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Information #5: experience after the death of a normal monster or boss is distributed equally to all players within thirty yards of it.
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Information #6: the rules prohibit players who have not taken part in the battle to run up at the last moment and get experience. Such actions are punishable by a permanent ban.
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Ronnie opened his eyes and the first thing he did was to throw his things out of the tent and then climb out himself. Nearby, Illyseh was sitting in a Bedouin pose, twirling small stones over his palm with the magic of light.
“Got any sleep?”
Ronnie entered the code, packed up his tent, and answered:
“Something like that.”
“A dragon attacked the fortress. There’s a battle going on there right now.”
Ronnie mumbled back and said it was time to move out. Illyseh stood up and asked:
“Before we go, I’d like to know if you have any information about the dragon that I should know?”
Ronnie shrugged and answered:
“I’m contractually forbidden to open my mouth.”
“It’s just the two of us.”
“I don’t think you understood me very well.” Ronnie bent his hand palm forward and stopped it at the level of the solar plexus, and continued, “That’s where I am.” He raised his hand to the level of his head. “Here is Top Secret and our agreement.” Then the hand rose above the top of his head. “And over here is the AI, which monitors my every action and word. As soon as I take a step to the left or a step to the right, I will remain an eternal slave to their guild, which is not in my plans.”
“Your task is to achieve the goal, and the means by which you achieve it is up to you.”
“Telling you means changing what’s going on, means breaking the pact.”
“Don’t tell me you think the AI is some invisible judge-God who sits in your head and controls your every action, your every word?”
“That is exactly what I think.”
Illyseh cursed, waved a hand in Ronnie’s direction, and they headed forward down the tunnel. The thick soles of the military boots pressed the small pebbles on the road into the dry ground. They crackled and burst. Their eyes adapted to the darkness, and the brief glow of light only stirred and irritate. Illyseh cancelled the spell.
The stale air pressed against the healer’s and sniper’s breathing, and the body felt tired. Liquid mud and slime dripped from the ceiling and onto the uneven surfaces of the walls. At some points along the way, they encountered some puddles; they checked their depths and moved on. Then they almost fell into a trap on a cliff, but they successfully overcame that as well. After two hours, they encountered a circular hole in the ceiling through which rays of light were shining. Little flakes of dust swirled around them like gnats. To their surprise, it was easy to breathe. They took a brief break and sat on either side of the gap in the darkness, facing each other.
“It looks like it’ll be a dull day,” said Illyseh.
“It must have cleared up.”
“I doubt that very much,” he answered, stretching out every vowel in his words.
They sat in silence for half an hour. Stamina was up to ten for both of them. Ronnie checked the number of restorative potions, syringes, and ammo. Enough for a couple of battles. Without another word or comment, they both set off again. Ronnie immersed himself in thoughts of what had happened at his apartment, while Illyseh chatted with Yleen, following the progress of the battle through forwarded messages from Mercyaa. All the healer’s fears materialized. He could barely contain his anger.
Focus on Ronnie, Yleen wrote. I’ll let you know how it ends.
“How did you learn to create twentieth-century weapons?” asked Illyseh and heard a loud echo through the tunnel’s darkness.
The healer’s question was like turning a trigger, and an episode from the past flashed through Ronnie’s mind. There he sat in a chair, his father Tyriel in front of him with a Barrett in his hands, he twirled the rifle and placed it rattlingly on the table. The timer clicked. Blake rose and assembled and disassemble the weapon. His father watched his son’s progress intently, and every time he got it wrong, he slapped him in the face with all his might. The time was up. Tyriel pressed the button, clicked again, and the timer froze.
Blake put the gun down on the table, rubbing his broken knuckles. At least he could ask what happened, he thought. The blood, warm and thick, ran down his fingers. However, he tried not to show it. Tyriel said, “Good. You’re making progress.” Then he asked the AI to hand him the bandages and the disinfectant and continued: “You deserve it.”
Blake nodded contentedly.
When Tyriel finished bandaging his son’s hands, he squatted down at eye level with his son and asked:
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“Does it hurt less?”
“Yes.”
“It’s good.”
Tyriel stood up and picked up his rifle, hung it behind his back, and headed for the exit. Already in the cab, as if casually, he asked:
“Did he get it worse than you?”
“Very much. “
“Good. Don’t let anyone bully you.”
Illyseh received a new message from Yleen: We lost. The dragon has won. All the officers are dead. We are now playing by Top Secret’s rules. The healer’s facial muscles tensed. The palms of his hands started sweating.
Ronnie rubbed his eyes. He could see the outlines of the road and walls in the darkness, as well as an owl. He felt the Barrett in his hands, an integral part of his body, without it as without hands. The sniper turned to Illyseh, at this scholar who never left the walls of the libraries. The healer stopped and stared at him with his gray eyes, waiting for an answer.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Ronnie said and walked forward.
The corner of Illyseh’s mouth twitched. He stood still for a few seconds, tense and sullen, and watched his partner’s dark figure merge into the gloom.
“Why did you choose military victory?”
“Because it doesn’t restrict me. Real freedom.”
“I don’t see your freedom. Didn’t you sign a contract a few weeks ago that makes you obey those assholes from Top Secret?”
Ronnie grinned and felt a mixture of mad joy and anger inside him.
“According to this contract, we must kill everything that gives experience in this dungeon. It suits me just fine.”
“They manipulate you, lying to your face from the first meeting.”
Ronnie looked at him deadpan, pressed his lips together, and said:
“Do you think I’m blind? I see they took advantage of my weakness, and when they realized what they were dealing with, from the moment we arrived in the fortress, they were puzzling over which moment to finish you and me off separately. One said so to my face.”
“We need to stick together and think about how to defeat them. You cannot rout a clever enemy by force alone.”
“I understand it very well.”
“One more thing. I have a hunch that Top Secret was involved in your assassination in the Nepril Desert. They tricked you into this mission by using hired assassins.”
He turned and sniffed his nose and asked:
“Do you have any proof?”
“As soon as I understand what’s happening, I’ll provide them.”
“Good.”
Illyseh removed his helmet and scratched the stubble on his second chin with his long fingernails. They continued walking in a growing silence that made it hard to bear. There was no breeze, no fresh air. It was a horrible place. The darkness became denser and denser, and they had to let out a sphere of light, only this time, they left it flying behind their backs.
Ronnie noticed how his hearing and sense of smell heightened. He distinguished the faint scraping of bugs from crevices and holes, the flapping of wings somewhere in the distance. The smells, to his amazement, did not get worse.
Then a new message came to Illyseh, after which his hands lit up, palms clenched into fists and dug into the walls. Ronnie turned around and asked:
“What happened?”
***
Mercyaa ran headlong toward the blocked entrance to the dungeon. On the dry ground, he saw fresh tracks that led to the hole left by the cannonball. The deputy turned to the others and said:
“We just screwed up the easiest mission in the world. They outplayed us like children.”
“Follow them. We’re fifteen minutes behind at most,” said Rdrag. “If we stop talking, we’ll catch up. And we don’t have to fight, do we? We only have to see them. We haven’t lost yet.”
All three of them crawled through the new hole, crawling about ten yards. Mercyaa saw a cannonball stuck in the solid rock, and right in front of it was a hole created by magic. Below it was the main tunnel. He jumped down and looked around. Hebanyac pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. Rdrag cast a light sphere spell. Mercyaa looked at the tracks and said:
“Looks like there’s over two or three mercenaries.”
“Cap, that’s right, cap!” He laughed and looked at him, waving his head in the deputy’s direction, “Look at that weirdo, looking so serious!”
“You won’t find a friend in me, motherfucker. Let’s go.”
The military commander was the first to go, but he resisted the decision, suggesting that it was certain death.
“Then let’s settle this as men do,” said Rdrag.
“You asked for it,” Hebanyac answered.
They simultaneously said: “Stone, scissors, paper, one, two, three.”
“Fuck!” The military commander squealed and went ahead of the others, followed by the healer, and at the end of the group was the deputy who kept his rifle ready, simultaneously describing the situation to Yleen and getting one angry message after another from him.
“Have you reported what happened to the Lord yet?” Rdrag asked, turning half a turn to Mercyaa.
“Yes.”
“What does he say?”
“The truth.”
After Yleen calmed down, he sent Mercyaa full of details of what awaited them along the way. Don’t get caught! The Hashashins know as much as you do.
The trio passed sector by sector and encountered an impenetrable fog.
Hebanyac, stop, Mercyaa wrote.
The military commander complied with the request.
At the end of the corridor is a sector with obsidian pillars. If you hit them, they will activate and summon monsters. Walk extremely quietly and carefully.
Rdrag deactivated the sphere, and Hebanyac activated the thermal imager and continued moving. His speed barely exceeded that of a turtle. He listened to every sound, and looked around, waiting for a trap. At the bend, the military commander saw a faint glow that caught his attention, and he stopped.
Ask Yleen if they encountered any box or cube along the way. He wrote in the group chat.
After a moment Mercyaa answered: No, nothing like that.
Hebanyac turned toward Rdrag, who could barely see him.
Stay here. I’ll check on my own.
The military commander used the ‘Levitation’ spell, and his feet lifted a few inches off the ground. He flew forward, and before he could get a good look at the black cube, he checked to see what was around the bend. It was pitch black. Hebanyac made sure there were no scaffolding or magical traps beneath his feet. Everything was clear. Then he flew farther to make sure that there would not be an ambush ahead of them while they dealt with the mysterious cube. Unexpectedly, he crashed into the glass. The levitation effect ceased. The military commander sank to the ground, not knowing exactly what was happening and what was going to kill him until the black box activated and a boxing glove flew out, shattering the glass, and right behind it, Hebanyac saw an obsidian pole with mud stuck on one end.
Did they dig it up?
The shards collapsed to the ground and activated the protective magic. A purple glow, ripples, and noise appeared.
“Uh-oh.”
Behind the pillar, Hebanyac saw an intricate path of dominoes. They fell, one on top of the other.
“When did they make it?”
The central line turned into three new lines. They crossed each other, broke into three more, connected, and then there were dozens of matches in this chain, which simultaneously lit up. The military commander nearly went blind, but he clutched at his eyes shut just in time to turn off the thermal imager. When he cast the levitation spell again and got off the ground and flew to stop the show, he saw the exit to a new sector, in the centre of which, among dozens of obsidian pillars, lay an immense pile of burning torches. Hebanyac staggered in surprise, his gaze fixed on the domino knuckles that lined the floor with the word “Bye-bye.” The last piece in the chain flew into the air, fell precisely into the centre of this mountain of fire, and there was an explosion. Hebanyac cast an ‘Illusion’ spell and make his body transparent for a few seconds. When the smoke cleared, he saw bones rise from the ground and form into black magical creatures.
“Fuck,” he said.