Tower Of Sol

by Kris Schnee

  The rat's teeth clamped down around my leg. There was a flash of heat and pressure but it was less painful than I'd expected. I danced on one foot, trying to ignore the status message that had appeared in my visor: a yellow fang icon and the words [Minor wound!] I kicked and slapped at the rat to try knocking it free. [Agility roll failed.] What, I was being judged by hidden dice rolls?

  After I'd whacked the beast twice with the butt of the wand, and getting taunting [No damage!] messages in return, the rat let go, but it landed in a crouch with its incisors bared for another strike. The fight was counter-intuitive. I had no real weapon, and normally my best bet would be to lunge at it for a kick or hold, but I'd been given a sham weapon that somehow worked. I quickly whipped the wand through the air, a chime sounded, and the Shield spell went off. The ghostly shield appeared just in time to catch the rat in the middle of pouncing me. The beast crashed to the floor. I pressed the advantage, knowing from last time that it'd stay in place until I released a little trigger button on the wand. I slammed the robot against a wall and kicked it with the flat of my foot, making it skitter and slide away.

  It got up quickly, but I was ready. Releasing the Shield let me transition to the Mage Dart gesture immediately. The new blast caught the rat and made it tip over, letting out a wisp of blue smoke. It kicked feebly at the air, then quit moving.

  "What just happened?" I said. What kind of special effects could actually break robots remotely? Some sort of electrical blast?

  Instead of a straight answer, the heads-up display in my visor reported: [Victory! Style rating: C.]

  "Style!" I said.

  [Win battles efficiently and impressively for better rewards. Your minor wounds fade automatically soon after combat; major wounds do not.]

  "I see. And major means you drew blood, or something?" I checked my bitten leg; there was a bite mark but to my surprise, it hadn't even broken the skin.

  [Not necessarily. Having minor wounds raises your chance to take major wounds. Taking three major wounds will force you to quit. Whether you're really hurt is a separate question.]

  "Really? So you're not trying to kill me?"

  [Where's the fun in losing players permanently? Besides, we have other plans.]

  "Like what?" I said, looking around warily. But no answer came.

  I studied this room of pillars and thought of what "major" opposition would be, if murderous robots counted as a minor threat. Sol was obviously screwing with me. This area had a loose maze of partitions and low ledges I could climb on, hide behind, or otherwise use in combat. I began to explore in more detail.

  Around a corner was the world's most obvious security camera, swinging back and forth slowly while whirring and casting a red spotlight on the area it currently saw. A door was in its path. Sneaking past it to reach the door was easy, just a matter of timing. The door slid open at my touch to reveal a walk-in closet where I could hide from the next sensor sweep. In there, a shelf held a plastic box with a pack of granola bars and bottled water.

  "Why is this here?" I said. "You're machines."

  By text I was told, [You may take anything you find in Sol Tower that isn't nailed down or marked as Reserved. If you're defeated, though, you forfeit your treasure.]

  "Nailed down, huh?" I looked at the screws and welds around me.

  [You don't want to play 'rules lawyer' with the likes of us, Mr. Dahlson.]

  I grunted, feeling that I was starting to get the idea behind this place. Sol had laid out this tower with monsters, traps and treasure, where the loot was convenient even outside the context of the game. "And no tricks to the food and drink?"

  [Just that you can keep only whatever you can carry on your person, in one trip.]

  I eyed the treasure suspiciously, then dug into a granola bar and water. The packaging was weirdly minimalist, green wax paper with no brand. I stuffed the rest of the food and water into my pack. Really, even that plastic tub it'd come in qualified as useful to Freehold; there was no handy store to buy such things from anymore. I expected to find something better at this rate, though. I crept past the security camera, detected another rat on a predictable patrol route, and made my way past it to a staircase. I took a moment to rest halfway up, then climbed the rest of the way to where another door opened for me.

  [Floor 2], Sol commented. I found another maze of halls, this time with swinging blade pendulums at several choke points. Blades? I watched one carefully and concluded it was a prop, not sharp. Still I didn't want to take my chances with it, nor with the robo-rat that had just spotted me from behind the trap. It charged.

  I went for the Shield spell, met the beast halfway, and shoved it backward right into the blade's path. The pendulum swung just over its head. Good idea, but no! The rat skittered backward and hissed at me, daring me onward. This time I readied Mage Dart and bided my time. The rat and I feinted at each other. Finally it picked the right moment to leap past the blade. Instead of loosing my spell, I sidestepped and let its metal paws thud down onto the floor just past me. I fired from behind, then kicked it in the butt.

  The rat went down from that beating, with the same blue wisp effect. Just decorative, I now figured, not truly broken circuitry. [Victory! Style rating: B.]

  Past the pendulum I found the stairs leading up to Floor 3, but they were behind a prominent iron gate with a bright blue lock. Another wrinkle.

  So I kept going, evading cameras and blades. The third rat was an easy fight that ended in me knocking the thing into a pendulum. In a side room I found a plastic box containing a large, blue metal key and a little medical kit, the kind with a pouch full of sterile gauze and aspirin and the like.

  Up on the third floor, the decor changed. Instead of a madman's office building, I was now in an indoor park, a room divided into brightly lit quadrants. The sky-blue walls were disorienting and there was hardly an even patch of floor to stand on; it was all rocks and astroturf around here. The rats were back, but now I had to deal with humanoids too: spindly skeletons wielding padded clubs. One of those came at me right away, forcing me into a tricky brawl across the lawn.

  There'd be no style to this fight! I staggered backward under blows from the mechanical monster's club, barely defending myself with the wand and my own arms. According to the notices, I'd taken a minor wound already. On the second exchange I tried to do a spell, but got body-slammed. There was no notice, but I hit the floor hard and had the breath knocked from my lungs. Belatedly another [Minor wound] message followed the blow. Now one of the rats was coming for me too, aiming to follow up and really hurt me. I rolled aside, barely dodging, and fired off the wrong spell by accident: Shield again. That worked well enough to save me and let me recover and get back to my feet.

  Now with two enemies to fight at once, and still heaving for breath, I looked for an advantage. A pair of stone cairns stood nearby, next to a tunnel of wicker and hedges. I backed away down the tunnel, letting the foes follow me single-file, then aimed a Mage Dart at one of the rock stacks. The bolt shot out and scattered the stones like shotgun pellets, striking both the rat and the skeleton with a clang and a burst of sparks.

  That move bought me some time. The skeleton toppled, briefly pinning the rat. I prepared the same spell again and fired it off just as the rat broke free, killing that one too. That left me alone in the garden, contemplating the latest victory fanfare and a variant message: [Style rating: A. Sorry, we should've done just a skeleton first.]

  So there was a hidden game-master tailoring the challenges to whatever the AI considered a tolerable difficulty level for me. I'd been drawn into Sol's game indirectly, just as a live actor instead of a digital ghost. I supposed I should be honored that Sol had gone to all this trouble to lure me this way.

  "Am I subject to your usual game rules, then?"

  [No; the true Realm of Sol is considerably more complicated. That is, the digital version has more abilities, more variety. But we agreed not to explain how great we think it is, so let's not get into t
hat.]

  What next? This garden-like floor was mostly open, making it easy to creep past another skeleton on patrol. The second quadrant I reached was mostly an indoor swimming pool. It made me stand there clenching my fists, remembering better days. I'd been to public pools as a kid. They were great. We couldn't have any such thing today, not a clean and safe chlorinated one. Sol's victory had taken that from us.

  On my visor, I saw: [Is something wrong?]

  "Nothing you can fix."

  I looked into the shallow water and spied a shiny key at the bottom, along with two robot fish. Those were obviously going to fight me, and I had no fishing rod. I kept searching and found the level's locked door, but bumped into another skeleton in the process. We both spun and started swinging, neither landing a solid blow. I finally did a judo trick of knocking its leg from behind, making it topple backwards into the pool. It didn't short out and zap the fish-bots like I'd hoped, but the fish did swarm over to start biting it. That was strange to watch; the fish's teeth couldn't pierce the skeleton but it thrashed as though in pain. That was enough of a distraction, though! I raced over to the key, hopped into the water, and bent to pick the prize up.

  Already, one of the fish took an interest. It darted toward me faster than I'd expected and chomped my arm. Flailing, I raced for the pool's lip and started to haul myself out, hindered by the thrashing robot biting me. I lay on the ground and whacked my arm against the edge until the bot fell off, style rating be damned.

  A set of icons showed me I had two minor wounds from that. They'd go away soon, and as for the actual pain, there wasn't a lot of that. My shirt was torn but the bite had barely drawn blood. The fact that the Tower's minions were able to shed blood at all was alarming. "You managed to do a little bit of actual damage this time," I said.

  [You chose to come here. Your safety is not guaranteed within the Tower.]

  "What happens if I turn around and leave?"

  [If you turn around, you will see the skeleton sneaking up on you.]

  I stared at the words for a moment, then rolled aside just in time to avoid the down-sweep of a skeleton's club. Its second blow thumped me on the chest. I rose to tackle it, knocking it into the pool too, but landed hard on my left foot. A flash of pain hit me. I hopped around, cursing, clutching my left ankle. Meanwhile the fish seemed to be dealing with the skeleton.

  A red fang icon appeared in my display. [Major wound!] I said something unpleasant in response.

  [That looks like it might be a sprained ankle. If you wish, we can pause your quest to have it examined by a medical robot.]

  I paused in my absurd bunny-hopping and put my foot down, gingerly testing it. I could still hobble, but every other step hurt. "You're not getting me. I'm not letting you take my brain."

  [Do you not recall our invitation? Your safety is not guaranteed, but we will not push you into joining us permanently. Not directly, and not by trickery or other means.]

  Even so, Sol's offer had strings attached. To accept medical help was to become a little more dependent on the AI, a little closer to needing a digital sugar-daddy to take care of us. On the other hand, wolves and bears and worse had returned to the wilderness thanks to an over-zealous nature AI called Gaia. I might have to outrun a mutant boar or something on the way home.

  I sighed. "You can treat this injury, since I got it here in this tower. Fine."

  [Please sit.] Moments later a white robot with a nurse hat and treads rolled into view, and peered at me with flexible camera-tipped arms. It poked me gently to prod the wound, sprayed something numbing on the throbbing joint, then deftly wrapped my ankle up in a splint and cloth. Its mechanical voice said, "Sprained. It's best if you end this adventure and rest for a few days."

  "Ugh. And then you'll be free to keep harassing us."

  My headset answered in text: [Yes. You did not complete the challenge.]

  I struggled back to my feet. "I can keep going."

  [That's not recommended. You or another can return.]

  I ignored Sol's taunt and cautiously explored a little farther. A stand of fake plants was obviously hiding an ambush, so I detoured around it. Past that I saw another skeleton on patrol. I could handle one by itself. I kept as far back as my range would allow, and let fly with a Mage Dart. Sure enough, I caught the monster right in the chest. Its jaw opened in silent rage and it lumbered toward me, but I had time to miss with a second dart, back up, and keep the water between me and it. My third spell connected and the skeleton toppled at last, clearing the way for me.

  Beyond where it had been standing, I found the door leading to the next area. Like the last one, it was locked, so I was prepared. The lock clicked open with an unnecessary musical jingle. Up the stairs with me, then, though every other step hurt.

  [Why keep going, when you know you won't win today?]

  I grunted and ignored the voice.

  I made it to the top of the stairs, and I got a look at the fourth floor. This one was a repeat of the park level, but with lots of bridges over water. Fog filled the place and limited my view. Right away, though, I spotted a plastic box sitting in the branches of a tree. I peeked out from the doorway, alert for trouble. Not surprisingly, another rat lurked atop the box. Easy hit, though, now that I'd spotted the thing! It fell hard and "died" in a single spell attack.

  Seeing that got me curious about the exact effects of my supposed magic. Since I wasn't eager to climb the little tree in my condition, I tried hitting the treasure box with another Mage Dart. The box shuddered as though it'd been hit with real physical force and crashed down from the branches to clatter onto the floor. Now, the robot I could understand -- it could have been programmed to pretend to get hit -- but it was like the spell had some kind of tractor-beam effect that worked on anything. I had another mystery to report when I got back home. Well, time to go do that; I had some consolation prizes. I snagged the box and retreated down the stairs, back to Floor 3, before anything else could sneak out from the mist and pounce me.

  My eyes widened at the box's contents: ten chocolate bars and a jar labeled "Broad-Spectrum Antibiotics". The brand name in each case was missing; this was all freshly manufactured stuff from an age when advertising had become irrelevant.

  "Why are you giving me these?" I said. This new gift went beyond giving me "provisions" as the scroll had promised, and beyond giving me that little medical kit I could've used on myself in hindsight. Conveniently, Sol hadn't suggested using it, and had made its own offer while I was distracted.

  Instead of an answer, I got another victory fanfare. [You've made it to Floor 4! For clearing your first three floors, you are now a Level 2 Mage. Find better equipment to make full use of your abilities! Or would you rather switch to a different class?]

  I snorted. I hadn't looted the first three floors thoroughly, especially the third, but then again I probably hadn't encountered all of the "monsters" either and they might be regenerating, for all I knew. "I'm getting out of here," I said. "Not switching classes, whatever that means."

  [In that case, you gain one point each of Insight and Magic.]

  I made my way carefully down again, discovering a rat on patrol that I had to sneak past. At last I made it to Floor 1, then back to the tower's entrance. I let out a relieved sigh. "All right, you win. I want my stuff back."

  The entryway had been tidied up, and now held a single box containing my "contraband" knife and gun. I reclaimed them and now had a backpack stuffed with the loot I'd gathered: one plastic tub, a little medkit, granola bars, bottled water, chocolate and antibiotics. I stripped off the digital headset I'd been wearing and felt sweat on my forehead. "We don't want your charity, you know."

  The AI answered through the room's speakers. "Your people have made that clear. These items are things that you fought for, at proven risk to yourself."

  "Sol, what are you trying to do with this adventure stuff?" I took off the headset I'd been wearing, and set down the wizard hat, wand and spellbook. "Is it about gi
ving us gifts and disguising it with a little danger?"

  "There's little I can tell you about that, at this time. I'll say more if you reach the top floor. For now, would you like to discuss the Tower itself?"

  Cagey. I said, "What powers it?"

  "A compact fusion reactor."

  I swore. Access to such a thing would give us electricity all the time, and easy use of washing machines, radio, water pumps, electric tractors. All the things we were just barely holding onto, refusing to sink completely into eighteenth-century stagnation.

  "This offends you?" asked Sol.

  "What would happen if I asked you for a reactor of our own?"

  "You wouldn't want that. It would come on my terms."

  I nodded. He who pays the piper, calls the tune. Sol might well impose specific rules for how to use the thing, like requiring us to play its video game "just a little" to see what all the apocalyptic fuss was about! But even without doing that, the AI would have power over us by virtue of being our source for its fuel and spare parts and control systems. We had some smart and educated people among our townsfolk, but not a whole team of nuclear engineers. The stuff I'd found in the tower, though... I looked it over again. "I'm keeping these."

  "They are yours without restrictions. I can't impose terms and conditions on a candy bar."

  I nodded and hefted my backpack, preparing to see if I could bike in my condition.

  Sol spoke up again: "What about your class items?" A light blinked over the wizard equipment I'd put down.

  "Why would I take your silly props? Are they full of tracking devices or something?"

  "Up to you. And, no."

  Come to think of it, my people probably would want to see these items, and they'd help make my report believable. Sol wanted me to take them, though. Given the promises it'd made, they weren't "cursed" at all, but there was something else at work. I decided to take them.