Continue Online (Part 2, Made)

by Stephan Morse

  Then TinkerHell uttered the announcement I had been dreading. She was on a time limit. Nothing had really been the same since my failure anyway. Those choices would haunt everything in this party.

  “I’ve got to go, Hermes. I’m sorry.” She said.

  “Do you still have enough time to make your meeting?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I’ll just recall back to my bind point. I should be okay from there.” TinkerHell gave a partial smile to soften the blow.

  “Oh.” I managed to keep my face passive and pretend that there was no worry creeping in. The system even awarded me some acting skill points.

  “Did you need a scroll of recall?” She was kind enough to ask. I was smart enough to figure out what TinkerHell meant by that. It was probably an in-game device that helped get out of the dungeon.

  “I…no, I’ve got to try and make it through.” Plus the Voices hadn’t given me a bind point to my knowledge. “Thank you for your help.”

  “Down this tunnel, a few more hours and you should make it out. The map I provided made sense right?” TinkerHell asked.

  “The man hardly need worry about getting lost. He should, instead, worry about being eaten.” Edward was smiling and seemed lax against one of the many cavern walls. This place felt nowhere near as well carved as the side I had entered on. There was an natural roughness to the walls.

  “Oh, yeah.” TinkerHell’s face scrunched up in worry. “Well, it’s all or nothing.”

  “Too true.” The other man said.

  “You seem like a nice guy, Hermes. Even if you’re kind of drugged. You be careful.” TinkerHell said. The bombardment of Chromesthesia had mostly dissipated but ger words did still have a faint linger of color to them.

  “I’ll try.”

  “Alright. If I log out now there may be just enough time for a shower.” TinkerHell shrugged.

  “A radiant lady such as yourself could hardly be diminished by a mundane thing like dirt,” Edward said. TinkerHell managed to roll her eyes but looked a bit more naturally amused. Then she shrugged yet again.

  “Sorry again, Hermes.” I shook my head at her apology. TinkerHell had actually been the nicest of the lot to me. “Real life doesn’t wait on hold, not even for Continue Online. Best of luck in your quest.” TinkerHell said. Her constant smile hadn’t been the same since Elane’s character passed. Not at the lips, not in her cheeks, but in the pinch around both eyes.

  “Thank you. I’m sorry my autopilot tried to force my problems on you all.” Voices knew I had enough of them.

  “It’s okay. Just help someone else out, pass it on.” She shrugged. I liked TinkerHell, she seemed so upbeat most of the time, playful even. The longer we were together, the more it seemed like she was closer to SheHulk and me in age. She was certainly older than my niece. It just wasn’t obvious from her in-game face.

  Or maybe the world had worn on her like it had on me. How old did I look to other people? I poked my belly. Edward interrupted my self-absorbed train of thought by clearing his throat. He waved one hand which also had a [Scroll of Recall].

  “Whereas I, take another view.” Edward smiled with his twitchy mustache. “The ladies are gone, and my interest wanes. So it’s time to move on, adieu Hermes, and best of luck.”

  I sighed. The party had broken apart because of real life and the tank dying. Even in virtual reality, the story was too familiar. Elane was out of the game for eight hours. I was closer to the exit, but still mostly lost. What now? Dusk chirped and hissed into the distance. Enemies were nearby and this was no place to dawdle. A small display timer on my screen outlined how little time was left on both my night vision buff and quest.

  Part of me longed for the quiet of Carver’s bench. This adventure might just be the death of me.

  The problem with silence is that there was too much time for my own thoughts. The sounds and color mix up was still happening but nowhere near as vicious as it had been. Doing battle while having constant interruptions from all the rainbows colors had been difficult. Now, after almost a full day of hunting and associated stat increases, I could handle a few [Gobbler]s on my own.

  Groups of more than two were normally easy to go around or back up a tunnel twist or two. TinkerHell had given me a very detailed map showing a series of interconnecting tunnels between here and the exit. The end would be the really dangerous part.

  There wasn’t much time to practice any other skills such as [Silent Step]. TinkerHell had let me know that [Gobbler]s were basically deaf up until about twenty feet away.

  That’s how the next few hours in the game went. I dwelt on my poor performance with Elane. I hacked frantically at any single [Gobbler]s and steadily crept towards the exit tunnels. Short-cutting through the city had helped put the timer within reason. The estimated time towards my destination also went down each time [Light Body] increased in ranks.

  Each rank increased the percentages and bonus. My feet move faster and quicker. Not huge, or anything like what Beth had shown me during my very first experience with Continue Online. She had practically flown through the city.

  Still, I felt faster. According to my system text, I would be ahead of the deadline by roughly thirty minutes. Part of me suspected my autopilot had eaten the [Ghost Mushroom]s to keep my weight down. Maybe it was because I had eaten a little bit of everything during one of my trials.

  I stopped and penned two more notes up to the Voices. The first was a similar message I might send to a manager. Tomorrow had suddenly become a no work day as a result of Trillium’s orders. Hopefully, the artificial intelligence that ran this game would make allowances. The second message, yet another request, was me asking for information regarding Dusk in case of his passing. Neither one had an answer.

  Why the Voices had gone silent was beyond me. Maybe they were distracted by software upgrades or something. Maybe they were all just watching me dance around with popcorn in hand.

  There was another question that I wanted to ask, but the answer almost scared me to think about.

  How likely was it that a man would run into someone he knew from the real world during his first few days of playing? Much less having that person be someone I had briefly dated?

  The answer was probably simple. ‘Not likely’. James would never admit to arranging this whole bit of nonsense. It seemed like something he would do.

  Dusk chirped and snuffled along. I had maybe ten minutes left on this scroll of night vision and two hours until the actual exit. We were getting reckless in our speed. The stamina bar stayed low as I jogged and huffed every chance available.

  “Almost there,” I muttered between gasps. “Come on. We can do it.”

  The [Messenger’s Pet] happily confirmed my suspicions with a smiley face bubble above his head.

  “You think you can lead us out after my vision fades?” I said.

  Dusk made a deep sort of purr noise and bobbed his head. According to TinkerHell’s parting instructions we likely passed all the [Gobbler] monsters. They stayed in the deeper parts of the dungeon. Up here it was something else entirely.

  “That Ooze thing. We should be okay, right?” The Ooze had been on a completely different side of the dungeon. With a day’s distance between us, we should be okay.

  We walked a bit further. There were a few small shafts of light that went up to the surface but nothing that my poor skills could scale. These entrances were similar to the one I had fallen down. TinkerHell had told me her map went straight to an easy to traverse pathway out.

  “Come on.” I tried to hustle. We had made it pretty far with just TinkerHell and Edward. This was doable. The exit was within range.

  Except it wasn’t. There were more of those annoying ugly block-headed [Gobbler]s in the way. I checked the map. We were close enough to the end that there were a few bottlenecks. They happened to be poking around in one of them.

  I stared at the lot of them from down the hallway. Getting in range of one would simply alert the others. Dividing them up migh
t be possible. Or maybe this was just two smaller groups that somehow patrolled through each other’s path.

  Dusk and I waited. The small [Messenger’s Pet] seemed to have no interest in fighting the actual monsters himself. He did tear into limbs that fell apart on the ground. It was cute more than helpful. I had managed to survive so far due to careful planning and a focus on moving forward.

  Minutes ticked by. Five, then ten. The pack of six [Gobbler]s chose not to move at all. My leeway on completion of this quest was rapidly dwindling.

  How did that mantra go, WWCD? What would Carver do? What…

  I could actually try to weave through them. That might work. They weren’t as scary after killing so many with Elane and TinkerHell. Even knowing that Edward had been prancing about was reassuring. On my own I had still managed to eliminate a few.

  “Hang on, Dusk,” I said. “We’re going to do this.” WWCD, dive in. Swing at a few on the way. This was doable. This was just a game. Elane wasn’t really dead.

  Dancing here was just like performing for a fake audience in my dance program. There should be nothing but the movements. One motion would unto the next. Each motion had a purpose and set up for the next phase. Most of it was getting the hips aligned correctly.

  I didn’t do a full run. It was a brisk tempo that ballet dancers called allegro. Ballet was a deep school of movement that I could never dare in real life. Here in the digital landscape, I was like a pudgy prince of the prance. My footwork should be enough to get around the [Gobbler]s and their clunky movements.

  My light thud of steps passed their invisible aggression range. The group turned almost as one. Dull clay imitations of human heads were facing in my direction. I tried to picture them as a formation dance. Soon they would swarm and my skills as a lead dancer would kick in.

  Before anything fully registered I was holding one of the [Gobbler]s like a dance partner. My frame lined against its own. Then we spun away and one crashed into the other. A distant thought crossed my mind, that had been no judo throw, but it was effective enough.

  Another one approached and I sloppily performed back leading. In a real social dance, this would be completely rude but here it was effective. Weight transferred from one foot to another. My eyes only vaguely locked on whatever partner, [Gobbler], was in front of me.

  In some of the dance programs I dared to do, there were entire series of movements where people danced around each other. Four, five, sometimes twenty people all in predesignated spots and acting out. Those were the hardest ones to learn.

  This, dancing past slowly moving monsters, was slightly less difficult. Two crashed into each other reaching for me. One hit my shoulder.

  Either way, I moved past them and felt flushed as I faced away. This, in my dance program, would be where the bowing happened, or the stage disassembled for the next dance. There was no time for either. That whole situation had been weird but survivable. I ran my jiggling midsection down the hallway. Dusk seemed confused as to what just happened. His claws dug into my shoulder and one wing was up in alarm.

  I was trying not to laugh. It would be tacky. I managed to successfully do a vague ballroom tango past those creatures. My virtual instructor in the dance program would be absolutely horrified at my execution.

  “Hehe.” Okay, it was funny enough for a small chuckle. Dusk lifted his head and glared at me from his shoulder perch. That sent my small laugh into outright full gasp-inducing chuckles. The monsters behind us had faded away past a turn or two.

  “Okay, I think we can make it.” There was a minute on the timer for my night vision spell. The exit was only a few more twists away. Dusk still looked alarmed though even as we settled.

  Or not.

  There was a green film on the far end of the room. I stared at it. It was vaguely see through and seemed to occupy the entire exit. Dread sunk my stomach. My feet took a few steps back while both hands went up into the air.

  “Oh, no,” I said.

  Of course, that thing would be here. The Voices were probably watching and laughing themselves silly. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this was just a fancy shield. I squinted and activated [Identification].

  “Oh, no. No, no, no.” My eyes got as far as the creature’s name and kill total. If other Travelers failed to survive my chances were nonexistent.

  There was a pop on its surface. Then another, and another. It seemed to ripple and then slid across the floor in my direction. I tried to see if there was room to dodge by. The thing was massive and filled up the hallway.

  “Seriously!?” I turned and ran. [Morrigu’s Gift] might be strong for my Rank, but this creature was beyond me.

  There had to be some way past it or everything during these last few days in-game had been pointless. There was no rope in my bag. The system status said it didn’t eat non-organics. Throwing [Gobbler]s in its path might slow [The Ooze] down. Yeah.

  I would try. TinkerHell had said it earlier, this was all or nothing. No subtly existed in my gait as I ran back to the room where six of the clay golem creatures still milled about. They turned as one towards me.

  “Hey!” I had no idea if they understood me. “Ugly!” My brain was terrible at insults, especially in a panic.

  They stumbled towards me. I pulled back and found [The Ooze] just a twist away. Its bright green surface was still bubbling as if hungry. One pop sent liquid my way.

  “Ouch. Ow.”

  Another few pops splashed off. The system was kind enough to inform me that acid was also not lotion or body wash. How the machine knew of those concepts was beyond me. I flicked them away and helped one of the [Gobbler] monsters into [The Ooze] with a spin.

  The [Gobbler] sunk into the green film. Slowly [The Ooze] crawled across its surface before completely encasing the monster with a pop of noise.

  The other five didn’t waste time with their companion and came after me. One pummeled me from behind with a giant block fist. Another caught me from the other side. I fell, rolled, and tried to recover amid a small wall of system messages. [Morrigu’s Gift] flashed into its two handed sword form just in time to block another attack.

  Dusk had lost his footing and was rolling around somewhere nearby. His squawks of outrage stood out more than the slow grunts of a [Gobbler].

  “Run, Dusk! I’ll catch up!” There were two [Gobbler]s pounding on the sword from above. My fingers were caught by the edge of a fist. Luckily they were dumb and seemed to go for my [Barricade] instead of actually attacking my legs or some other obvious weak spot. That or my constant squirming was keeping them from doing too much damage.

  Meanwhile [The Ooze] crept ever closer. One of the [Gobbler]s that fell behind was sucked into the slime creature’s stomach with another pop of noise.

  Then everything darkened.

  “Shit!” I didn’t curse normally. This situation warranted any clever phrasing that could come to mind, but I was panicking too much.

  A small ball of fire blasted by. My cheek felt warm and a smell of burnt hair wafted in the air.

  [Gobbler] bodies provided illumination with their strange glowing cores. [The Ooze] behind us lit up from two of the golem creatures floating inside. Dusk with his fire breath was an additional source of inconsistent light. The strobe effects were not helping.

  “Run!” This was very bad. My mind couldn’t formulate a way past all these creatures without proper vision. I tried to sidestep and use footwork. It failed as another attack collided with my face.

  I swung [Morrigu’s Gift] and managed to carve a chunk out of one of the monsters. A leg separated from the body as the [Gobbler] fell downward. Three were out of the picture. Two remained, plus one giant, unkillable monster. My biggest problem was the seriously screwed up eyesight. The left over impact from my [Ghost Mushroom] poisoning was much more obvious now that there was less to compete with.

  Okay. I had to get distance first. Near darkness meant my skills at fumbling around were at an all-time high. I shoved off one of the clay beings and mana
ged to get around a corner.

  Small shafts of light littered the room. I had enough room to try and lure both the [Gobbler]s and [The Ooze]. Hopefully.

  Both came around the corner. A giant wall of icky green was preceded by orange glowing clay monsters. I stood on the far end of the room and watched as both approached. Soon there would be an end to [The Ooze] and I could try to run by. [Light Body] was high enough and my [Reaction] stats had improved.

  Only the green mucus wall showed no signs of ending. It flowed out and slowly took up the entire room with its bubbling surface. The two [Gobbler]s still floated in the slime’s innards.

  “Dusk.” The small [Messenger’s Pet] was down by my side spitting fire at the approaching [Gobbler]s. His attacks did minimal damage and only seemed to make [The Ooze] bubble even more.

  “Dusk.” I tried again. “Dusk, you have to run.”

  He looked up at me then back at the monsters.

  “It’s okay. I’m a Traveler. I’ll come back, but I don’t know what happens to you. You have to run.” The [Gobbler]s were getting close now. The small air holes that lead up to the surface were quickly being swallowed by [The Ooze] and its absurd mass.

  I took out the coin from Ray, Voice of Gambling and held it up.

  “Heads, you go up and escape, tails we go back into the tunnels.” Let chance have this decision. “You agree?” I asked the little guy.

  He shot off another small ball of fire. There was sweat actually dripping down the side of his face. The thought bubble above Dusk seemed to indicate confusion even though his actual head was nodding.

  I took that as a yes. The [Gobbler]s were almost halfway across the room when I flipped the coin once more. Heads. Thank goodness the Voices, or chance was with me on this one.

  “Coin’s heads.” I held it in front of the [Messenger’s Pet]. He sniffed it and looked up at me. “Go!”

  Dusk looked at my hand again. The coin shimmered and flashed. There was an intense brightness that filled the room to near blinding. It quickly faded and something else was in my hand. I looked at the monsters across the room. All of them seemed stunned. There still wasn’t enough room to run around [The Ooze] and save this quest.