Dungeon Sniper

I was being chased.

I had been sleeping peacefully in my temporary mini-cave I burrowed in the mountainous forest a few miles above Minetown. Then my Light Sleeper Perk, in collaboration with Survival Guts and Premonition, alerted me of approaching bodies. It was daybreak already, and my body still ached from the impact of the explosion two nights ago. I got up with a grumble, picked up the meager gear I had with me, and walked uphill away from the source of the discreet footsteps rustling against the leaves on the ground.

I activated Echolocation and counted three individuals. I stopped and stared into their direction, hidden among the thick, dense woods that equally hid me from their view as they did from mine.

What surprised me was not their cautious, trained encroachment that would evade detection if not for my combined Perks and Skills. They were good, but this was not the first time I had pursuers chasing after my tail.

No, what surprised me the most was their size. Tall, lean, and big, they were a refreshing change from the urchins of both races I had met in the past week.

My instincts were telling me that the Elves had come for me.

.

.

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What started as a cautious stalk began to take some speed and eventually turned into a full-sprint, fire-at-will chase in the hillside woods.

They were shooting arrows at my legs and feet in an attempt to hinder my escape. Except they were not regular arrows. The ends were blunt, and some of them, flying in a pair, had wires at the ends. They also threw at me a 'bolas,' with stones attached to the ends of a rope and an intent to entangle my legs. But at least one of them was definitely firing the lethal, regular arrows at me. One arrow grazed against the back of my knee, tearing the already torn pants to look more like a rag.

I climbed the hill, more easily than my pursuers thanks to the Hyper Hind Legs Perks. The legs I got from the gracious, delicious fanged rabbits on my first day in the Dungeon continued to serve me well. In both worlds, rabbits excelled at running uphill, while their long hind legs became c.u.mbersome when running downhill. It was the nature's way of being fair, a compromise between gift and flaw. Another example would be the Goblins exchanging their strength and instincts for stupidity and ugliness. Dwarves had pretty much the same deal, while Humans... well, I had yet to meet a live, wholesome Human in this world. And now I had Elves chasing after me. It would be interesting to see what Elves were like—and what kind of Skills and Perks I could siphon off them.

I would have attacked my chasers if not for the peculiar blunt arrows and bolas thrown at me. The intent was clear. They wanted to capture me. But I hated being captured. The trend was that if I got captured, there would be a carnage at the end. The last one took a toll on me. I was just starting to recover from the explosion.

As for the regular arrows, I was also curious about that. There was at least one of them who wanted me dead, not captured. At this point, I even welcomed a clear, open fight to being captured and then burn my way out of a settlement. It took me some time to realize that luck had played a great role in both of my lonely war against the Goblins and the Dwarves. I shuddered to imagine fighting against Nasty down at the lair, which was not just his home ground but actual home. Would I have survived the first encounter with Nasty if he had brought his metal slingshot to the abandoned house? And there was the spectacular explosion that saved my a.s.s. How else would I have fought my way through thirty hostile, strong Dwarves? What if there was no explosive by the exit? Why would anyone keep explosives at a pub? Even for a village named Minetown, that was strange.

In other words, I got lucky. There was no getting around to it.

As a result, the four of us were playing an extended game of tag. I did not want to be captured or dead. The chasers did not give up their chase. Someone kept firing arrows with malice. And I was just getting used to the law of the Dungeon.

There was no law.

Lowered guard meant lowered probability to stay alive. So I kept running, scheming, staying alive.

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.

.

I had been running uphill for almost an hour. The small mountain overlooking the Delta Region was high enough to be deemed a mountain instead of a hill, but I knew that at some point I would have to descend from the height. I intended to lose my trackers before that had to happen.

Mataki had stopped talking to me since last night. He was not the most fun, helpful companion, but his knowledge about the Elves could have proved to be useful right now. I was still unsure whether Mataki was pissed or simply ran out of a Goblin soul fuel to keep his inner mouth moving.

Another shot to my ankle, blunt arrow, and I almost tripped at the near-miss. That was it. That one hurt, and I had had enough. I only had six arrows with me, but now was not the time to save ammo.

I had the easier shot than my pursuers given that I was standing on the higher ground. I still could not see them in plain sight, but my Echolocation helped me spot them about fifty yards below, deftly moving between trees to hide their bodies.

But they were not completely invisible, nor were they fast enough to escape an arrow traveling at the speed of the wind and the force of a miner swinging a pickaxe all his life.

It was only a glimpse, but I caught a body halting mid-movement and rolling out of the way to narrowly evade the arrow shot right into the running direction. It was a graceful movement, and I would have applauded if I were not so busy cursing at having missed the shot.

"How did he know where I was going next?" said a deep male voice of the one who had dodged the arrow and now safely hidden behind a tree.

"I told you he's good," said another male voice, smoother and more pleasing to the ears.

"I should also let you know that he can probably hear us talking from this distance. He's got good ears. And some other freaky tricks," added the pleasant voice with a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt and fascination.

"He looks like a freak. Dressed like one, if you ask me," scoffed another voice, this time from a female.

"I heard that!" I yelled from above.

"See?" laughed the friendly voice of the group.

I was still aiming between the three trees that the chasers were hiding behind when one of them stuck out his hand, dropping the bow in plain sight. He kicked his bow on the ground away from his reach and came out of the tree to show himself.

"You can see that I am unarmed. We just want to talk, Human," said the masked Elf with the voice that sounded like honey to the ears. He was tall, blonde, and he wore a simple gray light armor set that looked good on his model-like physique. I was certain he looked annoyingly handsome underneath that mask.

"I don't see the other two dropping their weapons," I nodded towards the two trees next to him incredulously.

"Guys, where are our manners?" said the Elf dude patronizingly.

The other two, also wearing a cowl-mask and dressed uniformly in gray light armor sets—came out and tossed their bows onto the ground.

I lowered my bow as well, but not completely.

"All right. What do you want? I'm not one of your runaway slaves, if you're thinking of turning me over," I said to the obvious leader-figure of the group.

The blond Elf took off his mask, and yes, he looked disgustingly, unrealistically handsome. The other two kept theirs, and I could see their eyes as suspicious and distrusting as my own.

"We know you're not a slave. My name is Alstair, and these are my colleagues, Elysia and Ramsis."

Alstair smiled and waited for me to introduce myself, only that I had no intention of doing that.

"And you are?" asked Alstair after an awkward pause.

"I go by Beta," I said tersely.

"Good. Beta, I have a confession to make. We have had our eyes on you for quite a while. Ever since your, ah, spectacular annihilation of the southern Goblins."

"You mean you stalked me for a while?"

"Stalk, observe, appraise, the important thing is that you have impressed us greatly," Alstair shrugged as he flashed a charming, winsome smile, which I hated.

"You came this far just to compliment me on some stuff I did? I'm flattered."

"No, we have more than compliments to offer. What we want, Beta, is for you to join us, the Runnels."

"What's that?" I blinked and frowned at the same time.

"The Runnels are the scout-ranger team that patrol and oversee the entire span of Divis River," smiled Alstair with a hint of pride, and it was nauseating.

"No, I meant, why?"

"Because you have the talents, and I find them to be assets that can help our—team."

I felt he swallowed a word at the end, but I did not press the matter. Not yet.

"Right. Cut the crap, handsome. How do I know this isn't some trick to lure me in and enslave me for your master Elf race?"

It was Alstair's turn to blink. He turned to his colleagues, and then faced me with an apologetic smile.

"I see why you're confused. You see, Beta, we're not from Deltaris. We don't approve of slavery, not just of Humans but of any race."

"How convenient. It almost makes me look like a paranoid skeptic to not take your words for it and trust you completely."

"If you want proof—"

"No. I want you gone. Or dead. Your pick, and I'm being generous because you didn't try to kill me on the chase. Except one of you," I said, raising my bow.

Alstair blinked at me, his beautiful face almost ruined by exasperation. No. It still looked perfect. He would look perfect even when he drooled in his sleep.

"I gave you a choice. I see you haven't left. Should I take it that you'd like to be shot in the head?"

"I'd like to keep talking, make you understand, if you allow me, of course," answered Alstair calmly.

I was pointing the arrow steadily at Alstair's beautifully troubled face when Elysia, the female Elf, stepped between the arrow and Alstair.

"Alstair, forget it. He's like a scared animal. He doesn't have the guts to fight with us," said Elysia, raising her own bow towards me.

"Of course, never heard one of your Human slaves talk back like this, have you?"

"We do not own slaves," snapped Elysia emphatically, her eyes above the cowl flashing angrily.

"You call them something else then? Pets? Servants?"

Elysia stared hard into my eyes and stormed towards Ramsis, the other ranger still in his mask. Elysia snatched Ramsis's cowl and revealed his face.

His Human face.

"How about a lover?" said Elysia triumphantly as she stood close to Ramsis.

I looked between Elysia and Ramsis.

"So you two—"

"Yes, we are," said Elysia defiantly.

"I mean, is that allowed?" I frowned.

"Deltaris is the only Elven settlement that endorses slavery. In other parts of the Dungeon, interracial relationsh.i.p.s are more common. Well, they are pretty rare, but they are not considered outrageous," explained Alstair.

"But in the eyes of the Elves around this area, that would be like watching a person dating her own dog. Is it me or does that sound messed up?"

"I don't follow you. What's a dog?" blinked Alstair.

"You don't have dogs in this world? That's unacceptable."

"You mean a wolfdog?"

"I don't know. Explain a wolfdog."

"Furry, sharp canines, loyal, smart, cuddly—"

"Yup. That's it."

And now I felt like owning a wolfdog of my own.

"You do realize that your analogy of comparing your own race to wolfdogs is degrading more for you than for me?" said Elysia.

"I still think it's pretty weird. And Ramsis, you're a good looking stud, for a Human. You can do better than 'her,'" I scoffed.

It was then that Elysia sighed and lowered her mask exasperatingly, revealing her perfectly symmetrical, insanely beautiful face.

I closed my mouth, stopped breathing for a moment, and turned to Ramsis.

"Or you know what? Good for you, Ramsis," I nodded to my fellow Human, not without some jealousy.

Alstair was watching me carefully before opening his eerily feminine lips again.

"I know this is all very confusing for you, Beta."

"No. Yes, I just have one question, for lovely Elysia. Are other Elf chicks into Human dudes, or is it just your deal? What I'm saying is, what's my chance of hooking up with girls that look like you?" I blinked hopefully.

"Is he serious?" Elysia turned to Alstair.

"Like I said, interracial relationsh.i.p.s are fairly uncommon," said Alstair patiently.

"Yeah, but is there a chance for me—"

"Not a chance, no. Anyone else, maybe. But you, you will have to be brought back to new lives three times over and still come across like a c.o.c.kroach to our eyes," said Elysia coldly.

"First, it's ridiculous that you have c.o.c.kroaches but no dogs in this world. Secondly, under normal circ.u.mstances, those words could have hurt. But coming from those beautiful lips of yours, I could live the rest of my life hearing you cursing at me."

"Are you seriously hitting on me in front of my lover?"

"I know. Does that turn you on too?"

"Unbelievable!"

"He is messing with your head, Elysia. Do not lose your temper," sighed Alstair.

"No, I was serious," I shrugged innocently.

It was then that Ramsis took a step forward and walked towards me.

"Look, I'm the proof that these guys, these Elves, are different those from Deltaris."

"Or you could be trained to talk like that, like a good wolfd.o.g.g.y," I retorted.

"Alstair, please, can't you see that he's crazy? The way he talks, and how he looks at me, it's sickening!"

"Just crazy for you, girl," I winked at Elysia.

"Okay. Now, I know he's doing that on purpose, but it's still disgusting!"

Well, it was clear that she did not like me. Probably from the start. Probably ever. Then it hit me.

"And now I know who was firing me all those regular arrows. But I forgive you, Elysia. You had to get my attention and stand out from the other two. I understand completely."

"I should've gone for the head when I had the shot."

"And instead you took my heart. You bad, bad girl, right in front of your lover, too."

Time for an anecdote. There was this one female professional gamer at this tournament. I won the whole thing, naturally, but that was not the point. During the second round, I was matched against the said girl gamer, who was pretty good, for a girl. She was also pretty cute, for a gamer. Anyway, she started trash-talking me first, right before the match, calling me an overrated sniper who would die in three knife swings in close combat. I told her I would drop my sniper rifle from the get-go and we would meet at this one place for the knife combat she thought she was oh-so-amazing at. Long story short, I won, cut off the clothes and stripped her avatar n.a.k.e.d, tea-bagged on its face at the nationally televised match, invited her for the real face-sitting at my hotel room, she did not come—she retired after the incident, actually—but the moral of the story was, one should never mess with me, boy or girl, because I never held back a mouse at my opponent, nor my tongue.

Speaking of my tongue, I was just spite-smacking my lips towards Elysia, much to her horror and annoyance, when it was Ramsis who came forward this time.

"Look, Beta, was it? The thing is, we really need your help," said Ramsis.

"Forget it. I don't want to hold hands with you guys as we picnic along the river and march into the woods dressed like some ninjas."

To be fair, the outfit looked all right. Hell, anything looked better than the garbage I was wearing.

"You have some peculiar vocabulary in your lexicon, Beta. What's a 'ninja?'" asked Alstair, his intellectual eyes flashing eagerly.

"He's crazy. I bet he has all sorts of made-up words in his head," said Elysia.

"Do you want to hear some names I made up for you, beautiful? Some of them won't be appropriate for children, so Ramsis, close your ears, however old you are."

"I'm thirty," frowned Ramsis.

"Really? You barely look twenty, and I was wondering it was your youth that charmed your beautiful girlfriend. With that said, I'm younger, Elysia, so if you ever change your mind, I'm here, younger, fresher."

"Can I just kill him right here? Please?" Elysia pleaded to Alstair.

"What Ramsis is trying to say, and what we're trying to ask for you, Beta, is not that you join our ranger team just for the sake of sharing our patrol duties. Ramsis, go on," said Alstair.

I turned to Ramsis, who had looked tense all along despite my bickering with his aggressive girlfriend. o

"I have some relatives at Deltaris," said Ramsis.

"Okay, I see where this is going," I sighed.

"I also had a few others at the southern village, the one raided by the Goblins. When I learned that you wiped out the Goblin Lair single-handedly, I was gratified. Thank you for your brave deed, Beta."

"Well, you're welcome, Ramsis."

"And I was also hopeful that you could help us, our own kind, for the second time," said Ramsis earnestly.

"Right. Ramsis, you look like a nice guy. And you have a hot girlfriend too. I kind of hate you for that one, but anyway, I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not interested."

"You're not interested in rescuing our people from slavery?" blinked Ramsis.

"Putting it that way makes it sound like I'm some kind of a monster, and you're guilt-tripping me to do something against my will. Not cool, bro."

"I've never seen a Human talk with such a personality. It would be nice to study your language sometime. Where are you from originally?" interrupted Alstair.

"Brooklyn."

"Fascinating. I don't know where that is," blinked Alstair, looking charming even with a confused, bewildered face.

"Please reconsider, Beta. We need every help we can get," urged Ramsis.

"What exactly are you trying to do? Start up a revolution? Lead a war of independence-slash-emancipation? Fire up my inner Washington and Lincoln?"

"And what are those?" asked Alstair excitedly.

I ignored Alstair and continued on with my rant.

"How many of you are there anyway, this 'Runnels' Club' you call yourselves."

"Just 'Runnels,' and we are made up of ten highly trained and capable scouts and rangers, mostly Elves, but we also have an Orc colleague along with a Human associate in Ramsis here," answered Alstair.

"You have an Orc too?"

"We do not 'have' him. One of our friends happens to be an Orc," snapped Elysia.

"Phrasing. We're a bit s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e about ownership clauses around this area," said Alstair.

"I'm sure you are. Tell me, has this Orc 'friend' of yours tried to eat any of you while y'all were asleep?" I asked.

"Now, Baraka is perfectly civil, just like the rest of us... Well, he tries his best," shrugged Alstair.

"I don't know, if I asked him, I think he can eat a smelly Human dressed in rags without thinking twice," said Elysia.

"That would be such a tragedy of this smelly, ragged Human you're talking about."

"I meant you, dirt face."

"Oh, you and your jokes, Elysia."

"Don't act friendly, Human. We barely know each other."

"As of now, yes. But who knows where our future will be at? Together? Maybe. Madly in love? A definite maybe."

"I don't want him on the team. Never. Over my dead body," Elysia shook her head.

"Babe, you will look beautiful even when you're dead."

"That's not just offensive. That's creepy," Elysia shook her head.

"I was being charming. If you want creepy, I can do creepy."

"Can you do 'dead?' I can help."

"Look, you're pretty, but you're not worth dying for."

"Can we, please, focus? Elysia, don't listen to him. Beta, your jokes are terrible. You're just not funny. So stop."

Ramsis was not in a good mood. He had slave relatives at Deltaris and dead ones at the raided village down south. I guessed having a hot Elf girlfriend only helped so much.

"Wow. Someone's bossy. And I thought you were the leader," I said to Alstair.

"But Ramsis is the one with the biggest stake. I'm trying to right the wrong and bring honor back to our race's name. Elysia is Ramsis's lover. Ramsis is the leader of the 'cause,' naturally."

"I don't know. I felt too personally attacked to feel sympathetic to the 'cause.'"

I was funny. That was a fact.

"You can tell many jokes as you want so long as you help our cause," said Ramsis.

"See, that's not how jokes work."

"Can you be serious for just one second?" sighed Ramsis as he gritted his teeth, not in anger but in desperation. Or was it anger? I was not sure; my last failed joke had thrown me off my cool.

Another thing that was making me uncomfortable: Ramsis's determined, hell-bent eyes. I sighed and stared back at Ramsis, then at Alstair, and finally at Elysia, who did not even try to make eye contact with me anymore.

"I'm sorry. I understand saving those people is really noble and everything, but I'd rather not tangle myself with the matter. Besides, I like working solo, so... no."

Ramsis looked disappointed, as did Alstair. Only Elysia put on a smirk, relieved and derisive, and still ever so pretty.

"You're fine with our people suffering as slaves? You're not going to use your talents to help them get their lives back?"

"The way I understood, they lost a war."

"They never stood a chance in the first place! It was rigged from the start!" shouted Ramsis in anger, not necessarily at me... or just at me. All I could tell was that he was furious.

"Yeah, well, there's always a losing side at war."

"We can't even call that a war. A one-sided persecution, betrayal of trust, manipulation of the public sentiments—"

"Still part of a war," I shook my head firmly.

"You don't understand. You weren't there."

"Exactly. If I were there, I would have been relevant. But I wasn't. I need something more than 'helping a good cause' to meddle in such an affair."

"Yeah? What was your reason when you annihilated those Goblins? When you blew up thirty Dwarven civilians?"

I blinked, but I managed to answer.

"Anger. I was angry."

That sounded more justifiable in my head, but when it came out, it sounded so stupid because it probably was a stupid thing to say.

"So you act on sentiments."

"Thank you for not calling it 'tempers.'"

"But you don't feel angry at watching our kind enslaved? Living the lives of animals, dying from overwork and abuse even as we speak?"

"Can't be mad if I'm not a part of it."

"But you are! We all are!"

"Stop, Ramsis. He's not going to help you," said Elysia, her face dark and saddened to see her lover in such a tormented state.

Ramsis turned his anguished face away from me, with Elysia comforting him at side. I stood still, feeling bad and awkward, but I just could not go run and save the world because some random blokes and a hot chick asked me to. I did not care if I appeared callous. I felt all of this was out of my hand. Did I feel bad about the enslaved Humans? Of course I did. Did I feel bad enough to be all heroic and risk my life going against a city of Elves? For all I knew, these Humans lost a war. Wars occurred all the time in the world I lived in previously. Did I join an army to preserve world's peace and maintain its order? I was a professional gamer. I shot and killed people in a made-up world to make a living, not an impact.

I had called my previous fights 'wars.' But this was a real war we were talking about. With thousands of lives at the stake, not just my own.

And then there was the key ingredient missing: I had nothing personal against the Elves at Deltaris. Through a series of unwanted, catastrophic battles, I had come up with a principle for engaging in fights: if they did not cross me, let them be. To fight against every injustice and evil sounded like a chore. I was a beta tester, not a moralist hero. I knew I was being arbitrary, but justice for me was personal, not universal. My system was not perfect, but at least it would help me get going, stay alive, and one day be done with all this and sleep on the clouds as a shareholder god would do.

None of the three gray-clothed scouts talked for almost a full minute, until Alstair, who had been silent, clapped his hands to break the uncomfortable silence.

"I figured out what the problem is here," said Alstair.

"There's no problem, only a request and a rejection," I said.

"The problem is that you, Beta, is an outsider."

"From Brooklyn."

"Yes, from Brookyln, which I imagine to be a wonderful, magical place."

"Nope. You just described Disneyland."

"What's—"

"Don't."

Alstair nodded cheerfully and went on from where he had left off.

"Problems can be solved. Can we agree on that?"

"Or, they can be left as are. And sometimes problems are not even problems. They're just, there," I shrugged wearily.

"But this problem can be fixed. And it needs to be fixed."

"Hold on. Are you calling me a 'problem' now?"

I sensed exasperation. I could always sense when someone was exasperated with me. I had lots of experience.

"No, you are the key. An asset. The problems, on the other hand, are within you, namely your reluctance to act and obliviousness to your surroundings. Think of yourself trapped in an eggshell, and you're trying to break away from it, the comfortable world of the past and present, out to the world of—you know what? This is getting quite fun, we're approaching this very metaphysically."

"Fun? You're joking, right?"

"No, but this is as fun as any joke."

I looked around at Elysia and Ramsis. They both had the face that said, "he's your problem now."

"Now, to break away from the egg and face the unknown, one must weigh between the benefits and cost, not to mention the good and evil. Sometimes the opposing values are intertwined, and it can be hard to distinguish one from the other—"

"Please, just tell me what to do," I pleaded. This guy was serious. Seriously dorky.

"To mend the problem, we just have to let you in. And see, feel, you know, be a part. Outsider stops being an outsider once he is inside. The reversal of the shell. We break the egg not from the inside, but from the outside. That's outside from you, but inside in our perspective—"

"What do you WANT, Alstair!"

"I want to take you inside Deltaris."

I exhaled and blinked. I was very stressed, and this guy was impossibly annoying and talkative. Dangerously verbose. I had never met such a personality before. Trash-talking and talking just to annoy the person in front was 'my' thing. I did not know what had just happened.

If this was Alstair's tactic to get what he wanted, I was worried that someone might kill him to shut him up. Someone like me.

"If I said yes, will that shut you up?"

"With delight. And hope," beamed Alstair.

"Yes. Shut up, now."

Alstair bit his sanguine lips and grinned like a child. And I wanted to punch his beautiful face so much.

"Once you see for yourself, you will feel the same anger that I have in me," said Ramsis. I turned to face his resolute and sincere eyes.

"It's just one 'tour,' and if when I still don't feel anything, that's it."

"Thank you, Beta," said Ramsis earnestly.

Elysia seemed conflicted, happy to see her lover beam like that and not so happy to have me as a company.

"And until we reach Deltaris, you have a full half-day course of the Delta Region's history, lectured by me," smiled Alstair as he led the way downhill.

I stood still for a while, in utter disbelief and horror.

"So you guys never got into a fight? Alstair never got punched in the face or anything?" I asked to Ramsis.

"Alstair? He'd just turn the other cheek, speaking of the differences between perceived pain and real pain, asking whether the hostility was faced outward or inward, to the self or to the world, that it was important for him to understand as well as—" Ramsis stopped, blinked, and sighed abruptly.

"That really happened, didn't it?"

I had never spoken with so much pity in my voice.

"Long time ago," Ramsis smiled back wryly, but also fondly.