Seven Eleven Lore

Finally, at long last…

As he plunged his Iron Sword into the chest of the Orc, he reached the first major crossroads of his character.

[ Lvl Up! ]

Jason was at Lvl 11. In order to progress further, he had to pick a class. There were no do-overs from this. If he made the wrong choice, he’d have to stick with it for the rest of the game.

He had gone through every single option for his first class advancement, weighing out the pros and the cons. Yet, just like his feelings towards Alice, he wasn’t sure what class to choose.

“You done yet?” impatience permeated through the devil’s voice.

“Y-Yeah.”

Looting the remains of the Orc, he rejoined his party members waiting by the side. Alice was still acting distant. Virginia kept quiet throughout, but he could practically see the steam shooting out of her ears.

If they couldn’t get their shit together, this party wouldn’t be able to last.

He opted to put his class advancement aside for now. There was too much going on in his head. Delaying it wouldn’t hurt.

The party continued trekking through the grasslands, led by Alice. The coast was clear. No sign of any significant threat along their route. The occasional mob that came their way turned into EXP for Jason.

That was when he felt something was off.

“Hey guys, I think we should build a base. If things go south, at least we could respawn close to each other.”

“We should keep goi—”

“Great idea, Jason,” Virginia cut in. “Better safe than sorry.”

Alice stood her ground, “This is a horrible place to set up a Checkpoint. It’s too open.”

“But, the tornadoes up ahead—”

“Relax, Jason. I know my way around them. We should press onward.”

Virginia was losing patience, “When we don’t even have a central respawn point? It’s two against one, Satan. Stop being so stubborn!”

“Whatever. You guys can go and dig. I’ll push ahead.”

“FINE!” Virginia yelled, “Go then! We don’t need you in the party to kill Cosmolore anyways!”

“Psst, Virginia…” Jason tried to calm her down, but to no avail.

“Hmph. I think you’re forgetting how things work here.”

Alice summoned her weapon, pointing it towards the Elf.

“Have you lost your mind, bitch?!”

“Sorry, Jason. I made a mistake. I’ll get rid of this useless whore.”

He couldn’t believe what was unfolding right in from of him. The party was barely a few hours old, and now they’re trying to kill each other?! If he opened his mouth, he’d make things worse. If he stayed quiet? Same shit.

He bit his lip. Not just in-game, but in real life. What was the point of him being here if things were turning out this way?

If only…if only…

“Sorry, but can we spectate the fight?”

“!”

The voice belonged to a completely different player. A huge Orc. With two massive axes in each hand, he was a Destroyer—one of the final evolutions for a Warrior.

And he wasn’t alone.

“Shut up, Mike,” a hooded Jounin stepped out of the Orc’s shadow, “Just ignore him, ladies.”

“Who are you guys?!” Jason asked, clearly alarmed.

“Tch. I thought you said there were only two of them? Who’s this bloke?” a third unfamiliar voice hissed. Emerging from his Invisibility was a Deadeye, dual-wielding crossbows.

The Jounin replied, “Just a low-level Adventurer. No cause for concern.”

“Exactly,” a Bishop teleported right next to Jason, putting his oversized sleeve of an arm around him, “Why don’t you just stay quiet and enjoy the show, hmm?”

This is bad. We’re outnumbered!

Destroyer, Jounin, Deadeye and Bishop—a full party of maxed-out players just came out of nowhere.

Virginia materialised her staff out of thin air, “So you boys were stalking us? That’s not a very good first impression, y’know…”

“Zip it, bimbo!” yelled the Deadeye, “If you just rolled over and die, we’ll spare your friends, how 'bout that?”

“Oh,” a single sound escaped Alice’s lips, “You guys are after V. And you don’t mind me killing her?”

Goddamn it Alice! Get a grip! These guys aren’t going to let us go!

The Bishop responded, “Why, of course! One of her exes paid us to grief her. As long as she's dead, it didn’t matter how. In fact, I have to thank you, dear devil, because if it were not for you, she’ll still be inside that casino! Haha!”

Alice sighed, “Then can you guys step aside, please? I don’t want you to get caught in my AoE.”

“YEAH! FIGHT FIGHT!” cheered the Orc. The Jounin kicked him.

“Just shut up and move, Mike.”

As the intruding party gathered by the sidelines, Jason grabbed Alice’s hand.

“Can you not see we’re being played?!”

But she shoved him aside.

“Watch and learn, Jason.”

Virginia started to chant. An enormous red patterned circle emerged under her feet.

Alice continued, “Maniavolution 101…

…Don’t. Fuck. With. ME!”

A black hole sucked the party of four!

“SHIT!”

They immediately dispersed with their respective mobility skills. But the Destroyer was stuck.

“You guys can fuck me,” Virginia whispered. “Just remember to pay the price.”

Finishing her spell, meteors started to rain down on the enemy team’s formation, scattering them even further.

The Jounin was the first to recover, quickly appearing behind Virginia to [ Assassinate ] her.

Only to [ Assassinate ] Jason instead.

“Pick on someone your own size, ninja!”

Backflipping away, the Jounin couldn’t believe what he saw. The Adventurer threw himself into his skill, protecting the Chaos Witch. Damage numbers consisting of just 9s popped up, but he was still standing!

“What the—this guy wouldn’t die!”

The Jounin might have one of the highest damage-dealing potentials in the game, but the class only had single-target skills. No matter what he threw at Virginia, Jason would put himself in between, acting as a meat shield.

An invincible meat shield.

“Zero! Forget about the devil! AoE that whore!” as the Bishop focused on healing the initial damage his team suffered, he commanded the Deadeye to attack Virginia.

But before he could unleash his barrage, he was hit by a beam of absolute darkness.

“Assholes! I’LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!”

Alice was singlehandedly keeping the Destroyer and the Deadeye at bay. Even though she was locked in a tight melee with the former, she was still capable of disrupting the latter from a distance.

Jason kept the Jounin busy, while Virginia threatened to wipe out the entire enemy party through her destructive spells. It was taking the Bishop everything to keep his party’s HP in the clear.

It was an even fight. Blades clashed. Magic exploded. Arrows whistled past while damage numbers appeared all around.

But the battle tipped towards the intruders’ favour.

It was turning into a battle of attrition. They had a healer. Jason’s party didn’t.

[ Damnatio Memoriae! ]

[ Total Annihilation! ]

Alice and Mike tore into each other. Blood gushed out from the Destroyer’s body while the Abyssal Reaper dodged the skill, only to be met with a rain of arrows.

Just as quickly as he got hurt, the Bishop took away the damage. The devil couldn’t focus down the annoying healer, because if she did, then the Deadeye would be able to target Virginia.

Just as she gritted her teeth, so too did Jason.

While he could protect Virginia, Alice was slowly but surely taking damage. And just when things were getting worse…

“Sorry, bro. Bar’s fully charged.”

[ Shadow Clones ]

The Jounin divided himself into five different copies. He didn’t need to imagine what that meant for Virginia. There was no way he could intercept that many body doubles!

It was now or never.

He had thought long and hard enough. Every single class…every single possibility…

The best way to progress not just for him, but for his party as well…

Oh, you shouldn’t worry about min-maxing. Just pick whatever you feel is most fun!

Alice’s words echoed in his mind, causing him to smile.

Have fun, eh?

He knew exactly which class to pick. A class that would reverse their fortunes. A class that would definitely carve a smile into Alice’s face.

Visualising his menu, he went for the option that called out to him. A match made in heaven for him, a documentary filmmaker.

In an instant, Jason’s Iron Sword disappeared, but in return, he activated his skill:

[ Compendio: Shadow Clones ]

Mimicking the exact same skill the Jounin had used, Jason split himself into five copies!

“W-What the fu—”

[ Compendio: Grand Heal ]

This time, it was the Bishop’s heal that he copied.

Alice was shocked to see her HP recovering. By the time she realised, a peal of hearty laughter left her lungs.

“Hahahaha! It’s so stupid, it works!”

Jason may be way underlevelled, but his new class more than made up for it. One of the hardest classes to play properly, but also rather weak…

…for any other player, that was. But thanks to his glitch, he was now able to turn the tide of this battle.

For he was now a Lore Master.