“What does it matter if the whole world is against us right now?” Valia asked, and Tailyn stared at his betrothed in surprise. That was a tack he hadn’t been expecting. Seeing his reaction, the girl responded indignantly. “What? Am I wrong? If you think a guard sees you, you’re going to get nothing more than a hello? Tailyn, we don’t have a choice. Spending the rest of our lives in Mean Truk isn’t an option even if we fight off the attack—they’ll surround us and wait for our resources to run out. Trade, development? Never! Unless we find a patron, we’re dead.”
Are you serious, or was that for One’s benefit? the boy asked.
Couldn’t be more serious! Tailyn, he’s our only shot at getting any further without fear of earning ourselves yet another destroyer or recon squad from Crobar. Maybe, we’ll figure something out later. But we need him right now! His resources, strength, knowledge.
And handing him rule over the whole world?
That, too! My father always says it’s better to be second behind someone great than the greatest at the back of the line. And I get what he means now.
“I get the feeling you’re communicating somehow,” One said as he watched the pair closely. “But there isn’t anything in the info field. What’s going on? Do you have some kind of sign language?”
“We’re in!” Valia said, ignoring the question. “I, as head of Mean Truk, swear I will do everything I can do deliver dragon’s blood to Grivok if you help my city right now. Mean Truk needs to survive the coming battle. And we need help.”
“Tailyn?” One looked over at the disgruntled boy.
“I swear,” Tailyn said begrudgingly, avoiding Valia’s gaze as he did. He was no fan of shady deals that saddled them with a mountain of responsibility, only he didn’t see another way out. One way or another, One was in charge of the situation. A single thought, and the children were dead. And since Tailyn couldn’t die just yet—he would have been no help to the city back at level one. The System understood Tailyn and handed him a mission.
New mission: Dragon’s Blood. Description: get a control rod containing dragon’s blood to Grivok within a year. The item can be retrieved from the experiments in Tartila Mine or from any destroyer-level creature.
The face on the screen evened out—One was pleased. When he’d sent the mission to Halas, he’d neglected to pin the lix down with obligations, the clever creature bobbing and weaving with all kinds of excuses about honor and how he couldn’t take oaths. And One had agreed, a victim of his lack of experience dealing with the changed. That had been a costly mistake. The lix had betrayed him as soon as the moment had been right, though the good news was that humans, having not gone through the same changes, were an easier breed to deal with. The machine decided to capitalize on his success.
“Don’t let me down, and your reward will be unbelievable. What I gave Halas will be nothing in comparison with what you’ll get when I restore my body. Just tell me what you think of this small advance payment!”
A table appeared right out of the ground, a few items lying on it. Once again, Tailyn didn’t even notice when it popped up. A moment earlier, Raptor had been clear, and then a veritable treasure emerged out of thin air.
Loot received:
Builder legendary card (4).
Force Dome-VI blueprint.
Force Dome Generator-VI blueprint.
Autonomous Turret blueprint.
Container for storing dragon’s blood.
“That should be enough to keep your city safe from any currently existing army,” One announced grandly. “When you bring me the dragon’s blood, I’ll apportion some of my resources to Mean Truk. My servants will be protected. Okay, get to it—complete your mission and come back. You have one year! And in the meantime, call Forian and have him pull you back...”
“You know, I’m on board with what they did,” Valanil said at Mean Truk’s latest emergency meeting. The news the heads had brought back with them had shocked the group, particularly the reptiloid. With seven releases under his belt, he’d never heard of anyone getting out from under the System’s thumb that way, though what bothered him most was how little the game cared no matter how many times Valrus tried to get in touch. It couldn’t believe what he was saying and therefore considered the whole thing made-up.
“Is becoming One’s servants really a good idea?” Motar asked with a frown.
“One’s living servants,” Valanil said, emphasizing the word living. “We have a year ahead of us, so a lot could change, and in the meantime we’re going to survive. So, blow your nose and dry your tears—we don’t have time for that. Construction can get underway, Tailyn and Valia will head off to the mine, we’ll protect the city, and everyone will wait and see what happened. We have our shot. Let’s take it.”
“Valia’s staying; I’m going with Tailyn.” Valrus was doing his best to make the best of a poor situation by announcing his indispensability. “I’m the only one with access to the location we’re heading to, and I’m only allowed to take one person with me. That’s the only way we’ll get to the lab’s control center. Presumably, the main access point was closed off a long time ago.”
“Agreed—we can’t leave the city without a head,” Forian said. Just one week without the children had felt like an eternity as he’d been forced to handle all their responsibilities in addition to his own. While the mage had always figured neither of the children really did anything, just running around and getting in the way, it turned out... But he wasn’t going to admit that out loud.
Despite the fact that updating the city walls had originally been estimated to take twelve months with the faster pace, the additional builders cut the time by a factor of six. Just two months. The same held true for the temple—the original seven months dropped to just one and a half. Twenty or twenty-five CDPs later, and the walls were going to be ready by the time the city was attacked.
But it wasn’t all good news. The city was saddled with a debt of 10.2 million coins that had to be paid in two months, only the coffers held just 6.5. Nobody had any idea where they were going to get the rest. Even selling everything in the city, Tailyn’s dragon and Valia’s lizard included, didn’t get them to the final number.
“Head out today,” Forian said with one dissatisfied eye on the financial reports. It wasn’t getting any easier. “One promised an unheard-of reward, so you’ll have to ask him to make it coins. That’s the only way we have to avoid going into debt to the game and keeping the city intact. Let’s get to work!”
Chapter 6
“...AND THAT’S PRETTY MUCH how Mean Truk fell. During a regular local event, hordes of monsters attacked the city, only there wasn’t anyone there to defend the safe zone. The guard just stood there and watched as the buildings crumbled, not so much as lifting a finger to protect its turf. And that was the beginning of the end for the southern end of the continent. Humans lost it for good...”
Mission update: Ancient History. 277 new updates received.
You received upgrades for a random skill.
Herbalism—Ordinary Lavender +5 (46)
***
New mission: Historian. Description: you’ve learned more than 30% of the story of the ancients. The god is pleased with your progress and would like to entrust you with an important mission: write down on paper everything you know, building a great work of literature. Your mission will be considered complete when you’ve written at least 50% of the story of the ancients. Would you like to accept this mission? The reward will be substantial.
I’m going to accept! That will give me something to do in the city while you’re gone, Valia’s thought came immediately. Even though she was back in Mean Truk, everything Tailyn was getting from Valrus about the world before the exodus as well as the first fifty years after it was synchronized with her. The System had long since accustomed itself to thinking of the pair as a single unit—even the mission was for them both.
Agreed. I can touch it up later if I need to, Tailyn replied. Yet again,
he was cursing himself up one side and down the other for how useless his ordinary lavender skill was when it came to running his city. It was up for deletion at the first possible opportunity. However, Tailyn was constantly putting that opportunity off, busy with Mean Truk or worried about spending the tear of Alron. There the skill stayed, in the end. Although, if he got rid of his herbalism skills with the possible exception of amilio, those random points would go toward something useful like crystal miner.
Historian accepted.
Ancient History removed from list of available missions.
***
Congratulations!
You’re one of the top hundred players on the planet to receive the second part of the Ancient History mission.
Level +3 (98)
Frankenstein +3 (57)
“Finally!” the girl shrieked happily as she got to level twenty-one and unlocked the ability to take her parameters past fifteen, nearly deafening Tailyn in the process. And that was despite the distance between them. To be fair, the group consisting of Tailyn, Valrus, and five lixes under the command of Ka-Do-Gir wasn’t moving quickly at all. The reptiloid was still ailing, and that meant he had to be carried on a special platform he’d had the carpenter Li-Do-Ga make for him. Every time Tailyn looked over at Valrus, he had to think the green character just liked being carted around—he very well might have been able to move much faster on his own. A couple long hours later, Valrus got bored and called Tailyn over to share what had happened in the world since it was visited by the game. That occupied the following twelve hours. With the boy only too happy to listen, the information flowed like a river, though it took until the second day for Valrus to touch on what was most important.
“There are two ways into the lab. The first is the main entrance, the one you’re aware of, while there’s also a secret way in that only a few people know about. And I’d hazard a guess that I’m the only one of them left on this god-forsaken planet.”
“Is it really a secret? Ask any kid, and they’ll tell you that.” For whatever reason, the reptiloid had gotten to Tailyn. The boy wanted to prove that people in his day were capable of something, too, rather than just looking up to the ancients. “The main entrance is in the forest, which is currently home to Isr Kale’s fake tomb. And the secret one is the twenty-kilometer passageway through the mountain, the one with the coded door...”
The reptiloid’s green face twisted into a satisfied grin.
“You’re right—there are three ways in, not two. I guess, I forgot about the third one since it isn’t really a way into the lab. Have they really not gotten through the door in three thousand years?”
Tailyn was taken aback. His companion’s reaction hadn’t been what he’d been expecting, leaning more toward sarcasm than surprise.
“They haven’t been able to break in. The dean of the magic card department sent a group of mages over, and I think they’ve only gotten to nine-digit numbers. Or twelve-digit numbers—I’d have to check the logs. If I hadn’t interrupted them—”
“They’d have another million years of work in front of them. The code is made up of fifty-two digits, so there’s no way you can get in randomly. Either you know it, or you don’t.”
“And you know?” Tailyn suddenly forgot everything and turned into your everyday twelve-year-old boy. Sweets and secrets were all it took.
“I was the one who set it. We needed to shake off anyone looking to pick up our valuables for free, and so we made that passage—secret, in a nondescript tunnel through a mountain. After all, that’s the kind of door that always leads to the treasure people like that love hunting. And I couldn’t even tell you how many traps and monsters there are that way. Uncountable. I’m only aware of maybe ten percent since those are the ones I set, but the important thing to know is that we won’t get where we’re going that way. That door doesn’t lead to the control center. It’s a decoy. The real way in, on the other hand, is inside the location, closer to the center... I hope it’s already occurred to you that the laboratory is underground. If I’m correct, it’s been buried in even more dirt, so we’re really going to have to... What’s that?”
The reptiloid’s surprised exclamation interrupted his engaging story. Tailyn followed his outstretched arm, and a spasm gripped his stomach—their group was headed directly for the decoy passage, only what the boy saw shouldn’t have been there. Tartila Mine’s protection was supposed to keep the areas surrounding it safe from the creatures inside. But something had apparently gone wrong. From the looks of it, the monster Tailyn thought was the most dangerous had broken out and was actively gobbling up territory. Once lifeless, the Gray Lands were again a lush, green carpet. The only problem was that the carpet was expanding, devouring tree after tree. Just then, the latest victim cracked and toppled over onto its side before disappearing forever into the unquenchable stomach of the impossible beast. Or the stalks that ate everything in sight, at least.
“That’s Griala... One of the experiments...” Tailyn whispered once he’d overcome his fear.
“Impossible,” the reptiloid snorted before ordering the lixes to halt. “The laboratory protection is flawless—the creatures the humans made couldn’t escape. I made sure of that myself!”
“Well, it looks like the protection cracked over the past three thousand years.” That just earned the boy a stern look.
“If I didn’t have to keep going with you, I certainly wouldn’t tolerate that kind of doubt in me. The protection here is the kind that will keep going even when the planet dies for good. That can’t be Griala!”
“We’re about to find out,” the boy replied, anger overwhelming his fear. He was sick and tired of the nagging reptiloid and his constant moralizing—he had more than enough of that with Valanil and Forian.
His helmet modified to pull out his binoculars. From somewhere to the side, Valrus whistled, not expecting that turn of events, though Tailyn ignored him. The boy’s attention was fixed on the green carpet overwhelming the steppe. His perception kicked in, and he finally had the creature’s identity.
Lesser Griala (monster). No class. Less than 1 year. Level 150.
“I told you!” Tailyn announced triumphantly. “It’s Griala! There’s just something about the description...”
“That’s not an experiment, you idiot villager! It’s something else.” Valrus was insistent, having a hard time not beating the upstart kid into the ground. Daring to question the reptiloid’s power? Three thousand years before, he would have had the boy’s head. Back in the good old days...
“Why don’t I prove it?” There was no stopping Tailyn. “Right now! Ka-Do-Gir, wait for me here.”
Tailyn leaped off the litter he’d been riding for the past day and dashed off in the direction of the green creature. And while Valrus would have charged after him, the lix’s growl held him where he was, able to do nothing more than watch the boy’s idiocy from a distance. The experience he’d earned over many respawns told him it was never a good idea to jump into a fight with an enemy you didn’t know unless you wanted to catch a lethal dose of pain in return. First, you needed to feed the enemy a dozen victims to see what happened, and then you could attack.
But the boy wasn’t aware of the reptiloid’s train of thought. The emotions that had been building up over the past few months were due for release, and the best way for that was to shred whatever that Lesser Griala was. His wave of fire card had long since been at the bottom of his active deck. Once his go-to option, it had slowly gone out of date, being far less valuable against higher-level opponents than it was against the lower-level beasts in the borderlands. Of course, the level 150 creature in front of him was anything but low-level, but fire was the boy’s best friend in that moment. He wanted to burn and destroy.
Tailyn stopped about fifty meters from the edge of the green carpet and prepared for battle. His perception and monster knowledge kicked in, identifying the monster’s weaknesses. Back in Tartila Mine, the original Griala looked like a
jumble of thick, bushy stalks constantly worming their way over each other like a bundle of snakes. Here there was a difference: the stalks were more static, interweaving and splicing to form the thick carpet. And when it wanted to head somewhere, Lesser Griala grew new shoots in that direction. How did Tailyn know that? The answer was simple: the monster sensed that a living creature was nearby and headed in his direction. It was intelligent.
Boo.
A wave of devouring fire shot forward, and the air was filled with the furious cry of an injured creature. It came from the side, somewhere by the mountains. Serving as yet another way the two Grialas were different, Tailyn remembered that the one in Tartila Mine couldn’t scream. At least, not like that. But that was when the surprises began. Instead of tucking its tail between its legs and retreating from the powerful opponent, the Griala Tailyn was up against did anything but. With a speed unexpected for such an enormous creature, it began expanding, throwing thick stalks out of the fire. Tailyn felt a cold sensation grip him despite how close he was to the fire—Raptor told him all the stalks remained intact, even the ones that had been in the fire the longest. And his accessory couldn’t have been more graphic. The monster’s internal “veins” filled with some kind of thick liquid that healed the damage being done. Also, while the whole thing could have been written off as the result of the difference between Tailyn’s level and the monster’s, the difference wasn’t big enough to explain what was going on.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 8
