POV PunkGuy:
The tall black tower with rough walls that looked like the walls of a volcano stood on top of the tall peak, reaching all the way to the sky, its tip piercing through the thick black clouds circling around the tower.
Its insides were hollow, filled with a long spiralling path, twisting and curving all the way towards a large platform on its top. The interior was dark, with the only light source being a dim red light coming from a blazing hot ceiling heated by the giant dragon lying on the tower’s roof.
All the way at the bottom of the tower was a gaping black circular hole leading into the depths of the mountains, connecting to the artificially made cave system used by the dragon cult as a base.
Howling and screeching echoed through the hollow interior, dozens of reptilian eyes glowing in the darkness. Scratching of claws coming from the dark corners as mutated draconic monsters walked around.
A pack of terrifying big wolves with reverse-slitted eyes and horns poking out of their mouths were sprawled on the ground, their whole body covered in hard volcanic stone with swatches of magma dripping out of them, glowing in the darkness.
Flames blazed out of their mouth as they breathed with magma and acid dripping out.
“Whoah, what the heck happened? I was offline for a few days, and now there is this big-ass tower.” a voice bounced between the walls of the empty hollow space. A player with a weird punk haircut poking through his hood stood there, looking around, his reptilian eyes under his mask widely open.
‘Is our boss turning into a dark lord? Because it really starts to look it here like in a Mordor.’ the image of the sky filled with thick smoke and the forest around being burned and turned into a lifeless black wasteland appeared in his mind.
“Humans pushing dragons into extinction turning the remaining ones into vile vengeful beings, such a fitting and tragic story.”
Suddenly a quiet and gentle voice came from behind him, “Yes, it is kinda silly of humans, you had much more in common with dragons, yet you have chosen angels that are much more different, considering everything that you consider as fun evil.” PunkGuy turned, noticing the small elven NPC that was quietly standing behind him the whole time.
‘How could she sneak upon me? My senses should be buffed.’ his heart was beating loudly, feeling like he may have triggered some secret questline for the small elf.
“Uhh, can I help you somehow?”
“Yes, you can! I have a perfect idea; I just need you to get me a few things I need!”
“Of course, whatever you need, ” PunkGuy feeling a little letdown, sighed as he hoped for something more than just a typical mission to find some material.
“You have kidnapped me, so go out and kidnap more artists, blacksmiths, arcane and runic enchanters, alchemists and metallurgists. Kidnap them all!”
// New unique mission:
Objective: The runic enchanter Alesia needs your help to “recruit” more assistants for her secret project
Reward: Discount for Alesia services; New Questline; 5000 XP; 200 Gold
//
He immediately froze, not expecting some evil-sounding mission from a small girl before him, ‘So it is a kidnapping mission? Will this be normal for this faction? Well, she was kidnapped too, and she looks more than fine… Well, maybe not mentally.’ punk guy looked at the small NPC in front of him before his eyes flared up in eagerness as he accepted the quest, ‘I wonder what this secret project is about.’
“Of course, I will help you!”
Alesia’s face immediately changed, a large smile growing on it and her reptilian eyes brightly shining before she skipped into the darkness.
POV ???:
Sun was slowly rising above the horizon, its rays heating up the town’s walls. The massive gate into the town suddenly creaked, slowly opening. Each of its wings was made of durable, mana-reinforced wood and battered by heavy plates of steel that were still shiny, marking them as recently replaced.
A chaotic group of heavily armed players rushed out, the metal of their armour hitting each other and producing loud clanging.
“Remember, guys, don’t push too deep. Today we are only probing.”
“Shut up! No one made you a leader!”
Between them was one even more excited player in a plain brown coat and a tall brown hat that was also brown. A name tag: BrownyBrown, floated above his head. His hands were trembling, knowing that was maybe what he needed to skyrocket his career.
He finally pushed his finger, making a small gesture in the air and a small red icon of the camera popped in the right corner of his vision.
‘Alright, calm down. I just have to stay behind and don’t get hit.’ it was the first raid-level boss that he had ever faced making him excited that he could finally make more exciting videos to propel the number of his audience.
‘This must be a success. Large-scale attacks at the raid bosses were always popular no matter the level, as it looks sick!’
Raid bosses weren’t a distinction officially acknowledged by the system interface. It was more akin to that used by the game community to mark extremely dangerous bosses that required a large number of players to defeat them.
‘This must be a raid boss, as whenever a powerful demon or wyrm showed up, they were always raid bosses. They are an absolutely different category of beasts than normal monster bosses.’
The group marched at an insane speed down the muddy road, the tall black tower on the horizon getting bigger and bigger, its tall pitch-black silhouette looking like a scene from a fantasy movie. The thick clouds of smoke and the burned-destroyed landscape in front of them sent chills down the player’s spines.
Brown was wildly turning around, wanting to capture every bit of the gloomy atmosphere of death and destruction that radiated from his surroundings.
Suddenly the surrounding temperature rose, growling coming from behind large boulders.