Pieter laughed so loudly the rest of the tavern grew quiet momentarily. Lexi endured the sarcastic skepticism and let the man have his fun. “You naïve players are all the same. You get beat by Jace once, watch him operate, and then think you can crack the uncrackable modules. You don’t understand. He cheats. He doesn’t play by the rules. He has this special deal with Gandhi, letting him do whatever he wants.” He took a drink of wine.
“You can’t pass the Cave of Wonders,” he continued. “It is designed to be a trap to kill greedy players. Even if you could convince three other players to kill themselves off to get to the final stage, there is no way anyone can . . .” his voice drifted off as he watched the druid before him slowly change her features into an animal.
“A leopard?” he asked, not an expert on big cats, especially when they appeared in hybrid form.
Lexi nodded.
“And I suppose your Jump skill is phenomenal.”
Lexi nodded again. “The best I’ve seen in the game.” Level 20 druids were rare. Most that chose the cat route chose lions or tigers.
Pieter shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if you can make the jumps. You can’t do the math, not fast enough anyway. No one can. It is designed to be a trap.”
“My operator can do the math,” Lexi said. “I run with an AI operator. He can count the symbols instantly. I can pass the last level.”
{You think my intelligence is artificial?} James said, feigned hurt in his voice.
Lexi ignored him as her eyes trained on the mage across from her. Pieter screwed up his face as he thought things through. She knew he knew the module in question inside and out. If she could jump like a leopard and had the computation skills of an AI operator backing her, she probably could pass the level or at least come closer than anyone else.
Eventually, he shook his head. “No, you still must convince three level 10+ players to kill themselves. Even if you find that, I am not one of them. Only four players can enter the module, and one must die to pass each of the first three levels. I know this. You must know this. You won’t trick me. While I am sure there are plenty of clueless players out there who have never heard of the Cave of Wonders, as soon as you get to the entrance, their operators will do a search, and none of them will agree to accompany you inside.”
Lexi nodded. “Which is why I’ve come to you. You have researched the Cave of Wonders more than anyone else in the game. You know what kind of level 10+ characters we will need. You also have connections with players who . . .” she needed to choose her words carefully, “run enterprises comprising of PCs under strict labor regulations that can be obtained for a fee.” It was the nicest way she could think of to describe human traffickers and slavers. Not everyone who played this game did so willingly.
Pieter cocked his head in acknowledgment. She knew he could get two other players who would not only have no clue about the high cost of playing this specific module but also wouldn’t have one-on-one access to an operator with walkthroughs at their fingertips. “I will neither confirm nor deny,” he started. “But that is beside the point. If I am to be the third player, it won’t happen. Why not just ask me to find you three clueless players?”
“I could not afford them,” she said. “I lost everything when Jace took Stormhold. I had transferred all of my wealth, items, and equipment to the new stronghold. Plus, why would you help me if you got nothing in return? I would have to pay you to make the arrangement and then pay someone else for the players. I can’t do that.”
“But what do I have to gain?” he said, growing frustrated with this conversation. “If you need to survive to reach stage four, I will be the one killed in stage three.”
“What if I give the module an alternative? An NPC disguised as a player?”
Pieter laughed again. “That can’t be done. Not even Jace could . . .” he stopped talking as Lexi rolled her eyes into her inventory and produced an odd necklace. She laid it on the table. The central medallion looked like a computer CD, very out of place on the wooden table of the fantasy tavern. “What is . . .”
“Go ahead and touch it,” she offered. Her right hand transformed into a leopard’s paw, and her claws dug into the tabletop, securing the necklace. The mage wouldn’t be able to take the item from her, but he could examine it.
Pieter reached out to the CD and touched it tentatively. His face took on the familiar look of someone listening to their operator. “It is an item that will code an NPC with the brainwave pattern of a PC,” he said slowly, repeating what he was being told. “It is designed for a goblin.”
Lexi pulled the necklace out of his grasp and placed another item on the table. It was a figurine of a jungle goblin, a reward for clearing an ancient temple near her stronghold. “I retrieved this necklace by slithering through the underground sewers of the Torrintank Keep module. I received several acid burns in the process.” Anyone who had studied Jace Thorne’s movements knew why that was significant. “Jace used this item to secure the goblin crafter, Gromphy, as a party member. He tricked the goblin into putting the necklace on, and for a while, the goblin was viewed as a PC. This allowed Jace’s operator to log into the specific brainwave pattern and control the crafter’s character sheet as if he were a player under the operator’s care. They changed Gromphy’s settings so he could join their party, and Jace did the rest.”
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Lexi watched as Pieter absorbed this information while simultaneously receiving confirmation from his operator. “And you can crack the code of this item’s brainwave pattern to log into it?”
The druid shook her head. “No one can do that. Not even my operator. The human mind is unhackable, even a synthetic one. But it doesn’t matter. The third stage of the Cave of Wonders is the simplest. You send someone in to retrieve the diamond, and they are killed. Once we get there, I will summon my goblin, place this necklace on him, and the game will view him as a PC. No, I won’t be able to adjust his character sheet or stats, but I won’t need to. I just need to order him to get the diamond. The module will kill him, and we will proceed to the final stage, which I promise I can pass.”
Pieter silently debated with his operator for a while, using a chat feature. He kept his eyes trained on Lexi as his peripheral enabled the text. Most strongholds were PVP-Hostile zones, and she could attack him at any moment. She would then have to fight off everyone in this tavern and nearly fifty dwarves, but Pieter would be dead. Maybe she could take the cat’s eye off him, and the dwarves would accept her as their new leader.
Before she got to act out this fantasy, Pieter’s eyes focused solidly, and he looked closely at Lexi. “This all sounds a bit too good. What do I get out of this? How are we going to split three wishes in half? Also, it seems like I am the one who will have to call in a favor to get the other two players. What is your contribution to all this?”
“Other than the skill to actually pass the module?” she asked rhetorically, thinking that should be enough. “I will get one wish, and you can have the other two. And I promise my one wish will be to cause Jace Thorne immense pain and suffering.”
Pieter sat in thought for a while before finally nodding his head. “Okay, I will entertain this foolishness. But I am warning you, if I detect any deceit or trickery on your part, I will end you.” He pulled the wand she had mentioned earlier. With it, Lexi knew he could make her do just about anything. Because of their level difference and her Magic Defense, it would cost him almost all his mana, but he could do it.
She also knew there was an escape route from the Cave of Wonders. After passing each stage, but before venturing into the next one, you could backtrack and leave the module. If you did, it completely reset, and you would have to pass each stage again. But he could use the wand on her to get her to try to retrieve the diamond in the third stage. She would die, and he could walk out. In order to pass the module, he would need her jumping ability, so he would only kill her if he thought it was necessary for his survival. She needed to make sure he never thought that.
“Good,” she said, “now tell me your plan for Jace and the Celtigions.”
Pieter chuckled. “We’re back to that, are we?”
Lexi nodded. “I assume your operator is reaching out to several of your acquaintances right now to secure our ‘clueless player companions,’ so I figure we have time to kill. I told you a lot of useful information; now it is your time to share. If we succeed and I get my wish, I’ll try to ensure it won’t interfere with your plans.”
Pieter leaned back and scrunched up his bearded face. “Very well. You have a unique skill set. I can see us working together beyond this current engagement. As I’ve told you, this mine is not profitable, but I assume if I dig deep enough, I will find what everyone finds.”
“A balrog in the basement,” Lexi said.
“Precisely. Currently, Ceriph, my Celtigion servant, works above ground, but her brother and father work in the mine. When the balrog is found, it will kill many workers before we can seal it inside. I will ensure that her family members are among them, but I will tell her they are trapped, and the only way to free them is to kill the balrog. I can’t do it, but I know someone who can.”
“Jace,” Lexi said. “You send the damsel in distress to him, saying he needs to come and help free her family. He will sense a trap, but his mage will insist that he do it. If he refuses, it will damage his relationship with her, and he risks losing one of the most powerful NPCs in the game.”
Pieter nodded. “It depends on what kind of monster I get, but hopefully, it is something that will at least challenge him. And even if it doesn’t, I will drop the mine on top of him.”
“You know he is a stone shaman,” Lexi said. “Burying him in a pile of rocks might not be enough.”
“You let me worry about that. By the time I’m ready to lure him in, I will be level 16+. I will have other ways to kill him.”
Lexi nodded. It was a good plan, and one Jace probably wouldn’t see coming. “Any word from your contacts?” Lexi asked after several moments of silence.
Pieter nodded and smiled as he listened to his operator. “You’re in luck. You get to see something very few players have ever seen and those that have are sworn to secrecy. Our host might not even let you enter.” He rose from the table.
Lexi looked down at his plate of food, which he hadn’t touched. He followed her eyes to the table and chuckled. “Don’t worry. Where we are going, the food is much better. You will wish you hadn’t already eaten.”
“Where are we going?” Lexi asked, rising from her chair.
“To the Arena in Overton. We better hurry. The games start promptly at six. We will be late.”
Lexi accessed her status screen off to the side of her vision, where she kept a clock that showed Paris time. It was a little after six. They still had almost an hour until six in the game. With travel nodes, everywhere was usually only minutes away. But she didn’t argue as Pieter motioned her forward, insisting she go first through the tavern toward the exit. He still didn’t trust her enough to turn his back on her. She smiled. He was a wise man.