by A. M. Sohma
Kit’s shoulders slumped, but instead of being filled with bitterness, she was mostly apathetic. “Ahh, yes. If I check my expectations, perhaps I will achieve inner peace regarding the poor armor options for dancers.”
Thankfully, the dwarves had not entirely failed her as they had given her blue trousers that cut off at the knee and puffed slightly so she resembled a truffle, and a set of leather slippers to replace her stupid sandals. The shirt cut off at her rib cage and covered her chest; it also encircled her neck with a metal collar that actually reassured Kit, as it did a decent job of protecting her throat. The sleeves had a slit over the shoulders, so they were bared as well, but where they cut off at the elbows, the tailor had sewn elaborate metal pieces to keep the shirt in place and also to offer extra protection. The headgear was a metal band that helped push Kit’s hair out of her face, though she had to gather it in a high ponytail to make it comfortable.
Kit stared at her reflection and sighed. She knew she should be grateful as the armor offered superior vitality and dexterity bonuses, but it was still disheartening to traipse around in front of monsters with her belly button showing.
Vic wrenched the curtain open, poked her head in, and sighed. “What’s taking you so long to change? Even Axel moved faster than you, and he spent quite a long time preening at the mirror.”
Kit laughed dryly like one who had lost all hope. “I am attempting to reach inner contentment instead of falling into depression.”
Vic rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Come on, everyone’s waiting for you.” She removed her head from the dressing area and marched across the room.
Kit sighed at her reflection, then followed the wizard. A dwarf weaponsmith was waiting for her. “I am afraid we don’t have many weapon options for dancers, Mistress Kit. However, I took the liberty and made a few upgrades to your...fans,” the dwarf said dryly.
He offered Kit the newly remade weapons, and nonchalantly put out a spark from the forge that had landed on some papers and started to flame up.
Kit took her fans and snapped them open, delighted to see that the edges were now covered in razor-sharp steel. The weaponsmith had also reinforced the wooden sticks of the fan with metal, making it much harder to break.
The improvements added to the (insignificant) damage the weapon doled, but most importantly, it greatly increased the durability of the fans so Kit didn’t have to worry about them breaking halfway through the treasure chamber.
“Thank you! This will be extremely helpful.” She smiled at the dwarf, who raised his bushy eyebrows.
“I’m not so sure about that if you are facing dragons,” he muttered.
Before Kit could agree with him, there was a deafening blast on ram horns as King Brasil strolled up to their party.
“Thank you, King Brasil, for your generous gifts,” Riko said with a professional smile. She and Prowl hadn’t received new armor, but the dwarves had upgraded their weapons instead.
“Of course! What kind of dwarves would we be if we cared not for our guests’ armor?” King Brasil boomed. “Now, are you ready to make your way to the treasure chamber?”
Everyone turned to face Kit. She awkwardly folded her hands in front of her belly and smiled serenely. “I believe we are.”
“As expected of heroes! The treasure chambers are rather isolated, and the path to get there is quite winding, so I shall send you off in dwarvish style with mine carts!” He gestured to several mine carts that rolled up behind him on the rickety track. Each mine cart was already occupied by a stone-faced dwarf at the wheel and clanked loudly. “Of course, we are providing guides as well. They will take you as close as they dare without raising the dragons’ ire. The rest will depend upon your skills as heroes!”
“Oh, gee golly,” Prowl said. “We’re so thrilled.”
Riko smacked him hard between the shoulder blades. “We will not fail. We shall reclaim the seal and return once our task is finished.”
“If we’re not turned into barbecue,” Prowl added.
Riko whacked him again.
“May the hammers of luck guard your path,” King Brasil said.
The ram horn trumpets blasted again, which Kit took as their dismissal. She started for the mine carts. “Riko is very good at influencing NPCs,” she said abruptly.
Gil, who was closest to her, nodded. “She certainly knew how to best appease King Brasil.”
Kit adjusted her metal headband. Perhaps Riko really ought to be our party—
“Which is why it is perfect that she is something of our diplomat and banker, while you remain our leader,” Gil continued.
They reached the mine carts, and Kit rested a hand on the edge of one of them while she peered curiously at the crusader. “What do you mean?”
“Charisma might be a requirement for leadership success in the business world, but we are in a fantasy game. The ability to see the big picture and how all the different pieces interact in addition to properly managing battles is most important for a party leader.” Gil smiled guilelessly. “Which is why we are very fortunate to have you.”
Kit laughed and hopped into the mine cart, stiffening when it teetered back and forth on the track. “You are a smooth operator, Gil!”
“Thank you, Miss Kit.”
Once the party was settled into the three available mine carts, the dwarf in the front cart announced, “We’re leavin’!”
Cookie almost bounced in place. “This is going to be fun. It’s like a go-cart ride!”
Vic watched Kit as she hunkered as deeply as possible into the mine cart, then shifted her gaze to Prowl and Riko—who had death grips on their chairs. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Hold on!” Kit turned around to smile at the girls as the mine carts creaked along the track, following a bend in the path. “It can be a pretty wild—Hyaaa—” She was cut off with a grunt when the road abruptly dropped, and the cart careened wildly down the track.
Vic’s screams were almost covered up by Axel’s wild laughter.
The carts popped up and down as the track alternated from abruptly heaving up to falling off in near dead drops. It felt like a roller coaster—an especially frightening one given that occasionally the tracks nearly threw the carts free, and that Kit and her companions were frequently tossed into the air, with only their grip on the carts to keep them from flying off.
They moved so fast, the wind blurred Kit’s eyes, and the lit pathways were little more than blurs.
The dwarf driver of her cart shouted, “Duck!”
Kit lifted her chin. “What?”
The dwarf hunkered down, narrowly missing a bat that smacked Kit right in the face, knocking her back into Vic. The strike took a good fourth of her health and left her dazed, so she almost slid out of the cart when they skidded around an especially tight corner.
The mine carts screeched to an abrupt halt, leaving Kit, Vic, and Cookie a tangled mess of limbs with the bat that hit Kit sitting rather dazed on her lap.
“That was better than a roller coaster!” Axel declared as he leaped from his cart.
Vic covered her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Gil laughed as he also exited his cart, then assisted Vic. “It was a rather refreshing ride.”
“For an old guy, you must have a stomach of iron,” Vic grumbled. When Kit finally stood, the bat had recovered and flew off. She staggered from the cart and straightened her clothes that had billowed wildly during the ride.
“Nature’s Blessing,” Riko held her palm out to Kit, applying a heal to her. “Playing Retha with you, Kit, has opened my eyes to all the possibilities in this game. After all, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone take a bat to the face.”
Kit rubbed her forehead. “Always happy to be of service.”
“The entrance to the abandoned treasure room lies at the end of this passageway,” the driver of Kit’s mine cart said. He pointed up the empty tunnel, which grew darker as fewer torches were posted on the walls. “We
shall wait here with the guards for your return.”
The other two drivers had already gotten out of their mine carts and begun chatting with five well-armed guards lined up neatly with their backs to the wall.
“Thank you for your help,” Kit said. “Hopefully we won’t take too long.”
The dwarf nodded. “If you take more than a few hours, we shall assume you have met your end.”
“Gee, your confidence in us is astounding,” Prowl said.
The dwarf bowed to them. “May the light of King Brasil shine upon your weapons and guard your feet.” He scuttled away before Kit could respond, joining his brethren farther back in the passageway.
Kit adjusted her hair tie and discreetly checked her inventory one last time.
“All right! Who’s ready to face some dragons?” Axel hefted his unnecessarily giant sword above his head and wolf whistled.
Prowl glared at him, but it was Gil who mildly said, “Perhaps it would be best if we quietly approached the dragons so we do not alert them to our presence?”
“You’ve got it, Gil,” Kit said. “We don’t want to face more than one dragon at a time, or we’ll be completely overwhelmed.”
“Even though Prowl and Riko are a much higher level?” Vic asked.
“Yes. Although monsters in Retha have levels, like us players, they also have different ranks. The ranks affect how difficult they are to beat. So normal monsters are easy, while on the other side of the spectrum there are bosses, which are much more difficult,” Kit explained. “Dragons aren’t bosses themselves, but as they are considered epic creatures, they are about as hard to kill as a mini-boss.”
“Of course, more confusing level-ranking. I should have known,” Vic said dryly.
“The same is true for players, isn’t it?” Cookie asked. “I mean, until you reach the level cap, you’re just normal. But once you reach the max level, isn’t it possible to continue to improve your character? I read about that when I was reading up on Retha.”
“You are right,” Riko said. “Players—or heroes—can go on to become ‘legendary heroes,’ which basically means you’ve cleared a lot of the content whether it be raids, quests, or PVP battles. When that happens, your character class can become specialized. Solus Miles is a perfect example. Before he became a legendary hero, he was just a plain knight like many other players. But now, due to his excellence, his class expanded so he’s a Royal Knight.”
Kit scratched her scalp. “How is that going, by the way? They were starting to roll that out right before Milk Crown disbanded, but none of us ever tried to get it even though we were at the level cap at the time.”
“It certainly makes it far more interesting for players who reach the level cap,” Riko said. “Unfortunately, neither Prowl nor I have characters at that level, so we have not experienced it firsthand.”
“Tough Beard is a legendary hero,” Prowl said. “It definitely has made him a lot more badass.”
“That’s great and all, but what about the dragons? Are we going to go fight them?” Axel popped up and down on the balls of his feet and wore a wolfish grin as he peered down the tunnel.
“I can’t decide if you’re bloodthirsty, an idiot, or a bloodthirsty idiot,” Prowl said.
“Blood thirst brings you extra courage,” Axel said confidently.
“Is that what it is called?” Vic asked. “I was going to say it brings being downright stupid—”
“Let’s move out, team!” Kit bounded down the hallway, her bell anklets jingling with every step.
“Aye aye, leader!” Cookie saluted, then marched after her. The others paused only momentarily before joining them, striding down the tunnel as it pitched deeper and deeper into the earth. There were a few tunnels that peeled off from the main passageway, but judging by the cobwebs that hung from the frames, they hadn’t been disturbed in years. (Either that, or those tunnels were connected to the giant spider nest that was located somewhere in the area, if Kit remembered correctly.)
Kit knew they had reached the treasure chamber when the main passageway abruptly ended with a narrow opening. The smell of sulfur and the metallic scent of tarnished gold wafted from the next chamber, though they couldn’t see much through the small entrance.
“Cookie, would you go in first using some of your stealth skills and check it out?” Kit asked.
“You got it.” Cookie activated her “Cloak of Shadows” skill as she stepped into a shadow and disappeared.
Kit’s tapered elf ears twitched as she listened for the night stalker, who padded into the treasure chamber with the agility of a cat. The rest of the party crowded around the opening, peering into the dimly-lit cavern.
The treasure room was dimly lit by glowing blue and gold crystals that jutted out of the walls. Their muted light made the mounds of gold coins and stacks of priceless treasures twinkle. Deep in the cavern, a dragon roared, and the ground shuddered beneath Kit’s feet.
Riko speculatively stroked her chin. “I wonder if King Brasil would mind if we happen to help ourselves to some of the gold while we pass through.”
“I kind of doubt they would let us keep it,” Kit said.
“That would be so stingy of them!” Riko said.
“That’s really ironic coming from you,” Prowl said.
“Won’t the dragons have good drops?” Gil asked.
Axel snorted. “Who cares about drops? It’s all about the experience!”
Vic wrinkled her forehead. “Is Cookie going to be okay out there?”
Cookie abruptly popped into view when she stepped out of the shadows. “Aw, Vic, you were worried about me!” Before the wizard could object, Cookie turned to Kit and saluted her. “There’s one purple-colored, level-twenty dragon around this first bend of the cave. After that, the treasure room opens up into a rather large cavern. There’re a lot more dragons there.”
Kit repositioned one of the metal cuffs of her sleeves. “A huge cavern isn’t ideal. Attacking out in the open like that would bring several dragons on our head at once. But maybe after we defeat this first one, we could drag the others back into the smaller part of the room?”
Riko nodded. “That’s probably our best tactic with this size and level of group.”
“So the purple dragon first.” Prowl slipped into the treasure room, his eyes warily scanning the treasure.
Kit and the others slowly joined him, with Axel striding happily to the front. Kit dawdled behind the others, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong as the hair on the back of her neck prickled. Cautiously, she looked to the front of their party, where Riko had taken charge of Axel and was holding him back from running around the bend and straight into the purple dragon.
Kit risked wasting a moment to turn around and peer in the direction from which they had come. The small opening seemed dark, and as Kit watched it, the shadows that screened it warped and bubbled. She flicked her fans open and prepared to shout for the rest of the party, but when she blinked, the strange shadows were gone. She frowned, recalling a similar sight when she had left the alleyway where they had found the old man. She took a step back toward the entrance, intending to investigate it, when a crash interrupted her thoughts.
Axel, who had scaled a wall of the chamber in an attempt to get a height advantage, had accidentally dislodged one of the massive glowing crystals, which crashed to the ground and shattered into hundreds of pieces.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
“Axel!” Kit hissed when it became apparent the dragon hadn’t heard.
“Oops!” Axel said.
Instantly, a purple dragon lumbered around the bend.
11
Enter the Dragons’ Den
It was approximately as big as an African elephant, and though its eyes glowed red, its scales were as dingy and tarnished as the gold it guarded. It roared, shaking the entire passageway, then spun around and slammed its tail like a club, narrowly missing Vic.
The wizard fell and emi
tted a loud scream when the ground buckled beneath her.
The dragon swiped its tail across the smooth stone floor, slamming it into Vic.
Vic was sent flying head over heels into a heap of coins.
The dragon, its wings pressed flat against its back, advance toward her with its mouth gaping open, revealing rows of silver teeth.
Cookie darted between its legs and slammed a dagger into the leathery flesh at the base of its claws.
The attack was barely more than a pinprick of the creature’s health bar, but it roared in anger, lashed out with its forepaw, and slammed her into the wall.
“Nature’s Blessing!” Riko shouted, slowly healing Cookie.
“We have to fall back and group up,” Kit said.
She either hadn’t been loud enough, or firm enough, for Axel raised his sword over his head and charged in. “Gut Buster!” He stabbed his sword at the dragon’s underbelly and scored a minor hit. He laughed wildly, until the dragon sat down on his head.
“Nature’s Blessing!”
Riko’s spell barely reached the warrior in time, before the last of his health leaked away.
Thankfully, the dragon lost interest in Axel and instead turned back to Vic.
“Fireball!” The wizard launched the fire attack at the dragon. The beast snorted when the fireball burst harmlessly against its plated scales, doing no damage.
The dragon tilted its head back, its mouth gaping open as its throat started to glow with the telltale sign of fire.
Vic tried to hide behind a set of gold armor, but Gil stepped in front of her with his shield raised. “Shield Wall!” His shield glowed as he braced himself for impact.
The dragon lurched forward, belching a stream of fire at the Crusader. Gil’s skill cut much of the damage, but the strike left him with barely a sliver of health.
“I can’t heal him!” Riko shouted. “All my healing spells are on cooldown!”
“Gil, take a potion,” Kit shouted.
The crusader nodded and quickly popped a red health potion, restoring most of his health points.
