by Robin Rhodes
Brandon took out the other orc, while Elizabeth made her way over to Aiden. She held his hand and ran her finger over his knuckles in an attempt to make his scowl fade, but it only seemed to increase.
"Don't patronize me," he muttered, pulling his hand back and turning to the door which led to the next room. "So that's it, just onto the next one?" he asked Brandon.
They all looked around the small room and the two dead orcs. "Shouldn't we like… loot them, or something?" she asked.
Brandon walked over and kicked the corpses. "I'm not touching them to find out," he said.
Elizabeth looked closer, crouching down and trying to bring herself to touch the blood-covered dirty pants he wore to search the pockets. "Nope. I'm not doing it. Let's hope he doesn't have something important in there."
"If this thing doesn't even have loot it's going to be shit," Aiden said, pushing open the door to the next area.
Elizabeth was hit by a blast of heat and raised her hand to cover her eyes. The glare of an artificial sun was blinding after the dingy room they'd been in. It had to be artificial, they'd walked down stairs for at least half an hour to get to the dungeon, but the heat from it was very real, and the sky looked real. She pulled at the thick woven robe she'd been equipped with after picking the healing spec. It was like a nun's habit, only without the headgear. Not ideal for desert crawling.
She pulled open her backpack. "We only have two bottles of water each. Is this really a good idea?" she asked.
Aiden waved her off. "I'm bound to have a water casting spell in the book somewhere. Besides, it can't be as big as it looks. It's probably an illusion."
Elizabeth and Brandon looked at each other, but neither of them said anything. Aiden was the one with the training, after all. He'd been to police academy, spent his life dealing with criminals. And he was good at it, had risen through the ranks quickly. All she'd done was wait tables since she'd left school. She'd trust him.
The door didn't seal itself shut behind them this time.
Aiden looked around, picked a direction seemingly at random, then started walking.
Elizabeth followed dutifully behind him.
The first cactus they came across, Aiden gave a kick. "There's water in there," he said. "We should cut it open and have some. We don't have much in the bottles, like you said."
Brandon hacked at the cactus until liquid began to seep out of it. It was thicker than water, and she wrinkled her nose. "I'm not drinking that."
After a bit more slicing by Brandon the top of the cactus fell sideways and proper water was revealed inside. They all peered in.
Aiden sniffed it. "Try some," he instructed her.
"I don't know, how do we know it's safe?"
"It's a cactus, it's obviously just something here so we have to use our environment." He lowered his voice and mumbled an incantation. A drinking horn appeared in his hand. He made a face. "It couldn't have been a Thermos, could it?" He put the horn into the water and filled it to the brim, then handed it to her. "Here you go."
She put her nose to the thing, but it did just smell like water. Cucumber water, maybe.
Aiden beckoned for her to drink, and she obeyed his command.
She winced when the water first touched her lips, but it tasted like cucumber water, too. The heat from the sun made her gulp it down. "Here." She passed the horn to Aiden, "It's good."
They stood and drank until it was dry, then Aiden vanished the horn.
Elizabeth stretched and a shiver ran down her spine despite the heat, but she ignored it.
Just the mind playing tricks on her. That's what deserts did.
Chapter Six
Aaron was itching to get into his avatar's skin.
He didn't want to reveal himself to the travelers yet though, so he was forced to watch from his dungeon core, trying to judge his first three adventurers.
A healer, a tank and a mage. They were a good party. They'd taken out his orcs without two of them even having to do anything. He needed to get the orcs some armor so people would require magic-imbued swords to one-shot them like that.
The desert was fun.
He rubbed his non-existent hands together when they drained the cactus juice. He didn't know how strong the hallucinogens would be, but it would be fun to find out.
That awful outfit the woman had on didn't last long, either. She pulled the thick black thing over her head, leaving her in underwear. Her boyfriend wasn't impressed, and told her to get dressed again, but she managed to have a bit of a backbone and tell him she was too hot to wear it and it was slowing her down. She'd bent to his will so easily when he'd told her to drink the cactus juice.
It wouldn't be fun if she didn't have a bit of fire in her.
Because she was gorgeous. Petite with a round ass he wanted to spank and tits that her bra was doing a bad job of holding in.
He was itching to brand her.
Behind the room with his dungeon core he'd created the quarters for his first slave. A four-poster bed, complete with chains and manacles. Somewhere he could enjoy his own loot.
And branding Elizabeth, with her red cheeks and bouncing tits as she trudged through the sand, would be the best kind of loot.
They were heading straight for the door that would take them through to the next area, though, and he hoped his building hadn't been so bad that they would just sail through without having to do anything. He might have opened early because he wanted to see people again, but this was disappointing so far.
Two of them obviously had no idea what they were doing, but they were still sailing through his dungeon like it was nothing.
They bypassed the loot at least. He didn't have to give anything up to these idiots.
When they got near the door to his gauntlet, he couldn't stop himself any longer. He had to interact with them anyway to get his XP boost, and he needed the woman. He had to have her. If he got someone that hot as one of his first adventurers, it was meant to be.
He'd spent hours designing his avatar even if he hadn't used its skin yet. It looked as close to his real image as he could get the computer to go. He'd taken a few years off, naturally, and given himself more muscle than he'd been motivated to get in real life. His muscles weren't the only thing he'd added to. His bulge was a lot more impressive now.
And watching Elizabeth traipse through the desert with her boy shorts riding further and further up her ass with every step meant there was no hiding it behind his clothes. He'd gone for something simple. A tunic and breeches. Classic old-school game, nothing intimidating. That was the joy of it—no one would know how powerful he was until it was too late.
He liked the style of it, too. He didn't want loads of mod cons in his dungeon even though they were available in the store. He had this little medieval realm that he was in complete control of down here.
Well, no mod cons except electricity, of course.
How else was he supposed to run that video camera he'd set up to face straight at the bed?
He stretched his arms and legs, wiggled his fingers and toes. Having a body again after all this time was weird. Especially when it wasn't his body. It was different than anything he'd operated before. Limbs a bit longer, everything shaped just a little differently.
He jumped, then crouched, then laughed. "This is going to be fun," he said, testing his voice. It was his. This alien computer system probably had every call log from the years he'd spent online and could replicate it.
For once everything staying on the internet forever had been good for something more than porn.
He pulled his two swords from their scabbards which hung around his waist. They were short, but sharp. The real problem was his status as a level one dungeon. It wasn't about what he could actually do with them anymore, it was about what he'd put points into being able to do.
And he'd gone all out on the fucking lizards instead of speccing into attack for himself.
He walked over to Gonzo's
cage now and stuck his fingers through the wire to see if the lizard would come to him. Gonzo looked at Aaron from beneath his lamp with a dull stare, and Aaron pulled his hand back.
He'd bond with the lizard later.
Instead he pulled the brand from his inventory and turned it over in his hand. He'd have loved to heat a piece of metal in a fire and do it the old-fashioned way, but that wasn't very practical for a quick ambushing of someone.
Instead he had this little metal cylinder with his initials raised at the bottom of the metal. It meant it was actually going to leave a mark, which he liked. He hoped he got it somewhere good. If he only had one chance at this and got it somewhere disappointing like her arms he'd be beating himself up about it.
Even as his avatar, he had the ability to see the whole dungeon. When he shut his eyes, he was back at the core, viewing the floorplan, able to zoom in like a camera on a drone.
They were almost at the door to the gauntlet he'd crafted—the thing he was most proud of in his dungeon so far.
And the hallucinogens were starting to hit them.
Chapter Seven
Elizabeth was sure she saw a wall and a door in front of her like the one they'd entered the desert through hours ago.
She also thought she'd seen a ten-foot-tall Darth Vader looming over her and wagging his finger in disapproval and somehow looking disappointed in her via his mask, though.
Whatever was in that fucking cactus wasn't just water.
"Is that door actually there?" Brandon asked, reaching his hand out despite being ten paces back from the thing and squinting. "It's there, right? I'm sure it's there."
Aiden grimaced at him. "Yes, of course it's fucking there."
Elizabeth and Brandon looked at each other, confirming they were both seeing things even if Aiden had been spared.
"Go on, then," Aiden continued. "Go and see what's on the other side."
"You could do it," Brandon said. "I mean, if you're not... Whatever. I'm not sure my brain is up for a fight right now."
"Just because you keep seeing things out of the corner of your eye doesn't mean you can't fight. Get it together, man."
Brandon shifted his weight, lifting his sword from where it was dragging in the sand. "I don't know, man. It's not just seeing things. They're like full images of people. I've done acid, and it's not the same. Wavy lines and vibrant colors I can deal with."
Elizabeth jumped when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. It was her first boyfriend, just like she remembered him. Just like he'd looked when she'd caught him balls deep inside her supposed best-friend. He raised his brow at her, and she stared, knowing he wasn't there but still tempted to go and see if she could punch him in the face.
"Elizabeth."
She snapped her neck around to look at Aiden so quickly it hurt. "What?"
"You should go and check the door. Brandon is being a pussy about it."
"Oh." She looked back, but her ex was gone. She was tempted to protest, but she was slick with sweat from the unbearable desert and convinced the fake sun had still given her pale skin sunburn.
If they could get out of there, then she was willing to risk anything.
She pried open the door with her hands, the wand she'd been forced to stick between her boobs so she didn't have to carry it no help for anything. Neither of the men helped her.
She felt sure both were staring at her ass.
The blast of cold air from the next room gave her goosebumps in the best way, but it made her realize how bad the body high was, too. It wasn't just relief from the hot sun, it was like someone had dragged a feather up her spine, but the shiver had spread its way through her entire body. She stood and couldn't breathe for a second. She wasn't sure if it felt good or bad. It could have been a thousand fingertips caressing her bare body, or a thousand ants crawling all over it.
Aiden broke the spell when he came to peer over her shoulder, resting a hand on her hip. "What does it look like?"
"Dark."
She couldn't see much from the sliver she'd opened the door. It was dark and cold, but nothing had tried to kill her yet, so she was all up for going in there and seeing what happened.
Brandon appeared at her other shoulder and leaned in, too. She was squashed between them, and that was what made her take the first step into the new room. She realized how thin the path was immediately. The room was huge, but the walkway to the other side was barely wide enough for all three of them to fit on. She couldn't see anything blocking it. There was a door on the other side.
When the others followed her in and the door shut behind them, it wasn't as dark as she'd thought. Dank, but enough light to see when their eyes adjusted. Two sloped sides descending into pits she couldn't see the bottom of.
Then the hail of arrows came. Half a dozen of them were fired from the shadows at the end of the room, and Elizabeth cowered away from them, lifting her arm to shield her face and crouching.
She hadn't been sure they were even real until one caught her in the bicep. She cried out from the pain, stumbling as it tore through the muscle. "Holy shit."
She pulled the wand from her cleavage and muttered the healing spell she'd been practicing the words to. She half-expected the pain to get worse, but the arrow in her arm dissolved and the wound mostly healed, leaving just a pink, tender mark. "Damn," she said, impressed, and peered closer. It had really worked. She could actually heal herself.
"Don't just stand there using it on yourself," Aiden said through gritted teeth. "Come and fix my shoulder."
She raised her hand and said the same words, and the same thing happened. She grinned. "Nice."
Brandon had taken two arrows to the forearm of his dominant hand, and he held it up for her. When she said the words this time the effect wasn't as potent, though. "Shit," she muttered, banging her wand against her palm as if the piece of wood had managed to fuck it up. "I'm out of mana. It wasn't as good that time."
Brandon still had one arrow through his arm and the other wound was bleeding. He made a face, staring at it like he was seeing something more than the blood. Elizabeth looked away, scared she'd get drawn into the same hallucination somehow. The combat was distracting her enough not to be seeing things everywhere.
"Come on," Aiden said. "We need to get moving before they fire again. I can't tell if it was from more of those orc things or just random projectiles. I have no idea what these dungeons can do."
He walked first along the narrow path, and Elizabeth was content to walk behind, gripping her wand and wishing she had some offensive abilities. Whoever thought only giving her an attack when she reached level three was a good idea had a serious grudge against healers.
Another hail of arrows didn't come. Probably a trap they'd activated rather than real creatures firing at them.
She was sure she kept seeing things in the darkness at the edge of the room, but didn't trust her eyes that they were real. She kept her eyes glued on the door ahead of them. They were so nearly there. Maybe this would be the last room and they could return to the surface with whatever XP they'd gained and rule out dungeon crawling as something their party wanted to do.
She'd thought this would be fun, but trawling through the desert had killed her excitement.
She guessed that was what the creator had been going for.
A high-pitched scream from behind her made her swing around, and she couldn't quite believe the sound had come from Brandon's mouth. It had, though. He was spasming like something invisible had a grip on him, and his face was twisted in what looked like agony.
She rushed forward, searching for something that might be touching him, but there was nothing there. "What's going on?" she asked, holding his arms and trying to make him stay still, looking over her shoulder at Aiden. "What's happening?"
She aimed her wand at him, but she didn't know what to target. Her mana was still regenning slowly. She just had a basic healing spell, and Brandon was so far gone
that foam was frothing from his mouth. She muttered the incantation under her breath again and again, but nothing happened.
Brandon's screams got quieter and his spasms began to lessen, but he wasn't waking up. Elizabeth shook him. His eyes began to melt, the whites spilling over the side of his face like tears, the blue of his iris and black of his pupil bleeding into it. His lips curled and he bared his teeth. "You did this," he hissed, and his voice wasn't his but it was coming from his mouth. "You did this, Elizabeth."
Then he sat up and lunged for her. She jumped back, scrambling away from him with her heart in her throat.
"What are you doing?" Aiden shouted, grabbing for her.
She was too spooked. She slammed into him in her hurry to get away from Brandon and made them both lose their footing.
They went off, each over a different side, flying down the sloped walls toward the pits.
"Aiden!" she screamed, scrabbling against the slope until her fingers bled, but moving too fast to get a grip.
Something cushioned her fall, but it was immediately pulled away and she dropped into another pit. This landing was hard, and she groaned as the wind was knocked out of her. "Fuck," she muttered, pulling out her wand from where she'd just landed on it, and seeing the tip was broken off. "My healing was already pathetic."
She forced herself to her feet. She couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black.
Then the lights came on and she winced away from them. There were torches which lined the wall. This was like a proper dungeon. Stone walls with chains and manacles. But there was a glass divider down the middle.
And Aiden was on the other side.
She rushed to the divider, pressing her bleeding palms against the glass.
Aiden spat on the ground and stood up, too. He was walking heavily on one leg. "What the fuck was that?" he demanded, and it was a fist rather than a palm that he put to the glass. "What the fuck did you do that for?"
"Didn't you hear him? Didn't you see him? He was going to kill me. What do you mean?"
"He did fuck all. He's fucking dead. God, your brain is fucked, you're so pathetic. It's just a bit of acid. It's not that powerful. You—" Aiden stopped, and peered around her.