Van grinned at the looks of this. It might not come in handy right away—since, after all, the guards were in full alert mode—but after they calmed down, he could probably use the amulet to convince the NPCs that he worked for the sheriff. He looked at his Disguise skill and then looked back at the amulet in hand. This was so crazy that it very well might work.
“Here’s the plan,” Van said as he carefully put on the armor. He didn’t have any of the prerequisites for wearing guard armor, however, and the big, bold words ENCUMBERED floated above his head. He wouldn’t be able to walk quickly or run in the armor, but it was enough for him to be able to get stuff done. “I’m going to pretend like I’m a guard and make my way into the dungeon. You use your Stealth skill to sneak around me and watch for trouble. When we get to the dungeon, all we have to do is free the Dwarf NPC. It’ll trigger an automatic Cut Scene and kick us out of the dungeon!”
“Really?” Sang asked. “That seems easy.”
“Well, it’s really, really not. We’re probably going to die, but seeing as how we’re miles into a dungeon and getting out would be harder than getting deeper in, we’re just going to go with this plan.”
“Fair enough,” Sang mumbled as she slowly became translucent.
“Just stick to the shadows and we’ll hopefully die quickly enough not to feel it,” Van mumbled as he walked out into the hallway. His armor clunked along as he started to descend the stairwell. He hoped that things would go smoothly, but he doubted it. Dragon Kings of the New World wasn’t particularly known for being a forgiving experience, but he needed to look like he was trying... at least enough to justify why they’d be dying at this point in the game. The last thing he wanted was Neil angrily blaming him for the problems Sang was causing.
They walked in silence, down into the bowels of the dungeon, and fortunately for Van, the Armory had a map available and it wasn’t too hard to navigate their way back to the dungeon. The NPCS were all busy searching the area. He could hear someone calling out orders.
“Uh-oh!” Van said, stiffening up as he saw a tall man wearing noble regalia pointing at a group of Orcs.
“I don’t care! Sweep the entire area and search harder! They’re somewhere, I know it!” said the man. He wore black and blue armor, and had a sword at his side. Flames occasionally burst out from the man’s hilt, but did nothing to affect him. The words Primarch Sulith appeared over his head... in purple.
Van swallowed hard upon noting the color. Primarch Sulith wasn’t a NPC, but rather a professional gamer hired to play one of the leaders of the enemy faction. He was essentially just like an actor, paid to participate in the game and act as if the world were real—making interaction far more realistic. The only problem with pro gamers was that they were very clever. Each of them had their own personalities and some were incredibly intense method actors, preferring to roleplay to the highest degree, while others were knuckle-dragging jerks who just liked to kill any player they saw in order to spice up the game. Van had met his fair share of both, and he wasn’t sure which ones he liked less.
“You there!” Primarch Sulith said, turning to face Van. “Why aren’t you searching?” It was clear already that Sulith knew Van was a player.
Van gently tapped his Amulet of Lies and felt it flash a little. “Why, sir, I was here to relieve the guard of prisoner detail!” he said, hoping to God that this player wouldn’t use meta-knowledge to screw him over.
“What detachment are you from?” Sulith asked, crossing his arms.
A dialogue box suddenly appeared
The best one, of course
I just work here
LIE (Underboss Grattics, of course)
Van selected the option enabled by the Amulet of Lies. This caused Sulith to nod. “My apologies, sir—I didn’t realize that Underboss Grattics was sending me men. Very well; please carry on and make sure you take this key in case we have to evacuate the prisoners.”
Item Acquired: Purple Key
Van tried his best not to fist pump as he took the key and pocketed it. He glanced over to see that Sang was still crouching in the darkness. Sulith hadn’t spotted her yet.
“Now then, I must continue my search for the heroes, as they will rue the day that they have run afoul of Primarch Sulith!” the man said dramatically as he walked past Van and Sang.
Van let out a breath of relief; he couldn’t believe that had worked. He’d managed to pull one over on a player. Of course, it was only because the pro gamer was a sporting kind of guy who enjoyed simulation, and not just wanton violence, that he was still able to walk straight. He didn’t bother to stick around long enough to count his fortune, though, and the two of them hustled down to the prison.
The area was still crawling with Orcs, but fortunately none of them had enough points to spot Sang or notice the fact that Van himself wasn’t an Orc. Van glanced at one of the doors and saw there was a name carved on the side of it: Grelb Arcson. It was the name of the Dwarf NPC they were looking for.
Van rushed up to it and hurriedly unlocked the door. The door swung open and the Dwarf rushed out.
“Thank you for—”
“Skip!” Van shouted, hurrying the dialogue.
“Really?” Sang asked. “You’re in a rush to get through everything!”
“No time for criticism, woman, we’ve got to go!” Van said as he rushed through the Dwarf’s dialogue.
In near on a blink of an eye, they were standing outside of the castle. “I am so thankful!” the Dwarf said. “Count me as a loyal friend for any future endeavor! Meet me in my home out at—”
“Skip!” Van said. The Dwarf immediately vanished from sight.
“Well, that worked out great,” Sang said, stretching her arms. “I can’t believe we were able to complete this quest.”
Van looked at the quest bar and saw that it was still open.
“Hmmm, you know, it was forever ago when I did this mission… I figured it would have ended by now,” Van mused.
“It’s probably lag, right? That’s what gamers are always fussing about? Lag? And nerfs? Maybe it’s a nerf,” Sang said as she began to walk away from the castle. “Look,” she said as she pointed at one of the boulders.
Van cocked his head as he looked at the boulder on the side of the hill they had been walking down. There was something strange etched into it. It looked like a constellation, but nothing that he had ever seen before. Then the rock carving slowly began to move.
“This is interesting,” Sang said as she got a little closer to it.
“Whoa!” Van said as he watched the carving contort and twist into a dragon. What was this? Some kind of new feature? A bug? He couldn’t quite understand why there was some random carving on a boulder outside of a quest zone. As he looked at the dragon carving twist and grow, though, something began to occur to him.
“Oh, wait… I just realized something,” Van muttered as his eyes opened wide in horror.
“What?”
“The quest doesn’t end until we fight the sheriff!” he shouted.
“So? Let him come out and fight us! We should be strong enough to take out one guy,” Sang said as she continued to investigate the rock.
“The sheriff isn’t a guy…” Van mumbled as he heard a loud roar from overhead.
“WHO DARES STEAL MY PRISONERS?” shrieked a horrific voice from above. Van turned to see a massive purple dragon flying overhead, breathing dangerous streaks of flame.
“It’s a dragon!”
“What a dumb name for a dragon!” Sang said. “Why didn’t anyone say the sheriff was a dragon?”
“it’s an in-game surprise!” Van said, “I didn’t want to run it for you!”
The roaring was immense, and they could both feel the ground beneath them shake as the creature crashed to the ground in front of them and let out a colossal roar.