The Monster Spawn

by Deck Davis

  Chapter Four

  He made his way back to the main chamber. Sherlock, maybe because he guessed Nathan was a little annoyed, began to sing again. Nathan smiled at him, despite hating the sound. He appreciated the effort.

  “Thanks, buddy,” he said.

  By the time he got back to the chamber, the burning sensation had stopped. Back in the football-shaped room, he felt better. Even though the rot room was just across from him and sending out its putrid odour, he felt a sense a belonging. Like this was his home now, and that he was meant to be here.

  Sooner or later he knew he’d have to explore the second passageway that extended from the chamber. He’d even have to take a peek in the rot room. For now, though, he needed a break.

  He felt tired, so he sat on the floor to catch his breath. Rather than get his hopes up, exploring the tunnels had dashed them. The Ancient doors piqued his interest. Right now, that was overshadowed by the fact that he couldn’t leave the mountain without burning like a vampire in the sun.

  Maybe it was a puzzle. He thought at first that he’d spawned here by accident, but that didn’t make sense. He began to get the idea that Adonis Corp had put him here on purpose. But why?

  No – that didn’t make sense. Back in the white room, Dina had told him that Adonis devs couldn’t influence the game. Once someone entered Adonis, the AI controllers were the ones who called the shots.

  “They must have a fail-safe,” he said aloud. “It wouldn’t make sense if the devs have no control.”

  Sherlock looked at him and tilted his head as if he was wondering what Nathan was talking about.

  “Mind catching a few rats?” he said.

  Pleased to have something to do, Sherlock stood up and gave an enthusiastic grunt. Then he went toward a tunnel and disappeared out of the chamber, searching for the vermin that would be their evening meal.

  Alone now, Nathan looked around. There had to be a clue somewhere. If someone had put him here on purpose – either the devs, or the AI controllers - there was a reason for it. This must have been a puzzle of some sort, and every puzzle had clues if you looked hard enough.

  He stood up. He stared at the ground, walls and ceiling, slowly turning in a circle so that he could take all of it in.

  Then he stopped. There - on the wall. Something he hadn’t seen before. Just next to the rot room, the wall was different. It wasn’t made of dirt anymore but instead seemed to be made of a sheet of running water.

  He got to his feet. He felt tired, and he wondered if there was a sleep gauge to go with the hunger one. Ignoring the feeling, he crossed the room until he stood in front of the water.

  The water ran from the chamber ceiling and down the wall, ending when it hit the ground. It didn’t make a noise, nor did it wet the mud when it touched it. Instead, it just seemed to disappear.

  Nathan reached out with his finger to touch it. An inch away, he hesitated. He thought he would feel some of the water spit out at him so close to it, but he felt nothing. Then he pushed his finger further forward until he touched the water.

  Suddenly, it solidified. It became not a sheet of water, but instead a solid, reflective surface. Like a mirror but more natural, as if it were part of the structure of the mountain.

  Her stepped back in surprise. He realized that he could see himself in the reflection.

  My God, he thought, as he looked at himself.

  He wasn’t a man.

  He stepped back further, but couldn’t take his eyes off his reflection. It showed him his body, but it wasn’t solid. It was more of a shimmering outline, as if his body wasn’t whole. Instead, it was a vague shape. There, but not there at the same time. That wasn’t even the strangest thing.

  Looking at himself, he finally realized what he was. The game hadn’t spawned him as a man. It hadn’t spawned him as any RPG class he’d ever seen before. It had spawned him as a monster. Six feet tall. Long arms and legs, much longer than a man’s. His head was large, with sharp ears. When he opened his mouth, his reflection followed suit. He saw transparent outlines of pointed teeth. Sharp, perfect for tearing at meat. He lifted his arms and saw his hands. On the ends of each hand were six claws.

  This couldn’t be right. He couldn’t understand how he’d spawned as this…thing… without getting to choose his class for himself. Even more confusing was the fact that his body didn’t seem to be whole. It was like a ghost outline of a figure.

  That must be why he hadn’t been able to attack the rat. In that case, how could he move? Speak? Eat?

  He felt as if something had changed inside him, but he couldn’t figure out what. Something was different all the same. He stared at his ghostly shape and had the sickening sense that he wasn’t real. He felt like he needed to reassure himself that he did in fact exist.

  He lifted his hand – his clawed hand, he now realized. How hadn’t he noticed the claws before? Was it because the game had chosen not to show him until now?

  Nevertheless, he lifted them, and he touched his own chest. It felt solid. Real. And as he did, the menu screen appeared.

  Character Screen

  Map

  Inventory

  Quests

  Chat

  The ‘character’ and ‘inventory’ screens weren’t greyed out anymore! This didn’t solve the mystery, but it was progress, at least. He selected character screen, and the menu overlay changed in front of him. In transparent text, it listed the details of his character.

  Nathan Attis

  Class:

  Tuphos

  Level:

  1

  HP:

  144/152

  Att:

  15

  Def:

  11

  Orb Total:

  0

  Minions:

  1

  Energy:

  28/102

  Insanity:

  5%

  Power 1:

  Power 2:

  Power 3:

  There was a lot for him to process. He recognized most of the fields from his experience playing RPGs. HP meant hitpoints – his life force. If the counter fell to zero, he was dead. Att and Def obviously meant his ability to deal and take damage. But what about his class? He’d never heard of a Tuphos before, but he guessed it was the name for the monster he saw in his reflection. Him. He was the monster.

  Hang on a second though. If his character sheet listed an attack stat, did that mean he had the ability to fight now? He needed to check that out.

  Before that, he needed to digest the rest of his character. His energy was simple, and the fact it was currently 28 out of 102 explained why he was so tired. He guessed that levelling up would increase his HP and energy. Hopefully his attack and defence, too. The usual way of levelling was to kill things to get experience, so he’d need to try that out.

  The most curious of the stats was the insanity meter. It was currently at 5%. The fact it was listed as a percentage and not a number indicated that 100% was the maximum, but what did that mean? Reaching the highest level on an insanity meter didn’t sound great.

  Finally, there were his powers. Three of them, all blank. He’d need to find out how to get them. After a day of confusion, things were looking up. Sure, he’d found out he was trapped in the mountain, but that in itself was something. Solid information. And at least he knew where the exit was now.

  He closed the character screen and found himself looking at the main menu. There, he brought up his inventory. It showed a 3 x 3 grid of squares. As he’d expected, they were all empty.

  Just then, he heard Sherlock’s footsteps as he came back from his rat hunt. Nathan turned and looked at the goblin.

  “Did you catch anything?”

  Sherlock gave a grunt in the affirmative.

  “Great. Could you pass me a rat please, buddy?”

  Sherlock lumbered over and handed him the limp corpse of a rat. Nathan took it, opened his inventory, and placed the rat over one of the transparent grid squares. He
heard a chiming noise and saw that now, one of the squares was filled.

  Okay, good. This meant he currently had an inventory space of 9, with one slot filled. At some point, he’d need to find a way to expand that. He wondered if anyone in Adonis made backpacks for Tuphos monsters.

  “You knew I was a monster all this time, didn’t you?” he said to Sherlock.

  The goblin smiled.

  “I guess that’s why you didn’t attack me. I should have known.”

  Someone had screwed with him, that was for sure. He should have been given the chance to select his own class and then started in Janess village. Instead, they’d spawned him here as a monster, and trapped him in a mountain. He wasn’t best pleased with the situation, but he was damned if he’d let that bother him. At least now he had goals.

  One, he needed to escape the mountain. That was his highest priority. The thought occurred that even if he escaped, other human players would attack him, but he’d deal with that later. Let’s see how strong a warrior is when I run at him with my claws.

  Two, he needed to find out what his powers were and how to get them. He sensed the clue must have been in the mountain, somewhere. There had to be a reason he was sent here, and he’d find out what that was.

  He had every reason to feel a little angry about his discovery, but instead, it brought him a reassurance. He’d found a piece of the puzzle. It was a small one, maybe, and it left a whole lot still to solve, but at least he was getting somewhere.

  “Okay,” he said, raising his claws. “Guess I need to go rat hunting and see what these babies can do.”

  Before he left the chamber, he took one last look in the water mirror. He saw the outlines of his head, his arms, claws, legs and body. He couldn’t help but feel that there was something he needed to do. Something that would make his body look whole. Real.

  He and Sherlock left by the first passageway, the one they’d already scouted. As they walked down it, Nathan kept a look out for rats.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, looking at Sherlock. “Why didn’t we go down the 2nd passageway and see what’s there?”

  Sherlock shrugged.

  “Well, my energy is low. I want to know my exits, in case I need to get back to the chamber. I’ve got a funny feeling that the rot room is where I sleep. I hope to hell I’m wrong.”

  They took the twists and turns of the passageway. Every so often he brought up his map. Just ahead of him, the map showed a part of the tunnel wall that was colored lighter than the rest. Nathan was pretty sure it meant that this part of the wall could be destroyed and that it might lead somewhere.

  He walked until he stood next to the lighter part. Without the map, this part of the wall looked just like the rest. Rust-colored stone, slightly weathered from the drips of water that ran down it. There wasn’t much water, but he supposed that the mountain had been here for centuries. Or it had been programmed that way, at least. A drop of water on its own was nothing, but hundreds of years of running water were enough to cut grooves in the toughest stone.

  He raised his claws. It was time to see what they could do. 15 attack points didn’t seem like much, but if his guess was right, he’d do enough damage to destroy this part of the wall.

  He breathed in. He got ready. And then he looked at the wall and went to hit it.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again. Nothing. Just like with the rat earlier.

  It must have had something to do with his form seeming transparent in the mirror. Maybe his body wasn’t whole yet, and there was something he needed to do to fill it in.

  Behind him, Sherlock grunted.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Nathan.

  Sherlock cupped his hand around his pointy ear. Then he gestured down the tunnel, toward the mountain exit.

  “You’ve heard something?” asked Nathan.

  Sherlock nodded. Nathan listened, but he couldn’t hear anything. Sherlock’s senses must have been better attuned to the sounds of the mountain than his were. Maybe the goblin was living up to his namesake.

  “Let’s check it out,” said Nathan. “Get your dagger out, and walk as slow as you can.”

  The two of them crept down the tunnel and toward the exit. The diamond-shaped opening grew larger and larger, but it was dark now. The blue sky had disappeared, the sun had retreated. It was nighttime in Adonis.

  They reached the hall where the Ancient doors were. Sherlock stopped. He put his hand to his ear again, and looked like he was listening to something intently. Then, he turned and pointed at a door.

  It was the archway for Ancient #1. Nathan’s heart rate sped up. Was something there?

  He walked forward, careful not to make too much noise. Then, he looked at the archway of Ancient #1. It looked as it had before; covered in shadow, not much to see.

  Whatever Sherlock had heard, was down there. Nathan was defenseless, but he knew he had to investigate. The problem was that last time he’d tried to walk through, an invisible wall had stopped him.

  “Stay close, he said.

  Then, he walked down the cramped corridor. This time, there was no invisible wall to stop him. A few seconds later the tunnel widened.

  Nathan walked into the room of Ancient #1.

  Chapter Five

  At first, the darkness seemed so heavy that he wondered whether he’d be able to walk through it. He stood in the doorway and waited for his eyes to adjust, listening out for the sounds of anything living. Sherlock was behind him, tapping his dagger against his palm.

  “Quiet a second, buddy,” said Nathan.

  Not only did Sherlock stop tapping his dagger, but he took a comically large breath and then held it in. It was as if he was doing the utmost to not make a noise.

  “You can breathe,” said Nathan, “but just listen out for anything. Your hearing is better than mine.”

  So far, the Tuphos monster class wasn’t proving to be great. He couldn’t attack things, and his goblin friend had better senses than him. There had to be a way to unlock his attack and his power options. He needed to escape the mountain, but he wouldn’t do it defenseless.

  After hearing nothing, he decided he better cross the room. He walked forward. He couldn’t see much, but it appeared to be larger than his main chamber. The walls to his left and right were far away, though he could see a shadow in front of him that marked the northern wall. And in front of the wall, was an even darker shadow. There was something there, but he couldn’t make out what it was.

  Keeping his senses alert, he walked to the northern wall. As he got closer, he realized that the darker shape in front of the wall was a statue. Nathan stopped when he was in front of it.

  Something felt wrong. It was something in the air, a nasty quality to it. As though mixed in the oxygen was something old and evil. He couldn’t see or hear anything moving, but he got the sense that something was there with him.

  He felt something brush his arm, and he almost jumped out of his skin. Then he realized it was Sherlock, and that the goblin was bunching up close to him. He must have been afraid.

  “Steady on,” said Nathan. “There’s nothing to be scared about.”

  The goblin moved closer to Nathan, knocking him off balance. He put a hand out on the statue to steady himself. As he touched it, a shot of cold snapped over his hand. The statue made a rumbling sound, and then a pair of red eyes lit up.

  “Wish you there be light?”

  The statue’s voice was deep and booming, and it filled the room. It startled him for a second, but then he got himself together.

  “Sure,” said Nathan. “It’s pretty dark in here.”

  “Then speak my name.”

  He thought about it for a few seconds. Was this a riddle? Should he already know the name of the statue? He wondered where he could have learned it. Possibly in the second passageway that split off from his chamber? Whatever the answer, he didn’t have time to go back. His energy was at 26 out of 100 now, and he’d need to rest soon.


  “Wish you light?” repeated the statue. “Then speak my name.” Again, the deep voice. Commanding. Serious. It reminded Nathan of one of his foster dads when he was annoyed.

  “Can’t you just turn the lights on?” said Nathan. “And after that, we can get properly introduced.”

  “Speak my name.”