+++ You have discovered Count Dylak's Mansion!
Secret Quest Unlocked!
Investigate the mystery of the mansion and defeat Count Dylak.
Reward: 500 gold for each Party Member and an Artifact of your choice! +++
Rain started pouring as soon as we opened the door, as if it was programmed to do so, and a heavy ambiance welcomed us inside. The air around us felt dense, and the place was in complete silence. In front of us stood a double staircase leading to the second floor. At our left and right, long corridors, waiting to be explored.
I had never seen a house that huge. Was this inspired by real-life buildings from Earth? No way.
My apartment was minuscule in comparison. Two rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen/washing room.
Dan and Steve were as flabbergasted as me. Charlie, who had visited the place before, was checking his User Interface instead, and the Devil Incarnate... Well, she walked in front of us, hand on hips.
"Come on, guys! We don't have the entire day."
"She's right," Charlie said, looking nervous. "We won't like to be here when the sun sets. Enemies will get stronger at nightfall."
I checked the hour on my Stats Menu: 5:32 pm.
"Guys, just a reminder," Dan said, "we got a reward after killing the Bunnskeel. I recommend you choose your favorite weapon and equip it as soon as possible."
"Thanks, Dan," Charlie said, glancing at everyone. "We will form teams like this. Taylor and Grace will go to the left aisle. Dan and Steve will take the right one, and since I have already been here, I'll go to the center of the house."
I glanced in that direction. There was a third, shorter corridor below the double staircases. "Will you be alright by yourself?"
He snickered. "I'm not that brave. I'm taking the same route as my last visit, so I'll know my way around."
"Take care then, Boss," I said in my most tender tone of voice, and I heard Steve clicking his teeth, annoyed.
"Let's go, Dan," Steve said, leading the way.
"Right! Take care, girls."
I beamed at him. "Be careful... Dan..."
Did you see what I did there?
"Remember, we'll regroup in half an hour," Charlie said aloud, before glancing at us. "Good luck." He nodded and turned around, leaving me with the Queen of Evil.
Before she could start bossing me around again, I hurried my steps toward the left corridor.
"Hey, wait for me!" she said in a high-pitched voice, before sighing. "Thank god we are having a break from those losers. Dan is a creep, constantly looking at my cleavage... Charlie is a huge pretender who has zero leadership skills. And have you noticed he's been acting all anxious since we got here? And Steve! Gosh!"
I waited for her comments, but she suddenly paused for several seconds. "What about him?"
I glanced at her, but she had stopped in her tracks. "Is someone behind me?" she asked, and for a moment, I thought she was just making a prank.
"No. Why?"
"Because I've been hearing steps behind me for a while." She turned back, finding nothing.
"Isn't it weird?" I asked, looking at our surroundings. "Charlie has been guiding us from the very beginning, but this time he didn't warn us about which kind of enemies live here."
Suddenly, we heard the jarring sound of metal being dragged across the floor.
"It's coming this way," Grace whispered, hiding behind me. The corridor was long, but we could hear it clearly just from around the corner, accompanied by the intermittent steps of someone or something big. "Taylor? I haven't equipped the Bunskeel reward yet..."
"So? You have seen me fight with almost nothing. You'll be fine."
"But what if this time we die because we didn't use that item's boost? Do you want Charles to hoard all the treasures?"
"Fine. Do we run back to the entrance?"
"No!" she cried with closed teeth. "This way."
She grabbed my hand and dashed towards a double door, 30 feet away from us. The more we advanced, the closer that thing could be heard.
The doors opened without a problem as a shadow projected over the wall at the front. Grace closed the doors as quickly and gently as possible, just before the heavy steps passed by.
I walked backward until hitting something sturdy. If a moment ago I was about to brave whatever that thing was, now I felt relieved that it was gone.
"What is this?" I asked, looking at the thing behind me. It was a bookcase.
"We're in the library," Grace said, finally sounding astounded. "Look at all these books."
"I bet it's all fake. Just decorations."
"No, look!" Grace opened one at random, showing me its contents. "This is about cooking! Do you think we can cook in this world?"
"I hope so! This Virtual Reality food sucks."
"I wonder if…" Grace pondered for a couple of seconds before disappearing into the place's many corridors. "I bet she's looking for a magic tome or something," I muttered while checking the Bunnskeel reward:
+++ Choose one of the following pendants! +++
1 - Path of the Warrior: +Attack Up!
2 - Path of the Scholar: +Mana Up!
3 - Path of the Trickster: +Agility Up!
4 - Path of the Protector: +Defense Up!
5 - Path of the Insightful: +Senses Up!
When fighting in the woods, I noticed that to add potency to my attacks, I needed to use Mana, even if I'm not a mage like Grace. More mana could help me unleash more special attacks.
I didn't need defense, because I wasn't trying to be a tank like Steve. I already felt powerful, so the attack-up wasn't a must-have. More agility? Could I have been able to save Steve if I had been faster? Or… I could pick this 'Senses' one, which piqued my interest.
"Path of the Insightful, please."
+++ You got a new item! Equip Now? +++
"Yes…" When the pendant materialized on my neck, I didn't feel the difference. "Activate... pendant?" I said aloud, but nothing.
After exhaling, I grabbed it and examined the stone. Was it a jasper? I applied mana to it, and I experienced a sudden feeling of detachment from my body and experienced some kind of deafness. I could hear the slightest of sounds and amplify them if I concentrated on them. Would I be able to hear the thing walking outside? The 'sensory mode' I was in changed into some kind of x-ray vision, letting me see an enormous shape strolling outside… Neat?
"Look what I found!" Grace cried with excitement beside me, making me jolt in my place.
"You scared the shit out of me!"
"Huh?" She grimaced. "Why? What's that?"
"This is the rewa--"
"Whatever! Look!" She raised an open book right in front of my face, and I distinguished the drawing of a couple fucking. Yeah, I said that right. "What the…"