I spent the next five and a half hours dying, respawning, fighting frantically, and then dying again almost instantly. As it sounds, I was completely unaware of the passage of time in between respawns, so it felt like about 20 minutes tops.

And then I respawned, and I was in a great stone antechamber. My team surrounded me. I looked around. The roof was vanished in darkness overhead. The nearest wall, about 20 feet away, was as straight as any mason could hope for, dark grey stone, with veins of silver and gold and white rippling through.

The wall was carved with patterns, flames, hammers, galaxies. I had never seen anything quite like it, yet it evoked a feeling of deja vu. At the far end of the room were a pair of enormous golden gates marked with a symbol of a world and a flame. The gates had to be at least fifty feet tall.

The antechamber stretched away a good 500 feet from us. It was full of miners, all different species. Before I could do more than blink a few times, the system was talking. [As some of you have already discovered, this is a no-miner versus miner violence zone. So refrain from even trying. You're only embarrassing yourselves.

Welcome to stage two of this adventure. Your teams have all managed to make it to the objective, but the treasure lies deeper within. Congratulations. You thirty-seven teams are better than any of your competitors. You will all receive a reward that will help your outposts when we return to normal gameplay.

But now, a new challenge lies before you. You stand before the Gates of Dawn. Beyond are secrets known only to those who built and then left this place.

There will be challenges. There will be enemies. There will be chances for victory and glory.

We enjoyed seeing all of your antics, both the cooperation and the clever ways you turned the table. But there will be none of that in here. No miners will be permitted to harm other miners. Any who attempt to do so will be removed from this phase of the game. Any miners who attempt to trap other miners into harming them in an attempt to have them removed will themselves be removed. The system is watching.

Also, all communication between non-party members will be suspended for the duration of this challenge. That includes with people outside this level entirely. You're on your own. You have 12 hours to raid the fortress of the gates of dawn. Good luck. Have fun.]

The great doors began moving outward. There was no sound. No rumble. Not even a squeak. It was eerie. The crowd surged forward. I spotted Mak’gar and his crew and gave him a thumbs up. He returned a wave.

"Are we ready?" I asked my team. They nodded grimly. "Oh, and good job whoever managed to get here in time. I didn't see that. I was too busy dying. But you did good."

Bill actually laughed. "We four all made it and so did Sage and Annie. We had a nice time watching you die over and over. The system piped in images from the graveyard while we were waiting so we wouldn't be bored."

"Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that," I brumbled as we moved forward with the crowd.

"I especially liked the time the squid monster ripped your heart out," Mitch said cheerfully.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Sage said. "Shad, we have got to talk about you dying. You're really making a bad habit of it."

We approached the steps leading up to the doors. They were a little too tall for me, like they were made by creatures on a different scale than humans.

The doors opened onto utter blackness. I couldn't see anything beyond. People stepped through and were swallowed up, vanishing into the blackness beyond.

I shivered a little even though it was warm in here. Far too warm. There was a smell like sulfur in the air. I reached for my gun, making sure it was in its holster. It was, of course. Its handle was a comfort.

I caught Grandpa eyeing me and jerked my hand away. "Don't worry," he said. "It's just another illusion by this reality engine."

I shivered. Deep down inside, something told me it wasn't just another illusion.

We reached the top of the stairs. I took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.

I emerged into a tunnel carved in the same gray rock with the veins twisting and swirling overhead beneath our feet to the side. I took a few steps forward as my team emerged. I glanced around. We were alone and as Brown emerged from the portal, it vanished. Now the same identical hallway stretched behind. There was nothing to our right or left, just the smooth walls of the corridor.

"You think this is a dungeon crawler?" Sage asked.

"Maybe. I guess we’ll find out." The system had mentioned being removed from the game if we attempted to harm other miners, which I assumed meant we would run across other miners during the course of this, though I didn't see any now. It had not mentioned what would happen if we died. "Let's be careful," I said. "I'd hate to find out that death in here means you're out of the game."

"Jones, take the lead," Grandpa said. "You've got some of the best eyes. Who else has anything useful for scouting?"

"I've got Sixth Sense," Lakshmi volunteered. "It gives me goose bumps if there's a threat nearby. It's been pretty useless so far since there's almost always threats nearby, but right now I don't feel anything."

"Then you're up front with Jones," Grandpa said. "Shad, you're right behind them. Smith, I want you to take rear guard."

"I'll take Bill and Bob," Smith said. We spread out, falling into groups of three or four, with ten or so feet between each group. I touched the wall. It was warm under my fingers. The stone felt almost alive. Hard yet there was an electric sensation in my fingers as I ran my hand along the wall. I didn't like it.

We made our way down the corridor. My eyes strained watching for any sign of a trap or even a curve in the hall. After about five minutes, Jones stopped and held up a hand. "Corridor here," he said. He faced the right-hand wall.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

From where I was, I couldn't make out a break. It was only as I hurried forward that I saw the opening. It was the same shape hall as the one we were in, but leading off in a 90-degree angle to ours.

"What do you think?" Jones asked. "Take it, skip it, break up, and do both?"

"I don't think we want to split off just yet," Grandpa said. "Let's see where this one goes."

We set off down the second corridor. Almost immediately, I noticed a difference. This corridor had a distinct bend to the right. I couldn't say how many degrees of arc, but if it kept up like this, we would rejoin the corridor we had been on shortly, if that corridor continued going straight.

We got to what I guessed to be the apex of the bend, and there was another opening. This one was taller and wider. Jones and I paused and looked through. There was a short corridor beyond, which opened out into thin air. A narrow walk ran along the edge, with no railing whatsoever. I motioned Jones to stay put and took a step forward to the edge of the opening and peered out.

We were perched at the top of an enormous room, probably bigger than the antechamber, and we were at least 50 feet up. Below were hundreds of rows of hundreds of statues, all standing in a line. I whistled, "Come take a look at this," I told Grandpa. He edged past Jones and looked out.

"Well, that's something." It reminded me of the Chinese terracotta warriors. These were jade, crimson, black, or white, each all a single color. They had to be at least 20 feet tall. Each of them held a weapon, a spear, a sword, or a bow. They had smooth, round heads, but I couldn't make out more detail than that from here.

I craned my head to the side. "There's a ladder over there," I said. "What do you think?"

Grandpa hesitated. He looked upward. There was light filling the room, which let us see everything, but I hadn't been able to see any obvious light source. It diffused from an invisible ceiling. In between us and the light was a thin layer of mist or fog. It didn't feel like we were outdoors at all, more like one of those fog machines they use at parties, except gathering on the ceiling instead of the roof.

"Down," he said at last. "But be careful. I expect these things to come to life, and I want us ready."

He set the marching order. I went first, followed by the Mongeese, then Bill and Bob, then most of the others. Grandpa and Mitch took up the rear.

I tried to make as little noise as possible climbing down the ladder, though I didn't know if it mattered. If the statues were going to wake up, it didn't seem like my stealth would affect them one way or another.

I reached the ground and took a few steps toward the statues. The floor beneath me was more of the same stone. The veins of silver and gold ran between the feet of the statues.

From here I could make out more detail. The statues were humanoid, definitely not human. They had ears which were pointed and protruding noses, a little too bulbous, making me think of a troll. They had sharply out-jutting chins. Some of them wore little goatees. The ones without goatees had the suggestion of breasts on their torsos. So a humanoid species with male and female, like us, like most of the aliens I had seen at the Hub. They wore no clothing but had only smoothness at their crotch areas.

Grandpa got off the ladder as the other fourteen of us stood staring up at the enormous statues. "What are these?" Bill wondered. "And when are they going to come to life and start trying to kill us?"

"I'm using Eye-Spy, but I get nothing," Sage reported. "Either they're really just statues or they're shielded, or maybe—" she was cut off as the closest statue to us, a crimson, goateed sword-bearer in the far left corner, raised its arms with a screeching, metallic noise.

It turned its head to face us. I wasn't surprised. I'd been expecting it this whole time. "How about now?" I asked Sage.

"Yeah, okay," she said. "It's a level eight construct monstrosity. It's got 500 hit points and it's immune to fire and to poison."

"Not too bad," I said. "Everybody spread out." I got ready to use Call ‘Em Out, but the creature turned its gaze on Lakshmi. A brilliant red beam of light connected them. For a second I thought Lakshmi was about to be blasted. Instead, the beam held steady as the creature took a step toward her.

"It's focusing on you, Lakshmi!" Sage shouted. "Run around! Keep it confused!"

"Everybody hit it with everything you've got!" I yelled. I dropped six rounds into the creature's nearest leg. "And stay clear in case it switches targets suddenly."

We threw spells at it. "Don't use anything big!" Grandpa shouted. "If more wake up, we've got a long fight ahead of us."

"I think there's ten thousand of these things here!" Lakshmi yelled. "If they all chase me I’m doomed!"

We didn't need any of the big cooldowns. Everything worked. My bullets and those of Team Mongeese. Bill and Bob's polearm swords. The various melee weapons everyone had, the big foam hammer Sage had picked up on a mission back when we were level three that did ridiculous damage considering how it looked, all made short work of the statue. Bit by bit, it crumbled, moving forward even as its legs dissolved into red rubble beneath it.

Lakshmi kept out of its reach as we took the statue to pieces. As its head fell to the ground and bounced, the next statue, an emerald female with a spear, woke up.

Sage darted in and checked the head. "It's got loot!" she said happily, waving what looked like a manila envelope over her head. "It's a crafting recipe. Some sort of leather gear enhancement thing, a polish kit, I'm not quite sure what it is."

"Just pick it up and stow it," I said. "No time now. Everyone, back at it. Let's get in a rhythm."

And we did. Each of the statues would focus someone, we'd chip it down, when it died, somebody grabbed the loot and stowed it.

They all dropped recipes and formulas for crafting items. Food, potions, poisons, grenades, bullets, sword polish, arrowhead polish, spear sharpening oil. Strengthening rubs for the haft of a polearm. We picked it all up and kept it. I hoped our crafters would be able to use half of what we were getting.

Sage giggled like the little girl she was when one black statue decided to focus on her. She skipped about, leading it a merry dance as we hacked it to pieces.

We had worked our way all down one row and partway back along the second when I heard commotion a little ways off. I disengaged from the statue and hurried along the edge of the room a little. About fifteen rows farther on was another party, a band of orcs, not Mak’Gar’s or any I knew.

I beat a retreat back to our team. "There's at least one more group here," I said. "Remember, don't try to hurt anyone else. Don't even throw out multi-target spells from now on. Single target on these guys. And let's go faster," I added. "If there's one group, there'll probably be more."

Eight statues later, it was clear the other team was aware of us. And then, after another twenty minutes or so of dropping rock golems everywhere, I spotted a bunch of space elves over to my right and caught a glimpse of a small silver fox racing through the forest of statues farther in. "I guess we're all here now," I said. "Let's get 'em."

Unfortunately, one statue had to die before the next would wake. We plugged along through ours, hoping we'd get more than our fair share.

We were bumping up against the orcs before we knew it. A white statue came to life. I shot at it and received a system message. [This monstrosity has been tagged by another party. Do you wish to contribute damage? Yes? No?]

I selected No.

A black golem next to it came to life. This one we managed to get. We downed it, and then a small goblin darted in right under our noses and snatched the loot we had been working so hard for. He waved it over his head for a second before it disappeared. The goblin made a gesture that I supposed was rude in several different species and disappeared again.

"That's not fair!" Sage protested.

"Right. I see how it is," I said. "Everyone back off. Disengage. Let's try to figure out what comes after this room. This isn't the only loot here, I’m certain. We've got a bunch of recipes and we want to find out what else is left."

"Spread out and yell if you see anything," Grandpa ordered.

I plunged off through the forest of statues. My theory was an exit to the room would either be in the center or on the far side. Sure enough, as I pushed through a row of unmoving constructs, I saw a hole in the floor and a spiraling metal stair leading down. I used my chat. Over here. Center of the room. I found it. My team converged on me. As soon as I was sure we were all close enough, I started down.