Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “We need to see their battles.” Tailyn wasn’t about to give any promises they couldn’t keep.

  “Great idea. The teleports will be active once a day. If you don’t think you can win, get out. I’m afraid Sadil will be able to get to your cards even if they’re in your inventory if he gets his hands on you — nobody knows what that monster is capable of. Okay, I’m off. May the god be with you, children. Remember, for everything to go off without a hitch, I need twenty-four hours. At least twenty-four hours.”

  The pair spent the rest of the day at the arena, where they broke down the third-year students’ three battles. They’d overwhelmed every one of their opponents. And while their cards were analogous to what the first-year students had had, Ronan and his team could use a simple fireball to shatter the pair’s defenses. But the worst part was that Ronan’s team had fought every battle differently. For the first, he’d bunched them all up. The second had seen him split them into two squads, and they’d split up completely in the last battle. And not only did the battle mages use their cards, they also had elixirs against fire and lightning. One battle saw them using bombs — a few alchemical fires and even an Alron potion. They were well prepared and well trained. And they were outfitted in level three suits of armor — the viceroy made sure his son and his team were ready for battle.

  “Tailyn, I don’t see how we have a shot,” Valia said. “You won’t be able to pull your trick with the cleansing functionality since level three armor will have protection all the way up at ninety. Even if you get one or two, the rest will take us out. And if they have yeti potions, which I don’t doubt they do, icy rain will be useless.”

  “So, we leave tonight,” Tailyn replied. “Midnight on the dot.”

  The boy felt miserable. He’d worked so hard to make it into the academy, dreaming of it his whole life, and there he was leaving it, and nobody could say for how long. Maybe, even forever. But what really had him in the dumps was that the provost had General Isr Kale’s diary, and running away was going to make getting to it impossible. That avenue for deciphering Lavr Nalin’s notebook was going to be closed off forever.

  But as had happened so many times before, the god interfered in the pair’s plan. Half an hour before they were scheduled to activate the portal, Tailyn noticed something strange on Raptor. Red dots had appeared. Only they weren’t outside, where he would have expected; they were under ground, right by the terminal. The terminal Tailyn had assumed was in a secret room twenty meters below them.

  One of the red dots belonged to Ronan. The other wasn’t identified at all. Raptor just showed some creature next to Ronan without displaying any information. Suddenly, it hit Tailyn — it was the same gray character who’d had the antidote to all poisons. But what was he doing there? Or rather, how had he gotten into the academy?

  Something strange started to happen to Ronan. His parameters suddenly dropped all the way to zero. Even realizing he was giving himself away, Tailyn couldn’t help satisfying his curiosity.

  Attempting to hack Ronan Diteon.

  Your Hacking level: 36.

  Ronan Diteon’s protection level: 0.

  Probability of successful hack: 100%.

  Attempt 1… Successful.

  Ronan wasn’t wearing any armor, almost as though he was standing naked in front of the gray. And judging by how the red dot started pacing from side to side, the viceroy’s son had been informed he’d been hacked. Tailyn wasn’t sure what Ronan was actually capable of, so he kept going.

  Access received to logs.

  Access received to personal information.

  ***

  Processing logs. Your skill gives you access to the logs for the 19 hours prior to the moment Hacking was used.

  Tailyn was shocked when he pulled up the personal information — Ronan didn’t have a single attribute or skill. His table was completely empty. How was that possible?

  But suddenly, a cold sweat broke out when the boy realized how Ronan had pulled it off. He swallowed hard, held his breath, and pulled up the viceroy son’s logs for the previous few seconds.

  You received Tear of Alron from ???

  You used Tear of Alron.

  Your attributes and skills have all been reset. 188 free points received.

  It was incredible — the gray knew where to find tears of Alron. Maybe, he was the one who had them. But that wasn’t the end of the surprises. Ronan finally stood still, and new entries began popping up in the logs.

  You used a crystal and paid 1000 gold to unlock Protection.

  You added 15 points to Protection.

  You put on a level three outfit.

  Attention!

  Your Hacking level: 36.

  Ronan Diteon’s protection level: 45.

  Connection lost.

  The dot belonging to Ronan stayed where it was, though the gray disappeared deeper into the academy. And that terrified Tailyn — he knew where the killer was headed. He was coming for the two of them in the residence.

  “Valia, we have to go. Right now! We have to leave the house.”

  Tailyn didn’t know how much time they had. Perhaps, a minute. Maybe, all night. The gray had to move slowly to avoid triggering any security measures, assuming they had them in the academy. Grabbing each other by the hand, the pair sprinted toward the main building, Tailyn explaining what was going on as they ran.

  “Where are we going?” Valia asked anxiously. She remembered the killer who’d been able to break through her protection.

  “To see Sadil.” It hadn’t been an easy decision, but Tailyn recognized that there weren’t that many people at the academy capable of protecting them. And with plenty of time left before the portal was active, the gray would be able to find them no matter where they went.

  “What are first-year students doing here?” An investigator was standing guard at the elevator leading to the lower levels.

  “We have an urgent message for Magistrate Sadil — there’s an outsider here in the academy. As the god is my witness, I saw him. And I want to show my logs to prove it!”

  The skeptical expression on the investigator’s face disappeared the moment he saw the white glow around the boy. It wasn’t a practical joke the pair was playing. It was serious.

  “Follow me.” The elevator doors opened, and the little group headed down. Not taking his eyes off Raptor, Tailyn still didn’t see the dot for the gray. The winding hallways making up the fourth level finally ended at the office belonging to the head of security. The door opened, and Tailyn saw to his surprise that Magistrate Sadil was still at his desk despite the late hour.

  “Out with it,” Sadil said quickly. He’d seen everything he needed to see in the tense faces of the children and his investigator.

  “I think you might like to see this.” Tailyn copied a chunk of his log, taking a second and then attaching all of Ronan’s logs. “First, check mine. I know how the Alron potions got into the academy. The viceroy’s son brought them in. But that’s not all. He’s here with — ”

  “One!” Sadil yelled suddenly, cutting the boy off. A few moments later, the door just about flew off its hinges. “Red alert! There’s a nameless in the academy!”

  Chapter 17

  “BLOCK ALL LEVELS! Send a group of first-level investigators to the dormitory — we have to protect the students. You two, stay here in my office. Don’t go anywhere, don’t touch anything. Guard, stay with the kids. You’ll answer with you head if anything happens to them, so don’t try to go out and play the hero! One, why are you still here?”

  Tailyn had never seen Sadil’s emotions running so high. And it wasn’t just him; even the investigator who’d brought the pair to see his boss was frozen in shock, afraid even to breathe. The door closed, and there was a click as the key turned in the lock. Once again turning to Raptor, Tailyn only saw the red dots of running investigators.

  “What’s a nameless?” Valia asked a few moments later. The guard glared at the girl, though he couldn’t say
nothing. Given that his commander would never have left ordinary people in his office, he knew the strange pair had to have some kind of access he, a fifth-class investigator, wasn’t ranked high enough to know about. Was it worth staying quiet? The information wasn’t really that secret, after all.

  “The nameless are mage assassins who joined the emperor’s service. They say there are five of them, but nobody knows for sure. The best of the best. At some point, they were all top-level hierarchs in Crobar, only they left the school there for some reason. Actually, the strange part is that there’s an unspoken rule between the academy and the empire that we don’t touch the palace, and they don’t come after us. This is the first time there’s been an attack in my ten years at the academy. And they’re not mages, so they don’t need mana. Everything they have is named! Clothing, weapons, accessories. They’re monsters!”

  Just then, Tailyn noticed the investigator’s age — he was twenty-two years old. He’d barely graduated from the academy himself. But just the fact that he was there was a problem, as the pair was supposed to activate their portal in an hour. What was the investigator going to do? Try to stop them?

  “We can’t stay here,” Valia said suddenly. “He’ll find us.”

  “You’ll do what the commander told you to do!” the investigator shot back, annoyance creeping into his voice. “This is the most protected spot in the academy — the nameless won’t be able to get you here.”

  Tailyn couldn’t help but disagree. Raptor told him Sadil’s office was just a regular room. There were no secret passageways, niches, or anywhere else they could hide. But he didn’t get far in his exploration of the area before a red dot appeared on his scanner. And it didn’t have a description.

  “He’s on our level!” the boy hissed, motioning for everyone to be quiet. Although, that wasn’t going to help. If the nameless had Raptor, he was going to know where to find the pair.

  “He can’t get in here!” The investigator was panicking. Without Raptor, he could only depend on what he could see. “The level is blocked. He couldn’t have found a way down!”

  But the assassin from Crobar was there, one way or another. His red dot approached two others, those standing in for the investigators standing guard on the floor, though he was once more left alone not long after. Both of Sadil’s underlings had been sent off to meet their ancestors. Tailyn barely held in a horrified gasp — the monster had dispatched the full-fledged mages as easily as he might have brushed a bit of dust off his sleeve. But how? How had he gotten so close to them?

  When an electric shock slammed into his back, Tailyn guessed what was happening.

  “Valia, get out of Vargot right now!” he yelled as he pressed the emergency escape button. It was quite the convenient little function when he needed to get out of his armor in a hurry. The girl didn’t argue — Tailyn was never wrong when he yelled in that tone.

  <???> is hacking you and your equipment.

  Probability of successful hack: 100%.

  <???> gained access to your logs for the last 35 hours.

  <???> blocked your equipment.

  Hacking detected. Reverse hacking.

  Probability of regaining access to your equipment: 10%.

  Attempt 1... Unsuccessful.

  The investigator in the room with them had turned into a statue. The nameless’ total hacking and enhancement was far greater than fifty, and so he was able to quickly gain access to all three of them there in the room.

  Attempt 7... Successful.

  You regained access to your equipment and blocked <???>’s access to your personal information.

  <???> is hacking you and your equipment.

  The assassin from Crobar immediately regain access, though nothing changed — while Tailyn felt vulnerable without Vargot, he could at least move his arms. Tailyn agreed to try regaining access since the System did it automatically and without needing his involvement. And that was good, since he was busy trying to look for a way out. The nameless was probably just ten meters away. Tailyn couldn’t know for sure without Raptor, but he looked around frantically until he saw Sadil’s massive desk.

  “We have to wedge the door closed. Give me a hand!”

  The pair ran over to the sizeable block of wood only to find it wouldn’t budge — it was embedded in the floor. With a click of the lock, a nondescript figure dressed in gray appeared in the doorway. Tailyn didn’t recognize his face, which meant he hadn’t been one of the two in Forian’s residence.

  “Don’t shoot! It’s a reflection sphere!” Tailyn yelled, noticing that Valia was starting to raise her hand. Without their helmets, they were going to have to use their cards the old way, holding them up to their mouth and breathing on them after whispering the activation phrase. But they couldn’t do that right then — the boy’s perception highlighted the familiar contours of the device that threw magic attacks right back at their caster. Even mimicry didn’t help the nameless.

  “Observant and intelligent,” came the unpleasant voice. It almost sounded distorted — humans didn’t talk that way. “Step aside, Tailyn. I’m here for Valia, so I don’t need you.”

  “Not on your life!” the boy shot back as he did go ahead and use one of his cards, holding a hand out in front of him. A protective field popped up a meter and a half away from it. Next to him, another one appeared as Valia joined forces with him.

  “Interesting solution,” the stranger said as he took a few steps forward and dragged a hand across the shield in an attempt to push back on it. “But — ”

  Whatever their opponent wanted to say remained unsaid as Valia landed the first blow. Given that they couldn’t attack directly, the girl decided to try getting around that. The small office suddenly got even more crowded as the System took just a few moments to create fifteen enormous level forty-eight panthers. The creatures all threw themselves at the enemy. Tailyn was sure the assassin was wearing Vargot, but even it wasn’t enough to keep him on his feed. There was a wild howl as the summoned monsters died trying to break through the nameless’ defenses.

  “Run!” Valia yelled as she sprinted out of the office. Tailyn was right behind her, managing at the last moment to toss a few flasks of acid at the mess of bodies. Just in case.

  “Go right — that’s where the stairs are! If he’s here, that must mean the level is unblocked,” Tailyn said, trying to remember the floorplan of the level. Raptor was still under the nameless assassin’s control. But almost immediately after the pair took off down the long corridor, Valia yelled back

  “The panthers are dead!”

  “Let’s send in our infernals!” Tailyn slowed, turned in the direction of Sadil’s office, and paged through his cards to find the one he needed. Two demons, one at level twenty-seven, and the other at level forty-eight, appeared instantaneously. The fiery creatures just about reached the ceiling, and they held flaming swords that struck fear even in the heart of the pair that had summoned them. Out of the doorway, the assassin from Crobar appeared, the monsters roaring wildly the moment they saw their target.

  “They’re not going to hold him for long. Run!” Tailyn knew very well that their defenses were all useless against an actual assassin, which meant the only things that could save them were their legs and a bit of luck. The only problem was that a pain exploded in one of his legs as he was sent tumbling across the floor. Right next to him, Valia suppressed a whimper — her hip was shattered. The nameless wasn’t about to play cat and mouse with them, instead resorting to what Tailyn’s perception identified as Valkyrie. Its bolts easily pierced both the infernals and the children as they tried to get away.

  Boo.

  Ten waves of fire rushed off in the direction of their opponent.

  “Drink this!” Tailyn managed to pop the cork out of a salamander potion and pour the contents into the girl’s mouth before the waves hit the other end of the hallway and bounced back. The nameless stopped to activate his sphere of reflection. The running was getting to him, too. He�
�d already been at the academy longer than he should have been, and with Raptor telling him exactly where the two children were as they crawled away, he went with the only decision that made sense to him. The client had been clear — if he wasn’t able to kidnap Valia, she needed to die. Pulling the trigger, he sent another deadly bolt flying toward its target.

  Tailyn was thrown backward, his arm nearly yanked out of its socket. Something had just slammed into the shield he was using to cover himself and Valia. Judging by the force of the impact, it was a rhinoceros charging at full speed. Stars danced in front of him, though the outline of a door appeared next to them. Tailyn turned and kicked at it with both feet to break the log. Grabbing Valia, he dragged her into the room, a fountain of stone dust kicking up right where she’d been lying just a moment before.