FILE:007
.:skulls:.
I'd have to admit, I was more towards running away looking like an idiot than having to play this game and possibly lose my head.
The creature sitting across the table from me was at least half a meter taller and had three heads, with a body that reminded me of an orc. Placed on the table were three human-sized skulls staring at me with empty eyes.
"D'ya wanna play it?" The monster repeated, all three heads giving off awkward smirks.
In truth, no, I didn't want to play at all, but I think I was more afraid of what he'd do if I disregarded the game of his. Maybe I should make a run for it... I thought, looking out of the corner of my eye at the door. It was a straight line from my chair; shouldn't be a problem. I hope.
"Maybe some other time," I muttered, slightly raising myself out of my chair and getting ready to dash for it. A character just walked through the door, my eyes fixed on the frame. 3...2...1...
I moved the joystick forward, a bit afraid of it snapping off. My in-game self took off lightning fast, then something happened. My view was heading downwards towards the wooden floor boards as I fell to the ground. That's not right, I thought, turning my head to look behind me.
My butt was somehow glued to the chair, the legs sticking upwards as the seat tumbled along with me in my chances of escaping. I could hear faint laughing in the background from other players, as well as from the three-headed monster-thing.
"Har har har." Its laugh was disturbing. "Seems yerv got yer butt stick to tat chair. Har har har." I tried to pick myself up, but something else was keeping me down. I believe it was this things foot. "Now," I looked up at its three faces, all staring right at me. "Yer gonna play, righ'?" It grabbed the three skulls from the table and placed them right in front of my head. Then it showed me a black stone, and placed it under the first skull. "Jus' pick a head." It said.
It moved the outer two heads around the middle, then positioned them back in a line. Freeing one of my arms, I pointed towards the third one.
The stone was under it all right. But the creature smiled again. "Now, if I'd ver you, I'd bet some gold unles' ya, ya no, wanna see somethin happen to ya." At this, one of its arms reached behind his back and pulled out a rusty knife, the blade the length of my head, and stabbed it in the boards besides the skulls.
Evil, I thought, pulling out two gold pieces from my bag with one arm and setting them down in front of the skulls. The monster didn't move, staring at the gold coins impatiently. I pulled out a few more, and it showed me the stone again, placing it under the middle skull. I stared intently at it, but as the heads were being moved around, they were also moving faster, making it harder for me to keep an eye on it. When they stopped, I picked the right skull; nothing. The left skull; nothing. He lifted the middle to reveal the stone, snatching my money away.
It picked up the knife and stabbed it one floorboard closer, two floorboards between the metal and my head, and continued to crush me beneath his foot. "Mohr," it said as I began to reach for gold pieces. I pulled out nearly twice as much as the previous set, about thirteen or so pieces, and watched carefully as the ridiculously fast skulls moved about for a trick—it was a con most likely, so there was some way of making the stone appear in one skull and not the other two.
As its hands began slowing down, I could've sworn I saw some little movement in them. I'd need to check it out next game.
The third round was a little over twenty gold pieces, the knife a few inches from my face, and no matter how fast the hands moved the skulls about, I kept my view on the hands. Little flickers of movement were occurring about every couple of swaps, and I knew I had the trick down.
When the three skulls faced me with empty eye sockets for the last time, and the three-headed creature asked me "Ver?" I said victoriously, "The left..." And before it could laugh, lift up the skull and say I was wrong, I lunged myself at the left hand, knocking his disgusting foot off from my back and grabbed the black stone from the palm. "Left hand, I meant to say." I picked up my gold and was about to stand up when, the thing grabbed the rusty knife and jumped at me, knocking me down and broke three of the glued chair's legs. My gold pieces flew out of my hands.
I tried getting this thing off of me and was going to equip my dagger and stab it, but I could do neither. All three of the heads spoke something different at the same time, and I could understand a few words here and there.
"Get...offa...me!" I said, trying my hardest to push it off but it weighed at least twice as much as Airai did. The best I could do was use my free arm to keep it from stabbing my eye out with the weapon.
I knew that there were at least eight players in the tavern, watching my struggle with this three-headed monster. Excluding the one or two that would be laughing at me and cheering for the thing, that left six people all with the ability to help me. But no one was doing anything but staring. It's like I'm choking and no one wants to do the Heimlich on me... Ugh...
Then I heard another voice besides from one of these three heads on top of me.
"Lightning!"
The spell shot three bolts of lightning from my left, one larger than the rest, knocking the creature from off my body. As for the chair, only the seat and small shards of the legs and backs remained, but it was easier to stand and move now.
The creature rose again from atop a collapsed table, charging at me with its knife. I pulled out my dagger and parried his, scraping some pieces of rust into the air. I jumped out of the way of one slash, my staff in my hand, and yelled at the creature.
"Fire!"
"Lightning!"
Both the flames and lightning engulfed the three-headed creature in flames, setting fire to the collapsed table. When another mage snapped out of her trance of staring, she used a water spell to extinguish the fire. Everyone else resumed their normal business in the tavern.
Sighing and putting away my weapons, I grabbed my gold strewn about the floor and took off the rest of the chair seat from my butt. I looked around the room for the other mage who cast the lightning, and saw someone leave the building. I ran after them, and after turning around the adjacent building, I knocked into the player.
"Sorry," I mumbled, looking up at the character. But I did a double take when I saw it was Chiu.
FILE:007.5
.:chiu:.
I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was right, but this player looked almost like the Net idol one of my students, Chisame Hasegawa, double-lifed as.
Her outfit was entirely pastel pink and a semi-yellowish shade of white. She had on a long-sleeved white-ish top and a semi-long pastel pink skirt. The staff she used was about an arms-length white and pink one, with an outlined heart at the end. Her hair was a brown-orange shade, flowing down halfway to her back. A navy blue laptop floated besides her.
"Chisame?" I said in surprise. The player—who was just about to take off to another part of Agora Bazo—stopped and turned to look at me when she heard her name. Her face displayed a bit of shock.
"Erm...what d-did you say...?"
That's definitely Chisame-san's voice, I thought. "Um, Chisame-san...?"
Her eyes widened, and I think after saying her name a second time, she recognized my voice. "Uh...Negi-Sensei...?" She asked, and I nodded. It might've been me, but I could've been sure that her face shown a bit of irritation. Sighing, she looked at my character and asked, "So, what are you supposed to be?"
"A mage. You?"
"A sorceress."
"Oh." I wasn't sure what the difference was, but I guess it didn't really matter too much. "So, you're the one that cast that spell in the tavern, right?"
"Yeah," She mumbled. "And don't call me 'Chisame'; I'm Chiu in this game. What's your name?"
"Airai," I said.
"Okay, so... Do you want to go to a dungeon or something...? I mean, I've heard rumor about this secret one, and I was going to see if it was there."
"Sure." Chiu started walking off towards the opposite side of town, and I followed. It was a bit of a quiet walk, but after a few minutes we arrived at an older part of the city. Some of the buildings were crumbling and others were just faded, but despite the looks, players still roamed around through the old shops and stuff.
"So... Where's the entrance to the dungeon?" I asked, looking around for something out of place and suspicious.
Chiu looked around. "The rumor is that the entrance is somewhere on one of the structures, but it was probably just some stupid information."
"It's worth looking around, right?" The sorceress shrugged, and I went about looking at the walls of the buildings for something. After about five or ten minutes—I lost track—I called Chiu over to come to where I was.
"I think I've found something." In the wall of an empty building besides the inn, I found a symbol etched into it. 'Δ' "It's the Greek letter Delta," I explained. Why would this be here? I wondered to myself.
"Are you supposed to do something?" The sorceress asked me, a slight twinge of anticipation in her voice.
"Maybe you have to touch it..." With that said, I placed my hand on top of the Greek symbol, and it started glowing a faint blue. The wall slid forward and opened to reveal a dark stairway leading downwards.
Before walking down, I looked around to see if any other players were watching to see why two people were going through a wall. Luckily, no one was around; so I stepped down into the earth, hoping to get out of it alive.
.:.author's.:.note.:.
Chiu has made her appearance (finally). As for the chapter seven and a half, I didn't want to end the chapter with so little written, so I included that part. A secret-dungeon full of mysteries awaits. Mwuahaha.
Hydriatus -- Is it clichéd to go about commenting on chapter lengths? Sheesh.
Diablo200030002002 -- I guess the idea you had in mind was different than mine.
MasterSprtn -- Glad to hear to enjoy the story. I probably will switch between real life and in-game, but most will be in-game.
Hm...
