Rodney went on hunting down level 1 beasts until he was tired and thought it wise to call it a day or atleast take a break. He had managed to not get himself into trouble as he stuck strictly to hunting the basic feral beasts. He also managed to level up to level 2. This was a monumental achievement to him as he felt he'd be out of this place that he was in no time. He took a quick look at his exp to see how far it w*s to get to the next level..

[Exp:100/200]

[Lvl: 2]

After every level up the required exp needed to level up again would seemingly increase. Although there was no average value by which this increase was gauged as it could sometimes be triple the formeramount needed. The bottom line was it varied which made levelling up a harder and a lot of work needed to be put in . Rodney taking a break decided to open his map in search of something in particular...

"Ah ..yes at least some things did not change" he said as he had found what he was looking for.Every character gets a place to crash for the night because that is when most of the high ranked beast lurk around. But what he didn't know was that he wasn't exactly going to be alone, as he would soon find out he would be sharing the place with 3 other players, which was quite unusual but as it may, this w*s how it was going to play out.

The map had shown him the place he would be sleeping for the night. Usually places like this wouldn't have any other structures nearby as it was usually secluded from other players to encourage players to be self sufficient. As he arrived at the location, on getting inside, he was shocked to see that the room was large. Which did not make too much sense as he was sure the space now could probably take ten players whole. But then, a boy came out, Blair a level 1 ice user who's hair was blue and was average build with black pants and a blue coat that had patches of white on them.

"What the....what are you doing at my place?" Rodney asked in shock.

"I know right?... I asked the other two the same thing!"Blair fired back.

"Wh...what other two!!!?" ..Rodney asked in a surprised tone.

"Hey newbie .. What's good man?".. Eiko asked from the far end on a bed.

Eiko was a level 3 telekinesis ability user with a brown hair falling to the side and was just about average in terms of height..with a quite the slender build.

" OK ...I see four beds where's the last guy?" Rodney asked ..

" Hey ...Runner boy" ...an odd voice answered coming out of one of the four bathrooms located at the far end of the room. The voice was odd to Rodney as it almost sounded like a girl's to him. Well that was because it was a girl's voice, this was pink rose and she was the last of the three.

"You must be Noir our new roommate, welcome to the crib"Eiko said.

"What!...you again? Rodney asked completed ignoring Eiko as hiseyes were fixed on something else. What could be more annoying than having someone stalk you, having that someone who stalkedyou leave with you. Everything was against him he thought.

"I'm Mia...my actual name..." she paused and Rodney took it as a cue to introduce himself properly. Of course he wouldn't have under normal conditions but he had two judging eyes on him at the moment coupled with the fact that this whole thing would only be temporary, he might as well just go with the flow while he was here. He hated to admit it even though he knew how bad things could turn, this w*s one of those things he had dreamt about. Being in the game he played himself, well apart from the dying part that still wasn't clear to him.

"The name's Rodney" he replied back.Mia stared at him wondering if it was the rude person she had been tailing that just spoke but ultimately decided to proceed with what she was going to say...

"Rodney i just wish you weren't so stubborn and maybe we could all go hunting tomorrow as a group. You know , the whole point of what I did today?...what do you all think guys"? She asked turning to look at them to gauge their reaction. The reason she had brought this up was because she herself felt she might have gone a little too far with her curiosity."It could be the reason he is acting up", she thought.did by did by

"That'll be nice"Blair replied and all four of them got a pop up instantly.

*Bing*

[Form faction?]

[Yes] or [No]

They all knew about how players formed factions online and usually merge together to go on hunts. But now that the same thing was brought up to them, some had mixed feelings about it all. This was Rodney, he felt joining a group would further slow his progress down as he would have to worry too much about making them understand his purpose might be quite different from theirs. All he wanted at the moment was to get back home before his mother returned from work.

"Nice, we can help each other all level up, face the boss and get out of this weird place that I still can't understand how we got into in the first place" Blair said. Rodney turning his head to see they all had similar plans of escaping and not to stick around and explore this world they were in thought one thing...

"Maybe a group wouldn't be so bad after all" Rodney thought.

"I'm in" Eiko said.

[Faction name:_____]

[Select faction leader:______]

"Hmm , tough one" Blair said....

"How about we do that tomorrow and get some shut eyes" Mia suggested

"Yeah I'm exhausted from all the hunting" Eiko said yawning.

Resting felt like a good idea to Rodney although he had certain worries as to whether the time here was the same with the one in the world he left. If so, then he would be in big trouble by the time he returns. But then remembering how things worked in the game, he found it silly to think that the time would be the same and so he went to one of the bed that wasn't taken and after dropping his Rusty sword by the edge he laid down on the bed and fell asleep. They alldid actually as the first day was quite the eventful one for all of them.

———-

The next morning they woke up fresh and well rested. They were already out in the forest looking for beast their level and below "Let's see the benefit of teamwork".. Eiko said as he took out an arrow from his quiver and placed it in position on his level one arrow. The rest of them drew out their weapons as well cause in front of them right now stood level 5 snorts. They numbered three as they usually walked in herds.

{SNORT:they are bull like creatures with a golden ring on their noses. They are relatively bigger than a regular bull and are 3x stronger and wilder. They also are immune to elemental attacks

As the beast closed in on them faster than they expected, they had no choice but to engage with the beast. It dashed towards them pointing it's horn out and Rodney sidestepping the beast slashed it by the side and proceeded to grab its horns then hopped on its back before proceeding to stab it in the neck putting an end to the beast's attack.

*Bing*

[Congratulations you are now at level three]

[Level 5 snort killed]

[Reward:150 gold coins]

[Gold ring obtained]

[100 exp gained]

[Exp:200/200]

"You've got sick moves bro" Blair said and then his attention turned to Eiko who was avoiding the bull's attacks smoothly like he could predict its movement.

Giving the beast some distance, "Stay put you lowly beast!!!" Eiko shouted as he threw his dagger at the now charging bull. The daggerhit square on the head, but wouldn't go past the beast tough layer, so he threw the second dagger and it marked the now staggering bull in the eye. Not wasting time he charged at the staggering bull and pushed the dagger stuck in its head deep inside and killing the beastright on the spot.They all circled the last snort and it now had nowhere to go but to charge at them and so it did.

"For a high ranking basic feral beast, that thing sure is foolish" Blair said before running towards the beast head first as well, but at the last minute slid under the beasts belly pulling his short sword and tearing open the beasts underbelly.

"Hey, did you always know how to do that?" Eiko asked Blair. He was referring to how the other was fighting. This wasunderstandable as even he felt he did things he had no idea of before.

"Nah, must be the game. You know we are in our previous avatars but slightly modified giving it our looks to some degree. So maybe we have all it's agility as well" Blair tried to put forward an explanation.

"Hey!.. What the hell was that?! I didn't even get a chance!!" Miacame in to complain. The boys had practically taken over the hunt making her a spectator. She couldn't do anything as she would just get in their way if she did she thought.

"Sorry princess we couldn't allow you blow the beast to death with your DEADLY weapon" Blair said pointing at Mia's fan before bursting into a thunderous laughter. The looked at the weapon and held their laughter but eventually even they too cracked a smile as Blair's laughter was kind of infectious. Mia was the only one who didn't find it funny for multiple reasons. For one, the two boys had received similar notification as Rodney had. With the only one that had not gained anything from the hunt so far being Mia.

"So it seems the higher the rank the more exp obtained" Rodney thought. "Guys how bout we go find some more to hunt" Rodney said

" Maybe a level five or a six?" Rodney added

"Our highest level is four and you want us fighting a level 6?.That..." Blair was about finish before he heard a loud sound. This was not one made by any of them. No, this was a beast.

"Uhm too late ..we've got company.. here comes two right now" and a Griffin was flying right for them. Usually two different types of beast would rarely be seen in the same area, but the noise from all the fighting attracted two hungry Griffins.

"We might need to hunt as a team for this one" Rodney shouted and the people standing behind him formed a battle formation.Rodney in front with Blair by his side, Mia in the middle and Eiko at the back.

"Attack"! Rodney screamed.

Mia quickly threw her fan at the griffin and with the momentum the bird had picked up dodging would be hard but it managed to move out of the way just before the fan could hit then there was Eiko at the back with his two daggers waiting for Griffin to get in hisproximity.

"We need those things to land!" Rodney barked out orders and immediately Eiko swung into action threw hia daggers at the beast and luckily one did connect with one beast on the wings hamperingits flight ability, he turned to the second one to see that it was already down, as Mia was seen pulling her fan out of the neck of the beast .

The one that got taken down by Eiko was finished off by Rodneywith his sword which yet again took multiple stabs to do its job. Seeing how the others stared at him, he felt bad that they might think he was stealing a kill in other to level up quickly but that w*s not the case. It was the savageness he displayed while on the Griffin's back stabbing away.

[Your group has defeated level 6 creatures]

[Reward:instant level up]

[500 gold coins]

[You have reached level 5]

[Ability:shadow has been unlocked]

That was a message received by only two of them Rodney and Eikowho were both at now at level 5.Mia had received a notification as well for killing one griffin.But with the instant level up beingseparate separate it was the group's reward, she was now at level 3.

[You have reached level 3]

" Damn...you didn't have to do that to that poor griffin" Blair said as he laughed and proceeded to take out their cores. As this was essential if they wanted new and improved weapons. They could also sell it to the blacksmith if they wanted to.

They gathered their spoils and went straight to the market and sold them and in total excluding their reward bonus coins they had a total of 4000 gold coins. This was considerably small as the prices attached to items were very high. So they'd need more if they wanted to thrive. With the amount they had now,it meant they sold the two intermediate cores and three basic cores for 1000 gold coins and 500 gold coins respectively.

"That was a long day huh guys" ?Rodney said.

"Now back to the group leader thing...I think.." he got cut off by the message he got.

[You have been appointed as the faction leader]

[Faction name:_______]

******