The orcs stepped forward as one, settling into defensive en-garde positions. No growls or roars or unnecessary movements, everything about them screamed training and discipline and intelligence.

Alf stumbled to his right and leaned heavily against the wall. I can do this. Blix is depending on me. One more fight, and I’ll be able to rest.

“Do you still have attribute points left?” Blix whispered in his ear. “Put them all into strength. That should buy us a little stamina.”

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Keeping his eyes fixed on the guards, he lowered Blix to the ground and drew his sword. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to wait for our big fat brothers?”

The orc at the back of the group let out a barking growl.

“Nicely marbled, grass-fed billy goats. Nam nam…” Alf started to put all three of his attribute points into strength, but something about the coordinated movement of the guards gave him pause. He’d need all the speed he could get to fight six sentient opponents at once. Sighing, he put a point into dexterity and two points into strength, watching as his stamina rose from 6 to 21.

The orc at the back of the formation turned to the to the wall and bark-growled into a protruding metal tube about four feet off the ground.

“What the hell?” Blix’s hushed voice. “I thought this was supposed to be a dungeon.”

“It’s six against two,” Alf said without taking his eyes off the guards. “Why aren’t they attacking?”

“I think they’re waiting for their brother.”

Alf leaned against the wall and studied his mini-map. Hundreds of dots were gathering at the entrance to the dungeon. He was happy for every second of rest he could get, but at some point the high orcs were going to attack, and it would take time to fight his way through all these guards. And even more time to pick the lock on the door. Assuming there even was a lock.

A clank echoed through the tunnel, rattling the doors. Alf squinted as the entire wall flashed with blinding white light. The doors swung open and out stepped a hooded figure in velvety black robes. The diminutive figure glided forward as the guards snapped to attention.

“Drop your weapons.” Its hissing voice echoed inside Alf’s brain. If the nanites were going for early nineties psycho vampire, they had totally nailed it.

Alf lowered the tip of his sword slowly to give him a few seconds to think. Blix was still level one, so it was effectively seven against one. Even if the orcs were as slow on their feet as the one before, he doubted he’d be able to handle all all six of them. And based on the way they responded to the cloaked figure, it was far more dangerous than they were—maybe some kind of mind mage or undead soul-sucking vampire thingy. He let his sword clatter to the ground and raised his hands in surrender.

“Who are you? What is your connection to the high orcs?” The figure was just under five feet tall, but it strode forward with the unconscious swagger of a sixteen-foot-tall high orc.

“I’m Alf Alvarez and this is Aggie Blix. We were out hunting and a miniature orc riding a giant bat started attacking us. It chased us to this cave and, well… here we are.”

“We represent the human settlement on the coast,” Blix added. “We’d like to meet with your leaders.”

Ignoring Alf, the cloaked figure glided over to Blix and bent to examine her arm and legs. “You are the statesman and this is your guardian?”

“He’s my friend,” Blix said. “We’re both statesmen. We work together.”

“You speak truth,” the figure announced. “What prey were you hunting?”

“Giant centipedes,” Blix said. “Laopedes.”

The figure straightened suddenly and turned to Alf. “You speak truth.” It seemed confused. She seemed confused, Alf realized as he was finally able to make out the outlines of the figure’s dark gray face.

“I see… you have much mana.” The figure seemed be looking into Alf’s soul. “What is your magic?”

Alf looked to Blix and received a subtle nod. “I am a healer, and Blix is—”

“A healer?” The figure’s voice warped and fluttered as it battered against Alf’s brain. “This cannot be. You are a physician, yes? An alchemist or a trainer.”

“I understand your confusion,” Blix interjected. “My arms and legs were injured long before I met Alf, but he has healed me several times from less… grievous wounds.”

The cloaked figure turned to the orcs and emitted a series of barks and trills and high-pitched growls. The guards lumbered over. Two of them grabbed Alf’s arms while a third approached Blix with drawn blade.

“No!” Alf lunged and twisted and tried to pull free, but the orc slashed out with his sword, cutting a deep gash into Blix’s shoulder.

“Heal her.” The figure’s voice sent him crashing to the floor.

He clamped a hand over the bloody wound. His stomach surged as wave of pain washed through his body. The callous, matter-of-fact display cruelty sickened him to the bone.

The flow of magic cut off like a faucet, and Blix fell into his arms. “It’s okay. I’m fine,” she said in her cute little girl voice. “It was just a test. I barely felt it at all.”

“It’s — not — fine,” he ground out. He lifted Blix from the ground and turned to face the cloaked monster, but the swords at his neck brought him up short.

“Follow me,” the words shrieked in his brain as the figure turned and glided towards the open doors. “Quickly. We haven’t much time.”

The guards shoved Alf forward. Following the cloaked figure through the doors, he brought up his mini-map. The high orcs hadn’t entered the cave yet.

“I think she wants you to heal someone,” Blix said.

Alf nodded as the figure led them down a narrow flight of stairs. Murder holes dotted the ceiling and walls. The back of his neck tingled under the weight of a hundred unseen eyes. Several holes were blackened and charred about the edges. The whole stairwell smelled like a chimney that needed to be cleaned.

A couple hundred yards later, they came to a steel door that glowed with blue-tinted light. The figure stopped and let out a banshee wail. The glow immediately faded and the door swung open to reveal a well lit area with polished marble floors.

Alf followed the figure into a warehouse-sized chamber filled with bustling black-cloaked figures. One carried a stack of papers to a figure seated behind a large reception desk. Another pulled a cart laden with metal cubes. Six more figures disappeared through an office-looking door, slamming it shut behind them. It looked more like a corporate office than a medieval dungeon. What was going on?

Their escort stopped at one of several nearly identical desks and exchanged a few screeches with the purple-cloaked figure seated behind it before hurrying down a long, well-lit hallway punctuated every twenty feet by facing wooden doors.

“So not what I expected,” Alf mumbled.

Blix nodded. “I’m glad you decided not to fight.”

“Still think they want me to heal someone?” Alf indicated an open door with a nod. “Looks more like an efficiency apartment than a hospital.”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

The figure led them through an open door and up three flight of stairs before stopping at a steel door guarded by six white-cloaked figures. The guards checked their papers and conferred several minutes before finally opening the door into a high-ceilinged, opulently furnished chamber.

“Whoa…” Alf breathed as the orcs pushed him after their escort. They walked through a colonnade of soaring arches and intricately carved scrollwork before stepping out onto a circular dais dominated by a massive canopy bed. One of the four white-cloaked figures flanking the bed stepped forward and conferred with their escort in hushed tones.

Something shifted in the shadows at the base of the bed. A girl in tattered rags cowered against the bedpost, a heavy chain running from the heavy wooden post to the steel collar encircling her neck. Fine, wispy blue hair floated around her head like she was under water.

“What are you doing with—”

Blix’s hand covered his mouth. “Patience,” she whispered. “I know it’s hard, but we’re in no position to make demands.”

Their escort seemed to be locked in a heated argument with the white-robes. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she motioned to Alf. “Approach slowly. If I detect any threat, you will be destroyed.”

Alf eased closer to the bed, acutely aware of the balls of flame two of the white robes had summoned and were holding in cupped hands.

A pale gray woman lay stretched out on the bed. She was so still and emaciated, he wondered if she was still alive.

“Heal magic,” their escort commanded. “Any other magic and you will be destroyed.”

Alf nodded and reached out slowly, but the fireballs on either side of him flared. “I have to touch her in order for it to work.” The heat radiating off the fire was so intense he had a hard time breathing, but he pressed a hand to the patient’s forehead and cast minor healing.

The sleeping woman seemed to relax a little. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her breathing improved as the healing continued, but she didn’t stir.

Something was wrong. The wrongness squirmed like a snake beneath his touch. Some of her symptoms might have improved, but it would take more than a minor healing spell to fix the underlying problem.

“Does she have a specific wound? Is the injury localized?” Alf asked their escort. “To do a deeper healing, I’ll need to touch the affected area.”

After a short conversation between white cloaks, black-cloaked woman turned back to him. “No knowledge of cause.”

“Okay…” Alf placed his hand on the patient’s abdomen and hit her with a major healing.

The patient let out a series of shallow pants as pain twisted up Alf’s arm and filled him with writhing shadows.

“He’s not hurting her,” Blix said. “It hurts him, but it feels good to her—as in really good.”

When the spell finally ended, Alf could tell that his patient had improved, but he still hadn’t gotten at the underlying problem. “I think she’s been poisoned,” he announced. “I can heal some of the damage, but the poison still remains.”

His words touched off a heated argument. He stepped back and sat down next to the blue-headed waif who shrank away from him, watching him with terror-filled eyes.

“Shhh… It’s okay,” he soothed. “We won’t hurt you.”

He checked to make sure he wasn’t being observed and placed a hand on a quivering foot, pushing a quick healing spell into her.

The frightened girl whimpered but seemed to grow calmer. Then, just as he was about to pull away, a jolt surged into his hand, slamming into his body like a tidal wave. It didn’t feel like an attack. He checked his health bar and found it hadn’t budged. But his mana bar was completely full. It was fuller than full. He seemed to be at three hundred percent capacity.

The lights dimmed and a series of tones sounded in the direction of the stairs.

“What was that?” Alf climbed back onto his feet. “Is it the high orcs? Are they attacking?”

“Not your concern,” their escort replied. “Laopede breech at the lowest level. Warriors are pushing them back.”

“Alf can’t neutralize poisons now, but I think I might know of a way to cure her.” Blix nodded to indicate the still unconscious patient.

“You speak truth,” their escort sounded confused.

“Alf has a special type of magic,” she explained. “The more he fights, the stronger his healing magic becomes.”

It didn’t take a truth reader to interpret the skepticism in the figure’s reaction. “We’d like to form a peace treaty with you,” Alf explained. “What are your people called?”

“You would speak Shade.”

“Right,” he added quickly. “The humans we represent would like to establish a peace treaty with the Shade. To demonstrate our sincerity, we will try to heal your sick and—”

“But first,” Blix interrupted, “we wish to fight the laopedes. If you can direct us to enough monsters, Alf may eventually be able to help this woman.”

“You speak… truth?” The cloaked figure conferred with her white-cloaked colleagues. After a heated discussion she turned back to Blix. “We grant you one day in the lower labyrinth. If you survive, we will give you one more opportunity to heal the queen. If you fail again, you will be destroyed.”

* * *

Name: Jane

Level: 7

Class: Paladin

Health: 225/225

Stamina: 22/210

Mana: 2274/784

Exp: 221/3600

Attr Points: 0

Skill Points: 3

ST: 16

DX: 17

CN: 15

IQ: 28

CH: 16

Combat Skills:

Faire du Canne 7: (Effective Skill: 11.6, Basis: ST+DX, Enhancement: 34.7%)

Grappling 1: (Effective Skill: 1.63, Basis: 2ST+DX, Enhancement: 4.9%)

Swordsmanship 5: (Effective Skill: 8.33, Basis: 2DX+ST, Enhancement: 25.0%)

Archery 1: (Effective Skill: 1.67, Basis: 2DX+ST, Enhancement: 5.0%)

Non-Combat Skills:

Woodcrafting 1: (Effective Level: 2.25, Basis: DX+IQ, Enhancement: 6.8%)

Lock Picking 1: (Effective Level: 1.7, Basis: DX, Enhancement: 5.1%)

Command Attention 1: (Effective Level: 2.2, Basis: CH+IQ, Enhancement: 6.6%)

Swimming 1: (Effective Level: 1.7, Basis: DX, Enhancement: 5.1%)

Spells: (Basis IQ)

Minor Healing 5: (EL: 14, Cost: 25, Freq: unlimited, Effect: 42 points)

Major Healing 2: (EL: 5.6, Cost: 35, Freq: 1/hr, Effect: 200cc tissue regen)

Taunt 1: (EL: 2.8, Cost: 5, Freq: 1/min, Effect: 8.4%)