by Adam Elliott
Neither brother knew what to make of it. But Cayden did. He stood on the sidelines, grinning and watching as the flame wiggled this way and that. It turned slowly, until it, at last, revealed a face inside the flame, a comical looking visage consisting of a pair of black flames for eyes, and an equally ridiculous black flame smile.
The flame's expression didn't change, but it apparently caught sight of the ones who had defeated the dragon. It rushed towards them, and the brothers attempted to flee, albeit into one another. Their awkward crash sent them sprawling to the ground as the flame descended upon them, striking the top brother in the pile, Truebane, in the center of his back.
“Gah!" The man cried, though it was more from surprise than pain. A second more and he was back on his feet, eyes twisting this way and that as he sought out the flame. The flame was gone, but in its place, there were new smiles, Cayden, Celia, and Shifty all grinning ear to ear.
His brother, on the other hand, was not grinning. “Ethan! Your face?”
“What? What about my face?” The panic in Truebane's voice was as palpable as the shock on his brothers. “What happened!”
“You're all... scaly.”
It was too much. Cayden burst out laughing, followed soon by Shifty. Celia, to her credit, lasted the longest, doing her best to put on a mask of sympathy that slipped only as she watched Truebane run fingers along the green scales that had sprouted all across his skin.
“What the hell!” Truebane shouted, whirling on Cayden. “You knew about this?!”
"So would you, if you'd bothered to read the prep work Celia gave you," Cayden said through barely controlled laughter.
“You think this is funny?” This time it was Darkbane venting his anger, the dark-haired young man on the verge of violence.
"A little, yeah," Cayden admitted. Unperturbed by the vitriol coming from Darkbane, he gestured to the man's reptilian twin. “Check your debuffs.”
There was a short pause as the young man navigated through menus on a pair of antiquated AR glasses. Then he nodded grimly. "The Dragon's Curse. It's okay Erick; it is temporary and cosmetic. A couple of hours and I'll be back to normal."
“Which, again, you'd have known if you had spent five minutes reading.” Celia chimed in irritably. “Or if you'd played any classic games at all.”
“Hey, we skimmed it for the important parts, okay?” Truebane frowned, unnerved by the sudden amount of hiss in his words.
Shifty was not amused. “You skimmed it? Did you consider skimming the part about avoiding the whelp caves when MEKA knocks down the far wall?”
“Everyone is alive, what do you care?” Darkbane shot back.
“No thanks to y-”
“Shifty...” Cayden said the name softly but firmly. Outside of shot calling in combat, he didn't like to give orders in their party. The mutual respect was part of what made their dynamic work so well, but from time to time Cayden had to put his foot down, even if it was awkward to chide a man twice his age. “We made it through, which is what matters. If they want to get themselves killed going forward, that is their business. Let's check the loot and get going.”
The brothers continued to protest, eager to continue the argument. To his credit, however, Shifty turned away from the pair in disgust, following Cayden to the fallen, sparking corpse of the Mecha Dragon.
“Why hasn't it despawned?” Celia asked.
Cayden shrugged. “Floor bosses all die in different ways. Some will ash away after a while, others, like this guy just sort of lay here until reset. Seems like it's just rule of cool from the Developer.”
“Okay. But... where is the drop then?” The blonde persisted, creeping up on the destroyed machine just a few steps behind Cayden.
"Chest cavity." He replied, casting a slightly annoyed glance back over his shoulder. It made sense for the party healer to spend most of her time behind the tank, but over the last week, it had started to irk him just how often she spent peeking just over his shoulder. "Now who didn't read up on the details."
"I've got it pinned if it mattered." Celia stuck out her tongue, the undignified act making the sixteen-year-old Chronomagi seem even more her age.
"I am certain," Cayden replied dubiously as he clamored up onto MEKA's fallen frame. It felt weird to stand on the fallen robot, in large part because this wasn't the first time he'd beaten it.
When he was seven, his mom had brought out an old cardboard box containing a host of dusty electronics. A Super Nintendo, an original PlayStation, and her favorite, the Sega Master System her mother had bought her as a child. His mom had insisted he try out some of those old classics, and the time spent rampaging through games like Metroid, Zillion, Kung Fu and, ironically, even Rampage, were among his fondest childhood memories.
One game that had always stuck with him, however, was The Dragon's Trap, an old Sega adventure game that began with a fight against the very dragon upon which he was now standing.
To say the experience was surreal was an understatement.
Cayden didn't understand how anyone could think the Developer was anything other than human. Who else could mimic gamer culture in so many ways? Who else would be crazy enough to use reality warping power to make the tower in the first place? For Cayden, the question was never if he was human, just what on earth he was thinking.
“What on earth are you thinking?”
“Huh?” Cayden jumped, startled out of his musings by Celia's playful tones.
“You're just staring at the thing. It's creepy.”
"You're creepy." He shot back ineffectually before clamoring over the metal husk of the defeated dragon.
MEKA's chest cavity was easily accessed, the two plates over its heart having loosened during its death throes. They pulled apart quickly, revealing a mass of wires, circuitry, heat sinks and other technical components. In the center, shielded behind a second protective barrier, he found the crystal, housed within a cowling of orange and grey metal.
"This loot will light our darkest hour," Cayden said, rolling his eyes. The phrase had appeared on his AR glasses the moment he'd removed the assembly from its housing. Only once the words were spoken could he pull on either end of the casing, drawing it apart as the crystal began to shine with an incredible light that was dimmed only by the sudden appearance of an item window on his display.
WonderPlate (Rare)
And now... Proceed with your adventurous undertaking.
Defence: 250
Required Level: 20
Required Strength: 24
Durability: 30/30
Bonus Resist Damage 10 (All Except Holy)
Immunity to all Polymorph or Petrification attacks. (Not Again!)
Special: Impeccable shininess.
Everyone else was similarly looking at their AR displays or in Shifty's Case, their screens ,when Cayden looked up. Owing to the two pubbies in the group, Cayden had decided to set the loot system for the boss encounter as personal. This reduced the overall amount of loot the boss would drop, but guaranteed that each party member had a chance to receive at least one piece of loot tailored to their specific build.
Considering all difficulty the Banes had put them through, it seemed prudent.
Shifty was as hard to read as ever, but whatever she got, Celia was overjoyed. The petite girl was hopping foot to foot in her light blue linen robe, her hands balled into fists as she shimmied this way and that. Undignified, but considering Cayden had done the same thing on more than one occasion he wasn't about to point fingers.
“So what's next?” Truebane asked, his lizard tongue struggling with each and every syllable.
“Next?” Cayden asked with an upraised eyebrow. He walked to the edge of MEKA, hopped to the ground and snapped his fingers to gain access to his full menu. A few seconds of silence followed, then the face of each brother tightened as a message appeared on their display.
Cayden has kicked you from the Party.
“Does that sum it up enough for you?” Cayden a
sked with a sickeningly sweet grin. “In case you missed it on the rundown you didn't read, the stairs are right there. They lead directly into the middle of Terebeth, the floor capital, so you can't even accuse me of putting you at risk getting to town. Have a good night boys.”
The two men exchanged looks, an unspoken communication passing between them before a different sort of non-verbal message was passed in Cayden's direction. He was only too happy to return it, keeping his hand extended in their direction long after they'd turned their backs on him and headed for the stairs.
It was only once they were finally out of earshot that Celia's soft giggle broke the tension in the room. “What a bunch of...” She started, clearly intending to drop a particularly unpleasant name before she shook her head an thought better of it. “I thought they'd never leave.”
"You're telling me," Cayden remarked dryly. He began to intone a mixture of English and Runic words, canceling the series of buff spells he had placed on his person to diminish his MP to the point that the twins wouldn't have any questions about why the tank had such high MP. At the same time, he toggled an option in his menu, removing the blocks that he'd put in place, blocks that concealed his Runemagi class levels and abilities.
“Any runes worth having?” Shifty remarked, making his way alongside the pair with a whetstone in one hand and one of his throwing knives in the other.
“Let me check. Skill Use: Find Rune." Cayden said. His AR display dimmed, all his usual pinned information and statistics falling away to provide no distraction as he turned and surveyed the room. Find Rune was the level eight power from Runemagi and perhaps the most useful of the bunch. It highlighted any and all runes within roughly two hundred and fifty feet of him on his display, even through walls or other obstacles. It was useful, of course, for expanding his vocabulary, but it had proven equally helpful in finding a couple of totally undiscovered secret rooms during the course of their adventures.
"Nothing." He said, at last, disabling the skill. He hadn't expected to find much. The walls of the floor ten dungeons looked like blue painted silicon boards, covered in all manner of gold traced circuitry, but little else. If there were any runes to be found in the entire complex, they would have been found here. "Can you stop doing that though?"
“Doing what?” Shifty asked.
“Sharpening knives next to me? Sounds like hell and makes me think you're going to stab me.”
"Wouldn't be the first time." The middle-aged thief grinned, the dark leather of his armor creaking around his slightly oversized midsection as he brought himself upright.
“Which we still need to talk about.” Celia joined Shifty with a smug expression of her own. The two had swapped stories during the weeks he'd been gone, and the fact that Cayden and Shifty had first met in combat had been chief among them. He'd lied to her by omission, and she wasn't likely to let him live that down. “Get right up next to his ear with it.”
"I'd rather you not." Cayden groaned. "Why are you doing that now anyway, we're done for the day. Going straight to town."
“Forearmed is forearmed.” Shifty shrugged.
Cayden cocked an eyebrow. "I'm almost entirely certain that isn't how the expression goes."
"Potato, potato," Shifty replied without the slightest difference in the pronunciation of the two words.
“I am entirely certain that isn't how that goes.” Cayden frowned, looking to Celia for help. “Celia, could you ple-”
His words came up short at the point of one of the girl's upraised fingers. Her other hand was just behind her ear, covering it slightly as listened to some audio being broadcast by her glasses. All three stood in silence as she listened, both Cayden and Shifty watching as blood drained from Celia's face
“What happened?” Shifty was the first to ask as the hand came away from her ear.
"A joint CFC raid went completely wrong. Don't have all the details, but there was apparently some big infighting afterward." Celia replied with a soft frown. "Silver died."
Chapter Two
“Wench, bring some drinks for my friends!” Silver bellowed, slamming her fist down onto the tabletop.
Sarah cocked a carefully shaped blue eyebrow at the command. She was doing her best not to laugh, but there was no mistaking the humor dancing around in bright emerald eyes as she looked from Silver to Cayden and then to Celia. "I don't think so."
“Wench, bring some juice for my friends?”
“You really think it is the type of drink I was having a problem with?” Sarah asked with a wry smile.
Silver sighed and rolled her eyes. “You're no fun. Sarah, could we please get them some drinks.”
“Milk for the kids.” She said, ignoring Celia and Cayden's shouts of protest. “Rum for Shifty, of course. And for you my elegant lady?”
“Are Green Russians actually a thing?” Silver asked drearily.
"Not a good thing." Sarah laughed before, at last, looking to Cayden and asking the obvious. "She's been here for an hour and still won't tell me. What happened?"
"She died," Cayden replied before Silver could shush him.
“Ughhh.” Silver confirmed, setting her head down on the table, a puddle of onyx hair concealing her from view.
“Oh! Sweetheart.” Sarah cried, bustling around the table to force a hug on the slumped over woman before Silver could realize what was coming. “What happened?”
“I don't want to talk about it.” The young woman mumbled into the tabletop.
“I'm sorry? I didn't catch tha-”
“I don't want to talk about it!” She shouted sitting abruptly upright and nearly throwing Sarah to the ground in the process. Half the bustling tavern was staring at the outburst, Elan, and Humans both rubbernecking to see what all the drama was about. "I don't want to talk about it, and I don't want to think about it. I want a glass filled with wine, which remains filled with wine until I'm ready to go to bed."
"You know I think we have one of those." Came a remark from nearby Symbal, the silver-haired owner of the inn of the Dizzy Sheep.
If Silver's sudden outburst had bothered her, Sarah didn't let it show. That welcoming, perpetual smile remained plastered across her face, and a hand stayed on Silver's shoulder as she asked the next question on her mind. "Okay, okay. I won't ask. Was just surprised. Not like you to show up out of the blue."
"I invited her," Celia spoke up.
"More like browbeat me into it." Silver muttered.
“More like invited you.” Celia persisted. “You're not going to do yourself any good pouting in your quarters at the guild hall.”
“Yes, because I'll do so much better getting day drunk here for a month while you are out adventuring.” Silver grumbled.
"And hang out with us every evening when we get back." Celia retorted, intentionally ignoring the negative part of her one-time bodyguard's comment.
The Inn of the Dizzy Sheep had become a regular haunt for their little band over the last few weeks. Good food, warm beds and pleasant company, it was an ideal resting spot, even if the cost to teleport there each evening, and back each morning dug a small pit into their available funds. In Babel, it was hard to put value on a place you could call home.
"Oh, goodie." Silver said dryly.
Shifty looked up from his fiddling with a bit of leatherworking. "If you didn't want our company you'd have stayed in your room."
“Quiet you.” She retorted quickly. “Don't try and bring logic into this.”
A ripple of laughter rolled around the table before Cayden spoke. “If you don't want to talk about it, that is fine. But what do you mean a month?”
Silver's eyebrows knitted together in confusion for a moment, before at last, the comment fell into place. "Oh, the death timer." She nodded. "Downside of using a Green Dream. If it activates to save your life, the death penalty is a month instead of seven days.”
“Ouch.” Cayden winced. “Well, small blessing, but I doubt they're going to go anywhere without you.”
&n
bsp; Silver snorted at that. “Flattery will get you places mister. Though truth be told, I'm starting to wonder if we're ever going to get anywhere, with or without me.”
“It's that bad?” Celia asked softly.
"Honestly? It's worse." Silver frowned. "Not to piss off your sister by being the grim voice of reason in the room, but we still haven't seen the Demon's third stage. I don't think we're even close."
A somber moment passed over the assembled players as her words, depressing as they were, sunk in. The progression guilds had been hammering away on Sobol's Demon for nearly half a year, and Silver didn't even think they were close? On the one hand, it bolstered Cayden's confidence that he'd be able to catch up to the leading guilds before the game was over. On the other hand, was he rushing all this way just to smack headlong into the same unbreakable wall?
“Okay, I need a-” Silver started, only to be pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a glass of rich red wine. “You are too good for this floor Symbal; your talents are wasted here."
"So true. Though perhaps I wouldn't be working so hard if some of my employees..." She fixed Sarah with a stare as she spoke. "Worked rather than gossiped."
"R-right. Rum, milk and some food. I'll be back right away." Sarah stammered, bustling off in a hurry, as much as to escape that withering stare as to fill the order.
Silver smiled at Symbal, then waited for the older woman to leave earshot before turning her attention to the three low-level players. “Speaking of progress. How goes that grand quest of yours?”
Cayden sighed. He knew Silver would ask the question, how could she not? It had just come earlier than he would have liked. A glance at the upper left-hand corner of his display told him everything he needed to know, two pinned reminders of quests still unfinished sitting there, taunting him.
Special Quest