Time passed, but how much, Morgan couldn’t tell. He eventually looked at the party interface window, expecting the worst, but was surprised to see Elaine, Dillan and all the cats but Luna had survived the ordeal. He opened his eyes, but the darkness was absolute, so he closed them again. He tried to push himself to his feet, but a rock lay above him. He felt along it, finding it had fallen onto another boulder that formed a space that had saved his life.
He groped around, looking for a way out. His fingers found a gap in the rocks big enough to wriggle through and moved to crawl through it. He was frightened by the sheer claustrophobic nature of the trial, feeling around blindly for gaps he hoped he’d fit through. After an endless age of crawling groping, having to go back on himself several times, he was bleeding from a dozen cuts and scrapes and so very tired. He leaned for a moment against a rock he was shimmying past and tried to calm his breathing. It wasn’t real, it was a game. A sick broken game, but still a game. A game that he had lost. Without enough Silkbloom to complete his quota, and no way to navigate back anyway, he was as good as dead. On a whim, he tried to summon Oculus, but the system responded that there was not enough room for the entity to appear.
With a deep sigh, he resumed his painful blind journey through the piles of rock before a sound made him stop.
“Morgan! You out there?” Elaine voice came to him dully through from somewhere beyond the rocks.
“I’m trapped in the rocks!” he screamed back.
“Hold tight.” She responded. “The cats have gone in to find you.”
“I’m going to come towards the sound of your voice!” he shouted to her. “Keep talking!”
Unexpectedly, Elaine started to sing. It was a song he knew, an old song, a sad one, about a failed revolution in the past. For a moment, he paused to drink it in. Elaine was no professional singer, but even through the debris, her husky voice combined with the cavern's acoustics left him spellbound. After the first verse, he snapped himself out of it and started to slowly move forward again.
After a few more minutes of shuffling and crawling through the debris, a small nose bumped him in the face. He groped with his hand to feel the soft fur of a cat. The beast let out a small meow, before turning and travelling back down the way it had come, meowing and waiting for Morgan when it got too far ahead.
With the guidance of the beast, he made it to a spot where he could see the flickering glow of Elaine’s torch. With a last push, he extricated himself from the rock fall and sprawled on the caverns floor, enjoying the feeling of the space and damp air after the close confines of the debris.
Elaine finished the last verse of the song, letting her voice trail off as it ended, before getting up from where she’d been sitting against the wall of one of the exit tunnels. She lay down next to Morgan, and they both lay in silence for a few minutes.
“Well, that was certainly something.” She said. “You ok?”
“No, but it’ll have to do.” He replied.
With a groan, he sat up. “I’m so sorry.” He said, “It was never supposed to go like this. I got over half the party killed. People who owed me nothing and came to help.”
They sat in silence for a bit longer, before she broke it.
“Don’t apologise to me. This wasn’t your doing. That giant monster was broken. Did you see its stats? Only 1 hit point, but we couldn’t kill it. Something’s gone wrong in this strange world. If the quotas to stay in the game wasn’t enough, now we have to deal with broken monsters too?”
Morgan shrugged unhappily.
Elaine continued a moment later. “Speaking of broken monsters, did you actually kill it? It was pretty unclear from the system message I got.”
“It wasn’t me. Luna killed it. Jumped straight into its mouth, killed it and... well... died.” He stared at the wall dully for a moment. “I have no idea how she killed it. But she died and I can’t get her back. I even let her down.”
Elaine rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously, that’s enough of the pity party you’re having. This isn’t the end of the world. Come on, let’s go find a way back. Dillan is waiting in the tunnel, but he says it’s blocked from his end. If we can get close enough, I might be able to mine our way out.”
Elaine rocked to her feet, then held out a hand to haul Morgan up.
The pair stared into the rubble of the collapsed cavern.
“Though I’ll admit, this isn’t looking promising.” She added.
After handing Morgan another torch, the pair split up to clamber over the rubble to try to find a route back.
After an hour of scrambling up and around the dense rock fall, they had to admit defeat.
“It would take a team of diggers days to get through this.” Elaine said, with a defeated air. “I’ll tell Dillan not to wait up. We’re going to have to find another way out of here.”
They both turned to face the myriad of tunnels at the back of the cavern.
“We may as well take the leftmost then.” Said Morgan.
Together, they set off into the darkness.
The tunnel ended in a chamber after a few hundred meters, and after finding it a dead end they backtracked and tried the next along. This damp tunnel led to an impassable chasm that went down far beyond what they could see in the torchlight. The walls sported more of the Silkblossom, and Morgan mechanically harvested the lot, fulfilling his quota with a bit to spare.
The next tunnel sloped sharply downwards, and they half walked half slid down until it evened out. They walked for kilometres along its twisting corridors in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. As they rounded yet another corner, Morgan broke the quiet.
“When’s your quota due?”
“Five days.” Elaine said.
“That’s good. We should be out of here by then, I hope. I’m still planning on helping you, and I’m sure the others are too.” Morgan responded.
“I’m counting on it. Hopefully it won’t be as wacky as this mad quest was.”
“Yeah, I kind of feel like I got the short stick. Harl’s expedition went ok, and I’m guessing yours will be more like that.”
Elaine shrugged, and the two lapsed back into silence.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
After another few hundred meters, the tunnel abruptly ended against a crumbling wall of rough-hewn blocks.
“Another dead end. I’m not sure we’ll even be able to get out of this tunnel back up that slippery slope.” Said Morgan, trying to keep the despair out of his voice.
Elaine walked up to the wall, inspecting it, and running her hands along the lines of the mortar. “This was patched in a hurry. A long, long time ago.” With this, she pulled out her pick and started to use it to scrape the mortar from around the blocks. “Come give me a hand.”
Morgan, happy to have something to do, pulled out his heavy Goblin sword and started to work on the wall on beside Elaine. After a half hour, the pair had freed a handful of blocks, enough to get a look into the space beyond.
Elaine pulled another torch from her bag, lighting it and dropping it through the hole. The flickering light illuminated a passageway made of the same rough-hewn rock as the wall, stretching off into the distance further than the torchlight showed.
“It's a bit of a drop down the other side, but at least it looks like it goes somewhere.” Said Elaine, after scoping out the hallway. “Come on, let’s widen this gap.”
“Alright.” Responded Morgan. “But first let’s have some lunch.”
It took them another couple of hours to move enough stone to allow them to get through the wall. Both sat for a moment on a pile of excavated rocks to catch their breath before Morgan slipped through the gap, falling the couple of meters to land next to the torch Elaine had pushed through.
As he recovered from the drop, a notification appeared in his vision.
[You have passed beyond the safety of the wall. Player versus player combat is allowed in this zone. You have 1 hour before your player protection expires.]
After a look up and down the dark passageway, he called up to Elaine. “All clear, though I just got a notification that I’ve passed beyond the wall.”
Elaine dropped from the gap to land by Morgan’s side. After scanning the dark tunnel, she turned to him. “I never thought I’d make it beyond the wall. There’s supposed to be good loot around. Perhaps this tunnel will make us rich.”
“Left or right?” he responded.
She answered him by picking up the torch from the floor before starting to move down the left side of the passage. She extinguished the extra torch in some debris at the side of the tunnel, before putting it away.
Once again, the two set off into the dark unknown. The tunnel was littered with piles of debris from the crumbling walls and ceiling. Morgan had to stop himself constantly looking up at the roof in worry that it was about to collapse on them. The passageway bent to the left before stopping at a large ironbound door.
Morgan looked to Elaine before trying the iron loop that seemed to serve as a handle. The door was stuck fast. Elaine gave it a go, with the same result. She gave the door a heavy kick, but it didn’t so much as budge.
“We’re going to have to try the other way.” Said Morgan, once they were sure the door wouldn’t open or break.
The two headed back the way they’d come, passing the hole they’d entered in from and continuing onwards into the gloom. After a few hundred meters, the passageway bent leftwards, and opened out into a chamber, the ceiling supported by arches carved of a dark stone. Four alcoves in the side walls contained stone plinths, and on those plinths were crumbling chests made of wood bound with metal strips.
Elaine grinned as she entered the room and laid eyes on the first of the chests. “Oh yes. That’s what I’m talking about.” She immediately started to walk quickly towards it, putting her weapon away.
“Hold up.” Said Morgan. “We should look around...” His words trailed off as she flipped the latch and opened the chest. A chunky metallic click resounded around the chamber, not from the chest but from somewhere behind it. Elaine and Morgan both froze for a long moment.
“That sounds like trouble.” Whispered Morgan, the wariness evident in his voice. Elaine got her sword back out in response, peering around the chamber for any changes.
Nothing happened immediately, but after a tense few seconds a sound could be heard down the corridor they’d come from. A shuffling, scraping sound of metal on stone.
The pair looked at each other, and Morgan indicated to get either side of the doorway the sound was emanating from. He put his torch in an empty sconce nearby, and then they took their positions, swords ready in their hands as the scraping grew louder.
Elaine signed that she was going to peek round the corner that led into the chamber. She returned a few seconds later, with a defeated look.
“It’s a big old skeleton.” She said, throwing caution to the wind. “Level 25. We can try and fight it, but I don’t fancy our chances. Look, I know you’re probably damned either way, but if it looks bad, just run. I’ll hold it. I need to get back on the right side of the wall anyway to hand in my quota, so the death express doesn’t look so bad to me right now.”
Morgan nodded wordlessly, just as the monster rounded the corner. It was a skeleton the size of a large man, almost 2 meters tall, clad completely in rusted iron armour with heavy boots that scraped the stone as it moved. Its helmeted head turned to face them with a grinding of metal on metal as the blue wisps of magic in its eye sockets locked on to the two players. It raised a two-handed great sword and stomped towards them.
[Identify – Cursed Bones: Level 25]
[Race - Monster/Undead]
[HP - 2720/2720]
[SP - 1100/1100]
Elaine pushed Morgan back with one hand, stepping into the undead monster's path. The great sword came down, Elaine barely managing to deflect its path with her own weapon. She staggered back as the great sword hit the floor with such force that sparks flew from the impact. Elaine recovered quickly, taking the opportunity to lash out at the skeleton. Her sword bounced harmlessly off its breastplate, aside from dislodging flakes of rust.
Morgan emptied the Bag of Cats on the floor in front of him, the five beasts landing at alert. Ivycat immediately cast a bubble shield onto Elaine, before scrambling painfully up Morgan’s side to get to her position on top of his head.
“Cats, get back and stay out of the way.” He commanded them. They immediately moved to take positions half-way down the room, apart from Ivycat who didn’t budge.
Elaine was losing ground, being forced out of the doorway by the heavy strikes she dodged and parried. Morgan saw she left a trail of blood in the stone from a deep gash in her left arm. He saw the great sword come down again, Elaine trying to dodge it, but it came down with relentless speed and force, slicing through the fresh bubble shield with almost no resistance before opening another wound on her thigh.
Morgan hesitated, a couple of meters back from the fight. Elaine wasn’t getting any hits on the indomitable skeleton, forced onto the defensive as she was, and Harriet’s elemental attacks were only chipping off a couple of hit points each. Despite the recent toughening of his charges, he knew instinctively that a single solid blow of the sword would kill even Tom instantly.
He could bag the cats and run, Elaine had suggested as much, but it felt so wrong to leave her here to die alone, even with so much on the line. That, and who knew what the rest of the route out of this place held. He may be running from the firepan and into the fire, or perhaps it was simply a dead end, and the skeleton would corner him anyway, ending his life, and his chance at life outside this game. It would be better to work together.
Elaine was well into the room now, the undead monster still driving her back. Morgan slid his short sword into his sheath before withdrawing the heavy goblin blade from his inventory. This was a job for a crushing weapon. He dashed to the wall, with the intent of sliding past the fight to attack the skeleton from behind.
As soon as he’d made the three-step journey to the wall, he heard Elaine cry out as the great sword met her parry and knocked her sword out of her grip, the blade skittering along the floor. Scrap jumped over the blade as it whizzed through his position, before it came to rest against the back wall.
Elaine stumbled back, disarmed and bleeding from a new wound as the skeleton switched its focus to Morgan. It took a large step, and the great sword came down again, Morgan managing to dive out of the way, pitching Ivycat down the room as he was showered with sparks from the blades impact with the wall. He scrambled to his feet, just in time to block another swing from the heavy sword, the force of the impact numbing his hands. The huge monster loomed close over Morgan, bringing up the sword to strike again.
Elaine appeared behind the skeleton with raised pick-axe held firmly in both hands. With a roar, she bought it down. It reacted fast even without seeing her, leaning forward away from Elaine so the blow missed its head. The long point of the pick bit deep into the back amour plate instead with a screech of metal, sinking in almost half its length before stopping. Morgan saw the monsters' massive hit point total reduce by almost a fifth as the powerful strike hit.
The armoured skeleton whirled around towards Elaine, ripping the pick from her hands. The makeshift weapon, stuck fast in the armour; turned with the monster, cracking Morgan across the head with the haft and sending him tumbling towards an alcove. After seeing stars for a second, he locked on to the scene of Elaine and the monster, the great sword buried deep in her chest. Her hit points disappeared instantly, and her broken body vanished, to be replaced with a shower of equipment that clattered on to the stone floor.
[Elaine, your party member, has died.]