"Then why are you even here?" The deer asked.
"I go where nature calls, if you catch my drift," The jackalope replied while flashing Mel another wink.
"There is something seriously wrong with you," Mel replied before wondering aloud. "I wonder why there is a white tiger in the Himgulir Continent?"
"So there's a jackalope and a white tiger?" Emberslag asked.
Shelur chuckled before saying, "There goes your theory about it just being the dungeon's name."
"This whole thing is strange," Black Dragoon remarked. "I've never heard of a beast of the wild being included in the bandit starter dungeon, let alone two."
"Bandit starter dungeon?" John asked.
"The major capital on every continent has a set number of dungeons around it, and each of these dungeons follows pretty much the exact same structure, with only a few minor differences," Black Dragoon explained. "This is so that the players all have the same chance to get used to both dungeons and fighting different enemy types before the dungeons start becoming more continent-specific as their level increases.
Before Emberslag stumbled upon this dungeon, the bandit dungeon had already been discovered in three out of five of the major continents, with only the Essnoris continent still being undiscovered. The bandit dungeon follows the same story path: kill the bandits and their leader while saving the animals they have captured; however, I've never heard anything about descendants of the five guardians being included among those animals."
"While I agree in principle, it's also possible there has always been a jackalope included, but players just didn't realise it," Mel replied. "We saw for ourselves that this perverted jackalope was masquerading as a normal rabbit, so maybe you have to meet certain conditions to learn the truth."
Shelur frowned while asking, "What, like being a druid or being able to talk to animals?"
"Can't be," Mel replied while shaking her head. "There is no way Vincarna and I are the first players to do a bandit dungeon that can talk to animals."
"That's true," Emberslag nodded before asking Black Dragoon. "Is there anything different about this dungeon from the normal bandit dungeons that you know about?"
"Well, for one thing, there's never been such a perverted rabbit," Black Dragoon replied, causing the jackalope to stamp its foot in annoyance and say. "Would you kindly stop calling me perverted? I'm just honest."
"Yeah, honestly perverted," The deer replied.
Black Dragoon didn't know that the jackalope had responded, so she just continued, "You would have thought something like that would have been plastered all over the forums. Also, the five guardian beast species, namely the jackalope, white tiger, sky dragon, rebirth phoenix and guardian turtle, are all special existences in Genesis; each of their ancestors is a world boss."
"We know this," Mel replied. "Lord Ursa and Taurus told us, though so far we have only met eight gods that I suppose could be classified as world bosses."
"EIGHT!" The other women shrieked while John glanced at Mel and said. "Technically you've only met seven."
"Ohhh, you're right," Mel said in realisation. "I haven't met Astraea, or is it Virgo?"
"I think it's technically both," John replied, though he was unsure about that himself.
"I call bullshit," Shelur retorted while the jackalope nodded and said. "Sorry, bro, but I'm with the orc on this one. If you've really met eight gods, tell me which."
"You want to know which?" John repeated in surprise, prompting the women to nod in agreement as Shelur said. "I also want to know which."
"Err, ok, let's see," John replied before counting them off on his fingers. "First there was Hades, Osiris, Ereshkigal, Hel, King Yama and Lucifer, six of the Seven Kings of the Underworld, though I suggest you don't call them that since the goddesses don't seem to like it.
After them were Lord Ursa and then Virgo, though she seems to like going by Astraea for some reason. And finally Elrinira."
The three women and most animals stared at him with dumbfounded expressions, though the boar asked, "There are seven rulers of the underworld?"
This question seemed to snap the jackalope out of its shock as it asked, "What the fuck, bro? You met Succubus Queen Elrinira and lived to tell the tale?"
"We both did," Mel replied while John asked. "Yeah, is she that famous that even you know about her?"
"Bro, she's not just famous; she's downright scary. The number of people she's killed or slaughtered because they looked at her wrong or refused her is no joke. That's one female even I wouldn't touch."
"Really, but I refused her?" John said in surprise, while Mel nodded and said. "It's true, he did."
"You did? And you're still alive?" The jackalope asked in amazement. "How?"
"Me, Mel, and a few other friends helped save her dead sister, who had been resurrected by a necromancer," John explained.
"She wasn't dead," Mel corrected with a sigh. "She's undead. There's a difference."
The jackalope looked at the pair with newfound respect while saying, "Damn, bro, you're hardcore; there are not many individuals who can come away from meeting Elrinira alive."
"Err, what are you guys talking about?" Emberslang asked awkwardly since this was a new experience for her; she wasn't used to people ignoring her, let alone talking with animals."
"Oh, sorry," John said with an apologetic smile that, for some reason, made the three women avert their eyes.
Black Dragoon coughed before saying, "So yeah, world bosses are on another level compared to other enemies because each of them carries the existence wipe ability."
"The what?" John asked in shock while Mel's eyes widened in surprise.
"How haven't you heard of that?" Shelur asked in disbelief. "An existence wipe is something all players fear above all else, because if you die due to an existence wipe, your player is permanently deleted, and you have to start Genesis all over again."
"Seriously?" John asked in shock.
Black Dragoon nodded while explaining, "In the past, there was a group of top-level players who attacked a world boss, trying to kill it for the loot. In the end, the world boss defeated them easily and used its special ability of existence wipe.
At first, the party thought it was just a normal death, so after twenty-four hours they attempted to log back in; however, they were unable to, and when they asked Tia why, she informed them that the existence wipe had erased their characters from Genesis. These top-level players were forced to start from the very beginning again and work their way back up."
"Why would anyone even try to fight something like that?" John asked before turning to Mel as he remembered something." Didn't you say one of the largest guilds on the Uzdrord continent tried to take down Bengal? Why didn't their characters get their existence wiped?"
"Oh, that," Shelur replied. "Apparently the guild in question somehow found an item that protected a certain number of their guild from existence wipes. Although I don't know the exact details, it sounds like the item in question was specifically designed to let players attempt world bosses without fear. Unfortunately, it's a one-use item, and so far a second one still hasn't been found."
"Wait, such an item exists?" The Jackalope asked in shock before mumbling. "I better warn granny about that later."
Mel's head whipped towards the jackalope as she heard his words before asking, "Hold up! Your granny, the one you said you got it on with, is Tumble - Jackalope Queen of the Centre?"
"Seriously?" Emberslang replied as they all stared at the jackalope in surprise.
"Didn't I mention that?" The jackalope asked, to which Mel shook her head and said. "No, you didn't."
"Meh, whatever," The jackalope replied as if not bothered that his granny, whom he had impregnated, was actually an all-powerful world boss. Honestly, he seemed more interested in John since he turned to him before asking, "So, bro. How'd you know I was a jackalope?"
"Oh, err, it's because of my class," John explained. "Thanks to Lord Ursa's blessing, I'm actually able to bond with beasts of the wild like druids can, though the result is apparently slightly different."
"You're not a druid, yet you can wild morph?" Black Dragoon asked in amazement.
"Not quite," John replied while shaking his head. "The bonding process is apparently the same, but my skill isn't called Wild Morph."
Emberslang wore a confused expression before saying, "I don't get it," to which John chuckled and replied. "Honestly, neither do I."
"Wanna make a bond then, bro?" The jackalope suddenly asked, causing John and Mel to stare at it in shock, only for John to sigh and say. "Sorry, bro, I can't."
"Why not?" The jackalope asked as its ears flattened in obvious disappointment.
"It's to do with my soul," John began to explain as the other three women wore confused looks, only understanding half the conversation.