Mason and Carl approached the door together, giddy like schoolboys.

“You do the honors.” Carl gestured.

“You sure?” Mason raised a brow. “We could rock, paper scissors or something.”

“It might explode. All you, buddy. You’ll heal right up.”

Mason glared, then put the key in the lock. It slid right in without any trouble, then made an almost alarm-like beep. They both flinched before the system message scrolled.

[Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.]

Mason blinked and exchanged a look with Carl before the older man gestured at the lock.

“Try it again.”

[Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.]

“You’re probably putting it in the wrong way. Flip it over.”

“I’m not bloody…there’s only one way it fits. Do you want to try, Carl?”

“I mean it looks like a computer chip. Can probably…turn it off and on again. Wait you’re like twenty years old why am I telling you how a computer works? Just give me that.”

[Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.]

“Maybe you’re putting it in the wrong way,” Mason repeated in a high pitched voice as Carl tried several more times.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” The older man kicked the door then winced and shook his foot.

“I guess we…weren’t supposed to be here, or something.” Mason shrugged, getting slightly more annoyed now that nothing was changing. “Except we fucking are here. Which is impressive, and should bring great reward. Right?” He knocked on the door. “Hey, roboGod. Your stupid shitty game is broken.”

Carl just kept doggedly trying the key.

[Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.] [Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.][Error. Phase 2 not yet complete. Access denied.]

“Fuck!” His face was a little red now. “What are we supposed to do? Come back here?”

Mason sighed. “At least Violet can probably dig us down.”

“No.” Carl kept trying uselessly. “This is bullshit. There’s no damn way.”

Mason sat by the pool and inspected his worthless key. I should have brought Blake, he thought. No way Blake Nimitz gets screwed like this. He’d trip and find some kind of secret door.

The key was actually very impressive-looking. Half flash-drive, half ornate golden skeleton key. And as Mason thought about it, the way the worms ranged far away to attack multiple settlements, it seemed almost designed to get players riled up and searching for a way to stop them.

He was starting to think someone was supposed to find this place, like it was important. Just not yet. And if it was important, if roboGod wanted someone to come here and do this, and blocked them from doing it now…

The key wasn’t actually made out of metal. It seemed like a space-age plastic, no doubt made just to be acid proof. But it sure as hell didn’t look boot-proof. Mason put it on the ground, gave a quick glance at the top of the tunnel, then stomped the damn thing until it snapped.

“What the hell did you do?” Carl gestured with wide eyes. “If we’d waited at least we could have used it at the end of the phase!”

Mason honed all his senses, paying attention to any little change in the world around him. He soon felt it—like an electrical surge, like the tickle on the back of your neck when someone was watching you.

“There you are,” Mason whispered with a smile. He was starting to recognize it now. The thing he’d felt in the tutorial dungeon. The eyes of some secret predator. “You’re paying attention now, aren’t you?” he said a little louder. “Now you open that door like we earned, or I’m going to keep breaking your stupid game.”

He opened up his profile because that’s what he was doing the last time he saw it. He strained with all his enhanced senses, eyes slightly unfocused, trying to see beyond. Then he saw the vague outline of the ghostly text.

[System message. Anomaly. Broken event thread. Escalation to syscommand requested.]

“Yeah. Go get the big boss murderer in chief.”

“All due respect,” Carl was coming forward. “But what in the name of God are you talking about, kid?”

[System message], a robotic voice intoned throughout the hall. [Adjusting phase 2 parameters.]

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The broken key reformed on the ground. Carl and Mason both stared at it until the older man blinked.

“Holy shit. Did you…just bargain with roboGod?”

Mason snorted. “More like pointed out an error. He walked over to the door and slid in the key, looking up with a grimace at Carl before he tried to turn. “Here goes.”

It beeped with a pleasant sound, then clicked.

“Ha!” Carl fist pumped and started an embarrassing dance, and Mason pulled back the heavy door until it swung open wide.

Inside it looked like an old vault. Except at the end there was another door that led into a dark room beyond. The vault held statues, coins, and what looked like old Roman or Greek busts, but with beards and slightly damaged faces. Everything practically sparkled with immaculate shine.

"Looks like a damn dwarven hold, like Moria from Lord of the Rings. If the goblins hadn't fucked it all up."

Mason shook his head. "You and my brother would get along. That’s not a compliment."

"What? How do you not know this stuff? What do you actually know about?"

"Oh, I don’t know,” Mason shrugged. “Survival. Killing things. Military history. Plants and nutrition. Pretty useless things out here in the apocalypse. Now tell me more about your Dungeons and Dragons movie."

"It's not...oh nevermind.” Carl cleared his throat, then moved into the vault and gestured into the darker room. “Oh shit, you see that?”

Mason saw something, though he wasn’t sure what. Both men (and Streak) moved further inside, though Mason took one of the busts and jammed it in the vault door first. The ‘darker’ section was actually another huge room that looked vaguely like a bowling alley.

Different dull lights lit the ‘paths’ to the end, where a bunch of symbols were inscribed over more doors.

"I know that symbol," said Carl. "Not sure why or how. But it's for me. It means Arcane Affinity."

Mason nodded, getting the same feeling. His looked like a flowering tree and glowed green with a light that just felt more right than the others.

"Don’t step outside your lane," Carl said. "Just looking at them gives me a queesy feeling in my gut. I assume you're Nature? Silvie's class knows all about that stuff, she explained it all. You should step onto that green one there, if it's not obvious."

Mason met Carl's eyes, then hopped onto a red lane.

"No, Mason! Don't..."

[Apex Predator activated. Changing affinity: elemental.]

The red lane lit up and Mason hopped onto a different lane, watching the floor glow and fade as his Apex Predator messages cycled down his vision.

"How...in the name of..."

Mason winked and walked back to his proper lane.

"You're right, though, don’t try that. Stay on your path," he called back.

Streak whined from the vault platform, and Mason waved at him to stay. Then he walked closer and soon saw beyond his doorway were two altars bathed in the same green light. Each had some kind of item he couldn’t make out, but was pretty excited to see better.

When he got all the way to the door, he took a moment to walk between all the lanes inspecting the items, kind of hoping for a weapon.

But nothing really suited him. “I suppose a gun would be too much to ask,” he sighed. His compound bow was pretty great, but he’d sure love some kind of fantasy-inspired, innate murder bow. Carrying the damn thing was a problem, and who knew how long before something damaged it beyond repair.

He saw Carl already entered the end of the arcane lane. As he did, a gate slammed shut behind him and sealed him inside, too fast for the man to cry out a warning.

Mason took a deep breath, then walked further down the Nature Affinity path. He couldn't even tell what the item actually was—it looked like leather sleeves, or maybe leggings.

But he knew ultimately he'd gone too far down the path he'd chosen to turn back now. Whatever 'reward' it meant to offer him, he suspected he'd been a fool not to take the one tailored for his affinity. He stepped forward to about the same point Carl had been locked in, and sure enough, a gate slammed shut behind.

He was temporarily blinded as green light covered everything.

"You stand in the hall of the Makers," intoned a deep, sonorous voice from all around him. "What makes you think you are worthy?"

Mason wasn't sure if it was a rhetorical question or not, but he didn’t much like his robotic master and tried not to play its games. He cleared his throat. "The key. And opposable thumbs."

The voice said nothing more, and Mason walked first to the green orb, feeling drawn to it somehow. He began to hate the feeling instantly, knowing whatever compulsion it was came from roboGod and who knew if it was good or bad.

For a few long moments he just stared at the sphere and felt sweat bead on his brow. He wanted to touch it so badly he could hardly comprehend. It was like a glowing red button that said ‘don't push me’. Like the fattest cheek on the cutest baby. The first brownie in an untouched tray.

He growled in stubborn, futile resistance, then lifted the orb.

[Orb of Transcendence activated. Receiving unique Prestige Class based on all available data. Please do not drop the orb.]

Mason's whole body locked again like he was being electrocuted. He clenched every muscle and froze, his hand in a death grip on the orb. The increasingly familiar feeling of system attention flooded over him, the barely visible text or code or something flashing before his eyes.

[Congratulations, M-13. You are in the first group of players in the world to obtain Prestige Classes. Title earned: The Prestige. +2 to all statistics.]

[Unique Prestige Class formulated: Avatar of Gaia. Implementing.]

[You have gained a Prestige Class! Avatar of Gaia. +2 to all statistics.]

[Power synergy discovered! Ranger's Mark upgraded to Nature's Wrath: When you mark a foe for death, the earth itself picks sides.]

[Unique class power gained: Dichotomy of life: Life is fragile, but also robust. Sometimes you decide which. In combat, select yourself, or an enemy.]

Mason felt his eyes rolling back and fought to stay conscious. The green orb shattered in his fist, the shards melting and seeping into his hand before he finally felt the power relax and his body became his again.

"Holy shit." He stretched and felt crackling up and down his spine, then flexed as many muscles as he could, feeling strong and energized. Finally he looked at the strange, leather cylinders and moved closer. They were too small for his legs, he decided.

The only thing that made sense was wearing them over his arms. Some kind of arm armor certainly wasn't a bad idea, and wouldn't slow him much. He stepped to the altar and slid his hands through the cool material, preparing to lift them off. Then they closed.

"Ok." Mason wiggled and pulled with his increasingly immense strength, but made no progress. The leatherish guards tightened and tightened like a blood pressure monitor, until Mason was hissing in pain and trying to get his legs on the altar for more leverage to pull. Steam was rising out of the device, and Mason feared the only reason it didn't hurt more was because he could hardly feel his damn arms.

Finally, it released, and he practically launched himself away. "Why are you like this?" he muttered idly to the system. "Why couldn't it be a pleasant bath, or something?"

Then he looked at his arms. Green tattoos ran from the top of his hands and fingers, down his wrists, all the way up to his shoulders as tree branches and vines.

[Item acquired. Green Sleeves. Innate. The ancient symbols of the Great Forest druids. They act as all natural druidic components, and provide protection and camouflage in natural environments.]

Protection and camouflage? That sounded good. Though he would have loved to know exact details. But what did it mean by druidic components? Was that something like the staff he'd carried when he turned mana into lightning? Could he just do that now? Did he need to learn some kind of...spells? Or were they powers?

The system certainly wasn't going to tell him.

With a somewhat satisfied sigh, he turned back towards the vault, and the gate that had closed him in lifted to free him.

It was time to get the hell out of this place, and back to Sanctuary. Then he’d bring the citizens to Nassau, and see Blake and his girls.

The thought made him smile. At least until his utter lack of sleep started to catch up with him. Either way, he'd done what he came for and then some. He’d stopped the worms, despite the challenge being far harder than expected. It was time to go home.