Infinity Legends

Chapter 7: The Champion’s Legend

Serry had been extremely helpful in moving the tons of bones, meat and fur scrapped from the Blue Horn’s carcass back to Takol’s personal starship. Some of her basic dark-matter spells made items much lighter and having two sets of hands was always better than a single one. Takol fully intended to repay her by leading the way to the mining drill, but as he had said, that would have to wait.

Because at that precise moment, he had answers to search on Earth.

The mad strategy described by the mystery instructions had worked. In a way, that made the whole situation that much more bizarre.

Therefore, Luca logged out as fast as he could, verifying that he was still alone in the room. Perfect. He would rather not have the suspect roomie around when looking through his things.

Not bothering to put the gaming headset in the right place, Luca hurried across the room and pushed the wall panel beside the bunkbed, opening the compact inbuilt wardrobe. There were two segments in the small locker. One was completely empty, reserved for Luca’s still boxed clothes. The other half of the closet was packed with neatly folded clothes in dull colors ranging from a boring shade of gray to even more boring shades of brown. Luca dug headfirst into his roomate’s belongings, looking for any clues, anything that could reveal something about the weirdo, anything that weren’t sweaters and shirts!

But of course, that was all there was. Just as one would expect from a closet. Luca chuckled as he realized even the guy’s clothes were stored according to their colors.

And that observation made him frown. There were many odd aspects about his first, only and very brief encounter with his roommate. The man was a bit… different, yes. Meticulous and very organized, almost a robot fueled by order and tidiness. And still, the previous night, he had gone straight to bed, taken off his jacket, folded it, and slid it under the bed.

Not into the wardrobe. Not onto a hanger. Not even over a chair. The guy bordering OCD had just shoved a piece of clothing under his bed.

Luca closed the wardrobe and immediately launched himself on the floor, muscular arms lowering him until his face was resting on the carpet. He reached under the bed, feeling the puffy jacked from last night. Seeing the man put it there was weird, yes. The fact that it was still there was weirder. He reached further…

There!

Luca pulled his arm out, gasping as an old, moldy, and very dusty duffle bag came along. The swimmer bit his lips, hands hovering over the bag’s zipper. That was definitely something, and violating a roommate’s privacy like that could very well be the start of a very miserable relationship… but then again, he had gone through Luca’s gaming journal.

Without another moment of consideration, Luca unzipped the bag, feeling his heart skip a beat at the content waiting inside.

First, there was a Fantasy Stars gaming set, just like his, even in color. That explained the man’s reaction when he came into the room and saw Luca’s own rig. But more than that, a collection of trophies even more numerous and impressive than Luca’s own swimming accomplishments filled the bag. Luca grabbed one at random and ran his thumb over the plaque at the base.

Fantasy Stars Legends: National Champion.

“Holy…” Luca muttered to himself, rummaging a bit further through the items in the bag. There were state trophies, regional trophies, MVP medals, the whole package. All gathering dust under a bed.

Luca looked to his own three trophies over his desk, almost envious.

When he looked back to the duffle bag, one specific trophy caught his eye. Unlike the majority, that one was silver rather than golden, and it was broken. Dented, chipped and scratched as if it had been thrown down a set of stairs.

Fantasy Stars Legends Cup: 2nd place.

And judging by the date, that had been the most recent trophy. Dated five years back.

Curious.

Luca pushed further, finding a pile of notebooks. He only explored one of them, but that was enough to put his little journal to shame. The books in the bag contained extensive map layouts, creature stats calculations, detailed player skill-tree analysis, meticulous lists of weapons and armors pros and cons…

And the last item in the bag was a T-shirt. Black with a stamped logo of a rocket on the chest, labeled Star Rangers. On the back, the mystery man’s name, at last: Spawn-Master Barry Watson.

Luca cursed under his breath, still incredulous and very amazed.

That would lead to a very interesting conversation.

***

“Good night, Barry,” Luca said from his place on the green beanbag as soon as his roommate entered the dormitory.

Barry pushed into the room, not minding the comment. Luca had learned his name. So what? There were thousands of ways that could have happened. Right now, Barry was more concerned with getting to sleep. It was almost eight already.

But a rapid glance towards Luca made sleep the least of Barry’s priorities.

Right beside the green beanbag, his personal duffle bag laid open. It had been years since he had last seen that bag. Since he first slid it under his bed to be forgotten. In fact, he had gone long enough without even thinking about it until last night when he assumed Luca had found it. When he had decided to hide it behind his jacket, which compromised his entire clothe placement system inside the closet.

“You went through my belongings,” Barry stated coldly.

“Only after you went through my notes,” Luca folded his arm. He did not seem irritated, which was a good sign.

“I apologize.”

“Let’s call it even,” Luca stood up. “Besides, your suggestion worked.”

“I know. As it should have,” Barry nodded, then straightened his shoulders. “I would appreciate it if you did not share what you learned tonight.”

“And I would appreciate if you did not share that I keep a gaming journal,” Luca replied, outstretching a diplomatic hand. “Deal?”

“Deal,” Barry shook Luca’s hand, but got slightly flustered when the swimmer refused to let go.

“Why though?” Luca asked.

“Why what?”

“Why hide it? I looked up your career while I waited. You were very good!”

“Not good enough,” Barry politely yanked his hand away with a smile.

“Whatever that means, I don’t believe it,” Luca said. “I saw your trophies, I read some headlines. You should be proud of what you accomplished.”

Barry chuckled. “You haven’t seen the right headlines, then.”

“Oh, but I have,” Luca slipped his phone out of his pocket and read a headline from the screen: “‘Star Rangers historical defeat. Fan favorite team obliterated by the first Choker spawn in Fantasy Star Legends history.’ Now, I’ll be honest with you, Barry, up to this day I didn’t know a thing about competitive Fantasy Stars, but I’ve played a ton of the MMORPG version of Fantasy Stars, and I can tell you that there is no shame in losing to a Choker.”

“Clearly you still don’t know a thing about competitive Fantasy Stars,” Barry said, turning away from Luca and starting for the door.

“Where you going?” Luca followed.

“Look for something to eat. You’ve ruined my night’s sleep,” Barry said without stopping or turning back.

“I think you miss it!” Luca yelled, and Barry stopped on his tracks, hand frozen on the doorknob. “I think you miss it every day. I know I would if I stopped swimming. Having a clear, enticing goal every morning when you wake up. Having all those thoughts just before you fall asleep at night, about the competition, about your marks and teammates, about all the things you can accomplish… I might not know anything about competitive Fantasy Stars, but I know a thing or two about competing.”

Barry remained still, his hand glued to the door, eyes stuck forward. He audibly swallowed, but said nothing at all, so Luca simply walked up to him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“I know a nice steak place,” Luca said. “Why don’t we go there and you tell me more about Fantasy Stars Legends?”

Barry heaved. He saw exactly what Luca was trying to do. He was hoping that if Barry talked enough about the good old days he would eventually grow nostalgic enough to consider returning to the arenas. Well, whatever Luca’s motivations were, he would fail. Barry had long buried that hatchet.

But Barry did feel like talking to someone about all that. It had been over five years since he last did, on the porch of the Crooked Goose with a moderately drunk Dana. Ever since, the game had been just a distant memory he hardly ever revisited, but that had been haunting his brain for the last 24 hours… writing in Luca’s notebook had opened a floodgate and talking about it was possibly the only way to shut it back close.

“Fine,” Barry grunted and opened the door, but in a second Luca slammed it shut again.

“Right here,” Luca pointed the blue beanbag and sat on the green one, then lobbed Barry’s headset to him. The confused roommate almost dropped it, but ultimately grabbed it and stared confusedly back and forth from the helmet to Luca.

“You said steak…”

“Yeah, I did!” Luca said and pointed the blue bean bag again. “I heard Bluehorn beef’s pretty tender if you prepare it right.”