The Monster Spawn

by Deck Davis

  As Watson walked toward the passage, he stopped every few seconds and cast his gaze back to Sherlock. Sherlock had a frown on his face, and his arms were folded.

  “You want to go with him, don’t you?”

  Sherlock grunted, and his eyes widened.

  “Go on then,” said Nathan. “I’d feel safer if you were together anyway,” he said.

  “You sound like their dad,” said Dereck.

  Nathan laughed. “Make sure you’re back for supper, guys, or you’re grounded.”

  Nathan clapped his hands together. Time to get started. He was full of energy. It was a nervous kind of energy, but he needed to use it.

  “If we’re going to the Ancient rooms, we need to keep the Seekers occupied,” he said. “So, I’m going to need to spend some orbs.”

  He brought up the ‘Orb Crafting’ menu and looked through the catalogue. He called any interesting items out to Dereck. The number of things that could be crafted seemed endless, but there was a catch. The further along Nathan went, he realized that some items were greyed out. It seemed that as a level 2 player, he didn’t have access to everything yet. He looked in dismay and saw that the diamond armor needed him to be at level 4. The enchantment table required him to be a magic class.

  “That’s a spike up my ass,” he said.

  Dereck shook his head. “Not necessarily. I have enough magic ability to use the table. I mean, it’d take a while, since enchant isn’t one of my core abilities. But I would get there.”

  “And if we manage to survive the guild attack,” said Nathan, “I’ll surely level up to 4. After killing one of their pets I’m already halfway toward 3, anyway.”

  They decided on crafting things that would keep the Seekers busy in the labyrinth while Nathan and Dereck went to see Ancient #2.

  There were fake walls that Nathan could buy for 1 orb each. Using his map, he could place them in the passageways, creating fake dead-ends.

  He bought ten of them. He and Dereck scanned back and forth through their maps, working out where best to place them so that the intruders got lost.

  “I don’t have a head for this stuff,” said Dereck, rubbing his temples.

  Nathan did. A few months after he first joined the army, he sprained his ankle competing in a 10,000-meter sprint while trying to break the training camp record. The sprain turned out to be worse than they thought, and he was confined to admin duties for a week. It turned out, though, that there was barely any admin to do. So, bored out of his mind, he’d looked in the barracks library and found a book on mazes and how they were built.

  He found it fascinating. At first, he just enjoyed solving the mazes that were in the book. Then, when he’d done almost all of them except for one he couldn’t crack, he moved on to making his own. He posted them on a forum where people shared their creations. There was nothing better than making a maze that got people so frustrated they filled the forum with expletives.

  He’d thought about it as just a hobby, but it was going to be more useful than he ever imagined. Armed with his 10 fake walls, he created a maze on his map that was sure to keep the Seekers busy and give him chance to power up before the fight. When he’d placed the last wall, he closed his map.

  “Woah,” said Dereck.

  “What?”

  “You really zoned out there. I was speaking to you, and you didn’t say anything.”

  “Sorry. I got a little wrapped up in the map.”

  “No, it’s okay,” said the cleric. “I can’t believe what an excellent job you did.”

  “Thanks. Just one last thing, and then we can go,” said Nathan.

  Nathan scanned through the craft catalogue. He was sure he’d seen something last time he looked through it that would help them, but he couldn’t remember what it was. He flicked through a dozen pages, looking at each item but not finding the one he needed. Then, he looked at the far-right corner. There was a ‘Favorites’ tab, and it seemed he could save items there that he wanted to remember to buy in future.

  “If only I’d known about that before,” he said.

  After flicking a few more pages, he found what he was looking for. It was one of the last level 2 items. It was a spell scroll called Mimic. When cast, it would create sounds of the caster’s choice. They could use it to draw the Seekers deep into the maze if they ever got to close to the main chamber.

  “Just one problem,” said Nathan, reading the item description. “I don’t have the magic required to use it.”

  “Buy it and pass it here,” said Dereck. “I’ll be able to use it when the time comes.”

  With the minions out on their orders, his orbs spent, and the fake walls placed, there was nothing else for it. Time to leave the main chamber and go and get his second power. He looked around. He saw the wall where he’d gotten his first orb. The rot room, sending out its stink. The water mirror, where his vague outline still shimmered. A thought hit him. This place was home. He still wanted to see more of Adonis, but he would defend his home from the intruders.

  They left the main chamber and walked through the tunnels toward the Ancient doors. Dereck walked behind Nathan, relying on his better knowledge of the passageways.

  Every so often they stopped and listened for voices, but they couldn’t hear the guild. Dereck kept checking his map and reporting on Layre, Gevil and the newbies. “We’re okay for now,” he’d say, answering a question Nathan hadn’t asked.

  After a while, he started to feel a breeze on his face. They headed in the direction of the exit, but the Ancient doors were before the mountain opening. They reached them. Dereck looked around.

  “I didn’t notice this place,” he said. “And we must have walked straight by it when we came in the mountain.”

  Nathan shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you’re with me now. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

  He walked to one of the Ancient doors. Like the first one, this wasn’t an actual door, but instead was a transparent wall that stopped him entering. The tunnel beyond it was so dark that he couldn’t see what waited at the end.

  Near the invisible barrier, a skull was fastened to the wall with a rusty nail. It was too big to belong to a man.

  “Must be a giant’s head,” said Derek. “Here, there’s an inscription.”

  Nathan looked at where the cleric was pointing. Sure enough, someone had scratched words into the wall near the skull.

  To enter here,

  Heroes blood must be shed,

  Just pour it in,

  The giant’s head.

  That meant that the only way to get into the door was to kill some heroes and pour their blood into the skull. They key here was the use of plural – ‘heroes.’ Nathan was going to have to kill more than once. Judging by the size of the skull, it’d take 3 or 4 murders to get entry into the room. That meant that even with Dereck’s spell, Nathan’s insanity meter was going to overflow.

  He walked out of the tunnel. He needed to think. There were heroes in the mountain. To be strong enough to have a chance against them, he needed his power. And to get his power, he needed to kill the heroes.

  “Wait,” said Derek. Then he pointed above the opening. “Look.”

  Nathan looked up and saw it. This opening was labelled ‘Ancient #3.’

  He still wasn’t happy about the blood sacrifice to get into door #3, but at least that could wait until now. He turned and found the opening for door #2 which was, as he’d guessed, next to door #1.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  He walked into the opening for Ancient #2 and down the tunnel. He trod slowly, almost expecting to bump his nose into an invisible barrier. The further he went the more he realized that it wouldn’t happen. Finally, he stepped into the chamber of Ancient #2.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Welcome, Ken,” boomed a voice. It was loud and deep. An orator’s voice, spoken by someone serious.

  Nathan looked around. There was a mist in the room, and he couldn’t see further than a f
ew feet in front of him. He walked toward where he thought he’d heard the voice, but couldn’t see anything.

  “No, no, Ken,” said the voice. “This way.”

  He followed the voice. He walked forward through the fog until finally, he saw the Ancient in front of him.

  This one was like a goblin, but smaller. It seemed too tiny to have produced such a booming voice. It had a wicked-looking face that seemed as if it had been squashed at the edges. Its arms and legs were stubby. Its bulbous breasts and curved belly reminded Nathan of a Buddha statue.

  “Behold,” said the Ancient, then bowing with a flourish. “I am the second Ancient of this mountain.”

  It looked at the two men, its pupils flicking from side to side. It focused on Nathan.

  “You must be Ken,” he said.

  “That’s the 3rd time you’ve called me that. I’m not Ken, I’m Nathan.”

  The Ancient tried to stretch tall and seem foreboding. He was stood on a stone pedestal, but even so, he barely reached Nathan’s chest.

  “You are on the wrong mountain, Nathan! Leave at once! I am waiting for Ken to arrive.”

  “There’s nobody called Ken on this mountain,” said Nathan.

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “I already spoke to your pal in door #1 and completed his task. I was hoping you might have one for me.”

  The Ancient scratched his head. For a split second, his eyes widened, and he looked confused. Then, the look was replaced by a sort of cherubic naughtiness. He was like an evil child.

  “Very well. I seemed to have lapsed in my organization of this task. Sorry, Nathan.” Then he looked at Dereck. “And who might you be?” he asked.

  “Dereck.”

  “And what is your purpose, Dereck?”

  Dereck looked at Nathan, who shrugged, then back at the Ancient.

  “Well?” said the Ancient.

  “I’m Dereck…”

  “And?” boomed the voice.

  Dereck looked at Nathan and mouthed the words ‘I don’t know what he wants me to say.’ Nathan shrugged.

  Dereck looked up. “And I’m a cleric.”

  For a second, the Ancient put his stubby hand on his chin and considered what he’d heard. Then, a grin started to spread over his face. The grin turned into lines of laughter, and he gave a braying, knee-slapping guffaw. His face turned red.

  “You are Dereck… the cleric?”

  Dereck’s face started to redden. His eyebrows arched. Then, he closed his eyes, took a breath, and a look of calm crossed his features.

  “You did not stand a chance with a name like that, did you?” said the Ancient.

  “Let’s just get on with it,” said Nathan.

  The Ancient shook his head, then grumbled. “Ken, and Dereck the Cleric. What a pair I’ve been sent.”

  “I’m not Ken,” said Nathan.

  The Ancient shrugged. When he next spoke, it sounded like he couldn’t be bothered. He pointed dismissively across the room. “You know the drill. There’s a puzzle over there. Go and solve it. Or don’t. It’s up to you.”

  Glad to break from the conversation, Nathan turned around. The fog had lifted from the room now, and he saw that it was hexagonal-shaped. Across from him, were four people.

  Or he thought they were, at least. He stared at them, and he realized that they weren’t real. Instead, these were holographic representations of people.

  “Let’s get this over with,” he told Dereck.

  He crossed the room and stood in front of the figures. There was a large-bellied man wearing a golden crown. His throat was cut and blood stained his tunic, but he appeared to be alive.

  In front of him were 3 people. One of them was a red -haired beauty. She wore a flowing dress, and some of her delicate fingers were adorned with rings. Next to her was an older man. Tall, wiry, and with grey hair. There was a look of wisdom on his face. At the end, was a younger man. This one seemed to resemble the king in his face, though his belly was nowhere near as large.

  Behind them all, words began to form on the stone wall. The text was red and seemed to dribble at the ends, as though it was written in blood.

  ‘The Betrayed King.’

  Someone has tried to kill the king, and you must find out who. Once you have made your decision, you must order them to be punished. Your choice here affects whether you earn a power, and which one you receive.

  It seemed that there was more than one power on offer here, so he needed to be careful. If he chose wrongly, he guessed he’d get the weaker power. The problem was, this seemed to be some sort of logic quiz, and Nathan sucked at those.

  “What do you think?” he said, turning to Dereck.

  The Ancient spoke. “Dereck the cleric cannot assist you, Ken.”

  Ignoring the Ancient’s poor name recollection, he looked around the room. There was nothing else to help him. No clues, no doors to open. That meant that everything he needed to solve this was right in front of him, in the form of the 4 hologram figures.

  “Can you talk?” he said.

  None of the figures replied. They didn’t move nor blink. They wouldn’t be able to assist him, so Nathan obviously had to work it out by looking at them.

  First, there was the king. His throat was slit but apparently, it hadn’t been enough to finish the job. Nathan had watched enough detective shows to know that the first thing you looked for was a motive. So, which of these 3 people had reason to kill the king?

  “Tick tock,” said the Ancient, across the room. “The hourglass is draining.”

  “I don’t see an hour glass,” said Dereck.

  “Silly me.”

  The Ancient reached to his side and produced an hourglass, which he turned over. Grains of sand began to trickle to the bottom of it. Nathan knew he needed to work quickly.

  He looked at the figures in front of him. The younger man who looked like the King seemed the most likely suspect. Their facial resemblance was so strong that he must have been the king’s younger brother. That meant that if the king died, the brother would take his throne. Surely that was reason enough to kill him?

  But wait. He looked at the red-haired woman. On her left hand, there was something strange about her ring finger. There was a band of pale skin, as if she’d worn a ring around it, but had recently taken it off.

  Her wedding ring. This must have been the king’s wife. For whatever reason, she had recently decided to stop wearing her wedding ring. Bingo.

  It was either the brother or the woman, then. She was his wife, and perhaps the king had given her reason to kill him. He could have been a tyrant, or maybe he was adulterous.

  Nathan rubbed his head. It was hard to decide between the two of them. If only they could speak and give him a clue. He sensed that there was more than one solution to this riddle. Back in Ancient #1, he’d had 2 choices. One had been to kill the rats, and the other had been to use the bones from the skeleton.

  Just like the test in Ancient #1, this was a moral dilemma. Nathan had to choose who to name as the betrayer of the king. There was every chance he’d pick the wrong guy, and name an innocent person as the would-be assassin.

  It had to be the woman. He didn’t know her motive, but surely the absence of a wedding ring was a giveaway?

  And then he noticed something. In the King’s pocket, there was a sheet of paper. It was old and yellowed. He couldn’t see all of it, and much of the writing was too small to read. At the top, however, there was a title.

  ‘Dissolution of the church: King’s Orders.’

  That couldn’t have been there for no reason. Everything he saw was a clue. Smiling, and beginning to enjoy playing detective, he looked at the other 3 figures.

  “Only half your time remaining,” said the Ancient.

  “I thought it was an hour glass? It hasn’t been 30 minutes.”

  “You don’t have an hour,” said the Ancient, pointing at the sand.

  “Then maybe you should call it a sand timer, and not an h
ourglass,” Dereck corrected. He was obviously annoyed at the Ancient for laughing at his name and class.

  Focus, Nathan told himself. I’m getting somewhere. The paper in the king’s pocket meant that he planned to dissolve whatever religion existed in this scenario. Why would that give the three people here cause to harm him?