Phil was off doing who knows what while I was left to walk from Carver's house to the hedge maze entrance. All four players were gathered in the same spot as yesterday. Two were arguing about something that was too difficult to hear from this far back. As I got closer it was easier to tell who the talkers were right now.

“That’s what you’re bringing?” The older female said.

“What? I like this cloak.” Awesome Jr. was defending himself from HotPants' aggressive opinions.

“A cloak. Seriously?”

“Yeah, I can swoosh it around and catch weapons or something. It makes me harder to hit.” He moved the cloak around trying to give a good example.

“It makes you harder to look at.” Shadow remarked.

I said nothing and marched up to our meeting spot. We were just outside a row of bushes that lined the walkway. Yesterday’s reconnaissance had shown it to be a basic maze for children. The kind of thing you found at county fairs.

“Are we ready?” My voice came out gruffer than normal.

“Sure am. My stealth and speed went up by leaps last night. That guard captain, Wyl, he’s a genius.”

“He’s a computer.”

“Yeah, how’d your near death go?” Shadow retorted at HotPants.

“Stupid wolves. Really, they were worse than my neighbor's dogs.” Her hands grasped tightly to the weapons at her side. both eyes narrowed and stared into the distance.

“Bet it felt good hitting them.” The assassin responded.

“You shouldn’t hit dogs.” SweetPea was busy looking down at her toes while muttering a defense.

“You tell me that kind of nonsense when they’re snarling in your face. My heart must have skipped a few beats last night. At least in here I don’t have to feel guilty about it.” HotPants was a little bit less angry seeming today. Certainly she was far less arrogant in both mannerisms and speech. The whole thing with Awesome Jr’s cloak was completely justified. It was an almost neon green that made my old eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

“You’ve all done what you needed?” I tried to reign in my pack of players. They had to have an attention disorder or they were just approaching this thing casually. They glanced at each other. Shadow shrugged and nodded followed quickly by the others agreeing.

“Good. In the center of this maze is a gateway. That gateway goes to the [Maze of Midnight]. We have less than two hours to make it through the maze.” I, William Carver, couldn’t afford to be casual.

“Wait, we have to go inside to find the door?” Shadow complained. “Damn. I’d hope the maze door would be the actual door.”

“It’s not.” I said.

“How do you know?” Awesome Jr. asked while swooshing his bright cloak around. My shoulders went up in a shrug. I knew because the computer told me on a little piece of paper. All the secrets of this town had been scribbled in location after location.

“Oh, it’s okay, I got this.” Shadow leapt on top of a bench and yanked his light frame up onto the hedges. One hand sat above his eyes to block out the streetlamp. He squinted into the distance.

“Come on, it’s dark, but I can guide us from here.”

“Hey, you’re not just a stupid ninja wannabe.” Awesome Jr. said happily. Shadow glared, but chose not to respond.

“At least he’s not wearing a barf cloak.” HotPants took the lead with her staff at the ready.

“Hey. At least I can cook rice. Sort of.” Awesome Jr. had no problems defending himself verbally.

“Can you share the recipe?” SweetPea said.

I ignored them and followed after a bundle of washed reds. Her armor jangled constantly. There was a guard that went up around her neck which actually suited her, I think it was called a gorget. It was new too, probably a reward from her patrol exercise.

“So a wolf nearly got you?” I was genuinely interested in how she fared against the creatures of this world. Being attacked by one in real life would cause me to flip out. Being attacked by an endless amount with blood and guts everywhere had to be worse.

“Sure. Those other guards were on point though. I was the one holding us back." She actually looked a little embarrassed but managed to power through with most of her arrogance intact. "I needed to get a feel for a real fight.”

“Was it everything you’d hoped for?”

“That and more.” She nodded.

“Good. Some Travelers find it hard to adapt. I hear there’s not as much violence on your side.” I lived in the Americas. The last local war we had been part of involved a nasty merger between the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

“Depends on where you live. Or who you live with.”

“Mh.” I didn’t pry. That sounded like a sore subject on many levels.

“What’s it to you anyway? Nosey machine.” HotPants glared at me from top to bottom before turning away in annoyance.

“Miss HotPants,” Keeping it together was a challenge. “who ever said I was a machine?”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Figure it out yourself. Consider it something to occupy your mind.” Anything that would dislodge her current stream of misplaced anger was welcome. She improved overnight, but only a little.

“Left, then I think we can go straight from there, hold on.” Shadow jumped across one of the bushes to another one and looked fearful for just a moment. Both hands were out as he balanced.

“You okay up there?” Awesome Jr. asked.

“Fine. My skill check passed.” He muttered something else under his breath, but my old ears didn’t catch it. The others switched to a conversation regarding skills and their activation. I shrugged it all off. Carver's notes had outlined all sorts of things they were already talking about.

Shadow called out each turn for us, left, right, forward. I kept a fairly steady, if not eager, pace. Moving around was easier than earlier today. Carver had sat on his virtual behind all day long and my activeness was paying off. We managed to avoid doubling back or hitting too many dead ends. Soon we were at the heart of the maze and a stellar emptiness met us.

“What time is it?”

“Not midnight.” Shadow hopped down and looked around.

“This spot here?” SweetPea was looking at a pattern on the ground. There was a series of spirals that radiated outward from an almost perfect circle.

I, luckily, had a giant arrow visible that bobbed up and down in the air. This was similar to the one that had guided me to Old Man Carver's bench the first night. Stand here player! My position was clear. We weren’t too late. Everything from here was just a matter of waiting.

“How long?”

“Dunno. This game doesn’t have watches.” Keeping track of which player was speaking had proven too difficult. The fuzziness of my hearing made me feel detached from the group. Hopefully they would think I was following along. Or they would keep talking over me like NPCs didn't matter.

“Do the math, you’ve got your external timer right?” HotPants was busy twirling the staff through some basic motions. Her actions were clearly steps above where she had been a few weeks ago at Peg’s.

“You got any more of those bindings? The stuff you put on your hands?” Shadow asked.

“Sure.” There was a shuffle as HotPants got something out of her inventory and threw it towards Shadow. “Here’s a roll. You need help getting wrapped?”

“If you could show me.”

“It’s easier if someone else tightens it, at least for me. My skill isn’t high enough yet.” HotPants seemed pleased with Shadow’s asking.

“Give it time.”

“I’ve been patient this long.” She muttered while wrapping some cloth around Shadow’s hands. It looked like the same actions a boxer might do to ensure their knuckles didn’t get as damaged.

“Good. Everything helps.”

“How did your stuff go? You master making out yet?” Shadow needled the two lovebirds standing in the back. Both Awesome Jr. and SweetPea went beet red. I could see their stammering actions from the side of my vision. I was interested too but hadn’t the heart to pick on them that much. Besides, I was trying to keep my head in the game.

“It’s a surprise.”

“You did get something though?” HotPants asked.

SweetPea nodded with a smile. The normally shy girl actually looked kind of cute when she stopped hiding under that annoying hood. Awesome Jr. was probably on to something with his crush.

“Here it comes.” I said.

In front of me there was a swirl. Sparkles drifted down from above and landed on ledges unseen. Our surroundings had been dark but now were illuminated. More and more bright flakes fell downward like snow. A full minute passed while the doorway formed. Soon we had an entryway made of light.

“Awesome.” Awesome Jr. said. I was impressed too but had to remain somewhat stoic. After all, William Carver was a seasoned adventurer.

“Where does that go?”

“To the Maze.” I answered.

“What should we do?”

“HotPants, would you go first?” SweetPea asked.

I ignored them all, and walked forward. Light blinded me as I ventured through the passageway. Mixtures of purple and black interlaced among the brightest portions. The world swung sideways and gravity released hold on Carver's body. There was a brief sensation of floating free from the world's tethers.

Then it was over and I was walking forward into another maze. This one was distinctly different than the where we just come out of. Hedges were inked with the same purple and black markings on their leaves. The branches were a muted white that bled at the edges into its other hues.

“Holy Moly.” Shadow came through first. There was a noise like someone jumping out of the way at high speeds.

“Jesus.” HotPants was second through the gateway with a similar sound effect.

“This, this is worth the subscription cost. My god.” Shadow said. “And the colors? I love this place.”

Awesome Jr. and SweetPea came into the dungeon with their hands clasped together. Her eyes were closed tightly.

“It’s awesome.” Awesome Jr. said again. I managed to avoid replying with his tag line. This place was pretty neat.

“Ah. Are you kidding me? We went from one maze into another?” HotPants had just calmed down and the new knowledge had set her off again. Nothing seemed to satisfy her.

“It’s called the Maze of Midnight.” Shadow said with a shrug.

The players assigned roles. These hedges were too high for our assassin to leap upon. Shadow instead explored ahead a twist or turn just to see where the easy dead ends were. HotPants would be in the lead of our main group since she was the toughest one here according to her stats. SweetPea was in charge of making a map in case the maze was more complicated inside than the outside.

Their ideas all sounded fine. I had no real feedback, I hadn’t done any sort of dungeon diving or video game in years. My idea of exploration was to run around in a place at high speeds clicking stuff until a resolution appeared. Me and William Carver were probably very alike in that regard. Only he had done it for real.

“Come on.” Shadow motioned.

Awesome Jr. had to be prodded frequently in order to keep up. He kept getting distracted by the plants and our surroundings. These passageways we wandered for many a twist and turn were much wider than the ones outside had been.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“I thought I saw someone.” Shadow whispered with a finger to his lips.

“You think there’s monsters in here?” SweetPea had closed the gap and was busy peering around the corner. She would squint and turn her head around suddenly as if hearing something.

I, of course, could hear nothing, see very little, and only vaguely smelled what had to be jasmine or some other tea leaf. Absently I picked some leaves from one of the plants and chewed on it. Worst case scenario I blew us all up. Nope, just a faint taste of oranges resulted.

“Mmh?” I raised an eyebrow and looked at one of the leaves. [Identification] provided a bit of information now that I separated everything.

Skill Used: [Identification] Results: [Ish Plant - Leaf] Details:

This is part of a larger bush. The leaf is said to taste different when still attached to the vine. No known negative side effects are attributed to this.

They were kind of tasty. I chewed on another one and tried not mourn my missing [Messenger's Pet]. He would probably like a nibble as well. There were other messages I had been disregarding as we made the first few turns within the maze.

Quest: A Last Gasp [Part 2] Difficulty: Unknown Details:

Continuing Adventures of William (Old Man) Carver have lead you into the [Maze of Midnight]. Restrictions have been activated.

Auto pilot time will not impact completion.

Failure: Complete failure is impossible

Success: Possible information (Restricted) Restriction! Death while in the maze will be permanent for William (Old Man) Carver

Outside assistance cannot be summoned by William (Old Man) Carver. Not even for cupcakes.

Oh. Oh no. Permanent death of Old Man Carver if this failed? How, what? I twitched an eyebrow and read some of the other fine points. No more [Messenger's Pet] while in the [Maze of Midnight]? Not even for cupcakes? How mean! I guess that explained where the tiny creature had gone. Probably back to that room of trials place to sulk and harass new players. It made me sad to think that he might end up following some other Ultimate Edition owner around.

“Woh fuck, incoming!” Shadow shouted before fading into a plant.

“Ehh?” I felt lost.

“Get back Mister Carver!”

HotPants was standing with her staff out eyeing our approaching enemy. There was a health bar available above a squirming mass of something.

“What is that?” One of the players shouted. Like I had a clue. William Carver's game body could barely see anything.

“The arms! Watch the arms!” SweetPea was ducking while Awesome Jr. shouted out redundant advice.

HotPants didn’t have time to give anyone else a glance. She was knocking away blurs of movement with one end of the staff then would twist and swing back.

“Got it!” Shadow was hard to pick out among the plants. His color choice had blended in well with the background, almost as well as the monster that was attacking. HotPants twisted and jabbed the staff. Shadow was trying to sway back out of the tentacles but got slashed around the face and arm. SweetPea was crouched down with both hands over her head.

“Incoming!” Awesome Jr. had something in his hand that was thrown and resulted in a fiery explosion of a Molotov cocktail.

The system showed the monsters red bar slide downwards towards the empty end. A final slash from the daring Shadow finished it off. HotPants gave the monster an extra kick. I had no clue what had just happened. Not really. Being trapped in an old man’s body made it hard to respond to anything with certainty. Actually seeing these creatures was tough. My group of players started chattering and most of it was difficult to distinguish over the flames dwindling roar.

“Anyone got details?”

“Camo?” Shadow posed a question.

“They blended right in with the maze walls.”

“How did you block so many?”

“Try tackling half a pack of wolves at night. It’s the same.” HotPants answered Awesome Jr.

“Okay. Damage?”

“Hefty, if you get hit. No blind spots that I saw, I tried to get a back stab and it failed.” Shadow grumbled and picked up a tentacle.

“This thing is just all arms, no main body. No eyes.”

“Is this entire place going to be like that?” SweetPea was downcast.

“Says the woman who cowered in a ball. Why are you even here if you can’t look up?” SweetPea didn’t come to her own defense. HotPants did by hitting Shadow with her staff and slicing off another ounce of his health. They growled back and forth a few times and I ignored it all. These new monsters had been less freaky than the giant spiders.

We hung out for a little bit seeing what would happen to Shadow's health bar. Or they did, I looked down a corridor of our maze and wondered how many more were around. Was that swaying over there another one just waiting for us to get into range?

"My health’s not going up."

"Here's a potion." Awesome Jr. said behind me.

"How did you make these?" Shadow asked.

"Standard alchemy. It helps that I take chemistry outside the game."

"I'm impressed." HotPants looked at Awesome Jr. with a faint smile. He had proved useful.

"There's a few other things I want to try, but I won't have time if we're going to complete this."

"What did you do all night?" Shadow asked.

"Gathered crystals. I'll show you if you can tell me how you do that voice thing."

"The batman?" HotPants added her own voice to the question.

"Yeah." Awesome Jr. confirmed.

"Just try to talk different long enough, the system will pick it up."

"That's awesome."

"Stop saying that or I'm going to hit you." HotPants growled.

We moved onward, down another few twists and turns. There were more of those strange monsters but only a few. I tried to help out with one but couldn't move fast enough. Plus this cane wasn't really a viable weapon. Carver's house hadn't been filled to the brim with anything useful for battle or I would use something.

SweetPea kept at the mapping. She also proved to be decent at detecting an ambush before Shadow noticed any monsters. Her bravery gene hadn't kicked in completely though. After the fourth monster she had stopped cowering in a ball. By the tenth she managed to stand up while pulling her knitted hat downward.

"Screw this maze."

"Yeah. I don't know if we'll get anywhere in time. It's been what, two hours?" Awesome Jr. threw his hands up in the air.

"You can't expect to just breeze through these places. Otherwise it'd be no fun." Shadow responded.

"What?" Awesome Jr. asked the younger girl. "Guys, hold up. SweetPea says there should be a room or something about here." His hands were up and motioning for the others to come in close.

"What?"

The other three hunched over the map nearby. They twisted their necks almost in unison as SweetPea pointed out the gap in her paperwork. Apparently we had explored most of the outer edges of this maze. Somewhere near the middle was either a giant room, or a miniature maze inside the bigger one.

"How do we get inside?"

Even my artificially faded eyesight could tell that none of the paths we traveled on had a turn that would lead further in. None to the north, south, east, or where we stood in the west. I twisted my lips and frowned.

"Probably a door." I said. "Or we're missing something." My eyes closed for a moment while trying to remember where we had been so far.

"A secret door? In a beginner dungeon?" Shadow asked from over my shoulder. Having the younger man behind me was kind of unnerving.

I shrugged.

"Lord save me from fools.” Her hands twisted around the staff angrily. “We have to go around again. This time everyone look harder." HotPants, the oldest here besides me, took charge and made up a plan. The others nodded and we started around a second time.

No doorways were obvious. I kept munching the sweet tasting leaves while trying to see if any of Carver's skills included detection of hidden items. There had to be a key somewhere in the listing. Hadn't the Voices made this place for Carver? Yet, Leeroy had spoken of the players I picked out. There was very likely a mix of our skills needed to make it through this customized dungeon.

"These things keep appearing. Haven't we been through here?" One of the players said. They kept talking when I was lost in thought, and Carvers body made it hard to distinguish who was talking at the drop of a hat.

"They're respawning?" Awesome Jr. was looking up while counting on his fingers.

"I dunno. Where are the other bodies?" Shadow poked at the latest victim of their growing teamwork. I would applaud the performance but they were doing it all by their lonesome. Single monsters were posing no challenge.

"Why is it when they're dead, they change colors?" SweetPea asked.

"Why indeed." Came my Carver laden dry response. So far this entire place had held to the purple, black, white mishmash of colors. When the attacking creatures died the floor faded to green.

“I don’t see why we can’t just hack through these bushes towards the center.” HotPants had grown increasingly cross during our second lap.

“You can’t even see past this row to the next one.” Shadow had been eyeing the bushes for a long time as we walked. If there was an easy path through, he probably would have found it.

“So?” HotPants stuck her staff into the nearest bush. A high pitched screech drowned out whatever else was being said. Branches spun and waved as one, then another, and finally a third creature broke apart from the walls. They were moving too fast for me to focus on and use [Identification]. Saying it out loud would give away William Carver's player status.

“Oh Jesus, are all these walls full of them?” SweetPea ducked behind Awesome Jr. but managed to keep her hood up.

“There’s too many!” HotPants hit two quickly to get their attention. Awesome Jr. readied up another flaming potion and gave it a toss towards the third.

“Anyone got crowd control?!” Shadow shouted, stabbing one of HotPants' in the back with both daggers. A flash of red slid off the health bar. His target turned and switched focus away from HotPants.

“Shit, shit, oh god.” The would be assassin had been knocked flying into some more bushes. His head shook as he tried to stand back up.

“Don’t bring more of them!”

“Careful with your fire!” SweetPea said while tugging on Awesome Jr.’s over sized cloak. Awesome Jr. had a strangely maniacal look as he lit up another potion.

There I stood like a lump with half a frown on my face. If anyone had asked this old man I could have clearly told them not to break down the walls. That wasn’t being clever, that was cheating.

“Give her a swing, Grant Legate.” Someone whispered in my head. None of the players were near me, so it must have een a Voice. I raised an eyebrow and felt a shifting of weight. Now I held a giant sword instead of the smaller cane that normally supported my frame.

“Ah.” I glanced at it briefly with [Identification]. This was a sword worthy of a legend that had killed a dragon by himself. I lifted an arm. It was extremely light too. Or maybe the restrictions were gone. There was a buff to one side titled [Heroic Surge of Strength].

Skill Used: [Heroic Surge of Strength] Cost: Remaining Energy Restriction: Can only be used once every hour Details:

William Carver can temporarily remove his [Old Age] limitations and bring his strength back to his youthful days!

Both eyes slowly blinked as I prepared myself to fight something for real in this game. This wasn’t as easy for me as it might have been for William Carver. I didn’t possess the leap first ask questions later mentality.

“Good Lord, there’s more!”

“Watch your fucking fire!” HotPants yelled.

“You idiot, if we die in here I’m going to camp your dead corpse!” Shadow snarled but he was still in the fray. HotPants was busy backing up while three of the creatures grew closer.

“I’m going to help!” One of the female yelled.

Opening my eyes revealed more trouble. Four of the monsters had started creeping up behind us. Their arms looked like blurs against the hedge maze's backdrop. Still, even with poor eyesight for normal situations, my ARC interface was kind enough to paint a very clear set of health bars.

I slowly moved closer and readied the blade just like Peg had ‘retaught’ me. There was an ache in my shoulder that threatened to make me dip the blade. I held on trying to active Carver's [Stubborn as a Mule] trait. Messages flashed into being that seemed to indicate success.

The creatures got close enough for me to make out their writhing mass of purple and black tentacles. I swung the blade and felt overpowered as their health bars shattered. My head tingled pleasantly, arms already felt warm, and a smile was plastered on my old face. What a rush! No wonder Carver had been a warrior.

Two more in the front were still around. HotPants and Shadow were busy finishing off the latest wave. She swung her staff in an arc through the last mass. The sudden collision sent it flying into the nearly solid mass of bushes. Shadow stepped in and gave it a final slice and the creature's arms died down.

I huffed, feeling suddenly worn out. The blade shimmered out of existence. Soon I stood there taking the deepest breaths I could manage while bracing myself on the cane.

“Did you see that?” SweetPea asked Awesome Jr. He turned around with a confused look and saw four dead monsters in addition to the five in front of us.

“You are broken.” Awesome Jr. muttered.

“Stupid computer. If you were hiding that kind of ability, why even need us?”

“I bet it was an event attack. Look at how winded he is.” Shadow stated. He busily inspected the corpses that lay about.

“You know I can hear you.” The response that came forth was amazingly calm. Maybe it was the exhaustion of having no stamina that was catching up.

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” At least the young assassin had apologized. I shook my head and tried not to roll a tired set of eyes.

“You’re right though. I don’t think I can do that again anytime soon.” The stamina bar I had off to the side was down near critical. If we did anything more strenuous than stand here I would need to be carried.

SweetPea was muttering to herself and seemed to be arguing with some sort of internal monologue. I was still reeling from the exertion of a single swing and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head at my quizzical glance and instead pointed towards the ground under our dead assailants.

“There’s that green again.”

I gave it some thought.

“Back to basics.” I suggested.

“What?”

“It’s something you should all keep in mind.” This deserved my best imitation of Carver's grumpy but guiding tone. “When you get stuck, or reach a dead end, go back to the beginning.”

This strategy worked for dancing. It worked for accounting during my prior career. It also worked when Hal Pal actually ran into odd problems out in the field. Start the whole process over and see what had changed.

“Think so?” Shadow mused.

“The entrance is this way.” SweetPea had pulled out our map in her hands and tilted it around while muttering.

“Let’s move. I don’t want to spend all weekend in here.” HotPants marched down the hallways. William Carver’s body didn’t have much energy left after our second lap around but I managed to keep a decent pace.

Turned out going back to the start was a good idea.

“Is that new?” Awesome Jr. was pointing to the ground. There had only been dull purplish tiles an hour before. Now a stream of green had invaded, reaching out from our location towards the center of the labyrinth.

“Think killing those creatures has something to do with this?”

“Look at the plants.” Awesome Jr. said. “These are nothing like the others. Look here, and here.” The goofy male was feeling leaves of different colors.

Green ground transformed the landscape into something a bit more normal. It felt like the hallway where it was had grown smaller as well. This almost matched the first maze before the portal. Natural hedges came out of the ground and fought back the purple and black ones.

“That’s weird.”

“It’s transforming. Like an infection, you think?” Awesome Jr. speculated while straddling a border between normal and dungeon bushes. His neon green cloak stood out far less among the natural greens.

“So we kill more?”

“Yeah. Probably. But look. Here, it’s forming a path.” Awesome Jr. pushed some of the bushes away and showed us how our current portion of the maze connected to another path just a bit over.

“This stuff is way easier to walk through. I can actually see the path on the other side.”

“You think we can just kill a bunch more?”

“No more packs like that last one though.”

“Yeah I don’t think Carver can help us much.”

“I guess we should rest. Even if he’s a computer he looks worn out.” These players were starting to piss me off, constantly talking about me like I wasn’t here. Though HotPants had almost sounded pleasant there.

“Please.” SweetPea said.

We set up a small fire pit in the transformed portion. No one wanted to rest near the inky maze walls. Hips ached and groaned as I lowered this old frame to the ground. Sleepiness washed over the ARC’s feedback in a simulation of William Carver's exhaustion.

Shadow and Awesome Jr. fought over the food. Finally SweetPea managed to edge them both out of the way and make something. She was one of the few to directly ask me about cooking in game. The others had gone very different paths. There was a clear difference between what they supplied with the same materials. I didn’t really want to give our meal of [Rat Meat] too much thought though. Newbie players meant poorer food.

“This food's way better than the scraps my Master gives me.” Shadow said while noisily chewing. SweetPea didn’t respond.

These guys were so chatty, too. I had been subjected to a few players who gabbed about everything under the sun, especially those new to a virtual game like this. One middle aged woman had loaded into Continue with her husband. Both of them went straight for the beach and played around in the water until their health dropped to zero. They were confused upon resurrection at the starting point. Both laughed themselves silly before moving on with their day. I would have asked them to join but they spent most of their time in auto pilot. These four players actually played the game.

“We ready?” HotPants asked.

“I guess. How many of those things have we killed?”

“I don’t know. Thirty or so?” Shadow responded to SweetPea.

“Look here.” Awesome Jr. pushed the bushes out of the way completely and made a path between the mazes edges. “SweetPea, this spot on your map, should be right outside the unexplored area, right?”

“I think so.” She nodded with a frown. Her finger trailed around the map recounting curves and details. Then she nodded again.

“Then if this, I don’t know, detoxification? If it keeps going, we’ll open up the inner portion with just a few more?” He followed up and asked a good question. The boy was fairly quick.

“Sounds like a plan. Let's go.”

“How about you stay here, and I’ll go pull some of those monsters to us.” Shadow interrupted the forming plan with both hands up in a stop motion.

“Only a few at a time please.” SweetPea said while standing behind Awesome Jr.

“Of course, I’m not some idiot whose going to try and light the place on fire.” Shadow gave an unsubtle glare Awesome Jr.’s way.

I loved the idea of them fetching monsters from elsewhere. Shadow seemed smart enough to navigate most of the easy turns. Moments later and he brought another two to our doorstep. Both HotPants and Shadow finished them off fairly quickly. Awesome Jr. had sat down with a depressed look on his face and seemed to be concocting something. SweetPea was staring wide eyed at these two doing most of the actual fighting.

Old man deaf ears heard no real dissension. There were brief pauses when it seemed like HotPants and Shadow were communicating silently. I hadn’t experienced any sort of secret whisper method in this game like others had. If the theory held true there should be a method however. Were they trying to oust the other two? Hopefully not.

“Those explosives of yours seem very useful.” I said to Awesome Jr. “Do you have any other mixtures?”

“I guess. I’ve been trying to find a freeze blast of some sort. All I’ve got is one that drops goo on the ground though.”

“It’s gross.” SweetPea twisted up her face.

“There might be a use for it.” I stood peering over his shoulder. Just a little closer and I would actually be able to see what he was doing with some clarity.

“Glad you think so. I spent all my money on these vials at noon, spent another six hours testing things out. Then I had to pay Miss Robuls for her highest proof alcohol just to have something.”

“The night in the cave didn’t go well?” I thought he would have learned something magical from the game by the end.

“Not as well for me as it did for Melissa. I mean SweetPea. She won’t tell me what happened, but when I try to use the skill I got, she lights up like a beacon.”

“You sure that’s not the infatuation speaking?” Now that we were having a moment of down time I felt comfortable poking a bit of fun the youngsters way. He reminded me a lot of myself at that age, though chemistry had never been my forte. Awesome Jr. flushed and looked over at the other girl. She was drawing lines of chalk on the ground, measuring who knows what.

“No, it's not that.” He whispered in response.

The other two kept right on pulling single creatures down the lane and killing them. We were lucky that this cleared area seemed safe enough. My stamina was back to nearly full so I could probably pull another one of those blade swings out of nowhere if things got dire. After I figured out how this cane transformed.

“How do you do it Mister Carver? Everyone looks up to you, you’re a hero.” Awesome Jr. was whispering still while staring at the girl of his dreams. They may have grown closer in the last two days but I could detect worry. Those days felt familiar, the worry if I was lacking compared to all the other guys out there.

“I don’t know how to be a hero.” Not like William Carver did. “I don’t know how to be a villain. I only know that there are things in this world I must do.”

Awesome Jr. chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, both hands frozen in the air with two test tubes of swirling colors. Then he shook his head again and banished the fuzzy headed thoughts.

“That’s reminds me of a poem. Invictus. He said, it matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

“Good kid. You know your stuff.” The older female said. HotPants was huffing while holding her staff. Shadow looked worn out just behind her. A pile of dead ink monsters littered across the ground. Emeralds and other greens bled across the landscape to slowly meld with our safe zone.

“Yeah. We studied Mandela in history. It came up twice along with another passage.” Awesome Jr responded.

“Yeah? Anything good?”

“Yeah. Wait, hold on. I’ll go grab it. I think you’ll like this one Mister Carver.” Awesome Jr.’s form almost turned into a dull lifeless version. His hands went back mechanically to mixing potions and trying not to sneak sidelong glances at SweetPea. Autopilot was not flattering on the teen.

Clearly the machine AIs that ran Continue knew exactly what kind of personality Awesome Jr. had. I would love to see his autopilot get caught stalking SweetPea. The Event message from that would be hilarious. Awesome Jr’s object of affection was completely oblivious. SweetPea was jumping up and down for joy. Hair flew everywhere as her skinny body danced around.

“We did it!” She shouted.

“Oh yeah? You mean we did it.” Shadow said. “You two just sat there.”

“Hey, you leave the kid with the bundle of explosives alone. We’ll probably need them." HotPants was completely onboard with Awesome Jr.'s mixtures. "The robot here can probably only do that, whatever he did, a few more times, and I’m not going to wipe in this dungeon.”

“Wipe?” SweetPea stopped her happy dance and tilted her head.

“It’s where we all die and fail.” Shadow said. “And I have no plans to die.”

“No one plans to.” I sadly muttered, sinking into my sad mood once more. Maybe I should invest in some anti-depression medications. They helped last year during my second relapse.

“Here. I wrote it into my journal.”

“What did you write down?” HotPants.

“It’s another quote, this one’s not a poem. It’s from Theodore Roosevelt.”

“Come on, gab and walk.” HotPants recovered enough to start pushing bushes out of the way. She huffed and pulled out a much smaller dagger. Slowly she sawed at branches to clear a solid path that any of us could walk through.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.”

“Sounds like someone I know.” Shadow gave his snark filled opinion about the work he was doing to kill our invading monsters. Awesome Jr. broke away and flipped off the would be ninja.

“This isn’t about you, this is about Mister Carver.”

“Keep going.” I motioned.

“Right.” He took a breath and tried not to look embarrassed. I had forgotten what being a teenager was like. For me, everything had been steps away from an ego crushing event.

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly.” Awesome Jr. was emphasizing so many of the words as if trying to give the great speech himself. It was impressive to me. Even HotPants seemed appreciative and halted her hacking of bushes with the tiny knife she had pulled out.

“Who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds. Who knows great enthusiasms.

“Sounds pretty wordy to me.” Shadow blurted an interruption. HotPants punched the young assassin and gave him the blade. He grumbled and started sawing away at the clensed plants.

“Shut up Shadow. Keep going Awesome.”

“Awesome’s my father.” Awesome Jr. absently mumbled while gazing at SweetPea. His head shook and consulted whatever notes his ARC displayed. A moment later and he was reciting the remaining passage.

“Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions. Who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Mere moments after finishing his quotation a box flickered into existence on his screen. I gave a smile. The machine had rather enjoyed his touching rendition. It might have been the effect of Awesome Jr’s new skill. It just might have been the fact that we ventured into a new room, but I felt better than ever.

A wave of energy washed over me, reducing the wear and tear that plagued William Carver's computer body. My hand gripped at the cane eagerly and I could almost feel the hilt of a blade shifting beneath my fingers. It would only take a moment of intent to transform this walking stick into its outrageously giant form.

“So there you have it.” He said.

“You keep reading your history." HotPants looked almost the happiest she had ever been. "Some of those presidents, they may have screwed up as much as they fixed, but they knew how to give a speech.”

“Anyway. I figure you’d like this one Mister Carver. The people in town, they tell stories about your adventures. Lots, the tavern practically tells your top ten greatest stories every night.” Awesome Jr creased the journal entry together and put it back into an inventory pouch at his side.

“God help me, Peg wouldn’t shut up about you. She was so excited to see you getting back in the field. Drove me batty.” HotPants still had a lingering bit of cheer but her memories of Peg must not have been positive.

“I guess that’s true. Even my master seemed to respect your journeys." Shadow piped in his opinion.

“Anyway. You’ve been the man in the arena. I don’t know about the others, but I’ve never done much of anything with my life." Awesome Jr sighed. "So this, has, is like serving next to a legend.”

“Mh.” This was embarrassing. I was being praised by players for the work of another user that I was only pretending to be. Awkward.

“Well.” I thought about what Leeroy had said. The last boss in here was unlikely to be anything these plebs, his word not mine, could handle. “You’ll have your own story to share by the end of this.”

“Why did you pick us, Mister Carver? You could have taken any number of fighters from the town. We’re nothing, even if we’re Travelers.”

“I’ll answer your question with one of my own.” I grumbled and got back into my role as Carver. My cane banged against the ground. This was a really good chance to execute my Carverisms. There was no progress bar anymore but that didn’t mean I break character.

“What do you want form this world? Why did you come here?” This was a question that I posed to these players before.

“Fame.” Shadow was the first to respond.

“Adventure.” Awesome Jr. was looking at SweetPea when he responded. She pulled down her hood and didn't have a good response.

“I just want to hit things.” HotPants said. “A lot.” Her faded red clothes seemed to stand out even more among all the greens and blues in our landscape.

“Whatever it is you want, whatever you feel your world is lacking, you can find it here.” I said.

“And you Mister Carver? What do you want?” SweetPea asked.

I wanted one thing for myself. One item honestly and deeply. I wanted the hurting to stop over my deceased fiancée. James had given me this chance as both a distraction and a lure. But Carver wanted something else entirely. Giving my answer would be invalid and cheapen this whole event.

“Me?” I hummed a bit and banged the cane once more. I knew what Carver would want. But saying it out loud and not sounding goofy was another matter.

“Yes, Mister Carver. What do you want?” SweetPea asked again. In my four weeks, she was the first player to actually turn the question around. SweetPea, my first Traveler.

“You say the people tell stories about me?” Awesome Jr. nodded to my question. “Well, no one tells them to my face. They let me sit on the bench day in and out, because they think I'm done with it all.”

What had the journals outlined? Vague recollections of the various adventures passed through my mind. I had just scanned them all recently looking for details of William Carver's past life in order to send out farewells.

“I’ve slain many different monsters in defense of those who needed it. I’ve been across the oceans and battled on the high seas. I’ve chased a creature born of flame and nightmare across the swamps only to tame the beast.” Carver's form gave an involuntary cough and my chest started to hurt.

“Treasures, women, I did all this in order to train myself for the greatest adventure I thought one could have.” The pain slowly faded and came under control after another cough.

“The dragon?” Awesome Jr. asked with huge excited eyes.

“That very one.” And I was unsure how that journey wen. The mystery of its absence was a puzzle for another day. I applied all my WWCD instincts towards the end of my speech.

“I reached my summit, and knew that there was still so much more to be done for this world. So much that I could never hope to accomplish alone.”

“Is that…” SweetPea shoved a hand over Awesome Jr's mouth and nodded at me to keep going.

“I became a guide to new Travelers. Not because these old bones wanted to rest.” The faintest sensation of pain had started to wash through my body. It was like the edge of a heart attack coming on.

“Not because I’d grown weary of raising my sword, but because the torch must be passed. Every Traveler I send on their way is another legend in the making.” HotPants almost looked misty eyed as I spoke. “But I’m too hard headed to die without one last adventure of my own.”

I swear to the Voices above that if there had been a progress bar still, it would have shot right through the roof. My WWCD had all fired to their maximum. Validation was further received from a giant notice which appeared in front of all four players. Beyond super neat. The message wasn't visible from my angle but it was likely some sort of system pop up about William Carver's legacy. Or a quest change.

“Jesus. I’m going to start crying over here.” HotPants actually looked like she meant it. Strange, I would have expected SweetPea to crack first.

“This is…”

“Awesome, yeah we get it.”

“Awesome’s my father.” HotPants weakly gave Awesome Jr. a whack over the head for repeating his catchphrase again. I kept my smile inside and let the players do what they would. Next to us a path to the maze's center lay open. Inside would contain challenges for us all. Most especially for me, Carver's last adventure was close.

Here's hoping the old man enjoyed the ride. What had I said to him in the mirror? Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.