Although they had recently separated from the privateers, Alastair expected they would run into them again attempting to free children from the dungeon. Though he wasn’t a part of their party, Fausta, being a level five wizard, cast a spell upon Alastair and Maelstrom to make them invisible for a short duration.

  “I’m attempting to gain your trust so that you have more reason to assist me in freeing the player at Inflection Point,” he said, leading them back down the stairs.

  There were sounds of fighting further down the stairs, but Fausta led them across the Assembly hall to a separate staircase.

  “The dungeon proper is through the storerooms below this level. As you are not partied, I recommend you don’t go beyond the third floor. Now, forgive me, but other players here need assistance.”

  The two went down another stairwell to what seemed like a storeroom. Mal said, “So, through here, huh? Do we check doors or look for a glowing sign that says dungeon this way?”

  “Was that a joke? What do you think he meant by other players here? Do you think someone else assaulted the Keep?”

  “The only other players remotely strong enough are Galoots, Flor, and Sparks,” said Mal. “I don’t think Galoots would survive the climb, especially so soon after we did.

  “Hold on, then. Let me check something.” Knowing Flor had blocked him, Alastair entered his interface and texted Sparks.

  Alastair – Sparks: Sparks. Did you and Flor come to the Keep?

  When he came out, he looked at Mal, then pointed toward “Let’s check through that door, there, to see if it leads to the dungeon. What do you think of Fausta’s offer.”

  “Unless it pays out in real currency, I’m not inclined to accept the offer. I want to clear this Keep and get out of the game, now.”

  “What’s that all about, anyway? You mentioned something like that before the first time you killed me,” said Alastair as he opened the door. He peered in, it was another storeroom, but there looked to be another door on the other side. He shrugged and entered, going to check it.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Mal said, “I’m just in this for the payout. Real money for only several hours of your life. But we’re so close to just being done with it.”

  Alastair opened the other door, which looked like it led downstairs into the Keep. “This might be it.” He started to walk down into what seemed an unusually dark and damp stairwell. “Do you have a light of some sort?”

  Mal said, “Wait one minute.” She went back up the stairs and returned with two lit torches. She handed one to Alastair, then said, “Let me go first. If they run two instances of this place simultaneously, I don’t want to be held up by your delays.”

  Alastair rolled his eyes but let her pass ahead. Sure enough, the stairs came across a landing and Mal was no longer there. Alastair stepped forward. His interface flashed and he was in the combat game.

  What looked like an old-school video game slime grew out of the ground and then pulsed blue. A seven-by-five grid appeared with red, blue, green, purple, and bone-colored gems. Alastair felt confident this would be easy since he was wielding his new level two Scribe’s staff. Although his armor was also level two, the jump in price to level three gear was significant. Maybe that is what Fausta meant that he and Mal weren’t strong enough to take on the Keep puzzle just yet. Perhaps they needed better equipment.

  Combining three red gems, Alastair glowed faintly red as he swung his staff like an eight-iron directly into the slime, which flew into the wall. A skull icon appeared over the slime, and it sank back into the ground. The grid and combat interface cleared.

  Combat complete. +1 to Combat.

  Alastair was grateful that he and ETC had found the setting to turn off the offer to complete challenges again. ETC had even noticed a radial that allowed it to be turned back on if Alastair failed a challenge. But still, the relief from not having to manually or mentally select ‘No’ every time he completed a puzzle felt great.

  He walked to where the slime had dissolved and saw the remains. He surveyed the remains and saw the slime was called Blue Slime Mold. Alastair picked up a small vial next to the slime mold called ‘Electrolyte.’

  “Huh. More new loot. This seems more relevant than the flotsam and jetsam I got from that cave dungeon. Electrolyte has to do with batteries.”

  Alastair pulled up his interface again and saw a new notification. He opened it up.

  Sparks – Alastair: Yes, Flor and I are at the Keep. I can’t chat with her, though. It says ‘chat disabled.’

  Concern flooded him, although he knew that it technically wasn’t his responsibility right now.

  Alastair – Sparks: Maelstrom and I are in the Keep dungeon. Where are you?

  Sparks – Alastair: Thank goodness you replied. I thought I had lost all communication. I’m in the Chapel. How did you know we were here?

  Alastair – Sparks: I’ll explain later. We need to save Flor!

  Sparks – Alastair: …

  Alastair – Sparks: I’ll come to the Chapel.

  Sparks: Meet me in the Assembly Hall.

  Alastair swapped over to a different chat.

  Alastair – Maelstrom: Flor and Sparks are here, but Sparks lost chat with Flor. I’m going to save her.

  He closed the interface and ran up the stairs.