by Rick Scar
“That’s the question you wanted to ask, isn’t it? If it is, you have no reason to worry, unless you are hiding something. But you aren’t. Are you?”
“I have nothing to hide from Your Majesty. If you deem it necessary, I will do it. But… may I have a glass of water first?” He bowed again, this time lower than usual.
Will frowned as that went against his expectations but nodded for the maid to bring him water. Galaker made no objections and agreed to the trial easily. Does it mean I was wrong about him? The rat in my palace is someone else?
Some time passed, but the maid still hadn’t returned. Sensing that something was wrong, Will was about to have the spell put on the noble anyway, when the door burst open and a wounded guard stormed in. Before Will could ask him any questions, a message came:
Attention! The random event A Secret Admirer? has been failed.
You are offered a quest: My Home Is My Castle
Description: Protect your palace from the intruders.
Reward:
+50,000 XP
Failed?! What the…He swept the message aside, sensing that trouble was brewing.
The traitor darted a needle at the queen, but she now had strength in both levels and speed. Her fingers intercepted the weapon in the air, deviating its path and it hit the back of her throne. It shivered before dissolving into the air. Magic?
Nanel’s other hand shot for the traitor’s neck, but Galaker leapt away, avoiding her.
Will snapped his fingers, but, for some reason, the respective skill would not activate. He used Leap, but the enemy bared his left forearm and cut it with a knife, activating a tattooed black symbol. Smirking maliciously as his body dissolved into the air, he spat, “See you, messenger.” Then his unreadable stare turned to Nanel. “And you, little bitch.”
His courteous mask was off, his feigned feelings gone. There was no point in keeping up this act. The Soul Vow would have revealed all his dirty secrets, so he had nothing to lose.
Galaker’s body disappeared before Will could use any weapons on him. The rogue preferred not to waste Dancing of Time on this rat, even more so as he only had 318 IPs remaining on his account after using Voice of Truth and developing Hade.
***
But the traitor escaping was the least of his concerns. When Will, followed by Nanel and Emin, ran out onto the landing that overlooked the entrance hall, he saw a group of strangely dressed men and Latians storming into the main entrance.
Identification.
Name: Holy Empire soldier
Level: 80
Health: 29,450
So, here they come. But why now?
“Emin! Take command of the guards! You five!” Will barked at the soldiers who were in the hall. “Protect the queen!”
After giving his orders and watching the captain run down the carpeted stairs, giving commands as he went, Raven activated the crystal and cursed upon seeing that his dead Ogre’s HP hadn’t been restored. Hades, who had also been summoned, growled at the self-destructors storming through the door, one after another. There was a startling number of them. Will activated the castle barrier, splitting the enemy forces in two and hoping that those left outside the palace would be destroyed, or at least engaged, by the guards before the reinforcements arrived.
The fighting spread throughout the palace. The servants screamed as the attackers destroyed them mercilessly. A group of seven, three of them Latian bounty hunters, were running in Will’s direction. Apparently, their target was the queen.
“Hold the line, soldiers!”
Leap. Soul Cry. Torture. Breaking into the enemy lines and stunning them, Will thoroughly enjoyed the massacre, and before he knew it, he had given himself over to his uncontrollable fury. They broke into my home.
“RAGH!” His Mirage blade sunk into a Latian’s neck and a gush of blood splashed over Raven’s face. Four of his enemies were affected by Torture, and he was not going to waste this time. His dagger pierced the soldier’s eye socket. Pulling it out, Will sent the headless body down to the floor. Wheeling among the enemies, he landed one blow after another, using Shock and Direct Attack.
DIRECT ATTACK
Rank: Rare
Active skill: Apprentice
Description: When this skill is activated, your weapon produces a murderous aura, inflicting continuous damage to everyone around you.
Damage: 30 per sec
Duration: 1 min
Range: 5 ft
Energy required: 330
Cooldown: 10 min
Crunching of bones. Spilled entrails. The king’s bloody face flashed among this chaos.
When Torture expired, four attackers were left down on the floor. One of them was still rasping until Will’s boot broke his throat.
The three surviving enemies exchanged glances. One screamed for help, but Air Knife stopped him by coming out of his chest on the other side and disappearing. As the enemy clutched at the wound, he couldn’t see Will’s sword coming down on him, but he recoiled, obeying his gut feeling… and his severed head fell over the second floor railing and down to the floor of the entrance hall. It was Deception, the skill reverting the direction of Will’s sword blow in the enemy’s eyes. The two other enemies jumped away and took a defensive stance.
Nanel stepped ahead, tired of standing behind her guards’ backs. “Make way, boys.”
The rapier in her hand started to dance, moving rhythmically as it drew one figure after another in the air, putting the queen into a battle trance. In a flash, Nanel stood face to face with one soldier, looking into his eyes. A split second – and the tip of her weapon came out of his neck and entered his armpit, which was the weakest spot of his armor.
After jerking her rapier out and shaking the blood off, she wounded the last enemy. He backed away – only to run his back through on the guard’s sword.
Will had to admit, her skills were improving more and more each day. She was becoming tougher, picking this harshness up from him.
***
In half an hour, it was over. This sudden attack was completely inexplicable. The capital city was quiet, and the soldiers manning the outposts had no idea that their country had been penetrated by the enemy. They hadn’t reported any border incidents.
Will’s mood was rotten, and it was growing even worse as Emin read the list of casualties to him. Two hundred and fifty-seven soldiers dead. Forty sent to hospital as their HP loss was too great to be restored by potions. Thirty servants – men, women, even adolescents – murdered just for doing their job.
Bastards. Will’s lips compressed into a line. He couldn’t forgive himself for making a blunder that had now been paid for with the lives of others. I was too careless.
As he sat at his desk with his head hung low, he remembered the question he had once been asked: Being a king… is it a choice or destiny?
Chapter 232. Who’s Next?
The Rollin’ Dice Clan
Somewhere on the broken fragment of an ancient world
“S antil, dear. May I take you for a cup of coffee in the real world?”
The guy nicknamed Stingy Tony made another attempt to ask his female quest partner out. But she just shook her head and moved on toward the reefs of the long-dried ocean that was visible far up ahead.
Eternal night ruled this place. The dead expanse of the starry sky was captivating, enchanting, even frightful at times. They had 14 weeks to try and complete this epic quest. After the folio had been found, the quest takers had been able to proceed to the second part, collecting a great bonus including unique ancient-world skills and lots of XP as they did, but they still had a long way to go to complete the full quest chain. The description of the second part was brief and clear:
Steal the egg.
…but it was hardly any help. After they had watched the Soul Crushers video, RD had been searching for a way of avoiding any bloodshed. However, the constant conflicts in the mountains, which had led to them jumping onto this fragment of ancient
world, forced them to speed things up. They decided to kill the bird, but only once they had tracked down the egg that the Rukh had been hiding successfully up until this point. After having flown to this location, the bird quickly vanished. Each player that had taken on this quest, and everyone who was sent here to help them, could have sworn that this piece of long-destroyed world was much, much smaller than any continent on the three known floors, but no matter how far they traveled around it, marking their way as they went, every explorer came back empty-handed and without finding the nest.
Santil and Tony were moving along their assigned route for that day using a hand-drawn map to mark their progress when, about five or six miles ahead, a piece of clear blue sky flashed up briefly only to immediately disappear again. The duo exchanged glances.
“Is it a passage opening day today?” Checking the group chat, Santil saw no alerts about this event, and immediately messaged the group leader, who replied instantly, informing her that the Rukh had not been spotted.
“So… so…” Realizing the game had been deceiving them all along, the two players notified the others, before rushing to the spot that the passage had opened over. If the Rukh bird was not alone, they would really need to revise their plan of killing the guard.
But if no one on the other side had seen the passage open… where could it lead to?
***
Will was laying down on Nanel’s bed while she was perched on the edge, cleaning her gear and staying silent so as not to bother him.
That day had been hard. Not so much the fighting as the losses. And now he had to decide what to do about this bold attack. Raven knew perfectly well what shape his country was in. He had checked the state management menu each time he had come to his floor and triangulated the information against Emin’s reports.
Adamarona was not ready for war. Not yet. And he would rather not start a long game event on his floor. Not with the tournament coming up. But, by leaving for the third floor, he risked losing everything he had achieved here to the fire that would consume his cities, the enemy soldiers who would trampled on his fields, and the crowds of his subjects who would die by the sword.
“All who take the sword will perish by the sword,” Will said, reaching for the basket on his bedside table to take an apple. Glancing at Nanel, who had turned to look at him, he continued, “Time to visit their camp. The one they have put so welcomingly right at the Monarch’s Door.”
“I’m coming with you.” Nanel’s eyes flashed, but not with the anticipation of another adventure. She wanted to take revenge on those who had murdered the people who had been there for her since her childhood.
“Sorry, dear. But you’d better not see what I’m going to do there.” Seeing her open her mouth to object, he added, “No discussion. Your people need you here, to take command in case of another invasion. They look up to you as their queen. You have to live with that, whether you like it or not. And you really, really shouldn’t see what I…” The apple in his hand exploded, splattering everything around him as he had clenched his fist around it. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Never mind. When are you going?” she asked, wiping the drops of juice off her face and the bits of apple off her clothes.
Getting off the bed, Raven walked up to the mirror to clean his clothes. “I need to go to the third floor to heal my servant. Right after that, I’ll pay them a visit.”
“Good.” Putting her rapier down on the bed, she came up to Will from behind, looking in his face that was reflected in the mirror. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” He returned her stare in her reflection.
“By going to their camp, you will be declaring war. Do you think we are ready to fight? We are all alone, we don’t have any allies.” Her voice sounded strange: soft and devoid of emotion, as if she were bracing herself to hear what she would rather not know. “Our soldiers are not ready yet. They practice according to your program, yes, but they haven’t been doing it for long enough. And I… I want to know: if we have to fight this war, will you stay with us till the end? Until the last house is destroyed and the last man is killed. Will you fight as one of us?”
She spoke softly as her hands reflexively smoothed out his clothing. After she had finished her speech she stared, unblinking, into the mirror. Into the eyes of the man who was now her king. A king of the realm that stood no chance against the combined power of two enemies that strong.
Will was taken aback by this conversation. He was certainly not going to abandon what had cost him so much sweat and blood. Since he had become a ruler, his goal was to build an empire. I’ll be damned if I let this dream crumble to dust.
“I swear. Even if my levels drop like flies, I will fight to destroy all my enemies. Don’t ever doubt that again.”
“Glad to hear I was right about you.” She put her arms around Will’s waist, clinging to his back for a moment, then turned away to the bed with a merry smile on her lips. “Go and rip their throats out, my king.”
Smirking, Raven cast the last glance at his mirror reflection – and saw a red gleam flash in his amber-gold eyes. “Oh, I swear, Your Majesty, I will rip more out than just their throats.”
***
Camp of the Alliance of the Swarm and the Holy Empire
The Monarch’s Door Location
When he had heard about the camp from Emin, Will had totally forgotten to ask what exactly they had used to build it. He generally gave little thought to the Swarm’s construction technologies. But now he could see they were using some sticky, viscous substance. It was a fantastic, monolithic structure, which enclosed the rocky space for a good half a mile; a giant honeycomb, pulsing slightly and separated into sections that were covered with a fine, transparent membrane.
Raven was scrutinizing this thing from two hundred yards away, doing his best to estimate the routes the guards followed, but this was near-impossible to do without knowing their whole military hierarchy. The Latians were a non-human species, their worldview and practices much different from those of humans too, though not so different as to make their alliance with the Holy Empire impossible, so the rogue could probably figure it out through observation and analysis.
He spent almost five hours observing until he eventually saw exactly what he needed. The next step was to identify who was in charge of this camp; there had to be at least one leader to keep a system of that scale together.
It was already late, so Will disconnected. He climbed out of his capsule, stretched, and set his alarm for the next morning. The next day was sure to be full of action.
***
From dawn till dusk, Raven continued to observe the camp through his binoculars, taking notes as he did. After waiting for the sunset to provide the perfect cover, he got down to the main part of his plan.
Buffing himself and activating Stealth, he sneaked along a supposedly safe route among the smaller embankments. As it was still under construction, the enemy base guards patrolling for security breaches. Lying in wait until they passed by, Will used their shadows to make his way around the various hiding places. Unlike regular mobs, sapient enemies had no fixed aggression range. By staying quiet and out of sight, you could avoid detection unless you came across any guard spells or mechanic means of detection, like in the tower where the last of the traitors had been imprisoned.
Using scrolls to detect his target, and memorizing the checked range, Will reached the cave that, according to his observations, was the dwelling, and probably the headquarters, of one of the senior officers.
His target was a short, uniformed Latian, who looked completely normal except for the ring on his finger, which featured a green pyramid-shaped, jewel as large as a nail. The Latian would run his finger over that jewel from time to time, staring at it with a mixture of admiration and pride.
Will had to wait another half an hour for everyone except the target to leave the cave once the meeting they appeared to be having was over. The cave was small. There was a fifteen-foot-long attached t
o it and the entrance was guarded by two sentinels. Will bypassed them using Twilight Walker. He hadn’t encountered any True Light bearers so far; he was glad about that, and hoped his good luck would last.
Will let out a long sigh and got down to the task at hand. The enemy had Level 91: an easy target.
Ambush.
-3550 HP
Silence Time.
With his eyes popping out, the Latian grabbed at his sword but fell to his knees upon seeing his worst nightmare as Will activated Terror.
The scenario seemed familiar. Collapsing to the floor, the Latian ran his throat onto Will’s raised blade. His head came off instantly, as if it had already been hanging on by a thread.
Torture. Before his blood could splash the floor and the walls, Will caught it in the air using a piece of fabric from his inventory. A perfect murder, taking just seven seconds to complete. The enemy was dead on the floor, despite his high level and lots of HP.
Activating Tartsius’s Spy Belt, Raven put the dead Latian’s image into the memory slot, then collected the loot, and buried the body using Through a Wall; no time to spend waiting for it to disappear.
“Done. Who’s next?”
Chapter 233. Behind Enemy Lines
W ill was going to thoroughly prepare for each subsequent murder. Still, he had to hurry to complete them before his mind would take damage from staying in the game capsule for too long.
His initial goal was to destroy all soldiers, but now he realized it would not solve the problem. Besides, his plan was too weak. The long cooldown of his Through a Wall skill meant that he could not just kill any Latian in his way. And the risk of betraying himself through a careless word or gesture was extremely high, considering that he knew nothing about the Latian military hierarchy. Overall, rushing to get vengeance could cause him trouble unless he carefully considered the consequences.
