Chapter 17

I could go into length about how Talia fared through her training, but I’ll skip it.

Needless to say she is now a highly capable combatant in mortal form and werewolf form.

She had reached level 200 while training through various fields, most of which were Undead dungeons. My training itself was not lacking. Thanks to her loyalty, (and the results) she diligently followed my training program. If I told her to clear a dungeon only using her left arm, she would do so. If I told her to only attack if she successfully ambushed a group, she would obey. With each new experience, her programming advanced.

For those of you lacking in world experience, let me explain something. Whenever you face a challenge, like a fight, you have several options to choose from. Attack, defend, flee, beg, and so on. Most people can list off a few options they would have in a hypothetical situation, but in a real life situation, an inexperienced person will only be able to think of one option or two. Perhaps three. There are of course hundreds of options to choose from. Telling a person in advance won’t do any good, they won’t be able to think of them when needed. It is not their fault, that is just how the human mind works. The only way to imprint another option is to practice performing that option, over and over again.

If you break your arm in a fight, what will you do? Well, if you have practiced fighting with one arm while in pain before, that option comes to mind.

If you run out of resources while surrounded by enemies, what do you do? Well, if you put yourself into such situations on purpose and try out various things, you’ll know how to survive from experience.

If you encounter a group of enemies that have yet to notice your presence and are not sure how to proceed, what do you do? Well, if you have practiced various scenarios like ambushing tactics, trap laying tactics, and scare and guerrilla tactics, you’ll have all sorts of options come to mind instantly and naturally. From which you’ll be able to judge which is the best from experience.

Talia’s AI absorbed all of these experiences and grew to the degree I’m certain she could take out a whole group of Users of the same level.

After reaching level 200, we traveled to a city to advance her class.

Class advancement involves a trial, usually a quest of some kind. Once passed, the class advanced and all stats rose. Additionally, one could purchase one spell book from the guild.

All of this she could do without me, so I proceeded to another location to train while she went to a city. I even gave her 650 gold, the standard price of the spell book I wanted her to acquire.

The location I moved to train further while Talia did her class advancement quest was called the Rukh Bhan’s Labyrinth. It was an infamous dungeon because of a creature unique to the dungeon called Wall Sliders. They were earth spirit beasts that called the area their home, and they changed the composition of the maze at will. They also tended to attack others through the wall, then retreat back to the safety of the wall before they could be countered.

The dungeon’s dangers were famous, but the prizes within more so. Inside the dungeon were hundreds of treasure chests, each containing rare and valuable items. Stories of Adventurers making it through the maze and discovering such treasure prompted others to venture forth to find their own fortune. Of course those who died within paid a terrible price. The dungeon was known to almost guarantee that your most valuable item would drop when you died. Such items were collected by the Wall sliders, and used to fill the very chests Adventurers sought.

There were a few treasures within I had my eye on.

I rented a horse and left for the town closest to the Labyrinth.

The groups of Users that occupied the town fell into either of two categories, those who somewhat knew what they were doing, and those who had no idea what they were doing.

The latter was more common. Nine times out of ten they entered the dungeon and returned to town four days later after dying.

Those who learned from the experience and still ventured into the dungeon were the ones who somewhat knew what they were doing. But most gave up after dying the first time. Due to this, the people that congregated around the labyrinth changed often.

The key to surviving the dungeon was to have an experienced thief on your team and never go alone.

I went in alone of course.

The only thing I would need a thief for is to unlock a treasure chest or locked door. I have such a thief on standby in card form, though using him is expensive. 200 gold per chest and 5% of the chest’s contents and 250 gold per locked door.

I summoned three hellhounds and two imps.

The dungeon labyrinth was nothing but hallway after hallway. Its overall area was hundreds of square kilometers. Most parties that entered got lost and died. The various reasons for their death included traps, ambushes, running out of food before being able to find an exit, and the bad luck of running into a powerful monster.

The basic monster patrolling the first part of the labyrinth were lizardmen. Groups of six or seven could be easily found wandering around. According to their backstory, they were looking for treasure as well.

Of course a single of my hellhounds could kill ten or so lizardmen. The reason I had out a larger party was the same reason I chose here to train. This dungeon had bigger game.

Before continuing, I would like to remind the readers of the limitations of my data sight. I cannot see through walls. I can see the layout of the labyrinth like a map in my head, but I cannot see the data of the wall sliders in the wall or how they will change the labyrinth. In other words even with my cheating ability I cannot perfectly navigate this dungeon or locate any of the monsters or treasure chests inside. I do know the general area of the chests I came here for, but the path from where I am to them changes randomly.

My first encounter could be considered lucky or unlucky, depending on whether or not I would survive it. A three meter tall minotaur stepped around the corner. Minotaurs are the guardians of this maze. They attack anyone on sight. This was however was a bit weak for a minotaur, only level 360. Stronger minotaurs have been seen in this labyrinth with levels exceeding 500.

I took out ten Flame skull cards and threw them at the hulking beast just as it noticed me. I intended to have the summons distract it while I attacked and cursed it from a distance. However upon seeing the Minotaur’s data, I realized I made a small error.

This minotaur hated the color Red, and my equipment was scarlet red. (It isn’t a standard trait, this minotaur just had personal issues.)

As soon as it laid its black eyes on me, it snorted a puff of air and readied itself for a charge. It didn’t care about the monsters around it, only me.

“Plan B.”

I started the cast for psychokinesis. Before the beast reached me it felt a powerful force pushing down on its head. It was off balance from charging to begin with so it could not prevent its head from smacking against the ground. Its own momentum scrapped its face against the stone as it slide to a halt.

Before the minotaur stopped I had already begun casting another psychokinesis spell. The heavy minotaur lifted off the ground and was thrown back to the end of the hall where my summons swarmed it.

Tossing it around and forcing it to the ground from its dead angle is not exactly sportsman-like conduct, but taking advantage of sure fire ways to defeat powerful opponents is one of the cornerstones of most games.

The minotaur’s attack pattern varies greatly but its charging pattern is always the same, allowing me to force it to the ground and throw it back before it reaches me.

The battle is slow and repetitive. I have no time to cast dark cannon or anything other than psychokinesis so all of the damage is being done by my summons. At the very least I do have enough time to throw familiar cards to replace fallen summons.

As the minotaur is on its last leg, I throw out several more hellhounds and shout, “Keep it down!”

The hellhounds latch onto the great minotaur’s body and I run up to it. It tries to break free but the fight took most of its health and stamina.I place my hand on it and use Enchant:Card.

It continues to struggle while a red line spreads over its body from my hand. I make sure not to move my hand.

At a cost of just about all of my remaining mana over the course of two minutes, the minotaur is successfully carded.

Next I spread my summons around as security and use meditate. While meditating my defense lowers to the point one hit would likely kill me, but it is a necessary risk.

Over the next few days, I continue moving through the maze towards the chest locations. My plan is move closer and wait for the wall sliders to change the maze allowing for a path to get closer. If nothing else it beats walking through one channel of the maze only to have the path I was moving through turn into a dead end. While exploring I also intend to capture as many minotaurs as I can. Later I’ll heal their health and stamina before re-carding them. They won’t be loyal to me but minotaurs are guardians that attack all creatures. Next time I come across a difficult boss I can throw a few minotaurs into the room and hide myself.

After rounding another corner, I spot something I did not expect to see. An ornate, jewel encrusted treasure chest at the end of the hall.

It was not listed as one of the chests in the dungeon, and my data sight saw what it really was. A mimic.

Mimics are creatures created by sorcerers to guard their secrets. They can look like anything, a chair, a table, a door, or a weapon. Most however disguise themselves as treasure chests. Mimics secrets a glue like adhesive so when someone touches them they are trapped and the mimic eats them. Another interesting thing about them is that before they reveal themselves, before they are touched, they have an extremely high defense, so I can’t just kill it from a distance.

If an adventurer enters this dungeon without knowing about a mimic, they will see a treasure chest and defenselessly walk up to it.

All that being said, there is something about mimics that very few, even veteran adventurers know.

I shift through one of my food decks for a card with a picture of a bottle. “Release.”

The bottle appears and I take it over to the mimic.

I open the bottle, set it down in front of the treasure chest, and say, “Hey, wake up.”

Two of the engraves recesses rotate out, revealing eyes. The eyes immediately lock onto the bottle.

I say, “Give me some directions and I’ll give this to you.”

I hear a sound come from within the chest. It is thinking.

The lid of the chest opens lightly and says, “I don’t know much, but I know a guy that does. He pretends to be a door a bit northwest of here. Ask him. And give me that!”

I nod and hand over the bottle. Bits of the lining of the treasure chest break off revealing an arm that grabs the bottle. It immediately downs it into its mouth.

“Ohh, that’s good stuff.”

Mimics love booze. Something to do with how they are create, they love alcohol. If offered some, they are usually willing to give directions or helpful hints.

I move northwest for a few minutes and find the door mimic. I make it the same offer.

“Hmm. Around this time, a way to that chest should open a few halls over. Go there and wait a bit.”

After that I proceed to said hall. As the mimic said, a few minutes later, the walls around that point rearranged themselves and a short path to the chest.

I sprint as fast as I can, as there is no way of knowing what I might run into or when the halls will change again.

Against the odds I make it to the chest. It is not as fancy as the mimic chest, but it is on a pedestal. Before getting closer however, shapes and shadows appear on the walls.

Six creatures sprout from the walls, the wall sliders. They do not fully emerge from the walls, but along the walls they move in closer to me to attack.

I use psychokinesis to pull them out of the walls where they are torn to shreds by my hellhounds.

There are not many ways to pull a wall slider out of the wall, but psychokinesis is one of them.

Three of them realize attacking is suicide so they run away. I take out a bandit card and release him. The chest is locked but this bandit has enough skill to unlock it without the key.

The chest opens to reveal gold and silver, weapons and staffs, the most valuable items dropped by people who died here.

Of course there is more than that, these chests generate other rare items as well. I dug through the chest to find the item I sought.

Eruption Spellbook

Teaches the earth magic, Eruption.

It was an S rank spell book that taught a powerful wide area spell. It was more powerful than the spellbook I had Talia get from the class quest, but it also cost a great deal more mana.

I decided that this was enough for now. After giving the bandit his share as payment for opening the chest, I re-carded him, and carded everything else in the chest to make carrying it easier.

I traveled back through the maze, but leaving was as difficult as arriving. I encountered more minotaurs and successfully carded nine of them before getting to a stable path to lead me out of the maze.

The time from entering to exiting the maze was two weeks. I only could do this thanks to carded food and allies to keep me alive.

When left for the town though, Talia was not in the inn.

I instructed her to come to this town and stay in the inn until I left the maze, but she wasn’t there.

I logged out and checked on the game data, according to it, Talia was still in the city and her Class quest was not yet completed.

I logged back in and rented another horse.

If I traveled along the same route i told her to use, then if she finished before I got there we would run into each other.

However I made it all the way to the city on horseback without seeing her.

This didn’t make any sense. She was more than powerful enough to do the class quest.

I logged out again and looked at her data. She was still in the city.

I looked through a few more layers and saw something most troubling.

Talia had been arrested on charges of being a werewolf. She was being held in a prison cell where magic could not be used.

The cell was connected to the outside through a viewport where the moon could be seen.

The cell was designed so that those accused of being a werewolf would be bathed in the light of the full moon and forced to change. When they changed, it would confirm they were a werewolf, and they would be executed.

She had been confined for three weeks. The full moon was in two nights.

I logged back in and begun my plans. No matter what, I was going to save her.