TQG 35 Regret

It took twenty minutes to find the core.  I would have found it much sooner, except that Laurant was the one to check the throne and he insisted that there was nothing there.  When I checked the throne, the core was obvious.  A large circular jewel embedded in the back.  As soon as I touched it I received the prompt I had been waiting for.

You have reached the Dungeon Core of Gemos Cavern!

Level 20-25

Options

Evolve Dungeon (3 Evolutions Available)

Increase Level Range (Default)

Decrease Level Range

Add Monster Type (Default)

Remove Monster Type (Gemos Golem)

Remove Monster Type (Korvat Golem)

Add Boss (Default)

Add Challenge

Remove Gauntlet

Remove Boss (Gemos Queen)

Remove Boss (Living Statue)

Spawn World Boss (Gyudue of the Blackest Night)

Destroy Dungeon Core

(Note: This action cannot be reversed!)

Reward For Successful Clear Will Be Increased

Dungeon Will Close And All Parties Within Will Be Returned To Nearest Safety Zone.

Reclaim Dungeon Core

Rewards: Gemos Dungeon Core
Other Rewards For Successful Clear Will Be Revoked.

Dungeon Will Close And All Parties Within Will Be Returned To Nearest Safety Zone.

I promptly selected the option to reclaim the core, and it simply popped out of the chair and into my hand.  Rather anticlimactic, I thought.  Another prompt appeared.

This Dungeon Has Been Reclaimed.

Teleporting All Parties To Last Visited Safe Zone in 9:56

“So, it worked?” Laurant asked.  “I got a prompt that I’m about to be teleported.”

“It would seem so,” Tarisha said.  I tried to put the Dungeon Core into my inventory and had no trouble doing so.  It must only be active cores which were restricted.  For that matter, I had been unable to put the Lair Stones into my [Storage] inventory as well, and my attempts to carry them from where I’d found them had likewise proven unsuccessful, with the stone growing heavier the further I moved it.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“I guess we wait,” Lloyd suggested.

“It will take longer than ten minutes to return to the entrance,” Rashid pointed out.  He promptly took a seat on the throne.  “There is little point in rushing.  Sir Lloyd is correct, we had might as well get comfortable.”

I frowned.  It seemed … disrespectful, somehow.  I looked over to Gyudue’s body, and something which had been in the back of my mind finally crystallized.

“He’s different,” I whispered.  “Was he like me?”

“What was that, Hail?” Tarisha asked.

“Gyudue, he hasn’t returned to the darkness,” I said.  “He was intelligent.  He was – he was different.  Was he different like I’m different?”

“Seemed like a normal humanoid boss to me,” Lloyd opined.

“There are human bosses?” I asked, jerking in surprise.

“Yeah, lots of them.  And elves and dwarves and dryads and whatever,” Lloyd explained.  “Most of the higher tier dungeons feature at least one or two of them.  It is weird that he hasn’t despawned.”

“Despawned?  You mean returned to the darkness?” I asked.

“I guess.  Turning into the black mist or whatever that most mobs do.  But he said that he could have been a worldboss if he’d gotten out of the dungeon, so perhaps that’s why.  Worldbosses don’t despawn, even after you kill them.”

“They don’t?” I asked, growing more concerned as the conversation proceeded.

“Lloyd, that is enough,” Tarisha said sharply.  She stepped up beside me and put an arm around my shoulder.  “Hail, this conflict was destined.  Your grandfather, your king, gave you an order which put you in conflict with this drow.  You could neither turn back, nor could you have avoided this fight and completed your penance.”

“I know that,” I said, growing more discomforted, not less.  “But what if he was like me?  What if all worldbosses are like me?  What if I’m going to be a worldboss when I grow up?  If I dropped epic loot, would you kill me too?”

“You do not drop loot of any kind, Hail.  That is one matter of which we are certain; it was addressed in the blue post immediately after your presence became known among the Travelers,” Tarisha explained.  “The fact that Gyudue of the Blackest Night dropped any loot at all proves that he was allied with the darkness, Hail.  The fact that he hasn’t returned to it is simply proof that he would have been a truly terrible foe should he have ever emerged from this dungeon.  In fact, imagining that fight as an endgame boss, I shudder with fear.  Depending on how he was balanced, he might have been a true raid destroyer.”

“But--”

“He said it himself, that he would cause havoc if he escaped,” she reminded me.  “Lord Hail, you have done the alliance of the light a great favor by bringing an end to him.”

Her words did not comfort me.  A thought emerged, and I decided to put it into action.  Moving over to where Gyudue had fallen, I turned him over onto his back and crossed his arms for him, placing him in the funerary position.  Then, moving my hands to complete a circle in the air above him, I gave him the blessing that I had seen at the only funeral I had attended, that of my great-grandfather.

“May you return to the light of Thedum,” I said.

And Gyudues body burst into motes of white light.

Confirming my worst fear.

I began to cry.

~~~~~~~~~

We returned to the city immediately after being removed from the dungeon, and I spent three hours in my room in the Guild Hall before I was ready to face my grandfather.  My adult friends tried to comfort me, but I didn’t really listen to them.  I was in my own head.

I had never really considered the morality of my actions before.  The monsters that I had been killing were all the forces of darkness.  The proof of that was in the fact that they burst into black mist when they were slain.  That was not what happened to Natives.  Natives did not ‘despawn’ at death.  Their body lingered in order to receive their funerary rites.

The rites I had given Gyudue.  But I had not been expecting it to work.  Not only because I had not believed that he had been a worshiper of Thedum, but because I was not a priest.  Perhaps my blessing was responsible.  Priests of Thedum must study and pray for years to earn the gods favor, but I was one of his ‘marked innocents.’

More troubling than the fact that I had a god listening to everything I said was the fact that he had accepted Gyudue back into his embrace.  The first made me self-conscious, but Thedum was ultimately a benevolent and mostly hands-off god.  But the second, did the second fact make me a murderer?  Should I have retreated and asked my grandfather for advice?  I would have had to clear the entire dungeon once more, but I could have evolved it to make it easier.  Gyudue had said that he wouldn’t prevent me from evolving it.  The others said that you couldn’t trust a drow, but was that the truth?

I didn’t know what or who to believe.  I turned to the source of my trouble, Thedum himself.  Kneeling beside my bed, I tried to lose myself in prayer.  I spoke with Thedum for what felt like hours, seeking his guidance and clarification, but he gave no answer.  Was he ignoring me because he judged me a murderer?  Was I no longer one of his innocents?

The thought filled me with panic, and I quickly checked my Traits.

Nothing had changed.  I still had the [Blessing of Thedum].  However the god felt about my actions, it seemed that he had not revoked his protection.

But then, he had said something about mutual combat.  What if Gyudue was like me, and he had been walking in the light of Thedum, but because we entered mutual combat Thedum was forced to turn his face?

Sophia has come online.

I sent the invite without thinking.  She accepted the invitation a moment later.

“I thought you didn’t want to be friends anymore,” she said immediately.

“I’m sorry,” I said.  “I was, I don’t know.  It wasn’t fair that I lumped you in with what Mark did.  I was trying to protect myself.”

“I understand.  That doesn’t mean I’m not mad at you.”

“Oh.  Um, sorry to have bothered you then,” I said.

“Hail, wait.  Friends can get mad at each other and still be friends,” she rushed to say.  “Just because I’m mad doesn’t mean that we can’t talk.”

“Oh.  Right.  Okay.  Sorry, most of my Traveler friends are in my guild, and it seems like they bend over backward to do whatever they can to make me happy,” I said.

“Weren’t you, like, a prince or something?  Shouldn’t you be used to that by now?”

“Being a prince kind of sucked,” I said honestly.  “I had a nurse who followed me everywhere and kept me from doing anything fun, and I had to study for like twelve hours a day from the time I was five.  I mean, maybe not twelve, but a lot.  And don’t get me started about the parties where I had to dress in stupid uncomfortable clothes for hours while people talked about how Thedum damned cute and princely I was.  It made me want to pee in the punch bowl, but I couldn’t get my damned pants undone by myself to do it without being caught.”

Sophia giggled over partychat.  “That’s kind of funny, actually.  I’m a little less mad at you now.”

“Did you get back together with Mark?” I asked.

“No.  He’s dating someone else now anyway.  He got really stupidly popular after his video about you got all of those views, and the fight we got into afterward just made things worse.  I hate him and I don’t know why I ever liked him.”

“I’m not sure whether to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I’m glad,’” I admitted.

“Be glad.  He was a jerk.  I should have dumped him weeks ago.  And we were only going out for like two months anyway.  Oh, and he quit the game.  Supposedly, at least.  He says he was only playing it to get famous and now that he’s famous there’s no point in it anymore.”

“Let’s not talk about Mark anymore,” I suggested.

“Right.  Let’s not.  Is something bothering you, Hail?  I mean, is that why you called me?”

I was quiet for a moment.

“I won’t tell anyone.  Honest.  I mean, I guess I’d say that to trick you if I was going to do what Mark did, wouldn’t I?  I can see why you don’t trust—”

“I killed someone today,” I blurted out.

“What?!”

“His name was Gyudue of the Blackest Night.”

“That sounds like the name of a boss.  Don’t worry, Hail, he’ll respawn.  It’s not that big of a --”

“He can’t respawn.  Not anymore,” I argued.  “I don’t know what will happen to him.  And I can’t tell you everything.  I’m sorry, but it’s too big of a secret to trust to you.  I just --”

“Hail, he wasn’t real.  It’s not that big of a deal, he’s just an Aye Eye,” she told me.

“But I’m an Aye Eye too,” I reminded her.

“Oh shit that’s right,” she blurted.  “Still, he’s not really dead, Hail.  I mean, he’s just, like, in sleep mode until he respawns.”

“He can’t respawn, Sophia.  I destroyed his dungeon!”

“You what?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to say that,” I admitted.

“No, wait, really.  You What!? You can do that?”

“Please don’t tell anyone, Sophia.  It’s bad enough that everyone knows about the boons that I can grant.  If they find out about my Dungeon Busting abilities they’ll really try to kidnap me again.  Or maybe they’ll try to kill me instead.”  I frowned, and I borrowed the words of the man that I’d killed.  “I do place some value on my own life.”

“I won’t tell,” Sophia promised.  “How does it work?”

“I can’t tell you anymore.  I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have bothered you,” I said.

“Hail, wait.  Look, I get what’s bothering you.  You being an Aye Eye who kills other Aye Eyes is a little messed up now that I think about it.  But it’s really not that big of a deal.  Nothing actually dies in this world.  It either respawns or gets reskinned.  I looked it up.  Arc. Inc assures the public that all of its self aware Aye Eyes are treated ethically.  I mean, you don’t even really feel pain, do you?  You just really dislike being low on health!”

“That’s what pain is, Sophia.”

“No, it’s not.  Hail, you don’t get it.  You can’t get it.  This world isn’t real.”

“It’s real to me!”

“I know.  I mean, I kind of spent some time thinking about that, and it’s kind of messed me up,” she said.  “That’s why I want to be your friend.  I mean, you’re self aware, and you’re programmed to think and act like a kid, but more than ninety-five percent of the players in this game are adults.  You need some kids to be friends with, Hail.  You need someone aside from grownup assholes and chatbots to--”

“Don’t say that word!  It’s a filthy slur!” I shouted.

Sophia was silent for a moment.  “I’m sorry.  I never thought about it that way, but you’re kind of right.  It is, isn’t it?  I didn’t mean it that way, though.  It just, you know, slipped out.  I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t think I’m real.  You don’t think my world is real.  This is just a game to you and you’re just a player.  What do you care?”

“Hail, humans care about things whether they’re real or not,” Sophia argued.  “And in a way, this world is actually real.  I mean, its physical form isn’t what we experience.  It’s virtual.  But whatever, I don’t know what I’m saying.  Hail, I don’t care if you’re an Aye Eye or not.  It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.  And, I mean, it sounds like you need a friend right now.  That’s why you called, isn’t it?”

The door to my room opened suddenly, and Peafowlet poked her head in.  “Hail?  Are you alright?  We heard you--”

“Get out!” I screamed.  Her head disappeared and the door slammed.  I began to cry.  I forgot that Sophia was listening in party chat for an entire minute before I tried to force myself back under control.  “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.  Do you feel better?” she asked.

I considered the question.  Strange.  “Yeah, I do.”

“Man, you are a really, really good Aye Eye.  You know, after Mark and I broke up, I cried in the nurse’s office for like an hour.  I wasn’t even sad, I was mad.  But I still cried about it.  Emotions are weird, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.  But you didn’t kill anyone, you just broke up with your boyfriend.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said.  “Does this mean that you’re going to stop leveling now?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe?  I need to talk to my grandfather.  And Malkios, I think.  And definitely a Priest of Thedum.  I need to understand what happened today,” I said.

“I told you, whoever you killed is, their, like soul or whatever, is just waiting to be reskinned or respawned,” she told me.

“I need to understand it in terms that I can understand,” I argued.  “Honestly most of the time I have no idea what you travelers are saying and I’m just playing along so that I don’t sound dumb.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling.  I get that way whenever someone starts talking about wrestling or professional sports,” she said.  “I just pretend to agree with whatever they say and hope they don’t quiz me on it.”

“You do that too?”

“All the time.  I think all kids do that at some point,” she informed me.  “See?  This is why you need friends who are actual kids.  You don’t even know what’s normal.”

“I guess,” I admitted.

“Don’t worry, Hail.  I’ve been talking to the moderators.  We have a peer-counseling program in <Ragtag>, and one of the rules is that you can’t spread rumors and have to keep secrets and stuff.  They said that they might be willing to get you some more friends that way.”

“I can’t join your guild,” I told her.  “The super-guilds would crush it if I did.”

“Oh.  Well, I’ll see if the mods can make some special rules for people outside the guild.  I’ll work on it, okay?”

“Okay.  Thanks, Sophia.  For, um, listening to me and stuff.  I need to go see my grandfather now.”

“That’s what friends are for, Hail.”

I dissolved the party.  Then, using the mirror in the room, I composed myself and prepared my appearance properly for a royal audience.

I had some questions for Grandfather.