by R K Billiau
“No, I didn’t play a lot of video games,” Carl said, “I was more interested in not being a virgin.
“Jeez dude, don't be such a skeeve. In a lot of games with dungeons when you find a chest like this,” I waved my hand at the chest, “with a big ole shiny lock on it, it usually means we have to explore the dungeon and try to find the big ole shiny key that fits in it.”
“So we’ll have to come back. Through all the traps,” he said. He sounded defeated.
“Yes,” Kai said. “But we have disarmed many and are familiar with the route now. It should pose no problem.”
“Except for being really annoying,” Carl said. I agreed with him on this one. He and the traps had something in common.
“Except for that,” I sighed. “Now I have to figure out how to get across this spring trap minefield.”
“Can you jump over it?” Kai asked.
“I could try, and it will probably come to that, but I want to try Detect Traps again. I don’t know why I couldn’t see this one,” I said.
“As much as I would love to watch you die again, do you mind if I head back to look for the key?” Carl asked. I couldn’t tell if he was joking.
“No, that’s fine, go look for it.”
“I will stay in case I can help,” Kai said.
I activated Detect Traps. Again, I couldn’t see anything. Then I tried Assessment, also with no luck. I glanced up to see Carl had left and Kai was standing in the same position, his face moving as if he too was using a detection skill. I shoved the stale air out of my lungs in frustration.
“Well, if we can’t find the trap, that means it’s probably beyond our level of skill to detect. This is where a Rogue or something would be awesome.”
Kai nodded. “Yes, I am starting to see the limitations of the system. You can learn almost anything, but to be good at it you must have it as more than simply an untrained skill.”
“Yep,” I agreed. “I guess I’m going to try jumping this thing. If I don’t make it, just head back to the starting point and we can go from-” I paused as I watched Carl’s health drop by half, and waited, frozen, to see if it would continue falling. It didn’t.
“He must have hit a trap. Anyway, if I don’t make it, I’ll meet you at the start. Madison might be waiting there too. Just be careful, if we all die at the same time, we fail the dungeon permanently.”
I didn’t know what would be better, attempting a standing jump from the increased height of being on top of the chest, or trying a running jump with the little amount of room I had to move in. I settled on a high jump, and psyched myself up, bouncing up and down a bit and shaking my arms. I moved as far back on the chest as I could, bent my legs, took one long stride, making sure my foot landed right at the edge and pushed off. I was totally going to make it!
I didn’t make it. The spring my foot landed on flipped me in the air and I heard my ankle pop from the force, the Pain debuff popping at the same time.
My trajectory sent me flailing to the side where I landed on another set of launching springy tiles. My Pain debuff climbed even further as my health fell piece by piece with each successive landing. It was great fun getting to be alive the whole time as a human ping-pong ball, while the debuff changed from a yellow frown face, to an orange grimace, to a red open-mouth face and finally, as I died, a face with X’s for eyes.
I respawned at the entrance.
Your party has a total of 6 deaths allowed before the dungeon is considered failed.
“Madison!?” I called out to the empty room. Her health bar was still red and full in the party window, so I walked over to the door to the trapped section. It would probably be awhile before either Kai or Carl made it back through the spiral. I hoped Madison hadn’t gone back to the treasure room, but I supposed if she ran into either of them, they could tell her what was going on.
I crawled along the ledge of the pit trap and got to the intersection where you could go left to the treasure, or right, to an area we hadn’t explored yet. I didn’t see any of my party, but I went to the right.
I got to start the fun process of detecting traps every ten feet again. Yay. This dungeon reminded me of a terrible DM that was screwing with all the players by putting in trap after trap after trap.
This way was different. Three blocks into the hallway, I had still detected nothing. The hall took a turn to the right and twenty feet ahead of that was another metal door, this time with words carved into it. Madison stood in front of the door, her back to me. Man, was she a sight for sore eyes.
“There you are!” I said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. She spun and smiled when she saw me. I smiled when I saw her smile. I wasn’t sure if the devs had used actual neural maps of eighteen-year-olds when they developed these bodies for the game or what, but the way my feelings spiked all over the place when she smiled at me, convinced me they had.
“There you are!” She said, and ran up to me, took my hand, and led me over to the door. Her hand was warm and soft and fit comfortably in mine. “I was waiting to open this, and checking it for traps,” she said.
“Well the last path needs a key, probably from this room,” I said and pinged the mini-map a few times then wrote ‘go right’ in quickly fading letters, followed by ‘no traps’. Sending messages this way was crude, and I really hoped that party chat was a thing at some point.
“Did you die again?” Madison asked, swinging our hands and smirking at me.
“Yep, that spring trap got me like it did you,” I said. “It must have been too high of a level for our skill to detect. It really sucked.”
“Yeah, I know. I think I have psychosomatic whiplash. That was a brutal way to go.”
“Well, we’re here now, so it’s all good,” I said, smiling. She smiled back, still holding my hand, and I felt my face flush. She was standing so close, her hand in my hand, staring right into my eyes. I broke eye contact.
“Hey, so... when we uh... get back to the village, I’d like to take you on a date.” I gathered the courage to look back at her. “I mean, it’s great we spend so much time together fearing for our lives, but I would kinda like to just have a moment of not running, screaming, or dying with you.” I smiled and hoped I didn’t sound as awkward as I felt.
She chuckled and squeezed my hand. “Yeah, I think that would be nice. Something low key. I’m sure that village has all kinds of great date spots. A movie theater. Maybe a good burger joint.” She smirked and winked. I laughed and dragged her by the hand to the end of the corridor so we could watch for our teammates. We didn’t have to wait long as Carl came down the hall, a frown resting comfortably on his face.
“Hey, how’d you beat me?” he asked.
“Painfully,” I said.
He smirked. “Well, your little message made it seem like you found something. Is it the key?” Carl seemed to be getting snarkier.
“Not the key. But hopefully a way to the key.”
He groaned. “This is annoying. I’d rather fight monsters than run around on a scavenger hunt.”
“I’d be careful what you wish for, buddy,” I said.
Carl sneered, then his face softened as his shoulders slumped. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But you have to admit, it seems unlikely there won't be some new hoop to jump through.”
“Okay, let’s wait for Kai and we can all go together, or if you want, you can head down the hall and check it out. There aren’t any traps.”
“Like there were no traps in the treasure chest room?” he said with a raised eyebrow and sauntered off towards the door.
“Whew,” Madison said, “he needs a break or something. Cranky.”
“Yeah. I guess a lot of people are having a hard time adjusting to this new life. I mean, when I got here, I didn’t want to interact with this world at all. But it won me over.”
“Well, it’s different for me,” Madison said. “I had lost pretty much everything back on Earth, I couldn’t wait to get in.”
I bit my ton
gue. Sure, I liked it here now. But being hunted down by security and forced in was a whole different experience. Fortunately, Kai came running around the corner just then, and I smiled to see him moving quickly, like the traps didn’t even bother him.
“Madison, don’t go copying Hudson’s method of transportation too often,” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“Okay funny guy,” I said, “let’s go check out this room.”
Chapter 17
Kai gestured down the hall. “After you.”
Carl stood at the door with his arms crossed, tapping his foot. “Who gets to be the lucky door opener?” he asked.
Without hesitation, Kai strode up to the door and opened it and moved into the room in one fluid motion. It was either bravado, or he trusted that Madison and I had already checked for traps. Why did he always get to look so badass? We followed him and the door closed silently behind us and became part of the wall, undetectable, as if it had never been there. I rolled my eyes. Of course it did. Here we go.
The room was a large, dimly lit hexagon, with clearly defined walls of stone. It was empty except for a hexagonal pedestal, maybe waist height, with three long mirrors suspended in the air above it. The mirrors formed a half hexagon, facing us, and surrounded the pedestal like those you would find in a fancy fitting room, only smaller.
Madison moved toward the display, but I threw my arm out in front of her. “Probably should check for traps first.”
“Oh, right,” she blushed, and took a step backwards. She motioned to the room. “It’s all yours.”
I used Detect Traps on the floor up to the pedestal, and when it came up empty, did an Assessment just for good measure. Nothing.
“Looks clear. Or too advanced. One or the other.” I smiled.
“You’re such an ass…et,” Madison said as she walked past me and shoved my shoulder playfully.
The pedestal appeared to be made of white marble. Laying on top of it was an ivory cylinder, maybe a foot long and around two inches in diameter. There were three divots about the size of quarters near the edge of the pedestal. The mirrors did not reflect the cylinder, instead we saw a big beautiful key floating in the air. One that looked like it belonged to a big, beautiful treasure chest. We also saw three glowing gemstones placed in each of the divots. Red, yellow, and blue gems that gave off their own light in the mirror.
“This looks like some kind of puzzle,” Kai said as he studied the image in the mirror.
“Gee, ya think?” Carl asked. I liked sarcasm. I didn’t like Carl.
I ignored him and waved my hand over the pedestal to see if I could feel a floating key. I couldn’t. With a sigh, I picked up the cylinder.
“No!” Madison shouted, reaching out a hand to stop me. I jumped a little, but when nothing else happened, she shrugged. “I just didn’t want you to set off a trap or something.”
“Sheesh, look at how paranoid this dungeon has already made us.” I held out the cylinder so we could all look at it. It was made of a strange, bright white material that looked smooth but had an unseen grain to it that made it almost like rubber and very easy to grip.
Albus Mana Torch - Accessory
+5 Superconscious
ACTIVATE: Shine a bright white light. Mana drain 1
Durability 5
*Bonus attributes do not count for unlocking milestone abilities
At one end was a hollow with a slot carved like something could be put in it. On the other end was a pearl the size of my thumbnail. I tapped on the pearl and a beam of brilliant white light shot out of the hollow end of the tube. My Mana drained by one point, quickly replaced by my Mana regen. Kai shielded his eyes as the light hit him in the face and I lowered it, pointing the beam down.
Congratulations! You have gained a point in the Superconscious attribute!
“It’s a flashlight,” I observed astutely. I tapped the pearl again and it turned off.
“May I see it?” Kai asked. I nodded and handed him the light. He tapped on the bottom and began shining the beam around in the room. He grunted. “My Superconscious went up. I have not seen that happen yet.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Superconscious is tied to magic-y stuff, so using magic-y things must raise it,” I said.
Kai nodded and moved the light to the pedestal, shining it where the key would be, to no change. Then he shone it on the pedestal, also to no avail. He moved the light around the room methodically, checking the floor, ceiling, and walls. When it was on the wall directly in front of us, there was a door in the beam of light. A door that had definitely not been there before.
He moved the beam of light and like before, the wall was just a wall. But when he moved the light back over it, the door appeared in the wall again. As long as the light was touching it, the door remained.
He shone the light over the whole door as we walked towards it. When he was close enough, he reached out and grabbed the handle, light still shining, and pulled it open.
Inside was a small room, with another marble pedestal, this one holding a large bowl. Sitting in front of the bowl was a knife.
We entered the room, just barely big enough for us all to fit comfortably, and Kai picked up the knife. It had a wicked looking ceremonial blade in the shape of a crescent, and the handle looked like it was made of obsidian and wrapped with… something... leather-y. I couldn’t tell what it was. Underneath the blade on the pedestal were the engraved words: “Fill with the essence of life.”
“Oh, what is this?” I said, my mouth turning down.
“It’s a little macabre is what it is,” Madison said.
“Typical of this world though isn’t it?” Carl said as he folded his arms over his chest. “Don’t expect me to donate to this, I’ve already gone through enough in that stupid death trap thing.”
“Dude, we’ve all been in the death trap,” I said.
Kai set the blade back down. “We should draw lots; it would be the fair thing to do.”
I took a moment to inspect the knife.
Bloody Blade - Dagger
10 Slashing damage
Magic Weapon
Getting struck by this blade causes a bleeding wound that will not stop bleeding until healed by external forces.
(Consumes 2 Stamina per attack)
Durability 20
“Oh man, that’s wicked,” I said, “that could be really helpful in combat.”
Carl rolled his eyes. “Sure, after you give yourself a self-inflicted wound to fill the bowl with your life essence.”
I thought about that for a second. “Okay, that’s fair, I’ll fill the bowl if I get to keep the blade.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Carl whined. “Why should you get the loot? We should draw lots like Kai said.”
“I believe it is fair for whoever gets the blade to make the sacrifice. I am fine with this and withdraw my lot from the drawing,” Kai said.
“No, I meant we should draw lots for both things!” Carl said, his face going red.
“I’m with Kai,” Madison said, “I really don’t want to bleed into the bowl, that’s gross.”
Carl huffed and then looked at us all. “So, is this the way it’s going to be with you guys? You have your little clique and will always side with it?”
“Yeesh, way to be dramatic dude,” I said. “It was just an idea, if you want to draw lots for both things, we can do that too.”
Carl’s mouth was set in a firm line and he nodded at us. “Fine, make some lots for us to pull, and we can figure this out.”
“Fine,” I said. Carl was getting on my nerves. I didn’t know if there was a personality profile that was sought when bringing people into this game or what, but there were a lot of cranky people.
Without straws or anything like that to draw from, I pulled out two cores from my inventory: a brown Hearty Wild Rabbit core and my last black Zombie core. “Kai, you mix them up and put one in each hand, Carl you pick the hand and black gets the dagger, then we’ll do it again and
black gets the stabby. Okay?”
Carl smiled and nodded. “Works for me.”
Kai took the two stones and mixed them in his hands, then with his eyes closed, he folded his hands together, then spread them apart and held his fists out to Carl. Carl tapped a hand and Kai opened it, revealing a black stone. I frowned but wasn’t about to squelch on a deal.
Carl smiled and picked up the dagger, holding it up and inspecting it. Kai repeated his maneuver and Carl picked again. Kai held up the core that had been chosen. Black. I grunted and took the cores back.
“Guess I still get to bleed then, eh?” I said and put the cores into my inventory with an annoyed wave of my hand. “All right then, cut me I guess.”
I put my hand over the bowl and with a startling lack of hesitation Carl quickly slashed the blade across my arm, blood instantly pouring out. The Pain debuff popped at twenty percent, then a Bleeding debuff also appeared in my HUD.
“OW! Damn man! Did you have to do it so rough?!”
Carl shrugged, a small smirk on his face as he watched the blood pour out of my wound into the bowl. My health dropped a percent quickly.
As the blood pooled and filled the entire bottom of the bowl, I lost another percent of health, and a faintly glowing line appeared around the level of blood.
We watched the blood continue to drain from the wound, my health dropping as the glowing light on the bottom of the bowl slowly rose. As my health dropped by twenty percent, the light on the bowl seemed to be at roughly twenty percent of the height.
“Ugh, guys?” I said. “My health is dropping as fast as the bowl is rising. I think... I think I might actually have to give it all my life essence.”
“Well, then I’m REALLY glad it’s not me,” Carl said.
“You know, you’re kind of a jerk, Carl,” Madison said.
The blood kept draining and soon I got another debuff.
Weakened
10% You are weakened; your Body attributes are all reduced by 10%
The glowing light of the bowl continued to rise as my health continued to fall. A life and death teeter totter. Wee! Soon they were both at fifty percent, the Weakened debuff rose to twenty percent, and another debuff arrived.