In the broken and opened coffin laid a skeleton with arms crossed and a blue sword on his chest. The man wore a pure white robe.
Max held his breath and swallowed as he grabbed the sword, which glowed for a second and yanking it off the corpse.
"There's a pond down the hill. I'll clean the sword." Said the player flatly as he put the coffin down into the hole. Then he summoned something from his Inventory in white sparks. It was red, glowing and smoky.
Max threw it into the coffin and a flash happened. Soundless. A fire raged from the coffin. Vaporizing the skeleton.
"Hey. Don't waste that." Said Manuel.
"I got five more from the boss and the man deserves some respect."
Max, the girl and the squad went down to the pond. There wasn't anything on the sword but Max felt wrong. Eliyah spoke to Misa as Max observed the stats of the sword.
[Horizon Sword]
[Attack Power: 500]
[Special Attribute: Aura flows in and through faster and more efficiently.]
[Passive Ability: Water Breathing]
[Passive Ability: Seaman]
[Active Ability: Hydranous Mark]
[You have received a title: Grave Robber!]
Max decided to check the details later as the squad reached the pond.
"The second floor?" The girl spoke to Eliyah.
"Yeah. What's it like?" The mage asked. "We'll go there soon."
Misa glanced up at the closest planet to this one. An oceanic planet of countless, millions of islands.
"It's mostly shallow waters and small islands. The whole world's a mystery. There are some underwater ruin of an old civilization scattered. Small towns, villages. All by the sea."
Manuel put a few fingers on the side of his head as he thought of something.
"How can we meet each other up there? Can we, uh, go together and spawn in the same place?" He asked.
Max stopped washing and listened.
"Me and my brother hold hands and spawn together at the same place. We tried to do it with more people at once, but it didn't work."
"So two can go together?" Max asked.
"Yeah, but higher up, some items exist that teleport a dozen or more people. Hard to find though. Beacons, Soul Links, stuff like that exist too, for meeting up."
Misa cracked her neck as she looked at Max.
"What you did on this floor...Do you plan to do it again, elsewhere?" She asked with curiosity and a hint of excitement.
Max scrubbed a wash cloth over the blade and cleared his throat.
"I'm not sure. What I did here was, first of all, a stroke of big luck. Skill and such came after."
"He used to clean streets and do physical labor with me for months, to survive back then, after the game started." Eliyah said with a smile.
"Heh, yeah. We weren't as brave as the people you know. We got into the flow way later. Only now going up to the second floor."
"Well, good luck to you guys. You're an interesting bunch." Said the girl.
Manuel washed his face in the water. "And the third floor? What's that like?" The spear knight said.
"That's...It's the weirdest floor of them all. You'll see when you get there. Get close to Elevated first though."
Manuel nodded.
"Alright guys we should go. Patrol might've heard the sound we made and started moving towards us. Let's avoid potential trouble, yeah?" Max said. His back straight and his now empty fists clenched.
"Wait, what's your name?" The girl asked Max.
"Max. Max Veritas." Then he pointed to the other three and said each of their names.
"You will be at the tournament, right?" The girl asked.
"Yeah. I will."
"Okay, great. I'll tell my brother that. We'll come watch."
"Why are you guys even here?" Max asked quickly, seeing that the girl was about to go.
"Vacation." She said with a smile.
Then the girl's wings glowed brighter, dim rings of light around her body went down from the torso to the ground and she rapidly rose into the night sky.
She looked like a glowing blue bird monster from a distance. Tails of light moved with her wings' flapping and sparks were created. The ones you'd see in a forgery, but white and blue.
"That's a hell of an audience you'll have bro." Thomas said. "But surrender if your life is in great danger there. No shame in that."
"Don't worry about me. Let's have a look at the sword." Max replied. He had a smile on his face.
***
In front of the newly built sword statue commemorating the victims at the Valiants' headquarters stood Priam and a man with bright red hair, green eyes and white armor.
It was a sunny day on the fourth floor.
"Don't let them change who you are Priam."
"What?"
"Our enemies. They're ruthless and murderous. They deserve death and justice, but..."
Priam looked at the First Supreme Knight, his gaze distant. It seemed like he wasn't really looking at the statue.
"Don't become like them. Sure, we should end them when they come back, or when we find them. But you are a bright star for us, Priam. You're like a pillar that upholds the good and the right."
"I'll be the same man you've always known, Kili."
Kili nodded. "I just don't want you to go hollow friend. We all look up to you."
Priam smiled slightly. He wore a white pullover with pretty patterns of yellow and red on the shoulders and collar.
Large colorful flowers were all around the statue. An Ability accelerated their growth rapidly. Small dots of light rose from them. It looked a little like snowfall, but in reverse.
"You called for me, guild master?" A third person called out from behind. It was a soft, feminine voice.
"Yes, come."
The third figure walked on the stone walkway towards the two players. Both turned around.
The new person was a heart stopping woman with platinum hair and blue eyes. She had red, full lips and dark eyebrows. Her armor was grey with white engravings.
"You guys are my two strongest knights. While David and some of our forces are at the Pillars with the others, we'll go on a side quest."
The first ranked player paused for a moment and looked at them both.
None of them said a word.
"There's been a roaming field boss monster sighted nearby. It could disrupt our routes soon. I was thinking you guys could accompany me."
The two knights nodded.
"Great. You should know that I intend to kill this monster on my own. I got a new ability, you see. Well, it's more of a technique. It's very strong and I wanna test it out."
"Are you sure sir?" The girl asked. She had a look of worry on her face. "We're aware of your abilities but no one has slain a Transcendent field boss solo, ever."
"She's right man, why take such a risk?" The red haired player said.
"I just...I wanna see my limits, true limits. What they are, right now. And besides, if I kill it solo, everyone will get a morale boost and feel more secure. The people need a reminder. That they are in good hands. I want you to stand watch and be ready to aid in the escape if things go bad. We'll run and bring reinforcements in that scenario."
"But still..." The girl started.
"The ability I have now is very, very powerful. I can do it. Trust me, please. Just watch at a distance."
The two knights looked at Priam silently for a couple moments.
Then they nodded their heads.
"Okay."
"Yes sir."
***
Valenti sat on a balcony in his headquarters, which was overlooking the colossal valley his guild was exploring and conquering. Next to him was a man with curly white hair, golden eyes and dark blue armor that almost looked liquid.
"You know what I didn't tell you, Arlan?" The second ranked said.
The other man turned to face him. A beautiful face, he had. It wasn't striking, or robust. It was simply beauty without gender. He did have some masculine dimorphism in his jaw though, but nowhere else.
Valenti continued.
"Priam is not designed."
A brief look of surprise flashed on Arlan's face. "Really?"
"Yeah. A good friend of his told me. He's all natty. Born and raised in some mountain village in Greece. Moved down to Athens for college, bought the X-VR with friends and ended up here."
"A man like him, natural?"
"I was shocked as well. But Priam said it to the guy. No reason to lie about something like that. No scans, no edits. He didn't have stem cell embryo selection either. Nothing."
Arlan leaned his face on his right fist.
"Most people are engineered or selected these days. Gene editing has been affordable for almost 3 decades man. It's almost like the smartphone earlier in the century."
Arlan said as he squinted. His eyes staring at the distance which the valley covered.
"I know, but gifted people existed before gene editing. Some old people could have definitely competed with edited people. Be it in ability or appearance." Valenti replied.
"Sure, I guess. But today, you know that the unedited people are almost always...y'know. I mean, even health insurance can cover editing in many places. You really think Priam is unedited? He's like 23, so I don't think his parents were edited."
The second ranked yawned.
"You know what I think? The blueprint, the guide with which medicine edits genes and makes people desirable and more fit, better overall...I think Priam is that blueprint. People like Priam." Valenti said, cracking his knuckles
"Okay, but we, almost everyone is edited, artifical to a degree, us especially, and we're all below this man? He who's unedited, a villager from the mountains?"
Even people with a good background had their recombined genetics scanned and "polished" in the first trimester.
Embryos were also sometimes artificially created by converting the mother's skin cells to stem cells and then to eggs and fertilizing them. Millions of embryos were created and could be filtered through to find the best possible genetic combination of the offspring. This was much more expensive than editing. Primarily used by the wealthy with already good genes, to choose the best of the best. Editing offered more options and broke the limits of ordinary people's bloodline.
"Your ego can't accept it, I felt the same way. But I don't think I'm inferior to the King, so maybe that's the difference between you and me."
Arlan smiled. "An unedited person even matching you should hurt." The 47th ranked player and Valenti's right hand got up to look at the valley and its unfathomable sights decorated with alien scenery and and all types of bizzare monstrosities.
"The last push to the Rift is in two days?" The white haired man asked.
"Yeah, I told Priam and the others we'll be the last to get to the Pillars. We gotta do this. It's either a main boss or an Epic, like the one slain by that noob.
Valenti got up and put his hands on the metal railing.
"Tomorrow, a helper will come."
Arlan turned.
"The Needle. 15th ranked. We did the second floor clearing together."
"Sounds like we'll become the most powerful guild after the raid." Arlan said with a smile.
Valenti smiled back. His blue eyes glowed in the sunlight.
"Nah." He said as he turned his gaze at the valley.