Time for plan B. Do I actually have a plan B? I mean, I could just wait until I roll a double or until two more turns pass. But that’s more of a plan Z, really. And I really don’t want to go with it. The FOMO will haunt me. I could also just move about randomly. I mean, at the very least I’m paying off some of my XP debt, and gathering stuff to sell.

But it probably won’t get me to the exit, unless I get really lucky. Mark that as plan Y, I guess. That still leaves me without a plan B. Could try going with the right wall instead of the left maybe? Nah, I’m betting that would get me back here just as fast as the left turns did.

Maybe just going straight? I mean, either this place is endless, in which case finding an exit is just luck anyway, or I’ll reach and end to the corridor eventually, and then we can reconsider. Yeah, I think that’s plan B.

Before he could start on his new plan of action however, Will felt a need he couldn’t really suppress any more. Going back into the room he’d first appeared in; the wombat went to one of the corners and rolled his dice.

A six and a three, and that’s me still in the crypts. But the next roll will get me out, no matter what the dice say. And it looks like I can’t just postpone it forever. It’s been what? Eight hours since my previous roll? And I only covered one ‘block’. On the other hand, most of that time was harvesting skeletons and waiting for my resource pools to refill. I can move a lot faster if I ignore the rooms. OK. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!

Without stopping to fight and rest every twenty meters, Will made much better time. There seemed to be an intersection every two hundred meters, all of them completely identical to the first. After about an hour of walking, the monotonous corridors finally showed a change, and Will reached a T intersection, with an option to go either left or right.

Choosing to go left, Will kept moving. There were, once again, doors which presumably led into sarcophagi chambers every twenty meters. But only on his left side. Will was still ignoring the chambers, hoping to reach the exit without getting stalled by any more fights. Two hundred meters later, he’d reached another T intersection. This one, however, gave him the option to continue straight ahead or turn left.

Looks like I managed to reach the edge. Good. Hopefully the exit is somewhere close.

An hour later, and Will had reached a corner. The corridor he was in turned left, with no other options.

I really hope I don’t have to circle the whole thing, only to find the exit a meter away from where I first reached the edge, but on the other side.

Five hundred meters later, Will had his answer.

The good news was that there was a staircase leading upwards just ahead of him.

The bad news was that the staircase was guarded.

The giant, horned skeleton hadn’t seen Will yet, so the wombat spent a few minutes examining it in the flickering green light of the torches.

The monster was about two and a half meters tall, with an upwards curving pair of bull horns adding another half a meter on top of that. Its skull was bovine, but had the sharp teeth of a carnivore instead of the blunt teeth of a cow. Green light burned in its eyes, matching the torches.

Unlike the rags worn by the regular skeletons, the guardian was wearing a full set of heavy plate armor, and it carried an axe as tall as Will’s old human form.

A skeletal minotaur? I know I said that this place was maze like, but it really isn’t. You don’t put a minotaur to guard an orderly grid!

Will’s complaint went unheard, of course.

That thing looks nasty. I don’t think my claws would even scratch that armor, without the armor piercing from level two. Not that they were very good against the ordinary skeletons. And I don’t think charging it will be very effective either. I could forget about it and go hunt some regular skeletons until I’m ready to leave.

On the other hand, that thing can’t possibly enter the sarcophagi chambers. So if worst comes to worst, I can probably hide from it for a while. And hey, I already know that death isn’t the end here.

I’m going to assume that a skeletal minotaur with a huge freaking axe is going to charge at me as soon as the fight starts. I really wish Thunder Ball had a better range. I could cast and then immediately duck into a side corridor.

Mind made up, Will got within range of the skeletal minotaur, and cast his Thunder Ball spell. The spell hit the monster square in its armored chest. It was too far away for Will to see if it did any visible damage, but he had no reason to expect a skeletal minotaur to be resistant to Thunder or magic damage.

As expected, the monster immediately raised its axe and started to run in Will’s direction. The wombat himself turned around to run, intending to reach the next intersection and turn.

The minotaur was a lot faster than Will, and even though the wombat had barely half the distance to run, it nearly caught up with him.

At the last minute, Will scrambled into the side corridor, and the skeletal minotaur charged past him. Will popped back into the outer corridor and zapped the monster again from behind. It took the huge minotaur a long time to stop, and by the time it managed to turn around, it was thirty meters away into the corridor.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Will cast Thunder Ball as fast as he could, hitting the monster twice more before he had to stop and start running again.

The skeletal minotaur was somewhat less stupid than the Cloudland rhino and ox Will had fought before, and it didn’t just continue to blindly charge at him. Instead, the undead monster walked quickly, its stride covering the distance between the combatants a lot faster than Will was comfortable with.

Will, in turn, backed away from his opponent, still casting one Thunder Ball after another. Right up until he ran out of mana after the seventh cast.

Yeah, this isn’t going to happen. On the other hand, I’m now between the guardian and the exit, aren’t I?

Turning around, Will started to run towards the stairway. It didn’t take the skeletal minotaur long to figure out what the wombat was doing, and it immediately started to charge. It was still faster than Will, and reached him before the wombat reached the exit.

The only thing that saved Will from being split in half was the fact that he was so much smaller than the skeletal minotaur. Too small to hit with an axe while charging. And too small to be hit by the monster’s equally as sharp horns.

Instead, the only thing that hit Will was an armored boot. Which, on his well-padded wom-butt, was only slightly painful. And which helped propel the fleeing wombat a lot faster than he could run.

Before the skeletal minotaur could catch up again, Will managed to reach the stairs and started to go up. As soon as Will’s back feet were on the stairway, the skeletal minotaur calmed down. It walked slowly back to stand in front of the stairs, completely ignoring Will.

Well. That was a bit anticlimactic, wasn’t it?

Shrugging at the monster’s strange behavior, Will continued his slow and ponderous way up the stairs. Damn things were, once again, not made with stubby little wombat feet in mind. There were twenty-five stairs, in all, and it was a tired and cranky wombat who came out of the crypts.

And into Kevin’s Smithy.

Quest complete!

You’ve found your way out of the crypts and past the guardian!

Reward:

50 XP.

Access to the merchant Space “Kevin’s Smithy”

That’s the reward for the quest? Access to the smithy, which I can stop in on my next cycle anyway? How does that even supposed to help me, if dying takes away all of my money? I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense to place the end at the dwarves’ place? Bah. At least the XP will help me get out of debt faster. And wait, didn’t I have a quest to bring Kevin some iron?

The brace of racoons dressed up in human cloths known as Kevin was standing in front of an anvil. A large hammer was held by the racoon peeking out of his right sleeve, and a pair of tongs by the racoon in the left. A piece of glowing metal was held in the tongs, and the smith was hitting it methodically with his hammer.

Will still had no idea how Kevin’s physics worked. There should have been no way for the racoons to generate enough force to account for the loud clanging sounds coming from the anvil.

And yet… clang on the anvil it did.

It took a few minutes before Kevin placed the piece of metal in a bucket of water to cool down, and turned to look at Will.

“Hello there, Will the Wombat. You’re back here earlier than I’d expected. Thought you needed to go all the way around before you could visit me again.”

So did I. But apparently there are ways around that. Not that I’d recommend it. Too painful, and too expensive.

“Ah. Managed to get yourself killed, I take it?”

Yeah. Fell down from the clouds, and found myself in the crypts. Which apparently open up inside your shop, for some reason?

“Yeah, that’s something unique to your mini world. No idea why it’s set up that way.”

Yeah, the whole thing doesn’t make much sense to me. I mean, what’s up with that skeletal minotaur? For that matter, what’s up with any of the skeletons? I thought this place had pickles instead of undead?

“Don’t put the honored dead in the same sentence as those abominations! The honored remains of warriors past exist to help you get rid of the XP debt incurred by dying. They serve a noble purpose!”

Sorry. I didn’t know that.

“Just don’t do it again. It’s extremely disrespectful! Regarding the guardian, it’s really more of a bonus. Most people just provoke it into attacking and then go around the block to the exit. But if you can reach the crypts without a debt, you might be able to defeat it. That usually gets you a good loot drop, but he’s not easy to kill.”

Interesting. I think I’d rather just not go down there again, if possible.

“Probably better that way, yeah. Losing the XP is painful, and gets more painful the higher your skill levels are.”

Thanks for the advice.

“You’re welcome. I don’t suppose you’d like to buy something this time around?”

Would if I could, but even if I had any money before dying, I’d have lost it all to the penalty. I do have a quest to give you some iron ore though.

“Ah, fantastic! That’s even better than buying something. I don’t know what’s up with the iron mines, but it’s been getting impossible to get iron around here. I’ll take five chunks of ore, if you have them.”

Here you go, Will reached into his inventory and took out five chunks of iron ore. The quest said something about an uncommon gear?

“Yeah, that sounds about right. You won’t have any choice regarding the gear, I’m afraid. It’s not actually something I’ll make for you, it’s a reward from the system.”

That’s… You know what? I’m way beyond being surprised by that kind of weirdness any more. Whatever.

“That’s probably for the best. I can still offer you a trade in if you really don’t like what you get.”

Thanks. Here’s your iron, Kevin. I’d like to turn in the quest now.

As soon as Kevin took the chunks of ore, Will got a pop-up message.

Quest complete!

5 chunks of Iron Ore delivered to Kevin the smith.

Reward:

50 XP.

Horned Wombat Helmet of the Heavy Assault Unicorn

Despite the cringe worthy name, the helmet appeared to be a solid piece of equipment.

Horned Wombat Helmet of the Heavy Assault Unicorn

Rarity: uncommon

Type: heavy helmet

Reduce the physical damage of all attacks that hit the wearer’s head by 3 categories, to a minimum of least damage.

Caution: wearing heavy armor increases mana and stamina costs of all skills by 100%

Damage from charge attacks changed to piercing, and gains one level of armor piercing.

Bonk! No horny!

If only it didn’t look like a rhino’s head made out of iron, complete with nose horn…