“What are we looking at?” Jace asked. The question was directed at Gracie, but Wallace replied.

“That is the Dragon Knight, undoubtedly sent our way because Draya is throwing around dragon fire. He is immune to fire, cold, and acid. He is a bear to hit and deals a ton of damage with that sword.”

Jace could see he wore red dragon-scale armor, carried a black dragon shield, and had a white dragon helm. Draya’s attacks would do nothing to hurt him. He was level 15, and Jace didn’t think Wallace would stand a chance against him one-on-one.

“But he isn’t the problem,” Wallace added. “His minions are.”

“What minions?” Jace asked but then got his answer.

Two swirling portals opened on either side of the knight, and red-skinned kobolds carrying axes and shields came running out. When the first pair was 15 feet from the knight, two more followed behind. “How many will there be?” Jace asked, drawing Diamond Etcher and stalking toward the approaching monsters.

“Twenty,” Wallace said over his shoulder, keeping her distance. “Once they’ve swarmed you, it’s over. We need to run.”

“Nonsense,” Jace said, swinging his weapon before himself to limber his arms. He hadn’t done any fighting yet. “Gracie, give me some numbers.” While he waited, he cast his Athletic boon on himself and found a flat stone to cast his Armor totem. The ground was just rocky enough to let him reap the bonus.

{Um . . . almost . . .there, yes, I found them. Okay, like most swarm creatures, their individual attacks are relatively low and rely on the bonuses they get from swarming. A Dynamic Parry roll of at least 16 should guarantee you a double critical success unless they roll a twenty. In return, if you get at least an 18 in attack, you should get a critical hit, plus one from your weapon. Add those four criticals together for 5x damage, and you will just do enough above their DR to exceed half their HP.”

Jace saw the little monsters each had over 400 health, startling high for kobolds, even ones at level 15.

“If you take advantage of your weapon’s Cleave ability, which lets you do a second critical each round if the first leaves an opponent Helpless or worse, you should be able to keep up with the summoning.”

Jace nodded, taking it all in. Already there were six of them, with two being added every round. “In other words, I have to be perfect.” He needed a kill shot on each attack, or the monsters would surround him. They would still have a low attack, but he would have to put his parry ability on automatic to keep up with attackers behind him, and that meant 25% of his rolls would be at five or below. He would quickly be overwhelmed.

The first two fire kobolds attacked one after the other, trying to spread out Jace’s defense, but his longsword was up to the task. He blocked both shots perfectly, beating the strikes by more than 20, and then returned with devastating blows to each, getting the four criticals and 5x damage he needed. Both monsters failed their Death Saves and dropped to the ground bleeding out.

The next pair fell the same way, and Jace got into a rhythm. Each creature was controlled by the same script and attacked similarly. It was like memorizing a pattern in a video game; once he got it down, Jace couldn’t be touched. Of course, Jace was in a video game and smiled at the irony.

Finally, the fifteenth kobold tripped on a rock and used the tumble to attack low at Jace’s leg. The variation in the pattern almost stumped him, but he still managed a 14-parry. It only beat the monster’s attack by 18, and his 4x damage attack wouldn’t be enough, so he chose Stun instead, using all three ciritcals to boost the difficulty. The monster stood still, and Jace kicked him backward. “Snowy!” he cried. “Have dinner.” He knew the wolf was hurt and didn’t appreciate feeding on victims already bleeding out on the ground. The next kobold attacked with a 20, but Jace responded in kind, and his Extra Critical feat ensured he still got 5x damage.

After the twentieth kobold fell to the ground, it finished the macabre border highlighting Jace’s path toward the knight. It was like someone had laid out the red carpet for him. If the dragon warrior was impressed, he didn’t show it. Instead, he charged the orc and attacked while Jace recast his Athletic boon.

Jace blocked the strike and earned one critical success; he then returned the attack with a 19 and got only one more, as the AC of the knight was impressive. That still allowed him to triple his damage, and even though the knight had a DR of almost 50, over 100 points made it through. Jace’s second attack hit home too, but very little of it landed above his DR. Still, that was over 100 damage in a round, and this knight’s impressive 1,000 HP would be gone in ten.

It didn’t take that long, as halfway through the fight, Snowy joined in by jumping on the knight’s back. The combination of her bites and claws and the flanking bonus it gave Jace meant the dragon knight fell to the ground after only eight rounds. Jace eyed his still form, wishing he could take some of his equipment, but knew this module didn’t allow permanent transfer of items. Instead, he sheathed his sword, scratched Snowy behind the ears to tell her what a good girl she was, and turned to the small crowd behind him.

“That was unbelievable,” Wallace said. “I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before. I don’t even . . . my brother said you never rolled below an 18 in attack. I don’t . . . how . . . what cheat code are you running?”

“Practice,” Jace said. “Years of lightsaber training.”

“You mean that was all manual? You did that for real? Nobody does that. It’s crazy. And you were rolling dice on your parries too. What was that all about? You only failed a double-critical parry once. I’ve seen one of those kobolds take out a good level 12 fighter before. You’re a shaman for crying out loud.”

“You’ve seen my character sheet,” was the only explanation Jace gave.

Bellrock and his friend came up behind Wallace in equal amazement. “The legend is real,” the dwarf said. “No one will believe me when I tell them. It’s a good thing my operator is recording. But we need to get going. The knight should have a key.” Bellrock stooped by the dead body and pulled a silver key from his inventory.

The dwarf could barely keep his head above the water, but he and his human friend waded across the lake free from arrow attacks, unlocked the gate on the other side, and joined the rest of the attackers in the castle.

Wallace was still looking at the two perfect lines of dying kobolds, the first of whom had just now lost all their HP, lining the path to the dead knight. She couldn’t believe that combat sequence had really just happened.

“Where to next?” Jace asked. “How do we access the tunnel underground where Esther is?”

“A drain,” she said, her mind still trying to cope with what Draya and Jace had done so far. She shook her head clear to focus on the task at hand. “A drain in the middle of the lake. The moat fills it up, and it has to go somewhere.”

Jace led Draya, Snowy, and Wallace into the water, and they moved to the center of the pond, where a slight whirlpool was visible. Jace could reach down into the water without putting his head under, and his big orc fingers barely fit through the drain louvers. He heaved with all his impressive might, but it wouldn’t budge.

“It’s locked with a chain,” Wallace said. “Sylvester said several people have tried to lift it after Strength boons bring them even above your score, but no one can. It needs to be unlocked from below. The chain holding it down is anchored at the end of Esther’s tunnel. She needs to open it, and then we can get in.”

“Does she have a key?”

“Why would she need a key?” Wallace asked. “She’s a level 13 rogue. Sylvester said the lock isn’t hard. If Esther could unlock the demon stone from your stronghold, she can unlock this.”

Jace rolled his eyes. So that’s how people thought he did it. “She doesn’t open locks. She’s not that kind of rogue. She kills people.”

“Then how did you kill that orc without-”

“Not Important,” Jace said, reaching down to the grate to try and lift it again. “We need to get this open.”

“You can’t,” Wallace said. “Or, at least, Sylvester said you can’t. The chain is unbreakable. It is constructed from adamantium or something. Your goblin crafter probably made it. Esther needs to pick the lock.”

“Not . . . Gonna . . . Happen . . .” Jace said, straining with every fiber of his being to lift the grate. It hadn’t budged a millimeter yet.

“Draya,” he called. The woman was trying to keep her dress from floating up around her hips. “Come over here. Cast your Dragon Strength and try to help me lift this.” Jace figured the +13 to her Carry skill would allow her to lift more than average.

Soon the two of them were straining with every last muscle they had, but Draya had to do it with her head underwater. She was a second from losing her breath when the grate finally popped open. Jace flew backward through the air as if shot from a trebuchet, splashing down 40 feet from the opening.

Wallace stifled a laugh as the big orc picked himself up out of the water. “I guess Sylvester was wrong. They must have never tried to have a dragon and an orc lift it together.”

“You really want my secret to success?” Jace asked Wallace, walking back and panting heavily. “There is always a way. You just need to find it. Now get down that hole. I need to catch my breath, or I’ll drown.”

Wallace was the first through, then a very reluctant Snowy, who did not want to put her head below water. Draya was already soaked but hesitated before going under. “What is that?” She pointed back along the keep and up above the open drawbridge. Several heads of a massive beast were swaying in the air over the wall. They could see characters in its massive jaws. Those it didn’t bite in half were flung into the air and out over the field.

“Oh, it is probably just a demonic hydra slaughtering the rest of our attacking forces,” Jace said nonchalantly.

Draya shook her head. “This game is weird.” She gave one last look and dunked her head under the water.

Jace looked at the mammoth creature for a few more seconds as he reigned in his panting. As long as they were alive, the attackers couldn’t officially lose, but it didn’t look good. He held his breath and squeezed his oversized body through the narrow drain.

It was a short drop to the lower level, and Draya had wisely moved out of the way before Jace dropped down. He landed on another, much larger, metal grate suspended over a fast-running channel. All the water drained through the floor and rushed away into the darkness, likely to be fed into the other end of the moat. Jace stepped out of the waterfall and onto dry cobblestone. He was soaked and watched as Draya flamed herself until she was mostly dry and Snowy rung herself out in typical canine fashion. Jace and Wallace would just have to stay wet. This basement area was magically lit, and he soon found the chain tied to the open end of the grate above. The line was still taut, and none of the links appeared broken or stretched. It disappeared into a hole in the wall and must have been anchored in the neighboring room. A large door was barred on their side, and after Wallace and Jace opened it, the portal swung in, and they found Esther waiting on the other side.

“No one told me I had to find a key,” she said, clearly perturbed. “Luckily, it was the last troll in line. If I had to go back to the beginning of the tunnel to kill everyone, I would have run out of fire. I definitely didn’t expect the lock to pop open like that, either. It must have been under a lot of pressure.”

Wallace laughed and looked at Jace. “You want to know what I think the secret to your success is?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The orc rolled his eyes. “I know, we’re looking at her.”

Draya hugged Esther and asked if she was okay. After the vampire briefly explained what she had been through, Draya relayed what they had done and seen. The last piece of her story was news to Wallace.

“A hydra?” she asked, looking at Jace for confirmation. He nodded. “That’s a bold move,” she continued. “That guardian usually kills as many defenders as it does attackers. I guess when they heard Jace Thorne was coming, they got desperate.”

Jace didn’t acknowledge the comment and led his team forward. They walked through low ceilings and dank corridors for a minute before exiting into a large, well-lit space. Tables and shelves filled the area with every kind of trinket and ingredient imaginable. Roots and herbs, bones and fur, iron and gold, diamonds and sapphires. It just went on and on. In the middle of the room, an odd goblin scurried about as if putting together a mammoth jigsaw puzzle where the pieces were scattered across ten tables. Once every six seconds, there was a flash of magic, and he held a completed arrow, dagger, or potion. He made his way over to a collection of medieval-looking vacuum tubes, seemingly picked one at random, and the item was sucked up into the ceiling and out of view.

Jace started toward the goblin, but Wallace held his arm for a second. Looming ahead of them were two 8-foot-tall adamantium golems with balled fists the size of prize-winning pumpkins. Jace eyed the automatons warily, hoping they would soon be on his side.

“What’s the plan?” Wallace asked. “I sent you what I know of this encounter. No one has been able to convince him to make them anything, and any pressure applied results in death.” She looked up again at the golems.

Jace smiled. “No one else had this.” He wasn’t using his illusion necklace for its intended purpose, so he swapped it out with the amulet that had initially enabled him to inhabit this orc. He held it up for Wallace to see.

{You still have that thing?} Gracie said, but then her mind began to work out the possibilities.

Jace explained it to Wallace. “This unique item allowed Gracie to monitor characters in the game as if she were their operator and they were VR players. She originally used it to control an AI paladin that could get through the first five levels of the Level 50 crystal module. Then, when my orc picked it up and reprogrammed it to his character, it allowed me to inhabit his body. It only had a 36-hour charge on it, so after a few modules, it didn’t work anymore. Refueling it with mana required a spell that I can’t get access to, and it wouldn’t have given us any benefit.”

“But if you give it to Gromphy,” Wallace said, understanding the plan, “he will steal it, program it for himself, and recharge it.”

Jace nodded. “Assuming he needs to wear it to accomplish all that, Gracie will have a few seconds where she can look at his character sheet and adjust certain settings. Primarily we need his Party Member status to change from No to Yes. Then I hope to tempt him with a few specialized items I have collected that will make the idea of working with me an irresistible offer.”

Wallace nodded. “It might work,” she agreed. “Definitely different than what others have tried.”

Jace smiled at her appraisal of his plan and started forward. She grabbed his arm again. “Just be careful. Conversing with him is like talking to a dragon. It’s all double-speak and insults. Any wrong phrase, and he will kill us before you get a chance.”

Jace nodded, and she finally let him go on ahead. He analyzed the goblin as he approached the central table in the room. He wasn’t like the feral creatures Jace had fought against in the game so far. Gromphy was refined, wearing a tailored black suit with a red vest. Tufts of white hair stuck out from under a bowler hat, flanked on either side by pointed ears that were each as long as his forearm. He wore glasses, had a gold watch chain hanging from his breast pocket, and carried a dozen tools arranged neatly on his belt.

Gromphy was mumbling to himself about range bonuses, splash damage, and healing potions. As Jace’s towering presence drew closer, the scampering goblin finally regarded his appearance briefly but continued with his work. “What foul stench is this?” he said, not meeting Jace’s eyes. “The rankest compound of villainous odor that ever offended a nostril.” He hesitated momentarily and did look up at Jace’s orc face as something triggered in his mind. “Nay, not villainous, but an unmuzzled sodden bugbear wrapped in a bloated elf skin.” He paused further, trying to decide if Jace warranted additional interaction, but eventually tossed his hands in the air. “Bah, methink’st thou art a general offense, and every soul should beat thee.”

Jace stepped back at the unexpected retort and turned partly toward Wallace. “Oh, yes,” she said. “I almost forgot. He speaks in Shakespeare.”

Jace rolled his eyes but pushed forward. “I’ve come for your assistance. I have an item that needs tending.”

“Come to delay my work,” Gromphy muttered, finishing a blue sparking arrow and sending it up a tube. “Come to distract from pressing business.” He picked up an iron ingot and pulled it into a blade as if stretching playdough. “Come to breathe putrescence into my sanitary confines and infect my work.” He inserted a gem at the dagger’s base, and a leather thong wrapped the pommel. The weapon was completed in only a few seconds, and he sent it above. “Away with you! I’d pound thee, but it would soil my golem’s hands!”

“He speaks nonsense,” Esther said, standing further back with the rest of the group, staying clear of the golems that flanked the central table. “We should go.”

Jace wondered if the woman had the Intelligence or Wisdom scores to understand a word the goblin said.

“The strumpet speaks ill of thy loitering,” the goblin called back over his shoulder. “A wise utterance uncommon for lips accustomed to foolishness and debauchery.” He stopped and stared at Jace. “Thou should heed them and tarry not. All is almost finished above.” He returned to his crafting, sending a blue potion to the defenders.

Jace heard giggling behind him and marked the high pitch sound as belonging to Draya. Her Intelligence ability easily deciphered the goblin’s words. Likely she thought it was just another delightful oddity of this game.

“Just as well, I suppose,” Jace said. “I feared this item would be outside your abilities. I shall go to Corrin Goldhammer as I should have from the first. Good day, sir goblin.”

The tiny, gray-skinned crafter was at the table in a flash, staring hard into Jace’s eyes. “Thy presence is a vile enough atrocity without speaking the name of that son of a bearded sprite. What hast thou to showeth and maketh it quick. Death is ripe above, and I’m quick for harvest.”

Jace smiled at the goblin’s sense of pride and greed. He took the amulet off his neck and laid it on the table. “I have not been able to . . .” he started, but Gromphy snatched it off the workbench, cocked his head curiously at the unique item, and then put it around his neck.

“Gracie?” Jace asked.

{Working on it,} she replied. {My word . . . }

“Don’t care about that now,” Jace said. “We can gawk at his character sheet later. I need him in my party first.”

{Only change his party availability?} she asked.

Jace didn’t know how much of his skill as a crafter was wrapped up in his other idiosyncrasies. To change anything else might jeopardize his usefulness. Either way, he didn’t get a chance to advise her. Gromphy kept the amulet on for the bare minimum six seconds that made up a round, then ripped it from his neck and tossed it over his shoulder. Jace watched as it skittered across the clean stone floor, found a metal grate, and fell into some unknown sewer. He didn’t think he’d ever be seeing that necklace again.

{Don’t worry,} Gracie said in his head. {I changed him. His party status was the only thing. You might wish we had done more.}

“Thou wasteth my time with that nonsense? Tis not even of these realms. Some dimensional voodoo to ensnare my talents?”

“To test you,” Jace replied. “Before I bring out the true prizes.”

As repulsed by the intrusion into his nature the amulet had exposed, it was the most intriguing thing the goblin had ever examined, and his mind was still working out how something like that could be crafted. If this orc had more offerings of a similar design for him, they might be worth his time. Gromphy didn’t immediately scamper back to work but gave his guest a few seconds to produce something else. The change Gracie had made forced the goblin to consider offers made by potential party members.

“Esther,” Jace called, having entrusted the woman with his valuable merchandise. She would have picked anything off him anyway.

The rogue approached cautiously, not liking the look of the formidable golems or this abrasive goblin. She thought the runt had insulted her before but wasn’t positive. Gromphy eyed up Esther with equal disdain, and Jace feared a rivalry was emerging in his ranks.

“What could she . . .” Gromphy started but stopped when Esther began producing items. She placed the life and mana stones on the table, quickly pulling them from her gem bag. She had to go into her inventory to produce the following two items: the empty vial that had held the dragon elixir and a collection of narrow bones about 20 inches in length. Esther wisely placed them on her side of the table, making it almost impossible for the short-armed goblin to reach them without scampering up on top. He didn’t need to touch the stones to feel their power and marvel at them. The vial and bones needed to be examined more closely, and Jace pushed one of the slender white shafts toward him first. They were from the wings of pterashrikes, rare gigantic bats that attacked players in the fourth stage of the first module Jace had played. He hadn’t killed the flying creatures, as that had been Gracie’s premade paladin that Jace was supposed to have been playing, but that completed module was still accessible to him. The climb into the ravine had been treacherous, but Esther’s dexterity and Jace’s ability to summon rocks as handholds had made the retrieval possible. He hadn’t known this was what he would use them for, but he was glad he had spent the time to collect them.

Gromphy picked them up. “With this . . .” his voice trailed off at the possibilities.

“Level fifteen arrows?” Jace hoped.

“At a minimum,” he replied.

Jace offered him the empty vial next, and the goblin smelled the residue inside. His eyes went wide. “A red dragon.” He sniffed again. “Level 38?”

“Forty-two,” Jace corrected.

“Thou hast the carcass still?”

Jace nodded. Dayrin had said he and Draya had hidden the dragon’s body, and since it was in his private MIM, no other players would be looking for it. Gandhi had thought to rob Jace of the chance to face the beast, but giving him access to its dead body might be better.

“Thou hast tempted me,” Gromphy said, “but I must not . . .” he looked back toward the vacuum tubes. He hadn’t sent anything to the defenders in several rounds.

Jace nudged Esther, and she produced the final item. It was the level 50 crystal. Despite his pride and formality, the goblin lost his composure and practically drooled over the gem. He finally did climb up on the table and lunged for it, but Esther stepped back quicker.

“Thou dull-witted mother of a whoreson! I must have it!”

Jace grabbed the goblin’s arm before he could jump off the table to pursue the rogue. “I shall give you access to it and anything else you can think of and many things you haven’t. Join me. Leave this sorry excuse for a lab, and I will build you a workshop that would make DaVinci jealous.” He hoped the reference wasn’t lost on the goblin. It wasn’t.

Jace offered Gromphy membership into his party.

[Gromphy has joined your party.]

Instantly his relationship with Jace changed, and he treated him with respect. “We must maketh haste, sir orc,” he said, scampering back over his table once Jace released him. “The battle is waning, and its end spelleth my fate. Help collect my wares.” The goblin moved to an ornate chest and opened the lid with a flourish of mana. He then began throwing items inside with such reckless abandon that Jace was sure things would break. Glass bottles, ceramic kettles, diffusers, dishes, decanters, and many other vessels flew into the box, but not a sound of clatter or shattering came from inside. And it was obviously extra-dimensional, as several of the racks and shelves he shoved in were taller than the chest was deep, but they all fit with room to spare.

He shouted directions at the rest of the group, bringing Wallace and Draya into service. Even Snowy began collecting items and trinkets for their new companion, though she was tempted to eat a few of the small, caged animals. Only Esther stood by dumbfounded, not understanding a word the goblin shouted. She only collected the items she had brought before the goblin could get his greedy hands on them. Gromphy spared no insult toward her, using words Jace thought he would have to look up later. Whatever respect their new relationship afforded the orc, it wasn’t transferred to the vampire.

“You’d think with a chest that large, he would have room for a potion to fix his ugly face,” Esther muttered.

“And one dares wonder how a chest as large as thine doest not pitch thee forward with each step,” Gromphy countered.

Draya laughed out loud and dropped a tray of rainbow test tubes on the floor. Each one burst into a colorful poisonous snake. The creatures gained their bearings just in time to be consumed by a torrent of dragon fire. Gromphy’s head popped up and turned toward the young woman. She gave the goblin a sheepishly apologetic look, fearing a cutting insult, but he only smiled in return and kept working.

It took several rounds, but soon the workspace comprised empty tables and barren shelves. The only things remaining of any value were the two adamantium golems. Gromphy approached one of the deadly statues and said a few words. The giant shrunk to the size of a hand-held figurine, and the crafter deftly stored it in a belt pouch.

“And the other one?” Jace asked.

“Tis but an illusion,” the crafter admitted. With the real golem gone, the other image only lasted the rest of the round and then flickered into nothing. “Mine skills art great,” he said with no shortage of arrogance, “but not that great.”

“Skilled at nonsense,” Esther weakly jabbed back, finally understanding something he said.

“Silence, churlish onion-eyed harpy, keep thy lips unlike thy knees: occasionally closed.”

Draya snickered again while Esther scowled at the goblin.

Gromphy wasn’t satisfied with the room yet, pulled three large devices from his inventory, and charged them with mana. They resembled oblong green gourds and flexed like living creatures were trying to hatch from them. He placed them in a triangular pattern, encompassing most of the room. “We must flee now,” he warned. “There is a back exit.” He stopped by the large chest, which still had enough room for him to fit inside if he wanted and beckoned it to his inventory. The ornate box disappeared into the slight frame of the creature, and he moved without the slightest hint of encumbrance. “With all haste!” he called, then ran out through the back of the room.

Jace and Snowy were quick after the goblin, with Esther reluctantly behind. Draya hesitated, feeling the magical power in the items left behind and searching them out with a Detect Magic spell.

“What are they?” Wallace asked, still marveling at every new thing she saw. She had never played the game like this and understood why Jace was as advanced as he was.

“Acid bombs,” Draya said, moving around the tables after the rest of the party. “They will disintegrate everything in this room. We have seconds.” She ran past the stationary paladin and through the back exit.

Wallace smiled, knowing the worst that could happen was that she would wake up outside the module if she failed. The paladin ran to the closest bomb, picked up the pulsating sphere, and then fed it into one of the vacuum tubes, whisking it up to the defenders above and, hopefully, the hydra. She did the same with the second bomb, sending it up a different tube. She had just put her hands on the third device when it exploded, and her world disintegrated into an ocean of vibrant green.