As he connected with the game, he found himself floating for a moment. He wasn't anywhere, just a disconnected bit of rules and broken code trying to make the machine that was Milo work correctly. But something was wrong. Nothing felt right, nothing! Something that had been his was gone and he could only feel the edges of the hole where it had been. Dangling bits of himself lead into the abyss like spiderwebs trying to fill a canyon.

A shadowy beast at the edge of the hole was screaming at him with claws that raked down his soul, breaking more of him as it demanded action. 'Cheese! Feed us Cheese! Give us what we need! Give us what we love!"

And from far down in the depths of the hole, an annoying small voice whispered 'Everything is Fine! We can fix this! Oooblimilo is here to save the day!'

Someone put a cold, wet rag on his forehead and said softly, "Lay still. You may have a concussion, at the least, and are running a fever. But at least I managed to heal your wounds. It took a lot, you felt all torn up inside."

----------------------------------------

...somehow he focused on the voice and sealed away everything else. Then opened his eyes to a blurry, pain-filled world.

A pounding headache immediately hit him and he groaned. If waking up in his pod had been bad, this was far worse. Milo heard Belinda’s voice, speaking softly. He tried to focus his eyes on her. She was sitting next to his cot and looked tired. She must have been taking care of him after the battle...and with that thought things rapidly snapped in place. He wasn't dead, Belinda was here, which meant:

"We won?"

She smiled at him. "Yes, we won! Your crazy plan worked. You and Captain Pike were amazing! They are calling him the greatest Monster Hunter ever. He won't be sober for months, they are buying him so many rounds in all the bars. And all the Engineers are talking about is your crazy plan. They keep arguing over things no one understands like cable tension, stone cracking, and physics."

"And how did you make that crazy thing you used to pull it up? No one's ever seen so many ropes and pulleys. How can you even make things like that work?"

It was hard for Milo to put that into words. "It's easy when I think about it, but hard to explain. It just all sort of moves around in my brain until it all balances. Just tell people it's an engineering thing. You should see how complicated a Twirl and Puke is."

Belinda patted his hand. "I think I'll pass on the 'Twirl and Puke'.The important thing is that you did it. You trapped a world boss and saved the city."

Milo shook his head, instantly regretting it. "We both did it. Everyone did it. You were pretty amazing yourself. How did you get everyone to listen to you.?"

Belinda shrugged, not really sure herself. "I just sort of made stuff up and tried to act like some hero in the old movies. I've watched a lot of old movies, and some over and over. Guess that an inspirational speech before battle does work. But it helps that players like killing bosses. And I felt confident right then. Like I knew everyone would obey me. It was pretty cool."

"And this one isn't dead yet. They will be working for days to kill it. Even trapped and not moving, it's hard to hurt. The boss still has some regeneration and most people can only do one point at a time, ever with good weapons. People are taking shifts chipping away at it with special picks!"

Milo became aware of the sound of mining. A constantly repeated sound of metal hitting crystal, punctuated by the occasional curse. Turning his head, he could see the miners working in teams to destroy the huge crystalline creature. Platforms had been constructed to give them a place to stand near the legs. Each miner would swing a few dozen times as hard as he could before handing his pick and copperhead charm to the next miner. A few players were helping, making up for in strength for what they lacked in mining skill.

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Milo laid back again. His aches and pains were starting to fade, but he was feeling worse in another way. He was both starving for food, and desperate for some cheese. He looked up at Belinda. The girl was acting odd, twisting the ring on her finger. Milo hoped she liked it. It was just a minor magic item giving a small boost to her mana, but it was a pretty thing. He'd immediately thought of giving it to her when he picked it up. "Do you like the ring?"

"Like it? OMG! Yes. It's great. I certainly wasn't expecting something like this..."

Any further talk was cut off as Vary ran up. "Milo!... I mean, 'Senior Engineer Milo!', they are asking for you upstairs, if you can make it."

Milo got to his feet with the help of Belinda and Vary. "I guess I should go. Otherwise, they'll send Boom-Boom next. I can only imagine his way of waking me up."

Vary's eyes got wide. "How did you know? He was wanting the job, but he's not much of a runner, so I insisted I be the one to wake you. The Engineer agreed!" Milo could see Vary was quite proud of being picked over Boom-Boom, and he was very thankful for it.

"Thanks, Vary. Run and let them know I'll be right up, as soon as I can." The young dwarf saluted and took off, sprinting to deliver the message.

Belinda came up to Milo and took his arm. "I have to go soon. Can we talk about some things later? I'll be back in a day or two. My dad says he needs to talk with me about something and I'll have to stay out of the game for a while."

"Sure. I'll be around. Squint has a job for me, but I need a break first. I'm not leaving anytime soon. We'll catch up and talk."

"Great! See you then." The smiling girl waved and logged out of the game. Vary helped Milo up the stairs to meet The Chief Engineer in the office of the Miner's Guild.

With Vary's help, Milo started walking to the stairway to the upper levels. Players and miners waved to him. Many came up and spoke their thanks or shook his hand. But there were quite a few of the players that ignored him. He was a loner, and not in a guild. Loot hadn't been decided yet and some people were asking how he fit into the raid.

Milo made it up the first flight of stairs and paused to rest. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Flashing lights on his eyelids insisted he read his notifications.

[You gained a Great Victory, but have paid the price and need time to recover.

Deep in your soul are clues you have uncovered to ancient knowledge and how to twist magic, shaping it to your will. But the effort has broken you. You may not pursue this knowledge until you are fixed. The magic of Runes and Bonecasting is beyond you for now. You have pushed your body and soul far beyond their limits. Pushing further will cause further damage.

Quest: Regain what you have Lost.

You have a choice. Throw away the pursuit of magic and fill the hole in your soul with broken dreams. Stumble through life knowing you'll never again be the handsome hero who defied a World Boss and won.

Or...fix yourself. Your body is nearly devoid of the bones that sustained your magic. Your soul is in tatters and needs rest and thought. Figure it out. Fix yourself.

In other words: Get some rest, fix your cheese problem, and find a way to reclaim the parts of your skeleton currently wrapped around an enchanted harpoon.]

[Quest: Squint has a job for you!

Squint, Hero of Shadowport, has requested that you pay off your debt to him by stealing and delivering an airship. He has BIG PLANS and this is your chance to be part of them. Surely someone who can steal The Eye of Wonder will find this an easy task.

Part 1: Talk with Squint in Lights' End]

Milo didn't even consider giving up. If something was broken, you fixed it. Period. And you made it better so it didn't break again. This was just a lot harder, and a lot more painful. He had a simple plan:

Step 1: Get upstairs.

Step 2: Visit Jethro

Step 3: Visit Squint.

Ok, so not much of a plan, but it was a start. He began climbing the stairs, anxious to find out what The Chief Engineer needed so he could move on to step 2.