World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (13 page)

“Oops, my bad!”
Conrad replies, suddenly feeling embarrassed by the conversation and
her admonishment.

“Guys, keep your head
in the game,” Wesley scolds his teammates. “Also, I see the
intersection straight again, and the opening beyond," he
reports. "Once we reach the intersection, we can stop crawling
to take a breather.” He smiles broadly at the carrot and stick
method he just used on the party.
Sometimes
it is good to be at the front of the line
, he smiles
again.

“Then, hurry up and
move!” the big man urges. “I'm dying in this tunnel, man!” he
complains, finally admitting his discomfort.

“Oh? Are you
claustrophobic?” the mage teases Conrad.

“No!” the rear
guard strongly denies. “It's just that with the dead carcass
dangling over our heads, I'd rather get out of this tunnel ASAP. You
know what, Mister High and Might Wizard? If you had spent just a
smidgen more mana on these spikes, you could have lifted the carcass
higher off the ground. And then we wouldn't be crawling on our hands
and knees like this,” he complains.

“Blah, blah, blah!
You are such an ingrate!” the battle mage retorts angrily. “I had
to blow out my entire mana pool, AND borrow some more from Diana, to
spike that damn centipede in place. With the nasty biofeedback loop
from emptying out my mana again, I took one for the team. Again. I
practically handed that monster's head on a silver platter for you to
bash with your big cave man club. And now that we got past the hard
part, you're bellyaching over crawling inside a tunnel? Give me a
break!” he yells.

“ENOUGH!” Wesley
shouts from the front before Conrad could reply. “Gentlemen, save
your energy for the next fight," he orders. "I'm sure the
dungeon designers have set up more tough monsters for us to deal with
shortly. With that said, I am now getting out of the tunnel and
moving into the intersection. We will take a one minute break to
stretch out in the intersection before we move on to the next
tunnel,” he says.

With the
Will-o'-of-wisp's guiding light, the armored knight crawls, head
first, out of the tunnel. Sticking his head out of the tunnel, he
turns his head from side to side and finds no monster waiting outside
the opening. Looking down, he sees that the ground is about two feet
lower than the bottom edge of the tunnel's opening. The cavalier
pushes his body forward by pressing his hands and arms against the
opening. Once his body down to his hips is through the opening, he
carefully stretches out his palms on the ground of the intersection.
He wills his legs to crawl forward to the edge of the opening. Taking
a deep breath of air, he lifts his legs off the edge of the tunnel
and tumble rolls his body forward. Once his feels his heels connect
with solid ground in the intersection, he plants his feet on the
ground and uses the momentum to spring his body forward and off the
ground.

Clap-clap-clap-clap!
“Man, you're a real spring chicken aren't you?” Lucious applauds
the armored knight's marvelous, acrobatic feat.

Wesley turns around to
look at the young man. “Well, I do my best to stay in shape, even
though I'm retired and all,” he shrugs.

“Well, I know my
limitations,” the mage remarks. “I am certainly not going to be
able to do that roll on the ground thingie. So instead of
embarrassing myself in front of a world wide audience, I will get out
of the tunnel the easy way: feet first.” He turns his head back.
“Diana dear, I need to turn around to get out of the tunnel. So
could you please back up a little bit? You too, Conrad,” he
requests politely while motioning with his hand for the two to back
away.

Biting their replies,
the other two party members shuffle back a few steps.

“Thank you,” the
mage says while turning around inside the tunnel. Leading with his
feet, he pauses momentarily at the edge of the opening.

“You need help,
dude?” Wesley offers.

“Nah, I'm good,”
the young mage replies. He slowly pushes his body out of the hole
until his feet make contact with solid ground. He takes two steps
back away from the opening, and pulls his upper torso out of the
tunnel. “Piece of cake,” he says while giving Wesley a thumbs up.

“Could you move the
heck out of the way so that the rest of us could get out, mister
showboat?” Diana complains.
Jeez,
this guy is so self-center!

The mage takes a big,
lateral step to his left, and slides his body away from the opening.
“Here,” the young man sticks out his right knee in front of the
opening.

The priestess turns her
body around so that her feet is facing the opening. She pushes her
body forward, dangling her legs through the opening until she feels
the proffered knee. Pushing her torso through the opening, she uses
the knee as a step and gets out of the tunnel.

After the two spell
casters move away from the opening in the tunnel, it is finally the
barbarian's turn. Conrad sticks his head out of the tunnel to gauge
the drop from the opening to the ground.

“You need some help,
big fella?” Wesley asks.

The barbarian lifts his
head to look at the knight. “Who me?” he asks pointing a finger
at his nose. “Nah, this is nothing,” he replies. Positioning his
massive body into a tightly wound crouch at the opening, Conrad
pushes off the balls of his toes and launches his body through the
opening. He lands on his tower shield, and tumble rolls forward until
his feet is on the ground.

“Just like a cat,”
Diana remarks while admiring the big man's athleticism.

“You mean a big pussy
cat,” the mage quips.

Wesley walks over to
stand in front of Conrad and holds out his hand.

The professional
athletic accepts the hand and is pulled back to his feet. “So how
does it look? Any more crawling in store for us?” he asks.

“To be honest, I
haven't checked beyond a cursory confirmation that there is no
monster waiting to ambush us in this intersection,” the cavalier
replies. “If I have suitable lighting, I can check now and see,”
he glances over at the battle mage.

“One light source
coming right up,” Lucious replies cheerfully. He raises his staff,
and the staff's orb glows softly. He dispels the Will-o'-the-wisp
back to its elemental plane of air. “Here we go! One light source.
Would you like some complimentary fries and soft drink with that?”
he says with a smirk.

“Just stick close to
me,” Wesley replies with annoyance, clearly not amused with the
young man's attitude at this critical juncture.

“Aye, captain!” the
mage salutes, earning an elbow in his ribs from an equally annoyed
Diana.

“Knock it off!” she
growls.

Lucious wisely stays
silent, hurrying to keep up with the cavalier, who has already
entered the hidden tunnel. He catches up with the knight, holding the
staff slightly behind Wesley's head to provide illumination for the
new tunnel. The passageway is approximately half the size of the
previous one inhabited by the giant centipede, and therefore off
limits to the insect. Thus, the party is now able navigate through
the tunnel while standing upright, as long as the adventurers lower
their heads a bit. "Hey Conrad! This new tunnel is big enough
for us to get through without crawling," he yells back from
inside the tunnel.

Wesley keeps turning
his head back and forth, weary of any more hidden traps inside this
tunnel. Suddenly he notices another opening up ahead, and stops
walking for a moment. “Guys, I see another opening dead ahead. Be
ready for anything,” he declares. Hearing no comment, he marches
straight for the exit. Suddenly he finds himself in a room full of
television screens, all showing the cavalier avatar!

“What the heck is
this?” Lucious remarks as he enters the room, which is cubical in
shape with each side of the wall approximately five feet in length.
Each side of the wall is filled with screens from end to end; each
screen is depicting a party member in the room.

“Look at this!”
Diana exclaims while checking her face and hair with the image on the
screen.

Suddenly, the screens
change, and white words appear on the black screens: “Welcome ye
brave adventurers! Ye have arrived at the Room of Eternia. In mere
moments, the Doors of Eternia will appear. Only one person may go
through each door. Good luck!” The screens go blank after ten
seconds. Abruptly, the room starts to rumble and move downward! After
a few seconds, the room stops moving. Crack! The Strangers look
around the room, and see that doors have appeared on the walls. The
doors are labeled, “North,” “East,” “South,” and “West.”

“Team meeting,
Strangers!” Wesley says.
I
don't think monsters will appear in this room,
he thinks
confidently.
It feels like the
campaign has reached a critical stage, and a small prep talk is in
order.
The party gathers around him, attentively waiting
for him to speak. “Okay guys! It appears that the campaign has
split into solo portions now. I don't know what the dungeon designers
have in store for us,” he says as he slowly turns his head to look
each party member in the eye. “But I am confident that each one of
you will survive and get past whatever is thrown at you. Why? Because
you are the best of the best! You are a STRANGER!” He pumps his
fist in the air to emphasize the point.

“Stranger!” Conrad
joins in with a fist in the air.

“Stranger!” Diana
repeats.

The three turn their
heads toward the battle mage.

“Stranger!” Lucious
replies with a lackadaisical fist pump.
I
thought I graduated from high school
, he rolls his eyes at
the impromptu prep rally staged by the old man.

Wesley breaks up the
party gathering, and walks across the room to stand in front of the
North door. The door senses his presence, and opens by itself
swinging outward. A blue shimmering hue appears, blocking the
adventurer's view of what lies beyond the door.

Taking the hint,
Lucious chooses the East door.
Hopefully,
I get lucky this time
, he thinks of the possible monster
encounters in store for him beyond the door.
After
all, I am due for some good luck.

Diana takes the West
door.

Conrad walks to the
remaining South door.

Looking back at his
party, Wesley sees that doorways are yellow, red, and green in
colors, respectively.
I wonder
if the colors have any significance. I'm probably over analyzing
this.
Shaking his head, the leader offers some parting
words to his teammates. “See you guys at the finish line.” With
that, Wesley steps through the blue doorway, and hears the door slam
shut behind him.

The faint sound of
footsteps echo softly as Wesley walks through yet another passageway.
However, this time the corridor is illuminated with a torch on the
right wall every ten feet. The cavalier has counted five so far.
Suddenly, the corridor empties into a wide, square chamber.

Still standing in the
passageway, Wesley sees no other exits from the room. However, in the
room itself is a life-sized traditional chessboard, with each square
approximately three feet wide and spread across the entire floor of
the room. The squares alternate in black and white color; the squares
are immaculately polished, giving off a shiny gleam reflecting the
torchlight on the wall. Wesley notes that he is standing behind the
white side of the chess pieces. Seeing no alternative, the knight
steps into the room, and onto the vacant spot for the king chess
piece.

Once the knight has
placed both feet on the designated square, jewel stones embedded
within the walls begin to glow, and a faint, transparent-white
colored wall suddenly block off the opening, trapping the adventurer
inside the chessboard chamber.

STOMP! A black pawn
suddenly moves two steps forward of its own accord.

Wesley makes a mental
note to designate the square positions on the chessboard as “a”
through “h” from left to right, and “1” through “8” from
the end of his white side to the end of the black side. The piece
that just moved was in the a7 position and is now in a5.

As the cavalier stares
at the chest piece that had just moved and wonders what he should do,
another black pawn, in c7, rises high in the air, as if lifted by a
giant, invisible hand, and is placed in c5.

Let's
see what happens if I block a pawn
, Wesley thinks to
himself. He steps out of his white king position on the chessboard,
squeezes past the two pawns in front of him, and jogs down to the c4
square, blocking the advancing black pawn at c5.

In response, the black
pawn rises high in the air, and starts dropping down on Wesley's
square! Without hesitation, the knight draws his long sword out of
the scabbard in one swift motion, and cuts the giant pawn piece above
him into two.

The two pieces drop
lifelessly onto the marble chessboard, and slowly dissipates into
thin air.

The other black pieces
shift and stir, and begin to move on their own!

“Oh, you don't like
having your buddy killed?” Wesley taunts the now animated chess
pieces. “Then come and get it!” he cries as he winds back and
swings his long sword horizontally to his right, cutting the black
pawn in the adjacent d5 position in half.

With his back turned, a
black rook slams into the cavalier from his blind side, knocking the
surprised adventurer out of the square!

“Umph!” Wesley
blurts out in surprise. Checking his health bar, the cavalier notes
that the hit wiped 2% of his health bar. "What a cheap shot,"
the player mutters under his breath as he gets back to his feet.
Annoyed at the cowardly attack to his back, Wesley lashes out with
his shield, and knocks the chess piece down on its side. Putting his
foot down on the helpless rook, he chops its head off. The warrior
watches with immense satisfaction as the pieces dissipate into thin
air.
Pay back's a bitch
,
he thinks to himself.
Too bad I
can't say that aloud
, he grins as he remembers the in-game
video and audio capture.