by Matt Ryan
“Thank you.”
“Just get a move on, we have only twenty-nine days left now, and the way you’re going, we’re going to need all twenty-nine.” Sephorus disappeared.
I left the room and was greeted by an annoyed man in an apron. He looked pissed off.
“Took you long enough.” He grabbed me by the shoulder, dragged me down the hall, and pushed me out the door and onto the street. “Don’t come back.”
Quest Complete!
+100 XP
Congratulations! Level 5 Unlocked
+ 5 Attribute Points
Stop saving them up, moron.
Unlocked Ability: Dash:
A burst of speed for up to two seconds. Watch out for brick walls.
This game was getting annoying. Maybe Gor was right, the game was making fun of us.
I was excited to see a new ability, though . . . finally. I clicked on it and set up a hot key on my screen to activate it.
In the middle of the street, in front of Bill’s Bar, I dashed. It felt like flying. The dust kicked up behind me and I crossed the street in less than a second. At that speed, I could cover half an entire football field in two seconds. I couldn’t wait to try it out in combat. A dash and stab.
I checked my map and saw the area Sephorus had mentioned. A dungeon sat in that area. I wondered if anyone had even found it yet. No quest or NPC had mentioned it to me. I knew I’d need help, so I pinged Gor and KILLian and they were more than thrilled to do some actual ass-kicking in the game.
I dropped the screen and looked up. About ten feet in front of me stood a door, right in the middle of the street. I knew it hadn’t been there before, so I looked around the empty street to see who might have put it there.
Walking a full circle around it, I saw it didn’t go anywhere. Just a plain, wooden door with a jamb. I turned the handle and pulled the door open. There, where I should be able to see right across the street, stood a black, liquid wall. I reached forward and touched it with my finger.
Big mistake. The liquid pulled my hand and the rest of my body into itself. I floated in blackness and wondered if I’d just done something incredibly stupid.
Chapter Fifteen
From blackness comes light. I just wasn’t expecting it to come from all the monitors on the walls.
“Hello,” a woman with bright gray hair said. She was young though, and pretty. She moved closer to me, wearing a tight dress that was of similar style to Queen Opal’s.
“Hi.” I had no idea what part of the game this was. I tried to inspect her, but her name was just ????. That was one extra question mark though . . . did that mean she was over Level 1,000?
“I’ve been watching you, and I noticed twice now an irregularity.” She jumped right into a no-nonsense question.
“What do you mean? Who are you?”
She ignored me, but I had a good idea who she was. “Twice now, at precisely 12:24pm and again at 7:17pm, you disappeared from the game.”
“I don’t know—”
“You don’t know where you went during those times?”
“I don’t remember. I don’t keep track of every second of what I’m doing here.”
“Unlike you, I do. And you didn’t log out, you were just gone. How can you explain that? I have a guess, but I’d like to hear what you have to say.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m someone that controls the sovereignty of this realm, and you’re doing things that shouldn’t be happening here.”
“Maybe there’s a glitch in the system.”
“There is no glitch,” she said in a rather loud voice.
“Then it sounds like a problem on your end.”
“He’s talking with you, isn’t he?”
“Who?”
“You know who. I can’t imagine what name he gave you.”
I stayed silent.
“I know what you’ve done in other games. I know you’ve cheated for others, but unlucky for you, that is an impossible task here. Every path you take is based on what you’ve done before. So, if you do cheat, there are consequences . . . and the game adjusts your path accordingly.”
“Okay, but I’m not a cheater.”
“You give other players an advantage they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
“So does having lots of money, or tier one gear. If it’s possible in the game, then it shouldn’t be considered cheating.”
She started humming with her back to me. Tapping on a few screens, she changed the camera angle on one video stream, and the scene on another. “I’m watching you. I’m watching all of you.”
I glanced at the monitors and recognized a few of the locations, but most were places I had no idea about. Mountains with smoky tops. Rivers and oceans. Various men and women going about their days. Some fighting in heated battles, while others were just sitting at a dinner table.
“Who are you?” I asked again.
She stopped humming and turned to me. “My name is Abigail, god of this realm, and if I find you are talking with this man again, the game will be over for you. I will not tolerate such activities in my realm. Now leave.”
The floor fell out from under me and I dropped into the blackness. Hands were touching me, and I struggled to get free of them.
When the blackness cleared, I saw KILLian and Gor standing over me.
“Jesus, man, where have you been?” Gor asked.
My heart still pounded in my chest and Abigail’s words rung in my head like a bell. She was watching me. “Talking with a god.”
“Okay, fine, don’t tell us,” KILLian said as Gor helped me to my feet.
“You know you just appeared out of know where, right? Did you log off? You were kicking and screaming when we found you.”
I brought them in closer and told them about Abigail. I left out the parts about Sephorus, but I did divulge my profession as a gold farmer and all-around gaming whore.
“You’re a freaking gold farmer?” Gor asked.
“No . . . well, yes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a love for gaming. I live in a rough part of the world, and this is the best way I can make money.”
“You made enough money gold farming to get tier one gear?” KILLian asked, looking impressed.
“I farmed a lot of gold.”
“I used a farmer once to level one of my alts. Two days later I found out he had cleared out my entire account, and given one of my main characters an STD,” she said, chuckling at the memory.
I laughed and was glad for a bit of levity. I didn’t want to talk about RL. “How about we get to this dungeon?”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time,” Gor said.
I could tell KILLian wasn’t buying my whole story, but I walked fast and headed to the far east gate of the city. The faster we got to the dungeon, the better.
Chapter Sixteen
I glanced back at KILLian for a quick inspect, and to my surprise, she was a Level 10! Taking a peek at Gor, he was already a Level 7. “Wait, how’d you guys level up so fast?”
“I was going to ask you why you hadn’t leveled up. You’ve only gained one level in the last five hours?” KILLian asked.
“Five hours? I’ve only been gone for like forty-five minutes.”
“Sorry to say, but you were gone for a lot longer than that. Gor and I thought you just logged off.”
I rubbed my chin and thought of the time I’d spent with Sephorus, then Abigail. Maybe an hour, tops. Dammit! Now Trevor was probably even farther ahead of me. The idea of that twat-waffle gaining on me irked me greatly. All the more reason to get into this dungeon, kill the boss, and meet my new Shadow Master. How did I lose that time though?
It must have been those rooms I was in. Maybe they distorted time somehow. It didn’t matter. It was behind me. I could catch up.
“Over here,” I said as we walked down a path off the main trail and into a dark forest—always a bastion of evil in games. The darkness made it much worse. Bats could b
e flying around, or wolves. Who knew what they had loaded it up with?
Right then, as if on cue, I heard a howl in the distance.
I brought out my flashlight, and shined it on the forest around us. Then I saw two golden eyes, glowing in the light. “Right there. Look,” I said, keeping the light on it.
The two eyes disappeared. I saw Gor produce a large ax in his hands.
“Where the hell did you get that?” I asked.
“Warrior quest chain, and I’m not even close to being done yet.”
A few leaves rustled in the dark and a bush shook. The sound of slow breathing came from the same direction.
“Who’s out there?” I asked.
A man leaned forward and exposed his bald head to the light. He sneered and hissed.
KILLian thrusted her rod forward and shot a bolt of frigid air toward the man. It struck the tree behind him and turned it icy blue.
The bald man hissed and said, “You’re lucky I just killed some fools like you. I’ll be back, and at full strength, soon.” Then he moved backward and disappeared into the night.
“We should chase him. That dude seemed all kinds of evil,” Gor said.
“That’s because he had an evil ranking of 100,” KILLian pointed out.
Dang, I had forgotten to inspect him. A beginner mistake, and one I wouldn’t express to KILLian. I didn’t want her thinking I was an idiot.
“We better just keep moving to the dungeon. That guy’s probably long gone,” I said.
We walked through the forest, each of us a bit jumpy after the encounter with the bald guy. The sounds in the forest made everything feel a bit creepier. The crickets and other insects made for an orchestra of noises as we passed through. Ahead, I spotted a clearing. As we stepped on the green grass of the clearing, a screen popped up.
Seer’s Hill
Recommended Level 10+
Great, I was half that. At least I had KILLian and Gor with me.
We walked up the hill, trying to keep an eye out for the creepy bald guy, but we never saw him anywhere. Near the top of the hill stood a collapsed stone building. The front door stood intact and looked to be in working order. The rest of it was in ruins.
“Look, a graveyard. You think they have Necros here?” KILLian asked. “I freaking hate Necros.”
“Yeah, sickos trying to have sex with dead people . . . just gross,” Gor said. “What kind of game is this?”
“That’s necrophilia, you idiot. I’m talking about a necromancer. A person who raises the dead,” KILLian explained.
“Oh, I know, I rolled a Necromancer on Day’s End. I even have a few number ones on Tracker Scores website.”
“Impressive,” KILLian said with an eye roll.
I touched the door handle and a message popped up.
You must be level 10 or higher to open this door.
KILLian opened the door, and a group quest popped up:
QUEST: Defeat the vile Rile and live to tell about it.
Behind the door was the same shimmery black liquid.
“That’s the same stuff Abigail used to suck me into her world,” I said.
“It’s an instance,” Gor said. “A self-contained dungeon that many can play in at the same time.”
“Right,” I said. “Just give me a minute to distribute my points.” I brought up my attribute screen and started plugging in some points that made the most sense with my future chosen spec.
+ 5 Perception
+10 Agility
I felt the difference immediately. My whole body felt dangerous, as if I was becoming a blade myself. I saw more clearly as well, suddenly noticing the symbols around the door. A similar symbol was on the Shadow banner at the training hall. A half-closed eye, a floating cloak with a circle around it, and a dagger. This must have been a place for the Shadow, at some point.
With perception increased, I noticed the angel carved into the stone nearby. This was a rez point, probably for the people who wiped out in the dungeon. They could jump back in, if they were quick enough. Or if the party wiped and they all died, they could get back to it without much trouble.
I struggled to figure out where to spend my remaining five attribute points. I already had a few in intelligence from me figuring out the Wings of Descent and I wasn’t sure what that would do for me in Shadow spec. I could always put some points in Service . . . .
“I think we should discuss strategy,” KILLian said.
“Strategy? How about I soak, you kill,” Gor screamed, jumping through the door. “And heal me, because that’s what girls do.” The door swallowed him up as he spoke his last words.
“Should we just leave him in there?” KILLian asked.
I closed out of my screen, and smiled. “We can’t let him have all the fun.” I jumped into the door without looking back. I’d worry about spending the five points later.
Chapter Seventeen
We entered the dungeon and heard Gor screaming. A pair of human-like creatures were on top of him. KILLian attacked first, sending a frost shot. In a split second, I had my spear and threw it as well.
Good Job! Necroman is dead.
120 Damage
+55 XP
+1 Proficiency in Spears
Item dropped: Rusty Dagger
I took the dagger and loved the way it felt. I checked the stats on the dagger:
Rusty Dagger 145-190
+5 attack power
The dagger had a bonus on it! All right, an upgrade on the first mob. My excitement waned as I heard groans from deeper in the dungeon. The rust on the blade made it ugly as hell, but it felt a lot more natural in my hand than the unwieldy wooden spear.
The groans of the dead echoed through the dungeon.
Great, a freaking undead dungeon. I hated the zombie-style stuff. I stared at the undead man on the stone floor.
“I totally had those guys. I was just waiting for my cooldown to come around again.” Gor was lying on the ground near the dead, panting.
“It does take time to shit your pants twice,” I said, helping him up.
Gor reached back down and grabbed his ax.
“What the hell is this place?” KILLian asked as she took a few steps down the stone staircase.
The ceiling above us had green vines running over the cracked stone. The walls had partially collapsed into piles of stone. The floor was a mixture of rubble, but a smattering of original stonework could still be seen. There was a smell to it as well, a musty kind of damp smell, as if someone had left the laundry in the washer for a week . . . or fifty.
Wall torches lit the way forward, giving the whole dungeon a life of its own as the orange flames moved, creating shifting shadows. I took a few steps down the staircase and brought out my flashlight.
“Best damned three dollars I’ve ever spent,” I muttered, clicking the light on. After a few seconds, the light in the flashlight flickered out.
KILLian laughed. “That’s what you get when you brag about something; it breaks.”
Gor grabbed a torch off the wall and walked past us. “Rookies.”
“He’s our soaker,” KILLian said.
“Just keep me alive, healer,” Gor said.
“Suck a dick, Gor. I’m a freaking caster. You just need to live long enough for me to kill the mobs.”
Gor reached the bottom of the stairs and held up a fist, telling us to stop. He proceeded to point at three spots. I ignored him and looked out into the next room. Near the back, there were four Necromen huddled together, in what looked like an old library. The desks and tables between us and them would give us plenty of time to kill them.
I inspected the four of them and saw they were Level 15, each with over 500 health points.
“Gor, let me hit them with a frost shot to draw them to us, then you stun them with an AoE. Magoton can clean up the remaining.”
“Okay.”
KILLian stepped forward enough to get within range and extended her hand. The rod in her hand glowed icy-blue,
then a shot of frost launched across the room and struck all four of the Necromen. They turned, screeching and stumbling toward us, pushing desks over as they pursued us.
Another frost shot hit them.
I put the dagger in my hand and I squared off on one of the Necromen. Throwing it as hard as I could, I struck the thing in the head.
Critical Hit!
152 Damage
+ 55 XP
+ 1 Specialization in Daggers
A moment later, another frost shot struck the Necroman and killed it. Only two left now. I ran across the room and pulled my dagger from the Necro’s head. Gor was in mid-swing, attacking one Necro, while another approached from his other side. I threw my dagger into its chest. Then Gor slammed his ax right through the other one, and the impact stunned the injured one with my dagger in its back. Gor then swung his ax and chopped the head of the thing off.
Congratulations! Level 6 Unlocked:
+5 Attribute points
+ 1 Specialization in Daggers
“Nice moves, Gor,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. I’m on my way to being a total badass in this world.”
“Hey, grats on hitting Level 6,” KILLian said. “You get a skill?”
“No, just some attribute points.”
“Dude, those points are crazy. You can actually feel the difference,” Gor said.
We proceeded to loot the bodies and came up with ten bucks each. Not bad for killing a few deadheads. I pull up my menu.
Magoton: Level 6
Spec 1: Service
Spec 2: None
XP 650
(200 XP until next level up)
HP 220/325
Mana 100
Stamina 100
Attribute Points: 10
Bank: - $63.98
Crit rating 4%
Attack Power 5
Spell Power 0
Agility 10
Dash 10
Charisma -5
Intelligence 5
Strength 0