by Paul Bellow
You have 93/104 health remaining.
As I weighed my options, three lightning bolts slammed into the Godzilla-clone. It shrieked, obviously not immune to electricity. Did she have enough mana to hit it again?
Not waiting around to find out, I launched another set of coordinated attacks.
Your slash HITS the Mini Pulgasari.for 8 damage.
Your pierce SCRATCHES the Mini Pulgasari for 1 damage.
Stupid beast!
Before anyone could land another blow, the Mini Pulgasari dashed toward the far end of the humungous natural cavern.
"Don't let it get away," Axelrod shouted, giving chase.
Smoke rose into the air from his charred mohawk and beard.
I glanced over at Sarah, saw she was okay, then bolted after the dwarf.
Ryu had healed Josh. Both ran toward the Mini Pulgasari too.
We got this, I told myself as the beast turned and shot another long stream of flames our way.
The fire missed all of us as we continued toward the monster.
Josh reached it first, bringing his massive club down on top of the creature's head. It blinked twice, tilted its head, then breathed fire again.
The half-orc yelled as the flames engulfed him a second time. He dropped to the ground, thankfully, and rolled to put the fire out. Axelrod and I reached the Mini Pulgasari simultaneously.
"Time to feel my wrath," he yelled as he pulled out a smaller hatchet with a glowing steel head. "Feed, Pulgasari-Killer. Feed!"
As the hatchet buried itself in the chest of the beast, an even more putrid smell erupted. I fell over at the stench, unable to catch my breath. Axelrod battled on, hitting two more times.
The Mini Pulgasari fell to the ground, whimpering while Axelrod continued to pummel it with his hatchet. Was it blessed against Mini Pulgasaris? Were there larger ones? How many of the creatures existed?
Combat is over!
You get 8,000 xp divided by six party members
You get 1,333 xp
You have 75,891 xp
** Level up! **
Welcome to Level 9 Rogue -> Bounty Hunter
+24 Health
You have 93/128 health remaining.
I pushed my questions and elation at leveling aside as I crawled away, still struggling to catch my breath. As I got closer to Sarah and Ryu, I realized Sylvar was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the ranger?" I gasped as I got to my feet near them.
Ryu glanced around then looked at me and shrugged.
"Couldn't say..."
"Are you kidding?" I shook my head. "You have one job. Heal. Not only do you suck at that, you couldn't keep track of Sylvar?"
"Ryu was helping me," Sarah said. "That thing petrified me with fear."
I walked over and put my hand on her arm. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said then turned to Ryu. "Thanks to him."
Josh and Axelrod walked over, both looking like they were about to die. The dwarf had no remaining facial hair while Josh lacked almost all of his clothes.
"I've got no magic to grow your hair back," Ryu said out of nowhere.
"Do you think I care about my hair right now?" Axelrod asked. "We've got to get this floating disc and get back to the Pit of Doom before anything else comes at us."
"What are the chances of running into your named enemy," I said. "Those creatures have to be rare, aren't they?"
"They were," Axelrod said. "But they've been multiplying. Kaiju everywhere on level one-four and above."
Kaiju? Does the game blend genres? I didn't have time to think about how that made me feel.
"I named them my enemy when I picked up this hatchet of Pulgasari Slaying.
"You mean there's bigger versions of them?" I asked.
"Godzilla-sized, I bet," Sarah said.
Ryu laughed and put his hand on her arm. She didn't move away.
"Enough," Josh started. "I'm hurt."
"I got you," Ryu said as he walked over to the barbarian.
As he laid his hands on him to heal, I looked around the cavern. No diamonds anywhere.
"Why do they call this the Diamond Sector?" I asked.
"All of the rare stones in the game came from this mountain at one time," he said while putting away his hatchet.
I didn't believe him.
"Come on. Really?"
"Okay, I made that up, but we had a good thing going here until Magi Inyontoo and that blasted black dragon screwed everything up."
"Not all dragons are bad," Ryu said.
We all turned to look at him.
"This black one is terrible," Axelrod said. "Everyone else okay? The floating disc is right over here."
"We should get the eyes of the Mini Pulgasari," Ryu said.
"Are they magical?" Sarah asked.
"No," he said. "But they'd be cool to have, wouldn't they?"
"Don't mention that creature again," Josh said sternly. "It's my named enemy now too."
I looked up at his battered face.
"You can do that?" I asked.
He nodded.
"I've been saving for a while now, and something tells me we'll run into a lot more of these creatures."
"Kill all the Pulgasari," Axelrod said in a serious tone. "The only good one is a dead one."
I bit my tongue, not saying anything about the ridiculousness of Josh's decision. He still wasn't a gamer. Even if he'd been helpful so far, I had to keep my eyes on him.
"We should look for Sylvar before he causes trouble," I said.
"No time." Axelrod took off toward the far end of the cavern. "Come and help me with this disc."
"How big is it?" Bernard asked.
I followed them both, curious about the same and more. Axelrod stopped near a wall and looked around a few moments, touching several stones.
"The opening should be..." Something clicked and the wall opened. "...here."
He turned and smiled, looking insane with no hair, charred skin, and a goofy grin.
"Is it in there?" I asked.
With our luck, we'd have another side-quest to finish the side-quest of the main quest.
"Yeah, it's here," he said, venturing inside.
I followed before Josh bent over and crawled through the opening. The rectangular room held a floating wooden disc with a twenty-foot diameter.
"That's cool," I said. "How much weight can it hold?"
"More than our party weighs, even with that dolt of a barbarian."
"I heard that," Josh said, peeking his head in.
His whole body wouldn't fit. I had to duck my head and couldn't stand up straight.
"Can we get it out of here?" I asked.
Axelrod grinned.
"Watch this. Gnomes got nothing on dwarven ingenuity with engineering and magic."
He pressed the palm of his hand on the rim of the floating disc. It shrunk to a hundredth of its original size, small enough he could hold it in a single hand.
"Nifty, huh?"
His smile widened.
"Yeah," I said, impressed. "We're going to finish this quest."
"We will free the dwarves and slay the dragon," he said.
I turned and walked out of the chamber.
"You get it?" Josh asked.
I nodded.
"Yeah, we got it. Time to go dragon hunting."
We walked back to the Pit of Doom and camped at the edge of the huge opening leading straight down. I went over my stats before going to sleep.
Ryu took the first watch.
()xxxx[:::: Chapter 21 ::::>
Wight Mage, Glitches
ERIC
I opened my eyes, sensing something wrong immediately.
Where's Sarah? I sat up and glanced around our makeshift camp.
Her and Ryu were both gone. Did they run off together?
I still wasn't sure how Sarah had wandered off on her own earlier.
Axelrod, Josh, and Bernard were all asleep.
"Guys, wake up," I said
then clapped.
All three stirred. Bernard stood first.
"What's up?" he asked, stretching. "Sarah never woke me for my guard shift."
"She's gone," I said, waving my hand through the air for emphasis. "Nowhere to be seen."
"Did she wander away again?" Axelrod asked as he got to his feet.
"Ryu's missing too," I said. "And I've got a bad feeling about it."
"You and Sarah are close," Axelrod said. "You would know."
Josh stood.
"They're not too close," he said. "We're closer."
"It's not a bloody competition," Axelrod grumbled. "We need breakfast before we go down the pit."
"We need to find her," I said.
"I agree," Bernard added then bent to open his backpack.
He straightened up with a granola bar in his left hand.
"That's not the last one, is it?" Josh asked.
"You ate yours too quick," Bernard said.
"We need to find her," I repeated.
Axelrod put his hands on his hips.
"Everyone shut-up," he said. "We've got an important mission ahead of us, and we do need our two remaining spell casters. They're likely to be of some help."
"I wish the brownies were here to track them," I said.
"They can't have gotten far," Axelrod said. "Grab your weapons and come with me."
"We're leaving everything here?" Josh asked.
"Yes." Axelrod picked up his ax leaning against the stone wall. "There's supplies we can raid a few hours walk from here. We'll go get that then look around for the other two. If we don't see them by that time, we've got to assume the worst...that they're dead or ran away."
"Sarah wouldn't run," I said as I grabbed my two swords.
"Are you sure everything will be safe here?" Josh asked.
"It's not like we have a lot of valuables with us," Bernard said.
"What about the floating disc?" I asked.
Axelrod's checked his pockets. His eyes opened wide as he patted all of them.
"Those scoundrels," he said. "I bet they went down the pit without us."
"Why would they do that?" I asked.
"Yeah," Josh added. "That doesn't make sense for Sarah."
He stared over at me with his menacing half-orc face. I avoided his gaze.
"We need to find another way to get down the pit," Axelrod said.
"Can't we get another one of those floating things?" Josh asked.
"No, idiot." Axelrod shook his bald head. "That was the last one. I told you."
"Calm down," Josh said. "I've been burned, almost killed, and drawn through the ringer on this little adventure of yours, and I'm getting upset."
Axelrod turned and puffed out his chest.
"First, don't tell me to calm down," he said.
"What are you gonna do about it?" Josh asked.
I stepped in between them.
"Cut it out," I said. "We need to find another way down or find the other two. They might've been kidnapped or something."
"Sylvar is still running loose, too," Bernard noted as he finished the last granola bar.
"Let's go," Axelrod said. "I might have another way to get down the pit, but it's not going to be easy. Some might even say it's not possible at all."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Forget I said anything," he said.
Axelrod turned and walked back down the tunnel, away from the Pit of Doom once again.
"Come on," I moaned, walking after him. "Don't leave us hanging."
"Yeah, I want to know too," Josh said.
Axelrod stopped, turned, then took a deep breath.
"Look," he said. "It's next to impossible for a group our size and our level. Forget about it. We'll get the food rations then think of something else."
"Oh, so you know of another way down the Pit of Doom?" I asked.
Axelrod shook his head.
"No," he said. "I don't."
"Let us decide if we can handle it," Josh said. "We're tougher than you think. Even without Sarah and that creepy guy in black, we have a fighting chance."
Why is Josh getting so into the game suddenly? I pushed the thought aside.
"Tell us," I said. "Please?"
"Fine." Axelrod lowered his gaze and shook his head. "It's this mage on level one-two. Some say it's a glitch in the game, but I think it's all part of the programming. This mage is a Wight and is run off a different AI than most NPCs and mobs in the game."
"What does him being white have to do with it?" Josh asked.
"He's talking about another undead creature," I said, trying not to sound too conceited. "Do you think the Wight is creating all the undead in the mines?"
"It might be," Axelrod said. "But he was supposed to be frozen, turned off."
He frowned. I saw memories wash over his face in every tic and movement.
"You're not making any sense," Josh said, his words as blunt as his giant club.
"It's this game," Axelrod said. "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, and I've been up to level three-one and beyond."
"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 done a lot of damage, seeking players and Perma-killing them."
"Perma-killing?" Bernard asked before I had a chance.
"Yeah, as far as we can tell. The players he killed were never seen in the game again."
"Maybe it's a way out of the game," Josh said.
I shook my head.
"No, it doesn't sound good," I said.
"You know something you're not telling us, Eric?" Josh asked.
He stepped toward me, towering above, his frightening teeth jutting out of his mouth.
"I don't know what's going on," I said. "Honest."
We locked eyes, neither of us blinking or looking away for several seconds.
"Come on," Axelrod said. "Let's go get the rations, and we can decide if we want to do this 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.
"That too."
During the walk to the rations, I kept my eyes open, looking for Sarah, Ryu or Sylvar. Any of them might have an answer to the mystery. Why hadn't I watched her closer?
So deep in the mountains without technology, I had no way of knowing if it was night or day outside. The entire way, I kept thinking about the Wight Mage. Could we get out of the game?
We arrived at some barracks deep underground about an hour later. Josh, Bernard and I stood guard outside the door leading to the area while Axelrod gathered food and water.
"This is the last of it," he said. "We've got to get down that pit soon and get that dragon."
"Have you fought the dragon before?" Josh asked.
"No," Axelrod said. "When I fight something, it doesn'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.
"Simple," Axelrod said, a gleam in his deep-set eyes. "The magic he's collected is intense. We'll be able to find clips of falling feathers, potions of levitation, and other items to get down the pit."
Bernard frowned and shook his head.
"With that much treasure, it sounds like it'll be a tough fight," he said.
"No kidding," Axelrod said. "You newbs will be the death of me."
"What about you?" I asked. "You're not the best leader in the history of adventuring parties."
"This place has us fighting with each other," Bernard said, stepping in between us. "We can't let the game defeat us."
"He's right," I said. "Let
's go defeat this side-quest then go find Sarah."
"Let's move," Axelrod barked like a drill sergeant.
One by one, we walked back down the hallway, following Axelrod as he led us to the Wight Mage's lair.
₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪
I stopped and gazed into one of the malformed mirrors that distorted my image. They were on the two walls of the hallway as well as the floor and ceiling.
"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, there'll be monsters too," Axelrod said. "I imagine he's built up quite a mini-dungeon around him for protection. If he's gotten out of captivity."
"How did you guys capture him the last time?" 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. The thing's broken and glitchy if you ask me. It cheats."
"Are you sure there's not another way?" Josh asked while clutching his club in one hand and tapping it into the other. "This seems too hard for us."
"I tried to tell you," Axelrod said.
"That's enough," I said. "We've got this. It's the only way to save Sarah."
I turned and looked up and into Josh's shifty, half-orc eyes. He glared back.
"Yeah, we've got to save Sarah," he said.
"Come on." Axelrod walked further into the hall of mirrors. "Keep your eyes open."
I stepped after them, walking behind Bernard. With all the reflections, my ears would come in handier than my eyes. I kept both focused on anything amiss.
At the end of the long, straight hallway lined with misshapen mirrors, we entered an enormous domed room created from thousands of polished mirrors.
Once again, they were on the floor, but broken up into hundreds of small tiles or pieces.
"Hold on," Axelrod said, holding up his hand at the entrance of the room. "This is the first trap."
I pushed Josh aside.
"Let me see," I said. "Traps are my thing."