Breaching the Stronghold

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 5]

Eric and Brett, the two good-for-nothings, only showed up sometimes to the computer lab with us. They kept their distance and even kept their voices down. Sometimes I would hear their snickering from behind us. The first few times, I would jerk my head back to catch them in the act. I always just saw them hiding away behind the big computer screens. I decided to follow Jakey’s advice and just ignore them.

Jakey and I were far too busy anyway, planning our adventure to the new Rune Quest area when it opened up. Jakey said that since the little goblins were weak to fire, the bigger ones, and even the king, must also be weak to fire.

“My magic is weak, but there are a few low-level spells to make your weapons attack with fire damage,” he said.

“I have some of those magic runes,” I offered.

“Could I leave it to you, my companion, to gather more of those?” He asked, proud of my ability to serve. “The flame ones, especially.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

---

About two weeks from our first discovery of the wiki, the Goblin King update dropped. It was a Thursday. The game took longer to load than normal. It had a popup as soon as I logged in talking about all the new things. Jakey and I already knew everything about it. We had decided at school that day to wait until that Friday to take it on. It wasn’t a school night, so we could be up as long as we needed to find that goblin king and take his treasure.

That next day at the end of dinner, I was the first to plop my dishes in the sink. I marched through the kitchen to grab a single bag of chips from the pantry and a coke from the refrigerator.

“Mike!” my mom scolded. She was almost ready to stop me. “You just had dinner!”

“They’re my rations, Mom,” I said, pushing past her. “For later.”

My dad chuckled. “Off to war,” he said. He didn’t know how right he was.

When I finally got on Rune Quest, Jakey was already online. I didn’t know how he got away with eating dinner so early. Maybe, I thought, his parents didn’t make him eat with them. It was also possible that they just ate early. I had never spent much time at his house, so I wasn’t sure of how their dinners worked.

I sent Jakey a private message telling him that I was online. He sent me a party invite back, putting the two of us in a team. His marker on the map showed that he was already at the edge of the new area.

I must explain yet another limitation of the internet at this time. There was no way to just talk to other people with your voice. If there was, it probably wouldn’t have been very good on our slow dial-up internet. We talked only using the chat in-game. My typing speed had gotten pretty fast as a result. My mom always said I would be able to type essays in no time. None of my middle school classes had given me an essay to type yet, so I wasn’t sure if that was true.

I chatted with Jakey, known as MakeMeJake88 in game, as I made the journey to the new area.

MakeMeJake88: got everything?

IcyMike203: ya

IcyMike203: ill trade u those runes when i get there

MakeMeJake88: good

MakeMeJake88: I got lots of fod

MakeMeJake88: food*

IcyMike203: lol

IcyMike203: k

IcyMike203: got my own rations, lol

MakeMeJake88: irl?

IcyMike203: coke and cool ranch

IcyMike203: we r undefeatable

MakeMeJake88: tons of ppl here

MakeMeJake88: hurry!

The trek to the new area wasn’t terribly long. I finally arrived. The location of the stronghold was once the very edge of the world. Going any further was impossible. It was guarded by a massive wall made of chopped-down tree trunks that were as big as giants. A gate was also there, but there was never any way to open it. Well, for that update, it had finally opened.

Other players swarmed the area. I could tell some of them had worse gear than me. There were also many with the best gear. A lot of people were posting a little message in the public chat- lfg- looking for group. Jakey and I didn’t need anyone besides the two of us.

The first few bunches of enemies, mostly basic goblins, were being dealt with just beyond the walls. They were going to be no challenge. The real fights were going to be deeper inside the goblin lands. Even deeper than we could see at the time was the stronghold itself. I wondered if anyone had made it that far.

I followed Jakey as we had planned.

IcyMike203: lead the way

We had managed to get about the same equipment. I had full steel armor and a sword. Jakey had the same, just with a Mythril chest plate which he had spent most of his gold on just for that day. Of course, his combat level was higher than mine too.

Our plan went like this: Jakey would get the attention of the goblins, start slashing away, and then I would come up behind and help him take the green dorks down. Since we were in a party, the experience was shared.

I had a bunch of food for healing on me. Jakey had cooked up some of his own, too. Because he planned on taking most of the damage, though, I was ready to pass him some when he needed. The first few fights were smooth. Jakey’s plan of using fire attacks with his sword brought down the weak goblins easily.

MakeMeJake88: too easy here

MakeMeJake88: lets keep going

We met the first groups of armored goblins. We also met a few piles of lost gear from the noobs who had fallen to these stronger foes. When you die in Rune Quest, you drop most of your items. It feels terrible and sets you back a lot of time and money. Jakey and I weren’t going to let that happen to each other.

The armored goblins put up a better fight. We began to use the first of our healing supplies. The experience was piling up. On top of that, I had already pocketed a good amount of gold and a few weapons to sell when we got back to town. While we were simply testing our skills, though, other players were already continuing on.

My real-life stamina was running low an hour and a half in. I cracked open my coke and yanked the bag of chips open with my teeth. I was careful to wipe my hands on my shirt and keep the seasoning from the chips off my mouse. If felt my strength return, and our hacking and slashing continued.

That’s when I saw it. It was up on a hill, surrounded by more gargantuan walls of logs. It was the stronghold, the home of the Goblin King. Even bigger goblins guarded the entrance.

MakeMeJake88: u ready?

MakeMeJake88: the good loot and XP is going 2 be inside

IcyMike203: right behind u

I guessed that most people had skipped the guard goblins and ran in straight for the boss. According to the wiki, many people could fight the king at the same time. He shared experience, too, depending on how many people took him down. Anyone within range would get a notification. Brave Adventurers have slain the Goblin King, protecting the land once more!

That’s exactly the message we saw on our screens then. Also mentioned by the wiki was that it took him a full thirty minutes to respawn. A half hour.

MakeMeJake88: dang

MakeMeJake88: might as well just farm

MakeMeJake88: u have time

MakeMeJake88: ?

I looked at the clock in the corner of my screen. It wasn’t too late. I could hear my parents, and probably Jess, watching a movie or something in the living room. My dad had probably fallen asleep on the couch. My mom never could fall asleep on the couch. She always woke up my dad and forced the both of them to bed. She was more relaxed on me and my sister on non school nights.

IcyMike203: no prob!!! more loot!!!

The stronghold goblins had spiked hammers. They dealt more damage. On top of that, they were tightly packed there in the halls of the stone and wooden fortress. While we could deal with one or two, sometimes another group would end up behind us. Jakey did his best to fight them back and defend me. I was putting up my own fight, but it seemed like I was getting taken down faster than the foes. I watched my health bar turn more and more red, meaning I was that much closer to death. I chowed down on my in-game rations to keep myself up. I’m sure Jakey was doing the same. The window for the Goblin King’s return was coming closer.

MakeMeJake88: need food

MakeMeJake88: u got more?

Jakey’s health bar was pretty full, but mine was more red than green. I did a calculation in my head. The few pieces of food left in my inventory were just enough to get me back to max.

IcyMike203: cant

IcyMike203: im almost out too

IcyMike203: dang help me here

I consumed the rest of the food just in time for a fresh spawn of spiked-hammer goblins to run at me. I did the only thing I could think of. I ran, hoping that Jakey would be able to take care of them.

Jakey kept swinging his sword, but the goblins were already ahead, hot on my heels. They got a few good hits in, bringing me down halfway. Somewhere outside of the gates, more ganged up on me. I was surrounded. Jakey and I both tried to fight them back, but my health bar dropped quick. I was clicking as fast as I could. I gritted my teeth. I screamed. Then in the blink of an eye, I was falling to the ground. The game teleported me to my home. Only my main piece of armor was left on me. Everything else I owned or had gotten in the stronghold was back there. I cursed. You shouldn’t imagine what I might have yelled.

I heard stomping feet on their way to the den. “I hope I didn’t hear what thought I heard!” My mom said angrily. She was in the doorway already, hands on her hips.

“It was nothing, Mom!” I shouted back. The excitement from the chase still had a hold on my body.

“I can’t believe you’re shouting at a silly game like this. And saying stuff like that,” my mom added. The anger from my cursing still had a hold on her body.

“It was an accident!” I was whining but didn’t care. “Jess says stuff like that all the time!”

“Well Jess is being a bad influence, then. And these computer games aren’t helping, either. You’ve been on this forever, the whole week, even. It’s late, Mike, give it a rest.”

“I need to get my stuff back!” I was still shouting, digging myself deeper. I could see Jakey’s chat messages coming at me from the corner of my eye. I knew that if I looked back at the screen, my mom would blow up. “Just let me get back to Jakey! He’s telling me something right now!”

“Get off it, or I will pull the plug,” My mom said, even more serious. “You can talk to Jakey on the phone, like any regular person. And if you’re lucky, you might get an hour on it for the rest of this weekend!”

“That won’t be enough time to find Jakey and get my stuff!”

My mom stomped her foot. “Then nothing at all. Turn. It. Off! I swear, that kid’s bad attitude is rubbing off on you.”

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