Drathan hit the ground with a loud thud, leaves bursting around him like confetti. Floor 33 was a jungle in every possible sense—thick humidity clung to every inch of skin, insects hummed a buzzing symphony, and vines hung like predatory ropes from ancient trees that towered overhead like green skyscrapers. The scent was rich with wet earth, overripe fruit, and something vaguely musky — probably from the nearby apes.
He groaned and sat up, brushing fluorescent-green sludge off his sleeve. "Ugh. This place again."
"This seems different from last time," Seme muttered behind him, already upright and adjusting the leather guard on her shoulder. She stood still, eyes scanning the thick underbrush like a sentry on alert.
"Yeah," Kenshin added, flicking a few sparks off his fingertips as he eyed a group of low-level players barely holding their own against a pair of gorillas. The beasts were massive — over seven feet tall, their fur bristling with natural armor and tribal-looking bone spikes strapped to their limbs. "No angry horde chasing us today. Disappointing."
Seme twirled her sword lazily, stepped forward, and slashed in a single clean arc. One gorilla dropped with a screech of pixels and the other followed a heartbeat later, sliced in two before it could even roar. The red vapor of their deaths floated upward as the struggling party blinked in confusion.
"Well, aren't you the little kill-stealer today," Drathan said with a whistle, already brushing tree bark off his pants.
"I just want to be done with this fast," Seme replied, already turning. "Respawn rate is high. We should move in deeper."
"How many was that?" Drathan asked lazily.
"Around twenty," Kenshin replied, glancing at the party stats. "But only five hundred points. Looks like these are just filler mobs. Low risk, low XP."
"Cool," Drathan muttered, already climbing a nearby tree. "I'll be up there. Wake me when we're doing something worth the drama."
"Or—and hear me out—you could help instead of hiding like a malfunctioning loot goblin," Kenshin shot back.
"Numma numma numma…" Drathan sang mockingly as he disappeared into the foliage.
A bolt of static arced upward. CRACK! Drathan yelped and shifted deeper into the treetop.
Kenshin smirked and sprinted off into the jungle.
Hours passed. Beneath the shade of thick canopies, the sounds of battle became background noise. The team farmed waves of aggressive flora-beasts, stone-armored apes, and a few elusive panther-type mobs that moved like shadows with claws like daggers. Each monster had a unique behavior—gorillas flanked in pairs, the panthers set up ambush zones, and the jungle itself tried to kill them with sap-dripping, semi-sentient vines.
Drathan contributed just enough. He one-shot panthers with compressed void bolts, dropped traps with exaggerated laziness, and sighed dramatically any time he had to move more than ten feet.
Eventually, the three regrouped at a small cliffside clearing just outside the boss tower. The light of the setting sun poured in through the canopy in beams of gold.
"Ninety-six thousand points in four hours," Kenshin announced, casually flipping through the stats screen with a grin. "Almost there."
"And yet, my soul is weary," Drathan groaned theatrically, sprawled across a moss-covered boulder. "Why must I suffer for your grind addictions?"
"Because you need to level like the rest of us," Seme said, not even looking up as she sharpened her blade. "Your glitch stats won't carry you forever. Eventually, scaling catches up."
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "The curse of being born broken and beautiful."
"Okay, Narcissus. Boss time," Kenshin said, standing and cracking his neck. "Four thousand points if we finish it fast."
"Ooooh," Drathan perked up. "And I heard they gave the boss a buff. Like, floor 70-tier buff."
Kenshin clenched a fist, his voice suddenly very serious. "I shall not be clotheslined again."
"If that happens," Drathan said, sliding into a grin, "please let me record it this time."
"Won't happen," Seme said confidently. "Not even a floor 70 boss was that hard."
"I just want to do something this time," Drathan added. "You guys hogged all the fun last boss."
"That's because you went AFK to make a sandwich mid-fight," Kenshin shot back.
"Hey, it was peanut butter and void jelly. Totally worth."
As they made their way toward the tower, a group of wounded players passed them, nursing bruises and limping heavily.
"Looks like we're not the only ones with big ideas," Seme muttered