Page 4 of The Glass Unicorn: Part 2
“There’s plenty for now. The fields still have a lot of produce in them, and I see my goats have returned—they ran off during the fire. It’s an easy walk here from the new house, and the cart makes it that much easier. Also, I can go trade in Dusmaria. I’ll be fine.” She paused, then added, “So, you’re going to explore the dungeon?”
“Yeah. After that, we’ll come back to your house and then figure out where to go next. Maybe there will be some word from the game developers by then,” I said. “And if we find anything that we don’t need, but that you might be able to use, we’ll bring it back for you. If your house is going to be our base, we’ll take turns helping out. Right?” I asked, looking at the others.
“Sure, that’s fine with me,” Brynn said.
“I’m good with that,” Thornhold said, and Reggie and Ray chimed in, agreeing.
“Be careful, please,” Liesel said. “I don’t want to hear you took on a skeletal lord and ended up on the undead side of the headstone.” She looked genuinely worried.
It occurred to me just how quickly bonds could form during an emergency. And the game breaking wasdefinitelyan emergency.
“If you do manage to hear from our families through your contact, can you let us know?”
“I can try,” Liesel said. “And you’ll be back. At least your families will know what’s going on. I might get in trouble, but what can they do? Fire me? Right now, I’d love it if they could actually kick me out.”
We said goodbye and headed back toward the thicket with the dungeon while she began carting supplies to the new house. I wished she would come with us. The thought of her being on her own in a world out of control frightened me. But we’d see her soon, and maybe she’d have better news for us.
I tried to push thoughts of the game being broken out of my mind. Everything had been turned on end, and now that we’d decided to go on with our adventure, I tried to focus on the here-and-now.
“Are we having fun yet?” Thornhold asked, pausing for a drink of water after we’d been walking about an hour. We were almost to the edge of the thicket, and this time, we were goingto keep going. Our water bottles were full, we had food and supplies in our packs, and our weapons were as ready as they could be.
“Oh shut up,” Ray mumbled, but he let out a snort. “We were going to be here two weeks, anyway, so let’s just focus on the next couple weeks and hope that things are worked out by the time we’re ready to leave.”
We let out a collective sigh, then started up again. There was no reason to turn back. I took a deep breath, looked back at the others, then headed into the woods, wondering what was waiting for us deep in the thicket’s dungeon.
CHAPTER 9: A SCREAM IN THE DARK
As we woundour way through the trees, everything seemed much more vivid than it had before. Perhaps it was because we were on our own. Or maybe, when the game broke, it had done something to the program and now our world felt far more three-dimensional. Whatever the case, everything seemed heightened — every scent, every sound, even the colors seemed brighter.
“How far into the woods is the dungeon?” Brynn asked. She had slung her sword across her back in a large scabbard, but she was carrying her hammer, holding it ready in case we were attacked.
“It’s not far from here,” I said. I’m not sure what the burial chamber looks like, but we should know it when we see it. Things seem fairly straightforward in this game so far. Or rather, thisworld, given it’s no longer a game.” I glanced over my shoulder at my quiver. I still had about 30 arrows in there, light and straight, with sharp tips that could pierce just about anything. Well, anything normal.
“I just realized, when my arrows run out, I’ll have to find a new source. If you see any scattered around on the ground or in the dungeons, grab them for me, will you?”
“Right,” Thornhold said. “I didn’t even think about that.”
“Think about your food, when you eat it. We should ration until we know where we can find more. I mean we can always go back to Dusmaria, but whichever players are in there will be hoarding. And now, I don’t know if I trust that town as far as I could throw it,” I said.
“There have to be other villages up ahead, or maybe house as where we could trade. What’s everybody’s charisma score?” Reggie asked. “Mine’s only about eight, so I’m not the most persuasive of the group.”
Brynn’s charisma was thirteen. Thornhold’s was nine, and Ray’s was eleven. My own charisma score was fifteen. Elves always had the advantage when it came to charisma, dexterity, and personality. Personality and charisma overlapped, but if you had a high charisma and a low personality, looks and glamour didn’t do much for you.
“I guess you’re the best equipped to bargain when we come to strangers,” Thornhold said, looking at me.
I nodded. “Now, I think I’m happy that I accidentally chose to be an elf. I wonder if our scores will matter, now that the games broken,” I added.
“I think it will,” Reggie said. “One way or another, we’re going to find out.”
The further into the thicket that we went, the darker it seemed to grow. We picked up the pace without a word, the wary energy affecting our actions and thoughts. I could tell by the posture of the others that they were feeling the same thing as me. Something unhealthy lived in this thicket, a stagnant energy that seemed to take hold of everything the further we went. Even the leaves on the branches seem to droop, as though the weight of the air were weighing them down, and they were unable to spring back.
We had walked for about half an hour from the edge of the thicket when I noticed a stone outcropping ahead. It rose about 10 feet above the ground, rounded like an arch, and there was a dark entryway in the front. But the further it stretched out, the lower the stone edifice became, so I figured it must follow a downward gradient inside.
A hush fell over the forest, surrounding us in a muffled silence. I stared at the entryway and took a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, I said, “This has to be it. This is the burial chamber.” Now that I was here, I wasn’t that sure I wanted to go inside, but this is what we had come for. And if we were truly stuck in the game, we had to find some way to make a living. Raiding dungeons seemed like as good of an occupation as any.
“Well, here we are,” I said. “Are you ready to go?”
“What order are we going in?” Reggie asked.
