“Fine!” Brock shouted. “If that’s how it is!”
We struck once, twice, engaging into a fierce struggle. I forced him off me and began cutting. He parried with swift movements, going blow for blow, but I knew it was over. I blitzed him with a series of strikes and close range level one magic that left him stunned. Tripping him with a Wind Blast, I proceeded to rain heavy blows down upon him.
On one knee, Brock raised his blade against mine, the only thing shielding him from my onslaught, but it wasn’t enough. I struck it aside with one hand, and blasted him with a Plasma Beam with the other, bringing his Hit Point down to a tiny fraction.
I rose and he glared up at me.
“It’s funny, when I first started this game, I looked up to you,” I said, feeling slightly exhausted from the fight. “Now look at you.”
“No . . . you didn’t.” Brock shook his head, grinning despite his obvious defeat. “As a Spellcaster, even in the beginning you were a little taller than me. With the height difference, you were always looking down on me.”
I shook my head, amused that he would bring up something so trivial in such a situation. “Get a life, Brock. After all, you’ll be able to after this.”
Brock inclined his head. “Not you, though.”
I nodded and raised my Ruby Edge. “I’ve made my decision.”
“Oh yeah?” He raised a brow at me “Just as I made mine?”
I stabbed the Color Blade down, taking out the last of his Hit Points. He vanished from the top floor hall, his leathers and the Sapphire Edge dropping onto the dusty wooden boards. Seeing it laying there, a wide smile played onto my lips
Siena was right on two accounts, two Color Blades are better than one, and I really do like dual wielding.
I picked up the sword.
— ACQUIRED ‘SAPPHIRE EDGE’ —
At first, I wondered why a ‘Dungeon Complete’ scroll didn’t unroll in my vision as well, but then I remembered what Dice had told me. The goal of the dungeon was not to get to the top floor but to reach the rooftop. I located a ladder leading up the wall and made my way over to it. Looking up, I noticed a hatch in the ceiling.
I began to climb. As one would expect of a coned-shaped structure, the hall at the top floor was narrower than its base. However, that didn’t make the ceiling any lower, and it took a long time of climbing to finally reach it.
I pushed up the hatch and it slammed heavily onto the roof. The brightness above almost blinded me, but I managed to pull myself up onto the surface and look around. Now outside, the high winds howled around me. Shuddering in exhaustion, I stood and closed the hatch before finally seeing my goal.
I was high above Heaven, the tallest point in the Dream State. Around the edge of the roof there was a chest high railing, and in its center was an empty plinth. I walked over to it and when I looked at its blackened base, words appeared in my vision:
— “You’ve done well, Noah. Now put the evidence in this loading bay and the dungeon will be complete.” —
I sighed in relief now that I had finally finished my test. I was about to pull my Wakizashi out from my inventory and place it inside when I realized there was one more monster I had yet to kill.
“Noah?” asked a familiar brittle voice.
I turned to see FranktheTank standing behind me.
Chapter 34: Only an Annoyance
Of all the people I could have faced in Apollo’s Lookout, Frank was the one I wanted to fight the least. Not because I liked him . . . er, her, but because she was just so pathetic, the least likely to be able to defend against my attacks. She wasn’t really an opponent, only an annoyance.
I almost feel sorry for her . . . almost.
What was so odd about the encounter was that I actually recognized her new armor, or at least parts of it. The red shoulders, arm guards and gauntlets were exactly the same as the Dragon Arm I had bought from Toena, the very first item I had bought on my own after arriving in the game.
I advanced on her, the Ruby and Sapphire Edges both flashing into my hands. The way she stepped back in confusion showed she had no idea what was going on, and it seemed like she really didn’t want to lose her new armor either. It didn’t matter. She was in my way.
“Noah, I don’t know what’s going on here . . .” she said, hands raised in surrender. “But listen, I have a friend who’s being bullied by a group called Catastrophe, and Siena said I should ask you about them. She said you might be able to help her.”
I stopped. It quickly made sense why she had gone to the Broken Clock Tower as a new player to sell the orb. Catastrophe must have tricked her by using someone she trusted. However, the fact that she wanted to get help against Catastrophe reminded me suddenly of how lost and scared I’d been when they had been after me.
If Brock hadn’t been around to help me, I don’t know what would’ve happened.
I made my Color Blades vanish, pulled out the Wakizashi that the videos were encoded onto and held it out to her.
“You see this?” I asked, hoping to be as direct as possible.
She nodded, looking puzzled.
“Well, as soon I as put this blade on that thing.” I pointed to the plinth in the middle of the roof. “I will be the leader of Catastrophe and can make them do whatever I want. That includes making them stop bullying your friend. But to do that, I need you to do one thing for me, okay?”
She nodded again, her voice sounding confused and frightened. “What?”
“Say you’re going to work for Wona.” I shook the short sword in front of her red helmet. “Just say it, okay?”
Knowing Frank was too afraid and too weak to do anything against me, I turned my back on her and walked to the plinth. I stabbed the curved blade of the Wakizashi into the black base and a loading bar appeared beneath it, slowly filling up. It looked like the video files were being downloaded into the game itself.
Is this how I end the test?
Something hit me, hard, and the impact flipped me over the plinth. The force was enough to make me hit the railing that went around the edge of the roof. I looked down, feeling dazed and was shocked to see another large chunk of my health was gone. Then I saw Frank standing on one knee, holding onto what looked like a cannon from an old pirate ship.
“The heck?” I breathed
Frank stood. Only someone of her size could have lifted such a massive weapon. Smoke rose from the barrel of the cannon.
I’ve heard of a knife in the back before . . . but a cannonball? I bared my teeth, hot anger building inside me. I have to be careful. That thing packs a wallop, but it should only be able to fire once.
“Siena told me you were going to sell out your friends.” Although I couldn’t see her face through the helmet of the Dragon Armor, her voice was trembling. “Is that why everyone vanished?”
I grinned as she staggered toward me, seeing that the large cannon obviously slowed her down a bit.
My Color Blades appeared once again in my hands. “That was a big mistake!”
I went to charge at her. However, my assumption that the cannon could only be fired once was wrong. There may have been a cooldown time, but Frank didn’t have to reload before she fired it again.
“No!”
It blasted me back again, the cannonball knocking me through the rooftop railing. I went sailing back off the edge of the building, but managed to empty my hands of the Color Blades and grab the end of the broken railing, dangling out over the edge of the roof. In my panic, I brought out my blue Summoning Stone.
Let’s see how this bastard likes the Storm Horn!
Before I could use it, Frank came to edge of the roof and looked down on me, her cannon proving her to be more than just a simple annoyance.
That weapon must have a glitch in this era! It’s way too powerful!
As soon as the smoke stopped rising from it, another cannonball shot toward me. Instead of being hit by it and letting it take the rest of my Hit Points, I let go of the railing and fell,
preparing to summon Peragon. However, as I looked down, I realized the option to do so wasn’t in my Key Triggers.
I gasped as I realized my mistake and the memory of what Dice had told me about Apollo’s Lookout suddenly came back to me:
“Also, because of its link with the city, this dungeon doesn’t allow players to use mounts, so you can’t just fly to the roof.”
“Oh crap!”
I screamed and spun in the air to avoid the projectile, watching as the clouds around the lighthouse flew up at me. I tried to do the rolling-hands movement for a Cyclone spell to slow my fall, but even if I had managed to finish the gesture, the thought to cast it had arrived too late.
They say the higher you get, the farther you have to fall. I wish that had been the case. I wouldn’t have minded summoning Peragon once I had fallen past the clouds and flown to safety. However, I hadn’t been propelled far enough from the lighthouse when I let go of the railing.
The second to last thing I remembered seeing in the Dream Engine was the green of the gardens that encircled the lookout rushing up to meet me. The last was the neon lettering on the inside of my helmet saying:
— GAME OVER —
* * *
After seeing Noah fall, Frank rushed over to the plinth. The upload bar was at a hundred percent. She was too late. However, another loading bar replaced it with the word ‘Deleting’ underneath. She pulled it free before it could start, and as soon as she did, a scroll unrolled in her vision.
— DUNGEON COMPLETE —
So I completed this dungeon by pulling a blade free?
Frank turned to where Noah had emerged from the roof and pulled up the trapdoor to see a ladder leading down. Knowing of no other way of leaving, she used it to climb to the floor below. Finding it empty, she moved over to the stairs leading down and descended under the floor that then became the ceiling.
Keri was sitting in the middle of the floor below, her legs pulled up to her chest. She was looking down at her feet with an expression of sorrow and frustration. Frank rushed to her and she stood up, as though she had been waiting for her.
“Frank, how did you manage to escape Noah?”
She shrugged with a grin. “I guess he underestimated me.”
Keri smiled slightly. “I’m impressed. Did you end up getting the Color Blade in the Calandor Ruins? ”
“No . . . this place gives me the creeps. I want to leave here ASAP.”
“I see . . .” Her eyes widened. “Did you see where the Color Blade landed in the dungeon before you faded?”
Frank shook her head. “But I have a hunch. Let’s go.”
Keri stood and they moved down the many stairs to get outside.
“I assume everyone in the Calandor Ruins was taken here.” Frank looked down at Keri’s pensive frown. “Who would have thought that just the two of us would be the only ones to get out of here alive, right? How did you manage to survive?”
“I had to fight Chloe.” She looked down. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I guess this place was a little weird for everyone.
Frank shrugged and they continued their descent.
The place was so massive it took nearly an hour before they made it down to the ground floor. It seemed to take even more time in the silence between her and Keri. She assumed the dungeon was incomplete by the lack monsters or details inside. The place was just empty.
When they exited the lighthouse, Frank shook her head at the size of the massive floating city they were on. Keri didn’t seem at all amazed by the sight.
“My DSD is running out. So I’m going to wake up to log out, okay?” Keri said.
“I’ll do the same.” Frank waved. “I’ll see you the next time we do a dungeon together.”
Keri nodded and the world went dark.
Francine pulled free of the game’s grip on her and removed her Dream Engine helmet from her head, but she wasn’t finished with it yet. She took another dose of DSD and put it back on, returning to the Dream State and heading straight to the Calandor Ruins.
Instead of doing the dungeon properly, she avoided most of the monsters, as well as the Fire Toad, and found the way down to the lowest area. It wasn’t until she came to the hollow at the base of the hills that she realized how deep the pool there was. The waterfall that went through the castle ruins ended there, and she looked around at the giant pieces of wall and debris that stuck up from the water.
She searched the base for the Amethyst Edge but saw nothing resembling it. She didn’t want to go too far into the water because she knew her armor’s weight would draw her to the bottom of the pool and drown her. However, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she remembered going with Tessa to Mermaid Lagoon to get the ability to breathe underwater before their argument.
Turns out that might not have been such a waste of time after all.
She dragged her Aqua Lungs ability into her Key Triggers. Going into the water was weird, but being able to breathe as she went under was even weirder. The Dragon Armor pulled her down, allowing her to walk along its floor.
The hill that made up the bottom continued going down into a beautiful underwater valley. From the look of the place, a good portion of the dungeon seemed to be hidden underwater, but only those with the ability from Jossi Island could explore it.
But Jossi Island is a new setting. How many people have even been down here?
She continued to descend, her armor weighing her down as she went deeper and deeper. The castle ruins stretched out underwater like the base of a fish bowl. Aquatic creatures swam in and out of the crumpled structures and Frank knew she should be wary of them while on her own.
At first, she couldn’t see anything in the darkness at the base of the valley, but then glimpsed a purple glow being emitted in its center. There at the very bottom, she finally found what she had been searching for.
The outcropping that collapsed must have regenerated and the Warrior who lost it probably thought one of us had already taken it for ourselves. But it’s right here. It’s been here since we were teleported away.
It was sticking out of an algae-covered rock at the base of the valley. She came upon the Color Blade and marveled at the way the purple luminance turned the water around it a similar hue. She was about to grab hold of it when she realized this was how her encounters with Siena and her group of friends began.
It all began with finding a rare item that I was trying so hard not to let anyone know about. Should I repeat that mistake again, knowing that it will only lead to more people coming after me?
Her hand hovered over the sword’s pommel as she contemplated this, remembering everything that had happened to her over the last week. Being chased by Catastrophe, Tessa betraying her, becoming friends with Siena and the rest, and defeating Noah on the rooftop at the highest place of the Dream State. Her memories here had become one big adventure.
No more being indecisive! What’s the point of playing this game, if I’m not going to really play it?
She grasped the Color Blade by the hilt and pulled it free.
— ACQUIRED ‘AMETHYST EDGE’ —
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Acknowledgements
I’m beginning to think all of these books are going to come out of car crashes.
A few days into writing Back in the Game, I realized I only had enough story for a third of the novel. I was lucky, however, that on the way to dinner that evening I was in a minor car accident. The apathy I had toward the plight of the other driver when I just wanted to go and eat dinner made me feel like a villain. This feeling stayed with me until Hayley suggested I do what I had originally intended for book one and make Brock a villain. I couldn’t do that. Brock was just such a good guy . . . but Noah was another story, and along with what I’d felt after the crash, ideas began to take root.
From that point on, the book pretty much wrote itself. All up, it took about two weeks to complete the first draft, but it was a mess. Jack Gifford, my invaluable first reader, edited it into a state of legibility, a task I would argue was even more difficult than the writing itself. He did this in even less time than it took to write the book, hence the dedication. Hayley picked up where Jack left off, finally being able to enjoy the fruits of our discussion weeks earlier. I sent it away and my editor, Mandi Diaz, caught many of the plot holes that we had missed and that was that. All of these people, even the driver who crashed into us, deserve acknowledgements.
Back in the Game Page 18
