Chapter 1: What Comes After?

Myleflora Online, Epeditus Dungeon—15th Floor

“How in the world are we supposed to fight against that without a dedicated healer?! Are you stupid or something?”

With a peaked voice, our newcomer’s complaint rattled my ears as several others chimed in before I could even say anything in response.

“I don’t think we really have much of a choice, do we? I mean, it’s right there and all.”
“Right? We found it accidentally, but Global chat has been saying that 24 hours has almost passed since the summoning was announced. I doubt a dedicated healer would make it here fast enough, let alone us defeating it within whatever amount of time we’d have left even if they did.”

With us being on the 15th floor, he was right. There was no shortcut or straight path to us without having to be hounded by dozens of mobs on the way. A Class attuned specifically for healing would also be more prone to dying, especially if they were coming alone. Calling for one would be pointless.

“Yeah, so let’s just get on with it. Albel is here with us anyways.”

A faint stutter of confusion toward her comment came from the newcomer before he successfully articulated that same skepticism.

“What does Albel have anything to do with us being able to beat that without a dedicated healer?! Being spec’d toward Divination magic isn’t going to help us if we’re all dead from a lack of healing!”
“Albel will make it work.”
“Yup.”
“Indeed.”
“Pretty much.”
“You guys aren’t making a lick of sense, you know that, right?!”

As they continued on with their back and forth, the relatively new guild member was seemingly baffled by the rest of our parties' replies. At odds with them, those idiots then began parroting each other and putting focus on me. It was a four versus one scenario in the voice chat—and I didn’t want any part in it. I left them to their own devices as I silently refrained from giving my own reply. And to be fair, I sort of sided with the “one” here anyways.

You tell them, new guy! They’re just saying whatever they want without even considering how I feel. You won’t have my vocal support, but I’ll surely support you in spirit. Good luck.

Several minutes prior, I had thought we’d be ending the session rather soon. That quiet wish was tossed aside the moment we ended up running into a sort of rare enemy. One that the four others in the group were still eager to hunt.
The enemy we had encountered was a “Doors to the Empyrean Realm” mini-event boss that occurred infrequently throughout the year in the MMORPG, Myleflora Online. It held split criticism on both ends of the spectrum—where half of the player base actually enjoyed how time-limited it was—and the other half didn’t. I personally sided more with the latter, since it was a pain in the ass to farm.

To think that the portal summoning ended up here this time around. I can see why no one found it until now—given how dead this place usually is. Hell, we wouldn’t be here to begin with either if it wasn’t for the new guy.

Summoning a special “end game” boss in a random location, players were then alerted of its arrival and were given approximately 24 hours to find and defeat the boss before it disappeared. It had been about two years since its introduction. I had already thoroughly spent that first-year lurking discussion boards, threads, IRC-related channels and so on—in every attempt to snipe each encounter. In doing so, I succeeded, but at the cost of many, many sleepless nights. That—and accumulating a very rational hatred toward time queues, expenses associated with server hopping and other players with a similar mindset.

And now they just fall in your lap whether you want them to or not. Maybe we can just act like we didn’t even see it? I’m too tired to deal with it. Even if the others still need some Empyreal gear. Not worth the effort at all.

The DOR event, for short, was constantly sought after due to it being the only place where Empyreal ranked equipment was in the pool of available loot. It was the bound-on-pickup sort, so it couldn’t be sold—but in exchange, you were guaranteed an Empyreal ranked item related to your Class if the drops were in your favor. Overall, it didn’t matter to me anymore. All of my equipment for my Class was already Empyreal ranked anyways.

“Listen, guys, I just really don’t feel like suffering EXP loss after our guaranteed wipe! Nothing you’re saying is convincing enough for me to take that risk.”

The rest of the parties' debate had finally come to a closure, and with it, I decided to finally put a word in of my own. The clock was ticking and for whatever reason, my eyes and head were starting to hurt too.

“Well, if we’re going to go and do this, let's go already. I have to get up in—oh boy, like a few hours from now for work. So—”
“Hold on, Albel!? Did you not listen to a single thing I just said?!”

The newcomer continued throwing his high pitched voice across the comms. I sighed and replied in blunt fashion, in effort toward not wasting any more time.

“No, not really. Okay. Is everyone ready?”

Gauging the readiness of rest of the party, they promptly responded in turn.

“Yeah.”
“I think so, just let me double check something.”
“God! It really is already tomorrow. It sure is late. Oh, and yeah, I’m ready too.”
“Just let us know what you want us to do, Albel.”

Everyone, aside from the fresh face of our guild, had now positioned themselves near the boundary of the boss’ territory. I hadn’t spent much time with this new guy—other than today—but from what I could recall, he had transferred from a different server for the first time yesterday. At least, that’s what I concluded would be the cause and explanation for his hesitation.

“You...you guys are insane, you know that, right?! Fuck! Fine! If that’s the case, what’s the plan?! I heard these DOR bosses hit incredibly hard and have weird move sets...”

Oh, so this guy hasn’t even faced a DOR boss before today, huh? Guess that makes sense since he’s only wearing Mythical ranked gear right now. Probably should at least give a bit of an explanation just for him then.

In-game, I gestured at him to stand next to the rest of the party. And as he moved near the boundary, everyone was now grouped together.

“Now, pay close attention then. We’ll be working around mainly the combination of the Divination spell, [Mark of the Quarry] and the illusory spell, [Phantasmal Touch]. Let’s see, what do we have in this group Class wise again?”

Checking over everyone’s status, I continued.

“A Guardian, Ranger, Ronin, Artillerist, Wizard and a...Monk? Wait a second, a Monk? New guy, do you not have any healing spells assigned?”
“...I’m more of a combat-type rather than a support. Wait, hey! We’ve been grouped together the whole night. How are you just realizing that now?!”

With how Classes worked in Myleflora Online, customization played a massive part in a player’s build. After a certain point, the specialization of a Class became flexible and varying.

“Well, we weren’t going against anything difficult, so I kind of zoned out while we’ve been here. I really didn’t even know we had a Monk...”
“That’s our Albel, all right.”

I threw in a rather quick and distasteful in-game gesture her way at the implied slander on my name. And in return, she shrugged back as a series of chuckles resonated amid the comms.

Huh? Seriously? How embarrassing. I didn’t realize I was zoned out THAT much tonight. I’ve been feeling a bit light-headed too on top of that headache, but geez. I really have to finish this up as soon as possible.

With a forced cough on my end, everyone went back to listening as I continued.

“Well, that aside, we should be able to handle it with our current group. Listen to my directions and keep a watchful eye on your health as we go. New guy, make sure to listen carefully. I’ll be sure to keep my orders as detailed as possible.”
“O-okay!”

With everyone finally on the same page, we all crossed the boundary. The DOR boss this time around was the Inflamed Basilisk, Pyrhic. Luckily, I was already quite familiar with this particular Special Beast due to previous runs. Even so, I made sure to activate [Investigate]. Like always, a status menu appeared before me.

Name: [Inflamed Basilisk, Pyrhic]
Rank: [Special Beast], [Serpent King]
Level: [150]
Class: [Elemental Serpent, Tier XIII]
Alignment: [Neutral Evil]
INFO: A special form of the one recognized as the Serpent King. Its gaze has the ability to kill on sight toward those with weak Magic Defense. Its poison is acidic and fast acting. Avoid at ALL costs. As it slithers, it leaves trails of a special combination of a poisonous flame. Not only will it burn, it'll poison as well. Weak against mental attacks and magic. Weak against [Pierce] attacks in certain areas.

It was pretty much exactly what I had already expected.

The developers really like to reuse—even overuse—their Special Beasts after all. Nonetheless, this will be a complete cinch thanks to that laziness.

As I relayed the information from my [Investigate] to the rest of the party, I then gave each of them their task. The Guardian, for obvious reasons, was in charge of pulling aggro—the boss’ attention. The Ronin and Monk would flank from behind and use both Wind and Earth magic, respectively. This was just the basic task of whittling down Pyrhic's health and shifting his attention from time to time. The Ranger and Artillerist would simply keep their distance and shoot its weak spots, while also attempting to stagger during its mid-attacks.

Well, it’s not like they actually really need to do all too much outside of DPS. The secret to killing Pyrhic is rather easy and simple that it’s almost cheat-like. At least, for a Divination Wizard that is.

As the battle began, the bombardment upon Pyrhic was underway, while I began my own set of routine rituals. Just for the beginning, the others would currently be tasked with simply holding Pyrhic's attention. Crucial in its own right, since a successful and uninterrupted start was essential.
Placing my stave before me, a black orb nested at the top. This was the Empyreal ranked weapon, [Abysmal End]. A stave that only a few players were able to get their hands on due to it being removed from the loot pool. With it previously being held by a practically impossible to beat Special Beast, easily 99% of the player base failed against it any time it appeared. It had its own cheat-like abilities, and due to that, the Special Beast ended up getting removed entirely—including its overpowered loot. Leaving only the players who succeeded with the unique items.

It’s the only item with both [Fast Casting] and [Triple Cast] skill together after all. [Fast Casting] is pretty self-explanatory, but [Triple Cast] allows for the use of three spells at once, one time, during a fight. The perfect weapon to gain the undying advantage in any fight! Now, shall we?

“Casting: [Eye of the Magi], [Mark of the Quarry], [Phantasmal Touch]!”

❖❖❖

“Holy shit! I actually got an Empyreal ranked drop!! I really didn’t think we would be able to beat it, but I guess it was worth the try, huh? Ahaha!”

As the newcomer gloated over his luck, the others chimed in as well.

“This guy, he really changed his tune rather quickly...”
“Cut him some slack. Him being cautious wasn’t too surprising, since it was his first DOR raid after all. He must have insane luck to get one on the first run though.”
“Maybe if I start hesitating and complaining before a DOR raid, I’ll get another drop too...?”
“Yeah, dropped from the group. Don’t you dare start with that crap.”

The fight finished just within the time limit—and rather anticlimactically at that. The group began looking over their loot, a few celebrating, while the rest shrugged off their bad luck. I didn’t get anything special from the DOR boss either, and even if I didn’t need anything, I couldn’t help but feel a bit pissed off too. Possibly due to some deep-dwelling, old trauma. Well, not possibly, but more like definitely.

All that work on my end and it didn’t even give me the bare minimum. Not like it could give me anything worthwhile anyways—but it's the principle! The principle, dammit! Hard work should be rewarded, right? Right?!

Wallowing in my whirlpool of bad luck, the newcomer suddenly called to me with a question.

“Hey, Albel. I was wondering about something earlier. What exactly happened back there?”
“Hm? What do you mean by that, new guy?”

He recounted certain parts of the fight that he was confused about. And as he did, I could hear varying chuckles in the background from the rest of the party.

“And then the Basilisk suddenly started acting all weird shortly after! Attacking the air, doing self-damage—to the point of even biting itself! I’m pretty sure that the Basilisk did most of the damage to itself than any of us even did...”
“Ahaha! Isn't that the best? That’s because of Albel’s Divination magic and tactics.”

His confusion felt palpable even through our comms as the new guy then continued.

“Huh?! I didn’t think Divination magic could even do something to that extent.”
“Well, now you do. He isn't called the “Diviner” for nothing.”
“Wait! What!? Albel is that Diviner that people always talk about here?! Guess it all makes sense now...”

Geez, aren’t they all a little too rowdy and full of energy this late into the night? I’m absolutely near-dead exhausted on my end. But I should at least finish what I started and give him a proper explanation.

“Well, it technically can’t. Special Beasts and raid bosses—even with their weaknesses—tend to have stronger or complete resistance to certain mental attacks or ailments. You may be able to sway their focus elsewhere, but not completely control or fool them, usually. Same goes for ailments and being able to properly land them.”
“Then how exactly did you?!”

It was simple. There hadn’t been a single person who had explored beyond the limits of what Divination magic could do in Myleflora Online the same way I had.

“It’s just a combination of [Eye of the Magi], [Mark of the Quarry], [Phantasmal Touch]. And then to top it off, some [Divination] on the side. Show the right illusion and anything can be baited properly. Create an instance where the monster assumes one thing based off of its algorithm—and lead them into a trap of their own making. Mix that with knowing and seeing it all beforehand, it then comes down to your own experience and skill. It also helps that I’ve fought Pyrhic enough to understand how he ticks and for my Divination magic to work more effectively too...”
“That seems a bit confusing...”

Ah, shit... My head is really starting to hurt now. I better wrap this up already...

“W-well, that’s the gist of it... Anyways, good job to everyone on that DOR clear. I think it’s time for me to head off to bed...”

As the group said their goodbyes and began to part ways, they waved me off and departed from the safe haven in the dungeon. Left alone in an empty party—without even signing out—I removed my headset and stood up from my chair. The moment I did, I could feel my head pounding as if someone were hammering it—over and over again. Stumbling my way through a dark room only lit by two monitors, my vision swayed violently.

“What...the hell is this...?!”

My legs caught the edge of the bed as I dropped forward onto my sheets. I couldn’t grasp what was wrong with me, not in the slightest. I had often stayed up even beyond the current time with ease, and yet, never did I feel anything this severe or painful.

Shit... This isn’t good. Not at all. I might have to...

“...call in...sick for work...tomorrow...”

Beyond all of my knowledge and every bit of my awareness—I then drifted into a state of unconsciousness. One that would remain permanent for what would be the last time for me as the man named Arata Okubo.