One For the Road
Updates to the Story
There is a MAJOR easter egg/teaser in the store options… it has been there for several chapters. Can anyone spot it? Nothing will happen with it until near the end of the book (or maybe the next book), but when it does, it’ll be a fun reveal. I would be tickled if one of you found it and emailed me at andymatthewpatton@gmail.com. The only hint I will give is that it will require careful attention to George’s backstory.
I’m throwing in new characters as I need them. I’m making the edits to my private main draft, but I haven’t added all of the edits to the “Whole Story” page in a while.
Previously On…
In the last chapter, George and Nod plunged into their first hunting round, was extorted into a new friendship, and saw someone get eaten alive by sand snakes. George also left the Draw nodling in the hunting maze to explore things during the voting round… a fact that will come in mighty handy soon enough.
If you want to read all of the story that has been published so far, you can do that here. Or jump straight to a certain chapter.
On to the story.
VOTING ROUND—ONE
Bonus Event Quest Update!
Description: Survive a voting or hunting round.
Completed: 1/X
Reward: +1 Will, +10 gold, and +1 skill point for each round survived. +50,000 clicks. Delivered immediately.
Received:
+1 will (3 total)
+10 gold (60 total)
+1 skill point (2 total)
+50,000 clicks (387,710 total)
>>That put us over the edge to level 18.
New Achievement: You’ve reached 387,710.
Bonus Unlocked: Level Up.
You are now Level Eighteen.
+2 Gold (62 total)
+1 Skill Point (3 total)
+1 Will (4 total)
>>OK. So. By the looks of it, there were not many changes during hunting round one, but there were a few.
>>We lost a few players.
>>That’d be Nagle and… somebody else.
George looked at the scoreboard.
Scoreboard:
Red Team: 18
Blue Team: 18
Total Players remaining: 36
>>Looks like Nagle wasn’t on our team. Go figure.
>>Nobody deserved to die like that.
>>I am sure there are some people who deserve to die like that.
When George looked around the room, he saw the slime had completely covered the floor of its enclosure and was steadily bubbling, bunching together, and emitting loud, messy slurping sounds.
The enclosure that contained the Vordigan brood mother was empty. Urdo, the knight with the horned helmet and giant mace, was wiping brown sludge off himself. The gnacker was still alive, but its fur was matted with blood in patches.
The purple crystal jutting out of the boulder had tripled in length and sent a crystalline lattice of geometric shapes into the rest of the enclosure. George wondered how many of these weird entities had been teleported back to the voting room and how many remained in the hunting maze.
>>I noticed you left our poor nodling out in the hunting maze. What is the plan there?
>>You can see through its eyes, right?
>>It doesn’t have eyes, but yes, that is basically correct.
>>And you can communicate with it?
>>Yep.
>>So tell it to crawl around and explore the maze. See if it can stay safe while building a map for us. Maybe it’ll even find some prestige tokens and spy on what the other players have done in the rooms.
>>Huh.
>>Wow.
>>Most of the time, you sort of lumber around in a daze, saying things like, “I thought these nanites were supposed to make me fit… blah, blah, blah.” But then you have these bolt-out-of-the-blue ideas…
>>While I think this plan reveals significant ethical gaps in your parenting philosophy, I haven’t been this proud of you since you decided to burn Charlie James alive.
>>Kudos.
>>But I’m also reporting you to the Department of Social Services.
>>Yeah, whatever. Tell it to get a move on. See if it can return to the arena and find where those other doors lead. We’ll start from there. It should be safe if it stays off the sand.
>>Sure thing, boss.
“Hey man,” Top said, knocking on the force field between himself and George again. “You made it! It’s crazy out there. What room were you in?”
“I was…” George started to answer, but Top tapped on the force field again and raised his voice to get Pine’s attention.
“Hey, Pine,” he said. “Where were you, man? I hunkered down just like you said. Oh, but check it out. I did find this beauty.” Top brandished a sleek black gun with two curved barrels above and below the grip. “It shoots these purple blobs that eat away at everything they touch like acid.”
Pine didn’t look up when Top said all of this, so Top turned to June and showed her the gun. She looked at him with no expression until he looked away.
Pine withdrew the same ornate wooden chair he had been sitting in last time from a dimensional storage space and then placed a saucer and tea cup on the table. Next, a teapot appeared in his hand, and he poured a dark liquid into the cup. It was steaming like it had just come off the boil. He put the teapot on the table beside the mug, then produced a quilted tea coozie with a flick and settled it on top of the pot. Only when all of this was arranged did he answer Top.
“That sure is a neat gun, Top,” Pine said. “Just be careful what you shoot with it.”
Then Pine turned to George and smiled, “I’m real glad you made it, George. It looks like you even managed to find a token. Good for you.”
Pine gestured at the leaderboard.
Leaderboard
Pinnacle (20 votes)
Diamond (12 votes)
Gold (8 votes)
Silver (5 votes)
Neco—5 tokens
Bronze (3 votes)
Grey—3 tokens
Sarala—3 tokens
Pine—3 tokens
TLX-448571001—3 tokens
Iron (2 votes)
Carthage—2 tokens
Lady Greesh—2 tokens
George—1 token
Ezra Deathmantle—1 token
Dark Horse—1 token
Loveland—1 token
June 1 token
Tinntannabel 1 token
The Lie 1 token
Vesper 1 token
Misco Narisco 1 token
Webb 1 token
>>How did that glorified toaster find three tokens, save our bacon, AND read us the riot act all in one round?
>>He can fly.
>>And he has more arms than us.
>>And he knows what he is doing.
“George,” Pine said. “I was thinking about something during the hunting round. Right after we all arrived, you said something out loud before we started talking to each other.
“Oh, what was it? Something like, ‘If you don’t like it, get the fuck out of my head.’ Do you remember that?” Pine asked and laughed. “Who were you talking to?”
George didn’t respond. He couldn’t decide what was better, speaking to Pine or pretending he didn’t exist.
“I thought it was funny,” Pine said. “Here’s a guy that looks like bog-standard vanilla, but who is he talking to? Is he crazy? Is it telepathy? Or is there more inside that opaque helmet than meets the eye? Then, I started wondering if that might be related to how a level-zero nobody could kill Charlie James, a level-65 Glorified Maw. Anyway… food for thought.”
>>I don’t know what it is about this guy! He walks the fine line between “friendly neighborhood serial killer” and “monster-in-human-skin.”
>>I can’t decide whether to grab a beer together or bolt the door and call the cops.
“So… Razza will be here in a minute. Anybody want to dish about their hunting round?” Pine asked. “How about you, big guy?”
Pine turned to the other side of his enclosure to look at Aeternum, the crystal golem, but the creature did not move or acknowledge his question in any way. Pine turned back to the others and made an oops face.
“Where were you?” George said.
“Why, George. Thank you for asking,” Pine said. “When the hunting round began, I found myself in this big room, basically a junk warehouse. It was just a room with nothing useful except a few prestige tokens. I did find a portal that let me peek at what Greesh is up to. That old dame is making herself a little hideout. No surprise there.
“George, getting on her good side wouldn’t be a bad strategy for you, actually… as long as you don’t mind doing her dirty work. She’s one to take up pity cases as pets,” Pine said.
June cleared her throat noisily and spat something on the ground. “He did this in the trial where I met him, too,” June said. “He is Mr. Chatty, looking for allies, giving out knowledge like little gumballs. But it is all bullshit.”
Pine laid both hands against his heart and leaned back as though he’d been shot, “Oh, June. You wound me.”
She looked away from him and stared resolutely forward.
“George and Top know the score. We’re in a trial, but that’s no reason why we can’t be civil,” Pine said. “Top, did you really just stay in one place the whole time, waiting for me?”
“Yeah,” Top said. “I thought that’s what you told me to do.”
“OK,” Pine sighed. “How about this? Next round, find a prestige token or two. Do something for team Pine.”
“Team Pine and Top,” Top said.
“Find a prestige token, and then we’ll talk about naming rights,” Pine said.
“I found this, though,” Top said, holding the gun. Pine just looked away from him and sipped his tea.
>>While we have a second, is there anything you want to spend your gold on?
>>I can see the merits of hoarding gold for a moment of need, but I’m also wondering if we should burn some gold to refresh our options and see what happens.
>>Yeah, that makes sense.
>>Will you show me the user interface upgrades?
▼ Upgrade User Interface:
Ultralight Filter — 5 gold. An update to your interface that lets you see different wavelengths of light.
Status Effect Notifier — 15 gold. Your interface will notify you of status effects such as debuffs, temporary abilities, or health conditions.
Environmental Analysis Tool — 15 gold. Scan and report on features of your surroundings.
Locate Kit — 20 gold.
Refresh Selected Option — 1 gold
>>Let’s get the ultralight filter. Think that would help us see something that is invisible?
>>If it gives us infrared, I think it would.
Purchased: Ultralight filter — 5 gold (55 remaining)
>>Cool. We have infrared, ultraviolet, and a few other obscure visual filters.
>>Here comes infrared.
George’s vision switched to oversaturated color tones of purple for cool areas in the room and red-orange for hot regions. He saw the other players’ outlines in bright, warm colors. The space the ooze was slowly taking over was a cool purple. Aeternum, the crystal golem, was radiating heat and glowed white in George’s vision. The most significant change was the enclosure that was filled with the flashing darkness. George could see the figure of a human standing in the middle of it with its arms folded across its chest.
>>Huh. Curiouser and curiouser.
>>Normal vision, Nod.
George’s sight went back to normal.
>>Here’s the new user interface option:
Continuous Skill Menu Access — 15 gold. An update to your interface that lets you see different wavelengths of light.
>>We’ll need that eventually, but we don’t yet.
>>Anything else strike your fancy?
>>Refresh the environmental analysis one. That seems like what Identify already does for us. Ditto for the status effect notifier.
Purchased: Refresh Selected Option: Environmental Analysis Tool — 1 gold. (54 remaining)
Purchased: Refresh Selected Option: Status Effect Notifier — 1 gold. (53 remaining)
>>The new options are:
Quest-Map Item Integration — 15 gold. Automatically highlight quest-related items on your map
Combat Log — 20 gold. A record of combat events, including abilities used, damage taken, and outcomes.
>>Let’s get the quest-map integration. If it helps us find one of the items for even one of those new quests, it will more than pay for itself.
Purchased: Quest-Map Item Integration — 15 gold. (38 remaining)
>>Want to see the familiar upgrades?
>>I don’t think this a good time to start rolling around on the ground and screaming because you’re taking over more of my body, do you?
>>Point taken.
“Let me tell you this, boys and girls,” Pine said. “There are players here that can’t be killed by anyone during the hunting rounds except by extraordinary circumstances. That list includes Aeternum,” Pine jerked his thumb at the crystal golem in the enclosure to his left. “The two Concepts and the baldy sitting on the ground over there.”
“What are the concepts? And why can’t they be killed.” George said. George looked at the two strange players, and Identify popped up for each.
<Concept of Equilibrium>
<Concept of Metamorphosis>
The Concept of Equilibrium was a floating disc with two concentric circles of debris around it that looked like planetary rings. The inner ring was entirely made of a white substance, like broken bits of chalk or ivory, and the outer ring was comprised of small black chunks of obsidian or dark crystal.
The Concept of Metamorphosis was also a floating shape, but instead of two rings, it looked like a constantly shifting pictogram character or rune from some obscure language. The runes continuously changed, but they were always a bright bronze color.
“They can’t be killed because they aren’t properly alive. They just exist conceptually as aspects of the game. In this case, they are the personifications of balance and change,” Pine said. “But they’ve been drafted into either the blue or red team, so if we want to get them out, we have to vote them out.”
“The same goes for the slime. It can technically be killed, but it will spread itself through so many rooms that it will be hard to do. The easiest way to be rid of it is to vote it out before it takes over,” Pine said.
“So, as long as there is even a little slime in the maze, that thing is still in the game? That isn’t fair. It is basically unkillable,” Top said.
“That’s why it is a good strategy,” Pine said.
Before anyone could say anything else, Razza’s platform rose into its spot in the center of the room. The voidling screeched at him again, and he put it to sleep with another wave of his hand.
“These are the rules of the voting round,” Razza said.
“The voting round consists of three phases: negotiation, voting, and resolution,“ Razza said. “After the rules have been explained, the ten-minute negotiation phase will begin.
“Ability orbs may used at any time, including the resolution phase.
“After the resolution phase, the player who receives the most votes will be removed from the game. They will not be harmed but will lose access to any trial rewards.
“In the event of a tie, the vote will be decided by cumulative prestige tokens collected by each side. If there is still a tie, the player ranked highest on the leaderboard will determine who is voted out.
“The vote will begin once the time limit on the ten-minute negotiation round has elapsed, when three-fourths of the players have cast their vote, or if a round-ending ability orb is used.
“Those of you who have an interface are now receiving a button that will allow you to select the name of the player for whom you would like to vote,” Razza said. “You may cast a vote at any point during the negotiation or brief voting phase. You may change your vote until the voting phase is done but not during the resolution phase.”
George saw a new button in his vision that said “Vote.” He mentally clicked on it and saw a list of the surviving players’ names.
“The negotiation phase begins now,” Razza said. “You have ten minutes.”
A timer appeared in George’s vision.
00:09:59
00:09:58
00:09:57
When Razza finished talking, a woman stepped to the front of her enclosure and said, “Red team. I’m on the blue team. Please vote me out. I don’t want to be in this sick game. I don’t care if I get the rewards.”
George’s Identify supplied her profile.
<Name: Kiva
Race: Elfkin
Level: 25, F-Grade
Profession: N/A
Abilities: N/A
Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: N/A>
She held out her hand and showed the room her blue team card.
Pine muttered commentary under his breath, “Level 25? No wonder she wants to get out of here. She’s mincemeat.” He looked up at George and said, “No offense.”
Lady Greesh said, “What makes you think the blue team will let that happen, you little snit?”
>>Indicating Greesh is on the blue team..?
>>Or she is messing with us by standing up for the blue team.
>>Ugh.
>>This reminds me of rule seventeen of Nod’s 100 Rules for Life: Never trust anyone whose frontal lobe you cannot access.
“You saw what ability orb I picked,” Kiva said. “I can triple the strength of any player’s vote. So, if any of you people high up on the leaderboard are on the red team, vote me out. I will triple your vote. It will work as long as a few more people on the red team vote for me. That will be one fewer blue team member, and you will be one step closer to winning this trial.”
She turned to Neco and said, “What about you, Prince? You are the only silver tier on the leaderboard. That’s five votes. I can make them fifteen.”
“I could contribute my votes,” Neco said. “But that wouldn’t let me keep you in this game as a plaything.”
“Well, OK,” Kiva said. “How about somebody who isn’t a crazy asshole?”
>>I like her. She’s got spunk.
>>Not sure if this gambit is going to work, though.
>>But it sure is making things interesting.
>>Is she right about the votes?
>>Might be.
>>It is hard to say what could happen with these ability orbs in play.
>>That orb would pack more of a punch if there were fewer people and the leaderboard leaders had a chance to climb higher.
>>She might have played this card too early.
>>I think she is trying not to get dead when the violence ban is lifted.
>> This is an understandable ambition and one that I share.
Kiva tried to make her pitch again to the next highest person on the leaderboard and said, “What about you, wizard lady? Are you red team? Want your three votes to become nine?”
George noticed a young woman he had not seen before. Now that his attention was focused on her, he realized he had not noticed her until now. It was as if his mind kept sliding away from her as he glanced around the room. Even now, he had a strange desire to look away.
<Name: Grey
Race: Human
Level: 101, E-Grade
Profession: Wizard
Abilities: Zimzalabim; Weird, Witchy Hoodoo; Hell For Leather; The Flesh Mound Where Your Mouth Used To Be
House: Primus
House Rank: Nine
Guild: Aetherfall Academy
Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: House Primus has only one guild: the Aetherfall Academy. The Academy was built on a mana wellspring and has honed the craft of raising powerful wizards. It also has the unfortunate reputation of killing off its pupils. The Academy fosters a highly competitive environment, and the mages who rise high do so over their fallen comrades. Only those able to excel in that vicious environment complete their studies, but those who do have a track record of victory.>
“Sure, I’ll vote for you,” Grey shrugged. “Why not?”
The young wizard was short and wore an oversized camel-colored knit sweater, jeans, and checkered tennis shoes with bright yellow laces. A long, black staff was leaning against the back wall of the enclosure.
Kiva seemed surprised at Grey’s response. “Ok, well, that’s nine,” Kiva said. She raised her voice and addressed the whole room. “There are 18 of you reds. If even half of you pull your heads out of your asses and vote for me, that’s one round in the bag for the red team.”
George looked at Neco and found that the prince was looking directly back at him. Neco gave his head a slight shake.
>>Whoa. I think he just told us not to vote for the elf.
>>Well, shit. I was hoping he didn’t know who we were for some reason.
>>Not very likely. These guys seem pretty well organized.
>>I suppose that means that Neco is on the blue team.
>>That is bad for us.
>>We’re going to have to vote against our interest.
>>Or remove him from the game.
>>Without killing him.
>>That will be hard if he stays on the leaderboard. If he takes that pinnacle spot, everyone in the game will have to team up to vote him off. And that will be especially true as numbers dwindle.
>>Also, don’t forget the “If the prince dies, you die too” clause built into the Faustian Bargain you are wearing on your head.
>> This means that we will have to protect him if we get the chance. That will get harder as he climbs the leaderboard, too. People are going to want to target him.
>>Something tells me that guy will be able to protect himself. He looks loaded for bear and ready to party.
>>So, let’s just worry about getting him voted out without appearing to do so.
>>One thing at a time. As always.
“No, don’t vote for the elf girl,” Top said, walking to the front of his enclosure. “I say we vote out the slime or the necromancer guy. They’re the swarmers. If we don’t do it now, they will take over, and we won’t be able to kill them.”
“Don’t bring me into this,” Ezra, the necromancer, said. “I say we vote for the elf.”
“You just want to make us all vampires or zombies or something,” Top said.
“I didn’t have any specific plans along those lines, but that is rapidly changing in your case,” Ezra said. “What is it… Top of the Morning? What kind of a name is that?”
“It is my name, asshole,” Top said. “And if you want to come find me in the maze, I won’t be the one dying!” Top drew the gun from his waistband and brandished it at the necromancer. He must have accidentally squeezed the trigger because the gun launched a glob of purple fire in Ezra’s direction. Top flinched and dropped the weapon. The forcefield absorbed whatever it was that the gun had fired.
Ezra laughed. The gnacker looked up from the place on the floor where it had been licking its wounds and growled. Pine rubbed his forehead with one hand.
“Surely, we should remove the Cipher from the game. We may not get another chance.” This was from Carthage, the man with the three women in his wager stone-enforced entourage.
The whole room looked at the bald albino man sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed.
<Name: The Ephemeral Flower of Victory
Race: N/A
Level: N/A
Abilities: N/A
House: The Concatenating Cipher
House Rank: One
Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: The Concatenating Cipher has stood at the top of the house ranking system since there was a house ranking system. Despite this, as the name might indicate, little is known about it. Some theories suggest their agents are the vessels for the consciousness of a superbeing that operates their bodies after the fashion of a hive mind. Other theories contend the house represents an incursion from an entirely alternate dimension, with rules governed by a rival megatherium AI. Still, other theories postulate that the source of the house’s power is one crucial rule-bending ability that could also be shared among its members. Whatever the true account of the power of the Cipher, as the house is known in the Labyrinth, its agents seem not to be bound by the same set of rules others are bound by, making them uniquely challenging opponents.>
“Here here,” Pine said, “We can never beat those assholes in other trials, but this one involves voting. He’s got my vote.”
“It would be more logical to vote him out once we have ascertained his team alignment,” TLX said.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s red or blue. He’s still on his own team.” Carthage said. “The Ciphers barely participate in the trials but always win.”
The strange bald man raised his hand, and a red team card appeared. He licked one side of the card and slapped it onto the forcefield in front of him, where it stuck for all to see as if it really were glass. He did all this with his eyes closed and a slight smile on his face.
A message from TLX appeared in George’s vision.
[Do not vote against The Ephemeral Flower of Victory. Having a Cipher on our team is an immense asset.—TLX]
>>I find it annoying that Screwloose the Floating Disco Ball can talk to us anytime, but we can’t sass back.
>>I didn’t consent to this.
>>Look who is talking.
>>Zing!
>>Good one.
>>Oh, hey. Guess what…
Skill Upgrade Unlocked: Reduce 2
Choose your upgrade path:
Increase rate of Reduction
Decrease cooldown of Reduce
Enable Reduction of selected portion of target only
>>OK. Same logic as the Expand upgrade, right? We’ll get all the other upgrades faster if we decrease the cooldown.
>>I endorse this decision and hereby grant it official Nod-certification.
Skill Selected: Reduce 2—Decrease cooldown of Reduce
>>Here is the current skill progress looks like on the rest of the skills:
Skills:
Draw 2: 43%
Bind 2: 97%
Expand 2: 5%
Reduce 2: 0%
Bore: 91%
>>Hey, you know that warehouse of useless junk that Pine started in the last round? The nodling found it. It has a portal connected to the coliseum.
>>Too bad he didn’t end up in there. He could have become snake food.
>>Anway. It is definitely not useless junk. There are all kinds of goodies in here. Pine either didn’t know what was right in front of him, or he was blowing smoke up our asses.
>>We have got to find our way back there. Drawer has already seen a few prestige tokens Pine missed.
>>If it involves going through the coliseum, no deal. I’m never setting foot in there again.
>>I’m also happy to report that Drawer can basically fly.
>>It is light enough that when it casts draw on a dense, stationary object, instead of the object moving toward the spider, the spider moves toward the object.
>>He’s having a great time jumping all over these overstuffed bric-a-brac shelves.
>>We only have a sensory relay, not an emotional relay, but I’m pretty sure he’s feeling overjoyed he has gone from being stuffed down the front of your pants for an hour to swinging around these rooms like Spiderman.
>>Very funny, Nod. Just tell him to keep searching the portals. Knowing how to get around and what rooms not to go into will be very important.
>>Yeah. Yeah.
A few more players offered thoughts and accusations on who to vote for as the final few minutes of the timer on the negotiation round ran out. Still, the consensus was gathering around Kiva, Ezra, and the strangely-named Ephemeral Flower of Victory.
When the timer on the negotiation phase ticked down to zero, Razza spoke up. “Cast your votes now. You have 60 seconds. Any vote after the 60-second time window has elapsed will not be counted. After the voting phase, the resolution phase will begin.”
[Vote for Kiva the elfkin. She is the only member of the blue team we have 100% certainty of.—TLX]
>>What’s it going to be, Boss?
>>Well, we can assume that this helmet somehow reports our votes to Neco, so we can’t risk voting for him or Kiva.
>>I say we sit this one out.
>>Better safe than sorry? I can get behind that.
>>Some of those ability orbs involve people who voted for you last round, so if we can’t vote for the only blue team member we’ve identified, caution might be the better part of valor.
“I will now reveal the votes, and the two-minute resolution phase will begin,” Razza said.
Suddenly, ghostly blue arrows stretched between everyone who voted and the person they voted for.
Another notification popped up in George’s vision.
Resolution Phase—Vote Ranking
The Ephemeral Flower of Victory: 18
Kiva: 12
Dragonmaw: 9
Ezra Deathmantle: 6
Pine: 2
Aeternum: 2
>>Wait. Dragonmaw?
>>That’s the name of the slime.
>>You should read all these Identify profiles. You could be missing crucial information.
The whole room momentarily silent while people figured out who had voted for whom.
The concepts, the voidling, the gnacker, the slime, and Aeternum had not voted.
Sure enough, just like she said, the young wizard called Grey had voted for Kiva.
Though he had gathered the most votes, the Ephemeral Flower of Victory had not voted.
>>Are you tracking all this, Nod?
>>You better believe it.
>>And identifying potential reds by who voted for Kiva. And who didn’t.
>>I don’t see anyone suddenly seizing up and dying, so we can also assume that Neco’s two other agents are on the list of people who did not vote for Kiva.
The weird purple crystal structure had voted for the Aternum. The crystal golem remained stoically still in the enclosure next to Pine.
>> It’s interesting that Ezra voted for the slime instead of Top. I thought he would throw his votes at the person who called him out.
>>I bet a floor slime that grows exponentially is pretty counterproductive if you are trying to drum up a zombie horde.
June had put her two votes on Pine. Pine looked over her and raised his hands in surrender. She flipped him off and spat on the ground.
>>She seems pretty revenge-y for a grandma-looking lady.
>>Seems like they have a history.
>>And little ol’ George and Nod caught between.
>>What could go wrong?
When there were 20 seconds left in the resolution phase, Kiva activated her ability orb.
Activated—The Most Powerful Pulpit: Triple the strength of another player’s vote.
The line between Kiva and Grey flashed, and Kiva’s name appeared at the top of the vote ranking list.
Resolution Phase—Vote Ranking
Kiva: 21
The Ephemeral Flower of Victory: 18
Dragonmaw: 9
Ezra Deathmantle: 6
Pine: 2
Aeternum: 2
Kiva’s eyes darted around the room, waiting for someone else to activate an orb, but no one did.
When the timer was down to five seconds, Kiva withdrew a second ability orb and crushed it in her hands.
Activated—One For The Road: If you are voted out, you still get the trial rewards if your team wins.
Then the timer hit zero, and she disappeared.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Pine said and clapped his hands. “Clever girl.”
Razza said, “Kiva is eliminated. The second hunting round will now begin.”
Pine stood up and returned the table, chair, and tea to his storage space. “Remember, Top,” he said. “Find us some prestige tokens. And don’t shoot yourself with that g-…”
But before Pine could finish the sentence, the round ended. George and Nod suddenly found themselves floating in the middle of a large sphere. George tried to take a step, but the moment he moved his legs, his whole body spun in lazy revolutions.
Entering Hunting Room: The Ground Is All Around You
>>Nod.
>>Where did the gravity go?