I’ve only seen two dead people in my life before the Game. The first was my father. I remembered talking to him at night: a tall, dark figure with a mocking voice. I was seven then, and my father had already been gone for two months. My mother took me, the eldest of the four kids, to church.
The next case was fifteen years later. I didn’t know if it was the church, but I never saw my father again except in photographs and on the tombstone.
I was twenty then. The “apocalypse” was three years away. There was an accident. A Porsche drove into a bus stop at full speed. A little girl in a wheelchair a couple of feet away from me was killed. Her body was thrown into the bushes, to which I followed the prompts of a ghost with a soft voice and found the corpse. Her mother’s eyes were forever etched in my memory. In my worst nightmares, I didn’t see the child’s broken head with brain matter leaking out, but her mother’s tear-filled eyes.
I never told anyone about it, even when they laughed in my face and accused me of being a liar and charlatan.
***
We had a long road ahead of us.
I was surprised to find out that I didn’t know much about the members of my own group, let alone about the Beiges. Ivan, who for a long time believed that the Game was some kind of government test and that the Apocalypse didn’t happen, had finally come to terms with the truth and spoke about his past life with little regret. Except when it came to the cook from his former military unit and the additional portions of buckwheat he got from her. Which is why he reacted rather aggressively to Spider’s teasing.
“Ah, I’ve been to so many military camps, all the cooks are the same to me...” He looked at Valkyrie who glared at him with displeasure. “Khm, pardon, we shouldn’t talk about such things in front of the ladies.”
As for Spider, he didn’t seem to mind his new life. “It’s a pity that there’s no alcohol in the medicine cabinet, but everything else is the same. People die wherever you go.” He liked to joke. No one really understood his rather morbid sense of humor but no one spoke against it. When you worked the kind of job he did, you developed all sorts of odd coping mechanisms.
Unlike him, Valkyrie still remembered her family with tears in her eyes. Especially her grandson, with whom she used to play games whenever he came over. It was thanks to him that she chose the name she now had.
Ronin... being Ronin waved off our questions, muttering something unintelligible under his breath.
“I don’t think you’ll get much out of him.” Willow chuckled. “He didn’t tell us much either. Now, as for me... My name was Iva, I was a twenty-two-year-old artist. I did portraits mostly, but I liked to do graffiti more than anything else... Before everything went to shit, I... Well, the last thing I did was break up with my boyfriend,” she said sadly. “All in all, nothing too interesting about me, unfortunately.”
I was inclined to agree with her. For some reason, I expected something... well, something more interesting. Even Valkyrie’s story sounded more exciting, which led me to believe that Willow was hiding something. The glint in her eyes that no one else seemed to notice only confirmed my suspicions.
Iva, Iva... I do hope you tell us more...
***
We stopped at the Burgundies’ base. No one, not even the Beiges, had any information on it so I took the lead. I couldn’t help but wonder how the Beiges planned on going up against them if they didn’t even know the layout of the enemy’s base? How would they’ve known where to attack? It was most likely that they were planning to retreat and hide, or seek help and refuge from us.
The palisade was still in place, keeping most of the mobs out. The gate was still latched but we had no problems opening it. Even though we had come far in terms of technological advancement, we wanted to test Fedor’s theory and see if the Burgundies, perhaps, had something we didn’t. We were lacking in the defense department and we needed something to keep the constant flow of mobs at bay — like stockades, for example.
Having split into groups, we searched the entire base but didn’t find anything worthwhile. In one of the larger houses, I ran into Willow.
“Loki!” she exclaimed happily. “I wanted to tell you something.”
Before I could open my mouth to ask her what she wanted, Ivan’s voice came through the Mental Transmission channel.
“Guys, I think I found something.”
“We’ll be right there. Willow, remember what you wanted to ask me,” I said, already running out of the house.
I found Ivan near a pile of scattered artifacts in the Mead Hall next to the collapsed wall with the Tree of Development. I wagered that it fell because the faction it belonged to was eradicated and not because the building was poorly made. The Mead Hall, like the palisade, promised to stand proud for at least another fifty years. Speaking of which, we managed to find the recipe for it. I could only imagine how happy Cap was now as he had probably received a message from White or Fedor who, working in the tunnels on new technologies must’ve noticed that a new building option had appeared in the development menu.
In addition to the palisade, I managed to get my hands on schematics of some tools that were unknown to me, ingredients for the AO-1 drug, and even a map of some of the unexplored locations in the west and south. The map, unfortunately, was drawn on a wall in the next room so I couldn’t take it with me. According to it, a couple of miles to the south-west, the coniferous forest gradually turned into a temperate zone one.
“It’s not far from the steppes,” Spider said.
***
Noon was approaching, which meant that we had to continue on our way. But at the abandoned Burgundy base, which had already overgrown with tall grass, there was another interesting find — Alchemist’s house. Opening the creaking door, I smiled: the shelves were packed with herbs, roots, and even body parts of various mobs. The Burgundies were clearly planning on returning from their fight against us. Who knew that they’d be so unlucky that they’d get roasted by lightning bolts and squished by a giant blob?
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to spear on carrying all this back to our base. So, after a little thought, I decided to send the Worm and its clones back to the base. Luckily, Alchemist kept everything in easy-to-carry pots so they’d have no trouble taking the loot home.
***
“Stop laughing!” I snapped at Ivan, though I could hardly keep myself from laughing at the sight of the Worms crawling out of the house one by one with small pots in their mouths.
Malaria looked particularly comical. Its skin had acquired a sickly greenish tinge, and it now had sharp fangs protruding from its upper gums. It looked as if Count Dracula had shoved a melon into his mouth.
And then I suddenly remembered what was in that pot.
“Spit it out!” I ordered the pet. Its fangs had already bitten through one of the dried leaves and its acidic juice was about to burn the pet’s mouth.
The remains of the plants used for making AO-1 were dumped in one pile. I snapped my fingers. Lightning burst from my fingertips and ignited the poison that turned people into mindless monsters. As the flames consumed the acid saplings and subsided, we moved out of the base.
***
The Shrieking Mountain didn’t welcome us with open arms but with a drawn-out howl of the cold wind that swept through its numerous tunnels, and the ever-thickening clouds at its peak. As Willow had already mentioned, this place resembled the Black Mountain, but it was slightly smaller. In addition, the terrain was more uneven. If a person was keen, they could climb to the top of our base without any problems. The Screeching Mountain, in contrast, was steep, standing in the middle of a hilly area a couple of miles from the mountain ranges, between which lay the looted Beige base.
None of us wanted to go check what was left of it.
“Better... Better not,” Ronin said at some point. “There’s nothing there now.”
Willow, with a glint of tears in her eyes, agreed with him. I just shrugged. Then again, what could’ve been l
eft of it? The Burgundies probably took everything that was valuable and burned the base.
It was cold standing on the windswept hilltop, so I gave the order to move toward the Screeching Mountain.
***
It was about three in the afternoon when we finally reached this mysterious location, which, till a month ago, was inhabited by the Sharp Billed Screamers, the local dominant species. They lived on the many ledges of the Mountain; the ruined nests could be seen at its very top, although most of them had been thrown down, right onto the sharp rocks. The Beiges showed no mercy.
The howling of the wind was becoming unbearable. I looked around at my companions and saw a distinct lack of desire to explore the tunnels.
“It’s okay. We’ll take care of whatever’s hiding in there,” I encouraged them. “Willow, what’s the best way to get inside?”
“The south entrance. The slopes aren’t as steep there, and you need to climb only about two hundred feet. The entrance is just above the ledge,” she said, looking thoughtfully at the sharp mountain peak.
***
Luckily for us inexperienced mountaineers, the climb turned out to be rather easy. A path had been trodden between the moss-covered rocks. Except for some strange insects with yellow shells, we encountered no other mobs. Only a few birds that looked like eagles were circling in the sky. According to Ronin, they had taken several Screamer nests as their home. They weren’t dangerous as they hunted small mobs.
Not so long ago, it was possible to enter the location via a huge passage located at the very base of the Mountain. Unfortunately, it was blocked off. Whether as the result of a landslide, earthquake, or the fact that the Beige faction was no more was unclear. Willow was sure that it was blocked for a reason. Whatever the reason was, no one wanted to move the stones as that’d take way too much time and effort. Neither of which we currently had in abundance.
We were standing on a rather big ledge located at an altitude of about three hundred feet above the ground in front of the entrance to a tunnel. I retrieved a couple of prepared torches from the bag on Rat’s back and handed them to the rest of the team. We were all deathly silent, aware of the fact that we were about to make a rather dangerous trek into the depths of unexplored tunnels. It didn’t make much sense to check the upper levels as it’d, just like with the blockade, take too much time. Not to mention that we’d be up against a swarm of small mobs that had made their homes on that ledge.
Rat and I were the first to enter the tunnel, followed by Ivan and Spider, behind whom was the rest of our little expedition. In my opinion, the tunnel we were currently in wasn’t all that different from the one inside our Mountain. It was probably dug out by some big mobs that vaguely resembled moles, the skeletons of which we found a month and a half ago. I honestly hoped that we’d see the same thing here or, even better, nothing at all. In such a small and cramped space, fighting against a big-ass creature would be suicidal.
The other theory was that the tunnels were dug by players. But if that was the case, why would they have dug so many of them? According to the information that Ronin had given me (as he had been involved in clearing the area of mobs), the explored tunnels covered a total of six or so miles. The rest of it was still unexplored so no one knew just how big this network of underground tunnels was.
According to the Compass, somewhere within the bowels of this place was the hidden fragment of the key.
And according to the rumble that we heard once we got a bit deeper into the tunnel, we were in trouble.
Chapter 5
TUNNELS, WORMS, AND MIDGES
“What was that?” Valkyrie’s surprised voice came over the comm channel.
“The wolf’s stomach’s growling,” Fang replied, slowing the Werewolf with a light tap of his sinewy legs.
“It’s probably the wind,” Ivan suggested, uncertain, ignoring Fang. The two of them were still not on the best of terms.
“It’s not the wind,” Willow said in a distant voice, “it’s what caused the deaths of our friends. Below us are the mobs and the large cave...”
I glanced at the mini-map and looked around at the tunnels we had explored. The large cave that Willow was probably talking about was a few dozen feet below our current position. About half of it was covered by the “fog of war,” so it was impossible to estimate how big it actually was. But it was big.
“I was part of the last group that tried to clear this place,” Ronin chimed in. “We arrived way past midnight. We were out of torches, so we had to rely on Lord’s skill to light our way. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep the skill active for too long... And then... And then something pounced at us from the darkness, killing him in a blink of an eye. There was a chomping sound, and we ran back... If it wasn’t for the mini-map and the already marked exit route we would’ve all died.”
I could feel everyone’s spirits dampen after his story. Then again, we were much more prepared than they probably were back then. Our levels were more than high enough and we had plenty of torches. As if to confirm my thoughts, Rat snorted and led us down a very steep tunnel.
It’s not like we have much of a choice... The fragment’s here somewhere, in the pitch darkness of the Screeching Mountain.
***
Half an hour later, we heard the noise again. This time, it came from somewhere to the right of us and was much more clear. It seemed like it made the stone arches of the tunnel vibrate. The noise vaguely resembled a high-pitched howl. It made chills run down our spines and activated our bodies’ flight or fight response.
Strangely enough, we didn’t encounter anything yet. The torches illuminated completely empty tunnels with smooth arches that led us deeper and deeper into the bowels of the mountain. Soon, the path began to branch out. It was as if the mountain itself wanted to split us up, lead us to a dead-end, and confuse us. But we knew the way, so we headed straight for the cave where the last Beige expedition had ended.
When the target was less than a mile away, Rat, walking in front of us, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and sniffed the air. We froze behind him, waiting to see what he’d do. The Werewolves also tried to smell what had caught my pet’s attention, but to no avail. The Rat snorted again, turned to me, and looked into my eyes.
“What is it?” I asked anxiously.
Rat snorted and nodded toward a small tunnel that deviated from our path.
“Ronin, what does the mini-map say?”
“Nothing. We didn’t have the time to check out that tunnel,” he replied. He was still wrapped in his hide even though the tunnels were quite stuffy.
“Well, it’s time to see what’s there,” I said. I trusted Rat and his nose.
If he smelled something and insisted on going down a different tunnel, then it was better to listen to him. Unfortunately, not everyone was ready to trust Rat as much as I was.
“Commander, is the Rat our leader now?” Fang asked with a grin, sitting proudly on his mount. Sometimes, he went too far with his need to prove himself as an independent leader of the Goblins, for which he often received respect from his superiors. As I was the creator of the Goblins, he still respected me more than the other players.
“Oh? What’s that, Fang? You wanna go scout ahead?” I asked with a sly smile, wiping the grin off his face.
“Commander, I... I was just joking.”
“I wasn’t. The tunnel’s all yours, Fang. Be sure to bring a torch.”
Fang looked around hopefully, but when he caught the sight of everyone’s indifferent faces (and Ivan’s gloating smile), he sighed and turned the Werewolf toward the darkness of the unexplored tunnel. It was much narrower than the main one but otherwise no different than what we had already seen. Fang had never given me or anyone else a reason to doubt his skills, especially in front of other Goblins. Because of that, it was really difficult for him to hide his fear now when Tail was a couple of feet behind him.
With one hand gripping a torch and the other gripping his broadsword, Fang sp
urred Gray into the darkness of the tunnel and soon disappeared from sight.
“Did his torch go out?” Valkyrie asked in horror.
“No,” Spider assured her. “The tunnel must turn left.”
Sure enough, half a minute later, Fang’s voice came over the comm channel.
“Commander!” he exclaimed, relief evident in his voice. “There’s another intersection here. It seems that the left tunnel leads to the big cave, and the right — somewhere down.”
“Stay where you are, we’re coming.”
***
Rat sniffed again and pointed confidently to the right tunnel. Now I could also smell the strange scent coming from the big cave. It was the stench of rot, like there was a burial ground somewhere nearby. The smell made my eyes tear up and a lump formed in my throat. I didn’t know what was in there but it was clear that it was dead and still decomposing.
“It didn’t smell as bad last time,” Ronin said, covering his nose in disgust, and hurrying to turn into the tunnel.
“What do you think it might be?” I asked him.
“I don’t know... I don’t know why, but I think it’s better that we avoid whatever might be dwelling here.”
The right-hand tunnel went even deeper into the mountain, and sloped down abruptly about thirty or thirty-five degrees.
Our adventure was rewarded with experience: we had reached an unexplored territory. As the tension grew, Ivan, who was walking beside me, tightened his grip on his club, Ronin wrapped himself in his hide so that only his eyes were visible, and Willow’s hair twitched nervously, ready to catch anything that was brave enough to jump at her. Or at least soften the blow.
The tunnel became narrower with each step. If this continued, Rat and Ivan would get stuck at some point.
We walked down the tunnel for another hundred feet or so and then froze, stopped by a System message.
Orange Base
Abandoned Dungeons
After another twenty steps, we found ourselves in a fairly large cave, which, according to the mini-map, was directly below the “burial cave.” It was sort of spherical, like it had been carved in stone by someone. Around its perimeter were small wooden doors leading to what we assumed were rooms. They were arranged in three rows. You could climb to the second and third floors by a ladder, and then, crossing a balcony, get to the desired room.
Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 5
