Room 1-DDJBKKY: He made killing goblins look easy! No wonder he's the Hero._The Lich's Lair

As the searing blue faded from Nic's mind, the stone walls of the room began to rumble. He stepped back in alarm, nearly tripping on the slippery mess that was all that remained of the rat. "What now," he moaned, eyes widening, as dust and small streams of dirt fell down around him.

And then, as he watched, the walls of the room twisted, the brickwork bubbling like mud. He gave a shout of alarm, raising his hand to defend himself from whatever this new madness was, but the walls simpoly churned, boiled, and then reshaped themselves into four new exits from the room, one on each wall.

He slowly lowered his arm, staring at this, as the rumbling faded away. God damn it, stone doesn't work like that. Fear still burned slow in his veins, but this - this just seemed offensive. The nagging suspicion that escape might not be possible was beginning to feel like a sick weight in his chest.

'Alright," he snapped, wheeling on Annabelle. The fairy had left her perch on his shoulder and was fluttering in the air, giving him an innocent look. "What the hell is going on here? What have you people done to me?"

"You people?" Annabelle asked, blinking at him. "Why, whatever do you mean? The Lich-"

White-hot anger flared through Nicolas. With a growl, he snatched the fairy from the air. She gave a small squeak of surprise as he held her between his hands and gave her a squeeze. "What," he repeated, "have you people done to me. Where am I? Is this - is this some sort of VR? Some kind of sick prank? What?!"

He was screaming, he realized, and crushing Annabelle tighter with every word. The tiny fairy was beginning to turn blue. "Oh god - Oh god yes, do it, Hero! Rip me apart!"

Nic stared down at the fairy squirming in his hands. I should do it, he thought darkly. She was - she was some sort of remote control toy, anyway, wasn't she? If he tore her apart, he'd find nothing but wires, circuits and motors. Except that she - she felt real. Her flapping wings left smears of purple dust on his gloves, just like a real butterfly's might; she was soft, and he could feel what certainly seemed like small ribs creaking beneath his grip; feel a tiny heart hammering in her chest. Just do it. She's not real. She's - she's with the people who kidnapped you. Just....

With a sigh, Nic dropped her; she fell to the floor, where she lay gasping for breath. I'm not going to feel sorry for her. He sighed, turning to look at the new doors in the wall. "So," he said, "What are these doors?"

"J-just a moment," Annabelle replied, shuddering.

Nic earned 56 gold from fulfilling Annabelle's suffocation kink!

"Okay, so," the fairy said, fluttering drunkenly upward, "These are the exits. They open up once you've cleared the room. But until you do, you're stuck inside. I've heard there are special items that allow you to escape a room before you clear it, but I don't know what those are."

Nic stared at the stone brick of the wall. He approached it, and prodded it with his hand. It was cool, coarse and hard. It felt exactly like you might expect a stone would. He knocked on it, and then cursed, nursing his knuckles. It definitely didn't seem hollow. And yet moments before this stone wall had looked more like boiling mud. Damn it. Maybe I'm in some sort of VR? Which means that I wouldn't be able to escape like this. But that's nonsense, no VR I remember was as realistic as this. It would explain a lot, though. Like how I'm not really dead....wait. "So," he asked nonchalantly, "What would happen if I were to die?"

"You would be bought back to life in the starting room! Or the nearest checkpoint. As long as you had a resurrection token."

"And what if I didn't have a....resurrection token?" Nic pressed.

Annabelle sniffled, her green eyes welling with tears. "You'd be dead forever," she whimpered. "Oh, it's too horrible to think of! Don't even speak of such things, Hero!"

Nic batted away the small fairy with annoyance as she flew forward to attempt to cling to his neck, bawling. "Dead forever...and then I'd wake up in the real world...?"

Annabelle rubbed her eyes with tiny fists, holding back a sob. "Real world...? I don't know what you mean. You'd be dead, Hero, dead, dead, dead and gone forever."

Nic gave a frustrated groan. Truth be told, he had a hard time believing this was all VR. Everything felt so crisp and real; all of his senses told him that this was reality about him. But it was the explanation that made the most sense. Otherwise....what? Magic? Some halluciation? But he felt so lucid. No, no, this had to be VR, except...

Except it had felt so real, dying before. Every excruciating moment of it.

"No," he snapped, "No. No. This is absolutely idiotic. I'm not leaving this damn room until I get some answers. Is this a game? Is this VR? I'm not playing this stupid bullshit. Let me out. I'm not moving an inch until-"

ROOM IS CLEARED. PROCEED TO THE NEXT ROOM OF YOUR CHOICE.

"GOD!" Nic stumbled, swearing, as the blue light burned a hole into his mind. Annabelle was saying something to him, but he couldn't hear what it was. All he could think was the throbbing blue light in his skull. "No! No, I fucking won't-"

ROOM IS CLEARED. PROCEED.

Nic collapsed to the floor. The pressure in his head felt immense, like it might split apart at any moment. His breath came in ragged, pained gasps. He heard a voice screaming for something to stop, and realized it was his own.

Sobbing, he summoned all of his strength to crawl along the floor towards the nearest exit. The moment he laid his hands upon the black iron door, the screaming blue light in his mind vanished. Coughing, and gasping for air, tears streaming from his eyes, he shakily pushed the door open and stepped through.

WELCOME TO ROOM 1-DDJBKKY

Enemies:

1x goblin

1x goblin tent

"Hero, you must be quiet," Annabelle whispered furiously to Nic as the door closed behind him, and he lay on the ground, sobbing. "We are in danger, here, we-"

"'Ey! Whaddya think yer doin' here, bro?" said a sharp, grating voice that made Nic cringe. He looked up.

This room was somewhat different from what he had seen so far. Indeed, it didn't look like a room at all, so much as it a cave; the walls smooth and worn, the floor damp and dank stone. In the center of the room lay a quietly crackling campfire, illuminating a tent that looked haphazardly thrown together from various patches of animal fur; not far from it the flames danced over a small, placid pond. It seemed oddly comforting; almost tranquil.

Except for the small, ugly green man prodding him with a shard of fire-sharpened bone.

"Ow!" Nic quickly sat up, and glared at the strange little man before him. "Could you give me a second, here? I just-"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The goblin gave him a nasty grimace full of yellowed, rotten teeth. He was a strange-looking creature; large, flapping ears that drooped down nearly to his pot belly, wearing nothing but a dubiously-stained loincloth. Beady little eyes glared out from behind a truly impressive, crooked nose, nearly a foot long. "Gimme a second, he says," the goblin sneered. "You - you just - get the hell out of my house!"

"Your house-" Nic glanced behind himself, but the door through which he had come had disappeared; there was nothing there but the wall of the cave. "I - look, I don't know how I -"

Nic took 2 physical damage from goblin's bone knife!

"Stop!" Nic growled, pushing the goblin, hissing at the small cut on his hand.

The goblin's eye's widened in outrage. "Stop? Buddy, you just break into my home, assault me -"

"I didn't break in-"

"I don't want to hear your druggy excuses! Get the hell out!"

Nic took 1 physical damage from goblin's bone knife!

"Stop it," Nic spat, stumbling to his feet as the goblin continued to poke and prod at him. He stood a good three feet taller than the small creature. "Look, I'd leave if I could, but - just show me the way out, and -"

"Go back out the way you came in!" the goblin snarled, and this time plunged his knife directly through Nic's thick woolen pants and into the flesh of his upper thigh.

CRITICAL! Nic took 4 physical damage from goblin's bone knife!

Something inside Nic snapped. With a howl of pain and outrage, he drew his sword and, in one smooth movement, lashed out at the goblin.

CRITICAL! Goblin took 10 physical damage from Nic's slash!

Goblin was afflicted with bleeding!

The goblin dropped its bone knife and stumbled backwards, clutching at its throat as bright red blood spurted out between its fingers.

Nic stepped over the creature as it collapsed to the floor, wheezing and gurgling, fury pumping through his veins. His leg throbbed with pain, and that just made him angrier. "Yeah, how do you like that, you little bitch?!" he shouted at the goblin, as it stared up at him with wide, panicked eyes. "Maybe I'll step into your home any time I fucking want, how about that? Maybe I-"

"R-Reggie...?" came a small, soft voice. "What's happening...?"

Goblin tent has spawned goblin wife!

Nic glanced up. Standing by the flaps of the tent, eyes wide with fear, was a small, green woman, with a patchy wolfskin fur tied around her shame. She stared at the blood on Nic's sword, and then down at the goblin bleeding at his feet. "Oh my god," she said, raising a shaking hand to her mouth.

Nic's blood cooled. He looked awkwardly at the gory blade in his hand. "Oh," he said, "Um..."

"Oh my god, Reggie!" the goblin wife cried, rushing forward to cradle her fallen husband's head. "Oh my god - oh my god what have you done - oh my god Reggie don't leave me - oh my god -"

Nic stepped back, glancing around nervously. "I...I, uh....it wasn't....I didn't mean to-"

"Hero!" Annabelle burbled cheerfully. "That goblin tent is what is known as a spawning enemy. It will keep spawning goblins until it is destroyed!"

"Oh my god, I love you so much," the goblin wife sobbed, gripping one of her husband's blood-soaked hands. "Oh god, don't leave me. Don't leave me all alone. How will I take care of the children without you?"

"Ch-children?" Nic stammered.

Goblin tent has spawned goblin toddler!

"Papa? Mama?" A tiny green child, no more than a foot and a half tall, his ears so large that they nearly dragged along the ground, appeared by the tent's flaps. "Mama, what's wrong with Papa?"

"GET BACK IN THE TENT!" the goblin wife screamed, desperately trying to drag her husband away. She looked up at Nic with pure hatred, but her voice shook with fear. "I - I - please. Please just - I'll give you everything we have. Just leave us alone. I beg you. Leave the children alone, I beg you, I - " her shoulders shook as she choked out another sob. "Oh god, Reggie..."

"Look, I - oh god, I didn't think that it would be like this," Nic sputtered, raising his hands defensively. The goblin wife shrieked in fear, and too late Nic realized he still held the blood-dripping sword. "I - look, he attacked me -"

"PAPA!" the small goblin child screamed, tottering forward on unsteady legs. "Mama, Papa is hurt! Papa get up-"

"No! Reggie junior, stay back! This man is dangerous! Oh god, why did this have to happen on our anniversary?"

"Okay," Nic said awkwardly, over the wailing goblins, "Okay, just - just show me the way out, and I'll leave, I won't take anything from you, just - just show me how to leave-"

ROOM MUST BE CLEARED OF ENEMIES BEFORE YOU CAN PROCEED.

"Come...come on," Nic said. "Please. You can't be serious."

"Mama, who is the man talking to?"

"He's crazy, Reggie junior! Go grab your little sisters! All five of them!"

ROOM MUST BE CLEARED OF ENEMIES BEFORE YOU CAN PROCEED.

Nic's head felt as if it might explode. His eyes throbbed in his skull as he sank to his knees. "Do I really..."

ROOM MUST BE CLEARED OF ENEMIES.

Pain wracking his whole body, Nic watched through blurry vision as the goblin wife tried to drag away her husband and son. He gripped his sword, and the pain slowly began to fade away. "It's okay," he whispered to himself shakily, "It's okay. None of this is real. It's not real. It isn't real."