Project Alpha 2

by R. A. Mejia

  The speech seems to be something she's said before, and honestly, it doesn't interest me. To me, it's just back story to clear the dungeon. Just like King Kanon kidnapping Princess Plum. However, this does seem like the path to finding out who I have to beat down to get the XP and credits for the dungeon.

  “That’s all fine, but what do I get out of helping you?”

  Her eyes narrow, but she answers, “Besides helping an oppressed people? Well, you’ll get credits and access to our network of merchants who can train you in special skills and sell you special items.”

  “Now, that does sound interesting. What job do you have for me first?”

  Lady Dantès smiles and opens a draw at her desk. She flips through a stack of papers she pulls out and stops at one. “Here. We’ll start you off with something easy so that you can get the lay of the city.”

  She explains how I’ll be given more and more important quests until the organization feels they can trust me, and then they’ll let me in on their plans to otherthrow the ruling class. All that translates into gamer speak as ‘chain quests.’ Well, we all have to start somewhere. After getting the details of my first quest, a notification pops up.

  Quest: Search for the missing documents

  You’ve been tasked with finding the hidden invoices of a rival smuggling operation that show the true clients. This information is deemed important because it may show who in the government is using these services and provide an opportunity to blackmail them.

  Reward: 100 XP, 100 credits, Special item

  Failure: Lose support of the resistance and face possible assassination

  The cost of failing the quest seems a little high. I mean, ‘possible assassination?’ I guess the resistance is pretty serious about staying secret. I pull up my map of the dungeon, which is automatically created by my Dungeon Mapping skill, and see a new pin somewhere off to the west of the docks. It’s in a blacked-out section, which means that I have not explored that area yet. The job seems fairly straightforward, and I’m already turning around to get to work when Pierre politely coughs into his fist. “Lady Dantès, I’d be happy to show our newest recruit where he can sell the items he has and buy the tools that he needs for the job. He will need clothes that don’t identify him as a guard or a foreigner.”

  The statement gives me pause, and I realize I’m still wearing the crusty clothes I stole from the first jailer I killed. I smile warmly at Pierre for looking out for me, and appreciate the effort he’s taking to guide me in this city. I hear Lady Dantès tell Pierre something, and he bows to her before motioning me to follow him again. The two of us use a side door in the room and then follow a set of stairs down to the second floor. There, the entire level is bustling with activity. There are a variety of vendors’ stalls all along the walls of the room, and people move between them selling and buying items. I have no doubt that the items being sold are stolen. But who am I to judge?

  The first booth is run by a middle-aged man in a turban with a huge variety of clothes and armor on display. Pierre speaks to the man in French and translates for me. Pierre suggests that I hand over the guard’s clothes, so I quickly unequip them and put my normal everyday walking clothes and shoes back on. As Pierre negotiates on my behalf, I realize that I don’t have any money on me. Not a single solitary credit. I haven’t been on a dungeon dive since that one in Atlanta, and even then, I traded my credits in for dollars to pay some bills. I open my wallet and see that I have a couple of dollars, but I doubt the dungeon would accept those. I delicately tell Pierre the bad news about my finances, but he just shrugs and gets back to negotiating.

  In short order, Pierre negotiates a trade for the jailer’s clothes and the sword for something that will let me blend in with the dockworkers on my next quest. He gets me what I would call a sailor’s outfit that includes a red cap, a loose-fitting long-sleeved shirt, a doublet, breeches with cuffs ending mid-calf, stockings, and shoes. The jailer’s sword must sell decently because Pierre even hands me two coins that are stamped with the number five on one side and the face of some old man on the other. When I inquire about what the coins are called, Pierre calls them ‘l' argent’, but I don’t understand.

  When I ask him to repeat the word, he shakes his head and says, “Do not worry, Anthony. Just know that the coins come in 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, 25’s, and 100’s.”

  I follow him to a weapons vendor, and among their many items of murderous mayhem are swords, knives, polearms, and a variety of other elements of death. Nothing is for sale at 10 coins, so there’s no real point in me taking the time to inspect anything, but I do intend to return later.

  The last stop is to a specialty vendor that Pierre thinks I will especially appreciate. There are multiple bookshelves lined with tomes that are filled with Arcane writing. The vendor, whose name is Ashmed, speaks a little English, and he tells me that he can train me in a variety of magical skills if I can pay. Spells with names like: Ice Storm, Raging Bull, Inferno, and Razamataz. A quick look at his price list tells me that all these skills/spells are very expensive and cost thousands of coins. Once again, I wish that I had more money to buy all the neat-looking stuff.

  There are also people nearby who will train me in the skills I'll need for the job, and the first person that Pierre takes me to is a woman who will help me learn how to find hidden objects. She is a short, pudgy woman, but her eyes are clear and keen.

  “Pierre tells me that you wish to learn the art of finding? It is not so simple a thing to learn, and those that are paresseux...eh...lazy... will never learn it. It takes effort to gain the ability to see what may be out of place or hidden.”

  “I am willing to learn if you are willing to teach me, mademoiselle.”

  “Please, I am neither young nor unmarried. Madame, if you must.”

  I nod at the correction and the woman goes on to describe how looking for what is not there is as important as what is there. She explains about trusting my senses and intuition and how ancient spirits will sometimes help. It all sounds silly, but when she is done, a notification pops up.

  Hidden Vision

  Level 1

  Skill letting user see hidden locations and items.

  Cost: 5 mana/second

  The instant I activate the new skill, the edges of my vision take on a grey hue. The tunnel vision won't be good to use while I'm fighting since it severely limits my vision, but I'm not likely to be looking for hidden objects in the middle of a fight.

  I'm given a quest from the pudgy woman to find three objects she has hidden around the room. If I do, she'll give me the skill for free. If I fail, it will cost double, or 200 credits. I quickly start looking around and find the first object under an upside down basket that turned blue as I passed. I have to rest and recover my mana since the cost of using the ability means that I can only use it for 60 seconds. Once my mana is recovered, I activate the ability again and look for the second hidden object. It is located behind a painting outlined in blue. The third object is the hardest to find since it is hidden among a pile of rags, but again, a small blue glow shows through just enough from under the rags to catch my attention.

  Upon returning all three hidden objects, the pudgy woman smiles, happy to see her tutelage applied well.

  I’m thrilled to gain a new ability, yet I can’t help but wonder why the dungeon would create an entire area like this. Perhaps this is just the System creating an opportunity for me. The entire network of sellers, the bazaar, all these stats, skills, and abilities also all originate with the System. So, I guess I shouldn’t wonder that such things might occur within a dungeon too. This is the only time I’ve run across the opportunity to buy and sell something in a dungeon. Sure, I’ve traded with an NPC for an item or had to complete a quest to get something, but pure commerce using credits is a first for me. I don’t know if any of these skills or spells are available elsewhere or if they are exclusive. But I want to try to get them all.

  I’m excited to pursue not only this o
pportunity to buy abilities, but to gain the assistance of the resistance in beating the dungeon boss.

  Chapter 10

  The beginner quests are challenging in different ways. First, they asked me to retrieve proof of a smuggling operation near the docks. My sailor's outfit let me approach the dockside warehouse with minimal issues, but getting inside proved to be more challenging. There were half a dozen armed sailors patrolling outside, and I didn't think that I would be able to talk my way past the ones guarding the front door. Instead, I studied the location from afar, memorized their patrol patterns, and took note of their blind spots.

  Exploiting those weaknesses was more challenging. I still didn't have a high Sneak skill, so I instead broke into the building next door in order to gain access to their roof. I still had to be stealthy and quiet about it, and I even got Sneak to level 3 for my efforts, but it was easier than breaking into the target location directly. From there, it was a matter of jumping from one roof to the next and using Sneak to get past the one sailor stationed on the roof. The inside of the building wasn't nearly as well-guarded, and while I had to find several spots to hide while patrols past. I found the requested item under the floorboards of the office by using Hidden Vision. It turned out that the wherehouse was being used to smuggle in counterfeit foie gras. In addition, I found several pictures of can-can girls hidden under cots, a mini guillotine used for cutting the ends off cigars, and odd-looking coins just lying around, which I pocketed to see if I could sell later. Returning to the hideout took less time, and I was soon richer in both coin and XP. When I asked why they were upset about the counterfeit foie gras, they pointed out it was made out of plants and had no goose liver at all. While they marked the quest as complete they did not appreciate the suggestion they could just market it as a healthy alternative to the product.

  There were two more beginner quests that I was given. One involved a chain quest, handing off objects to specific people in several locations. I had to take a ship in a bottle to the docks, then I almost got mobbed while taking a painting of the queen to the slums, then I had to find a way to bribe the guards to let me move a cart of manure to the mercantile district, and finally I had to smuggle a case of apple wine vinegar to the palace district. You don’t want to know where I hid it, but it involved a large dress, a wig, and lots of rouge. By transporting the seemingly silly items to each area, I learned about each of the districts in the city. Each has its own shops, clothing styles, and more importantly, churches. Thankfully, at each church there is a floating blue Respawn Crystal that I can bind to and reappear at should I die in the dungeon. This is an immense weight off my shoulders, since I no longer had to worry about dying and then reappearing back in jail.

  The last starter quest was the most educational. It tasked me with killing a particular merchant who had been discovered to be a double agent for the aristocracy. I followed the man through the market district, careful to stay well behind him and out of sight. He ran a stall that sold nuts and at the end of the day, I followed him until he lead me to his apartment. It was a rather extravagant place, two stories tall with lots of ornamentation on the outside and three guards patrolling the area. It took a little patience to figure out the guard’s patrol pattern, but once I did, I used Spider Climb to scale the walls up to the second floor and then used Sneak to gain entrance and hide out till the target went to sleep. Standing over the merchants sleeping form, I could practically hear the tell-tale beating of his heart. I’d never assassinated someone before and even if he’s only an NPC in the dungeon, it didn’t make it any easier to end his life. At the last minute, just as I’d smothered the last bit of life from the double agent, the maid showed up and caught me kneeling over his corpse and using the ability Absorb. She saw his body disappear and ran screaming from the room. It all happened so fast that I was caught flat-footed and could not catch her. True to what I’d been warned about, when a normal citizen catches you doing magic or killing someone, they report you to the guards, who show up very quickly to try and murder you. The three guards who’d I’d so carefully tried to avoid charged into the bedroom, spears ready to skewer me. I ducked and dodged, but was unable to get to them with my shorter weapon. Instead, I used Spider Climb to crawl up the walls to the high ceiling out of range of their spears and used my Fireball spell. The three guards were so surprised by the use of magic, that they did dodge the area of effect spell and were soon running around the room, their hair and armor on fire. It dealt with them nicely, but it also set the building on fire; which, oddly enough, was a good cover for me to escape the scene. Still, I learned my lesson for using magic within view of the normal citizens.

  All told, I get 505 XP and 200 credits from the quests and kills, which earns enough trust with the rebellion to get bigger and more important quests. It turns out that their main goal is to kill the queen. While I’d like to say that I was shocked to my core that I’d been asked to help murder a monarch, it’s not an uncommon theme in video games. I mean, I’m with the rebellion, who else would they be trying to overthrow? Besides, Lady Dantès assures me that the Queen is truly tyrannical and has done many evil things deserving of death. Still, the task won’t be as straightforward as assassinating her. The Queen has powerful support from both the military and nobility, and I need to weaken that support before the rebellion can overthrow her.

  Like a lot of games I've played, the quests fall into three categories: retrieve, kill, and solve the puzzle. The details and locations vary, but they all roughly fall into those categories. As I gain more XP and coin, they become more challenging. More guards appear, objects are hidden better, and the puzzles are more complicated. Still, it's mostly a matter of applying observation skills and using the ability Hidden Vision to get past most obstacles. The whole thing amounts to completing quests that get progressively harder while weakening the military and nobility by planting evidence that sows discord, uncovering actual betrayals, killing those most loyal to the queen, and stealing valuable intelligence.

  Toward the end of the quest lines, new types of enemies start to appear. The first time I run into them is when I’m assigned to steal rare potion ingredients from an alchemy shop. The building is on the outskirts of the merchant district because of the fumes associated with making potions. This means that there are few guards during the day and at night, almost none. The place looks so dead that I don’t bother using stealth and instead break down the door and enter. Finding the desired ingredients takes a few minutes since there are so many powders and liquids in the shop. But Hidden Vision reveals a blue glow behind a painting on the wall, but when I move towards the painting, I find I am no longer alone. I find three men covered from head to toe in dark leather armor, silver masks and matching collars etched with arcane runes. The moment their trap is sprung, one of the men mutters an incantation, waves his hand, and a shadow extends out toward me and freezes my movements. After that, the other two draw their swords and calmly advance towards me. My last panicked thought as their blades pierce my body and the last of my HP leaves me is to use Inspect which identifies them as Shadow Mages.

  When I open my eyes again, I’m looking up at the painted ceiling of the church in the palace district, where I’d last set my respawn point. My blood runs cold remembering the feeling of those men’s swords stabbing me and my hands clutch my body feeling the phantom pain for a moment. The wounds from the blades weren’t the worst of it though, it was the spell that had been cast that froze me. To stand there helplessly as I died was worse than the death itself. Sitting on the stone floor of the dark church, I berate myself for being so foolish. Not only had I rushed into the alchemy shop because it seemed unguarded, I hadn’t even considered that the enemy would have spell casters like me.

  I wonder at the state of my latest quest and if I’d lost the backing of the rebellion. My quest log says it is still active, though the required alchemy ingredients aren’t in my inventory. So, while I lost 15,151 XP from dying, I didn’t fail the quest. Even so, the
death was a bitter pill to swallow since I’d just earned enough XP to get level 11.

  I return to the quest area angry and with the advantage of knowing my opponents’ capabilities. The limits of the dungeon show in that, instead of changing dynamically, the exact same trap is reset. Sneaking back towards the shop, I run across a guard and come up behind him. I use my war hammer to get in a sneak attack to the back of his head. He stumbles forward and crashes into a wall crying out in pain once before I dislocate his jaw with the next swing my weapon and finish him shortly after. I make sure to kill each guard in the area quietly and absorb their body so that I don’t leave evidence for wandering citizens to get upset about. I then backtrack to the alchemist shop and enter the building. Not knowing exactly where the three Shadow Mages are hiding, I decide to start the fight off with the one crowd control spell I have called Naughty Children, an ability I absorbed from a Krampus creature in another dungeon. Activating the ability takes five long seconds and the whole-time images of hate filled hairy creature with hooves and horns floats through my mind. The creature grabs misbehaved children. I understand the buildup of his imagery is part of a physic attack that leaves my opponent cowering in fear and unable to attack. However, it’s creepy as hell, which is why I don’t use it often. The other downside to the ability is the long cooldown between uses. As the ability finally finishes charging, a cold blue sphere of energy expands out from me and I hear screams of terror as I catch all three mages in the radius of the spell and send them to the corners of the room, cringing, and muttering.