adventurer." She looked at Azhar, and he nodded to her. "But to us, she's family."

She battled the fear raging inside her, making her heart beat a hundred miles a minute, but the moment she took the first step forward, she found it easier to keep going. Azhar came to her side and supported her weight with his shoulder.

____________________________________________

A line of giant trees had sprouted from the earth, sealing Jeanne off from the Lerneas. The trees were enormous, each the size of a castle spire, and just as thick and st.u.r.dy. They stood tall, towering over even the Lerneas, and they were packed tight together, forming a colossal wall of seemingly indestructible bark.

Li stood atop one of the trees, looking down at the Lerneas. He saw as its eight heads locked onto him and growled. He glared back, and the Lerneas shrunk back in understanding. It turned around pushed with its legs while flapping its great wings, soaring into the sky to avoid challenging Li.

"I'll catch up with you later," said Li as he watched the Lerneas's figure grow smaller and smaller in the sky.

For now, he had to deal with Jeanne's emergency. He leaped down the tree, hurtling down dozens of meters before he landed beside the hero. Her barrier had shattered, and she had fallen unconscious on her back.

Launcelot's s.h.i.+eld still miraculously stood, but its metal had been warped to complete disfigurement. Once, it had borne intricate patterns of waves and fish, but those had all melted off, turning the s.h.i.+eld into an uniform, steaming chunk of metal.

Li knelt by Jeanne's still body and shook his head. Her once beautiful face had been marred almost beyond recognition. Much of the flesh had melted, exposing parts of bone. Her eyes were empty sockets - the soft flesh had probably been the first to melt away. Her hair only stuck to her head in thin, burning strands.

But miraculously, she still breathed through sheer force of will, though with how charred and damaged her throat was, it wouldn't be for long. And as long as she breathed, Li could heal her. He could resurrect her, too, if it came down to it, but it would force him to use an Ultimcla.s.s spell.

He touched a hand to her face and cast [Tranquility], the same ranked spell he tried to heal Old Thane with.

A powerful single target heal and status restore that he favored in colossal raids against bosses such as the venomous world ending serpent Jormungandr or the flesh absorbing presence of the Dark Mother Shub-Niggurath.

No level 70 Lerneas had anything close to touching that level of healing power.

Glowing green leaves started to whirl around Jeanne's body, sprinkling nouris.h.i.+ng green energy on her. The particles crowded around her injuries. Her charred flesh faded away and new, healthy, and supple flesh emerged anew.

Streams of toxic green gas left her body as poison was cleaned from her status. Her hair grew back as golden and s.h.i.+ning as ever. Her face recovered, filling in its melted spots. Green particles coalesced around her eyes, covering them in a green sheen before fading, revealing a new set of eyes just as blue as ever, though still deep in unconsciousness.

Li removed her damaged, molten armor to prevent it from continuing to hurt her. He didn't know how armor actually worked, so he just used brute force to snap bits and pieces apart until he left her healthy and whole, dressed in leathers riddled with burned out holes.

"You did well," said Li as he patted her head. She looked content now, and she breathed easier. It almost seemed like she had just fallen asleep instead of recovering from horrific life-threatening injuries.

Li had been through war. He knew when people were pressed with their backs to the wall, their lives on the line, there were precious few that would ever risk themselves over others. Self-sacrifice was rarer than gold. He could respect it when he saw it.

Then, Li leaped back up to the top of the wall of trees. He looked towards the direction the Lerneas had ran and jumped towards it, landing in a forest thicket.

And as he pressed forwards, his human form started to melt off of him.