"It's called The Deep Mine," Tarface said. He panned the flashlight across the dungeon gate's surface, illuminating the misty surface. It writhed and twisted upon itself like smoke, as if disturbed by the intruding light.
"You want us to do the dungeon?" One of the players asked, then gave a short little laugh, as if relieved that was all.
The corners of Tarface's mouth curved ever so slightly upwards. "The fee for yer permits is 10 pieces of Amaurite each. Now, ye can spend a few days and mine it yerself. Or, ye can try out this dungeon."
"Ten pieces?" Gimbo Jimbo repeated. "Are you kidding me?"
"That's a lot," Karniah looked at the dungeon gate, before humming lightly under breath.
"These permits must be worth a lot," Awesome Dude said. "I think we should do the dungeon, Sev."
As much as Severance didn't like it, that was starting to look like the best option.
"Ten pieces is ridiculous! Do you know how long that will take? That's like ten dungeon runs!" Gimbo Jimbo exclaimed, and players murmured their agreement.
"Feh." Tarface did his signature spit onto the ground. He crossed his arms across his thin chest. "Don't like it, don't do it. It's the only way yer gonna get what ye want."
"But you gave Gingy and the other guy a permit," Gimbo Jimbo protested. "Why do we have to run dungeons? It's not fair!"
Tarface just lifted his hands and shrugged. "That's how it is. Bring me ten Amaurite Crystals and I'll give ye a permit."
Gimbo Jimbo opened his mouth, then froze. His eyes lost focus for a moment, as did the other players. It was the eeriest thing Severance had seen. It was like they'd turned into dolls, motionless and empty, before they all suddenly blinked, odd expressions crossing their faces.
Then he suddenly understood why, because the System gave a gentle chime.
Quest Completed: Speak with Tarface
Quest Received: Gain ten Amaurite Crystals for a permit
A soft curse came from one of the players, while Gimbo Jimbo looked like he'd swallowed a lemon.
"Ten," he muttered. Then he lifted his eyes and looked over the group, his attention briefly resting on Severance before moving on. "We don't have a tank."
"We'll have to call for a tank," one of the players said. "It'd be suicide to go into a dungeon blind without one."
The quiet Cryomancer spoke, her voice soft, yet everyone turned to look at her. "Has anyone heard anything about this one?"
"No."
"I haven't."
"My clan didn't say anything."
Gimbo Jimbo swore under his breath. "Great. Just what we need. Someone, find us a tank, will you? Is anyone a healer?"
"Oh yeah!" Awesome Dude elbowed Severance. "Sev here is a healer!"
Severance grimaced as several sets of eyes turned his way.
Tarface, who'd been watching with deep interest, interrupted. "Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention somethin'. Healers gotta do somethin' else. Ye'll have to do without 'im."
"What?" Severance stared at him.
At the same time, other voices mirrored his "What?" much more indignantly.
"What ye all lookin' so stoopid for? Did I say ye all 'ad to do the same thing?" Tarface spat, annoyance written all over his face.
"Bastard," Gimbo Jimbo muttered, not even bothering to lower his tone. That earned him an ugly sneer from Tarface. Scowling angrily, Gimbjo Jimbo gestured at the others. "Someone call for a healer too, then."
Severance felt dazed as he watched a couple of the players bring up their System menu. Of course he couldn't see it, since everyone's System was only visible to themselves, but he heard them speak the commands and saw hands lift to tap on invisible windows.
It was strange to see. He wondered what Elionans thought when players did this, and on a whim, he looked at Tarface. The man watched them with a knowing little smirk, as if he was enjoying the show.
Severance suddenly felt cold, like someone poured ice into his lungs. What was Tarface's game here?
"I can't get through." One of the players abruptly dropped their hands, disbelief in their voice. "It's not working."
"Try again," Gimbo Jimbo demanded. "You probably did something wrong."
A second later, another player swallowed nervously, shaking their head. "He's right. I can't get through either."
"What the hell?" Gimbo Jimbo scowled. "System, Inbox." A moment later, he spun around to point an accusing finger at Tarface. "What did you do?!"
Tarface grinned and spread his arms. "I did nothin'."
"Then why doesn't our messages work?!"
"Don't ask me. How would I know about Outsider magic?"
Karniah came forward, looking worried. "I can't teleport either."
"Me neither." Awesome Dude, for once, looked a little unsure. He looked to Severance, who only shook his head.
He didn't know what was going on, either. If he didn't know better, he would have thought Tarface was doing all of this on purpose. Somehow.
Gimbo Jimbo faced Tarface, jaw clenched so tight that his teeth audibly ground together. "What's going on here? Why doesn't anything work?"
"I told ye, I don't know." The Elionan man sneered. "An', I don't care. If I were ye, I'd focus on gettin' that Amaurite."
"This is crazy!" One of the other players shouted. "Not only do you just give away permits to other people, but you tell us we have to do this dungeon a bunch of times to earn ours. But we don't have a tank or a healer. And on top of that, we can't teleport, or send messages. You're telling us to do the impossible! What kind of stupid game is this?!"
Severance wanted to cheer that player on. What they were saying were the thoughts of everyone here.
Tarface shrugged. "Not my problem."
"You—!" The player lunged forward, but the others grabbed him back before he could do anything.
"Let's try it," Karniah said. When the players looked at her like she was crazy, she shrugged. "I'm an Evoker. My Phoenix can heal a little. It's not much, but what do we have to lose?"
That brought on grumbling. Looks were shared amongst each other, and Severance thought he heard someone mutter something about trying it first before they started slaughtering NPCs.
Light blinded Severance, forcing him to reel away, one hand darting up to cover his eyes. When he peeked through his fingers, he saw it was Tarface shining the lantern at his face. The jerk.
"Come on, healer," the jerk nodded towards the tunnel they'd come through. "Don't ye wanna know how yer gonna earn yer way?"
Not really. Severance glanced at the other players, only to get a disconcerted glower from a couple of them. Why were they looking at him like it was his fault? It wasn't!
"Don't worry, Sev! You go do your thing, and we'll meet up after, okay?" That was Awesome Dude. It made Severance feel a lot better, because at least he wasn't alone in this. Even if the other players were mad at him, there was one who at least had his back.
Or maybe two, because Karniah was giving him an encouraging smile and a wave.
He managed a tiny smile in response. Then he followed Tarface, who was already several yards ahead. He had to jog a bit to catch up.
Butterflies, or perhaps it was more accurate to say giant vultures, were flapping about in his gut, and it was all he could do to keep the worry at bay. If the others were forced into a near suicidal task, just what did Tarface have in store for him?
Once they left the mine, Tarface headed to a different building. This one looked exactly like the others, except the windows were boarded up and the door had a black X spray painted across it.
That wasn't ominous at all.
Just before the door, Tarface stopped and turned around. "This here is where the afflicted stay. Yer job is to heal all three of 'em."
"Afflicted?" Severance eyed the marked door. "With what?"
"Heh," Tarface gave that creepy smile again, the one that raised all the little hairs on Severance's skin. "Ye'll see. Come find me when yer done."
Quest Updated: Gain ten Amaurite Crystals for a permit or Heal 3 Afflicted for a permit
Cackling in a very disconcerting way, the crazy guy walked off. Severance watched him go.
This wasn't so bad, right? Healing was easy. He just had to fix up three people. He exhaled heavily, a lot of the tension going with it.
Why had he been so worried? Of course the game wouldn't give them impossible quests. Sure, there'd be challenging ones, but there would always be a solution. That Deep Mine dungeon was probably designed to work without a tank or healer.
He faced the door with the big X marked on it. Reaching for the door handle, he pulled it open.
Warm fetid air rushed out, slapping him in the face. It was so foul and rotten that he staggered back, instinctively covering his nose and mouth with a trembling hand.
It didn't help.
The stench emanating from inside the place was so incredibly strong. How many decaying bodies had to be crammed in there to produce such an odor? Because that was the only thing he could imagine that would cause this.
He peered through the door apprehensively. No piles of bodies greeted him. Just an empty entrance, lit only by a lantern hung on the wall.
So why did it smell so bad?
He tugged the top of his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose, and breathed shallowly though his mouth. Now he could taste it, which was even worse.
Don't be a baby, he told himself. Just get in there, heal, and leave.
Severance walked into the little building. The door swung shut behind him with a squeal, followed by a slam. He jumped, spinning around to stare at the door.
A door. Right, just the door. Nothing scary there.
Cautiously, he crept further inside. There really wasn't much to see. He was in a short entrance hallway with a room to the left and another to the right. The room on the left was completely dark, while the right had a soft golden glow coming from within.
"Hello?" he called out softly.
Something rustled, and then a hoarse female voice rasped, "Who's there?"
Severance hesitantly moved towards the doorway. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to see. "Me?"
Utter silence followed his brilliant self-introduction.
He gave up on using his tunic as a breathing mask, and smoothed the material back into place. It wasn't doing a thing to help, anyway. Then he took a moment to adjust his coat, because it was awesome and black and needed adjusting. Next, he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to smooth it down some. The ashen strands already appeared to be behaving just fine, but it never hurt to double check.
He peered around the short hallway, wondering if there was a mirror somewhere just so he could check. There was none that he could see. Maybe mirrors didn't exist in this game.
"Quit yer loitering and get in 'ere," snapped an irate voice. "Or get out."
Severance froze, both hands buried in his hair. He'd totally been caught procrastinating. Sheepishly, he dropped his hands and obediently shuffled into the room.
"Outsider?" Another scratchy voice murmured.
Another answered in a breathy whisper. "Here?"
The voices fell silent. Curiosity got the better of him, and he lifted his gaze.
Two women sat beside a bed, upon which a third lay burrowed beneath blankets. They watched him with milky eyes so pale and discolored that the pupils blended into the whites of the sclera.
He immediately forgot about the horrible smell.
Each woman's skin was as gray and hard as the rock brought up from the mines. Their faces were frozen into a neutral expression, with deep cracks forming around the mouth and eyes to allow for a small degree of movement. These cracks oozed discolored blood and pus, seeping down their faces and staining their clothing. And it wasn't just the faces—every part of skin that was visible was much the same.
Horror rooted Severance to the spot. Just what had happened to these people? How could such a thing even exist? Afflicted, Tarface has said. Afflicted with what?
"Frightenin', ain't it?" The woman in the nearest chair let out a rasping laugh. It was a bitter, resigned sound rather than one of amusement. "It's what 'appens when ye spend a lifetime with obsa."
"Obsa?" Severance whispered. He was unable to look away, even though he wanted nothing more than to quit the game and bleach out his eyeballs. And his nose, because he was sure it was never going to work right again.
"The black rocks," the other woman in the chair croaked. Her breath came out in wheezes, like she couldn't quite get enough air. "They 'old the obsa."
"What..." he paused, swallowing against a suddenly dry throat. "What is obsa, exactly?"
Was that what Awesome Dude picked up? He was going to have to tell his friend to throw it away the next time he saw him.
"Hmmm," one woman hummed, her cloudy eyes growing distant.
"A curse," hissed the woman on the bed.
"Does it matter?" The third was resigned. "It's worth somethin', so we gather the rocks, day after day, night after night."
The bedridden woman hacked out a weak cough. "An' look what we get fer it. We suffer and then we die."
What was he supposed to say to that? Severance shifted awkwardly before them, eyes traveling around the room without daring to rest on them. He felt horrible for them. No matter what he thought of this place or these NPCS, the bedridden woman's words struck a chord within him.
We suffer and then die.
What kind of awful life was that?