Ten minutes ago, as Continue Online considered time, I had returned to the surface. My small collection of items stolen from dead legless [Heavenly Clone Body] creatures hadn’t amounted to much so far. My fifty-eight points of total progress was essentially a wash. Part of the problem was Squicks dying again while I was at work. I tracked the message time and figured he would be back up and running tomorrow, but this dungeon would hopefully be over tonight.

“Wyl,” I said to the stoic looking former guard captain. He stood in the beam of light along with the angry Knight Middleton.

“I’ve told you before, I have nothing to say to you convict,” He responded without even looking over.

“So, I can talk to you for another hour if I want.“ My shoulder came up in a shrug. Convicts, such as myself, got a small break upon returning to the surface. The delay allowed us to stagger our reentry if we desired, or team up with spawning members.

“I find little value in what any of you has to say,” He said while I tapped Carver’s cane on the ground.

“Yet, you’re still talking to me.” I could have been polite, but Wyl had never expected it of William. My What Would Carver Do instincts were all out of whack since playing a robot, but part of me remembered them.

The dungeon grind I had been participating in these last few days really wore on my sanity. Darkly lit spots and spiders weren’t helping. It had been three game days since my death, and this was my first solo trip back to the surface to turn in a pitiful amount of items. None of the other players seemed to be fairing much better. Dots went in and out of existence frequently whenever I pinged the dungeon. Viper, oddly enough, seemed stuck in his location way down near the bottom. Even up here the marker for my one useful team member appeared unmoving.

I didn’t have the weight of being a hero or donating to the community behind me. Citing that I had actually played as William Carver would both confuse the guard captain and besmirch William’s good name. My only source of credibility, and likely the reason he talked to me, was keeping [Morrigu’s Gift] in the old cane shape. I tucked it into my cinch which wrapped around the toga. My body felt tense and annoyed. I leaned to the left, then right, and finally tried to touch my toes. It struck me as odd how limbering myself up in a virtual world equated to actual relaxation.

“Tell me where you got that staff.” The guard demanded by lifting his hand slightly but it didn’t cross the beam of light’s threshold. That was an opening I needed to make progress with Wyl. There were a few vague truths he could learn, without causing too many problems or compromising my own ethics.

“From William. We met, once, near the end.” I said honestly. “It’s because of him that I’m here today.”

“I refuse to believe Will would have had anything to do with a criminal like yourself,” He said. Both the man’s eyes seemed to burn under the helm.

“William Carver guided a lot of new Travelers, and not all went the route of law abiders. Truth be told the man himself was a hero, but he wasn’t a saint either. Kind of a horn dog actually.” According to his journals anyway. Most players were bobbing along for personal entertainment or exciting adventures. Very few people played Continue Online with the kind of drive required to be the greatest warriors, or extremely giving natures. This virtual world was a game to most people.

“Where did you meet him?” Wyl broke from giving orders briefly as his tone took on a softer note.

“The realm of the Voices. We met there after he died.” I felt like being honest with Wyl would help. It had been my policy to avoid lying anyway. That was just who I was. Most of my untruths were sins of omission and not intended to mislead.

“Carver was a Traveler, and they’re immortal.” The guard captain seemed to forget that I was a Traveler too, at least by his standards. Then again [NPC Conspiracy] did sort of mix up their perspectives.

“Travelers can die as well.” My own voice turned low for a moment. What must we look like to NPCs, resurrecting, walking with the Voices, coming round and round again? “Carver did, in the end.”

“Some of them deserve to. Bad enough we have our own thieves and rapists, like you. Then we have to deal with ones from another world that are near impossible to kill. You tell the Voices to let me burn down the whole lot of them.” Knight Middleton said from a few feet to my left. He had been standing there, knees locked liked Wyl, and listening to our conversation.

“I’m a Traveler too,” I said to the angry knight. He sounded confused and addressed me as a Local. It happened often.

“You are? You-” His head shook and the man’s eyes glazed over.

“Messenger for the Voices, Traveler and a bit of a Local. Don’t worry, it confuses a lot of people.” I tried to be friendly but the other guard had shut down in contemplation. Both of them seemed to be confused about our recent conversation.

“Mh, well, I’m going to get ready for the dungeon. Please don’t shoot me.” I tried to smile.

Wyl glared. I missed the other man, the one who had given me a respected level of comradery in my pretend dotage. This place was against both of our natures. I was a wanderer in Continue, Wyl a happy captain who drilled new recruits. We would get back to it.

Shouting ‘Free cupcakes’ hadn’t worked in the last few days of dungeon crawling. Spare time was also low once I started collecting dead bodies for points. I tried six times to etch Dusk’s summoning circle correctly. The seventh attempt lit a circle of [Lithum] runes up and the system prompted me to utter an incantation.

“Come out, you little fiend!” I shouted an alternate incantation. Two nameless guards on the wall above twitched their fingers towards crossbows. Nothing happened and my shoulders slumped. Dusk was going to eventually eat through all my money in virtual pastries.

Knight Middleton snorted then said, “Some spell. Traveler or not, you’re a terrible mage Path.”

“I hate Lithium,” I muttered while trying to figure out any other summoning phrase. The circle faded out and they forced me to write it again. This time, there was no hesitation or attempted shouting. “I promise a dozen cupcakes at my earliest convenience,” I said while hanging my head.

The circle's center flared a bright golden color. Both guards managed to hold still in their safe beams. My bobcat sized version of Dusk popped out in an anxious spin. He ran over to me with a trail of drool hanging from his mouth. Sharp teeth surprisingly didn’t cut through the tongue.

“Really? You want cupcakes already?” My voice flattened.

Dusk nodded. Technically it had been seven game days since he left a mess in my Atrium. Four where I was booted out, and three more of me wandering around trying to get a feel for more monsters and the layout.

“Now isn’t that convenient,” I said.

Dusk’s resulting look and the confused question marks above his head clearly implied otherwise. Cupcake time was any time. Maybe that’s how he had grown so big, I was feeding him too much. When we first met, one cupcake would have held him for a few hours. As if to prove his increased weight, the formerly half a cat sized creature climbed up my side. Sharp claws made me wince, but part of me welcomed the familiarity.

Soon Dusk was hanging his longer head out front, and his tail wound down part of my toga, ruffling it up. It would take me weeks to get used to this larger form. Thankfully he chose the covered shoulder to ride on. Those claws would hurt like hell on bare skin.

“You’re going to need to start flying up, instead. You’re too big to keep climbing.” I muttered.

Dusk snorted a small ring of smoke and looked around. The window above his head indicated a search for food. Even a bad tasting monster carcass couldn’t keep his appetite at bay.

“How about sausages?” He shook his head at my suggestion. “Fine, cupcakes, but we’ve got to beat this dungeon tonight. I’m tired of being here, and Xin’s waiting for me out there.” I whispered in his ear. “And I’ve got a present for her, something very shiny and pretty.”

“Yeah. Good luck with that.” Knight Middleton snorted.

The [Messenger’s Pet] perked up and a more serious smile crossed its face. My hand rubbed between his ears slowly, feeling the trail of scales that went all the way down his back. Patting them directly irked the creature, but along the bumps and ridges always gained a happy response. Paying attention to him was far more comforting than the knight’s condescension and general hatred.

“Let’s go, little guy.”

Wyl glared at me, but his expression looked a little less harsh than it had. I shrugged and tucked back one cheek. William Carver’s [Legacy Wish] and [NPC Conspiracy] gave me reason to care about this world, but now wasn’t the time or place to keep trying to break through the former guard captain’s skepticism. If I had come back up here more often then perhaps we would be further along, but running around for hours on end in a multiple floor labyrinth was hard. [Sight of Mercari] didn’t come with a map of walls, and my journal entry filled in details slowly.

Dusk and I should make some decent progress together. After Wyl could suffer my demands for information for days until the next dungeon or Xin’s breakout plan went into action. Or I could work, maybe Xin would call me outside the game again.

My waiting a few days had primarily focused on getting used to these new boots and letting my summon skill come back up. When a [Messenger’s Pet] died, or left Continue Online’s world, I apparently had to wait eight days to bring him back. The cool down on this ability was suspiciously long, maybe the Voice of Balance had changed some rules, or there were a few more factors in play with the AI witch hunt back in reality.

I walked through the giant spiraling staircase down the first few floors and prepared my weapons. Three days of sneaking, looting and avoiding other players had helped get me back in the groove. As long as I avoided Android Seven, the player who had shot a hole through me, then we would be fine.

“I hate the darkness in this game. I hate it the most, I think.” I muttered to Dusk. Having him around prevented me from feeling utterly crazy. The blackness of where all those Voices lived was a little different. It was like, absence or an empty backdrop.

Here, this dungeon felt oppressive. The ARC had picked up on an unquantifiable emotion that made me twitch the longer this place went on. Breathing was a little harder but the impact snuck up on me. The monsters were both easy to disregard as minor creatures and still disturbing as the lore stacked up. According to my system text, these humanoid creatures and small lab rats were part of an attempt at recreating some divine being. Those that failed were originally locked up but had somehow escaped and kept reproducing from fallen bodies across this dungeon and the one above it. In essence, tossing prisoners like myself into this dungeon was doing more harm than good. Players like my niece, Beth, were theoretically contributing to the pile and probably didn’t know.

Such boring thoughts kept my mind from going insane. Dusk and I scrambled through a few stray legless monsters as we made it to the next staircase.

“Don’t eat those.” My warning resulted in Dusk making a grossed out face towards the dead monster. Neither of enjoyed that mess. He had carried on barfing into my hot tub program, which somehow found itself activated. I disabled it and started fresh. “I’d rather you get fat breaking into a bakery than barfing again.”

His head looked over at me and both eyes seemed to slowly focus. A box appeared.

Rank 3 Unlock – Blessing from [Messenger’s Pet] – [Companion, Exotic]. Unlock available! Please review additional details.

Rank 4 Unlock - Growth of [Messenger’s Pet] - [Companion, Exotic] all stats will increase, including appetite.

“Wait, is this why you got bigger?” I asked, to which Dusk nodded then hopped up and down on my shoulder. He seemed impatient for both baked goods and for me to see what this Blessing would be.

I looked around and pinged the area. There weren’t any players nearby. Most of them seemed dead except Big O’s group, Android Seven, and Viper. We had a few seconds to spare before diving into the heart of this twisted blacklight dungeon. My eyes focused on the ‘additional details’ word floating in front of me and a new box popped up.

System Help!

Blessings are given by a few beings in the world. They may be bestowed by Voices, Legendary creatures, Exotic animals, Rituals, or items. These changes come with benefits and detractions. Most alter the Travelers appearance. Choose carefully, once applied they are impossible to remove.

Balance Dictates: You should have seen what these people wanted to put in here. I’ll have none of it despite what Mother says. You have too many gifts as it is. The rewards are being reduced accordingly.

My lips pursed together. Balance had struck again, but her complaints sounded justified. Based on the survival rating of other players down here, in the war before, and during my travels, my abilities were already high enough. These Blessings were neat and explained more than a few people in the game.

I clicked through Balance’s disclaimer and three choices came up, [Wings of the Messenger], [Belly of a Beast], and [Breath of Flame]. The idea of having black Dusk like wings was kind of interesting, but I had no desire to try and navigate using them. Being able to eat anything in-game and resist poisons and diseases might serve to be helpful. At least, I assumed that’s what the abilities did since my attempts at getting more details failed.

“Neat, but where were these a month ago?” I asked the creature while looking at these options.

Cupcakes popped into being above Dusk’s head.

“You mean you’re just making up rewards based on how much I feed you?” I felt dumbfounded. How had that not occurred to me forever ago? Or at least when seeing that it had reached rank four upon returning to Continue Online. Maybe I had focused on the wrong things. Like being in player jail, tossed in front of a king, paired with a player who felt useless. The list went on.

Dusk nodded rapidly then shook his head.

“Right, Balance.” I was on the right track. The fact that he had three possible blessings was interesting and confusing. Could he give me all three? Maybe if I went and spent another thousand dollars on cupcakes he might cave in. We could discuss it later.

He nodded again then shrugged.

I selected [Breath of Flame], because growing wings or having my virtual innards transform into a garbage disposal seemed neat, but not really my style. My finger lifted and the system message shattered into a barely visible black and gold.

Heat started to build around me. A sharp twinge of pain caused me to breathe in air that felt like liquid fire. Each additional gasp brought another round of smoke and flame. Dusk made an indistinguishable noise. My pulse pounded as the suffocation grew worse.

This was only a game, right? The feeling of dying in a fire was all in my head, right? I curled into a ball and felt cold ground scrape against me. One leg jerked while air failed to fill my lungs. Rawness refused to let go of my throat as both eyes watered.

Then it was over, and I was left gasping with a popup box.

Skill Learned: [Breath of Flame] Type: Rare Rank : 1 Details:

This skill allows a Traveler to generate a ball of fire. This ball of fire can be cast at a target or held as a torch light. Duration and strength are based on [Endurance], [Depth], and possible fire affinity modifiers.

Heavy exercise immediately following generation of the flame will suffer a minor penalty dependent upon the Traveler's [Endurance] and [Breathing] levels.

Causes permanent state of [Altered Aura], [b][Minor Scales] System Notice!

[Altered Aura] has an increased effect due to [Messenger of the Voices] title. You are too near to those beings known as Voices and will forever be set apart from both Traveler and Local alike, never truly being treated as either. Even those without the ability to perceive an [Aura] will feel something is off about you.

“Is that good, or bad?” I wondered briefly. It sounded like a summary of my life since this game came around. Part of me didn’t care, it sounded like an easier way to get to Xin. Even if my body now had scales and a prison tattoo.

Dusk didn’t have a response. His eyes seemed heavy-lidded and thoughts of food floated across his brain.

“Let’s go, before this dungeon gives me a piercing and an eyepatch.” I tried not to feel dry in my response. Already my eyes felt a little weird around the edges as if the skin crinkled where it once had been smooth.

The [Messenger’s Pet] snorted a ring of smoke, but it didn’t bother me. I tried to activate the ability multiple times but it didn’t trigger correctly. Barfing up fireballs to hold would probably take time to get used to, like any other ability in this game.

We walked further along. I moved slower due to the aftermath of my lungs being reworked. Dusk attacked most of the spiders while I quietly cheered him on. Getting to the center staircase required traveling a different path. The main spiral into the dungeon only went to the first floor, where it smoothed out into a series of branching paths. Following them far enough would lead to the second series of stairs downward. Monsters of all stages lay on each floor, and those nasty tiny spiders had webbed up chunks of it.

I took glee in pausing my [Blink]ing just to put a small bit of fire, using my minor [Lithium] spell, under their webbing. The resulting screams and rapid smashing of bugs made the last three days enjoyable.

Dusk kept us on course, mostly. We arrived after thirty minutes of twisting and turning. Both of us glanced down the staircase.

“We’ve got to move fast, we’ll go straight for Viper first. Down here is the fastest way, and I can Blink through a lot.” I said to Dusk. He closed both eyes briefly in response then looked at one of the shambling monsters below. “All those cupcakes didn’t make you slow, did they?”

The dragon turned and snorted a ring of smoke in my face. I wanted to send one back, but his skill Ranks were probably a dozen levels above mine. We cleared the smaller monsters nearby but left their corpses alone. Eventually some [Heavenly Body Clone]s would find their way up here to feast.

Dusk leapt down first. I followed quickly, giving up stealth for speed. My feet pounded loud enough to stir various monsters. The [Messenger’s Pet] took great pleasure in blasting most creatures in the face with small balls of fire. I marveled at what level his skill must be at to generate so many.

We made it three flights down before running into real trouble. Six shambling monsters sat in our path, trying to climb their way up a floor. Too bad [Blink] was insanely broken for dungeon crawling, especially at the Rank I had. Dusk didn’t care half the time anyway.

There were no party members nearby. Boss monsters didn’t litter this inner staircase down. I had scouted most of these paths over the last three days, staying away from glowing barrels of liquid starlight. We kept going until we reached a floor level with Viper. Dusk and I kept going, fighting smaller creatures but leaving behind carcasses. Skinning bodies or digging for ear bits wasn’t worth it at this stage. Plus I didn’t have a crystal to store energy like some of the other convicts did.

We came out of the floor at a full gallop. Dusk sped past me, like a vicious cat tearing around corners with unending energy. Above his head floated a small smiley face with turned up eyes denoting happiness. We were both huffing by the other end. Thirty minutes, that’s how long it took to sprint at high speeds through this dungeon with a complete disregard for safety and monsters chasing us.

Dusk huffed a bit as we came to a halt. We stood in front of large doors that looked almost like a vault. One metal wheel sat in the middle, clearly for spinning or a pressurized lock. That was pointless since a large hole had been torn near one of the hinges. I closed my eyes and pinged the area with [Sight of Mecari]. Viper was just inside, still unmoving.

My [Messenger’s Pet] wasted no time on unsatisfied curiosity. I took a few deep breaths, and followed Dusk inside. The room was darker than most of the remaining dungeon. Part of our success at moving so fast had been due to the upper levels, and light which permeated the central stairs down. But this room only had a few pools of light. I tried coughing up another fireball, this time succeeding.

I stared at the glowing ball, it felt pleasantly warm sitting in my hand. Dusk looked back at me briefly, before moving on to inspect the room once more. I held up the ball to get a higher angle on the light.

This place looked to be a weird sort of laboratory. There were tubes against the walls, and more barrels filled with starlight. I avoided them, not keen on being chased by all the [Heavenly Body Clone]s that might be roaming nearby. They were like guided missiles of zombie hatred once set off.

Scorch marks and disturbed ashes littered the pieces of equipment. A few charred pieces of parchment sat on a table in the room's center. This place was maybe a thousand square feet at most. Walls here were clearly unnatural, all the right angles betrayed intelligent design, where so much of this dungeon didn’t.

On the far wall, a dimly backlit pane of frozen ice stood. I held the light up even higher to try and get a better view. There seemed to be a body inside. We walked across a grated flooring. Chilled air traced a coiled path as I moved. There didn’t seem to be much under my feet, and Dusk walked in without a care. That meant nothing too large or angry was nearby. My nonfireball weilding hand sat ready to grab [Morrigu’s Gift] in case things turned angry.

We came to a railing, and below that was a drop off that seemed to be without end. In the middle of the pit was an upright tub of sorts. Water or some other liquid chilled the air and made my ball of fire sputter. Inside of it was Viper, his body unmoving and both eyes closed. He looked asleep but suspended. Apparently the reason his dot hadn’t moved was because Viper sat in suspended animation.

“He’s survived down here with all those bits of loot for eight days. That’s pretty impressive.” I said to Dusk. The [Messenger’s Pet] laid back an ear and sniffed the frozen pool.

Even Android Seven had died once, against the boss from what I could tell. Knowing that such a powerful player died in this place helped me feel better. Technically we were even on the failure front. Viper's continued survival, frozen though he was, helped both of us. He got points for living, and I didn’t lose them from his death. Contribution value would probably be low, at least if it functioned like Advance Online. Players were only worth what they actually did, and this funny suspended animation helped no one.

I looked around for an obvious release. Continue Online’s answer to problems often ranged from insanely complex to absurdly simple. Once I had been stuck at a tower door that required a long mathematical algorithm to solve, one I hadn’t applied since doing statistics classes.

A small panel stood against one wall. There were two obvious buttons of green and red waiting to be pressed. One likely would release Viper from his safe but useless prison. There were a few skeletons around, one lay near the panel. It was clear that this deceased person, staged NPC or Traveler remains, had been trying to press the red one. Probably because they released something scary.

I looked around again, this place felt like a ground zero for the dungeon. Not a final boss room or habitat jungle, but where some foolish person had released dangerous monster clones. Everything here looked devoid of any actual meat, and some of the bones showed marks from being gnawed. I picked up one of the skulls and held it between Viper’s frozen form and I.

“To thaw, or not to thaw, that is the question. Wheather ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of asshole teammates, or solo the boss despite the troubles. And by opposing end it? To die, and respawn once more.” I tossed the skull to the ground and sighed. Reciting my makeshift Shakespeare resulted in a pop-up box but didn’t actually solve the impending problem. Still, I felt lighter.

Act: Theatrical learned!

Dusk sniffed around, letting out echoing chirps which indicated interest. He did his thing, and I gave up deciding which way to go. Viper might help me or hinder me, and both depended on the other player’s perceptions. Either way, I had a good way to solve dilemmas that had served me since it first showed up.

[Wild Bill] came off my head and I turned it brim down. One hand went into the empty spot and a familiar weight appeared. I lifted away the hat and there was a small golden coin. These were good for only one flip and afterward faded away.

“Technically I don’t have money right now, so this isn’t a bet, just a tie breaker,” I spoke to Roy, the Voice of Gambling. He and the other Voices were probably listening in. There was no use in letting him take this the wrong way or I might end up with a debuff like [Deaf], [Punchy Drunk], or [Dysmorphic]. “Heads we press the green one, tails the red one.”

Dusk turned around as the coin rung. I caught it out of the air and flopped the coin into my hand. Tiny clawed feet scuttled up the panel's side and looked under the hand I hesitated to lift. My face turned up in a wince as I too peered at the results

“Green?” I asked Dusk. The larger dragon shrugged then slammed a paw down on the button without hesitation.