“The concept of an attunement, or a pre-quest to enter a dungeon, showed up early on in gaming. It can be frustrating to discover a brand-new place to explore and not have the qualifications to get inside the door. Attunement quests reward the well-coordinated groups and give structured guilds an advantage over the slap-dash styles of random adventurers.”

  From “Guilds and Gatekeeping”

  Year 1, Month 2, Day 3, 19:00

  The camp around the Tomb of the Wight Lord took shape quickly under Torgon’s direction. Market stalls were built and manned by players trying their hand at being traders. Chef Daniels brought her crew of chefs and cooks to run a field kitchen slash restaurant. Digger’s crew began constructing a road back to Camp Alpha to ease the burdens of travel and provide the fighting units with a simpler patrol route.

  The first delving teams into hard mode discovered a nasty surprise. While the disease stacks built slower, the amulets no longer provided any resistance. It took multiple applications of heal spells to remove a disease stack from the hard difficulty section of the dungeon. The newly available cure disease spells would be necessary to advance.

  The monster layout remained the same except for each trash mob room starting with 10 more monsters than normal difficulty. The teams that cleared to the first boss room before turning back reported the same setup of additional monsters inside. While a few teams remained inside the hard mode to grind away, most began running the normal difficulty to advance the level of the cure disease spells in their group.

  Torgon grabbed Allestor and others to organize a series of training fights. Two warriors would square off inside a cleared space with casters outside spamming the heals and cures on the warriors. Stabitha provided various vials of poison for the combatants to apply to their weapons. The rare players that could cast curses were dragged in to debuff both sides of the fight.

  The impromptu training session outside the dungeons attracted large crowds of cheering spectators. Enterprising players built wooden stands to give everyone the best view possible. Players of varying skill levels were matched against a single opponent roughly their ability or they could group up to fight a stronger opponent. Allestor usually engaged with two or three others to the delight of the field.

  Players from the guilds based in Miller’s Crossing were the first to arrive and join the growing festival. Their teams dove into the normal difficulty of the dungeon, getting to experience it for the first time. The Young Master’s Alliance blockade had restricted access to anyone not in their coalition.

  Soon, groups from the other starting zones appeared. They arrived in small groups then finally larger traveling parties. Their nervousness disappeared as they took in the congenial atmosphere. The players from Risk of Injury welcomed them all and incorporated them into the training sessions. The area surrounding the dungeon began to resemble a tournament or fair more than an armed encampment.

  A section in front of the dungeon was set aside for solo players and those without their regular groups to form pick up teams. Dozens of players from smaller guilds mixed and matched teams with each other and the solo players. A conveyor belt of parties tackled the normal difficulty and emerged when they reached their limit or their run proved successful.

  Torgon polished his healing skills around the dueling circles. He emptied his mana pool several times keeping the combatants topped up. He dual cast cure disease and cure poison, familiarizing himself with the casting motions to get through the spells with speed and accuracy.

  He soon found himself dragged into the circles to show off his own weapon skills. He used his rapier with one hand and self-cast heals with his offhand. He outmatched everyone he faced except for Allestor. The crowd cheered as they faced off, Allestor landing blow after blow and Torgon struggling to match the insanely fast movements of his friend.

  People outside Risk of Injury quickly learned that the guild’s achievements were the result of skill and not luck. Tips were freely offered and information exchanged during the fights. The goal was to improve rather than show off.

  Fires and magelights ensured that the encampment shone brightly into the night. Tourist players logged off for rest while the residents continued their training and dungeon runs. Reports trickled in from the scouting parties of raiders in the night. They quickly backed off when they realized that regular patrols had them beat in numbers and skill. The safety of the camp assured, Torgon finally gathered his team together and they set out to challenge the 20-man hard mode of the Tomb of the Wight Lord.

  Dusty and Ed stayed behind and let the two younger tanks lead the way. Torgon and the other healers worked to manage their mana consumption in the face of the disease ticks across the party. The increase in difficulty was noteworthy but manageable.

  The familiarity with the layout of normal difficulty and the lack of any pressing need to take their time let them blitz through the first few bosses. They took breaks in each cleared boss room, restoring mana and energy to full before pressing into the increasingly difficult rooms of trash mobs. Beyond the fourth boss, they needed to consume the occasional potion to keep pace.

  Shortly after they finished the 5th boss, an announcement scrolled by.

  “Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Hard 5 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills.”

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  Buoyed by the success, they pushed hard towards the next boss. Torgon mixed his spellcasting up. The hard mode added actual curses, diseases and poisons. In addition to the general miasma, a rotting disease that reduced the endurance stat showed up. Curses of slowness and weakness were thrown about by skeletal casters.

  Dusty spoke, “There’s no way to finish the hard mode without buying the skills from the library or having them drop from the normal mode.”

  Hyperia nodded, “It’s glaringly obvious that it’s meant to be farmed to progress further. I expect you’ll need the same skills to make progress in the raid. The Midnight Maiden kept them farming here long enough to get the skills. I think she’ll have them pushing hard to get the first clear of the raid.”

  Torgon shrugged, “If it happens, it happens. We have our own priorities after all. It doesn’t hurt us if they advance and once the zone capital is open the pool of major players will deepen. We don’t need to be first, we just need enough strength to be too powerful to harass.”

  During their clear of the 6th boss, another announcement rolled through,

  “Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Hard 10 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills.”

  Allestor held up two fingers, “Two down, two to go. Think we can beat Dirk’s group inside the 15-man version to the first clear?”

  Ovarrix grinned, “Dusty, Ed, rotate up front. We’re going for speed now. I do not want everyone to be waiting on our clear.”

  The team hacked their way through swarms of undead skeletons and shadows with precise movements. The auras kept the shadows in the open, preventing them from phasing through solid materials to attack the group. It simplified the combat, cutting down on the enemy’s angles of approach. They blazed a trail of bone shards and ectoplasm until they reached the final boss chamber.

  The wight lord stirred, glaring at them with baleful eyes. “You mortals seek passage into the Cradle of Darkness. Cease your futile struggles and embrace the stillness of death. Turn away from your fiery passions. Let the cool tranquility of unlife fill your rotting souls. Even if you best me you will only have half the key. You are but insects in the face of eternal darkness.”

  The core mechanics of the wight lord remained unchanged from the weaker version of the dungeon. The damage was higher, he summoned more minions and his health pool took longer to wear down, but in the end, it was the wight lord that futilely struggled.

  He collapsed to the ground with a long sigh that reeked of grave dust. “You might have my portion of the key, but without the piece held by the flesh devourer, you will never see the inside of the Cradle of Darkness.”

  “Congratulations! You have defeated the Wight Lord, Baron of the Forgotten Empire! This is the first time this boss has been defeated so rewards are doubled!”

  “Each member of the party receives the blessing of the left hand of darkness. Obtain the blessing of the right hand to grant access to the Cradle of Darkness.”

  Hyperia and Torgon eyed each other then burst out laughing. Hyperia wiped a tear away before speaking, “The Midnight Maiden’s plans aren’t going to work. They won’t even be able to enter the raid instance until they clear the hard mode of this dungeon and the hard mode of whatever dungeon the flesh devourer is in.”

  Ovarrix sighed, “If it’s a 50 man raid, we’ll need to get at least two parties through this version. None of the smaller parties reported anything about a key.”

  Dusty shrugged her shoulders, “They’re training for the raid. It shouldn’t take us that long to get everyone attuned to the raid here. I can do more research and try to narrow down the location of the next dungeon.”

  Allestor spoke, “You’re all forgetting the most important thing. The loot!”

  The party moved to the chest, grabbed everything within and exited the dungeon.

  “Congratulations! Your party has successfully completed a Hard 20 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills. Each member is awarded 2000 xp and 20 silver coins. The group is awarded 2 Common Dungeon Cores and 2 Common Dungeon Chits”

  “Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Hard 20 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills.”

  “Congratulations! For being the first party to complete a Hard 20 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills, each member of the party is awarded 5,000 xp, 50 silver coins and 100 reputation with the Kingdom of Thorn. The group is awarded 4 Common Dungeon Cores and 4 Common Dungeon Chits.”

  They divvied up the loot with Hyperia tossing Torgon a small quiver. Torgon examined the quiver and his mouth quirked up in a wicked grin. The quiver contained Arrows of Unlife. Each arrow would explode with negative energy in radius determined by the attacker’s skill. Any living creature made of flesh killed by the arrows would reanimate as a zombie and attack the next closest creature until it was destroyed or collapsed after two minutes. The quiver held 10 arrows and would generate another arrow every 3 hours until it reached its maximum capacity.

  Torgon and the others spent another hour and a half training with the groups still running the dungeon until the last announcement they were hoping for showed up.

  “Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Hard 15 Man Dungeon in the Broken Hills.”

  Dirk and his team emerged from their successful run and the guild received the bonus rewards for clearing all four versions of the hard difficult as well as the rewards for having the first clear of all four versions. The collection of cores and writs doubled the haul from the normal clears. Everyone in the guild received a nice boost of 5,000 experience for Risk of Injury clearing all the modes before anyone else.

  Dusty rubbed her hands with glee as she looked at Torgon. “Torg, there’s 70 basic core units and 50 common core units to play with. We can upgrade so freaking much!”

  Torgon agreed absently, going over the resources in the guild storage. “I’m not sure we have enough resources for all the upgrades at once. I’ll get Frare to put in large buy orders in the auction house. I think we should save the writs for now. They’ll be more valuable when we have access to the capital zone and larger markets.”

  Hyperia looked at Torgon, “Should we keep the information about the blessings being required to enter the raid to ourselves for now?”

  Torgon pondered it, “No. Any benefits it gives us would be temporary at best. The goodwill we generate by sharing information is worth more. It will also spur everyone into searching for the next dungeon and we’ll know quickly if anyone finds it before us. We’re still well out in front with our preparations.”

  He walked over to Dirk and slapped his hand on his shoulder, “I want to leave you in charge of the camp here. Ovarrix is going to keep farming undead outside with people who need the experience and a steady stream of people will be farming the dungeon. I’m going back to the guild base with Hyperia and Dusty. We’ll figure out our next move and work on crafting toys to make it easier.”