Miami, Florida...
Ultra-Lux Villa, Oceanfront, fully-staffed and with private access, Noah and his teammates relaxed in their luxurious villa just days after they cleared the Obsidian Labyrinth dungeon.
Noah sat beneath a swaying palm by the infinity pool, shirtless with sunglasses low on his nose, sipping a frozen margarita he didn’t order but wasn’t refusing.
He wasn’t used to this; the silence, the peace, but it was starting to grow on him. Occasionally, he’d glance at the Warstar forums on his tablet, grinning at the chaos their dungeon run had caused.
Top guilds were still stuck at floor 83.
He chuckled to himself. He shouldn’t feel so attached to the happenings in the ga, after all, he was a pro player. And yet, after spending so many months playing in the ga, leveling up from level 0 as Lord Doom, he regained his attachnt to the casual side of the revolutionary video ga.
Noah almost forgot how it felt when Warstar was just launched already more than a decade ago, till he started playing Lord Doom.
With a sigh, he closed the tab and stretched, letting the sea breeze blow his hair back. Victory was a flavor best enjoyed under the sun.
Aria was already half a legend in Miami Beach.
After nearly causing a bar fight, which she won of course, and becoming an Instagram sensation for accidentally high-kicking a volleyball into a drone, she now lounged on a yacht in the bay, bikini-clad and surrounded by champagne bottles she refused to pay for.
"I’ll never return to civilized society," she declared, while threatening to duel a jet skier who splashed her.
Staring at her, Noah chuckled.
Caleb was holed up indoors in the air-conditioned villa library, a tropical smoothie in hand and a whiteboard covered in formulas for optimal spell scaling ratios.
In his words, he was relaxing but everyone knew he was reverse engineering the A.I pathfinding of Tharion’s chains from the last dungeon.
The only sign of his true vacation spirit? The flamingo-print swing shorts he wore with a dress shirt.
Genevieve floated peacefully on a pink donut-shaped pool float, a wide-brim hat shielding her from the sun, a book titled >Restoration Magic and the Art of Letting Go< propped on her chest.
She refused to let anyone disturb her... except Noah, who sohow got away with splashing her and running.
"Enjoy this peace," she told him once, eyes closed. "Because the next dungeon will ruin us".
Noah laughed. "I can’t wait".
Benjamin? Well, Benjamin was... Benjamin.
He was on a rented jet ski, screaming "WIND SLASH!" at the top of his lungs while making splash waves at unsuspecting tourists. When asked what he thought of Miami, his reply?
"Good beaches. Great waves. ZERO GOBLINS. 10/10".
He also tried surfing, salsa dancing, and launching fireworks from the beach. All on the sa night. Thankfully, no casualties were reported.
In their different ways, they were enjoying themselves.
It was nearing sunset.
A golden hue bathed the white marble of their beachfront villa. The gate buzzed, and through it ca faces long separated by the brutal months of conflict and secrecy.
Gabriel walked in first; calm, refined, but unmistakably pleased to see them. Behind him was Jonathan, grinning wide and already opening his arms for a bear hug that nearly broke Noah’s ribs.
Following them were more familiar faces; forr comrades, rival guild elites, including top players from the older days.
So held beach bags. Others already wore gear IRL customized to match their in-ga Avatars. For a few seconds after they arrived, there was silence, it was almost like an all-star eting or sothing till it was interrupted by Benjamin.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
He walked up to them, smiling brightly. "Wow, we’ve got bastards and fools right here, what a rare sight". He grinned.
"Foolish bastard!" The older players snapped back at Benjamin, laughing.
Well, that was the beginning of the reunion. They laughed, cried, which was weird to Benjamin, and the clapped each other on the backs.
Genevieve blinked. "Did we just beco a resort guild?"
Noah stood up, his relaxed expression sharpening just a bit.
"We’re more than that," he said. "This is the war council".
Such a reunion abroad was a rare thing, and it wasn’t just coincidence.
They’d co for one reason; to challenge >The Grand Monastery of AetheryosLord Doom< has logged into the ga!]
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