by Sam Ferguson
The giant grunted and ripped another boulder from the mountain, this one easily the size of a small car. The stone was hurled downward, the giant snarling and grunting under the effort. The boulder was headed toward Pan. It was hard to see clearly through the snow, but it looked to Brian like the satyr was running back down the path. He’d be safe from the boulder, but Brian doubted whether the satyr would be coming back up the mountain any time soon.
Turning, the giant stepped onto a small bush as he maneuvered himself next to another boulder.
Brian heard the giant and cursed silently when he saw the behemoth’s orange dot above his head. He didn’t turn back though. He positioned himself higher up the slope, just behind a jagged rocky protrusion that he could use as a launching point to attack from. Brian waited for the giant to pull the next stone and haul it to his previous position, which gave the behemoth a clear shot at the bodyguards. The frost giant’s pale blue-gray skin stretched taught over thick muscles that appeared to be carved from stone themselves. Each of the giant’s limbs were larger around than Brian’s waist. He would need to time his attack just right.
The giant grunted and hefted the stone up to his chest, then bent at the knees to get under it before shoving it up into the air above its head. From behind, Brian could see the giant turning his head as if searching for the perfect target.
Not this time. Brian leapt out, Khefir’s Malice held in his right hand as he sailed downward toward the giant’s back. As he drove the shining metal into the giant’s right shoulder blade, the strike flashed yellow, indicating a critical hit. Brian smiled, knowing that the dagger would amplify the critical damage by a thousand, but he didn’t linger. Just as soon as his feet were under him, he leapt away, pushing off the giant’s waist and diving for the mountainside. The giant gasped, and then his strength gave out and the boulder came crashing down on his head.
The HP bar drained.
[+3,900 XP]
[You are now level 17]
[Common Achievement badge earned. The Bigger they Are]
An ability point flashed on his HUD.
Brian knew exactly what to spend it on. He had maxed out his Blade Mastery, giving him ten additional base damage points on all bladed weapons. He’d maxed out his Armor Mastery, giving him a plus ten to all base armor points. He had two points spent on Soft Feet, making him twenty percent quieter, and one more point on Quickshot, which made his archery ten percent faster. More than that, having an ability point spent on Quickshot meant that Bow Mastery was now open. He spent the point on Bow Mastery and smiled as his base damage with his longbow went up by two points.
As if the very mountain celebrated Brian’s victory, the wind died down and the flurry of snow fell to the ground and left the area around them clearly visible. He sauntered down the hill and would have been outright strutting if he’d been walking in his real body. He’d just managed to kill a frost giant by himself. Orange dot can kiss my backside, he thought as he regrouped with Freya and the bodyguards. Pan stepped out from the rock outcropping near Freya and glanced from Brian to the dead giant a hundred yards up the slope.
“Any gold?” Pan asked.
“You’re kidding, right?” Brian said.
Pan shook his head and pointed to the body.
Brian looked up and then realized he’d killed the giant but hadn’t looted the body. He was so concerned with the level up and the achievement itself he had forgotten to enjoy all of the rewards. He climbed back up the slope, Freya and satyrs close behind, and looted the giant.
[+15 GP]
[+1 frost giant tooth]
[+1 frost giant necklace]
“Well?” Pan said as Brian closed the interface and the corpse vanished.
Brian turned and handed Pan the gold.
“Fifteen pieces?” Pan whined. “For killing a giant? That doesn’t seem right.”
“You’re welcome to kill your own giant next time,” Brian said. “Maybe I just picked the poorest one.”
Pan grinned. “Ah, yes, that must be it. The poorer giants must be the guards. The giants inside will have more gold. I’m sure of it.”
They continued the trek up the hill, then finally reached a massive landing of flat rock about sixty feet below the actual summit. There was a massive cave opening at least thirty feet wide and just as high. The cave bored into the top of the mountain for about forty yards before it curved off to the right and up a steep slope. Warm air wafted out from the tunnel, carrying with it the stench of rot and years’-old body odor.
The other two groups caught up with Brian as he was still inspecting the cave entrance.
“Looks like we’re headed down,” Mike said as he approached from the right.
“Makes sense,” Brian commented. “Climb a mountain all the way to the top just to use a cave to go all the way back down again.”
“No time to wait,” Sonji said. “We killed a frost giant on our ascent.”
“So did we,” Brian said.
Sonji regarded him sternly and then pointed to the cave. “You are the sneak, you should scout the way ahead.”
Brian nodded. “Sounds good.” He turned to Mike. “Give me till the count of fifty or so and then come in. That should allow me to get far enough ahead I can warn of any danger or traps, but not so far ahead that I’ll have to wait long for you all to catch up.”
Mike grinned. “I could sneak with you.”
“No,” Sonji said. “He goes alone.”
For a split-second Brian wondered if this was some sort of trap. Had Kyra’s Fangs thrown in with the yeti king perhaps? No, that would be against their tenets. Base functions. Brian knew their core programming wouldn’t allow them to betray their goddess.
“Before you go, take this,” Rhonda said.
[+2 choke berry poison]
“Be careful,” she warned. “There is no antidote. If you accidentally use it like a health potion, nothing will stop you from dying.”
“But I assume it will also work on the yeti king?” Brian asked.
Rhonda nodded. “That’s the idea. I have one more bottle, but I was only able to make the two. None of my other attempts were successful.”
So that’s why she had climbed to that weird bush set precariously over a ledge. Smart.
Brian moved into the tunnel and dropped into sneak mode as soon as he rounded the corner. The walls were smooth, the floors were clean of debris. There was the occasional stalagmite, but otherwise there was nothing in the cave. No spider webs, no discarded coins, not even human bones or small animals. Maybe the developers didn’t finish this one off. Brian didn’t care though. Just so long as they killed the yeti king and got the first key, nothing else mattered. His mind drifted back to Professor Rojas then, but he shut his eyes and forced the thought out of his mind.
He didn’t need the additional anxiety during this quest.
Going through the tunnel was much easier than ascending the slope. No narrow passages, no blocked paths, and no slippery spots that—Brian’s thoughts were interrupted just then as he hit a patch of moss and slipped onto his backside. He felt the familiar vibration as he collided with the stone floor, but he didn’t lose any HP or stamina. His ego took a slight hit, but it could have been worse. Rhonda could have witnessed it... or Barry for that matter.
Pushing Barry out of his mind was much more difficult than shifting his thoughts away from the professor. He started wondering whether Barry felt hunger still, or perhaps had he noticed that he no longer felt anything at all? How much of his consciousness had been saved? Would Barry still be himself, with his full personality and all of his memories? Too many unknowns. Still, from a purely academic standpoint, Brian had to wonder if perhaps Barry was getting the better end of the deal. Could it be that he’d appreciate this strange form of immortality?
Brian frowned. Was it immortality though? If Rored could still harm them, then could other things within the game harm them as well? Were they still every bit as vulnerable now as before? Only i
nstead of old age or heart attacks, Barry might die from a power failure or perhaps a greedy NPC with a knife. Then there was the big question. If Barry could be uploaded into the system, then could he be downloaded into a body? Perhaps if they found someone who had a healthy body but was fully braindead, they could install Barry and put him back in the real world.
Brian’s thoughts faded away as he reached a large chamber after rounding a corner. Inside were two frost giants. One was maybe twenty-three feet tall with a bulging belly and a large, horned helmet. From his left hip hung a gargantuan stone hammer, but he wasn’t wearing any armor. He stood there, staring at a painting on the wall that looked like something a three-year-old might do if they’d been asked to finger paint horses on a wall. As the giant admired the painting, he picked his nose and flicked it onto the floor nearby. The other, who was about three feet taller than the first and dressed in pants made from animal hides, was stirring a massive cauldron. The trunk of a mammoth hung limp over the cauldron’s side. In the center of the chamber was a stone slab that had been fashioned into a table of sorts. Large bowls sat upon the table. Off to the left side of the chamber were two beds made from logs that had piles of mammoth hides on them for a mattress. Above them was a single lantern hanging from a thin rope.
Killing one giant had worked out well enough, but the tactic wouldn’t work for two. He’d have to warn the others. Then, somehow, he’d need to cross the chamber and get to the next section of hallway. Ideally, it would be best to avoid a fight here and get to the yeti king with the poison. He didn’t want to risk having these two giants sound an alarm.
He crept back up the tunnel, meeting the rest of the group part way, and relayed to them what he’d found.
“No sign of the yeti king?” Sonji asked.
Brian shook his head. “No.”
“Then he must be farther down in the caves.”
“I can sneak ahead and try to get to him with the poison,” Brian said.
“We can’t all sneak past the giants,” Mike whispered. “And if the two you saw up ahead start fighting, they’re sure to wake the others.”
“Go alone,” Sonji said. “If they raise the alarm, we’ll charge in to help.”
“Poison is not as honorable as the sword,” Shuggra commented. Everyone turned to look at her and she shrugged. “But I suppose facing the yeti king by yourself makes it more honorable.”
“You guys stay out of sight,” Brian said.
Brian shot a quick glance to Rhonda, and then Freya, trying to read their expressions, since they had been silent the whole time. Freya put her helmet back on, hiding her face, and Rhonda simply wore a half smile that seemed to telegraph “good luck, and try to hurry back to us if you die and respawn back at Bielshire.”
“You should hurry,” Sonji urged him.
Brian nodded and turned to go back to the chamber. This time he found both giants sitting at the table, their backs turned to him as they ate something from the bowls atop the table. Brian skirted around the chamber, circling toward the right where the cauldron bubbled and steamed over a large fire. The only trouble was, since the giants had their backs to the tunnel leading upward, that meant they were directly facing the tunnel headed down. He had to get them to focus elsewhere.
Pulling out his bow, he scanned the room, grinning when he saw the lantern again. The rope was just skinny enough that an arrow might cut through it. Come on luck blossoms, don’t fail me now.
He took aim, pulling the string to his cheek as he quietly pulled in a breath. He lined up the shot, aiming for a spot about two feet above the lantern itself. His fingers opened and the string snapped into place, propelling the arrow over the giants’ heads and cutting through the rope as planned. The lantern fell, shattered on one of the beds, and spilled a massive amount of melted candle wax over the hide blankets just before the flame went out and the room got a bit darker.
“Fool! I told you that rope would never hold the weight,” the taller giant said as he slapped the other one.
Both of them got up and moved toward the beds.
Time to move! Brian snuck across the rest of the way and disappeared down the next tunnel without looking back. The next tunnel was not nearly as smooth as the first had been. There were rough patches in the wall and floor. Stalagmites provided ample places to hide, and stalactites from above could possibly slow giants if Brian needed to make a hasty escape. The tunnel went downward another couple hundred feet before opening into an underground chamber that was nearly as large in diameter as the base of the mountain itself. This was obviously where the developers had wanted to spend their time.
Two bonfires near the cave entrance lit up the first half of the massive chamber, while another one stood near the middle of the room. Two more bonfires lit the back where there was a large wall of discolored ice. To the left there was a pool of green water that glowed brightly. A pair of frost giants were wading in the water up to their hips, manipulating large wooden poles, trying to move some sort of creature. All Brian could see from his vantage point was the rounded back of a purple blobby-looking thing. He guessed it was some sort of food source, otherwise the giants wouldn’t be handling it so gently.
There was a pile of large gems and crystals beyond the pool heaped onto three different stone slab tables and apparently organized by type and size. The center of the room had been cleared of stalagmites, though it was easy enough to see where they had been removed by the chisel scars and jagged edges in the floor. In the very back of the room sat a throne made of mammoth bones. A few spears and human swords were mixed in with the bones. A giant with a golden crown atop his head was seated on the throne, humming to himself in a toneless way. Every few minutes he would bark orders to the two giants in the pool or he would call for his servant—a giantess with barely enough clothing to be considered modest—to refill his cup with wine. The goblet appeared to be made from the skull of some beast.
Off to the right was another giant sitting and working the largest whetstone Brian had ever seen. Sparks flew from the giant’s axe blade as he worked the edge. Above him, the ceiling hovered at least a hundred feet above the floor and was covered in strange bat-like creatures with long barbed tails.
There was really only one course of action.
He crept up to a large stalagmite at the edge of the cave mouth just before entering the large chamber. He opened up the user interface and applied the choke berry poison to one of his arrows. He’d have to line up the shot, and then run like a madman farther up the tunnel and hide next to some other stalagmite in the hopes that the giants wouldn’t pursue him too hard. He figured, worst-case scenario, that he would die and respawn back at Bielshire. With any luck, his sneak skill would keep him hidden from the other giants in the room.
He wasn’t entirely sure how he’d get the key, assuming it was on the king’s body.
He certainly wasn’t going to be able to sneak across now though, not with the king essentially facing his direction. He’d only make it in a hundred feet or so before being spotted.
Brian’s eyes flicked back up to the bats. Were they friendly to the giants, or could he use them too? Maybe in the couple of seconds of confusion after the first shot with the poisoned arrow killed the king, he could fire a second arrow to stir up the bat-things. Each one of them appeared to be at least four feet long in the body, and their barbed tails could very well be venomous.
He nodded to himself. Yep. That’s what he would do. If the bats could just distract the giants long enough for him to hide out of sight, then maybe he could attempt to sneak across the cavern.
He set the poisoned arrow to his string and leaned out around the stalagmite, pulling the string back as far as it would go. He aimed, then arched up slightly to compensate for distance.
He took a steadying breath and an extra second to make sure he had the aim right.
Suddenly, clattering insect-like legs scurried around the stalagmite as a massive creature with a long, flat, segmented body ski
ttered toward him on a hundred barbed legs. The creature looked like an Arthropleura he had seen in a diorama at the natural history museum as a child. It rounded the big rock, hissed, and then swiped at Brian. The claw didn’t do any damage, but it knocked Brian off balance and the arrow shot out across the floor.
The Arthropleura rose up and hissed loudly, clicking and clapping its forelegs together while tapping its hind legs on the stone floor.
The two giants tending the water creature heard the noise and looked up. One of them spotted Brian and pointed.
“INTRUDER!”
Brian quickly swapped out his longbow for Flaming Death and hacked at the Arhropleura. The giant millipede-like creature’s head went flying in a wide arc, spilling black goo across the stone.
The two giants leapt from the pool, rushing toward Brian with their sticks.
The yeti king rose from his throne and pointed across the hall as he pulled a stone-bladed sword.
The axe-wielding giant also rose to join the battle.
This is not what I had planned! Brian spied his arrow about forty feet in front of him, lying on the stone. Could he reach it in time? If so, could he eek out just enough time to shoot the yeti king? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to run anywhere. The giants here were so loud that the two from the kitchen area above were shouting and Brian could hear their footsteps racing down the hall toward him.
There was no way he could hide now.
He changed back to his bow, pulled an arrow, and fired at the bats on the ceiling. The first arrow struck home. The HP bar of the bat he had struck dropped by half, but the bat’s ensuing shriek caused all of the giants in the chamber to stop and cover their ears. Brian winced at the noise, but he knew he had to push through it if he was going to have even a chance of getting to his arrow.
He sprinted forward, longbow still in hand. He didn’t want to use any time switching equipment again. The nearest giant swung at him with the staff, but Brian rolled under it, just missing the weapon by inches.
