“Okay listen up, everyone,” barked Osten, his voianding more fear than respect. “We’re not pnning to make a vacation out of this forest, so I suggest you pick up the pad sting your feet.”

  “Before we do,” began Callista, the female mage in Osten’s party, “we should designate a leader and formute a strategy.”

  “I’ll take the lead,” Osten asserted firmly, preempting any discussion of a vote. No one dared to challenge him. “Acc to the professor, our objective for this assessment is to hunt the Hilitroll Field Boss.”

  “Bring back its head as proof,” Professor Bayley had said with a mischievous smile. “Though you’ll earn more rewards fing back the whole corpse.”

  In most MMOs, log and battling Field Bosses was retively straightforward as they had fixed spawn locations and times. Pyers who wao hunt it needed only to be prompt in their arrival, and those with the highest ?damage per sed?, or DPS, would typically cim the kill.

  In Sehrei, however, Field Bosses roamed a wide area and their respawn times were random. Artificial intelligence promoted uable behaviors; it wasn’t impossible for it to be freediving at the bottom of a ke hunting for fish, taking shelter from the rain in a secluded cave, or even climbing a steep cliff to cim a curious flower.

  The creatures in the game were remarkably lifelike, in almost every sense of the term. They weren’t mere scripted automatons with a limited range of behaviors; these AI appeared to experieions, acquire knowledge, and dispy a genuine curiosity about themselves and the world around them.

  As a result, they were profoundly uable. It would have taken a few weeks, if not a few months, for them to locate the Hilitroll—but perhaps the guild was hoping for that oute. Spending aended period of time in the wilderness meant the css would be tested in all the different faculties they studied at the academy.

  Struggling to find the Field Boss would have hoheir trag abilities; camping in the woods would have strengtheheir survival skills; and entering numerous monsters iween would have taught them proper teamwork, unication, and anizational skills.

  “Does anyone here possess any trag skills?” Osten inquired, sing the group expetly.

  A few individuals exged gnces until a calm and collected female archer stepped forward. “I wouldn’t call it trag,” she said, “but I s an area within 100 meters using an ability simir to echolocation. Plus, I have an archer-exclusive skill that lets me see over long distances.”

  “That’s perfect,” Callista chimed in. “If we position you on high ground, it should improve our ces of finding the troll.”

  “What’s your name?” Osten asked.

  “Lyanna.”

  “Alright, Lyanna, you’ll be in the front with the rest of us.”

  Daisuke frowned.

  At the same time, Lyanna’s eyes widened suspiciously, curious about the meaning behind the words. “What formation should we use?” she inquired. “I suggest we stick to rofessor Bayley taught us since—”

  “We’ll be in the vanguard,” Osten interrupted, emphasizing “we” to mean the pyer-based group. “The NPCs will provide support from the rear. Haxks,” he sneered as he pronouhe name, “you’ll stay behind and protect the healers.”

  Daisuke nontly tucked his hands into his pockets without uttering a word. In Sehrei, the inhabitants were highly self-aware, and openly referring to them as NPCs was sidered derogatory.

  They much preferred to be addressed as Locals instead—and this marked the sed occasion where Osten had openly disrespected them. Though the NPCs harbored a sense of indignation, they followed Daisuke's lead and maintaiheir silence.

  Most of the adventurers in Css A were pyers; Osten’s arra was obviously a ploy to ehey reaped all the rewards by monopolizing monster kills. But the NPCs couldn’t pin; they were sorely outnumbered.

  It was obvious a few of the pyers were unfortable with the selfish arra, but they were too fearful to voice their objes. Most looked on menagly, daring the NPCs to challehe status quo.

  “If we’re all in uanding,” Osten began, “the’s get a move on.”

  ***

  “Hey! I think I see something!”

  All eyes veered in the dire of the distant voice, their gazes fixed upon a lofty piree. After hours of mowing through hordes of monsters, it seemed fortune was finally within reach.

  Lyanna gingerly desded from the tree, her expressihter than it was just a few minutes ago. “It’s ly what we’re searg for, but if my instincts are correct, it’s just as valuable.”

  “Lead the way then,” Osten anded.

  “Alright, follow me.”

  The group proceeded cautiously, maintaining a close-knit formation as they shadowed Lyanna’s path. Just beyond her visual range, she had spotted an intriguing gleam. As the party drew hey realized it was a—

  “Crystal Field!” someone excimed, their voice filled with disbelief. “A Crystal Field, I ’t believe it!”

  “Whoa! It really is a Crystal Field!”

  “We’ve hit the jackpot!”

  As excitement filled the air and everyone rushed to harvest the loot, Daisuke cautiously slowed to a halt and began surveying their surroundings with the Eye of Verity.

  The sight before them was indeed a Crystal Field, but it was in its infancy; the mana clusters were just beginning to emerge from the ground like newly sprouted pnts. However, that wasn’t what ed him. on knowledge dictated that a Crystal Field sighe proximity of a dungeon. Daisuke didn’t o see the physical structure to know it was close by.

  Through the Eye of Verity, he hat, uhe Hidden Dungeon, the area around them was shrouded in a blue miasma instead of purple.

  What could this mean—a different type of dungeon, or just a variation in power? Regardless, being within the miasma and in such close proximity to its source was uling. And Zephyr’s head popped out of his shirt, sharing in the disfort.

  “…I don’t think this is a good idea,” Daisuke cautioned, his tone ced with . “We shouldn’t be here.”

  At his inauspicious words, the NPCs backed away, but the pyers were ed by greed—wide eyes, greedy smiles, busy hands. Nothing else mattered but uprooting the crystals and filling their pockets, but karma had another pn.

  The pyers’ jubition was cut short by an ominous tremor beh their feet. Daisuke flinched as the ground quivered, like a beast awakening from a deep slumber. Panic surged through the ranks of the party, but it was already too te.

  With a deafening roar, the earth beh them gave way, and the adventurers—pyers and Locals alike—tumbled into the gaping maw of an underground cavern.