From Player To Npc

In a massive hall with stone walls seemingly older than time itself, there were mountains of coins of different shapes and materials. Still, in its majority, there seem to be gold ones.

There were great value items like paintings, statues, different gems and furniture, a few swords and shields that were bejeweled or had carvings, or painted symbols of different shapes and colors.

Among this treasure sleeping while covered by the biggest of the mountain of coins was a giant red-scaled lizard. The hill had a 10-12 meter diameter, but it was barely covering this colossal creature. A pair of wings attached to its back was scarcely visible. Every coin around it had got reddened like a great heat was touching them but not significant enough to melt them.

As this Dragon was sleeping, its slumber got disrupted by some noise. They came from the corridor across the way—sounds of battle, sword slashes, and voices speaking words in a mysterious language and explosions following.

A group of 3 people, two men, and one woman, were fighting creatures made of fire and lava. They still had some distance to cover to reach the treasure hall.

The woman was calling herself Light and was a person of magic dressed in white robes with golden and purple runes. She held a black wooden staff with a red gem at its top. The carvings wouldn't be noticeable were being lit up with reddish light every so often. Simultaneously, balls of fire got created just a few centimeters over the ruby. As the ball got completed and aiming towards the desired target and using a word, the fireball was heading with great speed towards it.

Of course, she wasn't aiming with her fireballs at the creatures as they were of the same element so that it wouldn't affect them. She aimed for the floor under them. She was trying to unbalance them, so the rest of the party had time to deal with them more manageable.

One of the male ones, the one named Dark, also dressed in white clothing and had similar runes to the female ones. On top of the clothes, he had leather armor created by a tough-looking and flexible material. Holding a blade with each hand, a longsword with the right, and a shortsword with the left, he released swiftly one slash after the other. A rune on the blades' handles emitting dim light of blueish color with each swing.

And as for the last person of the 3-people party, unlike his other two fellows, his equipment was wearing a full plate metal armor and red color instead of white. No painted runes were on his armor, but there were some carved to his shoulder's pieces and its chest piece. 

He was going by the name Ameanum, and on his left hand, he had a longsword of similar design as the other fellow and with his right hand held a shield. 

The shield's design was of a typical rectangular design, being around 1.5 meters in height and a little less than 1-meter in width. It had similar-looking metal and color as the armor and looked as if it had added to the user's look when both got equipped. The sword had similar runes as the other male's blades, emitting the same blueish light with each successful slash.

Even though the creatures' magical nature seemed made of fire and lava, their weapons were effective against them. Ameanum, with his shield, drew their attention in the majority to protect his two companions. The tremendous heat these creatures produced did not affect his armor and shield.

After a while, the last creature fell, and they started catching their breath before continuing towards the treasure. 

A roar sounded from the mountain of coins. 

The Dragon, who was unseen by the three people until that point, stood up and opened its mouth. A massive ball of fire, which was 20 times the size of Light's, was heading toward the three of them.

Surprised by this mighty creature's unexpected appearance, Light and Dark froze in place out of fear. Still, Ameanum, seemingly unaffected by it, got in front of them; fortunately, they were next to each other. 

He brought the shield in front of him and crouched. He tried to get himself covered with it as much as possible.

As the ball of fire came close to an impact with the shield, he closed his eyes and prepared himself for it.

"IRON WALL Activate." [Ameanum]

And with those words, the shield of his light up for a second, and then the Dragon's ball of fire came in impact with it, and the ball lost its shape as the fire got released outwards, producing an explosion.

The fire would typically go past the shield from the space at its side, but it didn't do it. It was like an invisible wall was there and not just a man holding a shield as the fire spread wide.

After a few seconds, the fire disappeared. 

With no delay, Ameanum had started his charge towards the Dragon as he also, for a second, turned towards his other two fellow party members.

"Are you going to stand there watching it, or you going to fight? "[Ameanum]

The shout snapped them out of their sudden fear, and they started closing the distance with the Dragon.

Light knew her fire magic would be useless against this Dragon. The tactic they used for the minions they just dealt with would also be ineffective against that colossal creature. All she could do was grant protection from the fire element as the scales of this Dragon produced heat which, now that it was awake, was becoming higher and higher as time passed.

Ameanum and Dark were closing the distance, one from the left and the other from the right. This made it a hard task for the Dragon to target both of them with a fireball.

Instead, the Dragon just shook its body for the few coins still on it to fall and took just a few steps forward to be in front and entirely outside the mountain of treasures. Yet, even this creature wasn't able to cover all of it.

And so 2 two males almost simultaneously made it to the Dragon and started their slashes. Ameanum, besides his equipment, seemed not to lack much on speed and, with the small start, began his attack simultaneously with Dark.

Hitting a huge target like this one wasn't difficult, but each slash's technique should be 100% plus power or couldn't pass the scales' natural hardness.

They were also close enough to feel the creature's heat being of great height and getting higher as time passed. Fortunately, Light's fire protection made it easier to handle the heat, but it was only temporary.

At first, it took them just a few seconds to find the right amount of balance of technique and force to pass its defense, and fortunately, the Dragon seemed to stand there. But then it started its counterattack with a horizontal swing with its tail toward Ameanum.

In any other case, he would try to deflect it with his shield, but against a creature of that size and strength, it was a suicide. The only thing he could do to avoid it to its best of his ability. So he fell prone to the floor but got barely hit by the tail on the way down. He rolled a few times, but he got his balance back and started moving around as he barely noticed the vast mouth of the Dragon getting towards him, ready to devour him.

At the last moment, he brought the shield in front of him.

"RECHARGE... IRON WALL." [Ameanum]

Again an invisible wall seems to be produced like an extension of the shield, seemingly as wide as the Dragon's mouth. After a second and as he got his balance back to normal, he jumped to the left as the invisible extension seemed to vanish, letting the Dragon's mouth close and biting just air.

Instead of stopping right there, he continued moving across the body of the Dragon, making a few slashes here and there and making his way behind him.

After sniffing the air, the Dragon made another tail attack, but this time a vertical one. He was ready this time and rolled under the Dragon as had his sword hand extended to slash the beast as he quickly got up and crouched on the rest of the way. The creature's moves were fast for a beast of its size but not too fast, and after a while, he could see the motive behind them. So he continued drawing its attention by avoiding one attack after the other and attacking with his sword a few times to keep its attention to him. Sometimes, avoiding the attacks wasn't an option, so he tried to use his defensive abilities.

Dark damage-wise was more effective cause the Dragon's attention was mainly on Ameanum. So the two of them were making progress. Now it was just a race of who will go down first, the Dragon or Ameanum?!?

After an hour, there was finally a result as the Dragon left its last roar and fell to the ground. The temperature, which got high enough to give Ameanum and Dark burn marks, was getting cooler and getting back to normal.

After making sure no enemy was getting ready to jump on them, they moved away from the source of heat. They brought out a vial containing a red liquid and started drinking it. Their burns and wounds began healing at a visible rate.

They waited some time for the temperature to be of a standard value. Dark and Light started looking around the treasure. In contrast, Ameanum began getting out his armor parts, which seemed to be damaged the most, and got out a small hammer from his backpack. As he got the parts needing repair, he started slamming them with the hammer with no unique technique. The cracks on the one he hit the hammer with seemed to be repaired somewhat and were getting shaped slowly back to their standard form. And so, having a smirk on his face, he continued slamming the hammer to his armor and repairing it as after eight hits; the hammer turned into light and disappeared.

"I need to level up my crafting abilities, or else I will spend all my money for the repair hammers I am using."[Ameanum]

He muttered this to himself as he brought another hammer of the same design and look and continued his repairs. After 5 minutes, he had used six more of those hammers but had finished repairing all his armor parts and shield. He then felt a hand over his shoulder.

And so he started turning, waiting to see his fellow members.

"Found anythi..." [Ameanum]

As he was ready to ask if the treasure piles contained anything useful, his phrase got stopped as he got stabbed right in the middle of his forehead by a black dagger. Usually, an attack like this one wouldn't be much for him since this isn't the actual world but a VRMMO game called ENERIAS TOWER. Even if it were a sneak attack by a high-level rogue, it wouldn't kill him right away. But this was different. Ameanum froze in place, having a similar feeling like when stunned by skill.

There was normally a countdown for how much time he would remain stunned in these cases, but nothing was available on the game's UI. Also, he started feeling pain.

One could only play the game through a V-Capsule. The user could fully rest in it, like in a bed, and use it in many functions, and that most common one was to play VR games like ENERIAS TOWER. The Capsule was keeping the vitals of the users, making sure they stayed at average values. It could also read the user's brainwaves, which enabled the user to control his in-game character without using a controller. The controller was the brain of the user.

The user, instead of intense pain, was feeling small pinches. You could lose a hand in the game and be like nothing.

But the pain Ameanum was feeling now wasn't like it. It was 100% genuine pain, and it was getting more and more intense as time passed, and his body got frozen in place as he couldn't even let out a scream. And all he could see was Dark smiling towards him while still holding the dagger.

"I want you to know, it isn't personal; just pure business."[Dark]

And then he turned the dagger, releasing a fresh wave of pain to Ameanum and one Red-Lettered System window after the other being appearing one after the other. His heart rate was getting at dangerously low levels. Typically, in this case, the system would automatically call the emergency numbers assigned to it and log out the user. Still, a warning of the system's failure to do these actions appeared one after the other. Shocks of electricity he felt across his body were one of Capsule's tools to use in these cases, but not so frequently or of such substantial power.

And so Ameanum fell prone to the ground. The last thing he saw was his surroundings going from the stone room he was to a white room, the Capsule's lobby mode, and another Red Warning Mode Window.

ΤΗΕ ACCOUNT FOR THE GAME OF TOWER OF ENERIAS GOT BANNED BY THE SYSTEM FOR VIOLATION OF THE TERMS OF THE GAME. YOU CAN CONTACT...

Before he could finish reading the rest of his warning, another shock of electricity hit him harder than before. He felt releasing all the air he had in his lungs.