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"You know, I often wonder if I chose the wrong class," Zyviss said. Things have calmed down by now and they were heading back to get some rest.

Elizabeth would take care of the players they had rescued. They had failed their quest, but there was no need to send them packing to die on the return journey. As much as things have calmed down in the North, it was still dangerous to travel ill-prepared. 

"What do you mean?" Judith asked, tilting her head in confusion. 

"It just... I don\'t feel like the bow has much promise. Not compared to magic or even any melee weapon."

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

"Why?"

"It\'s just, it feels so limiting. Sure, I can fire from safety, guide my arrows, and even shoot multiple at a time, but... magic can do the same thing, can\'t it? And better."

"Well, if you are comparing things to what Eldrian does, sure," Judith replied halfheartedly. It was something everyone in their group of friends—no, everyone in the guild did. At least once, that was for sure. 

"But most mages can only control one spell at a time. Ilmadia is one of the best, and she is capped at three lower Tiered spells, or one Tier 5 and one Tier 4 at best."

"And when it comes to guiding them, it is terribly inefficient. Guiding Arrow is much more accurate than spells, and it only gets stronger as you master it, doesn\'t it?

"Plus!" Judith continued before Zyviss could reply. "Arrows can\'t be stopped by a normal barrier. They need to put up a physical one to prevent your attacks. Which is much more draining and difficult."

"I-I guess. Still, I wouldn\'t have been able to pull off what you did."

"I mean, obviously." Her saying this hit Zyviss deep in the feels. Especially how her tone betrayed that she truly felt this was an obvious fact that need not be said.

"But not because you chose to master the bow." She continued, lessening the harshness in her voice. "Heck, you could take up a crossbow, throwing weapons, or a sword and I\'d say the same."

She let that sink in for a second before continuing. "You haven\'t really been putting yourself in much danger, have you?"

Again, she let her words sink in before asking,  "Hey, Chris, what\'s your level."

Ignoring that she had used his real name instead of his in-game tag, Zyviss answered after a slight delay. "57"

"There." She said this as if it was the answer to all his questions. And... it kind of was.

"I guess..." He wasn\'t fully convinced, but he understood what she was getting at. He was one of the highest leveled players in the guild. Due to how dangerous their quests often were, most players died often. 

As a result, he might not make it into the top 100 of all players. But he was still up there. The highest leveled player was currently level 65, whereas the average for their guild was 35, and the average of all players was somewhere between 20 and 30. 

Though, it wasn\'t so low just because of how difficult it was to survive and level. There were millions of new players still flocking to join the game. Immersive Headsets and Immersive Cabins were the limiting factors, not the number of players. 

"But, that is just how your class operates. It is the same for mages, they shouldn\'t be front and center. Though they get targeted more often, their stats make them slower. So... I guess they die more often."

A moment of silence passed before Judith asked, "Does it bother you that much?"

"No, not actually. I was just thinking I should put some more effort into my practice. Perhaps..." Having been inspired by her display today, Zyviss was feeling like he was slacking. 

—

"So, this is a dungeon?" Eldrian mumbled. It was now just a few weeks until the tournaments. And due to IRL reasons, the guild had decided to participate. 

As a result, everyone was doing their utmost to grind out levels, Tiers, or items. And Eldrian had decided to join his friends in the highest-level dungeon in the area. 

They were currently in Fort Pyknos, at the southern gate. The entrance to the dungeon was this very gate, as weird as that sounded—and felt. 

[Pyknos Forest, Undead Invasion Dungeon]

Having been a central figure in the history from which this dungeon had spawned, Eldrian\'s feelings were all over the place. 

He could vaguely recall the events, though most of what he recalled was how things never went according to plan. 

The entire invasion had been centered around an epic-ranked quest called exactly that: Undead Invasion.

It having been an Epic-Ranked quest had meant it should have ended in failure. But, somehow, it hadn\'t failed. But not because of Eldrian—not directly. Eldrian, and everyone else, had ended up running from the final boss. 

As far as Eldrian could recall, the dwarves who had been shadowing him, Abyssal Guards (or so Boran called them), had come to their rescue. They hadn\'t, however, killed the Death Knight. Instead, they had banished it. 

Eldrian had no clue why they did that when they could have simply killed it. That didn\'t matter. What did matter was that the dungeon was centered around the quest and the events that had transpired back then. 

However, it was not an exact representation of the past. Had it been, then it would be a movie and not a dungeon. 

To make dungeons, the devs used historical events and high-ranked quests to formulate the dungeon\'s lore. However, that was more or less the extent of it. 

As a result, the dungeon description was as follows:

[Having secured a foothold in the land of the living, the undead aim to further their research on the corruption of the living and the spreading of undeath. Find a way to stop their nefarious plans.]

Further details were lacking, but from the scouting the guild had done, the dungeon had the following parameters: 20k-ish of undead and 5k soldiers in the fort.

Scouting like this was only possible since dying in dungeons didn\'t cost levels. Though there was an entry cooldown. So you had to be smart about how you approach it. 

Due to these initial parameters, even the easiest difficulty option was S-Ranked. 

[S-ranked Difficulty: Stop the undead from securing their foothold in the forest.]

[Clearing Reward: Tier 5 item]

[Individual Reward: B-ranked treasure chest]

[Cooldown: 3 days]

The guild, or rather, some of the players in the guild, had completed this level on their own a few times already.

While it was difficult, needing to stop several unrelenting hordes from overwhelming the forces in Pyknos Fort, it was doable if well-equipped.

It took about an entire day to complete the dungeon and worked more like a defense quest than a typical dungeon clear. 

Honestly, the rewards weren\'t equal to the effort. And since the item rewarded was random (though the party leader did get to pick from several options) it wasn\'t too appealing to grind. 

As a result, the guild had been focusing its efforts less on the dungeon and more on actual events and quests. Those rewards were far more valued for the time investment. 

As for the B-ranked treasure chests, they gave players Tier 2 or 3 items, a few golds, or some extra rare potions. The rarest drop from the chests were stat increase potions. Giving you 3 bonus points in one attribute. 

It was a minuscule increase, but so far, it appeared that you could consume multiple potions. No one knew the limit to these potions. 

Naturally, this was the biggest draw for elite players. Newbies, instead, flocked to dungeons for the \'quick-and-easy\' cash. It was only classified as such since dying had no penalty outside of needing to wait the cooldown out.