Steam hissed. Dusk watched without a care. I saw the frozen material around Viper start dripping instantly. The first layer slid off into the pit below, followed by more chunks. I let it happen. The button was pressed and part of me wanted to see how Viper’s autopilot functioned.

The idea was terrible of me, and I regretted it right away. Being cold towards players struck me as an odd desire because these were living breathing humans that would suffer to some extent. Squisks irritated me, though, and he died quick enough that it was no worse than punching a person in the face. NPCs passing would have been worse, though. I would certainly have abused [Blink] and [Morrigu’s Gift] in order to make a bridge and leap to their rescue.

The more my journey went on, the less I enjoyed dealing with real people. At least the machine had never lied to me. Except about a fireball thing with [Detached Vitreous] ages ago. Dusk, Hal Pal, Jeeves, the Voices, all those in [Haven Valley], they were more real to me than my customers were.

Down Viper slid, his body stuck out a hand and limply hung from the edge of his former frozen prison. Below was the pit of endless depth. His fingers locked in a death grip on the edge, despite a slippery looking surface. The player's body started to curve towards one side, like a bow being bent backward.

Dusk chirped at me a few times. I sighed then tried to reach across the short distance. Viper’s autopilot was in effect at this point. The player himself could be anywhere, which meant we had freed a mindless puppet. Still, the empty shell of a person grabbed my hand and nearly crunched the wrist with an unexpected level of strength. I grunted and lifted him over. Excessive amounts of [Brawn] made it easy enough to lift up another player.

“We’re team members right now, remember? Killing me loses points.” I told the machine version of Viper while trying to stay steady. There were at least two places to [Blink] to, but this close and my [Reaction] might not be enough.

The other Traveler’s eyes stared blankly in my direction then shifted. Narrow slits seemed to imply vacant offense at the ball of fire in my left hand. His autopilot looked really crude, or being frozen had left it mentally absent. Was it a snake [Blessing] result?

“I don’t trusst you,” It said with remarkable clarity. I had to check twice to see if this really was an autopilot, but it clearly was. If my autopilot could hand out quests, I guess Viper’s could have trust issues.

Dusk chirped in confusion. Viper backed up slowly and reached out for a wall. Lowered shoulders and hips reminded me of an animal being cornered. I took a step back and left the exit open. From there, Viper’s character started sliding towards the door. My eyes followed the man in his free gear provided by the king as he reached the doorway.

Viper’s character straightened up and turned around slowly. The faded coloring of his autopilot returned to a normal light tone. He turned around and looked at me. I blinked a few times and squinted. The autopilot symbol that normally went on a player had vanished. Maybe he had been doing other things in his ARC while waiting to be killed or freed?

“Hermess. You’re alive.” Viper said.

“Welcome back. Do you want to go kill the boss, or be a popsicle again?” I asked bluntly. My excitement at running through the dungeon with Dusk left me eager to move onward. Maybe it was my [Red Imp] days coming back. Impatience with other players hit me frequently. That was the advantage of being Hermes, I could always keep traveling and moving to new places.

Being in the [Abyss of Light] or [Black Hole of Zombies] or [Mad Scientist's Lab] was starting to grate on me. Xin, she was out there. Would she get stats super-fast? Did the Voices give her a starting path? Maybe all her time in space flight training would add up to something cool? She could end up all Amazonian like Shazam had, only much shorter.

I sighed and waited for Viper to come up with an answer. The man shook a little and moved slowly.

“Okay,” He said. “I have to catch a plane in a few hourss, sso if you think we can get to the bossss? Thosse pointss would be usseful.”

There were groans from somewhere down the hallway. Their seal barking noises echoed and made it impossible to tell for sure. Dusk hissed with both wings pressed together. I turned and held up my ball of flame. No enemies peeked through yet, but small creatures skittered around.

“Voices above!” I shouted feeling abruptly stupid for letting him free. “Viper, do you still have all that loot?”

“Of coursse.”

“Dammit, they’ll be here soon then.” I wished the [Red Imp]’s ability to curse a stream of incomprehensible insanity had stayed with me. My own cuss word vocabulary was fairly limited. “Are you going to drop it all, or fight?”

“No. We need pointss. We need them to get free.” The other man insisted.

Ideas flashed through my head. My original vague plan of sneaking down to the boss room was now out the window. Whatever we did, it would require going full tilt. Spiders, legless zombies, full body ones with distortedly large limbs. Fuzzball creatures. Liquid light.

“No, it’s fine. We can make this work.” I had a gut feeling about this dungeon. Those barrels of starlight were all over the place the further down we went. It couldn’t be a coincidence. We needed these, and the danger they presented somehow.

“Dusk! We’ll need to run straight to the boss. Viper, if you want to help, follow him. Go!” I shouted at them then tried to ping the area again with my [Sight of Mercari] ability. Big O was up above a ways. Android Seven was gone? His dot didn’t show up and my head hurt.

“Viper, Dusk, once we get into the boss room, don’t stop. I’m sure you’ll be kiting a mess of these monsters.” I yelled as they started towards the exit.

Dusk paused mid jump then chirped at me while a question mark floated above his head.

“Of course I’m going to do something stupid.” My words seemed to confuse Dusk. Maybe the medium sized pet didn’t expect such a sudden shift. I had days to think about it, so it didn’t feel like a sudden plan to me, plus there was no reckless dive to survive as an old man, kill a jerk teenager, or rush to Earth.

I could play the game to play the game. That meant a huge amount of relaxation, even if this place was intended to be a creepy looking prison camp. Maybe I was the weird one for adapting to such a weird place. The disturbed air these dripping walls cast felt almost normal after so much time.

I was ready this time. My health was full, there were no negative status effects. [Power Armor] could easily help me last while being surrounded. Three game days of sneaking around, learning to use the boots and getting the layout down had helped. It was time to see who would get more attention, Viper and his pile of loot, or me, dipping myself into the starstuff.

The ball of fire was thrown towards the doorway. Small spiders and undead [Coo-Coo Rills] squealed from burn damage. Excessive [Brawn] let me easily lift a nearby barrel up. Edges creaked and strained under the weight. I tipped it over on myself and bathed in the liquid. Tingles invaded every ounce of skin. Vision blurred while both eyes crossed from a rush of dizziness. One hand came up to forestall questions as I tried not to lose consciousness again.

Viper’s nearly glowing eyes looked at me for a moment then he shrugged. More loud barking came down the halls and made his head whip around. “Enemiess. Those monsterss we can’t kill. They’re close.” He said.

“I can kill them, I think.” This was untested. They would be enraged, but maybe distracted. “Hopefully they’ll chase you while I do damage.”

Four distinct barks could be heard now. Our enemies were closer drawing in from all over. I felt assured that this reckless idea was part of the solution. This dungeon gave us two things. One was a way to lure tons of the monsters around. The other was both a lure and a way to hurt them. Both would be needed. I suspected these things because of my many travels all around [Arcadia]. That and the Voices gave me a note saying ‘Reach for the stars’.

Brief annoyance raced through me. There had been other letters, but most were illegible. I guess they had sat still for too long or were deleted due to irrelevance. Part of me felt worried about the Jester and his sketchy companion. Both of them were on edge over the expected death of someone. It wasn’t Xin, was it? None of these notes had been from her, but maybe she was busy running around [Arcadia] somewhere.

A closer set of enemy barks startled me out of the recollection. Dusk had already leapt down the hallway. Viper outright hissed but chased after the small bounding creature. I stopped to cough up another ball of fire since the first one had been used to murder spiders. [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] sat hooked into loops on the starlight drenched toga. I felt thankful that Viper hadn’t asked about the apparel change.

My hand held the orb of flame at chest level as we ran. It felt warm and managed not to light my [Gait of Bowman] modified toga on fire. These lower floors kept getting darker. Less light dripped down the walls. Three days of roaming had really helped get me back in tune with the Continue Online character. Being used to Hermes the [Mechanoid] had thrown me off.

“There’ss too many!” Viper hissed ahead. “Thiss plan is recklessss!”

Dusk squawked and belted out a flame. Smaller creatures were burnt. Six of the fast moving [Heavenly Body Clone]s were illuminated briefly but were unphased. They chased Viper as he ran. Apparently they had a preference for dead multitudes housed in Viper’s player stash rather than my humble [Dipped in Starlight] status. How many corpses had he picked up? There had to be at least ten, but probably more.

How many did we need? We might find out in the boss room, or we might find ourselves walking into a dead end with dozens of these things cornering us.

[Blink] let me catch up with one of the monsters. I risked using [Morrigu’s Gift] as a dagger and plunged it into exposed spine on one [Heavenly Body Clone]s. It fell forward and clawed at the air while both legs stiffened. There was no time to finish it off, and my single ball of fire was too clunky to wield with a weapon. Two handed combat was hard enough to do as a layman.

“More of thesse thingss!” Viper hissed.

Dusk was rapidly dodging through ginormous legs and around grasping hands, but the new size seemed to be throwing him off. He missed more corners than normal. His health lost a few small slivers as we tore through the hallways. More monsters piled up behind us. They could have been drawn to any one of us.

“Are you ssure!?” Viper yelled in front.

“Worst case, we die!” I shouted back happily. For once, I was able to play the game as a game. Not as some man running to deliver letters in a rush.

“We can’t lose pointss! If I losse too many pointss I’ll kill you!”

“Dusk?” I yelled back while ignoring Viper’s threats. “Are we on course?”

The [Messenger’s Pet] managed to ripple with a shrug and nod while we ran. Either that or Dusk was jumping over a bunch of legless creatures. I kept running after them, trusting the game and my stats to keep both feet moving in the right direction. [Awareness Heightening] hadn’t kicked into effect, and for that I was glad. The boss fight would probably hurt my mind enough once we got there. Temporarily kicking up the compression rate from four times reality’s speed to eight hurt when I was [Blink]ing everywhere.

“I don’t know if I can keep thiss pace!” Viper sounded winded already.

He was just running down the hallway. Of the two of us, I would be suffering more. Maybe part of me enjoyed it. This virtual reality often seemed to be the only place that felt real. Everything else was almost an intangible dream.

“No choice! You wanted the loot.” Even now, running for his life, the man didn’t drop any items. He could have easily shed an untold amount of dead bodies. Honestly I was surprised he still ran with all the weight, and still outdid my [Dipped in Starlight] effect.

Holding this fireball was like trying to balance a bowl in my hands while running. It threatened to slip with each corner. [Morrigu’s Gift] caught a few monsters, and some grasped at my skin with their beady hands. I stumbled and shook my foot loose.

“Keep going, we’ve got to be close!” I yelled at him.

We had to be. Dusk’s chirps of excitement were nearly lost under the barking noises these monsters made. At least two dozen were trailing behind us. A few were moving slowly or outright missing a limb from my interference. All were intent upon getting to Viper and his deep stash of goods.

Our passageway started to widen. The echoes of noise, our feet stomping, the monsters shuffling, and spiders squealing a pleasing death cry grew more intense. Dusk looked around at the walls as we ran. I too glanced as we kept going. There looked to be deep grooves dug out, all of which grew in size and frequency as we traveled.

“This lookss dangerouss.” Viper slowed down a bit. The monsters chasing him appeared hesitant to come into this passageway. Their jerking pauses indicated uncertainty. A few would catch up from further away and bump the crowd forward.

Our corridor went on for another fifty feet before the cavern grew huge. There was a ceiling way up above but far out of reach. I briefly missed the wings of my [Red Imp], but not the stubbly legs. Both of my thighs ached from sprinting twice through this dungeon. Cheeks ached from a smile despite the situation.

I liked this. This was what William Carver had lived for. This type of reckless disregard for self in favor of a rush of combat was infectious. If I saw Voices based on what was in my head, then perhaps I had desired this kind of event all along, why else would I see Leeroy? That probably meant my longing for Xin might be why Selena showed up, or that part of me wasn’t a [Prude] at all because of a certain red skinned temptress.

We kept crossing the room and slowly the floor narrowed to a single causeway. There seemed to be a giant pit on either side, but our platform was solid seeming. A few single bits of starlight hung on the ceiling. They looked like stalactites that had formed and been completely frozen.

“There’s nothing here,” Viper said. The bridge ended against another wall, small alcoves were dug into the wall as if someone had been trying to find treasure.

My back tingled, and it wasn’t from being [Dipped in Starlight]. Dusk looked around, both eyes wide as ears perked forward. Something was rumbling the dirt and reminded me of my first few days as Hermes. Viper was the last person who noticed.

“Careful!” I shouted mere seconds before a giant hand slammed over the walkway's edge. The memory of [Barricobbler] tossing SheHulk, Elane, into the distance flashed through my mind. Being tossed here would put me face to face with a wall.

The creature lifted itself forth while Dusk and Viper both hissed in unison. This was not a baby-faced giant, but it certainly was huge. Both hands were larger than I was. Bone shone through on the hand. Muscles wiggled around distorted gaps. The main body itself was almost proportionally correct for its limbs. This thing looked like a fully functioning version of the first giant monster I had found.

It came up barking with deep angry noises. Its other broken looking fist swung for a few [Heavenly Body Clone]s trying to creep across the walkway after our party. His hand picked up two of the creatures in one swing and promptly brought them up to its face.

I looked around rapidly and felt the world start to slow down. My heartbeat thudded loudly twice as I tried to understand the mechanics being presented.

“Dusk! Watch for little creatures!” I settled on killing spiders and those undead [Coo-Coo Rill]s first. They were down in this dungeon for a reason.

Dusk expanded both wings and leapt off into the abyss on the opposite side our new enemy. The giant started lifting himself over the edge, not content to hang on the edge. It moved faster than [Barricobbler] by a wide margin. What Rank would this boss be at, twenty? Twenty-five maybe?

It ate another straggling [Heavenly Body Clone] and light flooded through the creature. Bones and skin flushed with pure whiteness like the barrels had. My feet shuffled to the side slightly, trying to get myself ready for the next stage.

“Viper, it’ll come after you soon!” I shouted.

“No sshit, Ssherlock,” He said dryly.

“Keep digging, Watson,” I muttered while doing an [Identification]. The results nearly caused me to laugh. Clearly the Voices thought my idle commentary was funny.

Boss Encountered! Name: Charge Race: [Decaying Heavenly Body] Rank: Yes he is Details: Charge was not always a monster.

He is not Watson but does like digging.

He remembers digging a hole through the world for treasure.

He hates other people because they’re not Charge.

He likes squishing those not in Charge.

He is hungrier than a school full of teenage boys.

He will eat you.

But Charge was not always a monster.

His legs straddled the walkway like a bicycle. [Charge], the giant creature who was a few ranks above the [Heavenly Body Clone]s, reached out and bashed one of the far walls. Loud noise drowned out barking echoes from lesser enemies. A mass of them had piled up in the doorway. Some in the back pushed those in front like lemmings over a cliff.

He turned and looked at me. I stared back and readied [Morrigu’s Gift] in the two-handed form. The second blade stayed hooked in my belt, ready to be pulled out and used.

The throng at the doorway tried to grasp at the bigger one, attempting to tear out chunks for their own hunger. These zombie creatures didn’t discriminate. [Charge] blinked his eyes and backed up.

“Disssgussting,” Viper said with his nose wiggling.

Dusk was already hard at work setting smaller creatures alight. There was one thing that might make this insanely darkened scene feel better. I regripped the blade in one hand and tried to figure out what to do with the ball of fire. My planning went on for too long as [Charge] started to slowly turn around, half a [Heavenly Body Clone] sat broken in its mouth.

“Leeeeroyy!” I shouted while charging towards the monster's back.

One giant arm hung onto the walkway as an anchor. Small bits of rock wiggled from above but nothing major came down. My legs bunched at the last second as I leapt towards the giant’s back. [Charge] reacted instantly and twisted around. His free arm batted into my side deflecting the leap towards a mass of [Heavenly Body Clone]s.

Half fleshed faces and giant limbs reached out for me. My arm pumped wildly throwing the ball of fire into the crowd. Monsters growled and barked in pain. One fell down then was immediately set upon by its former peers. My feet touched down as I fell. Shin bumped against rock and gave me a small wave of pain that I tried to suppress. Limbs grasped at me, desiring my [Dipped in Starlight] body. I quickly looked up and used [Blink] near a wall. Barking noises followed me in the wake of a disorienting spin.

[Charge] walked across the pathway looking like a glowing assed baboon. Chunks of our path crunched under its powerful and oversized palms. My new position made me victim to gravity and I started to fall. [Blink] couldn’t trigger again fast enough and I tried to dig into the wall with an oversized blade. The motion only stalled my fall a little bit as I hung on. [Morrigu’s Gift] was the wrong shape for such an action.

“Sscrew thiss!” Viper shouted. He threw blades towards the boss but they sunk in without doing any damage to the creature’s health bar.

I took a breath and tried to become steady. [Awareness Heightening] was in effect but it didn’t change cooldowns on my abilities. My fingers tightened their hold and I once again [Blink]ed, this time above the enemy [Charge]. [Morrigu’s Gift] slid across flesh but failed to find purchase. My legs locked around an arm and I spun the blade to hack again. My body slid towards and upside position and head banged into its chest.

“Throw the bodies over the edge!” I shouted to Viper. “Distract the lesser ones!”

Dusk flew overhead and kept tossing fire around, illuminating enough of the scene. Small spiders clung to a burning web up above. I would have been happy were there time to appreciate the death of so many bugs.

[Charge] went crazy and started beating at me, the ground, and anything within reach. I shifted [Morrigu’s Gift] to one hand while the other anchored into the creature's broken flesh. Dizziness swept through my head as we banged around.

Viper was tossing legless [Heavenly Body Clone]s over the edge. Barks echoed through the cavern as some of the more complete monsters tried to dive after fresh sources of food. Dusk sent small balls of fire after them. Heat seared through the room as the player hissed.

The walkway was taking a huge beating. Formerly smooth paths were now jagged or outright missing in places. Cracking could be heard from above. Monsters of various shape all flooded over the edge in their mindless dives.

[Charge] grabbed me with both hands. My free foot struggled but found a solid platform to activate [Power Armor]. Metal banging preceded a sudden expansion of my toga. It hardened under the monster's grip. Portions slid out in stages as [Charge] tried to both squeeze me to death and lift my body towards its face. A final chunk slammed tight over my head just in time.

“Sshit!” Viper hissed in surprise.

[Charge] grunted from the effort chewing on my head. He was like a giant child chewing on a jawbreaker a size too big. My vision narrowed down to one small sliver that drool and bad breath could still make it through. The pressure around my chest loosened. Deep barking noises rattled my eardrums. I tried to see a location to [Blink] to but nothing was visible but glowing nasty teeth and bits of white blood from the dead [Heavenly Body Clone]s

Status effects for [Deafened] and [Dizzy] came up. I started swinging wildly, unable to fully appreciate the neatness of [Power Armor]. [Awareness Heightening] made each moment with my head in this creature’s mouth feel like an eternity. Seeing anything past this visor while my arms were pinned was impossible. I didn’t even have time to consider where [Wild Bill] had gone.

The monster kept chewing. Viper was saying something. Smaller barks could be heard in the middle of other ones. I shifted [Morrigu’s Gift] to a one-handed short sword and tried to jab at the monster. I couldn’t even see its health bar, and all the chewing was starting to make progress even on my [Power Armor].

My other hand stuck out, one foot pressed hard against the monster. Knees ached from trying to push back. Using [Recall] brought [Morrigu’s Echo] into my free hand. I couldn’t even tell what shape it had and [Dizzy] screwed up my concentration. Both weapons flailed at the monster and the barks started sounding strained.

A solid stream of blue shone through a hole in [Charge]’s cheek. The energy didn’t hit us but did get the walkway.

“Sshit! Android Sseven!” Viper’s loud hiss sounded muffled but close. Had we walked forward? Did [Charge] try to get him while still chewing on me? Everything started tipping to one side. [Charge] gave up his grasp on me and tried to stay upright.

We both started falling off the edge. A second stream of blue came through while I tried to get my bearings. [Dizzy] made my eyes cross. A film of glowing slime made it harder to see. Viper was falling along with the rest of us.

I managed to [Blink] closer to the other player as all of us fell from the ledge. [Morrigu’s Echo] fell from my hand into the abyss while I tried to get [Morrigu’s Gift] into a longer pickaxe type shape.

Viper’s hand was close enough to clasp onto mine. The Traveler had an instant death hold. A message talking about [Constrictive Grip] flashed by but I had no time to read the text. We were still falling. Sparks flew as [Morrigu’s Gift] struggled to find purchase. Our path downward slanted enough and I pumped my arm into the wall, hoping that my fledging [Mountain Man] skills from training with Shazam might kick in.

“Hang on!” I strained to keep a hold of [Morrigu’s Gift] and Viper. Dusk clung to a wall chirping as we slid downward. He might have been thinking something clever, but it was blocked by [Power Armor].

I almost regretted saving the other Traveler. With just myself I could probably have survived or even made it back to the top. Even neater, I probably could have found Android Seven, {Blink][/b]ed to him and then pulled him from whatever perch he hid at. Still, going back up would have been a death warrant because of all the remaining [Heavenly Body Clone]s.

More energy blasts poured down from above. They were growing increasingly accurate. I tilted my head back and managed to see a body up above, glowing with blue light. That must be where Android Seven was, hanging from the ceiling, trying to kill us and take the boss loot for his own.

We slipped even further.

“Viper! Will you be okay?!”

I had no idea what he said. The man shook, another bolt of blue came down along with more [Heavenly Body Clone]s. The grip on my free arm vanished. [Morrigu’s Gift] slid again under the sudden change of pressure. [Power Armor] still weighed me down. Dusk’s anxious chirping, undead monsters' fading barks as they fell, and a hum of energy as we fell were all magnified under [Awareness Heightening].

I let the [Power Armor] go and felt a wash of grossness as my clothes turned back into a gore-drenched toga. Vision tilted down as I tried to get a handle on how far we were from the bottom.

Dusk dove, and let out a fireball lighting up the path. It vanished like a penny down an endless well. It was far, far below. I looked back up and saw a fifth blast of blue.

“Voices above, I hope you’re enjoying yourselves.” I grumbled, tried again to halt my impending decent, but the weapon slipped.

Down I went. [Awareness Heightening] slowed time as I fell. My heartbeat was racing now, no longer a dull thud in the background. Moments like this were what nightmares were made of. Falling, dead bodies around me, death being rained from above. Dusk gave one slow chirp that was lost. I looked up and saw those two points of frozen starlight growing faint in the distance.

My body jerked and I had a small eternity where I expected pain to radiate from my legs upward. My arm jerked out of its socket and side slammed into a wall. Those parts of my body hurt and numbness shot down one leg as my kneecap jerked into something.

“I’ve got you,” Viper said. He repeated the words a few times as I looked around trying to find some place to [Blink] to safely. Gravity had driven the thought of trying a last minute change of direction out of my head. I ground my teeth and felt like a newbie, despite all that I had been given or trained for.

The ground was close enough to see. I [Blink]ed down and got onto hands and knees for a moment as my heartbeat settled. [Awareness Heightening] started to fade and the world once again took on its normal speed. My belly shook and quivered as I tried to push forward.

One foot at a time. Both legs slowly worked and I stood upright. My healthbar was under half. Mana barely existed. [Morrigu's Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] clattered on the floor nearby. I stumbled to pick up my weapons and started feeling better.

“Hermess? Are you ssound?” Viper said. He must have climbed down somehow. His words seemed off to me. I looked around and tried to figure out what had happened.

[Charge] lay there on the bottom floor. One arm reached out awkwardly as it tried to go for a debilitated [Heavenly Body Clone] that had fallen down. Gouged out chunks of flesh littered its chest and face from my wild stabs. Multiple smaller monsters looked like broken pancakes. I felt only mildly surprised when all these creatures managed to move arms and fingers in twitches. This fight had gone on too long. The boss barked one last time before my weapons gouged through the creature’s eyes.

“Yes. I feel much better now.” I said, satisfied that this fight had gone a much different route from [Barricobbler]. This creature's death was more proof of my recovery. Xin's return only served as part of my improvement. My bravery and willingness to leap into combat and save someone, the abilities I had. I had changed. I was better. My eyes closed briefly and I dared to feel just a little bit of happiness.