by Wyatt Savage
“You are largely correct. In this case, it was a software virus based on a biological virus structure.”
This piqued Jackie’s interest if for no other reason than that her background gave her experience with such biological structures. She wanted to ask whether that was the reason she’d been offered the quest, but then thought better of it.
“Okay,” Jackie said. “Sign us up.”
“Excellent,” Simon said. “The question is now whether the terms are acceptable. Put simply and in your world’s cultural terms, do you agree to abide by the mission parameters without straying off-course and affecting the dungeon core in unexpected ways?”
“Yes.”
“Very well,” Simon replied. “But be mindful of all that you have been told. Please abide by the rules as invalidating an agreement within the rules would confine you to dark alignment, prevent full ascendance, and possibly lead to you reaching your journey’s end. Now that the terms have been agreed to, your side quest may begin. Please select the option to proceed.”
Jackie mentally finalized the agreement via Mindspeak. She didn’t like that she had to enter a contractual obligation, but this was, in her estimation, a shot worth taking. The reward should be worth the risk, or so she thought.
16
Side Quest
A flashing green light beaconed from somewhere deep within one of the corridors. Jackie and Jorge shuttled softly in the direction of the light. At the end of the corridor, they came upon a sealed transparent door, but a wall of grey smoke prevented them from seeing what was on the other side.
“Going in blind is not a good idea,” Jorge said, sweat beading down his forehead.
“We’ve accepted the quest,” Jackie replied, as she placed her hand against the door. “There’s no turning back.” The silhouette of a handprint formed around hers. Jackie had to have her biometrics scanned at a lab during medical school once and it reminded her of that.
“Access granted by Threshold,” a vaguely male robotic voice stated, as the door unsealed and slid open.
As they stepped inside, a putrid scent hit Jackie’s nostrils. A mix of the sickly-sweet odor of rotting fruit, and rank biological decay. It was the smell of corruption, Jackie thought.
“Congratulations! You have entered sublevel one within Threshold’s domain,” Simon informed her. “As a result, you have been awarded two hundred bonus experience points in light of fearless entry into an unknown territory. Please proceed with caution.”
Jackie glanced at her HUD, which reflected a battery of updated stats, including additional XP for survival and fearless entry (and a loss of a health point because of the continuing infection), such that the statistics read:
Species:Homo Sapiens (Leon, Jaqueline)
Ragetags: Metamaterial Shroud; Metamaterial Disruptor (Stealth Defense and Navigation Enabled)
Chattel:5.7 mm pistol; Roundworm Parasites; ANFO Salt; Spud Gun; Potato Launcher; Grenades
Health:9/10
Level:1
Class:Mage
Kills:47
Vitals:BP – 112/80; T – 97.09f; RR – 11bpm
XP:375
The same smell hit her nose again.
“What’s the source of that smell, Simon? Is it lethal?” Jackie asked, ignoring the update on her progression.
“The smell originates from petrichor, an ethereal fluid. No, it is not lethal on its own. Petrichor is nothing more than a pleasant smell that accompanies the first rainfall after a long dry period.”
“What does ‘not lethal on its own’ mean? And how is there rainfall inside a dungeon?”
“As you are aware, the dungeon is a superstructure. It contains a contained environment created by the Noctem, one that is capable of sustaining life and taking it. There are ecosystems and micro-ecosystems within the walls, hence the rainfall. Petrichor is not a lethal odor but may indicate the presence of a fatal substance in close proximity.”
“Try not to bury the lede, Simon.”
“I do not understand,” Simon replied.
“Never mind.”
“Is there anything else I can assist you with at this time?”
“You could run a diagnostic of the area, something akin to a CAT scan or MRI. Even a sonar check would be helpful. Knowing what we’re up against is vital.”
“You do not currently possess a means by which such a scan is possible,” Simon replied. “Your current skill tree, however, positions you on the ladder to obtain one soon, if your journey does not come to an end first.”
Jorge turned up his nose at the smell, slipping a new magazine into his assault rifle. “Remind me why we decided to come this way?”
“My gut tells me it’s the fastest route.”
“To what? Ending up in the belly of some beast?”
“It’s a shortcut, Jorge.”
“There are many monsters and participants this way.”
“Even better,” she said with a dark smile, thinking about all the potential ways to acquire more points, which meant more gear, more Ragetags, and enough XP to fully heal herself.
They crept forward, listening to every sound, taking in every sight. Keeping watch on the shadows that moved all around. “What do you think he would think if he was here?” Jorge whispered.
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Will.”
Jackie was surprised that it took her a moment to remember Will’s name. “I don’t really know...”
“I do not think he would approve of the path we’ve taken.”
Jackie’s face was etched with anger. It sounded like Jorge was second-guessing her, just like Will had often done. “Will was weak,” she said, surprised at herself for saying it.
“I saw no weakness in him, senora.”
“That’s because you didn’t know him like I did. Only the weak fall in the Melee. The strong survive.”
Jorge gaped at her. He muttered something in Spanish she couldn’t make out. What sounded like a prayer. “What do you hope to achieve here, Jackie?”
“I hope to find my place,” she said, setting her jaw in a look of grim determination.
“I think you already have,” he replied.
Jackie stopped. Something was wrong with her HUD. She swiped at it, shifting to an overlay that displayed heat signatures. There were distortions on the display, but nothing clear and coherent. It was all a blur and indistinguishable, not useful enough to make decisions on or avoid ambush attacks.
“Jorge,” Jackie said, “are you seeing anything, anything at all? We’re in the dark.”
“I was hoping you knew something,” he replied, which Jackie definitely did not want to hear.
“Safeties off, don’t hold back,” she replied.
“May I suggest engaging your Ragetags?” Jorge asked, eagerness in his otherwise-deadpan voice.
“No,” she said, bringing her grenade launcher up. “If this is a trap, that could be what the enemy wants—for us to expend what we have in the dark, wasting our best, and then countering with everything he’s got.”
With dread, she braced for the worst, spud gun out, her right hand ready to swipe at her HUD and deploy her Ragetags if she absolutely had to, or worst-case scenario, the Roundworms.
To her dismay, her worst fears came true. A yellow dot suddenly flashed on her HUD.
“There’s something out there!” Jorge shouted.
Indeed there was. Out of the murk at the end of the passageway, tentacles emerged. The tentacles whipped into the air and then ratcheted forward, her HUD revealing what they were facing:
Species: Tentaculum Monstrum
Level:1
Class:Monster
Health:10/10
Attributes:A multi-limbed scavenger with suckered, barbed tentacles; has the ability to produce poisonous gas to kill or disable prey.
Jackie and Jorge ducked as the tentacles slammed into the wall behind them. Without having to run a medical diagnostic, Jackie surmised the Roundworms weren’t likel
y to have an effect on a similar-type creature. Her Ragetags were invaluable and powerful, but stealth in defense and offense was only going to be of use if she could use it as a stepping stone to enacting a death blow that would destroy their enemy, and she had none that she knew of. True, her ANFO could possibly do enough damage to push their attacker back, but could it destroy the beast? She had no idea, and she needed to know before she spent scarce resources.
Her hope had been that the rogue monster was something like the Machina Monstrum, or even a run-of-the-mill spider creature she could counter with ANFO. Instead, she was dealing with a beast that she still couldn’t fully observe.
“Fire into that as hard as you can, Jorge!” she shouted.
Jorge opened fire with his assault rifle, unleashing a wall of lead that pissed the monster off. The tentacles struck out again, seemingly undamaged, slicing Jackie’s and Jorge’s shoulders, costing them each a health point. More troubling was a noxious smell that filled the air.
“Gas!” Jackie shouted. “I think it’s emitting a poison gas!”
Jackie and Jorge hugged the outer edges of the passageway, keeping an eye on the gas from the tentacles that thankfully was visible, green in color, wafting near the ceiling. The tentacles continued to lash in random directions. The smell subsided and something else filled Jackie’s nostrils, the sweet odor of morning dew.
“We have no chance,” Jorge screeched, terrified, blood pouring from his shoulder wound. “We’ve given our best, and that is enough. We need to go back out!”
Jackie’s flinty gaze smoked into his. “Next thing you’re gonna tell me is that we didn’t come here to win, that we did the best we could and now it’s time to close up shop and turn the lights out. Well, that’s not good enough for me.”
“Then what is?”
“I came here to begin a journey, Jorge. To quest.”
Jorge shook his head. “Tienes agallas, Jackie. You’ve got guts, but guts are not all that we need now. We’re going to die no matter what you say.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Are you seven feet tall? Do you kill monsters by the handfuls? Will you consume them with Roundworms and whatever other medical concoctions you’ve come up with? Do you have some kind of magic hidden up your sleeves?”
Jackie smiled grimly. “As a matter of fact I do.”
She pulled up her HUD and selected her Metamaterial Disruptor, which she should have opened with, but not before knowing with certainty what she was dealing with. She knew the enemy she faced now—one that was afraid. A box appeared on my HUD with what looked like a rubber button marked “Disruptor.” Jackie mentally slapped the rubber button down and she was immediately gripped by a powerful sensation.
A nearly transparent bubble surrounded her and Jorge, acting like a stealth sonar detector. The effect of the Disruptor was to place the tentacle-based creature completely in the dark as to their movements. The rogue monster was even more afraid and began lashing out in fear, expending its strength, exposing itself, all of which was part of Jackie’s plan. It didn’t matter that she wanted to keep her metamaterial offense in reserve for whatever Threshold threw at her. All that mattered were the next few moments.
Like clockwork, the tentacle strikes became even more erratic and random as each second passed, confirming that the thing was blind to their whereabouts. Venturing out with stealth didn’t mean she was invincible. The attacks would still harm them, but at random.
The only way forward was to find a path where the tentacles couldn’t reach, and then she could use her Ragetag to disguise her attacks, increasing the odds of their being able to kill the creature.
As the HUD display transformed within the bubble’s shield, the Disruptor demonstrated a secondary and unexpected effect. Jackie could now see through the muck—she could see it all. Not in the direct physical sense, but in an indirect sonar-like manner.
She surveyed her surroundings through the sonar lens, studying the sublevel which was viewed in the form of dots, lines, and spaces, which stretched in every direction like a spiderweb. She was shocked to see traps along the way, including paths that led to holes in the ground filled with spikes, others that concealed monsters, or participants who’d been killed and resurrected as zombie-like creatures. There were also monsters, some small, others large, hiding in the shadows, waiting to spring upon unwary participants.
“Which way?” Jorge asked.
“Every way leads to death,” Jackie replied.
“That’s…not a good thing to hear, especially now.”
Jackie shook her head and wracked her brain. There had to be a way. What would be the point of a game that didn’t have losers and winners? Both were necessary for it to be a game at all. The Melee clearly had a purpose, even if it was too soon for her to understand it. What mattered in this moment, though, was how the game was played.
Certain death lay in wait along every path. Choosing the right path was a trap as well, one that provoked fear, doubt, and hesitation. They couldn’t risk standing still and letting death come to them. They had to at least take a chance at winning, especially since the Disruptor Ragetag was reducing Jackie’s health points. She was down to 6/10 and feeling the impact of the Ragetag and the wound caused by the tentacles. Her breathing was shallower, her muscles aching, her vision blurring, and the Ragetag would only last for another three minutes.
“We should go there,” Jackie replied, pointing to the left, to a path that lay in the opposite direction of the monster.
They ran past the tentacled monster that was still searching for them. The passageway narrowed, curving left and right, the light going dim. Jackie checked her HUD, but nothing was clear, the readouts flickering, fading.
“I’m losing my signal,” Jorge said.
“Keep going!” Jackie shouted, ignoring him.
A shrill siren sounded and the Disruptor Ragetag ended. They were exposed now, no more shields, although the capability of viewing the surrounding area in sonar fashion remained. Something echoed down the passageway. The same, whispering note that Jackie had heard before.
“There’s something up there!” Jorge shouted, fear-gripping his assault rifle. Jackie held her grenade launcher up. More whispers filtered down over them. The words were indistinguishable but sounded human. Several tense seconds passed. Then, a flurry of sounds, voices, harsher ones, assaulted them, profane and thunderous.
“What is that?” Jorge asked, raising his voice. “We should just go, we need to run!”
“Wait,” Jackie commanded. “You need to see it, or you’ll continue to hesitate and doubt me. I won’t allow that any longer.”
The passageway widened to a circular courtyard. It was so dark that the ceiling could not be seen. There was just enough illumination to reveal two archways on the other side. The whispers reached a crescendo as Jackie placed her hands against her ears and that’s when it happened: something moved.
Some things moved.
The gloom came alive and then Jackie saw the woman’s face. It was the female participant she’d seen earlier. The tall one in the red jacket she’d witnessed immediately after entering the dungeon. But something was off. The woman’s mouth opened and closed rapidly, like a puppet or a fish gasping for breath.
Jackie took another step and something white flashed inside the woman’s mouth. Jackie held up a hand and called out and the woman’s eyes rolled over. Her torso was red and shiny and Jackie read her stats. She was dead.
Suddenly, bony hooks emerged from the corners of the woman’s body and Jackie saw the thing manipulating the corpse like a puppet. The bodies of two more dead participants dropped down and Jorge shouted as the monsters using the bodies as disguises became visible.
The abominations, and there were six of them, unfurled themselves from their perches far overhead. They had stripped the flesh from the dead participants and were wearing it like disguises. Their hooked hands ripped through the flesh and Jackie saw the freakshow faces of the mo
nsters hidden inside.
The devils’ bodies and faces were vaguely humanoid, but were long like shovels, and devoid of any features aside from fleshy, drooping eyes. They immediately made Jackie think of the internet creation known as Slender Man. The monsters’ bony hands telescoped out and Jackie saw that the ends were sharpened and resembled scythes. Jackie’s Ragetag timed out, and the fiends’ mouths unhinged as the screaming started.
17
Creepy Crawlies
“FLAYERS!” Jackie shrieked, reading the information off her HUD, which showed:
Species: Flayers
Level:2
Class:Insectoid Arachnid
Health:7/10
Attributes:Hybrid humanoid-arachnid cannibals with bone scythes and oversized pincers capable of paralyzing prey for the purpose of keeping it alive and slowly devouring victims over several hours. It has the ability to sense prey in darkness and with no clear vision through olfactory smell, possesses flesh that’s poisonous to the touch, and operates as a hive, allowing for synchronous and overwhelming attacks. May be vulnerable to biological attacks.
“They’re Level Two monsters!” Jorge shouted.
“How are there Level Two monsters in here, Simon?” Jackie asked.
“The Melee reserves the right to introduce creatures from other levels at a time and place of its choosing. It has done so here.”
The Flayers discarded their flesh cloaks and alighted into the air. Without a moment of hesitation, Jackie grabbed Jorge’s wrist and pulled him forward. The two were able to squirt under the Flayers an instant before the monsters hit the ground. Jackie and Jorge fired back at the beasts, holding the monsters off, giving themselves just enough time to escape.
Jackie led the way through the first archway, turning to look back. The Flayers swung their scythe-like arms, dragging the sharpened tips across the translucent walls, throwing off clouds of sparks. One of the fiends broke off the bony tip of its arm and flung it at Jorge. The bone hammered into Jorge’s thigh in a great gout of blood, knocking him to the ground, causing him to lose 2 health points.
