by Deck Davis
“What were you guys doing here?” he asked.
The cleric seemed to relax a little. “You don’t know?”
“Not a clue.”
“What’s your name?” asked the cleric.
“Nathan Attis.”
“Well, Nathan. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But this mountain is home to a quest. A prestigious quest. A one-off, first-come-first-serve kind of quest. Apparently, it has one of the biggest rewards ever seen in Adonis.”
Nathan rubbed his head. “And where do I come in?”
“Every quest has its monster,” said the cleric.
He didn’t expand on that. He didn’t need to; Nathan understood what he meant. He’d spawned into Adonis as the end monster in a quest. That meant that soon, hundreds of heroes would be descending upon the mountain to kill him.
He started to feel strange. Dizzy.
His head began to throb. He stumbled back. His vision started to darken. Images flashed through his brain. Pictures of blood, of bones, of guts. A desire stirred in him, and he started to salivate.
“What’s wrong?” said the cleric, backing away.
Nathan couldn’t speak. A voice was shouting in his head. Urging him to kill the cleric. To tear him apart and eat his flesh.
The insanity meter. It was infecting him.
He struggled against it. Tried to imagine something else. It was no use. All he saw was blood.
Kill him, said the voice.
Eat him.
Strip his flesh.
He stumbled back further, hitting the wall. He felt his arms raise, almost as if he wasn’t in control of them.
And then the cleric started singing. The words were different, this time. They weren’t in English. Instead, it was another language, one that sounded Ancient and wholesome.
Nathan felt light gather around him. A pleasant glow that settled on his skin, before sinking deep inside him. The blood in his vision drained away, and he saw that the cleric was up close to him now. The cleric’s eyes rolled back to show his whites, and he carried on singing his strange song.
Insanity meter reduced to 25%.
He felt lighter. The dark voice in his head faded away until he couldn’t hear it anymore. His shoulders relaxed. Whatever the cleric had done, it had taken away some of his insanity.
Suddenly, he felt as if he could trust this man. His instincts told him that he still needed to be careful, but he didn’t feel any hostility from the cleric.
“There’s something dark inside you,” said the cleric.
Nathan nodded. “I was beginning to get that idea.”
“You know this place well, don’t you?”
“I’ve explored it a little. There’s not much to it, just some tunnels and some…”
He almost mentioned the Ancient doors, but he decided to keep it to himself for now. He didn’t have complete faith in this guy yet.
The cleric stared at him with a piercing gaze. “My guild will come back soon. Gevil will return, and he’ll bring more people. If you’re really unlucky, he’ll even bring Layre Mock with him.”
“Layre Mock? Who’s that?”
The cleric grimaced. “The guild leader. A nasty piece of work. You don’t want to meet him.”
Nathan took a deep breath. “Whoever comes, I’ll be ready for them.”
“No, you won’t,” said the cleric, shaking his head. “Not on your own. You can’t control yourself – I can see that. But with my help, there might be a way.”
“You want to join me?”
A look of hate flashed on the cleric’s face. It was so brief that Nathan wondered if he’d imagined it. “They left me here to die,” he said. “I won’t let that go unanswered. I don’t have much attack power, but you on the other hand…”
“What are you proposing?” asked Nathan.
“I’ll help with your dark thoughts and instincts,” said the cleric. “And you help me tear Gevil and the others limb from limb.”
Chapter Nine
He led the cleric through the maze of corridors and toward the main chamber. On the way, the cleric started to sing again. Although his voice was much more tuneful than Sherlock’s, Nathan decided he liked the goblin’s song more. At least it didn’t remind him of Dec.
“Wonderful place you’ve got here,” said the cleric, sarcastically. He walked around the main chamber, inspecting it. He stopped near the rot room. “What the heck have you got in there? It stinks.”
Nathan shrugged. “It’s always been like that.”
As Nathan watched the cleric inspect the chamber, he realized something. When he’d met Sherlock, the goblin had a text label above his head. Neither the cleric, nor any of the other players, had labels.
“Why can’t I see your name?” he asked.
The cleric looked at him strangely. “You really don’t know much about Adonis at all, do you? Did you skip the tutorials or something?”
“Look at me,” said Nathan, raising his claws. “I haven’t exactly had the standard Adonis experience. I spawned here, that’s all I know.”
The cleric stared at Nathan, but seemed to be looking at something else at the same time. He said nothing for a few seconds, before blinking.
“There,” he said. “Check your chat menu.”
“I can’t. It’s greyed out.”
“Really? It let me send you a friend request. Just check it.”
Nathan brought up his main menu, and was surprised to see that it had changed. The ‘Chat’ button was no longer greyed out. He selected it, and the chat overlay appeared.
Chat Menu
Open Chats: 0
Friends: 0
Friend Requests: 1
Guild: None
Friends 0? That didn’t feel good. Still, he had Sherlock. The goblin was his friend, and that was enough for now.
“Are you going to accept the request?”
“Why do I need to do that?”
“It lets us see each other on the map. It will come in handy when we fight the guild.”
He closed the menu. He wasn’t so sure that he wanted the cleric to be able to see him wherever he went. Although they’d stuck a bargain, they were far from buddies.
“What’s your name?” asked Nathan.
“Dereck.”
“Dereck…the cleric?”
Anger flashed on his face again. Just for a millisecond, but it was there all the same. “You’ve got something to say about that? I don’t care if I need to keep my reputation ‘good,’ I’ll beat your ass into-”
Nathan held up his hand. “Settle down, we’re not gonna fight. Dereck the Cleric. I like it.”
“Well then,” said Dereck. “We need to make a plan. When we heard about the quest, we happened to be nearby. We came in unprepared. When Gevil and the others get here, they’ll be ready for a battle.”
Nathan nodded. “Once I’ve got more orbs, I guess I can spend a few on rune traps and that kind of thing. We could maybe get you some armor.”
“Orbs?”
Nathan explained what he knew about orbs and mining.
“Impressive. I’ve never heard of that,” said Dereck. “It’s funny, when I was selecting my class, I never got the chance to choose Tuphos.”
“What made you pick cleric?”
Dereck sighed. “I wanted to change, I guess. I wasn’t always like this. Peaceful, I mean.”
Nathan got the sense Dereck wanted to tell him something. “Go on,” he said, sitting down.
“I got into trouble a lot when I was younger. I got into fights and stuff like that. I mean, I tried to control myself. I really did. But it all came to a head one day.”
“What happened?”
“It was in high school. I was thinking about studying history in college, but I had some ways to go to make up the grades. There was one particular assignment that I worked my ass off on. So, I handed it in, and then the teacher asked to see me after class.
“I thought he was gonna pat me on the back. Tell
me what a good job I’d done. Instead, the chump ripped into me. I mean, he really shredded me. I couldn’t help it. I saw red. This was the first time I’d put absolutely everything into an assignment. This teacher was a role model to me. And here he was telling me how shitty my paper was.”
Nathan could sympathize with this. All through school, he’d struggled with anything academic. And he really tried sometimes. He knew what it was like to put effort into something, only to be belittled.
“What happened?” he asked.
Dereck looked at the floor. “I punched him. I knew I’d screwed up straight away. I apologized. First in person, then by letter. Things got worse from there. My parents persuaded me to see a behavioral psychologist. That didn’t work.
“Then, I met a guy in the psychologist waiting room. He’d been in prison, but he was out and he was trying to change. He told me about meditation, and how you could use it to get better control of your mind. From then on, I started learning about mindfulness. Controlling your anger by breathing through it. And that’s why I chose the cleric class. It's peaceful.”
“How did you get here?” said Nathan.
“You mean, how did I die?”
“Yeah.”
He shrugged. “Considering my anger record, they wouldn’t tell me. All they’d say is that my parents had Adonis passes on their insurance, and that was how I got in.”
For a while, neither of them said anything. This was another thing Nathan could sympathize with – not knowing how he ended up in Adonis. It seemed that the devs loved to play God by withholding information.
“Listen,” said Dereck. “I can teach you a meditation technique. You never know, it might help with your…fits.”
“Sure,” said Nathan, glad to change the subject.
For the next hour, Dereck taught him how to meditate. The idea was to sit and be quiet, only focusing on your breaths. If a thought popped into your head, you didn’t dwell on it. You ignored it and let it pass. It was difficult at first, but soon, he started to get the hang of it. In 1 hour he’d only managed 5 minutes of real meditation, but he could see how useful it was.
Skill Gained: Meditation
With practice, you can learn to control your urges.
Through practice, you can make your mind stronger.
You can start to resist the effects of your insanity meter, and keep dark thoughts at bay.
As a bonus, meditation increases energy by 0.05% per minute.
“There you go,” said Dereck. “Behold! Nathan, the meditating Tuphos monster.”
He grinned. “Thanks for the help.”
“You know,” said Dereck, standing up. “You’ll have to accept your nature eventually. It makes it harder if you fight it. Trust me – I know. With my anger, the meditation helped. But I never saw real progress until I accepted who I was.”
“I know,” said Nathan. “I’ll work on it.”
He stood up. When he was back on his feet, he heard footsteps behind him. Sherlock and minion #2 walked through the tunnel. Earlier, Nathan had sent them to mine, but he’d told them to do it away from the main chamber. He was worried that if they dug out any more of the wall, it’d make the place unstable.
They had inventory bags on their shoulders. Through the material, Nathan saw the glow of mountain orbs.
“Guys!” he said. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. What do you have for me?”
Sherlock unslung his bag and smiled at Nathan. Then, he noticed that Nathan wasn’t alone in the room. He focused his gaze on Dereck. He dropped his bag, bared his teeth, and reached for his dagger. Minion #2 copied him.
“Woah, guys,” said Nathan. “He’s a friend.”
Sherlock didn’t seem convinced. He growled. He held his dagger tight in his hand. Minion #2 let out a cry, then darted across the room, eyes fixed on Dereck. Nathan tried to reach out and stop him, but the minion was too fast. He leapt through the air, landing a foot in front of Dereck, with his dagger pointed at the cleric’s chest.
Dereck didn’t seem worried. Rather than move away, he opened his mouth and began to chant. Nathan could hardly hear the words, but there was something calming about them.
Something clattered to the floor, and Nathan saw that minion #2 had dropped his weapon. Similarly, Sherlock had dropped his. It must have been a cleric spell. Whatever Dereck had said, it had a calming effect on the minions.
“Are these your pets?” said Dereck.
“My minions. Well, Sherlock’s more of a friend, actually.”
“And what’s the other one called?”
“Right now, Minion #2.”
Dereck scoffed. “Come on. We can do better than that. How about we call him Watson?”
“Sounds good.”
Sherlock walked forward. He opened his inventory bag and pulled out the glowing orbs. Watson did the same. Nathan took them, then saw that 10 orbs had been added to his inventory.
“What are you going to spend them on?” asked Dereck.
“I’m saving them. I need some diamond armor and an enchantment table.”
“I hate to break this to you, but I doubt they make armor in your size. What do you need it for, anyway? Your skin looks tougher than leather. On your hands, anyway. I can’t really see much of the rest of you. Come to think of it, what’s the deal with that? Why do you look transparent?”
“Whoa – one question at once,” said Nathan.
He explained to Dereck what had happened when he tried to leave the mountain, and why he needed the armor. He also explained how, after getting his first power, his arms and claws had become visible in the mirror.
“Maybe you can’t leave the mountain until your body is whole. You thought of that?” said Dereck.
“My head’s been a little fried since I got here. I’ve had a lot to get used to.”
“I bet.” For a few seconds, Dereck looked lost in his thoughts. There was a shadow on his face, as though he didn’t like what had crossed his mind.
“What’s wrong?” said Nathan.
“I don’t know if I should say.”
“Come on. Spill it.”
Dereck stared at him. “I’m just wondering…if this is a quest, and you’re the monster, maybe that’s why the game won’t let you leave the mountain. Maybe you’re programmed to be here.”
“I’m not programmed to be anything. I might look like Nosferatu’s ugly brother, but I’m human.”
Dereck sighed. “We’ll figure it out. But first, we better prepare. I think your orbs might be better spent on defenses, for now. After the mountain is safe and we get rid of the guild, we’ll have time to mine more orbs.”
“You’re going to help me mine orbs?”
“You bet. These hands might look delicate, but I’m tougher than you think.”
Dereck was right. Nathan could save up orbs, but that counted for nothing if adventurers came to the mountain and wiped him out. Dereck had told him that the mountain quest was a one-off. That meant it could only be completed once. And if the only way to complete it was by killing Nathan, that meant there wouldn't be a respawn for him. Once he died, the quest was completed, and he would be gone. He hoped he was wrong, but it seemed the most likely explanation.
With that in mind, he opened his crafting catalogue. He went through it, reading out the various items to Dereck, since the cleric didn’t have access. After discussing the pros and cons of each thing, they settled on a few items.
1 orb was spent on a bed, since Derek had to sleep in one to regenerate his mana.
4 orbs were spent on rune traps. These worked in a similar way to the pressure runes, in that they activated when an intruder walked on them. The unsuspecting person would be zapped by a burning red light, and they’d die an agonizing death.
“You better accept my friend request so that I can see your map,” said Dereck. “There’s no point setting traps in the tunnels if I can accidentally step on them.”
Nathan nodded. The cleric made sense. After their talk that
morning, he was beginning to get the sense he could trust him. Hell, he wanted to trust him. Not that Sherlock wasn’t good company, but he needed someone human to talk to. He went into the chat system and accepted the cleric’s request.