by EA Hooper
Vincent looked at the four tunnels, remembering all the times their team had wandered down them. “So, last time those three were the trap routes, and that was the correct one. I don’t think it’s ever been the same route twice, so we might as well try one of those three.”
“Let’s try the one left of that first. Seems like he typically rotates the passages counterclockwise. Not always, but more than half the time.”
Vincent nodded and walked ahead of Xan. He used his True Huntsman’s Cloak and ran to the edge of Clarity’s perimeter, so he could see ahead of them. They followed the marstone-lined tunnel, and Vincent could feel the low hum of frequencies that filled Marquis’s Hollow. The hum always put him on edge, even after more than a hundred attempted raids. The crooked tunnel moved left and right, up and down, and even became smaller and wider at certain sections. Everything about the Hollow seemed designed to unnerve the players, including the crooked masonry.
He sidestepped several human-shaped holes in the floor in one section and recalled the time Jim had fallen into one. The hole had descended fifty meters before growing so tight that Jim became stuck. He'd been forced to use Self-Destruct, and they’d never recovered his items.
Vincent eyed the shape of the first enemy, even before Clarity’s range reached it. He didn’t even need to Scan it to know the species, but he did so anyway to know the class.
Graven Worm Lord - Monster Class: B | Age: Unknown | Sex: Unknown | Number of Offspring: Unknown | Personality: Mindless
>Vincent: Got a graven up ahead. I’ll take it out with Black Cinder.
Vincent approached as close as he could without revealing himself. His eyes fell on the twisting shape of worms. The monstrous figure held a hardened-verasteel greatsword over its shoulder. Despite the enemy being made of thousands of worms, Vincent knew it was strong enough to swing the greatsword around like a child would a stick.
Vincent charged forward and raised his hand as the worm lord turned to face him. The Ranger cast Black Cinder and sprayed the cloaked pile of worms with void embers. However, the worm lord swung its greatsword in front of its body as the attack struck. The embers burned thousands of small holes through the monster’s greatsword, and even burned away chunks of worms and cloak fabric.
The worm lord raised its hand, and its arm stretched through the falling embers toward Vincent. It grabbed him by the neck, and he felt the sting of light draining from his body. The worm lord slammed him against the marstone wall, and Vincent’s vision went fuzzy. Before the monster could sling him again, the falling void embers poked enough holes through its extended arm that the limb destabilized. Thousands of worms fell to the ground and scattered across the passage.
Xan rushed past Vincent with her Barrier Longsword and Light-Drain Longsword. She blocked a swing of the worm lord’s hole-filled greatsword with her barrier blade, and then she ran her phantasmal blade through its body. A thousand worms screamed at once, and its body crumbled.
The worms that directly touched her Light-Drain Longsword shriveled and died on the ground, but the others scattered into holes and crevices on the walls and floors.
“Well, Marquis knows we’re here now,” Xan told Vincent.
“That’s my fault for not killing it quickly,” Vincent huffed between chugs of ether. “I might’ve already botched this raid.”
“Nah, we’ll be fine,” Xan said, continuing down the passage. She used the low glow of her barrier sword to light the immediate path.
Vincent swapped his sword for a lighting rune as he followed Xan, and soon their path led into an open cavern filled with basketball-sized holes.
Lithe worm lords, for sure. But is this a dead end or a puzzle room? Marquis uses land-shaping magic to change the dungeon, so it’s impossible to tell at first glance.
Xan held up her swords and eyed the holes. “Okay, let’s see the lithes.”
Vincent aimed two fingers around the room, readying himself to use Void Gun. When the lithes strike, we need to hit them fast. Otherwise we’ll both be dead in seconds.
Vincent Scanned the openings, hoping to spot the worms before they attacked. His eyes jumped from hole to hole, but he also listened for the slightest slither. Both players held their breath as they waited for enemies to attack.
“There’s no magic barrier blocking our exit,” Xan noted. “Maybe this is only a puzzle room. Or maybe the lithes won’t activate until we mess with something.”
“There’s nothing to mess with but the holes. And neither of us are sticking our arms in one. How many times have we lost limbs that way?”
“Too many to count. You’d think we would learn our lesson.”
Vincent aimed his lighting rune at the nearest hole, and a light flashed on the other side of the room. He turned, and the light disappeared. “What was that?”
“Oh!” Xan said. “I remember seeing this puzzle once. You’d gotten killed in the previous trap room. It’s the portal hole room.”
“Ah, didn’t you tell me about that?”
“Yeah, the holes have portal magic that redirects anything that moves through it. Jim fired a Mana Magnum through one, and it flew around in an endless loop. We have to find the one that’s not a portal and shoot it. Try shining your lighting rune around until we see one where the light isn’t redirected.”
Vincent aimed his light at one hole and then another. The light reappeared out of different spots, and sometimes it’d even reflect out of two or three at a time, casting multiple shadows off the players. After a minute of searching, he pointed the light at a hole in the ceiling, and the light vanished inside the darkness. “Got it.” He fired Mana Gun through the hole.
All the holes in the room glowed blue and sparked with magic. The sparks gathered at the center of the room, forming a magic doorway with a swirling vortex in the center.
“Hold on,” Xan said as Vincent stepped toward it. “Could be a trap.”
“Puzzle rooms are never traps. If it was a trap room, they’d have jumped us the moment we stepped in here.”
“This was hardly a puzzle. More like a minor inconvenience. There’s no reason it couldn’t be a fake puzzle that’s really a trap. You know Marquis likes to throw curveballs at us. Every time we beat this dungeon, it gets a little harder. Scan the vortex first.”
Swirling Vortex – A vortex of swirling magic. Attributes unknown.
“It says attributes unknown,” Vincent replied. He paused to think. “Maybe you’re right. The few portals I’ve encountered were always listed as portals, even if they didn’t tell you the destination.”
He equipped a backup verasteel sword and poked half of it into the swirling magic. When he pulled the blade out, he discovered the top half had melted away. “Oh.”
“Yeah, told you. Let’s go back.”
They turned to the exit, and a barrier appeared over the passage.
Xan readied her swords. “Okay, where’re the lithes?”
Vincent tossed an omnidirectional lighting rune to the floor and equipped Song of War. He noticed the light no longer reflected from the holes. Whatever portal magic blocked those passages is gone. Now lithes can get in.
Two streams of worms sprayed from holes in the ceiling. Both monsters seemed to rebound as the worms shaped themselves into long-limbed figures. They stood taller but skinnier than the worm lord in the tunnel, and they had no weapons. However, the two worm lords moved lightning fast and with liquid-like movements. Their bodies curved and reshaped as they walked. One stretched across the room and punched Vincent in the chest.
The blow knocked Vincent against the wall. He aimed his fingers, but then a third stream of worms emerged from a nearby hole and wrapped around his arm. He felt his strength draining as the worm lord formed.
Vincent used his other arm to fire three back-to-back Void Guns at the worm lord’s limbs. The Weighted Shell upgrade on his Void Gun caused the black bolt to expand when it struck, and it blew gaping holes in the monster’s arms and neck, severing its body p
arts.
Vincent swung Song of War and used a little mana to create a wave of vibrations that split the worm lord in half. Piles of dead worms fell to the ground, and the living worms rushed to the holes for safety.
He glanced at Xan as she fended off the other two worm lords. She’d severed an arm from each enemy, but they’d pushed her back toward the wall. Vincent swung Song of War, and a wave of vibrations hit the closer of the two worm lords and split its body in half. It tried to pull itself back together, but Xan jumped forward and swiped it with her phantasmal blade. Her blade sucked the life from hundreds of worms, and its body collapsed.
The last worm lord sprang at Xan and wrapped itself around her. It slammed her against the marstone floor, knocking out her Light Shield. As the young woman struggled, the creature shoved its fist into the faceplate of her helm, and worms wiggled into every crevice.
Vincent had seen the worm lords do that before. In fact, they’d killed him a few times by forcing hundreds of worms down his throat. Once inside, the worms would project mana that dissolved a person from the inside out. Vincent considered it one of the absolute worst ways he’d died in World-Tree Online.
Vincent swung Song of War and hit Xan with the shockwave. The vibrational energy blew the worm lord away, but dozens of worms had been left behind. With her arms free, Xan swiped the phantasmal sword at herself to kill the worms still stuck to her. She unequipped her helm, and worms fell to the ground.
Xan collapsed to her knees as she coughed out worms. “Stupid freaking worm lords. I can’t wait to leave this world so we never have to fight these things again.”
“Uh, Xan? Your arm”
Xan looked at the blood dripping from her arm and the shattered chains on her armor. “Ah, don’t worry about it, Vince. I know Zero Field doesn’t work well on those things. If you hadn’t hit me, I’d have used Self-Destruct.” Xan dissipated her Light-Drain Longsword and used its power to heal her injury, and then she used a metal-weaving rune to repair the damaged chains.
Vincent drank an ether and launched Void Gun through the barrier over the exit, then took a minute to drink more ethers. Vincent had brought one mega-ether, but he didn’t plan to waste it unless in an emergency. After decades on Eramar, his team had saved up over a hundred mega-potions and thousands of other potions in preparation to attack Midrun. However, they tried not to waste the stronger ones unless necessary.
Xan cast Clarity and led them into the passage, but Vincent eyed the crooked floor and walls with a nervous look.
“It’s not the same,” Vincent told Xan.
“The floors changed?” she replied.
“Yeah, I think so. Be on guard for traps.”
They walked with cautious steps, and Vincent kept an eye out for the different kinds of traps Marquis had thrown at them over the years.
Holes that go nowhere. Spike traps. Collapsing ceilings. Disintegration Darts. Nearly microscopic razor wire. Talking riddle skulls that explode if you guess incorrectly. Itching powder that turns your skin to mush. Pain runes. Mimics—so many mimics. Lava pits. Acids pits. The skin pit—I wish I could forget that one. Exploding spiders, rats, and bats. Oh, and that time we lost sight of Jim for an hour, thought we found him, and it turned out to be a bomb doppelganger.
A muffled cry called out ahead.
Vincent paused and glanced at Xan. “There’s no way that’s not a trap.”
“Yeah, but we still have to go that way.”
Vincent nodded and walked onward. The crying became clearer as they neared it. Eventually, Clarity’s field revealed a small girl that looked about ten years old. She lay in the corner with her face buried in her hands.
The old man stopped and stared in shock. A child? I haven’t seen a child in decades. Not since before I entered the game. This is obviously one of Marquis’s traps, but how is he capable of something like this? He Scanned the child.
[NPC] Alisa Bonfield – Age: 10 | Sex: Female | Personality: Shy
>Vincent: It’s an NPC.
Xan slowly approached Vincent’s side, and her eyes widened.
>Jim: Wait, what? In Marquis’s Hollow?
>Vincent: Yeah, it’s a little girl in the tunnel. She’s crying by herself.
>Quinn: Don’t go near her. She’s probably a monster in disguise.
>Vincent: I don’t know any monster that can do that. Even my Scan shows her as an NPC.
>Alexandria: I heard in the beta, NPCs sometimes had quests for players. Maybe she was connected to one that was never completed.
>Vincent: ARKUS let all the NPCs in the low- and mid-tier worlds grow old and die.
>Alexandria: What if she respawns? What if this NPC has been dying down here over and over again for decades, and we just never met the conditions to encounter her?
>Quinn: No, stop being sympathetic. Marquis is using her as a trap, for sure. Regardless of if she’s a real NPC or not.
“H-hello?” the girl asked. She started to raise her head, but then coughed and choked.
>Vincent: The miasma isn’t as thick in this passage, but it’s still killing her slowly. I’ll give her a potion.
>Quinn: Vince, seriously, don’t—
Vincent took a potion from his inventory and approached the young girl. “Hey, I’m here to help. This will protect you from the mia—”
The NPC raised her head, revealing her black, empty eye sockets. “Got you!” She smiled, and her jaw unhinged. A black, wormlike shape snaked from her mouth and stabbed Vincent in the chest. Even his Gravity Shield failed to stop it. A surge of magic flashed across the girl’s body and the wormlike appendage, and then she exploded.
Vincent felt his chest blown open as the explosion tossed him across the tunnel. The shockwave knocked Xan backward, and when she landed, the floor creaked and splinted. She rolled away just as that section of the floor dropped, revealing a pit full of hardened-verasteel spikes.
Vincent coughed blood and gripped his exploded chest cavity. His vision blurred, but Xan rushed to him and raised her Divine Healer’s Pendant. She used its once-a-day ability to restore his body and mana, and the injuries vanished in an instant.
The Ranger set up and sighed. “Deep down, I knew it was a trap. However, I’m really interested in whether that girl was an actual NPC. I mean, how did Marquis get her down here? Did she spawn here? Was it an illusion, or a kind of monster we haven’t seen before?”
“I don’t know,” Xan replied. “Let’s just get out of here. I wasted Restore, so we might as well turn back now.”
Vincent equipped a new set of armor and drank ethers. He looked around until he found Song of War. The explosion had knocked the sword away, but it had only received a couple of minor scratches.
>Quinn: You two still alive?
>Alexandria: Yeah, but I had to use Restore on Vincent after the girl exploded.
>Quinn: No surprise there. You two should—
Unable to send or receive messages at this time.
“Don’t freaking tell me,” Vincent huffed. He rushed down the passage and Xan chased after him. When they reached the original four-way intersection, they looked up to find that the opening overhead had vanished.
“Marquis closed the exit?” Xan asked, her voice full of worry. “We haven’t even been here thirty minutes yet. We’re supposed to have at least an hour before he closes it.”
Vincent shook his head and groaned. “Marquis makes up his own rules as he pleases. I don’t even know why we’re surprised at anything he does anymore. He must’ve realized we were leaving soon, so he’s throwing every trick he can at us—turning his usual rules upside down. Now, our only way out is through him. We’ll need to play this cautiously. Be ready for anything, Xan. Xan?”
The old man looked to see his friend gazing down a passage with tears in her eyes.
“My mom,” Xan muttered. “I just saw my mom turn and walk down that tunnel.”
“It’s an illusion. Another trick. Let’s not go that way.”
&nbs
p; Tears streamed down Xan’s face. “But how? How does Marquis know what my mom looks like? I haven’t seen her in so long. Sometimes I forget what she and my younger sisters looks like, but then I remember I’ve only been logged in a few minutes, and it all comes back to me.”
“This game uses information from your social media,” Vincent replied. “Maybe Marquis accessed that data.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Xan continued to eye the passage, but then she turned her head. “Let’s not go that way. He’s definitely trying to lure me into a trap.”
Vincent nodded and picked another passage at random. “Let’s try this one.”
They walked through the tunnel, and it led to a downward staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, they found a luxurious hallway lit with candles. Vincent eyed the red carpet and the dozens of paintings. “This is… different.”
Xan ended Clarity and cast Light-Drain Longsword again. She readied both her blades, and Vincent kept a tight grip on Song of War. They crept down the hallway, but kept their eyes wide for traps or monsters.
“There’s something odd about these paintings,” Vincent noted. He stared at the distorted figures and their blurred faces.
Xan glanced at one painting and paused. “This is us.”
“Huh?”
“This picture. It’s one I snapped a long time ago of you, Quinn, and myself. Only, the picture is distorted, and our faces are blurred.”
Vincent looked closely. “Oh, it is! This was on Jholmar, right?”
“Yeah, I kept that photo as the background on my HUD for a long time.” Xan continued across the hall and looked at another picture. “Hey, this one’s not distorted, but I don’t know who this is.”
Vincent approached the large picture in front of Xan. When his eyes fell on the woman in the picture, he collapsed to his knees. His eyes widened, and tears dotted his cheeks.
“Vince?” Xan questioned.
“I—I haven’t seen her face in so long.” Vincent stared over the woman’s reddish hair, her warm face, and the way her lips curled into a smile. “And it’s been even longer since I’ve seen this picture. She must’ve been thirty when I took it. Right before we went out for dinner. Or maybe it’s when we went to Jim’s first wedding.”
