Chapter XXIX: Whisper and the Dungeon's Curse
The game changed between the beta and the official launch. Everything else had been the same, but this boss had been changed. That left me with a bad feeling. What else had changed? As a beta player, I thought I would have some advantage, but if things were changed...
I could only hope that nothing else had changed. So far only the first mini-boss had changed. I would have to inform the group chat when I logged off.
As the dust surrounded the other titan, the monster began to strink until it was our size. As it got small, its skin and muscle melted off the bones. It was a macabre scene straight out of a horror novel. Still, visually it looked cool, so I had to give the narrative department credit.
As the skeleton shrank, a second set of arms formed, appearing more like claws than fingers. Above its head, a new name appeared: Lord of Bones.
That was the name of the Dungeon Boss. It wasn't supposed to appear this early. Another change then.
The skeleton's eye sockets began to glow red. An inky darkness began to bleed into the white bones, turning them pitch black. "Well done, heroes. You have surpassed my expectations. I shall paint you with the darkness and turn you against this world. Come and face me, great heroes. I await you at the heart of the dungeon!"
With a bang, the doors behind the Lord of Bones flung themselves open. Before we could do anything, the skeleton monster opened his mouth and released a black haze. it swept through the room. Before it hit me, I saw the Lord of Bones jump back into the doors.
Before we could do anything, the haze struck. In the corner of my vision, a Skull appeared my by name, the curse icon.
A screen appeared:
CURSE EFFECT: RESTRICTION
The Lord of Bones has cursed you. Until it is destroyed, you will be restricted from leaving Lutetia.
Well crap.
"Wait, we can't leave the city? Can the game do that?"
"There are restrictions curse effects, but they weren't introduced so early in the beta," I told Euphie.
This was going to fuck us over and there was nothing we could do about it. The best areas to level right now were in the infernal forest and the surrounding areas. I'm sure some players already left the area, but for those of us who stayed, there were select areas for grinding.
Areas that were not locked to us. It wasn't only that the best mobs were off limits to us now, every area outside the city was now off limits. There was no place for us to grind anymore.
No, that wasn't completely true. The only place we could still level was this dungeon. It was the only place we'd be able to level now. Until the dungeon was mapped and the Lord of Bones was defeated, we were trapped.
Dungeon, or labyrinth for that matter, mapping was always a pain in the ass. It had taken a few weeks in the beta to map the dungeon in the first place... Had the dungeon been changed? Or was it still the same? If we could use the old maps, that would make our lives easier.
As the haze dissipated, another screen appeared:
YOU HAVE RECEIVED ALPHONSE'S TREASURE: THE FAMILY SIGNET RING.
"I guess we should return this," I said. "Then we'll have to visit an info broker."
"Why?"
"I need to see if anyone made a copy of this dungeon's old map data, Amos, and if anyone can tell me, it's an info broker."
I looked at the time. It was almost four. We had five more hours in Joyful Flourish, so we better get started.
When we gave Lord Alphonse the ring, he gave us a large chunk of change. I guess the lyre will help us if we need to pay a lot of info brokers.
"So, why are we going back to Algazie?"
"Because Attea has connections to a lot of players and info brokers. She does work for everyone."
"Oh, do I?"
I almost jumped out of my virtual skin. "How did you get behind us?"
Attea smirked. "You're standing outside my shop. Did you think I wouldn't notice you?"
"Do you have spies looking outside your store?"
"Nope," she said, popping the p. "I was out doing some shopping. I needed some Boar Tusks for some more equipment that a certain guild ordered. So, what do you need? Don't tell me you have more cloaks you want me to make."
"No. I need you to get me into contact with Whisper?"
"Who's Whisper?"
Attea turned to her. "Your voice sounds cute. Who are you?"
"Ghost Lantern."
"Your real name, sweetie."
"Attea, leave her alone. Ghost, Whisper is an info broker. He was one of the best during the beta. You know him, don't you? He was one of your clients in the beta"
"If you know that much, shouldn't you be able to find him yourself?"
"It's quicker if I ask you. I know where to find you and I know you know where to find him. It's important."
"Oh yeah? Why?"
"We're under a curse effect. We can't leave the city."
She whistled. "Well damn. I guess we have to go inside. He should still be there. If he hadn't left."
Whisper's avatar was still the same, small and wiry. He looked like a twelve-year-old kid, but his voice was a lot deeper than it should have been. Standing there with two of Attea's NPCs taking his measurements, he looked like an angelically handsome rich boy.
Whisper had a head of the blondest hair I had ever seen, eyes so blue the color could match the deepest part of the ocean and a smirk that ticked me off.
"That's him over there," I told my friends. "I'm going to go talk with him. Wait for me."
Kanade narrowed her eyes. "You want to talk to him alone? Why?"
"It's better that way. If he finds out that we're a party and we're planning on becoming a guild, he's not going to leave us alone."
"Stalker?"
"He has a lot of players that sell him information and if puts the word out to look into us, that's what's going to happen. I don't want us being investigated by everyone looking for some lyre."
"That's fine with me. I got to talk to Attea about what I want," Amos said happily.
"You two should go with him. I trust Attea to make something nice, but you might want to add personal touches. I should have let you tell her last time."
"Chevalier Phénix, it's been a while. Tell me, who were those people with you?"
"New players I met in the Infernal Forest. I saved them."
"How generous of you."
I shrugged. "I'm glad to see you."
"You are? So tell me, what do you want?"
"I can't just say hi to an old friend?"
Whisper snorted. "I do consider you a friend, but you're a customer before a friend. A great customer, but a customer nonetheless. Now again, tell me, Chevalier Phénix, what do you want?"
"I want to know if you have old map data," I asked him bluntly. He didn't want me to beat around the bush, then I wouldn't. "Or do you know anyone who has old map data?"
"Old map data? I might. Which dungeon or labyrinth are you looking for."
"The Lutetia Dungeon."
"That dungeon hasn't been opened yet. Everyone is looking for the quest NPC, but she hasn't appeared."
"That's for me to know and me to buy. Do you need to know?"
He drummed his fingers on his arm. "As it so happened, I recorded all the map data I had before the beta ended. While the copies on the old servers were deleted, I have plenty."
"So you have a copy."
"Yes. I'd have to log out and import it, which will take some time and effort, but I have it. Though I've heard some things have changed from the beta. This data might be outdated. Even if it isn't, until the quests have been opened, it's useless."
"Let me deal with that."
"... Tell you what, you tell me why you want this data and I'll give it to you for free."
That was easy. "Really?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die."
"If you lie to me-"
"My word is as good as gold. It has to be if I'm an info broker, you know what. So come on, enough trying to change the subject. Why do you want it?"
"The dungeon is going to be opened to the public very soon."
"And how would you know?"
"Because we found the quest and completed it."
His eyes lit up. "Really? So it's going to open soon?"
"Yes."
"That's quite the scoop. If I put that rumor out, I bet I could sell that data for a very good price. When is it supposed to open?"
"I'm not sure. Lord Alphonse said he was going to create a passage, so I assume it's going to happen soon."
"You've spoken to him?"
"Yes."
"Alright. I'll put the word out now so it can spread why I work on importing that data. I'm going to make a killing. And you will get the information when it's imported like promised."
***
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***
And now... We come to a problem. You see, I am not writing this story as you're reading it. Reborn Gamer was written over a year ago and I have 100 chapters of it completed. That's when I started focuing on a different work.
I do enjoy writing this story and I plan to continue after the initial 100 chapters, but for now, that's all I have. Now the problem. I'm overseas for work. I thought I grabbed the flash drive with all 100 chapters, but I only have 29 chapters.
I imagine you can spot the issue. I can't just take a trip back over the Pacific to get it. I'm going to be here for another month and a half.
The good news is I have a family member who's willing to go digging through my storage when she gets home in a week (she's also out of the US) and she'll email them to me. Once I have the chapters, they will continue to be uploaded daily. We're going on break just for one week. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience! Once I have the rest of the chapters, we will return it daily uploads for the 71 days.