23: The Gauntlet (Patreon)

Return of a Disgraced Knight?

You have entered into an agreement with Kleos the Traitor, to procure him a body. You may complete this quest either by fulfilling your agreement and finding him a suitable body, or by finding a way out of the agreement and slaying Kleos, ending his hopes of a new life.

Nicolai kept his expression carefully blank as he finished reading the Quest listing, knowing Kleos was watching. He wondered whether it knew he’d just received a Quest, and that no matter if he betrayed the head or helped it, he would be rewarded. He saw little to be gained from informing it of that fact. He dismissed the UI and turned to meet Kleos’ gaze.

‘So. The library,’ he said.

Kleos stared at him for a moment. Then it blinked. ‘Yes. Ritual.’ It stopped, and he could tell it was thinking. Nicolai had the impression that time as a severed head hadn’t been all that good for Kleos’ faculties.

‘Go down to the banquet hall, then take the main exit out—‘

Nicolai cut the head off. ‘The main exit is collapsed.’ He pulled the keyring from the table and held it before the head. ‘There’s a large metal door down there, is either of these the key for it?’

‘Collapsed?’ Kleo frowned, this being a somewhat confused frown. ‘That’s… weird. Yes, the big key will open the secondary exit. If the main exit is blocked, then go out through the metal door, and then…’

The head went on for some time. After it was done Nicolai repeated the instructions back to it to ensure he remembered correctly. It turned out he was quite some distance from the library and would have to go through a few different areas.

He was about to ask his next question when it spoke again.

‘When you’re in the library, see if you can get to the upper floors. There’s a book, on the top floor. A very special book. It will be well protected but it should be called Agents of the People. I need you write my name in it, that’s step one for me to gain a body.’

Nicolai nodded. ‘I’ll see if I can find it. Now, I have another question. Ever heard of the Lizard?’

‘Lizards? You’ll have to be more specific. Salamanders? Amphibians? Cro—‘

‘No, no. This is a person. An individual. Some kind of important figure. I was told that they had “spawned” on the Nightmare.’

‘Spawned? The Lizard?’ Kleos’ frown did not inspire hope. It was looking quite confused. ‘Never heard of any of that. Who told you of this Lizard?’

Nicolai gazed thoughtfully at the head, considering whether to answer truthfully. They had the Contract, now, he could trust Kleos. Sort-of. For three months. He had the impression that what had happened to him, the intercession of the Controller, had not been business of usual. It was important, he was sure of that. Best to keep the details to himself, at least for now. He and Kleos would be working together for some time, and he could always ask it later if he changed his mind.

‘No one of import,’ he said, waving the matter away with a dismissive hand as he sat back into the chair.

‘No?’ Kleos frowned at him. This was a wary, prying little frown, and he could see unspoken questions in its eyes.

‘No.’ He smiled, then turned away. Nicolai tapped his Mark, having recalled something he’d wished to check on, and investigated the challenges section. He wanted to know if it would give him information on more Challenges to do.

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

> Challenges

- Completed

- Complete the Trial

- Kill Another Player

There was nothing about uncompleted Challenges. It seemed the list just kept track of what he’d done already, it wouldn’t tell him what to do next, at least for now.

The room had become stifling after all the time spent sitting there with the head. He hadn’t even properly checked the other rooms. Nicolai drummed his fingers on the table. He wanted to go straight away to the library, but there were some things he ought to take care of first. He rose abruptly, taking his polearm and the keys, then stepped towards the door.

A bit over an hour later Nicolai stood back in the room, his newly found items joining the old ones on the table. He’d found a chunk of stone that wasn’t flint—after Examining it he’d found it was something called sheylrite—but striking it with steel produced plentiful sparks, so he was keeping it to light fires.

There was a real belt, leather, dark with age but serviceable. Strangely, he’d found a few leather pieces that were all in quite good repair, while other pieces of wood or leather or cloth were entirely rotted away. Attached to it in an actual sheath was the knife he’d taken from the rat.

He held the polearm in his right hand, and attached to his left arm by leather straps he now wore a small wooden round-shield, its front plated with metal. He was excessively happy with the shield as he’d spent significant time trying to find one but all of the others he’d found had either rotted away or been brittle and useless.

He’d seen the metal of the round-shield glinting from beneath a pile of skeletons and had managed to drag it out after almost fifteen minutes of digging. A difficult task as it had been tightly attached to a rotted arm belonging to a creature buried in the pile. It was also a very functional piece which pleased him.

It had two leather grips to attach it onto his arms, then a handhold to hold it tighter, and it was lighter than it should be but very sturdy. He had it positioned so he could easily let go of its strap and have room to still use his hand and wrist, allowing him to use the poleaxe two handed, though with a somewhat reduced range of motion. He considered the extra protection a worthy trade, if only because he was worried about having no options in the event an enemy started throwing or shooting things at him.

He also had a revamped outfit. Still the rotting cloth around his waist, and cloth wrappings on his feet, but after going through the skeletons upstairs and the pile of bones and ancient equipment in the banquet hall, he’d found some acceptable additions.

First was a sort-of jacke, a layer of chainmail attached to somewhat rotted but still relatively serviceable leather. Accompanying this were two shin-guards, one leather, the other steel, both strapped on tight and fitting well.

There were a few helmets down there, along with the heavy helm the big skeleton had worn, and he did want to wear one, but for all of them the cloth covering that went below, alongside the chin-straps, had rotted away and he didn’t see a way to fashion an effective replacement from what he had available, nor would any of them have fit well.

Piled in a corner of the room were a bunch of mouldering blankets and chunks of wood from furniture he’d disassembled, beneath a small hole in the ceiling that Kleos assured him would ventilate any smoke. It would be his emergency fire if he needed more light in the night.

Luckily, he suspected that in the future the night would be less trouble. In the foyer of his upstairs area, he’d found that the metal door that closed off the stairwell could be locked with one of the keys, and it was a solid door with little gap between it and the surrounding stone.

The head was uncertain whether the night creatures could get through it if they had reason to really try, but with it closed and locked and himself in the other room, Nicolai should be able to make some noise without them hearing in the first place, especially with the noise they made pounding on locked doors. He should even be able to make light.

Nicolai checked himself over one last time, standing before Kleos who watched him in silence. He’d left practically everything he didn’t think he’d need, as otherwise he felt he was just risking losing it. All he was taking was his armour, the knife, the poleaxe, the Orb of Rejuvenation hanging from its necklace, his blue water bottle, and the keys, which he’d managed to thread onto the necklace after finding its clasp. Everything else could stay.

‘All good?’ he asked the head.

‘I see nothing wrong,’ Kleos said, managing a kind of weird shrug with its eyelids. ‘But I’m not sure about the company,’ it added.

Lined up along the table beside it were nine skulls, each one smashed open. They were the skeletons which had been up here. Under Kleos’ advice, after putting the ones outside his room down again, he’d taken all the bones and dumped them into the pile downstairs, while keeping the skulls up here.

This way, Kleos said that when night came the heads would reanimate but be unable to do anything, and he could take their souls at his leisure once he had the Soul Trap. They would also provide some light.

Their positioning on the table made sense to Nicolai and he also enjoyed the aesthetic, as well as the slightly grumpy face Kleos had made when he arranged them neatly beside it.

The torches were light yellow, still morning, so he should have a full day to reach the library. The thought made him frown, a realisation cropping in his mind. This was an alien world.

‘How long is day?’ he asked Kleos.

‘Eh?’ It peered at him, confused.

‘Daytime. How long do I have before nightfall?’

‘Depends on the season. Anywhere from twelve to twenty hours.’

Nicolai nodded. Much like Earth. ‘I’m off then.’ Nicolai flashed a grin at the head, pleased to finally be moving, pleased to have something concrete to do.

‘Wait,’ said Kleos. ‘Could you put me back in my jar?’

Nicolai shrugged, picked the head up by its long black hair, and lowered it into the jar of liquid. The head smiled when the liquid touched its skin, seeming to relax. Whatever makes you happy. Nicolai released the head and watched as it sunk through the liquid, tiny bubbles detaching from its face. Kleos looked at him and he looked at it, then it closed its eyes.

Nicolai emerged from the crypt and trotted to the metal door, wiping the blood from his mouth and taking a gulp from his water bottle. The corpses down there were almost a day old now, but he’d carved one open and eaten some organs regardless. It was relatively cool in the crypt and as such one night wouldn’t be long enough for them to go bad, so this latest meal was safe, but he knew that unless he grew very desperate, that would be his last meal from the corpse room. It wasn’t cool enough to properly refrigerate them and the bacteria within their bodies would be rapidly breeding and going out of control as their cells died. He needed to find a new food source, and soon.

Seeing the bodies, he’d also considered that he might have a method to immediately complete his new Quest and Kleos’ request. Could he simply remove one of the heads from a corpse, and put Kleos’ head in place? He had a feeling that wouldn’t work, but he supposed he should mention the possibility to the head. As he considered that thought, his eyes narrowed.

Actually, no. Their Contract would only be in place until the moment he’d completed Kleos’ request and given it that body. Then, the Contract would end. In that regard, there was no reason for him to rush. Kleos knew far more of this world than he, and it was bound to give him truthful information on request. So, he wouldn’t be going out of his way to complete his side of the Contract.

He’d get around to it, but first he’d seek to learn everything of use that could be dragged out of Kleos. And anyway, presumably if it were as simple a matter as finding a corpse and attaching Kleos to it at the neck, the head would have told him to do that rather than searching out the book, Agents of the People, in the library. Since it hadn’t said so, he was under no obligation to bring the possibility to light.

Stopping by the door, he paused for a moment. After some thought he changed his mind regarding the water bottle, opting to take a few more heavy gulps then leave it on the ground beside the door, unwilling to risk his only source of water to the dangers of… whatever was out there.

The key slid easily into the keyhole in the big metal door, but it was tough to turn it. Nicolai could hear the internal mechanism shifting roughly as he forced it to turn, and for a moment was worried it might break. But with a sudden jerk the key finished turning, and the door was unlocked.

He pulled the handle and swung the door open, feeling its weight and mass. The door was at least three inches thick, solid metal. On the other side there was a short hallway which opened up into the next room. Standing within it, he quietly closed the door behind him and re-locked it. He didn’t want anyone to get into his place and steal his things while he was gone.

Nicolai slid along the wall and peered out into the next room. It was large and relatively empty, though it had two lines of columns not far from the walls, one line on each side of the room. It was well lit by the torches on each column. The columns supported two balconies which ran either side of the room, quite high up. It looked like there had been a large staircase allowing one to get up there, but at some point the majority of the staircase had been destroyed.

The walls were smooth and lacking any real holds, but Nicolai thought he might be able to use the ragged rock at the remnants of the stone staircase to climb up. He could see what looked to be undead or skeletons wearing long, mouldering hooded robes wandering around up there on the balconies. Above, there rose a domed ceiling, with a great crack in one side. He paused, peering into the crack. He could see it going up quite some distance before his sight cut off, a large wide hole through the stone.

The hallway he’d entered into exited into the centre of on one side of the room, between the two balconies. On the far side of the room there was an exit, a hallway that seemed a mirror to the one he stood in. The remnants of the staircase was on the left side, replacing some columns, and would have risen up to join one of the balconies.

The standout feature was the thing in the centre of the room. It was… he wasn’t sure what it was. If you had picked out a random selection from a few hundred of the bones in the banquet hall, asked a team of highly motivated monkeys to cobble it all together into one being, then thrown a random collection of arms and armour at it, you might have ended up with something like what he was looking at.

It was huge and still, glowing with blue light that came from deep within it, standing there on dozens of mismatched arms and legs of bone. Weapons of all description pointed out of it, held by skeletal hands of various sizes and forms. Halberds, spears, two handed swords, axes, and more. Luckily, no bows or other ranged weapons, though there was nothing stopping it throwing the spears or anything else at him.

Its exterior was protected by a random covering of armour, metal breastplates, greaves, shoulder guards, and skulls with glowing blue eyes and the occasional helmet poked out here and there. It was a good few metres long, and wide, and tall, a sort of roughly spherical mass of bone and weaponry.

In terms of killing it, Nicolai spent about two seconds considering the logistics, imagining him stood before it, him with the polearm, it with… everything that it had, and gave up. It wasn’t something that could be bashed to death, at least not by him. He’d need to come up with something smart to put it down. The real issue for now was: could he get past it? This was only the beginning of his route to the library.

Well. He smiled. Nothing to do but try. He twisted his head to the side until he felt it click, rolled his shoulders and jiggled his legs, loosening his body, and the first tiny thrill of the day infused him.

He plotted his route, took a series of fast breaths to oxygenate his blood, set himself like a sprinter, then Nicolai exploded into motion, dashing into the room.