Rush to Level 0: (Chapter 12)

“Good to go?” Goth glanced at me. More a reminder than a question, telling me that there was a while to go until I earned my pay.

Three more beasts were down, allowing us to open the antechamber. Unlike with the first beast, I had managed to suppress the screaming urge to cast any more spells. That had made the process longer and much more traumatizing, but at least I hadn’t gained any experience from the battles.

“Ready.” I closed my status window and joined Goth by the slab.

“I’ll open. You stay here and don’t move.”

Less than ten minutes in, and I was already annoyed with the standard arrangement. Taking the role of a brainless bullet sponge wasn’t particularly high on my priority list. With any luck, the rest of the “cave” would hold more puzzles than creatures.

Leaning forward from behind me, Goth pressed on the metal slab. Within seconds, it rolled to the side, revealing a passage further on. A sudden gust of air hit me.

“There’s a strong draft,” I said, stating the obvious. “Not much else.”

The passage seemed to continue for several steps, opening into what appeared to be an internal chamber. Saying a mental prayer to Saint Jeremy, I walked on. With every step I took, I expected to hear a clicking sound under my feet.

It’s still a game, I said to myself.

The passage ended in a hall twice larger than the antechamber. Seeing the massive beast-like statues pumped adrenaline through my virtual veins. They were enormous, ten times larger than me, possibly more. All their features, including fangs, claws, and feathers, were meticulously carved into the rock, making the beasts incredibly lifelike.

“What are those?” I asked, hoping we wouldn’t have to fight them.

“Standard mobs,” Goth replied. “Scale’s wonky. They’re much smaller in the wild.”

“Lots of xp?”

“If you’re upper nineties maybe,” he snorted. “Might get to level down in about a hundred. They used to be used for skill training. You can test a lot of things on them before you go down a level.”

“Used to?” I approached one of the statues. The creature’s appearance was roughly that of a griffin. Less imaginative than what I’d seen in other games, though incomparably better executed.

“They’ve been culled off.”

I felt a shiver pass through me.

“What does that mean?”

“Creatures in the game don’t respawn. Kill enough of them, and they die out. It’s noobs that do it. Some train, some get a rush from the sensation. The groups changed that. Now at least part of the players follow the rules.”

Goth… what would I give for a real-life name. Once I was done, I’d ask Claire to find me one. Then I could work out when the game first appeared, and maybe even find some clues as to who made it.

“Anything weird on the statues?” the boy asked.

“Nothing from here.” I moved a few steps back. “Nothing glowing, no jewelry or decorations, just a standard creature sculpture.” Later, I was going to climb up for a better look. “Do I look through the chamber?”

A quick nod later, we were walking along the walls. While Goth tried to be casual, he was carefully watching every step I made. In this type of game, I wasn’t sure whether he’d jump in at the first sign of trouble, or stay quietly and watch from the side.

Other than the statues the room was remarkably plain. The only thing of any significance was a set of three stone doors, each on a separate wall. The doors were more like stone slabs within an arch than anything else. Two had a clay seal with an X carved on them. If there was any hidden explanation, I couldn’t see it. Based on Goth’s reaction, he didn’t see anything of interest either. In contrast, the capstone of each arch had a series of symbols etched in.

“See that?” I pointed at one arch.

“What do you see?” he asked in turn, suggesting he couldn’t.

“Two symbols separated by a crossed arrow pointing upwards.” I stepped closer, giving whatever code add-on Claire had given me a chance to get a better picture. “The first looks like an X with a roof on top of a table. The other…” I paused. It was like describing kanji. “The other’s three circles split in half, all on top of each other.”

There was a long moment of silence. I could tell he was calculating options in his head. If I were to ask, he’d probably deny it, but the symbols meant something.

“I’ll go check the other symbols,” I said, heading to the next wall. “Looks pretty identical. Only difference is the arrow. This time it isn’t crossed.”

The third arch was nearly identical to the first—except the arrow there was twice crossed.

So this is where the fun begins, I thought.

Three doors, one difference. It seemed painfully obvious to be a difficulty system of sorts. Standard logic suggested that going through the door with the normal arrow would be the easiest to go through, which the others would present a significant challenge. Since most things in the game were inverted, the double-crossed door would be preferred since it offered more experience.

“Double-crossed?” I asked. Saying it out loud made it sound wrong. “Unless you think it’s a trap.”

“Let me think,” Goth grumbled. This was the first time he’d snapped at me so openly. I watched him walk to the single crossed arrow, then back again.

Seen from above, the “difficulty” seemed to increase clockwise from the antechamber entrance. Assuming Goth was a low level, he’d probably have difficulty facing off large numbers of mobs. Even the antechamber creatures had taken him some effort to defeat. On the other hand, the reward was likely worth it. Not to forget that, at the end of the day, he had hired me to be his walking shield for the day.

“We’ll head to the double cross.” His words sounded as if all optimism had been drained from them. “I’ll break the door, you go first.”

As I took a few steps back, I saw him put on a three-part bracelet. Similar to most of the other artifacts, it seemed remarkably plain, made of a material that put rusted plumbing to shame. Once done, he went in front of me and punched the door. The stone shattered, pieces propelling further forward into the darkness.

Nice physics, I thought. Destruction was always tough to mimic in games. Lately, the game companies didn’t even try, having objects disintegrate instead.

“You’re up.” Goth stepped to the side.

You’re too kind.

The area beyond was very different from the current chamber. More like a multilevel cavern section, from what I could see, as if someone had started transforming it into something man-made, but had quit halfway. A narrow path wound its way through the natural columns into the darkness.

I stepped forward. The moment I crossed the threshold, I saw them—small gremlin-like creatures clinging to the cavern walls. Scores of red eyes glared at me, like angry dots in the dimness. As they did, only one thought came to mind: “Run!”

Instinct took over forcing me to take a step back. That proved to be a mistake. As if sensing my hesitation, the gremlins let go of their holds on the wall and swarmed at me. There was no predetermined path, no approach patterns I was used to, no choke points or AI freezes. Unarmed and with no means of escape, the only option left was to use scorchlight again. A strong shove from behind took that option away. The force pushed me straight off the path and down to the lower levels of the cave. High-pitched screams tore my ears, along with metallic clinking.

The rocky ground felt as if it was moving up towards me. I felt my body crash against it face-down, then nothing. For a few seconds, I kept on staring at the near blackness, sounds barely registering above me. After a while, I dared push myself up. I didn’t feel any pain. Checking my nose and forehead, I didn’t feel any bumps or scars, not even a drop of blood.

“Immortality,” I whispered to myself. While I was at level one hundred, it would continue to be part of me. The thought almost made me want to remain at this level forever. Maybe it’d be worth it?

A gremlin corpse crashed down a few steps from me, snapping me back to the present. A hundred feet above me, Goth was fighting them, holding his own against the creatures. Half a dozen clawed at him like rabid beasts, with more shoving on behind. He was able to deflect their attacks with ease, arms and legs moving with the speed and elegance of a martial arts master. This was no hack or automated skill-combo; the boy had learned the skills on his own. With a low-high sweep, he forced the front line of gremlins retreat, then with no hesitation did two forward feigns, followed by a leap off the path.

This was practical fighting. It wouldn’t make for any popular streams, and most probably wouldn’t even call it fighting, but it was what had helped him reach the level he was. Survival, plain and simple. There was no need to fight unless necessary.

You snotty piece of shit.

He must have planned it from the start: kicking me off, then jumping to follow. He never had any intention of fighting the gremlins, which begged the question: did he know they would be there?

“Stand clear!” Goth shouted. Seconds later, he landed beside me as light as a kitten. It didn’t take a genius to know he had some artifact active. “Let’s go before more show up.” He grabbed my hand, pulling me forward.

“Won’t they follow?” I didn’t need convincing to rush along.

“Outer guards. Once we’re out of view, we’ll be fine.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Skittering sounds seemed to come from everywhere, but I didn’t see any gremlins nearby. None had bothered climbing down the wall to us, even though I’d seen that they were capable of that. A perfect example of bullshit game logic. Hopefully they wouldn’t start teleporting around us.

The further we ran, the larger the section became. I had seen many fantasy pictures of underground cities. This was just that. Tunnels were visible everywhere, drilling through rock, linking to bridges above chasms, to form a cluster of caverns and openings. Just like an ant colony. Navigating such a place without an adequate map could be impossible. Judging the certainty by which Goth picked the tunnels, I suspected he had a way to overcome that problem. After a few minutes of constant running, we stopped in a small chamber roughly the size of my apartment. Once inside, Goth leaned on the wall breathing heavily.

“We… we’ll,” he struggled to say between breaths. “We’ll be safe here.”

His endurance was incredibly low. I could run this distance in the real world and be in better shape. If character stats were linked to levels as well, combat abilities weren’t the only thing that would suffer as players deleveled.

“You okay?” I whispered.

Goth nodded, still leaning against the wall.

If you say so. “What’s the play? We head back to the main room or…?”

“It’s a maze.” His breathing was getting slightly more regular. “Each room is a maze. The prize is in the center.”

A three-dimensional maze… not my favorite. People tended to avoid them, as statistics showed, which meant game companies did as well. Every now and then, there would be a new upstart who attempted to add one for hardcore players and fail spectacularly. The simple truth was that the advances in virtual reality hadn’t dome much to improve spatial perception.

“How much more do you know about this place?” I asked.

“They’re called artifact tombs. Difficult to find, impossible to enter unless you have pretty good gear… or a shieldlight.”

That explained why the request was still active. Only a level hundred would be able to see the instructions, and if they were already part of a group, they wouldn’t agree to work for anyone else. Greeneyed wildcards were the only chance a solo player had of finding what was here.

“And you’re sure there’s a treasure?”

“Whoever made the game left aids about.” Goth turned around. “There used to be lots in the early days. Most were looted, but there’s still plenty hidden away. The greater the difficulty, the greater the prize. I’ve looted a few tombs before, but this is the first time I’ve seen one with three sections.”

The significance was lost on me. I checked my status window. The fall hadn’t gained me any experience points.

“What are the mob stats?”

“Don’t know.” Goth glanced out of the chamber for a moment. “Tomb critters are unique.”

That was a pretty bullshit answer.

“The thing I killed in the antechamber gave me five thousand points. Does that give you any data?”

“No. XP is relative.” He took out a small dagger and tossed it to me. “Shocker. It shouldn’t give you XP. Use it only in emergencies.”

“Culling beasts?”

The smile Goth gave me was unnerving. I could see both sympathy and sadness in it, as if he’d seen it all before.

“Being locked in by mobs until you faint.” He took out another dagger. “Stay close. We’re heading to the center. There’ll be fighting.”

Stealth games were never my thing. I always found them slow and boring. Neither action nor puzzles, they were midway between the two, compounding the weak points of both activities. When I was young, I forced myself to watch stealth playthroughs because of peer pressure. The skills would have been useful about now.

From the whispers Goth let out every now and again, and what I was able to see, the cave cluster was more a nest than an actual chamber. Supposedly, the treasure was in the center of the nest, where the “hive-mother” was located. It wasn’t clear whether the prize was guarded by the hive-mother or in her, but either way a direct battle was likely.

For several minutes, we scuttled along passageways and corridors like cockroaches. At every corner, Goth would stop and have me look about for anything unusual. At first, I thought he wanted to make sure there weren’t any other “invisible” symbols, but more and more I got the impression there were other reasons—his senses were heavily impaired.

“Creatures,” I whispered as we came out of another tunnel. “Attached to the stalagnate.”

“How many?”

You can’t even see them, can you?

“Six at least. They’re larger than the others, darker too.” I glanced at the dagger I was holding. It didn’t feel like I could do much with it.

“Guards. Nasty stuff. We must get to the other side of that column. Past them, not through them.”

“That’ll be tough.”

There was a vast open area that separated us from the column. A single stone path went along the far wall, barely visible from where I was. The only other way was to climb down and do a very long sneak past the cavern floor. The number of stalagmites were certain to provide some cover, just as they could hide more creatures.

“There might be more of them.”

“There aren’t.”

“What about the greeting committee?”

“They stay away from the guards. They’re only round the edges. We won’t see them until we need to get out.”

That wasn’t a very reassuring thought. “So, there’s only three types of critters? Common, guards, and hive-mother? Anything else?”

“Drones. Big, slow, and useless. Don’t worry about those.”

“Easy for you to say,” I hissed under my breath. Maybe it had been a bit too optimistic to take on a special task. The tip had better be worth it.

“Look, all you need to—"

A series of screams split my ears. I briskly turned around. There weren’t any gremlins in the tunnel we’d come from. I looked at the stalagmite again. Whoever had caused the alarm had caught the attention of the guards. Three of them had peeled off the top of the cave column and were heading our way. The rest remained where they were.

“They’re coming,” I said. “What now?”

Goth didn’t budge, frozen in place.

“Goth!” I grabbed his shoulders. “What now?”

“Give me sec!” He pulled away. “I’m calculating!”

An echo of claws rattling on stone came from the distance. Whatever was coming this way was going to be here in a matter of moments. Our escape path had just been cut off.

“We’re being swarmed.” I looked down from the ledge. What was with this multi-level obsession? The designers of this place deserved a special place in hell. And they weren’t the only ones. This dungeon wasn’t meant for two people. Based on size alone, I’d say it needed a group of twenty at least.

“Not done yet!” Goth snapped.

“Yes, you are.” I grabbed him by the hand. The boy didn’t budge. My tone must have surprised him. Being a big cheese in the game for so long, no one must have dared snap back at him. “We’re doing this like last time. I’ll jump, you follow. Okay?”

No response.

“I said okay?!”

To my surprise he nodded. Not too reassuring, but at this point I worked with what I could get. I rushed to the ledge. It was a long way down, even more now that I was about to consciously do it. As I stood, the sound of approaching creatures behind me grew—just like cockroaches, very deadly cockroaches with knives.

You’re only immortal once, I told myself. Time to enjoy it.

Taking a deep breath, I leapt off. This time, the experience felt much shorter. One moment I was on the ledge, and the next, I was face down again.

“Saint Jeremy!” I said under my breath. This was one abuse that the creators of the game hadn’t thought about. Even so, it was getting old pretty fast. “Goth?” I stood up.

“Here.” The boy was five steps away. “Better close your eyes.”

Before I could react, a small ball of blue light the size of a golf ball appeared in his left hand. Once it was fully formed, Goth clenched his fist. The ball cracked. The cave soon followed. Rather, not the cave, but its texture. Suddenly everything had gone transparent. In one brief moment I was able to see the entire cave complex, not only the chamber we were in, but all chambers and tunnels, extending all the way to doorway that had let us here: dozens of pockets of space, some large, some barely big enough to hold a person, connected by hundreds of paths and tunnels, as well as thousands of gremlins filling very part like an infection.

Goth was right: there were four types of gremlins. I could see them all and then I couldn’t… as they all melted in thin air. Shortly after the light was gone as well, returning opaqueness to the cave.

“What was that?”

“Area culling,” Goth replied. “Kills everything around. Not to be used in parties.” As he spoke, the bracelet he was wearing cracked and fell off his hand.

“What’s going on?” Something didn’t feel right.

“Delevelling.” He sighed. Slowly, he pushed a bracelet fragment with the tip of his shoe. The fragment crumbled like old plaster. “I don’t have the stats for the artifact.”

That sucks. And I thought all artifacts were requirement-free.

“Why’d you use it then?”

“You.” He glanced at me. “You’d have gained XP, and I need you to be at level one hundred. Until we pass all three sections.”

“Quite the gamble.” The prize must very much be worth it. “So we go to the heart of the labyrinth to get the treasure of this area?”

“Almost. I still need to kill the hive-mother.”

“Didn’t you just kill everything in these caves?”

“Failsafe. The hive-mother won’t appear until we’re at the chamber. From here on, you’ll have to protect me whenever we get into a fight.”

“I know.” I went to him and patted his shoulder. “Just like in the antechamber.”

“No. I’m not as strong now and will get weaker the further we go.”