Chapter Twenty-Four: TREASURE. Jamie Run 1, Part 2
As I turned left into the room, I noticed how the doors seemed aged, as if the castle had been abandoned. It didn’t make sense since I heard people screaming, but something about that detail nagged at my brain.
~Head Maid Quarters.~
[TREASURE.]
The crystal oozed enthusiasm, or maybe it was black ink; it was hard to tell in the dim light. I stared at it, baffled by its sudden change in behavior. Its unpredictable nature was both intriguing and unnerving, leaving me unsure how to respond.
I was immediately struck by mold and old wood smell as I walked into the room. It was starkly silent, in contrast to the earlier screams, except for the occasional drip of water from the ceiling. The discomfort was tangible, making me want to leave as soon as I entered. It took me a minute to find the treasure the crystal was talking about.
I was in a small room off the side of my bedroom. It belonged to Agatha, the head maid of the castle and quite possibly the bitterest old crone on the planet. She always treated me kindly, but the way she treated my other servants was atrocious. On the other side of the maid’s bed was an honest-to-Rellum gold chest, but I didn’t head for it yet
I surveyed the room, gliding my hand along the wall and picking up a film of dust on my fingers. As I grabbed for the sconce to light up more of the room, the silence was shattered by a menacing growl. A zombie dog sprang from the darkness, its eyes wild with hunger. I recoiled in horror, barely managing to block its first attack with my injured arm. The pain was excruciating as its teeth tore through my skin, but I pushed through the agony, determined not to let this beast end my journey here.
In a desperate move, I slammed the zombie dog against the wall, hoping to weaken its hold on me. The dog loosened its grip, and I took advantage of the brief respite crawling back using my uninjured arm, and I grabbed the torch off the floor. I swung vigorously, each strike a mix of fear and resolve, aiming to end the threat once and for all.
[Smash him in the head! Smash him in the head!] my crystal shouted, his voice grating. As he spoke, more inky smoke wafted out of him, making it even harder to see in the dim light.
I smashed the zombie dog over and over with the torch, hitting its eye with the first smack and its ear with the second one.
[Oh yeah! Damage baby! You dealt four and then two damage! Keep going, though it has about ten hp left. Don't let up!]
I kept hammering away, bringing the torch down repeatedly, not letting up for fear of the dog attacking me further. With a final powerful swing, I knocked the zombie dog to the ground, its body finally still. Exhausted and relieved, I let the remnants of the torch drop from my grasp. The room was mostly pitch black now, except for a small amount of flickering dark red light from the Crystal. The silence that followed was a stark contrast to the chaos of the fight, marking the end of the terrifying encounter. A moment later the silence was burst by Malice celebrating.
[Congratulations! You have killed the Zombie dog! Now loot its teeth and make a necklace!]
“What, no?” I shook my head as I tried to get off the ground.
[Aw, but think of how cute it would look on top of your toga. You’d look like some mythical warrior from ancient Aerlyn.]
That made me chuckle a bit through the pain and fog slowly spreading through my brain. “How much time do I have left?”
[I’m not sure. It was five minutes when we entered a minute and a half ago, but you got bit a second time. I’m unsure if the virus gets faster with more in the system. But have no fear! If you loot that beautiful iron chest over there, I can take all of the loot for you. Wouldn’t want it to get lost.]
I nodded and walked to where I thought the lone iron chest was. I wasn’t sure if I could find it without a light source, but I didn’t want to give up. I groped through the darkness, kicking around with my feet.
[Cold! Colder!] Malice shouted.
I wasn’t sure if he was taunting me or genuinely trying to help. I moved to my right blindly walking through the dark.
[Warm, warm. Hot, Hot, Hot! You should be able to open the chest.]
“How are you able to see? You don’t have eyes?”
[How are you still breathing? You died?] Definitely mocking me.
I felt my way through the darkness again, each step uncertain but necessary. My hands reached out, hoping to brush against the iron chest I was searching for. The lack of light made every small noise seem louder, every moment stretched out in suspense. I banged my injured left arm against the edge of a table. I screamed from the pain and dropped to the floor, cradling my arm again.
[Warmer! But you’re running out of time].
My hand finally brushed against something cold and metallic—the chest. Relief flooded through me, releasing the tension built over the wasted minute spent searching. I knelt down, feeling the rough edges and the cool metal, anticipation building as I prepared to see what was inside. I had found the chest and was about to open it when a thought crossed my mind.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“If I loot this, will you return the treasure when I respawn?
[No. Nu-uh. It’s mine. My treasure.]
I eyed the crystal warily, knowing I needed its help but not fully trusting it. 'How about we make a deal?' I proposed, my voice steady despite the uncertainty. I needed to sound confident and convince the crystal and myself that this was the right move.
[Yeeees? Deal? I like deals.]
"How about all of the treasure? It will be yours when we leave, but you let me use whatever I need while I am here.”
I had no delusions of grandeur that I would be the one to make it through. Even with all of my training, even with all of my knowledge, I had been dealt a fatal blow within 3 minutes of my first run. Given the nature of my crystal, I suspected I fell under Malikap’s domain. There were three greater and dozens, if not hundreds, of lesser domains. Domains determined how power worked for you in the dungeon. The classes, skills, stats, and even how money worked. It was a bad deal that I’m sure would return to hurt me.
“And, you help guide me in here. No trickery. You don’t have to tone down your mocking but remain helpful. I’ve heard horror stories.”
[How? Nothing leaves penance]
“The royal family has its methods,” I smirked.
[Deal. Deal I–No— Yes, I like the deal.]
The crystal started glowing a slight grey light that felt like it generated more shadows than it ended, but this also allowed more light to fill the area I could see to open the chest. I picked up the rough, leather-sewn chest lid by a ragged metal corner and was shocked to see the bounty inside.
Five items practically spilled from the chest: a chainmail vest whose sleeve hung over the side, a polearm that couldn’t fit jutted out opposite the chainmail, and a bounty of three different color potions. Staring at the potions with hungry eyes, I queried my crystal.
“Can you tell me the contents of these potions?”
[Yrd vutr Bryky Grynd Gomy, Klub Yrdo, and Byrnk Yrth Yrd.]
“What the what?”
[Yrd vutr Bryky Gomy, Klub Yrdo, and Byrnk Yrth Yrd.]
“In Aerlynthian, please.”
[Oh, the first is a cure zombie potion, but it only works on dogs. I’m not even joking. It will turn our little zombie friend here, who would die otherwise, into a pet you can use whenever you need it. It will tattoo the pet onto your arm, and when you spawn, you simply tap the tattoo to summon the minion. You may want to hold off on using the pet until we leave this floor, though, as the dog is not immune to zombification after the potion leaves his system. The second is a fire resist potion, and the third heals 25 health.]
”How much longer do we have before the virus kills me?”
[Oh, I’d say less than a minute. Maybe book it back to the spawn room, so we can easily loot your corpse?]
“Oh, right.”
I spun around too fast, and my world rocked. I stepped forward, and it felt like I was trying to run through water. I looked at my arm and saw green throbbing veins coursing up and down my arm towards my heart. My legs struggled to carry me forward as I moved past the doorway moving sluggishly.
My head throbbed with each step, my pulse quickened as I kept moving, pushing through. I had always heard that when you enter penance, there is lots and lots of pain, but it disappears over time.
So… “Why am I still in pain?” I asked as my right hand and arm skidded across the silk-cherry wood of the hallway, where I leaned against the wall for support. As I kept walking, malice responded,
[The effect is no longer removed. The gods decided it lessened fear of death, and no one learned their lessons.]
Another wave of nausea flushed through me, and my legs buckled under me as the infection took its toll. I crawled, each movement more laborious than the last, fighting for every second of life left. But as the cold floor met my cheek, the fight faded. I surrendered to the inevitable, my body too weak to continue the battle. The cold of the stone immediately soothed my face and my wounded arm.
[Twenty seconds to the room with yah, don’t bleed out on the marble. So hard to clean.]
In my dying haze, I appreciated that Malice kept up his antics by wasting 5 seconds; however, it was just what I needed to motivate myself to move. I crawled forward, my arm reaching out to the edge of the doorway and feeling the solid silk-cherry door.
[Ten seconds]
My everything ached as I inched myself to my feet, using the door for support. I grabbed the golden handle and fell into the room. Just as I thought I was going to die, my pain vanished.
I thought for a second it was the Euphoria we go through when we die; instead, on my bed was something out of a nightmare. It was like a tree of inky black smoke had sprouted up from my bed. Branches flowed beneath it for support, and two branches, like arms, grabbed onto the bed as one pointed at me. Its maw stretched open, showing an endless abyss that wanted nothing more than to swallow me but held back as if by common courtesy.
My pulse quickened again, and I glanced at my wound, worrying that the sickly green veins would pulse again, but they were gone. I swallowed, not sure if I should be elated or horrified.
[Malikap! Your highleyness! I’m so excited! We’ve had so much fun together, Jamie and I. We killed four zombies! She let me eat one!]
The gaping maw made a sound like branches snapping in a storm, and I felt myself back up until I hit the now-closed door, the jam digging into my back.
“I did not. Please do not take offense at his lies. Yeah, so, umm, There’s a god on my bed. I think I’m going to go back into the hall.” I reached behind with my right arm, feeling for the gold handle. It was gone.
We all stared at each other in silence. Malice and I were waiting for the god to speak up, but he continued holding his arm stretched out at me.
After a minute of unbearable awkwardness, I spoke again, “Is there? Umm. Something I can help you with? If you want the bedsheet, I would rather not be naked here.”
The same grating noise exited his mouth, and I recoiled again, hitting my head against the door.
“You… are… my… last…”
And then he disappeared. As he did so, time unfroze, and I fell forward. My wounds returned as suddenly as they had vanished, with a fierce, excoriating fireball of pain that I thought would never go away until everything went black.
[Congratulations! You died! Woohoo! You've reached the end of your first run! Look at me; I’m so proud I’m practically shining! You killed four zombies (one zombie dog) and gained four Malice points! Go, team Jamie!]
End run 1