Openings

by Thomas Davidsmeier

  “Is this a Monstrous Manual? I guess if Gygax helped make this place it kind of makes sense.” Chris chuckled to himself. The art was a lot better than in the D’n’D Monstrous Manual.

  To Chris’s great delight, each entry had an abbreviated stat sheet for the creatures. Chris looked for ghouls. Sure enough, they were listed as a Level 5 Monster.

  “Wow, 40-50 Health, DEF 4, and Tough Hide that absorbs 3 physical damage. Whoever wanted to set me back wasn’t messing around. Does that mean Brother Aleksandr does like 40 damage a shot with that laser beam spell? Oh, wait, ‘like all undead, ghouls take critical damage from Light attacks.’ That explains that.”

  Ding!

  You have trained a new skill. You are now a Novice in Monster Lore.

  “Wow, awesome! Hey, Brother Aleksandr! It worked. I got a skill from one of your books!”

  The old man poked his head into the little room after a few moments. “Lore skills can be gained from mundane books like these here. Magical books can grant all sorts of skills and bonuses. Sadly, I have none of those in this library. Perhaps if this place was upgraded to a university or a cathedral. Spell books or scrolls are required for mages like myself to learn new spells. What skill did you get?”

  “Monster Lore. Can I borrow your Bestiary? To try to train up my new skill?”

  “No, you’ll most likely get blood on it. Yours or some monster’s.”

  Brother Aleksandr stared at Chris for a long moment and then began chuckling at what he thought was a good joke. “Actually, yes. But, keep it in your inventory whenever you’re not reading it. That will keep it safe. Lunch is almost ready.”

  “Of course. I’ll take good care of it. I noticed that undead take extra damage from Light magic. Why did my Healing Light do the same amount of damage as it heals?”

  “Healing Light is not classified as an attack. Your Healing Light spell will do Light damage to undead while healing you and your party, but it won’t do normal Light damage to those not weak against it. By doing any damage at all to undead, you are already getting a bonus damage to them. So, Healing Light won’t do the critical damage a Light attack would. Soldiers of the Light is an attack and does Light damage at Apprentice and above to all enemies, weakness or no. There is a book on Paladins and their skills here that explains all of this fairly well.” Brother Aleksandr pointed it out to Chris and asked him, “Have you heard back from your friends?”

  “No, I sent a letter to Olivia first. I guess I’m more concerned about her. I’m not nearly as worried about Leo. He can probably take care of himself. But, I sent him one too.”

  “She and your other friend are many days journey away from here. You won’t be riding to anyone’s rescue any time soon. And in fact, you’ll have to sail and not ride on top of that.”

  “I understand, but I just want to do my best to make sure they’re safe and help them out as much as I can.”

  “Well, you can start by making sure to explain to them how to write you back. I don’t think it is exactly obvious. I would not have thought of it on my own.”

  Chris actually smacked his hand to his forehead.

  “No wonder I haven’t heard back yet…”

  ***

  Stars glittered through the rippling water. Something was not quite right. He was looking up through... water?

  Leo sat up.

  Water ran down his long hair and beard, which was weird because he had neither before. He looked down at his body and found himself to be much stockier and more muscular than before.

  “Would make sense for a dwarf, right?”

  The way his voice echoed told him that he was inside, in a room, and not out under the stars like he had thought. He looked around trying to figure it out. The lights seemed to be small glowing things. He stood up and realized that the water only came up to his knees. Splashing over to a wall, he reached out and touched one of the lights.

  All of the little lights flared to life. They seemed to be some sort of magic crystals for illumination. The room was bathed in a warm glow. Myriad individual little reflections scattered off the ripples of the water. Leo looked around. The water seemed to cover the entire floor of the room. “What is this place for?”

  He spotted what looked like a work bench against the far wall. There was a rack of unfamiliar tools above it. On the work area, a book with a glowing title and a leather apron were neatly arranged. Leo was drawn to it. He sloshed through the water until he came to the other side of the room.

  He flipped open the book first and was lost in all the details of the Game as they filled his vision. Leo was a Rogue. He could spend his skills on so many different things, the traditional ‘thief’ model was nothing like what he was going to be. He had picked this class because of the flexibility, and the skill lists did not disappoint.

  Greedily scrolling through pages and pages of skill trees, he spotted what he was going to go for, the Machine skills. He was looking through the stats when he noticed something.

  The water was definitely above his knees now. Not much, but it was definitely higher. Leo set the book down and got the prompt that he had gained enough XP to be Level 2.

  “Great, but that isn’t going to do me much good in a slowly filling, sealed room.”

  Leo started to examine his environs more seriously. One wall had a door on it. There was a keyhole in it. A quick jiggle of the handle revealed that the door was clearly locked. Next to the door down in the water were a couple of chests. Their lids were still above the waterline. Leo opened them up.

  One contained his inventory pouch, gold coins, and some simple clothes. The other had gears and rods and oddly shaped pieces of metal.

  Broadly smiling, Leo declared, “Ooooo, toys!”

  He took all the parts and put them up on the table out of the water. It took him a few moments to figure out the inventory pouch, but he quickly realized that it stayed the same size no matter what he put in it.

  “Wish I could put some air in there and climb in. Maybe as a last ditch sort of thing.”

  He put the pouch up on the workbench, but left the gold to get wet. The water would not hurt it any. He turned his attention to the last object in the room, a squat wooden crate about three feet tall and four feet square. It came up to his dwarven chin. It was odd to be so much shorter than he had been.

  Leo took a long, flat part out of the pile that he had pulled from the chest. Sliding it into a seam of the crate, he began to wiggle it back and forth. The nails screamed against the wood as he pried up, separating the top from the rest of the box. Inside, Leo found something that made his heart leap. It was some sort of machine with tracks like a tank on the bottom. On top of the tracks was a big ball joint, and on top of that was a limbless metallic torso. Sitting beside this body in the box were a number of different arms or attachments. Leo tried to catalogue things in his mind.

  The water lapped at his mid thighs. It had come up more than six inches since he first woke up. His sense of time was jumbled and the adrenaline that now dumped into his blood certainly did not help things.

  Standing on one of the chests and leaning over, Leo reached into the crate. He fished out one arm at a time and carried them over to the workbench. For the last one, he needed to move the leather apron. It felt heavy when he picked it up. Instead of setting it aside, he put it over his head.

  You have acquired a Novice Machinist’s Apron. +50% to Repair Machine.

  Reaching in the front pouch to find out what was making it feel heavy, he found a tool that seemed to have numerous littler tools folded up into it. It looked like a bigger, more complicated version of his multitool from Earth.

  You have acquired a Masterwork Machinist’s Tool. +50% to All Machine Skills.

  Appreciatively, Leo nodded his head. Identify, Operate, Repair, Fabricate, and Invent were the Machine skills. The Experience Book had taught him that. He would need to get good at each of them if he was going to be the kind of Rogue he wanted. Of course, if he did not find a
way to get out this room, he would not be doing much in the Divided Lands besides drowning. Leo’s excitement and self-confidence kept him from worrying too much yet. He always knew the answers to every problem in school; surely he would find his way out.

  He turned back to the pile of parts and arms. He started trying to use his Identify Machine skill that the Machinist’s Tool had bumped up for him.

  The first arm suddenly got a label in the text overlay of his vision. It said, “Gross Manipulator.” That would have been his guess. It had a large three fingered claw like thing on the end of a folded up set of rods and shafts. The next was a wide cylinder with a big shaft coming out of the end. “Hydraulic Piston, No Attachment.” Leo took that to mean that the end of the shaft could have things put on it. He would look for a chisel or a saw sort of thing to put on it if he could not come up with a better idea.

  The next two came up as “Unknown.” But, the third one made him sure that he had found a solution. That was a good thing as the water was up to his waist.

  Cutting Torch

  There was a definite nozzle on the end for the flames to come out, but the rest of the device confused him. It consisted of a tangled web of silvery wires and red crystals of all sorts of different sizes. These parts seemed to surround a narrow central open space through the middle of the forearm. There was no canister of gas or liquid fuel to burn. Leo wondered if it might be magical. He picked it up and said, “USE Cutting Torch!”

  You have used your Novice Operate Machine skill successfully.

  Cutting Torch cannot currently operate because it has 0/5 Mana.

  Connect Cutting Torch to a mana source or charge by user to operate.

  “What could a manna source be? Do I have one? Wait a second...” Leo held out the cutting torch arm and said, “CHARGE Cutting Torch!”

  You have used your Apprentice Repair Machine skill to charge Cutting Torch with 1 Mana.

  It has 1/5 Mana.

  You have 11/12 Mana.

  Admiring his nicely sized Mana pool for a low Mana class, Leo thanked whoever the designers of the Game were for that Experience Book. If he had still been Level 1, he would have only had 7 Mana to work with. Confidently, Leo headed over to the door and surveyed the situation.

  His confidence was fleeting. A sinking feeling welled up in the pit of his stomach. The lock was under water already. He did not know if cutting torches could work under water. “Umm, maybe magic ones can...”

  Leo held out the cutting torch and said, “USE Cutting Torch.”

  You have used your Novice Operate Machine skill to turn on Cutting Torch.

  It has 0/5 Mana.

  The crystals burst into glowing life, feeding energy into the empty channel that ran through the middle of the arm. Gasping, Leo watched as the torch spat out a jet of bright blue flame. Then, he watched it immediately sputter out. The brilliant crystals faded back into inert hunks of dead matter.

  Cutting Torch cannot currently operate because it has 0/5 Mana.

  Connect Cutting Torch to a mana source or charge by user to operate.

  Tension knotted Leo’s neck. He tried to sigh and let it go. “All right. Fine. Live and learn. So, back to the beginning then.”

  Nervously, he looked down at the rising water. “Good thing I’ve still got eleven mana to work with, right?”

  Clearing his throat, he started over. “CHARGE Cutting Torch with five mana.”

  You have used your Apprentice Repair Machine skill to charge Cutting Torch with 5 Mana.

  It has 5/5 Mana.

  You have 6/12 Mana.

  Now getting genuinely frightened by the height of the water, Leo wasted no time, “USE Cutting Torch.”

  You have used your Novice Operate Machine skill to turn on Cutting Torch.

  It has 4/5 Mana.

  Leo held the arm up at his own shoulder height because the water was now at the middle of his stomach. A thought occurred to him. Horrified, he turned toward the work bench. Everything there was covered in two or three inches of water. “I was going to read more of that book...”

  Determined, Leo turned back to the door. He got another nasty surprise.

  Cutting Torch has 2/5 Mana.

  Shocked, Leo looked at the machine as if it had betrayed him. “What? How did that happen?”

  Adrenaline kicked in, and the young engineer had a moment of clarity. “Doesn’t matter. CHARGE Cutting Torch with three mana.”

  You have used your Apprentice Repair Machine skill to charge Cutting Torch with 3 Mana.

  It has 5/5 Mana.

  You have 3/12 Mana.

  “No time for underwater experiments.” Leo brought the flame up to the surface of the door at about head height. “This door better not be too thick...”

  The water was at his chest now.

  The jet of flame splashed onto the surface of the door, spreading into a brilliant star of light and heat. The central spot where Leo kept the flame focused went red, then orange, then white hot. He started to run the flame back and forth to stretch the hot spot.

  Cutting Torch has 3/5 Mana.

  Cutting Torch has 1/5 Mana.

  Shocked, Leo shouted. “What!”

  Then, he realized he had been so focused that he had not seen the first update. At least he saw the second one. “CHARGE Cutting Torch with four mana.”

  You have used your Apprentice Repair Machine skill to charge Cutting Torch with 3 Mana.

  It has 4/5 Mana.

  You have 0/12 Mana.

  Panic set in. Leo began sweating profusely even though he was chest deep in cold water. “The door’s too thick. I did this wrong. There was some other solution, I just didn’t see it. Why’d I have to try to get fancy? It’s going to kill me. What if the room just fills and I spawn back in the same place? I’ll be drowning over and over for the whole Game!”

  Desperation took over. Leo jerked the torch arm underwater and he went right at the lock.

  Bubbles streamed up as the water was heated instantly to steam.

  But, the crystals kept glowing and the magical flame kept burning, even underwater.

  The lock plate was much thinner. Leo saw it glow quickly despite the cascade of bubbles it was giving off.

  Cutting Torch has 2/5 Mana.

  He had no choice but to hold his breath now and duck under the rising water. He popped his eyes open to the familiar stinging sensation of trying to look around while underwater. His Stamina stat suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision. It was counting down as he held his breath. But, the lock plate was glowing brightly now, and the water near his hand was uncomfortably hot.

  Cutting Torch has 0/5 Mana.

  Terror gripped Leo as the flame disappeared. His Stamina started to count off faster when he was afraid.

  The underwater scene went deathly dark without the light of the torch.

  Leo popped up above the water. It was at his neck now. His Stamina stat quickly refilled.

  He was not floating as much as he would have in a human body, but the buoyancy made him feel much lighter than he had before. Jumping and kicking his legs, he reached up and grabbed a pipe that was one of a set running across the ceiling. Sticking out his feet onto the door, he made an ‘L’ out of himself and started pushing off of the door. He shoved himself back and let himself swing back into the door.

  “It gave a little, I know it did!”

  He began to laugh hysterically.

  Surely, he had weakened the lock enough with all that heat. Surely, it was just one more push from giving way. Won’t it be so funny when it does? All this water just rushing out into wherever and making a huge mess?

  The teenage engineer jumped back and swung into the door again.

  This time it creaked audibly.

  Once more he pushed off the door, and again he swung back at it, plowing through the water. He was never sure if it was his momentum, the pressure of the water, the pushing off, or the weakening of the lock by the heating, but one way or another, the door d
id give way.

  The crash and splash was deafening. Water rushed out the doorway and left Leo hanging from a pipe in just a soaking wet white cotton undershirt and boxers.

  “That... was a close one.”

  You have defeated your first challenge, the Locked Door.

  You receive 100 XP.

  A voice called out through the door way, “What have you done? What is this disastrous mess?”

  Leo dropped down with a plop from his perch on the pipe. He had to catch himself with his hands on the still slippery floor. “Who are you? What do you mean?”

  A dwarf with grey hair and beard and striking blue eyes appeared in the doorway. He had on soaking wet britches and a loose shirt. “I’m Noin, son of Moin, and I’m to be your tutor. What have you done to our laboratory?”

  “I was trapped in a room that was filling with water. I was going to drowned. What did you want me to do? Die with dignity?”

  “You could have shut off the water using the manipulator arm on the valve behind the workbench, unplugged the drain by moving the crate with your machine in it, or found the key at the bottom of the chest of gold. Any of those would have worked just fine. Oh, and you could have picked the lock with your Machinist’s Tool in a minute or two.”

  Flush with embarrassment, Leo shot back, “I’m not gonna play a thief in this Game!”

  Shaking his head with paternal disappointment, Noin cracked back, “A solution is a solution no matter what you call it. There aren’t any style points in the Divided Lands.”

  Chapter 6

  Chris’s first letter:

  Hey,

  I wanted to warn you that Jeremy is sending undead through the trade portals. I don’t know if he’s tried the trick on you yet, but if he hasn’t, maybe this warning will help you be ready for it. My tutor and I realized we might be able to do the same thing with letters.

  I’ve wanted to contact you since I got here. My first day didn’t go so well. The first undead Jeremy sent me was a ghoul, and it killed me before my tutor could kill it. Jeremy sent some skeletons this morning after I woke up from being dead for a day, but we defeated them. How was your first day? Hope you’re staying safe.