Hero

by Paul Bellow

  “He’s talking about another undead creature,” I said then turned to Axelrod. “Do you think the wight mage is what’s creating all the undead in the mines?”

  “Maybe,” Axelrod said. “But he was supposed to be frozen, turned off.”

  “You’re not making any sense,” Josh said.

  “It’s this game,” Axelrod continued. “This mob or NPC or whatever it is doesn’t use the same AI routines as most other non-players in the game. At least not like anything I’ve ever seen in the Tower of Gates.”

  “Why would they put such a powerful creature on a low level like this one?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” Axelrod said, nodding his head. “That’s why I think it’s a glitch in the game. Before we imprisoned it with some higher-level magic items, it had dealt a lot of damage, seeking players and perma-killing them.”

  “Perma-killing?” Bernard asked before I had a chance.

  Axelrod nodded and said, “Nasty stuff. We lost a lot of good people.”

  “Maybe the glitch is a way out of the game,” Josh said.

  “Come on,” Axelrod said. “Let’s go get the supplies. We can decide if we want go on this side quest or not.”

  “It sounds like there’s no other choice,” I said. “We need to get down the Pit of Doom and defeat the black dragon.”

  “And rescue Sarah,” Josh said.

  I nodded and said, “That, too.”

  We followed Axelrod as he led us through the vast corridors of the Mines of Oriam. I wondered what it had looked like in its prime.

  During the journey, I kept my eyes open, looking for Sarah, Ryu, or Sylvar. Any of them might have an answer to our little mystery.

  Deep in the mountains without technology, I had no way of knowing whether it was day or night outside. Being underground so long was getting to me.

  Around an hour later, we arrived at some barracks. Bernard, Josh, and I stood guard outside the door leading to the area while Axelrod gathered supplies.

  “This is the last of it,” he said as he walked out of the suite of rooms. “We’ve got to get down that pit soon and kill the dragon.”

  “Have you fought a dragon before?” Josh asked.

  “No,” Axelrod said. “But after I fight this one, he won’t live to fight another day.”

  “Sounds like we need to go fight this wight mage,” I said.

  “How is he going to help us get down the pit?” Bernard asked.

  “The magic he’s collected is intense,” Axelrod said. “We’ll be able to find Clips of Falling Feathers, Potions of Levitation, and many other magical items.”

  Bernard frowned and shook his head.

  “A wight mage sounds tough,” he said.

  “No use crying about it,” Axelrod said. “Let’s see if we can even find the wight mage.”

  He took off down one of the tunnels. Bernard, Josh, and I followed him. The game was drawing us in deeper, distracting us from our main quest. I thought about Sarah, hoping Ryu hadn’t done anything to her.

  He would pay if he did.

  After wandering for a few hours, our ever-smaller group stopped. I gazed into a full-length wavy mirror that distorted my image.

  “This is his lair?” I asked, unimpressed with what we’d seen so far.

  “No, dummy,” Axelrod said. “This is the first of a series of traps we need to clear.”

  “Traps?” Josh asked. “Nothing to bash?”

  “Oh, we’ll face monsters, too,” Axelrod said. “I imagine he’s built up quite a mini-dungeon around him for protection. But we still don’t know if he’s gotten out of captivity.”

  “How did you guys capture him?” Bernard asked.

  “Magic items,” Axelrod said, not elaborating.

  “That’s not very helpful,” I said. “We need to know what to expect.”

  Axelrod sighed.

  “I’ve been trying to tell you, we can’t know what to expect because the AI on this mob is something else,” he said. “The thing’s broken and glitchy if you ask me.”

  “Are you sure there isn’t another way?” Josh asked. “This seems too hard for us.”

  “I tried to tell you guys,” Axelrod said.

  “We’ve got this,” I said with confidence.

  “Enough chit-chat,” Axelrod said.

  He walked into the hall of mirrors. Bernard and Josh followed him into the mirror-lined hallway. I brought up the rear, both weapons ready.

  At the end of the long, straight hallway that warped our reflections, we entered a domed room created from thousands of polished mirrors.

  “Hold on,” Axelrod said, stopping. “This is the first trap.”

  I pushed my way to the front.

  “Let me see,” I said. “Traps are my thing.”

  “Me too,” Bernard said.

  “I’ll just smash all the mirrors,” Josh said.

  “You’ve watched too many Conan movies. We’ve got to be smart about this.” I glanced into the massive, domed room. “We probably need to step on certain mirrors to get across to the other side. One wrong move and who knows what happens.”

  “Good idea,” Axelrod said. “But there are so many tiles.”

  “Let me think a moment,” I said, staring into the room.

  “I think I’ve got it,” Bernard said.

  Everyone turned to him as he smiled with self-satisfaction.

  “What is it?” I asked. “Do you notice a pattern?”

  “I’m not sure yet…” He continued staring. “But there’s something off about some of the reflections. Don’t you notice it?”

  After bending down, I gazed into one tile then shifted my focus to another.

  “I’m not seeing anything, but it’s odd,” I said. “There’s something wrong. Losing that intelligence earlier isn’t doing me any favors.”

  “The first trap is the simplest,” Axelrod said. “If we can’t figure this one out, we’re doomed.”

  “I’ve got it,” I said. “Check this out.”

  “What?” Bernard asked.

  I pointed to one of the floor tiles.

  “Check out your reflection. Normal, right?”

  “Yeah…” he said.

  “Now look at the one next to it. Focus.”

  Bernard peered closer, concentrating.

  “Something’s different,” he said. “But I can’t figure it out.”

  “It’s not reversed,” I said.

  “Huh?” Josh asked.

  “You’re right,” Bernard said. “Some of the tiles are projecting the image back, but it’s not reversed. That’s so…odd.”

  “What are you two nerds talking about?” Josh asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, standing up. “We need to figure out if we should step on the reflections that are reversed or the ones that aren’t.”

  I took a deep breath, pondering the puzzle.

  This is the easiest one? How many will we face?

  As the questions piled up, I turned to Bernard.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I can see arguments for both being the safe steps,” he said then frowned.

  A man with a distinct British accent said, “Hello? Can you tell me the way to the gift shop? Are you listening? I’m lost, and I need help. Can you help me?”

  I looked up and saw a middle-aged man wearing Khaki shorts and shirt. A weathered fedora rested on his head. He had a camera hanging around his neck.

  “What the…”

  My voice trailed off as the tourist stepped forward, carefully choosing which mirrored tiles he stepped on. Is this what Axelrod meant by the game glitching?

  “That’s the first boss, I think,” Axelrod said in an unconvincing tone.

  “You think?” I asked. “We can’t attack an innocent man.”

  “Excuse me,” the tourist said. “I can hear you. Why do you want to attack me?”

  The tourist’s perfectly phrased English caught me off-guard.

  “Who
are you?” I demanded in a menacing tone.

  “It’s the tourist from Nethack,” Bernard said then groaned. “Ugh. I forgot about the stupid OOC penalty. There’s no player character flag, so I bet it’s a mob.”

  “Mob?” the tourist asked in distress. “Oh dear. What are you talking about?”

  He lifted his camera.

  “Nethack’s an old game,” I said.

  “That camera,” Bernard said. “Watch out for the camera.”

  At the mention of the real world item, I turned to the tourist as he flashed a picture, emphasis on the flash. My vision disappeared, slowly returning.

  “I can’t see,” I said.

  “Me neither,” Josh said.

  “I’m trying to see what tiles he’s stepping on,” Bernard said. “I covered my eyes in time. He’s running away from us.”

  “What tiles is he stepping on?” I asked.

  “He’s on the non-reversed image mirrors,” Bernard said.

  “You two stay back,” Axelrod shouted. “I can still see, too. Bernard, let’s get this guy.”

  Axelrod yelled then ran forward. I saw him as a short, blurry figure with many copies in all the mirrors throughout the domed room.

  “We need our healer for my eyes,” I shouted.

  “Stay there,” Axelrod said. “I got this.”

  I saw a blur move forward.

  “Did he step on the right one?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Bernard said.

  “I can hear you planning,” the tourist shouted. “You better stay away, or I’ll use this weird wand I found on the ground.”

  “Get down,” Bernard said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  I crouched lower, my sight still sharpening into focus.

  The tourist zapped the wand. A thin stream of yellow liquid shot out of the tip. The tourist cackled gleefully as it flew toward us.

  “Get out of the way,” I said, shoving the Josh.

  The liquid hit me, dissolving a hole in my armor.

  The Tourist’s Wand of Liquid Acid HITS you for 8 damage.

  You have [120/128] health remaining.

  I looked down and saw the liquid disappear.

  Weak wand. This guy is going down.

  As my vision returned, I saw Axelrod halfway across the room. The tourist had made it to a hallway on the opposite side.

  “We need to help him,” I said, stepping onto a mirror without a reversed image staring back. “All of us. Let’s go.”

  I stepped from one safe mirrored tile to another, catching up to Axelrod. He was having problems as the tiles got smaller in the center of the room.

  “Blast this!” he shouted in frustration.

  “Take that, vile dwarf,” the tourist said then shot his wand.

  A thin stream of acid shot out and landed on Axelrod’s favorite battle-ax, damaging the metal head.

  “You’ll pay for that,” the dwarf said then threw the broken ax at the tourist.

  It hit him in the leg, causing him to drop to one knee on the floor. He was on the larger tiles near the outer edge of the other side of the room.

  Unless we get out of this game soon, I realized I might need to train for long-ranged weapon. My thoughts took a back seat as I drew a small dagger and flung it at the tourist, hoping for the best.

  Critical Hit!

  Your dagger MAULS the tourist for 29 damage.

  The tourist is dead!

  You have a new skill: Throwing Dagger Throwing Dagger is Basic Level 1 of 10

  You get 4,000 xp divided by four party members You get 1,000 xp

  You have 76,981 xp

  You need 29,109 xp for Level 10 Rogue --> Bounty Hunter

  It’s moments like a critical hit on an unlearned weapon that made me love gaming so much. Josh walked over and patted me on the back.

  “These tiles are getting small,” he said.

  Axelrod turned. “Nice job,” he said.

  I smiled then turned to check on Bernard. He had stopped a few feet away.

  “Everyone okay?” I asked.

  “My eyes hurt,” Josh said. “But I’m okay.”

  I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.

  “Mine, too,” I said. “But we’ve got to keep going.”

  “The traps and monsters will get harder,” Axelrod said.

  He hopped to one of the wide mirror-tiles on the far side of the room.

  Bernard and Josh both moved from tile to tile.

  “How many more traps and monsters?” I asked.

  Axelrod shrugged as he watched us.

  “No telling,” he said. “Blame it on the glitch.”

  I had a bad feeling about Axelrod in that moment, but I brushed it aside. We needed his help to defeat the wight mage to have a chance at rescuing Sarah.

  After the rest of us made it across safely, Axelrod turned and looked out an open double-door. A brick-walled hallway lit by flickering torches on the wall led into the distance.

  “Come on,” he said. “We have to keep moving. The AI is fast on its feet.”

  “How did you defeat it last time?” I asked, hoping to get more of an answer.

  “We used our humanity,” Axelrod said.

  I tilted my head to the left. Axelrod grinned.

  “The AI couldn’t keep up with our randomness,” Axelrod said. “We made sure our decisions defied logic.”

  “I’m getting worried,” Bernard said.

  Axelrod threw his head back and laughed.

  “The glitch is dangerous, but it’s not unbeatable,” he said. “It destroyed my favorite battle-ax, and I’m looking forward to teaching it a lesson.”

  “We need to stay smart,” I said. “Random is too dangerous.”

  “It’s the only way to confuse the AI and make it fight fair,” Axelrod said.

  “Let’s finish this,” I said. “We need to keep looking for Sarah.”

  Axelrod walked down the tunnel. I followed, noticing the sconces carrying torches on the walls repeated at the exact same distance.

  Weird.

  After two hours of the same repeating hallway, I stopped.

  “Hold up, guys,” I said. “Something isn’t right.”

  “No kidding,” Josh said, shaking his head.

  “It’s the glitch,” Axelrod said.

  Bernard stepped next to me.

  “If we keep walking, we’ll run out of food and water and die,” he said.

  “Nonsense,” Axelrod scoffed.

  “Have you faced this particular trap before?” I asked.

  “No,” he said.

  I watched as he picked at the remains of his beard.

  “Maybe it’s something to do with the repeating torch,” Bernard said.

  Josh walked over to a wall and took out a wooden torch. The never-ending hallway instantly shrunk. A round tunnel appeared in the left wall.

  “I did it,” Josh said, waving the torch in the air.

  “We’re not safe until we kill that wight mage,” Axelrod said. He peered down the new tunnel leading away from the hallway.

  “Come on,” he said. “Looks safe enough.”

  Bernard, Josh, and I followed him through the smoothly bored tunnel. After a few dozen steps, it connected to an even larger tunnel. We stopped on a ledge.

  The tunnel behind us disappeared. I heard a loud rumbling coming from the left.

  “Let’s run the other way,” Axelrod said, taking off in the opposite direction.

  “No, wait,” I said. “We don’t even know what’s coming.”

  “I’m running,” Axelrod said as he scurried away.

  A few hundred feet away, I saw a giant boulder rolling toward us. Thinking quick, I came up with a plan to stop the huge rock before it crushed us.

  I walked over to Josh and pushed him.

  “You’re an idiot,” I said.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “You can’t do anything right,” I taunted then pushed him again.

&n
bsp; “Knock it off,” he said, his brow furrowing.

  Bernard smiled then added, “You’re so stupid. Nobody likes you.”

  “Shut up!” Josh screamed. “I don’t want to go into a rage.”

  “We want you to go into one,” I said.

  Josh dropped his sword on the stone floor then bent over with his hands on his knees. He took deep breaths with his eyes closed.

  “I kissed Sarah,” I said, aiming for below the belt. “And she liked it.”

  “Shut your stupid mouth,” Josh said.

  As he straightened up, I saw the muscles on his neck straining.

  “What are you doing?” Axelrod asked as he walked up.

  “Maybe he can stop that big boulder,” I glanced down the tunnel and saw it slowly rolling toward us.

  “Now it’s time to run,” I said, heading in the opposite direction.

  Bernard followed as Josh yelled and threw his arms about in a fit of rage. I stopped and looked down the endless tunnel. My plan wasn’t perfect, but it might be our best bet.

  The perfectly round stone ball rolled even closer. Josh let out a primal scream then ran toward the rock. I watched, hoping it didn’t crush him completely.

  As he ran forward, I realized I might’ve been off in my calculations.

  There’s no way he’s stopping that boulder, I thought. He’s going to be so pissed at me if he dies.

  Josh closed in on the rolling stone. Part of me wanted to close my eyes, but I kept them open. Right before the barbarian and rock made contact, a light flashed.

  I blinked a few times as I saw Sylvar materialize. He raised a gnarled staff into the air and shouted in an unknown tongue. The bounder slowly stopped.

  Josh, still in a barbarian rage, rammed Sylvar, toppling him over. The two wrestled as Axelrod, Bernard, and I ran over to stop him.

  For whatever reason, Sylvar had saved us. He didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a raging barbarian—at least not until we questioned him.

  “Let him live!” I shouted as I ran.

  By the time I reached them—Sylvar, his neck crushed, had quit breathing. Josh stood and breathed deeply as the rage subsided. He glanced at the dead body.

  “What did I do?” he asked. “Why can’t I control the rage? That’s not who I want to be.”

  I stopped a few feet away from him. Axelrod and Bernard did the same.

  “You can’t control barbarian rage,” I said, going off what I knew about typical roleplaying games. “This isn’t a big deal.”