Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (58 page)

“
Sure.
Those other guards were on point, though. I was the one holding us
back." She actually looked a little embarrassed but managed to
power through with most of her arrogance intact. "I needed to
get a feel for a real fight.”

“
Was
it everything you’d hoped for?”

“
That
and more.” She nodded.

“
Good.
Some Travelers find it hard to adapt. I hear there’s not as
much violence on your side.” I lived in the Americas. The last
local war we had been part of involved a nasty merger between the
United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

“
Depends
on where you live. Or who you live with.”

“
Mh.”
I didn’t pry. That sounded like a sore subject on many levels.

“
What’s
it to you anyway? Nosey machine.” HotPants glared at me from
top to bottom before turning away in annoyance.

“
Miss
HotPants,” Keeping it together was a challenge. “who ever
said I was a machine?”

“
What?
What does that mean?”

“
Figure
it out yourself. Consider it something to occupy your mind.”
Anything that would dislodge her current stream of misplaced anger
was welcome. She improved overnight, but only a little.

“
Left,
then I think we can go straight from there, hold on.” Shadow
jumped across one of the bushes to another one and looked fearful for
a brief moment. Both hands were out as he balanced.

“
You
okay up there?” Awesome Jr. asked.

“
Fine.
My skill check passed.” He muttered something else under his
breath, but my old ears didn’t catch it. The others switched to
a conversation regarding skills and their activation. I shrugged it
all off. Carver's notes had outlined all sorts of things they were
already talking about.

Shadow
called out each turn for us, left, right, forward. I kept a fairly
steady, if not eager, pace. Moving around was easier than earlier
today. Carver had sat on his virtual behind all day long and my
activeness was paying off. We managed to avoid doubling back or
hitting too many dead ends. Soon we were at the heart of the maze and
a stellar emptiness met us.

“
What
time is it?”

“
Not
midnight.” Shadow hopped down and looked around.

“
This
spot here?” SweetPea was looking at a pattern on the ground.
There was a series of spirals that radiated outward from an almost
perfect circle.

I,
luckily, had a giant arrow visible that bobbed up and down in the
air. This was similar to the one that had guided me to Old Man
Carver's bench the first night. Stand here player! My position was
clear. We weren’t too late. Everything from here was a matter
of waiting.

“
How
long?”

“
Dunno.
This game doesn’t have watches.” Keeping track of which
player was speaking had proven difficult. The fuzziness of my hearing
made me feel detached from the group. Hopefully, they would think I
was following along. Or they would keep talking over me like NPCs
didn't matter.

“
Do
the math, you’ve got your external timer right?” HotPants
was busy twirling the staff through some basic motions. Her actions
were clearly steps above where she had been a few weeks ago at Peg’s.

“
You
got any more of those bindings? The stuff you put on your hands?”
Shadow asked.

“
Sure.”
There was a shuffle as HotPants got something out of her inventory
and threw it towards Shadow. “Here’s a roll. You need
help getting wrapped?”

“
If
you could show me.”

“
It’s
easier if someone else tightens it, at least for me. My skill isn’t
high enough yet.” HotPants seemed pleased with Shadow’s
asking.

“
Give
it time.”

“
I’ve
been patient this long,” She muttered while wrapping some cloth
around Shadow’s hands. It looked like the same actions a boxer
might do to ensure their knuckles didn’t get as damaged.

“
Good.
Everything helps.”

“
How
did your stuff go? You master making out yet?” Shadow needled
the two lovebirds standing in the back. Both Awesome Jr. and SweetPea
went beet red. I could see their stammering actions from the side of
my vision. I was interested too but hadn’t the heart to pick on
them that much. Besides, I was trying to keep my head in the game.

“
It’s
a surprise.”

“
You
did get something, though?” HotPants asked.

SweetPea
nodded with a smile. The normally shy girl actually looked kind of
cute when she stopped hiding under that annoying hood. Awesome Jr.
was probably on to something with his crush.

“
Here
it comes,” I said.

In
front of me there was a swirl. Sparkles drifted down from above and
landed on ledges unseen. Our surroundings had been dark but now were
illuminated. More and more bright flakes fell downward like snow. A
full minute passed while the doorway formed. Soon we had an entryway
made of light.

“
Awesome.”
Awesome Jr. said. I was impressed too but had to remain somewhat
stoic. After all, William Carver was a seasoned adventurer.

“
Where
does that go?”

“
To
the Maze,” I answered.

“
What
should we do?”

“
HotPants,
would you go first?” SweetPea asked.

I
ignored them all and walked forward. The light blinded me as I
ventured through the passageway. Mixtures of purple and black
interlaced among the brightest portions. The world swung sideways and
gravity released its hold on Carver's body. There was a brief
sensation of floating free from the world's tethers.

Then
it was over and I was walking forward into another maze. This one was
distinctly different than the one we had come out of moments ago.
Hedges were inked with the same purple and black markings on their
leaves. The branches were a muted white that bled at the edges into
its other hues.

“
Holy
Moly.” Shadow came through first. There was a noise like
someone jumping out of the way at high speeds.

“
Jesus.”
HotPants was second through the gateway with a similar sound effect.

“
This,
this is worth the subscription cost. My god.” Shadow said. “And
the colors? I love this place.”

Awesome
Jr. and SweetPea came into the dungeon with their hands clasped
together. Her eyes were closed tightly.

“
It’s
awesome.” Awesome Jr. said again. I managed to avoid replying
with his tag line. This place was pretty neat.

“
Ah.
Are you kidding me? We went from one maze into another?”
HotPants had calmed down briefly and this new knowledge only set her
off again. Nothing seemed to satisfy her.

“
It’s
called the Maze of Midnight,” Shadow said with a shrug.

The
players assigned roles. These hedges were too high for our assassin
to leap upon. Shadow instead explored ahead a twist or turn in order
to see where the easy dead ends were. HotPants would be in the lead
of our main group since she was the toughest one here according to
her stats. SweetPea was in charge of making a map in case the maze
was more complicated inside than the outside.

Their
ideas all sounded fine. I had no real feedback, I hadn’t done
any sort of dungeon diving or video game in years. My idea of
exploration was to run around in a place at high speeds clicking
stuff until a resolution appeared. William Carver and I were probably
similar in that regard. Only he had done it for real.

“
Come
on.” Shadow motioned.

Awesome
Jr. had to be prodded frequently in order to keep up. He kept getting
distracted by the plants and our surroundings. These passageways we
wandered for many a twist and turn were much wider than the ones
outside had been.

“
Huh?”

“
What?”

“
I
thought I saw someone,” Shadow whispered with a finger to his
lips.

“
You
think there are monsters in here?” SweetPea had closed the gap
and was busy peering around the corner. She would squint and turn her
head around suddenly as if hearing something.

I,
of course, could hear nothing, see very little, and only vaguely
smelled what had to be jasmine or some other tea leaf. Absently I
picked some leaves from one of the plants and chewed on it. Worst
case scenario I blew us all up. Nope, just a faint taste of oranges
resulted.

“
Mmh?”
I raised an eyebrow and looked at one of the leaves.
[Identification]
provided
a bit of information now that I separated everything.

They
were kind of tasty. I chewed on another one and tried not mourn my
missing
[Messenger's
Pet]
.
He would probably like a nibble as well. There were other messages I
had been disregarding as we made the first few turns within the maze.