New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth felt disappointed at his lack of answers, but a notification washed away his gloomy mood.

*You have killed Miasma Manifestation Demon (Lvl???). 27 million Exp awarded.*

Looking through his status screen and those of his companions, an enormous grin found its way onto his face. White Death was close to levelling up, he was halfway there, as was Luna, and Morpheus was now Lvl forty-seven!

This was a gigantic windfall!

Silent Light crawled out of the well as he was jumping in joy and looked upon the devastation in the small Ash Elf town. He didn't know what Astaroth was rejoicing about until he looked at his own notifications.

This made Silent Light jump in joy as well, as levelling up seemed increasingly impossible as the levels went. But the thirty-six million Exp he received certainly helped.

It was more than double what he had made just reaching this place, and that was with constant fighting. This was reason enough to rejoice.

He could only pity the five new members they left at the fortress to defend from the horde of corrupted monsters.

Thinking of them, Silent Light remembered he had received a message from them while he was sealing the portal. Opening it, his smile vanished instantly.

"Astaroth! We need to go back to your shelter! Now!"

Astaroth spun around, facing Silent, whose face was back to being serious, and he nodded. He didn't know what the matter was, but Silent wasn't one to overreact lightly.

And since he couldn't feel any more portals, even after stretching his senses to the maximum, whatever the issue was became the priority.

Since Astaroth still had a few minutes left on Morpheus' meld, he quickly grabbed Silent Light and blasted off into the sky. They would be making a quicker pace from there than on foot.

The bowl-like valley wasn't far away from their current location, as they hadn't travelled very far in the first place. Astaroth could already perceive the top of the tall tree that stood in its center, from where they were.

The height at which he travelled helped a lot in getting a better view of the distance, but it was also the reason he saw what the problem was at the shelter before Silent even told him.

A gigantic dust cloud rose from the forest near the valley, and above its trees, Astaroth caught sight of something that he seldom wanted to see.

'This is the worst outcome possible. How could this even happen?'

***

While Astaroth was gone with Silent Light, closing the nearby portals and dealing with the demons guarding them, the small group of five players, new to Paragons, had held their end admirably during the horde defence, only needing the help of Kloud once more than half the horde had been mowed down.

This was quite the feat for them, as they had never fought against such a large swarm of enemies. Rather, they doubted anyone had at all since this would crush even the most prepared full parties.

The reason they had held this long at all was thanks to their leader's companion wolf, who was the equivalent of a boss monster in combat, with her armoured form, covered in stone and vines. Her power had astounded every one of them, and they envied their leader for having such a strong pet.

But at some point, her transformation had ended, and the tables had rapidly turned. Enough so that Genie judged Kloud was no longer an option, but a necessity.

After howling loudly, sending some monsters reeling in fear, it had taken Kloud mere moments to join the fray. His restored power had once again shocked the newbies, as he cleaned up the battlefield in minutes, making quick work of the larger monsters like beating up kids.

The small party had then collapsed to their asses, panting heavily, battered and bruised, sweating like fat men in a sauna, and laughed at their own pathetic states. Kloud had returned inside the shelter shortly after the last monster died, after making sure the abnormals were fine on their own.

The five players had wanted to follow suit, but Genie growled at them, making them step back and shudder.

Astaroth hadn't specified if the players were allowed inside the shelter, and Genie preferred not to take a chance at displeasing her master. She could have asked him, but she knew her master was busy.

As Genie was about to lie down to rest, a strong sense of foreboding washed over her, like the universe was telling her something terrible was going to happen. She whimpered as the pressure from the feeling hurt her mind.

It soon subsided, though, and she went back to normal.

But the players had heard her whimper and wondered if she was maybe wounded. Their healer, the druid woman, whose name was Flowing Creak, stepped near the wolf, hands raised in a show of peace, and inspected her with the system inspect function.

Seeing that the wolf had a full HP pool, she frowned, wondering if her wounds were mental, rather than physical, and decided to cast a calming spell.

She preferred helping without needing to, then doing nothing and letting the animal suffer.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on her mana, and cast her spell.

"Soothing Mist."

A soft blue mist started appearing in the air around Genie, who looked at it warily, before sensing no threat coming from the druid girl, and letting the mist land on her.

The calming effect was immediate, as Genie suddenly felt the stress of her duty lessen, closing her eyes in satisfaction. But her calmness wouldn't last.

A loud rumble echoed next to the mounting tree line as a humongous stag appeared next to the trees, collapsing to its side.

Genie bounded up, recognizing the stag.

As she ran up to the forest guardian Arborea, the guardian locked her gaze on her.

Her soft chiming voice echoed in the clearing, surprising the players who had run closer, too.

"You need to warn your master, Genie. Teraria is no longer himself. He has succumbed to what plagues the land and is on his way here."

Genie panicked as the thought of fighting the stone buck terrified her. Teraria might have been an excellent teacher to her, but he was also terrifyingly powerful.

She immediately contacted Astaroth through their shared mind link.

'Master! Grave news! A guardian has turned!'

The response was immediate.

"I know. I can see him. Hang tight, I'm almost there.'