“He said what??”

“I believe the exact words were, ‘Stick with me and I will lead you to glory’.”

“Are we talking about the same person? Ben, the Naked Noob? The first-time player who loses his tongue and becomes red in the face whenever you or I are looking at his direction? The one with the curse mark on his face? The same one who would have died - let me see now - three times if I hadn’t saved his ass?”

Shiraz could only smile upon hearing the sorceress’s rant, but Milenna wasn’t amused. “That little twit. That all leader thing truly went to his head, didn’t it?”

Shiraz nodded. “I don’t think it’s only the leader thing. This whole quest seems to revolve around him somehow, and I think he’s finally starting to realize that.”

Milenna regarded the other woman thoughtfully. The two of them rested by the waystone, while Red and Ben were off looting the bodies of the Ratkin. They had both inhaled the poisonous smoke and took lingering damage, which in Milenna’s case was even more severe - the sorceress’s Dexterity score was her second-lowest, so she was the last to escape the AoE of the poison cloud. Coupled with a relatively low Constitution score, she needed to cast a restoration spell on herself and then rest some before the poison’s effects were finally negated. Shiraz had chosen to remain with her, saying she needed the rest too, but Milenna suspected that the shadow mage just needed someone to talk to - someone who wasn’t their party leader.

Milenna didn’t mind. In fact, she welcomed the opportunity to speak privately - as privately as one could, inside a DM’s generated quest - with the other woman. Shiraz was bold and cunning, and her mystical and alluring features suggested she had bought the same “Beautiful” active-status perk that Milenna had before she had joined the game. If that was the case, Milenna wouldn’t be surprised; purchasing the perk had become a habit among veteran and well-to-do VD players, consequently increasing the perk’s price. Milenna knew for a fact that The Red Mercenary had bought it - together with a few other special abilities - and as she closely examined Shiraz, she was more than convinced that the shadow mage had done so too. She wondered if the red-haired woman had made other purchases, but her intuition - honed to near-perfection after years of playing - hinted that one costly perk was all that Shiraz was able to buy. In fact, Milenna already deduced that while she and Red had the same RL high status, Shiraz was in a lower echelon of society. As for Ben - it was clear that there was no status level whatsoever to talk about. The scout was an enigma, albeit a very interesting one.

“You’re looking at me as Ben would,” said Shiraz, her smile returning. “If I didn’t know better…”

Milenna’s delicate brows shot up, but she wasn’t embarrassed nor taken aback by the shadow mage’s suggestive remark. “An intriguing concept,” she replied calmly, with a small smile of her own. “One that I would be inclined to pursue in another VD setting. Here, however…” Milenna’s gaze went to where Red and Ben were doing the grisly work of searching the bodies for loot. Red was holding a torch, so it was easy seeing the two men as they crouched next to the boulders. Her thoughts went once more to Ben and she remembered the almost-romantic moment they had had in the first level of the dungeon - a moment that was interrupted by the woman at her side. “I have other matters that require my… charms,” she finished, not looking at Shiraz. I released the arrow. Now to see if it hits the mark.

Shiraz was looking at the men as well. “Indeed,” she said, but added no more. Milenna glanced in her direction and her face darkened; Shiraz was stroking her newfound necklace. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry, with blue sparkling gems spread on a delicate silver net. The necklace complimented the woman’s features, somehow enhancing the freckles on her tanned skin and making her hair and heart-shaped face all the more alluring. Milenna knew it wasn’t just her imagination - the necklace was magical, adding both Charisma and Mana. She easily identified the item with her sorceress’s basic skill and recognized its worth. When she had asked Shiraz about it before, the other woman said that she had found it among the spikes, but the shadow mage hadn’t looked Milenna in the eyes when she said it, and the sorceress suspected that there was another story behind the finding of the magical item. A story that somehow involved the Scout of Sonadin.

Milenna decided to let the matter drop. As much as she liked to have such a powerful item for herself, she had only herself to blame for delaying during her last level-up. Better to let the other woman enjoy it and move on to the issue of their ever-surprising party leader. “So what do you think?” She asked Shiraz. “About this Mike? And about Ben’s strange behavior? I found it uncanny that he knows so much about the place. I never heard of an achievement that lets a player know the history of a dungeon, and I played in dozens of quests. It’s as if Raxlon had singled him out.”

Shiraz turned to look at her. Her expression turned serious. “Just between you and me - “ she glanced up as she said it, knowing that anything she said was between her, Milenna and Raxlon - “I was going to logout at first. But then I realized that this quest is by far the most challenging - and rewarding - I’ve ever played. And I played in quite a few quests of my own…” Shiraz shrugged, as if saying that whatever competition she had with Milenna, it wasn’t the important thing at the moment. The shadow mage’s hazel eyes twinkled as she gazed into the blue eyes of the sorceress. “I also made up my mind to get to the bottom of this. If I’m reading the map correctly, Ben is involved in something that is bigger than this quest alone. He’s going to need friends down that road, and I intend to be there for him.” She put the slightest emphasis on the word there, and Milenna immediately understood.

The sorceress was impressed. She knew from the first moment she had met Shiraz in the prison cell that the other woman was intelligent and ambitious, but it appeared she had underestimated her ambition. Quickly making up her mind, Milenna regarded the other woman with a genuine smile - the most genuine expression any of her companions had seen her with since the beginning of this quest. She took Shiraz’s hand in her own, squeezing it a little. “Thank you for sharing your intentions with me,” she said. “I agree with everything you said. And I would like to… help.”

Shiraz let her hand remain in the other woman’s grasp for a few moments before she nodded. “I will find you when it’s time,” she said and then drew her hand away, looking suddenly shy. Her hand went once again to the necklace that adorned her neck. “I would also ask that - “ she seemed lost for words, which was unusual for the glib woman.

Milenna understood two things at that moment. The first - Shiraz was young, by far younger than herself. While they might look the same age in VD, she was sure that Shiraz’s player was of a different generation in real-life. The second - Shiraz was truly falling in love with the young noob who became their party leader. Milenna’s own advances toward the scout were made entirely from personal interest; she too had recognized that Ben was the focal point of this quest, and made up her mind to get as close to him as she could. There was nothing else there. Shiraz, however...

Milenna sighed. As ambitious as she was, she wouldn’t step in the way of love - as misguided and naive as it was. At least, she added to herself, as long as her own goals wouldn’t be undermined. The sorceress held up her hand, stopping whatever Shiraz was about to say next with a finger against the other woman’s lips. “Say no more,” she whispered. “I understand.”

Shiraz’s eyebrows rose a little. Truly? Her expression asked.

Milenna’s lips curled ever so slightly. Truly, her own look answered.

“Would you look at that,” came a rough and cheerful voice. “I told you, skin, we should have left them alone together a while longer! No, no, don’t stop because of us - ”

Milenna sighed again, this time in derision, and took her hand away from the shadow mage’s lips. Shiraz looked more flustered - again unusual for the red-haired woman - and quickly jumped to her feet.

Milenna stood more slowly, adopting her usual arrogant and noble bearing that was as much part of her VD character as it was of her RL persona. She gave Red a disgusted look. “You,” she said matter of factly, “are an ass.”

The mercenary grinned, unperturbed. At his side was Ben, who couldn’t hide his own stupid smile. The scout’s eyes were both amused and admiring as he looked from Milenna to Shiraz, and the sorceress groaned inwardly. Young, she reminded herself. So fucking young.

“We’ve found some stuff,” said Ben, and for the next couple of minutes, they were all engrossed in the distribution of loot the men had gathered among the slain Ratkin.

The most valuable items - though not in any monetary terms - were four small backpacks, which had previously belonged to the Ratkin party. Having gone this far without a backpack was a pain - they all began to look quite ridiculous with all the pouches of coins and potions hanging from their belts, not to mention how clumsy it felt to travel and fight like this. The backpacks weren’t of the best quality but they would do. And they arrived just in time, for the loot was considerable, at least when considering the Ratkin party’s low level.

After distributing the coins, Milenna was richer by 9 gold, 24 silver and 15 copper. Each one of them now had more than fifty gold coins and twice that number in silver, which was a small fortune in terms of VD. Milenna idly wondered when any of them would have a chance to use the coins - she suspected this dungeon had at least one more level, and they had only begun exploring this floor - but shrugged the thought off. All in good time.

The men had also found a small fortune in terms of potions. There were no mana potions, to Milenna’s dismay, but there were enough health and stamina potions to boost each party member with three each.

Finally, there were weapons, armor and additional items. The armor they discarded - none of it could fit any of the humans - but Ben found common iron bracers that added some necessary defense. The scout also found two quivers full of iron bolts to refill his supply, and was now wearing a new magic ring that he scavenged from the Ratkin party leader - the ring gave him resistance to magical assaults, and since the scout was the only one among them without any magical resistance up until now, they all agreed to let him have the valuable item. Lastly, Ben chose two common daggers of good quality, as his own dagger was lost after the fight with the Vampiric Stirges.

Red was happy enough to add some weapons to his arsenal - a bow, a mace, the Ratkin leader’s scimitars and a long dagger. The bow he took came with a quiver full of arrows, including some special magical ones, which Milenna happily identified for him. The mercenary also found a length of rope, a flint and steel, and a few dried rations which he recognized from previous VD sessions and thus was able to identify: chewing them would grant a short immunity to physical pain, as well as hasten any healing process.

Shiraz decided to leave most of the loot to her companions - maybe she felt guilty about the necklace, Milenna mused - and thus took only one additional dagger and an exploding poison vial they found on the Ratkin leader - the same as the one she had used when trying to escape.

As for Milenna, she too found little of value. She did take a small knife with a thong attached to it - Ben had told her he found it on the body of the scout, and Milenna recognized it for what it was: a weapon of a last resort. She attached it to her wrist and experimented with it, happy with the result - a slight movement of her wrist would bring the hilt to her fist. The sorceress also gained an Amulet of Health, which gave her a much-needed Constitution boost.

Finally, they stood together by the waystone to discuss their next step.

“I guess it’s time to see what is the worth of Yitro’s gift,” said Ben. Their leader’s face darkened as he mentioned his friend’s name and Milenna once again wondered how the mountain dwarf fit into their story - and what was the nature of his and Ben’s relationship. She remained silent, though, reminding herself of the agreement she had just made with Shiraz. We will find what this is all about.

Ben seemed acutely aware of the silence that followed his words and he looked at his companions with a look that sent chills down Milenna’s spine - not because it was frightening in any way, but because it reminded her of the way the scout had looked after he cast his death spell. There was hidden knowledge behind those young eyes, and also something else. A secret source of power.

“I know what you all must be thinking,” said Ben. “I am asking myself the same questions, and I promise we will get the answers we seek. I want to assure you of one thing, though. Yitro’s player, Mike - he is my friend. I had no idea he would come here and I don’t know why it happened. But if he died so he could give us this map, then we should at least see where it leads.”

Red was the first to break the tension. The mercenary half-smiled beneath his helm and gave Ben a hearty slap on his shoulder. “Lead on, leader. We’re with ya,” he said in his gruff voice.

Ben - after regaining his balance - smiled thankfully at the mercenary. He took both of the map fragments and, taking a deep breath, slowly brought the two pieces together.

A light, stronger than the light of the waystone, began to shine around the map’s fragments. Ben gasped and instinctively let go of the parchments - but to their amazement, the fragments remained floating in the air, rotating around themselves as they drew closer. The four companions watched as the two pieces finally joined into one. Another burst of light nearly blinded them, forcing them to close their eyes. Milenna immediately reopened them - and inhaled in astonishment at the sight that was revealed to them all.

Hovering above their heads was a map made of white beams of light. It covered an area of ten-by-ten feet and had several markers, the biggest of which was at the center of the map - Milenna could easily identify the shape of the waystone. Looking around, she recognized the passage back to the first floor of the dungeon, but that was the extent of what she knew of the place. The waystone’s marker on the map was surrounded by an uneven border - probably the extent of the cavern they now stood in - and Milenna counted at least twenty-five tunnels that led away from the cavern. Each tunnel led to further tunnels and rooms and some of these rooms had the universal sign of staircases leading down - probably to deeper parts of the dungeon. It was an immense complex, easily two miles long if she estimated the scale right. If they had to search all of this without a map...

“This is insane,” said Shiraz, who was looking open-mouthed at the hovering map of light. “Ben, please tell us that we don’t have to try all of these exit points to get to the third level of the dungeon.”

Ben’s eyes were wide as he examined the map. “I don’t - “ he began, but suddenly his head jerked backward and his face twisted in pain. Milenna had seen him act like this before and thought she understood what was going on, so when Shiraz started to reach out toward the scout, Milenna quickly grabbed the shadow mage’s arm. “Wait,” she said quietly.

Shiraz looked at her in anger for a moment, but seeing the look in Milenna’s eyes she calmed down. Understanding dawned on her. She nodded, turned to look at the ever-surprising noob.

Ben’s pained expression quickly vanished. He licked his lips and took a deep breath. Then he began to walk, taking small steps as his eyes scanned the large map above their heads. After a few moments, he stopped and pointed to a specific section of the glowing map.

The others drew closer, looking to where the scout was pointing. Milenna saw a small X sign in the middle of a large room, one that eluded her before when she had looked at the map. Next to it was an even smaller sign, a triangle. The X was obvious enough for any veteran VD player -

“A treasure!” Exclaimed Red. The tall warrior’s head - which was made taller by the helmet - was inside the crisscrossing lines of the map of light, making him look as if he was a part of some weird light show. One of the white beams reflected off his white teeth as he grinned.

“Yes,” said Ben, smiling as well. “A great Duergar treasure, revealed only to those that have acquired both parts of the map.”

Milenna looked from the scout to the glowing signs above his head. “And the triangle?” She was annoyed that there were things she didn’t know and even more so that she had to ask, but her pride was not the issue at that moment.

Ben was still looking at the hovering map when he answered. “The Duergar sign for a secret passage. I believe this is the one and only way to reach the third level - and to find the Eye of Paragmir. All of the other exit points will lead to either traps or dead ends.”

There was a long minute of silence, which ended with a collective gasp as the glowing map suddenly vanished from sight. “What - “ said Red in alarm. “Were we supposed to copy it? What the fuck!”

Ben put a reassuring hand on the mercenary’s arm. “Fear not, my friend. My Scout’s Friendly Map is already updated. Milenna was right,” he added and gave the sorceress a sly look - “scouts can come quite handy.”

Milenna pressed her lips tightly, remembering her first reaction after Ben had revealed his class. “Indeed,” she said. Then she looked around and brought up the most pressing question of the moment. “So what are we going to do? We can either go to this treasure and toward the completion of our quest, or we can search for Dark Heart, who is supposedly holding Ben’s friend as a captive. I, for one, would rather seek that sonofabitch necromancer before we do anything else. I owe the bastard a debt of blood.” She would never forget the player who had betrayed her and killed her level 16 character more than two years before.

Shiraz shrugged. “We have no time limit on this Eye of Paragmir quest, have we?”

Ben nodded. “None that I know of. What do you think, Red?”

The warrior hefted his backpack over his shoulder. “I am for the treasure. But if we could find this asshole Milenna wants to kill on our way, all the better.”

Ben ran a hand through his hair as he contemplated their situation. “So be it,” he said. “We search for Dark Heart and try to save Yitro. Then we seek the treasure and continue my - our power quest. Gear up,” he added hastily. “We have lingered too long as it is.”

Milenna watched the scout as he spoke, and she didn’t miss his slip of the tongue. Glancing sideways, she saw that Shiraz was examining the party leader as well with furrowed eyebrows, looking worried.

Milenna narrowed her eyes. She would keep her promise to the shadow mage, help her protect the young scout. But she would also keep the promise she had made to herself, a long time ago. This is going to get so much more interesting, thought the sorceress, and allowed herself a small grin of her own.