by Paul Bellow
Time to test this new spell. A Divine Arrow of Energy came shooting out of my outstretched palm and shot across the small battlefield toward Eric.
I only had thirteen mana left, but seeing him jump up off the ground and attack with renewed vigor, made it all worth it. Why haven't I gotten my bow fixed yet?
"You've been busy, Kali. Do you want me to remind you?"
"When we get to the next city, okay? Busy now."
The cyclops roared in anger as Eric and Bernard danced around it, delivering quick blows and thrusts with mace and sword. It swung at both men, missing completely.
Frustrated, it yelled out, "I'll be back."
I watched as it dashed toward the woods, knocking down trees and anything else in its way as it ran.
"Let's go after it," Eric said, pumped up on adrenaline and my magic.
Bernard pointed behind me.
"We've got company, guys."
I turned and saw Sylvar and the mage in red robes riding toward us.
"We want to talk," Sylvar shouted.
Eric and Bernard walked over and stopped, weapons still drawn.
"Maybe we should listen to them," I said.
"I thought you were turning a leaf when you went to make arrangements for Monde," Eric called out.
Sylvar laughed.
"You believed that lie? I couldn't care less about her. Back in Westwood, I met with Rizzo here."
The wizard in red robes raised a hand but said nothing.
"I'm low on mana," I whispered to Eric.
He kept his eyes on Sylvar and Rizzo.
"Sylvar has joined the wizard's group," he said.
Did that mean he was actually a PC after all?
"I'm surprised your group is still around with all the mistakes you've made," Sylvar said.
"They fell for you being an NPC," the red mage said then laughed.
"You had a friend become an NPC just to trap us?" Eric asked.
Rizzo cackled with laughter.
"You have no idea how evil or powerful we are in this game, son of a creator."
"What are you talking about?" Eric asked.
"Lie all you want, but the truth will catch up to you," Rizzo said.
"There's more than one way to regain my status," Sylvar shouted.
What does he mean? I wondered as the pair turned and fled north on horses. .
"Should we chase him?" Bernard asked.
Eric shook his head.
"No, our horses are gone, and we've got a quest to complete. We've got to be more careful around all strangers, no matter what information we think they might have to tell."
"I agree," I said.
"Me too," Charlotte added.
"This game just keeps getting weirder," I said.
"You've not seen anything yet," Bernard said.
A noise from the woods caused all three of us to turn. The cyclops had returned with another.
"There they are," the first said, pointing at us. "They hurt me first."
"Get them," the other yelled.
Both lumbered forward.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"The only thing we can do," Eric said. "Attack."
He yelled and ran forward to meet the two cyclops head-on. Bernard shook his head but followed him into the fray. I pulled out my wand of monster summoning, hoping for something good.
Before Eric and Bernard reached the two giant creatures charging forward, three more appeared out of the woods. All of them had nasty looks on their faces.
I zapped the wand, using all five remaining charges. A giant frog fell on the head of one cyclops, stopping him in his tracks. A sheep fell out of the second portal.
That cyclops grabbed the poor animal and slammed it to the ground. The other three summoned creatures were small earth elementals. Finally.
"You need to concentrate, Kali."
"It's a moot point now, Charlotte. The wand is dead.
Eric and Bernard stopped as the two giants dealt with the other animals falling on them.
"Retreat," Eric yelled then turned and ran back toward me.
The elementals moved back and forth around the five cyclops that had appeared out of the woods.
"What are we going to do?" I asked as Eric reached me.
"Keep running until we hit the ocean," he said, running past me. "Come on. Hurry up."
Bernard and I ran after him. Did he know something about cyclops I didn't? Or was he hoping to get lucky? I had no way of knowing, but I followed him anyway.
A mile later, we stopped, breathless, at the edge of a sandy beach littered with rocks.
"What now?" I asked, bending over with my hands on my knees.
Eric glanced around.
"I don't see them. Apparently, cyclops in this game don't like the ocean for whatever reason."
"Thank you for not trying to kill them," I said.
"Yeah," Bernard added.
"We could've taken that first one if Sylvar and Rizzo hadn't ridden up, but there's no way we would've come out alive against a group of cyclops." Eric took a deep breath. "If we stick close to the shore all the way down to the Four Towers, we should be okay."
"I love your confidence," Bernard said with a twinge of sarcasm on the side. "Speaking of which, did anyone notice Sylvar is now a PC?"
"Yeah," I said. "That's crazy. How are we supposed to know which NPCs used to be players and which ones are computer controlled?"
"Kali, your words are not making sense," Charlotte said.
"It's okay," I said. "We're talking in a language you don't know yet."
"She can't understand us when we talk OOC?" Eric asked.
I shook my head.
"That's interesting," he said. "But we should keep moving. I don't trust my monster lore skill completely yet."
"It would be like the game to feed you false information about a monster," Bernard said. "That's how I died. I must've rolled a critical failure because I got bad information about this basilisk."
"What level were you?" Eric asked.
"I made it as high as sixth level on this first world. No idea what the cap is though."
"While I'd love to stay here on the beach and talk game theory with you two all night, we should get going."
"I agree," Charlotte said. "About the get-going part."
"We can talk as we walk. It sucks we lost our horses."
"At least we're alive," Bernard said. "And we're player characters."
"We need to come up with a system for allowing people into our party," I said.
All of us walked south along the beach.
"I understand now why Sylvar didn't want to join our party," Eric said. "We've got to be ready for anything because we still don't know all the rules."
"Hey," Bernard said. "Before we lose our OOC time, what day did you guys come into the game?"
"December 12th, 2042," Eric said. "You?"
"Really? That's the same date I came into the game."
"What time of the day was it?" I asked.
He stopped and stared up at the sky.
"You know what? I don't remember. What time did you guys plug in that day?"
Eric and I stopped. No matter how hard I tried, the time wouldn't pop into my brain.
"It's on the tip of my tongue," I said. "But I can't remember."
"We've been in this game a while now," Eric said. "Maybe it's messing with our memories."
"That's not a good thing," I said.
He nodded then resumed walking.
The four of us (Charlotte included), made our way south in silence. Questions piled up in my mind like snow during a long, hard winter in Maine.
Would we get more answers at the Four Towers? Did they have it out for us too? Or would they hand over the Gnome Oil and Star Rock we needed?
I walked forward, leaving impressions in the sand. The ocean lapped up against the shore, erasing any trace of us having been there in the past.
()xxxx[:::: Chapter 33 ::::>
The Tower is Bigger on the Inside?
ERIC
The four towers were each several miles apart, so we choose the nearest one to visit first. Not having our horses helped me decide.
Four mages in different colored robes stood next to each other as we approached. Did they somehow sense we were coming to see them?
"What's up, mighty players," one said.
A mop of curly red hair rose from his head.
"Watch this," another said then closed his eyes.
His robes changed from green to a mix of colors.
"Groovy, right?"
"Watch this," a third said.
"Okay, okay, we get the point," I said. "You're powerful wizards. Do you have our Gnome Oil?"
"The original recipe," Bernard added.
All four of the other mages laughed.
"That never gets old," red-hair said.
"You called us players," Sarah said. "Does that mean you’re players too?"
"No, we're still NPCs, but we can speak OOC. It's part of the magic here. We were high level mages who came back to the first level to experiment and create new spells."
"Wait." Sarah hopped off her horse. "You create new spells?"
"Do you think the game came up with tie-dye colors for robes? Or a spell called Fish Slaying?"
"You invented that spell?" she asked, laughing and shaking her head. "When I saw it, I laughed."
The red-haired mage smiled.
"You three look tired," the one with the long, crooked nose said. "I'm Ferris. My red-haired friend is Wheel."
"My name is not wheel," the red-haired wizard said. "It's Thom. With an 'h' in there."
"And I'm Sherlock. Our fourth friend, Aaron, doesn't talk anymore. Magic backfired on him."
"Thank you," I said, preparing to use the consider command on all of them.
"No need for that here," Thom said. "We've got permanent magic in all the area between the four towers we built. You can talk OOC and not worry about it. We'll tell you truth, unlike Magi Inyontoo."
"You know him?" I asked.
"Come inside my tower," Ferris said. "It's by far the best one, and we've got a lot to talk about."
I glanced over at Sarah then Bernard. She nodded, and he shrugged.
The mages walked over to a metal door on the door. After tapping four raised stones in a complex sequence, it rolled to the left, leaving an opening.
"Welcome to my lair," Ferris said then laughed liked an evil maniac.
"Quit freaking them out," Sherlock said.
"We've been to your tower," I said.
"Magi Intontoo took it from me, but we'll have the last laugh," Ferris said.
He walked inside. The rest of us followed. Strangely, the inside of the tower looked at least ten times larger than the outside. What's this all about?
"It's bigger on the inside," Bernard said, wide-eyed. "Why didn't I ever come here before?"
"The Tower of Holding was my idea," Thom said, his red hair bobbing up and down with his excitement.
"It's all four of them working together that makes the difference," Sherlock said. "Follow me."
He led us to a room with comfortable and modern couches. A fireplace took up one wall. Images of flames flicked on the bricks inside. Despite no actual flame, warmth spread out from it.
"Take a seat," Sherlock said. "I expect you'll have questions."
"How long have you been in the game?" I asked.
"First, I have one for you," he said.
The other three wizards took seats on three separate couches which were throughout the room. All of them faced each other.
"You guys throw a lot of parties or something?" Bernard asked.
"We do," Thom said, sitting up on the edge of his seat.
"Do you remember the date you came into the game?"
I glanced over at Sarah. Would she out me as the son of a guy connected with the company that built the game? She caught my eyes but quickly looked away.
"The date," Bernard said. "But not the time. What about you four?"
"No," Sherlock said. "The game appears to mess with our memories."
"We're making new, better memories," Thom said.
"Like helping you," Ferris added.
The way they all spoke in quick succession spooked me.
"So, you do have our Gnome Oil?" Sarah asked.
"We do," Sherlock said. "And more. Come upstairs. We want to show you some of the magic we've been working on."
"Nothing can be carried out of the space between our four towers." Ferris paused then added. "Yet."
Thom walked over and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You can get the Gnome Oil and Star Rock on your way out."
"We'll stay here," I said, hatching a plan.
"Yeah," Bernard added. "That was a long walk."
"Rest up," Sherlock said. "We'll be back down soon."
Sarah followed them up a flight of stairs.
"Can we trust them?" Bernard asked after they were out of earshot.
"I think so," I said without confidence. "They've got a nice set-up here."
"A better life than I thought possible as an NPC."
"You need to explain that some time, but for now..." I glanced around. "...We should practice up on our sneak skills."
"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" he asked.
"Probably. We're rogues, Bernard. Let's sneak around a bit. Maybe we can find some powerful magic."
He grinned.
"It feels good to hear you call me my real name, Eric."
"Yeah, it does," I admitted.
He glanced to the left then right before saying, "Let's go."
We snuck through the first floor of the immense tower. In a far corner, we found a metal portal on the floor with a dirty, iron handle.
"First, we check for traps," I said, glancing around.
"They are wizards," Bernard said. "Can you detect magic traps?"
"Not yet. I need more practice."
"Tell me about it. I hate not being able to assign stat points yet."
I stopped and tilted my head as I stared at him.
"Yet, you say?"
"I don't know a lot, but have you noticed the rules change slightly as you progress in level?"
"Yeah, I've noticed." I smiled. "Let's see what's behind this door."
I wrapped my fingers around the handle and pulled with all my might. Unfortunately, what looked solid turned out to be light as a feather. I almost threw my arm out of its socket.
Bernard stifled a chuckle. I glared at him then peered into the darkness below. He brought out the bullseye lantern from back in the ruins of Esterhollow.
I watched as he lit it then pointed the beam into the darkness below.
"There's a ladder," he said.
"I can see," I said, wondering what laid below. "Hold the light while I go down."
"Sure thing."
As Bernard pointed the beam of light, I nimbly climbed down the iron ladder suspended in space.
"Can you see anything?" he called out.
"It's a huge cavern," I said as I glanced around. "Hand me the lantern."
He got down on his belly and held the bulls-eye lantern out. I reached for it.
"Got it?" he asked.
"Yeah...No, wait..."
The lantern slipped from my fingers and fell into the cavernous darkness below. I saw it tumble and fall for a good ten seconds before it hit with a loud thud.
"Can you see anything?" Bernard asked.
"Treasure," I said. "Treasure everywhere."
"I'm coming down."
"No, wait..."
Two red reptilian eyes opened and stared up from the darkness at me.
"Go back up," I said. "There be dragons here."
"In the tower basement? Hilarious."
"Seriously, Bernard, climb back up."
"There's something blocking me," he said.
I couldn't miss the twinge of terror in his voi
ce.
The lantern tumbled down a mountain of gold coins as a red-scaled dragon lifted its massive head and peered at me with curiosity. I swallowed a lump in my throat.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," I said.
"The wizards," Bernard screamed. "They're back."
"Come up here," Sherlock said in an irritated tone.
Bernard scrambled up the ladder with me close behind. The hot breath from the dragon's nostrils hit my back, burning it slightly.
"Hurry," I said, looking up and climbing.
"They woke Smoke," Thom said as I emerged from the round hole in the floor.
"Back to sleep," Ferris called down.
Sherlock closed the metal portal, sealing the dragon beneath us.
"Is that safe?" I asked.
"What were you doing down there?"
Sarah frowned. Bernard bowed his head.
"Looking for stuff to help us," I said. "We got bored."
"Didn't your mother teach you to not go wandering in a wizard's tower?" Ferris asked.
Sarah shook her head with lips pursed together in disapproval.
"That lava golem almost took us out. Not to mention the cyclops we met on the way. I need a sword if we want to finish this quest."
"And you go looking around on your own?" Sarah asked.
"How did you know to come down?" Bernard asked.
"Magic," Thom said with a smile.
Sherlock shook his head.
"We want to destroy Magi Inyontoo and get rid of the Cursed Pendant of Visions. That's your goal too, right?"
"Don't you think we planned on gifting your party normal magic weapons that will work outside our area of influence?" Ferris asked.
"I'm sorry for my friends' behavior," Sarah said. "Please forgive us."
"Don't worry," Thom said. "Ferris and Sherlock are too uptight."
"Nevertheless, there's much work we need to complete, and as we were telling Sarah upstairs, we need your help."
"What are your real names?" I asked. "And why aren't you player characters?"
"Good questions," Ferris said. "We've been hiding as NPCs until we found heroes mighty enough to take on Magi Inyontoo."
"What about your names?" Sarah asked. "I'd like to know too."
Thom frowned. Ferris looked away. Sherlock tilted his head back and took a deep breath before speaking.
"We've forgotten them," he said. "After so long in the game, we're not sure anymore if we entered the game as humans or not."