Lucas didn’t get far, however, before they reached the end of the hallway. There was a door directly ahead, one to the left, and one to the right. Before he could pick one, however, a status message popped up, prompting them to change weapons.

“Dibs on Mage this time!” Nick shouted. He quickly sheathed his swords, opened up his backpack, and took out the staff before anyone could object. Unlike standard game inventory systems, their backpacks were essentially just bags that shrank the items you put in them down to much smaller and more manageable sizes but did nothing to reduce the weight of the items. For that reason, players would often set down their backpacks for boss fights or difficult battles, knowing that the system wouldn’t allow non-party members to access them. If the player died, the backpack would travel to the spot where they respawned.

“I’ll take Fighter this time then,” Valerie said, taking out a sword and a shield.

“Fine, Healer here,” Malik responded.

Since Rogue was the only option left over, Lucas decided to just go with it. He knew he could pull out a bow and contribute the same way that Malik had, but he couldn’t ignore how effective Firebolt was at clearing the enemies from a distance. So, he fetched two daggers out of his backpack instead. This way, I’ll be a lot more useful if we get stuck in close-quarters combat. If we can attack from a distance, Nick will toast everything anyway. It will also prevent me from being charred like he was.

The hallway they occupied wasn’t that large, only just large enough for three people to squeeze uncomfortably next to each other and walk side by side with their shoulders touching, so when the doors all opened at once after they had each selected a new weapon, and enemies appeared, maneuvering space quickly disappeared.

What the . . .? Lucas thought as he saw a guard exit each of the three doors, each with a weapon in hand.

“Ugh! Are you kidding me?” Nick scrambled backward in order to avoid one of the guards that had decided to go after him. “I switch from Fighter to Mage, and now we’re doing close combat? This is garbage!”

“There are more spells than Firebolt on that staff, brother.” Malik slammed one of the guards with his shield and followed up by striking the stunned man across the face with his scepter.

Valerie began swinging both her swords wildly, likely out of reflex at seeing enemies appear right next to her, and didn’t seem to bother activating any of the skills.

Lucas stepped forward and jammed his dagger into the throat of the guard that had popped out of the door next to him. All three of the enemies were dead within a matter of seconds, and he was presented with yet another level-up message:

Congratulations. You have reached Level -69.
You now have 20 stat points available to allocate.