Dungeon = An instanced game zone inside a game where you defeat monsters and bosses with a group of people. You can play this with specific players or choose to use a group finder and get assigned random party mates. Some people prefer one over the other. I like playing with just random people, though, if I could find a group of people to play with who understood my style... Maybe I could change?

I was late for dinner... Which, of course, made my mom angry. Well, I can’t help that the last Titan run took a little longer than expected. Not all runs always go according to plan... But now I’m stuck putting away the dishes and refilling the dishwasher while I promised the guys in the game that I’d be back at seven. I check the clock, it’s already a quarter past seven. I hurry up and put the last things away. I don’t want to make them wait any longer, even though, during dinner I realised I hadn’t actually friended any of them... We were too wrapped up in actually playing and since we were a group already, I guess we kind of forgot... And since I left the group before I shut down the game... I can’t just join them again.

I’m a little stupid for someone who is supposedly smart, according to my mom that is, the smart bit...

“Fleur?” Mom is in the doorway again. “Can you be a little more careful? You don’t need to break anything.”

“Just trying to do this fast.” I try to flash her a smile.

“Why? Are you going out?” Suddenly she’s interested again.

“There’s people waiting for me in Destruction of Elysium.” I say it before I can stop myself and when I look back up at her, I wish I hadn’t because Mom’s face falls and she looks very not-amused by my comment.

“The game?” She sighs. “Don’t you pay a little too much attention to that game? There are actual people out in the world, you know? Actual people who would like to spend time with you.”

“And they can. Six nights out of every week. Friday evening is for video games.” I put the last plates away and turn the dishwasher on.

“I think that you maybe...” She starts following me but I turn around to her.

“Mom. It’s one evening. I play with people living all over the country and all over the world and we all like playing the same thing. I’m not fighting, I’m not drinking, I’m not doing drugs. I’m not getting into trouble. What more do you want me to do?” I look at her for a moment longer and then run up the stairs to my room, taking them two at a time.

“Don’t make it too late. You have work tomorrow,” She calls after me.

“I know.” I close the door behind me, making sure not to slam it, and start the game again, logging on and looking around. I hope I’m not too late, that would suck.

A private message appears in the chat box, the text purple instead of green like the party chat before:

AlexTheDestroyer: You there?

BelleFleur: I’m here!

AlexTheDestroyer: Yes!

AlexTheDestroyer: Been sending your account a message every couple of minutes.

BelleFleur: Yeah, sorry, Mom kept me busy for being late for dinner.

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah, sorry about that. Hope she didn’t give you too much trouble.

BelleFleur: Nothing I’m not used to

AlexTheDestroyer: Okay. Are you ready for another run?

BelleFleur: Yep.

I accept the friend invite from AlexTheDestroyer and then the group request and suddenly I’m in with the others again.

PathTroying: Welcome back.

BelleFleur: Thanks.

OwenLeFay: We doing more Titans?

BelleFleur: Sure, if that’s okay?

AlexTheDestroyer: Should be fine. Just gotta leave a little time for BelleFleur to check out a video about the raid later and get her gear in place.

BelleFleur: You can just call me Fleur.

AlexTheDestroyer: Good. I’m Alex.

OwenLeFay: Owen.

PathTroying: Troy.

BloodyBAaron: Baron would be nice, but just Aaron for me.

I laugh. Right... Whatever.

A screen pops up and transports us to one of the Titans and I focus on the game again. I want to do this, if I can get my gear up to the right level today then I can actually do raids, even in just regular group finder settings. Although, I’m pretty sure that these guys are a little more hardcore than that. They seem to be one of those groups that actually run raids according to schedules, and I’m not sure I’m really that type of player...

I throw up some buffs on the party and Alex pulls the Titan, forcing us all into action and I do my best to not let anyone die. At first, it’s going very well and I enjoy playing with them, but then I get distracted by my bottle of fizzy drinks standing a little too close to the edge of the desk and I get us all killed.

Crap!

BelleFleur: Sorry.

PathTroying: LOL.

PathTroying: No problem. Happens to us all.

AlexTheDestroyer: Happens all the time. Let’s go again.

When we’re all back at the starting point and we’ve all put up our buffs, Alex pulls the Titan again. This time the battle is a lot smoother and we finish the Titan off easily.

A private message shows up in my chat again:

AlexTheDestroyer: Where are you with your quests?

BelleFleur: Literally ready to do the first raid when I get my gear up far enough.

AlexTheDestroyer: Good.

AlexTheDestroyer: Do you have a headset and a voice chat program?

I have, but it’s crap and old and I don’t like actually doing voice chat, especially with people I barely know...

BelleFleur: No, sorry.

AlexTheDestroyer: No problem, just checking. How is your end game currency?

I check my currency on the character screen and realise that I really need to repair my gear. I close the screen before I remember that I was checking my currency, not my gear, and open the screen again.

BelleFleur: Two more Titans and I should be good to go.

BelleFleur: Gotta repair first though.

AlexTheDestroyer: Okay.

I transport out of the Titan area and find a gear-repair shop nearest to my location. When I reach it, there is a player standing nearby with their name in green which tells me that they’re in my party and it’s Alex. I make my character wave to Alex before I repair my gear.

BelleFleur: I’m ready to go again.

AlexTheDestroyer: Two more, right?

BelleFleur: Yep.

The Titan screen comes up again and we battle another Titan. I need to focus, I really need to focus this time. It’s different when you’re playing with people for a longer amount of time, like not just one round or maybe accidentally a few times, but to really keep playing with the same players, over and over again. I don’t want to let them down after this afternoon, especially since I still feel like it’s a fluke. That these players just really took me for someone else, that, I don’t know, that it’s just some weird prank.

But what would be the goal? They’re really helping me in the game, no matter if they actually take me on the raid with them this evening or not. It doesn’t really matter right now. So, why would they take on a noobie healer like me?

AlexTheDestroyer: Final one!

It’s the same one as the one that wiped us right before I had to log off for dinner. Not going to let that happen this time! Nope! I stay focused, even when Owen missteps and nearly gets killed before one of the huge room-wide attacks, but I’m able to get through it, frantically hitting the keys on my mouse and keyboard. The Titan has a couple of insanely high damage attacks, some of which I really have to heal through when they hit Alex, and on top of that... an attack that creates lava puddles on the floor that we need to stay out of.

Then the screen changes and we’ve defeated him.

I sit back, taking a deep breath. Damn. That wasn’t easy. Fuck. Let’s hope the raids aren’t as insane as this, although... we’ll also have a six times as big a group to play with. More attacks, more lights, more of everything, more to keep track of.

AlexTheDestroyer: You okay?

BelleFleur: Yeah.

I leave the Titan area and after repairing my gear at the repair shop again I go in search of the end game gear shop for the gear I need. I look at the gear I’m wearing... It’s cute, but I know that it’s not going to last, not if I want to play raids too. I buy a chest piece, well, a shirt really, and then boots, my final two pieces of gear that weren’t high enough to allow me into raid queues.

An envelope blinks in the top of my screen, pulling my attention to it, but I need to actually find a mail box to read it. So I hunt one down. It’s not too far off from the gear seller luckily.

It’s a letter from AlexTheDestroyer, with an item attached to it. ‘Thanks for running with us. I thought you’d enjoy this.’ The attached item is a costume item that I can wear and it will show instead of my gear. It’s a pale yellow dress with a sort of flower petal shaped skirt that changes from yellow into red at the ends. It’s cute, I’ve been trying to get my hands on this dress for a while, it’s a drop from one of the earlier dungeons in the game, but even after running it for fifteen or so times, I only saw it once, and I didn’t win the loot roll for it and in the market place they sell it for way too much. Wow. I send a private message to Alex.

BelleFleur: Thanks for the dress!

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah, no problem. Had it anyway and I can’t wear it.

I can’t imagine what a tank class like him would look like if he’d be allowed to wear an item like this... It would be... interesting. A character wearing the dress and then standing in front of one of those huge bosses, taking all the hits... Though... I guess it could be fun.

AlexTheDestroyer: Do you want to go watch a walk through of the raid? It’s early, but you can ask questions if needed.

AlexTheDestroyer: Also, would you like to join our guild? We’re a raiding guild, and it would be nice if you could join us for raids as often as possible, but... You know...

I don’t reply yet, it’s a nice offer, and maybe actually meeting some more people in-game would be good, especially if we all work together as well as the small group from earlier did.

AlexTheDestroyer: Our main healer had to drop out because of finals and then had to immediately start her internship, so she hasn’t been around, and our secondary healer isn’t always there. Like today.

BelleFleur: So, I’d be what... your tertiary healer?

AlexTheDestroyer: Back-up Primary?

That makes me laugh out loud. Right. Well, if he makes it sound so attractive… The idea that he may prefer me over the other healer is a little blush-inducing…

BelleFleur: Sure. I just can’t run late during the week and not on Saturdays, day or evening.

AlexTheDestroyer: We can work with that.

He sends me an invite and when I click on accept to join the guild, I’m suddenly surrounded by more people. The chat screen filling with orange text from people talking about the upcoming raid and just general goofing off.

AlexTheDestroyer: Guys, we picked up a really awesome healer today, BelleFleur. She’ll be running the raid with us this evening. It’s gonna be her first, so be nice!

BelleFleur: Hi all.

I don’t know what else to type and people start to ask all sorts of questions of me, one faster than the other and some of the guys from the party that I ran the Titans with also join in. I try to answer all the questions, which isn’t easy. They range from the simple questions like how long I’ve been playing, to my favourite dungeons, and my favourite sound track from a dungeon, which I’m all perfectly fine answering, to the more personal, all of which I don’t actually answer, because I don’t like giving out personal information. I thought that they may not like that, but it seems that they’re fine with it, luckily.

BelleFleur: I’m going to watch the raid walk through, I’ll be back in a bit.

I minimise the game, and start the walk through video from someone whose walk throughs I’ve used in the past.

Within seconds of it starting, I know that I’m going to be in for a very rough evening. Not just the bosses, but the positioning, the extra members, the mechanics... it’s all not just a step harder than the dungeons or a Titan, it’s almost three times as hard...

I thought this was going to be fun and interesting, but this seems more like it’ll be a lot of me getting my ass kicked... And I kinda feel bad for the guys after all they’ve done for me this afternoon… They’ve helped me all day and I’m going to get them killed over and over again…