Jake pushed open the heavy door of Mara’s Forge - Crafts and Gear, the bell above it giving a final cheerful jingle as he and the others stumbled into the street.
The morning was already lively. rchants shouted over each other, hawking their wares, steam carts rattled by, the scent of frying food, oil, and dust mingled into a thick, familiar fog. The city’s pulse was a living thing around them.
"Holy crap!" Jake breathed, flexing his arms inside the newly reforged armor. "This feels insane."
"Not just insane." Elise tugged on the string of her bow experintally, smiling wide. "It feels miraculous!"
Riven adjusted the straps of his gleaming breastplate while Alric just stood there, staring down at his sword like it had spoken to him.
"We got lucky." Riven muttered, slinging his shield onto his back. "It doesn’t seem like Mara does this for just anyone."
"Luck had nothing to do with it." Cass said, catching up with them after a while, and leading them down the cracked sidewalk. "Co on, we’ve got errands to run."
Jake fell into step beside her, his mind buzzing. The fight in the [Dark Forest] still echoed in his bones, the way the [Grass Crawlers] had moved, how close they’d co to losing. He shook it off, shaking his head. Their gear was fixed, and now, off to the next mission.
First stop, food.
The five of them entered a café that still served the best fried dumplings in the eastern district. They cramd into a booth and piled their order high.
Plates rattled onto the table, steam rising, and for a while, the only sound coming from the young players was that of the steaming dumplings being chewed.
"So," Elise said around a mouthful, "where to next?"
"Potion run." Cass answered imdiately. "We burned through our entire stocks in the [Dark Forest]."
Jake winced. He rembered downing three low-grade healing potions in the last dungeon. His stomach had sloshed for hours.
"And we should check the bounty boards." Alric said, almost inhaling the last dumpling on his plate. "See if there’s any good commissions."
"Can’t we have, like, an hour to chill first?" Jake groaned.
"Nope." Cass smirked.
They paid up and moved on, weaving through the growing crowds. Jake kept glancing down at his new armor, marveling at how natural it felt.
Like it wasn’t just protection, it was part of him.
At the potion shop, they restocked the healing flasks, mana restoration beads, and ergency resistance tonics. Jake even eyed a fancy red vial labeled [Phoenix Draught], but the price tag made him flinch back.
"Maybe next ti." He muttered, pursing his lips.
Afterward, they swung by a rchant’s stall selling modular gear enhancents. Alric haggled for a runed bracer, while Elise found a quiver that whispered fletching corrections to her arrows.
Jake wandered to a stall selling basic accessories and picked up a new utility belt. It didn’t fit as many items as his inventory, but it took a few seconds for him to summon anything out of it, which ant that he needed every extra millisecond he could buy.
As he tested the fit, a sharp chi echoed in his system window, and a pop-up ssage appeared before him.
[ssage Received]
[Sender: Shooting Star Guildmaster - Victor Hale]
"Uh, guys?" Jake blinked.
He turned around to look at them, but they already had worried expressions etched on their faces, apparently having received the sa ssage as he did.
They grouped up instinctively, heads dipping together as each read the ssage silently.
[To all Shooting Star Guild mbers]
[Regroup at Headquarters by midday, mandatory attendance. Important announcent regarding upcoming raids.]
"More raids?" Jake looked up, eting Cass’s eyes.
"I don’t like the sound of that." Cass shook her head. "I know we do it once a month, but this ti it sounds... Different."
Riven cursed under his breath, and Alric looked grim.
"Do you think it’s about the... Other Dungeons?" Elise bit her lip.
"Well, it’s obvious that every dungeon that erged after the [Mouth of the Abyss] was cleared has so secrets that need to be discovered. But there’s only one way to find out what master Hale wants to discuss." Cass said, squaring her shoulders. "Let’s move."
They finished their purchases in record ti and started moving towards downtown.
Shooting Star Headquarters was an old, refitted library from before the world shifted, still in the process of being remodeled by the city’s new construction guild, towering and skeletal against the sky. Banners bearing the Shooting Star’s crest, a stylized shooting star crossing a red background, fluttered from the upper floors.
As they approached, Jake could already see the crowd gathering. Guild mbers stread in from all directions, parties big and small, solo adventurers who never joined a raid, and even so of the elite raiding squads he only ever heard about in passing.
Jake felt a knot form in his stomach as the truth settled in his mind.
This wasn’t going to be a simple update.
The five of them pressed into the mass, jostled by armor, weapons, even a rogue with a tail accessory flicking Jake in the face.
At the main steps, Victor Hale stood on a makeshift stage, arms crossed, flanked by two figures Jake recognized vaguely as his second-in-command and a high-ranking Enchanter.
Victor was a tall, broad-shouldered man in his mid-thirties, with sharp features and a commanding presence that filled any room he stepped into.
His dark hair was neatly combed back, and his eyes, steel-gray and piercing, missed nothing. He was clad in an intricate paladin armor even inside the city, carrying himself with the effortless authority of soone used to leading from the front.
Calm, disciplined, and ruthlessly pragmatic, he built the Shooting Star Guild from scraps after the Glitch upped the ga, earning both loyalty from his underlings and fellow guild masters, and fear from anyone who got in his way or threatened the guild mbers.
His face was lined with exhaustion and urgency, but he waited for the last stragglers to trickle in.
When the square fell into relative silence, he spoke, his voice carrying easily over the restless crowd.
"Thank you for coming." Victor began. "I’ll get straight to it."
"Most of you know by now that after the First Dungeon was cleared, the world itself began to change. More dungeons appeared, territory barriers weakened, and old rules started slipping."
Jake’s mind flashed back to the night when monsters poured into the city, the desperate fighting in the streets, until Mara and Miles Thorn appeared to help them push the waves back.
"This is the next stage." Victor motioned upward, and a system window appeared for all guild mbers to see.
It was a map concerning all open Dungeons, and even more.
Victor moved his fingers, and the map zood out, revealing countless more red dots that represented dungeons all around the continent.
"We’re playing an open world ga from the mont the [Mouth of the Abyss] was cleared on, and foreign players are on their way to growing stronger and clearing this ga... Even though we don’t know what happens when we get there, but I received a notification this morning, and this is the true issue I wanted to talk to you about."
He let that sink in.
"There’s an event happening in three months. It’s called [Dungeon War], and it’s related to the events that Mara Jade and Miles Thorn reported, after the clearing of the First Dungeon."
The crowd moved, restless, unsure of what it ant, and Victor’s eyes swept them. Even Jake felt the man’s gaze settle on them, just briefly, before moving on.
"Which ans two things." Victor continued. "First, every guild, every party, every solo operative needs to be prepared to defend themselves and their territory. Second, those who can push into new zones, clear and claim new dungeons, and secure resources will shape what the next stage looks like."
Jake swallowed.
’The next stage.’ He thought to himself.
It was not just about surviving anymore.
It was about building and colliding against other players from around the world.
And he was just a rookie player, weak enough to struggle in a tier 2 dungeon...
"Shooting Star will provide all support you need." Victor said. "Supplies, safe zone artifacts, recon. But each of you must be ready to move when the ti cos."
The map vanished, leaving only the buzz of growing tension as Victor stepped down from the platform.
Guild officers began moving through the crowd, distributing assignnts and coordinating teams.
"Looks like we’re not getting a break after all." Cass turned to them, her expression unreadable.
Jake tightened the strap on his utility belt.
"Good." His lips curled upwards in a yellow smile.
Elise grinned, Riven rolled his shoulders, Alric nodded once, sharp and sure.
"Let’s go!" Cass said.
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