by Mason Roth
“This is really unnecessary, Miss.” Cornelius tried to reason. “I don’t want to leave anymore. I’ll just wait here.” Piper ignored him as her eyes fell on the leg she had rescued in the forest. She had an idea. She just hoped it was crazy enough to work. She smiled at Jeremy wickedly.
“Well for starters, we’ll borrow his legs.” Cornelius’s eyes widened in horror.
“Oh no no no!” He wailed. He struggled even harder against her grip, forcing her to use both of her hands to restrain him.
“Oh hush, hush.” She chided. “You had a different set on earlier today. I bet they just pop right on and off.” Cornelius immediately stopped his display. She had already figured him out.
“Hey teacher.” She called at Jeremy. “Why don’t you use your big brain to figure out how to restrain his hands with the spare?”
He looked at her like she had lost her mind. She stared back at him, unflinching. He sighed and picked up the spare leg. He stared at it silently for several moments before leaving the room wordlessly. He exited through a spare door in the back of the cabin. Piper assumed it was the engine room. She heard loud, almost manic, laughter before he burst through the door with a confident grin.
"Here, here, lead him over here." He sounded giddy as he beckoned them inside. Piper followed his instructions and led the gnome by the hand into the engine room. He followed her dejectedly. The engine room was surprisingly large for such a small craft. Gears and pistons rotated and hummed quietly and the Gilded Animus idled on the Marble disk.
"So I figured," Jeremy began excitedly, "That even though the craft is obviously powered by magic, it still has to generate heat. Here," He lead them over to a rotating piston. "Touch that" Piper hesitated but touched the piston lightly with her middle finger. She yelped as it seared her fingertip and pulled away instantly.
"Hot." she said through gritted teeth and as she displayed her middle finger to him.
"Exactly." he said without remorse. So I was thinking all we have to do is close the knee joint around his wrist and then heat the metal on this piston." Cornelius began wailing again.
"Please! Don't burn me!" His voice suddenly changed from frail and begging to fierce and spiteful. "You rats!" He spat. "You fiends! I offered you riches I offered you my home! My craft! And this is how you repay me?"
"Now now," Jeremy spoke to him as if he were a child. "You won't get hurt. You'll see. The noise Cornelius made next was more cat than human as spit flew from his lips and he bared his pointed teeth.
Jeremy ignored him entirely and bent the knee joint of the spare leg over his wrists and lifted the connecting point to the piston. He had calculated the distance perfectly. The metal reddened under the heat of the piston, but the connecting point was just far enough away from his skin to not burn him. Cornelius stopped his hissing and stood in a state of shock. It didn’t take long to weld the ankle to the thigh, and then Jeremy pulled him away from the scorching piston. He took a waterskin out of his own rucksack and poured it on the hot metal. As smoke from the cooling metal rose into the air, Piper realized that she had not felt the need to eat, drink, or relieve herself since they entered the game. She wondered how long that would last and shuddered when she imagine what kind of tubing they had hooked her up to on the outside.
When the metal had sufficiently cooled, they led him out of the engine room and into the cabin. They sat him down on the plushiest of the velvet chairs, that just so happened to be the furthest from the helm. Piper bent down to fiddle with the legs. She pulled on one gingerly but stopped when it wouldn’t come loose. Despite her intimidation routine, she really had no intention of hurting Cornelius. Jeremy bent down as well and swiftly found a tiny switch on the back of his knees. He pressed both simultaneously in one deft movement and both of the legs clattered to the floor. Piper gently lifted the legs with care and placed them on the top shelf of the bookshelf. She also pulled down a book and opened it for Cornelius in his lap.
She couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt as she looked back on the pathetic bound and legless gnome as they were about to exit the Gilded Animus. Although she knew that Cornelius was not real, she had grown a bit attached to the little gnome.
"Hey," Piper began softly. Cornelius pouted his lip and turned his head away. "Listen, we won't have to do this next time if you're good.'" Cornelius huffed like a petulant child. “Seriously." She added making her expression as soft as possible. We'll be back soon. She assured him. "With the head of a drow and your family's treasure. We promise." With that, they exited the Gilded Animus and stepped onto the marble disk to survey the Castle.
"You liiiiike him." Jeremy teased in a sing-song voice as if he were a schoolchild.
"Shut up" She retorted. “I just think we might have been a bit hard on him.” Jeremy pondered for a moment.
"Nah. he did try to kill us after all.”
"Fair.” Piper answered.
She called up her UI to navigate to her inventory. It had been emptied at level zero, but Jeremy said she did have a couple of things in her bag and she wanted to know what they did. Of course, she could have just taken off her rucksack and looked, but where's the fun in that?
Inventory:
Waterskin
Potion of Healing (5 Vitality Points.)
Potion of Stealth
Dagger
Oooh, she thought to herself. Not bad, not bad at all. She immediately opened the rucksack and equipped the bronze-handled dagger to her belt. Good to have handy in case she needed to cut a bitch. She navigated to the stealth potion in her UI. She figured it could definitely come in handy If they wanted to pass through the better part of the castle undetected. Potion of Stealth: The drinker of this potion will not produce sound for the duration (10 minutes). A lot could get done in ten minutes. Piper shared this information with Jeremy who agreed that they should save it until it was absolutely necessary to use it. Just as Piper was about to exit the UI, something on the Traits screen caught her eye.
Traits:
Level: 2
EXP to next level: 1200
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 14
Vitality: 14
Wasn't the EXP to next level 1500 before? She gained points! But how? She hadn't fought anything since the chimera.
"Hey, Jeremy!" She called. "Check out your traits screen. Did you gain any EXP?" He called up his own UI and Piper watched his eyes flick over the invisible screen.
"Huh." He responded. "I got 300 points."
"Dang, you got a little more than I did. But what was it for?"
"If I had to guess, I’d say it would be for thinking our way through this entire situation with Cornelius. But this is good to know." He nodded enthusiastically. “Now we know that leveling up isn't just about fighting."
"That would make sense that you got more points than me too then," Piper mused. "You did a bit more of the mental heavy lifting there." Jeremy shrugged.
"Maybe according to the points, but I would have never considered restraining him with a leg if it weren't for you. Hell, I wouldn't have even noticed he was about to fly off." Piper laughed - her first real laugh since finding out she was trapped in this game. It felt good.
"Do we have everything we need to get going?" Jeremy asked. Piper instinctively patted her pockets. Phone, keys, wallet, she said to herself out of habit despite having none of those things. When she patted herself down, she grazed against her gun holsters calling an important question to her mind.
"Ammo." She said aloud. "Jeremy, I don't have any extra ammo. It's not in my inventory and I've already fired at least four shots today.”
"Oh. You don't have to worry about that." Jeremy explained. "I've been following this game like a hawk for years. Instead of ammo you'll just have a cool down time. After you fire your twelve shots, six from each gun, you'll have a cool down time of somewhere between 15 and 90 seconds depending on how quickly you shoot your rounds.”
Piper eyed him
suspiciously. Was it weird that he knew so many specifics about the game mechanics? She supposed that it was the most anticipated game of the decade. She was probably overreacting. He was just a big nerd.
"Hey, come on." Jeremy sighed. "Don't look at me like that. Do you really think that I'd be working with them?" Piper thought for a moment before responding.
"No." She finally answered. "You don't seem the type." Jeremy brushed off what might have been an insult with grace.
"We have to work together. We have to trust each other." He extended his hand. "Do you trust me?" She pushed all of her fear to the back of her mind and grasped his hand firmly.
"I trust you."
Chapter 8
The pair spent the better part of an hour canvassing the outside of the castle. There had to be a better option than walking through the white oak doors under the largest black rose window. At only level two, Piper wasn't exactly keen on walking right through the front door. This would take some level off stealth to pull off, but she imagined they'd reap buckets of EXP and other loot for their troubles. Eventually, the pair made their way all the way around the castle, and to the face of the cliff it was carved into. She looked up at the spider-like buttresses as she walked. It was a beautiful yet terrifying structure. Despite wanting to find the back door, she wasn't exactly eager to face whatever horrors awaited her inside. Least of all, the drow that would live in such a place.
"Fucking finally!" Jeremy sighed in relief. "Piper! Over here!" She had been so caught up admiring and fearing the high-flying buttresses that she ignored the ground. He beckoned her over to a corner point where the Castle met the cliff face. "There,” He said, pointing to the corner. "Do you see it?" Piper squinted at the white marble corner. There wasn't much to see, white on white. She could discern nothing. "You don't see?" Jeremy looked exasperated with her. "This is clearly a false wall." He pointed out a thin, barely perceivable hairline crack encircling the area of stone. "Well?" He asked. She looked at him with a sad smile.
"We've been walking around for a while. I don't blame you for wishful thinking."
"No." he retorted firmly. "I'm sure this is it. We just have to apply the right amount of pressure and this wall should open." He knelt down next to the corner wall in question. "Here," he said. "You try. I don't want to accidentally apply the wrong amount of pressure. I have a high strength stat and might push too hard."
Piper rolled her eyes at his weird flex, but knelt down regardless. She placed one hand on the castle and the other on the cliff face. She took a deep breath and pressed into the corner firmly. Suddenly, the wall began to rumble. She couldn't believe it. Jeremy was right. The corner piece sank into the structure and flipped over, opening a path.
"Told you so." Jeremy announced triumphantly as Piper's mouth hung agape.
"I can't believe you saw that." She finally managed. "It's dark in there though." She felt a chill as She stared into the dark abyss, and felt rooted in place.
“Listen, Piper.” Jeremy started seriously. “This is an RNG game. All the rooms will be randomly generated as we go through them. The monsters as well, and the loot.” Piper nodded. She remembered hearing about that at some point while the game was being hyped. The point was to give every player a unique experience going through the same dungeons as well as increase replay value. “It’s critical that we don’t lose each other. This castle will create a labyrinth around us and if we don’t stick together, we may never find each other again.” She nodded seriously.
“I go where you go and vice versa.” She held out her fist for a bump. “May the RNG be in our favor.”
She didn't know what dangers she would face in there. She might even die once more. Just as she was about to steel her resolve and crawl into the opening, Jeremy spoke.
"I'll go first.” He entered the crawl space without hesitation. Comforted by his gesture, Piper followed close behind. They crawled out into a cold stone hallway.
The castle of Druin was definitely inhabited. Lamps lined the marble walls that shone a bluish green color and gave the marble a cast of the same hue. Piper stood in the hallway and examined the lamps closer. Some sort of bioluminescent fungus shone inside the lamps. Piper wondered where it came from. She hadn't seen a plant since they entered the valley, let alone any fungus. The hallway was narrow and ended in a single door about ten feet away from them.
"Guess we don't have much of a choice." She shrugged at Jeremy before pushing the large oak door open as slowly and quietly as possible. Luckily, the room was uninhabited. Piper let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and strode inside with Jeremy close behind her. The room was relatively large and equally empty. The tall white walls and white floors and ceilings gave off an eerie feeling that they were in some sort of void of nothingness.
The one defining feature of the room was a long wooden walkway leading towards the south wall. As they edged closer to inspect the walkway, they soon realized that it was suspended over a dark pit. What laid beneath, they did not know and they had no desire to find out. Jeremy stepped forward wordlessly and extended his hand for her to grasp. She frowned at the intimate gesture, but grasped it regardless. There was no time to be suspicious. She had already made the choice to trust him and she had to stand by that decision. They found that the wooden walkway was surprisingly stable and crossed it quickly and without incident.
At the end of the walkway stood a large marble platform rising from the abyss. Atop the platform stood a large gleaming bronze chest. Piper punched Jeremy playfully in the shoulder.
"Score!" What luck! The first room in the castle and not only are there no monsters to contend with, but already some loot to boot. Piper was drawn to the ornate bronze work and couldn't wait to see its contents. She also happily noted that the chest wasn't locked. Just as she was about to touch it, Jeremy pulled her back forcefully.
"Wait." He cautioned. "We don't know if it's trapped."
He knelt down to inspect the chest from every angle. Several minutes passed before he finally declared that it seemed to be trap free. "I would hope so.” Piper answered. "They didn't even bother to lock it." Jeremy clapped his hand over his eyes.
"Piper." He groaned. "That is the number one red flag that it would be trapped."
"Well, I was right and you were wrong." She teased. "Let's open this bad boy." She gripped the lid of the chest and flung it wide open. But instead of happily discovering its contents, she let out a blood curdling scream. Inside the chest was a deep wet cavity that seemed to pulsate with life. “No,” Piper corrected. It didn't just seem like it was pulsating. It definitely was. Jagged steam pipes emerged from the lid and where it was supposed to connect with the chest itself. They almost looked like horrible metal teeth. As if to confirm her suspicions, three mechanical legs burst forth from either side of the chest and one glowing red eye opened on the center. Piper pulled Jeremy aside just in time before it growled and launched itself at them.
"Shit!" Jeremy exclaimed and held his cheek. One of the legs grazed his face and he was bleeding.
"Quickly!" Piper pulled him by the arm. "It’s got us cornered over here. We have to cross the bridge and lead it across so we have more room." They backed up again as it skittered forward on its mechanical legs. Piper felt her heel leave solid ground as she teetered on the edge of the pit. Not letting go of Jeremy's arm, she quickly edged to the bridge and sprinted across it. Jeremy panted behind her. For someone with such a high strength stat, he was pretty slow. But, even so, her plan worked. The chest skittered after them across the bridge. Now that there was more distance between them, she realized the chest was actually quite slow. There had just a moment to reset and prepare for battle. She drew both of her pistols and aimed.
"Piper, wait." Jeremy cautioned. "Pull up your UI real quick." There's info about the enemy." Piper did as she was told. A red cursor encircled and then locked onto the chest. Words appeared in her vision.
Copycat: Can mimic any inanimate object.
VP
: 58
Interesting, she thought to herself. She wondered how much damage her bullets could do. She took aim once more with the overlay still active. The red target helped her aim her shots. She fired two bullets, one from each pistol. Both struck the lid of the copycat with a heavy clank before ricocheting and embedding themselves in the marble walls.
"Shit, Piper!" Jeremy unclenched and removed his hands from over his head. She groaned in frustration. The copycat's VP hadn't budged.
"What the fuck, it’s impervious to bullets?"
"Uhhh maybe something with a metal exoskeleton!" Jeremy fired back.
"Well, what do you suggest, smart guy?" She snapped. Jeremy took a deep breath.
"We have to wait for an opening, but we probably have to get pretty close.”
Piper watched it jitter and hiss as it gnashed its metallic teeth. She definitely didn't have any interest in getting close to it. Jeremy knitted his eyebrows as he formulated a plan. The copycat was quickly approaching and they didn't have much time. It slid comically as it skittered off the bridge onto the smooth marble floor.
