HC: Handyman | Ch. 16 - Embersgate (Patreon)

“Last call to Embersgate! Last call!” the coach driver cried out. 

In the end, they took off with only four passengers. Jack guessed that the developers had programmed these coaches to either take off once they reached a certain number or, if there weren’t enough passengers, to depart anyway after waiting a few minutes. That was a good thing, too. Jack didn’t have to waste time waiting for the carriage to fill up. This way, he would have more space and travel more comfortably.

“Hyah! Hyah!” Reggie shouted as he shook the reins, urging the two horses to take off. The carriage left in the direction of the outer wall. Jack looked back toward the shrinking beginner town. He remembered there was a map option in the menu. Opening it, he found the name of this small place: Bright Hill. That would be important for when he wanted to find transportation back.

Jack felt his eyelids grow heavy as the wooden wheels turned and the horses' hooves hit the ground at a rhythmic step. He had always had difficulty falling asleep aboard a moving vehicle, so the unnatural sleepiness rang an alarm in his mind. Had he been poisoned? What was going on? He tried to keep his eyes open, but the overpowering lullaby was stronger than him. Before he could figure out what was going on, he fell asleep.

Just as quickly as he had fallen asleep, he woke up again. He looked around and found his fellow passengers also waking up, but his attention was soon drawn toward the gigantic construct before them. The wall that had looked like a looming, giant, distant thing now filled the horizon. It was huge, as tall as a skyscraper.

Millions of bricks and tons of cement created an insurmountable barrier. On the battlement were imposing watchtowers and little twinkles of light, that he guessed was sunlight reflected off metal worn by patrolling soldiers. Jack could see now, even though the wall had looked pristine in the distance, it was covered in cracks, just like Ezekiel had advertised.

There was a gate that was pitifully small compared with the wall but had a large bright sign of a flame marking this as Embersgate. At the foot of the wall, there was a city. Its sheer size overwhelmed Jack. The whole city occupied his surroundings. Wherever he looked, more of the city hugged the contour of the wall. 

They had woken up when the carriage was practically already inside the city. The bumpy dirt tracks had transitioned to a more comfortable cobblestone road. Jack’s senses were on overdrive. Players walked back and forth. There were hundreds of them. Seeing their intricate, beautifully ornamented gear, he couldn't help but feel jealous and conscious of how much of a noob he was.

Most walked on foot, but there were also those who rode horses. His eyes landed on a player who rode an ostrich-like bird Jack had never seen, an animal of a bygone era. It was so tall and imposing that it made nearby horses look like ponies. Its powerful hind legs sported long, dangerous-looking claws. At the top of its skull, it had a bony ridge. It wasn’t just him who was mesmerized by the animal. Jack guessed it was a very high-end ride from the astounded looks of other passersby.

Although some of the architecture was similar to Bright Hill, with its dark stone walls and red roofs, the buildings here were significantly bigger, at least two stories high. There was also one more predominant color added to the mix: ivory. It wasn’t just from the humongous white-washed wall that towered over the city but from the many bones used in construction. 

All doors and windows had skeletal frames. Even more impressive were the many light posts made from large, thick bones. Even though the sun lit the top of the wall, the city was under its long shadow. Maybe that’s why the lamps were kept on even though it was daytime. The gaslight reflected off the ivory structures gave the city a mysterious look. 

As Jack tried to wrap his head around how big the creatures with these bones were, the couple traveling along yelped. “We’ve arrived already?”

The man with a buckler, seeing their discomfort, nodded knowingly. “First time traveling, hey?”

“Y-yes. What happened?”

Jack shut his open jaw and tried to wipe the noob look off his face. He kept an ear out for whatever the knowing traveler said.

“You always fall asleep no matter what. It’s how devs make traveling faster in the game. Look at the clock. Only 10 minutes have passed.”

Jack checked the time. It was true. They hadn’t slept long. He wasn't sure how to feel about it. It felt wrong for the developers to make him sleep and miss the whole trip forcibly. At the same time, judging by how big the wall was, he had been hours away from it. If it hadn't been for this little trick, balancing each beginner town's distance from the nearest gate town would have been much harder. He decided he was happy with the development and that he'd rather black out for ten minutes than endure hours of dull traveling. 

Eventually, the coach arrived at a wide square with many similar carriages parked. A sign hanging from a bone gas lamp post read Bright Hill. 

“If you ever want to return, just make sure you find this sign, and one of my colleagues or I will take you back. We run this route several times a day,” he explained. 

The couple hopped off the carriage first, and just as the dark-skinned man was leaving, Jack decided to try his luck. There didn’t seem to be much difference in the quality of their equipment, but this player had experience traveling and seemed to know where he was going.

“Excuse me, sir. You with the buckler!”

The man turned around, acknowledging Jack. From how he kept one foot pointed toward where he was originally heading, it looked like Jack would have the man's attention for a very short time. “I'm looking for the dungeon tutorial. Do you know where it is?” 

“Yeah, sure. Just go to the pyramid.” 

“The pyramid?” Jack asked. 

“Yeah. It's big. You can't miss it. Look over there.” 

Jack followed the man’s gesture. Against the white wall, over the rooftops, there was the tip of a pyramid. Once Jack located it, he couldn't look at anything else. 

“Thanks,” he managed to the back of the leaving player. 

Happy to have quickly found his destination, Jack took off. He left the huge station and tried to keep his eyes glued on the pyramid's tip. It wasn’t easy. With each step, Jack found new incredible sights. 

On the one hand, Embersgate was mostly modeled after a medieval city with knights, plate-armored soldiers, and European architecture. On the other hand, the thick bones that made up the doorways, columns of buildings, and lampposts, together with the ancient-looking bird, made it look like he was in the Stone Age. 

The looming wall occupying most of the horizon reminded him of the Great Wall. Then suddenly, there was a massive pyramid in the middle of the city, taking him back to the time of the ancient Egyptians and Aztecs, not to mention the dinosaurs outside of the wall. It was an uncanny mix of historical periods.

Finally, Jack arrived at the entrance of the pyramid. If these pyramids were built to scale, then the real things were incredibly tall. He felt like he was standing before a mountain. He first thought he’d been lucky enough to find the entrance right away, but as he looked left and right, he spotted several other entrances.

Players chatted with NPCs manning these. Finding one that was relatively empty, Jack approached. The NPC attending to players was called Babu. He was completely bald; every hair on his body had been shaven, including the eyebrows. He wore loose linen garments. He had big lips and smart eyes. 

“Excuse me, sir, I would like to learn more about dungeons,” Jack tried. 

“Oh, I see. So this is the first time you’ve visited a pyramid.” The man easily initiated a dialogue with him, just as Robert had promised him. 

“That's right.” Jack wondered why his cousin had explained so much about dungeons and left out the part about them being in a pyramid! 

“We don't know who built these pyramids. The technology required to build these artifacts is beyond even modern capability. Regardless, there are many treasures inside. No wonder you and others try to find out more about them. However, to find these riches, you must face many dangers.”

“So how does this work? Do I just go in? Where’s the door?” Jack prompted, trying to hurry things along. He needed to gain levels to unlock his next bushcraft skill and get this [Jack of All Trades] quest over with. 

“The dungeon reacts to the human mind. To this day, we're not sure if we actually enter the building or if it just manipulates our minds to make us believe we do.”

“But wouldn’t the passersby know if you’re outside, or if you’ve actually entered?”

“What if the pyramid affects their minds too?” countered Babu.

“Right… Whatever. How do I go in?” Jack didn’t have the patience for this philosophical jibber-jabber.

“Just touch the pyramid, and it will reveal itself to you.” 

“That’s it? OK.” Jack took a few steps and touched the pyramid. A system window appeared before him.

Welcome to Embersgate Dungeon!

Select one of the following dungeons to begin an exciting new adventure:

Tutorial.

It wasn’t like he was being given much of a choice, was he? He selected the only listing and was transported into an underground chamber in the blink of an eye. There were torches all around him, illuminating the yellowed walls. The only sound was his steps echoing off the walls and the crackling of the burning torches. The fire wasn’t enough to repel the smell of mold and time.

“Welcome to your first dungeon experience!”

Jack let out a pathetic shrill. Looking over, he found Babu. He had joined him in his first dungeoning experience. “You frightened me!” Jack protested.

“Lesson one: when inside a dungeon, be prepared for everything. Now, let me show you how it works. Here, see the hieroglyphics?”

Jack approached the wall Babu was referring to. He had seen similar things when he was in school, and they had visited the big national museum. Different hieroglyphic, colorful drawings depicted the same scene over and over again. A man was holding an umbrella. Nine sheep followed him. Did ancient Egyptians even have umbrellas? The whole scene looked a little ridiculous.

“Not all dungeons are this friendly,” Babu began. “In many of them, clues are scattered, hidden behind nasty traps. However, as this is your first experience, the great artifact benevolently hands it all to you on a silver platter.”

“What? These are all the clues?!”

“That is correct. Once you are ready, step right through that door,” Babu invited.

Jack only took his eyes off the guide for a second, but he was gone once he tried to locate him again. Just what was he supposed to make of this? “An umbrella. Nine sheep. These have to be the worst clues ever!” Even though he was pretty sure that the internet would have some answers to his questions, he decided to trust his cousin, and run the dungeon alone.

The door led to a suspiciously calm corridor. Jack took a few hesitant steps on the corridor, but seeing that nothing bad happened, he marched more confidently.

Click.

A mechanical sound rang, and a shower of pointy darts fell on him.

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

His health bar plummeted, leaving him with only half his hp. What in the world had happened?

“That was a little careless, adventurer,” Babu said from behind him, startling him again.

After the darts, the last thing Jack needed was another scare like this. “Just stop sneaking up on me like that!” he demanded between gasps.

“The pyramid really is benevolent. Look. There are torches everywhere. You didn’t even have to bring your lighting and fire. It warned you of the danger and made it mild so that you would survive,” Babu preached as if the pyramid were a cherished, respected friend.

“I-it did? Did it warn me?”

He saw that his health bar was slowly recovering and turned his attention to the nearby torches. Of course. The regeneration bonus from being near fire. That’s why Babu had said that this dungeon was helping him. It even provided him with a way of recovering health.

“Babu, how did the pyramid warn me?” he asked, but the NPC was gone again. Jack clicked his tongue at this annoying NPC who talked in riddles. He walked back toward the main room to see if he had missed anything in the drawings, and just as he was almost out of the corridor, there was another click.

-5

-5

-5

-5

This time, before all of the darts landed on him, Jack jumped forward to avoid some of the damage and managed to preserve his life, with only a sliver of hp left. With heavy breaths, he tried to make sense of what had just happened. Could he have tripped a wire when he walked back to the first room? No, it couldn’t be. If that were the case, he would have activated the trap when he stepped into the hallway.

He looked intently at the drawings again. He tried to compare the different scenes, looking for hidden clues, but he came up empty. This whole thing was so frustrating!

“How are sheep and umbrellas supposed to help me?”

As soon as he asked the question out loud, he got it. He had figured out why there were umbrellas in the drawing.

Ch. 15 - Coach

INDEX

Ch. 17 - Umbrellas and Sheep