“Done... Hm... You can move some kind of defense system to the city. It’s focused on the lab right now, but it can be redeployed here.”
“Do it!” Forian chimed in. “The builders are mining stone to build fortifications right in the cave. That’s where we’re going to be for now. If there’s anything that can help us fight off what’s coming, we need it.”
“All right, then there’s also—” Sadil continued, though that was when a tremor ran through the city.
“No worries, that was me,” the dean said. “The tunnel is filled in for three hundred meters or so. That should work for the first little while. Heading back!”
A smile spread unbidden across Tailyn’s face. Once despairing, his group had gone back to their normal lives. They had a goal, a pathway to reaching it, and, most importantly, relative safety. And the latter had been sorely lacking in recent times.
But that was when Sadil spoiled his good mood.
“I hooked up to the outdoor sensors. Oh, cameras! Well, what can I say... Things are bad. Judging by what I’m looking at, the entire enemy is already at the gates. Even the emperors. Just a second... Ah, there it is. Here, see for yourselves.”
Tailyn and the rest of the new city’s leadership found a picture split into a number of different feeds popping up in front of them. There were several cameras outside. One showed the area around the tunnel entrance; another covered Tartila Mine. A third focused on the border with the Forest of Desire. Still more showed the mountains, the swamp, and the step. And no matter where Tailyn looked, he saw people. Lots of people. From the looks of it, the location was surrounded on all sides, the enemy moving slowly, somehow even hesitantly and with constant glances to each side, but still with devastating inevitability. It suddenly hit the boy that the three hundred meters of tunnel the dean had filled in were going to hold them back for a couple hours at most. After that, the entire horde was going to come crashing down on his new city, a city he had nothing to defend with outside of the two technical bots.
But the worst part was that three metal cylinders were moving among the throngs of humans. The emperors were staying right with their army, looking to personally deal with Tailyn and his new city. The people Sadil had sent to infiltrate the enemy army had already reported back with the new mission. With Mean Truk destroyed, it was Tartila Mine’s turn. Tailyn went through a few settings and confirmed an expenditure. Sure, it wasn’t a wise use of money, but it seemed important to him for some reason. The enemy was proud of destroying Mean Truk? They could think again.
Cost of renaming the city: 1 million coins.
Tartila Mine was renamed Mean Truk.
Surprisingly, there was no reaction forthcoming. Neither Forian nor Valanil had any cutting barbs to throw at Tailyn for his immaturity, both far too busy to bother. As the builders had wrapped up work on the bars blocking off the underground river, they needed to decide what the city needed first. Although, Forian had to throw up his hands a few seconds later. One of the cameras showed the emperor activating some kind of weapon that disintegrated a swath of mountain. It hit the whole group—the enemy forces didn’t need to make their way through the narrow tunnel. They could just cut their own path right into the heart of Mean Truk.
“Forian, hurry!” Valanil barked, pulling her man back into reality. “We need a temple. Pick a spot!”
That was enough to get Forian studying the map. The city’s central structure could only be built in one place: the largest cave. Perfect for the center of the defense, it also worked as a communications hub. A builder rushed off to follow instructions, though that was when Sadil threw another wrench into the works.
“Two destroyers are inside the city! The dean and I are on our way to find them, but be careful.”
“Motar, stay here and take command of the mages. Nobody comes in or out!” Valanil said.
“Done.”
As Tailyn listened, his stomach sank lower and lower. His team was moving on instinct—there was an enemy, and they needed to protect themselves, but nobody knew if there was any point in the whole exercise. Quite a few of them were already psychologically ready to die, with just a few still putting up a fight. But Tailyn was going to do his best to change that. The important thing was to buy some time.
“It’s a good thing you’re here alone,” the reptiloid said as soon as Tailyn got to the passageway leading to the lab. The door was closed. After Sadil had turned off the regular changes to the city structure, the passageway had locked down, too, though the boy wasn’t worried. The old man in the bot had already told him he could open it open as soon as that was needed.
“What do you mean?” Tailyn asked, brow furrowed. “Valia’s here, too.”
“You’re unified, so that doesn’t matter,” Valrus said dismissively before asking to have the passageway opened up. His tail was beating back and forth in impatience. “But you didn’t bring anyone else. Okay, let’s go!”
Tailyn and Valia had to hurry to keep up with the reptiloid. The latter kept glancing around, almost as if he was expecting something, though his green face smoothed out further with each step he took. After dropping down a few levels, he stopped to wait for the pair outside the door to the command center.
“This is going too well, so let me ask you one more time. How sure are you about this?”
The boy was taken aback. How could the reptiloid have known about his plan? Could he read minds? But what Valrus said next cleared up the confusion.
“Spending fifty years locked up isn’t a walk in the park. That’s why you’re here together—it’ll be easier for you. As far as I know, you haven’t learned how to turn off your consciousness. But regardless, I have to be sure you aren’t going to lose your minds and run off after everyone else when the emperors start slaughtering them. The fact that you followed me here speaks volumes, though I need a bit more than that.”
Before an indignant Tailyn could get a word in, Valia’s voice broke into his head.
Don’t even move, and don’t think about turning him down. Oh, and wipe that look off your face! He could put two and two together. There you go, that’s better. We can take care of Valrus later, but first we have to open the door. Just say yes to everything he offers. While we were on our way here, he worked me over about this, about how we have to lock ourselves up and wait this out. He asked me to talk you into it.
He wants to betray the city! Tailyn exclaimed, his rage barely contained.
He wants to save his skin. Nobody else matters to him. But Tailyn, he needs to open the door—that’s all we care about right now!
“Yes, I’m sure,” Tailyn said with what felt like firm intonation. All he wanted to do was scream and pound the reptiloid into a green pulp, only Valia was right. If they were going to follow through on his plan, they had to get inside. “I just don’t get one thing. With the Absorber showing up in half a year, won’t he be upset?”
“Don’t worry about that. Mark Derwin can’t do anything about the control center,” the reptiloid said with a pleased grin. “The System won’t let him bring any weapons inside. And once we’re in the game, the Absorber won’t have anything else on us.”
“So, this is all just to get into the game?” Valia asked.
“Don’t you get it? The game is all there is—everything else is the same garbage dump as this little world. All the real power is out there in other locations. All the goodies. All the pleasure. At the beginning, it will be tough, since you’ll have to register for a few dozen releases, but once you have credits, you’re your own masters. You can go do anything you want, and nobody can say a word about it. Travel from planet to planet, take their resources, hunt down slaves for yourselves. That’s the life everyone in the progressive universe works toward. Survive and build greatness for yourself—that’s the only way to really live. And I’m glad you realized that and came with me.”
The green fingers flitted across the panel with surprising speed as he entered the combination. The sharp needle that had scared Taily
n his previous time there popped out to test the reptiloid’s blood. Above the door, two green lights lit up, though that wasn’t the end of the story. Valrus had to read off a code phrase, peer into some kind of hole, and stand in front of the door with arms raised to the side. A red beam scanned his body and found nothing suspicious; a sixth light lit up. And it was only then that the panel clicked open and began sliding away. Tailyn barely suppressed a surprised exclamation. With the panel stretching two meters wide, and given the fact that his scanner couldn’t see what was on the other side of the wall, the only conclusion he could draw was that whoever had built the ancient lab’s control center had used real materials.
“Oh, come on!” came Sadil’s frustrated voice. “That’s it—man down. Dean, get out of here. You can’t win this with them learning like that. Forian, you’re the last of the Tarns. All our hopes are on you. Tailyn... Just survive...”
The old man’s frame blinked once more before turning gray. Mean Truk had lost an experienced fighter as well as one of its two technical bots—the destroyers had found a counter to them. For a few moments, the screens showing the images from around the mountains went dead before coming back online.
“I took control,” the dean said. “Retreating to the cave and turning on the traps and changes since the enemy is already inside the city.”
“You have to hurry—they already got to the bars!” The strain was apparent in Valanil’s voice. “Tailyn, whatever you have up your sleeve, make it happen. We really need you...”
“Idiots,” Valrus laughed. “They have no idea that in this world all that matters is your own wellbeing. There are no heroes, no self-sacrifices, none of that stupidity. Tailyn Vlashich, welcome to this world’s safest spot!”
Tailyn took one step forward, and the System sent him a happy message:
Mission update: Search for Coordinates. Description: you made it into the control center of the laboratory used to make experiments. The item you’re looking for is in the main room next to the control point. Use the contents of the container wisely and with an eye toward what the world would pay to get its hands on it.
“The game’s not getting in here, so there’s nothing it can do about us,” Valrus said with a satisfied expression as he stopped in front of an enormous panel dotted with rows of buttons. Surprisingly, three thousand years since the space had been bottled up, nothing had changed. There was no dust, there was no dirt, and time had left the soft chairs and even a half-full glass of water alone. Unable to help himself, Tailyn dipped a finger into the liquid, letting Vargot evaluate its chemical contents. It was clean and pure. Perfect for drinking even then.
But all that was forgotten when the boy saw the shimmering steel box. It was only shimmering for Tailyn and Valia, however, Valrus having paid no attention to it. Completely occupied with the control panel, he sent fingers flicking over the buttons as he turned on dozens of screens. Several of them depicted the situation in Mean Truk. Ten destroyers—Tailyn was stunned to see that many—were methodically clearing the corridors of traps. And behind them came the Crobar killers dressed in gray as well as the academy mages in their snow-white robes. But they weren’t just regular fighters—Tailyn even recognized the provost among them. The enemy was coming at them with everything they had.
“It’s over!” Valrus was almost excited as he watched the procession of adversaries. There was no picture from the cave where the runaways were holed up. “Soon enough, it will just be us. Fifty years will go by quickly, Tailyn Vlashich. You won’t even notice them, and then we have the game and eternal life to look forward to. Both of you, come over here. Before I close the door, I need to set up access for you. Wait, what is that? It didn’t use to be here...”
The bolt Valkyrie cut loose easily pierced the reptiloid’s protection. Tailyn had taken the shot without a hint of regret. For him, Valrus had died the moment he’d betrayed the city. Looking over at the screen and seeing that the destroyers had almost gotten to the cave-in, he ran over to the box.
You received 9778 units of pure dragon’s blood. Would you like to use it for yourself?
The System said nothing. Unable to peek into the control center, it could only send in the occasional message. Actually, Tailyn suspected it had nothing to do with the messages, assuming they came from some deeper level the System held no sway over.
Each 300 units of dragon’s blood you absorb increases your magic strength and decreases your mana consumption by a factor of 2.
Tailyn whistled. The amount he had in his hands was enough to turn him into a god, with nobody in the world capable of breaking through his defenses or withstanding his strikes. If his power doubled every time, then... A chill ran down his spine. Suddenly, it made sense why the ancient mages dreamed of getting their hands on that container. It was a direct path to greatness.
“Tailyn, hurry! They’re almost there!” Valia called over worriedly.
Grabbing the container and stepping one foot into the hallway, he left his body outside the game. He wasn’t going to become another Valrus or Absorber. Heading out into the world thinking only about how to destroy those around him and build his own legend? No, that wasn’t for him.
“System, stop the emperors! I have almost ten thousand units of dragon’s blood, and we can strike a deal that will save the planet. But if my people die, there’s no deal!”
The intelligence governing the planet skeptically analyzed the boy that had suddenly returned himself to its control and practically lost control of its functionality. The dragon’s blood thought lost during the exodus was right there with him. All of it, in fact. Throwing all its energy into blocking the boy, it tried to grab the valuables for itself, only it didn’t work. The boy’s leg was the only part of him it could grasp, everything inside the control center out of reach.
“What do you want?” the space around him boomed in admission of temporary defeat.
“They stopped!” Valia cried happily, though her tone quickly changed. “Oh, no, they didn’t stop; they’re coming here!”
“I want to give the planet life again, but I have conditions. Mean Truk and all its people get immunity. There will be a new empire with its own laws and nobody trying to destroy it. And it has to be great! With no emperors. Only people will rule the people there. Stop your forces—if they get any closer, the negotiations are over.”
“And what are you prepared to offer in return? All the blood you have?”
“You don’t think that’s enough?”
“It isn’t enough for the planet to survive. There’s almost no more noa left after the smugglers sucked it dry. In a week, maybe two, the last drops will be gone, and your offer won’t matter.”
“Even if the blood is delivered deep inside the planet?” Tailyn asked, remembering what Mark Derwin had told him.
“They stopped!” Valia’s eyes were fixed on the screens. “The destroyers stopped...and so did the people!”
The System thought for a long time. At some point, Tailyn decided it must have broken, though it did eventually come back with an answer.
“I don’t have the resources to get the dragon’s blood where it needs to go, and there is nothing under my control capable to getting past the barrier. Three kilometers isn’t deep enough to activate the blood. All that will get is a quick burst of noa—that’s all. The dragon’s blood has to be returned to the planet much deeper than the System’s operating zone, and that’s something only humans can do. But I don’t trust you. You saw what the blood can do, and there’s nobody in this world capable of withstanding a temptation like that.”
“No need to speak for everybody,” Tailyn said, suddenly realizing what he was signing up for. But he wasn’t about to turn back. “Fang will get me past the barrier, and Vargot will keep me alive. How deep do I need to go?”
“Five kilometers should be enough...”
“Okay, then let’s talk. It’s time to save this planet.”
Epilogue
“YOU DIDN’T THINK
I was going to let you go alone, did you?” Valia pressed herself against her betrothed and stared into the blue water. Suddenly, it seemed much more menacing than it had before.
There was nothing Tailyn could say. He didn’t want to change his mind, either. None of Forian, Valanil, or the dean, and not even the provost or the patriarch could do what he needed to do, which was get past the barrier. The System had come to a disappointing conclusion: only someone with a real-material weapon could accept the mission. And Fang qualified. The Crobar stilettos, unfortunately, did not. Tailyn had no doubt that if Valia went with him, she would be stopped at the barrier, and that was why he was okay with her going along. She was going to survive.
“You realize this is a one-way ticket, right?” asked Forian I, Emperor of Mean Truk, just in case. The System had followed through on its end of the deal, guaranteeing the city’s prosperity. Hundreds of builders and architects were already restoring its bygone greatness, turning it into the capital of the first truly human empire.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 29
