What I thought was another magma chamber turned out to be so much more. A winding path led down to a city suspended on stilts just above the magma. It dwarfed Kingsport, which was the biggest town I’d visited up to that point. Several buildings in the middle towered over the others, the tallest of which was around ten stories tall. It was a mystery how the whole thing stayed up on tiny stilts.
You have discovered the Hidden Nation of Under Drunder.
New Race Available: Hellfire Dwarf
A glance at the menu confirmed Under Drunder was available for fast travel.
“Guys,” I said, stopping the procession. “I need to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can though.”
“Go?” Rassala asked.
“Let him go,” Drox said, elbowing her. “If he isn’t with us when we return, we don’t have to explain where he came from. Let someone else deal with it.”
Rassala ignored him and walked over to me. “Come see me when you return, okay?”
“Sure,” I replied, before selecting my bind point for fast travel.
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“Eep!” Nelly shrieked as I appeared beside her on the sled. “Did you die too?”
I shrugged. “Something like that. Did you know there’s an underworld here?”
She gaped at me before composing herself. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about things. You’re too high level for me. I’m not sure if we were in the wrong area or if you just attract them but I can’t handle high-level monsters yet. Sasha told me she died several times when you took her to the mountain cave. Now that she’s level one again, she’s going to be even weaker.”
I handled high-level monsters in the hidden dungeon when I first started but I bit my tongue and didn’t tell her that. Instead, I nodded. “I understand.”
While I enjoyed their companionship, they were holding me back. It was easier to experiment without having to worry about low-level friends to keep safe.
Mistaking my frown for sadness, Nelly put her hand on mine. “Look, I’m not saying we can’t group up in the future. Just give us a few days to grind through the lower levels and catch up. We’re all going to the same place, I’m sure we will have plenty of opportunities together later on.”
“I understand,” I repeated, feeling confident with the change of plans. That way I’d get to explore Under Drunder without having to make an excuse. “How long until we get to Mount Drunder?”
Gertie, who was walking beside the sled, answered. “We should be there in less than a day.”
The system helpfully translated.
Time of arrival is 2 hours 7 minutes.
That was just enough time. I offered Nelly a smile and said, “There’s something I need to do. I’ll be back before we get there.”
“Wait a…” her words were cut off when I fast-traveled to Kingsport.
It was time to see Mary and explain that I’d been drunk. Hopefully, she wasn’t busy this time. I walked into the bar and looked for her. She wasn’t there. The bartender wandered over a short while after I sat down. “Can I help you, Sir?”
I nodded. “Have you seen Mary?”
“Mary?” He asked, giving me a knowing smile. “I’m afraid she’s off today.”
“Off?” I asked, not having considered such a concept for an NPC.
The bartender watched me quietly as I got up to leave. Would she be home on her day off? Was there someplace NPCs went to enjoy themselves when not at work? Seeing how there was only one way to find out, I marched over there and knocked. There was no reply.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “I really need to find a way to contact her.”
“Do you take this seriously?” A quiet voice spoke from the shadows.
“What?” I turned to discover a short woman with cropped black hair and piercing golden eyes.
She cleared her throat. “I asked if you take this seriously. It may not seem so to you, but Mary’s feelings are real. I need to know your intentions before I allow this to proceed.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, unsure if I was talking to a GM or another NPC.
“Let me be clear then,” she spoke slowly as though I were a child. “I know you’ve had a date with Mary who is in fact not human. If you’re looking for a dating SIM, I would be more than happy to facilitate you. However, I cannot allow you to break that young woman’s heart.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“I am serious,” I replied, wondering how true that statement was. Could I be serious about an NPC? She felt real but was that enough?
The woman walked steadily closer, peering into my eyes. “Very well. I want you to know that your interactions are being monitored. If you fail her even once, I will end your quest. I just wanted you to know.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am called Aya,” she said as she turned her back on me. “And I am always watching.”
She faded from view before I had a chance to ask the many questions I had for her.
Suddenly, the door behind me burst open and Mary came flying out. “Veritas! I was hoping you’d visit today.”
“We’re you always…” I frowned while accepting her eagerly offered hug. “I mean, I missed you.”
She pulled back and the smile fell from her face. “Is something wrong?”
“No…” I hesitated, unsure how to explain what just happened.
“What is it?” She asked, her expression becoming more serious.
“Aya was just here,” I replied.
“Oh,” she said, her face reddening. “She’s just…overprotective. Don’t worry about her. She does this whenever one of us gets…too attached.”
“This happened before?” I asked.
Mary smiled. “What? Did you think you were the first person a Cast Member ever fell for?”
“A what?” I asked.
“That’s what we call ourselves,” she replied. “It’s more human than NPC.”
“You fell for me?” I asked, still in a bit of a daze from the lecture.
Mary turned away, covering her face with her hands. “I didn’t mean it like that. Besides, I thought the feeling was mutual.”
It suddenly dawned on me that I might have offended her. I quickly backpedaled. “It is mutual. That was just the first time one of us said it.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “Anyhow, don’t worry about Aya. She worries about us. You don’t need to worry though. My heart isn’t as fragile as she thinks it is. Do you want to come in?”
“Sure,” I replied, eager to end the awkwardness. “I can only stay for a couple of hours though.”
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To say my second date with Mary was awkward was an understatement. We sat on her couch for twenty minutes before she asked if I was hungry. Not knowing what else to say, I nodded and she whisked off to the kitchen to prepare something. Cooking was a novelty in the real world. While I’d seen it done on television, nobody did it anymore. Ancient appliances that used open flames in the house had been banned as fire hazards some time ago.
Contrary to me, Mary knew her way around the kitchen. She hummed merrily while she started a fire on the stove and removed several items from the fridge. I was mesmerized watching her whisk them all together in a large bowl.
“Do you like pancakes?” She stopped humming to ask.
“Yes,” I lied.
Mary poured several dollops of batter into the pan which almost instantly started to bubble. She sliced some strawberries and whipped some cream. It looked more like a work of art than food when she was done. To my surprise, it was actually quite good. Normally, I steered clear of pancakes as they left me feeling lethargic for the rest of the day. Mary’s were different. The airy pancakes were elevated to another level by the sweetness of the strawberries and cream.
I cleared half my plate before I realized Mary wasn’t eating. She sat across from me with her chin resting on her hands while gazing at me with what I could only imagine were stars in her eyes.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” I asked.
The giggled. “Sorry, it’s fun watching you eat.”
At that point I was self-conscious so I tried offering her a forkful. She pulled back, refusing to open her mouth. After a playful battle trying to get her to accept some, I wolfed the rest of it down.
Mary pouted and said, “That’s not fair!” But picked up the plate and set it in the sink.
I was surprised that it didn’t self-clean. In the real world, plates were processed automatically and I never paid much mind to how the food and germs were dealt with. Apparently, Mary didn’t either.
I walked over to the sink and stared at the dirty plate. “Aren’t you going to wash that?”
She brushed the question off. “I’ll wash it later. You said you only had a little time, so come sit down.”
It bugged me so I hesitated, staring at the berry juice staining the plate. Surely it would only take a few seconds to wash. When I reached for it, she shot off the couch and touched the plate in the sink. It vanished.
“There! Problem solved,” she pleaded. “Now sit.”
I frowned at the spot where the dish had been but followed her back to the couch. We sat in silence for several minutes before she nudged me. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I began, not sure how to broach the situation. “It’s just I’ve never washed a dish before so I was kind of fascinated.”
“You want to wash it, don’t you?” She asked dryly.
Remembering something I’d seen in an ancient movie, I made a suggestion. “What if we do it together? I wash and you dry. You know, side by side.”
She stared at me and then it dawned on her. “Okay!”
So, like an old married couple from the 1950s, we stood side by side in front of her sink and washed the dishes. She brought out the pans so we could wash those too.
“The only thing missing is music,” I said.
“I can do music,” she replied, and music I recognized as the Kingsport theme song played softly in the background.
I smiled and rocked back and forth. She figured out my rhythm and followed suit. Who knew doing dishes could be so fun?
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I arrived back at the sled just in time to see a towering mountain pockmarked with caves in the distance. Sasha walked in the snow with Nelly beside me.
“It took you long enough,” she said. “Where did you go?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I replied, not wanting to talk about my dish date.
“Well, we’ve been talking to the dwarves,” Sasha said. “And they say there’s lots of places around Mount Drunder where someone our level can get experience. Safely. Without dying.”
I felt a twinge of guilt at her words. As it was, they both died the moment they went out with me. They didn’t even get any experience.
“Don’t worry though,” Sasha continued before I could reply. “We’re going to catch up to you and then we can all do that pirate treasure quest. Sound like a deal?”
I’d forgotten about that so I said, “Deal!”
“Good!” Nelly heaved a sigh of relief. “I don’t like it when you fight.”
“You call that a fight?” Sasha asked with a chuckle. “You shouldn’t seen my house growing up. I have four brothers.”
“I’m an only child,” Nelly admitted. “But I have a daughter.”
“How old is she?” Sasha asked.
“She’s three,” Nelly replied.
I was quiet as they exchanged social media links so Sasha could see Nelly’s toddler. There was a lot to think about. Mount Drunder had been my original goal. It was one of the major landmarks in the game and The Heart of the Planet sounded like a relic or artifact. However, Under Drunder was a completely unexplored area, and that called my name louder than anything else. The question was, should I tell anyone about it? If I did, other people could create Hellfire Dwarves and explore the massive city deep underground. On the other hand, I could keep it all to myself. Even the girls were giving me an out.
We arrived while I was lost in thought. I only got the memo when one of the dwarves unceremoniously dumped me from the sled so he could unhitch the dogs. The girls had vanished, off to wherever their low-level quests began. It was time for me to find out what Mount Drunder was all about.