Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Almost as if reading his thoughts, the System sent him another message. And it wasn’t anything like what he was expecting:

  Ancient device earmarked for disposal detected.

  You can get rid of it to free up system resources and earn a significant reward.

  Would you like to accept the offer? You will be penalized if you don’t.

  Chapter 8

  FOR PERHAPS THE FIRST TIME in his life, Tailyn thought about going against the god despite the penalties and oppression he would have caught. The technical bot’s attributes were just too tempting. And that was even despite the fact that the system messages were filling up all the space in front of him, forcing him to make a decision.

  The robot was incredible. While it didn’t have any weapons, unfortunately, there were a couple empty slots with expansion settings that left the bot just a few steps short of going from repairer to solid fighter. Instead of arrows or crossbow bolts, it took the mythical blaster Tailyn had only been able to read about so far. All the boy had to do was find one. But that was for later. In the moment, he could use the bot as it was, the sheer mass, armor, and weight making it easy enough to stand up to Lesser Griala, hacking and shredding it to pieces. The monster could have squeezed away at the bot’s ancient metal until it turned blue, but the pilot had all that time to turn his thermal lance and circular saw on it. Meant for work, the tools were equally suitable for attack and defense.

  But there was thing keeping Tailyn from taking that step—the fear of the unknown. Over the course of his short but action-packed life, the boy had yet to come across someone who had dared run counter to the will of the System. It was like there wasn’t anyone like that. Alternatively and more probably, they just didn’t live long enough to tell the tale. The god didn’t tolerate irresponsibility when it came to its requirements, filling the lives of any who didn’t prove equal to the task with one unpleasant surprise after another.

  Ask Valia? Tailyn knew what she would say—she would have demanded he turn in the dangerous piece of equipment to stay on the god’s good side. Forian and Valanil, on the other hand, would have told him to grab it and deal with whatever the consequences were later. If there were any consequences, of course. It was possible that the god would simply penalize the boy coins and a level or two or simply kill him. And if it was the latter, the group could bring Tailyn back without his obligations and with a new metal friend.

  With so many options, choosing the right one was a challenge. But Tailyn finally tapped the button. He was head of his city first of all, and only second a boy nearly thirteen years of age. That meant he had to think of his people before himself, and so the messages disappeared and were replaced immediately.

  You made a smart choice.

  Leave the technical bot within 60 seconds so it can be disposed of.

  ***

  Reward received:

  Level +1 (100)

  Dynamic map for location Tartila Mine.

  ***

  You used free attribute points.

  Frankenstein +1 (59).

  ***

  Congratulations! You’re the first player since the exodus to reach level 100 before turning 13. To determine your reward, you can participate in an individual local mission.

  New local mission: Obstacle Course. Description: Get your clone as far as you can through a virtual location while avoiding or destroying monsters. The mission will be complete when your clone dies. The minimum distance for confirming the level you received: 1500 meters from the beginning of the mission. If you are unable to get that far, you will lose part of your reward. For each additional meter, your reward will increase.

  Would you like to begin? Time to make a decision: 300 seconds.

  Five minutes began ticking down, only that time the message disappeared to let Tailyn fly out of and land next to the technical bot. The metal colossus flickered and melted away into a black dust that seeped immediately into the ground. Glancing over at the other two bots, the boy looked back quickly at the reptiloid still lying on the ground. The god was behaving strangely for whatever reason, so provoking it was out of the question—as long as the System didn’t see the other two machines, Tailyn didn’t, either. Not yet, at least.

  Before making a decision, Tailyn checked to see what he’d gotten for turning the technical bot in. The word “dynamic” was too vague, especially given the experience Tailyn already had with it. The arena labyrinths, one of the main features of the magic academy, was also dynamic, after all. And there was a reason they haunted the students’ nightmares. Was there really going to be something similar there?

  The flickering icon attracted Tailyn’s attention, and a map of his current location popped up as soon as he pressed it. While it looked much the same as any other, the difference was that it was three-dimensional and featuring a timer counting down three minutes. That seemed strange. Still, Tailyn had other things to worry about—finding the lab’s control center and tracing a path to it from where he and Valrus were, for instance. His heart beat faster. There was a way. The reptiloid had been wrong.

  But three minutes later, Tailyn’s fears were realized. The corridors began changing with the slightest noise, annihilating the old network of passageways. To take just one example, the direct path leading from the warehouse to the door in the tunnel with the Lesser Grialas behind it turned into a convoluted and multilevel set of short stretches flowing around each other. Niches hiding traps, confusing empty spaces, and gaps were everywhere. The only thing that didn’t change, in fact, was the room where the two living creatures were, presumably because they were there. The change timer began counting down from sixty minutes. Along with the lab, the boy’s map changed, and Tailyn spent a while trying to find a path to the control center.

  There was none.

  The main room in the enormous complex was completely cut off from Tailyn, while a practically direct route had opened up to the surface. And that was where the main Griala was. Chills ran down the boy’s back when he saw the changes—the implication was obvious. Down there in the maze, they were liable to run up against a Lesser Griala. The ancient monster certainly couldn’t have missed the chance to send one of its spawn down into the depths. It didn’t need much food to survive, which meant all it had to do was find a snack every once in a while and be careful about the dynamic changes.

  The time left to make a decision about the local mission ticked below sixty seconds, and the timer flashed red to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Tailyn glanced over at the reptiloid—he was going to be asleep for a while longer. After reading the description one more time to make sure the system wouldn’t let him actually die, he confidently hit the Accept button. The Grialas could be dealt with later.

  You began a local mission: Obstacle Course.

  Tailyn didn’t even notice the room disappear. There were no portals, no shimmering, no spatial disorientation. One moment later, the boy was standing in an endless space that could have been called a steppe if it hadn’t been for a few things. First and foremost, there were the many gullies, ledges, obstacles, and bodies of water. It all definitely did look like an obstacle course, only the course covered everything in sight. But that wasn’t even the most interesting part. Much worse was the host of monsters filling every nook and cranny, their eyes peering apathetically at Tailyn. None of them looked familiar, each having horns, teeth, and claws that were designed for one purpose—killing. But while the nearest were just a few steps away, they were in no hurry to attack. The timer ticking down to the start of the event didn’t let them.

  Time remaining until local mission begins: 60 seconds.

  Your goal is to get as far away as you can from the starting point. The direction does not matter.

  Current distance: 0 meters.

  Every minute, the monster level will increase by ten, and the monsters themselves will earn additional attributes.

  Note that your named items will be unavailable during the local mission.

&nb
sp; It was only then that Tailyn realized what was bothering him. Raptor wasn’t feeding him any information. In fact, the accessory was completely gone from his wrist, the System finding nothing better to replace it with than a few rings giving +3 to his agility. Patting his chest in shock, Tailyn squinted in disappointment—Vargot and Valkyrie were gone, too. All he had was a simple hunter’s outfit giving him +10 to agility in addition to a nondescript crossbow. Even his dragon was gone. And with it, the only easy way to take off and have it drag him to the shimmering red film. That looked like the farthest he could go. Tailyn shivered. A kilometer and a half no longer seemed like such a short distance, especially considering how the monsters were going to level-up and adapt. Even as it was, they didn’t look pleasant, and things were going to get bad quickly once they started getting stronger. The boy checked his cards just in case—they were locked and loaded. Trying to take a step forward, he banged into the same invisible barrier keeping the monsters away from him. He was going to have to wait.

  Boo.

  As soon as the timer dropped to zero, a wave of deadly fire poured forward to turn the creatures nearest to Tailyn into firebrands. Tailyn came flying after it, his fingers crossed in the hopes that the System hadn’t blocked the immunity he had to fire. He didn’t have any elixirs with him to counteract it.

  The result was satisfactory. Tailyn didn’t take any damage himself, continuing to move through the sea of fire, though the System’s gifts disappeared a few moments after the monsters. They couldn’t stand up to the element. Suddenly feeling an unusual lightness, the boy realized he was dressed in nothing but the underwear the System generated for him. He paused, and that pause just about did him in.

  But it wasn’t the monsters that almost got him. It was the location itself.

  The spot where the boy stopped suddenly lurched, throwing Tailyn back a few meters. His body was bathed in a scalding steam, sharp spikes dug into his skin, and a long pin popped out of the ground to pierce his leg. It was a miracle he was able to keep going after two spears appeared on either side of his neck. They scraped the skin, ensuring that the boy’s personal shield was completely gone—the obstacle course was doing everything it could to keep the boy where he was.

  Once again, Tailyn got lucky. While he was lying stunned on the ground, his vision held hostage by the stars twinkling in front of him, the beasts were in no hurry to attack. The flames continued to defend their master. It was only after Tailyn pulled himself weakly to his feet that the fire began to die out. The first minute of the mission was over.

  Monster level increased by 10 (current: 11).

  30 meters reached.

  The message popped up right as the flames disappeared. There was a blood-curdling howl, and the hordes of monsters rushed the human, consequences be damned. And the consequences were quickly forthcoming. Tailyn held his card up to his lips and blew again, summoning the fire once more, only nothing happened. The first improvement the monsters had received was immunity to fire. The fastest among them needed just a couple seconds to reach the shocked boy and latch onto his legs.

  At least, that was their plan.

  Just before they could reach him, they slammed into an impenetrable barrier and piled one into each other. Summoning his force shield had taken a bit of trickery—Tailyn had laid the card on the ground, bent over, and blown on it, holding his hands out to either side. Valia’s defense worked perfectly. The level eleven creatures couldn’t get through the epic spell.

  But he had to hurry. With shields only on either side, his front and back were vulnerable, not to mention the air. The monsters probed for a weakness, and Tailyn used the time that bought him to yank another card out with his teeth and spit it onto the ground. The beasts were immune to fire. But what did they think about electricity?

  The chain lightning only did damage to six targets. But used as rapidly as Tailyn was using it, the card could wield impressive power. And that was what happened. Tailyn even forgot about his shields, focusing all his attention on wiping out the enemy. With monsters leaping over the bodies of their fallen comrades yet to disappear, there was no want of targets looking to get fried by the boy. Tailyn had to laugh. He was starting to like the feeling of absolute power, monsters dying around him by the dozens and even hundreds. Just a little more, it seemed, and they would be gone, the boy emerging victorious from the mission. But that was when the message popped up.

  Monster level increased by 10 (current: 21).

  30 meters reached.

  The System distracted Tailyn for just a second, but that was enough for the stream of electricity to die down. The head of Mean Truk growled in frustration with himself. His goal wasn’t to destroy the creatures; it was to get as far as he could. With lightning no longer having any effect, the next card appeared in the boy’s hand. The creatures were actually feeding on the electricity to grow bigger and scarier. But the next bit of magic resulted in a deafening roar ringing out above the crowd, silencing them all for a second.

  A level one hundred infernal had arrived.

  In comparison to the first time Tailyn used the card, the beast he summoned was terrifying. It was bigger, it had more abilities, it had better armor, and its attack was better. The enormous four-meter colossus towered above the field of battle, drawing everybody’s attention. Once again, the roar broke out to force the brainless attackers to forget about Tailyn. All they could do was pile on after the armored infernal, and that gave the boy time to make his escape. He thrust his arms forward to plow through the waves of opponents with his shield and dashed away from the mission starting point.

  The infernal lasted exactly one minute. By the time the next system notification came to let the boy know the local monsters were jumping up to level thirty-one, there was nothing left of his defender. The monsters adapted quickly and with deadly precision—they’d received exactly the right changes for the situation they found themselves in.

  Monster level increased by 10 (current: 31).

  255 meters reached.

  It took five precious seconds for Tailyn to use his next card. A yeti potion even went into the bargain to protect him from the ice magic. On rushed the monsters, trampling everything underfoot, though they weren’t in time. A deadly rain began falling from the sky.

  The icy rain was yet another of Valia’s inventions, that one with a damage radius of a hundred meters. Radius; not diameter. Tailyn picked a spot far ahead to summon the cloud and clear the path for him, and the monsters didn’t have time to reach their tasty snack when they were cut down by the new element. But Tailyn wasn’t bothered in the least. Sadly, he couldn’t quite dash forward—he had to deal with the bodies but more with the traps that were everywhere. A few times, he was thrown backwards several meters, sucked into crevices, or dropped into spiked pits. What saved him was his short stature and Valanil’s training. The herbalist was going to be proud of her student—he was reacting quickly to each trap and escaping with nothing more than superficial scrapes and cuts.

  Tailyn stopped just five seconds before his icy rain was set to run out and glanced over the remainder of his cards worriedly. He had no more area effect magic to speak of, just single-target cards that weren’t going to get him far. And they were useless, anyway. The monsters had picked up immunity to everything he had to throw at them.

  But the idea of throwing things at them brought something else to mind.

  Clapping himself on the head, Tailyn pulled his favorite stone out of his inventory and tossed it up and down in his hand. Why was he once again thinking about how to destroy the monsters? The System generated them at an incredible rate, making them stronger and more fearsome with each passing moment, and that made the fight pointless. But the boy didn’t have to kill them. Winding up, he sent the stone flying as far as he could. And that was when the mission leveled-up.

  Monster level increased by 10 (current: 41).

  433 meters reached.

  The throw was a good one—the stone flew nearly a hun
dred meters. Howling and rushing forward, the modified monsters looked to finally tear the annoying kid to pieces, only they were a moment too late. The boy’s body disappeared into a small cloud of black dust only to reappear farther ahead in the middle of the unsuspecting crowd. The monsters around him rushed past, driven by their herd instinct, none of them able to react in time to the boy appearing out of nowhere. And that let him pick the stone back up, thrust out his force shield, and hurl the piece of rock closer to the shimmering red film.

  Jump.

  The creatures began to suspect something after the fifth jump. They began slowing as they passed the boy when he showed up, some even trying to slash at him with their fangs or horns before their compatriots behind them could carry them forward. Happy he’d found a clever way to beat the mission, Tailyn relaxed, though he almost paid for that. Another jump. Another notification. Another update.