by Edward Brody
Dr. Winston nodded, quickly pulled a runebook out from under his robe, and flipped it open. I could tell that he was getting ready to recall.
“Hey, wait a minute!” I called, reaching my arm out.
“I’ll see you again, Gunnar,” he said as the rune in his book started to glow and his body started to pixelate. “Use your head and you’ll be fine. Contact me if you find any real bugs.”
“Wait, no!”
Before I knew it, he was gone.
And I was still there with no idea what to do.
Chapter Fifteen
1/20/0001
I had been in the prison for hours and was starting to feel hungry and helpless. Dr. Winston assured me there was a way out of the prison, which put me at ease a little, and I thought I might just wait it out until someone passed by.
But nothing…
He also confirmed that I hadn’t been involved in a bug, which made me do a lot of hard thinking. Had Adeelee picked up the wrong rune in the library at the Vale? I wasn’t sure.
But then I thought back to when I received the deceptive quest in Inner Highcastle. While Adeelee giving me the rune stone wouldn’t really be a quest of any sort, maybe it was her way of deceiving me. Thus far, so much of what I experienced in Eden’s Gate had been exactly as it seemed on the surface.
Jax wasn’t really a Sparrow. He wasn’t even just some boring hunter in Addenfall for that matter…
The lady in Inner Highcastle didn’t really need my help.
The Dark Elves weren’t all that bad.
The Dark Hand wasn’t trying to kill the King of Highcastle—or so I was told.
And the list went on…
Hell, even I had participated in deception when I screwed Gerard over by loading his shop with fake scrolls.
Deception was a big part of Eden’s Gate. Was this Adeelee’s tricky, deceptive plot against me for some reason?
She had been unwilling to join my guild, and she seemed worried when she found that I was working side-by-side with the some of the dark elves. And the reactions that I got when anyone found out that I was a Reborn were always a bit mixed. Perhaps, in some twisted way, this was the High Elves’ way of containing me? Maybe she met Ozzy and got freaked out that the list of Reborns she was encountering were growing. Or maybe the weirdness she had with Donovan had something to do with it?
She wouldn’t do anything like this. I thought to myself. I’ve helped her several times. But she’s also an NPC. She isn’t programmed with a normal human conscience.
My mind was running wild.
I slammed my hand into the ground and cursed, feeling like a total idiot. I had been looking forward to recalling to the Vale and spending time with Adeelee, but sitting there in the prison made it feel like it was all one hell of a joke. Other than a few hugs and smiles, Adeelee had never shown any real interest in me. She wasn’t going out of her way to visit me or anything. She wasn’t asking me to spend time with her.
And why did I like her anyway? A nice body and a sweet set of tits? Sheesh. “She’s a fucking NPC!” I grumbled. I kicked my foot out, slamming my foot against the bars, causing the metal to ring out.
Rachel suddenly came to mind. I hadn’t really been thinking about her as much lately, and maybe I was getting a well-deserved punishment for abandoning my non-NPC girlfriend to chase a computer-generated piece of ass.
Rachel Rollins…
I wonder where she was and if she was even in the game. She was the whole reason I was in Eden’s Gate in the first place. I should have stayed in Edgewood and forgot about Adeelee. I should have focused on grinding out my skills as fast as I could, so I could find her or ‘make a name for myself’ as Dr. Winston suggested.
I thought back to the sweet times we shared on Earth, and then, more than ever I was longing see her again. Rachel wouldn’t have deceived me; she was someone I could put all my trust into.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! I thought. I had been thinking with my dick rather than my head.
I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself. I remembered that I was in a virtual world, so there had to be a perfectly logical way out of the prison. A key maybe? Perhaps there was a key hidden somewhere on or near the skeleton?
I shimmied over to the bones and sorted through all its loot—if you want to call it that. There were shredded linens, a rusted helmet, a rusted dagger and a gemstone.
You’ve received: Emerald. Durability: 100/100. Quality: Exceptional. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg.
I shoved the heap of death to the side and rubbed all over the sandy floor of the cave, but found nothing. No key… And even if I had found one, where was the keyhole?
Stupid idea…
Moving back over to the runestone, I reread the inscription that was written beside it.
Those of us who pray may find ourselves unconstrained.
Logic told me that was probably the most obvious way of getting out of the prison. If I prayed—aka, bound myself to the runestone—perhaps I would somehow be able to get out. But I also had to consider that binding myself to the runestone in the prison might make my predicament even worse.
For one, I had no idea where I was. If I was able to get out of the prison by binding to the runestone, I’d be returned to the prison again if I were to die. That would then nullify the only other option that I could think of to get out of the prison.
Death.
I looked down at my wrist. I could have theoretically killed myself, and I’d spawn back at the Runestone in Edgewood, but I’d lose all my belongings and… it would hurt… a lot.
Before heading out of Edgewood, I tidied up my inventory and was carrying two health potions, two food rations, two bandages, the runestone, the treasure map, my keychain with all my keys, the compass, and 500 gold in case I wanted to buy something in the Vale or during my adventure with Adeelee. Add to that my newly found emerald—not to mention all my gear and weapons.
That was a lot to lose in the unknown prison cave. I’d have no way of knowing where I died or how to get back there to recover my items. But maybe I had no choice?
I sat in the cell for another couple of hours pondering what to do and hoping that someone might come by, every once in a while, yelling for help and hoping that someone might hear. But as before, I got nothing but the wind.
It was hot, and sweat poured down my brow. While there didn’t seem to be any requirement to eat or drink in Eden’s Gate, I was feeling incredibly thirsty.
In an act of desperation, I decided to give up… I could always buy a new set of gear, and while I had wasted a lot of time and money getting the treasure map deciphered, I was wasting even more time sitting in the cave. Fuck my inventory. I just wanted to get out.
I pulled my gloves and bracers off and sat them on the ground, then pulled an arrow from the quiver on my back. I wasn’t carrying a dagger, and if I pulled out my sword, the runestone on it would immediately cause it to light up in flames. Fire wouldn’t be pleasant in a suicide attempt.
I held the arrow up high and slammed it hard into my wrist, the tip piercing my skin and immediately causing me to bleed.
Shit! I yelped, dropping my arrow and instinctively squeezing below the wound as blood poured out.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
Pain was real in Eden’s Gate. Worse than back on Earth? I’m not sure, since I had never experienced many of the crazy things there that I had experienced in-game, but it was definitely not pleasant, nor was the feeling of dying.
I waited as I started to bleed out, tick after tick.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
Each tick took away around 5% of my health, and each time, I felt a surge of pain. I had died before… Three times, maybe four? I couldn’t remember, but each and every time had been excrucia
tingly bad.
My heart was thumping fast as adrenaline surged through my body, and then it slowed down as I began to lose blood. My body ached, and I felt light headed as I focused in on the pain. I wanted to vomit but couldn’t, and I also felt like I would do anything to ease the pain.
My health eventually ticked down to 10% and the organs in my body started to twist and churn, causing an indescribable pain—the same feeling that I experienced the first time I almost died after emerging from Nambunga’s cave. My senses seemed heightened, and I would’ve done anything—anything at all to make it stop.
I took a sudden gasp of the air and reflexively reached for my bag, grabbing a health potion and pouring it down my throat as fast as possible. I immediately felt relieved from the pain and quickly began bandaging the wound on my wrist.
Suicide, while seemingly possible, was an incredibly painful and difficult undertaking in Eden’s Gate. I didn’t know how it compared to suicide back on Earth, but it wasn’t something that I–or I expected anyone—would easily be able to endure.
Rightfully so, though, I supposed. If death were too easy, Reborns wouldn’t fear consequences and would have far too much power over NPCS. Death was so unpleasant that only the most strong-willed person could or would ever purposely go through with it.
“Damnit,” I cursed as watched my health bar fill back up and the bleeding icon under my status bars blink away. I could try suicide again at some point, but I didn’t really want to resort to that—at all.
A few more hours, I thought. Someone will show up.
Chapter Sixteen
1/20/0001
I was wrong.
No one approached the prison no matter how many times I called out, and the light in the sky was starting to go down. I had searched the small prison cave a dozen times over by then and found nothing of interest. No levers, switches or keys. I had even tried to Fireblast the iron bars over and over again until my mana ran out in attempt to melt or loosen them enough that I could bend or break them, but no luck.
Death or binding to the runestone—it seemed like those were really the only options.
I wasn’t looking forward to another suicide attempt, but I was still nervous about binding to the runestone.
But… maybe I was overlooking something regarding the runestone? Maybe it worked differently than other runestones? I wasn’t sure. But I decided sometime while I was eating one of my food rations that I would at least give it a try. Worst case scenario is that the runestone wouldn’t open the prison, and I’d be stuck in there a few days or until someone came. If it did free me from the prison, I might have time to find another runestone outside of the cave to bind to before something tragic happened. I’d play it safe and lay low. Surely, I could find my way back to Edgewood or find another runestone before then.
I chewed on the last few bites of my food ration, rubbed the residue on my hands off onto my chest piece, and scooted over to the runestone. There was no sense around waiting around any longer. I placed my palm on the top of the stone and focused on binding.
You have bound to this location. Using a Recall Home spell or death will return you to this position.
After the alert appeared in front of me, I looked around and listened, but nothing happened. No clicks, no hidden trap doors, nothing. Had the runestone been a trick as well?
Oh, man, I thought.
Thankfully, no sooner than I removed my hand from the rune, the metal bars at the front of the prison began making a crunching noise and lowered down into the ground, slowly creating an open entrance.
I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced over to the skull of the dead skeleton in the prison. I wondered why he hadn’t bound to the runestone. Not religious perhaps? Whatever the reason, I held up a peace sign to the dead guy and gave him a slight bow of the chin before I hurried out of the prison.
“Nice meeting you!”
The bars of the prison began to rise back up as soon as I exited, and I found myself not much better off than I was when I was stuck inside. In every direction was nothing but rolling sands. No trees, no mountains, no creatures—nothing for as far as my eyes could see. And I was pretty certain the sun would be down within a couple hours. It looked dangerous.
With no idea which direction to go, I pulled out my compass and aligned myself with South. I closed my eyes and quickly knelt down, slamming my palm hard into the soft sand. “Sora!”
Energy pulsed out around my hand, and within a few seconds, Sora was running towards me.
Where is this place? Sora asked.
“I have no idea,” I replied. “A rune that Adeelee gave me didn’t lead to the Vale as it was supposed to. It dropped me inside a prison.” I turned and pointed to the barred cave I had just emerged from.
A mistake, I’m sure. Tsarra speaks nothing but praise of Adeelee.
“You speak to Tsarra?” I asked
Of course. She’s quite older than me, but we’ve spent time together in the Otherworld.
I shook my head as I imagined Tsarra and Sora having tea time or whatever odd things that great cats did in the astral plane as they discussed their masters. Whatever it was, I’d have time to ask her more about that later. “Let’s move.”
Sora knelt down to allow me to hop on top of her. Which way?
I pointed South. “I have no idea where we’re going, but let’s head this way for now.”
Sora nodded and started off as fast as she could.
We ran for a good thirty minutes before Sora started to slow, and after about an hour of running, she was tired out completely.
I need some time to replenish my stamina, Sora said as she slowed to a stop.
“I understand.”
Sora lay in the sand, and I pulled myself off her. It was slowly changing from hot to cold outside, and there was still no sign of any civilization. The entire time we were running, I saw nothing but a few random monsters… lizards, spiders, and weird rat-like creatures, all of them ranging between level 15 and 25.
I raised my hand and cast Divine Sight on myself to avoid losing vision as the last bit of sun disappeared.
In every direction, I could still see nothing but sand on the horizon, but a few hundred meters away, there were two giant scorpions, a little smaller than Sora, that were standing on either side of a large patch of dried out debris.
Name: giant scorpion
Race: insect
Level: 16
Health/Mana/Stamina: 170/20/180
Status: unknown
I had wasted most of the day sitting in the prison, and I wasn’t making any progress just riding around on Sora’s back, so I decided to at least try to get a little XP while she was regaining her stamina.
At level 16, the two giant scorpions would likely prove a challenge as a pair, but I was pretty sure I could handle them both without much damage. There were no other monsters in range, and my magic was getting stronger. With nothing but sand everywhere, I could pretty much cast whatever type of magic I wanted freely without fear.
I’m going to kill the scorpions over there, I thought, knowing that Sora could hear me.
Sora perked up and look over to the monster. Give me 10 minutes or so, and I can help you.
Don’t worry. I can handle it.
Alright, father. I’ll do the best I can if you get into any trouble.
I smiled and rubbed my hands across her head before pulling my bow off my back. I had been skimping on using archery lately, but I knew how effective Snipe Shot was for sneak attacks and taking out multiple targets.
I walked quietly towards the scorpions until I was within a comfortable range, bent down to one knee, and nocked an arrow. In most cases, I had used sneak shot on humanoids. I had no idea where the critical spot of a scorpion was, so I just aimed for its beady eyes.
The arrow flew silently through the air, and there was a loud crack as soon as it hit right below its head.
Battle Alert: Critical Hit!
It didn’t land exactl
y where I wanted, but it worked!
The scorpion squealed a high-pitched, terrifying sound, and its tail stiffened and curled around to the top of its back. The other scorpion was startled and tensed, turning in every direction. It took less than a second for it to see me standing on the nearby sand, and it immediately charged. The injured scorpion charged right behind it.
I unequipped my bow and drew my sword out of its sheath, flames immediately darting all around it. I held my hand out and shot a Fireblast at the closest scorpion, which hit its pincer but didn’t seem to do much damage.
Before I could fire another spell, the scorpion was on me, and as it swung its pincer at me, I swung back, smashing my sword against its hard exoskeleton and causing a large cracking noise on impact.
The scorpion raised its tail overhead, and its stinger lunged right down at me, forcing me to roll to my side to prevent from getting stung.
The injured scorpion was right there to follow up with an attack, and I got a good glimpse of white, liquid glue pouring out of the wound where my arrow was still protruding—right before it managed to nip the side of my arm with its pincer, then smack the side of my head with its other pincer as it turned.
The blows woke me up more than they hurt me. Around 15% of my health was knocked off, but that was because the attacks barely landed rather than getting direct blows.
I jolted my hand out and shot an Arcane Missile at the scorpion, which caused it to lunge back and squeal.
The missile seemed more effective than the Fireblast on the scorpions, and to test my theory, I leaned back and tried shooting another Fireblast at scorpion number two.
Again, the blast connected, this time at the center of the scorpion’s torso, but again, it seemed not to react to the attack and the flames simply fizzled away, leaving a discoloration but no apparent injury.
