by Pdmac
At precisely one o’clock, Miss Whitmer, or was it Ms or maybe it was Missus, Felix wasn’t sure as he failed to see if she wore a wedding ring, announced, “He is ready to see you.” She pressed a button on her desk, causing the doors to swing wide, revealing a broad set of stairs and another set of doors at the top. By the time he climbed the stairs, the doors at the top opened, and he stepped into Mister Landon’s office, the sanctum sanctorum.
The office stretched wide like the secretary’s office. In contrast to the stark emptiness of the secretary’s front office, Landon’s office was replete with sculptures, antiques, artifacts and antiquities, oil paintings, drawings, plants and book shelves crammed with tomes that lined an entire wall.
Mister Landon stood at the window behind his desk, gazing out over the city. Landon was in his early 50s, slim, average height, with short auburn hair and a pencil moustache, the one vanity he allowed himself. He had no tattoos and though he disliked the inking of one’s body, he realized he would have no employees if he held fast to his aversion.
The doors closed behind Felix and he approached the desk. “You wished to receive the latest on the Bridge Quest project, Sir.”
Mister Landon paused then turned, his coal black eyes piercing Felix as though he were penetrating into his soul. “Yes. I understand there is a glitch in the game.” His voice was nonchalant, which Felix knew was dangerous.
“Yes, Sir,” he nervously began. “We’re working on correcting it.”
“Working on it?” He folded his arms and his stare intensified. “This problem has been going on for a week, has it not?”
“Uh… I believe so, Sir.”
“You believe so?” he repeated, his voice suddenly cold. “Why is it taking so long?”
“I didn’t find out about it until yesterday,” he explained.
“Yesterday?” Landon questioned, an eyebrow arched in feigned surprise. “How is it that I knew about this problem the day after it occurred?”
“I… uh, I don’t know sir.” Felix silently kicked himself for such a stupid answer.
“You don’t know?” It wasn’t a question. “I pay you good money to know. I expect you to know. You will know or I’ll find someone who can know.”
“Yes, Sir. I understand, Sir.” Felix’s armpits were gushing like fountains and he felt the drops of sweat running down his sides as he silently prayed that Landon would not notice, though how could he not when the beads of sweat were forming on his temples.
“So then, Mister Hubach, why don’t you tell me what you do know.”
“The glitch is in the town of Abeloft on the first island. For some reason, once the orcs are killed outside the front gate, the program assumes the quest is successful and that a new individual has arrived for the same quest. In other words, once the orcs are killed the program reactivates the quest and keeps reactivating it, despite the fact that it is the same team completing the quest.”
“What else?”
“Well,” he added with a nervous breath. “Those involved with completing the quest are leveling up beyond where they should be at this point in the game.”
“They are already at level 6,” Mister Landon sharply pointed out. “They should not be level 6 until they are on the second island. Is that not correct?”
“No, Sir.”
“No?”
Despite the ominous sound of his reply, Felix relaxed slightly as he realized Mister Landon didn’t know everything. “No Sir. They need to be at level 10 in order to cross to the next island.”
“Ah, yes,” he replied with a knowing smile. “You are right. However, they are still leveling up too quickly. What do you intend to do about it?”
“It’s the interface between the leveling parameters and quest control. We’ve already identified the programming error and are in the process of correcting it. It should be finished by the end of the day.”
“Should be?”
“I meant will be, Sir. They were running some tests while I was on my way here.”
Landon relaxed slightly. “So what do you recommend we do about their levels?”
“Leave them, Sir.”
“Leave them alone?” he said, frowning.
“Yes, Sir. I believe they realized why they were leveling up and were staying in Abeloft to continue the leveling. If we take away their levels, it might affect their morale. Right now, the leader –”
“Our Viking, Karl,” Landon interjected.
“Yes, Sir, Karl. He’s put together a tight team and they’re operating rather well, just like we wanted. He’s a natural leader.”
“We knew that,” Landon nodded. “That’s why we chose him.”
“Yes, Sir. As I was saying, reducing their levels will impact the team. I believe we should leave them like they are. It will get them across the bridge faster and they’ll be where they should be. Also, once we cease the leveling in Abeloft, they’ll take the hint and move on.”
Landon mused a bit then gave Felix a rare smile. “Fine. I accept your recommendation. But no more glitches.”
“No Sir,” he answered with a relieved smile. He could see that Landon was about to dismiss him when he said, “There’s one more thing, Sir. Minor really, but I think might help overall in the game.”
“Yes?”
“Coffee.”
“Coffee?” he furrowed his brows, puzzled.
“Yes, Sir. We’ve created a dazzling world for our experiment, but the one thing missing is coffee.”
Landon’s smile turned into a grin. “Of course. There’s no coffee in the medieval universe we created. So intent on developing our creations into useful weapons of war, we’ve neglected the essential creature comforts.” He smiled again at Felix. “By all means, we need to add coffee to the game.”
“My thought, Sir, is to add it on the second island, sort of as a reward for leaving the first island.”
“I’ll leave that to you,” he replied with a flip of his hand, his reserved demeanor returning.
Recognizing he had been dismissed, he dipped his head in a respectful bow. “Good day, Sir.”
“Yes, yes. Good day to you, Felix.” He turned back to gaze out the window.
Felix was halfway down the hallway to the elevator when he suddenly realized that Mister Landon had called him by his first name. Controlling his giddiness, he calmed himself, quickly remembering that he needed to discover how Mister Landon knew about the glitch before he did, which meant there either was a mole in his office or the supposedly shielded lines running the program weren’t as shielded as he believed. All which meant that he had a security problem, one that he intended to eradicate.
There was a buzz of anticipation as Karl and company sat in the tavern, waiting for the burgomaster and alderman to come traipsing in. While some were thinking of the number of days it would take to level up to 10, others checked weapons or rehearsed spells.
‘Why don’t we just head on out to the gate,” Conrad said aloud, “and surprise them before they even have a chance to know we’re there?”
“Because we want the burgomaster and aldermen to come to us and beg us for help,” Karl answered. “Showing up uninvited gets them off the hook. We want an overt quid pro quo.”
“A what?”
“It’s Latin, dummy,” Wendell loftily replied.
“So what’s it mean, Mister Latin scholar?” Conrad retorted, calling his bluff.
“Uh…” He cleared his throat as he tried to think of an answer that might be close to the truth or was so wildly silly that everyone would laugh and move on and forget that he hadn’t a clue.
Tina came to his rescue when she answered for him. “It means a favor granted in return for something,” Tina replied.
The two dwarves stared blankly at her before Wendell asked, “How’d you know that?”
“I studied Latin in High School,” she demurely answered. “I had once thought to study languages when I went to college. Latin was a good foundation language.”
/> “You speak other languages?” Conrad asked, impressed.
“Yes.”
When she didn’t elaborate, Kendra pressed, “How many?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged, while blushing. “A couple, I guess.”
“Which ones?” Wendell asked, interested.
“Oh, um… Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and I’m pretty good in English too.”
Conrad’s and Wendell’s mouth slacked open as they blankly stared at her.
“You can actually carry on a conversation in all those languages?” Conrad said, dumbfounded.
“Yes.”
“I have enough problems in English,” Wendell offered.
“Languages were always easy for me,” she replied. “The problem was that just because I could speak another language didn’t mean I could find a job, other than being some interpreter for the United Nations or an international corporation or teaching, and those jobs are hard to come by because so many people already speak English, so they didn’t need an interpreter or another teacher.”
“So what did you do?” Kendra asked.
“Nothing much yet. I was still looking for a job when I was diagnosed with leukemia. I was surprised when they came to me about this game. When I asked them why me, they said because I have special abilities that could be used in the game.”
“Special abilities?” Wendell repeated.
“Yeah,” she shrugged again. “I once won a Rubix cube competition.”
“Wow,” Conrad chuckled. “They still have those?”
“Yeah, I know, right?” She rolled her eyes.
“What’s so special about winning a Rubix cube competition?” Wendell asked then quickly added, “Not that that isn’t impressive.”
“I was one hundredth of a second off the world record,” she replied. “I would have beat it except the cube got stuck when I was twisting it. What did you two do before you came here?”
“I was an accountant,” Conrad sheepishly admitted. He hooked a thumb at Wendell. “He was a restaurant manager.”
“At least you had careers,” she sighed. “I’d spent my life doing what I was good at and discovered too late that there wasn’t much use for what I was good at. Then I was diagnosed as almost ready to die and I thought what a waste my life has been. You spend all those years preparing for the future only to have it robbed from you. And now here I am… in a game. Talk about irony. After all is said and done, my life is nothing more than a game.”
“Wow. That was deep,” Wendell said, dreamingly staring at her.
When Conrad saw her give Wendell a warm smile, he knew he was the odd man out. Clearing his throat, he pushed away from the table, wondering where Kendra was.
Karl scooted his chair back and stood then meandered around the tables, stopping to chat and visit. Heading over to the dwarf table, he was intercepted by Ross who motioned him to the side for a private conversation.
“What’s up?” Karl asked.
Ross grinned at him then ticked his head at Raquel and Annabeth. “What’s it take to get in on the action with those two?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he stiffly replied.
“Yeah, right,” Ross snickered, eyes half-lidded. “How about sharing a little?”
Karl’s lips tightened. “You don’t need my permission. They’re big girls. They make their own decisions. Go ahead. Ask them yourself.” He walked away, more than a little irritated, not that Ross wanted to share in the fun, but the man’s approach bespoke crassness. But something more was going on and he walked to the front door and opened it. Night had fallen and the orcs hadn’t come.
“That’s it, folks” he announced, turning around. “Looks like someone discovered our little secret. The orcs aren’t coming tonight.”
“They’re not?” a voice called out, disappointed.
“No. Looks like we’ll be moving on day after tomorrow. Team leaders, let’s meet in about five minutes.” He glanced over to an obviously crestfallen Humphrey. Though the taverner had born the costs of their lodging ever since they started killing orcs, his business had boomed due to the increase of city folk who wanted to spend time with the orc-killers.
“Sorry Humphrey,” Karl commiserated. “We’ve had a great time here and you’ve been an incredible host. We’ll miss this place. But don’t worry. There will be more like us coming.”
“Really?” Humphrey brightened.
“I’m sure if it,” Karl smiled, not sure what made him say that as he had no clue as to what ITL’s plans were. His attention was diverted when he saw Conrad and Wendell approach. Conrad curled a finger at Karl while the two dwarves veered off to not be overhead.
“Yes?” Karl asked with a curious smile.
“Uh, y’see, it’s like this,” Conrad began. “We were thinking, that Wendell and me that is if it’s OK with you, him and me could do sort of a switcheroo.”
“Like what?”
“Well, there’s him and me on one team and Kendra and Tina on the other. What we wanna do is switch Kendra for me so that him and Tina would be on one team and me and Kendra would be on the other team.”
Karl studied Wendell. “You sure?”
“Yup,” Wendell replied without hesitation.
“What do the ladies think?”
“Haven’t asked them yet?” Conrad sheepishly admitted. “Wanted to clear it with you first.”
Karl thought a bit about the four dwarves. Conrad and Wendell were rogues, the two lady dwarves were healers. Switching out one of the rogues would actually help balance the teams.
“I’m fine with it as long as the two ladies are OK with it, as well as the team leaders.”
“Thanks,” Conrad beamed as the two rogues hustled off to convince the ladies of their brilliant idea.
Bemused by their enthusiasm, Karl headed upstairs to retrieve the island map. By the time he returned, Conrad and Wendell were still adroitly pressing their argument. Spreading the map out on the table where Raquel and Annabeth sat, he folded his arms as he studied the details.
The Misted Isle was shaped like a lopsided and squashed ‘U.’ Marbeck, the town of their arrival was on the tip of the upper arm of the ‘U.’ A little farther down the arm was Abeloft. The rest of the map contained symbols for mountains, rivers and other towns. Mountains occupied the center of the island. All the towns, except one were along the coast. One town lay in the center of the mountains. The bridge to the next island was at the tip of the other arm. The obvious shorter route would be to travel along the coast along the inside of the ‘U.’
Dieter and Sakura walked up as he concentrated on the map.
“I’ve been studying this map ever since we found it,” Karl said. “Logically, the shortest route to the bridge would make the most sense. However, in order to cross the bridge we have to accomplish a number of quests, which, I assume, would get us to a level high enough to cross. In our present situation, I make the assumption that we have leveled high enough. However, that may not be the case, for, in truth, I have no idea what level we need to be to cross.”
“So we’re here,” Dieter said pointing to the town symbol labelled ‘Abeloft’ on the left side of the map. “And we gotta get there.” He pointed to a town labeled ‘Hulgard,’ with a bridge symbol extending out from the town and ending across an expanse of water at the tip of another island at the edge of the map.
“Yes.”
“The only roads I see marked go into the mountains or along the west coast,” Dieter said. “I don’t see any going the shorter route.”
“You’re right,” Karl agreed. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any as we don’t know how old the map is. That aside, I’m looking for input.”
“Why not take a vote?” Sakura proposed.
“Because this isn’t a democracy,” Raquel answered.
“She’s right,” Dieter quietly said. “Karl is in charge and he has the final decision.”
“I just meant to get more input,
” Sakura defensively stated.
“I don’t need everyone’s input,” Karl responded. “That’s why you’re the team leader. What are your thoughts?”
Sakura looked like she was about to argue when she backed down. “I say we take the longer route. It’s not like we’re in a rush to get to the next island. There’s no deadline or timeline we have to follow. Take our time and get leveled up as high as we can on the way.”
“I agree with Sakura,” Dieter nodded. “We take our time, enjoy ourselves where and when we can, and move on when we need to, like we did here.”
Karl turned to Raquel and Annabeth who both nodded, concurring with the plan.
“There it is then. It took us two days to get from Marbeck to Abeloft. If the map is to scale, I calculate the distance to Hulgard probably another week to ten days, without any diversions or interruptions, which means it’ll take longer than that as we all know we can expect to be interrupted along the way. We move out day after tomorrow, as soon as the mist burns off. Oh, one more thing,” he said, looking past Sakura to see Conrad and Wendell smiling. “Conrad and Wendell have a proposal concerning dwarf composition on your teams,” he said, addressing Dieter and Sakura. “I have no objection to their proposal, but the choice is yours.”
“What’s the proposal?” Sakura asked.
“I’ll let them explain,” he replied with a smile.
As Sakura moved off to find out what Conrad and Wendell had in mind, Dieter lingered, giving Karl a hopeful stare.
“Have you made a decision yet, Boss?”
“I have. As long as everyone involved agrees, you may take Elena with you.”
“Awesome,” Dieter said, pumping his fist. “I’ll go let her know.”
By the size of the crowd, it looked like the entire city had turned out to see them off. A relieved burgomaster, glad to be freed of the cost of supporting and supplying Karl and company stood at the gate and shook hands with each one of the team as they passed by.
“Don’t forget us,” he said with a broad smile. “Come back anytime,” he added, praying they never did.
