by D. Levesque
“I wonder,” she says, with a thoughtful look. “Have you noticed how we have been going downward? I just assumed the beach was lower than the hill. But what if we are heading under the Lake of Ruin?”
I stare at her and think about it. I mean, that would make sense. “How big is this Lake of Ruin?” I ask her.
“I am not sure,” she says with a frown. “I have heard stories that say the shore is so far you can barely make it out.”
“Crap, so we might be in here for hours!”
“That is my thought as well. Although, I am more worried about that,” Leeha says, pointing.
I look in the direction she is pointing, and I grunt in annoyance. “A junction. Of course.”
That is precisely what we are looking at. Leeha is pointing to a tunnel system with four different tunnels leading away from this large cave we are standing in.
“Wait. How are you able to see this far in?” I ask her.
“The lichen on the walls, they throw off some light, so it lets me see,” Leeha says with a smile.
“I wonder if it’s enough for me to see by?” I ask her.
“With your human eyes? I doubt it.”
“How are you able to see Bridget?” I ask her curiously.
She laughs and says, “Because I’m an Elemental. I don’t use my eyes as you two do. To me, it’s like being outside under the sun.”
“Right, I keep forgetting you’re my Elemental,” I tell her with a chuckle.
I had been about to say she was not real, but she is totally real. Especially when I spoon her when we sleep, or when she hugs me. She might not be human or Elven, but she is definitely real.
Leeha had moved forward and was staring at all four tunnels with her hands on her hips, and I can see she has a frown on her face.
“The issue is, which one do we take?” she asks me, turning around.
“Does one look more used than the other?” I ask her.
“No, look. The floor is a flat rock, and I can’t see marks on any of them. But it has to be one of them, right? The last thing we need is to get lost down here.”
“Shit,” I tell her, walking over to stand next to her and look at the floor in question. She is right. All the tunnels look the same in the light of the Magic in the air. Nothing out of the ordinary to show one was used more than the others.
I go to the tunnel on the far right, which I decide to call tunnel one, and put my hand on the ground. Smooth as glass. No pitting, no dips, nothing. I go to the next one on the left, tunnel two, and check it as well—the same thing. I do the same with all of them until I am at tunnel four. Shit, that isn’t going to work. Looking up, I stare at the tunnel entrance. It’s as smooth as the floor. This is not naturally made. I share that thought with Leeha.
“You don’t think so?” Leeha asks.
“I mean, have you ever been in a cave that is this large, and suddenly you get to a fork, and you have four tunnels where the floors and ceilings are smooth as glass?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.
Leeha gets another frown on her face, but this one now is one of pure focus. She looks at the tunnel system and then looks behind us.
“Not really,” she says hesitantly. “I have been in caves before, but I will admit this is a first. What do you think caused it?”
“I think I know,” I reply with a grunt of annoyance.
“Oh?” Leeha says, and Bridget is staring at me with her own frown now.
“I think my God is playing with me again,” I tell them. “But I could be wrong.”
“Crap. So now what? We just need to pick a tunnel, right? If we head down and hit a dead end, we can come back?”
“Yeah, I just hate wasting time. I just want to go get this fucking Brakan dude and save those he is holding captive. And I can’t stop this Horde if I am down here!” I say, and by the end, I am staring up at the ceiling and my voice is raised. I mean, I am not shouting. I am not that stupid, as to call attention to us. So it’s not a full cry. Give me some credit. Though, I am sure sound carries well in here and down those tunnels. So maybe don’t give me that much credit.
“Shall we just pick one at random? Even with your ability to track and such, you can’t see anything different in any of them?” I ask Leeha, hopeful she has something.
Shaking her head, she says, “No. To me, the floor is so smooth there isn’t anything to indicate anyone or anything has walked on any of them.”
Sighing, I look at the four tunnels one more time and try to see if I can tell by the grade or level of the floor whether they go up or down. But as far as I can see down each tunnel, they are the same flat level. What would I do if this was a game? Easy, I would look up a freaking wiki, and it would say go to tunnel whatever number. Nothing like that here. I have a feeling that I wasn’t too far off the mark when I thought this was like a dungeon. But seriously, I don’t need this shit right now.
Guess it’s time to make a choice between tunnels one to four. They all look the same, so it doesn’t really matter. I point to tunnel two. “Let’s just try that one. We will go about 100 feet and see if things change, and if we start going up or down.”
“Sounds good to me,” Leeha says with a smile. “I will follow you anywhere, Alex.”
“Same here,” Bridget says with a smile. “But then again, I’m your Elemental, so I have to,” she finishes with a giggle, making me laugh.
“True enough. So let’s try this one,” I say, walking towards tunnel two. Once I cross over the threshold and am actually in the tunnel, I get a message in my vision in front of me, which makes me roll my eyes. Of course.
Welcome to the Dungeon of Tunnel Two. Adventure awaits for those brave enough to venture forward. Will you be strong enough to survive?
“What is this!” Leeha says in shock.
“You got it too?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.
She looks at me and nods. But then I ask her, “Wait, my message was written out. How did you get one?’
“It was in my head. It said something about Dungeon of tunnel two, and that if I was brave enough to venture forward,” she says.
“Yeah. My God is getting involved. I don’t get it, though.” I tell her in annoyance.
“Get what?” she asks me, coming up next to me and looking up.
“My God said that he was going to introduce game mechanics to other worlds. Sorry,” I say at her confused look when I say game mechanics. “He said he was going to introduce things like what you just heard in your head and what I can see in my vision, to other worlds one day. But for now, he was introducing it as a way to test it to see if it would be viable. But he said it would be very minimal. I mean, I don’t think adding a Dungeon is minimal!”
God told me he would be using me as a test subject to see if it would be viable for other worlds. He never said anything about adding it in full-blown. There seem to be more and more game mechanics being added all the time. The spell notifications, I get. The Chakras are something entirely new, and I am still trying to figure them out.
The other night Bridget said that it seems that the energy seeping out of the Chakras is somehow making my bones stronger. Now that she knows what to look for deeper than what the eye can see, she is seeing that the matrix of my bone structure is being filled with denser material. So does that mean that the bone, which is usually a hollow, is changing? My understanding of bones is that while ours aren’t fully hollow like a bird’s, they’re still not solid. But she is saying that the empty space is being filled up, making it stronger. But why?
And now a Dungeon? I wonder if this was added by him as well. But again, why? I have tried calling him multiple times, but he hasn’t answered me. I mean, he did say from the start I would not be able to call him. Except he came to see me once, so I figured it would work again. Fuck! I need to know what the hell is going on. Why this Portal and the attack from the Horde, which I am pretty sure is Demons from some Hell world of his. But why? And if Leeha says this is not the first time, wha
t is the point? Population control?
“Alex?” Leeha says, worriedly.
“Sorry,” I tell her with a sigh. “Trying to figure out what is going on. Let’s keep going. While I have no clue what is happening, I am curious about this Dungeon. Shall we?”
Nodding, she takes point, as she can see better than me, I would say, even with the sight of my Third Eye. I follow behind her, and Bridget walks next to me. She looks up at me every now and then but doesn’t say anything.
“What’s up?” I ask her after she has looked at me for the eighth or ninth time without saying anything.
“Nothing,” she says. “I am just looking at your Third Eye. It’s giving off a glow that wasn’t there before. Can you see better?”
I look at her strangely. What does she mean it’s glowing? I look around the tunnel we are in, and to me it seems the same. “Nope, it looks exactly the same.”
“Oh,” she says with a pout. “I was hoping something new would happen with it.”
I laugh and say, “Nope, not that I can tell.”
Leeha holds up her hand and motions to the left side of the tunnel. Looking up ahead, I see we are at an exit that leads into a more expansive cave again. I can barely make out the cave as it’s too far ahead of me, even with the Magical light from the energy. One thing about the third eye is, it lets me see, but it doesn’t let me see far distances. Leeha, on the other hand, can.
I move up until I am just behind her. “What’s up,” I whisper.
She doesn’t say anything but instead points up ahead. I look again, and suddenly I can see why she stopped. In the cave up ahead, just at the entrance to the tunnel, or roughly ten feet from it, is something. It’s huge, and it looks like a rat? But it’s too big to be a rat. It’s about the size of a large dog! As I stare at it, something appears in my vision over its body that makes me almost want to groan.
Cave Rat
Under my breath, I whisper softly enough that I am sure even Leeha’s hearing can’t pick it up. “I am going to fucking kill him.”
Chapter Six
I look at the Cave Rat and think, yep. I am being made to play this as a game world now. So much for subtlety.
“Shall we try to kill it? We need to go past it,” she whispers.
I nod and think Wind, Wind Arrow, and six arrows appear next to me on the right, as I am leaning against the wall with my left shoulder. Nice to know the arrows will arrange themselves accordingly, I think distractedly.
You have used the spell Wind Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
Next to Leeha, two Water Arrows appear. I could use the Water Bullets, but I like how quiet the arrows are.
I wait for Leeha to shoot her arrows, and when I see them streak away, I send mine right behind hers. Her arrows aim true, thanks to Magic, and hit the Cave Rat in the side of its broad body. Since it’s so large, it’s like shooting at a moose. Leeha’s Water Arrows puncture its skin, and blood blossoms on its fur. It squeals in pain and jumps up into the air, and some of the Wind Arrows I had sent end up missing. Only two of actually hit it, the rest sail underneath and keep going.
You have hit a Cave Rat for 20 points of damage. (160 /200)
Crap, it’s still standing. Hmm, thinking about it, this information I seem to be getting may prove helpful. So I hit it with two arrows, and Leeha hit it with two arrows, for a total damage of, what? 40? That means each arrow does ten points of damage? That means we need to use-fucked if I know. A ton more?
I call up another batch of Wind Arrows. Wind Arrow.
You have used the spell Wind Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
Again, I end up with six arrows floating next to me, and I look over and see that Leeha has called up another two of hers. We send them at the Cave Rat simultaneously. But then we both get a surprise. The rat’s tail flicks forward and hits each of the arrows we had shot, and knocks them out of the air.
“Shit,” Leeha says vehemently.
“Yeah, shit is right. What kind of fucking rat does that?” I ask her.
“The better question is what rat is that big!” she replies.
“What now?” I ask her as the rat slowly lumbers towards us. At least it’s slow.
“Can you pin it down with vines?” Leeha asks me.
“Let’s see,” I say and think Earth, Earth Vines. Bridget, who is standing behind me, puts a hand on my back, and then I watch as small vines pop out of the ground and surround the Cave Rat. But something is off about the vines and the Cave Rat shakes them off easily.
“What happened?” I ask, looking behind me at Bridget.
“It’s the floor. It’s mostly rock, so not much earth to access,” she says with a miffed tone.
“Well, what if I use Earth and cause the rock to melt and surround its legs?” I say hurriedly.
“Try that!” Bridget says.
Earth, Rock, hmm. Shit. Rock Melt?
Unknown Spell
Crap. Rock Trap!
Just then, a trapdoor opens under the Cave Rat and it falls into it. It’s not that deep though, and only goes to its shoulders.
Leeha sends another two arrows at it while it’s stuck like that, but I know it won’t be for much longer.
Fire, Fire Bullets. And next to me are six small fire bullets, which I send flying at the Cave Rat.
You have hit a Cave Rat for 90 points of damage. (50/200)
“It still has 50 hitpoints,” I tell Leeha.
“What?” she asks me, confused.
“You don’t see or hear how much damage you are doing or how many hitpoints it has left?”
“What are hitpoints?” she asks, and that is when I notice she said hitpoints in English.
“Hitpoints are its health,” I begin to explain. “It uses numbers to say how much health it has left. So it started with 200, and each of our arrows hit it for ten. The bullets seem to do 15 damage each.”
Leeha looks at me oddly but finally says, “You will need to explain this to me more later. It sounds intriguing, though now is not a good time for it. Let’s just kill it.”
“Right,” I say, agreeing with the whole not the time or place sentiment.
I call up more Fire Bullets just in time, as the Cave Rat has gotten out of the hole and is heading our way. Up close, this thing is worse than I even imagined. Its fur is black, which allows it to blend into the darkness, and it moves quietly, making almost no noise. Its teeth are what scare the crap out of me, though. They are long, and they look sharp. Its tail is flicking behind it, almost angrily, which, seeing as we just stuck it full of arrows and bullets, wouldn’t surprise me.
You have used the spell Fire Bullet. You have used 10 points of power.
With the Cave Rat this close, no way can I miss it, so I send all six Fire Bullets directly at its face. Suddenly, its head explodes, and gore, bone, and fur fly all over the place. I don’t move out of the way fast enough, and neither do Bridget or Leeha, and we all get hit by the debris. The thing was less than four feet away from us when Leeha and I had hit it with my Fire and her Water bullets that she had called up.
You have killed a Cave Rat.
“Eeeew!” Leeha shrieks in disgust.
“Ah, God! That stinks!” I exclaim in revulsion, just as disgusted as her. Charred Cave Rat smells awful!
“Alex, next time don’t go with Fire. Oh Gods, that reeks, and I am sure I got some in my mouth,” Leeha says, making gagging noises.
“Don’t move,” Bridget cries out, and both Leeha and I freeze, expecting trouble.
But instead, Bridget turns herself into her Water Elemental and starts washing us by placing a small funnel of water around us. Then, she turns into her Wind Elemental and dries us both off. Within half a minute, we are both completely clean and dry and looking at her with big grins.
Leeha runs up to her, hugs her hard, and cries, “Gods, I love you!”
With Bridget in her arms, Leeha turns to me and exclaims, “What the hell was that about hitpoints?”
>
“Yeah. I think my God has decided to bring something here that he was going to bring to new worlds. At least for me, I think. Partially for you. Not sure about others.”
“Alex, what are you talking about?” Leeha asks.
“So, when we attacked that thing,” I explain, pointing to the Cave Rat with its exploded head, “I saw information about it. It’s called hitpoints. Think of it like this. Something, like that Cave Rat, had 200 points. With me?”
Leeha looks puzzled but nods slowly.
“So each time we shot it, I got information on how much I hit it for, or it’s hitpoints going down by until it would hit zero,” I tell her. “Thus killing it.”
“Wait, are you saying that you can see how much of this damage we would need to do to kill something?” Leeha asks me incredulously.
“Yes?” I answer with a grimace at the fact that this is working like a damn game.
“Do you know how amazing that is!?! Gods, to know how strong your opponent is! I wish your God had given me that,” Leeha says with a scowl, some of it seemingly directed at me.
“Hey!” I say with my hands up in the air, “I can’t control that.” “If I could, I would tell him to give it to you.”
Leeha stops moving suddenly, and her eyes go out of focus, as if she is looking at something in front of her. Then her vision clears up and she turns to me quickly with big smile on her face.
“I just got it! But, it’s odd though.” Her smile turns into a frown.
“How so?” I ask her.
“Well, it’s text. I know what text looks like, sort of, even though I can’t read. But this time I had text in front of me, and yet, I knew what it said. It also said it in my head. But the odd thing is, it was in English, and they were English words I wasn’t sure about, but somehow I knew the meaning behind them,” she says.
I can’t help it, I end up roaring in laughter.
“What?” Leeha says, sounding offended at me for laughing.
“I’m not laughing at you, Leeha love, but the fact that my God has decided to give you this. I think it’s awesome. This way, I know I’m not going crazy. But also, something tells me my God is about to introduce a shit load of new stuff to this world, and guess what?”
