Starting from Zero

This could mean one thing...

I slowly turned around to look behind us.

"Damn it. RUN!!"

The others hesitated a bit. But when they checked behind too they immediately caught up with me.

"Why are we always running today?" Coin complained.

She’s a professional runner, while the rest of us are having a hard time to breathe already so no one said anything.

A group of giant, mammoth-like monsters are chasing behind us. We didn’t notice them earlier because of all the dust brought up by the Japanese. Powerful monsters are either really big, or small but look like humanoid with human intelligence. From my experience, these things should be at least level 800. Each one of them is no smaller than Tank when I first met him. We broke a lot of bones to defeat Tank back then. Now there are like ten similar monsters, of course we should run.

Using the surge of adrenaline (or whatever similar effect in this game), we managed to catch up with the Japanese players running ahead. Now we\'re running side by side, somewhat peacefully. We exchanged some stares but no one have the time to do anything else at the moment. If we can outrun them the monsters behind will take care of the beating.

We reached the edge of the area and saw a forest ahead. I don’t think those big guys can run as fast among the trees so we\'re safe once we get in there!

There\'s only one open entrance between the thick trees. Everyone, friend or foe, slowly turned into a straight line formation as if we practiced this before.

Coin is leading as always. Blue Wind followed her. This guy\'s really fast after merging with his beetle. Though it seems he\'s having a hard time controlling his direction--He bumped into a tree, but recovered fast enough and entered the forest.

As those two people are way faster than us, we still have some distance before reaching the shelter. However before we can enter the place, Coin and Blue Wind dashed back out while waving their arms and screaming.

"No no no don’t go there\'s something bigger in there!!"

A tree was knocked away, then a hairy creature emerged from the woods. It’s a...tarantula. A North America Tarantula to be precise. Coin didn’t lie when she said it\'s "bigger", this thing’s a freaking observatory building walking on eight legs!

The terrible abomination swept down several more trees, before it began chasing after Coin.

"Uhh, run?" I said.

"YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY IT!"

We made a sharp turn and ran along the edge of the forest. Neither side is safe now!

The trees ahead of us shifted. A dark colored mantis hopped into our view. A big one! Some falling trees almost knocked into us. The new obstacle caused the Japanese players behind us to turn and run to the grassland again. Some slow players didn’t react in time and bumped into the mantis.

My team kept running along the forest, with two of those "mammoth" and the mantis behind us. The rest of the monsters, seven mammoths and the spider, went towards the Japan players.

I wish I can summon Tank now. His defense is enough to hold off the mantis. But he’s still in a weakened status after using the crystal shot.

The mantis moves a lot faster than the other monsters so it caught up first. The insect hopped around using its wings and landed in front of us. Coin immediately hit the ground, avoiding a side-sweep from the monster\'s scythe. Blue Wind jumped high and made a 360 degree twist in the air, dodging the attack from above.

Being the third place, I didn’t notice the attack in time. Plus the scythe can just reach where I’m standing with its sharpest tip. The deadly blade precisely hit my waist!

However the scythe didn’t cut me in half as I’d expect. It broke into several parts upon reaching me, as if it’s made of glass.

Everyone stopped moving and stared at me. From the battle log I can see the mantis landed its attack...but it didn’t get past my defense at all. I only lost 1 HP.

The mantis is as surprised. It looked between its broken arm and me uncertainly.

"Quick! Ziri!" Coin yelled. "Kill it!"

I’m not sure that’s good idea when looking at this insect about three stories high, but I charged ahead anyway.

Seeing me approach, the mantis slashed at me with the other arm. I used my best single-hit skill, [Heart Piercer], to do as much damage as I can. If the monster isn’t good at attacking then there must be something else special about it.

Or so I thought. Whatever\'s special about the mantis didn’t work. My skill inflicted critical AND amplified damage. The next thing I see is a lot of green goo covering my face. The mantis flipped over, twitched a little and stopped moving.

"What the heck?" I looked at the dead mantis in shock. One hit kill! "Wait, let me try something."

I raised my crossbow and shot a bolt at the approaching mammoths. The bolt went into the forehead of one of them, causing the running beast to tumble in the dirt with a giant boom. The other beast lowered its head and charged at me.

The first shot already proved my idea. I just stood there and punched at the charging monster.

I felt I just hit a lump of cotton. There\'s neither pain nor any force coming from the hit. The giant monster fell down on the spot.

What just happened looks above strange, like a running truck was just stopped by a toy car. The Japanese players also noticed our display and stopped.

"That’s...wicked." Zirai kicked at the fallen monster. "You aren’t cheating right?"

I looked at my fist. Not a scratch on it.

"The monsters only have the looks." I called out the battle log and checked. "Pfft. This thing’s level 3."

"Level 3??" Blue Wind pointed at the corpse. It\'s still the size of the small hill. "You sure about that?"

"Yes, level 3, as long as the system didn’t go wrong. By the way, the mantis is level 12."

"So, all of us people, were getting chased around like scared puppies by three monsters less than 20 levels added together?" Coin held her head and exclaimed.

I see the Japanese reaching the same conclusion. Hell, they should feel worse, seeing how a hundred people ran for their lives like that.

Without the monsters to worry about, they began to surround us again. They didn\'t run as a whole, now only forty people are here. Though this is still not something we can go against.

It doesn’t look like they\'re making the first move. They just stand around us, preventing us from escaping.

We kept the staring competition for a while, when a white, small horse, I mean a pony, wandered into our view, completely oblivious of our tension. The pony is walking on unstable steps like a newborn foal.

It raised its head to look at us with big, sapphire colored eyes. I suppressed the urge to hug the adorable creature since there are still enemies about.

However, a Japanese warrior didn’t share the same concern and caught the pony by its hind legs.

The girls beside me are becoming restless, about which I totally understand. But something else happened before they can go save the pony.

The captured pony stood up, kicking its front legs in the air. Then a visible air wave, like when someone throw a stone into calm water, spread out from it. Several seconds later, the pony is replaced by a larger creature as big as Night Shade, wearing white coat tinted with a bit of pink. It still looks like the pony before but it now has a golden colored horn on its forehead.

Wow. A unicorn. And a big one. From those long, silky manes and long-lashed sapphire eyes, I\'d guess it\'s a "she".

The unicorn turned around and looked at the warrior, who\'s still holding onto her legs with an open jaw. Hey wait, it’s smirking?

It raised its legs by standing on the forelegs this time, throwing the warrior into air. When he\'s falling down the creature performed a signature move among all artiodactyla animals--the painful buck.

"---Ahhhhh----"

The warrior disappeared into the skyline and became a star. Even if he\'s not dead on the kick he’d probably fall to death later.

Thank god I didn’t hug the unicorn.

I’m now having a clear idea about this world. Anything that’s big ‘n’ ugly could be actually harmless, while the small and cute ones are the opposite. From his gear, the warrior should be at least level 500. So this unicorn is NOT to be underestimated. I know Night Shade. Even a similar creature like him, say, a king unicorn, shouldn\'t be able to one-shot a player like that.

Everyone including my team are still staring at the creature in awe. I tugged on their clothes and spoke in the team channel:

"Get out of here. Quickly!"

Of course they know what I mean. We slowly moved away from the site. We\'re not afraid of 40 hostile players, as I\'m confident we can at least survive from their attacks. But my instinct tells me that we got to get away from that unicorn!

We moved around the giant corpse of the mammoth as cover. When we planned to summon our mounts and escape, Zirai dragged me from behind.

"What?"

She point to something else and I followed her direction.

"Ah!!"

The unicorn is standing right next to me. When I moved my head I just saw its face filling my view.

"Calm down people! No sudden moves." I whispered to them while slowly moving back.

But this creature seems to take quite the interest in me. It followed my steps!

I summoned Night Shade and led everyone to escape at full speed.

The unicorn still followed me close. It\'s faster than Night Shade too, judging at how it\'s running along him like taking an afternoon tour.

"Hey Ziri! Can\'t Phantom tell us what this thing\'s thinking about?" Red Moon called me from Lucky’s back.

Fine. We can’t get away anyway, so we decided to stop. The unicorn slowed down and moved close to Night Shade.

"Maybe she’s attracted by your mount?" Coin joked.

"How is that even possi--"

Wait a second. Night Shade is a...nightmare, a unicorn tainted by some kind of dark power, so...

"Come on dude. Just ask your companion to get a wife. A new member is good for all of us." Said Razor. You don’t see this guy telling jokes very often.

I patted on Night Shade\'s neck. "Do you know what she wants?"

He threw me a glance and didn’t say anything.

"What\'s the problem?" I asked Phantom. I think Phantom is trying to hide his laughter?

"Ahem. The unicorn is, how do I put it, having an...emotion, towards our handsome Mr. Night Shade here. He felt too awkward to speak to you."

Woah, really.

Night Shade joined my team because of Phiona, and he didn’t show much of loyalty ever since. He did follow my orders most of the time, somewhat passively though. And I never thought this nightmare who\'s playing cool all the time can be conquered by a unicorn so quickly. Maybe I can take Lucky to the Dragon Valley and bring back a female one!

"Hey, what\'s the plan?" Coin dragged me out of my daydreaming.

The unicorn is now nuzzling against Night Shade\'s neck. I felt like a third wheel sitting on his back!

"Ask her if she knows about the three target monsters in this area." I told Phantom.

Before Phantom can speak anything, the unicorn lifted her head and looked at me.

"Of course I do. I\'m one of them."

Yup, a sweet lady\'s voice. I\'d imagine a beautiful woman if I\'m not actually staring at the horse face.

"You can speak?"

"What, that handsome can speak too right? Not a big deal."

"So...you\'re one of the three bosses here?"

"Yeah. You don’t believe me? I\'m level 900. A lot higher than your friend here, mind you."

"Then...do you know about the quest given by the Door of Truth?"

"Beat us down and take that token back to the door or somethin’?"

Okay. If I stand before Night Shade and the unicorn with my eyes closed and listen to their speech, I probably won\'t know which one is pure and which is the "fallen".

"So you want this thing?" A golden round plate object appeared above her head. "Let me hang out with the stallion for some time and it\'s all yours."

I hear the sound of jaws dropping.

Frankly speaking, I don’t know if the unicorn is a "pretty girl" in Night Shade\'s standard. And I don’t want to push him.

"I refuse." I gave my answer. Night\'s one of the earliest to join my team. I shouldn’t sell him out just for this--ouch!

"Why in Satan\'s name would you refuse that?? Come, miss, let’s talk."

So much for the "cool dude" image. He threw me off his back and left with the unicorn!

"That escalated quickly." Blue Wind joked while helping me up.

"I bet Night Shade was chased out by the others because he flirted with a youngling in his pack. That\'s why he became a nightmare."

"Hahaha!" Red Moon laughed hard. "Now you have a lover boy as your companion."

"Hey Lucky, don\'t throw me away like him, alright? A gentleman doesn’t just go away with a random girl they just met."

The dragon nodded. "We have a long life. I takes a hundred years or two for us to determine a mate. So, no instant wives."

-------------------------

"Careful. They’re here!"

Shoot. The Japanese are still chasing us!

"Night Shade! Come back!" I sent him an order.

He came to us with the golden plate in his mouth, and...the unicorn running along with him.

"Take it. Yuki will help us find the other two targets."

He\'s calling her by the nickname already??

There are only several Japanese scouts around us. Their main force hasn\'t arrived yet. We all have fast companions. We shook them off soon enough.

The unicorn, Yuki, led us into the forest where those giant insects appeared before. But we’re not afraid of them now since they\'re only weaklings on the inside.

We came to a palace after running a while in the woods. We followed Yuki past several constructions without running into any living creature, until we came to the depth of the palace where a large water pool is located. There’s a stone statue in the center of the water. Maybe the figure of some deity but I can’t recognize it. The statue is about 20 meters high...or as high as a six-story building. The gray and smooth surface of it indicates that it\'s built from something really sturdy.

Yuki walked to the edge of the water and spoke to the statue. "Hey Odin, these guys are paying you a visit."

"...What do you want, little ones?"

The "statue" slowly walked out of the water! Each step of him feels like another earthquake. We all moved back a little in shock.

I took a deep breath. "Hello. We\'re here to take your token, as asked by the Door of Truth."

"That’s simple. You only have to defeat me in a fight." His words boomed loudly around our ears.

"Can you like, make it easier for them? They\'re my friends." The unicorn asked.

"Friends, you say? Very well. How about this: all of you shall join the fight against me in this courtyard. If any one of you is still standing after 20 minutes, you win."

I looked around. The "courtyard" is about the size of two soccer fields. Surely we can at least stay alive.

"Let\'s do it!"

"Good! Yuki, you shall announce the start of the fight."

We got into position while the unicorn moved to the outside.

"Begin!"

The statue punched at the ground with extreme speed which in nothing like that slow movement when he stepped out of the water. Razor was standing in the middle of the attack and didn’t react in time. When the dust cleared there\'s only a human shaped crater on the ground. The system told us that Razor has left the team. He died!

Razor is a ninja. This means the statue is both powerful and fast enough to catch us.

He moved again, this time aimed at Coin. Coin is fast beyond human standard. She dodged the attack with a swift backflip and then ran along the statue\'s arm towards its head.

The statue quickly began to knock itself everywhere like trying to kill a mosquito. Yet Coin is just too fast. She already reached her target.

"[Last Resort]!!"

She used her killshot skill without hesitation, aiming at one of the statue\'s eyes. With a CRACK, Coin\'s dagger submerged into the eye. A portion of the statue\'s face around that damaged eye fell off, and Coin landed on the ground safely with some shattered rocks.

The statue lifted a foot to stomp at Coin. I quickly ordered Rosa to grab its leg to let Coin get away.

"Phiona, use your fire!"

A wide flame pillar appeared from under the statue, engulfing it.

"Pitiful creatures. Do you really think you can hurt me with fire?"

I ignored the taunting and asked Phiona to keep her fire burning, while the rest of us began to run around the field, with the giant statue tries to step on us all over the place, whack-a-mole style. We’re the moles.

We ran and hid for about 5 minutes when Phiona finally exhausted her MP bar and cut her skill. The statue is now burnt hot red.

I summoned Aldeina. "Rainfall!"

This is actually a healing skill. The widespread water will heal allies while dealing a small damage to enemies. Now the statue is hot-red, the water caused a totally different effect on it.

"No---"

The sudden drop in temperature caused the statue to crack. It stumbled for a while and fell down, shattering into pieces.

"Nice move!" Yuki cantered to us and announced victory.

"You won’t mind we doing this to your friend?"

"Nope. He’ll get back in a sec. The guy’s immortal."

As she said, the rocks slowly moved together and turned into a brand-new statue again.

"Excellent tactic. Here, your token." The statue took off the giant stone sword on its back and handed it to us.

"This is, well, pretty big." I stared at the 10-meter long object and wondered how we can take it back. We\'re not getting back through the tunnel, that\'s for sure.

"Oh, do excuse me. I forgot something."

The statue took back the sword and slammed it on the ground, breaking it in half. A fist-sized gem dropped in front of me.

"That gem will do the job."

"Thank you very much!"

The item has no description apart from two words, "Quest Item". So nothing special about it for the moment.