The Last Experience Point

Blowing out a defeated sigh, Zach realized he had now had about enough of this, and by all accounts, so too had everyone else. It was time to admit he'd been wrong in his thinking. And as painful as it would be to own up to his mistake, it would still beat looking like a fool who couldn't admit when he was incorrect. Like it or not, the fact of the matter was that he'd tried something that no one before him had probably ever attempted, and…well? It just hadn't worked out. But, if nothing else, he could finally stop wondering. At this point, he was fairly sure he had his answer.

And it was a big, fat no.

For seven long, consecutive days, Zach, joined by seventy-four other adventurers, had made his way straight down the hallway that was purported to go on forever. And though he'd been excited and enthused at the start, any lingering trace of such feelings was long gone. Honestly, they'd been gone since about the millionth inn room. Now, as Zach waltzed beyond Inn Room 1641555, he was right about ready to call it quits.

I can't take much more of this.

He was hugely embarrassed, but also hugely exhausted, too. He was so sick of this Gods-be-damned fucking hallway. It was really starting to hit him bad. Never in his life had he wanted to run to the left or right. The fact that he couldn't didn't just bother him, but it made him feel physically sick.

And so, here, on their seventh—and final—day heading down the hall, Zach was ready to own up to the stupidity of his idea. Donovan had ultimately been correct. The hallway really was infinite. And even if it wasn't, it was still too long to be worth going down. He couldn't imagine doing this for another day.

And to think, I actually believed I could travel down here for a month straight if time allowed for it.

For the most part, the adventurers had been very quiet today. Nearly all chatter and conversation had fizzled out around late last night and didn't pick up again in the morning as it usually did. Zach's best guess was that most people were just sick of the monotony and wanted to go back, the same as he did. And these last two days in particular had been brutal, as the novelty of walking into infinity had long since worn off.

It's become unbearable.

Days five and six had felt more like punishment than anything else. Those two days alone were like two centuries. The hallway had begun to feel oppressive in its endlessness, and worse was the knowledge that every single step forward was one he'd have to take again to get back.

He just wanted to go home, and it now looked like so did everyone else—well, everyone except for just a single individual.

Jimmy.

For some reason, Jimmy actually seemed to be gaining in energy and enthusiasm with each step they traveled. In fact, if one were to graph his level of energy since day one, it would start out high, fall to the floor—after almost dying from withdrawal—and then shoot back up off the charts. Right now, he was grinning from ear to ear as though sensing something nearby that never seemed to arrive, and yesterday, he had done—or rather, caused—the most annoying thing to happen that Zach had ever before encountered. It had almost caused the entire raid to become derailed.

It had all started when Rian had done an imitation of Jimmy's face while he'd been on the floor having a seizure. And to be fair to Rian, even he recognized he'd gone too far. That wasn't cool, and nobody had laughed. But instead of just accepting Rian's apology, Jimmy had looked Rian dead in the eyes and had said, "Now, you will suffer, Rian. Now…you will truly suffer."

At first, Zach hadn't understood what Jimmy was planning to do. But it began soon thereafter as Jimmy, while keeping his head pointed straight ahead and looking at no one in particular, had begun to sing out something that could only be called a weapon of mass destruction. It was something that infected people like a rapidly spreading plague.

"Baby shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, baby shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, baby shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, baby shark! Mommy shark…"

Zach and the others had thought nothing of it at first. But little had they known what monstrous, ancient curse from the past Jimmy had unleashed upon them all. Within two hours, it was not only stuck in their heads, but it hurt. It actually hurt! And the more it was heard, the harder it was to forget. But the primary vector of spreading this Virus had been Fluffles, who simply would not stop. The cat had ended up murdering their souls with his endless variations.

"Fluffles Shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, Fluffles Shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, Fluffles shark! Tuna can doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo."

This went on.

And on.

And on.

"Shut the fuck up!" adventurers had screamed as Fluffles continued to sing it for ten hours straight.

"Get it out of my head!" a woman had cried, clasping her ears. "Rian, never start a war with Jimmy ever again! I want to die! I want to die immediately!"

So, yeah, in addition to the claustrophobia, the monotony, and the realization that they were going to have to walk back just as long as they'd walked in, they also had to deal with some kind of supernaturally strong music curse that had infected them all. Even now, as Donovan's large, black-plate boots thudded against the carpet as he jogged, Zach, who'd moved up front to join him, watched as he opened his mouth and unintentionally sang, "Grandpa shark doo-doo-d—shit! I did it again."

"It's not your fault," Zach told him. "It's happening to everyone. Jimmy cursed us."

"I can't believe a song like this even exists," Donovan said with a grunt. Then he narrowed his eyes at Zach. "What are you doing up here out of formation?"

"I wanted to talk with you—with everyone, actually. Can you hold up for a second, please?"

With another, second grunt, Donovan stopped in his tracks, turned around, and extended his palm, causing the raid to come to a stop. Then, raising his voice so that everyone could hear him, Zach said, "By now, I think we all know we're not going to find anything here. I am really sorry I made all of you do this and waste an entire week—plus another week now to get back—but I just want to say that I don't think there's any point to us finishing out the day. We should head back early. Once again, I'm really sorry I wasted everyone's time. But since we have a very, very long hike back, maybe we'd be better off leaving now."

At this, murmurs of agreement could be heard from all around. And then, all at once, everyone started shit-talking him, including Rian. But Zach was glad for it, because their jeers and playful insults were how he knew they weren't truly upset with him. This was just the adventurers being the adventurers.

"Have fun on your little experiment, Zach?" someone asked. "You sure we shouldn't go to room ten million just to be sure?"

"Twenty-million," Rian said sarcastically.

"Fifty!" someone else called out.

Donovan, standing next to Zach and leading the pack up front, waved with his gauntleted palm in a gesture that was interpreted as asking everyone to move closer together. And so, the entire raid did exactly that, packing in as close as they could in the narrow hallway. For the moment, Zach decided to put up with the rise in claustrophobia this caused in exchange for an easier time communicating with the adventurers.

"You all heard him," Donovan said aloud. "And I for one agree with the kiddo. This was something we can cross off a list. It might seem like a waste of time, and—"

"Because it was!" one of the adventurers cried out, causing them all to laugh and jeer, Donovan included.

Despite feeling embarrassed, Zach forced himself to laugh, which was actually really important to do. Back when Mr. Oren was an adventurer, he was constantly being picked on and mistreated by everyone, and Zach was positive it was because he could never laugh at himself. With adventurers, the less willing you were to go along with their playful jesting, the more they'd target you and for longer.

"Anyways," Donovan continued. "One day, this is gonna be a hilarious story we all talk about. The more time that goes by, the more this is gonna feel like it was worth doing."

"You're probably right," Reni Sarwin said, laughing. "The time we tried to reach the end of an infinite hallway."

Laughter resounded from all around. It seemed the prospect of finally starting to head back was brightening spirits. Zach could actually feel the sudden release of built-up tension that had really started to rise these past forty-eight hours, which had been the worst of the seven-day voyage. It had dragged on so long that it truly felt good to know they'd be heading home.

And then Jimmy spoke up.

"We're not going nowhere," he said, causing everyone, including Zach, to stare at him—or try to, at least. He was somewhere in the middle of the formation and impossible to see directly, so Zach merely stared down the hallway where the sound of his voice was coming from.

"What's that now?" Donovan asked, making a low, annoyed grunt.

"We gotta keep going. Zach was right."

"How do you figure?" Olivir asked. Like Jimmy, Zach could not see him. "I wanted Zach to be right as well, but let's be honest with ourselves, there's nothing out here. Just more doors, forever. I understand how that can bring up some existential dread, heh, I mean the concept of infinity is inherently terrifying, but we should at least be honest about what we—"

"It's starting to change," Jimmy said. "Ya'll are too dumb to even notice it. I been noticing it since yesterday. We're getting closer to the end."

Jimmy's claims, unsurprisingly, caused more than seventy adventurers to all begin firing off an unruly series of questions with everyone talking over everyone else. It took Donovan at the front and Zephyr at the back nearly a minute to quiet them down. Afterwards, Donovan, speaking loudest, asked, "Jimmy, what the hell are you talking about?"

Grunts, a few growls, and a hiss from Fluffles were briefly the predominant noises to be heard in the hallway as Jimmy shoved and fought to get around the others so that he could join them at the front of the formation, which if Zach and Donovan had their way, would soon become the back. Once there, he stood next to Donovan and then drew his staff, raising it above himself. He tapped it against the ceiling.

"It's getting darker," he said. "Only a tiny bit. But haven't you guys noticed? It's definitely been getting darker as we go on."

"No, not really," Zach said, looking up. "Looks about the same to me."

The entire hallway, from Inn Room 1 to all the way here, was lit by bulbs implanted every few feet in the ceiling above them. And this, like everything else in the hall, had remained unchanging. The only exception to this were the door numbers. Those, on the other hand, continued to increase sequentially in value. The size of the numbers also decreased over time, likely so that they could continue to fit on the doors.

"Yeah, I'm not seeing it either," Rian said. "Jimmy, nothing's changed. Everything's exactly how it's been since we started."

"You're wrong," he insisted. "Nobody notices it 'cause it's been so slight. If it had been more abrupt, you'd realize I'm right. But it's getting darker."

"No, it's not, for fuck's sake." Though Zach couldn't see him, he somehow had to imagine that Rian was rolling his eyes at Jimmy. "You're imagining things."

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"Let's keep going and you'll see. If you pay real close attention to how it is right now, and then you look again in a few hours, you'll see it, too."

Zach sighed. "Jimmy, we all just want to go home."

"Zach, you're the one who brought us out here."

"Yeah, and I was wrong. I fucked up. It's time to go."

"You were not wrong," he said, glaring at Zach. "How many times do I gotta be right about shit before you'll finally trust me?"

And just like that, Jimmy had him. Because Zach couldn't possibly argue against what he'd said. And the more Zach thought about it, the more he realized that Jimmy really did tend to be right about these things each and every time.

But it always feels like he's wrong.

Zach wondered if he should reverse his position. He paused to think about it. But his thoughts were interrupted as Kesten spoke up and made a very valid, well-thought-out point.

"Let's say Jimmy's right," he said, "and let's say there's been some tiny, gradual change in luminosity that the rest of us just haven't been able to see. So what? Are we really going to assume that just because the level of light changed insignificantly it means there's something waiting for us if we keep on going?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what we gotta assume," Jimmy said. "If this shit was really forever, it shouldn't be changing like that."

"Not necessarily," Olivir said, chiming in. "Jimmy, you realize that things that loop infinitely can have patterns, right?"

"Nah, this isn't a pattern. I'm telling you: there's something ahead. We should keep going for a bit longer. We already came this far. How shitty would it be to turn around right at the end?"

"But what about food?" Maric asked. "Don't forget, we've already gone through half of our supplies."

At this, Jimmy made a dramatic and dismissive swing of his staff. "Who cares? We're not gonna starve if we don't eat for a day or two. As long as we—"

"Rian might," Zach fired in, causing an immediate roar of laughter. "Sorry, I saw the shot and had to take it."

"Fuck you, Zach. Eat my ass."

"Not gonna lie, that was funny," Jimmy said, chuckling. Then he resumed what he was saying. "Anyway, as long as we have water, we'll live. And we brought extra so we actually have a little more than two weeks' worth."

As Jimmy continued to argue his case, Donovan began rubbing his chin. Then he whispered to Zach. "What do you think?" he asked as Jimmy sparred with several of the other adventurers who were just about out of patience.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to walk a tiny bit more to test out his theory and see if it keeps getting darker."

"Yeah…all right." Now, Donovan spoke more loudly. "Everybody, listen up! We're gonna test Jimmy's theory. Stare at one of these lights and try to remember how bright it is. We'll jog for just three more hours, and if Jimmy's right, and there's a noticeable change, we'll keep going. Otherwise, we turn back immediately."

There were groans from all over, but they were reluctant groans. Zach figured that most of the other adventurers were coming to the conclusion that, since they'd already come this far, they might as well try this one last thing if only to avoid having any lingering questions or doubts on their way back.

Now, clapping his hands, Zephyr shouted, "Everybody spread out! We're continuing!"

And just like that, Zach found himself once more jogging through the hallway, only now, he did so with Jimmy and him directly side by side and Donovan right in front of them both. They were the only three who were not currently spread apart.

"And…here we go again," Zach muttered, watching as inn room doors flashed by and the numbers continued to increase, and increase, and increase! Glancing up, he wondered if the evenly spaced lights really were getting any dimmer. And now, he genuinely wasn't sure.

"I think my mind's playing tricks on me," Zach said. "It almost looks like it is getting the tiniest bit dimmer, but it could just be because that's what I want to see."

"Same here," Alixa called out from somewhere towards the rear of the formation. "I actually can't tell if it's an illusion or not."

And this continued to be the case—even as they hit the three-hour mark, paused, and then stared upwards. It was also here that Rian got made fun of for trying to compare pictures he'd taken with his phone, which was not designed to capture something's exact light level.

At any rate, having halted once again, they all stopped to deliberate. Donovan's orders had been simple: jog for three hours and determine if the lights had become any dimmer. If yes, keep going: if no, return.

But now they had a problem: no one except Jimmy was even sure. And so, Donovan, breathing out a rare exhausted sigh, ordered everyone to keep it up. And that was what they did. Just as they'd done for the past three hours, they jogged onwards and onwards and onwards.

"Okay, now I'm like, uh, I wanna say seventy-percent sure the lights really are getting less bright," Olivir said, speaking loudly enough so that most of the raid could hear him.

"I agree," Eldora said. "Like the rest of you, I wasn't sure at first either, but now I'm…I'm still not sure, but I'm almost ready to say that Jimmy was correct. What about you, Zach?"

Zach nodded to him. "Yeah, I think so too."

But does this actually mean anything? Zach wondered. He didn't want to get his hopes up. It was still way too soon.

"Let's keep going. But can we all please jog just a little bit faster, though? I actually really have to be back in a week or Mr. Oren is going to be furious with me."

"If that's the case, I'm jogging slower," Donovan spat.

"Me too," many of the other adventurers taunted.

Thankfully, none of them made good on their threats, though it was likely more about not wanting to stay here too long and end up stranded without food or—Gods forbid—water. Zach had to hold back a dark, inappropriate chuckle at the idea of how fucked up but funny it would be if their entire raid "wiped" in the hallway to nothing but dehydration. That would go down as the most humiliating raid wipe in history. Or at least known history.

Anyway, spurred on by nothing more than the uncertain perception of change, the raid continued to make their way farther and farther down the hall. And at some point, though it was difficult to say precisely when, Zach became comfortable finally saying for certain that, yes, the lights really were dimming. It soon became undeniable, as the runic patterns on his sword were now difficult to make out. It was still easy to see ahead and around him, but as they continued to progress, the finer details on the faces of distant adventurers became harder and harder to see.

Then Lienne said something terrifying.

"You guys," she said, "what if this has nothing to do with 'finding' anything? What if the hallway really is infinite, but nobody is meant to actually come this far? And it just gets darker and darker until eventually it's pitch black. That'd be really creepy, right?"

"Yeah, it would be," Kesten agreed.

But this did little to lessen Jimmy's growing confidence. "Just keep going! Fuck resting tonight. Let's burn right through the night and keep going."

In the very first sign of morale that Zach had seen from the adventurers in several days, they let out a roar of approval. The idea that they might actually find something was starting to spread. And much like himself, Zach could tell that the other adventurers still didn't firmly believe it. But something was clearly changing. After more than seven days of jogging down this Gods-forsaken hallway, something different was happening.

But even still, Zach reined in his optimism, at least for the time being. Thus, with his expectations kept in check, he continued to jog ever onward, skipping their usual break to sleep as they now officially entered the eighth day of what was only supposed to be a seven-day journey. Yet, Zach was starting to become worried, because even though everyone agreed that the lights were dimming, they were doing so in such a slow, gradual way. This meant that, even if they were on to something, the rate at which things were changing made the situation begin to look dire again due to the sheer amount of distance they'd likely still need to cover. In other words, if things did not begin to change faster than they were right now, it would end up not even mattering if there was an end to this place because they might just have to turn back around anyway due to low supplies.

And this, without a doubt, would be even worse than finding nothing at all, because Zach was sure everyone would hate themselves during the entire trek home. He knew he would.

We'll spend eight days angrily wondering what we were about to find if we had only been able to keep going a little farther.

It was likely for this reason that a troubled look started to appear on Donovan's face as they reached noon North Bastian time on the 8th day. He could tell that Donovan was on the verge of making the difficult call to turn the raid back around; this, as more and more adventurers were starting to show signs of excitement and renewed vigor. But from the way Donovan kept looking over his shoulder while he jogged, Zach could tell he was going to make the call to halt the raid any moment now.

Or at least, that was probably what he would have done if Jimmy had not halted the raid himself.

"Stop!" he shouted out, causing murmurs of excitement to spread from the front of the formation all the way to the back.

"What is it?" Zephyr asked, speaking up to be heard over the other adventurers. "Why'd we stop?"

Zach also wanted to know, and from the twisting of his lips, so too did Donovan. Thankfully, Jimmy was quick to fill them in. He crouched down and pointed to the carpet. "Look!"

Unlike other times Jimmy had asked Zach to "look" at something, this time, he could actually see it. It was faint, but clearly visible. He crouched down next to Jimmy and lowered his face to the carpet such that his eyes were only a few inches from the floor. "Mist!" he shouted aloud. "There's mist on the floor!"

This created an outpouring of excitement from the others, and the loud, simultaneous sound of shifting bodies echoed throughout the hallway as everyone dropped down to see for themselves. "He's right!" Rian cried. "There's like a thin little trail of mist on the floor. We're getting somewhere. Oh my fucking Gods! There might actually be something ahead."

Donovan grunted, loudly. "I hate to spoil the mood, then, but we ain't got the food or water to keep going. We need to turn back."

The adventurers immediately started booing. "Come on, Donovan!" one of them yelled. "We can go a few days without food and one or two without water. One more day!"

Then they all started chanting, "One more day! One more day! One more day!"

Donovan relented, but he didn't look pleased to do so. "Fine," he said. "But just one."

And with that, they continued on for the rest of the 8th day and into the 8th night. Fired-up and excited, they gave up a second night's worth of sleep, and as dawn approached in North Bastian time, they finally passed beyond the 2-millionth inn room.

There was also an awful lot of mist now.

It was everywhere. It was unmistakable. Smoky, wave-like bands of mist that had extremely strange properties. Although the mist felt no different from regular air and had no particular smell to it, the stuff was rising up to the ceiling, bouncing off it, and then hitting the floor again. He'd never seen anything like it.

As the 9th night approached, the hall was now so filled with mist, and had darkened so significantly, that the raid had been asked to stay close together. Oddly enough, the darkness helped abate the feeling of claustrophobia and amplify the overall excitement. The lights above were now only putting out the barest amount of illumination. Zach, at best, could see ten feet in front or behind him before it became too difficult to make out anything clearly.

"We really, really have to go back," Donovan said. "We're going to end up killing ourselves in this hall."

"One more day!" Jimmy demanded. "Please."

Donovan scowled—or at least Zach thought he did. It was getting to that point where even seeing his facial features clearly was a challenge. "You've got one more night, Jimmy." He spoke even louder. "You hear that, everyone? This is it. Come morning, we're going back."

But this did not happen.

Because on the morning of what would have been the 10th day, they finally, at long, long last, had confirmation that something was absolutely at the end of this hallway.

They didn't know what.

They didn't know why.

But something absolutely had to be there. It was beyond question. And this, Zach and the others knew to be incontrovertibly true as Jimmy, at the top of his lungs, yelled out, "Mob! Everybody stop! Mob!"

"Did he say mob?" shouted excited voices from far in the back of the line. Rian, Lienne, Olivir, Kolona, Eldora, Fluffles, Maric, Kesten, Alixa—everyone! Everyone began scrambling forward to get a look. People were even knocking each other over. It got so bad that Donovan had to slap a few people around to get them to be calm.

"Gods, it's really a mob! In the hallway!" shouted Lienne with amazement and glee.

Zach smiled. After three nights without sleep and slightly more than ten days, they had stumbled upon something incredible. An actual mob. Right there in the hallway in front of them. And they could see it clearly, too, because the light on the ceiling above it was as bright as the lights had been at the start. This made it abundantly clear that what was happening in this hallway was deliberate. It wasn't some malfunction or oversight that stemmed from never actually expecting adventurers to come this far; no, this was a clear, purposeful invitation to keep going. This was something that had been deliberately placed. They'd found something very special.

But also something very…strange.

"An elite!" Rian exclaimed, using the term Jimmy had coined for mobs with asterisks at the end of their name.

I've never seen a mob that looked like this before, Zach thought. It's just an object.

The mob was a literal floating book, one that was opened up such that it appeared to have been turned to a page somewhere in the middle. And though it did not float closer or away from them, it did hover up and down in the air ever so slightly. And occasionally—and completely at random—its pages would turn: sometimes forward, sometimes back. It was also only around the size of a high-school Holobook.

"So, even you guys can probably guess this thing's gonna primarily use magic, right?" Jimmy asked. "Please tell me that's obvious to everyone and not just me."

Zephyr, who had now moved up to join Donovan at the front of the formation, nodded. "Yup. We're not that dumb, Jimmy."

Donovan turned his back to the mob and barked out a laugh. "Well, boys and girls, it looks like we got ourselves a real fuckin' Gods-be-damned raid after all."

"Yeah!" the adventurers roared, releasing all the pent-up frustration and energy that had been drained from them during the awful, tiring trip through here.

"Okay, who's pulling it?" Jimmy asked. "I guess we'll start by—"

"Hold your damn horses," Donovan growled at him. "I'm leading this raid, remember? We're doing things my way. And my way is we stop and have a chat first and talk everything over before we go pulling 'elites' we've never seen before."

Zach wasn't sure whether or not it was a trick of the darkness, but in this moment, he was pretty sure he saw Jimmy pouting. "Are you for real?" he asked, utter disappointment in his voice as he sat on the floor as if to rest. "Fine. Go ahead. Debate how to kill trash mobs at the entrance," he said, putting emphasis on the word "entrance" as if that implied their actions were somehow shameful or weak. He then began muttering to himself as though not realizing everyone could still hear him. "…can't believe we're stopping. We're not even in the dungeon yet and these bitches be out here trying to hold a whole-ass conference over the first fucking thing we run into at the entrance. The entrance! The trash mobs at the entrance."

Zephyr laughed, and so did Zach. And then, together, they all began to talk it over and discuss their next move.