Benjamin Vryce

When Benjamin next came to himself, he was standing outside. Warm sunlight and a gentle breeze kissed his cheeks. He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feeling for a moment. It was heaven after days trapped in that metal labyrinth.

“It is a wondrous thing is it not? The outdoors.” The unexpected voice made him jump and snap his eyes open. The Erlking was standing around five feet away from him. Close enough for easy conversation but far enough away not to seem threatening.

“It is.” Benjamin responded, vowing to pay more attention to his surroundings from now on. “I am starting to understand why my brother…” his throat closed up as he thought of his brother, forever lost to him. The Erlking raised an eyebrow at his pause, but he could only shake his head.

The Erlking seemed to understand, because he looked away for a long moment. Giving him time to collect himself again before he spoke.

“Have you taken in your surroundings Mr. Vryce?” he asked indicating the area around them.

Benjamin, having regained a semblance of calm, took that as a cue and looked around. He was standing on a smooth cement slab, maybe twenty paces square. A large wooden table stretched the length of the slab behind him. Around the slab on three sides was an endless plain of knee high grass. The final side, directly in front of him, held a dirt path no wider than the width of his shoulders heading straight into a swamp.

“Why do I get the feeling that I will be going into that swamp?” he said without much enthusiasm. The silver spider on his shoulder waved its front limbs around as if in agreement.

“Very good Mr. Vryce. This trial is very simple in concept if somewhat harder in execution.” The Erlking said with a toothy grin. “This platform is your starting area; the table holds various arms and armament. Outfit yourself as you see fit, then travel the path until you reach another platform defending yourself as needed. Should you die, you will be returned here automatically to try again. Simple, yes?”

“That’s it? Just fight my way through this swamp and I’m done.” Benjamin thought it did indeed sound simple, so there must be a catch.

“Very nearly, once you reach the next platform your rebirth location will be reset there. There will be another table of arms and armament and another trail for you to follow. There will be four such trails in total. You will be left undisturbed until you reach the end of the last trail.”

“Great, I knew there would be more too it. But, what’s the point? What does this gain either of us?” He asked the World Lord, honestly dreading the answer.

“Again, simple in concept Mr. Vryce. These trials will give you experience with all manner of weaponry against all manner of enemies, in several different environments. This will teach us both what kind of warrior you are and how we can best proceed. Rest assured however Mr. Vryce; I am not asking you to do all this for free. I have a prize waiting for you at the end of this trial. One that I think you will be happy to receive.”

“Fantastic, guess I will just have to take your word for it then.” Benjamin said. “What about food? There isn’t any here.” He said looking around himself.

“Food Mr. Vryce, are you hungry?” the Erlking asked inquisitively.

“Of course, I’m Hung…” his voice trailed off as he realized that, no, he wasn’t hungry. He had been in the metal labyrinth but he wasn’t anymore. “Why aren’t I hungry?” he asked at last.

“Like the Arbiter said Mr. Vryce, souls are powerful. You were very limited on earth but here you will soon discover you are far more then you ever imagined. Thanks in large part to your little friend,” here the Erlking gestured to the silver spider. “Your soul has already grown a little.”

Benjamin had so many more questions now and was wondering where to start when the Erlking clapped his hands together with finality.

“I know you have more questions but now is not the time. For now, complete the trial, learn what you can, and advance yourself.” With a final nod of his head the Erlking winked out of existence, his last words still echoing in the air. “I will await you on the other side.”

“Well damn,” he said to the empty platform. Then turned around and walked to the table. It was covered in all manner of medieval weaponry. He took a long moment walking up and down the table, touching each piece in turn. He eventually Got a feel for what was available.

It helped that each item had a small index card attached with a short description of how the item was used. It seemed silly at first, until he remembered he had no idea how to put armor on. Another interesting find, at the very end of the table was a small selection of attachments for the repair drone.

There were a few blades that would clip onto the spider’s forelegs. A selection of tiny syringes that held pain killers and poisons. lastly a little spool of thread with a curved needle. It was fitting in a way; the little drone had been designed to fix machinery. In this world there were no machines, at least none that he had seen yet, so Erlking had provided the tools it would need to repair bodies instead.

Thinking about the mechanical spider brought the Erlking’s words to mind again. Benjamin wondered what he had meant about his soul growing. Closing his eyes, he tried to search within himself for the feeling he had when he and the drone had bonded.

He thought there might be a slight tingle somewhere deep inside himself. A kind of charge like when he would rub his socks on the carpet as a kid. It was to faint to grab onto, if it was there at all, so he put it from his mind for now.

Going back to the table he gathered up the mechanical attachments. Looked around again and decided to keep it simple, he got a long bow and quiver of arrows, and a long belt knife. Then headed into the swamp.

Twenty paces into the swamp the ground started to soften. Thirty paces after that Benjamin was walking through ankle deep mud. The path was still visible, if barely, and he did his best to stay on it. That was not as easy as it sounded as it began to take sweeping curves from side to side.

This forced him to back track a few times and soon he wasn’t doing anything except keeping his eyes on the ground directly in front of him in order to avoid losing the path again. when he heard the chittering squeaks from ahead, he knew that had been a mistake.

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He looked up to see a black blur darting at him from a mound some fifteen feet ahead. As he watched, two more black shapes came rushing out of the mound and headed toward him too. He was caught completely off guard.

After a long heartbeat of confusion, he fumbled to get the bow up and on target. He barely got his arm raised when the first black streak launched itself at his face. He hadn’t even thought about blocking and before he knew what was happening a pair of needle like fangs were in his throat.

Reflexively he grabbed the beast and yanked it away from himself. It worked; the creature was flung to the ground at his feet. Unfortunately, it took a chunk of his throat with it. Benjamin blinked in surprise, blood flowing in waves from his missing throat.

He did get a chance to see what had attacked him when it hit the ground. It was one of the dire rats that the fat kid, Briggs, had been petting so lovingly. As he fell to his knees the mechanical spider launched itself at the dire rat, sinking both its foreleg blades deep into the rat’s body.

It writhed and thrashed but couldn’t shake the spider from its back. It was then that the other two rats arrived on the scene. One went to aid its companion in dealing with the small spider, the other jumped onto the kneeling Benjamin and proceeded to finish the job of ripping the life from his body.

Just like that, Benjamin found himself standing on the platform again. he checked himself over, he was whole and had everything that he went into the swamp with in a pile at his feet. the black coveralls were once again in mint condition.

“Well Fuck” was all he could think to say. Going back over to the table he took another look at the offerings. He still thought the bow was a good choice, he just had to be more observant. If he had seen that dire rat before it had seen him, he could have shot it and continued on.

“You kept it together at least,” he said petting the spider on its tiny head. “I suppose a little armor wouldn’t hurt anything though.” Looking at the options on hand he decided on a simple leather Cuirass. It looked like a sleeveless vest made of thick leather, he slipped it over his head and laced it up the sides. Preparations made, he headed back into the swamp.

This time he went much slower. The path hadn’t moved so he was able to use his memories of his first trip to keep his footing. This allowed him the time to keep an eye out for the earthen mound and learn the geography.

When he found the mound again, a smile split his entire face. He couldn’t help it; the rat was just sitting on the mound licking its paws. He couldn’t have felt luckier.

Slowly, slowly he raised the bow to eye level. Drawing the arrow back with equal slowness. He was a little shocked. He had shot bows before with his brother Jeff, those weren’t any harder to pull but once he had them drawn the hold became easier. Not here, the bow was as hard to hold at full draw as it had been pulling it back.

He grit his teeth against the strain. He had to make the most of this opportunity, he tried to sight down the bow and got another shock. There was no sight aperture like he was used to either. Cursing himself for not practicing this before he got here. He lined the shot up as best he could and with trembling muscles, released the string.

He was an estimated twenty feet away from his target, he missed by at least three feet. he didn’t even have time to curse his luck. As the arrow whizzed by the dire rat it let out an ear-piercing shriek, and darted straight for him again.

What followed was a near exact repeat of the first incident. The silver spider again doing all the heavy lifting while he got his throat ripped out. The Cuirass did help, keeping the first rat from biting him instantly, but once the third rat arrived it was lights out.

Once again standing on the starting platform, Benjamin was pissed. The anger was directed mostly at himself though. He wasn’t a hunter like his brother but he had played enough war games to know that you didn’t go into battle with a weapon that you didn’t understand.

Maybe that was the problem, he thought after some reflection. He had begun to think of this scenario like a game, when it clearly wasn’t. Picking up the bow he walked to the edge of the swamp and sighted down a gnarled old tree. he wasn’t going back into that swamp until he could shoot this bow like a champ.

Half an hour later he gave up. His muscles hurt and his fingers were bleeding. He had only gotten worse with time not better and it became clear that becoming good enough to hit a stationary target wasn’t going to happen overnight. To say nothing of a moving one.

He went back to the table to look over his options again. there were two crossbows on the table, next to where he had gotten the bow. He had dismissed them at first because in his games crossbows always had a slow rate of fire compared to the long bow. Seeing as how he couldn’t even use the bow that reasoning wasn’t holding together as well.

He inspected the two options before him. One was nearly as long as he was tall and had to be loaded with a crank. The other one was closer in size to the one his brother had showed him in a catalog once, with a loop on the end that he would put his foot in while pulling the string back.

“Oh, Jeff. I would be grateful to you for all this hunting knowledge…if it hadn’t gotten me killed in the first place.” He was able to chuckle at the memory at least, that was progress, he hoped.

He didn’t think he wanted to lug this massive crossbow around with him but he went ahead and took several test shots with each. He didn’t want to limit his options again from willing ignorance. After another hour of experimentation, he settled on the smaller version.

The bigger crossbow had longer range and heavier hitting power, but for shooting big rats it was overkill. Besides it was really heavy. Preparations made, he headed back down the narrow trail into the swamp.

He reached the mound in record time this go around. Having done it enough to memorize the route. Coming up on the twenty-foot mark again he stopped, readying himself. He had thought about how the last two rounds had gone and asked the spider if it would go a little further ahead and lay in wait for the first rat to charge him.

He didn’t know how he knew that the mechanical spider understood him, but he did. When they arrived at the mound the spider climbed down from his shoulder and scurried a little way ahead. Once it was in position Benjamin raised the crossbow and sighted on the rat, still cleaning its paws.

This time the bolt took the beast center mass. He was elated at having hit his target, but it wasn’t instantly fatal. The rat flailed about on the mound squeaking in pain. Its two companions darted from the hole and headed for Benjamin.

As this all happened Benjamin dropped the crossbow and pulled out the long belt knife. It was in his hand when the silver spider leapt out at the lead rat, sinking its leg blades into its back. The last rat was going to fast to stop and help its companion so it continued on towards its initial target. Benjamin was prepared this time, when it leapt at his face, he swung the blade to meet it.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected really. That the knife would cut the beast in half probably, but that isn’t what happened. He did make contact, but the blade wasn’t lined up properly and failed to cut deeply. Also, the creature had to weigh a good twenty pounds. Something that heavy moving that fast doesn’t just drop when hit with a flimsy piece of steel.

The two collided. Neither making contact with the other like they were expecting. The rat bit and clawed at Benjamin but the cuirass took the brunt of the damage. He got in a few good swings with the knife as well. When the beast hit the ground, it was worse off then he was and he stomped on its head before driving the knife home.

He felt a little shiver inside himself as the rat died, but he didn’t have time to pin down the cause. He rushed toward his spider drone, and slashing where he could, helped to kill that one as well. The one with the bolt through its body was the last to die, each time there was the tiny shivering sensation inside him.

With no idea what to do about it anyway he put that feeling out of his mind. Going back a few feet he picked up his crossbow and loaded a new bolt. Checking himself over he didn’t seem to be badly injured this time, with a smile he found the path and headed down the trail again.

He made sure to go very slowly this time so he could keep an eye out for more rat mounds. He made it another hundred feet down the trail when a giant snake dropped on him from above. A short scuffle later, he was standing back on the starting platform.