The treasure was shoes. To be precise, sandals with straps across them. I lifted one and marveled at the odd mixture of beach wear and [Mechanoid] patterning. The bottoms looked like metal army boots. Thick bindings were designed to wrap up a calf. Stars were stamped over the ankles. I squinted, and the [Inspection] skill popped up.
…foreign data acquired…
…transfer of data approved…
…error resolution in process…
…adapting to local information…
…modifying code…
Results: [Gait of Bowman]
Durability: Above Average
Added Trait[s]: Regeneration, Bound
Details: Bowman was a legendary space explorer who met with strange circumstances. During his journeys, he argued with a being of great power to save his comrades and was flooded with burning energy during the end trek home. Bowman managed to use excess power to prevent a great weapon from destroying his home world. In the end, excessive energy destroyed Bowman from the inside. His body fell through space toward the world he saved. All that remained was a pair of sandals, etched with the stars Bowman had once dared to explore. They still retain some of the safer power granted from his trip.
Pressing down and twisting the left heel activates [Power Armor]
Pressing down and twisting the right heel activates [Camouflage]
Garb will be permanently altered
“Is this wise?” I asked Dusk.
The [Messenger’s Pet] turned green, rippled his wings, then threw up another round of leftover meat. His face bobbed back up to look at me. Saliva hung from his jowls.
“Right. There are cupcakes in my Atrium if you can get there.”
My heart held nothing but pity for the [Messenger’s Pet]. He looked red-eyed and watery. I had been that hungover many times. Liquor and I had never mixed well, even in my darkest days.
Dusk groggily vanished as I yelled, “Don’t make a mess!”
Time dilation didn’t exist in the Atrium, but Dusk could move fast. I’d have maybe half a day in-game alone if he napped after eating. Xin and I had tossed around a lot of ideas. The best bet was killing the boss, taking whatever [Bound] loot dropped, and getting our prisoner convoy back on the road.
[Sight of Mercari] pinged the entire area as I bore the brief disorientation. All the players, minus those killed, were running around the dungeon. Two groups were fighting each other while moving quickly. Three other convicts were trying to survive solo. One blipped off as I watched, showing their recent death all alone in some corner of the dungeon.
Android Seven stood away from all the others, marching ever deeper into the dungeon. My ability hadn’t been unlocked when we first formed groups and I hadn’t memorized who he was traveling with. It was a good bet that his partners were dead.
I didn’t care about being first to the boss, only that it died. Android Seven sounded unlikely to fail, but Viper was in that direction as well. Somehow the sneaky snake had survived. Working with a partner to defeat the boss would better than any alternative. Assuming we were needed.
Both boots went on first. My body rippled as the leather armor chest piece transformed into a metallic-looking toga. This felt decidedly Greek, but it was hard to see to be sure.
I stamped my left foot and a star spun, giving off green energy and reminding me of Emerald’s core. Twisting the limb made my body ripple. Panic bubbled up as I worried that this might be causing an internal explosion before logic reined me in.
I had used this ability only a few times in Advance Online, so using it now felt out of place. Still, my arm was covered by a dull black film that almost matched the dungeon walls. It could have been the poor lighting.
I pulled out [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo]. My forehead wrinkled as the weapons shifted to shortened blades. The [Assassin] path wasn’t one of my skills, but no time like the present to practice sneaking around.
Luckily some players were downright dumb, and with months of character development, I should easily get a few basic skills. After Advance Online I felt less conflicted with killing Travelers. Especially convicts that may have murdered Locals. My [Coordination], [Speed], and [Reaction] were all above average. Continue Online relied on skill measurements mixed with traits and abilities to define Paths for players.
Funny how I hadn’t thought about trying to be a rogue player until being put in player jail. My skills were perfect for it. Xin’s influence had rapidly turned me from a mopey warrior who bypassed most challenges to a man enjoying the challenge of sneaking around.
I put a transformed dagger in my teeth and felt delightfully roguish as I lowered myself back to the floor. This was a barely lit dungeon and I couldn’t risk another torch or visibility spell. I had a stealth sneak sort of skill and two daggers. The brimmed hat, long hair, and barely pudgy belly all felt out of place, but it was the thought that counted—literally.
There were a lot of hallways. After the first two rooms, I gave up creeping along the ground like a spider. It felt silly, plus my ability to walk on my tiptoes like Dusk was sorely lacking. My mouth slobbered around the dagger form of [Morrigu’s Gift], which made it hard to hold on to.
“Which way…” I muttered.
Talking broke [Camouflage], which made my head hang briefly. A lesser [Heavenly Body Clone] crawled with large grasping moves in my direction. Its eyes glowed and an exposed spine dragged along behind it.
I reacted automatically, shifting [Morrigu’s Echo] into a much larger sword, then I slammed the blade into its head. The creature died quickly enough, but nothing triggered from the game regarding a sneaking Path of any sort.
A heavy sigh escaped me. My dastardly plan to be a ninja teleporting sneaky person was failing miserably. [Gait of Bowman] refused to activate either ability right away. I was left slowly edging down the hall with what little light was available. Five minutes later, the ankles on my sandals flashed a soft green. That must have been Continue Online’s signal regarding [Camouflage] working again. I stomped my left foot and was pleased to see the black coloring appear once more.
This skill wasn’t invisibility, and according to the text, it worked better the less complex my surroundings were. Rank One only allowed for a single tone, which automatically linked to a sort of blueish black.
A ping of my surroundings painted terrible results. The other players’ dots had dwindled in number. Only six remained from our initial fifteen. Viper had managed to hide farther ahead, but I was getting closer. Big O and a partner were floors above. Android Seven was gradually making his way along.
This dungeon felt like an ant’s nest of twisting turns. Occasionally I edged close to a spiral path that spanned all the way up and down. There were a number of monsters all around it and other convicts a few floors above me. The safer bet was to avoid the dungeon’s easy access stairway for now. I could always find gaps to leap or [Blink] through.
The first few floors only had two types of monsters. I thought this place didn’t have anything else until something tiny and furry leapt toward my face.
“Arrgh!” I screamed in a panic-induced reflex.
More shapes joined in, and I couldn’t get a clear line of sight to [Blink] away. Whatever they were, my [Camouflage] was ineffective against them.
Small snarls came forth. There were crackling noises near my ear. Teeth clawed at bits of my flesh. [Wild Bill] shifted as one of the tiny creatures scuttled rapidly across my head.
I dropped one weapon to the ground and tried to grab a tiny assailant. Its teeth dug into the flesh of my hand, but limited ARC pain feedback made it bearable. This resembled an undead, or [Heavenly Body Clone], version of a [Coo-Coo Rill]. The small gem on its forehead looked tainted and dull compared to their normal lively purple. It made me wish Dusk hadn’t gone and poisoned himself.
It continued to chomp its little teeth at me.
I screamed back in an angry mockery of the creature then threw it hard. [Coo-Coo Rill]s pissed me off, esp
ecially after all their harassment when I was William Carver. A second one jumped off a wall. Its nails scraped me, and I batted away one that had no eyeballs. Shuddering passed through me at the thought of zombie squirrels.
A minute later, the hallway was filled with tiny dead fuzzballs and I had less health again. Thankfully their teeth couldn’t do any bleed damage. My hat had holes in it and the new toga had been defecated on.
Thinking about the state of my clothes made me unhappy. I’d had a spell given by owning an item to help clean clothes after combat. That went away with my old bag. I shook a few times to try to get their bits of leftovers off me. This game had taken dungeon crawling realism to an unhealthy level when it came to muck and mire.
“Now how did that little thing see me?” I muttered, once again wishing Dusk was around.
I looked at one of the small creatures that had been thrown into a wall. Inspecting dead animals still made me a little queasy, but the feelings were better managed after months of virtual gameplay. The little ball of squish didn’t have eyeballs, so it must have relied on scent to find me.
The lesson was learned. [Camouflage] didn’t help against monsters who could track by smell, at least not at my current low rank. One revealing me would crack the [Camouflage] and get me into a fight. Neat, but annoying.
I crept along the dungeon. My status bars flashed at slightly under half. Mana and health hadn’t recovered enough, and without supplies, they were unlikely to improve. My goal shifted from recovering my unwilling convict partner and beating the boss to surviving long enough to see what this boss creature did.
Only the floating window for real world time kept me from getting thoroughly engrossed in this dungeon crawl. I could see how these dungeon grinds might be torture. It was dark, others were out to kill me, the monsters would easily swarm if I weren’t able to sneak past some and [Blink] past others. Trying to loot gear for points would get my virtual body murdered.
It was weird, how the small enemies felt irrelevant sometimes. Continue Online filled dungeons like this one to the brim, but rarely did they faze me after the first few encounters. Up above, on the surface, monsters were generally in out-of-the-way areas.
I sneaked by, mostly with [Camouflage]. The monsters I did fight were brushed off quickly. Health became an issue the longer this mess went on, but at worst, I would die. That would be the end of it for a day, and I could go about real life or talking to Xin.
I felt far less urgency. Every time the game made me jump from one creature or another, I stabbed the offender then settled myself. This wasn’t reality. Monsters were just monsters. I only had to keep moving forward.
Then the smells kicked in. That sewer smell mixed with a lingering sour sweetness. The scent of rot twisted my stomach in an attempt to release all its contents. The source was a large dead body in front of me that looked easily triple the size of any prior [Heavenly Body Clone].
“What is going on?” I asked, stepping toward the giant creature.
Speaking out loud would break the skill keeping me hidden, but now wasn’t the time to stress about that. There were no other players nearby. Besides, this looked neat, and possibly was a dungeon secret or side boss. That would be of value. I missed Dusk. At least we could hold a conversation.
Giant bones. This dungeon wasn’t large enough on its own for such a creature to have walked down here. This thing had either been born down here or crawled in when smaller. I pondered its origin while walking around it. Its body was far more complete than the [Heavenly Body Clone].
“Now what’s this?” I leaned over the creature’s face. [Inspection] wasn’t triggering, which meant my focus was on the wrong thing.
I backed up slowly to take in the larger picture. Its feet were sticking into one wall. A few of those weird fuzzball creatures gathered at the head. Disturbing them would lead to another panicked fight.
Viper sat nearby, unmoving. His online status didn’t show from here though, and we had no party interface. That required skills I had never picked up. When was the last time I’d partied with someone in Continue Online besides Shazam? I had been enslaved to Requiem, but that hardly counted.
“Where’s the spot?” My foot tapped while I glared. This beast of a dead body had to have a secret.
I did another lap then preemptively got revenge on the pile of hairy critters. My health fell another five meaningless percent. The creature had no status icons, windows that implied importance, or [Inspection] results from any angle.
Finally, I risked going closer. The body was at least four times my own size. The monstrous beast’s hand dipped down into a hole. Under his hand, and it certainly was a dead male, sat a room that looked far brighter than my current surroundings.
What would Carver do? Grumble about those who could not solve their own problems, then leap down. What would Jeeves do? He would have asked me if I thought it was nobler in the minds of men to leap into the hole. What would Xin do? She wouldn’t ask about Carver and would grab my hands while falling. I smiled, looked once, then lowered myself down. Different approaches to the same problem summed up who we were.
Priority was given to checking my surroundings. They were bright. Instead of lights pouring down from the ceiling like merging rivers, this spot seemed to have an entire pool of light. Three barrels sat on either side of me. I scanned the room twice more for unseen creatures before moving on.
The cuticles on the huge hanging hand had shrunk. Nails that looked like monstrous claws curled toward the ground of this lower floor. They speared one of the barrels. I assumed the beast had died while trying to claw its way down here. Was it thirsty for this light stuff?
I scanned the room once more. Xin would have been in the barrel by now—Carver too—but I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to get worse. It wasn’t pessimism; it was realism beaten into me one dropping shoe at a time.
The better question was, why had no one else discovered this place yet? My eyes closed and pinged the area again. A sharp pain hit my shoulder, and metal rang. Brief panic bubbled up at the sudden pain. I controlled myself then [Blink]ed forward.
Something else was in here with me. Shadows moved against the wall, but no one was visible. Both weapons came up in my hands as I scanned. It had been hours in-game since my last ability abuse, so my head could probably take activating everything.
Invisible enemies? I swung [Morrigu’s Gift] through the air. Nothing made a noise. Another pinch nipped my shoulder.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled and felt something cross my face again.
These weren’t the fuzzy creatures from above. Those weird minor experiments in the [Heavenly Body Clone] process would have been bearable. This was something else small and aggravating. Heavy threads dropped off [Wild Bill].
“No, no, no, I hate bugs!” My shout echoed around the small room.
Amounts of silk increased then spilled off my hat brim. I found a wall and slammed my forehead into it. The damage racked up as I panicked again and again. Of all the monster types in Continue Online, spiders destroyed my sanity.
I rolled on the ground, stabbed at anything remotely squirmy, and disregarded my further vanishing health bar. Everything felt itchy. A sharp jab of pain hit my legs. I lifted a leg and slapped it rapidly. Guts oozed.
“I need a fire! I need a fire!”
I tried to activate my little matchstick spell and jumbled the [Lithium] words. Speaking the words felt dirty while nasty feet crisscrossed my exposed skin. Ripples in the toga robe could contain hundreds of filthy little beasts.
I rolled, shook, danced, slapped, and finally managed to light a small fire to burn away threads. Small patches of darkness skittered away. Everything itched.
Poisoned!
Health will lower over time unless treated.
Total health loss: 60%
Voices above, this was getting rough. I would be lucky to even reach Viper.
My body slumped. The ARC gave me a vision of spinning
rooms all doubled up on each other. Being poisoned was setting my world on edge. I bent over and grabbed one of the barrels of liquid light.
The object and I fell to the floor as agony hit the ARC feedback. My body twitched in a fresh pool of the glowing material. It felt like a bath of cool and prickly mint. Boxes from the game displayed, but blurred vision obscured them.
It took a long time for the poison to lose effect. By then, the fire had mostly faded. I checked my ARC display for the real-world clock and found that ten minutes had passed while my mind checked out.
Forty minutes of game time had passed. No monsters had arrived. That giant’s hand still dangled down from above. My health tapered off at twenty-five percent. Breathing hurt.
I groaned while tipping to one side. There was a box nagging me that I tried to wave away. It popped up again, taking on a slightly reddish hue. Five more barrels were intact around me, and they shimmered with glowing white liquid. The mess I had made was mostly gone.
It took me forever to stand. I groaned again, feeling like Old Man Carver’s avatar had been swapped for Hermes’s. My body staggered over to one of the barrels, and I tried to figure out what exactly I had dipped myself in.
They looked almost like open wooden kegs that used to house small vats of beer. A tap sat near the bottom, which probably would have let the liquid out in controllable amounts.
The box popped up again, and an even angrier red than before tainted its words. I leaned in closer to better read the fuzzy words.
[Dipped in Starlight]
Creatures with the [Undying] trait can now be permanently damaged. Defeating these monsters will provide mild health regeneration.
All [Heavenly Body Clone]s are now headed in your direction. Their aggression level is increased and damage output higher.
“Oh shit, that’s not neat.”
A groan sounded nearby—it came from the hole above. A second noise echoed from an unexplored hallway that had been obscured from above. The passage was small, but I had to get to safety. I limped forward, cursing the drop down, spiders, undead [Coo-Coo Rill]s, and my own stupidity for exploring this part of the dungeon without getting to Viper first.
Continue Online The Complete Series Page 139
