Nothing is Impossible

Atlas found himself in the arena. He waited till Lars finished up his current fight and grinned at him. "Wanna rematch?"

Lars just raised his eyebrows. "No."

Atlas recoiled. "What? Why not?"

"You were terrifying to fight the first time, I don't want to know how strong you are now, especially since you are a higher level than me. Plus, I like my undefeated record." He smiled cheekily at Atlas.

Atlas ran a hand through his hair. "Well crap. What am I supposed to do now?" he wondered aloud.

Lars just shrugged. "Don't ask me. All I spend my time doing is training here at the arena. It's done wonders for my skill ranks. I got a skill to ZZ rank just yesterday." He looked at Atlas, "I'm off to go train more with my friends, see you later."

He wondered how Lars would react if he told him that he had 6 skills at ZZ rank or higher. Probably best to keep that to himself though.

What Lars had said prickled at him. There were other places to train? What was he missing out on? He looked at Lars before deciding to ask someone who knew more.

"Nice." Was all he said, before turning on his heels and heading back to the main guild hall. He went over to the bar but the barbarian bartender was helping another man, and by the looks of it, he seemed to be newly summoned too. After the bartender had sent the man away, probably on a quest to join the guild, much like Atlas had, he walked up to the bartender, leaning on the bar. "Hey Sicrec! I was wondering if you could give me any pointers on how to train up some more. Are there any good places to train around here? Besides, you know, the arena and training grounds?"

Sicrec furrowed his eyebrows in thought, folding his arms across his chest. "There's the forest, though most creatures there are either far below or far above your level, so that's always a risky move. There's the powerscore area, though that's not really training." He frowned. "What else is there… Oh yeah! There's the dungeons! The city has a good half dozen of them or so, I think there should be one around your level." He shrugged. "Other than that, there's the more specialized guild areas, which probably won't accept a tier three like you, so the dungeons might be your best option besides the arena and training grounds."

Atlas nodded. "That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks for that." Nodding to the man, he spun on his heels, before freezing and slowly turning back. "Um… where are the dungeons located?" He asked sheepishly.

Sicrec smiled. "Over by the market, in a building with Training Dungeons in big bold letters, can't miss it."

"Thanks." Atlas said, still feeling a little sheepish.

He left the guild, heading over to the market, pushing through the throngs of people that choked the streets. After asking for directions multiple times, he finally found himself in front of the training dungeon building.

He shuddered a little bit. Did he really want to go through a dungeon again? His first experience in a dungeon was anything but pleasant, and he only hoped that training dungeons were different. After some thought, he realized there was probably a lot of difference. If he remembered right, the dungeon he had been in previously was a trial dungeon, meant to test him and his stats. He assumed this dungeon would be more what game logic told him what it was, a place to kill monsters and the boss at the end.

Or at least, he hoped it would be something like that.

Pushing inside the building, he found himself in a very different environment than he was expecting. The room he was in was massive, far bigger than the outside had suggested. The ceiling was dozens of feet above him and if he had to guess, the room itself was probably 500-600 feet wide and just as long. There were 8 portals surrounding the perimeter of the room, each bigger than the last. There were also tons of people everywhere, all of them bearing a guild band signifying that they were in fact a member of the guild. There were attendants at each portal, helping people in doing something to the portal after they entered. There was a ninth portal in the middle of the room, but people only came out of this portal, never entered it.

There were also attendants coming and going all over the place, answering inquiries and helping out with the technical side of things. Whatever the technical side of things even was. Atlas felt like a fish out of water, and he froze, not sure what to do.

Atlas felt as though he had walked into a wall of sound. There were adventurers calling loudly everywhere, and people were talking to each other throughout the entire room, causing the sound level to only grow louder.

After a couple seconds of being completely flabbergasted, an attendant walked up to him, flashing perfectly white teeth at him. "Are you in need of assistance, good sir? I am more than willing to help you with any problems you may run into. I don't mean to pry too much, but is this your first time here? Would you like a rundown of the area and how it works?"

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Atlas nodded. "That would be wonderful, thank you." He said, trying hard to sound confident, even though internally, he was anything but.

You have leveled Flawed Utterance (Z) to level 6!

The man smiled and clasped his hands together. "Then I will do just that. This is, as you most likely know, the training dungeons area, where we have gathered a multitude of dungeons to help train guild members, and the system helps us by creating a new portal every once and a while. A dungeon must be entered by 6 individuals of the same tier as the dungeon, unless given special permission. Each dungeon consists of multiple floors with monsters, traps, magical phenomena and other various effects. At the end of the dungeon is the dungeon boss, who must be killed for the adventurers to complete the dungeon. The dungeon boss will then dissolve into dust, leaving a chest behind with items for the adventurers that cleared it. Items are based on the adventurers and the tier of the dungeon. A portal will then appear, and after going through it, you will appear back here." He took a deep breath from the obviously scripted speech before continuing on.

"There are a total of 8 dungeons at the moment, one tier 2, two tier 3's, one tier 4, one tier 5, one tier 6, and two tier 7's. There are no tier eight dungeons at the moment, but we expect to have one within the week. As the amount and tiers of the dungeons change every month, due to the system's influence. All dungeons are instanced, so you will never encounter another party of adventurers while in a dungeon. Any final questions?"

Atlas thought for a second. "So I just need to find 5 other people who are willing to go into a dungeon with me?"

The man nodded. "Precisely. If you are not able to do so, the dungeon will not allow you entry. If you require help, just talk to another attendant and they can help you find a party to join."

After verifying that Atlas needed no further assistance, the man left, walking over to a woman who had the same deer in the headlights look that Atlas himself must have sported.

Atlas started to wander, listening to the shouts of the people everywhere.

"Tier 5 Mage needed! Any affinity works!"

"Tier 2 Tank needed! Constitution in the hundreds, minimum!"

"Tier 3 DPS needed! Preferably physical!"

"Tier 2-"

Atlas stopped in surprise as he saw Lars not too far away, standing with four others and talking amongst themselves. Atlas wandered over and tapped him on the shoulder, taking a step back in surprise when Lars whirled around, hand going up to his sword.

Atlas laughed nervously. "Whoa there! No need to kill me, I haven't done anything yet!"

Lars looked at him for a brief second. "You'll do." Was all he said, before pulling Atlas into the group.

"Wait, what? What's happening?" Atlas said, not understanding what Lars was even talking about.

Lars just waved him off. "We need a sixth party member, and you fit the empty spot perfectly. We need someone who can do a lot of damage quickly, or in gamer terms, a DPS, you're the perfect man for the job."

"Sounds good to me. If Lars recommends you, you're at least not completely useless." One of the men in the circle said. He was wearing a brown cloak with the hood pulled slightly down, obscuring the top of his face. He was clean-shaven and was wearing black and brown clothes, and he had a crossbow strapped to his back. He looked to be around 5' 10, but he hunched a little, so Atlas couldn't be sure.

Atlas realized he hadn't even bothered to look at all the people in Lars's group, and just as he was about to speak up, Lars butted in.

"Time for some introductions, yeah? This here is Atlas everyone," he said first, then pointed to the man in the cloak. "He's Jay, our assassin and poison lover. Does all the stealthy stuff and sneak attacks things. Bit moody." Lars continued on, ignoring the squawk of anger from Jay. He pointed to a man with green and red robes. "That's Dane, our ace in the hole. He's a summoner with weird powers, he also helps buff us." Dane was not human. He had dark green skin, pointed ears and purple eyes. Dane stood at about 5' 6, shorter than everyone else in the party. "As you can probably tell, Dane is a Hobgoblin, he was summoned from a different world than ours." Dane nodded politely to Atlas before Lars moved on, pointing to a woman with white and gold robes. "She's Nexunaluses, but she goes by Nex. She's also not from our world, and she's an elf. She does all the healing around here and helps Dane buff us occasionally." Nex had pale white skin, pointed ears and stood at a whopping 6 and a half feet tall.

"And last but not least, we have Lesli." Atlas froze, breath catching in his throat as he looked at the final member of the party.

She was the woman Atlas had seen on his first day in Atherome. She wore purple robes lined with white, and she had blonde hair. She stood at 5' 9 barely shorter than Jay and quite a bit shorter than Atlas, who stood at a respectable 6' 4. At least until you compared him to Lars and Nex, who were both 6' 6.

"Lesli is our magical damage, she casts all sorts of cool spells that make our lives much easier. She has the lowest level of us all, but makes up for it with pure power, easily matching all of us in skill and ability. And that's the team!"

Atlas swallowed and looked at Lesli, and she stared right back.

Atlas had known Lesli in his past life. And he had known her pretty dang well.

She was his girlfriend.

Atlas didn't know what to say, what to do.

Lesli just waved. "Been a while, Atlas."