Chapter Six

“It’s nice that the respawn is right outside the dungeon,” Chris said to the group. “Those games when you have to spawn in a graveyard or a nearby village make it such a pain to run all the way back.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.” Levie said, rolling her eyes. “I hate games that don’t respect your time as a player.”

The group sat in a circle facing each other, next to the big wooden door laying on the ground leading into the dungeon. They had all respawned a short time apart from each other, and spent the next few minutes sharing what small amount of tactical information they had learned from watching the deathscape replay.

“I dunno guys, I feel like calling it for tonight.” Malik asked, rubbing at his forehead absently. “I think we’re gonna need to level up our skills some more before we can take this on.”

“Oh come on, Malik!” Levie said, jumping up to her feet. “Don’t give up now! We can take on the world if we work together!” She pumped her fist into the air and beamed a huge smile at her brother. Malik just rolled his eyes and looked over at his brother with a pleading expression.

The red-haired warrior smiled and laughed with his sister. “I mean, I guess it is getting kind of late, I don’t mind trying to pick this up again tomorrow.” Corey winked at Levie and quickly turned to Chris before Levie could interject with any arguments. “I’m sorry we didn’t make it through. If we run into each other again, let’s give it another go?”

“Definitely,” Chris replied. “It was great running into you guys.” He stood up to shake hands with Corey and bid them each farewell as they gathered up their belongings and started up the path back to the village. Chris dusted off his hands and looked around the clearing. “Well,” he said to himself. “Maybe I can make it further on my own with a little extra caution.”

“Or maybe what you need is LESS caution?” came a voice from behind him. Chris spun around startled, pulling his mana up to ready a water spear, then released it as he saw the delivery girl from earlier walking toward him. She grinned and pulled the enormous double-bladed axe off her back, swinging it casually in the air as if it were weightless. “You’re Chris right? I’m Sienna,” she said. “Isn’t it weird how we both started in the same village? This game is wild.”

Chris nodded and let go of the tension he was holding from being surprised, “Yeah, it really is.” He eyed the massive axe she was holding and wondered how she was able to maneuver it the way she did. A question for another time perhaps. “Were you spying on us? I saw you looking down into the dungeon during the instant replay after we all died.”

Sienna chewed her bottom lip and looked down at the ground, “Yeah,” she said, pausing for a moment. “I came into the clearing right as you guys were going in, and I wasn’t sure how dungeons work so I didn’t want to yell out and mess you guys up.” She suddenly looked up and caught Chris’s eyes, “It looked like tree monsters in there, right?”

“Yeah,” said Chris. “Not just regular trees though, they have teeth and claws.”

“Right, right, monster stuff sure,” Sienna said. “I’m just thinking that since they’re made of wood, maybe I should go in there and… axe them a few questions.” She grinned triumphantly at Chris and slammed the butt of her axe into the ground dramatically.

“Seriously?” Chris groaned.

“Come on, that was a good one!” Sienna protested.

Chris rolled his eyes and let a slight chuckle escape his lips, “Okay, okay! You must be loving all the ridiculous puns this game has in the system messages.”

“I do,” she beamed. “I really do. But enough of that. Are you going back in? I’m going in. You’re coming right?”

Chris thought for a moment. He didn’t really have anything to show for his time so far. He’d be able to sell off the little amount of gold he’d earned, but it wasn’t much and he didn’t have any magical items yet that would be worth anything.

“Sure. But let’s try to be cautious. Okay?”

-----

“Come at me, you sonsabitches!” Sienna shouted, her axe slicing through the air and severing a large vine off the enormous creature before them. The giant tree lumbered a step closer and a sharp spear-like branch stabbed out at her. She ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the spear and the series of vines which whipped out in quick succession after it. The sheer size of the creature created a constant pressure and forced Sienna back a little with each swing of her massive weapon.

A sizable pile of wooden bodies were scattered around the cavern floor surrounding her. Chris stared at her with amazement from the slight alcove he was crouched in as he gathered in more of his mana and directed a stream of healing energy at her. A wound on her right leg where the creature had slashed at her stitched itself back together as he concentrated.

Sienna let out a howl as her health climbed back up. “Come and get it!” she screamed, slicing off a thick branch before it was able to connect, a maniacal grin plastered on her face.

Chris had wanted to take things slow and move quietly through the dungeon, but Sienna had had other plans. Immediately after dropping into the cavern, Sienna had let loose with an animal-like ferocity that Chris never would have imagined possible from someone otherwise so cheerful. The second her axe made contact with the first wooden creature, a form of bloodlust seemed to overcome her and the air around her was quickly transformed into a whirlwind of steel and wood chips. It was all Chris could do to keep up with her rapid pace and throw out healing spells as they moved from room to room, deeper into the caverns, until they finally arrived here and encountered the dreaded Infan-tree.

“Ugh! This thing bleeds sap like it’s acid!” Sienna yelled to Chris. “Keep your guard up!” Chris saw her stumble a little as she flung a large gloop of sappy liquid off her right arm. She adjusted her stance and gripped the axe tighter with her left hand. “It’s okay,” she called out. “I think it’s almost down!”

Chris agreed, the creature was swaying on its feet. On its roots? Huge gouges and scores were all over its body, and the ravenous mouth that was full of teeth at the beginning of the battle was now hollowed out, like an old man missing it’s dentures. As Chris tossed another heal at Sienna he noticed a thin fracture that traveled vertically up the full length of the beast’s body. “Sienna!” he shouted. “I think you’ve caused a fault line! Hit it from above like you’re splitting firewood!”

Sienna nodded and launched herself into the air as Chris’s blue water energy surrounded her in a protective glow. She brought the oversized axe to bear above her head and slammed down into the creature’s head. A resounding crack filled the air as the wooden body of the Infan-Tree split cleanly down the middle, it’s final dying shriek piercing the air before fading away into silence.

“Nice work,” Chris said, walking over to where Sienna knelt on the mossy ground between the two severed halves of the treant. “I don’t know how we managed to beat this thing with just the two of us, but somehow-”

“Somehow?! We did it because we’re AWESOME!” Sienna beamed. She wiped a splotch of mud off her cheek with the back of her hand and grinned up at him as he offered his hand to help her stand. “That. Was. Awesome!” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling herself up. “We rock, that’s how we did it!”

Chris smiled, and was about to protest when he noticed movement from the crevice where the tree monster had split open. “Sienna, look out!” He cried out. A single thin vine snaked up out of the crevince slowly, and licked at the air. “Wait,” Chris said. “What is that?”

The pair stepped forward to look closer and there, buried among the wood chips and bubbling tree sap, was a small creature. “Is that…” Sienna’s eyes widened as the creature’s tiny eyes opened and watery burbling sounds came from its mouth.

“I think it’s... a baby treant,” said Chris. “How is that possible?”

“Wait,” said Sienna. “I think I know.” She started tapping at the air in front of her, bring up some information on her in-game menu that Chris couldn’t see. A few moments later she smirked. “Infant tree. The quest we got back in the village was to come here and find the Heavy Infan-tree. I thought it was just a pun, but it’s literally an infant tree. I guess. So the boss we fought was a tree that.. grows.. Infants? Like a seed or a fruit? This game is insane.”

Chris gazed down at the baby treant. It’s body was more vines than solid wood, and it seemed to be sleeping in the goopy semi-hardened pool of sap. For the first time, he realized that its body was curled up around a softly glowing piece of solid wood. He reached down and slowly pulled it free from the tentacle-like vines of the sleeping treant child. As he hefted it up a soft glow began to emanate from within it, and a notification suddenly crashed into his vision.

Quest Update: Heavy Infan-Tree

You have defeated the beastly Heavy Infan-Tree and discovered it's most protected treasure. Congratulations, it’s a girl!

Reward: Green Capital Staff

“Wow,” said Sienna. “Looks like a healer’s staff? That’s definitely for you.”

“It’s too bad there’s no loot here for you though,” Chris replied. “Seems a little unfair.”

“Oh, that’s okay!” She grinned at him, wiping stray chunks of wood from her clothes. “I had a great time smacking these things around. Plus,” she said, leaning down and gently scooping up the little treant and holding it in her arms. “Someone has to take care of this little bundle of sticks. That’s kinda like a reward on it’s own, right?!” She paused for a moment, her eyes unfocused as she glanced over what must have been some new system notifications related to the baby treant. Chris smiled and shook his head as she swiped away the windows. She bundled up the infant using some of her clothes, then tied it into a make-shift baby carrier on her back.

As they began the walk back out of the dungeon, Chris considered the stats on his new staff. It was much stronger than anything he’d seen yet, and was even quite powerful compared to the other items he had researched online from the early beta test players. Keeping the staff would help him take on bigger challenges in the game, and lead him to even stronger loot, but selling it on RogueNet now would earn him a lot of good credits.

Chris sighed, thinking back to his apartment break-in and the trouble his sister was in. Keeping it wasn’t really an option right now.