The Arena

by Drew Seren

  “But shouldn’t they have gotten to my pod by now? This doesn’t make sense.” Horc’s head spun. He knew it had taken more than a day for the rescue team to reach his house, since he’d made it clear they were to be helping other people first. He was safe in the game…well, at least not bleeding out under the weight of his collapsed house. But he figured they would’ve reached him already. How long did it take to move the rubble of a house to reach someone trapped in their gaming pod?

  “I totally forgot to give you an update.” Greensleeves patted Horc’s arm. “Rick told me the retrieval team was moving fairly slow in getting to your pod. The damage to your house is extensive and they don’t want to inadvertently cause a spark. There’s a lot of open gas lines in the area.”

  “Open gas lines? You mean like when that tornado took Kansas City down to the bedrock?” Hearing about the level of destruction made everything a lot worse. In Kansas City it had taken months before the area was totally safe due to ruptured gas lines, broken pipelines, and live electrical wires making things dangerous for rescuers and demo teams to go in and start repairing the carnage.

  Greensleeves pursed his lips and nodded. “That’s right. But it’s not exactly that bad. This wasn’t that powerful of a storm. There are at least some buildings in Mesquite and Garland still partially standing. There was nothing left of Kansas City.”

  “Right.” Horc let out a long sigh. “Right. They’re working on it. I’m going to be fine. I have to keep telling myself that, or I’ll go bonkers.”

  “And that won’t help anyone,” Tufkakes said. “We just soldier on.”

  “Good idea,” Greensleeves said. “We’ve got some snakes to find, kill and skin so you can get your training.”

  Horc pushed down the panic attack that threatened to overwhelm him. He’d been doing great for a couple of days, so finding out his rescue was taking longer than he’d expected it to shouldn’t cause him to totally freak out. He needed to focus on just playing the game until it was time for him to rejoin the real world.

  Staring at his map, Horc frowned. They were in the middle of the shaded area that indicated it was where the object of their quest should be, but they hadn’t found any diamondbacks to kill and skin. They’d battled a number of scorpions of various flavors, a few feral pigs and a pack of Sun Wolves, but hadn’t found their objectives.

  “We’re in the right place.” He swiped and dismissed the map. “I wonder if we need to start rolling over rocks and looking there.”

  “Or maybe check in the shadows.” Tufkakes headed toward the wall of the canyon they were in. “If these snakes are like real life snakes, then they might be seeking out shade in the heat of the day.”

  “Rick keeps saying the programmers went out of their way to make things as life-like as possible.” Greensleeves followed their new party member. “So, the game snakes acting more like snakes IRL, makes sense.”

  As he and his wolf headed after them, Horc didn’t bother pointing out that animals IRL tended to run from people as opposed to attacking them like the game critters did. But if the game animals ran from them, he’d feel like crap chasing them down to kill them, particularly things like the feral pigs and the wolves.

  “Ah, here you go.” Tufkakes pointed to something a short distance away, then flung a knife at it.

  On Horc’s screen, his avatar flashed with a red glow indicating he was in combat. Seconds later a huge rattlesnake slithered out of the shadows. Desert Diamondback, Level 25 shone in red letters above it. It was a couple of levels above them, but Horc was fairly sure with three players and the wolf attacking it, there wasn’t going to be much of a challenge.

  “Shit!” Tufkakes recoiled from the snake’s attack. “It’s got poison… of course, it’s got poison.” He flung another knife as Horc got off an Impact arrow.

  Horc’s wolf hit the snake hard.

  “I’ve got you.” Greensleeves cast a quick spell with a purple glow.

  Horc got off another arrow. It took Horc three more arrows, while his wolf was chewing on it and Tufkakes was hacking at it.

  When it finally stopped moving, Tufkakes glared down at it as he stepped back. “Okay. That was irritatingly hard. It’s a damned snake. It shouldn’t have taken so much to put down.”

  “But it was a strong snake.” Greensleeves pulled out a flask and took a swig. Instantly his mana bar in the group icons flashed back to full.

  “At least all I need is five skins,” Horc said, getting up next to the small monster. “It’s not like the quests to collect twenty-five of something.”

  Tufkakes’s eyes grew large. “Twenty-five? Damn. Not cool. I think the most I’ve had to collect for one quest is ten, and with the drop rate those rats had on fangs, it took me a couple of hours to complete.”

  Greensleeves wrinkled his nose. “Rat fangs? Really? But then we’ve had body parts, but they’re normally bigger than rat fangs.”

  Tufkakes retrieved his daggers and wiped them down before slipping them in his sheaths. “They were fairly large rats.”

  “Must’ve been.” Horc looted the snake. A set of fangs, dripping in venom. A curled tail, and a couple of silvers. Then he set about skinning it. He got a pile of mangled scraps from it. Nothing flashed for it being part of his quest. “Well, looks like this is going to be a bit of a challenge.”

  “Keeps the game interesting,” Tufkakes said. “Let’s see about finding the next one.”

  Twenty snakes later, Horc had the skins he needed. “Okay. I’m starting to think some of this is just for wasting time.” He wiped his skinning knife off before returning it to the sheath on his belt.

  Tufkakes shrugged. “It’s a game. It’s supposed to be for wasting time. At least these guys got me to level 20.”

  “He’s got a point.” Greensleeves chuckled.

  “Yah, I can see that.” Halfworld was so lifelike, Horc had trouble remembering that he liked wasting time in games. Sure, he was accomplishing things like growing in levels, and getting more in-game gold, but with the reality feel of it, he kept thinking he needed to be making more strides toward something.

  “Alright, let’s go turn this in so we can go meet up with the others in Tragiczan,” Greensleeves said, turning toward the mouth of the canyon.

  As he completed Quicknife’s quest, Horc’s screen flashed with:

  Journeyman Skinner achieved

  “You have the potential to be a great leather worker, Horc.” Quicknife rolled up the snake skins and slipped them into a pack on the ground near his chair. “Come back to me when you’re ready for more training.”

  “Of course.” Horc nodded slightly. He had no idea when he was going to need training in skinning again and wasn’t sure where he’d be when that happened. He wouldn’t waste the time traveling all the way to Red Wind Terrace if there was a spot closer that he could get his training at.

  Hey, where are you guys? Baladara appeared in their group chat.

  Red Wind Terrace. Greensleeves. Slasher and Steelmaiden are in Tragiczan waiting for us. The next round of quests takes us back there.

  I’m already in Tragiczan, but they aren’t here. Baladara.

  Are they nearby? Horc added as he and Greensleeves walked out of the shop Quicknife and Thunderbow shared. They said they were going to try to find some quests in that area that would help their rep with the Orcs.

  Look at your party icons. They show on. When I check their location, it shows in Tragiczan. When I got here I went to the Inn, since that looks to be where they are, but they aren’t here. Baladara.

  I wonder if there’s some kind of system glitch or phasing at work. Greensleeves.

  Phasing. Oh, that would be a royal pain. I hate phasing. Baladara

  Me too. Tufkakes.

  Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about adding more party members when I’m not around. Baladara.

  Hey Tufkakes. Baladara.

  Hi Baladara. Heard nice things about you. Tufkakes.

  Stay there. We’re on our w
ay back now. Horc glanced at Greensleeves as they approached the lift. “Any idea where the Rogue trainer Tufkakes went to see is?”

  “Hang on.” Greensleeves got a faraway look as they stopped for the platform to arrive.

  Guys, I’ll meet you at the gate. Tufkakes.

  Thanks. Horc replied. “Don’t worry, he’s on the way.”

  “Right.” The lift arrived and they both stepped on. “Do me a favor and keep an eye on me while I check with Rick on strange server things like phasing. He hadn’t said anything about parties getting out of synch due to various quests and things like you find in other games.”

  “Sure.” Horc hoped Greensleeves wasn’t going to fully log out and talk with Rick—just use text or something. If he logged out, they might be stuck riding the lift up and down for a little while and the open-air contraption still made Horc a little bit fearful of falling to his death from the wooden platform that was bereft of any kind of security device to keep the passengers from falling off it.

  As the lift went down, Greensleeves got that glassy-eyed look again. It lasted for the whole trip down to the ground level, then he blinked as the platform shook, indicating they’d arrived.

  “Okay. Rick’s looking into it. He says there shouldn’t be any phasing at this point in the plot. It’s too big of a hassle and too many people don’t like it, even if it does advance the story line.” They hurried off the round wooden conveyance before it started up again. “But he said it does sound like something’s wrong on the servers if they’re showing in the inn and aren’t there.”

  “Not good,” Horc said as they headed toward the gate, weaving their way through the ever-growing flood of people in the game. He wondered if word had gotten out over the weekend and even employees of Total Immersion Systems who didn’t normally play games had opted to give it a shot to get the bonus for helping spot bugs in the beta. If part of their party had disappeared from the Inn he’d left them at, that was a pretty big bug.

  Up ahead, Tufkakes stood on a large rock near the gate, his paw-like hand over his dark eyes as if he was scanning the crowd for them.

  “You know he could just use the map and watch the character dots to determine where people were at before resorting to scanning the ground like this,” Greensleeves said.

  “Maybe he’s just having fun,” Horc replied.

  “Probably,” Greensleeves agreed. “Makes sense to me. Or maybe he’s still twelve.”

  “And signed on with his father’s credentials. That could be.” Horc waved back and Tufkakes jumped off the rock. One of the things about video games was there was no way to tell anything about the players IRL.

  “Okay, let’s keep moving,” Tufkakes said as they headed out the gate. “Didn’t you say something while we were hunting those damned snakes about it being about an hour’s hike from Red Wind Terrace to Tragiczan?”

  “That’s right. If we’re lucky and don’t run into any problems along the way.” Horc said as his wolf took the lead, seeming to know the way.

  “Problems might slow us down, but they should at least be worth some XP,” Tufkakes said with a grin.

  “There is that,” Greensleeves agreed.

  Horc was growing worried about Slasher and Steelmaiden. He hoped Rick would be able to find out something about what had happened to them. Maybe they’d just logged out and the system was stuck on them still being in Tragiczan. He wanted to get there quickly and find out. As he walked, he remembered he had a quest to root out the evil forces that were in the small settlement. Could those forces somehow be responsible for his friends’ problems?

  6

  By the time they reached Tragiczan, Horc was more than ready for a shower. The desert sand seemed to stick to him worse than it had before. He wasn’t sure, but it felt like it was caking up around his pack and in every crevice in his gear it could find.

  The little settlement looked much as it had when he’d been there before, except the sun was approaching the horizon, so most of the vendors had closed their shops. He was a little surprised by that since he hadn’t noticed that in either Stone Helm City, or in Red Wind Terrace. The larger cities seemed to be like most game cities and open all the time.

  “Okay, so at least I can see you guys.” Baladara leaned against the entrance of the inn. The little elf looked more like Mike, the guy behind the toon, than she normally did. Something about the pose and the grumpy look on her delicate features screamed male human.

  “And we can see you,” Greensleeves countered.

  “Okay, what did you do to yourself?” Baladara asked looking Greensleeves over from head to toe.

  “Rick pulled some strings and let me change my race. I prefer Elves over Humans anyway, and this way I’m neutral like Horc.” Greensleeves turned around in a tight circle. “Do you like the new look?”

  “Very desert.” Baladara nodded. “But yeah, a better look than the basic human. Why didn’t you do that to start with?”

  “Rick wanted me to go human and go through the Gnoll King’s Dungeon.” Greensleeves shrugged. “You know, sometimes we do what we can to keep the spouses happy.”

  “I hear you. Lisa was happy with the downtime I took.” Baladara looked at Tufkakes. “And you managed to pick up your own personal stuffed animal while I was out.”

  Tufkakes bared his teeth. “I’m a Procyan, not a stuffed animal.”

  “Okay. Well, we did need a Rogue. I guess you’ll do.”

  “Thanks. I didn’t know all the new party members needed approval first.” Tufkakes put his hands on his hips. “I realized who Horc is and wanted to help.”

  “Also, he almost knocked me off one of the terraces trying to pick my pocket,” Horc muttered.

  Baladara looked Tufkakes up and down, more sternly than she had Greensleeves’ new toon. “Okay then. I’ll keep my eye on you.”

  “He’s a good Rogue,” Greensleeves said. “And like you said, we need one in the party. Oh, wait a second.” He got the distant look indicating he was getting something on his screen. After a couple of seconds, he blinked. “That’s not good. Okay. Rick said he and the development team have checked. Slasher and Steelmaiden are still logged in. Although their signals are coming from the inn, as far as in-game players can tell, they’re really trekking across the desert to the west of here. Right now, they’re several hours out.”

  Baladara rolled her eyes. “So, it’s a server glitch?”

  “Or something.” Greensleeves blinked a couple of times. “Rick says they are currently querying the game AI to see if it knows what’s going on. That might take a while. He’s set up a bypass so we can find them on our maps.”

  A green arrow appeared on the edge of the map in the upper right of Horc’s vision. When they got close enough, it would change to a dot. Horc waved to make the map grow larger. He had to do it several times before he could get the arrow to go away. “Looks like they’re heading to the western shore. What level is that area?”

  Greensleeves frowned. “Looks like twenty-five to thirty. Might be a bit of a challenge.”

  Horc pursed his lips. “And I didn’t take time to find an enchanter in Red Wind Terrace to find out about doing something to re-empower my axe.”

  Baladara shook her head. “You’re such a newb. Okay, if we’re heading out after them, it might be a good idea to be totally stocked up on potions, drinks, and food, as well as getting that axe to do something beyond just looking cheap. We can get the food and drink here, but I think everyone else has folded up for the night. Do we want to wait, or do you guys want to go back to Red Wind, then meet me on the road?”

  Greensleeves frowned. “I don’t like the idea of splitting the party again. That’s not working out so great. Let’s get what we can here and head out, unless Horc and Tufkakes want to grab a bed for a few hours and then take off.”

  “The desert will be cooler at night,” Tufkakes said. “Let’s see how far we can get.”

  Although Horc couldn’t find a problem in the logic, his fe
et hurt, and he wanted to get the sand out of and off of everything. “Sounds like a plan,” he muttered, hoping he wasn’t going to live to regret it, but they needed to find out what was up with Steelmaiden and Slasher.

  They headed into the inn to resupply what they could. The party cleared the door, when one of the barmaids slammed it shut.

  “Thank you for finally getting inside,” she said as she forced locks shut.

  “What’s going on?” Horc asked, not liking the idea of being locked in. It was going to slow them down getting on the trail to find the rest of their party.

  “Oh,”—the barmaid looked around and stammered—“we’re just ready to close up for the night.” She paused and studied Horc. “Hey. I remember you—you have a room here with those other two. The Warrior and the Barbarian woman.”

  “That’s right. You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to them, after I left?” Horc suddenly hoped that maybe someone had seen or heard something that would give them some answers as to what was going on.

  The barmaid shook her head a little more enthusiastically than she needed to, then waved them down the steps into the main room. “No, they went out yesterday and never came back.”

  That played with what they were seeing on the map but it didn’t make sense. Horc thought about taking a little while and trying to see if anyone else would tell them more, but he wanted to get their supplies and get on the road, if the barmaid would let them out of the door.

  “Do you know if they talked to anyone before they left Tragiczan?” Greensleeves asked.

  She shook her head again. “I didn’t see them after they left the inn.”

  Tufkakes walked around the barmaid. “They need to work on these NPCs. It’s like the AI is still trying to figure out what they should be saying. If we’re far enough into the development that we’re beta testing, it shouldn’t be this clunky.”

  “Then luckily, we’ve got a short cut to the designers.” Greensleeves grinned. “But go ahead and fill out a bug report. It has more impact coming from multiple people.”