The door shakes on its hinges from the force of the slam, but strangely it doesn’t open.

Still, I rush over, ready to fight off yet another monster, mace gripped tightly in my hand, but the door holds strong. Unnaturally strong.

I slow my panicked run, coming to a stop right at the door. I almost can’t believe what I see.

The lock is fixed.

The lock I broke when I entered this room.

“What the fuck?” I glance back at Chalice who is peeking over the top of his chest, “you do this?”

He shakes his head not so quickly I can hear his coin brain cells clatter around inside his head. “Not me!”

Which only leaves one option… Hacker.

A shiver races down my spine at the thought. It’s clearly able to do more than it first pretended. And it's unnerving to think that they could just summon a lock on any door, and that Hacker could have just let me into the room but made me break it down instead. Anger boils in my veins, but less towards Hacker and more towards myself. If Hacker hadn’t intervened, I would have gotten all of us killed. Me, Zeke and Chalice.

‘I can’t be so careless in the future,’ I promise as the door rattles once more, but I just sigh and turn back around to head back to Chalice.

Chalice gives me a look I can’t decipher as I come back to its chest. “The monsters do that sometimes when I get too loud, they can’t get in though,” he clarifies in a soft creaking voice. “You did make them really mad though.”

“I tend to have that effect,” I tease, as the adrenaline slowly bleeds out of me, leaving me even more exhausted than before.

But still, I keep a vigil on the door for another few minutes just to make sure Chalice’s words are true and we aren’t about to become a lizard-plocinine’s dinner, I turn back to the Treasure Bear, “I’m staying till the morning.”

He looks up at me incredulously for a second before his face twists in a strange expression similar to a grimace. He drops from his ledge and returns to the inside of the chest, turning his back to me. “Do as you wish, pink player!” and he pulls up his gaudy menu and starts fiddling with the layout making it even more atrocious somehow. “I couldn’t make you leave even if I wanted to,” He grumbles before waving a hand over towards me, “just let me know when you’re leaving and I’ll put the protection back up on the hero.”

I can’t help the little smile that finds its way to my face, “Thanks Chalice.” And I settle in for my first night in the tutorial dungeon.

….

“You wouldn’t happen to know where the artifacts are would you?” I ask Chalice the next morning, as I lean against the side of the chest.

I’ve only been here a little under half a day tops, but I’m almost surprised myself at how quickly I’ve gotten along and even mildly appreciated the strange NPC who is also bound to Hacker’s employ. He’s not very bright, but he is earnest, and I prefer honest fools over cunning liars any day.

I had forced myself to sleep for a hours. All the stress and exhaustion finally taking its toll, for once I was propped up against the glittering crystal holding my brother I was asleep within minutes. I’m not sure whether that says more about how tired I was or more about my ability to cope with my brother being encased in diamonds, but the rest was helpful enough. At least my body feels a little less like it’s going to just stop functioning on me.

Chalice shifts inside the chest, looking up at me with his mismatched gemstone eyes, “What artifacts?”

“The ones for the quest,” I clarify, gesturing over towards my system window, or rather where the system would be, but it hasn’t appeared even when I called for it. seems whatever Hacker did to make this strange space they pretty effectively blocked the system from interfering. Still, I remember enough of what the Lizard door’s completion quest is to ask a sentient NPC vendor what it is, “I need 5 artifacts to win this castle level. Any ideas?”

He levels me with a confused look, “I’m not a player, how would I know?”

“But you’re a treasure bear,” I counter, “isn’t knowing everything about all priceless treasures your whole thing?”

“Well, I just—” he huffs, once again sounding like a backfiring truck, a small toy one if that could do that. He turns away from me, crossing his paws, “I don’t know why I helped you, you are just a big meanie player.”

“Aww come on now Chalice, I wasn’t trying to be mean,” I coax, layering my tone with false sweetness. Chalice glances back just enough to narrow his eyes at me in distrust, but I continue to lay it on thick. “I mean you can’t fault me for being surprised that the all-knowing treasure bear wouldn’t want to help on this very important mission?”

His disbelief melts into a brief glare, before turning away sharply, making a show of keeping his back turned, muttering softly, “Why should I even care, pink meanie?”

Just a bit more and I’ll have him, “Because if I get those artifacts, I can then start looking for your dragon.”

His little button ears twitch and he glances over in poorly hidden excitement, “A dragon?!” he asks eyes sparkling, “for the hero?”

I nod, even though I don’t know what other dragon I could possibly be talking about, and do my best to try and look sad, “If I can find those artifacts then I’ll be able to help my brother faster, but if you don’t know….”

“Wait!” and Chalice spins around so fast he trips before scrambling up and running over to the edge of its chest to peer up at me, “You just need these artifacts? Then you can get the dragon?!”

Honestly, I have no idea if that’s true, but Hacker did say to complete the levels and gather allies if I wanted to help Zeke. Now that I’ve had some time to cool off, get some shut-eye, and actually plan, I figure there’s only one option. Leveling as fast as I can…. And gain some lackies.

Since the only other person I’ve seen in the castle has been a dead man, better to just speed-rush this level as fast as I can and then find some noobs I can turn into useful followers. So yes, I assume completing this level will help me free Zeke. But… I don’t know for sure, and though Chalice seems mostly kindhearted I’m not taking risks with him not helping me on a hunch. Thus, my bad acting skills coming out to shine.

It's also thankful that I’m turned away enough in my false sadness that the Treasure Bear can’t see my smile. He fell for it hook, line, and sinker. ‘Earnest fools are always the best!’ I cheer to myself as I turn back with a nod, trying to keep the pleased tone out of my voice, “That’s all I need.”

He glances around like he’s afraid of someone eavesdropping on us and shuffles closer. I'm pretty sure Hacker can hear everything we say anyway, but I lean down to play along, “You didn’t hear this me little old me,” it starts, and I nod eagerly. “And I can’t guarantee anything,” Chalice enunciates, glancing around once more, even though it’s only the two of us in the room, “but I did run across a weird gemstone that I couldn’t move. Maybe that’s what you want?”

“It’s worth a shot,” I agree, pointing towards the door over my shoulder, “think you can give me directions?”

Chalice looks nervously at the door before shaking his head and moving back to the center of the chest, “Now that you’ve found this place the system will continue to send its minions here, I need to stay and protect the hero.”

Well, I wasn’t offering for him to come along, but I’m for sure not taking him now. “You can just tell me how to get wherever, you staying here is way important,” I agree. “Anything to keep my brother safe.”

Chalice nods, the one thing we can completely agree on, ‘Maybe that’s why I like this little guy so much?’ I ponder as Chalice begins to list off directions, “Take two rights, then three lefts, then a right, and then another left. Two more rights, then go straight till you find a broken lantern and a shattered red vase, turn left there. Keep going till you pass the third door, it will be in the next room on the left side of the wall.”

There’s no way I’m remembering that. “You have that half-burned notebook still?”

One begrudging freebie redeemed later; I have a crude list of directions.

“Thanks, Chalice,” I say, pushing myself to my feet. I’m still sore from yesterday, but I’m never going to free Zeke if I just laze around, even though Chalice makes for surprisingly good company.

The treasure bear crosses his arms, angling his little nose into the air, trying to act superior even though he’s shorter than my kneecaps, “Of course! Everyone can not help but admire my magnificence!”

I hum in agreement, double-checking that I have all my equipment. I really lucked into the bag I stole from the starting zone having a few bags of mystery jerky and a few waterskins, but getting food and water will need to be another task on my seemingly ever-expanding agenda.

“Hey.”

I pause in fastening my spear to my back and look back at Chalice with a raised eyebrow. The Treasure Bear is peeking over the edge of its chest, little paws holding him up, he fixes me with a truly nasty glare, “you better come back!” he demands. “No becoming monster food, pink player.”

“Same to you little dragon monkey,” I agree. “And make sure to look after my brother,” I remind as I lean against the door, listening to make sure I don’t hear any sound of lizard-porcupine monsters before I open it.

There’s a sound not too dissimilar to a steam whistle, “YOU! YOU!” The noise rises in pitch and becomes more like a tea kettle, sharp and loud. “I take it all back! Get out of my shop! Evil meanie player!”

I can’t help the laugh that bubbles in my chest at the annoyed look on his little mechanical face, “I’m going, I’m going!” I promise, opening the door and confirming the coast is clear.

‘Seems it is time to really start this adventure,’ I think to myself, ‘all I need to do is beat this level, not die, get some lackeys, and find a dragon. Should be easy enough right?’