Tower of Gates Omnibus
Page 26
I reached the nearest heap of earth the same time as Benji. We both attacked fearlessly. His blunt weapon appeared to do more damage.
Your slash GRAZES the medium earth elemental for 6 damage.
The goblins around Captain Riggard fled, freeing him up to help.
Benji swung again but missed the elemental completely.
I stabbed, barely causing any damage.
Your stab GRAZES the medium earth elemental for 5 damage.
Captain Riggard charged the second earth elemental. It formed a huge arm with a clenched fist and swung, hitting him.
Ouch. That had to hurt.
I kept up my assault.
Your slash GRAZES the medium earth elemental for 4 damage.
“That all you got?” Captain Riggard asked.
I glanced over and saw he’d already defeated the other elemental. He ran over and helped by attacking the remaining elemental.Before he arrived, the elemental slammed itself against poor Benji, throwing him to the ground.
He rolled away quickly.
“I’m going for Snargao,” Sarah yelled from behind me.
What is she doing?
I attacked again.
Your slash SCRATCHES the medium earth elemental for 3 damage.
Scratches? Really?
Captain Riggard laughed as he struck the elemental again.
Then the mound of animated earth came after me.
The earth elemental's slam INJURES you for 12 damage.
You have [15/58] health remaining.
Benji struggled to his feet, acting dazed and confused.
“Attack!” I screamed.
In the distance, I saw Sarah get hit by lightning, and she fell to the ground. The image of her falling would be etched in my mind forever.
Leaving Benji to his fate, I ran around the elemental and toward her.
The creature noticed and slammed into me.
The medium earth elemental’s slam INJURES you for 12 damage.
You have [15/58] health remaining.
“Ouch,” I muttered as I used the momentum to keep running.
Snargao saw me and pointed a wand.
At the last minute, I dodged to the left.
The bolt of energy came close but missed.
“I remember you.” Snargao pointed in my direction. “There’s no time for this now, but I will return.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Captain Riggard shouted.
He ran over and barreled into the hobgoblin wizard.
Both tumbled to the ground. I bent down to check Sarah’s pulse.
She was barely alive.
“Benji!” I yelled. “We need healing.”
I craned my neck to look for him. He was finishing off the other earth elemental with his mace.
We need to let him join us.
“Over here!” I yelled. “Healing.”
“Get back in the battle,” Captain Riggard screamed as he wrestled on the ground with Snargao. “Forget about the elf mage. We don’t need her.”
Benji rushed over to Sarah. As he bent down to help her, I stood then ran to help Captain Riggard.
He and Snargao were both standing.
“Die, foul beast!”
Captain Riggard stuck his sword into Snargao’s pot belly.
“Not before you,” Snargao muttered then raised the wand.
Bursts of energy shot out the tip, causing Captain Riggard to shake. Spasms overtook his body as he fell to the ground.
I ran around the hobgoblin, hoping for an opportunity.
When it opened, I ran forward without hesitation. Snargao cried out in pain as I plunged my blade into the back of his neck.
Backstab!
You have killed Snargao the Impatient!
You get 3,200 xp divided by two party members.
You get 1,600 xp
You have 13,944 xp
You need 2,156 xp for level five rogue
I turned to see Captain Riggard still shaking on the ground.
“MetaToG forever...” he said with his last breath.
I glanced around the battlefield.
“Everyone okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “Barely.”
Benji paced back and forth in front of her.
I walked over. “What’s wrong? Can you heal me?”
“My healing days are over,” Benji said.
He turned and stared at us while wringing his hands together.
Sarah stood and glanced at me before looking back at Benji.
“I’ve got a confession,” he said. “I’m not really a priest.”
“We were just about to let you in the party,” I said.
“There’s more,” he said. “But I can’t talk about it right now.”
“You can’t talk about it, or you won’t?” I asked.
Sarah stepped between the two of us with her arms stretched out.
“Cut it out,” she said. “We don’t need to fight each other.”
“Let me join your party,” Benji said. “Please?”
“No,” I said stubbornly. “Not after you lied to us.”
Benji sighed and shook his head.
“I’m leaving then,” he said. “You guys can adventure on your own. I’ve been nothing but nice to both of you. Goodbye and good luck.”
He turned and stepped away.
“No, wait,” Sarah said. “We’ll let you in.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just teasing.”
I wanted to see if he was a trapped PC or not.
As soon as we clicked the right buttons on the game interface, a notification window popped up with bright orange letters.
[PC] Benji Bigelow (Human Rogue) has joined your party.
“I can finally talk about the game,” he said. “Screw the damn OOC penalty and everything else about this game.”
He lifted an arm and shook a fist at the sky.
“Wow,” Sarah said. “We were wondering, but…”
“I know, I know,” Benji said. “I’ve got a bit of a reputation.”
“How did you get in here?” Sarah asked.
Benji smiled.
“That, my friends, is a long story.” He glanced around at all the destruction. “But I think we have some time if you want to hear it.”
I looked at Sarah then back to our former priest, eager for him to tell us every detail of his likely exciting story.
25
How Long Were You an NPC?
SARAH
As I stared at our former priest, an idea hit me.
If characters become NPCs after death...
“Josh? Is that you?” I asked.
Benji tilted his head to the left.
“Sorry,” he said. “My name is Bernard. I take it Josh is your missing friend? He might be trapped as an NPC by now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “How did you get in the game?”
“I signed up for a beta test,” Bernard said. “What about you two?”
“Eric brought us into the game,” I said, not mentioning his father.
Bernard nodded thoughtfully.
“I’ve been trapped as an NPC for a while,” he said. “That’s why I pretended to be a priest.”
He smiled sheepishly.
“What do you mean?” Eric asked.
“You guys rolled into town needing a healer in your party, not a rogue,” Bernard said. “So, I bought these clothes, a mace, and a wand of curing magic to get you to let me in.”
“The wand just now ran out?” Eric asked.
Bernard nodded.
“Something happened, and I got stuck as an NPC,” he said. “With no new players were coming into the first level, I never had a chance.”
“How long were you an NPC?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear his honest answer.
“About twenty years now,” Bernard said. “I’ve lost track, to be honest. Time in here is so...strange.”
My eyes shot open even wider.
“You’re kidding, ri
ght?” I asked. “That’s a long time.”
“The game has time dilation,” Bernard said. “So, I’m not sure how long it’s been on the outside. At least, that’s what they told me when I signed up and got into the cryogenic thingy. How did you guys get in here exactly?”
“My father is one of the men who created Tower of Gates,” Eric said.
Bernard’s eyebrows turned inward.
“Your father had something to do with this?” He stepped forward and pushed Eric on the chest. “Why can’t I get out? Did you have something to do with it?”
“Watch it,” Eric said then pushed him back.
“Both of you calm down,” I said. “ We’ve got to figure this out. There has to be a way out of the game.”
“What else do you know about the game?” Eric asked.
“Not much,” Bernard said. “I never made it past level one-one after getting stuck as an NPC. Did you guys come in together or as part of a group?”
“There were three of us,” I said. “Josh is my...boyfriend.”
Eric flinched at the word, but it was the truth. Or it had been.
“But did you guys come in as three or a bigger group?” Bernard asked.
“There were six gaming cabinets,” Eric said. “But we only used three of them. Why? Is that important somehow?”
“Huh…” Bernard backed away from Eric. “That’s weird. Maybe it’s how you got into the game. Many people have told me there’s never anyone else coming.”
“Did you come into the game with anyone else?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “They wanted me as a solo player to beta test the functionality. At least, that’s what they told me. I’m so mad at myself for agreeing to do it without researching more.”
“I don’t remember seeing anything about them beta-testing Tower of Gates.” Eric said.
“Well, they were in Germany,” Bernard said. “That’s where I’m from.”
“This is too much,” I said, my heart still pounding hard.
“We don’t have much OOC time left” Bernard said. “Now that I’m in the party, we can finish this quest and clear the level. Maybe that’s how we get out of the game?”
“That’s what we’ve been thinking,” Eric said. “But we won’t know for sure until we do it. I’m sorry we took so long to invite you in. This game screen told us to be careful.”
“It’s okay,” Bernard said. “When you’re an NPC, you can’t say anything that will influence the player characters’ decision regarding you. I’ve had to keep my mouth shut this entire time.”
He shook his head then glanced over at Captain Riggard’s body.
“I can’t believe he’s actually dead,” he said.
“Do you know his real name?” I asked.
Bernard shook his head.
“No,” he said. “But he was a weird one. That’s probably why he did so well in this crazy, messed up game.”
“Was he that important if he was on level one-one?” Eric asked.
“Think about it,” Bernard said. “If you were trapped in this game, would you rather be a high level in a levels one to five world, or face unknown threats deeper in the game with more horrific creatures?”
“Smart,” I said, not sure if I agreed with him or not.
“I didn’t want to get stuck here so long,” Bernard said. “But when new players stopped logging in, I became trapped.”
“Maybe there was a bug, and they’re fixing it,” Eric said.
“You would know.” Bernard turned back to us. “Captain Riggard had been to higher levels, but he came back for some reason. I adventured with him for a while, but he wouldn’t let me join his party and become a PC again.”
“Did you learn anything from him?” Eric asked.
Bernard nodded.
“Quite a bit,” he said. “But not how to get out of the game. He hinted there are guilds and tons of other players on other levels. Some of the higher level magic items give you special powers in the Tower of Gates—part of the game where you enter the various gates to get to different worlds.”
I shook my head as all the information sunk into my brain.
We weren’t the only ones trapped in the game.
“Do you know Magi Inyontoo?” Eric asked.
Bernard nodded.
“He’s a bad dude,” he said. “No one knows his real name, but he’s a sadistic griefer who hangs out in this first level to kill newbies left and right for the fun of it. He’s power mad in a bad way.”
“We should get going,” I said. “Word of the battle here will spread throughout the land, and the bad guys will want revenge, I’m sure. Plus, we have a side quest to finish.”
Eric studied Bernard, shaking his head.
“How do you spend twenty years being an NPC?” he asked.
“I got married to a nice fishmonger woman for ten of those years,” Bernard said. “They were wonderful, but the game took her away from me.”
“What do you mean the game took her away from you?” I asked.
“She died,” Bernard said then fell silent.
“Wait.” I tilted my head. “Are you saying all NPCs are player characters who died?”
Bernard shook his head.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “But you’re asking the wrong person. We need to clear the level and get further into the game for more answers.”
“You’re right,” Eric said. “Let’s check Snargao’s body. I doubt he has the cursed pendant on him, but maybe we’ll find something else.”
“I’m going to explore the ruins a bit,” I said, hoping to find some magic items.
“Be careful,” Eric said. “Try to find something to heal poison.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked.
He nodded.
“From a goblin arrow,” he said. “But it’s not too bad.”
“I’ll look for something to remove it since we don’t have a real cleric anymore.”
Bernard grinned sheepishly. Despite everything, I liked having him along with us.
As he and Eric walked over to Snargao’s body, I yelled, “Loot Captain Riggard too.”
Eric raised a hand in the air as they walked toward the fallen bodies.
“What was all that about, Kali?”Charlotte asked. “Are you okay? You speak so strange sometimes. The words…I don’t understand them.”
“I’m fine. We’ll talk about it later maybe. Can you help me search the ruins?”
“Sure, Kali, but I can’t detect magic yet.”
“Can you keep your eyes open for anything interesting?”
“Yes,” she said. “I can do that for you.”
I walked away from the clearing—all the new information swirled around in my brain. Not all of it made sense, but at least we had more pieces of the puzzle.
Wrapped up in my thoughts, I went into a rundown building. The two goblins from Harrisburg had Jak tied up in a chair.
He’s still alive? I need to help.
As the goblins turned around, I cast a spell.
You cast Snares of Dust!
You have [47/64] mana remaining today
The two goblins went into a coughing fit as the dust magically swirled around them. I followed up the first spell with two Golden Bolts directed to each.
Your Golden Bolts HIT the goblin for 8 damage.
The goblin is dead.
Your Golden Bolts HIT the goblin for 8 damage.
The goblin is dead.
* * *
You have [39/64] mana remaining.
* * *
Combat is over!
You gain +280 xp
You have 13,324 xp.
You need 676 xp for Level Four Mage
I rushed over to Jak and untied him.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Where’s Drex?” he asked. “I’m so sorry I wandered off...”
“It’s not your fault,” I said in a soothing tone. “Can you move?”
“They beat me...” He burst into tears, and I consoled him.
Congratulations! Your Alignment Has Gone Up!
+5 Alignment.
You are +80 (Very Good)
“Let’s go, honey. I’ll take you to Drex,” I said.
“Wait,” he said. “There’s treasure hidden in the back room.”
An eyebrow popped up.
“Oh?” I asked, glancing around.
He grinned and nodded.
“Yeah,” he said. “They showed me some of the gold coins.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get you outside and safe. Drex and I will come back to check it out.”
“He’s not mad at me, is he?” Jak asked.
I shook my head.
“No, dear. He’s not mad at all. In fact, he’ll be happy to see you.”
“That’s great,” Jak said, smiling.
“Not so fast,” a familiar voice said. “I think you have something of mine. Time to give me my pendant.”
I looked up and saw Magi Inyontoo.
“Where did he come from all of a sudden?”
“He appeared,”Charlotte said. “And he’s dangerous.”
The mage in black robes stepped forward with his hand out.
I prepared to cast.
He laughed then said, “Don’t be ridiculous, sexy. You’ve got no chance to defeat me. Hand it over, and I won’t hurt you.”
“Never.” I said. “Jak, go get the others.”
The boy ran out of the ruined building.
Magi Inyontoo stopped, his hand still out.
“Are we doing this the hard way or the easy way?” he asked.
“I’m not an easy type of woman,” I said then raised my arms to cast.
“Very well,” he said.
Before I got my spell off, he casually waved his hand. I froze. Terror swept through my mind as he stepped forward.
“Where’s Eric? Charlotte, can you hear me?”
No answer. Magi Inyontoo stopped in front of me.