by Konrad Ryan
Entering the tunnels was suicide. He could tell where the fingerteeth were, and they were more numerous than he had thought possible. Tad was pretty sure they had spread across the entire coliseum floor, for wherever he ran, he was attacked just moments later. But they also had roving bands of fingerteeth that tried to pin down his movements. They were trying to exhaust him, wear him down with guerilla tactics, and the more Tad killed, the more caustic acid blood was splashed. He couldn’t engage the fingerteeth. They bled too much, caused far too much damage for the never-ending source of trouble. He had been trickle healing himself, had even been tempted to wear his gaseous breastplate, but he was sure the acid would eat it alive. But mostly, he didn’t want the announcer in his head exclaiming to an endless crowd of ghouls and spectators about the unsettled state of his bowels.
After much evading, Tad had finally killed them reliably. He chased them into the tunnels, tracked them with his perception, then crashed both his looted wraithford axes deep into the earth, right above their heads, collapsing the surrounding earth. The fingerteeth couldn’t dig them out in time, not without eating them completely, which happened more than once. Tad smiled at the thought, being eaten alive by their own monstrous fingerteeth was less than they deserved.
Tad had lost track around 80 wraithfords he had killed, but it was in that ballpark. But now he was ready to try a new strategy, hopefully one that could end this in one go.
With a third of the wraithfords dead, their fingertooth net below the earth had grown smaller. Tad intentionally circled, slower than he usually would, the fingerteeth swarmed in masses below the earth. Behind him, thousands of fingerteeth, nails yellow, brittle and filled with dirt, chased him like mad. They flopped out from the earth, like uncoordinated fish, only to sink back into the earth beneath. Tad forced his perception into the earth beneath and almost regretted it. Thousands and thousands wriggled and fought, each for a chance to try to bite Tad.
But he still had enough mana for his biggest spell. Quake. He was tired of hunting the wraithfords down. If he killed all the fingerteeth, the wraithfords would be defenseless and he could hunt them at his leisure.
Tad stopped. The ground below rumbled once more. The fingerteeth had caught up. Not yet. He needed to buy just a little more time, draw them closer. Tad looked at the freshly identified axes in hand.
*Wraithford’s Trusted Right Axe:
80 damage. 160 when dual wielding with ‘Wraithford’s Mistrusted Left Axe.’
Strength required: 40*
Too bad he hadn’t been able to wield these in the roach dungeon. He would have been a king. A strange disappointment filled his chest as he battled the first of the fingerteeth to pour from the ground. King Wraithford had been a gladiator, a fighter, but not these wraithfords. They were cowards. They hid behind rocks, hills, maybe even underground to send their fingerteeth to do their battles. Where King Wraithford had been fearless, an endless source of torment and entertainment, these tried to get their minions to do their dirty work, trying to keep out of danger. Tad sliced more than a dozen fingerteeth into bits. Each slice caused caustic acid to spray across the axes, but the axes seemed immune to the liquid. Tad was not immune. His shirt had dissolved a long time ago, all that was left of his pants was practically a loincloth.
Tad’s health dropped with each worm he killed, but more kept coming. They circled underground, thousands, now maybe tens of thousands, each waiting for their turn. His health was high enough, he wouldn’t die from their acid.
It was time.
Tad pulled up his new spell. It cost 80 mana, and Tad had created the perfect chance to use it.
*Quake: Consume 80 mana. For 10 seconds, you can control spikes of rock and earth at will.*
Tad cast the spell.
Instantly time slowed to a crawl, Tad’s perception exploded deep within the earth, it stretched in a wide arc, past where fingerteeth no longer disturbed the soil. Good, he had collected them all. He could feel every living bug, twig, and plant within its surface. But mostly, he could just feel fingerteeth. Thousands and thousands of wriggling, biting, fingerteeth. But surrounding each of them was earth, no matter how thin.
He could control rock and earth at will. Almost like he was clenching his fist, Tad tightened the earth beneath. It hardened into rock, condensing far past what was naturally possible. Simultaneously, the earth crushed over twenty thousand fingerteeth, making a series of audible pops, a thousand balloons all punctured within a second, followed by the hiss of acid being neutralized by dirt.
Screams echoed from beyond the hills.
“What is this!” the announcer screamed, excited beyond all reason. “Tad Harrington has done the unprecedented! Instead of hunting down the wraiths, he elected to kill all of their fingerteeth! And we all know what happens when wraiths lose all their teeth!”
“They die!” The audience all yelled in unison, their excitement no longer contained. No, it was beyond excitement, it was the pure pleasure of an audience watching the death of combatants below. Gruesome, murderous, gratuitous, uncaring of the pain, dished or received.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was how good the cheers felt.
* * *
*Congratulations! You have now unlocked ‘Class Swap!’ You can accept two classes, the second will be on standby. Using the voice command ‘Class Swap’ you can switch classes after a five second delay.
You have 10 minutes. You will be teleported to a new arena.
Warning! Recommended level: 126. The next fight is a miniboss.
Your next reward is: Permanent 2x stat multiplier.
Do you wish to quit?*
Tad had ten minutes to heal. He equipped his gaseous gleaming breastplate. Immediately a terrible flatulent noise escaped from his acid etched loincloth. He plugged his ears, trying his best to drown out the noise and ignore the feeling. He needed all the health he could get, and he didn’t want to waste his mana.
Tad examined the destruction all around him. The rolling and vibrant green hills, that place that had been so beautiful and natural to Tad, was now a ruinous battleground. Brown dirt and fingerteeth bits littered the ground. It was a travesty. It had been so beautiful, so peaceful before. But Tad and the Wraithford Clan had ruined it all. But the worst was the damage that Tad had caused. The ground below was a rock-hard mess. He doubted anything would grow on it for many years to come.
He tried to clear his thoughts, rereading the details of his class swap again to distract himself from the destruction he had caused. It seemed like an incredible tool in his arsenal, but only after he unlocked a second useful class. Though, his only choices were a fat crab, a plaguebearer who couldn’t cast spells, or an armless blade-less falcon. He saw the potential of the class swap aspect. It was just hard to be excited over something you couldn’t use yet.
Worse was that this was where he had quit in his last rank up trial. He brought up his health and mana.
*Health:414/1000
Mana:3/240*
Tad placed a finger on his health.
*Health: 414/1000. Will completely recharge in 41 minutes.*
Ten minutes would get him over half health. It would have to be enough. Over and over, he twisted the black blade of Raekast’s Fang in his hand. The rotted wooden handle gone, it only had a thin rod of obsidian to hold. It was much more uncomfortable to use than it had been, even with the rotted wood handle. But nothing would stick to it. Not wood, not metal, even fastened properly, it just fell off the blade. Tad suspected it had something to do with its vessel. Maybe, if it had an occupant again, it would reform the handle.
But that wasn’t the problem. If only he could figure out how to enter the blade, to that space that existed inside of it, where time practically stopped… he could heal to full and come out prepared for the coming fight. Not even the clever “leash void” command had done anything. He was sure it would work when he first thought of it.
Truth be told, he had been in worse shape before.
With his obnoxious breastplate healing him, he would enter the battle with relatively high health, with enough mana to cast two of his middle spells, or to heal him an extra 200 if that was better. He had definitely been in worse conditions. But he had never faced a miniboss in a rank up trial. 200 wraithfords had been challenging enough, and even if they hadn’t worn him out physically, mentally he was exhausted. Somehow, knowing that if you stopped running, that you would be eaten alive, ate at your psyche, even if you had a plan to deal with it. Without ‘quake’ it would have been a much longer and arduous hunt, only removing 200 teeth at a time with each wraithford he hunted down. A trial of attrition.
And that was the problem.
They were wearing down his resources for a reason. The next one would be the big one. The one they expected to kill him with.
*Two minutes remaining.*
Another two times stat aspect couldn’t be ignored. He had only got the first one by luck. What if none of the voids in the minotaur fight had earned that? He would have had to take ‘roar’ or a spell from one of the fallen voids. Leo, the lionvoid, was supposedly a prodigy called that by Zero’s own brother. Tad couldn’t count on finding a second prodigy, not to mention beating one. Next time, it might be one on one.
Tad’s thoughts turned to the void battle. He hadn’t had a breather to think about it since, but why had he been able to wield the physical darkness so well? Leo looked like he had seen a monster, and the lionman could only open a tiny needle-sized conduit to drain Tad. Was it because he was the one still alive? Not likely. Come to think of it, when floating through the void, he had controlled his cloak freely too. It was also made from physical darkness.
Not just that.
He had banished the strongest being in the universe from the void inside his mind. A being so strong, he could cause even the six most powerful gods to retreat, at least, according to Leo. No matter how you look at it, that shouldn’t be something a soldier level void should be able to do to Zero himself.
A thought so disconcerting that it made him queasy floated in his mind.
Maybe he was special.
His entire life he had been average. No, who was he kidding, he was far below average, in almost every category. But now, it was different. While some people were reborn to immense power, Tad had only been an empty container. But Tad was an endless empty container. He could fill himself with power and strength that others could only dream of, but was it possible that he was special among those reborn to a zero power score as well? Among voids?
If so, he didn’t know why. He was an errant. Different from other voids, untrained. According to Leo, most errants didn’t even make it to their warrior trials. Just what was the Voidspire? And how could you be a prodigy void? What made one void different or stronger than the next if each had the potential to climb to the loftiest heights?
*One minute remaining.*
There weren’t any answers here. But maybe he would find them higher in the class tower. Maybe if he kept climbing in strength, he could enter another void assimilation where he could communicate with other voids, and find out more mysteries. Find out why he was so strong inside that tiny room of darkness. Why he had overpowered Leo so completely.
Tad stood and grabbed the two Wraithford axes he had tossed to the side, when casting quake. He banished them into his void, summoned Raekast’s Fang to his hand, then banished his breastplate. He didn’t need that distraction in the coming fight.
He was decided. If he could find no answers except by climbing higher, then he would climb. Until he found someone who knew something.
And kill them, if it came to that.
Chapter 22
Tad sat on his bed. Stunned.
What had happened? His mind still burned from shock.
He shook his head as a single thought floated to the forefront of his memory. He had seven days to get as strong as he could.
Only a week.
Or he would die.
Tad pulled up the previous alerts.
*Warning! Are you sure you want to continue?*
Tad had said yes.
*Congratulations, you have seven days to level up until the next trial-
*Warning! Corruption found. Void in unacceptable proximity to Titan.*
*Dungeon Destroyer subroutine initiated.*
*Dungeon Destroyer downloading.*
Tad had been forcibly yanked back from the rolling dirt hills, back to the class tower, which had turned white hot, as if struck by lightning, paralyzing Tad in unending torment. After an eternity, Tad found himself on one knee, gasping to catch his breath. He had taken pride in that, despite the pain rivaling any he had ever experienced, he hadn’t been forced to the ground.
*Dungeon Destroyer download complete. Initializing. Dungeon destroyer, confirmed. Upload to Titan will commence upon return.
*Dungeon Destroyer subroutine completed.*
*Teleportation lock on Void confirmed. Warrior trial will recommence in 7 days. Void Minotaur versus four voids will resume.*
He had already beaten that challenge, why was it giving it to him again?
*Void Minotaur Class has been locked to class swap and remains unusable until the trial resumes.*
*Good luck.*
A trip to the class tower had shown the stairs leading downward to the void minotaur labyrinth to still be open, but the rest of the class tower inaccessible, he could climb no higher. Next to the closed minotaur mouth, however, was a table with a minotaur, pacing back and forth, with a scorpion tail attached at the tailbone. Tad had read the class skill description before donning his previously discarded clothes, collecting his dungeon pouch, and returning to his bedroom.
*Void Minotaur: You transform into a Void minotaur.
All void aspects disabled
All stats x1.5
Spells disabled
Minotaur Axe Granted
Roar, Voidshift, and Equipment Aspect enabled.
Maze of the Minotaur cast automatically at 50% health.*
Tad opened the window for ‘Maze of the Minotaur.’
*Maze of the Minotaur: Change the battlescape to a labyrinth. Teleport the four combatants to different starting areas. The minotaur may move freely through the battlescape.*
Was his next challenge to become the minotaur and fight four voids? Had the last minotaur been a person too?
It was called a void minotaur.
Tad shook off the chill running down his back. If it forced him to change his class to void minotaur, then it would disable his aspects. That meant no equipment aspect; no shadow cloak, no brilliant or shadow bursts. He wouldn’t have his weapons either, no Wraithford axes, no Raekast’s Fang or Bite. And the worst part would be his disabled 2x stat aspect. Not to mention it would remove any boosts from his class stats, since it would force him into the void minotaur class.
Only his raw stats would matter.
And combat experience.
And he would fight four voids, many of which could have access to equipment systems, the 2x stats aspects, and any class bonuses.
If he reached level 100 before the time limit, then he would have access to 500 stat points. Warrior rank voids had 250 at level 50, so with a 2x stat aspect, they would be on par with Tad. No, Tad would be a little stronger due to the Void Minotaur’s stat boost. Not to mention, Leo had been a prodigy, the only one to have earned the 2x stat aspect.
There was hope.
If Tad got as strong as he could.
But what was that about a dungeon destroyer? The announcer in the colosseum had called him that too-
The ground beneath him shook violently. Pictures fell off the walls, the monitors on his desk fell over. He could hear screaming from neighbors. Finally, it stopped.
Tad was downstairs in an instant and turned on the news. His mom didn’t seem to be home, same with Liam, who was likely at school. Surely an earthquake that big would be newsworthy.
“I repeat,” The raven-haired news lady looked frantic, he
r eyes wild. “A warrior level dungeon on the top of the Center City Square building has exploded in Kansas City, Missouri, completely destroying the city. According to initial estimates, over half a million people dead.”
Shock rippled through Tad, his brain struggled to process what was happening.
The news lady continued, “Here is a video of the dungeon taken just before its explosion.”
The titanspawn, instead of stretching into the sky in a thin rope, were coiled into a thick ball that dwarfed the dungeon in size. White numbers counted down above the dungeon. 10… 9… 8… The ball pulsed and condensed, then pulsed and condensed again. The core of the pitch-black titanspawn ball glowed, gentle at first, and then white hot. It spun rapidly, gaining speed and power until finally the counter reached zero. Buildings dissolved in an instant. The ground seemed to pull from the earth and float into the air before it disintegrated. Cars, buildings, and even people were swallowed in a flash, including the camera and cameraman. The video feed went to black.
“This just in…” The newswoman now had tears running down her face, marring her mascara, “Dozens of dungeons across the world are exhibiting similar behaviors, and more reports are pouring in every minute. To be honest, there hasn’t been a single dungeon sighted in the last few minutes that hasn’t had the unstable black sphere above it.”
The newswoman slumped in her chair, defeated.
Why hadn’t they mentioned the countdown! They could’ve evacuated people before-
Suddenly it hit Tad. The countdown was written in the same font as the text of his level-up program. Only he could see it.
His hands trembled as he fumbled for his phone. He had caused this. Brought back whatever had initiated this destruction from his warrior trial. This wasn’t a time to hide his powers. Tad could literally save millions of lives. Each second counted.
The phone only rang once.
The elderly voice on the other side sounded fierce. “Tad, I don’t have time for any more emergencies, the world has gone mad.”
“That’s what I’m calling about! I can tell which dungeons will explode first. I’m at my house.”
