Present day

Skill acquired: Mount

The prompt appeared after an embarrassingly long time, as Sarah fought to stay on Tristan’s back and Tristan procured to go his own way without her. She had tried to ignore the innkeeper’s amused looks when she climbed on the horse (four times in total) and rode away to take the road to the Castle. Several hours had passed and her butt felt as if she’d been spanked for days; her legs hurt more than they should if you took into account that her character was a seasoned warrior with powerful, well-trained limbs. Every step of the way she cursed the horse and wished they would be in front of the Castle already. But the Castle remained on the horizon, a magnificent sight to be sure, but also a symbol of frustration. For the second time, Sarah wished she would have chosen a creature with the ability to fly.

Oh well. It’s good to know that I acquired a skill, at least.

As she approached the Castle, she crossed paths with several people, none of which seemed to pay much attention to her. Once or twice she caught furtive glances, though, and she realized those people were actually afraid of her. She thought she surely looked imposing with her ripped, mostly uncovered body and her sword, small as it was. Most of those people would be peasants or merchants who were coming back from peddling their stuff at the Castle. That was where the money was, of course.

All of them NPCs, Sarah thought, and tested this idea by using Scrutinize on every person she crossed. Yes, they seemed to be all non-playing characters.

How many players are there currently in the gameworld? she wondered. This is an alpha version at most, so I guess there will only be a bunch of people playing.

She did a mental tally of the players she knew were in the game. She could with all certainty count five: Uberyn, Maggot, Undaya, Gervain, and herself. Two of these she hadn’t even seen, and she was finding it hard to keep the other two at hand.

But there had to be more. The Sorceress had mentioned both allies and people who would need her help. Assuming that Maggot was one of the people who needed her help, and Uberyn an ally, that meant there would be at least one more of each? Undaya and Gervain didn’t seem to need her help and they sure looked like they would make awful allies, having abandoned Maggot and left him at the mercy of the giant’s wrath.

She was already quite close to the Castle (and quite exhausted too) when her Perception sense started tingling wildly. It caught her by surprise and she thought at first that something was creeping on her, but looking up she realized the whole silhouette of the Castle had now acquired a slightly blue tint. There was something else coming from that direction as well, kind of like a silent roar, for lack of a better comparison. It came to her with a sense of a subdued threat, then more overtly, as she came closer and closer.

“Hey, Tristan, let’s go!” she shouted, and kicked the sides of her mount to force the horse to run. Miraculously, it worked. Tristan started galloping forward instead of just shaking her off him and trotting away. She held on to the horse’s mane as the animal ate the distance to the Castle.

She had almost arrived when she saw the people fleeing the Castle. Some of them were on foot, others on carts or mounting horses in ones or twos — but all of them were doing the same thing: running away.

“What is it?” she wondered aloud as she looked up at the immense structure looming over the landscape. The bluish stain drawn by her Perception skill was still large, much larger than it should be since she was already almost there.

It makes no sense for it to be so huge, Sarah thought. Maybe a whole army has invaded the Castle? In the Enchanted Forest my Perception worked for magical beings, and not all of them. Can common soldiers trigger it in this medieval scenario? Or maybe there is a magical being, but it has to be so large that I don’t see what it—

Her thoughts were cut short when a burst of golden light lit up the sky on top of the castle. Right after it there was a roar, so loud and potent that it shook the ground under Tristan’s hooves. A wave of fetid heat came out the locked gate and hit Sarah like an explosion. She almost fell off her horse, but she could manage to stay mounted. The flame ascended in the sky, briefly reducing the setting sun to a lesser contender.

“A fucking dragon!”

Sarah uttered the words out loud. She couldn’t help it. Of all the things she could have expected to find once she arrived at the Castle, a dragon was not one.

Her first instinct was to turn away and imitate the people who had fled the Castle. But then she realized she couldn’t afford doing that. She needed to find the Golden Knight inside the Castle, and she would never find him if he ended up becoming a dragon’s afternoon snack.

How do I enter this place?

She approached the nearest gate and found it locked up. But the people who were fleeing surely were using some open exit. She continued exploring the place until she found a partially open portcullis. A guard was lowering it, though – it seemed that the dragon inside was not keeping him from doing his job.

Only a NPC can be so committed to their job, Sarah thought sardonically. Then she remembered that she was trying to get inside and face the dragon herself. Well, a NPC or a player whose boyfriend is unconscious and trapped inside the game, I guess.

It was too bad that the man was closing the entrance right at that moment; that meant Sarah needed to fight.

“Hey!” she shouted.

The guard gave her a good glance, shrugged, and kept lowering the portcullis.

“Hey! I’m talking to you,” Sarah insisted.

A new roar and the glow of fire came from inside the Castle. The man doubted, looked back nervously, and resumed his task. Sarah examined the area. There were two more guards lying near this one, both of them seemingly dead; behind the corridor giving entrance to the Castle she could see people running. And then she saw something else. A golden glow, crossing the open space like an arrow. She did a double take but the thing was not there anymore.

“I will get in,” Sarah told the guard.

“Over my dead body,” the man replied.

“So be it.”

She spurred Tristan and shot forward toward the portcullis. It was already low, leaving no space for her to cross the barrier while mounted, but she didn’t let that dissuade her. Once she was close enough, feeling the horse’s resistance at the incoming impact, she jumped aside and rolled on the ground, letting Tristan cross on his own, then crouching down and rolling inside.

The guard had anticipated her movements, so when she crossed the portcullis, he was already looming above her, holding his sword up high. It was a decent sword, bigger than hers. The guy was also wearing a hard leather chestpiece, which was not the best armor but was certainly better than her skimpy clothes.

Naturally, she decided to stab his foot.

“AAAAAARRRRGGH!” the guard yelled, and closed his eyes in pain. His arm trembled and the sword’s downward trajectory became erratic and unstable. Sarah rolled away, letting the blade sink into the dirt, and then jumped on the guard, whose foot was nailed to the ground, spreading red blood.

“I don’t want to kill you,” Sarah said. “Don’t make me.”

She tussled with the guard for his sword. The man hit her with his elbow, then tried to reach her with his blade, but she crouched down to avoid it, retrieved her own sword, and stabbed him in his inner thigh. The man cried in pain once more.

“Stop it,” she said. “I’ve come to talk with the Golden Knight.”

“You— you have?” the guard asked, shocked. “Why didn’t you say it before?”

“Because you—” Sarah started, but the man’s fist in her face cut her short. She tumbled backward and cursed him. Oh boy, you’re gonna suffer.

She rolled aside right when the guard’s sword was about to meet her neck. Then she sat up with a quick jump and punched the guy on his nose. He almost let go of his sword. Sarah tried to slash his wrist, but he was wearing leather bracelets and her sword did no damage. She kicked him in the nuts, and when he bent down in pain, she threw her knee at his face with all the force she could muster.

His noise cracked this time.

He let go of his sword this time.

“I told you, don’t make me kill you,” Sarah said, and took the guard’s sword. “If I show you mercy now, will you be quiet?”

The guard didn’t answer. He was now a sobbing, writhing mess and Sarah got the impression that he wasn’t listening to her. She sprinted down the corridor to meet the battle taking place inside, leaving the man there. The task at hand was more important.

A new notification greeted her as she ran: she had earned 50 experience points for beating the guard. (She guessed that it would have been 100 XP if she had killed him, but it was nice to recover the points she had exchanged for money earlier at the inn.) She had also improved her Melee Attack and Melee Defense skills, as a new prompt informed her that she had added 20 points to each. Melee Attack was now at 50 skill points and Melee Defense at 30, confirming that abilities began at just ten points at the moment they were acquired.

And finally, another, nicer notification:

You have reached Level 2!

* * *

She was not prepared for what she found when she reached the end of the corridor and saw the whole scene playing out in the open space at the heart of the castle.

She knew there was a dragon. And there was a dragon.

She was pretty sure the Golden Knight was there. And the Golden Knight was there. That was the glowing figure she had briefly seen from the entrance to the Castle.

What she didn’t know was that she would see Maggot there, standing in the middle of the courtyard, sorrily pointing his sword at the huge creature that was making fire rain all over.

And Maggot was there, standing in the middle of the courtyard, sorrily pointing his sword at the huge creature that was making fire rain all over.

Sarah had barely had time to picture the situation when the dragon launched itself against Maggot. The small, weak, ugly man kept his sword pointed at it in a futile gesture. He was about to die.

And then the Golden Knight jumped in front of him, raising his shield, brandishing his sword. He let the shield contain the fire, and threw his sword at the dragon.

It was clear why they called him the Golden Knight. Everything about him was golden. He was fully covered in armor, a heavy metallic armor that looked like it was made of gold. He also wore a huge shield, almost as large as he was tall, oblong in shape, and a big, big sword that looked like it could cut in half one of the towers of the Castle. Both the shield and the sword were golden too, glistening in the afternoon and glowing with the fire that the dragon spit to left and right.

The winged serpent flapped its wings and recoiled, dodging the golden sword. The knight ran out of the way, then retrieved his blade when the dragon was far enough. He laughed sportily.

“Come on, you almost have it!” he joked. “One strike and it’s yours!”

What the fuck?

Maggot didn’t even try to take cover. He was petrified by terror. He just kept pointing his sword at the dragon as it flew around, preparing to strike again.

“Hey!” Sarah shouted. “Run! Maggot, run!”

Maggot looked at her and his face showed an immense relief, only to become a mask of terror once more when the dragon roared agan and lunched itself against him.

“Don’t worry, he’s almost killed the thing,” the Golden Knight said jovially. He grabbed his heavy shield and launched it against the dragon, hitting it on its head. The monster took the hit and changed course, sending its fire away from Maggot.

“You fucking asshole,” Sarah said. She realized the Golden Knight was just playing with the dragon, finding Maggot’s terror amusing. He could probably kill the beast whenever he wanted. “Hey, Maggot, it’s me, Sajya! Run!”

“Nah,” the Golden Knight said, lurching forward to intercept the flying serpent once more. He lifted his shield from the ground and raised it just in time to cut off the line of fire. He then propelled himself forward, hit the dragon with his sword, and when the monster roared and started backing away, he jumped on its neck, mounting it. “Why would he run? He’s almost got it! Think of the experience points!”

Experience points?

Sarah was dumbstruck.

How could the Golden Knight talk about experience points? This stuff was not something the NPCs were generally aware of. The faun in the Enchanted Forest had been some kind of initial guide, and the Sorceress seemed to be a different kind of entity altogether, but the rest of the non-playing characters surely had no knowledge that they were in a game with points and levels. Right?

That meant the Golden Knight was... a player.

“Come on, asshole!” she yelled at the figure in full armor who was now riding the dragon, pinching its neck with his sword to make it go up or down and turn left or right. The dragon roared and vomited fire time and time again, and the Golden Knight made it so the flames landed barely away from Maggot, sparing his life for just a few feet. Meanwhile, Maggot seemed to overcome with fear to take cover or protect himself in any way.

“Oh, but this is fun,” the Golden Knight said. And then Sarah recognized his voice.

“It’s not,” she replied. “And if you don’t end it now, I will personally see your head separated from your body.”

“Hey, I was just giving him a chance to level up,” the Golden Knight said, finally sticking his sword into the beast’s neck, then moving it up and down to enlarge the wound. Red blood spurted from the opening, turning black almost immediately as the heat of the fire burned it in the air. The winged serpent’s flight became erratic, slower, until it came tumbling down, roaring in agony. The Golden Knight jumped off a fraction of a second before the monster’s body hit the ground. Sarah ran to the center of the courtyard and grabbed Maggot before the beast’s corpse crushed him.

“You’re an asshole, Uberyn,” Sarah said. “Can’t you see he’s been nerfed? I was trying to bring him to you so that you’d help him. And this is how you do it? By terrorizing him?”

“I told you, I was helping him,” Uberyn said, taking off his helmet and revealing his handsome face, his abundant and equally golden hair dancing in the breeze. He shrugged nonchalantly. “And I was having fun, too. Why do only one thing when I can do both?”