Today’s Earth date: September 27? 1991

This dungeon is filled with stuff, yet it's empty. I feel like I’m walking through a high school before teachers have moved in. The numbers on the doors might change, but every room is the same layout with the same desks and the same chalkboards. So to speak. The only evidence that people used to live in this place is their furniture, but I haven’t seen anything that looks like it was left by an individual.

Does that even make sense? This much time in the dark is messing with my head.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

***

A few bricks came loose and streams of dust and dirt rained down, but the pit chamber was otherwise intact. The light flicked off, and the party waited, bracing for another earthquake. None came.

Gus was scraped up and bruised, but was healthy otherwise. Artie would need stitches for the gash across his chest, but Fergus poured a healing potion into it for now and did his best to wrap it tight to hold the wound closed. Dekar’s arm was likely broken, and his disorientation looked like symptoms of a concussion.

But they were alive.

When Gus came to the same conclusion, he collapsed to the floor, exhausted. Wayne was happy to do the same. When his heart began to quiet, he opened his system to see what else he unlocked.

He had a new spell from Ultima III:

Open – If you cast this spell before you open the treasure chest, you can undo the trap hidden there.

A new HUD upgrade from Pirates!:

Navigation – Make travel on the high seas faster and easier.

And a new skill from Cyberball:

Easy Out – A defensive football play.

Though Wayne was excited to have made more progress, he currently hated the thought of moving. Fergus came by to check on him, but Wayne said he was fine, so the old scholar turned his attention to Gus.

“If any of you step in a puddle, don’t mind it,” Fergus said. “I may have peed myself somewhere during all that.”

Gus chuckled. “Was that what the Heroes would have called a ‘Boss?’”

Fergus had no qualms assigning it that classification. They found it at the bottom of a dungeon, it seemed like the leader, and it was certainly stronger than everything else they encountered down here. “I’m more curious about its biology,” Fergus added. “The big one seemed more alive than anything else we fought.”

“I was hoping you could explain that,” Wayne said.

“I’ve observed much that I can’t explain,” Fergus admitted. “This room appears to be responsible for the earthquake that delayed the Heroes, but what triggered it then? We experienced the phenomena when the boss was defeated, but the Heroes were all the way back in the tunnel when it hit for them.”

“And what about the crystal in this room?” Wayne added. “What did it do, why did it shatter, and why did the pieces respond to being picked up?”

“All excellent questions as well.”

With Gus bandaged up, Fergus gave a healing potion to Wayne. When he tried to refuse, Fergus insisted on it, saying they had four more.

Wayne’s hitpoints went from 37 to 67.

“Do we have a plan for what we do next?” Gus asked, still enjoying his resting place on the ground.

“Head back out the way we came and hope the tunnel didn’t collapse again,” Wayne answered.

“I’m not suggesting we do otherwise, but our work for Miss Kryss isn’t complete.”

Wayne shrugged. “Keeping everyone alive is more important to me. If she complains, I’ll worry about that. I’m nothing but grateful that you three were with us.” Wayne pointed at the head of the boss gargoyle, turned to stone and frozen in a permanent snarl. “Hopefully she likes that enough to call us square.”

“I don’t think we’re in any shape to carry that out,” Gus said, frowning.

Wayne said not to worry. He’d carry it by himself. Gus gave him a dubious look because of the item’s weight but didn’t argue.

The party agreed to rest in the pit chamber for as long as they needed, then they’d hike back to the surface.

***

After Wayne returned to Teagaisg and slept to heal his injuries–convenient how that worked–he went to see Kryss.

She considered the gargoyle head on her table. “I believe you that this came from a monster, but if I can’t prove it's not just a broken statue, I’m not sure it has any value.”

“There’s also the map,” Wayne pointed out. “Three floors unexplored until our expedition.”

“Yet it’s still more incomplete than not.”

Wayne rubbed his face. Fergus sat next to him, his arms crossed. “So this doesn’t complete our deal?” the Zero Hero asked.

“I’m afraid not. To me, it appears you do not want to honor our terms.”

He searched his mind for an argument, but he found himself agreeing with Kryss. Yes, his party had put in a considerable amount of effort, but he came back with nothing that they agreed would complete the trade.

Turning to Fergus, Wayne said, “She’s right.”

The old scholar nodded, glumly. “I know.”

“I owe you an apology then,” Wayne said to Kryss. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to short you. If I go back and follow through on my end, would you still consider that honoring the deal?”

“Apology accepted. I appreciate when a person can admit they were wrong without being a baby.”

“There’s still time, so don’t celebrate yet.”

Kryss laughed. “I’ll try to be sensitive.”

They agreed that Wayne would return to the dungeon to complete their map at the very least. At best, they would find an artifact or two worth collecting as well. All Kryss asked was that they return within the month. Once she had the dungeon mapped, she could transition in a new team to manage the site for the long term.

When Wayne stood to leave, he reached down to collect his gargoyle head.

“You can leave that here,” Kryss said.

Wayne raised an eyebrow. “You said you didn’t want it.”

“I said I couldn’t prove it was real, but I still want it.”

“I don’t believe we discussed this piece in our review of our terms. Would this count as your pick of the loot?”

Kryss grinned. “So the Zero Hero does have teeth. What’s it worth to you?”

“You can have this if you go out to dinner with me.”

“You’re not the first man to ask for that kind of trade,” Kryss said, her smile fading.

“Not that kind of trade!” Wayne insisted. “When I say dinner, I mean dinner and just dinner.”

“Like a date?”

Wayne blushed and stammered. “Yeah, like a date.”

“In that case, I agree.”

Wayne shook her hand and left with Fergus.

As soon as they got outside of the museum, Fergus said, “The handshake was an interesting choice.”

“I know, okay? I panicked.”

“Will you invoice her next?”

“Shut up, Fergus.”

“Perhaps I should come to record meeting minutes?”

“Shut up!”

***

Wayne sat at a table in their suite at the Grand Pegasus. He had a long knife and the Page of Power he acquired from Lord Blackwell. Removing it from the matte was not going well.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“I think we’re going to lose some games because of this,” Wayne muttered, dejectedly.

“Unfortunate, yes, but unavoidable it seems. This wasn’t a shortcoming on your part, so you might consider focusing more on what you’ll gain.”

The paper tore again. Wayne cursed.

The back of the page had mostly fused with the matte at this point, but if he moved slowly and delicately, he had some success sliding the blade under the page as he lifted, but not enough success to salvage even most of the page.

When Wayne finished, the page had multiple new tears, and the matte was covered in splotches of rough white residue, like what a sticker might leave behind when only part of it tore away.

Two Sega Genesis games appeared to be mostly intact, and he hoped Christmas List agreed with his assessment. The other two, a puzzle game called Columns and a sports game called James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing were gone completely. He only knew they used to be there because the descriptions down the side of the page were intact.

Wayne’s frustration dissolved quickly when he saw one of the games that had survived: Phantasy Star II, a game he played over the course of several all-nighters with a friend in the neighborhood.

The Phantasy Star series blended sci-fi with fantasy, combining tropes like swords and spellcasting with interplanetary intrigue and advanced technology. The catalog described the second installment in the series with this blurb:

Journey through the beautiful yet insane planet of Mota. Wearing your Knife boots and Carbonsuit, you’ll experience weird research labs, creepy dungeons, catastrophic floods and exploding planets!

The system could pull any number of abilities or spells or items from Phantasy Star II. Wayne was excited to see what he’d get, but he also tried to temper his expectations. Though he couldn’t remember one, this game could have its own equivalent of the Nee spell from Spellcasting 101.

The other surviving game was Pat Riley Basketball. The page described it as:

Backboard-slamming action at its hottest. Coach or play on your favorite team from a league of 8. Jump balls, free throws, 3-pointers and fastbreak slams keep the action intense.

A week or so ago, he would have been disappointed to see a game like Pat Riley Basketball on a Page of Power, but his upgrades from Cyberball and Super Monaco GP were already some of his most useful.

With a deep breath, he circled both games with ink.

Phantasy Star II gave him a new spell:

Defense – It protects your friend with a shield, emel, or other covering.

And Pat Riley Basketball gave him a new passive skill:

Personal Foul – You’re guilty of a personal foul if you touch the body of an opposing player.

Fergus asked if Wayne had guesses for what the abilities might actually do when the system adapted them.

“A lot of games had a ‘Cover’ ability that basically allowed a strong character to take a hit for a weak character, but it might also be as simple as a shield or something. And Personal Foul? I don’t even have a guess for that one. In my world, a personal foul is breaking a rule in one of our sports, being too rough, I think.”

“Interesting.”

Wayne opened his notebook to update the records he kept on his progress. So far, he had unlocked the following games and some of their six total abilities:

Crystalis - (3/6)

Ultima III: Exodus - (5/6)

Pirates! - (4/6)

Railroad Tycoon - (2/6)

Lightspeed - (3/6)

Spellcasting 101 - (2/6)

Cyberball - (2/6)

After Burner II - (1/6)

Super Monaco GP - (1/6)

ESWAT - (1/6)

Phantasy Star II - (1/6)

Pat Riley Basketball - (1/6)

And Wayne put those abilities into one of six categories:

Onetime Bonuses

* Power Ring from Crystalis

* Warrior Ring from Crystalis

* Medicine from Pirates!

* Ice Combat Suit from ESWAT

* Ezra’s Mana Well Necklace (Wearable Item)

Spells

* Repel from Ultima II: Exodus

* Missile from Ultima III: Exodus

* Light from Ultima III: Exodus

* Rise from Ultima III: Exodus

* Nee from Spellcasting 101

* Urg from Spellcasting 101

* Open from Ultima III: Exodus

* Defense from Phantasy Star II

Active Skills

* Sword of Water from Crystalis

* Fire a Broadside from Pirates!

* Blitz from Cyberball

* Skycat F-14XX from After Burner II

* Brake from Super Monaco GP

* Easy Out from Cyberball

Passive Skills

* Fencing from Pirates!

* Personal Foul from Pat Riley Basketball

Utility Skills

* Probe from Lightspeed

* Goods Storage from Railroad Tycoon

* Resource Values from Lightspeed

* Cold Goods Storage from Railroad Tycoon

Display

* Regional Display from Railroad Tycoon

* Crosshairs from Lightspeed

* Navigation from Pirates!

“The quantity of your abilities looks more like a level 15 Hero,” Fergus observed.

Wayne agreed. He had covered a surprising amount of ground for being only level 7.

“Would you like to come with me to test the new unlocks?” Wayne asked.

Fergus said no thanks. “I’d like to spend the next three days in a hot bath, but don’t wait on my account.”

***

The progress Wayne got from the tunnel dungeon gave him five new upgrades to test: Open, Navigation, Easy Out, Defense, and Personal Foul.

Personal Foul was a passive skill that didn’t seem to affect his stats. He guessed that contact between him and a monster would trigger that ability, so he couldn’t test that immediately.

Defense was a spell, but it was greyed out when he went to use it outside of town. Wayne swore he remembered it being usable when he was with Fergus just an hour ago.

He could cast Open, but he got the same feedback from the system as he received for Resource Values, leading Wayne to believe if he targeted a chest with the ability it would fully activate. He didn’t have a locked chest to confirm that, however, and he worried about the phrasing in the description. The spell said it opened “the chest” and not “a chest.” He really hoped it worked on all chests rather than a specific one hidden somewhere.

Easy Out was accessible, and it worked sort of like Blitz. Instead of shooting forward, he moved backward. The total distance was much less than Blitz, about five feet total, but after using Blitz to escape danger in the boss battle, he was grateful to have a way to easily move away. With Blitz, he had to face the direction he wanted to travel, which was not ideal for defensive maneuvering.

Navigation, thankfully, was usable. When he mentally selected it from the system, his HUD map enlarged slightly but then returned to normal, having done nothing else. It took him a few attempts, but with experimentation he found that he could mentally select a point on his map, and Navigation would chart a course for him, adding a purple dotted line on his HUD map for him to follow. His immediate testing suggested it automatically accounted for obstacles, routing him around rivers and large rocks.

Testing it inside of Teagaisg would really push its limits, so he made a mental note to do that on his way back to the Grand Pegasus.

Walking all the way out here for Easy Out and Navigation felt silly. If he couldn’t play with his other new abilities, he might as well make the most of some practice.

Launching himself at the gargoyle was both effective and reckless. The battle might have gone differently if he hadn’t attempted it, but he also could have Blitzed too high and died from the fall. Mastering Brake seemed like the solution to that risk, but that needed to be confirmed.

He found a boulder in the forest that was about six feet tall. He stepped off the edge and felt a sharp twinge in his ankle when he landed. His hitpoints dropped by one.

Next, he repeated that process and used Brake near the end of his fall. The ability stopped him in mid-air, and a beat later he continued his descent. He had maybe a foot left to go when he hit Brake, and traveling the remaining distance didn't feel like falling from six feet. It felt like falling from one foot.

In games that had fall damage, negating it typically “broke” the game. Falling from great heights was supposed to hurt. As soon as it didn’t, all manner of shortcuts and workarounds became available that the designers did not intend.

Wayne’s favorite was using a bucket of water to fall from any height in Minecraft. Activating a bucket of water on a block beneath you just before you landed told the game you had fallen into water, and falling into water didn’t damage a player. Nevermind that the water wasn’t there an instant ago or that you fell from 320 blocks up. That puddle made it like the fall never happened.

Wayne didn’t play enough to get good at it, but his niece did it flawlessly. When she was seven or eight, she and Wayne played a lot together, and she never missed a chance to show off her slick techniques.

When he attempted the same maneuver, he died more than he succeeded, making him question how daring he should really be with Brake when his own life was on the line.

His fears aside, it worked. The height of his fall was negated if he hit Brake, but the only sure way for him to not break a leg was to spam the skill when he saw the ground rushing toward him.

Brake-Brake-Brake-Brake-Brake.

Wayne fell to his knees and breathed deeply to calm his stomach.