Inside, the box was lined with scarlet felt. There were six rings set in two rows of three. They were nondescript, with no gems or engravings that Mace could see. Reaching into the box, he picked one up, examining it with his Identify ability.
Ring of Many Things
Item Quality: Rare
This ring can be used to store items in a separate dimensional space. Items stored within this space will weigh .01% of normal mass. Perishable items will be preserved, as time is non-existent within the storage dimension. Each item will occupy one slot within the available space. Identical items will stack up to one hundred times in the same slot. Total number of slots: 100
Mace smiled at the description. Shari had already given him the hundred-slot bag she had purchased from the elves. It had been quite expensive. Here he was looking at six rings with the same capacity. If there were still other players left in the world, he would be a very rich drow right now.
Still, the rings could be useful. He could give one each to Lila and Layne, assuming Layne didn’t already have something similar. And it never hurt to have extra storage available for dungeon runs or large battles where one could loot hundreds of corpses. Or for carrying large quantities of crafting supplies.
He moved on from the desk to investigate the other spots he’d noticed. The glowing helm turned out to be an actual helm - not just part of a fake suit of armor. It was epic quality with boosts to Strength and Regeneration. He decided to give it to Griff when they met up. The panel behind the armor was a trapped trigger panel. After Mace unwound the magic of the trap, he pressed on the stone panel and a doorway in the adjoining wall creaked partway open.
Moving to investigate, the first thing Mace noticed was a thick layer of dust on the floor inside the door as though nobody had been through there in centuries. It amused him to think that Justin had spent so much time in this room and never discovered the panel or the door.
He ventured in, checking carefully for more traps as he went. Casting a light globe in front of him, he pushed it about ten feet ahead to light the way. The short corridor that he was in turned to the right, opening into a room about the size of Justin’s chamber. There was a desk against the wall to his left. To the right of that was a long workbench with various tools that were difficult to make out under the deep layer of dust. And the entire right side of the room was covered in bookshelves. Unlike the rest of the room, not a spec of dust touched any of the books. They were clearly enchanted with some type of preservation spell.
Mace’s heart skipped a beat. These books belonged to a mage of some kind. And there were… hundreds of them. He moved his light globe closer to the nearest shelf and began to read the titles. He was disappointed to find that not all of them were about magic. In fact, most seemed to be history books, or books on farming and other trades. He grabbed one on alchemy for Shari, and a couple on smithing for Lila - or Griff, if he followed the typical dwarven path. He also pulled several with titles that did suggest they involved magic.
In the end, he’d pulled thirty or so books to take along. He could leave the rest here and either come back for them himself, or send someone else to retrieve them. He equipped one of his newfound rings and stored all thirty books inside.
Moving to the desk he took a deep breath to blow away the dust, then thought better of it. . Standing back several feet, he summoned a gust of air:
“Ventus!”. He directed the gust down across the length of the desk, then along the workbench as it picked up most of the dust and pushed it out down the corridor. He’d give it time to settle before he left.
Checking the desk carefully, he found two more magic traps, the second a particularly complicated piece of spellwork which would have set off an explosion strong enough to charbroil everything in the room - with the possible exception of the protected books. After clearing the traps, he found several scrolls, which he pocketed without examining.
There was a wand with a wicked black gleam in the bottom drawer, along with a cloth-wrapped parcel. Both of them went into his bag as well. A quick inspection of the workbench covered in glass bottles, vials, and similar tools did not show him anything of interest, but he made a mental note to bring Shari back here. She had learned several skills, including alchemy. Maybe something here would be of use to her.
Back in Justin’s chamber, he examined the last of the spots he had found. The bottom of the chest. The chest was a large one, stretching nearly the width of the bed and a solid three feet wide. A quick check showed him there were no traps, but in a corner near the lid he found a button that, when he pressed it, caused a lock to disengage. The bottom of the chest popped up slightly. Mace grabbed ahold of the edge and lifted the panel, revealing a stairway.
The smell of decay and great age drifted up from below. Minx’s tail gripped him a bit more tightly as she sneezed and said, “Smell like death.”
Summoning another light globe, Mace sent it down the stairs a short way. Once again there was a thick layer of dust here. Another secret Justin and his people never found.
Not seeing the point of stealth while following a rather obvious light globe, Mace stepped down the stairway as it curved to the left in a wide spiral. Roughly fifty steps down, he reached the bottom and a solid iron door, carefully checking it for both mundane and magical traps. Finding none, he looked for a lock. There was only a thick iron bar set into brackets. Suggesting the door was meant to keep something in, rather than out.
Stepping closer, he gently placed his ear against the door to listen for any movement on the other side. The moment his skin came into contact with the cold metal, he received a system notification.
You have discovered a new dungeon! Do you wish to enter the Darkstone Hoosegow at this time?
Mace stepped back. He certainly did not wish to enter at this time. Not alone. Especially not knowing what level the dungeon was. He quickly messaged Shari.
“Uhhh…hi. So it turns out I found a dungeon here at the stronghold. Any chance you ladies want to come run it with me?”
Heading back up the stairs, he considered the matter carefully. Dungeons were usually great sources of xp and loot. They were not something one could complete solo, unless you happened to be high level or extremely overpowered. Mace was neither.
As he stepped up out of the chest the return message from Shari spoke in his ear. “Lila wasn’t thrilled about going back there, but Layne was able to convince her. We’re in. But it’s late, and it’ll take some time to get there. Let’s do it in the morning?”
Mace completely agreed. Dungeons could take hours or even days to clear. And they should make some preparations first. Like finding a tank.
With that in mind, he sent Shari a confirmation and headed back to join the others. Finding Brahm and his people setting up camp just outside the stronghold entrance, he waved him over. When the large minotaur leader reached him, Mace asked
“Did you get all you needed?”
Brahm nodded. “Enough for now. There will always be a need for more iron, but there is a limit to what the wagon will carry.”
Mace glanced at the overladen wagon parked nearby and for a moment wondered how they’d even manage to haul it back to the settlement. Then he remembered the group was full of minotaurs and centaurs. There was no shortage of horsepower available. Or bullpower, as it were.
“Brahm, do you by any chance have a set of armor for yourself?” Mace asked casually.
Brahm pointed to the wagon where Mace could see a few giant shields sticking up along the side. “I do. I recovered the armor the slavers stole from me. Are you expecting more trouble, Mace?” he sounded hopeful.
Mace grinned at him. “Not exactly. I just found a dungeon down below the stronghold. Shari, Lila, and Layne are coming here in the morning and we’re going to go investigate. But I could use someone with heavy armor to stand in front and occupy our foes while I and the others kill them.”
Now Brahm was flashing that same scary grin from earlier. “I would be ho
nored to accompany you.” He bowed his massive head slightly. “Do you need others? I’m sure anyone here would volunteer.”
Mace shook his head. “Let’s investigate first. If we need a larger group we’ll pull in more fighters. Though the centaurs won’t be able to join us. The entrance is a small opening. In fact you may have to squeeze through yourself.”
“I see.” Brahm didn’t look the least bit upset about not having to divide the kills - or the loot - more ways. “Then I will be prepared to join you.”
Mace shook the big leader’s hand. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Stepping back inside the stronghold, he sat by the wall, dismissed Minx, and logged out.
Chapter 4
What Lays Beneath
Mace emerged from his pod to find Shari sitting on his bed reading a trashy romance novel. When she caught him smirking at the cover, she quickly shut the book and punched him half-heartedly. “Shut up! It was what they had at the truck stop. I started it the day before I met you, and now I want to see how it ends.”
“Really?” Mace chuckled as he made his way to the bathroom. “Don’t they pretty much all end in one of two ways? Either the girl gets the guy in the end, or everybody dies.”
Shari hmphed at him. “Yes, but I want to know which it will be! Go shower. You’re all smelly. I shouldn’t even feed you tonight, you brute.”
He paused in the bathroom doorway. “Feed me? You’re cooking? What are we having?” He’d been in-game since the morning, more than twelve hours. His stomach liked the idea of food.
“Since you made fun of my book, we’re having leftover zombie meat with a side of housefly,” she informed him as she walked out of his room. “I’m going to go talk to Griff. He’s better company.”
Mace grinned as he stepped into the shower. Shari had essentially adopted the lonely soldier in his bunker. She emailed him several times a day. They both had gotten the impression that he’d needed the human contact, such as it was. And both understood how dark one’s thoughts could get when you thought you were truly alone. Forever.
Out of the shower and feeling refreshed, Mace made his way to the kitchen, where Shari was indeed cooking. She’d taken some pasta and mixed it with canned chicken, then added some ground nuts for texture and flavor. Dakota was sitting at her feet, tail wagging and laser-focused on the smells from above.
When Shari dished it out, Dakota got his own bowl. It was surprisingly good. Mace had never eaten canned chicken, but it didn’t taste any different that he could tell, at any rate.
“My compliments to the chef.” He gave her his best smile. “Thank you for this.”
She grumbled a bit, shoving another forkful into her mouth without really answering. Mace tried not to smile at her fake anger. Instead, he filled his own mouth with chicken-pasta-goodness as he watched Dakota licking his bowl, the food already gone.
“Whoa, boy. Slow down there. Gonna get a stomach ache wolfing down your food like that!” A moment later, realizing what he’d said, he rolled his eyes and Shari snorted.
“Uhh… I mean. I guess dogs are supposed to wolf? Cuz wolves are like…” He just let it go. Shari and Dakota were both looking at him like he was an idiot.
After they’d done the dishes, Shari volunteered to take Dakota up to ‘water the cornfield.’ Until they came up with something better, it was the best they could do. It wasn’t as though they could just let him outside to run around.
Mace took the opportunity to do some work with Peabody. Since the building’s AI was fully integrated into the game servers now, Mace should be able to tweak a few things he’d been thinking about.
Sitting in the security office and looking at the large monitor, he said, “Peabody, please display the admin game interface.”
“Of course, Mace,” Peabody responded in his monotone voice. “Is there anything in particular you would like to see?”
Mace shook his head, not sure if the AI was watching, or even knew what the gesture meant. “I’ve been thinking about making some changes to the game mechanics as they relate to players. Without the players, the game’s economy is suffering. I can’t do much about all the quests that need completing. Can’t be everywhere at once. But if I’m going to live permanently on Elysia, I can’t have it collapsing just as I upload.”
He thought about what he wanted to try first. “Peabody, how much can I adjust the loot drops in dungeons? And mob drops?”
There was a short delay before the AI answered. “The current parameters allow for a sliding scale of loot drops. Both in terms of currency and items. Levels are automatically dropped to 20% of normal for players who are ‘power leveling’ low-level players in dungeons. And they can be increased up to 100% of normal for special events or instances in which undersized or under-leveled groups complete a dungeon.”
Mace thought that made sense. The devs would have wanted the ability to penalize or reward players for various circumstances. But 100% increase in the small currency drops from most mobs was in no way going to be enough to have any impact on even a village’s economy, let alone the entire continent.
“Peabody, can you remove the restriction on percentage increases? For everything, I mean. Dungeon rewards, mob kills, quest completions… Wait. When a local gives me a quest that involves a monetary reward, does the currency come from them? Like, out of their purse? Or does the system provide the currency?”
“For all quests that benefit the community, the system provides the currency for quest rewards. For personal quests offered by locals for their own benefit, like ‘please find my dog,’ or, ‘please deliver this letter,’ the reward is supplied by the quest giver.”
“Okay then, Peabody. Can we remove the reward limits for everything but those personal benefit quests?”
“Elysia has considered your request. Normal parameters and restrictions are no longer applicable due to the shortage of available players. She is willing to increase rewards to both players and locals for dungeons, creature kills, and quest completions. In addition, she is increasing the number of available resources such as ore deposits, fish and game animals, and crafting ingredients. She will also shorten the growth time of food crops for the farmers in order to keep locals from starving. What level of currency increase would you request?”
Mace was taken aback. Elysia, the game’s controlling AI, was thinking way outside the box. Or Peabody was. He hadn’t had a lot of time to review the game’s source code or Elysia’s prime control directives. But it seemed she was taking her role as the world’s ‘God’ seriously.
“Uhhhmm, wow. I dunno. A… thousand… percent?” he ventured. He hadn’t exactly taken time to do the math. While Peabody talked it over with Elysia, he did some quick figures in his head. If he could normally expect to receive a total of fifty gold from a dungeon run, a thousand percent would be five hundred. A great haul under normal circumstances, but not really enough to make up for millions of players contributing a few gold here and there every day.
Elysia apparently came to a similar conclusion . Only faster, of course. And had time to do some math of her own. Peabody replied. “Elysia deems this an appropriate increase for locals. However, you and the other players shall receive ten thousand percent the normal rewards. For a time, at least.”
Mace’s eyes widened in surprise at this. Peabody continued. “In addition, players shall be able to make use of the auction house in a limited capacity. It can be used to sell items to other players, as usual, but there will be an option to sell certain items to Elysia for a higher value than a local merchant would pay.”
Mace’s mind spun. This created a huge opportunity. Not only would loot drops give them funds to help the locals like the villagers at the settlement, they could sell off all those items he’d been thinking would make him rich if there were still players in the game. Like epic boots that are restricted to Monk class. Or even large quantities of extra crafting ingredients like ores or herbs. His inner loot hog was break-dancing. Now he was sorry he’d left
so many of them behind.
“Thank you Peabody. I have another question. How many players are still active in Elysia? On all the servers worldwide?”
He held his breath while he waited for the AI’s response. He’d been thinking small the last couple months. Monitoring chat looking for players, posting on and scanning through the forums. It hadn’t occurred to him until he’d had to move Griff from a European server that there might be players on other servers who he couldn’t see.
“There are currently fifteen active accounts worldwide on which players have logged in to Elysia in the last five days, including yours, admin Shari’s, and player Griff’s.”
“Holy shit!” Mace’s heart thudded in his chest. His stomach flopped and he couldn’t decide whether to shout or cry. “Twelve other players? Twelve!”
He took a moment to breathe and sat down in his chair. He reached for the desk, grabbing a pen and piece of paper. “Where are they, Peabody?”
The AI replied, “Four are on a server in North Korea. They appear to all be in the same government facility. Three more are on a Hong Kong server and are logging in from one of our corporate facilities, while two players are logged in at our facility in Sydney right now. Another is logged in from a private server in Texas, and two are on different private servers in Moscow.”
“Th-thank you Peabody.” Mace had been scribbling madly as the information came. He took a moment to look at it. Then he asked the inevitable question. “Peabody, you mentioned facilities in Hong Kong and Sydney. Are they facilities like this one? Underground? With a power source? And are there more of those around the world?”
Peabody’s answer was a long time coming. “… A search of available corporate records shows a total of nine facilities with large clusters of servers in locations on each continent. I do not have information on the physical structures at this time. However, all but the South African facility are still showing as operational.”
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