by Dante Doom
“Perfect!” Sang said, “This is just what we need! When we join these soldiers, we might be able to recruit them to our company, too. This could boost our numbers quickly! Fast enough for us to maybe get to Bloodrock within a week!”
“It’s possible,” Van said, “but I’m not making any promises. We’re going to have to see what happens first.”
“Fair enough,” Sang said. “Come on—we’re going to have to meet with Kenneth and get back into the game.”
“His real name is Kenneth?” Van asked. “Kenwar... heheh, not very original.”
“It’s still better than Jane,” Sang replied. “If I’d known I’d be in this game for so long, I’d have picked something better.”
“Like what?” Van asked.
Sang paused and pondered the question. “Definitely Sangwar.”
Van laughed as they walked out of his room together. He was growing continually more surprised at how much warmer Sang was becoming over time. She had begun to really get into the game and, while she still made mistakes here and there, she was nowhere near as grumpy as she’d once been. Things were definitely looking up for their relationship.
As Van reflected on his friendship with Sang, they entered into the pod room. A tall, square-jawed man was standing in the center of the room. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and every few seconds he would glance behind him. He seemed incredibly nervous.
“I’m guessing that’s Kenneth,” Van mumbled under his breath.
“Hi there,” Kenneth said as he approached the pair. Despite his height, the man was incredibly hunched over, and looked almost akin to a weasel of sorts. His coke-bottle glasses were practically hanging off of his face and his expression offered the sick kind of grin that a used car salesman would get when he saw an elderly couple. “The name’s Kenneth. But I guess you’ll be calling me Kenwar in the game.”
“I’m Van, and this is Sang,” Van replied as he shook the man’s hand. He was surprised at the feeling of sweat. The man really did come off as incredibly nervous.
“It’s a pleasure,” Sang said without extending her hands. “But let’s get one thing straight. See that guy up there?” She pointed to the balcony where all of the operators were busily working on their consoles. Neil was leaning over one of the rails and watching them. “If anything funny were to happen to us within this game, he’ll—”
“I’m well aware of all of his threats,” Kenneth replied. “Why do you think I look so nervous? Look, with Draco breathing down my neck and you guys watching me like a hawk, there’s very little incentive for me to do anything fishy. I’m just here to get out of a very bad situation.”
Sang shot a look at Van that showed that she clearly wasn’t buying his attitude. Van wasn’t sure what to think. Kenneth really did look nervous, but then again, Van had been incredibly nervous during his own first few weeks working with the CIA. In fact, he was probably still nervous on a subconscious level.
“Well, it’s good to meet you,” Van said, pushing past the two of them. “But we don’t have time to share our feelings. We’ve got work to do.” With that, he popped open the lid of his own pod and climbed into it.
Moments later, Van found himself standing outside of Castle Bikorn. No matter how many times he switched from the real world to the haptic pod system, he was always surprised at how smoothly the transition went. Sang and Kenwar appeared right next to him.
“About time you logged in!” said Kylian. Van turned around to see that his entire team was waiting for him.
“You guys are all up this early?” he asked.
“Double experience weekend!” Dolly said. “We’re gonna be grinding all night! No sleep till Brooklyn!”
Sahara rubbed her eyes. “Speak for yourselves; I’m exhausted beyond all belief. Too much homework to do last night.”
“Enough jabbering!” Capello said. “Who’s ready to stab some jerks?”
“Honestly,” Bidane said, “we’ve been waiting almost thirty minutes for you guys.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Van said. “We’d like everyone to meet our new teammate, Kenwar. He’s a—”
“Manhunter Kenwar?” Kylian asked. “Wow! Why are you here?”
“Oh, uh, heard about this company and thought it would be, uh, you know…” Kenwar stammered. It was clear that he hadn’t been expecting someone to know who he was.
“He’s joining us because Draco would prefer that a professional player help a mercenary company to spice things up during this war,” Sang said. “It’s a special part of their event; he was scouting around and liked the way we handle ourselves.”
“Wow!” Dolly cheered. “I cannot believe we’re going to have a Draco pro on our side!”
“I used to follow your live stream when I tried to learn what the hell all this gaming stuff was about,” Kylian said.
Van’s eyes widened at the comment. The last thing that he needed was for one of his team members to have some kind of loyalty toward Kenwar.
“Wow, that was a long time ago,” Kenwar said.
“Well, enough jabber, guys. From here, we’re heading to the north,” said Van. “Now that we’ve got a company, let’s go get in some large-scale fights.”
“I’ll do anything if it means I get to stab something,” Capello said. “Our last adventure completely sucked. Nonviolent quests are the worst.”
“Agreed,” Sang said. “I prefer riddling my opponent full of arrows instead of trying to reason with them.”
“Now that, I like!” Capello replied. “Where to exactly?”
“We’re going to side with one of the Bickering Kingdoms,” Van said as he drew out a path on the group map. “We just need to pick one.”
“Oh!” Dolly said. “I vote for Melvania! They’ve got the best color scheme—orange and black!”
“Orange does work with my robes,” Sahara said.
“I don’t care one way or the other,” Bidane said. “The White Fox doesn’t watch over the north, so it’s all meaningless to me.” Van rolled his eyes. Bidane was one of those types of players who would randomly roleplay at the strangest times. She barely had any commitment to her character, but would occasionally break into fits of prose, just yammering on and on about her goddess.
“Voting is stupid; let’s just go!” Capello said as he pushed through the group and began to run in the opposite direction of the north.
“Sang, go grab him,” Van said, and then turned to the others. “Let’s head to Melvania. There’s not much difference between the two nations, so let’s just pick the one that Dolly likes.”
“Yes!” Dolly said, pumping her fists in the air.
With that, the adventuring party began their long trek toward the Northern Spires, a mountain range that wasn’t too far from their current location. In-game, it would take less than two hours, which had been the real reason why Van was interested in joining either of the two kingdoms. With the clock ticking, they had to take every shortcut they could.
The trip was relatively uneventful until they reached the Sandswept Desert. The small desert had been created by a powerful wizard a long time ago, and while it was in the northern area, it would always remain the same blistering temperature of a regular desert. The team struggled a bit to move through the territory, sweating profusely and trying their best to keep cool, but the exhaustion from the heat was overwhelming.
“This is starting to really slow us down!” Sang said as she tapped against her empty canteen. “My stats are dropping like crazy.”
“The end of the desert isn’t too far!” Van replied as he gasped for air. The heat was beginning to make the very act of talking difficult, as well. He could feel his lungs filling up with the hot, desert air, and the burning pain was beginning to be too much.
“Man, everything about this sucks!” Capello said. “Why don’t we just turn around?”
“We’re at the point where it’ll take just as long to go back as it will to go forward!” Bidane said. “We must soldier throu
gh!”
“What is wrong with all of you?” Sahara asked. She was strolling around comfortably, while the rest of the team was staggering to keep up with her pace. “This heat is great.”
“Maybe f-for a fire wizard,” Kylian said. “But it’s going to kill the rest of us.”
“Hah, so I guess my class is pretty useful after all!” Sahara said.
“If only you could fight as well as you could survive deserts,” Bidane shot back.
“Dolly’s unconscious!” Sang reported as she stooped down to pick up her compatriot.
“My stamina’s not looking so good either,” Van wheezed as he watched his green bar continue to drop down. Once his stamina was gone, any effects from the heat would begin to affect his health.
“Over there!” Bidane shouted as she pointed at a large rock formation in the distance. “I see a cave!”
“Hurry!” Capello said. “Get to the shade!”
The group hurried toward the cavern. As he moved, Van glanced over to see that Kenwar was quietly striding alongside the rest of the group. He hadn’t spoken a word since they’d taken off on their adventure, and Van could tell that the heat wasn’t much affecting the manhunter. Perhaps he had some kind of skill that protected him from weather effects.
“Whew! It’s so nice in here!” Bidane announced as she collapsed on the ground in the mouth of the cave. The rest of the team came to a halt and sat down, sprawling in various areas and panting for breath. The only real exception was Sahara, who still didn’t seem phased in the slightest.
“Nice cave,” she mused as she walked around. “It’s pretty big.”
“Big indeed!” came a voice echoing through the cavern. The cave was deep and, in the distance, Van could see a pair of glowing, yellow lights.
“Who’s there?” Kenwar shouted as he leapt to his feet and pulled out his crossbow. The rest of the adventuring party slowly stood up and drew their weapons. Van groaned as he felt his legs buckle a little when he tried to get up. The heat had done a real number on his stats, and he was struck with the Exhausted status, meaning that until he was able to sleep for 8 hours, he’d have a negative -4 attached to all of his physical stats.
“Who indeed?” the voice replied.
“I don’t like this,” Kenwar said. “Dark cave, and a deep tunnel to reach that voice. Who knows how many people are lying in wait for us?”
“Relax,” Sahara said. “It’s probably some kind of desert quest.”
“Whatever it is,” Capello said as he began to walk into the darkness. “I’m gonna go kill it.”
“Slow down!” Van ordered. Capello ignored Van and continued walking. “Capello, I said come back!” Van shouted. His voiced echoed through the space, but Capello did no such thing.
“Are you kidding me?” Bidane said. “That jackass is going to get us killed!”
“Let’s leave him then,” Kenwar said. “No reason for the rest of us to run into a trap.”
“We don’t leave anyone behind, no matter how dumb a decision they make,” Van replied. “Kylian. He’s your grandson, so go grab him!”
“I’m going, I’m going,” Kylian said as he began to follow after him.
“Whoa!” Capello shouted. “Guys, come check this out! It’s a Sphinx!”
Bidane immediately took off running into the darkness. Van looked at Sang, who merely shrugged and followed after the priestess. The rest of the team followed, as well, with the exception of Kenwar, who merely stayed behind and muttered something about keeping an eye on the entrance.
Van ran a few yards with the rest of the group, only to stop suddenly upon seeing the creature before Capello. The fighter’s head was staring straight up, his mouth agape.
“Greetings, adventurers!” said the beast. It had the head of a human and the body of a lion. Above it hovered the words Great Sphinx Level 50. “I see you have come into my lair! What do you seek? Treasure? Power? Gems?”
Bidane, for some reason, had knelt on the ground and was mumbling, in some kind of a trance. The rest of the party stared at the gigantic creature in wonder. It was nearly 60 feet tall and sat comfortably within the cave. Van could see what looked to be large claw marks on the ground, indicating that the Sphinx must have long ago tunneled this cave itself.
“Greetings,” Van said, stepping forward and making eye contact with the enormous being. Its eyes glowed a bright yellow in the darkness. A few torches had been lit around the creature, creating enough light for them all to see the enormous Sphinx, but not enough light to see what was behind it.
“I am the Great Sphinx of the Desert! Many travel through this accursed land in the hopes of finding my wisdom,” he said with a booming voice. “But be warned, for dealing with a Sphinx is far trickier than dealing with anything you’ve ever met! Say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, and GULP!” It shouted, snapping its massive jaws at the party in emphasis. “I swallow you whole!”
“Bidane, what are you doing?” Van asked as he looked over at his companion. She was still kneeling before the creature and praying incessantly.
“I’m trying to access the Quest of Saint Alberta,” Bidane replied. “Praying is how I can get special quests from the White Fox! Rumor has it that the Tears of Saint Alberta are located within a cave containing the Great Sphinx! I didn’t know it was around here.”
“I’ll do any side quest as long as they don’t involve going back out in that heat,” a now recovered Dolly said.
“I agree,” replied Sang as she helped stabilize Dolly, who had begun to wobble a bit once more.
“Alright, sounds good!” Van said. “What does the quest involve?”
“Well,” Bidane replied as she slowly stood to her feet, dusting the dirt and rocks off of her robe. “We need to figure out a way to get past the Sphinx’s riddle and into the deeper parts of the underground network of caverns. There, it is said that the Tears of Saint Alberta have been preserved in a vial, for those who are worthy.”
“What do the tears do?” Capello asked.
“They have the power to immediately heal any amount of damage, and cure all statuses and wounds,” Bidane replied. “But the real value isn’t in drinking them; it’s in selling them. The quest cave randomly moves around from area to area, making the tears incredibly rare to find. There’s a much bigger quest where you have to collect five artifacts owned by Saint Alberta, and this one is always the hardest to accomplish.”
“So, if we get our hands on this…” Van said, “we’re going to be making a fortune?”
Bidane emphatically nodded. “Like you wouldn’t believe! There is so much money to be made off of these tears. Let’s do it! Sphinx! We request passage through this area!”
The Sphinx looked at her with a wry grin. “In order to receive passage,” it giggled, “you must be willing to travel through the darkest places and fight the hideous underground-dwelling monsters! But most importantly of all, you must be able to solve a riddle with speed and skill!”
“Argh, more talking!” Capello groaned. “Why can’t we just get a quest that involves pure violence for once?”
“Easy, Capello,” Kylian said. “Let’s hear the riddle, Sphinx.”
“Excellent! Prepare yourselves for a riddle. You have one minute to solve it!” the Sphinx said as it reached its large paw over to the entrance of the cave and blocked them off from being able to leave.
“Here it is!” he said with a chuckle as he began to speak...
“Every dawn begins with me
At dusk I’ll be the first you see
And daybreak couldn’t come without
What midday centers all about
Daisies grow from me, I’m told
And when I come, I end all cold
But in the sun I won’t be found
Yet still, each day I’ll be around.”
Van wrinkled his face up in thought. He hadn’t heard this riddle before, and he puzzled over it.
“Is it an axe?” Capello asked.
“Capello, don’t just shout out the answers,” Van barked back.
“I think it’s an axe!” Capello said as he drew out his twin axes and began to charge towards the Sphinx. “Hahahaha!”
“Are you kidding me? Sang, stop him!” Van cried. Sang leapt into action and rushed toward the homicidal player, dive tackling him before he could reach the beast.
“Seriously, kid? What is wrong with you?” Sang demanded as she wrestled him down to the ground.
“Soo… any ideas?” Sahara asked. “Not much time left.” She pointed at a large timer that was slowly ticking down.
“I’ve got an idea!” Bidane said. “It’s gotta be the ground!”
“How would daybreak start with the ground?” Kylian asked. “No, it’s gotta be some kind of clever puzzle... maybe a play on words.”
“Well, whatever it is,” Dolly said, “if we don’t get it, we’re gonna be fighting a level 60 Sphinx.”’
“Crap! Come on, think!” Sahara shouted.
“I can’t think under pressure!” Van shouted back. “Riddles are not my strong suit! Any ideas, Sang?”
“A little busy here!” Sang replied as she struggled to keep the fighter from breaking free and trying to attack the gigantic monster.
“Come on, guys, there’s like seven of us here,” Van said. “How can none of us figure out a riddle?”
“Wait! It’s a letter!” Kylian said. “Of course—the common thread is that all of those words involve the letter D; that’s what it’s talking about, in those very words!”
“I’m waiting on the final answer!” the Sphinx said. “Clock is almost up!”
“It’s the letter D!” Kylian shouted.
