by Oliver Mayes
Andrew didn’t look up from his task. His movements indicated he was sending several messages. To whom, Lillian had no idea. She was still waiting on the answer to her first question, while processing everything Andrew had laid on her. He stopped typing, closed his menu and set his sights back on her.
“No. Of course not. I did it because I had to. We misread the riddle this morning, and we misread how Hammertime and his group solved it. We assumed they’d done it by searching the courtyard. They actually solved it in the last ten minutes, while they were all sitting down doing nothing. The way to pass through the gate is by not thinking about passing through the gate. The headset measures our brainwaves to see if we’re problem-solving, while the game tracks our movement to see if we’re searching for things. Simultaneously. I know, because I had three test subjects to get through it over the course of the day.”
He folded his arms and started tapping his foot. Old habits die hard. Lillian was about to speak again when the first bubble appeared, then the second and third in rapid succession. They contained Judgementday, Legolias and Mr. Healy, who were all looking very relieved to see both Lillian and Aetherius. He’d got them all through the riddle without letting Lillian know. But how had Andrew gotten hold of them so quickly if they were all offline? Andrew was all smiles.
“Well done guys, it worked. You can unblock Lillian, now.”
One by one, they all went into their menus to do as Andrew had requested. He turned to Lillian and came very close, but she was the first to speak. Her anger lacked its usual weight, but there was still enough of it to push her words.
“You didn’t need to have them block me. You could’ve just told me how it worked and then we’d have distracted each other normally. Or you could’ve found a different way of distracting me.”
Andrew turned back to the three players, who were awaiting his orders. Notifications saying they’d come online had popped up in Lillian’s HUD, one by one.
“Alright guys, I want to discuss our next step with the party leader. We might need to eat before we get started properly, but I wanted to show her the three of you had made it here already. I know it made you feel bad, but it was only temporary and I can assure you it was very necessary. If you could give us some privacy, I’d appreciate it.”
The three of them turned away, all looking psyched to get started. None of them had any idea what Lillian had just been put through. Andrew turned back to her, keeping a careful, cheerful smile on his face. The words he told her could not have been more at odds with his presentation.
“Wrong. You’re wrong on all counts. We both know how your mind works. If you knew the objective was not to think about getting through the gate, you’d have thought about it every five seconds. If I tried to distract you with funny videos, like I managed with the rest of this lot, you’d have insisted we get on with the quest. Mr. Healy went blind and grew hair out of his hands halfway through our first attempt, I had enough on my plate without keeping all of you preoccupied at once. ‘Hey, Lillian, I’ve got a really funny video of a monkey riding on a pig, let’s watch that for a few minutes instead of catching up with Hammertime.’ I think not. That room was the worst possible challenge for you, because you don’t know how to switch off. I had to trick you through it without you knowing what I was doing. Which it turns out I can do, by the way.”
He called out to the rest of the party, his voice suddenly cheery and light.
“I’ll head off first. I’ve been online all day and need to eat something. I leave you in our party leader’s capable hands!”
He turned to Lillian as the blue light enveloped him, still smiling.
“It turns out I lack the strength to keep my misgivings contained, as well. But at least I’m here when you need me, rather than ghosting you and stabbing you in the back.”
The bubble vanished and Andrew was gone from within it. Lillian stared into the empty space he’d vacated, trying to unknot everything she’d just heard. She’d rather do it in private. She turned to her three guild members, who were still all looking happy as clams and eager to get on with the quest. She’d have to disappoint them.
“Sorry, guys, Andrew just got me through that last riddle and I haven’t eaten yet. Let’s meet up here at...eight thirty. Make sure you’re all rested and ready to play for as long as possible, I want to get through whatever the next riddle is before the end of the night.”
She gave them a wave and they all waved back, none the wiser, then all four of them logged off simultaneously. Lillian immediately sent Andrew a message directly into his inbox.
“I completely understand why you’re so angry. You have every right to feel the way you feel. I had no idea you’d caught me out, I’d really hoped you hadn’t, but there’s a good explanation. I’d be grateful if you could come and meet with me privately at 20:15. You worked most of it out yourself already, but you’re missing some vital information that might change your mind. I hope to see you then.”
She clicked ‘Send’ and pulled off the headset. That had been an enlightening exchange. And painful. What an idiot she’d been. Good intentions don’t count for much when they carry consequences this dire. Good deeds, even less so.
After she’d finished eating, she’d have to pull together all the proof she could and show Andrew what he was missing. That would be easy. The hard part would be doing it with all the kindness she could muster.
After what the two of them had put him through, she’d have to come clean. Even though it would hurt him more than what he already believed.
16
Square One
Damien logged in. He’d been presented with the Dark Tower as a place to respawn, as is standard, and had ended up back in the opening room of the Path of Deceit. He’d wondered if he’d be placed in the initial chamber, where all three paths would be available to him. It would’ve been nice to have the option of trying one of the other paths, but since he’d started by choosing the one that was most suitable for him it was no great loss.
He’d promised he’d livestream again at the end of his last broadcast. While he could do without the scrutiny, he could definitely do with the views. This was the unchartered territory he’d been pining to share with his hungry audience. He just hadn’t factored in that the unchartered territory would be a dingy murder tunnel and that everyone would be tuning in to watch him die.
Hopefully he was wrong, on that score. He’d probably do better this time, although that was a pretty low bar given he’d been skewered in the very first room. He walked up to the wall, unsheathed his daggers and attempted to chip at one of the stone blocks hemming him in. Each dagger lost a whole point of durability and the stone was completely unaffected. Yeah. This dungeon hadn’t seemed like it would give him such an easy option, but at least he’d tried.
Either way, it was 20:19. Go time. He started livestreaming and the viewers piled in. He quickly minimized the chat box, leaving only the viewer count in the very top right-hand corner of his peripheral vision. This challenge would be no easy feat, he needed as little in the way of distraction as possible. But first he’d have to acknowledge his viewers and let them know what was in store.
“Welcome back, everyone. I’m glad you’ve all tuned in for the Dark Tower, the Path of Deceit, take two. Yesterday wasn’t what I was hoping for, so I’ll be taking it a little more seriously this time round. For one, I won’t be providing much commentary unless I’m sure I’m completely safe. A lot of people complained yesterday that they didn’t get a good look at what killed me, but I’m afraid that goes with the territory. It was a super-dark chamber with four stealthy spiky death balls in the corners, and we now know they can kill me in two volleys. We also know they predict movement. Full disclosure: I’ll be moving my head around and changing direction a lot. If you didn’t like the blurry camera angles yesterday, avert your gaze.”
He equipped his daggers and twisted them in his hands experimentally. He had no opportunity for a warm-up before he started and
needed to be at the top of his game the moment he entered the room. It was a daunting prospect. A single misstep could result in another twenty-four hours before he could try again. But that was still less daunting than the logistical difficulties of the enemies he was facing. The least he could do was outline the exact nature of the problem these enemies posed, to clue in his viewers as to why he was very likely about to die. At least explaining it would buy him a little more stream time.
“So the enemies yesterday were called ‘Cave Urchins’. It may have been a little unclear given they killed me in about six seconds, but they appear to be immobile long-ranged masses set into the top four corners of the chamber. If you watch the replay of the livestream I posted yesterday and pause it at seventeen minutes and nineteen seconds, you’ll get a good look at one. I’ve thought about how to deal with them for the last twenty-four hours and would like to share my thoughts with you: I have absolutely no idea how to deal with them. The core body is completely protected by the spines, so there’s no way I can stick my hand in there to stab them without getting murdered myself. But that won’t be an issue, because they’re too high up for me to reach and I have no ranged weapons.”
He was still spinning his daggers around in his hands and had started hopping back and forth on the spot, the paces getting a little wider each time to stretch out his comfort zone while still maintaining the same speed. About three steps a second. He was a long way from draining his stamina yet. It was hovering around 95%.
“If I still had Noigel, I could Demon Gate up there and stab one. Theoretically. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’d be killed before he got anywhere close and I’d also probably be stabbed dozens of times in the process. Then I’d probably be finished off by the remaining three, while I was still in the air. They predict movement, remember? I imagine that includes falling. I’m not willing to test that theory anyway.”
His paces were getting wider and his legs were starting to pump. He was maintaining the time between each step as the distance increased, so even adjusting the distance a little required significantly more stamina. His hops were now two meters apart and his stamina was sitting pretty at 75%.
“In other words, even if Demon Gating was an option I don’t have the means to kill these things. Which means there are three possibilities. The first is that I’m not supposed to kill them. I’m supposed to avoid being killed by them. But the door ahead was barred, so I clearly need to do something in that room in order to move forward.”
His feet were now far apart enough between each step to qualify as jumps. His stamina was no longer holding steady. It was draining, down about 10% with each leap. He reduced the distance a little and the stamina reduction became about 5% per hop. Okay. He reverted to his original hops and it stabilized.
“It could be that I need to open the chest, take whatever’s inside and move through undetected. Except, I isolated a still image of the stream at sixteen minutes twenty-one seconds that shows the door was still barred after I’d already opened the chest. Maybe there’s a delay before the door opens, but that seems unlikely.”
He stretched out his steps as far as he could while still maintaining the same speed. They were good, long strides, definitely enough to move him out of position at short notice. His stamina was already too low to support it for long. He’d only managed three and a half when he stumbled as his movement was tempered by the cost. He tried to revert back to short hops immediately afterwards and nearly fell over. Okay. He paced on the spot to let his stamina replenish as he continued talking, his eyes flitting toward his viewer count: 20,000. He’d retained all his viewers from yesterday. Wow. Shouldn’t have looked. Damien didn’t let it interrupt his flow. He kept doing exactly what he’d been doing before he knew he was under such heavy observation.
“The second option is that there’s something in the chest that will help me deal with the Cave Urchins. I never got to check it yesterday, so I have no idea. But I know this is the agility path for occultists and long-range options are much more accessible for the traditional intelligence route, using spells. Although I think an intelligence occultist would be killed before they got anywhere close to killing these things.”
His stamina was at 63%. High agility allowed for increased movement speed for less cost, but abusing it would still drain his stamina quickly. He hadn’t invested in his endurance stat whatsoever, besides what he was receiving from gear. He’d never paid much attention to it in the past, since his strategies had never overly relied on it. If it was low, he Demon Gated and hid until it was restored. If it was high he acted on it, then Demon Gated and hid until it was restored. His daggers didn’t require much stamina to wave around, all he had to do to attack was essentially move his hands up and down over his target. The only thing he’d ever really needed stamina for was running away. His tests indicated that repeated, rapid changes of direction required a lot more stamina than running in straight lines. Which was a shame, because that was the only kind of movement that would keep him alive in this scenario.
“I guess a tanky occultist might last a little longer, depending on what they had equipped. But since the spikes are being shot from all four corners at the same time, even a shield wouldn’t completely protect them. And a tanky occultist wouldn’t be very well equipped to kill the Cave Urchins, either. This is the agility path, so I’m assuming the solution lies in using agility to deal with it. Which means there should be something in that chest to help me.”
His stamina was full. Damien zigzagged around the room in a series of short leaps, his upper body pivoting at the waist to push his momentum in the direction he wanted to go. The issue here was control. His feet had to be near the floor at all times, so they’d be ready to kick him in a new direction at any given moment. If his movements were unnecessarily large he’d lose balance, drain stamina compensating and end up a stationary target. If they were too small, he’d run the more immediate risk of being dead.
He’d only ever done this once, when he was up against Magnitude, and his technique could obviously use improvement. Moving in a random direction was much more difficult than between two spots, since he had to ensure his body lined up in mid-leap to prepare for where he was going next. In actual combat, random directions wouldn’t do. With such conservative movements, he’d have to choose where he moved next carefully. If he dodged in a straight line directly away or toward one of the Cave Urchins, the spine it fired may well still hit him. He managed twelve jumps, some better than others, before he stumbled and ground to a halt. It would have to do. He couldn’t stretch out the stream by practicing this all night.
There was one other possibility he’d left for last. The worst-case scenario. He’d tried to think his way around it, to no avail. He had no raw materials in his inventory with which to build a Gateway, having given up Andrew’s Bag of Holding. He had a hunch he wouldn’t be able to create structures in this space anyway, but since it would’ve made things much easier he had to try. He’d failed to harvest the necessary resources from the wall before he started his stream. He couldn’t even use Ex-Imp-losion to get imps and refund them for their soul energy, since triggering that ability required him to have an imp in the first place. Besides which, employing that strategy in such close quarters would achieve nothing except decorating the walls with their pancake remains. Probably his own, as well. Better to make his viewers aware now to dull their potential disappointment. Or foreshadow their glee.
“The last possibility is that I’m not ready for this yet, there’s nothing particularly helpful in the chest and this exercise is doomed to fail. I’m much lower level than the mobs in this dungeon. I’m mainly invested in wisdom, not agility, but I have no minions with me to take advantage of that. If I was supposed to come in here with a full Soul Summon Limit of demons and maintain it in order to progress, it’s already too late. I won’t get past Archimonde a second time. Let’s hope there’s something in that chest. The weapon that was foreshadowed at the entrance to this path, for examp
le.”
That was a bit of a stretch and he knew it. He found it highly unlikely Mobius would present him with the signature piece of gear for that path in the very first room. It had to be something vaguely helpful, though. He hoped. He crouched down, activating his Shadow Walker-augmented stealth, and lowered his voice to a hush.
“I won’t find out by staying here. We’ll figure out what’s in the chest and go from there. I’ve got you all on silent so I don’t get...distracted...”
His eyes had strayed to the viewer count in the top right-hand corner. 30,000. Right. He was a thing now. He closed that as well. Out of sight did not equal out of mind, but he could do without glancing at it while he was supposed to be focusing on what he was doing. 30,000 was considerable stakes. Now the only indicator that he was being monitored was his oldest Saga Online friend, the little red glowing dot. He focused on the task ahead of him again, saying his last words for his own benefit:
“Open the chest, don’t get stabbed, take what’s inside, don’t get stabbed, exit the room, don’t get stabbed, three, two, one.”
Showtime.
Damien crouched his way through the alcove into the room and stopped, waiting for the telltale plink. It remained deathly silent. They hadn’t shot him when he came into the room yesterday. He had no reason to believe they’d shoot him until he gave away his position. The only reason he was hesitating now was because he was aware. He’d happily made his way straight to the chest when he’d had no idea the Cave Urchins existed. He looked up into the nearest corner and saw straight into it without obstruction. In Saga, full stealth meant you were functionally invisible rather than hard to spot. The urchins would be visible again once they attacked. No reason to force it. Opening the chest would accomplish that all by itself.
Damien walked in front of the chest and carefully opened the latch. Still crouched, he walked behind it and levered it open from either side.
