Chains rattled against cold stone as I wandered through the sewers. The tunnels here were narrow and twisting. A contrast from the wide straight tunnels below the main part of the city. I walked in darkness trusting to my darkvision and hoping not to draw attention to myself. I did NOT whistle. I wasn’t repeating that mistake twice.
My Friends list was back up but MoProblems was offline so I couldn’t use his position to navigate. Instead I selected progressively larger tunnels as I moved hoping it would lead me back towards the center of the city.
I’d been walking about twenty minutes when a patch of wall caught my attention. My pace slowed and I stared openly at it. In the darkness it looked identical to all the other walls down here, but something about it tickled my brain. I flared my magic and a small ball of fire popped into existence before me.allowing me to get a better view.
The wall looked similar to all the other walls but there were strange carvings on five of the bricks. I smiled. My new Dungeoneering ability it must be tipping me off.
It wasn’t surprising. There must be a ton of secret passages and doors down here. I walked closer to the wall and started looking for loose bricks or anything else that might open it. This was probably stupid but curiosity got the better of me. Experimentally I reached out and touched one of the carvings.There was a thunk and three cross-bow bolts shot out of the wall behind me. Two missed, but the last one buried itself in the middle of my back.
“Shit!” I yelled as I collapsed on the floor. That one stung, I flopped around for a moment, struggling since both my hands and feet were still chained together. Then reached behind myself carefully and pulled out the bolt. I checked my status screen to make sure I hadn’t been poisoned then continued to inspect the door, now bleeding slightly.
The bolt had done almost fifty damage but I was determined now. I turned on stoneskin and pushed another symbol. The bolts came again in a different pattern. I’d been expecting them to come in the same place so had positioned myself where I wouldn't get hit. That plan failed and a bolt caught me right below the left shoulder. The damage was reduced by my stoneskin but it still hurt like a mother.
The third symbol glowed faintly when I pushed it. That left me with 4x3x2x1 options assuming I understood the puzzle. That was going to be a lot of crossbow bolts. Luckily, each symbol seemed to be tied to a specific bolt pattern. So I only got hit three more times. It took me about thirty minutes to crack the code but the reward was worth it. When all five symbols were lit the wall rumbled and slit down revealing a long descending stairway. I should really head back to the surface but a secret door was just way too tempting.I hefted my hammer and walked down into the darkness.
The stairway lead down about thirty feet to another stone door with a rusted lever. Shrugging, I pulled the lever unsure of what to expected. The stone door rumbled and raised, opening into a another tunnel and wafting stale air into my face. The air smelled of rot and age. This place had not been disturbed in a very long time.
[tr]
You Have Discovered A Secret Dungeon!You Have Entered H'ern
[tr]
The Lost City of H’ernThe Free City of H’ern was once one of the richest cities on the continent. Placed strategically between the Zann Empire in the South and the Fedor Republic in the north it handled nearly all the trade between the two nations.
However, when the Warlord Rashid Al’Zahim united the desert tribes of Eastern Zann and overthrew the Emperor in 1347 R.E. the empire collapsed into civil war.
This lead to the slow downfall of H’ern until the city was finally sacked during the Fourth Orcish Uprising in 1565 R.E.. Due to The Fedor Republic’s own political turmoil of the time and it’s eventual fracturing into the 10 Kingdoms, H’ern was not reclaimed for almost three-hundred years. When the second King of the new Kingdom Drannel finally reconquered the area there was nothing left of the once great city but ruins. The King had a new city built over-top of the old and renamed it Hernberg.
Although the city is lost, some of its riches and magic still remain buried far below Hernberg.
Recommended Level: 22
Difficulty: Dungeon
Rewards: ???
[tr]
You Have Earned an Achievement!Dungeon MasterYou have delved into the unknown and discovered Otherworld’s first Secret Dungeon.
Rewards: +500 Fame, +1 Primary Skill Point
Title: Dungeon Master - When exploring newly discovered secret dungeons the player receives a +15% bonus to skill gain. Any Level-up’s during this time will gain the user a +1 extra permanent bonus to all stats. Bonuses are only valid in unconquered secret dungeons
I grinned with a wolfish smile as I examined my pop-ups. “I’m gonna have to buy that cricket bitch dinner.“ I said as I tried to quickly equip my two newest titles, only to find I could only have three active at once. I opened my title menu to do some adjusting.
[tr]
TitlesCurrent Titles: Father of the First Circle, Slayer of the Rat King, Chosen Of Gaia
Available Titles:
Father of the First Circle - Add’s 15% to the Potency of all Blessings and Curses while Active. Lowers your relations with most NPC’s while active.
Chosen Of Gaia - Increases the potency of all Active Geomancer Class Abilities by 5%
Slayer of the Rat King - +5000 bonus to Fame with NPC’s in Valor’s Crossing, +3% bonus to damage against all monsters of the Rat type
Tenacious: - When the user fails at something while giving his all, his base attributes will increase by 2%. Stacks up to 5 times. Bonus will reset when he completes his objective or gives up.
Dungeon Master: +15% bonus to skill gain while exploring new Secret Dungeons, Level-up’s while exploring new Secret Dungeons provide a +1 bonus to all stats.
I hadn’t used any blessings or curses in a while. That made Father of the First Circle pretty useless. Slayer of the Rat King was only useful in Valor’s Crossing. Shrugging, I took out my bone knife and started scratching a circle. I’d give myself a blessing then un-equip the title. I’d learned my lesson about neglecting my skills. I’d put on Tenacious, Chosen of Gaia, and Dungeon Master, which should give me the most useful options for fighting.
I was putting the finishing touches on my newest spell experiment when I heard rattling behind me. I turned and winced. A half-dozen skeletons were walking slowly in my direction. They wore mismatched pieces of rusted armor. Two had long-spears, three longswords, and the last wielded an axe with a large round shield. Their bones were yellowed with age and their eyes glowed red in the darkness.
This was bad. Six level 20+ enemies for the first damn pull while I was still in chains. I figured I’d find a straggler or two and explore a bit before heading back to the surface and bringing MoProblems back with me. Alone, I’d have to bring my A-game just to survive, especially since I was already down below half HP.
I threw my knife back into my bag and drew my hammer as the skeletons broke stride and charged. They were fast. Not as fast as the were-cricket but still the second most agile monsters I’d fought. I back-pedaled toward the door but reversed my momentum and swung as they closed within range. The first skeleton tried to parry, but trying to parry against a hammer-wielder with one-hand is a very poor option. There’s just too much momentum against you.
Parrying a three pound sword on a hard swing is difficult. Trying to do the same with a twenty pound maul some over-muscled idiot is swinging at you is pointless. The handle of my hammer clanged against his guard but plowed through. The blow smashed into its shoulder and shattered the aged bone.
That should have been a victory but skeletons don’t understand concepts like pain or self-preservation. Instead of falling to the ground screaming like a person would have, it merely raked the gnarled bony fingers of it’s other-hand down my unprotected side. At the same time two spear-points stabbed at me through the things empty rib-cage. The skeletons behind had caught up.
This was getting bad already. I dodged one spear, but the other bit shallowly into my stomach. I stepped back to parry the nest longsword strike that came my direction then activated my new ability.
“Whirlwind Kick!” I shouted, curious about what would happen. A blue-corona of power covered my legs and I lept four-feet into the air and spun leaving trails of blue light as my right-leg lashed out in a kick.
The kick crashed into the right-most skeleton. The force of the blow knocking it’s head free and sending it bouncing away. The kick continued knocking the rest of the skeletons back and buying me a moment to breathe. However, I did not land on my feet in a cool pose like in the kung-fu moves. My legs were still chained together, so with neither-leg down to land on I fell the four-feet and crashed onto my side knocking the wind-out of myself.
That was stupid……
I thought as I rolled towards the door. I sprang back to my feet in time to parry another blow then stumbled backwards through the doorway. I took a blow on my side as I flipped the lever to close the door again. It rumbled shut and trapped me in the stairway with two skeletons, one-arm and shield.
I sacrificed a blow from shield's axe to land a finishing blow on one-arm. It shattered the rest of his body and he fell to the ground in pieces. I turned, narrowly dodging shield’s next strike. Then threw a knee to drive him backwards and blew the last of my stamina.
Heavy Blow…….
My hammer glowed orange and I swung it at with all my strength. The skeleton raised it’s shield to block but it didn’t stop the enhanced blow. Instead my strike just blasted the shield completely through it’s brittle body, shattering it’s ribs and spine and shooting backwards into the door behind it. The shield clanged against the stone as the things head fell to the floor on-top of it’s collapsing legs. The red of it’s eyes dimmed as I sat on the stairs completely drained of Stamina. I was safe again for the moment.
***********************************************************
Jasmine sighed as she downed her ale. They’d been stuck in the city for days. After killing those idiots in the mountains she and Meredith had headed back to Hernberg to resupply.. They’d been attacked twice on the way back by PK’s, but Jasmine hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. In fact it was fun bashing noob heads and killing players was good money. She’d made nearly ten gold and that was after giving Meredith half.
She’d only found out about the bounty when they had entered the city, and now her and Meredith couldn’t leave. They’d tried two days ago and had been attacked almost immediately by a dozen people. Jasmine had been able to fight through back to the gates but Meredith had died and re-spawned in the city again.
So here she sat drinking away her sorrows. The worst part was it wasn’t even working. She was definitely drunk but here your mind stayed sharp while your body went stupid. Which made celebratory drinking much more fun, and depressed drinking all but useless. Jasmine unslung her new lute and started plucking vaguely at the strings.
“I’m sure we could think of a way to escape our predicament with proper planning.” Meredith said from beside her. The girl had every male eye in the place fastened to her breasts as they practically exploded out of her leather druid outfit. The females were looking at her too but their looks were less dazzled and more murderous. Jasmine had been defending her virtue from unwanted advances all night. Sure, the girl couldn’t actually be actually harmed in the city but guys could still be dicks.
“Mayyyyybe.” Jasmine slurred as another a young buck was pushed in their direction by a group of his laughing friends. The boy took two steps toward their table before he caught Jasmine’s eye. She casually crushed the empty wooden mug she was drinking from to splinters with one hand as she smiled at him. His face paled and he sat back down.
“Well, we can’t just remain here permanently while you indulge yourself to unconsciousness every-night.” The younger girl snapped. Jasmine just shrugged.
“It washh wooeerth a sshlot” Jasmine said sullenly. Meredith’s scowl deepened and the girl raised her hand. It glowed with a green light and waves of cleansing power rushed over Jasmine, burning and tingling as the magic forced the alcohol from her body. The energy faded a few seconds later leaving Jasmine sore, panting, and stone-sober.
“God-dammit! You know I hate it when you do that.” Jasmine said angrily. Her pronunciation now back to normal.
“I’m aware.” The girl said smiling sweetly. “If you would cease your impersonation of the town lush, I would not be forced to such action.” She continued in the same innocent tone.
“Yes mom….” Jasmine said as she rolled her eyes and looked for her next distraction. The doors to the Horse and Four opened again and a very sort-elf with blue robes and glasses walked into the room looking worried and lost.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Ahhhh, a Gnome.” Meredith said happily as the boy looked for an empty table. “That’s the first one I’ve seen.”
“I thought it was a short elf.” Jasmine said as she cocked her head. She inspected the the boy with increased scrutiny. He looked about Meredith’s age and had the proper wimpy bookish look the girl probably liked. Seeing an opportunity for mischief Jasmine called out to him.
“Hey gnome!, You can sit with us!” She called over the noise of the bar. Startled, the boy turned to her then took an involuntary step back as he saw Jasmine. Then his eyes flicked to Meredith and the fear drained from his face along with all other expression. He stood there slack-jawed and glassy eyed for a few seconds before shaking himself visibly and drifting toward their table as if he couldn’t help himself.
“Like flies to honey.” Jasmine grinned as she pushed out the third chair at the table with her foot.
“What are you doing?” Meredith whispered through gritted teeth.
“Being bored.” Jasmine replied honestly. “Besides this’ll be hilarious.” She said as the gnome made it to the chair and looked at Jasmine again for confirmation. She nodded and he slipped into the seat looking confused.
“Uhhhhhhhh, hi?” The gnome said looking at Jasmine. He turned his head slowly to Meredith, blushed and looked immediately away again. Jasmine suppressed her mirth and greeted him.
“I’m Jasmine, and this is Meredith.” She leaned forward and whispered loudly. “She’s a little off, so make sure you grab her hand and make lots of eye contact when you speak.” The boy blinked a few times as he listened then reached for one of Meredith’s hands where it lay on the table.
The girl snatched her hand away and said in her iciest voice. “I am unsure of what game you are playing but I am neither mentally deficient nor amused by your antics Jasmine.” Jasmine laughed loudly, snorting in the pig-like way she did sometimes as an orc.
The gnome looked like his entire brain had shorted out as he tried to adjust his worldview enough to fit in a girl who looked like a Henti character and talked like British aristocracy. Jasmine patted his hand.
“Yeah, she has that effect on everyone.” She said understanding. “So what are you up to in Hernberg?” Jasmine asked when the boy seemed to bring his brain back online.
“Trying to find my master.” The boy said still looking lost again.
“Your master?” Jasmine asked confused. She really hoped she was missing some vital piece of information here.
“Yeah, I’m his apprentice. It’s a game mechanic. I get an XP boost, while he gets a Skill Boost. When I hit level ten it ends.” He explained.
“So it’s like a mentoring mechanic. It’s curious that you and I did not get something similar when we started playing together.” Meredith said to Jasmine as she spoke up for the first time. “I hadn’t read anything about it on the forums. Is your master a wizard as well? I’m guessing at your class but it would be the optimum choice for a Gnome” She asked the gnome.
The boy once more tried to meet the girls eyes but couldn’t quite manage it. Jasmine just shook her head. The girl really was hopeless. That boy would saw off his arm if Meredith asked him too but she wanted to talk about game-mechanics.
“Not exactly, he’s……. interesting. His class is technically Geomancer. It’s a sorta… Magic Warrior hybrid. I’ve looked online, but never heard of anyone else getting it yet. But he’s also a Witch.The first and only one of those as well as far as I know, he’s got the achievement and everything. He’s always stumbling on weird mechanics.” The gnome replied looking thoughtful.
“So he knows magic then. That may have something to do with it. Maybe only the magic type classes get to have apprentices.” Meredith replied completely interested. The boy was holding his own. Most guys couldn’t string two thoughts together around the girl. Jasmine was impressed. He still couldn’t look at the animal-girl but eye contact wasn’t really necessary. She was less than impressed with their topic of conversation but Jasmine was interested in spite of herself. Her and Meredith hadn’t gotten the chance to speak to too many other players.
“I’m not sure’d I’d classify him as a magic type exactly. He mostly just runs around with a big hammer and hits things. I once saw him one-shot a level ten Paladin with it, completely shattered his breastplate.” The boy said with more than a touch of hero-worship in his voice. “Of course then the Paladin came back to life and murdered us both with his fire-sword, but he did kill him once.”
“Wait!!! A big guy with a hammer and a gnome. You two were in that video!” Jasmine said suddenly. “You two lost to those idiots that attacked us. They’ve been talking about it at work. The video went super-viral. It hit two million views yesterday. They said pre-orders increased almost thirty percent after it came out.”
The gnome groaned and covered his face with his hands. “I was hoping you wouldn’t recognize me.” He said sullenly.
“Pffft…. not like there’s a ton of gnomes running around with guys who use hammers and summon earth-walls.” Jasmine said. “What happened to him anyway?”
The gnome shrugged. “We got a quest to spy on that guild that attacked us. We were were down in the sewers listening in on a conversation. Then we split up. I ran back to the surface, but he stayed down there to follow someone. Then he was just gone. It says he’s online, but there’s a Red ‘X’ over his name. I can’t contact him or see his location. That was three days ago.”
Meredith looked at Jasmine questioningly. “Don’t look at me, I’ve got some inside knowledge but you guys know way more about this video-game stuff than I do.”
“This your first MMO?” The gnome asked interested.” Oh it’s MoMagicMoProblems by the way. Although, Noob Slayer just calls me MoProblems.” He finished sticking out his hand.
Jasmine snorted loudly. “That’s terrible.” But she grabbed the proffered hand and shook.The boy just grinned. He offered his hand to Meredith, apparently without thinking it through, because he turned red, then white, then a funny green color as she grabbed it and shook.
Jasmine couldn’t stop the snicker this time. She knew this had been a good idea.
********************************************************************************
I logged back in to open wounds and a sore back. I’d slept on the stairway between the two doors since It was the safest place. However, stone stairs provide very little lumbar support and even less healing. I had regained a hand-full of HP passively but without a proper camp I was still beat to hell.
Luckily Mo Problems was on and I used him as a beacon to find my-way back to the city. I ended up in the middle of a residential area near the southern gate when I finally clawed my way back up into daylight before finding an inn. I was in dire need of breakfast and a bath. Then I remembered I was broke and even breakfast and a bath were out of my price range. I called Chris instead.
“Hey you still need those gems?” I asked knowing the answer.
“Yes…..” Chris replied cautiously.
“Aright I got two sorta bluish purple ones… Sodalite. A Blue-green sorta guy…. Malachite.. Ahhh, that one I’ve heard of. Then I got a yellow-red fiery looking one that’s…Hessonite Garnet. Then a sorta blue-silver one… Kyanite. All of them are Common or Uncommon quality.”
Chris pondered for a moment. “ I’ll take the last two you mentioned. The red one and the blue one.”
“Excellent, That’ll be two gold. Lemme get to a mailbox.” I said grinning as I headed back into the main part of town.
“You’re charging me?” He grumbled.
“Damn right I am. I have seven copper right now, and I’m hungry. Besides they are worth five times that at least, and you're basically buying them with my money anyway.” I said shaking my head. He wasn’t wiggling out this time.
“Fine... “ Chris grumbled.
“And hurry up on my armor. I’m still naked and I’ve got a dungeon to conquer and serious ass to kick.” I said as I found a Mail-box and deposited my gems.
“I’m almost done with my commision. I just need to add the gems. I’ve got some people working on your stuff, Give me till tomorrow night. Besides You’ll get better gear. I’ll rank up a few times when these are finished. So stop whining dude” Chris snapped as I got his mail.
“Thanks for the loot!” I said cheerfully as I hung up the call. I rubbed the two gold-coins together as I made my way across town.
The Horse and Four was empty this early in the morning it was just a hair after six by my count. . There were about a dozen other inn’s in the city, but this was my favorite. I’d had to spend six silver to get the skinny smith next-door to cut my shackles off. MoProblems had taken a room in the inn apparently and was doing god-knew what up there. I wanted to surprise him so instead of sending a PM I waved down the barmaid.
She was a busty brunette with a cheerful look about her. She bustled over to the table and grinned a gap-toothed but still pretty smile at me. “What’ca poison love.” She asked as she bent over and wiped down a table across from me that obviously did not need it. The motion granted me a lovely view of her back-side. She was a little plump but it put some nice jiggle in all the places women should jiggle.
That’s 800+ fame for you. I was being flirted with even filthy, mostly shirtless, and smelling like sewer. My smile grew a touch wolfish. “Depends…” I said giving her a thorough perusal. “What’s on the menu?”
Her grin widened a bit, and she moved over next to me. Then leaned over until her cleavage was in my face and she was practically in my lap before she whispered in my ear “Anythin’ you wan’love” I gave her a playful swat on her ample rump and she moved away.
“Better start with breakfast then.” I said “Sounds like I’ll need my strength. A bath after that and a new shirt if you can swing it.” I wasn’t going to actually going to take her up on her offer. At least I didn’t think I was. My willpower with females was far from iron-clad but I still wasn’t sure where I stood on the whole NPC sex thing. That hadn’t really stopped me with Hanna but she had been special.
We’d had a connection or at least we’d had something. Granted, it hadn’t been a huge connection but we had been friends at least. Hopping into the sack with a random barmaid was just a bit too cheap for me even in a consequence free environment. And dad always told me I could be easy but I should never be cheap.
I smiled as I watched her work behind the bar. This was an MMO. The majority of players were young and male so making the barmaids extra easy was just good business.
I inhaled my breakfast and took my bath. I felt much better afterwards. It had been days since I’d been clean. The bar-maid had actually gone and got me a shirt since no-one else was in the bar this early. I tipped her with a whole gold coin, which more than covered the bath, the shirt, and the food.
She looked at the coin with big eyes and gave me a look laced with so much sex I was half-convinced she was going to raise her skirts right there. Which would have been awkward since MoProblems chose that moment to stomp down stairs with not one but two attractive women with him.
The first was an animal-girl that oozed sex appeal. She looked like someone had taken Jessica Rabbit, transmogrified her into a squirrel, then photo-shopped a eighth-graders head onto her. Her expression was a bit haughty but it did little to detract from her looks. Definitely too young for me but that didn’t make her less attractive, it just made me feel irrationally guilty. MoProblem’s had her engaged in conversation and wasn’t just ogling her cleavage. Which made me think we should swap master/apprentice roles.
The second was a she-orc of average height. She had light-green tinged skin and spiky short blue hair. Her face was surprisingly cute and at odds with the rest of her body. Tribal tattoo’s covered both her arms down to the wrists and she moved with the grace of a hunting cat. She had too much muscle to be pretty but enough curves to be interesting. She was clad in leather armor that was form fit and left her midriff bare in true MMO fashion. Her pants were black-leather and rode low and those hips…….
I was completely mesmerized by the sway of her hips and the way her abs moved as she came down the stairs. I didn’t realize I was staring until the barmaid huffed next to me and stopped off.
I came out of my revelry just as MoProblems called out. “Noob Slayer!? Where have you been?”
I ignored his question and instead said. “Ya know… Everytime I think there’s actually justice in the world. I see something like this and my hopes are crushed again. Here’s my apprentice walking downstairs with two women like some conquering hero while I’ve been fighting for my life in the sewers.”
“I believe you have misconstrued the situation entirely. My companion and I met your gnome friend last night and I assure you that Francis has been a perfect gentleman.”
I blinked once, completely thrown by the utterly incongruous speech of the animal-girl. Then I realized what she’d said. MoProblems’ face was torn between hope and nausea as my smile grew teeth. He was utterly ecstatic the girl had defended him and horrified she’d let his real name slip.
“Well, I’m sure Francis will be more than happy to introduce us. I believe you have the advantage of me Mi’lady.” I said, opting to match her over-proper manner. MoProblems winced visibly when I said his name but he rallied quickly.
“Uhhhh, right… this is Meredith and Jasmine.” He said pointing to the girls inturn. Then pointed to me. “Meredith and Jasmine this is Noob Slayer.” I waved as the trio sat.
“Bacon and Beer!” The orc called to the bar-maid as soon as she sat. I laughed and she turned a scowl on me.
“Breakfast of champions there.” I said still smiling. I was definitely attracted to her. Which was a good sign I needed to date more but something about her nagged at me. I recognized her and the girl from the wanted poster but I could swear I’d seen her somewhere else.
“Girl’s gotta eat” She said as the bar-maid slid a plate of bacon before her. I tried to get the barmaid's attention to get another helping but but she pointedly ignored me.
Women…
“So what the hell happened?” MoProblems finally asked.
“Got mind controlled by a were-cricket bard. Then I was chained up in the sewers. Took me three days to get out.” I said compacting the story as much as possible. The she-orc snorted while the Meredith looked thoughtful.
“Yes a Grealdi bard would be a potent adversary.” Meredith said. “They receive large racial bonuses to bardic magic and music skills, especially in their shape-shifted form. Although, you are likely the first player to encounter one as an NPC.”
“Speaking of being the first player to do things.”I said as I looked around the inn making sure it was still empty. “How would you guys like to try and tackle the first ever secret dungeon?”
----------------------------------------
AN: I was gonna wait till Wednesday to post this... but it's short and I'm bored.
So you guys look like you win!