“You will have two hours to make the preparations, Viktor. We will meet here in this… square in two hours.”
“Have your orcs stop killing and destroying. Please. I don’t wish to see ordinary people die for no reason.”
He turned back around to face me and nodded. “Manners. It seems you have some, Viktor. Very well. You tell your army to stop attacking, and I’ll have mine do the same. At least for now.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What the hell just happened?” Kade hissed under his breath. “Am I seeing things?”
I shook my head and bumped into him, then tapped his shoulder with my free hand. “It’s good to see you, Kade. Things just got hairy, and I don’t like them a single bit.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty ugly, but what can you do? It’s not like everyone can be as good-looking as us humans, right?”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head as he turned toward Herrion, who was standing there with a sniper rifle resting against his side.
“Herrion, have everyone stand down. Contact the AA and tell them to stop harassing the orcs, but to remain on standby.”
“Very well, sir. And, Viktor, it’s good to see you here.”
“Herrion,” I replied with a nod and a slightly raised hand. “Kade, I need something large enough for him to sit on, and a table that fits his height. Know anyone who could make something real quick?”
“Wait, what? Is that why you asked for time?” he asked incredulously.
“What else?” I laughed. “Do you want to ask the ruler of the orcs to sit on a damn office chair?”
“Oh,” Kade muttered. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, I’ll get Linda on it. Someone will have something made within the two hours and shipped here.”
“We need a lot of alcohol and a big mug for the bastard. Did you see how big he was? At least two heads taller than me.”
Kade nodded as he let out a sigh. “Shit, Viktor. I really thought we were done for.”
I nodded toward the door, and he picked up.
“Want me to stay outside on watch?” Melina asked, still holding her bow.
“No, love. I don’t think they want to get this over with just like that. There’s a reason why they held out for so long.”
She stashed her bow away and hurried up to me, grabbed my hand, and walked alongside us as we moved toward the elevator.
“What the hell do we do?” Kade asked once we sat in his office. He was a mess. His uniform was cut in several places and caked with blood, both his and the orcs’.
“Beat them. What else? But I gotta say that all of this caught me by surprise. We popped up to death and destruction all around us.”
“You can imagine how I felt when reports came in of a big portal appearing near the tower. It looks damn strange and has a break down the middle. So we called it a riftbreak. Or whatever. I don’t know. I haven’t slept in days.”
I helped myself by pouring a glass of his finest vodka and downed it all in a single gulp, then sat back down again after refilling the glass.
“When did it appear?”
“Shortly after you left. I thought you had done something and we were being punished, but now I know differently.”
“You’re damn right about that,” I muttered. “I cleared another rifter and a rank twelve monster. It was an area boss of all the zones with the prefix two.”
“Oh? Must have been entertaining.” He laughed and pulled open a drawer. Kade pulled out a wooden box and a lighter. “Cigar?”
“Since I’m more likely to die from the orcs, sure,” I said and took one of the thick brown things. They were funny to look at, as they looked like stiff turds. Oh well, the finer things in life weren’t equal to everyone. Especially to me.
“Melina? Want one?” Kade offered, but she shook her head and just stood there, staring out the window.
“Thanks, I’m good. When will Linda be in?” Just then the secretary, Kade’s wife, walked into the room.
“Hey, Mel,” Linda said as she walked over to the window and sat on the edge of a table. I tuned out of their conversation and focused on Kade.
“How is everyone holding up? How many dead so far?” I leaned back in the chair and stared right at him.
He shook his head and then shrugged. “I have no idea. We didn’t have the time to run numbers, but every time they pushed, we lost some men and women. Mostly hunters. Even some with your group and with the AA.”
“We’ll have to compensate them with some land, you know?” I said.
He nodded. “I do. And with a lot more than that. They’ll be weakened after—if we survive this.”
“Yeah, and I already have something in mind. Say, is the tower still active?”
“It is. Why?” His expression turned into one of frustration once I mentioned the tower.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back before the two-hour deadline is over.”
“Alright, alright. Go. A chopper will be waiting up top.”
I grinned and nodded. “Mel, let’s go. I need you for what I’m about to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“I want to absorb the basilisk core inside the tower. I think we’ll have enough time.”
Some five minutes later, we landed in front of the tower. The orcs had created a wall out of whatever they could find to one side and barricaded themselves in, while on the other was a big emptiness. Not a single soul lingered nearby. That was good. In case they became hostile, no one would be in direct danger. Not until they found anyone hiding.
We ran up to the tower and entered without any issues. Thousands of wounded and dying hunters were caring for each other, and that was just the single floor I spawned on. I didn’t waste time on anything but called on the system.
“System, allocate my rank one and two crystals to everyone in need of one. Prioritize those with greater wounds. I’m offering five rank two crystals as payment.”
A sudden rush passed through me, and I felt as if someone had drained me. Damn system allocations were as dangerous as ever when you didn’t need them to be. I grabbed the basilisk core and found a nice spot for myself, sat down, and waited until Melina sat next to me.
“Keep track of time. Watch the system, and once we’ve got seven minutes left, you need to wake me up.”
She nodded, and I saw her eyes move around, probably calling up some things of her own.
“Take care, Vik. Don’t do anything stupid if it will take its toll on your body.”
I nodded and leaned in to kiss her. “See you in a bit.”
She mouthed something I didn’t quite get as I started the process of absorbing the basilisk core. Something was different, though, and a notification appeared before me.
NOTICE
DO YOU WISH TO START ABSORBING
BASILISK CORE?
Yes / No?
NOTE: The vessel isn’t strong enough to absorb all the power contained within the orb. You will lose part of the Enma.
“Yes,” I whispered to myself. My body stiffened as something odd happened.
The core slammed into my chest, and an image of my body, or at least a representation of it, appeared in my mind. All my meridians were open, that wasn’t the issue, but my Enma pool was weird. What represented it looked like a small black hole ready to pull everything in, but it didn’t.
Enma flowed through me with relative ease and great speed, but the vortex blocked it all for a single heartbeat. I gasped from pain, but it was gone again. The vortex pulled the Enma faster and faster, but then stopped yet again, and circulated, and stopped several more times before it stopped fully.
I was in and out of it for… I had no idea how long. All I knew was that my body felt as if it were being torn apart. All until the vortex grew and sucked at the Enma even harder. My veins suddenly burst open and widened. The torrent of power that raced through me was several times larger than I’d felt the last time I’d absorbed Enma and cultivated.
I decided to dial it up a not
ch and focused on my limbs. One was already reinforced, but not the rest. All of my bones needed reinforcing before I could climb to the third realm. Every bone in my arm and legs snapped at once, and I blacked out.
“Wake up already!”
A sharp pain accompanied the words. My cheek stung, and then a sharp pain followed just as my eyes snapped open. Melina was kneeling in front of me, her hand inches from my cheek.
“Stop hitting me,” I muttered as I tried to take the scene in. Several hunters stood around, all looking worse for wear.
“Then get up already! We’ve only got about six minutes left if the time is shown correctly.”
“What’s with the hunters?” I muttered as I pushed myself up. The pain in my arm and my legs was so bad that I wanted to sit down again. Right away.
“They’ve been healing you for the last couple of hours. What the hell did you do, anyway? Black tar kept coming out of your body.”
I looked down and noticed the black muck clinging to my robes.
“Shit,” I cursed and sat upright. “I guess my whole body finished the bone-refinement process and not just my limbs.”
“But how? You didn’t even break—oh, shit! How did you do it?”
“I thought we didn’t have the time,” I said and tried to get up. She offered me her hand, and I took her up on it, letting her pull me up to my feet.
“You can tell me in the chopper.”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the portal. Every step was agony, but that was normal. It was like pulling a hurting tooth. The pain still lingered even when it was gone. And boy, did it linger.
We found ourselves standing outside in thundering rain. Droplets splashed my face and tried to wash the muck away, but they were failing badly. It was stuck to my skin like glue. I looked around hurriedly and saw nothing had changed but the weather. The orcs still stood off to the side, barricaded behind cars and tree trunks.
The pilot noticed us standing at the entrance and immediately started his preparations for liftoff. I looked at my watch and nodded to myself. We were just in time, but I knew Orc Chieftain Grawl would be pissed to see me in such a state.
I did the one thing I could do and that was to check my new stats. It had been a while, and it wasn’t like it mattered as much as at the start. This time, however, I had a reason: the levels I got from the achievements and the cultivation my body had undergone. All of it was there, and it looked better than ever.
STATUS
NAME: Viktor
Age: 31
LEVEL: 54, REALM: 2, RANK: 9
HEALTH: 11,887
ENMA: 3,891
SPEED: 3.3
PHYSICAL ATTACK: 8,504
ENMA ATTACK: 8,883
BREAK: 5,355
DEFENSE: 3,441
ENMA SHIELD: 12,663
Reflect: 122%
Absorb: 96%
POISON HIT CHANCE: 50
POISON BONUS DAMAGE: 44
I hadn’t even realized just how much the levels meant and neglected the daily and weekly quests. If I hadn’t, then my stats would have been much higher. Still, I was more than happy with whatever I was at. Especially since my power had grown as well between absorbing the core and getting my bones reinforced.
I hadn’t asked her about getting buffed. If she had, the stats would have been much higher, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know. No. I wanted to see the raw power I possessed right now. Just by myself and my passive buffs. If I had taken the time and made a weapon or some armor from the basilisk ingredients, then I would have been even stronger, but that didn’t matter now.
There was one thing I needed to make clear to everyone working for me, and anyone I accepted as an ally. Quests. They were going to be game-changers. Thirty levels’ worth of stats gave me a huge boost, one that was really noticeable.
We arrived at the base while I was still studying my different status screens. My weapon and armor proficiencies hadn’t changed, and neither had the skill levels gone up. One thing really made me think, though. Was it enough to take down the Zanoxian?
“Vik?” Melina said as she nudged my arm. “Are you alright?”
I turned my head and nodded half-absently. “Sorry. I was checking my stats,” I muttered and looked out the window. “We’re there already?”
“Yeah, we arrived half a minute ago. It took me that long to nudge you awake.”
“As I just said, I was studying my status.”
I pushed the door open and got out, undressed, and stood there naked as the day I was born. Only the pilot, Melina, and two guards were present, but they all turned around, giving me some privacy. The rain had picked up since we left the tower, and it was just enough in combination with my newfound power over Enma that I could get the muck off me. It wasn’t a 100% job, but most of it was gone within a minute.
“Here,” Melina said as she called me toward the elevator.
She was holding a robe in her hands. The same one she gave me the first time we met. My heart skipped a beat as I stopped mid-stride and stared at it and then at her. I thought the robe had been lost, but Melina must have taken care of it, apparently. Wicked woman.
I pulled it on with her help and stood there in front of the elevator, barely shielded from the rain. I stepped inside and pulled her in with me. The elevator started moving on its own as if someone had called it down. Once the door opened, I knew who it was and why.
“General, it’s good to see you’re not giving me any breathing room,” I muttered as I stepped out of the elevator and into the front lobby.
“Sorry, but we don’t have much time left. About seventy seconds if you want me to be precise-ish.”
“Did anything change?”
He shook his head as we kept moving toward the entrance. “No, everything remained the same. He sat there for two whole hours doing nothing as the other orcs just milled around.”
“Alright. Mel, let’s go. Everyone else stand by just in case.”
Melina joined me as I made my way toward the wooden construct I spotted outside. It looked like a picnic table but on a much larger scale. Once I got there, I noticed how the lone chair sitting on the opposite side easily dwarfed me while standing upright. They had enough sensibility to make a roof and close it up from most sides so the rain didn’t get in as much, but I liked it.
“How funny, isn’t it?” she asked as we stood there, waiting for Grawl to join us. “The fate of this city is about to be decided under a thundering sky inside a small shed. There’s enough alcohol to drown in, and enough food to burst from. What could go wrong?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Grawl got up from where he was sitting exactly on time. At least I realized as much after Melina brought it up. He looked like a creature of habit and one who was punctual, an orc of his word as well. That was what his aura said at least.
A single brown orc joined him as the wall parted before him. Grawl strode proudly to where we were standing, hitting the ground with a loud thud every two steps with his staff. It didn’t release a shockwave, not even the tiniest amounts of Enma, no, nothing. He demanded respect, and that was what I was going to give him if he played nice. Or until the moment he didn’t play nice.
The two orcs stopped in front of the shed, as Melina called it, and stared inside. I motioned for him to come inside, and I sat down on the smaller chair, with Melina sitting next to me. Grawl offered me a sort of smirk and joined me.
“I appreciate your effort, human Viktor. So what now? Do I sit with you?”
“Please,” I replied and motioned toward the throne-like seat that was made especially for him. “Feel free to eat and drink if your body can handle it.”
“Oh, we can eat meat, trust me. And we can drink alcohol, Viktor. But explain to me one thing before we start. What do you expect from this?”
I raised my mug and waited for him to do the same. It took him several seconds to do the same, but he did it.
“I want to understand you and your wo
rld. The role you’re playing. It’s easy to kill someone, but it’s much harder to get them to sit down and have a chat, isn’t it?”
Grawl shrugged as we guzzled the alcohol down and put the mugs on the table.
“This is my brother. He is supposed to become a chieftain once I’m dead,” Grawl suddenly said as he pointed at the brown orc. “He goes by the name Grazz.”
“I appreciate the explanation,” I replied and put my hand on Melina’s knee. “This is my mate, Melina. She’s one hell of a warrior queen, trust me.”
“I’ve seen how she handles herself, Viktor. You should be proud!”
“And I am!” I roared back as we both burst out into laughter. “So what can you tell me about your situation, Grawl? Is there a way for you to go back without killing us? Or even stay here?”
Grawl’s thick, bushy brows connected at the bridge of his nose as he frowned. Then he looked up at his brother and back at me. “No, I don’t know. We never even thought about settling in somewhere.”
“Would you like to? Is there anything keeping you in your other world?”
I picked up a piece of meat that was closer to him than me, showing the chieftain he could eat without fear of being poisoned. It was slightly salty but tasted great otherwise.
“You’ve caught me off guard, Viktor. We usually conquer and go back. That’s as far as we’ve gone so far.”
“And isn’t there anyone we could ask?”
Grawl laughed again as he shook his head. “We have no way to get back to our world unless this land is purged of humans. That’s all I know. The Gods have willed it, and their will is my command.”
“Wait,” I said hurriedly and raised my right hand, palm toward him. “Why? I’ve defied the Gods and worked against their wishes. They didn’t harm me, as you can see.”
“Make no mistake, Viktor. The Gods we speak of are much stronger than the ones you deal with daily. Can your deity force a world to merge with another one and bring back tens of thousands every time?”
Crossroads: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 3) Page 19
