Fragments (Somnia Online Book 3), page 8
Murmur shivered, although honestly a little of that came from the cool and damp corridors, and less from the rampant fear that kept clawing at her insides. Even though her armor was relatively thick, the castle didn’t have anything like central heating, and the cold from the snowy world outside seemed to leak through the stone, which held it deftly. Taking a deep breath, she moved forward and pushed open the doors, considering everyone was standing around and probably waiting for her. Old habits and all.
She wasn’t sure what she expected when the room opened in front of her, but the sound of whooshing fire lighting the huge torches hung around the outer perimeter of the room was not it. The light traveled fast, illuminating the massive area in front of them within seconds. These torches weren’t as small or dim as the ones in the hall, and the light rebounded off the nearly white sand that covered the floor.
“What sort of fucking castle is this?” Rashlyn muttered as she moved up to stand next to Murmur.
“This is the dwarven castle of Dunforth Hightower. It was built to protect him and his loyal servants, but when he was cursed with the undeath and hunted by legions, he set traps to keep himself and his treasures safe.” The golem walked into the room, stopping just inside the door, oblivious to the gaping faces of the adventurers next to it.
“This is the combat room. I am here.” The last three words echoed around the chamber and suddenly, the air above them began to light up again.
Champion found, champion lost
Flip this coin, give it a toss
Heads you make it, tails you don’t
One step forward, or you won’t
In your corner you will find
Ways to leave your world behind
Now pick wisely, only one
Don’t pick boring—that’s no fun
Aid you’ll give, don’t interfere
Punishment is always near
Fighting fair is not the game
Your champion knows when to feign
Two chances, now please begin
Only one way lets you win
Beastial actually groaned out loud. “I feel like I’m back in English class. There’s a reason I’m a science student. No riddles, no poems. I don’t have to read real words. Okay. I don’t have to read them much. Give me numbers any day.”
Murmur laughed at him, hoping it didn’t betray her nervousness, and glanced up at the golem, whose eyes looked particularly stony and whose expression revealed absolutely nothing.
“I don’t think the golem can choose, can you?” Mur asked it.
It shook its head. “But as long as you have not made your final choice, I must answer any question you ask of me.”
This time Murmur raised an eyebrow, peering closer at Mellow’s creation. That was very specific piece of information to give. She decided to try pushing it further. “Who is allowed to command you?”
The golem smiled again, more rubble falling from its mouth, as this time the expression bared teeth. “My creator.”
Excellent, then the commands had to come from Mellow. Murmur turned to them. “You up for that?”
“Count me in, boss.” Mellow’s pearly white eyes glittered for a moment, making Murmur glad Mellow was on her side.
“Excellent. Then let’s take a look at these. I wonder if two chances means that we’ll have two chances to win?” Murmur side eyed the golem who opened its mouth to respond.
“There are two choices, but only one will allow me to win.”
“Allow you? As in it has to?” Mellow caught onto the tail end of what the golem said, their brows furrowing in thought.
“As in, there is only one I am capable of defeating.”
Murmur paused, and raised an eyebrow at Mellow who shrugged in return. They’d already overcome two hurdles, and she’d be damned if they were going to be defeated when they’d come this far, but they didn’t have a clue which one to pick either. The weird, sand-covered mounds on the floor weren’t any help them figure out which was which. Murmur craned her neck and looked up above again.
Mellow started wondering out loud. “’Flip this coin, give a toss.’ Heads was up first, and one step forward means in front. We’ve been heading north this entire time, so it only stands to reason that north is the head and one step forward means the bulge to the north, right?”
Sinister frowned, thumbing her nose like she did sometimes when she was concentrating. “Well, logically? I think. Why don’t we just ask?”
Before Murmur could stop Sinister, the blood mage turned to their golem. “If I choose the bulge to the north, will you be able to win?”
Murmur held her breath, hoping her friend had phrased it correctly, and had to remind herself to breathe while she waited for an answer. She hoped against hope that the golem wasn’t full of shit and lying.
“I will be able to win.” The golem’s smile was frightening.
Murmur elbowed Mellow, who responded by giving a command. “Choose the northern bulge.”
Mellow indicated their choice, and the room began to rumble. The floor beneath them sucked down the southern lump, and the sand shook off the one they’d chosen to reveal a heavily armored scarab, complete with front pincers, and huge, spiky legs.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices - Shayla Johnson’s Office
Day Twelve
Laria knocked on the door, and Shayla looked up, not having expected the interruption, but her face broke into a smile and she beckoned her friend inside. She craned her neck to make sure no one was standing around in the corridor outside before speaking. “Close the door behind you. James has been lurking a little more than usual lately, and I’d just rather he had to knock.”
“Sure.” Laria locked it behind her, turning around, her hands on her hips. “I take it you’ve swept for bugs.”
Shayla raised an eyebrow, quite certain the other was only half kidding. “Of course I have. You know that. Besides, I have one of those bug zappers. Necessary for industry espionage, and all that.”
Laria laughed, which had been the desired response, but it sounded hollow. “If you suspect James of something, have you dug up any evidence yet?”
Shayla sighed. “Nothing concrete. I should also be doing about a billion other things. There’s time for that, as long as I remain wary and don’t give anything away, things should be fine.”
“Fine. That’s what we all say.” Laria’s smile was tight, stretching her face unnaturally.
“You’re not doing well, are you?” Shayla leaned over and pulled one of the chairs to the side over to sit next to her and patted it. “Sit down and tell me all about it.”
Laria rolled her eyes, but plopped herself down in it anyway. Even from the way she landed in the seat, Shayla could tell there was something dreadfully wrong. Even the mask she’d been wearing since her daughter passed into a coma was missing. There was no ready smile, no bubbly words or come backs. The closest she’d come was her bugs comment and words of caution about James.
“You’re feeling like shit.” She didn’t phrase it as a question, because she didn’t need to.
Laria bit her bottom lip, and tears welled in her eyes. Shayla watched in shock as her usually under-control friend fought against crying.
“I fucked up so badly. I never thought Michael would tamper with her damned headset. He made me so happy when he agreed to get one for her, and I should have known better. If only I’d double checked, or if only—”
Shayla cut her off. “You can’t think like that. First up, what’s done is done, and crying about it now is only going to make sure nothing gets done while you sit and have a pity party. Sure, that’s harsh, but you also know it’s true.” She waited until Laria nodded before continuing.
“Secondly, Michael probably wasn’t finished with that headgear. He’d already had his own accident, and had likely only just started tweaking your daughter’s. There wasn’t any malicious intention from him, at least, I’d hope not. You can’t blame yourself for what someone did or didn’t do without your knowledge.” Shayla pulled herself forward and took Laria’s hands in her own, locking eyes with her and refusing to let the other woman drop eye contact. “Thirdly. If Wren saw you like this, she’d kick your ass.”
The last got a good chuckle out of Laria, whose eyes had taken on a glint of determination again. “Yeah, she would, wouldn’t she?”
“Remember how you told me she thought you’d lost your jobs when you were both home at a time you shouldn’t be, and how she seemed so intent on giving you a piece of her mind?”
Laria nodded.
“That’s your daughter. She’s strong, and she’s resourceful, and sure she’s probably resentful right now, but I’m also pretty damned sure that she’d not just resting in there. She’s probably trying to figure out ways she can get out of there in one piece and return to herself.”
Laria swallowed audibly, and looked up at Shayla, eyes clear, jaw squared. “I should be helping her. Maybe talking to her will help since it might be possible for her to hear us in there. Sometimes.”
“Considering her mind is active in-game, and there’s always been conjecture that coma patients can hear the outside world, yes. Give it a go. You’re allowed to grieve. And you’re allowed to feel like shit, but I have a but.” Shayla took a deep breath, because Laria really needed to know about the new reports and how Teddy was reacting to the current situation. “When you’re done with your pity party, I need you to be back on board a hundred and twenty percent, because Teddy is getting suspicious.”
“Teddy is what?” Laria shook her head. “Suspicious of what? Of Wren?”
“No.” Shayla knew she wasn’t breaking the news in the best possible way, but she wasn’t certain how else to go about it. She should have told Laria days ago. “Our investors are demanding that anomalies do not get left out. They want the reports on each and every player, regardless of whether they meet the overall criteria for reports.”
“Shit.”
Laria’s face paled, and Shayla could almost see the cogs whirring in her friend’s mind.
“So they’re going to need to include Wren’s data. Do we even know if it’s going to show something different to others? I mean, I haven’t seen it because those blasted AIs have been keeping it to themselves under the guise of protecting Wren by not letting it get out.”
The programmer paused. “When do they want these reports? Didn’t we only just send them some today?”
Shayla nodded. “We will be sending those out shortly, but the new types of reports aren’t included in those. We only have to begin reporting on them on day eighteen, since we need to modify the next batch of input.”
“Great.” Laria took several deep breaths before looking straight at Shayla. “Then we have to figure out how to go about this in the next five days so they get what they want but don’t find her.”
“Exactly.” Shayla stood up and stretched. “I think I need a walk around the office.”
“Good idea.” Laria shot back, heading to the door. “Go find out if James really is snooping and damn well do something about it.”
Shayla laughed as they both left the office. James was all well and good, but they had to figure things out before Davenport realized Wren was an anomaly.
“What’s with this world and its bloody armored insects?” Dansyn muttered, hugging his arms to his chest.
“Arachnids.” Sinister corrected somewhat absent mindedly. “Scorpions are arachnids.”
Dansyn shot her a glare, but didn’t say anything. Murmur glanced over at him, worried about whatever after effects he’d experienced when that venom melted him to death. Not the way anyone wanted to go. Had they even researched potential mental side effects?
Speaking of mental side effects, she wondered if she could target him with Thought Projection and perhaps help him past the healing hurdle. It was worth a try, wasn’t it?
But the golem chose that moment to move inward to the oddly padded square area in the center of the room. It turned to face the scarab, and flexed its arms into a fighting stance.
Overhead a huge countdown began, blaring the number five into existence.
Four
Three
Two
One
FIGHT
Murmur blinked and automatically cast Weaken, Enfeeblement, and her DoTs on the scarab as it raced toward its target. She watched Devlish out of the corner of her eye, turning off the black haze that usually hung around him. She’d never realized it generated hate before, and slotted it away for future raiding reference.
With everyone’s DoTs and debuffs in, she settled in for a long fight, only to find that the creature’s health was already down to thirty percent. Murmur frowned and began nuking it. She barely got two direct damage spells in before the creature collapsed and convulsed on the ground in death throes that almost lasted longer than the actual fight.
The golem headed back over and bowed to them all. When it spoke, its voice had changed to a deep and resonant sound that echoed through the room like a death knoll bell.
You have completed the upper level of Hightower. Be on your guard, for now the true test begins.
Of strength and virtue, love and hate
Find the steps and seal the gate
Within stone the heart you’ll find
Leave the hidden far behind
Finally, your test is true
Kill the last, if its blue
If it’s not, run take heed
The order was not what you need
The golem fell silent and the light went out of its eyes, like the life had left its body.
“Wait.” Veranol tapped it on the shoulder lightly with his mace. “That was way too easy. We barely fought that thing.”
“Maybe the actual test was solving the riddle?” Havoc shrugged, but his brows were drawn in irritation and his tone said as much.
“So now we head downstairs for the true test.” Devlish reactivated his aura, and hefted his weapons.
Murmur frowned, looking between the scarab corpse and the demobilized golem. This was way too easy. “It’s got to get harder. There’s no way this can hold one of the twelve keys if we can just waltz in, kill a boss, assemble a golem, and then fight the weakest monster I’ve seen in the game so far.”
“I’m not entirely certain we can claim that first boss as a just waltz in.” Dansyn’s voice was low and Murmur cringed at her lack of tact in her previous statement. Visions of the melting began to inundate her mind again, and she swallowed with difficulty, trying to push them out of her head.
“And to be fair.” Mellow cleared their throat, interrupting Mur’s waking nightmare. “The golem fought the scarab. Probably hit it pretty hard.”
“Fair point. Sorry.” But still, Murmur wasn’t convinced. This was all far too easy, and she didn’t feel so good about going downstairs. “Also, because the damned golem killed the scarab, we didn’t get any experience. This had so better be worth it.”
“You know you’re going to get punched by me if we end up going down there and it’s a total shitfest, right?” Sinister glared directly at her, as if trying to make her understand more than just the surface words.
Only Murmur knew there was no deeper meaning. Sinister just fully believed that speaking in that way completely and utterly tempted fate. So far from their experience in the game, Murmur couldn’t help but agree. “Well, let’s just hope I’m wrong. I just don’t think I am.”
“Actually.” Devlish frowned, and his eyes went slightly out of focus the way they did when someone pulled up their HUD. “I’m twenty-nine, so we did get experience somewhere along the line. In fact, several of us appear to have gained a chunk of experience, so if it wasn’t the scarab, it was probably for completing the golem building quest.”
“Oh.” Murmur glanced at her experience again and realized it must have moved up some, but since she hadn’t heard anyone ding, she didn’t realize they’d gained experience. She frowned, wondering how she’d managed to ignore it. “Well congrats! Maybe we’ll keep our lead after all.”
Havoc chuckled, sounding more and more like bones jangling together the longer he played his necromancer. “I think, doing these dungeons scaled down is still more difficult than doing them at max level, so we probably get compensated by extreme levels of experience. As long as we don’t die too much, it should be a great way to grind levels.”
“Interesting.” Veranol’s smile was catching.
No other doors had opened in the room, and after Merlin ran to check on the scarab’s corpse for loot and returned with just a few crafting supplies, Murmur took a deep breath and led the group out of the room by the door they’d entered from.
The corridor was lit up to the north more than it had been earlier, while the way back behind them to the south had been dimmed again. With nothing but swallowing blackness behind them, Murmur led her guild the way of the flickering torches.
No one spoke, so the only noise was their footsteps as they all walked down the stone hallway. They clacked loudly, echoing off the impossibly high ceilings, and then the lights abruptly led them to turn right and stopped them in front of a massive iron gate that barred the way to the stairs behind it.
Murmur stole a glance at all her friends and sighed. They seemed to be so tired. She could even see it filtering through to their characters in the way they held themselves, and the expression in their eyes, the droopiness of their eyelids.
“Hey. Liven up a bit. Once we’ve got this done, we can all go take a rest.” She tried to push some pep into her voice, but it was difficult considering the level of stress she felt about this dungeon. It wasn’t what she expected, and she had no idea what was coming next. Along with the surprises came a lot of potential death.
“It’s locked,” Merlin offered very unhelpfully, leaning against the bars. “Locked like a…thing that’s really locked. Leave me alone, I’m tired.”
Murmur chuckled along with the rest of them, and the tension lifted a tad. “Any ideas? Scarab didn’t drop a key, and I haven’t seen one anywhere else.”
