3 MONTHS LATER

"Kai, Kai, Ka~i!" the tall man walked towards the black haired boy, who was 8 years younger than him, crying comically.
"He is the leader of Iron Shield, right?" black and blue armored raid members were chatting from a little bit ahead of the man.
"Yeah; Rein."
"Isn't he like.. 40? Why does he act so childish?"
'I'm only 28, you motherf*ckers' he clenched his fists, how could those f*ckers talk so loudly about him while he was obviously higher ranked than them. The man had semi-long dark brown mullet with his bangs bleached and styled upwards. He actually had a scary look, and the scar that's coming from his right eyebrow, going through his eye until it reaches his cheek, wasn't helping him. Although those who knew the ex-henchman also knew that his personality was complete opposite of his rather scary appearance.
  "Hm?" Kai answered, unamused.
"What's with that reaction? Aren't you even a bit excited for today?! We're clearing the 25th Island Dungeon! 25th! Can you believe that?! I mean we came a long way dude, we came lon..."
Kai and Rein'd met on the first day of Knights and Mages Online, before everything went to sh*t. Rein was looking like a lost puppy, and he'd asked Kai for help, to teach him how to play. He taught him the basic stuffs and gave him some tips about the game, then everything.. they got called to the nearest fountain.
After a week later their paths crossed once again. When they met that time, Kai found out Rein was doing okay, after all, 'thanks to Kai', he never forgets to add. He was already in a clearing guild and determined to clear all 100 Island Dungeons. From the moment they met the 2nd time, Rein insisted Kai on join his guild but the black haired boy rejected politely, said he was a Solo-Player. However Kai started to spend most of his time with Rein and his guild. Other members of the Iron Shield were also very fond of Kai so there was no problem for him to tag along.
3 months passed and Iron Shield became one of the most known guilds. They weren't big and definitely weren't the strongest but the guild was a well-trusted support guild.
"So, are you ready?" Rein asked.
Kai wasn't listening really well but he nodded anyways;
"Who were we supporting again?"
He wasn't in the guild but he got used to using 'we' while he was talking something including Rein and Iron Shield.
"Knight & Mages of Freedom is gonna be the leading guild and Dragon Knights and us, Iron Shield, are gonna support. It's gonna be easy since Dragon Knights is gonna be with us," Kai winched at his words and Rein added, "which I've just remembered you don't like them that much."
"Not 'them'." Kai corrected, "Dragon Knights are good guys. They help people a lot, even put patrol teams for the weak who might get hurt in forests. I just.. don't like their leader."
"Speak of the Devil." Rein cleared his throat.
Zerthai, the leader of the Dragon Knights, an A Rank Fighter, came next to them and greeted;
"Leader of the Iron Shield Rein and The Black Master Kai! What a pleasure to see you guys here!"  The Black Master was a pun for the Blade Master. Since Kai was distant from the other players except Rein, he wasn't really.. popular among them. So they'd come up with different nicknames for him time to time. First it was the Lone Master, couple of weeks earlier it was Shadow King, now this. Even though he wasn't bothered by the nicknames, he thought they were quite.. unnecessary.
Other raid members scattered away of the sight of Zerthai, at that moment Kai was actually envious of them.
"Have you finally joined Iron Shield? I think there's a bet going on." he asked Kai with a smirk on his face.
"No."
"Then what about joining Dragon Knights? We could use an A Rank like you. If I'm not wrong, I heard that your level is even higher than most guild leaders', such as Iron Shield's B Rank Rein." he immediately added; "No offense." to the spiky haired leader. Even as he squinted his eyes, the B Rank didn't make a comeback.
"Still not interested. And my level is hidden, so I doubt anyone can actually talk about it." Kai replied.
"Not even people with Kami Eyes?"
Ah.. Kami Eyes.. a legendary item from the old days..
"There were only 10.000 Kami Eyes when the game first started. About 6.000 of them were bound to Betas and in the first month 30% of them were hunted down. I don't say I'm a genius but I think Kami Eyes are almost extinct such as the Beta-Players."
Zerthai snorted;
"A very clever young man indeed.. Yeah, you're right, they're almost extinct. Guess it's a good thing not everyone knows that you're a Beta." he ended his sentence with a smirk while Kai froze on his place, dumbfounded.
Zerthai knew. How could he knew?
Rein stepped in between his friend and the Captain;
"I think you should go now, your guild might get worried."
"I won't tell a soul, of course." he simply ignored the scary looking ex-henchman, "Unlike most people, I do think Betas are extremely important for us to clear the game and they aren't necessarily a threat. Kai, I'll give you a sincere friendly advice; Don't look for other Betas that obvious, kid. You'll get yourself killed and we don't want that, do we? Like I said, you're an important asset. We probably lost that girl, Sethstiel, either way, so don't make us lose you too."
"What did you mean by lost her either way?" Kai asked, appeared behind Rein.
"She's either dead or holding a grudge against us, don't you think?" Zerthai asked then added;
"They tried to kill the girl on the first day, the most important asset we had, a Mage Knight. Idiots.."
"I don't think she is dead." Kai replied.
"Me neither, to be honest, but then that makes her dangerous. Someone who might be more powerful than all of us.. Come to think of it, she was also a Beta. Did you know her? From the Beta-Test?"
"I did."
"How come?"
"I just did." Kai shrugged.
"What kind of a person she is?"
"Not a dangerous one. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get ready for the 25th Island raid. Come on, Rein." Kai ended the conversation and started to walk towards the other Iron Shield members with his friend.
"Dude, that was awesome!" the ex-henchman whisper shouted.
'Dude, I was about to faint..'

ㅡㅇㅡ

16:43

They've cleared the side rooms of the 25th Island Dungeon;
"But we're still a little bit behind the schedule." the Vice-Captain of the Dragon Blood reported.
Raid soldiers got really excited over the news though;
"We got this!"
"Yeah! This one wasn't as difficult as I imagined."
"Vice-Captain Lys is so cool~"
"I know, right?"
"Thanks to a Beta, we'd been informed that this Dungeon Boss was level 50. We can't take people who were below C Rank and Level 48 because of the safety reasons with them cause the difficulty is increasing depending on the amount of people who are in the room. So players above level 48, please step ahead." the leader of the Knights & Mages of Freedom, A Rank Mathis, said.
Kai knew there wasn't a Beta who informed him, Mathis was a Beta like himself. But unlike himself he was good at keeping that a secret. He was a middle aged French man who had longer, blonde hair and blue eyes. His large burn scar, covering the right side of his face made him look a little bit scary. The Solo Player didn't know what happened but that vibe was a real contrast how kind and calm of a person he actually was. Even though they weren't in the same guild in Beta Test either, they had fought together before and they had the time to get to know each other. Kai was glad, Mathis was the one who was leading today.
The pre-choosen 42 players stepped ahead including Mathis, Kai, Rein and Zerthai. They were originally more people but they had to leave some out of the Dungeon gates. Because whenever a new player or a group got in a Dungeon, the Dungeon was restoring its rooms, full of new Mobs. And those Mobs were going after the invaders, even though they were in the Boss Room. So their deaths would be inevitable. It sadly had happened before..
Kai knew only a few players who'd stepped forward with them.
One of them was Abel, an African heritage who was a B Rank Blade Master. He was a massive and bulky man with long, dark hair and brown eyes. He also had two silver earrings on his left ear.
Abel was a friendly and a very helpful person who was always looking out for others. Kai found out he was also someone to rely on such as when he defended the Beta Testers against some people while Kai was nearby, gave Kai a place to stay for sometime (but not anymore, he had some money now), and helped players on lower Islands, especially donate to kids. Although he was acting as if he only cares about the money, Kai saw him spending all of his money to help low-leveled players to level up.
The other one besides the Iron Shield members, was Alina, a high ranked member of Dragon Knights, an A Rank Ranger. She was 2 years older than Kai. She had long, ruby red hair with icy blue eyes. The British girl also happened to be his girlfriend but they were agreed on keeping their relationship professional on the battlefields. She was wearing a red and white uniform that all Dragon Knights members were wearing.
Alina was a crazy person, sort of, that was what Kai thought when he'd met her for the first time. But after some time that they spent together, his opinions changed slightly. She was still crazy but along with her craziness, she was a kind and helpful person who couldn't have abandoned another in trouble. She was taking the game very seriously and was determined to clear it. She was also somewhat proud and despite her kind personality, she wouldn't hesitate to get physical with those that challenge her authority. She wasn't afraid to act out on her own and would take matters in her own hands from time to time. She couldn't handle seeing others die in front of her, therefore she was also someone who can be controlled and manipulated by using her emotions.
"This will be our first D Rank dungeon. That's why I'll repeat our strategy one last time, so everyone, hear me out;" said Mathis, "42 of us will be divided into 7 parties, 6 members each.
Group A; leader Maik, Bex, Lindsay, Orchid, Bane and Midnight and Group B; leader April, Billy, King, Excalibre, Kuma and Ladida are going to be the Heavy Armored Tank paries. They will lead others to depts of the Boss Room.
Group C; me as leader, Aurelia, Mercy, Penny, Ishida and Giichi is going to be and Group D; leader Captain Zerthai, Kai, Abel, Chelsea, Mercurii and Kazu are going to be the Assault and High Movement Assault parties. We'll be responsible from the main damages.
Group E; leader Alina, Zebulon, Fae, Kasette, Temachi and Layla are going to take care of Long Ranged Attacks while Group F; leader Captain Rein, Sirius, Millie, Kray, Damian and Jude are going to Support the assault parties. And lastly, Group G; leader Vice-captain Lys, Calcifer, Catchyin, Elvira, Loren and Harley are going to work as Healers, giving their priority to the tank parties." As Mathis was explaining the plan, Kai thought that it was a good plan but something was still bugging him.

'YOU HAVE ENTERED THE 25TH BOSS ROOM'

To Be Continued ~