Nyle POV

Hunk, Pidge, and I were still working on upgrading the castle but weren't having much luck as of now. I went out for a bit to grab something to see if it might work when I ran into them in the hallway.

"Hey, Nyle. You wanna play a game with us?" Pidge asked as I turned to her.

I smiled and laughed softly. "Sure, what game is it?" 

"It's an old board game that Coran and his friends would play. I think it's similar to Dungeons and Dragons," Hunk pipes in.

"Hmm, sounds fun. I'm in," I said with a wide smile.

We went into the lounge to play as Coran explained to us how to play. It did sound similar to Dungeons and Dragons, to be honest. You make your own character and backstory.

My character was gonna be an assassin named Lyrana who had a curse put on her that makes everything she touches into a slime-like consistency. It had also turned her hands up to her elbow green with slime so she had special gloves made that would allow her to touch things and they wouldn't turn into slime. So she vowed to find the person that cursed her and kill them.

We started the game soon enough after everyone told their character and their backstory. Hunk, Pidge, and I's characters started off running from some ogre.

"Get behind me!" Hunk's character, Block yelled. "Seal of protection."

A sort of shield appeared and blocked the troll's attack before Pidge's character Meklavar, spoke up. "Hit it with your lightning bolt!"

"Lightning bolt!" Block shouts as he shoots a puny lightning bolt that only frizzed the ogres' hair.

We all started running away from the ogre after Block shot that horrible bolt.

"You call that a lightning bolt?" I shouted. 

"If you're the remaining hop for your village, they're doomed!" Meklavar adds.

"I'm a healer, not a fighter," Block responds as he started falling behind a little. "Soaring staff," He exclaimed before riding on his staff like a broom.

He came up to us before pulling us on his staff as well. The ogre then started to play a soft melody.

"Oh, no," Meklavar says. "That's the song of eternal slumber. Cast protection from sleep on yourself Block."

"Song of eternal slumber, Pidge? That's the-" Block pauses to yawn. "How come you two don't need it?"

"We aren't sorcerers! Cast it!" I shouted.

"So sleepy," Block says before slumping forward, causing us to panic a little.

"Hunk, wake up!" I yelled as we started to turn back to the ogre.

"You're going the wrong way!" Meklavar shouts.

Meklavar and I look at each other before jumping off, going into the air while the ogre was busy looking at Block. We came crashing down before breaking the instrument that put Block to sleep.

Meklavar and I ran off but the troll dug its ax into her cape, raising its fist to hit her. I turned back and ran to help as Block used a spell to tie the ogres' arm closer to its face.

"Now!" Block yelled.

"Got it!" Meklavar yelled as we jumped up, hitting the ogres' fist to its' face.

It disappeared and looted a crystal. "Oh, look, it's a crystal," Block says.

"That's weird, I've never seen this kind of a  crystal drop from an ogre," I said.

"Let's take it back to the innkeeper," Meklavar says. "Find out where this ogre got it."

"Oh, man. Come on," Block says. "That's way on the other side of the Wiebian Swamps. Do you know how scary and gross those are? Very, very scary and gross."

"Come on, you big baby," Meklavar says, starting to walk away with me following. "Your village got turned into stone. Do you want to save them or not?"

"I mean, they're not, like, going anywhere," Block said. "All right, fine. But I'm not fighting any ghosts this time. I'm just running."

He started walking with us and we eventually got through the swamp, Block complaining all the way through.

"Yuck! Yuck!" He says while shaking off gunk from his sandals. "Ohh, so scary and gross. What did I tell you? I cannot believe how sticky this Wiebian Swamp goo is. It's crazy. Hey, you two hungry?"

"We don't have any money," Meklavar says. 

"We're only meeting the innkeeper and leaving anyway," I added.

"Oh, man," Block says. "I would not have run so hard if I didn't think there might be food."

"Fine," Meklavar caves in.

We walked in and were immediately faced with people staring at us. "This is not the atmosphere I remember from last time," Block says.

We walked towards the back of the place and started breaking pots. "Whoa, what are you doing?" Block asked.

"Looking for coins," Meklavar says.

We eventually find some and head to the bar before sitting down, putting the coin down.

"A greasy meat pile for my friend, please," Meklavar says.

"One health plate, coming up," The innkeeper says before rising up, towering over all of us and looking down. "Oh, it's you three again. Did you find any clues?"

"We found a crystal," Meklavar says, taking it out. "Just like you thought we might."

"Just as I feared," The innkeeper says. "Those ogres are mercenaries. They'll fight for anyone who has crystals. The only person that uses this type is the evil wizard Dakin."

"Evil wizard?" I questioned.

"That doesn't sound good," Block says.

"It isn't, though I admit I should have suspected him," The innkeeper says. "There aren't many wizards powerful enough to turn a whole village to stone."

"So how do we save them?" Meklavar asked.

"You'll have to defeat Dakin," The Innkeeper replied. "He's inside Carthian's Lair...a tomb of horrors so filled with monsters, traps, and terrors that most heroes would be driven insane at the mere thought of entering."

"Uh, maybe those villagers like being turned to stone?" Block says before Meklavar elbowed him. "Okay, all right. So where do we find this tomb of horrors?"

"Just inside the Feldakor Mountains," The Innkeeper says.

"The Feldakor Mountains, you say?" A voice said as we looked behind us to see who said that. 

We looked to see a hooded figure in the corner. "You three think you have what it takes to smite evil?" He said. 

"Who are you?" Meklavar asked.

"Me?" He questioned. "My name is Takashi Shirogane. I'm a paladin. And you?"

We all came to sit down with him. "Me? I'm Block, the sorcerer." Block replied.

"Name's Meklavar. Best ax-fighter in three lands," Meklavar spoke.

"I'm Lyrana. I'm the best assassin you'll get for miles," I spoke.

"We're on our way to break the curse put on Block's town," Meklavar adds. "The villagers were turned to stone by Dakin. What's your story?"

Shiro pulls off his hood before speaking. "I'm on my own adventure. From a young age, I was chosen to be a paladin because of my bright internal light. My master, D'Jahno, taught me the seven pillars of knighthood. He forged not only my mind but also my body. I became a shield for good and a weapon against evil. Before I could complete my training, a leviathan demon attacked our monastery. It destroyed all we had, including my master. D'Jahno's last words to me were 'You no longer need my guidance to complete your training. Defeating the leviathan will teach you all there is to know'."

Right before he finished we started walking out, ignoring him since his story was getting boring. "Where you guys going?" He asked.

"Sounds like you're too busy to help with this wizard," Block says.

"Good luck with the leviathan," Meklavar says as we walked out of the inn.

"That guy was weird and a little boring," I said.

"Wait!" Shiro called to us, running over before stopping to pant, we started walking before he stopped us again.

"As a paladin, I swore an oath to vanquish evil," Shiro started. "I cannot deny the righteousness of your quest. I will help you defeat the wizard, and then return to my hunt for the demon that destroyed my master."

Then a gigantic thud interrupted us. "Ooh, what was that?" Block said.

A giant mouse came over the top of the inn, looking at us. "Oh, no," I said under my breath before backing up.

We ran away before Shiro got grabbed up by the mouse and got eaten.

"No! Shiro's dead!" Meklavar said.

Back in the real world, the mice had just run onto the board as Coran shooed them off.

"Did I really die in the game?" Shiro asked.

"Yes," Coran replied. 

"But that doesn't make sense," Shiro says. "The mice aren't playing the game."

"Don't worry," Coran reassured. "You can just make a new character."

"I'm going to be a paladin again," Shiro says, putting his piece back on the board.

"Oh, come on now," Coran says. "Do you really want to play a paladin? You could be something completely different: A maven, a mage, a cleric, a klazgool, a bard."

"I don't know what's more fulfilling than a paladin," Shiro says.

"But you're already a paladin in real life!" Coran shouted.

Then the door opened to reveal Lance and Allura. "Is everything alright? We heard yelling," Allura said. 

"We're all good," Pidge says.

"What's going on?" Lance asked.

"We're playing Monsters and Mana," Coran says.

"Monsters and huh?" Lance questioned.

"It's a game," Coran says, showing Lance the book.

"It's fun," Pidge says. 

"Yeah, I promise you'll like it," I said. 

"I don't know," Lance said, staring at the book. "How can a game that needs a book to be fun?"

"You ought to read it and fight out," Coran replied.

"Nah," Lance says.

"I've been playing Monsters and Mana since I was a boy," Coran says. "My bandmates and I, the Pirate Polychoral, used to play it all the time. I was always the Lore Master."

"How do you play?" Allura asked before sitting down with Lance following behind.

"Okay, so each person creates a fantastical character," Coran explains. "The character is -represented by a figurine on this holo-map to help them track their action. But the real fun happens in the mind. Each player gets a turn, and every turn they say what they want to do. The Lore Master, me, knows the difficulty of the task. The person must roll a 20-sided die to see if they can accomplish their action."

"A 20-sided dice?" Lance questioned with a gasp. "How big is that thing?"

"Lance, it's a normal-sized die. It just has 20 sides to it," I said.

"No," Lance says. "No, no, no. It's got 20 sides? It's gotta be the size of a Yalexian Pearl."

Coran shows Lance the dice and his excitement dies down a little. 

"Do you want to play?" Coran asked, clearly excited. 

"Don't you guys have something better to do?" Lance asked. "Like, I don't know, universe-defending stuff?"

"Hunk, Nyle, and I ran into a snag upgrading the castle's shields," Pidge says. "We're running a diagnostic, but all we can do is wait."

"I'm trying to take a mental break," Shiro says. "We've been going really hard lately."

"I'll play," Allura says cheerfully. "Lotor's busy handling his imperial responsibilities, and I'm at an impasse with the comet ship. Plus, it sounds fun."

"Yeah, I already worked out today, so I guess I don't have anything going on," Lance said. "Might as well play your little nerd game."

Coran handed them two little devices, explaining to them what to do. "Create your characters with the interface loaded into these. It will keep track of your stats. Now it's time to begin the heroes' journey."

We went back into the game world and we traveled through a forest when Meklavar stopped us. An arrow shot at us and we all moved out of the way for it to hit a creature, causing it to disappear and leave behind a pouch of coins.

Allura's character jumps down and faces us. "I'm the mystical archer, Valayun, searching for the runestone of Lapham," She says. "What quest are you on?"

"Block's town was turned to stone by an evil wizard," Meklavar says. "We tracked him down through his special crystals."

Then smoke appeared behind us and Lance's character appeared, holding the bag that was left behind by the creature.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?" Block asked.

"The name's Pike," He says. "I was going to rob you clodhoppers of your junk, but it sounds like the bigger score is helping you jack this wizard with the crystals."

"So you chose a thief, huh?" Meklavar says.

"I'm not a thief!" Pike exclaimed. "I'm a ninja assassin, the silent killer. My victims never know I'm coming 'cause I don't say a word. They look around, don't see anything, so they drop their guard, but what they don't realize..."

Pike disappears, continuing what he was saying. "Is that I'm lurking in the shadows, silently watching."

He starts laughing before we turn to see him emptying the pouch. "Yeah, so quiet. Besides Lance, if you were an assassin you'd look something closer to me. I'm an assassin," I said.

"Sure. But I do steal things," Pike says, looking at us. "That's a lot of what my character does."

He disappears before reappearing next to Meklavar. "You're a dwarf, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Meklavar says. "I'm Meklavar, a dwarven miner whose precious family heirloom, the Jewel of Jitan, was stolen. I'm a quest to retrieve it."

"Precious family heirloom," Pike says. 

"Well, it's fortunate that I arrived here," Valayun says. "I can aid you on your quest. I'll summon a mount.

She shot an arrow into the air, some kind of flying creature came down to us. We all got on and started flying towards the mountains. I laughed and tried to keep my hood up but it wasn't working so I just let it fall. We got to our destination and I put my hood back up, walking with everybody to the entrance.

"Did anyone remember to bring torches?" Block asked.

"I really think my character would have remembered to bring a torch," Shiro says.

"Oh, yeah?" Coran says. "Why don't you check your little inventory there? Oh, no torches, eh? Then I guess you forgot to bring them."

We all groaned before Allura spoke up. "Oh, I have something!"

Turns out she had an arrow with a glowing tip. We made our way through before getting to what seemed like a dead end.

"It's just a wall," Block says. "But this is where we're supposed to go, right?"

"Maybe there's a secret here," Meklavar says, touching around the wall.

"Maybe you just have to knock," Pike says before knocking as the wall transformed into a door. "What can I say? I'm good at puzzles and junk."

Pike went over, about to open the door before Meklavar stopped him. "Wait. There could be traps. You have to check for them."

"Why do I have to check for them?" He asked.

"Because you're the thief," I replied. "You're the only one in the group with that skill."

"Well, what about you? You're an assassin!" Pike yelled at me.

I laughed and shake my head. "Yeah, an assassin. Not a thief."

He groaned before turning to everyone. "How do I even check for traps?"

"You roll the 20-sided die, adding your check for traps skill to the roll," Coran responded. "If it's high enough, you'll remove the trap."

"And what if it's too low?" Lance asked.

Coran laughed before smirking slightly at Lance. "You activate the trap."

Lance rolled the dice, indicating he rolled too low. The ground beneath us fell and we went through some kind of tunnel where there were spikes at the bottom. 

"Levitation!" Block yelled before we all started to float with chickens.

"Great work there, Block," Shiro says. "Let's keep going."

We worked our way through all the monsters and 'horrors' the innkeeper told us about, all of us about tired by the end of it.

"Okay," Pike says. "What's next?"

We looked forward, seeing a gigantic treasure room. "Oh, mamma mia," Block says. "Look at all this treasure."

"It's our reward for getting past all those traps," Meklavar said.

"This is more like it," Pike says as we all go to look around. "We fall for traps all the time in real life and we never get treasure."

"Wow! A quick draw quiver with a magical creature-summoning arrow," Valayun exclaimed.

"Oh, sweet!" Meklavar yells. "Gloves of transmutation. These bad boys can transmogrify the elemental matter of any inanimate object."

"Awesome! I got an invisibility cloak," Pike says.

"Whoa! These armbands allow me to touch things and not slime them, without wearing my gloves! And they're much easier to take on and off!" I shouted, excited.

"A bowl that is never empty of food," Block says. "Our days of vandalizing innkeepers' vases are over."

Shiro picked up a sword that busted into flames when he held it up. "Wow, a blazing sword. Hey, guys, check it-"

A lightning bolt came down and struck down Shiro, killing him. We all looked before Meklavar looked at what dropped. 

"Ooh, he dropped a rare item," He said.

We heard laughing and turned to see the innkeeper from earlier. "Fools!"

"Hey, Innkeeper," Block says. "What are you doing here?"

The Innkeeper cackles. "You dumb-dumbs. I only run the Inn to trick foolish adventurers into gathering valuable crystals for me. Thank you for bringing them directly to my lair."

"Who is this guy?" Pike asked.

"So you're Dakin?" Block questioned.

"You were behind this all along!" Meklavar shouts.

"This is where your adventure ends!" Dakin yells before transforming into his wizard form.

We noticed that Shiro came back, as a paladin, again. "I'm Shiro's twin brother, Gyro, here to complete Shiro's quest."

"A paladin again?" Meklavar says, unamused.

"Only fools would enter my tomb of horrors," Dakin says. "I am the most powerful wizard in all of Aurita."

"Oh, yeah? We don't care," Block says. "We're here to turn my village back from stone, man."

"Your quest is in vain," Dakin says. "I've already siphoned off their life force. You would have to permanently defeat me in order to restore it. But instead, I will become the most powerful being in all of the planes."

He shot something at Gyro, who blocked it with his shield. "I'm going to evaporate you, just like I did with your twin brother!" Dakin exclaimed.

He shot at Gyro again before Valayun looked at us. "Let's get him!"

I grabbed my daggers out and rushed towards Dakin, trying to find some way to hit him when a bunch of red lightning fell. I moved out of the way but I looked back when I heard yelling. I noticed Pidge had fallen and Valayun throw an arrow at her. "Healing arrow."

When it hit her it restored all her health.

"I will avenge my twin," Gyro says, starting to swing his sword before running towards Dakin.

Dakin shot fireballs at Gyro, missing a couple of times before he managed to block the third one that came at him. 

"Water spout!" Block shouts, shooting water at Dakin which stopped all his attacks. I rushed towards him and managed to hit him as he was shooting a fireball to Block. I knocked him back as Pike took Block away. 

Block used another spell to make Meklavar bigger as he went towards Dakin who was preoccupied with Gyro. Meklavar used her ax to slash down the wizard before looking down at us.

"We did it!" Meklavar yelled.

We cheered as Meklavar shrunk back down to her original size. "We defeated the bad guy!" Block shouts.

"Yeah!" Pike agrees. "I hope those stone villagers have a little cold hard cash for us."

"Wow. This game is so amazing," Gyro says. "It requires problem-solving, teamwork, creativity. All the skills you'd want to imbue when doing team-building exercises."

"Stop trying to ruin our fun with learning!" Pike exclaimed.

Then we heard the same laughter from before, realizing that we didn't kill him.

"Uh, oh," I said under my breath.

"Fools," Dakin says. "You did exactly as I planned. Only by being slain by six pure of heart on this evil alter could I become the all-powerful Coranic Dragon!"

"We aren't powerful enough to defeat a dragon," Meklavar says.

"Yeah, much less a Coranic one!" I shouted.

A fireball came our way before we moved out of the way, but Block wasn't quick enough and it hit him.

Valayun shot arrows to make a staircase before firing an arrow to heal Block before she was knocked out of the air by the dragon.

I saw the dragon about to hit her with his tail before I used one of my abilities to quickly grab her and get out of the way.

"I'm low on mana," Block says. "I can't cast any of my big spells."

"I only have one summoning arrow left," Valayun says.

"Get back," Gyro says. "I'll draw its attacks."

He ran towards it, starting to swing at its leg which did absolutely no damage. He was quickly hit back and hit a wall.

"We'll never defeat it without a plan!" Block shouts. "Secret!"

In real life, we all huddled up and whispered a plan to each other. Then Coran came over and tried to listen in on us.

"Hey, I cast 'secret.' You can't listen to us," Hunk said as he turned to us. "Got it?"

Then we went back in-game, all yelling. "Secret received!"

"Let's do this!" Valayun says.

Pike started distracting the dragon, getting its attention. Block then used his bowl to throw food everywhere as Meklavar used the gloves to turn it into oil. Pike led the dragon towards the oil as Valayun used her summoning arrow, another flying creature came and let Gyro on its back and flew towards the dragon. 

Gyro used his sword to light the oil on fire, causing the dragon to fall as I simply walked over and took one of my armbands off. I smirked under my mask and touched the dragon before he became a slime-like consistency and burned.

We all cheered and laughed. "So much fun!" Allura exclaimed.

"Like, too much fun," Hunk said. "Great idea to transmute that food into oil."

"Now if we could only find a way to transmute the particle barrier's polarity," I said while sitting up.

Hunk chuckled before smiling. "Yeah. To do that you'd need some kind of quantum shift network to simulate a collapse of the wave pocket into a darkening perplexity."

"Yeah, and that would be impossible without..." Pidge said before we started thinking for a moment.

Then we gasped, all saying the same thing. "Changing the Planck Constant." We immediately got up and started running back to the lab to work on it. Guess that game made us realize something after all.