Chapter 2

  Such A Torturous Device As The Ladder

  Shocked by everything that had just occurred and then startled by the appearance of a screen in his face, Nik asked, “What, in the Tower’s shadow, is happening right now?”

  He hurried his hands and feet as he crawled back away from the edge. His vision remained obstructed as more text continued to fill it.

  Skill gained: Trapper Level 1!

  Wow, you really let your enemy walk right into that trap.

  Skill gained: Dirty Fighter Level 1!

  You let your enemy succumb to gravity rather than using your own weapon.

  That’s impressive in its own way, I guess.

  Skill gained: Thief Level 1!

  What’s yours is yours and what isn’t might be if you're quick enough.

  Selfish jerk!

  All Stats gain +1!

  Strength: 3

  Agility: 5

  Fortitude: 4

  Intelligence: 4

  Perception: 3

  Charisma: 3

  Luck: 21.1!#^Error

  Error Unknown, Admin Notified

  Mana 20 of 20

  XP 0 of 200 to Level 2

  He took a moment to slow his panicked breathing back to a normal rhythm and stop himself from hyperventilating. Then, he let himself filter through the notification line by line. Adventurer defeated, skills gained, and stats increased.

  He said to himself, “Wait, why does it feel like the smaller text is being mean? I didn’t even mean to do any of that. It was so stupid that I even tried to save the big guy.”

  Pausing at the last line, Nik was baffled by the strange symbols and the text that followed after them. The rest he might be able to make sense of, as strange as it all was. But, what was going on with his Luck, and who was Admin?

  “Okay, so I have stats now. If I compare my strength to everything else, then everything I have must suck, because I know I’m scrawny.” He continued postulating, “But with whatever this error is, it looks like I might be the luckiest monster in the castle. Maybe even on this whole tier of the tower. Not that I have any idea what to do with that information.”

  Looking down at his lap he remembered that he was holding a wooden shield and his collection of shiny things was still scattered all over the floor. Some of the marbles had even gone over the edge. He would have questioned his luck after losing a part of his valuable collection if it wasn’t for the fact that the big man was preparing to kill him before he dropped his bag.

  Putting his feet back under himself, Nik stood to collect his prized possessions and return them to his bag, keeping clear away from the dark pit while doing so. He also now had a round wooden shield which could serve as, maybe, a table? It could be useful except he didn’t even know how to use it, and he hoped he’d never have any need.

  His whole life had been spent in the same old cycle of wandering these halls collecting mushrooms and the rare shiny thing, but it was enough to make a simple creature happy. It did, however, get a bit lonely since none of the goblins liked him very much, and there weren’t any other kobolds here. He had always been just Nik, and it would stay that way if things continued as they were.

  The rumble was happening a lot, however, and that made him stop to think, for all I know the whole place might end up collapsing after what I saw today. Maybe with my new shield I could even survive on the surface, and make some friends.

  The thought was fleeting, before he remembered once again that a shield couldn’t protect someone without the strength and skill to use it. Even so, it’s always better to have something and not need it, than to go without, right? Even if it isn’t very shiny at all, he allowed himself to ponder.

  The blood still pulsing through the violent and rapid beating of his heart went cold. He looked once more upon the bodies of the slain goblins that now rested only a few corridors from the nook that he called his home. He was now terrified of the choice that laid in his immediate future.

  There were three very important problems with the situation in which he now found himself. One was that he now knew that the rumble was eating away at the castle. Problem number two was that there was now goblin blood pooled in the halls. Most important, though, was number three. An adventurer just died and he had played a part. The part he played in their demise didn’t matter because of the one thing every monster knows about adventurers.

  “Oh no, Black Tower be merciful,” he said under his breath as that one fact became the center of every thought in his mind

  “Adventurers don’t stay dead.”

  There was no choice. Nik had to flee. Rushing back to his sleeping spot, he began planning his first foray into the unknown world above. He didn’t have much in the way of possessions, just a wooden bowl that doubled as a cup, his bed, his clothes and his bag of shinies. Nik shoved the bowl into his bag, which took up every inch of remaining space the bag had.

  He sliced a strip of cloth from his bedding with his claws, and used the strip to tie his bag to his belt. Piling the rest of the cloth on top of the largest piece, he pulled the corners over the center and tied a knot to hold it all together. He took a deep breath in as he gave one last look at the only home he’d ever known.

  Tearing his eyes away he ran back down the hall to where the goblins lay. Nik took just a brief moment, kneeling down to close their eyes, and then he reached to their side. Wrapping his fingers around the wooden shaft, he picked up one of their spears.

  Nik rose to his feet and whispered, “I’m sorry, Wuttsit, but I have to take this just in case I need to use it. I know you will fade soon. May the light guide you to where the good find rest.”

  Sliding the pole of the spear under the knot of his cloth pile and hefting it over his shoulder, he began moving in the direction of the stairs.

  The double doors at the entry hall were cracked now, the rumble was taking its toll. The staircase was an intimidating view, but he’d climbed them a couple of times before on his mushroom foraging trips. He moved with haste, sometimes taking one step of the stairs with a single footstep, instead of the usual two that it took to climb each one.

  He was already getting a bit winded by the time he had reached the top, but he endured. Nik tried to keep his momentum up as he made his way towards the next set of stairs. His heart pounded with a combination of fear and to his surprise, excitement.

  Along the path to the last staircase were the adventurer’s bloody footprints on the stone floor. They were leading away from a room on the right side of the corridor. Steeling his resolve, he continued on, only taking the quickest of glances as he went. Two more goblins lay dead, but he couldn’t take the extra time to see if he recognized them.

  No, he needed to keep moving.

  He didn’t know how much time he had before the adventurer would be back, and he didn’t need any more images to haunt his almost certain to come nightmares. Up another set of stairs that he was forced to take more slowly than the last, he pressed on. Halfway up the staircase Nik’s legs burned from the exertion. His lungs felt like ice with each breath, but he reached the top in the end.

  He was in the last stretch of his journey to the exit. He had never been up the ladder, but he had talked about the lands above with one of the goblins. Wuttsit, the one with whom he’d traded a whole day’s worth of harvested mushrooms all for the shiny metal coin in his bag. But they were gone now.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  It was a beautiful and dangerous place. A place where large beasts hunted for prey, and adventurers hunted them in turn. These are some of the unknown dangers he had to risk in order to escape the wrath of an adventurer who was more than likely to want him dead.

  At the end of the corridor was a room containing only the crumbled wooden remains of crates that had been emptied long before they had rotted, and a ladder. His path to the surface came into view as he entered the room. The room was filled with warm air and very bright light. The light wasn’t the normal blue of the torchlight he knew.

  Using his cloak Nik tied his belongings to his back and prepared himself.

  The light shone from above the ladder. This was the first one that Nik had ever climbed, and he would rather have had to climb more stairs. Ladders were impossible. His legs had to stretch to reach each rung, and his legs were exhausted before even reaching the ladder. The claws of his hands and feet scraped with each motion against the wood as he made slow progress towards the blinding light.

  He could barely see the rungs as he neared the open air. His eyes were slow to adjust, so Nik was forced to feel his way along the last few rungs. His hand grasped at open air before finding the edge of the trapdoor.

  Nik attempted to move himself out onto the surface of a new world, but his legs betrayed him. There was no strength left in his burnt-out thighs. He had made it to the last few inches from his goal, but could climb no further.

  On the verge of admitting defeat to whatever demented creature came up with such a torturous device as the ladder, Nik wheezed out from burning lungs, “Come on, you stupid lizard legs! One last push!”

  With as fierce a growl as had ever come from the cute little kobold’s throat, he drove himself upward. His heel slipped on the last rung, only catching at the last moment on his clawed toes. He fell forward, rolling onto solid stone.

  He lay there on his back, struggling to catch his racing breaths. His whole body felt like the bones had been removed, somehow replaced with nothing but numbness and pain at the same time. Closing his eyes to the bright sky, he still couldn’t see anything. He wondered, for a moment, if maybe this was all there was on the surface.

  Until color started to filter into his squinted eyes. Fading from white, hues of light blue were becoming visible in the center of his vision, and bits of green swayed around the edges. There was a gentle breeze moving his feathers in unison with the green bits.

  He couldn’t lay here forever, though, he needed to run. Having no bones in your body, however, can make that quite tricky. Using his arms he dragged himself off of the platform, flopping onto a combination of dirt, grass, and fallen leaves. Using the last embers of his energy, Nik pulled himself under the nearest shrubs and closed his eyes. Nik had never slept so hard before. He didn’t hear the deer approaching as they travelled through. He didn’t hear them stopping to eat leaves from his shrub, the sound that made them lift their heads to freeze in place, or the sound of their thundering hooves as they fled the stomping footsteps of the angry adventurer who had returned.

  * * *

  Normally one would respawn in the center of the last town they’d visited. Dying so early on dropped you back in the middle of nowhere, exactly where you’d started. This kobold is gonna pay for keeping me from level two and for making me waste my time.

  He was so frustrated with the shortest life he’d ever played through, he almost didn’t hear the growls. Opening his inventory he withdrew his sword, and…

  “Seriously, my shield is missing? Oh, come on. Like this day hasn’t been bad enough,” he said as a pair of wolves ran at him from the trees ahead. He’d take them on one at a time, without letting one of them sneak behind him. His sword once again flowed with the ease of many practiced movements.

  I used to be pretty great actually; I just need to shake off the cobwebs some more.

  A glimmer of steel swept across the side of the closest wolf as Eric sidestepped them. He put the wounded wolf between himself and the other, before he went in for a second slash with his blade. The second wolf leapt over its dying friend as he rolled away from its long claws.

  He stabbed forward as it lunged for him again. Sending his blade through its mouth suited him just fine. Enough distractions. Time to get his shield back.

  Notifications popped up with a gained level, and a new quest.

  Sir BlackDagger wasn’t quiet as he crashed through the nearby forest on his path to the castle where he’d fallen. This was not how he had thought his new adventure was going to go. Slamming his shoulder into a door, banging his head on the ground, and falling into a pit. Having the craziest bout of poor luck he’d ever seen had not been on his bingo card. Dying took some of your XP, but the wolves had already made up for that.

  He wasn’t going to fall this time and he'd even up the stakes by starting a livestream.

  “I’m Level 2 now, and this whole castle is going to be mine! I even got a quest: Storm The Castle,” he said to his small audience of online viewers.

  “I guess that means I’m going to be king of the first tier of the tower, and you guys will get to watch it all unfold.”

  He continued his monologue as his viewers watched him step forward, looking down into the halls below. They could only see and hear everything that he could, so he had to speak aloud for them to hear how his glorious tale of ascension would begin.

  * * *

  A loud voice managed to seep in through Nik’s slumber as he regained awareness of his surroundings. He was under a thick plant, he was laying in dirt, and there was humanoid speech nearby. He froze as the last bit of information trickled into his syrupy-thick, and sleep-addled brain. For the second time in his life a loud bell rang in his ears.

  Quest Received!

  Escape the Notice of the Vengeful Warrior!

  Reward:

  Survival and 25 XP

  He was in trouble! He held his breath as he waited for the adventurer to move on. He held it for several moments, and then held it for several more. Is this guy talking just to talk? I’m going to pass out again if he doesn’t leave, he thought as his head started to thud and his lungs squeezed themselves tightly in his chest.

  He remained still. Unmoving as the dead he would join if he was seen or heard. The moments dragged on, each one feeling like an eternity, as the human speech continued.

  The blue sky was dimming to black and the leaves were blurring at the edges again. This was it, he had escaped death in the castle just to die willing himself not to breathe.

  His lungs couldn’t hold out much longer. Finally the voice grew distant as feet sounded against the rungs of the ladder. He let the air back into his lungs, his chest expanded letting out a gasping sound. Nik dug his claws into the ground, scraping grooves into the dirt as he scrambled his way to the far side of the foliage.

  Staggering to his feet, he felt the burn and unsteadiness of muscles that hadn’t yet recovered from being overworked. He ran. As fast as his feet could carry him, he ran. He didn’t look over his shoulder or stop to listen if he was being followed. He fled as straight as the path his feet carried him on allowed, even as daylight began to fade.

  Avoiding tree roots, rocks and other tripping hazards as best he could while he moved his barely obedient body. After the longest distance he’d ever run by a very large margin, he rounded a tree and collapsed against the far side of it.

  Having fallen to his knees, back against the tree, he waited for the sound of giant feet smashing through the forest behind him. It never came. The sound of a bell rang instead.

  Quest Succeeded!

  Congratulations you’re not a corpse

  Experience gained 25!

  XP 25 of 200 to Level 2

  Error Unknown, Admin Notified

  Nik’s heart leapt into his throat for another panicked moment.

  “Ok, so this is still a thing,” Nik said. He let himself stop to consider what this meant, he had escaped. Then he had another thought, Can I level up? He had heard some of the goblins talk about adventurers leveling up by killing and that it made them even stronger.

  He paused on that thought, I’m not a killer. Even if I was more capable. I have no idea how to use this to get stronger. Maybe I could get more quests like this? He chuckled to himself, thinking, well, maybe not exactly like this one. The first quest almost gave me a heart attack.

  Sitting against the tree, he jumped again at a sudden sound before realizing what it was when his stomach made another growl. Digging into his bag he withdrew half of the mushrooms he had harvested earlier in the day. He ate them raw, enjoying the natural earthy flavors. With a full belly and having found at last a moment of rest, Nik took in his surroundings. The new sights, sounds, and smells were nearly overwhelming.

  He had vague descriptions of some of the things around him, but none of the specifics. He mentally went over what he knew. The tall plants were trees, the small ones were shrubs, and the green bits were called leaves. Oh! And Grass! The little bits on the ground were called grass, he thought. The colors were so vibrant. It made him wish he could capture it all, and put it in his bag.

  He wasn’t quite sure what they were, but small winged things moved from branch to branch making a variety of chirping and whistling calls. Nik was enthralled, He had never seen another creature with feathers like him. In all fairness, he hadn’t seen many other creatures at all. As he watched them float through the air on their way from tree to tree, a small text box flashed into view.

  Bird: Species, Wood Thrush

  “Woah, this thing can tell me what I’m looking at?!” Nik exclaimed.

  That was going to be very useful. Spending the next several moments staring from one object to the next, he analyzed his environment. As light transitioned to dark, he learned what each rock, bush, and tree was called. Voice full of enthusiasm, he said,

  “Maybe this world doesn’t have to be such a terrible place.”

  With hopeful optimism easing his fears, Nik set the cloth of his bed up behind himself, laid back against it, and curled up under his red cape for the night. Closing his eyes, he drifted off to a well earned sleep.

  * * *

  In her brightly lit home office, Lana Harper sat down in her oversized rolling chair to check her messages before bed. She opened the H.E.R.O. Developer Communications app on her PC to the sight of several unread messages tagged for admin notice. A wide smile broke out on her face.

  “It looks like my little program is finally expressing itself in the system. Now, let’s see how the players like something really new to challenge them.”

  She chuckled and said to herself and got to work. She went through erasing all traces of any error messages involving the non-player character kobold named Nik. After less than ten minutes, she stretched, smiling with satisfaction at her completed task. Now she just had to be patient and wait to see how her little experiment played out.