James was having the time of his life as he completed yet another sick combo against one of the largest raid bosses in the game. His character flashed with a bright burst of flames and an almost hulk like growth before swinging their massive sword and slashing at the enormous dragon for a massive critical.

"Fuck Yea Bitch. Take my fat sword and like it!" A bout of laughter followed his comment over the headphones as the massive dragon began to crumble after letting out a few more desperate attacks before finally falling. A massive cheer could be heard from the headphones, and James was all too happy to join in as they'd finally taken down the great demonic dragon after several hours of raid time.

"God, I can't believe we finally did it!"

"I know, right? That fucking lizard nearly wiped us out three times. GG heals. Serious."

"Haha, don't even worry bout that shit. This is one of the big baddies, man. It took all of us. Though, I gotta say, Pussyslayer's call about shoving his fat sword up the dragon was just priceless. Dude didn't even take the thing down."

"PFftthahaha, I know, right? And he even uses a girl avatar. Bet the dude is all over the chicks with dicks. Right slayer?"

A round of laughter follows as everyone on the call starts taking jabs at one another, though mostly James' previous cheesy line.

"Yea yea. Haha. At least my character is funny and nice to look at. You've just got some old man in a robe Jazza. Now. Gimmee DA LOOTZ!!!"

He says as everyone cheers in approval, waiting for the raid leader to look through and start showing off the drops from the beast.

There were a few legendary crafting materials. A fat load of gold and jewels to pawn off and use. But still, there were a number of very, very hot items. One was a legendary-level dragon's mana crystal. It gave any magic user an extreme enhancement to their stacks and output and was easily worth a fortune on the auction house. The thing could be used in alchemy, as a tool, or straight up ingested for a number of different benefits, but the best would probably be as a crystal for a magic staff. Though only the magic casters bid on it. It ended up in Jazza's hands, as he was desperate for the extra power boost and easily the guild's heavy hitter when it came to magic. Next up was the quest item that the guild needed for their next expansion quest to enhance their base and request more lands from the lords of Tiermach. They weren't the largest guild on the server by a long shot, but with this item, they'd be able to expand into a county-level organization and gain full control of its citizens for slaying such a large dragon.

Finally, there was something that people were drooling over. A myth-rated growth-type weapon. Something that was at the apex of the game and grew to match the style and stats of the player while also increasing them further. It was truly a type of weapon every player lusted after, and given its myth rating, it was one of the most valuable types in the game by far. Luckily for James, It was a sword-type growth weapon. Giving him one of the highest chances as the only barbarian in the current raid and one of only five warriors on the raid.

James immediately went all in. Throwing up more than 100,000 contribution points into the pot for a chance at getting that sword.

"Damn man, not even giving anyone else a chance. You fucking hoarding bastard. Hahaha"

"Slayer finally found a use for all those stupid points he's been keeping. Haha, well, guess he did get a number of crits on that lizard, might as well."

"Yeah, he is one of the top hitters right now, but with this thing, he'd be unstoppable. Ugh, I can already hear the bad lines coming."

After a few minutes of lighthearted jabbing, James won the sword by a landslide, and with a triumphant cheer, he immediately opened his inventory and checked out the stats of his new prize.

"What THE HELL!!"

"What is it, man? Too good for you or something?" Jazza asked, wondering why the hell he could be mad after having just won that sweet drop.

"This damn thing is a myth item, for sure. But it's a freaking level 1 myth item. It's set all the way back at level 1 for noobs, man. Do you know how freaking long it'll take me to get this damn thing leveled up to us? For it to be useful at all? It doesn't even list any stats, and the freaking flavor text doesn't even make any sense."

"Pfffthahaha, Slayer just wiped his points on a nooby starter kit. OMG"

"And now he's living up to his name and whining like a total pussy. Whaaa whaaa, my swordy isn't sharp enough mommy."

"Haha, calm down man. It's a growth item. They're supposed to grow with a player anyway. I don't know why it's so under leveled but maybe they all act like that. Besides, once that baby is up to snuff, you'll probably be laughing your ass off at how much damage you're dealing."

"Haha, yeah, bro, don't sweat the small stuff. It'll just take some grinding. And how does a level 1 item have flavor text anyway? What the hell does it say?"

Grumbling, James looks over the description again and says, "It says, 'Let a new hero be born from this seed. A new world awaits'. - Unknown. Like, how the hell is there an unknown author for this sword, and why doesn't it have a name? I kinda like the idea of being a hero, but what the hell does a new world mean? Is this supposed to be a new expansion item or something?"

"OMG, if it's an expansion item, that'll be amazing. We'll get first crack at all the crazy new stuff!"

"Fuck, it probably just means that it's supposed to be a nooby item completely. Like a new game plus kinda thing. It probably wasn't even supposed to drop from this dragon."

"Guys, guys, cool it. Let's just finish up here and head out. Several of us have jobs in the morning, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, buncha normies."

"Haha, such an ass."

"Alright, night everyone. GG"

"GG"

"GG"

As James left the dungeon and shut down the game after a nice stretch, he couldn't help but scratch his chin at the thought of all the grinding he'd have to do in order for his new sword to be useful in any way. "Ah well, it wasn't a complete loss. Maybe there would be an expansion from this." Dragon's Embrace: New Destiny had been going for nearly five years now and hadn't had a new expansion in at least a year, so it was possible.

"Ugh, maybe I should just make a new character and bring it up to snuff instead of looking like an idiot as a high-level player stabbing low-level mobs for hours just to get the damn damage up to workable levels."

Thinking in that way, James couldn't help but picture a new character looking more like himself but stronger. More muscular and manly in sweet barbarian armor. The new sword looked like something straight out of myth, with glowing runes and fire. Not to mention being practically as big as he was. It was a fun image to imagine himself killing enemies by the dozens with it and leaving only a trail of blood behind.

Still, he was tired, and it was already really late. He slowly crawled into bed and sighed as his head hit the pillow. His mind was filled with random thoughts on how he'd go about using his new prize before he drifted off to sleep.