The last phrase was plenty. Tailyn just crossed his legs and slid down on his rear end — carefully measuring each step was too boring. Behind him came Valia, going with the same technique. Tailyn stood up, helped the girl do the same, and looked around only to feel an unpleasant tickle in his throat. They were in a small room with several cages against the walls, none of them looking like they were for midgets. They were human-sized.
“That’s impossible!” Valia exclaimed. “The midgets were simple merchants — they didn’t trade slaves.”
“Who?” Tailyn asked, hearing a word he didn’t know.
“Leprechauns, one of the races that left the planet during the exodus. They were little, green, long-eared. We don’t know what a lot of the ancient races looked like, but we do know about them. Here.”
Valia tapped a few virtual buttons, and the image appeared of a whimsical creature with a disproportionately large head, slender fingers, incredibly long ears, and a small body. It was dressed in a sharp suit and a tall top hat, while there was a swashbuckling cane in its hand that could have served either as an accessory or a solid weapon.
Mission update: Ancient History. You learned about the leprechauns, a race that left during the exodus. A picture was added to your Creatures journal.
As Valia looked over at Tailyn, who was staring into space, she was suddenly overcome with embarrassment. Her boy hadn’t been trained, he didn’t have access to the information her teacher had given her, and he hadn’t even had time to study the book she’d given him. He knew almost nothing about the ancients even as she had plenty to share with him. For whatever reason, her tutors had forced the subject on her, explaining that she couldn’t repeat the mistakes of her ancestors when she became duchess. And there, even the simplest bit of information about the leprechauns was enough to update Tailyn’s mission. Valia herself had been terrible to him in the City of the Dead when she’d refused to share what she knew with him. Sure, he hadn’t been her betrothed then, but what difference did that make? The boy was moving heaven and earth for her, and what had she done for him? That did it.
“Tailyn, come here, please. I should have done this a long time ago.”
Synchronize mission. It was a setting she’d been forbidden to so much as look at. The girl knew exactly what the consequences would be, and she also knew Tailyn wouldn’t be able to reciprocate without access to the mission functionality. Not only that, but he might not even decide to in the future. But that was fine. The important part was that she was doing it herself, of her own free will. Placing a hand on Tailyn’s chest, Valia began going through the settings. She had to be in physical contact for it to work.
Valia Levor is offering to unilaterally synchronize her mission Ancient History.
Tailyn wasn’t expecting that. He’d found out from the girl’s book what synchronizing was — permanently copying someone else in on information about a mission. Once you turned it on, you couldn’t turn it back off as long as the mission was active. Even if Valia was far away and found out something about the ancients, Tailyn’s mission would automatically be updated, too.
“I can’t accept that,” Tailyn replied in a stunned whisper once he’d overcome the nerves.
“Please, just say yes,” the girl whispered back as she snuggled up against Tailyn. “This is the least I can do. If there’s anyone I’m going to trust, it’s you, right?”
“But I can’t do the same for you,” the boy said, trying a different angle.
“I know. If you want, you can once you get to the academy. And if you don’t want to… This is my choice, Tailyn. I’m not asking you to do anything in return. Please, just hit the accept button.”
Synchronizing Ancient History.
42 updates received.
***
You earned 50 Ancient History updates and get a reward: +1 to a random skill.
Crystal miner +1 (3).
For a while, Tailyn was lost to the world as he went back in time…
About three thousand years before, а god called the “Game” or the “System” entered the world, at which point people became “players,” or those who played for their survival. Everyone was divided into three categories: soldiers, civilians, and mages. But humans weren’t the only ones on the planet. Along with the god came others, other races and monsters that quickly inundated the planet. A long and bloody struggle ensued, humanity emerged victorious, the other races left, and the monsters — or lixes, as they came to be called — remained, gradually turning into what they were then. Basically, the exodus was the end of the war, the moment when the other races left the planet, and the System began to rule. Everything was brought in line with its rules. Generals, larvae, champions, superior monsters, and inferior monsters — Tailyn learned about a long list of humanity’s foes remaining after the exodus. One, which he’d fought in the City of the Dead, turned out to be a spawn of a general in charge of a hexagon, a giant area broken up into smaller ones called locations. It was terrifying just to imagine how powerful the general was if its spawn even shackled forever was so powerful. But what really surprised Tailyn was that the god hadn’t always been there. How did people get by without it before the game? Who controlled their lives? Who gave them hints on how to live?
Lots of updates had to do with the different races and their peculiarities. There were Shurvans, Alturians, robots, morphs, orcs, demons, leprechauns…the list went on and on. But the ancients had still survived and laid claim to their lives.
“Thanks!” Tailyn said sincerely, and Valia smiled happily. She’d been helpful. “As soon as I can, I’ll turn on synchronization, too.”
“You two are at it again?” Valanil had heard the entire conversation, she’d seen the white glow around the boy, and she’d felt both pride for his sake and jealousy that nobody had ever offered her something like that. Of course, there were the fanatics at the academy, but they tried to force their own mission on people in order to get reciprocity. Valanil wasn’t a big fan of being beholden to the good of the people.
“We can take the cages,” the lix said suddenly. “It’s strange, but they fit in my inventory.”
“Valia, get inside,” Valanil said. When she saw the girl freeze, she explained. “These cages belonged to the ancients — they don’t make them like this anymore. From what I’ve heard, the bars completely block magic, so we need to check and see.”
“But why me?” Valia asked stubbornly. Her weeks of captivity were still fresh on her mind, and she couldn’t make herself follow the woman’s order.
“I’ll do it,” Tailyn said, sensing Valia’s feelings and jumping in himself. Pulling out his enhanced shield card, he sent a charge in Valanil’s direction. It worked.
“That’s a shame…” The woman really was disappointed. With cages like that, she would easily have been offered a role as magistrate in Crobar.
“We need to shut and lock the door,” Ka-Do-Gir said. “If the cage is going to work, it’ll only be when it’s activated.”
“Yes, of course!” Valanil exclaimed. The key was hanging on a nearby wall. Soon enough, Tailyn was locked in, at which point he pulled out a card and…
Ka-Li.
You can’t use magic cards, physical weapons, or communication devices inside isolation cages.
Tailyn twisted like a snake on a skillet. Desperate to shout out to the group, he threw back his face guard, but the simple-looking cage didn’t let any sound through. The boy felt unpleasant, sticky fear began to grip him, tightening around his stomach and squeezing his chest. In his head, he knew they were going to let him out, but his emotions had taken over so completely that he couldn’t think about anything else. He was scared, and it was the fear that was in charge.
Valanil watched the terrified boy and realized she had her path back into a great job at Crobar. Her well-to-do old age was secure so long as she built up her executioner attribute to work with imprisoned mages more effectively. Once in the cages, they would be powerless, defenseless, and
scared to death. The cages themselves instilled a kind of fear the person inside couldn’t do anything about no matter what kind of willpower they had at their disposal.
But was that what she wanted?
“Open it up,” she said, and Ka-Do-Gir freed his master. The latter leaped out and bent over double, emptying his stomach. The boy’s whole body shook.
“There are five cages here. Everyone takes one; I’ll take two. They might come in handy. Tailyn, pull yourself together — you’re an alchemist! If it was so bad, why didn’t you destroy the cage? Was your inventory locked down? Or did you run out of acid?”
The herbalist’s surprisingly harsh tone shook Tailyn out of his stupor. He thought to himself — really, why had he started to panic? Vargot’s quick access slots worked fine.
“There are only two keys, so Tailyn and I will each take one. We’ll make copies the next time we come across a master.”
Mission update: Ancient History. You found out that leprechauns hid people or other creatures in cages to block their magic. Figure out why they did that.
“So, they were slave traders after all…” Valia said disappointedly when she read the same update.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Tailyn, pull up your map of this area,” Valanil said.
The boy tossed his cage into his inventory and followed her instructions.
“It doesn’t look like the lixes knew that much about the Forest of Desire,” Valanil said. From the leprechaun house to the general’s tomb, it was no more than ten kilometers. Their destination was smack dab in the middle of the Forest of Desire, and for the first time the herbalist realized the fearsome area wasn’t actually as big as it appeared. In fact, most of it was just greenery without any detail. Either that’s the way it actually was, or the black lixes only had access to the main road leading from the central access point to the tomb. And that brought up a question — why hadn’t the usually inquisitive beasts explored the location? Sadly, the answer was obvious. It was the security system. There had to be monsters, machines, or something else equally deadly. The poison, for example. Was it worth the risk of heading farther in?
But they didn’t have much of a choice, and so the next few hours were spent getting to the tomb through the lifeless forest. The last few hundred meters even saw them crawling as the sounds echoing over from the direction of the tomb were impossible to confuse with anything but slave drivers. Suddenly, the forest ended, turning into a fairly deep and wide quarry filled with all kinds of different creatures. All of them were hard at work digging up what remained of the once-great person’s tomb.
“My tribe,” Ka-Do-Gir hissed, nodding toward a large group of green lixes. While the space had once been an even clearing with enormous trees, the black lixes had brought slaves to dig up the walls of Isr Kale’s last resting place. And that helped Tailyn and the rest remain unseen — they were higher than everyone else. Level 150 guards patrolled the edge of the quarry. Only Tailyn had seen anything like them before, and the octopus-like monsters were terrifying to the other three. They controlled the perimeter. Looking around, the group saw it was made up of high walls surrounding several two-story stone buildings that were so simple they felt embarrassed for the ancients. Time hadn’t served them well.
Ka-Do-Gir’s tribe was digging up the far side of the outer wall, which was still hidden underground. And to keep the greens working, there was a slave driver standing over them, a black lix with an enormous whip he used to lash his weary charges. Ka-Do-Gir ground his teeth in helpless rage. Sure, they may have kicked him out, but he still felt like part of the tribe, and it wasn’t easy watching his fellow lixes be treated that way.
But the most impressive thing in the quarry was a gigantic oak tree growing out of the center of the dig. Just to make sure nobody touched it, the lixes had even left an embankment around it that was equipped with a broad stone staircase. And there was a black stone next to the oak, a place of sacrifice, while the giant’s trunk had been hacked apart. The even blue light emanating from the hole left no doubt that there was a crystal inside.
“Somehow, I don’t really want to head down there,” Valia said, echoing what was on everyone’s minds. And it was true — while they might have been able to take on the lixes, nobody wanted to try out the guards after hearing Tailyn talk about how fast and powerful they were. One, maybe. But ten… That was too many.
Just then, a commotion broke out by the main entrance as slave drivers brought in a new batch of slaves. One mage bound hand and foot that neither Tailyn nor anyone else recognized rounded out a group of twenty numericals. A black lix stepped out of a building not far from the oak and began looking the mage over critically, his inspection including everything but peering into the man’s mouth. The gag got in the way of that. Finally satisfied, he waved, and several lower-level lixes ran over, presumably the top dog’s helpers. They grabbed the mage and hauled him inside the building. In the meantime, the main lix pulled out a dagger and pointed at the sacrificial stone. Unable to do anything, Tailyn just watched as the numericals were slaughtered, knowing that the guards would have stopped him long before he could get close enough to activate his wave of fire.
After he finished with the slaves, the lix waited a little while, and then bent over the tree. Something shimmered in his hands. Something or someone had just traded items for the lives of twenty humans.
“Don’t tell me there’s another ancient creature hidden around here somewhere,” Valanil whispered. The System heard her.
New mission: Isr Kale’s Tomb. Description: you reached the ancient general’s tomb and found out that the black lixes are sacrificing people. Find out who they want to resurrect and stop them. Your reward will be rich.
“Come on,” Valia groaned as she stared at the text. “What are we supposed to do? Just run right in there?”
“Head back to the leprechaun house,” Valanil said as she began to crawl back, the sacrifice still on her mind. It called to mind unpleasant memories of when she’d very nearly been sacrificed herself. “We’ll talk there about what to do.”
“Wait a second,” Tailyn said, stopping the group. “Why isn’t everyone in the quarry asleep?”
It was true. The poisoned air was having no effect on the crowd digging down below. And not only that, but the fact that the procession that had just arrived had marched up so confidently meant the main entrance had to be safe, too. As always, it was Valia’s eagle eye that caught what was going on.
“Got it! There’s a vague shimmering above the oak. That’s why the lixes didn’t chop it down — it’s what keeps the protection up. The dome covers the entire quarry, and even the guards aren’t going outside it.”
“Okay, but what holds up the field by the road?” Tailyn asked insistently. “That’s ten kilometers as the crow flies. How do the lixes get people here? Does the oak have something to do with that, too?”
There was no answer forthcoming. No matter how much the girl looked, she couldn’t find anything.
“I think we need to scout that out,” Tailyn said.
“Why do you care, my boy?”
“I’m not sure,” Tailyn replied frankly. “Although, no, I am. If we bring down the protection, at least by the road, the lixes won’t be able to get to the tomb. They won’t be able to rush us all at once even if some of them have hermetic outfits. Plus, they won’t be able to bring anyone else to be sacrificed. Better have the numericals die with a smile on their face than to be turned into dried-out mummies.”
“Makes sense. Lix, what do you say? Can we get to the road without being seen?”
“Nothing’s impossible so long as the guards aren’t patrolling it. I’ll go first.”
They ended up circling around almost a kilometer to safely make it to the broad road. Small trees lined it on either side, and they were set so close together that it looked more like one long hedge. After making sure nobody was there, Valia went over to the trees.
“Well, there’s your an
swer.” The girl touched the trunk and felt a buzz. Powerful energy flows were surging through it.
“That’s impossible,” Valanil said from nearby. “We would have heard about that a long time ago — trees can’t create magic.”
“What if it’s not them?” Tailyn jabbed Matilda into the ground and heard a dull thumb. Digging up the grass, he found himself looking at metal and wires. “That’s what’s creating the energy. The trees are just conductors.”
“So, what does that tell you?” Valanil asked, still not getting why Tailyn was so intrigued by the whole system.
“It gives me an idea, maybe a good one. You all get back — it’s going to get toasty around here.”
Ka-Li.
Five waves of fire swept off in either direction to engulf the road. Trees crackled, burning brightly despite the energy running through them. Ten seconds later, ash showered down to the tune of a bubble distinctly popping. The protection holding the poison back from that section of the road was gone.
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 20
