He lay there for a while, the cold stone helping his temperature to regulate. His injured arm was showing signs of life and his ears had finally lost the steady ringing from all of the loud acoustics. As his senses came back to normal, Kopius reflected on what had just happened.

That thing was fucking hideous, he complained internally. He sat up to get a better look

"You sir," he said, kicking at the dead monster, "are nasty as shit."

Kopius had been in all kinds of monster fights throughout his VR gaming life. Though this spider-wiener he decided to name it, wasn't terribly difficult to defeat, the fight itself was… more.

The rush that came from battle was always invigorating, but the pounding in the chest, the distortion of sound, the smell of blood and whatever was coming out of that thing; his palms were sweaty for the love of it all!

The pain though, for all things new, the pain hurt. Kopius chuckled to himself at the thought, pain hurts.

That's some detail, he admitted.

Though VR pain simulators were nothing new, what he had just experienced was leaps and bounds ahead of whatever he had experienced in the past.

He also noted that the monster did not disappear after being killed nor did it give him any kind of loot or notable experience points. In damn near every game, ever made–ever–there was either a loot drop from a slain foe or an XP increase! What else was going to incentives people to be a murderhobo, you know, outside of being a psychopath.

Sure, some games tried to make you dig inside dead monsters for odd items and treasure; they attempted to give players the full taun-taun experience. What they really delivered was a hand grab into an overly oiled glory hole. It was disgusting and we don't talk about it anymore.

This realization brought forward the throbbing sensation running up his injured arm. Looking at the dead spider-wiener, his eyes followed the snout to its severed end before shooting over to his forearm. One of the piercers, like a stone-age shaped caliper, was lodged deep in the skin, possibly the bone.

The ache he felt in his arm was growing. Whatever sedation or numbing agent that creature used to capture its prey was wearing off. Kopius shivered at the thought of being completely immobilized while that thing thing made a meal of him.

He cut off some excess strap from his sandals, placed it in his mouth and chomped down on it. Finding the best angle to pull from, he placed his injured arm against the ground with his knee on top, counted to three and pulled.

When he awoke a few moments later, his face smushed on the ground, the arm throbbed but felt somehow better. A blank notification window had been waiting for him to awaken just to have it closed in frustration. Dark blood trickled out of the wound so Kopius tied the excess strap around his arm, using it as a tourniquet.

It took a little while for Kopius to come back to his full senses. He stood when he could flex his injured arm, the pain fading but not fast enough. When he retrieved his lodged weapon from the spider-wieners face he noticed that the six eyes had taken on a milky green hue that he had not noticed during their screaming contest.

He quickly forgot about the eyes when he saw that his short sword was covered in guts. It pulled out of the monster with a wet shlurp! and he held it out in front of him like a fully loaded infant baby diaper. Kopius eventually used the bottom of his basic sandal to clear the fragments, leaving behind a few smears. Fetching his discarded jumble of a sword sheath, he moved up, out of the tunnel and towards the soft light illuminating the bend.

The area was larger than he had expected, the large boulders creating a maze of sorts that he navigated with caution. Once past a last turn Kopius found a a clearing the butted up against a smooth, sheer wall. Attached to the dead end were planks of wood creating a rickety ladder, leading to up to the light which came through a tight crevasse. He examined from a distance, checking for any possible surprises, amushes, traps or otherwise. Once satisfied, he approached to inspect the exit.

The light source leaked through the crevice high above and placed a spotlight on the crumpled remains of rags and bones at the base of the ladder. Kopius stepped forward and gave the pike a poke with his short sword. Though reanimated skeletons were generally player XP fodder, Kopius was a bit on edge for a surprise. Once satisfied that he would not be dueling at the moment, he squatted down and sifted through the pile. He picked up a worn cloak that tore when he lifted it.

"Been here long?" Kopius joked.

Seeing it wasn't wearable, Kopius put what was left of the tattered cape to the side so that he could thoroughly clean his dirty sword later. He picked away the bones and other debris before finding a skull. It appeared to be a human type skull with a significant crack running across the back. It was old, dusty yet not as fragile as some of the bones he had pushed aside.

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"How far did you fall from, you poor bastard?"

He rummaged some more until finding two worn rings, one on each of the skeleton's hands—or what was left of them.

No weapons? Kopius complained.

He stood and placed both rings in the palm of his hand. In the light he could make out a small engraved symbol on both, but the rings would need to be polished or cleaned to make them out. Kopius went to place the rings in his pocket but could not find any. The rucksack clothes that made up his attire were void of both style and functionality.

Opting to try the rings on, they did not initially fit. They were a bit too big until the first ring shifted and melded to fit snuggly.

That's interesting.

When the second ring tightened to fit, all the peripheral pain in his injured arm was released. The slightest sensation of warm water ran up his injured appendage and just as quickly as it came it was gone, taking the pain with it.

"Niiiiiice," Kopius hissed as he flexed his fully healed arm.

Mentally closing the two blank windows that popped up, he picked up his sword and swung it a bit. His arm felt great! After a few more thrust, for good measure, he returned the sword to its sheath.

Kopius glanced back over his shoulder before diving back into the pile of bones to see if anything was missed. A bit paranoid he may be but nobody would be pulling an et tu brute on him—at the least not today.

The pile of bones was all that was left. It had been gnawed at and weathered to the point of brittleness.

The spider-wiener must have picked over these bones for ages, Kopius thought.

"No," he said aloud, "this is just a broken ass game..." He ran his hands across the pile of bones and then up the cave wall. His, not so wounded arm came into view and he saw goosebumps as he recalled the monster from not ten minutes ago. "...with the most amazing detail I have ever seen."

Opening and closing his hand in the sliver of light gave him a better perspective of his skin tone. He found it strange that in sunlight, his skin looked dark bronze but when pulled away from the light it changed to a blueish color; not so much blue as he was blue leaning.

It's like he was a walking, talking blue dress/gold dress optical illusion. Leaving this matter for another time–satisfied that Gargamel wouldn't be on his heels–Kopius decided it was time to get out of the depths and move to higher ground. He didn't want to stick around and make the place his grave.

"That appears to be the way." Kopius sighed, after giving the space an inspection in the hopes of a safer exit.

Climbing wasn't the issue. In the real world, a younger Cory had been quite coordinated. Sports were a saving grace in his otherwise turbulent world. On a soccer field, he would run like the wind and baseball had taught him fundamental life lessons. His basketball prowess was more defensive leaning while on the football field, he played one season to get his friends off his back.

No, Cory could make this climb even though he hadn't stepped on a playing field in over a decade. Given the overall body type and agility that he had seen so far, Kopius could make this climb too.

Falling was the issue, for both of them. Looking at the pile of bones, he remarked, "For this guy too."

The cave wall was sheer and without many protrusions. The slanting ceiling of the cave came close to meeting the wall, which looked to be roughly twenty feet above him. From there, a small circular funnel led up another fifteen to twenty feet. Slats of wood could be seen making a rough line all the way up the wall and through the tight crevice leading to the surface.

Some of the planks were missing, others broken or breaking. Train rail type spikes pocked the areas where boards should be nailed to the rock and that was all he had to work with. The lowest board plank, at knee height, appeared intact; old but still in place.

He pressed his foot against the top as if to start climbing and was pleasantly surprised that the board held. Wanting to understand the structural integrity of the plank, Kopius stepped down and jumped backwards, applying his full weight to the wood. The board held and Kopius launched himself away from the wall.

A large rock stopped his flight, knocking out a small amount of air on impact, as he came to a squatting position after sliding down the huge boulder. Taking several breaths before standing Kopius noted he had jumped back a lot further than he should have been able to. Sure he should have landed by the large protruding rock, but not into it. Setting that thought aside for a later date, Kopius went back to examine the still intact plank.

It looked normal, yet the next two plank looked suspect. A bit worse for wear. Not weathered or rotten; more gnawed on.

They were situated roughly at his waist, shoulder and a fourth piece of wood about a foot above his head. The pattern of distance between each plank leading up into the light, which Kopius hoped led to some more wiggle room, followed the same spaces between the first four. He took a step back and gave it the squint test.

Bringing his hand to his face, he made a pincer with his pointer and thumb to measure the space between the first and second plank. Holding his fingers in this position he then compared it with other spaces between planks.

Satisfied that his guesstimation was accurate, he surmised that the distance between any two planks was roughly two feet. Gazing up the uneven, rickety path he counted seventeen steps.

Kopius huffed.

Using the math his 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Beatle, said he would always use in life; Kopius figured he was going to be climbing at least thirty-four feet. Involuntarily, he gave the ladder a razzberry and kicked at nothing in particular.

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