Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Chapter 5: Queen of Shadows

Lucan and the mouse moved down the tunnels. Every chamber they came across was empty and they were always on the right side of the tunnel. Every room looked identical to the first, minus the skeleton and the chest. Lucan had been walking for several hours but the tunnel still continued perfectly straight. The whole time his random mutterings became louder and more frequent.

[Fourth degree mild insanity had been upgraded to first degree moderate insanity]

Lucan was slowly losing his ability to rationally think, but there was only one thing he could do. He had to keep walking forward.

3 days passed without finding anything after the first room. No opponents, no exit, no variation from the chamber on the right side of the tunnel after 30 minutes of walking.

"This has to end soon." Brax said, sitting up from his bed. 'If it doesn't, I will eventually have to kill myself and respawn from the graveyard after I take the penalty.'

***

The day came and went. Brax logged back in only to keep walking through the tunnel.

He started to see variations and changes but he couldn't trust his eyes. Fourth degree moderate insanity had set in and he couldn't trust anything. Regardless, Brax couldn't store the small chest in his bag anymore. Lucan would take it out the moment he stored it and held it tightly in his arms.

"I will keep you safe. Don't worry." He would whisper to it.

When moderate insanity progressed to extreme insanity, the only thing he could do was to crawl forward while clutching the chest. He crawled through swamps, desserts, and across an artic ice cap, he suffered from the harsh environments one after another. Lucan constantly told himself its all in his head, but it didn't stop the sun from making him feel like he was dying from dehydration. It didn't stop the creatures from taunting him and lashing out.

So many times, he thought about the suicide button that would take him straight to the graveyard. He could buy some fresh bread after reviving and sit by the lake in a clam breeze. He might even be good enough at wood working to make a fishing pole now. How wonderful would that be.

But he didn't stop. When fourth degree extreme insanity hit, the best he could do was curl up, close his eyes and inch forward.

It felt like he had been crawling through the tunnel for the better part of the month, but his interface told him he still had 8 hours left of play time before he would be kicked out.

"Hey you, what are doing here?" A dark-skinned elf came running up towards him. Lucan opened his eyes and turned in the direction of the voice, his eyes told him he was in a forest, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe that. Two more elves trailed behind the first.

"Back! Get Back!" Lucan shouted. "Are you working with that sneak thief, or did the smug dragon send you? It doesn't matter, no one will get my treasure. AH, ha, ha, With the power given to me from the mighty Raze I will rend flesh from the bones of any who dare trespass against me."

"Easy now, there are no dragons or thieves here. No one wants your treasure." The elf said as she put away her bow and showed empty hands to Lucan.

"Lisel, what are you doing? That human has obviously gone crazy, leave him be."

"If you don't want to help then just get out of here." She said. 'I am sure this is him; I can't leave.'

***

"What is so important that I had to stop what I was doing and come up three floors? Don't you know what lunch hour is?" Bret complained to his newest subordinate. 'Source Creations' only gave him 30 minutes for lunch, so he was never happy to be interrupted.

"Sorry boss but I got a T8 alert in the Depths of Despair."

"What? T8 are you sure?"

"Yes boss, I checked it twice."

"I'm sorry. You did good. Start gathering a report on the player and pull up all active information on the situation. How long has he been in?"

"Yes boss, 8 hours."

"What?! And we are just hearing about it now? Is there something wrong with the alert protocols?"

"No boss, I checked, and everything is in order. He has been in a high degree of insanity for awhile but only in the past five minutes have his stress markers reached the notification level."

"Alright, I will inform the director."

Bret sat behind his desk, picked up the phone and dialed extension 1. The Director of Operations.

"Director of Operations office, how may I direct your call."

"This is Bret Telif in monitoring, I need to speak to the Director immediately."

"I'm sorry, the Director is in a meeting for another hour, I can take a message if you like?"

"No, this urgent, can you inform him we have a T8 alert. He will be aware of what is happening."

"Yes, sir. Bret Telif in monitoring has a T8 alert. I will pass it on. Please stay on hold for a moment."

***

An older man in his executive office answered the phone while in the meeting with the head of advertising and the head of finance.

"This is the Director."

"Mmm, I see."

"Send up the information to my office and keep a close eye on his vitals. It sounds like we can use the upper threshold but if you feel he is in any real danger terminate the connection. Have medical services on standby. Just because these people sign our waver doesn't mean we don't have to look out for them."

"Yes, very good. Thank you for the prompt response. I will speak to financing about a bonus for you and your subordinate, keep up the good work."

The Director hung up the phone.

"What's up Boss?"

The director turned on the monitor mounted to the wall. "Evolution has had its first T-series alert."

"What! That's great. Who is the lucky player? Any chance he will complete his quest?"

"What is this T-series nonsense?" The head of financing asked, unsure of what was happening.

The Director explained. "The T-series a set of unique essence rewards. This will allow players to truly ascend and evolve into unique beings. T8 is located in the Depths of Despair. I would have never guessed that this one would be first. There are so many conditions necessary to make it happen. You have to be betrayed, survive a death drop. Find the essence, then survive in time dilated insanity without giving up."

"Time dilated insanity?" Financing asked.

"Ah yes, this one is a bit nasty, but it requires less skill because of it." Advertising said.

"Yes, basically we make 9 hours feel like forty days and we harass the player with all sorts of provocation trying to get them to quit. Let's look at the information. Mmm, yes, this one has a dragon chase the player while trying to steal their treasure. As well as an illusion of the Amber Shawl thief. The thief is constantly trying to steal the players treasure or trick him into giving it up."

"And who is the player?"

"Let's see, here it is. Lucan Quilldrake a warlock of Raze."

"Ho now. A Warlock. This could work very well for him."

"He is almost through the fog, he just needs to get a bit further without any mistakes, the slightest misstep and it will be like it never happened."

The meeting between the heads of the department ended up taking the rest of the day as they watched parts of Lucan's journey over the past week.

***

"Back away now. I can smell that sneak thief Nolan on you. I won't fall for your tricks." Lucan said while raising his wand to point it at the unarmed elf who was showing her empty hands to him.

The two elves behind her pulled back their bows and aimed arrows at his chest.

"WHAT!!! Trying to kill me for my treasure. Ha, you'll never be able to." The wand in his hand transformed into a long black dagger. "Because I will kill myself and take the treasure to my grave. HA, ha, ha!"

Lucan stabbed the dagger into his stomach and ripped it up. Blood sprayed out into a dense red mist before Lucan crumpled to ground while his insides spilled out onto the grass next to him.

"He is a lunatic." An elf named Jiban said.

"No look, the shadows." Lisel said pointing to a tree in the distance.

Lucan left shadow form and turned solid. His illusion of death disappeared while he ran away into the forest. Cackling and laughing. With a wave of his wand he multiplied. There were 30 copies of him running away in every direction.

"What the hell are we supposed to do? I can't get a read on this guy. All I known is not to mention his damn treasure."

"It's fine." Lisel said. "I couldn't even tell it was an illusion with my eyes of insight. I just had a feeling that the shadows were laughing at me, then they started to move. Regardless I will report it up the chain."

Lisel closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Queen of Shadows, I have fulfilled my role. Your target is in the Forest of Nightmares."

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