Chapter 8: Ants and Rats

I could feel the apprehension of my companions as we approached the iron door. They shouldn’t have been concerned. The ability to dispel a magically locked door in-game had been straightforward. The Unlatch spell specifically targeted the magic used for securing doors or chests. Anything locked, really. Only your magical skill and mana pool would determine how difficult an enchantment you could unbind.

One Unlatch spell later, and we were standing at the foot of the stairs placing Argus off to the side of the room. As I planned to burn the wights as soon as we left the corridor, we had brought Argus with us using a bit of levitation to lighten the load. Was that going to be his fate as well? Time would tell, but I tied an extra bit of rope around his body just in case.

As we settled in the room, my thoughts were still on the conflagration I had planned. Would smoke be an issue being sixty or so feet underground? So far, the labyrinth’s magic kept it well ventilated. Well, OK, then.

Returning from the hallway, leaving the beasties burning merrily to our rear, I questioned the group, “Magical or mundane?”

Assuming Myra’s party escaped the wight’s ambush, they would have exited the hallway through a concealed doorway or by some magical ability.

“Lady Eleanor?”

“What do you think, Iona? How did your sister escape?”

My student’s eyes lit up. “Auntie, I know you don’t like her, but I’m sure Katilia would have discovered a way.”

“Your right, as much as I dislike the girl, she does possess those types of skills. Still, she’s trouble. I don’t know why your sister invited her to join her band. As I said before, nothing good would come of it, and I was right,” sniffed Karin.

Iona made a face. “It’s still not her fault that my sister decided to search this labyrinth. Even Argus was excited about what magic they would find.”

“And you see what happened to him, poor boy.”

“Ladies now is not the time to argue over this again, especially in front of Lady Eleanor.” Leo stepped in before the conversation could become even more heated.

“So Katilia, is the band's scout?” I asked.

“Thief.”

“Auntie!”

I couldn’t help but smile, “I understand, Karin. I would trust my companion Sukesada with my life before I trusted him to hold my coin purse.”

Well, no one in Magic-Life was fooled with the class name Delver. You only had to look at the skills to realize that in any other game, it would be called a thief or a rogue class. As much as I would have liked to have those skills myself, as an Eldridge Knight, spending any points in them would be too expensive, so I never gave it another glance.

--0—

Starting in the wight chamber, we worked our way back. Finding no magical or mundane exits, we continued our search. I believed or at least hoped that there was an exit across from the room or somewhere down the corridor.

Although I had no Delver skills, I did remember my old pen and paper days. Everyone joined me as I started tapping on the walls with my armored fist. Detect Magic so far had found nothing.

“Does anyone remember what side of the wall the Vargr came out of?”

“Right here,” Karin said, knocking on the wall with her dagger, then stepped back surprise to find it hollow. Everyone smiled at the discovery.

“Let’s continue to look for another exit, just in case.”

And so we continued to search the walls all the way back to the iron door but soon returned when we determined there were no other exits.

The secret door looked exactly like the rest of the hallway but made of a lighter stone. Karin pushed it in, then gently slide it out of the way, revealing another room with an exit to our left and one directly to our front. Like the passageway behind us, the walls and floor were made up of the same red brick.

“Did they come this way?”

I could see they were concerned. Myra should have placed one of her marks on the wall of this room. All we could think of in their haste they didn’t. We took the exit in front of us but returned when it opened into another room with two doors.

Not long afterward, down the second corridor the path diverged but as we approached the crossroads, my witch-light illuminated Myra’s mark on the wall.

“Oh, thank Dinya!” Karin rejoiced then sighed. “Which way?”

“Let’s go in this direction,” I said, pointing to the hallway to the left.

Further down, it turned slightly to the right before opening up into a large chamber with half a dozen exits. With the smell of blood filling the air, we stopped. In the shadows, we could see a large creature eating something.

“Antlion,” Leo grimly remarked as we knelt, peering into the darkness.

OK, I could see that the beastie had the familiar body of an ant and something that looked like a lion for a head. I actually would have preferred more spiders. Unfortunately, as gruesome as it might be, we needed to see if the antlion was feasting on one of Myra’s party members.

“Dangerous?” I asked, switching to my spear. Getting rid of sugar ants from my dorm room had been a pain, no doubt that this would be as well.

“One or two warriors shouldn’t be too much for my niece’s band,” Karin whispered, coming up behind us.

I didn’t bother to mention that they were currently short one member. Iona started with a Mana Bolt. Karin followed up with a couple of arrows as Leo and I advanced on the creature. The four of us made short work of it.

“Ratkin,” Leo verified, looking relieved as we inspected the remains of a short, stocky creature that looked a lot like its name suggests. Much like goblyns, they preferred underground lairs or other dark places.

From the discovery of other corpses in the room, a small band of the ratkins had either stumbled upon the antlion, or tried to hunt it with unfortunate results.

Retrieving the monster cores, we decided to try one of the exits. The faint scent of decay hung in the air as we discovered much like the first room, the floor was littered with ratkin corpses. However, unlike the first, water or some other liquid slowly dripped down one of the chamber’s walls.

Well, not the best source of water, but it might be drinkable.

This world had its own version of Conjuror Water called Summon Water. A little more difficult spell but common for D ranked mages to cast. Myra’s group would not have been able to search the dungeon without Argus being able to cast it. However, with his death and no obvious source of water, they were going to be in trouble.

“I wouldn’t touch that, Iona,” Karin called out to her niece.

“Don’t worry auntie. I wasn’t planning to.”

Upon further inspection, we found grey mold slowly covering parts of the floor. From it grew little white mushrooms.

“I could see why the ratkins were interested in these chambers.” Karin knelt but did not touch anything,

“Food and water.” I had to agree.

The two exits out of the room turned up little else, so we returned.

“They’re putting up a hell of a fight,” I poked the corpses of two antlions in another chamber. Surrounding them were the remains of a dozen ratkins.

Iona kept careful track of our progress. There were many ways for a group to become lost down here.

After defeating another antlion in an adjourning room and finding no signs that Myra’s group had traveled in this direction, I turned to Leo and said. “I think we're done here.”

“I agree.” He wearily responded as we returned to the original crossroad.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to go far. Upon discovering an adventurer’s mark on the wall across from an empty room, we stopped and settled in for the night. It had been a very long and emotional day.

Once Iona fell asleep, the three of us sat down to discuss our way forward. The antlion’s nest revealed that living labyrinths were extraordinarily large. We had been lucky in finding Myra’s adventurer’s mark. What happens if we could longer find them? Do we continue? When do we stop searching?

“I don’t know, my lady. I keep hoping we would turn a corner, and my niece would appear safe and whole. Now with Argus’ death,” lamented Karin.

“They shouldn’t have descended further into its depths.”

“I’m sure Myra’s band thought it to be safe, Leo. From what we have seen, they managed to easily defeat the spiders and the zombies, sorry Mania’s children, on the upper floor.”

“Unfortunately, the again-walkers we dispatched proved them wrong at the cost of one of their own, Lady Eleanor,” Leo sadly remarked using this world’s name for the wights.

“And, the revenant you defeated, my lady.” Karin shuddered. “Leo and I have encountered them before, terrible foes. “

Leo grimaced at the memory, “I don’t believe they even finished searching the upper floor. I thought I taught Myra better than that. “

“Well, even veteran adventurers fall into that trap either because of greed or wanting to see what’s beyond the next door.”

“That’s unfortunately true, my lady, and I can’t say we haven’t done that ourselves.” Karin rested her head on her husband’s shoulder.

“And now, after searching through Argus’ backpack, we discovered they are also running short of food.”

In Magic-Life and many other games, food and water weren't necessary. Drinking was for fun or worked like food, which gave buffs, healed you, or replenished your mana. In this world, food and water were matters of life and death.

“If you’re hungry enough, my husband, you will eat anything, but what I am more concerned about is their water supply,” fretted Karin.

Now, we did discover water. So it did exist down here, but.

“What do you think they will do now?” I questioned the two.

Leo sighed. “They obviously cannot return the same way, so I imagine they will be searching for another exit.”

“Unless they have found another source for water, they won't be going far.”

I had a feeling that finding more water was possible. An easily accessible and drinkable source was another story. However, if Myra’s party could find clean water, they might be able to find creatures they could hunt. Even if what they ended up eating was less than ideal.

“Well, it’s not unheard of for living labyrinths to have levels where water’s plentiful.” Leo looked thoughtful.

“Unfortunately,” I interrupted them. “With one less member in their band, they are going to have difficulties proceeding further.”

Neither was happy about that revelation. I had another one.

“Was Argus not as experienced as the rest of Myra’s group?”

In Magic-Life, unless there was a minimum gear restriction, it was common for players of different levels to enter a dungeon.

Both looked surprised, then Leo asked, “Why do you think that?”

“The magical lock shouldn’t have been that difficult to disenchant. “

With a little practice, Iona could have dispelled that magical lock. Why was Argus, who was of a higher rank, not been able to? Did he not have Dispel Magic?

“Sarding boy,” Iona’s uncle cursed.

“Leo,” Karin reached over and cupped her husband cheek, “Please, the poor child has already paid for any mistakes he might have made.”

“Or something changed that made it more difficult for him to dispel.”

The two looked up at me, surprised.

“Your right, we’ve seen that before,” Leo commented, now sounding embarrassed.

The three of us could have continued looking for answers, but we really wouldn’t know the whole story unless we actually found the missing adventurers.

--0—

Deciding that Myra’s party would not have gone far, we continued on our journey. It went well at first, most of it without trouble, but by the end of the day, we found no more adventurer’s marks. After warding an empty room, we settle in for the night.

In the morning, we decided we would return the way we came. Finding an empty room, we took a break to look over the map. I would admit the labyrinth was living up to its name.

“I still don’t think they would have gone far.”

I could tell Karin was hoping for something that might not be true. Although we hadn’t brought it up with Iona, the three of us discussed returning to town if we found no further signs of Myra’s party.

However, it doesn’t mean that my student wasn’t aware of was going on by the frantic way she was pointing out different routes on the map.

“Iona love, that whole area leads to the antlion’s nest.”

“But!”

“More ratkins too, and those horned worms we fought.” Leo sat forward, studying the map.

Iona sighed, then made a face. “I didn’t’ like those things.”

I didn’t particularly like the slimy brown worms either nor the black beetles that spat corrosive acid at us. Karin had gotten a face full in one attack, thankfully only receiving a slight sunburn. We were going to have to look in another direction.

Looking at the map, I noticed a path off the route where we last discovered a mark on the wall. Not really, the best choice, but frankly, we were almost out of options.

“How about this passageway?”

After a meal, we moved out, faces grim.

Unlike the monotonous hallways behind us, the new corridor doubled in width, with the ceiling rising into the darkness. Along its path, every ten feet or so slender columns held the roof aloft. The hallway was long.

After we had traveled some forty feet, Leo suddenly stopped. “Myra’s mark.”

On the wall between two pillars, we could see a familiar ‘M’.

“Why here?”

“Lady Eleanor, I think there is something different about it.” Iona ran her fingers over the mark after casting a detect enchantment.

Looking closer, sure enough, like the hallway near the wight room, there was a section of the wall looking a little out of place. Were we going to have to retrace all of our steps to see if Myra’s party managed to find another secret door? I felt that we were looking for a needle in a haystack.

“Any sign that they went in that direction?” queried Karin.

“Nothing obvious.” Leo sighed.

“So, we continue.”

Iona marked it on the map as we preceded down the large corridor.

We traveled another fifty feet when Iona suddenly pointed over my shoulder, “What are those?”

Large white gems the size of dinner plates appeared to be embedded in the center of each pillar ahead of us.

“They’re enchanted.” I replied before the group could ask.

Cautiously stepping forward the first two lit up then the others followed, lighting the path with a soft white glow revealing a set of large bronze doors.

“They’re magically locked.”

Leo looked at me and nodded. We would need to return to the secret door. As we left the area, the gems went out one by one.

--0—

The door easily slid out of the way revealing a small corridor. A stream of water slowly cascaded down both walls into a channel on the floor. A slight gradient kept it flowing away from the secret door and into the darkness beyond.

“Careful, it's slick.”

We proceeded cautiously, finding it difficult with half the corridor cut in half by the stream. The path ended at an arched stone bridge that crossed an even wider channel. The bridge although not long had no handrails and appeared to be extremely wet.

“Can’t see much further down the stream,” Iona held on to me as she peered into the darkness.

“Water’s coming from above.” Karin pointed to the right. The corridor slanted up ending at a wall. From the ceiling sheets of water poured down falling into the stream below.

“There is a pathway on the other side of the bridge.” I really wished Sukesada was with me now; I didn’t like this one bit. “Let me go first.”

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out a spider silk rope wrapping it around my waist before handing the end to Leo.

Surprisingly, I reached the other side of the bridge with no problems. “Iona, your next.”

Nodding, she tied the end of another rope to herself before passing it to her aunt. She then crossed, holding the line attached to me, quickly joining my side. The steps were repeated until everyone stood on the other side of the bridge.

The path forward at least remained mostly dry although we still had to be careful. Two small flights of stairs brought us closer to the stream before it flowed under a large archway. Our path forward went under a much smaller arch however, it was the faint sounds of combat that reached our ears that hastened our pace.

As we ran down the corridor, the sounds of battle drew ever closer with the passage ending at a massive chamber. Below us, surrounding a small pond stood ratkins by the score. They were screeching, calling out from what I could tell were creative insults in their language. A small group hidden behind shields allowed their fellows to run up and toss crude spears across the water. Every so often one of their numbers fell to an arrow to the throat.

On the other side of the water piles of corpses lay under a wall. To their left the ratkins appeared to be piling up debris creating a makeshift ramp to reach their quarry. Their prey was none other than Myra’s adventuring party or what was left of them.

A young woman whose appearance could only confirm her to be Iona’s sister, stood high on the wall with her bow drawn firing an occasional arrow into the swarm below. From what I could see, those arrows were becoming as precious as the water they were fighting over.

A second figure, dressed in black leathers sat a little higher up wielding a light crossbow. She too picked off another rat that attempted to drop another load of debris onto the ramp.

A third member well armored and dressed in healer white, stood over another member of the party protecting him with a large shield. She also safeguarded their mage lamp, the party’s only source of illumination which I could see annoyed the ratkins almost as much as the arrows.

“That’s Myra with the bow.” Leo pointed to his niece. “Katilia is the one with the crossbow.”

“There’s so many“ Iona whispered moving next to me. “ Auntie, I see Amice and Warin but where is Denis?”

Finding no sign of the other party member, I asked. “So Amice is a healer.”

“Yes and Warin, her betrothed, was once a town guard in Harmon.” Karin replied as she nocked an arrow. “And if he is unable to move, then I can see why Myra hasn’t retreated from this place.”

“Reinforcements.” I pointed to a large exit below where another group of ratkins emerged. This group also carried spears and debris, which they tossed into piles for others to drag to the ramp.

One of the things in Magic-Life we didn’t have to worry about was friendly fire, at least when it came to magic. As long as the other characters were a member of your party, they could not be hurt by collateral damage. That is not to say if I picked a member out and tossed a fireball at him, he wouldn’t be hurt. No, it meant, that a party member standing next to him wouldn’t be caught in the blast. I didn’t think this would be the case here however; it wasn’t going to stop me from sowing a little chaos.

“Karin, can you do something about their leaders. I notice a few of the larger ones are keeping the ratkins in line.”

She nodded, then grinned as she sent an arrow dropping one big fellow with a well-placed shot right through the left eye. As several more members of the swarm began to fall from the unexpected attack, the rest started to panic.

“Iona.”

“Yes, Lady Eleanor.” She excitedly replied.

“Cast as many fire darts as you can below. You don’t have to kill them, just make them nervous.”

With a grin, she happily moved to join her aunt. As Iona sent another four fire darts on their way, Myra’s party noticed our little group and began to cheer.

“Leo, I know you want to take the path and run over there, but it’s too exposed. Don’t worry. Trust me, this won't take long.”

One enormous fellow, not happy that our arrival started to cause a panic among his rat brethren picked up a club and began to bellow out orders. That seemed to help until Karin and Iona turned their sights on him.

Upon discovering several more exits to the room, I decided upon my action. Fire Storm would probably be overkill. Only a little push was needed to make them run. As more reinforcements started to pour out of one of the larger exits, I sent a fireball over their heads.

The explosion went in all directions, the debris turning into deadly shrapnel like a fiery scythe felling a score of their number. The ramp caught on fire, along with the rats manning it. Who in turn caught others on fire as their panicked flight caused them to run in all directions. Quite a few ran into the lake drowning themselves.

A second fireball convinced the rest of the ratkin to turn tail and flee.

--0—

Aggro - As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of "hostility" the player has generated on the mob.

Alt - or alternate character is a character in addition to one's "primary" or "Main" player character. In addition, one frequent use is to play characters of opposite gender or to see what new features have been added since they last were on a low-level character.

Bells: Most large communities have some way to keep time, useful for travelers, and tradesmen heading off to work. Usually the either the Town’s Hall or Healer’s Hall will ring a large bell. It's Midsummer, so the times below will change depending on the time of year and location-

First 2:30 a.m.
Second 3:40 a.m.
Third 7:00 a.m.
Forth 12:20 p.m.
Fifth 3:00 p.m.
Sixth 7:00 p.m.
Seventh 8:20 p.m.
Eighth 9:30 p.m.

Buff - refers to preparatory actions taken prior to combat, usually involving the casting of spells. Adding additional bonuses to characters.

Escort Missions – a job where you have to safeguard an NPC, without getting them killed. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, except that the NPCs are universally stupid, running ahead and getting killed in the process. Many players despise these types of jobs.

Death Penalty – In real life, death is well permanent. In MMORPG, not so much. Yet death in 99% of MMOs is a mere inconvenience and speed bump — you don’t lose experience, and you don’t lose much of your time.

Guilds - Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild.

Minimap - A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to aid players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are usually only a small portion of the screen and thus must be selective in what details they display.

MMORPG - Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

Mob - An AI-controlled monster.

Noob- Newbie, newb, noob, or n00b is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Variant forms of the noun include Newby and newbee, while the related term noob (often stylized as "n00b") is commonly used in online gaming.

Root - Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence "root."

Spawning - In video games, spawning is the live creation of a character, item, or NPC. Respawning is the recreation of an entity after its death or destruction, perhaps after losing one of its lives. Despawning is the deletion of a body from the game world.

Tank - A tank or also known as a meat shield, redirect enemy attacks or attention toward themselves to protect others. Typically the fighter tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages. Since they can often take a lot of damage, they are usually heavily armored and have lots of health.

Total party kill (TPK) “Rocks fall, everyone dies” or wipes - a situation in which every player character in a party dies. Factors include player inexperience, insufficient player characters, or encounters too difficult for the party's capabilities.

Horses in the Middle Ages:

The Destrier
The Destrier was the most expensive horse and were typically owned only by nobles and knights. Destriers were tall horses and were typically only used in battle. Trained to not only bite and kick on command but also to trample fallen enemies. Destriers were not common and, as a result, were highly sought after by knights.

The Palfrey
The palfrey was used for riding, traveling, and hunting as well as for ceremonies. Riding a palfrey was much more comfortable and was the favorite riding animal of noblewomen.

The Courser
Coursers were fast horses and had good endurance. They were often used by messengers as well as by people who needed to move quickly. Many knights who did not have access to a destrier, preferred to ride a courser into battle because it was fast, strong, and agile.

The Rouncey
The rouncey could be used as a pack animal or even on the farm. It could be trained for war or used as a riding horse and was often used by knights who could not afford any of the other horses. A knight would also provide rounceys to his squires and other men at arms.