Yvvaros: The Digital Frontier by Alex Mulder

which dropped to precipitous levels and then was empty.
    Luke had cut all the way through the worm’s body, leaving a gory hole through the middle. Tess, still holding her staff defensively, watched as the creature slowly twitched into submission, falling flat into a dead, dormant heap on the sand in front of her.
    “That…” Tess was staring at Luke with amazement in her eyes. “That wasn’t a level one skill…”
    LEVEL 2 ATTAINED
    LEVEL 3 ATTAINED
    Luke stared at a new icon in the corner of his screen. He looked down at his bag and saw something glowing inside of it. He reached in and pulled it out, finding his Character Record journal. He opened it and suddenly the character stats written inside of it also began to glow.
    The adrenaline from the battle was still rushing through him. He could see that the game had given him ten attribute points to spend, five from each level up. Writing in the journal with an ink quill from his bag allowed him to assign them. He dropped them evenly into Strength, Agility, Endurance, Speed, and finally, Luck.
    There was a skill menu that looked similar to the one that activated when he squeezed his sword. Pierce Attack 2 was still there, and he realized that it was the skill that would typically be awarded to second level Sword Saints.
    “Okay,” said Luke, exiting from the level up screen. “I think we won.”
    “I’ll second that.” A familiar voice came from inside of the dead worm. A second later Silverstrike pulled his way out through the hole that Luke had created.
    Luke smiled.

CHAPTER 8
     
    “I think you should bring back Arex.” Tess crouched in front of the mangled body of the Red Mage and called over to Luke, who was busy cutting teeth and scales off the Dunidan.
    “Oh yeah, I almost forgot I had this.” Luke jogged over to where Arex’s body lay on the ground and pulled out the revival potion. “So do I just, pour it on him, or…?”
    Tess took the potion from him and then held it up to Arex’s face. The bottle glowed brightly, and then Luke saw Arex’s health bar reappear, but with only a sliver left in it. The Red Mage opened his eyes and slowly sat up.
    “The worm is dead?” he asked. Luke nodded and watched as Arex stood up and walked over to the fallen creature without saying another word.
    “He’s a little intense,” said Tess. Luke smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders.
    “I think his encounter with this thing’s razor teeth might have a little to do with it.”
    The four of them regrouped by the corpse of the giant desert worm and began stripping it of everything of value. Luke was amazed at how big the thing was. While they were fighting it, the motion of its body had obscured its size.
    “How did you manage to kill it, in the end?” asked Silverstrike.
    “I used one of my… abilities,” said Luke.
    The advanced version showed up just in time. Without it, we would have all been slaughtered…
    Tess appeared to be thinking the same thing, but she said nothing. Instead, she glanced around the area that they were in. The storm had died down, and they could see the zone for what it was.
    It was located right up against the Inner Plain, just a short walk from Stark Town. Further off into the desert, the sand gave way to a series of dunes, but what caught Luke’s eye was what was in the center of the zone.
    “Is that… an oasis?” he asked the other three. “Did they add mirages into Yvvaros for fun or something?”
    Tess shook her head.
    “I see it, too,” she said. “It must have been hidden by the sandstorm before, but it’s definitely there.”
    “Before we do anything, I think we should talk about what happens now,” said Silverstrike. Luke turned to face him and nodded.
    “You’re right,” he said. “There are a few smaller monsters left in the zone, but once we kill them, it’s going to be up for grabs. We should go ahead and form the guild now so that we don’t have to deal with transferring ownership