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by R J Triveri

  Damage received: 68% integrity Remaining

  The sensation of burning flesh spurred his survival instincts and Athos turned tail. With his smeared Sol Arum to guide him, he ran back to where he had first come into the level. His feet ran, his body burned, and pain radiated throughout him still as Athos pushed himself to move faster than he ever had since his arrival in Incipere. The pain worsened in his pixels as he kept pushing himself. With the sound only inching closer, the only option was to keep running.

  Damage received: 64% integrity Remaining

  Each step, each movement at that speed was starting to wear on him as the monitor pushed closer. On four deft legs with the strength of a horse, the creature was gaining ground faster than Athos could add it. A quick turn into the main room gave Athos an unexpected advantage as its claws continued scratching on the floor. Like a cat on tile, the dark monitor gained too much speed and collided with the open pit of embers before it could stop itself. With an ear-splitting cry of anguished pain, the sound of the creature cut into his code like a weapon as his integrity took another hit.

  Damage received: 59% integrity Remaining - Approaching Critical Levels

  Athos stumbled back as he tried to regain his breath, but there it was. The monitor writhed in the twilight glow of the ash and coal stuck on its back. Each jerking, pained movement sending glowing embers up to light the darkness as it tried to upend itself. All Athos could do was mutter to himself as his breath returned and the pain subsided; half of them a curse on Sammi for talking him into this situation and half on himself. He was actually enjoying the rush of adrenaline driving his steps towards the beast! He’d never felt this kind of rush before. Despite their fever chase, the shadow spawn that hadn’t fallen to his attacks lingered just outside the shower of sparks and the slowly dying ring of light. They simply watched as Athos took his stand.

  He knew that his time was limited, so he put a bottle of Pyrothium into each hand. The monitor couldn’t have much health left, so, with what force he could muster, he threw them both at the creature. The beast screeched loudly and lashed out as the flames consumed it. The flames caught with the nearby fuel and burned brighter than the Sol Arum to consume everything until its cries were nothing more than a painful memory. In the fire and the noise, the creature pixelated and vanished into glowing white particles of datum and code. With a soft ping in his ear, a small box appeared on his screen for only a moment before vanishing into his inventory.

  He didn’t have time to dwell on it as his attention shifted from the box to the slinking shadows. The burst of light and sound had confused and panicked the spawn, scattering them into a few smaller groups, but the separated masses didn’t last. Their confusion only lasted for as long as it took for Athos to reload his hands and finish what they had tried to start. When the light and crackling of fires died, all that was left was Athos, the pact beast, and the darkness.

  Panting heavily, Athos could feel the missing integrity. His breaths, despite not being necessary, came harder. His muscles, or what should have been muscles, hurt. His head rang with echoes of noise, and his eyes even hurt. In the distance, the cracking, groaning of stone echoed through the now empty hallway. Even with the pain, he knew what was coming as his pact beast fluttered back to his side and spoke in simple, soft words of crystal.

  “Master Athos, the path is open.”

  His breath caught again as he tried to speak. Full of pride in himself, but weak all the same, he shook his head. “The floor’s clear. Let’s get the rest of the treasure first.”

  “As you wish,” replied the beast and began to move down the hall again. She seemed fully unaffected by the smells of the fresh carcasses or scorched air. “The other cache is down the way it came.”

  Without an argument or another word, Athos followed down the path that was, thankfully, empty. As he walked, his thoughts finally had time to catch up with him. He had killed something. Something that may have been trying to kill him but was alive all the same. He had even enjoyed it! He could feel the smile that had been on his face. He had relished the thrill of what he had done, but then again, Sammi had said everything came back to life when someone new entered the dungeon. Was it actually dead or was it simply waiting back in the wings?

  His thoughts came up short as the treasure came into view. Unlike the first, the treasure wasn’t contained in a chest, but rather spread around the room like a dragon’s horde. Silvery disks of smooth bytes piled high, scrolls upon scrolls, and smaller trinkets like books and satchels littered the area.

  “This is amazing.”

  “It’s the travel level’s treasure room.”

  “Can I just take all of this?” Athos asked before the suspicion set in.

  “It would appear so, but experience would tell me to advise you otherwise.”

  Common sense was telling him the same not a moment later. He had seen enough movies and read enough books to know better. Picking his way around the room, he settled on a few small items. An oxidized, green pocket watch dotted with the brownish gleam of copper in some places, a sealed book with a soft green cover, and a small bag of bytes. Despite his urge to grab the huge stacks of bytes and scrolls, he figured that pressing his luck with almost half of his health gone wasn’t the best idea.

  As the last of the items vanished into his inventory with the same white pixelation as the monitor, he turned towards the door and spoke as he made his way back to the last passage. “Can you tell me anything about the boss here?”

  The beast wavered back behind him for a moment before answered. “I know only her name and that it can be very dangerous.”

  Athos already knew it was going to be dangerous. What sort of place called a dungeon would have a kind, friendly creature guarding treasure? He shook off the fact that Lillie had called it she and tried not to think of it as anything other than a creature. Even with that thought in mind, he thought that a name might be nice to put to the fear. “And its name is?”

  “Her name is Vedava.”

  Well, it really didn’t help when the creature had a rather normal sounding name. His mind tried to quash the thought of it and changed the topic. “How does it attack?”

  The pact beast projected the best motion of a shrug as it could before the obvious answer came. “I cannot answer that because I do not know. I will know once you experience it, but other than that, I do not know how to help you with her.”

  He wanted to sigh, but the burning in his chest still was trying to subside. His breath returned slowly as he reached his destination. As the pair reached the crossroads, the young alchemist turned to his right and peered out into the darkness. Just at the end of the dying light of his Sol Arum, Athos could make out a set of stairs heading down towards the final level. The Sol Arum began to flicker as the chemicals that made it up were nearing the end of their life.

  “Is there anything else on the boss’s floor?”

  “No, Athos. In this dungeon, there is not room on the boss’s floor for anything but its chamber and the portal room.”

  His frustration grew as he looked at the low, off-pink number that was his integrity percentage then to his pact beast that fluttered next to him like a drunken firefly in the night. “Is there anything you can tell me that I can use?”

  “Do not die, Athos.”

  With those words, the Sol Arum flickered and died, leaving Athos with an altogether uncomfortable feeling.

  Encounters of a Different Kind

  The feeling of discomfort only grew as he approached the stairs. Athos thought about popping the top from another vial of Sol Arum, but the idea of using another just didn’t seem worth it when it still worked fine as a low light torch. The dampness that collected on the travel floor seemed to only amplify itself as he walked deeper. The puddles on the previous stairs only gave way to streams of water bubbling between the bricks and trickles on the walls from some deep ground spring as Athos traveled deeper into the dungeon. As dangerous as it was to traverse, it wasn’t
nearly as long a trip as it was down to the travel level.

  After only a minute or so on his trip down the stairs, light began to pour in from below. At first, it wasn’t much more than his makeshift torch of Sol Arum, but soon the light grew. His vision was flooded with the slate gray of the stones, of the polished steps growing whiter with each step, of the marble floor that waited for him only a few steps away. As he reached the safety of the floor, he looked back up the stairs. Darkness swallowed the light halfway up despite the laws of the universe that should prevail at such a small distance. It was just another thing he was chalking it up to a logic that could only exist in a digital world of its own rules, Athos tried not to think too hard about it; however, the room he had walked into gave him plenty to think about.

  The clear water that had been pooling and flowing down parts of the walls and stairs now cut into small channels that flowed all around the room in intricate patterns on a white floor shining with rainbow from the thrown by the light. The light came from above the center of the room where a huge pearl shone like the sun and illuminated the stadium-sized room. And there, at the center of the room sat a large pool of water. From the distance he was, it looked a much darker blue than the small clear streams. For all he knew, it could be as deep as an ocean or as shallow as a puddle for all the good logic did him in here.

  With the lack of a boss to be seen and with the slow silence of the flowing water, Athos’s discomfort came to its head. It was too quiet. Too peaceful to be where a boss would be waiting to murder someone. Then again, if it reset whenever someone entered, there’d be no signs of a struggle anyways. As he walked closer to the center, a voice cracked behind him.

  “Master Athos!”

  As a hand set itself on his shoulder, Athos’s heart almost skipped a beat. His body felt instantly tense as his mind fired a thousand options at him, but one of them flew the fastest. The last time he saw his pact beast, he didn’t remember it having a hand. A voice flowing like water and as calm as a forest stream followed it not a moment later. “Hello, Child of the Forest.”

  His body finally moved for him as it jerked itself away from whatever it was that had its grasp on him. The effort was almost wasted as the hand released itself easily. In a flash, Athos placed the pool behind him and the creature in front of him. Like Ioh, the dryad of the Dryad’s Forest, the creature was part human, part creature, and much larger than he could have anticipated. With a pink dolphin-like tail, Vedava best embodied the mermaid. At about twelve feet tall, she was towering over him even from that distance, but, despite having a fish’s tail, she had no trouble getting around. Her lower body and tail were surrounded by an orb of shimmering blue water that seemed to be completely under her tail’s control. With a single, strong push of it, she was nearly on top of him. Holding the Sol Arum, Athos realized that he might be in a bit more trouble than he thought. His pact beast was still near, but silent except for its erratically growing movements.

  As the mermaid Vedava spoke, her voice was soothing, almost motherly as her words flowed. “What brings you into my home, Child of the Forest?”

  That… seemed like a silly thing to ask him. It threw him off his guard, but he answered all the same. “You’re the ruler here, aren’t you?”

  She nodded, her blue hair cascading over her shoulders as she responded. “I am Vedava, and this is my home. You have done me a favor by clearing it of the vile creatures that wished to do me harm.”

  Doubts rose as she spoke, Vedava wasn’t attacking him, and the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. If she had wanted to, Vedava had every chance to do it when his back was turned. “They wished to do you harm?”

  “Yes, as I assume you wished to do me as you entered this realm.”

  It was a true enough thought, but still… “So, you aren’t a boss monster?”

  Her face seemed to say enough about her thoughts on the matter, but if the scowl wasn’t enough, her tail pushed her towards him, looming above him to cast a menacing shadow. The words that she spoke drove home the point with more heat than all his Pyrothium combined. “I am not a monster. Would a monster speak with you? Would a monster live and defend herself? Would a monster take a chance to be civil?”

  So strong were her words that the pact beast tried to come between the pair, though for what good it would do, Athos didn’t know. All of what Vedava said were good points, at least they were until he remembered the way she greeted him. Vedava had used his trait’s name. As a Child of the Forest, a natural wild one was less likely to attack unless provoked, and suddenly he felt a rush of remorse for her. “I’m sorry. I was told a monster lived here, but she must have been wrong.”

  The mermaid nodded. “The only monsters here have been dealt with. For that, I thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he managed before falling back to confusion as his words escaped him. For almost a minute, he just stared at her. What was he supposed to do? Should he keep talking? “How long have they been there?”

  She sighed, letting her voice cascade over her lips. “As long as I can remember, it’s lonely when your champions die so readily to them. I think you’re the first that has made it this far.”

  The first? Sammi had made it seem like it was almost a rite of passage to fight here. “How long have you been waiting for someone?”

  “Years. Many lonely years,” she admitted after a few moments. “Some days are shorter than others, some longer, but from when I awaken to when I sleep, I am normally alone down here.”

  “I see, and I’m the first you’ve met?” Athos asked skeptically.

  She hesitated. “For a long time yes. Well, the first who has spoken to me. Most come, most fight…” her voice wavered slightly as she moved to her pool in the center, “all have died…” Her body sunk into the depths of the blue pool as her motherly voice broke. “They try to kill me. They come with their guns, their swords, and their bows, and they try to kill me! It’s like they cannot understand, like…”

  “Like you’re a monster,” he offered. Sammi had said that dungeons were different than the main map of Incipere. She had said that the boss will respawn whenever someone new enters the dungeon. Vedava never remembered seeing anyone except for those she’s killed but never remembers her own death. The pieces began to fit together, and Athos didn’t like the picture that they created.

  “Yes,” Vedava finished. Her head was now the only thing peeking out from the pool. “You’ve come now though, and I thank you for what you’ve done. Please, accept this and my blessing for your kindness. Now, I am free of my imprisonment.” Her hand raised itself from the depths of the pool carrying a small handful of items: some bytes, a small green bag, another scroll, and a few empty vials were counted in the cache. “I realize it is not much, but it is all I have from my time here.”

  He took them, not wanting to think about where they had come from and smiled a morose smile. “Thank you, Vedava.”

  “Thank you, Child of the Forest.”

  “My name is Athos,” he finally corrected.

  “Athos then,” she repeated as her form began to shrink. Her twelve-foot frame gave way to a smaller woman, no larger than five foot. Her body wore clothing of seaweed and pearls, woven in such a way that it hung on her like a sundress. A pair of bracelets bearing the image of two dolphins completed her outfit. Though she was still supported by her ball of water, she was nowhere near the imposing visage she was before. “Let me show you the way out. I cannot use it myself because of my cursed imprisonment, but I’m sure you can.”

  Trait Dungeon Quest Accepted!

  Vedava’s Freedom

  Objective: Escort Vedava from the Pearl Ocean Pool to the nearest body of clean water.

  Reward: Enchanted Pearl Pendant

  Athos nodded to her, quickly reading the newly offered quest information. Without another word, Vedava took his hand and led the way to the far side of the room where a small passage lay open now that the dungeon had been cleared. Athos began to
fall behind as her hand pulled him quickly to his normal limit before finally pulling away. In defiance of gravity and the laws of momentum, she turned to face her champion without dropping speed. A smile painted her face as she taunted the injured alchemist.

  “Athos, keep up,” she cried as the turned the corner and disappeared down the passageway.

  A snappy retort came to mind about holding her water, but as his lips parted to answer her, his voice was silenced by the echo of a bullet followed by a splashing of water. A woman’s cry rang out from beyond the turn only to be silenced by the shattering sounds of another bullet and a flash of golden light.

  “Shit!” and his pace quickened despite his integrity loss. He had forgotten. How could he have forgotten! A third and forth shot rang out a moment later followed by a flash of white around the corner as if to punctuate the end to his thoughts.

  His movement came to a stop as a new message flashed at the corner of his vision:

  Dungeon Complete!

  Experience Released from Holding.

  Experience Awarded: 3,500

  Essence Awarded: 500

  Rank Up - 2 Rank Points Available

  Dual Class Options Unlocked

  The Shot

  Damage received: 57% integrity Remaining - Approaching Critical Levels

  The pain echoed through him as he pushed himself forward. Rage boiled over inside of him as tears forced their way from his eyes. Pyrothium armed both his hands as he turned the corner and saw what he knew would be waiting.

  A well-dressed man with long white locks and blue eyes stood waiting near a large circular door. His gun was still unholstered complete with digitized smoke still churning from the barrel. The smell of gunpowder and ionized air lingered around a small pile of items as he laughed to himself, then called out to the young alchemist as he turned the corner. “That one almost got away from you, Athos.”