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  “I’m honestly surprised you were given permission to try it out this early in its creation.” Dice looked up its length with a protruding bottom lip. “In other words . . . you should be ready for anything.”

  “I see . . .” I said and moved forward. “Well, let’s get this over with.”

  Before I change my mind.

  When I came within a meter of the huge double doors, they opened with a boom that echoed throughout the bottom level. I looked into the large, open hall of shadows on the ground floor. As I stepped inside, my footsteps sounded hollow on the incredibly dusty floorboards.

  I noticed in the gloom a rotting staircase that spiraled up and around the brick and mortar walls toward the second floor. The stairs began at the back of the hall and in the space between us and them was what looked like a billowing black cloud. It was the first Chaos Engine of the dungeon.

  When the cloud shrank and converged into a single form, it wasn’t in the shape of a monster, but a man. Without his helmet I almost didn’t recognize him, but when I did, I halted. Despite being a character in the game, when his eyes opened, the Dark Warrior seemed to recognize me as well.

  Just as when Data, Siena and I had fought him, the Dark Warrior had long, fair hair that flowed out over his black shoulder armor. He wore a mantle of skulls and a long red cape that fell in waves down his back. Of all of the enemies I had beaten in my time in the Dream State, he was the one that seemed to have had the most thought put into him, but his story had not yet been completed.

  But why is he here?

  “You were the first to defeat me.” The man’s blank eyes lifted to the light behind us. “I have fought many battles since, losing some, but winning many more.”

  I nodded, figuring this to be the case after how desperately Siena, Data and I had fought to defeat him. “Data said you were a knight fallen from grace, but I never did find out why you went mad and forced the druids into the Cursed Pool to make them lose themselves to their magic.”

  The Dark Warrior’s eyes drifted down. “I never went mad. I discovered that the druids were plotting against my father . . . the king of the Ice Castle in Lucineer. So, I pretended to want to join the order of the druids myself, my own father disowning me when hearing of this, but it needed to be done!

  “I invited all of the druids to the Cursed Pool for my initiation ritual. There, my fellow soldiers awaited them. When they had all arrived, my men emerged from the darkness and pushed each of them into the pool. The waters drove them mad. Guilt stricken with what I had done, I remained at the top of the Keep, the king of my own castle.”

  Dice’s eyebrows knitted in confusion. “You talk to this NPC as though he’s a player.”

  I grinned. “Like Sentry Peter, his A.I. is a little superior to your average gawker in the street.” I turned back to the Dark Warrior. “So why are you here? Did a Chaos Engine just happen to bring you?”

  He looked troubled. “I’m not certain, but something is telling me to guard this place . . .” He raised his massive sword. “And stop you from going any further.”

  I nodded. “So be it . . . Dice!”

  “Gotcha!” he called and the Ruby Edge flashed into his hand.

  He ran in and engaged in a melee against the Dark Warrior, and, although he was a Range Niche, he was holding his ground nicely, not overreaching in fear of getting cut. It was for good reason. I had seen how much damage a single cut by the knight could do.

  I moved around the two, launching spells from my Boomstick. The last time I had fought the Dark Warrior, my level one spells had barely dented his Hit Points. Now using Graviton to slow him down, and Wildfire to burn him, Dice and I were taking large chunks off of his Hit Points with relative ease.

  Dice was struck once by the long blade and seemed surprised when I used my Regeneration spell to restore his Hit Points.

  “Thanks!” he called.

  Knowing I was there to back him up, he began fighting with more confidence. He engaged and struck with the Ruby Edge as the Dark Warrior forced down on him with the weight of his armor. The Dark Warrior pushed him off and struck quickly, using the same speed I had remembered him using against Siena.

  However, Dice was swifter and managed to get in two fierce blows before jumping back to allow me a turn to cast my spells. I used an Ice Coffin to freeze him and then exploded the icicle around him with a Plasma Beam, the impact of the two attacks sending his Hit Points down to the last tenth.

  He was moving sluggishly as Dice cut him down, taking out his remaining health.

  The fact that the fight was such a cake-walk with just the two of us showed the obvious improvement to my equipment and skills. As the Dark Warrior fell to his knees before us, I realized the importance of this battle.

  I see, there is no real fall from grace when one chooses to do the right thing for others. Like me, the Dark Warrior was only doing what was right to protect those he cared for.

  However, there was something in his smile just before he vanished that made me second-guess this idea. The smile showed an underlying look of sadness and pity for me, as though understanding the hard road I would have to take.

  “Of all places, why here?” he asked.

  Then, just like at the top of the Druids’ Keep, he vanished into the air.

  Until next we meet.

  “What an odd monster,” Dice murmured, face screwed up in bafflement.

  I shook my head. “He was not a monster. He was a true hero.” I strode swiftly to the back of the lighthouse toward the stairs. “Come on, we don’t know what might be on the next floor and I want to get this done before the end of the day.”

  Dice nodded and chased after me as we ascended the stairs. They were steep and we only had to do one lap around the massive wall before we were moving through the rectangular hole that led to the second floor. As soon as I saw the face of the Heavy in his newly synthed Diamond Armor, I realized that the random encounters of the Chaos Engines weren’t going to be so random after all.

  Chapter 28: Another Lucky Find

  As soon as Frank was allowed access to New Calandor, she was curious about why it was called New Calandor. That was until she was invited to do a dungeon with Siena’s team called the Calandor Ruins. Originally Calandor must have once looked like it had been a twelfth century fortress in the hills, as there were large cannons between the crenulations.

  Now the castle was just broken stone that a waterfall ran through, most of the rock from the city walls was at the bottom of the gorge, sticking out from the pool below. Yet as Siena, Chloe, and the rest went ahead of her, the cannons continued to draw her attention.

  I’m a tank, I wonder if I could use one of these?

  After she had gotten her full set of Dragon Armor, which protected her fully from fire magic, Frank had realized she could carry more equipment than a regular tank could because of her low weight stat.

  Gazing at the cannon, she noticed it was actually an item with its own stats that she could take. She shrugged and made it vanish into her inventory, thinking that it might come in handy later on.

  — ACQUIRED ‘ARCHAIC CANNON’ —

  She ran to catch up with the others, not used to her armor making her so sluggish, but happy that she could return to people simply assuming she was a guy.

  This identity thing is getting too complicated. Maybe I should just alter my avatar to be a male Heavy to prevent confusion.

  “Enjoying that Dragon Armor I helped you get?” Siena asked.

  I would enjoy it more if you wouldn’t keep reminding me you helped me to get it.

  “Yeah . . . thanks for that?” She looked around in confusion. “This has very few monsters in it for a Tertiatier dungeon.”

  Chloe dropped back with her usual frown. “It seems that another party has been in this dungeon recently. The monsters haven’t had a chance to respawn yet.”

  Siena grinned. “Don’t worry, though. Most of the stronger monsters here are fire type. With the armor I helpe
d you to get, they shouldn’t be too much trouble for you.”

  “Alright . . .”

  I’m beginning to think she’ll never let me live this down.

  David turned and walked back along the ruined floor, looking over the huge drop to the pools below. “Even so, we’re coming to the end and we haven’t seen a single monster. It’s like there aren’t any here.”

  Frank noticed he was wearing his immaculate new Diamond Armor that he had synthed from the Resource Items collected in Diamond Hollow. For armor made up of diamonds, its lack of transparency made her think they were incredibly clouded diamonds.

  Perhaps that’s a good thing, it wouldn’t look as cool if I could see his underwear.

  Chloe, who seemed to really like correcting David, spoke up. “Or . . . the guys ahead of us are really good, or . . . the boss at the end of this dungeon is just really hard.”

  “I’m not sure which one I would prefer to face,” Keri said, sounding nervous about being attacked by either a strong monster or a strong group of players.

  Siena grinned and rubbed her hands expectantly. “I know right! I can’t wait to find out either!”

  She only seemed to be paying attention to Keri’s words and not how they were said. Frank was beginning to assume that, for Siena, excitement and fear were synonymous with each other.

  They eventually came to a huge outcropping that led out over the crashing waterfall to the swamped ruins below. On the stone outcropping were two leaping figures, a giant monster and a single Warrior. The monster was a massive red frog that was jumping from ledge to ledge along the gorge before lashing a fiery tongue at the mysterious Warrior, but that wasn’t what shocked Frank.

  Their entire party stopped when they saw what the Warrior was wielding. It was exactly like Siena’s Color Blade, however, instead of being ruby-red, it was a light amethyst-purple. Frank couldn’t believe her eyes. The struggling Warrior was attempting to swing it at the frog, but the frog continued to jump out of the way until stopping to launch its fiery tongue at him.

  He dodged and spotted them, calling out desperately, “You . . . a little help please!”

  Siena didn’t hesitate to run in with her scythe to help him. “Come on, Efty! This monster won’t stand a chance with the armor I helped you to get.”

  Frank followed her in. “Okay, I get it!”

  David ran in as well, and Keri began casting support magic on them while Chloe started firing her revolvers at the frog. Puffs of powder hit the frog and it fell back onto the platform, its blazing tongue lashing at Siena. Siena jumped and it hit the other Warrior instead, lowering his Hit Points to below ten percent.

  The frog then spat a shower of fire at Frank and David. Siena was right. Although the goopy saliva burned like napalm, Frank barely felt it and it didn’t make a dent on her Hit Points, which surprised her for an attack from a Tertiatier level boss. Frank raised her Broadsword and struck at one of the frog’s hind legs.

  “Enrage me, you idiot support!” the Warrior demanded of Keri.

  Keri sounded sour. “Then stop jumping around!”

  It was the first time Frank had heard the shy girl snap like that. However, just as she predicted, the Warrior jumped away and Keri’s spell missed. Instead of hitting the Warrior, the Enrage spell hit the frog. Everyone gasped

  “Oh no!” Keri cried earnestly. “I’m so sorry!”

  “Pull back!” Siena called, knowing how terrible a boss could be in the short time that it was affected by the Enrage spell.

  All of them but the Warrior did so. Trapped on the other side of the frog, he continued to strike at it with his purple sword. The boss’s leg struck out and hit the Warrior hard. The player flew back into a rock wall and his Hit Points took another drop. Too much of a drop.

  With an explosion of particle effects, the Warrior vanished. His Color Blade fell and pierced into the mossy floor of the outcropping where it remained upright. Their eyes drew to it. Everyone stared at it speechlessly for a couple of seconds. If it weren’t for Siena, the frog would have killed them then and there. It was continuing to hop about but its speed was dropping visibly.

  “None of us will get it if we don’t kill this thing!” She raised her scythe. “Come on! The Enrage would have worn off by now, let’s go!”

  The frog leapt at Frank and her team cut away at it. Chloe continued to fire her guns as Keri continued to heal. Frank managed to get a few hits in, David struck it several times, and, as always, Siena managed to finish the fire-spitting thing off. She turned, spinning her scythe behind her as the Frog erupted into a hail of flames.

  She grinned as her weapon vanished from her hand and she stepped between her and David, stopping in front of Chloe and Keri. They all turned to face her, standing between them with a raised brow.

  “Now, let’s make a vote on who gets the Color Blade. It’s the fairest way.” She narrowed her eyes at us. “And you can’t vote for yourself.”

  There was silence for a moment. A sudden rumble then came over the entire castle, the outcropping trembling from it. The floor beneath them shook and they looked at each other, baffled. Beside her, a blinding light covered David and he vanished from the castle stones. The four of them grew even more confused, when the same light went around Siena’s body and she also vanished from the dungeon.

  “What’s going on?” Chloe asked. “Where did they—”

  She didn’t finish her sentence for she was the next to disappear, leaving just Frank and Keri. She frowned in confusion as the rumbling became worse, as though whatever was causing the others to vanish was causing the entire dungeon to shake. Stones rattled down from the ruins, a few bricks falling from the ledge above them.

  Frank’s eyes widened and both of them ran for the sword. It didn’t matter who got to it first, so long as one of them acquired the item they could decide who could keep it later, but one of them had to get it.

  From the light that went around Keri’s body, Frank knew she would be the next to go. It’s up to me . . .

  Whatever force had summoned Keri was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The floor collapsed and Frank fell from the ruined outcropping. She continued to reach for the blade, which was still stuck in the moss that had been a part of the broken ledge and was plummeting at the same speed.

  Her fingertips were mere inches away from touching it when she vanished from the cool dungeon and landed atop a hard wooden floor. She bared her teeth and cursed when the Color Blade vanished from her sight.

  Hearing a howling wind all around her, she rolled over and opened her eyes to an almost blindingly bright light above her. She sat up, feeling frustrated, flustered, and confused. Standing, she made her way to the railing of the roof she was standing on . . . and gasped. She rubbed her face in disbelief but then frowned in bafflement, seeing that she was now standing on top of an entirely new world.

  Chapter 29: Switzerland

  “Noah? Wow, new digs? You look good in red.” David’s eyes narrowed but then sprang open again. “Oh no! There was a Color Blade, like, right there!” He pointed across the hall, but then looked around the second floor of the lighthouse in confusion. “Wait . . . where the heck am I? And who the heck is that? I think I recognize him.”

  My brow furrowed in suspicion, and when my vision scanned over him, my suspicions were confirmed. For the first time since I had been in the Dream State, a player avatar was given the red-bordered status of a monster when I brought up his visible stats. And of course, this monster had to be one of my best friends.

  I get it now. Wona wants me to kill my friends here.

  I figured the point of this was to make me break in-game ties with everyone before I entered the company. It was a pretty malicious idea, I admit, but Wona didn’t know my friends very well. David in particular could be spoken to in such a way that I could use his ego against him. I knew exactly how to get around this.

  “Hey . . . ” I said, trying to sound as casual as possible and then pointed to Dice. “
This is . . .”

  “Daisuke,” Dice said with a wave. He was so convincing when he said this that I honestly thought it might be his real name.

  “Aw Noah, you made a Japanese friend,” David teased.

  I nodded. “Listen . . . um . . . this is a new dungeon that I need to get through. In order to do that . . . I have to defeat every monster in it, and a Chaos Engine seems to have confused you with a monster.”

  David’s face pulled back as though he smelled something repulsive. “Wow, that’s pretty messed up. I mean, what are the odds it would pick me?”

  My thoughts exactly.

  I shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant, as though it couldn’t be helped. “I know, right? But I really need to get through this dungeon.”

  He stuck out his bottom lip. “Why is getting through this dungeon so important, though?”

  I realized I had screwed up as soon as he asked that. My purposeful vagueness about what I had to do had triggered what little skepticism he had. I decided to tell the truth, but in a way that would help him understand.

  “President Wona said that if I can do this dungeon, they will drop any charges they have against Brock. I don’t know if they’re being honest, but I thought doing just one dungeon wouldn’t hurt.” I bobbed my head from side to side. “But as you can imagine, Brock is against doing any dealing with Wona, so I’m trying to keep it on the downlow.”

  David frowned in thought. “Brock mentioned something like that. He messaged me saying that you were going to give Wona the evidence he had stolen. After everything we went through to get it, it didn’t really make sense to me why you would want to do that.”

  Crap, Brock did tell everyone! Oh well, I can still use this.

  “Right . . .” I nodded. “Oh yeah, I managed to replicate the videos so there’s more than one copy. Giving them a copy was part of the deal.”

  “How does that help them if the evidence against them is still out there, though?” he asked, still unsure.