Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (47 page)

BEHIND YOU
, Eve yelled at Alan. He turned his head to see the second golem’s arms stretching out; its eye began to glow brighter, aimed directly at Alan. Eve showed Alan the trajectories of the descending cleavers as well as her estimated path for the eye’s blast. She showed a singular path to avoid damage, a leaping, twisting backflip that required Alan to cut through the arms while in midair. Alan attempted the leap.

Almost immediately, he felt something was off, his movements not mirroring the preciseness with which Eve showed them being executed. He simply did not have the experience or skill required for such a maneuver. Still, Eve attempted to correct it, calculating and displaying a new set of blocks for Alan to make. He barely managed to fend off the first two cleavers that cut at him, but he could do nothing but watch as the golem’s glowing eye let out a gigantic blue beam of light. Alan tried to turn himself in midair, even managing to change his course slightly by pushing off of the two other arms that tried to cut him. He almost evaded the entirety of the blue ray, but it still struck a glancing blow, knocking Alan to the ground, eliminating the rest of his shield energy. Any additional hits would kill him.

Alan turned to see the damaged golem had turned 180 degrees, preparing its own eye-blast. Its three remaining arms had dropped the blades. Their fingers were now pointed drill bits, like the ends of a sharpened pencil. Alan didn’t think they would break so easily. The undamaged golem was also preparing another attack, its eye recharging while it stepped forward as its arms began descending.

An image formed in Alan’s eyes of him throwing the two knives, each piercing the direct center of the two golems. A series of calculations, diagrams and projections flashed through his mind, leaving him with the precise angle, force and technique to throw the knives. Alan followed the outline, concentrating, getting up to a kneeling position before attempting the throw. He took the two knives, and released.

As the knives left his hands Alan felt satisfaction, a rightness. Eve calculated they were both directly on-target. The knife headed at the damaged golem flew fluidly through the air, spinning, dead set for its central eye. The golem attempted to defend itself with its arms, but to no avail. Its eye was pierced, the knife’s spinning handle stopped by the golem’s armor. Gravity brought the knife downwards, and it pierced all the way through the golem’s body before slowly falling onto the floor. The golem was destroyed.

The second golem made no attempt to dodge the spinning knife headed its way. The moment before the knife pierced its eye, it instead shifted, blinking like Sidestep, appearing at Alan’s side. Eve instantaneously ran new calculations, displaying to Alan that he had to get away, back to the first knife. He leapt up, sprinting towards the thrown knife lying on the ground, narrowly dodging the four blades that descended, trying to cut him in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the second knife he had thrown glide through the air, unobstructed. It tumbled and embedded itself into the ground.

The golem reached one of its arms and grabbed the hilt, then threw the knife out the door. It fell into the abyss. Lost.

Alan briefly stopped to gape at the sight of his lost weapon, only to almost be sliced open by a descending blade; Eve immediately directed him onto a new safe path through the attacks. Fortunately, it seemed as though the golem had to recharge its energy after using the blink ability. If it had been able to use it as often as Sidestep, Alan would have been killed long ago.

Alan gritted his teeth, all his attention on the remaining knife. Seconds later, he managed to grab it as he ran past. He sliced at a metallic arm passing beside him, attempting to grab the blade. He jammed the knife inwards then began running back at the golem, severing the golem's wire tendons. The arm shuddered, then dropped the blade it was holding.

Two blades swiped at Alan from opposite sides. A third blade swiped downwards from above, like a guillotine. Alan dived to his left, dodging two of the blades. He used his knife to cut through the third. As Alan charged at the golem it tried an additional series of triangular attacks but each time Alan was able to successfully avoid taking any damage, inflicting minor wounds with his counterattacks instead.

Alan finally made his way to the golem’s body as its eye began to charge a blast. He stabbed forwards, driving in the blade and lightly pushing it through at Eve’s command, letting go of the knife. With his momentum Alan sprinted around the golem, catching the knife mid-air as it fell out the other side, having pierced the golem all the way through. For good measure, Alan immediately reversed his grip on the knife and stabbed the eye at the opposite end, twisting viciously trying to inflict as much damage as possible. A split-second later, the golem shut down.

As his adrenaline began to wear off Alan looted the two golems before collapsing onto the floor, exhausted. They each dropped small crystalline cubes of dark green energy and a scientific design. One design looked to be a blueprint of the golem’s eye-weapon; Alan was hopeful that Phantom would be able to incorporate it into his own bionic eye. The other seemed to be part of a larger diagram that when fully assembled would be able to give metal golems technological psionic ability, or at least that was Eve’s hypothesis. Both would sell well, solving Alan's debt.

After resting for an hour, Alan headed out, his armor’s basic invisibility active. Eve figured that they couldn’t rest for too long as there would be patrols sent out to find them. She set a pace of a quick jog, and guided Alan on a pathway to the nearest hub area. Once there, they could hopefully hash out some sort of deal with the warden AI; otherwise they would need to try to find a friendly group of players to survive, which was unlikely to say the least.

The run was uneventful, though tiring. Eve alerted Alan to any traps or obstacles, as their safe return to the Black Rose guild headquarters was paramount. Down a third secret path, past a few trivial puzzles, Alan found himself before another cubic structure, slightly larger than the previous two. He quickly narrowed his focus onto the machine presence and sent out a message.

Let me talk to the Warden. Please?

… Systems Initializing. Error. Warning: Limited Power.

Request Acknowledged. Warning: Main Systems Offline.

Shortly thereafter, Alan finally felt the presence he associated with the Warden attempt a connection to him, which he accepted immediately.

What, Betrayer, here to gloat about your victory? Let me assure you that you will not leave here alive,
the Warden sent in a curt, threatening manner.

Um, actually I sort of wanted to explain my actions, 
Alan thought nervously. 
Look, you can review the footage, but the Predecessor was going crazy, and basically threatened to kill me. If I didn’t follow its orders, I’m sure it would have killed me and taken out the crystal itself. This way, you didn’t lose the energy crystal. I really want to study it so I can complete this quest,
Alan said truthfully, without letting the Warden know there was a second way to possibly finish its task.

The Warden seemed to consider Alan’s response carefully, weighing its options.
I may have miscalculated; I can see how you proceeded through these actions with your misguided biological judgment.

Alan simply accepted the Warden’s comment, not wanting to cause any trouble, ignoring Eve who seemed to readily agree with its sentiment.

Apology acknowledged. As finding a suitable guardian will prove problematic with the facility’s current capacity, I will grant you a brief period to study the power crystal. However, if you fail to return with it holding just as much charge, there will be dire consequences. Do not presume this is a completely isolated facility. One of my wardens has collected your soulsteel knife, and will only return it if you complete my task.

Um, sure, sure
, Alan agreed, wondering what else the facility could be tied to.

Eve immediately chimed in.
 At this point, based upon the Predecessor’s remarks, I believe this is a facility constructed by the mysterious Lords of Life, who disappeared after their great war with the Predecessors. It is generally assumed that they lost the war, but after hearing the Lord of the Abyss’s account I am not so sure. Then again, this is only a possibility, as there have been countless Predecessor civil wars throughout history.

Two messages popped up before Alan:

Very well, the terms of our agreement have been updated. You will be guided back to your starting point, Traveler. I wish you luck in your exploration; you do not understand the entropy that will be unleashed should this system run out of power. 
The Warden shut off its communication.

Alan turned to the only open corridor, and found the familiar slide. This time it slowly began to pull him upwards. Exhausted after the exploration, Alan fell asleep, Eve ensuring him she would wake him if action was needed.

***

A few hours later, the slide finally reached the hub Alan had come from. He quickly activated his basic invisibility and proceeded back to the lift up to Black Rose territory, avoiding the slimes that had begun to respawn. To his relief, he found a bored looking Black Rose pilot waiting at the bottom of the lift, still waiting as Alan hadn’t respawned.

Alan took the lift upwards to emerge into what appeared to be a Black Rose hangar bay. A series of messages were displayed before him, letting him know he successfully completed the Escape! and Mad Gamble quests, and was now an official member of the Black Rose guild, open to promotions. He received 5000 guild points, and 4 levels. Alan was told he was back in a safe-zone, and he let out a slight sigh of relief as he received a notification that a player had sent him a message. To his surprise, Alan saw that it had been sent from Icewolf.

Icewolf: Hey Alan! I know I said not to contact me until you had the money, but circumstances are changing faster than I anticipated. There are devices that allow for secure, face to face conversation. I’m sure your new guild has one. Let me know a time that you can talk.

Alan’s quest updated:

Alan quickly sent a reply to Icewolf that he was available to talk as soon as possible.

A few minutes later during the short flight back to the Black Rose guild headquarters he got a reply that Icewolf would be available in a hour or so, at about 2200 Khersath Standard Time.

The first thing Alan did once he was back at the Black Rose base was head to the nearest Administrator and pay five diamond marks to transport the soulsteel knife, black power crystal and Predecessor blood to their secure vault. Eve estimated that each item had a potential market value of billions of credits, and Alan wanted to make sure they were safe. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Black Rose guild’s security, it was just that it seemed the sensible thing to do. For one, the Vault had never been stolen from, while guild base raids were not unheard of, even if they were technically illegal on Khersath. Additionally, there was a policy in place which stated the Administrators would pay back a lost item’s market cost in marks, essentially twice what anything was worth.

Alan almost wished that someone stole the items out of the Vault, as it would eliminate all his money problems. He felt too scared to try to sell any one of the items, for various reasons, and Eve told him to hold onto them. Thus, into the Vault they went.

The next thing Alan did was proceed to the capsule station, saving his progress and spending the 29 points he had from his gifted ability on agility, keeping the other 416 ability points unspent. Perhaps it would prove prudent to spend the points on the Rogue abilities that decreased the cost of all further ability point purchases. Eve still cautioned against it, citing the fact that he was still in what might be considered the early stages of the game, and his levels would reach an equilibrium as deaths began to cause the loss of a hundred levels or more.

Finally, after all this was sorted out, Alan messaged Phantom, asking him about a communication device like the one Icewolf had mentioned. Alan quickly received a reply from Phantom, notifying Alan to meet him in his workshop. A short elevator ride later, Alan was face to face with the Knight.

Phantom looked up from the project he was working on, a redesign of some eye technology, smiling at Alan. “Welcome back. I see that your dungeon diving was very rewarding. You’re over a 100 levels higher than when I saw you last! Please notify me before any such operations in the future. I could be quite helpful in any of your endeavors, you know, and we were beginning to worry about you. I was preparing to spearhead a search and rescue team myself.”

“Um, right, sorry about that, it’s just that the opportunity presented itself,” Alan said looking at the floor, somewhat abashedly.

“Of course, of course!” Phantom said reassuringly. “I commend initiative, and in the future you will need to make decisions without my approval. I just think I should be consulted as your superior, as there are various artifacts and information located within the Abyss Labyrinth that the Black Rose guild is particularly interested in. You could have perhaps gained even more from your adventure.”

“Oh?” Alan asked, grinning. “Well, I actually brought back a few items that I acquired in my progression through the dungeon, and was wondering if you could help me evaluate their worth. If the guild is interested in buying them, that would be great.” He took out the clear, empty energy crystal, the dark green cube energy crystals and the two diagrams.

Phantom’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw the loot, picking up and examining each item as Alan took them out.

“Wow. These two dark green crystals are actually a key resource in turning ordinary psionic ability into technologic psionic ability, and I can say with certainty that the guild will buy them from you for 250k guild points each. That will pay for half your tuition to the Academy and solve your debt!” Phantom next picked up the two diagrams, looking at them closely.

“Now, these two diagrams aren’t as important to the guild, but I can say that I am personally interested them. As you have probably guessed, I may be able to use this eye diagram to weaponize our bionic-eyes, while the other could prove useful in other areas of research. Normally, I would say each would only go for about a few million credits, or 200-500k guild points, and only if you found the correct buyer.” Phantom looked up from the diagrams to study Alan, looking at him closely.

“Tell me, Alan, how did you manage to find this loot, and get past that impasse in the Abyss Labyrinth?”

“Well, um, I connected to the AI that was present within the impasse, which was actually a hub of sorts for the Abyss Labyrinth. The AI was one of many located throughout the facility, I believe. It was one of them that gave me that quest to restore power to the facility,” Alan explained. He and Eve had worked out a version of story that Alan could tell without mentioning the Predecessor, or the items he received from it.

As they were working out the details, Eve reminded Alan that the Black Rose guild knew his character information and quests when he first arrived, thus he should appear to not leave anything out.

“I then, um, found and battled the boss," Alain said. "Or, well, bosses as there were two golems. They dropped this loot. I then made my way back to the lift, and, well, here I am.” Alan smiled halfheartedly.

“Yes. And here you are. You know, that quest has actually stirred up quite a bit of controversy within the upper echelons of the guild lately. Quite a few are interested in pursuing it, as it seems to be a gamma rated quest, right beneath our feet. Did your exploration perhaps reveal further details about the quest?” Phantom asked.

“Um, sure, yeah,” Alan said, thinking fast. “Actually that’s part of what this other crystal is for. I found a number of them in the boss room, but only grabbed this one as I didn’t have space for any more. I’m supposed to figure out a way to recharge it and bring it back to the room, to help restore the systems. I also came across a map of sorts of the Abyss Labyrinth, or at least a large section of it.”

Phantom picked up the empty energy crystal, carefully placing it in a small containing device that zapped the crystal with small bolts of lightning.

“Interesting… This crystal seems to be capable of holding about as much energy as a modern starship, thus it will likely require millions of credits to fully recharge it. The AI that gave you this task didn’t happen to mention what, exactly, the reward would be, did they? Otherwise I’m not sure whether the guild will help you in this task. Before we proceed further, let me tell you why I’m bringing all this up.” Phantom pulled out a chair for Alan, sitting down on a table across from it. Alan carefully sat down, trying to avoid stepping on any of the metal pieces scattered on the floor.

“Like any other enterprising young recruit you’re probably wondering how you can advance to Knight rank. Normally, you complete a series of three tasks, your training. Not only does the rank of Knight come with prestige and a larger salary, but you also begin to earn a percentage of the net income of the guild itself. A fraction of a fraction of a percent, of course, but if the guild pulls off a large mission, that can mean a windfall of millions of credits. That's one of the reasons the guild has such a unique and fluid leadership, we all want the guild to do well, as we are all owners, of a sort.

“There are many annoying responsibilities associated with the rank, but you’re still quite a ways from reaching that point. Based upon the information you’ve given me, if you are willing to transfer to me the map of the Abyss Labyrinth you’ve acquired, in addition to the diagrams, I think we can count this as a completion of your first task. It may be a bit strange as I never even assigned this task to you, but I’m confident that this is information the guild is interested in. I think I can get you 500k guild points, plus a 100k bonus for the completion of the task. That will not only completely pay for your tuition to the Academy, but also give you 100k guild points left over to pay off your debt. Also, I’ll make sure the guild throws in a bag for you, what do you say?” Phantom looked at Alan, grinning.