(ooc: Litter and Dory, you need to register your characters before you're actually in here)

Heironeous leaned against a building facing the portal. Dar had told him to meet him here, for some easy training he'd said but H.A. was level 2 and Dar was 3, so he wasn't sure what to expect

"Nyu" He heard over the din and smiled "There he is" H.A. stepped away from the wall and leveled his spear at Dar

"Where've you been, I've been waiting here for you"

"I contacted two more of our friends that just started, I figured the two of us could help them through a dungeon to join the group nyu" He answered.

H.A. set his spear back on it's end. "Makes sence, so where are they?"

"I just sent off the flashmails nyu, they said they'd be here quick" Dar answered.

"So... more waiting" H.A. sighed. "alright, I wanna level up, so we'll wait a few minutes for them" He said and leaned back against the wall.

"Nyu" Dar agreed and walked to the gate to keep watch

the newly assembled team warps to the field... a green field with little clusters of building spread about.

"quaint-nyu"

"well then" said H.A. "lets find the dungeon"

H.A. set off towards a portal off to the right, hoping that it would lead them to where the entrance was, or at least it'd show the girls what fighting was like in The World

"There's a monster portal" He told them, scanning the surroundings for the entrance. "Go see what battling is like here. I doubt you will, but if you need help we're here"

Litter stepped forward and activated the portal, and H.A. noticed three gold rings appearing beside the forming monsters. "Hold Up" He shouted

Dory turned around with a glare "First you want us to battle, then you don't?" She said irratably.

H.A. pointed behind her and she turned to see a twinblade slashing at the deadly moth that had formed. Dory and Litter lept to join attack and the moth turned black between the three of them

"Striver. You made it nyu" Dar said. "H.A. here got tired of waiting for you to show up nyu"

"Yea, I saw. What were you two attacking me for?" He asked, turning to the two heavy axewomen

"Sorry, we thought you were the monster forming" Litter explained.

"It's ok, you didn't kill me. Now lets find this dungeon and get started." He answered

"This way everyone, it's just over that hill" H.A. said and started off.

The other four stepped behind him. "Is he always like this?" Dory asked.

"Not usually, I'm just excited to be co-leading a quest" H.A. responded, turning to face them and continuing to walk.

"You might want to -"

"Ow"

"Turn around, there's the entrance" Litter finished.

"Right..." H.A. answered with a chuckle and rubbed his head. They entered the dungeon and came to a halt.

There were 5 paths from the main room, each branching off to another two or three paths within view.

"Anyone know which way to turn nyu?"

H.A. turned a corner, hoping for something to break up the monotony of the the dungeon so far, he didn't mind the small conversations he was having with Tang, but the same stone walls was getting annoying, and they hadn't seen the other group like he'd hoped, or even a monster portal.

The turned corner didn't bring any changes, only a stone wall with paths leading left and right. He took the right one without even looking in the other direction, eventually this had to lead to somewhere.

"Hey, isn't that a monster thingy?" Tang said happily.

H.A. spun, to see her activating the portal. He stepped beside her and reddied his spear as a swordmanoid and two goblins appeared."Which d'you want?" he asked.

"I'll take the goblins. If you think you can handle that thing alone" She teased.

H.A. took two steps and slashed at the swordmanoid's arm before she'd taken the one step between her and the goblins.

H.A. attempted to stab and finish the swordmanoid quickly, but it kept parrying his attacks.

Tang giggled. "Need some help?" She asked and slashed at the 'oid's back, causing it to roar and knock her back into the wall.

the moment of distraction she'd caused gave H.A. the opportunity to stab the creature finally, defeating it, and he ran over to Tang.

"Are you ok?" He asked, hoping the bandana had the ability the game said it gave him. "Repth" he called out, feeling silly.

Tang shook her head to clear it and smiled at him. "Finish that thing off?"

"Yea, you ok?" She nodded and he helped her up. "Well, that's kinda an ovbious place for a dead end" He grinned, looking at the tiny alcove the portal was in. "Lets keep going." He called, his spirits higher for having battled, even if he didn't finish on his own.

"She reminds me of my girlfriend IRL" he thought to himself as she started off ahead of him. He sighed and thought for a moment about what she was doing right now, then stepped quickly to catch up.

"They say the fastest way to a point is a straight line..." Striver muttered nonchalantly. He walked to the path straight ahead of him, pushing his white hair away from his eyes with his forearm.

H.A. blinked and looked back at the others.
"So?" he asked as he checked out the four remaining pathways. "Though there are several different ways to go, I think it'd be best if we stayed in some sort of group."

Dory smirked. "I think I should stick with you, and keep away from Striver... besides, I need to keep you out of trouble," she said confidently.

H.A. smiled "Alright, alright. And you Dar? Dar...?" H.A., Dory, and Litter looked around to see Dar heading after Striver.

Litter just shook her head. "Okay, I don't think those two will make the best team. I'll keep an eye on them" said Litter, winking to the Dory.

H.A. and Dory nodded and took a different path than Litter, who followed after Dar and Striver.

Dar poked Striver in the arm, taking a break from focusing on the fights ahead.

"Knock it off!" Striver shouted in his normal tempermental manner. "I think this is going to be a looooong dungeon..." he though to himself

Dar pointed into the hallway. "A monster portal, nyu!" he exclaimed. Dar ran towards the portal, but was cut short by Striver's elbow, which caught him in the stomach.

"Mine..." Striver muttered in an uncaring voice. "The faster I level up, the faster I get travel this place with Mayko..." Striver walked towards the monster portal alone.

Dar got up and clenched his fists, ready to punch Striver out for his attitude, but Litter placed a hand on his shoulder.

Litter smiled slightly. "Let him go, Dar," she said quite calmly. Though a newbie like Striver, she wanted to see if Striver knew what he was doing. She tilted her head to the side and watched for the moment.

Striver stood before two small goblins. "This shouldn't take long..." he murmered to himself as he rushed past them into a dark corner. The two goblins followed him into the shadows, and within seconds fell back into the light belly-up. The two deleted and formed a treasure chest as Striver emerged from the dark corner. "Darkness can be your best friend, or your worst enemy..." he said as he pocketed the Health Drink from the chest. "You'd do well to remember that..." He turned around once more and continued to the next room. "I'm closer now than before... I'll be with you soon," he though to himself.

Dar stuck out his tongue quickly. "I dun like his attitude, nyu" he said with anger in his voice.

Litter sighed. "Well, we only have to put up with him a little while longer. Think of it that way!" she replied, trying to cheer Dar up.

"I guess you're right, nyu..." Dar said as he nodded. "Well then, let's get a move on, nyu!" Dar ran into the next room with Litter.

Strange was hardly the right word to discribe the girl that approached. Her wings, spikes and long tail made her look quite frighting, but what was most noticable was the gleam in her eyes, or more procisely the lack there of. Her tail twitched low and close to her body.
"Sorry we're late, we had trouble finding our way here." Litter said, showing not intention to elaborate.

The Second girl look more human but still none the less out of the ordinary. "ya it'd be alot easier if they made this whole thing a bit more newbi friendly." she said with a look of annoyance then she gave a quick grin to Heironeous.

"That's two out of three-nyu" Dar said looking back to see if the third was coming. He was beinging to feel anxious not sure how H.A. would react to having to wait so long although he knew he wouldn't act to badly for it, he was much to melloy for makeing a big deal of it.

"alright but only a few more minutes" Bastion said wanting to show Dory what it's like in a dungeon as soon as possible.

The minutes ticked by and there was still no sign of the third player. The four's idial chatter had become more and more restless and finally H.A. made the choice to leave with out him. The girls gave eachother a quick nervous grin, both wondering what exactly they would find.

"Nyu" Dar sighed. He hadn't really wanted them to split up. In front of him was Striver, someone who obviously didn't really want to someone helping him out with things, and behind him was Litter, who probably had no idea what so ever as to what she was supposed to do. It was going to be quite a task just to keep them from fighting, and starting a conversation seemed utterly hopeless. That was until Litter broke the silence.

"Something wreaks." she said covering her nose. The boys both sniffed for a moment then not catching the slightest whiff of anything they turned and looked at her questioningly. They needed only a quick look to remind them that her character wasn't exactly human.
"What is it?" Striver demanded.
Litters large dull yellow eyes suddenly sparked seemingly to life and her ears pricked up. "Death"
Dar's mind race with questions as to what could have died. Then he remembered that skeletons can often be found near monster portals.
"Follow your nose-nyu" Dar said, egar for something to do other than wander around.
Litter grinned and flapped her wings slightly ready to run, but Striver wasn't about to lose his spot at the front of the line, and for once played it a bit on the safe side just to keep it that way. It'd eventually lead to him having first picks as to opponents so why not do it just this once?
"You know if ya just go rushing into things like that it's bound to get you in trouble" He said satisfied as she settled down and nodded. Dar shook his head, knowing all to well as soon as they saw a monster portal Striver was going to run to it himself.

Sure enough a skeleton lay against the wall on the other side. For a moment Dar and litter were confused as to what happened to Striver until the heard grunting from a whole in the ground a few feet ahead of them, and two hands desperately clinging to the edge closest to them. For a moment Dar plotted stepping on those fingers and Litter thought about helping him up, but both decided it'd only cause a fight either way. Eventually Striver hoisted himself back up, brushing his hair again out of his face, and quickly tried to halt any of their questions to avoid more embarrassment or a possible scolding.

"What is going on in this room?!" Striver said angrily, hopping it'd scare them out of putting a 'you should have waited up' tone in the voice of however answered.

"Must be like a mini puzzle-nyu" Dar said and tapped the ground slightly to their left.

"How do we know which way to go then?" Striver replied, glancing back and forth between Litter and Dar, both of whom shrugged. "Great, juuuust great. So we're probably all going to fall and die or something, except Litter, who's probably going to fly over and laugh at us. Wait, she'd bring Dar with her."

Dar looked puzzled after the comment, wondering why she'd bother to bring him over if she was going to Leave Striver. Litter on the other hand shook her head.

"Those wings are more for show, they can do little more than glide. Besides as amusing as it'd be to watch you fall, you might be useful later as monster bait." Litter said, breaking the promise she had made to herself not to instigate any fights. Striver sure enough growled at the remark.

"Monster bait?! Did you see how I destroyed those two goblins back there?! The were push overs!! I bet you'd still be back there fighting if you had taken the battle. Your going to be begging me to help you before long!" Striver yelled in her face, which wasn't saying much since the three didn't have much room on the small platform all three had crowed do to lack of other safe ones.

Litter curled her lips slightly. "Ok so I will admit your the better fighter out of the two of us but I doubt you'd get far on you own. I mean look at you charging in here like that! Not to mention I bet even you'll need Dar's help before the end of this thing!"

As the two of them continued to fight Dar took Litter's Ax and thrust it onto the ground to their left, which crumbled beneath it's heavy weight and the force of the blow. "Follow me-nyu" Dar said walking to the right and thrusting the ax down. Litter and Striver both stopped fighting and followed, Striver muttering he could have figured something like this out if he had been given the chance. Dar continued to navigate using the ax to tell which areas were safe and which weren't, and the door at the other end of the room with the skeleton near by grow closer.

(ooc: Tang is my character's user name for The World just so ya don't get confused. ^^")

Tang followed H.A. down the darkened pathway of the dungeon, wondering why she was even there. Bored of the silence, Tang decided to strike up a conversation; or try to at least. "So, what's fun to do here?" she asked, flicking her long, dark blue bangs to the side.

"Fight, gain experience, and reach the Gott statue," H.A. replied.

"Um, that it?" she asked again. "Just fight and get stuff? Sounds like an ordinary RPG only online...."

H.A. glanced over his shoulder and eyed her for a moment, watching the light bounce off her two toned blue hair. "What else did you expect?" he replied.

"Well, how 'bout a little friendship or somethin' like that. You know, major interaction between players. I know we're not ALL computers around here," came a cocky response as she started to once again play with her extra long bangs. "Oh, by the way," she started again, "the name's Tang. Your's?" Tang had quickly moved up beside H.A. and waited his reply.

"Heironeous, but everyone calls me H.A. for short," he answered.

The two walked on awhile as the silence added a thickness to the dim lighting. Eventually, the silence got to Tang again as she tried to strike up another conversation.

"So, what are we hoping to find? Gold, monsters, stuff?" she asked.

"Well, a monster portal hopefully. Then you can fight and gain experience," he replied.

"Oh, that it? Find a monster, then kick its butt. Sounds simple enough," Tang chortled, obviously full of herself.

"If only it were that easy," H.A. responded. "Just do me a favor and tone down the ego a little bit. It's going to get you hurt or possibly killed," he finished.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," came her snooty reply. "How hard can killing monsters here be anyway? A couple of hits and they're dead, right?"

H.A. laughed and strode along just ahead of Tang in their little game of tag they'd started to make things interesting. He turned back to see how close she'd gotten, and suddenly felt his foot slide onto air. He looked and managed to flip quickly enough to grab the ledge he'd just run off.

Tang looked over the ledge and saw the blackness of the bottom of the pit and grabbed one of his hands to help him up. "By the way, you're it now" She laughed.

He smiled. "Just wait till we're on the other side." He answered and turned to take a look at the crevice.

"Think you can jump that?" Tang asked.

"Well... it doesn't look that far, but I'm not sure I could jump it on my..." He paused and hefted his spear. "With this I could probably get across no problem. Can you get across?"

"With your spear, definately. Otherwise, maybe, maybe not" She answered.

"Alright then. I'll vault across, then throw my spear down the path to you. OK?"

"Sure, then we can get to the end faster" She answered and stepped back to the wall.

H.A. walked back down the corridor a few steps, then turned and vaulted the pit easily, unfortunately they hadn't noticed the monster portal. It activated as he threw his spear back to Tang.

"Hurry and get across!" He shouted and dodged the headhunter's clumsy attacks and ran down the corridor beyond it.

Tang hurried across alright, nearly missing the ledge and only regaining her balance by stabing the hunter in the leg and leveraging herself forward with it.

She pulled the spear free and tried to toss it over the monster to H.A., but the headhunter grabbed it as it turned to her.

"Keep running H.A. It's got your spear" She called and pulled out her axe.

"Alright, meet back up with you at the next corner" He called back.

"Alright" She answered and turned her attention to the monster who was brandishing it's sword as well as H.A.'s spear. "Give that back" She growled.

The Headhunter complied, throwing it at her. Tang dodged and only realized as it passed her that the pit was behind her. "Oh great" She thought.

The monster was unprepared for her attack and thus got beheaded itself in two blows. Before it recovered from throwing, it had turned black and dissapeared as Tang turned and went belly down at the edge of the crevice hoping against hope that the spear was still there somehow.

After spending a few minutes of careful scanning, she gave up looking and started for the corridor, not entirely wanting to tell H.A. that she'd lost his only means of attack.

"Why so down?" H.A. asked her as she turned the corner.

She held up her axe and empty hand. "It didn't give it back?"

Tang shook her head. "It did... but you remember that pit we had to leap?"

"Oh" He answered. He smiled and gave her a one-armed hug. "Well, it's not like I'm defenceless, you'll protect me, won't you? And I can heal you now that I know how" He grinned.

"True." She answered slowly. "Well, we better try and find the group now. I'm only one person, I can't always be there to protect you."

"Right, lets go" :-)

Tang nervously lead on, carefully scanning the dimly light passageways for signs of the other group or monster portals.

"Heh, this beats playing Final Fantasy all day I suppose," she giggled in an attempt to make the darkness seem a little lighter.

"Heh, yeah," came H.A.'s reply.

The two continued on for what seemed like hours down corridor after corridor of similar rock patterns and wall structures. Finally, at the end of the tunnel was a brightly lit room, or what seemed brightly lit compared to the dim light Tang and H.A. were growing accustomed to. Upon approaching the room, the two venturers had to shield their eyes from the light, leaving them momentarily vulnerable to any sudden attacks or ambushes.

A few moments later, after their eyes had adjusted to the new, brighter light, H.A. and Tang removed their hands from their faces and looked about the empty room that served as a crossroads to the rest of the dungeon. Before them lay three separate paths, each just as dark as the ones the two had just emerged from.

"Well, there goes the happy feelings of light," Tang blurted out rather obnoxiously.

"We'll manage. We have so far," came H.A.'s response.

"I suppose. But I was just beginning to enjoy being able to see farther than two feet in front of my face," she retorted.

H.A. chuckled a bit at Tang's response then spoke again. "Well, where to now? Left, right, or straight?"

"Um, let's go down the dark one!" Tang obnoxiously responded, knowing her sarcasm was probably not appropriate at the moment.

"That really limits things. Alright, I'll choose and you follow, okay?" H.A. lead the way down the left tunnel sighing at the similarities between Tang and his girlfriend in the real world.

Tang simply nodded in agreeance and followed H.A. down the dimly lit tunnel, ready to plant her feet in the ground of the next room with light.

Litter lead Dar and Striver through the dungeon to a room with a dead warrior's body laying against a wall. Though the body was nothing but a skeleton, all of its armor and weapons remained attached, completely unusable because of the thick rust. Dar blinked for a moment and poked the skeleton, which promptly crumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust and decay.

"Creepy, nyu..." Dar murmered in the dimly lit room.

"They're regenerative... if we leave this room and come back, the skeleton will have repaired itself..." Striver muttered. "Just keep moving. I need to level up..."

"I need to level up..." Dar immitated. "You're like a broken record, nyu! It wouldn't hurt if you let us help you, nyu!"

"Spare me the lecture. I've heard this before. Besides, EVERYONE'S too far ahead of me in levels for me NOT to fight alone. So back off..." Striver kept walking ahead into the next room.

Dar followed him. "You know, if we kill a monster you still get just as much experience, nyu"

"Yes, but I don't want YOU to level up. Otherwise I'll still be a step behind, okay?" Striver snapped.

"That's selfish, nyu..." Dar mumbled.

"No, that's SMART," replied Striver, visibly agrivated.

"Please, both of you settle down." said Litter, also losing patience with Striver. "Do we have to fight like this?"

"Listen, the faster we finish this dungeon the quicker I can claim my prizes," said Striver, who was walking backwards to face them and unknowingly activating the monster portals behind him.

Dar and Litter both blinked and pointed behind Striver

"It's not polite to point..." muttered Striver, who swung his arms behind him and took out a goblin duo behind him without really seeing them. "There, free battle experience from me..."

Litter smirked. "So does this mean you'll cooperate?"

"I guess," Striver said as he continued on.

The three continued to walk, satisfied by a mutual agreement to cooperate, but none wanting to push the envelope by trying to start a conversation. The scenery was the same as when they had just entered, same formations of rocks, same surprisingly smooth path, and far to dim lighting. They could only hope the other group had found something interesting, well Dar and Litter that is, Striver wanted to find it for himself. It had been a path full of depressingly few monster portals. They might have been knew but they were at least mentally ready to handle anything.
As the path started to slant upwards boredom became less and less manageable and more and more unbearable. Dar finally decided to try to starts some discussion.
"How do you think H.A. and Tang are doing?-nyu" it wasn’t much but it was something.
"Hopefully they’ve gone somewhere a bit more interesting.." Litter sighed.
"I bet their stuck finding their way back after running into some dead end." Striver said, sounding indifferent.
"maybe they did find something-nyu but it was surrounded by monsters so their both out-nyu" With that each of them thought of what they would do in such a case, to deep in thought to notice the end of the path and the lack of ground before it.
Tang and H.A. carried on idol chatter as their path curved and continued on without much to really talk about. The darkness of the path allowed them to only see a few feet in either direction, so when they stopped they couldn’t make out exactly how high the roof to this part of the cavern was, they could only tell it higher than what they had been walking in. What stopped them was the echo of voices from above.
"It’s definitely them" H.A. said staring up to see if he could make out anything.
"If their above us how do you suppose we ever meet back up with them?" She almost growled, annoyed with the realization.
"I don’t know…" Bastion replied about to yell hoping the other would hear them. But right before he could Striver and Dar came crashing down on the two of them. After a few seconds of confused scrambling they all got to their feet just in time to see Litter glide down on her outstretched wings. She blinked at them all than grinned.
"Fancy meeting you here"

"so thats were you guys were-nyu i was just about to start worrying about you-nyu"dar said in relief.

"we thought you guys were dead" H.A. replied.

unbeknown to the newly reassembled party a monster portal was opened ....

"Well, now that we know we're all alive and well how about finishing this dungeon?" Striver said and turned to the continuing path. He started as a pack of goblins formed out of the monster portal, then grinned and lept at the first one. Tang turned and followed him after the next one and H.A. stepped back, ready to heal them if it was needed.

H.A. watched as Striver decimated the pack while Tang took out two of them and Dar and Litter stood back and watched.

Striver glared at Tang for the two and called to the others. "Come on. The Gott shouldn't be far now." and he headed off.

The others followed keeping a little distance from him. "Why'd you leave him to take out that pack by himself?" He asked.

"You saw the glare he gave Tang?" Dar answered.

"He wants to level up, so he wants to take all the exp for himself. He doesn't want anyone else to level up above him" Litter finished.

"So he's been like this the whole time he's been with you. Glad I chose to go with H.A. then" Tang said.

Striver activated a monster portal and delt with the disco knife that formed quickly. H.A. used Repth on him to heal the slash across Striver's side the creature had managed to make before being defeated.
"Thanks" Striver called without turning around.

Tang sighed. "He's just like himself IRL." She said with slight disgust.

"It's kinda hard to forget RL when you've lived it for however many years." H.A. responded, watching down corridors Striver passed without a look. He grinned when a portal was hidden down one and indicated it to Litter and Tang.

They leapt on it and easily took down the swordmanoid between them.

"Thank you." Litter told him once they'd caught back up. "My second monster since entering this place"

H.A. shrugged. "We all need to level up, not just him. You two are new, so you need the experience most. Dar's the most experienced in the group, and I don't exactly have a weapon besides" He laughed.

"Sorry" Tang mumbled again.

"No problem. It gives me a chance to learn how to use other abilities, though I won't get much of a chance with Striver taking all the battles." He told her. "Hey, which way'd he go?"

The four had reached another fork in the road, and there was no sign of Striver.

Tang simply shrugged and replied, "who cares? He's gone now and that leaves us with the battles. Maybe now we'll be able to fight, eh?"

The others turned and looked at each other as Tang lead on down the right corridor. Although seemingly indifferent about Striver's whereabouts, Tang secretly worried if he was hurt somewhere or killed by some strange creature. Slowly, the group started to fall behind Tang as she kept on her steady march down the tunnel.

"Wait up--nyu," Dar called.

"Yeah, let us catch up that way, I can keep your bones if you die," came Litter's retort.

Tang kept walking for a few feet then stopped and turned around. "Sorry," she called back, "I got lost in a thought and didn't realize you guys were falling behind." Tang walked back towards the group, her head still in the clouds about where Striver was, and if the arrogant team member was hurt.

"What's on your mind, Tang?" H.A. asked.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Just.....thinking," she slowly answered.

"About what--nyu?" came Dar's distinct query.

"Just stuff. What is this, twenty questions?" Tang irritably replied. Upon realizing her harsh response, Tang quickly apologized to her friends, hoping it didn't make her sound too much like that certain someone.

"It's ok. Besides, we're all worried about Striver," H.A. responded.

"Yeah--nyu. We're not a family without someone being arrogant--nyu," Dar chortled.

"After all, if Striver dies and we're not there, who'll keep his bones?" Litter finished, adding a bit of comedy to the conversation.

Tang simply giggled and nodded her head in agreeance. "Well, there's only one thing left to do before getting the goodies at the end of this dungeon," Tang started

"What's that--nyu?"

"Find Striver," Tang said forcing back her bitter emotions for his arrogant nature.

The sound of a on going battle ahead was something no one in the group wanted to hear. Simultaneously they all started to run, knowing how far they had come in the dungeon they knew it wasn’t a small battle and if they didn’t act quickly their arrogant team member may not see the rewards for it. All who could readied their weapons. The dark hall way finally opened to a lit room, where Striver stood, doing his best to defend himself against Two Deadly moths and Three Swordmanoids. Well at least they’d all get a chance to fight.

The Party in an unexpected act of fellowship killed all of the monsters and a door way appeared....

"Finally another chance to level up" striver said dashing blindly into the new room

unfortunatly for him it was not another monster....it was the goth statue.

"We all made it-nyu"

"Finally" H.A. sighed in relief

Litter + 1 Lv. + 2 Health Drink
Dory + 1 Lv. + 1 Speed Charm
Heironeous + 1 Lv. + 2 Health Drink + 1 Speed Charm
Striver Lasting + 1 Lv. + 1 Health Drink