“No, it deactivates as soon as it’s found. It’s definitely on that thing’s armor, so finish up here, and let’s go take it out.”
It was easier going once we had an idea of where our opponent was. Heading back over to the cache we were at, I found that it had emerged from the inferno unscathed. Even the chest was in pristine condition. Apparently, everything just refreshed automatically, and I got a message as soon as I touched the lid:
You found a cache.
Level +1 (272).
You were compensated because you cannot receive your level four item. 350000 coins received.
All I could do was chuckle bitterly. I’d lived to see the day where I didn’t even get anything solid, though there was at least the compensation. They could have skipped it. Pulling out one of my billiard balls, I squeezed it and dropped it into the chest. As soon as I was far enough away, the big stone and even the rest of the field vanished. Crushed trees and grass were all that appeared in their place. In fact, it was almost like the cache had appeared from somewhere up above, dropped down, and squashed everything that had been right there. Raptor buzzed merrily to update the mission.
You destroyed 1 of 3 game pieces.
My protection took forever to rebuild, so that gave us time to discuss where we wanted to go next. Grust was in favor of wrapping up the dungeon first before going after our target, but I was against that move. It was a crafty, treacherous beast we were up against. Grust had said there was no way the thing could take off the tracker, though I had a hard time believing that. If I’d been in the creature’s shoes, I would have done everything possible to get into the dungeon without being noticed. That’s where I would have been least expected. But since the tracker was by the second cache, we needed to head in that direction. Convoluted logic, but it was all I had. We needed to go where we were supposedly expected and see who outplayed who.
Grust pushed back until we took off. But no sooner did our feet leave the ground, then he shut his mouth, accepting my point of view. At least, that’s what he said. From what I could tell, he was even less steady in the air than I was, though we still made it to the second cache fairly quickly. We decided to approach it from the opposite side of the field.
He went first. Once we got to the clearing, he peered through his scope, and Swallow opened up on a big tree a second later. I crawled closer and zoomed in to see that Grust was shooting at Ulbaron. The armor was tied to the tree trunk, putting up no resistance. Every burst of energy passed right through. The hole in the tree behind it grew larger and larger.
The problem was that Ulbaron was empty.
“Grust, stop, it isn’t here,” I yelled, even standing up. Nobody took a shot at me. Raptor also told me it was safe, though I couldn’t exactly believe it. My camouflage was impressive.
“I’m going in — cover me.” Grust was about to dash toward the stone when I stopped him.
“It’s a trap. I’m first this time.”
My pride at having outsmarted our opponent didn’t do anything to cloud my mind. It worked clearly and precisely — the thing had known I’d head for the nearest cache, and it had been waiting for me there. True, it got more than it bargained for, which is what had saved me. Then, it had realized there was a tracker on Ulbaron. Device control was great at finding what wasn’t supposed to be there, though it wasn’t up to the task of dealing with a level 13 named weapon. At that point, the creature had pulled off the armor, tied it to a tree, and…set up an ambush. I was positive it was waiting for us at the dungeon. Right by the entrance, as soon as we go inside. We should have gone there after the first cache by all rights. That was the kind of character we were up against — smart and damn strong. Am I really that powerful without even knowing it?
My device control only had a range of 35 meters, so it took me quite a bit of wandering around to figure out what my mirror had planned. There were three thermite mines rigged with motion sensors. Two were by the armor, one by the stone. And they were well hidden, too — it took some doing to find them.
But it took even more doing to disarm them. It was a good thing I’d mounted the grenade launcher on Valkyrie, as it had forced me to pick up a skill my opponent didn’t have: disarming. Of course, I had to get it up to level 80 to compensate for pyrotechnics and demo expert. And that took 160 points. Good thing I only have to wait ten minutes for the system to upgrade me. When I saw the result, the lost time meant nothing. Raptor showed me a few red circles around each mine, the largest being its trigger radius. As soon as someone stepped into that area, the thing detonated. The second, which was a bit smaller, was the damage zone — it was a guaranteed kill in there. Its radius was about ten meters. But within it there was a narrow path winding its way toward the mine itself, the safe area where you could approach the device without it going off. That was how you defused it manually. Device control was useless — nobody could stop an activated mine.
Easing my way along the path, I got to the first mine. I’d had to jump a couple times, as my slick counterpart had set two next to each other to make sure their activation zones overlapped. But still, I pulled it off, and the three deadly devices found a new home in my virtual storage. My partner helped me buy three remote controls. Finally, I had a powerful force at my disposal, even if it was concentrated in a very limited area.
You found a cache.
Level +1 (273).
You were compensated because you cannot receive your level four item. 350000 coins received.
***
You destroyed 2 of 3 game pieces.
We weren’t able to sell our opponent’s Ulbaron. Since it was generated by the game, as soon as I touched it, it disintegrated into dark dust. Surprised, I glanced at Raptor — all three mines were whole and intact in my virtual storage. They hadn’t been generated. They’d been purchased.
“Grust, we have a problem.” I started looking around even though nothing was showing up on the scanner. “I didn’t have any mines. That thing bought them at the store.”
“So what? Obviously, it doesn’t have any penalties. That’s just your problem.”
“Yes, but when it was created, I had more than ten million in my account. I don’t think it just left Ulbaron here. It bought another one.”
Grust cursed and took off, gesturing for me to follow him. We had the dungeon left, and we were both positive there was going to be a warm welcome waiting for us.
“Check everything here,” he said as soon as we got there. The entrance was in a small ravine, hidden between the roots of an enormous tree. It looked just like the dungeon I’d hidden from the champions in, as a matter of fact. There were plenty of spots to mount an ambush from, so I decided to spend another ten minutes.
Device control +10 (80).
Dropping a hundred and eighty thousand coins let me boost the detection radius for game items to 40 meters, though there was nothing by the dungeon entrance.
“It’s inside,” I said, having thoroughly explored the perimeter.
“What’s the problem with that?”
“Dungeons put players on a level playing field, dropping attributes and skills to level 15. If it’s hiding, we won’t be able to find it no matter how much we want to. I never should have gotten my different camouflages up so high.”
“What makes you think that’s a problem?” Grust asked in surprise. “Send me some coins.”
Without asking any questions, I sent him two hundred thousand, and it was only when the game started printing out his purchases that it all started to make sense. Yes, that could definitely work! Twelve and its fighters had gone with a similar strategy. Grust hadn’t been there then, but he was thinking way ahead of me. Apparently, I’d gotten so used to the fact that everything was blocked that nothing in that vein had even occurred to me.
“And now, the most important part — getting inside.” Grust picked up one of the plasma grenades and shoved the rest in his backpack. “Do you think that animal’s going to be waiting right by the entrance?”
&nb
sp; “I’m almost positive.”
“In that case, in I go. If I’m not back out in a minute… Well, I’d tell you to leave, but you’re not going to, are you? So, come in a few seconds after me. And be ready — it’s going to be hot. All right, let’s do this.”
Grust bent over and ducked inside. I waited a few moments, pulled out Valkyrie, and followed suit. A wave of unbearable heat washed over me, the result of the plasma grenade going off. My partner was standing next to me, alive and well, Swallow darting back and forth at any sign of movement. Only there wasn’t any movement. The entrance was a small tunnel turning right after a couple meters, and it was empty.
You entered Rentul’s Lair.
Note!
You entered the dungeon with personified noa. Sacrifice it to boost the dungeon’s starting level by 1 (level boosting instructions).
Swallowing hard, I opened the description. Boosting the level meant burying a ritual dagger in Grust — Fang. And I had to do it in the dungeon’s central cave right after beating the first round. Once that was done, I would agree to restart the dungeon, and that was that. It would be reset, only the starting level would be one higher.
“Damn it, one more headache.” I turned to my partner. He was standing by the glimmering film, his eyes fixed on the turn at the end of the tunnel. When I went to take a step forward, a heavy hand on my chest stopped me.
“We’ll deal with it later. For now, check for mines,” he more ordered than said. And it was a good move — there was one set right around the corner. But there was nothing I could do. The chances of hacking into it were 0%, the first time I’d seen that value, and disarming was powerless. That damn level playing field!
“Okay, I’ll deal with it. What’s the headache?”
I told him about how to boost the dungeon’s level, and Grust just chuckled.
“I figured it would be something like that. Everything in this game is about noa. You thought it would be enough to disperse the stones at first, and as it turns out… So, are you going to chop me up?”
“You want a punch in the face?”
“You’re going to have to sacrifice someone. Five someones, in fact. Give that some thought. And in the meantime, get out of here — it’s going to get awfully toasty in a second.”
He pulled out a grenade and motioned toward the shimmering film. I wasn’t about to argue. Just about as soon as I was out of the dungeon, Grust popped out right behind me, cursing up a storm. The fact that he started rolling around on the ground trying to put out nonexistent flames told me how hot it had actually gotten.
“When I catch that bitch, I’m going to rip its legs off!” he spat out, jumping back into the dungeon without waiting for a reply. When I joined him, the stone walls had just barely solidified. It had gotten so hot that they’d melted, dripping down onto the floor. Still, the dungeon layout remained unchanged — the corner was right where it had been. Sweat broke out immediately as even Ulbaron failed to keep up with the change in temperature. But what disappointed and cheered me up at the same time was that our opponent wasn’t there.
“Follow me!” Another grenade went flying around the corner, and Grust jumped in behind the wall of fire. As soon as I stepped over to where he was, we got news about our opponent:
You destroyed the first round of monsters.
The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current: 3).
The space around me flickered and started to thicken, eventually turning into a hairy, low-crawling creature that looked like an underdeveloped bear. There was no time to wonder if it was friendly or hostile — Fang took off its head. Up ahead, I heard a curse from Grust and the sound of something hard burying itself in something soft. My partner was dealing with the same problem I was: new bots.
While he handed out punches right and left, I got to work. There was only one way out of the dungeon. If my mirror was as smart as I gave it credit for, it would try to get away so it could set up an ambush somewhere else, for example, right outside. And that meant we couldn’t let it get away. Luckily, my three thermal mines were perfect for that.
I set them up the same way my opponent had, covering each other to make sure the creature couldn’t get by. They were activated with the remote controls. And that wasn’t a problem — my opponent’s chances of hacking into them would be the same I’d faced. A solid 0%.
Fighting our way through the waves of underdeveloped bears wasn’t that hard. But when we got to the main cave, we froze. Raptor told me there was a crowd of them in there, though my opponent wasn’t among them.
“We’re supposed to activate that ball here?”
“Yes, right by that stone,” I replied, pointing at the middle of the area.
“Okay, off I go.” Grust pulled out ten grenades. “Wait here.”
“Here, take the ball. When you get there, just squeeze it and put it on the stone. It should work.”
“It had better,” Grust said with a smile as he took it from me. “Okay, see you on the other side.”
One after another, the grenades found a new home in the cave. It was an inferno. Grust dove in after them, taking out the bears hiding in the corners. None survived. But again, our target wasn’t there.
Suddenly, the wall behind me started to move, and before I could react, it turned into a six-armed monster wearing nothing but underwear. It gripped my arms and legs. Neither Valkyrie nor Fang would activate.
“Grust!” I yelled into my microphone, though the only reply was an evil whisper.
“Tell your gods I said hello, Mark Derwin!”
There was a quiet squeak, and my heart skipped a beat. The creature was holding four plasma grenades. They were activated.
“Mark!” my partner yelled back, but that’s when the space around me turned into a bright red hell. A wave of pain flashed across my body, it got unbearably hot, and a darkness fell around me. All I could see were some words:
You were killed.
Wait for the game to end.
Chapter 5
You were killed.
THE MESSAGE hovered in front of me for an eternity. I could mostly sense myself, I could think, and I still had my memories. What was missing were bodily sensations. I didn’t have a body, and that was a shock. There I was, presumably existing, though at the same time, I wasn’t. There was just the white lettering that made things a little better with their stability. I lost track of time, I wasn’t sure where I was, and I didn’t know what to expect. But suddenly, there was a new message:
Returning to the game in 3… 2… 1…
Go through the personification rules.
What?!
Light was the first to come back. It was everywhere, soaking into me from every side. Then, there were sensations. I started to feel my body. The darkness left, and silhouettes broke through the light, becoming more solid with each passing moment. Thickness and volume came with them. Sounds and smells followed. And I recognized immediately where I was: the gazebo belonging to Verloven, the protector of one of the two safe locations in our hexagon. Glancing down at my hands, I realized that I’d just appeared in the world and didn’t yet have a body. Suddenly, I caught an intriguing dialog going on. I turned to see two creatures: Grust and Verloven.
“I held up my end of the deal, Grust Kilvan. Now you belong to me.”
“No, that’s not it,” my partner shot back. “Unlock the ability for me to transfer levels. You don’t care how many I have, right?”
“You won’t be able to use your named items.”
“Who cares what I can use if I’m going to die anyway? Unlock it!”
“Your request was processed and approved. You can now transfer levels.”
“Excellent. Mark, are you here yet?”
“Yes. What happened? Where’s my mirror?” It was hard to talk — my vocal cords were apparently still forming.
“You died, don’t you get it? There should have been messages about that. I couldn’t quite get there in time, though�
� Well, I completed the mission, the dungeon was destroyed, and I didn’t touch your trap. You can disarm it yourself. The dungeon just snapped shut and left a little hole where it used to be, so that’s where your mines are. I just about shit myself when I saw them! Figured it was the end for me, but thankfully nothing happened.”
“Game items don’t work after their owner dies,” Verloven explained. “Grust Kilvan, give him your levels, and let’s go. I have lots of plans for you.”
“Wait a second, which plans? Grust, where did you get the noa?” I asked, a sense of foreboding filling me.
“The old man… He sold it for something he wanted more — me.”
My jaw dropped when that sank in.
“You’re now the same personified noa I am. Read the rules, although there won’t be anything new there for you. You’ve seen it all. As soon as the game ends, you’re going to die just like me. Okay, come here so I can give you my levels.”
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 6
