A chill ran down Rich's spine.

He'd been hoping for a tutorial, or a beginner's zone at least. Some place to start in to learn how to play, and figure out how to do stuff.

But now? Now he was evidently in or near some kind of dungeon, and there were other players coming to raid it.

Did this game have PVP?

Probably. It was on the Darknet. There was no way it wasn't hardcore.

Which meant that Rich was a noob, just spawned, standing between players and some kind of treasure. And what's more, he was playing a monster race. He was pretty sure he knew how this particular story would end, if he didn't do anything about it.

Rich was used to bad luck, but this was absurd.

Fortunately, the players up top didn't seem to be in a hurry.

“Where'd you go, you little lizard? God, I hate it when they run,” a male voice said from the top of the stairs. “I can't see a damn thing. Hey Boombabe, you still got that light spell loaded?”

A female voice replied, “Um, no. We came here to kill a dragon, remember? I've still got all the dragon-killer stuff loaded. Drop a torch or something.”

“We were dragon-fighting! Why would I carry bundles of flammable shit around? I don't have a torch.”

“Just drop a fireball down there,” another guy suggested.

“Yeah no,” Boombabe said, scorn dripping from her words. “And turn any spellbooks or valuable fragile stuff down there to ash? I don't think so.”

Rich wasn't idle while they argued. He roamed out further, peering up at the light so high above, trying to make out the features of the things around him. It didn't help much, but he thought he could maybe make out shapes.

What the heck kind of dragon couldn't see in the dark? And if he blew fire, then they'd see him. This wasn't good.

Of course, he wasn't sure how to breathe fire in the first place. Rich wished again that he'd had a tutorial or something like that.

But wishes didn't get anything done, so he roamed out further, stopping every time he hit something made of metal and stone, and carefully going around it. He was trying to sneak, and really not sure if he was succeeding.

Your actions have unlocked the generic skill: Stealth!

Your Stealth skill is now level 1!

Okay, that was a good sign, Rich thought.

But while he was focusing on sneaking, he wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been to the darkness around him.

“What are you doing little great one?” a voice whispered right next to his ear, and Rich jumped, twisted, tried to dodge...

...and slammed right into a heavy metal thing that rang like a bell, and gave way beneath him, toppling.

In a split second, Rich knew that it would fall to the stony floor, and make more noise. And then the players would know something was out there. And then maybe Boombabe would reconsider that fireball, and... and whatever happened, he would be screwed.

In that split-second, as he saw doom coming full steam toward him, Rich's hands whipped out frantically toward the falling thing, and caught some sort of handle or protrusion.

DEX+1

Rich held it until it steadied, pulled it back toward himself until the metal thing— a vase or a pot or something— settled down evenly on the spot it had held.

But the noise hadn't gone entirely unnoticed. “I heard something,” the male voice that had suggested the fireball said from above. “That lizard's down there somewhere.”

“Well no shit, after Tankitaway sat there whining about light spells and let him get away,” Boombabe said. “There were glowstones back in the treasure hoard, why don't you go back and get one of those, Captainstabyn?”

There was a long pause.

“That's a two hundred intelligence for you,” said the first voice.

“More of a common fucking sense thing, Tankitaway,” Captainstabyn replied.

“Yeah, I didn't see you thinking of those stones,” Tankitaway fired back.

“Guys, can we just get this done? My Mom says I have to be back before dinner and I don't wanna log out here,” a new voice whined.

“Relax, Doctorhealgood,” Tankitawaysaid. “Like I keep telling you this game's different, it's all procedurally generated. We're not in a dungeon, so stuff doesn't just respawn out of thin air. The dragon's dead, he won't be coming back.”

The dragon's dead? Rich wondered. I'm alive... no, wait. I just hatched. They like killed my Mom or something.

That made him think of his real mother, gone now, maybe not coming back. He closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again, there was a warm shape inches away from his face, light from above reflecting off of scales.

Rich gasped, and then two small hands grabbed his muzzle, as the shape hissed “Ssshhhh!”

Okay, okay, this was that Geebo guy, had to be. “How do we get out of here?” Rich whispered back.

“Not know,” Geebo said. “Is got to be way out, somewhere. Help look?”

“I can't, I can't see a thing,” Rich looked around. “It's too dark, and if we make a light they'll catch us.”

“Confused now,” Geebo said. “Are you not dragon? You look like dragon. Do you not have Dragonseye?”

“Dragonseye?” Rich asked, and to his utter amazement, his voice changed. He hadn't meant it to, but the tone had shifted, just slightly.

And along with that shift, the world shifted as well.

One minute he was staring at darkness, and a few pinpoints of distant light off of scales.

Now the world around him was as clear as day, and he could see two things immediately before him.

The first was a set of words;

Your Dragonseye skill is now level 2!

The second was a small, anxious reptilian face that looked something like a mix between a horned dragon lizard and a bird. It had a beak on the end of a green-scaled muzzle, that ran up to a set of anxious looking red eyes hidden behind taped-together spectacles. The creature's skull sloped up to a crest with backward pointing horns, only a few inches long, poking out from it.

The rest of its body was human-like... short if Rich had any sense of perspective. Only about two feet tall, and clad in a patchy set of pants and a harness that had odd bits of junk tied to it. He... or she, Rich couldn't tell... had four-fingered hands that were constantly in motion, wandering up and down its harness, checking things, going into pockets, or patting its scales as if Geebo were assuring themselves that they still existed.

Of course, given the fact there were at least four players up there, that wasn't something that Geebo could take for granted, not for very long, anyway. With that thought, Rich looked up to them. The dimly-backlit figures up top were now revealed as four people, with glowing green words above their heads. The distance was too great, though, he couldn't make out the letters.

“Okay, I can see,” Rich told Geebo.

“Funny you not know that to begin with,” Geebo said. “Elders not sing the song to you in egg? No worry now though. Got to go!”

“Yeah. Where?” Rich took a good look around, and found no obvious answers. They were at the bottom of a round stone chamber, a vertical cylinder. A staircase ran around the sides of it, spiraling up to where a group of figures waited for Captainstabyn to return with glowstones.

The bottom of the chamber was half-filled by a round stone dais, stained with goo in the center, and a green lump of crystal off to one side. The thing that was on my muzzle? Maybe, it looks like it's about the right shape.

INT+1

Whoa! I just thought myself smarter? Weird... no, focus, don't get distracted.

The dais had four gargoyles on the edges of it, stony statues with bat-winged human bodies and horned, dragon-like heads. And... yeah, they were all male. Rich dragged his eyes around, and focused on the treasure instead.

It wasn't a hoard. It was barely a heap. A few weapons, some gems of dubious lustre and a scattering of coins that gleamed silver, mostly. A pole stuck in the ground bent under the weight of a banner, tattered and displaying a faded crown. The cloth moved softly in the wind.

“Don't know where to go,” Geebo said, slowly. “You hatch, so dungeon is poof. Never been in this room when it wasn't dungeon.”

“Yeah...” Rich looked up. A guy with metal shoulderpads bigger than his helmet was staring down into the pit, hands on his knees as he squatted. Probably that Tankitaway guy. The helmet moved, and for a second Rich thought it was looking straight it him, but then it moved again.

He couldn't see in the dark, and that was the only thing saving Rich from a fireball to the snoot or worse, right now. And once the glowstones got there, that would change.

“Okay,” Rich said, trying to work it through in his head. He was full of nerves, and he had to stop to remind himself that death wasn't permanent. It couldn't be, right? That would just be stupid.

There wasn't anything to help them down here. Did Geebo have something?

“What do you do?” Rich asked. “Do you have any powers that could help?”

“Geebo cleans caves. Fetches things for Vindraxsaliis. Takes out poop. Carries things so great one does not have to.”

“Vindraxsaliis is the big dragon, right? The one they killed?”

Geebo blinked behind their spectacles. Then the small creature burst into tears, sobbing.

“Oh, oh shit, no, shhh, no, stop, uh...” Rich's own voice rose a bit, and he tried to put his hand over Geebo's mouth.

“Awwwww, I think it's cwying,” Tankitaway said above, his voice taunting and sing-song. “Did we kill your mommy, widdle guy? Don't worry, you'll be with her soon.”

“Yeah, come on up and we'll give you a biiiiig hug,” concurred Doctorhealgood. “With knives!”

“You guys are such dicks,” Boombabe said, but she sounded like she was trying to hold back a laugh.

And Rich felt heat rise inside him.

This was some shitty bullying, the sort of stuff he'd faced for years in school. Good people didn't act this way. Now he was certain that they'd kill him if he was still around when they got down here.

“Pull it together, okay?” he told Geebo. “We're gonna get out of here and we're gonna pay them back for what they did. Okay?”

Geebo huffed a few more deep breaths, frills popping out of where its ears should be with each one. Finally it pulled off its spectacles, wiped them on one floppy trouser leg, and nodded. “Sorry. Is sorry.”

“It's all right,” Rich told it. “What are you? What can you do?”

“Geebo is draggit. Long long servant to dragons. We are good at serving dragons.”

“Yes, but what can you do that would get us out of here and away from these guys?”

“One is woman, not guy.”

“It... don't worry about that. What can you do?”

“Well... Geebo is Merchant. And Cook too, but maybe not the time for that.”

“Merchant? Okay, good, great. Um... what can you do with that?”

“Geebo is great at haggling.”

“Not so good here.”

“Geebo can look at things and see what they do. Tell what magic items or tinker things are good for.”

“Um...” Rich craned his neck back, looking past his wings, pausing for a moment to stare at them. Focus, Rich! With that thought he looked over the loot scattered across the room. None of it looked magical. “Maybe we'll try that as a last resort. What else?”

“Geebo can find money on corpses. Some of the coins here are probably from Geebo's scavenging.”

“Nice, but I don't think they'll let us bribe them,” Rich said, looking back to the little draggit. “Anything else?”

“Can make bag that hold way more than it should. Use it to hide sometimes, very useful!”

Now that sounded interesting. That had possibilities. “Could we hide in it now?”

“Yes, but... they here for treasure. Geebo not think they ignore bag and look inside.”

“Unless... unless we hide the bag...” Rich looked around

“Got'em!” Captainstabyn called from above.

The world up there brightened...

...just as Rich's newly gained darkvision faded away and the world turned black,with distant white pinpricks of light illuminating the start of the hole and the first part of the staircase down..

Dragonseye buff expired.

“Dragonseye?” Rich whispered again.

Your Dragonseye skill is now level 3!

And the world returned to its former clarity.

“When I'm ready, toss one down,” Boombabe suggested. “Oooh, got an intelligence from that. That hasn't happened in a while.”

“Let us have some of the good ideas. My toon hasn't broken sixty yet,” Tankitaway said.

“You're the meatshield, you don't need intelligence,” Boombabe taunted him.

A white light came sailing down... and shattered on the floor. The burst of light made everything really bright for a split second, then it was gone, fading away.

“I said do it when I was ready! Not before!” Boombabe shrilled. “I was going to levitate it down, genius!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Captainstabyn said. “We've got two more. Want to try it again?”

“I saw something down there,” Doctorhealgood said. “I think it was a player name!”

“What?” Tankitaway's voice turned hostile. “No way. No fucking way. Hey! You trying to ninja our kill? Who the hell are you!”

“Maybe he's a pkay!” Doctorhealgood said. “Oh no...”

“Shit. We're still flagged from that ambush with the crazy bitch,” Captainstabyn said. “Pull back, let's talk this over someplace he can't hear us.”

“It could be a girl, could be a she,” Boombabe said.

“Remember jailbait's first law,” Captainstabyn said. “Anyone you don't know on an online game is a thirteen year old boy.”

Technically I'm fourteen, Richard thought to himself, but he kept quiet. Now wasn't the time. He watched them back away, out of sight and back toward the door out.

One door out. No help there. Could he fly up there and fly out when they opened the door? Before, maybe. But now, probably not. Before this they had thought they were up against a little lizard guy. He could have waited until they were on the stairs then flown up past them and out of the door. But now they knew they were up against a player, they'd be prepared for sneaky stuff.

“What we do? What you wish, small great one?” Geebo asked.

“I guess you should identify the items down here, and see if any of them help us,” Rich suggested, looking around at the scattered things.

Geebo started doing just that, and Rich kept watch, feeling his anxiety build. When that door opened it would be on. He didn't know how, but if they had taken down an adult dragon, they had stuff he couldn't match. It was that simple. He was level one, and they were above that somewhere.

“Merchant's Eye... nothing,” Geebo said, picking up a sword and putting it aside. “Merchant's Eye... nope. Nope nope.... Merchant's Eye... oooh!”

“Oooh?”

“This ring keeps breath minty fresh and teeth clean!”

“So... not helpful.”

“Not helpful now,” Geebo harrumphed. “Dental hygiene important! Especially to young dragon.”

“How about that flag?” Rich said, gazing at the banner again, as it moved in the wind.

The wind...

“The door is shut,” Rich said, slowly. “There are no other doors. So where is the wind coming from?”

INT+1

A frantic, tense minute later and Rich found it, following the scent of fresh air to a hole by the side of the dais.

PER+1

He couldn't get his head at the right angle to peer down into it, but it smelled of dampness and must and mold, and he thought he could hear running water below. “There's something down here. Do you know what?” he asked Geebo.

“No. Better than here, probably!”

Probably. But the hole was small, only four inches across or so. “We won't fit,” whispered Rich.

“Not fit as we are,” Geebo said slowly, pulling a wide-necked pouch off his harness. “But bag can be very, very thin once we in it.” The draggit put the bag against the hole. “Pack of Holding. Please get in!”

Rich started toward it, then he stopped. “Hold on,” he said, racing up to the top of the dais, and grabbing coins and gems and loose junk, shoving it toward Geebo. “Put this in there!”

“Do what now? There is no time!” Geebo said. “Get in bag!”

“No! We're taking this with us!” Rich said, shoving it all toward the bag, and watching as it disappeared bit by bit, just seeming to fade out of existence. “This might be a crappy little hoard but it's my crappy little hoard, damn it, and they're gonna get it over my dead body!”

“That's what Geebo is worried about!” The draggit screamed, the frills on its ears sticking wide out.

The door slammed open.

“Activate Fireball!” shouted Boombabe.

Red light flared above, darting down toward Rich and Geebo, expanding...

“In!” Geebo screeched, and the little creature grabbed Rich with both arms, and shoved him into the bag.

Everything disappeared, and Rich reappeared inside a closet made of stone, cramped and covered with the loot he'd just swept into it. Rich hit the floor, bounced, felt rows of teeth clack together. He lay there, stunned for a second, watching a red 2 float up from him and drift out of sight through the ceiling.

Then there was a pop, and Geebo, smoking, appeared out of nowhere and landed on top of him.

Fortunately the little guy... girl... whatever, fortunately the draggit was light and Rich didn't think he'd taken any damage.

“We safe!” Geebo said, patting out the fire on his trousers. “Don't worry, Geebo fine. Draggits mostly fireproof. Shielded bag from boom, so it probably not burning neither.”

“So what now? Are we in the hole?”

“Bag should be going down hole,” Geebo said, looking worried. “No way to know for hours if things go well.”

“Hours?”

“Getting in bag easy. Getting out of bag hard. Someone must pull you out. If not, then have to wait for the skill to be done. Three hours.”

“Three hours...” Rich shifted to get comfy among the treasure.

And his stomach chose that point to give a big gurgle.

Geebo paused.

“You is newborn dragon.”

“Yeah,” Rich said. Wow, he was hungry. And something smelled good.

“Hungry, hungry newborn dragon,” Geebo said, voice trembling, just a bit.

“Yes,” Rich said, looking at Geebo. At the scorched scales around his legs. Drumstick-sized legs, as big as ren-fair turkey drumsticks like he'd seen in that video once.

“And Geebo is sworn to serve...” Geebo said, swallowing hard. The creature crouched down, and closed his eyes. “Make it fast, young great one,” Geebo said. The draggit reached up and tugged its spectacles off its muzzle.

“What? No!” Rich said. “No, look, I...” Another rumble from his traitor stomach.

And oh, did Geebo ever smell tasty, now.

“No,” Rich said, firmly. “I won't eat you.”

Geebo hunkered down even smaller, and said nothing.

“Look, I... I'll log out.”

“What?”

“If everything goes well we're going to be in here for three hours, right? I'll exit the game—”

BEGINNING LOGOUT OF

PLAYER NAME PARAMETER BLANK

INSERT TRUENAME?/BEGIN NAME PROTOCOL?

“Begin Name Protocol!” Rich commanded.

The bag flickered, and for an instant he was back in the starfield among the green pillars. A deep voice came to him from a distance, like Caunal's but distorted. “WhaT Is ThY NaMe tRaVeLER?”

This was buggy. This was an exception. Rich knew he didn't have time to linger or fart around or otherwise delay his decision, so he went with what he knew. “Rutger!” he shouted into the void. It was a name he liked, so that would work.

There was a pause, and a burst of static, and more words.

ERROR! NO LASTNAME CHOSEN!

“Royal!” Rich burst out, then hesitated. He'd said it without thinking, but hell why not. Taking it back now might cause the system to dump him entirely. “Rutger Royal!”

And with a SNAP he was back in the bag, with Geebo staring at him, near-sighted and anxious. But this time, the words in front of his eyes gave him a sense of relief.

BEGINNING LOGOUT OF RUTGER ROYAL

30...

29...

“I'll see you later, Geebo,” Rich told the little creature. “Hey, uh... are you a guy or a girl?”

“Geebo is male,” the creature told him.

“Thanks Geebo, for everything,” he told him. And then, with a jolt, he was back in reality.

RUTGER'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Rutger Royal

Age:

Jobs:

Cultist 1, High Dragon Hatchling 1

Attributes Pools Defenses

Strength: 76 Constitution: 75 Hit Points: 151 Armor: 30

Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 25 Sanity: 55 Mental Fortitude: 30

Dexterity: 12 Agility: 25 Stamina: 37 Endurance: 0

Charisma: 28 Willpower: 75 Moxie: 103 Cool: 30

Perception: 76 Luck: 28 Fortune: 104 Fate: 1

General Skills

Brawling – Level 5

Stealth – Level 1

High Dragon Hatchling Skills

Burninate – Level 1

Chomp – Level 1

Draconic Tongue – Level N/A

Dragonseye – Level 3

Limited Equipment – Level N/A

No Thumbs – Level N/A

Scaly Wings – Level N/A

Slow to Age – Level N/A

Cultist Skills

Unlocked Jobs