The Monster Spawn

by Deck Davis

  The walls of the rot room were splattered with dried blood. The floor wasn’t made of stone but instead was comprised of a fleshy substance. Nathan knelt and touched it, and found that it was warm. As soon as he pressed his claw against it, he felt an invigorating heat spread through him.

  The footsteps entered the main chamber. Nathan listened. Still only one of them. That was good, it meant he had a chance. He quickly brought up his character screen and saw that his energy was rising. Slowly, but enough to let him attack.

  Then the chamber was silent. The warrior must have stopped running. Nathan crept to the side of the rot room opening and carefully peeked out of it.

  The warrior had his back to him. He was looking at the two tunnels as if he expected his friends to come running through. Then, he coughed. He put his hand to his mouth.

  “Jesus. That reeks,” he said.

  You get used to it, thought Nathan.

  He collected himself. This was his chance. The warrior was looking the other way. Nathan guessed that if he attacked him, he’d get some kind of first strike bonus. Maybe even kill him in one hit.

  But hang on. That might not have been the best way to do it. Nathan could kill this warrior, but he’d still have the other 3 to deal with. Unless he scared them away. He needed to terrify them so much that they left the mountain.

  Pain. That was the answer. He knew from experience that you could feel pain in Adonis. It made sense – although it was a piece of highly sophisticated software, it wasn’t really a game. To everyone who was in it, this was a 2nd life. That meant the devs had coded it so that you could feel all the sensations you could in the real world. With every yin, there was a yang. If you could feel pleasure in Adonis, then you also had to feel pain.

  He needed to make the player party terrified. He needed to drive them out of the mountain screaming and running for their lives. And that meant he was going to have to do something nasty.

  “Stay here,” he whispered to Sherlock. The goblin nodded.

  He crept out of the rot room. The warrior was still facing away from him, but it wouldn’t be long until he turned around. Nathan didn’t want to do this, but he knew that he had to.

  He got closer and closer. He could hear his own breaths.

  A foot away from the warrior, he raised his claws. For a split second, he looked to his right. He saw the water mirror on the wall. He saw his claws, fully visible now, while the rest of his body was still a vague outline. He saw the unsuspecting warrior, stood there and ready to die.

  I’m a monster.

  He breathed in. He had to do it.

  And then he stabbed forward with his claws, putting all his effort into it. He grunted as the tip of his razor-sharp claws stabbed through the warrior’s back and punctured his belly.

  The warrior screamed. It was a high-pitched, pain-filled scream. One so full of agony that it sent a shiver up Nathan’s spine. He could practically feel the warrior’s HP draining away. Blood gushed out of the wound and dribbled down Nathan’s claws. He wanted to pull them out, but he couldn’t yet.

  He had to be sure the others heard. To send a message and scare them away.

  As the warrior slowly died, Nathan tensed his arm. With his claw still puncturing the warrior’s back and stomach, he twisted his hand. He writhed it from side to side so that his claws would cause the maximum amount of pain. He felt warm blood dribble down his skin. He heard the man’s shrill cries ring in his ears.

  But he didn’t stop. He twisted the man’s insides, sending burning pain coursing through him. The warrior was screaming in a way Nathan had never thought possible. It was deafening, and it seemed to echo in the main chamber.

  Then the screaming stopped. The man was dead. Nathan pulled his claw out of his back, hearing the sickening slurp of blood and flesh. The warrior slumped down to the floor, glassy-eyed.

  50 exp received

  Insanity bar increased by 15%

  Level up to level 2!

  - HP increased to 176

  - Energy increased to 120

  - Base Att increased to 39

  - Base Def increased to 15

  He dismissed the messages. There would be a time to consider the changes, but this wasn’t it. He hoped that the warrior’s screams as he died would be enough to scare away the players, but he’d stay on guard for now.

  Nathan knelt by the warrior’s corpse. He only had 8 inventory slots empty, but he filled them with the warrior’s sword and his armor. He couldn’t use them, of course, but maybe he could sell them when he left the mountain.

  He also found a vial of healing potion. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed the liquid. It smelled sweet. A little too sweet, which was surprising because he’d always had a sweet tooth. Still, he needed to restore his HP in case the others found their way into the main chamber. He lifted the vial and tipped the red liquid into his mouth.

  At first, it tasted good. Then, as it went down his throat, it started to burn. It felt like he’d swallowed lava. He spat it out on the floor. Apparently, player healing potions weren’t too effective on a Tuphos monster.

  Sherlock edged his way out of the rot room. He walked over to Nathan and looked at the warrior’s corpse. The goblin gave him an approving look, but Nathan didn’t feel like killing someone was worthy of admiration. Sure, it was either him or the warrior, but it didn’t give him a glowing feeling inside.

  Or did it?

  Part of his mind told him no. Another part, one that had been buried until now, slowly crept forward. It looked at the fallen warrior, and sent happy chemicals through his brain. It made Nathan smile at the violent scene. He felt like two opposing minds were fighting each other in his head.

  Sherlock knelt beside the warrior. Looking at his text label, he saw that the goblin had lost 20 HP. He couldn’t remember him getting hurt, but maybe one of the warriors had hit him in battle.

  Sherlock pulled out his dagger. Before Nathan could stop him, he plunged it into the warrior’s arm.

  Nathan grabbed his wrist. “He’s already dead, buddy,” he said.

  Sherlock grunted. Undeterred by Nathan’s words, he stabbed his dagger further into the warrior’s skin. He twisted it, then ripped away a piece of flesh. Then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he popped it into his mouth and chewed.

  Nathan stood up. This was too much. Killing your enemies – sure. It wasn’t something he enjoyed, but if it was a matter of survival, then there was nothing else you could do. But eating them? No way.

  As Sherlock chewed on the flesh, his HP bar began to rise. This, at least, made him feel a little better about things. Knowing Sherlock was eating the warrior for survival and not for taste made it…not okay, but less repugnant.

  The goblin plunged his dagger back into the warrior’s arm and cut away more meat.

  “Your bar is full,” said Nathan. “You don’t need more.”

  Sherlock nodded, then extended his hand toward Nathan. He was offering him the meat.

  Take it, said his mind.

  The human part of him fought back. Don’t eat it.

  He knew which one he should listen to. Come on, it was obvious. And yet, he needed to restore some HP. It had worked on Sherlock, so why not on him too?

  Even stranger, the piece of flesh in Sherlock’s hand was starting to look delicious. Like with the rat earlier, something that should have been disgusting was making him salivate.

  Eat it.

  Come on. Eat it.

  He grabbed the flesh from Sherlock. Without pausing to think, he put it in his mouth. Chewed it. It was tough and rubbery, but he managed to swallow it. His belly felt warm. A second later he checked his character screen, and he saw that his HP had risen.

  Then another message appeared.

  Insanity bar increased to 25%

  This was all too much to take. Despite his increase in HP, his energy bar was still low, and every action he took drained it. He needed sleep. He hadn’t heard from the other players, and he wa
s hoping now that they’d run away. They would be back, no doubt, but he’d think about that later.

  “Stand guard,” he said to Sherlock. “If you hear a noise, wake me.”

  With aching legs, he walked over to the rot room. He went into the center of it and then laid down. The fleshy floor warmed his back and legs, and it seemed to mould around him like a water bed. He stretched out his arms, closed his eyes, and felt himself drift away.

  He had nightmares that night. He dreamt of blood, and flesh, and screams. He pictured himself as a Tuphos monster, but back in the real world instead of the mountain. Running down a high street and terrorizing people. Swiping with his claws. Ripping arms off, eating the skin from people’s necks. He hacked and slashed until he was covered in blood and spit.

  And he liked it.

  He bolted upright. He awoke back in the rot room. His head was covered in sweat.

  Insanity bar increased to 35%

  He got up, left the rot room and walked into the main chamber. This wasn’t good.

  It seemed that the rot room was where he regenerated his energy, but spending time in there increased his insanity bar. Something told him he didn’t want to find out what happened when it reached 100%.

  Chapter Seven

  It was morning in Adonis, but the main chamber was always so dark that it was hard to tell. He really had to see about brightening the place up if he ever got a chance. Get a nice picture frame. Hey, maybe he could train Sherlock how to paint.

  As he stretched his legs, any bright thoughts vanished. He looked at the darkness around him. He’d been awake a couple of hours now, and he couldn’t help but remember his nightmares.

  Blood. Violence. He remembered wanting it. Thirsting for it.

  The mountain was changing him, he decided. Or maybe it was the Tuphos class. Whatever it was, he needed to find a way to control it. He got the nasty feeling that the higher his insanity bar raised, the more monstrous his thoughts and desires would become. Who knew what he was capable of if he let the dark thoughts take control?

  When he first woke, he’d decided that he needed fresh air, even if he couldn’t step out into it. He needed to see the sky and to feel the breeze on his face. He’d gone out of the main chamber, through the tunnels, and toward the exit. Every so often he paused and listened, but there was no sign of the other players.

  At the mountain exit, he’d conducted a little experiment. He picked up some stones and threw them out of the exit. He had hoped that something would happen to them; that they would burn up in the sun, or something like that. At least then he could cling to the hope that the problem was with the mountain itself, and not with him.

  Nope. The rocks tumbled down the mountain face but otherwise seemed okay. The issue was with him, it seemed. Something wouldn’t let him leave the mountain.

  Back in the chamber, he decided to be proactive. He stood in front of one of the dirt walls, and he raised his claws. After earning the Soul Claw power, he’d also been granted a mining skill. It was time to use it.

  For the next ten minutes, he hacked away at the wall. The dirt and stone fell away with each swipe of his claw. It was hard work, and he felt his energy slowly drain. Sweat dripped from his forehead and down his face, but he didn’t stop. There was something meditative about the whole thing. As he slashed at the wall, he found that he could tune out everything else. Forget the nightmares, forget he was a prisoner.

  More stone crumbled. Soon, there was a pile of it by his feet. And then he saw something.

  It was buried deep within the wall. A light shining amidst the dirt and rocks. Spherical, glowing. It was an orb. He dug at the mud around it, working until he’d cleared enough so that he could reach in and grab the orb. When he did, he found that there was not 1 orb, but 2. He took hold of them and put them in his inventory, finding that both orbs could go in a single slot.

  2x orbs gained

  - Option unlocked: Orb crafting

  - Menu button unlocked

  He closed his inventory and checked his main menu, and sure enough, there was another button.

  Character Screen

  Map

  Inventory

  Quests

  Chat

  Orb Crafting

  He began to feel excited. He’d started out in the mountain with nothing. He’d been confused, alone, and defenseless. Now, after some hard work, he’d accomplished something. He had a minion friend, he had the Soul Claw power, and he had some orbs to craft with. It was time to get started.

  He clicked the Orb Crafting button, and another menu overlay appeared in front of him. It reminded him of a shopping catalogue. It was a giant list of items that could be crafted, along with a counter that showed how many orbs were needed to make each one.

  He saw traps. Furniture. Armor. Lots of items that he could make if he mined enough orbs from the mountain. That wasn’t all – there were two tabs on the menu, one titled ‘Minion Upgrades,’ and the other ‘Power Upgrades.’ It seemed that as well as crafting items, he could spend his orbs on making his minions and powers better.

  The possibilities this brought up made him forget the nightmares. It made him think that finally, he had a chance. There had to be something within the crafting menu that would help him leave the mountain.

  He cycled through the list of things that he could make. There were hundreds of items, and it was hard to process them all at first. It took him almost an hour, but finally, he noticed two things that he thought could help.

  Diamond Armor

  Cost: 100 orbs

  Enchantment Table

  Cost: 52 orbs

  Everyone who played RPGs knew that one of the best types armor was made of diamond. It was one of the toughest materials known to man. If anything could withstand the effects of going outside the mountain, this was it. Added to that, if he built an enchantment table, he guessed there was some way of adding different effects to the armor. Some kind of magical protection, maybe. That, added to the toughness of the diamond, might be the answer.

  He had a lot of mining ahead of him. The problem was that mining just 2 orbs had taken 20 points off his energy. That meant that he could mine another 8 orbs before needing to rest.

  So far, so good. The issue then was that to replenish his energy, he had to sleep in the rot room. And doing that would bring back the nightmares, and it would increase his insanity meter. Quite a conundrum.

  Before he could even think about how to get around that problem, he decided that he needed protection. The players were gone now, but he was sure that they would be back. They’d caught him by surprise the last time, but at least now he had time to prepare. It was time to get more orbs, and then take a look at the craft catalogue.

  For the next two hours, he dug away at the walls, going deeper and deeper. The pile of dirt grew around him. Every time he saw a glimpse of a glowing orb he felt invigorated, and he dug faster to get at them. By the time he stopped he’d gotten 8 more, and he’d drained a hell of a lot from his energy bar.

  “Okay,” he said aloud. “I have 10 orbs. Now, what can I spend them on?”

  He flicked back and forth through the catalogue, reviewing the items on offer and wondering what to spend them on. There was no point crafting any of the furniture items on offer – what good was a bed or chair to him? Similarly, he dismissed the armor that was on offer. No point wasting orbs on bronze or steel armor when he was saving up for diamond.

  He needed something that would give him an advantage if any players were to come. He already had two things going for him – his mighty claws, and his growing knowledge of the tunnels and shortcuts. He needed something that complimented those things.

  Then he saw just the thing he needed. Toward the middle of the catalogue was a selection of magic items. There were various spell scrolls and staffs which would be good for a wizard, but not for him. Further down, though, he saw what he needed.

  Pressure Rune

  Cost: 2 orbs

  When he f
ocused on the rune in the catalogue, a description appeared.

  Pressure Runes can be placed on a wall or on the ground. When something passes over them, the player will receive an alert. This gives information on which rune has activated, and how many creatures have walked over it.