Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  “Dad, I processed all of the options and the available information and really there hasn’t been anything in the Merkwood that the two of us couldn’t handle, probably with ease. Besides if it gets too tough, we are standing at the zone line. We can just cross over.” She paused for a second before adding, “Besides don’t forget I’m the one with the 31 Intelligence here.”

  A wry grin at her naivety crossed his face. “Maybe you processed all the information available to you, but I have information that you don’t. This world follows game-like rules and in games, dungeons are nothing to be messed around with. They are exciting places where the most challenging monsters are as well as the best treasures.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad. We could use a bit of a challenge and who doesn’t want some treasure.” Dave chuckled again at her youthful enthusiasm. He felt that he was watching a positive change take place in his daughter. She had always been too hesitant on Earth, never a leader but more of a follower in social situations. He just had to make sure that the process of learning to be confident didn’t lead to her death.

  “Sweetie, it isn’t that simple. Well, actually, I don’t know if it's that simple or not. For all I know once we crossed the zone line, we won’t be able to leave without finishing the dungeon and killing the boss monster that almost certainly is waiting somewhere in here. I don’t know if we will be able to stay by the entrance, and I should have thought about those things beforehand. That’s my job as your dad, even if you do have a 31 Intelligence.” A bit of sarcasm crept into his voice at the end, but if Mira noticed, she didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, so let’s be logical then. Do we just leave now? Wouldn’t it be a shame to not explore at least a little bit?”

  “Well, the very first thing that has to happen is we need to know if we can zone out. So I want you to step back into the Merkwood and wait for me.”

  Her nose scrunched up like it used to when he told her that she had to eat her vegetables or clean her room. Mira said, “I agreed to leave if it was dangerous, not just because you suddenly had second thoughts. Remember in this world, I’m an adult now. So I should get some say in this.” Dave started to interrupt her, but she pushed on through, “I will agree to experiment and see if we can cross over, but I can’t agree to wait outside while you stay here.”

  Then before he could argue, she dropped his hand and stepped back across the zone line. As Dave watched, one second she was standing right next to him, and then suddenly she was not. It didn’t appear that she had taken more than a single step but when she crossed back into the Merkwood, she disappeared from his sight completely. In many games, you couldn’t see what was on the other side of the zone line but that hadn’t been the case between the Merkwood and Albian zones, so Dave hadn’t expected that. He muttered to himself that it was probably time for him to leave too until he had more time to research this when he suddenly realized he wasn’t alone in the dark.

  He heard a raspy voice say, “We can’t let you leave. Not after all the preparations we have made for you.”

  Sword instantly out of its sheath, Dave whirled to face the sound but found that the ambient light in the tunnel was too low for him to make out anything but that there was a body of some kind twenty feet or so down the tunnel. Then suddenly he could see as a small ball of light come into existence, floating in the air next to a… well, he wasn’t really sure what it was. The light wasn’t strong enough to blind him nor to allow him to fully make out all the details of the thing that was speaking to him but enough to get a general idea. It was part dog, part reptile but standing up on two legs which still seemed more akin to dog legs than human legs. The head was covered in fur and two black eyes looked out at him. Dave would almost have said that the head belonged to one of the hyenas from The Lion King, the crazy one at that, but the snout was a bit too long for that. It had fur all over its face and over many portions of its body, but others were covered in clearly reptilian green scales. Not smooth like a snake but bumpier and armored in appearance. His first thought was to wonder if this was what a gnoll looked like, but then he decided to simply use his Assess Enemy spell.

  Even as he cast the spell, he saw that this creature wasn’t alone. There were two four-legged creatures standing next to it. Each had some of the appearance of the drey hounds he had fought before, but instead of just a single horn on their head, they had a series of smaller horns that trailed down their backs presumably protruding out from their spine each a bit smaller. The horn on the top of their heads was now fully eight inches in length and each spiked tip behind it became progressively shorter until by the end of its tail the spikes could barely be seen as bits of white bone peeking out from the green scales. Their jaws were also elongated from what he remembered of the drey hounds. They had the same combination of fur and scale that the one standing erect did, and the more he looked the less they looked like his former blood enemies, but somehow he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a connection.

  As he finished his three second cast time, he pushed in an extra four mana points to try to use the spell to assess not just the speaker but the two growling beasts next to it.

  Alpha Drake Hound- shaman variant. Lvl: 21. Health: 240

  Drake Hounds are a unique dungeon creature created by the merging of reptilian traits with horned drey hounds. They maintain some of their pack mentality but are stronger and smarter. The alphas have evolved enough to be able to speak.

  Drake Hound. Lvl: 15. Health: 220

  The Alpha was flashing yellow in his assessment meaning that it was a very dangerous foe, but the smaller hounds were only showing as dark blue meaning that they were more of an equal opponent. Dave didn’t like his odds against all three of them but was afraid to step out of the zone since he didn’t know if Mira might zone back in and be stuck facing these beasts by herself. So for better or worse, he was going to have to delay them a bit and hope that Mira came back in. He didn’t want her in danger but not knowing where she was or what she was doing was worse.

  As Dave prepared to fight, the alpha spoke again in his guttural voice, this time though to his companions, not to Dave. “One of you go and fetch the rest of the pack. They all deserve to dine upon a piece of our enemy.” No sooner had the command been given than the drake hound on his right turned and ran into the dark howling his head off. While speaking, the beast loosened a staff that was tied to his back and pulled it out as if to use it like a weapon. This was definitely something new. It still wasn’t wearing any clothing. In fact, its junk was out on full display, a fact which under other circumstances would have prompted Dave to make some juvenile jokes.

  Slowly the two sides started to pace in a circle, but Dave never allowed himself to be moved away from having his back to the zone line. They all just continued to stare at each other taking a measure of one another. Dave was glad for the opportunity to plan a strategy, but it dawned on him that the alpha wasn’t delaying because he wanted to take stock of Dave. No, it was stalling for time for the rest of the pack to arrive. That meant that time was not on Dave’s side, so it was better for him to act sooner rather than later. Dave first pulled the knife from his belt which he had purchased in town and flung it at the alpha. He really had no skill with throwing knives but wasn’t relying upon his throwing arm. Rather in the same instant he quick cast his Minor Binding spell and attempted to forge a connection between the hilt of his knife and the scaly skin of the beast’s chest. As the magic took hold, the hilt and skin became one object separated by space and desperately trying to merge back together. The effect was that the blade flew unerringly straight toward its target where Dave hoped it would sink into the chest driven by the force of the magic reuniting the edge of the hilt with the creature’s chest. It flew far faster and straighter than Dave could have thrown it and crossed the twenty feet separating them in the breadth of a heartbeat.

  Of course, nothing could be that simple. When the blade was about to reunite with its parted self, it struck an
invisible barrier in front of the alpha. Buzzing in the air like an angry hornet, the dagger pushed against a magical shield that the alpha had erected. Web-like cracks appeared in the translucent shield as the dagger continued to try and push through drawn by the irresistible pull to be reunited with itself. Still, the shield held and Dave could no longer stare at it, but could only hope that the 12-second duration of the binding spell would be enough to push the dagger through, as he had to jump to the side to avoid the charge of the remaining four-legged drake hound. It was a close thing as he felt it moving at him and he barely avoided being skewered by the horn upon its lowered head. Even with his effort to move, he was still caught off guard by the quick strike of claws that raked his side after he dodged out of the way of the charging drake hound. The claws weren’t as long those of a flame lynx. Still powerful though, they not only rent another tear in his recently repaired scale mail but also scored his side causing a mere (5) points of damage but still enough to make him aware of how close that had been. Dave shook his head in disgust that a glancing blow had torn open his armor again, but then again what could one expect from starter gear. He really needed to find a way to get better armor and weapons.

  Wanting to end this quickly, hopefully while the alpha was occupied defending against the dagger, Dave activated his Offensive Stance skill. He wished that he could use his best ability, Minor Enlarge, but that spell wouldn’t work in the confined space of this hallway which was only 8 feet high and no more than twelve feet wide. Still, he swung his sword in a slashing strike. He had learned the danger of thrusting attacks, at least until he had a better sense of what this beast was capable of. The blow landed, cutting a furrow into the furry part of the beast’s side between the scales upon its back and abdomen. The attack was solid but without his increased size, the damage of (30) seemed woefully impotent. Worse, no luck, neither his increased critical strike chance nor the new double strike ability triggered.

  Seeing no further opening, Dave stepped back, pivoting as the beast turned upon him again. He still felt confident that even without Enlarge that he would be able to defeat this beast. Scales or not, it was just a dog and he had nearly three feet of steel blade between them. Both clashed at one another exchanging glancing blows and shallow cuts. Dave got the better of each exchange but still wasn’t able to land a decisive blow. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement and realized that the duration of his binding spell had expired. The dagger had failed to pierce the shield, but at least it had kept the caster occupied for a while. With the effect of the spell ended, the unity between the dagger and his target’s chest ended, and the blade fell to the ground. A tired growl escaped the mouth of the alpha as he was able to relax his focus from maintaining his magical shield. “Enough of your foul tricks, pack slayer. You will serve as food for our pups.”

  With those words, the alpha extended his hand, which was grasping a slender wooden staff and a jagged bolt of electricity crossed from its tip to hit Dave’s sword. The current running down the metal blade into his arm caused the muscles of his arm and shoulder to spasm as the skin on his hand blackened from the heat. With a cry of pain, Dave dropped his sword and felt the skin of his palm tear as he forcefully pushed the blade out of his hand in reaction to the shock attack. It had only caused (22) damage, but it had caused it in the most critical way possible. Dave’s arm was completely numb and throbbing, and his hand was a bloody, burnt mess. He didn’t know if he would even be able to use it to pick up the weapon again.

  An evil toothy grin upon his face, the alpha began to cast a spell while the common drake hound leapt forward knocking the stunned Dave onto his back. Its claws ripping away at the scale mail which was the only thing keeping Dave alive at the moment. He knew it had been arrogant to come into a place like this, but now, all he could think of as he used his good left arm to try to fend off the jaws of the beast upon his chest away from his face and throat, was that perhaps the name of the dungeon was going to turn out to be true.

  Meanwhile, outside, Mira had stepped into the Merkwood and was marveling at the fact that she could no longer see her dad inside the dungeon. Clearly, he was right, and dungeons didn’t work the same as other zones. She waited to see if he was going to follow her out. Counting to herself a slow steady ten count, which she reasoned was long enough for him to follow her if he was going to. If he didn’t by the time she reached ten, she would go back inside. It wasn’t lost upon her new processing power that they could theoretically continue to miss each other if they went back and forth at the same time, but lacking any better solution, she stuck with her plan. Who would have known how much more confident she would feel with this increased ability to understand things? What Mira couldn’t have known was about the time dilation effect of a dungeon. While only ten seconds passed outside almost three minutes passed inside. So that when she did step back through, she immediately saw the alpha with staff in one hand and blue darts of light flying from its other hand to strike her father’s prone form (42), unerringly missing the beast upon his chest. These darts behaved exactly like the magic missile spell that Talvenicus had used as his main attack during their hunting trip.

  She didn’t have time to examine the situation though. Mira of Earth would have been paralyzed with fear and ultimately her father would have died before her eyes, scarring her forever. Not so Mira of Eloria. She was braver and bolder, more decisive. She acted immediately, casting a pair of quickened spells. First, a charm spell that seized the mind of the hound upon her father and turned it to an ally, at least temporarily. The second spell was her Flame Fan spell, and it was flung out at the standing alpha as well as the three other hounds that were already behind him. Her keen half-elven hearing warning her that these were only the first of many as she could hear howls coming from further down the hall. Mira focused as the flames spread out from her hands to cover the entire width of the hallway. She tried to pour more and more mana into the spell, intensifying the flames and trying to extend their duration long enough for her father to stand up from the ground. When he finally stumbled to his feet, he was still unsteady on his feet and dripping blood from dozens of small cuts on his arms and chest. Even worse, his left leg was barely supporting his weight due to the injuries it had sustained from the magic missiles.

  Time always slows down in combat but for some reason this time it still had a certain frantic feeling. Maybe it was because of the closed quarters or maybe it was because of the sense of desperation she was feeling. Either way, so much was happening all at once. Mira ordered her charmed pet to attack the three charging drake hounds, and she had already begun to cast another spell at the standing beast. Dave picked up his sword but had to do so with his left hand because his right hand and arm were still very numb. Clumsily bringing the sword up in front of him, he said, “We need to get out of here.”

  As the words left his mouth, Mira’s next spell burst off of her hands, shooting out a web at the alpha, while the alpha launched another round of magical missiles at Dave, hitting for another (42) in damage. The impact of the spell threw Dave off just enough to not be able to step between one of the charging drake hounds, which got past Mira’s pet and then dove into her, bringing her to the ground. Fortunately, her web spell had successfully trapped the alpha up against the wall, but now she was on the ground underneath a two-hundred-pound beast which was eagerly trying to sink its teeth into her exposed throat. Her slender arms pushed against it desperately in a primal struggle to survive, but it was no use. She could smell its fetid breath in her face, feel saliva dripping down onto her face all while her arms burned with the effort to push it back. Thoughts of spell casting all gone as she struggled to keep those cruel jaws from her ending her life.

  Then just as quickly as it had landed on her, the drake hound was ripped off of her by Dave. He had cast a quickened Enlarge spell and his now-massive body filled the narrow space of the hallway as his tackle pulled the beast from Mira. His left arm was still not working well so that he had been
forced to drop his sword to hold on to the beast. For its part, the beast was just as happy attacking its hated foe and so sank its teeth into the shoulder of his numb arm. Only his increased Constitution and the added mass and density provided by the Minor Enlarge spell kept his arm from being ripped clean off. He still took a critical hit for (68) more damage dropping his health down to 40% of his max.

  Mira scrambled back to her feet and found that the alpha was still stuck and struggling against the web but didn’t appear to be able to attack at the moment. She also took in the fact that her pet was getting the short end of the stick in the fight with two other drake hounds. The howling from further in the dungeon seemed much closer, so she knew that they only had seconds before they were overwhelmed. A few feet away, Dave and the hound were rolling around. Dave let it claw and bite at him as he attempted to leverage his greater strength to crush the beast to death. Her dad’s body was too big in its enlarged form for her to use her Ice Dagger spell without fear of hurting him, her shock spell would affect both Dad and beast, and her other offensive spells were still on cooldown. She cast the only spell that she could think of and then looked around for a weapon or really anything that she could use to bludgeon the beast if she got a chance. Her Lesser Regeneration spell likely wouldn’t even keep up with the new damage that the drake hound was imparting to Dave but still, it was all she had. Their wild rolling and tumbling bodies were overtop of his sword so that wasn’t an option, and she didn’t think she could get in close enough to use the tiny belt knife that her parents had insisted that she carry. Then she saw it. The slender staff that the alpha had been holding must have been knocked loose when her web slammed him into the wall. It was hanging only partially stuck in the web. It was probably five feet long and fairly slender but looked sturdy. It would be the perfect thing for her to hit the beast with.