Chapter 238

The next room was again shaped just like all the others had been, one third of a circle, like a really big slice of pie, except everything was made out of wood. This room was also occupied and the group was startled to find what looked like a small, very thin, and very green little humanoid creature working at a desk that was a bit too tall for it.

It was wearing a loincloth and a ragged looking shirt. The creature probably only came up to Jay's waist in height and had thin arms and legs. A little green head with big eyes was sorting items on a small desk in the middle of the room. The overall effect was not one of cuteness but one of sickness. The creature did not look well – or clean, for that matter.

A large and filthy looking sack sat slumped open on the floor to the creature's side. Occasionally the creature would reach down and put whatever it had been working on in to the sack before it would then take another item off of the desk and begin to work on it.

“Is he friendly do you think?” Norri said and her voice broke the silence. The small green creature looked up suddenly and made a flinging motion with one hand as its expression changed in to a snarl.

A flaming dart flew from the creature's hand and embedded itself in to the wooden wall just to the left of where Norri's head had been but a moment ago.

The creature was not friendly.

The creature hurriedly swept all of its belongings in to the sack, hefted it over one shoulder, and ran.

It ran as fast as its little legs could carry it and it ran for the other end of the room. Once it arrived there it raised one hand and began to cast a portal. The portal slowly began to fade in to view.

There was something about a monster running away that triggered a human's desire to pursue and just like a cat Norri burst in to motion and ran for the creature before M'redith could even say anything.

The portal was growing in size and was almost large enough to step through. Jay made a quick calculation and estimated that Norri wouldn't make it in time.

Instead of just waiting Jay hefted his staff like a spear, drew it back, and hurled it through the air at the creature.

Jay's staff flew true and made a straight line towards its intended target. The staff hit the creature in the head and addled it just enough to distract it and interrupt its casting.

The portal fizzled, then disappeared, and the creature clutched at its head from the pain of the spell failing – not to mention the pain of being hit in the head with a flying staff.

The creature didn't stay still long however and ran from the quickly approaching Norri with its sack still over its shoulder.

“What the heck is this thing?” Norri asked as she chased it around the desk.

Aiden tried to catch it between himself and Norri but the creature made a sharp turn and avoided them both altogether.

“Treasure goblin!” M'redith said with a big smile. “I've heard of these! They run dungeons and steal loot from it. If you can kill it before it ports out then you get whatever is in its sack!”

The creature began to drop coins as it ran and Aiden stopped to pick up a copper before M'redith yelled at him.

“Collect loot after the fight! Hurry up and kill it before it escapes!” M'redith yelled at him.

The goblin began to throw copper coins, then silver, and even gold coins, but Aiden remained steadfast and focused on the goblin and not the money.

The emaciated looking goblin aimed a hand over its shoulder and sent a flaming dart towards Aiden, which he barely dodged. The dodge cost him speed however and the goblin managed to pull away from Aiden.

No matter how fast the goblin was however there was only one of them and there were five humans – fairly impossible odds. There was no chance of the goblin avoiding all five of the humans in the tiny little room. As long as the goblin was in the room with them then its demise was all but certain.

A sudden crackling sound was heard through the door behind them. The fire was reminding everyone that it was still burning and was getting close.

The creature had managed to avoid everyone and had a moment of respite which it used to cast another portal, which slowly began to swirl in to being in front of it. The creature tapped its foot on the ground as if to hurry the process along, but Norri was not about to give it the time it needed.

Norri rushed the creature and slammed her body in to the creature with a sudden crunch. The creature's portal fizzled and it again clutched at its head in pain as it was thrown through the air by the impact with Norri. It managed to hold on to its sack however with a one handed death grip, the creature's knuckles almost white-green from the intensity of its grip.

A sudden crash was heard as the fire breached the door and spilled on to the inside wall, which quickly caught fire as well.

The fire had found them.

M'redith thought about the problem at hand. She was the leader of the group and it fell to her to keep things on track. Priority one was survival – which meant running from the fire. Priority two was their mission, complete the dungeon. Priority three was loot.

Killing the goblin for its loot wasn't worth it if they ended up getting caught in the fire. Their main goal was to get out of there alive, and here they were messing about with this goblin, chasing it.

M'redith began to bark orders.

“Jay! Get to the desk, check for traps and loot. Then move to the exit door and check for traps!” she yelled and Jay nodded as he turned away from the treasure goblin and headed over to the only desk in the room. He wanted to chase the goblin, but in a dungeon orders were orders, especially in combat.

“Norri and Aiden! Keep chasing it so it doesn't have a chance to port!” M'redith yelled over the sudden roar of flames behind them – they were almost out of time in the room they were in and it was quickly filling up with thick black smoke.

“Carly! Starburst on the goblin, now!” M'redith yelled as she made her way across the room to the next door that would lead further in to the dungeon.

Carly raised an arm and called a single six inch star in to being above them. The star fluttered to its target slowly in a relaxed manner. It struck with immense force however and buried itself in the creature's back.

A sudden wet squelch sound was heard as the star then erupted in to 100 smaller stars which burst out of its body and rose in to the air before they too fell on to the creature's back and burrowed in themselves, only to have them all explode shortly thereafter.

Stolen story; please report.

The goblin's back was a wet mess and most of what had been inside of its body was now on the outside thanks to the many explosive burrowing stars. The goblin slumped to the ground, dead, and the body began to disperse in to motes of light.

The filthy sack however remained.

At the same time that was happening Jay had inspected the desk for traps and found none. He turned on his treasure finding ability but found nothing and got no sensations that would point towards hidden treasure. He looked over at M'redith and called out loudly so she could hear him over the flames, “Desk is clear!”

Jay checked the only desk drawer and opened it. Empty. Whatever had been inside had already been pilfered by the goblin and would most likely be found now in its abandoned sack. Jay moved to the exit door and checked for traps.

Nothing in the frame looked off, there were no trigger lines, no signs of pressure plates, no sign of integral triggers.

Jay checked again, just to be sure, but found the same thing he had found the first time. Nothing.

“Exit is clear, ready to move!” Jay yelled to those behind him.

“Aiden, grab the sack! Everyone else move to the exit and stack up!” M'redith yelled as she hunched her body to keep her head out of the smoke that was gathering in the upper half of the room.

There was a lot of coughing and hacking as everyone moved across the room and in to position. Aiden hefted the sack over his shoulder but found it was fairly light. Whatever was in it didn't weigh very much at all. The goblin's smaller frame had made the sack appear far heavier.

M'redith moved to the head of the line and looked back to make sure that everyone was in place.

“Moving!” she called out, waited one heartbeat, then opened the door and led her group through.

The fire had by that point reached the middle of the room and even the desk was now covered in flames. The entire room would soon be engulfed. Carly shut the door behind her firmly once she had passed through – she was the last in line.

The room they found themselves in was just as they had expected – a set of stairs led upwards to a closed trap-door. The rest of the room was empty.

“This dungeon isn't big on decorations is it?” Aiden remarked as they looked around at the mostly bare room. There were magical light fixtures set in to the wood at intervals on the wall, but the rest of the room was a bit dim – and bare.

Not that anyone really cared.

Everyone was exhausted and filthy. Their clothes and armor were sticky and foul smelling from the many enemies they had slain. Their hair was matted to their heads in clumps and had things stuck in it that they would all rather not identify. They were uncomfortable and either slick with sweat or dry with rough skin from already dried sweat. They were itchy, and sore. Their faces were caked with filth.

Fighting was messy. Very messy. The constant fire wasn't helping either. If they were to stop and get clean however it would take them thirty seconds a piece for four of them – two minutes. That was an eternity when you were being chased by a tireless inferno.

Still, the group needed a break, a rest, no matter how short it might be. They might not have time for an aura cleaning, but they definitely had time for a short break.

“Everyone take a moment and breath. Relax. Rest. Collect yourselves before we head up.” M'redith ordered her group.

There were sighs and moans as everyone slumped to the floor. Aiden just lay on his back on the floor spread eagle and shut his eyes – or at least the one eye that wasn't still covered by a patch.

Jay sat with his back up against the side of the stairs and rubbed at his neck. His muscles were tight and sore and he couldn't wait to be finished. He wanted to take a long hot bath when he finally got back to the Guild.

M'redith went from person to person and spoke quietly with each before she reached Jay, whom she had saved for last. She sat down next to him and leaned up against him. He smiled and turned his head to face her as he wound a hand around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze.

“You almost ready to move?” M'redith asked with a smile.

“Um, no? Can we take a nap first?” Aiden said from off to the side even though she hadn't been talking to him.

Jay laughed. “A nap sounds amazing, but no. I'm ready when you are,” Jay said with a grin directed towards M'redith. “How about you, how are YOU doing?” Jay asked.

M'redith looked surprised at being asked the question she had been asking everyone else but quickly collected herself. “I'm great. Looking forward to beating this dungeon!” she said with an upbeat smile that Jay suspected was her just trying to stay positive for the group.

M'redith sighed and sat quietly and Jay decided to do the same. The momentary quiet was relaxing, even though they all knew it couldn't last very long.

“No one told me dungeon running was work,” Aiden complained as he rubbed his head with one hand.

“So what? We got treasure!” Norri said with a grin. She was sitting with her head propped up by both hands.

Aiden's face transformed in to a grin. “Oh yea! That's right! Can we look at the loot now?” Aiden asked as he lifted himself up off the floor and made a move to open the sack.

“Hey! No! Did you forget about the fire chasing us?” M'redith asked with a touch of frustration just as the group heard the first cracklings of flame from the closed door across the room from them.

“Aw come on, just one?” Aiden begged and M'redith shook her head.

“Nope. Time for us to move on. We can look at the treasure when our lives aren't in danger, ok? Is that fair enough?” M'redith said with a slightly mocking tone.

Aiden sulked but finally agreed. “Fine,” he said but dragged the word out and shrugged with one shoulder. “But after the dungeon we have to look at the loot!”

M'redith smiled and nodded, “Agreed. Come on guys, let's get moving – the fire's almost here.”

The sounds of crackling were getting louder and it was clear that no matter how long the door had held so far it wouldn't do so for very much longer.

M'redith gave Carly a considering look as everyone got ready. Carly had been somewhat quiet during the run so far and hadn't caused any real issues. She'd been something of a wildcard that day and M'redith hadn't been sure which Carly they would get – the Carly that was good at running dungeons, or the Carly that enjoyed messing about with people's heads.

So far they had gotten the good Carly, and M'redith just hoped that it would stay that way.

M'redith nodded at Jay once everyone was in line and Jay moved ahead and up the stairs as he checked for traps. Then he checked the trap door itself for traps as well, just to be safe. It was all about being safe.

“Looks clear!” Jay said with a touch of excitement as he moved back in to his place in line.

Running a dungeon was exciting. Usually you would be at a computer when playing a game, playing a game with a dungeon in it. You'd press a button and you'd attack. Or you'd press a button and you'd climb a ladder. It was all buttons.

Not here though, not for Jay. Jay was in a dungeon and was having the time of his life. He'd fought monsters, gotten electrocuted, fought a treasure goblin and taken its treasure, escaped from a wall of flames, not to mention being covered in ticks at one point. He'd done all of that and survived.

Nothing in his past life could match the sheer joy and excitement of what felt like a real life dungeon run. The terror, the excitement, the rewards – it was exactly what Jay had been looking for. This was what he wanted to do for a living. For the first time in as long as he could remember he realized that he was happy with how things had worked out for him.

He'd rather be in Eden.

Jay knew that when this game went live that many people would find it preferable to their real lives – he already did. Eden was wonderful, and dangerous, and rewarding. Magical.

“Everyone ready?” M'redith asked.

Jay nodded and smiled. “I am!” he answered as the others all did the same.

M'redith unlatched the trap door and pushed it open. “Ok, follow me!” she said and the group moved up to the next floor above them.