1

It was the armor that saved them. Because they were pulling branches, the foraging group had returned their weapons to their inventories, but they kept the armor on. Two of the nine spears the goblins threw missed their target. Three spears clanked off Ethan’s and Damon’s metal plate armor. One spear got wedged into Jordan’s chain mail but didn’t puncture his skin.

The other three spears found their target. One spear sank into Damon’s right bicep, bypassing his armor. The second impaled his already-injured left leg. A screen appeared in his vision.

You have been poisoned (level 1)! You will lose 1 hit point every 5 seconds. You better hope you have the antidote!

“Fuck,” Damon shouted, “their spears are poisonous!”

The third spear ripped through the canvas material of Miguel’s jack of plates armor and plunged into the right side of his stomach. He collapsed to the ground in a fetal position.

“Miguel’s been hit! Everyone circle around him!” Damon yelled, limping to the mage. A goblin jumped on his back, planting its bone knife into his shoulder. Damon cried out in pain.

Inside the circle, Janna knelt beside Miguel and cast Basic Heal. The spear was buried in his stomach, and in the dim light that shone from the Firefly spell, she saw a pool of blood gathering on the ground. “We have to pull the spear out,” she sobbed, “and he’s poisoned.”

“I know, I know,” Damon groaned. The goblin was still clinging to his back. He reached over his head, feeling excruciating pain in his right bicep and shoulder, and pulled the creature off his back. The goblin’s nails scratched deep grooves into his skin as Damon dragged it to his front. He stared at its wild face and was struck by the creature’s pale gray eyes. The goblin squirmed and flapped its arms like a young child demanding to be put down. Green drool sprayed from its chomping mouth.

Damon flipped the goblin horizontally and slammed it down onto his right knee, breaking its back. It tumbled to the ground, convulsing. He looked at the spear buried in his right bicep. The weapon had primitive inscriptions carved along its shaft. He snapped off the spearhead, yowling in pain, then pulled the shaft out of his bicep. He did the same with the spear in his left leg, then tore the bone knife from his shoulder with his left hand. Blood gushed from the three wounds.

Jordan growled, “Screen, go away,” and Damon glanced at the brothers. Two dead goblins lay in front of them, and Jordan was drawing his sword from another one. A small cloud of stars circled above the two dead goblins, five feet from the ground. Ethan was swinging his battle axe wildly, not connecting with the goblins. They were too small and too fast, easily evading the large weapon.

“Ethan, use your sword,” Damon said.

Ethan turned to him with an expression of gratitude. A moment later, his battle axe disappeared and was replaced by the sword. He turned to a goblin that had squeezed through their circle, snapping at Janna’s arm as she applied healing to Miguel. Ethan drove his sword into the back of a goblin, which arched its back and fell over. He finished the creature by stomping on its head, and another star cloud rose from the dead body.

Damon glanced back at Miguel. The spear in his stomach needed to come out. As he turned to pull the spear, he felt a tapping on his left leg. He looked down. A weaponless goblin was looking up at him. It shrugged its shoulders, then spoke. “Tock! Goon tune koe tak a tik oon puh gack,” the goblin explained as it gestured its arms back and forth.

Is this thing trying to negotiate with me? Damon wondered incredulously.

The goblin grew frustrated. “Tock! Tock! Tock! Goon tune koe tak a tik!” it demanded angrily.

Damon roared and reached down, gripping the goblin’s head and hoisting it up off the ground. As the creature realized its fate, it plunged its fingers deep into Damon’s leg wound. Damon screamed. Still holding the goblin’s head in one hand, he swung his sword and chopped its head off. The body crashed to the ground as the goblin’s fingers withdrew from Damon’s wound with a sickening pop. Another star cloud floated up from the creature’s body.

Still holding the severed head in front of him, the creature uttered a final “Tock,” and closed its mouth. Screaming in revulsion, Damon threw the head into the forest, where it bounced across the pine needles and smacked into a tree trunk. Damon glanced back at the brothers. There were three more dead goblins and three more star clouds, but he noticed that the earlier clouds were fading.

The three men turned to Miguel and Janna. She had pulled the spear out of his stomach and was pressing her palm against Miguel’s wound. “His wound is small now,” she said, peering up to them, “but I’ve spent all my mana points.”

Jordan grinned. “That’s okay, I can heal him.” He pointed his arm at Miguel and said, “Basic Heal.” Blue light traveled from his hand to Miguel. Jordan lifted two clawed fingers to his lips and blew on them like a pistol. He winked at Janna. “I hit level 5 back there.”

Ethan grabbed his brother. “You dog,” he shouted, “and I thought I’d done well. I’m at level 4. I even got three bumps on strength and constitution.”

“You can call them buffs,” Miguel said weakly.

“Ah, bums, bumps, buffs, who cares?” Ethan said. “All I know is that those little munchkins gave a lot of MP!”

“It’s XP… for experience,” Miguel corrected.

Jordan laughed. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. MP, BP, XP, whatever, those little rat-boys came in handy,” he said. “I received extra points on strength and dexterity and I still have sixteen attribute points to assign.”

“Yeah, I got twelve,” Ethan said. The brothers jumped excitedly. Below them, Janna cleared her throat loudly. “Ya know, we still have a sick crew member here,” she said indignantly, staring up at the celebrating brothers. But Miguel was already sitting up. The last healing spell had closed the wound. The brothers apologized, but they could see that he was out of danger.

“We’re still poisoned,” Damon grunted, gesturing to Miguel. “It’s not costing me hit points, but it’s using up my HPR.”

Miguel, who was losing hit points from the poison and his injury, grabbed onto Ethan to stand up. “I think I have a solution for that.” Ethan hooked his forearm under the mage’s armpit and gently helped him up. Miguel walked hunched over to one of the star clouds hovering above the dead goblins. He extended his arm into swirling bright lights and was prompted.

Congratulations, Miguel! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Auntie Dote. Stop poison in its tracks with Auntie Dote! Ranked novice and available to all classes, so tell all your friends. Auntie Dote costs 8 MP, and has a cooldown rate of 12 seconds and a range of 25 meters. Miguel, don’t forget to call Auntie!

Miguel turned to them. “I guess these clouds are called Epiphanies and they contain spells. This one has an antidote spell.” Raising his arm above his head, he cast the spell. A bright green light cascaded onto him. He whispered, “Status” and smiled weakly at the group. “I’m not poisoned anymore.”

While Jordan, Janna, Damon, and Ethan cautiously approached the Epiphany clouds, Miguel cast Basic Heal on himself and Damon. He showed Damon how to pull up his spell list, and the orc cured himself of the poison. “Huh, my first spell,” he grunted.

They heard a whimpering sound coming from an injured goblin and wandered over to it. Damon realized that it was the first one that attacked him. The creature lay in the dirt with green ooze bubbling from its mouth. It raised its hand weakly toward them and moaned. “Who would create a world where things suffered like this?” Janna asked softly.

Miguel glanced at the dark-haired nurse. “They’re not supposed to be real or sapient,” he whispered.

Damon scoffed disgustedly. “Yeah, well, tell that to this poor thing,” he said as he swung his sword and ended the creature’s misery.

With the attack over, the forest was silent again.

Janna cast a healing spell on her bite wound, but it was relatively minor.

Miguel searched the area for loot and found six short spears. On a whim, he approached an Epiphany cloud and directed his short sword into it.

Congratulations, Miguel! You have upgraded your Baselard to level 2 poisonous! Tell your enemies, “Have a drink of poison and stay around sick for a while!”

Miguel got the other team members to extend their weapons into the Epiphany cloud. The ranged weapons weren’t eligible for the upgrade. He glanced at the other clouds which lingered in the area. They continued to fade. “I hope we can get the rest of the team up here before the clouds disappear,” he said huskily, but he knew it was unlikely. As the group began collecting the branches they had come up for in the first place, they heard screaming coming from the bottom of the cave.

2

At the bottom of the cavern, Harper, Zack, Brett, Emma, and Angie readied their weapons and took the V formation. Zack stood at the edge of the pool, his battle axe slung over his left arm to balance the weight. Behind him and to his right, Angie waited with her sword raised. Emma took the left side, grasping three arrows, one of which was nocked on her bow. Harper stood behind them, and a good distance behind everyone was Brett.

Angie and Harper’s MPRs were high enough to run the Defense Buff spell, but Harper chose to deliver her spell to Emma, who was closer to the front. “Brett, can you run Defense Buff on Zack?” Harper yelled. There was no response. She glanced around quickly and realized that Brett wasn’t anywhere near her.

The rock around the hole continued to rattle and a large chunk of slate dropped into the pool with a splash.

“Whatever it is, it’s big,” Zack muttered.

The high-frequency whine had stopped, but the noise emanating from the hole echoed throughout the cavern. Angie hoped that Damon’s group would hear the commotion. Clear slime began dripping from the sides of the hole.

Suddenly, the glowworms along the cave ceiling turned dark and the cave became pitch black except for one beam of light shining through the hole. The monster busted through the opening, spraying rock fragments across the cave. It looked like a cross between a gigantic glowworm and a beetle. The bulbous worm extended eight feet from the wall and ceiling. At the rear of its body, a series of hooked claws fastened to the hole.

The insect’s large eye pads were beaded with slime. A thick luminescent line shone down the length of its enormous body, which was covered at the top with a hard-shell exoskeleton. Creature Description popped up for all five members.

!g`~!![]

HP: ###

MP: #

STRENGTH: ###

CONSTITUTION: ##

DEXTERITY: ###

INTELLIGENCE: #

WISDOM: #

XP: ###

DESCRIPTION: ^.!%__!;

“What the hell?” Zack asked.

The creature propelled toward him. The four long claws protruding from the front of its body reached for Zack, who blocked them with his clipeus shield. The claws clanked against the metal surface. Angie reached around him and buried her sword into the monster’s neck.

The monster screeched.

Zack swung his battle axe horizontally, but the monster curled in to protect its soft underbelly. The blade crashed against the armor of its exoskeleton, chipping a piece off. The worm retreated to the wall and unfurled, showing its underside again. Zack saw two arrows sink into the beast’s soft flesh. The monster opened its mouth, which was completely covered with another glitch. As the worm’s mouth stretched, the black-and-white glitch stretched along with it. The worm coiled up like a snake, then lunged at Zack.

He dove out of the way at the last minute. The monster’s head crashed violently against the solid rock at the edge of the pool. It pulled away, but its skin stuck to the rock. Strips of flesh snapped from the giant worm’s head. Zack stared in astonishment as the glitch effect transferred to the rock. The black void and white qubits shimmered through the stone, projecting light rays up at the ceiling. He felt a burst of heat and looked up to see a torrent of fire burn the creature’s belly. Its skin smoldered, then blackened.

The monster curled in then quickly uncoiled, bulldozing the group and throwing Zack and Emma into the pool. Emma landed hard against the unyielding stone and cried out in pain. The creature alerted to her cry, twisted in her direction, then coiled back for another strike. Its mouth yawned open, and the glitch hovered over them like a death shroud.

Zack reached for his battle axe, which had fallen into the water. His fingers found the weapon. He threw it like a spear into the yawning chasm of the creature’s mouth. The axe disappeared into the glitch, but the worm squealed and cringed painfully nonetheless.

Another stream of fire broke from his left, striking the monster’s head. The giant worm twisted away from the onslaught, but Harper’s Fire Scorch spell stayed with the beast, following its every movement.

A blue light flew over him and descended on Emma, who was lying still in the pool. Zack followed the light source and saw Janna racing down the cavern, delivering the healing spell. Where the fuck is Brett!? he thought. Now Jordan, Ethan, and Damon were running down just behind her. The two orc warriors stopped at the edge of the pool, but Jordan kept going. He leaped over the water, landing on the front-facing underbelly of the worm. He plunged his sword into the monster’s neck before falling to the side.

The monster screeched. It struggled to move but was pinned to the cave wall by Jordan’s sword. Its claws reached toward the team members. Abruptly, Ethan started running back up the slope.

“You deserter!” Zack bellowed at him in a fit of rage.

Ethan stopped, spun around, and raced down the slope at full speed. As he reached the edge, Damon heaved him up and threw him toward the monster. Like Jordan had done a moment before, the big orc bounded over the pool, swinging his axe horizontally as he flew. The blade sliced through the underside of the worm, severing its head. The axe crashed onto the rocks below.

The creature’s exoskeleton kept it from being fully decapitated. Instead, the worm’s head flopped over as its tissue clung to the body armor. Jordan’s sword, wedged into a crevasse in the cave wall, kept the carcass pinned. The monster’s claws hung limply at its sides and its mouth sagged open as it died. The glitch inside the worm’s mouth continued to project light.

Zack turned to check on Emma. She was rubbing her shoulder. “How are you doing, little lady?” She shook her head, her blonde hair soaked with pool water. He picked her up gently and carried her out of the water.

On the far side of the pool, Ethan was getting back up. “That was a good idea, Damon.” The orc general extended his hand and pulled Ethan out of the pool. They both turned to Zack, grinning.

“Yeah, um… sorry about that ‘deserter’ comment back there, Ethan,” Zack said sheepishly. The two orcs laughed. The team gathered around Emma. Janna said she fractured her shoulder landing on the hard rock, but it wasn’t anything a few spells wouldn’t bring back to normal.

The thousands of glowworms in the cave illuminated again, filling the cave with their bright blue glow. As the light shone up the cavern, Zack saw Brett slip out from behind a stalagmite. So that’s where you were, you asshole, he thought. Ethan informed the group that the worm kill had given him 105 XP and boosted his stats from level 4 to 8.

“That’s a good haul for one creature,” Harper remarked.

Meanwhile, Miguel made his way slowly down the cavern and joined the group. He was still hunched over. Harper went to him, concerned. Damon told her about the attack in the forest and how close they had come to losing the young mage. When Emma pointed at a cloud of stars hovering near the dead worm and asked what it was, it was Miguel who answered. “That’s an Epiphany cloud, Emma.”

3

“We should talk about the sleeping arrangme—” Harper said, then abruptly stopped. She stared at a section of flat stone near the edge of the pool. The remainder of the glitch, which had infected the worm’s mouth, covered the rock. Thin vertical beams of light moved in the humid air above the black void.

“What the hell is that doing there?” Damon asked.

Zack explained how the glitch effect had transferred from the worm when it attacked him. They approached the glitch carefully. Jordan found a few pebbles on the cave floor and tossed them individually into the black void, where they disappeared. “It’s like a bottomless pit,” he said, fascinated.

“I’m not sleeping near that thing,” Brett announced.

Zack grinned at him. “That’s okay. You could do the first watch.”

Brett appeared confused, then realized what the Marine was suggesting. “No… no fucking way!”

Zack smiled at him. “Somebody’s got to stay up and be the sentry, it might as well be you.”

Brett glanced at the other members, looking for support, but they stared blankly at him. “This is unfair! There should be some kind of lottery or something!” Brett whined.

Angie and Harper laughed. “A lottery?” Angie responded. “Are you kidding? What do you think this is? We’re not back on earth, you know.”

Brett’s eyes gleamed with moisture. “Dude, this is un-fucking-fair!” he screeched at Angie, who laughed. “Don’t call me ‘dude.’”

He turned to Damon. The orc general shook his head and raised his hands. “Okay, okay. We’ll figure out a way to do a draw,” he sighed. Angie rolled her eyes, but it satisfied Brett. Damon would settle for that. The last thing he wanted was more drama.

“Okay,” Miguel said, pointing at the star cloud still lingering near the dead worm. “We should get to that Epiphany before it burns out.” He suggested Harper go first, so Ethan hoisted her on his shoulders and carried her to the cloud. She paused and looked back at the group, then turned and passed her hand into the cloud.

Congratulations, Harper! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Glow. Light your way forward with Glow! Ranked progressive and available to Healers, Hunters, and Mages, so tell all your friends. Glow will cost you 1 MP every 4 seconds, and has a cooldown rate of 5 seconds and a range of 20 meters. Who needs bugs when you have Glow?

Ethan carried the rest of the team to the cloud. Brett was the last to go, but he refused to get on Ethan’s shoulders. Instead, he waded into the pool and had Ethan lift him when they got close. Angie and Harper informed the foraging group of their plans for bathing and sleeping. The five members were surprisingly comfortable with the idea.

The team made more trips up the cavern. First, they carried the dead worm out. It stunk of dank earth and rotting meat. Harper had suggested burning it but was voted down by the members. While the rest of the team followed, the orcs lugged the gigantic carcass up the slope and dragged it one hundred feet from the cave. On the way up, Brett discreetly asked Miguel how to turn off his telepathy. Miguel showed him but was wary of the nurse’s reasons.

They searched for the Epiphany clouds containing the antidote spell next, but they were gone. The orcs collected piles of dead wood and tree limbs for the fire they planned to stoke throughout the night. The foliage for the bedding was next. That took two trips. On the last trip down, Zack stopped the group at the opening of the cave. “Brett and I are going to hang back and have a chat,” he said, planting his hand on the nurse’s shoulder.

“Huh? We are?” Brett asked.

Harper shook her head. “We shouldn’t break up the team again.” But she was the only one to protest. The rest of the members looked at the two men with quiet understanding.

Miguel’s soft voice rose from the back of the group. “That’s okay, Harper. They’ll catch up.”