by Adam Elliott
“Evening gentlemen.” Cayden said, putting on a winning smile.
“Not planning on causing any trouble I hope?” The one who had observed him asked, his expression stern.
“I'm level two in starting gear, how much trouble could I cause.” Cayden chuckled, and to his surprise, the guards joined in his laughter. “Don't suppose you would be kind enough to lend me today's floor map?”
Wordlessly the man on the right snapped his fingers, calling his AR screen to life and proceeding through it was routine ease. A second later, a notification popped up on Cayden's HUD:
CGS Caleb Wright would like to transfer updated map data. Do you accept?
Cayden brushed at the yes button with two fingers before dismissing the screen entirely. He wondered what the designer would think of CGS Caleb Wright. It was almost impossible to get into the mind of the sort of man who could do all of... this, but Cayden was fairly certain the designer would have been appalled to see his fantasy game world include corporately branded security guards.
"Don't take too long in there, and don't go off the beaten path. The day shift has gone home, so any side tunnels aren't going to be patrolled. Reset is in... an hour and a half, so you should have plenty of time. If you are still in the tunnels when it resets I'd recommend hunkering in place and trying not to draw aggro. The searchers will find you in about an hour."
“Thanks for the word of warning.” Cayden replied, opening his menu just long enough to direct a couple of zeni in either man's direction. Tipping wasn't necessary, or even common but hey, what did it hurt.
The dungeon itself was a maze of miles long, twenty foot wide tunnels. It's brown stone walls were littered with glowing emerald crystals that served as illumination, and its floors were rough but easy to traverse. Typically such a place would be littered with monsters blocking his path or bursting from concealed side passageways, but the guards he met at the front entrance were not the only ones of their kind. He passed two similar, though slightly less well-armed patrols in the thirty minutes it took to traverse the mine. Each group used the observe skill to determine if he was a danger and once they were satisfied he was not they made sure to confirm his directions before continuing on their way.
A dungeon like this should have been dangerous. Each dungeon in the tower had a different theme and different challenges, but the one thing they all had in common was that they were supposed to be terrifying. Without the map it would take hours, perhaps the entire day to find his way through the twists and turns of this place, all while being harried at his heels by scores of monsters. Worse yet, if he didn't find his way through before midnight, the dungeon would reset its layout with him inside of it, leaving him even more lost than he'd already been.
It was weird seeing such a place neutered. Even the boss room was an anticlimax. The impressive stone boulder that usually blocked its entrance had been shattered, likely minutes after the reset. The various corporations had piles of the Hammer of Striking laying around so that they could destroy the door and dispose of the boss immediately after reset. The spice must flow and all that.
Torches lined the five hundred foot room where Krom the Destroyer usually awaited those foolish enough to invade his kingdom. The eighteen-foot behemoth was nowhere to be found, undoubtedly fed to a raid worth of new farmers, his rare gear handed out to low-level guards like the guys out front. Only the massive basalt throne remained in the center of the room; it's matte surfaces barely even reflecting the few flickers of light that reached them.
Idly, Cayden wondered if eventually all of Babel would be like this. Probably not, after all the higher one went, the higher the risk. Farmers were willing to go out and grind minerals, flowers, lumber and all manner of other resources because there simply wasn't any risk. He couldn't imagine some twenty-year-old with an arts and science bachelor chipping up ore for what amounted to just above minimum wage if he had to run from an overflight of drakes once an hour instead of backing away from the occasional Kobald.
Then again, at launch day he never imagined anyone would be spawn camping Krom the Destroyer.
"We both had a little bit of a rough day, haven't we Krom?" Cayden asked as he mounted the small stone steps leading up to the throne. He'd dreamt of this place, when he was younger, after watching a live-stream of one of the earliest successful raids. In his dream, he battled Krom, clashing sword against cleaver to keep him from his fallen party members. He remembered slipping an attack, plunging his blade deep into the creature, and mounting its throne. Then he threw back his head and laughed until he awoke.
Cayden didn't have much to laugh about tonight. He certainly didn't feel like the big damn hero he'd always imagined he'd be once he finally got to play. So much time preparing, and the best he'd managed to accomplish was lowering the body count. It felt wrong.
“Some hero.” He whispered, falling unceremoniously down onto the seat of the oversized throne. His eyes closed as he leaned back against the hard stone, head thrown back as he forced out a weak chuckle in spite of himself.
When he finally opened his eyes, however, Cayden felt his heart skip.
There on the roof just above him was a single block of Runic text. It was the same language that had permeated the lobby where he had selected his class, and Cayden knew that the language could be found in hundreds of thousands of different places all throughout the game. Even this very room had hundreds of similar runic inscriptions carved into its stone walls. What made this unique were the words cut in plain English directly below the runes. Words he repeated in soft wonder:
"I Have Defied Gods and Demons."
Each word appeared to correspond directly to a rune above it on the wall. But before he could even begin to consider the consequences of that discovery, his AR headset beeped once at him a message invading his field of view.
New Skill Learned!
Runic Knowledge
Type: Passive [Language]
Skill Level: N/A
Effect: Known Runic Words are automatically translated.
Runic Knowledge? The hell is that? Cayden frowned. He liked to think of his understanding of the game, at least the early stages of the game, as somewhat encyclopedic. He had researched this topic literally for years, and while he was sure there were abundant secrets being kept by the progression guilds, this skill was available from the very first floor.
Yet he'd never heard a thing about it.
“Google search. R-U-N-I-C Knowledge.” He instructed his AR glasses. A web browser filled the right side of his vision, but it was soon forgotten as his eyes returned to the ceiling.
The runes were gone. Rather, instead of a set of runes above six words of English text, there was now just the same phrase repeated twice. Instinctively he reached up to remove his glasses so that he could view the runes again, but he was surprised to see that even with his naked eyes he now only saw the English text.
His googling produced results, but not for the right game. Runic Knowledge for Everquest 3. Runic Knowledge as a D&D skill. Come to think of it Runes of the Guardians had a Runic Knowledge skill, though it was nothing like this one.
As far as the internet was concerned, this skill didn't exist. This meant it was either a closely held progression guild secret, or he was the only person in the world who knew of its existence.
Electricity shot through him at the possibilities. Real, actual linguists had been trying for years to make some sense of the runic forms, and they had come up with nothing other than conjecture. And he'd just found a Rosetta stone.
Frantically he poured over the walls of the room, moving from surface to surface in search of further English text. It seemed unlikely that many such inscriptions would have gone unnoticed, but considering the millions of players who had passed through this room without noticing what he had, Cayden wasn't going to leave anything to chance.
His search was intensive, but not altogether thorough. The dungeon would be reset in less than thirty minutes, and the patrolling guar
ds would almost certainly be returning in this direction soon to exit before then. They'd probably ignore him, but he couldn't take the chance that one of them might notice his sudden interest in the walls and decide to look around himself.
Maybe I should destroy the inscription. He pondered the idea briefly before discarding it. Even if such a thing would work, he probably shouldn't. Who knows if it might be of use later on. Even if it wasn't, chances were that any damage he dealt to the walls would be reset the at the same time as the dungeon. Otherwise, the whole of Babel would likely be covered with two years worth of graffiti. This was still New York after all.
Skill Level Up: Perception
Type: Passive
Skill Level: Novice Level 2
Effect: Improved situational awareness. 6% increased hearing and vision within 200ft.
I really need to turn off notifications for perception. He frowned
With barely ten minutes to spare Cayden had only managed to survey a fraction of one enormous wall. There was simply too much text that without a systematic approach he might as well be looking for a needle in a ha-
I --------- Gods
His heart leaped into his throat at the sight of English characters then crashed in an instant as he recognized them. Two English words with an unknown rune between them. It could be anything. "I battled Gods? I feared Gods? I deified gods?" He continued rambling off any verb that came to mind, caressing a finger over the surface of the rune. It was no hieroglyph; its shape gave no hint to its purpose.
"I worshiped Gods?"
New Rune Learned: Worship
In the blink of an eye, the rune before him flickered and became something else entirely. The new phrase glowing briefly before his eyes, then settling back into inert stonework.
I Worshipped Gods
“Hey! Kid, reset is in five minutes!”
Cayden whirled in a panic, his face a flushed mess like a teenager caught with his pants down. One hand had instinctively gone to his sheathed sword, and the four-member team outfitted in thick plate armor eyed him dubiously until he eased up on it. "I... uh. Sorry. You just startled me."
“Four guys in full-plate walk into the most echoey room of the damn tower and you don't hear them coming? Word to the wise kid, you might not be cut out for this game.”
"You know, for a while there, I almost might have agreed with you.”
Chapter Six
It hadn't taken long for Cayden to disentangle himself from the patrol. No doubt they were happy to be rid of the weird, somewhat giddy teenager, waving him off on his way the moment they'd finished escorting him to the surface.
Once there, Cayden probably didn't do their impression of him any favors. He'd said his farewell to the group, turned his attention to the road, and leapt out of their midst, landing thirty yards away. Then he'd leapt again. And again. A regular Super Mario.
His current limit was four jumps, but he stopped at three. Even on the main road it was wise to keep at least a small reserve of TP handy for dealing with errant mobs or dangerous player. It took a little bit over fifty seconds while walking to recharge enough TP for a jump, which left Cayden plenty of time between leaps to spend time evaluating his newest skill.
And there was a considerable amount of information to evaluate.
For starters, the skill had its own sub-menu. When he had selected it in his skill menu its description came complete with an option to access the Runic Library sub-menu, something he immediately pinned to his top level menu for easy access at a later date.
Opening the Runic Library presented him with an animated visual of a book floating into view, seemingly from nowhere. It spun in the air before him a handful of times, bindings, and locks unlatching from its outer facade before it, at last, sprung open to reveal a wealth of information.
The first page was an overview, most similar to the collection or achievement menus in design. Along the left-hand side of the page were a series of four selectable tabs:
Summary
Lexicon
Runewords
Runic Magic
To the right was the summary page. It showed a progress bar labelled Words Known with only a barely perceptible sliver filled in at the very left hand side. Numbers in the centre of the bar indicted he knew a grand total of 7/200,000 words, or 0.000035. Not exactly an auspicious start, but as far as Cayden knew it was more than any other person on earth.
Beneath the initial progress bar was a second, this one labeled Words Until Next Reward. The numbers here were more heartening, listing his progress at 7/20. He had no idea what a Greater Rune was, of course, but chances were he wanted one.
Several other smaller bars lay empty and grayed out, labeled Greater Runes Known, Runewords Known, and Runic Spells Known. The color of the bars matched the color of the bottom two selectable tabs, and a single touch confirmed Cayden's suspicions. Until he figured out their requirements, these abilities would remain locked to him.
“Skill Use: Leap Attack.”
Soaring through the air, Cayden took a moment to simply admire what little he could see of the second floor. Unlike the vast hills and open plains of the first floor, the second was largely wooded. Hundred foot tall trees of oak and mahogany stood alongside Alserian trees, a breed unique to the tower, named for the floor on which they were first found.
The trees encroached on either side of the road, spaced well enough apart that anyone who wished could go delving into their depths. Cayden knew they were infested with all manner of violent woodland critters, and pitch dark beside. For now, best to keep along the winding road than risk battling a three-foot tall spider in the dark.
Come to think of it, just about anything is better than fighting a three-foot tall spider. Cayden thought, shivering with disgust.
He crashed to the ground in a superhero pose, laughing aloud at the fact that the designer had chosen that, of all things, as the landing poses for an unarmed guardian. He might be a mass murdering lunatic, but the designer did have a good sense of humor.
Turning his attention back to the still open menu, Cayden reached out and selected the one remaining tab. Lexicon. Pages flipped on the book, text scrolling by impossibly fast before it settled once again to show a simple two-page format. On the left page, a stylized letter A stood above a dividing line. Beneath it, a rune-filled the left side of the page, while the right was occupied with the word And followed by what appeared to be its dictionary definition.
Beneath that rested a B, then a C, both with empty entries. The D entry contained two entries instead of one, the words Defied and Demon filling up much of the remainder of the page with their runes and descriptions. A simple lexicon and nothing more it seemed, though it might later prove useful if this was the only way for him to see the runes in their original form.
Hmm, maybe it's not. Cayden quickly canceled out of the Runic Library, returning to the opening menu and selecting Options from the top right of his display where it was offset from the other menu choices. There were about three dozen screens to search through, but there it was. Runic Translate, Auto or Manual. He knew the option hadn't been there when he'd first configured his settings, but for now, he left it as it was. Next time he spotted a translated rune he'd toggle it to manual to see what the difference was. Until then, probably better not to mess with it.
"Skill Use: Leap Attack" He commanded absently. His mind was whirring, and for once he appreciated the loss of control as his body executed the skill without further input from him. More time to think.
The biggest concern was what to do with the skill now that he had it. As far as he was aware, no one else had publicly acknowledged the existence of Runic Knowledge as a skill. That meant either no one knew about it, or the progression guilds or other close-knit communities were keeping it all to themselves. If it was the former, then he was sitting on top of a proverbial goldmine. The right guild would pay him a fortune, would power level him all the way to the fiftieth floor if it meant getting access to a ne
w and unknown skill. Such a skill could be the edge they needed to start progressing again after six months of beating their heads against the floor fifty boss.
If it was the latter, then the skill was a goldmine with a bomb in it. It was possible he could offer it to a guild who didn't have the slightest clue, but it was also possible that he might offer it to a guild who was well aware of the skill, a guild that might even be willing to use violence if it kept their edge intact.
No, selling it wasn't an option. In truth, even if he knew for certain that he'd earn an incredible windfall by selling it, Cayden didn't think he had it in him to do so. This was something he found, something that perhaps his little secret. He was Charlie and Runic Knowledge could be his golden ticket. Better to hold onto it and take home the factory than trade it in for a cheap reward.
That meant he had to learn more. Back in Krom's lair, he had learned the skill by repeating the phrase written on the ceiling while looking at the Runic symbols, and he'd similarly discovered the word worship by repeating the phrase out loud. It was probably more complicated than simply guessing an individual word out loud if it were that simple someone would have likely unlocked the skill by simple dumb luck. Either his access to the skill gave him that guessing ability, or the word or words in question had to be part of a phrase.
What he needed to do was visit anywhere and everywhere he could find examples of the runic language. The more words he looked at, the more likely he was to find the ones he already knew, which in turn might lead him to figure out ones he did not.
Not entirely true. What I need to do is find something to eat and get some damn sleep. A glance at the clock in the bottom left of his display served as a reminder of what he already knew. He'd been up at five in the morning, practically itching to get to the tower to start playing, and the last thing he'd eaten was the lunch he'd brought into the tower with him.