by I. Felix
Arche finished cutting it all, looking at his friends with an impressed look. The place was now a clear entrance way into a darker room. They couldn't see anything inside either, but the swirling portal appeared there.
"Teamwork, yas!" Blake exclaimed.
"I'm pretty sure we took a shortcut and we might regret it later on," May said, thinking. "But, let's go. Get ready because I don't think the next floor will be very good."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Arche asked, hesitantly.
"What are you guys thinking?" Blake asked, frowning.
"Well, the spiderweb makes it really clear to me," Arche said. "The second floor is probably all made of spiders."
"UGH!" Blake exclaimed, feeling a knot in his stomach. "This is even worse than cockroaches. Do you think there will be a cockroach floor?"
"Oh, no way," May said. "If that existed, I wouldn't think twice before quitting this game for good," she giggled. "So, spiders are insects, so they are the leaf type. We need to combat them with fire. So, Arche, make some more Fireball Potions and be ready to enter."
"Yes, ma'am!" Arche said, looking at his inventory.
"So, let's go?" May asked. Blake nodded, brave.
They all stepped on the portal.
Everything went white.
As soon as the environment came back to normal, Blake realized he couldn't move. His body was all stuck in something slimy.
"I HATE WHEN YOU TWO ARE RIGHT!" he screamed as he realized that the whole party was stuck in a giant spiderweb, not being able to move a finger.
Chapter 12 – The Terrible Arachne
“What the hell will we do now? Die?!” Blake asked while he couldn’t move one finger. “I’m pretty sure the spiders will appear at any moment now and DEVOUR us. And I know how SADISTIC this game CAN BE, so I REALLY don’t want to die devoured by a spider!”
“Shut up and help us think,” Arche said. “May, what do we do?”
“We need some kind of skill that we can conjure in our hands instead of with our weapons.
“Valky, do something!” Blake tried again. The Valkyria seemed really upset to be stuck in the spiderweb with the others but, still, she remarked sarcastically:
“I told you all that I’M A HEALER!” she said, trying to move herself.
“Where’re those damn scissors?” Blake asked. “Conjure it from the inventory to your hand.”
“I left it there,” Arche said with a dark voice.
“YOU DID WHAT?!” Blake screamed.
“It’s not my fault, it disappeared when we went through to the next level.”
“Guys... don’t look now but the spider is coming,” May said, looking desperate.
The spider was as big as a truck. Blake had seen similar things in movies but having it there, by his side, was a whole different deal. All of the hairy legs, the red eyes like killer rubies, and the enormous fangs produced a new stat on Blake’s vision.
The small square was called Panic and it made his vision foggy, like if he suddenly had acquired a terrible myopia problem.
“COME ON!” he screamed, which made the Panic square get even redder. “May, you’re like a billion levels above us, don’t you have any skill to take us away from here?”
“I’m a swordswoman! Bella, try to spit fire!” May ordered. The gryphon was stuck, unable to move, but she could move her beak enough that a small amount of fire could pass through. It worked, the closest web started to catch on fire and melt, like if it was made of some sort of plastic.
However, almost immediately, the spiderweb started to regenerate.
“This must be like those damn eggs. We need a lot of power to melt it enough to make a difference,” Arche said. The spider was coming closer, slowly, almost as if it was programmed to leave room for them to think about a solution.
“I didn’t want to do that, but it’s the only way,” Arche said. May looked at him, confused. Blake was still panicking, unable to see anything. Oliver and Dark were completely stuck, also unable to move.
“What are you going to do...?” May asked. The spider was so close now that it would attack at any second, the giant fangs looking like two swords ready to pierce and kill them.
Arche conjured two Fireball Potions, one in each hand, coming from his inventory. He wasn’t able to move his hand to throw it, so he closed his eyes and activated his skill.
The explosion was so big that it hit the spider, which flew off the web, on fire. May and Blake were hit too but not enough to kill them. Blake got to 40% of his HP and May only lost 5%, as she had a lot of vitality. The web started catching on fire and melting faster than it could regenerate. May and Blake got free enough to move. Blake lost the panic stat and could see again, so he quickly got his dagger and started cutting the closest web. May did the same with her sword. Before they could see, they weren’t stuck anymore... which meant that gravity did its job and they fell down.
The fall was very big, almost like if they had fallen down on the bottom of a dark wheel. The spider was also there, missing two legs, and injured but not dead. Oliver and Bella were conjured by their side, as homunculus were soulbond. They didn’t wait to start attacking the spider. Bella threw fire on the creature, who started moving and agonizing, caught in flames. Oliver started to attack from different angles, disappearing and appearing again in different directions, being able to hit the spider hard and fast, many times in a row.
The spider took its final blow and fell on its back a shrill.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Blake said. “Look, Arche!”
Then he saw his friend on the ground.
They had been so focused on the battle that they didn’t realize Arche was almost dead.
“OH, NO! ARCHE!” Blake screamed, going to the body of his friend. “Valky, do something...!” before he could finish the sentence, he felt a sting on his neck, and another square appeared in his vision, this time called Poisoned.
“The thing is still alive!” May exclaimed, shocked because the spider went back up and was attacking again, mad. “It was pretending to be dead.”
“Arche sacrificed himself for us, now I’m poisoned and losing HP every second, and the thing is still alive. Not a good day,” Blake said, weak. He didn’t feel strong enough to keep kneeling, so he fell on his chest.
“Oh, no, it better not!” May said and she got her sword. With all the anger she felt, she screamed Mortal Explosion and the skill hit the spider with such force that it became only dust.
CRITICAL hit, it showed on top of the spider’s dead body that now was only disappearing ashes. Only some loot was left behind. There were two spider legs as loot, some cobweb, and a shiny fang. That blue light also appeared around Blake, with the angelic sound, indicating that he had gotten a new level, now getting to 17.
The poisoned stat disappeared and Arche also sat up.
“Arche!” Blake exclaimed, hugging his friend.
“The level filled my HP and my mana!” he exclaimed.
“Thanks for sacrificing yourself for us,” Blake cried out, dramatic like he usually was.
“You’re welcome,” Arche said, shaking his hand and tapping his friend on the back.
“May, thanks for killing that terrible beast,” Blake said, now turning to May and hugging her. May hugged him back, smiling.
“No problem!” she exclaimed, happy.
“And YOU were as useless as I thought,” Blake said, pointing to Valky. “Why didn’t you heal Arche?”
“He had the Self Inflicted Damage stat, I can’t do anything about that,” Valky said, bored, looking at her nails.
“Look at this loot,” May said, getting the fang from the ground.
“Ugh, I’m not going to touch that,” Blake said.
“This fang is great for creating potions, Arche,” May said, handing it to him. “It’s for creating Poison Potions.”
“Oh, so it will come back and bite the spider on the butt,” Arche said, with a wicked smile.
“Now, how do we get a
way from here? We’ll have to solve more puzzles?”
“Yep, and fast, I imagine,” Arche said. “Before this thing respawns.”
“What?!” Blake asked.
“It’s a game, I imagine it won’t be dead forever.”
They looked up. It was a long way till the exit.
They started trying to climb up in any way they could. The rocks were too slippery and it was impossible to hold them so they could go up. May tried to mount Bella but she couldn’t lift her weight, she was too small. Pikupiku also couldn’t fly, as it had small wings, almost like the wings of a chicken.
“What will we do?” Blake asked, frustrated, sitting down. “May, you never told us that this would be THIS difficult. Sure, you said it was ENDLESS, and only the great champions of the game got to the last floor but this is the SECOND floor only, it wasn’t supposed to be like that.”
“We can give up...” she said, also feeling frustrated and upset.
“Never!” Blake exclaimed. “I don’t give up! Now I’m going to finish this damn tower, no matter what!” he said, determined, and started trying to climb the walls with all his strength and agility. Nothing was working but as he tried to press all the rocks, one of them moved, sinking on the wall. Blake looked at his friends.
“We’ll have to build a staircase, it seems,” he said. Everybody nodded and started pressing all the rocks on the walls, to see which ones would sink.
May was the second one to find a rock that sank, near the ground, but good enough for them to put their feet there and climb up.
“Yas!” she exclaimed and kept pressing the rocks, as fast as they could.
Arche also found one, where they could hold with their hands and start to go up.
“We’ll have to start climbing, otherwise we won’t be able to reach taller rocks,” Arche said, and they agreed. Blake put one foot on one of the openings available and held on to one of the tallest holes that he had made. May had found two different openings where she could put both feet and she held on to an opening near her head. Arche didn’t find an opening to put his feet, but he was strong enough to climb only holding his weight with his hands.
They started climbing and looking for openings to keep advancing.
However, they were moving very slowly and each time they looked up, they saw that the spiderweb was regenerating itself more and more. The next step would be for the spider to come back to life and eat them alive.
“At this rhythm, we won’t go anywhere,” Blake sighed.
“We have to keep going! Unless you have another plan?” Arche asked, also tired and unmotivated.
Blake sighed, looking down. They were 5 feet above the floor, max. Down below, the homunculus were playing with each other, without a worry in the world. They didn’t die and they only needed to attack if there was some kind of threat.
Oliver was a displacer cat, which meant he seemed to be in a place but when looked closely, he wasn’t there anymore. He was in another place and only a projection of himself was there.
“Oliver, come here!” Blake exclaimed. The homunculus obeyed its master, so Oliver appeared on his shoulder. It got slightly harder to balance himself but he could manage not to fall. “How tall can you go?” he asked. Oliver, as an answer, displaced himself some feet above. His shadow was still on Blake’s shoulder, but the real cat was able to go up, before coming back to being only one again. “Can you try to press on the rocks to see if you can find any ones that provide an opening for us?”
Oliver nodded again and started doing it, fast. As a displacer cat, his biggest strength was agility. So, he started throwing himself to the wall, pressing on the rocks, climbing up, and going back to Blake’s shoulder.
“It’s working!” Arche exclaimed, surprised. Oliver was being able to find the rocks that could go inside the wall. Blake didn’t waste time, he started to climb upwards, making Oliver be able to go each time taller and taller.
“Hey, Bella!” May asked, having the same idea. “Follow Oliver and use your beak to try to find rocks that can provide openings for us!” May exclaimed. Bella started doing the same as Oliver, poking the wall with her beak, moving the rocks inward.
“I guess Dark can’t be very useful for us now,” Arche said. “But YOU can,” he told the Valky, who was floating next to them, looking bored, with her arms crossed.
“Oh, no, I can’t. Not going to help you unless it’s for the thing that I was hired for,” she said, petulant.
“I know you will because I read all about your information and a Contractor’s information and I know how I can swap you,” Arche said and an information screen opened in front of all of them.
“If you are not happy with the Contractor hired, you can request a change at any time. The chosen Contractor will be substituted by another available one,” it read.
Valky’s expression changed completely. She widened her eyes and the clear mix of anger with fear now appeared on them.
“Oh, no, I need this money! I’ll use it to buy a new sword!” she exclaimed, now looking like she could murder Arche.
“So, you better work. I know you weren’t hired JUST as a healer, you’re hired to help us! Also, you can buff us to help us climb. Come on, chop, chop!”
Blake celebrated with a “woohoo,” and May laughed, loud. Valky didn’t look pleased. She rolled her eyes but reached out her hands.
They were showered with white light and some stats squares appeared on their vision.
“Blessing of the Valkyria: +10 strength, +10 agility, +10 dexterity for 1 minute.”
“WHY didn’t you help us before?!” Blake exclaimed, mesmerized by his new stats. He was feeling ten times as strong now and he was able to climb faster. Oliver also started being able to do the displacement much quicker and effectively, as if he also got the blessing as he was soulbond with Blake. The same happened for Bella. Valky, for her turn, started to also help to find the rocks.
They were able to climb the entire wheel. They passed the spiderweb part, that wasn’t entirely regenerated yet, and they kept climbing.
When they got to the ceiling, they saw a swirling portal. Before, they only needed to step on the portal to move, but, this time, when they touched the light, everything went white for a second.
In the next second, they were in a new room. The second floor had disappeared behind them. Now, they were in the third one.
It was completely different from the previous two.
It was still a chamber. They couldn’t see the outside, nor daylight, nor anything.
But the entire hall, the stairs, and everywhere else were covered in grass. There were trees with big juicy fruits, a river, a cute bridge crossing the river, and it looked peaceful. They couldn’t see any monsters there.
“I bet there’s something wrong with this place, but I honestly don’t care. It is SO NICE here,” Blake exclaimed. They were all filled with joy inside, like only a kid can feel on Christmas morning.
“Let’s sit for a little while?” Arche asked and didn’t wait for an answer. He sat down on the grass. They were all also exhausted. “I just feel like sleeping for a second.”
“Yeah. And maybe doing a picnic. Look at those fruits,” May said, also sitting down. “This is like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, isn’t it?”
“I guess a little nap wouldn’t hurt,” Blake said, also laying down.
Before they could see, they were all sleeping.
Blake noticed something was wrong when he entered his dreams and a shadow-like creature hit him.
The hit really hurt and his HP got down to 97%.
He wasn’t sure if that was only a dream or if it was happening in real life. All he knew was that the nice place had disappeared. In his dreams, he was now in a graveyard-like setting, with dead trees, a dead lawn, and many monsters around it.
Chapter 13 – Dreamland
Blake had never felt anything like that before. It was like he had died. And he had died once, technically, when he left his b
ody on Earth to enter the world of Sentinel Online, but that was completely different. He didn't feel his body.
"Well, I imagine I don't feel my real body anyway," he thought to himself. "But I don't feel anything now," he kept thinking. He was like a ghost. He could still see his normal body but it was like being in something like water, something that felt ethereal, like if he was possibly floating.
Also, it was so cold that he could feel it inside his ethereal new body-soul, like if he entered a fast freezing freezer. Even though he could feel it, he couldn't feel the suffering that would cause.
Everywhere that he looked, he could see shadows.
They looked like some sort of deformed liquid that held their shape but with enormous bulgy eyes and teeth. It looked like a ghost that had come to life from a nightmare, a ghost that was melting in dark liquid.
He wasn't sure if he was in actual Purgatory or not, all he knew is that he felt the fear inside his soul, like the first time when he went to Purgatory. The time when he was paralyzed by fear.
This time, however, he had no time to stop, think, feel. The ghosts all looked at him as if attracted to something that wasn't made of their own material. They all went to his direction at once, ready to attack, showing their horrible melting teeth.
Blake didn't think twice. He called Oliver, who appeared by his side. He realized he was alone there, May and Arche had disappeared, just like it was common in one’s own dreams. We are always alone in our dreams, he thought. But Oliver was there, ready to fight.
He used the Shadow Hiding and disappeared. He wasn't sure if that would work, as his opponents were also ghosts, but he was able to hide himself. His body had disappeared and now only Oliver was there. The ghosts all went to the small cat, ready to kill him, but they didn't reach anything, it was only a shadow, a memory, for the cat had displaced himself. He appeared on top of the ghosts, with his claws and teeth showing like a panther ready to attack. Blake knew this was his opportunity too. He appeared from the shadows with his dagger and a double attack. He spun around, hitting as many ghosts as he could, while Oliver did the same, attacking super fast, as only a displacer cat would be able to do.
