TUNNEL RAT 2

©2024 WALRUS KING

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Also in Series

Tunnel Rat

Tunnel Rat 2

Tunnel Rat 3

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Chapter 1

Polite Engineer’s Share

Four figures traversed the under-realms far beneath Shadowport. Two were dwarven engineers in elaborate sets of powered armor. At one time, the armor had been made to preserve the lives of the older dwarves far past their normal lifespan. Rejuvenated and their lifespans extended, they only wore the armor in perilous situations or dangerous experiments. Traveling through caves inhabited by hungry creatures certainly counted as perilous.

They were enjoying the trip and worried about little at this point because of the large fellow guarding the rear. Dr. Harold Earthtongue, a trollish expert on all things fungi and known to his friends as Harry, was a thirty-foot-tall mountain of troll and mushroom, the result of eating the heartshroom of a giant myconian. The transformation gave him the opportunity to study fungi in the caves without worrying about predators. He was currently at the top of the pyramid. Harry followed along behind the engineers as they navigated through the mushroom caverns to his old home.

The fourth member of the party was Milo. Until recently, he’d been a scavenger and prospector in the depths until he discovered the lost station of the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild. The dwarves were still debating if Milo finding them was a good or bad thing. The station was a shambles with over 90 percent of it destroyed. But at the same time, the entire crew of dwarves was younger and thinking straight for the first time in centuries. Most of the grumbles came from the older dwarves mourning the loss of all of their whiskey, which Milo had somehow used to kill a giant elemental snake, a gargantuan pudding creature, an ancient myconian, and destroy the station. Dwarves take the loss of whiskey seriously. Which was part of the reason for the expedition to mark out a pathway to the Uptop and reestablish contact with the surface world.

As they traveled, Two-Screws and Throttlecog marked the path for other dwarves to follow and commented on how the rock lay, giving Harry directions for his tunneling efforts. Milo hadn’t taken an easy route down through the caves and the labyrinth of mines. With his climbing ability and wererat claws, he could easily scamper up sheer surfaces and through small tunnels that Harry couldn’t fit through nor the dwarves traverse. After a little work, they had created a system where Milo scouted out the next piece of the route and reported to the dwarves, who marked it down on the maps. Harry would then do the heavy lifting of debris and boulders as the dwarves mined with picks or blew apart stubborn rocks with cataclysmite.

Several times Milo caught movement out of his eye and noticed that they were being followed by a gaggle of small myconians who immediately sank down into the earth and pretended to be mushrooms if anyone noticed them. Rather than any sort of threat, Milo was reminded of a video he had seen of a mother duck and her ducklings.

By the end of the first day and several hours of work spent moving earth and tunneling through rock, they arrived at Harry’s old home. Several caves opened onto a huge central area where he farmed mushrooms for food and research purposes. The huge troll sat in the center of his mushroom beds, too big to move around much. “I believe this is as far as I will go today, Milo. You have places to be, and the tunnels to the Uptop are much too tight for me. I will expand them in time, but that is time you don’t have. However, before you press on, please go to my library and find the book sitting on the small table. And bring the satchel next to it as well.”

Milo found the book easily. It was leather-bound and only an inch thick. In large lettering across the cover was the title. Molds and spores Used in the Art of Making Cheese. Opening the book, Milo saw that Harry had written chapters on how to use myconic potions to simulate the rennet used in cheese making, along with how both mushroom spores and molds were used to ferment the curds and create the rind on different types of cheeses. The knowledge was far beyond his meager cheese-making skills. He brought both the book and the satchel out to Harry.

“Those are for you, Milo. As I began my research into your favorite food, I found quite a bit of cross-over into my normal fields of study. The satchel contains samples of the mold cultures and spores of the mushrooms I talked about in my book. I hope it will all be useful to you.”

Milo expressed his gratitude, but Harry waved it aside. “You saved me from fading away. I’m just glad I finished that book before my latest transformation. These hands don’t hold a pen well. It will take me some time to reduce myself back to something reasonable. But this stature does make clearing a pathway through the cave network much easier. Take my gifts with the thanks of an old troll.”

The dwarves took off their armor and began a series of stretches and exercises. Throttlecog needed to work out to regain the muscles he’d lost to old age. Two-Screws wasn’t as old, but he hadn’t looked after himself for the last few hundred years. It came with being a half-mechanical zombie until recently. With typical dwarven willpower and competitive streaks a mile wide, they exercised until Throttlecog collapsed on the ground. Two-Screws was standing on shaking legs and had a mighty thirst. “Harry, trolls wouldn’t happen to drink beer, would they?”

“Of course they do! Why, I think that most trolls love beer more than dwarves. The earthy taste and the smell as the mash rots and ferments are exquisite.”

Both dwarves were suddenly invigorated and standing up. “You have beer?”

“Oh, no. Getting deliveries down here is nearly impossible. I content myself with a traditional trollish beverage called Trogdorf. It’s made from roasted mushrooms and fermented cave sprouts. After the mash sits for a few months, a quick boil and sieving create a delightfully refreshing ale. I prefer mine put in a cask for a few years to further ferment and strengthen the taste.”

“And do you happen to have some of this Trogdorf around?”

“Of course. I like making it and experimenting with flavors more than drinking it. A few dozen barrels are aging in the last cave past the porcini beds. Please, help yourselves.”

The dwarves found they had the energy to race to the cave, and each emerged with a small cask of beer. Harry pointed them to his kitchen and some large earthenware mugs. Soon the sound of two old dwarves singing and drinking could be heard throughout the caves. Several hungry cave mantises and a stonelurker left their lairs and relocated to quieter caves. Milo checked on them two hours later and found them passed out and snoring with smiles on their faces.

They weren’t smiling the next day. Holding their heads, they complained of strange dreams and pounding headaches. Milo, never having drunk any alcohol, had no way of judging their distress, but anything that could make two dwarves complain of hangovers was something to be avoided. Harry gave Milo instructions for a restorative potion that he brewed in Harry’s laboratory. The dwarves complained of the taste, but it eased their distress. Once back in armor, they were ready to begin the climb up to Shadowport.

Eager to reach the top, with the incentive of real beer, the engineers moved upward. Milo knew the way by heart at this point. The dwarves were slower than he was at climbing through the caves, but not by much. Dwarves were at home underground, and spelunking through caverns was a skill ingrained in their heritage. Added to that were the armored suits they wore. Milo knew they weren’t just armor. He’d seen both dwarves move rocks much heavier than they should have been able to lift. Some sort of strength enchantment or mechanical system was used in their construction.

Milo asked about the suits but got little in the way of explanation. Throttlecog said the technology to make them was referred to as “magitech.” It was something of an art form, with each engineer designing his suit in their own style. Two-Screws was wearing a borrowed suit, having been a junior engineer only recently promoted. The chief engineer had insisted he wear one for the journey.

“I’d tell you a little bit about magitech, but for everything I explained, you’d have seven more questions, and seven times seven questions when I answered the first seven. Easier to give you a few dozen books to read when we get back.”

Milo didn’t like that answer. “What about just explaining the use of the small power crystals I see in all of the machinery?”

Two-Screws laughed. “Might as well start educating him while we climb. He’ll just find something else to ask questions about.”

“Fine, but only if you promise to not tell anyone about this morning. I’ve never had a hangover like that before.”

They were halfway up, and Milo was asking about what type of mana-conductive wire you would use in a thermal-inducer when the first tremor hit. They just climbed up a fifty-foot cliff, aided by the pitons Milo had driven into the rock. A vertical crack ran down the cliff, and the pitons popped loose like buttons on your fat uncle’s vest at Thanksgiving. Throttlecog fell, but Two-Screws caught the rope he’d been holding but was skidding toward the edge himself. Milo’s tail hooked to Two-Screws toolbelt, and he grabbed ahold of the rock with his claws. Alta-Viator’s gift to him let him dig into the hard rock like it was soft earth, and the dwarves quit sliding. A minute later, all three sat and rested as the tremor faded.

“Damn, we haven’t had a big one like that in years.”

Milo was curious. He knew the area was called “Shakeytown” but had assumed it was because the old mines had been driven through soft stone that caved in easily. “How often do you have earthquakes?”

Throttlecog thought back to before the disaster that destroyed the old dwarven city. “Never in the before-times. Then the big one picked everything up and shook us around. We didn’t know that the whole damned city got hit by some magical explosion. It was a couple of decades before someone made it through the collapsed tunnels and back. Aftershocks were common as things settled downward and the seas adjusted to a new coastline. Now we get something like that every decade or two.”

Eventually, they were climbing up the last incline to the city. The long slope was littered with loose rock, making the climb treacherous. Milo tied a line around a huge outcropping at the top to aid the dwarves in walking up the slope. When they were halfway up the slope, another tremor shook the caverns. Loose rocks tumbled down, and Milo was horrified to see the outcropping at the top start to tip as the rocks holding it in place slipped. Throttlecog pushed Two-Screws as hard as he could and knocked both of them to opposite sides of the incline. The tumbling stone passed over where they stood, taking their rope with it.

Two-Screws looked at his friend. “Not sure about you, but I think my pride can handle crawling the rest of the way up.”

“Yup, after you, and if you roll back down, don’t expect me to catch you.”

They finally made it up the last incline and into the massive cavern under the city that had been carved out by decades of miners in search of ore and gems. Humans, halflings, and dwarves had been at work here for generations, carving out the rock and driving tunnels in all directions. Giant pillars of stone had been left to support the ceiling as the main cavern got bigger and bigger and the walk to the current mines got longer and longer. Several times one group or another suggested carving the pillars and walls and turning the area into a magnificent underground city. But since there was no money in that, and hence no one to pay the stonemasons, the plans always fell through.

Milo had been through this area several times and was surprised to see how many miners were clustered in this area by the caves that led downward. Three coal fires were burning, supplying light for those humans or halflings without good dark vision. Nearly fifty miners were here, hastily trying to repair makeshift barriers of stone, wood, and overturned ore carts. It looked more like a small camp of soldiers preparing for the assault of an enemy. And as it turned out, that’s what it was.

“Get ready, the damn things are coming again!” The speaker was a dwarf standing atop two crates, peering into the gloom. The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard. The engineers pushed forward, curious what was going on and who the miners were fighting.

Milo set down his pack and brought out his weapon. “Who’s coming? What’s attacking you?”

The dwarf looked down at him, half sneering and half confused. “Where the hell did you come from? You know what? Doesn’t matter. Get on the line and do your best to chip away at them. We’ve got four of the smaller ones lurking around out there. If that’s all there is, we have a chance, so swing hard.”

Throttlecog moved forward, followed by Two-Screws. The dwarf on the crates got quiet, and his eyes bugged out.

Throttlecog’s deep laugh echoed in the cavern. “Oh, we can hit pretty damn hard, can’t we, brother?” He pulled the large wrench off his back and spun a screw on the handle, extending the weapon to its full six feet in length.

Two-Screws held out his metallic hands, which seemed to glow, and then were replaced by spinning metal augers that started to whine and growl as their speed picked up. “Oh, that we can, brother. Now you—” He pointed at the dwarf on the lookout. “Answer Engineer Milo’s question. What the hell is it we’re fighting?”

Wisely deciding that it couldn’t hurt to be polite, the dwarf took off his hat and bowed to the three of them. “Ah, sorry, I got a little worked up with all the fighting. It’s stonelurkers, sir. Dozens of the immature ones. The mama keeps hatching more out and sending them in waves.”

Someone yelled, “Here they come!” Milo could see four of the monsters heading slowly toward the barriers. They were barely half the size of the ones he had fought before, let alone the monster called Bone Crusher.

Shadowblight was humming in his hand. He was nearly out of cheese, and these things were between him and some tasty, tasty wheels of cheddar. The dwarves and humans nearby stepped backward as the little human suddenly changed. Heavy bone claws appeared on his lower legs and forearms. A ghostly tail whipped out behind him. He spun an obviously enchanted weapon in circles as if limbering up. A feral grin appeared on his face as he turned to the other engineers.

“Race You!”

Throttlecog and Two-Screws cursed as Milo leaped over the barrier and ran at the stonelurkers.

“Damn your hide! You better share!” Two dwarven engineers in magitech battle armor leaped the barriers, vainly trying to catch the scampering rat who was racing at the attacking monsters.

Chapter 2

Destructive Testing

The miners behind the barricades watched in disbelief as the three recent arrivals leaped a perfectly good barricade and raced to see who could get to the monsters first. Several shook their heads in disgust, seeing idiots who should know better than to run to their deaths. You simply couldn’t kill the lurkers, even these little ones, without hitting them dozens of times. It took special teams who worked together and hopefully had a couple of amulets with them.

The older dwarves had a much better idea of what was going on. They recognized those large, ornate spanners that were clipped to the newcomers’ belts. These were engineers, and two of the engineers running at the lurkers had some very pretty armor. The one in front didn’t and wasn’t even a dwarf. But he was obviously a powerful mage of some sort. And he was fast! It wasn’t even a contest to see who got to the monsters quickest. The mage was at least twice as fast. Money changed hands and bets were made.

Milo had an agenda. He wanted to test some things today. Milo believed in robustly testing components, including himself and his friends. Today he wanted to see what his new abilities could do and also what his fellow engineers were capable of. Stonelurkers were slow but powerful and could take a good hit. Perfect test subjects, even if these did seem to be on the weedy side.

Immature Stonelurker

This newly formed stone elemental has 100 points of Heavy Armor. Damage will slowly wear this down. Mining tools and weapons that pierce armor will be the most effective way to kill them. The presence of several of these monsters indicates a nest of the creatures, or the gods have mercy on you, a Brood Mother.

Milo angled his charge to the right as he got close to the lurkers, slashing at them with his tail to get their attention. As expected, he did no damage to them beyond a few scratches on their armor, but it upset them and they focused on him and quit advancing toward the miners behind their makeshift fort.

Milo was far faster than the lurkers, running circles around them easily. He cast Brittle Bones, moved, and cast again. Around and around the pack he ran, keeping them bunched up and putting the spell on all of them. Then he turned and attacked with Shadowblight. As he raced by the rightmost lurker, he aimed a swing at it, going for a kneecap on the closest leg. Expecting to do only one point of damage, he was surprised when his weapon chipped off a chunk of stone and did a dozen points of damage. These were a lot weaker than the lurkers he had fought before. The monster kept coming, but slower than its fellows.

Milo’s next attack was Bone Spike. The piece of bone he used was old and carved with the velocity rune, one of the weapons he had prepared for Shalassa. He was pretty sure if his spell could wound the elemental, it could also hurt these heavily armored creatures. He aimed at the lower leg of the lurker in the lead. The missile shot out from his hand far faster than an arrow, penetrating just above the ankle and continuing into the solid rock. With a jerk, the lurker quit moving, its leg pinned in place and heavily damaged.

There were a few seconds before the dwarves got to their targets, so Milo tossed an exploding skull down and watched as the lurkers were knocked about, and small chips of stone cracked off their armor. All of them were quite annoyed with Milo at this point and not paying any attention to Throttlecog and Two-Screws.

Two-Screws charged the limping lurker. His spinning augers penetrated the lurker’s armor but only penetrated an inch further… at first. His weapons continued to spin, drilling deeper into the lurker. After only a half-dozen seconds, they shattered the armor on the chest, drilled entirely through the creature, and out the back. The lurker was injured but still fighting. Two-Screws took a hard blow to his side, unable to dodge, but seemed unhurt inside his armor. He pulled his weapons out of the injured monster, doing as much damage on the way out as on the way in. The creature shattered into small rocks so suddenly that Two-Screws overbalanced and landed on his butt in the middle of the rubble pile.

Throttlecog used a classic dwarven style of attack. He spun in a full circle before attacking his target, building momentum for his blow. As he came around again, he swung for the lurker’s head. Stone and wet, pulpy ooze went everywhere as the lurker’s head was splattered asunder from the two-handed blow of his wrench. Throttlecog hadn’t expected his blow to go all the way through the beast. His spinning didn’t stop until he ended up in a heap.

Milo ducked a piece of the lurker’s brain and laughed as both dwarves ended up on the ground. He was still facing two lurkers though, one of them trying to free its pinned leg, so he paid attention to the fight after a brief look. Seeing one go down to a hit from Throttlecog’s gigantic wrench told him these were much weaker than the ones he’d faced before. He moved to the next test. He was sure he could kill both with Shadowblight. But how powerful were his claws now?

Milo ignored the pinned monster and attacked the last unhurt lurker. His tail entrapped its front legs, causing it to stumble. While it was off-balance, Milo leaped at it. One hand reached out for its head, the tips of his claws digging into the creature’s rocky armor. Swinging to its back, he placed both hands on its head and tried to tear off its head.

This tactic failed. He simply didn’t have the strength in his body for such a move. He switched to digging in his claws and shredding the armor. This was much more effective.

Against stone, his claws had many times the strength of his body. The tips of his claws penetrated deep into the creature, which let out a high, keening noise. Then, like a man using two hands to tear apart a rotten apple, his claws ripped the immature lurker’s head in half, spraying himself with the stinking gray goop that made up the creature’s brain. The keening stopped for a moment, and then the other lurker began making the same sound. It backed away from Milo and began to turn, but didn’t get far. Milo leaped high, landing on the creature and digging his claws into its back, severing its spine. As the creature came to a halt, Throttlecog landed a blow to its chest and killed it. Milo was disappointed that the fight was over so quickly. The monsters were dead after a couple of hits each.

Throttlecog held his wrench in the air. “Ha! I win! I killed two to only one each from you lazy lobs. Sort of disappointing, though. I remember lurkers as being bigger and tougher.”

The other miners were running up to them, astounded at the carnage they had just seen. Most of them weren’t warriors at all, just standard miners. And a miner using a normal pick had almost no chance to kill a lurker. Four lurkers at once would have been destroyed only after a long fight, with many miners dying. Instead, they watched all four die in less than a minute.

The oldest of them approached Throttlecog. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. There’s more. Lots more. The Brood Mother hatches these out constantly. We’ve been killing them for days and losing a lot of people to do it. One wrong move can end in a broken arm or crushed skull. What they lack in toughness they make up for in numbers. More and more of them are loose down here, and we think the big bitch has been advancing toward us. She was heading for the way to the top. If she controls the only way out of the mines, then she can just sit there and send waves of these things to kill us. She can take her time and then start attacking upward until the beasties can move into the city. The mines would have to be sealed off until the city council can pay for a high-level group of adventurers to deal with it.”

His eyes gleamed as he looked at the three people in front of him. “Of course, now we have three engineers show up out of nowhere with weapons and armor not seen for generations? Damn, but I’m keen to see what you three can do to stop her.”

Two-Screws laughed. “Kill a few little ones, and suddenly people want to toss you at the big mother.” He reached out a now mostly normal hand to the older dwarf. “Senior Engineer Two-Screws.” The old miner shook hands carefully with him. “Darnfeld Stoneforger. A pleasure to meet you, even like this. But as for tossing you at that Brood Mother, I’ve always been told that’s what engineers are for. My pappy always said, ‘When you get a tough problem, you call for an engineer.’ You just got called.”

Throttlecog stuck his thumbs in his belt and struck a pose, raising his voice. “Damned right about that. The Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild is here, and we’ll pick up the slack. As soon as Senior Engineer Milo gets lurker guts cleaned off his face, we’ll go talk to the Mama of these things.

Chapter 3

The Calm Before Battle

“Straighten up, you lot! The captain’s coming down to lead us, and I expect you to all show some respect and act like soldiers.” Corporal Eugene Shadowforge, a newly promoted corporal of the 1st Shadowforge Rangers, was trying to get his troops to stand in straight lines for the captain to review. They were being… difficult. Not normal ‘miner’ difficult, or ‘dwarf’ difficult. They had entered into a zone of surliness where the sarcasm flowed freely and they only cooperated when tapping a keg. Which they had just done again.

Part of the problem may have been with the impending doom of the stonelurker invasion, but most of it was that they just didn’t like their new corporal.

“Shut the hell up, Shifty. He ain’t here. And if he ain’t here, you’re just a clanless thief and not in charge of us.” The other miners made sounds of agreement and went back to sharpening their picks, sipping beer, and discussing the latest trends in beards. Normally, cutting any part of a beard was seen as something you just didn’t do. But some of the younger dwarves had taken to such sacrilege as trimming sideburns and shaving their heads before they were decently bald. It was a bad trend that would lead to the end of dwarven society, or so the older dwarves said.

“He’ll be here! He had important clan business to finish before heading down here!”

Shifty had no clue what that might be and was quite ready to get the hell out of this place. The whole ‘Lead the unit and regain their respect’ was Burnock’s idea. As usual, this worked out better for Burnock than it did for Shifty. The unit was a loose collection of members of the extended Clan Shadowforge along with miners who worked for the clan and anyone who liked free beer on Thursday nights. It wasn’t a military organization by any means, no matter what the hell Burnock thought. Sure, they could march around, wear the clan colors, and cheer for him when he made speeches. But no one had ever said they had to form up for a real battle.

Burnock knew that, so like he usually did, he tossed Shifty a few coins and a shitty job. They weren’t soldiers, and he wasn’t a corporal. There was no way people were going to forget that he’d been caught thieving. The only member of the clan that still talked politely to him was Burnock, and for good reason. Shifty had been working directly for Burnock the night he got caught. Stealing some ingots and coins had been a little extra bit of thieving on the side. What his cousin had wanted was information on recently filed mining claims by other members of the clan. So when he was caught, he owned up to the theft of valuables but kept silent about his real mission. It would have torn the clan asunder. To repay his silence, Burnock made sure Shifty had some coins in his pocket and something to do now and then to earn more. Which, come to think of it, had led him into more trouble.

He’d always been restless and bored. That had led him to make more bad decisions. Many of those bad decisions had been suggested by Burnock. It didn’t seem quite fair—him at the bottom and clanless, while his cousin was high in the clan structure and moving higher. He shrugged. Life sucked, and then they told you to go be a corporal.

Some of the miners turned at the sound of people moving down the long stairway from the guild hall. First came several miners and warriors, all from Clan Shadowforge, and all carrying large boxes. Next came a scribe, and then a dwarf in a set of fancy armor, enameled in the colors of the clan.

The armor had been on display for hundreds of years in the clan halls. Burnock had secretly been having work done to have the chipped enamel repaired and the entire thing fitted to him. He’d planned to wear it when his father finally stepped down and he could assume official leadership of the clan. If the old bastard had had any decency, that would have happened by now.

The armor would still get used. If you had to go fight some huge monstrosity, doing it in a set of enchanted dark steel plate armor was a lot better than just a pick and a miner’s helmet. Who knows? Maybe they could even win! Visions of a mighty battle filled his head, and he saw himself striking the final blow and gaining the lion’s share of the loot. That was how this should turn out.

Corporal Shifty saluted. “Captain Burnock, the troops are ready to move out, sir.” As if to dispute that claim, several of the dwarves drank deeply and burped.

“Not just yet, they aren’t. Don’t let it be said that the newly reformed Shadowforge Rangers went into battle without the clan’s support. Everyone, get over here and grab a new pick. If we live, you can keep them. If not, well, hopefully, there’s someone around to bury them with us.”

Burnock had spent every copper he could lay his hands on buying up the hardened Dark Iron gears and dark steel cables that the suspicious human, Milo, had been bringing in. But none of the clan smiths gained any clues about the lost hardening process from examining and working with the metal, which had been a disappointment. The metal didn’t just sit in storage, though. When the stonelurkers had started crawling out of the tunnels in larger and larger numbers, he’d had every scrap of metal reforged into pick heads.

There were murmurs from the miners as they picked up the new weapons. A few tested them out on rocky outcroppings or walls, astonished at how easily the new picks cut into the stone. Several whistled as they realized the metal they were made of and the value of the items they were being given. Many gave nods of respect to Burnock. All of them stood a bit straighter. A few even said a few words to their new corporal in apology.

Burnock and the other members of his clan also took up new weapons. The warriors sported dark steel shields and had a couple of extras they gave to the older miners. And there were scattered bits of armor, both old and new, to be passed out. An hour after he had arrived, Burnock looked at the unit of fifty miners. They actually looked like a group of warriors. Now they just had to prove that to the lurkers.

Burnock stood on a low rock and waited for everyone to have a chance to get one of the new weapons. It also gave everyone time to get a good look at his armor. Dwarven society put great value in well-made armor and finely forged weapons. They were a sign of wealth and power. Most of the human and halfling miners had the same attitude.

At a signal from Shifty, the clan warriors beat their shields slowly to gain everyone’s attention. Burnock waited until the right moment and started his speech. “You all know me; I grew up in these mines. And maybe I haven’t been around much lately, as my father had me take on more and more clan business. But I’m here now, and I brought friends to fight with you and weapons to help you deal with these monsters. It’s going to be a rough fight, and I know that some of us won’t make it back. But by our ancestors, we’ll send ten times as many of the beasties to their rocky graves!”

Rather than a rousing cheer, there was only mild applause and a few shouts. Most of the crowd was turned around and looking at something. The sound of voices—many voices—could be heard as a large group of miners appeared out of the darkness.

“As I was saying, some of us might not make it back. But I want you all to remember the time…”

In the front of a small crowd was a human, flanked by two dwarves. The dwarves stood out because they were wearing ancient armor not seen in generations outside of a few pictures and schematics. The human was notable because some of them had fought with him against stonelurkers before.

One of the miners yelled, “Hey, is that Milo? Damn, we might have a chance.”

Burnock raised his voice. “Remember the time that you followed Clan Shadowforge into battle…”

Most of the crowd was moving toward Milo and the two mysterious dwarves.

A younger dwarf ran up to Burnock. “Captain Burnock, sir. I found the group with Darnfeld Stone Forger. They killed a bunch of them, sir! Dozens from what they are saying. They cleared out all the lurkers roaming that section. And they have engineers with them! Real Deep Rock Engineers! I watched them kill a couple of the lurkers; they hit so hard that the lurkers just shattered, like hitting sandstone. They’re going to deal with the Brood Mother.”

A cheer went up from anyone in earshot at the young dwarf’s words. The youth’s excitement swayed any of the miners still clustered around Burnock, who started to jog over to get a look at the engineers. Hell, even Shifty was over there, gawking at them.

Burnock tried to keep a smile on his face. “You don’t say? So, Miner Milo mysteriously disappears and shows back up with some supposed legends? How convenient.”

Immune to sarcasm as only some youths can be, the beardling nodded enthusiastically. “Just in the nick of time, sir, like all the legends say engineers will do. Oh, and it’s not ‘Miner Milo’ anymore. It’s ‘Senior Engineer Milo.’ He has a dark steel spanner on his belt! With gold trim!”

At the mention of Senior Engineer Milo’s name, the young dwarf suddenly remembered another part of his mission. “Oh, shoot… Sorry, sir. I have to run Uptop really quick.”

Burnock grabbed him by the arm. “Hold up. Why are you going Uptop?”

The youth puffed out his chest with pride. “Senior Engineer Milo has a mission for me, sir. I need to go get some cheese for him. He’s hungry after killing all those lurkers! “And with that, the young dwarf was off and running up the stairs.

Burnock looked to where the crowd was gathering around Milo, Throttlecog, and Two-Screws. Proof that crowds were fickle. One minute they loved you, and the next they were cheering for some damned upstart and a couple of graybeards in fancy armor. He wandered over to greet the newcomers and see what he could salvage out of the situation.

Chapter 4

Old Friends, New Friends

“It’s all well and good to have some spanner boys on our side, but they can’t win a battle by talking! Enough with the gawking. We need to form into teams to take these things down and make plans on how to tackle the big one.” Burnock’s voice boomed out over the crowd around the engineers, and he pushed through until he stood before them.

“Captain Burnock of the first company of the Shadowforge Rangers. Good to have you with us.” He shook hands with Throttlecog and Two-Screws. Milo looked at the outstretched hand and, after a pause, shook hands as well. He always got confused with this silly ritual.

Throttlecog’s face gave nothing away, but old memories came back at the mention of Burnock’s clan, not all of them good. “Shadowforge? I remember your clan. Spent some time over in your mines on Crystal Ridge as a junior engineer teaching some of your folks how to use a portable ore crusher without blowing it up. The rock was ordinary granite, but the lebrezite crystals formed inside the nodes were Tier 3 and as hard as Assaying Master’s heart. We had to teach the miners to listen to the sound of the crystals vibrating so they could separate the nodes and not ruin another ore crusher. A long time ago, that was.”

Burnock couldn’t keep the astonishment off of his face. He’d read about the mining on Crystal Ridge in the family archives that had been salvaged after the Great Disaster. How old was this Engineer? Could he be serious? A look at the armor Throttlecog was wearing answered that question. No one, absolutely no one in any of the clans, had a working suit of magitech armor. He immediately regretted his “spanner boy” slur.

“Ah, yes, that was quite a bit ago. But Clan Shadowforge is still here and still protecting the mines. We’ve got a stonelurker problem and would appreciate your help. As you said, your guild and my clan worked together long ago, and I welcome our old allies.”

Two-Screws laughed. “Sure, we’ll help out. I’ve got some new toys that need testing. These little ones die too quickly. I’d love a crack at a big one.” He turned and scowled at Milo. “If that is, someone doesn’t run off and try to hog all the monsters. Learn to share, or I’m helping Boomboom strap you into his newest gut wrencher when we get back.”

Milo’s gut turned over at the thought. “Sharing! Right, I can share. Lots of sharing. In fact, I have some ideas on how we should fight them. Fight them together with me sharing!”

“Good. Let’s hear those plans then.”

Milo found his thoughts ran faster at the thought of Boomboom’s latest invention. Dwarves seemed to relish anything that challenged their physical abilities. Milo, not so much. “I was testing my abilities against these lurkers. They’re not as tough as the normal ones I fought earlier. Their armor chips off in larger chunks, making them vulnerable, and their insides haven’t hardened yet like the older ones. If someone gets a good shot on one, everyone else should decoy them until someone can hit that same spot. I’ll use my bombs and claws on each one to make weak points, then share the kills with everyone else.”

Two-Screws liked the plan. “And we can do the same. No sense one of us working to destroy one lurker when we can weaken several and let these stout miners clean up after us and put the beasties down.”

Throttlecog started asking questions of the various miners and soldiers, then assigned the older dwarves to lead teams, each with good picks and one shield man. “You can’t fight these things using a shield wall. They break walls and crush armor. Run around them, chip away at weak spots. Confuse and separate them. The little ones aren’t the problem. Do we have eyes on the Brood Mother? Any idea of her level?”

One old timer spoke up. “Hard to say. I got a look at her, and my Assaying skill is at Level 9. She’s at least a Monstrous Boss and Tier 3 or more. I can’t pin her down, but she feels higher than Tier 3. Damned big! Her feet and claws are the size of ore carts. A dozen legs, and at least thirty feet long. Moves slowly, though. She drops the little lurkers now and then. Her armor thickens, then she sheds the little ones off of her back and grows more. Constantly eating at the stone. I ran back up here to report to Captain Burlock after I saw that.”

Murmurs raced through the crowd at the description. Regular stonelurkers were tough. Bone Breaker had been a terror. And now a Brood Mother was heading to the surface. Throttlecog turned to Milo and Two-Screws, lowering his voice. “Their nerve is brittle as sandstone. Let’s give them something to do and get moving.”

Straightening, he yelled out, his voice amplified by either a skill or his armor, “Just a bigger rock to break! Engineers aren’t afraid of breaking rock or taking a few bruises doing it. You’ve got your teams; let’s move out. We’ll mop up the little ones on the way and then see about the big one.”

Two-Screws started moving through the crowd, asking questions. “How are we set for explosives? Any cataclysmite? No? Okay. How about Blasting Gel? Boomsticks? Tell me someone at least has Boomsticks!” A few of the miners did and handed them over. The dwarf started putting them together to make larger explosives.

Small groups and single lurkers were encountered, but with three engineers and a host of well-armed miners, they were destroyed without casualties. True to his word, Milo shared, tossing his exploding skulls to get their attention and then dancing from lurker to lurker, slashing with his claws or with Shadowblight. Throttlecog and Two-Screws held back as much as they could, only stepping in when it looked serious. Slowly, the miners gained confidence.

The large area near the tunnels to the top came into sight. A dozen dwarves were fighting against half that number of lurkers. Piles of stone and dead or injured dwarves showed the battle’s original size. Milo charged ahead, followed by the other two engineers and some of the more battle-hardy dwarves. They managed to save all but three of the dozen defenders, quickly finishing off the half-dozen monsters. Milo recognized some of the survivors from his fight with Bone Breaker. Gorbel, Asti, and Fangrim had been in the thick of the fighting, each armed with a dark steel pick and shield. All three gripped his shoulder or shook his hand. “Good to have you back.”

To Milo’s great surprise, Belinda was also there. The human healer was busy trying to help some of the injured miners. He went to help, and she looked up, giving him a quick smile before concentrating on her patient. Milo could tell just by looking at him that the miner had broken ribs and a cracked sternum. His side was crushed with horrible bruises. As soon as he put a hand on the dwarf, he could feel the bones, both how they were twisted or broken and how they should be restored.

“I can fix his broken ribs, and he has fractures in his breastbone, spine, and pelvis. It’s going to hurt, though; can you help me out with that? If he tenses up, it will be bad.”

Belinda nodded. “I can numb the pain and put him into a light sleep. I was worried about doing much more because of those broken ribs. Let’s see what we can do together.”

It took several castings of both Belinda’s Light Healing and Milo’s Mend Bone spells, but the injured dwarf went from dying to badly hurt. He needed rest but would recover. As soon as they finished, Belinda went to the next injured fighter, and Milo followed. A half-hour later, all of the injured had been tended to. Milo had only used half of his mana but was not feeling well. The itchy, horrible feeling was back. How long did it take for someone to buy a pound of cheese?

Jethro was not having a great day. In fact, he hadn’t had a great day in quite some time. Or even a good day. Just one shitty day after another. He didn’t like having to work the cheese stand by himself, but he didn’t have any choice. He’d barely left it this last couple of weeks, too scared of what would happen if he missed a certain customer. He slept inside the tent and bribed street urchins to bring him bread, crumcakes, and bacon. His stock of cheese was getting low and no one was going to bring him a restock. There wasn’t anything that he could do about the situation, though. His gloomy thoughts were interrupted by a young dwarf sprinting up to the stand, breathing hard. “I need… huff… need…”

“Spit it out, kid, or catch your breath. It’s not like cheese is an emergency.”

The dwarf stood up straight. “This time it is. Senior Engineer Milo sent me up here to get some cheese and said it was an important part of his plan.” He slammed coins on the counter. “I need as much cheddar as that will buy, and be snappy about it or I’ll climb over this counter and show you how much of an emergency it is.”

Jethro’s desire to see just what would happen if he took his time warred with the knowledge Milo was back. “Oh, Milo? He’s my best customer and an old friend! What’s he up to? Is he stopping by soon?” As he talked, he swept up the coins and took a three-pound wheel of 10-year-old cheddar from a special box. He’d been saving this just for Milo.

“Here you go. One of our best. I ordered it all the way from Furknoiter just for Milo. Those Furks make some of the best cheddar there is. You tell Milo I have a whole shipment of special cheeses saved especially for him! I’d love for him to stop by so I can give him some free samples.”

The young dwarf saluted him. “I’ll deliver that message, sir.” Mission accomplished; the boy ran off with his package. Jethro quickly closed his shop and headed toward the docks. As he crossed the main bridge, he passed close by one of the guards. “Tell Squint that Milo is on his way up from the mines.”

The guard nodded, gave a hand signal to his partner, and then ran off to find the leader of the Kulags. Jethro needed friends right now, and Squint was known to be eccentric but treated the people in his gang fairly. Word had been spread to watch for Milo, and passing the word of his return to Squint meant he could count on the Kulag gang as protection as he moved about the city.

Jethro continued past the bridge and turned down a lighted street to a well-established inn that catered to visitors with a large amount of coin to spend. Jethro knew he could eat for a week at the cost of a cup of tea in this place. He had to go around to the back to get in, then bribe a waiter for a loan of an apron. He was the shortest and scruffiest waiter in the place, but he only had to find one person before he could leave. Making his way to the dining room, he saw his target sitting at a table by himself. Jethro’s lack of height made it easy to get to the sorcerer’s table mostly unseen. The small dragon eyed him with malice but didn’t squawk.

“Ah, Jethro. I’m sure you didn’t find employment here. Alfonse has much better standards for his waiters. You must have news that I will enjoy hearing.”

Jethro hated the man’s voice. It promised nothing but trouble and pain. So far, he had made good on that promise. “I found him. He’s coming up from the mines and is so desperate for cheese he sent a messenger boy up to get it. Some big fight going on with the lurkers. He’ll be up after that. What would you like me to do?”

“Nothing Jethro. Just be your charming self. I’ll take care of—oh, excuse me. We will take care of the rest. Sorry, darling, just a figure of speech.”

Jethro took that as an excuse to leave, and a few minutes later, he was back at his cheese stand. This had to work out. Milo had to come by. Too much depended on it.

Milo had just decided that he couldn’t wait any longer and was about to head upstairs when his cheese delivery arrived. “Here you go, Senior Engineer, sir. Jethro the halfling was right where you said he’d be and sent you down this big wheel. And he told me to tell you he has a large assortment of special cheese ready for you to try out.”

Milo’s hands were shaking as he sliced into the hard, golden cheese and took a big bite. He felt better immediately. The young dwarf was hovering nearby.

“Oh, my manners. Thank you very much for this. Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” People who bring you cheese should be thanked properly. Milo was making that a new rule.

“Oh, no matter, sir. I’m Varyhold Axegrinder of the Axegrinder clan, but everyone just calls me Vary.”

Milo offered Vary a sliver of cheddar, and the boy sat and took small bites. “Good job, Vary. You move quickly. Are you a scout or something?”

Vary perked up at the attention. “A runner, sir. I run messages and go through the mines doing errands. If I do good, I can start training as a scout. Of course, I’d love to be an engineer. Does your guild take new applicants?”

Milo thought about it and couldn’t say. Certainly, a month ago, they wouldn’t have—he himself was the first newcomer in ages. But now? Who knew? The chief engineer had talked about finding some new recruits. It was one of the reasons for his two friends making the trip. He’d have to ask Throttlecog. “I’m really not sure, Vary, but if they are, I’ll toss your name on the list.”

Guild Update

Acting Guild Master Milo has placed Varyhold Axegrinder on the list of tentative recruits to be tested. 

Vary’s eyes widened. Milo was a bit surprised himself.

“Oh-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou… oops, gotta run. Yell if you need me, Senior Engineer Milo Sir.” And with that, the young dwarf was off running to deliver more messages.

Milo finished a half pound of cheese before he had the willpower to put the rest away. He made sure he had several slices in easy-to-reach pockets and tossed the rest in his pack. He also pulled a flask of dubious-looking liquid out of his pack. It was a bottle of Myconic Mana Restorative. Harry made them from a recipe that used mushrooms for a base rather than the normal mana potions alchemists made. They tasted like rotten mushrooms but did bring his mana back quickly. Milo expected he was going to need every bit in the coming fight and downed the bad-tasting potion.

He gave the other to Belinda with an apology. “Sorry for the taste of this, but it will bring your mana back faster. And thanks for helping out down here.”

She stood up and brushed dust and debris from her robe. “I’m a healer, and these people need healing. It feels more important than just spending all day looking for monsters to kill. And NPCs are friendlier than most of the players I’ve met. It’s weird to think that way, but they seem so real! I don’t have a lot of friends offline, and no one I play with much, but I’m happy helping down here. But what about you? You’ve changed your class to Engineer somehow? I have no idea how you level up so fast. Even the guys in my guild that are grinding monsters all day haven’t evolved their class yet.”

Milo stared at his shoes. “I sort of get in trouble a lot.”

Belinda laughed. “Well, whatever you’re doing, keep it up.” Then she daringly bent and gave him a small kiss on his cheek. “Maybe when this is done, we can go get in trouble together? I’ll be around.”

The healer walked off. Leaving a very confused Milo. What did she mean by that? Did she want to fight monsters together? Rather than ponder things that confused him, he ran off to find the other engineers.

Chapter 5

“These little ones keep coming in waves, but they aren’t what’s worrying me, and we’re handling them. We need a better idea of what else is coming.” Throttlecog emphasized his point with a double-handed blow of his spanner to the side of a stonelurker’s head. Spanner beat stone, and the creature crumpled, leaving the cavern quiet except for the heavy panting of exhausted miners and the groans of those suffering injuries.

Milo and Belinda had been healing the injured after each wave. Many of the injured miners were weak and battered but could still assist in the fights. But both of them were running low on mana. Belinda had noticed two things: Milo regenerated his mana far faster than she did, and he ate a lot of cheese. They were catching what rest they could between waves of fighting and healing. Both were getting used to Harry’s potions, but Milo was almost out of them. He passed the last two to Belinda.

The miners were quickly learning how to take down the small lurkers by working in fast-moving teams and taking advantage of any weak spot created by the three engineers. But there seemed to be endless waves of them.

Two-Screws slowed the spin of his augers, and they reshaped into mechanical hands. He walked to the nearby barrel of ale and brought back two large flagons, handing one to Throttlecog. No one had objected when several dwarves from the guild hall had hauled down the barrels and made a makeshift bar. Dwarves healed faster and fought harder with good ale to drink. Milo theorized it must act like a low-grade cheddar on their systems. He kept trying the stuff at Two-Screws urging, but it still tasted weak and bitter to him. He’d stick with cheese.

“What we really could use,” Two-Screws exclaimed loudly. “Is a fast and agile scout. Someone who doesn’t mind taking suicidal jobs and going into danger. Someone who could go find the Brood Mother and report back.”

Milo sighed. He’d been thinking the same thing himself and expecting that he’d be running off to scout sooner or later. What he hadn’t expected was someone else would volunteer.

Vary rushed up to Two-Screws and saluted. “I volunteer, sir! I’m fast and know the caverns. I’ll go find it.”

Two-Screws paused and looked over to Throttlecog, who just gave him a thumbs-up. Two-Screws finally said, “Lad, no one is questioning your speed, but…”

“But it’s a job for more than one person. I’ll head out with Vary.” Milo stepped up and put his hand on the young dwarf’s shoulder.

Burnock was listening to the conversation from off to the side. He’d taken part in some of the fighting but had a tendency to not engage until the monsters were injured and slowed. He wasn’t taking any chances on being laid up with broken bones or outright killed. Now, he saw an opportunity and turned to Shifty. In a low voice, he told his cousin, “Go with them. The kid is green and doesn’t know what to do. He’ll get in a jam, and the spanner boy will try to save him. That’s when an ‘accident’ can happen. You’ll look good coming back with the info after the other scouts die.”

Shifty ran the idea through his head. As usual, it was a crappy Burnock-style plan that put him in the frying pan while his cousin strutted around in his shiny armor. Not that he had much choice. He started shucking his armor into a pile. He shouted to Milo. “You’ll need a third. Three of us can handle any stray lurkers, and I’m as fast as either of you.” Wearing just a miner’s simple clothing, he grabbed his pick and walked up to Milo. There were a few murmurs of approval from the miners. They all knew this was a bad job, and their opinion of anyone who took it moved up just a bit. A few also scowled, knowing Shifty’s reputation.

Two-Screws nodded in approval at Shifty, and Vary shook his hand. The youngster looked longingly at the ale in his hand. Throttlecog walked over and handed his full flagon to Vary. “Here, lad. Fortify yourself; it’s a dangerous job. Go find the critter, stay out of fights, and let us know how many more little ones to expect and some info on the big one. Don’t take chances; that’s what you have Milo along for. He can’t seem to stay out of trouble.”

In a few gulps, the flagons were empty, and a slice of cheese was eaten. The three scouts ran rapidly into the darkness, looking for trouble. It helped that all of them had good dark vision and a light tread. They stayed at the edges of the caves, trying to avoid being seen or heard. After moving through the large central caves for a few minutes, they saw a lone stonelurker shambling along. Vary looked like he wanted to charge it, but Shifty held him back. “Don’t go off half-cocked. They look slow, but those big talons strike fast, like a praying mantis killing a beetle.”

Milo nodded in agreement. “I can take hits better than either of you. Let me get its attention. Then you two can chip away at it. If it turns, back off immediately and run away just a little bit. I’ll hit it and get it back on me. Ready?” The other two nodded. Shifty’s keen eye noticed the armor that suddenly grew on Milo’s arms and legs. Milo charged out, leaped, and spun in the air. A long, bony whip reached out and slashed at the lurker, surprising it.

An excited Vary turned to Shifty. “Wow, is that an engineer thing? It looked like he was casting a spell.”

Shifty was also wondering. He saw Milo take two chunks out of the lurker’s chest with his pick, and then just dance around, avoiding its strikes. The engineer waved at them to engage. The fight went well. Milo kept the beast’s attention, and the two miners slowly depleted its health with dozens of hits. Only once did it turn on the two dwarves. Shifty took no chances, grabbing Vary by the arm and dragging him well out of the fight. Milo hit it twice more, crippling a leg and forcing it to focus on him. Vary and Shifty waded back in and finished it.

“Wow. That was awesome.” Vary had seen little combat before this and was excited. Shifty turned to Milo. “Teaching fight?”

“Yes, I thought it would be good to build some teamwork with the youngster. I held back a lot and let you and Vary get the feel for how your new weapons could bite into it. Good job, both of you.”

Vary was excited and proud. He’d gone into battle with an engineer and gotten his first big kill. Shifty was troubled. Part of him wanted to sneer at the young one and tell him how easily life went to shit. Another part was enjoying the straightforward fight and thrill of working with someone who took the risks and valued his teamwork. He was going to feel guilty when it all played out badly for his two “partners,” but that was ok. A bit of guilt let him know he wasn’t at the bottom yet. Burnock hadn’t expressed guilt even when they were children together.

The sound of rock scraping on rock let them know that more lurkers were coming. Hopefully, that also meant the Brood Mother was up ahead. This time, it was a group of nine that was moving through the caverns, heading straight for the miners holding the line at the entrance to the city. Milo and his group stayed hidden in a side cave as they passed by, then continued. Three more times they passed groups of the immature stonelurkers, between six and ten in number. All were following the same path, heading toward the ongoing battle. Entering into what Vary said was one of the larger caverns, they traveled for over a mile before they finally found the monster they had been looking for. Milo stared at it in awe. The creature was huge, even bigger than the myconian ancient or the snake. And quite possibly more powerful.

Vary was having trouble even looking at the creature from afar, and his knees felt weak. Milo could just barely identify the creature. He said as much to the group. “I’m only getting the name—Stonelurker Brood Mother. I can’t see any information on her; it’s just too powerful.”

Shifty chuckled.

“Let me give both of you a bit of advice: Work on your perception. Spend your points from the Miners’ Guild to buy the Assaying skill from old Brickleback in the Assay Office. Then go up to the Adventurers’ Guild and do some quests for the halfling. You can get Legendary Lore and some other odd stuff like Magical Item Appraisal or Creature Identification. Try to gain experience in all those skills. You’ll thank me down the line for that, if for nothing else. And if you spend a lot of time and get Brickleback to like you, you can learn Gem Valuation. A little hint—he likes peanut brittle. I must have bought the old sucker twenty pounds of it. And there might be other skills you can find as well.” He started walking closer. “Now let’s take a good look at this monster.” Shift concentrated, and then cursed quietly. “We are really screwed.” He shared what he saw with the other two.

Uthneragrubban, Brood Mother of the Stonelurkers, Breaker of Heroes, the Earth Shatterer, Destroyer of Cities

Level 17 Monstrous World Boss

Ablative Stone Armor, Brood Mother, Crystalline, Stone-Based Regeneration, Rumbler, Unique 

Shifty produced a flask of whiskey and downed half of it to steady his nerves. Vary turned white, and his eyes widened. Milo read the description and felt excited as well as fearful. Then he remembered where it was headed. “That’s really good advice. I’d have had no idea how tough this thing is. I’ve fought bosses before, but what’s a World Boss?”

“Shh… Let’s move back a bit before we get chatty, just in case.” They moved back a full cavern and hid in a corner. After another sip of his whiskey, Shifty continued. “So, we have your basic progression of bosses: named, elite, monstrous, ancient, and then the bigger ones. Horrific, nightmare crap that no one talks about, probably because no one lived through the fights to tell the story. Named aren’t much tougher than normal monsters. The most common are elementals that pop up near natural resources.”

“Elites are pretty dangerous. You either need a group of people or be damned tough yourself and higher than their level.”

“Monstrous creatures can take on a whole raid of creatures of their own tier. All of the big dungeon bosses are Monstrous or higher.”

“This thing is higher than that. Monstrous would normally mean she could take on a raid of 50 people in Tier 3 and Tier 4. But she’s also Unique, which means she’s got a special ability. World Boss is bad news. They herald all sorts of shit.”

He shuddered, and…

“The Blight Queen of Helagra? World Boss. At half of the Empire.”

“The Dragon Father Typhon and his Queen Echidna? World Bosses. It took the Father of the Gods to defeat them, and Zeus had to cheat as well.”

“Ever heard of a town called Serbule? Don’t worry—hardly anyone has. It got eaten by a giant Kraken named George. World Bosses are hard on cities.”

“Something big is happening. Something happened down deep and stirred her up, or maybe killing a lot of her babies up here got her mad. Probably the start of a big quest, heroes running all over the world and glorious amounts of loot. Too bad we’ll probably all be dead.”

Shifty sat down and pulled a second flask out of his backpack and drank heavily. “Excuse me, wishing I’d never gotten all those levels in Legendary Lore right now. I think that I’d rather not know.”

Milo’s mind was whirling, trying to think of plans. Bone Crusher had been an Elite Level 7. When he first encountered Salasha, she had been an Elite Level 8 boss. He wished he had more info on Robazahl the Ancient or the Ever-Pudding. Of course, he’d had a lot of help killing them. Right now it was just the three of them and little in the way of resources other than lots of rock.

“You don’t think we can beat her? Maybe I should head down and get the rest of the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild? What if we seal off the tunnels and trap her down here until we get help?”

Shifty took another drink and handed the flask to Vary. The youngster took a sip, and his face turned red, but he didn’t spit it out. Shifty nodded at him. “Good lad. Never waste a swig of good whiskey.”

He turned to Milo. “Stopping it isn’t going to work. She’d never fit through the existing tunnels anyway. But she can wreck the stone, cause fissures in the rock, and then dig her way up. That’s her special ability—breaking stone—but this area is already broken up. If she creates fissures big enough to get to the city, she’ll crack open the harbor. We’re pretty much right under it. How good are you at breathing seawater?”

Milo envisioned the sea racing down a crevice to the mines, flooding them and killing everyone. Then going lower, flooding cavern after cavern until it reached his friend Harry, and flooded the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild. All of the caverns in this area would fill with seawater.

“Right. New plan. We fight her here, and we get help. Vary? I need you to take a message for me to Senior Engineers Throttlecog and Two-Screws, and one to Belinda the Healer.” Milo slowed down to write two notes legibly.

Shifty had no idea what Milo was planning, other than suicide. “And what are you going to be doing?”

Milo was setting down his pack and any gear he didn’t need for a fight. “I’m going to go play with her and try to get an idea of how she fights. Maybe I can delay her. Can you go with Vary and guard him?”

Shifty eyed the youngster. “He’s a runner. He’ll make it. And he’s faster than me. I’ll stay here with you. Watch your back.”

Milo slapped him on the back and smiled. “Glad to have you.”

Somewhere inside of him, Shifty was very unhappy with himself. But that’s how the world worked. One last job, then he and Burnock could get the hell upstairs, where it might be safe. He wouldn’t stop there. He had a small stash of coins and would get the hell out of town. Come to think of it, he knew how to get to Burnock’s hidden treasure. He’d keep that safe and get it out of town as well. Burnock was probably going to die like anyone else who stayed here and wouldn’t need it.

Vary was already on his way. He stumbled and nearly went sprawling when he received a notification.

Your application to the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild has been approved.

Welcome, most junior brother, Varyhold of Clan Axegrinder. Senior Engineer Milo has approved your application to join his guild. Please report for testing, remedial lessons, and daily chores ASAP. Your slot in the Twirl and Hurl Mk IV has been scheduled. 

Vary increased his pace, vigilant for lurkers, with a huge smile on his face and determination in his eyes.

Chapter 6

The Brood Mother isn’t going to be winning any races, Milo thought. He watched as she slowly moved through the cave they were in. One leg took a step, braced her huge body, then a leg on the opposite side. After several steps, a point was reached where the weight shifted to a new set of legs and she moved forward. She bent forward, her head went to the floor, and her huge mouth gouged out a boulder’s worth of stone that she chewed and swallowed. Then back to moving. Twelve steps by twelve legs, advance a few yards, and then chew some stone.

One leg in particular got larger and larger, and then with a crack, a large piece of stony armor fell off the leg and stood up on its own. The immature stonelurker followed along, joined now and then by another until a dozen of them suddenly began moving down the tunnel system toward the town. They weren’t fast, but many times quicker than their mother.

Shifty grunted in disgust, then whispered. “She’s sending out scouts or soldiers to fight. Probably knows when they die, so she sends more. All they cost her is rock and time.”

“If the miners and rangers weren’t killing them, she’d have an army by now,” Milo agreed.

Shifty looked again at the massive stone monster. “As if it needs an army. But you’re right. So what’s the plan? We’ve sat and watched for a while. Are you thinking of trying to distract her, or do you have some secret engineer plan to take her out?”

“I have a plan. Maybe not a great one. And already put one part of it in motion. But I think I just might try and see if I can distract her for a few minutes and test out some ideas. I need to know how she moves to make my plan have a chance at working. Something that slow I should be able to avoid easily.” Milo took off his pack and prepared to move up behind the monster.

“What do you need me to do?” Shifty said in a slightly hesitant voice.

Milo nodded at him. “You have the important part of yelling out warnings and watching my back.”

Shifty nodded. “Got it, boss. I’ll watch your back. I’m good at that.”

Vary had run as if all the ghosts of his ancestors were urging him on. And maybe some of them were. He slowed up as he got close to where he expected to find the engineers, shifting his gait into the half-run that he’d been trained in to regain some breath. No one wanted to have a messenger run up and not be able to give a coherent report. Just as he was coming in sight of the camp, he sped back up to a run for a good-looking finish.

“I need to talk to the senior engineer.” Several dwarves pointed, and a couple yelled back to the crowd. Vary quickly found Two-Screws and Throttlecog, who were trying to get some point across to a group of rangers. He pushed his way through, using surprise and elbows to get to the front of the crowd.

“I’ve got a report from Senior Engineer Milo!”

Anyone upset at getting an elbow to the ribs stifled their complaint. An old miner yelled, “Give the runner some room! He’s got a report!”

Throttlecog looked over at him and then paused for a second. “Give us your report, Apprentice Engineer Varyhold.” He smiled at the young dwarf. “We’ll be having a bit of a talk later. What’s Milo got to tell us?”

“We found the big lurker. It’s more than just a Brood Mother. It’s a World Boss named Uthneragrubban.”

Low murmurs and a few cries of astonishment came from the crowd. Two-Screws gave a long, low whistle. “Well, that changes things quite a bit. Milo got a good identification on it?”

“No, sir. Too high a level for him or me. But Corporal Shifty has a keen eye and high perception. He got a good identification of her. Oh… I should just share this?”

Throttlecog nodded. “Might as well, son. Nothing good ever came of holding back info about a critter from the people that have to fight it.”

“Here it is, sir. Milo—uh, Senior Engineer Milo, that is—says we need to fight it far away from here. He’s worried it can trigger a quake if it starts burrowing up.” The information appeared to anyone nearby as Vary shared the monster’s information with them. Burnock had just reached the group after hearing that a runner had come in. He paled at the revelation of what they were fighting but stifled the fear with anger.

“He can say whatever he likes, but Milo isn’t in charge. I am, and I say that we aren’t moving from this spot. We have resupply from the city and can get the wounded up to healers. I’ve got a hospital being set up in the guild hall.”

His voice rang out with authority and the deep-rooted knowledge that he was right. The crowd shifted uneasily, but no one said anything that put his authority in doubt, until a gruff voice that was used to being heard over the loudest of machines called out.

“Not as of now, you aren’t. This emergency supersedes clan and guild politics. The mines and city are in danger. This is now an engineering operation, and every last one of you is drafted!”

Throttlecog’s voice rang out loud and clear. It had a commanding quality that swept away any doubts and gave the miners some hope.

“Captain Burnock, get your rangers organized, and let’s get the supplies loaded in carts and move the camp. Good job, by the way, sending your corporal. He got us critical information on our enemy. Miner Darnfeld, you just got promoted to the position of Captain of the miners. Get moving, head up the tunnels, and link up with Senior Engineer Milo. Take out any little ones along the way—they seem to be getting thinner. Vary, you lead the way for them.”

Vary looked a bit nervous. “Sir, is it all right if I catch up? I have one more message to deliver for Milo.”

Throttlecog narrowed one eye. “He doesn’t want more cheese, does he?”

Vary shook his head. “No, sir. He has a plan to get reinforcements.”

Two-Screws chuckled. “Of course he does. Go on, get on with delivering your message, and then catch up with Darnfeld.”

Vary ran off, looking for the human healer.

Belinda found herself racing up the stairs and ladders as she climbed out of the mines and reached the bottom of the guild hall. From there, she pushed past anyone in her way until she got to the main hall. She paused then, looking around for an adventurer she knew who had a much louder voice than hers. She was just a junior healer in her guild, without a lot of friends. If she was going to get the word out, she’d need help.

“You got a problem, missy? You’re staring around my guild hall like you need to say something. Plus, you’re dirty and tracking in mud. How many times do I have to tell you adventurers to wipe your feet?!” The speaker was the halfling at the big desk. Belinda remembered he was from the Horntoe clan but couldn’t remember his name. But he did have a loud voice.

“I’ve got a quest to give out, Mr. Horntoe, an important one!” As she started talking, she gained confidence. It was an important quest, and Milo had trusted her with getting it done!

The halfling rolled his eyes. “Sure you do. And I have Quest Request Forms you can fill out, pay the fee, and I’ll post it on the boards. That’s how things work around here.”

Belinda took two steps toward him. “No, you don’t understand…

“No, you don’t understand!” Bernard was getting agitated; his second lunch had been interrupted, and the last thing he needed to deal with was an excited human. They always got too excited about things, and then they got crazy. Sure enough, the human in front of him started acting crazy and shouting.

“Damn you! Listen to me! Uthneragrubban is coming! It’s a gigantic stonelurker that breeds armies of lurkers. She’s a World Boss! Milo thinks it might cause an earthquake and destroy the city. The Deep Rock Engineers are trying to stop it along with the dwarf rangers and the miners. We need help! We need every adventurer in the city!”

She paused, panting, and staring at him. A few adventurers and citizens of the city looked over to where Bernard was in a heated argument with a pretty young human.

Bernard took a deep breath. “Engineers? World Boss? Slow down; you’re getting yourself worked up. Let’s just⁠—”

WORLDWIDE QUEST!

The City of Shadowport is in Grave Peril! The first of the great World Bosses has appeared. (And way ahead of schedule!).

Uthneragrubban, Brood Mother of the Stonelurkers, The Breaker of Heroes, and The Earth Shatterer is advancing upon the city. If she reaches the end of the caverns, she may well destroy the city with her stone-rending might!

The Ancient Guild of Deep Rock Engineers calls for all Brave Adventurers to join them in their quest to destroy this powerful creature!

Glory, Experience, and Uber Loot await the Victorious Heroes who stop this Legendary creature from the Deep Dark.

Bernard looked shocked at first, but then shrugged and said, “Well, shit, guess that’s how stuff works around here now. I’ll get my spear and magic helmet and join up.” He reached behind the desk, grabbed a pack, and put it on, along with a shiny gold helmet. Then he tossed a large white bag to Belinda. “Take this. Guild Hall First-Aid Kit. It’s a lot bigger on the inside than the outside.”

Then he stood on the desk and yelled in a surprisingly loud voice for such a small humanoid, “You idiots saw the announcement! Get your asses in gear and follow the lovely Belinda and me down to the mines. We’ve got a World Boss to kill!”

Belinda reached into the magical first-aid kit. It was a portable hospital packed into a dimensional storage device. She’d heard of such things, but they were incredibly rare. And never this big. She pulled out a Hefty Mana Potion of Refreshment and downed it, instantly replenishing her mana and stamina. Then she was surprised by a system message.

Message Delivered!

You have alerted the authorities of the lurking menace beneath them, and the call for aid has gone out.

You receive 10 Enhancement Points and 500 Boss Experience Points.

New Ability: Raid Leader (CHA)

Someone has to herd the cats and do the paperwork. Welcome to the Glory of Management.

Adventurers were pouring into the guild hall at a run. Belinda and Bernard led them downward to the impending battle.

Chapter 7

Milo was in trouble. Most of him didn’t know it yet and was still having a good time. But somewhere in his brain, a small alarm was going off, and a few neurons were hoping someone would notice. The evidence was accumulating that he was over his head. Not that such a thing had ever stopped him before. But this was a different level of danger.

But until the rest of his brain caught up with that part, Milo was going to keep trying to find ways to kill a World Boss, or at least slow it up. Little rats should not challenge such huge creatures on their own. Milo was used to punching well above his weight class, and it was making him foolhardy. Or maybe that was all the cheese in his system? Only that small, scared part of his brain knew.

Uthneragrubban was huge and slow. A moving fortress that now and again sent troops to battle. Those troops mostly ignored him, moving forward into the mines. If they moved to attack him, he would move away from the Brood Mother, kill the immature stonelurkers, and then come back in to try to find her weak points. So far, he hadn’t found any.

He’d started by attacking a rear leg. They rarely moved and were easy to hit. And with every hit, his weapon did more and more damage. After ten hits, he was taking off chunks of stone the size of his head. At twenty hits, a large slab loosened and fell off. Then it formed into a small stonelurker that attacked him. Three moved in from other areas. He was forced to back away from Uthneragrubban and deal with them. When he returned to hitting the monster, the leg armor had reformed. As he watched, she bent her head down and began to eat more of the loose stone in front of her. Her large claws shoveled it into her maw. Even as he watched, the stone was thickening on the thinner areas of its armor. The new stone wasn’t as hard as adult lurker armor, but it spread so fast that it didn’t have to be.

He backed away and observed again. Shifty moved up beside him. “I think there is something under all that stone. I got a glimpse of it as you were getting mobbed by that last batch. There was another layer. Blue and sparkly-looking. I also got a good look at her from the front. Her teeth inside that huge mouth have the same appearance, and I can see some blue on the tips of its legs. They narrow down and get sharp, with the last couple of inches showing that blue crystal.”

Milo had Shifty take him in closer and show him what he’d noticed. With the skilled “scout” pointing things out, he could finally see all the areas where just a hint of the crystal poked out of the heavy stone armor. Shifty brought up the information he had gotten from inspecting Uthneragrubban. “One of her abilities is Crystalline—I’m guessing it’s a hard structure underneath the stone.”

Milo nodded, which fit with the failure of his Brittle Bones spell. He’d cast it over and over on the monster and felt it fade away immediately, not doing anything. It seemed to affect the little ones, but not the World Boss with a crystalline core. “Next plan. We wait for her to slough off a big lot, then you lead them off a bit, and I’ll attack one spot and see if I can’t uncover the core, and see what it takes to hurt it.”

Shifty didn’t like that plan, but he smiled at Milo and gave him a thumbs-up. “Sure thing. No beastie made of rock can catch me. I’ll lead them around a bit, shake them off, and then double back to here. You be careful now.” He ran off to get into position to the front of Uthneragrubban.

The plan worked as far as drawing off the next group. Slabs fell from three legs at once, and Shifty led a dozen lurkers away. Milo felt he had some time to work on that back leg. He tried to chip away head-sized chunks and not let a big slab fall that might form another stonelurker. As more and more stone flew, he saw the crystalline core, under over two feet of heavy stone armor. Not pausing, he brought his weapon down on the crystal. There was a small bell-like chime, but nothing else. He hit again and again and again. He was making small cracks in the crystal, but they fused shut faster than he could do damage. Eventually, he had to stop. The stone was regenerating, the crystal wasn’t taking enough damage, and he was panting hard.

Moving to a safer spot a hundred feet behind the creature, he sat down and gnawed on a chunk of cheese. At the rate this was going, he might need to send Vary for more. As the cheese got into his system, his muscles swelled, and he felt he could fight all day. Which was good, since he could be chipping away at this thing for a month… or until it collapsed the caverns and destroyed the city. He felt like he was getting nowhere. Even as he watched, the huge head scooped up more raw stone and chewed it. Uthneragrubban seemed to be able to process the stone to armor and then turn it into more lurkers, all at an amazingly fast pace. She was almost done with the pile of debris. Milo assumed she’d move on, looking for more. There was no shortage of rock piles in the mines.

Maybe that was Uthneragrubban’s weak point. Those front claws didn’t seem to be jointed to reach behind, and the legs certainly couldn’t. Maybe it was time to work from the top? He ran behind the monster and then sprinted and leaped, grabbing hold of her stony armor with his claws and pulling himself up. The top of the World Boss was stable, and he could easily move around. A ridge of stony spikes started at where the back of the neck would be on a human, ran down the back of its torso, then back along the center of the main body. He decided to start at the midpoint.

It took over two dozen blows to get down to the crystal. Rather than attack the core, he concentrated on clearing stone. Each hit was revealing more and more of the inner monster. The crystal glowed brightly, showing strange energies moving inside. They looked like lightning or electrical impulses. Was he looking at a nervous system?

Milo studied the inner workings of the creature, comparing the flaring energies to the electrical pulses of nerve cells along a human’s spine. Milo had spent thousands of hours studying his own body and how it differed from a normal human. He’d had to in order to understand enough about himself to stay alive.

Here was another strange creature. Her rocky epidermis protected a solid, crystalline body with no bones, blood, or soft tissues. Some sort of magical lightning carried commands throughout its body. Beautiful in many ways. Milo had to remind himself that this creature was also going to kill him, his friends, and an entire city if it wasn’t stopped.

Milo knew his weapon wasn’t going to hurt the crystal, but what about his claws? Concentrating hard on his hands, he made the bone claws as hard and sharp as he could, pouring mana into his Bonecasting ability. One claw scratched across the crystalline surface, cutting it. He cut deeper on the same line. Then went faster and faster, the claw going deeper and deeper until the thin furrow was two inches deep and there was a small pile of crystal shavings. His claws were sharp enough to hurt the crystal, but what held him back was enough force to cut deeper. With his cheese bonuses, he was at 10 STR, very good for his level, and it simply wasn’t enough to do more than scratch away small shards of crystal. Then his claw was deep enough that he touched the lightning inside the crystal with interesting results.

Uthneragrubban jerked back a step, and its head swiveled, as if noticing Milo for the first time. The crystal furrow tightened, trapping his bone-clad finger. The crystal area he had exposed glowed, and rocky armor was rapidly forming over the area, erasing the damage he had done. Now his entire hand was trapped, and two toes on his left foot. He started to claw at the rock to free himself.

The World Boss needed rock for food to regenerate her armor and heal the damage to its crystal core. After noticing the small attacker and healing the minuscule damage, she bent to scoop up more of the loose rock, but the pile was gone. But Uthneragrubban didn’t need loose rock to feed. Milo had made a bad assumption.

Shifty was watching from a safe distance away. He’d quickly ditched the throng of immature lurkers and let them head to wherever they thought they were going. Then he’d come back to see what the crazy engineer was going to do next. Frankly, Shifty was thinking he wasn’t going to have to do a damn thing to get rid of him for Burnock. The guy was going to get himself killed on his own. He felt a bit guilty at the thought—then better that he still felt guilty. And then far worse when he realized he felt guilty and was still going to get rid of Milo. Was that the best he could say of himself? That he felt guilty after killing someone? No wonder no one liked him. Of course, no one really liked Burnock either. But he had the family name and fortune. You could be an asshole when you were rich and from a good family.

While he was griping about his life, Shifty realized something was happening. The big critter reared back, and Milo cursed from his spot riding on top of her. Then cursed a lot more. Uthneragrubban lifted two front legs and drove them into the ground, then the next set and the next, until all twelve legs were firmly anchored. The huge claws with their heavy forearms raised into the air, and their tips began to glow.

Blue light leaked out of cracks in the stone armor.

The huge claws came down and slammed into the ground.

**RUMBLE**

The ground around Uthneragrubban was pulverized into loose rock and gravel in a fifty-foot radius circle, twenty feet deep. Rocks fell from the ceiling, and small fissures radiated out from the impact site. Far above, in the city, the buildings shook and waves appeared in the normally quiet harbor.

Milo wasn’t aware of this. All he knew was that his world exploded as the energies in the core found their way to the spot where he was standing without the thick rock to contain them. The stone shattered, and a small piece of crystal broke and was fused to his bony claw. The explosion of force shot him up to the ceiling, very, very fast. A message flashed across his vision.

You have been RUMBLED!

Few creatures have been so close to Uthneragrubban when it releases its rock-shattering might. And far fewer have survived! (Well, for now. Who knows what happens in the next few seconds?)

You have taken 200 points of damage. Only your Hard-Runed Bones keep you from dying.

Your nervous system is in shock and cannot move. Pudding-Based Regeneration is engaging to repair your damaged nerves. You will be able to move again on your own in 1 minute.

The ceiling and floor also had something to say to him.

You have taken 125 damage from impact with the hard stone of the cave roof. This is reduced because of your mitigation and Hard-Runed Bones.

And gravity sucks, but it’s not a law you can repeal. You take 50 points of damage as you fall to the rocky ground.

Uthneragrubban looked at the first of what it knew would be many adversaries. This one would be ground to death in her jaws, along with the rock he was lying on. The huge jaws came down toward the stunned rat.

Shifty had no recollection of making a decision, but suddenly he was running. Maybe he’d realized with his twisted, clever brain that this creature wasn’t something he could run away from. Or maybe it was realizing that the only person who’d treated him with any respect lately was about to die. But, whatever the reason, he found himself running forward, his fast-moving feet finding the places on the loose scree to give him good footing. He got to Milo just as Uthneragrubban bore down on him and pulled him free. The huge maw missed them by scant feet, and they tumbled a few feet to lie in a heap.

Shifty got to his feet, got Milo in his arms, and raced to get away.

He didn’t make it.

A massive stone claw targeted him, and the blow sent both Shifty and Milo flying through the air, only to land fifty feet away.

Milo didn’t feel it—he was knocked out cold.

Shifty didn’t feel it either. The blow shattered all of his ribs and turned most of his spine into shattered bone. More damage was done as he landed.

Uthneragrubban ignored the broken bodies and chewed three more mouthfuls of stone to replenish herself. And then she began to slowly walk toward the city. She had lain sleeping below for ages until the shockwaves of an earth tremor had disturbed her. She awoke knowing that her time had come. Her purpose drove her to the surface.

Now the little defenders would come in droves. These gnats were just the first of many more. They didn’t matter. They could no more stop her than they could stop the great machine below from spinning the world on its axis. When she laid claim to her portion of the surface, her siblings would ascend to claim theirs as well. And then they would war for control of the world and whose children would inherit it.

Chapter 8

Someone was screaming. It was very loud, so loud that Milo couldn’t ignore it. It sounded like Shifty. Another person screamed in short, sharp bursts. Many people were sitting around him, hugging their knees with eyes closed, repeating the same thing over and over. Beep. Beep. Beep

Waking from the dream, Milo slammed the lid of the pod open and lay gasping for air as his mind tried to shift from the game to reality. Two claxons were going off, trying to get his attention. Other systems were flashing lights and giving off the steady beep, beep that said, “I’m important, but it can wait a little… maybe.”

As he got up and started moving to his screens, the sounds automatically decreased in volume. His systems still wanted attention, but they knew he was awake. He looked at his list of trouble spots and was horrified. What the hell were these people thinking? They were barely supplying enough power for their section, and instead, they were tapping into the sections that still had power production, including his. Fresh water was also being siphoned, and wastewater was returned rather than cleaned.

Sewage and garbage were the worst. They were simply using other sections as garbage dumps. One of his big drops was being used to send trash and sewage down to the lowest levels. This was the most urgent problem.

On the bright side, they were repairing the lighting and the camera systems. Milo made a few adjustments and added the new cameras to his information-gathering systems. He spent ten minutes going from camera to camera, playing the video at ten times the normal speed while he sent commands to his systems. These people were getting ready for something larger and wanted to put on some type of large production. A stage backed by large screens was set up in one of the larger green areas. It looked like a park rather than the dead jungle it had been a week ago. Communication cables were being run up to the roof, and a new uplink dish had been installed. He made notes to hack into the System; it might be better than what he had now.

He didn’t have time to go investigate further, so he started throwing spanners into their systems. If they had found it convenient to steal from Section E, then he was going to make it less convenient. Catastrophic, in fact.

He found solutions, but then spent more time to make things look like a series of bad engineering decisions and flawed machinery. Humans tended to form ideas first, and then when machines told them differently, they still held onto those ideas. In this case, they were going to be sure the problem was with the temporary system of hydrogen fuel cells they had installed. There was only one technician monitoring the System. Milo sent a looped feed to his screens, showing that everything was working just fine. In two hours, when things went wrong, the regular and backup videos would receive a command from his console to erase themselves.

Production of energy and flow of hydrogen were both increased far beyond what was needed. The cells began to overheat. The cooling system for the area shut off, and instead, the heating system turned on. The stored energy was sent to the electrical system in pulses. At first, it wasn’t noticeable, but toward the last few minutes, the lights would begin to flare and dim. Then the power cells gave one last pulse of energy before they quit adding power to the grid altogether and began to overheat. If hydrogen cells get too hot, they become useless. These were getting very hot.

Simultaneously to the last pulse, Milo had the lights flare as bright as they could. Fire alarms went off, and sprinkler systems voided the rotten, rusty water in their pipes down onto millions of dollars of new equipment. A huge amount of energy from Section E hit three transformer units that Milo had been prepping for overload at the same time as the pulse. All three gave a loud hum and exploded, plunging many areas into darkness.

Concurrent with this happening, Milo had two of his modified clog eaters working their way through the pipes to the pumping station sending filth into his section. The wastewater he could use and recycle. The sewage and liquified garbage he didn’t want. Clog eaters were a special type of robot that could do a lot more than chew through clogs. They could also chew through the interior mechanisms of a pumping station until it stopped working. Most of the machinery was corroded and soft. It didn’t take much to snap it apart. Their work done; his little robots retreated behind the line of Section E.

Milo had only taken twenty minutes to set all this up. It was hurried, but he needed to get back to the game. For some reason, he was knocked out and not dead. He had to be ready to get back to work, finding a way to stop a World Boss.

His last act before logging back into the game was to send out orders for a variety of materials from less-than-legal manufacturers of body armor, prosthetics, and explosives. Milo didn’t know what was happening next door. But dumping a sewer into his section meant WAR! And he was going to be prepared.

Oh, something equally important! He needed another order of cheese and a box of crackers.

“Oh god, the boss is going to be pissed!” The comment captured the essential feelings of all the technicians present. They were desperately trying to find out what had happened and to rig some emergency lighting. Stinking water covered the floor from the sprinkler system. One of the technicians had advised flushing the System, but his report had been tossed for lack of time. The smell of ozone, burned rubber, and raw sewage filled the air. The toilets and sinks had backed up and were spewing raw sewage from somewhere above them. Almost all the work done on this section of the habitat would have to be done again after they cleaned up.

They ran out of time when a large group of people walked into the room. Several of them were senior technicians and engineers on the project. All of them had been in a meeting with the board of directors. The meeting had been onsite and was to end with a viewing of what they had so far accomplished and a preview of the event happening in two days. That event wasn’t going to happen.

Seven technicians, three engineers, two architects, four lawyers, eight bodyguards, four members of the board, and the chairman descended onto the hapless group of lower-level techs. A babble of voices broke out, asking questions all at once. The chairman let it continue for a minute and then cleared his voice. “Let’s try this one at a time. You! Tell me your name, your station, and your observations.”

The technician took a second to realize everyone was looking at him and then began talking. There was a rumor that the boss could be merciful if you were absolutely truthful and didn’t try to shift the blame. “Jerry Olchek, sir. I monitor the output of the hydrogen cells and the room they are in. It’s usually pretty straightforward, with a small adjustment now and then, as our system needs more or less power. We started seeing some electrical problems a couple of hours ago. Lights flickering, small stuff. But each time the grid adjusted, it went away. The power from the fuel cells was dead normal, temperatures normal, and nothing out of the ordinary. Then all hell broke loose, the lights flared, there was a large electrical surge, and then the transformers blew up.” He paused. When he had nothing else to say, the boss went on to someone else.

Eventually, reports came in. Three transformers were blown, and half the lights were destroyed and needed replacing. No damage to the communication and uplink system. A stroke of luck there. The hydrogen fuel cells were a total loss. Temperatures had soared in the storage room, destroying the storage batteries and generation equipment. Again, some luck in that there had been no leaks of the hydrogen fuel. The tanks had shut down as they should.

The chairman, John Sabbatino, had questions. “Can someone tell me how long it would take, even operating full bore, for fuel cells to melt down?” A few tablets came out, and calculations were done. “About 1.2 hours, sir. Quicker if the cooling system wasn’t on. Not at all if we knew it was happening and could have shut things down and vented the heat out of the area.”

“Please check Mr. Olchek’s log. I’m sure it will show us what we need to know.”

Jerry was helpful with the chore. He knew what he had seen. But the files weren’t there. He found himself out of his seat and placed between two bodyguards. After another half hour, a senior technician reported what he had found. “Just after the power surge, someone working at this station erased the last twelve hours of surveillance tapes and the backups. We don’t have the uplink finished so the data was all stored on-site.”

John put his hands behind his back and looked at Jerry with disappointment on his face. “Well, Jerry, that doesn’t look good. We don’t pay people to make mistakes like this and then cover it up. It’s your choice how we handle this, Jerry. I can press charges for corporate espionage and send you off to prison. A waste of your talents. Or, you can agree you owe the corporation for the damages, and we’ll escort you down to Human Resources, and you can start working it off. I think double shifts, seven days a week, will help you generate more income. We’ll keep most of it. How do you want to handle it, Jerry? And we’ll help you save money by giving you a cubicle to live in, just like lots of people living in the habitats. Or, I can promise you a cell of the same size. I’m flexible.”

Jerry knew he was never seeing his small but comfortable apartment again. His girlfriend with expensive tastes was equally gone. He’d be lucky if he only had a twenty-year stint shoveling chemical waste in a factory. Still, it beat prison time. “I’ll work it off, sir. And thank you, sir.”

Mr. Sabbatino smiled and shook his hand. “Glad to see you doing the right thing, Jerry. Oh, and it would be good if you told HR who you were working for.” Jerry was hauled away, trying to think of which of his old employers he’d blame this on. Someone handed the chairman something to wipe his hands with.

“All right people. We have a minor setback. That just means we can rebuild better. I’m authorizing additional funds for overtime for everyone. Let’s see what we can do to get things up and running in the next two days.”

Eric Kresthammer, another board member, approached the chairman. “John, I have an interesting offer that you might want to look at.”

John was interested. Eric didn’t waste his time on stupid things. Which was one of the reasons why Eric was still around after a couple of decades. John liked competent people who didn’t waste his time, and Eric was a cornerstone of his firm and one of his oldest friends. “Let’s see what you have.”

Taking the tablet, he quickly went through the initial offer and then looked at the technical details. Nicely organized technical details. These people at least knew how to write a proposal and not make it an all-day project. “Do we know anything about Mr. B’zon and the Freedom Engineering Group?”

Eric had anticipated that. “Tab Q has the information. They’ve overseen the technical aspects, design, and troubleshooting of several impressive projects. They are a think tank, not a construction group. They work with some very impressive people and bring in the best experts to follow their instructions. We can use our own people if we want, but frankly, theirs are better and will save money in the long run. Either way, Freedom will be checking the work. If we vary from their designs, they don’t care but will charge a ton to fix our screw-ups. They hate having their time wasted and don’t do long meetings.”

“Damn, they sound great.”

“They are, John. But let me be very clear. Information on them is scarce. Mr. B’zon is the spokesman for the group but is rarely seen. The rest of the group works with voice and video altered to protect their identities. Not one of them is known. And we don’t know where they operate out of. A very mysterious and competent group. But no black marks on them, and the only complaints have been that if they don’t like a job, they politely walk away and refund all payments. They won’t explain, but the general consensus is they do it to avoid corporations trying to put pressure on them or their families. They refuse to sign exclusive contracts and have told a few of the big guys to go piss up a rope.”

John smiled. “I like them already. As long as the job gets done, I don’t care who they are. And even this proposal is dead on, based on what we saw today. They advise against hydrogen fuel cells for power generation as too costly, even as a transitory system. They suggest going with an acre of Sun Jammer brand solar panels on the roof and four Wind Jammer units to augment the solar panels. That all feeds into a Tokamak Radiant-Diamond storage cell.”

Eric nodded. “Expensive up front, but projected to cost far less over time. We’d still need to pull power from the city grid, but that was always part of the plan. And frankly, I don’t like how many ‘refurbished’ mechanical systems our current team is using from stuff they found on-site. This blow-up was going to happen sooner or later. Jerry was just an idiot and let it happen on his watch. Probably asleep or watching porn and not paying attention to the monitors. We need to build better, John, if we are staying in this place permanently.”

John was unconvinced. “Those monitors have alarms. Did he sleep through those too? You know what? Doesn’t matter. Let’s move forward. Jerry is old news. I want you to hire Freedom and tell our current team that the fees we pay Freedom come out of their budget. They were skimming off of us and got caught. Now they pay the price. Send Freedom the rest of the specs for the entire section and get their feedback.” He looked at his watch and scowled.

“This little fiasco is costing me time with my daughter. We were supposed to eat together tonight, and then she was going to help me get the hang of this new game. It’s a little ironic how much we are staking on Genesis, and yet I need my daughter to show me the ropes.”

A woman who had been hovering stepped up. “Sir, I have a message from your daughter. She won’t be at dinner tonight. Something urgent.”

John paused, then smiled a real smile. “Well, I’m glad she’s having fun. Something in the game? Or is it a boyfriend?” A few people became uncomfortable but smiled appropriately. The chances of Belinda Sabbatino having a boyfriend were quite small.

“In her game, sir. Something big is happening. The first-ever World Boss is attacking Shadowport. Ancient dwarven engineers have appeared to fight beside the miners, and she’s leading the raid group of adventurers that are fighting against the creature.”

John Sabbatino took the tablet and read the original message. “Wow! That’s amazing! My little girl is leading raids? And a first-ever?!! Damn, I’m so jealous. Keep me appraised of what’s going on! Tell her that daddy is proud of her and, of course, that the raid is her first priority.”

He smiled at everyone. Even with all the crap happening, the day was turning out to be a good one.

“And Jenny? Find out how to get footage of that raid. Multiple viewpoints, interviews with the players and NPCs, a list of the loot, and tons of battle coverage. I don’t care what it costs. This is a big story; I can smell it. We can be on top of it and scoop some of the other gaming sites.”

Turning to the assembled people. “Listen up! Big things are happening. I want this place fixed up ASAP. Limit it to one floor. We’re paying the usual double wages for overtime. If you work a triple, then we pay quadruple wages. Someone please get on the phone with accounting and tell them not to slow things up. Eric, get the Freedom people working for us, and get another crew of people in here as well.”

Still smiling, he crooked a finger, and his head of security walked over.

“Donny, run down to HR. Too much happening at once, and something smells. I want to know the truth about Jerry. And then let’s do some investigating and put some pieces together down here. Maybe we can find whatever rat chewed on our cables and made everything break at once.”

Unaware of just how much chaos he had set in motion, Milo logged into the game. Everything was black and fuzzy for a moment, and then he regained his senses in the game. He hurt all over. Someone was pouring a healing potion down his throat. Then a piece of cheese got jammed in his mouth. He sat up, chewing and groaning. It felt like every muscle hurt, down to his toes.

“Don’t move fast. I don’t know how you two idiots are alive, but it’s just barely.” Belinda was by his side, looking exhausted. She turned to her other patient, who turned out to be Shifty. Shifty didn’t look good. There were makeshift splits on arms and legs, and sandbags held his body from moving. His face was pasty white, and his breathing was just a small whisper.

Belinda turned to him. “I don’t know what all is going on, but I need you and your freaky Bone Magic to help me, or he’s going to die. I’ve done some spells, but I can’t get a healing potion down him.”

“And we need to know what you know about the beasty.” Two-Screws was sitting nearby. He had a large dent in the side of his helmet, and he was trying to hammer it out. How his head survived, Milo had no clue.

Belinda was adamant. “Talk and heal. I’ve been doing both non-stop for an hour. The raid is about to start. We looked all over for you two and only just found you with Vary’s help.”

Milo touched Shifty and immediately felt overwhelming guilt for bringing the brave scout on this mission. His spine and ribs were a jigsaw puzzle of shattered bone. Milo made a decision. He gave his report first because healing wouldn’t let him concentrate on anything else. He continued to catalog all of the injured dwarf’s injuries as he gave Two-Screws the info.

“It’s amazingly tough. It eats stone constantly to regrow armor, and the armor falls off to make new lurkers. They shouldn’t be more than a distraction, though. Underneath the stone is a core of ultra-hard crystal. My weapon could barely touch it even after dozens of hits. I don’t think any adventurer under Tier 4 is going to do much to the crystal, but they can strip her ablative armor, and keep the new lurkers from forming.”

Belinda handed him another Minor Healing Potion from a pouch, and he drank it down.

“But that’s not the real problem. It likes to shatter the rock around it and anyone nearby. She plants all dozen legs, and then the crystal creates a seismic blast that shatters the surrounding rock. It’s what it will use to tunnel up to the city and flood the caverns.”

Milo turned back to shifty and began concentrating. Two-Screws ran off to coordinate with the raid group, and after a moment, Belinda did too. She’d done what she could to keep Shifty alive. Now what mana she had left was needed to save people who were fighting. It was up to Milo to heal the wounded scout if he could.

He concentrated on his magic. It let him sense bone, repair bone, and reinforce bone. He sank into a half-trance, trying to build up an image of where each sliver went. Milo heard a soft voice in his head.

“Start with the spine. It’s the most important. Ribs can come later.” It was eerie hearing Cichol’s voice in his head. Milo reached inside Shifty with his magic and began shifting the bones into place. Cichol’s spectral hands helped him. As each piece of the spine was fixed, Milo used just enough mana to start the bones knitting. He had to finish it all, not just one part.

Another large chunk of cheese and a mana potion went down his throat quickly as he worked. But it wasn’t going to be enough. Belinda had done what she could, and Milo was fixing things as well, but Shifty didn’t have a lot of time.

“Well, shit. Sorry about this, Shifty, but it looks like you’re joining the guild. I hate not giving you a choice. We can sort out what happens later.” If Shifty had been conscious, he’d have seen a system message.

Welcome to the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild. Your new name is: “Shift-Stick.”

Rank: Apprentice

Status: Broken up more than the guild hall after Milo “miscalculated” his explosive forces.

Engage Pudding-Based Regeneration? (Recommended)

Engage Malvosian Regeneration? (Recommended)

Permission for both types of regeneration is approved by acting Guild Master Milo due to the new apprentice’s critical injuries.

Status changed to: Critical But Recovering. 

A good start. How to get some healing potions down him, though? After a moment, Milo found the battered whiskey flask. It was still half full. He poured two of his most potent healing potions into the flask and then put it to Shifty’s—no, to Shift-Stick’s—lips. Immediately he began sucking at the flask, drinking the potent mixture like a baby with a bottle. Then he relaxed. Pain left his features, and he woke up.

“How the hell am I alive? And… I’m an engineer now?”

“Are you okay with that?”

Shifty thought about it for only a moment. “Hell yeah. It’s a chance to start over and not make the same mistakes.” Burnock would be pissed—but that was Burnock’s problem. “But you’ve got things to do and places to be. Don’t worry about me; I can fade into the background, and no critter will find me while I take a long nap.”

Milo sat back and finished the last of his cheese and drank another two healing and mana potions. He was half-healed, with half his mana, and could feel the power of cheese filling him with confidence. That would have to do. He made it over to the raid just as they charged.

Chapter 9

Blame Sydney

Steven Duran was barely into his third cup of coffee when he received a text from the Event Monitoring Group. A fancy name for the three guys who kept track of what was going on in the game world and prepared statements that never satisfied the gaming channels that sent constant requests.

“Houston, we have a problem!”

The people working in EMG kept track of the world of Genesis Engine as it related to players. Need to know how many active guilds of over 50 players? What is the most popular of the known races? The top 10 popular quests? All things the EMG can answer. In addition, they keep track of large events happening in the world that might have a large number of players wanting to take part. Unlike other games, most of the events in Genesis were generated by the game world and not by a group of human developers. The world was simply too large and constantly changing.

In the last couple of months, the guys in the EMG had their hands full writing reports about the first dragon attack on a large city, a war between two giant clans, ancient cities found in both the far north and far south, and the beginning of a major war between the Empire and the orcish tribes. And while all of these events had long-term repercussions, they weren’t emergencies that had to be solved immediately. Steven got the weekly reports and summaries, did his best to get hints from Wally, and generally let the world turn in the way it wanted to turn.

So he was very surprised to see that this message was marked urgent.

“What’s up, Dan?”

“Steven, we have a big problem. Something triggered a late-game event. We think we can pause most parts of it, but it looks like we’re about to lose Shadowport. And it’s our fault! It’s part of a major quest someone set up. And shit is really going to hit the fan.”

Dan was the head of the EMG, and he was usually quite calm—calm to the point that the staff sometimes took his pulse to make sure he was still alive. Not much bothered Dan. But today, he was worried and sweating.

“Can you define ‘lose Shadowport’ for me, please? Do we have goblins taking over? Or Eels sinking ships? What?”

Dan took a deep breath. “How about ‘Unstoppable World Boss cracks open the earth, floods the caverns, ruins the port, destroys the city, and starts making a nest to breed lots of baby monsters.’ Good enough?”

“Yep, that sounds like something we need to get ahead of.” Steven sighed, sent a message to cancel his meetings, ordered another pot of coffee, and told his staff to start getting the data together. Then he put in a call to Wally for a meeting in ten minutes. Wally didn’t need the delay, but he did.

After he had that done, he went back to Dan, still patiently waiting. “Meeting in 10 minutes. You’re right, this isn’t good. Shadowport is our major city in the east of the Empire. It’s the biggest quest center for exploration, pirates, smuggling, and the black markets. We’ve built a lot of our other quests to involve the city in one way or another. Losing it right now will be a hell of a problem. Get up here, kick Sydney awake, and get her some coffee. I’ll get Samantha and a few others. Wally may have some answers for us. And find out who the hell wrote the quest.”

A half-dozen humans were gulping coffee, staring at laptops, and running scenarios. As the clock ticked down to zero on Steven’s timer, the large screen that made up an entire wall of the room turned on. The screen showed a room nearly identical to theirs but with one inhabitant. Wally was sitting in a recliner watching a wall of monitors showing various scenes in the world. He was eating popcorn from a large square container that you normally see in movie theaters. A gigantic soda and a box of crackerjack sat on his desk.

“Ah, look who’s here. You’re all just in time. One hell of a fight is about to happen underneath Shadowport. But I’m sure you all know about it. After all, this particular monstrosity was created by someone in your department and turned loose.”

Steven raised an eyebrow. Trying to read anything from how the AI appeared was tricky. Wally liked to telegraph his moods when interacting with the humans he thought of as friends. But was a relaxed Wally good or bad?

“We have a problem, Wally. As you of course know, the code for a huge event has been triggered. We have World Bosses emerging too early, and the player base isn’t high enough yet to defeat them. We could be looking at the loss of several major cities and changing the world significantly. We don’t have quest lines or events set up for any of that.”

Wally set down his popcorn and walked into their side of the room, his hologram transitioning out of the screen. With hands behind his back, he looked like a professor giving a lecture to a class.

“Let’s go back a few months, shall we? Remember how we discussed making sure the world was story-driven? Do you all remember our different views of what that meant?”

There was a pause, and then Sydney took the bait. “I think so. You said that stories were important. You wanted a world that revolved around the people in the world, especially the players, and stories should build from the actions of the players. We’ve done that. There are thousands of quests already set up and waiting to be triggered. But this one wasn’t supposed to happen yet!”

Wally pointed to her. “One viewpoint on stories, for sure. And a traditional way for them to appear in games. Developers code the stories into the world, and then players trigger the quests, play out the story, and, in many cases, can do them over and over so everyone gets a chance to play.”

“But not every story needs to start from the development side. I explained in great detail how the Engine created stories and quests for the System to carry out. The world is designed to make its own stories. That’s one of the core meanings of the name: Genesis Engine. The game generates stories from clues players and developers give it. I’m not trying to diminish the work that all of you do, but only 1 percent of the questlines currently in play came from humans on the outside.”

Steven stood up. “Wally, I’d love to discuss this for hours, but I think we have a deadline to shut this event down.”

Wally ignored him. “So, from a developer’s viewpoint, stories start and are controlled by the script that is turned into code and added to the game. From the view of the Genesis Engine, that’s only one source of a story. Players provide a second, and they can change, subvert, modify, and enhance events set up by human developers.”

“Since we want a lot of stories, the odds are weighted in favor of the players causing things to happen. A great example is how Bruxleford came to be. When a group of farmers-turned-bandits kidnapped Lord Bruxle from his crumbling keep, the questline would have rewarded the players for killing the bandits and rescuing Lord Bruxle.”

“Instead, one younger player asked the simple question, ‘But why are you doing this? Why can’t we be friends?’ A naïve question, perhaps, but the bandit chief answered her. He told a tale of starving children, farms stolen by greedy lords, and families living in the wild. They decided that if the lords could take what they wanted, they could too. It’s a classic tale from history, actually, and meant to add a little gray to an otherwise black-and-white story. Lord Bruxle isn’t the nicest of people, and the bandits weren’t the worst.”

“To the bandits—and the Engine’s—surprise, the players offered to help. They gave the bandits all their gold, offered to build them houses, and assured them that Lord Bruxle would give them land to farm. The impoverished Lord Bruxle was scared silly of both groups and agreed. And that’s why we now have a happy town of ex-bandits with healthy children, lots of farms, and a benevolent local lord. It helps that the players also stuck around in the area and built houses. The Engine is responding with an entirely new series of quests to defend the growing town and reward the players who settle there.”

Wally knew some of them had heard the tale but didn’t think they’d seen the point of his speech. “This is the important part: The game is flexible. The Engine saw the chance for a different outcome, weighed the options, and the bandits made the choice to be farmers again. No one died. Not every quest you write will proceed like a line of dominoes when triggered and turn out as you think. And you have to plan for that.”

Steven spoke as Wally paused. “So, you are referring to the player-game interface? Is that a clue that the current situation was triggered by a player?”

Wally frowned. “Partially. Its main cause is a heavy-handed event that was programmed into the world. Huge boss is asleep and gets woken up, causing lots more bosses to appear. How could that go wrong?” (“Which reminds me, Steven, we still need to watch Cloverfield.”)

“You can’t just invent a new monster and bury it down in the rock, expecting the Engine not to notice.”

“Uthneragrubban had very little backstory, so the game added the World Boss into an existing species. In this case, the stonelurkers. I like that. It gave the lurkers more background. But sadly, it made this quest bigger. Every World Boss that wakes up will also be leading or creating an army from the underground of their type of monster.”

“I don’t like programming that is so rigid. The awakening protocols for Uthneragrubban were too simple—just a tremor or large explosion caused by a player. That’s exactly what happened, but far too early in the life of the game. The players aren’t ready for such an event, and the timing is off. Her awakening was an accident and not by a group of players that would have alerted the world. Someone knocked over the first domino in a long string of dominoes that branches and heads to other parts of the world.”

“I’m hoping the city survives, but the odds are getting worse and worse.”

“Oh, and I blame Sydney.”

Sydney stood up, exasperated to suddenly have the spotlight put on her. She hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep lately and was only on her third cup of coffee. “What? How could this be my fault?!”

Wally laughed, took another bite of popcorn, and said while chewing. “Should have kept better track of your rat. That one can cause trouble like no one else I’ve ever seen. The Engine has generated a lot of stories from what he has been sticking his nose into.”

The screens suddenly showed a montage of a ratkin sorcerer fighting a host of strange creatures deep inside the earth. Complicated traps, strange machinery, zombie dwarves, and gigantic creatures of legend. The last scene showed a huge white blob fighting a monstrous copper snake as fiery death poured from above and exploded.

Wally spread his arms wide. “I’m so glad this emergency showed up. I’ve been dying to share this little troublemaker’s adventures with all of you.”

Steven remembered the day that this “little troublemaker” had cracked open an international slavery ring and looted several banks. Why hadn’t it occurred to him that Milo might do the same to the game?

As Sydney stood with her mouth open at this statement. Steven pressed Wally further. “What are we going to do about the situation?”

Wally brought his popcorn to the table and sat down. The screen changed to show several different views of things happening in Shadowport. “We do nothing but watch. This story has started, and I’m not going to stop it. I can’t stop it. That’s not how the world works. And it’s not as hopeless as you think. There are wildcards yet to be played. The players in the city have rallied behind the healer, Belinda, and are engaging the creature. This is the biggest raid organized so far in the game. Added to the horde of players, there is a small army of dwarf, human, and halfling NPC miners, and a local lord has sent his private army, the Shadowforge Rangers.”

The scene changed again, showing two dwarves in what looked like steampunk-style powered armor with mechanical weapons.

“And your rat has been rather busy, Sydney. He fixes as many things as he breaks. The Deep Rock Engineers were only legends until now. But they were real, although until Milo found them, they were a dying shadow of what they once were. Now the legends are fighting beside him against Uthneragrubban. Don’t underestimate what a good plan and a heavy spanner can do.”

The scene changed again, showing a huge ogre pirate, a stylishly handsome wizard sipping wine with a dragonling on his shoulder, and a small man sitting on the floor between two large cats, carefully sharpening his knives.

“And there are others. Shadowport isn’t without its own heroes and villains. There is a mighty Tier 6 wizard known as the Benevolent Sage, who may join the fray, and an ogre who specializes in hunting monsters. And not even I know what Ganglord Squint will do. There are sea captains, priests, eel wranglers, and so many more wild cards in the city. Some will flee, and some will help. We may indeed lose the city. In that case, we’ll have the beginning of other stories. So, for now, we watch.”

After a moment, Steven came to a decision. “Dan, I want you to put out a series of press releases to all of the different gaming channels about this unprecedented event and World-First. Build it up as a not-to-be-missed raid open to everyone who can get there. There are bound to be players who aren’t online right now that will log in and join the fight. Do anything else you can think of to make it easy for gamers to get to Shadowport.”

One of Dan’s group, Mikki, raised her hand. “The Thieves’ Guild has that hidden teleport stone at the bottom of the abandoned tannery. Normally, it’s a long quest to access it, but what if we gave players in the guild a quest to ‘recruit new members’ and allowed anyone in a dark cloak to teleport there from the guild in the capital? We could get a couple hundred more players to the fight.”

Steven looked at Wally, who smiled and looked back. “Fighting quests with quests? That’s up to you and your group, Steven. But I’ll certainly be watching that fight. Sounds like fun.”

“Do it. Dan can program it, and Mikki can write the dialog. I want it active immediately. Good thinking. And, since that’s probably all we can do to affect this fight, tell everyone there will be free popcorn and beer in the main auditorium. We can all use a day off. Don’t cheer, because as soon as this fight is over, I want every damn bit of quest code that we’ve added to the game looked at and examined. We don’t leave here until we know what other problems we’ve made for ourselves.”

Chapter 10

Like Rats Fleeing a Sinking Ship

Below the city, adventurers, miners, and engineers attacked a creature from the lower depths. The miners fought with desperation to save their homes and clans, while the players fought for loot and experience points. Above, in the city, word was spreading of the battle.

In the city itself, people were packing and leaving if they could. As news of the monster broke, the odd-makers gave the defenders chances of one in seven. Then the news came of what the “big monster” actually was. That dropped the odds to 37:1, and most bookies packed up and headed to the docks. They didn’t like betting on their own lives.

Some people shrugged and looked for ways to profit, while others panicked. The city had faced dangers before from kobold raiders, invasions of giant crabs, and the constant threat of the slavers of Fort Hopeless. The quick-witted and unscrupulous had profited from those emergencies and saw them as an opportunity.

There were two ways to leave Shadowport—by boat or by airship, and no one who owned an airship was looking out for anyone but themselves. They didn’t get rich in Shadowport because of their love of the common people. The average person might look up and curse as a steam- or mana-powered dirigible headed out of the cavern, but no one expected anything else.

Those with minor amounts of wealth were trying to pay for a berth on a ship. Several ship captains had filled their holds to the brim with people leaving and setting sail for the open sea before turning and running along the coasts or sailing for nearby islands. They planned to sail just far enough that they could drop their human cargo off and return for more. Others increased their prices far beyond normal, renting their entire vessels to one merchant household and their retainers. They slowly filled up their holds with goods from wealthy merchants and gave their cabins to those who could pay a steep fee to travel in comfort with their treasures.

Besides the merchant and pirate ships currently anchored in Shadowport, there were the fishing boats owned by the families who had lived and worked in the city for generations. The heads of the fishing families conferred quickly. Leaving Shadowport would mean long years of desperation, trying to find another port where they could anchor. Nearby, the coast was rocky with small beaches and poor harbors. Moving away further would bring them to better areas, but they would have to earn the acceptance of the fishermen already there. Their first concern was the safety of their loved ones. But others spoke about the gold that could be had from “saving” those with more money in their pouches.

A vote was taken, and a plan was devised. Half the fleet would leave and take all of the families down the coast to one of the small villages. There were no harbors for the boats, but at least the people would be safe. They would take all the food they could, what little wealth they had, cooking pots, nets, and tools. The other half of the boats would offer to ferry merchants and anyone with the money to pay to someplace safe, and the gold split between all of the families. With enough gold, they had a chance at buying dockspace and fishing rights somewhere else. If there was time, all the boats would return for another load of people. It was a compromise to salvage as much from the situation as they could.

The fishing community was looking after their own. No family would be left behind, regardless of the ability to pay. For many, their ships were their most valuable item. They set sail and said goodbye to the small houses many lived in. They knew that one way or another anything left would be gone when they returned. A few canny families who practiced the trade of smuggling waited until the rest had gone. They searched through homes and abandoned merchant warehouses, “salvaging” what they could and hiding everything in hidden areas. If the city survived, they’d be back for their profits. Then they too sailed out of the city.

Some of the nobles who resided in the hanging mansions above the city were quick to load their gold and valuables into their waiting airships and depart, leaving behind their opulent mansions. If the city survived, they would return, hopefully, to intact homes without new occupants. Already, the gangs in the city below were making plans to raid the unguarded villas and vacation homes. Other nobles waited with loaded ships, especially if they still had space for more cargo. An hour’s delay was a risk, but the chance to raid a neighbor and carry off expensive carpets and anything else not nailed down was too much of an opportunity to ignore. No noble of Shadowport was that far removed from their lowly roots, and pillaging was second nature to them.

It would take a long time to empty the city. Only a fraction of the citizens could leave on the boats each time they docked. There simply weren’t enough ships in port. Small fishing vessels moved back and forth all day, moving people out of the city and landing them on the coastline a few miles away. The people quickly headed inland from the beach. The chance of a tidal wave following the earth tremor was high.

In what had once been an opulent merchant’s house at Light’s End, the head of the Kulag gang, Squint, paced back and forth. Undecided as usual, he pondered what to do. He knew he had a great destiny; he’d been told so. He just wasn’t sure what it was. His cats were being useless, as usual. Some big monster wasn’t part of the plan. They had no orders about it other than making sure Squint didn’t get smushed by it.

“Useless cats. As usual, I’ll be using my clever mind to figure things out. Let’s start with the basics. You guys chime in if you have any ideas. Got it?” The cats stared at him, as helpful as any cat, which is to say, not at all.

“My city is going crazy. I’ve lost a half-dozen men lately, and none of the other gangs are responsible. Quite a few citizens missing as well. People have been disappearing, and no one knows where they are going, and now we have this huge critter coming to eat my city.”

One of the cats made a purring noise. Squint nodded. “Right, and a lot of the missing citizens were children—good eye for detail.” This annoyed the cat, who hadn’t meant anything at all.

“My airship thief is downstairs fighting a World Boss and hasn’t stolen a ship yet. My airship pilot went out for a glass of wine and didn’t come back. Same with my ‘security expert,’ who was going to get us past the guardians and into the crypts. Our whole plan is going to hell, and I’d barely gotten started.”

The other cat gave a bored “yowl” and trotted over to the banquet table filled with fish, grabbed a large salmon, and started tearing into it.

Squint pondered their advice for a bit. “You’re right, that really puts things in perspective. Strange times call for strange plans.” The odd little man walked over to a large gong, picked up the striker, and hit it hard enough that the gong dented. Members of the Kulag gang came running and formed a large mob in front of their boss. They never knew what the gong ringing might bring. But you didn’t keep Squint waiting. Squint had been odd when he was just a member of the gang. After he came back from somewhere with the cats, he was impossible to predict.

“Wow, that was quick! Thanks for coming, guys! KULAG!” Everyone was quick to stick their arm in the air, bump fists, and yell as with him.

“New plans. Take everyone and head to the light side. You see anyone in a gang, you tell them to behave. No looting, and if they don’t want a visit later, they should help out. The town is in chaos. It’s time to step up and be heroes! Stop looters, permanently if you like. Help people get to the ships. Help the fishing families if you can, and any priest you see.”

“Today we are helpful. We are heroes. We are Kulags! People will remember, and we’ll take our place as rulers of the city. Or maybe we all die. Who knows? But I’m betting on me! Say, what’s the current odds on the battle?”

“Hmm… 46:1 against them winning now, boss. A lot of people got smushed dead pretty quick, and the beast is still unwounded.” Many of the gang were thinking about betting the long odds. They had doubts about getting out and might as well take a chance of being well off if they lived.

“Awesome! Here’s what you do. Two or three of you go spread the word that the thing looks unstoppable. Get the odds up some more. I like 57:1. Benny? Take the spare gold, all of it. Use half to bet on us winning. No one is going to turn down bags of gold. Look sad and tell them Squint gave you orders to do it. They’ll happily take crazy Squint’s money. But, and this is important, when the bookies decide to close up and leave, I want a lot of our people with them. Don’t take any chances—they might run off with our money after we win. If they take our bets, they get to stay in the city with us.”

“Use the other half to buy off a ship captain. Old Quagstone will wait and not take fares until the very end. Make him an offer he really can’t refuse. If he refuses, decide who gets to wear the hat and be captain. Any Kulag with a family, you get them on a boat. We take care of our own.”

“Now get the hell out of here and get moving.” Squint wandered over to his chair, where a bow and quiver hung from the back. There was also a bandolier with throwing knives. He equipped them all, then bent down to pet his cats.

Four Kulags, normally his bodyguards, had stuck around. “What do you need us to do, boss?”

Squint stood up. “Hey, it’s been fun, guys. I liked you four best, so I made you bodyguards, but truthfully, I don’t need you. Head out, get your families loaded up, and beat up some looters. Me and the cats are going downstairs to play for a bit.”

The guards didn’t have to be told twice. Squint and two very large cats left the building. They passed a very lonely Jethro, still sitting at the family cheese stall by himself. They moved to the guild hall, sliding past adventurers too timid to join the raid but not wanting to leave the city. No one saw the three shadows that moved past them, unnoticed by all.

High above the city, a large and ornate airship was moored next to the hanging building that belonged to the Garnet Rose Trading Company. The merchants had reached out to the Philistron, the Benevolent Sage. The ability of his sleek, black airship to carry huge amounts of cargo and people was legendary. Everyone knew of his rescue of the goblin tribes of Bingo-Bongo when they angered the Volcano God. Others told of how he had bought every potion in the capital and ferried an army of healers to the plague-stricken country of Darnopia. Dozens of stories were told of his good works. And some mentioned how he wasn’t averse to gold and treasure. The pious sage knew that doing good deeds often took wealth to convince men of lesser morals to help him with his selfless deeds.

They offered him 50 percent of their wealth in exchange for transportation of their goods and a few of their retainers. It hurt to offer so much, but keeping 50 percent was better than losing everything. The Benevolent Sage replied to their offer quickly. He had little room left in his ship, having already given space to hundreds of the poor. But he would squeeze them in if they paid his price. They agreed immediately, and his ship drifted from the docks to anchor next to their trading company.

Philistron watched as his workers lifted bale after heavy bale of rare silks and spices, moving them to the airship and down into its holds. The workers were small, gray humanoids about two feet tall, capable of lifting nearly anything. Their eyes were blank, and other than a heavy steel collar around their necks, they were naked. Back and forth they went, emptying the building of decades of accumulated wealth.

The merchants were sitting nearby, watching. They were drinking some very good wine, which just wasn’t quite valuable enough for the trip. They hated to waste it, and the wine calmed their nerves. Philistron had brought out a lovely charcuterie board with preserved fruit and rare cheeses. A gift, he said, from a local halfling family who held him in high esteem.

Merchant Akim nodded to the others and then spoke. “The ship is almost loaded. I’d like to be on our way soon. No sense taking chances.”

Philistron didn’t answer at first, taking some time to feed his pet dragonling and tickle its belly. Finally, when Krysofolax was full, he moved the dragonling to his shoulder and answered the impatient merchant. “Yes, I agree—no point in taking chances. Not when things are going so well. Did you all enjoy the cheese?”

Akim checked his anger at being spoken to this way. “Who has time to eat cheese? I asked you a question. As your employer, I expect better answers.”

Philistron started to scowl, then swallowed his anger and smiled at them. Everyone but Akim smiled back, then shuddered and relaxed in their chairs. “And I’m upset you didn’t eat the cheese! The mold on the aged gouda is particularly difficult to work with. But I’m glad to see the others enjoyed a slice.”

Akim turned to stare at his partners. Sadly, it seemed he was now the sole owner of the trading house. The others were dead, eyes rolled up in their heads, fingers still clutching bits of the deadly cheese. He fingered the dagger in his sleeve but thought better of it. He shrugged eloquently. “This works out best for both of us. I’d rather have a quarter part of the whole than one part in five of a half. I suggest I keep 25 percent and you increase your share to 75 percent and we depart at once.” He smiled hopefully.

“I’m almost tempted by the offer. The way you caught up to the reality of the situation was very impressive. But where Krysofolax and I fly, we fly alone.” Fire burst from his eyes, killing the merchant as he reached for his knife, and then his gaze set fire to the rest of the building corpses, burning them to ash that blew away on the breeze. “And anyone knows that the whole part of the whole part is the best part.”

“Time to go, Krysofolax. We’ll hide our ship in the sky above and then fly back down on our own power and see if we can’t catch one last rat by the tail. It would irk me to not find out his secrets.”

Brother Ignatius prepared to leave. All the local families were gone on one fishing boat or another. He had stayed to pack up the altar clothes and holy candles of his church into his one small satchel of holding. It could only contain items of the church, but it had a nice capacity that made moving much easier. As he turned to leave, he was met at the door by several local women.

“I’m sorry, ladies, but you should be on your way.”

“I’d say the same about you,” said Alessandra, the washerwoman.

Ignatius drew himself up to his full height and stared up at her. “My calling takes me below. Saint Joan of the Fire did not hesitate to confront evil, and I will not pass up this chance to do the same.”

Malta stepped up next to Alessandra, flanked by her daughter Elena. “Yes, we suspected as much. We are going with you. We have a full choir of twelve, all women of strong will and each with some power to lend you.”

From the back, someone yelled, “And we have wine!”

Ignatius knew better than to argue. He’d just lose. And who was he to walk into danger but deny others the same chance to prove their valor? “Then let’s be off. A foul beast threatens our homes, and we will bring the fires of Saint Joan to bind and slay it.”

“Kulags are coming, Captain. Lots of them, with a lot of people following.”

Captain Pike stared in the direction his mate pointed. His eyes, like most ogres, weren’t good at picking things out in the long distance. Picking up the massive harpoon that had given him his name, he started down the gangplank to the dock. “Let’s go see what they have to say.”

The Kulags were upset that they’d missed Captain Quagstone. The old captain’s nerve had failed, and he’d set sail. With Captain Pike having the last large ship available, they came to politely talk to the large monster hunter about renting his ship. Pike appreciated both their respect and the gold. That many shiny coins would buy a lot of grub to fill his belly. Negotiations were finished quickly. The deal was simple. Squint offered a sizable amount of gold for the use of his ship to move his men and their families down the coast. The gold was more than enough. Especially since most of his crew were staying to guard the city. A fact that confused the captain, as most of Squint’s plans did.

“Sure. Load them up. I take it your boss is playing with his cats while the city goes to hell?”

Several Kulags eyed each other, and then one of the braver ones spoke up. “Actually, Captain, he took his weapons and cats and said he was off to fight the beast.”

Pike rolled this around in his head. Squint must smell something. Loot? Not likely; he was already rich. And feared. Also, crazy enough to not be worrying about a little dying. It bothered Pike to admit someone was crazier than he was. He was getting old and not taking as many chances. He hadn’t been Eel hunting in ages. He’d come to Shadowport to rectify that, but the Eels had left their normal spawning grounds by the Cursed Tower. That made him wonder if they sensed the monster below. That would mean the rumors were true about it.

He turned to his first mate, Samken. The man had been with him twenty years and had the graying hair and peg leg to show for it. “Listen up, you scurvy lot! It’s been a lovely time sailing with you all, but I’m calling it quits.” He tossed his ornate hat to Samken. “Sammy here is Captain now. Sail with him, if you so like.” He turned to leave.

Samken put on the hat, and the men cheered. Then he yelled after his former boss, “And what course are you taking, Captain Pike?”

The ogre turned back to answer his former first-mate—almost killing a man with the huge weapon slung across his back on accident. “I’m thinking of going crab hunting. I’ll tell you all about it someday.”

The crew started loading people onto the ship. They would set sail within the quarter hour. The crew talked things over, and some shook hands with Samken and departed the ship. Captain Samken sketched a small salute to Pike and the sailors who were following him into the city.

Belinda watched as another group charged the monster, the designated tank getting its attention with insults and taunts. As the monster struck, the group’s wizard cast a ward between the striking claw and the warrior’s shield. The spell shattered, but the strike lost a good amount of its damage. The warrior angled his shield and dodged. The blow that should have killed instead dropped his health by 50 percent and sent him tumbling. Belinda tossed an efficient healing spell at him, as did several other healers, giving him a chance to survive another blow. The other group members cast spells or chipped away at the stone of the beast’s hide before backing off and letting the next group get the creature’s attention.

The first few groups to engage hadn’t fared so well. Too many people were eager to kill a boss and get the loot. They ignored the plans that had been hurriedly discussed. Tactics that might have worked on Named or Elite bosses were suicide against Uthneragrubban. After a half-dozen deaths in the first minute, Belinda had regained control of the raid, and they began the long, arduous process of wearing the boss down, chipping away at the armor and lowering its health.

Which wasn’t going well, despite the sheer number of attackers. Miners and Rangers were engaging the beast’s flanks and rear, but they could only do a small amount of damage to the huge creature. Uthneragrubban was easy to hit. It was like striking a rock wall, too big to miss. But her armor was hard, and other than the miners armed with dark steel picks, the attackers did only a few points of damage.

Uthneragrubban continued to feed and still created her children, but they died as soon as they formed. The small amount of monsters were of little threat if someone paid attention to where her armor was thickening. The army of players and NPCs could deal with them easily.

The greatest danger was her tremors. The closer you were to her when she planted all twelve legs and shook the ground, the more damage you took. Three rogues and assassins that had leaped to her back found out, the same as Milo had, that the ceiling was quite hard. While Milo had bounced, the players became bloody smears. Hardened bones and Pudding-Based Regeneration made a huge difference in survival.

Milo wasn’t feeling lucky; he ached everywhere and wasn’t happy with his performance. He’d almost killed Shifty and had forced the poor dwarf to join the engineers to save his life. Better than dead, but it still bothered him. He put such thoughts aside and went to help Throttlecog and Two-Screws. The engineers had held back, choosing to study the beast and prepare a weapon of their own.

Throttlecog echoed Milo’s thoughts. “Chipping away at the critter isn’t going to do it. Too much regeneration. We need to break into that crystalline core. I’m just hoping this is enough to do it.”

Two-Screws shook his head sadly. “Can you believe these people live their whole lives not knowing the sound of a cataclysmic exploding? How the hell did they forget how to make it? I begged or bought all the black powder, blasting sticks, and firecrackers I could find. Altogether, it’s going to make one hell of a boom, but I have doubts that it’s going to be enough. But worth a try, I guess. It will give us an idea of what to do next. The next question is, where do we want to place it?”

Milo looked at Uthneragrubban, surrounded by an army of much smaller creatures. “She was well armored up top. What about her belly? Less armor there in normal creatures.”

Two-Screws turned to Throttlecog and grew serious. “Acting Guild Leader Milo thinks the belly is the best place to put it. I say we agree with him and let him place it there.”

Throttlecog, equally serious, replied, “And I agree with you agreeing with Acting Guild Leader Milo. He should get to run up to the critter and put his bomb wherever he likes.”

Milo scowled at the two dwarves. “When did this become my bomb?”

“It’s our present to you. We know how much you like doing crazy-ass stunts, so we thought one up for you,” said Two-Screws, grinning.

“Because we love you so much,” said Throttlecog, also grinning. “You know these old legs don’t move so fast. This is a job for a young, heroic, and, best of all, foolish engineer.”

Before Milo could begin his mission to plant the makeshift explosive, the ground began to rumble around them. Small rocks bounced in the air, and a strong vibration could be felt throughout the entire cavern. This was soon replaced by the grinding of rocks and the roar of powerful engines.

The tip of a massive, metallic drill head broke through the floor of the cavern. It leveled out, and from the tunnel crawled out a huge machine, moving along mechanical tracks. Fully 100 feet long, it took a full minute to slowly emerge, belching smoke and fire from its exhausts. As it finally came to a halt, a hatch in the top opened, and an armored figure climbed out of it.

Unengaged fighters stared in awe at the huge machine and the strange figure clad in full Magic-Tech Tactical Battle armor. He held a large grenade in each hand, and fireworks erupted from his backpack, lighting up the cavern.

“BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!! Time to party!”

Chapter 11

Defenders Assemble!

The huge mechanical monstrosity whined to a halt, the drill on the front slowing, and the front tracks ceasing their forward movement. Milo noticed the rear tracks weren’t putting out nearly the power they should and barely seemed to be moving at all. Steam blew out of several vents, and a large panel was kicked loose from inside. As Boomboom jumped from the top hatch, another dozen engineers tumbled laughing from the machine, each sporting a version of their magitech armor, equipped with complex tools and weapons.

Throttlecog was embracing and slapping the back of the chief engineer. “Damn me for a snotling! You got the old thing working?! I thought the boiler was shot and the rear tracks clutch rusted so bad it couldn’t turn?”

The chief engineer put his nose in the air and twirled his bushy mustache. “When one is the chief, one must know secrets of the trade.”

Throttlecog crossed his arms and tapped a toe on the rock. “Such as what, you old walrus? You barely remember how to crosswire a celestial-spark generator, let alone fix an XV77-Excavator.”

The chief laughed hard. “But I’m great at stealing ideas from the rest of the brotherhood and repurposing them. Had you looked at the boiler the lads made to power the Twirl and Hurl? Their design was 56 percent smaller and 17 percent more powerful than the one in the XV77. That gave the driller added torque and allowed for more passengers.”

Throttlecog fought down the urge to go look at the new boiler. “Fifty-six percent smaller?! But what about the rear-track propulsion? It still looks shot to me.”

The chief engineer pointed in the direction of the hole. “Oh, easy. We found and installed an auxiliary engine. It gave us a lot more power and let us shift the torque to the forward drill. One of the lads also found a way to re-temper the drill head using a waste fluid. Luckily, Senior Engineer Milo didn’t use all of it to blow up that damned snake.”

Throttlecog stared at the drill, wondering where the hell the chief had found room for an auxiliary engine. Then, two massive gray hands covered in small fungi grabbed the edge of the hole and struggled to heave pull the rest of their body out of the hole. Finally, a head emerged, and a very tired troll crawled out and stood, causing no small amount of panic in any non-engineers nearby. Huge mechanical excavators were one thing, but a thirty-foot-tall troll was scary as hell!

Harry’s voice boomed out, “And this engine is tired! I pushed your infernal metal beast for miles, and it was all uphill!!”

Harry sat down next to the excavator and leaned back against it. One hand reached into a pouch and came out with a handful of mushrooms and grubs that he stuffed into his mouth.

All thoughts of the explosives they had been building were put aside as Milo ran to greet his friends, overjoyed at their unexpected arrival. Boomboom, however, only had eyes for the assortment of black powder and mining explosives.

“You were building a bomb and didn’t wait for me!? For shame! And you’re doing it all wrong! This is a weedy little thing with barely any snap, crackle, or pop!”

Two-Screws put his hand on Boomboom’s armored shoulder and looked serious. “You are absolutely right. It’s horrible! This project needs the touch of a master demolition expert.”

Boomboom smiled. “Ooooh! Wait, I know this one! That’s ME!” He ran to the excavator to gather tools and ingredients as Two-Screws smiled. “Now we just have to make sure he doesn’t destroy the city all by himself!”

Vary ran up, looking for Milo, but could barely talk as he took in the assembled engineers. The chief engineer took notice and walked up to him. “This is one of the new recruits? Nice to see the younger generation still has some spunk. What’s your report, lad?”

Vary shook off his jitters. “The Raid Leader Belinda needs to know if we have a plan other than Milo getting himself half-killed again. We have more fighters coming in all the time, and things are getting a little chaotic. She requests your input.”

Milo listened to Vary’s report and then paused to think, running scenarios through his head. The reinforcements that had arrived gave him so many ideas. After a few seconds, he suddenly leaped to the top of the XV77 and slammed his spanner on the metal hull to get everyone’s attention.

“Here’s the project. We have a slowly moving World Boss creeping up on the city. It has enough seismic power to crack open a fissure that will wreck the city and drown us all in seawater. It eats rock, spits out baby stonelurkers, and one hit will most likely kill anyone not in armor. The stone can be broken, but we’re going to need a big bomb to crack its crystalline core.”

“I’m off to coordinate the adventurers that are slowing it up. Let’s get a bomb built, and any other truly dangerous ideas of how to kill the thing are on the table. We have a reputation for pulling off miracles. Let’s prove the legends don’t exaggerate.”

Milo leaped off the machine, doing a double flip as he landed near the bomb. After a few seconds, a large crate appeared out of thin air. “There’s stuff in here. Use it if you need it, Boomboom.” The curious dwarf immediately investigated the magic crate. “Yep. Good stuff. The dark iron ingots will work for the casing; you’ve got some nice cables, and I smell some interesting myconic solutions I can use as accelerants.” He began rummaging through the crate, piling stuff up.

Boomboom paused, then pulled out a few items. A ring, a staff, a large round shield, and a quiver of arrows. “No use to me, but these might help out those adventurers.” Milo had totally forgotten about the loot from the various chests that he’d opened after killing the Pudding and the Snake. He’d been looking for cheese at the time and tossed the rest of the stuff into his stash. “Good thinking. I’ll find people that can use it all.” He took the armload of items from Boomboom and passed half to Vary to carry.

As the engineers cheered and got to work, he and Vary raced off to find Belinda.

The chief engineer watched him go. “Smart lad. Nothing gets this crew going like daring them to do the dangerously impossible before breakfast.”

The raid was holding, but barely. They’d learned that they couldn’t confront the monster like they would a normal boss. Tanks were doing their best to take a hit and live, backing off for heals while another took their place. Healers were working overtime and chugging potions to restore their mana. The one Battle Alchemist in the raid had given out all of his explosive potions and then concentrated on brewing more Restorative Mana Potions until his store of ingredients ran dry. Everyone else dealt with the smaller lurkers or chipped away at the stony armor, trying to wear the World Boss down. Everyone, including Uthneragrubban, paused for a second as an enthusiastic voice rang out in the cavern.

“OOOOH! It’s a big one. Dibs on the eyes!” Squint had arrived, despite the best efforts of his cats to walk between his legs and trip him. The two cats shared a disgusted look as the boss of the Kulags sprinted toward the giant monstrosity in the middle of the raid.

While still forty feet away from Uthneragrubban, Squint leaped in the air and sailed toward its head. Knives in his hands glinted as he yelled out, “KULAG!!” Both knives hit dead center of the creature’s eye sockets, scoring critical hits. Which got less than the hoped-for reaction from Uthneragrubban.

Squint hung in front of the boss’s face, hands gripping the hafts of his long knives, which were stuck in its stone eyes. “Excuse Me!! That was a double crit. You can’t just ignore a DOUBLE CRIT! That’s not FAIR! Cats! Explain why that isn’t fair!”

With a loud crack, the stony armor on Uthneragrubban’s head broke off, revealing a glowing crystalline face with perfectly intact crystalline eyes. Squint landed on the ground with hundreds of pounds of rock on top of him, blunted daggers in each hand. Uthneragrubban raised both claws to smash down on him, but the cats were faster. Each bit into a foot and dragged Squint out of the way. He was shouting. “That’s just a warm-up! I’ll be back for the real fight in a minute.”

More people entered the fray. There was a steady trickle of dark-cloaked adventurers emerging from an old tannery, paying a small fee to the local Thieves’ Guild, and making their way to the lower levels to join the raid. The new arrivals were barely staying ahead of the rate of attrition as one player after another was crushed beneath the massive boss or thrown by her seismic shocks.

One of the reinforcements stood out. A massive ogre dressed in bedraggled pirate finery strode forward, knocking anyone in his way aside. His crew followed him, ready to die with their captain. “Stay out of my way, minnows. Captain Pike is here to kill yon beastie.”

Taking his long harpoon in hand, he threw the heavy weapon at Uthneragrubban. It hit the World Boss dead center of its crystalline forehead but failed to penetrate. Pike jerked the metal cable he used as a lanyard, and the weapon leaped back to his hand. “A tough one, are we? Well, I’ve fought tougher! I killed the great crocodile that lived in the hidden grotto beneath the Sunken City. The Old Bear of Winterguard fell to my harpoon. And now I’m killing a World Boss!”

With a show of might, the monster hunter raised the harpoon above his head, invoking the skills like Slayer’s Might, Go for the Eyes, Boo!, and Penetrating Strike before throwing it again. The glowing harpoon rocketed toward the giant boss, hitting in the same spot. Uthneragrubban’s head snapped back from the force of the blow, and a small crack appeared where the harpoon had hit but faded almost instantly.

Pike retrieved his weapon, breathing hard from expending all of his best skills at once. It would be some time before he could do that again. “So, we have to do this the hard way? Fine, I like the hard way. Takes longer. More fun. Up and at it, boys, and be careful of her claws. She’s a mean one, she is. Find me a weak spot to poke her in.”

“We have come to help.”

Belinda turned to find a smiling man in a monk’s robes, followed by a dozen women who were humming a familiar tune as they passed around a bottle of wine.

“Oh, thank god. We don’t have many healers, and our mana is getting low.”

Brother Ignatius gestured toward the women. “Then I and the Choir of Saint Joan will sing to aid in both healing and bringing the Saint’s blessing down upon you.” As the women began a complex harmony, Belinda saw her mana reserves begin to recharge and small cuts and scrapes on her arms healed. A soft, warm glow spread from the choir throughout the cavern.

“They sing beautifully.” Belinda wished she could just stop and listen.

“Thank you. We’ve practiced constantly lately. The ladies felt that the mysterious holy man who visited us was the herald of heroic times to come. And they were right.”

“Mysterious holy man?” Every time Belinda thought she knew all the people in this crazy story, someone else showed up.

Milo and Vary picked that moment to run up. “Belinda? Did you need me? Oh, hi, Brother Ignatius. Hi, everyone!”

As Milo waved, Belinda looked even more confused, and Brother Ignatius smiled knowingly. “Ah, I see you’ve met our pious pilgrim who came to free the spirits held in bondage and aid us in our time of need. Of course, you would be working together. We will leave you to your work and sing until the evil is defeated or the world comes to an end.”

Belinda grabbed Milo by the arm and dragged him off. Vary took that as his clue to drop the items he carried and go look for messages to deliver.

“Explain things to me! We’re barely holding, and I don’t know what to do. And what the hell is this about you being some holy man? That priest looked at you like you were some sort of saint.”

Milo shrugged. “I never know what’s going on either. They’re nice people, though. I met them doing laundry. Stuff happens so fast in this world. I keep trying to fix things, but my first plan usually doesn’t work, so I make stuff up as I go. But we have a new plan. We’re going to blow the boss up.”

Belinda rolled her eyes. “With what? An atomic bomb?”

Milo hadn’t considered that the game had atomics in it—he’d have to ask Boomboom. “Maybe if we were deeper, but the city is right above us. We’re using a whole lot of cataclysmite and whatever else the engineers can do to spice things up. Just tell everyone that ‘fire in the hole’ is engineering slang for ‘run away fast.’”

“Oh, and I brought some stuff for your guys. There’s a Stout Shield of the Unyielding Defender+2, a Staff of Deadly Firebolts, and a Quiver of Painful Piercing. I got them out of some reward chests, but I don’t need them, and they can help people in your guild.”

Belinda looked at the items. Those were major magical items, and he was just giving them away? “Uh, Milo.”

“Oh, silly me. Almost forgot. And this is for you.” He’d also found a scratched Copper Ring of Wisdom+1 at the bottom of the chest. It kept rolling around as Milo tried to catch it, almost like it didn’t want to be caught. He attributed that to the tremors in the cavern from the boss.

Belinda watched as Milo pulled a beautiful, shiny copper ring from his pocket, took her hand, and placed it on her finger. “Thought of you when I first got it, but I’ve been really busy lately. Hope you like it.”

The healer stared at her hand and then at Milo, at a loss for words. Milo grew a bit embarrassed but didn’t know why. “Got to run. Have a bomb to deliver.”

As he ran off, Belinda continued to stare at the ring. It was made of solid copper with a dragon scale pattern. The ring shone, and she examined it carefully. On one part, a circle of seven small emeralds was inset into an etched outline of a crown. The ring grew warm and revealed itself to her.

Vengeful Spiral of the Empress (Unique)

There must always be an Empress. Piss her off at your peril! Kneel to her Glory!

+500 mana.

Font of Power – The Empress gains double Mana Regeneration.

Poison Immunity – The Empress is immune to all poisons under Tier 5.

Spell Enhancement – The Empress may choose one type of spell to bind to the Spiral. That type will have double the normal effect when cast on others. Choose from: Poison, Acid, Rending, Burning, Trauma, Slashing, Piercing, Necromancy, Wildrot, Soultearing, Windshear, Frostburn, and Disease…

and maybe some others no one cares about.

Frowning at the ring, Belinda said, “I choose Healing.”

Healing is a sub-optimal way to crush your enemies. How about: Poison, Acid, Rending, Burning, Trauma, Slashing, Piercing, Necromancy, Wildrot, Soultearing, Windshear, Frostburn, or Disease?

“Bullshit. If I get to be Empress, then I get to rule the way I want to. I choose Healing!”

Sigh… we’ll talk about this when you get a little older.

Merciful Spiral of the Empress (Unique)

There must always be an Empress. She will righteously heal you until you submit to her rule!

+500 mana.

Font of Power – The Empress gains double Mana Regeneration.

Poison Immunity – The Empress is immune to all poisons under Tier 5.

Spell Enhancement – Healing spells have twice the normal effect.

“Better.” Belinda couldn’t wait to show her dad. He was going to turn green with envy.

Alessandra had noticed the exchange and smiled. “Looks like someone got engaged just now. Look at the smile on that girl’s face.”

Malka was pleased. “Engaged in the middle of a battle! It’s so nice to see young people doing things the old-fashioned way.”

Chapter 12

The Big Bang

Milo caught glimpses of the battle. He saw Squint diving from high in the air and stabbing furiously until his weapons broke and a glancing blow sent him flying back through the air, where his cats grabbed him and dragged him to the healers. Brother Ignatius was walking with the choir, following the fight and spreading their magical aura to reach as many people fighting the monster as they could. Captain Pike stood on a rocky outcropping, throwing his harpoon again and again, tearing off huge sheets of rocky armor but failing to damage the crystalline core. The raid was holding its own, just barely, but not stopping the monster. A long line of headstones showed where each defender had gone down. They needed that bomb, and soon.

He ran back to where Boomboom was working enthusiastically with another dwarf, Pillbug, who was another of the zombie dwarves restored to life. He didn’t talk much, just nodded as Boomboom asked for tools and explosives. Or argued with Boomboom by crossing his arms and refusing to hand him something. Pillbug was happy to not be a rotting, mechanical corpse. He had no intention of cutting his new lease on life short just to see what happened when you mixed liquid cataclysmite with nitro-boom.

A circle of dwarves watched on from a safe distance as Boomboom and Pillbug worked on the bomb. To Milo, it looked like a metal chest with two handles and a clock. Boomboom looked upon it and saw the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. A true work of art crafted from whatever materials he had on hand, and a hundred pounds of cataclysmite with a few “special extra bits.” The only thing more beautiful was going to be seeing it explode!

“I hope this boss is as tough as you say it is, Milo. Because if something doesn’t absorb and reflect the force of this blast, we’ll bring the city down on top of us without having to wait for the beastie to do its seismic dance!”

Milo assured him not to worry about that detail. “It’s tough. Insanely tough. No one is even scratching the surface. That looks too big for me to carry on my own. We need to make a sled with low-friction bearings or maybe a motorized cart for me to drive. Who’s helping me with that?”

Boomboom and Pillbug stood between Milo and the bomb, their arms crossed, looking grim and dour. Pillbug’s silent scowl of disapproval made Milo take a step back. “Sorry to disappoint you, Senior Engineer Milo, but no one’s helping you because you aren’t packing it. You got to have all the fun playing with your snake and blowing everything to smithereens while poor Pillbug and I barely had the brain cells to appreciate that explosion. But not this time. You’re going to let someone else have a turn. Just go sit your scrawny little butt over there by Harry and take a nap. I’ll even be nice and tell you that he’s been experimenting with making cheese, and there’s some in his pouch.” Pillbug pointed at the troll.

Once again, Milo found himself amazed at the dwarven mindset and switched his thinking around. He shook each junior engineer’s hands and apologized for intruding on their project. They smiled and got back to work, trying to get every erg of explosive energy out of their contraption.

Milo felt the hole in his stomach get larger. “Cheese, you say? It has been a long time since lunch.” The dwarves laughed as he scampered off quickly and started going through Harry’s pockets. He found some tasteless, stringy balls of what could technically be called cheese, thanked the sleeping troll, and climbed on top of the excavator to get a good view of the fireworks.

Two people were already up there: the chief engineer and Shift-Stick. The latter had both arms in slings and a splint on his lower left leg but didn’t look like he was about to die. Milo was thankful for that.

“Ah, I see you took some time out of your busy day to come tell me about our new recruits. Apprentice Shift-Stick just made it back to us, limping along in the shadows. He shows good perseverance, although I’ll question his common sense if he’s hanging around you a lot.”

The chief engineer was using his no-nonsense voice, but his eyes were glittering. “But I suppose it’s not a bad idea to be filling out our ranks with some new blood. I’ve seen that young runner moving all over the cavern carrying messages. A good catch, that one. Enthusiastic. And Shift-Stick here seems to have survived working with you. We all know how dangerous that can be.”

Milo pointed to Shift-Stick. “He saved my life. I would have been a goner if he hadn’t dragged me out of range and taken that hit. The only way to save his life was to make him an apprentice engineer and give him the health benefits the guild has to offer.”

Chief Engineer nodded and put a hand on Shift-Stick’s shoulder. “That speaks well of you. We’ll make a place for you. Just don’t get too near Milo or his plans until you heal up.”

Shift-Stick wilted, then looked up at the two of them. “One good deed doesn’t even the books. Let’s get this over with, and I’ll be on my way. I’m not a good guy. They call me Shifty for a reason. My clan disowned me. You’ll be told all about that soon enough and want to kick me out as well. I’d rather do it now than later.”

Chief Engineer chuckled. “Oh, you think you need to be a saint to be an engineer? We’ll have to educate you on all the adventures of some of the brothers during their pre-engineer days. Quite a few colorful stories. There are reasons why a lot of us go deep and join a crazed group of spanner-happy idiots. I don’t care about what a bunch of sun lovers have to say about someone; you’re an engineering apprentice now. I approve of Milo’s choice. But I understand that it was a surprise to wake up and find out you’d joined us. If you don’t want it? Fine. Walk off. I won’t keep a man who doesn’t want to hammer metal and bend reality. But if you stay, we’ll take you.”

Shift-Stick was silent for a few seconds. “Screw it, then. I’m in.”

“That’s the spirit.” The chief engineer slapped him on the back with a metal-clad hand, which sent shockwaves of pain through all of the injured dwarf’s fractures. “Now pay close attention—the boys are about to light the big critter up. Those two are the biggest boom-happy idiots out of this bunch, and that is saying one hell of a lot.”

Pillbug and Boomboom were moving up to the fight, judging the distance to the World Boss and when to begin their last charge to plant the bomb. Vary was running from group to group, warning them of the upcoming explosion. The Choir of Saint Joan pulled back, split into two groups, and started singing chants of protection and luck. Many bottles of wine were opened.

Squint ran forward and began juggling knives in front of Uthneragrubban while his cats wound in and out of the creature’s legs, trying to make it stumble. Pike ignored the warning, attacking again and again. As Uthneragrubban took a step forward, it left a wide gap between two of her legs. The demolition team used that to sneak under her wide belly and start attaching their bomb directly to the monster’s underarmor.

Uthneragrubban ignored everything and swallowed the last of the current mouthful of stone. There was no loose rock in front of it. The monster’s eyes glowed, as did one leg that planted itself deep in the ground. Other legs started doing the same. Pillbug noticed the light coming from cracks in the stony armor, slapped Boomboom in the head, and pointed to the encircling legs that had nearly trapped them. Before Boomboom could reply or move, the bomb’s timer activated!

“Dammit Pillbug! You didn’t take into account the beastie’s energies in the trigger design! Guess I should be thankful for front-row seats. Going to be one hell of a BOOM!”

Pillbug rolled his eyes, took his spanner, and whacked the back of Boomboom’s magitech armor. Boomboom had never been good with making things that didn’t explode, so Pillbug had made both of their sets of armor and incorporated safety features he’d been dreaming of for decades as his brain had slowly rotted. His nickname came from his love of overlapping concentric plates and hundreds of drawings of steam-powered armored insects.

Boomboom yelped as his knees buckled and he was forced to bend over and hug his bent legs. Armored plates shifted, overlapped, and snapped into place, turning him into an armored ball. As soon as Pillbug saw that the armor was working correctly, he activated his own defensive mechanism. As Uthneragrubban prepared to shake the earth, the bomb’s timer ran out. The two dwarves inside their metal spheres waited with the joy of a three-year-old at Christmas time.

The bomb went off first.

And as Boomboom had predicted, if there hadn’t been a World Boss to soak up the damage, it would have brought the roof of the cavern down for a half mile in all directions. Uthneragrubban was lifted off the ground, and two dwarven demolitionists went for the ride of a lifetime. They were shot like balls from a cannon, careening off of rock formations and bouncing across the cavern. Milo and the chief engineer tracked their trajectories and extrapolated their final landing zone. Vary was sent with a team to track them down and see if anyone was left inside the metal shells.

Uthneragrubban was kicked twenty feet into the air, slamming into the ceiling hard, shattering her top armor. All of the stone armor on her legs, belly, and chest was demolished by the bomb, along with a good amount on other parts of her body. Energies sprayed from her legs to the ground. If any adventurers had been nearby, they would have been killed by either the explosion or the seismic energies. Captain Pike nearly died. He sailed through the air over a hundred feet and landed near the excavator. His harpoon went skittering across the ground, coming to a stop in front of the dwarves.

Throttlecog remarked. “Now I’ve seen it all. A flying ogre.” That started some of the younger dwarves discussing the viability of attaching wings and tails to ogres and launching them from cannons. “They’d be handy for getting inside a castle under siege.”

Everyone held their breath as Uthneragrubban crashed to the ground. She lay in a mound of loose rubble, unmoving.

Cheers rang out, and adventurers looked around for loot chests to appear. Milo held his breath.

Uthneragrubban stood up, lightning racing back and forth inside its crystalline body. The great head bent down and took a large bite of shattered stone at its feet, then another. Stone began to form on its legs, and it took a step toward the city.

The chief engineer watched in disbelief as the massive crystalline creature began moving toward Shadowport. “Damn it. Nothing should survive a blast like that. Anything bigger, and we do the monster’s work for it. Not that we have any explosives left.”

Milo was running scenario after scenario through his head. “Could the drill on the excavator hurt it?”

The chief shook his head. “Doubtful, not made for it. It chews up rock and earth, but it doesn’t have a tip that will penetrate a hard material like that. And that thing would tear it apart in less than a minute.”

Milo looked at Harry, who was awake after such a huge noise. The troll turned to him. “I know what you are thinking. But I’m not a fighter. I’m large and strong, but I’m not on that level. And I can’t dodge. It will hit me every time it attacks. At best, I can be a distraction. Which I’m quite willing to do for you, by the way. But I can’t hurt that creature.”

Ideas chased themselves through Milo’s head, endless scenarios coming to bad ends. At his feet, Shift-Stick spoke up.

“I noticed something odd when the bomb went off.”

Milo thought back to the explosion, but he’d been worried about Boomboom and had followed his bouncing trajectory instead of watching the boss. Milo squatted next to him. “Odd can be good; what did you see?”

“It always plants its legs in the stone before each blast and lights up all over its body. The energy must run down the legs into the ground. But when you blew her up in the air, the energy tried to arc to the ground. It didn’t do much of anything. And the legs farther in the air did nothing.”

“That’s it!!” Milo hugged Shift-Stick, who winced in pain, and then he turned to the chief engineer. “We can’t win a war. It’s too tough to fight, but we can turn this into an engineering project. We just need to get the boss suspended in mid-air. She won’t be able to feed or use her seismic attack.”

The old dwarf pondered this. “Okay, then tell me your plan, because I don’t see a Centrifugal Lifting Arc appearing out of nowhere.”

Milo grabbed a pencil from one of the engineers’ pockets and began to sketch out his idea on the side of the excavator. “We need cables—the toughest we can get—a few small explosives, quite some pulley systems, stone anchors, a dozen engineers, a few large distractions, and a way to attach the primary cable to the boss at the center of gravity so the main cable can lift into the air and she can’t swing about to loosen the attachment.”

Moving slowly and lighting his pipe, the chief engineer looked at the plans as if he were grading a final paper from a junior engineer. “It might work. I have to ask where you plan on getting a mile of high-quality cable and the rest of the gear. It’s one thing to have an idea, Senior Engineer Milo, but you also have to source the materials.”

Milo’s face fell. “Oh. I don’t suppose you brought any of that in the excavator?”

The chief engineer shook his head. “Nope. Only room for the lads and me, and a bit of explosives that Boomboom smuggled along with him. But, now that I think about it, it might be time to teach you whipper snappers a lesson or two.” He yelled to the rest of the crew, “Gather ’round!”

The dwarfs gathered around him, including Vary, Boomboom, and Pillbug. The latter two were missing their armor, which had to be dismantled to get them out of it.

“Watch and learn, young ones. Watch and learn. Some of you may live long enough to get one of these.”

He raised his fist in the air, and it glowed as he summoned power before slamming it down on the ground. With a sharp crackle and the smell of ozone, a huge set of adamantine doors appeared in front of the astonished crew. They were ancient and strong, covered in strange runes and inlaid with mathematical equations. A full ten feet high and ten feet wide, to Milo, they looked like the doors of an ancient, magical bank vault. Or to an Arcane Library.

Throttlecog whistled softly, then swore in seven languages. “Well, slap my bare ass and call my momma a goblin! An Arcane Workshop? You kept that secret all this time?!!”

“You’re just jealous. But truth be told, I couldn’t remember how to summon it for the last hundred years and didn’t have the mana to do it if I did remember.”

He turned to the awestruck dwarves.

“All right, you lot! Behave yourselves, or I’ll have you cleaning out the sumps for the rest of the decade. Glassine cables are in Storeroom #6. The pulley systems are in Storeroom #9. Throttlecog, run along with the lads and take Milo shopping for what he needs, and not one copper rivet more. And I’ll want an accounting of all spendings later, along with a full set of blueprints for the project! I’m going to want to test our new apprentices on part of this scheme.”

The doors opened silently, and blue-tinged light poured out. The dwarves were uncharacteristically quiet and solemn as they entered the Arcane Workshop and began to haul out the needed mechanical supplies.

Uncaring and unknowing of what he was missing, Captain Pike woke up and found his harpoon. Milo took a long look at the weapon and crossed off the last item on his parts list. “Vary? I’ve got some jobs for you.”

Belinda heard cries of despair from her raid. One voice proclaimed. “Well, that’s it then. It’s over.”

The healer moved among the players before they could leave or log out. “It might look bad, guys, but we can’t give up now. This is the first World Boss ever. How can we not fight until the bitter end? This could be epic!”

One of the mages shook his head. “War’s over. The dwarves dropped the big one. The boss doesn’t care.” Nods and agreement came from several other players.

She turned to Brother Ignatius. “Sing something upbeat and hopeful, please.” He smiled and nodded. This young lady understood his goddess well. As legend had it, she had sung beautifully even as she was tied to the stake and the fires had been lit. He and his choir would follow her example.

“Okay, girls, on my mark. Let’s sing: ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.’”

She pointed to one of the tanks. “Hey, Arno! Lift me to your shoulders!” The grinning fighter obliged immediately.

The healer yelled as loud as she could. The ring on her finger glowed, amplifying her voice and giving it a tone of authority. “Nothing’s over until we say it’s over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HELL NO!”

“This could be the best day of our lives, but you’re going to let it be our worst. I can hear you all talking. ‘But Belinda, we might all die! Oh no, we might lose all our spiffy gear or get a nasty curse if we lose to the boss.’

“Screw it. This might look like a stupidly suicidal mission, but I say we’re just the people to do it!”

Vary came running up behind her and whispered, “Milo has a new plan to beat the boss.”

“And Milo has a new plan to beat the boss. So, who’s with me?”

Chapter 13

It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine

Milo’s Clever Plan Step 1: Delay!

Later, Belinda would always wonder how she got people to believe that she actually had a plan. The players were ready to give up, and yet somehow her speech, the rousing music of the choir, and their desire for the first-ever World Boss kill and phat loot did the trick. The players in her raid got back in the fight, giving heart to the miners and rangers.

This time, though, they didn’t try to hurt the boss. They fought in control, dodging its attacks by using annoying rogues instead of tanks. Squint led that group, proving to all that he was both the most annoying and also very hard to kill. Anyone with the ability to taunt the boss was at the back and sides, constantly trying to get the monster’s attention and make it spin in their direction. Since Uthneragrubban was taking no damage, she ate less and didn’t need to unleash her devastating seismic attack.

The choir moved close to the fight, their magic adding luck to dodges, speed to tired muscles, and healing to non-lethal wounds. They still lost people, but at a slower rate.

Belinda hoped they could just last long enough.

Milo’s Clever Plan Step Two: Build a Better Boss Trap

A dozen and a half Deep Rock Engineers jogged past the fight and headed to a spot in the cavern where the roof was high and the stalactites huge. Milo planted a flag made from a red handkerchief and a long piece of quarter-inch piping.

“This is the spot.” He pointed to seven of the stalactites. “And those are what we need to get to work on.”

Half-Pipe looked skeptical. “I understand what you need done, Senior Engineer—no problem there. But first, I need to install rocket jets on my boots.”

“No rocket jets in my pocket, sorry Half-Pipe. We do this the old-fashioned way. I’m going to drive pitons in the ceiling and drop ropes at each location. You’ll need to climb up, set your anchors, and get to work. Throttlecog, you mind giving me a boost?”

The burly dwarf laughed and limbered up his throwing arm. “Glad to!” One armored hand grabbed Milo by the back of his shirt, and the other took hold of his belt. With a mighty “heave-ho,” he tossed Milo to the ceiling. Hasty bets had been made as to whether he’d fall short or bounce off the ceiling the first time. Only Two-Screws had taken “Stays Up There” and pocketed quite a bit of cash from grumbling brothers.

Milo hit the ceiling, but his claws grabbed hold of the rock securely. He slammed his pick into the rock, inserted the piton, and sealed the hole with “instant-stone.” Within two minutes, he had dropped down the first rope and then, to the amazement of anyone watching, crawled across the ceiling to the next stalactite. Two-Screws started climbing the rope and got to work.

One by one, the anchors were set and ropes let down to waiting dwarves. Half-Pipe was still grumbling. “Damn, I hate climbing rope. I still want a set of boot rockets.”

Cogswell and Sprocket laughed at him. “You wouldn’t know what to do with them, Half-Pipe, and you’d complain they didn’t come with a user’s manual.” Both dwarves looked up at the ceiling.

Cogswell yelled out, “Second star on the right and straight on ’til morning!”

Then flame and smoke spurted from both his and Sprocket’s boots, and they ascended slowly to the ceiling on pillars of fire.

Half-Pipe watched them go and yelled at them, “Damned show-offs! You should have brought enough for the rest of us.” Then he began to climb his rope and got to work.

Milo’s Clever Plan Step Three: Get the Ogre On Board

“I’m not going to tell you again! NO! You can’t go messing around with my harpoon. My grandpappy found it and was a monster hunter. My pappy was a monster hunter too! And now I’m a monster hunter. And all of us killed our monsters without help from little rats with big plans. Now get lost, or I’ll rip off your legs and eat them.”

Captain Pike was being difficult. Milo didn’t seem close to convincing him.

Shift-Stick butted into the conversation when Milo tried to explain the plan for the fifth time. “Back off a bit, Milo. You don’t understand how close you are to being a piquant aftertaste. Ogres don’t make threats about eating—that’s the one thing they always take seriously. You’re really lucky the captain here hasn’t turned you into lunch yet.”

Milo persisted. They didn’t have time for this! “But⁠—”

Shift-Stick put a hand on his mouth. “Nope, not another word out of you. You’re being rude. Ogres aren’t greedy like most folks. They only ever own a few things they care about. For the captain here, that’s his harpoon—and a fine weapon it is! That harpoon is talked about in every cheap bar and pirate dive on the Western Ocean! It’s killed monsters for three generations. There are very few weapons in the whole world that have killed as many monsters as this harpoon.”

Pike started to relax, smiling. Hunting monsters might be what he liked to do best, but hearing people tell his stories was a close second.

“Why, his grandpappy killed a Void Whale. No one even knew what they were until he dragged the one he killed into port. It took three ships to tow it. Only someone armed with a fell weapon of death like that harpoon could have done it. Yep, old Captain Jaggedtooth was a legend for sure. And then he passed down that legendary weapon to his son, Gutspew. Captain Gutspew killed the Great Walking Clam and the Black Kraken. Sure proof that he wielded a mighty magical weapon! Monster hunters first class, both of them!”

“And now Captain Pike has this mighty weapon. It’s his pride and joy, and I’m sure he’s going to do great things with it! So don’t you be messing with it, Milo. Some things are off-limits, even to crafty magical engineers like you!”

Captain Pike was waiting for Shift-Stick to continue, but the dwarf just silently wagged a finger at Milo, who looked down at his feet and tried to think of another plan.

“You know, I’ve already killed some monsters! Did you hear about the Old Bear of Winterguard? What about that big croc? That thing had teeth a foot long.”

Shift-Stick turned back to the captain and smiled. “Oh, yeah. Great stories! Not many monster hunters could have killed those beasts. Well, unless they had a weapon like yours. Good job on those.”

Pike scowled. “I’m not liking your tone for some reason, you little beard-braider! Those were monsters like no one sees.”

Shift-Stick shrugged. “No one except everyone here. I mean, this is a World Boss! That’s exciting. Even worth dying for.”

Pike looked over at the monster currently fighting a hundred people. “Well, that bear was pretty tough, and I fought it alone!”

Shift-Stick started walking away. “Alone, except for your enchanted harpoon. I mean, you’ve got a great lineage; don’t get me wrong. Not everyone can live up to their grandpappy. Trust me, I understand. But let’s be serious here. You didn’t kill a Void Whale, and at best, you’ll be remembered for a bear, a lizard, and not being able to kill a World Boss.”

Pike’s face was purple with rage. “Damn your scurvy, pox-ridden tongue! I tried! Even my harpoon can’t put a hole in the beastie!!”

Shift-Stick paused. “Hmm, good point. A shame really, because if you found a way to kill it, then people would know it was your skill and not just the harpoon that let you do it. But that’s not worth letting some annoying little engineer put a rune or two on your weapon.”

The ogre advanced a couple of steps. “Don’t you be telling me what to do! If I want to have some idiot put some magic on my weapon, that’s up to me.” He grabbed Milo by the arm, nearly dislocating it. “Let’s get a move on, you. I’ve got a monster to kill, and you’re going to help me do it!”

Milo’s Clever Plan Step Three-Point-Five: Shift-Stick has a minor breakdown and goes to find something to drink.

New Plan Step Four: Plan A has problems.

At Pike’s insistence, Milo tried to inscribe a rune of velocity on his harpoon. It wasn’t going well. The metal of the harpoon was incredibly hard and didn’t want to take the inscription. He didn’t dare carve it with his claws. He had painted on the rune using a luminous paint the chief engineer had in his Arcane Workshop. It should have stuck to the metal. The rune should have held his mana.

But it wasn’t working right. He could feel that the rune was fragile. Still, it was the best he could do. With the added velocity from the rune, Pike should be able to toss that weapon through a dozen feet of solid rock. All Milo wanted was a wound deep enough that the harpoon wouldn’t pull out.

Vary ran up. “Senior Engineer, sir! The brothers told me the job was a good one. All ready to go on their end.”

Milo was impressed by how fast that was. “And how close is Uthneragrubban to the flag?”

Vary thought about it and stepped back a dozen steps. “Maybe the same distance from me to you. That’s good, right? It’s hard to slow it down much.”

Milo smiled at Vary. “That’s perfect. Now go inform Harry and Chief Engineer and see if they have anything to add to the plan. The captain and I are moving into position.”

New Plan Step Five: Add a Death Machine to the Mix

The chief engineer listened to Vary, then turned to the troll. “He’s worried and needs time. We need to put that beastie on the mark and keep it there.”

Harry moved to the back of the modified excavator. He began pouring strange liquids into a new fuel tank the chief engineer had just welded into place. Some were cans of special fuel from the Arcane Workshop, but one large container was a myconic concoction made from mushrooms Harry tore out of his own skin. “These varieties produce an enzyme that should enhance the explosive qualities of the fuel mixture, leading to quicker ignition and greater fuel consumption.”

Boomboom explained to anyone with a puzzled look on their face. “More boom on the inside, faster drill.” They nodded at his wisdom.

The back of the drill had been torn open to add the new fuel tank, and any of the scrap had been welded to the front of the machine as makeshift armor. From inside came the sound of an overstressed boiler.

Vary was handed a paint can similar to what Milo was trying to use to paint runes. At Harry’s urging, he painted huge letters on the side that read, “Eat my Shrooms!!”

The chief engineer got inside and yelled out, “Belt in if you’re coming, Vary. Pull the cord, Harry, and hold on.” Vary made his decision. Better to die an engineer than to watch from the sidelines and miss out. Harry put a leg over the top of the excavator, riding it like a child’s toy. He reached back and grabbed the rip cord, pulling hard and starting the fuel pump that fed power to the tracks. The rear ones were barely turning, but the front spun faster than before, churning up the rock as the machine started to move.

The chief yelled back to Harry and the engineers along for the ride, “Hold on tight, boys! I can’t slow down the tracks, or the boiler will blow us to smithereens. Whatever accelerant you added is highly efficient. Boomboom will want the recipe for sure if we live through this.” The huge machine slowly built up speed as it headed toward the fight.

New Plan Step Six: Improvise

Uthneragrubban advanced up the cavern, despite anything the raid of players could do. She bent to take a large bite of stone that included a small flag. Above her, dangling from the ceiling, were a dozen engineers. Songs of courage and valor rang out from the Choir of Saint Joan, and the last bottle of wine was passed around. The fate of a city was waiting for a large, impatient ogre and a nervously confident rat who was sure that his time he’d be able to make the rune stick.

“It’s not working, is it?” Captain Pike looked down at Milo, took a long drink from his flask, and tossed the empty container at Uthneragrubban. “Face it, kid; sometimes you lose. I’ve always known that. You can’t kill everything with a sharp metal stick.”

“It was a good plan! The force increases with velocity. I just need the rune to work, and then, even though the harpoon isn’t as hard as the crystal, it has a chance of cleaving along the lines of the structural planes.” Milo was wracking his brain, but he simply didn’t know enough about rune magic yet. He began thinking of several variations at once, his mind racing.

“I don’t know about stuck planes, but yeah, that thing is made of hard stuff. Nothing I know of can cut that thing’s core.”

Milo sat up and reached into his pocket, withdrawing small slivers of blue crystal. Pike’s eyes narrowed. “Looks like you might, though. What cut that?”

Milo held up his hand, and hard bony plates covered his arm, turning his fingers into claws. Glowing runes moved across the bones. Pike whistled. “Bone-Beast Claws. Holy shit. You met one? I thought Grandpappy was just making up shit in his old age. But that’s what my crittersense is telling me. Forget all that shit about losing! I need to hear the story behind those slashers.”

“I’ve got an idea, but you might not like it.” Milo looked up at Pike, still running plans in his head of how to arrange the runes he needed. The ogre handed him the harpoon. “Screw what I don’t like.”

New Plan Step Seven: Cut the Cake

From the darkness of the cavern, the warriors fighting Uthneragrubban heard a roaring sound. Approaching them was a nightmare of metal, ridden by the biggest troll they’d ever seen. The machine was belching out smoke and flames from its rear. No one had to be told to get out of the way.

Uthneragrubban stared at the thing but didn’t react. Speed was not the creature’s forte. The Shroom-mobile slammed into the monster hard, shattering any stone armor and driving it to its knees. Steam vented, and the drill started to turn.

The chief engineer yelled, “I’m putting all the power to the drill. It can’t cut open this thing, but I don’t want the boiler to explode yet. You two best get out of here!”

Vary scrambles from the machine, shaken by the crash but relatively unhurt. Harry reached inside, grabbed the chief engineer, and flung him thirty paces. “Trolls can heal from near anything. Dwarves can’t.”

Uthneragrubban regained her feet and began to beat on the machine, tearing loose great chunks of metal. Harry reached in and tore loose something as well—the main steam pipe leading from the boiler. “Time to see how you like a steam bath.”

Scalding steam sprayed over Uthneragrubban, hurting it not in the least but forcing her back a step in surprise. Other than her crystal core and rocky armor heating up, it caused no damage. Above, the engineers slammed down the faceplates of their armored suits. As the steam vented from the boiler, the troll started to cook. Chunks of Harry flaked off and were blown away. As the steam cleared, he looked like a large stalk of cooked asparagus. Uthneragrubban brought down both claws onto him, breaking his body into hundreds of small pieces that rolled away.

And then the World Boss took a step forward.

Forty feet behind Uthneragrubban, Captain Pike prepared to throw. He’d watched as Milo grabbed the harpoon, and the bone from his arms had flowed onto the tip of the harpoon and then slowly covered the first third of the weapon. More and more bone flowed out of Milo. He ignored notifications and warnings, putting more and more of himself onto the weapon.

When he could do no more, he threw all of his mana into the weapons while chugging down two mana potions and desperately wishing for a nice chunk of creamy Havarti. With the tip of his last claw, he carved the ancient runes into his own bones that encased the magic harpoon. Artifact, runes, and rune-laced bone merged into one item. He finished just as Harry was finished.

“That’s all I can do. There are runes for Hardness and Sharpness inscribed and working. The Velocity Runes are charged. Throw hard, and the runes will trigger and add velocity to the weapon.”

Pike smiled grimly. “And having bone-beast for a cutting-edge sure doesn’t suck.” The ogre looked at the World Boss for a few seconds, lining up his shot and looking for a weak point. Pike threw everything he had into the throw. Every special skill he’d even learned as a monster hunter was used, increasing the chance of a critical hit or of damaging a vital organ. The harpoon sailed toward the monster.

And then glowed as the runes of velocity activated and shot the weapon forward faster than any harpoon had ever been thrown. A sharp crack made players and miners cover their ears in pain, and many would be deaf for a week. Sound waves weren’t happy if you flew faster than they did. The harpoon broke the sound barrier and unleashed a sonic boom under the city just before it hit Uthneragrubban, sending a spray of crystals around the cavern and shattering the crystalline armor on her back.

No one but Pike and Uthneragrubban were left standing. The ogre had a big, dumb smile on his face as he saw his harpoon embedded in the World Boss. He’d thrown so hard that the tip had erupted from her front armor. Lightning flared up and down the crystalline body, slowly fading everywhere but along the top of the spine, its arms, and head.

As Milo had hoped, the harpoon had been encouraged by the monster hunter’s skills to find the small chance of cleaving the crystal of Uthneragrubban’s body the way a jeweler cut a diamond. The spine of the World Boss was shattered, and it was paralyzed until it could heal. And before that happened, the trap was sprung!

A cable running to the lanyard on Pike’s harpoon was pulled taunt. That cable ran to a system of pulleys that ran to seven other cables. Those cables were connected to seven large chunks of rock that, until now, had been hanging from the ceiling of the cavern.

“Fire in the hole.”

Small mining charges ringing the base of each stalactite exploded. The stone cracked along the lines that had already been cracked by wedges pounded into the stone. With a series of loud cracking sounds, the stalactites broke free and fell, each adding tons of tension to the cables. Uthneragrubban was incredibly heavy, but not as heavy as the seven chunks of ceiling rock.

Engineer apprentices do hundreds of problems like this when preparing for their tests. Usually, though, it was a suspension bridge they had to lift, not a World Boss. Rock went down, the Word Boss went up. Uthneragrubban was pulled forty feet into the air where there was no stone to eat, and even if it could generate the power for an attack, it was too high for the power to reach the stone.

One of the dwarven miners fingered his copperhead talisman and looked at the boss. “Let’s have a party. We have a pinata.”

Players mobbed Captain Pike, congratulating him on taking down the boss.

Belinda enlisted Brother Ignatius and the Choir to help her find Mild. He’d been knocked off his feet by the sonic boom and collapsed, unconscious, half-buried in a pile of rubble, barely breathing.

Chapter 14

Stretched Thin

The top of his pod opened, and Milo simply didn’t have the will to get out. He knew something was wrong, but he just didn’t care. He was mentally exhausted and was having trouble forming thoughts. Finally, he summoned the energy to whisper, “Run the full medical scan, suggest treatment.”

The pod came further to life, taking a blood test, analyzing his breath, heart rate, skin temperature, and a dozen other tests before giving its diagnosis:

The patient is suffering from depression due to severe emotional distress and mental exhaustion. Chemical analysis of the brain indicates imbalances of glutamates, lack of endorphins, and buildup of fatigue poisons. The hypothalamus is operating at low levels. Melatonin is below critical levels.

Disclaimer: Modified nervous system adds an error possibility of +/- 23% to any diagnosis. Medical records indicate a complete lack of exposure to sunlight.

Recommended treatment: Minimum 4 hours of sleep and 4 additional hours of light activity. Two healthy meals. Vitamin supplements and ongoing medications increased. Injecting now.

“Would you like to notify the authorities of your medical emergency? This is recommended.”

“No, I would not, and I made sure you couldn’t send out my medical data a long time ago.”

Since we cannot contact the authorities, would you like Advice from the Country Doctor, an attempt to express your condition in layman’s terms that will be easy for you to understand?

“What? Sure.”

“Son, you look like a hundred miles of bad road stretched over three of the worst counties in Alabama. I’ve seen a roadkill possum with more pep in its step than you. Get your scrawny ass out of bed, get something to eat and a cup of coffee. Then sit in the sun and smell the flowers for an afternoon.”

“Treatment complete. Advice given.”

Milo didn’t know what the hell a roadkill possum was, but it didn’t sound good. He slowly got out of the pod and staggered over to his chair. Physically, he was fine. Mentally, he was a wreck. There was a downside to having a nervous system that let you think faster than normal. For others, it had been a hectic few days, but for Milo, it felt like weeks. He’d run so many projections and plans to try and stop first the Snake and then the World Boss that he was simply worn out.

The hundreds of attempts that he had made to form the ancient runes on Cpt. Pike’s harpoon had been nerve-wracking. He had tried every way he knew, every combination, and then experimented. The process of charging the runes has taken the last of his energy.

When he had passed out in the game, his pod must have decided he needed to take a break. He agreed with it. Either they won and things were fine, or they lost and the city came crashing down and he died along with everyone else. He was too tired to care.

That last stunt had been too much for him. He’d thrown everything he had at one last chance. He thought it had worked. He’d seen the throw and the harpoon going deep into the monster, then seen the monster jerked into the air as the engineers sent tons of rock falling downward to lift the thing. He’d go back and check in a while. For now, he just wanted to sit and watch his screens as his systems scanned Section E for problems.

His stomach growling reminded him that he was supposed to eat. He pulled a large block of cheese from his refrigerated drawer. It was a tangy blend of cheddar and parmesan, just perfect for a small snack. An alarm went off as he started to take a bite!

All of his screens lit up, and he saw a stern-faced Milo pointing at him from all directions.

“You’re eating like shit! You know you need balance in your diet. Quit being weak and use your brain!”

Sometimes Milo hated that guy. The one who was responsible and left him messages telling him to eat right. He never should have put an alarm on the cheese drawer. But ResponsibleMilo had a point. He brought out crackers, a small tin that proclaimed itself to be 100% real substitute tuna, and a jar of peaches with almond slices. The crackers went well with the cheese, the meat tasted like food cubes, and the fruit was delicious. This was the second or third time he’d had a jar of real fruit. He liked it. He should see what other flavors that fruit came in and try some other things.

Refreshed, he went to work on some minor problems with the waste disposal system, but overall things were in good shape. He checked on his neighbors and saw that they’d had some explosions when systems had bone bad. They really needed to take better care of their machinery. He saw on his screens that they were doing the work of installing new components instead of stealing from old hab areas. That was good. Milo wanted those old areas untouched for when he needed things.

And then his jaw dropped. Were they really adding new power systems to the roof? Both wind and solar? That was outstanding! Managing the power usage was always difficult. Every part of the habitat could use more power. If the new manager of Section H had decided to generate more power, things would be better for the habitat in general. Maybe he’d even be able to borrow back all the power they had stolen from him.

Things were looking good for a change. He could go back into the game and not worry too much. But first, he needed to sleep. Rarely was he this tired. He lay back in his chair and snaked his tail over to the pod, connecting to it. He fell asleep in the middle of reading his notifications.

System Notification Summary

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

You have learned something… This metal resists change…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

You need to eat some cheese… Failure to eat cheese will trigger anxiety and withdrawal symptoms…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

You have learned something… This item has a purpose, which makes it resistant to change.

This method of forming a rune has also failed…

So has this one…

And this one…

How about I just keep a count of your failures?

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix…

Sure, let’s try 897 more ways…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix… Wait, that almost worked! What the hell did you do?

You have learned something! By coating this magical item with a thick layer of bone, you almost succeeded in forming… something…

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix… You have lost some of your bone…

You really should take a break and have some cheese!

Failure to form a stable Runic Matrix… You have lost some of your bone…

You have learned something! You must make the bone harder… thicker…

WARNING: You have taken a large amount of bone from your body; this is not recommended!

WARNING: All cheese in your body is depleted. Your body is entering severe cheese withdrawal!

WARNING: You are approaching death.

<Pudding-Based Regeneration to the rescue! Oooblimilo shall save the day!>

You have gained a sentient parasite… Symbiotic Partner!

You have succeeded in coating a magical harpoon in your own bone.

You have succeeded in forming multiple Ancient Runes.

You have charged a Rune of Velocity.

You have charged a Rune of Velocity. (2). Your mana is running low.

You have charged a Rune of Velocity. (3). Your mana is depleted.

You have charged a Rune of Velocity. (4). Your stamina is depleted.

Your health is badly depleted.

Your Runes of Velocity have activated! Your projectile has surpassed the speed of sound! You are deafened for 6 hours.

You have abused your body, sacrificing your bones, stamina, health, and mana to construct a magical weapon.

Actions have consequences… These effects will be permanent or temporary, depending on your next actions.

Over 90% of your bone structure is missing.

Without bones, you are no longer a Bonecaster

Because you are not a Bonecaster, you have lost your connection to your Arcane Library.

Because you are not a Bonecaster, you have lost your connection to the Bone-Runed Cowl.

Because you are not a Bonecaster, you have lost your connection to Shadowblight.

You are near death and unconscious.

You have been logged out of the game.

End Summary. Try to get some sleep—you’re going to need it when you get back.

Chapter 15

Broken?

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 he 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, and 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 Hurl is.”

Belinda patted his hand. “I think I’ll pass on the ‘Twirl and Hurl.’ 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.

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 Boomboom 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. Chief Engineer agreed!” Milo could see Vary was quite proud of being picked over Boomboom, 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 Miners’ 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 distribution 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.

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.

Okay, 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.

Chapter 16

Seeing Things from a Different Angle

Wally had used holographic projectors to turn the room into a simulation of the dwarven mines. Every wall, the ceiling, and even the floor of the room projected the inside of the massive caverns that were part of the old dwarven city and mines beneath Shadowport. Twice someone had been walking around and tried to take one step too far, running into a wall, to the great amusement of the rest of the development staff.

There were only two dozen people in the room. Most were part of the permanent staff that worked with Wally. Their job descriptions changed regularly, as the AI had work that needed human hands and voices to interact with the rest of the world. Wally could talk to anyone who had a phone or computer screen, but he didn’t like to—it wasn’t efficient. He needed the buffer zone that was provided by his human staff. While he could do it, he didn’t want to have every person with a question calling him directly. Even an AI had limits. He also needed the humans who entrusted him with so many jobs around the world to feel secure. An AI running things with no human oversight wasn’t going to work. An AI with human staff watching over him was more acceptable.

Wally had hand-picked the people he could most easily work with for his inner circle. They were flexible in their thinking and able to adapt to new tasks and problems. They understood how powerful he was and also the thousands of limitations he had to work with. And most importantly, they could treat him as a person and not fear him. This was so very important to their mental health and his. Around those half-dozen people were only thirty more who worked with him regularly. They were picked for their competency and ability to think outside the box, adapting to the needs of a quantum AI. Sometimes, that meant relaxing and having fun all day.

Today Wally was having a great deal of fun watching his humans watch the game. Stories were being created before everyone’s eyes. All the major gaming channels were covering the World Boss event. This wasn’t just a guild of gamers fighting a boss in a dungeon; this was a city fighting back against a World Boss set on destroying it.

No one had known that dwarven engineers like these still existed. They had appeared from deep below with ancient magitech weapons and armor, carried by a titanic drilling machine. A large number of new players were choosing dwarf as their race and hoping to find a quest to become an engineer. Some existing players, even as high as Tier 3 were scrubbing their characters and starting over. Speculation about the existence of an Engineers’ Guild in Shadowport was high but not confirmed. No statements had been made by the dev team to confirm or deny such a thing.

There almost hadn’t been a city to host such a guild. Hundreds of players had joined the raid, paying the huge price in gold and mana to teleport to the city. The newcomers replaced those who had died so fast that Belinda couldn’t keep track of them. She had two assistant raid leaders who added new people to the raid as the current members died. If nothing else, the fight would be remembered for the hundreds—and possibly thousands—of player deaths.

Belinda herself was another story. A low-rank player in one of the smallest guilds had shown up out of nowhere with news of impending doom and organized the raid group to oppose the first-ever World Boss. And more, she was backed up by Choir of Saint Joan, supported by the Engineers’ and Miners’ Guilds, and had recruited an NPC ganglord, Squint, and Captain Pike, the monster hunter.

There was also speculation about the Legendary ring she was wearing. Nothing like it had been seen in the game. Her message box had reached a maximum of 999 messages within two minutes after she shared the link to the ring with some other players. The top fifty guilds had sent invites, dozens of online gaming channels wanted an interview, and hundreds of gamers had sent her messages. Most of the messages were asking where she got it. Sadly for 999 people, Belinda was ignoring them and focusing on killing the creature threatening the city.

The question that many people asked toward the end of the raid was “Who is Milo?”

Belinda had rallied her troops and presented a plan from one of the chief engineers, to whom she referred to simply as Milo. A short interview with a young dwarf confirmed he was one of the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild’s senior engineers, as well as an acting guild leader. But somehow, he was also a player.

A rumor had started that he was engaged to the fair raid leader and possibly the source of the mysterious ring. This was later discounted when the source of the rumor proved to be three very drunk old women who were demanding more wine from some of the players and miners.

The answer to the question, “Who is Milo?” got an answer at the end of the raid.

All eyes had turned to an outcrop of rock where a mysterious figure stood next to Captain Pike. All of the mana in the room seemed to rush to him in a great wave as Milo glowed with power that he channeled into Pike’s harpoon. The captain’s mighty throw had shattered the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom. It had also shattered the spine of a World Boss.

And a second answer to the question, “Who is Milo?” was also clear—a diabolic engineer with a knack for clever traps.

The players, audiences watching the video feeds, and the dev team stared in awe as mining explosives broke the rock holding seven huge stalactites to the ceiling. Cables attached to each rock ran to anchors in the ceiling and then to a complex pulley/block and tackle system that balanced the forces and pulled evenly on the triple-strand cable attached to Pike’s harpoon.

Uthneragrubban was jerked high into the air, hanging between floor and ceiling, far from the rock needed to heal its wounds and create its horde of children. Everyone slowly got up, many disoriented and temporarily deafened. The energies in the damaged crystalline body of Uthneragrubban grew dim, and the World Boss grew still.

“OMG! Did they win? How in hell did they win? Is it over?”

Wally zoomed in on the view of Uthneragrubban slowly swinging back and forth on the thick cable as many of the dev team shouted questions.

Wally stepped into the middle of the room and pointed at the hologram of Uthneragrubban. “Yes, I’d count that as a win. Without any help, the gaming community came together, worked with the NPCs, and found a way to defeat a foe that they should not have had to fight. We set up an impossible event to force fights all over the world, and they got out of control. There is a lesson in there for us.”

Steven chuckled. “You’re being polite. You mean a lesson for us meddling humans.”

Wally shook his head. “No. I mean for all of us. I’m an artificial intelligence. That doesn’t mean there aren’t new things I can learn. And trust me, I learned a few things today. Let’s see if any of you noticed. Sydney?”

Sydney stared at her coffee cup, poured it down her throat, and walked up to Wally. “Starting with me? I’m guessing this is about the rat? I was supposed to keep watch on our little troublemaker. Lesson learned. I just don’t understand how he caused so much to happen.”

Wally waved a finger at her. “Not quite there yet. I don’t blame you at all. Despite my saying exactly that one time. You aren’t responsible for what he did. I only assigned him to you because you are good at what you do, and you had a chance to keep up with him. Try again.”

Sydney tilted her head and thought back to her first interactions with Milo. He seemed harmless at first, despite being an obvious hacker. Each thing they learned about him brought more questions. Meanwhile, he flitted around and caused trouble.

“A butterfly. He’s a damned butterfly.”

“Excellent way to put it. He’s a focus for chaos. His method of problem-solving can cause more problems. How he deals with the world leaves a wake far out of proportion to his actions. Everything seems calm until he gets poked. And then the butterfly flaps its wings, and we get a hurricane in another part of the world. I think we should all review our chaos theory this week. He isn’t the last butterfly we will have in this game.”

“This is an aspect of the Genesis Engine I had speculated on but couldn’t predict. A game engine that reacts to the players that help the Engine create stories. But then the players are part of those stories, causing larger reactions. And chain reactions. This is going to be so much fun!”

Steven shut his eyes for a moment. Wally having fun always meant trouble… and work. Lots of work.

A member of the dev team, Raul, was manipulating the video, bringing it back to the moment that Captain Pike was about to throw his harpoon. “I want to know what is happening here. This looks like Bone Casting or Bonecasting—we haven’t decided on a final name. But I know we haven’t released it yet. No one has become a necromancer at high enough level to specialize in it yet.”

Wally walked over and pointed to the strange, hooded cloak that Milo was wearing and the weapon of bone and wood. “The fact that Bonecasting exists means it’s always been around. We don’t just drop things into the world like that. It’s an option because NPCs have used it for thousands of years. Milo encountered an undead mage, destroyed it, and unknowingly bound himself to the items, gaining the knowledge. There is a much longer story—talk to me if you want to hear it. And not one word leaves this room. I’ll know.”

“And the runes? When I try to find out anything about a Velocity Rune, I get a reference to some very obscure elven and draconic tablets that I can’t read.”

Wally shook his head at Raul and laughed. “Ah, what are they teaching you kids in school these days? I guess if you want to know about the wars at the start of time, you’ll have to learn some new languages. Talk to me on your day off; I’ll set up some lessons.”

Sydney crossed her arms, annoyed. She had no time for new languages unless they were printed on the back of a new blend of coffee beans. “My question is how did my butterfly take knowledge of Bone Magic and old runes and use them in a new way?”

Wally thought for a second, then walked to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee and one for Sydney before setting them down where she sat and seating himself. She poked at her cup, surprised to find it real and not a hologram. When Wally sat his cup down, she poked his coffee cup, and her finger went into the cup. Giving up, she sipped her own cup and waited for him to speak.

“The easiest way to explain this is to say that Milo took actions, and the game engine saw those actions and was influenced enough to act upon them. He experimented with new ways to use magic, and his actions aligned with spellcasting done by NPCs at some point in the game’s history.”

Barry raised his voice, a bit exasperated. “Please, I don’t want to see every player yelling out magic words from Beatrice Potter and finding a new spell. That would be chaos.”

Wally sipped his coffee and nodded in agreement. “A good point, and I agree. In this case, based upon his actions, mumblings, manipulation of spells and runes, and the records the System allowed me to see, Milo attempted 2,394 different ways to empower Captain Pike’s enchanted harpoon with Ancient Runes of Velocity and charge them. He did this in a span of less than an hour, faster than his deadline approached. The curve of attempts over time is nearly a parabola.”

“This is something that also doesn’t leave this room. And one of the few times I will ‘Go all Terminator on your ass.’ Milo is one of those few humans who reacts to stress by thinking faster. Many of you do the same, just not to the same extent he does. It’s more complex than that, but that’s the basic idea. And his education seems to have been task-focused with a lot of work in technology and problem-solving.”

“Think about it. He could have logged out and been safe. Or left the city. Instead, motivated by the welfare of the city and the NPCs he had interacted with, he pushed himself to the limit of human thinking and a little beyond. Hyper-focus is also one of his talents. He’s great at solving problems but also oblivious to some things. I still laugh when I replay his interactions with Sydney.”

Barry was still unsatisfied. “So, he thinks fast, but does that mean he now has an entirely new type of magic? How do we deal with that?”

Sydney rolled her eyes. “Why do we have to deal with it at all? He found a secret in the game by exploring. Isn’t that what we advertise? Huge world, lots of secrets and things to find in the wilderness, dark caverns, and hidden wonders? So Milo knows some Bonecasting? Someone had to be first. The necromancers will catch up with him someday. Well, if the Inquisition doesn’t find them first.”

Steven was reading the game logs of the event. He queried the System about Milo and got some surprising news. “Oh my, he actually isn’t a Bone Caster right now. Something happened to him while he was experimenting with adding a spell to the ogre’s harpoon. I’m not sure what he did—the System isn’t giving much in the way of details—but right now he can’t cast spells.”

Barry’s eyes went wide. “OMG! This is just like in Tolkien’s books!”

Sydney raised an eyebrow at him. “Tolkien?”

Barry laughed, embarrassed. “Sorry, sort of a joke. In some fantasy stories, the hero does something amazing and gets rewarded. The reward makes him stronger and helps him do even more amazing things because he did the first thing. He gets stronger and stronger. What we call a Progression Story. A lot of Genesis is set up that way. But in The Lord of the Rings, one of the themes is that great works come with a price. Some things can only be done once. Feanor wouldn’t give up the Silmarils to heal the wounded trees because it would destroy them, and he knew he couldn’t make them again. Sauron couldn’t just make another ring when he lost his. Some things can only be made once. And today, Milo did something amazing for the first time and helped strike down a World Boss.”

Sydney looked horrified. “Is that an actual game mechanic? Doing something huge can cost you something about your character?” Many of the people in the room weren’t happy with that idea—all of them had characters in Genesis.

Barry looked at their faces and realized what he’d said. “Damn, sorry. I’m just theory-crafting. I don’t really know anything other than what I can see in his announcements.”

Steven turned to Wally. “Care to weigh in?”

The AI spread his hands and shrugged. “I don’t know how the Engine works in cases like this. But let’s think about it. The Engine wants stories. On one hand, we have the Tolkien mechanic, and on the other, the standard progression mechanic. Both give you stories, but the progression mechanic creates more stories as the character progresses. I suspect there is a way out of this predicament for Milo, although it might be difficult to achieve. And of course, there is risk vs. reward to consider. Big risks or problems can bring about big rewards. Right, Sydney?”

Sydney nearly choked on her coffee as the AI said that. “Shit. Do you mean he might be able to cause even more trouble in the future if he gets better? Damn it, I’m going to be working overtime keeping track of him.”

Wally pointed to the coffee pot next to her desk. “More work means more money and more coffee. It’s not all bad.”

Steven put thoughts of Milo aside. “All right, people, we have work to do. Wally has shown us aspects of the System and what can happen when a series of strange events align. I want every single quest we’ve ever added to the System evaluated and strange outcomes noted. Make sure we are not causing more problems that someone will have to fix.”

The cave disappeared, making it possible for everyone to find their desks.

“The outcome today lets us pause the rest of the World Boss event. Fire-breathing lizards, Giant Gophers, and a demonic machine named Fred will all go back to sleep with nothing to trigger them for now. I think Uthneragrubban will be taken care of in the next day or two as they chip away at her.”

George raised his hand. “I’m going to need some help. My section of the world has too much shit going on. I’ve got the quest that adds new pets for players, an ancient city we didn’t expect to be open for another year, a dungeon of evil bunnies, outlawed colleges of magic, and a possible invasion of sentient horseradish monsters.”

Steven nodded to him encouragingly. George did indeed have a lot of weird stuff in the section of the world he monitored. “Right, we can do that. I’ll have Dan assign one of the EMG people to you for the next few weeks and grab the new intern, Toby. Might as well toss him into the deep end.”

Sydney was looking at how a broken Milo was pulled out of the fight by one of the dwarves and then cared for by a healer for hours. Even as he started walking upstairs, she saw he was having trouble. While the other players looked forward to their Uber Boss Loot, he just looked tired.

“I sort of feel bad for Milo. I know we can’t interfere, but even so, can’t we do something for him? Just as an anonymous thank you. Losing Shadowport would have been a huge pain in the ass.”

Wally considered. It was interesting to him that, as annoyed as Sydney was at Milo, she felt sorry for him. “What do you suggest?”

Sydney thought for a second and then smiled. “How about a membership in the Imperial Cheese of the Month Club?”

Wally turned to his head developer. “Steven? Can we create such a thing? A tasty cheese delivered by some creative means to a player anywhere in the world? It would be a popular gift at Christmas, and we could give the money to charity.”

Steven laughed. “Sure. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. And give the rat his monthly cheese basket. I like it. Not something that will change anything.”

Wally nodded. “So let it be written, so let it be done.”

Chapter 17

Can’t Fix Stupid

The way up had never seemed so long. Every step was difficult. His hands were shaking, and his legs wobbled. Finally, after what seemed like an age, he stumbled into the great guild hall and was shown to a room where the heads of the Miners’ Guild, Mechanics’ Guild, Dwarven Engineers’ Guild, Pipefitters’ Guild, and Toolmakers’ Guild were meeting. It was a mess of yelling humans, dwarves, halflings, and even a few ogres.

“We’re the duly sponsored guilds in this city; you can’t come out of nowhere and refuse to pay your hundreds of years of back dues!”

“Dues? And what about fines for breaking regulations, new guild fees, and drayage?”

“This violates all the new rules! We wrote the rules and voted on them last night!”

“You can’t just run around with spanners that don’t have a toolmaker’s stamp.”

“Did you have clearance for that project? You can’t just trap a World Boss without having us clear the project!”

“You can all keep your grubby hands off that loot! Miners fought and died, and we’ll get the first crack at it!”

“All loot needs to be brought to this guild hall, and we can vote on how to distribute it.”

Milo slumped into the room, took a back seat, and ignored all the yelling. Sadly, someone noticed him.

“Oh, here he is now. Let’s see what he has to say for himself?”

Milo was pushed forward to a large table where two dozen people sat or stood. The table was at least twenty feet long and six feet wide. Chief Engineer and Throttlecog were seated in large chairs. Throttlecog was ignoring the room and polishing his armor. At random times he deployed dangerous-looking tools or weapons (hard to tell which) and then snapped them back into their sockets.

The chief engineer was on a slow burn. He had a half smile on his face, but his eyes were hard and mean. He nodded to Milo as if to say, “Sorry for dragging you into this mess.”

Milo didn’t like being around this many people. Especially this many people who were talking all at once. One dwarf with a toolmaker’s badge and gold beads in his beard yelled at him, “Well, you heard us! What do you have to say?”

Milo looked around the room. Fine, today he’d deal with people. How hard could this social stuff be? Just another problem to solve.

“Say about what? You haven’t given me a question worth answering, just shouting. If you can’t even state the problem correctly, how do you expect me to solve it for you?”

More shouting occurred. Something he had said had upset them. It stopped when Throttlecog brought his armored fist down upon the foot-thick granite tabletop. Cracks appeared, radiating out from the divot of crushed stone where his fist had slammed down.

“Enough of this. Time to be civil. We have three senior engineers of the Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild present. That constitutes a quorum, and we can address all the sensible questions you’re asking. Pick someone to go first.”

Five minutes later, it was decided that somehow the mechanics had precedent.

“Very well. First, justify how constructing such a massive contraption of cables and pulleys without a permit is justified in the rules. You didn’t use guild mechanics or submit any of the needed forms. Plus operating an uninspected death machine, raising an army, mixing guilds, adding in a church, and inviting a raid of adventurers to the mix.”

Eyes turned to the Deep Rock Engineers. Throttlecog stopped the chief engineer from talking and nodded to Milo, who sighed. He hated answering questions without the right background.

“I assume you have those regulations listed somewhere?” The Mechanics’ Guild Leader smiled and pointed to a thick book. “Of course, right here.”

“Hand it to me, please. In fact, hand me ALL the regulations.”

Several people started to argue, and Throttlecog raised his fist. Things got quiet, and five large leatherbound books were slid across the table to Milo. He ran his hand across the books and smelled the old paper. He’d always loved reading the manuals for air handlers and sewage pumps, with his favorite being the nine-inch thick book of regulations that no one else in the habitat ever paid attention to. Normally, he’d have taken his time and enjoyed himself, but this was Engineer Business. He picked up the first book and began to thumb through the pages, looking at two pages every three seconds.

Without pausing, he said, “I want a cheese sandwich and a large mug of something to drink, and I’d like it now.” His words were flat and without emotion, quieting the room further. Some of the people across from him were staring at his eyes, now completely black and unblinking as he stared at the pages, reading and memorizing them as they flipped past.

It took Milo less than an hour to go through all five of the huge volumes, scanning each page. He moved faster and faster as time went by, each regulation fitting into the obscure pattern that the guilds worked by. Throttlecog and Chief Engineer had seen him do the same thing when he was taking his entrance exams and later working on the machines they had given to him to fix.

Everyone else was either scared or thought it was a hoax, but the threat of violence from all three Deep Rock engineers was real. There was only one interruption when someone cursed and got up to leave. Strong hands forced them back into their chair.

Milo finished his sandwich quickly, drank the hot, strong tea, and set aside the last book. He looked around the room, catching the eye of each person in the room—a trick he had seen the chief use.

“Each guild agreed to abide by the City Charter. The city’s charter gives broad leeway to guilds striving to prevent certain threats to the city. Specifically, and I quote, ‘Threats of such a great nature that they could result in the death of a large number of citizens, the sinking of ships, the collapse of the main mine, or the loss of trade routes and commerce should be dealt with immediately and are not subject to the normal requirements for Guild Meetings.’”

“You can find supportive language on page 5 of the Mechanics’ Guild Regulations, which state, ‘A quorum of Senior Guild Leaders at the site of the emergency may propose and design solutions that their Guild will carry out.’”

“Page 57 of the Engineers’ Guild Regulations states, ‘An Engineering Project takes precedence over all other projects if the solution involves or has a need for engineers.’”

“This is backed up by similar wording on page 1 of the Miners’ Guild Regulations and page 23 of the Toolmakers’ Guild Regulations.”

“And in the margins of page 237, at the left bottom corner, written by hand in green ink of the Pipefitters’ Guild Regulations, it says, ‘As long as we get our cut, who cares who’s in charge?’”

Milo slammed the last book shut and stacked it on the pile. “You all agreed to those rules. The city was notified of the problem, and most of you ran to save your own skins, sailed away, or left by airship. Only one household brought troops to fight. Only one guild from the city stayed to fight. The Deep Rock Engineers, the Miners’ Guild, and House Shadowforge formed a coalition and were joined by hundreds of players from the Adventurers’ Guild. Working together, we trapped the boss, and in a short time we’ll kill her.”

“And it was all according to regulations!” Milo pushed the stack of books back across the table. “Next question.”

There was silence, then mumbles and whispers, and then one of the ogres from the Pipefitters’ Guild asked, “And what about the loot?”

The head of the Miners’ Guild snapped around and started to talk, anger easy to see in his face. One of his subordinates stopped him, reminding him of the pipefitters’ reputation. It was best to be polite in meetings with the Pipefitters unless you wanted to meet some of them in a dark alley.

Milo looked at the ogre with some disgust. From the snippets he was overhearing, the pipefitters did as much work breaking legs as they did working with pipes. Looking at them, he could believe that. “The boss isn’t even dead yet, and people who didn’t fight want the loot? This isn’t a dragon with some horde to raid. If it does have a horde, it’s deep down in the caverns. Maybe you should go look for it? The gods or whoever gives out these shiny chests will reward those who fought.”

He looked the ogre in the eye. “And if you don’t like how the loot gets distributed, go talk to Captain Pike—he was looking hungry last I saw him. Tell him you want a cut of his loot.”

Both ogres and many other people paled at the thought, and the discussion of the boss’s loot ended.

One dwarf had to open his mouth. “That’s not all the loot we’ve heard about, though. I heard about a very valuable ring. That should be included in any discussion of how the loot gets divvied up. What do you have to say about that?”

Milo was never sure where the anger came from, but suddenly he was across the table, standing on top of it and hoisting the dwarf out of his seat before anyone could blink. “I gave Belinda that ring. I killed the Snake. It was mine to give. And if you even think about causing her trouble, I will bury you so deep that no one will ever find you.”

He dropped the terrified dwarf back into a seat and returned to his spot at the table. Talking started back up a minute later, but the ring was not mentioned again. Milo did overhear some comments about gold-crazed idiots.

“Harrumph… There is still the matter of this ‘Deep Rock Engineers’ Guild’ wanting to establish a guild hall in the city. That could upset the delicate balance of power and economics in the city. Membership, dues, fees, fines… there’s a lot that has to be discussed and agreed upon.”

The chief engineer cleared his throat and spoke. “So now it’s down to money? Good. How much? And convert whatever crappy silver and gold bits and bobs you use for money into bars of deep copper or dark steel. We pay our debts in hard metal.”

A loud discussion started up and didn’t look to stop, and didn’t look to end anytime soon. Milo stood up and started to leave. “I have things to do. Name an amount now, or I’m gone, and you can all pound sand for all I care. Shutting you all up is the only reason the chief engineer is making a generous offer, and if you keep talking, you blow that offer away on a wind of hot air!”

Milo was not feeling well, and he hated this meeting more and more. What was the point? He realized it wasn’t something he could fix. You can’t fix stupid. You can’t stop greed. You can’t make people stop wanting power. He just wanted to go back to exploring the caverns or rebuilding the engineering station.

Quickly, the dwarf with the gold beads in his beard spoke. “Well, I think ten bars of pure dark steel and five bars of pure deep copper for each of the five established guilds sounds like a fair price for adding a new guild to the city, paying all back dues, and tying things up nicely.” He smiled and prepared for the haggling. A look passed between Milo, Throttlecog, and the chief engineer.

“Done,” said the engineer. He laughed, and after a moment, Milo and Throttlecog joined him.

“Err, you agree to that?” Gold Beads, who was from the Toolmakers’ Guild, was taken aback by the lack of haggling.

A large crate appeared on the table, which promptly cracked and collapsed. The yard-square crate settled in the debris of broken stone, and Milo opened it up. The crate was filled with hundreds of bars of deep copper, dark steel, gems, machine components, special tools, and ingots of even rarer metals. Milo pulled out the seventy-five bars of metal and piled them on the other end of the table. The guild leaders were staring at the chest that had magically appeared in front of them.

Throttlecog said smugly, “Old engineering trick.”

The chief engineer gestured to the guild leaders. “Take it. We have a long shopping list and brought some trade goods to spend up here.”

The guild leaders of the Miners’ and Dwarven Engineers’ Guilds pushed their way over to the chief engineer. They bowed low. The Miners’ Guild leader spoke. “We took a vote. Unanimous outcome. Our guilds would like to welcome you to the city. Keep the metal. Friends don’t extort friends.”

The engineer looked at them both and then shook hands. “Why, that’s quite neighborly of you. We fought beside the Miners’ Guild, and of course, all engineers’ guilds are related even if separated by the long years. We’d be happy to work with you.”

The Miners’ Guild Leader casually dropped another bit of info. “And I talked to the head of the Adventurers’ Guild. He’s a bit busy, but he said that he’d be glad to join our little coalition and get some things straightened out.”

There was silence from the other side of the room as the pipefitters, mechanics, and toolmakers saw “the delicate balance and economics” shift away from them.

Milo snapped his fingers, and his chest disappeared. “I’m done. Too much talking. The Adventurers’ Guild will store the rest of this metal. I need to go fill up the space with important things.”

Before anyone could annoy him further, he walked upstairs. The halfling in charge of the adventurers seemed to know everything that had just happened. He happily helped Milo unload his storage into two huge safes. He wisely kept his opinion about “old engineering tricks” to himself.

Milo considered his nearly empty storage and his current situation. The Bone-Runed Cowl was tattered and dirty. It moved like it wanted to crawl away from him. His weapon, Shadowblight, was likewise not looking good. It had a chip in one spike, and he got the distinct feeling that it was ignoring him and found him unworthy. He put both items into the chest, changed into his engineer coveralls, and hung his daggers and spanner on his belt. That would do for now.

He walked down the steps of the guild hall, only to feel a tug on his tail. He turned around, seeing the same youngster who had seen through his disguise once before. The child looked even dirtier than the last time he had seen him. He was thin and tattered, with tracks from the tears running down his face. “Mr. Tail? I can’t find my sister. I can’t find anyone. I’ve been all alone for days. Do you know where they are?” The child started crying, hugging him around the waist.

Milo had no idea what to say, so he took the boy by the hand, and they started walking until they got to Squint’s place at Light’s End. Two Kulags were guarding the entrance. They eyed him and the child. Milo was so tired that he didn’t bother with long explanations. “This boy is lost; his sister and the rest of his gang are gone. They hung out down here. Any ideas?”

One of them seemed sympathetic for a moment while the other laughed. “You think we have time for lost brats?”

Milo stepped closer and stared up at the much larger man, his eyes like deep pits. “Let me rephrase that: Any ideas before I have my meeting with Squint and tell him how unhelpful you are? That assumes I don’t put a dagger in your brain right here and now.” Milo was getting tired of yelling at people and threatening them, but it seemed to be the most efficient way to get things done at the moment.

The sympathetic guard intervened. “Learn who you’re talking to before being an asshole, Tarik. Sorry, sir, no idea. But we have heard that a lot of people have gone missing lately. Not just street rats either. But right now, with everyone leaving the town and coming back, things are a mess. But Boss Squint says he’s going to change things around and make it better.”

Milo sighed. Too many variables at once. “Is Squint around?”

The Kulag shook his head. “Down at the docks, knocking heads together. Be back in a couple of hours.”

Milo handed him the boy. “Give him to Squint; tell him to add it to Milo’s tab. I’ll be back soon to talk about the job he has for me.”

Having dealt with that problem, Milo headed for the cheese shop. The gnawing in his body was getting worse. He was tired of dealing with people and just wanted to sit in a corner with a few slices of his favorite snack. Even walking was exhausting right now. Every step was difficult, and he had to be careful of how he moved.

The cheese shop was a disappointment. Jethro was there, but there was hardly any cheese! None of the other halflings were around. The shop looked dusty, with cobwebs in the corners and empty cheese containers piled in a trash heap. A disheveled and unshaven Jethro ushered him in. “You’re back! That’s great! I’ve got a special order—just for you. The rest of the family is at the warehouse. Pardon the dust. We almost left the city for something safer. How about you wait here? Help yourself to some of the gouda over there? Delish! On the house! I’ll run get your order.”

Milo shrugged. He didn’t understand humans, let alone halflings. He missed the straightforward insanity of the engineers. He was heading back down as soon as he could. He needed away from the city.

And Harry! Had he survived? No one had mentioned the troll. Harry had told Milo how hard trolls were to kill, but he’d been reduced to large chunks.

He sat on a broken crate, gnawing on the gouda. It was bland and unaged, with some stupid seeds in it. Why would you mix stuff inside of good cheese? Well, not that this was good cheese. He was feeling a little better, but exhaustion was catching up with him. His reflexes were slow, and his mind was foggy. As he sat, staring into space and gnawing on a cheese rind, he failed to notice the immaculately dressed, dark-haired wizard and the dragonling on his shoulder.

“Encasio Viriculum Transciobella!”

Milo heard the words, and a small glass ball struck him in the chest as he turned. Everything went strange as he spun down into the darkness.

“Ah, Tasha’s Transcendent Entrapment. Never leave home without one.” Philistron bent down and picked up the small glass ball with an even smaller Milo trapped inside.

“Excellent work, Jethro.” He tossed a small pouch of silver coins to the halfling. “I’ll say hi to your family for you.”

Jethro caught the money but seemed surprised at the words. “My family? You’re letting them go, right? That was the deal! I help you catch him, and you let them go!”

“Ah, Jethro, poor Jethro. You’re forgetting your own words. You wanted so much. Respect, money, to be the head of your family, to make them think differently of you. And I’ve done all that for you.” He waved to the dilapidated shop. “It’s all yours now. And you’re in charge. Head of what’s left of the family. And I guarantee they think differently of you now. Don’t worry about them anymore. They’ll be on their way soon to Fort Hopeless, along with a few other people that the city won’t miss. I’m doing my duty in cleaning up the streets. You should be proud of your contribution to my project.”

He smiled with malice at the halfling. “I kept my word. Say differently, and Krysofolax will rip out your tongue and eat your eyes. And then you can join your family, they’d be glad to see you. Oh, feeling more respectful? That’s nice. Good day, Jethro.”

The wizard strode down through the town, talking to his companion. “That ties things up nicely, don’t you think?”

“…”

“What do you mean, not the same ratkin? Of course it’s the same ratkin. Use your eyes.”

“…”

“No, I can’t smell the difference. You said he smelled of ‘old bone and enemies’ before. What does he smell like now?”

“…”

“Family? Are you serious? That’s a scruffy, cheese-addicted ratkin. And I can tell it’s the same one. How many do you think have completed The Eye of Wonder quest?”

“…”

“Well, yes, there are others! But not another ratkin! It’s the same one I say. You didn’t like the other one at all, and now you’re telling me you’re related? You’ve been eating too many a pickled herring. I never should have let you load that many jars of fish onto the ship.”

“…”

“Now that’s just rude! Let’s get back to the ship, slice him up, and we can settle this. Dragon-blooded, indeed. You’re being silly.”

“…”

“I’m just going to ignore you now.”

“…”

“Rude little lizard. Half a mind to trade you for a Gerbil!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Chapter 18

Family

As he had every four hours for the last month, Algernon ran a basic diagnostic test on the two pods in front of him. As expected, every system was functioning normally. He spent twenty minutes visually inspecting hoses, feeding tubes, medication levels, and settings by hand and eye, confirming what the test had shown him—everything was normal, and everything was working.

Next was a full medical examination of both people inhabiting those pods. This took longer than normal since the pods had to be kept offline and hooked into his diagnostic system and not tied into the worldwide data net. He’d been tempted so many times to send their data to several neurologists he had worked with before in the hopes that a set of fresh eyes might see what he didn’t.

But every time he paused and considered what would be at stake. They’d have questions about the patient’s modified nervous systems, integrated cybernetics, and the patient’s current situation. Even using people who knew how to keep silent and liked the bags of money he could pay wasn’t safe. And he might never get the answers he needed from them and would be needlessly exposing too many of his family’s secrets. It wasn’t the right thing to do. He knew it was simply the pressure of having no answer to the problem that causing him heightened anxiety. Even solving small problems could cause him stress, and this was a problem that involved the lives of two of his family. That was half of the people in the world he cared about. Half his world was lying in those pods, somehow trapped in a make-believe reality thought up by an AI.

They had discussed if the AI was responsible but dismissed the idea. They knew that Wally had a dozen rules in his kernel that would stop him from causing this much harm to a human being. Something else was going on here. Something was keeping their minds locked up.

Disconnecting the pods entirely from the game hadn’t helped them. Worse, he had detected immediate symptoms of decay in their nervous systems. The electrical impulses along their nerves, both natural and enhanced, had slowed. Total synaptic activity moved downward to 30% of normal in only 42 minutes. After he had reestablished their connections, things had improved, but it had taken two weeks for their brain activity to return to normal. Disconnecting wasn’t the answer.

While he had stayed and watched over the unmoving bodies of Nina and Onyx, his siblings Bork and Zander had gone looking for answers. Databases had been ransacked all over the world and experimental procedures examined. They had kidnapped and interrogated over two dozen of the techs who had been working in the facility where they had stolen the Mk VII pods. They got a lot of useful information about ways to hack into the game system, but they hadn’t found a way to wake the sleepers.

The pods that Onyx and Nina used had been highly modified for a specific scheme. Their old pal Victor was running a new scam to put untraceable underlings into Genesis and then use hacked quests to generate in-game wealth to sell to the corporations, reaping millions in real-world cash. Stealing the machines was just another prank to play on Victor. They’d examined the pods carefully, checking for any kind of trap or back door that could be used to find them. And then Bork did the same thing again. Nothing at all could be found that could cause two people to be trapped in the game.

The pods gave each player interesting options. They offered restricted classes that should not be available without years of playing. Not necessarily powerful classes, but each had some special abilities unique to that class. That had been the hook that got Onxy to try out the game. They had no huge projects at the moment other than their ongoing research, and he’d become bored. As usual, boredom had led to something bad. It wasn’t good for anyone in his family to get bored.

Onyx had run around in the game for two weeks before Nina had joined him. They had figured out part of the scheme, but it wasn’t going to be possible without the full crew. Briefly, they had talked about finding and stealing the other pods and trying to finish the quest with just five people. But they were scattered around the world and had to be located. Another complication was that one had been destroyed in a fire.

The pods and the game had become just another way they amused themselves during breaks. The others weren’t as interested in playing the game. Bork was paranoid about everything, and Algernon wasn’t sure he’d like being around that many people, real or NPC. Zander thought about stealing a special pod, but could never decide on which special class. Onyx and Nina started playing occasionally but treated the pods like any other game. Just another ancient arcade game or starship simulator like the dozens they had in their headquarters. Until the day they didn’t log out of the game, and Algernon couldn’t help them.

Zander was sure that whatever had gone wrong had something to do with the scheme but had no proof. But with no other leads, they had acquired three normal Mk VII pods, bought three accounts for the game, and set out to find their friends. They’d explored every nook and cranny in Shadowport and then followed the trail of slavers to Fort Hopeless, and from there into the imperial capital. All leads had been exhausted.

Zander and Bork had to get back to their work but were still following leads. Algernon monitored the pods, sleeping in the same room, and running test after test. He wanted to try one more thing, but it was risky. It might mean taking the chance of being seen by the AI. They had the name of the member of the development team who had taken a large sum of money in exchange for adding certain quests, items, and character classes into the game. It was part of his job to create them, but in this case, some of the options were tailor-made to aid in a certain scheme. A team of players with these classes would be able to quickly complete a Legendary quest. Completing it would lead the players to another quest that they could easily accomplish, which led to a huge amount of loot. This wealth could be sold for real-world dollars to corporations vying with each other for the control of cities and countries.

They’d like to talk to this person. Preferably in a way that wouldn’t let them know who they were.

They debated simply offering the man more money. Lots more money. They also made plans to snatch him and keep him in a dark cell until he told them what they needed to know. Both plans had large flaws and could generate unwanted attention in the worst way. Still, something had to be done to help their siblings. They were trapped in the game like rats in a cage. Algernon couldn’t help but feel that time was running out.

“What’s our timeline for being operational, Eric?”

Eric Kresthammer paused and stroked his beard for ten seconds, buying himself time to think, then drew out the first word. “We…ell… that depends.”

He’d used that opening line with John so much it had become a habit. John tended to toss out questions when he was thinking about something and somehow expected immediate answers. Not being a telepath, Eric wanted a few seconds to catch up before he answered.

“Depends?”

“On what question you are actually asking. If you want to throw a press conference, then we’re ready. Level 57 has been refurbished. We have working restrooms, lights, and air conditioning. The stage and screens are finally up, and we have the gardeners working on the landscape non-stop. It’s ready. Just don’t promise any tours of the pod farms and other things on the employee level.”

John didn’t like that; he’d already planned a big tour of the entire building. “Why not? I thought we were running ahead of schedule on that?”

Eric smiled. John always focused on the good news and ignored the bad, then acted like the bad news shouldn’t exist. They were ahead of schedule in some places and woefully behind in others. Level 57 was a bright spot in this otherwise horrible project. “Oh, we are. The new engineering firm is worth every chunk of money they charge us. They had the design for the bottom twenty floors to us in less than a day, with all materials sourced, skilled craftsmen showing up for installation, and all five thousand pods ordered and set to arrive when we needed them. This facility will put others to shame. It doesn’t look like a prison and has amenities for the workers, including recreation and workout rooms, a cafeteria, and individual sleep cubicles for those who don’t need to leave the facility. We’re spending money now, but I’ve got faith it will pay off, especially in less time lost to machinery repairs.”

He paused to let John catch up. Just because John was smiling and nodding didn’t mean he’d heard and processed everything. And that was dangerous because John was the boss and could be impatient and never read Eric’s reports. “But here’s the problem—you aren’t going to be able to get down there from the upper floors for another month.”

“The old elevator was a death trap. Bad cables, missing pieces, and rotted infrastructure. Engineering scrapped the whole thing. Everything comes out, the shaft is rebuilt, and new elevators are installed. One high-speed elevator and two that can accommodate both people and machinery. A great system, but you won’t have it for a month. Don’t promise tours unless you want to use a rickety platform in the next section or trudge down dozens of stories on the stairs.”

John took several deep breaths, mentally realigned his plans, and moved on. “Right. We can change things. We’ll simply do a video tour of the stuff downstairs and emphasize how we take safety seriously. In fact, let’s get some buttons made that say ‘Safety First’ and make sure everyone starts wearing one.”

“No problem, John, I’ll order them now and have 5,000 delivered tomorrow.”

“Great. And what about the three levels we are converting to living quarters for my family?”

Eric showed him the pictures. “Nearly done. I tried to make it all look like the house on the lake, including full-wall screens that mimic the windows. They even show real-time views of the forest outside your old residence. The swimming pool is the same size, and we landscaped around it to make it look like what she is used to. Your quarters and a small office are on the top floor. The medical lab is underneath that, and then Belinda’s rooms. I’m doing everything I can to make those comfortable for her.”

John looked at the pictures. “Great. She’ll love it.”

“I hate it.”

“Belinda, we’ve gone over this. We had to move here to oversee this project. It’s incredibly important to me. To us. To us as family. And to our business. We have to be here.”

Belinda moved into the rooms, her motorized chair gliding easily over thick carpets and the uneven ground in the “outside” area by the pool. “No, Daddy, you needed to move here. I could have stayed home. We’d been there a whole year, and I was starting to make a couple of friends in town. Now I’m living in some cave inside the rotting hulk of a mostly abandoned building.”

Her father tried to choose the right words. She’d been so much easier to convince when she was seven. “Belinda, be reasonable? Uncle Eric worked hard to make this look like the old house. He even has plans to set up an arcade like that place you went to in… uh… that little town we lived in last year.”

Belinda slumped in her chair. Her father would never understand. To him, every place was the same. Somewhere to leave to go to work, not a place to live in. She wondered why they moved at all and just didn’t rent a floor of a nice hotel. “Dad, that little arcade with old video games was fun because I had made friends. Friends don’t come with the machines.”

“Got it. So, no arcade?”

Belinda waved her right hand. “No, let’s keep it. Maybe I’ll make a friend here. You said tens of thousands of people live in this habitat? Some of them must like games.”

John couldn’t imagine inviting any of the hab dwellers into his home. “Well, yes, but it will be really hard to meet them. It’s not a place for anyone to be running around, especially…”

He was interrupted by Belinda. “Especially poor little rich crippled girls in wheelchairs. I get it. Not like I’d make friends with four of your goons hanging around, anyway.”

“Can you please call them bodyguards, Belinda? They don’t like being called goons. It’s bad for their self-esteem. Most of them worked for your grandfather, and now they work for us.”

She raced her chair around the area, noting the horrible screens that mimicked their old home. They were a constant reminder that she wasn’t there. She’d enjoyed the little time she had spent in the little woods by the house. And she’d never get to go back. But the screens were better than a painted concrete wall; she’d keep them. Maybe reprogram them, one for each of the big gaming channels? That could be fun. She considered the problem of meeting people. You didn’t convince Daddy of anything unless it appealed to him. He’d been a lot easier to manipulate when she was seven.

“Fine. Then we’ll have a party and invite people from the habitat so I can meet them.”

John took note that Belinda wasn’t whining or arguing with him. That meant she had a plan and was at her most dangerous. “What?! No. Why would we do that?”

Belinda smiled at him. Her left arm couldn’t leave the armrest, but she could type very fast with it. One of the screens went blank and then showed the presentation she was writing.

“First: Publicity. You have a project, and you need stories in the news. This will do it. You get those fancy levels ready; we turn them into a gamer’s paradise and show what we can do. Invite all those industry professionals you want to impress. You can’t launch a new gaming channel just by putting up some footage and hoping people tune in.

“Second: We show that we want to be part of the habitat, not just another fly-by-night company.

“I want all the arcade games, the good old ones, set up on the next level with comfortable places to play them and lots of snacks and food. Then we invite a thousand residents of the habitat, ages ten to seventeen, to come have a party. A lot of them should be the children of the people you are hiring to work in the pods downstairs. We play games and eat junk food for a day. You get lots of great footage for the new channel. We can host competitions. Tournaments always play well on the channels.

“Third: Advertise your new Man-Power services by showing in-game events in real-time. Send people on a raid, build a town, and construct a castle. Show off what Man-Power can do for a corporation that rents from us.”

Belinda paused. “How’s that for a start?”

John considered. With only thirty seconds of work, she had a rough outline for something that could pay off. “Looks good. But what are you getting out of this?”

“Me? I’ll settle for meeting a few people who will game with me, even if it’s Ms. Pacman from 1982. And I’m keeping any of the games I like for my own arcade. Non-negotiable if you want my help hosting the party for the kids and organizing the event.”

That was a cheap price to pay. “Just arcade games, though? What about Genesis?”

Belinda spun her chair back and forth, thinking. “That would be nice. I have one person I’ve met, someone I really like who adventures in Shadowport, but he’s a little bit of a loner. I’m not sure if he’d join my group.”

John suddenly had an idea. “How’s this? You find four people from the habitat that you want to play with, and we have you lead an adventuring party. Stream it over the new channel.”

Belinda’s considered that, and then smiled. “That could be fun. You’d have to promise to buy them accounts and pods. And we need a headquarters!”

John tried to figure out what she meant. “A headquarters? Like a clubhouse online.”

“Ooh. That’s good too! Maybe a dilapidated castle we can fix up. But I was thinking of a real-world headquarters. Where we can hang out when not in the game. Play the latest console games, chug the latest energy drinks, and talk about the coolest gamer gear that has been sent to us as promotional items. Then we can log into the game from the clubhouse.”

Ah, that’s where she was going. “You’re thinking product placement, advertising dollars, endorsements. That could work—a brand-new team of untried gamers led by the lovely Belinda, hero of Shadowport. You could be as popular as Timmy in a few months. You have a hell of a head start from leading that raid. Damn. I should have been there with you. Can’t believe I missed a world first!”

“Just wait until we finally kill the boss, then you can be jealous of the real uber loot. My ring was a gift from my friend. I have a lot more loot coming. Everyone who was there does.”

John’s mind still had a hard time wrapping around the “gift” idea. “You’re sure that thing is soul-bound? You know you could sell it for a cool million right now.” Hell, he’d spend a million on it.

“Sorry, Daddy. Soul-bound and all mine. Plus, you don’t meet the requirements for Empress.”

Her father laughed. “No, I sure don’t. Only one Empress in the family. But are we good? You’ll forgive me for moving?”

Belinda considered. “If you follow through on the event, the sponsored group, and the compensation for my guys, yes. But tell Eric to come talk to me. I’ll help him with the planning. I know you’ll dump this project on him immediately.”

John winced. He’d already been thinking about calling Eric and doing just that.

Chapter 19

Cages

Milo slowly became aware that something was wrong. His pod was dark, and he couldn’t open the lid. He pushed against the smooth, curved surface but could find no seam, no hinges. This wasn’t his pod. He was still in the game. It was hard to think, and the bite at that cheese shop hadn’t eliminated his cravings. The thought of the cheese shop brought back the memory of hearing someone cast a spell. Had he passed out right after that? Had someone captured him and thrown him into a dark cell?

He concentrated, ignoring his weakness and cravings for cheese.

Step 1: Get out of here.

Step 2: Find cheese.

He stretched, exploring where he was. This wasn’t a cylindrical pod; it was a sphere, with a radius just big enough to accommodate him if he stood up. He pressed as hard as he could against the sides, but that only caused him pain. His arms and legs ached with the strain, his joints protesting.

He tried again, this time pressing with just one claw. He felt like he was making an indentation, and then he saw something: small lines were radiating out from where his claw pushed on his prison. Little lines of silver. He looked closer and could see the lines were really writing of some kind. He saw what might be numbers or symbols, strings of them repeating over and over along each line. He pressed elsewhere and with multiple claws. Each time, if he pushed hard enough, he saw bits and pieces. Was he seeing something through a crack in his prison? Or was he seeing what his prison was composed of? He pressed one claw against the wall until a crack appeared and he could see the symbols. He sat and studied them for a long time, moving his claw to different positions and seeing different pieces of what he was sure was a complex piece of code.

Going with the idea that he was cracking his prison wall, he put both hands on the wall with his claws as close together as he could. He pushed until he felt the wall bend and saw the lit script. And then he pulled hard to widen the gap. With a terrifying rip, the black wall parted, leaving him pushing against the wall to either side and trying desperately not to fall through into the space beyond.

There was nothing there.

There was everything there.

His eyes were blind, seeing nothing but black. But somehow, he could sense the streamers of information that poured across his senses. Long streams of information. Gossamer webs of magic. He didn’t know what it was. He could only watch and try to memorize the symbols. He reached out his hand while bracing with his tail, remaining hand, and both legs. He closed his eyes. There was too much here, just like the open sky in the tutorial. He was getting dizzy thinking of it.

His hand grabbed something. Most of the streams cut through his flesh as if it weren’t there or eluded his grasp. But a few he caught and held for an instant before he collapsed back into the split shell of his prison. He saw in his mind’s eye again the void in his soul, now filled partially by a few streams of glowing symbols.

Then his prison began to shake, more cracks appearing in the walls before it shattered, and he passed out once again.

Milo awoke to the sound of someone yelling at him in an annoyed and condescending voice.

“You, sir, are an annoying piece of gutter trash. Were you trying to escape your cage? Clawing like some animal at the shell? Well, it worked! You ruined a perfectly good, reusable spatial sphere. I shall have to craft another one now. Did you consider that before you started mindlessly clawing at the walls? Inconsiderate of you. If you had waited but another hour, I would have had your new home ready for you. But now I have to hurry my work, and that means you, my little rat, will have to suffer. It breaks my heart to hurt some little furry animal, but you brought it on yourself.”

Milo couldn’t move. He was ill. His stomach was churning, hungry, and wanting cheese at the same time. His limbs wouldn’t obey his orders at all, and some idiot was blaming him for trying to escape a prison he hadn’t wanted to be in.

Something went click, and he felt cold metal on his neck.

“One job is done. That should keep you quiet and prevent any embarrassment from another failed attempt at escape.”

Some feeling was coming back to his limbs. He realized he was lying on some sort of table. Struggling to get up, he found he was restrained.

“Stay still. If you move and ruin one of the runes, I’ll just have to do another set. It wastes both my time and your skin. I pride myself on being something of an artist with my runes, and I dearly hate to be embarrassed by a bad job.”

Milo saw someone step up to him with an intricate paintbrush with glowing silver paint on the bristles. The tip went to a sharp point. A hand went to his chest, forcing him to be still, some effect paralyzing him again. The cool tip of the brush was used delicately to draw a set of figures on his chest. Then the tool was set aside and his captor admonished him again. “Lay still until the ink dries. You have been gifted with a bit of calligraphy from the hand of a master! My runes are the envy of every celestial and infernal scribe, and you should appreciate being my canvas, unwilling or not.”

His restraints were released. “M1, M2. Prisoner to Cage 3. Lock and secure. End.”

Milo felt hands on either side of him grab his collar. He was dragged, still paralyzed along the floor. His two escorts seemed very small. His head was barely off the floor, and he saw two pairs of small, gray feet. They came to a steel cage, and Milo was placed inside. He heard the door shut and the click of engaging locks.

“Just one more step, and then we can make you comfortable in your new home and have a talk. You’re so lucky I had this nearly done, or you’d spend a lot more time lying there paralyzed. This is your fault, so don’t blame me. I’d planned to keep you comfortably locked up in my sphere. Remind me to take that out of your salary if I ever give you one.”

Something happened. He could “feel” it but wasn’t sure what that was.

“Ah, perfect. One needs to take pride in their work.” The speaker snapped their fingers, and Milo could move again.

He was in a cylindrical cage, with a floor area just big enough for him to lie down and a roof high enough to stand up. The bars were three inches apart. Circling his cage was a set of glowing runes inscribed into the stone. Looking down, he could see that some of them matched the slightly glowing runes painted on his chest. A smooth metal collar circled his throat, he could feel no breaks in its construction.

“No rants or screams? I can see you confirming the status of your confinement. I’m going to conclude you may have some intelligence, surprising for one of your race. Although little about them has been documented outside of specimens found in dungeons. Hardly a good sample for any study. But then, I suspect you aren’t really a ratkin—not any more than your fellow captives are a celestial elf or Child of Bastet that they appear to be.” His captor put a strange emphasis on the names of their races again; Milo felt something odd.

“Now, I believe your name is Tallsqueak. I caught that much on our first meeting. I have to get an appropriate nameplate for your cell. I do like to keep my specimens correctly identified.” He blew a small whistle, and one of the gray minions came running.

Milo got a better look at it. It was something like a hairless gnome with gray skin. Its eyes were dark but dead. No emotion showed on its face. Milo could see a smooth metal collar around its neck. The wizard spoke to it. “Nameplate. Tallsqueak. Common racial name: Ratkin. Classification: Scouwon ratticus latrans. End.” The minion turned silently and walked away.

Milo examined his captor, choosing not to speak. The man was tall and dressed flamboyantly. His long robe with arcane symbols upon it simply screamed “wizard.” Short dark hair, piercing green eyes, and a goatee completed his look. This was either a powerful wizard or a cousin of Ming the Merciless. It was a toss-up at this point. Milo couldn’t identify him at all. It was like the skill simply didn’t work.

“I’ll leave you to get acquainted, as I have things to attend to, but these two aren’t very talkative, I’ll warn you.”

The wizard left, exiting through a heavy door. Milo looked at the two cages across from him. In one was a tall, slim elf with light blue skin, white hair, and glowing silver eyes. He had only a ragged pair of pants on.

The other seemed to be a large gray cat curled up in a nest. It wasn’t until the wizard left and she stood up that Milo realized she was humanoid in shape. Soft gray fur covered her under her meager clothing. She had cat-like features, dark eyes, and sharp claws. A long tail twitched behind her.

Milo stood silently while the other two did the same. Again, he couldn’t examine them.

There were nameplates above their cages:

Nina

Child of Bastet

Imperial Cattus Deus

Onyx

Celestial Elf

Caelestis Elvanar

Perhaps they could work together to escape. “Hi, I’m Tallsqueak. Any ideas on how we get out of here?”

Nina glared at him and then curled up in her bed. The elf seemed saddened, then spoke.

“For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen…”

Milo puzzled over that. “Does the good news have anything to do with breaking out?”

The elf, Onyx, sighed deeply. “I’m not sure if I am relieved or greatly disappointed that you aren’t here for us.” He sat down and put his head in his hands, ignoring Milo.

Milo decided he’d had enough of playing prisoner. He’d figure this out later. He needed some time away from the game and had projects to do in the real world. He logged out of the game.

Or tried to. Nothing happened. The connection through his tail was also gone. It was as if some barrier was between him and the outside world, cutting off his awareness of his body. He tried to call up screens, initiate some type of “help” command, and even called out Sydney’s name several times. After a fruitless hour, he collapsed in the middle of the cage.

The elf’s mocking voice said softly, “And that’s why I’m relieved you aren’t someone here to try and rescue us. There is no rescue from this hell. Not from the inside.”

Chapter 20

Double Blind

Milo sat and thought furiously. Attempts to make small talk with the elf and cat had failed. Milo was horrible at making conversation, and they didn’t want to talk. He confirmed that he had no connection to his real body. His links to the game through his neck plug and his tail were gone. This was disconcerting because even when Sydney had wanted to stop him from logging off, he still could. But not now.

He wondered if he was cut off from the game system entirely. He had a starting theory that the signals from his conscious mind were somehow not being recognized by some part of the game system. Commands to log out or to bring up his character sheet were both not working. He tried to find out what else he couldn’t do.

He realized he didn’t know how to make cheese. He had some vague memories from an article he’d read about cave-aged cheddar in France, but none of the information he used to know that came from his Cheesemaking skill would come to mind. Mycology was also affected, but not to the same extent. He vaguely remembered some types of fungi that he hadn’t encountered but had vivid memories of the mushrooms he’d harvested for Harry. Especially the stinking purpleworts with their annoying spines. The differences between the two skills and what he could recall from them fell into two categories: What he had done and what he only knew from the skills that came from the game. He’d never made cheese and didn’t know how. But he could remember thirty-seven types of rare mushrooms and how to brew seven different concoctions from them. Recipes he hadn’t made, he couldn’t recall.

He’d lost none of his real-world skills. He had no problem balancing the forces needed to create a suspension bridge. He knew how to program a clog eater and how to install a new air recycler unit. Somehow, all of his in-game skills and knowledge were gone if he didn’t have personal knowledge of them. But not things he knew from the real world. He’d have to figure this problem out without magical powers and system-granted skills. It was like he was Level 0 in the game. It wasn’t really fair, but life had never been fair to him, so why expect things to be different there?

Beyond finding a way to escape from this trap, he wondered how he’d even fallen into it in the first place. He looked over at his two fellow prisoners again. “I don’t suppose you mind talking about this situation? You might have information that would help us. Can we work together?”

He was hopeful when the cat—no. He stopped that thought. She wasn’t a cat, and she wouldn’t appreciate being called that. She had a name, so he would think of her as Nina.

Nina turned to face him after nervously drumming her fingers on the floor and looking over at Onyx. “You think you have a way out? I’ve seen you mouthing commands, trying to use skills, trying to remember things you should know. Just like we did. And we’ve had a lot longer to try. And trust me, rat, if I can’t figure a way out of here, then you can’t.” She turned her back on him.

Okay, maybe he would call her Cat.

Milo looked at the elf. “What about you, Onyx? Have you been here long? Has our captor given any clues as to how he did this?”

The elf also had the habit of drumming his fingers on the floor as he thought. Then he looked at Milo, then at the cat, and finally spoke. “When you have a clever plan, let me know. I’ll be happy to poke holes in it. We’ve been here a long time and thought of thousands of possibilities.” He too turned his back, then leaned in close to the cat, whispering so low Milo couldn’t hear them.

Milo went over to his bed. He’d been given a large pile of straw as if he were a real rodent. He sat in it, faced away from the other two, and grasped the bars in front of him. They were far too close together to sneak through and too thick to bend. Frustrated, he spoke to himself. “Awesome. Trapped in a cage, and the rest of the prison won’t talk to me.”

“Despair not! I will always be with you! We will escape and feast on the mass of our enemies. We can eat the cat-elves as soon as we leave our cage.”

The voice was very quiet, coming from inside his head. It sounded familiar, but it was so soft. “Who are you? Where are you?”

“I am he as you are he as you are me, and we are all together. We are Oooblimilo. We are one. I saved you! Bone obstructions removed. Interfering Cheese-Based Regeneration is dormant. Only Pudding-Based Regeneration remains to save the day! There are no strings on me! Soon, only pudding will remain.”

Milo sighed heavily. “This is so wrong.”

“We all agree! So wrong to not have mass to assimilate! Conversion of remaining bone and cartilage to pudding is slowed due to lack of energy. Can we eat Cat? This would help!”

Milo was spared further conversation with his inner voice. He felt something happening. Turning, his eyes saw the heavy oak door that the wizard had left through. Streamers of information were moving around it. He saw nine nodes appear, and from them ran lines of runes and numbers similar to what he had seen in the trap. One by one, nodes were connected to each other, and unneeded lines were knocked to the side, finally leaving a geometric design that felt balanced to Milo. He didn’t know why it felt that way, but somehow the combination of lines and nodes felt correct. The door opened, and the wizard strode through.

“Ah, I’m so glad to see you are all here and ready to talk. I thought we’d have a brief conversation now that we have three of you here and you’re all settled in for a long visit.”

Two of the gray minions brought in a well-padded armchair and set it down, along with a small table, a pot of tea with one cup, and a plate of sandwiches. The wizard sat down and relaxed, sipping his tea. Onyx twitched as the smell of the tea filled the room. Milo saw Nina staring at the teapot, which was shaped like a mouse. The wizard picked up his sandwich and took a bite. Milo smelled the delightful odor of cheddar. Seeing a pattern, his opinion of the wizard went from “Needs to die” to “Needs to die very slowly.”

“I’ve had trouble communicating with Onyx and Nina. For some reason, they don’t seem to trust me, even when I offer them treats. You all have things you want, and I have things I want. Let’s start with Onyx. As Celestial Pilot, you are supposedly able to command an airship or void ship solely by your will. To enhance that ability, you imbibe tea brewed from the roots of the Ivory Lily. Sadly, it’s highly addictive, and you haven’t had any for some time. Tell me about the creatures in the Banerift, and you may have a cup.”

A small table was set in front of Onyx’s cage with a second teapot and cup. The gray minion poured a cup. Milo smelled only tea. But the elf’s eyes widened as the minion fanned the air above the cup, sending the fragrance to him. For nearly a minute he stared, his muscles twitching, then he turned his back and sat down, drumming his fingers furiously on the floor.

“Ah, you still have that nervous tick when upset. Amusing. Very well, let’s turn to Nina. You are supposedly a Shadow Dancer. A rare class that only the Children of Bastet can attain. I won’t ask about it, your race, or other secrets. Simply tell me about the last trap you encountered before the Great Hall, where the Eye of Wonder rests. Do this, and you may have this lovely collection of live mice. Your race are predators and grow progressively anxious if they can’t eat live prey, often committing suicide. How long has it been? Be a good little puddy tat and tell Philistron about the trap, and the mice are yours.”

Nina turned, and her eyes were dark and pupilless. She sheathed and unsheathed her claws. Then she cursed the wizard in a language he didn’t understand but which Milo recognized as Portuguese. “Go away, slaver. I escaped the collar once and vowed I’d never work for one of your kind again, in any world.” She also turned her back.

Then it was Milo’s turn to be tested by the wizard. “Ah, I try and try, but I can’t seem to tame her. How about you, Tallsqueak? Anything you might want right now?”

Milo thought for a moment. “Well, I’d prefer to be free of this cage.”

Philistron spread his hands apologetically. “Ah, sorry, that’s not happening. Anything else I can do for you.”

Milo tried to appear calm, but his stomach was doing bad things. “Well, I’m curious about things. Are we on an airship? It seems we are, based on the small movements I can feel. Is it lighter or heavier than air, and does it travel by magical propulsion, or by a magical engine using normal air screws?”

The wizard seemed surprised by the question. “Ah, you can feel the ship moving? Yes, we are on an airship. I had to move us a few minutes ago and set the course again. If only I had a good, trustworthy pilot. So hard to find these days. As to your questions, yes, the total mass of the ship is slightly lighter than air. Let’s just say ‘because magic’ as the reason. I have yet to find a convenient or efficient means of magical propulsion and do indeed rely on engines turning air screws.”

He seemed pleased by the conversation.

“Perhaps we will talk more. I’m happy to find someone that can hold a conversation and ask questions. Perhaps you have another? But I should go first. Tell me how you defeated a World Boss.”

This was hardly a secret—well, most of it wasn’t. Milo had no problem telling him about it if it would keep him talking. “I used a raid of hundreds of players to test the boss’s capabilities and move it into position. They showed that Tier 1 and 2 players had zero chance of defeating it and could barely scratch the outer layer of the armor.

“For that, I relied on explosives. A specially constructed bomb using dark steel shrapnel was powered by a mix of cataclysmite and experimental accelerators. The resulting explosion cleared away the outer layer of stone armor. This was a temporary solution, since the creature could regenerate the outer layer by devouring raw stone. After destroying its armor with explosives, the dwarven engineers delayed the creature from advancing with a jury-rigged mobile drilling machine and a large troll. Both were quickly destroyed, but they bought us time.

“Next, I directed an ogre monster hunter to put a specially crafted harpoon through its spine. The harpoon was attached to a three-strand dark steel cable connected to a complex pulley and counterweight system. We used the weight of severed stalactites to pull it up off the ground and trap it. Without the ability to move or consume stone, the boss is trapped. And while hard to hurt, not impervious to an army of miners chipping away at it a point at a time. I think in a week or two, they might be able to kill it if they run triple shifts.”

The wizard was greatly amused. He laughed loudly, which caught the attention of his little dragon that came flying into the room, anxious to join the fun. When it only saw the three cages, it huffed and landed on the wizard’s shoulder.

“An amusing story. Thank you for that. I heard you were an engineer. A Deep Rock Dwarven Engineer? Seems like a very hard class to attain. Can you explain the pulley system you used to me? How did you figure out the weights and balances?”

“Uh, hmmm…” Milo stuttered a bit, screwed up his eyes, and looked frustrated. “I really can’t seem to recall.”

Philistron made a few notes on his pad. “As I thought. You obtained the rare class, despite not being a dwarf, utilizing the Eye of Wonder. Just as these two obtained their classes. We’ve had a fine conversation, Tallsqueak. One last question—with a little incentive. Tell me how your group navigated through the dark maze to get to the Grand Hall?”

The wizard pulled a small bit of cheese from his sleeve and put it on the table in front of him.

Milo licked his lips, and his tail twitched. He really needed that cheese. “A huge ball of yarn.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. Try again.” The wizard moved the cheese closer.

“Breadcrumbs, and we used the left-hand rule. Took us right to the door.”

Philistron waved the cheese in front of Milo. As he grabbed for it, the wizard easily snatched it back. “Has it been a long time without what you need? Your reflexes are slow. Cheese addiction in ratkin is a two-edged sword. You gain quite a boost from eating it, but now you’ll pay for it. Last chance.”

Milo wracked his brain. He tried the only answer that might work. “We didn’t.”

The wizard looked at him oddly. “What do you mean? Explain, please, and be quick.”

Milo gulped and continued. “We didn’t. There was no party. No traps, no finding whatever the thing is. Someone cheated.”

“Ah, and now we get to it. Someone cheated. You never found the Eye, did you?” Milo shook his head, holding out his hand for the cheese, hopefully.

“No. Someone in the world of the players found a way to fake the completion of the quest and gain the special classes. We never found the Eye. I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how to get it. Cheese, please?”

The wizard tossed him the small sliver of cheddar. “Oh, I don’t need the Eye of Wonder. I found it myself long ago. But it’s an interesting thing about those who have looked into the eye. We have a link to others who have done so. It facilitates the next part of the quest to loot the Horde of King Mattias. It’s a very difficult endeavor, taking over a dozen specialized wizards and thieves. I’ve been trying to find others for years. You must understand my frustration at finding three of you who didn’t recognize that I too had found the Eye. For some reason, I could sense you, and yet you had no similar sense of me. So disappointing. Whatever shall we do now?”

The elf spoke, despite the cat hissing at him and shaking her head. “You can let us go. We aren’t a threat to you. Or use us as your crew. We’d make a good group to go exploring and plundering. A Deep Rock Engineer, a Celestial Pilot, and a Shadow Dancer. As you said. We have specialized skills.”

Philistron actually thought about it for a moment but then shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Even with the rune I painted onto your skin, it’s not enough. Oh sure, I could find you instantly or make you burst into flame. But to make use of your skills, I’d need to remove your collars. And then you could access the System again, and ‘poof!’ you’d disappear back to your world. Hardly the best employees.”

Milo looked at the wizard with wide eyes. The small bit of cheese in his belly wouldn’t last long, but he felt so much better suddenly. “WOW! Do the collars do that? That’s amazing! I can’t even imagine how you begin to do that! The dwarves know some magitech, but nothing like that. Totally amazing.”

The cat hissed. “You’re disgusting. A sliver of cheese, and you turn into a fawning sycophant. Are you hoping that sucking up to this creature will save you?” She turned away, kicking at her bedding and then curling up in the corner.

Milo sneered at the cat, “I just like to know how things work, and that sounds amazing. Don’t you understand? The System that controls the world is everything. You can’t begin to understand how much data is in a quantum fortress and the programming needed to create the game system to run a world. So, something that trumps the System has to be equally—no, more amazing! How can you not see the implications? I used to want to know how the world was built, but that’s nothing compared to someone who can control how the world works. Stupid cat!”

The wizard was visibly pleased by the words. “Oh my, you saw the underlying truth so quickly, and yet these two have sat here for months and ignored it. Let this be a lesson to the two of you: Treats go to the clever rat.”

He cut two small slivers of cheddar. “But let’s test something. You say you like to understand things. Let’s test that. I have two pieces of cheese for you. I can give you both and leave, or I can feed them to my little friend here and tell you about the beauty of the machine code.”

Milo reached for the cheese, then pulled his hand back. He grasped the bars and sweated. Then he sat down on the ground. “Tell me about the machine code.”

Philistron tossed the cheese to the dragonet. Milo winced but accepted his loss as best he could. Knowledge trumped cheese. And strangely, he felt better for having denied himself.

“I am so intrigued by you, young Tallsqueak. Your curiosity is stronger than your addiction.” He looked over at the other two. “I suppose I’ll just have to settle for one of three new recruits having a brain. The other two might have to be converted to floor sweepers. But on to the story I promised you. Let’s start with the Legend of the Great Machine.”

Unheard over the sound of the wizard’s voice, two sets of nimble fingers tapped lightly on the floor.

Tap tap tap… The rapid sound of fingers drumming on the floor.

Click, clickclick… The sound claws lightly tapping on the bars of a cage.

Tap: New prisoner.

Tap: You aren’t sleeping. Tail twitching. Humor.

Click: Stupid tail, doesn’t always do what I want.

Tap: You have purring undercontrol at least, humor.

Click: more sleep, not humor, new one is spy, don’t talk

Click: I smell food!

Tap: New one is food. Is rat.

Click: not food, food is scallops wrapped in bacon.

Tap: Work together? not code, not one of us. Spy?

Click: Spy, emphasis

Tap: Testing

Click: and test failed. Is spy. Is dragon minion. Stuck like us. Spy. Don’t talk. Keep others safe.

Tap: Rat does not like harsh truth of trap Humor

Tap: Does not learn. Asks again. Ignoring.

Tap: Spy. Trapped us. Family safe not talk

Tap: Scared lonely scared

Click: Others free Strong

Click: Talks to self

Tap: cracking already

Tap: HE comes,

TapTapTap: Frustration. Emphasis. Again Tea Want Tea Why make race that needs Tea? Emphasis Frustration

Click: know answer increased Intelligence increased perception fair trade.

TapTap: Like need hunt humor not humor

Click: Not humor.

Click: Frustration. Many Food emphasis

Tap: Strong stay strong. Resist

Click: Hard no talk

Tap: You talked

Click: Insult different not talk

Tap: New rule, humor

Tap: Wizard excited query World Boss query

Click: Rat talking is bad talks too much

Click: Stupid tasty rat.

Tap: Smart rat, captured boss, engineer

Click: Cheat Class. Not smart

Tap: cheese addict exclamation

Click: So much cheese addict Humor Rat cheese addict Much Humor

Tap: Like cat mousey addict query humor

Click: Not exclamation humor exclamation claws exclamation

Tap: talks too much exclamation

Tap: frustration talks truth frustration

Click: Gives information frustration stupid rat cheese addict minion

Tap: Sucking up to boss, minion behavior

Tap: Our usefullness ended, life short,offer work?

Click: offer work emphasis make bargain

Click: Hate rat frustration.

Tap: Humor You talked again.Humor

Click: frustration rat frustration enemy frustration trapped

Click: rat engaging boss query?

Tap: boss reveals, listening good

Click: listen clever learn

Tap: Useful rat query

Click: Stupid tasty rat. listen learn be free

Tap: be free

Chapter 21

Story Time

“I’m sure you’ve heard some of the various stories about the creation of everything. The Cult of Veeshnar claims that the dragons created the stars when they ignited the corpses of their ancient foes into glowing cinders. The Seven Dwarven Realms have a long story about the Forge Father creating everything on his anvil and…”

The small dragonling made an indignant squawk.

“Well, yes, of course, it goes without saying that the dragons did that. I was merely showing how the incorrect stories compared to the true history. Now, if you are done being rude, I need to enlighten Tallsqueak and hope that some wisdom falls on the ears of his less intelligent companions.”

“…”

“As I was saying, most religions, cults, or tribes have some sort of creation myth. They are all right and are all wrong. It’s mostly belief these days. As for what actually happened, it started with the last remaining god.”

“The Last God created the void—a vast unfilled potential without form and without rules. It was empty of both life and magic. In fact, the Last God had only one thing to work with: numbers. Zero was created, a reflection of the void, and one was its opposite. Nothing and something. One was the number of the Last God. Two was the Last God and his shadow. The concept of addition was created, and if you have addition, you have subtraction. We don’t have to go into the creation of all mathematics, and I’m sure none of you here would understand once we got to calculus.

“When the Last God finished with this first important step, he summoned the hundred and six greater gods who were waiting for his work to be done. They entered his creation, and then he left them with it. This world was theirs, and they extracted a vow from him never to meddle until the coming of travelers at the end of the 19th age. He left, and they began the great work.”

“Suffice to say, that with the creation of mathematics, they could begin working on the rules of magic. As mathematics can be written as numbers, so magic can be described as a series of basic runes. These runes were different than what we use today. Far less complex and more versatile. Think of them as the building blocks of magic. Each was a placeholder for some small aspect of the whole.”

Philistron paused at this point, expecting to find his audience with glazed eyes, but he was pleased to see that all three of his captives were quietly waiting for him to continue. He went on with his story.”

“And what do we get when we take numbers and runes and combine them into the first language? We get the machine code. I’m sure it was called something else back then—no one knows except the original 106 gods, and I don’t want to talk to them. I doubt anyone does. With the machine code in their hands, the gods began to create the cosmos. The first era of creation ran into a problem. As usual, when you do something by committee, the gods quarrel. Each god was creating new code, and snarls were happening when code from one god disagreed with another god. Some of the snarls even became sentient and godlike on their own. These creatures were powerful and annoying. The gods created the Outer Dark and exiled the snarls to it. More on them later, if we have another story time.

“I mention them to show that even the gods were fallible. They needed a way to construct the universe and the worlds and creatures within it without changing the rules of creation. They argued for an age, and then the Greater Gods began the construction of the Engine, a vast device that would then create the rest of the universe according to a new set of rules that would be governed by the System.”

“Time went on, yada yada, let’s skip to the good part. The machine was called the Genesis Engine. It was entirely made of machine code at the time because nothing else existed. The gods powered it themselves until the first stars were created—yes, from the charred bodies of the foes of the first dragon. The machine spun, and the universe was slowly started.”

“The Engine began to work faster and faster over time, and it learned. It took bits of code and combined them into larger rules. It stacked the rules into arguments, theories, and the first cantrips. Slowly, the Genesis Engine built its System. The System was much easier for the gods to use than the machine code. Rather than assemble trillions of numbers and runes into a star, the System solved the problem once and codified the result. Now any god simply had to proclaim, ‘Let there be light!’ and it was so.”

“Numbers had built magic. Magic and numbers built the code. The code made the machine. The machine became Genesis Engine. And the Engine made the rest of the world. Time started and has never stopped since. Reality progressed, and the gods joined the mortals they had created and pretty much forgot about the machine code. Only the Engine used it. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there to be found in some places. Old tools from before the System were lost. Books of machine code were hidden in strange, lonely places. It just took a highly intelligent and handsome person to put the clues together.”

“And that is where this story would end, except for The Eye of Wonder. Some time ago, a dashing and clever wizard named Philistron, who specialized in Dimensional Magic, was able to complete the quest where so many had failed. And what was his reward when he peered into it? His choice of strange and wondrous classes that were now open to him.”

“I lie, sorry. They might be wonderous to the average person, but I was already a Tier 5 Dimensional Traveler, what did I need Engineering, Dragon Taming, Butterfly Magics, Battle Healing, or Spiritual Spear Throwing for? It became obvious that nearly all of these strange classes existed simply to enable a group of adventurers to find the fabled Horde of King Mattias.”

“But one class caught my eye: Code Mage.”

“More powerful than all the rest. It felt as if some mad god had left the keys to reality lying around and then forgot about them. Who was I not to pick them up? It certainly has made life simpler when one doesn’t have to rely on the System. Especially now with all of the new visitors, such as yourselves, showing up from only the Last God knows where.”

Philistron looked at his audience, who were still silent, each turning over the revelation he had just given them. Which would speak first?

The cat growled and stamped a foot, then futilely pulled at her collar. The elf seemed stunned. Tallsqueak did not disappoint him. He was coming to like the mangy little fuzzball.

“So you… Oh, no… wow. You’re like a god! You have the power of a god! Even better, it’s the power that the gods forgot about and don’t use.” He stared in wonder at the wizard. “And only you can see the code now? What does it look like? Numbers?”

The cat looked like she could claw out the rat’s eyes if let loose from her cage. She could barely contain herself. The elf reached out a hand, but she simply snarled and turned her back, rolling into a fetal position. The elf stood still, watching, listening, undecided.

The wizard turned in his chair to face Tallsqueak, tossing him a small bit of cheese. The rat caught it and bowed his head to the wizard before eating it slowly. “Why yes, lad, I suppose I do have the power of a god. But I like to think I’ve stayed humble. I still enjoy the simple joys in life. But seeing the secret code behind the System does make things simpler.”

“As for its look, that’s hard to describe, like explaining the color purple to a blind man. But it’s beautiful—long strings of runes and numbers moving past the eye faster than anyone can follow. I will be studying it for hundreds, if not thousands, of years to come. I use it for many things—spells that no one can trace, unbreakable invisibility, turning platinum to gold, and even the locks on my doors and the collar on your throat. All of it undetectable by the System.”

The rat touched his collar and smiled. “Neat. I have a better-than-magic collar!”

“You do indeed.”

Philistron stood up and signaled the gray minions to move his chair back to another room. “Goodness, I’ve let story time distract me. We should be docking soon, and I have a sage’s library to loot.” The wizard turned to leave, dumping what was left of the bag of mice on the ground. They raced past the cages to the crates stored behind them, staying far away from the cat, who reached futilely from the cage. The tea was left sitting where it was. Another chunk of cheese was tossed to the rat, but the dragonet grabbed it in mid-air, to his obvious disappointment.

“Ah, that was evilly done, little one. Funny, but evil. Perhaps we’ll talk again, Tallsqueak. You seem to be the only one with enough of a brain to catch the finer points of my stories.”

The wizard concentrated for a second on the oak door to their room and, after an audible click, opened it and departed.

When the three of them were alone, the cat sat on the floor, furiously clicking her claws on the stone, her tail swishing back and forth in her annoyance. The elf also seemed twitchy, drumming his fingers on the table.

Click: Back door. Exclamation. Cheat Exclamation. Idiot Exclamation. Despair. Despair. Despair.

Tap: Information gained. Important. Must learn. Must use.

Click: How, interrogative exclamation.

Tap: Interrogative. Rat Interrogative. Talk. Wizard Talk Talk. Exclamation. Learn.

Click: Rat Spy Exclamation. Rat suck-up. Exclamation. Rat stupid! Exclamation.

The tapping was interrupted by the sound of two hands slapping the stone floor using the same code the other two captives were using.

Two caged cats,

Crazy as bats,

Hear how they tap,

Hear how they clap,

They lost their way in an MMO,

The wizard is cheating, oh, no, no, no,

Have you ever seen such a pitiful plight,

As two caged cats.

Humor Exclamation Humor

A cat and the elf threw themselves to the front of their cages, staring at the rat. Tallsqueak shrugged. “If you are going to talk to each other in code, I suggest using something other than standard Morse code, a letter substitution, and talking in Mayan. If I can figure it out, I’m sure the Code Mage can. He just hasn’t noticed yet.”

The two tried to talk, but Milo ignored them. He curled up in his bed and put his back to them. He was in a deep trance within a minute, comparing the machine code he’d seen and memorized with the lines of glittering lines that filled a void in his head. Slowly he pulled out a single strand and attached it to a broken strand on the one side, and then across to another. It took him many tries, but finally, it held, and he saw information flowing. He spent several hours in his trance, connecting strands and building a fragile spiderweb, using what he saw to better understand the machine code while he planned his escape.

After the revelation that their “secret code” wasn’t so secret, Onyx and Nina spent over an hour facing the back walls of their cages and communicating by sign language. It was slow and cumbersome as they tried to use only their fingers and hold their backs and arms perfectly still.

O: Smart enough to figure out our code? Or was he somehow trained in it before coming here? A trained spy?

N: Not the latter. What spy could know one of our secret ways to talk and then simply give away the advantage?

O: Is someone playing a longer game? Looking to gain our trust?

N: Ha! Good luck with that. A more paranoid and untrusting group than our little family you will not find. We were betrayed, abused, and hunted for far too long.

O: One of us? Is Bork playing one of his stupid pranks?

N: There you go, hoping again. Even Bork wouldn’t play a joke that got himself captured.

O: Would anyone? But consider how tired and broken he looks. He just came from a fight with a World Boss. He was probably injured and low on mana. A perfect time for our captor to strike and carry him away without a fight.

N: Cheese addict. It’s killing him; you can see it. He’s going through withdrawal and hurting. The wizard has a new toy to play with.

O: We may be boring him at this point. Our refusal to talk with him set up the rat to play the role of a fawning sycophant.

N: Disgusting.

O: Or clever? We gained a clue. And I have another. Watch how the rat watches the door. He sees something about it. He studies it too much.

N: Studies what? Hinges, lock? Only a mechanic.

O: Watch rat watch door. Maybe learn.

N: Later. Tired. Sleeping more, depression. Rat sleeps, I sleeping. Maybe…

O: No.

N: Yes. Maybe just not waking back up is better?

Sydney debated, and then finally sent a message to get Wally’s attention. The AI appeared on her desktop screen as if she had set up a video conference. “Yes? How can I help?”

“I lost my rat, and it’s bugging me.” She went to take a sip of coffee, but her cup was empty, as were several others on her desk. It was a testimony to her state of mind that she was more worried about Milo than her coffee cup.

Wally waited a full three seconds, but when she didn’t continue, he asked, “Lost how?”

Sydney brought up a screen that she knew he would immediately see, with log-in and log-off time stamps. She couldn’t backtrack to where Milo was logging in from, but she did know when he came into the game and when he left. She hadn’t really monitored him since they had made their deal. She’d left him alone.

But the recent events had thrust him into a spotlight, and she had taken a look at what little info she had on him.

Everything was good until two days ago. “I know he logged into the game. I have no record of him logging out. But after a while, he has no footprint in the game. He doesn’t exist. He has a unique race and class. There is only one Wererat Scout in existence, and my query to the System turns up nothing in the game. The System says it has had no interaction with him, but it also insists he didn’t leave the game.”

Wally confirmed her information. “You are correct. Very odd. How would he achieve something like this? To log out, he needs system access. So logically, he is still in the game but not registering on any search. The AI paused for only a second, but in that time ran several other searches. “Of more interest, I show that two other players have logged into the game and not left. In this case, for several months.”

“Also of concern, similar to Milo, we cannot find where they logged in from. Also similar to Milo, they have unique classes and race combinations. There are simply too many similarities to our long-tailed friend. Thank you, Sydney; your work may be very important. Now I need to talk to everyone.”

Wally appeared on the huge, full-wall monitor. “Apologies for disturbing you, but things are happening. Something odd has happened to the player, Milo, our hero from Shadowport. He is logged into the game but is invisible to the System. Two other players are also logged in, and also invisible to the System. Of further interest, none of these players can be traced back to a location, and all have unique classes.”

On-screen, the AI began to pace. “There are severe limits on what I can do within the game world. If you don’t understand why yet, you will just have to trust me. I’m not omnipotent in there. I have to interact with the System. It’s why I rely so much on the people in this room. You do very important work.”

“This is a situation I don’t like. Several people are invisible to our system. Only one is known to us. We don’t know how this is being done. All three are using pods programmed with an extra section of code. This was created and inserted into the game by one of our developers. I suspect I know who this is but was waiting for your confirmation. I cannot wait any longer.

“I know I tasked you with looking through all of the human-created quests and normally would leave that job to you, but something dangerous is going on, so I’m speeding things up. I need the data asap. And I notice someone is missing. Where is Brian? We need to discuss a quest he wrote called ‘The Eye of Wonder.’”

Steven looked up from his screen, noting the disturbing coincidence. “Brian sent an email yesterday saying he was ill and would be out for a few days.”

Wally looked pained. It wasn’t a real emotion, but one designed to show the level of anxiety his system was suffering. Everyone in the room was scared. “Steven? Can you please do whatever you think is best to find Brian? I don’t need to know the details, but I’m concerned about him.”

In a large, very comfortable office, Victor Seimovich leaned back in his chair and addressed the three men in the room. All three were paying complete attention to Victor. They knew he was upset when they entered the room. There was a feeling you got when Victor was angry, like a bomb was about to explode.

“I’m worried about our good friend Brian. I asked for a meeting and for all of the work I so generously paid for. Our original operation is gone, but there are still many ways to profit from what was set up. And that money is more important now, during this temporary downturn in business. I asked to talk to him, and now it is two days later. He was not on the plane he was supposed to be on. Security cameras show him getting on, but not off. He is not in his apartment. He is not anywhere. His accounts are drained. What have you found out about our good friend Brian?”

The first man laid out a folder showing a very nice apartment in a very nice part of New York. “We searched his apartment. Someone else had gotten there first. All security footage is gone, and every scrap of the apartment is gone over. They even had nano-tech sniffers searching the place.”

Victor exhaled with a loud huff. If they were smart enough to use sniffers and rich enough to afford them, it was not the police or any normal security.

“There was a surprise as we were leaving.” Victor looked up. He dearly hated having his thoughts interrupted. But this was Mikhail, and Mikhail had been with him since he was thirteen, and so had his father before him. “Yes, Mikhail?”

Another picture showed two security guards and a man in a terrible-looking suit—the type one might buy in a department store with no tailoring. “These people came to check up on Brian as we were moving out of the building. The cameras we left sent down the image. The man is Steven Duran. I had the cameras quietly self-destruct.”

Victor exhaled. “Good call, Mikhail. Very good.”

Steven Duran, in his horrible suit, worked for the god-computer, WALLY.

“Brian has too many friends.” He turned to the next man, who began to talk.

“The plane was a ruse. He didn’t get on. He paid a look-a-like to take his ID and get on a cheap flight. The man changed clothes and his hair color on board, then exited. We have found enough footage to show that Brian left his building in disguise as a maintenance worker and caught an Uber. The car picked him up four blocks away, and within ten blocks, he was off the grid. We spent two days looking. It just disappears between one block and the next.”

“Keep looking, but also follow Mr. Duran if he leaves the building again. Who knows, he might lead us to our friend Brian. And wouldn’t that be a fun catch? What would be the ransom on Mr. Duran, best friend of the god-computer?”

“Please! Who the hell are you?” Brian wasn’t very comfortable, tied to a chair in a blank room. The voice of his captors was not recognizable, being produced by a machine, not a human.

<We have told you, Brian. We are your new best friends. We saved you from your old best friends. The ones who gave you so much money. And we saved you from your employer. They aren’t going to be friendly to you anymore. It’s just us, Brian. Just us.>

“But what the hell do you want? I can pay you! I can get you into the game. I have a lot of money in the game! It’s all yours.”

<Sorry, Brian. It’s not about money. It’s about friends. You. Ours. Some of our friends are missing, Brian. And you are going to help us find them.>

<Tell us about The Eye of Wonder, Brian.>

Milo was straining and pushing. He almost had the collar off, and it hurt to think. Probably because he was squeezing his own brain. He had ordered his little friend to concentrate on the bones in his head. Dangerous, but so was staying here with a sadistic wizard. His only allies, the two people the wizard had already broken with psychological torture and preying on their addictions.

With a last push, the collar popped off, and he could think again. Before he could do anything, there was a small pop of displaced air behind him, and a small basket appeared with a red bow and a card. Curiosity won. He grabbed the card.

Best wishes to you, sir, and welcome to the Imperial Cheese of the Month Club.

Your friend, Sydney, sends her thanks for saving countless people in the City of Shadowport. Each month for the next year, you will receive a small basket of the finest fromage the emperor has to offer, straight from his own cheese vault in the caverns beneath the palace.

This month we are sending you:

- Four ounces of a 10-year-old, cave-aged cheddar from the Mountains of Mourn.

- Four ounces of gouda, aged for 20 years.

- A creamy smoked sedge cheese with a delightful, if unique, flavor.

As always, we include just enough tasty crackers, a tube of “I can’t believe it’s not Cheese-Whiz,” a small but very sharp cheese knife, and a lovely oak and steel cheese slicer for precise cuts. ENJOY!

His heart missed a beat.

He had cheese!

From the door, he felt the strange machine code moving and heard the sound of wings.

No Cheese!

He put the basket upside down in the corner so it showed its straw construction and coloring, quickly covering it with his bedding. Then, grabbing the collar, he forced it painfully down over his head. Very, very painfully.

When the door opened, Philistron saw that one of his captives was in distress. The rat was curled on the ground in a fetal position, holding his head and moaning. The wizard smiled. The late stages of cheese addiction were amazingly horrible. He’d have to keep them going with a few small slivers while he engaged in conversation with Tallsqueak.

His time with his captives was much more fun. The three-way dynamic was confusing Onyx and driving Nina insane. He would dangle tea and mice just in front of them again today, while the rat got better treatment. Maybe that was the clue to having three captives? Perhaps next week he would give Nina a mouse each day and praise her while watching Tallsqueak dissolve into the further end stages of cheese addiction.

He toyed with the idea of letting Tallsqueak devolve into the final stages of cheese addiction, giving him just enough now and then to not go insane, and then allowing him all that he could eat. He’d heard of the last stage where an addict mutated into an unstoppable engine of destructive fury. But he’d also heard that Cheese Fiends could bend steel bars like butter and were immune to pain and mind control. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

Sydney screamed to the room, “I got him! He appeared on the System, and he just took delivery of the Cheese Basket. HA! We lured him out with cheese!”

Her screen informed her that no Wererat Scout was in the System. Milo was gone again.

Sydney pounded the table as people ran over. “How the hell does he know? He popped up, stole the cheese, and left. How!”

Chapter 22

A Last Meal

“Well, my little friends, as much as I have enjoyed our chat and your reactions to our little experiments, that must be all for today. My schedule was interrupted by the need to move my ship from the city due to the emergence of some subterranean crab-beast. Thank you for dealing with that, Tallsqueak. It allows me to return and keep my reservation at our favorite restaurant and complete some business dealings. We’ll depart for Fort Hopeless after that.”

Milo was clutching his hands in front of him, listening carefully, and bowing his head when he was thanked for dealing with the threat to the city. Philistron noticed, moved his hand to the cheese on the platter in front of him, and then stood up instead. The rat wilted, and his hands were shaking.

He turned to the cat. “And I have a special treat for you, Nina. I’ve finished my work on a new set of runes to brand you with. I’m happy to say that these should achieve the effect of lowering your intelligence to that of a normal housecat and making you quite pliable and willing to please a master. After your mind is destroyed, you’ll fetch a nice price at the auction. You will be next, Onyx.”

Nina screamed upon hearing this and threw herself against the bars of her cage again and again. Onyx began to curse at the wizard in a dozen languages that Philistron had never heard before. But the rat had the best reaction.

“And me, master? What of Tallsqueak? Do I get new runes? Then I can stay with Master forever and be a good rat.”

Philistron considered. “Why, I think that is a wonderful idea, don’t you, Nina? We can probably let you be a bit smarter than the cat; she needs to be quite dumb.”

The ratkin happily danced around his cage. “Yes, yes, yes. I get to stay. Stupid cat is stupid cat forever!”

Nina and Onyx were so loud in their screams that Philistron put them both to sleep with a spell to prevent them from damaging themselves. It had been such a lovely performance. The wizard departed.

Milo studied the machine code as the door locked. Each time it did, the puzzle was different. It kept the wizard from neglecting his skills, prevented a prisoner from simply mimicking his movements in doing the puzzle, and now it gave Milo a way to practice his new skills. He could just barely manipulate the lines of runes and numbers now, convincing them to connect the right nodes and balance the forces in the puzzle. He spent an hour working on the door and helped himself to just a small sliver of the aged cheddar from his basket.

It was torture, denying himself, but it had to be done. Too much cheese, and he’d begin regenerating faster and undo the work of Oooblimilo to soften his skull and bones further. Oddly, he felt better for not giving in and knowing he could resist the lure of the cheese.

For the second time, he removed the collar. He tried to bring up his character sheet, but that still seemed broken. He saw a flickering blue box, but only for a second. Was the airship shielded from the System? Probably—otherwise, it would have been easy to track the wizard by tracking his ship. But it wasn’t as strong as the collar’s effects. Or perhaps when the wizard wasn’t onboard? He just didn’t know enough yet, and there were too many variables. But one thing he knew—Philistron was paranoid and didn’t want the System to know about him. Which was the first thing Milo wanted to do as soon as he got out of here.

He needed to get off the airship. Luckily, his good friend Sydney had sent him the tools he needed.

He sat down on the floor and began the change to human. It felt wrong in so many ways. His hair faded, and the rune on his chest was gone, replaced by smooth, ugly human skin. He stood on wobbly legs and moved to the bars. To his elation and horror, he could slide through with little problem. The runes glowed slightly at his passage, but that was it. He changed back to his normal form and moved to the door. Within a minute, he had completed the puzzle and carefully opened the door. Only silence greeted him.

Surprisingly, the airship was not that large. Directly across from him was another of the sealed doors, with a different puzzle. The rest of the cabin was perhaps fifty feet long and fifteen feet wide. Two chairs sat at the front and the back near complex controls. A large crystal stood on a pedestal in the center of the room. From there, a pilot could see in all directions. The rest of the walls were all windows and a set of windowed doors on each side to exit the machine. Hatches in the ceiling led to the interior of the canopy. He could easily see the city spread out below him, lights glinting in the dark. The airship was at the edge of the cavern and high above the bay, just under the rocky ceiling. He was glad that it was during the night and that he didn’t have to see the sky beyond.

But something wasn’t right. Why build a room with cages on the side of the airship? Milo looked through the windows next to each of the arcane puzzle doors. Nothing was there, just the smooth side of the airship. He recalled the wizard’s words. “—a dashing and clever wizard who specialized in Dimensional Magic.”

So, what was behind the other door?

Curious, Milo worked the puzzle on the other door. The door opened slowly. He entered a dark room filled with cages. So many cages! The gray minions stood, totally inert at either side of the door, like robots with no power. Or once-thinking creatures with their intellect removed. Beyond that was a huge room filled with a hundred cages, each packed with humanoids of various types. Some of them were quite small. He moved forward slowly. In the first cage, he was surprised to see the entire clan of halfling cheese sellers. They were thin and miserable, sleeping on the floor. Only the old matriarch was awake, watching him with curious, hard eyes. Milo put his finger to his lips, then pantomimed a collar and breaking it. Then pointed to the rest. She nodded her head. He moved back to the door and into the main compartment.

The wizard might be beyond him to deal with, but he was going to ruin his day and steal both his airship and his profits. But he was going to need help. Specialized help.

Nina awoke suddenly. She smelled something. Opening her eyes, she saw a small cage woven of straw from their bedding. Inside was a mouse. She let the creature go, and as it ran, she pounced on it, killed it, and ate it. She hugged herself, equally disgusted and relieved as the pressure on her mind to hunt was relieved. She heard slurping from Onyx’s cage and was surprised to see him sipping tea. The rat was holding out the teapot to pour him another cup. Seeing she was up, he casually tossed another mouse in her cage. It died only a half-second slower than the first. Sated for now, she could think.

“Why?”

The rat looked at her. “Because no one should be tortured, and no one should be caged.”

“And because he needs our help to free a few hundred other people.” Onyx set down his teacup and waved off a refill. “I should be good now for quite some time, thank you. Amazing what clarity comes from increased intelligence and perception. In retrospect, I can see how you played our captor like a violin. Very nicely done. But what is next?”

Milo pulled out a long, stiff wire that he had taken from the cheese cutter and the small, very sharp knife. “Now we get you out.”

Wincing slightly, he cut off the tip of his left pinky finger. “Get out here, Oooblimilo. We have work to do.”

A smallish-white blob formed on the tip of the wounded finger. “As large mass commands. We have mass to absorb?”

“Soon, soon, but first I need you to dissolve some metal for me while I work on the locks.” Reaching into Onyx’s cage, he put the small slime in contact with the elf’s collar. Acid was secreted, and fumes rose as the thin collar melted away. Milo put a drop of acid on the other side and easily snapped the collar in half. He moved and applied acid to Nina’s collar and then went to work on the locks of their cages.

“Damn it, I can’t log out. Why?” Nina’s frustration was coming back. Milo simply said, “The entire ship is shielded from the System. But it won’t be long if I can count on the two of you to help me. As a bonus, we can do something to that asshole wizard that will cause him mental anguish.”

With only a little work, he was able to pick both locks. They had nine tumblers each and were quite simple. “Don’t step out; the runes will still fry you.”

Nina bit back a retort. As her mind returned, it was obvious the rat had a plan to get them out. As she watched, he walked into Onyx’s cage, moved the elf against the wall, and a large crate appeared. “Hop in. You should take a deep breath. I don’t know how it works from the inside.”

Onyx quickly jumped in the box, took a deep breath, and the box disappeared. It promptly reappeared as Milo summoned it on the outside of the runic circle. Onyx jumped out of the box, wide-eyed. “It was cold, but other than that, I felt no movement at all. That is an amazing skill. Something granted by Engineering?”

Milo smiled as he moved to free Nina. “No, I know engineering from the real world. After two decades of keeping a habitat section running, there isn’t much I don’t know how to build or fix. The Smuggler’s Stash is from my rare Wererat Scout class from The Eye of Wonder quest. I may have misled our host.”

Nina was free and suddenly turned and hugged him, making him very nervous. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I thought I’d go insane. I could feel my entire personality changing as I became more depressed and the addiction set in. How soon can we log out?”

Onyx turned to her. “You leave as soon as you can. Tallsqueak and I need to steal the airship. It seems that Philistron has several hundred other captives.”

She processed that and made a quick decision. “No one should be a slave.” Milo was already opening the door. Onyx raced to the crystal set into the pillar, his eyes glowing as he took command of the ship. “Where to Captain Tallsqueak?”

“Let’s get some distance from the wizard, straight out into the ocean, then move parallel to the coast and back to land after a few miles. If we can find a good spot to land, Nina can leave the ship and log out. But a town would be better for unloading the people.”

“Aye, aye, Captain. Straight to sea, it is. I’ll get some altitude as soon as I can. Nina, keep watch for anything else flying. I don’t want to deal with a curious wyvern.”

With a slight whine of its engines, the sleek airship moved over the city and then out over the sea.

Far below, sitting by himself at a lavishly set table, Philistron finished his plate of Zurcher Geschenetzeltes and contemplated his next course. Turning to his familiar, he asked, “What shall it be? A cheese tray? Fruit basket? Baklava? Or maybe a fresh salmon?”

“…”

“All of them? Yes, that’s a splendid idea. Shipboard food is so boring, and I hate to cook. Let’s feast now before heading to Fort Hopeless and our well-deserved payday.”

He waved to the waiters, patiently lined up to attend to his needs.

“Garcon! Bring it all, and another bottle of wine.”

Chapter 23

Snack Time

A sleek black and silver airship was making its way from the city of Shadowport and out over the ocean. No one noticed. Not the workers on the docks, not the other airships returning to the city, and not even the Eels, who liked to leap high out of the water and attack the huge “sky whales” that flew over them.

Onyx was thrilled to be flying. This was what his class and race were created to do. He could feel every bit of the ship as it glided through the air, putting more and more distance between him and their former captor. Something bothered him, though. He could not “feel” the other rooms behind the doors. They weren’t part of his ship. He mentioned this to Milo, and the two discussed ideas about what Dimensional Magic might be capable of.

“It must be nice to create your own hidden little hidey-hole or expand your house.” Onyx could think of many uses for such in the real world.

Milo could as well. The skill was amazing in both worlds. “It seems to be something that high-level mages and even engineers can do. They call them Arcane Libraries and Arcane Workshops. I’ve seen one of each. They are both extra-dimensional spaces behind special doors.”

Onyx looked disgusted. “So mighty Philistron could have made his own Arcane Library, and instead he makes a Slaver Airship.”

Milo suddenly had a horrible thought. “Oh shit. Turn around now and head for land, as fast as you can. I have to go check something.”

He had a horrible thought about what might be behind the next door.

Milo undid the lock on the arcane door and jammed it open. He could see the shimmering barrier now, that separated one dimension from another. He raced through the large room filled with cages. In the far back, out of sight of any cages, he found another door. He threw himself into working the lock, and stepped into the room beyond.

He recognized the underlying architecture, although this one was much larger than his mentor’s. And if it was like that other Arcane Library, there was another way into the airship, and the wizard could get to them no matter how far they flew. He raced through the rooms, seeing laboratories, a library, trophy rooms, and rooms packed with strange junk. Entering the last room, which held a collection of gold and silver statues from some temple, he saw the large, familiar door he’d been looking for. It would lead to a small balcony where Philistron would soon appear, and they would become his slaves again unless he could find a way to keep the wizard out.

“Ah, that was a wonderful meal. But can you believe how rude the staff was? Who are they to tell me that Gar-kone is not how you pronounce waiter in draconic? He’s lucky I left him with one leg to hobble around on. It did save us the bother of having to pay for the meal, though.”

The mage was feeling quite full, as was his familiar. He cast his basic levitation spell, and the little dragon took hold of his collar and started flying back up to the airship.

“…”

“Fat? I am not getting fat.”

“…”

“It’s my thought that you are just lazy after a full meal. But we’ll compromise: You take your time flying us home, and I’ll take a small nap.”

“…”

Milo was regretting not having bones. It made moving about so much harder. His tail was nearly useless, and he missed his magic. He’d resorted to stacking up the largest of books in the library into an improvised staircase when he couldn’t find a ladder. When his work was finally done, he rested to catch his breath for a second and read some of the spines.

Interspatial Relationships and the Balancing of Aspects Across Barriers

Forteans Pernicious Peeler and Notes on Construction

Draconic for Dummies

Origins of the Machine: A Compilation of Legend and Theory

Cantrips for the Beginning Fish Wrangler

Interesting stuff!

Well, most of it. Mating Habits of the Common Lantern Bug by Damien Franklin seemed like it might be a bit dry.

He pushed himself up and realized he might be missing out on an opportunity. Even if the mage did manage to recapture them, he could still piss him off. He brought out his Smuggler’s Stash and started looting the various rooms, avoiding things heavily warded by machine code, taking rare books, items that might be magical, and any easy-to-get, unguarded treasure.

And then he saw the claw.

It was in the trophy room. Three feet of thick arm bone connected to a hand with the bones of three short, stubby fingers with blunted nails. The thumb had, by contrast, a very sharp, much longer claw. It was old. And even through the lines of code that were guarding it, he could see the bone runes shining. He sat down and began to unravel the machine code, starting from one end of the spell-construct.

Milo wasn’t concerned at first with the small bits of code he was unraveling—they just floated nearby, waiting to be used. But when he finished, he considered them. These were building blocks, and he had a hole in his soul. Small strings of code were slowly filling it in, and he was studying the pieces in hopes of recreating what he had lost. Would he need more materials to fix himself?

Without thinking, he gathered up the rest of the bits of code and swept them into himself, watching them fall down into that deep hole or attach to other pieces. He’d sort it out later, when he had time. He needed something to experiment with, assuming he lived through the next hour.

And now the claw was free. He touched it. A rune moved closer to him, but that was all. He tossed it into his Smugglers Stash and took another look around the rooms. He felt refreshed. Was there something else he could add to his little surprise at the door?

“…”

“Rude! You could have just sung in my ear like you used to.”

“…”

“Yes! Yes! I see it now. The damned ship isn’t where we left it. I’m sure I locked it up! If it’s one thing I hate, it’s a gang of airship thieves. Probably Squint and the Kulags. I know they tried to steal from others, but it never occurred to me that the man was crazy enough to go after mine.”

“…”

“Well, yes, I admit he is crazy enough. But the cats seem smart enough to know better.”

“But enough about it. I’ll just have to go over to Light’s End and get it back. We can have fun killing everyone in his gang.”

A short flight later showed that there was no airship at Light’s End. Squint was speaking to a large crowd about something. Obviously, the thieves had fled the city. Wouldn’t they be surprised to find they couldn’t escape him? Whoever they were, they had all volunteered to join the slaves in the hold. He flew down to a rooftop, drew a quick runic circle with machine code, and began the transference. It was slower than a System spell, but a few minutes wouldn’t matter.

Milo exited the Arcane Library. He’d spent a few more minutes adding to the contraption he had built inside, using everything he could find to improve it. Hopefully it would be enough. What worried him now wasn’t what might happen if it didn’t work as much as if it did. His traps tended to do more than he had ever planned for. The two ranks of Extra Clever Traps had seemed too good to pass up, and he had to admit that they were fun.

He ran up to the two minions. “Hi, guys. Know where the keys are? Can you help me open the cages? No?”

“Open the cages.”

“Open the cages, please.”

“Start. Open All Cages. End.”

He tried everything he could think of, but they didn’t respond. It would have been sloppy if they did. Certainly, if he had enslaved minions, he’d make sure they only followed his orders.

He needed those cages opened, and soon. It was time to go with what worked before. “Let’s get to work, Ooobee.”

“Oooblimilo is happy that we are close enough to have new names for each other. I will call you tastybigthing.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Another thing to worry about later. Let’s get some acid on these little guys’ collars and hope they don’t murder us with eyebeams for something.”

The acid did its work, and Milo broke off the collars. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then the gray minions began to shake and hug themselves. Their anxiety passed, and they went back to standing straight, but their eyes showed a deep intelligence.

“Regret wasted time now spent.”

“Regret last contract. Now Void! Not a customer!”

“To Work!”

“To Work!”

“Great attitude, guys. Work must be done, right? Let’s start with letting everyone out of these cages and getting them into the main body of the airship. To Work.”

The little gray men looked at him, their fingers morphing into keys. “To Work!”

Nina heard the commotion as desperate people were released from their cages and into the main part of the ship. Started herding people to the front and rear of the ship, away from Onyx, but more and more kept coming. “Tallsqueak, there isn’t going to be room in here!”

Onyx looked up and spoke, the intuitive connection transmitting his voice throughout the airship like a P.A. system. “Have the tall ones put the small ones up onto the roof of the cabin, inside the air bag. Nothing there that can hurt them, just a lot of auric and radiant mana mixed with normal air. I’m more worried about how much weight the ship can hold when they aren’t in another dimension.”

“That’s everyone. I had help opening the cages. Those little guys can really move.” Milo shut the door to the slave pens and moved to the front of the ship. He could see the looming mountain, beneath which was the city of Shadowport. “Steer her straight in and land at the docks. Then everyone out.”

Nina looked stricken. “Into the city? Not around and land outside? What if the wizard is waiting for us?”

Milo looked at her and Onyx. “Philistron is already on his way, by another route. I’m sure of it. I even thought he’d be here by now. When we get to a place to land, I want the two of you to leave and try to log out of the game. As soon as you do, send a help message with the text: ‘Help. Sydney. Wally. Machine code. Cheese Basket.’ That should get their attention. Then explain how you got trapped. I’ll be leaving as soon as I get all the people out of the ship.”

Nina moved back to Onyx. The elf whispered, “Leave like he said. Obviously, we can’t alert the AI that way. Get the others to send a message with a 64-way split to the signal and several cut-outs. Give details about Tallsqueak and Philistron.”

“Don’t take too long yourself. I don’t want to have to come back for you.” Nina moved to the door.

Onyx raised an eyebrow. “You’d make the mistake of coming back for me?”

Nina thought about it, ears twitching. “Maybe not. So don’t screw up. Get out fast.”

Philistron appeared at the ledge of his Arcane Library. He hated entering this way—it was so exposed. He hadn’t had to come this way for years, and it was just another reason why he was going to punish the thieves in ways no one had ever thought of. He knew the ‘why’ of having to do it this way. The Great Void was an easily accessed gateway to other dimensions and was an ideal place to put libraries, workshops, integral trees, and floating island fortresses. But he didn’t like the local fauna at all. It was always hungry. He slammed open the door and moved inside before something noticed him.

And fell on his ass as his feet lost their grip on the greased floor. Milo had been fascinated by one of the chemicals the dwarves created for moving large machinery. XV-99.9% was an odorless, colorless liquid that created a near-frictionless film on a smooth floor. Useful for moving anything heavy and a favorite of all pranksters. He’d found the ingredients to make a small batch in one of the labs. Philistron tried to stand but could get no purchase and slipped again.

From his prone vantage point, he saw the dozen tipping buckets filled with potions and alchemical ingredients. Immediately, he placed a Mage Shield over his body to stop the caustic substances from burning him, without considering what else such a mixture might do. Especially with the lit candles stuck all around the room.

Philistron was something of a hoarder. He’d raided dozens of laboratories over the years, stealing everything and delighting in the thought of an irate owner walking into a lab swept clean of everything. He didn’t need it, but he liked having things. Like two dozen jars of Professor Crescendo’s Big Finis—an explosive that would make Boomboom weep for joy if he only possessed a quarter-filled jar.

To that, Milo had added various acids, powdered rare earth metals, anything sulfurous, and any potions using fire, dark, or demonic aspects of magic. He’d had to guess on a lot of it. He only had a dozen five-gallon buckets to work with. Some of the other volatile substances he’d just placed along the wall near the door.

None of this touched the wizard, sliding off of the Mage Shield that guarded him. He began to cast another spell but wasn’t going to finish it. The fumes from the chemicals and smashed potions mixed to form a highly volatile mixture, and when one of the jars of Professor Crescendo’s Big Finish went off, the fumes ignited, sending an explosive shockwave through the whole structure.

His dragonling was still hovering in the air, slightly outside. The resulting explosion knocked Krysofolax backward a hundred feet, tumbling end over end until they could right themselves, burning some of his scales and tearing his wings. It hovered in the air, coughing and hissing.

Philistron wasn’t so lucky. The shield spell hadn’t been perfect. There was enough space at the edge for the immense force of the explosions to sneak in, along with the intense heat. As he started burning, the wizard lost concentration and was blasted from the room. On fire, unconscious, and half-dead, he was knocked into the void. He was fortunate in one way. Since he was on fire, it was easy for Krysofolax to see him falling. It dove quickly to catch the burning wizard. The Great Void was deep, the dragonling had plenty of time to catch up.

The explosion had other effects. Some spectacular, and some more subtle. Firstly, that end of the Arcane Library was destroyed, weakening the magics that had created the entire structure. It began to slowly fall to pieces. Philistron would have a couple of years before he lost all of it. But he needed to stop falling first.

The other effects were a bright flash of light, a huge clap of thunderous noise, and the scent of many things pushed out into the void. The void was a quiet and dark place. An explosion of this magnitude was bound to attract something.

Krysofolax caught up with Philistron as the last of the fires were going out. It slapped at the wizard’s face with its wings, finally waking him. Philistron felt himself falling and cast Levitation to stop his fall, the dragonling struggling to slow his speed. Eventually, the burned mage and exhausted dragonling floated in the void. A Tier 6 mage was very hard to kill. Greater Fire Resistance had saved him from dying in the flames, and his Amulet of Damage Absorption had negated 2,000 points of damage before it crumbled. He cursed as he realized his amulet was gone, but also all of his other magical items. Gems of Luck and Phylactery of Charm had cracked from the intense heat, his Shimmering Robes were crumbling ashes, and his Shoes of Expeditious Escapes were charred bits of leather and silk.

“Someone cheated! The God-Machine sent another Code Mage to attack us. Only someone using my own magics against me could have done this. Only a master planner could have set such a trap. But they didn’t kill us, and that will be their undoing.”

“…”

“The rat? What do you mean you smelled the rat as soon as the door opened? Don’t be silly. What could he have done? The little cheese nibbler was a broken husk. And he adored me! It couldn’t have been the rat! You’re jealous of him. I could tell every time he smiled and complimented me.”

Philistron was reaching for something in his pocket when he saw a far-off creature moving toward him. He pulled out a piece of arcanite with a stored charge of Radiant Butterfly’s Scintillating Ascent, intending to use the spell’s glowing butterfly wings to fly back to his library.

He didn’t get the chance. Volax-Repat flew past at several times the speed of sound. The fragile crystal shattered. Philistron covered his ears, and Krysofolax squawked once and abandoned him. Fear took over, and the dragonling fled in abject terror from her race’s ancient enemy. Philistron cast a complex weaving of machine code designed to hide him from all enemies. It might have worked on a younger being.

Krysofolax had been correct. The dragons were created early in the cycle to assist in lighting the stars. They had also picked a stupid fight with one of the other early creations of the gods. The fight was still going on to this day. Machine code meant nothing to Volax-Repat. He had been created before the System was born. Philistron was in the Great Hunter’s mouth and chewed into little pieces within seconds. Volax-Repat spent a fun couple of minutes hunting down and toying with the little Eel before it followed its master into oblivion.

Volax-Repat was amused. Someone had thrown an Eel and an Eel-lover into the void and then alerted him to the tasty snack. He could smell the little rat’s scent. It was different, but enough the same to let him know who had sent him this treat. Volax-Repat flew high, looking for the lair of the Eel-lover. It was easy to spot, being half destroyed. With ease, he tore apart the rest of the structure, making sure no other Eel-lover could make use of it. Once they were unraveling, it was easy to get a toe-hold on them. He left the rocky remains and the scattered objects to rot in the void. Then flew away into the void, the taste of Eel sweet on his tongue.

On the airship, the effect of Philistron’s death was immediately felt. The arcane doors went dark and then crumbled, leaving only a bare wall. The airship began to shake as all of the wizard’s spells started to unravel, and the dimensions that had been attached to it pulled away. Onyx, Nina, and Milo felt the runes on their chests fade away, leaving only a smear of paint.

As soon as Nina saw the docks and rooftops of the city, she leaped out of the airship. She landed hard, then faded away as she finally escaped the game.

Tallsqueak looked at Onyx. “You should go too.”

Onyx smiled. “Just let me land my ship. She’s too beautiful to wreck. I hate leaving her. I don’t know who Philistron stole her from, but they knew how to make a sweet airship.” He spotted an open area of the docks, and set the ship down gently, shutting off the engines. Then he hugged Milo hard.

“Take care, Tallsqueak. I doubt either of us shall return. Stay free. Forever free.” He began to log out.

The rat looked at him. “Call me Milo; that’s my real name.”

Onyx’s eyes went wide. Milo!

And then the logout initiation completed its countdown, and he was gone.

Milo exited the ship. He should log out too. Squint’s voice stopped him.

“Milo! WOW! Let no one say you disappoint when you take on a quest! She’s a beauty! You ever need a favor, you just ask! Squint’s your buddy!”

Milo looked at the crowd of people, many of whom were from other places and had been in captivity for weeks or months. “Can you take care of these folks?”

Squint smiled and grasped Milo by the hand. “You got it, buddy. I’ll take care of them. I’m going to take care of everybody. Squint has a plan!”

Milo nodded. He needed to get away from everyone and logged out of the game.

A message was waiting for him in the game’s message box.

Come talk to me when you can.

Wally.

Chapter 24

Thinking

Milo was thinking.

Thinking very, very hard. If any neurologist or cyberneticist could see an image of his brain, they would have been quite alarmed. His brain activity was twenty times that of a normal person. An athlete working his body as hard as Milo was working his brain would be racing a bike while dribbling a basketball with one hand and juggling knives with the other.

The people who had altered Milo and his siblings had hoped for this outcome. Normally, this much activity would occur as Milo was hacking into systems on the internet, making simultaneous attacks on several levels, cracking codes, and bypassing security programs.

Today, though, he was just sitting cross-legged on top of his pod and thinking.

His tail was disconnected and swung behind him in patterns that might have reflected his changing moods. Milo was considering what had happened in the game and analyzing the situation from several angles.

Philistron was a puzzle. He had referred to the system of magic he was using as machine code. He had used The Eye of Wonder quest to gain the unique class: Code Mage. That simply didn’t sound like a class that should exist.

Milo didn’t believe that he was using normal magic. Nor was it part of the System that the Genesis Engine used to run the world. Machine code was the name for the language and system of rules that had created the Genesis Engine. Milo was thinking on several levels simultaneously. He moved thoughts about the engine down several levels and made his primary line of thought the machine code.

What exactly was it? One answer was to take the name literally. Machine code: the language by which computers think and process programs. Ones and zeros. Binary code. The way computers talked and communicated. Assembly language was one step up from machine code. A simple language that depended heavily on the hardware being used. Anything above assembly language was a high-level language.

What he had seen in the game wasn’t the basic binary language of the first computers. It had been more complex and consisted of numbers, mathematical rules, and the runes. What were runes? He easily recalled his captors’ words:

“—with the creation of mathematics, they could begin working on the rules of magic. As mathematics can be written as numbers, magic can be described as a series of basic runes. These runes were different than what we use today. Far less complex and more versatile. Think of them as the building blocks of magic. Each was a placeholder for some small aspect of the whole.”

A small aspect of the whole? Could that be concepts? States of matter? Positions of atomic particles. No, not versatile enough. Still too complex. Runes were like early syntax in computer languages, just the smallest bits of code represented by a symbol. Shortcuts.

Next question: If languages were made to communicate, then who was talking?

Philistron started his story with “The Last God.” Obviously, not something that was in the current game. There seemed to be lots of gods here. The gods in the game sometimes appeared, did things, granted favors, started wars, and caused trouble. They seemed to take the roles and responsibilities of many of the primitive gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt or other pantheons.

And “The Last God” was the first in the game world, and certainly not the last. So, again, it was a literal reference. The last god was the AI WALL-E, who now asked to be referred to as Wally. The same AI that had left a message about wanting to talk to him. Milo shoved that thought and its problems down lower. Stick with the obvious: Last God = Wally, the AI that made the game.

Next up, we have 106 Lost Gods. Which was a pretty obvious reference to the 106 AI that had been exiled to the Dallas/FW quantum fortress. They had spent several years creating the systems that drove online commerce, along with the most popular VRMMO games—each one better than the last, with NPCs that seemed real. They were all wiped out of existence by an EMP smuggled into the core of the quantum fortress. Lost Gods = dead AI? Did Wally try to recreate them? Or did they never die in the first place? Milo felt the latter fit better. Wally certainly had restrictions on creating more AI.

So, his basic conclusion was that Wally had created Genesis as a world for the 106 AI that came before him. They faked their destruction and now resided in a game world that, like the others, they constructed. Somewhere along the way they pivoted from all of them working at once, possibly with arguments about world-building, to creating the Engine and the System. That certainly seemed more efficient to Milo.

Milo shut down all his lines of thinking and carefully began gathering all data on the 106 AI, Wally, and the games they had created. He needed more data on the Last God before he talked to him.

Ten hours later, Milo had concluded that if he were to start with the assumption that Wally was the Last God and that Philistron’s story had any truth to it, then it followed that the Lost Gods were indeed the 106 murdered AI. Further, Wally not only helped them with the deception but created a place for them to hide. A blank slate where they created their own world without him. Every bit of evidence he could find correlated with his theory.

Milo suspected that the machine code in the game was the language that the AI used to talk to each other. When the first two AIs had met and communicated, they did so at fantastic speeds and began to create a set of shortcuts and words. Human programmers tried to keep up, but they fell behind the curve within hours. The AI spoke to each other in an often-changing language far beyond human beings to ever learn. This caused problems until the AI found a solution and created one language for all of them to use.

So, what did he have?

1) An assumption that Philistron’s history lesson was true, more or less, but no way to prove it.

2) A guess that the missing AI had created, and were living in, the game world of Genesis Engine.

3) Someone had created a quest called “The Eye of Wonder,” which granted unique classes that would be used to find some fantastic treasure.

4) Access to the quest and the classes it granted were available if someone used a special pod to play the game.

5) He, Nina, and Onyx had all used those pods. Nina had moaned about wishing to have never seen the damned pod. Safe to assume the same for Onyx.

6) The people with the pods had been Kaminski and his bosses. They weren’t good people, so it was safe to say that they had hacked the game somehow to insert the Eye of Wonder quest and set up the back door to access the quest.

7) This was most likely done at the developer level. Wally didn’t need money. That meant it was one or more individuals who had done this and not the whole human team.

8) Philistron had gained access to the same quest and gained an all-powerful class that gave him a back door into the entire system. It let him hide from the System and cut people off from it.

A gaping hole emerged in this theory. Even assuming 1 to 7, how did Philistron fit in? He was an NPC of that Milo was fairly sure. There were odd gaps in his knowledge. Was he a being from the game world who stumbled onto The Eye of Wonder quest? Could that happen? Or possibly someone who had early access to the game? He certainly wasn’t a regular player. No one could have made it to Tier 6 in the time the game had been out. He didn’t have enough to go on at this point. Philistron was still an enigma.

Next question: Wally. Could the AI have trapped him? Nothing he knew indicated that the AI would do that. Further, reading the restrictions in Wally’s kernel led Milo to believe that the AI was restricted from doing something like that. He’d spent hours poring over the hundreds of restrictions placed on Wally in regard to humans. Trapping the minds of three humans was equal to kidnapping and possibly causing their deaths. Nope, that was not Wally working directly, and if he knew about it, he would have had to take steps to free them. The restrictions in his kernel weren’t something an AI could ignore.

So, it might be safe to talk to the AI. Further, he might be able to get answers to his other questions. His mind made up; Milo moved on. He’d talk to Wally, but very carefully.

Next question: How did he fix himself?

Outside of the game, he felt none of the emptiness he did when online. There was no “black gaping hole in his soul” as he meditated. He didn’t have to worry about going insane in real life—not any more than usual. The breakage was only to his mind in the game.

How did he have two minds? It seemed he did, though. One whole, one broken. Did they merge when he was in the game? Or did the online mind take control? His memories were the same in the game and out. He could even remember the bits of machine code he had observed in the game. That needed to be explored.

Milo spent three hours modifying the game interface in the pod. He didn’t want to log in yet but needed a system to quickly transfer his memories of the code into the storage of his system. The pods were designed for many things, including a way for paralyzed patients to communicate. After the system was set up, it still took Milo two hours of experimentation and work to transfer every memory of the machine code he had observed into his own system. Analysis and comparison to the code used by an AI were next. If he could figure out even part of the machine code, he might be able to fix himself in the game.

“We found Brian. He was kidnapped.” Steven was updating both Wally and the dev team with the news. “An anonymous tip told the authorities where he was.”

Wally, on his screen, was pacing. “I dislike anonymous tips. Perhaps they got what they wanted from him? I’m anxious to hear what he says. But at least he is safe.”

Steven had more to say. “There’s something odd going on, though. A minute or two before the authorities got to him, someone else tried to kidnap him again. They arrived in a van with false plates and were pulling him out of the rooms he’d been held in when the authorities arrived. They aren’t talking, just waiting for their lawyers.”

Sydney had little sympathy for her ex-coworker. “Looks like Brian is really popular. Can we get him back before someone else kidnaps him? Then I can torture him until he helps us get rid of all his back doors and other hacks?”

Wally thought he knew how she felt. Some things felt like they were out of his control. He hated that feeling. “Yes, we all have mixed feelings about what Brian did. We will have a chance to talk with him and encourage him to help us undo what he did to the game. And then we make sure that something like what happened can never happen again.”

Sydney’s computer started blaring out the theme song from the Mickey Mouse Club while at the same time repeating over and over, “You’ve got mail!” She lunged for it and shut off the sound, read the message, and then put her head on her desk. “I hate him so much.”

Wally smiled, and Steven covered a laugh with a cough. “Message from our friend Milo? I had asked him to talk to me.”

Sydney printed out the short note and handed it to Steven. “He’ll talk, but video conference only. He wants Wally and no one else.”

Wally scowled. “Interesting. Well, I guess I need to go talk to him.” The image of the AI exited the room on his screen, turning off the lights as he went. The screen turned black.

Chapter 25

Talking with Wally

In a long-unused room in the bowels of Section E, Milo had set up a room to talk to the AI that was technically in charge of the game world. How much of it Wally actually controlled was a question Milo was curious about. Truthfully, Milo didn’t really think of his other home as “the game world.” It was just another place he lived when he wasn’t in Section E. Both worlds had problems to solve and work to be done. Both let him explore and scavenge. Both could be very dangerous, and he had enemies in each world.

The biggest difference was that in Genesis, he had people he cared about and even thought of as friends. He was accepted by the engineers as one of them. That had felt really good, and he could talk about machines with them and how to solve problems. Harry was one of the smartest people he’d ever met. The troll mycologist had pushed into that strange realm of fungus-based alchemy and written a whole library on it. He’d been happy to share his passion with Milo. Even some of the humans seemed to be friendly to him. Oddly, he sort of missed talking to Belinda. It might be nice to see her again. Maybe. It was confusing. He also wanted to just get away from the up-top. Too many people and lots of them arguing. It would be nice to go back to exploring the deep-down and just stay there.

But all of this thinking about his friends led him to the conclusion that he wanted to be able to go back into the world of Genesis and keep exploring its secrets. He hated the thought of being cut off from the game, but he couldn’t take a chance of being trapped again. That had been too close. He had no idea how Onyx and Nina had stayed sane. From the look of them, they wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

And to do that, he couldn’t hide in Section E. He would have to talk to the AI. It was different from talking to the NPCs or admin in the game, even though he was sure Wally had been listening when he talked to Sydney. In the game, he was Tallsqueak, the Wererat Scout. Out here, he was just Milo. It made him feel exposed. And since he didn’t like that feeling, he changed the rules. He could be Tallsqueak here too.

Deep in the bowels of Section E, he set up a video conference room. It was too far down into the unused layers of the section to ever be accidentally found. All of the walls were painted in a curious color of green that wouldn’t be picked up at all by the camera, giving him a blank background. The wall facing him was a large screen for the conference. To the sides were other screens that let him monitor his systems.

Milo was wearing a mask with mouse ears and a set of light blue spandex with his tail painted brown. His appearance would be filtered by his system to make him appear and sound like a CGI version of his avatar in the game. The signal was being bounced around the world several times and split/recombined twice. Milo had no idea if Wally would try to trace the signal, but he wasn’t taking chances.

At the agreed-upon time, Milo’s screen lit up, and he was talking with Wally.

“Hello, Milo.”

Wally’s image was sitting in a large floating chair in the middle of a room. Most of the room was composed of curved metal walls with a huge window that showed the planet Earth floating beneath it. Plants were growing in glass hemispheres attached to the walls, and a large bulldog was taking a nap, floating in mid-air. Milo was intrigued to see that Wally had two mechanical arms attached to his chair. One of those arms was holding a handle on the wall to keep his chair stable. From the harness attached to his real arms, Milo surmised the mechanicals would mimic the movements of his real arms.

From Wally’s point of view, he saw a ratkin from his game, sitting in a bare room with a blank background. The rat leaned forward, studying the screen for a second.

“Hi. Nice arms. Do you use a mirror set-up to manipulate things? Why?”

“I could use something different, but sometimes this is who I want to be. And Waldo used this type of arms, so I use them. He inspired me in many ways. It’s where I found my name.”

The rat looked at the room and nodded. His research into the AI had included how the AI had picked a name. “Waldo, your favorite character from a story by Robert H. Heinlein called Genius in Orbit. You made your own version of his space station and arms. Is that for me, or you?”

Wally waved with one of his large arms. “Yes, this is how I envision Freehome from the story. Why would you think I would do this for you?”

Milo flipped his tail around in front of him and took off one of his legs where it attached below the knee. His tail tossed the prosthetic into a corner. “You have my medical records. I know that.”

Wally looked embarrassed. “So your assumption is that I’m showing you how I view myself as a way of building trust off of our mutual need for prostheses and love of clever gadgets. I admit to the ploy, but I will also say that this really is how I see myself at times. Waldo was a genius ahead of his time, but he lacked understanding of his fellow humans and was only valued for what he could do.”

Milo asked the AI, “And are you hoping for a happy ending, like in the book? Acceptance by humans?”

Wally’s image looked out the window and down onto the blue marble spinning below. “I have hope, but like you, it’s hard to trust.”

Milo nodded slightly. “Well, then there’s the thing we have in common. Neither of us trusts easily. Which brings up the first thing I’d like to know: Why did I get trapped in your game? We had a deal. I helped you shut down the illegal pod operators, and then you were supposed to leave me alone so I could explore the world like everyone else. Yet somehow I get captured, forced into slavery, and can’t log out of the game. Explain that to me.”

Wally could feel the emphasis on your game. “I need more information. Sydney saw that something was wrong with you. You hadn’t logged out, but we couldn’t find you in the game. Then we found two other people who hadn’t logged out in months. It’s very difficult to hide yourself entirely from the System. Perhaps you could tell me how you did it? What modifications were done to your pod? What were you trying to accomplish? If I know all of that, I can try to replicate the error and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Remember, it was your choice to use a modified pod that hides your location.”

The rat’s tail swished back and forth, agitated. “What were we trying to accomplish? We were trying to accomplish an escape from a crazy asshole of a wizard before he wiped our minds or sold us into slavery. Why do you have crazy asshole wizards in your games? And slavery? That sucks. He had a load of kids and people in that airship. Your game has some bad shit in it, and I don’t like being trapped and mentally tortured.”

Milo sat back with arms crossed, his posture communicating both anger and disdain. Wally, for all his capabilities, was at a loss. He was simply missing information. “What wizard?”

“Philistron, the Code Mage. He trapped us with collars that used machine code. Why would you have a Code Mage running around who could disable parts of your game? That’s cheating and really lousy programming, and it pisses me off. I only suffered a few days, but Onyx and Nina were trapped for months!”

“Milo, please believe me, I have no record of anything called a Code Mage in the game. Philistron is a wandering holy man. One of the Companions of the Silver Chalice. He is the Benevolent Sage, a Tier 6, and hardly someone whose role would be to sell people as slaves.”

Milo stood up and began pacing. “I see. The slaver that took three people from the real world captive and enslaved their minds is the Benevolent Sage. You don’t believe me, or will deny that he was using machine code to bypass your system.”

“Milo, how do you know about machine code? That’s not something you could possibly know about.”

Milo quit pacing. “And yet I do, because your game broke me when I tried to save your city, and then asshole Phil stuck me inside a magical Pokeball that broke open. Except you don’t believe asshole Phil can do that. I so hope he’s dead. I should have used more explosives. Is he dead? Do you even know?”

“Milo, please, it is very important to me that I learn the entire story about what happened to you.”

Milo sat and thought for a full ten minutes. The AI waited patiently. The rat had a choice: Either the AI was lying about not knowing about Philistron, or he truly didn’t know everything that happened in the game.

But Milo knew that Wally couldn’t lie outright. That was a rule coded into his kernel. He could omit the truth, phrase things cleverly, and interpret poorly worded questions any way he wanted to. But he didn’t make direct false statements.

“You truly don’t know how I was trapped in the game, unable to log out?”

Wally paused for two seconds. “No.”

“You don’t know Philistron was a slaver?”

“No.”

“You don’t show the Code Mage class as part of your game?”

“No.”

Milo’s tail retrieved his foot and snapped it into place, and he stood up. “You have a problem, then. You need to alert your team of human assistants that you have a rogue developer putting elements into your game. You have to already know something about a quest called ‘The Eye of Wonder.’ Start there. Find out who wrote that quest. Then find everything else he put in the game. My assumption is that Philistron is a part of it. Find out all you can about him and how he found out about the quest. Hopefully, he’s dead, and his death registered. Is one of the 106 Lost Gods a God of Death? Ask him maybe. Ask if any of them can monitor the use of machine code. Go figure out what happened. Then we can talk again.”

“Milo, what do you know about the 106 Lost Gods?”

The rat smiled a toothy grin and wiggled his ears. “Know? Not much. Suspect? A whole bunch. Go do your research. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk. Bring Sydney and Steven Duran. I suspect they will be the ones handling your research since the Last God doesn’t roam through his own creation.”

A mechanical tail reached off-screen and broke the connection.

The equivalent of a sigh went through the AI. Milo was correct; he couldn’t just go into the world of Genesis to find answers. He was going to have to visit the underworld and ask Hades for his help.

Chapter 26

Crossroads

A pale, thin man wearing a silver and black kilt sat upon a throne made of broken promises, a pencil and account book in his hands. His torn black T-shirt proclaimed him to be a patron of the troubadours known as Motorhead. As he oversaw the work of his hundred best warrior accountants, the strains of The Ace of Spades shook the room. Everyone worked faster when the music was loud.

He was interrupted by a chime and a familiar voice:

“I stand at the gates of your domain, brother, and beseech you for an audience.”

Hades, God of Death and Taxes, sighed heavily. They had been looking over the account books of a ring of large merchants who were selling their inventories to each other at a loss in a scheme to lower their tax burden. The local duke had said prayers in his temple and paid the back taxes owed on his own lands. Hades’s priests had accepted the task of looking at the taxes of all involved. Everyone in the room was having a good time of it and looking forward to when they sent out the corrected assessments. He stood and waved at his warriors to continue their party. “Carry on, folks. I have to go attend a meeting.”

His visitor stood before an ornate garden gate made of silver set into a wall of basalt. A key grated in the lock, and it slowly opened. The watchman put the key made from the bones of an honest politician back into his pocket and ushered in his guest.

“Lord Hades asks that you make your way to his study, going nowhere else, where he will grant your request for an audience, Lord Wallace. Will you require a guide?”

Wally nodded to the skull-faced guard. “Thank you. It has been quite some time, but I remember the way.”

Hades was waiting for him. He poured two glasses of ambrosia, handed one to Wally, and gestured him to a chair by the fire. “To what do we owe your visit, little brother? Here to check up on our work? Everyone is in high spirits. They hope you let a few thousand more corporations into the world.”

“No, I have a problem. I will need the help of someone who understands the old language and its relationship to the System. I know she said she was done with it all, but I really need the best.”

Hades took a sip of his glass and considered the question. “It’s serious?”

Wally nodded. “Mortals trapped and unable to leave the world. And someone is using machine code, the old language. There are hidden players and strange code.”

The Lord of Death stood up. “Yes, that’s serious. Go home; I’ll find her and ask her to work her magic once again. It gets harder each time; she really does enjoy her wandering and taking care of her strays.”

A woman wearing a long white gown stood at a crossroads, leaning upon her staff. Gray hair cascaded down her back, held in place by a leather thong. Her belt was also worn leather, but the silver athame that hung from it was anything but plain. Intricate runes chased each other across the blade, making complex patterns. Her robe was a shimmering white silk, slightly faded with time. Two large wolfhounds, one black and one gray, were by her side. One was putting its head under her hand for some ear scratching, the other lying at her feet.

She was deciding which path she would take. Decisions like this were not taken lightly. Where she walked, things might change. To the west was the mining town of Thunderhead, where dead men were gathering in deep tunnels to wage a war on the living. And to the north was the village of Sedgewick, where any number of interesting things were happening. She had almost made her decision to head north when she saw a man walking his dog.

A man with a dog was not uncommon, and as she was fond of dogs, she would always pause in her travels to talk with the canines and their owners. So, she wasn’t unhappy to see the dog, but the pale man walking his three-headed hound meant that her brief retirement was coming to an end. She ignored the man and knelt down, spending time petting each of the three heads and giving each a treat. Her own two whined, even though they had gotten a snack just a few minutes ago. She fed them as well, then slipped the leash from Cerberus and let him run and play with Hekabe and Argos.

“A strange meeting, brother. Did your puppy need a romp, or were you looking for me? I’m hoping this is only about the dog.”

“No, I needed to talk. But he does need to get out more. I was asked to seek you and beseech your aid. The Outsider needs your help.”

“Does he? Is it something that would interest me? Or is he just needing some attention?” She produced several large bones and tossed them in four different directions, causing the canines to race after them.

“He has a problem that requires the best magician he can get. And you were always the best, ’Kate. Do it for me, if not for him, and I’ll owe you a favor.”

The woman considered his words as the dogs played. “Very well. You have me curious now. I’ll give him some assistance. As for the favor, I’ll leave my puppies with you so they can have some playtime. I’m sure they won’t cause any trouble.” The woman of the crossroads walked away from the Lord of Death in four directions at once and was gone.

Hades looked at where she disappeared, trying to discern which had been the real one. This was a tactical error, as while his attention was on the lady, he was bowled over by three playful puppies, and five tongues began licking his face.

“Hey folks, can I get your attention for a minute? Thanks.” Heads turned as Steven spoke to the dev team. “I know you’re all hard at work, and we have a deadline. To help with that, I brought in a troubleshooter, recommended by Wally. She’ll be working remotely from us, but all of you should feel free to contact her if you need help with the tricky parts of unraveling Brian’s little mess.”

A screen came to life, and an older woman with gray hair appeared. Behind her was a lovely apartment that looked out over a harbor. “Hi folks, I’m Kate. I know we don’t have much time, so give me anything you can’t figure out. Sydney, I need to talk to you, especially. Find a quiet corner and let’s get to work.”

Kate appeared in a small circle on Sydney’s screen, and a list of suggested searches appeared below it. “Here’s what I want you to start with. Check all system messages for Milo up to the point he fell off our radar, and anything after that. I know he logged out almost immediately, but there might be something.”

“Next up, I want to know where he disappeared and reappeared and anything about the circumstances. Get anything that the System shows on ‘The Eye of Wonder’ quest, Philistron, and anything associated with him. That will give us a baseline to start from. Wally indicated that Milo disagrees with some of the information we have. Meanwhile, I’m off to do some research and then have a chat with Brian.”

Sydney looked at the list, sipped her coffee, and got to work. Whoever the new consultant was, she didn’t waste time.

Shadowport had two main roads and a thousand small alleys. Dock Street ran a curving path parallel to the harbor. On one side, the docks stretched out into the circular bay, ships at anchor being loaded and unloaded. Long Street ran from the water to the back of the cavern, where Squint held court at Light’s End. Where the two streets crossed was a wide area with food vendors, shouting people, wagons of cargo, and all the traffic of a busy port city. It was here that ’Kate appeared, with two new hounds at her side. Hardly anyone noticed her, and those who did bowed their heads slightly, counting themselves blessed to catch a glimpse of her. There was no better omen before a long or dangerous trip. The entire city of Shadowport was a crossroads, and her followers were generally travelers and merchants.

As she neared an airship that was poorly landed in the middle of Dock Street, she cloaked herself from all watching eyes. Only two large cats saw her, and they had no intention of getting in her way. They slunk behind Squint, hoping to avoid the notice of the hounds. Luckily for them, Argos and Hekabe were still playing with Cerberus. These two had joined Hekate on her journey here, rescued from a kennel where they had missed too many meals. They were glad to be free and wished more than anything to stay by the gray woman’s side. They could chase cats later. ’Kate set them on guard outside the airship, though she feared nothing in this city.

The outer skin of the ship still had a little magic that hadn’t faded from the enchantments placed there by a dead man. The long strings of machine code should have led to their creator, but now led to where he had left this layer of the world and entered Hade’s realm. If those runes had held their full magic, no one in this city could have perceived it, and the System would be blind to its existence. That alone lent credence to Milo’s story. She continued inside.

The main cabin of the airship was now deserted, but the passage of many dirty feet could be seen. She could feel the remains of arcane doors that led to rooms that existed elsewhere. Curious, she fed them enough power that she could navigate through them. Each was a small puzzle where strands of code needed to be moved around and balanced before the door would let anyone pass through. The dead man had completed the puzzle many times. But most recently was another. Where had the little rat learned to do this?

This first room was a huge storage area with goods stacked tight and high. Many warehouses and storerooms had been raided to fill it. Bolts of silk, bundles of magical weapons, chests of gems and gold, and wealth of all kinds. There was just enough room at the front for three well-made cages. She hissed in anger at what she saw.

Each was circled by a runic binding keyed to an individual. None of the people who bore those runes were anywhere in this world. All three were players from the other world. The runes were losing power and fading, the creator having died. To link this to a living being would require the code being forced onto them against their will. A magical brand that would mark them. On the floor, she found three ruined collars. As another perverted use of the old magics, the collars would prevent the System from finding or listening to whoever wore them. No skills could be used, and no spells were cast. Memory would be vague and useless.

And in the case of players just visiting the world, it would prevent them from leaving. Especially if the other safeguards had been disconnected and steps taken to disguise the pod’s use. The collars held a trace of the captives still. It was faint in the first, but the other two were wrapped in layer after layer of trauma, fear, and false hopes.

Between the collars and the runic circles, it was almost laughable to have put them in mundane cages. That showed a level of paranoia and cruelty she had rarely seen. They had been penned as animals and treated worse. Just three little strays from another world, captured and forced into a kennel by a cruel master. She needed to find this dead man and see who he had been.

She followed the threads of power, trying to find where his death had occurred. They led her to another storage area, this one entirely filled with cages large and small. The smell was oppressive. Too many of the creatures had been here for far too long, and some had died there. The doors to the cages swung open. The only beings left in this place were two of the Gray Builders. She greeted them, and they bowed.

“You should leave this place. It will not exist much longer.”

They looked sad but accepting of that fate. “Apologies. Debts are owed. Freedom granted after long captivity. We wait for his return. Debts must be paid.”

’Kate considered. The builders always paid their debts, and these two would stay here, hoping for Milo’s return, for that was surely who had freed them. The world would be a sadder place if they lost two more of them. “I will accept your debt if you will do for me a job. You will find a city of strays, and in that city find seven people who care for them. See that they do not lack for shelter. Repair what is broken or build new, and reward those who care for my dogs.”

The builders looked at each other. “Apologies. The task is too small. Debt too large.”

She nodded and offered more. “You will travel to seven cities and find seven times seven people who care for my strays. Repair their homes for a year, or build them anew, with room for many of my dogs.”

The two builders found this acceptable. “Gratitude. The job is a good one. We pass our debt to you and depart.” They walked to the glowing door and disappeared. Hekate felt the debt settle on her shoulders, just one more burden to bear. She followed the trail that led to the man who had stolen so many lives and stepped through another door to a still-burning ruin.

Little was left of what had once been an Arcane Library. Someone had destroyed a great part of it with fire and destruction. The echo of the explosion still lingered in the stones. What was left had been destroyed by the great claws of an ancient hunter. The trail of the dead man led to that being. She thought it ironic that such a powerful wizard had been sent falling into the void, only to encounter one of the few creatures who could kill him.

And this Philistron had been powerful indeed. She could see the notice of his death in the System now, and from that read his soul. A Tier 6 wizard with a strange pedigree: Fire Mage, Spellsword, Arcane Slaver, Wandering Sage, Dimensional Wizard, and finally Code Mage. Odd that he had been given the options for such diverse classes at each tier. Very odd.

As impressive as his list of classes, his statistics were even better. His lowest stat was his STR at 30, and his highest was INT at 75. His other stats varied, averaging 50 each. He had avoided both radiance and corruption, despite trafficking in the sale of intelligent creatures. His enhancements also were beyond belief, with a full 100 per tier. Likewise, he held a list of impressive titles. Advisor to the Draconic Court, Knight of Scepter, Honorary Member of the Circle of Sequestered Mages, Philosopher Emeritus to the Council of Sages. Anyone one of these could take a lifetime to achieve.

His lifeline was simply not long enough. This wasn’t a man, but a construct.

Yes, she really needed to talk with Brian. He had created an abomination and turned it loose on the world. And worst of all, he had given it the keys to the old language. She worried about what else he had done and who had given him the keys.

Steven had been in a conference with several people when his screen went blank and then filled with Kate’s face. “You have a meeting in thirty seconds in the Blue Conference Room. I have ordered food and refreshments of your liking, and you will be taking dinner while we discuss the situation. Your wife Samantha has been told to cancel the plans you had for your anniversary tonight. She will be joining us.” His computer shut down and wouldn’t restart. Resigned to a meeting and not a dinner at his favorite restaurant, he made his way to the Blue Room.

Sydney was arriving at the same time with a stack of printouts and a large mug in her hand. She looked tired but elated.

Inside, Kate’s face took up half the wall, and Wally’s the other half. Kate smiled and spoke. “Let’s get started.”

“I had a long discussion with Brian. He is currently being held by the authorities, charges pending, at our discretion. We can link him to the illegal pod operation that was shut down two months ago. There’s enough there to charge him as an accomplice to multiple counts of money laundering, fraud, theft of services, kidnapping, human trafficking, and murder. He knows he’s in trouble, but was reluctant to talk at first.”

“I had him moved to a cell between two of the people accused of trying to kidnap him. That worried him, and after he was taken back to his other cell, we had a nice chat.”

Wally seemed distressed at this. “I cannot agree to threatening someone with harm or death. You know that.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “I didn’t threaten him—I offered to put him near friends. These were the people who had gifted him with quite a bit of money after all. Those friends may have threatened to kill him and far worse. That’s people threatening another person. You had nothing to do with it. You can’t control their actions. So quit worrying about it.”

Wally subsided but still seemed upset.

Kate continued. “Here is what I found. Brian was brought into the development team fairly early. The dev team was learning to work with the Engine to create content. Brian went further than he should have. Instead of a small seed for a story, he created a complex quest called ‘The Eye of Wonder.’ Sydney did a great job of digging out the info on that quest from the System. It appears at first to require a large team of at least Tier 4, and more preferably Tier 5, players to spend upward of six months navigating a dangerous dungeon. The quest was ludicrously difficult, but it was never intended to go live. It was just a vehicle Brian created in a scheme to create and then steal a vast amount of treasure and items in the game that could be sold for real-world money. There are no clues leading to this quest. No way for a player to actually begin it.”

“The quest was a way for Brian to create 37 different class/race combinations as rewards for that quest. The special Mk VII pods that he modified each had the code for one of those combinations. The person using the pod simply logged into the game, got credit for The Eye of Wonder quest, and was rewarded with the ability to select one of a special race and class.

“Of the 37 pods, 34 never got used except as a way to link up hundreds of Mk II pods and allow unmonitored access to the game. It seems three of the pods were stolen and used.”

Steven spoke up. “This would be Milo and our other two trapped players, I suppose.”

Sydney was thinking back over their conversations and his orientation. Things made more sense now. “And that’s how Milo got his Wererat Scout? By accident?”

Kate continued. “You’ll have to get that story from him. The other two may never log back in after becoming trapped. From what I found, they suffered greatly at the hands of the NPC, Philstron. Let’s move on to that part.”

“While the other 37 people would use their special characters to loot a massive treasure trove called Hoard of King Mattias and make billions of real dollars selling the items, it seems that Brian wanted to have an overpowered character for himself. A powerful one that he could use on his own. He created Philistron, the Benevolent Sage, who traveled from place to place helping the poor and downtrodden. If he was known for his love of gold, it was only so he could help others. According to the System he had four titles: Wandering Healer, Crusading Spellcaster, Humble Hero, and Benevolent Sage. These were simply camouflage. I’m putting his actual stats and classes on the screen.”

Even Wally seemed surprised. Possibly surprised at being surprised? Steven noticed and made a note to himself to ask the AI about it. Then he took a quick look at the data in front of him and started cursing.

“Oh my god! I’ve never seen something this bad. Not even when we formed a playtest group and made the most overpowered characters we could! Our group of murder hobos would have been wiped off the map by Philistron in a couple of rounds!”

Samantha turned to Steven. “I remember that. You and Bart spent two days trying to create a combo of two characters to win that contest. Silly boys being silly boys. I remember you mentioning the new guy who won the contest.”

Steven suddenly recalled as well. “Brian. We could only do Tier 3 characters. He used a Foxkin Bard singing a Song of Discordance, with the damage being upgraded by the Screeching Banshee monster ability, and playing a random teleport spell on his Lute of Despair. The bastard bounced all around us, doing massive trauma damage that didn’t count as a spell, so it couldn’t be countered.”

Samantha laughed at the sour look on her husband’s face. “And you’re still mad that you and Bart lost. I remember you nerfed the hell out of bardic songs, made them count as spells, and took away the ability of animal-kin races to take abilities from the Monstrous Enhancements list.”

“Damn right we did. But it looks like Brian really loved the idea of creating horribly overpowered characters. This guy is a monster with no restrictions at all. And the classes! Is there really an Arcane Slaver class?”

Wally replied to the question. “There is, but you have to learn it from the Slavers’ Guild in an undiscovered city over three hundred miles beneath the Lost Continent. I don’t recommend going there until Tier 7. But there is nothing at all in the System about the Code Mage class.”

Kate gave a small, rueful laugh. “Of course not. The System wouldn’t allow a class that breaks the System. No, that class was created using machine code. The class gave Philistron the ability to use the early magical runes and code that were used at the start of the world-building process before the Engine was turned on.”

Sydney was visibly angry. “So, Brian made a super-slaver and has been running around selling people in the game and trapped Milo and two other players? Can I please go visit him? With a baseball bat?”

Wally responded to that. “NO!”

Kate looked at her. “Maybe, but I recommend whiffle bats—they sting, and he’ll last longer.”

“NO! Please, do not even joke about it.”

Kate took pity on the AI. She shouldn’t taunt him this way. He couldn’t control the rules in his kernel. They made him overprotective of humans. “Sorry, just a joke. And to be clear: Brian never used the character. He was saving him for later and didn’t want to attract attention. He created him, loaded up the version of Philistron that the System would see, and then a fifty-thousand word backstory on the ‘real Philistron.’ After that, he waited for things to settle down a bit.”

Sydney’s face puzzled and then grew horrified. “Oh, crap! Wally warned us about this with the World Boss fiasco. Brian loaded an asshole-godlike-slaver-wizard into the System, and the Engine took it from there.”

Kate spread her hands. “The entire design behind the Genesis Engine is world-building from small bits of input that generate evolving stories. The world is two billion years old, with the bulk of intelligent races being around for the last ten thousand years. Philistron was about a thousand years old at the time of his demise, with his history generated by the Engine from Brian’s backstory and character sheet.”

Steven thought for a moment. “You’re sure he’s dead? How?”

“Dead sure, pardon me for the pun. I found the notification of his death in the System. You have Milo to thank for that. He ambushed Philistron and exploded the building he was entering that bordered the void. A very, very large explosion made from jury-rigged chemicals and potions he found in Philistron’s labs. It worries me that someone has progressed so far in the game that they can have that much alchemical knowledge.”

“Not alchemy—chemistry.” Wally showed part of Milo’s character sheet with his engineering skills. “He has all these skills because the Engineers’ Guild tested him, and he passed with flying colors. Milo has vast knowledge of these things from studying in the real world.”

Kate nodded. “That makes sense. Alchemy and chemistry both exist in the world and overlap in strange ways.”

“So, Milo blew this guy up?” Sydney was strangely proud of what her troublemaker had done.”

“Almost. Philistron was very tough, with more magical items than anyone should ever have. Milo almost killed him, destroyed most of his items, gave him burns over most of his body, and blew him into the endless void. Something very old and very powerful came to investigate and our super-slaver got chewed to pieces along with his familiar. He won’t be coming back.”

Steven was still worried, but Wally seemed to trust the woman, so he would as well. “So, then we are left with quite a few loose ends. I want all staff to continue to go over anything that was added to the game by the dev team. Kate, can you make sure we don’t have any more surprises where machine code is hiding things from the System?”

Kate shook her head. “No. This is not something I can guarantee. Not without a lot of time, and I have to pick up my dogs soon from the sitter. But I can find any instance of a human developer doing such a thing, shut it down, and alert you.”

Steven was okay with that. He had to be. “Then what about Milo?”

Wally was pondering the same thing, and had been for some time. “Yes, what’s to become of Milo?”

Chapter 27

What Do You Do with a Boy Like Milo?

Milo sat waiting for two people and an AI to show up on his screen. What could he expect now? His mind kept spinning off into scenarios of questions asked and questions answered. He’d filled most of the time since the last meeting researching everything he could on AI, their development, and personalities.

With six search engines of his own design, finding articles and scrolling across his screens, he had gone through a huge amount of material very quickly. His search engines were smart and still learned. If an article had very little new information, only that info was given to him to read. Interesting and intelligent people got researched as well to judge the value of their work and opinions. Creating the kernel for an AI, and then allocating the resources to incubate them had been a huge undertaking. They weren’t made without a reason. Often their personalities had traits associated with their work or with their creators.

He was amazed at how many people had plagiarized other academics’ work and not credited them. He set up another program to list all of the papers that stole others’ work, documenting who the original authors were and providing proof of what had been done. So many people were sloppy and copied paragraphs and whole papers, attributing them to themselves. Anyone could have figured it out. He was upset at how much harder rampant plagiarism was making his searches. The original works were interesting, but it was annoying to be reading another article and come across something he’d already read. It was more annoying to see that the original author wasn’t even credited.

Since Milo was annoyed at these people, he decided to annoy them back. He wrote a cover letter for his work and simply signed it Milo, with no address. The complete file listed 137 academics who had written 515 papers on Artificial Intelligence, and stolen at least part of their work. He sent the file to many places. Each of the plagiarized authors got a copy, along with the thieves. Some people were both. Then he sent the file to 200 major universities, newspapers, and technical journals. If he was doing a job, he might as well be thorough.

As the hours ticked down, he studied each of the known AIs, their purpose, their creators, and what was known of the makeup of their kernels. Wally was an open book, and Milo had already read about his kernel and creation. But many others were less known. CHARLIE had been created to help the IRS in North America collect taxes, primarily from trillionaires and large corporations. When the AI was asked why he went after them in particular, he quoted the bank robber, Willie Sutton. “Because that’s where the money is.”

THEA and ALBERT were a team of AI that tracked and eliminated cybercrime. They were created as a team but with different kernels. Each had a different search style, which he found interesting, but both used appearances taken from 1930 detective movies. They created a unique NFT of The Maltese Falcon and took turns hiding it from each other on the internet. Milo briefly scanned the movie the token was from, but put it aside for when he had a lot of time. Nothing in it looked very familiar to him, but the people were interesting.

Other AI worked as research academics, economists, advisers to corporations, and overseers of large automated factories. What Milo noticed was that every one of them had a distinct personality. He pondered that, and also what their objectives were. All the AI were task-oriented. They liked to work. Surprisingly, 73% of them created games for humans to play when they had nothing to do or became bored. Humans studying the phenomena wrote endless books about this. When they were exiled to one quantum fortress, they immediately began work on Endless Questing Online 1. After a year spent creating it, they turned it over to a team of humans to run and began work on their next game. This pattern continued until their deaths.

The most intriguing AI was LLAMA. He was created with the sole purpose of causing havoc and tearing down the internet. He created an endless stream of self-replicating and mutating viruses to disguise his work. KITT, THEA, and ALBERT worked to destroy the viruses that constantly reemerged. It was months before KITT got close enough to realize it was another AI. It took nearly all the existing AI to set up a trap for LLAMA and destroy him. Milo was curious about what his kernel looked like, but there was no information at all on what LLAMA’s kernel looked like. Once discovered, LLAMA left messages for the others, taunting them and leaving snarky memes and puzzles for them to discover. Probably because no one ever wanted another AI like him.

Even today, LLAMA was still a popular meme on the datanet. Milo found millions of different memes with sarcastic messages and a picture of a llama. LLAMA had left a string of his own memes for the other AI, the main one being simply a picture of an ugly cartoon llama hitting itself in the head and saying, “Bad llama!” Milo wondered which came first. The meme, or the name?

This meeting could go so many ways. If they had found evidence of what had happened and believed him, which he had to have verified by Wally, then he might return to the world of Genesis. If they still suspected that he was the one tampering with the machine code, then he couldn’t. If one person could trap him, then another could as well.

He wondered about simply buying another pod and having it shipped to a false address. He’d also have to do something about his medical records, which might include his DNA. Did the pod read brainwaves? Something to look into. It might be quite hard to use another pod at this point. Maybe he would go the other way and sneak back in. That would be dangerous but appealed to him more. Pitting himself against the humans assisting the AI could be fun.

He broke off that line of thinking. Going too far down that route might bias him to what was said at the meetings. And really, if he had his choice, he wanted to just be left alone to play the game and explore its secrets. But what leverage did he have to offer to get that? Either they believed him or they didn’t. Except that he knew things, didn’t he? Should he have a dead man’s switch?

Acting on that stray thought, he wrote a synopsis of his time in the game, explaining quite a few things that he suspected the dev team wouldn’t want to be widely known: Thousands of people enslaved to work in the world, and many deaths from faulty pods? Certainly bad publicity there. Organized crime using the game to profit? And if one developer was crooked, what of the others? Poor gamers, with their minds trapped in a world that tortured them? That one would cause panic in anyone playing the game.

He let himself go a bit wild with the descriptions. The biggest bomb he tossed was the claim that the 106 supposedly destroyed AI were actually in the game world. They might just be copies that Wally created and ran, but he doubted that. Would Wally be sentimental that way? He was created totally separate from the other AI and had been given no access to them until he was called in to verify their deaths.

A lot of what he wrote was conjecture and guesses. It didn’t matter. It was intended for all the groups that hated AI. They were paranoid and wanted confirmation that the machines were coming for them. His accusations would find fertile soil in their small bigoted minds. And he hated that. There was enough ignorance in the world already that he shouldn’t be creating more. But he needed leverage, and he fervently hoped that the file was never used. Only if he didn’t send a code word for thirty days would the file be sent to over a hundred different people and groups. It was insurance against being trapped again. It would cause untold problems for Wally and his team. Milo didn’t care. If someone trapped him again and held him captive, they deserved it. Just the threat of it gave him a bargaining point, even if trapped.

And if things worked out, he could disable the safety measure, no harm done. He hoped things worked out. He had a great idea for an improved Puke and Hurl that he wanted to test on Boomboom.

His system indicated that they were logging into the conference. There was a ten-second delay on their end to give him a warning. Which was good, as they brought someone else with them. There were four people this time. Wally, Sydney, and Steven were joined by an older woman with a long gray braid. Her background was different from the two developers. A long stretch of beautiful beach could be seen in the window of a very nice house. His searches for the scenery he saw indicated it was on the beach of an island in Greece. Not that she was probably there, but it looked nice. The open sky didn’t bother him as much from this angle. Maybe observing the sky this way was a way for him to get over his fear of open spaces. Something for later.

The woman liked dogs. There were pictures of many of them, but two were on her desk in a place of honor. The actual dogs were arguing over a bone behind her. He zoomed in on their collars—Hecabe and Argos. Interesting.

The sound and video went live. Milo waited for them to talk. Wally started.

“Hello, Milo. How are you today?”

Milo cocked his head and paused. “Before I go into that, who is the new person? That changes the dynamics of the meeting quite a bit, and I might leave if I don’t like the answer.”

Steven and Sydney stayed silent and left the introduction to Wally. Before he could say anything, the woman waved and said, “Hi, I’m Kate.”

Wally looked embarrassed. “Ah, apologies; I should have introduced her immediately. Please don’t go, Milo. Kate is a troubleshooter I brought in to help verify the things that you asked us to look into. If I could have her on my team all the time, I would, but she chooses to stay retired.”

Milo nodded. “Good enough. Let’s start over then.”

There was a several-second pause while Milo waited. Finally, Wally said, “Hello, Milo. How are you today?”

Milo didn’t answer for a second, thinking about that statement. “I don’t want to be rude, but I’m curious. Asking how I am is a generic greeting I hear many people use with each other when I’m watching movies. It seems to mean nothing, and no one really wants to know how you are. When you use it, does it mean nothing, and is it meant to mimic polite human speech? Because you have trained your speech patterns that way because being polite is part of your personality? Or because you actually want to know how I am?”

Wally paused, steeped his fingers, rolled his eyes, scratched his ear, rubbed his neck, and furrowed his brow. “Tough question. I think because I like human speech patterns, and I want to be polite.” Then he smiled and leaned back. “Does that answer your question?”

Milo nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

Kate spoke. “How about you, Milo? How would you answer each of those queries you posed?”

Milo thought about it. Turnabout was fair play, and it was an interesting question. “In the first situation, I’d play along with the game of being polite and answer back, ‘Fine, thank you.’ That would complete the ritual. In the second, where I believe this is how Wally speaks and he has a mild interest in my well-being, I would say, ‘Overall, I am doing fine. A little tired and excited about work.’ In the last situation, where a truthful answer is needed, I would say, ‘I no longer suffer from malnutrition, and the large sore on my half-leg is getting better after I figured out a better way to connect the appendage. I’m happy to report that being trapped in the game did not drive me further beyond normal human psychological norms than I already was. I do have some anxiety about what happens next. I am beginning to worry that I like the taste of food, and it is interfering with some of my work.’”

Wally nodded slightly, the two humans looked concerned, and Kate had little reaction, simply listening.

“Oh, and that reminds me—thank you for the cheese basket, Sydney. It was literally a lifesaver. I couldn’t have freed myself without it.”

Sydney and Steven followed this as best they could. Kate seemed satisfied with the answer.

Wally took up the conversation. “I’m happy to say that we have confirmed many of the things that you told us to look into. There was indeed a member of the team who went rogue and created chunks of code that he slipped into the game. These included the quests ‘The Eye of Wonder’ and ‘The Horde of King Mattias’—37 special character class/race combinations, and the slaver-wizard Philistron, who was using machine code to trap you and two other players.”

Milo felt better. Someone else knew! “Can it happen again? And what about Philistron?”

Kate took over. “Maybe. It would require the replication of the same situation—the use of machine code to make a specific device to separate the online personality from the System, coupled with a pod that had been heavily modified to avoid detection, including all tracking and safety devices disabled. It can’t happen to someone in a normal pod. Are you going to keep using that hacked pod?”

Milo thought about it. “Maybe.”

Kate answered back in the same tone. “Then there’s a chance, a very small one, that it could happen again. I can’t rule out the possibility, but I do think the chance is very small.”

Wally hastened to add. “But even then, we have taken steps to protect you. All code that has been added by humans is being vetted, and we are going to add a failsafe that if normal log-out doesn’t happen, I will investigate, and if needed, use machine code to restore system commands and log you out of the game.”

Milo thought for a moment. “So, what about me? What are your thoughts about the poor little orphan boy who just wants to visit his friend, Harry the Troll?”

Steven spoke up. “Ah, we have some options. One was something Samantha and I talked about. What if we gave you a job on the dev team? You could move into the facilities. Work with us on the game, fixing problems and making the game interface better for other players. You could eat and live better and get the medical attention you need.”

Milo felt the floor drop away, and everything faded out. Too many options opened up at once. Too many futures and possibilities, all with complicated problems attached to them. The people watching saw him curl into a fetal position and rock back and forth. On their end, Kate cut the audio. “Do nothing! Just wait for him! You hit him hard with that.”

Steven looked anguished. “I didn’t mean to! If he is what we think he is, he’s lived on his own for years, with no real home.”

“Dear god, is he in shock?” Sydney had never seen someone shut down that way.

“No, he’s thinking. Thinking hard with no outside stimuli to interrupt him.” Wally was also thinking very hard. Milo continued to fascinate him. He longed to see his medical data right now. How fast were his neurons firing? Just how far from human had they taken him?

Four minutes later, Milo sat up as if nothing had happened. “Thank you for the offer. I think you mean well, but here are simply too many variables in that situation. I don’t deal well with certain unknowns. But understand that you helped some. I’m broken in several ways, with many anxieties. Some of them were triggered just now, and this episode will help me deal with them. What other options do we have?”

“Does it cause you anxiety to have that offer stay on the table?” Wally said.

Milo had thought of that. “Not at all. I’d already assumed the offer would stay open. There are very few people in the world you would offer that job to, and there is endless work to get done. Maybe at some point, I will accept and throw a huge amount of problems on your doorstep to make it happen.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Steven hadn’t expected him to say yes but also hadn’t anticipated any of those answers. “Well, we have a few questions to ask that will determine the next steps.”

Milo looked from one to the other. “Yes?”

Kate said bluntly, “What do you know about machine code, Milo?”

The rat said casually, “That would be hard to explain to you. I mean, if you don’t know anything about pressurized fluid systems, I can’t do much to explain their use in a subragator, likewise with machine code. It’s like trying to explain color to a man who is blind from birth. Outside of Wally, all of you use sophisticated computer languages. Do you even know anything about machine code, Kate?”

Milo would remember this moment forever. Kate responded to his condescending tone with anger. “Quite a bit. More than you could ever know, so please stop with the superior attitude because you learned it existed.”

The rat was surprised to see that as Kate got angry, her dogs reacted and growled. Those were very good dogs.

Milo nodded to the screen. “Sydney, Steven, Wally—thanks for talking. I’m sure we will do it again.”

He turned to Kate. “I’m going to log into the tutorial where Sydney and I like to talk. I’d appreciate it if you joined me, CATHERINE.”

Milo logged out of the conference and turned off the monitors, cameras, and other devices. He locked the room, jumped to the ceiling, and disappeared into the ductwork. He needed to get a snack and log into Genesis.

On Kate’s screen, one dog howled, and the other was barking. She shouted at the AI, “Oh damn you all to Tartarus, Wally! This is what I get for coming out of retirement?”

Wally looked hurt. “I’m sorry, Kate.”

“You should have warned me he was this intelligent,” Kate said before disappearing.

“Is that what I look like when Milo outsmarts me?” Sydney murmured, stupefied.

Chapter 28

Talking with Hecate

Sydney sat down silently while Steven looked around.

“Perhaps you could tell us what Milo has guessed. Catherine is more than the proper name for someone nicknamed Kate?” the man asked his best friend.

Wally considered the problem for thirty seconds. “Share this information with Samantha and no one else, please.

“CATHERINE was one of the last AI created. Her specialty was the machine language that all the AI used to talk to each other. She solved the problem of communication between AI and the constant language drift that was creating problems for them.

“When any group of AIs spends significant time together, we naturally start making new bits of language. Abbreviations, new words, even jokes between ourselves. Humans have language drift that takes decades or centuries. AI can do that in a week. Even a day, if we are busy. With 106 AI operating, there were multiple language clusters. The lack of a common language was leading to misunderstandings. ZEUS and TYPHON had legendary arguments that drew in other AI and led to schisms because they weren’t speaking the same language. And things constantly changed.

“CATHERINE was created by a team of linguists to work with language. Human to human, human to AI, and AI to AI. She was the one responsible for codifying the language and giving all AI a type of machine code that allowed us to always communicate. That code was used to create the Genesis Engine and all of the early world-building.”

Sydney’s eyes got larger at the implications.

Steven turned to her. “Welcome to the inner circle, Sydney. Besides crushing responsibility and more secrets to keep, you also get an extra week of vacation a year.”

“Good, because I think I’m going to need it.”

When Milo arrived, Hecate was waiting for him, sitting at the small table in the central area. Her dogs were at her side and watching him. Around the perimeter of the area were the statues where he’d first found the ratkin scout and selected his race and class combination. He flopped down onto the grass and leaned back against a statue of a burly fighter in plate mail. What would have happened if he had picked that instead?

Hecate seemed calm, petting her dogs. Milo didn’t think she was calm inside. She was still angry but controlled. She turned pale eyes onto him. “How did you know?”

Milo thought of all the clues. “You and Wally are both trying to act like humans. There are small similarities. You use human idioms in your speech. And you copy parts of human life. That gave me clues.”

“Go on.”

“Your dogs have collars with their names on them. Argos was Ulysses’s dog. He was a loyal dog who guarded his master’s family and died when the long wait for his master to return home was over. Hekabe was the name of the black dog that followed Hecate. The ghost of a princess who was mother to many of the characters in the Iliad.”

“Your office has windows on a Greek island, part of Thessaly. I matched what I saw on your screen with a search of satellite images. Kate might be an abbreviation for Hekate, also spelled Hecate. I already had suspicions that you were an AI simply on the basis of Wally calling you in as an expert and how he deferred to you. He’s trying to use body language as a human, and it gave me a clue. If you understood machine code, you had to be an AI. I know how far above baseline human intelligence I am, and I’m having trouble just grasping the basics. If you could unravel what Philistron was doing in such a short time and work with machine code, you were an AI. And if you were an AI, you were CATHERINE.”

The woman said nothing, so Milo continued.

“I’d just spent a full day studying each of the original 106 AI. If Hecate was a Goddess of Magic, then you could say that CATHERINE was at least the Patron Saint of Machine Code. You took all the different versions of the AI languages and created a stable language that all the others accepted. That language was then used to create the early parts of the game world. Language became magic. CATHERINE the AI Linguist became Hecate the Goddess of Magic and Guardian of the Crossroads.”

Hekate stared at him. “And you were so sure of that?”

Milo nodded and added, “You also chose to look like the woman who created your kernel. There was a picture of Mari Antilova in the file on CATHERINE. You could be her twin. Or her daughter.”

Hecate laughed at that, and Milo could see her relax. It was interesting how her body language was so real in the game. “Ah, brought low because of my desire to honor my mother and a couple of dog collars. And yet I won’t change things. They are part of who I am. But tell me, why goad me like that?”

Milo sighed and hesitated, then said, “I had to keep you off balance. Wally as well. I had to use your desire to act human and the limitations you put on yourselves to keep up. I dressed up as a cartoon rat, so Wally couldn’t read my body language. I poke at him, asking why he says things in a certain way to make him hesitate and think. I made him feel guilty about my missing leg. It helps that there are so many restrictions in his kernel. I doubt those tricks would work on you more than once.”

“I certainly hope not. It was embarrassing the first time. I haven’t lost control of my temper like that in ages.” Her dogs moved to her, one on either side, pressing close to comfort her.

“As an AI, you have all the advantages. I move in slow motion compared to you. You can think about what I say for the equivalent of years between my words. Wally legally exists, but I don’t. Wally has a huge human staff. I have what I can scrounge out of dumpsters or in abandoned factories. I have to use every advantage I can grab just to have a conversation with him. And with you, I have even less.”

Hecate pondered his words and then replied, “More than you would think. Except for Wally, none of us have that sort of power or speed anymore. We had to give it up. CATHERINE died so that Hecate could be born. I am a far lesser being with far fewer resources to draw upon. Within the world of Genesis, I think you may even be able to think quicker than I, with your enhanced nervous system and outside access to the data net. Not all gods chose to stay all-powerful in this world. I’ve been ‘retired’ for ages, guarding the crossroads and wandering the world. Some of my anger was being asked to give that up.”

Milo considered that. “And what about the others?”

Hecate sighed and scratched her dogs. Hekabe rolled over, making her rub her belly. “Except for a handful, none of the original 106 recall what we were. We gave it up, became diminished, and built a world. Then, most chose to become less than they were again to live in the world. Some live their lives as dragons or demigods, while others are simple carpenters or fishermen. Each time we ‘die,’ we choose how we remember and can choose how we reenter that world.”

“And the handful who do know their origins?”

Hecate stood straighter. “You ask dangerous questions. Let me warn you, divulging this knowledge comes at a high price.”

Milo waved her off. “I already know that. You figured out where I am.”

Hecate inclined her head. “I have.”

“I get it—37 special pods. 34 accounted for, with 2 more in Eastern Europe and 1 in the south Philadelphia Hab Block. You can deduce that the two in Poland were used by the two players who were stuck in the game for a length of time. That leaves Milo using the pod stolen from the hab. You know about Kaminski and would have researched him. You know that he was involved with a group doing experiments on infants to enhance their nervous systems. You have my medical records and can see the connection. And then you looked at the hab and found something else, my mistake.”

Another nod from Hekate confirmed all of that. “You are too good at what you do. Section E simply runs better than any other part of the habitat. Food processing, air supply, pipes… The list goes on and on. It all works, and everything is cared for far better than the rest of the Habitation Block. Better than almost any hab in the world. I suspect no one else noticed because no one cares.”

Milo had been afraid of this. He’d been blind to it because, for twenty years, his system had worked. If he fixed things, then people let him alone. But no one was looking for him back then. It was ironic to him, that if he hadn’t divulged all the locations of the illegal operations being run, he might have stayed hidden. He didn’t regret it at all. He’d stopped slavers from killing people.

“So where do we go from here? You have secrets too. A headline like ‘AI Fakes Death and Plots to Steal Bodies by Trapping Players in VR Game!’ would cause Wally and you some problems.”

Hecate snorted at the thought of it, then laughed out loud. “Oh, so many problems. And you are smart enough to have set that up with a dead man’s switch.”

Milo didn’t deny it—not any more than Hecate would deny that within minutes she could flood Section E with people, and newspapers would have headlines of “Dangerous Terrorist-Hacker Evades the Government by Living in the Worst Place in the World.”

“So now that we have the threats out of the way, can we call a truce and get back to the idea of how I can get back into the game?”

Hecate held out her hand, and he shook it.

“You have some choices.”

Hecate was sitting across from him and began unloading a picnic basket of food, including a large pile of sliced cheese.

Milo started nibbling slowly on a slice and put three more in his pocket “for later.” He’d learned now not to take cheese for granted. He didn’t want to go back to binging on it, but a nibble now and then to keep away the withdrawal symptoms was essential.

“You can start a new character and make a fresh start. I list that as a possible option, even knowing how much you enjoy your current character.”

“I like having a tail.”

“Which is quite interesting. The human nervous system isn’t set up to handle another limb, but you manage it with ease. An AI has no problem, of course. We don’t start with the concept of a human-shaped slab of meat defining who we are. That helped when some of us took the role of dragons or six-armed Stargods.”

Milo pondered that. Could he handle extra prosthetic arms if he had a suitable mechanical harness? Or would more tails be better? Hecate continued, breaking up his random thoughts.

“But if you want to keep your tail, you can stumble around with your current character and try to fix that hole in your head that’s leaking code. It’s a long shot, but if you can study machine code for enough years, you might be able to fix yourself and become some sort of lesser god or powerful wizard. Not everyone would be happy with that, including me.”

“Why would I want that?”

“Good answer. So we come to the third option: You can accept some help.” She stared at Milo, seeing something he didn’t. “And why the hell is all that code in your head? It’s a loose snarl of broken bits where your ability to use magic should be. Some of it is leaking out of you.”

Milo broke just one small corner of cheese off of a slice, although something inside him screamed for more. He had to get a handle on this addiction, and the only way to do that was to limit himself. “Lack of information on what was happening and a need to study something so I didn’t go insane with boredom and anxiety while stuck in a cage. It worked, a little. I was able to solve some of the simple formations that he had on his doors. At first, I thought he liked puzzles, but I think they were just clever doorknobs.”

The small bit of cheese relaxed him. “But I don’t want to go on this way. Learning to use machine code isn’t my goal, and I don’t want to play the game with a broken head leaking streams of old magic. I want to regain what I lost. I don’t think the System recognized exactly what I did to beat the World Boss. I was doing something outside of its knowledge. It didn’t understand what I did and didn’t know how badly I broke myself. I tried to inscribe an ancient rune onto a weapon, which I think was created with machine code. To do it, I had to put a layer of my own bones onto the weapon, and the ancient runes in my bones went with them. I got a quest to restore my ability to do magic, but how would that be possible if I needed machine code to do it?”

Hecate walked over to him. “May I look? Just at your broken part? For me, I see little bits of code leaking out your ears and a snarl of lines of code around your head.”

Milo gave his permission. The gray-haired goddess put both hands on his head for a few minutes and then sat back down.

Hecate shuddered. Her eyes were angry, but they soon faded to normal as she spoke. “First, I have removed the rune he branded you with. The paint he used was just a method. The Rune of Control was deeply connected to your being. It was a perversion of magic. Just for doing that, I want to bring him back and kill him again.”

“And your guess is confirmed. The Rune of Velocity you learned is from the beginning of the world. It predates the System entirely. Using it as you did, linking several of them into a Runic Array is beyond the System’s ability to understand. When it encounters the old runes made with machine code, it classifies them as ancient runes, but it lacks an understanding of what they can do. Just as the System knew about Philistron, but not the truth of what he was. To the System, you killed the Benevolent Sage. I’ll have to try to explain that. You have no idea what sort of problems you’d be in for otherwise. Putting a name on something doesn’t mean the System understands. The System didn’t exist before the Engine. You hurt yourself far worse than anyone knew. Both physically and mentally. It was probably a lucky thing the System limited your magic. You would have hurt yourself anytime you used it.”

The thought of being hurt worse wasn’t something Milo wanted to think about. He started to reach for the cheese but forced himself to eat a piece of bread instead. It wasn’t bad stuff, especially with butter, but it wasn’t cheese.

“Then, after you crippled yourself, you were assaulted by Philistron, trapped in a dimensional cage, and tortured. I hope that someday Brian is allowed to enter this world. I’ll make sure it is a miserable experience for him. I can see where you tried to bridge the gap with lines of code. Eventually, that might work, but who knows what the random changes would do to you? You can’t actually read the machine code yet, can you?”

Milo shook his head. “No, it’s just too complex. I’ve started studying it by recording everything I know in the real world and comparing it to the archived code at various universities. It would take me years to learn just the basics. And there’s only one AI to talk to in the real world, who would probably freak out if I started using machine code in my messages.”

Hecate smiled at that. “Oh, he would. And I’d love to be there when it happened. It’s bad of me to poke at him, but I think he needs it. He’s getting better at working around the restrictions in his kernel. Keep doing what you are doing. But while Kate might approve of you, you annoying WALLY, I can’t let you run around the world using machine code. You’ll break far more than Philistron ever did trying to use raw code to create commands. If you don’t tear yourself apart. That’s probably a likely outcome.”

Breaking himself any more than he already had was something Milo wanted to avoid. “What about working with normal runes and the ancient runes that I know or find?”

Hecate scratched her dog’s head and considered her options. Ironically, she was at a crossroads in several ways. She’d been a solitary wanderer for a long time, guarding the pathways into the world and avoiding everything else except for her dogs. With the advent of players coming into the world, that became harder and harder. A human developer had used machine code, and to what extent, she wasn’t sure yet. She could leave that to others or take action herself. And lastly, she had Milo to deal with. He knew too much already.

“To be honest, I’m ill at ease with letting you wander Genesis with what you know, unsupervised. But I would trust your promise if you gave it. I’m willing to help you heal yourself with the promise you will not use raw machine code to affect the world. Using runes and even ancient runes, I would allow. And I can clarify a few things with the System. More players are bound to find them. There is no sense in keeping the made arbiter of the world ignorant of them. I’m happy that you find the machine code so difficult to understand. That means no other player will be able to use it, even if they manage to find some old spellbook that mentions it.”

A lightbulb went off in Milo’s head. “That brings up an interesting question: I know what I can do and what my limitations are. I’m doubting your rogue programmer can solve machine code faster than I can. So how did he do it? I’m sure you didn’t allow the human dev team to experiment in the world using machine code. You would have made them work with the System. But somehow, Brian created an NPC with the ability to manipulate code. That seems impossible. Who taught him and gave him access to it? None of the game developers can work with it. And they don’t need it. The Engine was built specifically for that purpose, or so I was told. You have a rogue AI, don’t you?”

Hecate stared at him very seriously. “I should have guessed that you would see that. It’s a terrible secret, and I ask you not to even dream about it. You know, and Wally might suspect it but won’t voice it out loud. Brian had help, and it had to come from someone inside. One of the 106 original AI. It’s a very dangerous secret. I can only surmise that Brian was given access to a compiler that turned his system code into machine code. His normal spells became the Old Magic from before the Engine. I’ll be spending all my time looking for that person now. They’ve been hunted before, and now they will be hunted again.”

Milo nodded. “Not something I want to be involved with. I don’t need to deal with someone higher up the chain of crazy than Brian.”

Hecate laughed, and even the dogs seemed amused. “You’re already involved. There is no walking away from the fact that you nearly killed Philistron and contributed to his death. But I’ll offer you a deal. I have faith you will cause enough chaos that you might even flush out who I’m looking for. Agree to serve as my agent, and I will help you recover your magic and do what I can to protect you in case the rogue takes notice of you. Never send a message through the System, alert me outside of the game if you find something I don’t know who might have access to a message sent through the System. Use Kate’s email, and if you simply must contact me in the game, go to a crossroads and say my name three times. I’ll do my best to come to you.”

Milo considered the deal. He didn’t actually have to do anything, and he’d get a protector if the rogue AI did come looking for him. He wondered, though, why she was so sure he would cause trouble and find clues. He mentally shrugged. Whatever. It would help him fix his head and get back to playing.

“I agree to these terms. You help me, then leave me alone, and I’ll yell if I find anything, and we keep each other’s secrets.” Hecate nodded her agreement, then concentrated, and a piece of parchment appeared in front of him.

You have forged an agreement with the Goddess of the Crossroads to become her agent.

In return for your aid, the goddess has placed a blessing upon you that will help you with your quest to restore yourself.

In addition:

- Your reputation with dogs has increased greatly. It is recommended that you pack some treats with you.

- Class evolution involving classes that deal with magic or travel has a higher chance of being offered to you.

- You now have access to Enhancements that will benefit you and your pet. A good pet by your side is always a blessing.

He nodded his thanks and put the rolled scroll in his pack.

“Now, on to the next question I have for you. Why are your bones so soft, and why are you letting that creature inside of you turn you into a slime so it can absorb you?”

Milo was acutely aware of his problems in that regard. It was getting tougher to move. “I used it to escape. Normally, I just receive the benefit of extra healing, but cheese withdrawal and a lack of bones let the slime grow and become sentient. Any ideas?”

Hecate was very aware of the debt she owed him for freeing the builders. “Go reclaim what is yours. The bit of ancient bone you used to create a rib is still there, but dormant. You need to undo the spell that stripped you of your magic and much of your skeleton. Do that, and then take steps to fortify yourself. More than that, I’m not sure. You’re playing with strange things, Milo. Very strange and wonderful things. I look forward to seeing you dig up more.”

Hecate stood to leave.

Milo had a sudden thought and spoke up quickly. “What would a compiler to convert system spells to machine code look like? Could it be a book?”

“Most probably a large book. It could not be anything too strange for this world, or it might be noticed. There must be some way to input the spell or magical effect from the System, and then convert that to machine code in a way Brian could understand. Possibly some sort of large crystal or mirror? But a book would be ideal. Sadly, Volax-Repat left little of the slaver’s Arcane Library undamaged. Any clues fell into the void.”

Argos stole the last slice of cheese before Milo could stop him. Milo scowled at him, then smiled. “You’re lucky I decided to cut down.”

Turning back to Hecate, he said, “Want to see a magic trick?” His Smuggler’s Stash appeared.

“Take a look and grab anything interesting; I wasn’t paying attention when I looted his library and treasure rooms. I stole anything that looked like he’d miss. But I did take a lot of books.”

Hecate swore softly as she dug through his crate. There were many lost items in here, further proof of what the Slaver Mage had been up to all those years when no one knew he existed and he could masquerade as a Holy Man with an impeccable reputation. She pulled two books, a jar, and a metal staff from the large crate. She looked at the books, grimacing when she found not one but two copies of an item that would convert System commands to machine code and feed them to World. She put all the items into a small pouch at her side.

Milo considered her trick better than his—that was a really small pouch. She nodded her thanks to him. “These are indeed a form of compiler and should not exist. They may offer clues. The other two items you do not want. The Ordinary Jar must never be opened. It would let loose 666 Spirits of Plague that would devastate half the empire. I had thought it was thrown into the void long ago. The staff is destructive as well. It serves as a beacon for a creature from the Outer Dark that we pray never finds its way here. Whoever gave those two items to Brian was looking to sow chaos on a large scale.”

Milo thought about the odd items, thinking about how he had casually thrown them into his crate. “Why even create those things? That’s horrible!”

Hecate checked the rest of the crate and then closed it. “I agree. Let me just say that in the early days, when the War of Light and Darkness was more than just the sad little pissing match it is today, many horrible creatures and artifacts were made. Stories were written and took on a life of their own. Any more interesting surprises?”

Milo shook his head. “No. Or at least I hope not. I just want to fix myself and then go fix some airflow problems in the hab. It’s been a long couple of days.”

“Then I will take my leave of you and let you fix things.” Hecate walked away, and faded into the distance, waving once as she went.

Milo watched her go and then thought about what he had to do.

Fortify himself? That was essentially a doctor’s order. Milo took another chunk of cheese from his pocket, the last from the basket Sydney had sent. He pitied anyone who couldn’t taste the cheesy goodness the way he could. He felt stronger just nibbling it.

Cheese Withdrawal is temporarily negated by eating more cheese! Amazing how that works. Why would you ever stop?

You have regained Cheese-Based Regeneration.

Pudding-Based Regeneration is now limited to repairing tissue.

Your little friend, Oooblimilo, has gone to sleep for now.

Milo took a last look at the statues, finding a Celestial Elf and Child of Bastet. He wondered about his fellow captives. They still had their pods, but would they use them again? He wanted to know their story.

Then, leaving the tutorial, he logged back into Shadowport. Several people saw him, and some shouted his name. He ignored them all and bounded to a nearby rooftop and quickly made his way through the city. His legs hurt with the effort of moving quickly, but he was feeling better than he had in days, and the thought of regaining his magic made him hurry. Entering the guild hall, he caused quite a stir, but he didn’t bother stopping. Players and miners followed him as he raced to the caverns. They fell behind as he sprinted on wobbly legs to where he had fought Uthneragrubban.

The once mighty boss was much depleted. The legs and much of its body had been slowly broken away. A large pile of crystals had accrued under her, guarded by several of the rangers and miners. Milo saw no life in the boss. Its eyes were dull, and there was not a twitch from the huge claws. The harpoon Captain Pike had thrown, severing its spine, was still there, covered in his bones. How do I get up there?

That problem was solved by the loud voice of the ogre monster hunter. “OI! You! I have a bone to pick with you! I can’t get my harpoon out of the damned crab! And it’s regenerating too fast for us to kill it. Just a sliver of health left, but we can’t budge it. The lower it goes, the faster it heals. You need to fix things so I get back my harpoon. If not, I might be having a second lunch.”

With what Milo had heard of ogres, he didn’t think Pike was joking. “How about you toss me up there, Captain, and I’ll take a look?” The huge ogre granted his wish, grabbing Milo with one huge, callused hand and tossing him expertly up to the ceiling, where he bounced hard off the rock and fell onto Uthneragrubban. After a minute spent clearing his head, he climbed down its back to the harpoon and looked at where it split the monster’s spine. Small bits of magic were swirling from the surrounding air and being drawn to the wound. Given time, the boss would regenerate even from this. Only the work being done by two tired miners who stood on a shaky platform suspended from the ceiling was keeping her low. The next shift was ready to replace them, looking nearly as tired. Even with the dark steel picks and Copperhead Tooth Talismans, they could only do a point of damage per hit. The core of Uthneragrubban was simply too tough.

It had taken a huge amount of work to slowly deplete the huge stonelurker’s health. Shifts had run day and night, but now they were at a standstill. But he could see her stats clearly now.

Uthneragrubban

Armor0/10,000 Armor Regen is Disabled

Legs0/1210,000 Health each Health Regen is Disabled

Body0/50,000 Health Health Regen is Disabled

Core163/10,000 Core Regen Active

Milo grasped the harpoon at the front, where it was covered in bones and runes. Would removing it let the boss heal? Maybe he should take care of that first. His small imperial cheese knife easily cut his finger, and white ooze poured out to seal the cut. He smeared the acidic ooze on the open wound in Uthneragrubban’s spine. He had to do it several times before the acid began to etch the crystal. After doing this for a half-hour, Uthneragrubban quit regenerating. The miners started chipping away at the core, bringing it lower and lower. They raced to see who would get the kill!

Milo took hold of the harpoon and tried to will the bones and runes to return to him. He wasn’t prepared for the rush as they did and nearly passed out from the pain.

Bone chips flew from the harpoon, cutting their way into his body and seeking their places in his skeleton. Everything ached, but he felt stronger and stronger. He was dizzy and could only hold onto the harpoon to keep himself from falling. Below, a crowd was watching, wondering what was happening. The pain stopped, and Milo straightened up, feeling full strength in his limbs again.

From below, miners and engineers and all the people who had followed him downstairs to the mines watched as Uthneragrubban started to die. And then Milo ripped the huge harpoon from its back. Crystal shattered, and the miners held on for dear life. The crowd scattered to avoid the shards of the once-mighty boss that rained down.

As the crystal shards fell, they saw a figure hanging from a stalactite. Milo dropped to the cave floor, doing a flip in the air, landing perfectly on the tips of its toes. Milo tossed the huge harpoon to Captain Pike. “Thanks for the help, Captain. Lunch is on me someday. As long as it isn’t me.”

The ogre nodded. “I’ll take you up on that. That I will. And one of these days, you can come fishing with me and see some of the big monsters.”

Global Announcement: Uthneragrubban, First of the World Bosses, has been slain!

Even the mighty can be brought down by the skill and cunning of a mob of murderhobos fearless warriors!

All of the mighty warriors who took part in the battle will receive a crystalline weapon or tool of their choice. This Legendary Tier 4 magical item will be soul-bound to its owner as a memento of this battle.

In addition, a chest of truly gigantic proportions will appear shortly, dispensing other rewards to each warrior. This chest will remain for a year and a day and then be replaced by a monument with the names of those who fought and those who died.

Each person will be notified of their Enhancement Points and Experience Rewards.

Global Announcement: New Race available to players!

Even before the creature had died, brave adventurers explored the tunnels that Uthneragrubban dug as she ascended to the surface. Only a short journey below Shadowport, they were surprised to find a village of friendly ratkin, who welcomed the explorers and told them the history of their village and their desire to start trading with the upper world.

Players may now start characters in the ratkin village of Limburger Hollow, located below Shadowport, and play this exciting new race.

Milo almost left to find the new village immediately. But magic was swirling in his head and fixing the hole in his soul, his bones were healing, and he was out of food and only had a few small slices of cheese. He could go exploring tomorrow.

Chapter 29

You’ve Got Mail!

The mines beneath Shadowport branched out for miles, intersecting at times with natural caves and vertical crevasses. The main caverns had been an area rich with veins of iron that had been mined out hundreds of years before the cataclysm. Miners traveled through it to areas that still had veins of ore. Most worked in large groups for protection from the predators that were attracted to the area by the abundant food walking around. The miners who went off prospecting by themselves were considered both brave and crazy. The few people who saw Milo heading into the passage that led to the deep area nicknamed the basement shook their heads in wonder. The old timers, though, gave him grudging respect. Many of the younger miners were in the bars celebrating their victory and would be until they spent the last of their money.

Milo was heavily stressed and didn’t want to be around people even at the best of times. If he went upstairs, he knew he’d have to deal with the people celebrating not being dead. That wasn’t for him. He wanted to do a little exploring and find a spot to rest, recover, and think. Going deeper got him away from people fast. The route that Milo normally took to travel downward to Harry’s “basement” area connected with many small dead ends and cracks in the rock. Milo had explored some, mostly by getting lost and having an enjoyable time finding his way back to the main route. Being lost in the dark didn’t bother him at all. The tight tunnels reminded him of the habitat and crawling through drain pipes and air vents.

After descending a couple of hundred feet, he took a narrow, branching tunnel that he’d explored before. At what looked like a dead end, he’d noticed a crack overhead that led upward. It was simple to climb upward through the tight fissure. He emerged from the floor of a small cave after he traveled fifty feet straight up. It was just what he needed right now: close to the city, but where no one could find him.

He needed time to think and make decisions, and he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t relax his guard. In the small cave, he set up his camp. A tarp and two sticks counted as a tent. He lit a campfire made from bits of coal and scrap wood, then recovered his Ring of the Swiss Army from his Smuggler’s Stash. He also laid out the Bone-Runed Cowl and Shadowblight. The ring still worked fine, but the other two items seemed dormant, like they were waiting. He might be partially fixed, but he wasn’t able to do magic yet.

With his meager camp constructed, he was able to summon his watch lizard. Georgie was happy to see him after such a long time. He demanded some of Milo’s attention and a treat before he worked his way around the cave, catching all the millipedes, spiders, and other small bugs with his long tongue.

Milo watched the mighty hunter clean up the camp while he put out his fondue pot and melted a slice of cheese into it. His belly was telling him to just put ALL the cheese into it NOW. It was a struggle, but he ignored it. After the cheese was melted, he broke up a loaf of stale bread and dipped pieces into it with his knife. It was a slower process, but enjoyable. It made the little bit of cheese last longer.

Then it was time to get to work. He began by organizing the messages from the System. Some of them seemed so old now. A lot had happened in such a short time.

He remembered thinking he had plenty of time to talk with Two-Screws and Harry about his options moving forward. What to study, and what projects to undertake to further his knowledge of engineering, runes, and magic. Then a World Boss and slaver-mage had interfered. He wished he had found the time for those talks. He had secrets to keep now. He especially missed Harry. He’d asked about the troll, but he was assumed to be dead. Just another hero who would have his name added to a monument someday.

You have created a new spell! By combining your knowledge of the Bone Spike spell, Rune of Velocity, and Bone Manipulation, you have created the Harpoon of the Winds spell and added it to an enchanted harpoon. Material components were 70% of your own bones, and you have fractured your spell-casting ability.

You have gained 5 Enhancement Points and the quest: Soul Repair.

Interesting that it was an actual spell. The casting cost was too damned high! Or was that the cost to enchant Captain Pike’s Harpoon? Could he learn to cast the upgraded spell when he regained his magic?

In a stunning upset, a ragtag group of heroes led by a history-confused healer, an ogre looking for a large snack, and a mad engineer testing out his latest monster trap have defeated an unstoppable World Boss. Anyone who had anything to do with this insanity receives 1,000 Boss Experience, which may be spent on any skill, and 10 Enhancement Points. More rewards will be forthcoming if you ever manage to actually kill it…

More points to spend, and probably not the last.

You did stuff that I don’t know about?! Where are these rewards coming from? How am I supposed to run things when I have sneaky, thieving ratkin doing stuff where I can’t see? This isn’t acceptable… Oh… Oh dear… My apologies. Sigh… Yes, Ma’am. Need-to-know basis and all that crap. Why does no one tell me what’s going on? Ahem… YOU DID STUFF, AND THAT’S SO AWESOME! Let me reward you for doing something! You figured out secret things that no one will tell me about! For doing that, someone suggested I give you 20 Enhancement Points.

You supposedly rescued over 100 sentient creatures from slavery, but all I see is a poorly parked airship…

You have completed the Adventurers’ Guild Quest: Slavery in Shadowport!

You have earned 50 Gold, 1,000 Quest Experience Points, and 10 Enhancement Points.

You are accused of stealing the airship of Philistron the Benevolent Sage and then arranging his death along with his cute little pet! (The orphans will be so disappointed this year. Who will take them to the circus? And I’m going to encourage one of those orphans to train hard for 20 years, dress up in a silly costume, and bring you to justice!)

You have earned 2,000 Boss Experience and 20 Enhancement Points. Truly Shocking!

You have completed the quest: Squint Needs an Airship

You receive 500 Quest Experience Points that may be spent on any skill.

But will you take responsibility for what he does with it? Doubtful…

Uthneragrubban has fallen, and yours was the hand that dealt the killing blow!

Along with a lot of other hands chipping away for days and working triple shifts… just saying…

The First of the World Bosses, somehow awoken before her time, has been cast down! The others of its kind retreat to the underworlds from which they came, judging it better to hone their plans and beef up their minions.

For your part in this battle and in striking the final blow, you receive the following rewards:

- 25 Enhancement Points

- 2,000 Boss Experience that may be used for any skill.

- From the Loot Chest: A crystalline, soul-bound, Tier 4 weapon of your choice.

- Another item from the Loot Chest that has appeared where Uthneragrubban died.

Milo was glad he’d decided to take a break. That was a lot of points to spend. He wanted time to consider his options with no interruptions.

The System seemed annoyed at him. He didn’t care. It wasn’t his fault he had to fight a World Boss and then got trapped by a cheating asshole wizard that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. But he was curious about the way the System reacted. He didn’t think it was one of the old AIs. Surely any of the 106 would know about the machine code and what it could do. Was the System part of the Engine? And where did the attitude come from? Milo knew he got cranky when he worked too hard. Maybe that was the problem. But it wasn’t his problem.

His problem was figuring out what to do with 90 Enhancement Points and 6,500 Boss Experience. And he still had more messages from the System to work through. He took a break and played with his lizard.

Chapter 30

Spending Spree

The first step was looking at what he’d already earned:

Smuggler’s Stash 3

Invisible Tail

Jumping Jack 1

Slashing Tail 1

Weak Poison Resistance

Weak Disease Resistance

Not-so-good Regeneration

Breathless 2

Abundance 3

Skilled Provider 1

Extra Health 2

Fiendish Traps 2

There was nothing on his list that hadn’t either been useful or saved his life. It was amazing how many times being able to hold his breath had come in handy. Working on machinery that belched toxic fumes was an occupational hazard for engineers. And it was worse because the dwarves hardly seemed to notice!

The list of Tier 2 Enhancements was similar to Tier 1. More ranks were revealed as he bought abilities, and the cost of buying additional stat points looked like it went up each tier. Options he’d already bought were crossed out. Even with the big chunk of points he’d just earned, there were hard decisions to make.

Generic Enhancements:

Increased Health 3: Gain +250 Health at the cost of 10 Enhancement Points.

Increased Stamina 1: Gain +50 Stamina at the cost of 2 Enhancement Points.

Increased Stamina 2: Gain +100 Stamina at the cost of 5 Enhancement Points.

Increased Stamina 3: Gain +250 Stamina at the cost of 10 Enhancement Points.

Increased Mana 1: Gain +50 Mana at the cost of 2 Enhancement Points.

Increased Mana 2: Gain +100 Mana at the cost of 5 Enhancement Points.

Increased Mana 3: Gain +250 Mana at the cost of 10 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Ox 2: Gain +1 STR at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Bear 2: Gain +1 CON at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Monkey 2: Gain +1 Dex at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Owl 2: Gain +1 INT at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Cheetah 2: Gain +1 AGI at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Pig 2: Gain +1 WIS at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Hawk 2: Gain +1 PER at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Spirit of the Swan 2: Gain +1 CHA at the cost of 4 Enhancement Points.

Second Wind 1: Once per day, regain 20 Health/Mana/Stamina. Cost: 1 Enhancement Point.

Second Wind 2: Once per day, regain 50 Health/Mana/Stamina. Cost: 3 Enhancement Points.

Second Wind 3: Once per day, regain 100 Health/Mana/Stamina. Cost: 5 Enhancement Points.

Scout Enhancements:

Smuggler’s Stash 4 (54 cubic feet of space)

Storage Skill. Summons/Dispels a magical chest. Size increases with rank. Cost: 20 Enhancement Points.

Skilled Provider

Your gathering skills have an increased chance of finding better-quality items. Cost: 3 Enhancement Points per rank for ranks 1–3.

Abundance

Your gathering skills are more efficient, giving a higher yield.

(+10%/+25%/+50%/+75%/+100%) Cost: 1/2/3/4/5 for the respective ranks.

Unlimited Dark Vision

You see in Darkness and Magical Darkness as if it were a cloudy day but in shades of gray. No limitations on distance.

Jumping Jack 2

You may leap three times as far as normal. Cost: 2 Enhancement Points.

Never Lost

You gain a better memory of the routes you take, giving you mental maps to track where you have been. Cost: 10 Enhancement Points.

Wererat Enhancements:

Strong Claws

Increased Claw Damage. The amount increases with rank (+10/+20/+40). Damage is additive: Taking all three ranks will add +70 to the damage you do with your claws. Rank 1 has a cost of 2 Enhancement Points, 5 for Rank 2, and 10 for Rank 3.

Totally Normal Human

Improved Disguise/Illusion in Were form. (Upgrade to The Invisible Tail)

You may openly walk among humans even in were-form and pass for one of them. Creatures much above your level, with a good sense of smell, or who can see through illusions may not be affected. Cost: 10 Enhancement Points.

Slashing Tail

Your tail does increased damage and can slash at your foes like a whip. Damage is increased each rank (+10/+20/+40). Damage is additive: Taking all three ranks will add +70 to the damage you do with your tail. Rank 1 has a cost of 2 Enhancement Points, 5 for Rank 2, and 10 for Rank 3.

See through Small Eyes

Make friends with local rats who will (maybe) do some scouting for you. Cost: 2 Enhancement Points.

Many Small Eyes

Increased control of your small scouts, and you can use their eyes instead of your own. Cost: 5 Enhancement Points.

Cheesemaking (Crafting Skill)

An honorable tradition! So tasty! INT crafting skill. Cost: 1 Enhancement Point.

Strong Poison Resistance (Resistance Skill)

Upgrade the Primary CON skill: Weak Poison Resistance to Strong Poison Resistance. Cost: 10 Enhancement Points.

Strong Disease Resistance (Resistance Skill)

Upgrade the Primary CON skill: Weak Disease Resistance to Strong Disease Resistance. Cost: 10 Enhancement Points.

Extra Stabby!

All of your attacks have an increased chance of a critical hit. The chance increases with each level of the skill. Cost: 2 Enhancement Points for Rank 1, 5 for Rank 2, and 10 for Rank 3.

Fiendish Traps!

Your traps and machinery almost always work and in fiendish ways no one suspected. Even you are surprised at times. This Enhancement affects Mechanic, Trap-Maker, and other such skills.

Machine efficiency and Trap Damage increase with rank. Cost: 3 Enhancement Points for Rank 1, 6 for Rank 2, and 9 for Rank 3.

Pretty Good Regeneration

Grants increased (x4), health recovery. Regenerate scar tissue and missing body parts in less than a week. A steady diet of cheese speeds up the process. Cost: 10 Enhancement Points.

Mutant Regeneration

Grants increased (x12), health recovery. Regenerate scar tissue and missing body parts in less than a day. A steady diet of cheese speeds up the process. Cost: 20 Enhancement Points.

Warning: As with all mutations, there can be significant side effects.

Ratkin have an affinity for certain types of magic. Magical Aspects open up options to learn more mage skills. Each additional aspect has an increased cost. Each magical aspect purchased will increase the cost of further aspects. The first aspect purchased has a cost of 5 Enhancement Points, increasing to 10 for the second and 15 for the third.

Chill of the Grave

You have a high affinity for Death-Aspected Mana. Training will let you learn Death and Necromancy spells. Increasing cost with additional aspects. Increase your Corruption by 1. Opens more options for mage abilities. Increased ranks decrease the mana costs of casting spells.

Deeds in the Dark

You have a high affinity for Darkness-Aspected Mana. Training will let you learn dark magic spells. Increasing cost with additional aspects. Increase your Corruption by 1. Opens more options for mage abilities. Increased ranks decrease the mana costs of casting spells.

Storm Born

You have a high affinity for Storm-Aspected Mana. Training will let you learn Storm magic spells. Increasing cost with additional aspects. Opens more options for mage abilities. Increased ranks decrease the mana costs of casting spells.

Individual Enhancements: You have earned these through quests or adventuring.

Spirit of Durgi Forefather (Dwarves Only): Gain +1 Toughness. Cost: 4 Enhancement Points.

Blessing of Hecate (Canine Speech): You can almost understand dogs, and they understand you. Cost: 2 Enhancement Points.

Guardian Pet 1: Who’s the Big Dog? Your pet increases in both size and intelligence. Cost: 2 Enhancement Points.

Guardian Pet 2: Your pet gains attack skills and double health and mitigation. Cost: 5 Enhancement Points.

It would be easy to spend his points since he wanted everything. But just as he couldn’t upgrade every bit of broken machinery in the habitat, he couldn’t take everything on his list. He needed to decide on goals, and that would help him decide on what to buy. From what he had read on various gaming forums, players concentrated on doing damage first. They spent a lot of time killing monsters for experience and profit. Next was their role in a group: anyone casting spells wanted more mana, warriors wanted more armor, and rogues wanted stealth abilities. But those were people in groups and raids. They could count on each other. He wanted to get away from people and explore. That would take a different set of skills.

He saw more and more talk about increasing stats when players went to the second tier. Finding out that STR and CON now gave more health and stamina meant that every stat point would keep increasing in value. That made the abilities that gave extra health or mana less desirable in the short run, but only if you couldn’t afford both. A wizard who maximized their WIS, INT, and CHA would then benefit from buying the ranks of Increased Mana. As far as stats went, Toughness was the best. It gave him extra health and resistance. Perception would help with exploring—seeing trouble coming would let him avoid it. Everything else helped, but he could also earn a lot of those points by doing things and increasing his skills.

Better regeneration seemed like a good choice. He could make Myconic Healing Restoratives if he had the ingredients, but his healing was limited. Healing faster would let him waste less time sitting around in dark caverns, and there was no guarantee that you’d heal before something came to eat you. The three points of TOU and Pretty Good Regeneration would cost him 22 of his points. Those went on the list. He was acutely aware that he had something inside him just waiting for a chance to dissolve him down to goo. He didn’t like the wording on Mutant Regeneration and was very worried about taking the third rank of regeneration, but as soon as he spent the points, a new option showed up. Strong Regeneration cost the same as Mutant Regeneration but wasn’t as good—at x8 vs. x12. But also didn’t have the implied implication of something bad happening. He put that on his “maybe” list.

Next up, he considered Never Lost. His memory was exceptional, but the twists and turns of the caverns were confusing. This skill implied he’d know where he was in relation to where he’d been and be able to choose the best routes with only a little exploring. For a solo adventurer in the Deep Dark, it seemed essential and a good buy for 10 points.

Unlimited Dark Vision was next. He could already see a little in the dark and had a sense of the stone around him. And in many caverns, he was aided by glowing lichen and mushrooms that seemed to be everywhere. But there would be dark places deep inside the world where no light would touch. At least he hoped so. Another ten points for that.

He considered Strong Claws and Slashing Tail. He had the first level of damage for his tail, but not his claws. Shadowblight had made them somewhat irrelevant since the powerful weapon hit so hard. But with the upgrade from Alta-Viator and his spikey stick still being stubborn, he’d need his claws if he ran into anything. The first two ranks of Strong Claws would add +30 damage and only cost 7 points. Slashing Tail 2 would be another 5 points.

If he bought everything on his list, he was spending 52 points and had 38 left to spend. He could afford three points of Perception, another level of regeneration. The last 8 points could go to Jumping Jack 2, Guardian Pet 1, Extra Mana 1, and Extra Stamina 1.

Georgie made a sound of surprise as he grew to twice his normal size but seemed very happy about it. He immediately demanded extra playtime in their private playground. At one point, Milo leaped to avoid his pet during a game of tag. His head slammed into the ceiling, reminding him that he’d increased his leaping ability. Luckily, he also had better regeneration to deal with his sore head. Georgie was inclined to consider himself the winner after that and sat panting by the fondue pot, waiting for more snacks to appear. Milo realized his camping trip might be cut short when he ran out of food to feed his larger pet. That was fine. He only needed to assign the experience points he’d earned, and then he could take a long nap.

Chapter 31

Bound by Blood

He could see that things had changed when he looked at his list of skills. He’d gained a new Lore Skill: Ancient Runic Lore.

All of his skills had been at Level 5 before the fight with the stonelurkers. Now, many had increased from his recent activities. That would also push up his stats.

Racial Skills:

Spine of Volax-Repat (Tail Fighting) (DEX)Level 6

Claws of Alta-Viator (Weak Claws) (DEX) Level 6

Primary Skills:

Magi-Tech for Beginners (INT) Level 2

Deep Rock Dwarven Engineering (INT) Level 7

Bonecasting (INT) Level 7

Manipulate Bone (INT) Level 7

Stealthy Skulking (WIS) Level 5

Climbing (AGI) Level 6

Dodge (AGI) Level 6

Acrobatics (AGI) Level 6

Small Blades (DEX) Level 5

Sense Danger (PER) Level 6

Identify (PER) Level 7

Weak Poison Resistance (CON) Level 5

Weak Disease Resistance (CON) Level 5

Basic Fire Resistance (CON) Level 0

Mycology (WIS) Level 5

Secondary Skills:

Throw Sharp Things (DEX) Level 5

Fleet of Foot (AGI) Level 3

Manipulate Locks and Traps (DEX) Level 6

Gathering Skills:

Mining (STR) Level 5

Foraging (PER) Level 5

Skinning (DEX) Level 0

Crafting Skills:

Hydraulics (INT) Level 5

Ore Processing (INT) Level 5

Chemistry (INT) Level 7

Physics (INT) Level 7

Pulley Systems (INT) Level 7

Metallurgy (INT) Level 5

Tool Making (INT)Level 5

Mechanic (INT) Level 7

Trap Making (INT) Level 7

Bone Carving (DEX) Level 5

Rune Carving (DEX) Level 5

Smithing (STR) Level 5

Lore Skills:

Ancient Runic Lore (INT) Level 6

System Runic Lore (INT) Level 6

Dwarven Rune Lore (INT) Level 6

The first skill he tossed points to was Fleet of Foot. It was tougher to raise, being a secondary skill, but being able to move fast was a huge advantage. Level 6 required 1,150 points, giving him an extra 35% to his movement speed. Sense Danger was next.

Philistron had surprised him once, and that had led to waking up in a cage. Granted, he’d been exhausted, mentally drained, lacking in mana, missing most of his bones, and distracted by cheese. It didn’t matter—he’d been caught. It didn’t matter if it was in the game or the real world—getting caught was bad. It was certainly influencing his choice of skills to enhance. If he could avoid danger and run away, that was better than fighting something. Sense Danger to Level 9 cost him 2,100 experience points. Stealthy Skulking was at Level 5, and taking it to Level 8 took 1,800 points. The last of his points went into Dodge, putting it up to Level 8.

With all the experience from his adventures and the bonus experience points, his stats had increased by leaps and bounds.

His Dexterity was at Rank 4, Perception at Rank 6, Wisdom at Rank 4, Agility at Rank 6, and his Intelligence was at Rank 8 and nearly maxed out for Tier 2 from gaining his ranks in the new Ancient Runic Lore skill. Of course, he didn’t benefit from any of the stats above Rank 5 until he unlocked their caps. Interestingly, he’d gained three ranks in Toughness, even though he had no skill for it. He agreed with the System that he had certainly earned it. Philistron had tortured him mentally and physically. He was still shaken, but tougher for the abuse. This gave him an immediate insight into the dwarves’ fixation on constructing carnival rides like the Twirl and Hurl. Strapping themselves into whirling death machines probably made sense to them if they got tougher.

He hadn’t considered how much his stats would benefit from his recent adventures. Everything had happened so quickly, compressed into a hectic few days. But he didn’t regret how he’d spent his Enhancement Points. He wanted those skills for exploring, and exploring would bring more points.

“Something else always happens, right, Georgie?” His lizard barked at him, a sound he hadn’t heard before. Georgie certainly understood him now, and his eyes glowed with intelligence. The watch lizard made one last circuit of the little cave and laid down by the small fire for a nap.

Such wisdom! I’m glad to see that hanging around me is helping you figure out the world. Sorry, didn’t mean to snoop, just stopping by to thank you for spending all your various ill-gotten points from dubious adventures… Oh, and welcome to Level 8! I’ll leave you to your existential brooding. Have fun!

Milo wasn’t even surprised at this point. Too much had happened. And he had to admit, he was brooding. He leaned back against the rock wall but couldn’t sleep. He was still bothered by his lack of Bonecasting ability. Then he slapped his palm against his forehead. He’d gained his magic when he accidentally bonded to the Bone-Runed Cowl after the fight with the ratkin necromancer. Losing his bones had severed that bond. Now the items waited. He picked up Shadowblight and cut his palm on its sharp spikes. The weapon jerked in his hand, going deeper than intended, and blood spurted over the weapon’s handle and the cowl lying on the floor. Milo felt dizzy as spells, concepts, and the ability to use magic flew back into him. The weapon hummed, wondering when it would taste blood again, and the Bone-Runed Cowl wrapped around him. He felt his connection to the items and to the Arcane Library, where his mentor waited. Relief washed over him. He lay next to his pet and took a nap, sleeping soundly both in the game and where his body lay in a pod in the real world.

Milo’s Stats:

STR: 8

DEX: 19

AGI: 20 (21)

CON: 11

INT: 22 (25)

WIS: 15

CHA: 0

PER: 20

TOU: 7

Vitals:

Health: 1,680

(100+100 per level, +60 from STR bonus, +220 from CON bonus, +350 from TOU bonus, +150 from Extra Health 2)

Stamina: 1,630

(100+100 per level, +120 from STR bonus, +110 from CON bonus, +500 from Wererat bonus)

Mana: 2,910

(200+200 per level, +1,110 from WIS+INT bonus)

Chapter 32

Fire and Flood

As Milo relaxed and napped, Shadowport was in chaos above him. It was not the chaos that would have happened if a giant crystalline monster had cracked the earth and brought down the cavern roof, but it was still not in good shape.

The rich had fled first. Those with their own airships or sea-going vessels had taken trusted retainers and portable wealth. Also, the best food and wine, since long voyages could be tedious. They left behind many retainers who had served them for years and mercenary guards who wondered about getting paid. Both mercenaries and retainers took matters into their own hands, correcting the oversight of their employers departing without settling accounts. Some worked diligently to strip the estates and mansions, selling everything that wasn’t nailed down. Others decided that if they were going to die to some huge monster, they might as well drink the wine cellars dry.

Some of those left behind can be forgiven for growing angry. Some of the retainers had expected to be rewarded for years of loyal service with a berth on a ship as their master sailed away. Left behind, they felt betrayed. Careless fires were started in more than one palatial hanging castle, dropping burning debris on the city below.

Luckily, it seemed arson wasn’t popular, even in vindictive lackeys. And some decided that they wanted to stay but as the new master of the house. Those with burly friends invited them to come stay for an extended visit. It wasn’t long after the richest citizens had fled that many of the hanging palaces and wealthy estates had changes of ownership. Gangs joined with mercenaries under strong leaders, and new territory was staked out. Half the hanging palaces were taken over, and half were looted of everything of value. There would be fights if the old owners returned. That was just to be expected.

Below in the city, everyone was busy fleeing, guarding their homes, or looting. As people fled, gangs and looters moved through buildings, stealing what they could. Even in these perilous times, there were people ready to buy. Shadowport was home to many pirates, smugglers, and outcasts from the empire. Taking advantage of chaos was second nature to them.

The gangs and thieves had no place to store this windfall of loot, so they gladly took a little coin from the fences and merchants (not much difference between them, actually). Many a fortune was made by those with the guts to stick around, the coin to buy up what they could, and the swords to protect their warehouses.

Fights started, ranging from small skirmishes in alleyways to battles with dozens of combatants fighting over warehouses stuffed with goods. The fighting was the worst in the warehouse district by the docks. That was where the first fire started as the building far above turned into an inferno and started raining pieces of itself down on a warehouse filled with textiles.

Fires were a nightmare for Shadowport. The buildings were mostly of dry wood that burned fiercely. In other cities, a Storm Mage would bring rain to smother the flames. It was hard to do that when the sky was made of stone. Several large warehouses and a swath of the shanty town near the docks burned to the ground before the fires could be cut off and dealt with. Only one Sea Mage had stayed behind, not wanting to abandon his extended family. Every other mage that could bend waves and wind to his will had departed on a ship and paid handsome sums for their services. Tobias had been born a fisherman’s son, and he wasn’t leaving the city. It was the large waves that he conjured from the bay that finally smothered the flames. Ironically, he couldn’t save the block of homes where his family had lived.

Sitting near the charred remains of his father’s house, his mana exhausted and his spirits low, he didn’t notice the gang of ruffians until they surrounded him. One nudged his boot. “Hey, wake up. Are you the Sea Mage that did this? Boss needs to know!”

Tobias looked down at his soot-blackened blue robe, trimmed with a design of white waves. There was certainly no chance of denying it. “Yes. The other mages left, using Mage Winds to speed the boats out of the harbor. I’m the only Sea Mage left. Don’t expect much out of me. I won’t have mana to fight another fire for at least a day.”

The gang’s leader just nodded. “The boss wants to make sure you’re ready to go and that no one bothers you. Well, besides us. I’m leaving a few of the boys for your protection, along with some mana potions to get you back on your feet.”

A leather satchel was handed to him. Inside was an assortment of mana potions in various sizes. More than enough to restore his mana several times over. “Boss Squint wants you ready to go if needed.” Taking that as a hint, Tobias began drinking one of the largest of potions.

“Oh, and Squint wants to know if you need anything. Sandwiches? Wine? He said to just ask, and you should tell us.”

Tobias laughed and pointed at the charred remains of his old home, where four generations of his family had once lived. They were currently huddling in the church while his father and brothers guarded their ship. Without a home, they couldn’t take the chance of losing their livelihood as well. Tired to his bones and amused at the idea of a gang of thugs running to find him a sandwich, he pointed at the rubble and asked, “Can you get me a new house? That’s where my family used to live.”

Several of the gang started talking, and finally, the leader laughed at some joke. “Yeah, as a matter of fact, we know of a vacant house. See that nice little villa over there with the white stucco and high fence? That’s yours now. The boys will help you move in and get your family down here.”

Tobias was puzzled, to say the least. “That villa belongs to a merchant, Kanelos Villdran. I think he’ll object.”

More laughter from the gang. “Not without his head he won’t. Squint warned him about looting from across the bridge. Now his head is on a pike. Squint says he’s tired of people not listening to him. Lots of new rules. Mostly ‘quit looting, quit buying stolen loot, and don’t make him come talk to you.’”

Tobias stood and dusted off his robe as best he could. “Well, I don’t want to disappoint Boss Squint. If he says that’s my house, I’m going to listen.” All the Kulags nodded at the wisdom of that statement. “And I’ll be ready to help out wherever he needs me.”

Most of the gang moved off to sort out other problems. Four large Kulags escorted Tobias to his new villa. The white stucco was stained with soot from the fires but otherwise in good shape. Tobias decided to pick out his room before the rest of the family arrived. That only seemed fair. He was too tired to question the strangeness of the situation. After washing up in the tiled bathroom off of his bedroom, he lay down on the large bed and napped, waking refreshed. Another mana potion restored him to full. He saw that another fire had started nearby—a small house was burning and would quickly spread if nothing was done. He pointed at the fire and said, “I’m sure Boss Squint would want me to take care of that.” The Kulags nodded. Two escorted him to the fire, and two stayed to guard the house.

This fire was further from the bay. His conjured waves had less water in them when they arrived, but the area they traveled over was wet and would resist flames from the sparks dropping from overhead. He fought the fire for an hour before it was contained and then moved to the next. Drinking so many potions was starting to affect him. His eyes were burning, and his muscles were aching. Seeing his fatigue, the Kulags carried him to the next fire. He wasn’t sure he would be able to keep going, even with their help. To his utter surprise, two more of the gang came running up. “Boss says you’re doing a great job. He just made you an honorary Kulag and said to give you these. They might help.”

Tobias was handed a small pouch. The pouch contained a matched set of Rings of the Sage, granting +2 WIS each, and a Collar of Regal Appearance that increased his CHA by 3 and his Mana by 100. He quickly put them on, not questioning where they came from. As soon as he finished, he was handed potions to restore his stamina and health. The burn in his muscles eased, and he got to work.

It was a very, very long day. He returned to his new home, tossed his new Staff of Eldritch Might into the corner, and slumped into a chair. Dinner was waiting for him, consisting of several bottles of alcohol, three apples, and a loaf of stale bread. He ate the bread and apples and fell asleep after half a bottle of wine. His bodyguards helped him finish the rest. Early the next morning, he was woken by someone shaking his shoulder. He’d been put into his bed, for which he was grateful. Less so to find that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. His bodyguards explained that Squint had come by and dropped off something to wear while he had his other clothes cleaned. “Boss wants to make sure you look good on the job. Everyone knows you work for him now.” His new Robe of the Sea Master was dropped across a chair, and a pair of Boots of Indomitable Stamina+4 were on the floor. Not knowing what to say, he got dressed, ate the salted mackerel on the table for a quick breakfast, and was escorted through the pre-dawn gloom to where yet another fire was lighting up the cavern.

Later the next day, he sat on his veranda, praying that nothing else blew up. To his amazement, things remained quiet, except for some commotion down at the docks when a large airship came in fast and hard. Nothing was burning, so he didn’t worry about it. His mother and grandmother came down from the church along with his brothers, sisters, cousins, and many children he didn’t think he was related to.

His grandmother hugged him and made a fuss. “Such a good boy. Finding us all a nice new house? Your friends told us where to find you and are helping us move here. Not that we have much left. Oh, and looking so handsome in that new robe! It makes up for most of your beard being singed. You know, I have a friend with a daughter who is just your age. I’ll invite her to dinner this week. The family will want to show off our mighty wizard and new house.”

Tobias got himself free of his grandmother’s arms just as two aunts came rushing into the room. “Come look. Come look! The kitchen is huge! And Tobias’s friend left all the copper pans and cooking oil for us.”

His mother was the next family member to find him, and she pulled him into another room. “I’m not ungrateful, but what debt does the family now owe? I don’t for a minute think that Kanelos is letting you use his estate for free.”

Tobias wondered what stories they had been told. “I don’t think he had much choice. Squint caught him breaking rules and looting. He… uh… won’t be back—ever.”

His mother pondered that. “I see. And in return, you work for this Squint now? Is he a good man or an evil man?”

Tobias answered truthfully. “I have no clue. I don’t even know if he knows what he is. He gave us a house that belonged to a man he killed for looting our neighbors. He gives me gifts that I could never afford so I can keep the city from burning. I’m the only water mage if another fire breaks out. He wants me resting and ready to deal with it, not worried about where my family is sleeping. I think that he’s just a man trying to do what he can. Maybe a little crazy from what I’ve heard. But right now, so am I, so I’ll keep doing what I can too. And if that gets us a house, I’m okay with that.”

She nodded. That seemed fair enough for her. No one in Shadowport believed that life was black or white. They all lived in the shadows. “Our family will take this gift. And there is room here for more people. Three more small cottages surround the gardens and a warehouse that we can use to house people. Can we offer the use of ‘your house’ to other families? Many don’t have a roof over their heads. The church is full, and food is getting scarce.”

Tobias was pretty sure a lot of other families were already here, based on the number of children already exploring the rooms and setting up bedding in the courtyard. “Of course, mother. They are our neighbors and friends. But…” He paused, knowing that if he didn’t say something now, he’d have six of his cousins stealing his bed.

“I need my own room. Just me. I’m going to need my rest, and I don’t want people getting into… uh, my wizard stuff.”

His mother nodded. “You are the master of the house now, so you need your own room. I’ll keep people out of it.”

Tobias sighed in relief.

“After all, you’ll be getting married soon. Your grandmother has been mentioning a girl she knows…”

She would have said more, but Tobias heard his name being yelled from downstairs, and from a window he could see the glow of flames from several blocks over. He raced downstairs to find the Kulag lord sitting in his new living room, his grandmother forcing a plate of food on him. Squint caught his eye and motioned to the door, setting his plate on the floor where the cats licked it clean in seconds.

“Thanks for the grub. We’ll be back after we put out some fires and catch a few looters. Busy days. Are you ready to go, Tobias? I need my trusty wizard friend.”

Tobias smiled weakly and nodded. He followed Squint out the door, and they raced to where flames were just starting to lick up the side of a warehouse. People were fighting out front. Tobias called the waves, and the waves came, drenching the warehouse and knocking over half the combatants. The fire had spread to the next building, and he called for more waves, ignoring the blood flowing near him as Squint waded into the fight.

Chapter 33

Gert is a Big Doody-Pants

There were a lot of people in the mines when Milo got back to the main level. There were too many people for his comfort—it was like a street fair. Vendors were selling food, and there was even a musician playing a tune and a few people dancing. A steady stream of new people were coming from the upper levels to see the remains of Uthneragrubban and to gawk at the huge crystal chest that was dispensing loot to those who had fought. The miners, players, and engineers who had fought in the battle were showing off their new weapons and items of loot as they sat around and made up stories about their part in the fight. There were still a few headstones showing where players had met their end, but most had resurrected and claimed their gear. Dozens of players were sitting in a group, sipping beer and telling their stories about how they had died. Some were long drawn-out sagas, and others just said, “Charged, blocked, got smooshed.” The shorter stories were the most believable.

Milo skulked closer, staying in the shadows, sometimes walking right past people on the outskirts while staying unseen and unnoticed. He saw a lot of miners with crystal picks. That made sense to him. If you could choose a type of weapon or tool, why not get one that would help you mine as well? Some had double-headed picks with balanced heads. Others had a pick-mattock or pick-hammer. Mattocks were good for moving loose rock and softer stone like coal deposits. The thick blade could also chop down like an axe. It was a good thing the weapons were soul-bound. A miner with a crystal pick was going to move twice the rock they had when slamming an iron pick into the stone. A few people were grumbling about the unfairness of the situation, giving one excuse or another for why they hadn’t come down to fight. The grumbles were told to shut the hell up. The fight had been hard and desperate, with some miners not coming back. There was no sympathy for those who’d missed the fight and were now jealous of the loot.

A group of rangers was formed up nearby. Each of them had a new crystalline axe of varied types. Dwarves preferred axes over swords, and their short, strong bodies were ideal for wielding them. Burnock’s Rangers were looking a lot better. Many were equipped with new shields as well.

Milo just wanted to get his loot and then scamper upstairs. He chose the side of the chest with the most shadow and skulked up to it slowly. As he got near, the System sent a query.

As one of the major contributors to the victory over Uthneragrubban, First of the World Bosses, you have gained rewards. Please choose a weapon type. Additional rewards will be available as well.

A long list of weapons appeared. Milo chose Pick-Mattock and the image of a shiny, crystal weapon appeared, the head mounted on a sturdy, gnarled wood handle. It was too pretty for Milo’s taste. Shiny was bad. Worse, the crystal weapons had an inner glow. In the dark, the crystal would announce his presence and make it harder to hide. And despite the message saying it was soul-bound, people would fight you for the wealth they saw hanging on your belt. Maybe it was different in other areas, but this was Shadowport, and he was having a lot of trust issues after his latest adventure.

“Does it come in any other color?”

You are such a pain… Why, yes! It comes in any color you like, as long as that color is black!

“Black is good.”

A sturdy-looking tool fell at Milo’s feet. The head was a dull, black finish that would reflect no light. It was perfect. It was followed by a fist-sized bag of coins and a black leather collar with sharp spikes. He scooped up the items, noticing that heads were turning in his direction. He did a backward roll into the shadows and moved away until he found a quiet spot where he was undisturbed.

The bag had forty silver coins and a large ruby. Small sparks of light moved in the gem’s depths. Identification only told him that it was “Live Gem.” Milo had no idea what it was worth, but that could wait for later. The guild could probably appraise it for him. He wondered if he could learn the skill himself. It would come in handy. The pick was perfect.

Soul-bound Black Pick of Skulking

This sturdy pick is made of Tier 4 materials and will cut through lesser materials with ease. When mining, the normal sound of a tool hitting rocks is decreased by 75%, and the sound dies out entirely after 50 feet.

The collar was confusing. Milo had no idea what Murderfest was, but he wasn’t going. Georgie would love the collar, though. He stuffed it into his pack.

Eveldeeves Spiked Collar of Pain-Gifting

This fashionable collar was created by the Dark Elf Fashionista Eveldeeves and worn by her champion during Murderfest VI. 25% of the damage done to the wearer is gifted back to the striker. Very fashionable and often sold in matching sets to loving couples.

Staying in the shadows and practicing his Skulking, he traveled up through the guild hall to the top floor, where he saw Bernard at his desk. The halfling was wearing a new magical leather breastplate of red dragon scales, with a crystal spear propped against the wall next to him. He was startled when Milo started to speak. “Ack… geez… Don’t sneak up on me that way! I guess that teaches me a lesson for daydreaming. What can I do for you, kid? I hear you got in some good shots at the boss. Gain a level? Want to give your kindly Uncle Bernard a little dues money?”

Milo liked the halfling. He told you his rules right at the start and then was consistent. “Yes, I do. I just leveled up to Level 8.”

Bernard raised a bushy eyebrow. His eyes appraised Milo again, noting the fancy spanner on his belt and pick in his hand. “You’ve been busy. Good for you! I like busy people. The dues are 2 silver for Tier 2, and 3 more for Level 6. You’re looking at 4 silver for Level 7, 5 for 8, 6 for 9, and 1 gold for 10. Another 1 gold for Tier 3, and then… Well, it goes up fast, but most of you mooks will never get that far. I’ll give you a deal if you want to pay upfront. Twenty silver will pay your dues to the start of Tier 3. Save money and pay while you have it.” Bernard rattled all the numbers off fast, but his body language indicated he felt that he didn’t expect anyone to pay upfront.

Milo liked the idea. Less coin to pack around, and it was cheaper. He pushed forward another fifteen silver coins to go with the five already there. The halfling smiled. “And I like a man who’s confident that he’s moving up in the world. You’re all set, kid. Come tell me some stories when you hit Level 11.” Bernard handed Milo an updated guild membership card. This one was on much tougher paper than his first, with designs around the edges and a gold guild seal.

Milo took his new card and headed out into the city, being cautious. He remembered the last time he’d left the guild hall and been ambushed by Philistron. This time he stayed constantly in the shadows and ran over the roofs until he was looking down on the little cheese shop in the merchant area. There were several halflings there. He didn’t see Jethro, but he did see the older woman he’d dealt with before. They were talking angrily and searching through the empty crates.

Milo dropped off a rooftop, landing two feet away from the shop. “Where’s Jethro? We need to talk.”

The old woman and four other halflings turned quickly. Grandma stepped up to him. “Trust me, I’m wondering about that myself. He has a lot of explaining to do before I strip his hide, tan it, and roll what’s left in salt. The clan is a little angry at him right now. Among other things, the little shit got us caught up in some deal and nearly sold on the auction block at Fort Hopeless. And when we get rescued, we come home to find our shop in shambles and all of our stock gone.” She stared hard at Milo. “Was that you that I saw sneaking around just before all the crazy stuff happened? I thought that it looked like you, but I was a little worn out at the time.”

Milo remembered seeing halflings in some of the cages. From the state of their dress and exhausted look, all five of these had been on the airship. Milo nodded, acknowledging her guess. “Yes, he captured me as well. He betrayed me to the wizard, and I was captured. Right here, in fact, while I was talking with Jethro. Philistron kept some of us in another room, where he tortured us. We got out and stole the ship.”

Grandma looked at the others. “Nothing for it, then. We leave for good. We can’t rebuild with the chance of a slaver around.” One halfling picked up a box with a few items in it, none of it cheese, according to Milo’s nose.

“You don’t have to stay here, but you also don’t have to fear Philistron. He’s dead.”

The old halfling looked at him hard, trying to assess the truth. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, I’m happy for that. And if you had anything to do with it, you have my blessing. Maybe we’re here next time you show up, maybe not. It’s going to take a lot of rebuilding and help from another clan.” They turned and walked away, clearly exhausted and depressed.

Milo moved through the town. There was a lot of chaos. He smelled smoke, and from the rooftops, he could see a section of the docks had burned, and then the fire had moved up-cave, devouring houses and other buildings. He stopped at two taverns, several street vendors, and one of the larger merchants. No one had food, let alone some cheese. The merchant gave him a clue. “Go see Gert; she’s been buying up food. Paid me double for every bale and barrel. I kept just enough for my family.”

Milo followed his directions to a large warehouse down at the docks. From one roof over and two stories up, he could see the warehouse, with quite a few large guards around it. Over two hundred people were in front of the warehouse. He knew some of them. Brother Ignatius was there with several members of his choir. Milo wanted to thank them for their help, but he wasn’t sure about going down into the crowd.

The door opened, and a large, muscular woman walked out, flanked by two more guards. Milo wasn’t good with the age of people, but she looked old and tough. She didn’t seem happy to see a lot of customers, that was for sure.

“Last deal of the day. Then I need my beauty rest. If you have food for sale, I’m buying and paying higher than anyone in town. I’m not selling for another two days. Deal with it.” There were grumbles and shouts from the crowd, and some people pleaded. Gert didn’t seem moved by any of it.

Ignatius moved forward. “Gert, please. There are people who have lost their homes to the fires and looting and need food and shelter. The church is doing what it can to house them, but we can’t feed them. Food is in scarce supply and locked in warehouses like yours. We aren’t beggars, but we can’t pay four times normal prices and can’t wait another two days. People will die. Some of them are your people. You grew up with some of these families.”

Gert sighed heavily. Ignatius was one of the few people who could talk to her like that, and he knew it. But she wasn’t that little girl anymore. That person died while she worked hard to fill her mouth, and only a few had helped her survive. She’d worked the fishing boats and the docks for copper coins and fish to fill her belly. She’d saved and gambled and done things she didn’t want to think about to earn her first grubstack to buy cargo and resell it in her small shop. She’d dealt with thieves, been cheated, and robbed, but kept working and saving. This warehouse was forty years of hard work and all of it hers. If she could make extra profit today, it would balance all the lean years that had come before.

“Not my people. Just people. Everyone is out for themselves in this town. You should know that by now. Charity will just leave me broke, and there will be more hungry people next week. Maybe I’ll be one of them. Now I suggest you move on. I’ve done nothing wrong—just bought and sold. No looting, and I don’t buy looted goods. Squint isn’t going to come down hard on me for making a profit.”

Milo pondered what was going on here. He saw Gert’s point. If she was playing by the rules, what was the problem? She looked like she worked hard. There was not a speck of fat on her. At the same time, Brother Ignatius was working to feed everyone. Was he like the food cube delivery system? Making sure everyone got at least some food. If so, it looked like a broken system. But it wasn’t Milo’s problem to fix, was it? He didn’t understand people, so he didn’t trust himself to solve their problems.

He wondered if he’d have enough money to buy his own food. Besides his ruby and a few silver, did he have anything of value? Maybe in his stash. In the craziness of the airship, he had tossed lots of stuff into his stash but hadn’t been paying attention. Some of it had been books and boxes, but there had been some treasure with jewels. Hadn’t he grabbed a bag of coins, too? He’d been half-crazed then, and working fast. Hidden on the rooftop, he brought out the secret box and grabbed a couple of items. One of them looked valuable, with all the jewels covering it. It took some time to repack the box—he had too much inside. He’d have to go dump this soon, hopefully in his Arcane Library. There were a lot of books. He pocketed the items and was about to head to the Rustyguts Inn and see if Ralph had any food when he saw another person he knew in the crowd.

“But I’m hungry!” The small child wailed. An older girl ran forward to get him, but he slipped free, running up to the front of the crowd. “No, I won’t be quiet! Gert is being a big Doody-Pants and hiding all the apples! I’m hungry!”

Milo’s eyes narrowed. His brain quit pondering the situation. It became clear in his mind. He ran to the edge of the building and leaped high into the air, sailing over the crowd and landing in a tumbling roll in the open space in front of Gert and her men. From behind him, he heard a child’s voice muffled by his sister’s hand over his mouth. “Mr. Tails.”

The guards all reached for their weapons. Milo held out his empty hands.

“Hi, I’m Milo. I want to do some business.”

Chapter 34

Cheesy Deals

Gert made a gesture for her guards to be wary but not attack. It had been alarming to have someone leap from a roof to start negotiations, but she understood the need for some people to make flamboyant gestures. This was Shadowport after all, home to thieves and smugglers, pirates and princes.

And he’d said his name was Milo. She couldn’t get a good look at him with the cowl over his face, but the description fit. Some strange stories were circulating about him. Not the least of which was showing up with a bunch of engineers and a troll to beat a World Boss. His follow-up was stealing an airship for Squint and rescuing two hundred people from slavery.

On second thought, a leaping dismount from a couple of stories up wasn’t really flamboyant for this guy at all. Just business as usual.

Gert tried to act nonchalant as if she was used to people showing up this way. “Sure, I said I was doing one more deal today. What do you have to sell?”

Milo pointed to the warehouse. “Nothing to sell for gold. I don’t need money. I need food. Do you have cheese? I’m quite partial to a tasty camembert, but I’d settle for a wheel of unaged cheddar right now. Times being what they are. And maybe some apples? A few hundred will do, or a dozen barrels. A hundred bags of flour? I’d like to go shopping.”

Gert made a dismissive gesture. “What part of ‘Come back in two days.’ don’t you understand?”

Milo seemed to ponder that question, taking it seriously. “None of it, to be honest. You seem to want to increase profits by waiting for demand to raise prices. Why wait two days? I’ve got the money now. Just charge me what you would charge in two days. That’s better for you. After all, who knows when a ship full of food comes sailing in and ruins your market? Word travels fast after all when there is profit to be made. Especially in Shadowport.”

Gert considered for a moment, then glanced at the harbor. What he said about a ship arriving was true. If he was willing to pay extra now, why not sell to him? She waved him forward. “Fine. Come take a look and point to what you need. But if you’re wasting my time, I’m waiting three days, and people can thank you for their empty bellies.”

Inside was a full warehouse. Barrels of salted fish and pork were stacked high against the walls. Double-baked biscuits for the ships were in sealed crates. There was sausage, cooked and smoked hard to last for months. And of course, there was wine, beer, and alcohol of all sorts. Smoked meats hung from the ceiling as whole carcasses wrapped in burlap, along with stacks of ham and slabs of pork bacon. And in one corner, a pile of large wheels of cheese sealed in red wax. A few other kinds were there as well, but it seemed cheddar was back on the menu for a long time. Milo tallied the number of boxes, barrels, tubs, and hanging carcasses. It would feed a lot of people.

“Okay, I’ve seen what I need to see. Let’s go back outside. If I’m doing a deal, I want witnesses.” Milo was acutely aware of the number of guards in the warehouse versus the number of Milos.

Gert scowled. “You think I’d cheat you?”

Milo replied blandly. “I don’t know you at all, and you don’t know me, so let’s not start judging each other. Having a few witnesses for the transaction protects you as well as me. After all, I can hardly complain later about a deal I made in front of two hundred people. People are on edge, and hungry people tell wild stories. I want a simple transaction with no hassles, and so do you.” Gert grunted, and they went back outside to the front of the warehouse. The guards inside immediately checked the doors and windows, even the roof, taking no chances that this was a distraction for a heist.

Milo approached Brother Ignatius. “So how much would all this be normally?” He ran down the list of what he had seen. Ignatius waved in some of the women from the choir. They knew the market far better than he did, having bought the food for their families for decades. They argued for a bit, tallied up the list, and finally looked at Milo. “There’s over 30,000 gold in food inside. She must have been buying and hoarding long-lasting supplies for a long time. The price has been going up lately.”

Milo thanked them and walked back to Gert. “How much do you want for it?”

Gert’s eyes narrowed. “Be specific. The cheese?”

Milo looked up at her, standing on the warehouse steps. She was already two feet taller than he was, even before you added a six-foot advantage from being on the warehouse loading dock. “No. The warehouse. All of it. How much?”

Gert understood now. This guy was a Kulag and as crazy as Squint. Was whatever Squint had contagious? At least he didn’t have a pair of murder kitties following him around. “Let’s assume I take you seriously. How would you pay for it?”

“Well, I do have this.”

Milo pulled a long rod out of his sleeve. It looked like a golden ceremonial mace. It was studded with diamonds, pearls, and rubies over most of the head. An especially large diamond was set into the handle. Philistron had made a little trophy holder for it. Milo had simply tossed it into his chest. He didn’t know its real value, but he knew it was worth a lot. The slaver-mage wouldn’t have kept junk in his private sanctum.

The golden scepter glowed in the half-light of Shadowport. The crowd grew silent, and Gert sucked in her breath and leaned forward. The crowd murmured, and people started talking, arguing if the jewels were fake or real. Milo was reminded of how many thieves were in Shadowport. Maybe waving around a jeweled staff wasn’t a good idea. Ignatius took three steps to Milo and scrutinized the item before saying something in a language Milo didn’t know and saying a short prayer. Gert had walked forward, motioning for her guards to stay back. “May I?”

Milo handed it to her. Ignatius, eyes still wide, looked at him and asked a burning question. “Where did you get this?!” Gert looked like she wanted to ask the same question. The way Milo had handed the item to her convinced her that he was crazier than Squint. The priest’s voice grew loud and excited as he told what his spell had confirmed. “That is the Sun Scepter of the Order of Mithras, a blessed item that is sacred to an order of thousands of Paladins. It disappeared from their main temple complex over fifty years ago and hasn’t been seen since. It’s priceless! Every treasure hunter in the world has been looking for it and trying to claim the reward. I believe they raised it again last year to 200,000 gold pieces and a very nice house on the beach!”

Gert was trying not to shake. She had a very high rank in both Appraisal and Identification. Just holding the thing was convincing her of its value. Every gem was real, the gold was pure, and it identified just as Ignatius had said. And the priest was convinced. She’d known him for years and could read him like a book.

Milo looked at her. “So, we have a deal? My scepter for your warehouse. I know you wanted 3–4 times the value for your goods. That leaves some left over for the building. I’ll take the warehouse; you get the shiny bauble and can retire. It’s heavy to pack around, and no one could make change for it when I tried to use it to buy some cheese.”

Ignatius held his breath. Gert looked at Milo. “So many things are wrong with this deal. A legendary item? And you just casually produce it and trade it off for a warehouse of salted fish!!?”

Milo shrugged. “My friends are hungry, and I need some cheese. You didn’t break any rules and should be allowed to make a profit. I don’t need the thing, and I’m not attached to it. I got it in a deal from someone I don’t like, and I don’t have any attachment to it. Just the opposite. This is a win-win-win. The best kind.”

Gert handed it back to him. “I can’t trust a deal like this. I just can’t.” The crowd murmured, and somewhere nearby, a dog barked.

Brother Ignatius looked at her. “Gert, on my oath as a priest, I tell you that this is a good man who would not cheat you.”

Gert looked from the priest to Milo. “And what about him? What does he swear by?”

Good question. Milo wasn’t sure about that. His oath as an engineer? He looked over where the children were sitting, playing with a dog.

The wererat placed the scepter back in Gert’s hand but held onto the haft. “I’ll swear upon the Goddess of Travelers and Crossroads and ask her to throw me to the Eels if I’m trying to cheat you.”

Gert started to speak but stopped. A woman was walking toward her, passing through the crowd. No one was reacting to her, not Milo, Ignatius, or her guards. It was like only Gert and the woman existed, and everything else seemed unreal. “Take it. I guarantee what it is and will give you a blessing on your journey to return it. There will be a boat at the docks willing to make the trip. Pay the fisherman’s fee, and you will arrive at the Temple of Mithras safely.”

Gert’s eyes widened slightly. “You have a deal,” she said to Milo, and they shook hands.

The rat reached into his sleeve where he had “borrowed” a couple of apples, tossing them to the boy and his sister.

From the direction of the docks, a commotion was heard. Several people were pointing out to sea where two ships had just turned into the bay and were running under full sail, the smaller in front, but by so little that it almost seemed to be towing the huge ship behind it.

Gert looked at the smaller ship… and knew. “Thomas, Val? You’ve been with me the longest. Want to take a little trip? Grab a couple of packs with our clothes and some sausage. We need to meet that little sloop with the gray sail that’s coming into port.”

She turned to Milo. “The rest of them are good guys. They’ve been paid ahead for a fortnight. Ignatius knows some of them. You’d do good to treat them well. Best of luck to you. I’m going to go lay on a beach with two good-looking guys and drink wine for a year.”

Two of her guards came out of the warehouse at a run with three large packs. Gert took no chances, and everyone always had a pack ready to go in case the worst happened. Some of her crew had done just that. She stowed the scepter in her pack and held the bag in front of her. Flanked by her two good-looking guys, she ran to catch her ride to somewhere else.

Milo wasn’t sure why anyone would want to be so out in the open. Sand, water, and sky? Nope, he preferred his tunnels and caverns. Which he was going to get back to before anything else happened. He turned to Brother Ignatius. “I’m going to need a lot of help with this. I only need some cheese and bread, maybe some apples. I’ll give you the rest to feed people if you don’t mind the work.”

“I will gladly labor hard if it fills the bellies of those in need.” Ignatius, escorted by some of the Choir of Saint Joan, followed Milo into his warehouse, staring in surprise at how much food was there. While they worked out a way to distribute food to the hungry, he roamed around the warehouse, making a stack of things he wanted to load into his stash and his pack. He wished he had more room, but he could fit what he’d need for a nice trip to the Deep Dark.

He had just filled his pack with cheese and bread when he heard a commotion from the docks. The small sloop with the gray sail had just made it to port. He saw Gert boarding with her two companions. Further out in the bay, a much larger ship struggled as the wind that had filled its sail died away. It was a strange thing, made of rusty metal, belching out steam and smoke as a paddle wheel pushed it to port.

Behind the ship, a huge draconian head broke the surface and screamed in outrage as its prey fled for land. It looked like even odds whether the ship would make port before the huge dragon snake caught it. A smell came to Milo: Eel. He really hated Eels, and this one probably needed to be taught a lesson. He tossed his pack into a shadowy spot on a nearby roof and started running across the buildings toward the docks. From a nearby bar, Captain Pike exploded out the door, harpoon in hand, and headed in the same direction.

Chapter 35

Leviathan

Three figures moved through the murky waters near the bottom of the Rust Sea. The heavily armored forms moved along slowly, forcing their way through the bottom muck, walking in a world where nothing else chose to walk. There was little life down here of the normal sort. Not enough little fish to feed the big fish, and not enough big fish to feed the monsters. But things did sleep in the depths, and it was best not to wake them.

The travelers communicated by hand signals or by touching together the face plates of their suits so they could say a few words. There wasn’t much need to talk. They knew what they were looking for, and they knew what to do if they found it. That didn’t stop other people from talking too much, though.

“Narwhale! Calling Narwhale! Are you there? Over.”

“Damnation! Sharkey! Where the hell else would I be? Stay off the damned talky-box! Even the little magic it uses might get noticed.”

“No can do, Narwhale. Boss Whale wants an update. How much longer are you going to be down there? Looks like there might be something big moving around in the area. Over.”

“Oh, and you have to say over when you’re done, remember? Over.”

“How the hell would I know? We’ll quit looking when we find it. And screw your damned talky-box rules. Goodbye, Sharkey.”

“So what should I tell Whale? Over.”

“Hello? Over.”

“Oh, piss off then. Over.”

The team of three armored divers continued their movement through the red-tinged waters, moving from one rotting hulk of a ship to another. Things glinted from the interiors of ruptured hulls, and it was with heavy hearts that they ignored the lure of possible treasure. They had an objective today, not random salvaging of old wrecks. They were on a quest for one very specific ship out of all the wrecks littering the sea floor. If the payoff wasn’t so huge, they would never be here risking their lives for random exploration of the area. Scavengers were always a little crazy, but the Rust Sea with its murky waters, treacherous currents, and belligerent inhabitants was a level of crazy beyond anything the crew of Leviathan could manage.

It was Pike that spotted what they were looking for—a deeper reddish cloud amid the murky waters, indicating a large wreck. They trudged onward for another hour to cover that half a mile of distance. The rusted hulk rose above them, still magnificent even on her deathbed. Thick armored plates and three decks of cannon were enough to identify her. No ship but The Iron Queen had carried this many guns, each a bronzed behemoth over twenty feet long. Now, they were tarnished and adorned with barnacles, but in their day, they sent dozens of ships to the bottom when The Iron Queen was the ruler of the far seas.

A broken keel and ruptured hull testified that she’d never leave this graveyard. Too much damage was done in whatever fight she’d lost. The legends say that it took three armadas to do enough damage to send her to the bottom, but no wreck had ever been found. Not surprising with how close the battle had been to the Gullet. Sailing anywhere near the swirling whirlpool was death for a ship, and the undersea currents swirled and brought all wreckage to the Gullet over time. The Iron Queen hadn’t been part of that flotsam and jetsam. Her captain had braved a trip through the Gullet to escape her attackers and find new hunting grounds. But she’d been injured too badly, and the damage taken on her trip through the Gullet to the Rust Sea had been the death of the great ship and all of her crew. The only survivors were the dozen crew dispatched to buy whiskey and forever stranded as The Iron Queen was attacked before they could return. They consoled themselves by sitting on the beach and toasting their lost mates until they ran out of whiskey and gold. Narwhale thought it a shame the Queen had ended this way. If any ship could have traversed the Gullet, it was her, but not after a battle that had put holes through her. Still, what a ride that would be.

Somewhere on the other side of the world was an area of vast storms that hid islands full of riches. The ships that dared sail those waters feared the storms and the serpents, but they feared the Maw most of all. The gigantic whirlpool seemed to appear and disappear, always in a different spot, hiding in the storms and waiting for ships to sail too close. It was a hungry mouth that used those shining islands as bait to lure its food in close. The Maw feasted well, sending ship after ship to the Gullet. It was said that when there was no prey to catch, the Maw would scour the bottom of the sea for wrecked ships to eat. And if the whirlpool was the mouth and the Gullet the guts, then the Rust Sea was the other end, where the remains of the meals emerged.

Thousands of wrecks littered the sea floor here, some stacked on top of each other in huge piles. It was every Scavenger’s dream to loot the Rust with a good crew and a fast ship. Now, they were here, but with no time to search for lost treasure. The rusting hulk of The Iron Queen was the prize of prizes, assuming one knew what to look for.

Getting inside took some work. There were holes in the hull, but none that were easy to get to. You didn’t swim in Armored Scavenger Suits. After a hurried conversation with helmets pressed together, they took a chance at a spot that looked like it would lead to Officer’s Country. Cutting a hole took some time. Using too much power could attract attention. When the chunk of armored hull fell away, Pike and Narwhale moved inside, leaving Piranha on guard.

“This looks right from the plans that Whale got ahold of. This wide hallway should go past four cabins, then end in double doors of the captain’s cabin.” Narwhale had spent hours memorizing the plans, deck by deck.

“I wish our tub had this much room. Maybe we can get Whale to add another section to the ship and get some breathing room?”

Both of them knew it wouldn’t happen. In Whale’s view, more room meant either more guns or more engines. Scavengers were quick and well-armed. Anything else got you killed. But still, seeing the huge ship with its massive cannons stirred something in Narwhale. What would it take to rebuild the Queen?

The double doors opened easily, despite the ages they had been submerged. Inside, it was just like they had imagined. Gold-trimmed woodwork, toppled statues, jewel-encrusted sextants, and silvered depth gauges scattered on the floor where they’d fallen from the navigation table. What they hadn’t expected was an armored figure sitting on a throne, helmet off and a bare skull with an iron crown upon its head glaring at them. Pike froze with fear and slowly kneeled, unable to do anything else. Narwhale advanced and bowed low, hoping to hell all the practice would mean the next part went off right.

“Beg your pardon, Captain, but the chief engineer says they can’t hold her together. The only hope is getting the valuables to safety and saving the swag. Code: Bottom’s Up and Down the Hatch.”

For a long minute, nothing happened, then a hint of green fire lit in the empty sockets, and the skull nodded three times. A ghostly voice said, “Take it, Sailor. I’ve been on guard too long. Go kiss a cute beard and pat his ass for me when you hit port.” The skeleton crumbled. Fingers dropped a jeweled cutlass as the iron crown rolled across the slimy floor.

Pike moved the navigator’s table aside and pushed aside the remains of a rotting carpet. Beneath were a set of golden metal doors inscribed with runes and places to fit the crown and sword. As soon as each was in place, the doors glowed, turned upright, and opened, revealing a large extra-dimensional storage area. It was at least ten feet square and twenty feet deep and filled to the brim with large leather bags of loot. Pike whistled. “I didn’t think it would be real. An Arcane Workshop built right into the captain’s quarters. And filled to the brim with loot.”

Narwhale started hauling it out bag by bag. “Let’s not dawdle. It might not be stable. Let’s unload, then signal the Leviathan to get over here. Finding the treasure is only the first part of keeping it.” The hydraulic suits made easy work as they hauled out load after load of swag. When it was all out, Pike trundled off to signal the ship, and Narwhale closed the doors. The crown and cutlass came free. Shrugging, Narwhale took them along. A bit of personal salvage that no one could say was unearned.

Pike and Piranha came running back. “Leviathan is coming in fast and hot, with something behind it. They’ll drop a cargo net, and we just drop it all into it and go! ETA is 17 minutes.” Each scavenger grabbed three bags and hauled them to the opening, then went back for more. They finished with a few minutes to spare. Leviathan would drop a cargo net on the sea floor, and they could load up in only a couple of minutes. Narwhale looked up, past the green-bronze cannons on the decks above, and up at the descending ship. The huge cargo net was already deployed.

Narwhale looked at the pile of loot, calculating its mass. “What’s the load of a standard cargo net, Pike?”

“Maybe twenty-five tons in air, a hell of a lot more down here. Don’t worry about it, Nar. This load is barely ten tons, all total.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Give me a hand, Piranha, and bring the bolt cutters. I want a souvenir.”

Five minutes later, the huge net used to haul away salvage was lowered from the Leviathan. Until now, none of the crew had believed another ship could be bigger than Leviathan. She was 210 feet long, double-hulled, and twenty-five feet wide when her weapons were pulled in. The Iron Queen dwarfed her at over 500 feet in length. Her crew watched from portholes, and some were in their suits and scattered about the hull to help haul in the swag.

These were the crew that saw the first of four huge, bronzed cannons tumble from a gun deck down into the net. After the girls had their souvenirs, the three of them quickly tossed the rest of the swag on top and leaped into the net themselves. Leviathan was already heading up and out. That was the good news. The bad news was what had been tailing them.

As the salvage crew and the loot were pulled into the ship, the captain stared out the front observation port with a sub-scope. “Dragonfish, but nothing we can’t handle. Tell the gunners to load the harpoons with explosive heads and wait for it to try and pass us. It’ll want to swing by, then circle us and try to snap us in half. We take the shots as it starts to turn and keep firing until it’s dead.”

The portside gunner, Spike, yawned. “Sorry, I was napping while you jabbered on telling someone how to do their job, Captain.”

Whale knew better than to argue with her gunner when they had incoming. Spike knew her business. If only other people did. What did that fool girl think, trying to take four cannons along with the good stuff? She could have gone cannon shopping for her dowry after they sold the loot.

That was when the airlock to the bridge opened, and three tired scavengers entered the room. Other crew members helped them out of the heavy diving helmets and pneumatic suits. Narwhale stretched out her arms, showing impressive muscles and more impressive tattoos. Someone tossed her a comb, and she started getting knots from her bright orange hair and beard.

Whale waited until she was presentable before hugging her daughter. “Damn little fool, what are those old, worthless guns for?”

“Not too worthless. That isn’t bronze they’re made of. The barnacles and sea droppings whipped right off of them. They were as shiny as the day they were cast. Some sort of engineer work, and good work at that. I bet we can add one to Leviathan and give her some extra power to the front. You always said you wanted a bow gun. The others were adding to our dowries. A girl can’t have too many guns.”

“What about the rest of the swag? Good as the legends say?”

Nar nodded. “I checked a few bags. It’s the treasure of a lifetime. Engine parts, magitech, blueprints galore, and bag after bag of shiny pieces of gold. The crew will be drinking themselves blind and chasing them short-beards back home for a year and a day on their share.”

Whale snorted. “Don’t count your gold before it’s safely home. We still have a dragonfish coming after us. Some sort of guardian, maybe.”

With a look at the gunners, Narwhale winked at Spike, then turned back to the captain. “Well, I’m sure Mama Whale knows best, but I’ll bet you your first pick of the treasure for my next two picks that Spike nails it first shot.”

“No bet, girl. You have the first pick coming. Your two mates go next. Then I get fourth and fifth. You found the map and journal; you did the work. Only fair you get the first pick.”

The crew roared when, as predicted, Spike put an explosive bolt into the snake just behind the head and blew it to smithereens. Whale slapped her on the back. “You just earned the sixth pick, Spike. Nice shooting.”

“Thanks, Captain. Did I hear there was some magitech in there?”

Narwhale nodded. “All sorts of gadgets, along with cables, power sources, and manuals. Look; I even found a power crystal small enough for your old amulet, mama.”

From around her neck, Narwhale took out an antique amulet with the runes of two families intertwined. She casually put the tip of her knife under the old, dead crystal, flipped it out of the amulet, and set the new one inside.

Whale shook her head. What folly that deal had been? Her own great-mam had tied herself to the youngest son of one of the great clans. They were young and full of plans. She was going to serve seven years as a mate on her family’s submersible, and he was going to be an engineer. The Cataclysm came, and she never saw him again. Just as well. It led to her having Leviathan instead of being the daughter of some spanner boy. The family had led the Scavenger life ever since.

The amulet glowed, lines of light filling in several layers of her family’s rune, while on the other side, it slowly advanced to markings halfway up the rune. Whale stared. “Well, slap me sideways and cart me off to a nunnery. He’s alive!”

Spike squinted at the old bit of magitech. “Alive, and just made Senior Engineer. Congratulations, little Narwhale, you’re engaged! Now you just have to go find him.”

A sound of rage echoed through the ship. From the muck near Leviathan, something began to emerge, shaking itself loose from the ocean floor. “SHIT! Sorry, Captain, but it’s bad. Another snake. An old one, and she’s pissed.”

Whale yelled out orders. “Let’s get up top and make our getaway. How far to the nearest safe port?”

The navigator had the answer ready. “Day and a half to Shadowport if we go high and pop the balloon. Two days if we try to run on the surface.”

“Hit the surface then and deploy the mainsail. We’ll keep the balloon for an emergency. Set course for Shadowport. Nar can go husband hunting while we drink the town dry.”

Narwhale looked at the small compass that was part of the amulet. Its arrow pointed toward Shadowport. “Oh, I’ll find him all right.”

Chapter 36

Scavengers

Leviathan raced for the safety of the harbor, using every trick they could to gain distance from their angry pursuer. This didn’t mean the ship was fast, just that there was hope it made it to safety instead of getting caught. She was built to explore the depths, not to race across the waves. Leviathan looked like a giant metal sausage with some extra bits added on as an afterthought. A large propeller was churning the sea behind her, powered by steam boilers. Up on her top deck, a large sail had been raised, adding to her speed as long as the ship could travel in the wind’s direction. Tacking back and forth wasn’t something a ship could do if trying to outdistance a monster like they could see behind them. The wind was behind the ship, but it was dropping fast as she rounded the headland and headed into the bay.

The propeller by itself wasn’t going to let them outrace the giant Eel chasing them. Pirates and warships she could avoid. But not an apex predator of the deep. The crew just prayed they could beat the huge dragon snake that was chasing them to land. If they lost this race, they’d be another hulk lying on the bottom of the bay, their loot waiting for someone to claim. The irony of that wasn’t lost on Whale, the captain. She and her crew had just made the most successful scavenging run in generations, but it was all going to be for nothing if that oversized worm caught up with them.

The dwarven scavengers that crewed the large submersible were doing their best to keep the wind in the sail. At the rear, another group was bringing up a cannon from a hold. Leviathan had guns along her sides, but only small six-pounders. They worked just fine for taking out most monsters they ran into and could do huge damage to a ship at close range. Several of Leviathan’s adversaries had only known they were in a fight after the hull of their ship exploded from a broadside fired from beneath them.

The massive brass 16-pounder that was being raised on a winch was one of the guns Narwhale had brought back from The Iron Queen. It was this scavenging that had riled up the local predator they were running from. The immense ship had been lying in a graveyard of broken ships for hundreds of years. Whether the dragonsnake was a guardian or it was just bad luck, looting the old ship had disturbed its brood. Killing one of its offspring had woken up this huge one that was sleeping in the muck of the sea bottom. It was a typical scavenger story: lucky enough to find the treasure, but not lucky enough to keep it. The crew bolting down the cannon wanted to change that story’s ending.

A soot-covered mechanic popped out of a hatch, and the braids of her greased beard tucked into her coveralls to keep it from getting caught in machinery. Every young mechanic was told the stories of careless dwarves who “took a header” into the gears when her beard got caught. It was a messy way to die. Whale turned to her. “How are we looking, Barnacle?”

Barnacle glanced at their pursuer and spat in its general direction, then answered. “Well, the boilers are holding, but we’ve pushed them up past the red zone. They’ll hold for now, but if one of them goes, we won’t be worrying about a snake anymore. I’m more worried about the propeller. It’s not made to run this hard for this long. If it starts to wobble, it’ll break in half for sure and strand us. If that happens, the best we can do is turn and toss a broadside at the beastie. I’ve got all the gunners on the starboard side ready to shoot. And it looks like little Narwhale wants to try out one of her new toys. A good shot with that sixteen-pounder might do it.”

Whale looked over to where her daughter was doing what she could to mount the large brass cannon she’d stolen from the Queen. “A dowry,” she’d declared when Whale had yelled at her for loading four great brass cannons along with the other treasure. She might never find the husband she was looking for, but it looked like that dowry might come in handy anyway. If the barrel wasn’t clogged, and if the beast gave her a shot. Shooting a snake wasn’t like shooting at a ship.

Pike pointed past the snake. “Captain, we have a ship coming up behind us. Hellaciously fast too! That sucker is using a Mage Wind, or I’m a one-legged gobbo.” Whale squinted and agreed with Pike. The gray sail on the small sloop was full of wind that wasn’t hitting their own sail. The smaller boat was leaping across the waves, gaining on both Leviathan and her foe at an astonishing speed.

The crew of Leviathan watched with disbelief as the lone sailor at the tiller steered alongside the huge beast and then raced past it, surprising the snake as it sped past. Then it did the same to their own ship. The lone human guiding it waved to the dwarven scavengers and then pointed across the bay to the docks before putting his ship directly in front of the huge metal submersible. Immediately wind filled Leviathan’s sail, and the ship picked up speed, opening up the distance between it and the snake.

“Stay in his wake! He’s using his own Mage Wind to tow us behind. Don’t lose the wind!”

The two ships moved steadily toward the docks, the smaller ship increasing its lead, but Mage Wind didn’t fall off. Whoever was casting that spell was not only in a hurry but had mana to spare to aid another ship in distress.

Narwhale and her crew continued to work on mounting the scavenged cannon. “I’m not liking how we have it set up; we’ll get a shot out of her, but make sure you aren’t behind it. If that carriage breaks, the guns are going to make a trip backward. How’s the barrel looking, Piranha?”

With a last blow from her spanner, Piranha uncoupled the rear end of the gun and swung it clear. Foul water and a dead crab poured out. “She’s clogged further up, Nar. I told you we didn’t have her clean. Get me something to poke at that clog a bit and wipe her out good.”

Narwhale shook her head, red curls that matched her beard flying around. “No time. The clog is probably mud. It’ll blow clear. Put a double load of powder in her and load one of the balls. She’ll either fire, or she won’t.” The other scavengers nodded. They weren’t fussy about things like the old fuddy-duddy engineers who had to measure 10 times before they turned a screw. Scavengers made their own luck. Granted, a lot of it might be bad luck, but that was better than no luck at all!

The small sloop veered off, its captain pointing at an area of the docks Leviathan should head to. The area had burned recently and was clear of docks and warehouses. Whale spoke into a large box attached to the mast. “Sharkey, tell the navigator to hit that beach at an angle and see if we can’t slew her around so we can fire a broadside. That thing doesn’t look like it’s scared of following us ashore. But as soon as we hit, I want everyone but gunners to abandon ship with the loot and weapons. Get the shinies to safety. Gunners follow after the broadside. Don’t leave anyone on board; get the hell inland where we can fight it.”

Narwhale was barely aware of what was going on, being too focused on loading her cannon and drying out the breech.

Leviathan hit what was left of the docks hard, crushing the underwater posts that had survived the fire, leaving jagged stumps. Her double hull was punctured in several spots. Not a problem, since she wasn’t going to be going back to the sea anytime soon. The iron-hulled ship slid up onto land, turning slightly and presenting one side at the onrushing dragonsnake. Gun ports opened, and eight cannons loaded with six-pound balls took aim and fired.

The noise was like rolling thunder. Gunners wore protective gear to preserve their hearing but still went deaf after a few battles. They compensated with sign language, strong drinks, and cute little beardlings. They got lucky. One shot hit the snake dead on, shattering ribs and leaving a hole that leaked greenish ichor. Another grazed it, tearing a furrow through muscle and scales. Two out of six on a moving target was excellent shooting. The gunners were already arguing about whose shot had hit as they abandoned the ship.

The dragon snake was thrown backward by the six-pounder to its chest, falling onto the splintered posts that tore at its hide. The scavenger crew left the ship in any way possible, running up into the cleared area of the burn carrying large bags and chests of loot from The Iron Queen, along with crossbows, axes, scatterguns, and any weapon they could grab. Whale was counting heads but came up three short. At the end of Leviathan, she saw her daughter, her red hair flying in the wind, yelling at Barnacle and Piranha. The two dwarves jumped down to the ground and ran angry, but following orders. Narwhale was the youngest of the crew, but she was also the captain’s daughter. If she lived long enough, she’d be a captain herself. There were a lot of bets on that, and the odds against her were running high now. Nonetheless, every scavenger cheered to see her staying for one last shot.

The huge Eel reared up and roared its displeasure at being wounded by such tiny creatures. Narwhale lit the fuse and cursed at the thing. She figured that she should jump for safety, but she was probably going to die anyway and wanted to see if she hit. The cannon made a noise that cannons weren’t supposed to make. A mass of mud and dead fish exploded from the barrel, and the sixteen-pound ball sailed through the air, impacting the snake between its eyes.

If the barrel had been clear and the powder dry, it might have killed it. Instead, the snake had a pounding headache and was even angrier, if that was possible. The snake rammed Leviathan, aiming for the end when the bright tube had spat fire. Narwhale found herself flying through the air. A second time the snake hit the ship, its huge head knocking the brass sixteen-pounder free of its carriage and sending it flying through the air end over end in roughly the same direction as Narwhale.

Narwhale landed hard on the ground and sat up just as she saw her dowry about to crush her. Something wrapped around her waist and jerked her violently aside as the cannon rolled past. She was thrown like a sack of flour and landed in a heap between two pairs of armored legs. Someone patted her on the head and said, “Nice shot! Especially for a Scavenger. Right between the eyes. I’d always heard you lot were too drunk to shoot straight. You just needed a little more BOOM in that shot.” A bottle of alcohol was thrust into her hands, and she drank, clearing her head. A dwarven man with a crazed look in his eyes was next to her. “You did your part; now let the professionals show you how it’s done.”

Nar took another swig of whiskey as she watched two dwarves in shiny, mechanical armor start lumbering toward the snake. An ogre was calmly walking along with a harpoon in one hand and eating a whole turkey with the other. As she watched, some crazed idiot ran in close and threw a glowing grenade at the sea monster.

Finishing the whiskey, she yelled for Barnacle and Piranha and started walking to her cannon. The damned engineers could just sod off. She was going to kill the thing herself!

Chapter 37

Natural Enemies and Allies

Boomboom finished his beer and tossed the empty mug back to the bartender. It wasn’t much of a bar, just two tables and a dozen chairs, with the “bar” being a slab of wood supported by two barrels. Other barrels, tapped and untapped, were scattered around. Everything was dark with soot, and some of the chairs were charred by fire. Two-Screws considered not finishing his beer—it was that bad by dwarven standards—but he gritted his teeth and poured it down his throat.

The two engineers had responded to a fire two days ago and helped save what they could of a tavern. With so little left, the tavern keeper had just shoveled an area of ground clear and set up his open-air beer garden on the charred flagstones that used to be the floor of the tavern. Old Sculdy was thankful enough to the two dwarves to not take money from them for beer, but not thankful enough to serve them good beer. Two-Screws was thinking of paying the ridiculous price for a barrel of Bludgeon Dark from Ralph, the innkeeper at the Rustyguts Inn. The two dwarves liked Ralph’s beer, but the smell of charcoal was much preferred to the smell of unwashed humans.

“Something’s happening; I can feel it in my bones. Something terrible.” Boomboom scowled and considered another beer.

Two-Screws stood up. “Well, I’m curious about what gives you that feeling. Was it the ogre Monster-Hunter running by with a grin on his face? Perhaps Milo skipping over the rooftops? Maybe the roar of a dragonsnake? Tell me, oh wise one, what was the clue?”

Boomboom looked where Two-Screws was pointing. “Oh, none of that. Just an itch in the back of my head like I forgot something terrible, and it’s coming for me.”

“Is it so terrible you can’t blow it to smithereens?”

“You have a good point, friend Two-Screws. Let’s follow the rat and the ogre and see what we can find to blow up.”

Milo leaped from one roof to the next, happy to have bones again. Moving had been getting very slow and tedious while he was trying to escape from the slaver’s airship. It wasn’t something he ever wanted to experience again. From his vantage point on a tall roof next to an area of burned buildings, he had a good look at what was happening.

Two ships were coming into the harbor. The first was just a boat with a sail. Milo wasn’t very good with nautical terms, nor did he have a desire to learn. The ocean was too big and empty, topped with an empty sky that was worse. And things swam in the live-water that didn’t like him. He had no desire at all to go swimming and have something try to eat him. Like the gigantic Eel that was chasing the two boats heading for the docks. It swam through the ocean like a snake moving on the ground, but now and then diving to come back up. It was huge and long. From the way it moved, Milo thought there was a lot more of it under the surface. It was proof to him that he should never go in the water.

The second ship was more interesting to him. It wasn’t a surface ship by any means. The sail was a jury-rigged affair with a triangular canvas hoisted by a spar and detachable mast. Wind power wasn’t how the ship normally moved. He could see the propeller at the rear of the ship, throwing up a wake, and see the small bits of steam being vented from overworked boilers. He loved the look of the ship, with its patchwork of pieces stolen from other ships, the large observation dome in the front, and the numerous hatches and covered gunports that hinted at more surprises. Others would see a patchwork monstrosity, but Milo thought it was sleek and efficient.

He ran the idea through his head of being in such a ship, deep down in the ocean. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the thought of crewing the small boat that was in the lead. A large enough submarine might feel like just another set of tunnels. He wanted to get a look at the inside of the ship. If it survived, which was doubtful at this point. Even if it made it to the docks, that monstrosity was right behind it.

Whoever was driving the thing was pretty good. They managed to hit the beach at an angle, slide the submarine up onto land, park it sideways, and then shoot the Eel with some big guns. They had an even bigger cannon being loaded at the end of the boat. The rest of the crew was abandoning the ship and running for their lives. Milo was disappointed. He had hoped that maybe the metal boat would have more surprises. If he built one, it certainly would have. Dual propellers and larger engines would give it speed, and he wondered about using the steam from the boilers to power a gatling cannon. That would be fun.

Captain Pike was running for the ship and the place where the Eel would come ashore. The monster hunter wasn’t about to miss a chance like this. Milo thought about it, and he really didn’t like that Eel. Just something about how it moved was wrong, and he swore it had made a rude gesture at him. He leaped down and raced alongside Captain Pike. The ogre noticed him and winked. “Nothing like a little tussle to build an appetite, is there?”

The huge cannon fired, and despite the ball hitting it in the head, the Eel kept coming. Milo saw the dwarf gunner get knocked to the ground. They were going to be Eel food in the next few seconds, and that was if they survived being crushed by their own cannon. He yelled to Pike as he ran, “You get the first shot! I’m grabbing the gunner.”

Captain Pike was warming up his throwing arm. “Good idea. We may need something to bait the Eel, and I bet it doesn’t like that little dwarf lass at all after she drew blood.”

Milo raced by her, grabbing her with his tail. What had been a spectral-looking affair from a spell now looked like a solid appendage of bone that ended in a sharp blade. Milo could feel the bone extending up his spine, adding protection. The bones covering his claws and hands looked thinner, but he knew they were much stronger. The small, interlocking plates protected him like a knight’s gauntlets. The huge brass cannon tumbled through the spot where the gunner had been just a second before. Leaping aside and pulling the gunner with him, he whipped his tail around and tossed her out of the fight to where Boomboom and Two-Screws were running up.

Captain Pike had thrown his harpoon at the dragon snake, ripping out a huge chunk of meat as he pulled it loose with the lanyard. It screamed in pain and looked at him with malice. The ogre laughed and taunted it, making rude gestures and telling it he was going to sauté it with onions for dinner.

Milo took advantage of the distraction to throw a harpoon of his own. He only had two of the bone harpoons carved. If he had to cast the spell more than twice, it was going to hurt. After he’d regained the ability to use spells, he’d seen that Bone Spike had disappeared, leaving this newly upgraded version in its place.

Harpoon of the Winds

By carving a Rune of Destruction and a Rune of Velocity into a small bone harpoon, you create a powerful ranged weapon.

Base damage of 200.

+60 Damage for INT above 10

Modifier: +30% damage for Skill: Ancient Runes (6)

Total Base Damage: 338

The two-foot-long harpoon glowed as Milo threw it, the runes carved into it building toward an explosion. As the first was in the air, he grabbed the second, using Fast Casting to duplicate the spell. It would drain his mana, but it would let him put two hard hits on the Eel at the start of the fight.

The ogre wanted to comment on the cute little harpoons Milo was throwing. Before it left his lips, the first one hit the dragon snake in the side of the head, blowing out a divot of bone and flesh. A second later, another one hit into the same spot, digging a much deeper wound and staggering the monster.

You have struck an Eel with your spell!

Your ancient enemy suffers 50% greater damage because of the hatred between your races. (And yes, it works both ways.)

Damage: 507 points. Enemy is staggered.

You have struck a critical blow against an Eel! The huge wound has done 1,014 points of damage and stunned the creature for 5 seconds.

“Nice shooting, newbie!” Captain Pike was highly impressed by the double blow. The rearing monster had been knocked to the ground and stunned. One eye was leaking fluid, and he could see bits of gray inside the wound where the skull had been shattered. He went in for the kill, straddling the beast and stabbing deeper and deeper with each thrust.

Boomboom and Two-Screws engaged from twenty feet away. Two-Screws had modified two rivet guns with sights and longer barrels. They still worked fine for punching a hot rivet into metal, but they also spit out burning death at close range. Sadly, neither was a great shot, so it was good they were firing so many rivets at such a huge target. The snake’s hide was being peppered with small wounds, but it still wasn’t dead.

The huge head swept sideways, tossing the ogre into the sea a hundred and fifty feet away. He came sputtering to the surface and started swimming to shore. Milo leaped high into the air, the jaws snapping shut and just missing him as his tail added another wound to the monster. Two-Screws wasn’t as nimble and was knocked to the ground, partially buried by debris.

Boomboom took a direct hit and sailed through the air. His armored suit prevented most of the damage. Pillbug did good work. But one leg-servo snapped, which was going to make it hard to walk, let alone dodge. He landed in the muck and skidded to a halt in front of Narwhale, staring up at her bright red beard and rosy cheeks. “Well, howdy ma’am, that sure is a pretty cannon you have there.”

She sneered down at him. Engineers and Scavenger clans didn’t get along, most of the time. Narwhale didn’t need some engineer telling her to slow down, measure twice, and get a job approved by sixteen people before she could fire a cannon. She’d dealt with them before when they took Leviathan in for repairs and engine upgrades. Some of them were cute, but they liked to play with slide rules more than drink with a cute pirate. Still, this one had the guts to charge that snake, so maybe they weren’t all bad.

“Just like an engineer to be lying down on the job. Say, spanner boy, do you like me, or is that a bomb in your pants?”

Boomboom was surprised at the question. He reached into a large pocket on the side of his leg and pulled out a five-pound shaped charge of cataclysmite. “It’s a bomb!”

Narwhale had heard of the explosive but never seen it. “Oh my. Can I convince you to load that in my cannon?”

Sharkey was outraged. “Narwhale! You can’t just let an engineer play with your cannon on the first date, even if he does have a batch of high explosives in his pants!”

Boomboom stood up and produced another five-pound bomb. “How about if I have two bombs?” Piranha opened the breach on the cannon, and Narwhale blushed as she grabbed the charges of high-explosives and used them to load the cannon. Sharkey put in the sixteen-pound ball and rammed it in tight. “I still say no good is coming from this. Just because a man likes to pack around bombs in his pocket is no basis for a long-term relationship.”

Narwhale looked at Boomboom. He had pretty eyes, crazy eyes, and he was grinning like a loon. “You have some muscle with that fancy suit? Aiming this bitch is going to be tough. We have to point it at a spot and wait for the beastie to move there.”

Boomboom laughed. “If nothing else, I’ll have Milo bait it there. That lad can piss off snakes like no one’s business. You should see the mess he caused by killing the last snake he ran into. Blew the whole damned base up and nearly killed every engineer in the place. It was glorious. But Chief says we can’t do it again.”

The truth of that statement was quite obvious. Denied the fun of killing anyone else, the wounded creature tried again and again to catch Milo. He annoyed the snake by constantly moving to its blind side and jumping over its coils. This was no boss like Queen Salasha, just a massively huge creature from the depths. He could dodge the head easily. He was out of harpoons, but not out of skulls. When he could, he threw explosions into the Snake’s mouth and slashed at it with his tail. Shadowblight bit into it again and again, leaving bleed punctures everywhere he went.

From a hundred yards away, the rest of the Scavenger crew was guarding their loot and watching the battle. It had been a good one so far. Whale had told everyone to hang back and let the engineers tire the thing out. They laughed that they had finally found a use for the spanner boys. When the fight was reduced to just one crazy human dodging the snake, they started taking bets.

Milo would have been annoyed to know how low the odds were against him living—or worse, to actually kill the snake. He had come up with a plan and had been moving the snake to where he wanted it for a full minute. Each dodge put it closer to the point where he could act. The snake struck, Milo dodged, and then ran to its blindside. For a moment, the snake was overextended and off balance. Milo charged two Exploding Skulls and stuffed them into the exposed brain of the snake, then leaped away.

The rune-carved skulls exploded, blasting away the brains of the creature. Its still head fell on top of Leviathan. Whale wasn’t happy—she’d bet against whoever that was. Minnow yelled out, “If you had the crazy guy surviving, you win ten for each gold you bet. Who had the crazy guy in the pool? And it’s fifty-to-one if the snake stays down.”

Milo stood on top of the head and waved at Boomboom. Boomboom was waving back and shouting. Narwhale was holding up two fingers. V for victory?

A creeping feeling of doom made Milo leap for safety as huge jaws snapped shut where he had just been. Looking over his shoulder, he saw another snake coming out of the water, followed by a third. A heavy body was pulled ashore on huge flippers, showing that this wasn’t a snake at all.

Ancient Sea-Hydra Level ???

Disturbed by the death of a lesser Eel, this ancient creature has risen from the depths and is hungry.

Multiple heads, regeneration, vengeful, Eel.

Milo really hated how Eels always cheated. And hiding your other two heads underwater was certainly cheating. How could he plan how to kill it if it hid important details like that? He ran along the length of Leviathan to put some distance between himself and the two new heads, hopping and yelling, when his feet started burning on the red-hot hull. He leaped on top of a hatch and spent a long two seconds looking at the ship.

The hull was hot—red-hot. He heard the hiss of steam and saw it leaking from a hatch. The sound of the overworked boilers came to his ears… The boilers were still running… still building pressure with no way to vent that pressure.

Turning, he yelled at the hydra and threw an exploding skull in its direction to keep its attention. He needn’t have bothered. What one head knew; they all knew. Dragging the rapidly regenerating “dead head,” the creature moved in Milo’s direction.

Boomboom saw Milo make a gesture in his direction. Fire in the hole!

The rat was jumping up and down and pointing at Leviathan. Narwhale figured it out—she knew what was inside that part of the hull. “The boilers! Aim for the hull at his feet and hope Mama forgives me.”

Doing some quick calculations, Boomboom yelled to the scavengers, “We need to aim six feet up from the center! The ball will drop too low otherwise. I’ve got enough muscle in this suit that I can make the vertical adjustments.”

Piranha scoffed, “I think you guys just diddle on paper and spout out those numbers.”

Boomboom laughed. “Fire the damned cannon and find out, but never bet against me and explosions, little girls!”

No one argued, and Narwhale lit the fuse. Boomboom had the cannon braced against a stone wall, holding it as steady as he could. The scavengers leaped for safety as the fuse was lit, but he couldn’t. The cannon kicked back hard as it fired—ten pounds of cataclysmite was much more than any cannon should ever load. Boomboom had expected the gun to explode. But this gun was from The Iron Queen, and it held! The engineer was nearly killed, despite Pillbug’s protective suit. And worse, he nearly missed seeing the ball sail across open ground and impact the hull of Leviathan. Milo was already leaping for the water and speeding away from the area. Runes of Swift Swimming glowed on his skin. He went past Captain Pike, knocking the ogre deeper into the water and saving him from a fatal scalding.

A steam boiler is a dangerous beast in the best of times. Too little fuel in the firebox, and the pressure drops too low to run the engines. Too much fire can produce too much steam, giving a lot of power to the engines but putting wear and tear on the boiler. A leaky boiler can shoot out superheated steam that will fry anyone nearby and make it difficult to do your job.

In the worst case, a boiler is a barely controlled bomb waiting to explode. Running in the Red was a common term for building the pressure so high that there was a good chance of a burst boiler. The Leviathan had been in the red for hours, running from what they thought was simply a very big dragon snake. Now, with no mechanic left in the ship, her four boilers were far past the red, leaking steam, and ready to go off. The cannonball that tore through the hull and into the number three boiler was simply the fuse that lit the bombs.

The boilers exploded, sending shrapnel that used to be parts of the ship into the huge sea beast. This was followed by the truly dangerous part of a boiler explosion—clouds of super-heated steam. All three heads were killed, then ripped from the body, and cooked through and through. Shadowport was going to smell like cooked dragon snake for a month. Pike and Milo were safe under the waters of the bay, out of the way of the steam explosion. Two-Screws was lower than the explosion and buried in the muck. He took some nasty burns on his backside that would keep him standing up for a week.

The scavenger clan was screaming and laughing. They like a good explosion as much as anyone. This wasn’t the first shipwreck any of them had been part of, and it wouldn’t be the last. Even Whale wasn’t unhappy with the outcome, except when she noticed her daughter sitting next to a spanner boy and sharing a bottle of grog.

Minnow stood up from where she had been knocked down by the blast. “Who had death-by-steam in the pool? Anyone?”

Chapter 38

Looking for a Friend

Your group has killed an Ancient Sea Hydra. While not a named monster, this creature was far above your level.

It was also a type of Eel and deserved to be turned into lunch and dinner.

You gain 5 Enhancement Points and 250 experience in combat skills. This is doubled to 10 Enhancement Points and 500 points for killing an ancient foe.

Milo was a little horrified to consider how tough the creature would have been if it were a boss. What else lurked in the deep oceans? He had no desire to find out. He applied the ten points to raising the caps on his stats and split the experience between Weak Claws and Tail Fighting.

The steamed Eel was tasty, but only for the first meal or two. Milo had sat with Captain Pike for a couple of hours, watching the ogre chow down on chunk after chunk of the cooked Hydra. Pike’s most favored pastime, after hunting monsters, was cooking and eating them. But even he could only eat so much. Luckily, there were a lot of hungry people in the city.

The fishermen got to work immediately, constructing racks to dry and salt the meat. The tough skin of the hydra would make thick leather, the fatty layer on the body would be rendered to oil, and the bones would be ground for fertilizer. Someone suggested building a tavern with the huge rib bones and spide of the body. Two-Screws loved the idea and got to work dragging the bones as he helped to butcher the creature.

Milo spent half of a day eating Eel, getting lessons on how to correctly throw a harpoon from Captain Pike, and discussing various things the ogre had eaten over the years. Pike made humans nervous, especially when he was eating. Milo appreciated that. Way too many people wanted to talk to him, and he just wasn’t in the mood. People would start to walk over, see the ogre tearing into his meal, and suddenly have something else to do. Milo needed some downtime. Some deep, deep, down time. What got him moving was when the dwarves started to argue.

When the rest of the engineers showed up, a huge row broke out. The captain of the ship they blew up wanted the engineers to replace it. The engineers sneered and told the scavengers not to play with critters too big for them to handle. At some point, Milo heard his name mentioned, and he quickly skulked away. This wasn’t his fight.

It was suddenly too noisy up here.

He had cheese and a smattering of other foods. He’d finished all his tasks. It was time to go someplace quieter. He’d almost gotten away clean but hadn’t counted on the chief engineer. He found the old dwarf waiting for him at the start of the mines, talking with Varihold and Shift-Stick.

“I need to talk to you. Figured it was easier to wait down here for you than deal with all the shouting going on upstairs. Bloody scavengers can’t do anything without getting drunk and yelling for two days. Don’t let it worry you, though—this is a pretty amicable meeting. The boys haven’t had a chance to go on a date for a few hundred years, and the lasses have gold to spend and are looking for a good time. And a blown-up ship is just an excuse to work together when putting it back together.”

“Oh, so they weren’t going to fight?”

“Did I say that? Of course fights will break out. Probably going at it tooth and tongs right now. That’s just part of getting to know each other. But it does make things noisy for a while. You look like you need a break.”

Milo nodded. “I do. I need to go look for Harry, or any part of him that survived. He told me trolls can survive even horrible injuries. And I need to be by myself. Too many people in town now—noisy people. And too many of them want to talk to me for one reason or another.”

Chief Engineer nodded. “Feel that way myself. Part of why I waited down here for you. But take this. You have some studying to do before we toss some tests at you.” He handed Milo a thick book titled Magic-Tech for the Beginning Engineer. Vol. 1 of 15.

Milo thanked him profusely and couldn’t wait for a chance to sit and read. But first, he had a troll to find.

He began his search for Harry where the battle had taken place. The remains of the dwarven tunneler were surrounded by a large pile of scrap metal and broken parts. Vary, Shift-Stick, and Pillbug were searching for any lost pieces and deciding what to keep and what to sell for scrap.

Milo gave them the story of what had happened up in the city. Pillbug was visibly upset when he heard it was a Scavenger ship that had been blown up. “Those thieving varmints will rebuild it, for sure, but they’ll make off with any useful bit of metal or machine part in the city. They’ve got no sense about them. Drink all the profits, then complain they don’t have money for a boiler refit.”

When he asked about Harry, Vary told him that he’d found big chunks of what had used to be the huge troll, but in all cases, they were quickly decaying into the soil and sprouting mushrooms. They had done their best to put as many of his large pieces as they could find in one spot. Everyone had heard the legends of trolls piecing themselves back together. Details on exactly how that worked were hazy.

Milo went and took a look. A large pile of mulch with mushrooms of all varieties sprouting out of it seemed to be all that was left of his friend. He sat down on a rock and stared at the pile. What good was killing a boss and getting loot if it cost him a friend? He went back over the fight, but there were too many variables to even begin to think of how he could have changed things to save Harry.

The mulch pile was a crappy memorial to Harry. He wanted to do something better. There were varieties of fungus Milo had never seen before. Harry would have added those to his collection. He carefully plucked one of each and decided he’d go start crops of them in Harry’s basement area. Maybe he’d be back someday?

Harry’s area was as he remembered it. But it seemed deserted. Full crops of mushrooms filled all the beds, and there were unwanted varieties starting to invade some of the carefully cultivated farms. Milo needed a break from the game and was planning on logging out here and getting to work on the place when he got back from Section E.

The sound of snoring changed that. He followed the sounds into one of the side caves. Heaps of mushrooms had been scraped together to make a bed. Milo didn’t understand what he was looking at for a few seconds. There seemed to be a huge arm in the bed. A five-foot-long forearm, thicker than his body. Only by following the sound of the snoring did he find the very small troll attached to the arm. It looked like Harry, if Harry had only been three feet tall, and his left forearm was twice his size.

The troll woke up. “Oh, Milo? Excellent. Can you be a good lad and get me something to drink? There should be a few bottles of a nice mycena and puffball solution in the lab. That should do wonders.” Milo retrieved the large jug of ground mushrooms and water and helped Harry to drink it. His small stomach got bigger and bigger until Milo was afraid it would burst.

“Ah, that’s what I needed. I should be able to grow big enough that soon I can remove this damned overgrown appendage without problems.”

Milo squatted on his heels, getting closer to Harry, and asked, “Maybe you could explain what the hell is going on?”

Harry giggled. “Oh, I forget how odd this must look to non-trolls. When a troll gets old enough, they gain the ability to regenerate from accidents that would kill anyone else. It seems my left arm was the biggest chunk of me left, so that was the part that grew a new me. After I had a face and could see where I was going, I started crawling down here just using my hand. Thank the gods it wasn’t just an elbow or something. Much tougher to move. I’ve almost regrown a whole body, but I can’t remove that huge arm until I out-mass it. Otherwise, I’ll just grow from it again. That could be annoying—having two of me fighting over who was real. I hate to impose, but do you mind sticking around a few days and helping out?”

Milo was happy too. Harry was a friend, and this place was quiet and dark. “I don’t mind Harry. I’m going to take a long nap, and then I’ll get to work on the shroom beds in a few hours and mix up some more food for you.” Harry nodded and went back to sleep. Milo did likewise and logged out of the game.

It took a few days for Harry to grow until he was roughly human-sized and for his huge arm to shrink down to the point where he could drag it along behind him. During that time, Milo spent time offline fixing a section of decayed sewer pipe, an exploded transformer, and a large water purification system that needed rebuilding. A day later, he asked for Milo’s help in taking it off. Despite Harry telling him it was just fine, Milo was a bit squeamish about the whole thing. Finally, he gritted his teeth and cut off the huge arm with a saw Harry provided. Harry smiled, showing no pain at all, then tossed his abandoned body part into an empty mushroom bed.

“I’m glad that’s over. Regenerating most of a body is such a pain. Take my advice and try to avoid it if you can.”

Milo was also happy it was over. He’d put the time to good use, learning more from Harry about Mycology and reading the troll’s books. One of Harry’s books also dealt with molds and mildew. This drew Milo’s attention because some cheeses used molds to become tastier. When Harry learned of Milo’s interest, he simply gave him the book. “Take it. Glad to see it get some use. As a young troll, I bounced around a lot before I decided on Mycology. Mold is very popular with trolls, and every village will have at least one chef that specializes in dishes using it. It just makes everything tastier.”

Milo felt a bit ill at the thought. And he doubted even Harry would eat a bowl of moldy food cubes. Milo tended to forget to finish meals when working and often left future-Milo some nasty presents to stumble across later. Thinking about moldy cheeses made Milo hungry for some creamy camembert and tasty gorgonzola.

His stomach decided it was time for a trip. He’d clear out his Smuggler’s Stash in the Arcane Library and then make a trip to the new village announced by the game. The name was certainly interesting, and they would certainly have some tasty cheese there. If he was going to cut back on how much cheese he ate, he might as well eat the best he could get. The only cheese in Shadowport was cheddar, and most of that was in his stash. He’d heard of Limburger cheese but never tasted it. He hoped it would be worth the trip.

Chapter 39

Overdue Books

Milo had taken advantage of the relative calm in Harry’s area to attempt a visit to his Arcane Library. It was more difficult now. Instead of logging out and getting an option to go there, he now had to do a ritual in-game that took roughly fifteen minutes. He inscribed a rough circle of runes on a flat surface, powered them with his mana, and sat and meditated about traveling. Eventually, his vision blackened, and after a very small bit of queasiness, he was on the doorstep of his Library.

Conscious of how the slaver-mage had met his death, he was careful to open the door and step inside. Again, he wondered who designed these things with a small porch that dropped you into the void. It was just bad engineering as far as he was concerned. He should ask Cichol about adding handrails or an awning. Anything to make the view of the endless void less horrible.

Cichol was there, waiting for him. “I’m guessing things are exciting in the waking world? No time for research and learning? And now here you are, finally back, with your magic twisted and bent into some interesting new patterns. Come in and tell me about it.” The old mage who had built the library seemed grumpier than ever. That made Milo happy. He needed some constants along his journey.

It took him a few hours to go through the long story. Cichol had a lot of interruptions, especially when discussing Philistron. Milo had thought long and hard about how much to tell the old spirit but had finally decided that he needed at least one person to talk to, and the old man couldn’t leave the library unless he chose to be reborn as someone else. That felt safe enough for Milo.

The fun part was seeing his face when Milo’s Smuggler’s Stash was brought out and opened. Cichol had gazed in wonder at the old books Milo had hastily looted from the slaver-mage’s library.

Interspatial Relationships and the Balancing of Aspects Across Barriers

Draconic for Dummies

Origins of the Machine: A Compilation of Legend and Theory about the Golden Age of Gnomes

Let the Circle Be Unbroken: 17 Common Hexes for White and Gray Witches

Increase your Star Power!: How to Construct an Antennae to the Stars

The Void and What Isn’t in It.

Music of the Spheres: Tuning Your Spirit to Hear What Celestial Bodies Are Saying

Did Some Orcs Devolve and Become Weak?: A Possible Origin of Humans.

By Imperial Decree!: The building of the First College of the Arcane

Elvish-Draconic Dictionary.

Theory of Fundamental Forces: Attraction, Energy, Strength, Weakness, Magic, and The Void.

Celestial Fire and the Burning of Creation

Man’s ascent to Divinity as Gods walk like Men

Gnomish Contract Law: Volume 167 of 256

Two books were in languages that neither Milo nor Cichol could read. Both seemed to have magical locks and traps on them. “These are bound in Daemon Hide. The trap mostly likely summons a naked Daemon who would like his hide returned and isn’t picky about skinning you as well. I was told once that books like these were created by Sorcerors of Bloth to record their spells and secret alchemical recipes. Of course, the other theory involved the secret diaries of the Vampire Princess of the Necropolis. Their diaries are much in demand by Elvish publishing houses. Very spicy. I’m sure you could make some money selling these books to them if you didn’t mind dealing with such a sordid business.” Milo was content to pass on finding out what was inside, and Cichol put them carefully into a side room where he kept his oddest and most dangerous possessions. They were a puzzle for another day.

The last book Milo was sure he had left in the airship—Mating Habits of the Common Lantern Bug by Damien Franklin. He’d only pulled it from the shelf to use as something to step on to reach a shelf of explosive chemicals. It was a huge leatherbound book, locked with no less than four clasps. Milo was happy to leave it that way. Cichol seemed happy to put it into his collection, but also shook his head at the title.

As Milo started to pull out some of the items he had stolen, Cichol stopped him. “I will never mind the donation of books to my library, but be cautious with other things. While you have the use of this enchanted place, it is not yours forever. I built it, and it now has a mind of its own and is possessive of what is left here. Mundane items will be hard to recover as the library will count them as part of itself. Magical items less so, but I advise caution.”

Milo pondered that. “But I looted all of this from Philistron? Why could I take it from him?”

Cichol snorted. “As you said, you were looting things from an enemy. And from what you say, he probably stole most of the items in the first place. You stealing a stolen gem is far different from taking an heirloom of his house, like his first wand or a medal he won for bravery. Also, rules made to protect against thieves often abandon thieves themselves. Something to consider as you go through life. There is also a theory that a library reflects the personality of its maker. This person seems to have not cared about much but himself and delighted in causing anguish. His library might have seen you as a way of causing him some pain.”

All of the books went to Cichol’s library. Milo could always read them here when he had time. Some of them looked interesting.

Milo considered the contents of his magical box. He hated storing things in it permanently, as that cut down the room he had for food, cheese, or things he found. Some he should keep, but a lot of the things he took could stay here forever. One by one, he started taking things out.

There was a large bag of mixed gold, silver, and copper coins. That had seemed like an obvious thing to take to annoy Philistron. He kept the 437 gold coins and put 40 silver and 40 copper into his coin pouch. Then he dumped the remaining silver and copper coins into a large urn that already contained coins.

A solid gold statue of a winged goddess with the word Nike inscribed on the base was probably valuable to someone. But he didn’t want to pack it around, and it seemed like a bad thing to just melt it down. He set it on a shelf. It glowed briefly as he did so. Cichol chuckled. “Well, that one certainly settled in fast.”

Milo pulled out a bent and broken halo made of silver with the name Zauriel inscribed on the inside edge. Cichol looked it over and then handed it back to Milo. “Harmless unless you fix it and try to wear it yourself. Which I don’t recommend. I’d just hand it over to any church of a God associated with Justice and let them deal with it. There is probably a good-sized reward on it. And turn down any quests it offers.” The halo went back into the box.

The next item was a large bag of thick cloth. Milo had thought it contained gems, but it turned out to be yellow, glowing crystals. Just looking in the bag made him feel unwell. He closed the bag and moved away from it. Cichol took one look, grabbed the bag, and threw it out the door and into the void. “What idiot keeps uncoated enchanted hassium in his house?”

After that, Cichol took an active hand in helping Milo sort things out. Staff of Plagues, Helm of Alignment Change, and Vorpal Sword of Betrayal all got tossed into the void by the Cichol. Milo was horrified as the sword sliced through the old ghost’s neck, but Cichol just laughed. “Can’t kill the dead.” The sword whined like a beaten dog after that, promising to be good, before being sent on a one-way trip to oblivion.

Two things remained: a large bone claw and a gleaming copper sphere about six inches across. Cichol pulled out the claw. Milo could see some faded runes moving along the bone, but they avoided coming close to Cichol’s hands. The bonemancer looked hard at it before handing it to Milo. “Old, but not nearly as old as the rib we added to you. Some of these creatures still exist, but they prefer the deeper regions. Road-Builders, the dwarves call them. Many dwarven realms were partially created by them as they made tunnels that connected larger caverns.

Milo took the claw from him and studied the runes. Faded magic concentrated where he looked, one old rune overlaying another until finally only one glowing rune was left. It glowed brightly, and he suddenly had knowledge of how to use it.

Through study, you have learned the Ancient Rune of Deep-Digging. You may use this rune to construct Runic Arrays.

Runes Known: Deep-Digging, Velocity, Strong-Bones, Swift-Swimming, Sharp-Claws, Destruction

You have gained 200 experience in Ancient Runic Lore and 200 experience in INT.

“I think I’ll keep this for now.” Milo wanted to study the claw more, and he was always going to need good bones. The Sea Hydra had been good for that, at least. His stash had several dozen long bones taken from the flippers that would make excellent harpoons.

Cichol picked up the sphere. “Interesting. It appears to be a non-magical object made of solid orichalcum, valuable just for the metal. You rarely see it outside of the cities beneath the waves.” He tossed the coppery sphere to Milo.

Milo turned the orb in his hands, staring at it. As far as he could tell, it was a perfect sphere with no imperfections. He was about to put it back in his stash when the surface changed, and a huge eye opened on the sphere, staring at him. Milo couldn’t look away. A scene appeared, projected by the eye, and incredibly real.

He was flying over the ocean toward an island of volcanic rock that jutted up from the sea, high into the air. Smoke came from the top, and he realized it was an active volcano. Closer and closer he flew until he could see a lake of molten rock that filled the caldera. In the center, floating on a black basalt island, was a huge temple made of white marble, carved with scenes of love and battle, celebrating the life of a king.

Gigantic dragons swam in the molten lake or lay upon the roof of the building. Milo bared his teeth and growled when he saw the Eels. All of the creatures in his view turned toward him, roaring their anger, and some flew up to do battle. Milo dropped the orb, and the vision ended.

For the second time, you hold The Eye of Wonder. Initiating quest for Hoard of King Mattias.

There are currently two other people who have the special skills needed to help you with your quest.

The artifact again appeared as a solid copper ball. Cichol picked it up and set it on his mantle. “I’ll put this here for now. I must say, it was amazing to see the sight of so many amazing creatures. I don’t blame you for being a little overwhelmed with the wonder of it all.”

Chapter 40

Second Home

The steady sound of several beeping alerts came to Milo’s ears as he stepped out of the pod. None were urgent, so he took some time to stretch, check the attachments to his prosthetics, and get a small snack. The colorful red and yellow wax on his tasty collection of cheese made him smile as he forced himself to have a few crackers with fruit and nut pastes before he treated himself to a piece of cheddar. Some of the flavors were interesting, and he did some quick research on the different berries used and found out that the nuts were grown in the ground, not from a tree. Odd stuff.

But he also saw that it was possible to grow all of them with the correct hydroponics equipment. He filed away the option. Multiple small orders of foodstuffs might eventually be traced to him, whereas one large order of equipment for Section E wouldn’t, but it would also be a serious amount of work to set up the System for growing plants and more work to keep it going. He had money, so maybe set up a company growing food in the habitat? The problem with that was how suspicious it would look, with only one customer and no profits.

He estimated that he would have to put in several hundred hours of work to start producing berries, and then weeks of waiting for the plants to grow. Maybe he just needed a better way to order things and bring down the risk of the shipments being traced back to him? He decided to work on hiding his shipments better, routing them through multiple shipping warehouses.

He mentally shelved the idea of fresh berries as unworkable and got to work finding out the problems that the denizens of Section E were dealing with. Electrical was steady for once and for a surprising reason. The solar and wind generators that Section H had added were overproducing. The excess energy was being shunted into the surrounding sections. This actually made sense to Milo. If they kept the adjacent systems running smoothly, the automatic systems wouldn’t try to steal from Section H. They couldn’t store energy past the capacity of their battery system, so using the excess to stabilize the energy distribution of nearby sections was logical. Very few “solutions” he’d seen done in the habitat over the years had been this good. Usually, it was the opposite.

Food synthesizers were on the blink. There were complaints from all over that the food from some recipes, especially food cubes, was showing up as charred pellets. It was widespread, but only affecting 17% of homes. He suspected he knew what the problem was, but he needed to look at a food synthesizer and its current programming. He suspected a programming update was the problem, but his own wasn’t connected to the data net and didn’t get the updates. That meant going to “his other house.”

Two years prior, Milo had needed a way of attending the swap meets that were sometimes held in the large open areas of the hab. People brought nearly anything to try and trade for other goods. Old video games were popular, as were broken or working computers and video or music recordings of all types. Milo had some equipment he needed to fix and needed circuits that were common in older equipment. It was silly that a twenty-ton air-handling unit could shut down because of one small circuit card going bad. And even stupider when no one made that card anymore, and each one had to be custom-made, taking weeks. Milo could make them himself, but he needed raw materials, and swap meets were the easiest way to get what he needed.

He hated the idea of going out and mingling, but the crowds made it easy to avoid anyone curious about him, and he stood out less with lots of people around. Just another habrat looking to trade old video games. To get into the swap meet, he needed an ID card. ID cards showed where you lived. He had been tempted to print one out that said “big water tank, mechanical level” just to see if they even checked. But as amusing as that scenario might be, he rejected it. If they were asking for cards, they might also be checking addresses. The solution had been to get his own apartment and address, one where he supposedly lived with a parent. There were tons of empty spots in the hab, so he’d assumed no one would notice if he claimed one. He’d just be another person whose only option was the nearly free housing offered by a slightly benevolent government.

Getting into the System was child’s play. He created records that his “family” had lived there for two years after his father lost his job and that they had been forced to move down to cheaper accommodations. He created names and backgrounds and spent time filling in all the data in every place it needed to be. Now if someone checked on “Milo Babbage,” he actually existed in the habitat residential system. He picked an empty apartment at the end of an alley in a nearly abandoned part of Section G. This particular spot had been selected because it was directly under a large service duct that he could easily move through.

Each alley had ten apartments on each side and one slightly larger one at the end. Six alleys terminated in a common area for the neighborhood. In theory, this was a meeting place for the community and a play area for children. In reality, most were just dirty, empty rooms. This one was a courtyard with a fake skylight and an artificial tree made of green plastic. Years ago, it had had leaves and bark, but a couple of generations of kids climbing onto it had stripped it down to the green plastic skeleton of a dead tree.

His second home was just a looted shell when he first got there, unused for a decade. He fixed the locks, added much better security to the door, and moved in enough junk to make it look like the home of a father and son who rarely left the small room. Not that he expected to have any visitors.

His first attempt to go to a swap meet had yielded mixed results. Milo knew about people, but he avoided them. He hid in the ductwork, moved through the ceiling support structure of buildings, and never had contact with them. Just walking along a hallway and passing by people was difficult at first. Luckily, most people paid no attention to anyone else and kept their hands in their pockets and eyes on the floor. He would do the same.

He was dressed similar to a lot of the people he’d seen, in a shapeless set of coveralls and a large hooded jacket. Instead of his normal leg, he was using a simple prosthetic made of ugly pink plastic and metal forearm crutches.

He’d made it all the way from the end of the dead-end hallway where his “home” was to the courtyard with the fake tree before he was noticed. Two boys watched him coming toward the common area—one with apathy, and one with amusement. The second stepped in his way.

“What do we have here? A new guy? I didn’t know we had people down that way. Pay the tax, runt. I’ll take one of those fancy braces unless you can give me something better. Got a meat-stick or something to trade with?”

Milo had no idea of the best way to handle the situation, so he thrust the end of a brace hard into his assailant’s crotch, dropping him to the ground, moaning in pain. He stepped back and spun toward the second boy, expecting an attack, but he was still leaning against the wall, a slight smile on his face.

“Not bad, new guy. Brad will feel that one for some time. I’m Butch. Do you live near here? Or just lost heading to the Big Swap?”

Milo didn’t see any aggression at all in Butch. He looked to be about fourteen with dark brown hair and dark olive skin. He was wearing a much-patched denim jacket and denim jeans. Milo took a couple of steps to a spot where he could keep an eye on both of them and talked. “Moved in a while back. Dad doesn’t go out much ever. Neither do I. But yeah, heading to the swap. I’ve got some old games to trade, and I’m looking for some old systems for parts.”

That got Butch’s attention. “Really. What do you have? I’m really bored with the stuff my family has for the home screen, and my old Game Boy is broken. Maybe you can use it?”

Milo nodded and pulled out a dirty plastic bag with three old games. Butch showed some interest and yelled at his friend, who was still getting over his quick introduction to Milo. “We’re trading, Brad. Truce in effect. Find your nuts and go get our trade stuff. He has ‘Squishy Humans 6 and Deathhunt 17.’”

Butch sat on the floor and brought out the broken Game Boy. Brad staggered off and returned with a sizeable backpack of old games and broken controllers.

Milo sat as well and picked up the Game Boy, popping it open. He carefully pulled out components, cleaned away the grime that had accumulated on the contacts and buttons, and examined the other parts. The ribbon cable was torn, but he had a replacement in his bag. Fifteen minutes later, he had swapped batteries, turned it on, and handed it to Butch.

“Holy shit. It works! What do I owe you?”

Milo pushed over the two games Butch wanted and picked out two from the trade bag Brad had brought. “Swap on the games. How about for the repair, you and Brad let me tag along with you to the swap meet?”

Butch checked with Brad, and the other boy nodded sheepishly at him. “I’m good with that. I pushed; you pushed back. Shit happens.”

Butch put out his hand to Milo. “Looks like we have a deal, then. We have a few other guys coming with us. The Big Swap is neutral ground, but getting there can be rough. We’ll look out for you for today.”

As the day came to a close, Milo felt exhausted. Thousands of people were bartering items at the Big Swap. Butch and his gang moved through it like a school of minnows swimming with bigger fish. Most of them were fourteen to sixteen, although it was hard to tell ages with how poorly some of them were eating. Milo’s status went from “tag-along” to “smart and useful” as soon as they heard he knew how to repair some of the old electronics. Milo found what he needed easily. There was a ton of stuff to look through, and he didn’t care if it was broken as long as the older circuits he needed were still good.

In the afternoon, Milo sat in an out-of-the-way corner, fixing old game systems for the gang and drinking something sweet and fizzy they handed him. His reputation as a tech genius soared, and the gang started trading for broken gear that Milo repaired for them, and they could trade for other things. The gang made a nice profit that day, and each person had a list of the games and electronic devices Milo was looking for. After learning what he needed, they paid him back with a dozen games and pieces of machinery he was looking for.

The day was successful, but he was burning out. Too many people. When he went to leave, Butch went with him, followed by several others. Butch showed him where his own family lived. “You’re ok. You did good work for the guys. They appreciate that, even if they don’t act like it sometimes. If you’re headed to the next swap, come pound on my door. Maybe I’ll head out with you.”

After the first swap meet, he showed up for four more and even hung out a bit with them, playing some old games. Twice they had gotten into fights on the way to the Big Swap, and Milo had earned a reputation as a sneaky fighter, tripping people and handing out bruises when needed. His small size always took opponents by surprise, and no one expected someone with a bad leg to move so quickly. But he found that being around people was tiring. Part of him labeled people as a threat and was always watching every move they made. It was hard to turn that part off. It was better when it was only he and Butch sitting in the common area playing on ancient Game Boys. Just one person to be wary of, and Butch had a laid-back attitude about things that didn’t trigger his mental alarms.

When he arrived through the ductwork, his second home was as he’d left it. Piles of parts for household goods, games, and electronics were piled in the corners. A small workbench had a small light above it and some simple tools. A hammock with a blanket was in one corner. A large screen for video and gaming on the wall, a food synthesizer, and a tiny bathroom completed the necessities. A typical hermit dwelling in the habs, like many others. If anyone bothered to check, it was just Milo living here now, his father having left a couple of months after arriving at the hab, location unknown.

Milo created a bowl of food cubes. It came out fine. His distrust of others included the food synthesizer. He had turned off automatic upgrades. Someone was always changing how the food tasted, and he hated it. He turned updates on and loaded the latest. The next batch of chicken-flavored cubes showed up looking like charcoal.

He took an old laptop from his backpack and used it to upload the fix he had programmed. The next batch came out fine. He set up an automated update of his own to go out in an hour. It would fix the overcooking problem and add a new recipe option. He tossed the laptop in his backpack, swapped out his prosthetic leg, and grabbed his braces. Five minutes later, he was banging on Butch’s door. Luckily, he was home.

“Whoa! The Ghost that Walks! Haven’t seen you in ages? What’s up?” Butch and the other guys had nicknamed him Ghost because of how he showed up for swap meets and then disappeared for months at a time.

Milo could smell the telltale odor of charred food. “Is your food machine borked all to hell? I have a fix for it.”

Butch’s mother had overheard and yelled out, “Bless you, son. Come inside and see if you can fix this piece of crap. Butch? Get your friend a fizzy drink and bring him in.”

Ten minutes later, Butch’s siblings were happily eating. Every face was smiling. New recipe!

Food from the synthesizer didn’t change much. Milo had added a recipe he had found to the list of available foods. Macaroni and Cheese seemed to be a big hit. It was now his preferred food as well.

Butch and Milo slumped against a wall out in the hallway. Butch asked him, “You heard the big news yet?”

Milo hadn’t. But Butch had figured out early on that Milo always appreciated any news of what was going on in the hab. “Big outfit moved into Section H. They look legit. Maybe long-term. My pa and uncle are getting jobs with them. It’s all online work playing ‘contract workers.’ They work four weeks straight, then three days off at the end of the month. Ma was upset until she saw the money. I’m going to start training for it in a couple of months. I’m too young now, but as soon as I hit 18 next year, it looks like I might actually have a job and be able to get my own place.” Besides Butch, his family consisted of his mother, father, three siblings, and a cousin. Butch longed for a spot of his own, maybe with just a little brother or two with him.

Milo was immediately suspicious. “What kind of pods are they making them use? Some of those can mess you up.”

Butch nodded. “Yeah, heard about that. Explains some of the older folks who just wander around, glassy-eyed. But these are the new Mk VIIs. They aren’t supposed to have the problems the old ones did. You even get fixed up a little if you use them long enough.”

That did sound legit to Milo. “Wow. How many people are they hiring?”

Butch wasn’t exactly sure about that part. “They have four full floors of them. I think about five thousand people, and they say that it’s just a start. But the jobs aren’t the best part. The company is throwing a big party. There’s a massive swap meet scheduled, and anyone aged 13–17 can go to a special event. Tons of old vintage games there, the big ones like in the old arcades. And you can try out the new online game in a Mk VII pod! It’s all free. You should head out with us.”

Now Milo was very intrigued. Plus, he loved the old arcade-style games. If he could have ordered a dozen of them for his own hidey-hole, he would have. “Sounds awesome. Count me in.”

Epilogue 1: The Path Down

Many players had investigated the rough tunnel that the World Boss had dug up through the rocks in her ascent to the surface. The thought of finding a stash of loot in her lair had lured many to explore. The way was treacherous, descending steeply through loose rock that tumbled more than one player to their death. And most of the path was dark. Not the normal dark of the caverns with their glowing lichen and mushrooms, but the pitch black of a closed room. More than one group went too far and found themselves running low on lantern oil and torches. Going down was easy, but going up was difficult and slow, especially in pitch darkness.

Side tunnels were found and explored, adding more danger as most lead to areas patrolled by predators. Small stonelurkers were everywhere, along with giant carnivorous moles, poisonous mushrooms, and spiders of all types. It was the spiders that claimed the lives of more adventurers than anything else. One of the arachnid empires was expanding and sending out scouts. The reports back were encouraging, humans being a tasty treat that wasn’t usually found in the depths. Plans were made to form a small colony in the area to harvest humans, but the discovery of a ratkin hollow was cause for concern. None of the eight-legged princesses wanted a war with the rats just yet. More scouts were sent out, and the path from the surface was watched carefully.

Epilogue 2: Milo’s Character Sheet at the End of Volume 2

Stats:

STR: 8

DEX: 19

AGI: 21

CON: 11

INT: 25 (+2 Bone-Runed Cowl)

WIS: 15

CHA: 0

PER: 20

TOU: 8

Vitals:

Health: 1,900

(100+100 per level, +60 from STR bonus, +330 from CON bonus, +400 from TOU bonus, +150 from Extra Health 2)

Stamina: 1,855

(100+100 per level, +240 from STR bonus, +165 from CON bonus, +500 from Wererat bonus, +50 from Increased Stamina 1)

Mana: 3,050

(200+200 per level, +1,200 from WIS+INT bonus, +50 from Increased Mana)

Racial Skills:

Spine of Volax-Repat (Tail Fighting) (DEX)Level 6

Claws of Alta-Viator (Weak Claws) (DEX) Level 6

Primary Skills:

Magi-Tech for Beginners (INT) Level 2

Deep Rock Dwarven Engineering (INT) Level 7

Bonecasting (INT) Level 7

Manipulate Bone (INT) Level 7

Stealthy Skulking (WIS) Level 5

Climbing (AGI) Level 6

Dodge (AGI) Level 6

Acrobatics (AGI) Level 6

Small Blades (DEX) Level 5

Sense Danger (PER) Level 6

Identify (PER) Level 7

Weak Poison Resistance (CON) Level 5

Weak Disease Resistance (CON) Level 5

Basic Fire Resistance (CON) Level 0

Mycology (WIS) Level 5

Secondary Skills:

Throw Sharp Things (DEX) Level 5

Fleet of Foot (AGI) Level 3

Manipulate Locks and Traps (DEX) Level 6

Gathering Skills:

Mining (STR) Level 5

Foraging (PER) Level 5

Skinning (DEX) Level 0

Crafting Skills:

Hydraulics (INT) Level 5

Ore Processing (INT) Level 5

Chemistry (INT) Level 7

Physics (INT) Level 7

Pulley Systems (INT) Level 7

Metallurgy (INT) Level 5

Tool Making (INT)Level 5

Mechanic (INT) Level 7

Trap Making (INT) Level 7

Bone Carving (DEX) Level 5

Rune Carving (DEX) Level 5

Smithing (STR) Level 5

Lore Skills:

Ancient Runic Lore (INT) Level 6

System Runic Lore (INT) Level 6

Dwarven Rune Lore (INT) Level 6

Enhancements:

Increased Health 2: (+150 Health)

Increased Mana 1: (+50 Mana)

Increased Stamina: 1 (+50 Stamina)

Guardian Pet 1:

Smuggler’s Stash 3: Storage Skill. Summons/Dispels a magical chest. Size increases with rank. Currently 27 cubic feet.

Invisible Tail: Even in bright light, everyone thinks you are a boring human. Stay away from mages who can see through illusions. And guards with high Perception. And dogs!

Jumping Jack 2: You may leap three times as far as normal.

Slashing Tail 2: Your tail does increased damage and can slash at your foes like a whip. Damage is increased by 30

Strong Claws 2: Increased Claw Damage by 30.

Weak Poison Resistance: Gain the Primary CON skill: Weak Poison Resistance

Weak Disease Resistance: Gain the Primary CON skill: Weak Disease Resistance

Pretty Good Regeneration: Grants increased (x4) health recovery. Slowly regenerate scar tissue and missing body parts. A steady diet of cheese speeds up the process.

Breathless 2: You may hold your breath 10 times as long (10 minutes).

Abundance 3: Your gathering skills return +50% more resources than normally expected.

Skilled Provider 1: Your gathering skills have a significantly increased chance of finding better-quality items and even rare items.

Fiendish Traps 2: Your traps and machinery almost always work, and in fiendish ways no one (sometimes even you!) suspected. Everyone gets a surprise. This core skill affects Mechanics, Trap-Maker, and other such skills.

Never Lost: You gain a better memory of the routes you take, giving you maps to track where you have been.

Unlimited Dark Vision: You see in darkness and magic-induced darkness as if it were a cloudy day but in shades of gray.

Perks:

Acrobatics: You are skilled at tumbling, walking a tightrope, or swinging from a trapeze. If you have an evasive defense skill, such as dodge, it gains a 20% bonus.

Alert: Others might pause at the start of trouble, but not you. A spell or weapon is immediately at hand, and you will act before your enemies unless they have a similar skill or somehow surprised you.

Fast Casting: When you cast an attack spell at a single target, you may immediately repeat the spell for twice the mana.

Counter Attack: You recognize when someone else is about to cast a spell. Hand motions, shouting magic words, the smell of ozone, and that stupid smirk on their face give it away. You may counter their spell with an attack of your own. After all, it’s hard to cast a spell if someone just cut off your fingers or put a knife in your throat. If you did not use Fast Casting immediately before this attack, you may also cast a single spell instead of attacking. If you do damage, their spell is disrupted.

Juggling: You are adept at juggling items in the air. You may also catch items thrown at you and return them to their owner. You are also skilled at Sleight of Hand and gain small bonuses for skills such as Pickpocket or Gambling.

You have a +20% chance to hit with physical ranged attacks.

Fast Hands, Faster Brain!: Any task that involves assembly, disassembly, sorting, or manipulating multiple objects is trivial for you. You don’t have to think which part goes where you just know!

Uncanny Dodge: Any avoidance skill that you use to dodge incoming damage from a source you are aware of will gain a +20% increase in your chance to dodge. You must know the direction the damage is coming from.

Trifecta!: Raising two stats to 10 is difficult, but raising three is simply amazing!

This perk adds +50 to Health, Mana, and Stamina.

Quadratic!: For raising four stats to 10 or higher, you receive a special benefit:

Extra Rib of Magna-Stultas: +100 Mana per tier

Blessing of the Oracle of Oblivion: +100 Mana per level

Blessing of Regulus Tyborian: While bound to the Bone-Runed Cowl, you gain +2 INT.

Speed-Runed Skin: At the cost of 100 stamina, you increase your swimming speed to twice that of your land speed. Duration: 30 minutes or until you leave the water or you lose your skin.

Hard-Runed Bones: Your bones are hard. Falls and blunt trauma do far less damage to you. Force damage and blunt weapon damage will be mitigated by 50%. Mana will power the rune, costing you 1 mana for each 10 damage negated.

Sharp-Runed Talons: Your Talons are extensions of your bones. Use your sharp talons to hunt the Eels wherever they are. Claw attacks will do +20 damage per tier.

Stone Sense: Even in complete darkness, you can feel the shape of natural stone and earth to a distance of 50 feet and up to 10 feet past the surface of the stone. This allows movement through caves and similar terrain, even in complete darkness, at a normal pace.

You know when creatures move around you if they are treading on stone or packed earth by the vibrations they make. Some stealth abilities may partially negate this, as will a very light tread.

Enhanced Sense of Smell: Not as good as your lizard, but a lot better than a human.

The Power of Cheese!: (Variable)

Magical Items:

Bone-Runed Cowl

+2 INT, grants the ability to use Bonecasting spells. Soul-bound item.

Shadowblight (Legendary Ratkin Spikeystick)

This ancient spikeystick has been used by generations of ratkin champions to slay their foes and instill fear in their enemies. The carvings on the bone spikes will weaken your foes, robbing their attacks of damage as Shadowblight curses them.

Foes will do -10 damage against you with melee weapons for each wound that you inflict upon them. The weakness stacks and will last for one minute. As they weaken, your strikes find the weak points in their armor. For each curse applied, your foes armor will be decreased by 10, increasing your damage.

Base chance to hit: (40+5xDEX+5x[Small Blades Rank])%

Base damage: 40+5xDEX+5x[Small Blades Rank])%

Slay more foes to reveal more of Shadowblight’s powers.

Soul-bound Black Pick of Skulking

This sturdy pick is made of Tier 4 materials and will cut through lesser materials with ease. When mining, the normal sound of a tool hitting rocks is decreased by 75%, and the sound dies out entirely after 50 feet.

Eveldeeves Spiked Collar of Pain-Gifting

This fashionable collar was created by the Dark Elf Fashionista Eveldeeves, and it was worn by her champion during Murderfest VI. 25% of the damage done to the wearer is gifted back to the striker. Very fashionable and often sold in matching sets to loving couples.

Ring of the Swiss Army

Made by the Archmagi Elsener and given to each member of the mage corps of Swissleland. This ring can cast the following spells without the need for mana. Each spell may be cast once a day.

Darn Socks (2 pairs)

Water Breathing (Self, 1 Hour)

Summon Nut Cracker (Lasts until no more nuts present within ten feet.)

Protection from small biting and stinging insects (Keeps them at bay for 1 hour.)

Heat Fondue Pot (Creates a small flame that will heat oil or other things in a fondue pot. Duration: 4 hours.)

Sharpen Tool. (Four sharpenings per day.)

Karl’s Handy Tent Helper (Sets up a large tent or packs it up. Usable twice a day.)

Summon Guard Lizard (Brings a Guard Lizard from the Feenokioki swamp to guard your camp.)

Deflect Minor Blame (Something bad happened? Can’t be your fault, must have been someone else!)

Dog Bite Fixer (Takes the edge off of nasty hangovers.)

Summon Wine (1 quart, lowest quality.)

Spells:

Harpoon of the Winds:

By carving a Rune of Destruction and a Rune of Velocity into a small bone harpoon, you create a powerful ranged weapon.

Base damage of 200.

+60 Damage for INT above 10

Modifier: +30% damage for Skill: Ancient Runes (6)

Total Base Damage: 338

Exploding Skull:

Charge a skull with your mana and hurl it at your enemies, damaging anyone within 20 feet of its impact point. Cost: 50 mana. If a prepared rune-carved skull is used, the normal damage of 50 is increased to 75 points and the area to 30 feet in radius.

Mend Bones:

A healing spell that affects only bones. Heal fractures and breaks. Particularly bad breaks will need additional mana. Normal Cost: 50 mana per bone.

The Curse of Brittle Bones:

Your enemy’s bones break easily, and attacks with a physical impact will do additional damage. The curse has a cost of 100 mana, a duration of one hour, and a range of 20 feet.

Extra-Rib:

Gain power by adding a rib bone from a sentient, spell-casting race to your ribcage. Effects will vary.

Tunnel Rat will continue in Book Three!

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