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another easy victory, Lucious takes
several steps forward to examine his handiwork.
    “Wait until I give
the clearance,” Wesley says with annoyance when he notices the mage
standing in front of the knight. This
kid should know better than to get ahead of the party, he
thinks to himself as Wesley steps toward the unarmored man to pull
the mage back.
    Lucious turns around
and rolls his eyes at Wesley. “Relax, dude. Stop being such a worry
wart. My spell burned out all the mobs in the room,” the battle
mage replies with a smug expression on his face.
    Suddenly, a giant wolf
spider drops down in front of Lucious. The two stare at each other
for a brief moment before the long, gray haired spider lunges at the
mage with its jaws open.
    The mage instinctively
jumps back, but the spider manages to bite him on the left arm.
"Augh!" Lucious yelps in pain as he backs away with the
spider’s jaws still attached to his limb.
    The cavalier reacts a
split second later. With a powerful swing of his sword, Wesley slices
the spider in half. Damn it!
Curse my luck that the spider dropped right between the mage and me.
    Lucious drops to the
ground, his hand over the wound. The avatar starts sweating profusely
and his face turns pale, as the poisonous venom enters his
bloodstream. The player experiences continuous shock through the
biofeedback loop, and grinds his teeth in pain.
    “Lucious!” the
priestess cries out as she rushes over, and kneels beside him. She
pulls a vial out of her worn, brown leather satchel, and uncorks the
bottle. She props the poisoned mage up with a hand behind his back.
“Drink this,” she says as she holds the pungent smelling vial in
front of his lips, and slowly pours the content into his mouth.
    Lucious obediently
gulps down the liquid, and his fever starts to go down as color
slowly returns to his face.
    “What did you give
him?” Conrad asks as he stands guard, keeping an eye out for more
spiders possibly lurking nearby.
    “A potion of cure
poison,” Diana replies.
    “We will rest here
briefly while Lucious recovers. But after that we have to keep
moving. We need to move faster from this point forward, in order to
make up for this delay,” Wesley says gruffly while looking outward
at the seemingly empty foyer. It
is my fault for not keeping this idiot in check , he fumes
silently.
    “I just need a
minute,” the mage sputters weakly as he tries to fight off the
numbness in his real life arm. Lucious continuously flexes his hand
inside his virtual reality glove to get feeling back in his limb. I
don’t know if I can cast a spell like this , he worries.
    “You need to remember
your place, mister!” Diana scolds him as she pokes a hard finger
into his ribs. “Your spells may make you feel all mighty and
powerful. But a lowly spider almost killed you! Let our cavalier
check the room first and flush out all the hidden mobs before you go
wander off by yourself. Or next time, I won't give you a cure;
instead, I'll just sit and watch you die!”
    “But you are a
priestess,” Lucious protests while wincing at her admonishment and
jab to his ribs. "Of course you'll cure me!"
    “A fool can't be
cured,” she retorts with a snort.
    The rebuked man slowly
rises to his feet. Lucious unceremoniously pats his rear to knock off
the dust and spider web clinging to his fine robe.
    A look of annoyance
flashes across Diana's face. She slowly shakes her head in response
to his ill mannered behavior. However, she manages to bite back
another acerbic comment in time.
    After adjusting his
crooked cloak, the mage bends down to retrieve his magical staff. He
takes a moment to admire the yellow-white sparkle off the orb at the
end of his staff; the orb is reflecting the flickering light from the
barbarian's torch. He turns to face Wesley. “Let's continue,” he
says with bravado to hide the lingering numbness in his hand.
    Wesley nods in
agreement.

Chapter 5 – Exploration
    Seeking to draw the
party's focus away