I wished Olaf goodbye, promising to defend the holy spring by all means necessary, though I knew full well that his precious egg would most likely end up cracked in someone else’s quest completion screen. If I could defend it, that would be a dream—I’d actually close in on the gap between the top players, and I could pay rent for multiple months, but I wasn’t counting on success.

  I headed south down the mountain road, where Olaf had said the carriages would be arriving. The cobblestone path was safe while in the village, but the moment I stepped past the gates of its flimsy walls, two quest notifications popped up.

  [You have exited the Safe Zone. Now entering Wilderness. Player combat enabled.]

  [The average monster level of your location is over 80 levels above your character level.]

  I activated [Stealth] and [Conceal Footsteps], and I tightened the hood around my head. The system notification didn’t come with an offer to teleport me out this time. It was merely a warning telling me that if I died here, it was my fault.

  A whoosh echoed above the mist. I saw faint outlines of some large flyers. Wyverns. One of them sat atop a tree branch nearby. The trees here had no leaves, allowing me to see it clearly.

  Stone Wyvern (Level 263).

  That was all the information I could gain, but it was enough for me to know not to mess with it. The wyvern was the length of two humans, standing on two clawed feet like a raven. It had a strong affinity to earth magic, as one could guess.

  I had tried to kill one of them earlier by throwing a dagger through its eye, landing a critical strike, but that hadn’t been enough to one-shot it. Conversely, even a scratch of its claws would kill me instantly.

  I avoided it and stepped off of the cobblestone path, since I knew the flying wyverns had a keen eye on anything that walked on it. By trotting on the swampy puddles off to the side instead, I had the best chance of not being attacked. Even with my monster avoidance stat, I’d still be attacked if I entered the wrong territory.

  In the swamp, I had different monsters to deal with. A short distance away, I spotted a grey-skinned little creature frowning at me.

  Mountain Goblin (Level 248). Status: Suspicious, Hungry.

  I pulled out a stick of lamb meat from my inventory, and tossed it at the goblin’s feet. The meat splashed against the wet ground. Suspiciously, the goblin grabbed it. He placed it into his mouth.

  I looked around myself and deduced that the goblin was probably alone. The goblin camp should have been over a mile from here. If I killed it, I wouldn’t be ambushed.

  I initiated a slash with my dagger, and activated [Shadow Dash]. My vision flickered as I moved too fast for the human eye to see. When vision returned, my slash finished in my next location, and I landed a critical strike straight into the goblin’s nape. It gurgled a death sound and collapsed.

  [You have earned 23,231 experience for killing Mountain Goblin (Level 248)]

  [You leveled up!]

  Good, I’m feeling warmed-up already, I thought.

  Controlling the precise location of [Shadow Dash] like that was something that I’d practiced for hundreds hours. Even still, I sometimes got it wrong, especially if I played with my headset at home. A game pod made everything much smoother, allowing much more precise movements. With my home headset, I could still see individual frames as the headset was slow to update. The pod felt exactly like real life.

  I really need to buy a pod for myself, I thought. Too bad even the cheapest ones cost over two thousand dollars.

  Wyverns continued patrolling the skies as I descended the mountain. The path branched off, one west and one south, as Olaf had promised. I passed a few dragonborn warriors and continued onto the westward path.

  Two paths, I thought. That probably means two carriages will intersect here. And there’s a good chance the carriages are escorted by different guilds.

  That would mean a fight would break out, and only the winning carriage could advance to the egg. That would give me even more chances to sneak in assassinations. I hurried my step down and used [Shadow Dash] to avoid any unnecessary monster encounters.

  Five minutes later, I heard the first explosion of arcane magic. The sky lit up as a purple [Arcane Javelin] pierced a level 272 stone wyvern. The monster crashed down with a loud thump, and two humans walked over to collect its loot.

  I hid behind the tree and examined the dark hardwood carriage. Well, it was more like a full convoy. I spotted the first player nametags, and I immediately thought, oh shit.

  The old man who’d cast the [Arcane Javelin] was [Mythforged] SpellDao. He sat calmly on top of the carriage next to a cloaked man.

  SpellDao was the leader of Mythforged—currently the sixteenth highest ranked guild in the world. He was the second ranked arcane mage, rank 43 on the global leaderboard. His best guild members were present, surrounding the carriage and killing anything that tried to attack. I spotted the rank 2 dark ranger player [Mythforged] Treant33, 124th on the global leaderboard, as well as the rank 8 tank player [Mythforged] Proxy4raxgg, 256th on the global leaderboard. A dozen more non top five hundred players surrounded the carriage.

  Everyone had shiny gear: sacred obsidian staves, silky robes, adamantite armor—all except the assassin sitting next to the guild leader.

  [Luxueux] FunnyHahaDead, otherwise known as Fuhad. The rank three assassin player, 39th on the global leaderboard, and a member of the best French guild in the world, Luxueux.

  I had no idea what he was doing here with Mythforged. Maybe SpellDao had hired or bribed him. It wasn’t unheard of for two guilds to work together. But fact was, Fuhad was the third best assassin player in the world. He didn’t use [Swing] or [Thrust], and I knew for certain that he was better than me. If not in skill, at least in gear and levels, and that would make the difference in a duel.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Their formation was solid as well. I didn’t see any isolated targets I could outright kill. Their mages were all on the carriage roof or near it, surrounded by melee-fighters and tanks. I’d require one hell of a surprise attack if I wanted to kill one of their tanks.

  Not to mention, I’d need to escape from Fuhad afterward. It didn’t matter what level my stealth was, he would catch me. Running from other assassin players was always a pain.

  I just need one kill today to pay rent, I thought. Even one of these players will most likely get my account over 1300 dollars.

  I didn’t see any way I could just go in and kill someone, but I was lucky that this was a three-way quest. A second carriage was still on its way, and conflict would ensue.

  So I headed back the way I came, moving swiftly while using [Shadow Dash] every time it came off of its five second cooldown. The wyverns above were already more interested in the approaching carriage, letting me pass with relative ease.

  I reached the crossroad, where the other carriage would be approaching from. The second path wasn’t much different. Instead of goblins, this path had lizardmen. They were much tougher to kill, but also more reluctant to chase if I didn’t show them hostility. With my monster avoidance stat, I progressed easily.

  Ahead, a wyvern screeched and dove at the ground, and I knew I’d reached the second carriage. I hid behind a tree to examine the fight.

  This carriage didn’t have a convoy or a full guild surrounding it at all. The horses had an NPC guiding them forward—a man, who ducked in a panic upon the wyvern’s attack. He was named Carriage Rider (NPC, Level 180).

  Only a single player stood atop the carriage. [Solo Mage] Veyra.

  Her staff glowed a runic blue as she shot a simple [Icicle], landing it directly in the level 274 stone wyvern’s eye. The critical strike didn’t one-shot, but it did knock the wyvern off of its path.

  She grabbed her staff like she would a spear, and the tip turned sharp. She thrust it through the falling wyvern’s neck and slashed it aside, finishing it off.

  Two more wyverns flew in the sky. She faced them without fear, standing proudly atop the carriage. I didn’t recognize her beige wizard’s robe. That meant it was either a low level item, or it was a unique item I hadn't heard of. I guessed the former. It did look good on her, though.

  I had never heard the name Veyra anywhere. Her guild said nothing, and her gear didn’t look particularly striking.

  So who is this? I thought.

  She’d soon be dead, I figured was the answer. One of the wyverns cast its ranged attack [Rock Missile], and a flurry of sharp rocks shot down at the carriage. The other wyvern dashed down. There was no way she’d deal with two wyverns at once.

  She closed her eyes, and a grey runic ring formed atop the orb of her staff, indicating a defensive spell. I recognized the pattern for [Elemental Barrier]. I’d seen the spell hundreds of times. It was the most common panic response spell mage players cast when they were threatened. The spell cast a simple magic barrier in mid-air in the wielder’s chosen location.

  Shame, I thought, knowing that Veyra would be dead. [Elemental Barrier] had a cast time of two seconds. By that time, the [Rock Missile] would have already hit and killed her. I was certain she was dead.

  Then Veyra proceeded to perform the best showcase of quick-casting I’d ever seen.

  The [Elemental Barrier] appeared in under a second, and her spell didn’t spawn one large barrier like the spell normally did. Instead, Veyra created dozens of smaller barriers. The barriers were the exact size to block the wyvern’s sharp rocks.

  Holy shit, I thought, my mouth ajar as each one of the rocks collided against Veyra’s precisely calculated elemental barriers, perfectly blocked.

  In Wonderwind, spellcasters typically casted spells using the system-assisted spellcaster. They could simply activate the mental slot in their head, and the system would cast the spell in their stead.

  But just like melee fighters could freehand their weapons instead of using the [Swing] system, spellcasters could also use their own imagination to form spells on their own. By imagining the runic pattern of a fireball, for example, a mage could cast a fireball much faster than what the assisted casting allowed.

  A normal system-casted [Elemental Barrier] took two seconds to form, and the end result was one large hexagon-shaped barrier. Veyra had cast the spell using her imagination in under one second.

  But even more impressive was her control over the spell. She hadn’t just cast one large elemental block. She cast dozens of tiny barriers, placing each one directly where they needed to be in order to block every single rock coming her way. Witnessing it, it was like watching someone hit every single note perfectly in an expert difficulty Guitar Hero song. Her spellcasting was pure skill.

  But the two wyverns are still alive, I thought. One of them was diving directly to her, and she didn’t have time to kill it. How will you deal with it?

  Her answer was so simple it made me chuckle. She rolled to the side. No [Dodge] or other bullshit. She just jumped out of the way.

  And it worked. The wyvern failed to grab her from its flight trajectory, and it continued back toward the air, while the other wyvern prepared to cast another [Rock Missile].

  This time, Veyra didn’t defend. She used the wyvern’s cast time for an offensive spell, and she quick-casted a [Ray Of Time]. A laser-like ray of time magic hit the wyvern in the head, knocking it to the ground. While it was falling, she continued pointing the ray at its head, continuing to deal constant damage. By the time it fell against the ground, its head had melted off.

  The second wyvern dashed again. Veyra summoned the spear and drove it into the wyvern’s eye. She couldn’t stop the wyvern’s momentum, however, and was forced to let go of her staff, which was left deep in the wyvern’s eye. That was enough to kill it, too.

  Calmly, as if nothing had happened, Veyra cast [Retrieve Staff], and her weapon appeared back in her hand. The carriage continued onward.

  I stood there in shock. Holy shit. She’s good.

  How had I never heard of this player? I had no idea. She must have been a top player. I immediately opened the system network, and I searched her character name.

  Veyra was not in the top five hundred global leaderboard. Not even in the lower half. She wasn’t ranked anywhere at all. The rest of her details were private. I couldn’t see her level or any details about her.

  What about her guild? I thought. Is that private too?

  Surprisingly, Solo Mage wasn’t a private guild. I opened up its details and saw only one member. The leader, Veyra. She was alone in the guild, which was pretty much the same as not being in any guild at all. She just had to pay the guild upkeep fee, and all she gained was a fancy title.

  Well, she is a solo mage… I thought.

  I wondered if I could kill her. I was an assassin, and I had a favorable matchup, but I hadn’t done any research on her fighting style like I always did for top five hundred players. She didn’t use the system either, which would make fighting her unpredictable. There was still a chance I’d die against her if I failed my initial ambush.

  Killing her also wouldn’t offer much benefit. Her gear wasn’t as expensive as the shiny legendaries Mythforged members wore. Hers was still better than mine, but unless her staff dropped, I doubted I could even pay rent with her items.

  She would also get killed fairly quickly once her carriage intersected with Mythforged’s. Honestly, I had no idea what she was doing so high up alone.

  But perhaps her spells would offer me a chance to catch one or two members off guard when a fight broke out. Ahead, the paths were intersecting, and the two carriages were about to meet.