Chapter 10- The Ax Wielder's Grudge

A Chapter by NG-S

Chapter 10- The Ax Wielder's Grudge

"Say now, who exactly are you?"

I'm starting to lose my composure. My heart is beating faster, I'm probably sweating. This man, Grady, seems to know who I am. That's not good, not at all. I shouldn't panic, stay calm. Just stay calm.

"Hey, Grady, is she the one?" The other adventurer asked.

Grady nodded. "I think so, Sam. She doesn't have any dragon features, but her face looks the same."

"I randomized my face when I created my character."

"Hey, what is this about?" Julie stepped out from behind me.

Grady lowered his ax, but kept his stern gaze on me. "The day the game launched I was targeted by a P.K."

"What does that have to do with Elsa?"

"The person who got me had her face and used ice magic. Not only that, but they were a Necromancer."

I'm glad I had taken my ring accessory and placed it in my inventory as soon as this guy started talking like he knew me. I should've been more careful and completely changed my gear after the first day. Instead all I did was activate my Humanification skill and pull my hood up. Damn it, stupid mistake! I could slap myself right now.

"I've never seen Elsa use ice magic."

It makes me happy that Julie is speaking up for me. I'm glad to know our friendship goes beyond dungeon exploring together.

"If we had an Elemental Saber we could know for sure." It was Sam who mentioned this.

"And where are we gonna get one of those?" Grady asked, his frustration seemed to be growing

"Julie has one." I say.

I could pull my own out. An Elemental Saber is a free gift to all ultimate edition players. Seeing as how neither Grady nor Sam have one I can rule out that they're premium players. It's actually impressive Grady made it to level 31 this fast. Sam on the other hand is only at level 18.

"Are you sure?" Julie asked me.

I gave her a nod. This would be the quickest way to prove my innocence in their eyes. The reason I want Julie to use her Elemental Saber is to throw them off. Even though my gear is top quality, if I lead them to believe I don't have the saber they'd be fooled into thinking I'm a standard player.

Julie pulled the saber out of her inventory and handed it to me.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

Grady and Sam know a little about Elemental Sabers, but their knowledge is misleading. I assume they're under the assumption the blade turns a different color for the types of magic a person knows. This is half the truth, in actuality you can set what types of magic you want channeled through the blade.

At the moment I took the blade it turned fire red. The only type of magic I allowed to pass through the saber was flame magic. I had been using a flameball to light my way in the dungeon, there's no way I could hide my flame magic. Seeing as how Grady and Sam are here without torches I assume they both have night vision skills.

Grady scratched the back of his head upon seeing the Elemental Saber glow with my magic. "That doesn't make sense. I thought for sure it would turn ice blue."

I hand the saber back to Julie who returns it to her inventory.

"Are you satisfied now?" I ask.

"But your appearance. Beside the face your outfit matches my attacker."

"This outfit is standard. Tons of people have it." I was stretching the truth a bit.

"The crown?" Grady asked.

"Again, a standard weapon."

"Yes, even I have one." Julie added.

"I'm sorry. I really am." Grady bowed apologetically. He's kind of an idiot for believing me. In a game like this, after a week already unless it's done intentionally there shouldn't be anyone with the same character build as you. There are far too many customizable options.

"It's fine." I told him. "Can you tell me exactly how you got defeated?"

Yes, I'm being vain. I wanna hear stories about my glorious victories in battle, praise my might.

"It was completely disrespectful."

Wait? What's he talking about?

"She teleported with a zombie. Before we even knew what was going on she was throwing icicles at our limbs, freezing our bodies, and ordering her undead to cut off our heads… I watched as players I just met got decapitated one right after another. She froze their heads solid and had her undead toss them into a sack. That's all I can really say before I got killed."

That's more like it. Feel free to go and spread that tale, Grady. When he first called me out as being a dragonoid and necromancer I gotta say I was taken by surprise. I didn't memorize the faces of the players I took down, but I knew he must've been one of them. What an odd coincidence we ended up running into each other here. It's not like this is the only intermediate level dungeon in the game, there are dozens of them. Now that he no longer suspects me we shouldn't have a problem.

"You should be more careful of player killers." I warn him, unable to hide my smile.

"I'll get my revenge on that b***h when I find her. I've been leveling up like crazy. I might have even already passed her level."

No, not a chance. I'm still way too strong, but if I keep wasting time in this dungeon other players will catch up to me. It was worth it for a while to play the game with Julie, but I can't forget my goal.

"Keep it up." I say. "We should probably head out now, don't you agree Julie?"

"Hm? Oh yeah. We should get back to level grinding."

"Hey, if you want a challenge I know one." Grady pointed with his thumb behind him. I didn't notice it before, but there was a door in the wall. The door was nothing special, just an old wooden door that had a lock on it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Julie asked.

I was thinking the same thing, this room's probably a treasure room. In one of those you'd find a treasure chest, but also a trap of some kind. The typical trap would be a horde of monsters surrounding you once you try to open the chest. You'll never know what type of trap is in the room until you go in.

"This is our second treasure room. They're tough, last time we were attacked by undead skeletons." Grady said as he walked toward the room. "It's more that we were outnumbered rather than overpowered by strong monsters. Overall their levels were low, they just swarmed us."

He kicked the goblin corpses aside and cut off the lock with his ax. Unless it was a player most corpses stay for around ten minutes. I believe the reason is twofold, first to warn any passers-by that there was a battle here recently and second to scavenge parts.

"If you don't mind, we could use your help. We'll even split the treasure evenly with you if we can." Grady placed his hand on the door and pushed it open.

"What do you think, Julie?"

"I think we should. Even if we don't get any treasure it's a good experience."

She's right. At least her level might go up and this is the first treasure room we've come across. Of course this whole thing could be a trap, but we'll never know unless we go in.

"So, are you coming?" Grady asked as Sam walked over to him.

"Yeah." I answer.

The four of us enter the room. It's not that big here, maybe the average size of a low-income apartment unit. The walls are the same uneven rocky surface as the dungeon. The treasure chest was sitting against a wall, in the center. It was a standard sized treasure chest made out of wood and held together with metal nails. The chest was locked.

Sam ran over to the chest without hesitation. "Here it is! I'll open it." He looked a bit greedy, this lowered my opinion of him.

"Be careful." Grady warned.

I turned back to see if any monsters appeared behind us, but I saw something stranger. "Where's the door?"

The others looked back, but all we saw was a rocky wall where the door should've been.

"S**t! Sam, hurry up!" Grady shouted as he readied his ax for any incoming enemies.

"I'm trying! I'm trying!" Sam fiddled with the lock, eventually snapping it off. When he went to open the chest the floor started glowing blue.

"What the hell is this?!" Grady shouted.

"Elsa!" Julie reached her hand out to me.

I was tempted to grab her hand, but I didn't. I stood there motionless and looked at the floor. I knew this feeling. I knew what was going to happen and I embraced it.

The light became blinding so I closed my eyes. I knew that when I opened them back up I'd be somewhere different, lost in the dungeon.

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