Chapter 2

From: Z

Subject: Cabin in the Woods

Nyx! Hope you and Rue got a good night’s sleep. Bummer you couldn’t join us for the party, but I get it man. Any ways, Steve let slip last night the location to the sixth-floor entrance. We’re planning to head to it as soon as we push ourselves into our next levels, so we don’t risk any xp during the exploration. You guys want to join? It’ll probably be in about an hour. That Siege event was killer for XP, and we’re all pretty close to our thresholds now. Either way, look forward to the next time we can all fight together. You, Rue, and Ifrit are always welcome.

Cheers,

Z

“Damnit Steve,” James said as he closed the message with a chuckle.

“Seriously,” Rue had moved closer to him when he opened the message, her bare shoulder pressed against his, her head near his own, so she could read at the same time. “How can he be so secretive around us, but spill the beans at the first chance with Z?”

“I’m guessing there was a lot of alcohol involved.” James said. He knew Steve drank… a lot. But Steve’s love for partying, and his carefree nature, were a dangerous combination. If James had to guess, if there were anyone currently suffering a penalty for drinking too much, it would be Steve. And maybe Manly the Dwarf. Considering the latter had managed to incur that very penalty the first day of DCO.

“For the record.” A voice said from behind James, causing him to immediately flinch. “I told them on purpose.”

James didn’t need to look to know who was speaking. It was a voice he’d become extremely familiar with during his time in DCO. Steve. One of the lead developers of DCO, who’d originally been fired by the game’s creator, Xander. A lot had happened between then and now.

Xander was gone, apparently in some government prison from what James had been told. A fitting end, considering Xander had put the game, which had the backing of the government, at a massive risk by leaking information to the mysterious hacker group known as Cyb3Ru5. Now Xander’s adopted children, Rachel and Matt, otherwise known by their alias of BLANK, oversaw everything. And Steve, well, Steve was now the developer in charge of watching over James and his dungeon.

“Sure you did,” Rue’s tone implied her eye roll.

“I did,” Steve plopped into the hot spring, the man’s bald head already shimmering from the moist air. He was double fisting drinks. One of which fizzed from the bottom, while the other looked… questionable.

Steve downed the fizzing drink in one go. Then, with a grimace, began sipping from the other. The drink looked thick, sludge-like almost, and was a dark red. Once he got about halfway through, he sighed, and both drinks disappeared from his hand.

“For the record,” he said as he leaned back against the rocks, slipping lower into the water with a content sigh, “you two missed one hell of a party.”

“Uh huh,” James was not convinced. “Also…what did you just drink?”

“First was a seltzer,” Steve said. “Getting old sucks. Helps with heartburn. The second,” he shuddered, “an old pick-me up. Helps get rid of a hangover and boosts energy. Just, tastes like absolute ass.”

“You can’t get a hangover…” James started. You could get drunk in immersion, sure. You could technically do any vice you wanted, in immersion, and it would ‘effect’ you. That is, the technology would mimic the effects, making it feel like you were under whatever influence you chose. However, nothing was permanent, nothing was lethal, and nothing had negative side effects. It was why people took up so many vices within immersion in the first place. All the fun, none of the downsides. Meaning, no hangovers.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Neither of those are in-game.” Steve said with a heavy sigh. “I’ve been running myself ragged out in the real-world man. May have, uh, pushed myself a bit too much. Damned feelings keep carrying over at inopportune times. And, while it’s mental, consuming those things here at least helps push the feelings aside for a while. Mind over matter and whatnot.”

“That’s not how that works either.” James countered. Everyone knew that. If you immersed while hungry, you’d feel hungry the whole time in immersion. No matter how much you ate. Steve wasn’t making any sense.

“For you, maybe,” Steve flashed his trademark smile. “But for someone like me, trust me, it does. My mind is much stronger than my body. And I’ve ‘Pavlov’d’ it well enough to react to certain tastes, smells, and the likes. A skill honed from an age before immersion tech. Back when we had to use our ‘imagination’ and such.”

“Still not buying it.” James said with a shake of his head.

“He’s probably trying to distract us from the fact he spilled the location of the sixth floor.” Rue added. “Trying to use his bullshit and weird ways to divert you from your line of questioning.” Rue fixed a knowing look in Steve’s direction. “I’m onto your ways old man.”

Steve snorted, “while I do usually do that, this time, I promise you, I’m not. Though,” he glanced from Rue, back to James, “I guess I’ll have to be more creative with my tactics now that you’ve let that cat out of the bag.”

“Steve,” James cut back in, “focus.”

“Spoilsport,” before Steve could continue, the pitter patter of webbed feet on stone stopped him. A Painguin server appeared carrying a tray, atop which a steaming cup of coffee and breakfast, consisting of eggs, bacon, and toast. It waddled over to Steve, comically lowered itself in an almost bow-like fashion to set the tray down, and then turned promptly and left. Steve grabbed the a piece of bacon, crunched down on it, and began talking again as he chewed.

“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted.” He was a master at taking his time to get to a topic he didn’t want to actually talk about. “After a good bit of partying and drinking, enough so to you know, make sure they thought I was completely drunk, I decided to tell them where the sixth-floor boss was.” He took another bite, “for the record, Z and his buddies can drink. Seriously, if I’d not toggled my own alcohol effects, I probably would have gotten black-out drunk.”

“Steve,” Rue was the one to pull him back on topic this time. James, at the same time, made a mental note to ask Steve about the alcohol toggling effect. Rue had gotten James black-out drunk once off grog, and he still had to pay her back for that little prank. But he knew full well he couldn’t handle his liquor like his companion could. If Steve could toggle that effect though…

“Right, right.” Steve grabbed his next piece of bacon. “I figured you guys may be feeling a tad listless coming back to dungeon core duties after the fun of the siege. As such, I wanted to give you guys a little treat. A reminder of all the fun of being a Dungeon Core. Best way I could think of, was a show. And what better show, than our favorite adventuring group heading blindly to their own demise in a labyrinth filled with mobs we’ve yet to test out?”

He took a sip of his coffee, muttered under his breath, and grabbed a container of creamer that magically appeared beside the tray. He poured a bit into the drink, took another sip, and sighed contentedly.

James thought about it for a moment. Steve had a good point there. If there was one thing that he had come to really look forward to, other than creating new mobs, leveling them up, and just all-around embarking on dungeon shenanigans… it was watching his adventurers take on new challenges. And at the top of that particular list, watching Z and the rest of the Knights Who Go Ni battle it out against unknown foes, had to be the greatest form of entertainment he could think of. Other than, he supposed, the slowly growing collection of mimic related deaths and misfortunes that proved top tier comedy in his down time.

“I still don’t buy it.” James said as he pushed his musings aside. Rue’s early comments about Steves diversion tactics were still on his mind. “It’s all too convenient. Like some lame bit of a story. Too nice and neat. And we all know nice and neat are not how you act.”

Steve smirked but said nothing.

“But,” James relented, “if it means finally getting to see the sixth floor in action, I guess it’s fine.”

“I knew you’d come around,” Steve said with a clap of his hands. “Now then, who wants breakfast. My treat.”

He chuckled as two more Painguins appeared, each carrying platters similar to his towards Rue and James. James sighed, completely used to Steve’s antics. And, while none of them were paying for any of this, a perk of James’s status as the Dungeon Core, the fact Steve had at least put the order in with the little Painguin NPCs in advance for the whole charade, was somewhat endearing. If…just barely. Besides, now that he knew he’d have a show in about an hour, the thought of relaxing and enjoying a nice breakfast, that wasn’t just liquid calories in the form of orange juice and alcohol, seemed ideal. Plus, there was one rule James’s father had drilled into him as a child. An all-important breakfast lesson. Only a fool would pass on the opportunity for free bacon.