Beginner's Luck (Character Development Book 1)

by Aaron Jay

  “That is rich coming from you,” I retorted.

  Maya looked around her group.

  “Any thoughts?” said Maya.

  She mostly got shrugs or shakes of the head back.

  “Pardon, Ms. Eastman,” said Aabid. “He tried to bluff the GMs and everyone to make them think that I was working with him and the Lee clan when the GMs came to arrest him.”

  “And so? You think he really wants to go in the mines?”

  “But I wasn’t working with the Lee clan, was I?” he said.

  “Or, were you?” I interrupted.

  “Shut up, Miles. My point was that he bluffed with nothing. Miles is about to get thrown into a hole for months. He logs out just to set this up. If he really had some play to make he’d never have let us know he logged out. He knows he can’t escape this so he is trying to get us to do something else where he might have a chance,” Aabid said.

  “The smart thing is to change the plan,” insisted Jude. “We don’t know what he was up to while out of the game. Miles or his father might have figured out something to help him out of the mines. He can’t plan for something new.”

  Maya shook her head. “If Numitor gets involved that works for us. This is where we are strongest. I hope he does.”

  “Just a reminder. The professor doesn’t offer refunds or exchanges. The million and the favor Tasha contracted are ours. We can go talk to the Professor but be prepared to pay,” Gord reminded them. I could have kissed him.

  Everyone waited on Maya. I held my breath. The nice thing about this strategy is that no matter what signals I gave off no one could tell what I should be expressing.

  She made her decision. “I am not getting wrapped up in stupid head games. I am not going back to my mother to get more clan resources spent on this stupid waste of time. There is nothing he can do. No one can solo a four-man instance set at more than twice their level. It is impossible. Plus, you know mother wanted you to do this, Jude. It will set her mind at ease if you prove where your loyalties lie. I am sorry, Jude.” Maya said.

  “I already proved my loyalty when I told you he was in Quartzite. I am doing so now by telling you what I think,” said Jude.

  “I appreciate that, but Mother probably wouldn’t. Let’s throw him in the hole,” said Maya.

  “Yeah, Jude. Tasha wants you to moan and say you like it. Throw your best friend in a pit for her. Chop chop.”

  Jude’s invulnerable facade cracked a bit at this.

  “You chose this, Miles. Tasha didn’t force this on me. You did,” he grated.

  “The lies we tell ourselves to excuse our horrible actions. The worst thing about the Party is that it makes you complicit in your own corruption. I am forcing you to throw me in a monster-filled hole to cheat on a bet so they can enslave me. Do you even hear yourself?”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Miles. It is just a game,” said Jude getting himself back together.

  “It’s all a game, Jude. Life is a game. How you play it is all that matters. You like the game you and your friends are playing?”

  Maya cut me off. “We are playing to win,” she declared. “And not just for ourselves. For everyone. Let’s get him in there as fast as possible so we can forget him.”

  And with that, one of the older Eastmans cast something and I was bound. They had mounts waiting outside of Maddie’s. They slung me over some sort of six legged lizard, got on their mounts, and we headed out into the desert.

  The lizard’s rump smelled of reptilian musk. The tack and saddle leather creaked as it moved with its odd gait. We had been traveling for a few hours, climbing up into some hills after wending our way through the desert. The six legs of the lizard took the loose scree easily. It was a rather quiet group. Gord and Smitty said nothing except directions. They were on the clock. The older Eastman I thought was in charge of everyone except Maya kept a watchful eye out. He had large handlebar mustaches. They actually made him look tough which I hadn’t thought mustaches like that could do. The younger group also kept a lookout but without the easy air of competence and long practice. Not a happy party of adventurers out for loot and treasurers. My time practicing yoga made the experience of being bound and dragged through wilderness much more tolerable. I worked to observe the strain of the cords. The pain of my arms and body was something of an old friend. I knew that the stretches and contortions of my binding were not good for me and yet enduring moderate pain and stillness was familiar.

  “Lot of wolves in this territory,” commented Mustache.

  “A few. Usually not so many around the mine. Kobolds keep them out.”

  “I keep seeing one.”

  So Remus was following us. I hoped that he either had some way of vanquishing everyone and rescuing me, or kept his distance.

  “Speaking of kobolds…” commented Smitty.

  With a casual gesture he unleashed an arcane bolt. The group came to a sudden halt.

  “Kobold scouts, guards, and hunting groups from here on out to the entrance,” said Gord.

  “You level eights. Don’t attack anything or draw aggro. Last thing we need at this point is a death or for someone to level out of Boone’s party max level cap. Stay behind us and don’t do anything,” commanded Mustache. They must have been impressed with his facial hair too because everyone snapped to attention.

  Between the advanced Eastmans, Smitty, and Gord, our group made quick time clearing the wandering kobolds as we made our way through the hills and low scrub trees to the mine entrance. They barely slowed down as they engaged and didn’t even bother looting the corpses they left behind. It was all japtem to them. Japtem was Korean for trash loot not worth bothering about. As the Koreans probably said before the Singularity “One man’s Japtem is another man’s treasure.” I could have really used whatever had fallen but there was no chance.

  Eventually we pulled up outside of a slope down into a mining pit. Large menhirs with scratched symbols on them marked the entrance to the mine. A group of Kobold guards stood sentry at the entrance but they wouldn’t bother us till we got closer.

  “We’re here,” said Smitty.

  A hand grabbed me by the neck and a knife flashed and I would have fallen to the dirt if the hand hadn’t kept me mostly upright as I fell. I worked to get the blood flowing back to my limbs. Gord was the one who had set me loose.

  “Miles. You going to cooperate? I think we treated you alright while we waited for the Eastmans. We have some items that we can use to force you into the party and to change your respawn point,” said Gord.

  “Those items are expensive. You cooperate and don’t make us spend and I’ll consider us square,” put in Smitty.

  There was no reason to give Smitty a hard time. Costing him wouldn’t help me or hurt anyone I wanted to hurt.

  “Sure.”

  After a moment there was a prompt asking me to party with Jude, Aabid, and the other level eight whose name I discovered was Audrey Campos. I accepted it. We moved to the other side of the menhirs and into the pit. Another message appeared.

  Your party has entered the instance:

  Expedition into the Mines of Madness!

  Dungeon set for party average level seven.

  *warning - there is no exit to this instance other than death, teleportation or success. Do not reset your spawn point within the confines of the dungeon unless you are confident of your party’s success.

  While I could still see and talk with Smitty, Gord, and the other Eastmans, the three in my party and I were now in our own instance.

  “Reset your spawn point,” commanded Aabid.

  “You know how annoying it is to be told to do something you were going to do anyway?” I replied.

  “Yes,” he said smugly. “Now reset your spawn point.”

  “You won’t see it coming,” I promised him. He just laughed at me.

  A sigh escaped my lips. I walked towards the edge of the aggro range of the kobolds. I was so much lower level than the rest of my party that I
had a much wider aggro radius than they did. The higher level you were, the closer you could come to a monster without it attacking. If you were powerful enough you could walk right up to a mob and it wouldn’t dare challenge you. The lower your level the more eager mobs would be to attack you and the farther the distance from which they would rush you. I moved through my menus. I hit the accept button. Then I had to re-confirm that I really meant to move my respawn point. Then I had to confirm again that I really truly meant to do that inside the instance. A heavenly flash and I was trapped.

  “All done,” I informed everyone. Which everyone already knew from the light show my respawn change had set off. “How are you all getting out? Seppuku, I hope.”

  One of the older, higher level Eastmans was already casting a teleport. The portal he created was about the only kind of magic that you could send into an instance from outside. Jude gave me an inscrutable look, nodded to Maya and left. As soon as he was through the portal I received a notice that he had left my party. How symbolic. The other girl, Audrey Campos, who hadn’t said much the entire trip, also left. Aabid remained behind.

  “Back up. No trying to rush the portal,” he told me.

  He moved up to me and I backed up a bit with him.

  “So you can be reasonable,” said Maya.

  “Sure. Don’t be a lying cheating piece of shit and I can work with you.”

  “You think I am cheating? I am playing the game within the rules. That is the opposite of cheating. If you were such a good player you should be able to win as long as we all play by the rules. The Eastman clan has to play against people more ruthless than us. You being left in this mine is within the rules of our wager. Now you lose. The wild nano won’t care if you whine about how unfair things were. It is the law of the jungle. The strong will dominate the weak. Otherwise the wild nano will win. This is the way the game is played,” she told me.

  “This is the way you play the game,” I said as I slowly backed up to the very edge of my aggro radius. I lowered my voice as if I was sharing a secret with them. Aabid moved closer to hear me. “You lie and cheat because people like you lie and cheat. You claim we are in a prisoner’s dilemma. You have to lie and cheat because others will lie and cheat. The best solution to the prisoner’s dilemma is for people to keep faith with each other. You fail to find the most efficient solution to the prisoner’s dilemma. Really, you lie and cheat because you can get away with it. You protect weakness through corruption. You pretend it is a necessity but the border is stalled. Your lies and cheats don’t work. You are failing humanity. And I am going to prove it even with your cheating.”

  “Enjoy ten months with the kobolds,” sneered Aabid. He initialized a fireball spell. He kept it cocked and ready to hurl at me as he backed up toward the portal. He kept his gaze on me the entire time he scrambled and slid backwards over the loose gravel of the mine entrance ramp.

  “Goodbye, Aabid.”

  Just then a wolf howled from the tree-line. the Party’s attention turned from me and the sealed instance. Thank you, Remus. Aabid turned back to me and saw that I hadn’t moved. He turned back to see what the rest of the Eastmans were up to once again and then slipped on the loose scree. He snapped his gaze back to me as soon as he recovered.

  In the momentary break of his focus I slid my foot just far enough back to trip the kobold sentry party’s aggro. When he looked back I was standing just as I had been. I had to time this just right. No looking back to see what was rushing up behind me.

  One… two… three… I knew the Kobolds were rushing us. I could imagine their claws and teeth closing on the back of my neck. Now! With a laugh, I rushed Aabid. Turning back from the treeline, the mage holding open the teleport cursed. He thought I was making a run for the portal. He closed it, trapping Aabid and me. But I never intended to enter the portal anyway.

  “Good,” smiled Aabid as he unleashed his fireball at me.

  I fell flat and saw Aabid’s expression when he saw the Kobolds just behind me. This was going to hurt but was completely worth it. Fireball is an AoE spell. AoE means Area of Effect - the spell works over an area not on an individual. Fire bloomed out from just behind me. Flames washed over me. A damage notice appeared. My hp bar plummeted and a burning effect icon flashed. I didn’t need a notice to let me know I was being hurt, the pain flaring across my body told me.

  But the spell’s area of effect included more than just me. Aabid’s fireball washed flames over the kobolds and rocketed him up to the top of the threat list. Hitting monsters with magical napalm will make them focus on you way more than putting your toe into their territory. They rushed past, ignoring me as I lay right by their feet. Aabid began laying about him, unleashing some sort of melee-oriented fire spell. His hands and arms dripped flame as he struck around him. He had been developing a Fire Mage character. What a hack build. His attacks were building aggro at a ferocious rate. With my stats and equipment, I don’t think I could have pulled the kobolds off him no matter what I did.

  Aabid was going to die pretty quickly as the three kobolds tore into him. They had lost over half their hp from the fireball but that didn’t impact how hard they hit. I was actually surprised that his fireball hadn’t taken at least one of them out completely. For a mage of Aabid’s level it should have been his KO move.

  The group outside the instance turned back and watched, mouths gaping.

  I laughed and dragged myself over to the desperate fight. I couldn’t have Aabid die too quickly. I needed him. I drew my sword and attacked one of the most damaged kobolds, eliciting a dog like snarl as I stabbed him in his furry back. Between Aabid and me, he went down fast.

  The mage who had closed the portal cast some high level eldritch attack but of course he couldn’t impact our instance. We could see and hear each other but the only magic I knew of that could affect us in here was a summoning portal to teleport someone out of one of these places. His spell was just a sound and light show inside the instance. But the numinous green light and laughing skulls his spell unleashed were useful in keeping Aabid attacking wildly and not thinking.

  Maya and the Mustache were smarter though.

  “Hold your fire!” he bellowed.

  “Aabid stop fighting! You are helping Boone!” she yelled.

  Aabid didn’t hear her over the snarls, growls, chittering skulls, and my laughter. I concentrated on the kobold he wasn’t fighting. I couldn’t take more than one or two hits from either a kobold or Aabid. So, I shaved the kobolds hp down and let them shave him down. Aabid was inflicting so much damage that I was in no danger of the kobolds turning their attention from him to me.

  “Aabid! Stop! If you don’t want to be banished from the clan stop right goddamn now!” Maya screeched.

  That went right to Aabid’s lizard brain. He stopped and just stood there, his HP plummeting. Must be nice to have pain filters.

  My sword swung hard and fast. When one was down to a mere sliver of HP I worked on the other.

  “Why are you just standing there?” yelled Maya.

  “That is what you told me to do!” cried Aabid.

  “Kill Boone, not the Kobolds, you idiot!”

  Aabid lurched into motion. He pushed past the kobolds to get at me. I did what any level three player confronted by a level eight would do: I ran. Aabid kept after me but with the two kobolds clawing and biting him I didn’t have to run far or long. His hp counter was blinking red. I turned just as the other leapt onto his back and tore into his neck from behind. The last thing Aabid saw was my smile as my sword swung down into his killer’s skull. It collapsed dead on top of Aabid’s corpse.

  Now it was just me and the last kobold, who was a burnt and slashed wreck. One hit and he’d go down. Still, two hits from him and I was a dead man. There was only one way to be sure to win.

  With a yell, I charged the kobold. He clawed me but I closed with him and drove my sword into his stomach. He fell at my feet. I looked up panting, covered in blood and burns, a mere sliver o
f my HP bar left, and stared back at the group just outside the mine pit.

  Mustache looked like wrought iron. Smitty and Gord looked serious but I could swear there was a twinkle in their eyes. Maya looked pale.

  “Hey, Maya. When you see Aabid next ask him if he saw that coming, would you?” I gasped.

  “You vicious little shit.” She growled.

  “It’s all in the rules, right?” I said bending down and looting Aabid and the kobolds. “I don’t think I’ll be in here for ten months. Do you?”

  Maya just looked at me. Mustache barked a laugh. Maya turned to him, cheeks flaming scarlet. He returned her look without rancor or fear.

  “Look at him, Maya,” he said calmly.

  She looked. Meanwhile, I hit the “Loot Y/N?” button on Aabid and the Kobolds.

  He continued. “That is him after just clearing the trash beyond the entrance,” he said.

  Maya looked and began to laugh.

  “Thank you, Sir Brauer,” she said and then turned from him to me. “You still can’t escape. So, you tricked that idiot into killing the weakest group in the entire dungeon for you. You are still one hit from a feather away from death. You won’t be clearing any further. Let alone the bosses.”

  There was no more loot to grab. Nothing good would come from bandying more words with Maya. With a wave of my hand behind me I turned and entered the Mines of Madness. The only way to escape was forward and down. Same with winning the wager. Forward and down into the depths: the Mines of Madness! I could only hope that wasn’t symbolic.

  The mine entrance was clear of other kobolds. I slowly and carefully made my way further in until I was out of sight of the players back by the menhirs. The tunnel’s walls seemed made up of a mixture of rocks and dirt. It didn’t look very stable. There was a lot of wood reinforcement keeping the tunnel open.

  With a hiss of breath I slowly lowered myself down on top of a pile of stones some previous miners had scattered to one side of the shaft. It would be a while before I recovered. It was time to do some housekeeping and get ready for what came next. Let’s see what Maddie had given me, as well as what loot I had picked up from Aabid and the kobolds.