Chris Nordstrom

I wake up groggily, only to realize that my hands are cuffed to some kind of piping, and my feet are tied together. I open my eyes to see the same man wearing that leather jacket standing in front of me. The room reminds me of a basement, and the rickety stairs leading up and lack of windows supports that idea.

The man takes a puff out of a cigarette, his eyes presumably watching me underneath his shades.

“He’s awake.” The man says.

A girl maybe a year or so older than me moves in the corner of the room, drawing my attention to her. Long blonde hair slightly curled, a button nose and two large blue eyes marks the girl as someone that could’ve been a supermodel.

“I can see.” The girl says with an accent I can’t quite place.

I surreptitiously feel around my finger, internally sighing with relief when I feel the ring that holds the dungeon core in it. Outwardly, I keep my expression worried with a trace of the actual confusion and fear I’m feeling inside.

“Who the hell are you guys?” I ask, testing the bindings on my feet as I talk. I do my best to not let any fear affect me.

I’m not always a scaredy cat, alright? Zombies are just freaky, and giant spiders are something that should never exist.

The two of them look at each other, apparently sharing some kind of unspoken conversation. Finally, the girl turns toward me, “Do you know where your brother is?”

“I honestly have no idea.” I say, hoping that they’ll believe me and leave it at that.

“Fuck. He’s telling the truth.” The man says, pushing his sunglasses back to rub his eyes.

The girl frowns unhappy with my answer. “Maybe we can use him as blackmail? Tell him to come or we will kill his brother.”

My blood runs cold at her words.

“And how are we supposed to tell him that we have his brother? Might as well kill the kid now, maybe the kid’s death will bring him to us.” The man says pulling a dangerous looking curved blade seemingly out of nowhere.

“Hey look!” I hurriedly say, “There’s no need for that. I’m more useful to you alive as a hostage than dead. I mean, you’re Beta Testers, there’s nothing I could possibly do to hurt your plans.”

“He makes a good point.” The girl says, raising an eyebrow at the blade the man had brought out. “I’d rather not start killing people just because it’s easier. They still have their uses….”

They both stopped as their gazes turned to something I couldn’t see in front of them.

Are they seeing their own blue screens? That proves my idea that they are Beta Testers.

“You buy the tickets?” The girl said, her gaze turning back to the man.

He nods.

“Good. I’ll have my assistant watch him while we’re gone. I’m sure we’ll find some use for him.” The girl motions to me as she speaks.

The man nods again, already browsing on his phone, he turns to leave and I catch a glance of what he’s looking at, thankful that they didn’t remove my glasses.

Tickets to St George, Utah. Why in the world are they going there?

Both of them ignore me as they leave, and a moment later, the girl returns with another woman, pointing to me “Watch him, make sure he doesn’t escape. We need him.”

The woman studies me, and I study her right back. Her brown hair is pulled into a short ponytail, and she wears form fitting clothes that look rather obviously expensive to me. Her brown eyes watch me coldly, and I shiver.

After she’s done, she calmly walks back up the stairs with the girl, leaving me alone in the room.

My options here are limited. After seeing the video of those Beta Testers fighting, I know that there is no way in hell that I’ll be able to force my way out of here.

I’m lucky that both of them seem to be leaving for somewhere, or I doubt that I’d ever be getting out of here.

The first step of getting out of here would be getting out of these bonds around my hands and feet.

If I were James Bond, I could probably convince that woman to just let me go…. But I do not have that much confidence in my ability to talk my way out of this situation. I touch the storage ring on my finger, considering my options.

I have three magical abilities. Only two of which could apply here.

I could transform myself into one of the zombies, but I really don’t like that option.

I could also summon a zombie to help me.

I don’t like that option either.

Unfortunately, I can’t really think of anything else. I’ll just have to make sure that both the Beta Testers are actually gone, cause if I try to escape while they’re here. I’m screwed.

That means I get to play the waiting game.

It’s my favorite game after all.

….

Okay, maybe I lied. The waiting game isn’t my favorite game.

How do I know for sure that the Beta Testers are gone?

I don’t.

Thankfully, right as I’m starting to feel hungry, the woman that was tasked with watching me comes down with a to-go box in her hand.

“H-hey.” I say nervously.

The woman ignores me as she walks over to me, setting the food down. “I’m going to untie your hands. If you try anything, I’m going to stab you with this knife.” She says emotionlessly, pulling a nasty looking pocket knife out of her pocket. “Do you understand?”

“Y-yeah. I get it.” I respond.

“Good.” She walks over to me, unlocking the cuffs around my wrists.

I rub my wrists gently, trying to get some feeling back into them.

She sits down across from me, “Eat your food so that I can leave.” She points to the to-go box on the floor.

I open it, and am surprised to see some rather delish looking chowmein in the box. I take a bite, just enjoying the taste of the meal. After a moment, I turn my attention to the woman who is watching me emotionlessly. “You know, you don’t-”

“Shut up, or I’ll stab you.” She says coldly.

I gulp. I mean, she holds that pocket knife like she knows how to use it.

I turn my attention back to the food, but it doesn’t really taste as good as I thought it did.

During my food, I’m surprised when a message appears in front of me.

One of your skeletons has learned how to become a zombie.

+10 gold

Not super useful right now, but cool I guess.

Once I’m finished with the food, she cuffs my hands back to the piping, and leaves the basement.

Ok, what I’m really lacking here is information. I don’t know if the Beta Testers have left, or how closely that woman is watching me.

I don’t have the patience to stay chained up to this pipe any longer, and I do have someone that could help me.

It would be nice to see her again too.

Alright, here goes nothing.

“[Summon Dungeon Inhabitant: Luna]” The words of power fill my being as I feel my Dungeon Points decrease, it’s a strange feeling actually.

A bright light glows in front of me as a feminine creature appears in front of me. An armor that looks vaguely like the spiders I’d seen inside the dungeon covers Luna, and she holds her staff gracefully, giving her a dangerous aura. Her yellow eyes look at me with surprise and a little worry.

“Hey Luna, you’re looking well.” I say, hiding the tiny bit of fear that appears when I see the pale skin, and bones that are showing through that skin.

Luna immediately walks up to me, setting her staff down, and putting her hand on my cheek with care, her eyes filled with worry.

Luna’s Perspective.

The tribe was doing well. Spiders and the large coyotes continued to hunt us, but we’d learned to deal with them over the three years we’d lived in this world.

There was some worry over the future of the tribe, when we hadn’t known how to create more of us. But thankfully, I’d solved that problem with the rising of the first Skeleton. It had only taken him two years before he’d gathered enough flesh to truly become one of us.

Surprisingly, the next skeleton we’d risen had refused to become a zombie, instead choosing to follow his own path.

I couldn’t help but wonder how he was doing, our creator. What was life in his world like? Did he think of us?

I am close to my next advancement, I can feel it. I only need a small push, but I don’t know what that push is.

Lately, I have taken to hunting the spiders in their own nests, hoping that through my fights with them, I might gain the push I need to advance.

The brood mothers in the depths of their nests are truly terrifying, and I know that if left unchecked, they will become truly powerful. I fear that if I do not advance soon, I will not be able to fight them when the time comes.

My musings pause when I feel a tug, a request.

He is calling me.

I tell the system that I am ready to be summoned, and the world fades around me as space distorts.

I open my eyes to see the creator in front of me, his red curls falling in front of his eyes. I take in his state with surprise.

Someone dared to chain him? This slight cannot go unpunished.

He is not hurt, is he?

“Hey Luna, you’re looking well.” The creator says with a strained smile.

I walk up to him, and set my staff down as I put my hand on his cheek. Gently, I send my mana through his body, checking for any injuries.

Nothing seems wrong, and I sigh with relief.

I look into his eyes questioningly, knowing that I could not speak well if I tried.

“Don’t worry, I just got into a little bit of trouble with some powerful people.” The creator says, causing me to frown.

I immediately feel for the chains around his wrists. They are made out of good steel, but that will not stop me.

I reach into my pouch, pulling out a paste made from the blood of the wolves. I carefully apply the paste in a circular pattern around the bonds of the creator, ignoring his questioning look.

Using my mana, I activate the magic of the paste, turning the bonds around the creator’s wrist into dust.

The creator brings his wrists in front of him in surprise, rubbing them gently.

Noticing the marks on the skin of his wrists from the bonds, I start to get angry. I hurriedly suppress the feeling, knowing that this is not the time, or the place.

I apply the paste to the bonds around his ankles as well, setting him fully free.

I look at his face, hoping for some praise, instead I see a frown.

“Whaaatsss Wroooonng?” I ask, worried that I had messed up.

The creator’s frown disappears when he hears my words, “Nothing, I’m just worried that we might have started our escape a little too soon.” He turns to look at the stairs out of the room. “Nothing to be done about it now, I guess.”