Chapter Eleven: One Rat, Two Rat
~Run 2, Room 2L, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
A heavy breath escaped my lips, my shoulders drooping at the sight of two giant rats blocking my path. It was like the last run: one rat, two rat, red rat, blue rat. My vision blurred at the edges, light-headedness swirling through my thoughts, but I pushed it aside, ignoring the ever-constant dread of deja vu that permeated the air like the constant sewage stank. The die rolled as I swung for the first rat. My axe cleaved through with unstoppable force, sending the rat’s head soaring in a dramatic arc of blood and gore.
[You dealt 15 damage. You have killed Giant Rat 1. You have received an overkill Death Boon.]
Before I can even react, the second rat leaps for my bare chest and attacks my stomach with a nasty bite. The die rolls.
[You took one damage.]
The rat had rolled a four but only dealt one damage. A snort of amusement burst forth as I struggled to maintain my composure at the pitiful attack.
Careful not to hit myself, I slash at the clinging rat with the ax. The blow connects. The die rolls.
[You dealt 17 damage. You have killed Giant Rat 2. You have received an overkill boon.]
I expected a sting or a mark where the rat’s teeth had clamped down, but my fingers found nothing on my chest but unbroken skin. I was fine. The way HP worked was confusing to me. Finally noticing the sparkles, I kicked both rats. The dice rolled.
[You have looted rat teeth x1. You have looted 5 gold coins. You have looted a death boon.]
I furrowed my brow, muttering, “Weird, I got a death boon from a rat.” But I wasn't one to complain, and I wasn't going to complain about the multiple Death Boons. Crystal, though, heard me somehow and took it as a complaint.
[One shouldn’t complain when given boons so easily, Rod. In future runs, this could be a viable strategy for you to collect as many as you need if you get stuck on a boss.]
I thought about it for a moment, and I guessed she was right. I almost sighed, but I caught myself and cleared my throat instead.
“Alright, you have a point, Crystal; I also take back what I said about this class being awful; so far, it’s blowing my mind.”
I could easily see myself getting 10-20 death boons with the axe easily one-shotting the small mobs, but I still needed to figure out how I was expected to collect 50 or even 200 for some of the more expensive boons.
I walked over to the center of the room where the green, slightly ornate, uncommon chest was. My hand hovered over the uncommon chest, a sigh escaping me. I grimaced, what was with that bad habit? It was frustrating, I felt Like Demaly Erickson, a girl from the paupers school who always wore black, and talked about how horrible life was. It took my brain a moment to catch up and realize that a stray thought had brought back a twinge of memory. After the thrill of legendary loot in the last run, this felt like sifting through the sewage for gold.
The dice rolled as I lifted the lid of the chest.
[You've looted two items from the uncommon chest. You've obtained leather greaves. You've got a leather helm.]
I sighed. The greaves were excellent, but yet again, I looted something useless. I had half a mind to toss the helm on the floor. But who knows, maybe I would find a use for it in future runs.
"Crystal. Please equip the leather pants. And are you sure you can't just equip the helm? I can place the thing on my head." To demonstrate, I lifted the helm onto my head, but it vanished as I placed it on my brown, cropped hair.
[No, you cannot equip the helm. The Merchant of Death has decreed it. I will, however, equip the leather pants, although you do know that you can just… put them on, right?]
I laughed as the pants materialized around my bare legs. “Of course I know that. But one of the coolest parts of this place is the magically appearing clothing.”
I went through the next door. I almost forgot the room's torch, but thankfully, it was by this room's door, and I grabbed it as I swung by.
~Run 2, Room 3L, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
Given the events of last time, I should have been on high alert. Yet, to my dismay, I blundered onto a hidden pressure plate. Instantly, a barrage of five arrows sprang forth like a swarm of angry hornets hurtling straight for my unprotected chest. This time, no die rolled. The arrows simply struck me.
[You take two damage ] Like last time, the five arrows vanished.
"I take back what I said about this class being lame. I'm one-shotting everything, and I've only taken three damage. Those goblins are dead for sure.” I didn’t wait for Crystal to respond before running across the room for the lone crate and reaching inside—the dice roll.
[You have received leather armor.]
I groaned. This entire run would be me picking up equipment I couldn't use. I put the armor away, grabbed the torch, and left the room.
~Run 2, Necromancer's Room, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
I stepped back into the Necromancer's lair, only to find it empty. Gone were the necromancer, the chest, and the altar. Strangely, not even a single torch flickered in the room. However, as before, the room was awash with natural light–its ceiling open to a starry night sky. The Dragon skull remained the one vestige of anything that came before. Above, the moon blazed like a celestial furnace, casting a surreal, almost daylight level of luminance over the abandoned lair. The air hung heavy and still, a sharp contrast to the former chill of the chamber, and somewhere in the shadows, something whispered, hinting at unseen mysteries.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I decided I had wasted enough time staring at the admittedly pretty trees and left the room through the next doorway.
~Run 2, Room 1R, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
I paused, standing in the doorway, and turned around, scanning the Necromancer room, as something in my brain finally clicked. “Can you display the map for me?"
[Oh. I had forgotten we purchased that. One moment,] Crystal replied.
A parchment unfolded in front of me, expanding larger and larger until it was almost human-sized. The yellow fabric then turned black as ink splotches appeared all over it. Slowly, the ink faded, revealing nine black squares of equal size. Inside each square were other multi-colored squares: red for monsters, purple for pets and allies, blue for items like torches, green for crates and chests, white for doors, orange for stairs ascending upwards, and yellow for 'Other.' There was one more color on the legend off to the side, indicating a total of eight different colors. Pink, the final color listed, stood for secret walls. Apparently, there were two on the first floor.
In my first run, I had missed that there were secret rooms and treasure. The first of these rooms was off the Necromancer's room I had just cleared, so I turned around, and took off.
~Run 2, Necromancer’s Room, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
I was blown away by how different it seemed as I walked back into the room. Now that I knew there was a secret, I was hyper-aware of everything in the room. Trees shook with the wind that came from some far-off place. And the moon and stars shined too brightly in the sky. There was something off about the moon and how it sat in the sky. Almost as if it didn’t belong in a random room in a sewer. “Stupid moon,” I muttered. The room had always seemed bigger than it was, but as I tried to move through the trees where the wall would've been in any other room, I hit an invisible wall.
“Well, there goes that idea.” I looked back at the map, and not surprisingly, I was nowhere near the pink dot on the map. I studied the map for a moment when it finally clicked. The Dragon!
The Dragon's head, maw, and sickeningly large teeth were open to the world like a cave. It threatened future pain, but the bones were static, unflinching. The Pink dot was in the center of the Dragon's maw, and I wanted to shake myself at how obvious of a secret it was. I approached the mouth of the beast and walked straight through an invisible doorway.
~Run 2, Treasure Room, Floor 1, Sewers of Aerlyn~
I clenched my fists, frustration bubbling up as I shook my head. This room had been here the entire time, after all that searching last run, I had never thought to run underneath the skull. The tiny, closet-sized space was crammed with four chests, each a different type, all miraculously unlocked, two crates, and a towering pile of gold coins. I took a deep breath, willing myself to stay calm. This was more wealth than I had ever seen in my life.
"Did you know about this?" I asked, glancing at Crystal while my eyes remained fixed on the glittering hoard.
[I knew of the existence of secret rooms but not of this particular one.]
I shook my head and walked forward, approaching the chests. As I opened all four chests and the two crates, dice clattered against each other, the sound echoing in the confined space. Some dice ricocheted off the walls, striking me in the face and knocking me down to all fours. I really need to get rid of those things… “Hey Crystal, is there a boon for getting rid of those stupid things?”
[Of course, Rod. Now, shh! Let me work.]
[You have looted the following items: Cloth sandals, copper mace, leather greaves, Iron Short Sword, 83 gold, The Dagger of Penetration, and a Lunar Staff of Tides.]
"Wow, this is worthless," I muttered, looking at the pile of junk. The staff and dagger were impressive, but both were locked behind classes I didn’t even have yet. Everything else wasn't worth the space it would take to carry, at least given my class. Ugh, what a waste of time.
[You know, you complain a lot. Maybe you should work on that. You got over 500 gold worth of items here. And there's another 200 lying around.]
"You know," I mimicked her tone, "maybe you should work on—" I cut myself off, I didn’t want to piss off the only friend I had. Building a good relationship with Crystal was crucial, but it felt like I took two steps forward and five steps back every time we talked. [I know; at least you caught yourself this time. Imagine if you acted that way in the real world. You wouldn't get very far.]
"Hah, it's probably what got me killed."
I froze as a Memory core descended from the ceiling.
{Memory Core 3/???}
{Would you like to view the memory core?} {Y/N}
"Yes?" I asked hesitantly. I was confused as to what triggered these. I thought it was battles, but this one came down in the middle of a conversation.
~~~~~~~{Memory Core 3 Start}~~~~~~~
My mind flashed back to a monsoon-like night: soldiers, a firing line of archers with bows, aimed arrows at me.
“Rod!” A woman screamed, restrained by a priest, barely visible in the storm. I couldn’t make out who it was. My hands were tied behind my back, and I stood against a wall. A bolt of lightning cracked, and pain thundered through my brain as the memory ended in a flash.
~~~~~~~{Memory Core 3 End}~~~~~~~
I collapsed to the ground, clutching my head. Blood streamed from my nose as I rocked back and forth. My ears rang like cannons had fired nearby, and I could see Crystal's light frantically moving, but I couldn't hear her. The piercing rings reached a crescendo, and then—
[Rod! Are you okay?]
As suddenly as the pain came, it vanished, and my hearing returned.
"I think I remembered a glimpse of how I died. There was a firing squad. It was dark and storming, and I heard someone scream my name." It was an unsettling feeling. Knowing how I died. I couldn’t find the energy to stand. It felt like every part of my body was weighed down by the memory of that storm.
[Did you recognize the voice?] Crystal broke my reverie.
"No, I—maybe. It didn’t sound like anyone I knew from my other memories. But... it was familiar," I whispered. I couldn't place the voice. My mind flashed to the memory of the Queen, but her voice was different. Besides, why would the queen care about me? Let alone be unable to stop my death. I shook my head to clear it. We had spent enough time on this floor.
I walked back into the Necromancer's room and headed for the next door, hoping that it wouldn't be the boss. After what I had witnessed, I needed time to recover, I think.
“The floor layout. It’s different.” I said, slowly pausing to look again at the empty room. “I don’t remember how many rooms I went through before the necromancer, but this layout is different for sure. And how come it's empty? Shouldn’t there be a boss battle here?”
[Congratulations on your mastery of observational awareness. The layout is indeed different. And this room does not reset until you beat the level boss or die 5 times in a row.]
Two doorways flanked each other, touching in the room's corner. After hesitating, I gravitated towards the left, drawn by a slight hunch. I had been drawing a mental map based on the previous run, but I discarded it entirely with the layout being different this time. Somehow, talking with Crystal made me forget the awful memory, and instead of wanting a break, I hoped the next room would be the goblin lair.
I studied the door for a second. It was very similar to the others, with a grey slab and iron handle, but something was different. I pushed on the handle, and realization struck as it smoothly clicked into instead of creaking and groaning. The door opened, and I walked on through.