“If the alarm goes off, we’ll move forward and just start killing until we’re in the clear, but it’s gonna suck a lot more,” Van continued. “Is everyone ready?”
“Aye!” Frager said, “Let’s do this!”
“Healing spells at the ready!” said the near useless cleric. If she didn’t have any wands, she wouldn’t do any good for any of them.
“Let’s go!” Van said. They all descended deep into the tunnels, going down the stairs and into darkness. No one dared to light a torch for fear of catching the attention of the guards who were patrolling down below.
“Alright, we’re looking good!” Van said as he took a deep breath. The cold, murky air brought forth a putrid smell which he recognized as Orc flesh. Hopefully, Sang would be able to kill them without alerting the rest of the castle’s inhabitants.
They walked through the tunnels quietly—until they reached a part of the tunnels where they opened up into a large complex of even more tunnels.
“Great. Which way do we go?” Sang asked. There was some light due to the torches that were on the wall, and they could see at least 15 entrances.
“Uhhh, I think it’s the door on the left,” said Frager.
“How do you know that?” Van whispered.
“I’m completely guessing, but I have a good feeling about it,” Frager said.
“Leave the guesswork for figuring out who your dad is,” Alcius said, eliciting a chuckle from the group. “It’s on the right, fourth door down. It’s in the map that I bought earlier.”
“Perfect!” Van exclaimed as they all approached the fourth door on the right. As they came up to it, the door opened up and an Orc strolled out. Orc Level 6 was floating atop his head and there was a symbol of a horn next to him, meaning that he was a patrolman.
“Shoot!” Van ordered.
Sang sprang into action by pulling her bow back and letting loose a perfect shot. The arrow sailed like a bird through the air and bounced right off the head of the orc. Insufficient damage hovered above the Orc’s head.
“What the hell?” Alcius gasped. The Orc immediately grabbed its hunting horn and let out a loud balooooo. It echoed throughout the entire tunnel network. The Orc then disappeared back through the door it had come from, and they heard a loud bolting sound, as if the door were being locked.
“Aw, crap, get ready for a fight!” Van said, as he could hear hundreds of feet echoing through the halls.
“Fight? Fight!” Alcius said, gasping in shock. “Insufficient damage? Is your partner using beginner arrows?”
“What? No!” Van said, looking quickly at Sang’s inventory.
Equipped: Beginner’s Arrows (+1 DMG, 0 Armor Penetration)
He grimaced at the sight of her supplies. This wasn’t good at all.
Alcius had apparently done the same thing. “We’re out of here! We can’t fight a full group with just three people!”
“Wait, I have a sword!” Sang shouted.
“A beginner’s sword!” Frager yelled in response as the other group began to run toward the exit.
“Come on, we can… come on!” Van shouted in vain. He turned to face Sang. “You idiot! Why the hell didn’t you get good arrows?”
“I thought I didn’t need them; I thought it was just more gamer jargon that wasn’t actually necessary!”
Van gritted his teeth and grabbed her. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
They turned and fled after the party, hearing behind them the sound of doors being opened and Orcs running out as they echoed through the tunnels.
“Are you kidding me?” Van shouted as they turned a corner to see that the other party members were all on the ground, their health bars at zero. Standing above their corpses were eight Elite Orcs Level 8. This didn’t look good.
Chapter Ten
“Come on, back the way we came!” Van shouted as he ran backwards, only to find there was another swarm of Orcs heading their way. “Ahhhh, crap! Think! Think!”
“This way! Sang said as she pointed to a ladder that ran up the side of the tunnel they were in. He hadn’t seen it until she pointed it out, and realized that her Spot skill allowed her to see the secret door. They quickly clambered up the ladder, climbing into total darkness as they heard the Orcs loudly shouting at one another, looking for more people to kill.
“You killed those guys back there!” Van said, “I hope you know that! The alarm sounded and they panicked because you messed up!”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“No! You absolutely did mean to!” Van shouted as he climbed up the ladder and over its edge. It seemed that they were in some sort of storage area. The words Secret Found! greeted him as he looked around the storage room. There was some treasure lying around—mostly gold, so that wasn’t a bad deal. The trapdoor leading down the ladder they had been on was easy enough to lock and seal up, but then they had no idea where they were.
“I thought it would be fine if I used my regular arrows,” Sang replied, crossing her arms defensively.
“I told you to get better arrows! This game is just like real life; if an organization panics and breaks their cohesion, or doesn’t have the gear they need, they will be slaughtered very quickly. We’re lucky that you found this hidden area, but frankly, you are the reason those three players are dead, and they’re going to be pissed. We’re going to lose some reputation points for sure as soon as they make it to a town.”
“Look, it was a mistake, okay?”
“No, a mistake is making a poor judgement call,” Van said. “You made a willful choice to screw us over and didn’t bother to consider the consequences.”
“I—”
“We don’t have time for this,” Van interrupted. “Look, I know you might not think I’m a good person or whatever, but you’ve got to listen to me if we’re gonna get out of this alive. No complaints.”
“Van—”
“No. Complaints,” Van interrupted again. He looked at his mini-map. Thanks to his work investigating rumors earlier, he was able to figure out where they were. The secret treasure room was directly adjacent to the weapons storage facility, meaning that they could get some better gear and maybe even a disguise or two. The alarm had already been set off, though, so that meant the only way out was through fighting, or finding some kind of clever way to sneak out. The two of them had no combat efficiency at all, so it was only a matter of time before they died if they couldn’t find some secret exit.
“Fine, whatever,” Sang grumbled.
“Unbelievable,” Van muttered as he slowly opened the door to the main hall and looked around. Much to his surprise, though, the room was completely empty. All of the guards had to have run down to the lower levels. “Perfect!” he said, opening the door up and creeping out. He had a very low Stealth skill, but it still might help. After looking around for a few minutes, he discovered that there truly was no one around.
“Great! Come on, let’s get some gear and get out of here!” Van said as he opened the door that was labeled Armory. There were dozens of heavy weapons and armor. There wasn’t anything that was remotely close to being wearable for his class, however.
“Is there anything that you can equip?” Van asked as Sang glanced around the room.
“Here,” she said as she grabbed hold of an iron bow and some steel arrows. “I can wield these.”
“Perfect, so now you have good arrows,” Van said, ignoring the dirty look that she shot at him. He glanced around and noticed there was a shiny medallion lying on one of the barrels. He picked it up.
You have received Amulet of Lies: When worn, allows you a special dialogue box that allows you to lie to a NPC.