NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53: The Author
5 Hours, 50 Minutes Until Reset.
Alicia translates. “His name is Abdul Alhazred, he thinks he's been trapped here for thousands of years and wants our help to escape.”
“Fuck no,” Mercy says firmly. “He's the fictional character who wrote the Necronomicon.”
He seems to recognize the word Necronomicon and speaks excitedly. “He says he wrote that to help people, it's not an evil book. He says it's a book for explorers to prepare against the dark.”
The 15th floor is absolutely bizarre. It's a typical English mansion, but the only resident is this seemingly ordinary guy, who is apparently fictional. We came through the front doors and were immediately greeted by Abdul. Out the windows seems to be fog and rain. The fog is yellow. So that seems bad.
“I don't even know how a non-monster would exist outside of the dungeon,” I say. “We usually just kill anything that escapes.” I think about Jurassic Park and have to ask, “unless someone is trapping and keeping monsters for science and profit.” I get a look from Jose. “Aw shit someone's doing just that aren't they? Fucking humans.”
“Anyways, he's the dungeon master so we have to kill him,” Alicia says, matter of factly.
Abdul Alhazred. Tier 1. An author. He's a regular human, so he's weak to a lot of stuff.
Possible loot: notes.
Abdul Alhazred looks like any thin middle easterner in his 50s. Bronze skin, wrinkles from too much sun, loose white linen robes. “I can't imagine just killing this guy,” I say, trying to smile at him so he doesn't know what we're talking about.
Mercy clenches her fist. “Evil. Book. Author.”
Quins puts in his two pence. “He says it's like a guide book. Would you call a man who writes about Tigers evil? Nah.”
“I'm a Ranger, not an assassin,” states Jose.
“I can take the shot,” Alicia says, also smiling at Abdul. “If you guys can't.”
“Let's just slow down and talk to the first reasonable resident of a dungeon I've ever met.” I gesture towards a living room.
Half an hour later we've learned several things.
Abdul has fake memories. A whole lifetime's worth. He claims he was trapped here by cultists from Nyarlothotep.
The food in the pantry resets every day so he hasn't starved.
There's a computer upstairs, which Mercy is currently checking and hacking into.
He has the key to the dungeon and can give it to us. We do not have to kill him. Yay. I was probably going to have to fight Alicia on that.
Abdul makes a heck of a cup of tea.
Abdul also shows Jose and I to where our special Thank You, Come Again! quest items are. A naan for me and a chocolate chip cookie for Jose.
Jun Kyung Han's Naan Of Leveling. A special flatbread that gives Jun Kyung Han 14 levels because he killed 56 men. That was the number, by the way. Fifty six deaths by your hands. And now you get to profit off of all the orphans you made that day.
Jose Amarillo's Chocolate Chip Cookie Of Leveling. A special cookie that gives Jose Amarillo 18 level ups all at once. He killed 73 people that day. Did you know he sleeps totally fine at night because he reasons that each death was because every enemy soldier was someone who wanted his kids to lose their father? He is supported by his family, and knowing that his family is supported by him. You still have a lot to learn from your friend.
Jose just stows his cookie in his inventory and I figure I should do the same. 14 levels could be 4 subclass abilities which could change my game, or I could head straight for Doppelganger and-
“Holy SHIT!” comes Mercy's yell from upstairs. “I GOT IN AND IT'S IMPORTANT!”
We all rush to her in the upper office. “It's conversation logs,” she says, a quiver in her voice. “They're… They're talking about the Dracosys… As they make it.”
“Who's they? How do you know?” Alicia asks.
“Time stamps. They have screen names. Hyperion, Fortuna, Spear Saint, Skull Master Flash and Saturn's 2nd Ring.”
I slump down in a chair in front of the desk and my head spins. No. Not that. Don't say that name to me.
Saturn's 2nd Ring was my little brother's gamer tag on the Xbox 360. He had copied my screen name, Saturn's 1st Ring. Fuck.
“And there's nothing else on the computer,” Mercy says. “I checked the-”
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. No. That's impossible. My brother? No way. Impossible. He still lives with dad. He only has a part time job as night security for an office building.
“Already downloaded,” Mercy says.
“I'll set this to upload as soon as we get a connection,” Alicia says. “Actually, this is too important, you guys have this, I need to go.” Alicia bolts out of the room.
No no no no no! NO!
“Jun, you okay?” Jose asks me.
Mercy looks up from the computer. She's lifting the tower and it goes into her inventory. “Jun?”
This isn't real. None of this is real. I'm in a damn dungeon for God's sake! This is all made up. Some hallucination. That's right.
I feel Quins shake my shoulder. “He's my brother,” I hear myself whisper.
“Who is?” asks Mercy.
This isn't right. This is some game or trick he's pulled. I'll talk to him when we get home. It'll be fine. It'll be fine.
“It'll be fine,” I say, lying to everyone including myself. “Let's get everyone out and then I'll trigger the dungeon collapse.”
“We taking ol’ Abdul?” Quins motions towards the confused man with a thumb.
“Nah,” I say, not really giving a crap either way at this point. “No. Wait.” I slap my forehead with the back of my hand. It stings enough to center me. “Yeah, we'll try to save him if we can. That's what the Pathbreakers should do.”
We make a plan and I try not to have a panic attack. When a dungeon is set to collapse you get just minutes to escape before it goes crunch. Because of the 24 Hour Lockdown quest, we can't actually leave until someone hits the button to finish the dungeon. But we can certainly park ourselves at the entrance and wait right there. To make sure everyone is out, we all make the ascent together, including Abdul.
As we take the slow elevator from the 13th floor to the 12th, Abdul begins to mutter to himself.
“No… Door… Fancy, ” I hear.
Quins responds to him in Arabic, and they begin to have what seems like a friendly conversation as we wait.
When we get to the horrid 12th floor operating room Quins turns to me and simply says, “had an Arabic mate when I was little, and I wanted to impress his pretty sister.” He gives me a smile that's missing a tooth. “Know some poetry too. Very romantic, the Arabs.”
We keep going. I know I'm probably going to have to time myself on a run before I pull the trigger on the collapse. We get to the ladder that goes from the 11th floor to the 10th, and Mercy stops me before I climb, letting the others go first.
“It has to be me and you know it,” she says.
“Sorry, no. I have the highest Agility so I have to press the dungeon-collapse button.”
“I can fly, Jun. I can fly almost as fast as your run speed, but I can fly straight up. I can skip all the ladders and all the elevators. I can make it out and you can't.”
“Mercy, it might take me a practice run but I think-”
“Let me do this, Jun. Let me crush this place.”
I look into her eyes. There's a strength there that's new, or at least new to me. I wasn't the only one who changed in this dungeon, was I?
I hold her mecha armored hand and smile. “What did I do before I had you?”
She tilts her head coyly. “You were sad and lonely and a bit dumb.” I act hurt. “But at least you were cute.” She kisses me.
I try to ignore the fact that so many people died in this dungeon. So many people were brought here to be butchered. Franco was killed here.
She grabs my butt and kisses me harder. There's always death but there's always something to live for, isn't there?