“Moss covers the stone walls. The air is heavy and damp. The occasional sound of water dripping somewhere echoes in the dungeon, giving you all an uneasy feeling. The room you find yourselves in is empty, and an ancient wooden door bars your way forward.”

“I open the door.”

“Wait, Eliot!”

“Too late. The strong dwarf approaches the door fearlessly. The beautiful sorceress runs forward to try and stop him, but he doesn’t listen. He grabs the handle and turns it. A searing ball of flames shoots from the now open corridor, engulfing the adventurers. Roll to dodge.”

Fang Chu scowled at Eliot and grabbed a pair of dice. She shook it on her hand before throwing it at the ground. A one and two. That was bad. She referenced a parchment with some of the things Ben had written down and gave her final result.

“I got four.”

“What about you Eliot?”

“I got two fives!”

“Yes, but how much do you have on dodge again? You need to add them together, remember?”

“One! That’s eleven.”

“Okay, you both fail to dodge. Let’s see here,” said Ben as he did some rolls in secret. “You both take eighty-four points of damage.”

“What? I’m dead! Look at what you did Eliot! I always managed to survive so far!”

“Urgh, I’m dead again?”

Liza was sitting on the side-lines, watching as Ben tried hard to keep his composure. The others were so frustrated with their “deaths” that they didn’t notice his smirk. She just shook her head, thinking to herself that they were all hopeless.

It was almost the fifth month that they were stuck inside the mausoleum and, as Ben had promised Eliot on their first day here, he’d taught them how to play the game he claimed it was better than five-stones. An RPG, as he called it. Not only was it useful for them to have fun and keep their sanity in check after being stuck in this dark place for so long, it also had other benefits.

Ben was using the game to teach Eliot. He made him interact with a bunch of NPCS, go shopping, investigate for information and do every kind of useful activity he could think off. Whenever Eliot did something stupid, he’d dole out punishment. If said stupid action was in a fight or dungeon, he’d straight out kill his character. It was a dick move, but one that was proving effective. The number of times Eliot would just straight up charge ahead were reducing over time.

He was also using this opportunity to get back at Fang Chu and her hellish training. With her however, it was tougher. No matter how many of Eliot’s characters he killed, the youth would always create a new one and keep playing. He was that addicted to the game. On the other hand, the redhead might outright quit if he was too heavy handed. Therefore, he was always striking the balance of giving her powerful things before taking some of them away. Again, he was being a dick Dungeon Master¹, but it was his only form of resistance.

Quite a few things changed after this much time had passed. Fang Chu state had deteriorated to such an extent that she now needed almost two weeks to recover every time she used her full power. The backlash got so bad that she was no longer contributing to the destruction of the pillar. Though Liza and Ben helped, that job was now mostly on Eliot, whose broken arm had made a full recovery.

The one who changed the most was Ben, as he’d endured countless spartan training sessions. Every day he would be grinded down by the merciless Fang Chu and then ordered to rest. When meditating after training, his exhausted body would absorb mana like crazy to recover. The mana helped ease his pain and nourish his tired body. He believed this was the only reason he didn’t break down, after all no human body should be able to withstand such harsh tempering without the proper time to recover. He now had a lean physique with toned muscles and much more mana than before.

Liza almost couldn’t believe how much he had changed, especially when she saw him and Fang Chu sparring. Ben was no longer startled or paralyzed by fear. He always did his best to try and land at least a blow on Fang Chu, but even in her weakened state she was easily able to walk all over him. He was beaten to a pulp every time. It was hard to reconcile the Ben she met with the one she was seeing now.

“Ok, since both of you died, let’s get to work,” said Liza.

“No, let’s keep playing! I’m going to be a gnome this time!”

“Liza’s right Eliot, we played enough for now. You guys can make a new character later,” added Ben.

“Right, go give that pillar hell Eliot. Ben, we’re sparring!”

“What? Now? Let’s not! I need to help Eliot with the pillar…”

“Liza and I will be fine without you Ben, go train with Fanu,” replied Eliot honestly.

“See? He doesn’t need your help. If you don’t want to, you can just stand still while I beat you up!”

[Eliot, you traitor! Damn, I shouldn’t have killed her character!]

Cursing on his mind, Ben got up and readied himself to get beaten again. Liza, Eliot and Boro went to the next room, leaving the two of them alone to their own devices. Eliot grabbed his sword and approached the pillar. He would have the first round.

After incessant days of abuse, the pillar had finally showed signs of wear. Crack lines appeared on its surface and were spreading over time. It took two months for the first tiny crack to appear and they celebrated like never before. At that point they’d almost given up, thinking that breaking out would be impossible.

This momentous occasion did not escape Sogdrith and now their roles had reversed. It was the devil’s turn to despair. Every day since the first crack appeared, Sogdrith would pull his hair out and wonder how come they still had supplies left. Did they perhaps know about this place beforehand? Had they made a deal with someone that would bring them a cart of food and water every month?

The now familiar clanging sounds continued. Every hit on the pillar would widen the cracks a bit further. Eliot’s stone sword was also having trouble resisting the impacts. Nowadays it would lose a chunk after every strike. The broken blade that used to be the length of a bastard sword was now more of a short sword.

*clang* *clang*

“It’s useless, it’s going to take you another six months before you break that down,” laughed Sogdrith. Seeing the cracked pillar, the devil no longer could sit still and would try to demoralize them whenever he could.

*clang* *clang*

“If you begin to run out of food, I can always get you guys out…”

*clang* *clang*

“Ah~, humans are so foolish.”

Under Sogdrith’s unending nagging, Eliot’s strikes got more and more violent. Yes, he would never refuse to play that fun game that Ben called an RPG, but that didn’t mean he liked having his character killed. And now there was this stupid devil calling him weak and saying he would need another six months to break this thing down. The nerve!

Grabbing his sword with both hands, Eliot reached an unprecedented level of concentration. His arms were taut as he held his sword over his shoulder. He inhaled deeply. When he breathed out, he let his arms swing in one swift motion, releasing all the accumulated power. A deafening metallic sound rang underground, like a huge bell was struck. What remained of Eliot’s sword was pulverized at this moment. He was left looking pathetic as he held onto a handle with no blade.

The crack on the pillar widened at an incredible speed and a splitting sound soon followed. Large chunks of the pillar fell to the ground with a ringing noise, revealing a large hole. Eliot was in his usual rhythm and struck again without thinking about it. Of course, with his sword gone and the pillar now broken, nothing happened.

“It broke!” shouted Liza with a mixture of glee and disbelief.

“Huh?” Eliot was still slow on the uptake. He was so focused on following his usual rhythm and venting through the blows that he failed to process his success.

“Damn it! I can’t believe those brats actually did it!” cursed Sogdrith.

Inside the metal pillar was a large blue gem that emitted dazzling rays of light. It floated on top of a thin pedestal that was connected to a magic circle on the floor. While everyone was too flabbergasted to move, Boro flew through the air at lightning speed and chomped down on the gem, swallowing it down.

“What? Boro!”

Light surged from within the dragon. He gave out a roar before curling himself on top of the altar. Luminous strings enveloped him, forming a small cocoon. The light eventually faded, leaving that strange green cocoon on top of the altar.

“We heard the noise! Did you guys do it?” asked Fang Chu as she ran into the room. Following after her was Ben, whose face was pummelled to a point it was double his usual size. His smile of relief and happiness looked extremely ugly in his giant and distorted face.

“Boro… what the hell was he thinking?”

“Don’t worry Liza. He told me that rock was really good to him, that’s why he ate it,” said Eliot.

“How did he know?”

“Dunno,” Eliot shrugged.

“It was probably his natural instincts that told him it would be beneficial to him. After all, that incredible amount of mana I sensed before is coming from the cocoon now,” said Fang Chu as she opened her eyes. Just now she had made an inspection of the local mana.

“That looked really valuable… Whatever, if it’s good for Boro it’s not wasted. There’s a magic circle here, so that stone should be the thing powering up the formation. We should be finally able to leave!”

Just to be safe, they broke the pedestal and undid a part of the magic circle by ruining the etchings on the ground. When that was done, they stored the broken parts of the pillar on Fang Chu’s ring, grabbed Boro in his cocoon form and began their way back to the surface. By all accounts, the barrier outside should be dispelled soon.

As he watched the group depart, Sogdrith flopped to the ground. He looked up with soulless eyes and sighed. With a snap of his finger he returned to his original form and fixed himself upside-down on the ceiling. Covering himself with his wings, he went to rest like a bat.

[Forget it, they were too abnormal. I might have lost this prey, but now that the barrier is down is only a matter of time until new guests arrive. I guess I’ve finally something to look forwards in the future.]

-

¹ For those that don’t know, Dungeon Master (or DM) is the one responsible for telling the story and overseeing the players’ actions based on the rules of the system. For a simple comparison, you could say that he is like the campaign of a videogame. He’ll tell you the story and make the world react to your, the player’s, actions.