I flew alongside the running Giant, which had already gained a decent speed and was clearly not going to slow down, and realized with horror that the situation had only worsened. Judging by the mini-map that suddenly appeared in the lower-left corner, the Giant was moving northeast. Straight toward the Black Mountain.
***
The desert seemed endless.
Dunes. More dunes. More sand. And more dunes. But the Giant didn’t pay attention to its surroundings. And why would it? It wasn’t like anything here posed a threat to it. What could it be afraid of? Accidentally stepping on a cactus? Being bitten by a snake? As if.
The dream felt like it had been going on for half an hour. But nothing new had happened.
So, you’ve decided to show me what would end us all, huh, System? You’re mocking me by showing me this, aren’t you? Trying to tell me that destruction is inevitable?
I got no reply.
Dunes. More dunes. And more dunes...
For a moment, something flashed between them. It looked like a small house with a flat roof. Why the hell would it be in the middle of a desert? Why would’ve anyone made a base here? Without access to food or water? I focused on the dunes and in a couple of seconds the house appeared again. It was cylindrical, made of clay or yellow baked brick.
I hadn’t imagined it! It was definitely there!
The Giant rushed in the direction of a dune, the height of which should’ve been enough to see the unusual building. But instead of a view of a house standing in the middle of the desert, the following flashed before my eyes:
Attention! The effect of [Third Sight] has ended.
You shall be returned to your body.
“What?! Already?! But I smoked half a cigarette!”
But I was sorry for not being able to see the house. The structure, of course, was interesting, but much more important was what was on its roof... Two small dots. I noticed them when the house appeared again between the dunes. But the Giant, it seemed, didn’t see any players or NPCs, although it looked in the same direction.
Maybe it was just a mirage. I thought, watching the blackness gather around me and cold seep into my lungs and bones.
Chapter 8
THE UNCHARTED LANDS
“You’re finally awake!” Amoeba’s cry was the first thing I heard when I returned to reality.
It was nice that my friends were so concerned about my condition but the note of relief in his voice suggested that he had thought that I wouldn’t wake up at all. Kay-Si, who was trying to crush a small stone with his foot (unsuccessfully, I might add) also exhaled and helped me to my feet.
My knees gave in, black dots appeared in front of my eyes, and I threw up. It wasn’t for nothing that they wrote “Smoking Kills” on cigarette packs. This was the second time I had to agree with that. I came to my senses in about fifteen minutes, during which Amoeba and Kay-Si managed to ask me at least a million questions about what I saw.
“Yes...” the biologist finally said. “We don’t seem to have much time. It’s difficult to say how far away it is... But if we take its size into account... Can you imagine just how fast it is?!”
Unfortunately, they paid no attention to my mention of a strange house in the middle of the desert and the two dots perched on its roof. I didn’t think much of it now, as I was too concerned about our future. The two were more interested in my description of the Giant, its size, and physical characteristics. Kay-Si was particularly insistent, pestering me about the most trivial details concerning the Giant.
***
The conversation that had begun so bombastically gradually faded out. The three of us sat in silence and thought about what had happened. With night approaching, Amoeba and I bid Kay-Si farewell and got ready to return to the base.
“See you later, Kay-Si,” I said, getting to my feet.
“Goodbye, colleague!” Amoeba exclaimed, hurriedly throwing the remaining meat into his mouth.
But he didn’t seem to hear us. Perched on a small rock with his arms crossed, Kay-Si stared straight ahead, swaying slightly from side to side.
“Kaaaaay-Siiii!” Amoeba shouted as I stared at the meat, which sank into the translucent cytoplasm, and dissolved in front of my eyes.
“Yes, yes, see you soon... I’ve got some business to attend to.”
Amoeba and I exchanged glances. The biologist’s eyes (and probably mine as well) were full of confusion. I doubted that we’d be able to get any answers from Kay-Si so we headed toward the base.
After watching us go, Kay-Si suddenly rose to his feet, and, running, jumped straight into one of Stonehenge’s stones, disappearing from our world.
***
“Loki, you gotta do something about these worms!” White exclaimed irritably. “They almost chewed a crater under my house! I would’ve fallen into it together with all my inventions!”
I had completely forgotten about the worms, busy searching for Amoeba and trying to track the Giant.
Upon returning to the base, Spider immediately went to the hospital, leaving the worms to Ronin, who, muttering something under his breath, went with Willow to the rest of the Beige players gathered around a separate campfire. The Goblins ran to their wives (just a week ago, we celebrated several Goblin weddings), and Valkyrie was called to help in the kindergarten: it was a small hut, where the little Goblins sometimes stayed until night while their parents were at work. And so, out of all of us, Ivan stayed with the worms.
Yeah. Ivan.
Ivan, who didn’t receive any instructions on what to do with the worms, simply tossed them into a pit, from which, in his opinion, they couldn’t get out, and went to have dinner. Had he used his brain, he would’ve realized that for mobs who feed on rock and dirt, a pit wasn’t really an obstacle but a meal. So now, instead of going to sleep, I had to deal with the mobs.
“I’ve seen that ‘crater’ of yours, it’s just a lil’ hole in your basement. Chill...”
White only rolled his eyes, spat, and went to dinner, quietly cursing the mobs that had almost destroyed his house.
***
It was well past midnight when I had finished with the worms. I tried everything I could think of to get the mobs to behave! I managed to tame them for a bit, but the moment I moved away, I lost control over them. They began to gnaw at everything, creating tunnels and instantly fertilizing them with the manure they dropped after digesting the rocks.
I left a Brain-Eater in the body of my pet Worm next to the mobs. But it was unable to control anything other than its host’s clones so all chaos broke loose the moment I turned my back to them. During my experiments, they gained levels (apparently they leveled by eating) and they had gained weight. Another week and even Ivan wouldn’t be able to lift them, let alone someone else.
I probably had only one option left: to go search for small mobs with at least one point of Mental Strength and at least a slightly developed brain in order to turn them into parasites and attach them to the Stone-eaters. It seemed easy enough but who knew how long it’d take! There was no way in hell that I’d be able to do it in one day.
When the moon rose over the forest, and most of my allies had long gone to bed, I waved my hand in frustration. Looking around, I noticed Greek standing on a small wooden tower, keeping watch. Approaching the scout, I leaned on the fence that was slowly being built around the entire parameter of the base and asked with a grin:
“Being a shepherd too hard for you?”
“Yeah, it fucking is!” he exclaimed ruefully, dimming his searchlight’s bright beam. “Thank God, tomorrow is the last day. It’d probably be my last day in the Game, too, since I’d die of boredom.”
“Pavel told me that you’ve brought it on yourself. That you fell asleep at the post. So, enjoy the fresh air and the countryside. Haha! Though... I could help you out...” I said, giving him a sly smirk.
“I’m listening,” Greek replied conspiratorially, looking around to make sure that we were alone.
; “Pavel’s excited about the idea of using the Stone-eaters and he appointed me to deal with them. However, tomorrow, I have to go after the second shard... If you agree to take my worm watching duty, then I could put in a good word for you with Pavel. After I’ve convinced him that you’re already doing a good job, that is.” Seeing that Greek was hesitant, I added: “You can either stare at our future dinner, or you can try to tame the mobs.”
“Deal,” Greek replied after a moment’s pause.
***
At dawn, the sleepy players who had participated in the last expedition gathered near the industrial zone. Only Ronin was missing. He had exhausted all his strength and couldn’t even get up. “Fever,” Spider concluded, looking at the patient. “He’ll be out for at least two days.” But Amoeba joined us, taking his place. Clutching a scimitar in his translucent hand, he seemed the most optimistic of all of us. The biologist had long been interested in the Lands but the authorities responded to all his pleas to organize a trip to the dangerous location with sharp refusal, saying that we already had too few people and that going there wasn’t worth the risk.
The rest of the players rubbed their eyes and yawned every now and then: no one, including me, had gotten enough sleep during the short night. Especially me. I hadn’t even had time for dinner.
But we all knew that we were out of options. Despite the fact that we were all between level sixty and seventy (with me being the only one who had reached a hundred), poking about the Lands at night was still dangerous.
I only took Rat with me this time, leaving the Worm and its clones to roam the swamps. There was nothing for them in the Lands anyway. For some reason, Pavel and the rest had decided that the Goblins would stay at the base this time around. Fang and Tail reacted very negatively to the news, and the former was rather rude to Ivan who came to tell them the news. After consulting with Cap and Chernous, I realized that the best option was to sneak into the Lands as quietly as possible and slip away just as quietly.
We moved out with the first rays. The path to the most dangerous location in the area had already been cleaned by Cap’s detachments, who had been actively clearing up mob nests for several weeks. But only as far as the invisible border that separated the Lands from the rest of the forest. Cap, reasonable as he was, didn’t even think to claim it. Amoeba, who had made several trips to the Lands’s borders, hadn’t been able to convince Cap to go even a little bit further without Pavel’s permission. The biologist had used all possible means to get there. Once, he even tried to go alone but they caught him, put him in house arrest, and made him promise that he’d never do it again. So it was no wonder that he was as giddy as he was now, having finally been allowed to do what he had been denied for so long.
***
The firs and pines finally gave way to a field covered with fine grass, behind which grew black, seemingly dead trees. Some of them still had leaves, and there were only a few plants that seemed to have been barely touched by the infection that plagued the location. On the whole, the Lands looked like a dead spot in the midst of the green around it. Like gangrene spreading through healthy flesh.
No one but Willow and me had ever been here so the rest of the squad was rather surprised when, after crossing an invisible line, we seemed to find ourselves in a completely different reality. Howling of the wind, rustling of the leaves, creaking of snow under our feet — all this disappeared at once, giving way to a lingering silence, only occasionally broken by the cries of the local mobs.
“How interesting!” Amoeba exclaimed admiringly.
No one shared his joyous surprise. During the trip here, I did my best to familiarize my group with how things were in the Lands, which, unfortunately, made them lose the little enthusiasm they had had. Still, I had to prepare them for the worst.
“You moved and ended up in another, smaller location?” Valkyrie asked after listening to the rest of my story.
“Yeah. And it was then that we came across a field with acid seedlings, from which the Burgundies made AO-1. Though, I doubt it was teleportation...”
“Mass confusion?” Spider suggested.
I shrugged. I had no idea. But what surprised them the most was the story about the Gray Pilgrim. Sure, that one was dead, but there was no guarantee that another one like it wasn’t roaming about. Or that there was something far, far more dangerous than it here. The Lands were huge. Willow only visited its northern edge, and I explored a slightly larger area. However, despite that, we didn’t seem to have even seen a third of the location’s total size.
God only knows what horrors dwell here... I’d hate to encounter any of the Lands’ inhabitants...
***
No sooner had I thought that than a tall figure appeared between the black pines, their shriveled branches covered with snow. Most clearly visible in the gloom created by the densely growing trees were its three eyes, which were carefully watching our movements.
“Loki... There’s something near us at six o’clock,” Spider, who was at the back of the group, said into the comm channel. “It’s about fifty feet away.”
I turned around and looked straight at the lurking figure.
“Slowly and calmly...”
The six-foot-tall mutant had a good disguise. Except for its unblinking eyes, placed vertically rather than horizontally, and its hairy head, I couldn’t see anything else.
Glancing at us again and noticing that it had been discovered, the thing took a step back and instantly disappeared into the gloom.
“Good, it’s gone,” Amoeba said, though he doubted that this would be our last encounter with the creature.
Unfortunately for all of us, his suspicions were soon confirmed.
As soon as we came to a small clearing, more or less well lit by the sunlight, it reappeared. This time straight ahead. We stopped and I activated Third Eye to see if there was anyone else near the creature.
Nothing.
The area around the mutant was invisible. Moreover, Third Eye stubbornly refused to notice the creature itself even though it didn’t move. I wondered what this was supposed to mean. I had never had the skill refuse to show something before. Hell, it had saved my life more than once. The mutant, or whatever it was, seemed to have an ability that allowed it to mess with my skill. I had no other explanation.
I deactivated the skill and met the gaze of unnaturally large blue eyes. Round and lidless, they stretched all the way up to the mutant’s smooth forehead. Its gaze was deliberate, directed at me. The stare-off lasted for about three minutes. I endured the heavy gaze of the rightful inhabitant of this place who was clearly dissatisfied with the fact that strangers were trespassing in its domain.
The mutant crouched and, after having done something with its hands, got up again, but this time holding a lantern.
A lantern?! The hell’s going on here...?
The Three-Eyed Guide
Level 76
The new light source allowed us to get a better look at the Guide. It was a tall thin creature with a head full of thick, curly hair. The rest of it was hairless, with albino white skin, skinny limbs, and protruding joints. It looked extremely frail and seemed to be barely holding the massive lantern in its right hand — the kind that was popular in the nineteenth century.
Why isn’t it cold?It has no natural protection from the cold...
***
The Guide let out some inarticulate sounds, cleared its throat, and, raising the kerosene lamp above its head, suddenly spoke:
“Ugh-donk ugh-lo ugh. Unr-ugh.” We all opened our mouths in surprise. “Rrryash shul, grosh-ug. Ug-Lo!”
“Loki,” Ivan whispered in my ear as the Guide continued its monologue. “You should see this.”
I turned and saw movement between the pines. This time, Third Eye worked but it was possible to view only the most remote areas of the forest: apparently, the radius of the “jammer” was slightly less than the distance from one end of the clearing to the other. Five figures appeared between the t
rees, highlighted orange. They moved quietly around the edge of the clearing.
“There are at least five more behind us. We seem to be surrounded,” I informed the rest of the group, who were listening to the Guide with great interest and even seemed to be trying to decipher what it was saying by intonation alone.
“What’s the plan?” Spider asked.
“Amoeba, once I give you the signal, jump on Rat’s back. We’ll run forward. Valkyrie, your job is to cut the Guide’s throat before it gets another chance to speak. Willow, if you manage to activate Phoenix, try to set fire to the forest behind us. Clear? All right, let’s move out!”
The following events happened within a few seconds, so it took me some time to figure out what had really happened.
Amoeba, the slowest member of our group, jumped on Rat. The Brain-eater immediately wrapped its tentacles around him, bursting out between its host’s exposed ribs. I followed the two, Willow raced after Valkyrie and Ivan, who had already broken away from us.
The Guide immediately ceased its monologue, and, raising the lantern even higher, began to open its huge mouth to let out a loud cry and call for help. As soon as the mouth opened (quite wide, I might add; so wide that its skin seemed to tear), the Guide’s neck was hit by Valkyrie’s broadsword.
The creature fell face down on the snow, dying it red, but somehow managed to save enough strength to hit the lantern and break the glass. A moment later, Ivan raced over the Guide, trampling its body into the ground, ending it. A few of us noticed that the released flame began to slowly cover the creature’s crushed body.
At the same time, the other creatures appeared behind us. They all looked as if someone had skinned a dog and glued two of them together back to back. There was one head but it seemed to consist of two upper halves: there were two noses, two upper jaws, four red eyes that glared at us angrily, and only one neck that belonged to the “lower” dog.
Twenty-five of these things emerged from behind the trees. All forty-plus levels, all terribly hungry and extremely aggressive. Sitting on Rat with my back to the front, I was the first to see the pack running after us. Cursing, I began to hit them with bolts.
Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 9
