Back in the game, I pulled up the in-game shop. Once there, I scrolled down to food. More specifically; condiments. There it was, salt. While vanity items like steak and cake could be quite pricey in video games, simple things like hot sauce and salt were always included for free. I started by loading up my cart with a thousand salt packets.
How much salt do you require?
“A couple tons,” I replied honestly.
What for?
“Give it to me and find out.”
You have received a large jar of salt.
You have received a large jar of salt.
You have received a large jar of salt.
The messages scrolled past my vision for several minutes. A glance at my inventory told me where it was all going. “Perfect!”
I headed back to the worm room and climbed the wall. There was an added level of difficulty due to how wet everything was. My grip occasionally slipped off the slick stones. When I got to the ceiling, I realized it wasn’t the same as the aquan cavern and I wasn’t going to be able to hold on indefinitely. That meant I needed to work fast. I swung my way out to the middle of the room and put my plan into action.
I willed a jar out of my inventory and let it drop. It was larger than I thought it would be and in an unexpected container. A ceramic jar about the size of an outdoor trashcan plummeted to the ground below. It exploded in a white plume. The ground rumbled again and the worm exploded out of the ground right in the middle of the salt pile. I hoped that would finish it off but had no such luck.
Enraged, it emitted a loud warbling sound, unlike anything I’d heard before. It shot straight in the air but came up short of reaching me. I sent several more jars of salt down on it. The worm was fast and slithered out of the way. That did get it out of the hole though. I was shocked to discover the thing was at least twenty feet long. It renewed its effort to get to me by slithering up the wall and along the ceiling. I waited for it to get there and summoned another jar of salt right in the path of its gaping mouth when it tried to eat me again.
The worm began to slip from the ceiling due to the weight of the jar in its mouth. I chose that moment to throw myself on it, clinging to it as more and more of its long body peeled away from the slippery stone ceiling. Our combined weight pulled it free and soon we both plummeted toward the ground. I was prepared for this and summoned five more jars of salt directly beneath us. We descended into salty madness, though I only made a brief stop. I was headed for respawn, and I knew it.
Congratulations! You have reached level 6!!!
Congratulations! You have reached level 7!!!
Congratulations! You have reached level 8!!!
I hummed happily as I jogged back through the ocean cave to the aquan room. I made a pitstop in the chief’s tent. “Please set my respawn point in here.”
Your soul is now bound to the chief’s tent.
I wanted to set it closer but there was no way I was going to respawn in the cramped tunnel leading to the worm room. Was it actually dead? Did salt even hurt digital worms? Even though I leveled, I wasn’t certain. There was only one way to find out, so I made the harrowing journey back to the worm room.
I arrived in what looked like a coke-head’s wonderland. The entire chamber was coated in a powdering of course white dust. In the center was the sprawled-out outline of the worm, completely coated in salt. I approached cautiously just in case there were more of them.
As I got closer, I realized something in the worm’s silhouette was glowing. I dusted off some salt covering the creature’s gaping maw. In it was a single fang with a halo of light around it. It took a little prying but eventually, I managed to get it loose. Once it was in my hand, it transformed into an ivory dagger with a hooked blade.
Worm Fang
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Uncommon Item
Stats: Attack: +5, Agi +5
Special: Inflict Parasite
Level to equip: 5
I whistled appreciatively and compared it to the spear.
Crude Aquan Spear
Common Item
Stats: Attack +3
Special: None
Level to equip: 1
The primary advantage of the spear was the added range. I tucked the dagger into my pants where it stuck as if by magic. I didn’t question it.
With the battle out of the way, I needed to figure out where to go next. The problem was, there was salt everywhere, including in many of the tunnels. I stuck my head in a few of them before giving up and asking the system.
“Wanna give me a clue where to go next?”
In response, one of the less clogged ones began to glow. I sucked in a deep breath and switched to semi-immersion mode and began to shimmy through the tunnel. Fortunately, this one was shorter than the last and I emerged in another chamber almost immediately. The tunnel let out onto a small outcropping of stone in an otherwise flooded chamber. It was obvious that I’d have to swim wherever I was going next. I briefly regretted not setting my respawn in the previous room before wading into the water.
It was fortunate I learned my breathing trick on the way to the dungeon because the underwater tunnel was long. I swam long past the point where I would have drowned before coming to a chimney of sorts that led straight up. As I swam upward, the walls of stone gave way to open water. I was back in the lake. Only when I tried to swim any direction but up, I was met with an invisible barrier that shimmered when I ran into it.
With only one way to go, I continued my journey upward. I swam forever until a shadow appeared above me. At first, I thought it was a whale or a ship. That wasn’t it though. The thing turned out to be a large clump of dirt with tree roots sticking out of the bottom. The barrier I was swimming through led straight to the bottom of the thing. Once inside, I emerged into yet another cave. I walked a short distance before stepping into the sunlight.
It was a floating island in the middle of the lake. Birds chirped above in a canopy of trees. A paved stone path led through the trees to a castle in the distance. It was a massive white city surrounded by ivory walls with waterfalls beyond. Palaces made of black stone lined with streaks of red towered over the walls. In the center of it all was the massive castle made of the same white stone as the walls.
I reset my spawn point, wondering what monsters I was about to face. The city only got larger as I neared it. I was almost at the gate when my phone rang.
“Where the hell are you?” Jed asked when I picked up.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I replied.
“Switch to holo,” he demanded.
I accepted his request and a holographic image of my brother’s character appeared beside me.
“Holy shit!” He exclaimed. “How the hell did you find something like that? I thought it took days to get to a city. Did you teleport somehow?”
“No,” I replied. “This is a dungeon.”
“No way!” He said as he rounded on me. “How the hell are you in a dungeon on day one? Aren’t you still level one?”
“Level eight,” I informed him proudly.
His eyes bugged out. “What? How? I’ve been grinding all day I’m only level four. I called to tell you I got a map but it does me no good if you don’t know where you are yet.”
“Sorry. It’s on my to-do list,” I promised. “Just as soon as I wrap up here.”
“Fine!” He sighed. “You owe me an explanation later.”
“Will do,” I replied, and he faded from view as my brother disconnected the call.
“Time to check out an ancient city,” I chirped as I strode the last few feet to the entrance.
A knight wielding a spear barred my path. “None shall pass.”
A Knight
Level 20
Whatever you do, don’t try to pass him.
“I come in peace?” I tried.
“None shall pass,” the helmeted knight replied. His armor was as white as the gate he guarded.
“Can I make an appointment?” I asked. “To pass?”
“None shall pass,” the guard repeated, his voice taking on a tone of annoyance.
“What if I just sort of shimmy past you?” I asked.
“None shall pass,” the guard growled.
“Can I borrow your spear?” I asked, taking a step closer and holding out my hand.
“None. Shall,” the guard enunciated each word as he raised the spear. “Pass!”
He exclaimed the final word as he thrust the spear, ending me in a single strike.
You have died!
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I grumbled at the system from my respawn point in front of the cave.
You have died 27 times on your first day.
“Is that a record?” I asked hopefully.
You are currently in 97th place.
“Wait, are you saying ninety-six people died more than me?” I asked in shock. “Wow, some people sure are newbs.”
I wasn’t sure if dying a lot was a good or bad thing. On the one hand, it was a whole lot of death. On the other, I’d completed two major rooms in my first dungeon without actually fighting. The real question of the hour was; how am I going to get past that knight? There was obviously good stuff in the city but I was way under-leveled for it. I walked steadily back to the knight who stood motionless.
“None shall pass,” he recited his mantra once I came to a stop well out of range of his spear.
I took out a few jars of salt. “Need any salt?”
“None shall pass.”
I sighed. It was like talking to a wall. A wall that killed you. “Fine! I won’t pass. Have a nice life guarding a gate by yourself.”
“None shall…”
I walked away.
----------------------------------------
Once out of sight, I walked into the forest surrounding the city. Surely there must be another way in, and I was going to find it. I made sure I was well away from the knight before I approached the wall. The ivory material was extremely smooth and several stores tall. The sound of running water came from behind it but I couldn’t see anything. My first thought was there had to be a rear entrance somewhere, so I walked around the perimeter.
I didn’t stop until I saw the knight in the distance. There was no other way in. I went through my bag of tricks to see if anything I learned so far might help. Making myself light had helped me scale walls in the past. The only difference was this one had no rocks for me to grip as I climbed. It was a smooth surface all the way up. Making myself heavier would just compound the matter. Salt wasn’t going to be of any use either. I was rather salty about that last point.
“Hm, if climbing won’t work, maybe there’s another way?” I mused.
I made sure I was out of sight of the knight again and tried climbing one of the nearby trees. They were just tall enough to afford me a view into the city. It was majestic but looked abandoned. No other guards or people walked the streets. There just had to be loot in there.
From the height of the tree, I wondered if I could jump over to the wall. The branch I was on was about twenty feet from the gate, and it was the closest I’d found.
“Here goes nothing,” I said before taking a leap of faith.