Someone started singing one of those campfire songs, and after a while, the sleepy Elf appeared from a cottage on the outskirts of the village. In his hands were clay pots with a muddy liquid. And... And after that... After that, things got blurry. The night was a kaleidoscope of jokes, laughter, food, and dancing.
***
It was after midnight when both my group and the scouts went through Elf’s entire supply of booze. I said that we’d set off to find the next fragment tomorrow morning and, carefully stepping over the unconscious chemist, went home, holding onto Rat.
Halfway there, Amoeba caught up with me. He hadn’t told Pavel about this, thank God, but he did spend the entire night looking discontentedly in the direction of the merry players, gradually dissolving the grilled meat in his gelatinous body. He didn’t drink with us on principle. Not like it mattered; the alcohol wouldn’t have affected him anyway.
“Loki!” The biologist’s translucent body looked futuristic in the firelight.
I was reeling from the hangover. Fortunately, Rat kept me on my feet, not letting me fall to the ground. I squinted at my sober friend.
“Am... Amoeba... I’ll be fine t... tomorrow... Don’t worry...”
“Elf and I will talk more about why he’s busy producing moonshine instead of researching... But that’s not the point. While we were away, he managed to perfect Third Sight! However, he told me about it only now, while I was trying to bring him back to his senses. He really shouldn’t be drinking...”
In all honesty, I didn’t have the best experiences with the drug so I wasn’t too keen on being their lab rat again. Especially after such a fun evening.
“Ammmmoeba... Kay-Si and his... his shaman powers aren’t here... I can’t... I can’t do it without him...”
Unfortunately, my pathetic attempt to get out of trying the new drug and going to bed failed.
“You don’t need him! This is a great opportunity to find out what’s going on with the Giant. You know its symbol, don’t you? Right? Yes? Good! I think I remember what Kay-Si used so I’m sure I can repeat the ritual and send you straight to the Giant!”
***
This time, the sweet fumes quickly got into my lungs.
At some point, it felt that a cloud was growing inside me. Fortunately, I was too lazy to speak, and therefore, Amoeba didn’t hear my mumbling about what I currently thought of him and this whole thing. Although, I doubted that he would’ve understood me even if he did. According to Elf, whom Amoeba had dragged into the lab, this was the first test of the newest version of the Sight. Elf’s drunken assurances that “evrthng’s gun... beeee fieeeee” didn’t really help me calm down.
Meanwhile, the cloud inside me was growing, blocking access to oxygen. It only took a few seconds of not being able to breathe to make me start panicking.
“Amoeba, what the fuck-?!” I began but couldn’t finish.
A moment later, my consciousness, twitching upward as if it was a baby bird trying out its wings, broke out of its cage. I wasn’t sure if I was falling asleep or traveling to a different plane of existence.
After a few seconds, I felt my body again. It was much stronger than my previous shell. Much stronger. And louder. From somewhere in my sternum came the loud roar of engines. Something similar was heard above. The fog before my eyes cleared and I realized with horror, that I was in the body of our number one enemy.
***
The Giant’s huge legs pushed away from the endless steppe with force, carrying this multi-ton hunk of metal further north. The titan didn’t look around much. Not that it needed to anyway. Who would dare challenge a beast like it, which could only be stopped by someone as strong as the Priest? The engines (there seemed to be two or three of them) worked without interruption, consuming fuel of unknown origin. The Giant’s hands moved steadily from side to side, maintaining balance, ready to snap the neck of anyone who came too close.
I didn’t replace the Giant’s original consciousness. Its body functioned independently, and it was simply impossible to read its thoughts or even influence them in any way. For an indefinite period of time, I was trapped in the body of the most powerful creature in the entire Game.
It was dark. Night time. Only the moon could be seen in the overcast sky, barely illuminating the surrounding area. The steppe seemed infinitely vast. The titan was running at the speed of a race car but there were still no trees on the horizon.
Suddenly, something squelched under the Giant’s right foot. The titan, without stopping, turned around and looked at the puddle of gore on the ground.
Leader of the Bison
Level 155
The entire herd stopped running and stared at its dead leader. The Giant, not paying attention to them, continued on its way. Or perhaps it did pay attention to them, as it did skirt around them. I wondered why.
And then a thought struck me. Weren’t these the same Bison that we fought a couple of weeks ago? The cold wave hadn’t yet reached our location and they were looking for a new place to settle in. However, after we’ve beaten them they continued south. To the steppe.
The last time, the events of the prophetic dream occurred approximately a couple of days after my vision. If the same happened now, we had very little time.
And we still needed two more fragments.
***
“Two more fragments.”
That was the thought I woke up with the next morning. My hut was hot and smelled of smoke, and the bed made of dried straw pricked my skin. But despite all of this, getting up and out into the snow-covered street was the last thing I wanted to do after six hours of sleep. There was no hangover, but I did feel the effects of the drug. It could hardly be called a withdrawal but my brain, which had been consuming nicotine for ten years prior to coming here, wanted to feel the sweet smoke fill my lungs again. Little did it know that what I was smoking wasn’t tobacco.
Cursing everything, I got to my feet, threw on a warm jacket, slightly less warm trousers, leather boots, and chainmail... and pushed the door open.
The bright sun immediately hit my eyes. It was around noon, but the expedition for the fragment would have to be postponed. We had a good time last night and went home way past our bedtime. We needed rest, especially since, as we found out, there was no way for us to know what time of day or what conditions awaited us on the other side of the portal.
I glanced at the mini-map. The Compass pointed at the Noisy Pit, from which White Pilgrims used to jump out of.
“Wonderful. Just what we needed...”
I couldn’t help but wonder if the Pit was where the White Pilgrims lived and not just some sort of a pocket dimension from which Graybeard had used to summon them. If it was... just how fucked were we then? Those things almost killed me several times. How many could be waiting for us on the other side? So far, the fragments had been relatively easy to get... but we had no guarantee that that wouldn’t change. And we had no other options. If my vision was to be trusted, time was running out.
Preoccupied with these bleak thoughts, I approached the meeting place. Ivan, Spider, and Amoeba were silently sitting by the fire and eating the remains of last night’s dinner. The surgeon rubbed his head every minute: he had had a decent amount of moonshine last night. Ivan and the biologist looked much better.
“Pavel... is pissed,” the surgeon said flatly.
“At who?”
“At you. Who else? And Chernous...” Wincing, he looked up at me. His eyes were as red as Greek’s, and very sad. “Why did you let me drink?”
I choked on the piece of roast Ivan had given me. He was forty years old, for Pete’s sake, he didn’t need my permission to drink.
“Leave him be,” Amoeba said and smiled. “While you and Falcon were trying to see who could drink the most, Loki and I conducted a very important experiment.” Spider mumbled something unintelligible, but the biologist continued smiling. “Does your head hurt? Good! It should, you drunkard! Falcon’s still asleep. Chernous was this
close to flinging him into the snow to wake him up.”
“Spider, just take a new brain and liver from the Lab,” I joked. “Oh, by the way, we ought to go to the Valley today.”
“The Bright Valley?” Amoeba asked, glancing at the surgeon with displeasure. “Interesting... We can ask Kay-Si where he had been this entire time. Also, don’t give Spider ideas. He ought to suffer a little and learn his lesson... After what happened last night, Elf swore never to drink again.”
The expression on Spider’s face suddenly changed. He seemed to have heeded my “advice,” and cured himself of his hangover.
“That’s rude of you, Amoeba.” He laughed. “But since Elf has sworn off, there’ll be no more moonshine... You think that the workers will take kindly to that?”
“As if I care.” Amoeba shook his head. “The Giant is getting closer by the day and you people are worried about drinking.”
“By the day?” Ivan asked in amazement, having previously been eating his breakfast (or early lunch) in silence.
But no one answered him. Willow, Valkyrie, and Ronin joined us. The first two kept a good distance from each other, with Ronin acting as a barrier between the warring parties.
Soon, Fang and Tail arrived, riding on their wolves. This time, I decided not to take them with us. Instead, I gave them a different task.
“We’ll be there in half an hour,” I said to my group, and, calling the scurrying Rat over, rode with the Goblins to the Abode. To be honest, I made the plan up on the fly. After Roval had said that he wouldn’t be taking Ulter with them and that I could use him if I wanted to, I kept thinking about what to do. His powers were truly amazing but we still had no chance of taming the Giant. Even with the two of us. Still, it opened up new doors.
But more on that later.
***
When we reached the Abode, I looked up at the sky.
“It’s around noon... We need to speed up. You know what you need to do?”
“We do!” Fang saluted, putting a clawed hand to his bald head.
“At ease, soldier,” I said, remembering how Leshy would reply when we got too carried away.
“What?” Fang and Tail looked at each other, puzzled.
“Ah, never mind... Just... An old saying. Anyway...”
We rode up to the Elder, whose dry branches were covered with a thick layer of snow, which made the old tree look even more beautiful. Around it, in addition to our yesterday’s footprints, were numerous prints of small feet.
“Are we taking the wolves with us?” Tail asked, scratching his mount behind the ear. The wolf stuck out his tongue and barked contentedly, slightly spoiling his image of a bloodthirsty monster.
“I think so, yeah. The limit is five NPCs, and there’s four of you. Five with Rat. The wolves will be handy in the Mountain Valley. They can help hunt and... carry you far from Scar.”
Fang frowned as he jumped off his mount.
“We won’t stay long, right? Just gonna visit and get back out, yeah? You think that giant will be waiting for us by the portal? I doubt he’s smart enough to ambush us.”
I looked at them. I had forgotten to fill them in on the most important thing. Perhaps I was still drunk.
“Guys, here’s the deal... I... You’ll have to stay there for a day or two, a week max. But I don’t want you to put yourself in danger, so don’t go far from the portal.”
The two stared at me for a moment, puzzled.
“As you say...” Fang grimaced. “We don’t like it, but we understand.”
***
Fifteen minutes later, Rat emerged from the portal, bringing me back to the cold coniferous forest. The Goblins remained on the other side: Fang’s hand came through the sparkling surface of the portal. The Goblin gave me a thumb up, saying that everything was all right. The System hadn’t lied, and the NPCs could indeed come back without my help.
I brought a little souvenir from our trip to the Valley.
Leshy
Pet
Owner: Warlock (Gray Faction)
The little fat man was still quite young. Despite his thick brown beard, there were no wrinkles on his face. The poor guy got caught just as he was exiting the portal: he wanted to snatch some eggs from the nest on one of the taller branches when Rat’s tentacle yanked him down. It wasn’t too difficult to tame such a low-level creature.
As for why I needed the Leshy...
They were the only Mountain Valley species that could move through portals. That is, through those that were directly related to their habitat. It was quite possible that the Boars and other inhabitants of the Valley could do something similar. I hadn’t had the time to test this out the first time around. Also, the Leshy was much smarter than the Boars so giving him instructions was easier.
I nicknamed my new pet Hamster as he was a plump little man with rosy cheeks and narrow eyes. Like all his brethren, he was naked, which would probably make him die of cold when the new Ice Age arrived. He was already freezing, and not even his long, thick beard helped. Unlike Scar, Hamster looked like a sphynx cat. I felt a bit bad for him, as his teeth chattered from the cold. But not too much as I knew very well that his kind could turn into monsters if fed enough.
Returning to the base, I went to the tailor and the shoemaker and asked them to make some clothes for Hamster as soon as they could. It was important that he lived for at least a couple of days. I decided to entrust him to Greek, who had been digging a tunnel northwest since morning.
“What am I supposed to do with him?” the scout asked, frowning, as he tossed pebbles to the worms. During my absence, the little buggers had grown a little more and were now digging the tunnel like excavators.
“Nothing much,” I assured him. “Just don’t give him food and make sure that he doesn’t eat anything. I doubt he’ll do it since I have good control over him but it’s better to be safe than sorry. You can even talk to him. Since he’s pretty smart, I managed to give him vocal cords. Though, I doubt that he’ll have much to say, but you could teach him a couple of words... You and Fedor dig in shifts, yes?”
Greek turned on his searchlight, illuminating the tunnel: smooth walls, held together by the worms’... well... by their shit. “Yeah... After last night, Pavel swore to make us work around the clock. Also, he told me to congratulate you on getting the fragment and to tell you that you’re in big trouble because of the moonshine.”
“Yeah, yeah... So, will you keep Hamster company? While you’re digging, you can have Fedor keep an eye on him, and vice versa. I need him to stay in the base, okay? It’s important. And please, whatever you do, do not feed him!” I shouted as I headed out.
***
“Loki, where did you go?” Spider asked when, about an hour and a half after I left, I returned to the campfire. He seemed much more cheerful now that he had got rid of the headache. “In all honesty,” he whispered, “the atmosphere here isn’t at all friendly...”
Valkyrie and Willow still refused to talk to each other and kept their distance. Amoeba’s attempts to have them make up failed.
I didn’t like this one bit. There was no place for petty quarrels in a team in which our lives depended on each other. The two of them weren’t putting just each other in danger but all of us. I couldn’t just leave them in the base to fight it out and make up as we needed them, neither could I leave just one of them behind as they’d get offended, and I’d be seen as a bad leader. Even if I did put them in a time-out, I didn’t have anyone to replace them. There were a handful of us left and Pavel was unlikely to let anyone else leave their workplace without a good reason.
Aside from that, we were more than ready for the next campaign: warm clothes, weapons, armor, a big supply of both food and water... I was the only thing missing.
“Well, where have you been?” Spider asked again, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Finishing a very important matter... It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. Gang, are you ready? Yes? Then let’s move o
ut!”
Chapter 20
THE CITY ON THE VERGE OF ABYSS
We reached the Bright Valley pretty quickly. Or rather, the location that previously bore this name. After Graybeard’s death, the place was taken over by Kay-Si who had no intention of removing his disguise as the System would immediately exterminate him and there’d be no getting him back for the second time.
Kay-Si used to be a shaman in his past life, and as a gray mage, he was somewhere between Light and Dark. But now that he was in the body of the Piper, he had changed his playstyle and was leaning more toward black magic. Accordingly, the name of the location had changed: it wasn’t appropriate for a black mage or even a demon to live in a location containing the word Light in its title. The mini-map now referred to the valley as the “Treeless Horror.” However, we used the name for old times’ sake. Not to mention that the current name sounded edgy and pretentious even though it matched the location.
The cromlech that had once belonged to Graybeard was gradually overgrown with scarlet moss — in nature, this color usually hinted at the poisonous nature of a plant, warning curious animals not to eat them. A similar message was addressed to all unwanted guests stalking Kay-Si’s new abode.
The trees around the perimeter of the location became more and more branched and twisted; in some places, you could see gnawed bones sticking out of the snow. White Pilgrims were nowhere to be seen, abandoned by their former master and uninterested in our world. And that’s exactly where my problem lay: the old man’s corpse had long been eaten so there was no one to revive to call the Pilgrims to our world.
It seemed that the forces of Darkness had finally won their place under the sun. Or rather, the location.
***
Kay-Si had spent the previous week traveling and hadn’t visited the cromlech. That was why we didn’t manage to get some buffs before visiting the Mountain Valley (which was a shame, since we could’ve taken the mage with us and had him help us against the Priest). But we got lucky this time: Third Eye highlighted the shaman’s silhouette in red, hidden somewhere in the stones of the cromlech. Kay-Si was resting after a long trip I exhaled with relief. All that remained was to get him to come with us.
Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 23