Lance stood in front of three doors. The small chamber he was in was no more than the size of a large wells bottom. The roof above him was seamless, begging the question of the fall into a tree. Lance brushed the thought aside as the doors in front of him began to have red burn like lines appearing on their faces. After a short while, text appeared in the scars left behind. The furthest left door had the least while the opposite end had the most. Lance stepped forward and took a closer look.

  " Normal mode "

  

  
1. You may not leave while in an instance unless you forfeit the progress you've made from the last checkpoint.


  
2. Killing a teammate lowers your overall "Tactic score" at the average rate.


  
3. Completing to level 50 allows the class that reached there to be preselected upon a failed attempt.


  
4. You cannot go past floor 100.


  
5. Upon death you may select 3 items you held to be sold on the market.


  
6. You may not discuss the game in specifics, unless you are in game or your account will be terminated.


  

  " Hmm seems interesting, but how would they even know?" Lance then read the middle door's face.

  " Normal + "

  

  
1. Leaving the instance resets your progress to the entrance of the level unless you've made at least 50% progress, at which point you will reset to the closest checkpoint.


  
2. Killing a teammate lowers your overall "Tactic score" by an additional 50%.


  
3. Completing level 50 allows the class that reaches there to be preselected, three more times. Starting at the closest haven floor to death.


  
4. You cannot go past level 125. Completing level 125 allows the class to be selected and re-run with a random load out at level 50.


  

  

  
5. Upon Reaching level 126 you can opt for Hard mode on the selected class without receiving the bonuses.


  
6. Upon death you may select only 2 items from your character to be sold on the market.


  
7. You cannot discuss the game in specifics or you will lose access to your account indefinitely.


  
8. Team members have first rights to your experience gems and must equally divide them amongst themselves, or sell them to the game's monster pool at a discount.


  
9. You may only go back to a level twice per ten levels achieved.


  
10. You may not make a guild until level 75.


  

  " Wow okay that's a decent enough difference. Seems like it only really punishes any afterthoughts. 100 plus must be something significantly different.

  Even still it is quite obvious level 100 plus is where a large portion of the game begins and your team composition matters more. Ugh...wish I had more friends."

  " Hard mode "

  

  
1. Leaving an instance resets your progress to the previous level.


  
2. Killing your teammates lowers your " Tactic score " by double.


  
3. Completing to level 75 allows for the class to be chosen once more, from level 0.


  
4. Reaching level 200 will award you Ten million dollars, and 2% shares of the Wish Legacy franchise. Only available to 8 individuals. Completing level 200 will award you One Hundred Million credits towards any legal currency. Available to 4 individuals.


  
5. You may restart upon true death but you may only attempt this mode once again.


  
6. Any class that reaches level 151, may provide one skill as a starter level skill to that class's list. * At its lowest degree, and a non-unique skill, and to a maximum of 2 per class.


  
7. You do not have a map. You must find them per level.


  
8. Upon true death as this class you may receive only one item to be sold on the market.


  
9. Start with base class items only.


  
10. Guild access begins at level 100.


  
11. You have only what you can carry, unless deviated through separate means. No spatial holding menu. All remaining items drop on death.


  
12. You may start another run at a lower difficulty only once as an (alt).


  
13. You may not discuss the game in specifics or you will lose access to your account indefinitely. * Unless it's to guild members, people on your friends list, or in game.


  
14. You may only go back to a level once per ten levels, however you must climb back through the levels.


  
15. You will receive an additional skill every 25 levels, you may choose to keep it, but must replace a previous skill.


  
16. You must choose this mode at the first class iteration.


  

  " Fuck! What?! Who wouldn't want that money. Jeez well I get it but I still don't. This doesn't explain enough. Man.. Okay screw it. Hard mode. It's basically an ultimatum to choose it!" Lance was a mix of emotions. Excited, Happy, Scared. The thrill of just being here was astounding.

  After a light pause, from the center of the chamber a pedestal slowly rose. Lance turned around as it finished its rise. A flash of light filled the room blinding Lance briefly, afterwards a book and an open box appeared atop the stone pedestal. Lance got closer. The books title, "Rules and agreements" and in the box were three keys and a pill. The keys had the symbols " N , N+, and H" on them. And the pill was in a small pill bottle labeled "Eat me first". Lance opened the book and began to flip through its contents. " Hmm there are hundreds of pages. I don't have time because people are going to get ahead if I sit here, not to mention I will likely need the rest of my time today on Specter to finish this." He flipped through to the end of the book at which point a quill and inkwell appeared on the pedestal. He then signed the last page. The book dematerialized in his hands afterwards.

  Lance grabbed the pill and swallowed it. It had practically melted on his tongue anyway. After a brief moment of silence he then heard a soft and gentle voice speak out from seemingly everywhere.

  "Class - Chef" The room rumbled in response to the declaration, a few menu screens popped up around him in a flash then disappeared.

  Lance paused. " What.. No... No way? Chef! Are you serious?!" He looked up and around. Waving his hands with discontent. " Hey what gives! This is a fantasy game! I can cook at home! Hello!!!!" He yelled out to no response. Lance fell silent. " How the hell am I being forced to play for a hundred million in a chef class..... Damn my luck"

  After a moment of self pity he grabbed a key and walked to the Hard mode door. He unlocked the door and opened it. The other side of the door was a dark wisp like miasma that looked quite ominous. He took a breath and stepped through it.

  After stepping through his eye sight went pitch black until it eventually faded to the scene of an empty tavern. A few bare tables, a staircase and a bar on the far wall were just about all the room had to offer. A door behind him slammed causing Lance to look behind him quickly. When he turned around he noticed a man with a curled up mustache stood behind the bar wiping the counter tops down. The two of them locked eyes and the bar man spoke out to Lance. " Well look at that. A traveler. How can I help you? Come sit, order a drink. On the menus - Water"

  Lance was puzzled but came and sat down. He raised his finger and was about to ask a question before the bar man spoke out again. " Name's Wellyn, At your service. What's your name ladd?" After he spoke a prompt appeared in front of Lance with a blinking dash. Lance typed in his name. " Nice to meet you Sammich. Well I take it you're here to que up. Welcome to your Tavern! Here I will be able to que you up, resume your level and sell your wares. Unfortunately for you I cannot patch you up and send you back out. You may have your friends join you here before you enter back into the abyss."

  Lance's confusion began to fade. " Aahh, so this is just a que screen? Like I wait for people to join?"

  " Yes and more! Some classes have a need for crafting, this is a place to practice without wasting materials. Upstairs you may practice and hone your class abilities for one hour per day. You can hand anything to me and I will appraise it for a fee and put it on the market. I see you're a Chef. Step on over to that box by the wall inside you will find gear that has been left to you. When you're ready, I'll start your que."

  Lance lit up with glee. He noticed that his clothing had changed to a simple brown shirt and pants and his shoes became a shoddy pair of boots. He wasn't quite impressed by their look but at least they were comfortable. He ran over to the box and lifted its lid. He looked inside with anticipation peeking slowly over the rim. Inside the box a cast iron pan about a foot wide and a small full tang knife with a wooden handle lay at the bottom. " What the..." He picked them up and two status’ appeared in front of him.

  " Novice Pan - "Shame " tier

  A pan used by many to cook. Some have found it useful in other ways but it does double as a nice shovel.

  + 1 Defense

  " Novice Knife" - "Shame" tier

  It's a knife.

  + 3 Attack

  Lance looked over at Wellyn. He looked back at him with a grand smile as he cleaned a glass in his hands. Lance sighed and walked back to the counter. " Que me up I guess."

  Wellyn reached behind the counter and slid over an open ledger. He flipped it open and on one side of the page it showed "Level One" and below it were a few lines, one of which was Sammich, whilst the other hand a series of dots as if to populate when filled. Only a few seconds passed as the lines filled, to his surprise there were actually 5 spots in this que. Before he could ask Wellyn about it he came around the counter and opened a door next to the bar with his key. " Right this way sir." He stood there with a smile as he pointed into the room beyond which again was a wall of black miasma. Lance was too excited to bother with anymore questions, he hopped up and ran into the dark aether.

  Level 1

  Lance came out the other side to a surprise. As his vision cleared he found himself in a room lit by just a few torches. The walls and floor were made of stone that had seemingly been carved into its square shape. Both the walls to his right, left, and behind had a dark door of shadowy aether. In the middle of the room stood one tall male. He had a head of dark brown shaggy hair and looked to be in the exact same clothing as Lance. The only noticeable thing he had apart from Lance was his weapon, a large great sword. After a quick glance at one another the man in front of him extended his hand. " Hello. I'm Jack."

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  Lance reached forward and shook his hand. " Lance.. Nice to meet you."

  Just after their brief introduction the next three doors wisped away as three more figures stepped through. Two females and a male stood before them. One female was rather tall and slender, the other was rather bodacious but short. The other male was a large husky man. Lance noticed that everyone seemed to be in the same clothing and surmised the brownish clothes must be universally used by low levels. The tall woman had a bow, the shorter woman held a large staff and the big man had two large shields. As everyone glanced at one another seemingly assessing the capability of each other Jack spoke out again.

  " Hey guys, I'm Jack."

  " Sadura" The slender woman replied.

  " Reilly" the short woman said in a mouse-like voice.

  " Dorian."

  " Lance.." Lance being the last caught a few more glances. Dorian and Sadura seemingly dismissed his presence. Lance felt like an outlier. Everyone seemed to have the most fundamental attributes of actual fantasy type classes, and he held a pan and a knife.

  " Well, I'm assuming we all are on Hard mode. If you guys read the manual that means this floor's difficulty is multiplied, but there is also extra loot and an extra person. So let's stay close and get to the next checkpoint before our timers give out. If you guys are cool with it I'll lead. If we work well together I would be down to add you guys."

  Sadura and Reilly nodded in agreement. Dorian was the only one to speak up.

  " Look man, I don't mean to press the topic, but I should lead. I'm literally our defense here. They look like they're ranged and you can just use me as a wall. Uhm also.." Dorian looked over to Lance.

  " What the heck class are you?"

  Lance was a little caught off guard by his blunt questioning but expected at some point it would be brought up. " I'm a Chef."

  Dorian looked at him then around the room. In unison everyone else except Jack burst into laughter. Lance grew rosy at the sudden outburst in embarrassment. Lance wasn't going to let it slide though. Seeing that Dorian was just a little shorter than him he stepped forward and got into his face. " Look man this is level one and I didn't get lucky like you guys, but I don't know what I can do. And I'm sure you're all in the same boat. Don't fuckin mock me." Dorian took a step back, even though he was rather buff Lance seemed to glare into his eyes with a heat that threw him off his high horse. Everyone had gone quiet. Jack stepped in between the two of them.

  " Calm down. Both of you. We haven't even left the first room, so let's just take a breath. We all need each other here." Just as Jack said that he grew a coy smile.

  " Anyway you said you don't know what you can do? Have you even looked at your status yet?" As he said that he noticed the rest of the group shuffle their feet. " Have any of you? Goodness.." He palmed his face. " You guys didn't read the book did you. Open your status, Say 'Status open'.."

  In an off tempo everyone spoke out and brought up their status menus. Lance looked at his page and after a few more seconds grew disheartened.

  Sammich level 1

  Chef

  Role - Fill

  Health - 14

  Attack +3

  Defense +1

  Skills -

  Cook level 1 - Create food, Taste determines an amount of mana, health, and stamina restored by product.

  Class Passives -

  Full stomach - While full you can determine more ingredients when using class skills, as well as Regen 1 health per 2 minutes.

  Discern Ingredients - Determine edible ingredients from your surroundings

  " Damnit I'm just a shitty healer. And I'm barely even a novice at cooking, My Mom does it most of the time !" Lance cried inwardly.

  As everyone familiarized themselves with their class skills and status page Jack grabbed a torch off the wall and began to snuff out the other one. Once everyone seemed to look over their page they grew confident. Except Lance, he grew remiss. He wasn't sad, he just hated his poor luck. Jack took the front of the group again.

  " Okay now you guys know more or less what you can do. Name off your roles please, although I'm sure it's no surprise. I'm a DPS."

  Dorian smiled. " Tank"

  Sadura spoke out firmly " Ranged DPS"

  Reilly squeaked out " It says I can be Support, or DPS"

  Lance finally said. " I'm a Fill"

  Everyone raised a brow to him except Jack. His eyes lit up in excitement.

  " Whoa really a Fill huh. That's great. Okay Dorian you're out front, I'm behind you, Reilly stay behind me. Sadura and Lance, hold the back line, protect the rear. Okay Dorian let's move out, can you hold a torch?"

  " Yeah, but I'll drop it if I need to defend. Just hold it behind me and I'll look onward. Rather not be caught off guard."

  Sadura came and stood next to Lance and pulled out her bow, she gave Lance a side eye glance and turned in a way giving him a cold shoulder. Reilly stood behind Jack in front of them, her small size becoming even more apparent. They began to leave the room through its large mouth down a solid stone corridor.

  After fifty or so feet the corridor opened wide and lost its formed shape and turned into a jagged walled cave that went further on and around. Spires of rock coiled from the roof and ground and the distant drips of water echoed between their footsteps. The room grew colder as they walked through the cave. A short while passed in silence as the group ventured into the cave. The silence was broken by a loud high pitch screech from in front of them and they all slowed down.

  Jack raised his torch higher to give Dorian a better look into the darkness. A wooshing sound of wings flapping quickly approached them; it caused all of their hearts to beat rapidly. Lance's excitement forced a large smile to appear on his face. " Get down!" Dorian yelled out

  A second afterwards a loud clang was heard as Dorian's shields were slashed at by a large bat about the size of a dog. It kept swooping in and out circling the group causing Dorian to step back and forth. Sadura drew an arrow and held it waiting for the right moment as the bat passed over them. Jack swiped his great sword with deep heaves causing the wind to sound out a whirl with each swing.

  After a few passes Sadura finally released her first shot at the bat. The arrow swirled out wildly completely off target. The bat was large but fast, it seemed as if it had the reaction time to swoop away as she released it. The bat released a loud screech again this time in front of them causing all of them to wince at the pain their ears felt. Soon after, a few more flappings of bats were heard coming from the cave in front of them.

  " Shit it's calling more! We can't let them screech!" Jack yelled out. The two new bats flanked them quickly and began to pick at Sadura and Lance from the back. Their large nails were like thin blades. They did their best to dodge but were slowly getting pushed away from the group while dodging the bat. Dorian held his position in front of Reilly deflecting the other bat as it swooped in at them. Jack had left the formation but was running around slashing his sword at the bat any chance he could. Another bat was in view flying towards them.

  One of the bats swooped in and dug its nails into Lance's shoulders. It then tried to bite at the top of his head. PUNG! Lance felt his hand vibrate as he smacked the bat off of him with his pan. " Shit these things are relentless! Anyone got any skills!" He cried out as the bat flapped away in recoil. FTHK! Sadura released an arrow that pierced the bat square into its chest. It fell to the floor and flapped its wings wildly as it died.

  " GOT ONE!" Sadura yelled out. She smiled but was quickly assaulted by another bat. The thuds of Jack's feet scampering across the floor were heard. He quickly stepped on a stalagmite and jumped above the bat "Sword Grace!"

  As he yelled out Lance looked up at him from below, Jack's blade began to glow bright white. He slammed down his sword and sliced the bat in half cleanly, spraying blood all over Sadura and Lance. Lance looked on at Jack as he landed and rolled into a slide a few steps past them.

  " That was fuckin badass! Hell yeah Jack!" He couldn't help but commend his teammate. Jack smirked at him with a smug shrug, Jack then felt a punch on his shoulder.

  " Look at this shit you asshole!" Sadura stood there with bat intestines and blood all over her head and shoulders, they draped over her in a messy fashion dripping onto her clothes. Lance and Jack let out a deep chuckle. Their laughter was cut short by Dorian who yelled out to them. " A little help over here!"

  The three of them turned quickly to see a bat had latched onto Dorian's back and was biting at him whilst slashing its claws into his back. Reilly was underneath him cowering. She was too short to even reach up her staff and smack the bat. Jack and Lance rushed forward. PUNG! Lance smacked the bat off of Dorian's back and onto the ground as Jack quickly skewered the bat to the floor with a downward stab. Sadura ran over to console Reilly who was sobbing on the floor.

  " It's okay Reilly we got them. They're dead, come on get up." She had knelt down to offer her hand.

  Reilly looked up at Sadura in horror. She saw the blood and guts strewn over her and then fainted promptly. Dorian put a shield on his back and huffed. He bent over and picked Reilly up and onto his shoulders before he turned to Jack and Lance who seemed to be reveling in the glory of Jack's attack through a charade and giggles.

  " You Two! What the fuck man! I'm sitting here protecting the fucking mage while you're running around like a jackass! Why'd you run in on their fight they had it! Me and Reilly were still dealing with one!" Dorian fumed.

  Sadura stood there a little upset as well but didn't say anything. Lance didn't feel like he did anything wrong, if anything the pan he had helped more than the knife. Jack calmed down from his excitement and realized that he did make a few mistakes, from wildly swinging his sword to no avail; it took him some time to take into account the environment. Had he done so before he would have been able to relieve the tank sooner for the rest of the group.

  Jack sighed and took the criticism upright. " I suppose I learned a few things about the circumstances that I could have done better. I apologize for leaving you two alone, Sadura and Lance should have had their bats under control. I just got amped up when she killed one and wanted that feeling for myself. I'll do my best to be more available to you. I also noticed I was the only one to use a skill. The rule book also states that to activate most skills all you need to do is speak them. So in the future don't hold back unless you're saving mana or stamina for something else. Anyways, how are you guys? " Jack finished his apology with a solemn look questioning everyone's current health conditions.

  Dorian responded first. " I lost 8 health and my back hurts. I'm lucky you guys got it in time it was trying to gnaw at my neck. I'm relatively okay though. I still have 22 health left."

  Lance was surprised at that last response; he didn't expect Dorian to have so much health. He himself lost 3 and was sitting at 11 " I'm not too bad off some deep cuts but they aren't bleeding too bad. I'll manage." Lance responded.

  Sadura was a little peeved this whole time but also grateful. The bats seemed to target her pretty particularly. Lance did his best to fend them off and even though Jack splattered her in guts, she was protected fairly well. Her health had lost 7 points however and she was below her half. Perhaps Jack came just in time. She spoke firmly. " Jack and Lance ...Thank you I might have been down for the count soon had you not intervened." She seemed pretty hurt, she had some hair ripped out and some deep cuts on her arms from trying to fight them off. "We really need a healer. Can Reilly heal."

  The group all looked at Reilly in her unconscious state on Dorian's shoulder. Lance then spoke up. " Well actually, as a Chef... I can heal us. I just have to cook some food. My skills are only for cooking it seems. So in a way, I'm a healer." Lance then walked over to the bat's remains and activated his ability.

  "Discern Ingredients"