“When the players of NEMO left the starting zones and ventured into the wider world, they found that exploration became more rewarding. Chests containing treasures were liberally scattered across unexplored regions. The first chests were always higher rarity than the surrounding zone while the respawns matched the zone. Solo adventurers could make an excellent living by sneaking around and finding chests before others.”

  From “The Larger the Chest, the Better”

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 28, 10:00

  Torgon led his team of eager adventurers in a loping run that chewed up ground. They angled towards a large stream filled with fast moving water that lay near the outpost. The water rushed past them, clear and cold. They carefully scrambled across the rocks jutting from the frothy water and crossed the stream and began following it deeper into the hills.

  Torgon directed the two scouts, Pattie and Stana, to move along the ridges bordering the gully that the water moved through. The higher vantage points would let them find trouble quickly while the walls of rock and earth concealed the rest of them from prying eyes. It took them less than twenty minutes of travel before they encountered their first signs of trouble.

  The stream widened into a large pool bordered on the sides by marshy ground. Large cowlike creatures stood motionless in the swamp, unnaturally still. Simon moved to get a closer look but was stopped by a frantically waving Pattie. “Don’t get closer Simon, the ground is poisoned. All those creatures are dead, and I think they’ve been dead a long time. I can see bones through their sides.”

  Her words broke the unnatural stillness, and the dead and decaying animals began to turn ponderously towards her. Pattie ran towards the main group, aligning the slowly moving beasts towards her team. “Sorry guys, they’re zombie aurochs. Let them come to you, the marsh seems off.”

  Simon and Lillian shifted to cover the front and prepared to receive the attacks of the slow-moving herd. Simon grinned and yelled, “Hah! This is the slowest stampede ever.”

  “I wouldn’t want to eat the steaks from these things either,” Torgon quipped. “Focus forward and engage with ranged weapons. These are only level 8 but there are around twenty of them. They are big and move slowly so you can bet they’ll hit hard. Do not let them get into a China shop.”

  Torgon ignored the groans of the children and kept firing arrows at the aurochs. Each shot sank deep inside the rotting flesh of the hulking beasts. The lead zombie lurched into the shield of Simon, forcing him to slide backward. Simon called out, “They have a disease aura. We’re going to need heals up front to clear it.”

  Kaylin and Jonathan put away their weapons and rained down the life-giving spells on the tanks. The green bursts of energy held the corrupting influence at bay and bought time to drop the beasts one by one. Stana checked the corpses and decided against skinning them. Their flesh was too far gone to make suitable leather.

  Pattie carefully crept to the edge of the marshy patches and checked it. “There’s something very icky here. It makes my jaw ache and buzz. It’s tingly and unnatural.”

  Torgon moved beside the girl and checked the area himself. “It reeks of necromantic magic, but I have no idea what it’s coming from.” He scratched his head. “I’ll mark it down to be explored more thoroughly. Let’s push on. This fight might attract attention from monsters or players, and I don’t want to get into a running battle when we’re supposed to be exploring.”

  They skirted the marsh and continued their journey upstream. Larry moved beside Torgon and asked, “How can you tell it was necromantic magic?”

  Torgon pitched his voice to carry to the entire group, “Magic has a flavor or feel in most environments, and it follows a typical pattern. This magic carried notes of rot and decay, so it was necromancy. The elemental magics like fire and air are straightforward. Complicated concepts or chained magics blend in weird ways. Spatial magic distorts everything and makes you feel too thin or too thick. Illusion magic feels stale and empty.” He shrugged, “Experience carries over. This game world might be new, but it’s built on the classics.”

  Larry nodded, “Be old, got it.”

  Torgon eyed the teen who just grinned back at him in return. “Lecture over, now try to move quietly. We’ll keep our stealth up and listen while we travel.”

  Stana called down, “There’s a rock wall ahead. There’s a waterfall maybe forty feet high that comes down into the creek you’re traveling by.”

  Torgon motioned for the scouts to join them in the gully. “We’ll move together until we reach the waterfall. I’m going to show you all something.”

  They reached a clear pool beneath the falls. It looked about ten feet deep near the fall and filled the end of the gully for forty feet. Torgon paused at the edge, sighed and said, “We’re all going to get wet. Let’s go see what’s behind the waterfall.” He met the skeptical gazes of the children and continued, “There’s always something behind a waterfall. It’s the rule. I don’t make the rules I just follow them.”

  Pattie spoke, “Are you messing with us?”

  Torgon placed his hand on his heart. “I swear to you. If there’s a waterfall somewhere, there will be something behind it. Come on. Worst case you get a little wet and swim in a place that no human being has ever been.”

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  They stored their armor in their inventory and waded into the water. Protest rang out about the temperature of the water. Torgon shook his head and herded them all forward. Behind the waterfall it opened into a partially natural, partially carved cavern. In the back of the space sat a wooden chest on a stone plinth. Torgon fought hard but ultimately lost the battle to keep the incredibly smug look off his face. “See guys! There’s always something behind a waterfall.” He could feel the eyerolling in the group but that just made his grin wider.

  Pattie eased forward and checked the area around the chest for traps. After a few minutes she shrugged her shoulders and said, “It looks clear.”

  Torgon read the information off the chest.

  “Chest: Advanced. Contains between 1 and 6 items up to advanced rarity.”

  He reached down and flipped the latch on the top of the chest. Thankfully, the chest wasn’t locked, and he lifted the lid. The moment it opened, a bright light and the sound of a fanfare filled the cavern. He scooped the items out of the container and shared the information with the group.

  “Bag of coins, silver. This bag contains 257 silver coins.”

  “Skillbook: Common, Magic, Dual-Casting. Allows the caster to cast two spells simultaneously.”

  “Blueprint: Ring of Spell Storing: Materials Required: 4 Iron Ingots, 1 Mana Shard. Time to Craft: 3600 seconds. Creates a ring that can store 1 Advanced, 1 Common and 1 Basic Spell to be released when the caster wills it: Advanced, Jewelry, Durability 500/500.”

  Everyone exploded into excited chattering about the items before Torgon hushed them. “We’ll divide the coins up after the run. The Blueprint is going to be used for the guild, and you will all get some contribution points for helping find it. We’ll roll for the skillbook. Primary casters or healers with an open slot are eligible.”

  Larry, Kaylin and Jonathan looked at each other before Kaylin spoke, “None of us have open slots.”

  Torgon looked sheepish, “I can use it. I have an open slot and I am a healer. It should be available when we upgrade the library. Any objections?” None of the members of his little party seemed to mind so Torgon added the skill to his repertoire. “Let’s move back out and see if we can get deeper into the hills. Pattie, Stana, did either of you spot anything interesting in the distance that we should move towards?”

  Pattie hopped up and down and excitedly spoke, “There are a lot of low round hills to the Southeast. They didn’t look natural. Can we go that way?”

  Torgon laughed at her eagerness. “Yeah, we can, let’s get out of here and get our armor back on.” They swam back through the cold water, dried quickly and donned their armor before climbing up the broken rock wall. Torgon felt enormous satisfaction at being able to clamber up the stones like he was a teenager again. In the distance, the low hills, or mounds Torgon surmised, stood out clearly. They were evenly spaced and obviously created by workers or magic. “Let’s move together and move slowly. Those are going to be burial mounds, and we have no idea what danger lurks within them.”

  They moved carefully across the hills towards the plain where the mounds stood. Seven mounds, nearly a hundred feet across and thirty feet high, surrounded a larger mound that stretched over 200 feet across and stood fifty feet high. Collapsed openings on the smaller mounds faced the central mound. Rocks lay scattered in the dirt and there appeared to be no way inside the smaller mounds. The larger mound had an intact opening made of large blocks of stone. Behind the opening only blackness could be seen.

  Cassie and Stana looked to Torgon, then at each other and spoke at the same time, “Not it.”

  Torgon snorted, silently agreeing with them. “We’ll stay as a group. This might get messy. We’ll check out the closest mound first.” Torgon spoke in an exaggerated tone, “Move slowly and carefully.” He led them to the mound, and they walked around the perimeter first, noting the even construction and stepping around the tumbled stones of the entrance.

  Torgon felt the hairs on his body rising with the growing hum of magical energy. It started at the edge of the mound formation and grew more intense the closer they came to the central mound. It put his nerves on edge, and he could see that the entire party acted subdued and on the edge.

  Larry breathed deep and tasted the air. “There’s so much mana in the air. It’s mana bent to a purpose, harnessed, not the free mana we have back at our base.” He looked directly at Torgon, “This is a formation, right? Like the one that the monsters used when they assaulted Miller’s Crossing?”

  Torgon looked at the mounds and the dirt covering the ground and back up to Larry before speaking, “I think you’re right. I need to get Dusty here. She would have a field day with this. The seven mounds mean they could be the anchor for some type of prime ritual, but for what purpose?”

  Cassie hissed, “Everybody down now and use stealth.” Without questioning, they all lay prone on the side of the mound and started scanning their surroundings. She used the group messaging to relay what she’d seen. “There’s a small army in the distance. They just crested the ridge. It’s at least a few hundred and they aren’t from our guild.” Her eyes narrowed in focus, “They’re fighting. It looks like they’re fighting undead?”

  Skeletons scrambled up the edge of the hill and fought the unknown force. Everyone froze as huge figures of bone hauled themselves over the ledge and began hurling rocks large enough to see clearly into the packed defenders.

  Torgon cursed softly, “It’s a team from the young master’s alliance, and it seems they piss the undead off as much as they do other people.” He sent out warnings to the guild and requested support from the forces in the area. He filled Ovarrix in and urged him to group up with the other farming teams and get to their position as fast as possible. He turned back to the children doing their best to be invisible and said, “We have help coming, we just need to stay low and stay quiet. If they move closer, we’ll sneak to the other side of the formation and hide on the backside of a mound. We’ll run if we have to.”

  They watched the battle unfolding in the distance. Mages raised small earthen walls to prevent the skeletons from rushing the fighters. Flashing spells and a wide assortment of ranges weapons fired into the giant skeletons. Several small ballistae were set up behind a series of walls and turned on the biggest creatures. Torgon whistled softly, “They bought those from us and they’re making good use of them.” He slowly spoke to the children while they watched the action, “They’re doing their best to set up field defenses under fire and protect their war engines. Their front liners are dying quickly but the fight is stabilizing. The giant skeletons and their rocks are the only ranged I can make out from here. If they get those down, they could win the fight.”

  The line stabilized and the giant skeletons began to crumble one by one. Torgon watched as they pulled back from the brink and began to pull ahead. Suddenly, it all changed. Healers began to die and he strained to make out what was killing them. He tensed, seeing incorporeal forms barely visible in the light. They filtered in the beleaguered troops and killed their soft targets. Their lines rapidly collapsed and the survivors broke into a dead run, straight for the mounds.

  Torgon eased his bow free and was pleased to note his companions readying for combat as well. “Now, the exciting part.”