Tomb of Horror

The sky was dim and gloomy, and it was about to start raining. Bae City was half wet already from an apparent earlier rainstorm. The streets had still have some puddles here and there. The Annual Grand Prix was over by that point, and the hype and excitement deminished.

At Team Nora headquarters, which was only a two floor building, the overall atmosphere was way too quiet than the usual. It was as gloomy and dim as the sky. The workshop was the only lit place in the entire establishment. There, Herc and Jeremiah were sitting quietly with both of them staring at the floor. Nobody could look the other in the eye, or even say anything. But this state was eating Jeremiah from the inside. He mustered all the nerve he got, and uttered "...I m.. sorry, I let you down..."Herc raised his head reluctantly, "...No, don t you ever say that!""It was my fault...." Jeremiah continued. "If I did my job better, you would ve..""Not true!" Herc raised his voice. "It was MY fault, Jeremy! I lost control..""I can t.. just turn my back on it!" Jeremiah replied. "I know exactly how bad you wanted to win, and get that ship..""Well, I lost fair and square.." Herc put his hand on Jeremiah s shoulder. "Honestly, if it weren t for your hard work, it wouldn t be possible to go that far!" "Captain..!" Jeremiah muttered as he saw him smiling. Herc s words brought back the colors to Jeremiah s gloomy mindset."Anybody seen choir boy?" Libruou hurried into the workshop."I haven t seen him around at all." Jeremiah answered."Oh, for shit sake!" Libruou rushed outside, but Jerrmiah tried to stop her."It s gonna rain! Where do you think yo.." he tried to say, but Libruou ignored him, and went out to look for Jaden.It must be harder on you, boy, Herc thought.
Meanwhile, Jaden was slowly walking loosely through some dark alley. He was plunged in sadness and despair, and his mind was full of thousands of dark thoughts. He kept on dragging his feet slowly as if the coat he was wearing weighed a thousand pound. Although absent minded, Jaden noticed holographic adds as he passes by. They were all about either clubbing, prostitution, or other kinds of intimate entertainment. Jaden stopped walking, and stood in front on of these conventional places as rain poured down.

"Yeah, I saw somebody looking like that! He d probably gone by that road." said some guy wearing leather vest on skin. He was leaning against the wall."Alright thanks," said Libruou who kept on walking in spite of the rain. "I ll get you another boost really soon!" 
Minutes later, the raining has stopped. Libruou kept searching for Jaden in every corner and alley. She almost ran out of stamina before she finally found him sitting near an edge by a waterway. She couldn t see his face as he was looking down at the water."So, you were here after all!" Libruou sighed. "What are you doing anyway?!"Jaden gave her no response. Libruou then, sat right next to him. She gazed at the water that was few meters below her feet. "What are you gonna do now?.." she asked."What s there to do?.." Jaden replied in quiet broken voice. "I lost my way outta here..""So, what?! There s next year!" Libruou yelled."So, I might as well trash myself here for a year.." he replied."You never know, maybe something else ends up happening! Maybe someone is gonna show up.." she tried to comfort him."Nothing will happen!" Jaden yelled. "I ve failed... I couldn t make it..""Let time take care of that!" she said. "Think about what you should do for now.""Oh, yeah!" Jaden cracked a broken smile. "Imma think about getting laid.. and wasted..""Is that so?!" Libruou giggled. "That s why you came to this area, huh?! So, did you do it, church boy?" Jaden smiled in disbelief and shook his head. "I just couldn t ever see the world that way.."Libruou wrapped her arm around Jaden s soaking wet body. "Listen you stupid virgin who don t know how to treat a lady! How about we get back and dry you off?"They both got up, and headed back to Headquarters.
After they got back, Nico hurried towards them, only to find Libruou closing the living-room door. "What s going on?!" Nico asked. "You found Mr. Jaden?""Yeah," she said. "He s curling on the couch.." Libruou stopped Nico as she tried to push her way in. "Get outta the way!" Nico cried."What s the matter with you?!" Libruou pushed her back."I wanna give Mr. Jaden something! That s all.." Nico insisted. Libruou took a look at what Nico was holding. "Oh Nico, that s so sweet!" she explained. "But Jaden has just lost something he wanted so bad! This might not be the right time for this! He needs some space.."
Few hours later, the sky started raining again. Jaden was yet still laying on the couch on his right side. Thoughts were still running in his head.Apparently, I ll be trapped here for a year!, he thought. The last thing I was expecting was losing another year to the 23 years...
....23 years, huh?!
...if it s actually has been this long, then why do I have to stress out?! Everybody, don t they miss me?! Were they looking for me?! Did they end up giving up on me? My family, my friends.. they must have forgotten about me by now! That, if they weren t the ones who put me here in the first place.
Jaden gazed at the ceiling. "What Am I supposed to do now?.." he whispered.Soon after, he noticed a paper on the table, and sat up to pick it. It appeared to be the limerick text that the gangsters wanted so bad. It was believed that it could be a clue leading to one of the Seven Keys of Azerrak. 

...The Copper Key awaitsIn a tomb filled with horrorsBut you have much to learnIf you hope to earn..
Jaden tried to read that limerick line by line.
..The Copper Key awaits.
This line seems pretty straightforward. No hidden meaning that I could detect, he told himself.
..In a tomb filled with horrors.
This line is trickier, he thought. Taken at face value, it seemed to say that the key was hidden in a tomb somewhere; one filled with horrifying stuff. But then, I once discovered an old Dungeons & Dragons supplement called Tomb of Horrors, which had been published in 1978. From the moment he read the title, Mado was certain the second line of the Limerick was a reference to it. He recalled once that he played a D&D game by that title with a friend of his named Shay, a senior Dentistry student. ..."Isn t that a board game?!" Mado asked."Yeah, but it s so much fun; especially when played with bunch of people!" Shay replied."What d ya guys think?" Mado asked his sister and her friends who were sitting nearby. "I dunno!" Alex replied. "Board games aren t something Imma dive into.""Yeah, papers and dice sound basic!" Soony said."Well, we haven t really tried something like that before," Noor said. "WHAT?!" Alex exclaimed."Since when you got shit taste, bitch?!" Soony said."Alright guys, we got the idea!" Mado tried to calm them down. "How about we both just play, is that okay?" "I m not sure it d be as enjoyable, though.." Shay said sadly. Both her and Mado walked further away from Alex and her two friends."So, it s called Tomb of Horror?.." Mado was holding the game s guide book."Yeah," Shay explained. "Your goal is to find the tomb, and get the treasure in the last chamber!" Shay unfolded the game s map. "See!" She pointed at an artwork on the map that shaped like a skull. "That s the Tomb of Horror!"...It shaped like a skull, Jaden thought. He then picked a pen and paper and started drawing it out of his hazy memories. After he was done, he looked very thoroughly at it.
..At least I got it right!, he thought.
Jaden then looked back at the limerick. 
"you have much to learn if you hope to earn.." he muttered. "I sure have way too much to learn.." As vague and confusing it sounded, Jaden started to rub his face from frustration. He was ready to give it up. Right after he leaned back and watched the ceiling for few seconds, he picked the limerick one last time. This time, his eyes were on the Google mail address that was on it.
[Hday.seven13@gmail.com], how did it find it s way here?, Jaden wondered. The gangsters needed Nico to hack a firewall of something called the Old-Net, and they needed my crystal shards to be some sorta catalyst, apparently. But how s that possible?!Jaden was nothing but helpless. No matter what the approach he tried to use to unravel this riddle, he faces a dead end. But at that point where he was about to lay down and surrender, he heard Ovan voice in his head. ."....Never stop asking questions, Jaden!..."."Like it s easy to keep doing it.." few seconds later, Jaden whispered. "Screw you, Ovan!" Jaden got up on his feat, like he reached some breakthrough. I need a computer!, he thought, and picked both the limerick and doodle papers, and walked out of the dim living room.
He went to another room that looked like a security room with bunch of computers and monitors. Jaden started typing something. According to what Libruou told me about the NET, that it was built in the image of the Old-Net, he was thinking. And this enigmatic message came from the Old-Net! That only means one thing.Jaden opened up Seventy-Seven s planetoid map, and was panning in every direction. That Google, emails, and what I know as the Internet is actually the Old-Net. So whoever was trying to fish this message out from it, knows for sure it has some value or use, or maybe.., his mind froze in place. Jaden s eyes spotted a figure on the map, and it was too familiar to ignore. He paused it on the screen, and slowly brought up the doodle paper. That paper that he draw the skull shaped figure that was supposed to be the Tomb of Horror. As he was looking back and forth between it and the screen, he was speechless. He wanted to scream it out loud that he just found the Tomb of Horror. He found it here, near Bae City!Jaden dropped the paper, and pin pointed directions through the map, and then he immediately hurried to the workshop.
It was already night time, and everyone in Team Nora was snoozing. But there was one who heard strange sounds. It were sounds of the garage door opening up, and some engine starting. Maqi opened his window and peeked outside. He glanced Herc s truck, Cyclone driving off in such a hurry.

Cyclone was speeding it s way through the city streets that were still wet and full of puddles. It appeared that it stopped raining, but the gloomy stormy cloudy weather remained still. Jaden was checking the map every minute as he was driving east towards some forest outside the city. On his way, he saw breath taking places, and streets with vast and futuristic architecture, but chose to ignore them, and focus on his goal for the moment.If this didn t pan out in the end, I d make sure to visit these places in my one year crashing here, he thought.
After thirty minutes of driving, Jaden reached his destination. He parked the truck near some crumbled rocks that looked like parts of some old castle, and walked for few meters. He then noticed it, the skull shaped figure. In front of him, was a skull shaped hill with the enterance just before his eyes at the bottom of the hill. As he got closer, it seemed like the passageway was heading down. Jaden stood against the door for a minute. He took a deep breath before proceeding. "Here goes.." he whispered, and then pushed his first steps inside the Tomb of Horror.
The walls of the corridor leading into the tomb were covered with dozensof strange paintings depicting enslaved humans, orcs, elves, and other creatures. Each fresco appeared in the exact location described in the original D&D module. Mado knew that hidden in the tiled stone surface of the floor were several spring loaded trapdoors. If anyone stepped on one, it snaps open and drops them into a pit filled with poisoned iron spikes. So far, everything had followed the original module as he remembered it.If the same was true for the rest of the tomb, I might be able to survive long enough to locate the Key, he thought. 
There were only a few monsters lurking in this dungeon: gargoyle, a skeleton, a zombie, some asps, a mummy, or more like their futuristic cyberpunk versions. Jaden tried to proceed carefully, he located a hidden door beside the last pit trap. It opened into a small sloping passageway. His flashlight reached into the darkness ahead, flickering off the damp stone walls. Mado s surroundings made him feel like he was in a low-budget sword-and-sorcery flick, like Hawk the Slayer or The Beast Master. Jaden began to make his way through the dungeon, room by room. He found thousands of gold and silver coins hidden in the pews, right where they were supposed to be. It was more money than he could carry. But once he reached the wider bumpy hallway, Jaden felt as though he was surrounded. He put down his flashlight and reached for Rebellion. Fighting in here would be difficult, he thought. But then the UI notified him, and switched to [Battle Mode].
"Shit, I m completely surrounded!" Jaden said as he was ready to fight. "But I can handle few scraps!" Jaden started clashing with the monsters left and right. He used his Skills differently with all of them. 
"[Arial Swift]!!" he yelled. "[Ground Swift]!!"
~SLASH!
"[Split Dash]!!"
~THWIP! ~DASH! ~SLASH!
Jaden ended up killing those group of monsters, but as he continued deeper, more and more monsters emerged. "There s no way I ll turn back now!" Jaden shouted and fought onward. 
"I ll do it! I ll do it! I ll do it! I ll do it! I ll do it! I ll do it!"
He then faced a large cybernetic mummy that was twice as big as him. Jaden strengthened the grip on his knife and charged towards it.[Sharp Nail]!!, he attacked the monster quickly "Ghiaaaaaaaaa!!!"

Meanwhile, at Team Nora headquarters, Maqi had gone waking everyone up. Libruou, Nico, and Jeremiah woke up easily. But Herc wasn t as easy. The rest tried to wake him up using every technique imaginable, but there was no use. "Hell, he s a heavy one!" Jeremiah complained."Let me try something!" Libruou pushed him back. "This is how you turn a man on!" She tried to caress Herc s body slowly and gently down to his thighs."Wh...what are you trying to do?!" Nico was all red."Doesn t seem to work, either.." Jeremiah sighed."Can you... maybe do that to me later?.." Maqi asked Libruou."Can we please focus!" Nico shouted. "Jaden ran away with Captain s Cyclone!" On hearing that, Herc jumped off his bed wide awake. "SAY WHAT?!" he shouted."Sure, NOW he s awake.." Libruou mumbled."Hey Captain! Didn t you feel something while you were asleep a second ago?" Maqi asked curiously"Huh?" he said. "Maybe some bug was crawling on my skin..""A bug?!" Libruou was disappointed.Nico and Jeremiah giggled right at the corner."So," Herc said. "Where did this idiot wander this time?"

After emerging victorious, Jaden was sitting panting on the ground against a huge gate. His knife was still dripping light blue blood from the monster he just killed. A notification popped up in the UI.
..LEVEL UP!..
I m level 15 now, huh?, he thought. Who s this crazy ill-minded person behind this virtual messed up world. Jaden was getting flashbacks from when he had to watch that gangster, Eidth dying slowly before his eyes.
... I feel sick! 
He then pulled himself up, and turned around. "Guess this is it!" he said. "The main chamber.."He pushed the largest door he encountered since entering the Tomb of Horror with all his might. "This is for ya, Shay.." he mumbled as he paved enough space for him to slip through. With his knife still in his hand, Jaden stepped cautiously inside. It was a large square chamber with a high ceiling, filled with dozens of massive stone columns. A huge raised dais stood at the far end of the room, atop which rested an obsidian throne inlaid with silver and ivory skulls. The throne was supposed to be empty, but it wasn t. There was a demi-lich. It was sitting on it, glaring down at Jaden silently. A dusty gold crown glinted on his withered head. He appeared exactly as he did on the cover of the original Tomb of Horrors module that Mado s friend, Shay had shown him.Jaden walked across the chamber to the foot of the dais. From here, he could see the lich more clearly. His teeth were two rows of pointed cut diamonds arrayed in a lip-less grin, and a large ruby was set in each of his eye sockets. For the first time since entering the tomb, I m not sure what to do next, he thought. My chances of surviving one-on-one combat with a demi-lich are nonexistent. My wimpy skills couldn t even beat a Hunter Demon alone.Jaden took a deep breath, raised his weapon, and placed his right foot on the bottom step of the dais. As he did, there was a sound like cracking bones as the demi-litch slowly lifted his head. The rubies in his eye sockets began to glow with an intense red light.Jaden took several steps backward, expecting him to leap down and attack. But he didn t rise from his throne. Instead, he lowered his head and fixed on him with his chilling gaze."Greetings!" he said in a rasping voice. "What is it that you seek?"This caught Jaden off guard."I seek the Copper Key." Jaden replied. Then remembered that he was speaking to a king, so he quickly bowed his head, dropped to one knee, and added, "Your Majesty.""Of course you do," the demi-litch said, motioning for him to rise. "And you ve come to the right place." He stood, and his mummified skin cracked like old leather as he moved. Jaden clutched Rebellion more tightly still anticipating an attack."How can I know that you are worthy of possessing the Copper Key?" heasked.Holy shit! How the hell was I supposed to answer that? And what if I gave the wrong answer? Would he suck out my soul and incinerate me?!, he thought.Jaden racked his brain for a suitable reply. The best he could come up with was, "Allow me to prove my worth.."The lich let out a long, disturbing cackle that echoed off the chamber stone walls. "Very well!" he said. "You shall prove your worth by facing me at midnight.""Midnight?!" Jaden exclaimed. Then he noticed the demi-litch king pointing upwards. When he gazed up, he saw a small round opening at the very top of the ceiling where the moonlight could shine down on the demi-litch.So.....when the moon aligns exactly, this impossible monster will start hitting me!, he thought in dread. I really got too far to back down, but according to the Hunters Guide, demi-litches are way too strong to be fought alone...Jaden tried to use the UI with his mind, but it didn t pick up anything from the Demi-litch King. Maybe....maybe it s a good time to retreat, and think this through, he thought as his feat were taking steps back towards the door. I still have a chance to make it to the exit.While he was slowly reaching for the large gate, Jaden sensed something, then stopped in the middle of the chamber. Through the semi-open door, he saw a long shadow bouncing on the wall, accompanied by the echo of approaching footsteps. A few seconds later, the silhouette appeared in the doorway. Jaden was reaching for his knife when he realized he was still holding it in his hand.
"Who the hell are you?" the silhouette spoke as Jaden readied his blade."How did you find this place?!" the silhouette demanded. The voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman. One who was itching for a fight.When he failed to answer, a stocky female stepped out of the shadows and into the chamber s flickering moonlight. At that moment, Jaden was finally able to recognize her. Why?! How come she could be here?!, his eyes were widened."Artemis..!" he uttered.