An hour later, deep in the heart of Emberfall Mines, Jason and Jay moved like a well-oiled weapon, swift, deadly, and unstoppable.
With blinding speed, Jason swept through the tunnels, rounding up packs of Level 4 Kobold Miners and herding them into a tight, frantic cluster.
Then Jay, grinning like a madman, would cast his Level 2 Hellfire, engulfing the trapped kobolds in a roaring blaze.
""Burn, you little rock-diggers, burn!" he cackled as a pillar of dark flame exploded from the ground, swallowing the Kobolds whole.
Experience points and loot rained down on them.
In under an hour, they'd crushed Jack's quest, 100 pieces of Meteorite Ore in the bag and Jay hit Level 3, a milestone that would've taken most players days of grinding.
As they were finishing up, Jason motioned for Jay to be quiet.
He pointed towards a lower cavern.
There, Dante, Silas, and the rest of The Syndicate were copying Jason's exact play, one player kiting while the others stayed hidden in a Smoke Bomb's haze, ambushing the confused Kobolds from the shadows.
Dante was laughing, holding a shiny new skill book.
""See, Silas? No need to chase those rats, they led us straight to the prize. Jason thinks he's clever, but every move he makes just lines my pockets. Let him enjoy his little win."
We're getting rich off his discovery!"
Silas, still bitter from losing a full level, muttered under his breath but kept quiet, he knew better than to challenge Dante.
Jason watched them from the shadows, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face.
"He thinks I'm helping him? Oh, this is going to be good."
Jay looked at him, confused.
"What are you planning?"
"Just watch," Jason said, checking the timer on their Smoke Bomb.
"Patience is a virtue. Especially when your enemies don't have any."
They waited.
Drunk on their easy wins, The Syndicate started getting careless.
They kept dragging in more Kobolds, letting greed drown out any sense of caution.
Five minutes later, the gray smoke around them began to fade, then vanished entirely.
For a split second, there was silence.
Then, over a hundred pairs of glowing red eyes all snapped towards Dante's party.
The Kobolds, no longer blinded, let out a collective, furious roar and charged.
The scene descended into pure chaos.
The Syndicate's healer was overwhelmed in seconds, torn down before anyone could react.
Their tank held for barely three seconds before a swarm of pickaxe-wielding Kobolds brought him crashing down.
Dante roared, cleaving through enemies with his axe, but the horde was too much, he was drowning in numbers.
"AARGH!" He was pulled down, his health bar vanishing in a flash of red numbers.
He dropped a shiny pair of gauntlets and lost a level.
Jason and Jay walked calmly into the cavern, just as the final Syndicate member burst into fading particles of light.
Dante respawned at the mine's entrance, his face twisted in a mix of rage and disbelief.
He stared at Jason, who gave him a mock salute.
Just as Dante opened his mouth to shout, a sharp notification pinged in his ear.
He paled even further.
It was a call from his superior, Commander Valerius.
"Dante, you incompetent fool!" a voice boomed, audible even from where Jason stood.
"I put you in charge of Crimson Creek, and this is what I get? Outplayed by two nobodies, our best grinding spot stolen, and your whole elite squad wiped out? You're done, Dante.
You're demoted, report to HQ and clean up your mess!"
The call ended.
Dante stared blankly into space, utterly broken.
He had lost his rank, his level, and his dignity, all in one fell swoop.
With one last venomous glare at Jason, he vanished in a flash of light, swallowed by shame.
"Well, that was satisfying," Jay said, whistling.
"Let's see what they dropped!"
The loot was fantastic.
Aside from Dante's Bronze gauntlets, they found the very skill book he'd been bragging about: [Gale Step]—a rare Swordsman ability that unleashed a burst of blinding speed.
Jason learned it immediately.
But the real treasure came from a small, glittering object Jay found near a pile of rocks.
It was a shard of crystal that seemed to contain a swirling galaxy within it.
[Astral Shard] (Legendary Material)
"Whoa, what's this?" Jay asked, tossing it to Jason.
Jason's hands trembled as he caught it.
An Astral Shard! In his past life, these were things guilds would go to war over.
They were a key component in crafting Epic-ranked items.
The drop rate was less than one in a million.
"Jay," Jason said, his voice serious.
"You are officially the luckiest man in Aethelgard. Don't tell anyone you found this. Ever."
He carefully stored the shard away.
With their bags full and their quest complete, they returned to Jack's makeshift smithy in Shadowfen Vale.
The old blacksmith grunted in approval when they handed over the 100 ores.
"Good work, lads. You've proven your mettle. But the trial isn't over."
Jason's heart sank.
He knew this was coming.
Jack raised a dirt-streaked finger, aiming it at the blackest, deepest part of the mine.
"If you truly wish to walk the Road of Forging," Jack growled, "bring me the head of the one who rules these mines. Slay the Kobold Chieftain, and I'll teach you what you came to learn."
Quest Updated: The Road of Forging
Task: Slay the Level 5 Kobold Chieftain (0/1).
Time Limit: 1 Hour.
Jay swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the dark tunnel.
"A Chieftain? Level 5? Jason, that's a real boss, we'd need a full twenty-man party to even stand a chance!"
Jason was silent, his mind racing.
Jay was right. The Chieftain's lair was a massive, open cavern.
The Smoke Bomb strategy was useless; the boss's perception range was too wide.
They couldn't kite it, and they couldn't out-damage its regeneration.
A frontal assault was suicide.
There was only one way.
One terrible, risky, and powerful option.
His eyes fell to the black sword at his hip. Voidfang.
The cursed blade that fed on the souls of its victims, offering immense power, but at a deadly cost.
Using its skills would amplify his strength tenfold, but the backlash could cripple him permanently.
Staring into the darkness where the monster dwelled, Jason slowly placed his hand on the hilt of the blade.
The cold steel pulsed faintly in his grip, murmuring dark promises of power and triumph.
It was a gamble that could either skyrocket him to the top or send him crashing back to nothing.