{Memory core 17/???}
~~~~~{Memory Core 17 Start}~~~~~
I was back in the alleyway where Jamie and I were arguing. I held the ring I had taken from her in between my thumb and my forefinger, studying it. I was about to speak, but Jamie beat me to it.
"I've never understood thievery. All that time, energy, and patience, all to take what could easily be gained legitimately."
I remarked, "Well, excuse me, princess! Of course, you don't understand it; you've never lacked for anything. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the world is brought to its knees for you while we hunger and thirst for two meals a day, let alone one." I had raised my voice, that vein in my head throbbing in a cruel echo of my father, and Princess Jamie shrunk back like I was about to hit her.
"How much money was spent to craft that ridiculous outfit you're wearing? You don't even look like a peasant, let alone nobility." I paused, taking a deep breath and trying to soothe myself.
"You haven't been caught this morning because my friend Peckolin bought me this little guy here." I pulled out my Glass Narwhal out of my pocket. He was so tiny and invisible that I wouldn't know he was there if I didn't feel his weight in my hand. Jamie stared at me like I had grown a second head, but I grabbed her hand and placed Invisible into her hand.
"This is my Glass Narwhal, Invisible. He creates a barrier around himself that can hide people. We are still physically here, but people will pass us, assuming we stay out of their way."
"You named your invisible pet Invisible?" She just stared, but I laughed before scratching my head.
"I'm bad at names, okay? And don't go changing the topic."
"I-I didn't you did. I–" I cut her off, and my anger rose again.
"Everyone looks down on thieves when it is the wealthy that should be looked down on. Think about your coronation in two weeks. How much money are they spending on that ceremony to say you're the queen?" My fists clenched, and my breath quickened,
Princess Jamie put her hands up defensively, but I wasn't done unleashing my rage. I felt a heat rising like a pillar out of the ground, consuming everything I was; my brain stuttered, and I couldn't think of what else to say. "And, and..."
I paused, my anger still hot but words failing me. Jamie looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read. We just stood there for a moment, the silence heavy between us. Princess Jamie did something so arresting that the tirade stopped on my tongue. She leaned forward and grabbed me, a commoner, in a hug. She was so close I could feel her breath upon my ear as she whispered, "I'm sorry, Rod. You're right... It's my fault, but I don't know how to stop it."
~~~~~{Memory Core 17 End}~~~~~
The memory ended abruptly mid-sentence again, and I fell to the platform. I grabbed the ledge frantically, trying to keep myself from falling off. I don’t know why, but the memory of Jamie made me pause. Okay, maybe it wasn’t worth it to be so greedy. My past self hadn’t known how the greed of the kingdom had destroyed my family, so why would I succumb to the same greed just cause no one would be the wiser? I shook my head and left the room.
~Run 4, The Silver Mirage, Floor 2, The Fallen Merchant City of Aerlyn~
As I walked into the room, I was shocked to see Thumbs on top of the assassin's corpse; our job was already finished. The diminutive goblin was trying to yank a gigantic blue sword out of the assassin's corpse but was struggling because the sword was twice as big as he was.
"Thumbs Kill! Thumbs Kill." Thumbs screeched in his goblin speak. He struggled still to pull the sword out of the goblin corpse until Thomas walked over and yanked it out. Thumbs stared up at the sword, tears forming in his eyes as he realized he would lose it.
"Thumbs, come here, buddy," I told the goblin as kindly as possible. I pulled 50 gold coins out of my inventory. The magic of the inventory space created a bag for the coins. I gave the pouch to him and said, "In exchange for the sword. Anytime you find awesome weapons or items like this, I'll give you gold in exchange. That way, you don't hurt yourself."
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Thumbs grabbed the bag greedily, and then the bag's weight made him fall to the ground. He stared up at me with wide eyes.
"Bag, Bag, Gold! Heavy! Lots of gold, gold!" He picked up the bag, opened it, and sat on the ground to count his coins. I laughed.
[Rod, Must I always have to remind you? You left 4 treasure chests and your companions in the previous room.]
I facepalmed, turned to Thumbs, and said, “Stay here,” before returning to the other room.
~Run 4, The Opulent Oasis, Floor 2, the fallen merchant city of Aerlyn.~
“Alright, that was anticlimactic.” The Aerlyntium only contained tiles this time. But Klericho and Thomas reappeared in one piece each. “Hey guys, look at what I found: four treasure chests!” I said, pointing to the chests. “I bet there's a lot of good treasure there. If we work together, we can easily get all four.” I turned and began to head for the nearest one, but stopped in my tracks as something unexpected hit my ears. Laughter.
I turned around, and Klericho and Thomas were laughing. “Those aren’t real chests,” Thomas said between breaths. They’re level 100 mimics. Instant run enders and corpse takers.”
I didn’t believe them, so I did what I always did when faced with a new enemy and shouted Scan!
Enemy Entry 0020: Mimic, Level 100
Tales of Mimics go back to the founding of Aerlynt. When Gerald Arneson accidentally cast a necromancer spell on an empty chest/ Weak to nothing. Strong against all elements.
Weak Point: Lightning, Water, Shadow, Light, and fire. Resist, ice, ground.
Stat:
Level
Health
500/500
Mana
500/500
All Stats
100
Item drops
Amount
Chance to drop
Gold
50,000
90%
Death Boon
10,000
10%
~Run 4, The Silver Mirage, Floor 2, The Fallen Merchant City of Aerlyn~
We walked through the maze of mirrors, Our reflections ungainly and confusing in the bizarrely shaped mirrors. It felt like an unbearable presence was holding us down to the ground and keeping us from moving forward. I was frustrated because even using the right-hand wall trick, it still took us fifteen minutes to locate the Aerlyntium. There were three colored hallways. Red, blue, and Yellow. The strange tint of the mirrors affected the way we looked and the way I felt. Just when I thought I had figured out the pattern to explore the hallways, I would hit a dead end or end up back at the entrance. I started marking the hallways with coins, but then I discovered Thumbs kept picking them up when my back turned. I could tell Thomas and Klericho were laughing at me behind my back. I knew I was a terrible leader, but I didn't see either stepping up to lead the way. My anger started to boil in my heart unbidden.
When I had died on my last run, Thomas had been able to drag me to it so quickly, but now the maze felt like an exercise in nihilism. "Thomas, how could you navigate the maze so quickly on the last run?" I had to bite my tongue as I spoke so as not to scream at the guy. My words sounded funny, and I could hear my pulse in my ears.
"See those red, blue, and yellow markings. It took so long because you needed to follow the Blue path. You kept switching paths. Red is a dead end. Blue is forward. Yellow is back."
“And why didn’t you share this with me?”
"Felt more fun to see if you could figure it out. But you just got angrier and angrier. It wasn't as funny to watch as I thought it would be. I'm sorry."
Like a pressure valve had been released, I sighed long and suffering. "You know what? It's fine. In the future, let's pool our knowledge and resources. I know that's a bit hypocritical, given that I tried to hide my knowledge from you, but going forward, we all need to do better. You guys have already been through this dungeon almost a hundred times. We need to figure out how to get through here as quickly and as painlessly as possible."
"I get that, but why are you acting like I killed your dog, man?"
I took a few breaths to calm myself. This was as good an opening to explode as any, but I had finally learned my first lesson in Penance. Anger didn't solve problems. It created them. My anger with Crystal destroyed our earlier run. My anger with Thumbs only ended with me getting hurt by the assassin. If I truly wanted to grow and show I was capable of the change Penance required to escape, it would start here. The memory core forming didn’t surprise me, but what I saw did surprise me.