Chapter 36

  The first monster spawns on the surface started right when the system warned that they would. They were drawn to population centers; the greater the population density, the more monsters that appeared.

  Goblins predominated, appearing in numbers, wearing loincloths and carrying primitive weapons like spears and clubs. They charged the humans and fought to the death. They were relentless, and the first responders were gravely outnumbered. Those who had been relying on the government to protect them found themselves disillusioned, and the mad scrape began to ‘get somewhere safe.’

  FEMA camps were set up. Refugee points were established. The National Guard was called into service. The Armed Forces set up monster extermination patrols.

  It wasn’t enough.

  The only way to keep oneself safe, it was swiftly discovered, was to take up a weapon and learn some self defense.

  Two days passed, and finally Miguel Phelps was released. He wandered through the streets, disoriented and beaten. The interrogators had violated his rights in their questioning, and he ought to be more upset about it, but in the end it hadn’t mattered.

  His health, according to his menu, had dipped down to 43/100, but it was up to seventy-nine now. He was feeling better with every step he took. He stepped out into the refugee camp where the men in black had taken his hood off and thrown him out of the car before driving away.

  He approached a young mother who was trying to soothe a crying infant. He asked to use her cell phone, and a few moments later he was discussing matters with a trusted confidant. Then he handed the cell phone back to her and took a nap on one of the cots that was set up nearby.

  He regretted a lot of things in his life, but giving up the Astronomy Kid’s name was pretty high on that list. He took solace in the fact that it had taken literal torture to get it out of him. The electrical burns were healing faster than he thought they ought to, as were the bruises.

  He chuckled. The woman who had lent him her phone must have thought he looked like hell, but then he noticed someone else come into the room looking just as beat up as he did and understood.

  Goblins. Nobody was surprised to see him looking like this because of the goblins. They just assumed that he was a survivor who had gotten away from them.

  A few hours later, someone shook him awake and took him away. They got into a convoy and drove off. He looked around at a bunch of faces he didn’t know, but felt very reassured by their presence.

  “I didn’t realize that twelve armed guards was in my budget,” he said.

  “You’ve been out of touch,” the head bodyguard said. “Your budget has increased slightly since you were taken. And the world ending has gotten us a few volunteers.”

  “Right,” he said. “Any chance that my newly improved budget includes a private jet?”

  “Indeed it does,” the bodyguard said. “Where are we going?”

  “To see the Runekeeper. That is, if we can get to him before the government vanishes him like it tried to vanish me. Thanks for getting me out.”

  ~~~~~~

  Eli drifted in and out of consciousness. He was occasionally aware of certain things. Like his nudity; except for the bandages on his stomach, wrapping around to the exit wound on his back. He would hear voices occasionally, and someone would force him to drink something. Sometimes it was water. Sometimes it was bitter tasting medicine. Sometimes it was sweet ambrosia.

  At one point, when he was feeling particularly miserable, he pulled up his menu and checked to see what his status said about his health. It was listed as nine.

  He wondered if he was dying.

  “Drink this,” a voice commanded, and he drank. It was one of the Ambrosia tonics. “Do not worry, you will not die from this wound.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Eli said to the woman.

  “Nobody ever does. I am Cassandra. You are a prisoner of Troy. Hector commands that you be healed for questioning. Know this; if you do not answer his questions honestly, you will die.”

  “See, now, that I believe,” Eli said, and he laid his head back. “Why am I naked?”

  “Why would you not be?” Cassandra asked. “I just told you you are being healed, but you are still a prisoner. And this is Ancient Greece, we have different morals about such things than modern America.”

  Eli looked up at her in confusion. “You know I’m from America?”

  “Why would I not? I am Cassandra. The gods have cursed me to know the future, and that comes with knowing many things other than the fact that my city will be burned, it’s treasures despoiled and its children thrown from the walls. Why would the gods give me mercy by hiding what comes next?”

  “I don’t know who you are,” Eli said. “I mean, I believe you when you say you’re the Cassandra, the one that made the name popular, but it’s a common name in my time and I don’t know the myth that it comes from.”

  “I am a trojan woman. I was beloved by the god Apollo and given the gift of foresight, but the fates do not like such things, and so I was forced to reject him. In his anger, he cursed me. Nobody believes me when I predict the future.”

  “Okay,” Eli said. He looked around at the hospital, realizing that he was surrounded by other injured men. Most of whom were also nude, he realized. He sighed and covered his eyes. “I hate this floor. You seem to be self aware, does that mean you know you’re part of the dungeon?”

  “Yes,” Cassandra answered. “And I know how you will advance to the next one, and I know what the next floor will be as well, and the one after that. Beyond that, my vision grows cloudy. I can tell you how you reach floor ten, if you’d like.”

  “Sure,” Eli said.

  “You sacrifice a child for the survival of your people,” Cassandra said.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “I don’t believe you,” Eli said. “I would never sacrifice a child.”

  “So you believe now,” Cassandra said. “I told you you wouldn’t believe me. It doesn’t matter. I only came because Hector is coming and I wanted to tell you that the rest of your party survived. Some were badly injured, but they all lived, and when the Trojans retreated your healer was able to restore them to health. You were selected for questioning because of the strange garb that you wear. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. And I believe you too, which proves you’re not cursed,” Eli said.

  “I’m only cursed when I predict the future,” Cassandra said. “Not when I share news of the present or give account of the past. But I will tell you that when you return to the surface, you should be very careful what you do with your rewards for reaching so deep into the dungeon on Hard Mode. There are those who would kill you for the prize you will claim.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Eli said.

  Cassandra just sighed and poured him a drink. Water this time.

  Hector entered, dressed in his armor. He took off his helmet and came over to Eli’s bed.

  “The physicians tell me that you’re well enough to speak,” the prince said. “Tell me. Why do you join the Greek in battle? I know the motivations of the other men, but not yours.”

  Eli considered the question carefully, and he was allowed time. “No reason, really,” he admitted finally. “I know that the Trojans lost the war in the end, but that doesn’t make you the bad guys. I guess if anything the only reason that I was going to fight you was that we spawned in the Greek encampment.”

  “So you are a mercenary, who will fight for whichever side pays you?” Hector asked. “Are you a traitorous dog who would sell your own mother for a coin?”

  “I’m not a traitor, and I love my mother very much,” Eli said honestly. “I can’t say that I have any love for Troy, however. Nor any particular love of ancient Greece. It wasn’t my idea to fight in this conflict, I’m being forced into it.”

  “I see. So you are claiming that it is by the will of the gods that we are enemies,” Hector said. He sighed and shook his head. “That is actually a sentiment that I can understand. So many of the men whom I have killed in the last few days would have been ideal countrymen had they only been born on my island. So many of those whom have died at my side would be at the gate right now trying to climb the walls had they been born somewhere else. It is the gods who decide where we are born, and it is the gods who decide when we die.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Eli said. “So no hard fee—”

  Abruptly, there was cold steel pressed against Eli’s chest. “But sometimes the gods act through mortal agents. If I were to press this sword through your heart, then that too is the will of the gods.”

  Eli swallowed. “There’s no need. I’m your prisoner. I’m unarmed and naked. I’m helpless and—”

  “And you’re taking up space,” Hector said. “At this very moment my army is fighting to clear the countryside, to bring as many of my citizens into the city and defend them from the Greeks until the end of the war. I had not truly expected that the conflict would reach this stage, but the Greeks arrived six days ago and now we are scrambling to deny them victory. If I keep you prisoner, then you are one more mouth to feed, one more bed taken away from the children of Troy. If I let you go, then you will return to the Greeks. If I kill you here, then I deny my enemy a soldier. What say you to that?”

  Eli swallowed. “You said that the Greeks only just arrived?”

  “Less than a week ago. We will chase them off our land soon enough, but in the meantime they murder my people, pillage my land, and rape my women like savages.”

  Eli swallowed. That was news to him, and it changed things considerably. He knew, mostly because of the summary he’d gotten from John Sr. and Mister Estabon, that the war would last ten years, and it was only at the end of these ten years when both sides were tired of fighting that the gambit of the trojan horse was considered.

  “This war will last ten years,” Eli said after a moment. “I can tell you what will happen, what the Greeks will do. They’re not my allies. Let me be yours instead.”

  “You would betray the Greeks for your life?” Hector asked.

  “I have no love for the Greeks,” Eli insisted. “I know how they win the war. They build a horse and fill it with their men, saying that it’s an offering to the gods. When you bring it into the city and celebrate, they wait until night and then sneak out to open the gates for their allies. If you just burn the horse instead, then your victory is assured.”

  “That is what Cassandra says as well,” Hector said calmly.

  Eli relaxed. “She says she can see the future, after all. If you just let me talk to my allies, perhaps I can get them to join you too. We just need to find out how to clear this floor, so we need--”

  Cassandra shook her head sadly. “He’s going to kill you now,” she said.

  “I don’t believe—”

  The mighty prince pulled back his sword to swing it. Cassandra flung herself at the mighty prince, grabbing his sword arm and pulling it away. He struck her fiercely and sent her flying. He pulled his arm back a second time when suddenly a horn blew. He frowned, turning to face the distance, then turned back to Eli. “You disgust me, but I will not sully this place of healing with blood shed in anger.

  He turned and stalked out of the hospital.

  Eli sat up, wincing at the pain his stomach caused him, and walked unsteadily over to Cassandra’s side. He tried to squat down to check on her, but she abruptly sat up and looked at him impatiently. “You should be in bed, you idiot. Come on, let’s get dressed or you won’t have clothes when you advance to the next floor.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Would you rather remain naked?” she asked him.

  “Most definitely not,” he said.

  “Then come this way,” she said, and she brought the injured boy into another room where his clothes were lain out. She helped him to dress, and then she sat next to him.

  “Your time here will come to an end shortly,” she predicted.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your friends have not been idle. You have hovered at the edge of life and death for several days, and your allies have been battling along side the Greeks outside the walls of Troy the entire time. They are about to kill their one thousandth’ Trojan and complete the objectives of the floor. You should thank me for keeping you alive. It was I who gave you Ambrosia, were it not for my aid you would have died days ago.”

  “Thank you, Cassandra,” Eli said, and he said it earnestly.

  “And you should also thank me for saving your life from Hector. He still intends to kill you at the moment, but when he sees you next you shall be allies. Goodbye, Elias Mathews. Until we meet again.”

  Congratulations!

  You have Completed the Floor Objective!

  Advancing to the 9 th floor in 30 seconds.

  Please secure all belongings before transference.

  “Thank you again, Cassandra. And goodbye,” Eli said.

  She suddenly kissed him. He blushed and pulled back, wincing in pain as he moved too quickly for his wounds. He was about to say something when the transference happened.

  ?