Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (59 page)

Oh.
Oh no. Permanent death of Old Man Carver if this failed? How, what? I
twitched an eyebrow and read some of the other fine points. No more
[Messenger's
Pet]
while
in the
[Maze
of Midnight]
?
Not even for cupcakes? How mean! I guess that explained where the
tiny creature had gone. Probably back to that room of trials place to
sulk and harass new players. It made me sad to think that he might
end up following some other Ultimate Edition owner around.

“
Woh
fuck, incoming!” Shadow shouted before fading into a plant.

“
Ehh?”
I felt lost.

“
Get
back, Mister Carver!”

HotPants
was standing with her staff out eyeing our approaching enemy. There
was a health bar available above a squirming mass of something.

“
What
is that?” One of the players shouted. Like I had a clue.
William Carver's game body could barely see anything.

“
The
arms! Watch the arms!” SweetPea was ducking while Awesome Jr.
shouted out redundant advice.

HotPants
didn’t have time to give anyone else a glance. She was knocking
away blurs of movement with one end of the staff then would twist and
swing back.

“
Got
it!” Shadow was hard to pick out among the plants. His color
choice had blended in well with the background, almost as well as the
monster that was attacking. HotPants twisted and jabbed the staff.
Shadow was trying to sway back out of the tentacles but got slashed
around the face and arm. SweetPea was crouched down with both hands
over her head.

“
Incoming!”
Awesome Jr. had something in his hand that was thrown and resulted in
a fiery explosion of a Molotov cocktail.

The
system showed the monsters red bar slide downwards towards the empty
end. A final slash from the daring Shadow finished it off. HotPants
gave the monster an extra kick. I had no clue what had happened. Not
really. Being trapped in an old man’s body made it hard to
respond to anything with certainty. Actually seeing these creatures
was tough. My group of players started chattering and most of it was
difficult to distinguish over the flames dwindling roar.

“
Anyone
got details?”

“
Camo?”
Shadow posed a question.

“
They
blend right in with the maze walls.”

“
How
did you block so many?”

“
Try
tackling half a pack of wolves at night. It’s the same.”
HotPants answered Awesome Jr.

“
Okay.
Damage?”

“
Hefty,
if you get hit. No blind spots that I saw, I tried to get a backstab
and it failed.” Shadow grumbled and picked up a tentacle.

“
This
thing is all arms, no main body. No eyes.”

“
Is
this entire place going to be like that?” SweetPea was
downcast.

“
Says
the woman who cowered in a ball. Why are you even here if you can’t
look up?” SweetPea didn’t come to her own defense.
HotPants did by hitting Shadow with her staff and slicing off another
ounce of his health. They growled back and forth a few times and I
ignored it all. These new monsters had been less freaky than the
giant spiders.

We
hung out for a little bit seeing what would happen to Shadow's health
bar. Or they did, I looked down a corridor of our maze and wondered
how many more were around. Was that swaying over there another one
waiting for us to get into range?

"My
health’s not going up."

"Here's
a potion." Awesome Jr. said behind me.

"How
did you make these?" Shadow asked.

"Standard
alchemy. It helps that I take chemistry outside the game."

"I'm
impressed." HotPants looked at Awesome Jr. with a faint smile.
He had proved useful.

"There
are a few other things I want to try, but I won't have time if we're
going to complete this."

"What
did you do all night?" Shadow asked.

"Gathered
crystals. I'll show you if you can tell me how you do that voice
thing."

"The
batman?" HotPants added her own voice to the question.

"Yeah."
Awesome Jr. confirmed.

"Try
to talk differently long enough, the system will pick it up."

"That's
awesome."

"Stop
saying that or I'm going to hit you," HotPants growled.

We
moved onward, down another few twists and turns. There were more of
those strange monsters but only a few. I tried to help out with one
but couldn't move fast enough. Plus this cane wasn't really a viable
weapon. Carver's house hadn't been filled to the brim with anything
useful for battle or I would use something.

SweetPea
kept at the mapping. She also proved to be decent at detecting an
ambush before Shadow noticed any monsters. Her bravery gene hadn't
kicked in completely though. After the fourth monster she had stopped
cowering in a ball. By the tenth she managed to stand up while
pulling her knitted hat downward.

"Screw
this maze."

"Yeah.
I don't know if we'll get anywhere in time. It's been what, two
hours?" Awesome Jr. threw his hands up in the air.

"You
can't expect to simply breeze through these places. Otherwise, it'd
be no fun." Shadow responded.

"What?"
Awesome Jr. asked the younger girl. "Guys, hold up. SweetPea
says there should be a room or something about here." His hands
were up and motioning for the others to come in close.

"What?"

The
other three hunched over the map nearby. They twisted their necks
almost in unison as SweetPea pointed out the gap in her paperwork.
Apparently we had explored most of the outer edges of this maze.
Somewhere near the middle was either a giant room, or a miniature
maze inside the bigger one.

"How
do we get inside?"

Even
my artificially faded eyesight could tell that none of the paths we
traveled on had a turn that would lead further in. None to the north,
south, east, or where we stood in the west. I twisted my lips and
frowned.

"Probably
a door," I said. "Or we're missing something." My eyes
closed for a moment while trying to remember where we had been so
far.

"A
secret door? In a beginner dungeon?" Shadow asked from over my
shoulder. Having the younger man behind me was kind of unnerving.

I
shrugged.

"Lord
save me from fools.” Her hands twisted around the staff
angrily. “We have to go around again. This time everyone look
harder." HotPants, the oldest here besides me, took charge and
made up a plan. The others nodded and we started around a second
time.

No
doorways were obvious. I kept munching the sweet tasting leaves while
trying to see if any of Carver's skills included detection of hidden
items. There had to be a key somewhere in the listing. Hadn't the
Voices made this place for Carver? Yet, Leeroy had spoken of the
players I picked out. There was very likely a mix of our skills
needed to make it through this customized dungeon.

"These
things keep appearing. Haven't we been through here?" One of the
players said. They kept talking when I was lost in thought, and
Carver's body made it hard to distinguish who was talking at the drop
of a hat.

"They're
respawning?" Awesome Jr. was looking up while counting on his
fingers.

"I
dunno. Where are the other bodies?" Shadow poked at the latest
victim of their growing teamwork. I would applaud the performance but
they were doing it all by their lonesome. Single monsters were posing
no challenge.

"Why
is it when they're dead, they change colors?" SweetPea asked.

"Why
indeed." Came my Carver laden dry response. So far this entire
place had held to the purple, black, white mishmash of colors. When
the attacking creatures died the floor faded to green.

“
I
don’t see why we can’t hack through these bushes towards
the center.” HotPants had grown increasingly cross during our
second lap.

“
You
can’t even see past this row to the next one.” Shadow had
been eyeing the bushes for a long time as we walked. If there was an
easy path through, he probably would have found it.

“
So?”
HotPants stuck her staff into the nearest bush. A high pitched
screech drowned out whatever else was being said. Branches spun and
waved as one, then another, and finally a third creature broke apart
from the walls. They were moving too fast for me to focus on and use
[Identification]
.
Saying it out loud would give away William Carver's player status.

“
Oh
Jesus, are all these walls full of them?” SweetPea ducked
behind Awesome Jr. but managed to keep her hood up.

“
There’s
too many!” HotPants hit two quickly to get their attention.
Awesome Jr. readied up another flaming potion and gave it a toss
towards the third.

“
Anyone
got crowd control?!” Shadow shouted, stabbing one of HotPants'
in the back with both daggers. A flash of red slid off the health
bar. His target turned and switched focus away from HotPants.

“
Shit,
shit, oh god.” The would-be assassin had been knocked flying
into some more bushes. His head shook as he tried to stand back up.

“
Don’t
bring more of them!”

“
Careful
with your fire!” SweetPea said while tugging on Awesome Jr.’s
oversized cloak. Awesome Jr. had a strangely maniacal look as he lit
up another potion.

There
I stood like a lump with half a frown on my face. If anyone had asked
this old man I could have clearly told them not to break down the
walls. That wasn’t being clever, that was cheating.

“
Give
her a swing, Grant Legate.” Someone whispered in my head. None
of the players were near me, so it must have been a Voice. I raised
an eyebrow and felt a shifting of weight. Now I held a giant sword
instead of the smaller cane that normally supported my frame.

“
Ah.”
I glanced at it briefly with
[Identification]
.
This was a sword worthy of a legend that had killed a dragon by
himself. I lifted an arm. It was extremely light too. Or maybe the
restrictions were gone. There was a buff to one side titled
[Heroic
Surge of Strength]
.