In the broken, opened coffin lay a skeleton with arms crossed and a blue sword on his chest.
The man wore a pure white robe. Max held his breath and swallowed as he grabbed the sword. It glowed for a second as he yanked it off the corpse.
"There's a pond down the hill. I'll clean the sword," Max said, lowering the coffin back into the hole. Then, in a burst of white sparks, he summoned something from his Inventory. It was red, glowing and smoky.
He threw it into the coffin. There was a silent flash, and then fire raged from the coffin, vaporizing the skeleton.
"Hey. Don't waste that," Manuel said.
"I got five more from the boss, and the man deserves some respect," Max replied.
The squad went down to the pond. The clang of his strike on the coffin still rang faintly in Max's ears. There was nothing on the sword, but he felt wrong anyway. While Eliyah talked with Misa, Max studied the sword's stats.
[Horizon Sword]
[Legendary]
[Attack Power: 600]
[Special Attribute: Aura flows in and through faster and more efficiently.]
[Passive Ability: Water Breathing]
[Active Ability: Waveblade]
[Passive Ability: Seaborne]
[Active Ability: Hydranous Mark]
[You have received a title: Grave Robber!]
Max decided to check the details later as the squad reached the pond. He did smile, though.
"The second floor?" Misa asked Eliyah.
"Yeah. What's it like?" Eliyah said. "We'll go there soon."
Misa glanced up at the closest planet to this one, an oceanic world of millions of islands.
"It's mostly shallow waters and small islands. The whole world's a mystery. There are underwater ruins of an old civilization scattered around, plus small towns and villages, all by the sea."
Manuel pressed a few fingers to the side of his head, thinking. "How can we meet each other up there? Can we, uh, go together and spawn in the same place?" he asked Misa.
Max stopped washing and listened.
"My brother and I spawn together in the same place. Players in proximity to each other spawn near each other, but only up to a certain point. The limit's like seven. Major guilds get scattered and have to regroup through signals, Links and certain items."
"Ah, good. Great, actually," Manuel said.
Misa cracked her neck as she looked at Max. "What you did on this floor... do you plan to do it again, elsewhere?" she asked, curious, a hint of excitement in her voice.
Max scrubbed a washcloth over the blade and cleared his throat. "I'm not sure. What I did here was, first of all, a big stroke of luck. Skill and such came after."
"He used to clean streets and do physical labor with me for months, just to survive after the game started," Eliyah said.
"Hah, yeah," Max said. "We weren't as brave and daring as the people you know. We got into the flow way later. We're only now going up to the second floor."
"Well, good luck, you guys. You're an interesting bunch," Misa said.
Manuel washed his face in the pond. "And the third floor? What's that like?"
"That's... It's the weirdest floor of them all. You'll see when you get there. Get close to Elevated first, though. All your stats need to be close to five hundred."
Manuel nodded.
"It's actually ruled by a pla—"
"Alright, guys, we should go," Max said, cutting in. "A patrol might've heard the sound we made and started moving toward us. Let's avoid potential trouble, yeah?" His back was straight, his now-empty fists clenched.
"Wait, I only know your name," Misa said. "What about the rest of you?"
Max pointed to the other three and said each of their names.
"You're still going to be at the tournament, right?" Misa asked.
"Yeah. I will."
"Okay, great. I'll tell my brother that. We'll come watch."
"Why are you guys even here?" Max asked quickly, seeing that she was about to go.
"Vacation," she said, grinning.
Then her wings glowed brighter. Dim rings of light slid down her body from torso to ground, and she shot up into the night sky.
From a distance, she looked like a glowing blue bird monster. The tails of light moved with her wings' flapping, throwing off sparks like those from a forge, but white and blue.
"That's a hell of an audience you'll have, bro," Thomas said. "But surrender if your life is in real danger there. No shame in that."
"Don't worry about me. Let's have a look at the sword," Max said, a grin tugging at his mouth.
***
Priam, the first-ranked player, stood in front of the newly built sword statue commemorating the victims at the Valiants' headquarters.
He wore a white pullover with pretty patterns of yellow and red on the shoulders and collar.
Beside him stood Kili, the First Supreme Knight, a man with bright red hair, green eyes and white armor.
It was a sunny day on the fourth floor.
"Don't let them change who you are, Priam," Kili said.
"What?" Priam asked.
"Our enemies. They're ruthless and murderous. They deserve death and justice, but..."
Kili stopped. Priam's gaze was distant, as if he wasn't really looking at the statue.
"Don't become like them. Sure, we should kill them when they come back, or when we find them. But hold yourself together."
"I'll be the same man you've always known, Kili," Priam said.
Kili nodded. "I just don't want you to go hollow, friend. We all look up to you."
Priam gave a slight smile.
Large, colorful flowers surrounded the statue, their growth accelerated rapidly by an Ability.
Small dots of shining light rose from them. It looked a little like snowfall, but in reverse.
"You called for me, guild master?" a soft, feminine voice asked from behind them.
"Yes. Come, Elisa," Priam said.
Both men turned around. A woman was walking toward them along the stone walkway.
Elisa was a heart-stopping woman with platinum hair, blue eyes, full red lips and dark eyebrows. Her armor was gray with white engravings.
"You're my two strongest knights," Priam said. "While David and some of our forces are at the Pillars with the others, we'll go on a side quest. If you want to, of course. I won't force you."
He paused for a moment, looking at them both. None of them said a word.
"There's been a roaming field boss monster sighted nearby. It could disrupt our routes soon, and it keeps getting closer to our base. I was thinking you two could accompany me."
The two knights nodded.
"Great. You should know that I intend to kill this monster on my own. I got a new ability, you see. Well, it's more of a technique. It's very strong, and I wanna test it out."
"Are you sure?" Elisa asked, worry on her face. "We're aware of your abilities, but no one has slain a Transcendent boss solo."
"She's right, man. Why take such a risk?" Kili said with a frown.
"I just... I wanna see my limits. My true limits, what they are right now. And besides, if I kill it solo, everyone will get a morale boost and feel more secure. The people need a reminder that they're in good hands. I want you to stand watch and be ready to help us escape if things go bad. In that case, we'll run and bring reinforcements later."
"But still—" Elisa began.
"This ability is very, very powerful. I can do it. Trust me, please. Just watch from a distance."
The two knights looked at Priam in silence for a couple of moments. Then they nodded.
"Okay," Elisa said.
"Yes, sir," Kili said.
***
Valenti, the second-ranked player, sat on a balcony in his headquarters, overlooking the colossal valley his guild was exploring and conquering. Beside him sat Arlan, Valenti's right hand and the forty-seventh-ranked player, a man with curly white hair, golden eyes and dark blue armor that looked almost liquid.
"You know what I didn't tell you, Arlan?" Valenti said.
"What?" Arlan turned to face him. His face was appealing without being striking or robust, simply beauty without gender, apart from some masculine dimorphism in the jaw.
"Priam is not designed."
A brief look of surprise flashed across Arlan's face. "Really?"
"Yeah. A good friend of his told me. He's all natty. Born and raised in some mountain village in Greece. Moved down to Athens for college, bought the X-VR with friends and ended up here."
"A man like him, natural?" Arlan was genuinely surprised.
"I was surprised as well. But Priam told the guy himself. No reason to lie about something like that. No scans, no edits. He didn't have stem cell embryo selection either. Nothing."
Arlan rested his chin on his right fist. He knew what Valenti was ruling out. Even people with a good background had their recombined genetics scanned and "polished" in the first trimester.
Embryos were also sometimes created artificially: the mother's skin cells were converted to stem cells, then to eggs, then fertilized.
Millions of embryos could be created and filtered to find the best possible genetic combination for the offspring. That route was much more expensive than editing and was used primarily by the wealthy with already good genes, to choose the best of the best. Editing offered more options and broke the limits of ordinary people's bloodline.
"Most people are engineered or selected these days. Gene editing has been affordable for almost three decades, man. It's almost like the smartphone earlier in the century," he said, squinting at the far reaches of the valley.
"I know, but gifted people existed before gene editing. Some people back then could definitely have competed with edited people, be it in ability, height or appearance," Valenti replied.
"Sure, I guess. But today, you know that the unedited people are almost always... y'know. I mean, even health insurance can cover editing in many places. You really think Priam is unedited? He's like twenty-three, so I don't think his parents were edited."
Valenti yawned. "You know what I think? The blueprint, the guide medicine uses to edit genes and make people more desirable, fitter, better overall... I think Priam is that blueprint. People like Priam," he said, cracking his knuckles.
"Okay, but almost everyone is edited, artificial to a degree, us especially, and we're all below this man? A villager from the mountains, unedited?"
"Your ego can't accept it. I felt the same way. But I don't think I'm inferior to the King, so maybe that's the difference between you and me."
Arlan chuckled. "Even an unedited person matching you should hurt." He got up to look at the valley, with its unfathomable sights decorated by alien scenery and every type of bizarre monstrosity.
"The last push to the Rift is in seven days?" he asked.
"Yeah. I told Priam and the others we'll be the last to get to the Pillars. We gotta do this. It's either the main boss or an Epic, like the one slain by that noob."
Valenti got up and put his hands on the metal railing. "Tomorrow, a helper will come," he said.
Arlan turned to face him, waiting.
"The Needle. Fifteenth ranked. We did the second floor clearing together."
"Sounds like we'll become the most powerful guild after the raid," Arlan said, smiling.
Valenti smiled back, his blue eyes glowing in the sunlight.
"Nah," he said as he turned his gaze to the valley.