Awaken Online: Precipice

by Travis Bagwell

  “Shut it,” one man snapped. “You’ve all seen the videos of the attack on the Twilight Throne. We should assume he’s still here and we have no idea whether he plans to ambush us in this maze.” The speaker was an older man in his early forties. He wore thick leather armor and a bandolier of throwing blades hung from his shoulder. “Besides, I could have sworn I heard something.” The man looked up into the vines that hung above the hallway, unable to see in the murky light.

  “Probably just a spider,” Paul muttered.

  Without warning, a stream of green acid shot down into the man’s face. He let out a tortured scream as his skin bubbled and the substance ate into his eyes. Then he dropped to the ground, his hands rubbing desperately at his face. The players reacted immediately, moving to form a close circle as their healer tried to assist the injured man.

  Yet their reaction was too slow. Multiple streams of the caustic green substance shot down from the ceiling, striking exposed faces and heads. Soon more screams filled the air, echoing along the long stone hallway. Paul dove forward, avoiding most of the acid that was sprayed on his teammates. Only small droplets splattered his robes, quickly eating through the fabric.

  “They’re in the vines,” Paul yelled. Seeing that his teammates couldn’t react to the threat, he began summoning his mana. Flames wrapped around the head of his staff and formed a thick ball of energy. Then the ball shot forward, striking the glowing vegetation overhead and exploding in a torrent of flame.

  The fire spread through the thick covering of vines, outlining the flickering silhouettes of the creatures that were poised above them. The creatures abandoned their hiding place, falling upon the group and their dagger-like claws penetrated both armor and flesh. The camera tilted erratically as Paul tried to catch a clear view of what was attacking them.

  He glanced to his right and saw a creature poised over the thrashing form of one of his teammates, green acid eating into the player’s throat and face. The monster shifted awkwardly on its six legs, while its dagger-like forelegs ripped into the player’s stomach. Blood and entrails seeped from the open wounds. As the man finally fell limp, the creature turned its grotesque skeletal head toward Paul, green liquid dripping from its mouth and running down its chin.

  “Oh shit,” Paul exclaimed.

  He scrambled away from the creature, beginning a new spell with his free hand. Yet before he could finish, the creature’s midsection heaved and a jet of green acid flew toward him. The substance coated Paul’s face, the camera view partially blotted out as Paul screamed in pain. Then the creature’s claws descended upon him, tearing at his flesh. Where the blades struck, an insidious poison entered his bloodstream and quickly spread throughout his body. Pain wracked him, and Paul screamed again. Then the screen went dark.

  “What the hell was that thing?” Claire asked, glancing at the tech.

  “I have no idea,” the tech murmured. “It’s not a monster registered in our database. My guess is that it must be created by a player. Here’s what happened after Paul respawned.”

  The screen changed and now showed the player standing at the entrance to the dungeon. The camera panned down, showing that he was clothed only in a loose cloth shirt and trousers. His robes and staff were gone.

  “God damn it,” Paul muttered. “Where’s my gear?”

  The camera panned to the side as Paul looked around. Multicolored tears formed in the air and his other teammates began popping into existence as they respawned. They were clothed similarly to Paul, wearing nothing but their starting gear. They each let out their own exclamations as they noticed their equipment was gone.

  “What happened?” A voice asked from behind Paul.

  He whirled around and discovered he was being addressed by a young girl who couldn’t be more than fourteen years old. Her light blue eyes glowered at him with an impatient expression. Over the girl’s shoulder, the camera also took in the army of players that stood behind her. Makeshift crafting areas had been set up on the ruined stone foundations, and racks of equipment stood nearby. Nearly a hundred players were visible in the clearing.

  “Hey, earth to Paul. How did you die? We sent you in to map the dungeon, not lose all your shit.” Snickers could be heard from behind the girl as the other players approached the entrance to hear what had happened.

  Paul shuddered as he recalled the massacre. “You think we were trying to get ourselves killed? You have no idea what we faced in there!” he said, glaring at the teenager.

  In the blink of an eye, the girl was standing directly in front of him, and the barrel of a pistol was leveled at his face. Paul stared cross-eyed at the barrel for a moment before he focused on the smirking girl.

  “You need to pull it together,” she said in a serious tone. “Or I’ll provide you with a one-way ticket back home.”

  Paul gulped and then took a deep calming breath. “This is going to be more difficult than we first thought, Lauren. Jason is definitely here, and he’s occupying this dungeon. I’m pretty sure he knows we’re here.”

  The girl smiled calmly and holstered her gun. “Good. That’ll just make it more interesting.” She turned to the other players behind her. “Get this group re-geared and let’s send in more scouts. We need to get the maze mapped quickly. Talk to the players that respawned and get a description of what they fought. We’re not going to fight blind.”

  The screen cut to black and Robert was left staring at the dark display. “Okay, so Jason is in that dungeon, and those players are hunting him. This is bound to be entertaining. Where Jason travels, you can be sure chaos is following closely behind.” He glanced at the technician. “Keep track of the player army and Jason’s activity.”

  Robert then grinned at Claire. “I think this next part is going to be fun.”

  ***

  Jason sat on the crude stone throne in the Minotaur King’s lair. The Venom Spitters had done an admirable job of slaying the scouts, retrieving their corpses, and separating the gear from their bodies. As a result, two large piles now sat near the middle of the room - one a pile of corpses and the other a mountain of weapons and armor. Jason wasn’t anxious to dig through the equipment for upgrades. He expected that his new minions would need that gear more than he would.

  His fingers drummed the armrest of the throne in a cascade of dull thumps. Meanwhile, Alfred lay on the other armrest, impassively watching Jason as he considered what to do next.

  He had a few problems.

  The players had gotten wise to his tactic of ambushing them with the Venom Spitters. They were now taking out whole groups of the spider-like creatures and suffering few losses. It was easy enough for a fire mage to set the vines ablaze every few feet. While this was time-consuming and further reduced the visibility in the maze, it was effective in revealing the nimble creatures.

  The other issue was that the players were making incredibly slow progress in mapping the maze. A few hours had passed in-game, and they were nowhere near the Minotaur King’s lair. At this rate, the dungeon was likely to respawn long before they discovered the room and the way down to the second level. If he planned to spawn camp the players, then Jason had a deadline to meet, and he needed to lure the player force into the dungeon more quickly.

  It was even worse than that, though. Once the players were inside the dungeon, any player he killed would respawn at the entrance within 45 minutes. That meant he needed to get a message to Rex so that he could hold the exit and create a blockade. The problem there was that Rex was sitting underwater with the rest of his undead forces in the lake outside the dungeon - a lake that was on the other side of a miniature army of players.

  Jason figured that if he could lure the players into the dungeon and blockade the entrance, then their leader would be left with a choice. He or she could keep hunting Jason, or they could turn around and fight their way back out. If Jason were in that position, he would choose to keep hunting. It was the easier of the two options. If they took out Jason, it would allow the p
layers to regroup inside the dungeon and mount a full-scale attack on the undead protecting the entrance without being flanked by Jason. Of course, that meant their three-person team would need to take on the player army by themselves.

  To sum everything up, Jason needed to get a message to Rex, somehow lure the entire group of enemy players into the dungeon, and then find a way to fight off the army with a group of three people. On top of all that, they needed to somehow take out most of the players within 45 minutes and disarm their bodies or reinforcements would begin to respawn.

  “What a pain in the ass,” Jason muttered. Yet he couldn’t help but smile slightly. He had a crazy plan for dealing with these problems, and this time he had been forced to gamble big. His teammates hadn’t been open to his suggestion at first, but, ultimately, they had gone along with it. His harebrained schemes had worked in the past, so what was one more?

  It was at this moment that his two friends walked through the entrance to the large circular room. They were flanked by Jason’s remaining group of Venom Spitters, who carried the corpses of other players and equipment. As Jason’s minions added more bodies and loot to the piles, Frank and Riley approached Jason. Jason could see that Frank was dragging a blindfolded player behind him. The man had been bound and gagged.

  “Hello, Jason,” Riley said in a casual voice. She winked an obsidian eye and grinned at him. This next part of the plan would require some exceptional acting on the group’s part.

  I think she’s starting to like this too much, Jason thought dryly.

  “Remove his blindfold,” Jason said in a gruff voice.

  Frank hauled the player to his feet and ripped off his blindfold and gag. The man looked around in confusion, his eyes wide and fearful. He glanced at the pile of corpses nearby, blood staining the dirty floor of the room. His face went white. “What… what is this?” he asked.

  Then he caught sight of Jason. His dark form was perched on the crude stone throne, his face shrouded in shadow as discs of bone swirled around him in lazy circles. The Venom Spitters deposited their newfound loot and then scuttled over to the throne and perched around it, staring at the man as acid dripped from their ruined mandibles.

  Jason’s mouth twisted into a cruel grin. “This is where you give us some information, or we make your next death rather unpleasant.”

  The man’s eyes widened, but he kept calm. “I-I’m not telling you anything,” he stuttered.

  “I was hoping you would say that,” Jason replied. “Have you met my friend, Riley? She is quite talented with her blades.”

  Riley smiled grimly at the bound man, drawing a dagger from her sheath ever-so-slowly. The scrape of metal on leather filled the room, and the man visibly trembled. Riley approached him at a causal pace, carefully inspecting her blade. As she neared the man, she locked eyes with him.

  “Are you going to tell us what we want to know, or do I need to make this personal?” she asked, as she drew her dagger lightly across the man’s cheek. Blood welled along the wound, and the player drew in a sharp hissing breath.

  “I-I…” the man stammered and then drifted into silence. “To hell with it. I can’t do this. This is just a game. I’ll tell you whatever you want.”

  “Good!” Jason said. “You’re learning. Let’s start with your name.”

  “My name’s Paul,” he muttered.

  “Well, Paul, we need to know how many of your troops are in the army sitting outside. It would also be helpful to know the basic breakdown of classes.”

  Paul’s eyes bored holes into the floor as he replied sullenly. “We have a little over one hundred players. At a guess, we have about 40 melee troops, 30 ranged, 20 casters, and a scattering of random classes.”

  “Good boy!” Jason said. “Who is leading your group?”

  Paul gulped before responding. “Her name is Lauren. She is the leader of the .”

  Frank snorted. “? Is that the name of your guild?”

  “Yes,” the man said defensively, glancing at Frank. “It wasn’t my choice.”

  “I take it that you all are here for the bounty?” Jason asked.

  Paul simply nodded sullenly, his eyes back on the floor. He fidgeted slightly, straining at the tight bindings on his wrists.

  “Don’t worry,” Frank said in a stage whisper to Paul. “I made sure you can’t get free. Believe it or not, I used to be a boy scout,” he added with a chuckle, making the scout honor gesture with his hand.

  “How much of the dungeon do you have mapped so far?” Jason asked. He already knew the answer to this question, but he needed to make this interrogation feel real.

  “Not much,” Paul replied. “Your spider things keep attacking us.”

  Jason laughed. “That is their purpose after all.” Then he watched Paul for a long moment, letting the silence lengthen until Paul began to fidget again. Jason watched carefully as Paul glanced surreptitiously around the room, mentally cataloging the corpses and loot. Then his eyes drifted to the stairwell in the center of the room.

  Good, Jason thought gleefully. I hope you draw some conclusions from that.

  “Well, you have been a great sport, Paul. I think it’s time we return you to your friends. We want to give them a fighting chance after all.”

  Jason hesitated. “Or we could leave you in one of the cells. That might be easier.” The man paled and began to stammer a response, but Jason held up a hand. “I’m not that cruel,” he said with a grin.

  Then he motioned to Riley. “Toodles,” she said glibly before lashing forward in a single lightning fast stroke. Paul choked as blood gushed from the newly-formed tear in his neck. He strained futilely against his restraints as he collapsed to the floor. A few moments later his body went still.

  As the death notification appeared in Jason’s combat window, he turned to Frank and Riley. “You think that worked?” he asked.

  Frank shrugged. “Probably. I made sure to mention we were blindfolding him so that he wouldn’t know the path to the center of the maze. I even added that it should trick his map.” He grinned at Riley. “Riley hissed at me to shut up. It was very convincing.”

  Riley laughed lightly. “I’d never pass on an opportunity to tell you to shut it.” Then she looked evenly at Jason, adding in a more serious tone, “I think it has a strong chance of working.”

  “Fantastic,” Jason said. “Then I guess we need to get ready.”

  Chapter 29 - Hoodwinked

  Claire walked back into the control room to find Robert sitting on the pedestal in the center of the room. His attention was riveted on the screen hovering above the lab. This wasn’t unusual. What was disconcerting was the group of techs that stood around Robert. Claire noticed money changing hands while a man scrawled names and figures on a glowing blue board projected into the air beside him.

  “What on earth are you doing now?” Claire asked, irritation in her voice.

  Robert glanced at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the screen. “What does it look like? We’re taking bets on whether Jason’s latest plan will work.” He motioned at the screen. “One of the enemy players just respawned. You’ve got to hear this.”

  Claire scowled at the screen. Paul had just reappeared at the entrance to the dungeon. His camera panned down to reveal familiar cloth attire. Paul sighed heavily and trudged over to the player encampment.

  As he neared the camp, Lauren approached him. “What happened?” the angry girl asked, glaring at him. “The others respawned a long time ago. Did you try to run?” she asked in a derisive tone.

  Paul frowned at the guild leader. “Not exactly. Jason’s group decided to capture me. He is working with at least two other players.” He shook his head slightly, causing the camera to tilt erratically. “They wanted information regarding our numbers and composition. They were even willing to torture me to get the info.”

  Lauren’s eyes widened as she watched him. “Did you tell them anything?”

  “Of cou
rse!” Paul said. “This is a freaking game - not a real war. I’m not getting stabbed and repeatedly mutilated over this. Besides, how does it help them to know how many of us there are?”

  The girl nodded slowly, grudgingly accepting his response. “You still should have lied. Did you at least learn anything?”

  Paul sighed. “They are stealing our gear and piling up the corpses. They also took me to a room that I assume is hidden somewhere within the maze. It was a large circular room, and I saw a ramp leading down to a lower level. I think the maze is just the first of several levels.”

  “Hmm,” Lauren said, pacing in front of him as she processed this new information. “No chance that they revealed the path to that room?”

  Paul snorted roughly. “They blindfolded me after they captured me. They said it would stop my map from updating.”

  An irritated looked flashed across Lauren’s face. Then she hesitated. “Did it?” she finally asked.

  “Did it what?” Paul snapped, clearly frustrated with all the questions.

  “Did your map update?” Lauren asked with exaggerated patience.

  It was Paul’s turn to hesitate. His hand floated in front of the camera, and he pulled up his player map. It clearly traced the path he had taken through the maze and showed the large circular room where Jason and his group had interrogated him.

  He laughed softly. “What a bunch of idiots. The blindfold didn’t do anything. My map updated. I know exactly how to get us to the center of the maze. Give me a second, and I’ll share it with you.”

  A smile crept across Lauren’s face. “Perfect,” she purred.

  Then she turned to the other players in the camp. “Hey, you assholes get up. We’re about to assault this dungeon and Paul here is going to show us the way. Jason is going down!”

  A cheer went up among the players, and excited grins appeared on many faces. After several hours of painstaking scouting and being attacked by nightmare spiders, they were ready for some revenge.