Guild Chivalry's lobby was eerily quiet. Adventurers associated with the guild passed by each other without as much as a greeting. One attempted to break the silence but was shunned by the glares of their peers.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open. A man, large, domineering, and adorned in gold, entered. He strode with confidence, leading his body with his decorative, diamond-studded cane. King Karter. Level 187. CEO of the Golden Ox. His overcoat lustred under the lobby's lights in contrast to his pitch-back suit. Karter's eyes, gold like his coat and shoes, scanned the adventurers who stopped to stare.
"Is there something on my face?" Karter smiled.
The adventurers shook their heads and hastily left the scene. Karter clicked his tongue as his smile fell. He walked to the nearest sofa, removed his coat, and took a seat.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open. An elf with sharp red eyes, long silver hair, and a scowl on his face walked in. Slow and observant. He had on black robes, tinged in purple, falling to his feet. On his back, a snake devouring its tail with a sword behind it. Lucero. Level 190. Leader of Ophis.
"Lucero, in the flesh and blood. Didn't think you'd show." Karter stood, dusting himself.
"Karter." Lucero made his way over to the imposing man, taking his time. "It has been a while." He shook hands with the CEO. Lucero brought him in closer. "I hope you got my message."
"It has been read."
"And your answer."
"Let's find out, shall we?"
Lucero and Karter applied pressure to their shake.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open. A large, hulking man with red wrestling tights and a flamboyant mask coloured in gold, white, and red, crashed his head on the door. "Ow!" he yelped. Behind him, a Felisia, face covered with a black motorcycle helmet and dressed in a leather jacket and pants, used his tail to smack the taller man.
"Making a fool out of yourself." the Felisia said.
"I told that man to make these doors bigger! These doors are too small for Red Void!" Red Void said.
"Too big." the Felisia said simply.
"You're too small, Quinn! You need to eat more!" Red Void exclaimed.
"Eat enough." Quinn brushed him off. "Karter and Lucero over there, let's go."
Quinn, leader of Delta Divine, level 183, and Red Void, leader of Red Abyss, level 190, made their way to the leaders of Golden Ox and Orpheus. Quinn shook Karter's hand first, then Lucero's. "Lucero! My friend! How are you!? I saw the news about Skull Kidds! Those are your boys right!?" Red Void roared. "Karter! It's great to see both of Red Void's friends doing well." he continued.
Lucero bit his lip. Karter barely held in his laugh.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open. 3 people strolled in with varying postures. The first man, armoured in gold with the face of a lion on his chest, marched, eyes focused as it peered through his gold helmet. The second, an elf, fashioning red liberty spikes, threw his legs outwards while he flashed a hand sign. His middle and ring fingers folded over while his index and pinky shot out. His thumb folded in. His pants were baggy and sagging. The third, an urusia in an immaculate, lotus worm kurta, walked with grace, like he was on water. Gold glasses adorned her face, sitting close to the tip of her snout as her brown fur wrapped around the ends of her glasses.
"Yo yo yo! What's good, everybody!" the elf flashed her teeth, gold grills fitted. "Oh!? Is that my boy K!? What's goin' on, brotha! Oh, and Lucero, what's good, man?" they made their way over to the group. "Red Void, Quinn, unexpected pairing?" the elf dapped the leaders up, all except Lucero.
"Unfortunate timing." Quinn replied
"Great timing! Red Void loves Quinn and KD-Rock!" Red Void replied.
"That's what's up, big guy!" KD-Rock, leader of sgFang, level 185, pretended to punch Red Void's stomach.
The man in the golden armour, leader of Aquila Legionaires, level 179, marched past everyone and only shook the hand of Orpheus's leader.
"Lucero." the man said.
"Yulius." Lucero answered.
The Urusia, meanwhile, greeted the adventurers of Guild Chivalry, speaking with each of them and their happenings.
"There goes Dubbo. She too nice." KD leaned on Quinn, who brushed her off.
"Agree." Quinn said.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open. An elf, shorter than average, with dark purple skin, was dressed in balloon pants and a blue sea dragon breastplate. Gems dazzled both nostrils, and the elf's dreads were tied into a bun, only leaving two stands hanging by the side of their eyes. By their side, an orc suited in black armour. Its colour so deep it was like it could absorb light. Apart from its ability to seemingly create darkness, the armour was covered in spikes, both big and small. On its shoulders, fists, helmet, shoes, and any other free space it could find. Though his figure was imposing, there was politeness which spilt from every step. From the way he bowed to enter the door. From the way his feet barely made a noise. From the way he held his hands behind his back, leaving enough space for the elf to rest their hand on his forearm.
"Ey yo, it's Fortuna! What's good, girl!?" KD called out to the level 187 leader of La Kraken.
"Tch. Ese pendejo." Fortuna muttered. "Let's go, Kaiser. I wanna say hi to Dubbo." The elf said to the walking piece of armour and the leader of Howling Abyss. Level 190.
"Okay." Kaiser replied.
The two walked over to the bear, who greeted them with a smile. Though their conversation was inaudible, not a hint of hostility was noticed.
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the lobby slid open.
A man in a tattered white tunic covered in dirt and leather armour, which barely hung on, walked in with a smile. Following closely behind was an orc in purple robes, clutching his staff like his life depended on it. The duo drew everybody's attention for all the wrong reasons.
"Who dared to enter with such bravado, like he owned the place?"
"Who dared to speak with a voice as annoying and as piercing as theirs?"
"Who dared to do all this with a level 25 armour set?"
It was Kal-el, level 178, leader of the Blue Lightning Guild, accompanied by Torell, level 31, a companion of Anodos.
"Tor! Relax! You're too stiff, c'mon!" Kal laughed. "What's got everyone staring!? Am I that pretty?" he smiled.
"H-hello, everyone." Torell bowed.
"Ey! Kal! I didn't know you were coming!? Getchyo ass over here, boy!" KD waved.
"KD, buddy! I'll be there in a sec." Kal motioned Toerll towards Dubbo and the rest.
"Why's he here? He's 11." Yulius asked.
"I believe I know the answer to that, but it'd be more fun watching it unfold." Lucero grinned.
"Ginning. Don't like that." Quinn whispered to Karter. "Got a bad feeling."
Karter watched Kal-el making joyous conversation with Dubbo, Fortuna, and Kaiser. "I don't either." Karter sighed. "Let's see what Himmel has in store."
Zzzzzt ting!
The doors to the elevator open. Himmel steps into the limelight with Sita and Rhodes right behind. He walked towards the collection of guild leaders. Himmel weighted his stride. They were long and heavy. A commander, it screamed.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming. Shall we head in?"
***
Retrieving everything of value from the blood-stained sand pit, Zein, Johnny, and Wu journeyed to the Snake's den. The sun rose once more, and its heat was, as usual, unforgiving. Johnny tried not to let it bother him, told himself that none of this was "real", and yet he panted and squinted. A cruel joke on his subconscious.
Zein wasn't doing much better either. His once acclimated body couldn't keep up. Zein bit his lip, forcing himself not to focus on the overwhelming amount of stimuli. Wu wasn't of much help either, as the little monkey's warm breath brushed his neck while he slept in his friend's cape.
Monsters made their appearances sporadically throughout their trip. The bravery they had to face, what was in their eyes, monsters, was commendable, even if they were completely outmatched. Johnny, annoyed by their presence and fresh out of bullets from the fight with the Queen, continued his onslaught with mana bullets. Zein, meanwhile, was grateful to the scorpions and cacti. They kept him sharp and on his toes, actively helping him recover his former senses.
30 minutes of hallucinating and fighting went by before the den became visible.
"Is that it! Can I finally leave!? I'm tired, Mister." Johnny cried.
"I know you are, Johnny, but please be patient with me. You got some of our items after all." Zein consoled.
"Alright…Just for you Mr. Cat."
"Is that right? Why, thank you."
Walking a bit further, the sand in front of them began to collapse into itself, revealing a smooth rock tunnel narrow enough to fit two people. The sound of the sand sliding down faded after a number of seconds, leaving both Zein and Johnny clueless as to how long it truly was.
"Is…it safe?" Johnny asked, hesitant.
"Let's find out, eh?" Zein nudged Johnny and hopped into the tunnel, disappearing into the dark.
"Momma." Johnny prayed before sliding right after.
The tunnel swerved and looped, thrashing the trio against its walls. Their speed never slowed either. Johnny's motion sickness, a recent discovery, worsened the further they travelled. Wu, woken to the gurgled speech of Johnny and the constant crashing, yelped and passed out by the darkness. Zein, barely hanging on to his consciousness himself, knew he had to take the tunnel to recover his former senses. And he felt bad for dragging the both of them into this.
"I'll treat them to something as an apology." he promised.
Reaching the bottom of the tunnel after a minute of enduring injuries and staying sane, Johnny arrived limp. The young cowboy could barely move his body, while Zein stumbled upon landing.
"Impressssssssive. Not many cowboysssssss would take the tunnelssssss." Rojo slithered to the adventurers. "How wasssssss the Dutchesssss?" he asked.
"She seemed…spirited." Zein huffed. "It took us a while to bring her down, but," he grabbed the gold ingot from his inventory and dropped it on the ground, "we got it done."
Rojo coiled his tail around the ingot and raised it to his head, he slid his claw along the deep incision on the gold piece. "Thisssss is very good." the snake cackled. "You are now one sssssstep closer to fulfilling your sssssside of the deal." he said.
"Yeah. One step closer. But I believe it's time to hold up your end of the bargain." Zein returned to his senses.
"Of courssssssse. A ssssssnake never betraysssssss." Rojo smiled