We’d set up camp about an hour away from the stairs to the next floor. Thanks to Belial’s suggestion that we wander off course a few times, it’d taken about two hours to find this spot. He seemed to think we’d get in some kind of trouble if the people running the games knew we’d hacked into the guard.
“I don’t get it, if it’s against the rules to hack guards, won’t they care if we take apart the helmets?”
According to Belial, each helmet held two cameras, and I decided to bring two helmets along. I figured that would give us four eyes in case a situation ever came up where I couldn’t retrieve some of them, or any of them were discovered. I tapped one of them with my toe before sitting on the ground in front of them.
“Actually no. Theres hardly any rules, let alone one that says we can’t hack things, it’s just better if anyone watching doesn’t know we have the ability to do that.”
“Okay.” I nodded, feeling Waffle twitching inside my pocket. “Why?”
“I don’t know, it was in some book I read, something about feigning inability—I forgot. Oh well. Must not have been important.”
“Seriously?” I asked, pressing my lips into a thin line as my confidence in Belial started to erode. “You forgot why you made me walk in random directions for two hours?”
“No, I didn’t forget why—look I’m a little busy right now, okay? You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Busy doing what?” I asked, shaking my head at the off-handed remark. “Hello?”
“Ugh, okay, I’m done. Are you going to do anything about that?” He asked, as Waffle twitched again, this time more persuasively.
Before I could ask what he’d finished doing, I looked down to find a tiny hand poking through the gap in the zipper. I snorted a laugh as all five little fingers grasped desperately at the air.
“Okay, okay!” I laughed, unzipping it and watching as he scurried out onto my lap, chirping up a storm. Running my fingers over his back seemed to calm him down. He climbed to the edge of my lap, curiously peaking over my knee at the clearing we’d found. After thoroughly sniffing the air, he turned to look at me, gingerly tilting his head as if to ask if it was okay. “Go ahead.” I tapped his butt, watching as he leapt to the ground to waddle through the leaves, “but don’t go too far!”
“You’re coddling him.” Belial mocked, causing my eyes to bulge.
“He’s literally a baby! You’re supposed to coddle babies!”
“I suppose that’s fair. Still, I doubt he’ll stay that small for long…Hey, maybe you could ride on his back!”
“What? I’m not going to ride him.” I snapped instinctively, before pursing my lips in thought. It did sound kind of fun…
“See? Besides, the little monster needs to contribute somehow!”
“Uh huh,” I said, tuning Belial out as he went on about something called…rent? Reminding him that Waffle saved both our lives earlier seemed to shut him up.
With a sigh, I leaned back on my palms from where I sat, scanning the small lot of fallen leaves and grass. Dozens of trees surrounded me, stretching upward to form the tangle of branches overhead. I narrowed my eyes at the blankets of moss wrapped like shabby robes along the lower halves of their trunks.
“I can’t believe the tower grew all of this in ten years…don’t trees take ages to grow?”
“From what I’ve read about previous towers, the first few levels usually hold much of whatever was originally there.”
“So, these trees were—”
“Probably originally on the surface, yes.” He answered, “By the way, those helmets aren’t going to take apart themselves.”
With a groan I picked the first helmet up, turning it over to examine the lining. It was hard to imagine all the components Belial had mentioned on the way here hiding somewhere beneath the padding.
“Just start tearing stuff out, I’ll stop you when you get to the part that requires a brain.”
“I have a brain.” I monotoned, angrily ripping out a fistful of lining and tossing it aside.
A bead of sweat formed on my brow, drawing my attention to the false sun above as I wiped the sweat away. It hung considerably lower in the sky than before. The scrap pile to my left had grown, causing me to do a double-take between the pile and the helmet in my lap. Just how much crap was in this thing.
Waffle romped in the dirt nearby, attacking a strip of plastic I’d torn out from one of the helmets. I smiled as he alternated between gnawing on the new toy and flopping onto his back to claw at his collar whenever he remembered it was there.
“OW.” I let out as I pinched my finger for a third time. “Are you sure this part comes off?” I asked Belial, trying to suck the sting out of my fingertip as I stared doubtfully at the helmet in my lap.
“Ugh, yes. I’m sure. You’ll just have to pry hard—wait, what are you—” He started to say, right as I bashed the helmet off a nearby rock.
“Got it.” I smiled, inspecting the inside of the helmet to see the force had finally knocked the stubborn panel loose, exposing a nest of wires. “What?” I asked, knitting my brow as he let out a weary sigh.
“Nothing,” he muttered, “it looks like both cameras are fine…despite you handling it like a caveman.”
Waffle moseyed over, sniffing the helmet once before proceeding to attack it with his butt. “Are you trying to help?” I laughed, as he continued thudding his rear-end off the helmet’s side, his tiny face scrunched in determination.
“Ugh, look at the example you’re setting.” Belial said as I nudged Waffle away from his new archenemy, tearing off a fresh chunk of plastic from inside the helmet and dropping it beside him. He didn’t notice the new chew-toy until I tickled his belly, making him flip back onto his paws with a start. He let out an angry squeak before tackling his inanimate foe with the fervor of a fuzzy conqueror.
Belial coached me through removing all four cameras and setting them up to work on their own. The process took about an hour and involved splitting each helmet’s power source in half, which was a lot harder than it sounds without any tools. Before I saw it, I imagined the power came from some kind of pack, but the power source was actually a thin rubber strip that lined part of each helmet. I had to use my teeth to tear each of them in half, resulting in an unpleasant jolt both times.
After tying four bundles together with some bits of fabric from each helmet, I planted three of them about twenty feet away, stuffing the fourth in my pack. I hoped that would give Belial enough vantage points to watch me as I slept, without having to risk losing all four if I had to run.
With my perimeter set, all that was left was to find somewhere to rest, my only options being the cold ground or in a nearby tree. Given my recent experience with trees, I was leaning strongly towards ground before Belial complained it would leave us too exposed.
I’d already tested the trees by hurling rocks at them earlier, but I thought it best to be cautious. With Waffle resting in my palms, I held him up to the nearest trunk. He gave it a single uninterested sniff before flopping to his side and curling into a ball. I smiled, tucking him away before leaping to catch a branch overhead. After a few minutes of climbing I managed to find a branch that was…not comfortable at all in any way, but it was wide. It also came with the added feature of having a few limbs branching off, allowing me to wedge myself between them so I wouldn’t fall in my sleep.
“You’re watching, right?” I asked, half-surprised I’d almost nodded off despite how uncomfortable I was. He took a moment to answer, prompting me to eye my hammer resting against the tree below. I debated dropping back down to lug it up here with me, but there really wasn’t anywhere to put it.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah, sure.”
“Belial—"
“Yes! I’m watching, sheesh. There’s nothing going on out there.”
“Like, no monsters?”
“Yes, like no monsters.” He mocked, “my guess is the tower is focusing its efforts on the first floor, or on everyone still trying to get inside.”
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
I’d already started nodding off when he said no monsters. My eyelids felt like someone’d recast them in lead.
“Goodnight, Belial,” I said, my eyes fluttering one more time before I finally let them close.
I woke to find the false sun barely cracking through the trees, amazed I hadn’t fallen in my sleep. Groaning, I used one of the limbs overhead to pull myself into a sitting position, straddling the branch. Despite feeling somewhat rested, my entire body ached. How many days am I going to have to live like this?
“Good morning!” Belial said, sounding suspiciously cheery. I narrowed my eyes at his words, hands still brushing over my clothes to make sure there weren’t any insects clinging to me.
“Whoa, what’s that look for?” He asked, sounding mildly offended.
“You can see my—forget it, what put you in such a good mood?”
Waffle twitched inside my pocket. Realizing he was probably hungry, I unzipped it, pulling a bottle of formula from my pack as he wriggled onto my other hand. Nipple in mouth, he toppled over, stubby paws latching onto my knuckles as the bottle hummed with each slurp.
“Nothing,” he drew out, “do I need a reason to be nice?”
I snorted, still trying to process Belial’s new bubbly attitude. I almost brushed it off until he spoke again.
“Wow, just look at him go,” he commented as Waffle lifted his cheeks to huff in a few breaths before latching back on with renewed purpose.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on! Can’t I give the little demon—angel,” he corrected, “a compliment without you suspecting something nefarious? Maybe I’m genuinely impressed.”
“By what?” I deadpanned, trying to figure out what could possibly make Belial give Waffle any kind of compliment.
“Well,” he faltered, “by what a good, uh…eater he is.” He sounded pained, like someone was literally beating the words out of him.
“He’s a…good eater?” I repeated, mouth hanging open as my face twisted into utter confusion. This act was uncharacteristic enough without the strange compliment making my head spin.
“Oh yeah. Good eater…great even.”
“Belial.”
“Hmm? Yes? What can I help you with?”
”What did you do?”
“hh—me?” He coughed, following it up with a nervous chuckle, “Nothing, why would you think—”
“Belial.”
He let out a weary sigh that lasted several seconds. “Promise you won’t get mad?” he asked, the pitch of his voice raised to that of a squeak.
“TELL ME WHAT YOU DID.” I practically screamed inside my mind.
“Well now I’m definitely not telling you.”
I thudded the back of my head against the tree, already dreading the amount of coaxing this was going to take as I exhaled slowly through my nose.
“I won’t get mad,” I said, doing my best to keep the wrath out of my voice.
“You promise?”
“Yes, now what is it?” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as he took a deep breath. “I know you don’t have lungs in there.”
“I make those noises for you, the least you can do is appreciate them,” he said, instantly flipping from timid to annoyed.
“Okay, I appreciate them,” I groaned, “now tell me what happened.”
“Fine,” he said, exhaling sharply. “It all started yesterday. I was just minding my own business, managing your socials when this—”
“Wait, socials?”
“Ugh, I forgot you don’t know anything,” he said, already sounding more like himself, “basically everyone has these little profiles on the subnet, especially gladiators. Since you have no idea what you’re doing, I’ve been managing them for you.”
“You’ve been talking to people…as me?!” I squeezed the bottle, not realizing I was shooting formula into Waffle’s mouth faster than the baby wombat could handle. He pulled away from the nipple, his little eyes bulging as he hacked out a tiny cough.
“Dear lord, are you trying to drown the poor thing?”
“Shut up,” I snapped, about to tuck the bottle in my pack when I felt a tug.
Waffle had seized the bottle with both hands, his stubby claws clutching at the rim as he pulled with all his strength.
“Here.” I laughed, letting out the breath I’d been holding as I let him tow the nipple back towards his mouth. He clamped down as if settling a score, somehow managing to give a triumphant snort while sucking down the bottle’s contents.
“Ha, it’s like he has a thirst for vengeance…get it?” Belial joked.
I snorted, rolling my eyes at the worst attempt at humor I’d ever heard as Waffle drained the last few drops of formula.
Having succeeded in vanquishing his foe, and sufficiently melting my heart, he lolled onto his back, batting the nipple away with his paw to inform me he was done. He gave a single, raspy hiccup before coiling into his usual ball. The second he did my irritation returned.
“That was your fault.” I shot at Belial, gently stowing Waffle in his usual pocket before making my way down the tree. He was already sputtering protests when I cut him off, “Wait—” I started, dangling from one of the branches as a thought struck me. “You’re…on the network?”
“Not quite—Well, technically, but it’s restricted to a handful of apps. I can only read responses to your posts, and even those are heavily censored.”
“You mean your posts.” I said, annoyed as I let go of the branch, letting my feet whop against on the ground below. My stomach whined, prompting me to dig around my pack for one of the blocks I’d looted off the guards. An even more annoying thought formed as I struggled to peel the silver wrapper from the mystery food. “How long have you been pretending to be me on this…this profile or whatever? And what are you even posting?”
“Oh, you know, pictures, mostly of you and Waffle, along with some vaguely inspirational nonsense. The little piggies gobble it all up. Which reminds me, can you hold that up a little higher, the lighting’s kind of bad.”
“This?” I asked, staring blankly at the mysterious block of food as I turned it in my hand. “You’re going to post a picture of this?”
My head jolted as a square image appeared in my vision, showing my hand clutching the same partially opened mystery bar, sun glinting off its wrapper. So, this was how he’d been taking pictures.
“Girl dinner, ell…oh…ell…heh, nice. And…share,” he mumbled. “Okay that’s done, what were we talking about?”
“You, carousing around the internet, pretending to be me on some profile—also, carousing?” I asked, angrily snapping a piece off the mystery block before shoving the portion in my mouth. The order he was teaching me words made no sense.
“What? It’s a great word, and really you should be thanking me. I’ve been working my non-existent butt off to get your numbers up.”
“Numbers? What are you talking about?”
“Ugh, followers…fans.”
I have…fans? I stared at the ground between my boots, stunned that anyone would be interested enough to follow me. How many?
“367,476…ah, make that 367,472.”
I swallowed hard, struggling to wrap my head around that many people knowing I exist. Wait. Why is it going down?
“Oh, it’s stupid, really.” He laughed, unconvincingly. “Let me worry about that. As I was saying, I was scrolling through your dm’s when—”
“Dee—ems?” My face wrinkled at the word.
“Ugh, I know, pathetic of me, but I really needed the validation—anyways, that’s when this whole mess started. Some pathetic little trollop had the nerve to call you ugly.”
“Tro—What? Why?” My head jerked, more from confusion than anger. I’d never really considered myself all that pretty, but I couldn’t imagine someone going out of their way to insult someone they’d never even met.
“I don’t know, she kept going on and on about you wrecking her home or some such.”
“Her home?” I shook my head, eyes shifting as I searched internally for some meaning. The only homes I’d ever been in were Lord Caelan’s and my own.
“Right? I told her she must be confused because you wouldn’t be caught dead near whatever rathole she crawled out of.”
“Rathole? Why are you being so mean? I would never say something like that.”
“Uhhh, because she started it. Anyways, that’s when she sent a picture of some guard asking if it was true.”
“Guard?” I asked, knitting my brow. “If what was true?!”
“That one I hacked to get the map, it took me a while to recognize him since he was missing all his blood when we met.”
I forced myself to keep chewing the sandy chunk of food, grimacing at the image of the guard’s shriveled face replaying in my mind.
“Yep, that one. Apparently, she thinks you two were having some kind of affair.”
“WHAT? WHY?” I demanded, so stunned that my mouth fell open, letting some of the dusty ration crumble out.
“Eww, it’s like I’m living inside a toddler. Can you please chew with your mouth closed?” Belial complained.
“Why does she think that?” I repeated, spitting the rest out before tucking the unsavory slab away.
“No idea. If I had to guess, you did say a few things out loud when we were arguing back there that could have been…misconstrued.”
I drew inward, eyes darting back and forth as I replayed the argument in my mind. They snapped open in horror the instant I remembered.
“No…nonono…” I trailed, pacing aimlessly. “You little jerk, this is your fault too!”
“Excuse me?! How exactly is this my fault?”
“If you hadn’t—” I buried my face in my hands, slowly dragging them down as I groaned. “Forget it. You told her it wasn’t true, right? RIGHT?”
“Uh, sort of?” He answered, sheepishly.
I inhaled slowly; eyes pointed at the sky, begging for some benevolent god to strike me where I stood.
“What did you tell her?”
“I said, ‘what do you think’, then I laugh reacted her profile picture.”
“Why would you do that?!” I felt like my teeth might shatter from how hard I was clenching them.
“Be-cause, it’s better to keep everyone in suspense, this whole thing has been great for your numbers.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Then why are they going down?”
“Don’t worry about that, overall, you’re up, way up…especially after the bounty.”
“BOUNTY?” I choked on my own spit, slapping a hand on my chest to steady my breath. Belial must’ve taught me the word, because I had no trouble understanding what this meant. He'd somehow provoked a complete stranger into paying people to kill me.
“Right.” He sucked his teeth, “this is the part I was talking about when I said don’t be mad.”
“Wait,” I started, nodding to myself. “I won’t have to worry about this until after I’m out of the tower, right? She can’t send people in here, can she?”
“Ehhh…” He trilled awkwardly.
“CAN SHE?”
“Kind of,” he mumbled, crushing any semblance of hope I had.
“How?” I demanded, chewing on my lip as I tried to figure a way out of this nightmare Belial had conjured. The tower was deadly enough without having to deal with people trying to murder me.
“The quest system. Technically anyone with enough money can pay to have gladiators complete tasks inside the tower. From what I read before we got here, they’re usually funded by corporations—resource extraction, employee retrievals, that kind of thing. How was I supposed to know some guard’s wife had the budget to post one?”
“You wouldn’t have to know that if you’d just been nice.” I snapped, stomping towards the tree to grab my hammer.
“I already said I was sorry,” he grumbled, “besides, any gladiators we ran into would probably try to kill you anyways—what’s a little extra motivation?”
Thanks for reading guys, if you haven't left a review yet, it would really help!
??
Dice Detected: High-Roller Story Ahead
Progression Fantasy GameLit Light LitRPG
Cursed. Royal. …Currently unemployed.
Princess Seventra of House Veil was once the kingdom’s most notorious gambler—until a bitter rival framed her for cheating and her family cast her aside like a bad habit. Now she’s exiled, bitter, and desperate for revenge.
But Seven isn’t done playing. When she traces her rival to Lucky Mining Corporation, a corrupt corporate empire of contracts, greed, and dice shards, Seven takes a job there to find evidence to clear her name. Beneath the gold lies something darker—vanished miners, buried magic, and a conspiracy that ties back to her own bloodline.
Armed with a gambling problem, a wise-cracking slime, and a lawyer-turned-miner, she’s ready to play dirty. But the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes: her curse isn’t a flaw—it’s a weapon.
And if fate won’t play fair, she’ll load the dice herself.
“When the odds are rigged, rig them back.”
I was curious about who's reading my story since RR doesn't have any demographic info like this. Answer below if you feel like it!
