Chapter 26 - Labyrinth

I twisted the dial until the enveloping fluorescence dimmed to pitch darkness. I rested my aching body on the thin cushioned layer on the bottom of the capsule emulating a bed. No outside sounds penetrated these sterile walls. There could have been a swarm of boisterous Volunteers passing through Purgatory and I’d have been oblivious.

At long last I began to drift, to dissociate. My tired mind wandered somnambulantly through thick fog. Fog I could feel but not see. I groped in the chill. Morning mist. Vapor rising off the surface of placid water. Ripples lost in time. An errant splash.

I heard the sound of laughter, infinitely distant. A child’s voice.

Where? Where is it coming from? Where are you?

I wanted to call out, but I had no mouth. I felt an urgency to locate the source of that sound.

Slowly, a visual formed in my mind’s eye. But nothing that matched the innocence I chased. Something malevolent and overwhelming. A rictus grin stretching across the universe and a voice as deep and abyssal as the ocean floor.

iIi kNoW wHaT yOu aRRRe

I lay paralyzed in the dark. A great weight perched on my chest, pinning me down. My limbs locked in place.

No. No. Not this.

My bloodshot eyes ripped open. There was only the abominable smile, stretching larger than my perception, hanging in the black void. The mighty tectonic plates beneath the ocean floor rumbled once more.

iIi KnOw WhAt YoU ArE

I fought against the mental attack. I strained with every bone, every muscle, every nerve in my body. I pushed back against the apparition so hard I thought the chip in the back of my head would explode.

yOU aRE a MONsTeR !!!

Pain! Piercing into my brain like ice picks through the edges of my eye sockets. Overwhelming and disastrous.

]ERROR ||||lllIIII ERROR |IIIllll||| 01110011 01100001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100100 01100001 01101101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101001 01101110 01100101 01100100 -1%[

I blacked out.

…

An unknown span of time later, my eyes flicked open in the darkness. Shaking, I reached blindly for the dial. I couldn’t find it. Forgetting where I was, I hit my head on the lower ceiling of the sleep capsule. Finally I located the controls and turned the light full blast.

Alone. Alive. Confused.

What… what just happened? Deja vu. A half-remembered dream, swirling down the drain of awakening.

Not my residence. Somewhere else. That’s right, Purgatory.

Deja vu, again.

Or was it nostalgia, from the Greek word algos for pain, grief, and distress, combined with a derivative of neomai, to escape, to return home. A morbid longing for one’s native country.

Huh. That was a strange thought. I wonder what prompted that.

A menu notification flashed in my vision, breaking my reverie.

[Refresh complete.

Essence restored.

Energy at full.]

The Cycle change. Right. Good. Essence and Energy back at full. But why did I still have this throbbing pain in my head?

I dimmed the light part way and stretched out once more, concentrating on taking deep, slow breaths until the cranial sting subsided. As I lay I remembered my current assigned task.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[TASKS

* Remove Minotaur from Grand Central Park in Eden West (Pending)]

Kill a minotaur. Okay, let me think about this.

The Archives were out of reach. I wouldn’t be able to do any research on my target. But the concept of a minotaur was familiar to me. A man with a bull’s head. Right? Relatively straightforward. What else did I know? I thought it stemmed from Greek mythology. A monster that guarded a special place. Either that, or was used as a form of punishment against someone who displeased a god or king.

That was honestly all I could think of. Dram. Did Volunteers or Citizens have access to any bookstores or libraries in The Collective? Finding a volume on Greek myths to keep stashed in my inventory couldn’t hurt.

My headache gone, I clambered out of my sleep capsule and stretched. The capsule door automatically shut behind me and locked. It would be another 100 Crypt if I wanted to use it again. But I had no plans on needing to do that.

I walked over to the ammunition vending kiosk. I found myself running low or empty on multiple occasions, which was not good. But I also didn’t want to get ripped off. I died earning that 5% discount at the Armory. It’d be a shame not to take advantage of it. I resolved to shop for expanded ammo storage options upon my (triumphant?) return to The Commons.

For now, I decided to buy the four bullets needed to refill my revolver, even with the inflated price. Four rounds for 80 Crypt. I gritted my teeth and completed the transaction.

I was already down to 3,880 Crypt. But my ammunition, Energy, and Essence were full. And my sprained leg felt good as new.

I checked my storage.

[MEMORY

* STORAGE

* * 295 / 290 (310)]

Only 15 metabytes to play with. It was possible that any loot acquired during completing the minotaur bounty might exceed my carrying capacity. I could rent one of those storage cubes for 100 Crypt. Even if I died, whatever was in that box would be safe, even without a back up. Alternately, I could trigger my skill to burn 30 Energy and free up room if needed.

Turning away from the limited shopping options, I noticed the diminutive man with the pencil mustache from the previous Cycle sitting at the table in Purgatory’s modest seating area. He had several throwing knives laid out on a cloth and was concentrating on applying liquid from a vial on the tips of each, one at a time.

Curious, I walked over to get a closer look.

“Keep your distance. This is deadly poison, it is. Don't wanna get nicked by this nosh or another.”

The man didn’t look up from his work as he spoke. I did as instructed.

▶ Poisoned throwing knives? Interesting choice of weapon.

He grunted a reply. At first I thought that was the end of the exchange, but after a while he elaborated.

“Some Volunteers messel themselves jack-of-all-trades types. Not me. Can’t afford it. Had to specialize, I did. Stealth and poison. Nimble too. Plenty of Value sunk into my Agility stat. Thrown weapons, although there is a nice blow dart gun I’ve been viddying at the starry Auction House.”

▶ What types of creatures do the poisons work on?

“Different poisons for different monsters. And some with no poison at all.”

He held a knife up to the light, inspecting his work. Satisfied, he carefully tucked it into one of the straps on his bandolier.

I thought it strange how, physically, the man appeared so much smaller than me. I had a generic, starter body, practically unchanged since my Orientation. Did this Volunteer really go through the body modification process, likely expensive, to alter his physical frame? And not to buff up, as I had seen other body types, but to reduce? I didn’t quite know how to bring it up.

▶ Thanks for the tip about Purgatory. I’m Magpie, by the way.

He just nodded, finishing his work and meticulously stowing each throwing knife in its right place. Didn’t bother to share his name with me. It was probably something embarrassingly obvious, like Knives or Poison or something.

▶ Are… you on your way to complete a Task?

He stood up, dematerializing the vial of liquid into his inventory and smoothing his trenchcoat.

“No bounty. Heading out to Eden West to farm some kappas.”

▶ Eden West? Me too. I’m going to Grand Central Park.

“Same as me. Those dram kappa can’t keep out of the koi ponds, the greedy buggers. Don’t tell me you have a bounty on some kappa. Then we might have a problem, you and me.”

▶ Not at all. Don’t even know what those are. I’m hunting a minotaur. Supposed to be in a hedge maze there.

“I know the place. You hunting A minotaur or THE minotaur?”

▶ Excuse me? What’s the difference?

“One’s a noun, one’s a proper noun, innit? What’s the frequency of your bounty?”

▶ Uncommon.

“Just a minotaur then. The minotaur, Asterion, gotta be rare at least, maybe even legendary. Only found in a proper labyrinth. But a regular starry minotaur–they pop up in all kinds of mazes. They’re drawn to them. Linked.”

Linked.

▶ Have you fought one?

“Nah. Seen Vols killed by them before. They are tough. But nothing special. Just a contest of strength really, if you’re into that. Gotta watch those horns.”

To illustrate his point, the man lifted two fingers above his head and pantomimed a charging motion. A tough, physical opponent. How many shots from a revolver would put down a charging bull in the real world? I needed to come up with a solid strategy before wandering into that maze.

There was one idea that came to mind.

▶ Since we’re both heading to the same place, what if we made a deal? I’ll help you farm your cap-uhs, or whatever they’re called, and you help me kill this minotaur.