You have found the secret room.

Pull open the trap door and claim your reward!

I did so. A number of steps led down. Opening the trapdoor triggered a memory in my head. The time when the elf king had taken me underground. Could this have some connection to that jewel laden tunnel?

The elf king kept countless monsters in his secret lab, where he would run experiments on them to try and change their allegiance to players. The elf king is gone now, however countless monsters are still trapped. Would you like to save them?

Rewards: A good deed is its own reward. Plus, there are other rewards too!

(Note that you will find creatures that are ‘more than monsters’ in the underground tunnels where you must venture)

Would you like to accept the quest?

Yes/No?

Creatures that are more than monsters. What could that mean?

I pressed my lips in thought. Should I take the risk? I didn’t know what dangers lurked underground.

But I was the evil king. The supreme evilun. My powers were unrivalled. Playing with risk was a small deal for me. Even if I was trapped in the tunnel for a few days, this was Dharti after all. I wouldn’t die of starvation or anything. On top of that, it was my duty to rescue monsters.

I accepted the quest.

As I stepped down the trap door, a tumult of shouting and screaming broke out.

“Help us! Help us! Help us!”

They were all speaking at the same time and I couldn’t make out individual voices. All the noise was distressing and I put my hands over my ears. But the thing was the voices were coming from inside my head.

Even at the castle, occasionally I would hear the voices of monsters, especially when they had something important to speak to me. But that was very rare, and they preferred to pay me a visit when they sought to consult me.

But here the situation was different. These monsters were in dire need of me and they couldn’t physically reach out.

“If you only quieten down can I listen to you all!” I whispered between gritted teeth.

But the eviluns just continued to cry out for help inside my head. Desperate for peace, I tried to create a mental blockade. After all, it was my head. I discovered I could lower the volume of all the noise to a considerable degree. The monsters were overly excited that there was somebody in the tunnels that could actually help them. I gave them time to settle down and organize themselves, and ignored their murmur for the time being.

The last step merged with the ground, and the tunnel became horizontal. I kept moving forward. The arms of claustrophobia wrapped around me. The tunnel stretched on endlessly. And as I was about to turn a corner, I heard a sound.

I listened intently. Footsteps. I was about to take a peek to see who was coming, but I stopped myself. Instead I shrunk into a Littlefut. With my size reduced, I could spy with minimal risk of being seen.

As I proceeded to look round the corner, I had the shock of my life.

A strange being was patrolling the tunnel, carrying four iron clubs in its four mismatching hands.

It was like somebody had killed a Skhite, a Hornie and a stone giant and badly stitched their corpses together, and reanimated them. The creature’s torso was the head of a stone giant, complete with eyes and mouth and a nose. Skhite and Hornie limbs were joined to the side of the skull. One leg belonged to a Hornie and the other to a Skhite, so the being walked with a disturbingly awkward gait.

I focused on the creature.

General Information:

Name:######

Affinity/Inclination: Helper

Level:5

Health/Strength:389/400

Weapons: hidden

Stamina:77/100

Mana:89/100

So, it was a helper of the players. That was puzzling, since the three races that it was made of were eviluns.

I weighed my options. If I wanted to explore the tunnel, I would have to get past the ghastly creature.

It was only monitoring a particular section, walking to and fro. I calculated its movements, and waited patiently for it to approach my corner. Then when the creature wheeled around, I scurried behind its back.

It was not easy keeping pace with the frightening being. My legs were tiny, so I was sprinting all the time, while maintaining care not to dash into the creature any time it halted.

But things took a turn for the worst.

I had thought that the monster only had eyes in the front of its head/torso. I was so wrong. All of a sudden four eyes snapped open in the back of the head/torso. They were bloodshot eyes, poorly attached to the stone head/torso, possibly of skhite and hornie origin.

The monster whirled and snatched me up with one of its four hands. I was taken closer to its front eyes and observed keenly. A dastardly smile crossed its stone face as it realized that I was an evilun.

I transformed and ballooned into a stone giant. But while I freed myself from the creature's clutches, I became stuck in the tunnel which was too small for my size. The monster began braying like an ass. In moments five more grotesque creatures reached the place.

While I believed that I would be able to ward off the attack of the creatures for a time being, escaping in my stone form was not feasible.

One creature waved its clubs at me, and the next moment two rings of plasma had wound around my feet. My energy levels crashed. A dizzy feeling seized me. Overpowering relaxation washed over me. However, just before I had slipped into the realm of unconsciousness, I made a final concentrated effort.

I changed into a Skhite. This allowed me to pull my legs out of the plasma rings. Energy gushed into me again. I fled. The creatures pursued, however as I reached the steps, they halted.

One of them tried to come after me, but was forcefully stopped by its companions. Their menacing glares scalded my back as I dashed up the steps and closed the trapdoor. Enough questing for today. I was definitely not bored anymore, not with my pounding heart threatening to burst. I acknowledged what a luxury boredom was. Those creatures could have dragged me to a fate far worse than death today.