“Ugh!” I hit something hard, forcing me to stop.
I have no idea how far I traveled. It could be a few meters or a few hundred. As soon as I crossed the illusion, there was barely any light for me to see, and since I was spinning around uncontrollably, it was impossible for me to keep track of anything.
My surroundings are dark. If there were a few candles illuminating the passage before, now there’s a single hole from which a ray of light comes in, leaving everything else in darkness.
“Ugh… this was rough...” I stand up and look around. In this dim light, I can only see shadows everywhere. Wait! They’re… they’re coming closer!? “Ah, fuck. Where I am? What’s going on?”
I step away, sticking my back to the wall I hit a moment ago. The shadows get closer and start swinging their limbs at me. One of the shadows is sent flying with an electric flash when my Lightning Shield triggers.
“Enemies! And those groans… zombies…?” Ah, so it’s just zombies… Why was I so scared? “You fuckers, trying to scare me with your meager strength! Earth this!”
I cast Chain Lightning, and soon, all the shadows fall to the ground, paralyzed.
The Zombie’s innate skill, usually feared for their resilience, doesn’t do shit against my build. A 30% chance to survive physical hits with 1 HP is supposed to stop me? Isn’t it funny? Even if they have the skill upgraded to work against all damage types, it still wouldn’t bother me. After all, I never kill them with my Chain Lightning, leaving them at 1 HP.
Now that I’ve grown used to the lack of light, I can see the zombies’ bodies on the ground, though not very well.
“First, I’ll finish them off. I’ll think about what to do from here on after.”
So, after deciding my plan of action, I start another session of Whac-A-Zombie, creating crunching sounds every time I swing my staff.
“Hahaha, how long has it been since I last did this… Are the other players still competing for who reaches the highest score…? I guess not, it’s been a long time.”
As soon as the last zombie dies, I dust my hands. I wait for a while, listening to any noise. That should be all of them because I can’t hear anything.
I’m glad this is a game. If this were reality, I would be covered in ‘zombie juice’ right now… Not a very pleasant thing, if you ask me.
“All right, so… what do I do now?”
I look around. It’s hard to see because of the dim light, so I’m not sure about it, but I’d say I’m inside an underground room in a church.
What makes me think so? The fact that everything I see is made out of stone, and the style reminds me of a necropolis. Also, there are corpses all around, and I’m not talking about the zombies I just defeated.
The little light in this place comes from the space between two stone slabs that don’t align properly.
This means there must be a room right on top of this one… but I can’t move through stone, so there’s nothing I can do about it, I can only look for another way to reach it.
Forgetting about the impossible, I stare at the three passages that lead to this room.
“Hmmm… which one did I come from?”
I have absolutely no idea. Did I come from the one in front of me, or from the one at the back? Or maybe from the last one? Because of the darkness and the dizziness of being dragged away, I have absolutely no idea where I came from.
The logical action would be to stand still and wait for Laura to find me, assuming she knows where I am, of course.
But we’re here to have fun so I’ll do the exact opposite: choose a random passage and hope for the best. After thinking for a while, I choose the one in front of me because it looks more important than the other two.
“Exploring alone in the darkness, la, la, la…”
Since there’s nothing else to do and nobody to talk to, I open the screen that shows the other team’s progress. It should distract me for a while.
----------------------------------------
Two players have their heads close to each other, watching a screen in front of them.
“...It’s the demons and the shapechangers, right?” The one with the wings on his back asks for confirmation.
The other player, the one with the glowing blue eyes, frowns.
“I’m not sure… There’s no problem with the demons, but for some reason, I feel like the wererat is missing something… though I can’t put it into words. It’s hard to see it because it’s so dark.”
“This is why I told you we should add more candles in the first area. But you were like ‘No, it’s important to keep it dark for the theme!’ and didn’t listen to me. Now, do you understand why I wanted more light next to the entrance?”
“Yes, yes, you were right…” The blue-eyed player shrugs, signaling defeat. “Are you happy now?”
“It feels good to hear you admitting you were wrong. Hahaha!” Laughs the winged player. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that wererat. You’re paranoid. Look at that head and the claws… It’s clear it’s a shapeshifter.”
“I know, but… there’s been an increase of the Flesh Monstrosities players recently… what if it’s one of them, Vandi?”
“You know as well as me that the game forces the players to use body parts of the two units so that it’s impossible to confuse them with the standard units. Do you see anything out of place?”
“...it’s too dark to see properly…” The blue-eyed player mutters in a low voice.
Vandi, the winged player, puts a hand on his ear, and asks, “What did you say? I can’t hear you…”
“I said that it’s too dark!”
“And whose fault is it…?” Taunts the winged player.
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“It’s my fault! Argh… Everything’s my fault, ok!?”
The blue-eyed player crosses his arms and turns around. He furrows his brows and his expression slightly warps.
The other player laughs, patting his friend’s back. “Hahaha! That’s more like it! Let’s go. We’ll assume they’re from the demons and shapeshifter factions, so keep your eye out for random animals. If we’re wrong… we’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.”
“...fine.”
The two get ready to start the Dungeon Battle. Before leaving the entrance portal, the angel player takes a last look at the screen and chuckles.
“Watch this, Ariet! This guy’s so dumb! He got caught by the first trap we set up.”
“Oh, you’re right. But why is the girl standing there with her arms crossed and an angry face? Why isn’t she helping her teammate?”
“Who knows…?” Vandi shrugs.”I guess our worries were useless. We have this match in the bag. Hahaha!”
Ariet, the blue-eyed undead, tries to calm his friend. “Let’s not celebrate yet. Who knows what might happen in the future.”
“Don’t be such a spoilsport. Can’t I enjoy our advantageous position?”
“*Sigh* Do whatever you want, you’ll do it anyway…”
“That’s more like it! Hahaha!”
They continue watching the screen until the succubus finally realizes that something must have gone wrong and starts investigating the area where her teammate disappeared.
“We should move too.” Says Ariet. “Even if we hold the advantage, we can’t lower our guard.”
The angel player smiles with confidence. “Sure, don’t worry. I have everything under control.”
“...”
The tunnel ends and the two players find themselves in front of a narrow natural stone passage. It goes up and down, it splits up, and then reconnects again. The irregular terrain and cave ceiling make it impossible to see which is the correct path.
It’s a pure natural labyrinth, as difficult to traverse as confusing. And as if this wasn’t enough, on both sides of the path there’s a deep, hollowed abyss.
Ariet gulps. A single misstep and he’s done for. However, it isn’t the same for his friend Vandi, who can fly.
Vandi starts laughing. “Hahaha! We’re so lucky today! Not only the enemy team self-destructed early, but we’ll have an easy time here too! I’m sure they didn’t expect us to have flying at our disposal.”
“Don’t be hasty. There might be traps designed to stop you.”
“Why are you so fearful? Even if there are some, and I trigger them, what are the chances I’ll instantly die? I can fly, after all!”
“I can think of a few right about now.” Says Ariet, extending his fingers to start counting. “First there are the instant death traps, but they’re too expensive. Then, something that cuts your retreat path, forcing you to fight countless enemies. There’s also a chance you’re charmed since this is a demon’s dungeon…”
“All right, stop!” Shouts Vandi. “Let’s say you’re right and I can die. Even so, it doesn’t really matter if I die. The guy on the other team is also done for, so it’ll turn this into a 1vs1 match. I have confidence in your skill!”
“Thanks, I guess…?” Ariet spins his eyes around in disgust. “Anyway, I don’t want you to throw this match, so will you behave?”
Vandi makes a pained face. “I don’t think we need to be so cautious, but fine… I’ll stay close to you and only scout ahead when needed. I’ll also support you with my spells when enemies appear.”
“...thanks.”
The two players, with their support mobs, advance through the treacherous path. Vandi flies around, scouting ahead and providing support when needed while Ariet controls the mobs and gives instructions to the former. He makes a Zombie walk in front of the group to trigger any traps.
“The Dead Hounds are so useless in this terrain… If we knew, we could have brought more Skeletons or Touched instead…” Complains Ariet. “But if this was an open space, they would be invaluable assets… so we couldn’t leave them behind.”
“Don’t frown so much, you’ll get wrinkles.”
“You know this is a game, right?”
“...you’ll get wrinkles in real life too.” Vandi chuckles at his joke. “And why do you complain? We have the upper hand in this match.”
“You’re right… I should relax a little– What’s that!?”
The ground shakes. The scouting zombie falls to its death as the narrow path crumbles, falling into the abyss. Luckily for them, the only one to fall is that zombie.
Ariet turns to his teammate with an angry face. “Weren’t you in charge of scouting ahead!?”
“And I did! There was no sign of traps!”
“What a scout you are, that the first trap we meet, kills one of our units! We can’t keep losing zombies like that…” Ariet calms down from the initial shock and starts thinking. “There must be a valid path from the entrance to the core, and traps like this falling bridge are expensive… There shouldn’t be a lot more of them, but they’re still dangerous…”
“Hey, what if I check every suspicious place? Since I can fly, I can survive even if the passage crumbles.”
“You should have been doing this already!” Complains Ariet. “It’s your job as the scout!”
Vandi scratches his cheek. “...I didn’t think about it before…”
“...” *Sigh*
----------------------------------------
“Walking alone in the darkness, this rat shows his madness. Lalala…” I swing my staff around as I sing.
I’ve taken a peek at our opponents and they seem to be doing fine compared to us. They only lost one zombie so far and didn’t encounter any of our monsters.
But that angel guy... He’s so careless. Doesn’t he fear falling to his death? Not like he knows about our plan, but still… I’m looking forward to the time he gets petrified. I want to see his screaming face.
Ah, no, shit! I forgot that when you’re petrified you can’t move any muscle, so I won’t see it… Well, who cares? I’ll enjoy it anyway. Fufufu! Hahaha!
“Alone, lost, and restless, this rat–” I stop in the middle of my awesome song. “What was that…?”
I make as little noise as I can, listening to the noise. It sounds like… It sounds like a woman’s voice.
“Mad Rat…” Says the voice. “Mad Rat, are you here?”
The voice comes from the front, though I can’t say how far exactly. “Lily, is that you?” I ask. Maybe I wasn’t dragged as far as I initially thought.
“Mad Rat, are you here?”
The voice asks again. It does sound like Lily’s voice, but it’s weirdly distorted. It must be because of this place’s structure.
“Yes, it’s me! I’m here!” I shout. “I’m coming, don’t move, ok?”
I start running in the direction of the voice. It doesn’t take long for me to reach the end of the passage.
I find myself in a small room. Compared to the places I’ve been until now, you could say this one is brightly illuminated, though it actually isn’t. The light comes from the top of a staircase.
Other than that staircase, the only entrance is the one I came from.
“Where are you hiding?” I’m sure she’s angry at me right now, so let’s say some random stuff to calm her down. “I’m sorry, I was fooling around, Lily. Thank you for not abandoning me. I was so lonely…”
Where’s Laura? I can’t see her anywhere… I inspect the shadows, but I see no sign of her. Also, I can’t hear her anymore.
“What’s going on? Am I imagining things now? It wouldn’t be the first time it happens…”
Somebody touches my shoulder.
“Mad Rat?” She says, blowing cold air next to my ear.
I jump, scared at her unexpected actions. How would you react if you were in this dark place, just having come out of the necropolis?
“W-why are you doing this to me? I know I was wrong, but there’s no need to go so far with the joke… This isn’t good for, my… health…” My voice trails off as I break into a cold sweat.
The hand that’s grabbing me isn’t Laura’s. This hand is white, almost transparent.
“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“Sometimes, the best traps aren’t those that deal damage but those that split up the other party. Splitting the enemies is more effective when you have limited resources available.
Though keep in mind the other players won’t enjoy it. Use it sporadically, or reserve it for Dungeon Battles.”
- A tip from a professional DMA player to newer players.