Chapter One

When Nathan opened his
eyes, he saw nothing. Or maybe not nothing, exactly, but instead a white light
that filled all his vision. Like gazing into the beam of a torch without
blinking. He took a step back and realized that he was staring at a white wall.

He turned around. He was
in a small room. The walls were white, as were the floors and ceiling. There
was a sterile feel to the place that reminded him of a hospital waiting room.
In the centre, there was a brown wooden table. A plate was on it, and resting
on the plate was a burger. He sniffed the air, and he smelled the delicious
odour of the meat. It teased into his nostrils, and he felt his stomach tighten
with hunger.

When did he last eat?
More importantly, where was he? He didn’t remember walking into the room. He
couldn’t have been asleep, because when he opened his eyes, he had been stood
up. Sure, the other guys in the barracks used to say he was such a heavy
sleeper that he’d snore through a nuke. He got into trouble a couple of times
in basic for missing roll call. But he’d never snoozed on his feet before.

He looked around. Had he
done something wrong? Had the military police put him in solitary? Doubtful –
he took his duties seriously. He’d never do anything to warrant a punishment
like that. In some ways that made it worse. At least if he was in solitary,
he’d have a clue what was going on.

The smell of the burger
hit him again, and he felt pain in his stomach. He realized he was hungrier
than he’d ever been in his life. Looking at the burger made his mouth water,
and the feeling overpowered his confusion.

He walked over to the
table. His footsteps were the only sound in the room. He leant on the table
surface and breathed in the aroma of the burger. He smelled not just the meat,
but onions. And ketchup. Possibly a gherkin, but he’d pick that off. Yeah, he
was in the 50% of people who couldn’t stand the things. The juicy meat bulged
out of the side of the bun. Plump, grilled. Heaven.

For a second he thought
the food might not be real. That he was dreaming. And he realized that if he
was dreaming, that meant it was a lucid dream. He’d heard about those –
apparently, if you realized you were in a lucid dream, it was a ball. You could
do anything you wanted. Become a bear tamer. Become a bear. Fly like a bird.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s
have some fun.”

He stared at the white
floor to his left and tried to imagine the room changing. He tried to change it
into the Heaton Owls soccer stadium. He’d always wanted to go there when it was
empty and have a game. As hard as he concentrated, the room wouldn’t change.

“Maybe I better start
small. Give me a shake to go with the burger.”

What were the controls
here exactly? He tried to imagine a vanilla milkshake appearing on the table,
but nothing happened. His mouth watered again. Shrugging, he picked up the
burger. He opened his mouth in anticipation of the glorious meat, when he heard
a sound.

Banging. A fist pounding
on metal.

It sounded like it was coming
from his right. He looked and saw that there was a metal hatch in the centre of
the wall. It looked like the kind they use in prisons so that things can be
passed to an inmate without any danger to the guard. He was sure it hadn’t been
there before.

“Hello?” he said.

He waited, but there was
no response. He walked over to the hatch and opened it, but it was empty. What
did this mean? If this was a lucid dream, it sucked. But then, if it was his
dream, he only had himself to blame. He’d never been the most creative of
people. He was more of a practical kind of guy. He loved running, climbing,
woodwork, shooting, those kinds of things.

There was more banging.
Louder this time, like it came from the other side of the wall. Then he heard a
voice.

“Food. Please,” said a
man. “I’m starving.”

Nathan stepped back in
surprise. He recognized that voice. How could he not? It was burned deep into
his memory, a voice that made him tense up.

“Please. I can smell it.
They haven’t fed me in days.”

It was the voice of Terry
Currow, a guy who was an ass to him back in high school. He didn’t know what
the hell Terry was doing here, but hearing his voice a decade later made him
curl his hands into fists. It brought back memories of Terry taking every
opportunity to try and humiliate him.

This guy had been a
living nightmare for Nathan back in school. He was smarter than him, and by God
did he know it. One time, he made Nathan look stupid by getting hold of his
math test result where he got an ‘E’ grade, and making photocopies. The joke
was on him though – Nathan requested a re-sit, studied his ass off, and turned
it into a ‘B.’

“Please. I can smell the
food. They haven’t fed me in days.”

He didn’t know what Terry
was doing here, but he didn’t care. He turned away from the hatch. No way in
hell was he putting his burger in there. If Terry was hungry, then tough luck.
Maybe Nathan would take a photograph of the burger, have it copied and post it
through the hatch.

He picked up the burger
and went to take a bite.

“Please, Nathan. They’re
going to starve me to death. Just a little bite. I’m begging you.”

Nathan stopped. He put
the burger down, and sighed. Damn it. Terry’s voice was so pathetic that he
couldn’t just ignore him. Instead, cursing himself for always wanting to be the
bigger man, he tore it in half. He walked over to the metal hatch. It made a
whining sound as he opened it. He dropped half the burger into the hatch, then
closed it, sending it to the other side.

“Eat it slowly,” he said.
“If you haven’t eaten in a while, it’ll make you sick if you pig out.”

Nathan’s stomach
tightened even more. He felt faint. No more distractions now – he needed to
fill his belly. He went back over to the table, picked up the remaining half of
the burger. He raised it up, savoring the aroma. He was about to take a bite,
when he heard footsteps.

“Damn it, Terry, what
now?” he said.

But the footsteps were in
his own room. And then someone spoke.

“You don’t need that,
Nathan.”

It was a woman’s voice,
and she was behind him. He didn’t turn to face her; the draw of food was too
much.

“And why not?” he asked.

“Because you’re dead.”

In an instant, the burger
vanished, leaving his hands in front of him holding nothing. To his right, the
hatch was gone, and instead there was just a white wall.

He turned to the voice
and saw a woman. Six-foot-tall, hair cut short into a bob. She wore glasses and
high heels, and she had on a lab coat. She reminded him of a woman he’d met
when he was stationed in Germany for 6 months. He’d seen her every fortnight in
a library he used to go to in Cologne when he had day leave. He’d always
thought about asking her out, but there was no point. The military moved him
around so much he didn’t want to form attachments.

“What happened to the
burger?” he asked.

“The food was a test,”
she said. “Do you know where you are?”

“The worst fast food
joint ever.”

She gave a polite laugh.
“I’m Dina-Teur,” she said. “Pleased to meet you.”

A sofa suddenly appeared
next to the woman. Black, leather, cold-looking. She settled into it and crossed
her legs. She beckoned Nathan over to the seat next to her.

As Nathan went to join
her, he suddenly stopped. A memory jolted him. He knew this room. He looked
around him – white, bare walls. A sterile feel to it. Of course he knew it –
why hadn’t he thought of it before? He’d seen it years ago, back in basic
training before his first tour of duty.

Cold ice crept over his
chest as he worked out where he was. This room – it could only mean one thing.
The woman clearly wasn’t joking; he was dead.

He stumbled back. He
looked from side to side, as if there’d be an exit. Nope. Just walls. Yep, he
knew the room alright. His death was a surety. He thought the realization would
feel worse than this, but he guessed that he’d been prepared for it. Not now, but
in general. Life in the army was sometimes one long mental preparation for the
inevitable.

So how did it happen?
When did he last upload his consciousness? He tried to think, but his memories
were locked away somewhere. He reached out and tried to find fragments, but
there was nothing.

He looked at Dina. She
was waiting patiently, as if she was used to seeing the mental struggle of the
recently deceased. It struck him that she was the type of person who wasn’t
fazed by anything.

“Is this Adonis Rebirth?”
he said.

“Not quite.” Her accent
was hard to place. It was almost British, but with a Texan twang on some of her
words.

He must have been in
Adonis – where else would he go after death? The fully-immersive VR game was
the only place a mind could go after the body dropped off its mortal coil. Not
everyone could go, though. Passes into Adonis would have emptied the wallets of
even the richest people.

The only reason Nathan
got a pass was due to his army service. With recruit numbers dropping, the government
promised Adonis Rebirth entry to anyone who joined the Army for a 4-year term.
After his first tour, Nathan decided that the army was the place for him, and
he’d signed up for another 4 years. For him to be here now, though, something
must have gone badly wrong.

He felt a question
burning in him. Words that he felt had had to say. He blurted them out.

“How did I die?” he
asked.

Dina didn’t even flinch
at the question. It was like she’d heard it a thousand times. “You were given a
soldier’s funeral, Nathan. It was beautiful. A hero’s funeral.”

“I doubt many people were
there,” he said.

Nathan didn’t have any
family. His parents died when he was six. After that, he and his little
brother, Dec, lived with a selection of foster families. None of them really
cared about the two boys though. When he was 18, he moved out. He became the
legal guardian of Dec, and they lived together in a pokey apartment. Nathan
took a job to pay the bills, and they were happy for a while. Just a guy and
his brother getting by.

And then, one day, Dec
had been walking down the pavement with his headphones on. A guy driving a car
had swerved to avoid a dog in the road. He’d driven onto the pavement, straight
toward Dec. Didn’t even give him a damn second of warning before he…

No. Better not to think
about that. He’d brooded on Dec’s death for so long, that he couldn’t stomach
much more of it.

“On the contrary,” said
Dina. “More people attended than you’d expect. You died a hero, Nathan.
You…I’ve said more than I should, for now.”

She patted the space on
the sofa next to her. Rather than join her, Nathan stepped back and perched on
the edge of the table. He realized that his hunger was gone. Instead, he felt
nothing. Kind of how he’d expect a dead person to feel.

“So, what now?” he said.
He just wanted out of the room.

Dina stood up. She
clicked her fingers, and a tablet appeared in her hand. She swiped on it a few
times, then crossed the room and handed it to Nathan.

He took it from her. On
the screen was the logo for Adonis Rebirth. It was well-muscled, half-naked man
shooting an arrow into the sun. Below it, there was a button marked ‘begin.’

“We need you to complete
a psyche test,” she said. “Nothing strenuous – just a few questions to see how
you’re holding up.”

“Sure. But first, what
happened to me? I’m not sure about etiquette for the dead, but explaining their
death has to be up there.”

She spoke softly. “Please
complete the test, Nathan.”

It was obvious he
wouldn’t get any answers until he did what she asked, so he clicked ‘begin.’
For the next few minutes, he answered all the questions on the touch pad.

It was a series of
statements, with sliders that he had to move. Statements were listed such as “I
often struggle to control angry thoughts.” There was a slider underneath each
one. On one end was ‘Disagree,’ and on the other was ‘Agree.’ It was basic
psychological stuff. There were 50 questions, each of them intended to burrow
deeper and deeper into his psyche. It didn’t bother him much – there was
nothing in his mind that he wanted to hide.

When he finished, he
handed it back to her.

“While we wait for the
results,” said Dina, “let me tell you a little about the game. You understand,
I hope, that you will pass now into Adonis Rebirth.”

He nodded. “I got that.”

“Well, would you like the
blunt truth, or do you want a little sugar on it?” she asked.

He smiled. Despite the
situation, there was something about her that he liked. “Soften it up a little
for me.”

“Your body is dead,
Nathan.”

“What happened to the
sugar?”

“Sorry, but I believe in
harsh truths. Your mind, as of your last upload, will transfer into Adonis.”

When was his last upload?
He tried to remember, but his mind was blank. It was like the memories were
there, but were locked away so that he couldn’t see them.

He knew it was standard
practice to upload before going on patrol or before combat missions. It was simple–
he stuck a sensor cable into a port on his wrist, and then slipped into a
pre-designed dream while his mind downloaded. He’d done it hundreds of times.
He just couldn’t remember when the last time was.

Dina continued. “Once you
enter Adonis, you will begin in Janess, the starter village. It’s a small
place, but adequate to get you used to the game world before you start
questing. The circumstances surrounding your…current situation…and your actions
have warranted you an upgrade.”

“My actions?”

“Before your death. But
as I said, I can’t elaborate yet. On your map will be a marker shaped like a
house. This is yours. And you should be happy; not everyone starts in Adonis
already owning property. There will also be a provision of weapons, armor, and
money.”

“I don’t get it. What did
I do? You said I got a hero’s funeral. What happened?”

The touchpad buzzed in her
hand. She lifted it to her face and studied it. After a few seconds, she
frowned. She looked at Nathan.

“Are those the results?”
he asked.

“It’s time for you to
enter Adonis.”

She turned her back to
him. A door appeared in front of her. As she walked toward it, Nathan called
out.

“Wait. You’re supposed to
tell me how I died.”

She looked at the
touchpad again, and shook her head. “It’s time to forget your old life, and
focus on your new one. This is your rebirth.”

“A guy’s death is pretty
personal to him. Kinda hard to forget.”

“I’m sorry, Nathan. There
are rules.”

He had a burning need to
see it. It was like it was the most important thing in the world. When people
had accidents and woke up in the hospital, their first question was always,
“What happened?” This was no minor accident; he was dead. And there had to be a
way to show it to him.

“Wait. Our combat
helmets, they have cameras. Surely it recorded what happened?”

She held up the touchpad.
“I’m sorry, Nathan. Truly, I am. Your results indicate that you won’t be able
to handle seeing your death. The circumstances are too graphic.”

After a few seconds, she
spoke again. “It’s time,” she said.

She walked over to the
door. She twisted the handle and then pulled it open. Beyond the door there wasn’t
another room. Instead, there was a shimmering blue light that filled the
doorframe. It looked like how he imagined the middle of a flash of lightning to
be.

The woman gestured to it.
“You need to step through,” she said.

“If I ask nicely, will
you at least give me a little bit of a clue what happened to me?”

“No. What’s more
important is that you get a second chance.”

There was nothing for it.
He knew she wouldn’t tell him now, no matter what he said or did. It was best
that he got himself together. Maybe in Adonis, his memories would come back to
him. And it could be worse – most people didn’t get a second chance at life. It
might have been a simulation, but it was still another roll of the dice. He
knew how immersive Adonis was supposed to be. How real. This could be good.

This was his Rebirth, and
it was time to take it. Despite everything, he was surprised to realise that he
felt excited.

“So, I start in Janess?”
he said.

She nodded. “What you do
from there is up to you, Nathan. Find allies, do quests. There’s no limit.
Unless, of course, you don’t want your second chance?”

“That’s an option?”

“You don’t have to walk
through the door. Some don’t. More than you’d think.”

There was no way he’d
pass this up. He’d done what he could with his old life, but he’d never really
made the most of it. Now, at least, he could try damn hard with his second. If
he turned this down, what waited for him? The oblivion of brain death, most
likely. His body was gone, and if he didn’t walk through that door, they would
shut down his mind as well. Delete it from the recycling bin like a teenager
erasing naughty videos from his laptop.

He took a few steps
forward until he was in front of the shimmering light. It felt warm on his
skin. He heard a distant rumbling, like the sound of a thunderstorm gathering.
It was like staring into a cosmic chasm, and he wondered if he would just be
sucked into it.

“So, I just step
through?”

She nodded. “And your
second life begins.”

“One last thing,” he
said. “What was the deal with the burger?”

“Another psyche test to
see what kind of person you are,” she answered. Then she was silent, as if that
had explained everything.

“And?”

“You’re a decent guy. And
you need to hold on to that in Adonis. Don’t become a monster.”

He shrugged. He wasn’t
going to get anything else out of her.

With that, he walked
forward and stepped through the door.

The light seemed to latch
onto him as he walked into it. It was thick, like stepping through cobwebs that
resisted him with each step. The light spread across his arms, his legs, his
chest. It gathered all the way up to his face and over his mouth, and he felt
like he couldn’t breathe. Then he felt it crawl inside him, bonding with every
cell in his body.

There was a booming crack
of thunder.

He felt cold. Like he was
plummeting through ice. There was a metallic screaming in his ears.

“Dina, how about some of
that sugar?” he said, knowing she wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Something wasn’t right.
He reached out, trying to grab hold of something. The screaming grew louder,
until it was all he could hear.

He felt himself tumble
down.

And down.

And down.

Until he suddenly
stopped. The screaming faded, the light began to disperse. It left suddenly, as
if it were smoke being sucked away through an extractor fan.

And then he was in
Adonis.

He didn’t land with a
thud or a bang. Instead, it was if the world of Adonis rushed to meet him, and
he suddenly found himself within it.

The first thing he
noticed was the darkness. Like his eyes were shut, except he knew he had them
open. He turned his head. The next thing he noticed was the smell. Foul, like
food that had been left to rot.

As his eyes adjusted to
the darkness, he began to make out his surrounding area. He saw muddy walls. A
stone ceiling. He heard water dripping from it and landing on the dirt floor.
As his eyes adjusted more and more, he realized he was stood in a cave or
dungeon of some kind.

This sure as hell wasn’t
the starter village. It looked like the kind of place a dwarf clan might build
a fortress in, except that there was something lonely about it.

“Hello?” he said.

His words echoed back to
him, and after that, there was only silence. He shrugged. Time to explore.

Chapter Two

Something had gone wrong,
that was for sure. The problem was, he’d hardly seen any actual screenshots or
videos of the game. He didn’t know whether this was normal or not. Maybe it was
a training area.

Hard to say. The Adonis
Rebirth devs didn’t share many images of their game world. It was a secret more
tightly guarded than the Whitehouse UFO files. The reason they gave was to
prevent hackers from penetrating it and raising hell with people’s afterlives.

Some people, in the
darkest reaches of the internet where the normal headwear was a tinfoil hat,
believed the devs were covering up issues with Adonis that they didn’t want to
get out. If they kept the game’s problems hidden from their customers in real
life, they were golden. Since people could only access the product after their
death, they could hardly complain, could they?

So why didn’t they demand
to see more of the product before investing the massive chunk of change it took
to get a pass? Here was the thing -  it didn’t seem to matter. As long as
Adonis Corp promised life after death, people emptied their wallets. It was an
act of faith for most folks. A promise of an afterlife that didn’t require a
lifetime of devout worship to get there.

That meant that Nathan
had never actually seen the starter village Janess, so he didn’t know what it
looked like. This sure as hell wasn’t it, though. He was in an oval-shaped
cavern. The air was cold but stuffy at the same time, as though the oxygen
struggled to circulate. There were two smells; one was of damp mud. The other,
the more pungent of the two, was of rot.

He needed to contact the
game devs and tell them something had gone wrong with his transition. He knew
that the outside world couldn’t communicate with those in Adonis, but there
were supposed to be AI controllers here. The question was, how was he going to
contact them?

Think. Remember. They explained some of this when an
Adonis rep visited the barracks. It was during basic training. He remembered
her pulling up in a 4x4 and getting out. The other guys whistled when they saw
her tanned legs. They’d set up seats in the canteen and she’d given them all a
demonstration on how the Adonis UI worked.

He pictured her as she
ignored the canteen banter and told the recruits how Adonis operated. He tried
to imagine her voice. He pictured the way she manipulated the projector to move
through the different screens.

‘A tap of your chest
will bring up the main menu. A finger, a palm, it doesn’t matter. As long as
it’s you tapping, and not anyone else. Wouldn’t make sense for an enemy to open
your menu screen mid-battle, would it?”

He thought she’d made a
mistake by mentioning the word ‘battle.’ Most of the recruits, once they
finished their first 4-years, would leave the army. Attrition was at 28%. The
ones who stayed in the forces long enough would see their fair share of combat.
After that, the last thing they’d want in their second life was more fighting.
Most of them would probably spend their time fishing or crafting.

Nathan was different. He
craved adventure. He wanted to meet heroes, join a guild. It just felt right to
surround himself with people. After all, that was one of the reasons he joined
the army.

Picturing the Adonis rep
in his head, he tapped his chest. Sure enough, a transparent overlay of text
filled his vision. The writing was blue. It was clear enough to read, but it
turned transparent if he needed to see beyond it. In front of him, he saw
several options.

Character Screen

Map

Inventory

Quests

Chat

This was all well and
good, but there was a problem. Every single option bar ‘Map’ was greyed out. He
tried selecting them, but nothing happened. Usually in games, this meant there
was a tutorial you had to finish before you could access everything. Here,
though, there was no sign of one.

“This is Nathan Attis
putting in a tech support request,” he said aloud. “I’d try turning it off and
on again, but I can’t find the power switch. Anyone want to give me a support
ticket?”

When no answer came, he
decided he better try and figure out where he was. If he could make his way to
the village, he could at least find someone to talk to. He clicked the map
option, then watched as it filled his screen. The image was vague, and he found
that he could see through it if he chose to.

He studied the map. This
sure as hell didn’t look right. Rather than being the expansive game world he’d
heard about, this seemed smaller than a school playground. Right now, it only
showed the room he was in, although all around him were greyed out sections. He
guessed he’d have to explore a little for the map to fill itself in. The
borders of the map indicated that although there was some exploring to do, it
wasn’t the huge world he’d been promised.

‘It’s twelve times the
size of Texas,’ the
rep had told them. ‘With new content added every year.’

‘How do you create new
stuff if you can’t communicate with the game from the outside?’ asked Nathan.

The rep tapped her nose. ‘Trade
secret,’ she said, and flashed a smile.

‘And what about if
there’s a problem in the game? Who fixes that shit?’ shouted another recruit.

The woman smiled. Nothing
seemed to faze her. ‘A sophisticated group of AI controllers are there to
fix any possible eventuality,’ she answered.

The AI’s weren’t here now,
though. With the ‘Chat’ button greyed out, Nathan had no way of contacting them.
He reasoned that it could have been due to where he was. Maybe he needed to
leave here so that he could get tech support and access his character screen.

He looked around. The
room was shaped like a football. There were three openings marked on the map,
two to his left and one to his right. The presence of the openings made him
think that someone had been here before him and carved the passageways. Maybe
the place was occupied, but he doubted it.

The two openings on the
left looked like they could lead either further into the dungeon or out of it -
it was hard to tell. The one on his right was just a single room.

“Better start there,” he
said.

He closed the map and
looked to his right. The door was just across from him, but it was less an
actual door, and more of an opening cut into the stone walls. As he walked
toward it, his footsteps echoed back to him. He heard something scuttling
behind him, but couldn’t see anything.

As he got closer to the
door, the smell of rot grew stronger. It reminded him of the time, when he was
a kid, he and his friends had found a dead possum in a bush. They’d gone back
to it day after day, daring each other to poke it. Eventually, the stench got
so bad that it made them retch.

The smell here was worse.
He didn’t know what the hell was in the room, but it smelled like one of
Satan’s own hell pigs had crawled in there to die. It was how he imagined a
slaughter house to smell if all the workers abandoned it. He made it to the
doorway before the stench overpowered him. He took one quick peek, but it was
too dark to see anything inside.

“No way am I going in
there,” he said.

He needed to think. Get a
plan together. He was no stranger to shit hitting the fan. Even the most
well-planned mission could go to hell when Lady Chance got involved. The trick
was to keep calm and take action. That was the thing that screwed most people
over in stressful situations. They let their monkey brain take over and force
them to make decisions based on panic. It was the reason why people lost at sea
did the crazy thing of drinking sea water. They weren’t thinking clearly.

He realized that his
hunger had come back. Memories of the burger drifted through his mind, but he
let them pass. He doubted that there was a fast food joint around here. He
guessed that if he felt hunger, then even though he couldn’t see his character
screen, there must have been a hunger gauge on it. That made sense – this
wasn’t just a game, it was a 2nd life. He was going to have to forage for
something to eat.

He heard the scuttling
sound again. It came from his right, over near the wall. He stayed still so as
not to spook whatever it was. As he watched, he picked out a shape in the
shadows. He saw a furry body. Claws. A thin, worm-like tail.

It was a rat. It had a
long snout that it stuck into every crevice it could find. Its claws were lined
with dirt.

At first, he was a little
disgusted. Then the strangest thing happened. The more he looked at the rat,
the more delicious it seemed. It was weird, but he began to salivate over the
thought of eating it.

Effect gained:
Hunger

-1 HP per 10
minutes

He looked away. He knew
hunger could make even the worst food seem appetizing. He’d once eaten a cheese
and coleslaw sandwich out of hunger. And man, did he hate coleslaw.

This was different though
– it wasn’t just a sick mixture of cabbage and mayonnaise. It was a rat. Most
people would argue that it was much, much worse than coleslaw (they’d be wrong.)
Still, eating it suddenly became the best idea in the world. He knew that he
had to catch the critter and chow down.

“Okay,” he said to
himself. “Softly does it.”

The rat stayed near the
wall. Nathan crouched down and began to walk across the ground, careful not to
make much noise. He managed to get within a few feet of the creature.  Now all
he had to do was attack it.

But he couldn’t.

He tried to move his arms
to hit it, but they wouldn’t cooperate. He tried to swing his legs to kick it,
but they refused to budge. It didn’t make sense. He could move and crouch, but
he couldn’t attack. It was as though the game wouldn’t let him.

As he contemplated his
inability to strike it, the rat gave a squeak. It ran across the room and
disappeared into one of the passageways on the left. So much for the snack.

Nathan sat down. With the
rat gone, his head seemed to clear a little. The idea of eating it became
disgusting again, as it should have been. What was wrong with him, though? Why
did it look so tasty? Maybe in Adonis, the game tweaked your mind so that you
could stomach different kinds of food. Still, that didn’t explain why he
couldn’t attack the vermin.

He heard a scraping noise
over to the left of the room.

“Back again?” he said. “I
changed my mind. I don’t want to eat you anymore. Maybe we can be friends.”

The sounds grew closer,
and he began to think that it wasn’t the rat. Instead of the tiny body of a rat
scuttling into the room, he saw something bigger. A shape emerging from the
darkness of the passageway. When it got closer, he saw what it was.

He leapt up to his feet.

Just ten feet away from
him, was a goblin. As tall as his waist. Skin the color of grass. Teeth
protruding over thin lips. It looked like it was two weeks overdue a bath.

This wasn’t good. If the
game wouldn’t let him attack the rat, it wasn’t going to let him fight this
creature either. And he knew that in most games, goblins were hostile. They
were low-level critters there for you to level up on, but they could do damage
if you let them.

He’d learned that the
hard way when he was playing an old RPG. He’d once gone to make a sandwich,
leaving his character in a forest surrounded by corpses of ogres. He thought
he’d be safe since he’d killed most of them, and they were low-level creatures.
He came back 5 minutes later to find the computer screen the color of blood,
and the words ‘You have died’ plastered on it. While he’d been gone, four ogres
had surrounded him and brought the smack down. His character had stood there
and taken it.

Nathan wasn’t about to
just stand there and get a beating from the goblin. The problem was, right now,
he was defenseless. He might as well go make a sandwich.

The goblin took a step
forward. Nathan backed away. He looked around for a weapon. He saw soil,
stones, a few vines extending from the ground. Nothing he could use. He quickly
brought up his menu screen. He saw with dismay that all the options apart from
‘map’ were still greyed out.

He needed to leave. If
you were overpowered and didn’t have the strategic advantage, you left the area
to regroup and re-plan. That was the sensible thing to do. So, which way did he
go?

The goblin was in front
of the two passageways. That just left the room of rot behind Nathan. He sure
as hell wasn’t going to go in there. Besides, it had seemed like a dead end.
According to the map, there were no tunnels extending from the rot room.

Escape was out, so he had
to do something else. Maybe he could let the goblin get close, then just as it
was about to attack, he could dart around it and go down the passageway. Then,
when he was tooled up, he’d come back and finish it off. He’d even think up a
witty catchphrase to say while he killed it.

He waited. The goblin
took tentative steps toward him. Nathan watched it intently. He waited for the
slightest indication it was ready to attack so that he could catch it off guard
and escape. He just needed to hold his nerve.

The creature got closer.

And closer.

Just one more step…

He thought it was about
to strike, so he readied himself. It jerked forward, arms raised. Nathan
watched in shock as the goblin looked at him, grunted, then got down on one
knee. It stayed there and stared at him.

Neither of them moved. It
started to get awkward.

Finally, he had to break
the silence. “Are you going to propose?” he said.

It looked up at him with
wide, puppy-dog eyes. It gave a high-pitched grunt.

“Well, okay,” said
Nathan, relaxing.

Whatever this creature
wanted, it wasn’t going to attack, that much was clear. As he stared at the goblin,
he realized something. There was a text label above its head.

Goblin – Unnamed
– Level 1 *Minion*

It was still staring at
him like it expected him to do something. Its eye contact was so strong that it
was a little overwhelming. Nathan didn’t know what it wanted. He thought he
should look for a stick and get it to play fetch or something.

“Quit looking at me like
that,” he said.

No sooner had he said the
words, then the goblin looked away.

“And you can stand up,”
said Nathan.

The goblin stood up.
Nathan began to suspect something.

“Jump.”

It jumped three feet into
the air.

“Dance in a circle.”

He watched as the goblin
did its best impression of a dance, turning in a clumsy circle and flailing its
arms. Round and round it went, so much so that even Nathan felt dizzy.

“Okay, you can stop now.
Give me a second, I need to think.”

That solved it. This
goblin was his minion. It would do everything he asked, that much was certain.
The question was – why? It wasn’t normal for a player in any RPG to start with
a goblin sidekick. This begged the question; what class had they given Nathan?
Come to think of it, wasn’t he supposed to select a class before entering the
game?

As he pondered the
question, he heard the familiar patter of rat feet on dirt. His old friend had
joined the party. Presumably because even with his little rat brain, he’d
worked out that Nathan couldn’t attack.

Nathan smiled. Well,
rat, I’ve got a surprise for you.

1HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

His hunger status had
taken 1 hitpoint from him. That wasn’t so bad, as long as he could get food.
What worried him more were the question marks – he needed to know how many
hitpoints he had. The most important thing now was to catch the rat so that he
could eat it. He had a plan.

He waited for the rat to
grow bolder and scuttle further into the room. Soon, it was almost in the
centre. It stayed out of reach of Nathan, but it evidently wasn’t too afraid of
him. When he thought the vermin was close enough, he looked at the goblin.

“Kill it,” he said.

Without a second’s pause,
the goblin pulled a dagger from its belt. It crouched down. It was a hell of a
lot more agile than Nathan, and it looked like it was used to moving in the
darkness. It turned its head side to side, scoping for the rat. Then, fixed on
its position, it leapt through the air.

Nathan heard the goblin
grunt. Then the stab of a knife. A squeal. A second later the goblin approached
him with the dead rat outstretched on its palms, as if it were an offering.

“Thanks,” said Nathan,
unsure what do to.

He found he was starting
to salivate again. It was building up around his gums and on the roof of his
mouth. This wasn’t just a dead, hairy rat. Right now, it looked delicious.

The goblin moved its
palms, as if it were gesturing for Nathan to take it.

As hungry as he was, he
couldn’t eat it like that. He’d always had the opinion that food should never
be hairy.

“Think you could skin it
for me?”

The goblin grinned, as
though skinning things was one of its favorite things to do. With four slices
of its dagger, it slid the rat’s fur and skin away, revealing its meat. It then
discarded the bones, claws, and eyes, and chopped the meat into bite-size
pieces. It offered them up to Nathan.

Nathan took the meat. It
felt cold in his palm. Was he really going to do this?

1 HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

Yeah, he was going to do
this. And if he was going to eat rat meat, there was no point messing around by
taking a nibble. Instead, he grabbed a chunk of it, tossed it in his mouth and
chewed.

Oh, damn….it was
delicious. Nathan had always hated the idea of eating anything raw. Hell, he
hadn’t even tried sushi. But here he was, stood in a cave next to a goblin and
chewing down on a dead rat. What’s more, it tasted amazing. He swallowed down
the chunk of meat.

Status removed:
Hunger

“Thanks,” he said to the
goblin.

The goblin smiled. Nathan
took half of his meat and handed it to the creature. “Go ahead. Take it,” he
said.

The goblin grabbed the
flesh from him and popped it in his mouth like it was candy. After chewing and
then swallowing, he smiled at Nathan adoringly.

“I know, buddy,” said
Nathan. “I like you too. But now, I’ve got to find a way out of here.”

Chapter Three

With the rot room behind
him, that left the two passageways. It seemed to be potluck which to choose,
since his map would only fill in when explored. There was something about the
cavern that was restricting his menu options. He needed to find a way to the
outside.

He looked at the goblin.
“Any ideas?” he asked it.

He needed to stop
thinking of the creature as ‘it.’ His new buddy needed a name. While growing up
in their various foster families, he and Dec had always wanted a dog. None of
the families would get one. Still, he’d fantasized about having a pet, and what
he’d call it. He knew what the goblin’s name had to be.

“Okay, Sherlock,” he
said. “Let’s go explore.”

He looked at Sherlock and
saw that his text label had changed.

Goblin – Sherlock
– Level 1 *Minion*

He stood in front of the
two passageways that led out of the main chamber. There was no indication where
they would take him. They looked similar except that they went in different
directions. Nathan had a rule whenever he was faced with two ways to go and no
map – always choose the one on the left. There was no logic behind it, but it’d
never served him wrong. And with that, he walked toward the first passageway.

“Sherlock,” he said. “You
walk in front.”

The goblin grunted, then
walked forward, scouting the tunnel ahead of Nathan. He didn’t want anything to
happen to the goblin, but it was best that he let him go first in case they ran
into trouble. Nathan didn’t plan on staying weaponless for long. For now,
Sherlock’s dagger was their only form of attack.

The passageways were
dark, the air stale. Every so often, dirt crumbled down onto the ground. He
heard scuttling from different directions, though he couldn’t see anything. The
tunnels would provoke claustrophobia in some people, but he’d been through
tighter spaces in basic training. Even before then, he was well versed in
staying calm in a pinch. One of his foster dads, his favorite, had once taken
him caving in the Getten Caverns. Nathan had been wary at first, but he grew to
love the tunnels and the darkness.

The further he went, the
more his eyes adjusted to the black. He still couldn’t see anything in detail,
but it was getting easier. After a while the passage began to widen.

“How far does this go?”
he said.

His words echoed back to
him. Go go go.

Sherlock shrugged his
shoulders. He understood the question, Nathan knew that much. Sherlock seemed
to be able to comprehend English, he just couldn’t speak it. Despite the lack
of conversation, he found it comforting to have the goblin around. And boy,
he’d never expected to have that thought.

The cavern, or whatever
it was, was much bigger than he’d guessed. After thirty minutes, Nathan thought
he might never find a way out. His stomach began to cramp again. He decided to
have a little more rat meat now, rather than wait and get another hunger
debuff. His supply was running low.

“Sherlock. If you see any
rats, kill them and hold on to them.”

The goblin grunted.

Back in the real world,
Nathan had kept his body in peak physical condition. He didn’t have a choice,
really – 6 am track laps and push-ups had a habit of keeping him trim. He found
that this new body, whatever it was, was even fitter. After taking more twists
and turns, he still wasn’t out of breath. The only fatigue he felt was mental –
it seemed like the passageway was endless.

Sherlock stopped. He
turned to Nathan and made a high-pitched grunt. Nathan realized that his new
friend had a way of varying his grunts to give them different meanings. This
one was higher, and it sounded like a question.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Another grunt.

Nathan moved forward. His
gaze pierced the darkness like a hand pushing aside cobwebs, and he saw why
Sherlock had stopped.

Ahead of him, the
passageway widened enough that three or four people would be able to walk side
by side. On the left wall, there was an opening. On the right were two more.
Nathan walked to the first one and saw that someone had scratched something
above the arch.

‘Ancient #1.’

The two openings on the
right also had text. Those read ‘Ancient #2’ and ‘Ancient #3.’

It was a welcome break
from the endless tedium of the passageways, but he didn’t have a clue what it
meant.

Normally, he’d be more
cautious. He’d wait and try to get the lay of the land. He found that the
longer he spent in the cavern, the more his natural caution was replaced by
curiosity. He stared at opening #1, and he had a burning need to know what was
beyond it.

“Get out your dagger and
stay close to me,” he told Sherlock.

He heard a dagger
slipping out of a leather sheath, and then he felt the goblin’s presence next
to him. Staying alert, Nathan looked at the arch opening and walked forward.

He’d only taken a step
when something hit his face. It sent a stinging pain up his nostrils.

“Damn it,” he said.

He put his hand out in
front of him and felt the smooth surface of a wall. It was strange – there
didn’t seem to be anything in front of him. He could see that the tunnel ran on
for a few feet, before opening into what appeared to be a room. He was too far
away to make out what was in there.

He tried again, this time
walking slowly. Again, he hit the invisible wall. Whatever was in the room
didn’t want him to enter.

“Try the other openings,”
he told Sherlock.

As the goblin went to the
arches on the right, Nathan turned around and stood in the centre of the main
tunnel. He listened in case he heard anything stir in the room behind him. He
didn’t. A second later, Sherlock came back and shrugged his shoulders.

“We’re obviously not
supposed to in there yet,” he said. “I guess we better carry on down the
tunnel.”

As they carried on, the
air began to change. It felt lighter, less stuffy. He checked his map and saw
that large parts of the passageway were visible now. The Ancient openings were
marked. Some sections of the tunnel that they’d already walked down seemed a
lighter color on the map. It was as though the walls were false. He wondered if
they could be demolished to form shortcuts through the cavern.

Sherlock carried on ahead
of him. Aside from the sounds of their feet, there was just silence. It was an
oppressive kind of quiet that reminded him of his first few nights in the
barracks after he enlisted. After all the other recruits went to sleep, Nathan
listened to them snooze and felt a little homesick.

“Hey,” said Nathan. “Do
you know any songs? Or tunes?”

Sherlock gave an
affirmative grunt. He began to make a noise. It wasn’t a whistle, but more like
a squealing kind of hum. It sounded horrendous, as if someone was scraping a
knife down a sheet of metal.

As much as it filled the
silence, he didn’t like it. But he didn’t want to ask Sherlock to stop, in case
the goblin was upset that Nathan didn’t enjoy his song. He walked on.

And then he felt
something on his face. He stopped.

“Hold up a minute,” he
said.

Sherlock halted, but
carried on with his tune.

“I’m not saying you
aren’t the goblin version of Frank Sinatra, but I need you to stop for a
second.”

There was something in
the air. Faint, but he felt it on his cheeks all the same. Something he’d
wished for ever since he’d spawned in the cavern. It was the faint tickle of a
breeze. Fresh air.

He was near the exit.

The realization made his
heart speed up. He rushed on ahead of Sherlock, not caring for caution anymore.
He sped up and up until he was running down the tunnel.

Ahead of him, he saw a
faint white light. This made his pulse pick up even more. Janess here I
come, he thought. Finally! He imagined the starter village. He pictured a
warm bed to sleep in. The smell of food cooking. The hustle and chatter of
fellow humans.

Sherlock’s feet pounded
on the ground as he struggled to keep up with Nathan, but his little legs were
no match. Nathan ran toward the bright light and saw it grow larger and larger.

Then he saw the sky. It
was ahead, looming out of a diamond-shaped opening that must have marked the
exit of the cavern. Nathan rushed toward it.

He got nearer and nearer.
He saw clouds. Birds in the distance. The opening got closer until it was just
meters away.

The exit! It was time to
leave.

He practically leapt the
final few meters. He rushed out toward the opening, finally feeling the fresh
air on his face.

And then dread shot
across his chest.

“Oh shit!” he shouted.

He grabbed for the sides
of the opening to steady himself. His pulse pounded as he desperately tried to
keep balance. Finally, he stopped.

He looked down.

This wasn’t a cavern, he
realized. Looking down told him that much, because the ground was hundreds of
feet below him. So far that the scattering of trees beneath him looked like
miniature models.

This was a mountain!

His brain urged him to
step back from the ledge. A sense of vertigo crept up on him, but he fought
against it and managed to get a sense of calm. He was okay if he didn’t make
any sudden moves.

Feeling better, he looked
around. The opening he stood in was cut into the side of a mountain. Directly
below him was a steep drop that plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground. To
his left, he saw the craggy mountain. A grey sheet of rock with sharp edges.
There was no way he’d be able to climb up or down it. Then he looked to his
right.

Bingo. The mountain side
to the right was less steep. In fact, there seemed to be a rough trail cut into
it that started at the opening and then wound down the mountain. He couldn’t
see how far it went, but he guessed it led to the ground. It’d be a long climb
down, but he didn’t have any other plans for the day.

“Let’s go, buddy,” he
told Sherlock.

The goblin was a few feet
behind him. He seemed scared to come any closer.

“Are you afraid of
heights?” asked Nathan. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall. If we follow the
trail and keep steady, we’ll be fine. Come on – I’m gonna get you some real
food when we reach Janess.”

With that, he stepped out
of the tunnel opening to his right, putting his foot on the stone slope that
began of the trail. As soon as his foot touched the stone, it burned.

He winced. He pulled his
foot back.

1 HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

Had he stood on
something? A poisonous plant or something like that? He couldn’t see anything.
His foot stung, and it reminded him of the time he and Dec had gone down to the
beach on a scorching day. He’d peeled off his socks and then stepped on the
sand, only to find that the sun had heated it up so much that it was like lava.

This was different. The
sun was to the east, but most of it was hidden by a cloud. There was a cold
snap in the air. It wasn’t warm enough to heat up the stone.

He had to try again. This
time he’d take a bigger step and miss the part that had burned him. Steeling
himself, he lunged out of the tunnel opening. He put his feet firmly on the
trail. He felt the fresh air on his skin. It was glorious; cold, soothing,
invigorating.

And then it was something
else. It changed. He felt his skin start to tingle. And then heat up.

1 HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

1 HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

1 HP lost!

Current total:??
/ ??

It was burning him! It
wasn’t the stone of the trail, but the air itself. He felt it scorch his skin
as if he was stood next to a bonfire.

Damn it. How much HP had he lost since he’d
started in the mountain? 10? 15? He couldn’t afford to lose any more without
knowing his total. He turned and climbed back into the tunnel, reluctantly
leaving the outside world to take sanctuary in darkness.

There, he stood in the
tunnel and looked out. Leaving the mountain would kill him, he realized. There
was no escape.

He turned and saw that Sherlock hadn’t moved an inch all this
time, and now he understood why. Both he and Sherlock were prisoners of the
mountain.

Chapter Four

He made his way back to
the main chamber. Sherlock, maybe because he guessed Nathan was a little
annoyed, began to sing again. Nathan smiled at him, despite hating the sound.
He appreciated the effort.

“Thanks, buddy,” he said.

By the time he got back
to the chamber, the burning sensation had stopped. Back in the football-shaped
room, he felt better. Even though the rot room was just across from him and
sending out its putrid odour, he felt a sense a belonging. Like this was his
home now, and that he was meant to be here.

Sooner or later he knew
he’d have to explore the second passageway that extended from the chamber. He’d
even have to take a peek in the rot room. For now, though, he needed a break.

He felt tired, so he sat
on the floor to catch his breath. Rather than get his hopes up, exploring the
tunnels had dashed them. The Ancient doors piqued his interest. Right now, that
was overshadowed by the fact that he couldn’t leave the mountain without
burning like a vampire in the sun.

Maybe it was a puzzle. He
thought at first that he’d spawned here by accident, but that didn’t make
sense. He began to get the idea that Adonis Corp had put him here on purpose.
But why?

No – that didn’t make
sense. Back in the white room, Dina had told him that Adonis devs couldn’t
influence the game. Once someone entered Adonis, the AI controllers were the
ones who called the shots.

“They must have a
fail-safe,” he said aloud. “It wouldn’t make sense if the devs have no
control.”

Sherlock looked at him and
tilted his head as if he was wondering what Nathan was talking about.

“Mind catching a few
rats?” he said.

Pleased to have something
to do, Sherlock stood up and gave an enthusiastic grunt. Then he went toward a
tunnel and disappeared out of the chamber, searching for the vermin that would
be their evening meal.

Alone now, Nathan looked
around. There had to be a clue somewhere. If someone had put him here on
purpose – either the devs, or the AI controllers - there was a reason for it.
This must have been a puzzle of some sort, and every puzzle had clues if you
looked hard enough.

He stood up. He stared at
the ground, walls and ceiling, slowly turning in a circle so that he could take
all of it in.

Then he stopped. There -
on the wall. Something he hadn’t seen before. Just next to the rot room, the
wall was different. It wasn’t made of dirt anymore but instead seemed to be
made of a sheet of running water.

He got to his feet. He
felt tired, and he wondered if there was a sleep gauge to go with the hunger
one. Ignoring the feeling, he crossed the room until he stood in front of the
water.

The water ran from the
chamber ceiling and down the wall, ending when it hit the ground. It didn’t
make a noise, nor did it wet the mud when it touched it. Instead, it just
seemed to disappear.

Nathan reached out with
his finger to touch it. An inch away, he hesitated. He thought he would feel
some of the water spit out at him so close to it, but he felt nothing. Then he
pushed his finger further forward until he touched the water.

Suddenly, it solidified.
It became not a sheet of water, but instead a solid, reflective surface. Like a
mirror but more natural, as if it were part of the structure of the mountain.

Her stepped back in
surprise. He realized that he could see himself in the reflection.

My God, he thought, as he looked at
himself.

He wasn’t a man.

He stepped back further,
but couldn’t take his eyes off his reflection. It showed him his body, but it
wasn’t solid. It was more of a shimmering outline, as if his body wasn’t whole.
Instead, it was a vague shape. There, but not there at the same time. That
wasn’t even the strangest thing.

Looking at himself, he
finally realized what he was. The game hadn’t spawned him as a man. It hadn’t
spawned him as any RPG class he’d ever seen before. It had spawned him as a
monster. Six feet tall. Long arms and legs, much longer than a man’s. His head
was large, with sharp ears. When he opened his mouth, his reflection followed
suit. He saw transparent outlines of pointed teeth. Sharp, perfect for tearing
at meat. He lifted his arms and saw his hands. On the ends of each hand were
six claws.

This couldn’t be right.
He couldn’t understand how he’d spawned as this…thing… without getting to
choose his class for himself. Even more confusing was the fact that his body
didn’t seem to be whole. It was like a ghost outline of a figure.

That must be why he
hadn’t been able to attack the rat. In that case, how could he move? Speak?
Eat?

He felt as if something
had changed inside him, but he couldn’t figure out what. Something was
different all the same. He stared at his ghostly shape and had the sickening
sense that he wasn’t real. He felt like he needed to reassure himself that he
did in fact exist.

He lifted his hand – his
clawed hand, he now realized. How hadn’t he noticed the claws before? Was it
because the game had chosen not to show him until now?

Nevertheless, he lifted
them, and he touched his own chest. It felt solid. Real. And as he did, the
menu screen appeared.

Character Screen

Map

Inventory

Quests

Chat

The ‘character’ and
‘inventory’ screens weren’t greyed out anymore! This didn’t solve the mystery,
but it was progress, at least. He selected character screen, and the menu
overlay changed in front of him. In transparent text, it listed the details of
his character.

Nathan Attis

Class:

Tuphos

Level:

1

HP:

144/152

Att:

15

Def:

11

Orb Total:

0

Minions:

1

Energy:

28/102

Insanity:

5%

Power 1:

Power 2:

Power 3:

There was a lot for him
to process. He recognized most of the fields from his experience playing RPGs.
HP meant hitpoints – his life force. If the counter fell to zero, he was dead.
Att and Def obviously meant his ability to deal and take damage. But what about
his class? He’d never heard of a Tuphos before, but he guessed it was the name
for the monster he saw in his reflection. Him. He was the monster.

Hang on a second though.
If his character sheet listed an attack stat, did that mean he had the ability
to fight now? He needed to check that out.

Before that, he needed to
digest the rest of his character. His energy was simple, and the fact it was
currently 28 out of 102 explained why he was so tired. He guessed that
levelling up would increase his HP and energy. Hopefully his attack and
defence, too. The usual way of levelling was to kill things to get experience,
so he’d need to try that out.

The most curious of the
stats was the insanity meter. It was currently at 5%. The fact it was listed as
a percentage and not a number indicated that 100% was the maximum, but what did
that mean? Reaching the highest level on an insanity meter didn’t sound great.

Finally, there were his
powers. Three of them, all blank. He’d need to find out how to get them. After
a day of confusion, things were looking up. Sure, he’d found out he was trapped
in the mountain, but that in itself was something. Solid information. And at
least he knew where the exit was now.

He closed the character
screen and found himself looking at the main menu. There, he brought up his
inventory. It showed a 3 x 3 grid of squares. As he’d expected, they were all
empty.

Just then, he heard
Sherlock’s footsteps as he came back from his rat hunt. Nathan turned and
looked at the goblin.

“Did you catch anything?”

Sherlock gave a grunt in
the affirmative.

“Great. Could you pass me
a rat please, buddy?”

Sherlock lumbered over
and handed him the limp corpse of a rat. Nathan took it, opened his inventory,
and placed the rat over one of the transparent grid squares. He heard a chiming
noise and saw that now, one of the squares was filled.

Okay, good. This meant he
currently had an inventory space of 9, with one slot filled. At some point,
he’d need to find a way to expand that. He wondered if anyone in Adonis made
backpacks for Tuphos monsters.

“You knew I was a monster
all this time, didn’t you?” he said to Sherlock.

The goblin smiled.

“I guess that’s why you
didn’t attack me. I should have known.”

Someone had screwed with
him, that was for sure. He should have been given the chance to select his own
class and then started in Janess village. Instead, they’d spawned him here as a
monster, and trapped him in a mountain. He wasn’t best pleased with the
situation, but he was damned if he’d let that bother him. At least now he had
goals.

One, he needed to escape
the mountain. That was his highest priority. The thought occurred that even if
he escaped, other human players would attack him, but he’d deal with that
later. Let’s see how strong a warrior is when I run at him with my claws.

Two, he needed to find
out what his powers were and how to get them. He sensed the clue must have been
in the mountain, somewhere. There had to be a reason he was sent here, and he’d
find out what that was.

He had every reason to
feel a little angry about his discovery, but instead, it brought him a
reassurance. He’d found a piece of the puzzle. It was a small one, maybe, and
it left a whole lot still to solve, but at least he was getting somewhere.

“Okay,” he said, raising
his claws. “Guess I need to go rat hunting and see what these babies can do.”

Before he left the
chamber, he took one last look in the water mirror. He saw the outlines of his
head, his arms, claws, legs and body. He couldn’t help but feel that there was
something he needed to do. Something that would make his body look whole. Real.

He and Sherlock left by
the first passageway, the one they’d already scouted. As they walked down it,
Nathan kept a look out for rats.

“I know what you’re
thinking,” he said, looking at Sherlock. “Why didn’t we go down the 2nd
passageway and see what’s there?”

Sherlock shrugged.

“Well, my energy is low.
I want to know my exits, in case I need to get back to the chamber. I’ve got a
funny feeling that the rot room is where I sleep. I hope to hell I’m wrong.”

They took the twists and
turns of the passageway. Every so often he brought up his map. Just ahead of
him, the map showed a part of the tunnel wall that was colored lighter than the
rest. Nathan was pretty sure it meant that this part of the wall could be
destroyed and that it might lead somewhere.

He walked until he stood
next to the lighter part. Without the map, this part of the wall looked just
like the rest. Rust-colored stone, slightly weathered from the drips of water
that ran down it. There wasn’t much water, but he supposed that the mountain
had been here for centuries. Or it had been programmed that way, at least. A
drop of water on its own was nothing, but hundreds of years of running water
were enough to cut grooves in the toughest stone.

He raised his claws. It
was time to see what they could do. 15 attack points didn’t seem like much, but
if his guess was right, he’d do enough damage to destroy this part of the wall.

He breathed in. He got
ready. And then he looked at the wall and went to hit it.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. Nothing.
Just like with the rat earlier.

It must have had
something to do with his form seeming transparent in the mirror. Maybe his body
wasn’t whole yet, and there was something he needed to do to fill it in.

Behind him, Sherlock
grunted.

“What’s wrong?” asked
Nathan.

Sherlock cupped his hand
around his pointy ear. Then he gestured down the tunnel, toward the mountain
exit.

“You’ve heard something?”
asked Nathan.

Sherlock nodded. Nathan listened,
but he couldn’t hear anything. Sherlock’s senses must have been better attuned
to the sounds of the mountain than his were. Maybe the goblin was living up to
his namesake.

“Let’s check it out,”
said Nathan. “Get your dagger out, and walk as slow as you can.”

The two of them crept
down the tunnel and toward the exit. The diamond-shaped opening grew larger and
larger, but it was dark now. The blue sky had disappeared, the sun had
retreated. It was nighttime in Adonis.

They reached the hall
where the Ancient doors were. Sherlock stopped. He put his hand to his ear
again, and looked like he was listening to something intently. Then, he turned
and pointed at a door.

It was the archway for
Ancient #1. Nathan’s heart rate sped up. Was something there?

He walked forward,
careful not to make too much noise. Then, he looked at the archway of Ancient
#1. It looked as it had before; covered in shadow, not much to see.

Whatever Sherlock had
heard, was down there. Nathan was defenseless, but he knew he had to
investigate. The problem was that last time he’d tried to walk through, an
invisible wall had stopped him.

“Stay close, he said.

Then, he walked down the
cramped corridor. This time, there was no invisible wall to stop him. A few
seconds later the tunnel widened.

Nathan walked into the
room of Ancient #1.

Chapter Five

At first, the darkness
seemed so heavy that he wondered whether he’d be able to walk through it. He
stood in the doorway and waited for his eyes to adjust, listening out for the
sounds of anything living. Sherlock was behind him, tapping his dagger against
his palm.

“Quiet a second, buddy,”
said Nathan.

Not only did Sherlock
stop tapping his dagger, but he took a comically large breath and then held it
in. It was as if he was doing the utmost to not make a noise.

“You can breathe,” said
Nathan, “but just listen out for anything. Your hearing is better than mine.”

So far, the Tuphos
monster class wasn’t proving to be great. He couldn’t attack things, and his
goblin friend had better senses than him. There had to be a way to unlock his
attack and his power options. He needed to escape the mountain, but he wouldn’t
do it defenseless.

After hearing nothing, he
decided he better cross the room. He walked forward. He couldn’t see much, but
it appeared to be larger than his main chamber. The walls to his left and right
were far away, though he could see a shadow in front of him that marked the
northern wall. And in front of the wall, was an even darker shadow. There was
something there, but he couldn’t make out what it was.

Keeping his senses alert,
he walked to the northern wall. As he got closer, he realized that the darker
shape in front of the wall was a statue. Nathan stopped when he was in front of
it.

Something felt wrong. It
was something in the air, a nasty quality to it. As though mixed in the oxygen
was something old and evil. He couldn’t see or hear anything moving, but he got
the sense that something was there with him.

He felt something brush
his arm, and he almost jumped out of his skin. Then he realized it was
Sherlock, and that the goblin was bunching up close to him. He must have been
afraid.

“Steady on,” said Nathan.
“There’s nothing to be scared about.”

The goblin moved closer
to Nathan, knocking him off balance. He put a hand out on the statue to steady
himself. As he touched it, a shot of cold snapped over his hand. The statue
made a rumbling sound, and then a pair of red eyes lit up.

“Wish you there be
light?”

The statue’s voice was
deep and booming, and it filled the room. It startled him for a second, but
then he got himself together.

“Sure,” said Nathan.
“It’s pretty dark in here.”

“Then speak my name.”

He thought about it for a
few seconds. Was this a riddle? Should he already know the name of the statue?
He wondered where he could have learned it. Possibly in the second passageway
that split off from his chamber? Whatever the answer, he didn’t have time to go
back. His energy was at 26 out of 100 now, and he’d need to rest soon.

“Wish you light?”
repeated the statue. “Then speak my name.” Again, the deep voice. Commanding.
Serious. It reminded Nathan of one of his foster dads when he was annoyed.

“Can’t you just turn the
lights on?” said Nathan. “And after that, we can get properly introduced.”

“Speak my name.”

“Fine,” he said. And then
he thought of something. It was stupid, but it just might work. “What’s your
name again?”

“Errelile the Ancient.”

Nathan cleared his
throat. Then, and in his best impression of a drill-sergeant, he filled the
room with his own voice.

“Errelile the Ancient,
let there be light!”

“Congratulations. You
have learned my Ancient name.”

The statue’s eyes glowed
red. The light began to spread over the statue’s face, its body and then to its
feet, before drifting out into the rest of the room. It spread through the old
place, going further and further until it hit the walls. Before long, the room
was lit by a pale red light. It was like he was looking through a filter of
blood. But hey, light was light. It reminded him of the dark room of a
photography lab.

He turned to look at
Errelile the Ancient. He realized that although he was a statue, he could move.
Even lit up, the statue was no less strange. Errelile had the body of a lion,
though he was thin and malnourished. His neck stretched out a foot longer than
it should, and on the end of the neck was a man’s head. Only, his lips were so
big that they spread fully across his face from earlobe to earlobe. When he
opened them, Nathan saw four rows of teeth. Errelile’s neck was so thin that it
looked like it shouldn’t have been able to support his human head.

Errelile arched his back
and stretched out. Nathan wondered how long the lion…man…thing… had been here.
Judging by how stale the air was, it had been decades. After finishing his
stretch, Errelile looked at Nathan. His burning red eyes should have made him
fearsome, but there was something too comical about his human head bobbing up
and down on a thin lion neck. It was like a balloon on the end of a piece of
string.

Errelile leant his head
in. He spoke to Nathan, but this time he was quieter.

“Tell me, mortal,” he
said, his gruff voice tickling Nathan’s ear. “Did thou knowst my name before
entering my chamber?”

Nathan shook his head.
“If I had to guess, I would have had you down as a Peter.”

“Peter? Who is Peter?”

“Never mind,” said
Nathan. “Can you explain what’s going on here?”

Errelile straightened up.
He put his front paws solidly in front of him and arched his shoulders. He was
trying to look intimidating, Nathan guessed. Well, in the Marines he had taken
up boxing for a while. He’d once gotten into the ring with a guy covered in
tattoos who had a good 35 lbs. on Nathan. This weird lion-man didn’t have a
patch on Mad Frank.

“Before I explain, thou
must make a vow,” demanded Errelile.

The Ancient sounded
serious. Nathan nodded his head.

“Tell me the vow,
Errelile. And then I will decide.”

“Promise me.”

“I can’t promise to keep
a vow I haven’t heard,” answered Nathan.

“Very well. I will tell
you the vow, and then thou must decideth.”

“Decideth?” Nathan
couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you just adding ‘eth’ to the ends of
words because you think it sounds more mysterious?”

Errelile lifted his left
front paw and scratched his chin. “Enough, mortal. This is the vow.”

He leant in toward
Nathan, blasting his face with hot beast breath.

“Go on, what’s the vow?”
said Nathan.

Errelile leant even
closer. Their faces were almost touching now. Whatever this vow was, it was a
great secret. The proximity was starting to feel awkward.

“You must promise…” said
Errelile.

“Yeah?”

“That you won’t tell the
other 2 Ancients that you didn’t knoweth my name before entering my chamber.”

Nathan almost laughed,
but there was such a serious look on Errelile’s face that he decided not to
upset him. Besides, his energy had dropped to 24 now, so he needed to get
things moving. Getting into Ancient #1 was progress, but he still didn’t
understand what was going on.

“So, you want me to
pretend I had to figure out your name?”

Errelile bowed his head
low. “You tricked me. If the other Ancients find out, they will make mirth at
me,” he said.

“Sure. It’ll be our
secret. Can you tell me what’s going on? Why I’m here?”

Errelile settled onto his
back haunches. He opened his mouth, and the pale red light of the room flashed
on his four rows of teeth. The way the beast’s smile spread unnaturally across
his face sent a shiver through Nathan for a second. Errelile seemed comical,
but there was something unnerving about his teeth.

“There are 3 Ancients in
the mountain,” said Errelile.

His words were deep,
clear, steady. It was as though he’d rehearsed this speech.

“Each more dreadful than
the next. You must visit them, spawned one. You must complete their tests. Your
reward will be a dark power bestowed from each Ancient.”

“What kind of tests?”
asked Nathan.

Errelile stared at Nathan
for a few seconds, as if he were making a judgement on his character. Then,
instead of answering him, he looked up and shouted, “Let the test begineth.”

“I told you, just adding
‘eth’ to everything doesn’t-”

A sound stopped Nathan
mid-sentence. Across the room, the opening that led out into the passageway was
closing. He heard the noise of stone rumbling shut as if a boulder was rolling
into place. Within a few seconds, the archway was blocked, and Nathan was
trapped in the room.

Sherlock made a hissing
sound. He held his dagger tight and eyed Errelile with hate. Nathan wondered
whether his friend was going to attack. When the goblin put his mind to it, he
looked dangerous.

Without knowing what
Errelile was capable of, he wasn’t going to start a fight. Especially not when
he couldn’t attack yet. Sometimes, the safest thing to do was keep a clear
head.

“What’s going on?” he
asked Errelile.

“This is your first
test,” boomed the lion man, his head bobbing hypnotically on the end of his
neck.

Nathan looked around.
He’d been so interested in Errelile that he hadn’t studied the rest of the room
yet. Now that it was lit by a mist of red light, he could see its edges. It was
a square-shaped room. The floor was made of stone, and something was painted on
it, though Nathan suspected he’d need a bird’s eye view to see what it
depicted.

By the west wall, there
was another statue. Unlike Errelile, this one didn’t seem to be alive. It was
the statue of a man, under 6-feet tall, wearing a robe that completely covered
him.

Opposite it, next to the
east wall, was a giant weighing scale. On either end were metal basins to put
things in, and in the centre was a metal block that held the scales in place.
One scale was higher than the other. There was something written on the block,
but he couldn’t read it from there.

Feeling Errelile’s gaze
on the back of his neck, Nathan crossed the room until he was near the giant
scales. On the metal block, written in black text, were words.

Here you come,

To seek what’s
mine,

A weight of bones,

Will lighteth my
shrine.

Poetry had never been his
strong point. In fact, he’d always had to work harder than other people at
anything academic if he didn’t want to fall behind. Reading the cryptic rhymes,
he remembered being in English class back in school. Hours spent trying to interpret
line after line of poetry. It had never meant much to him. Some people saw
beauty in it, he knew, but it didn’t do anything for him.

At least this poem was
straight forward. ‘A weight of bones, will light my shrine.’ Well, he was stood
in front of a weighing scale, so the obvious answer was that he needed bones to
put on it. Where would he get those from?

He looked around. There
was the statue of the hooded man, but he doubted that stone counted as bones.
Then there was Errelile, who again wouldn’t count as part of a skeleton.
Sherlock stood by the southern wall of the room. He pressed against the wall,
as though he needed the reassurance of something solid behind him. The poor
goblin didn’t like it in here.

“Sherlock,” Nathan
shouted. “How many rat corpses do you have?”

Sherlock rummaged in his
bag and then brought out a single dead rat. Added to the one in Nathan’s
inventory, that made two. It was hardly a weight of bones.

Think, he told himself.

He looked across the
room, but he couldn’t see anything else of note. Certainly no bones or anything
like that. But there had to be something.

He brought up his map to
see if there was anything else. Then he saw it.

“Now we’re talking.”

On the map, where the
northern wall of the room was, a small section of it was colored lighter than
the rest.

Nathan walked across the
room until he stood in front of it.

“Sherlock,” he said. “Can
you attack this part of the wall?”

The goblin looked at
Nathan as if he’d lost his mind.

Nathan grinned. “Just trust
me.”

Grunting, Sherlock
started hitting the wall with his dagger. At first, it looked like the weapon
wasn’t enough to damage it. Then, Nathan noticed numbers flashing above the
wall. Every time Sherlock struck the stone, numbers appeared in the air for an
instant.

28/50

26/50

24/50

The numbers must have
been the durability of the wall. Sherlock’s dagger didn’t have much attack
power, but it was working.

“Keep going,” Nathan told
him.

When the wall durability
reached zero, the stone crumbled to the ground. A film of dust kicked up into
the air, and Nathan took a badly-timed intake of breath. The dust clogged his
throat and got in his eyes. He rubbed them and cleared his vision.

The new hole in the wall
led into another room. Nathan walked through the doorway and stood in it. This
room wasn’t much bigger than a shed. The walls were made of cold, grey stone.
In the centre of the room, a dozen rats were on the floor.

He moved back out of
instinct. He watched them and realized that the rats weren’t dead. Instead, it
seemed that they were sleeping. He counted and realized that there wasn’t a
dozen, but more like thirty rats of different sizes. Two adults slept in the
centre. They were surrounded by other smaller rats that must have been their
children. This was a rat family.

Wedged above them,
suspended from the roof and nestled between both sides of the room, was a giant
rock. It seemed to be balanced between the two walls as though it had been put
there on purpose. The rats snoozed underneath, blissfully unaware of the two tons
of stone looming above them.

He realized that on one
edge of the rock, where the boulder met the wall, there was a small piece of stone.
It was just a chip, but it was so tightly fitted that it seemed to be holding
the whole thing in place.

Nathan stared at the
scene for a second, and then it dawned on him.

A weight of bones,

Will lighteth my
shrine.

It was obvious now. There
were enough rats here to make up the weight of bones, and apparently, Nathan
was supposed to kill them. He wouldn’t even need to attack them, either. All
he’d have to do would be to remove the chip of rock holding the boulder in
place, and let it crush the rats.

“Oh man,” he said.

He knew he couldn’t do
it. He badly wanted to know what would happen if he solved the Errelile’s
riddle. Despite that, he knew he couldn’t murder the rat family. They were
innocent. They weren’t being hostile or threatening. Instead, they were all
just sleeping together. Curled up against one another.

Through his military training,
he knew that there were times when you had to kill. But that wasn’t all. His
army experience had also taught him that there was a value to every life. Not
just a human’s, but of everything. Killing was a necessity sometimes, but peace
was as well.

He turned and left the
room and walked back into the main one. There had to be another way. He knew he
was being sentimental, but he just couldn’t bring himself to kill the rats.
Maybe if they’d attacked him it would be different, but he didn’t get the feeling
that they had hostile intentions.

He looked around the room
for something else. Sherlock was stood against the wall. The weighing scales
were across from him. Errelile watched Nathan, his red eyes glowing. The
Ancient offered no words of encouragement. Nathan guessed there was no point
asking.

Then he had an idea. Next
to the newly-created opening was the rubble from the part of the wall Sherlock
had smashed. There were plenty of stones there. More than enough to put on the
weighing scales. It was worth a try.

“Give me a hand,” he told
Sherlock.

Together they picked up
the stones and carried them over to the weighing scales. One scale was raised
up further than the other, so this must have been the side that he was supposed
to balance.

Grunting, he lifted some
stones and placed them on the scales. They made a clanging sound as they hit
the metal. Gradually, the scales started to level out until soon, they were
perfectly even.

He heard something click.
And then a faint rumbling sound. Across the room, Errelile spoke. This time his
voice was almost taunting.

“You must learn,

That when I’m
deceived,

I’ll take my
vengeance,

My dark reprieve.”

And with that, the
rumbling sound grew louder and louder. Nathan couldn’t place where it came
from. That was when he realized it wasn’t coming from a single point in the
room, but all around him. He looked at the walls, and a feeling of dread crept
across his chest.

The walls were closing
in! The room was going to crush him.

He ran over to the exit
and found that it was still blocked. Inch by inch, the stone walls of the room
began to close in. Soon, they’d crush him to a pulp.

There had to be something
he could do.

“Errelile,” he said.
“Stop the walls. Just give me a second to think.”

The Ancient said nothing,
though Nathan knew his glowing red eyes were focused on him.

He looked around. He
still had time to go and crush the rats, but something told him he shouldn’t.
It was a feeling inside him, something urging him to find another way. He
couldn’t explain it, but he just knew that something bad would happen if he
murdered the rat family.

Sherlock looked worried.
He turned to face a wall, put his hands on it and started to push, grunting
with effort. It was no use.

“We need another way,”
said Nathan.

Come on. Think.

The walls got closer. The
air became heavy. Clogged with dust. The rumbling sound was almost deafening.

He went over to the
scales and frantically started to remove the stones. As he did, the scales
lifted until soon they were unbalanced again, as they had been before. Despite
correcting his mistake, Nathan looked on in dismay as the walls kept closing
in. The room size had already reduced by half. Not long know until he was
squeezed into a puddle of Tuphos juice.

“It’ll kill you too,” he
said to Errelile. “Don’t you see that? It’ll crush you as well as me.”

The Ancient ignored him.

Then he saw it. To his
left, pushed up against the wall. The statue of a man, covered by a long black
robe. Before, he’d dismissed it thinking it was just part of the whole “creepy
crypt” type feel of Ancient room #1. That wouldn’t make sense though.
Everything in this room was here for a reason.

He grabbed the lapel of
the statue’s robe and yanked it away.

This was it.

He saw that this wasn’t a
statue. Instead, it was a full human skeleton, fixed to a stone base to give it
the appearance of a statue. The robe had completed the illusion.

“Okay Sherlock,” he said.
“You know what to do.”

Together, they began to
tear bones from the skeleton and place them on the metal scale. The walls
closed in on them. The room was just a quarter of its size now, and the east
wall was getting close to Errelile. If it bothered him, the Ancient didn’t show
it.

As the bones clanged down
on the metal, the scale began to balance. Adrenaline shot through Nathan, and
he worked faster. Clang, clang, clang. The work made him sweat, and he felt his
energy bar dwindle.

He set the last bone on
the scale and watched as they balanced again. He leant against the scale,
exhausted.

The rumbling stopped. The
walls became still. Nathan’s eyes stung from the dust, so he rubbed them. For a
second he waited and caught his breath.

“Come,” said Errelile.

The Ancient had been
silent for so long that his voice surprised Nathan. He walked over to the lion
man and stood in front of him.

“Kneel,” said Errelile.

Nathan was beyond
questioning things. His energy bar had fallen to just 10 now. His legs felt
heavy. Slowly, he got down to his knees in front of the Ancient.

With that, Errelile
hopped down off his platform so that he stood next to Nathan. For a few
seconds, he didn’t move. An awkward silence filled the room. When nothing
happened, Nathan got to his feet.

“Why did I need to
kneel?”

“Thou did not needeth to.
I just wanted to see if you would,” said the Ancient.

Nathan shook his head. He
was so tired that he just wanted to get out of here.

“What now?” he said.

“Close your eyes,” said
Errelile.

“No way. Enough with the
jokes.”

“I’m serious this time,
mortal. Close them. Please.”

Sighing, Nathan closed
his eyes. He heard Errelile move. Then, he felt the Ancient’s front paws on his
shoulders. Was he trying to hug him? He almost opened his eyes, when he felt something
warm spread over his shoulders. It wasn’t a painful kind of warmth like he’d
felt when he tried to leave the mountain. This was a pleasant feeling, as
though energy was circulating through him. It spread down his arms, heating up
his skin, and then it concentrated in his claws.

He heard a whooshing
sound. He felt the heat shoot out from his claws. He couldn’t help opening his
eyes. When he did, he saw that the room was filled with white light. Like
daylight, but with a magical aura to it.

He lifted his hands, and
he finally saw them in all their glory. They were bigger than a man’s hands.
His skin was rough, almost like leather. Six claws extended from his hands.
They looked to be made of something like ivory, and seemed sharp enough to chop
through steel.

Power #1 Gained –
Soul Claw

This is a base
attack, allowing you to slash and stab enemies.

A slash is
quicker and takes less energy, but deals less damage.

A stab will hurt
your foes more, but will drain you quicker.

With enough orbs,
you can upgrade your claws.

This was great. He didn’t
know what he’d expected when he came into this room, but he knew it had been
worth it. He was still no closer to finding a way to exit the mountain, but at
least now he could defend himself.

He brought up his menu
and looked at his character sheet. Some of it had altered now. He studied the
changes.

Att: 34

Power #1 – Soul
Claw

Skill: Mining

Getting his claws had
increased his attack power, which made sense. The number 34 didn’t mean much to
him yet, and it wouldn’t until he actually used the claws and saw what damage
they did. Curiously, he seemed to have gained a skill as well as a power. Maybe
the ‘mining’ skill had something to do with the orbs.

“What are orbs?” he said,
looking at Errelile. “Apparently I need to use them to upgrade my claws.”

“The orbs are within the
mountain,” said the Ancient. He turned his back on Nathan and began to walk
away from him.

“Wait. I have questions.”

The Ancient walked to the
room with the rat nest and stopped in the doorway.

“I commend your choice,
Nathan,” said Errelile. “You passed my test nobly. But there is a further
lesson you must learn. Tuphos is a monster class, and to get the most from it,
you must embrace it. Be at one with your nature.”

The Ancient walked into
the rat room. He leapt up and struck the boulder with his paws, loosening the
chip that held it in place. The stone crashed down onto the sleeping rats,
killing them instantly. Nathan grimaced at the squelching sound their bodies
made.

“What hell?” he said.
“What was the point in giving me a choice if you were just going to kill them
anyway?”

“There is a lesson here.
You must understand your nature.”

Whatever the lesson was,
Nathan didn’t have time to think about it. He realized that the door to the Ancient
room was open now. From outside it, somewhere along the mountain passageways,
he heard something.

Voices. There were people
in the mountain.

He turned and walked
toward the archway.

Chapter Six

He went into the
passageway outside the Ancient doors and stopped. He listened. At first, he
couldn’t hear anything except Sherlock’s plodding footsteps. When the goblin
joined him at his side, he listened carefully.

There were definitely
voices. Human. More than two of them. Where were they coming from? He brought
up his map screen. Although a large part of the mountain was greyed out because
he hadn’t travelled there yet, he saw some icons on the map. There were four
different colored ‘P’s, and they were moving slowly through the tunnels.

Finally, someone was here
who might be able to tell him what was going on. Maybe they’d be able to help
him escape. He knew his energy was low, but rest was just going to have to
wait. Janess was out there, and with it was a warm bed, cooked food and some
human company.

The ‘P’ icons seemed to
be moving away from him. They were in a greyed-out area of the map, so Nathan
couldn’t see the exact way to get to them. He guessed that he would have to go
all the way out of the passage and back to his main chamber. From there he
would have to take the other, unexplored, passageway.

The problem was, that
would take up more energy that he wanted. He didn’t know what would happen when
his energy bar hit zero. In some games, it just meant that your actions slowed
down. You couldn’t run, and your attacks moved at half speed. In other,
harsher, games, an empty energy bar meant you lost HP. Right now, he had 140,
but he still didn’t know how to heal. It wouldn’t be wise to risk losing more
until he was surer of how things worked.

There had to be a way to
get to the players. Looking at the map, his attention was drawn to the
light-colored sections of the walls. He’d tried to break one down earlier but
he wasn’t able to. Now, with his Soul Claw power, he should be able to bust
through. Time to get moving.

When he got to the first
weak part of the wall he stopped. He savored the moment. This would be the
first time he was finally able to use an attack. It was a pity he couldn’t use
it on an enemy for his debut strike, but oh well.

He raised his claws.
Focusing his energy, he struck the wall. While Sherlock’s had taken a dozen
strikes to break through, Nathan’s claws took just 1 to reduce the wall to
rubble.

“I could get used to
this,” he said, then stood back triumphantly.

He looked at his claws.
These things were powerful, that was for sure. He thought briefly about the
orbs. Of how to get them, and then what upgrades he could buy. He had the sense
that the Tuphos monster class had amazing potential.

That would have to wait
for now. The voices were a little louder, but still faint. He brought up his
map. Breaking through the wall had expanded his explored section a little. He
saw that there were several tunnels and passageways ahead. In some spots, there
were lighter areas. He guessed that if he spent the time, he’d be about to
create numerous shortcuts through the labyrinth.

He followed the tunnels,
every so often checking his map to see where the other players were. They
seemed to be making slow progress. He guessed that meant they were as
unfamiliar with the mountain as he was.

After smashing through
several shortcuts and following the tunnels, he heard the players. One of them
was whistling a song. Two others talked. The fourth was silent. They were ahead
of him.

The prospect of finally
seeing other players made his heart thump. He liked Sherlock, but the goblin
didn’t offer much in the way of conversation. He’d talked to the Ancient a
little, but the lion-man spoke in riddles. It would be good to chat to some
grounded, real people.

He walked down the tunnel
and turned the corner, and saw them up ahead.

As his map had suggested,
there were 4 of them. One had a bald head, and wore a long white robe that went
down to his boots. There was the faint outline of a red cross on the front, but
he’d painted a smiley face on it. In his hand, he held a short-handled mallet
with an oversized head on it. There was something calm about this man, as
though he gave off an air of tranquility. Added to this, there was a shimmering
light around him. Faint, but enough to cast a glow in the darkness.

Although he couldn’t tell
what class this man was, the others were easy. Two warriors and a rogue. The
warriors had long hair and carried swords. They could only be differentiated by
their hair color – blonde and black – and different sets of armor.

The rogue walked slightly
ahead of them all, indicating that he was in charge. He wore clothes so dark
that when he went near a wall, it was as if he blended into it. His trousers and
armored tunic were skin tight, presumably to help his movement. He held daggers
in both hands, but that wasn’t what made him look fearsome. When the rogue
stepped into the glow of the bald man, Nathan saw him clearly.

He wore a white mask over
his face. The expression on the mask had a sneering, almost evil look to it. It
was a face of cruelty. The kind of guy who, if he’d been in the Ancient’s test,
would have crushed the rat family with glee.

It was seeing this that
made Nathan hang back a little. He decided to listen to what they had to say
before making himself known to them.

“All I’m saying is we
better be careful,” said the warrior. “I only brought a couple of poison
antidotes. If there are any spidercocks here, we’re screwed.”

“Spidercucks. Not cocks.
And you should have stocked up better,” said the rogue.

“I didn’t get the chance!
The quest only opened yesterday, for Christ's sake. We’re probably the first
people here.”

“We’d be idiots to pass
it up,” said Warrior #2.

The rogue nodded. “You
might have a point, for once, but stop bawling and plum up. We need to be
strong, not scared. If we do this right, we’ll have enough gold for a castle
each.”

The bald man turned to
the rogue. “We’ll have to share it with the guild, Gevil,” he said.

“Bugger the guild,” said
the rogue. “And if you say anything, I’ll cut your shiny head off.”

Bald head held firm. “No,
you won’t. Think about it. We made a promise. Loyalty above all.”

What quest were they
talking about? Nathan had a quest button his main menu, but it was greyed out,
as was the chat option. He was going to have to talk to these guys. If they
were in a guild, that at least meant they weren’t raiders or player killers.
Maybe they could help him.

He stepped out of the
shadows and started walking toward them. One of the warriors turned at the
sound of his footsteps.

“Oh shit, it’s him!” he
shouted.

“Hey,” said Nathan. “Do
you guys-”

No sooner had Nathan
opened his mouth, then the two warriors rushed at him, swords drawn. He was
still new to Adonis, but he guessed this wasn’t some sort of local greeting.
They meant to kill him.

Behind him, Sherlock drew
his dagger. Nathan felt a momentary flicker of fear, but not for himself.
Goblins were low-level creatures, everyone knew that. Two warriors could easily
kill his friend.

Sherlock didn’t share the
same fear. He grunted and was about to leap forward when Nathan spread out his
arms to block him.

“Stay there,” he said.

The warriors were just
feet away now. Behind them, the rogue raised his daggers. While the warriors
had rushed into attack mode, the rogue was taking a more measured approach.
Nathan knew that his careful manner made him the most dangerous of all of them.
Behind the rogue, the bald man hung back. He must have been a support class of
some kind. A healer, or something like that.

That meant three
attack-minded players and one support, versus him and Sherlock. Not great odds,
but Nathan had seen worse. Besides, he wasn’t defenseless anymore. The warriors
might have had steel blades, but Nathan had giant monster claws. He held them
out.

“Fine, if you don’t want
to talk. We’ll settle this another way.”

The first warrior saw
Nathan’s claws and then hesitated. It was just for a split second, but enough
time for Nathan to strike the first blow. Unfortunately, as he aimed for the
warrior’s chest – always go for the larger target – he realized that he
hadn’t had a chance to practice with Soul Claw. His movements were slow, and
the warrior managed to pivot away, deflecting most of the damage onto his arm.

Warrior #2 moved to the
side of Nathan now and closed in on him. The last thing he needed was to be
caught in a pincer movement. He stepped back, narrowly avoiding the swing of a
sword.

By now the rogue was
charging forward. Rather than run at Nathan head on, he stuck to the sidelines,
hugging the wall so that he was partly covered by shadow. It was a good tactic.

Sherlock moved forward,
dagger out. Nathan didn’t want the goblin to get hurt, but he knew he couldn’t
take on the warriors alone. And even if he did, that left the rogue. Added to
that, if the bald-headed support started healing his friends, he and Sherlock
had no chance.

“Stay out of range,” he
told Sherlock. “Don’t get hit.”

While he moved out of the
way of the warrior to his side, the one in front caught him off guard, slicing
his blade across Nathan’s chest. The tip of the sword scratched him, and he
felt his HP drain. It stung like hell, but he pushed the pain away.

He backed off. He still
wasn’t used to the weight of his claws or his attack speed, so he needed to
time his moves carefully. The warrior to the side of him held his sword in a
parry position, as if expecting Nathan to attack.

He needed to wait for an
opening. To let the warrior attack, get out of the way, and then swipe him.

The warrior moved closer.

Wait for it, he told himself. Just be patient.

“What are you guys doing?
Smash him,” shouted the rogue.

The warrior moved his
sword. Just an inch, but enough for Nathan to notice that he was about to attack.
Nathan stepped out of the way and prepared to strike, when the other warrior
stabbed his blade forward, jabbing Nathan in the leg.

More HP gone. This wasn’t
going to work. One on one, he felt he could take them, but there were too many
dance partners waiting for a spin with him.

He turned around. “Come
on,” he told Sherlock.

Then he sprinted down the
tunnels.

“It’s running away,”
shouted the rogue.

He was wrong. Nathan
wasn’t running – this was a tactical retreat. There was nothing stupider than
walking into an impossible fight. Nathan had to even the odds, but he needed
breathing space to make a plan.

He ran down the twists
and turns of the tunnels. He knew that just ahead of him, there was a lighter
part of the wall. Reaching it, he struck out with his claws. The wall crumbled
and rubble lined the floor.

“Wipe your feet before
you come in,” he called out behind him.

He heard footsteps behind
him, but he didn’t turn to look. He knew they were giving chase, but he just
couldn’t work out how many of them there were.

Better lose them, he thought. He needed an advantage,
and this was it. He still wasn’t completely familiar with the mountain
passageways, but he’d at least spent more time here than the warriors.

He ran and ran until his
energy ebbed away. Soon, he had just 2 points left. But that didn’t matter,
because he knew where he was now. Ahead of him, was the main chamber.

He and Sherlock reached
the football-shaped room. Nathan stood in the centre and watched the tunnels to
see if they had managed to follow him. For a few seconds, he heard nothing. He
breathed out, glad to have a chance to rest. He could smell the odour of the
rot room behind him, and he knew he was going to have to go in there. He was
certain now that the rot room was the only place he could restore his energy.
After all, a room that smelled of death was a fitting bedchamber for a monster.

“Looks like we lost
them,” he said.

But Sherlock didn’t
relax. Instead, he stared at the tunnel as if he expected the party of players
to run down it.

Sure enough, Nathan began
to hear footsteps.

Damn it. He needed to be ready. He barely
had any energy points left, and the warrior’s sword had knocked his HP down to
101. He just hoped he had the stamina for one last fight. It was now or never,
he realized. His last stand. Even if he ran, his energy wouldn’t take him far.

As he listened, he
realized that he didn’t hear four sets of feet. Instead, there was just one.
Running through the tunnels must have confused the party. Maybe they’d split up
or had gotten separated from each other. Whatever had happened, it had played
into Nathan’s favor.

“Come on,” he said.

He turned and walked
toward the rot room. If he stayed out of view, he’d have the element of
surprise. As he crossed the chamber, the aroma of death grew stronger. It was
pungent, sour…and yet, the more he breathed it, the less it disgusted him. In
fact, as he reached the rot room and stepped into it, he found that he didn’t
mind the smell.

The walls of the rot room
were splattered with dried blood. The floor wasn’t made of stone but instead
was comprised of a fleshy substance. Nathan knelt and touched it, and found
that it was warm. As soon as he pressed his claw against it, he felt an
invigorating heat spread through him.

The footsteps entered the
main chamber. Nathan listened. Still only one of them. That was good, it meant
he had a chance. He quickly brought up his character screen and saw that his
energy was rising. Slowly, but enough to let him attack.

Then the chamber was
silent. The warrior must have stopped running. Nathan crept to the side of the
rot room opening and carefully peeked out of it.

The warrior had his back
to him. He was looking at the two tunnels as if he expected his friends to come
running through. Then, he coughed. He put his hand to his mouth.

“Jesus. That reeks,” he
said.

You get used to it, thought Nathan.

He collected himself.
This was his chance. The warrior was looking the other way. Nathan guessed that
if he attacked him, he’d get some kind of first strike bonus. Maybe even kill
him in one hit.

But hang on. That might not have been the best
way to do it. Nathan could kill this warrior, but he’d still have the other 3
to deal with. Unless he scared them away. He needed to terrify them so much
that they left the mountain.

Pain. That was the answer. He knew from
experience that you could feel pain in Adonis. It made sense – although it was
a piece of highly sophisticated software, it wasn’t really a game. To everyone
who was in it, this was a 2nd life. That meant the devs had coded it so that
you could feel all the sensations you could in the real world. With every yin,
there was a yang. If you could feel pleasure in Adonis, then you also had to
feel pain.

He needed to make the
player party terrified. He needed to drive them out of the mountain screaming
and running for their lives. And that meant he was going to have to do
something nasty.

“Stay here,” he whispered
to Sherlock. The goblin nodded.

He crept out of the rot
room. The warrior was still facing away from him, but it wouldn’t be long until
he turned around. Nathan didn’t want to do this, but he knew that he had to.

He got closer and closer.
He could hear his own breaths.

A foot away from the
warrior, he raised his claws. For a split second, he looked to his right. He
saw the water mirror on the wall. He saw his claws, fully visible now, while
the rest of his body was still a vague outline. He saw the unsuspecting
warrior, stood there and ready to die.

I’m a monster.

He breathed in. He had to
do it.

And then he stabbed
forward with his claws, putting all his effort into it. He grunted as the tip
of his razor-sharp claws stabbed through the warrior’s back and punctured his
belly.

The warrior screamed. It
was a high-pitched, pain-filled scream. One so full of agony that it sent a
shiver up Nathan’s spine. He could practically feel the warrior’s HP draining
away. Blood gushed out of the wound and dribbled down Nathan’s claws. He wanted
to pull them out, but he couldn’t yet.

He had to be sure the
others heard. To send a message and scare them away.

As the warrior slowly
died, Nathan tensed his arm. With his claw still puncturing the warrior’s back
and stomach, he twisted his hand. He writhed it from side to side so that his
claws would cause the maximum amount of pain. He felt warm blood dribble down
his skin. He heard the man’s shrill cries ring in his ears.

But he didn’t stop. He
twisted the man’s insides, sending burning pain coursing through him. The
warrior was screaming in a way Nathan had never thought possible. It was
deafening, and it seemed to echo in the main chamber.

Then the screaming
stopped. The man was dead. Nathan pulled his claw out of his back, hearing the
sickening slurp of blood and flesh. The warrior slumped down to the floor,
glassy-eyed.

50 exp received

Insanity bar
increased   by 15%

Level up to level 2!

- HP increased to 176

- Energy increased to
120

- Base Att increased
to 39

- Base Def increased
to 15

He dismissed the
messages. There would be a time to consider the changes, but this wasn’t it. He
hoped that the warrior’s screams as he died would be enough to scare away the
players, but he’d stay on guard for now.

Nathan knelt by the
warrior’s corpse. He only had 8 inventory slots empty, but he filled them with
the warrior’s sword and his armor. He couldn’t use them, of course, but maybe
he could sell them when he left the mountain.

He also found a vial of
healing potion. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed the liquid. It smelled sweet.
A little too sweet, which was surprising because he’d always had a sweet tooth.
Still, he needed to restore his HP in case the others found their way into the
main chamber. He lifted the vial and tipped the red liquid into his mouth.

At first, it tasted good.
Then, as it went down his throat, it started to burn. It felt like he’d
swallowed lava. He spat it out on the floor. Apparently, player healing potions
weren’t too effective on a Tuphos monster.

Sherlock edged his way
out of the rot room. He walked over to Nathan and looked at the warrior’s
corpse. The goblin gave him an approving look, but Nathan didn’t feel like
killing someone was worthy of admiration. Sure, it was either him or the
warrior, but it didn’t give him a glowing feeling inside.

Or did it?

Part of his mind told him
no. Another part, one that had been buried until now, slowly crept forward. It
looked at the fallen warrior, and sent happy chemicals through his brain. It
made Nathan smile at the violent scene. He felt like two opposing minds were
fighting each other in his head.

Sherlock knelt beside the
warrior. Looking at his text label, he saw that the goblin had lost 20 HP. He
couldn’t remember him getting hurt, but maybe one of the warriors had hit him
in battle.

Sherlock pulled out his
dagger. Before Nathan could stop him, he plunged it into the warrior’s arm.

Nathan grabbed his wrist.
“He’s already dead, buddy,” he said.

Sherlock grunted.
Undeterred by Nathan’s words, he stabbed his dagger further into the warrior’s
skin. He twisted it, then ripped away a piece of flesh. Then, as if it was the
most natural thing in the world, he popped it into his mouth and chewed.

Nathan stood up. This was
too much. Killing your enemies – sure. It wasn’t something he enjoyed, but if
it was a matter of survival, then there was nothing else you could do. But
eating them? No way.

As Sherlock chewed on the
flesh, his HP bar began to rise. This, at least, made him feel a little better
about things. Knowing Sherlock was eating the warrior for survival and not for
taste made it…not okay, but less repugnant.

The goblin plunged his
dagger back into the warrior’s arm and cut away more meat.

“Your bar is full,” said
Nathan. “You don’t need more.”

Sherlock nodded, then
extended his hand toward Nathan. He was offering him the meat.

Take it, said his mind.

The human part of him
fought back. Don’t eat it.

He knew which one he
should listen to. Come on, it was obvious. And yet, he needed to restore some
HP. It had worked on Sherlock, so why not on him too?

Even stranger, the piece
of flesh in Sherlock’s hand was starting to look delicious. Like with the rat
earlier, something that should have been disgusting was making him salivate.

Eat it.

Come on. Eat it.

He grabbed the flesh from
Sherlock. Without pausing to think, he put it in his mouth. Chewed it. It was
tough and rubbery, but he managed to swallow it. His belly felt warm. A second
later he checked his character screen, and he saw that his HP had risen.

Then another message
appeared.

Insanity bar increased
to 25%

This was all too much to
take. Despite his increase in HP, his energy bar was still low, and every
action he took drained it. He needed sleep. He hadn’t heard from the other
players, and he was hoping now that they’d run away. They would be back, no
doubt, but he’d think about that later.

“Stand guard,” he said to
Sherlock. “If you hear a noise, wake me.”

With aching legs, he
walked over to the rot room. He went into the center of it and then laid down.
The fleshy floor warmed his back and legs, and it seemed to mould around him
like a water bed. He stretched out his arms, closed his eyes, and felt himself
drift away.

He had nightmares that
night. He dreamt of blood, and flesh, and screams. He pictured himself as a
Tuphos monster, but back in the real world instead of the mountain. Running
down a high street and terrorizing people. Swiping with his claws. Ripping arms
off, eating the skin from people’s necks. He hacked and slashed until he was
covered in blood and spit.

And he liked it.

He bolted upright. He
awoke back in the rot room. His head was covered in sweat.

Insanity bar increased
to 35%

He got up, left the rot
room and walked into the main chamber. This wasn’t good.

It seemed that the rot
room was where he regenerated his energy, but spending time in there increased
his insanity bar. Something told him he didn’t want to find out what happened
when it reached 100%.

Chapter Seven

It was morning in Adonis,
but the main chamber was always so dark that it was hard to tell. He really had
to see about brightening the place up if he ever got a chance. Get a nice
picture frame. Hey, maybe he could train Sherlock how to paint.

As he stretched his legs,
any bright thoughts vanished. He looked at the darkness around him. He’d been
awake a couple of hours now, and he couldn’t help but remember his nightmares.

Blood. Violence. He
remembered wanting it. Thirsting for it.

The mountain was changing
him, he decided. Or maybe it was the Tuphos class. Whatever it was, he needed
to find a way to control it. He got the nasty feeling that the higher his
insanity bar raised, the more monstrous his thoughts and desires would become.
Who knew what he was capable of if he let the dark thoughts take control?

When he first woke, he’d
decided that he needed fresh air, even if he couldn’t step out into it. He
needed to see the sky and to feel the breeze on his face. He’d gone out of the
main chamber, through the tunnels, and toward the exit. Every so often he
paused and listened, but there was no sign of the other players.

At the mountain exit,
he’d conducted a little experiment. He picked up some stones and threw them out
of the exit. He had hoped that something would happen to them; that they would
burn up in the sun, or something like that. At least then he could cling to the
hope that the problem was with the mountain itself, and not with him.

Nope. The rocks tumbled
down the mountain face but otherwise seemed okay. The issue was with him, it
seemed. Something wouldn’t let him leave the mountain.

Back in the chamber, he
decided to be proactive. He stood in front of one of the dirt walls, and he
raised his claws. After earning the Soul Claw power, he’d also been granted a
mining skill. It was time to use it.

For the next ten minutes,
he hacked away at the wall. The dirt and stone fell away with each swipe of his
claw. It was hard work, and he felt his energy slowly drain. Sweat dripped from
his forehead and down his face, but he didn’t stop. There was something
meditative about the whole thing. As he slashed at the wall, he found that he
could tune out everything else. Forget the nightmares, forget he was a prisoner.

More stone crumbled.
Soon, there was a pile of it by his feet. And then he saw something.

It was buried deep within
the wall. A light shining amidst the dirt and rocks. Spherical, glowing. It was
an orb. He dug at the mud around it, working until he’d cleared enough so that
he could reach in and grab the orb. When he did, he found that there was not 1
orb, but 2. He took hold of them and put them in his inventory, finding that
both orbs could go in a single slot.

2x orbs gained

- Option unlocked: Orb
crafting

- Menu button unlocked

He closed his inventory
and checked his main menu, and sure enough, there was another button.

Character Screen

Map

Inventory

Quests

Chat

Orb Crafting

He began to feel excited.
He’d started out in the mountain with nothing. He’d been confused, alone, and
defenseless. Now, after some hard work, he’d accomplished something. He had a
minion friend, he had the Soul Claw power, and he had some orbs to craft with.
It was time to get started.

He clicked the Orb
Crafting button, and another menu overlay appeared in front of him. It reminded
him of a shopping catalogue. It was a giant list of items that could be
crafted, along with a counter that showed how many orbs were needed to make
each one.

He saw traps. Furniture.
Armor. Lots of items that he could make if he mined enough orbs from the
mountain. That wasn’t all – there were two tabs on the menu, one titled ‘Minion
Upgrades,’ and the other ‘Power Upgrades.’ It seemed that as well as crafting
items, he could spend his orbs on making his minions and powers better.

The possibilities this
brought up made him forget the nightmares. It made him think that finally, he
had a chance. There had to be something within the crafting menu that would
help him leave the mountain.

He cycled through the
list of things that he could make. There were hundreds of items, and it was
hard to process them all at first. It took him almost an hour, but finally, he
noticed two things that he thought could help.

Diamond Armor

Cost: 100 orbs

Enchantment Table

Cost: 52 orbs

Everyone who played RPGs
knew that one of the best types armor was made of diamond. It was one of the
toughest materials known to man. If anything could withstand the effects of
going outside the mountain, this was it. Added to that, if he built an
enchantment table, he guessed there was some way of adding different effects to
the armor. Some kind of magical protection, maybe. That, added to the toughness
of the diamond, might be the answer.

He had a lot of mining
ahead of him. The problem was that mining just 2 orbs had taken 20 points off
his energy. That meant that he could mine another 8 orbs before needing to
rest.

So far, so good. The
issue then was that to replenish his energy, he had to sleep in the rot room.
And doing that would bring back the nightmares, and it would increase his
insanity meter. Quite a conundrum.

Before he could even
think about how to get around that problem, he decided that he needed
protection. The players were gone now, but he was sure that they would be back.
They’d caught him by surprise the last time, but at least now he had time to
prepare. It was time to get more orbs, and then take a look at the craft
catalogue.

For the next two hours,
he dug away at the walls, going deeper and deeper. The pile of dirt grew around
him. Every time he saw a glimpse of a glowing orb he felt invigorated, and he
dug faster to get at them. By the time he stopped he’d gotten 8 more, and he’d
drained a hell of a lot from his energy bar.

“Okay,” he said aloud. “I
have 10 orbs. Now, what can I spend them on?”

He flicked back and forth
through the catalogue, reviewing the items on offer and wondering what to spend
them on. There was no point crafting any of the furniture items on offer – what
good was a bed or chair to him? Similarly, he dismissed the armor that was on
offer. No point wasting orbs on bronze or steel armor when he was saving up for
diamond.

He needed something that
would give him an advantage if any players were to come. He already had two
things going for him – his mighty claws, and his growing knowledge of the
tunnels and shortcuts. He needed something that complimented those things.

Then he saw just the
thing he needed. Toward the middle of the catalogue was a selection of magic
items. There were various spell scrolls and staffs which would be good for a
wizard, but not for him. Further down, though, he saw what he needed.

Pressure Rune

Cost: 2 orbs

When he focused on the
rune in the catalogue, a description appeared.

Pressure Runes can
be placed on a wall or on the ground. When something passes over them, the
player will receive an alert. This gives information on which rune has
activated, and how many creatures have walked over it.

Bingo. If he crafted a
few runes, he could place them at strategic parts of the mountain tunnels. That
way, there was no chance of anyone sneaking up on him. The runes would tell him
exactly where the intruders were, and it would allow him to plan on how to
tackle them.

He spent 6 orbs, and then
heard a ringing noise. A text message informed him that 3 pressure runes had
been added to his inventory. He closed his menu overlay, and then looked around
the main chamber.

“Sherlock?” he said.
“Where are you, dude?”

As his words echoed back
to him, he watched the goblin emerge from the rot room. He stretched his arms
above his head, yawned, and then rubbed his eyes. He smiled at Nathan.

“Were you having a nap?”
asked Nathan.

Sherlock nodded.

Nathan held the pressure
runes up. “I need you to go and set these,” he said. “Come here, and I’ll show
you where.”

He opened his map up in
front of him, and the transparent image filled his vision. He started to point
to places on it, but Sherlock looked around the room, confused. It seemed that
the goblin couldn’t see his map. For the next few minutes, Nathan explained as
best he could where he needed the runes to be set. He decided that he’d place
them at strategic points near the mountain entrance. No matter which route
invaders took, he’d know where they were.

Sherlock gave an
enthusiastic grunt. He took the runes, and then left the main chamber through
the first passageway.

That left 4 orbs to
spend. He knew he needed to start saving for the diamond armor and enchantment
table, but there was a problem. His energy and insanity bars meant that mining
on his own would be a waste of time. It’d take him weeks to get even close to
the number of orbs he needed. His insanity bar would fill well before he got to
that point.

He brought up the
crafting menu, and then clicked the ‘Minion Upgrade’ tab. There were just two
options here. One was to upgrade an existing minion, and it listed perks he
could give to Sherlock. The other option was more interesting.

Create a goblin minion

Cost: 2 orbs   [Limit:
1 minion per player level].

Nathan was level 2, so
that meant that he could spawn 1 more minion. Right now, he could only create
goblins. He wondered if, further down the line, he’d be able to create stronger
ones. An extra goblin wasn’t much, but it was a start. He pressed the ‘create’
button and then dismissed a message that told him he’d spent 2 orbs.

Light began to form in
front of him. A pale light, barely enough to disturb the darkness of the chamber.
It began to grow, before taking on a shape. As the light spread out, he saw a
goblin forming in front of him.

Then it stopped. It
didn’t take a full shape but instead stayed as an outline of light. If he
squinted, he could make out the vague body of a goblin, but it wasn’t
fully-formed. It reminded Nathan of his own reflection when he’d looked in the
mirror – he saw the trace of a body, but there was no flesh and blood.

Minion created!

You have created your
first minion, but orbs are not the only cost.

A minion can only take
its true form when combined with the blood of a hero.

Nothing was ever
simple around here.
Using 2 orbs was bad enough, but now he had to give it blood? Luckily for
Nathan, the corpse of the warrior wasn’t far away.

He walked over to it. The
warrior’s eyes were open, and his mouth was agape. He’d died screaming and with
a look of terror on his face. Nathan grimaced, and for a second, he felt bad.
He shook the thought away. There was no time to dwell on what he’d done.

He grabbed the warrior’s
arm. With one claw, he cut a line in his skin. The blood didn’t run from the
cut freely, but instead a little of it seeped to the surface. It was thick and
gloopy, and it had a nasty smell. If he’d left it any longer, the blood would
have been too thick and clotted for him to use. The thought occurred to him
that if he ever wanted to create more minions, he’d need more hero blood. He’d
need to kill again.

He put his palm on the
wound and rubbed it, covering himself with the hero’s blood. Then, he walked
back to the centre of the chamber and stood in front of the minion’s faint
figure. He reached forward and touched it, trying to smear blood onto the
light.

The glow gradually
disappeared. In its place, was a minion. Fully formed. It looked like Sherlock,
except it had a pointier nose. Its body was wiry, its arms and legs well-toned.

Insanity bar increased
to 45%

So, creating a minion had
added to his insanity meter. Or maybe that wasn’t quite right. He sensed that
it wasn’t spending his orbs that had done it, but instead it was the mutilation
of the warrior’s corpse. After all, cutting open a dead body was quite a
monstrous thing to do.

The new goblin blinked as
if it was realizing where it was. When it saw Nathan, it got down on one knee,
just as Sherlock had done the day before.

“No need for that,” said
Nathan.

The goblin squeaked. It
was waiting for an order. As Nathan thought about what to do, he heard
footsteps. Sherlock had returned.

When Sherlock noticed the
new goblin, a smile beamed across his face. He ran up to it. The two goblins
stared at each other. Suddenly, Sherlock moved his head forward and headbutted
the goblin.

Were they going to fight?
If having two goblins together made them hostile, Nathan was going to have to
rethink his plans.

Then, the other goblin
gave a joyful squeak, and it headbutted Sherlock in return.

“You’re just playing,
aren’t you?” said Nathan.

Satisfied that they
weren’t going to kill each other, he thought about what he could order them to do.
It would be handy to station them both in the tunnels as guards, but that meant
he’d have to stay here and mine orbs on his own. With the pressure runes in
place, he’d know if there were any intruders. His minions’ time was best used
on something else.

“I need you guys to start
mining,” he said. “Get me as many orbs as you can.”

Both goblins got to work,
walking over to a stone wall and chipping away at it. With the runes placed and
a new minion created, that left Nathan with 2 more orbs to spend. But what
should he spend them on?

Well, he was going to
have to fight sooner or later. The heroes would come back, and when his warning
runes went off, he’d need to be ready. His claws were good, but they could be
better.

He opened the crafting
menu again, and this time selected the ‘Power Upgrade’ tab.

This screen was simple.
It listed 3 powers, though powers 2 and 3 were blank. Soul Claw was at the top
of the screen.

Soul Claw Level 1

Orbs to next upgrade: 3

Spend orb? Y/N

He decided that he’d put
2 orbs toward his next claw upgrade. He knew he should save some, but he just
couldn’t wait to see what effects he could add to his claws. Besides, he had 2
minions busy mining more orbs. He’d be okay. He clicked the button and spent
his last 2 orbs on his claws, leaving just 1 orb needed until he could improve
them.

With that done, he felt
tired. He’d only been awake for a few hours now, but man, what a few hours it
had been. He eyed the rot room, and felt he wanted to lie down. No way could he
do that, though. From now on, he’d have to be very careful about raising his
insanity meter.

As he wondered what he
should do next, a message flashed on his screen.

Trouble.

Warning – Pressure rune 3 activated.
Intruder alert!

Chapter Eight

He brought up his map.
The mountain overlay showed the already explored tunnels. There were icons from
where Sherlock had placed the pressure runes.

The warning told him that
pressure rune #3 had activated, but this was strange. Pressure rune #1 had been
placed at the mountain opening. If #3 had gone off, it meant that somehow the
intruder had bypassed #1. Was there another way into, or out of, the mountain
that Nathan hadn’t discovered yet?

He’d better see who this
intruder was. As he looked at the map, he realized that not only did the
pressure runes inform him when they were stepped on, but they also listed icons
on the map that showed where the intruder was going. Right now, only one player
icon was listed. Whoever this intruder was, he was alone.

He exited the main
chamber by the left passageway. The tunnels were becoming familiar to him now,
and he found he could navigate them without his map. He still brought it up
every minute or two so that he could get a fix on the ‘P’ icon that was walking
slowly through the mountain.

It didn’t take long for
him to get close. When he did, he went slower. He made every effort to be quiet
so that he didn’t give himself away. One intruder would be no trouble to him,
he knew. If he snuck up on them, one or two preemptive claw strikes were all
it’d take. Still, he needed to be careful.

He crept down the tunnel.
There was a turning at the end, and he knew that the intruder was just around
the corner.

He went forward. Water
dripped from the roof above him, but that was the only sound. The closer he
got, the more he heard the intruder’s footsteps. They were heavy. Clumsy,
almost. He reached the end of the tunnel and peeked around the corner to look
at the intruder.

The intruder was just ten
feet in front of him now. When Nathan saw him, he couldn’t believe it. He
recognized him. It was the bald-headed man he’d encountered the day before.

He quickly brought up his
menu. He checked and re-checked it, looking for the ‘P’ icons of the other
players, but they weren’t there. The man was alone. Where were his friends?

He must have been crazy
to come back on his own. Especially since he was a support class. Nathan didn’t
know exactly what class this man was, but he was confident that his
offensive abilities were minimal. So why had he returned to the mountain
without back-up?

Then it dawned on him.
The man hadn’t come back alone; he had never left. What’s more, it looked like
he was injured. His steps were slow and slightly off balance, as though he were
dazed.

This would be an easy
kill. He didn’t relish having to do it, but he couldn’t allow an intruder to
wander through the warrens of his base. Keeping his claws ready, he slowly
crept forward.

At first, he worried that
the man would hear him. He needn’t have been concerned. The man seemed so dazed
that even when Nathan was just three feet away, he didn’t turn around.

Nathan got ready to
strike. This was it. Time for kill number 2. Just as he was ready to leap
forward, the man started to talk.

Nathan stopped. He listened.

He realized that the man
wasn’t talking, but was singing under his breath.

All alone and I
don’t know,

Which way I need to
go.

Need a light, need
some help,

Need something to
save me from myself.

The words sent a shard of
ice through him. He recognized the song! He couldn’t believe it. It was by a
band called The Strange Men. They were a rock band. Nathan wasn’t into them,
but he remembered all too well someone who had loved them.

The Strange Men were
Dec’s favorite band. His little brother, who used to take refuge in music when
he felt down or upset. His brother, who would sit with Nathan in the bedroom of
their foster house and play him songs on his guitar.

He felt out of sorts.
Suddenly, he realized that he couldn’t kill this man. It was only a small
thing, but the song reminded him of Dec. There was no way Nathan could attack
him.

Nathan backed away. He
needed to think about what to do. As he moved, he stumbled over a rock.

The man turned around.
His reactions were slow, but he raised his hammer, ready to fight. Nathan saw
that the man had a red gash on his head, as if someone had hurt him. In the
battle the day before, Nathan hadn’t gotten close to him. Neither had Sherlock.
So, who had hurt him?

The bald man stared at
him. He seemed to be wondering whether to attack, or whether to run.

Nathan couldn’t kill him.
It was stupid, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to tear this man apart. It was a
mixture of things that added to the feeling. The song he’d sung, and the
knowledge that if he murdered him, his insanity bar would increase.

“I’m not going to hurt
you,” he said.

His words sounded strange
when they broke the silence. The man didn’t seem to believe him, and he took a
step back. They eyed each other, neither of them wanting to make the first
move.

“Come on,” said Nathan.
“I’ll lead you out of here.”

The bald man nodded.
“Thank you,” he said.

Nathan was struck once
again with how tranquil this man seemed. Even here, in a situation that would
provoke fear in most people, there was an aura of peace about him. Sure, he was
wary of Nathan, but it seemed like a calming light glowed from him.

The bald man walked
toward him. There were bloodstains on the shoulders of his white robe. He took
a few steps toward Nathan.

Without warning, he swung
with his hammer. Nathan had just a split second to jump back from the blow. He
felt a rush of air as the hammer missed his face by a centimeter.

Anger boiled in him. He
felt blood rush to his face, and up his arms to his claws. He felt a yearning
to use them. A desire to tear this man apart.

He leapt forward, claws
outstretched. The tip of the claws on his right hand stabbed into the man’s
shoulder, knocking him off balance. Without giving him a chance to react,
Nathan pushed him to the floor. He leapt on him, pinning him to the ground. The
man struggled, but Nathan was too strong.

Nathan raised his claws
for the killing blow. He gritted his teeth. His shoulders felt tense. He felt
the throb of anger within him. Just as he was about to kill the man, he stopped
himself.

He couldn’t do it. He’d
murdered one man out of self-defense, and his insanity bar had increased. He
couldn’t afford for it to rise even more. His monster instincts bubbled within
him, but he fought them. He struggled against his inner nature, before lowering
his claws. He stood up and moved away from the man.

The bald man tried to get
to his feet. When he put his hands down and tried to push himself up, he
winced. Blood formed at the edges of the wounds on his shoulder.

Nathan took a deep
breath. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

The man blinked. He
seemed to gather himself. In the real world, a shoulder wound like that would
incapacitate someone. Here is Adonis, although you could feel pain, the
sensation passed much quicker.

“Could have fooled me,”
said the man, touching his wound.

“What the hell are you
doing here?” asked Nathan.

The bald man struggled up
to his feet. He threw his hammer on the ground. “Just kill me and get it over
with,” he said.

“I’m not going to kill you.
Trust me.”

“Trust you? Have you seen
yourself lately? I mean, there’s not much of you to see, just an outline. But
your claws are a giveaway that I can’t take your word.”

“Who are you?” asked
Nathan.

“Look, can we just get
this over with? Either kill me or let me go.”

“Not until you answer my
questions.”

The bald man stared at
him. “You’re going to keep me as a prisoner?”

“If that’s what it takes.
I just need answers. What class are you?”

The man leant against the
wall. “I’m a cleric,” he answered.

That explained the aura
of tranquility that came from him, Nathan decided. If the man was a cleric,
that meant that he had to keep his character on the ‘good’ side of the
good/evil scale.

“And the other guys?” he
asked.

The cleric spat on the
floor. “Don’t ask me about them.”

“Who are they?”

“The Seekers guild. My
guild. Or they were, at least. Until they hit me over the head and left me here
to die.”

“Where are they now?”

“Gone. When we heard
Telrick screaming, Gevil said we had to leave. But then he said one of us
should stay and draw you away from the exit and give the others chance to flee.
When nobody volunteered, Gevil hit me over the head with the hilt of his
dagger, and then they left me.”

“With friends like
those…” said Nathan.

“…who needs enemies?
Yeah,” answered the cleric

Killing him would have
been the easy option. At least it would have been over and done with. This was
much worse because it left him with a difficult decision. The fact was, he felt
bad for the cleric. In combat situations, you needed to have complete trust in
those around you. For Nathan, it was unthinkable to let someone else die just
to save your own skin.

So, what did he do? He
could spare the cleric, but there was always the chance that he was lying.
Added to that, he knew that he needed to create more minions if he was to have
any chance of getting the diamond armor. And to make minions, he’d need hero
blood, which meant killing the cleric. He needed more time to decide.

“What were you guys doing
here?” he asked.

The cleric seemed to
relax a little. “You don’t know?”

“Not a clue.”

“What’s your name?” asked
the cleric.

“Nathan Attis.”

“Well, Nathan. I hate to
be the bearer of bad news. But this mountain is home to a quest. A prestigious
quest. A one-off, first-come-first-serve kind of quest. Apparently, it has one
of the biggest rewards ever seen in Adonis.”

Nathan rubbed his head.
“And where do I come in?”

“Every quest has its monster,”
said the cleric.

He didn’t expand on that.
He didn’t need to; Nathan understood what he meant. He’d spawned into Adonis as
the end monster in a quest. That meant that soon, hundreds of heroes would be
descending upon the mountain to kill him.

He started to feel
strange. Dizzy.

His head began to throb.
He stumbled back. His vision started to darken. Images flashed through his
brain. Pictures of blood, of bones, of guts. A desire stirred in him, and he
started to salivate.

“What’s wrong?” said the
cleric, backing away.

Nathan couldn’t speak. A
voice was shouting in his head. Urging him to kill the cleric. To tear him
apart and eat his flesh.

The insanity meter. It
was infecting him.

He struggled against it.
Tried to imagine something else. It was no use. All he saw was blood.

Kill him, said the voice.

Eat him.

Strip his flesh.

He stumbled back further,
hitting the wall. He felt his arms raise, almost as if he wasn’t in control of
them.

And then the cleric
started singing. The words were different, this time. They weren’t in English.
Instead, it was another language, one that sounded Ancient and wholesome.

Nathan felt light gather
around him. A pleasant glow that settled on his skin, before sinking deep
inside him. The blood in his vision drained away, and he saw that the cleric
was up close to him now. The cleric’s eyes rolled back to show his whites, and
he carried on singing his strange song.

Insanity meter reduced
to 25%.

He felt lighter. The dark
voice in his head faded away until he couldn’t hear it anymore. His shoulders
relaxed. Whatever the cleric had done, it had taken away some of his insanity.

Suddenly, he felt as if
he could trust this man. His instincts told him that he still needed to be
careful, but he didn’t feel any hostility from the cleric.

“There’s something dark
inside you,” said the cleric.

Nathan nodded. “I was
beginning to get that idea.”

“You know this place
well, don’t you?”

“I’ve explored it a
little. There’s not much to it, just some tunnels and some…”

He almost mentioned the
Ancient doors, but he decided to keep it to himself for now. He didn’t have
complete faith in this guy yet.

The cleric stared at him
with a piercing gaze. “My guild will come back soon. Gevil will return, and
he’ll bring more people. If you’re really unlucky, he’ll even bring Layre Mock
with him.”

“Layre Mock? Who’s that?”

The cleric grimaced. “The
guild leader. A nasty piece of work. You don’t want to meet him.”

Nathan took a deep
breath. “Whoever comes, I’ll be ready for them.”

“No, you won’t,” said the
cleric, shaking his head. “Not on your own. You can’t control yourself – I can
see that. But with my help, there might be a way.”

“You want to join me?”

A look of hate flashed on
the cleric’s face. It was so brief that Nathan wondered if he’d imagined it.
“They left me here to die,” he said. “I won’t let that go unanswered. I don’t
have much attack power, but you on the other hand…”

“What are you proposing?”
asked Nathan.

“I’ll help with your dark thoughts and instincts,” said the
cleric. “And you help me tear Gevil and the others limb from limb.”

Chapter Nine

He led the cleric through
the maze of corridors and toward the main chamber. On the way, the cleric
started to sing again. Although his voice was much more tuneful than
Sherlock’s, Nathan decided he liked the goblin’s song more. At least it didn’t
remind him of Dec.

“Wonderful place you’ve
got here,” said the cleric, sarcastically. He walked around the main chamber,
inspecting it. He stopped near the rot room. “What the heck have you got in
there? It stinks.”

Nathan shrugged. “It’s
always been like that.”

As Nathan watched the
cleric inspect the chamber, he realized something. When he’d met Sherlock, the
goblin had a text label above his head. Neither the cleric, nor any of the
other players, had labels.

“Why can’t I see your
name?” he asked.

The cleric looked at him
strangely. “You really don’t know much about Adonis at all, do you? Did you
skip the tutorials or something?”

“Look at me,” said
Nathan, raising his claws. “I haven’t exactly had the standard Adonis
experience. I spawned here, that’s all I know.”

The cleric stared at
Nathan, but seemed to be looking at something else at the same time. He said nothing
for a few seconds, before blinking.

“There,” he said. “Check
your chat menu.”

“I can’t. It’s greyed
out.”

“Really? It let me send
you a friend request. Just check it.”

Nathan brought up his
main menu, and was surprised to see that it had changed. The ‘Chat’ button was
no longer greyed out. He selected it, and the chat overlay appeared.

Chat Menu

Open Chats: 0

Friends: 0

Friend Requests: 1

Guild: None

Friends 0? That didn’t feel good. Still, he had
Sherlock. The goblin was his friend, and that was enough for now.

“Are you going to accept
the request?”

“Why do I need to do
that?”

“It lets us see each
other on the map. It will come in handy when we fight the guild.”

He closed the menu. He
wasn’t so sure that he wanted the cleric to be able to see him wherever he
went. Although they’d stuck a bargain, they were far from buddies.

“What’s your name?” asked
Nathan.

“Dereck.”

“Dereck…the cleric?”

Anger flashed on his face
again. Just for a millisecond, but it was there all the same. “You’ve got
something to say about that? I don’t care if I need to keep my reputation
‘good,’ I’ll beat your ass into-”

Nathan held up his hand.
“Settle down, we’re not gonna fight. Dereck the Cleric. I like it.”

“Well then,” said Dereck.
“We need to make a plan. When we heard about the quest, we happened to be
nearby. We came in unprepared. When Gevil and the others get here, they’ll be
ready for a battle.”

Nathan nodded. “Once I’ve
got more orbs, I guess I can spend a few on rune traps and that kind of thing.
We could maybe get you some armor.”

“Orbs?”

Nathan explained what he knew
about orbs and mining.

“Impressive. I’ve never
heard of that,” said Dereck. “It’s funny, when I was selecting my class, I
never got the chance to choose Tuphos.”

“What made you pick
cleric?”

Dereck sighed. “I wanted
to change, I guess. I wasn’t always like this. Peaceful, I mean.”

Nathan got the sense
Dereck wanted to tell him something. “Go on,” he said, sitting down.

“I got into trouble a lot
when I was younger. I got into fights and stuff like that. I mean, I tried to
control myself. I really did. But it all came to a head one day.”

“What happened?”

“It was in high school. I
was thinking about studying history in college, but I had some ways to go to
make up the grades. There was one particular assignment that I worked my ass
off on. So, I handed it in, and then the teacher asked to see me after class.

“I thought he was gonna
pat me on the back. Tell me what a good job I’d done. Instead, the chump ripped
into me. I mean, he really shredded me. I couldn’t help it. I saw red. This was
the first time I’d put absolutely everything into an assignment. This teacher
was a role model to me. And here he was telling me how shitty my paper was.”

Nathan could sympathize
with this. All through school, he’d struggled with anything academic. And he
really tried sometimes. He knew what it was like to put effort into something,
only to be belittled.

“What happened?” he
asked.

Dereck looked at the
floor. “I punched him. I knew I’d screwed up straight away. I apologized. First
in person, then by letter. Things got worse from there. My parents persuaded me
to see a behavioral psychologist. That didn’t work.

“Then, I met a guy in the
psychologist waiting room. He’d been in prison, but he was out and he was
trying to change. He told me about meditation, and how you could use it to get
better control of your mind. From then on, I started learning about mindfulness.
Controlling your anger by breathing through it. And that’s why I chose the
cleric class. It's peaceful.”

“How did you get here?”
said Nathan.

“You mean, how did I
die?”

“Yeah.”

He shrugged. “Considering
my anger record, they wouldn’t tell me. All they’d say is that my parents had
Adonis passes on their insurance, and that was how I got in.”

For a while, neither of
them said anything. This was another thing Nathan could sympathize with – not
knowing how he ended up in Adonis. It seemed that the devs loved to play God by
withholding information.

“Listen,” said Dereck. “I
can teach you a meditation technique. You never know, it might help with
your…fits.”

“Sure,” said Nathan, glad
to change the subject.

For the next hour, Dereck
taught him how to meditate. The idea was to sit and be quiet, only focusing on
your breaths. If a thought popped into your head, you didn’t dwell on it. You
ignored it and let it pass. It was difficult at first, but soon, he started to
get the hang of it. In 1 hour he’d only managed 5 minutes of real meditation,
but he could see how useful it was.

Skill Gained:
Meditation

With practice, you can
learn to control your urges.

Through practice, you
can make your mind stronger.

You can start to resist
the effects of your insanity meter, and keep dark thoughts at bay.

As a bonus, meditation
increases energy by 0.05% per minute.

“There you go,” said
Dereck. “Behold! Nathan, the meditating Tuphos monster.”

He grinned. “Thanks for
the help.”

“You know,” said Dereck, standing
up. “You’ll have to accept your nature eventually. It makes it harder if you
fight it. Trust me – I know. With my anger, the meditation helped. But I never
saw real progress until I accepted who I was.”

“I know,” said Nathan.
“I’ll work on it.”

He stood up. When he was
back on his feet, he heard footsteps behind him. Sherlock and minion #2 walked
through the tunnel. Earlier, Nathan had sent them to mine, but he’d told them
to do it away from the main chamber. He was worried that if they dug out any
more of the wall, it’d make the place unstable.

They had inventory bags
on their shoulders. Through the material, Nathan saw the glow of mountain orbs.

“Guys!” he said. “You’re
a sight for sore eyes. What do you have for me?”

Sherlock unslung his bag
and smiled at Nathan. Then, he noticed that Nathan wasn’t alone in the room. He
focused his gaze on Dereck. He dropped his bag, bared his teeth, and reached
for his dagger. Minion #2 copied him.

“Woah, guys,” said
Nathan. “He’s a friend.”

Sherlock didn’t seem
convinced. He growled. He held his dagger tight in his hand. Minion #2 let out
a cry, then darted across the room, eyes fixed on Dereck. Nathan tried to reach
out and stop him, but the minion was too fast. He leapt through the air,
landing a foot in front of Dereck, with his dagger pointed at the cleric’s
chest.

Dereck didn’t seem
worried. Rather than move away, he opened his mouth and began to chant. Nathan
could hardly hear the words, but there was something calming about them.

Something clattered to
the floor, and Nathan saw that minion #2 had dropped his weapon. Similarly,
Sherlock had dropped his. It must have been a cleric spell. Whatever Dereck had
said, it had a calming effect on the minions.

“Are these your pets?”
said Dereck.

“My minions. Well,
Sherlock’s more of a friend, actually.”

“And what’s the other one
called?”

“Right now, Minion #2.”

Dereck scoffed. “Come on.
We can do better than that. How about we call him Watson?”

“Sounds good.”

Sherlock walked forward.
He opened his inventory bag and pulled out the glowing orbs. Watson did the
same. Nathan took them, then saw that 10 orbs had been added to his inventory.

“What are you going to
spend them on?” asked Dereck.

“I’m saving them. I need
some diamond armor and an enchantment table.”

“I hate to break this to
you, but I doubt they make armor in your size. What do you need it for, anyway?
Your skin looks tougher than leather. On your hands, anyway. I can’t really see
much of the rest of you. Come to think of it, what’s the deal with that? Why do
you look transparent?”

“Whoa – one question at
once,” said Nathan.

He explained to Dereck
what had happened when he tried to leave the mountain, and why he needed the
armor. He also explained how, after getting his first power, his arms and claws
had become visible in the mirror.

“Maybe you can’t leave
the mountain until your body is whole. You thought of that?” said Dereck.

“My head’s been a little
fried since I got here. I’ve had a lot to get used to.”

“I bet.” For a few seconds,
Dereck looked lost in his thoughts. There was a shadow on his face, as though
he didn’t like what had crossed his mind.

“What’s wrong?” said
Nathan.

“I don’t know if I should
say.”

“Come on. Spill it.”

Dereck stared at him.
“I’m just wondering…if this is a quest, and you’re the monster, maybe that’s
why the game won’t let you leave the mountain. Maybe you’re programmed to be
here.”

“I’m not programmed to be
anything. I might look like Nosferatu’s ugly brother, but I’m human.”

Dereck sighed. “We’ll
figure it out. But first, we better prepare. I think your orbs might be better
spent on defenses, for now. After the mountain is safe and we get rid of the
guild, we’ll have time to mine more orbs.”

“You’re going to help me
mine orbs?”

“You bet. These hands
might look delicate, but I’m tougher than you think.”

Dereck was right. Nathan
could save up orbs, but that counted for nothing if adventurers came to the
mountain and wiped him out. Dereck had told him that the mountain quest was a
one-off. That meant it could only be completed once. And if the only way to
complete it was by killing Nathan, that meant there wouldn't be a respawn for
him. Once he died, the quest was completed, and he would be gone. He hoped he
was wrong, but it seemed the most likely explanation.

With that in mind, he
opened his crafting catalogue. He went through it, reading out the various
items to Dereck, since the cleric didn’t have access. After discussing the pros
and cons of each thing, they settled on a few items.

1 orb was spent on a bed,
since Derek had to sleep in one to regenerate his mana.

4 orbs were spent on rune
traps. These worked in a similar way to the pressure runes, in that they
activated when an intruder walked on them. The unsuspecting person would be zapped
by a burning red light, and they’d die an agonizing death.

“You better accept my
friend request so that I can see your map,” said Dereck. “There’s no point
setting traps in the tunnels if I can accidentally step on them.”

Nathan nodded. The cleric
made sense. After their talk that morning, he was beginning to get the sense he
could trust him. Hell, he wanted to trust him. Not that Sherlock wasn’t
good company, but he needed someone human to talk to. He went into the chat system
and accepted the cleric’s request.

With the bed and traps
bought, that left 5 orbs. He decided that he’d save 4 of them, and then spend
them when it became necessary. It was all well and good setting defenses, but
he needed to be able to react to different situations. Ones that he couldn’t
foresee. At least if he had orbs spare, he could buy things when he needed to.

Finally, he had 1 orb
that he wanted to spend. He didn’t consult Dereck on this, since he knew
exactly what he needed. He opened the craft catalogue, accessed Power Upgrades,
and spent his orb on his Soul Claw.

Soul Claw Level 2!

-Att Increased to 69

- Speed improved

Going from an Att of 39
to 69 was a great jump. An even more welcome bonus though, was the speed. Back
in his first fight with the guild, his slow movements had almost gotten him
killed.

That wasn’t all, though.
No sooner had he dismissed the text in front of him, then another box popped
up.

Choose an upgrade:

You have increased your
claw strength with the powerful mountain orbs.

You may now choose a
magical ability to add to them.

1) Poison claw –
Add poison damage to attacks (25% chance)

2) Flurry – Strike your
enemies 2x faster (Drains 10% more energy)

3) Chaos Breed – Infect your enemies with your
insanity.

Give them a confusion
status and make them attack their own party.

(Chance of success =
current insanity meter rate)

This was a lot to take
in. All 3 options appealed to him in different ways. Poison damage always
helped in games, because it was bonus damage. You could hurt an enemy just
once, but deal way more than just melee damage.

Flurry would be an
obvious answer to his shortcomings in speed, but the energy drain seemed harsh.
Until his energy bar was higher, there seemed little point in selecting flurry.
He’d just drain himself by using it.

That left Chaos Breed. At
first, he didn’t like the idea. It was tied to his insanity bar, and boy, was
he starting to hate that particular bar.

Then he thought about it
more. Since he’d been on the mountain, both Ancient #1 and Dereck the Cleric
had told him that he needed to embrace his monster instincts. He sensed that
they both had different intentions for giving him the advice, but maybe they
were right. If he could infect an enemy and turn him into an unwilling ally,
it’d help when fighting groups. It also meant that if his insanity meter was
high, at least he could get some benefit from it.

He selected Chaos Breed,
and saw that it was added to his character sheet.

Suddenly, a different
text box appeared on his screen.

Warning – Pressure Rune
#1 activated.

“That’s the rune near the
mountain entrance,” he said.

Dereck looked alarmed.
“They got here quicker than I expected. They must have cast a travel portal
when they left.”

“Yeah, it’s not good.”

“What now?” asked Dereck.

“We better go see who’s
at the door.”

Chapter Ten

Dereck walked over to the
passageway on the right that led away from the main chamber. He leant his head
into the darkness and listened. After a few seconds, he looked at Nathan.

“I can’t hear anything.”

“Pressure rune 1 is near
the mountain entrance, so it’ll be through this passage,” he said, walking to
the left one. Sherlock stayed by his side, while Watson looked from Dereck to
Nathan, wondering what to do.

Nathan listened. He
couldn’t hear anything. It was always quiet in the main chamber, except for the
occasional drip of water or crumbling of dirt as it fell to the ground. It was
only when you started to go toward the mountain exit that you would hear
anything else. The tunnels near the exit were filled with the faint swirl of
the breeze from outside, which made an eerie whining sound.

“It’ll be the guild,”
said Dereck.

“I thought it’d take them
longer to come back?” said Nathan. “It could be a random party. Or even some
poor guy who wandered in on his own.”

Dereck shook his head.
“They’re listed on my map. Eight of them. Since I’m technically still part of
the guild, I can see them. Gevil is there. A few newbies I haven’t met. And…oh
shi.” The cleric stopped himself just short of saying a curse word.

“What is it?” said
Nathan.

“Layre Mock is here.”

Nathan moved away from
the tunnel. He didn’t want to speak so close to the passageway in case the
tunnel echo carried his words to unfriendly ears. He walked over to the rot
room and then beckoned Dereck over.

The cleric shook his
head. “No way. I’m not standing next to that place.”

They stood in the centre
of the main chamber. Nathan folded his arms, trying to stand with as much human
dignity as possible in his current form. Dereck had one arm across his chest,
and the other on his chin, as if he was deep in thought.

“What’s the deal with
Layre Mock?” asked Nathan.

“He’s a nasty piece of
work. An amazing wizard, but a complete scum bag.”

“How so?”

“The Seekers guild used
to be good,” said Dereck. “We used to actually help people. That was why it was
set up, you know. Sure, we had a few skirmishes with other groups, but who
doesn’t? At the end of it all, the guild was formed with the best of
intentions, and that’s how we tried to do things.”

“What changed?”

A shadow fell over
Dereck’s face. “I can tell you the exact second it went to shit. I remember as
if it just happened. I was in the guild hall. There was a storm outside. You
know, the kind where fire lightning shoots down, and the rain turns acidic?”

“Never seen one of
those,” said Nathan. And despite how destructive it sounded, he would have
loved to witness one. He wanted to see more of Adonis.

This was part of the
magic of the game world; that it could create a sense of wonder. He guessed the
devs could have easily created a 2nd life that mirrored the real one, but what
would be the point in that? It would be plain. Boring. They’d made the right
choice in their fantasy setting.

“Well,” said Dereck.
“Suffice to say, you don’t go out in a storm like that. People who do, usually
get sent to respawn. So, I was surprised when the guild hall door flew open.
Rain flooded in. And then this giant, shadowy figure filled the doorframe.”

“Layre Mock?”

Dereck nodded. “Yeah. The
tallest anyone can get without being a giant. Long, shaggy hair. The kind that
makes you think it’d coat you in grease if you touch it. As he stood in the
doorway, a lightning fork struck him. I thought he was a dead. Instead, it just
sparked off him. He walked into the guild like nothing had happened.”

This didn’t sound good.
The way Dereck described Layre Mock made him seem dangerous. If he was here,
then driving out the guild would be a hell of a lot harder than he thought.

“That was when everything
changed,” continued Dereck. “The guild was never the same after he arrived. For
the next year, he plotted and backstabbed his way through the guild ranks.
Thing is, he had a habit of making everything he did seem natural. Like he had
good intentions.

“Before anyone realized
what kind of guy he really was, he’d schemed his way to the top. After he
became Guild leader, there was nothing any of us could do. And that was when he
stopped hiding what a son of a bitch he was. He stopped accepting new members
unless he’d personally vetted them. He stopped giving out weapons and armor to
existing members unless they were ones he approved of. And he put a complete
block on the guild treasury so that only he and his cronies could access it.”

Nathan paced around.
“Sounds like the shit has hit the fan and it's spraying around the room. Layre,
Gevil and the others will be higher levels than me. I’ll have no chance.”

“No. You might have a
glimmer of hope. Layre and Gevil are higher than you, there’s no doubting that.
But after Layre took power, he purged the guild. He got rid of 75% of the
membership, for reasons nobody could explain. Then, he replaced them with
hand-picked newbies. It weakened the guild. But it meant that it was filled
with people that Layre had complete influence over. Layre and Gevil are tough,
but right now the new recruits are as green as they come.”

“What does this guy
want?” asked Nathan.

Dereck shrugged. “Who
knows what goes on in his mind? Maybe he wants gold. Or perhaps he gets off on
power. Maybe he wants to take over every guild in Adonis and spread his poison
as far as he can.”

“I don’t get this,
Dereck. Why didn’t he get rid of you? Or more to the point, why didn’t you just
leave?”

Derek stared at him. “I
don’t need to explain to you that everyone starts Adonis alone. But at least
some people see how they die. They get closure. I started here alone, and not
knowing what the hell happened to me. The guild was the first place I found where
I got a sense of belonging. And even after that asshat wizard showed up, I
still believed in it. I still thought we could do good things.”

Nathan didn’t like it,
but he was starting to get a creeping suspicion about Dereck. From what the
cleric had told him, it didn’t seem like Dereck was the sort of person Layre
would want to have in his guild. So why hadn’t he gotten rid of him, like the
rest of the old members?

“Did you ever talk to
Layre?” he said.

“A couple of times.”

“And did he ever offer
you anything?”

Dereck crossed his arms.
“I was probably gonna be gone in the next purge. Layre isn’t stupid – he knew he
couldn’t just get rid of everyone at once. He used to do it in waves.”

He needed to do
something. Dereck’s story hadn’t reassured him about the presence of Gevil,
Layre and the others in the mountain. If they made their way to the main
chamber, there was little he could do to avoid a fight. With their advantage in
numbers, it was one he wouldn’t be able to win. He needed a strategy.

“I’m going to go scope
them out,” he said. “See what weapons they have and that kind of thing.”

“They’ll kill you,” said
Dereck.

He shook his head. “I
know the tunnels better than them, and I’ll be quiet. I’m not going there to
fight – I just need information.”

Derek nodded. “I’ll stay
here, but I’ll mine some orbs while you’re gone. I may as well do something
useful.”

Nathan pointed across the
room, where a pile of rubble was on the ground. “Just avoid that wall,” he
said. “We’ve dug enough of it already.”

After ordering Sherlock
and Watson to stay with Dereck, he left the main chamber.  He kept his steps
light, practicing walking without making a sound. He brought up his map from
time to time. His friendship with Dereck allowed him access to the cleric’s
map. That meant that he could see where Layre, Gevil and the others were.

After a few minutes of
walking into darkness, he knew they weren’t far away. He passed through some of
the shortcuts that he’d made.

Destroying some of the
lighter-colored walls was one of the best decisions he’d made. When he and
Dereck had gotten access to each other’s maps, the cleric had remarked on how
different Nathan’s was.

‘It’s only because
I’ve explored more,’
Nathan had told him.

Dereck shook his head. ‘It’s
not that. There are loads of gaps in the tunnel walls. Openings that weren’t
shown on my map.’

Hearing that had been the
best news Nathan had since getting Soul Claw. It meant that when he made
shortcuts in the labyrinth they displayed on his map, but not on the maps of
others. That gave him a significant stealth advantage.

Boy, was he grateful for
that now. The Seekers guild were ahead of him, around 15 meters away. Although
the tunnels were dark, Nathan could see them all. He hung back, staying in one
of his hidden alcoves so that he could scope them out without being seen.

As Dereck’s map showed,
there were eight of them. Unlike his last encounter with the guild, there
didn’t seem to be any warriors here this time. Five of the players wore dark
robes that covered their heads, and they carried spell wands. One of the
players was a healer of some sort. This was evident from his lighter colored
tunic and the array of vials set into a belt around his waist.

Of the other 2 players,
he recognized one. It was the rogue, Gevil. Although his clothing was still
dark, Nathan could tell that he had changed his outfit. He got the sense that
it wasn’t a fashion choice. Maybe his new attire was designed to help him in
the dark tunnels in some way.

That left the other
player. There was no doubt that this was Layre Mock, the wizard. He was a foot
taller than the rest. So tall that his head almost touched the roof of the
tunnel. His body was thin, and he didn’t cover himself with a robe. Instead, he
wore a grey cotton shirt. It was open at the front, to reveal the shriveled
skin of his bare chest. His chest was covered in long, red lines that looked
like scars. It was as if he’d taken a dozen lashings from a whip. His eyes were
dark, his hair stringy and grey. He cut a fearsome figure.

There were some creatures
with the players. Four of them. They had slinky bodies, like tigers but with
less muscle. Their faces were made of bone. It looked like their flesh had been
stripped away to reveal their skulls. On their sleek bodies were skull-shaped
patterns. Like leopard stripes, but not as beautiful.

Nathan didn’t plan on
attacking yet. After all, it would be suicide to take them on by himself. But
even if he had planned that, the presence of the creatures would have
made him re-think. It worried him that the guild had brought animals with them.
There must have been a reason for it.

Layre looked at one of
the hooded players. He beckoned him over with a curled finger.

“I grow tired,” he said.
“Replenish me.”

The hooded figure,
without a second hesitation, pulled a vial from his pocket. The liquid inside
was black. Layre knelt onto one knee, tipped his head back, and opened his
mouth.

The hooded player
unscrewed the vial. Then, with a look of utmost concentration, he began to pour
the liquid into Layre’s mouth. Nathan watched, and he couldn’t help but feel
unnerved. There was something perverse about the way Layre lapped his tongue
around the liquid. It was almost like a ritual of some kind.

As the player poured the
vial, some of the black goop splashed onto Layre’s chin. The wizard got to his
feet. His face twisted into anger. He raised his hand, then slapped the player
with such force that he stumbled back into the tunnel wall.

Layre closed his eyes.
His face was a picture of fury. He took 3 long, deep breaths, and then opened
his eyes. The anger melted.

“I apologize,” he said.
“I shouldn’t have done that. Come, let us go deeper into the labyrinth.”

It looked like they were
about to move away. Then, Layre held up his hand. His fingers were unnaturally
long and twisted, like twigs.

“Hold a second. There’s
something here.”

The four creatures
sniffed the air. Nathan felt a shock of panic in his chest, wondering if they could
smell him. Maybe the stench of the rot room had clung to him, and Layre’s pets
would pick up on it. He held his breath, and stayed alert and ready to move
away.

The creatures didn’t look
in his direction. Neither did Layre. Instead, the wizard raised his hands. He
muttered words under his breath. Red light began to glow on his fingertips, so
that it looked like his nails were on fire.

He raised his hands,
clapped them, and the red light shot out. It hit the tunnel walls on either
side of him, coating them like paint. When the light receded, the tunnels
looked normal except for parts which retained splotches of red.

Layre pointed at one of
the spots.

“Dig here,” he said.

Two of the hooded players
reached into their inventory bags and pulled out hand-sized spades. They
started to dig at the red marks on the walls. Before long, a pile of dirt was
at their feet.

Layre smiled. His grin
had a malicious quality to it.

“Excellent work,” he
said, patting one of the players on the head as if he were a child.

The wizard walked over to
the wall on his right, and reached into the newly-dug hole. He pulled out a
glowing orb, and held it up for the others to see.

“I said, did I not, that
this mountain held more treasures than we were told?”

Nathan felt a sense of
dread creep up on him. The wizard knew about the orbs! This was bad. Nathan had
thought that orb crafting was a perk of the Tuphos class, and that it gave him
an advantage. If Layre could also use orbs, it meant he’d be somewhat familiar
with what they could buy. And that could mean he was familiar with rune traps.

Gevil stared at the orb.
He was a good 3 feet away from the wizard, as if he didn’t like getting close
to him. “How much gold will they get us?”

Layre looked at Gevil
with scorn. “Gold? Rogue, you really aren’t making the most of your time in
Adonis. Not everything is about gold. Have you never thought about what wonders
lie in hidden places? Have you never basked in thoughts about the mysteries
this life can offer?”

He held the orb up high.
It cast a dim glow in the tunnel. “This is about much more than gold,” he said.
“There is more to this mountain than we thought.”

“So, what do we do with
it?” said Gevil, staring at the orb.

The wizard put the orb in
his inventory bag. “That, I do not know. But when we get to the guild, I will
begin my studies.”

Nathan breathed a sigh of
relief. Layre didn’t know what the orbs were used for, yet. That meant that
Nathan still clung to his advantage.

Now that he knew who they
were dealing with and how prepared they were, he needed a plan. The guild
members had come with provisions. That meant they were here to stay until they
completed the quest. Nathan was going to have to get rid of them, but how? He
sensed that he wouldn’t be able to drive the wizard away using fear like he had
with the warriors.

He needed to get back to
Dereck and come up with a plan. For now, at least, they still had the element
of surprise, since Layre and the others didn’t know that Nathan knew they were
here.

He shifted his weight and
was about to move away when he noticed something. He’d been watching Layre for
so long, that he hadn’t paid enough attention to the wizard’s pets.

A shiver ran through him.
Suddenly, he felt exposed.

As he stared across the
tunnel, he saw that all 4 of the creatures had turned in his direction. Their
skull faces were staring at him, and their backs were arched, as if ready to
attack. They’d sensed him.

Chapter Eleven

As the skull creatures
stared in his direction, their bodies started to change. Their fur glowed a
dull red, the color becoming stronger and stronger with every second. Soon they
were the color of blood, and their skull patterns had disappeared.

The change in his
creatures wasn’t lost on Layre Mock. The wizard followed the direction of their
gaze and looked at where Nathan was hidden.

Surely he couldn’t see
him? He was too far away, and he was in the shadows. Nathan tensed his claws.
He checked his stats – his energy was at 120, his HP at 176. He could afford to
use his Chaos Breed skill if it came down to it. The problem was, the rules of
the power meant he could only use it once per thirty minutes. He had to choose
his time carefully.

Still, he wasn’t going to
fight yet. Not on his own, with no preparation. Besides, there was no way the
wizard had actually seen him. Even if he had, Nathan had enough distance to get
away.

He decided it was time to
go back to Dereck, Sherlock, and Watson. He was going to move, when the wizard
spoke. His voice was deep enough to fill the tunnels. Curiously, it didn’t have
an echo.

“I know what you want,
monster.”

Nathan held his breath.
The wizard was trying to draw him out into the open. That meant that despite
having a warning system in the form of his pets, he didn’t know exactly where
Nathan was.

The wizard stood still.
Nathan could see the whites of his eyes amidst the darkness.

“What’s he doing?”
muttered one of the hooded figures.

Gevil elbowed him in his
side. “Shut up. Let him work.”

The wizard seemed unperturbed
by the bickering beside him. He hadn’t taken his eyes away from Nathan’s
direction for even a second.

“I know who you are,
monster. And I know what you want. I know what you crave; I have seen it. You
want blood, don’t you?”

Nathan said nothing.

“Yes,” continued Layre.
“Blood. And guts. I can give you that. I can give you a dozen little players
for you to take away and slaughter. Play with them. Paint the walls with their
blood.”

Nathan’s insanity meter
was at 25%, brought down by Dereck’s ability. Unfortunately, the cleric’s spell
had a cooldown, and Nathan would have to wait until he could use it on him
again. Still, 25% wasn’t too bad. Dark thoughts occasionally flashed through
his mind. Sometimes he smelled the odour of a rat and started to salivate. But
he could control it for now.

The more worrying thing
was, how did Layre know about Nathan’s cravings? Did he have some kind of
knowledge about the Tuphos class? Dereck the cleric seemed pretty experienced
in Adonis, but even he had never heard of it.

“You’re wondering what I
want in return, aren’t you?” said Layre.

There was no use staying
quiet and pretending he wasn’t there. Layre didn’t seem the type of person who
could be fooled easily. Even so, it was a psychological trick in negotiations that
the person who spoke least, usually won. Something about letting the other
person do all the talking helped you keep the high ground.

“Let me kill you,” said
Layre. “I know that sounds a lot to ask. But think about it – even if I am not
successful, other guilds will come. They will never leave you alone.”

“So, I should let you
kill me because if you don’t, then other guys will? Sounds like an awesome
deal,” said Nathan. Speaking made him feel vulnerable, but his position was
already given away.

He heard Layre shuffle on
his feet. A couple of his newbie guild members muttered when they heard
Nathan’s voice.

“Do you know of the Cult
of the Third life?” asked the wizard.

How long was he going to
entertain talking to the wizard? Just a little while longer, he guessed. Enough
to see if the wizard slipped up and said something he shouldn’t. Right now, any
information he could get was golden.

“I’m not acquainted.
You’re not here to convert me, are you?”

Layre laughed. “Don’t
worry, I don’t have pamphlets to thrust upon you. You would find our cult
interesting, monster. Especially in your predicament. There is a belief that if
one were to die in Adonis, there is a third life waiting after that.”

“Don’t players respawn?”
asked Nathan.

“For now. I am working on
a method of permanent death, and then I will be able to leave this world and
cross into the next. But I am not close enough, yet. You, monster, have a
chance. You can die. You can see what lies beyond. It’s nothing to be feared;
it’s a beautiful gift.”

Then it dawned on Nathan.
“You’re not here for the quest, are you? You don’t care about the reward.”

“Do you think some gold
coins and some trinkets interest me? I want to see you die, monster. I want to
see what happens when a sentient being crosses beyond. And what’s more – there
is something on this mountain that can stop respawns.”

Somehow, Nathan had known
that the wizard wouldn’t have just come here for a quest reward. There was
something interesting about his idea. It also displayed the human condition of
selfishness in all its glory.

For centuries, humanity
had no idea whether there was something beyond our life on earth. Then, modern
technology allowed humanity not only to find an answer, but to make one.
We solved the question of ‘what happens when you die,’ by creating a new world
that awaited us after death.

So why, then, was there a
cult wishing for another afterlife? Was this one not enough? Maybe it was the
mystery of it all. People who obsessed over what happened after death didn't
care about the actual answer. Instead, they were in love with the mystery of
the question. And when Adonis Reborn was made, that mystery was snatched away.

Whatever the wizard’s
motivations, Nathan wanted no part in it. There was nothing waiting after Adonis.
And even if there was, he had no interest in letting the wizard kill him so he
could see it.

“You are taking too long
with your decision, monster. Come over here, and we’ll talk better.”

“Kiss my ass,” said
Nathan. Then, he regretted his inability to think of a better come back.

It was time to leave. At
least now he had an idea of how many people were here. It wasn’t good – Layre,
Gevil and their group outnumbered them. This was never a fight he’d win with
strength, so they were going to have to be clever about it.

He turned to leave. As he
did, he heard the wizard talk. His voice was lower, and Nathan knew he was
talking to his guild mates.

“Set them loose. Chase
him down.”

“But sir, they’re
trackers, not fighters.”

“Wound him. If he kills
them, so what? As long as they wound him. We don’t need trackers if we have a
trail of blood to follow.”

Nathan didn’t stick
around to find out what the wizard meant, since he had a good idea already. He
started to move away, backtracking on himself and heading toward the main
chamber.

Sure enough, just seconds
later he heard the sound of multiple feet pounding on the ground. Layre had
released his skull-faced pets.

How many of them were
there? There had been 4 – he was sure of that. The robed man had said the
creatures were trackers rather than fighters. That meant Nathan might have a
chance if it came to a battle with the creatures.

The most obvious answer
would have been to just run as fast as he could, but he knew that was a sign of
not using his brain. Against every urge in his body, he stopped running. He quickly
checked his HP and energy. His hitpoints were almost full, and he had most of
his energy left. Good.

Next up, he glanced at
his insanity meter. It was at 25%, which meant he could afford to kill a few
times without it getting out of control.

With the footsteps
getting closer, he set off again. He ran through the tunnels. He was glad to
realise that he knew each twist and turn before it even arrived. Whether it was
a good thing or bad, this place was becoming his home, and he felt like he knew
it off by heart now.

The footsteps got louder.
He heard feet galloping behind him. He didn’t know if he was imagining it, but
he was sure he could hear their breath as they panted. Or was it his own
breath?

Then he heard a snarl.
Long, drawn out. Hostile. He turned, already knowing what he would see.

The four creatures were
behind him now, twenty feet away at the end of the tunnel. They were taking
careful steps forward, like tigers approaching an antelope. What they didn’t
realise, though, was that this antelope had giant claws.

He knew he could take one
or two of them out with his claws. Maybe more if he used Chaos Breed and sent
one of them crazy. Still, there were too many for him to fight alone.

One of them crept
forward. It must have been the bravest of the four. It kept his head low and
snarled.

Nathan brought up his map
and studied it for a second. When he saw what he needed, he closed it. He
turned and started to move away, turning the corner and leaving the skull
creatures behind him.

He looked ahead. The dark
tunnels forked two ways. One led directly to the main chamber, while the other
took a slightly longer detour. Despite needing to get back to Dereck and the
minions, he took the detour.

The creatures wasted no
time in following him, but this time, it was a good thing. He wanted them to. Follow
me all you like, he thought.

As he navigated the
labyrinth, he even slowed down a little. His energy was three-quarters full
now, but running at full sprint emptied it quicker. So he slowed down. He heard
the creatures’ footsteps grow louder.

He pulled his map up as
he ran. He glanced at it for a few seconds, then grinned.

Just around the
corner. Let’s see how you like this.

As the skull creatures
got closer and closer, Nathan kept focused and ran in a straight line. There
was an opening in the wall in front of him that he’d made earlier when
destroying the light parts of the tunnels. Placed in the rubble, out of sight
for all but the keenest of eyes, was a surprise.

Nathan held his breath as
he ran through the opening.

The creatures got closer.

He heard feet pounding on
stone. Footsteps echoing. The sound of their snarls as they grew angry with the
chase.

He glanced behind him.
One of them was just six feet away from him now. It leapt through the air,
claws outstretched, mouth open.

Just as it passed through
the opening in the wall, there was a fizzling sound. Nathan looked behind him,
and he saw that the creature had stepped on one of the trap runes. A red light
emanated from the ground, and it seemed to twist all over the creature’s body.
Nathan smelled the sour aroma of burnt hair. The creature spasmed as the
burning red light smothered it. It made a sound that was less of a snarl, and
more of a scream. It was begging. Pleading for the pain to stop.

He felt bad. He knew he
should take this opportunity to leave, but he couldn’t walk away. These
creatures were attacking him, but they were only following orders. As the
creature cried out in agony, he knew he couldn’t walk away.

He stepped forward. Just
a few feet, but close enough. Then, with all his effort, he lashed out with his
claw. He caught the creature where its neck met its shoulders. He hit it with
such force that he almost took its head clean off. The creature went limp and
then collapsed on the floor, dead. At least he’d put it out of its misery. He
heard the sound of a bell ringing in his head, which meant that he’d earned
EXP.

The other 3 backed away
now. One made a curious sound. Almost whiny, as if it was sad. The other 2
snarled.

How did rune traps work?
Did they disappear after one use? Or would the creatures be free to follow him
now? It seemed that the creatures were wary about crossing through the tunnel
after seeing what happened to their friend.

Nathan edged away and
then turned around. He ran, navigating his way through the labyrinth until he
was back in the main chamber.

When he got there, he
stopped and caught his breath. He looked around him. He saw a pile of orbs next
to a wall. The rot room was across from him. Feels good to be home, he
thought, wondering if it was sarcasm or not.

Dereck was sat on the
floor, eyes closed and legs crossed. He appeared to be meditating. After a few
seconds, he let out a long breath, then opened his eyes.

“Did you see them?” he
asked.

Nathan caught his breath.
He nodded. “Layre and Gevil, and some other guys wearing robes. They had pets,
too. Caught me by surprise.”

“Pets do not show up on
maps,” he said. Then, he sighed. “I had hoped Layre would not come.”

“He looks just as nasty
as you told me,” said Nathan, pacing. “What level is he?”

“Too high for you to
fight, Nathan. Unless the Tuphos class has powers beyond normal character
growth.”

He knew that Dereck was
right, but there had to be something he could do. If the wizard had a weakness,
he could exploit it. But he didn’t like having to rely on someone else being
vulnerable. Instead, he wanted to use his own strengths. There had to be
something he could do.

“I’ve got it,” he said.

Dereck stood up. He was
completely calm. “What is it?”

“I need to go and visit
the 2nd Ancient,” said Nathan.

Chapter Twelve

“There are four of us
against all of them,” said Nathan. “We can fight, but without an advantage,
we’re screwed.”

“Three of us,” said
Dereck.

“What?”

“I’m officially still
part of the guild. The game won’t let me kill a guild member.”

“So, why not leave the
guild?” said Nathan. “Surely that’s an option on your menu?”

Dereck nodded. “It is,
but think about it. Right now, since I’m part of the guild, I can see them on
the map. If I leave, not only will they get suspicious, but I won’t be able to
track them.”

“Damn. That means you
better stay in the guild, then. Which means only Sherlock, Watson and I can
actually fight.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“I need to go and visit
the 2nd Ancient,” said Nathan. “But first, we need to buy some time.”

“How many orbs do you
have?” asked Dereck.

Nathan shot a look at
Sherlock and Watson, who were over by the wall near the rot room. They’d been
mining all morning, and Nathan had let them take a break. They seemed to prefer
relaxing near the rot room, where they could get a whiff of the horrible
stench.

“Guys?” said Nathan. “How
many did you get this morning?”

The minions came over and
passed orbs to Nathan. His inventory updated to show an extra 15. Added to the
4 he’d saved earlier, that made 19. He didn't want to spend them, but with the
guild here he had no choice.

“Thanks, guys,” said
Nathan. “Good work. Watson, can you go through the right-hand passageway for me
and explore a little?”

He realized that he’d
been so busy over the last 2 days that he hadn’t had a chance to explore the
second passage. He suspected it was a loop that met up with the left passage at
some point, but it’d be good to know. Since Watson was Nathan’s minion,
wherever he went, Nathan’s map updated.

As Watson walked toward
the passage, he stopped every few seconds and cast his gaze back to Sherlock.
Sherlock had a frown on his face, and his arms were folded.

“You want to go with him,
don’t you?”

Sherlock grunted, and his
eyes widened.

“Go on then,” said
Nathan. “I’d feel safer if you were together anyway,” he said.

“You sound like their
dad,” said Dereck.

Nathan laughed. “Make
sure you’re back for supper, guys, or you’re grounded.”

Nathan clapped his hands
together. Time to get started. He was full of energy. It was a nervous kind of
energy, but he needed to use it.

“If we’re going to the Ancient
rooms, we need to keep the Seekers occupied,” he said. “So, I’m going to need
to spend some orbs.”

He brought up the ‘Orb
Crafting’ menu and looked through the catalogue. He called any interesting
items out to Dereck. The number of things that could be crafted seemed endless,
but there was a catch. The further along Nathan went, he realized that some
items were greyed out. It seemed that as a level 2 player, he didn’t have
access to everything yet. He looked in dismay and saw that the diamond armor
needed him to be at level 4. The enchantment table required him to be a magic
class.

“That’s a spike up my
ass,” he said.

Dereck shook his head.
“Not necessarily. I have enough magic ability to use the table. I mean, it’d
take a while, since enchant isn’t one of my core abilities. But I would get
there.”

“And if we manage to
survive the guild attack,” said Nathan, “I’ll surely level up to 4. After
killing one of their pets I’m already halfway toward 3, anyway.”

They decided on crafting
things that would keep the Seekers busy in the labyrinth while Nathan and
Dereck went to see Ancient #2.

There were fake walls
that Nathan could buy for 1 orb each. Using his map, he could place them in the
passageways, creating fake dead-ends.

He bought ten of them. He
and Dereck scanned back and forth through their maps, working out where best to
place them so that the intruders got lost.

“I don’t have a head for
this stuff,” said Dereck, rubbing his temples.

Nathan did. A few months
after he first joined the army, he sprained his ankle competing in a
10,000-meter sprint while trying to break the training camp record. The sprain
turned out to be worse than they thought, and he was confined to admin duties
for a week. It turned out, though, that there was barely any admin to do. So,
bored out of his mind, he’d looked in the barracks library and found a book on
mazes and how they were built.

He found it fascinating.
At first, he just enjoyed solving the mazes that were in the book. Then, when
he’d done almost all of them except for one he couldn’t crack, he moved on to
making his own. He posted them on a forum where people shared their creations.
There was nothing better than making a maze that got people so frustrated they
filled the forum with expletives.

He’d thought about it as
just a hobby, but it was going to be more useful than he ever imagined. Armed
with his 10 fake walls, he created a maze on his map that was sure to keep the
Seekers busy and give him chance to power up before the fight. When he’d placed
the last wall, he closed his map.

“Woah,” said Dereck.

“What?”

“You really zoned out
there. I was speaking to you, and you didn’t say anything.”

“Sorry. I got a little
wrapped up in the map.”

“No, it’s okay,” said the
cleric. “I can’t believe what an excellent job you did.”

“Thanks. Just one last
thing, and then we can go,” said Nathan.

Nathan scanned through
the craft catalogue. He was sure he’d seen something last time he looked
through it that would help them, but he couldn’t remember what it was. He
flicked through a dozen pages, looking at each item but not finding the one he
needed. Then, he looked at the far-right corner. There was a ‘Favorites’ tab,
and it seemed he could save items there that he wanted to remember to buy in
future.

“If only I’d known about
that before,” he said.

After flicking a few more
pages, he found what he was looking for. It was one of the last level 2 items.
It was a spell scroll called Mimic. When cast, it would create sounds of the
caster’s choice. They could use it to draw the Seekers deep into the maze if
they ever got to close to the main chamber.

“Just one problem,” said
Nathan, reading the item description. “I don’t have the magic required to use
it.”

“Buy it and pass it
here,” said Dereck. “I’ll be able to use it when the time comes.”

With the minions out on
their orders, his orbs spent, and the fake walls placed, there was nothing else
for it. Time to leave the main chamber and go and get his second power. He
looked around. He saw the wall where he’d gotten his first orb. The rot room,
sending out its stink. The water mirror, where his vague outline still
shimmered. A thought hit him. This place was home. He still wanted to see more
of Adonis, but he would defend his home from the intruders.

They left the main
chamber and walked through the tunnels toward the Ancient doors. Dereck walked
behind Nathan, relying on his better knowledge of the passageways.

Every so often they
stopped and listened for voices, but they couldn’t hear the guild. Dereck kept
checking his map and reporting on Layre, Gevil and the newbies. “We’re okay for
now,” he’d say, answering a question Nathan hadn’t asked.

After a while, he started
to feel a breeze on his face. They headed in the direction of the exit, but the
Ancient doors were before the mountain opening. They reached them. Dereck
looked around.

“I didn’t notice this
place,” he said. “And we must have walked straight by it when we came in the
mountain.”

Nathan shrugged. “Maybe
it’s because you’re with me now. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

He walked to one of the Ancient
doors. Like the first one, this wasn’t an actual door, but instead was a
transparent wall that stopped him entering. The tunnel beyond it was so dark
that he couldn’t see what waited at the end.

Near the invisible
barrier, a skull was fastened to the wall with a rusty nail. It was too big to
belong to a man.

“Must be a giant’s head,”
said Derek. “Here, there’s an inscription.”

Nathan looked at where
the cleric was pointing. Sure enough, someone had scratched words into the wall
near the skull.

To enter here,

Heroes blood must
be shed,

Just pour it in,

The giant’s head.

That meant that the only
way to get into the door was to kill some heroes and pour their blood into the
skull. They key here was the use of plural – ‘heroes.’ Nathan was going to have
to kill more than once. Judging by the size of the skull, it’d take 3 or 4
murders to get entry into the room. That meant that even with Dereck’s spell,
Nathan’s insanity meter was going to overflow.

He walked out of the
tunnel. He needed to think. There were heroes in the mountain. To be strong
enough to have a chance against them, he needed his power. And to get his
power, he needed to kill the heroes.

“Wait,” said Derek. Then
he pointed above the opening. “Look.”

Nathan looked up and saw
it. This opening was labelled ‘Ancient #3.’

He still wasn’t happy
about the blood sacrifice to get into door #3, but at least that could wait
until now. He turned and found the opening for door #2 which was, as he’d
guessed, next to door #1.

“Follow me,” he said.

He walked into the
opening for Ancient #2 and down the tunnel. He trod slowly, almost expecting to
bump his nose into an invisible barrier. The further he went the more he
realized that it wouldn’t happen. Finally, he stepped into the chamber of
Ancient #2.

Chapter Thirteen

“Welcome, Ken,” boomed a
voice. It was loud and deep. An orator’s voice, spoken by someone serious.

Nathan looked around.
There was a mist in the room, and he couldn’t see further than a few feet in
front of him. He walked toward where he thought he’d heard the voice, but
couldn’t see anything.

“No, no, Ken,” said the
voice. “This way.”

He followed the voice. He
walked forward through the fog until finally, he saw the Ancient in front of
him.

This one was like a
goblin, but smaller. It seemed too tiny to have produced such a booming voice.
It had a wicked-looking face that seemed as if it had been squashed at the
edges. Its arms and legs were stubby. Its bulbous breasts and curved belly
reminded Nathan of a Buddha statue.

“Behold,” said the
Ancient, then bowing with a flourish. “I am the second Ancient of this
mountain.”

It looked at the two men,
its pupils flicking from side to side. It focused on Nathan.

“You must be Ken,” he
said.

“That’s the 3rd time
you’ve called me that. I’m not Ken, I’m Nathan.”

The Ancient tried to
stretch tall and seem foreboding. He was stood on a stone pedestal, but even
so, he barely reached Nathan’s chest.

“You are on the wrong
mountain, Nathan! Leave at once!  I am waiting for Ken to arrive.”

“There’s nobody called
Ken on this mountain,” said Nathan.

“Really?”

He nodded. “I already
spoke to your pal in door #1 and completed his task. I was hoping you might
have one for me.”

The Ancient scratched his
head. For a split second, his eyes widened, and he looked confused. Then, the
look was replaced by a sort of cherubic naughtiness. He was like an evil child.

“Very well. I seemed to
have lapsed in my organization of this task. Sorry, Nathan.” Then he looked at
Dereck. “And who might you be?” he asked.

“Dereck.”

“And what is your
purpose, Dereck?”

Dereck looked at Nathan,
who shrugged, then back at the Ancient.

“Well?” said the Ancient.

“I’m Dereck…”

“And?” boomed the voice.

Dereck looked at Nathan
and mouthed the words ‘I don’t know what he wants me to say.’ Nathan
shrugged.

Dereck looked up. “And
I’m a cleric.”

For a second, the Ancient
put his stubby hand on his chin and considered what he’d heard. Then, a grin
started to spread over his face. The grin turned into lines of laughter, and he
gave a braying, knee-slapping guffaw. His face turned red.

“You are Dereck… the
cleric?”

Dereck’s face started to
redden. His eyebrows arched. Then, he closed his eyes, took a breath, and a
look of calm crossed his features.

“You did not stand a
chance with a name like that, did you?” said the Ancient.

“Let’s just get on with it,”
said Nathan.

The Ancient shook his
head, then grumbled. “Ken, and Dereck the Cleric. What a pair I’ve been sent.”

“I’m not Ken,” said
Nathan.

The Ancient shrugged.
When he next spoke, it sounded like he couldn’t be bothered. He pointed
dismissively across the room. “You know the drill. There’s a puzzle over there.
Go and solve it. Or don’t. It’s up to you.”

Glad to break from the
conversation, Nathan turned around. The fog had lifted from the room now, and
he saw that it was hexagonal-shaped. Across from him, were four people.

Or he thought they were,
at least. He stared at them, and he realized that they weren’t real. Instead,
these were holographic representations of people.

“Let’s get this over
with,” he told Dereck.

He crossed the room and
stood in front of the figures. There was a large-bellied man wearing a golden
crown. His throat was cut and blood stained his tunic, but he appeared to be
alive.

In front of him were 3
people. One of them was a red -haired beauty. She wore a flowing dress, and
some of her delicate fingers were adorned with rings. Next to her was an older
man. Tall, wiry, and with grey hair. There was a look of wisdom on his face. At
the end, was a younger man. This one seemed to resemble the king in his face,
though his belly was nowhere near as large.

Behind them all, words
began to form on the stone wall. The text was red and seemed to dribble at the
ends, as though it was written in blood.

‘The Betrayed
King.’

Someone has tried
to kill the king, and you must find out who. Once you have made your decision,
you must order them to be punished. Your choice here affects whether you earn a
power, and which one you receive.

It seemed that there was
more than one power on offer here, so he needed to be careful. If he chose wrongly,
he guessed he’d get the weaker power. The problem was, this seemed to be some
sort of logic quiz, and Nathan sucked at those.

“What do you think?” he
said, turning to Dereck.

The Ancient spoke.
“Dereck the cleric cannot assist you, Ken.”

Ignoring the Ancient’s
poor name recollection, he looked around the room. There was nothing else to
help him. No clues, no doors to open. That meant that everything he needed to
solve this was right in front of him, in the form of the 4 hologram figures.

“Can you talk?” he said.

None of the figures
replied. They didn’t move nor blink. They wouldn’t be able to assist him, so
Nathan obviously had to work it out by looking at them.

First, there was the
king. His throat was slit but apparently, it hadn’t been enough to finish the
job. Nathan had watched enough detective shows to know that the first thing you
looked for was a motive. So, which of these 3 people had reason to kill the
king?

“Tick tock,” said the Ancient,
across the room. “The hourglass is draining.”

“I don’t see an hour
glass,” said Dereck.

“Silly me.”

The Ancient reached to
his side and produced an hourglass, which he turned over. Grains of sand began
to trickle to the bottom of it. Nathan knew he needed to work quickly.

He looked at the figures
in front of him. The younger man who looked like the King seemed the most
likely suspect. Their facial resemblance was so strong that he must have been
the king’s younger brother. That meant that if the king died, the brother would
take his throne. Surely that was reason enough to kill him?

But wait. He looked at
the red-haired woman. On her left hand, there was something strange about her
ring finger. There was a band of pale skin, as if she’d worn a ring around it,
but had recently taken it off.

Her wedding ring. This
must have been the king’s wife. For whatever reason, she had recently decided
to stop wearing her wedding ring. Bingo.

It was either the brother
or the woman, then. She was his wife, and perhaps the king had given her reason
to kill him. He could have been a tyrant, or maybe he was adulterous.

Nathan rubbed his head.
It was hard to decide between the two of them. If only they could speak and
give him a clue. He sensed that there was more than one solution to this
riddle. Back in Ancient #1, he’d had 2 choices. One had been to kill the rats,
and the other had been to use the bones from the skeleton.

Just like the test in
Ancient #1, this was a moral dilemma. Nathan had to choose who to name as the
betrayer of the king. There was every chance he’d pick the wrong guy, and name
an innocent person as the would-be assassin.

It had to be the woman.
He didn’t know her motive, but surely the absence of a wedding ring was a
giveaway?

And then he noticed
something. In the King’s pocket, there was a sheet of paper. It was old and
yellowed. He couldn’t see all of it, and much of the writing was too small to
read. At the top, however, there was a title.

‘Dissolution of the
church: King’s Orders.’

That couldn’t have been
there for no reason. Everything he saw was a clue. Smiling, and beginning to
enjoy playing detective, he looked at the other 3 figures.

“Only half your time
remaining,” said the Ancient.

“I thought it was an hour
glass? It hasn’t been 30 minutes.”

“You don’t have an hour,”
said the Ancient, pointing at the sand.

“Then maybe you should
call it a sand timer, and not an hourglass,” Dereck corrected. He was obviously
annoyed at the Ancient for laughing at his name and class.

Focus, Nathan told himself. I’m getting
somewhere. The paper in the king’s pocket meant that he planned to dissolve
whatever religion existed in this scenario. Why would that give the three
people here cause to harm him?

He looked at them. He
concentrated so much that it made his head hurt. Without a better answer, he
almost wanted to just have done with it and name the wife.

“Do you have your
answer?” said the Ancient.

“Just wait.”

Then he saw it. He’d
missed it all this time, since he was looking for an obvious clue in the
attempted murder. He’d overlooked a finer detail. He stared at the older man in
the middle of the row. Around his neck, almost disappearing down his shirt, he
wore a necklace. On the end of it, there was a cross.

This man must have been
an advisor to the king of some sort. That meant that he’d know about the king’s
plans to dissolve the church. The cross around his neck meant the man was
religious, which in turn meant that he wouldn’t agree with the king’s orders.
Was it reason enough to kill him? Well, religion was a strong motivation for
murder.

Nathan turned around.
“I’ve got it,” he said.

The Ancient beckoned him
over. “Then come here, Ken, and tell me what your fine mind has concluded.”

He was about to walk over
to the Ancient and name the king’s advisor as the suspect. He was sure of his
conclusion. But then he stopped. He noticed something that threw everything in
doubt.

The red-haired lady’s
right hand - there was something staining her skin. On her right index finger,
he saw a faint trace of blood. Almost as if she’d tried to wash it away, but
had missed a spot.

It was her. It had to be.

Time to decide. The
advisor, or the woman? Which one to choose?

The last grains of sand
trickled to the bottom of the glass. He had just seconds left.

“A decision, please,”
said the Ancient.

“It was the wife,” said
Nathan. “She did it.”

“And why have you named
this woman?” asked the Ancient.

“She took off her wedding
ring, for one. And on her other hand, there’s a blood stain.”

“Have you considered that
perhaps she took off her ring while she bathed? And that she might have cut
herself and cleaned the blood away?”

That gave him a second of
pause, but he’d made his decision. It was too late.

“It was her,” he said.

The Ancient nodded
gravely. He put his stubby hand to his chin. He seemed to be delaying telling
Nathan whether he was right or not. The room was silent, and Nathan felt
tension in his chest. He really needed this power, but he began to doubt his
answer.

Finally, the Ancient
spoke.

“You are correct, Ken,”
he said.

Nathan breathed a sigh of
relief.

“Come, and collect your
reward.”

Nathan walked toward the
Ancient and stopped in front of him. Up close, the Ancient smelled of spice and
incense.

“Come closer,” said the Ancient.

Nathan went closer. The
Ancient reached across, and delicately tapped his head.

For a second, nothing
happened.

“That’s it?” said Nathan.
“I don’t feel different.”

And then a message
flashed on his screen.

Power Gained – Mind
of the Monster

The Tuphos monster can
reach into the minds of others, infecting them with emotions.

The first emotion is
fear, but upgrades can be purchased.

Experiment with
different emotions to see different effects.

Note: chance of success
with Mind of the Monster depends upon current insanity %.

The higher the
insanity, the more chance of success.

“Look in the mirror,”
said the Ancient, gesturing to his left.

Nathan followed the
gesture. He saw that part of the wall behind the Ancient looked like the mirror
in his main chamber. He stared at it, and saw that his reflection had changed.
Now, as well as his claws, his head was fully visible.

Boy, was he ugly. His
skin was scaly and dry. It looked as tough as leather. His face was so
monstrous that Sherlock and Watson looked like Hollywood A-listers by
comparison.

Senses improved!

Your sight, smell and
hearing have been boosted.

This allows you to see
in darkness and hear far away sounds.

Although it felt great to
get his second power and a boost to his senses, it brought up a problem. If he
was to use Mind of the Monster, he’d need to keep his insanity meter high. That
would bring back the horrible desires and cravings. The higher it went, the
less control he’d have over himself.

But he’d been told this
before, hadn’t he? First by Ancient #1, and then by Dereck. They told him that
he’d have to embrace his instincts. It seemed that no matter how much Nathan
wanted to stay human, he’d have to give in to his Tuphos nature.

The Ancient spoke,
breaking him from his thoughts.

“You are close,” he said,
“but be warned. Some doors are best left unopened.”

He thought about the 3rd Ancient
door and the blood sacrifice he’d have to make to enter it. He just hoped he
was strong enough to kill the guild and use their blood. He brought up his
character sheet and looked at the changes to his power list.

Power 1 – Soul Claw Lvl
2

Orbs until upgrade: 4

Power 2 – Mind of the
Monster Lvl 1

Orbs until upgrade: 3

Power 3 -

He still didn’t feel
powerful enough to face Layre, Gevil, and the others. He just wished there were
other things in the mountain. Enemies he could fight that he’d be able to earn
EXP from. Maybe the best plan would be to spend some time hunting rats until he
reached a higher level. Then, he could spawn more minions.

“Nathan…” said Dereck.

He turned to look at the
cleric. “What is it?”

“We’ve got a problem.
Check your map.”

He brought up his map
screen and saw what the cleric was talking about. He was right; they did have a
problem.

As he studied his map, he
saw that the Seekers guild had managed to find their way out of the maze he’d
set. They were heading toward the main chamber.

He couldn’t explain it,
but every cell in his body told him that it would be a disaster for them to get
there. There was something personal to him about the main chamber.  Something
that made him vulnerable. Was it the rot room?

Whatever it was, he
needed to stop the Seekers getting there.

Chapter Fourteen

If the Seekers reached
the main chamber, the game would change. The mountain tunnels were like veins
in an enormous body, and the chamber was its heart. If the Seekers got to the
heart, they cut off Nathan’s blood supply. Namely, the only place where he
could replenish his energy. The rot room. After that, it was only a matter of
time until his energy sapped and he couldn’t replace it. Then he wouldn’t be
able to fight back. They’d chase him down in the tunnels and kill him.

Time to make a plan. He
couldn’t craft anything because he’d spent his orbs on the fake walls that had
kept Layre and the others busy. There wasn’t enough time to have Sherlock and
Watson mine some more.

No, crafting was out. He
was going to have to use a show of force. Fear and trickery wouldn’t drive them
out, so he’d have to face them head-on. First, he wanted to get a fix on where
the Seekers were.

“Can you see them on your
map?” he asked Dereck.

“They’re headed toward
the main chamber. It won’t take them long to get there.”

“Do you think they know
where the main chamber is and they’re purposefully seeking it? Or are they just
wandering around?”

“Layre knows how quests
work in Adonis,” said Dereck. “Every dungeon, cavern or tunnel system leads to
something in the centre. That’s where quests are usually completed. He's just
using game logic.”

He needed more
information. He was going to have to use his newly gained monster senses and
see what he could detect. Since the senses were passive, there was no need to
activate them. He simply had to look around and concentrate.

“Point to which direction
they are on your map,” he said.

Dereck checked his map,
then pointed North-East.

Nathan looked in that
direction. Sounds drifted his way. He heard footsteps on stone. He heard Gevil
grunt an order at a newbie who wasn’t picking up the pace. The more he
listened, the clearer he heard them. It was strange how strong his senses were.

“How far away are they?”

“A few minutes from the
main chamber.”

“No, I mean from us.”

“They’re on the other
side of the mountain. All the way back the way we came.”

“It’s at least a mile
from here to the main chamber,” said Nathan.

Wow - his senses were
strong indeed. Not long ago, he’d envied how good Sherlock’s hearing was. Now,
Nathan’s was miles better.

He brought up his map
again. The other main chamber passageway was filled in on his map now, courtesy
of Sherlock and Watson. As Nathan suspected, it was a series of tunnels that
twisted and looped before joining the other passageway. There was more than one
way into the main chamber, it seemed.

Seeing how well-tuned his
senses were had given him an idea. One that would bring him an advantage. He
turned to face Dereck.

“You said there was an
option for you to leave the guild?” he asked.

Dereck nodded. “Just the
click of a button. But like I said, if I do that…”

“They disappear from your
map. But listen, I’m pretty sure that my senses mean I’ll be able to see the
Seekers on my map no matter how far away they get.”

“Are you certain?”

Nathan listened again.
Despite the Seekers being a mile away, he heard their boots scrape on the
ground. He heard Gevil muttering something under his breath. He couldn’t pick
out all the words, but he definitely heard ‘bloody,’ ‘damn’ and ‘tunnels.’

That firmed his resolve.
“Quit the guild. It’ll mean you can help me when it comes to a fight.”

“Unless…” said Derek.

“Unless what?”

The cleric had thought of
something. From the look on his face, it wasn’t good. “Since I’m still in the
guild, they can see me on their map. They must know I’m still here, and they
haven’t come to find me. Why?”

“Maybe they think you’re
annoyed at them for leaving you here to die.”

“Or they’re suspicious of
me.”

“Either way,” said
Nathan, “I need you to be able to fight. I know you’re not much of a warrior,
but every little helps. Do you know any offensive spells?”

“Mostly healing ones. I’m
a cleric, not a mage. But I have a few scrolls.”

He checked his inventory
bag, before pulling out 3 sheets of paper. “Let’s see here,” he said, leafing
through them. “I’ve got 2 fire scrolls and one paralysis.”

“Good enough. Quit the
guild.”

Derek looked at Nathan
for a few seconds. He wondered what the cleric was staring at. Then he realized
that he must have been looking at his menu screen. A couple of seconds later,
the cleric nodded.

“Done,” he said. “But
maybe we should have made sure your senses worked before I quit.”

Nathan shook his head.
“If you could see them, it meant they could see you. It won’t take them long to
figure out we’re working together. It had to be done either way.”

This was it. Time to
check if it had worked. If the plan failed and Nathan’s senses weren’t as good
as he thought, the Seekers were now off-radar. He took a breath, then pulled up
his map.

He saw the tunnels. He
saw markers for Sherlock and Watson, which showed his minions walking toward
him. He looked toward the main chamber, but he couldn’t see any ‘P’ icons.

He felt a sense of
crushing defeat. It was like a vice closing on his chest. He’d just given up a
strategic advantage on a hunch.

Or maybe not. Right now,
he couldn’t hear the Seekers. It was only when he listened – really
listened – that he heard them. So, with the map still displaying, he tapped
into his monster hearing.

Voices. Footsteps. An
occasional cough. Gevil grumbling about something. Two of the newbies sharing a
joke and laughing.

As he listened to them,
he saw 8 ‘P’ icons flash on his map. They were close to the main chamber,
heading along a tunnel that led to the heart of Nathan’s base.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ve
got a fix on them. This is a win for us – it means I can still watch them, and
you can help me fight.”

“And here comes Sherlock
and Watson. So that makes a Tuphos, a cleric, and 2 goblins against 8 of the
Seekers guild.”

Nathan shrugged. “We’re
getting there. Now, what else do we have that we can use?”

They spent ten minutes
strategizing. Nathan thought about everything he’d ever learned about combat.
He studied his map. He listened to Dereck describe the Seekers guild and what
he knew of their weaknesses. After a while, they had a plan. It wouldn't help
them kill everyone in the Seekers party, but hopefully it would be enough to
drive them out of the mountain.

“Ready?” asked Nathan.

Dereck nodded. Sherlock
grunted. Next to him, so close that it was like he could barely stand to be
even an inch apart from his friend, Watson squeaked.

“Then let’s go.”

The part of 4 crept
through the tunnels. Sherlock and Watson walked together. They’d only just met,
really, but it seemed like they were already the best of buddies. Nathan
smiled. He was beginning to have more affection for a couple of goblins than
he’d thought possible.

Nathan stopped every so
often to check his map and use his senses. He altered their course
occasionally, taking certain shortcuts where he saw fit. He knew the tunnels so
well now that they were like the veins in his hand. They were part of him, and
he knew exactly where they ran.

Finally, after altering
their route a little, they came within 50 meters of the Seekers guild. There
were two tunnels that branched off to the left and right, and then one up
ahead. Importantly, the guild didn’t know they were there yet.

Nathan looked at Sherlock
and Watson and whispered.

“Remember what I said.
One of you takes the left tunnel, the other the right. Follow the loop into the
main chamber, and then you know what to do from there.”

Sherlock nodded. Watson
looked at his friend and then nodded back. His head bobbed up and down
enthusiastically.

For a second, the tunnel
seemed dark, filled by the thickness of eternal shade. The darkness cast
shadows on the Seekers’ faces, making it seem like they walked with a sombre
purpose. Then, Nathan used his senses. The darkness began to drain away. It
wasn’t replaced by white light. Instead, it was as if the darkness of the
passageways was condensation being evaporated by the sun, leaving clarity
behind.

He saw the glow of an orb
in the inventory bag of one of the hooded figures. The newbies surrounded Layre
and Gevil; 2 walking in front, 2 behind. Despite the camouflage effects of his
attire, he could see the rogue as he took careful steps. He stayed a pace or
two behind Layre as if he didn’t want to be drawn into conversation with the
wizard.

Nathan and Dereck were
alone now. Sherlock and Watson were making their way through the tunnels to
their designated positions.

“Are you sure you’re okay
with this?” said Nathan.

The cleric nodded. “It’s
our only chance.”

“It’s my only
chance,” corrected Nathan. “You’re not trapped here.”

“I’m not going until I
see Gevil clutching his throat and gargling on his own blood. Woah – that
sounded pretty evil, didn’t it? Still, I need to see this through. And I want
to help you leave.”

Nathan nodded. “Okay,
let’s do this. Remember the signal. I’ll be watching.”

Dereck nodded, then
walked down the tunnel and toward the Seekers. Nathan stayed back. He stepped
to his left so that he was just inside the opening of the tunnel that branched
away. Although his keener senses gave him a full view of the passage ahead of
him, the shadows hid him.

Dereck strolled ahead
with perfect calm. If it occurred to him that this could all backfire, he
didn’t show it. That was a quality Nathan liked about him. Ever since getting
here, he hadn’t been ruffled by anything.

The closer the cleric got
to the Seekers, the more Nathan’s chest tightened. They could just kill him on
sight, he knew. If they were clever, that’s exactly what they would do. But he
was counting on Layre’s greed and arrogance to overrule basic precautions.

Still, every step Dereck
took sent tension through him. The cleric’s footsteps were the only sound in
the tunnel. When he was just ten meters away from them, Layre suddenly held his
hand in the air.

The Seekers stopped.
Dereck paused too, as if he’d been frozen to the spot. Layre didn’t say a word,
but turned around and pointed in Dereck’s direction.

Their senses wouldn’t
have adjusted well enough to the tunnel darkness yet. Dereck was 10 meters
away, so there was no way they could see him properly.

“Who’s there?” said
Layre.

He nodded at Gevil. The
rogue clung close to the wall. He started making his way down the tunnel, using
his stealth to creep up on Dereck. Nathan’s instincts told him to step in, but
he was confident Gevil wouldn’t do anything.

“I said, who’s there?
You’ll regret holding your tongue,” said the wizard.

Dereck took two more
steps, then stopped. “It’s me,” he said.

Although Dereck still
wouldn’t have been able to see, this halted Gevil for a second. He carried on
sneaking forward, getting all the way up to the cleric until he was level with
him, but still against the shadow near the wall.

Gevil then reached out
and seized Dereck’s arm. The cleric jerked his head to look at him. Nathan’s
instincts told him to help, but he needed to be patient for the plan.

“Come on, cleric. You’ve
got some explaining to do,” said Gevil.

He pushed Dereck, making
him walk forward. Dereck stumbled and just about managed to recover his
balance.

“Steady on. You’re the
one who abandoned me, remember?” said Dereck.

“Shut up.”

Dereck crossed the
tunnels until he met the rest of the Seekers party. He stood next to Layre, who
regarded him with stern eyes. The hooded newbies surrounded him, holding their
wands.

The pieces of the plan
were moving. It was a strategy they’d had to make with haste, but it was all
they had. It was getting to the part now where it could go spectacularly wrong.
Nathan took a deep breath.

He pulled up his map. In
front of him, he saw the icons for the Seekers and Dereck. Beyond them, winding
their way through the tunnels, were 2 ‘M’ icons that marked Sherlock and
Watson.

“How long have you been
here?” said Layre. “A day? 2 days? And yet you haven’t left. That’s curious.
And don’t tell me you were lost, cleric. You entered this stinking chamber with
Gevil, and his map managed to guide us all the way back in. Don’t try and say
yours didn’t.”

This part of the plan
wasn’t scripted. Dereck had to keep the Seekers busy while the other cogs in
their plan moved. He just hoped the cleric’s improvisation skills were up to
scratch.

“Come on,” said Layre.
“I’m waiting.”

Behind him, Gevil leered
at Dereck. There was something other than anger on his face. Fear, maybe? Worry
about what Layre would do?

Dereck didn’t show the
same apprehension. He met Layre’s gaze and refused to waver. He didn’t seem
bothered that he was surrounded by the guild.

“I decided to stay and
explore,” said Layre. “I’m thinking of buying a holiday home here.”

Layre sighed. “I’ll get
the truth out of you. Especially since you foolishly decided to end your
association with us. Don’t think I didn’t know, cleric. I’m the Seeker leader;
I get notified when people leave.”

Then he turned to the hooded
figures. “Seize him,” he said.

This was happening a
little quicker than he expected, and now it all relied on Sherlock and Watson.
Nathan brought up his map. Where were they? He couldn’t see them.

And then he found their
markers. Just 2 minutes away from the position. It was now or never.

Let’s hope this works, he said to himself.

And then he gave the
signal.

Chapter Fifteen

At first, he didn’t think
Dereck had heard him. Two of the hooded figures stepped toward him, ready to
grab hold of him. Layre waited with his arms crossed. On Nathan’s map, Sherlock
and Watson closed in on the position. But unless Dereck did his part, they were
walking into a trap.

Nathan stayed crouched.
He felt a nervous energy inside him, like he was a spring coiled up and ready
to shoot out. He wondered if he should just pounce on the guild and start
tearing them apart with his claws and hope for this best.

No. Just wait.

And the Dereck moved. He
reached into his inventory bag. Before any of the others could react, he pulled
out his paralysis scroll and read the words. A blue light gathered on the page,
before shooting off it and into the tunnels.

The hooded figures looked
around them, shocked. The blue light wrapped around them like spectral arms. It
twisted around their bodies and bound them in place.

The hooded figures
struggled. When it became apparent they couldn’t move, they looked around with
pleading eyes.

At the far end, two ‘M’
markers on Nathan’s map closed in. They were 30 seconds away at most now.

It was time for the piece
de resistance. The final layer in the plan. This time, Nathan was going to get
to use one of his abilities.

They’d decided in advance
who he should use them on. Gevil was the most likely target. There was no point
using Mind of the Monster on Layre, Dereck had said. He guessed that the
wizard’s mental resistance would be too high. They’d need to wear him down a
little. There was no sense wasting it on one of the hooded newbies, either. So,
the rogue was the mark.

But now, Nathan wasn’t so
sure. Layre was frozen in place just like the rest of them, which meant his
resistance couldn’t have been all that great. Maybe he should use his power on
Layre and infect the wizard with fear?

“Now, Nathan,” hissed
Dereck.

The M’s on the map were
seconds way now. How long did paralysis scrolls last? A couple of minutes?

Nathan concentrated on
Gevil. He studied the contours of the rogue’s face. He stared at his skin, took
in every wrinkle. And then he let himself delve deeper so that he went beyond
the skin. He floated his own consciousness into Gevil’s thoughts.

Then, using Mind of the
Monster, he let a toxic mist seep out into Gevil’s brain. It was a dark mist,
the color of squid ink. It spread over the tendrils of the rogue’s mind like a
fog and infected every brain synapse with fear. The rogue was still paralyzed,
but hopefully, it would have an effect.

Mind of the Monster
fear check…

Current Insanity
meter: 25%...

Failed!

Damn! His insanity needed to be higher
for him to have a better chance.

He wouldn’t dwell on the
failure of his power. Using Mind of the Monster was only going to be the cherry
on the cake; the paralysis was the real filling of the dessert. The plan could
still work.

“How long before the
spell wears off?” said Nathan.

“Forty-five seconds,”
called Dereck.

Nathan stayed in
position. He tensed up and got ready to strike.

At the far end, he saw
that Sherlock and Watson had arrived. They had their daggers out. They
approached the Seekers warily, focusing on each guild member in turn.

Now, Nathan was on one
side, the minions on the other. They had them trapped.

“How long until paralysis
wears off?” he asked.

“Thirty seconds.”

“Okay. Do it. Sherlock,
Watson, go ahead.”

His heart pounded as he
watched the goblins approach Layre, daggers out. In a normal fight, they would
have been no match for the wizard. Now, though, the Seekers guild were frozen
in time, oblivious to what happened around them. The plan had been for Dereck
to get into the middle of them all so that his paralysis scroll would have
maximum reach. Then, Nathan and the minions would move in from the sides. It
was working.

As Watson took a step
toward Layre, something happened. Nobody else in the room would have noticed it
except Nathan. His newly-attuned senses meant he perceived imperceptible
movements that others didn’t.

The wizard had blinked.

It was a split-second
movement, but Nathan was sure he’d seen it.

He was going to call out
to Watson to warn him when Layre smirked. He turned and faced the goblin.
Without giving him a second to react, Layre raised his hands in the air. Purple
light gathered on his fingertips, fizzing and sparking. Then, he shouted
something, and the light shot out toward Watson.

The poor minion had no
chance. The purple light hit him in the chest. It scolded his skin instantly.
So much so that it took just 2 seconds for Nathan to smell the burning aroma of
goblin flesh.

Watson hit the floor.
After a second, he stirred. He looked around, dazed. His chest was a burned mess.
He looked down at his wound and then wailed in pain.

“Heal him,” Nathan
shouted to Dereck.

The cleric turned to look
at the goblin. He started to mouth the words to a spell.

As he did, Gevil stirred.
The paralysis effect had worn off for him much quicker than it had for the
hooded figures. Maybe it was due to him being a higher level.

Gevil took 3 nimble steps
across the room. He clutched his dagger, then leapt forward and drove it
through Watson’s throat.

“No!” shouted Dereck.

It was too late. The tip
of the blade pierced the goblin’s throat. Blood splashed out, and Watson made a
horrible gargling sound. Gevil drew back his dagger and let the goblin flop to
the ground.

Sherlock gave a grunt. It
was higher pitched than Nathan had ever heard him make. He knelt to the floor
and grabbed hold of Watson. He shook his friend, but the goblin didn’t react.
His head flopped back limply, and his eyes were glazed over.

Sherlock held his friend
and cried out. The sound was too horrible to listen to, and in that second
Nathan would have gladly given away his new senses.

He had to help. Screw the
plan – it had gone belly up. The paralysis scroll hadn’t affected the wizard,
that was obvious. He’d just been pretending.

He ran forward down the
tunnels, aware that it took away their last element of surprise. What else
could he do? If he didn’t act, Dereck and Sherlock were screwed.

As he ran down the
passageway, the hooded figures started to stir. They blinked. They shook their
legs. 2 of them looked around in surprise, wondering what had happened. The
scroll effect had worn off.

“Stupid cleric,” said
Layre. “Did you think a couple of goblins would be much help? And look – here
comes our monster.”

He had to get to Dereck
and Sherlock before they got hurt. He pushed his sadness about Watson to one
side. He’d deal with it later. But now, he had to protect his friends.

The hooded figures
collected themselves. Holding their wands, they ran to face Nathan. They held
them in the air, and he saw different colored lights gather on the ends of
their instruments.

He felt his blood start
to heat up. It didn’t just flow through him it, it rushed to every limb in a
torrent. He felt hot. Enraged. Like he could wipe out and cut off their heads
like dandelions stalks.

The figures ran at him.
Nathan stayed still. He was tense. Ready to cut down the first that reached
him.

He saw red lights shoot
his way. They missed him by 3 inches, but he felt the heat on his face. More
light gathered on the wands around him. It was a technicolor display of
destruction that would be aimed at him.

The first of the newbies
was just a foot away now. Nathan slashed out at him, angling his claws to catch
him on the neck. He felt his sharp weapons pierce through the newbie’s flesh.
He heard the man try to scream, but it was impossible with a giant claw through
his throat. Instead, he just gurgled.

Two more were nearby now;
one on each side. One aimed a shot of blue light at him. It struck his left arm
and sent a shiver of cold across his skin. It spread across his arm like ice,
and pain shot through him. The other newbie aimed with a red light, planning to
complement his friend’s ice attack with one of fire.

Nathan held his claws in
front of him. Without warning, he stabbed them out to the side. One claw
cleaved through a newbie’s face, cutting through skin and crushing his nose
bone. The other claw cleaved the newbie to his right, slicing the top of his
head – hood, hair and all – clean off.

A chiming sound told him
that he’d been rewarded with exp for his efforts. A message appeared and
informed him that he’d reached level 3, with a boost to his HP, attack and
defence. Another told him that his insanity meter was now at 45%. He ignored it
for now.

Across the tunnel, Layre
caught Nathan’s eye with a steely gaze. His eyes were aflame in the darkness.
He stood up tall, and his shadow seemed to fill the hallway. He cut such a
fearsome figure that even Gevil backed away.

Sherlock stood up behind
him. He gave one last glance to Watson, who lay limp on the ground. Sherlock’s
face was twisted in an anger so furious that even Nathan wouldn’t have wanted
to be near him.

“Dereck,” said Nathan.
“Get Sherlock out of here.”

Layre raised his hands
above his head. He held them out. Light began to gather in his palms, and his
eyes burned with fury. Whatever the wizard was doing, this was going to be one
hell of an attack.

“Dereck, Sherlock, get
over here,” said Nathan.

It was time to leave.
Regroup. With Watson gone, Sherlock wasn’t thinking clearly.

The cleric grabbed hold
of Sherlock’s sleeve. The goblin shrugged him off.

“We need to leave,” said
Dereck.

The goblin wouldn’t move.

The light in Layre’s
hands was a deep, blood-colored red now. It filled the passageway above and
around him. He was almost ready to use it. His arms tremored with the effort of
gathering the spell around him.

Dereck tugged on
Sherlock’s arm. The goblin wouldn’t move. Layre’s face twisted in concentration
as his mana burned and fizzed in the air around him.

“Get back here now,”
shouted Nathan.

Dereck ran across the
tunnel and stood by him. He panted and tried to catch his breath. “I can’t get
him to move,” he said.

And then Layre pointed
his hands at Nathan. He bellowed strange words, and the light around him
changed. It formed spherical shapes. They looked like hot balls of lava
floating in the air, and they seemed to shake with energy bursting to get out.
Layre flung his arms forward and sent the spheres hurtling across the cavern.

One of the spheres
touched the cavern roof just in front of Nathan. As it did, it exploded. A
shower of stone and rubble fell to the floor, and Nathan felt dust hit his
face.

Another sphere smashed
into the wall to his left. Another explosion. His eardrums hurt, and he heard a
ringing sound.

He kept moving back out
of instinct. With every explosion, more rubble piled up in front of him. The
spheres got closer and closer. The tunnels filled with a burning smell.

He felt dizzy. Every time
he heard a sphere blow up, it stirred something in him. A dull throbbing in his
head. Images flashing in his mind, but too quickly to hold on to.

He stumbled back. He felt
Dereck take hold of him.

“This way,” said the
cleric, leading him toward a turning.

More explosions. Getting
closer and closer. Dirt spraying into the air and then raining down on the
tunnels. He felt Dereck try and drag him away.

The explosions were doing
something to him. They were twisting his mind. Images were flooding his head
but too quickly for him to process them.

What were the images?

More spheres smashed into
stone and blew up.

The images shot through
his mind, but he couldn’t focus on them enough to see them. What were they?

They were memories.
Memories trying to break through his mental wall.

“Sherlock,” said Nathan.
“Where is he?”

The cleric shook his head
sadly. A shot of panic crossed Nathan’s chest.

He looked behind the
cleric. He saw that where there had once been a passageway, now there was just
a barrier of exploded rocks.

Sherlock was separated
from them, and he was stuck with Layre, Gevil, and the Seekers.

Chapter Sixteen

Dereck guided him through
the tunnels until he judged it was safe to pause for a break.

“Where now?” he asked.
His cheeks were covered in charcoal-colored dust.

Nathan recovered his
senses enough to look around. His ears still rang from the explosions. He
checked his map, and he saw a light-colored part of the wall nearby.

“This way,” he said.

He smashed it with his
claws, then stepped through.

When he did, he saw that
it wasn’t just a shortcut, but a room. It was a dead end, no bigger than a
garden shed. The walls were craggy and made from stone that had a silver tint
to it. Dew ran down them and made a dripping sound when rivulets hit the ground.

The strangest thing about
the room was that a beam of daylight shone down from the roof. It was clear and
had a cold edge to it. Nathan followed it and, looking up, saw that there was a
small hole at the top. Just a crack, barely enough for a mouse to crawl out of,
but it allowed a trace of daylight to illuminate it. It was his first hint of
the outside world of Adonis since he’d been near the exit.

Dereck paced around,
wringing his hands in agitation. “I can’t get it out of my head,” he said. “The
way Gevil gutted him. Watson is gone. That motherfu-”

Then he stopped. He took
a breath. This time, the cleric’s meditation didn’t work, and his face
reddened. “He’s gone, Nathan.”

He was. Not only that,
but Sherlock was too. He was trapped on the other side of the tunnel with the
Seekers. Consumed by rage with the death of his buddy. He was sure to attack
Gevil in revenge, but he was outnumbered. Nathan didn’t even want to think
about it.

“I’ve never seen a spell
like that,” said Dereck. “Those goddamn spheres. What was he trying to do?
Bring the whole mountain down around us?”

Everything had gone to
shit. Watson was dead, Sherlock would soon follow. Their plan had seemed to
work at first, but then Layre had ruined it. Now, Nathan was injured. It didn’t
look like they had anything going in their favor.

“Maybe it’s time for you
to leave,” he said. “You still have a chance. There’s nothing holding you
here.”

Dereck shook his head.
“I’m going nowhere. If I die, sure it’ll be painful, but I’ll respawn. You don’t
have that luxury, and I’m not leaving you.”

Nathan couldn’t help
replaying the scene in his mind. Seeing the blade pierce Watson’s throat.
Watching Sherlock as he clutched his dead friend, a look of anguish on his
face.

The images fast-forwarded
in his mind. He saw Layre gathering his mana around him. He watched the spheres
hurtling in his direction, exploding against anything they touched. Rubble
flying everywhere. The booms in his ears, loud enough to drown out everything
else.

The spheres. There was
something about the spheres and the way they exploded.

Images flashed through
his head. Fleeting. He saw colors; the orange of an explosion, the crimson
stain of blood. He heard screams, but they seem to come from another world.
Another life.

The pictures began to
slow down. These were memories, he realized.

The thought hit him so
hard that he was almost out of breath. He felt the room start to disappear
around him as a memory came back to him, hitting him full force.

He remembered the stifling
heat as the sun shone on his combat gear. Sweat pooling on his forehead.
Sunlight shining off yellow stone walls. Somewhere in the distance, the boom of
artillery. This was a plaza in a war-torn city, but people went about their
daily business as if they were used to the chaos of battle.

He was in Inelsa. The
most unstable of the Eastern European bloc countries. He’d been stationed there
just a month. That morning, he’d pulled patrol duty. There were 3 squaddies
with him. He looked at them and saw their khakis, but couldn’t remember their
names. The words were there, somewhere, but the details were too fuzzy.

They heard a booming
sound. Then a loud drone. Something flew across the sky, and then bombs started
to rain down on them. The other 3 squaddies ran for cover, but Nathan had
paused.

Why had he stopped?

Across the road. There
was a small school, and children were in the playground enjoying some play
time. As bombs fell from the skies and exploded into the roads and pavements,
the children screamed.

He heard his squaddies
yell at him to get to cover, but he tuned them out. He couldn’t take his eyes
off the playground. He knew he couldn’t just leave the children and teachers to
fend for themselves.

So as the bombs smashed
into the ground, he’d ran across the plaza. He got to the playground. Out of
breath, he’d started taking control. Telling the teachers where to go. Picking
up children and dragging them to safety.

And then something had
exploded near him. So close that the sound deafened him. Something smashed into
him, sending him flying twenty feet away. Something pierced through his chest,
and he felt a burning pain. An agony like he’d never experienced before. He had
just enough time to look up and see that the children were safe.

And then his vision
started to fade. He couldn’t breathe. The pain lessened.

Everything became black.

And he became still.

“Are you okay?”

He snapped out of the
thought and found himself back in the mountain. Dereck was knelt in front of
him, looking at him with concern.

“What’s going on,
Nathan”? he said, with an edge of panic in his voice.

Nathan looked at him. For
a few seconds, he couldn’t form the words that he wanted to say.

“I saw…” he said, but
couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Saw what? You zoned out
on me.”

Back before he’d entered
Adonis, Dina had told him that he died a hero. She said she couldn’t show him
his death. Well, he’d seen it anyway. His memories had broken through and
penetrated the fog inside his head.

That must have been what
she’d meant. He’d died saving the children while bombs rained down around him.
That wasn’t the action of a hero. He was a fool. He’d put his squad in danger.
He’d ran into the jaws of death.

What else could he have
done, though? Just let them die? Just given up and ran away?

Nathan stood up. No, he
told himself. He couldn’t have tried to just flee, because it wasn’t in his
nature. And if he hadn’t done that in his 1st life, he sure as hell wasn’t
going to do it in his 2nd.

“What’s going on?” said
Dereck.

He looked at the cleric
and felt an overwhelming pity for him. The cleric still didn’t know how he’d
died. Nathan knew, now. And although it had hit him like a hammer in the gut,
it was something everyone should know, he realized.

But he wouldn’t tell
Dereck yet. He couldn’t. Not until the cleric found out how he had died, too.
It wouldn’t be fair.

He looked up at the roof
of the room and saw the daylight that penetrated the hole. He opened his eyes
to it. He let the breeze wash over his face. And then he turned around. He
looked at the dark passageway that lay beyond the room.

He wouldn’t run from
this. He wouldn’t let Layre win.

He brought up his map.
His heart leapt when he saw that an ‘M’ icon was still listed on it. It was
Sherlock, alright, and the map showed that he was in the main chamber. They
hadn’t killed him yet.

That meant that Layre and
Gevil had reached the heart of the mountain. Layre obviously had business
there, but Nathan didn’t care about that. All he cared about was taking back
the mountain.

It was time to go and
drive them out for good.

Chapter Seventeen

They walked through the
tunnels and toward the main chamber. Both he and Dereck were fueled by anger.
It was like a spark passing back and forth between them, igniting their fury
anew every time it flashed. Nathan couldn’t get the image of Watson out of his
head, but he didn’t want to. He needed it as kindling for the flames of his
fury.

As he followed the
passageways, his heart beat so quickly that he could hear the blood rushing in
his ears. His cheeks were burning. Every so often, pictures flashed in his
brain.

The split-second image of
his claw impaling a man’s neck.

Blood leaking from ripped
skin and pooling on the ground.

The rot room, full of
bodies. He imagined himself next to them. Rolling around and coating himself in
blood.

He checked his insanity
meter. It was at 45% - enough for him to control himself for now, but soon, the
images would get stronger. He’d start to hear voices telling him to do things.

He wondered if he should
ask Dereck to use his spell to bring his meter down, but there was no time.
Looking ahead, the main chamber was just twenty meters away.

He stopped. Dereck looked
at him.

“Something wrong?” he
asked.

“You understand that this
is it for us, don’t you?” Nathan said. “There are too many of them. This is a
last-stand kind of deal.”

“You’re talking like
you’ve given up.”

“No. I’ve just come to
terms with it all. If I die, I die. Hey, it’s happened to me before. I’d just
rather go out on my terms. I’d prefer to cop it by taking the fight to them,
rather than having them run me down in the tunnels.”

“For what it’s worth, even
as a monster you’re better than most of the people I’ve met in Adonis.”

“Thanks,” said Nathan.
“Listen, when we get in there, I want you to hang back. I’m going to attack,
and it’ll be chaos in there. I want you to grab Sherlock and then both of you
can get out of here. I’ll keep the Seekers busy.”

“We’re not leaving.”

Nathan held firm. “You
are. I can’t go, Dereck. The only way I can think to leave is by completing the
third ancient room, but I need the blood of 4 or 5 people to get in there.
That’s just not gonna happen. You have a chance.”

“I’m going to fight with
you,” said the cleric. “Whatever happens.”

“Then let’s go.”

Pulse pounding, muscles
feeling tense, Nathan walked down the tunnel. He steps slowed, as though he was
deliberately drawing them out because he knew they’d be his last.

What he’d said to the
cleric was only partly true. Sure, he’d died before. He didn’t fear death. But
he did regret it. He’d wanted to explore Adonis and see what was out there, but
it didn’t seem like he’d get the chance.

Forget that for now, he told himself.

He focused his senses. He
heard voices. As he listened to them, he started to get an uneasy feeling.
There were way too many people talking. Back in their last fight, Nathan had
killed two of the newbies. In his head, it sounded like at least 10 people were
in the main chamber.

Keeping his senses in
tune, he brought up his map. Sure enough, he saw more P icons than he’d have
liked. There were 9 of them in the main chamber, all gathered on one side of
it. Over near the rot room, there was an ‘M’ icon that marked out Sherlock. That
made 10, but at least 1 was an ally.

“Ready?” said Nathan.

The cleric had taken his
two fire scrolls out of his inventory bag. He adjusted his robe and then
nodded. “Ready.”

Nathan broke out into a
run toward the main chamber. He didn’t hold back from his thoughts this time.
Blood, guts, violence, he’d let it all come out. He worked on adrenaline, and
he felt it pump around his body and spur him on.

He reached the end of the
corridor and turned a corner. He was in the left tunnel that opened into the
main chamber. He stopped and assessed what was in front of him.

He saw Sherlock slumped
next to a wall. He was alive, but his HP was drained to within a centimeter of
reaching empty. They’d beaten him almost to death, and it’d take only one blow
to finish the goblin off.

He saw Gevil over in the
corner, sharpening his knife on a whetstone. Sparks flew every time he scraped
it.

Layre was near the rot
room, stood in the doorframe and looking in. Writing something in a notebook.
Milling around the room, chatting with each other, were 7 hooded newbies.
Fresh-faced, wands out.

That was more than they’d
had before. How?

Dereck caught up to him.
He took one look at the room, then pointed to the right. There was a shimmering
vertical sheet of light. Vaguely oval shaped, tall enough for a man to step
through.

“That’s a travel portal.
Bet it leads to the guild.”

“So, unless we close it,
more guild members can come through?”

Dereck nodded.

An idea struck him. “We
could use it to escape the mountain.”

“Afraid not. Only guild
members can use it.”

Nathan sighed. “Time to
get to work.”

He stepped out of the
opening and into the main chamber. He saw the water mirror on the far side
wall. He smelled the odour of the rot room. Sour, evil. Calling to him.

The 2 newbies nearest to
him stood up. One dropped his wand in surprise. The other grimaced. He looked
around, wondering who was supposed to make the first move. Realizing it was
him, he raised his wand. A red light began to glow on the end.

Nathan didn’t give either
of them chance to react. He took one giant step forward until he was in front
of the newbies. He tensed his arms. In a double uppercut motion, he impaled the
hooded figures through their chins. Their bones made popping sounds as he
snapped through them, and he felt a warm spray of blood on his skin.

Insanity meter
increased to 65%!

It was 10% per kill, it
seemed. And man, what a difference 10% made. The rest of the newbies were on
their feet now. Some stared at their friends, who hung from the end of Nathan’s
claws. Others gripped their wands, gritted their teeth, and aimed at Nathan.

He stumbled back. His
vision faded for a second. He saw flashing images. He was back in the
schoolyard. This time, instead of helping the children, he was chasing them. He
was there as a Tuphos monster, and he was tearing after them, claws
outstretched.

He shook it away, forcing
the image into a reluctant retreat. He saw 5 wands pointed at him. Four held in
firm hands, one shaking with fear.

Gevil had dropped his
whetstone and was walking over to the fray. Layre Mock slowly turned away from
the rot room.

Dereck joined Nathan at
his side now. He had his scrolls ready. He didn’t seem scared in the slightest.

Layre walked forward a few
paces and then crossed his arms. He stood over the shoulder of one of his
newbies, towering over the normal sized man. He gently tapped his arm, making
him lower his wand.

“The monster and I need
to talk,” said the wizard.

The newbies withdrew
their wands. The red lights faded, like extinguished cigarettes. Gevil didn’t
lower his weapon. Instead, he pulled out a second dagger. The tip was stained
green. It must have been a poison blade.

“Do you know why I’m
here, monster?” said Layre. “Truly, I mean. It isn’t the call of treasure, like
some people I could mention. Nor is it because I care about completing quests.
No, my reasons are far worthier. You see, within this mountain-”

No. He wasn’t going to listen to this.
He knew the start of a monologue when he heard one, and he had no desire to
indulge it.

Nathan stared at the
newbies, who were lined up in a row in front of the wizard.

He breathed in. Held the
air in his lungs. He felt his blood rush through his veins.

He leapt toward the
newbies, covering ten feet of ground in one jump. He aimed at the 2 hooded
figures on the left of the row. One made a futile attempt to raised his wand,
but Nathan was too quick.

He dug his claw into the
side of his temple, hearing the crunch of bone as he stabbed through it. The
newbie made a death rattle sound. His eyes seemed to bulge, and blood trickled
from his nostrils.

The newbie next to him
had managed to start a spell. Yellow threads of light covered his wand and
wrapped around the wood, before converging at the tip.

Too slow. Nathan pulled his claws out of the
dead newbie’s temple and let his body slap on the ground. He stabbed forward,
gutting the yellow thread newbie in the stomach. The man shrieked. Nathan
twisted his claws, causing maximum damage to the man’s insides. Then he
withdrew them, and he heard the squelch of blood and vital organs.

His insanity meter was
85%.

Blood pounded in his
ears. A crimson filter swam in his vision. He smelled something. The odour of
raw meat. Delicious. Enough to make his mouth water. His arms felt tense, as
though he yearned to use his claws again.

He saw the playground. He
was chasing the children. Claws raised. Licking his lips at the prospect of a
meal.

He stumbled back. He had
to control himself.

Behind the newbies, Layre
held his hands above his head. Light began to gather on his fingertips,
scintillating in the darkness. He was going to use his spherical bombs again.
In such an enclosed space, there was no escape. The explosive orbs would smash
everything around them. They would unleash a destructive rain of rock that
could tear the room apart.

Kill them all, urged the voice in Nathan’s head.

He smelled blood. He
tasted it on his tongue. He imagined what it would be like to be in the rot
room with dozens of corpses. Rolling with them on the fleshy floor. Coating
himself in their blood. Tearing away strips of their flesh and putting them on
his tongue to savor the taste.

He stumbled back again
and tried to think of something else. Anything else. He needed to distract his
mind, but it was too hard. The images were too strong, too graphic.

He felt a hand on his
shoulder, but he shrugged it away. A thought occurred to him.

Fear. That was it – Fear.

As the evil voice
whispered in his head, his true self stayed just strong enough to call the
shots. With 3 newbies , Gevil and his daggers, and Layre readying to use his
bomb spheres, the odds were stacked against them. There was still something he
could do.

Mind of the Monster
hadn’t worked last time, but he had a chance.

He looked at Gevil. They
rogue was approaching Nathan warily, taking one cautious step after another. He
was too experienced to rush into the fight.

Nathan tried to focus on
the rogue’s face again. He looked at his skin, but in Nathan’s mind, it was
coated in blood. He tried to delve deeper into the rogue’s brain, but something
always yanked him back. A voice that told him to forget about his power and
focus on the carnage around him.

He shook it off. He tried
again. He tried to imagine his consciousness creeping into Gevil’s brain.

The voice pulled him back
again. He couldn’t concentrate.

He felt a hand on his
shoulder and realized Dereck was next to him.

Kill the cleric.

Nathan shook his head.
This was going wrong. Having a high insanity meter was supposed to give him a
better chance at using Mind of the Monster. The problem was, the higher his
insanity was, the less he could control himself to actually use his power.

“Nathan,” said Dereck,
and tugged on his arm.

“Go and get Sherlock.”

“But what about-”

“Just free Sherlock!”

Dereck ran by Gevil and
over to Sherlock. As the cleric passed Gevil, the rogue raised his dagger and
went to stab him.

At that second, Nathan
plunged deep into his mind. He swam into the rogue’s skull. He started to
infect his brain cells with Mind of the Monster, sending black liquid fear
through his mind.

Mind of the Monster
Fear check…

Insanity 85%...

Failed!

At that moment, Layre
raised a glowing sphere in his hand and threw it at Nathan. He had just enough
time to jump back, and the sphere exploded in front of him. He felt a searing
pain across his chest and saw that a liquid flame had coated his skin. What the
hell was in the wizard’s bombs? Napalm? When the fire disappeared, a quarter of
his HP had drained.

The rogue looked at him
and grinned. He smelled blood in the water, that was obvious. He thought he
could take Nathan on. He raised his daggers and prepared to attack.

He opened his mouth and
screamed. Suddenly, Sherlock was behind him. He’d stabbed his dagger through
the rogue’s neck, catching him off-guard and scoring a critical hit.

Gevil collapsed onto his
knees. He tried to say something, but Sherlock twisted the knife. The goblin’s
face was screwed up in anger. He didn’t look like he was enjoying what he was
doing to the rogue, but it seemed like it was releasing something for him. He
drew out the dagger and then kicked the rogue forward so that he hit the floor
face first.

A bomb exploded to
Nathan’s left, burning his left arm and waist. More HP drained. Surrounding him
were the 3 newbies. One shot a blue bolt at him, grazing his shoulder.

Even with Gevil and 4
newbies dead, the odds were still against them. Destructive mana swam around
Layre’s head. He raised his hands and drew it toward him, readying himself for
another spell.

Suddenly, Nathan stumbled
back. He tasted blood in his mouth. His stomach ached with hunger, but not for
food. For flesh. He heard a dozen voices whispering in his ear, urging him to
turn on Sherlock. To rip the goblin limb from limb.

A newbie approached him,
wand raised. Nathan lashed out, catching him at his elbow joint and ripping his
wand-arm clean off. Crimson sprayed around the room, and the newbie ran in
circles, screaming hysterically. Finally, he dropped to the floor and was
still.

Insanity meter
increased to 95%!

His mouth watered. He
heard a pounding in his ears. Rage burned through him, flowing so hot that he
thought it would burn him alive.

Dereck appeared at his
side. He began to mouth some words. A yellow light glowed around him.

Kill him, said the voice.

The cleric continued to
chant.

It was the spell that
brought down his insanity meter. The cleric was trying to give him back control.

Behind the remaining 2
newbies, Layre was growing an almighty sphere in his hands. It was five times
the size of the others. It looked like it would take out everyone in its blast
radius, except for the wizard and his friends.

He needed to do something,
but the wizard was just too powerful. Nathan didn’t have enough strength to
kill him.

Unless…

He pushed Dereck away,
stopping him mid-chant.

“Now I have to start
over,” said the cleric.

Ignoring him, Nathan
leapt forward, toward one of the hooded figures. He raised his claws midair. As
his trajectory stopped, his claw pierced straight through the newbie’s eye. His
eyeball popped. The man screamed, but he was dead before he could even finish
the sound.

Insanity meter
increased to 100%.

At first, Nathan didn’t
feel any different with his insanity bar at full. He took a step back. He
wondered what should have happened.

And then he felt it.

He saw shadows forming in
the opening of the rot room. They were thick. There was something insidious about
them. A sense that evil waited within the mist. He felt drawn to them, like he
should ignore everything else in the room and let the shadows suffocate him.

Nathan felt his mouth
open involuntarily. He tried to close it, but he couldn’t. The mist seeped
across the room like a snake, before slithering into his open mouth and down
his throat.

It crept into every fibre
of his being. It infected every cell. He felt himself grow stronger. Whatever
it was, as it infected him, it empowered him. Made him faster, stronger.

And then it wrestled for
control of his mind. He felt it squeeze his brain. It tried to smother his
consciousness with its foggy darkness.

He took a deep breath. He
just had to stay in control for a few seconds more…

The sphere above Layre’s
head was almost fully grown now. It popped and shimmered with mana. Layre’s
face was dark red, and his eyes bulged as he struggled to contain the
tremendous spell in his palms.

Nathan ran toward him. A
newbie stepped in his way, but Nathan brushed him aside as if he were an
insect. Blood splattered his face, but he licked his lips and carried on
running.

Layre broke his
concentration to grin at Nathan.

“Too late, monster,” he
said.

But Nathan had reached
him. He felt the darkness gathering inside him, filling him with monster power
and fury. It was battering his mind, but he held firm.

Just enough to reach the
wizard. To grit his teeth and then stab his claws forward.

Pointed claws met
wrinkled flesh. Skin parted like butter. Blood dribbled over his hands.

Layre wheezed. He tried
to finish his spell, but it was no good. Nathan shoved his claws deeper into
the wizard’s neck. The full force of his insanity surged through him.

The wizard’s eyes
widened, and then the spark in them died. He let out a final breath.

Nathan withdrew his
claws, and Layre Mock flopped to the ground.

Dereck walked toward him
with Sherlock at his side. They approached Nathan, taking a few seconds to
survey the carnage around them. The main chamber was coated in blood.

Lovely, delicious blood.

It wasn’t Nathan who his
friends approached. Not anymore. He was something else. Something that lurked
in the darkest corners of his Tuphos nature.

He saw the cleric and the
goblin walk toward him. He kept his claws at his side. He wouldn’t use them
until they were close. He’d catch them off guard. Stab them in the gut, and
disembowel them before they had a chance to react.

The cleric walked
forward.

Just one more step…

Nathan suddenly emerged
from the waters of his subconscious. He wrestled for control of his mind. The
darkness was strong and thick. Its pure desire for control was overwhelming.

He looked at Dereck and
Sherlock with pity. He tried to control himself, but he couldn’t. His insanity
or his nature, whatever it was, would win. He’d kill his friends in cold blood.
They were doomed.

The cleric started to
back away. He must have noticed the look on Nathan’s face. He must have known
what it meant.

Nathan stepped forward.
He towered over them now. He raised his claws.

And then he fought back.
He tried to remember what Dereck had taught him. He needed to breathe. To let
his thoughts drain away.

Come on. Fight it. He wouldn’t let his instincts win.

And then he remembered.

‘You need to embrace your
nature,’ the cleric had told him after they had meditated for the first time.

He was right. Nathan was
a Tuphos, and his inner nature wouldn’t just disappear. Now that his insanity
had reached 100%, it wouldn’t just leave. He had to embrace it. Welcome it.

Instead of fighting for
control in his head, he took deep breaths. He imagined peaceful thoughts
floating into his mind and disinfecting the fog. He imagined his head clearing.
His desires draining, and then vanishing.

The fog started to leave.
Some of it clung on to tendrils of his mind, but he stayed firm.

Peaceful thoughts.
Deep breaths.

And then it was gone.

Skill gained –
Insanity Mastery

You are starting to
master your inner beast.

You cannot completely
remove your insanity, but you have taken a step.

He checked his meter and
saw that it had fallen to 65%. It was enough for him to regain control of
himself. Then, hoping the evil look had left his expression, he turned to face
his friends.

Sherlock let his dagger
arm fall limp at his side. Dereck stopped backing away.

“Don't worry guys,” said
Nathan. “I’m back.”

Chapter Eighteen

Later, they went into the
tunnels and found Watson’s body. They each said a few words, and then they laid
him to rest in the rot room. Sherlock stood in the opening of the room with
tears in his eyes. He still clutched his dagger in his hand, sticky and stained
with Gevil’s blood.

“What now?” asked Dereck.

After the fight, Nathan
had been flooded with messages. They told him he had levelled up 3 times,
giving him great boosts to his HP, Att, Def, and energy. It was a welcome
sight, but it wasn’t enough.

He felt like something
else had changed. It wasn’t just that he had embraced his Tuphos nature, but
something else. His heart pounded, and adrenaline still shot through his body.
He sensed he wouldn’t be forgetting the carnage of the battle for a long time.

He knew what they had to
do next. He didn’t like it, but it was the only thing they could do. He glanced
at the newbies’ corpses on the ground of the main chamber. Blood leaked out of
their open wounds and stained the dirt. None of them moved. Everything was
silent.

Nathan picked up two of
the corpses and heaved them onto his shoulders.

“Grab a body each,” he
told Dereck and Sherlock.

They carried the bodies
through the tunnels of the mountain. The silence was oppressive now. The whole
mountain was still, and not even the sound of dripping water could be heard.

Their going was slow, but
eventually, they reached the passageway of the Ancients. Nathan dropped the
corpses onto the ground. He walked over to Ancient door #3. He saw the skull
fastened to the wall, ready to be filled with blood. He read the words carved
into the stone next to it.

To enter here,

Heroes blood must
be shed,

Just pour it in,

The giant’s head.

Dereck took 2 healing
potions from his inventory bag. He drank the liquid from one of them and
replenished his health. He tipped the contents of the other onto the floor.

Together, they filled the
vials with blood from the newbies' corpses. As Nathan held the vials, he could
smell the iron-tint of their blood. It was thick, and it swished against the
sides of the glass.

He walked up to the
skull. This is it, he thought. He couldn’t help but feel that this was
the end.

Vial by vial, trip by
trip, he filled the skull until finally, it began to overflow.

He heard a sound. It
sounded like static; the fizzing of mana burning away. He looked ahead of him
at the passageway that led to Ancient #3, and he knew that it was open now.

He took a step forward.
Dereck and Sherlock walked behind him, but he held his hand in the air.

“I have to do this
alone,” he said.

And then he walked down
the darkened passageway. He crossed through the invisible barrier. He took a
few more steps, and then he was in the room.

This was a
triangle-shaped room, with the stone walls converging to a point at the end. It
was silent. Looking around, Nathan saw that nobody was there. There was no
ancient waiting for him here.

Instead, he saw two
things. One was a water mirror that completely covered the wall to his left.
Then, in the centre of the room, was the shimmering outline of a Tuphos
monster. It was infused with a thin red light that seemed to crawl up and down
it like electricity.

He instinctively knew
what he had to do. He took one last look at the room around him, and then he
stepped forward. He walked until he broke through the red light and stood
inside the shimmering Tuphos form.

Energy surged through
him. It latched onto his skin. It was warm, electrifying. It crawled over every
inch of him. He felt the shimmering form begin to close around his body,
snapping shut on him like a suit of armor.

He lost his breath. His
vision was filled with a flashing red light. It seeped into his eyes, into his
gaping mouth. Down his throat. It filled him.

And then it flashed so
brightly that it filled his vision.

When it receded, he felt
different. Something had changed.

He glanced to his left
and looked into the water mirror. For the first time since getting here, he saw
himself as a full form. The transparent outline of his body was gone, replaced
by something real. Leathery-looking flesh. Red skin. He stared into the mirror,
and a fully-formed monster looked back at him.

Power #3 Gained –
Tuphos Body

The Tuphos body allows
you to enter and leave Tuphos mountains.

There are several such
mountains in Adonis. Nobody knows where they are.

When you are close to
one, you will feel it.

You are strong enough
to walk in Adonis now. The air cannot hurt you. The sun cannot burn you.

- Magic resistance
gained

- Elemental resistance
gained

- Def increased to 86

The resistance to magic
and the elements was great, but that wasn’t what made Nathan smile. Now, with
his Tuphos form finally complete, he knew that he’d broken whatever was binding
him to the mountain. He’d finally be able to leave.

He thought about the
village of Janess. All he’d wanted was to go there. To sleep in a real bed. To
meet people. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

He still wanted to leave
the mountain, but he sensed that he had a higher purpose now. That something
waited for him outside of this mountain. Something in Adonis Reborn that had
had to see, or something that he had to do.

He turned around. It was
time to go. He walked across the room and then left by the opening. Dereck and
Sherlock were waiting for him, looking at him expectantly.

As he stepped back into
the passageway, he heard a sound. A rumbling noise, like the beginning of an
earthquake.

Dereck looked around.
“What the hell?”

The mountain walls began
to tremor. Dust shook off the roof and fell to the ground. The rumbling grew
louder and louder, like the roar of the worst thunderstorm he’d ever heard.

The tunnels began to
shake violently. The walls began to crack. Stones fell from the ceiling and
smashed to the ground. It sounded as if some giant was beating on the mountain,
trying to tear it apart.

“It’s breaking up,” said
Nathan. “The tunnels are caving in. Something’s happening to the mountain.”

Sherlock looked around,
his eyes wide in alarm.

More stones smashed to
the ground. A crack appeared in the wall to his right, so big that it looked
like the tunnel could cave in at any moment. The rumbling grew so loud that it
was like a pneumatic drill in his head.

“We need to get out of
here, said Nathan. “Before it caves in.”

The mountain exit was
along the passageway ahead of them, just a few minutes away. They sprinted
along the passageway, avoiding giant blocks of rock as they fell. The cracks in
the walls widened. Behind them, one wall caved completely. The whole mountain
groaned around them.

“Quick,” said Nathan.

His pulse pounded. He
felt his energy start to drain as he ran at full sprint. A wall to his left
caved in. Nathan had just enough time to grab Sherlock and pull him away,
saving him from a cascade of rocks that would have buried him.

As the mountain violently
fell apart, the exit loomed in sight. Daylight shone through it. Bright. Almost
too bright for Nathan’s eyes after spending so long in darkness.

More rocks fell. One
almost hit Dereck, but the cleric dived to his right. Nathan grabbed him and
picked him up. The mountain whined and churned around them, its very fabric
crumbling apart.

“Come on,” he said, his
breath catching in his chest.

More cracks rippled
through the walls around them. He heard a crash as the roof caved in behind him.
The rumbling sound grew and grew until he thought he might not make it out in
time.

And then he felt the
fresh air on his face. He’d reached the exit.

He stopped suddenly so
that he didn’t plunge out into the sharp drop in front of the opening. He
breathed a sigh of relief. He’d almost come all this way, just to die by falling
off the edge of a mountain.

He took a deep breath and
looked at the mountain trail to his right. For only the third time, he stepped
out of the mountain and into the daylight of Adonis. He felt the sun on his
face. The wind blowing on his leathery skin. He heard Dereck and Sherlock step
out behind him.

And then he took a deep
breath and waited. Deep down, he expected his HP to start dropping. A few
seconds passed. And then a minute.

Nothing happened.

“Come on,” shouted
Dereck.

Boulders were falling
down the mountainside now. The rocky face of the mountain was cracking apart.
The sound was deafening. Nathan concentrated on putting one foot in front of
the other, getting down the trail as fast as he could.

It was heavy going. He
grew hot, despite the cold air. His energy sapped. Every so often they would
hear the sound of rocks tumbling. They'd glance up to see the mountain breaking
apart. It made them speed up.

“Nothing like the threat
of being smashed to smithereens to light a fire up your ass,” said Nathan.

As they reached the
bottom of the mountain and stepped onto the plains of Adonis, the mountain gave
one last, gigantic groan. Dozens of boulders flew off it and smashed into the
ground. There was a great explosion of stone. Debris filled the air and rained
down like hail.

Nathan ran over to Dereck
and Sherlock and stood over them. He felt the sharp stones pepper his back.
Each one stung him, but he knew his new defence could take it.

When the rain of debris
ended and the groans of the mountain stopped, everything was silent. There were
birds in the sky, but they made no noise. It was as if they had stopped to see
what would happen.

Slowly, Nathan turned
around. He didn’t know what he expected to see. Maybe the mountain would just
be a gigantic pile of rock and dirt. Whatever had happened when he took his
full Tuphos form, it had caused the mountain to crumble.

When he saw what was
behind him, he lost his breath. His chest tightened. He couldn’t believe it.

Where the mountain had
once stood, there was now something else. It was a giant form. Some kind of
creature that was forty feet tall. Its body was made of rock. It had arms and
legs made of stone.

Sitting on top of it,
clinging to it, were two figures.

“Am I seeing things?”
said Dereck.

Nathan used his senses to
look closer at the figures on top of the stone creature.

It was the Ancients. One
on each shoulder of the rock giant. He saw Errelile clinging to the stone, his
man’s head bobbing up and down on his lion neck. On the other side, he saw
Ancient #2, the squashed-faced creature. His evil eyes peered out at the
landscape beyond. Nathan couldn't help but imagine that the Ancient was looking
at him and thinking 'Hey, that's Ken!'

And then he saw something
else. On the stone giant’s chest, on the left side, was something red. It was
fleshy and heart shaped. Twenty feet wide, and just as long. Nathan recognized
what it was.

This was the creature’s
heart, and he knew it all too well. It was the flesh-like substance that he’d
slept on in the rot room.

This was all too much to
process. Thoughts swam through his head, questions that he needed answers to, but
there were too many. He felt dizzy.

And then he heard a voice
behind him.

He turned. Dereck and
Sherlock did the same. There, stretched out on the plains of Adonis, his face
covered in blood, was Layre Mock.

The wizard had survived.
Whether it was by a spell or something else, Nathan didn’t know, but he’d
survived. He looked like a wreck of a man. Clothes torn, skin covered in cuts
and gashes. Blood smeared all over him.

“I told you there was a
reason for me being here, did I not?” groaned the wizard. He coughed, and blood
trickled onto his chin. His breaths were wheezy.

Nathan walked over to
him, close enough that he could finish him off when the time came.

Layre held up his hand.
“No need, monster. I’ll die soon.”

Dereck joined him. “What
the hell are you talking about?” he said. “Do you know what this…thing…is?”

Layre nodded. Even in the
throes of death, he held them all in his stern gaze.

“I told you I was looking
for something that would end respawns. That would stop players coming back after
death. Something that would let us leave Adonis and see what awaits in our 2nd
afterlife.

He groaned. His body
spasmed, and Layre bit his lip to bear the agony.

“This is it. The creature
you see before you. There was a reason you were sent here, monster. And this
stone giant is it.”

“What are you saying?”
asked Nathan.

“This is the beginning of
the purge of Adonis,” said Layre. “You started it, monster. By freeing
yourself, you let something else escape as well. And your destinies are
linked.”

Then he gave a great
cough. Thick blood covered his chin. He let out a long, raspy groan. Nathan
grabbed him. He shook the wizard as if that would make the answers fall out of
him. But it was no use; he was dead.

The ground started to
shake. Nathan turned around, and he saw that the stone giant was leaving. The
ancients straddled its shoulders and guided it away and across the plains.
Nathan couldn’t help but watch as it went into the distance.

“What does this mean?”
said Dereck.

Nathan didn’t fully
understand. But as he watched the stone giant disappear into the distance, he
knew one thing.

Layre was right. Nathan
had been sent here for a reason. Everything made sense but none of it did, at
the same time. How the mountain had crumbled and this giant had emerged, with
the ancients guiding it. How its heart was made from the fleshy floor of the
rot room. The only place Nathan could sleep to replenish himself.

He might have escaped the
mountain, but he knew this wasn’t over. If this thing could stop Adonis players
from respawning, then it was a threat to the entire fabric of the afterlife.

He turned to his friends
and smiled at them. The daylight felt warm on his face. He was free; he was
finally in the Adonis game world. He had escaped from the mountain. Even so, he
knew he wouldn’t be able to enjoy it yet.

A quest awaited him.

The End

Hey, thanks for reading
the Monster Spawn! I’m already working on book 2, and I’m excited at where the
story is gonna go.

If you get a second, I’d
really appreciate a review on Amazon. It’s great to hear what people think
about the story and it helps other LitRPG fans find new books.

Now if you want to
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Thanks for reading!

Deck