I sat down, leaning against the magic-stone gate. This time, I looked at Vuplu’s town in a new light—the light of the portals. Small stairs and pathways broke the rounded shapes of the buildings, snaking around each of the structures. The carved houses looked a bit too plain for my tastes, but seeing them bunched up together like this, they held a peculiar charm. Not exactly a friendly charm, but they appeared to be far less scary now than they had been in the dark.

Tamara and Pell joined me on the ground, though they were facing the wrong direction to appreciate the architecture.

“So this was why you didn’t immediately chose an Ability,” Tamara said. “You were waiting to see which of the two would be more useful.”

“Hmm … yes and no,” I said, meeting her calculating eyes. “I did not lie when I said that I want no part of this Player stuff, but obviously I’m willing to compromise if it gets me ahead. However, I keep thinking about this so-called Inspector and her kind. I wonder how much influence she has over what we face. This Dungeon, for example.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Pell spoke. “Are you implying it is the Inspector who put this Dungeon here? Isn’t she supposed to just, I don’t know, inspect us?”

“Inspect us while we move through the challenges she has placed in front of us,” Tamara said. “It is a possibility. But what does this has to do with your Ability, Randel?”

I didn’t reply immediately, considering how to answer. It didn’t feel right to say these things out loud, even if my captors were capable of reading my mind. What if they had missed these particular thoughts in my head, or weren’t able to read them precisely enough? Still, I supposed it wouldn’t be too bad if my Inspector heard what I was about to say. It could create an interesting dynamic between us—and if nothing else, it would certainly entertain her.

“Let’s assume that those three-eyed aliens want to test these Abilities through us,” I said. “Now, what do you think would happen if we never chose any? There’s an inactivity counter for doing Quests, but not for picking Abilities. I wanted to test whether the Inspector would put me in a situation where I was forced to chose an Ability. This way, I might learn the extent of her influence over the challenges we end up facing.”

“So … you were testing the one who is testing us?” Pell asked as if the very idea was alien to him.

“Sure,” I said. “It’s only fair, isn’t it?”

Tamara and Pell just sat in silence, thinking. Vuplu stood still like stone behind them, and I wondered how much any of this meant to him. Perhaps he didn’t know about the Inspector at all, or perhaps he regarded her as a deity and found what I said blasphemous. I could have asked him of course, but I didn’t want to derail my conversation with Tamara and Pell.

“This is … actually not a bad idea,” Tamara said. Coming from her, I considered this a high praise. “But you know, there is really no need for all this drama; we could sabotage the Inspector’s tests even after choosing an Ability. We just have to refrain from casting the Ability once we have it.”

“That could work too, though it would make you less flexible. It’s also easier to resist the temptation to use an Ability if you don’t have it in the first place.”

“Oh man, I don’t know what to say,” Pell spoke. “Ain’t this a bit too far-fetched? I don’t think the Inspector cares much about you choosing an Ability. Remember your collar’s Abilities tab? You see only five slots there. If we are forced to do Quests all the time, sooner or later we’d have an excess amount of Abilities anyway.”

“We don’t have enough information what happens when we’re full,” Tamara argued. “The new Abilities might start replacing our old ones.”

“Or maybe no one ever lives long enough to gather more than five Abilities,” I said, earning some shocked looks. “What? It’s a possibility.”

“I’m not buying that,” Pell said. “But you know what? Let’s say that the Inspector cares about Abilities. Why would an Inspector have so much control over how this Dungeon worked? Isn’t she just inspecting us?”

“That’s just an assumption based on what the other three-eyed alien called her,” I pointed it out. “She didn’t clarify what her job entails.”

Pell rubbed his bald head as he considered my words. “So what you’re saying is that this gate was placed here to force your hand? She knew that you’d pick an Ability?”

“I won’t pretend to know what she is thinking, but it’s possible that she didn’t expect us to get through this way. There was another way forward – by stealing from the two guardians – so I didn’t actually need to pick my second Ability here.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think too,” Pell said. “We cheated our way through the gate, plain and simple.”

I smiled, enjoying the idea that we had just gotten one over on the Inspector and she was now clutching her head in frustration. I didn’t find it likely, however. The Inspector could have been aware of the gate’s weakness, and she could have determined from my psychological profile that I would prefer this second option. It was a win-win situation for her anyway; either we faced the guardians and the rest of the group made a good show of their new Abilities, or I picked my second Ability and started to use it. Inspector one, Randel zero. I wondered what she would do next time, now that she knew that I knew. Would she corner me into picking my third Ability, or would she find a subtler situation – much like this one – to force my hand?

“Now I feel bad for choosing my new Ability,” Tamara said. “I should have waited like you did.”

“Sorry, but I disagree,” Pell said, turning to her. “If all of us waited with our pick, we’d be in big trouble the next time we had to fight. In a sudden emergency, some of these Abilities might mean the difference between life and death. I’m glad that you have your Protective Bubble ready at any time, Tamara. I feel safer this way, and more confident.”

Tamara gave him a wan smile. “Yes. You’re right.”

I agreed too; improving our chances of survival was by no means a bad thing. Unlocking powerful magical powers felt exciting, and it boosted morale too—something that we sorely needed right now. I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it as much as the others.

This situation reminded me too much of what happened to a friend from college. Martin had always dreamed about becoming a motion graphic designer at a big studio—he literally couldn’t stop talking about movies and how they were made. His father didn’t believe in his artistic talents however, and would have much preferred if he eventually continued their family business instead. Something that Martin and I could bond over, since my father regarded me the same way. The only difference was that Martin’s father ran a modest motorbike dealership, not a world-leading biomedical company.

My friendship with Martin didn’t last long. To be able to pay for college, Martin started to work part-time … and ended up working under his father to get by. He didn’t have any particular passion for motorbikes, but he liked the challenges that came with selling them—and, of course, he liked the money. His determination to become a graphic designer had been chipped away bit by bit, until he dropped out of college. Although he didn’t reach the goal he had always dreamed about, he found fulfillment and happiness in a career that lay much closer to his reach.

I believed that being a Player in this world followed similar patterns. Going home was such a frighteningly distant goal at the moment. But completing Quests, leveling up, unlocking Skills, and exploring Dungeons? They were right here. Even if we started doing these things by necessity, I could see how addicting they could become in spite of all the dangers involved. It was much easier to think about the here and now and forget about the big picture.

Then again, who was I to say that accepting our place was worse than a goal we might not even reach? After all, Martin was now happily married and had a stable job. I on the other hand had a college degree collecting dust in my tiny apartment, sitting pennilessly in a dark cave of an alien world. In hindsight, Martin’s career choices seemed to be much wiser. I should have been aiming to be a body-builder or a survival specialist instead.

“How much longer till your mana regenerates?” Tamara broke me out of my contemplation.

“A few more minutes,” I replied, checking my screen. “I can take only two of you at the moment.”

“You don’t have to wait, then,” Vuplu said. “I am staying here.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “The bridge leading here has collapsed behind us. If you stay, there really won’t be any way for you to leave.”

Vuplu hung his head, sighing quietly. “This is where my family lived and died. There is no other place for this old man in the world. I’ll stay.”

“I see,” I said, rising to my feet. Would he have joined us if we were more intent on avenging the fallen Thardos and killing the hive-mother? Vuplu didn’t show it, but he had to be disappointed that all we wanted was to get out of here.

“Goodbye Vuplu,” Pell said as I clasped his hand to place a mark on him. “Thank you for your help.”

“It was, uh, my pleasure.”

I teleported to Soul Eater, then switched places with Pell immediately. When it was Tamara’s turn to leave, she shot one last distrustful glance at Vuplu as a parting gift. I got her across the gate in no time, and then only Vuplu and I remained on the other side.

“It’s goodbye from me too,” I told the aged Ratkin. “Before I leave though, may I ask something?”

The indigo orb on Vuplu’s staff darkened as he pulled the artifact protectively closer to himself.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Are you a priest?”

“Ah. No. Why do you ask?”

“Just out of curiosity,” I said. Then just to mess with his head, I added, “you did well at deceiving everyone.”

Not waiting for his reply, I teleported to the mushroom-illuminated tunnel beyond the gate.

Quest successfully failed: Guardians of the gate

+1 Feat

Everyone received the notification at the same time, but judging by their lack of excitement they didn’t get a Feat like me. I waved my message quickly away, afraid that Imaya would go livid if she realized that I had cheated her out of a Feat.

“Did you think you could get away with it, Randel?” Imaya asked, pointing an accusatory finger at my face.

“That was the plan, yes,” I answered after I got over my initial shock.

“Aha! Don’t think I’ve forgotten it so easily—I’ll get you back for that little prank,” she vowed. “You should apologize to Simon, by the way. It’s your fault he got hurt.”

“I’m not hurt,” Simon grumbled behind her. “Anyway, if you’re all ready, we should get going.”

And so we did. I took one last glance at the gate we left behind, unease settling in the pit of my stomach. I should have been relieved that we had passed this challenge without anyone getting hurt, but all I felt was trepidation about the next one. Because there would be a next one—that, I did not doubt. If this place operated on the same videogame logic as our collars did, then we could make assumptions about how it worked. Soon we would reach the center of this cave system, the deepest part of the Dungeon. In other words we were approaching the climax of this crescendo of challenges.

As much as I wished otherwise, I knew that the worst was yet to come.