"Well, Sahara wasn't helping either," Van said as he looked over at the woman. He couldn't quite figure out her age, but she never acted like an adult. When pressed, she always said she was a 35-year-old woman from Oklahoma, but that didn't seem right.
"I was just messing around," Sahara said. "It's not like we were going to go any deeper into the dungeon anyway."
Once the final statue slid onto the ground, there was a loud clicking noise followed by the grinding of a door slowly opening up. The words Puzzle Solved: 125 points floated in front of Van. Not bad at all.
"I hope we don't have much left to go," Sang said as she pointed to the set of stairs the newly opened door had revealed. "Up is good, right?"
"We're at 640 points," Van said as he took the lead and began to ascend this new set of stairs. "I doubt there's much left for us after this."
They made their way to the top of the stairs to discover a ten-foot-tall and ten-food-wide cube made of green ooze that was directly blocking their passage through the hallway.
"Look!" Sahara said as she pointed at the cube. "I can see the finish line on the other side."
"What the hell is this thing?" Sang asked as the cube slurped and burbled at them. It slowly began to creep towards them, but it was moving at a snail's pace.
"Dungeon Cube," Van said. "Don't touch it, or it'll suck you in and slowly digest you."
"But you'll suffocate before you get digested," Fredlin added.
"Well, it's coming towards us," Sang said as she fired an arrow into the creature. The word Ineffective hovered above the thing as her arrow slowly sank into the ooze. She could see the arrow slowly beginning to disintegrate from being inside of the green slime. "What do we do?"
"Kill it, I guess," Van said as he craned his neck to see if there was any way around the creature. From the looks of it, the monster was unavoidable. There was nowhere to go behind them, either. Going back down the stairs wouldn't help, because this thing would probably just squeeze itself down the stairs and follow them. They could theoretically lead it to the water of the last level they'd been at, but at the speed it was moving, it would probably take them almost all day.
"I've got just the spell," Fredlin said as he raised his hands. "It's a powerful enchanting spell that imbues a weapon with the power to affect creatures which are immune to regular damage!"
"Ooh, pick me!" Van said as he raised his warhammer high. "I'll kill it!"
"Perfect!" Fredlin said. "Now, hold still!" He raised his hands high and began to mutter arcane words as little bolts of energy flew from his fingertips to Van's warhammer. The hammer glowed brightly as the power radiated around it.
The words Your Weapon Has Been Enchanted hovered before Van as he read the new stats.
Enchanted Warhammer
Damage: 225
Speed Rating A+
Speciaclass="underline" Weapon overcomes damage resistance and weapon immunity.
"Perfect!" Van said as he triumphantly swung his warhammer at the ooze that had moved a few inches towards them. The hammer crashed into the creature and the words Hit 100 damage hovered above the Dungeon Cube's top.
Then Van went to pull his weapon out, but he felt a sharp tug pull him forward instead. It seemed that even though he'd done damage to the creature, his weapon hadn't bounced off. Rather, the Dungeon Cube was pulling his weapon into itself.
"Crap!" Van shouted as he dug his feet into the ground. "Need some help here!" His strength score was high, but the creature was far stronger than he'd anticipated, and it began to pull him deeper toward it.
"I gotcha!" Sahara shouted as she ran up behind him, wrapped her arms around him, and began to pull at him hard. "You smell nice," she whispered as she nuzzled against his head.
"You've got to be kidding me," Van grunted as he leaned back into his ally, pulling with all of his might. "Fredlin! A strength spell, please!"
"Oh, right, right," Fredlin said as he placed his staff on the ground and began to mutter more arcane words. This time, energy flew into Van's body and he felt a powerful force erupt within his arms.
"Haha!" Van shouted as he watched his strength score shoot up to nearly 40 points. "Now this is a buff spell!" He ripped the weapon from the creature's body and smashed his hammer into the Dungeon Cube again, dealing even more damage.
"Make it count," Fredlin said. "I'm just about out of spells here."
Van made short work of the creature with his new strength, hammering on it over and over again until there was nothing left but a small green puddle on the ground.
The words Optional Monster Defeated! +100 points floated above Van's head.
"What in the hell does 'optional monster' mean?" Van asked as he turned around to face his team. They hadn't said much during his interaction with the monster, and had seemed perfectly content to just watch him in silence. "And why weren't the rest of you helping?"
"I dunno," Kylian said, chuckling a little. "I think you got a good handle on it."
The rest of the team all burst out into laughter at the same time, utterly confusing Van.
"Guys, what the hell is so funny?" Van asked.
Sang pointed to a rope that was hanging off to the side. Van looked at the rope and followed it with his eyes, realizing that the rope led to a ledge by which they could have easily circumvented the monster.
"What? Why didn't anyone point that out?"
"Because, Sang and I had a bet about how long it would take for you to notice!" Kylian chuckled again. Van glanced over to see that even Sang was laughing. That was a rare sight indeed, but he welcomed it. He began to laugh, too, finally, and for a very brief moment, everything was okay. The moment didn't last for very long, however, for Van soon glanced at the timer on the side of his vision and shook his head.
"Alright, guys, let's finish this out!" And with that, the entire team rushed over to a large red ribbon that was waiting for them. The words Finish Line hovered above the ribbon. Van hurried through, breaking the ribbon and causing a menu to pop up in front of him.
Congratulations on Completing the Race in 1:57:32. You have earned 500 bonus points. Your total score is 1,140 points. You qualify for the next event! Your current ranking is 3 out of 500.
"Awesome!" Sahara exclaimed. "Can you guys believe we're ranked 3?"
Yeah, it's pretty great," Van said as he looked around the end of the dungeon. There wasn't anywhere to go.
"So, do we just hang out and wait for the rest of them to finish?" Sang asked as she sat down. "Who knows how long these guys will take?"
"I, for one, welcome a chance to rest," Kylian said. "That dungeon was pretty fun, but exhausting."
"Yeah," Van said as he leaned against a wall and closed his eyes. "Rest sounds like a good plan."
Sang opened her eyes to realize that she was no longer in the dungeon. Instead, she was in some kind of a field. The wind was whipping hard against her back, and the transition had been sudden. Moments ago, everyone had been sprawled out on the floor of the dungeon, playing twenty questions to pass the time, and now she was lying on the grass on an open plain.
The sun was unrelentingly hot against her skin and the brightness caused her to squint hard. The darkness of being underground, with only torchlight to provide sight, had made for a very painful transition into regular daylight.
"What in the hell?" Sang asked as she scrambled to her feet. Another dragon, one with bright yellow scales, flew overhead. Sang glanced around to see that the rest of her team was there, as well. Across from her were more players. Each player's position mirrored one of Sang's own team members' positions. She realized that they'd been placed in a stand-off.
"Greetings, players, coming to the second round! The goal is a simple one: you must retrieve your opponent's flag before they steal yours," the dragon boomed. "Behind you is your base. There are five of you and five of your opponent. Each time you die, you will respawn in exactly five minutes. How, then, will you attack and defend at the same time? You have 60 minutes to steal their flag and return it to your base. If neither team has scored by the end of the 60 minutes, respawns will be disabled until someone has scored a point. This is an elimination challenge. The team that wins will move on to the next challenge, and the team that fails will be ejected from the tournament. Ready? Begin!"