“I can see now,” said Red in his grumpiest tone, “why it is called the dungeon of dwarven despair. Anyone would despair after walking in the dark with nothing happening for more than an hour.” He growled and glanced at Ben, his white teeth showing. “Unless, of course, we chose the wrong way. I seem to remember saying that the left corridor was the better choice, wasn’t I?”

Ben gritted his teeth but did his best to ignore his irritated companion. In the few hours of gameplay they spent together, he has learned that the red mercenary was many things - but a patient man he was not.

Red wasn’t finished though. “First our new leader leaves behind an item that would help us win this dungeon. Then he insists on following the most boring tunnel the world of virtual d&d has ever witnessed. Why on earth did we - “

Ben stopped, suddenly not able to take it anymore. He turned to glare at the warrior, who for his part stopped in surprise. “If you’re so unhappy with my decisions, why don’t you lead us?” His words were full of venom that surprised even himself. He was even more surprised to feel his hand gripping the hilt of his dagger.

Red’s expression went from startled, to outraged, to amused - the last after seeing how Ben was reaching for his meager weapon. “Really, skin?” He barked his customary burst of laughter. “You drop your weapons when confronted with lousy prison guards, but you think you can take me on? Really?” He laughed again, but there wasn’t any real mirth in his voice. “What a leader! At the very least you can use that killer crossbow you sacrificed so much for, though good luck with loading it before I plunge my sword in your pitiful heart - “

The shadows that Red’s torch threw suddenly intensified. Before either of the men could react the shadows stretched, physically pushing both Red and Ben to opposite sides. They both grunted in alarm, but after a quick moment the shadows returned to normal and Shiraz was leaning casually against the tunnel’s crude wall. “Are you quite finished, boys?” She asked sweetly. “We gals just love hearing you snap at each other, but if you keep doing it you’ll miss all the fun. See?” She pointed.

Ben, still fuming, turned to look at the direction she was pointing. At first he saw nothing, but after a few moments of concentration he saw what he had missed earlier: the darkness up ahead was tinted with what looked like a glowing purple hue. He didn’t know what it meant, but whatever it was, it definitely was something different than a long and dark tunnel.

“I’ll go first,” he said quietly. Looking pointedly at Red, Ben took the Skewering Crossbow from his back and loaded it with an iron bolt. Holding the loaded weapon felt totally badass and Ben hoped that whatever waited for them, it was something that could be killed. The scout looked up from his crossbow and gave the others his best nonchalant expression. “Any preparations you want to make?”

Red just snorted and drew his sword, holding his shield in his left hand. Shiraz shook her head. Milenna nodded briefly. “Give me a moment.” She opened her book and started reading.

This time it was Ben who felt impatient, but he said nothing. He tried to soothe his anger - a challenging task, considering he was building that anger for the better part of an hour.

At first, right after choosing their rewards, Ben wasn’t angry - only ashamed that he didn’t take what he now knew was a very rare item. His reasoning for the decision - that they needed all the firepower they could find if the dungeon was as dangerous as they expected it to be - didn’t win him any sympathy from the others. The only one who took it easier on him was Shiraz, who said that if it were her first time in virtual reality, she might also have picked the awesome weapon and not the simple-looking necklace.

Letting that pass, they were then faced with the dilemma of where to go from the waystone room.

It was actually a good moment for Ben - he examined each of the three exits and was amazed by the amount of information he could glean simply by thoroughly examining the dusty floor. His tracking skill was still relatively low, but it allowed him to notice things he didn’t think he would have noticed in real life. Thus, after only a few minutes he could safely say what was probably awaiting them in each direction.

The rightmost tunnel seemed to be the most used one, with many humanoid tracks he didn’t recognize. It also inclined up, leading him to believe that it was the way to the surface. The left tunnel was where he found a droplet of fresh blood - most definitely Jarod’s - which meant that was where the guard has gone to. The middle tunnel was the widest, and after careful examination, Ben noticed three sets of what he was sure were dwarven footprints and another set of bigger humanoid footprints.

His comprehensive check of the floor granted him three things - dusty kneecaps, smiles of appreciation from his companions, and an increase in his tracking skill, leveling it to 9.

Riding the wave of his success, Ben had told them that he thought they should leave Jarod to his business and search for the quest that must wait where the dwarves’ footprints led - the main tunnel.

Red argued against that logic, looking straight at Ben and pointing out that if Jarod went to the left tunnel, it meant that something - or someone - was waiting for him there. They should catch him before he called for reinforcements. The murderous glee in his eye suggested that there was more to Red’s desire to catch the man than just tactical thinking.

Ben was about to go along with his friend’s suggestion, but then Shiraz broke their eye contact and declared that Ben was in the right. Milenna, surprisingly enough, agreed, and Red had no choice but to grunt and follow them into the middle tunnel.

It was only after a few minutes of quiet walking that Shiraz had whispered to Ben what completely changed - and darkened - his mood.

“He’s using a power on you,” she said, walking very close to Ben. Milenna and Red were a few yards ahead of them, chatting about the rewards they were given.

Ben looked at her quizzically. “What are you talking about?” The light from Red’s torch barely reached them, and Ben found it difficult focusing on Shiraz, even while she stood so close to him.

“Red,” she whispered. “He has some sort of power, I don’t know which but I’m guessing it has something to do with mind manipulations… making people like him… and do what he suggests.”

Ben was startled and nearly stopped in his tracks. As it was, he forced himself to keep walking, but a few moments of shocked silence passed before he was able to speak. “Are you sure?” he finally whispered. “How can you know?”

She shrugged, and the shadows seemed to move with her shoulders. “I saw how quickly you agree to everything he says, and I can feel he has some kind of special aura about him. I would bet my new awesome class that he entered this game with a pre-made character and some sweet RLP powers.”

Ben did his two-eyebrows jig. “RLP?”

Shiraz’s white teeth shone in the dim light. “Real Life Purchases. Available for all… who have the cash. And believe you me, buying powers is a fucking expensive business.”

Ben always knew that VD was a game for the rich and powerful - just buying a console was worth more than his and Mike’s apartment. And while he never heard about people buying in-game skills and powers, he guessed that it made sense. It also made this game extremely unbalanced and biased; whoever had more money was more likely to succeed.

Ben’s thoughts had gone from the unfairness of the game to his own predicament. So Red bought himself a warrior character with some powers to boost, ah? Ben fumed. In that first couple of minutes as they drew further away from the waystone, he ran in his mind everything that had happened since he appeared in the prison cell together with Red. Was his “friend” really manipulating him? He realized that it was a truly plausible scenario. Everything he thought about the big warrior was suddenly tainted in angry, ugly and rather violent thoughts.

Shiraz put a calming hand on his shoulder, seeming to sense his growing anger. “There are ways to counter it,” she said quietly. “Magical items that give mind protection, or simply finding ways to increase your mind resistance. Also, just by knowing you are being attacked - sort to speak - will supply you a certain layer of defense.”

Ben nodded. He already had a pretty decent mind resistance, so maybe the next time Red tried to have his way with him it wouldn’t be so easy. He looked at the shadowy figure walking next to him. “Thanks,” he said simply.

Shiraz gave his shoulder a little squeeze. “I never played with someone who knew so little of the game. I find it… curious. Besides, you strike me as a much more decent fellow than our big red mercenary, so there’s that.”

Ben wanted to ask her about a million other things, but had to quiet down when Red called back, asking if the two of them were looking for a dark corner to stay alone. After that, it was a long and silent walk down the tunnel - which kept getting both narrower and shorter, until they finally had to walk single file and Red’s head nearly touched the stone ceiling.

The only other thing of consequence that happened during that walk was that Ben finally could take the time to search for a way to actively access his character sheet. After a few tries that involved half shutting his eyelids and going in and out of focus, he had managed to find the correct state of vision, so to speak, where the small icons of his interface were faintly displayed in the upper right corner of his field of vision. He found out he could mentally click on his character sheet to get a full view of it, but as his stats sprawled all about him and he nearly fell, he quickly dismissed it.

There was also a “log” icon and when he clicked on it, he discovered that he could read everything that happened to him - whether it was prompts, statuses, level-ups, quest updates or battle logs. As he quickly scrolled and read the recent developments, one thing caught his eye - the prompt pronouncing his leadership was a bit different from the others, with the word “leader” highlighted as if it were a hyperlink. Ben clicked on it and was rewarded with an extensive explanation about his recently acquired role:

Party Leader: VD Core Rules While the various rules that adhere to the role of a party leader change from game to game, there are some basic rules that remain the same: A Party Leader can be appointed by three means: a quest, a DM, or the consensus of all party members. Each party member who is present during the making of a leader is granted a choice whether to accept the leadership or refuse it. By accepting, the party member is considered a follower, for better or for worse. By refusing, the party member is in effect choosing to leave the party (note: by breaking the consensus, the status of Leader may be lost. Breaking the consensus may happen at any time.) A nominated leader immediately receives an active status and certain benefits. Party members receive certain boons as well, and are bound to their leader in the following aspects: 1 - Shared Respawn. Upon the death of the leader, party members following that leader would respawn as well, although without any death penalties. Note: the death of a party member will not trigger a shared respawn unless the party is advanced enough, as is mentioned in article 3. 2 - Shared Experience. All party members under the influence of the leader receive more - or less - experience points from battles and quests, which are then shared equally. The decisions of the party leader are taken into account while calculating the XP received; good leadership would result in a high XP bonus, while poor judgment may result in XP loss. Note: personal XP still applies in certain situations. 3 - Veterans’ boons. Time spent together will grant special bonuses to the party members and leaders who stick to the same group. These bonuses vary but may include telepathic communication, shared skills and powers and even teleportation abilities in higher ranks. Note: The decisions of the party leader are taken into account while calculating the bonuses received.

Ben had whistled softly to himself after closing the log. It seemed there was much more to being a leader than simply pointing in the right direction, and while most of the boons looked promising there was one thing that was crystal-clear to him: for the first time in his life, he had true responsibilities for the well-being of other people. Now if only one of them wasn’t a manipulative asshole like The Red Mercenary… such were Ben’s thoughts right before his little exchange of angry words with Red and Shiraz’s discovery of the purple light.

Back in the present, Milenna was finally ready. The sorceress tucked the little book in her robes and looked at Ben. “After you, mighty leader.”

Ben slowly advanced, crossbow in hand. He tried to put his anger in check, telling himself that he wouldn’t let his VD experience get trashed because of a dickhead like Red. He also reluctantly admitted that he felt a bit of grudging respect for the mercenary - after all, Raxlon’s first rule explicitly said that it was every man to himself. Red was definitely playing Raxlon’s game as best he knew.

Besides, when Ben turned a bend in the tunnel and saw what was waiting beyond, he instantly forgot everything about Red’s schemes and manipulations.

At the end of the tunnel, some thirty feet ahead and right before it ended in a room that emanated a purple light, stood a short yet massive looking skeleton with burning eyes, holding a long recurve bow and aiming an arrow straight at Ben.

For a split second, Ben stood transfixed. It was the very first time he saw a real monster in the game and nothing could prepare him for it. The skeleton was all heavy bones, and it was illuminated both by the strange purple light that came from behind it and by its own burning eyes. The result was something that seemed out of children’s nightmares. Its status also appeared above its head:

Guardian Skeleton, Level 4

Immediately after came a notification about Ben’s Identify skill leveling up, but he quickly minimized the prompt. He was also suddenly acutely aware of Red’s torchlight coming from behind him, ruining any chance of stealth. Did the skeleton see him?

The answer to his question came in the form of an arrow rushing his way in the speed of 150 mph, crossing the thirty feet of distance in a tenth of a second. Ben was caught completely off guard, but even if he wanted to escape there was nowhere to - the tunnel was too narrow to leap aside and Red was too close behind him so he couldn’t dodge that way.

And thus it was that for the second time in three hours, Ben took an arrow to his guts. There were two major differences between the two scenarios, however. The first - the skeleton’s arrow was well prepared, well-aimed, and was boosted by a special guardian power which Ben knew nothing about. It dealt more than 40 damage when it hit, going through Ben’s pitiful armor, drilling a hole in the scout’s belly and going almost all the way through the hole. In fact, it nearly reached Red, who found himself looking in surprise at a bloody and gory arrowhead mere inches from his body.

The second difference was that Ben instantly died. Correction: almost instantly. At the moment the arrow penetrated his flesh, the scout’s hand pulled the trigger of the crossbow in his hand. As pain exploded in him and everything went black, Ben could see his own iron bolt speeding toward the skeleton’s burning eyes.

He had no idea if he scored a hit, though. A red ugly prompt appeared in his vision, the letters melting like the title of a cheap horror movie:

You Are Dead.