Back in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  Brock nodded as he got comfortable between the icy edges of his dragon’s plated skin. “If you look at your mount’s stats, you’ll see that it has something called a Loyalty Gauge. The gauge increases the more you ride or fight on them, and once it fills up completely you get to use their attack.”

  I looked at Peragon’s stats and saw that, after all of the flying around the Dream State I did the last time I was here, the gauge was only just over the two thirds mark. “We’ll be fighting avian monsters, right? Wouldn’t it be easier to fight them while mounted?”

  Brock smirked. “My thoughts exactly. Come on!”

  Both my Peragon and Brock’s Ice Dragon flapped their wings and we rose up into the hot air. We flew high into the bright sky. Brock wasn’t kidding, the place was scorching. Luckily the amazing size of Ayer’s Rock and all the flying monsters to hunt there took our minds off of our discomfort.

  I bet it’s cooler for Brock, having a massive ice sculpture between his legs.

  “There are three different types of birds atop Ayer’s Rock,” Brock explained as we began to soar over it. “The closer to the center we get, the stronger they become. These . . .” He pointed to the cluster of small birds with fluttering wings and needle-sharp beaks. “Are the least powerful but the most annoying. Those beaks can be painful.”

  “We should do them at a distance then.”

  I raised my hand above my head and thought of a line of light forking down from the sky. A bolt of electricity struck the flock, taking out two of them and causing the rest to fly toward us. I blew them back with a Wind Blast as Brock drew out two arrows and took them down.

  They vanished in puffs of feathers and dropped Resource Items that drew toward us.

  — ACQUIRED ‘HUMMINGBIRD NEEDLE’ —

  “I would introduce the next bird, but you can see it already for yourself.” Brock pointed down to the rock to see a group of large, bald birds perched around the corpse of a Mountain Lion.

  “Ah, Scavenger vultures.” I launched two more Lightning Strikes down on the Scavengers. “But wait, there’s no way that one of those things could have carried a full grown lion all the way up here.”

  Brock nodded. “That will be from the third bird we’ll find closer to the center. The Condors.”

  We flew further in, taking out several flocks of Humming Birds and Scavengers. As quick as the Humming Birds were, the Scavenger’s attacks took far more Hit Points. I learned this firsthand when I ran out of Mana from using too many Lightning Strikes and one of them took a gash out of my palm.

  “Son of a . . .”

  Brock shot me with a specialty arrow and my Mana bar filled up. I blew it back with a Wind Blast before turning it into a roast vulture with another flash of lightning.

  — WIND UPGRADE: LEARNED ‘CYCLONE’ —

  As always when learning a new spell, a window popped up of a blank avatar showing the spell gesture while saying ‘Think of wind’. Instead of one hand sweeping in front of it like with Wind Blast, the avatar had two hands outstretched, its palms rolling over one another.

  “Hah, nice! That’s the second time one of your arrows saved my butt!”

  By hitting my ankle during my desperate fight against Bitcon, he had caused me to fall from the Rubik’s Castle’s top floor just in time for him to catch me on his Ice Dragon.

  Brock lowered his bow and wiped his brow. “There’s something about attacking someone with good intentions that’s rather satisfying. Alright, the higher we go from this point the hotter it is. It’s also a good way of avoiding the Condor’s first sweeping attack.”

  I nodded and rode Peragon further up into the sky. It was obvious Brock had done this part before, for as soon as we came to the center of the massive rock, a giant bird eclipsed the sun from above us. Even for a condor it was huge, with a long neck and a wingspan like that of an albatross. It spun and swooped below us, striking out at where we would have been.

  “Attack it now!” Brock called.

  With my Mana recently replenished, I did just that. Forks of lightning and exploding arrows flew down on it in a barrage that took out more than two thirds of its health before it caught on to our ambush. It spun again, shockingly quickly for such a big bird, and flew up to meet us. Its beak was long and sharp and I could see how it managed to carry the lion up this high. We dodged around it as it charged at us, spinning with another volley of magic and projectiles before . . .

  — LIGHTNING UPGRADE: LEARNED ‘PLASMA BEAM’ —

  And that’s the second one down!

  Deciding to test out my new spell, I followed the tutorial’s instructions and cupped my hand to my waist until it started to glow the same blue as Peragon’s coat. I then pushed out my hand with my index finger extended. A beam of lightning shot from it, piercing the Condor right through its breast.

  Peragon spun with me as I watched it nosedive to the top of Ayer’s rock. Brock and I followed it down. We were both sweating profusely by this point, but it wasn’t until the fun was over that I noticed how overheated I felt. I honestly thought I was going to faint from exposure when we landed and I jumped down.

  Brock walked to where the bird had landed. It vanished in a swirl of feathers, leaving one large black feather standing upright and glowing where it had been. He picked it up and grinned.

  “I can synth this and the needles we received from the Humming Birds to make some decent arrows.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, causing a bead of sweat to fall down my cheek. “I thought we were only here to increase my tolerance to hot temperatures?”

  Brock shrugged, making the Resource Item vanish into his inventory. “Two birds, one stone.”

  I laughed, but not because we had just been fighting birds. It was because those were the exact same words Data had said to me after I had exited the Penance Mines with Siena. Despite their mutual dislike of each other, the two were more alike than they would ever admit.

  Chapter 8: Sulfur Pit

  Despite the agony of moving around in my weak body, hiding out at David’s apartment was good fun. We stayed up all night eating junk food and catching up on old times. Although I knew my mother would be worried sick when she heard that I was missing from the rehab center, I also knew I couldn’t tell her where I was because of the risk that she would let it slip to Wona.

  By the next day, Brock had deemed my tolerance to heat stat just high enough to do the Sulfur Pit. Unfortunately, David had insisted on accompanying us without the necessary preparation. Now that I was sleeping on the couch in his room, he couldn’t help but overhear and was keen to join us after I’d told him about our plan.

  “I keep telling you, David. You won’t be able to handle the heat!” Brock warned as we walked across the Galrinth fields just north of Lucineer.

  David shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Are you kidding? It’s a hundred degrees Fahrenheit outside right now, I think I’ll be able to handle it.”

  Despite regretting not bringing David with us to train on Ayer’s Rock, it was good to have the three musketeers together in a game again. It brought back memories of playing old MMOs back in high school.

  Just like old times.

  The lower vertebrae of the spine that made up the Alps loomed above us. The grass was soft beneath us, the southern breeze was cool and my spirits were high. I knew I should make the most of it before we entered the dungeon and found out whether the time we spent in Onjira was worth the effort.

  The nostalgia made me zone out of the conversation for a moment, but I snapped back to the argument when Brock finally relented.

  He rolled his eyes. “Whatever floats your boat.”

  “Are you sure we should let him—”

  “He’ll find out for himself,” Brock interrupted, eyes narrowing at our Heavy. “I’m actually interested to see how long he lasts after we enter.”

  I recognized the entry into the mountain. It was as far north as I had gone during my training in the Lucineer tunnels before heading back to
the Ice Fields. I knew there were passages in the mountain that I hadn’t explored, but had no idea that they led to the Gateway of a Secotier dungeon.

  Brock led the way through as David’s heavy boots sunk deep into the snow at our feet. Water dripped from frozen stalactites above us.

  “I don’t know what you guys are on about,” David said. “This place is practically a freezer.”

  Brock rolled his eyes. “This isn’t the dungeon.” He quickened his pace. “We need to hurry, before our heat tolerance lowers.”

  We strode further in until we saw a red glow in the darkness, the glow of a Gateway.

  I pointed. “Does that one lead to Sulfur Pit?”

  Brock nodded and moved ahead. “Quickly, select the Gateway!”

  We did and with a flash we entered hell. The heat felt like we were inside an oven and from the smell it was cooking rotten eggs. I looked around. We stood at the start of a black-stone pathway. On either side of it was a river of magma, thick bubbles popping and wafting waves of hot air our way.

  Brock grinned in David’s direction. “How we feeling, buddy?”

  “I’ve . . . been in . . . saunas . . . hotter than this.” David breathed, already red in the face and dripping with sweat. “But then . . . I wasn’t . . . wearing armor . . . in them.”

  “Don’t push yourself too hard, David,” I said as I started walking, determined to finish this dungeon off as quickly as possible. “You can’t die in here, but the mental strain might end with you waking up with your bed soaked through with sweat.”

  “I’m . . . fine. Let’s just . . . get this . . . over with.”

  It seemed to get even hotter the further we went in, if that was possible. Fire Salamanders crawled along the ceiling as serpents that seemed to be made of iron swam in the molten rock. I didn’t want to waste time fighting them, no matter what Resource Items they provided. I recalled Data telling me about this place, how it made an extreme environment like the Onjira desert seem like Yarburn’s tropical breeze.

  From the stalactites and stalagmites to the river of magma, the entire place was either in a state of diamond hardness or liquefaction. The fact that anything could live here showed the level of fiction the game creators were willing to stretch to.

  I can’t believe Data was going to make me go through this place to get to Rubik’s Castle. Maybe he thought having to walk through here would prevent me from attempting such a suicide mission.

  “We have to make it to the caldera!” Brock yelled as though to wake himself up. “That’s where the boss is. You’ll have to defeat it to get the Instant Reforge ability.”

  David nearly fell over from heat exhaustion. Even his puffy face made him look like he was getting dehydrated. “Is that . . . why we’re here?”

  I nodded. “It was either that or spend a week in the Ice Fields, but as you know, we don’t have a week. This is the best alternative in the time we have.”

  “Surely . . . you could just . . . get another staff?”

  “I don’t want my speed stat I put so much effort into going to waste.” I gestured to Brock. “Along with—”

  “Look out!”

  I halted just in time to watch a Fire Salamander land in front of me. A line of flames blew from its mouth, and I countered instinctively, using my new Cyclone spell by rolling my palms around one another. A sudden rush of cool air spiraled around us, not only blowing the fire away from our path, but allowing a refreshing breeze to stop us from melting like everything around us.

  As though refreshed by the wind, David ran forward and squashed the glowing lizard with his mace, smearing Red Goo on the black rock.

  — ACQUIRED ‘RED GOO’ —

  David turned back to us with a big, dumb grin on his face.

  “Why didn’t you do that before?” he asked.

  “I thought the wind from my magic was the same temperature as whatever air surrounded us.” I turned to Brock, who shrugged. “Did you know that we could use it to cool us down?”

  Brock shook his head in amusement. “Although I did always think it was strange that this place was so unbearably difficult for a Secotier dungeon. Now I know why. There’s an easier way to do it.”

  David laughed. “Well, at least using it will make it more bearable for me. Brock, shoot him up with some Mana and I’ll do my Heavy stuff.”

  Brock did just that and I used another Cyclone to cool us down as we proceeded through the volcano toward the caldera. Feeling a lot better, I used my Ice Coffin spell to turn the Salamanders that dropped into our path to stone, allowing us to collect the Red Goo that was their Resource Item.

  Even when one of the Lava Snakes attacked us, we worked together to defeat it. As it reared its gray head from the magma, I used a Gravity Pull to slow it down while Brock fired an Ice Arrow at the area around it, turning the lava to rock and trapping it in place. By that point, all David had to do was bat it around a bit before it shattered to pieces.

  “David, collect those shards. You can synth them into some pretty good armor if you get enough of them.”

  David went about collecting them, but soon realized that going so far away from us stopped the coolness of my Cyclone spell and he soon returned to our side. “I’ll get them later, eh?”

  Brock almost laughed and I was left wondering if he told David that on purpose.

  Picking on David like that, no wonder he got a little fed up with him back during school.

  We eventually found a passage that led us into the volcano’s crater, known as the caldera. Inside the pit the brimstone was scattered with ash and large crevices had been created from the streams of molten rock.

  I recalled what Data had told me about Secotier dungeons while in the Druids’ Keep with Siena. He had said that if a dungeon was hard then the game designers would balance it out by making the boss less difficult. However, after learning the secret of using the Cyclone spell, the dungeon had been a cake walk and I wondered what we might be up against.

  “What are we dealing with in terms of bosses here?” I asked.

  “Czernobog,” Brock started. “In Slavic folklore, he’s the god of darkness, but you’d probably remember him as the giant monster from Fantasia. Just imagine that but held together by lava and I think you’ll get the picture.”

  “I mean, is it strong?”

  Brock nodded. “Oh yeah, one of the strongest Secotier bosses.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. The Dark Warrior was supposed to be a difficult Secotier boss and Data, Siena and I together had a lot of trouble with him.

  Suddenly the crater began to shake around us and we stopped to balance ourselves.

  “Here we go,” David said, raising his mace. “I’m so ready!”

  Chapter 9: Old Friends

  From the caldera of the Sulfur Pit arose Czernobog. Ash came together and condensed into thick boulders. Lava then shot to the surface of the pit and linked the boulders together to form the monster, including its thin arms and legs, its spinal column and the details on its hideous skull-like face. It was like a skeleton made of rock and lava.

  It arched its back and roared like it was gargling lava, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been. The thing must have been twelve-feet-tall, but it quickly revealed how irrelevant its starting size was as it swung out one massive arm.

  “Dodge!” Brock screamed.

  I jumped back as the boulder flew toward David, the lava extending its limb. I dodged it, but David wasn’t so lucky and it was only thanks to his thick armor that he didn’t lose half of his Hit Points from the blow.

  Brock fired an Ice Arrow in retaliation, hitting its extended limb and turning it to stone. I followed suit, casting Ice Wall in front of David before it could strike at him again. The wall severed its other arm, but more lava rose from the pit and reconnected the boulders.

  “That’s it!” David yelled as he got to his feet and charged at the boss.

  He swung his mace as the first boulder hurtled toward him, and then
hit the next, aiming for Czernobog’s gruesome face. Before it could hit, Brock fired another Ice Arrow, taking out its leg. David missed and jumped back as another limb extended and rushed toward him. He hit the dirt as the lava stream passed over his head.

  “Use another spell!” he cried.

  I noticed the crevices in the ground. “Okay, I’ve got an idea! Hang tight!”

  I equipped my Cursed Druid Staff to increase my magic’s power and found the spell I was looking for in my Key Triggers. It was there, as always.

  I raised and lowered my arms in the direction of Czernobog. Gravity Well’s warping vortex animation appeared over the lava monster, dragging the molten rock to the floor of the caldera and between the trenches.

  “Now David! Smash that ash!”

  “You got it!”

  He struck his mace down on the first boulder that made up its thigh, cracking and returning it to the ash it had emerged from. Brock fired an Explosive Arrow at the boulder that made up its other thigh. When the gravity spell ceased, Czernobog rose again without legs, its torso stuck to the caldera as it used its arm to support itself.

  One boulder flew at me and I hit it with a Wind Blast before a Crystal Sword flashed into my grip and I stabbed into it. I then launched a Fire Weave into the ice shards, causing it to explode like the rest.

  Brock fired another arrow at me and I saw my Mana shoot back up. “Once more, Noah!”

  I cast another Gravity Well and a window popped up in my vision:

  — GRAVITY UPGRADE: LEARNED ‘GRAVITON’ —

  This was followed by a window showing a blank avatar slamming his hand to the ground. You’re kidding? Alright!

  David picked off one shoulder as Brock picked off another, leaving only the head remaining. I pulled my hand back and shot a Plasma Beam from my finger to finish it off. It blasted into a cloud of ash and the lava that made up the Czernobog retreated back into the volcano from where it came.

  A scroll unrolled with a trumpeted fanfare:

  — DUNGEON COMPLETE —

  “Oh yeah, that was way easy!” David called.